So what do we need to focus on as a team?  Clarity in goal setting is vital in order to achieve.  You would never ask a waiter to go and get you some food as you know you need to be more specific yet this is the instructions we give our own minds and colleagues on a regular basis.  More sales for example will rarely achieve more sales, at least not as effectively as we would want.  We need to get specific.

Being specific creates clarity and clarity creates confidence which in turn creates positive motivation.  People who are motivated become creative when encountering barriers along the way.  This stimulation can feed on itself while ever an expectation that ‘it’ can be done is maintained.  This why reaffirming the goal and dealing with obstacles with the team/individuals within the team is one of the key roles of a leader.

Of course the balance between urgent (that which acts on you) and Not Urgent (that which you must act on) activity is the main cause of goal failure.  Taking phone calls and responding to questions are urgent while planning and coaching are not urgent.  That is they can be, and often are, put off. 

This practice is the single biggest cause of crises management.  It is inefficient and unsustainable.

Recognize the basic fact that you always have a choice. Making no choice is actually a choice in and of itself, and it's your choice to allow other people or events decide for you.

Set goals for yourself and note how, by working towards these and achieving these, you are controlling what happens in your life. As you do this, you'll find that your self-confidence quickly builds.

Develop your decision making and problem solving skills so that you can feel more confident and in control of what happens.

With these tools, you'll find that you can understand and navigate through situations that would otherwise damage you.

Pay attention to your self-talk. When you hear yourself saying things like, "I have no choice" or "There's nothing I can do", step back and remind yourself that you do, in fact, have some degree of control. It's your choice whether you exercise it or not.

Use the processes, systems and tools you are learning to help you set, go after and achieve your goals.

So what are these four processes?

Step 1 – Capture Thoughts
 
Mind mapping begins with a word or image that symbolizes what you want to think about e.g. Sales. This is placed in the middle of the page.

Next individually or within the group brainstorm any elements of the issue that comes to mind. As ideas emerge, write only one or two word descriptions of the ideas on lines branching out from the main focus. Allow the ideas to expand outward into branches and sub-branches.

Think fast and capture that explosion of ideas as rapidly as possible.

Encourage people to build on the ideas of others.

Step 2 – Pareto Analysis
Vilfredo Pareto was an economist who is credited with establishing what is now widely known as the Pareto Analysis or 80/20 rule. When he discovered the principle, it established that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Later, he discovered that the Pareto principle was valid in other parts of his life and business.

Discuss and agree on which 20% of the ideas on the mind map will potentially give us 80% go forward toward resolution of this issue?

Step 3

Now it’s time to think Positive and Negative.  On each of the ideas selected from the mind map ask; what positive forces are we currently using or could use that would drive the issue in a positive direction.

Now list all the factors which are making the issue selected unsuccessful to date.  These are the negative influences on the issue. Now ask; what negative forces are currently in place or could be in place that is stopping us from driving the issue in a positive direction.

Again, the Pareto rule (80/20) can be applied to the lists.  Now list 3 actions against each of the strategies considered most important.

Step 4

Once you have your ideas, strategies and actions you can capture them in a One Page Plan.  Put simply a One Page Plan captures the Now, the Where and then the Strategies and Actions for implementation.  This becomes the control document while implementation occurs.

Problem solving is about collecting thoughts around the issue, prioritising which strategies to go after and then capturing the actions, ready for implementation.

The companies I work with can often take a major issue and have a solid plan of attack in action in under an hour.

Call us on 1300 933 074 if you would like to see how easy it is to implement these four processes in your business.

1. Surrender is sensible. It is not a foolish emotional impulse. Surrender is a rational, intelligent act, the most responsible and sensible thing you can do with your life. To become healthy, I must surrender to a healthy lifestyle and diet. To be successful, people and organisations must give up in order to go up.
2. Surrender is an admission of limitations. Pride prevents productivity improvement in people and organisations. I will know you’ve surrendered when you don’t defend yourself when receiving constructive criticism. Surrender is demonstrated through obedience, e.g., 'Yes, I’ll do that'. 'Yes' is a condition of surrender. 'No' is a contradiction to surrender.
3. Surrender is unavoidable. Surrendering to something or someone eventually happens to everyone. Therefore, we should make a concerted effort to surrender to good, not bad. The greatness of a man, woman or organisation’s power can be found in the selection and measure of their surrender.
4. Surrender is hard work. Unlike the picture of someone raising his or her arms in the air, the true practice of surrender is arms-down work. Surrender is the activity of doing what’s best for our organisation or ourselves. An organisation that surrenders to the principles and practices of Activity Based Cost Management for example, will find implementation and sustaining the system to be work, but work that bears much fruit.
5. Surrender brings peace. You will experience peace when you turn your personal and professional challenges over to a greater authority. Surrender is an act of trust.
6. Surrender brings freedom. Peace prevails when freedom of choice exists. You cannot solve a problem until you acknowledge that you have one and accept responsibility for solving it. Choosing to admit and confront problems opens a door to finding and freely choosing solutions.
7. Surrender requires trust. Surrender exists when you allow others to set the agenda and control the situation.

Partial surrender is no surrender at all.

On of the most profound business management statements I’ve ever heard is partial surrender is no surrender at all.

You can’t surrender your heart to Jesus on Sunday and keep living in sin every other day of the week.
The police say a criminal who surrenders to authorities but keeps his handgun is not surrendering at all. Marriage counsellors say a person who surrenders to spending more time with their family but continues to spend evenings and weekends answering business e-mails has not surrendered at all.

The principle... partial surrender is no surrender at all... has several business applications. For example:

• CFO’s can’t surrender to ethical accounting principles and keep writing monthly journal entries to make numbers match the budget.
• Managers can’t surrender to the principle of teaching employees 'how to fish' yet keep giving them the fish every day of the week.
• Employees can’t surrender to a mission statement they don’t remember or believe.
• Leaders can't surrender to the principles of good coaching while continuing to dominate discussions and control actions.
  
  Is it time to surrender?
• If you and your management team are frustrated and foiled by the existing systems, it’s time to surrender to improved operations that provide new perspectives and action plans to grow sales and profits.
• If your organisation has heaps of potential yet there is concern over how to access it may be the right time to surrender to an external business coaching program.
• If you’re frustrated with declining margins, it’s time to surrender to a new and improved pricing method.
• If you’re personally at your wits end, it may be time to surrender to a personal coaching program.

Conclusion

Most people are miserable when they feel they 'have to' do something. Some say, 'You can’t make me'.

On the other hand, if those same people are given an exciting mission, confident leader, well-defined plan and a job comprised of value-added activities, they will 'want to' surrender to providing high quality products and services.

Let me warn you: When you decide to live a totally surrendered life, that decision will be tested.

Sometimes it will mean doing inconvenient, unpopular, costly, or seemingly impossible tasks.

It will often mean doing the opposite of what you feel is right. Success is not doing what is popular. Most people and organisations are not actually successful therefore doing what the majority of other people and organisations do often leads to mediocrity, not success. .

Achieving success requires profitable, not conventional actions. Success for you or your organisation will require what may seem illogical…..surrender.

Surviving and thriving during the most challenging economic conditions any of us have ever experienced requires surrender to new missions, new methods and new authorities. Surrender represents change, something most people and organisations resist, but with surrender and change comes new hope. Not just for survival but renewed, sustained success.

Think about it from a Structures - Waste - Culture perspective

Many organisations focus on motivation yet without sensible structures and systems that continually improve motivation cannot be sustained.

What 10 areas within your organisation would you change or improve if you had a magic wand?

1.                                                                                                                                                                   
2.                                                                                                                                                                   
3.                                                                                                                                                                   
4.                                                                                                                                                                   
5.                                                                                                                                                                   
6.                                                                                                                                                                   
7.                                                                                                                                                                   
8.                                                                                                                                                                   
9.                                                                                                                                                                   
10.                                                                                                                                                                

Look at each entry and consider, out of 10, how easy it would be to change or improve that area. If, given the right focus, change and refinement could be easily achieved give it a mark of 10 in the column headed 'Ease'.

