My new motto is automate everything that’s automatable. I want to be doing what I love to do and that’s my work (which is more like play), research, developing new concepts and ideas and models with which to implement them. I do not want to be spending any more time on administrivia than I have to. The thing is, even when we automate processes, we still have to be ready to launch whatever it is the process will broadcast. Thus the delay. Even though I had asked the question a while back “What would you do if you had an extra 15 minutes every day?” which did, by the way, draw quite a few antagonistic responses, we don’t have that extra 15 minutes every day. So I have to find those 15 minute chunks on the run. And d’you know what? I can and I do!
I was on the phone with one of my editors and when I said to him “Another article? I need lead time, I can’t just churn out 1500 words at such short notice” his response was “Hey Donna, you have a plane trip coming up and I know you write like hell when you’re traveling”. OK. So he knows me really well.
Even though I love technology and think it’s the greatest thing since 7-Up as my dad would say, I never go anywhere anymore without my three small notebooks. Hey I create them for clients, why not use them for me? One is for writing ideas, so whenever a lightbulb goes off about something to write on this blog, one of the other two blogs I contribute to or an article here or there, I jot it down so I’m never short of subject matter. The second notebook is all about leadership; nuances, words that come out of my clients mouths that help define and describe leadership. I write programs around these ideas. And lastly I have one for business ideas. That’s the notebook that’s had a lot more action lately. Every time I have an idea about how to create virtual programs, it goes there.
Now that I have a third of my notebook written and in place, it’s time for Sandra to come and help me automate it. The ideas are mine. The collaborative interaction with user is there. The delivery, however is through technology. So I no longer have to worry that I might be out of town and can’t get a module, article or segment to a client. It’s done automatically. I won’t have to worry about scheduling, calling clients back at the end of the day or any scheduling conflicts. My scheduling will be done through the system, updated on my Outlook and the time slots will be updated regularly. Another piece of the puzzle I don’t have to worry about. Oh I’ll control the chunks of time and what will be available and what won’t be. But the systems in place will do all the work for me and I can now ‘play’.
What a concept!
The message I have for you would be, have you automated everything that’s automatable? Bill paying, website and domain name renewals, memberships on auto-renew…if you’re worried about keeping track, make a note in your Outlook for when the renewal should happen to watch for the email and charges that should be coming through. If you’re concerned about costs, just remember how much of a time eater these tasks are and ask yourself what is your time worth? If you’re a solo or businesspreneur time is money. If you’re wasting it doing things that technology can do for you, then you’re wasting time and money. Make sure you find someone amazing to work with so you’re confident the right technology is put in place and teaches you how to use it inside and out, or have someone in place who can do it for you and away you go!
I’ll let you know how it goes. And once it’s all in place, stay tuned for our newsletter, some new innovative products you’ll have access to and maybe, just maybe some of those products will give you the freedom of mental and time clutter for you to play too!
Best..
Donna Karlin
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
To Learn You Must Know
People look at their worlds through the perspective of what they know. It’s obvious, right? What I love to see is when they discover what they didn’t know and then want to dive into the deep end of it and learn everything they can. That’s the best part of being a Shadow Coach; watching awareness as it dawns.
It happens to me on a regular basis. When I’m teaching seasoned experienced coaches and look at paradigms, concepts, ways of being and touch on something that had never occurred to them before, all of a sudden the energy in the room is tangible; enthusiasm so intense you can almost ‘taste’ it. Now what if leadership brought that to an organization? Not only would staff want to dive in with both feet, but they know instinctively that through every day they’d learn something that would shift their developmental level exponentially. Now what would one have to do to make that happen?
The first thought that comes to mind is to dialogue and often. Not meetings that drain everyone in the room of any energy they might have arrived with at the start of the day but a true brainstorming dialogue to create and listen to ideas and experiences they never heard or thought of before and to explore the possibilities.
