Thoughts On Motivating A Team

What if you capitalized on your strengths this year, instead of working on your weaknesses?  We all know what our weaknesses are and we become especially aware of the weaknesses of others when they are on our team and we’re trying to achieve something.  The fact is though, that our weaknesses will always be our weaknesses.  They’ll never be transformed into strengths.  It’s not our nature.

Have you ever heard of someone working on their weaknesses so hard that they turn it into a strength?  They may work hard at getting better at it, but I doubt they’ll ever turn it into a major strength.  For example, if one of your weaknesses is creativity—it’s impossible to ‘learn’ creativity.  It just isn’t your strength.  So make it easy on yourself and when you need creativity, find someone who has the strength of creativity and partner with them! 

Do you know the strengths of your current team members and have you capitalized on them?  Here’s a great team exercise that I’ve used as a coach which has re-energized a team and given them renewed focus:

Strengthsfinder 2.0  by Tom Rath is an inexpensive book and assessment based on 40 years of research by Gallup.  They found that people are most successful when they are fully engaged in their job and when they are fully utilizing their strengths.  I took a group of 12 through the assessment and we mapped out all of their strengths.  This not only showed the group the strengths of each team member, but it also showed where their gaps were as a team.  In addition, each team member was assigned a goal related to capitalizing and enhancing one of their strengths.  The book gives you lots of ideas in that area as well.

So for example, if you are in sales and you have the strength of “Woo”, which stands for winning others over, 

you’ve got a great strength to build on.  However, if Woo is not your strength and perhaps your strength is Analytical, 

 where you need to see the data in order to believe that it’s true, you may have a challenge communicating with and understanding your ‘Woo’ leader, and vice versa.

The book can take you a long way in understanding how to interact with others of different strengths, and in identifying ideas for action in the capitalization of your own strengths.  As a professional coach in Indianapolis, I work with teams specifically in this area and help them to see how to look at motivation in a different way. 

So at the very least, you can look at your own motivations in a different way and check out your strengths.  

 Then challenge yourself to find ways of utilizing your strengths even more than you do today.  Perhaps you’ll discover that the rut you were in is because you weren’t operating in your strengths at all.  Let me know what you find out!

www.lynnzettler.com

Remember to spend some quality time on you!

Win a vacation and help yourself!

Win a free Florida Vacation!

In honor of the month of "love" and  International Coaches Week, I'm giving something back and offering 50 complimentary coaching sessions in February.  

That's right, 50 and I've already got 10 lined up, so 

I have 40 left!
I now have only 30 left!

So if you schedule a complimentary session with me, or if you refer someone to me for a complimentary session and they give me your name, I'll also enter you into a drawing for a full weeks stay at an Oceanfront 2B/2B Condo Property in Destin Florida, which can be redeemed in August-December of  2011.

So Hurry and Contact Me today for your complimentary coaching session!

How To Finish What You Start

Are you familiar with the phrase “immediate gratification”? In our society, we want EVERYTHING right now.  It’s especially hard for our young people today, who have been conditioned to expect things right away. 

--New iphone is out?  I’ve got to have the latest technology.  I’ll get a new phone.

--A new car, maybe a little out of my range. I could afford it more easily in two years, but I want it NOW. I’ll finance it for five years. 

--A beautiful new house. I really don’t have enough to put a good down payment on it. I could in five years. I’ll get the house now, but at a higher interest rate which will cost thousands more.

We want everything now. Unfortunately, success doesn’t just fall into place for many of us. Most of us have to work hard to achieve what we’ve got and even harder still to achieve the dreams and goals that we have flying around in our heads. Successful people have the following traits:

• 1. Clear vision to achieve their goals.

• 2. They refuse to take “no” for an answer. I’ve always been fascinated by “underdog” stories such as the founder of KFC, Harland Sanders. He persevered and persevered. If you want to read up on him, this is an interesting link: http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/colonel-sanders/index.htm 

• 3. They work towards accomplishing their goals every day.

• 4. When they hit an obstacle, they find a way around it.

• 5. They finish.

This article isn’t about successful people, but rather how to finish what you start. If you can consistently finish what you start, you will, deliberately or inadvertently, become successful. So, not to beat a dead horse, how do you finish what you start?

-- Do you have the finish line in your mind? What is “finished”? Do you want to publish a book? Do you want to launch a website? Do you want to open a vegetarian deli? Do you want to take art classes and have a display in an art gallery? What is the finish line?

-- Is your finish line realistic? I’ve used the astronaut analogy in previous articles, but if you’re a 45-year-old woman with a high school education and carrying around an extra 50 pounds, the chances of you being an astronaut are not realistic.

-- When do you plan to finish?

