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Roadmap to Success PDF

140 Pages·2015·4.41 MB·English
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Copyright © 2012 Published in the United States by Insight Publishing Company 707 West Main Street, Suite 5 Sevierville, Tennessee o 37862 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher except for brief quotations embodied in critical essay, article, or review. These articles and/or reviews must state the correct title and contributing authors of this book by name. Disclaimer: This book is a compilation of ideas from numerous experts who have each contributed a chapter. As such, the views expressed in each chapter are of those who were interviewed and not necessarily of the interviewer or Insight Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-61750-844-8 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER The interviews in this book were conducted by David E. Wright, the President and founder of Insight Publishing and ISN Works I’VE DONE A LOT OF DRIVING IN MY LIFE and one thing I have been smart enough to have is a dependable road map. If you don’t have a good plan to get from where you are to where you want to go, you will get lost. I’ve known many people who have started out in business and thought they had a good plan, but did not achieve the success they wanted. A major problem for many of these people was that they had not sought good advice from people who had achieved success. If you don’t learn from the experience of others, you might achieve success but you will probably get there the hard way. You might get lost down many side roads before you find the right one. ROADMAP to Success, is a mini-seminar on how to plan for your success. The successful people in this book have the experience that will help you find what you need to create your ROADMAP to Success. These perceptive businesspeople were fascinating as they unfolded their own personal road maps and told me about their various success journeys. I invite you to set aside some quiet time and learn from these exceptional authors. I assure you that your time won’t be wasted. It’s not often that you can access such a large quantity of quality information that will either get you started or help you get further along on your road to success. This book is an investment in your future—your successful future! —David E. Wright TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One Building a High Performance Team Ken Zelazny Chapter Two Leadership Mindset Franck Nicolas Chapter Three Discover Your Inner Resource Dr. Deepak Chopra Chapter Four Proactive Hindsight –7 Steps to a Mentored Roadmap to Success Art Fox Chapter Five Align With Your Success Dr. Ronit Lami Chapter Six The Heart of Success Deborah Colman MA(Ed), CPCC, MCC Chapter Seven Coaching Top Performers Mark Moses Chapter Eight An Interview With Dr. Kenneth Blanchard Chapter Nine The Alignment Road Map: Key Elements to Building Clarity, Consistency, and Performance . Jon Alexander Martin Chapter Ten The Power to Create The Life you Want to Live Julian Bolster Chapter Eleven Succeed With Purpose Dennis Rattiner, DC Chapter Twelve Your Path to Happiness Is Your True Road Map to Success Steve Steinberg Chapter Thirteen Breaking the Pattern Lesley Southwick-Trask Chapter Fourteen Success in Business Doesn’t have to be Hard Laurie McNaughton Chapter One BUILDING A HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAM KEN ZELAZNY DAVID WRIGHT (WRIGHT) Today I’m talking with Ken Zelazny. Ken is an international multiple award-winning Certified Master Business and Executive Coach, as well as a Global Franchise Trainer for ActionCOACH business coaching. As President and Founder of Z2K Business Solutions Incorporated, Ken comes with extensive expertise in Operations and Program Management, as he has worked with many businesses around the World. His past corporate experience extended to the international stage at a senior level in high technology industries with government, commercial, and defense agencies. Ken currently serves on various Boards of Directors for his local Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Committee, and Memorial Hospital Foundation. Ken, welcome to ROADMAP to Success. KEN ZELAZNY (ZELAZNY) Thank you, David; it is truly an honor to be invited to share my thoughts and experiences with such a great group of business experts. WRIGHT Would you describe for our readers what a high performance team looks like? ZELAZNY What a high performance team looks like is a group of individuals who collaborate together to perform a common goal and meet desired results efficiently and effectively. That team needs to be passionate about what they are doing and be communicated to effectively, in order to ensure clarity and focus in what they are trying to accomplish. The leader needs to ensure the team understands the tasks and strategies of what they’re trying to complete and provide some form of recognition at the end of the day. When we appreciate our people, it’s a huge factor that helps inspire the team and will ensure a greater success rate of achieving the goals. The success of a high performance team comes from having the proper tools in place to help them succeed and making sure they perform what we have asked them to execute. This is accomplished by implementing a process called the Six Key Steps to Building a Winning Team. WRIGHT So what are the Six Key Steps to Building a Winning Team? ZELAZNY The Six Key Steps to Building a Winning Team as delivered by us at ActionCOACH business coaching are: 1. Strong leadership 2. Common goal 3. Rules of the game 4. Action plan 5. Support risk taking 6. 100 percent involvement and inclusion WRIGHT Will you elaborate on each one of them for us? ZELAZNY Sure, number one is about strong leadership. As leaders, it is extremely important to hold people accountable for the tasks they are assigned. The manager’s title is a little misleading, as I believe we manage a bank account, yet we lead people. It’s important that we develop those leadership skills early because we don’t actually have to do the work—we work through people to get the tasks completed. This is where high emotional intelligence is required to recognize all the different skills, behaviors, and personalities that make up the team. When people work within a team-oriented environment, there are four key points for a leader to consider. 1. To give recognition for the work they are performing. 2. To ensure there is job security such that they can plan their personal lives accordingly. 3. To provide challenge; people want to be challenged in their positions, and a leader needs to ensure opportunities are available. 