Archive for the ‘Relationships’ Category

It is estimated that our brains receive information through our senses that result in some four billion neuron impulses per second. Of these four billion pieces of information we are only consciously aware of about 2,000. That’s a mere 0.00005%.

Are yu a Champion Of Clarity?

It is happening to you right now. Possibly, until we mention it now, you were not even aware of the sense perception of your clothes on your skin. Or, aware of the noise in the background. Or, aware of all the multitude of objects just inside your peripheral vision. Until we mentioned them you were paying attention to something else.

If you had to be fully aware of all the information that you receive at all times you probably would be so overwhelmed you wouldn’t be able to function. Unwanted information is filtered out through a process of Deletion, Distortion and Generalization. This filtering process is driven largely by our beliefs of how things are at any given time.

Whilst this can be tremendously helpful in keeping you from being overwhelmed it can lead you into making assumptions about situations that might not serve you well; you can easily become a victim of the vagueness that you accept as fact.

To make matters worse, when you communicate with others you pass on your assumptions, with the additional assumption that the recipient makes the same assumptions. Your assumptions create gaps in your communication that you expect the other person to fill in with the SAME understanding. All too often because of your assumptions you do not deliver what is or was expected.

Here are some examples of vagueness. What assumptions are you making as you interpret them?

“Go and increase the morale in the team!”

“Spend more time on customer relations!”

Now try this: Being a Champion of Clarity

First off, to be a Champion of Clarity you have to recognize that communication is filled with assumption. A Champion of Clarity recognizes the pitfalls of assumption both as a speaker and as a listener.

As a listener they are very aware of the following phrase:

“The meaning of your communication is the response that you get!”

As such, a Champion of Clarity takes full responsibility for ensuring that their communication is thoroughly understood.

As a listener they recognize that they all too often interact with Victims of Vagueness, and they take steps to avoid relegating from a Champion of Clarity by ensuring that they fully understand the intention of the communication behind the words that they hear.

A good way to ensure proper understanding is getting sensory cues that provide evidence of the successful desired outcome.

In response to the vague statements above, a Champion of Clarity would ask something like:

“And when I have increased morale in the team, what will let you know that it has been done well?”

“And when we are spending more time on customer relations, what will you see and hear?”

Give it some thought. Don’t be a Victim Of Vagueness, become a Champion Of Clarity.

Want to know the #1 mistake that brings a leader to his knees?

It’s a lack of humility.

Achtung!

Throughout history it is this one mistake that has leaders confused about what their actual role as a leader is. If a leader becomes unapproachable, you have no leader.

Without aspiring followers who trust the vision and execute the strategy, you have no leader. If you take away the student, you have no teacher. If you take away the apprentice, you have no mentor.

As an example, during the winter of 2006 Jet Blue faced massive communication challenges and it was humility that enabled the CEO to rise from the ashes.

If you fail to bring fourth the courage to admit that you are wrong quickly and move in a positive direction, all the leadership training in the world is simply going to prepare you for the slow encounter with the inevitable “crash”. The moment when your leadership has become obsolete, when your knowledge is no longer worth listening to; or your vision, strategy and plan of action are no longer worth pursuing.

To avoid this mistake, be sure to listen to the world around you, especially the natural world of places and people. Put your ear on the ground and your hand on the pulse.  It is always trying to tell you if you’re on track or not. Get on your knees, get really in there. Learn to intimately know yourself and others. If you do, humility will not be an issue. Guaranteed!

We can help you and your developing leaders get around this #1 mistake.

Call us today at (805) 680-3988 for your personal Free 25 minutes Empowered Perspective Consultation.

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We assist you with personalized Intelligent Leadership and Quality of Life in Business.

There lies power in being “real”

In the midst of everyday life there are a thousand masks you need to wear every day.
Some of these masks you wear for others, others you wear for yourself.

Over time it becomes difficult to know who was first, the mask or the relationship that upholds or necessitates it.

It is a daily challenge for a good leader to let go of masks where they are not or no longer needed.
Why is it necessary? Because most masks equal energy lost. It takes energy to be artificial. It takes energy to behave in ways that are not natural to you or me, and to pretend to be something you are in fact not.

Now, I am not saying that you should never wear your mask. Simply, that you should be aware of the first opportunity that you realize the mask is no longer needed. If you are aware, that opportunity might come much sooner than you think.

And remember: Every time you drop another mask, you’re one step closer to becoming the leader you always were.

Call us today at (805) 680-3988 for your personal Free 25 minutes Empowered Perspective Consultation.

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We assist you with Intelligent Leadership and Quality of Life in Business.

I once met a man who said that since we have the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast we should have a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

The Statue of Liberty has a beautiful twin

Think about it. What else would you need if you had both a sense of freedom and a sense of commitment. You’d have it all.

In reality it is hard to find any sense of freedom in you don’t have a sense of responsibility. That is just the nature of the beast. Freedom without responsibility is quickly lost for a lack of stewardship, and responsibility without freedom is quickly abandoned for a lack of joy.

But you can stand on two legs, can’t you.

So stand on freedom and responsibility.

As C.K. Prahalad said:

“Assume responsibility for outcomes as well as for the processes and people you work with. How you achieve results will shape the kind of person you become.”

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Here is the anatomy of a bad decision: You come to. You look around. How did I get here? What am I doing here? I don’t want to be here! Sh#*t!

This is how it starts, the recognition that you made a bad decision.

Suddenly… you feel squeezed, tight, hot, irritated and overwhelmed and you know you should have listened to that inkling of awareness that lit up in your consciousness and yelled “No, really, wrong way, bad decision!”

But it passed so fast, like lightning. And it was so easy to overlook.

