The Power of WE

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Guest Post by Charles Lee
 
Human beings were meant to experience life together.
Life makes so much more sense when we come to a place to that we NEED others. No matter how different others may be in their worldview, cultural identity, and personal preferences, moving towards a mindset that says WE is better than ME is healthy.
G5 Leadership just released a new video, presentation, and discussion guide as a part of their research for a new book they’re writing. It’s absolutely FREE to download.
I hope you will take a moment to watch this video and visit their site for some great resources. Here’s a quick synopsis of the project from their founders, Steven Smith and David Marcum:

As part of research for a new book we’re writing, we noticed a societal decline in unity. You’ve probably noticed it too.

Politicians are divided with intractable positions. Enterprises and teams are territorial. Partners often appear to simply coexist. Families seem more separated, even when they’re together. There is a growing trend of me that divides we. We wanted to do our part to reverse the trend.

We created a video on the power of unity titled We. To spark a discussion, we produced three tools you can download that go with the video:

  1. A discussion guide to build a stronger culture of we where you work.
  2. A PowerPoint presentation for the discussion guide, including the video.
  3. A handout for people who attend the session.

We hope the discussion makes a difference, wherever we matters to you.

Managing Expectations

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One of the most underrated attributes of a leader is his or her ability to manage expectations. This extends to personal, team and projects. 
I learned this lesson early on. I distinctly remember posing this scenario to Dr. Henry Cloud in a class he was teaching. I asked, “How do you manage expectations so you don’t end up being disappointed?“
His answer went something like this…
“A lot of times we have our own expectations that are best case scenario or idealistic and there’s nowhere for you to go except down. I’m not saying lower your expectations, but think more at a realistic level so there’s at least some room to be happily surprised.“
I have high expectations and I don’t have any intention of changing that. What I have changed is forcing my expectations on others or situations where I don’t have much control over the outcome. For example, if I am leading a team I will set the standard high and expect my team to meet them, but if they don’t I adjust. Anytime your expectations include another person, be prepared for a variety of outcomes.
When your expectations are too high, it’s like putting someone on a pedestal…the only way they can go is down. People are going to let you down. That’s not being pessimistic, that’s a fact. It doesn’t mean you don’t put your faith in others, it just means we’re all human and we make mistakes. 

Disappointment can be a result of unrealistic expectations. Don’t ever apologize for having high standards. Just make sure you’re not forcing your expectations on someone else.

The Interview X-Factor

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Since last fall I’ve been recruiting for a school so after seeing multiple resumes and doing several interviews I asked myself, “What’s that ONE THING that stands out as a candidate?“
I’m a firm believer that resumes aren’t a good judge of talent. It’s similar to having a Driver’s license…just because you have one doesn’t mean you’re a good driver. Everything is exposed when you interview. Whether face to face or over the phone within the first five minutes you can tell whether you have a great candidate or not.
So what is that ONE THING? Confidence. Not arrogance. Not ego. It’s confidence knowing who you are. Clarity about your strengths and weaknesses. It’s knowing your style and what results it brings. You can hear it in someone’s voice. You can see it in the way they carry themselves. Confident people’s self-assessment is the same as the way others see them. Confidence brings results and breeds trust from others. Confident people can do the job, because they’ve done it before. If they don’t have the experience, they have the drive to figure it out. Confidence is multi-sensory. Hard to describe, easy to recognize.

I’m not downplaying experience or education by any means, but when you’re the interviewer confidence separates a good from great candidate. On a scale of 1 – 10 how confident are you?

The Magic of Strengths-Based Coaching

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Guest Post by Josh Allan Dykstra

I had the pleasure of presenting a virtual class entitled “The Magic of Strengths-Based Coaching” to the ICF (International Coach Federation) a couple weeks ago. Over 140 coaches attended from around the world!
Here was the gist of the class:
Research shows that the most effective leaders in the world share one surprising trait: they know their strengths and they work “in” them almost all the time. By attending this session, you will discover a fresh perspective to share with the clients you work with, and learn why a focus on “what’s right with people” is surprisingly counter-intuitive and also, perhaps, the most important insight you can provide someone who desires to live an exceptional life.
Coaches will deepen and stretch their knowledge of several ICF core coaching competencies, including:
How to create greater personal awareness for coaching clients, particularly in the areas of enduring personality strengths and natural sources of energy