What if, instead of regular meetings, there were creative sessions once a week or bi-weekly that brought out the best of every individual around the table, no matter role or responsibility? What if we went way beyond that? I started reading the book Wikinomics which talks about harnessing the knowledge, perspectives and insights of people from all over the world, not just within the boardroom. Could you imagine how powerful that would be?
Possibilities are endless. But what steps would you have to take to make that happen and then do something with the outcome? Ahh now that’s a whole other conversation for another time. It’s call paying attention to what unfolds.
Best!
Donna Karlin
*A few notes: As I'm constantly asked by coaches, students and businesspreneaurs alike what I use for my graphics work, my postcards, logos etc, not to mention the technology I use in my work, I updated my Coach Tools of the Trade site with all my recommendations. Go to Coach Tools of the Trade to check it out.
Secondly, stay tuned for an upcoming invitation to connect with people from all over the world through 'Perspectives'. Let's see in real time just how powerful it could be to bring people together from all over the world.
Lastly, now and then through my blog I'll be recommending books, websites, new software I've come across that might just meet a need or two of my clients and readers. One such discovery deals with memory improvement. I can't tell you how many times in a day I'm asked if I know any way to improve memory retention, especially when it comes to names! Check out this software. Memory Improvement Techniques It'll go a long way in helping you retrieve that information that seems to have gone poof into the night or the quiet recesses of your mind.
A great book that really packs a punch is Wikinomics. You'll never look at brainstorming and sharing knowledge in the same way again! And for a blogger who has subscribers from 99 countries and territories it makes a world of sense and yet still leaves me with a sense that even more is possible.
It happens to me on a regular basis. When I’m teaching seasoned experienced coaches and look at paradigms, concepts, ways of being and touch on something that had never occurred to them before, all of a sudden the energy in the room is tangible; enthusiasm so intense you can almost ‘taste’ it. Now what if leadership brought that to an organization? Not only would staff want to dive in with both feet, but they know instinctively that through every day they’d learn something that would shift their developmental level exponentially. Now what would one have to do to make that happen?
The first thought that comes to mind is to dialogue and often. Not meetings that drain everyone in the room of any energy they might have arrived with at the start of the day but a true brainstorming dialogue to create and listen to ideas and experiences they never heard or thought of before and to explore the possibilities.
What if, instead of regular meetings, there were creative sessions once a week or bi-weekly that brought out the best of every individual around the table, no matter role or responsibility? What if we went way beyond that? I started reading the book Wikinomics which talks about harnessing the knowledge, perspectives and insights of people from all over the world, not just within the boardroom. Could you imagine how powerful that would be?
Possibilities are endless. But what steps would you have to take to make that happen and then do something with the outcome? Ahh now that’s a whole other conversation for another time. It’s call paying attention to what unfolds.
Best!
Donna Karlin
*A few notes: As I'm constantly asked by coaches, students and businesspreneaurs alike what I use for my graphics work, my postcards, logos etc, not to mention the technology I use in my work, I updated my Coach Tools of the Trade site with all my recommendations. Go to Coach Tools of the Trade to check it out.
Secondly, stay tuned for an upcoming invitation to connect with people from all over the world through 'Perspectives'. Let's see in real time just how powerful it could be to bring people together from all over the world.
Lastly, now and then through my blog I'll be recommending books, websites, new software I've come across that might just meet a need or two of my clients and readers. One such discovery deals with memory improvement. I can't tell you how many times in a day I'm asked if I know any way to improve memory retention, especially when it comes to names! Check out this software. Memory Improvement Techniques It'll go a long way in helping you retrieve that information that seems to have gone poof into the night or the quiet recesses of your mind.
A great book that really packs a punch is Wikinomics. You'll never look at brainstorming and sharing knowledge in the same way again! And for a blogger who has subscribers from 99 countries and territories it makes a world of sense and yet still leaves me with a sense that even more is possible.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Realizing Potential
Leaders are alchemists of vision and potential --- i.e. potentialists. They’re also chess players and understand that all the pieces, or their people, move differently. Each individual leaves an impact all their own. True leaders discover what is unique about each individual, capitalize on it, and assign roles and tasks based on that uniqueness. The trick is not compromising these unique talents and strengths while at the same time creating and defining a vision and commonality that brings all the uniqueness together in order to move the organization and its people forward.
