Many of us have run into the “it’s confidential” excuse when it comes to getting or giving information. Usually it’s an “I’ve got power and you don’t” mentality that uses the confidential excuse.

Few things in any company should be confidential. Certainly the R & D departments have confidential information and other information that may create a problem if your competitors know, can create difficulties … but little else. Holding information that should be shared demonstrates the ultimate in leadership stupidity! Your people deserve to know what’s happening in their company!

I just conducted a session with frontline managers and supervisors. They were incredibly frustrated with the lack of direction and the uncertainty as to who was in charge. The response from one of the three managers:

“Their confusion over who they report to is understandable; there are only 3 people at the moment who know what the new structure internally is and two of us can’t say anything until the 3^rd one (CEO) announces something.” 

The CEO was out-of-town and no announcement was scheduled. Next thing the managers will be wondering why they’re losing staff. Inadequate communication is one of the biggest impediments to employee satisfaction. Be a supervisor who shares!

Garth Roberts

One of the excellent e-zines I get comes from Eric Albertson. Eric gratitiously shares his wisdom about procrastination in the following abridged article.

by Eric Albertson

Beating procrastination requires that you put the familiar to use. Here’s how:

Key #1: Forget the big changes whenever possible.

Keep them at regular intervals, but small.

Key #2: Build and execute simple plans.

For example, when planning your day, just set out one or two simple things you want to do. Map out two to three steps in writing to get the task done. Take it in simple chunks. Now, just commit to working 10-15 minutes without interruption, and then stop and take a break by looking out the window or getting something to drink. Repeat daily for three to four weeks. You now have a million-dollar habit that crept into familiarity in your brain.

Key #3: If you try too much, too fast, your brain will identify it as unfamiliar, and will fight like the devil incarnate. Don’t be too ambitious with this if you are committed to success.

Key #4: Let your brain begin to realize that a simple plan equals easy success. A complex plan equals failure, much of the time, unless you have developed familiarity with complex plans, of course.

Key #5: Perfection.

Another human fault that enables procrastination is the desire for perfection.

Sending a person into space might require perfection, but little else does.

Give up the perfection. Gary Halbert was probably one of the top three  copywriters of all time. One of his sayings was, “If it is worth doing well, it is worth doing poorly, at first.”

If you can just give yourself a timeline and release yourself from the responsibility of seeking perfection, you can get started, get done, and get on with life.

By the way, we know that those who go for excellence (not getting too worried about making mistakes) get far more done, and they get it done much faster than those who shoot for absolute perfection. Really.

Even though going for perfection rarely works, it is an effort that we are familiar with.

Key #6: Do the stuff you hate — first.

When you put off the stuff you hate, it often ruins doing the stuff you love. Dread of the hated task can ruin days, weeks, years, and, for some, life itself.

I hate to work out. But my work has me sitting on my butt all day, on the phone. Without a workout every day, I would have a very large butt for all that sitting and I would probably die of a massive heart attack way too early in life. I get my workout done at 5 am every day. No dread for the rest of the day. Yahoo!

Key #7: Mental conversations.

Action follows your feelings.

Feeling follows thoughts.

Thoughts are shaped by your mindset.

Your mental conversations become familiar, and form your mindset.

Procrastination is a lack of action. The formula above, maps out the fact that our actions, or lack of action, starts with a mental conversation about what is happening to us at any given moment. If we become aware of these conversations, we can usually guess where they are leading and make a choice that will lead to the actions we are committed to.

Procrastination is a choice that is made by the mental conversations we allow ourselves to have.

Key #8: Make your workspace more productive.

Keep your workplace simple.

Keep the things you need on a daily basis near at hand.

Everything else should go.

Take an hour each week to bring your space back up to standard. Your brain will love you for it.

Don’t let working in a disaster area become familiar.

Simple, clean and neat, is the secret weapon against procrastination.

Key #9: Visualization.

Finally, spend a moment or two visualizing the finished result of any task. Get it to the point that where there is some positive feeling associated with the visualization.

In some cases, you just have to visualize how happy you will be when a nasty task is behind you.

Key #10: Choices.

Procrastination, in the end, is a simple choice, or series of choices.

