Keeping Criticism Helpful

By Fred Smith

Keep criticism positive. Recently, I tried to analyze the reasons I criticize. Three of them were negative and one was positive.

If before 10 a.m. I have been critical of everybody, I stop and say: "Fred, what's wrong with you? What are you mad at yourself about?" And generally I have to go and make a call to apologize to somebody. But my environment won't straighten out that day until I quit being mad at myself. If I criticize too many, I'm just passing the buck on a self-grudge.

The second reason: To show superior knowledge. How often does someone show you a great idea and you are showing enthusiasm when you suddenly say to yourself, "I can't be too enthusiastic because he may feel he is as smart as I am." So you say, "This is a great idea, but . . . . " Many "yes-buts" come from the desire to show your superior knowledge.

The third root of negative criticism is usually a performer who didn't make the grade. Those who start well but don't make the A list usually become critics. You can't put a failed executive back into the ranks--he will become a critic.

Positive criticism is simply: A genuine desire to bring improvement. It can be done quietly. True positive criticism is not done in the earshot of others, unlike the three negative types that generally are done in public. Really strong positive criticism is specific and directed only to the point that needs work.

When you can positively criticize you are demonstrating emotional stability as a leader.

This week, review a circumstance in which you negatively criticized--at work or at home. Then think about what was really going on. Next,
think about an example of positive constructive criticism and how effectively it worked.

Leadership success tip

Leadership Success Tip:
 
Successful leadership is often a result of self-motivation.  Motivation is the instinct, desire or idea which moves you to action... Aristotle said:  "We learn by doing."  The beginning of success is when you are inspired to make the effort.  Each time you act, you will become more competent and productive.  The act will retype the motivation message and give you more confidence in your leadership abilities.

Why Use Humor in Your Presentations?

by Tom Antion

Why use humor?
• Why should I bother using humor in my presentations?
• Can't I just deliver my information and sit down?
You sure can! That's what most people do. The problem is that most people are not effective presenters. They are nighty-nite, snooze-inducing, say-your-prayers, hit-the-sack, unlicensed hypnotists. They are ZZZZZs presenters. They might be experts in their field and able to recite hours and hours of information on their topic, but is that effective?
According to Bob Orben, Special Assistant to President Gerald Ford and Former Director of the White House Speech writing Department, "Business executives and political leaders have embraced humor because humor works. Humor has gone from being an admirable part of a leader's character to a mandatory one."
A survey of top executives who earned more than $250,000 per year was conducted by a large executive search firm. The survey found that these executives believed their communication skills were the number one factor that carried them to the top.
Mastering the use of humor and other high-explosion techniques puts a fine polish on your presentation skills which can help propel you to the top of the speaking profession.
Benefits of using humor
There are many benefits you can derive from using humor in your presentations. Keep in mind that these benefits only help you reach your ultimate purpose for making the presentation. They are not purposes in themselves unless, of course, you are only interested in entertaining.
How humor helps you:
• Enhance your connection with your audience
• Makes you more likeable
• Arouses interest
• Keeps attention
• Helps emphasize points and ideas
• Disarms hostility
• Overcomes overly flattering introductions
• Gets your point across without creating hostility
• Helps relate facts and figures
• Makes a positive impression
• Shows that you do not take yourself too seriously
• Helps paint pictures in the audience's mind
• Makes information more memorable
• Lightens up heavy material
Tom's List of Top 4 Benefits of Using Humor
• You will be asked back
• You will get higher evaluations or more sales
• You will make more money
• You will make people happy.
The last one is my favorite benefit. I get great satisfaction from knowing that I have brightened someone else's life. I had an executive come up to me after one of my humor seminars and say, "You opened up a whole new world for me." I almost cried right on the spot. I'll never forget it. "
Tom Antion is a veteran of over 2300 paid presentations. His Great Speaking e-zine has the largest subscriber base (over 85,000 as of this writing) in the entire speaking industry.

