This is another article to continue my case study on leadership and team development in a small business of about 50 employees.

After the initial workshops on leadership and team development, I met with the business owner to continue the process towards creating an organization that is scalable to meet the business opportunities in the marketplace.

This next phase of the mandate is about implementing a win-win agreement process that commits each manager to achieving certain organizational outcomes by applying good leadership behaviors of participative management that they learned in the leadership workshops.The first meeting I held with the business owner was to establish a win-win agreement between him and I for the mandate itself. This is to assure that we stay on track towards agreed upon objectives and to hold each other accountable through a clearly written document and evaluation process.

It also was to help the business owner fully understand the win-win agreement process so he would know how what is required from him and his managers in terms of time and resources.

The first meeting was so that I could interview him about his concerns and to have him articulate what he wanted out of the mandate and win-win agreement process.

After the interview I drafted an agreement using our template form for this purpose. Since it is a two-way agreement I also drafted the support commitment form for us to discuss and complete at the second meeting. The support commitments from me are what he feels he requires as support for him to achieve his objectives.

Each form includes the key goal that each person is working on related to the negative tendency of his type. This tendency is really what holds us back from fully using our qualities in what we do and in interacting with others.

We always keep the key goal of one’s type as part of the agreement because we never fully overcome our tendencies and they can always surface to make us ineffective. It also forces us to keep working on ourselves and develop the habit of continuous personal improvement of our behavior related to leadership and teamwork.

We had a second meeting where we reviewed the first document of his objectives for the mandate and the performance commitments required by him to achieve what he envisioned. Though some discussion we came to agreement on the leadership behaviors required by him to meet his objectives.

We then discussed the support commitments he would need from me to reach his objectives. These were comprised mainly of holding him accountable through confronting him when he was off track or neglecting certain commitments etc.

I was quite pleased with the commitment of this business owner to this process and to wanting to put forth the effort to modify his own behavior to achieve his objectives. He is confident and willing to be transparent with his team, to commit the time to coach them and to be held accountable.

As part of the agreement we worked out how to track our progress towards the objectives and even discussed rewards and penalties.

The next meeting will be to finalize the support commitment document and discuss how to begin implementing the same agreements with his direct reports. This will enable us to figure out the time required by me to coach him and his managers and thus formulate a budget that makes sense to him.

I will post an update after the next meeting.

Stephen Goldberg

I just completed delivering a six week leadership workshop on Styles of Leadership and Team Development with a new client in the telecom industry. There were six half-day sessions spread over the six weeks.

I met the owner earlier this year to discuss opportunities to improve the people side of business rather than the processes or systems. Most small business owners are caught up in keeping their sales funnel full and on managing the processes to deliver the goods.

This company is small with about 50 employees in total and most of them working out of the home office in Montreal. There is a sales office in Western Canada and in Europe.

The organization is quite flat in structure with only six people in management roles including the president/owner. Most of the managers had never had any formal training in leadership and had been promoted to these positions as the company grew.

I curently use only one approach to leadership development, the Styles of Leadership & Team Development program developed by Fritz Glaus. I do this because it has contributed to producing the best results for my clients. It is part of a complete approach to help the business owner or CEO free himself from the day to day decisions regarding how the company of organization operates. This allow him to act on new opportunities and use his talents to solidify the organization in whatever way he sees best.

It takes a leader or business owner that is at the point of realizing that greatness is about bringing out the best in people and helping them fully understand and use their qualities to the benefit of all. This then required the leader to start by understanding himself and his direct reports.

The Styles of Leadership and Team Development program incorporates the types of people approach that Fritz Glaus has applied to the training workshops. The program also lay the framework for people to be open to change and continuous personal development. They learn that we all have strengths and weaknesses and this is normal and not to be feared.

During each session over the last six weeks I could see the managers opening up a little more and making attempts to apply what they were learning. Before the third session one of the direct reports of one of the managers participating in the workshops came to me with a big smile and said that she could already see some change from the managers, especially the person she reported to.  She said that they were making a distinct attempt to communicate more often and recognize people’s efforts and contributions.

