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by Rick Baker
On Nov 3, 2011
On a warm summer afternoon a couple of months ago, I was sitting on my Uncle Jack’s porch…chatting with him about many things, some serious and some definitely-not.
That’s when he surprised me by asking, “Haven’t I ever told you my Plus-Minus Theory?”
I said “No” and sat back to catch a little more shade and listen to my Uncle Jack’s Plus-Minus Theory.
He explained, “At the end of the day we should think about the ‘pluses’ of the day and the ‘minuses’ of the day. If we find the ‘minuses’ consumed more than 75% of the day then we better make changes.”
Now, since that afternoon, I have thought about pluses and minuses every single day.
And, I have shared my Uncle Jack’s ‘theory’ with a number of folks.
Each time I share the story and the theory I talk about the thoughts I have had for several years about feeling good and feeling bad at work and the thoughts I had about measuring these feelings. I talk about the fact I have worked at teaching and helping people learn the importance of doing these things. I talk about the Minus10-to-Plus10 Scale we use to measure feelings.
And, I never fail to mention I had no idea my favourite Uncle had already established a ‘theory’ on this topic, beating me [and many of the motivational gurus by decades].
Clearly, this is proof we need to spend more time with our Favourite Uncles!
Footnotes:
- At Spirited Leaders we use colours as visual signals:
- green = good things…especially Good Habits
- blue = New Things
- red = Bad Habits
- Minus10-to-Plus10 Scale: like my Uncle Jack’s ‘pluses’ and ‘minuses’ we are talking about monitoring feelings throughout the workday. Negative feelings are feelings that signal you are not in situations or taking actions aligned with your goals. Positive feelings are feelings that signal you arein situations or taking actions aligned with your goals.
- Plus 1-4: you are at least accepting the situation and have some comfort about your action
- Plus 5-7: you enjoy the situation and the action you are taking
- Plus 8-10: you are enthusiastic about the situation and your actions
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:
- the cause-effect linkage Actions have with business Goals and
- 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:
- a great-big-necessary-evil part of life or
- an opportunity to fulfil our life-purpose or
- 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!
by Rick Baker
On Oct 13, 2011
We recommend people take a bit of time to ‘register’ how they are feeling while at work.
We keep things simple with our 1st rule: there are only two types of feelings – good feelings and bad feelings. Good feelings are positive…Plus. Bad feelings are negative…Minus. Often, that’s all a person needs to consider: do I feel good or do I feel bad?
Of course, every person wants to spend more time feeling good and less time feeling bad…everybody wants that!
But…how do we do that?
The first step is to attend to our feelings…register them…and measure them.
We use a Minus10-to-Plus10 Scale to measure feelings.
The worst bad [Minus] feelings such as terror and hatred score Minus10, or very close to it. The best good [Plus] feelings such as passion and utter joy score Plus10, or very close to it.
A number of experts, psychologists and self-development gurus, have described and ranked ‘feelings’…so, you can use their descriptions and rankings or you can generate your own.
Here is an example of how you could go about generating your own measurement scale…
I get a kick out of listening to Eckhart Tolle. He is a crusader for ‘living in the now’. I like to describe ‘living in the now’ or ‘being present’ this way: ‘being present’ is experiencing the present moment rather than using the present moment to agonize over past things or worry about future things.
Eckhart Tolle talks about the modalities of ‘being present’, they are:
0-4 Acceptance
5-7 Enjoyment
8-10 Enthusiasm
I am thinking of adopting these ‘modalities’ as the next layer of detail in our Minus10-to-Plus10 Scale. I will quickly describe what I mean when I say ‘the next layer of detail’:
Layer 1: people will do better at business if they take the time to measure their feelings
Layer 2: the 1st rule – there are 2 types of feelings: good [Plus] feelings and bad [Minus] feelings
Layer 3: you can use our Minus10-to-Plus10 Scale as a tool for measuring your feelings
Layer 4: you could adopt, with a slight adjustment, Eckhart Tolle’s modality descriptions and use them as the 3 major types of good [Plus] feelings:
If you do this then your Minus10-to-Plus10 Scale would contain:
Plus1–Plus4 “Acceptance”…while I cannot say I am enjoying this task, I feel this work serves a useful purpose…I am heading in the right direction
Plus5–Plus7 “Enjoyment”…this task is pleasant…it aligns with my talents and strengths
Plus8–Plus10 “Enthusiasm”…this task really turns my crank
Footnote
We are talking about your feelings. We understand the huge significance of this topic. Here, in this Thought Post, we are offering suggestions. You can choose whatever scale, descriptions, and rankings you want…we are not trying to direct those choices. We are illustrating suggestions. Our major message is: we recommend people take note of and measure how they feel while they are doing various tasks at work…and we recommend measurement of people’s overall feelings about work. Is work a Plus in their life…or a Minus? Are changes-for-the-better required?
