Can you join me for Lunch on Thursday, February 23 12:00 Noon – 1:00 PM. It’s free and we will get a chance to chew and chat…
Click to register – Join me for Lunch
Be Brilliant,
STB
Leadershift
February 20th, 2012
Simply put, Leadershift, is having a high disregard for conventional thinking and intentionally disrupting the standard operating procedures in an effort to realign heads, hearts, and hands.
The alternative is managing the status quo and doing things the way they have always been done. Leadershift, is realizing there will come a time when you will have to break with the old to embrace the new, to let go of what is comfortable and convenient in order to grow and expand.
Most recently, I had lunch with legendary motivational speaker Zig Ziglar and Jean, his wife of sixty-two years. I said to him, “Mr. Ziglar, what is the most important kernel of truth that I can share with people all over the world?” At 84 years of age, with the strength of a gladiator and the timeless wisdom of a sage, he looked at me without missing a beat and said “when you help enough people get what they want, then enough people will help you get what you want.”
Leadershift, is not what you want, it’s what your team wants and helping them get it every day in every way. What is dream of your team? What is their potential, what are their aspirations, and what inspires them to compete another day?
What happens when a person doesn’t want to rock the boat, likes the status quo, and counting the days to retirement? Then you have what I call – Leadersham! That’s right. Leadersham is a word that I created to describe a boss with an agenda instead of a leader with a vision. Here’s the difference between a LeaderShift and a LeaderSham:
LeaderSham LeaderShift™
| Tells you what to think | Ask you what you think |
| Is always right | Releases the need to be right
|
| Points out what’s wrong with you | Knows what’s right about you |
| Tolerates you | Celebrates you
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| Has selective hearing | Is an authentic listener
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| Mantra is “it’s all about me” | Mantra is “it’s all about us” |
|
Daydreams about vertical ascension |
Is fine with horizontal reinvention
|
| Presents your ideas as their own | Credits you for your ideas
|
| Throws you under the bus | Drives the bus and makes sure you have a front row seat
|
| Will only tell you “how” because it helps them | Will tell you “why” because it helps you |
| Is an annoying echo | Is an original voice
|
| Loves dependent thinkers. Why? It feeds their ego. | Loves independent thinkers. Why? It stretches them. |
| Hides behind e-mail to lead.
|
Leads by direct contact and rarely e-mail |
Which one are you? Here are three insights for you to embrace Leadershift:
Embrace “NO” – I once heard someone say “If you want to be a success, you have to get used to frequently hearing the word no and ignoring it. 98% of adults are conditioned to stop when they hear the word no. If you want to be in the top 2%, you have to get real. Do not let somebody’s arbitrary no stop you. Find a creative way to sidestep the no.” Just hearing a no will force you to think. Leadershift refuse to accept no and will find a way to protect their thoughts from stinking thinkers and get things done.
Make meaning in addition to money – Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor at HarvardBusinessSchool said in a recent Harvard Business Review, “Great companies identify something larger than transactions or business portfolios to provide purpose and meaning. Meaning-making is a central function of leaders, and purpose gives coherence to the organization.” I believe that meaning-making is understanding what makes a team of professionals tick and creating an environment for them to make a brilliant difference.
Surround Yourself with a Diversity of Thought - Look at your inner circle. Does everyone look like you, think like you and talk like you? If so, then you may be limited to what they know. Diversity is more than ethnicity, gender, or religious preference. Diversity of thought is being surrounded by people who will provide a different perspective to traditional thinking. Leaders who are surrounded by people who only tell them what they want to hear may miss critical input from others who disagree.
Today, if you are a leader with or without a title, you’ve received an invitation to shift. If you accept it then you will release leadership brilliance.
Join me for Lunch on February 23, 2012 (12:00 Noon – 1:00 PM EST), I am presenting an interactive online session called Vuja de – Shift Your Thinking and Accelerate Your Results at Learn It Live
Register here for this Free event:
http://www.learnitlive.com/class/1802/Vuja-de-Shift-Your-Thinking-Accelerate-Your-Results
Experience a Live Webinar with Simon T. Bailey
February 15th, 2012
On February 23, 2012 (12:00 noon – 1:00 PM EST), I am presenting Vuja de – Shift Your Thinking and Accelerate Your Results in an interactive online session at Learn It Live (learn more about it at http://wellness.learnitlive.com).
