Extraordinary Teams By Robin Sharma

I've been thinking about teams. Reflecting on wonderful team experiences and some not so wonderful experiences. The difference? It wasn't leadership--I've seen a number of well led teams fail. And it wasn't talent--there are immensley talented people that can't contribute to a team.

What I've learned is that truly Extraordinary Teams all have two things in common; Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs to borrow from Jim Collins) and Deep Trust.

Yes, talent and leadership are important but every successful team I've been on or worked with has had an almost impossible goal and an extraordinary level of trust between teammates.

Goals may not be sexy, but they work. And they are just as important for team success as they are for personal excellence. People want to be inspired by an important challenge. People crave the opportunity to make a difference. People need to do something significant.

A BHAG inspires creativity. It gives people a sense of pride. It generates the passion that it takes to achieve the extraordinary. So, make sure that your team has a significant, inspiring goal.

Innovation and creativity are always risky. That's why Deep Trust is crucial in a team. Without Deep Trust we worry that our teammates will laugh at our ideas or punish us for disagreeing. Yet, it is this participation and curiosity that is critical for innovation.

Only when everyone is contributing their perspectives and thoroughly questioning reality can a team come up a with a breakthrough. Otherwise the team just hides in the safe harbor of the known. And staying in the safe harbor of the known never creates new markets, never revolutionizes your work and never delights customers.

Here's the big idea; in order to develop trust you have to lead by being trustworthy. How do you become trustworty?
1. Do what you say you will do
2. Celebrate diversity
3. Treat teammates with respect (no gossip, no sarcasm)
4. Expect the best from them
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Robin S. Sharma, LL.M. is an internationally-known speaker on sales leadership, peak performance and creativity. The bestselling author of several motivational books including MegaLiving, he is the managing partner of Sharma Leadership International. He can be reached at RobinSharma.com.

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Take Time Out for Mental Digestion By Brian Tracy

How to get support for your ideas more easily than ever before.

Many years ago a retiring executive gave me an old pamphlet he had carried throughout his career. It was entitled, "Take Time Out for Mental Digestion."

He told me that this little pamphlet had been one of the most helpful things he had ever read in his business life. At the time I spoke to him he was the president of a corporation with more than 10,000 employees.

The message of this pamphlet was simple. It said that people always resist new ideas and new courses of action, even if the ideas are good for them. However, if they have an opportunity to think about them for a few days, very often they will come around to the new way of thinking with both agreement and enthusiasm.

The pamphlet said that an individual needs about 72 hours to absorb a new idea. Effective executives are those who present their ideas in very casual way, rather than as a decision or a fact engraved in stone. They present their thoughts as ideas for consideration.

Effective executives encourage the other person to take the new idea or new way of doing things and think about it for a few days. They say that "we can discuss this later" and they just leave the idea with the other person.

Over the years, I have found this to be a remarkable piece of advice and a very important insight to communicating effectively with others.

People Will Resist Change...
It is normal and natural for people to resist change of any kind, even and including a change that they will benefit from. So, allow them to take time out for mental digestion. Present your new idea in a low keyed, non-threatening way and just encourage the individual to think about it for a while and then discuss it later.

Present Ideas As Possibilities...
In my early executive career, I was continually frustrated by trying to get my ideas, which I had thought through and which I, of course, thought were wonderful, accepted by my seniors and my co-workers.

When I started taking time out for mental digestion and just presented my ideas as possibilities, I was astonished at how much more readily people turned around and came to see the validity of the ideas. I also found that, if you present an idea with too much enthusiasm, you trigger natural resistance which soon becomes ego-based, irrespective of the validity of the ideas.

Present Ideas in a Low-Keyed Manner...
On the other hand, if you present your ideas in a low-keyed manner and just leave them for consideration, people can come around to accepting them in their own time and embracing your new ideas without any loss of face or without any ego problems.

The next time you have a great idea, mention it casually and ask other people what they think about it. Give people time to digest the idea, even if they are totally opposed to it at the beginning.

Action Exercises:

Now, here are two things you can do to use this principle in practice.

First, think your ideas through on paper before you present them to others. Expect natural resistance. When you do present your ideas, do it in a low keyed, almost indifferent manner so that it stirs up no resistance.

Second, expect your ideas to be rejected initially. When this happens, simply ask open ended questions to get feedback and then present your ideas again at a later time in a different form. It is amazing how effective this strategy will be.
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Brian Tracy is one of the world's leading authorities on personal and business success. His fast-moving talks and seminars are loaded with powerful, proven ideas and strategies that you can apply immediately to get better results in every area. Visit the Brian Tracy web site.

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Leadership Skills: Don't hit the brakes when you hit the gravel By Joe Tye

If you're speeding along down the road on your bike and unexpectedly hit a patch of loose gravel, the temptation is to immediately hit the brakes. But if you do, more likely than not you will just as quickly hit the ground.

A much safer approach is to coast, to ride it out as you gradually slow down, keep your concentration and maintain your balance, and not even think about falling.

We're faced with similar challenges in our everyday lives. At the first sign quarterly profits might not hit the expectations of analysts and shareholders, the CEO might be tempted to slam on the brakes by slashing "discretionary" expenditures like advertising or staff training.

Although it might take longer for the effects to be felt than would a tumble from a bike, the damage can be very real, and it can take a long time to heal.

At an organization where I once worked, I was holding a staff meeting in a department characterized by low morale, marginal productivity, and lousy attitudes.

When I asked about this, a participant remarked, "It all started when 'the suits' decided to save money by canceling the employee picnic. It was the one nice thing they used to do for us." I'd been at the organization for a number of years, but I'd never heard about an employee picnic. "Picnic? How long ago was this?" I asked.

The response: "Oh, I don't know - five or six years ago." We on the management team were furiously pedaling away, wondering why our "knees" hurt so much, oblivious to the wounds that had been inflicted five or six years earlier when a previous rider hit the brakes on the proverbial patch of gravel.

The effects can be similarly traumatic at home. A teenager comes home way past curfew. Instead of riding it out until morning, when the situation can be handled with love, compassion, and understanding, the parent slams on the brakes: "You're grounded! Give me the car keys and go to bed."

Though it might not be superficially obvious in the morning, a wound has been inflicted that will require first aid if it is to heal properly. The danger is, like the long-forgotten (by management), long-remembered (by staff), cancelled employee picnic, what might have been a minor abrasion can turn into an ugly scar.

If you mentally rehearse your reaction to hitting a patch of gravel before it actually happens, you're less likely to panic when it does. So, too, in business and in life. If you anticipate the possibility of an economic downturn, or a rebellious teenager, and mentally rehearse your response, you're more likely to respond with intelligence rather than react in anger.

* The above is an excerpt from Joe Tye's e-book Learning to Ride the Bicycle of Life.
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Joe Tye is president of Paradox 21 Inc., which provides corporate training and culture change initiatives based on a proprietary curriculum of The Twelve Core Action Values of Personal Leadership Effectiveness. He is also the author of several books and audio programs on personal, career, and business success, and a popular motivational speaker. Visit www.JoeTye.com.

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