1. Think before you follow.
People in some industries or professions follow decades-old practices without giving much thought. It is profitable to occasionally stop and ask, "Do I really want to be like the person or organization I'm following?"

2. Appreciate thinking different from your own.
As a leader, you might be surprised by the energy unleashed when you adopt the habit of readily asking, What do you think?

According to business coach David Cole ‘Our clients often praise the structure we provide for them to think strategically’.

For example, CEO of Frontline Diagnostics says 'He asks great questions which get me to think about things I hadn't considered before. It causes to think laterally and step out of the existing business paradigms. It's funny how people work within the same paradigms as their competitors and then wonder why they have trouble differentiating within the market.

Don't overlook the value of coaches, as their 'off field' perspective can often be the difference between excellence and the 'also rans'.

3. Continually question your own thinking.
Andy Stanley says, ‘In an organisation, we should remember that every tradition was originally a good idea - and perhaps even revolutionary. But every tradition may not be a good idea for the future.

What traditions have become obstacles in your life or organisation?

Maybe it's your old performance reporting methodology, people management processes or even your marketing approach.

4. Try new things in new ways.
When was the last time you did something for the first time? At age five, first time activities were a common occurrence.

Fifty years later, doing new things in new ways is no less important.

All three of these directly influence a person's behaviour and conscious use of habit changing processes can modify any and all of them.

A fundamental principle of psychology is: ‘People are internally compelled to respond to situations in ways that will support or be consistent with their beliefs.’

When a person reaches to turn-on a light switch or turns the key in a car's ignition, his action is motivated by the belief, based on past experience, that light will be produced or that motor of the car will begin to run.

A person with no belief of light being produced by changing the mechanical position of a lever or that transportation by other than animals is possible would not be motivated to take these simple actions.

People have been known to go to great lengths to demonstrate the validity of their beliefs, including war and sacrificing their own life. Conversely, people are not motivated to support or validate the beliefs of another, when those beliefs are contrary to their own.

A person's observations of their environment are filtered through his values to determine whether or not he should expend energy to do something about his experiences. A person that values gold and sees a large bag of gold (a positive value) in his path as he walks will be motivated to reach down and pick it up. A person that values his life and knows about venomous snakes will retreat from the sight of a red belly black (a negative value) nearby when he is walking in the bush.

Said another way, ‘Values are the scales we use to weigh our choices for our actions, whether to move towards or away from something.’  Not all values have the same weight or priority. Some are more important than others and must be satisfied before others can be addressed.

Dr. Abraham Maslow illustrated this with his hierarchy of human needs. Survival has a higher priority than security, which has a higher priority than social acceptance. Self-esteem can only be addressed to the degree that social acceptance is fulfilled. Similarly,

self-actualisation can only be pursued once self-esteem has been satisfied.

One of the things a person holds most important is her/his ‘identity.’ It has been known for more than 4 decades that people will behave in accordance with their definition of themselves or their self-image.

A person that has an identity that is ‘I'm terrible at maths’ will avoid having to solve mathematical problems or will make more than the normal amount of errors when doing so. A person with the self-image of ‘I am an excellent public speaker’ will eagerly speak before large audiences, while a person with the opposite self-image will do whatever is necessary to avoid speaking to even small groups of people.

A person's beliefs, values and identity are usually acquired unconsciously based on their personal experience or observations of others experiences as to what produces desirable or undesirable results in the environment.

Baby's learning to walk and talk are clear examples of identifying with human adults, valuing the act of being able to have the mobility and communication ability of an adult and the belief, based on unconscious observation, that humans can and do walk and do talk with each other.

Physiologists have been able to identify the parts of the human brain that are involved in producing behaviour in accordance with beliefs, values and identity.

All information collected by human senses is passed through a net-like group of cells, known as the Reticular Activating System (RAS), located near the top of the brain stem. The RAS compares the data received with accepted values, positive and negative (threats), and beliefs stored in memory and determines whether or not immediate action is required. The results of the RAS's comparison are communicated to the amygdala near the mid-brain.

The amygdala produces neuro-chemicals that cause emotions consistent with the nature of and proportional to the match between environment and values and beliefs.

The neuro-chemicals initiate the chemical processes needed for the action to be taken. If the emotions produced are strong enough, the perceived information is blocked from reaching the logical, rational and conscious executive centre of the brain (the pre-frontal lobes)

When this happens we behave automatically, not necessarily logical or rational but in accordance with our strongest held beliefs, values and/or identity.

Put simply, it is our beliefs about our identity and what is important that determines our response to the stimuli received from the environment.

These beliefs are stored in the subconscious mind and are subject to change by the conscious mind.  However consciously analysing every stimulus and determining a conscious response is impossible and we quickly find ourselves responding automatically again.

Therefore, only by changing our beliefs can we change automatic response.

Before a child learns to count correctly, he only knows the names of numbers not the sequential order for them. Once he makes a conscious decision to count correctly, he memorizes the correct order through repetition and positive reinforcement.

Before a person learns their multiplication tables, they do not believe that 8 times 8 equal 64. They consciously develop the belief that this is true either by repetitiously memorizing the multiplication table or through an ‘ah ha’ experience gained from laying out 8 groups of 8 objects and then counting all the objects to see that the total is 64.

Through these methods the belief is built that the ‘truth’ is that in counting numbers have a specific order and that 8 times 8 and 64 mean the same thing.

The same process of repetition using affirmations can modify or create new beliefs about a person's identity and/or what is important to him (his values). Simple verbal repetition of statements intended to become new beliefs, values or identity will result in these being stored for use by the RAS for comparison with the environment being experienced.

The longer the period of time affirmations are repeated the higher the priority they are given in a person's value system and therefore the more they influence the person's behavior. Typically, consistent daily repetition over a minimum period of 3 to 5 weeks is necessary to create new behaviours.

The greater the difference between the current beliefs, values and identity and the intended ones; the longer is the time needed for repetition to produce the new behaviours.

Ultimately, the affirmation will dominate over the previous beliefs, values or identity trait in the person's subconscious and will automatically produce the newly affirmed behaviour.

This process can be accelerated by affirmations that produce emotional responses and vivid images when they are verbalised. The more intense the emotion the quicker the realisation of the affirmation.

The clearer and more complete the image that is triggered by the affirmation, the more accurately and quickly the intention will be realised.

Have a go at completing the Growth Opportunity section. Leave the affirmation work area for now.

What growth and change opportunities did you record?  To have a better memory, greater poise under pressure, enthusiasm toward client needs, patient interaction with your children.

The next step lies in creating a picture of how things are you have achieved your goal.

Like a movie the affirmation needs to have clarity and emotion so you can enjoy the full experience. 

It’s a bit like a pilot training simulator.  Although the trainee pilot knows that he is in a simulator he still gets the nervous energy, fear and adrenalin rush that comes with the training because the ‘real’ thing has been so well replicated. 

You need to create such an experience around the goal as it feels now exists. 

Sample affirmations:-

My fantastic recall for all I read and hear makes me an even more effective leader.

Every speaking engagement is an opportunity for me to show great passion for my subject.   I entertain and inform the audience every time I speak.

Creating External Opportunities

Being able to refine behaviours using the existing electronics of the brain gives us all a great opportunity to realise our potential both internally and externally.

Like personal affirmations that create the chance for you to ‘be’ what you want to be, ‘doing’ and ‘having’ affirmations work just as well.

For example, last year I wanted to create more business for Solutions BD, so I wrote down what I wanted, created a dummy bank statement with the cash figure I wanted, cranked up my newsletter and sent it out to my existing clients.

Almost immediately, we started getting phone calls, but interestingly enough, the phone calls weren't just from clients; they were from people not on my database. I was creating the vibe (putting the energy out there), and the phone started ringing—in only 6 months we doubled our revenues and outstripped our capacity.

This example demonstrates the power of visualisation.  When I made the dummy statement and wrote down my outcome I was actually visualising how it is now that I have got the goal. 

