Leadership Solutions

Leadership Solutions: The Key to Success

Everything comes down to one simple thing.

Choices.

Big ones. Small ones. All of them.

In fact, the small choices are the most important because they add up to the big ones.

So, today pay attention to the choices that you're making.

Check yourself by asking: Am I making the best possible choice right now?

Key point: Choices become results.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

One Great Meeting

714-528-1300

Meetings that matter. Workshops that work.

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Leadership Solutions: Carpool Caution

Riding in a carpool can be dangerous.

In fact, you can suffer significant damage to your career.

Sure, it seems safe. Everyone is cordial. You're outside of the office.

So, you talk with the others in the car pool.

And that's where disaster happens.

Often, people forget that they're really still at work. So, they reveal personal information. Or they gossip. Or they complain.

Big mistake.

It's possible that the friendly colleague who's asking all of those leading questions is a mole. And this mole is gathering data to destroy your career.

For example, suppose this mole floats out a leading question about your boss. And you take the bait by responding with an entertaining (and critical) answer.

Bang.

The next day your boss receives a report on what you said and your career is gone.

So, here's a tip.

If you ride in a carpool, plug an iPod into your ears. Then either sleep or read.

Or, listen in on the chatter. It may give you an advance warning on who's going to be fired next.

Key Point: Save your personal conversation until you reach home.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

One Great Meeting

714-528-1300

Meetings that matter. Workshops that work.

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Leadership Solutions: Alternative to Learning

Question: What is more powerful than learning?

Answer: Unlearning.

Here's why:

1) You must discard your current knowledge to make way for new ideas. People who insist on repeating old patterns are stuck with those patterns.

2) You must approach things with a fresh childlike curiosity to discover new ideas. A lack of knowing prompts questions. And skillful questions take understanding deeper.

3) You must abandon old knowledge to adopt new ideas. Genuine breakthroughs require new thinking instead of just a rework of old thinking.

Of course, some knowledge must be retained because it relates to fundamental practices, such as crossing the street safely.

The key, then is to decide to unlearn things deliberately, perhaps even temporarily, as part of exploring for new ideas.

Key point: Experiment with unlearning to enlarge your understanding of what you know.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

One Great Meeting

714-528-1300

Meetings that matter. Workshops that work.

Website

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Leadership Solutions: Help for the Lost

Someone recently asked, "What can I do about people who hold bad meetings?"

It depends.

Here are three approaches.

1) Helpful suggestions

People often hold bad meetings because they don't know how to lead a good meeting. Then they protect themselves from criticism by pretending to know what they're doing. Thus, it can be difficult to offer suggestions, especially if these people are bosses.

In that case, you may be stuck with having to attend bad meetings, unless you can apply the second approach.

2) Training

It may be possible to cause an improvement by scheduling a workshop on how to hold meetings. Then key people (e.g., those who need it) can be encouraged to attend. This is most effective if these key people are leaders in the organization.

Good leaders seek ways to improve. And thus, they welcome learning skills that help them accomplish more. Of course, this assumes they want to be good leaders, if not then the third approach is necessary.

3) Cultural Change

Some people hold bad meetings because such meetings are safe. Since bad meeting never produce any results, then no one has to bother with being accountable for completing anything.

This represents a major leadership problem. In this case, people are being rewarded (i.e., promoted) for doing little. Those who benefit from bad meetings would refuse to attend a workshop. And if they were forced to attend, they would reject the ideas.

And so, this requires changes in the performance review and reward system in the organization.

Key Point: Bad meetings are a symptom of a problem that needs to be fixed.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

One Great Meeting

714-528-1300

Meetings that matter. Workshops that work.

Website

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Leadership Solutions: So Why Bother?

You already know what to do.

So why would you attend a workshop on how to do it?

You may find the workshop to be useful because:

1) There is always more to know.

Often people fail to apply good techniques because they really understand only about 90% of the technique. And without that final 10% they're stuck doing things the old way.

A good workshop will show you the complete 100% of the technique, so that you can use it immediately.

2) You may need inspiration to use what you know.

Too many leaders tell me, "I don't do what I know works." That means these leaders are consciously doing things that they KNOW are wrong. This is more than foolish; it's expensive.

And the answer may be to discover the benefits from using effective techniques, as well as the costs related to using poor techniques. 