Get clear on your commitments, use the information above to the best of your ability, and make some choices.

There’s only one choice I hope you don’t make often: Don’t put off anything you have to do. Do it now, if it takes two minutes or less. If it will take longer than two minutes, put in on the calendar, and map out with that three-step, simple plan we discussed earlier. 

You know, the one you are familiar with, from above.

“Reprinted with permission from Eric Albertson’s SucceedingInBusiness.com Newsletter. (Copyright, 1998-2007, Eric Albertson, SucceedingInBusiness.com.)”

To subscribe to Success Tips Newsletter, visit http://www.succeedinginbusiness.com/.

The feedback I received from a client was, “I sat for two hours and never said a word, but when I finally did speak, they listened.” The man writing tried an experiment for me. He sat with a group of his friends and didn’t say a word until there was a pause in the conversation. No pauses for two hours! Not only no pauses but continual, starting to talk before the previous person had finished!

How about you? Are you listening all the way through your client’s conversation? Or, are you saying to yourself, “I know what he’s going to say so I’ll just start talking now to share my really important stuff.”

Effective communication means planning, talking, and, completing that most difficult task, listening all the way through someone else’s speech until that person has finished. In Dr. Richard Carlson’s book, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff … and it’s all small stuff”, he gives great advice, Breathe Before You Speak.

As Dr. Carlson reminds us, we aren’t communicating if all we’re doing is speaking and mentally deciding what we’ll say when we have a chance to interrupt. Great conversations rely on two-way communication and two-way communication requires feedback. One way communication is the kind that many teachers, parents, bosses, spouses and friends do. I’ll tell you what to do, think, say, or feel. You just do it. No questioning, no chatting, and worst of all, no checking to see if you really understand what I’ve just said.

Two-way communication relies on feedback and is 100% more effective that its one-way partner. If I get feedback I know whether you understood my words and my intention. I can give feedback with my words, my vocal tone or inflection, or with my whole body. Studies tell us that 55% of our communication is purely from non-verbal body language and it goes up to 93% when we add tone and inflection.

Don’t believe me? How many of you have stopped your spouse or child in their tracks with one stern look?

Now, pause and think, how many clients have you stopped from ordering by your continual, one-way, feature dump that never gave time for honest questions or feedback? Each of us speaks and responds based on our behavioural style. When I’m working with clients I have them complete the DiSC Behavioural Assessment tool so I know how they talk and listen, and so they learn their own strengths and weaknesses.

In the 1920s Dr. Carl Jung defined the four behavioural styles on which most of today’s assessment tools are based. Dr. Jung noted that we listened differently and talk differently from our friends, co-workers and clients. To expect them to perceive everything the same way we do is wrong. So it is with your clients. By learning some basic characteristics of the four major styles, you can communicate better … and increase your sales.

Even if you aren’t familiar with behavioural styles you can increase your chance of communication success with three easy steps. First, plan your communication. Think about the person you’re going to talk with, notice I said talk with, not talk to! Think of the characteristics of the person. Is she an outgoing person or a guarded person? An outgoing person is more open to chatting and exchanging information before you get down to business. A guarded or less bubbly person is likely to want to know what you’re there to discuss at the start of the conversation.

Actually, the more open person may require some general “get to know you chatter” before they can focus on the business. Building rapport is very important to them. The more guarded person wants to know what the conversation is about before she reveals too much information.

Next, think whether the person appears to be more of a head person or a heart person. Does Joe, down the hall, show his emotions or is he very thoughtful. If you can determine which fits Joe, you can use the correct language during your conversation. Too many times we head off to talk to Joe and our mouth starts flapping long before our brain is fully engaged. A little planning can make the conversation more appropriate, concise and fruitful.

How you talk to the individual will depend on how you feel the person needs to hear the information. Remember, you’re talking to get someone to work with you, buy from you, or do a task for you. It is all about the person, not all about you!

The completing the conversation is all about follow-up. Your success rate in any relationship will skyrocket if you learn the little-practiced art of follow-up. Before you finish you conversation determine who is doing by when and follow-up with a note or e-mail to confirm. Then take the all important step, actually do what you said you’d do. Actually, go beyond what you said you’d do and your success rate will soar.

