inc magazine

June 4, 2015 by sereynolds

Breaking Down Your Roadblocks: The 4 People You Need To Help

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

When it comes to facing roadblocks, or any obstacle in the way of your success in business, popular speaker Kingsley Grant said:

“You overcome roadblocks by first identifying the roadblock. Assess the situation, the roadblock, and then look at your options to bypass it. Focusing on overcoming the roadblock can consume so much energy that you are depleted in finding ways around it. Roadblocks can lead to very creative solutions that you would not have thought about had it not been there.”

So how do we get to that action step, allowing us to bypass that roadblock? It all comes back to the people we surround ourselves with that keep our learning at a higher level, which I discussed in my last column where I shared some of Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s strategies.

Essentially, there are four different types of partners you need in your life to keep you learning at a higher level. The way you improve your learning is to work with others who know more than you in various areas, to help you expand your field of knowledge. Having partners in learning can help remove roadblocks that you can’t always remove yourself.

For example, I recently worked with an entrepreneur who came to me seeking a coach because she was facing a major roadblock–namely, a Strategic Plan. She knew she needed a better strategic plan, but she didn’t know how to create one. Having wasted many hours trying to find the right approach, template or system for strategic planning, she became overwhelmed. It dawned on her that trying to eliminate this roadblock on her own would be an enormous time sink–and frankly, she wasn’t sure she could do it on top of everything else in her business, especially since she would be relying on a frustrating process of trial and error to try to figure it out.

I helped her to understand that tackling this goal, which would ultimately help her to grow her business, would be greatly eased by looking for partners to help her move the roadblock.

Whether you’re looking for a new Strategic Plan, trying to reorganize your business, tackle a major challenge, or to stretch into an exciting new goal, there are four main types of people you can look to for help.

Advocates. Advocates cheer you on as you move roadblocks for yourself. Surrounding yourself with advocates is important to help remind you of your commitment to your goal and the importance it holds for you.

To follow from our earlier example, if the entrepreneur above decided to tackle that strategic plan in a Do-It-Yourself spirit, she could minimize the frustration and overwhelm by getting the support of her advocates. In this case, it might be her work team, who would understand the importance of the task and encourage her to complete it, with reminders of how helpful it would be to the business.

Running a business is hard work. A little support and encouragement can help.

Mentors. Mentors play a different role than advocates. Whereas your advocates cheer you on as you move the roadblocks, your mentors actually show you how to move it. They’ve been there. They’ve done it. They can show you how they moved their own roadblocks. As your “older and wiser” counterparts,–they’ve been where you are, and can coach you by using their own experience. They can tell you how they got over a roadblock, and how they were bale to navigate the unexpected along the way.

For our entrepreneur creating a strategic plan, getting a mentor would shorten the learning curve and eliminate the time-consuming task of starting from scratch. There’s nothing like a great example to get you on the right path, and a mentor can be that example for you.

Sponsors. Sponsors move roadblocks for you. Unlike mentors, sponsors have a responsibility for you being successful. A sponsor might be someone like your boss, who has a vested interest in your success. Or it might be an angel investor, whose success is tied with yours financially. In addition to the motivation provided by your advocates and the role modeling provided by your mentors, your sponsor actually gives you help. Your sponsor will open the door for you and get you the next job, or make an introduction, or in some other way move you forward in a way you can’t do for yourself.

If you want to move further, faster, you need a sponsor.

Imagine what would change for our entrepreneur who needs the strategic plan if she not only had the plan, but also a well-connected investor who was committed to helping her achieve her goals. Now she’s playing at a whole new level. Even the assistance of a sponsor, however, does not complete the set of partners she will need to be successful. It will still be up to her, ultimately, to do the work, and two more partners will help.

Coaches. Coaches help you move your roadblocks alongside you. Even with the best of partners to help you with the roadblocks, the ownership for moving forward past the roadblocks stays with you. A sponsor may be able to get you opportunities…but you have to take those opportunities and make sure you excel. This is where your coaches come in. Your coach will roll up her sleeves and help you do the heavy lifting related to taking action, overcoming new barriers, defining the process and the plan, and so on. She will help you implement the plan help you make the decisions that are right for you.

For the entrepreneur who wanted the strategic plan, coaching involved designing the specific plan that would lead to her ideal future – keeping her unique vision in mind and allowing her to lead her business, her way while still striving toward the end result.