The program integrates the types of people approach to self-knowledge and understanding of others with the principles of participative management and continuous improvement. Each person identified a key restrainer that interfered with fully using their qualities and set a goal to lessen the impact of this restrainer on their performance.

I met with president a week after the last session and he said that he could see the managers making an effort to apply what they learned. He could see them holding more effective meetings and using the problem solving techniques that were taught.

The next phase of the mandate is to establish win-win performance agreements between the managers and the president. The system we developed has the manager, with our help, formulate a win-win performance commitment with his boss along with support commitments from his boss.

I had the first meeting with the president to begin this process and will submit a new post about that soon.

Stephen

Yesterday was the last day of the Yoko Ono Give Peace a Chance exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts.of the. This reminded me of the great song Imagine by John Lennon in which he sings about a different world, one of people living in peace and treating each other with love and respect.

Of course this has not transpired in the world we live in today and this may seem out of our grasp.

Ever since I was quite young and discontent with what I saw happening in the world, I wanted to change things.

I realize now that all I can change is myself and how I treat others. One of the great things about being in business or a leader of any organization, is that we have power. We can use that power in many ways to influence people and how they behave.

This means that can can sculpt the organization of our dreams, just like Lennon inspired us to do with his song about imaging the world a much better place.

Leaders can choose the direction of their organization and can also imagine an organization of people working productively and in harmony. Cooperation and mutual support towards a common goal can become a reality if the boss so desires and builds a team of like minded individuals.

This is the thrust of the new online learning program and system we are developing. It is directed for leaders to develop this mindset in themselves and share it with their management team. This approach has the power to transform a person and an entire organization.

It begins with self-understanding and the desire to improve one’s own personal balance as a leader and team member. With this mindset one also develops a continuous improvement approach to life and work that balances task and relationship. We need both in order to be successful at our endeavors and our relationships.

We will be rolling out this new pogrom in the next few days. Please keep in touch.

 

Stephen Goldberg

My partner Fritz Glaus and I have been working hard (well not that hard but hard enough) at creating an online program to provide business owners and leaders with a system to gain the freedom to work less, earn more and enjoy life.

I have written about this a lot in the past. After all, who does not strive to have these things in their business and lives. We all would rather have our businesses serve us rather than being a slave to it.

But to achieve that status of freedom requires a way of leading and managing people so that they run the business not you. This cannot happen overnight and thus requires a clear commitment and an understanding of what to do and how to achieve it.

We had already launched a program and website to teach this system but it did not serve our intention and so we have been reconstructing the website.

We are now very close to completion and it will soon be launched. As I get closer to completion I will be able to give a launch date so stay tuned and subscribe to our news feed.

Stephen

Profiles International Research Institute announced the results of its first-ever Profiles International America’s Most Productive Companies study, a nationwide look at the companies that get the most from their people relative to their peers. “We are seeing trends among the most productive companies in the country. They have performance-driven cultures, effective managers, and utilize their employees by placing them in the proper positions,” says Profiles International Co-Founder and CEO Jim Sirbasku. “They also encourage innovation and the exchange of ideas, which engages employees and ultimately leads to higher productivity.” Cummins tops the list followed by Lexmark, Dow, Caterpillar, and Samuel Adams.

Blanchard’s recession tactics

Ken Blanchard – a high profile supporter of the servant leadership concept – explains why leading with humility could be the key to surviving and thriving during the current economic crisis. Read more

Yesterday I read an interview with Seth Godin in Les Affaires , a Quebec based business newspaper in which Godin said that the web has the power to change the world because of the opportunity to communicate and reach a global audience and have it circulated almost instantly around the world. He says that this was never possible before.

I agree with Mr Godin’s statement and I am sure many people do as well. At the same, time is the world really changing as a result of this great new opportunity afforded us? Perhaps it is to a certain degree but there is obviously something much more that needs to happen.