Leadership – Delegation Series

Leadership – Delegation Series

If you have a task greater than you can handle on your own, then you need to delegate. Not a choice many of us choose to make, but one we can all learn. This post will be the first in a series on this task and how to best accomplish it. There will be 4 posts in total, but this is the first and covers Why, that is, the Benefits, Preparation and Choosing the right people for the job.

So let's start with the Whys.

The first is obvious. The task if too big for one person. Or maybe is beyond the skills of that one person.

The second is that there is more chance of success because using other people brings in extra skill-sets, and added enthusiasm.

The third WHY is that delegation gives the leaders in an organisation the chance to develop the latent strengths and talents of their members, giving the organisation a greater pool of skill and potential leaders.

Meeting Success Tip for the Week:

Whenever possible, be prepared. Know who will be at the meeting. Plan what you are going to say: keep it concise and clear.

WHERE GROWTH HAPPENS

By Dr. John C. Maxwell

If I asked you to rank your top five favorite leadership responsibilities, attending meetings probably would not appear on your list. It's not that some meetings aren't enjoyable; it's just that there are plenty of other activities that leaders find more thrilling, fun or productive.
That said, there is one kind of meeting that I absolutely love, and that is a creative meeting. For example, I once spent about four hours in a room with 11 people, doing nothing but talking about books. We discussed how to write better books, and we talked about which topics would add value to people's lives. In the process, we challenged each other. We built on each others' thoughts and ideas. We argued. We laughed.
Now I realize that to some of you, spending four hours brainstorming about books might sound about as exhilarating as watching paint dry. But for me, it was incredibly exciting. By the time I came out of that room, it was 5 o'clock in the afternoon. After a marathon meeting like that, a guy my age ought to be getting little tired. But I was charged up and ready to spend the evening writing. Click here to read the complete article.

Creating a Positive Professional Image

"In today’s diverse workplace, your actions and motives are constantly under scrutiny. Time to manage your own professional image before others do it for you. An interview with professor Laura Morgan Roberts.


As HBS professor Laura Morgan Roberts sees it, if you aren't managing your own professional image, others are.

"People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace," she says. "It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who you are and what you can accomplish."

There are plenty of books telling you how to "dress for success" and control your body language. But keeping on top of your personal traits is only part of the story of managing your professional image, says Roberts. You also belong to a social identity group—African American male, working mother—that brings its own stereotyping from the people you work with, especially in today's diverse workplaces. You can put on a suit and cut your hair to improve your appearance, but how do you manage something like skin color?

Roberts will present her research, called "Changing Faces: Professional Image Construction in Diverse Organizational Settings," in the October issue of the Academy of Management Review.

She discusses her research in this interview."

This is a technique that can gain publicity for your organisation in a three pronged approach.

Firstly, conduct a survey within your oganisation. This is a great way to discover what your people are thinking - get their opinions and maybe even their ideas. (You might even be able to harvest some testimonials - with permission, of course) But word it carefully and it can also be a very effective way of doing internal publicity as well. Word it so that the respondents are reminded of just how valuable their organisation is, what it does, and its brand. You are also then giving them fodder for their own PR activities.

Secondly conduct a survey about your organisation. This, too, may bring in opinions about your organisation and ideas for improvement. But, very basically, this is another way of bringing your organisation's name and brand to people's attention.

Thirdly conduct a survey on a particular subject. Choose something that is timely, or outrageous, or newsworthy, but preferably close to your own area of operations. Survey as wide a range of people and as large a population as you can, and voila you have a news item. Report that your organisation conducted this survey and report the outrageous or timely or newsworthy results of that survey and it is sure to make the news in your area.

Get publicity for your organisation with a survey

This is a technique that can gain publicity for your organisation in a three pronged approach.

Firstly, conduct a survey within your oganisation. This is a great way to discover what your people are thinking - get their opinions and maybe even their ideas. (You might even be able to harvest some testimonials - with permission, of course) But word it carefully and it can also be a very effective way of doing internal publicity as well. Word it so that the respondents are reminded of just how valuable their organisation is, what it does, and its brand. You are also then giving them fodder for their own PR activities.