Succeeding in business–especially when you’re the leader, responsible for defining vision, strategy, goals, plans, actions and all the rest–is no easy task. Let’s not make it harder than it has to be by trying to do it all yourself. Keep your eyes open for the roadblocks, and when you find them, don’t spend your time and effort insisting on moving them all single-handedly. You can move them more easily, faster and more effectively–with the help of your partners: your advocates, your mentors, your sponsors, and of course, your coach.

May 12, 2015 by sereynolds

3 Ways to Re-write a Bad Work Relationship

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

See if this sounds familiar: you’re working with a business leader who you find to be quite difficult. He’s demanding, makes assumptions that are unfair, blames others. As a result you back off from any relationship with him at all.

There is an assessment called the “Influence Assessment” that we use at LRI to help individual managers and leaders understand where they’re having a positive impact and where they could have a positive influence. One of the items on that survey reads: “Has positive relations with others regardless of the differences we may have.” What I like about that item is that even though the relationships may be partly out of our control, and even though the differences we have with the other person is certainly out of our control, we have the potential to take control of how positive the relationship is. This means taking active ownership for being the one that makes sure that the relationship is positive.

I recently worked with a client who had the same situation I just described: a work relationship with a demanding, unfair, blaming colleague. When we did her influence assessment and she read the item about taking active responsibility for having positive relationships with others, she realized two things. First, she did not have positive relationship with this person. Second, she had the opportunity to change it by taking the lead in a relationship and change the dynamic. She also realized that this particular gentleman may actually have an influence over her career.

So what do you do to improve a relationship with someone when you think it is not as good as it could be?

Give yourself the opportunity to reach out. I know it takes some courage, and it may not be comfortable to be the one to reach out, but you can certainly do it. Most people respond very favourably to someone coming to them and extending a hand in rewriting a relationship. In some cases we may have to apologize for something, or may have to explicitly start a relationship off on a different foot.

For example, you might say something like this: “Jim, I want to get together with you today, as I understand we started off our last discussion on the wrong note. I would really like to start all over again.” Or, “Allan, I wanted to sit down with you because I know I was harsh with you today. I owe you an apology. I realized I reacted too quickly, I was unfair and I am sorry. I hope you will forgive me for that so we can start over.”

Swallowing your pride and being the first to reach out can be all it takes to erase mistakes in a relationship and start fresh.

Assume best intent. “Assume best intent” means making an effort to believe that the person opposite you is doing the things he or she does for a good reason. Most people have positive motives. They want to do good and be good, but something may get lost in the implementation. I had a client who couldn’t seem to click with her manager. She was a real optimist, her manager was a real pessimist. When my client recognized this dynamic, she was able to take control of her own perspective. She didn’t want to apologize for anything, and also didn’t want to start the relationship all over again. So she instead chose to assume best intent. That simple shift in perspective helped her see that what came across as criticism from her manager was intended to be helpful feedback, and it helped her to quiet her inner critic.

Channel their motivations. People are driven by different motivations. Sometimes you can change a relationship by identifying what the other person wants. One of my clients was constantly locking horns with her direct report. I suggested that she might study him to understand his motivation–or better yet, to ask him. She did. She opened a conversation and said, “You’re doing your job very well. I appreciate that, but I sense there are some things you would change if you could. If you could work in the way that was best for you, how would you like things to be different?” He said, “I want to have the freedom to do my job. Just let me do my job.” It became clear that this employee’s motivation was freedom; he needed more latitude than she was giving him. Having identified the importance of freedom to her direct report, this manager was able to shift her way of doing things so that he could perform better in his role and contribute to a more positive relationship.

If you want to have positive relationships or a positive career with an endorsement from the people who are important to you, identify those people that you want to have positive relationships with. Who are the people who are influential in my career and who are the people for whom I am influential in theirs? Those are the people to focus on.

Businessmen and businesswomen may find the most influential people to be their managers or key stakeholders in their careers; entrepreneurs may find the most influential people to be their business partners or even their clients. You may never know who in your life is going to have the most influence over your career. But you can be the one to take control of the relationship and create those positive relations with others regardless of the differences we may have.

