Photo courtesy ncanup (flickr.com/ncanup)

If you’re like me, you’re looking at the calendar thinking, “Wow! March is almost half over!” How are you doing on your goals? Are your New Year’s resolutions still on track? If not, here are some strategies I use to recover from setbacks and make steady progress towards any goal you might have.

5 Ways to Overcome Your Roadblocks

1. Be Flexible – Plans are never static (see my article on Executing Great Plans) In fact, one thing you can always plan for is change. When things happen that are out of your control, don’t panic! Think about how you can modify your plan. When I found out I had to travel, I panicked, wondering where I would find a pool for my swim workouts. My wife, with a cool head, looked at my schedule and said, “why don’t you swap a swim day with another workout.” She was right! But, in my panicked state, I wasn’t being flexible.
2. Be Consistent – Consistency does not mean perfection! When you have slip-ups, they are just momentary deviations from where you want to be. I struggled with this for years. I would try diets and exercise routines month after month. If I messed up once, I would throw in the towel completely. If only I had learned from the mistake and just kept going, I would be a lot thinner now! You wouldn’t sell your car because you get one flat tire. Likewise, don’t give up when things don’t go perfectly
3. Be Accountable – Find people to hold you accountable. When I signed up for the Ironman, I knew I would need a lot of external pressure to keep me going. So, I told everyone I knew, started this blog, and committed to a charity. If I don’t go through with this, I’m going to have serious egg on my face. I am 100% accountable to a lot of people.
4. Be Realistic – Know your limits. Maybe you set an unrealistic goal and have to adjust. My advice here is not to give up completely (See #2), but instead adjust it down to a comfortable (but still challenging!) level. Perhaps you’ve realized you won’t lose 50 lbs. in a month. But, 15 might be realistic. Set a new goal and keep going!
5. Be Lighthearted – Sometimes, we just need to enjoy the ride. We can easily get too caught up in accomplishing, reaching, and arriving, that we forget the journey. I have to remind myself of this often. When you’re not reaching your goals because of setbacks, try to take a step back and enjoy the challenge of it, have some fun, and just consider how much more interesting the journey just became

What other strategies might you use to combat roadblocks and setbacks? How have some of you been successful in accomplishing your goals in 2010?

Related posts:

1. The Secret of Executing a Great Plan

Photo courtesy: DWRose (flickr.com/DWRose)

Don’t Bring Me Solutions

I once heard a speaker comment on the management adage, “Bring me solutions and not problems.” He said it might be the worst thing a leader could ever say. I tend to agree. If you don’t have a common understanding of the problem, how can you come up with a solution. Have you ever noticed how quickly people jump from discussing the problem to defending their position? Sadly, they never agreed what the problem was to begin with. I know what you’re thinking, “But, you just said whining about problems is career limiting.” And whining is. But, healthy, productive problem/solution based discussion is not career limiting.

Four Mistakes that Turn Problem Solving Into Whining

1. Playing Victim – When you play the victim, you assume that your position is automatically correct and the “other side” has caused some injustice to you. It allows you to avoid responsibility by forcing it on the other party. This is not good leadership behavior. Sometimes you have to compromise, admit your own contribution to the issue at hand, and work out a mutual solution.
2. Preaching – Passion is good leadership quality. However, if you go around telling everyone how to fix their problems, and how they can do their jobs better to avoid X issue, then your passion is misguided. A healthy admission of your (or your organizations) own weaknesses and challenges can help give you perspective.
3. Editorialism – Yes, I made this word up. It really means beating a dead horse. Sometimes there are issues that everyone knows exist. Those issues are usually systemic, like there is a senior leader in the wrong role, wreaking havoc on a group. When these types of issues exist, people don’t want to hear about it every time an issue pops up. Some people feel obligated to re-hash the issue in every conversation. It’s not productive – everyone knows the issue exists, and chances are, they are working on it. Don’t think more highly of your own critical thinking than you should.
4. Tossing Grenades – Don’t shirk your responsibilities. If you caused an issue to happen, stand up take some responsibility. Don’t try to find loopholes in the process to pass the blame to other people. Some people are very good at gaming the system and playing politics to avoid blame for issues when they arise. Instead, be an equal participant in the problem solving process with everyone involved and don’t point fingers.