Don’t tell me you don’t have time for the three-step process of planning, communicating and follow-up. You don’t have time not to do the three steps. I continually hear how busy everyone is and yet I know that if we’d all take the time for the three-steps, we’d reduce the re-do cycle at work. It’s estimated anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of what is done in many businesses everyday is re-do. Do it correctly the first time and you won’t be near as busy as you believe you are.

So, for the next 30-days, pause, slow down, listen, give your client a chance to think and process, follow-up … and watch your sales grow!

Garth Roberts

Writing a blog and keeping life on track sometimes conflict, at least they have for me for several weeks. My schedule has been wild, in a good way, and something had to give. Writing gave!

So now it’s back to recording what’s happening as it relates to Inspired Leadership. Focus jumps into my head because that’s what has got in the way of my writing. I’ve been extremely busy conducting sessions to help others get on track with supervision so I let my own focus stray. Lesson learned.

For the next 12 weeks or so I get a superb chance to share my knowledge with 20 new and experienced supervisors. It’s a great opportunity for all of us because we can learn from each other. Because I’ve been in supervision and management for 40 years, I know that I can still learn or relearn in every session. The diversity of people involved allows us to look at concerns from a variety of angles and, as we all should know, a variety of angles provide a 360 degree look at a problem.

In a recent session three drug and alcohol counsellors brought their unique perspective into a “normal” supervisory discussion. In their case they know they’re dealing with major problems and frequent chemical influences that require extra-ordinary patience and insight. Don’t you sometimes wish you had this knowledge when dealing with some of your people? We don’t know the outside influences or demons that stalk our clients and colleagues.

How about you? What is the worst coaching, speaking or training situation you’ve ever encountered?

If you don’t subscribe to Jack Canfield’s e-zine, you’re missing great articles like the following. This article is used with permission. Please check out how to register at the bottom.  

Daily Disciplines for Effortless Success:
Six Steps for Activating “The Secret” in Your Life
by Jack Canfield

The first step to using Law of Attraction as presented in the movie The Secret is to clarify exactly what you want. Remember—determine, write down and talk about what you do want, not what you don’t want. Be as specific as possible. Once you have clarified what you want, do the following each and every day.

1. Morning Intention, Visualization and Releasing

As soon as you wake up in the morning, take about 5 minutes to focus your mind on your desires, goals and intentions. Start by sitting in a comfortable position, closing your eyes and visualizing your desires and goals as already being fulfilled. Spend 30 seconds to a minute on each of your core desires and goals. You can also take a few moments to visualize your day going exactly as you would like it to.

When you do this, you will often find negative limiting beliefs that are the result of negative programming from your childhood will come up. You may hear thoughts like “I could never afford that,” “there’s no way I’ll ever get that,” or “who am I kidding?” coming up. If you do, use one of the many releasing techniques that are available (see the list below) to release the negative thought. Don’t fight or argue with the thought; just release it.

Remember to also spend several moments feeling the feelings you would feel if you had already manifested your desire in your life. The intensity of the feeling is what fuels the intensity of the attraction.

Powerful releasing techniques:

• The Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin: www.sedonamethod.com
  (Hale will be sharing his techniques when he speaks at my summer training
  Breakthrough to Success.)
• The Work by Byron Katie: www.TheWork.com
• The Emotional Freedom Technique: www.emofree.com

2. Use External Images to Keep you Focused on Your Desires and Goals

To keep yourself focused on what you want to manifest surround yourself with visual images of the things and experiences you want to attract into your life. There are many techniques you can use for this.

1) Cut out pictures of the things you wish to own (like your ideal car or home) and pictures that represent the experiences you want to have (like the perfect relationship, your ideal job, perfect health, being at your ideal weight, more joy, inner peace or balance in your life)to remind yourself of how you want it to be. Tape them up where you will see them every day—on the mirror, the refrigerator, or your bulletin board. You can also scan them into your computer and make them into a screen saver or a continuously running PowerPoint program.

2) Combine your pictures and words that you cut out into a collage on a large piece of poster board.

3) Make a Dream Book by putting the pictures into a 3-ring binder pasted onto the pages or slid into plastic page protectors.

