How to Have Work Worth Celebrating

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Labor Day Means No Work?

This week we celebrated Labor Day! Our family went out in the boat and went to a little island on the Indian River for swimming and a picnic. (NOTE TO SELF: When you put on the sunscreen, don’t forget your face!). Overall, a great time!

I did a little research to see about the purpose of Labor Day. According to the Department of Labor, the purpose of Labor Day is a yearly national tribute to the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. In other words, it’s a chance for those who work hard throughout the year to sit back a little bit and celebrate the importance of the contribution they have made to making this country what it is today.

Work That Deserves It

There are some though that don’t put forth that effort all the time. They sit back and wait for things to come to them and wonder why they don’t get the success they want. I keep a poster up on my wall in my office to remind me of this. It’s a quote by Maya Angelou that simply says,

Nothing works unless you do

So if you want that success, you have to put forth that effort first.

Here’s some key things to remember to work towards achieving your success that are going to help you throughout the rest of the year.

BE IN THE MOMENT. When you are at work, be at work. When you are home, be at home. Focus on giving your best to the moment and you will be more productive and more effective in every situation.
REFUSE TO ASSIGN BLAME. Many people want to contribute their lack of success to the economy, the administration, any number of things. But ultimately you have to take responsibility for your own success. If you do that, you can overcome any obstacles in your way.
WORK YOUR 1%. We have talked before being a one-percenter; you have grow yourself by 1% a day to be the person you want to be and achieving the success you want to achieve.
SETTLE FOR NOTHING LESS THAN YOUR BEST. How you do anything is how you do everything! When you put forth your best effort in every situation, success is naturally going to follow.

What ways do you make sure your work is successful? Comment below.

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How to Jump-Start Yourself By Learning Through Others

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Welcome Aboard, Thrill-seekers and Danger-lovers!

Much of my background is as a professional trainer. Early on I learned the value of learning through others. Where did I get started on that?

The Jungle Cruise!

That’s right! This is Jungle Paul!

Working at Walt Disney World while in college at UCF found me on the one ride in the park where my personality fit to a “T”. Standing up with a microphone and making a fool of myself for 10 minutes at a time, eight hours a day, was right up my alley. I was not Skipper Dan by any means, but I loved the schtick! I was trained and watched and learned from my trainer. I spent time learning through others; what they did well and what they didn’t do well that I could improve upon.

By learning through others I became good enough that they assigned me as a trainer on the ride. I had even more passion for that and poured myself into creating the best training experiences I could.

Jungle Trainer

One of the techniques we applied was a standard formula for the training business:

Tell me how it’s done
Show me how it’s done
Help me to do it
Allow me to do it on my own

Notice the key there. We didn’t just throw them on the ride and say, “Okay, talk!” We explained and demonstrated first. In Boy Scout training, this is called EDGE (Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Enable).

They watched and learned how to do it right by learning through others. They absorbed a model to help them do it right. It allowed them to confidently believe they could do it too. This saved them some of the pain of doing it wrong consistently until they finally get it right.

[snaptweet]No matter what you do, learning through others do can help.[/snaptweet]

This is especially true when you pick the right people to learn from. Find people who excel and study them. Read books about them if they exist. Interview them if possible and ask about failures more than successes.

[snaptweet]It’s in failures where the greatest lessons are learned.[/snaptweet]

Take what they do well and add your own flavor to it. Take what they learned from their failures and design ways to avoid it yourself. Save yourself some pain.

Who can you study today to help you become better at what you do? How will you apply their failures to your life? How will you apply their successes?

Comment Below.

Saying NO in the Face of Amazing Opportunity

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Taking Work as it Comes

When you work for yourself opportunities to earn money are precious. Anyone who doesn’t think that way doesn’t last long in business for themselves.

The challenge comes in deciding what to take and what to refuse. I have heard many advise to take everything, especially when money is tight. One of the popular quotes cited lately by Richard Branson concerns opportunity:

If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!

The interpretation by many is to simply take every opportunity that comes along and then figure it out. Yet, that’s not really what Branson is saying here. You need to emphasize the word amazing in that; for it is the amazing opportunities we don’t want to pass up as they don’t come very often and are usually the launching points for greater things.

What’s an Amazing Opportunity?

How we define an amazing opportunity is what makes a difference. An opportunity for steady work, or to increase our reach, or increase our income significantly is not necessarily an amazing opportunity; especially if it takes us into areas that don’t speak to our strengths.

[snaptweet]We are most significant when we embrace the amazing opportunities that utilize and challenge our strengths.[/snaptweet]

Anything else not only is second best, but threatens to compromise everything we have worked towards prior to that.

Saying No to the Amazing Opportunity

That doesn’t always make it easy.

Earlier this week, I was presented with an opportunity to lead training on a course in Social Media for Business. I had nothing else income generating going that week in question and my first impulse was to say, “why not?” It’s important to note that while I blog (as you can see here), have a Facebook fan page for both my company and for the L2:Learn-Lead Orlando simulcast event, post frequently on Twitter, have a LinkedIn page, and a Google+ page; I am not what you would call a “social media expert”. It would have been a significant and sharp learning curve to overcome to be considered authoritative enough to teach a course on it. It’s not my area of strength.

