Many leaders I come in contact with seem to operate from a “throw it at the wall” approach. When I’ve challenged managers and supervisors on their lack of planning, lack of time is one of the main excuses. So, they continue to throw things at the wall and are surprised when nothing of importance sticks.

In this time of economic uncertainty it’s seems to me the time spent navel gazing, gossiping, looking for dark clouds, and generally being negative, could be better spent in planning. Ten-minutes of solid individual or group planning will bring more results than all the chatter and “what ifs” can ever bring. Effective planning will also cut down on what many spend most of their day doing—redo!

My schedule as a leadership trainer is split between conducting sessions and working on my business, which includes planning new sessions.  When I’m conducting sessions my clients have my undivided attention. My business operation takes a back seat. So, when I’m not in front of clients I must use my time effectively. As much as I hate it, I schedule my tasks and my time so I’m as effective as possible. For someone who can be a very random thinker, this is hard work.

Picture an expert juggler you may have seen at a convention, a circus, or a lounge performance.  Now picture yourself on stage.  In your role as the leader, hopefully not just a manager, you are a juggler.  Leadership is the juggling contest.  Each one of us can only keep a certain number of balls in the air at one time.  Think of yourself as the juggler— 3, 4, 5, or six balls in the air. Those balls represent projects.  Add a new project and make that ball a new color.  Which of the previous six are you going to drop or pass on to another juggler?  Maybe the other juggler isn’t as good as you are, maybe the person is a novice or maybe the person’s better. What will happen to that project you cared about?

 We’re all jugglers in leadership, juggling projects, juggling people, juggling time.  How many of you would think of getting on stage in front of 10, 20, 100, or 200 people having never taken any training in juggling?  The reality is any juggler has to have training and put in hours of practice, practice, and more practice. What training have you had lately and what training have you provided to your people?

 Garth Roberts

Conversation makes the world go round. Good conversation makes life an incredible journey. Leaders who understand the art of conversation tend to be inspiring leaders. If you’re struggling with your conversations or if you just want to continually improve, I recommend Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott.

I learned a long time ago that how I talk has a direct impact on how effective I am as a leader. Only recently have I discovered Susan’s book and I know my conversation skills have gotten even better since I began applying her principles.

Fierce Conversations is all about achieving success at work and in life, one conversation at a time. If you want to learn how to interrogate reality, come out from behind yourself, and to take responsibility for your emotional wake, pick up this book.

To learn more about fierce conversations, check out www.fierceconversations.com

Garth Roberts

There’s a new, international movement to bring compassion back into our lives. Read the charter below and then visit the website.

Charter for Compassion

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

http://charterforcompassion.org/share/about/

I spent an interesting day talking about western business ethics with 39 oil field workers from Angola. They’re all on their way back to Africa after studying in Canada for an extended time.

We make think we have better ethics than other countries, and in terms of some practices, maybe we do. When it comes to personal ethics or habits, I’m not too sure.

These workers are in their 20s and 30s and they can’t understand a few things about us. Such as:

• why so many people swear so much
• why people dresss so casually, sloppily or so revealing when the go to church (or the shopping center)
• why tattoos and piercings are so popular
• why we don’t treat those older or in a higher positions in a company with respect in how we address them

These were some of the questions and it made me recognize how much North American society has changed in the past 20 to 30 years. It’s not that long ago when saying, “Hello, Mr. Smith,” was the proper way for young people to address adults, rather than by their first name.

We can blame television and movies for making us more disrepectful, casual and crude, but what’s really to “blame”. I grew up in a world much like the Angolan students talked about and I think maybe we’ve moved too far from the world of showing respect to others. Your thoughts?

Garth Roberts

If you’re a professional writer, freewriting frequently means not getting paid. The other form of freewriting is to let your mind spill out on the page. I discovered freewriting (the second form) many years ago and have used it to teach creative writing, business writing, and leadership. You may already use a form of freewriting when you take time to ponder problems. Chances are you don’t take the time to write these ponderings down.

Let me introduce you to freewriting as a leadership tool. When you finish reading this blog, pick up a pen or pencil and find some paper. Or, if you prefer, just sit at your computer and start the process. Many purists will say it has to be actually writing with pen and paper, I find it works both ways.

Next, sit for a moment or two and take a few deep breaths. It helps to clear the mind and free the mind. When you’re ready, start writing … whatever comes to your mind. If it’s your grocery list, let it flow. Chances are in a short time something of importance will rise to the surface. A few years ago a colleague of mine took my writing course and had harsh words for me after the first freewrite. The conversation was something like this: “I hate you.” To which I deftly replied, “Pardon me.” He went on to explain that he’d been writing articles for two years for a particular magazine and had slaved over every one of them. My introduction of the freewriting process had killed that. He wrote the first draft of an article in 20-minutes. Four years later he is still using the process to turn out great articles.