Many of the above thought-provoking questions are similar in setting goal strategies. It’s not likely that you’ll finish a project without having clearly defined goals (http://lynnzettler.blogspot.com/2010/12/goal-setting.html ). Once the goals are set, get to work. Just do it.

Sometimes the things we need to finish are pretty simple: laundry, groceries, pick up the kids, clean the bathrooms, wash the car, go to the Parent-Teacher meeting. Most of the time, we can handle finishing these tasks. We normally get hung up and frustrated on the larger tasks in life: refinancing the house, starting the new book we want to write, starting the new book we want to read, finishing the five books sitting on the end table, or starting a new business.

There is no magic pill. There is no immediate gratification to major tasks in our lives. Realistically, there is no immediate gratification in most of what we do.

Here are some ideas for finishing what you start..

1. See the completion in your mind in as much detail as possible (the finish line).

2. What kind of support do you have? Do you have people in your life that will encourage you and give you positive feedback along with constructive feedback?

3. What are your limits? If you are working out, even top athletes understand they have to let their bodies rest to recover. So don’t kill yourself, but do get up and go.

4. When do you do your best work? Do you work better in the evenings? Stop at the gym on your way home. Jump on the treadmill when you get home. Pop in a DVD even if the kids are there watching you sweat. Work it as often as you’ve vowed to work it.

5. Journal your progress. Use measurements. Increase your weights. Document your workouts. Set out milestones to hit along the way to your finish line.

6. This may be redundant but it’s important. Surround yourself with positive, motivational people. It’s easy to listen to nay-sayers when you’re not feeling your best. Remember you are your best and hanging with people at their best will naturally help you to stretch yourself as well.

7. Work at your goal EVERY SINGLE DAY in one way or another. You don’t have to run full throttle every day (and doing so will simply lead to burn out), but you have to work at it in some way EVERY DAY.

www.lynnzettler.com

Remember to Spend Some Quality Time on YOU!

Do You Love Change?

Raise your hand if you like change and embrace it routinely!

Right.  I didn’t think I’d get many, if any takers on that one.  Change is thrown at us on a daily basis, so it’s no wonder that we hang on to whatever feels comfortable to us as if our life depended on it, even if there are real benefits to the change.  Just think about your last diet or exercise goal.  See what I mean?  We love to stay in the comfort of what we already know and experience.  It’s predictable.

As an executive and professional coach here in Indy, I probably work with clients on change management more than anything else.  Therefore, I thought it might be helpful to summarize the seven dynamics of change (paraphrased in bold below) introduced by Ken Blanchard in The Portable Conference on Change Management.  Let’s use an easy example of change:  becoming a parent for the first time.  That’s a big change for both first time mothers and fathers, right?!   Here are the general dynamics and some tips in helping others get through it. 

People:

            -Don’t like how it feels

                        It’s awkward, new and there isn’t typically a precedent or template for you.  You are going through it for the first time.  Think about the first time you brought your brand new baby home.  Were you worried you’d do something wrong or wouldn’t know what to do?  You had no choice though, you just had to jump in and handle it.   So be sensitive to others when they are going through a change for the first time.  They’re very uncomfortable.

            -Focus on what they have to give up

                        This is true even for changes perceived as positive.  We tend to always focus on the negative aspects.  In order to make room for the new, the old has to pass away.  There is a loss there.  When you bring that baby home you are giving up a lot:  your sleep, your freedom, your alone time as a couple, and maybe even showers at times.  So when others focus on what they are giving up, help them to see that it’s a necessary loss in order to welcome the new.

            -Feel alone in the change

                        It’s all in our heads, so we are alone in it.  We have to deal with the change individually and determine what impact the change has on us individually.  Even though a child is typically welcomed by two parents, each parent is impacted differently, processes the changes and reactions differently and potentially perceives the change differently.  We all deal with change individually and we all need to come to terms with it ourselves.  So sometimes you need to be patient with others if they’re not changing fast enough for you.  They’re working through it on their own.

            -Can only handle so much

                        Too much change in a short period of time can be extremely stressful and is very individualized.  Too much change can lead to physical illness or inability to cope.  New mothers typically need more help because they are dealing with lots of change in their body in addition to the change of a new family member for example.  So when you are in the midst of change with others, pay attention to how much change they may be dealing with.  Expectations of change management may be different for different people.  

          -Are at different levels of readiness

                        By nature and experience, we are all at different levels of readiness for any particular change headed our way.  Maybe we just got over a huge challenge and need some time to regroup.  Perhaps we are not ready for a big change in our life right now.  Maybe we need to embrace change a little more slowly, whereas someone else can embrace change very quickly and adapt instantly.  Realize that we all react to change differently and it may be worthwhile to ask others about their readiness for change when we can anticipate it or have control over the timing.

