What You Know Now

Don't you wish you knew then what you know now about business, teams and success?
As a corporate trainer and professional speaker, one of the questions I enjoy asking the audience is "what do you know now that you wished you knew then?"  When I am speaking at leadership events this question is about leadership.  When I am speaking about team building the question is about teams.  Regardless of the topic, the question generates rich responses.
Recently, my answer to this question was published in the Secret Entourage article "63 Things Entrepreneurs wished they knew at age 21".  You can scroll down and read my tips in this article.
http://www.secretentourage.com/entrepreneur/63-things-entrepreneurs-wish-they-knew-at-age-21/
What do you know now that can help someone be successful in their business, as a leader or in their team?  I would love to hear your pearls of wisdom.  Let me know your tips and we'll publish them in a future blog.  I know that some of the best learning comes from having the experience, surviving a challenge, or making a mistake and growing through the experience.
Recently in a team building workshop I asked the question "what do you know now that you wished you knew then about being a team member?"  Here's what I heard:

• Teamwork takes work!
• We must be flexible.
• Teamwork requires flexibility.
• For a healthy team, you must work through issues as they surface.
• When you are passionate and have a common goal, the team is stronger.

This is a great question to ask at a team meeting, training or in a supervision conversation.

Now You Tell Me!

I have often found myself thinking about my career. Where I started, the people I have met, where I am now, where I am going to. The one firm conclusion I have come to this; I sure with I knew then what I know now...especially about Teamwork.

I am very fortunate as a corporate trainer and professional speaker. The audiences are always diverse and I learn so much from them. Because I have so often contemplated my learning through my career, one of the discussions I facilitate in my training is the question, "what do you know now about teamwork that you wished you knew then?" Here are some of the brilliant answers I have received to this question that we can all learn from.

1. I am not an expert on everything like I sometimes think I am.
2. Everyone has a voice.
3. There is a fine difference between being aggressive and being assertive.
4. Learning how to manage differences in ethics is important.
5. To be comfortable without having all the answers.
6. Not to take things personally.
7. Choose your battles.
8. The older you get, the less you know.
9. What bugs us about other people provides us an opportunity to look at ourselves, they are just mirrors for us.
10. conflict only gets worse when you don't address or resolve it.
11. Clear expectations will solve a lot of problems.
12. Values and work ethics sometimes differ from your own.
13. To be curious and to ASK.
14. Not to be threatened by conflict.
15. It is actually respectful to give feedback.

I hope that there is some insight here for everyone who reads it. If you have your own answer, please don't hesitate to share. Our learning is never done and we have so much to learn from each other.

Please Don't Repeat That!

Have you ever had the opportunity to ask someone to pay really close attention to how you speak in conversations? Maybe it was to type out word for word a recorded conversation or presentation you made. You should because this is such a powerful learning opportunity.

Recently, I asked my Executive Concierge, Shannon Berry, type up a teleseminar recording for me...word for word. I was pleased to see it was not full of "ahs" or "ums" however, I was shocked to read the number of times I said "So" and "Now". These are filler words just like "ums", "ahs" and "well". They don't add anything to a conversation. In fact, they may actually detract from the conversation. Too many fillers can leave a speaker looking nervous, unprepared, even uncertain of the material they are presenting. Of course, this is not necessarily true but, it will most likely have the audience thinking these things.

Communication and presentation skills always require practicing and critiquing. It is interesting because it makes you aware of the filler words that add nothing but take up valuable space in a conversation. I encourage you, just for fun, and of course for learning, to tape record some of your conversations or presentations and see what you can discover about yourself. Make note of the words you hear yourself repeating, count how many times you say them. Ask yourself, does the repetition of this word add or take away from my message? Develop a plan, some way that you can be reminded when you start to repeat that word or even other words. We often tend to use substitutions instead of pure omissions when trying to change. Have a friend or assistant give you some sort of signal when you start to use words repetitively, whatever works best for you and your situation. Life is richer when you continually learn and grow.

Igniting Resilience Video