When you look at any of these pictures, do what Bob Doyle, who is featured in The Secret teaches— think the thought, “THIS IS MINE NOW! THIS IS WHO I AM!”

3. Think a Better Feeling Thought

Start paying attention to the many times during the day that you have emotional responses (to other people, experiences, or your own thoughts) that are not in alignment with having or producing your desires. Pay special attention to when you feel disappointment, resentment, frustration or anger about your experiences and circumstances.

Remember, it’s your feelings (which are created by your thoughts, opinions, and beliefs) that are attracting your current circumstances. You must make a vibrational shift by changing your thoughts to ones that make you feel better (i.e., raise your vibration). Remember that you must become a vibrational match for the things and experiences that you want to attract into your life.

It is especially important to focus your thoughts and behaviors on things that cause you to feel joy. Focus your thoughts on thoughts that bring you joy (your lover, your best friend, your grandchildren, your favorite vacation spot) and your actions on doing the things you love to do (pet your cat, work in your garden, listen to your favorite music).

4. Have an Attitude of Gratitude

It is critical to take time each and every day to focus on what you are grateful for. Some people do this in the morning before or after they visualize their desires; others prefer to do it in the evening. Focus on all of the things in your life (most of which you take for granted) that you are grateful for—your health, your children, your job, the nice weather, electricity, running water, a nice stereo system, your flower garden, your pets, your friends).

No matter what your situation, there are always things to be grateful for. The more you focus on what you are grateful for, the more things and experiences you will attract to be grateful for. You may wish to carry a “gratitude rock” like the one Lee Brower talks about in “The Secret.”

5. Take Action

There are two kinds of actions you can take. Obvious actions are things like, if you want a better car, going to test drive all of the models you are interested in and choosing the exact car you want to have, and saving 10% of your income in a “car account.” If you want to be a doctor, apply to medical school.

There are also what I call “inspired actions.” Once you begin to do the things described above, the universe will start responding by sending people, resources and opportunities you need to manifest your desired result. You are going to find that you have inspired ideas; you must act on them. You must follow those gentle proddings from the universe. Often these intuitive impulses will have no seeming connection to achieving your goal, but if you follow them, they will lead you down a path of wonderful fulfillment.

Here’s a quick way to know if the actions you’re taking are taking you closer to the fulfillment of your dreams and desires. If you are feeling joy while you are doing them, then you are on the right path. Remember, joy is your internal guidance system, just like the GPS system in a car, telling you are taking the right actions. Follow your joy.

6. Acknowledge That it is Working

If you start to see something change for the better, acknowledge that it is happening. Appreciate it. When you find the perfect parking space, acknowledge it. When you get the table you want in the restaurant, acknowledge it. When you receive unexpected income, acknowledge it. When you meet someone who can help you achieve your goal, acknowledge that Law of Attraction is working. The more you acknowledge that it’s working, the more it will work. It’s that simple.

If you are attracting things into your life that you don’t want, remember the Law of Attraction is still working. Instead of thinking or saying, “It’s not working,” ask your self, “What am I focusing on, thinking about, talking about, feeling or doing that is attracting this into my life?” If you want to know what you are thinking about, notice the results you are producing in your life. To change those results, you will first have to change your vibration by changing your thoughts and feelings.

While there are many techniques that are variations on these themes that you can apply, there’s nothing else you have to do.

© 2006 Jack Canfield

If you missed previous issues of Success Strategies,
I keep an archive of past issues you can always refer to.

It hasn’t worked for the last three guys but this new employee seems different, I’ll give it one more try.  Are you a supervisor who works with this paradigm?  Too many of us to do.  We try the same old, tired techniques and wonder why they don’t work.

Try taking some time to develop some new processes.  Give yourself 20 minutes and do a Google search on the topic that’s frustrating you.  There are thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of web sites that can inspire you to try a new technique.  The Internet is one of my best friends.

This morning I had a client ask about some of their proprietary training material and how I thought it would work in an international environment.  It won’t!  The material is dated, it has a North American bias, and, quite frankly, it’s incredibly boring.  A couple years ago I had to deliver this material on behalf of the client and I very quickly realized if I was going to keep my international participants awake, let alone interested, I have to customize the material.  It took a lot more work on my part but at the end of the three-day session I could look in the mirror and say I did a good job.

