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    Is A Second Hand Copier A Viable Option For A Business
    Due to the high cost that new copiers are now commanding more and more businesses are considering purchasing a used copier instead. In fact this may be the best idea that any business as a properly refurbished one can be a dependable part of any business for a long time to come. However, first we need to know what is a “properly refurbished copier”? It is more than just it being cleaned on the outside and making sure that it still works, but any “properly refurbished” copier will have been cleaned inside and out but also all worn parts will need to have been replaced and the machine should be inspected for any future potential problems. When looking to purchase a used or second hand copier a business should keep away from the “multifunctional” kind (those that function as printer, scanner and fax as well as copier) as they are really only suitable from small businesses such as a home office, they are really not designed for multi person use and price per copy is higher compared to ones which have been specifically built for volume use.Another important fact that must be taken into account when looking at purchasing a used or second hand machine is the amount of “mileage” it has done. All copiers possess a built in counter which tracks the total amount of usage and when the machine you have acquired has been delivered then check the counter against what the vendor states it is.It is vital that you find a dealer you can trust and work with and if at all possible negotiate
    eader’s experience become the people’s experience. This can be the most effective method of all, for when the speaker’s experience becomes the audience’s experience, a deep sharing of emotions and ideas, a communing, can take place.

    There are plenty of presentation and speech courses devoted to the first two methods, so I won’t talk about those.

    Here’s a few thoughts on the third method. Generally speaking, humans learn in two ways: by acquiring intellectual understanding and through experience. In our schooling, the former predominates, but it is the latter which is most powerful in terms of inducing a deep sharing of emotions and ideas; for our experiences, which can be life’s teachings, often lead us to profound awareness and purposeful action.

    Look back at your schooling. Was it your book learning or your experiences, your interactions with teachers and students, that you remember most? In most cases, your experiences made the most telling impressions upon you.

    To transfer your motivation to others, use what I call my “defining moment” technique, which I describe fully in my book, DEFINING MOMENT: MOTIVATING PEOPLE TO TAKE ACTION.

    In brief, the technique is this: Put into sharp focus a particular experience of yours then communicate that focused experience to the people by describing th

    I Can't Get No Employee Satisfaction
    I'm not happy. The printer has still not been fixed and now my chair is broken. The problem with this place is that it is falling apart. My boss is okay but has no clue what is going on.That new guy that started last week, who no one bothered to introduce, has been given a job that he has no idea how to do; why didn't they just ask me? I could have told them that a new set of drawings have been issued so even if he did know what he was doing the drawings he is using are obsolete anyway. Sometimes I don't know why I bother turning up.I went for a drink with some of the guys last night after work. No one is happy and Sally from Accounts says that she has just about had enough and is thinking of asking for a rise and if they don't give it to her she is going to quit.The management here just don't have a clue, we are haemorrhaging money through our inefficiencies and they think that sending out memo's telling us that they are introducing new procedures for claiming expenses is going to make a difference – whoopee do.I think I'll ask for a pay rise, if Sally from Accounts can get one I can.And so it goes on.These are the sort of thoughts that start to play on the minds of individuals when a company loses touch with their employees; the broken chair, the lack of appreciation, the blaming of 'management', even questioning the futility of what they are doing. Minor problems fester and a cynical and destructive mindset develops. Can you be sure that
    My experience working with thousands of leaders world wide for the past two decades teaches me that most leaders are screwing up their careers.

    On a daily basis, these leaders are getting the wrong results or the right results in the wrong ways.

    Interestingly, they themselves are choosing to fail. They’re actively sabotaging their own careers.

    Leaders commit this sabotage for a simple reason: They make the fatal mistake of choosing to communicate with presentations and speeches -- not leadership talks.

    In terms of boosting one’s career, the difference between the two methods of leadership communication is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.

    Speeches/presentations primarily communicate information. Leadership talks, on the other hand, not only communicate information, they do more: They establish a deep, human emotional connection with the audience.

    Why is the later connection necessary in leadership?

