In 1500 words or less, each post will give you something you can use TODAY to build yourself, your people and your organization whether your organization is a "for-profit" or a "not-for-profit."
August/September is a good time to look for a summer job. Any time is a good time to remember the skills, attitudes, and behaviors that make any job good for workers and employers. Hiring students is good for businesses and for charities and non-profit organizations.
New people are excited and want to do a good job. Successful organizations combine good onboarding plans with detailed development plans to give their people the skills, attitudes, and behaviors necessary to achieve the goals of the organization and their team members.
A person’s final weeks are equally important. As we have mentioned successful organizations manage hiring, onboarding, and the first weeks and months to give their new hires all of the tools they need to succeed. Successful organizations set themselves apart from their competition equally as much, by the ways they plan and manage the time when a person is preparing to leave their organization.
Working effectively with people is fundamental to any success you will achieve. You are learning to recognize and give people around you permission to reign in your ego. Be constantly vigilant to prevent walls and silos from being built around you. Finally, appreciate that you will succeed faster and longer by realizing that you make mistakes.
Is your daily focus simply on “surviving” each day? What follows are some simple ideas that can help you have your life again, achieve a better work/life balance, and “grow” your business or organization.
These are not my ideas, these are lessons learned from some of the best leaders and entrepreneurs I have met in more than thirty years in the “for-profit” and “charitable” sectors.
Becoming a good leader means embarking on a path that never ends. People, organizations, and the leader themselves will evolve, change, and adapt in response to their changing world.
I have learned while being mentored by some incredible people. Three of those lessons helped to shape my entire philosophy of leadership, “Humility, Consideration, and Determination.”
We had thought we were inclusive, but we realized we needed to do even more. We discovered the real driving force for our continued success was because we learned to appreciate, acknowledge, and respond to the blind spots that we didn’t even know were there.
Start small, but start now.
Every organization has drama.
Drama is virtually impossible to avoid because organizations consist of people and when you have two or more people together, the potential for drama exists.
That’s not cynical, in my experience, that’s just how things work. Whether it’s good or bad depends on how the organization reacts to and anticipates drama.
Many small and medium-sized organizations struggle to find the right people in a competitive job environment. A step in the right direction is to stand apart from everyone else.
Give me five minutes of your time and you will not regret it.
In a book I was listening to recently, the author praised people who take the time to clear obstacles from other people’s paths. The author’s explanation and examples had a very powerful effect on me. The book inspired me to write about people who moved “rocks” for me and for people I have known.
Looking at new ideas and concepts through the eyes of the fearful and the critical can better prepare organizations for unintended consequences. Taking this empathetic approach can reveal weaknesses and potentially fatal issues. This process is called RED TEAMING.