Books I'm Reading

I don't know about you, but I always have several books going at one time...

• A Course in Miracles-- I just finished up the year-long Workbook
• The Energy of Money (audio, and paper) -- deep, excellent thinking. Not light reading (for me anyway) as the topic brings with it a lot of baggage that must be dealt with for me and maybe most people
• I Need Your Love -- Is that True -- (audio and paper) -- follows up on one of my all-time favorites, Loving What Is... amazingly simple process to use that brings moment to moment peace
• The Power of Now -- (audio and paper) the perfect companion to the former, and focuses more on the end result
• Freestyle Made Easy -- DVD/paper -- swim training for the next IronMan starts in earnest
• some other novel -- on audio -- haven't gotten into it yet
• Large Account Sales -- on paper
• Unlock behaviour, Unleash Profits -- I wish I had this book 5 years ago (before it was written...)
• Going Long -- IronMan training book

In general I try not to carry around too many paper books due to how much I travel -- if it's available on audio, I get it there first and load in onto my mp3 player. But now and again, the book is either not available on audio, or after listening to the audio book I want to read it also in print.

There are so many good books out there right now, and so little time to read them all... sigh.

Francis

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Inspiring Action as a Manager

In thinking of what kind of communication or dialog a manager could have with his staff that would motivate and inspire, we have come up with the following:

1. The manager must be speaking about something that is different (otherwise, why speak at all?)
2. The change is best expressed as a change in thinking
3. The kind of thinking before the change should be spoken in the first person
4. The kind of thinking that is being done after the change should be spoken in the first person
5. The content must reflect some new "zone of responsibility" that the manager is claiming

For example:

Manager speaking:

"I want to tell you about a new realization that I've had. We've been working hard on project A, but all the while I've been thinking to myself that it's truly a waste of time. I finally decided to share my thoughts with my own boss, and he said that he felt the same way.

We talked for awhile and have decided not to kill the project, but to make some substantial changes with your help ."

Another example:

"For the past few years we have been talking and talking about the importance of customer service. Yesterday, in a conversation with a consultant, I saw that while I'd been talking up a storm, I had not been leading the company in way that would allow you to get the training that was needed to positively impact the customer's experience. Well, now that I've realized this, I've decide that this must change, and I'd like to launch a new program..."

A contra-example in response to a Senior Management Approval rating of only 36%:

"I recently read the employee feedback survey, and I think that we have done some very good work that has gone unrecognized. We should not be so down on ourselves, and criticise ourseves so much. In fact, we need to focus on the positives and I'd like us to focus on some of the good things that have happened in the past year."

The last comment is the most telling. A manager seeks to deflect criticism by using his position to add good things on top of bad,without telling the truth about his/her real thinking or emotions. The result is a communication that leaves people flat.

A manager's job in any communication is not to seek praise, even if it is shared with others. A manger's job is to give praise, and take responsibility.

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