4. To provide a great working environment where the team has fun and it’s engaging to be in. WRIGHT Common goal, would you tell us a little about that? ZELAZNY Number two would be the common goal. Remembering that a goal is the ongoing pursuit of a worthy objective until accomplished. It is not always obvious what the goal is, only what the result should look like. All too often team leaders are out there trying to get things done when they haven’t really sat down and mapped out the goal they’re actually trying to achieve. They have a vision in mind of what they want to accomplish but have never communicated it effectively. A goal has a few vital components required for clarity and focus. It should be a SMART goal; meaning Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-oriented, with a Timeframe. My youngest son Kyle came home one day from his business class in school and said, “Dad SMART goals are good however, SMARTER goals are better.” He explained to me that the ER is to Encourage and Reward. When the goal is in play and then accomplished, all too often we say okay what’s next? So set a common goal with a desired level of performance, measure it and communicate it to the team so they understand what is expected, then recognize and reward when the goal is completed. WRIGHT Rules of the game—would you tell us a little about that? ZELAZNY Number three is rules of the game that are basically our company’s culture. When we think about all the goals we’re going to be putting in place and planning them out to execute, we need to include a set of rules to play by. It’s not just about showing up for work on time—it’s how we go about the business of the day. We have fourteen points of culture, or core values, in our company that we strive to live by. A company’s culture should encompass values that are vital to the company and vital to how the business will succeed. Include values that are core to your customers and values that are important to your team in striving to do their best. Some rules of the game can encompass communication, commitment, integrity, gratitude, ownership, fun, and excellence just to name a few. When we are implementing a goal, we go through all those values and make sure the rules of the game are being satisfied and that we live up to those standards we have set for ourselves. It is also important that everyone on the team holds each other accountable to these core values on a daily basis. WRIGHT And action plan? ZELAZNY The action plan at number four is where we plan the work then work the plan. We sit down for a full day and go through a planning process, which we hold every ninety days. Basically we take a one-year plan and break it into four manageable pieces; these are called quarterly planning sessions. When you’re working on the action plan you are stating, “The strong leadership is in place, we have the common goal in play, we know the rules of the game, now we need to sit down and figure out what we’re going to do in the next ninety days.” This is a good time frame for people to keep in their sights. Things change very fast in the world we live in today, and it can be tough to stay focused. I believe that to stay focused we have to keep our attention on something we can moderate over time. The plan must be written and made visible for all to see. It needs to stay current with metrics over the ninety-day timeline outlining the strategies used on the goals and the tasks required to implement those strategies. If this process is followed, the plan has a huge success rate toward being accomplished. WRIGHT What about risk taking? ZELAZNY Support risk taking, at number five, is another term for empowerment. A lot of the time, people are thinking that they can’t do certain things without having to ask a lot of questions and getting hourly permissions. If we put the first four key steps in play, the support risk-taking component will enable people to perform and then accomplish their goals. We’re not asking our employees to make critical decisions about what they are trying to accomplish; however, we want to give them enough information and tools to implement what they need to do in order to complete the task. WRIGHT And the last one is involvement and inclusion. Is it really possible to get 100 percent involvement and inclusion? ZELAZNY Well, this is where we cement the success of the first five keys. So when you think about getting the team involved in understanding everything we just went through, it’s important for them to get their fingerprint on it. It gets pretty amazing how the likelihood of the success of the goal will improve when they have a say or idea about how to get it done. There are many ways to get the team involved, from explaining the value they bring to the table on the job they perform each day to letting them chair weekly huddles, and asking for their input regularly, just to name a few. When we get that 100 percent involvement and inclusion from the team, there is no question that we have a higher success rate of achieving the goal. Everybody feels they’re taking ownership of it, because they’ve had a say in how it’s going to happen. It also adds to the accountability of each team member to ensure he or she will do what is expected when each one has input. WRIGHT So what are the significant qualities of an excellent team leader? ZELAZNY The old cliché goes “you are only as good as your people are.” I would like to suggest that we treat our direct reports as equals and “work with me” rather than subordinates and “work for me.” The resulting productivity, efficiency, and self-worth will be something the team members will want to be a part of. In your role, leading the team will require delegation not abdication in creating the high performance outcome you are responsible for. There are seven simple rules for delegation as taught by one of my mentors Keith Cunningham, author of Keys to the Vault. 1. Clearly define the desired outcome. Make it results-oriented. 2. Ensure the person has the necessary skills and competence. 3. Check available resources and inform the person of them. 4. Provide a deadline. 5. Ask them to repeat what you’ve just said to ensure proper communication. 6. Be clear on what is going to be measured. 