Tight Budgets Don't Have to Mean Tight Minds

Natural cycles occur in nature---expansion followed by contraction; contraction followed by expansion. In both cycles we may experience a bit of amnesia. In expansion, we act as if things indefinitely will remain good. In times of contraction, we have a tendency to reduce life and possibilities to a postage stamp.

Success in 2011 may well depend upon employing lessons from both cycles. In a year of “fiscal responsibility” we will hear a lot of “what we need to do without”. I propose that what we need to guard against is tightening our minds and attitudes. Here’s why— we may very well slam doors shut that can lead to innovation, trust and motivation. What to do? Consider the following 5 things…

1. Expand ways to positively challenge yours’ and others’ potential. For certain people are challenged with “busy” and “a lot to do” but that doesn’t mean their minds and hearts are stimulated. Find something of interest to stretch knowledge, talent and skills.

What’s in it for you? Energy and momentum spill over which can be applied to the less attractive tasks. For instance, one customer’s team wanted to know more about the “business” side of administration. A team leader easily shared their expertise. Competency and career advancement was strengthened in the person who shared and ones who received.

Many clients find that learning coaching skils or offering coaching services to emerging leaders or key employees is one way to maximize talent, improve morale and retain good people.

2. Contract attitudinal extremes Avoid being a Negative Nate or Susie Sunshine. Things are not all good or all bad. Distinguish valid concerns that while uncomfortable need solution from immediately thwarting dialogue and flipping issues to --Now let’s not get negative--let’s be “sunny side up”!

3. Expand connection. In tight times, it’s easy to shrink our connection with others. Fact is we are fortified with informational, emotional, physical and spiritual support. Creating spaces to talk it out, arranging fun activities that involve staff and customers, holding a pot luck lunch day contribute to feeling part of something, elevating spirits and nurturing relationships that pave the way for more trust.

4. Contract shooting ourselves in the foot. Frustration and apathy abound when we continue to make the same choices by not allowing a “time out” to look at the big picture. Frequently too much time is spent attending to “urgent” and not enough time contemplating what’s important—planning, goal setting and reflecting. In our need to “do something--anything” we pile changes upon changes because we didn’t allow enough time for initial changes to work and we end up roller coaster changes and “Coulda had a V8” regrets.

5. Expand a formal process for encouraging and capturing ideas. Contributing new solutions jazzes people, ignites innovation and lifts energy. Consider involving customers, businesses and community to expand the pool of ideas. Different perspectives add dimension to possibilities and inspire a “we’re not the only ones facing this stuff” attitude and “we can work this out” solutions. Note the difference...

Every quarter one of my customers invites and accepts innovative idea proposals from staff on how to improve performance and systems. Proposers are given discretionary time to plan, execute and test their ideas over predetermined period of time. The company acknowledges contributors’ report of their story and concrete outcomes at Quarter’s end with pop, pizza and presentation. Thousands of dollars are saved as a result of these ideas.

Given a similar task, a medical center supervisor took a shoe box, cut a hole in the top of it for submissions and labeled it “Opinions”.

Tight budgets don’t have to mean tight minds---or hearts for that matter!

AIM

Webinar in Review

In February approximately eighty professionals gathered with me for an hour’s focus on the topic of AIM: Preparing for Success in 2010. This program is one in a series of four webinars designed to “Shape the INFLUENCE of Leadership” through four pathways:
AIM, ADAPT, ALIGN AND ADVOCATE.

The ten tools offered in AIM builds a foundation for leader influence. In turbulent times, a leader is like a lighthouse. People look to the light to lead their way. Leaders clarifying their direction and vision turn on their brights: increase their ability to help others focus and inspire initiative.

Five steps aimed towards Preparing for Success in 2010: (1) Complete the Past (2) Clarify Purpose and Vision (3) Set Goals (4) Visualize and Affirm (5) Celebrate Successes

1. Complete the Past
We have only so many Attention Units. (Hard to imagine in a multi-tasking world!) This section asked us to complete the unfinished, cluttered, confused and irrelevant to release “stuck” and unleash “flow”. With each completion, we gain attention capacity.

2. Clarify Purpose and Vision
A mere 10% of participants had a written purpose statement and yet we agreed that identifying purpose brings us back to what’s meaningful so that at the end of the day, we tend to our soul as well as our achievements. As leaders we must inspire through vision—hold up the higher view. Too often we get caked in the muck of the details, become apathetic and overwhelmed and forget where we’re really headed. One vision tool inspired us to identify what kind of leader we needed to be and one offered information on creating a shared vision.

3. Set Goals
66% of our participants had written goals. We used the SMART goal setting system—ensuring that our goals were specific, measurable, realistic and timely. One key element was to create the vision first, borrow from the future so to speak and then write goals as a beam to achieve them.

4. Visualize and Affirm
We explored a “no paper” way to make our vision visible. A key learning; we move in the direction of the pictures we hold in our mind. An internal tension is created when there’s a difference between our now picture and our future picture. Our mind/body seeks to lessen the tension by aligning our world to the picture that is the clearest.

5. Celebrate Successes
We are an achievement-oriented, urgent-focused group. We want it now and we want it fast. Too often we wait until we’ve completed something before we celebrate. Celebrating small steps as we go creates momentum for keeping UP and keeping ON!