Thankfully our subconscious can’t distinguish between what is real or unreal so where enough emotion and clarity can be brought to bear on a desire the more it makes the ‘take’ in our brain and the opportunity presents almost magically for us.

More examples,

Jim Carrey

You might have heard of Jim Carrey's RAS activating trick. When Carrey was just a stand-up comic in Los Angeles (before the movies), he decided he was going to write a cheque to himself for future services rendered.

For how much? $12 Million

He carried that cheque in his wallet for years--working his way through the stand-up acts to TV until he finally got his cheque for his first movie, Ace Ventura.

How much was that cheque for? $12 Million

(Editor's note: story varies from $10 million to $12 million. Not sure which is right, but the point of the story endures: Have a clear sense of what you want and go get it!!)

Bruce Lee

Next time you're in the Planet Hollywood in New York City, cheque out the letter hanging on the wall that Bruce Lee wrote to himself.

It's stamped ‘secret’ and is dated January 9, 1970.  Bruce's goal? ‘By 1980 I will be the best known oriental movie star in the United States and will have secured $10 million dollars.’

He continues with, ‘And in return I will give the very best acting performance I can give every single time, and I will live in peace and harmony.’

Sometimes our affirmations can be well supported by props.  Often known as a vision board we can create a sense of completion with our goals by producing pretend bank statements, personal cheques as well as images that mean something to us.  This can assist in creating the mental picture and emotion of our goal.

People with an optimistic view of their capabilities out-perform those who are doubtful or simply more "realistic," even though their abilities are virtually identical. They don't give up easily or worry about obstacles because the final outcome is never in doubt -- they see themselves as creative, resourceful problem solvers. They believe themselves into being more. They see themselves as winners, and they act like it.

We can feel like winners, no matter what others tell us or how favorable the circumstances, only if being a winner is consistent with our self-image. Why do some people see themselves as winners and act accordingly, while so many others don't?

Learning To Win -- And Lose

Learning to see yourself as a winner and to feel like a winner happens primarily as a result of having successful experiences and thinking self-affirming thoughts. When we believe our efforts will be successful, we become venturesome and are most likely to undertake an activity or task. Because we expect to succeed, we persist until we do.

This successful experience causes self-affirming thoughts, which boost our self-esteem, enhance self-efficacy, make us feel good, and lead us to believe we will do well in the future. Thus, we attempt more, and the upward spiral continues. This internal system helps us grow and develop -- a natural continuous quality improvement program.

There is, however, an equally powerful downward spiral that can interrupt the natural growth process. If we believe we are likely to fail, we undertake activities tentatively, expecting a negative outcome. We feel anxious about our performance, we avoid or remove ourselves from anxiety-producing situations. When we fail, we say "I told you so" to ourselves and make a mental note to avoid similar situations in the future.

When we're very young, we have little to say about the experiences to which we're subjected or the messages we receive from the world. The authority figures in our lives shape our early thoughts and feelings. If they abuse this power, we may be conditioned to believe that the world is not a friendly place, that we have to struggle to get our basic needs met, that we are not loved (lovable), valued (valuable) or competent.

Years pass and the pattern repeats many times. It becomes part of who we are, imprinted in our brains, and our internal voice, our self-talk, takes on the sound of our harshest critics. We play out the negative conditioning without thinking about it.

Changing the Rules

As adults we can acknowledge these painful early experiences for what they are, let go of them, and move past self-defeating thoughts and behaviors. We can opt for a new and better way of life -- choosing not only what we think, but also how we think and respond to our experiences.

Albert Einstein said, "No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew."

Using our free will, we can learn to think like and be winners, even if we were taught to believe something else. And we can choose to win in a way that makes no one else a loser. To make these choices intelligently, however, we need to know what our options are, how to deal with setbacks, and where to get the tools -- the information and resources -- we need. Most people know that they could be living vastly more fulfilling lives, and if given the option, tools, and support -- they will choose to do so.

Over the years, my work has brought me into close contact with many "winners." The common characteristic is not what, but how they think. Through a dazzling array of experiences, all of them have learned the importance of clear vision and sense of purpose or mission.

The best tools and the latest information won't help us tap into our rich potential until we accept that we are ultimately responsible for who we are, what we do, and who we become. This means that we give up looking for someone or something to blame and abandon the "victim mentality."

If we think like losers (or pessimists), we unconsciously create situations that reinforce our beliefs. When we expect failure and succeed anyway, we toss it off to luck or say it's a "fluke" or "only temporary," and hold on to our negative beliefs.

If we think of ourselves as losers or failures, we will do what we can to make sure "reality" supports our view. Even positive deviation from that picture makes us uncomfortable, producing anxiety and a desire to "get back where we belong."

But if our picture of reality is that we deal with obstacles well and persist until we succeed, we will do whatever it takes to make that picture match the world. We will seek challenge, enlist help, solve problems creatively, and refuse to quit until we have achieved our goal.

We will see change as opportunity and adapt ourselves to meet it. We become exhilarated with life. And if success eludes us, we won't interpret it as failure. Instead, we will see it as useful information about what doesn't work, a temporary setback.

Where do you have opportunity to grow?  To get started rate, out of 5 where you think you are now in the following areas. Rate out 5 means you are completely fulfilled in that area and 1 means you have huge potential to grow.

Rate where you realistically would like to be. What is the Gap?

Which three questions have the largest gap? What are three actions you could undertake in each to improve?

For information about our personal leadership programs and Newcastle Business consultants please click here.

Stage One

People want things out of their life - rewards. We consider these rewards to be job satisfaction, job security, money, recognition and personal growth. "What do you have to provide in order to get these?" Quite often the answer is hard work or effort. However there are plenty of people that work hard and put in lots of effort, but they do not get these rewards so it can't be the right answer. It is very rare but sometimes someone will come up with the answer. That is providing high value or in our terms, 'value to others'. Some people don't understand this concept so we move to Stage Two.

Stage Two

A large circle is drawn and named 'System'. A further two circles are drawn below this, one we will call, 'Other person', and the other we will call 'You'. An arrow is then drawn pointing from you to the other person and this is called 'Value'.

The statement that goes with this says, "If I provide value to you, (the other person) I find that the system above rewards me ten times over." The problem is that I may have to wait up to five to ten years to get the rewards. The average person does not want to wait this long.

The reason why it takes so long is that you have to continuously provide value to everyone in your life to feel worthy. If you don't feel worthy of success you won't allow yourself to have it. You have the key to unlock the padlock holding your rewards, but you don't use it. People do this all the time. They don't feel worthy of a good job so they make mistakes, argue with the boss or turn up late. They don't feel worthy of a good relationship so they pick arguments, don't show attention or have an affair.

Stage Three

Demonstrates that by building your self worth you then do not feel bad about receiving benefits, you allow them to come and you become successful by using the key. This philosophy has been known for centuries. Your focus should be on your family, your organisation, and your friends. By looking at ways that you can be 'value to others' you will actually make yourself successful. It is through giving that you will find success.

To build self worth is easy.

What could you do for the following people that would double your value to that person?
Your husband / wife / partner / friend, your boss, your staff, your children / nieces / nephews / brother / sister, your customer and your parents / grandparents.

How much time are you investing in developing your self worth? It does take time, it may be five or ten years before you see a return. The short term benefit is the feeling that you are doing the right thing.

A good example of someone who focuses on providing value to others, is prepared to wait five to ten years to get a return, and only gets a warm feeling in the short term, is a parent.

Organizations do it as well, the Salvation Army is a good example.

Add value to the people you come into contact with. This will benefit them and make you feel good about yourself. You need to develop a high level of self worth before you feel worthy of receiving the rewards. In other words you will not allow yourself to be successful until you consider yourself worthy.

You have found that the key to success is to build up your self worth. If this is correct, then all you need to worry about is how to do more for others. The answer to the 'Value to Others' philosophy is "who cares, do it for yourself, it is your own self worth that is the key".