Budding leaders will take jobs based on people and leave their jobs because of people. They will be inspired by leadership or turned off by the lack of it. Ask yourself this “What if you could transform your organization by the very next act you undertake?” How would your leadership be transformed if you asked yourself that question on a regular basis? A benchmark of sorts.
Coaches are potentialists. We bring out the best in our clients based on their talents and strengths and, as a Shadow Coach™ what’s even more powerful is when I am able to make my clients aware of talents they hadn’t recognized before. We all have shadow personalities. Often we suppress them believing we need to demonstrate a specific façade or way of being based on our roles and responsibilities. How much richer would our leadership be if we brought all facets of ourselves to the table, thereby speaking to the personalities of all those we work with, not just a select few?
Think for a moment.....what hidden talents do you have that you would love to explore more of but just don't have time to, don't think anyone would be interested in them, or think they're nothing unique and even if you could do 'it' it's nothing out of the ordinary so you don't even try?
People become who they might be when they let go of who they are. Don't try to box yourself in. Open the cover and let yourself go to fly wherever your passions want to take you. Once you're in alignment with your passions nothing will stop you. And if you're a leader and see a glimpse of this in someone in your organization, encourage them, inspire them and give them a safe place to let those passions and talents take flight.
Best!
Donna Karlin
Budding leaders will take jobs based on people and leave their jobs because of people. They will be inspired by leadership or turned off by the lack of it. Ask yourself this “What if you could transform your organization by the very next act you undertake?” How would your leadership be transformed if you asked yourself that question on a regular basis? A benchmark of sorts.
Coaches are potentialists. We bring out the best in our clients based on their talents and strengths and, as a Shadow Coach™ what’s even more powerful is when I am able to make my clients aware of talents they hadn’t recognized before. We all have shadow personalities. Often we suppress them believing we need to demonstrate a specific façade or way of being based on our roles and responsibilities. How much richer would our leadership be if we brought all facets of ourselves to the table, thereby speaking to the personalities of all those we work with, not just a select few?
Think for a moment.....what hidden talents do you have that you would love to explore more of but just don't have time to, don't think anyone would be interested in them, or think they're nothing unique and even if you could do 'it' it's nothing out of the ordinary so you don't even try?
People become who they might be when they let go of who they are. Don't try to box yourself in. Open the cover and let yourself go to fly wherever your passions want to take you. Once you're in alignment with your passions nothing will stop you. And if you're a leader and see a glimpse of this in someone in your organization, encourage them, inspire them and give them a safe place to let those passions and talents take flight.
Best!
Donna Karlin
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Owning Your Behavior
Many read books, articles, and stories in the newspaper and magazines and can always pick on someone else as an example a bully or an arrogant individual or an inconsiderate S.O.B. however if the article speaks of something amazing, all the examples seem to be about them, not someone else. They own those wonders and successes. They just won’t own any of what they consider negative aspects of behavior. It’s always someone else.
They’ll speak of these individuals as “they” or “you” or that “other person” or “I know someone who” but it’s never them who hurt or disregarded, abused, ignored or treated with no respect whatsoever. It’s always the other person or what that person assumed or thought… never the truth.
People are so intriguing. If you tell them about someone’s success, they’ll start telling you how they did it, thought of it, or invented it years before. When you tell them of someone who’s an amazing leader they start sharing their personal successes and yet when you share something about passive aggressive behavior, neediness, those who treat others with disregard, disrespect etc, they’ll point out numerous others who they know or heard of who demonstrate those behaviors but they won’t own, or equate themselves with or take responsibility for when they emulate those same behaviors. If they don’t own them, then they won’t have to do anything about them.
Just as fascinating is when they can’t understand why others won’t put up with them and their behavior any longer for it’s always someone else’s fault, their impressions, assumptions. It’s never them.
Why is that exactly?
