Reflecting on life-changing decisions…Here’s one of mine

As part of the growth plan I am working my way through, I have recently spent some time reflecting on my association with the John Maxwell Team and the value it’s brought to my life.
Several people have told me they wished they could do some of what I’m doing and asked me about my experience with the John Maxwell Team. After returning from Guatemala my (already great) opinion about the JMT is at a new level. What we took part of in Guatemala was “Historic.” John’s Influence and his team at Equip ( his other company) along with two other organizations ( LaRed and Guatemala Prospera) are the reason this amazing Transformation has begun in Guatemala.
Think about this: Three people trained 150 of us coaches over two-and-a-half days. We were then deployed, along with a translator, to go out and teach four-hour work shops sitting in small circles with military, city and country government officials, faculties of schools, clergy, hospital administrators, doctors and nurses, business men and women, and community leaders; we taught them how to facilitate interactive roundtable discussions on the the topics of Laws of Growth and Values, like forgiveness, listening skills, and others.
Gua Natl Civil Police June13 sm  (Me with the National Civil Police, Guatemala City, Guatemala, June 2013, at the end of our session)
In three days we reached ~19,000 people and left them trained and equipped to facilitate a 30-week follow-up using this same process in their areas of influence and with their families.
It was an amazing, life-changing experience! I don’t know if you can imagine but each one of the participants (captains & generals of armies in uniform, city mayors, doctors, clergy, etc) had to get “real” and be “transparent” rating themselves from 1-10 on how they were at, for instance, “listening” or “forgiving others. ” Then they had to say aloud what specific action steps they were going to take in the coming week to improve their performance in that area.
I’ve never seen such transparency. The stories of what happened were crazy-awesome! When people get real and want to grow, TRANSFORMATION begins.
As of mid-August, 45,000 (yes, 45,000!) others were going through this transformation process in small groups led by the people we taught in June.
I’m still on ‘cloud nine’ about the whole thing. Our own country could so benefit from this process. Third world countries don’t have the distractions we have and they want help to bring hope to their future generations. From the president down to the young people, the whole country is in pursuit of hope. Although this was not a faith-based effort per se, all the principles, laws, and values we taught come directly from the wisdom found in the pages of the Bible.
If you are looking for a personal leadership growth track (speaking, coaching, teaching, etc…), want to move toward growing a business, or be a part of a transformational, powerful organization, you can make that a reality for yourself by joining the John Maxwell Team. Give me a call. I can walk you through the process for enrolling, the investment, and the amazing benefits of joining this team.
It truly is the best thing I’ve done for myself in at least 10 years!
I look forward to hearing from you.
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New employee joining your team? Prepare the nursery!

A colleague of mine and his wife, Jeff and Kerry, are expecting their first child, a boy. The excitement they share as they anticipate this event is palpable. When they talk about doctor appointments, preparations, things they’ve purchased, and preparing the nursery, you can feel their positive energy and they glow with eager anticipation.

Shift now, to your organization. What happens in preparation for a new employee? Having been the new employee in a number of different organizations over the course of my career, I can say my experience has been varied, but only a couple of places stand out for doing it well; one of them was significantly more prepared than any other.

A couple of days after I accepted the offer at this particular company, I received a very nice flower arrangement; this was a first! A couple of days after that, my new manager called to express how pleased he was that I was joining his team, and to check on a couple of details; he wanted to know what I wanted printed on my business cards and needed some information that would allow the IT group to set up the laptop they ordered for me. This, too, was surprising behavior.

When I arrived for my first day, my office had been freshly cleaned and was as well appointed as they could make it; they wanted me to choose the furniture set-up I preferred rather than guessing, so for a couple of weeks I made do with the large, ornately carved wooden desk that formerly belonged to the company’s President! My phone was set up and the desk actually had pens, paper, stapler, tape dispenser, phone book, and company phone directory, as well as a company-branded pen & tablet and travel coffee cup.

My new teammates had each written a welcome note on brightly-colored 3×5 cards, which were tacked to the wall above my desk.  The admin assistant had already scheduled “getting to know you meetings” with all of the key leaders with whom I would be working closely, and those were spaced out over the first two weeks. They had lunch brought in for me on my first day, and we all ate together, beginning to get acquainted.

