Leadership Solutions

Leadership: Truth in Business

Here is an innovation that should make everything simpler.

Drum roll, please . . . .

It is: Honest Disclaimers.

Now people can wear a handy name tag that explains why they did something. You might even know people who could benefit from having such a name tag.

Possibilities include:

1) If I had wanted your participation in this meeting, I would have sent you an agenda.

2) If I had wanted you to read these slides, I would have used a larger font.

3) If I had wanted you to stay awake, I would have rehearsed my presentation.

4) If I had wanted to hear your ideas, I would have paid attention while you were talking.

5) If I had wanted to learn anything, I would have asked you some questions.

6) If I had wanted you to succeed at this, I would have given you clear instructions.

7) If I had wanted you to feel useful, I would have asked for your help.

8) If I had wanted this relationship to succeed, I would have treated you with respect.

9) If I had wanted to achieve something, I would have set goals and worked to accomplish them.

10) If I had wanted this conversation to continue, I would have responded to what you said.

What do you think? Could this innovation help?

Key Point: Of course, successful people don't need to make any of these excuses.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Micro Management Tune Up

Have you ever wondered what happened to a day?

You know how this goes, one moment you're opening your office, and then POOF! suddenly the day is gone.

So what happened to it?

Here is a simple project that will answer that question. Then you can use the answer to improve your use of time.

The project:

1) Get a pad of paper.

2) Each time that you start or stop something, jot down a brief note stating the time and what you did. For example, "8:14 AM, start reading e-mail" or "3:46 PM finish reading e-mail."

3) At the end of the day, review this log of how you spent your time.

4) Compare what happened with what you wanted to do. Ask yourself fierce questions such as:

Am I spending time on easy activities to avoid spending time on difficult tasks?

Am I in control of choosing how I spend my time? That is, how often do interruptions interfere with my work?

Am I making progress toward the achievements that truly matter?

Sometimes I'll use this process to audit how I set priorities. The results are always useful.

I encourage you to try it.

Key Point: You must know what you're doing in order to improve upon it.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Rats Save Lives

Here's today's hot news.

Rats are now saving human lives.

Here's how.

You must know that leftover land mines are a major problem in many parts of the world. (I have long proposed that we could end all wars by requiring the participants to file an environmental impact statement before starting, but that's another article.)

For example, it's estimated that there are 40 million mines buried in Africa.

Finding these land mines is difficult because: a) they are designed to be difficult to find, and b) they are designed to explode when disturbed.

As a result, clearing these mines is slow, dangerous work.

Until now.

Bart Weetjens, from Belgium, has trained rats to find land mines.

[  Important Note: the rats FIND the mines so that people can remove them. No rats are harmed during this activity.  ]

This has notable advantages.

1) Rats are so small that they don't cause a significant (as in bad) disturbance when they scurry about on the ground.

2) Rats enjoy performing repetitive tasks that earn a reward (food). So Bart Weetjens is helping rats find fulfillment as useful members of the global community.

3) Rats do not require insurance, expect raises, or hire attorneys. The rats also arrive on time, follow directions, and appear grateful when paid (fed). You might say that they make the ideal employees.

4) Rats are not discouraged by high risk assignments. In addition this is a much better job than most other careers currently available for rats, such as working in a research lab.

5) Rats are much more efficient and cost effective than any current technology using people. A rat can perform a day's work (for a human) in about 15 minutes. They are also easy to transport, train, and replace.

This is an excellent example of beyond the box thinking.

Now, if we only could get rats to eliminate spam.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Full Circle

There it is, in large print for everyone to read.

It's an ad in Wired magazine by Chase Bank that states:

"Here's a nice surprise:

  You call, we answer."

Then at the bottom of the page, there's more. You'll find:

"A real live person picks up when you call."

Stunning.

I'm pleased that this is happening, especially after spending years writing articles recommending that business leaders hire real live people to answer the phone.

Now, how about you?

Do you have a real live person answering the phone for your business? If not, you're using old technology, such as that horrible voice menu  ("Press nine to start over") or that bothersome robot ("I'm sorry that word is not a number").

Recognize that this could be the beginning of a dramatic shift toward better business communication. Thus I'm sure you'll want to be part of it before you're stuck trying to catch up. So, start interviewing. And hire a real live person to answer the phone.

Then imagine the possibilities.

Your customers will be able to talk directly with your employees so that they can buy your products and services.

It might change your business.

Key Point: Use a real live person to answer the phone.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

PS: My workshop on Communication Skills shows people what to say after they answer the phone.

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Lost by Northwest

Actually this happens every day.

The people in charge fly past an opportunity. Or they miss a goal. Or they ignore a warning.

Then they have to turn around and try again.

It's like the two pilots of Flight 188 who seemed to forget that they were flying an airplane. As a result, they missed Minneapolis. (But wait, it's not that bad. They could have missed something larger, like Canada.)

This event: 1) highlights an important point and, 2) leads to an incredible opportunity.

First, the people in charge of an organization are responsible for leading it, not getting lost.

This requires paying attention, reviewing progress, and making adjustments.

It also requires real leadership skills. Tip: my workshops show how. 

Second, let's recognize that anyone can sit in a cockpit while an airplane flies 150 miles past its destination. Similarly, anyone can sit in meetings while a business goes bankrupt.

Which brings us to a cost effective way to achieve unexplainable failure.

Now, instead of wasting money on an expensive human, you can hire a cat for a fraction of the cost.

Olivia Felini (photo below) is available at 10% of whatever salary you are now paying for a person.
 

Olivia is an outstanding candidate for this job because she excels at doing nothing (career profile).

For example, she can nap while planes fly past their destinations, sit in meetings while businesses go bankrupt, and so on.