Register for this free webinar at http://www.learnitlive.com/class/1802/Vuja-de-Shift-Your-Thinking-Accelerate-Your-Results
Besides coming to my talk, you’ll be able to connect face-to-face online and interact with some of the world’s top experts, authors, and speakers in the health and nutrition field. These interactive sessions are all provided free of charge with the aim of fostering a movement of greater health, happiness, and success among people all over the world. So please help spread the word and let more people know about these incredible sessions!
Customer Ownership – It’s Just Common Sense!
February 13th, 2012
A piece of meat…rare and uncooked. That’s how I often feel when running errands with my twelve-year-old son. We go to simple places – the bookstore, bank, car wash, dry cleaners, post office, grocery store, and of course, the movies (a favorite of mine during my downtimes). The service people don’t smile. They act as if I’m a bother. As a consumer, I feel used. “Give us your money and be gone,” is the message from many service establishments. They don’t say these words of course, but the vibrations I pick up speak volumes. Here I am, spending my hard-earned dollars, and all I’m wanting is a smile, a “Hello” and a little “TLC.” Can you relate?
I’m not one of those needy customers who demands that everyone hop to their feet when I walk into the room. I just want someone to “own” me as a customer for a moment in time. And it’s not just about me, either. I wonder what these encounters are teaching my son about how customer service is supposed to be given and received.
In another instance, my wife called a service business to ask that they fix a problem. She was passed around to three different people, but the problem was never resolved. So, she called back and asked to speak with a manager. She was put on hold and no one ever came back to the phone. When she called a third time and explained her situation and what she needed, the person hung up on her. That’s right! There was no power failure or dropped call. The person on the other end simply didn’t want to talk to her or help resolve her issue. Can you imagine? I wish I had to make this stuff up, but it’s 100% true.
Now mind you, we’ve paid this company thousands of dollars over a number of years. But the one time we needed them to fix a problem, we reached people who didn’t care – people who were unenthused, unmotivated and uninspired to take ownership of the situation and make something happen.
I could have picked up the phone and called the executives that I knew at this company to complain about their horrible customer service, but I didn’t. Why? They’ve heard it before. They already know they have bad service. They know their employees don’t take ownership of problems and instead pass the buck. They know that a bad attitude permeates the nooks and crannies of their organization.
Would you believe that we received a phone call a few days later from a survey company asking about our experience with this service provider? You can probably imagine what I told them! Needless to say, we’re exploring other options and will be making a change.
I’m convinced that an unhappy work environment creates unhappy employees who don’t give a rip about customers. These employees consider each interaction with a customer as nothing more than a transaction. Their thinking is, “There’s no need for me to engage this customer in dialogue because he/she will be out of my hair in a few minutes, and I can go back to thinking about what I’m going to do after work.”
I’m equally convinced that organizations with high morale, enthusiasm and mojo instill a sense of customer ownership in the hearts and minds of their employees. These organizations understand that customer service is a direct reflection of leadership and training, so they hire for attitude and train for success. As a result, their employees gladly take care of their customers because they have an ownership mindset instead of a transactional mindset.
According to The Wharton School’s David Sirota and Louis Mischkind, who based their findings on 30 years of research involving 2.5 million employees in 237 companies, organizations with high morale outperform their competitors by roughly 20 percent. In contrast, companies whose employees are discouraged and do only enough work to get by, suffer when it comes to results.
To release service brilliance, organizations have to continually teach employees that long-term success comes from owning the customer relationship. Employees who deal with customers on a transactional basis fix problems for the moment (if even that). Conversely, employees who embrace customer ownership go beyond fixing problems and create solutions that provide long-term value for the customer. These service professionals become experts in meeting customers’ needs. The customer relationship expands, bringing the customer back time and time again. I know this is common sense, but successful organizations make it common practice and therein lies the difference.
