Greetings Leaders!

I hate to lose. My mantra in life has been, if you don’t think you can win, then don’t try. While you might think I missed some opportunities in life because of this, I actually have tried a lot of things. Why is this? The answer is simple, because I always think I can win. Obviously I don’t win at everything, but, I always think I can. This is an important attitude in Winning at Life.

There are many ways to define “winning.” That is not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about believing in yourself. That you can accomplish great things in your life. If you don’t believe… what can you possibly achieve? Yes, you will suffer setbacks and no, you won’t win at everything you tackle. But… the key to Winning at Life, is to believe that you can win.

This is a powerful weapon in winning at whatever you are doing. Here are some common goals that this attitude can overcome.

1. Believe that you can lose weight, and you will
2. Believe that you will find a job, and you will
3. Believe that you will find a companion, and you will
4. Believe that you will become a leader, and you will
5. Believe that your project will get done, and it will
6. Believe that you will get promoted, and you will
7. Believe that you will get a house, and you will
8. Believe that you can find peace, and you will
9. Believe that you will start a business, and you will

I’m not talking about “name it and claim it!” If you believe that you can win, then you will continually look for ways to win. You will continually strive to learn new things to reach your goal. You will continually get up after getting knocked down. You will grow and change in order to win. You will succeed, because you won’t quit – because you believe you can win.

The saddest person in the world, is someone who doesn’t believe in themselves.

Believe in yourself.

Contact me, if you don’t believe.

Win!

JT

Greetings Leaders!

As a consultant, I’ve had the pleasure of working in many distinct environments and cultures. There was the US Navy where a strict chain of command was obviously enforced. There were large corporations such as IBM and HealthNet. Government agencies include the State of California, California State University and Sacramento County. I also have worked for a small consulting firm an also as an independent contractor. They are all unique places to work for that have different rules of engagement.

By rules of engagement, I’m referring to how things get done and communicated. I had the unpleasant experience of watching a colleague unsuccessfully try to get things done casually, when the organization was driven by formality. When he heard the manager had an open door policy, the assumption he made was that he could just drop in to discuss whatever was on his mind. The manager did in fact have an open door policy, but – the manager also liked to have meetings booked in a calendar with a clear objective or point of discussion. She was not into what I call drive-bys, or drop ins. This lack of understanding got my colleague off to a very rocky start with the manager, something that could have been easily avoided, if he only took the time to understand the culture before he took action.

Don’t assume that just because an organization is small that it is informal. Or that just because it is large, that it is a bureaucracy.

To avoid putting your foot in your mouth, make it a priority to understand how your organization works. Even for little things.

Lead With Honor,
JT

Greetings Leaders,

This morning I am thinking about my growing list of acquaintances who are out of work. So many of them are wondering what happened. People in my generation were told, “work hard and you will be rewarded.” Now as the economy goes down the tank, many feel like they were sold a bunch of snake oil. They are usually the first to be let go due to their higher salaries, and the last to be rehired. Their retirement plans are in shambles due to the retraction of the stock market and the devaluation of their homes.

This is a difficult situation for anyone to be in, and to make matters worse, much of it is beyond our control. So – how do we regain control, when we don’t have complete control?

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that control is an illusion. You can’t control everything. The good news? By giving up control of the things you can’t control, and focusing on things you can… you regain control.

A long time ago, my mom gave me a prayer which I’m sure many of you have seen before:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

To regain control you have to release the notion that you can control all things in your life. It is a very freeing experience. I have a friend who lost a loved one to cancer. This person was told by some friends (friends?!) that she was being punished because of a previous divorce. That the divorce negatively impacted her current relationship and that this caused the cancer to arise. Yeah.. right. It made her feel better, knowing that sometimes, things just happen that are beyond our control.

Some of you carry a burden because you feel as if you should be able to control all aspects of your life, and when something negative happens, despite it being beyond your control, you feel guilty because you let it happen. What burden are you carrying?

I am not suggesting that all things are out of our control or that we shouldn’t accept responsibility when there really was something we did that resulted in a negative outcome. I’m just trying to help you see the difference. When you can distinguish between things you can control, and the things you can’t,  you will be able to focus more clearly on things that you can control, resulting in a more positive outcome for your life.