April 7, 2015 by sereynolds

Senior Vice President at MGM Resorts Gives 3 Life-changing Ways to use Feedback

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

We’ve all encountered organizations that are going through a lot of change. I recently worked with an organization going through a transitional phase – they had a new division and even that division had gone through a major overhaul so they could be higher functioning within the whole of the company. All of that change can be hard on a team. Fast-forward a year later, I talked to one of the senior leaders on the team and found out that things had dramatically improved. The team was functioning productively, communicating with each other, making positive changes, and they were really on the right track.

I interviewed the Senior Vice President at MGM Resorts, Kelly Litster, to find out the strategy they used to make the difference. She said one word that stood out to me: feedback.

These are the three things Litster’s team learned about feedback:

We learned how to give feedback. One important step this team took to improve its performance was to create a sort of social contract. They agreed to a number of behaviors they wanted to hold themselves accountable for. The team started practicing a “scoring” technique to track how well they practiced the behaviors individually, and learned how to give feedback to explain their scores for each other.

Teams like Litster’s often include a number of common elements in their “operating agreements.” Some items might include avoiding blame, looking for the root cause of a problem, communicating messages even when they’re hard to say, and receiving messages without defensiveness even when they’re hard to hear.

Litster’s team held themselves accountable to scoring each other on those behaviors – a technique that made it possible for each of them to see how they score numerically, quantifying their behavior. Each individual team member can see the items they need to work on, try to remedy it and watch their score go up. It allows them to keep track of how they’re doing and provides a vehicle for how to communicate those messages and transform their culture.

We learned how to take feedback. Litster observed that on her team, members grew in their ability to listen and open their minds to feedback, learning how to do things differently instead of being closed off.

“We had to build trust,” Litster said, “The contract (or promise to behave a certain way) started us off – we joked about it before we could live by it. Then we had some serious trust building to do. Once there was a tiny bit of trust and someone was vulnerable – the team started to come together.”

They say a breaking point either leads to a breakdown or a breakthrough. In Litster’s case, it led to a breakthrough. They made it safe to give feedback within their team culture, so important messages could be both delivered and received. Taking hard feedback may not always been easy for a team member. It may not be pleasant. But it is helpful, and essential to elevate the team.

We learned how to use feedback to make improvements. Litster noticed that her team learned to assert themselves, to be necessary for the service of the greater goal even if the feedback made them uncomfortable initially, and they learned how to help each other. They also learned how to ask for help. Then they tracked their results and watched as the whole team came together in a more effective way. They also became open about giving compliments and offering help. The whole atmosphere became more congenial and productive. Perhaps most importantly, they were able to start demonstrating that they genuinely cared about one another and helped each other succeed.

If you lead a team, consider how you can use these same strategies for transforming the culture in an equally positive way.

Is your team comfortable giving and receiving feedback?
Do you have a system for communicating what’s important and how people are performing?
Do you have an agreement about how to improve based on the feedback?

With these three practices on using feedback that were so successful on Litster’s team at MGM Resorts, you can tackle a changing corporate landscape productively, and you’ll learn a lot about yourself and your colleagues along the way.

March 20, 2015 by sereynolds

The Formula for Success, and How to Actually Use It

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

We’ve all been there: you’re sitting at your desk reflecting, finding yourself frustrated with the lack of results you’re getting in your business. You reach the conclusion that you’re either working too hard and not getting enough results (sales, clients, income), or you’re just not sure if you’re doing the right thing.

Whether you’re doing the right thing with no result, or you’re doing the wrong thing with no result, the end result is the same: nothing.

So often success in business depends on the right formula. The right clients and customers; the right team; the right business model; the right branding and marketing; the right timing; the right action; and so on. It can be scary if you’re not getting results, because you don’t know which part of the formula is off.

Here’s a solution that can clear the confusion and get you back on the path to success. The formula is this:

Strategy + Execution (with Consistency) = Results.

I learned this model from a fellow consultant, but I never really understood it until I used it in my personal life.

Like most people, I was trying to lose those last insufferable “stubborn five pounds.” Despite being healthy and fit (enough) most of my life, somehow I had lost track of what I should be doing. I didn’t have a great workout plan to follow. I had forgotten what I should be eating to stay trim. As a result, I was much less consistent about my health routine, and that made it hard for me to get motivated. Finally it became clear to me I needed a strategy. I found a trainerto build that strategy for me, and once I got on the program, it was much easier for me to follow direction and get back on track. I knew what to do in my workout. I knew what to eat. I just had to do it–to execute the plan. Once I started doing that consistently, lo and behold those five pounds came off.