The anatomy: A bad decision almost always…

1. Starts from a state of stress and overwhelm. Your mind is tense, anxious, frustrated and therefore veiled, you want and need fast relief.

2. As the pressure rises you ignore the signs. Your fatigue, your bad mood, her eyes, his remark, the noise, the masses. “Let’s just get moving already!”

3. When you come to the results speak for themselves. Are you better of then before? No. In fact, worse. Before you were not well, and now you applied leverage and the event has taken on a completely new dimension.

The remedy?

Slow down and appease yourself first. You don’t remedy noise with more noise or pain with more pain. The anatomy of a bad decision consists of unskillful remedial responses to an agitated, veiled state of mind. So start there. We can help.

Call us today at (805) 680-3988, sign up for The Empowered Perspective Newsletter above or visit our website www.empowermentholdings.com. Let us assist you with Intelligent Leadership and Quality of Life in Business.

Truth be told, when you are still developing confidence in yourself and your leadership style and skillset, you probably prefer to spend your time with people who share your views.

And why not. It feels good to be in the company of people who understand and appreciate you for who you are today.

At some point, though, you have to recognize the value of those people in your life that beg to differ. Those who’s views take you outside the familiar, who challenge your comfort zone and your grasping to a particular status quo.

Though they may not appear as friends, these people expand your mind, expose your neurosis and hidden agendas, liberate you from the shadows in your perception and the stinginess in your willingness to feel. And by doing so they invest in who you will become.

Because as you ripen as a leader, you will see that your ability to connect with and understand people is by far the most important ingredient in your success.

Remember then, that not all good friends appear as such.

Call us today at (805) 680-3988, sign up for The Empowered Perspective Newsletter above or visit our website www.empowermentholdings.com. Let us assist you with Intelligent Leadership and Quality of Life in Business.

Have you ever wondered why some leaders are trying so hard where as others seem to be natural leaders even if they do not try?

Here are three good leadership skills that will set you apart:

1. Listen – A good leader listens well. The greatest trap for a good leader is to not hear the voices in the wind. Without that fragile data that comes to you every day from the people around you you will soon find yourself without someone to lead. And guess what – followers make a leader: no followers = no leader!

2. Understand – A good leader needs to understand. Understanding means setting aside your preconceived notions of what needs to be done and seeing the situation nakedly and clearly. If you don’t understand what you are up against or where you are going, you are like a blind leading the blind: in circles!

3. Translate – A good leader needs to be able to translate understanding into action steps. All the listening and understanding only serve you well if you know how to translate the data into skillful action. Sometimes the right path will be obvious, sometimes it won’t. How well can you translate?

Call us today at (805) 680-3988, sign up for The Empowered Perspective Newsletter or visit our website www.empowermentholdings.com. Let us assist you toward Intelligent Leadership and Quality of Life in Business.

Why charismatic leadership is dangerous…

Have you ever come across someone who was so charismatic that you weren’t even really interested in what they wanted from you or what they had to say, you just wanted to help or work with them somehow?

Of course you have, we all have.

Maybe you are that person in the lives of your people.

Danger lies in the fact that you may forget to analyze the message because of the messenger. Charismatic leadership is dangerous but very seductive.

Remember the four ways of the wise when you lead your people:

1.Depend on the teaching and not on the teacher
2.Depend on the meaning and on not the words
3.Depend on the depth and not on the surface
4.Depend on wisdom and not on concepts

As a leader it is your job not just to lead your people but to train them in intelligent ways to follow.

We can help!

Call us today at (805) 680-3988, sign up for The Empowered Perspective Newsletter or visit our website www.empowermentholdings.com. Let us assist you toward Intelligent Leadership and Quality of Life in Business.

The secret characteristic of leadership that many leaders do not acknowledge is that nothing stands as strong as the naked truth.

Your charisma, education and skill may tempt you to bend, twist or even manipulate the truth in your favor.

When tempted to do so, know that the leader who stands on or with the truth always stands stronger. Not because she or he has more charisma, a better education or leadership skills, but because the truth has a power that cannot be conquered.

Just ask Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln or Nelson Mandela.

Time has seen hordes of competitors, rivals and foes wrecked against the rocks of truth.

As an intelligent leader, always try to find and filter out the truth first. Then stand as close by it as you can and let it make your case.

Watch what happens.

Call us today at (805) 680-3988, sign up for The Empowered Perspective Newsletter or visit our website www.empowermentholdings.com. Let us assist you toward Intelligent Leadership and Quality of Life in Business.

What is the difference between leadership and management?

One of the best quotes I have read on the subject goes like this:

“Management is showing how to climb the ladder. Leadership is knowing which wall to lean it on.”

As a leader you need to know where you are going. And if you want to keep people engaged, you better have a good reason for why you are going there too.

One of the most frustrating experiences for a leader is when you loose faith in your own direction and vision, or the vision you are selling to your team and employees.

Maybe you have gained new insights that won’t let you go back to business as usual, maybe you have gained a deeper understanding about what actually is possible for you as a leader.

Either way, how can you stop pretending? How can you realign yourself with your current understanding? How do you make the shift?

Embracing that challenge is the difference between leadership and management.

Here is one small step you can do today:

Put an end to denial. Acknowledge to yourself if things need to change, even if you don’t yet know how to change them. Acknowledging what is self evident relieves you of the burden of secrecy – if only in front of yourself. It also opens up your mind to become creative in finding possible solutions that you cannot yet fathom. Admitting you have the question is the first step to finding the answer.

Call us today at (805) 680-3988 or visit our website www.empowermentholdings.com. Let us assist you toward Intelligent Leadership and Quality of Life in Business.