Most businesses know that they need to change the way they operate in order to achieve maximum profit and/or revenue growth, however most fail to actually do it.

Most Business Managers know that they need a plan to guide their development process but most fail to develop one – despite the fact that there are literally thousands of guides, training programs and advisers available to assist in this development process. Why?

I believe that one of the primary reasons is that traditional planning processes fail to take advantage of your change potential, which is your ability to implement change in your business and life.

What factors do you need to address if you are wanting to make a change? These are the individual elements of your change potential.

How do you maximise your change potential?

Your ability to change will be influenced by three things. Your level of dissatisfaction or motivation, your Vision for the future and the quality of your plan for achieving your Vision. The combination of these 3 simple things is what drives people to change.We have developed a simple formula to measure your change potential. There are 4 things you need to do:

1. You need to know how the change formula works.
2. You need to know how to create Dissatisfaction (motivation)
3. You need to know how to create Vision; and
4. You have to be skilled in developing a Plan that works.

If you can maximise your performance in Dissatisfaction, Vision and Plan, you can maximise your change potential.

Dissatisfaction
Pain is a great motivator in the short term. If you can get your organisation to be dissatisfied with, or motivated by, their current performance, it will create an energy you can use. If you are not dissatisfied with your present situation or are too comfortable, it will be hard to find the motivation or reason to change.

If you had to rate the level of dissatisfaction or motivation in your organisation out of ten what would it be?

A score of 0 would indicate total happiness (low motivation), 5 generally satisfied (average motivation) and 10, total dissatisfaction (highly motivated). If you are extremely dissatisfied then you are most probably highly motivated. If you are highly motivated score yourself higher on the scale.

Vision
In a similar way, rate the level of vision in your Business. Vision is a critical element because it provides a picture of what will be achieved.

Score yourself from 0 to 10 on the quality of Vision in your business.

If you have a well articulated Vision that you have documented and that you can draw a picture of, then rate yourself higher on the scale. Rate yourself higher the longer the time frame covered by your Vision. If you have never really thought about where you want to be in the future and don’t have a clear Vision, then give yourself a low score closer to zero.

Plan
How would you rate the level of commitment, involvement and belief in your business plan? Most businesses don't score well in this element.

Again use the 0 to 10 score. If you have a well documented plan for achieving your Vision with strategies, priorities, actions, timings and responsibilities – then score yourself near the upper end of the scale. If you have a very rough plan stored in your head – then score yourself towards the lower end.

Calculate your Change Potential
Once you have scored each item, multiply the scores together to get a total value for your change potential. D x V x P = Change Potential. What is the score for your Business or for you as an individual?

Example:

Formula D x V x P = Change Potential

Maximum = 10 x 10 x 10 = 1000

Your Score ___ x ___ x ___.= ____

What scores do you think the best performing businesses (or individuals) would have? Typically they are highly motivated, have a very strong sense of Vision and have great plans. Scores in these businesses are usually in the vicinity of 10, 8 and 8 for D.V and P , respectively, which gives them a total score of 640 out of 1000 (10 x 10 x 10) or they are using 64% of their change potential.

How do you compare to the better performing businesses?

How can you improve your score? In which area (D,V or P) did you have the lowest score? What can you do to improve this score? What can you do to improve your score in the other areas? Set up some action plans.

Don’t feel discouraged if you scored yourself at the bottom of the range as this means that you have a lot of unused potential. In my experience, most business managers score between 10% and 30% using this methodology. To maximise your change potential, I believe that you need to lift your score to greater than 50%.

But what if I don’t want to change?

"Change is inevitable – you can drink it as soup now or take it as an enema later! Either way, you will change!" Anon.

In other words, you can embrace change now or have it forced upon you later – but there is no escaping it. This is a quote from a good friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) who is a gifted commentator on world events.

Unfortunately, in today’s fast moving business environment avoiding change just isn’t possible. All businesses change even if they don’t know it. Changes in customer expectations, communications technologies, legislation, banking and finance all occur without us even being aware of it! Therefore not changing just isn’t an option!

The key is to be aware of the changing environment and to adjust your plans to include appropriate elements of change. A good planning process will include a process for prioritising the implementation of your plan which will filter out unnecessary changes and include essential developments

1. Identify key areas for improvement
2. Develop objectives
3. Develop performance measures
4. Develop strategies for realising each objective
5. Develop actions for enacting each strategy

Personal One Page Plan
The personal Plan centres around 3 concepts:

Now - Where are you now on any given issue? Or, where are you now with your personal planning?

Where - Where would you like to be in the Future on any given issue or where would you like to be in the Future with your personal plan.

How - Having established where you would like to be, it makes sense to then put the action plans in place to take you from the now set of circumstances to the where.

When we are asked to drive to an address, generally the first thing we grab is a street directory to show us how to get there in the most efficient manner.

If we decide to build or renovate our house, the first thing that most of us would do is to have a draftsperson or architect draw up a comprehensive plan of what the house will look like when it is finished.

This Plan is then given to the builder who systematically follows it to produce the desired outcome.

When it comes to your life – Where is your Plan? How strong is your Vision for what it is you want in the future? A better question here might be – Do you know what you want in the future?

1. The Now Analysis
Below is a sample One Page Plan (OPP). You will notice that the left hand box is designed to summarize the key points about you now. It will contain what you believe to be the main barriers preventing you from moving forward in your life.

It may state that you are currently single/married with or without children. There maybe some work issues. You would include your 3 key Strengths and your 3 key Weaknesses.

The key is that if an unrelated person was to look at the OPP, they would have a very accurate summary of what was happening in your life from the now perspective. 

2. The Where Analysis
The box to the right of the page is designed to highlight key statements about where you see yourself in the future. The first element of the where is:

2.1 A Personal Vision Statement
This is a word version of your vision. What words best summarize your vision of the where over the next 3 to 5 years?

It maybe that you want to be a more relaxed person with your family and have no money worries.

It could be that you want to have the choice of whether or not to actually go to work. You may see yourself as wanting to allocate time to a charitable organisation as part of your self-development.

2.2 Your Personal Goals
What personal goals will you need to set to assist you in the realisation of your Personal Vision?

These goals must be Specific Measurable Outcomes.

In other words they have to be able to be measured numerically.

For instance, what measure would you use to show that you were becoming more relaxed? How would you measure other family issues? What about some financial goals?

2.3 Your Personal Competitive Advantage
What is it that you are going to do on an ongoing basis that will give you the success in life that you are seeking.

What are the Key Success Factors (KSF) that are required to make you feel personally successful within the circles that you travel or would like to travel?

For example a KSF could be Care, Trust, Listening, Support, Communication.
There are two attributes that are important when you establish your Personal Competitive Advantage (PCA):

a. Value To Others – Create a list of What it is that you do, or could do, on a consistent basis that would be considered of High Value by your circle of friends, children, spouse, partner, relatives and so on. These are your Key Success Factors (KSF)

You can then score each of these KSF out of 10. If the KSF would be regarded by the groups of people you have nominated as of very High Value to them, then score it as a 10. If you think the same group of people would regard it as low value, score it closer to zero.

b. Ability To Perform If You Could Do It Well – Now score each KSF out of 10 again. This time base your score on your Future Ability to Perform in that area.

If you believe your future ability to perform is high, then score that KSF at 10. If your future ability to perform in that area (KSF) is low, then score it closer to zero.

Plot up the vertical and horizontal score for each KSF on a grid that looks like this:

Those Key Success Factors that fall into the top right quadrant illustrate those areas where you have a personal competitive advantage. This means they are considered high value by those around you and you have a high ability to perform well in those areas.

Now you can produce a statement:
‘I succeed by being the most or the best………………………..in my circle of family and friends"

Key Performance Indicators
Now that you have developed your Personal Competitive Advantage (PCA), you need to introduce some Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

I suggest that you create 3 KPI's. If for example your Personal Competitive Advantage was to be the ‘best communicator’ you need to be able to measure whether or not you are succeeding in this area. How will you know?

