The great man amongst men, a conquering lion, has been laid to rest after 95 years of a most difficult and amazing trod on this earth. There are few who cannot be inspired by Nelson Mandela’s demonstration of courage, integrity, strength, and resilience.
December’s here, and all eyes now turn eagerly, yet perhaps with some trepidation towards 2014. No doubt you have long completed your organisation’s plan and budget for 2014.
I was quite amused to see an ad with the headline “Become a certified necessity”. Nowadays, there is certification for everything. Resumes, bios, business cards and LinkedIn profiles reveal a long list of the possible certifications that one can now get.
Toronto, where I live, is abuzz with the admission by our Mayor that he smoked crack in one of his drunken stupors, and that further, he had lied when asked point blank a few months ago if he had done it.
Recently, I attended a luncheon where an assortment of sandwiches was served. Now typically, this presents a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes, to figure out what is in each sandwich, particularly if you have special dietary needs/preferences.
Most of us work too hard. I know I do. I love my work, I love my clients. I work hard to help them solve their problems – with ease, grace and joy. And some of their problems are really big, so it means much thought, research, diligence, collaboration, communication and planning on my part.
I attended a client’s weekly management meeting. It was such a joy to see the team embrace the strategy that I helped them develop a few months earlier, use it as the guiding light for their operations and make very focused decisions in a short period of time – all with laughter and much camaraderie.
With the best of intentions, management, processes and team members, things will go wrong. Yes, we will upset our customers sometimes. That’s a given. What’s not given is how we deal with it. I recently had an experience with the Toronto Transit Commission that reminded me of this.
A gunman walks into a school in Georgia with an AK47 and threatens to start killing people. 19 minutes later, the man has laid down his weapon and is lying on the floor asking why the Police are taking too long to come and get him. How did this happen?
Leaders are human, and as humans we sometimes lose our cool and get upset. We get upset with our team members, for them not doing something that we asked or expected them to do. We get upset with our suppliers and contractors for not delivering on time and/or to specifications.
Shift your focus from what's going wrong to what's going right.
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