Business owners often fall into a similar pattern. They somehow, over the course of time, fall out of their marketing routine or forget what they should be doing about business development. As a result, they too become less consistent and less motivated. They too are missing the strategy. Whereas my trainer could create a diet and fitness plan for her clients, I often find myself helping entrepreneurs write Personal Strategic Plans they can execute–and when they do so, consistently, they also get the results they want in the form of clients, customers, and profit.

The formula for results is as follows:

Strategy. Ask yourself: On a scale from 1-10, do you believe you have the right strategy for your business?

What’s your ideal business model?

What should you be doing in the areas of marketing, business development and customer satisfaction?

What systems do you want for your team, your time, and your service delivery?

Making decisions in areas like these is key. Taking yourself on a good strategic planning offsite–even if you’re a solopreneur–is necessary to set the vision, mission, strategy, goals and activities that make up the business you want. Once those decisions are made, you can stop worrying and get back to work making it happen.

Execution. Ask yourself: On a scale from 1-10, are you executing the strategy well enough for it to pay off?

If your strategy dictates that you need to attend three networking events a month,, have you scheduled them in your calendar? Have you arranged childcare so that you can attend? Have you cleared your business schedule to attend the events? Have you made travel arrangements?

If your strategy tells you you need to take every Friday off to follow up on sales calls and tidy up your contact management system, are you actually focusing on those activities at that time?

Is there anything you’re supposed to be doing but really aren’t doing at all?

Even though a strategy is essential in building a profitable business, it isn’t enough. You have to commit to following the strategy with perfect execution.

So be honest: How well are you executing on your strategy? Are you really doing the things you’re supposed to do?

Consistency. Ask yourself: On a scale 1-10, how consistent are you in following through with executing the strategies for your business that get results?

The first time I heard the success formula it was explained to me as “Strategy plus Execution Equals Results.” I followed that equation and got nowhere, and that’s because I was missing consistency. So I added it to the formula: “Strategy plus Execution with Consistency Equals Results.”

Once my trainer had given me the diet and exercise plan she knew was right for me, and even after I had the system underway, she pointed out to me that I wasn’t being consistent. If I put in a great workout–but only once or twice a week–it simply wasn’t enough to get results. Business people often fail in a similar way. They have systems in place for working with clients, like networking and engaging in social media, but they’re inconsistent and not doing it enough. At best, they’re leaving money on the table. At worst, they’re giving up on the whole enterprise because they think the strategy “wasn’t working.”

One final tip: One of the things I learned from my trainer was the necessity of tracking. In fitness: Track your diet, track your calories, and track your mileage. In business, track your activities, track your successes, and track your results. That way you’ll be much more certain as to whether you have the strategy that’s working; you’ll be able to execute it more effectively; you’ll be motivated to stay consistent, and you’ll get the outcomes you want. That creates momentum and can help you build a business that lasts a lifetime.

March 3, 2015 by sereynolds

3 Common Events That Can Make Or Break Your Career Growth

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

We have many coaches in our lives. Teachers, sports coaches, mentors, and even our friends and families can become coaches to us in certain ways. In an article earlier this month I talked about the six signs to look out for that indicate that you could benefit from an executive coach, someone from outside of your organization who can guide you through career twists and turns.

But when is it time to pull the trigger? How do you know which twists or turns might become insurmountable and require outside help?

The following three scenarios are situations we inevitably run into at one point or another in our careers, sometimes multiple times. They’re situations in which a coach can step in and help you make the choices that are right for you.

You have an aspiration. The question I like to ask people is, what opportunities are you excited to take advantage of over the next year? Some possibilities:

New responsibilities. Is there a new project you’d like to take on, a team you’d like to lead, or an expanded role you’d like to take?
New business ventures. Do you have a new product to create–or to launch? Do you have some new potential partners?
Higher revenue goals. Is this the year you finally clear six figures? Or maybe seven? Does your team have the opportunity to be the best-in-class?