Release Control…
Gain Control…
JT

Greetings Leaders!

While coaching someone recently I had to impart the difficult concept that as leaders, sometimes doing the right thing, can be the wrong choice. The situation that came up revolved around perfection and the stance being taken was it was wrong to release software to the client, if it wasn’t perfect. While the idea that we don’t want to release a defective product to the customer is valid, there is also a lot to be said for the idea that perfection can never be obtained.

The reason this became an issue during coaching, is that the individual being coached had earned a reputation as being a primadona. He often stubbornly stuck his heals in the ground and refused to move on to other tasks while he “fixed” what he thought was broken. We’re not talking glaring problems here, but minor things that were often considered either working as designed, or not critical to moving forward.

I explained to him that his pursuit of perfection was hurting his reputation at his company. Ironic isn’t it. Most of us would love to have someone on our team who pursues perfection. However, in this case doing what was intuitively right (pursuing perfection), was the wrong thing to do.

I then went on to try and explain that if he wanted to get promoted that he was going to have to change the way he looked at things. Leaders have to look at the big picture. Pursuit of perfection would be nice if we had unlimited resources and time. But… we don’t. A leader has to make decisions on where to apply resources to ensure the project gets done.

All the best,
All the time,
JT

Greetings Leaders!

If there is anything that I have seen torpedo someone’s career quicker than you can blink an eye, it is emotional immaturity. Emotional immaturity is easy to recognize. Have you seen these things in your office?

1. The emotional ranter: An inappropriate emotional response given the situation. You know, the person who speaks with a loud voice to ensure that everyone in the building hears them – all the while pretending like you’re having a private conversation.
2. The two page email: Emails can be useful. However, I still cringe when I think of those two page emails that I sometimes get. Usually from someone either trying to point the finger (away from themselves), cover their you know what, or just plain gossip.
3. One-up manship: Ever work with someone that had to have the last word? No matter what!.
4. Yawn – The long dissertation: I know you’ve been there. The meeting that should’ve taken 5 minutes, but 45 minutes later you’re still listening to something reminiscent of the teacher in Charlie Brown. Blah Blah Blah. This person just needs to hear the sound of their voice to ensure that they are important.
5. The scolding teacher: We all mess up. Yet instead of taking time to help someone get better, the scolding teacher will ensure that the “student” knows that they’ve been bad. There are lots of ways to correct mistakes, but scolding should be reserved for 3 and 4 year olds.
6. Chronic quitter: Every time something doesn’t go their way, the threaten to quit. My advice…. let them.

To ensure you are emotionally mature, you need to become a student of yourself. You should constantly monitor people’s reaction to how you present yourself. Here are some general rules to ensure that you are displaying emotional maturity.

1. Don’t raise your voice. Be calm and focused.
2. Avoid gossip and gossipers.
3. Learn how to run effective meetings.
4. If you have to send an email over a paragraph long, pick up the phone instead.
5. Never write an email when you’re upset – don’t use the “caps” button. If you really want to send it, wait until the next morning before hitting the send button.
6. Never, ever, clean up your office to make it look like you’re quitting. Never threaten to quit. Either stay, or quit… but never threaten your company.
7. Counsel those that make constant mistakes, don’t berate them.
8. If you’re tempted to have the last word…. don’t.
9. Disagree without being disagreeable.
10. If you think you’re always right – you aren’t.

All the Best! All the Time,
JT

Related articles by Zemanta

• The 12 Qualities of True Business Professionals (businesspundit.com)
• Dan Goleman: Are Women More Emotionally Intelligent Than Men? (huffingtonpost.com)

Greetings Leaders,

I am a registered Republican, but voted for Barak Obama last year. Why? Because along with all the others that voted him into office, I believe we can no longer hold onto the status quo. Our country is at a crossroads. Policies that served my parents’ generation well, are no longer viable. When it comes to finances, we cannot continue to operate our government, our financial institutions or our health care system as we have in the past. The writing is on the wall.

While we can debate the implications of our current fiscal situation and the alternatives to fix them, I am certain of one thing. That attitudes like those displayed by Jim DeMint should no longer be tolerated in politics. Senator DeMint made the following comment last week (see CBS article here):

“If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him”

I don’t necessarily agree with everything that President Obama is proposing, and I don’t expect Senator DeMint to either. The purpose of having two or more political parties is to ensure balance. However, is it the purpose of politics to win – just to win? Is it Senator DeMint’s purpose to make Obama look bad? To discredit him? Or – is it to pass a health care bill that is the best that both sides can come up with?

