Archive for May, 2010

People often ask you what you do!
When you answer that question, do you describe your products and services? Or do you communicate the benefits your clients receive?

For example, at Empowerment Holdings we could say:

We offer business coaching, consulting and executive services for “dead” professionals!

Sounds good, but you’re probably going: What does that have to do with me, my problems, my wants and needs?

And you’re right.

If instead we’d say:

“We’re able to help you overcome your fears. Period. We alleviate your professional frustrations, dissatisfaction and inability to move beyond your current, uncomfortable situation. We wake you up from the “dead”. WE WAKE YOU UP. We help you achieve breakthroughs in personal leadership and professional development.”

You’d listen because you’d know what you could get out of your relationship with us.

A leader that possesses the ability to walk in their client’s shoes for a while, who can get a sense of what life is really like for someone they’d like to do business with, will eventually become an ally and trusted friend. And people love to do business with friends, we do too.

Be a good leader and become a real friend. Take some time today and think about what people really want and need from you. Your family, your friends, your employees, your co-workers, your community, your world – what do they really want and need from you?

Wake up. Just for a minute, let go of your self absorbed worries and problems and think about what the people you are serving or wish to serve are really like. What are they facing on a day-to-day basis and how would they like to feel facing it. Figure out a way to make them feel better and deal better with their challenges and you’ll make friends for life – you’ll deserve whatever success comes to you!

Don’t continue to stand in your own way. Call us today at (805) 680-3988 for your complimentary client consultation.

Sign up for The Empowered Perspective Newsletter above or visit our website at www.empowermentholdings.com.

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

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.

There is a fear factor in leadership success and how you respond to it will determine your journey as a leader.

Fear is pervasive in life and business. Because of risk.

Of course, risk is inevitable in business too, and assessing and managing it makes for good business skills.

Fear is inevitable in business as well, mainly due to the unknown. In fact, all you have ever feared in your life was because of the unknown. The unknown consists of what has not yet happened and it is the great blank canvas upon which you can project your wildest personal and business nightmare scenarios.

The unknown is the big screen for your worries and anxieties. It’s an IMAX theater, the images are sharp and the sound is surround!

Your leadership success depends on your ability to deal with your fear of the unknown.

A trained mind knows fear intimately and does not let fear take the lead, ever.

Letting your fear take the lead will take you into the land of limitless projections, the land of “What ifs…”.

“What if we run out of money?”

“What if the client does not like our product?”

“What if I make the wrong decision?”

“What if I lose my job?”

“What if we don’t meet our projections?”

“What if…, what if…, what if…” is the beginning of every debilitating train of thought you have ever conceived.

Intelligent leaders deal with the unknown in a very different way. They do not let it ruin their composure, influence their decisions, emotions and moods.

Intelligent leaders control their own minds through mindfulness and awareness and base their decisions on what can be known and what is known rather than on their angst about the unknown.

Yet they address the unknown by exploring areas of their lives in which fear manifests. Because fear is the road sign leading you to greater leadership experience and understanding.

Next time you encounter fear, see it as invitation. An invitation to get to know the unknown. But don’t let it decide for you where you will place your next step.

We can help you overcome your leadership fears.

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.

What is the connection between Leadership and the art of cutting a grapefruit?

When you cut a grapefruit you first cut it in half. Then you cut the different compartments and you cut around the edge. On mornings when you feel stressed or impatient you’d prefer to skip the whole thing and simply eat a bagel or an English muffin. To hell with the grapefruit. It takes too long.

Why is that?

Because the grapefruit requires your patience and attention to detail. You don’t get to enjoy it unless you did your job well. And you won’t enjoy eating it if you’re still stressed when you are scooping it into your mouth.

Leadership works in similar ways. It requires patience and attention to detail. You don’t get to enjoy it unless you’ve done your job well, and you won’t enjoy being in a position of leadership if you are stressed when doing the actual work.

So tomorrow morning, get yourself a grapefruit and slowly cut it in half. You might be surprised by how good leadership can taste when eaten mindfully.

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.

Ask yourself if you are curious enough!

In a world that is changing as fast as ours, there are two ways of dealing intelligently with your challenges:

1. By generating new ideas

Think outside of the box. The box here is your cubicle, your department, your company, your family, your nationality, your culture, your race, your gender, your religion, etc.

Drop it for a moment and allow yourself to see the world with fresh eyes. Remember what it felt like when you did not need someone to tell you what to think or how to behave. But you needed someone to show you how to come up with your own insights through naked observation and experimentation.

2. By relying on timeless wisdom

In a changing world, timeless wisdom still applies. Even chaos is governed by a few basic laws – like impermanence and change, causality and a general unpredictability. All calling for the development of emotional intelligence, clarity, skillfulness, courage and increased self-awareness.

Are you curious enough to become well trained.

If you live your professional life in fear and/or denial your education has simply not gone far enough.

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.

Be SMART about your goals!

If you have not yet learned how to set goals using the SMART method for setting goals, you are missing something.

S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

Specific:
Specific goals have a greater chance of getting accomplished than general goals. Your specific goal must answer the six “W” questions:

1. Who: Who is involved?
2. What: What do I intend to accomplish?
3. Where: The location.
4. When: The time frame.
5. Which: Constraints and requirements
6. Why: The reason, purpose or benefit of accomplishing the goal.

Measurable:
Know in advance how you will measure progress toward the accomplishment of the goal you set. Measuring keeps you on track, helps you reach target dates, and allows you to celebrate the achievements of smaller steps that drive you forward.

Ask quantitative questions such as……How much? How many? …to know where you are.

Attainable:
If it really matters to you, you will commit to developing the right attitude, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach your goal. Previously overlooked opportunities seem to suddenly appear to guide you along the way.
When you break your goals down into small actionable steps you can achieve almost any goal you set your mind to. step by step wins the race.

Realistic:
When you are both willing and able to work toward your goal it becomes realistic. With regards to motivation, a high goal has greater motivational force than a low goal, which is why many small goals remain unaccomplished, so don’t be afraid to reach for what you really value.

If you have achieved similar goals in the past or have strong confidence in your ability to achieve it, it is another indicator that your goal is realistic.

Timely:
In order to be smart, a goal needs to have a deadline or a time frame. When you establish a time frame for your goal your braincells go into action. “Someday” is not specific enough. When you choose a specific date – like July 4th – your unconscious mind starts working out ways to achieve it.

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 your goals toward 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.