    Look at it this way: Leaders do nothing more important than get results. There are generally two ways that leaders get results: They can order people to go from point A to point B; or they can have people WANT TO go from A to B.

    Clearly, leaders who can instill “want to” in people, who motivate those people, are much more effective than leaders who can’t or won’t.

    And the best way to instill “want to” is not simply to relate to people as if they are information receptacles but to relate to them on a deep, human, emotional way.

    And you do it with leadership talks.

    Here are a few examples of leadership talks.

    • When Churchill said, “We will fight on the beaches ... “ That was a leadership talk.

    • When Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you ... “ that was a leadership talk.

    • When Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” That was a leadership talk.

    • You can come up with a lot of examples too. Go back to those moments when the words of a leader inspired people to take ardent action, and you’ve probably put your finger on an authentic leadership talk.

    • Mind you, I’m not just talking about great leaders of history. I’m also talking about the leaders in your organizations. After all, leaders speak 15 to 20 times a day: everything from formal speeches to informal chats. When those interactions are leadership talks, not just speeches or presentations, the effectiveness of those leaders is dramatically increased.

    • How do we put together leadership talks? It’s not easy. Mastering leadership talks takes a rigorous application of many specific processes. As Clement Atlee said of that great master of leadership talks, Winston Churchill, “Winston spent the best years of his life preparing his impromptu talks.”

    • Churchill, Kennedy, Reagan and others who were masters at giving leadership talks didn’t actually call their communications “leadership talks”, but they must have been conscious to some degree of the processes one must employ in putting a leadership talk together.

    Here’s how to start. If you plan to give a leadership talk, there are three questions you should ask. If you answer “no” to any one of those questions, you can’t give one. You may be able to give a speech or presentation, but certainly not a leadership talk.

    (1) DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE AUDIENCE NEEDS?

    Winston Churchill said, “We must face the facts or they’ll stab us in the back.”

    When you are trying to motivate people, the real facts are THEIR facts, their reality.

    Their reality is composed of their needs. In many cases, their needs have nothing to do with your needs.

    Most leaders don’t get this. They think that their own needs, their organization’s needs, are reality. That’s okay if you’re into ordering. As an order leader, you only need work with your reality. You simply have to tell people to get the job done. You don’t have to know where they’re coming from. But if you want to motivate them, you must work within their reality, not yours.

    I call it “playing the game in the people’s home park”. There is no other way to motivate them consistently. If you insist on playing the game in your park, you’ll be disappointed in the motivational outcome.

    (2) CAN YOU BRING DEEP BELIEF TO WHAT YOU’RE SAYING?

    Nobody wants to follow a leader who doesn’t believe the job can get done. If you can’t feel it, they won’t do it.

    But though you yourself must “want to” when it comes to the challenge you face, your motivation isn’t the point. It’s simply a given. If you’re not motivated, you shouldn’t be leading.

    Here’s the point: Can you TRANSFER your motivation to the people so they become as motivated as you are?

    I call it THE MOTIVATIONAL TRANSFER, and it is one of the least understood and most important leadership determinants of all.

    There are three ways you can make the transfer happen.

    • CONVEY INFORMATION. Often, this is enough to get people motivated. For instance, many people have quit smoking because of information on the harmful effects of the habit.

    • MAKE SENSE. To be motivated, people must understand the rationality behind your challenge. Re: smoking: People have been motivated to quit because the information makes sense.

    • TRANSMIT EXPERIENCE. This entails having the leader’s experience become the people’s experience. This can be the most effective method of all, for when the speaker’s experience becomes the audience’s experience, a deep sharing of emotions and ideas, a communing, can take place.

    There are plenty of presentation and speech courses devoted to the first two methods, so I won’t talk about those.

    Here’s a few thoughts on the third method. Generally speaking, humans learn in two ways: by acquiring intellectual understanding and through experience. In our schooling, the former predominates, but it is the latter which is most powerful in terms of inducing a deep sharing of emotions and ideas; for our experiences, which can be life’s teachings, often lead us to profound awareness and purposeful action.

    Look back at your schooling. Was it your book learning or your experiences, your interactions with teachers and students, that you remember most? In most cases, your experiences made the most telling impressions upon you.