It’s so exciting to be able to see the very real possibilities ahead of you. But don’t let those ideas merely stir you creativity–make sure they light a fire under you so you actually get going and achieve the vision.

So many people don’t. They lose track of their goals, lose steam, or give up in defeat. That’s when to call a coach. Your coach will be sure the vision and goals stay first and foremost in your mind, so even when you’re busy, stress, overwhelmed, distracted, or not making progress, someone is there not only rooting for you but urging you to keep moving forward. A coach can help accelerate your advancement to get you over the finish line.

You’re looking for a career change. Whether you’re getting a promotion into a new role or looking to move companies altogether, coaching can help you shape your vision and get some clarity about what the next steps would be.

A client of mine was in a job at a company that went through a reorganization process, and the tasks he ended up being responsible for after the shift were tasks he wasn’t happy with and didn’t challenge him. As a coach I helped him by stepping in and providing clarity on what he does want and the steps he can take to get there, and we came up with action items that re-aligned him with his goals and interests. He was able to articulate a new plan for his career–one that had him developing a new niche in his old company. He found a renewed sense of purpose and meaning, and others saw him as confident, capable, and succeeding during a time of challenge and change

You’ve reached a plateau and want feedback. If you can feel yourself starting to lose motivation, if you’re frustrated with your boss and are losing respect for your company’s leadership, or if you are feeling that the feedback you’ve gotten from your boss isn’t aligned with you, then a coach can step in and provide the feedback you’re looking for to help you progress and grow.

The most successful businessmen and women I know are voracious about getting feedback. They crave the truth; they want to know where they can improve. They want to know their strengths and weaknesses. Without that kind of feedback loop, it’s hard for them to know how they’re doing. The sense of “plateauing” can be demotivating, because you don’t know how to move onward and upward. If your boss isn’t helping you improve, or if don’t respect or agree with the feedback you do get, you can find yourself stuck in “park.”

The good news about feedback is it’s always available, and you can access it yourself with the help of your coach. Your coach can choose self-assessments that will get you good information about your personality, strengths, and tendencies. He or she can help design a 360 for you, so you can get lots of feedback from all around. Your coach can even help you process the feedback you do have, differently. Seen from another angle, there might be some real hidden gems–messages that you do need to hear, and may be able to view in a different light with the perspective of your coach to add new insight.

Because your coach is someone in your court–without ulterior motives- he or she can give you a clearer picture of the next steps you should make to achieve the goal or position you want.

The Leadership Research Institute released a statistic that said the number one predictor of leadership effectiveness is a commitment to self-improvement. What that means is that what makes people see you as a more effective leader, and what makes you a better leader, is being open to learning. If you find yourself in any of the above situations, then learning is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your professional growth.

Related: 6 Signs You Need a Coach

February 17, 2015 by sereynolds

How To Save Your Struggling Business With Personal Leadership Practices

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

The mark of a company able to adapt to a changing environment and to seize opportunities are leaders that lead the business, lead others, and most importantly lead themselves. Leaders perform best when aligned to a vision that inspires and motivates them to act.

Successful companies that maximize the talents of their leaders build personal leadership into their cultures, focusing intently on developing and communicating a meaningful vision and strategy; aligning the motivations of individual leaders to the direction of the firm; and effectively strengthening leaders’ skills and abilities to prioritize and make decisions that deliver the intended results–both for themselves and those they lead.

Entrepreneurs can build a culture of personal leadership by emphasizing the vision and strategy of the firm, and helping leaders to identify their personal goals and objectives.

Ask yourself:

What counts as success for your firm? How, and how consistently, is that message conveyed?
What do individual leaders care about that will motivate them to achieve success for your firm, for clients, and for themselves?
What do leaders need in terms of support for effectively prioritizing activities, developing action plans and managing their time?

Questions like these can help leaders align their efforts both to the firm and to their personal motivations, leading to a greater ability to leverage existing talent and sustain performance over time.

If the firm has decided to place its bets on its talent and make that its competitive advantage, then it’s got to do better. How do you do that? You get very clear about the vision, make sure everyone is aligned to it, clarify the strategy for the firm, and teach individual leaders to make their own personal and uniquely-motivating visions and goals for themselves. Then empower them to deliver on those visions and goals with skills related to action planning, prioritization, time management, and so on. The idea is that the individual leaders are so excited and energized by what’s in it for them personally that they align all their efforts to that achievement, and that achievement rolls up into the vision of the firm.

