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Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

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Inspire People - Grow Profits!

by Rick Baker
On Jan 25, 2012

Two Facts:

  1. When it comes to doing business, inspired People generate better results.
  2. Business Leaders can inspire their People.
Another even-more-important Fact:
  • You can expand your ability to inspire the People who follow your Leadership.
 This is an accurate statement, regardless of how well you inspired your People in the past.
 
The keys are:
  1. Accepting the fact People will need your injection of Inspiration: they need and want that from their Leader.
  2. Working at it: taking specific inspiration-actions designed to accomplish specific inspiration-results.
Wise folks have taught this throughout the ages.
 
Here is one example: about people who are struggling, in 1926, Robert Collier1 wrote:
 
"For men and women like them do not need "Charity" - nor even sympathy. What they do need is Inspiration - and Opportunity - the kind of Inspiration that makes a man go out and create his own Opportunity."
 
Everyone struggles from time to time.
 
The People who follow your Leadership will struggle from time to time.
 
So - from time to time, your People will need an injection of Inspiration.
 
As a Leader, you can assume or hope somebody else will deliver that injection of Inspiration. Or, you can embrace it as part of your role.
 
Spirited Leaders will choose to embrace it.
 
 
HOW?
 
There are many ways...1-Page Tools are really helpful.
 
***
 
Spirited Leader's Definition of INSPIRE2:
  • to exert an animating, enlivening influence on
  • to encourage, impel, & motivate...to excite and impart motion, to bolster focused Action
 
 
 
Footnotes:

Do you have what it takes to DELIVERS?

by Rick Baker
On Dec 28, 2011

Recently, I was listening to an audio book about 'Courage'. When the audio used the words 'Vigilance' and 'Intention', I wrote those two words in my notepad - one below the other. For some reason, I felt the need to add the word 'Learning' to the bottom of the list. With this done, the sheet in my note pad contained:

Vigilance

Intention

Learning

I like lists and memory tools. When I see lists like this the first letters of the words jump out at me. The first letters of these 3 words caught my attention. While the natural order [top-down] of the first letters of these 3 words was well on its way to spelling the word 'VILE', I read them from the bottom up and saw the word 'LIVE'. And, that's when the word 'Energy' jumped into my mind. So, I reversed the order of the 3 words and added 'Energy' to the bottom of the list:

Learning

Intention

Vigilance

Energy

That was the start of a little list of important words for business people. But, too much was missing. For example, when it comes to business 'Discipline' and 'Strengths' are of about equal importance. One cannot thrive and deliver advantage without the other. I wanted to add both 'Discipline' and 'Strengths' to the list...and the first letters of these two words did not lend themselves to simple addition. If I was going to create a 'memory tool', I needed more words with just the right letters to deliver an important, concise, and memory-friendly message.

On the other hand, this isn't something you can force...at least, I cannot force it. Either words arrive and fit or they don't.

I allowed this to simmer for a few days.

And a few words came to me.

Here is where I ended up.

This list DELIVERS 8 Success Ingredients:

Discipline: knowing the choices are many and knowing the better and best choices are not so many

Energy: recognizing energy is the source of all growth and change, including that of attitude

Learning: viewing life as a long-term school of experiencing and discovering how to avoid hard-knocks

Intention: allowing wisdom, judgment, and volition to guide both thoughts and actions

Vigilance: focusing attention and observing, while keeping personal biases under control

Empathy: being able to understand other people, engage them, and build upon their differences

Resolve: fixing sights on a purpose and having faith about getting to that end point

Strengths: drawing on talent to consistently deliver near-perfect performance

 

Do you have what it takes to DELIVERS?

 

Footnote:

We have a 1-Page Tool, which helps people DELIVERS

Tags:

1-Page Tools | Attitude: Creating Positive Attitude | STRENGTHS: People-Focused for Success

When I think about the future...

by Rick Baker
On Dec 9, 2011

I was listening to 'Keys to Success' when the following picture popped into my head:

 

  I like It I don't like it
I see    
I don't see    

 

In 'Keys to Success', Napoleon Hill was asking his readers/students questions like:

  • Where are you going?
  • How strong is your desire to get there?
  • What changes are you making to ensure you get there?
 