[snaptweet]I have a policy that I stick with what I am good at and try not to pretend to be good at something I’m not.[/snaptweet]

NO is sometimes the best answer

It speaks to my integrity with myself and others and to my core values. I never want to present myself as an expert on something I’m not and just as important is I don’t want to spend my time trying to be good at something I’m not and neglect getting better at my areas of strength.

I turned the job down. As I said, I’m not a social media expert but fortunately I know people who are. So I was able to refer them to someone who was able to meet their needs and provided an “amazing opportunity” for someone else.

What are you doing now that you really shouldn’t be doing? Is it in the wheelhouse of your strengths? What amazing opportunities are out there for you? What will you do to pursue them? Comment below.

How to Build Your Leadership Construction Projects

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Under Construction

Construction projects are fascinating. I’m a guy and like many can watch a construction site for quite a while and see what’s going on, even though I have nothing to do with the industry.

I was sitting in a coffee shop about halfway up one of the many towering office buildings in Dallas, Texas and out the window watched a construction project in action. One of the tall tower cranes was working. Since I was inside, I couldn’t hear anything, I could just see it work.

Equipping and Supplying the Project

Sleekly and silently the crane would swing around counter-clockwise and then stop. The cable and hook would lower all the way to the ground. Someone would attach some heavy machinery or a large metal bin to the hook and then signal. The hook would raise with its payload to about 5 stories high. Then, the crane would swing around clockwise, again silent and sleek, until it was over top of the building in progress. Then, cable, hook, and payload would lower the top floor of the building and deliver it’s cargo.

These cranes serve a very necessary and distinct purpose on these multi-story projects. Without one, carrying all the equipment and material up to the top levels becomes a very unwieldy and time-consuming project. So the crane helps everyone work more efficiently and effectively and saves the company time and money while increasing productivity.

The Leader as Tower Crane

Leaders serve similar roles. Good leaders often go about their work silently and smoothly, looking for where they can help others be more effective and productive by equipping them and supplying them with what they need. A good leader serves a very necessary purpose and if they are truly effective, their work is critical because they increase productivity, save time and money, and do things no one else can do.

[snaptweet]Great leaders do the things that no one else can do.[/snaptweet]

Lonely At the Top?

BTW, years ago I read a news story about those tower crane operators. They are usually stuck up there for hours, since climbing up an down can be very time-consuming and tiresome. As a result, they take of all their functions up there; eating, toilet, etc. The crane operator remarked that you can feel very isolated and even a little lonely up there on many an occasion.

Leadership is a role that can often make you feel isolated and lonely, especially if your leadership becomes more managerial instead of empowering. To prevent that, spend more time equipping and empowering your people. Even more so, spend time growing other leaders so you don’t feel so lonely at the top.

What do you do to serve as the tower crane for your team? Are you supplying and equipping them with what they need? How can you be more empowering? What leaders are your growing today?

Learning the Key to Success

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New World Order

There’s no doubt about it, we live in a complex world. And in this global economy it is important to be flexible; to be able to quickly respond to the changing demands of our society and our economy. Adapt to change or else. It’s the reality of the new economy – grow or die.

There is nothing in between.

The Learning Organization

The best way we grow is through continual learning. Peter Senge, in his book The Fifth Discipline, advanced the principal of the Learning Organization. Basically, a learning organization is one that engages all the members of the organization in continual learning. They recognize that as everyone learns, the opportunities grow through greater knowledge and capability. These companies invest in their people to move them and the organization forward.

Benefits of the Learning Organization

The result is a more empowered organization, one that is flexible enough to adapt, developing a mindset of creative solutions; it’s been proven that the more we learn the more creative we become. Employees collaborate more, there is improved employee morale, they are more productive, and you create an ongoing legacy, so that when the inevitable happens and someone moves on to another role, there is someone ready to step up into that role.

[snaptweet]Sustained success and profitability come from intentional continual learning. There is no substitute or shortcut.[/snaptweet]

How do we get started on becoming the learning organization we desire to be?

Just think DIME:

DAILY – Growth has to occur on a daily basis. I often talk about being a 1%er and this is what it is all about, growing yourself by just 1% a day. That doesn’t sound like much, but over time it compounds and at the end of a year you have grown yourself over 365%. As the saying goes, by the mile its a trial but by the inch its a cinch. This does not necessarily have to be formal learning every time. It could be something as simple as having the team reflect back on the day and talk about lessons learned.

INTENTIONAL – Too many times we chase the next SHINY OBJECT; the seminar announced in a mailing, a book or video someone recommended we get, without really knowing whether it meets our needs or the needs of the organization. Chasing the shiny object is not a growth plan, its a random series of events. We have to be more intentional about choosing the growth path that best meets our immediate needs.

MISTAKES – Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Give your employees permission to go out and make mistakes without fear of punishment. It is from our mistakes where we are going to learn some of our best lessons about how to move forward.

ENGAGED – Get engaged with this learning process. Encourage your employees to engage with one another so that not only do they learn from their mistakes but also from the mistakes of others. This can significantly shorten the learning curve and allows us to move forward at a much quicker pace to become the dynamic learning organization that is prepared for the future.