Being Moved the Moment

I was recently interviewed on a radio station as part of the launch of my new book On Toby’s Terms. The interviewer said something off the air that really resonated with me – She said “in radio it’s not just minutes that count. Seconds count!”
WOW! In life we have 86400 seconds per day. 604800 seconds per week. 31536000 seconds per year. Funny how looking at seconds instead of hours or days gives you a different perspective of time.
How do you make seconds count? How do you make the most of the moments?
Here are a few tips to help you make the most of your moments at work, and in life:
• Be fully present
• Respect other people’s time
• Be prepared so you are using your time in the best way
• Appreciate time, and the time other’s extend to you
• Acknowledge the little moments

Let Go and Learn

When you make a mistake, what is your typical response? Do you move on? Do you rehash and perhaps beat yourself up? Letting go and learning is not always easy, however it is interesting that we generally have higher expectations for ourselves than others. Being resilient requires us to learn from mistakes and then let it go. None of us are exempt from error or moments of poor judgment. We all get off track at some point, and the more resilient you are, the faster you will get back on track. For those you that are perfectionists, learning and letting go is not easy, I know that first hand. Here are five steps I have tried to help move forward after a mistake.
1. Watch the language. Instead of calling it “a screw up”, “a disaster”, or “the worst thing I ever did”, reframe this to be “a mistake” or “an opportunity to learn” or “a chance to practice being humbled.”
2. Take responsibility at the earliest point possible and correct the situation.
3. Apologize, or own up then learn the lesson and apply the learning.
4. Remember the learning next time a similar situation arises
5. Remind yourself that the energy you put into being unkind to yourself would be much better spent finding a solution.

Are you as creative as a first grader?

While sitting in the airport awaiting my flight home from Dallas to Edmonton, I was amused by two young children, likely around ages 4 and 6. They were dancing to the different ring tunes on their father’s cell phone. Scrolling through the different ring tunes, the two danced and snapped their fingers to the music, changing their dance each time a new ring tune sound rang through the cell phone. Their creative way to occupy themselves encouraged me to reflect upon how I stay creative in environments where creativity is not inspired. And so refreshing to see them dancing like no one was watching (as the saying goes). What are you doing to find inspiration and creativity in unsuspected places?
Here are five tips to creativity:
• When something captures your attention, be present. Allow your mind to enjoy what you see.
• Think without borders. When we were children we often worked hard at keeping our coloring within the lines. Being creative can also invite going out of the lines, or thinking without borders?
• Think like a first grader, they are unconditionally curious. Be curious.
• Think big then stretch the thought again.
• Step out of what is typical for you. When you stretch out of your comfort zone, while uncomfortable, it means you are growing.
• Bonus Tip: Have fun!

Continuing Professional Education

How do you continue advancing your professional skills and development? Blogging is becoming an important form of communication, discussion and relationship building. Tonight I am developing my skills at a workshop presented by Kyle McNeil. Some great tips from beginner to expert bloggers.

Building your dream team!

In the May 2010 Profit Magazine, Chris Hutchinson wrote an article titled How to Build a Super Staff (4 simple strategies that turned good employees into great employers-with financial results to match). Chris suggested that employers bring their employees into the loop through active communication. When employees are in the loop, it minimizes inaccurate assumptions, engages their participation and reduces the time on internal communications, while increasing efficiency at the same time.
Another strategy is one that we see organizations use in their recognition programs- “you were caught doing something great”, or as Hutchinson calls it, catching employees in the act of greatness. This could include personalized emails, certificates and other forms of acknowledgement. Hutchinson also suggests employers exploit the power of pride in the organization. Strategy number four is encouragement for employers to unleash employee’s inner entrepreneur. Employees often have hidden talents that can be of great benefit to the business but also ignite employees to pursue innovation, creativity and working with more passion and purpose. Now is the time to explore how you can build your own super staff.
Here are a few approaches I have seen some of my clients implement:
• Cascading messages and communications
• Featuring staff or interviews with staff in company newsletters so team members learn more about one another and communication is fostered
• Celebrate accomplishments. One company held a lunch every quarter and celebrated projects completed, people passing probationary periods, great ideas that have been put into action, millstones, etc.
• Employee forums several times yearly
• Share a talent day

On the pursuit of happiness at work

What is your business goal? Is it to be profitable? Maybe grow your business? Expand your team? Bring in new products and services?
What about happiness? Is happiness anywhere in your equation or on your list?
I used to view happiness at work as a product or result of other goals being achieved; however, I have since changed my mind. I have discovered that happiness helps me achieve my other goals, faster and with less effort.
Tony Hsieh, author of Discovering Happiness, is the CEO of Zappos in the US. He mentions four components to the happiness framework:
- Connectedness
- Perceived control
- Perceived progress
- Vision and meaning (being part of something bigger than yourself)
This is a book I’d highly recommend for your company library!

