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Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

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Thought Tweet #549

by Rick Baker
On Aug 23, 2012

Thought Tweet #549 You can help your employees maintain and grow a positive mental attitude. Here's how...

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

For example, here's an excerpt from Boyé Lafayette De Menthe's ‘The Japanese Samurai Code’, (2004)

Talking about how Japanese companies go about building positive mental attitude...

“These companies follow a set of four principles in creating the mental attitude they want their employees to have.

These four principles are: (a) to have a basic business philosophy that provides a clear reason for the existence of the enterprise, along with management practices to fulfill this philosophy; (2) the precepts of the company philosophy must be ingrained in the minds of the employees to the point that they will instinctively behave according to the precepts; (3) that employees must be trained to work without constraint, have a strong sense of responsibility and be creative in their approach to everything they do; and (4) that all employees be trained to develop a sense of social responsibility.”

Tags:

Attitude: Creating Positive Attitude | Thought Tweets

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CHANGING FOR THE BETTER: Good Habits, Bad Habits, & New Things - #15

by Rick Baker
On Aug 22, 2012

Here's a link to the first 14 CHANGING FOR THE BETTER Thought Posts.

And here are links to other articles about Change: Making Change, You Want to Make Some Changes at Your Business, Change is Only Constructive When People are Comfortable, What Does Change Mean To You?, and Change or Die.

***

I write a lot about change. And, I read a lot about change. I do these things because when it comes to business change is pervasive, underestimated, ignored, and mishandled. And, those are just some of my mistakes.

Change is a topic worthy of life-long learning. Change affects every aspect of our lives. It is very personal, yet it defies being contained so it spreads from person to person and it affects one and all...in different ways.

A solid understanding of change, how it affects self, and how it affects others is an essential piece of leadership knowledge.

Without a good understanding of these aspects of change a leader is not and never will be much of a leader.

So, I study change. I select wisdom from various authors, scientists, leaders, and heroes and I do my best to understand that wisdom and use pieces of it to improve my understanding of change, how it affects me, how it affects the people I work with, and how it affects the people I serve.

Here is an excellent sample of such wisdom, an excerpt from John C. Maxwell's 'The 5 Levels of Leadership', (2011).

"Change in an organization is always a leadership issue. It takes a leader to create positive change. And the best way to start working as a change agent is the same as when trying to build a relationship. You need to find common ground. Any leader who wants to make changes is tempted to point out differences and try to convince others why change is needed. But that rarely works. Instead, focus on the similarities and build upon those. To get started, look for common ground. In the following areas:

  • Vision: when the vision is similar, you can bet that the people are standing together and they have the same view. If their vision is similar to yours, you all see it clearly, and everyone has a strong desire to see it come to fruition, you can probably work well together.
  • Values: It's difficult to travel with other very long if your values don’t align. Find out what others stand for and try to meet where you share the same standards.
  • Relationships: Great teams have people who are as committed to one another as they are to the vision. If you've done the work on level 2, you should already share common ground in this area.
  • Attitude: If you are going to get people to work together for positive change, their attitudes need to be positive and tenacious. If they're not, there will be trouble ahead.
  • Communication: For change to occur, communication must be open, honest and ongoing. When people are in the dark they start to speculate about what’s happening. And their assumptions are often wrong. Inform people so that everyone is on the same page."

 
Here are some links to Spirited Leaders' thoughts about: Vision, Values, Relationships, Attitude, & Communication.

 

Tags:

Attitude: Creating Positive Attitude | Change: Creating Positive Change | Communication: Improving Communication | Habits: Good Habits, Bad Habits, & New Things | Values: Personal Values | Vision: The Leader's Vivid Vision

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How To Develop Better Work Habits

by Rick Baker
On Aug 21, 2012
"A whopping 85 percent of us have had bosses who have tried but failed to get us to change in order to improve our performance."1
 
If you want to develop better work habits then you need to:
 
  1. Plan some baby-step changes...then take them 
  2. Shake it off when you make mistakes or stumble...and count on it - you will stumble...that's OK, in fact it is a necessary part of the learning and improving processes
  3. Spend a bit of time thinking about your mistakes with the view to understanding the lessons embedded in your stumbles...and getting to truly understand yourself: think about how you handle work-pressure/stress & strain; think about how you handle interpersonal differences; think about how you handle surprises; think about how you handle change [both good change and bad change].
  4. Pay attention to situations around you...think about how situations cause you to succeed or stumble...make sure you plan for them, or plan around them if that's the best route: avoid situations that enable/encourage/align with your bad work habits when that's possible; prepare strategies and tactics that help you manage situations that you struggle with but cannot avoid.
Link to a variety of Thought Posts about Changing Habits
 
Footnotes:
  1. Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, & Al Switzler 'Change Any-Thing', (2011)
  2. You have some bad work habits. All of us do. And we all have choices. For work habits, we can:  wait for a rainy day to make change, or tackle them now...like a work leader must do. deny they exist, try to ignore them,hope they go away, 
  3. If you do not want to develop better work habits...think about what that means to you, to your co-workers, to your family...etc.

Tags:

Attitude: Creating Positive Attitude | Change: Creating Positive Change | Habits: Good Habits, Bad Habits, & New Things

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Seven well-kept secrets on...How To Maintain A Closed Mind

by Rick Baker
On Aug 7, 2012

With all this innovation, creativity, and technology expanding and swelling up around us it is getting harder and harder to maintain a closed mind.

Regardless, some people manage to do it.

It's time we expose some of their secrets.

Here are 7 ways to maintain a closed mind:

  1. When you hear a new or unusual idea, quickly discard it: rely solely on what's worked in the past [that's making good use of your Anchoring Bias)
  2. Keep a keen focus on the negatives: use this with people, situations, and information [Negativity Bias]
  3. Seek and favour information that supports your views [that's the essence of Confirmation Bias]
  4. Minimize the time you spend on risk management: refuse to plan of or react to extremes or disasters [the Normalcy Bias]
  5. Don't go overboard asking too many questions - just conclude other people almost always agree with you [take comfort in the False-Consensus Effect]
  6. Underestimate the time it will take to complete tasks [the Planning Fallacy]
  7. Know you are far less biased than anyone you have ever met [that's perfect use of your Bias Blind Spot]


Of course, there are many more biases that can be used to close and hermetically seal your mind.

Remember, if you don't do it nobody will [Personal Bias].

Tags:

Attitude: Creating Positive Attitude | Leaders' Thoughts

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Thought Tweet #537

by Rick Baker
On Aug 7, 2012

Thought Tweet #537 Personal strengths, desire to achieve, & attitude: 3 keys you can develop.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Lou Holtz, the famed Notre Dame football coach, said something like: "Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."

What is Ability? The key to ability is Personal Strengths and Personal Strengths = Natural Talents + Pertinent Knowledge + Skill development through practice. [link to Strengths]

What is Motivation? Motivation is an internal driver that makes you want to understand the [external] world and exert your influence on it. [link to Will to Power]

What is Attitude? Positive Mental Attitude exists when your mind is able to guide and focus your thoughts and actions toward your desired ends/goals. [link to Attitude]

Tags:

Attitude: Creating Positive Attitude | STRENGTHS: People-Focused for Success | Thought Tweets

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Thought Tweet #535

by Rick Baker
On Aug 3, 2012

Thought Tweet #535 Better to fix the problem than to fix the blame.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Winners seek solutions and think of better places.

Losers agonize over problems and fear uncertainty.

Tags:

Attitude: Creating Positive Attitude | Solutions & Opportunities | Thought Tweets

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