    To transfer your motivation to others, use what I call my “defining moment” technique, which I describe fully in my book, DEFINING MOMENT: MOTIVATING PEOPLE TO TAKE ACTION.

    In brief, the technique is this: Put into sharp focus a particular experience of yours then communicate that focused experience to the people by describing the

    De-Mystifying the Medical Billing Maze
    Medical billing can follow a very complex and strange process. For those who don’t or haven’t actually worked as doctors, or for insurance companies, the procedures can be quite opaque, but fundamentally it is quite simple.When a patient goes to a medical provider for surgery or to be put on medication, or simply to diagnose conditions the patient has been experiencing, there are certain costs for each service the medical practitioner provides to the patient. The provider records these costs in a form, usually a HCFA, or “hic-fuh,” which can be either electronic or paper. The HCFA is then sent to the patient’s insurance company, or sometimes to a clearinghouse or other middleman that can process the claim. When processing a claim, the insurance company looks at how valid the charges that the provider put on the claim are. Different companies have different systems for determining this, but in general it can be expected that about half the charges the provider put on the claim will be paid by the insurer, and half by the patient. Things like a deductible, co-pay, and coinsurance can have a heavy bearing on how much the insurer is willing to pay. If the patient has coinsurance, for instance, the insurance company is obligated to pay for a certain percentage of all the charges on the medical bill.When the insurer has decided which charges are valid it returns the claim to the medical provider, in either electronic or paper format depending on their customs. Once received the me
    p>And the best way to instill “want to” is not simply to relate to people as if they are information receptacles but to relate to them on a deep, human, emotional way.

    And you do it with leadership talks.

    Here are a few examples of leadership talks.

    • When Churchill said, “We will fight on the beaches ... “ That was a leadership talk.

    • When Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you ... “ that was a leadership talk.

    • When Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” That was a leadership talk.

    • You can come up with a lot of examples too. Go back to those moments when the words of a leader inspired people to take ardent action, and you’ve probably put your finger on an authentic leadership talk.

    • Mind you, I’m not just talking about great leaders of history. I’m also talking about the leaders in your organizations. After all, leaders speak 15 to 20 times a day: everything from formal speeches to informal chats. When those interactions are leadership talks, not just speeches or presentations, the effectiveness of those leaders is dramatically increased.

    • How do we put together leadership talks? It’s not easy. Mastering leadership talks takes a rigorous application of many specific processes. As Clement Atlee said of that great master of leadership talks, Winston Churchill, “Winston spent the best years of his life preparing his impromptu talks.”

    • Churchill, Kennedy, Reagan and others who were masters at giving leadership talks didn’t actually call their communications “leadership talks”, but they must have been conscious to some degree of the processes one must employ in putting a leadership talk together.

    Here’s how to start. If you plan to give a leadership talk, there are three questions you should ask. If you answer “no” to any one of those questions, you can’t give one. You may be able to give a speech or presentation, but certainly not a leadership talk.

    (1) DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE AUDIENCE NEEDS?

    Winston Churchill said, “We must face the facts or they’ll stab us in the back.”

    When you are trying to motivate people, the real facts are THEIR facts, their reality.

    Their reality is composed of their needs. In many cases, their needs have nothing to do with your needs.

    Most leaders don’t get this. They think that their own needs, their organization’s needs, are reality. That’s okay if you’re into ordering. As an order leader, you only need work with your reality. You simply have to tell people to get the job done. You don’t have to know where they’re coming from. But if you want to motivate them, you must work within their reality, not yours.

    I call it “playing the game in the people’s home park”. There is no other way to motivate them consistently. If you insist on playing the game in your park, you’ll be disappointed in the motivational outcome.

    (2) CAN YOU BRING DEEP BELIEF TO WHAT YOU’RE SAYING?

    Nobody wants to follow a leader who doesn’t believe the job can get done. If you can’t feel it, they won’t do it.

    But though you yourself must “want to” when it comes to the challenge you face, your motivation isn’t the point. It’s simply a given. If you’re not motivated, you shouldn’t be leading.