Short sighted politicians who are only interested in power, are going to be the demise of our culture. Perhaps Senator DeMint just verbalized the true nature of bipartisan politics. If so, then heaven help us, because our political system is going to be the ruin of us all. I discussed this in my book, Leadership = RC³:

The danger in ambition is that the more power you gain and the less leadership skills that you have, the greater the probability that you will hurt others, perhaps many others, along your climb to power, fame and fortune.

We need more leaders in congress who are true leaders, not those who are just vying for political power. If I lived in South Dakota, although I’m a Republican, Senator DeMint would not get my vote.

Lead With Honor!
JT

Related articles by Zemanta

• DeMint Refuses To Take Back ‘Waterloo’ Statement: “It’s Not Personal” (huffingtonpost.com)
• DeMint: Palin Will Help the GOP (usnews.com)
• What’s Wrong With Jim DeMint? (dailykos.com)
• Obama on Today Show: ‘Health Care Shouldn’t Be Political’ (crooksandliars.com)

Greetings Leaders!

Ok… I’m a bit ticked off. First for being taken in. Second – I’m so darn tired of people like the White family (if that’s their true name) taking advantage of others. Alright, I didn’t lose any money and certainly not a lot of time, but my credibility matters and more importantly, there were a TON of people who put their hopes and dreams in this kid. Stealing hopes and dreams is a lot worse than stealing money or time in my opinion.

How did I find out about this? I was checking my blog stats this morning and noticed a HUGE amount of hits on my blog on Jonathan White. So, I went out to google, and lo and behold, there it was. Breaking news as of yesterday, Jonathan White is a scam. You can read the most reliable article on it here. Sadly, I had a lot of company in being duped. Not that it makes me feel any better.

First of all – I apologize for not checking my sources. Lesson Learned to all bloggers. I found out about Jonathan from a Twit by Randy Gage. Someone I deem to be VERY reliable and reputable. I’m sure Randy is not too happy about this either.

Second – On a positive note, I didn’t send them any money, but I believe others have. Before you send anyone money, always check out their story.

Lastly – I am not a vindictive person, but I hope the FBI catches the White family  and prosecutes them fully. I don’t want to hear their blah blah story. We were broke… We needed help… We didn’t mean it… We didn’t  know it would hurt so many people… blah blah blah. They stole dreams. They gave false hope. So many of us have problems. Some more than others. There are true heroes out there, who really are fighting cancer or some other illness. There are those facing financial hardships that don’t result to lying or cheating or stealing. I’ve even blogged about a few of them. I don’t care what Jonathan’s “story” is. Taking advantage of others is never justified, just because of your situation.

My apologies for furthering the scam…

JT

Greetings Leaders…

I found this short video of big wave surfer Dylan Longbottom taken by Brett Barley on StumbleUpon, and it reminded me of what it takes to capture perfection.

To capture this moment on film took a lifetime. Sure, the video is only about a minute long, but think about it. To get to this specific point in time required a lot of things to happen first.

1. Brett needed to have passion to take up videography of surfers
2. He studied and practiced using his equipment
3. Physical Fitness was a must
4. Multiple attempts were undertaken. Not just that day, but every other day he was out there, hoping for the perfect shot
5. Others were needed to do the surfing
6. The environment had to cooperate – the weather, the surf, the sun

Bottom line – Perfection doesn’t happen by accident. If you want to achieve something great with your life, you have to pay the price as you go after it.

So… how about you? What is your goal in life? How are you going about achieving it? Are you…

1. Passionate about your goal
2. Learning and Studying (are you teachable?)
3. Practicing
4. Enlisting the help of others
5. Persevering with multiple attempts
6. Studying the environment
7. Staying physically and mentally fit

Achieve your ultimate goal. I know, perfection isn’t possible, but as the old saying goes, if you shoot for the stars, perhaps you’ll just reach the moon. Not a bad place to be….

Live A Life of Excellence!
JT

Related articles by Zemanta

• The surfin’ CEO (money.cnn.com)
• Increase Productivity: Surf at Work (mediabullseye.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings Leaders!