Because if they do take ownership of inappropriate ways of being and not do anything about it, there will be no one to fault other than themselves. They can no longer place blame. They have to own blame.
Next time you find yourself saying something like “If you feel I did something hurtful then I’m sorry” or “I understand that you might think that and interpret it that way” you’re relinquishing all responsibility for your actions, words, ways of being and pretty much saying “I have no intention of doing anything about it so if you feel badly I’m sorry but nothing will change.”
Responding as such is indicative enough. If you want to be a part of a team, then pay attention to your behavior good and bad and own both, and if you’re in a personal relationship with someone who openly shares a hurt or a want and throw it back by saying something that minimizes it and shows you really don’t care enough to do anything about it, then you’ll be left by the wayside. Before you know it people will come and quickly go and leave you in a world of blamelessness and no responsibility of actions. You won’t need either if you have no one in your life other than you.
Tossing people away, well there are many ways to do that…through silence, indifference, and not taking responsibility for anything hurtful you do. It’s easy to give lip service to someone but what you do with your words and promises will be the proof of the pudding so to speak. Promising change in the workplace and not living up to it, allowing inappropriate behavior to continue will ensure a mass exodus of all the talent. Doing the same in your personal life will ensure you won’t have one at all.
Food for thought or even better, food for action!
Best.
Donna Karlin
*Note: Welcome 99th subscriber from Nicaragua! We hope you stay a while and share your thoughts and insights with us.
They’ll speak of these individuals as “they” or “you” or that “other person” or “I know someone who” but it’s never them who hurt or disregarded, abused, ignored or treated with no respect whatsoever. It’s always the other person or what that person assumed or thought… never the truth.
People are so intriguing. If you tell them about someone’s success, they’ll start telling you how they did it, thought of it, or invented it years before. When you tell them of someone who’s an amazing leader they start sharing their personal successes and yet when you share something about passive aggressive behavior, neediness, those who treat others with disregard, disrespect etc, they’ll point out numerous others who they know or heard of who demonstrate those behaviors but they won’t own, or equate themselves with or take responsibility for when they emulate those same behaviors. If they don’t own them, then they won’t have to do anything about them.
Just as fascinating is when they can’t understand why others won’t put up with them and their behavior any longer for it’s always someone else’s fault, their impressions, assumptions. It’s never them.
Why is that exactly?
Because if they do take ownership of inappropriate ways of being and not do anything about it, there will be no one to fault other than themselves. They can no longer place blame. They have to own blame.
Next time you find yourself saying something like “If you feel I did something hurtful then I’m sorry” or “I understand that you might think that and interpret it that way” you’re relinquishing all responsibility for your actions, words, ways of being and pretty much saying “I have no intention of doing anything about it so if you feel badly I’m sorry but nothing will change.”
Responding as such is indicative enough. If you want to be a part of a team, then pay attention to your behavior good and bad and own both, and if you’re in a personal relationship with someone who openly shares a hurt or a want and throw it back by saying something that minimizes it and shows you really don’t care enough to do anything about it, then you’ll be left by the wayside. Before you know it people will come and quickly go and leave you in a world of blamelessness and no responsibility of actions. You won’t need either if you have no one in your life other than you.
Tossing people away, well there are many ways to do that…through silence, indifference, and not taking responsibility for anything hurtful you do. It’s easy to give lip service to someone but what you do with your words and promises will be the proof of the pudding so to speak. Promising change in the workplace and not living up to it, allowing inappropriate behavior to continue will ensure a mass exodus of all the talent. Doing the same in your personal life will ensure you won’t have one at all.
Food for thought or even better, food for action!
Best.
Donna Karlin
*Note: Welcome 99th subscriber from Nicaragua! We hope you stay a while and share your thoughts and insights with us.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Throwing People Away
Have you thrown anyone away recently? Someone who works for you, someone in your family, a friend…someone you’re dating or even married to? Did you need to read this to realise you might have?
