Commit to Reflect and Reward

Once the task is completed, stop and observe what has been accomplished.  Take some time to enjoy the “fruits of your labor.”  Allow yourself to feel a sense of triumph and pride.

Next, evaluate what you have learned and decide what you will do differently next time.  Conducting a postmortem will improve your future performance.

Finally, what was the nice thing you had planned to do to reward yourself, your family or your team?  This “reward time” is where you celebrate the great work done by all.  Having a reward planned before you at the start is also useful throughout the process to provide motivation and encouragement when things are not going well.

Commit to Plan a Strategy and Set "Time Frame" Goals

The strategy is best planned with the participation of everyone who will be involved in the project.  Write down the steps necessary to be successful and identify who will be responsible for each part.   

Determine a completion date for every component of the project.  Remember that some dates established at the beginning of the project will be unattainable and will need to be adjusted.

A strategy not only requires deadlines but also interim dates for progress checks. Establish predetermined interim points along the way to evaluate progress. Be ready to make changes.  Always be focused as well as flexible as you will inevitably face obstacles and delays.

 

It Starts With A Commitment

To prevail means “to be greater in strength and influence.”  While many of us ultimately rely on a strength greater than ourselves, success still calls for an unqualified personal dedication and determination. Don’t start anything significant unless you are committed to prevailing. Too much will have been invested and too many lives involved for you to turn back.
 
Prevailing also requires a commitment of time and energy.  The reality is that most ventures require more time and energy than anticipated.  To prevail means that we will invest the time, no matter how much it takes, to reach the goal.
 
Remember also that in order to prevail, what we are doing must be in agreement with our personal values. The benefit of succeeding must be meaningful to you, and if you are leading a group, to those that labor with you.  Ask yourself and those you will be relying upon whether life will be better as a result.  You must believe that the benefit is worth the cost.

Facing Our Oceans

"That is where the explorer Vasco de Gama learned to sail.”  My friend told me that as we looked down on a small sandy bay filled with colorful fishing boats in Sines, Portugal. Later that day, we traveled north to Lisbon where the Sea Discoveries Monument honors the voyagers who, 500 years earlier, departed Lisbon harbor and set-out in search of places no European had ever been before.
 
No other professional has faced more risk and uncertainty then an explorer.  Considering what these travelers faced can give us insight for our own challenges. So what were the obstacles faced by Columbus, de Gama and the other explorers?
 
We all sometimes feel like a small ship on a big ocean.  Columbus’s favorite ship Nina was only 65 feet long. That’s only a few feet more than the distance from home plate to a pitcher’s mound.  Columbus also faced some significant obstacles:

• Not enough money. If not for the King and Queen of Spain, Columbus’s journey would never have happened.
• Lack of provisions.  An explorer's first expenses went toward obtaining ships and crew.  Whatever was left was used to purchase food and drink.
• No maps.  That’s right…nobody had ever been there before.
• Productivity lost to sickness.  Cramped quarters were stressful and promoted a breeding ground for disease.
• A frightened crew asking questions like, "So Captain, since you’ve never been there, how will you know your at the right place when you see it?”
• Crew revolt.  Months of not seeing the fruits of success made for tense times to say the least. Mutinies or near insurrections were not uncommon.

Each of the obstacles that were faced by these voyagers parallels the challenges we encounter in our personal life planning, starting new ventures or growing an existing organization.

Good Leaders Value People

Good Leaders Value People

Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc. is a global supplier of manufacturing technology. At the beginning of “the great recession” in 2008 they saw their orders fall by almost one-third. They contemplated layoffs but instead decided to institute a furlough program so that no one lost their job but everyone “participated in the suffering.” They acted like a family, not an institution. A look at one sentence in their statement of values sums it up when it says, "We measure success by the way we touch the lives of people."

Fair and sometimes heroic actions, during a crisis, result from a strong belief system. That is the essence of great leadership. Danger may be all around, however, people are safe. In the words of Robert Townsend, who transformed Avis into a rental car giant, “True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders. A leader is … someone who carries water for his people so that they can get on with their jobs.”