Last week I was interviewed on the Inside Indiana Business television show (I mentioned it on this post).

Here's the link to see the interview.

Also posted in Leadership and Teamwork.

Digg it | del.icio.us | Add to Technorati

Note - the post below speaks to Thanksgiving in the United States - which we celebrate today. If you live in another part of the world, or are reading this on any other day, please read on - the message is relevant regardless of your location or the date on the calendar ...

Contrary to the beliefs (or habits) of many, Thanksgiving isn't really about feasts, family, and football. Actually Thanksgiving is quite an interesting holiday in its origins. We don't celebrate due to religious beliefs or traditions, we don't celebrate because of someone's death or birth, we celebrate the thought and practice of giving thanks.

So as you celebrate today consider the thankfulness and the gratefulness purpose for the day. Here are some tangible tips help you give thanks today or any day.

1. Take five minutes of quiet time. In this five minutes of time count your blessings. Consider this a brainstorming exercise reflect on the many things you are thankful for. Make a list mentally, or preferably on paper or computer of these things you are grateful for.

2. Take a walk. Spend a few minutes outdoors alone or with someone else keeping your thoughts are conversation focused on gratefulness. Enjoy the time, the scenery, and exercise. (If you walk after your meal, the exercise will help serve another healthy purpose as well.)

3. Say thanks. If you believe (as I do) in God or another higher power, say thank you for all of the blessings you considered and all those you haven't thought of. Even if you aren't religious or spiritual, saying thanks for the things you've been given is a powerful practice.

4. Make it a habit. Don't stop today because it's Thanksgiving, turn it into a lifelong habit of gratefulness and gratitude.

If you want to read a bit more on gratitude, you can read an article I wrote called The Gift of Gratitude here.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and thanks for reading this post.

Also posted in Learning.

Digg it | del.icio.us | Add to Technorati

Yesterday I was interviewed by Gerry Dick for the Inside Indiana Business Television show. We talked about how to increase (or maintain) productivity during the busy holiday season.

We talked about three ways to increase productivity during this challenging time of the year:

1. Acknowledge the challenge yourself. As a leader let others know that you are distracted by the parties, activities and extra tasks that come with the holiday season. Letting others know that you know it is a challenge is helpful to them. And if you have some ideas to help them, rather than feeling like they are alone, they will feel supported - and most likely become more focused!

2. Share the spirit. Let the spirit of the season spill over to interactions with other staff members and Customers. Smile more, say thank you a little more joyfully and more.

3. Amp up January. Give people something exciting to anticipate early in the New Year. Whether it is a new project or challenge or whatever - giving people something to look forward to and anticipate is a powerful thing!

Hopefully these three tips are useful to you. I wrote on them more fully in an article last year. You can read that here.

If you want to see stations and show times for the Interview, click here.

Once the interview is posted to the web, I'll post an update.

Also posted in Leadership and Teamwork.

Digg it | del.icio.us | Add to Technorati

The scene plays out in organizations across the world every day. Managers want to improve the skills of one (or more) of their employees, so they identify workshop to send them to. Or, perhaps at least as often, a class is made available, and managers are asked to "Send some of your folks to this session."

Either way, once their employee's are registered, most managers smile a satisfied smile feeling they are doing the right thing - supporting people's growth and development.

Too often though, as soon as this task is crossed of the list, managers forget about that staff development - as if training alone will address any performance issues.

It won't.

A recent benchmark study in the U.K. by KnowledgePool found that "A quarter of all training is wasted because delegates do not get the chance to apply their learning, and they are not adequately supported by their line manager." (Click here to read more about this study and what it found.)

Which shows that sending people to training isn't enough.

Some people will attend a workshop, build a plan and find ways to apply what they've learned. Some will succeed in spite of the manager. But for most, barriers will surface - barriers that in many cases managers can eliminate.

Training provides an opportunity for ideas to be shared, techniques and approaches to be discussed and for the light bulb to go on. But training isn't magic. For real learning to occur - which implies people are doing something with what they learned - people must apply the lessons training provides.