Relationships can be defined as “a state of connectedness between people”. One can compartmentalize relationships into categories such as work relationships, personal relationship’ all levels and degrees of each. The bottom line is it’s a connection, an association whether by blood, virtue of working with others, new or old friendships or intimate personal relationships. How we respect those relationships determines whether or not they will be sustained, long-term relationships or turn into the superficial ‘have as little to do with these individuals’ interactions.
For some reason, many take relationships for granted to the point where they throw people away. Right now one of the prevalent themes and issues we’re talking about in the private and public sectors is attracting and retaining talent. If we throw people away by not treating people in a respectful manner, retention isn’t possible. In our personal relationships, whether families, couples, or friendships when we take people for granted, treat them with little respect and don’t show others they’re treasured and valued, we are, in essence ‘throwing them away’. When you turn around and realise these people have disappeared from our lives, more often than not, even if you mend ways in some instances, the original relationship can never be recaptured. Trusting that the other person will not revert back to the old ways is near impossible to recapture. And believe me when I tell you if you do revert back to the old ways you won’t have a chance to do that again. The relationship will more often than not be severed.
As I wrote a long time ago in The Trust Building, trust isn’t broken, it’s shattered. That applies to all relationships no matter how they’re defined.
So here’s a wake-up call to those who are reading this….if you take your colleagues, peers and staff for granted and expect a lot with giving them nothing in return, then you can be sure they won’t be supporting you for long. If it’s family and you’ve treated them as insignificant, they will treat you in kind and disappear from your life in all but a superficial way. If it’s a long time friend who you’re taking for granted and are rarely paying attention or not being very nice to, well, before you know it, those people will have disappeared from your life and you won’t have noticed, well until they’re not there any more. And if it’s someone you’re in a personal relationship with, partner…. spouse, and you stop paying attention, take them for granted and expect they will be there for you by virtue of the connection, they too will disappear and you will have thrown them away. Remember…actions lie louder than words. You can promise the moon and the stars and never come through with anything but your actions will speak volumes. Blame them for running the other way if you want, but the responsibility lies with you.
Best..
Donna Karlin
Relationships can be defined as “a state of connectedness between people”. One can compartmentalize relationships into categories such as work relationships, personal relationship’ all levels and degrees of each. The bottom line is it’s a connection, an association whether by blood, virtue of working with others, new or old friendships or intimate personal relationships. How we respect those relationships determines whether or not they will be sustained, long-term relationships or turn into the superficial ‘have as little to do with these individuals’ interactions.
For some reason, many take relationships for granted to the point where they throw people away. Right now one of the prevalent themes and issues we’re talking about in the private and public sectors is attracting and retaining talent. If we throw people away by not treating people in a respectful manner, retention isn’t possible. In our personal relationships, whether families, couples, or friendships when we take people for granted, treat them with little respect and don’t show others they’re treasured and valued, we are, in essence ‘throwing them away’. When you turn around and realise these people have disappeared from our lives, more often than not, even if you mend ways in some instances, the original relationship can never be recaptured. Trusting that the other person will not revert back to the old ways is near impossible to recapture. And believe me when I tell you if you do revert back to the old ways you won’t have a chance to do that again. The relationship will more often than not be severed.
As I wrote a long time ago in The Trust Building, trust isn’t broken, it’s shattered. That applies to all relationships no matter how they’re defined.
So here’s a wake-up call to those who are reading this….if you take your colleagues, peers and staff for granted and expect a lot with giving them nothing in return, then you can be sure they won’t be supporting you for long. If it’s family and you’ve treated them as insignificant, they will treat you in kind and disappear from your life in all but a superficial way. If it’s a long time friend who you’re taking for granted and are rarely paying attention or not being very nice to, well, before you know it, those people will have disappeared from your life and you won’t have noticed, well until they’re not there any more. And if it’s someone you’re in a personal relationship with, partner…. spouse, and you stop paying attention, take them for granted and expect they will be there for you by virtue of the connection, they too will disappear and you will have thrown them away. Remember…actions lie louder than words. You can promise the moon and the stars and never come through with anything but your actions will speak volumes. Blame them for running the other way if you want, but the responsibility lies with you.