Secondly conduct a survey about your organisation. This, too, may bring in opinions about your organisation and ideas for improvement. But, very basically, this is another way of bringing your organisation's name and brand to people's attention.

Thirdly conduct a survey on a particular subject. Choose something that is timely, or outrageous, or newsworthy, but preferably close to your own area of operations. Suvey as wide a range of people and as large a population as you can, and voila you have a news item. Report that your organisation conducted this survey and report the outrageous or timely or newsworthy results of that survey and it is sure to make the news in your area.

Some people are addicted to love, but most of us are addicted to e-mail.

According to a new survey conducted by America Online, the average e-mail user checks e-mail nearly five times a day. Yes, that's right. AOL's E-mail Addiction survey examines our e-mail behavior and frankly, it's a little obsessive. The survey found that e-mail users rely on e-mail as much as the phone for communication, spend nearly an hour a day on e-mail, and that 77 percent of e-mail users have more than one mail account.

Here are a few of the survey's more interesting findings:
--Forty-one percent of e-mail users check e-mail first thing in the morning, before they've brushed their teeth or trudged to the kitchen to make coffee.
--Forty percent of e-mail users report checking their e-mail in the middle of the night. (Downright obsessive, yes?)
--More than one in four (26 percent) of e-mail users say they haven't gone more than two to three days without checking their e-mail.
--Most e-mail users have two or three e-mail accounts (56 percent). The average user has 2.8 accounts.
--E-mail users check for mail anywhere: In bed in their pajamas (23 percent); in school (12 percent); in business meetings (8 percent); at Wi-Fi hotspots, like Starbuck's or McDonald's (6 percent); at the beach or pool (6 percent); in the bathroom (4 percent); while driving (4 percent); and in church (1 percent).
"Last time I checked God didn't have a Blackberry," says Chamath Palihapitiya, general manager and vice president for AOL's AIM. The survey results, he says, speak "to the fact that e-mail has become such a fundamental way that people communicate. People thought that e-mail was just a business behavior, but it is a social and commonplace behavior."

Palihapitiya says it's the first time AOL has conducted a survey of this kind, probing the actual behaviors and habits of e-mail users. AOL recently launched its e-mail service Web-wide.
"One of the things we took away from this is that people need accessibility everywhere. They may be at home, at a friend's house, at the office, in the street... one of the things we did with our e-mail product is we made sure it was accessible all over the Web," Palihapitiya says, adding "But just as important, we make sure that it works with your work e-mail. We allow you to use Outlook to get your AIM mail."

That's important because the survey finds that 61 percent of all e-mail users check their personal e-mail at work at least three times a day. By syncing with Outlook, AOL mail becomes part of a user's normal work e-mail application. AOL plans to offer mobile e-mail access via Blackberry, mobile phones, and other handheld devices by the fall. AOL says its mail service supports advertising in the body of e-mails. "Our competitors don't do that," Palihapitiya says. It means that embedded ads won't be stripped out when e-mail is delivered in Outlook.

The survey's results, Palihapitiya says, will help AOL develop e-mail features and applications that users may find useful. "One of the things that jumped out of us is that e-mail users are really interested in un-sending a message and knowing when a message has been forwarded." He says in AOL e-mail, a user can un-send right away and check the status of whether mail has been opened. AOL is working on a feature that would notify users as to whether a piece of mail has been forwarded to them.

More survey findings:
--Sixty-one percent of e-mail users check personal e-mail on the job an average of three times a day. About half of those who check personal e-mail at work (47 percent) check it sporadically throughout the day, while about one in four (25 percent) check it first thing when they arrive, 18 percent check it at lunchtime, 8 percent during an afternoon break, and 2 percent right before they head home.
--Women are more likely than men to check their personal e-mail at work throughout the day (50 percent versus 44 percent), while men are more likely than women to check their personal e-mail first thing when they arrive in the morning (28 percent versus 21 percent).
--Six in 10 of all e-mail users (60 percent) check their e-mail while on vacation, mostly for pleasure (47 percent) rather than business (13 percent). Of those who access e-mail while on vacation, 57 percent say it's very (21 percent) or somewhat important (36 percent) that they have access to e-mail.
Get this, AOL has provided a quiz to determine your level of e-mail addiction. It's available later today here.
The survey was conducted with Opinion Research Corp., which conducted online surveys with 4,012 respondents 18 and older in the top 20 cities around the country to measure e-mail usage


Tobi Elkin is Executive Editor, MediaPost.
Just An Online Minute

Managing conflict

Managing Conflict with Peers
________________________________________

Managing Conflict

What's Your Role?

