December 14, 2009  

Leadership Tools
Hugh Ballou

LEADERSHIP TOOLS...

...Is divided into four sections:

1. Foundations
2. Relationships
3. Systems
4. Balance

In my leadership work, I have group skills and strategies into the four areas above. First, Foundations give the leader the clarity to know how to lead the team because the final result in clear; second, build and maintain effective Relationships to assist in getting to the vision; next, develop effective Systems allowing each team member to excel and to work together efficiently; and finally, create Balance in work, in life, and between work in life.

This month’s contributors bring experiences and skills from diverse backgrounds and perspectives:

1. Kevin Asbjörnson writes about leadership as a performance art, part 2.
   
2. Brett Harward writes for the business community - you'll really want to know how important these relationships are to ministry.
3. Roger Anthony shares the power of collaboration, part 2.
   
4. Jeri Goldstein teached about taking care of yourself with A. R. T.
   

Enjoy!

Hugh Ballou

FOUNDATIONS

Leadership is a Performing Art
Part 2

By Kevin Asbjörnson

‘Practice, Practice, Practice’

While the importance of practice is readily accepted by anyone who has ever picked up a paintbrush, violin, or ballet slippers, we are continually surprised to learn how little emphasis some of our clients place on practicing inspiring leadership.  Practicing the art of inspired leadership is not only possible but necessary.  We believe that leadership without practice is like attempting to play a symphony without rehearsal; both risk losing the audience and making the “performers” look foolish.  When we lose our audience, it can be extremely difficult to win them back. 

By practicing inspiring leadership, we do not mean simply going about one’s routine tasks within the confines of the office.  We mean taking every opportunity to understand the viewpoints and perspectives of others, looking for opportunities to receive feedback and coaching from peers and employees, and keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check.  We also believe practicing inspiring leadership extends beyond the workplace and into the very fabric of our lives.  We practice inspiring leadership when we give back to the community, spend quality time with our families, and engage in robust debate without shouting down or insulting the other person.  As Aristotle once famously observed, “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” 

‘Listening With Intent’

Our early musical training included listening to other music and musicians with an open mind.  For example, although Mike’s training as a saxophonist is in jazz, his musical influences include classical composers, rhythm and blues artists and plenty of rock bands.  As young musicians, we were taught to listen with intent towards understanding and appreciation rather than simply hearing the music and filtering it through our own biases and preconceptions.  By actively listening rather than passively hearing, we absorbed the musical languages of numerous genres into our own playing and thereby became, we think, more complete and well-rounded musicians.

We believe the same holds true for leaders in the workplace.  Inspiring leaders listen with intent, remaining open to new approaches, techniques and “melodies” in such a way that employees cannot help but feel included and appreciated.  Many leaders, however, simply filter what they hear through old paradigms, killing potentially great ideas before they’ve even had a chance to be considered.  When we hear others with filters in the “on” position, we demonstrate that our employees’ thoughts and feelings don’t matter. 

Adding to the problem is a preponderance of technological gadgets that is literally driving us to distraction.  According to Gary Small, MD, Director of the UCLA Memory & Aging Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior and author of iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind:
In today’s digital age, we keep our smart phones at our hip and our earpieces attached to our ears.  A laptop is always within reach, and there’s no need to fret if we can’t find a landline – there’s always Wi-Fi to keep us connected.  As technology enables us to cram more and more work into our days, it seems as if we create more and more work to do. 

We believe too many leaders have equated the accessibility of technology in the 21st Century with “being available” to their constituents.  This is a mistake.  In fact, we have found that those leaders who most frequently rely on their electronic gadgets to stay “connected” are typically the least available to handle problems, answer questions and attend meetings when such interventions are required.  We have heard this scenario referred to as being in a state of “continuous partial attention” – we are pulled in so many directions at once that it is virtually impossible to dedicate ourselves fully to one item for any length of time. 

Inspiring leaders are keenly aware when “continuous partial attention” threatens to compromise the relationships and rapport they have with their people.  They recognize that technology, while essential in today’s business environment, can never take the place of connecting with others the “old-fashioned way”: through the eyes, ears and voice.  Take a quick “temperature check” of your reliance on communication technology.  If the clicking of keypads has largely taken the place of more intimate and personal modes of communication, it may be time to put down the iPhone, Blackberry or laptop – at least for a moment or two.

A Final ‘Note’

On the website of Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and a noted speaker and author, there is a letter from a student at the New England Conservatory.  It reads in part:
I just came back from your Mahler 9 [a performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony], and I must write you because what happened for me tonight was so powerful that I couldn’t even open my mouth to tell you about it. Only silent words seem a possibility right now...