We all subconsciously know when we are complaining and when we’re truly trying to address the issue. If you can be a common denominator and help others solve problems, you will do well as a leader. Have you ever seen the consequences of someone constantly complaining about issues on the job?

No related posts.

You’ll Never Know Everything

A plan is a predetermined set of actions in response to external events (my definition). When we create a plan, we are predetermining that we will do X in response to, or in anticipation of, Y. For example, I plan to provide additional training to my organization because it needs to become more skilled in response to pressures in the market place. I anticipate this needing a dedicated resource, so I plan to hire a full-time trainer. So on and so forth. What you are doing is trying to predict events, and then determine what you’ll do when those events occur.

A good plan violently executed today is better than a perfect plan executed next week.
-General George S. Patton

The problem most people have when planning is that they lock in their plans when the least possible amount of information is available. You can’t know every detail, so you have to take steps, learn new information, then modify your plan. This is the method that military strategists use, called OODA Loops, to plan for battlefield scenarios.

5 Steps for Executing a Great Plan

1. Roadmap to Your Goal: What are the major steps to get to your destination? Think like you do when you plan a vacation. Will you drive or fly (not what airline and dates yet; keep it high-level)? Where will you go? How much will you budget? What do you want to do while you’re there?
2. Identify the Major Risks: Find the variables that are likely to cause the most impact if they go sideways. Look for things that have high cost, long delays, or could damage relationships and reputations. Develop contingency plans for these items.
3. Take the First Step: Whoah! “But, my plan isn’t complete,” you say? The point here is to gather more intelligence. In my training example, I might open a job requisition for a trainer and start asking for feedback from my managers. This gives me more information to make my plan for the next steps even more detailed
4. Analyze the Information: Take a look at what you’ve learned. Perhaps you found out that people really like your plan and you should speed up the execution. Alternatively, you met opposition and need to change your message. Maybe you can’t find the resources you need and you need to save up money or adjust your budget and wait until next year.
5. Modify Your Plan: Armed with new information, take a look at your roadmap and your major risks. Anything need to be modified based on new information? Are there steps that no longer apply? Steps that need to be added?

What plans do you have right now that you’re stuck in the planning phase? Could you gain new insight and information by taking the first step and building a better plan iteratively?

Related posts:

1. How to Overcome Setbacks and Really Accomplish Your Goals
]]> http://www.motive9.org/featured/the-secret-of-executing-a-great-plan/feed 1 http://www.motive9.org/featured/what-everyone-should-know-about-time-management http://www.motive9.org/featured/what-everyone-should-know-about-time-management#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:04:43 +0000 Mike Seavers http://www.motive9.org/?p=204 Feeling Overwhelmed?

I’ve felt overwhelmed in recent weeks. You know the feeling. Between several major projects, the demands of my personal commitments, and trying to find my own quiet time, I’ve been struggling to stay afloat. On top of it, even though I’ve been busy, I feel like I haven’t gotten anything “Important” done. Perhaps you’re there now, or find yourself there regularly. How do you prioritize your time? Are you focusing on the right things? How do you know what “the right things” are? Here is a tool, developed by Franklin Covey, that I use when I’m overwhelmed and unsure if my focus is in the right area.




Photo courtesy: aarongeller (flikr.com/aarongeller)

Importance and Urgency

Everything on your to-do list goes through two mental filters, importance, and urgency. It’s my experience that Urgency always wins. We almost always have a tendency to react to pressure instead of long-term value. Importance, on the other hand, should have an equal, if not higher weight on a lot of your tasks. So, let’s look at these two dimensions to evaluate our to-do list.

• Importance - Deals with the value of something. If I do this, are the benefits high or low? If I don’t do it, are the consequences mild or severe?
• Urgency - Deals with time. Does it need to be done now? Or does it need to be later?

Using these definitions, we can now look at our time a little differently.