One KPI could be the number of your friends that ask you for advice because you are regarded as a good listener.

You now need to complete your One Page P, but the bottom half of the OPP is looking empty. What's needed is to determine the Strategies and Action Plans.

Think about this over the coming month and make some notes on the types of strategies you think will drive you toward your personal vision and objectives. We will look at the methodology for developing strategy and actions in depth in the next issue of Compass. Contact our Newcastle based Business Consultants who can help you develop your one page plan.

2. List the important areas in life. If you are working with someone don't censor any suggestions but if you get any that you don't want, acknowledge the value of their suggestion and write it down as an option.

3. Name each segment. Feel free to rename the wheel segments. There is nothing magic in our six areas, we feel that they cover the key areas in life. We have selected Social, Family, Health, Finance, Mental and Philosophy.

4. Once the segments are named pick one and ask how well you/they are performing in that area. For example if you're looking at 'Health', ask the question, " How satisfied are you with your health? " What score would you give it out of 10, where 0 is poor and ten is good? People often find it difficult to score the segments. Go with your first thought. Over time you will find you score harder. It is virtually impossible to achieve a score of 10.

As you get close you change your definition of a 10. Remember we are aiming for balance, not a perfect 10. Typical scores are Social - 3/10, Family - 5/10, Health - 7/10, Finance - 2/10, Mental - 2/10, Philosophy - 3/10.

5. Once the scores are determined draw an arc on the segment where 0 is the centre of the circle and 10 is the outer rim.

6. Shade in the scored areas. The resulting shape is your wheel of life. What does your wheel look like? Is it balanced? Is it a complete circle? If so, your wheel will turn. Is it a semicircle? Your problem will be that it will complete half a turn and then stop. Which areas do you need to work on? What activities do you need to undertake to improve your score? For example:

Family : Do you provide high value to all family members?
Social : How much time do you have for relaxation?
Finance : Do you pay your bills on time? Are you financially secure?
Mental : What personal development activities are you undertaking?
Philosophy : Have you got a set of core values?
Health : How much exercise are you doing? Are you drinking too much?

7. Draw your ideal score on each wheel segment and ask what would you need to do to get your life into balance.

8. Finally, develop action plans to improve the score in the key segments as shown below.

9. You can use the Life Balance tool to audit your life, set targets, carry out a Gap Analysis and even to develop action plans. Give it a try!

Partnercorps Business consulting division is happy to answer any questions if you would like to contact us.

Complete this quick audit as a starting point for identifying some of your limiting beliefs.

 How did you go?  What is going on for you internally on those low scoring questions?  What are the key contributors to these feelings?

To explore your beliefs system further ask yourself:-

Who have been the most influential people in your life? What did they tell you? What age were you when they told you? Why do you still believe it? What beliefs will you need to be able to achieve your goals? What beliefs are currently missing? How can we create the new beliefs?

For example fear is a belief. We fear beginnings; we fear endings. We fear changing; we fear staying stuck. We fear success; we fear failure. We fear living; we fear dying.  

Fear seems so real yet it is like darkness compared to light.  Light is real, it can be examined, its speed measured and it can be broken up into its constituent parts.  It is real.

Darkness on the other hand does not really exist!  It is simply the way things appear when light is absent.  So fear, like darkness is merely an indicator that something is missing.  It is not in itself the issue.

What fears do you harbour and what proactive empowering beliefs can you switch on?

You may be surprised and encouraged to learn that while inability to deal with fear may look and feel like a psychological problem, in most cases it isn't.  It is often, primarily an educational one.

At the bottom of every one of your fears is the belief  that you can't handle whatever life may bring.

If you knew you could handle anything that came your way what would you possibly have to fear? The answer is nothing!

You need to develop trust in yourself and to reach the point where you will be able to say, "Whatever happens to me, given any situation, I can handle it!" By saying this you are affirming the outcome and not the problem. 

All behavior originates in a belief. If you believe that other people will always take advantage of you, then you will behave in a suspicious way to others. This will flow through every element of your life, relationships, family and working life.

Replacing Beliefs

First you must be aware which beliefs serve you well and which do not.

Creating doubt will destroys beliefs. Questions interrupt our patterns of certainty. If you question anything enough, you will begin to doubt it.  Begin to really question those beliefs you suspect are disempowering you.

Creating New Beliefs
Define clearly your new belief. Create a vivid picture of the best possible consequence of having and living this belief and what it will give you.

To help create the picture affirmations can be useful.  Here are some samples

• My fantastic recall for all I read and hear makes me an even more effective leader.

• Every speaking engagement is an opportunity for me to show great passion for my subject.   I entertain and inform the audience every time I speak.

• I show great poise and calm in all pressure situations.

• My children love themselves best when I give them sincere encouragement and respect.

• I love playing golf as I consistently card sub 90 scores.

• I am an honest negotiator who has the respect of his peers.

• I actively seek our opportunities to make others feel good about themselves.

• I know I will achieve my goals – I recover quickly from temporary setbacks.

• I am unassuming in my actions toward helping others.

• I bravely take calculated risks as a means to improve.

• I am always aware of other people’s feelings.

• I enjoy dealing with my customers as I quickly determine and fill their needs.

• We win because we focus on providing great service.

• I am very proud of the enthusiastic and productive team I lead.

• I am constantly using my influence to create an environment where staff can excel.

• I feel great excitement at achieving our profit of $….

• It feels great to be well organised.

• I love maintaining good business housekeeping practices.

• I love networking for every one I meet is a potential buyer.

Partnercorps personal coaching program can really assist you to fast track personal success and contentment through a combination of education and implementation.

Click here to learn more about Personal Coaching for Business or contact one of our Newcastle Business consultants

"....Leaders can be trained"

If you start with the premise that it takes good people, managed well with a compelling vision to achieve anything robust, then you would appreciate that most of the management methods we currently use are not adequate.

Leaders are needed who understand and appreciate differences, trust and support their colleagues and work with commitment and energy. This requires a set of skills and attitudes which we are rarely trained for and, even less often, have a role model to emulate. If what we desire is to create a culture where staff are encouraged to:

• Use problem solving skills (all the way down the line)
• Take responsibility for creating solutions
• Be honest about what works and what might work
• Be confident that trying even when mistakes are made is right
• Be creative 

Then some new cultural norms and a whole set of new skills needs to be developed by our managers.

Executive and business coaching can playa vital part in the transformational changes required in management methods, skills and learning environments to support this new and vital approach.

What is executive and business consulting?
Executive coaching is a cooperative process between a coach and an executive and, ideally, his or her team to fulfil their potential by identifying skills weaknesses and business goals, build life balance and to gain and improve management skills by practising them in a safe and supportive environment.

Say for example you habitually miss the deadline for your monthly report. You probably find that at that time of the month your stress levels are very high and you feel exposed. To improve this, make a commitment that you will complete the report 2 days earlier than the deadline. If you discipline yourself to complete this process you will notice 2 things:

1. The first 2-3 times will be really tough. You will have to identify your blockages and in some cases actively chase information from other colleagues.
   
   
2. The more often though you complete this on time, the easier it will become. Soon it will be the way you do things -unthinkingly. It will also be the way that others treat you also unthinkingly. Quite simply you have developed a new habit and in doing that you will have influenced and changed the habits of those around you.

This of course is one of the great outcomes of all behavioural change not only the impact it has on you but on how it changes the way you interact with others and in turn how they then interact with you.

What executive coaching produces
FORTUNE magazine reports (July 23, 2001 issue) that one reader said, "I went into the coaching experience kicking and screaming, at the insistence of my then boss. And what an eye-opener it turned out to be. I won't even go into the grim details of bad management habits I had unthinkingly developed in my 14-year career up to that point - but I will say that since I was 'cured' by 12 weeks of pretty intense coaching, I've been promoted three times."

