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

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.

How about you? How do you keeping yourself up and going so plans turn into reality? What techniques are you using to avoid getting caught up in the current gloom and doom mentality?

Garth Roberts

www.garthroberts.com

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 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

www.garthroberts.com

An information site I belong to has been rife with comments about President Obama’s inaugural address. Most of the comments have been positive while some have complained about a lack of specifics. From my perspective, it was a great speech. It was, after all, President Obama’s, let me have your attention speech.

In marketing it’s said that we need to connect with people 7 to 9 times before they are ready to buy. Why is it any different in selling a new political agenda for one of the world’s greatest countries? Mr. Obama had many target audiences for his message and he crafted his message so each audience was addressed with strength and with dignity. What else could we ask for in this initial talk ? To expect sweeping changes and pinpoint specifics is unrealistic.

Corporate leaders can learn a great deal by analyzing the structure of this speech and recognizing that their messages will have much more meaning if they repeat them, in a varity of ways, 7 to 9 times. Oh, don’t give me the “I don’t have time” excuse. That’s pure crap!

If you don’t make the time to communicate, you aren’t leading. You will, however, be doing a lot of “redo” to correct for the errors of your poor communication. Take the time to do it right the first time.

Along with this post I’ve changed the quote on the page. That’s my quote and I believe it defines leadership. The next four years are going to be exciting, whether we agree with all the communication from the White House or not. As a non-American I know that the world already has a different take on the United States and we’re all looking for our friends in the United States to be recognized again for the great people they are.

Garth Roberts

www.garthroberts.com

One-way communication is doomed to failure yet managers, supervisors, foreman, and parents continue to use it.

One-way communication is basically telling someone what you want them to do and not giving the person an opportunity to ask questions for clarification. How many times this week have you told someone what you want done and turned and walked away? How many times have you been disappointed or upset when someone didn’t do what you either asked for or told them to do?

Any good English as a second language instructor will tell you they always check to ensure the student understands directions, requests, or inquiries. The instructors understand the person listening to them may interpret differently. As a leader you must recognize your staff and colleagues can’t read your mind and the words you use may have a different meaning to them. This is particularly true if the part of your workforce learned English as a second language, yet it’s not exclusive to those individuals.

Quality versus excellence

For example, take the word quality, what does it mean to you? Based on your experience and education, quality may mean excellence. The person you’re talking to may very well equate quality to a job well done, but not an “over the top job”.

Three steps to improvement

1.    We all know we have two ears and one mouth. Your first step in improving communication at work and in the home is to use them in the appropriate proportion; listen at least twice as much as you talk. That’s active listening, not just hearing sound vibrations.

2.    The second step is to give the person you’re talking with an opportunity to ask questions. Active questioning on your part, and the other individuals part, is what makes a conversation. As a former journalist I learned the value of who, what, why, where, when, and how questions. When I have been most effective as a leader, open-ended questions, using the W5, have been my best tool.

3.    Now comes the hardest part in effective communication—follow-up. I’m a firm believer in management by walking around. If I’m not visible to my people, they don’t think I care. If I’m visible and checking to see if they need anything from me, I’m the leader. I don’t check on people to see if they are doing the job the way I think should be done. If I’ve done my job in hiring, coaching and mentoring, I don’t need to be concerned. They’ll be doing it as I asked, or even better.

The next time you’re tempted to tell a colleague, employee, or your child what to do without providing an opportunity for clarifying questions, you’re not communicating or leading.

Garth Roberts

www.garthroberts.com