The Magic Quadrant

Here’s a surprise for you. Not everything that is urgent is important. Not everything that has to happen right now, yields a lot of results. Similarly, not everything that’s important has the right urgency. We tend to focus on the urgent things (what’s right in front of us) regardless of how important they are, and we leave the important things, the things that could benefit us the most, for later. Unfortunately, later usually never comes. Later is almost always replaced by more “right now.” So, how do you get visibility to this happening? The answer is quite simple. Draw a square on a piece of paper and then divide the square into four quadrants. On the bottom of the big square, right “Urgent” along the X-Axis. On the left of the big square write “Important” along the Y-Axis (a sample of mine is at the bottom of the post). Now you have 4 quadrants to categorize your list of things to-do into :


1. Urgent but Not Important - These are the distractions in life, the noise, the things that keep us from being productive and doing what we should be doing
2. Urgent and Important - These are emergencies. The roof is leaking, the car broke down, the customer is upset. These are necessary, but should consume a lower percentage of your time. If you spend a lot of time here, something in the larger process is broken and needs to be fixed. If you’re a leader, watch out for big lists here…something is wrong with your process!
3. Not Urgent and Not Important - These are time wasters, like watching TV, day-dreaming, etc. They are also important, but in moderation
4. Not Urgent, but Important - These are the things we overlook. These are the “someday” lists that would help us get to our end goal. We should be spending as much time as possible in this quadrant, but sadly, we never do because of the Urgent but Not Important items.



Using this matrix should help you spend more time on the right things, the things that add the most value to you, and help you avoid the distractions. Maybe you’re spending too much time on the time wasters. So, how did you stack up? How much time are you spending in the Important but Not Urgent quadrant?

No related posts.

]]> http://www.motive9.org/featured/what-everyone-should-know-about-time-management/feed 11 http://www.motive9.org/ironman/what-do-the-ironman-and-world-bird-sanctuary-have-in-common http://www.motive9.org/ironman/what-do-the-ironman-and-world-bird-sanctuary-have-in-common#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:29:22 +0000 Mike Seavers http://www.motive9.org/?p=213

This is a guest post by Catherine Redfern. She is the Director of Development at the World Bird Sanctuary. If you want to guest post on this blog, please contact me directly.


World Bird Sanctuary is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization that works to protect threatened bird species and their habitats. We do this primarily through environmental education and wildlife rehabilitation.

At the forefront of developing future generations of self-aware young Americans, the World Bird Sanctuary encourages them to make decisions that lead to responsible earth stewardship and management of natural resources. As an acknowledged leader in the fields of environmental education and raptor wildlife rehabilitation, the World Bird Sanctuary is considered to be the best center of its kind in the United States. With over 30 years of success in achieving our mission through our four focus areas, and numerous accolades and awards for our achievements in wildlife conservation and education, the World Bird Sanctuary is a consistently successful and credible environmental education and wildlife rehabilitation organization.

So, what does this have to do with Ironman?

Well, World Bird Sanctuary receives no state or federal funding. We rely entirely on the generous donations from members of the public and businesses in our community to achieve our mission. We are also very dependent on our core of dedicated volunteers, who donate their time and unique skills to help us encourage others to lead an environmentally sustainable lifestyle.

So, what does this have to do with Ironman?

Mike Seavers is a dedicated World Bird Sanctuary volunteer. Mike and his wife Sherry have revolutionized our online presence – working to make our website dynamic and up to date. This is something that we knew needed to be done, but simply could not afford. The work that Mike and Sherry have donated is worth thousands of dollars, and has enable us to attract more visitors and engage more audiences in our education programs.

Now, Mike is taking his dedication to World Bird Sanctuary’s mission one step further. Together with the huge physical and mental challenge of training for and participating in the Louisville Ironman race, Mike is using his participation as a platform to raise funds for World Bird Sanctuary. Through the Janus Charity Challenge, Mike has set a goal of raising $10,000 through individual sponsorships of his participation in the race.

Mike has set up Twitter feeds and blogs for us to monitor his progress. This is where you can show your support for Mike and goals – by pledging financial support to World Bird Sanctuary through his participation in the race.

We know that Mike will do well, and we appreciate all of his efforts to help the World Bird Sanctuary. You can help Mike and help us too, by checking out his blog at Motive 9.