As a leader have you ever had a problem, plan or situation you needed to solve and the answers just wouldn’t come? Try the freewriting process and you’ll be surprised at the answers that wait in your head to be discovered.

For a couple of great resources, check out: Writing With Power by Peter Elbow; The Artists Way by Julia Cameron

Garth Roberts

www.garthroberts.com

I was sipping my red wine and enjoying the journey from a leadership session in Toronto to home in Calgary. Around me were sleeping passengers, folks watching in-flight programs, children being entertained by their parents, and a couple of people who really should just stay home.

The whine actually started in the terminal with an “I really hate the flight home. It seems too long.” Well, actually it approximately the same time both directions. I know that. You know that. So prepare for the flight so it’s a productive time. Bring your blankie and snuggle up or buy a good book.

The whine on the plane is really a drag. Anyone within earshot hears the negative comments and it’s just plain boring. The airlines get paid to provide us with transportation from one spot to another and if we don’t like the journey, don’t take it.

When I hear such a whine it makes me wonder, what’s this person like in the office, or at home? Is this negative pitch the same everywhere? I used to work with someone who had a negative cloud over her head and I learned to avoid her. She had great potential to be a nice person but made the choice to see dark when anyone else chose to see light.

How about it? Will you join me is requesting complementary parachutes for anything other than good wine on a plane?

Garth Roberts

www.garthroberts.com

“Garth, you don’t understand our business. There’s so much happening and it’s happening so fast, we can only react. We don’t have time to plan. (pause) But we do have time to do it over again tomorrow.”

I’m happy to say there was a smile on the Supervisor’s face when he made the above statement. Although he was being serious in one sense, he did have enough smarts to know planning wasn’t happening on a regular basis.

Every time I work with a leadership group I’m still surprised by the “deer in the headlight” looks I get when I mention planning. It seems we’re too busy “doing” to actually take time to plan. Or, if we do plan, we don’t take time to include others in our work groups, consequently it’s not a common plan. React is still the order of the day.

A few months ago, when the economy was on fire, you could almost understand the concern about stopping, taking time, and planning. After all, if we stopped our clients would think we weren’t working and they’d go to our competition. Consider this, maybe if there’d been a bit more planning we wouldn’t be in the current economic mess.

Consider something else, if planning and included ethics instead of greed, several million people wouldn’t be out of work today.

Garth Roberts

www.garthroberts.com

Where I live in Canada it was Family Day. Other parts of the country don’t have an official holiday in February, and that’s a shame. In the United States it was President’s Day. For far too many people these days were still days of work, by necessity or just by plain personal decision.

For a change I actually took the day off. Well, except for writing this blog post. I puttered around the house. Messed with my computer and tried to put some home video tapes to DVD. That didn’t work but it was great to try. Now I know what my next steps are so I can finish a job that’s been in the far reaches of my mind for years.

I also took a long walk and enjoyed the very brisk winter air and bright sunshine. It was invigorating and rewarding to get out and meditate as I walked. I find a long walk gives me more peace, serenity and clearness of mind that sitting in a meditative pose in a quiet room. What’s your process for meditating?

So, to the question above, did you take the day off, whether it was today or any other “day off” that comes your way? We all need the down time to regenerate and to increase our productivity for tomorrow.

Garth Roberts

www.garthroberts.com

Recently I was asked to present a seminar on business etiquette to a group of young employees. Their leaders felt that the young crowd didn’t understand proper business rules. That same week I attended a celebration Gala with business leaders. I quickly understood why so many young people appear to lack business etiquette. They don’t have decent role models. While several high profile speakers were making their brief remarks from the platform, several tables of middle aged or older members of the audience continued to talk and laugh loudly.

The young people in the crowd were respectfully listening. It made me ponder as to who really has the etiquette problem. The older members of the crowd either had too much to drink at the champagne reception, and would be slobs anywhere, or their arrogance and inflated egos wouldn’t allow them to stop talking, laughing, and being outrageously loud.

In leadership it’s said that the good leaders walk the talk. During my career I’ve found that to be true. In my corporate training world I find that the strongest corporations have leaders who practice what they preach. I’ve had the opportunity to witness many corporate leaders and their spouses at social events and the true leaders always display business etiquette. How about you? Do you find that we are really just a bunch of slobs?

Garth Roberts
www.garthroberts.com