The image is one of, let’s say, a subway station. People are milling about, on their cell phones, individually getting things done but in no particular direction. One could stand on the balcony and say, “Look at all those busy people! So focused on their work… Everybody getting stuff done in their conversations and on their laptops even as they wait for the train…”

But compare that to a pack of marathon runners–all lined up and running the same direction at the same time toward the same finish line. They need to put their efforts into making sure everyone was running the same direction, for the same reason, and doing their best to stay focused on the same finish line. Then they could focus on minimizing the distractions that come from a lack of focus (such as poor decision making skills, poor prioritization, poor time management) and building up the leaders to do even more, better, faster (through coaching and mentoring).

Personal leadership assumes that leaders perform best when they are at their best, personally as well as professionally. So in addition to getting organized around vision, strategy and goals, it’s important to foster a strong appreciation for what it means to be a high performer and what it takes to sustain that level of success.

If your firm wants to capitalize on the investment its making in its leaders, it would recognize that to get the best results out of these kind of talented individuals, it needs to help them not just achieve but find a sense of personal motivation and fulfillment that will inspire and motivate them to over deliver not just for the firm, but also for themselves. That way, everyone wins.

February 10, 2015 by sereynolds

6 Signs You Need a Coach

If you’re a person who is highly engaged, excited about your work and reaching your goals, hopefully that keeps you inspired and on track on a daily basis. But, a number of forces compete with our well-being that can chip away at our motivation over time.

See if any of these symptoms sound familiar: you’re overwhelmed, discouraged, exhausted, and you feel disengaged. When you feel your motivation starting to wane, you need to get your groove back, pick yourself up and get back to a place where you feel strong, energized and positive again. The bad news is that this can be a challenge. The good news is that you don’t have to do it alone.

This is where executive coaching can be your most invaluable asset.

Executive coaching is a particular type of leadership development, customized and tailored to you, totally focused on your success and achievement. As a coach, it’s my job to care as much about your success and achievement as you do. When you have a coach, it almost feels like there are two of you.

If you often think that it would take two of you to pull off everything you’re trying to do in your work and life, you may need a coach. Here are five other emotional signs to watch out for:

Overwhelm. If you’re feeling lost in your to-do list, unable to focus, and challenged in making a plan of attack on how to get things done, a coach can help you sort priorities and get focused, allowing you to feel more in control.

Discouraged. It can be enormously frustrating to want success and quality of life and somehow not be able to attain it. A coach can help you reconnect to your internal motivation for doing things, and reconnect with the things that you love and want to do. Doing what you want to do will help lift your spirits.

Frenzy. With so much to do, respond do, pay attention to, and think about, you can start to feel buried. The demands are steady, the e-mails keep coming, and you have a thousand places to be. You fly through things as fast as you can just to stay afloat. A coach helps you listen to your quieter voice of inner wisdom that will settle you down.

Sacrifice. When you separate success from quality of life, you face a dilemma. You end up making decisions you don’t want to make: to work or stay home, to take a promotion or preserve your sanity, to follow your heart or stick to the security of a so-so job. Coaches help organize your time so you’re not missing the vacations and time you need to maintain your mental health.

Mediocrity. When you lose sight of the grander vision of your life and leadership, you end up tinkering in the minutiae instead of increasing your value. You forget about high expectations. You’re just shooting for “good enough” and “done.” A coach helps you set standards for yourself so you’re not just puttering along, looking for the lowest common denominator. A coach helps you raise the bar for yourself in a way that’s invigorating.

Dissatisfaction. When you aren’t able to pinpoint your contribution and live a life of meaning, your achievements can feel hollow. You might feel disconnected, bored, isolated, unmotivated, stagnant, or burned-out. You might even start to wonder what it’s all for.

You may not be able to lift yourself out of the doldrums, but with a coach you can transform your perspective and get back to a place where you’re excited about your work and achieving your personal and professional goals.

January 28, 2015 by sereynolds

The Top Learning Strategy Used By Leading Fortune 500 Companies

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

Often in the beginning of the year we’re energized to learn new things. As an entrepreneur you have many opportunities to do this, like attending workshops or conferences.