Click here to make a donation today!

No related posts.

]]> http://www.motive9.org/ironman/what-do-the-ironman-and-world-bird-sanctuary-have-in-common/feed 0 http://www.motive9.org/ironman/ironman-charity-challenge http://www.motive9.org/ironman/ironman-charity-challenge#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:00:03 +0000 Mike Seavers http://www.motive9.org/?p=184
6. 2010 Ironman Challenge

Photo courtesy of myklroventine (flickr.com/myklroventine)

The other day, one of my Project Managers asked me to critique an e-mail they were about to send. I read the e-mail, which was a status summary for a very critical project that identified two major risks. After reading it, I told the PM I thought it was perfect; it was succinct, pointed out the facts, and gave a good picture of the potential for issues. After some additional discussion, I started to sense an underlying fear that they might offend someone by the e-mail, which pointed out issues that needed to be addressed by the recipients. In the end, the e-mail got sent, and I spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to understand where such a fear might come from.

Holding Others Accountable

Our business environment is one of teamwork, committees, and groups. Very few of us are ever in a situation where our results depend solely on our own performance. Software teams work on whole systems together. Managers have to collaborate to make change happen. Marketing teams combine their thoughts to accomplish the companies advertising objectives. But, we all have very little training on how to hold each other accountable to achieve group results. Consequently, we often don’t raise the caution alarm when we should to inform our stakeholders (customers, bosses, peers, partners), that something might be wrong.

Why We Don’t Do It

I want to be liked by as many people as possible. In fact, approval by my colleagues, subordinates, and leaders is a very powerful force in my own professional life. So, when I call up a peer to tell them I don’t think they handled a situation very well, I’m putting my own psychological safety on the line. We often don’t call out issues for fear we might offend someone or look like the “bad guy.” Difficult conversations are hard, but necessary. I also know, as a leader, I get paid to continually improve myself, my results, and the results of those around me. So, I have tips I use to help me avoid the pitfalls of holding others accountable.

Tips for Addressing Issues with Others

• Know the facts – Make sure you know all sides of the issue before you raise it. You may find that you are the one who has the issue. Nothing is more embarrassing than pointing out an issue that you should be handling, or finding out you were wrong about the issue in the first place. This happens all the time!
• Remove all emotion – Make sure you aren’t mixing emotion with fact. When you gathered the information, did someone very passionate influence your thinking more than someone reserved? Are you personally upset or angry about the issue? Wait until your calm to approach the issue.
• Don’t sit on it – Ever been sitting on something you knew about, only to find out it happened? Then you hoped no one finds out you knew? If you are aware of an issue that could affect your results, you are professionally obligated to bring it to up. Help develop a solution, but don’t hope it doesn’t happen!
• Choose the right forum – Is it a sensitive issue? Don’t bring it up in a group. Rather, choose a one-on-one setting. Does it affect the whole team? Document it and send it to the group for discussion in the next team meeting (as a general rule, all project-related issues should be documented.)
• Expect it in return – If you hold others accountable, you can anticipate them doing the same to you. Be receptive to feedback and understand the motive is to improve results and not a personal attack on you.

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to hold someone accountable? How did you handle it?

No related posts.

]]> http://www.motive9.org/leadership/confidently-hold-others-accountable/feed 2 http://www.motive9.org/featured/getting-rid-of-useless-meetings http://www.motive9.org/featured/getting-rid-of-useless-meetings#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:53:44 +0000 Mike Seavers http://www.motive9.org/?p=116
• What Everyone Should Know about Time Management
]]>
Meetings are something everyone dreads. In fact, I’m certain it’s the universal dislike in the workplace. Ask 100 people if they could change one thing about their job and you’re likely to hear, “We need less meetings.” My personal favorite is when people tell me they went to a meeting to talk about a meeting (which is necessary sometimes, like preparing a big presentation for a customer, but those are rare). Here’s how to identify a useless meeting and what to do about it.