Here are some additional ways to create a customer ownership mindset with employees:
- Create and conduct a financial intelligence course for your employees. Educate them about how money is made in your company. As a part of this training, teach employees what customers are worth to the business so they will clearly understand that everything that happens in the customer experience ultimately affects their personal wallets. If they don’t know how to save money by “saving” customers, they will squander it.
- Set service employees up for success by equipping them with the proper tools to own the customer. This could mean implementing a customer-relationship software system that provides customers’ histories, their preferences and perhaps even their likes and dislikes.
- Empower your employees to fix customer problems immediately instead of having to seek out a manager for approval. If employees receive a complaint, they should own it and accept personal responsibility for solving it. If they encounter a challenge, they can ask for help, but they should still own that customer and that problem.
If passing a customer call from one person to another is an absolute necessity, make certain that the customer is transitioned smoothly from one service professional to another and that the customer’s needs and expectations are fully explained. - Ask employees for ways the customer relationship can be improved. Find out what they’re hearing from customers. Pay attention, because what you don’t know can cost you dearly in the long run.
Simon Says…Customer Ownership is just good common sense. Go ahead and make it common practice.
Unlocking the Genius within You!
February 6th, 2012
Have you ever wondered why some people seemingly get all the breaks, have all the good looks, find all the great opportunities, and achieve all the success they desire? They live their lives in such a way that people beat a path to their doorstep. I used to wonder about that a lot. Why them and not me?
My research led me to even more questions: What is brilliance? Why is it important to release it? How does it make a difference in the world? Simply put, releasing your brilliance means releasing the genius within you. It’s living from the inside out – it’s finding your inner light and letting it shine for the whole world to see.
Every child is born with brilliant genius. No one is overlooked. No one is untouched. The essence of brilliance is in all of us, including you. When we are young, the world cherishes and celebrates our genius, our special gifts and talents. But as we grow older, our brilliance loses its luster.
Howard Gardner, Professor of Education at Harvard, has studied intelligence for more than 20 years, and has developed methods to test the multiple intelligences of humans from birth to adulthood. (For more on this research and the concept of multiple intelligences, read Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner.) Through research, Gardner and his colleagues found that virtually all of the children they tested were at the genius level through the age of four. However, by age 20, only 10 percent of the same children were at the genius level, and over age 20, the number dropped to two percent!
It makes you wonder: what happened to the children’s genius? Where did it go?
Actually, it didn’t go anywhere. It’s still there, but it’s hidden deep within them. People are born brilliant and then spend the rest of their lives having their brilliance buried by virtually everyone around them.
My mission is to unlock the genius inside of you and to rekindle the light that has been dimmed.
This is just an excerpt from my book Release Your Brilliance. You can download a free chapter at the following: www.releaseyourbrilliance.com
Be Brilliant,
STB
Be Brilliant – Average is not an Option
January 30th, 2012
You know it and I know it that a new future is waiting to emerge for you and your business. It’s time to be brilliant by cracking open the door of your mind and being exposed to a fresh wind of new possibilities that were created in the midst of uncertainty.
Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat, said in a recent New York Times Op-Ed column (, “In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius. Therefore, everyone needs to find their extra – their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment. Average is over.”
What is the opportunity that stands before all of us in the midst of a gravitational pull to be average? I believe it’s the call to Be Brilliant! Here are a few tips for you to implement:
Habits are more important than setting goals – You hear all the motivation and personal development experts say “set a goal.” Blah…blah…whatever… I have discovered that there are some goals I set and didn’t reach. Why? Was it because I was dumb, slow, or excluded from the lucky sperm bank? No. When you do something over and over again and don’t need to think about it, then it becomes ingrained in your subconscious as a permanent behavior. When you have the desire or a goal that is deeply important to you, but never change your habits the goal will never become a reality. A habit forms a belief and belief creates behavior and behavior produces an outcome. Change your habits. Change your life.