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
by Rick Baker
On Jul 20, 2011
We don't bother to measure our feelings and emotions.
At least most of us, most of the time, don't measure our feelings and emotions.
That's not to say we don't 'register' our feelings and emotions. And, that's not to say we don't behave in accordance with our feelings and emotions.
We do those things.
We do register the fact we feel this way or that. And, we do recognize our feelings and emotions play a role in what we do.
We just don't measure what's going on.
Maybe we are generally content with our feelings and emotions...so, why bother analysing them or taking the time to measure them?
Maybe we don't think we can do much about our feelings and emotions...like, they happen and that's it?
Maybe we've thought of measuring our emotions and feelings but couldn't quickly identify how that might be done...then, we got busy and that thought slipped away?
Regardless, maybe today we are thinking it would be a good idea to figure out a way to measure our emotions and feelings.
If that's something you’d like to do then there are simple ways to do it.
About a dozen years ago Brian Tracy recommended a technique which is simple and helpful. He recommended a scale from Minus10-to-Plus10.
- a rating of ‘Minus 10’ means you have the most negative possible feeling about the situation at hand. As examples...utter disgust and raging anger
- a rating of ‘Zero’ is absolutely neutral...take it or leave it
- a rating of ‘Plus 10’ is the most positive feeling about the situation. As examples…sheer bliss and pure love
I like the Minus10-to-Plus10 approach much better than any other 'yardstick' for measuring emotions/feelings.
A Minus10-to-Plus10 approach forces us to accept the reality of negatives and positives.
It also makes sure we do not lose track of the fact, when you boil it down, we only have 2 types of emotions:
- Emotions that make us feel Good
- Emotions that make us feel Bad
That helps remove all the mumbo jumbo about optimists versus pessimists. Everyone experiences Good feelings and everyone has Bad feelings.
A Minus10-to-Plus10 approach also allows us a wide enough range to make and be pleased about baby-steps of improvement.
It’s easy to give and receive advice like, "Your problem is you don't have a positive mental attitude. Think positive and all will be well."
On the other hand, that's not really very practical. To alter our feelings, if our goal is to have more good feelings then, we need to overcome deeply ingrained Bad Habits...some of which we know and can identify...and some of which are deeply rooted in our subconscious.
While we may never uncover the deep roots of habits we can always register and measure our feelings and emotions.
Using a Minus10-to-Plus10 Scale© we can calibrate any and all our feelings [or emotions if you prefer to describe it that way]. Some of this goes without saying...catastrophes can generate extreme frustration or anger or compassion or grief, etc. Other feelings and emotions, the ones that we experience throughout every waking moment of every day, are more subtle and their root causes are less clear. Regardless, the feelings and emotions influence what we do next...they influence how we feel next…and, repeating, they influence what we do next. And, they generate patterns of behaviour that show up later...including years later.
We can choose the behaviours we desire then create those behaviours.
We can use the Minus10-to-Plus10 Scale© to create those behaviours.
by Rick Baker
On Feb 7, 2011
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending a Jill Schichter education event, organized by our friends at Trovo Resources.
Jill’s presentation covered a number of things that must be done when ‘reductions’ are required at our workplaces.
Jill injected a great blend of thought, thoroughness, and people-sensitivity.
For me, 8 things resonated:
- Definitions: Jill provided a number of definitions, as examples she defined downsizing, rightsizing, and flexible rightsizing…expressing a preference for flexible rightsizing when that is possible.
- Make sure all decision makers are using the same measurements. Jill provided a Cost/Benefit template to help us capture all the facets that must be considered.
- For strategic workforce planning, build on your previous successes. [focus on the ‘bright lights’]
- Focus on the most critical high-impact jobs [the ‘80/20 Rule’ applies]
- Don’t underestimate the power of your employment brand. [news travels…so, we should make it good news]
- The most difficult job a manager does is letting a person go. [we must be sensitive to the people aspects]
- Related to all of the above, and particularly the human sensitivities tied to #6, Jill did a great job of answering the many questions posed by the attendees.
- Jill shared a fond memory from her time spent working with Stephen Covey [one of my favourite teachers]…Covey taught - the difference between a manager and a leader – “you manage things, you lead people”.
And, Jill explained - managers say “What are you doing?” while leaders say “How are you doing and how can I help?”
Thank you Jill for the excellent presentation.
And, thank you Tony, for the invitation and hospitality.
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