Best..
Donna Karlin
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Feedback: Acting On It Or Parking It?
def. knowledge of the results of any behavior, considered as influencing or modifying further performance.
Feedback....are you acting on it or parking it?
Leadership is changing from 'power based' to 'human based. I see organizations move towards interactive dialogue as opposed to bosses dictating what the staff will do, i.e. 'no ifs ands or buts'. When people in management roles aren’t managing as well as they could, they are often asked to do a 360º feedback exercise to determine their strengths and weaknesses. All too often the results are a surprise, if not shocking. What’s done with these results will determine how successful leadership is.
Feedback should be acted upon, not just shared and forgotten. Much too often I see a manager look to his/her leader to help them evolve into leadership within the organization only to hear "You’re not leader material" or "There’s no way your staff would want you to be promoted. They complain to me all the time about your leadership style or lack of." What has the leader done with that feedback? Validated it? Investigated it? Or had a conversation with the individual about it? Usually not.
Leadership doesn’t mean be in charge when everything is working perfectly and ignore the rest. Leadership means helping people evolve, wrap their heads around the vision of the organization and grow their talents at the same time. It doesn’t mean ignore what isn’t working until you have an issue on your hands that has to be fixed and fast!
Some Tips:
- If you send a staffer for 360º feedback, do yourself and everyone else a favor and arrange to have a coach step in to work on the discovered weaknesses and strengths otherwise the individual who went through the exercise will just make excuses for poor results without doing much about it. Or, worse case scenario, go on stress leave because they couldn’t handle the results.
- Figure out why you’re arranging for a 360º feedback in the first place. Is it to grow individuals into positions of higher leadership or to fix a problem? You need to first determine what you want out of this and what you’re going to do to get it. The 360º is just a tool, not a magic wand.
- Lastly, once you’ve seen the results, what assumptions might you have been making that you’ve acted upon as fact? If you act on assumptions, they will become true. But I’ll leave that for another blog.
Best!
Donna Karlin
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Are Leaders Born, Made or Appointed Because They're There?
OK, so I might push some buttons here but let's face it, too many people are catapulted into positions of leadership by virtue of being there...already being in an organization, meeting hiring quotas according to gender etc. But are they leaders? And can they lead a staff, an organization successfully?
I agree that leaders can be made and many, put into positions to lead in times of crisis for example, show their true colors (to themselves and others) and just fly. Others don't even have managerial skills never mind organizational leadership skills and kill staff one employee at a time. Retention becomes a myth and people run out the door as fast as they can.
So if you're thinking of promoting a relative just because they're a part of the family and you trust them, or someone from within because it meets your quota, or, as in some instances, promoting from within because you couldn't be bothered to do the work of searching for the right candidate, think good and hard at the cost of that move. Statistics are blatantly against success in those circumstances and the cost to your organization, both financial and morale-wise is huge!
For example, for people who make $150,000 a year, the financial expense for wasting time due to lack of leadership, absenses, people leaving and having to be replaced etc. runs in the range of $25,350. No, that's not per year, it's per month! If there are multiple cases like this, well, you get the picture.
Choose your leaders wisely. Make sure they're a good fit not only for the organization but its internal culture. I share this criteria with my clients when they're looking to fill leading positions and ask them "Which category is each person (who is competing for the job) in?
- Will the staff be dependent on that person to get the job done (inter-dependent)?
- Will the staff develop by working with that leader (inter-developmental)?
- Will the relationship between staff and this leader be inter-magical? i.e. the energy and passion within the organization will be tangible. People will want to work there and with this individual because they know they'll fly and will fight to work with this person.
- Who do you want in your organization? Someone who creates the inter-magical or someone who's convenient?
It's not only about leadership, it's about energy, enthusiasm, building a sustainable environment where staff will thrive and creating a culture whereby people will fight to get in, not out!
Best..
Donna Karlin
*Note: Welcome new subscriber from Cameroon! That's 98 countries and territories and counting!
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