            -Will think that they don’t have enough resources

                        Whenever we face change, our defenses go up and we very quickly conclude that we will have to do more with less.  How will we do it?  When we expand our family, how do we find the time for the additional person?  Will we have the time, the energy, the love, the sanity, and the skill to parent well?  How will we provide for the extra things we’ll need?  Thank God humans are adaptable and we find the ways.  Sometimes we need to give people some space to think outside the box so they can see that change can occur and the resources will either appear, or other needs will disappear so that resources can be readjusted.

-Will revert to their old behavior once the pressure is off

            You have to be chuckling at this one and you know it is true.  What happens after you lose that first 5 pounds?  Do you celebrate with a pizza on Friday night?  I’ll admit it.  I do that sometimes.  It’s hard to come up with an example related to parenthood here, because the pressure is never off!  But you know even in your work environment that people always want to go back to what is comfortable and what they know best----the old way (That’s the way we’ve always done it!).  So I guess the secret here is to never let the pressure off if you really want change to stick.

www.lynnzettler.com

Remember to Spend Some Quality Time on You!

Are We On The Same Page?

Or are you reading from a different book?

If I said I might have to reschedule our meeting and maybe we should just meet if we can, what would you think?  Are we meeting or aren’t we?

If we completed our meeting with lots of ideas for ways to move forward, but no timeline and no assignments, would you expect anything new to happen?

If you gave someone a project and they asked for a deadline and you told them there wasn’t one, when can you expect the project to be completed?

I know this sounds pretty simple, but where in your life, in your business, in your family, or in your relationships have you run into this problem before?  We all have.  Most of our conflicts are due to differing interpretations of what we think is supposed to happen.

Most of my coaching clients here in Indy are business owners where this is a common problem and challenge.  Overcommitting, emergencies, interruptions, disruptions and distractions all contribute to the feeling of being out of control and disappointing customers.  Sometimes customers ARE disappointed.  Sometimes customers don’t even realize that my clients feel out of control.  Sometimes customers aren’t even paying any attention to my clients at all.  The real issue becomes then, that my clients hate disappointing themselves.

My job as a professional certified coach is to help my clients overcome these challenges and find ways to get back on the same page, both with their customers and with their inner self.  Here are three things you can do to keep yourself from jumping to another book and losing touch:

1)   Realize that people aren’t always thinking about you.  They are probably thinking about themselves and their shortcomings instead.  That’s no excuse for dismissing poor follow-up, just don’t overthink it and beat yourself up about it.  As soon as you recognize that you may not be on the same page, do something about it and get there as soon as possible.  Apologies and proactive communication work much better than ignoring it because you dread the conversation.

2)   Always repeat what you think you heard, so that it is clear what the expectation is for all parties involved.  You can do this during the actual conversation, you can send an e-mail after your conversation outlining your understanding and asking for confirmation or you can leave a similar voicemail so that there is clear understanding and agreement of what’s going to happen next.

3)   At the end of a conversation or interaction, ask the other party if they need anything else from you.  This gives them the opportunity to bring up any ambiguities that they may have or they may offer to take the next step.  You are leaving it in their court to make sure that their needs are met.

Remember to Spend Some Quality Time on You!

www.lynnzettler.com

Releasolutions for 2011

Ok, so you are probably expecting the typical New Years goals, resolutions, visions, etc. for this January 1 newsletter.  I admit, even I get tired of hearing it, and wonder how many resolutions will be broken by January 15^th.  If you’ve already thought of some new goals for yourself for 2011, by all means go all in and line yourself up to achieve them, and if you need any help or support, let me know.  If you are still on the fence, I thought I would give you a little variation on the theme and share with you my ‘Releasolutions’ for 2011.  No, that is not a typo.  Instead of resolutions, I am talking about “release-o-lutions”.

In order to have new habits or behaviors, we have to make room for them and the only way to make room is to give up something else.  I like to think of it as a teeter-totter.  You have to have balance on both sides.  Your current life is made up of your activities, behaviors, choices, decisions, etc.  If you take away an activity or behavior, you have to replace it with something else, even if it is relaxing with a good book or taking a nap J. 

So, I’m working on letting go of some things so I can embrace new ones.  Here’s my list:

1.     I am letting go of excuses associated with a bad economy and embracing the belief that there is more than enough to go around.

2.     I am releasing my resistance to my intuition and embracing the wisdom of my higher self.

3.     I am saying good-bye to my fear of confrontation and embracing complete honesty.

4.     I am releasing my distaste for accounting and embracing the tracking of increasing monthly revenue.

5.     I am closing the door on MY life and career expectations for my children and 

opening the floodgates to acceptance of their passion and unlimited possibilities, and to the trust that they will find their own success and happiness.

Gotta go and get my arms warmed up.   

There’s lots of embracing coming my way!

Remember to spend some quality time on you!

www.lynnzettler.com