    Here’s the point: Can you TRANSFER your motivation to the people so they become as motivated as you are?

    I call it THE MOTIVATIONAL TRANSFER, and it is one of the least understood and most important leadership determinants of all.

    There are three ways you can make the transfer happen.

    • CONVEY INFORMATION. Often, this is enough to get people motivated. For instance, many people have quit smoking because of information on the harmful effects of the habit.

    • MAKE SENSE. To be motivated, people must understand the rationality behind your challenge. Re: smoking: People have been motivated to quit because the information makes sense.

    • TRANSMIT EXPERIENCE. This entails having the leader’s experience become the people’s experience. This can be the most effective method of all, for when the speaker’s experience becomes the audience’s experience, a deep sharing of emotions and ideas, a communing, can take place.

    There are plenty of presentation and speech courses devoted to the first two methods, so I won’t talk about those.

    Here’s a few thoughts on the third method. Generally speaking, humans learn in two ways: by acquiring intellectual understanding and through experience. In our schooling, the former predominates, but it is the latter which is most powerful in terms of inducing a deep sharing of emotions and ideas; for our experiences, which can be life’s teachings, often lead us to profound awareness and purposeful action.

    Look back at your schooling. Was it your book learning or your experiences, your interactions with teachers and students, that you remember most? In most cases, your experiences made the most telling impressions upon you.

    To transfer your motivation to others, use what I call my “defining moment” technique, which I describe fully in my book, DEFINING MOMENT: MOTIVATING PEOPLE TO TAKE ACTION.

    In brief, the technique is this: Put into sharp focus a particular experience of yours then communicate that focused experience to the people by describing th

    Unemployment Survival: Taking Back Control
    One of the most emotionally crippling aspects of unemployment is the sense of powerlessness it engenders. Job layoff triggers financial pressures, emotional distress, family turmoil, and dashed career hopes. It is forced on us by unrelenting fate, an emotionally disengaged employer, and economic currents that have little to do with us personally. We feel that we have no control over our situation, our lives, our future.As we work through the anger, resentment, depression, and fear which is the common lot of the jobless, we can take some steps to regain our balance, reclaim a positive focus, and reassert personal control.1. Daily Routine.We no longer have the structure of work to mold our days and give meaning to our leisure time. In a very short period of time, we start to drift. Our days are so much the same that we no longer remember what day of the week it is. The line between work and relaxation blurs. We don't work hard enough at our job search so we feel guilty which spoils our play time. Nothing has to be done immediately so we put it all off until tomorrow. Take back control by designing, and maintaining, your own schedule. Get up at the same time each morning, shower and get dressed as if you are going to work. Map out your job hunting activities and stick to the plan. Build in relaxation periods and stick to those too. Having a regular routine, and a defined purpose (finding work) helps you to continue to think of yourself as a worker and a valuable, produc
    ership talks, Winston Churchill, “Winston spent the best years of his life preparing his impromptu talks.”

  • Churchill, Kennedy, Reagan and others who were masters at giving leadership talks didn’t actually call their communications “leadership talks”, but they must have been conscious to some degree of the processes one must employ in putting a leadership talk together.

    Here’s how to start. If you plan to give a leadership talk, there are three questions you should ask. If you answer “no” to any one of those questions, you can’t give one. You may be able to give a speech or presentation, but certainly not a leadership talk.

    (1) DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE AUDIENCE NEEDS?

    Winston Churchill said, “We must face the facts or they’ll stab us in the back.”

    When you are trying to motivate people, the real facts are THEIR facts, their reality.

    Their reality is composed of their needs. In many cases, their needs have nothing to do with your needs.

    Most leaders don’t get this. They think that their own needs, their organization’s needs, are reality. That’s okay if you’re into ordering. As an order leader, you only need work with your reality. You simply have to tell people to get the job done. You don’t have to know where they’re coming from. But if you want to motivate them, you must work within their reality, not yours.

    I call it “playing the game in the people’s home park”. There is no other way to motivate them consistently. If you insist on playing the game in your park, you’ll be disappointed in the motivational outcome.