Creativity Rocks – An IBM study of 1500’s CEO’s from 66 countries and 30 different industries both public and private sector states that creativity and innovation are the key attributes that will keep their companies relevant and competitive. What are you going to produce something significant? Creativity can simply start with asking questions. Yo Yo Ma states, “Every day I move towards what I don’t know.” If you can’t purchase books on creativity, then find the local library and study for free. No more excuses. It’s time for you to shift from being average to being brilliant.
Thou Shalt Produce Results – Gone are the days when people could skate by on producing dismal results, lackluster performance, and anemic strategies with no accountability. Everything in business is under microscopic investigation. Produce or be invited to find your happiness elsewhere. Recently, I was leading a session for 40 executives of a major Fortune 500 company that was already No. 1 in its region. However, the president made it very clear that while celebrating its past successes, each person needed to have the hair on the back of their neck standing up as they contemplated how they will drive results for the new fiscal year.
My friend, I submit to you that this is the moment that you’ve been waiting for and one that will require you to be brilliant no matter what you read in the paper or hear on the news.
Leave a Dent in Your Company Universe
January 23rd, 2012
We are living in a time when individuals working for a legacy brand company must find a way to stand head and shoulders above the noisy marketplace. These men and women who seek to escape the sea of sameness have awaken to the fact that tenure alone doesn’t guarantee future employment. In spirit of Jerry Maguire “show me the money” or better yet deliver the results and survive for another quarter.
As a twenty year sales professional, in the early part of my career, I often thought that brand name of the company would sell itself and as a clip board hugger, my job was to write the order, probe lightly by talking about family, weather and sports, then get out of these as quickly as possible. Then, one day my boss told me that I was losing market-share and that the big guys from corporate were scrutinizing individual production of salespeople in the field. Suddenly I realized that producing was not going to be a walk in the park.
I needed to become a mini-brand first as a sales professional and soon to be a sales leader representing a major brand – The Walt Disney Company which was a $63 Billion dollar juggernaut with over 150,000 employees worldwide. It reminds of the quote from author Seth Godin – “A brand is a way of identifying and communicating what makes you a star and using those qualities to separate yourself from the herd will increase your success.”
Here are the four insights on how to leave a dent in your company universe:
Stop selling and Start connecting- You have two ears and one mouth and that is for a reason. Listen twice as much as your talk. Okay, that’s old and has been around for a while. However, here is the 21st century spin on this thinking – selling is transaction but authentic connecting leads to a relationship. My friend Jeffrey Gitomer says that “no likes to be sold anything but they do like to buy.” Learn how to connect through questions, research, curiosity and strategy which further deepens the relationship.
Become an Expert – Have you ever met someone whose information was a mile long but an inch deep. After probing for a while, you realized that they didn’t know any more than you did. However, the individuals that intentionally did the hard work, went to the meetings, kept at it long after everyone was gone home for the evening became the go to person for XYZ company. Why? When no one was looking they were preparing mentally to become the best of the best.
Team includes me – Many people join a company and like the fact of being responsible for their results. However, those who rise to the top in professional and non-professional roles find a way to extend themselves to their team mates. By lending a hand to complete an assignment, execute an initiative, or share best practices. Nevertheless, it is the emotional commitment to go the extra mile without keeping score but supporting them because it is right.
Establish a Mental Fitness Plan – Leaders are readers and readers are leaders. Decide you intend to grow the economy of your mind. Taking time to learn, grow, and having courage to bounce back are the critical keys to establishing a positive imprint as a sales or non-sales professional. Carve out crucial time to create a new muscle memory that will be benefit you for days to come. Take care of yourself so that you can take care of others.
Making a dent in the Universe of your company is a daily decision that requires daily action. Make today count and Be Brilliant!
Occupy the Moment
January 17th, 2012
Welcome to the New Normal! This is the moment when you will stand up on your own two feet and make something happen. No one is going to hold your hand, babysit, and listen to lame excuses about why you can’t grow the economy of your mind. This is the moment when you will have to kick out the mental tenant of wait-and-see, and invite in the new tenant “Go and Get it”. This is the moment when you send an internal IM (instant message) to your central nervous system “I AM GOING TO MAKE THIS MOMENT COUNT!”