But the strategy that I find the most effective, which you can do inside or outside a workshop or conference, is to create what I call a “mastermind.”

A mastermind is a group of approximately three to five people supporting each other in their learning. The group offers support, helps keep other members accountable, and keeps the momentum going to help build upon lessons learned or projects underway.

Think about your biggest challenge. Now imagine that today you have two or three other people dedicated to helping you work it out. They listen to your questions, they offer advice, and they help you find solutions. Then, when their problem is resolved, you turn and listen to theirs. This is the essence of a mastermind.

If all you do is attend an event or read a book, you won’t get the mileage you could if you set up a group of people who want to learn this with you and put it into practice. Set up your own mastermind to follow through. The more you follow-up on your learning, the more in-depth your learning is.

Based on a study by Edgar Dale, we remember:

10 percent of what we read
20 percent of what we hear
30 percent of what we see
50 percent of what we see and hear
70 percent of what we discuss with others
80 percent of what we personally experience
95 percent of what we teach others.

Since masterminds are all about discussing with others, cultivating our own personal experience with the subject matter, and teaching others, the information has a better chance of being applied and built upon.

I have set up leadership development programs for companies like Adobe, MetLife and Microsoft, and while many of these programs have traditional components, the mastermind strategy is the one that can accelerate your learning past the program.

Whether it’s part of your professional development learning or an independent project, you can set up a mastermind group for yourself.

First, identify two or three people from whom you get energy from and who you think you can learn from, either at your level or above.

Ask if they’re interested in setting up a meeting once a month, whether it be a phone call or in person.

For example, three saleswomen from around the world might get on the phone once a month and discuss how they’re tracking their numbers, which will keep them accountable for their tracking, and then they can discuss how they can attain their goals.

After you have set up logistics, set a regular agenda. For example, establish that once a month for two hours each person will have 40 minutes-each. Or, a mastermind can be held once a week for an hour, each person receives about 20 minutes. Another option is to set up a mastermind every other week for one hour, giving each person 10 minutes and saving time for a group discussion.

To get the most out of your meeting, acknowledge some of the hurdles you’re facing. You might have masterminds that last for just a few sessions, or you might have some that last 10 years. You get an edge if you keep focused and keep learning.

January 15, 2015 by sereynolds

Start 2015 With Your Vision In Mind: When You See Possibility, You Find Success

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

Seeing possibility and finding vision means being open to surprising opportunities. To succeed with this practice, we have to consider the idea that sometimes success comes to us instead of us having to create it for ourselves.

Essentially, if your firm has decided to make its talent a priority and use that as a competitive advantage, then your as a leader must lead with intention. How do you do that? You become clear about your vision, then make sure that everyone is aligned that vision. Explain the strategy clearly for your firm, and help individual leaders create their own unique visions or goals for themselves and their team. The last step is to support and motivate them to deliver on their vision by honing in on skills like time management, planning, and so forth.

The goal is that the individual leaders are so energized and motivated by what’s in it for them and their team that they will align their strategy to move toward that achievement, and that specific achievement falls under the vision of your firm.

So when it comes to creating that initial vision, the one that drives the rest of the individual leaders in a firm, it’s important to open yourself up to possibility.

Seeing possibility looks like:

You’re in the shower and suddenly the answer to your toughest question flashes into your mind
You’re driving along the freeway and suddenly the solution to a sticky problem becomes instantly obvious
You’re thinking about an old friend and suddenly the phone rings. It’s him.

Now, imagine your vision of your life as a leader appears in the same way:

You want a specific opportunity, and suddenly that opportunity arrives.
You need a certain kind of mentor, and suddenly that mentor shows up.
You want to make a certain kind of impact, and suddenly you realize you do.

Every time something like this happens, you are experiencing the rewards of seeing possibility.

Keeping your vision in mind, ask yourself these questions:

What’s going your way?
What’s not going your way?
What do your answers suggest about what to do next?

First, name a situation in which you need some kind of answer or idea. Next, rephrase the issue into the form of a question. What do you need to know? Then, take two long and slow breaths, letting the air clear your mind. Breathe and clear your mind. After a few minutes of breathing, sit quietly and ask the question again. What ideas did you get?