I’ve been loosely following Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner project and thought I’d throw out a few high level lessons learned. Here are two interesting articles on the project, one written in June 2006 and the other in June 2009.

Let me start off with the bottom line – the project is delayed over 2 years and is costing Boeing dearly in terms of money and reputation. What happened?

1. Boeing made a HUGE gamble on new technology. They didn’t come up with the name Dreamliner by accident. IF it can live up to its marketing literature, Boeing will dispel notions that its glory days are over. New technology poses complex risks to project estimation. In the June 2006 article, it was telling that engineers were already shouting at each other during meetings. We can assume that this means that marketing and the stock market drove the original delivery date, not good project management. If you are using new technology, expect things to take longer. Sometimes a lot longer.
2. Outsourcing. Boeing made a decision to outsource over 50% of the work. This made their project success dependent on their vendors. Vendors, if capable, can deliver great products and services. However, regardless of how well the vendors were selected and monitored, the project was doomed because of changing requirements. Because the technology was new, requirements were changing all the time, and vendors couldn’t respond in a timely manner. What is troublesome, is that if requirements were ill defined, how do we know that they’ve been completely flushed out. Just recently, Boeing determined that extra reinforcement needed to be applied to where the wings join the fuselage. Hmmm – are there any more surprises forthcoming?
3. Just in time testing – or… I hope this works or the schedule gets extended. There is a lot of emphasis lately on Rapid Application Development in the software development world. There seems to be a push in iterative development in many industries, and Boeing is no exception. This works well on projects that have been done before, but when using new technology it poses significant problems in meeting deadlines. Boeing should be hoping that nothing new is discovered as they enter their flight testing. Yeah, right. New technology, multiple vendors, poor requirements, and there won’t be a significant problem during the next phase of testing? I don’t think so. Why? Because I haven’t seen anything to convince me (although to be fair I’ve never been in one of their project management meetings) that they are changing the way they do their estimates. There is a LOT of pressure on Boeing to get the Dreamliner into production. This is driving their estimates, not sound project management principles. How do I know this? They keep missing deadlines. Hello…… have they learned anything?

So… what are a few take aways?

1. If using new technology, ensure you buffer your estimates to allow for setbacks
2. Don’t let marketing drive your schedule
3. You need good requirements BEFORE you develop your estimates
4. If you utilize vendors, allow for time to coordinate changes and setbacks
5. If you want to do rapid development/production, you need good requirements
6. If you continually miss your estimates, find out why and adjust your process accordingly.

All the best…
All the time…
JT

Related articles by Zemanta

• Boeing 787 steps closer to first flight (seattlepi.com)
• Update on Boeing 787: Intermediate gauntlet testing underway (seattlepi.com)
• Supply chain concerns Boeing (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Months of delay likely for 787, Boeing partner says (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Boeing 787 Dreamliner engine test with smoke (video) (seattlepi.com)
• Qantas puts yet another dent in the future of the Boeing Dreamliner (gadling.com)
• Why does Boeing think it can finish the 787 on time? (seattlepi.com)
• When (Outsourced) Projects head South (brandimpact.wordpress.com)
• First flight of the Boeing 787: T minus (at most) 11 days (seattlepi.com)

Greetings Leaders!

Over the past few months, I witnessed a few situations that made me realize that people need some guidance on who should be promoted. Here are Ten Promotion Leadership Tips.

Don’t promote someone just because they…

1. have been there the longest (longevity means nothing)
2. are technically competent (technical competency does not equate to leadership)
3. go along with all your ideas (you want someone to challenge you)
4. get things done (they need to help or ensure that others get things done)
5. are well liked (a fatal flaw in many leaders)

Promote someone because they…

1. have great organizational skills
2. can communicate both up and down the organization
3. are emotionally secure and can be trusted to act objectively/maturely
4. are devoted and can be trusted to support your vision, mission and objectives
5. can think logically and are good at problem solving

Lead With Honor,
JT

Related articles by Zemanta

• Simon Sinek: How To Attract The Leaders To Rebuild Our Economy (huffingtonpost.com)
• Leading: Meet People Where They Are (myventurepad.com)
• Meetings indicate Leadership Style (socialmediatoday.com)