Executive Coaching enables an executive or executive team to change their behaviour in the workplace to become more effective leaders, the improvement being measured by increased productivity across the executive's field of control and impact

The coach guides, facilitates, advises and educates the executive. Executive coaching is designed to deliver quantifiable improvements in the executive's performance and can be measured by superior achievement of goals particularly through improved performance from his/her team brought on by:

• Clearer communication and agreement on goals
• Improved feedback mechanisms
• Closing of communication loops
• The delegation of responsibility for problem solving
• The ability to develop and retain key staff

as well as improvements in the executive's personal job satisfaction and life balance.

Examples of where coaching has been helpful recently are:

James was a senior executive in a major charity. He had been with the organisation for 6 years, was considered a valuable employee -yet he was thinking of leaving. He was working 14 hour days regularly, his wife had given him an ultimatum, he had started to blow up at his staff and had less and less energy to deal with any of the stress in his life.

James was not an unintelligent man but he had become constrained in developing solutions and had become more insular as his work hours increased. As he put it "I always figured that with one big push I'd get over the hump and have time to change after that". His organisation had seen this before and his CEO asked James if he would work with a coach to see if that would help. IT DID.

The coaching programme enabled James to see that he was not delegating sufficiently because he did not have a good method for communicating assessment criteria, no good feedback mechanisms and he was reticent to talk performance with his staff. The result being - he was taking on personally all the problems in his division.

It also helped him look more objectively at his total life and make some fundamental changes to his commitment to his own health and to his time with his family. Over a period of 3 months James made substantial changes to both his work and his home life. He still works hard -but now his people are involved and his commitment to his family and himself are such that his B/P is down significantly and his joy for life has returned.

Another positive result from this coaching was the realisation of the CEO that their culture was such that problems floated to the top for solving in all areas.

The Executive Team were under enormous pressure and work was not getting done. With coaching the CEO started with herself and started delegating more effectively. A coaching programme for the executive team is now in place with the stated aim of engeneering a coaching culture throughout the organisation and to put decision making back in its place i.e. with the people who can actually implement its decisions.

Once an executive team has adopted the principles of coaching in management, through role modeling, that method of people management can readily spread to becoming the dominant force in an organisation.

In not-for-profit where the retention of key staff can be a real issue and the recruitment of lesser skilled staff a reality due to cost constraints, the ability to skill transfer and to build confidence and a "can do" attitude in staff is a worthwhile investment.

Mentoring for Senior Management
As the old saying goes, 'It's lonely at the top." And even more so in our culture where "individualism" is lauded. Our culture venerates the myth that we make it on our own denigrating the support and contribution of teams, families and other networks. This in conjunction with the difficult and often stressful decisions for downsizing and job change which have to be made by CEO's results in feelings of lack of support and loneliness too often for our most senior executives.

That's why CEO coaching or mentoring is a very useful tool for the person who carries the weight of responsibility for the organisation.

The purpose of mentoring is to provide the CEO of an organisation with a sounding board to think through key issues, to practise ideas before exposing them to either a Board or employees; to have a dispassionate listener who can assist the CEO identify their unconscious weaknesses and then work out how to address them.

The relationship created with the executive coach is in addition to, and does not replace, existing relationships with the CEO's senior management, board members or other advisors.
One advantage of the executive coaching relationship is that there are no 'strings attached'
to conversations -as exist when the parties have on-going formal relationships and established roles that must be considered.

But wait. Aren't the people who have reached senior executive or CEO level already skilled at precisely all those human relationships and at understanding behaviour now considered so crucial to good leadership?

You would think so -but this is not always the case. As Gordan Cairns CEO of Lion Nathan put it "I think for people like myself, who want to improve leadership skills, it's possible to get to a certain point, and beyond that you need professional help. It's like athletes. If they want to take a quantum leap in their performance, they get a coach."

To enquire about your Newcastle Business consultant please contact Partnercorp. 

Leadership development has become more broadly defined. No longer does it apply to an individual manager's ability to lead but also to the development of a leadership mind-set' for the entire organisation.

To maintain a competitive edge, firms need to do much more than improve efficiency and tighten control, they need to fundamentally change the way they view the world and conduct business.

This means transforming systems that have been in place for years, changing firmly established cultures, and modifying behaviors.

It has become evident to many researchers that establishing clear goals and structuring incentives was only a small part of the overall leadership challenge. Understanding the organisation's competitive environment, identifying the capabilities needed to compete, and taking appropriate actions to transform the organisation's environment in favorable ways is what leadership is about.

Today, leadership is a set of competencies and corresponding skills that can be learned and practiced. Likewise, it is a shared process - more than one person can be involved in carrying out a leadership role for a particular situation.

Dr Jay Conger ( BA ( Dartmouth ) MBA (Virginia) DBA (Harvard) Professor of Organisational Behaviour; London Business School ) asserts there are three main categories of leadership development that need to be addressed as organisations strive to be successful in today's global economy. Within these categories are sets of competencies that leaders must develop to ensure their organisations achieve their goals:

1. Strategic Capabilities
Organisational leaders must be able to recognize and act in a timely and decisive manner as rapid changes occur in the global economy. To do this, leaders must first have this capacity within themselves and then build this capacity within their organisation by developing the following competencies:

2. Organisational Capabilities
Leaders must build and maintain organisations that use cross-functional and virtual teams to get work done quickly and effectively. To do this, leaders will need such skills as:

• Strong communication and motivational skills
• Learn how to function as organisational architects engaged in systems thinking
• Ability to understand and address cross- cultural issues
• Ability to develop leaders at every level within the organisation

3. Developing Future Leaders
Developing emerging leaders is critical to the success of any organisation. Experienced leaders need to learn how to be effective practitioners of leadership development. To carry out this role, leaders will need to learn:

• New approaches and techniques for leadership development
• The principles of Action Learning with its emphasis on application
• How to best use current competencies and/or develop new ones to address new organisational challanges or problems

These three categories of leadership competencies set a high standard for anyone currently serving in a leadership role or aspiring to leadership.

It is our belief that many of the prevailing approaches to leadership development do not provide the integration of concepts and learned behaviors needed in today's organisation.

Using the research of Dr Conger, as well as our practical experience working with a wide variety of organisations, we have identified a more comprehensive competency model we call Leadership for Competitive Advantage.

We believe these core competency areas are critical to the development of strong individual leaders, highly productive leadership teams and organisations that can achieve and sustain high performance.

As this model suggests, there are 10 key core competency areas that should be developed in today's leaders.

With this model as a framework, we have designed a leadership development approach that provides organisations with a way to identify needed competencies, develop and enhance these competencies, and reinforce the on-going practice of these competencies to produce sustainable, positive change within the organisation.

If you ask managers where they learned their leadership abilities, they will often tell you that their job experiences and bosses have contributed the most. Rarely will formal training be mentioned, despite the number of programs being designed and implemented.

We believe a structured approach using normal at work activities as the focus for review and learning is the key. The competencies diagram becomes the learning agenda and progress measuring tool.

In practice this means regular review sessions where coaching through collaboration with peers and external experts is applied on a programmed basis.

This methodology works because credibility and authenticity lie at the centre of leadership, determining and defining one's own guiding beliefs and assumptions lie at the heart of becoming a good leader.

By focusing on the individual, providing structured feedback, and prompting reflection, individual development programs can stimulate an important self-discovery process.

Processes emanating from material like Dr Stephen Covey's habits' books assist us in facilitating this process.

As clarity in the meaning and power of the core competencies increases among the top leaders of the organisation and they begin to more routinely reflect them in their daily activities attention can turn to the wider organisation.

Through normal forums including divisional meetings and project team meetings the facilitator can begin to introduce the philosophies that now represent the leadership or value to others' culture. Once such momentum occurs the resulting culture shift becomes apparent quite quickly.

By nurturing such an environment the organisation has developed a sustainable competitive advantage that is not easily recognised, and is slow in duplicating by competitors.

Are there many common themes to help us explain their enduring quality and prosperity?