7. Be clear on consequences (both good and bad). Some other significant qualities of an excellent team leader I break down into what I call the “Four C’s of Leadership.” Communication. It is extremely important to ensure you deliver a clear concise message of what needs to be done, so there is clarity and focus on what is required. Charisma. There has to be a certain level of charisma in a leader for people to want to execute on tasks. I believe the leader has to be sincere in approach with everyone’s interest at heart. That being said, a charismatic leader creates a fun environment for everyone. Connector. Connectors can meet and evaluate people and put individuals together who will work well with each other. They look for win-win situations and make sure the goal or strategy is implemented effectively. Collector. Collectors have the ability to collect people’s attributes and use them to their fullest advantage. This includes skills, talents, values, potential, and if they are promotable. They need to collect all of these traits from people on their team and ensure they can move them to the right position within the team. WRIGHT So what are some of the inspirational qualities you use to get the team going? ZELAZNY I’ve always been a firm believer that I’d never give a task or job to someone else that I couldn’t do myself. In a leadership role, the idea is to work through people and not actually do the work ourselves, so I always try to lead by example. The fact that I have done that job in the past and may not have been very good at it, I know what kinds of skills and requirements are involved in making it happen. I believe that leading by example is an inspirational quality, and it has worked exceptionally well for me in the past. Another inspirational quality to have is a little bit of humility. I believe it is a core piece of evidence of good leaders when they can admit they don’t know everything. Even with my own clients, I tell them that I’m not the guru coming down from the mountain with the tablets, and I don’t have all the answers. I’ve got lots of experience, and I’ve done a lot of great things in my life; however, I have a great team locally and internationally that I can always rely on and go to for help to ensure we collectively come up with recommendations to problems. Personally I believe that a little bit of humility is a great quality in a leader. It can be inspiring to say that this person isn’t perfect and doesn’t know everything. It’s nice to know. We’re not in positions of leadership because we know everything. All too often, as leaders we think we have to know everything, and I believe that’s the farthest thing from the truth. WRIGHT So what do you believe are some of the common pitfalls a new team leader may experience? ZELAZNY We have two ears and one mouth, so we’re supposed to listen twice as much as we speak. Let me explain. One of the common pitfalls that a new team leader may experience is performing to an agenda that is probably not in line with the entire team. New team leaders are trying to get things done with little or no communication. Leaders need to take a hard look at themselves and listen to what’s going on around them to ensure the team understands what needs to be done. One of the habits from Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is to seek to understand, then be understood. When we can understand our team by accessing them in both their behavioral style and skill set, we can identify whom to delegate to. Then we can be understood on what we want them to do. There are many assessment tools available that can be used to identify behavioral traits; Meyers Briggs, True Colors, and Thomas DiSC profile, just to name a few. My personal favorite and the most effective tool I use, is the “Thomas DiSC” profile. When you and your team identify and share the way they interact based on their personality traits, the team works more efficiently and effectively in achieving the overall common goal. Good leaders need to understand why they get the reactions they do when dealing with different behavior and skill sets. Other diagnostic tools that are effective in achieving the desired outcome with the team are the XT Profile, which is used to help identify if the person is a right fit for the position, and the Flippen 360 degree profile assessment, which helps indentify if there are any personal constraints. All too often individuals are hired or promoted to positions they’re not suited for because personality and behavior traits have not been properly identified in order to match the person to the position. Another great tool for a new team leader to avoid any pitfalls is to do a Team 360 degree assessment. This is where colleagues, family members, managers, managers once removed, and customers and/or vendors provide constructive feedback on team members, giving another valuable perspective. A lot of data can be compiled to support the old adage that goes, “perception can potentially be reality.” As a new leader, this feedback can be useful if used in the right format. Everyone can improve, and these tools help identify blind spots and areas for improvement; a development plan can be put in place to enhance those areas. This can be used for current position improvements or identifying requirements needed for the next level of promotion within their careers. WRIGHT You’ve come up with some key things that inspire individuals to help create a great team. Would you share that with our readers? ZELAZNY It gets back to making sure you put a challenging work environment into play. I believe that everybody wants to be challenged to a degree, not over-challenged, but enough to make things interesting. The environment has to be there, too. If we’re not having fun in that environment, it tends to bring the team down. Fun can be had in the workplace, but I see a lot of business owners and team leaders out there who think there is no room for fun. This is another common pitfall and misconception. At the end of the day, a quote I use all the time is, “What’s fun gets done!” Another key component is making sure that recognition is always given and received personally. It doesn’t cost anything to say thank you, but when things are going well, leaders can start taking things for granted. When people have been in a company for a long time, gratitude for what they do can be overlooked. It’s like being in a marriage. When we start taking for granted all the things that are done from day to day with no recognition for what was done, we start losing interest in doing anything because it feels that nobody cares. One last key element is security in their position with a safe environment for them to operate in. When people feel comfortable knowing their workplace is safe and their position will be around for a long time, they are more effective in their role within the company. Being challenged and recognized with a secure environment are all key things to consider when building a great team on a solid foundation. WRIGHT So how do you effectively point out blind spots that the team may have?

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I believe that Road Map, which I co-wrote with my friends Deepak Chopra and Ken Second: We all have the basic tools to get us on the path to success Good information, networking, stepping back, an ear to hear .. include, Quantum Healing, Perfect Health, Ageless Body Timeless Mind, and The
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