    (2) CAN YOU BRING DEEP BELIEF TO WHAT YOU’RE SAYING?

    Nobody wants to follow a leader who doesn’t believe the job can get done. If you can’t feel it, they won’t do it.

    But though you yourself must “want to” when it comes to the challenge you face, your motivation isn’t the point. It’s simply a given. If you’re not motivated, you shouldn’t be leading.

    Here’s the point: Can you TRANSFER your motivation to the people so they become as motivated as you are?

    I call it THE MOTIVATIONAL TRANSFER, and it is one of the least understood and most important leadership determinants of all.

    There are three ways you can make the transfer happen.

    • CONVEY INFORMATION. Often, this is enough to get people motivated. For instance, many people have quit smoking because of information on the harmful effects of the habit.

    • MAKE SENSE. To be motivated, people must understand the rationality behind your challenge. Re: smoking: People have been motivated to quit because the information makes sense.

    • TRANSMIT EXPERIENCE. This entails having the leader’s experience become the people’s experience. This can be the most effective method of all, for when the speaker’s experience becomes the audience’s experience, a deep sharing of emotions and ideas, a communing, can take place.

    There are plenty of presentation and speech courses devoted to the first two methods, so I won’t talk about those.

    Here’s a few thoughts on the third method. Generally speaking, humans learn in two ways: by acquiring intellectual understanding and through experience. In our schooling, the former predominates, but it is the latter which is most powerful in terms of inducing a deep sharing of emotions and ideas; for our experiences, which can be life’s teachings, often lead us to profound awareness and purposeful action.

    Look back at your schooling. Was it your book learning or your experiences, your interactions with teachers and students, that you remember most? In most cases, your experiences made the most telling impressions upon you.

    To transfer your motivation to others, use what I call my “defining moment” technique, which I describe fully in my book, DEFINING MOMENT: MOTIVATING PEOPLE TO TAKE ACTION.

    In brief, the technique is this: Put into sharp focus a particular experience of yours then communicate that focused experience to the people by describing th

    Teach English for Business
    English teachers with a few years experience under their belts often face a career crisis. To continue as an ordinary classroom teacher seems like stagnation so choices have to be made about how develop both professionally and personally. Specializing in English for business can be a fruitful move if the teacher is able to transfer existing skills to the business context.Let me deal with the prospects first. Teaching business people is recognized as a specialist field and the teacher often has to be a program planner and materials developer as well, so salaries are generally higher. The training can take place in dedicated centers, often residential, in-company or as a special program offered at a traditional language school, but wherever it takes place, the teacher will have to be able to deal with the people who are sponsoring the training and is thus answerable to a wider range of stakeholders. But by engaging in the corporate world, the trainer may find many opportunities to widen his or her range of training skills: interpersonal communications, written communications, cross-cultural communications and ultimately consultancy work in the communications field.However, the prospects will only open out to the kind of teacher who can adapt from the world of pedagogy to the corporate world. The clients are usually highly motivated and work in small groups or as individuals hence the teaching dynamics are quite different. Business people do not
    thin their reality, not yours.

    I call it “playing the game in the people’s home park”. There is no other way to motivate them consistently. If you insist on playing the game in your park, you’ll be disappointed in the motivational outcome.

    (2) CAN YOU BRING DEEP BELIEF TO WHAT YOU’RE SAYING?

    Nobody wants to follow a leader who doesn’t believe the job can get done. If you can’t feel it, they won’t do it.

    But though you yourself must “want to” when it comes to the challenge you face, your motivation isn’t the point. It’s simply a given. If you’re not motivated, you shouldn’t be leading.

    Here’s the point: Can you TRANSFER your motivation to the people so they become as motivated as you are?

    I call it THE MOTIVATIONAL TRANSFER, and it is one of the least understood and most important leadership determinants of all.

    There are three ways you can make the transfer happen.

    • CONVEY INFORMATION. Often, this is enough to get people motivated. For instance, many people have quit smoking because of information on the harmful effects of the habit.