Putting more WOW into your business and team

Tony Hsieh, author of Delivering Happiness- a path to profits, passion and purpose writes about Random Acts of WOWness. Tony is CEO of Zappos in the US, a very successful business man who has created a new and powerful way to be successful in business. I thought this was pretty interesting.
One approach he offered was waking up every day and seeking a way to make just 1% of difference. I know, some of you are thinking “why not make 20% difference!” Here’s the thing, and I completely agree with Tony on this. When you seek to make 1% difference each day, that is doable. You can make this level of difference without expending huge amounts of time and resource. But here’s the best part. If you make 1% difference each day, think about the ripple effect. That is 365% by the end of the year!
Asking his question to myself this morning “Charmaine, how can you make 1% difference today? Here’s what I set out to do. I cleared out my emails that made way more than 1% difference in my productivity. And, I deceived that I would write about some people who made a difference in my life, and let them know. The other day, the 1% difference was clearing my closet and taking the clothes I no longer wear to a charitable organization. I also committed to spending one hour helping someone else take their business to the next level or expanding their resilience factor.
How can you make 1% difference today?

When you least expect it

Isn’t it interesting what you discover when you least expect it? The other day I was driving down a road close to our home. Growing from the sewer grate was a beautiful bright sunflower. It took me by such surprise, as that is not a place you expect to see a hardy sunflower growing. It did however spark my thinking about how resilient this sunflower is, and how out of an unusual place beauty can grow. I suppose this plays out in life whereby out of what seems to be a challenging or upsetting event, grows a positive outcome or learning. I can think of many situations whereby on the surface, the challenge seemed negative or overwhelming, however, in the process of dealing with the situation I learned a new skill, met a new resource, or had a learning so profound that it positively impacted my future.
What are you doing to embrace challenges to see what learning the challenges hold?
Here are three tips to finding the sunflowers in the sewers…
1) Look beyond the immediate situation. Be curious; explore what the situation has in store for you in terms of a positive learning, opportunity or perhaps a new connection or skill.
2) Be present…I mean really present.
3) Recognize the strengths, and identify one area for improvement and take action.

You can tell a lot about a person…by the way they cut the grass

As I zoomed around on the lawn tractor I noticed my husband Christopher smiling and shaking his head. I smiled back and kept going. I was in the middle of a creative design, a green masterpiece. The artful grass cutting started with a nice even diagonal cut but after about four back and forths of this, I changed it up. By the time I was done I had a diagonal pattern, with circular sweeps around the horseshoe pits, and square boxes around the trees.
Christopher and I had a great conversation about what you can tell by how a person cuts the grass. He is the logical thinker, very methodical in the way in which he works, and is detail focused. He is exceptionally skilled at working at a task from start to finish. He is a classic Analytical and Driver Working Style (Hal Stacks). His grass cutting is always neat, orderly and on a perfect diagonal. I am the other hand would be what Hal Stacks Working Style assessment refers to as the expressive working style, as noticed by the grass cutting style. Expressives need variety, and thrive on creativity and expression.
So, next time you go for a walk, notice how you neighbors cut the grass. And what about you? What does your yard say about how you work?

Words of Wisdom from Winnie the Pooh

If you are talking to someone and they are not listening, be patient. Maybe he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.” Winnie-the-pooh.
Isn’t this a great reminder of the importance in being patient in our conversations with others? As a consultant facilitating teams through dialogue and team building processes, I often see the challenges in communication, one being listening and another being patience.
Our world is often a “results now” environment, and communication does not necessarily work at the speed of light. For effective dialogue and building mutual understanding, we must take time to listen, and ask the right questions.
Here are a few tips to build patience in communication:
• Be interested in the process (the communication itself), not just the outcome
• Every time you find yourself jumping to a solution in your head, ask another question. The best questions are those that are open ended (begin with ‘who, what, where, when, why and how’).
• Implement the three second rule - wait three seconds before responding.
• If you are not clear on what has been said, ask a question to clarify instead of making an assumption. Assumptions are typically incorrect.
• Consider this- listening is a gift you give to the other person, and it is often reciprocated back to you.

Are your VALUES showing?

Are your values showing? If you answered yes to this, I am sending you a huge standing ovation!
So often I see company values hanging on a faded paper in the boardroom or on the busy bulletin board that no one looks at, or worse yet- hidden between the covers of the white binder, or in a place that no one can find them.
Organizations’ whose values are showing often have some of these qualities:
- Employees and leaders know the values, they can remember or recite them, better yet- they live them
- The values statements are powerful and real (not just words)
- Employees and leaders feel connected to the values
- There is a sense of connectedness to the company values

5 Tips to Showing Your Values:
- Proudly display your company values in areas that are prominent, and display them in a way that encourages pride (not on a faded paper on the busy bulletin board)
- Use the values in your discussions, make them part of your dialogue
- Invite discussions about how people live the values
- Recognize congruency (when people walk the talk)
- Ensure employees know the values (and that they are documented in a way that is easy to recite)

4 Wheel Learning

This month I had the honor and privilege of hearing Zig Ziglar speak live, and to meet him. For many years I have heard his wise quotes, and read his work so meeting him was most exciting. In his presentation three take away messages continue to challenge me daily to stay on track. Zig stated that you can have everything you want in life, as long as you are helping others achieve what it is they want in life. What a great philosophy. Zig also talked about the importance of congruence between your actions and your values. This was a powerful reminder of being present and checking in with ourselves that our actions are aligned with our values. The third reminder was what Zig calls University on Wheels, I think of it as four wheel learning. Travelling can be a good time to catch up on reading newsletters, industry related publications and professional/personal development materials. Listening to educational books on CD is a great way to learn while you are on the road. Zig Ziglar continues to read three hours a day to develop himself personally and professionally. Whether it is three hours or one hour, I believe what is most important is our consistency and commitment to lifelong learning. It not only helps us, but gives us more to share with others.