So, look at your tried and true methods and see if they really do work.  Is it time you took the time to do a little research and find a new paradigm?  If you’re anything like most of the supervisors I deal with, the answer is yes. Do a little inventory and be honest about what’s truly working in your training program. Get rid of the elements that aren’t working. That new employee will love you for it.

Why is it we have so much trouble with the concept of rewards and recognition? I just finished facilitating the second day of a three-day program with a group of supervisors. We’re pursuing the concept of developing a rewards and recognition process in their company. The whole idea of recording positive activity on the part of employees seems to be foreign. The negative, we can record that real well.

This isn’t the first time I’ve worked with a group of supervisors who had trouble with the concept of recording the positive in their work situation. Several years ago I had a group stop the session before it started with the statement, “We can’t do that here.” My reaction was a very intelligent, “Pardon?” “We can’t do that here”, and then they proceeded to tell me a horror story about a place that was so negative. It made me wonder why anybody would want to work there every day.

Since that time I’ve paid close attention to all my clients and their companies to try and discover why we have to dwell on the negative. Is it really just human nature or is it the society we live in? Well, the negative concept isn’t new. Over 2000 years ago Greek Playwright, Asechylus, said, “Everyone’s quick to blame the alien”, and it seems we’ve been doing it ever since.

Do you blame someone else for all the troubles at work? Do you find it difficult to, as Ken Blanchard says, “catch people doing something right”? I hope not.

From my perspective the very first step in developing a worthwhile rewards and recognition program is to, personally, learn how to say thank you. Think about it. When someone compliments you do you say, “thank you”, and leave it at that or do you say something like, “oh, it’s nothing, don’t worry about”. Too many of us who don’t know how to accept recognition so, consequently, we don’t know how to recognize the positive in other people.

How well do you accept recognition for your positive work?

It’s a gorgeous New Year’s day in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Lots of bright sunshine and mild temperatures, for a winter climate. This past week I’ve spent much time putting my 2007 plan in place and setting up the processes so the plan will work. I haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions!

Leaders move forward with plans, not resolutions. The plans work when the processes are put in place. The plans also work when they are shared and checked with those who will help make them work. I’m an entrepreneur so much of my work is done on my own; however, I’ve learned that I do my best work when I connect with those who can give me positive but constructive feedback.

 How are you set for 2007? Are your plans and processes working with you? I hope so.

Maybe I’ll see you this year in Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, London, Dubai, Phoenix or San Diego. Have a great 2007. We can share our progress on completing our plans and achieving our goals.

I have the pleasure of being the Co-chair of the International PEG (Professional Experts Group) of the National Speakers Association. Consequently I get to meet a lot of international trainers, speaker, coaches, consultants and facilitators … and I get to learn from them.  The PEG has just started a new blog that is going to allow all of us to learn from the experts. Drop by and visit at https://intlpeg@typepad.com

The title of this post came from my horoscope reading for today. It strikes me that all leaders need to focus on their own unique way of analyzing their particular world. The key word is to do a little analyzing, something that too often gets lost in the day-to-day activity of work.

 When was the last time you sat down and analyzed what’s working and what’s not working?

 I just had the luxury of two weeks of solitude in the office. Only me to make noise and distract myself. I am a master at following distractions but I analyzed what wasn’t working and it was my work routine … or should I say, my lack of work routine. I got into the “busy, busy, busy” mode, as my sales friend Tim Breithaupt calls it. Incidentally, Tim has a great book on sales - 10 Steps to Sales Success - http://www.eventsedge.com/TimBreithaupt.html. Anyway, Tim talks about the busy and I found myself there. Productive, not really, but very busy.

 In just one week of tossing and throwing I have an office that is organized and projects that have moved forward. Now if you’re saying “how could it take a week to clean an office?” I kept running the business as well and really cleaned my office. The recycling bin is full.

 So back to the analyzing your world, when did you last serve yourself and analyze your world? Give it a try and be honest about what’s working and what’s not working. Decide who might help you move along. Ask for assistance. You can’t be an inspired leader if you’re bogged down in “busy” and confusion.

 Have a great time.