I’m sure there are other details I could share with you, but my point is this: My entry into the company was very positive and left me with no doubt about their level of excitement that I was joining them. They took the time to think through and plan for my arrival; none of it was an afterthought. The same can be said for my colleague and his wife as they prepare for the arrival of their son.

Contrast this to my first day with another company; my manager was actually on vacation the first couple of days I was there! I had office space, but nothing set up for me…no office supplies, no computer, no plan for how I would spend my time beyond the obligatory stack of documents that I had to complete. Why wouldn’t she have scheduled my first days for a time when she would actually be there? I’m still at a loss for the explanation for that. Or consider the stories I’ve heard – and I’m sure you’ve heard, or perhaps even experienced yourself – about companies that behaved as if the arrival of a new employee was a surprise, an inconvenience, maybe even an irritation.

Going back to my colleague’s son. No doubt, the baby will feel welcomed, wanted, and loved when he arrives and as he grows up. Intuitively he will know these things, but it won’t be for several years that he will have a conscious understanding of the time, effort, and thoughtfulness that his parents invested in preparing for his arrival. New employees, on the other hand, are instantly very much aware of the level of thoughtfulness and consideration that went into preparing for their arrival – or didn’t, as the case often seems to be.

I hope you don’t get caught up in the analogy I chose; it’s not my intent to imply that employees are “babies” and should be treated as such. Rather, it was a timely (for me) thought-provoking situation that got me thinking about how we often view our work entirely differently than we do other aspects of our lives, and yet, that are so many parallels and great lessons to be learned if we will only change our paradigm.

Whatever end of the spectrum you are on with respect to preparing for new employees, what message does your practice send?

Is it the message you intend to send?

What impact is it having on employee engagement and morale in your organization?

And how is that, in turn, affecting your results?

If you are interested in benefiting from your employees’ discretionary efforts (that level of performance that is above and beyond the basics as defined in one’s job description), taking some time to reflect on – and perhaps adjust – your new employee on-boarding preparation and processes may serve you well.

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What window are you bumping up against?

Perception = Reality.

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This beautiful bird spent the better part of four weeks fluttering up and down this window. You see, it thought it was flying into a tree. And it was persistent! It literally fluttered up and down this window most of the day; occasionally flying off into the trees you can see beyond it. The window has reflective film on it, to keep the heat of the sun out of the office. If you look at the window from the outside, you see the trees and bushes (which you can see as you look beyond the bird in this photo) reflected in the glass — pretty clearly, too. No wonder the bird thought it was flying into a tree…and behaved in a frustrated manner that it couldn’t get into the tree. It’s perception was that the window was a tree, and so it continued to try to find a way into the tree, because that was its reality.

Clearly…it wasn’t a tree and the bird was unsuccessful!

This is one of the key concepts I teach when I’m teaching communication skills. It fits in nicely with my two key lessons — self-awareness and intentionality are key to your success.

Understanding the power of perception is important because someone is always watching you, especially when you are a leader. And they make up stories about what’s going on based on snippets of information — often incomplete — combined with their beliefs, values, past experiences, and rumors. What they come up with may be accurate, close to accurate, or a million miles away from the truth, but because they don’t have access to the whole story, the one they create makes sense to them, and they move forward based on it.

My question to you is, how is someone’s else’s perception of you affecting your performance and chances of success? How is it impacting  your relationships?

What about your own perception about yourself? About your abilities, skills, and talents?

Whether you believe you can or your can’t, you’re right. ~Henry Ford

This quote says it all. What you believe to be true about yourself will determine your future. Knowing that, it’s important to examine how you perceive yourself and understand why it is so. Then, what can you do to make it different, if you need to make some changes to move forward into your potential?

And, what perceptions do you have about others that may be affecting your path forward?

Please, don’t waste your time and energy fluttering up against a window that is NOT a tree, and expect it to magically become what you want it to be! Make the effort to have clear vision and understanding about who you are and what’s going on in your life…and then move forward with confidence!

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