Dr. Daniel Kahneman (Professor Emeritus at Princeton University), Nobel Prize Laureate in his ground breaking research discovered that there are 20,000 moments in a day. When I first came across of this brilliant factoid, a voice within me said that a moment creates momentum and momentum creates monumental results. However, being the quick study that you are, you realize that the root word for momentum is “moment.” If you don’t make your moments then someone else will make it for you. How so? If you don’t have a vision, you will ultimately live out the vision of someone else.
As the most important occupant of your future who is full of energy and vitality, grab hold to the steering wheel of your today and drive into the future at your own pace. Do not be rushed or pushed by the federal government, Wall Street, Hollywood, Madison Ave or 10 Downing Street. You cannot afford to let anyone or anything occupy your life unless it is making a direct contribution to your growth and development.
Here are several new mental tenants that need to occupy your moment…
Become the Czar of PR (Personal Responsibility) – A Czar is a person exercising great authority or power in a particular field or industry. Study your industry inside and out and decide how you intend to own it, refine it, and leave your imprint. As a professional you need to become known as the go to person who will not only get it done, but is also advancing the thinking in your field.
Become a Business Environmentalist – As you know, an environmentalist works to protect the air, water, animals, plants, and natural resources from pollution. I know that you can almost sense the metaphorical application. Challenge those who feel the need to release negative toxins of thinking and energy into the atmosphere. How? Say to them “when you said XYZ, it made me think that you were negative. Is that the way you want me to think about you in this place of business?” Notice you didn’t tell them that they were negative, you were just inviting them to take a look in the mirror.
Become Project-Based Minded – Mostly recently, I spoke at the SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management) annual meeting with 15,000 HR professionals from 72 countries. They are predicting that within the next 3-5 years a Project-Based economy will be the order of the day. Simply put, a person will go to work as an independent contractor to work on an assignment with a team of similar individuals. They will work on the project and be paid accordingly. As the project is winding down, the independent contractors will be dispersed, given a United States Internal Revenue Service #1099 Tax statement, and may or may not be invited to the next project.
Become an online learning addict – In the new normal, there is no excuse why a person shouldn’t know something or possess a particular skill. That excuse is lame, tired, and just plain ole outdated. There is a plethora of e-learning classes, webinars, and digital platforms to learn and discover. Eric Hoffer, a brilliant philosopher, says that “in times of change the learners will inherit the earth while the learned will be forced to live in a world that no longer exists.” Get a learning fix at least once a week.
Become a Weed Whacker – That’s right you heard me. As you seek to grow the garden of your life and business, there are weeds that will grow up right alongside your dream and your team. If you don’t whack the weeds, you won’t save the seeds. Okay, I know that sounded so much like a motivational cliché. That’s the way it flowed out of me. I was channeling my inner LL Cool J…six pack and all! It’s time to whack the weeds of wasting time, unproductive work, shallow conversations, energy leaks, meaningless meetings, and calculating so-called friends who use you to get what they want.
Repeat after me…
This is my moment. Power and potential are in it. I accept it and won’t deny it. I will welcome it and celebrate it no matter what’s in it. I will make my moment count because today might just be the moment that I have been waiting for. Sometimes I will like it and sometimes I won’t, but it’s still my moment and I chose to occupy it.
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Shift Your Thinking
January 9th, 2012
If you intend to be relevant in the New Normal, then you will have to assess your greatest asset which is your mind. Here are three insights to ponder:
Examine Your Memes – It is a piece of cultural information, like a custom or an idea that’s passed on from person to person. It behaves like a flu and sometimes travels faster than speech. For instance when a person texts you LOL (Laughing out loud for my old school crowd) or LMBO (Laughing my butt off) this is a meme. It comes from the greek word “Mimema” meaning something imitated. It travels from mind to mind. Every day you are bombarded with Memes, but you have to choose what you think and believe. Embedded in movies, commercials, books, every form of media and even this very article that you are reading has a meme in it.