Again this morning I read another article in the business section of the Montreal Gazette about the mess that the global economy is in and that to change things we need to change the kind of thinking that got us into this mess in the first place.

I agree with this line of thought but the solution proposed in the article again misses the mark. That is because the root cause of the problem is not being addressed with the proposed solution.

The article went on to say that group think is the cause of the problems we face in the economy and the world and the solution is to have more woman in leadership roles. The author states that woman do not necessarily think differently from men, but men think they do and causes men to check their perspectives and think more broadly. This is hogwash to me and again comes from a deep misunderstanding of the true cause of the problem

The real cause of the problem is fear and unconsciousness, which stems from a lack of self-knowledge, self awareness and the conditioned misconception of what makes us happy.

There is a great piece in the fabulous documentary film “Crude Impact” where they comically show how we have been lied to and sold on the concept that more stuff is better and makes us happier. This is just a big lie and one of the biggest illusions in life.

The fact of the matter is that happiness is within us and must only be rediscovered and not recreated on the outside through having more stuff. I say this because when we were very young we were happy as long as we had the basics and one most important ingredient, love.

The real purpose of life is not to build empires and become famous because that again is just more stuff on the outside. It is to experience the happiness and fulfillment of life and to enjoy the journey.

When every human being understands this and can make this their first priority and help others on their journey feel the same, things will REALLY change. The web and technology can help make this happen but it cannot change the mindset of people. This can only come through a process of self discovery .

Leaders of either gender have the power, authority and perhaps the greater self esteem to take the risk to lead the way. But first they need to discover who they really are and use that knowledge and understanding to nurture the same in others.

Today I read an article about the elementary school I attended as a lad and was amazed to learn about how it has evolved into a unique and wonderful learning environment.

The key here is the involvement of the parents in the functioning of the school and special activities that gets the kids participating in different types of events such as theatrical productions.

This model can also be used in all aspect of society, including businesses to solve the problems we face. The more opportunity and encouragement people are given to participate in decisions and be active in the solutions, the more we will build a responsible population that can collaborate together to solve problems and create new opportunities, rather than bickering and creating conflicts that lead downhill.

Nurturing talented kids is how Gardenview grows

By MIKE BOONE, The Gazette May 6, 2009

Grease is the word at Gardenview – with a few of the musical’s words rendered age-appropriate.

When students from the St. Laurent elementary school stage Grease at Westmount High School this week, the pre-ados won’t be belting out, “You better shape up, ’cause I need a man.”

“Grease is not elementary school material,” understated Carmy Zolla, a parent volunteer who’s been overseeing the production. “We’ve modified the script. We’ll stress the music, not the words.”

Tucked away on a quiet side street in St. Laurent, Gardenview is a two-storey red-brick building that’s bursting at the seams with 800 students, the largest elementary school enrolment in the English Montreal School Board. The population of St. Laurent is growing, swelled by numerous young families with school-age children – as evidenced by the school’s seven kindergarten classes.

Read the full article

Today is the last day of April and the sun is shining, which is a good way to end the month. Things are looking brighter in the economy and people I speak with seem more positive about short term opportunites to grow their businesses. The forecast for May looks bright and sunny so it’s a good time to get out there and break new grounds for business development.

Last week I interviewed Mario Lapointe, president of SMT-ASSY on the personal development and sales training process he went through that resulted in doubling his sales in just one year. This was after having experienced flat sales growth for the previous five years.

I recorded the interview conference call and I am making it available on my website here.

You may say they’re delusional, but some experts contend there are early signs of an economic recovery. If an economic turnaround is, indeed, at hand, companies and their leaders need to be positioned to make the most of it, and beat their competitors at winning increased business when it happens, says Suzanne Bates, author of “Motivate Like a CEO: Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act!” and president and CEO of Bates Communication. Here are Bates’ top tips for making the most of the recovery:

Read the full article from Training Magazine