There are 12 myths that are shattered by this study:

(a) It takes a great idea to start a great company
(b) Visionary Companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders
(c) Successful companies exist first and foremost to make profits
(d) The only constant is change
(e) Blue chip Companies play it safe
(f) Visionary companies are great places to work for everyone
(g) Highly successful companies make their best moves by brilliant and complex strategic planning
(h) Companies should hire outside CEO's to stimulate fundamental change
(i) The most successful companies focus primarily on beating the competition
(j) You can't have your cake and eat it too
(k) Companies become Visionary through Vision statements.

Some of the Findings

Build a clock - don't just tell the time!
The company itself is the ultimate creation - not the product. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard's greatest creation was not a pocket calculator, it was the HP company - the HP way. The same goes for Disney, Sony and so on.

These companies were constructed in an organised way from the start, with the infrastructure for future expansions and visions being put in place at an early stage.

More than Profits
Profit is necessary to survive, however, HP would not enter into markets for cheap simple products - although these may have created high profits - as this did not fit their purpose and core values.

In the companies studied, profit was almost always a given. From 1926 to 1990, the investment returns of these 18 companies outperformed the general stock market by a factor of over 15.

Core Ideology

What is a visionary company?

It is a premier institution in its industry. Widely admired. It is an organisation, which is sustainable, and consistently prospers through fluctuations in markets, and the arrival and departure of both products and leaders, however charismatic.

Think of some companies which meet the following criteria:

• Premier institution in its industry
• Widely admired
• Have made an indelible print on the world in which we live
• Multiple generations of Chief Executives
• Has been through multiple product./service life cycles

Core ideology = Core values + purpose

Core values

Definition: the organisation's essential and enduring tenets - the general guiding principles

Purpose: the fundamental reason for existing beyond just making money - a perpetual guiding star on the horizon.

Some examples of core ideology:
(these companies usually have several, apart from those quoted)

Proctor & Gamble - Product Excellence, Continuous self improvement
Sony - To elevate the Japanese culture and status 
Wal-Mart - Be in partnership with employees
Walt Disney - No cynicism allowed
Boeing - Product safety and quality

To review Partnercorp's purpose, Values and Drivers - Click Here

The visionary companies more thoroughly indoctrinate employees into core ideologies, creating cultures so strong that they are almost cult-like around the ideology.

The core values need no justification. They do not shift in response to changing market conditions.

They are not planned - they are believed, deep down.

Purpose is broad, fundamental and enduring

How do you establish purpose? One way is to ask the question - why does this company exist?

There is no reason why this principle should not apply to divisions, departments or smaller organisations.

Many of the visionary companies took time to work out purpose - they often settled upon their purpose at some point after the company had passed the start up phase and was solid.

What are the important factors for your business? What factors hit directly at your purpose in serving the client and the community? Use the following table to begin your list. Rate your factors out of 10 with 10 being very important and high value.

How did you go? Which factors rated 8 or greater in both columns? How well does your organisation reflect these factors?

These core factors are always preserved while the way they manifest can constantly change and progress.

What other elements make up great corporations?

Build Cult-like Cultures

(a) Wal-Mart company rules: "The customer is always right" (End of company rules).
If you're not willing to adopt the company culture, then you probably shouldn't be there.

(b) The McDonalds School of Hamburgers is a good example of one approach to creating culture.

(c) Disneyland terminology:

Employees are "Cast members", Customers are "Guests",
A crowd is "An audience", A work shift is "A performance"…(and so on).

Measure
Use measures to ensure strategic thinking and actions occur.

In 3M, there are numerous examples of mechanisms put it place in order to stimulate the evolutionary progress:

15% rule:

encouraging technical staff to spend 15% of their time on projects of their own choosing and initiative. New product forums in which all divisions share their latest products and ideas.

'although the invention of the Post-it note might have been somewhat accidental, the creation of the 3M environment that allowed it was anything but an accident'.

30% rule:

each division is expected to generate 30% of annual sales from products introduced in the past four years.

What are some measures you could introduce to ensure your people are innovating?

"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors, try to be better than yourself".

Visionary companies create mechanisms to create discomfort, to constantly raise expectations, to obliterate complacency. They therefore stimulate change and improvement before the external world demands it of them.

Managers at visionary companies simply do not accept the proposition that they must choose between short term performance or long term success. They build first and foremost for the long term whilst at the same time maintain highly demanding standards.

Consider the following questions:

• What mechanisms of discontent could you build into your organisation?
• What are you doing to invest for the future whilst working for today?
• When you meet a downturn, do you stop investing for the future?
• Does your company reject that doing well is the end goal and replace it with the never ending
• discipline of working to do better tomorrow than was done today?

Sweat the small stuff
People don't work day to day in the "big picture". Little things matter. Take care of them.

A visionary company is like a great work of art. Think of Michelangelo's scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It is not any one point which, makes them great, it is the whole work. The small detail is so important.

Cluster - don't shotgun
Search for synergy and linkages. One area reinforces another which in turn reinforces another. And so on.

Obliterate misalignments
Prune dead branches. Waste no time. It's not the mistake that will necessarily hurt your business, it's taking too long to correct it that often does the real damage.

Remember: What is sacred is the core ideology (core values + purpose). Anything else can be changed or removed.

This is a brief summary of what is a powerful and comprehensive study. It cannot replace the text itself, but does provide a flavour and some of the strong messages.

Built to Last
By J C Collins & J I Porras

What is Change Risk?

Much of risk management work is focused on the management of risk in a relatively stable environment. The complexity is considerably greater when the organisation is in a state of change, the environment is intentionally destabilised, and still risk has to be managed. This kind of risk is significantly more difficult to manage as it impacts on capability.The article explores the nature of change risk and provides pointers as to how to be forewarned.

Most managers would generally accept that most organisations are always in a state of change – the only issues are: how much and how fast?The question is whether the change in your organisation is focused, harnessed and controlled, or is the change that happens to you.It is clear from studies, practice and simple common sense that if you can control change, you are more likely to achieve a beneficial outcome.

Consequently, good practice in change management indicates that the employment of project management principles in defining and delivering organisational change reduces the risks of failure.

The critical issue in encapsulating organisational change within a project management framework is to ensure that the integrity of the change is preserved.

This means avoiding the view that the project is about a ‘hard change’ (new software, restructure, relocation) and the management of the change process (stakeholders, transition issues, knowledge capture) are peripheral ‘nice-to-haves’. It also means that employing a project management discipline means following guidelines rather than imposing straight-jackets.

What options are there for Change Risk Management?
There are only three strategies to manage change risk: avoidance, accountability or alignment:

Avoidance: Planning change so that is does not impact on high risk business areas, resources, systems, processes and stakeholder groups: easier said than done!

Accountability: Ensuring that a designated party (with the resources and capability to do so) accepts accountability for managing the risk. This may be an internal individual or group, or an external specialist agency that will monitor the risk and either recommend or undertake relevant action on your behalf.

Alignment: Designing the change and the change process so as to reduce the probability, impact and variety of risks.

Identifying Change Risks
Experience and research has taught us that there are many sorts of issues that can derail a change process. These can range from the senior stakeholder getting a new job, through to the management of the say ‘yes’ and do ‘no’ team (most organisations have them).

Below is our checklist list of key risks that, if not attended to, could have the most negative effect on the ability to achieve change goals:

1. Power Wielders - Those in overall command, those that hold the purse strings and any others who are recognised in the organisation as ‘opinion leaders’ must be included in the process. For good or evil, if they speak, people listen.

2. Level of Dissatisfaction - The population that will be impacted by the change needs to be dissatisfied with the status quo. If not, you will build up a bow-wave of opposition that will absorb exponentially increasing resources.

3. Committment to go the distance- This is a hard one as all change is more expensive and time consuming to fix, once and for all, than anyone expects.

It is much easier to implement the quick, cheap and wrong answer that will need to be mended again in two years time by your successor. The senior players must be committed, not just involved. And they must demonstrate this by changing there own behaviours and talking up the change at every opportunity.

4. Strategic Alignment- Is the strategic direction of the organisation, the needs of its customers, the intent of the change and the reward and recognition of staff effort all heading in the same direction. If not something will come unstuck sooner rather than later when someone notices the gaps opening up.

