As A Leader, Do you Fulfill Dreams or Create Nightmares?

February 8, 2011 by

Summer Dream

Have you ever read a book or heard a speech and the idea that was presented made you kick yourself and think, why did I not think of that?  Well that is how I felt after reading The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly a few months ago.

The book is written as a business fable.  For those that have not discovered business fables they are  a great format for helping one to visualize a methodology and how it will play out in an organization.  They also are pretty easy reads between the more monotonous reads that business books can sometimes be.

Anyways, the book follows a fictional janitorial service company.  The company has horrible turnover and horrible employee engagement.  I will not spoil it for you, but the book goes through a simplistic yet powerful method that simply deals with helping others fulfill their dreams.

The reason why I kicked myself is because this is something I already do with colleagues and friends.  I have given referrals and testimonials, made connections and helped colleagues in a wide range of areas to help them fulfill their dreams, but never thought of doing this for my employees.  I felt pretty stupid.

So let’s think about this.  Say you have an employee, let’s call him John.  Through some discussions you learn that John has always wanted to take his family to Walt Disney World.  To John, this seems like an impossible feet of which he will never have the time nor the money to bring his dream to fruition. 

So you dig into your contacts and realize you have a colleague in Orlando.  You call him up and through the conversation you come to find he has a guest house.  You tell your colleague of what you are doing and he tells you that the guest house is his for 2 weeks if he comes during the off-season.

You then figure out with John what his expenses will be and you use your financial skills to teach him about budgeting, and you plan out a savings plan for the next year to get the money needed.  You help him find deals online and as the time draws near you make sure that his duties are taken care of at work and home and you send him off.

It did not cost you a dime, other than your time.  How grateful do you think John will be?  Also, before I go too far, do not think that you can replace proper compensation with helping employees fulfill their dreams.  Properly compensating staff is a given.

Let’s say you have another employee that has always wanted to own a home.  To them the idea of owning a home is something that they will never see.  You once again dive into your contacts and find a realtor that specializes in low-income housing.  This realtor puts you in contact with a mortgage broker that specializes in such situations.  You work with this employee and put them in touch with your financial advisor who helps them to budget and get a savings plan together.

As their savings grows and they see you truly care about them, what do you think happens with their engagement?

The ideas are endless, I think as leaders we naturally are problem solvers.  But we are so busy solving problems for our company, that we do nothing to solve problems for our staff.  Yet if we actually showed them we cared, the financial benefits to our organizations are unlimited.  Our employees are the ones on the front-line.  They see things we do not always see.  If you think about them and help them, they will generally think about us and will help to make sure our organizations are successful.

We all have dreams we want out of life.  Some of them are big and some are small.  I think we all have some of both.  As leaders I think we naturally have the knowledge and network to make things happen, but I think to the disengaged employee that thinks you do not care about them, their dreams are just that.    We have the knowledge and resources to coach and help our staff fulfill dreams that we may take for granted.

In the book, What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There, by Marshall Goldsmith, he states: “In the past, the key to wealth may have been control of land, material, plants, and tools.  In that environment, the worker needed the company more than the company needed the worker.  Today, the key to wealth is knowledge.  As a result, the company needs the knowledge worker far more than the knowledge worker needs them.  To make matters worse, they know this!  They see themselves as fungible assets – no longer at the mercy of the company whim – rather than dispensable commodities.  The difference is real: As a fungible asset, the free agent sees himself as always getting a better job somewhere else; if he were merely a commodity, anyone could replace him (which we know is not true anymore).”

I read What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There, after The Dream Manager and that paragraph hit me hard. Leaders that see their employees as fungible assets will find themselves leading mediocre organizations and will have problems with employee engagement, low morale and possibly turn-over.  While leaders that understand and value their employees to the extent of helping them fulfill their dreams, will find employees that are engaged, happy and willing to help the organization succeed.

This concept of The Dream Manager does not diminish the value of accountability and execution, but it may help you realize why those items might not be as high as they should b.  I challenge you to look back at your career and think about how The Dream Manager concept could have been helpful for you and then, become a dream manager yourself.

Please comment and let me know your thoughts.

Filed Under: Dream / Nightmare Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Planning Your Personal Success with a Personal Success Plan

January 31, 2011 by

A few months ago, I looked at the New Year fast approaching, and was driven to start the year running.  I did not want to just create the normal annual resolutions that many tend to make, including me, but I really wanted to create something that had some teeth, had an element of accountability and execution and would really help me to achieve greater success in 2011.

I have received great feedback from this and have even had a few business consultants ask me if they could use the format with their clients.  I think it is important as leaders that we are not only leaders of our organizations, but leaders of our own life’s as well.

This idea of becoming leader or CEO of your life, was one of those, “Why did I not think of that” moments.  Kris Cavanaugh, wrote the book, Stuck to CEO, her “specialty” and primary message in the book and her practice is to help people become “CEO of their Life”.  I will be doing an interview with Kris sometime in the next few months.  Please check out her website and get to know her.  She is a wonderful person.

This success plan was inspired from several things I have read, heard or seen, with the main ideas coming from, Who’s Got Your Back, by Keith Ferrazzi.

Let me describe what I have done:
On the lower left-hand side, I have placed my personal vision statement: “I will not accept status quo and as such will seek after that which is efficient and effective in all areas my life, but never at the expense of my relationships.  I will focus on that which is important versus that which is critical.  I will be teachable and will strive to always learn new things that will help me reach my full-potential.  I will act with Integrity at all times and will treat others as they would like to be treated.  I will look for the good in all I experience, and remember all the blessings that I have been given.”

I placed this on the document because it is something I need to remember and keep in focus, every time I plan my schedule and look at this document, which is at least daily.  If you do not have a personal mission or vision statement, start working on it, no matter what your station in life is.

In the top-left I have placed a diagram with all the elements that I feel are important to a well-balanced life.  They are in order clockwise by personal priority.  You have to figure out what are the most important elements for balance in your life.

The right side of the image is the “meat”.  This is in order of personal priority as well.  Here I have placed actionable items that I feel must be accomplished in order to “claim” success in those areas.  I have put a LOT of thought and I requested feedback from those important to me before I finalized on these.  This is the part that takes some effort and deep thinking. It is important to get feedback from those close to you and those that will be honest and look through the reasons why you may be putting some things down.

In the bottom-right, I have placed images of things that tie back into my goals.  There is much research on the value of imagery in fostering motivation and goal achievement.

Now onto the execution side of this; the key to this are several accountability partners.  I meet with one each week and another every other week.  Each of my accountability partners is genuinely concerned about my success and they call me out when I am doing something that is not in alignment with my goals.

I also look at this daily and weekly when I do my planning.  In addition I have printed out and laminated a few copies, one to keep with me in my portfolio binder and one that is shrunk down and serves as a bookmark while reading.

Even though the year has already started, it is never too late to plan out your success.

I would love to hear your comments, if you would like a Microsoft Word copy of this document to edit for yourself, please leave a comment, share your thoughts, and I will email you a copy.

Filed Under: Personal Success Plan Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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