These are straightforward-enough questions.
 
And, straightforward-enough does not necessarily mean easy enough or simple enough.
 
One of the things we have noticed when we help people with Vision statements is: most people experience some difficulty. This is absolutely normal. About 19 out of 20 people experience difficulty describing in vivid detail the future they would like to live. For many people, it is difficult to be concrete about the future. After all, when it gets right down to it nobody can predict the future. On the other hand, most people have desires, wants, and needs. Often, those needs are strong, embedded, life-long needs. And, everyone has some level of imagination. Imagination exists in us. Why, it even works while we are asleep - creating various types of dreams...some quite fantastic. Yet, when it comes to people picturing their future, most people have difficulty. To help them, we have designed 1-Page Tools. for example, here is a link to one VISION: 1-Page Tool
 
The picture above forms the basis for another 1-Page Tool...a simpler tool, which will help people who need help to get into the swing of visioning, envisioning, contemplating, and finally holding a Vivid Vision of their desired future, firmly in their minds. In relative terms, it should be easier to start by considering the near-term future...say tomorrow.
 
When you think about what you expect to live through tomorrow:
  • What do you see happening?
  • What don't you see happening?
How do you feel about those things you expect to happen and those things you expect will not happen tomorrow:
  • Do you like them?
  • Do you dislike them?
 
Use the results to help your imagination take baby steps farther and farther into the future.
 
Then you can answer those important questions:
  • Where are you going?
  • How strong is your desire to get there?
  • What changes are you making to ensure you get there?
 
 

Tags:

1-Page Tools | Change: Creating Positive Change | Vision: The Leader's Vivid Vision

Strengths & Weaknesses

by Rick Baker
On Dec 7, 2011

The great Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Our strength grows out of our weaknesses".

Ralph Waldo Emerson isn't a fellow I would want to debate. Well...let me re-state that. Actually, I would love the opportunity to exchange ideas with Emerson even if the only way to do it was debating him. And, I recognize the likelihood of me winning a debate with Emerson would be pretty close to absolute zero.

I know...more information than you needed...I could not help myself because I rarely disagree with the wisdom Ralph Waldo Emerson put to paper.

...back to the topic of Strengths and weaknesses.

Specifically, I am writing about Strengths and weaknesses people exhibit in workplaces...this is about business.

Speaking about my personal experiences and my observations of other people, I do not believe people's strengths grow out of weaknesses. I like the way the folks at and from the Gallup organization described the source of people's strengths: natural talent themes + specialized, pertinent knowledge + skills development = Strengths, where Strength is the ability to perform actions nearly perfectly almost all the time. [I have written, in some detail, about Strengths.]

The starting point for a person's Strengths is inborn, natural talent.

For the vast majority of people, Strengths are due to innate talents coupled with a lot of hard work.

***

That is not to say it is impossible to move from what we perceive as weakness to what we perceive as strength. Perhaps, Helen Keller illustrated this best. Helen Keller was born deaf and blind. She overcame these 'weaknesses' to be the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor's Degree. She authored many books. And, she served as an inspiration to millions of people. 

Even still, it is difficult for me to agree with Emerson, "Our strength grows out of our weaknesses".

When I think of Helen Keller, I think "People can do amazing things despite what other people perceive to be weaknesses". And, I think, "Embedded in Helen Keller, deeper than those perceived weaknesses of deafness and blindness, was some innate gift of talent...perhaps it was  - LEARNER". Clearly, Helen Keller also had an amazing desire to ACHIEVE.

Our Strength can grow despite our weaknesses.

Nobody can argue with that!

Buried Treasures – Inspired Measures

by Rick Baker
On Nov 2, 2011
Buried Treasures - Inspired Measures
 
It’s fun to measure your steps when you know the path leads to gold!
 
***
 
That’s the title of Spirited Leaders’ workshop on ‘Measurement’. The workshop is an introduction to our views about and tools for measurement of business things. In the workshop we guide business Leaders toward the measurement of most-important Actions.
 