    • MAKE SENSE. To be motivated, people must understand the rationality behind your challenge. Re: smoking: People have been motivated to quit because the information makes sense.

    • TRANSMIT EXPERIENCE. This entails having the leader’s experience become the people’s experience. This can be the most effective method of all, for when the speaker’s experience becomes the audience’s experience, a deep sharing of emotions and ideas, a communing, can take place.

    There are plenty of presentation and speech courses devoted to the first two methods, so I won’t talk about those.

    Here’s a few thoughts on the third method. Generally speaking, humans learn in two ways: by acquiring intellectual understanding and through experience. In our schooling, the former predominates, but it is the latter which is most powerful in terms of inducing a deep sharing of emotions and ideas; for our experiences, which can be life’s teachings, often lead us to profound awareness and purposeful action.

    Look back at your schooling. Was it your book learning or your experiences, your interactions with teachers and students, that you remember most? In most cases, your experiences made the most telling impressions upon you.

    To transfer your motivation to others, use what I call my “defining moment” technique, which I describe fully in my book, DEFINING MOMENT: MOTIVATING PEOPLE TO TAKE ACTION.

    In brief, the technique is this: Put into sharp focus a particular experience of yours then communicate that focused experience to the people by describing th

    Getting Paid! Determining the Debtor's Financial Status
    What are the debtor’s assets?How can I determine what the debtor owns? First, you must determine what are the assets of the debtor. This basically means- If the debtor does not have cash, what do they own and could be sold to make up the amount that the debtor owes on their debt?Below is a check list for conducting an asset search.Historical Financial Standing __ Up & Down __ Steady __ TragedyCurrent Financial Standing __ Job Status __ IFM Job Status __ Windfalls __ Home StatusFuture Financial Standing Tax Refund Job Bonus Commission Check Settlement Big Sale Family Health Moving Birth DeathWhat assets are available to the debtor? Motor Vehicles Boats / Watercraft Planes Deeds of Trusts Tax Liens Judgments 401ks Lawsuits UCC Filings Partnerships Inventory Owned Equipment Royalties Contracts Accounts Receivable Till Tap Bank Accounts Wages Other Income Stocks Bonds Wearing Apparel Animals Books Household Goods Musical Instruments Crops Appliances Tools Promissory Notes PatentsGetting the Financial Answers • Payment schedule • Who makes the payments? • Why?Getting Good Money Money sources Cash Money Order Credit Card Debit Card Western Union Money Gram Allotment Direct Deposit (ACH)eader’s experience become the people’s experience. This can be the most effective method of all, for when the speaker’s experience becomes the audience’s experience, a deep sharing of emotions and ideas, a communing, can take place.

    There are plenty of presentation and speech courses devoted to the first two methods, so I won’t talk about those.

    Here’s a few thoughts on the third method. Generally speaking, humans learn in two ways: by acquiring intellectual understanding and through experience. In our schooling, the former predominates, but it is the latter which is most powerful in terms of inducing a deep sharing of emotions and ideas; for our experiences, which can be life’s teachings, often lead us to profound awareness and purposeful action.

    Look back at your schooling. Was it your book learning or your experiences, your interactions with teachers and students, that you remember most? In most cases, your experiences made the most telling impressions upon you.

    To transfer your motivation to others, use what I call my “defining moment” technique, which I describe fully in my book, DEFINING MOMENT: MOTIVATING PEOPLE TO TAKE ACTION.

    In brief, the technique is this: Put into sharp focus a particular experience of yours then communicate that focused experience to the people by describing the physical facts that gave you the emotion.

    Now, here’s the secret to the defining moment. That experience of yours must provide a lesson and that lesson is a solution to the needs of the people. Otherwise, they’ll think you’re just talking about yourself.

    For the defining moment to work (i.e., for it to transfer your motivation to them), the experience must be about them. The experience happened to you, of course. But that experience becomes their experience when the lesson it communicates is a solution to their needs.

    (3) CAN YOU HAVE THE AUDIENCE TAKE RIGHT ACTION?