When you open yourself up to possibility, to the potentiality of your vision, success comes to us instead of us having to create it for ourselves. Keep your eyes open, and be ready to act when your good fortune shows up. Because when you have a clear vision for your firm, and individual leaders within it have goals that align with that vision, you’ll find sustainable success.

December 11, 2014 by sereynolds

7 Rules for Meetings to Implement in 2015

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns on Mondays!

Searching for just the right New Year’s resolution? Lose weight, save more for retirement, live life more fully… The usual suspects may well be on your list. Or, you could resolve to make better use of your time. Then you can do all of those things and still have time left for you and the goals you’re trying to accomplish in the coming year.

Recently I heard of an executive who has mastered this skill of maximizing his time, at least in one area of his life: meetings. His newest direct report sent him a request to meet and “talk about some things.” He immediately shot her back a note with his “Rules for Meetings.”

This is what it said:

“Of course, I would be happy to meet with you. Below are my Rules for Meetings. After you’ve had a chance to read them, please let me know if/when you’d like to meet.

All meetings must be 30 minutes or less.
Please send the agenda to me before we meet.
Determine the objective for the meeting.
Identify the decision you need me to make.
Bring your recommendation on the decision with supporting evidence.”

As you can imagine, this executive kept his calendar clear of many a useless meeting with this approach. (Imagine what he could do with all that saved time!)

You might not be able to get away with that at your place of work, but are there rules you could set? Here are a few to consider. Read them all, then choose one or two you’d like to try in the year ahead.

Rule #1. Meetings last only as long as they need to. Determine the amount of a meeting time by how many people will be there and what needs to get achieved. If it’s a small group with a short-term objective, 30 minutes might be more than enough–or even 20 minutes, or 10. Let it be brief.

An important caveat to this rule is that some meetings are more beneficial if they are longer rather than shorter. Once you have everyone in the room at the same time, focused on a single agenda, take advantage of the opportunity. Make sure you have enough time to be productive and complete, especially for the big important things like strategizing and conceptualizing new ideas.

Rule #2: Always enter a meeting with an agenda. So many meetings start with a vague beginning and wander around from there. You can spearhead a more efficient approach by creating an agenda for the meeting. Even if you’re not the one running the meeting, your efforts will keep everyone organized. If you feel doing so may be too presumptuous or intrude on the meeting planner’s prerogative, simply make the offer ahead of the meeting (“Would you like me to gather some agenda items?”). You’ll be helpful to the meeting planner–and everyone else in the room. You’ll all be less likely to deviate from the meeting purpose, which can lead to an incomplete process and–ugh–more meetings.

Rule #3. Spell out the objective of the meeting before it’s scheduled. Some people don’t give enough time to determining a meeting objective. This step puts you in control and keeps everyone on track. Make sure that all participants are aware of the specific objective to be achieved at the meeting as soon as the meeting is announced, and include it with any additional mentions of the meeting, especially via email, to get everyone on the same page going in.

Rule #4. Know what you personally want and need. Even if you’ve already made an agenda for the main meeting, you can arm yourself with a personal agenda consisting of items that you want to be sure get covered and the decisions you need to have made. Your private agenda may be no more than a list of bullets scrawled on a sticky note, but it will ensure that no matter how the rest of the meeting goes, it will be effective and efficient for you.

Rule #5. If it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t happen. Get in front of future meetings by planning them early–not right before deadlines that leave everyone frazzled and scrambling to get everything done. Instead of waiting for others to schedule stressful meetings during crunch time, be proactive and schedule meetings early enough in advance to maintain a productive process, even if it’s not your responsibility to do so.

Rule #6. Be thoughtful about meeting participants. We’ve all been in a meeting and questioned whether or not we truly needed to be there. Don’t let this happen to your participants! Be careful of both what meetings you attend and which people you ask to attend meetings you’re organizing. Being thoughtful about who you invite will save both them time, and you.

Always remember that you have more control over meetings than you think. Often we feel like victims–we say that the meetings are too long, not productive, or pull us away from what we need to be doing. If you get in control of your meetings, you can get control of your time. Be the one to say: “Can we keep this short?” or “I’m not sure we need so many people involved.” Take a leadership role so that the schedule manifests itself in a way that is concise and clear, which will ultimately help everyone else and make your meetings more productive.

This one step can be a major time saver for your year ahead and the start of a new commitment to making the most of your time.