Solution Leader Ezine January 1, 2005




	January 1, 2005 A free Ezine sent to you monthly by Glen Rediehs, Ph.D.: Personal Coach, Corporate Coach, Organization Development Consultant Web site: www.SolutionLeader.com E-mail: Glen@SolutionLeader.com Solution Leader Ezine will give you solutions for your personal life and the people side of your business. Every issue is filled with practical strategies plus a little humor. If you received this Solution Leader Ezine from someone else and would like your own free subscription, click on www.SolutionLeader.com. Subscribe -- it's free! Try it! TO UNSUBSCRIBE To unsubscribe from this Ezine, just click reply to this email, place Unsubscribe on the subject line and your email address will be removed. Please note that this procedure helps us to determine the e-mail address that you used to subscribe to Solution Leader Ezine. That's the only way we will recognize that it is you. Thank you. IN THIS ISSUE: How to Thrive in 2005 A Little Humor Thought for the Day The Power of Vision in Organizations How to Thrive in 2005 Do you want something different in your life in 2005? Lots of people spend the year wishing for what they want. Here are some tips to actually make it happen. Set a Goal. Get a detailed picture of what will be happening when your goal is achieved. Be very specific. State your goal in observable, measurable terms. Make your goal the presence of something instead of the absence of something. That is, what will be happening rather than what won't be happening. A workable goal will be achievable, important enough that you will be motivated to work on it, and broken down into parts so you can take it one step at a time. Above all, write your goal down! Develop an action plan. Ask yourself, "What's the first small step that will get me moving toward my goal? And then what? And then what?" Develop a series of small steps that will lead to the achievement of your goal. These are steps you will do - not things you hope other people will do. Make sure you have the resources to complete the action plan. Will you need to save some money, get the help of some friends, learn some skills, etc.? Write these action steps down! Hold yourself accountable. Set completion dates for each step in your action plan. Go to your calendar and enter the completion dates. Block out segments of time you will need to get the job done. Tell key people in your life what you are doing and ask them to keep you on track and accountable. Make a formal contract with yourself. Write it out. Give yourself feedback and rewards. Since your goal was stated in observable and measurable terms, you can keep track of how you are progressing through the steps in your action plan. Or, get others to monitor your progress. Keep a written record. Decide, ahead of time, on special privileges (activities, purchases, etc.) that you will give yourself for achieving incremental steps in your action plan. After you have get change started, the satisfaction of progress will be self-reinforcing and external rewards will not be necessary. Expect some "backsliding." If you slip in your progress, that's all it is - a slip. It's not the end of the world. Excuses and catastrophizing will only delay success. Watch out for inner dialog that may be sabotaging your efforts ("I guess I'm just no good at …" "I can't …" etc.). Replace that dialog with positive, empowering self-talk. Review your goal and action plan. If you need to redesign some of it, do that. Then, just get on with it. Celebrate your successes. Your life satisfaction will grow when you take time to re-energize yourself by celebrating your successes and accomplishments - all the ways you have made life better for yourself and others. Most of us keep a "To Do" list. Why not make a "Done" list and post it. Congratulate yourself. Toast to it. Go ahead and do it! Thrive in 2005! ©2005 Glen Rediehs, Ph.D. *Want a little help making 2005 your best year ever?* Coaching will help you reach your goals! Let's work on your future together. You can make it happen! CALL ME at 704-788-9184 or Email me at Glen@SolutionLeader.com A Little Humor The Confession Box A drunken man staggers in to a Catholic church and sits down in a confession box and says nothing. The bewildered priest coughs to attract his attention, but still the man says nothing. The priest then knocks on the wall three times in a final attempt to get the man to speak. Finally, the drunk replies, "No use knocking, there's no paper in this one either." _______________ Small Town Cops A police officer in a small town stopped a motorist who was speeding down Main Street. "But officer," the man began, "I can explain." "Quiet!" snapped the officer. "I'm going to let you spend the night in jail until the chief gets back." "But, officer, I just wanted to say …" "And I said be quiet! You're going to jail!" A few hours later the officer looked in on his prisoner and said, "Lucky for you, the chief's at his daughter's wedding. He'll be in a good mood when he gets back." "Don't count on it," answered the guy in the cell. "I'm the groom." _______________ Cosmetics and Age John's wife bought a new line of expensive cosmetics guaranteed to make her look years younger. After a lengthy sitting before the mirror applying the "miracle" products she asked, "Darling, honestly what age would you say I am?" Looking her over carefully, John replied, "Judging from your skin, twenty; your hair, eighteen; and your figure, twenty-five." "Oh, you flatterer!" she gushed. "Wait a minute!" John interrupted. "I haven't added them up yet." Thought for the Day God's Blessings The man whispered "God, speak to me" And a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear. So the man yelled "God speak to me!" And the thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen. The man looked around and said "God