A workshop may thus provide the push to inspire you to apply better skills.

Key Point: Learning is the key to continued excellence.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

One Great Meeting

714-528-1300

Meetings that matter. Workshops that work.

Website

blog

Leadership Solutions: Your Biography

Who's writing the story of your life?

Because it's being written right now, day by day, as you fill in the squares on your calendar.

And the point is: are you writing it or is someone else?

This matters because you're the only person who will be with you through the entire span of your life.

Those other folks come and go.

Some leave suddenly, too, after they get what they want.

Here's a technique: write the story that you want to have. And then plan your days and take actions so that you live the story that you wrote.

Key point: Your life matters to one person: you. Make it the masterpiece that you want.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

One Great Meeting

714-528-1300

Meetings that matter. Workshops that work.

Website

blog

Leadership Solutions: 1400 Poems

This month I passed a milestone.

I now have more than 1,400 poems in my poem database.

This represents work since January 1999 when I began a formal thinking process.

So, what's the secret to writing over 1,400 poems?

It's easy.

Write more than 4,000 poems.

You see, about one-third of the poems that I write are good enough to save.

The rest are bad poems (i.e., broken, incomplete, dead end poems) that I had to write in order to find the good ones.

And that's the key to success in anything.

You have to be willing to fail in order to succeed.

And often strategic failure helps you increase your rate of success.

Key Point: Success and failure are a team that move together. You can only have the first if you accept the other.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

One Great Meeting

714-528-1300

Meetings that matter. Workshops that work.

Website

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Leadership Solutions: Making Memories

Pause a moment to reflect on the people in your past.

I'll wait a moment.

Okay.

Now stop and jot down their names under two headings.

1) Those who helped you.

2) Those who hurt you.

Notice that this generally takes care of everyone who comes to mind.

This happens because we remember people who touched our feelings.

And feelings are powerful.

They are, in fact, a major dimension of life.

So as you interact with people today, what type of feelings are you causing?

This is your contribution to the human connection that binds all of us together.

And it's the legacy that you leave.

Key Point: Be remembered for causing good feelings in others.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

One Great Meeting

714-528-1300

Meetings that matter. Workshops that work.

Website

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Leadership Solutions: Beware of This

Suppose you received an e-mail such as this:

- - -
"I WILL LIKE TO MAKE AND ORDER FOR SOME ITEM IN YOUR
STORE SO I WANT TO KNOW THE TOTAL COST OF THE ORDER PLUS SHIPPING COST TO NIGERIA.VIA FEDEX EXPRESS 3 TO 5 DAYS DELIVERY OR DHL 3 TO 5 DAYS DELIVERY.

Meetings in an Hour or Less
by Steve Kaye---50 copies

Thinking - Audio CD and Notes
by Steve Kaye----20 copies

The Managers Pocket Guide to Effective Meetings
by Steve Kaye---50 copies"
- - -

Obviously, this is a scam.

I have received other offers like this that were more polished and less obvious.

So, here is a website that posts a list of scams:

http://www.xmission.com/~daina/known_scammers.html

Use this to check if any "too-good-to-be-true" offers are real.

Key Point: Thievery has become sophisticated on the web.

Much success,

Steve Kaye
One Great Meeting
714-528-1300

Meetings that matter. Workshops that work.
Website

blog

Leadership Solutions: How to Show Data

Suppose you are planning a presentation, and you want to show data. Here's what to do.

Don't show it.

Really.

No one wants to see it. At least they certainly don't want to see it on the screen, all crammed into a huge table that no one can read.

Instead, do the following:

1) Show summaries of data, such as key numbers, on your slides. These can be presented in small tables (such as four or five rows and three or five columns).

2) Instead of tables, show lists of conclusions.

For example, you might say: "Temperatures increased with pressure." or "The test sample lasted longer than our current product."

3) If you absolutely must show a table of data, distribute it during your presentation at the point when people need to refer to it.

Note: if you distribute a book of data before your presentation, everyone will read it while you talk, which means they are ignoring everything that you're saying.

Note: your audience is interested in the conclusions, lessons, and recommendations that resulted from your data. They are not interested in the data.

Key Point: People care about wisdom more than facts. If this were otherwise, the phone book would be a best seller.

Much success,

Steve Kaye
One Great Meeting
714-528-1300

Meetings that matter. Workshops that work.
Website

blog