During the brief instants of music that were – for the symphony seemed to last only a few infinite seconds to me – I traveled a thousand years...I couldn’t even raise my hands to clap. I don’t even understand how people found the strength to applaud; I simply could not.  I know I should have: it is what one is supposed to do when the music stops in a concert hall, but it seemed to me that an eternity of silence meant to follow the last written note.  So, I just left.  And I walked home in that silence…

I wish I could thank you. Or thank Mahler. But what was present in [the concert hall] tonight, that forced its way inside me, was neither you nor Mahler but Music itself.

My life has changed forever.

This tale of a student so moved by a musical performance that she was struck dumb is perhaps the most compelling testament to the power of inspiring leadership we’ve ever come across.  That is not to say that awed silence from the reverent masses should be the goal of the organizational leader.  It most certainly should not.  We chose this example because it simultaneously honors Peter Drucker’s famous comparison of managers to conductors and knowledge workers to musicians while expanding the metaphor to better reflect the realities of 21st century leadership: inspiring leaders and inspiring artists share a unique ability to help others discover new and different ways of thinking, feeling, and being.  It is an ability that will serve them well during the turbulent century that lies before us.



Kevin Asbjörnson, MIM, is Founder & Principal Performing Artist of Inspire! Imagine! Innovate! — an international consortium of leadership and performing arts professionals whose unique musical keynote events, performing arts-based training programs and interactive workshops inspire leaders, unleash the imagination and promote organizational innovation.  Kevin is recognized by the 2009 Marquis Who’s Who in the World of Global Citizens for his creativity with the integration of music, performing arts-based learning and 21st Century Leadership. His original music can be heard on Apple iTunes, www.CDBaby.com  www.Pandora.com  and www.InspireImagineInnovate.com.

Mike Y. Brenner, M.Ed., is Senior Editor of Key Inspirations, an online publication of Inspire! Imagine! Innovate!  He is a doctoral candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University, in adult and organizational leadership and a Philadelphia-based university instructor and corporate trainer. 

Kevin Asbjörnson, Founder & Principal Performing Artist
Inspire! Imagine! Innovate!
http://www.inspireimagineinnovate.com

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RELATIONSHIPS

The Consumer Revolution

By Brett Harward


We’re not it a recession... We’re in a REVOLUTION.  Unfortunately, this revolution isn’t being lead by business it’s being lead by consumers who are dumping the proverbial tea in the harbor of our economy.

Let me start by dispelling four ideas  that I frequently hear about today’s economy.  In my opinion, they’re all four  myths:

1. Myth number 1: “I can wait this economy out”.  No you can’t.  Everything has changed.  We’re not in a slump. Were in a new world.
2.  Myth number 2 is related to the first: “The economy will go back to ‘NORMAL’”  What we’re experiencing right now is the new normal.  If you’re waiting for the old days to come back —they won’t.  They never do.
3. Myth number 3 is” “I can retract to a reasonable level and return to profitability.”  Doing less of the same thing won’t fix the problem.  Being a smaller version of the same business won’t fix the problem, either.
4. And finally, ”No one is succeeding right now.”  Not so.  Some companies are getting this figured out and others are flourishing.

I believe that the universe of business has undergone a revolution in the last year.  Marketing and advertising, as we know them, are done.  Stick a fork in them.  What used to work to attract new customers no longer works.  The same efforts don’t pull the same results.  What we once did to sell our stuff now falls flat.  The old standard of products, services, customer service and value is no longer acceptable. 

But you shouldn’t write me off as a “doomsdayer” yet.I’m pretty sure that I’m an off-the-hook optimist.  I believe we’ll see the biggest increase in productivity and the largest leap toward excellence in history over the next few years.  It’s being demanded in this revolution and enough companies are hearing this call that the clock cannot be turned back.  The big question is will YOU hear the call.

It doesn’t matter whether your business is brick and mortar or online.  If you’re in housing, construction, banking, coaching, network marketing, retail, manufacturing, hospitality, marketing or service sectors, the rules have changed.  People expect more, and they don’t buy if they’re not yet convinced that you’re truly excellent.  What you do better make perfect sense and better LAUNCH your customer out of their seat.  You must be willing to prove yourself... often before a customer buys.  You better know who you are, and perhaps even more importantly, who you aren’t.

Consumers are screaming for Authenticity from businesses.  Authenticity creates trust, and trust is like an oasis in today’s economy.  But plenty of businesses are trying to figure out how to sound authentic without doing the deep work of putting their whole soul “out there.”  It’s not about the words you use, nor is it about being blunt.  Authenticity lives at the center of you as a human being, and then it transmits itself into your company. .  It involves feedback and massive amounts of dialogue between YOU and your  customers.  Notice that I didn’t say “your employees and your customers.”  YOU and your customers.  It’s a critical distinction.