Risk it all – If you intend to thrive, the periscope in the submarine of your mind is going to have to rise above the ocean of comfort and see solutions in the midst of problems. Go where no man or woman have ever gone before by attacking nagging issues with a fresh perspective. No more sitting on the sidelines waiting for the coach to put you in the game. No more sitting in the stands watching the action. Get up and create the action. Do what is unpopular, uncommon, and unquestionably uncomfortable for what you will come to understand in the process.
Education doesn’t stop when school is out – Go to school, make good grades, be the best was the mantra for the last 43 years of my life. How about you? Well, how many people do you know that did what they were told to do and some it worked out well, others so-so, and still some who are holding on by a finger nail. Now for the rest of the story – education is not about teaching to the test, multiple choice, or scoring the best. In the Spirit of Socratic Method of learning – A teacher presents a concept, a student challenges it and together the teacher and student develop a deeper understanding of the lesson.
I want you to thrive and live a life of no regrets. We must dig in our heels in and push through any and all limitations. When you do this then, you will shift from average thinking to brilliant living.
Thrive – 3 Insights to Shift from Average to Brilliant
January 2nd, 2012
The verdict is in and reputable thought leaders such as George Celente, Director of Trend Research Institute, are saying “the economy is hitting the wall in slow motion in 2012.” He states “we provide the hard data and indisputable facts that support our forecast for an unsettling future. There will be opportunities to seize and measures to take to withstand, and even profit in the increasing turbulent times.”
Just when you thought the global economic tsunami was subsiding and happy days were returning to the shores of our world, we are hit with a crosswind of bad news. What is one to do? In the movie The Adventures of TinTin (www.tintin.com), a brilliant story by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings Trilogy), TinTin, a sleuth, says to Captain Haddock, his cohort in the movie, “what do you do when you face a wall ? You push through it.”
That’s right, I want to invite you to push through and create your future. This year I am going to teach you how to shift from average to brilliant. Here are 12 insights for you to upload into your mind and heart drive:
Upgrade your Skills – Companies and Businesses that will thrive in 21st century are cultivating four skill clusters – Digital-age literacy (such as grasping economic concepts), Inventive thinking (such as Self-Direction – the ability to work independently), Effective Communication (such as interpersonal skills), and High Productivity (which is prioritizing, planning and managing for results). It’s time for you to shift from average to brilliant.
Find Your Lane and Work it – You may not have the ability, talent, or gift of Shakespeare, Einstein, Usain Bolt, or Lady GaGa. Don’t sweat it. Your gift is one that needs to be uncovered and mastered. What do you do well, what do people compliment you on, when you are operating at the optimal level what are you doing? That’s your lane. Learn all that you can. Be curious about everything in your lane. In high school, I thought I wanted to be an accountant, but a teacher reminded me that I have a communication gift. WOW…thank you Mrs. Rita Lankes. More shifting into brilliance!
Bust the Paradigm – In the Scientific field, a pattern, example, or sample is considered to be a paradigm. A paradigm shift occurs when a new thought, idea, product/service or meme is introduced which challenges the previous mindset, way of experiencing or doing something. For instance in 1978 Masaru Ibuka introduces the Sony Walkman which at the time was all the rage and was flying off the shelves of retail stores. On October 23rd, 2001 (30+ days after 9/11), we are introduced to the grandchild of the Sony Walkman – Apple’s iPod. This invention disrupts the entire music industry paradigm and forever shifts the way music is consumed. Assess where you are and decide to be a Paradigm Buster.
I want you to thrive and live a life of no regrets. In the midst of waiting for the other shoe to drop in the European economy, the second wind of the Occupy Movement, and the schizophrenic leadership of the United States Congress on both sides of the aisles, we must dig in our heels in and push through walls of limitation. On the other side are new possibilities that await those who determine to shift from average thinking to brilliant living. Thank you to the trend analysts, economists, and futurists. You have given us the hard data to write the new software code for a bright future.