    Results don’t happen unless people take action. After all, it’s not what you say that’s important in your leadership communications, it’s what the people do after you have had your say.

    Yet the vast majority of leaders don’t have a clue as to what action truly is.

    They get people taking the wrong action at the wrong time in the wrong way for the wrong results.

    A key reason for this failure is they don’t know how to deliver the all-important “leadership talk Call-to-action”.

    “Call” comes from an Old English word meaning 'to shout.' A Call-to-Action is a 'shout for action.' Implicit in the concept is urgency and forcefulness. But most leaders don’t deliver the most effective Calls-to-action because they make three errors regarding it.

    First, they err by mistaking the Call-to-Action as an order. Within the context of The Leadership Talk, a Call-to-action is not an order. Leave the order for the order leader.

    Second, leaders err by mistaking the Call as theirs to give. The best Call-to-action is not the leader's to give. It's the people’s to give. It's the people’s to give to themselves. A true Call-to-action prompts people to motivate themselves to take action.

    The most effective Call-to-action then is not from the leader to the people but from the people to the people themselves!

    Third, they error by not priming their Call. There are two parts to the Call-to-Action, the primer and the Call itself. Most leaders omit the all-important primer.

    The primer sets up the Call, which is to prompt people to motivate themselves to take action. You yourself control the primer. The people control the Call.

    The primer/Call is critical because every leadership communication situation is in essence a problem situation. There is the problem the leader has. And there is the problem the people have. In many cases, they are two different problems. But leaders get into trouble regarding the Call-to-action when they think it’s only one problem, mainly theirs.

    For instance, a leader might be talking about the organization needing to be more productive. So, the leader talks PRODUCTIVITY.

    On the other hand, the people, hearing PRODUCTIVITY, think, YOU’RE GOING TO GIVE ME MORE WORK!

    If the leader thinks that productivity is the people’s problem and ignores the “more work” aspect, h/she’s Call-to-action will probably be a bust, resulting in the people avoiding committed action.

    Let’s apply the primer/Call dynamic to the productivity case. The leader talks PRODUCTIVITY: but this time uses a PRIMER. The primer’s purpose is to establish a “critical confluence” – the union of your problem with the problem of the people.

    In this case, the leader creates a critical confluence by couching productivity within the framework of MORE MEANINGFUL WORK.

    The primer may be: LET’S GET TOGETHER AND SEE IF YOU CAN COME UP WITH AN ACTION PLAN THAT WILL ENSURE THAT THE PRODUCTIVITY GAINS YOU IDENTIFY AND EXECUTE WILL ENABLE YOU TO WORK AT WHAT’S REALLY MEANINGFUL TO YOU.

    Note what we’ve done: The primer is LET’S GET TOGETHER AND SEE IF YOU CAN COME UP WITH AN ACTION PLAN.

    The actual Call is from the people to themselves: LET’S INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY BY WORKING AT WHAT’S MEANINGFUL.

    With that Call, the leader moves from just getting average results (YOU MUST BE MORE PRODUCTIVE: i.e., you’re going to solve MY problem) to getting great results (YOU COME UP WITH WAYS TO TIE PRODUCTIVITY INTO MEANINGFUL WORK: i.e., you’re also going to solve your problem.)

    So, here’s what the leadership talk Call-to-action is truly about: It’s not an order; it’s best manifested when the people give themselves the Call; and it is always primed by your creating the “critical confluence” -- they’ll be solving their problem as well as yours.

    The vast majority of leaders I’ve worked with are hampering their careers for one simple reason: They’re giving presentations and speeches -- not leadership talks.

    You have a great opportunity to turbo charge your career by recognizing the power of leadership talks. Before you give a leadership talk, ask three basic questions. Do you know what the people need? Can you bring deep belief to what you’re saying? Can you have the people take the right take action?

    If you say “no” to any one of those questions you cannot give a leadership talk. But the questions aren’t meant to be stumbling blocks to your leadership but stepping stones. If you answer “no”, work on the questions until you can say, “yes”. In that way, you’ll start getting the right results in the right way on a consistent basis.

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