Some companies are figuring this out.  Consumers are rewarding them.  One shining example in this economy of authenticity and Transparency is Apple.  They’re booming.  Their very brand is that of authenticity.  Just watch their commercials as they make fun of all the spin and confusion that surrounds PC.  Microsoft’s response, of course, is commercials with lots of cool people claiming that they are PC.  We notice the sidestep from the issues that we’ve all experienced.  Apple’s open platform and easy entrance for app developers is largely credited with their resurgence.  They’ve become the “peoples” computer.  The result... record shattering profits, 17% year over year increase in MAC sales, and unprecedented growth in market share.  All this with a significantly more expensive product in the middle of the poorest economy in decades.  I know personally, because after years of laughing at my slowly growing group of Mac friends, I finally switched sides and find myself scratching my head wondering what I was thinking before. 

For most of us, authenticity is terrifying.  It requires transparency, and that scares the hell out of the typical business leader.  It exposes our secrets, our problems, and our self-doubt.  On the other hand, we’re real and it’s a huge relief to be totally real – and it’s a big market advantage.  These days, people can tell the difference between marketing-speak and real-speak.  It’s like telling the difference between gourmet Italian food and Spaghetti O’s.  One whiff and we know exactly what kind of person and what kind of business we’re dealing  with.  It’s time that businesses relearn how to be authentic.  I know that sounds like an oxymoron.  How does someone learn to be real or authentic?  You’re either being authentic or you’re not, right? 

We’ve been taught for generations to be inauthentic.  We’ve been taught to carefully craft the image we want others to see.  Here are 5 traditional business rules that revolutionists (consumers) are demanding that we change:

1. Keep problems close to the vest.  This includes building walls between customers and tightly controlling what information people have on both the inside and outside of the company.  We don’t talk about the unhappy customers, the mistakes we’ve made, or the  areas we need to improve.  We figure things out behind closed doors, encrypted emails, and low level employees that can only generate stop gap solutions.
   
   
2. Small group decisions.  Problem solving and product design are relegated to one person, small groups or departments, or focus groups.  Decisions are made in board rooms based more on marketing and promotion tactics than actual value. The are based more on “educated” guesses and assumptions than real information.  Once a product or service is designed it becomes fixed and the status quo rarely changes.  Innovation comes to a crawl, and large investments are made to “sell” customers that the product as developed is what they want.  Suggestions and complaints are met with resistance and client relationships are largely treated as adversarial once they have made their purchase.
   
   
3. Communication is confusing and decision making segmented.  Often we’re dealing with complex phone menus, automated responses and even online processes that are less than intuitive.  It’s funny how simple businesses have made ordering product or giving them money, those steps are usually crystal clear.  If you have a problem on the other hand, It’s not nearly as clear, much of the time ending because of frustration not because of resolution.  Communication must happen not only within normal “Business Hours”, but only using prescribed methods; “your request must be submitted in writing”.  Not only does this apply to complaints, but also to suggestions, success stories and other feedback that all get caught in the same meat grinder of information flow.  Customer service in most companies is often comprised of the bottom feeder positions which garner the lowest wages and skill sets deferring the much higher compensation to those in marketing and sales.  In other words, we’ll pay people lots of money to convince you to give us your money, but once we have it, you’ll be relegated to someone making $7/hour, or even worse someone in India who doesn’t speak good english, to try and make you happy.
   
   
4. Lack of trust.  Businesses don’t trust that their customers can make decisions given good information.  They don’t trust that if they were to tear down the walls they’ve built between customers and even employees, that those people wouldn’t destroy their company.  When products don’t work as sold, businesses are quick to point the finger at “dumb” consumers, even to the point of having an almost adversarial relationship with their own customer.  The arrogance of businesses thinking they know better than the customer about what the customer should want is amazing.  On the customer side, this lack of trust shows up as we try to unspin everything a business says and separate truth from smoke and mirrors.
   
   
5. Spin.  As I mentioned in the first four rules, spin trumps reality in most current businesses.  It’s not even as if business all have the same image they are spinning toward.  Many businesses present themselves in opposing ways with their spin.  Big businesses position themselves as small, small businesses  as much bigger than they are.  Chains focus on appearing independent and independents on appearing like a chain.  In traditional business all to often the question becomes how do we spin this in our favor rather than how do we do whats right or best for our customer.  We live in a world of illusions, so much so that as consumers we’ve become programed to immediately recognize the spin that businesses put on things.  We reject out of hand things which appear too good to be true.  We discount words like best, quality, and customer service as pat pitches with little to back them up.   We all know that even testimonials are often fabricated and coached to sound a certain way. 
   