1. Understand why you’re there

A meeting should have a purpose, a reason to exist, and a desired outcome. I attend meetings all the time titled “Discuss X.” Discussions are not meetings. I can pick up the phone and discuss X. I can walk into Fred’s cube and discuss X. Rarely, do I need an audience to bear witness to a discussion. The problem with “Discuss” as a meeting outcome is you never know when you’ve reached the end. It’s similar to having a personal goal “to run.” Run where? For how long? How often? How will you know when you’ve reached your goal? You won’t! And your meeting will suffer the same fate without a clear purpose.

How to Counter

Ask yourself what you want to get out of a meeting and keep meeting titles clear. Everyone should know exactly why they’re in a meeting. State the purpose of the meeting at the meeting start. Make meeting titles include action verbs besides “Discuss” like “Decide,” “Plan,” “Prepare.”

2. Watch out for the “we” and the “someone”

Here’s a fun game to play in your next meeting. Count how many times someone says “We should…” (include the other derivations, like “we ought to,” “we need to,” “someone should,” etc.) That’s the sound of avoiding accountability. The person is essentially saying, “I don’t want to do X, but someone should.” Who is going to do the work that needs to be done? Who is committing to taking specific actions by a certain date to make sure the goal is accomplished? Continuing the running goal example, not only is the goal just “to run.” But, now it’s even worse: Someone should run!

How to Counter

Be action-oriented. Learn the art of responding to “I think we should…” with “Who is willing to take that on? By when do you think you could report back on your progress?” Keep an action log. Send it to the team after the meeting as a reminder.

3. Scam meetings

Meeting title: Free Ice Cream at 1:00. Actual Meeting Content: Review of the accounting books for 2009.
This happens more than you think. My illustration is a bit extreme, but most meetings do not cover the actual topics they say they will. Why? Because people (usually the meeting leader), let the meeting go off topic. There is usually one person in the room who has a different idea of what they are there to accomplish, and if you yield control, guess what? You’re going to cover their agenda. Not keeping a meeting on topic is incredibly disrespectful to the participants. I don’t want to get on a plane to LA and end up in New York.

How to Counter

This takes tact. My approach is usually to try to steer the conversation back to the purpose. I’ll say something like, “To bring us back to the topic at hand, how about that strawberry ice cream?” If the meeting is completely out of control I might be more blunt and say “I think we’re off track.”

4. Leaderless Meetings

These are meetings where the meeting start time comes and goes and people are just sitting in a room talking. No one says “we’re here because someone should run.” No one calls the meeting to order, no one climbs into the drivers’ seat. This is a waste of everyone’s time.

How to Counter

Take control. As a point of etiquette, the caller of the meeting is the default leader. Don’t yield control if you’re that person, unless you need help from others in the room. If you are an attendee in a leaderless meeting, take control. Restate the purpose of the meeting and start asking questions. Usually, the leader who isn’t in control is grateful for the help!

Related posts:

1. What Everyone Should Know about Time Management
]]> http://www.motive9.org/featured/getting-rid-of-useless-meetings/feed 3 http://www.motive9.org/ironman/2010-ironman-challenge http://www.motive9.org/ironman/2010-ironman-challenge#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:01:26 +0000 Mike Seavers http://www.motive9.org/?p=100
• Ironman Charity Challenge
]]>

Photo courtesy: Daniel Rüd (flickr.com/ruedfotos)

An Insane Goal?

Some people are born with a sickness (that’s what people who know me call it); a bizarre desire to do things that few people would even attempt. I am one of these afflicted people. I personally call it motivation, drive, and a desire to put myself in situations that force personal growth. To satisfy this year’s desire, and to support a local charity that my wife and I are both fairly passionate about, one of my major goals for 2010 is to complete the Ford Louisville Ironman on August 29, 2010.

What is an Ironman?

An Ironman is a triathlon (three sport) race that consists of a swim, bike, and run portion. The Ironman is one of the longest distances in the sport of triathlon. The race breaks down in this order: a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride followed by a 26.2 mile run. Each contestant in the race is allowed a maximum of 17 hours to complete the race. World champions finish in the 8-hour range. I am hoping to finish under 14 hours.

The Ironman race is not like other races. In a race that takes more time to complete than most people work in a single day, the reasons for racing are different. Some want to “just finish” to prove they can do it. Others really want to win the race. I am somewhere in between.