Everyone has habitual responses to conflict, but these reactions are often not ideal. By understanding your conflict behaviors and hot buttons, you can see how you contribute to constructive as well as destructive outcomes of conflict.

"The first step to improving the way conflict is handled at work is to get clear on the role you play and why you respond the way you do," says CCL's Brenda McManigle.

Typically, people behave in a way that sets them up to play a specific role in the conflict, such as:

• Avoider — someone who ignores or denies conflict.
• Aggressor — someone who stokes conflict.
• Diplomat — someone who mediates conflict between others.
• Peacemaker — someone who tries to keep work relationships happy and calm.
• Director — someone who confronts or acknowledges conflict and works to resolve the situation.

"If you can see your behavior clearly, you have the chance to make changes," says McManigle. She suggests writing out a recent example of conflict that you experienced. Write as much detail as you can about what you said, and what you did — or did not do. Did you behave as an avoider, aggressor, diplomat, peacemaker or director? Consider how the role you played helped or hindered problem solving. Did your behavior strengthen or undermine relationships? What impact is your behavior likely to have on your effectiveness in the short term? What might the consequences be on your long-term career goals? What changes could you make?

You will also benefit from knowing what kinds of situations are most likely to create conflicts for you. In other words, what are your hot buttons? Hot buttons are behaviors that may irritate you enough to provoke you or compel you to behave in a way that is unproductive. For example, your hot buttons might get pushed when someone is unreliable or untrustworthy, abrasive or hostile, micromanaging or overly analytical.

There are many techniques, such as deep breathing, that allow you to stay in control of your emotions. You might need to give yourself a "timeout" to prevent your hot buttons from taking over. If possible, take a break from the situation (go listen to music or do something physical if you can). If you can't leave the situation, slowly count to 10 or 20 (or higher if necessary) and focus on not taking the situation personally. "The key is to identify your emotional triggers and recognize them in the moment," says McManigle.

Name Your Hot Buttons

Want to know more about your emotional triggers or "hot buttons"? In its Foundations of Leadership program, CCL uses the Conflict Dynamics Profile, an assessment developed by the Management Development Institute of Eckerd College. The assessment includes a section on identifying hot buttons. A portion of this assessment is online: http://www.conflictdynamics.org/hot_buttons.shtml.

About Brenda McManigle
Brenda McManigle is responsible for the quality and delivery of the Foundations of Leadership program at CCL's San Diego, California campus. She also conducts needs assessment, instructional design and instruction for custom programs.

Leadership

Leadership styles are always interesting as we seek to develop our own best practices in our organisations. This article gives some thought-provoking insights.

Asian and American Leadership Styles: How Are They Unique?

"Business leadership is at the core of Asian economic development, says HBS professor D. Quinn Mills. As he explained recently in Kuala Lumpur, the American and Asian leadership styles, while very different, also share important similarities.


by D. Quinn Mills

Editor's note: Political connections and family control are more common in Asian businesses than in the United States. In addition, says HBS professor D. Quinn Mills, American CEOs tend to use one of five leadership styles: directive, participative, empowering, charismatic, or celebrity. Which styles have Asian business leaders adopted already, and which styles are likely to be most successful in the future?

In a talk in Kuala Lumpur on June 15 at the invitation of The Star/BizWeek publication and the Harvard Club of Malaysia, Mills explained the differences and similarities between American and Asian leadership. Below is the transcript of his talk, "Leadership Styles in the United States: How Different are They from Asia?""
Read the whole article.

More articles on leadership

Conversation success tip

If you require elaboration in a conversation, use questions that begin with the words: How, Why, In what way, What.