How to design better action plans for coaching clients by aligning individual goals with unique personal motivators and, therefore, achieving more success
How to manage progress and accountability for coaching clients by integrating action plans with personal strengths, thereby developing greater resilience to meet objectives
If you missed it, you can listen to the recording here. While you listen, I recommend opening the visual presentation here, and following along with it as you listen to the recording. I give cues throughout to make it very simple.
ICF-LA does great stuff like this all the time (and the host, Paul, is seriously one of the most wonderful people you’ll ever meet). If you’d like to register for one of their upcoming teleclasses, just go here.

The Choice Generation

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Millennials can be difficult to work with, but I believe it’s because they’re misunderstood.

The reason they change their mind so often and their tenure at a job is so short is because: they have choices.
Their parents were loyal to a fault and believed “a job is a job.”
Baby Boomers don’t normally resonate with the idea that you should love what you do.

Millennials believe you have to love what you do or else you’ll eventually quit.

Call it entitlement or lacking commitment, but it is what it is.

As an employer or colleague, the quicker you accept this the faster you can adjust.

Money isn’t a Millennial’s main motivator, perks are. Companies such as Google, Zappos and Facebook are revered for their work culture. The interview process is difficult, but if you get in the benefits help retain talent.

If you’re a small business or “traditionally run,” offering perks may not be an option. In that case give daily feedback, mentor and challenge them with new tasks. At the heart of the matter it’s not much different than anyone else: they want to feel appreciated and needed.

Like it or not Millennials have choices. The question is: will they choose you?

5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Making a Presentation

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Guest Post by Charles Lee

Making a remarkable presentation is not easy.
No matter how experienced or polished you are in doing presentations, it takes a little extra to make your talk truly remarkable (i.e., worth making a remark about). While presenting with confidence and content is great, it doesn’t guarantee that things will stick with your audience. Here are 5 questions to ask yourself while preparing for your next remarkable presentation:
What’s the main objective you hope to accomplish through your presentation? While it’s tempting to share all that you’ve prepared for a talk, don’t! Focus on the main point you hope to communicate. The more you blur the main objective, the more your audience will begin to distant themselves from your presentation. Keep in mind that you’ve had time to process your information leading up the talk. Your audience is processing ideas in real-time and don’t have the luxury of reflection. It won’t matter how important your content is if your audience can’t digest it. There’s nothing more frustrating than to listen to a speaker try to do too much with a presentation.
Why should the audience care about what you have to say? Don’t assume that your audience cares about what you have to say. Simply because your content may be important to you, it doesn’t follow that it is important to your audience. Your assumption going into a talk should be that the audience has no real reason to care about what you’re about to say. Do the hard work of creating mental on-ramps for your audience so that they can find reasons to care about your talk.
How do you want your audience to feel during and after your presentation? Put yourself in the shoes of your listener. What are they like and how would you like them to experience your presentation? Don’t ignore emotions. Many presentations stick with an audience because of how an audience emotionally connects with a speaker and/or his/her content. Are there things you could do during your presentation to heighten the listener’s emotional connection with the content being presented? Are there ways to illustrate and/or experience the emotions that are naturally tied to many of the things you present?
What role, if any, will technology support your presentation? Technology is meant to be a supplementary tool for presenters. It is not designed to fully replace the one doing the presentation. In fact, some of the best presentations I’ve heard over the years have been technology-free. If you do use technology, try not to hide behind the tool. Many simple read what’s on the screen and don’t leverage the complimentary nature of these tools. The tool is there to support your talk. The focal point in presenting is still you. If you’re using any type of presentation software, (1) minimize the amount of text you use on your slides because people will stop listening when they see that they can work ahead and read your points, (2) use images to create a visual imprint of what you’re talking about, and (3) take out any unnecessary elements that don’t add value to what you’re talking about.
How will your respond to the body language of the audience during your talk? Outside of seeing someone in the audience completely knocked out in deep sleep, it’s often difficult to read people’s body language. Many people make interesting facial expressions when contemplating ideas. In other words, it’s quite possible that many in your audience may appear disengaged when in fact they are thoroughly engaged. The key is to keep moving forward with your presentation without being discouraged by what you think you might be observing. Don’t let people’s body language derail you from focusing on the presentation. You’ll find that many who come up and speak with you after your talk are actually the one’s you perceived as not connecting with the presentation. We humans are funny creatures.
What are some of the things you think about before making a remarkable presentation?