Not Just About Me

Why does, or should, anyone care? I asked myself this very question after I found myself at the center of attention and several conversations (a place I hate to be in my personal life). The answer landed in my inbox a couple of days later when I received an e-mail from the Janus Charity Challenge. Janus provides tools for Ironman athletes to raise funds for charities as part of their “Ironman experience.” This was exactly what I was looking for. I havealready chosen a charity. There will be much more to come about them in future posts, once I finish the appropriate paperwork. However, I will tell you they are:

• Local to the St. Louis area and very involved in the community
• Very dedicated individuals that are passionate about their work
• Educationally focused
• Protecting the Earth’s biological resources

Training

Unfortunately, you can’t go from couch potato to Ironman without a little training. My training will take me 30 weeks (many thanks to Don Fink and his book Be Iron Fit)and is broken down into three phases. Each phase consists of specific sports-related training in the swim, bike and run, and runs from 6 hours a week at the beginning, to 20 hours per weak near the race. I am also completing a half-ironman as part of my training. The training phases break down like this:

1. Base Phase – Where I get my body used to daily torture
2. Build Phase – Where I increase my capacity for physical torture
3. Peak Phase – My maximum endurance and race readiness

I hope everyone will join me in coming weeks in supporting this local charity. I also appreciate any prayers, comments, or other support as I take on this very personal challenge in 2010.

Related posts:

1. Ironman Charity Challenge
]]> http://www.motive9.org/ironman/2010-ironman-challenge/feed 2 http://www.motive9.org/featured/encourage-your-emplyees http://www.motive9.org/featured/encourage-your-emplyees#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:39:01 +0000 Mike Seavers http://www.motive9.org/?p=78


Photo courtesy of: psd (flickr.com/psd)


Have you ever been so involved in something that you forget the most basic things in life? If you play video games, you might know what I mean. A really addicting video game can cause rational human beings to go hours without eating or sleeping. This happens to me most often when I become overly absorbed with “improving” my teams. As a leader, it’s important to have a strong focus on your vision, where you want to go, and the roadblocks that are preventing you from achieving your goals. However, it’s equally important to remember all the hard work people are doing for you, and around you, to help you achieve those goals.

I was flying back from San Antonio yesterday, reading through e-mails on my iPhone before the flight attendant forced us to shut down our electronic devices, when I came across a note from a customer thanking for a job well done by one of my staff. For some reason, it struck me that I had many received similar e-mails over the past week or so. After we took off and I was allowed the use of my phone again, I did a quick search through my e-mail and found a half dozen similar kudos to my team. It suddenly occurred to me that I had been so busy working on organizational changes and process improvement, I had never stopped to thank these individuals for the great work they were already doing! Needless to say, I spent the rest of the flight sending individual thank you notes to each of the staff to let them know that I knew they were doing a great job.

Four Tips for Effective Staff Thank You’s

1. Be specific – Tie the thank you to a specific event so the employee knows what exact behaviors got them their kudos. Don’t just thank them “for being great.” Thank them for “the way you responded to customer x by calling them so quickly after they raised their issue.”
2. Be brief – Don’t be too wordy with your thank you; just tell them thanks. You not writing a recommendation for a medal. You’re simply letting them know that you notice. People often underestimate how much stock employees put into approval from management.
3. Be sincere – Don’t say thank you because you have to. People can see right through contrived emotions. If you’re not thankful for their doing a good job, perhaps some self-examination is in order. If you’re having a bad day, wait until you can give the thank you the right attention and emotion.
4. Be thoughtful – Timing of a good thank you can amplify the effect. For example, when in the middle of a big change initiative, it’s a good idea to thank your people for supporting the change. I’m not suggesting you manipulate people, only that you consider the timing of a thank you.

I know I seek the approval of my management. The more degrees of separation between you and the employee, the more weight your approval carries with them. Take the time to know your front-line workers and thank them for helping make you successful. Without them, you wouldn’t accomplish much.

No related posts.

]]> http://www.motive9.org/featured/encourage-your-emplyees/feed 1