let me see you" And a star shone brightly. But the man did not notice. And the man shouted "God show me a miracle" And a life was born. But the man did not know. So, the man cried out in despair. "Touch me God and let me know that you are here!" Whereupon God reached down and touched the man. But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on. The message of the story: Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way you expect. (Author unknown) THE POWER OF VISION IN ORGANIZATIONS Vision is a powerful force. In 1961, John F. Kennedy set a vision before the congress and people of the United States: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." Charles Garfield later wrote of the NASA engineers and scientists: "I have never seen a group of people work with such absolute focus and fervor as these people, who saw it as their own personal mission to send astronauts to the moon … They gave 200% to make it come true." Over forty years later, we still quote and find inspiration from this vision. Vision is Essential In business, vision is absolutely essential. Performance and profit rest on the extent to which you and your workforce share a compelling vision. Peter Senge said: "If any one idea about leadership has inspired organizations for thousands of years, it's the capacity to hold a shared picture of the future we seek to create." Many organizations have wasted a great deal of time and money creating vision or mission statements. Leaders and employees frequently treat them as something that every organization should have - but only as a wall decoration. These businesses and all their stakeholders are missing tremendous value that lies dormant in their organizations. A Vision that Makes a Difference How can you create a powerful sense of vision in the minds of your employees - one that drives performance and profit? Here are some suggestions: Develop a vision that goes beyond financial goals, account volume, or other ledger measures. Discover a vision that speaks of your organization's greater purpose and how it will be lived out in the future. Your employees want to invest themselves in something they can be excited about - something that is worthy of their commitment. You can get to this greater purpose by asking "Why?" or "Why else?" as you go about formulating your organization's vision. Suppose, for example, that a hospital equipment company had never gone above $40 million in revenue. They want to increase that to $50 million. "Why?" To make more profit for the investors. "Why else?" To make more effective equipment available to doctors and nurses. "Why?" To save more lives and improve the quality of life for more patients than in the past. Aha! The vision is more than revenue. It is a much more inspiring vision about saving lives and improving the quality of life. Some other questions that may help you get to a more inspiring vision: "What need do we satisfy?" "How does society benefit from our products or services?" State your vision in powerful, inspiring, visual language. Roxanne Emmerich played with Microsoft vision statements. Dull: "Be a leader in the field of software development in the American marketplace by making software that is easy to use." Inspiring: "Put a computer on every desk in America." Communicate the vision continuously, in every venue. Be sure your vision is written down and highly visible. The power of your vision will only start working when every employee has heard it, understands it, believes it, repeats it, and acts on it. Point out the important part that each person and functional unit in your organization plays in fulfilling the company's vision. Your people will take pride in recognition of their role in the value your organization delivers to the public. Involve key stakeholders, if not all or most of your employees, in the development of your vision. Commitment will only come with participation. Vision can be a powerful force in your organization. Do you and your employees share a clear, explicit vision for your organization? If you and they can't state it, then you don't have a shared vision. Imagining that everyone intuitively knows what future you want won't do it. What might be possible for you and your business if you were led by a powerful vision? ©2005 Glen Rediehs, Ph.D. *Want the power of vision in your organization?* Coaching will help you reach your goals! Let's work on your future together. You can make it happen! PLEASE CALL ME at 704-788-9184 or Email me at Glen@SolutionLeader.com. FORWARD THIS EZINE Please forward this Ezine to anyone you think might enjoy it! It's free! GET YOUR OWN SUBSCRIPTION If you received this Solution Leader Ezine from someone else and would like your own free subscription, click on www.SolutionLeader.com. Subscribe -- it's free! Try it! TO UNSUBSCRIBE To unsubscribe from this Ezine, just click reply to this email, place Unsubscribe on the subject line and your email address will be removed. Please note that this procedure helps us to determine the e-mail address that you used to subscribe to Solution Leader Ezine. That's the only way we will recognize that it is you. Thank you. PRIVACY POLICY AND DISCLAIMER Click here for Privacy Policy and Disclaimer COPYRIGHT You may share, replicate or forward this Ezine or sections of it as long as the attribution, copyright notice and contact information are included. PAST ISSUES Past issues of the Solution Leader Ezine are available at my web site: www.SolutionLeader.com. CONTACT ME Contact me at Glen@SolutionLeader.com. Got a suggestion for a future topic? Thoughts about the Solution Leader Ezine? Want to submit an article? Other questions or comments? I'd love to hear from you. CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE Find out more about me and my services at: www.SolutionLeader.com. ©2005 Glen Rediehs. All rights reserved.