Intentional Leadership — D2, W3, M8 — Change

Have you heard the saying that sometimes our strengths can also be our greatest weaknesses? It’s true. You see, sometimes we rely so heavily on our strengths that we use them in a super-concentrated fashion, which isn’t necessarily effective. Or, we might rely on them so much that we forget we need to work on them to keep them sharp, and our performance falters.

Over the past several years, I’ve worked in several manufacturing environments in which I’ve been exposed to the Kaizen process. Kaizen is often included in lean manufacturing processes as a way to simply and fine-tune how people do their work. It has been very successful in Japanese companies. Essentially, Kaizen focuses on making continuous, incremental improvements or changes. It’s effective because of its focus on small changes. As you are no doubt aware, when faced with a big change, we are often daunted, overwhelmed, fearful. Small changes don’t seem to evoke the same levels of stress and fear.

So, consider how this approach might be applied to you. What if you took a Kaizen approach to growing and improving in your areas of strength, learning or strengthening new skills, and more clearly defining your strategy and action plans?

Do you think you could implement this kind of approach to your personal growth?

What benefits might you enjoy?

Would you be less likely to be caught unaware when the winds of change blow in your direction?

Let’s put it into action and find out. Today, pick a strength, skill, or strategy to which you could make small, incremental changes to each day over the next week. Track your activities and your progress each day.

Consider this, if you can make a 1% improvement each week, you would have improved your performance by 52% over the course of the year! That’s huge! Take it one step farther…what if you could improve by 1% each day…that would be a 365% improvement over the course of the year! Again, monumental change, but made in small, doable steps.

I can’t wait to hear what you’ve come up with and what your results are!

/by

Intentional Leadership — D1, W3, M8 — Change

What is it about change that so many of us find so stressful? What if we could look at it in a new way? What if we could think of change as an opportunity? An opportunity to exercise and expand our creativity? An opportunity to learn and grow…to become more than we are today? What if we could embrace the unknown, rather than face it with fear?

Think about the things that have changed in the last 5, 10, or even 20 years of your life.

My husband just bought a new Blu-Ray DVD player (we’re not always early adopters!), replacing the DVD player we’ve been using the past 10 years. This made me think back to when I was in college and the first couple of years after school, when we would rent VCRs from the video store to watch movies on the weekend. I remember being assessed a 50 cent fee for not rewinding movies, on occasion, before we returned them…and how some people even bought VHS tape re-winders, in addition to the VCR, just to do this faster!

In looking back through photos recently, it occurs to me that while we still have one camera that actually requires film, we haven’t used it for nearly 10 years. I’m not confident I would know where to buy film for it now!

I could go on with additional examples, and I’m sure you have your own list of all the things that used to be “the” thing you had to have, which are now collecting dust in the attic, the basement, the local thrift and antique stores…things change. Time goes on. We have to adapt or be left behind.

As a leader, we must change; we cannot rest on our laurels.

I’m reading several books right now (I don’t have them all with me right now, so plears forgive me for giving you the exact reference for this), and in one of them there is the story of a company that manufactured horse whips – back in the time of horse-drawn carriages. The company was totally focused on making the absolute best whips available; and they were successful. The problem was, this was the time when automobiles were becoming more popular and available, and fewer people we traveling in horse-drawn carriages. Hence, the need for horse whips decreased dramatically. The manufacturer was caught unaware, and his business failed.

He wasn’t paying attention to what was going on in the market around him and he missed the winds of change. The result for him and his employees was life-changing and not in a good way.

Today, spend some time reflecting on your attitude toward change. In what ways are you anticipating a future that is different from today’s reality?

What do you need to be doing to prepare for that change, so you don’t miss the boat (so to speak) and end up with the VCR re-winder and the horse whip manufacturer?

/by

Intentional Leadership — D5, W2, M8 — Change

So, here we are, at Friday, again, and what an amazing week! Got a lot of things done; isn’t that often the case when we are pressed for time and have a lot to do? I don’t know about you, but if I have only one thing to do in a day, it takes me all day to do it; however, if I have 20 things to do in a day, you can count on me to complete most of them, or at least get them moving in the right direction if it’s not possible to complete them in a day.

But I digress, already! Today, I am in Orlando, Florida, with the John Maxwell Team for a week of training. Not just training, but reconnecting with folks I know, connecting with new members of the team (there are ~2,800 of us, and counting, from 90 countries around the globe!), refreshing some skills, learning from the Masters in the areas of coaching, speaking, leadership, communication philosophy, and Masterminding…exchanging ideas, swapping stories, getting re-energized. It will be another life-changing experience with this amazing group of people. At the end of it, I will be emotionally and spiritually recharged and excited about the future, and most likely, physically exhausted – but in a good way!

So, my weekend is full of connecting, communicating, learning, and putting the principles into practice. I will stay connected with family via email, phone, and text. I will sleep less than normal, but am committed to continuing my yoga practice.

The good news for me, in prepping for next week, is that my agenda has been defined, in many ways, by the JMT with the schedule for our learning while here in Orlando. I will, however, still lead my Empowerment Mentoring class next Tuesday, on Authentic Journaling. I can’t believe we’ve gone through the first 12 weeks of this program already (well, actually 13, as we skipped a week while I was in Guatemala). I will also meet with others engaged in Empowerment Mentoring, and with The Deeper Path Team.

I will spend time with John Maxwell, the Mentors (Paul Martinelli, Scott Fay, Roddy Galbraith, Ed DeCosta, Christian Simpson, and Melissa West), and will meet Nick Vujicic (motivational speaker and author of Life Without Limits), and reconnect with the fabulous Les Brown. What a week!

What are you up to this weekend? What have you planned that will allow you to rest, get required stuff done, nurture relationships, have fun, and set yourself up for success on Monday and in the coming weeks?

As we are focused on Change this month, what changes might you need to make in how you approach and move through your weekends that will better position you to attain what you want in your life?

/by