For more ideas, tips, articles and inspiration to help you grow your organisation, subscribe to the ezine, Grow your Organisation. View the current issue Or subscribe now - just send an email to subscribe@consultpivotal.com with the words subscribe organisation in the subject line.

Inspiring Creativity

Don't think of your members as very creative? Read this article by David G. Javitch to find out why it's important to encourage them to think outside the box.

So you say you're not creative? And your employees aren't either? Then "physician, heal thyself." You may be the source of the problem!
Everyone can be creative--it has nothing to do with smarts. In fact, having smarts is no guarantee that you can or will be creative. But just what is creativity? Dr. Theresa Amabile of Harvard Business School defines it as the process of doing something differently that works. That's it. Real easy.Read the whole article

Leadership, creativity and fear

A candid conversation with the CEO of General Electric about leadership, creativity, fear -- and what it's really like to run the world's most influential company

"surviving a failure gives you more self-confidence. Failures are great learning tools -- but they must be kept to a minimum."

Now, four years into the job, with the company showing much stronger performance, Immelt is stepping out of Welch's shadow and developing a leadership vocabulary of his own. He speaks about creating "growth leaders," holding "dreaming sessions" with customers, developing "imagination breakthrough" teams and projects, and the importance of "simplification" in a big-company environment. And Immelt has won favorable reviews for a new and bold environmental initiative that will double the company's research on clean technologies.

Immelt recently sat down for a talk with Fast Company editor-in-chief John A. Byrne in the CEO's conference room at GE headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut. Read the interiew

Speech Making Success Tip

"If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time~a resounding whack."
~Winston Churchill

Launch a FACE for your organisation

Have you thought about naming a "Face" for your organisation? This is not just for cosmetics companies, although they have certainly developed it as a marketing tool. You can do it too no matter what your organisation's role. Find someone who can speak well about what you do, preferably someone within your organisation so that you don't have to pay them fees to market for you. That face then becomes the human image of your operations. Their picture gives your prospective members and clients a person to relate to. Record that person's testimonials and use them on all of your materials. Business cards, letterhead, websites, blogs ... anywhere people are seeing your brand is somewhere you can feature the face of your organisation, and that person's powerful testimonial. They can then also attend your functions, meetings and conferences and speak there as well. This is a powerful marketing tool and one that is not just limited to "beauty."

Executing good strategies

I find that in many organisations, there are people who dream, who have a wonderful shining vision for the organisation. And then there are the doers, who will go along to events and meetings and are happy to fill the rosters, but who do not glow with the vision. One of the greatest challenges of an organisation is to link the two. Basically a matter of communication and delegation I would think. But a more detailed answer lies in this article by Lawrence G. Hrebiniak. While the title, Three Reasons Why Good Strategies Fail: Execution, Execution... is a teaser, that's all it is, because the answer lies in far more detail. YOu can read it at the Wharton site.

You can also check out my article on delegation for more simple tips on translating the vision into practice.

Speech making confidence tip

Confidence in approaching an audience is a powerful tool to have in your presentation kit. Implementing the old exhortation "Head up, shoulders back" not only expresses confidence; but also creates it. Try this, and you will see that it works. So does a smile. Posture and smile not only make you feel confident, but they also convey the image of confidence, sincerity and professionalism.

COMMUNITY GROUPS PREFER SUPPORT OVER DOLLARS - SURVEY

MORE COMMUNITY groups would prefer people to join their group as a member, serve on the Board, contribute to lobbying efforts or sign up as a volunteer than give money, a survey of community organisations has found.

The State of the Community 2005 survey, which was run as a lead-in to this week's Communities in Control conference, found that 33 per cent of respondents would prefer the community help them to lobby for support to achieve their mission compared to just 21 per cent who said they would prefer them to give more money.

A total of 28 per cent of respondents said that helping through volunteering was the best thing the community could do to support its work while the same number nominated offering to join the Board or committee of management as the most useful way people could help.

A further 26 per cent said the community could best help the organisation by becoming a member and 22 per cent said offering pro bono services.

Read the full report