For a variety of reasons people often need help - help that is best (or perhaps only) provided by a manager or supervisor. Managers can increase the return on their training investment by supporting the lessons learned in training and expecting new approaches, techniques and skills upon the return to work.

So managers, when you cross training off your list when people have registered, add a new item to your list upon their return to work. Sit down with them and see how you can support their development and success.

When you do that you'll significantly increase the return on your training investment and increase employee loyalty and satisfaction at the same time.

Also posted in Leadership, Learning and Training.

Digg it | del.icio.us | Add to Technorati

While I have mentioned it in passing in a couple of earlier posts, I've not really announced my newest book project. . . until today.

I am currently writing a book called Remarkable Leadership for Jossey-Bass. The book will be completed over the next couple of months and you will be able to get your hands on a copy in late July.

While I will talk more about the content and the book in the coming weeks and months, today I am posting a copy of the most recent proposed book cover. When my colleagues at Jossey-Bass sent it to me, I suggested we share it with our future book buyers/readers (hint, that's you).

Imagine walking down the aisle in the business or leadership section of your favorite bookstore and seeing this cover facing you. Or imagine seeing the graphic at your favorite online book store. Given those situations, what do you think of the cover, what does it make you think (if anything), how drawn to it are you, and what suggestions might you have for changing/improving it.

I'd love your thoughts posted as comments here.

I'll be sharing more information on the book soon.

Thanks so much for your help.

Also posted in Leadership, Learning, and Training.

Digg it | del.icio.us | Add to Technorati

I've been a subscriber to A.Word.A.Day for years. Each day I receive a new word, along with definitions, a history of the word and an example in context. This is a great service! (You can learn more here.)

Yesterday's word/phrase was first water, which according to my email means:


1. The highest degree of quality in a precious stone, especially a diamond.
2. The best grade or quality.

It occurs to me that when we unleash the potential that is uniquely our own, we will truly become "first water."

It further occurs to me that a huge part of our role as leaders, as teammembers, as trainers, and as parents is to help those we are associated with find their own first water qualities.

We are all gems, we just need polishing to reveal our highest clarity and sparkle.

So here's to unleashing your potential - and the potential of those around us - so that we can all find our unique bundle of skills and characteristics that truly make us first water.

Also posted in Leadership, Learning, Teamwork, and Training.

Digg it | del.icio.us | Add to Technorati

Frank Girolami has just started a blog.

I share this with you because when I first met Frank, he was attending a meeting of the Consultant's Forum of the Greater Cincinnati Chapter of ASTD. At that meeting I encouraged everyone to start a blog as a part of their marketing efforts. I also told them that while that was a good reason to blog, perhaps more importantly, as a blogger the would remain a learner. You see, starting a blog, while relatively easy, does have some learning associated with it.

Writing a blog consistently however offers many more opportunities to learn. You must learn to find your writing voice for this medium, learn how to write clearly (and hopefully quickly), and you must continually have a learning mind to find the things you will write about.

As it turns out Frank writes about me in his first post called Rededicated to Learning.

It is a perfect title because we all can rededicate ourselves to learning, and depending on the nature of your work, starting a blog might be one of the better ways to do that.

Take a look at Frank's blog, and while you are there, congratulate him on his rededication to learning.

Also posted in Creativity and Learning.

Digg it | del.icio.us | Add to Technorati

Kristie T of webmomz.com recently wrote a post entitled Why I REALLY Don't Need to Buy Another Marketing Book.

In the post Kristie shares a good bit of her library with us (I'm honored that my book Vantagepoints sits on her shelf) and also challenges herself (and in turn us) to focus not only on what we've read or will read, but also what we will do what what we learn.

My only quarrel with Kristie is when she says, "My goal for next year is to IMPLEMENT what I have read. No more learning (which will be hard - I love learning)."

My quarrel?

Reading is learning at one level (acquiring knowledge), but so is acting on what we've read. In other words, when Kristie (and we) apply what we've read, we are are still learning - in fact we are learning at deeper and more meaningful levels than when simply acquire knowledge.

This leaves me with four questions for you.

What is in your library?

What will you read next?

What do you hope to learn?

How do you plan to apply it?

Also posted in Learning and Training.

Digg it | del.icio.us | Add to Technorati