Our introductory workshop covers two of the most-important aspects of Action:
  1. the cause-effect linkage Actions have with business Goals and
  2. the interpersonal implications of Actions…specifically, the implications in the areas of self-monitoring, self-regulating and Inspiring others.
These aspects of business are vital to Leaders’ success.
 
For our workshops, we make an effort to provide at least a little theory & creativity and at least two practical tools, which we call 1-Page Tools.
 
Intentionally, at workshops we do not get too deep into our theories or philosophies.
 
Some people ask us for more details, more details about the theories and philosophies.
 
The following is an effort to explain a bit of the thinking behind the workshop title
 
Buried Treasures - Inspired Measures
 
It’s fun to measure your steps when you know the path leads to gold!
 
First, here is a quote from the 2009 revision of ‘ZEN and the art of making a living’ by Laurence G. Boldt:
 
“If we limit our knowledge to that which can be quantified, we miss not only the wonder of the Mystery but also the possibility of the revelation.”
 
We are in 100% agreement with Boldt.
 
To confirm we are giving more than lip-service support to his statement…check out a little piece I wrote about 6 months ago titled ‘Marvel & The Mysteries of Life’.
 
We marvel at the wonder of the Mystery.
 
And, we know the most-important things are un-measureable. Certainly, at this time they are un-measureable. We can neither measure the details of the tiniest things like atomic particles nor the secrets at work in the simplest of animal brains.
 
That said, most of us must go to work and earn livings.
 
That said: we can approach our work as:
  1. a great-big-necessary-evil part of life or
  2. an opportunity to fulfil our life-purpose or
  3. a confusing thing lying between or waffling between (1) and (2)
From those options, we choose (2).
 
Our workshops are our effort to help business Leaders who also choose (2).
 
About…
  • Buried Treasures – to the extent we are on a business quest, why not think in terms of looking at rolled up maps and taking measured Actions…in search of treasure?
  • Wouldn’t that sort of thinking make the journey a little more exciting and cause one to take the time and care to perform Inspired Measures?
  • Won’t it be more fun to measure your steps when you know your path leads to gold?
Footnote…about the coloured fonts

At Spirited Leaders, we use colours to signal & highlight certain things:
  • green = good things Good Habits
  • blue = New Things…which can lead to Good Habits
  • gold…well…gold = Gold!

Tags:

1-Page Tools | INSPIRE PEOPLE - GROW PROFITS! | Measure & Monitor | Spirited Leaders

The K.I.S.L. Principle

by Rick Baker
On Jul 27, 2011
You know that K.I.S.S. Principle - Keep It Simple Stupid.
 
Now, isn’t that an annoying little saying!
 
People are not stupid…they just have more Bad Habits than you would like.
 
And, I am sure you can accept it’s their Bad Habits that make you a whole lot less interesting to them than you would like.
 
So, do not underestimate or pooh-pooh the intelligence of others. Do not assume people are stupid. Do not make light of intelligence or make light of yourself by using the word stupid when you describe what you are doing [and why you are doing it].
 
Instead, assume you better crank up your interestingness a bit and, even better, you better provide tools that will help people do the actions you desire as accurately, quickly, and painlessly as possible.
 
At our business, we use "1-Page Tools".
 
Design a terrific 1-Page Tool and give it to your people. They will use it.
 
While they may not give you a huge pat on the back...they will appreciate the effort you have made to minimize the disruption in their already-too-busy lives.
 
I hope you will now take the K.I.S.S. Principle and throw it in the garbage where it belongs.
 
Replace it with the K.I.S.L. Principle
 
Keep It Simple…Leader
 
Develop Good Habits:
  • for communication
  • for ‘sticky stories’
  • for expressing ‘rules’
  • for goal setting
  • for task assignment
  • for 1-Page Tools
Remember
 
It’s a double-edged sword:
 
People ain’t stupid…you just have more Bad Habits than they would like.

Copyright © 2012. W.F.C (Rick) Baker. All Rights Reserved.