After nearly 6 months of reflection, planning and solid execution – our newly created site is live!

www.pathforwardleadership.com

We will be continuing our blogging (on the new website) and look forward to your continued comments and dialgoue. The new website has a host of ways to help you on your leadership journey:

1. A Free Online Assessment
2. Information about the next Workshop Series
3. Examples of a 360 Profile
4. Essential Leadership Reading book list
5. A free book chapter from “The Leadership Platform” (Jim and Steve’s book).

Come check out the new site, and then let us know – how can we support you on your path forward?

You can’t control what the economy is doing. You can control how you respond.

by Steve Motenko

Times are tough.  Maybe you’re discouraged.  But I don’t have to tell you, discouragement is pointless.  Doesn’t help you, doesn’t help anybody you work with.  If you can do anything useful in the face of adversity, getting discouraged just gets in the way.

But still, we get discouraged.  It’s human nature.

The answer many have been grabbing at — the Kool-Aid that millions are drinking — is The Secret.  It’s a book and a video that have taken the nation by storm — even Queen Oprah got on the bandwagon, big time.

In case you’ve been hiding in a cave, The Secret’s central, compelling premise is you can get anything you want as long as you want it hard enough. 

Bullcrap. 

Two holes in that logic:

1. Obviously, external circumstances do indeed have an impact on our ability to manifest what we want.  It’s not all within our control.  Disagree?  Tell it to the ballerina who wants to be an NFL star.
2. The flip side of The Secret is that if you don’t get what you want, it’s your fault!  You didn’t want it hard enough.  So on top of the disappointment of not getting it, you get to beat yourself up for failing to make it happen with the force of your will.  

But wait …

There’s a huge nugget of truth in The Secret.  While it’s clear we can’t create our reality, it’s equally clear that we have way more influence over it than we know.  Thoreau wrote, “I know of no more encouraging fact than man’s unquestionable ability to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”  And few of us realize how potent “conscious endeavor” can be. 

There’s an old Zen parable that goes something like this:  The student approaches the master to ask, “What’s the secret to a happy, fulfilled life?”  The master replies:  “An appropriate response.”

No, you can’t control what the economy is doing to you or your business.  But you can control how you respond.  You have an infinite number of potential responses.  And you have the power to choose.

Like it or not, in any given moment, in any given economic catastrophe, in any given lifetime, you choose your response.  So does everyone who works for you, around you, and above you.

Right there is the gold mine in the economic meltdown.

YOUR PATH FORWARD:  Train yourself to notice when you, or someone you work with, adopts a tone of discouragement.  Ask yourself, or them, any questions likely to elicit an honest reflection (as opposed to a stapler heaved at your head):

• How does staying in this mood serve you?  (There’s got to be a reason for it, or you’d choose a different mood!  Who among us wants to be unhappy?!)
• How do you behave when you think the thoughts you’re thinking?  Who would you be without them? (from Byron Katie’s work).
• What’s causing the despair? And what other interpretations of what’s going on are possible?
• From past experience, what have you found helpful to lift yourself out of despair?
• If you could choose your ideal response to adversity, what would it be? 
• Who around you (that you respect) is consistently able to keep their emotional head above water?  What might you ask them?
• What opportunities do you see in this situation?  What can you do now toward making them a reality?

By Jim Hessler

In the business world, certain ideas take hold in people’s minds perpetually. These axioms are taken as true without questioning, in part because they are repeated so often by so many people.

One of these unquestioned truisms: “A manager should maintain an open door policy.” I challenge you to question the value of this concept.

Most managers who claim an “open door” operate under an erroneous assumption: that if the door’s open, people will walk through it and voluntarily engage in the type of open dialog that develops trust and honest communication with their boss.

The fact is the manager’s “open door” often represents a passively aggressive stance towards employees. The manager wears the “open door” like a badge of courage, but ends up blaming employees for not keeping them in the loop, sharing important news, or waving the red flag when things go sideways.

So confronted with failed projects, exiting employees, and lost customers, the managers who pride themselves on their open doors are left to wonder, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Strangely enough, they’ve been hiding behind their open door.

Here’s the truth: as a manager it’s your job to know what’s going on.

The only way to do so is to actively engage with your employees (most often on your terms and your schedule). This means you are highly organized — you track the progress of important activities in your business without waiting for people to enter your office with their hair on fire.

Your open door policy should really indicate that you consistently walk out that door and interact with the people doing the work.

YOUR PATH FORWARD:

Stop deceiving yourself that your “open door” policy is a sufficient invitation for your people to engage. Create engagement with your people through well-run meetings (how well are your meetings run?), well-organized project planning and execution (how well are your projects run?), and simply wandering around and observing (how often do you do so?).

Check out our new site: www.pathforwardleadership.com. You’ll get the same great blog posts, updates on events we’re having, and there’s even more (a free book chapter, an online assessment)! Come on over and check it out!