5. Perception of Value- The change must add value for all stakeholders and demonstrate benefits. A WIIFM is a ‘what’s in it for me’, and nobody does anything without one.

WIIFM can include money, loyalty ‘for the company’ and relief ‘it removes my frustration with the old way.’

6. Communication- Ensure arrangements are in place to regularly communicate with and manage the issues of all stakeholders throughout the process of change.

Stakeholder communications is not just putting regular articles in the staff newsletter, nor is it having a website on the intranet. Your toolset might include these things, but there are two key issues to manage.

• Analysis: who are the target groups, what do they need to know and how often, and what is the best medium for getting the information to them?
• Feedback: Communications means the two-way exchange of information, so by what means will you engage with your stakeholders to capture their feedback, and how will you visibly act upon it, demonstrating that their efforts are not wasted.

In short the answer lies in the level of commitment the team, that is management and staff have to the process.

Often change is thrust upon people by external forces. Sometimes the vision of the Company changes yet that message doesn't reach those who are actually implementing strategy to effect such change.

If you want to expand, innovate or even consolidate your business you will need to gain the hearts and minds of your people if you really want to succeed.

Al Dunlap is renowned as the slash and burn king for corporates in trouble. He has worked with corporates who have become bogged down in the change process. What has made his approach so successful?

Dunlap says that the only way to effect change quickly is to identify those who are keen to assist and then give them clear parameters within which they should work. This empowers the worker to use initiative and get on with it.

But what is ‘it’?

The key here is to ensure each agent of change has a clear understanding of the outcome. They need to be aware of the current situation – The NOW. They then need to contribute too and fully understand the changes to be achieved – The WHERE.

Implementing strategy (the HOW) and engendering enthusiasm becomes easier with these two processes in place as the people can evaluate the progress against set benchmarks. The Now and Where are like two pegs in the ground against which progress can be measured.

Do your people fully understand the Now and Where of the business?

Using the Now – Where – How philosophy in combination with tools like the One Page Plan ensures organisations see incremental and measurable improvements in their business.

For example if an organisation is seeking to improve sales we encourage growth in each component of revenue. If we were to achieve a 10% increase in average purchase value, frequency of purchase and overall client numbers the outcome would not be 10% growth but a far more substantial 33%.
Smaller incremental improvements are often cheaper, easier to implement and far less risky. This methodology also allows the owner or manager of the organisation to maintain tighter control over the change process.

The gap between Now and Where can be a great motivator. This is because it can create dissatisfaction in people. In other words if we’re not happy with our current situation we will want to change it. The higher the levels of dissatisfaction the greater the opportunity for change.

Dissatisfaction with the current can be created and maintained using processes like benchmarking, performance appraisal and by including staff in the planning and review processes of the business.
Of course, no amount of energy expended to change is helpful unless it is focused on moving in the right direction hence the role of the Where process. This places a whole new perspective on planning elements like vision and mission statements.

The clarity of thinking that results from this process is vital in developing the right strategies and in gaining the levels of commitment required to succeed.

To maintain the focus set targets and regularly reaffirm the Where. When setting your overall where, set a time into the future and ask questions like:-

• What do we want our clients saying about us?
• What will the organisation have to deliver to its key stakeholders?
  • Owners
  • Shareholders
  • Staff
  • Community
• How does the way we we do things need to change?
  • How will keep innovating?
  • How will the way we do things look?

There are many other questions which will help to define the future look of the organisation however getting clarity in these areas first will serve well in stimulating thought. Through achieving clarity about the Now, Where and How in even the smallest issues or initiatives managers and leaders can ensure improvement and growth occurs in a manageable and sustainable way.

If you would like one of our coaches to come and discuss how you might better achieve ongoing growth and stability in your organisation Click Here

Most businesses know that they need to change the way they operate in order to achieve maximum profit and/or revenue growth, however most fail to actually do it.

Most Business Managers know that they need a plan to guide their development process but most fail to develop one – despite the fact that there are literally thousands of guides, training programs and advisers available to assist in this development process. Why?

I believe that one of the primary reasons is that traditional planning processes fail to take advantage of your change potential, which is your ability to implement change in your business and life.

What factors do you need to address if you are wanting to make a change? These are the individual elements of your change potential.

How do you maximise your change potential?

Your ability to change will be influenced by three things. Your level of dissatisfaction or motivation, your Vision for the future and the quality of your plan for achieving your Vision. The combination of these 3 simple things is what drives people to change.

We have developed a simple formula to measure your change potential. There are 4 things you need to do:

1. You need to know how the change formula works.
2. You need to know how to create Dissatisfaction (motivation)
3. You need to know how to create Vision; and
4. You have to be skilled in developing a Plan that works

If you can maximise your performance in Dissatisfaction, Vision and Plan, you can maximise your change potential.

Dissatisfaction

Pain is a great motivator in the short term. If you can get your organisation to be dissatisfied with, or motivated by, their current performance, it will create an energy you can use. If you are not dissatisfied with your present situation or are too comfortable, it will be hard to find the motivation or reason to change.

If you had to rate the level of dissatisfaction or motivation in your organisation out of ten what would it be?

A score of 0 would indicate total happiness (low motivation), 5 generally satisfied (average motivation) and 10, total dissatisfaction (highly motivated). If you are extremely dissatisfied then you are most probably highly motivated. If you are highly motivated score yourself higher on the scale.

Vision

In a similar way, rate the level of vision in your Business. Vision is a critical element because it provides a picture of what will be achieved.

Score yourself from 0 to 10 on the quality of Vision in your business.

If you have a well articulated Vision that you have documented and that you can draw a picture of, then rate yourself higher on the scale. Rate yourself higher the longer the time frame covered by your Vision. If you have never really thought about where you want to be in the future and don’t have a clear Vision, then give yourself a low score closer to zero.

Plan

How would you rate the level of commitment, involvement and belief in your business plan? Most businesses don't score well in this element.

Again use the 0 to 10 score. If you have a well documented plan for achieving your Vision with strategies, priorities, actions, timings and responsibilities – then score yourself near the upper end of the scale. If you have a very rough plan stored in your head – then score yourself towards the lower end.

Calculate your Change Potential

Once you have scored each item, multiply the scores together to get a total value for your change potential. D x V x P = Change Potential. What is the score for your Business or for you as an individual?

Example:

Formula D x V x P = Change Potential

Maximum = 10 x 10 x 10 = 1000

Your Score ___ x ___ x ___.= ____

What scores do you think the best performing businesses (or individuals) would have? Typically they are highly motivated, have a very strong sense of Vision and have great plans. Scores in these businesses are usually in the vicinity of 10, 8 and 8 for D.V and P , respectively, which gives them a total score of 640 out of 1000 (10 x 10 x 10) or they are using 64% of their change potential.

How do you compare to the better performing businesses?

How can you improve your score?

In which area (D,V or P) did you have the lowest score? What can you do to improve this score? What can you do to improve your score in the other areas? Set up some action plans.

Don’t feel discouraged if you scored yourself at the bottom of the range as this means that you have a lot of unused potential. In my experience, most business managers score between 10% and 30% using this methodology. To maximise your change potential, I believe that you need to lift your score to greater than 50%.

But what if I don’t want to change?

"Change is inevitable – you can drink it as soup now or take it as an enema later! Either way, you will change!" Anon.

In other words, you can embrace change now or have it forced upon you later – but there is no escaping it. This is a quote from a good friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) who is a gifted commentator on world events.

Unfortunately, in today’s fast moving business environment avoiding change just isn’t possible. All businesses change even if they don’t know it. Changes in customer expectations, communications technologies, legislation, banking and finance all occur without us even being aware of it! Therefore not changing just isn’t an option!

The key is to be aware of the changing environment and to adjust your plans to include appropriate elements of change. A good planning process will include a process for prioritising the implementation of your plan which will filter out unnecessary changes and include essential developments.