   
   

For the solutions to these issues download the remainder of the article HERE.

 

 

Brett Harward is a professional speaker and peak performance coach to thousands of business owners across North America and Europe. He has implemented effective success strategies that span hundreds of diverse industries and include several Fortune 500 companies. Over the last five years, he has focused on assisting small business owners in achieving explosive success.

At the young age of 43, Brett has experienced both spectacular business success as well as valuable business failure. In 1999, he sold the software company he built to a Fortune 300 company in a multi-million dollar transaction. Following that success, he became a sought-after speaker and trainer. In 2002, he created Manifest Management Services and developed the popular MBA (Manifest Business Alchemy) training and coaching program.

 

Brett and his highly effective programs transform businesses from the inside out...with stunning results. Hundreds of businesses and thousands of individuals have been touched by his unique approach to business and life.

Brett Harward
http://web.me.com/brettharward/smallbizrevolution/Blog/Blog.html

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Enjoy connecting today - it Free!

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SYSTEMS

Collaborative Leadership
Part 2

by Roger Anthony

Working in collaboration in the teams that make up our lives is essential to success and thus to PHJ/IC.

Let’s identify the teams and therefore the relationships that make up our lives.
For the sake of simplification, I will mention only three of the teams that make up our lives as portrayed in within the Crocodile Collaborative Model.

1. Individual Team:

Without doubt, the most important team by way of its influence upon the whole of the human family is the Individual Team … Self with Self.
 
Unfortunately in this fast paced world, it’s this relationship with self that’s generally left out of the equation.

If we are not feeling good/successful about ourselves as individuals it makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible to work in collaboration and cooperation with others in our quest to help them be successful.

Being comfortable with yourself is to know who you really are; free from the negative conditioning that has permeated our lives. This leads us to know what we are capable of, where you we going, and how we are going to get there. Aided by this knowledge we are better able to cooperate and collaborate within ourselves; to be free of inner conflict, turmoil and confusion… to make wise choices and live in integrity with who we really are, free from the negative conditioning that culminates in lack of cooperation and collaboration.

This state of being lays the foundation for building and maintaining a Collaborative Environment in our personal, social and professional lives.
 
If one is not comfortable with self, and living in PHJ/IC how can one effectively collaborate and cooperate with others?

When one is comfortable and at peace with one’s self, then one will understand the following statement written by the Middle Eastern philosopher Raja Munah Tannous.
 
”When there is no internal opposition, there is no external competition!”



2. Family Collaboration:
Family relationships are the next most important relationship.

Some may even argue that family should be placed above self, but my response is that we are doing an injustice to our family if we are not looking after ourselves first. When we feel good about ourselves you are better able to serve and support your family and others.

To build a stable, caring family is to work together as a unit, yet allow for the individual differences of each member.
Building a cohesive society depends on the cohesiveness of the family unit.

Families who function in the spirit of Collaboration and Cooperation form a refuge from the storms and vicissitudes of life, and become the local, national and global foundation of stable, caring communities.

3. Corporate Team:

a. Internal Corporate Collaboration:  
The Industrial Era ended decades ago, yet many organizations are still operating within the antiquated systems of this bygone era.
We are well and truly entrenched in the Information/Knowledge Era, which requires a completely new System of Corporate Government.
Those who don’t understand this and continue operating in the antiquated systems of a bygone era are ensuring the demise of their organizations.
To survive and thrive in this exciting era, we are required to transfer/share knowledge, which can only be accomplished in the spirit of abundance rather than the spirit of scarcity.

In a Crocodile Corporate Culture, the role of each team member is to work in collaboration and cooperation toward encouraging everyone within the entire team to succeed.

Corporations have a profound effect on shaping our world either for better or for worse!
 

b. External Corporate Collaboration:
Cooperating and Collaborating with suppliers customers, and even the so called opposition is truly a way of ensuring we are building organizations that will endure into the next generation and beyond.

When we are engaged in helping all with whom we deal to be successful, we are not only helping them to be successful, but we are sowing the seeds of our own success.

What a glorious day it will be when corporate Business and Marketing Plans are able to boldly state; “We have no opposition/competition for through the spirit of abundance, we work in collaboration and cooperation with all in our industry to help each other succeed and in so doing help this world become a better place in which to live!”