People Detox

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There comes a time in everyone’s life when people will unexpectedly turn on you (no matter how popular you think you are).
It’s happened to me a couple of times. It’s hard to figure out in the moment, but in the “big scheme” of things it’s meant to be. 
(Of course if this is a frequent occurrence then you’re probably the source of the problem…)
This is not about stockpiling enemies, it’s how you spend your time. 
People are by far the most valuable resource on the planet, so interact wisely.
The process of detoxing consists of flushing out the bad in order to maintain health.
We think of health as physical, but emotional and mental strength is just as important. 

A people detox consists of prioritizing your time spent with others. It’s quality over quantity.
I’m not discouraging you to expand your network. I’m saying deepen it.
Life is short and you can’t please everyone. The stronger stance you take on an issue, the greater the chance you’ll offend someone (it’s called honesty folks).
Relationships tend to travel in seasons. Intimacy can fluctuate over time. 
Think of a people detox as God’s way of protecting you. Trust that who’s in your life currently is how it’s supposed to be. Things change because the future is impossible to fully control.

Don’t worry about who you should or shouldn’t connect with. Invest your heart and time into relationships and live with the outcome.

The Ultimate Scarcity

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Guest Post by Josh Allan Dykstra

If we buy the fact that everyone is indispensable, it means we have access to the ultimate scarcity:

You.
If there’s no one else like you, if you’re one of a kind, if there’s nobody else on the planet who can do what you can exactly the way you can do it — and if you can identify what that “thing” is — you can learn to leverage that scarcity to create demand.
This is the heart of personal branding at its most powerful.
It’s also what “having a career” is all about in the new economy.

3 Things I’ve Learned as an Entrepreneur

Scott Asai3 Comments
Ever since I was in high school I wanted to have my own business. Maybe it came from seeing my parents as business owners or it could have been my bent toward leading.
Since I made the leap in 2007 (without any prior experience) it’s been challenging, but I’ve learned so much over the past 6 years. 
I couldn’t share everything in a single post, so instead here are the 3 things that stand out: 
It’s much harder than I thought. There’s truth behind the fact that most businesses fail. If you think owning a business is going to be easier and immediately more profitable than working for someone else, you’re wrong. You don’t work 9 to 5 anymore, you work beyond that. There’s no guaranteed paycheck arriving each month. If you don’t have customers, you don’t earn income. With infinite freedom comes a need to buckle down and become extremely disciplined and structured.
Sales and marketing are necessary skills. It would be nice to delegate sales and marketing out, but without a budget it falls on you. Regardless if you have a product or service based company, selling determines whether you have a business or a glorified “hobby.” You may not be a natural salesperson at heart, but you’ll have to quickly figure out how to become one if you want to survive. If I could go back to college, I would have majored in business just because of this reason alone.
You are a jack of all trades. If you start with the appropriate funds you may have the luxury of not doing everything, but at the very least you’ll have to know about every aspect of your business. It’s important to be a specialist at what you do, but in terms of running a business you have to be a pretty stellar generalist also. Think of every department most companies have, now as a business owner you’re the head of every one! This is beyond multitasking, it’s learning how to run a company while on the job. 

The best parallel to being an entrepreneur is like being a parent. You can talk, read and research all you want about it ahead of time, but NOTHING can prepare you for it besides doing it. Books, articles and blogs do a nice job of highlighting the less than 1% of success stories out there, but the reality is owning a business is like raising a child. Each child is different, so just because a particular method worked for someone else, doesn’t mean it will work for you. I’m not trying to discourage you from starting your own business. In fact, I believe our future economy will force everyone to function as entrepreneurs at some point in their lifetime. If your dream is to open your own business, know ahead of time making that dream a sustaining reality is hard work.