Call now before her popularity causes the price to increase.

Key Point: Why waste money on people who do nothing when you can hire a cat?

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Inspiring Greatness

What happens when you scare small children?

Obviously, they cry.

Or the run away.

This is an important point for leaders who want to inspire people to be creative.

Why?

The muse is a child.

In fact, it's a very timid child. It scares easily. And then it hides, leaving people with ordinary ideas -- perhaps the same old ideas that they mulled over yesterday.

There is an important twist in this.

Creating an environment that facilitates creativity requires strong, courageous, mature leadership.

It's the type of leadership that you will find in exceptional parents who want their children to become more successful than they are.

Such leaders support others with praise. They focus on what others do well. And they provide the resources so that others can exceed every possible expectation in achieving greatness.

Then the muse appears. And people invent ideas that amaze everyone with their brilliance.

Key Point: Great leaders help others surpass their achievements.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Final Score

Some day you will reach a time when you get the final score on your career.

This is very important because many people ignore long term financial planning. As a result, they may be living their way into a financial disaster.

Here's why.

Once you retire, your future income will be essentially fixed. There will be no more promotions or bonuses. If you receive any raises, they will be modest cost of living increases, based on decisions that are beyond your influence.

Your income will come from three sources.

1) Pension. This will depend upon many things, such as years of service, maximum income, and your company's pension plan. If you worked as an entrepreneur, this payment will depend upon whether you set up a pension plan for yourself.

2) Social Security. This will depend upon how much money you paid into the Social Security system. If you had a high paying job over a long career, your payments would be the maximum allowed. If you paid less, you will receive less. And if you didn't make payments for at least 40 quarters, you will receive nothing.

3) Income from Savings. Ideally, your savings should earn enough income to: a) increase the principal at a rate that matches inflation, and b) provide any needed supplemental income in addition to your pension and social security.

Certainly, your retirement income matters. It determines the quality of life for your final years. It provides security and support. It also buys any special care that may be needed.

So, what do you do?

Here are two recommendations:

1) Obviously, maximize your earnings during your career. Otherwise, prepare a business or career that you can continue beyond the "normal" retirement age.

2) Work with a financial planner to develop a savings plan. This, by the way, requires spending less you make.

Key Point: Every day you are investing in your financial future. Make sure it's a future that you can live with.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Creating Wisdom

On July 27, 2009, I began my 53rd journal.

Now I'm within a few weeks of finishing this book.

Filling 53 journals represents a lot of writing. Here are the lessons that I collected about creativity.

1) Some writing must occur to move you into the flow of good writing. This is one of the best ways to push through being stuck (or "writer's block"). Just write. Anything. Eventually, you'll relax and let the writing go. Then new ideas appear.

The Point: You must begin in order to continue. Even nonsense can be useful because it leads to better ideas.

2) Consistency leads to success. I write almost every day. And so writing has become a natural activity. My mind expects that I will write. So it's ready to cooperate.

The Point: Discipline sets the foundation for serendipity.

3) Detach from all expectations. This includes all judgment, evaluation, intentions, memory, criticism -- everything. Recognize that you must write bad copy as part of the process of writing good copy.

The Point: You must forget what you did in order to find something new.

4) There is always more. There is always another idea, another view, another way -- another something. So it's important to keep searching.  Because the next great idea is waiting to be found.

The Point: Creativity is an ongoing process with an infinite horizon.

5) Good tools make writing enjoyable. In this case, I use fountain pens and different colored inks. The smooth nibs and beautiful ink colors add an extra dimension to the joy of writing.

The Point: As you become skilled in a craft, the quality of your tools begins to matter.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Cure for Being Busy

What if you're busy?

Here's an advanced (aggressive) strategy that may help.

Take on more work. Volunteer for more projects. Start more activities.

Wait. Before you run off, here's why.

1) You will have to set better priorities.

Adding work (especially higher value work) will force you to discard lower value activities. Some of these activities may even be acting as distractions that keep you from reaching your full potential.

2) You will have to seek better achievements.

In order to benefit from this strategy, you will have to seek more complex, more difficult, more challenging work. This will force you to leave the easier tasks for others.

3) You will have to find better productivity.

Most tasks receive more time than they're worth. Thus, having more work will cause you to become more effective. You will develop better systems and use the most essential steps necessary to complete tasks.

You have heard the quote, "If you want something done, ask a busy person." The reason this works is that high performers understand the importance of achievement.

Key Point: Adding more work can make you more effective.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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Leadership: Good News

It's here!

After a long wait, TypeStyler is now available for Mac OS X.

And with this comes a mixed collection of leadership lessons.

First,

1) Persistence.

The folks at Strider Software have been working on this new version for seven years. Through that time they encountered many setbacks, such as changing operating systems and evolving computer technologies. As a result, they had to rewrite parts of the code to accommodate these changes as they appeared.

In addition, Strider Software is a small company with one programmer. It's amazing that they could produce a software product with over a million lines of code in any amount of time.

My Point: They deserve our admiration for completing this task.

2) Priorities.

There are dozens of comments appearing on chat sites complaining about Strider Software for taking too long and for ignoring e-mails asking for (demanding sometimes) information on a completion date.

Let's recognize some realities. No business is going to take longer than necessary to release a product that makes money for them. And spending time responding to all those queries, would have taken time away from working on the software.

My Point: Complaints and criticism slow progress on a project.

3) Support.

I bought the upgrade. I did that to celebrate the fact that Strider Software successfully accomplished their goal. I also now own a cool program that makes incredible text images, which I can use in many ways.

My Point: We need to support those who are doing good things.

Much success,

Steve Kaye

714-528-1300

Author, Speaker, IAF Certified Professional Facilitator

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