Roger Anthony is an entrepreneur, CEO coach, motivational speaker, athlete, author and family man. He has created numerous intellectual properties in the arena of personal and organizational mastery, leadership, relationships, youth and family, as well as fitness.   These include the brands:  Crocodiles Not Waterlilies™,  Crocpond™, Dehoodwink™, Rhythm of Success™, Pathway to Mastery™, The Walk from Within™, LOVES™ Relationship, Crocoball™ and co-founder of Accelerated Decisions™.  He has authored and co-authored several books:  Now I Understand, Tall Poppyship, 7-Steps to Mastery, and RINDIN the Puffer.  His signature Crocoball™ (speedbag) demonstration which is part of his keynotes and motivational speaking engagements is dynamic and receives standing ovations.  It illustrates the fluidity with which one can exist – in total mastery no matter what circumstances may prevail.  Roger’s body of work has helped changed the course of many organizations and the lives of many from all walks of life and of all ages. 

BALANCE


Are You Planning You're A.R.T?

by Jeri Goldstein


I so often hear from my clients and artists at workshops or in emails, how the business takes so much time leaving little for the art, the music, the writing or being creative.

So, are you planning you’re A.R.T.? You schedule everything else, so why not schedule time to be the artist that you are. Your art is your business and the reason you do what you do. So why not plan some A.R.T., Artist Rejuvenation Time.

What is Artist Rejuvenation Time? It can be an hour or half hour or longer if you like. It is time set aside in your daily or weekly schedule just for you to be creative, to write, to work on any aspect of your art you feel like. It can be a time to just be playful with your art, entered into without any preconceived goals like “I’m going to write and complete a song now.” Rather it’s time to be playful with melodies or phrasings or some tune that was running around in your head.

Mostly, it is a planned time for you to be an artist. If it is not scheduled and held sacred, you may, as many have, begin to feel overwhelmed by the work and business of doing your art and forgetting what it feels like or means to be the artist.

Now I suggest that when planning this time, plan it for as early in your day as possible—first thing is best. If you leave it to later in the day, it won’t happen! When you set aside this time, an hour perhaps, and stick to it, then whatever you did during that hour gives you a boost to move through the rest of your busy day having given yourself the time to do your art first.

After all, isn’t that why you are in this business, because you have a talent to share with the world? So, in order to do that effectively, you have got to feel good about your art, so give yourself the gift of A.R.T. and schedule some Artist Rejuvenation Time into each day. And who knows, at the end of a week of A.R.T., you just may have a complete song.

And, I invite you to learn more about this and other topics important to your career development and to sign up for free weekly audio Biz Booster Hot Tip! Every Monday you'll get another valuable strategy and technique that you can put to use immediately. You'll find helpful books, career development seminars, Booking & Touring Success Strategies & Secrets online course and information on booking tours, the music business and performing arts. It's all waiting for you at http://www.performingbiz.com

Jeri Goldstein is the author of, How To Be Your Own Booking Agent The Musician's & Performing Artist's Guide To Successful Touring 3rd Edition.  

Jeri Goldstein, former agent and manager for some of the top touring acoustic artists on the circuit. Goldstein created a number of innovative programs as a resource for performing artists--Manager-In-A-Box, a consultation program, is designed to help performing artists, agents and managers enhance their career development. The Performing Biz is Goldstein’s seminar that is presented at universities, festivals, conferences, and for art councils or to individual groups of performing artists. In 2005, she began offering Gourmet Career Boosting Retreats for performing artists at her home.

Goldstein has booked national and international tours for artists performing in country, folk, gospel, bluegrass, contemporary, classical and children’s music. She has also booked tours for theater and dance. After 20 years of working as an agent and manager, Goldstein authored the award-winning book, How To Be Your Own Booking Agent, The Musician’s & Performing Artist's Guide To Successful Touring.  Her book is currently used as a text book in Music Business courses at Universities across the US and in Canada. Berklee College of Music, NYU, Belmont University, The Musician’s Institute and the Harris Institute in Montreal are among them.

She currently conducts teleseminars, interviews industry professionals, offers weekly audio Biz Booster Hot Tips and an online 5 module course on Booking & Touring Success Strategies & Secrets to individual performing artists, arts groups, universities and arts councils. Goldstein also serves as consultant to the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Currently, she makes her home in central Virginia.

Jeri Goldstein
jg@performingbiz.com
http://www.performingbiz.com

 

Conclusion

Arrive at your place of comfort utilizing the best of what you can learn from others. Build your foundation, maintain your relationships, utilize effective systems and keep a healthy balance in your life. Begin today. There's not an arrival point. It's simple a journey.

Grace and Peace to you in your duty and delight as a Christian leader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Hugh Ballou

 © 2009 Creator Magazine All Rights Reserved

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