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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:

Tags:

1-Page Tools | Attitude: Creating Positive Attitude | Change: Creating Positive Change | Definitions - Spirited Words Defined | INSPIRE PEOPLE - GROW PROFITS! | Spirited Leaders

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Wages in the world of work

by Rick Baker
On Jan 17, 2012

As part of our BIG PICTURE, Spirited Leaders has 5 Values. 

One of those 5 Values is: Labours of Enjoyment & Enthusiasm. 

In simple words, we want our People to at least enjoy their work.

Why?

We have several reasons, here are 3:

  1. work Enjoyment means People are putting their Strengths to productive use,
  2. work Enjoyment paves the path for work Enthusiasm, which in turn paves the path for work Passion, and
  3. work Enjoyment results in full wages.
Full Wages...what does that mean?
 
It means People, in return for their work, receive much more than money.
 
In the 100-year-old words of James Allen1, People receive "the completion of wages in its sevenfold fullness as follows:
  1. Money
  2. Usefullness
  3. Excellence
  4. Power
  5. Independence
  6. Honor
  7. Happiness"
Now, James Allen had strong thoughts about People and work. He wrote, "Work is of two kinds - it is either loving labor or enforced slavery". At one end of the spectrum, Allen described working People as slaves. At the other end of the spectrum he described working People as true workers. And, he didn't see much middle ground.
 
That's not the way we see working People.
 
We see working People experiencing a range of feelings about work. People's feelings at and about work change frequently. People's feelings at and about work tend to fluctuate within a range. We use a Minus10-to-Plus10 Scale to describe and measure People's feelings at and about work.
 
Our goal is to help People feel good about work...that is, at least Enjoy their work. Using our Minus10-to-Plus10 Scale, that means People score on average at least Plus4.
 
When People score at least Plus4 their enjoyment is contagious...
 
That's why we Value it!
 
 
Footnotes:
  1. James Allen - an excerpt from his book 'Men And Systems' (1914)
  2. link to a friend's thoughts about Workplace Passion

Tags:

Emotions & Feelings @ Work | INSPIRE PEOPLE - GROW PROFITS! | Measure & Monitor | Optimism & Pessimism | Values: Personal Values

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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

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Were you born to Inspire Action?

by Rick Baker
On Sep 28, 2011
Did you know some people are born with a special quality that makes it easy for them to inspire and lead other people?
 
Some experts describe it as a natural talent to self-monitor and self-regulate.
 
This self-monitoring is so natural and so real, without effort, it magnetizes and attracts other people.
 
It causes other people to be motivated to take action.
 
It inspires other people.
 
Many experts say Napoleon Bonaparte had this natural talent.
 
I have read the singer Lionel Richie has this gift.
 
The gift is rare.
 
Few are born with this natural gift.
 
So, most of us must learn how to inspire other people…and the process begins with self-monitoring.

Tags:

Hero Worship | INSPIRE PEOPLE - GROW PROFITS!

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Feel Better – Inspire People – Grow Profits

by Rick Baker
On Aug 16, 2011
Business Leader
 
How do you feel?
 
We have found: if you generally feel good then you have a greater chance to inspire followers and you have a greater chance to achieve the business profits you desire.
 
Feel Better – Inspire People – Grow Profits
 
The first step – measure your feelings.
 
How?
 
We recommend leaders use a Minus10-to-Plus10 Scale, where:
  • A Score of Minus10 means I feel absolutely horrible, couldn’t be feeling any worse than this
  • A Score of 0 means I don’t register any good feelings or bad feelings 
  • A Score of Plus10 means I am absolutely ecstatic, never been more pumped up in my life
People will score their feelings higher some days. Some activities will receive higher scores than others. Some situations will cause the score to rise. Some situations will cause the score to drop. When situations change the score could change radically…for example, consider the impact of surprises…pleasant surprises tend to generate good/positive feelings, not-so-pleasant surprises tend to generate bad/negative feelings.
 
No business leader scores Plus10 all day long. Rather, under normal business situations, leaders’ feelings fluctuate between a high and a low. And, over time their feelings fluctuate above and below their average score. Leaders who are truly happy sorts tend to feel better about almost everything they experience during their workdays. So, their average scores are high. They might assess themselves at an average score of Plus8.
 
Stress tends to reduce scores.
 
When leaders experience sustained high-stress levels their scores can drop significantly….and remain low, perhaps even in Minus territory.
 
When a leader’s score drops the leader becomes less productive and frequently this is clearly evident to the leader’s people, clients, suppliers, and business allies. That has a negative impact on business. And, that has a negative impact on business profitability.
 
Our goal is: to help business leaders feel even better.
 
Feel Better – Inspire People – Grow Profits

Tags:

Emotions & Feelings @ Work | INSPIRE PEOPLE - GROW PROFITS! | Measure & Monitor

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Long-term business relationships

by Rick Baker
On Jun 22, 2011
What exactly does that mean?
 
Everybody talks about building business relationships.
 
But, what do they mean when they say building business relationships?
 
Can they state it in simple words so their co-workers, bosses, subordinates, and Leaders understand exactly what they mean?
 
The quick answer is: No.
 
If you ask for a definition of building business relationships…
 
Most business people, including most business development people, cannot state in simple words exactly what they mean when they say ‘building business relationships’.
 
Isn’t that an interesting dilemma!
 
Also…aside from being interesting…
 
It explains why there is so much business-development confusion out there.
 
It explains why people have so much trouble setting clear business development goals.
 
It explains why people cannot figure out how to set up social media programs.
 
It explains why people struggle to create meaningful business-development measurements.
 
It explains why CRM systems are surrounded by so much confusion.
 
It explains why staffing for business development roles is such a challenge.
 
It explains much.

Tags:

INSPIRE PEOPLE - GROW PROFITS!

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