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Letter From The Editor

It is summertime, a time when most of us would normally kick back a little bit, have some fun, charge our batteries, and gear up for the last several months of the year. This summer, things may be a bit different.

Rather than kicking back, more and more we are running at full pace in order to maintain or even make up some ground in today’s shaky market. As a result we may not be eating right, not exercising, not taking care of ourselves, and having no fun!! If that’s the case, how are you doing?

The truth is that no matter how dire a circumstance gets, beating ourselves up and going through life with a frown isn’t going to help us get ahead. We’ve got to remember to keep our sunny side up… we’ve got to remember to have fun, no matter what the world is throwing at us! Otherwise, what is the point of this rat-race, anyway?

There are lots of different ideas about what fun is. What’s yours?

• Laughing so hard your face hurts
• Taking a walk down a scenic road
• Holding a newborn baby
• Singing along with your favorite song
• Teeter-tottering with your child at the park
• Playing on your church’s basketball team
• Watching the gorillas at the zoo
• Snuggling with your kids as you watch their favorite movie
• Savoring a special meal with all your favorite foods
• Using your binoculars at night to look at the stars
• Seeing old family movies from when you were a kid
• Going to a sporting event with your favorite team
• Building a sand castle
• Being just plain ole silly
• Getting to know your neighbor
• Making a difference for someone who has less than you do
  

There are also many benefits from having more fun in your life. Engaging in fun activities promotes self-esteem, teamwork, physical and creative skills, friendships, and leadership skills. Health professionals tell us that having fun helps eliminate negative stress and physically active fun events can help prevent heart disease.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there, be unstoppable at getting what you say you want and need, and have fun doing it! Remember: There are no fun police!

Best Regards,

Clay S. Nelson

Keeping Your Team on Track

As a leader when times are difficult, it can be a challenge to keep your team on track and performing at their best—all the time! After all, we are all human and when the world around us is being negative, it is easy to fall into negative thinking ourselves. Yet, you can’t afford to have a team of negative people around you. You need your team to stay motivated, excited, sharp, and on track.

Here are some team pitfalls to watch out for and some tips on how to move the team members past them:

The “good enough” syndrome

The “good enough” syndrome is when your team has experienced some success—a few wins or they assume they’ve accomplished as much as can be given the current economic conditions—and they begin to sit back and coast.

What’s important, first, is to thoroughly acknowledge your team for its accomplishments. Make sure they really get your communication about the fantastic job they have done so far. Next, communicate with your team and help them refocus on your company’s business plan and purpose or mission statement. Ask team members to state what it means to them to fulfill the business plan and to further the company’s reason for being. Then ask them to recommit!

The “blame game”

When your team has been missing its goals, sometimes it slows down its production or the quality of its work even more because it is busy blaming someone outside the company or circumstances for how the company is doing.

The antidote for this team behavior is a review of what it means to be accountable. At some moment in the past, team members agreed to allow you to hold them accountable. Now is the time to do that. Make sure they understand the impact on the company when the team ignores its accountability. Ask them to recommit to be accountable in the future. Say something that completes the issue and reestablishes the relationship with each member.

“When one member is in breakdown, the whole team breaks down”

Sometimes, when one team member is experiencing personal or other problems, that member’s performance breaks down. Often, the remaining team members use that circumstance as an excuse for them to stop functioning, as well.

Team members need to be reminded about their power—their power to produce results, even if one of their members is not contributing. And, they should be reminded about their power of choice—that they can choose to give as much effort as they decide to give.

Bottom Line:

Spend some time thinking about your team and how it functions. It isn’t wise to assume that your team will function at its best all the time, as if it is on automatic pilot. Be proactive and sensitive to what’s happening with your team. Part of being a leader is being a good coach or mentor for your own team. Why not check in with your team today?

Giving Up Knowing

Ever wonder how it is that astronauts can strap themselves in on top of an incredible amount of flammable substance and rocket into space and into the unknown?

And, what is it about the 80 or so men and women who leave Wasilla, Alaska for a two-week long trip (over 1000 miles) to Nome by dogsled, facing unknown encounters with some of the most forbidding weather, terrain, and wild animals on earth? These Iditarod participants actually have a rule that between checkpoints—many of which are over 75 miles apart—mushers “may not receive assistance!” It’s hard to imagine taking on what astronauts and dog sled mushers do, but one thing is certain—these are two groups of people who aren’t stopped by the unknown!

Leaders often get stopped by thinking they have to know everything about a project or goal before they can get started or continue to proceed. Well, it’s time to reconsider that way of approaching life, because, frankly, it doesn’t work! Knowing is not all it’s cracked up to be—in fact, knowing is often the booby prize in life.

Think about it. First, it is impossible to know everything especially when you are living within a circumstance or going somewhere you’ve never been before!

Second, knowing often stifles creativity and passion—both of which thrive on discovering what you don’t know! It is in the world of what you don’t know that new ideas and new discoveries are made. When you concentrate on what you know, or on knowing more, it takes your focus off of the possibilities out there. Knowing something doesn’t lead to results—doing something does.

Being attached to knowing is about fear of being wrong or of not looking good.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with continuing to educate yourself throughout your life, but when you allow the fact that you don’t know something and your fear of being wrong to derail your goals and commitments, that’s when knowing becomes the booby prize.

Many are stuck in having to know because of their fear of the unknown. Most people would rather live their lives in one very neat and tidy box. They want “A” plus “B” to equal “C” every time and when it doesn’t, they are petrified. The only problem is that petrified people don’t move.

To effectively deal with change and be successful, you have to be fluid and dance with whatever comes your way—known or unknown. As Agnes de Mille, the legendary dance choreographer once said, “Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what’s next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little.” She described the joy of living like an artist, “The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.”

We have two options, especially now when we are all faced with a lot of unknowns—to be stopped by our fear of the unknown, or we can choose to dance our hearts out on the dance floor of life and get what we say we want and by when we say we want it… no matter what! Which do you choose?

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