Zig Ziglar, Motivation, and Encouraging Leadership
By Bob Mason
I had the privilege of speaking to Zig Ziglar not long ago. He asked me if I had written a book and I said yes, I had. Next he asked, if the book contained lots of encouragement? I had to think about that. Yes, I think the book is encouraging; after all, it helps leaders succeed at strategic planning and avoid the many models that are hard to implement and often fail. That's encouraging. But, did I set out to write a book that was full of encouragement? I must admit that wasn't something I had really thought about.
As I considered that question, it occurred to me it also pertained to leaders. As a leader, are you encouraging? Do you approach others with lots of encouragement? If you understand individual motivation, you know that true motivation is internal, not external. As a leader you cannot really motivate your people. What you can, and must do, is help them realize and act upon their own internal motivation.
Too often leaders and leadership "experts" concentrate on external factors to motivate people. Such things as pay, compensation, time-off, and the great pile of other incentives are held up as the way to really motivate workers. While most people probably appreciate them, these incentives don't really have the motivational effect many think they do. Only when workers are challenged and provided with opportunities to improve and accomplish can they realize that internal motivation. When that internal motivation is activated, the worker becomes more productive, more engaged, and certainly more valuable to the organization.
That's where encouragement comes in. If you're cheap and don't pay your workers a decent, even competitive wage, then none of this will help you much. But if you do, then I can guarantee you that encouraging workers to improve themselves, accept challenges, and develop new talents and abilities will be more effective than any new benefit package.
I know some of you are saying, look at the news. Everything seems to be about pay and benefits these days. Unfortunately, that appears to be true. Why? I believe it's because, for the most part, the people screaming about pay and benefits don't have positive work environments that encourage more than these material factors. Yes, I'm oversimplifying some. Also, some of the current shouting and public angst has little to do with actual working conditions and everything to do with power and politics. If you look at most companies in the country you'll find the ones that do understand this concept of encouraging internal motivation are the ones which are the most successful.
Take a look at the February 7, 2011 edition of Fortune magazine. It's the annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" edition. You'll find a lot of talk about pay and benefits, but if you read a little deeper, you'll find that many of these companies practice this method of encouraging their employee's own motivation.
As a leader, you should carefully consider that question: do you provide lots of encouragement?
The Seven Skills of Resiliency
By Georgia Feiste
Resilience is the ability to persevere and adapt when the twists and turns of life go amiss. We all need resilience. It is the key to success at work and satisfaction with your life. Some think it is the basic ingredient to happiness and success, preparing us to emotionally or psychologically handle adversity, which means facing our situations bravely and with confidence, rather than giving up and feeling helpless.
Research has shown seven major factors contributing to the development and strengthening of resilience.
1. Pay attention to your thoughts. If your thoughts about the situation you are facing are inaccurate, your ability to respond effectively will be severely compromised. It's important to identify your "self-talk" when faced with a challenge, and understand how it affects your state of being - your behavior and feelings.
2. Shun thinking traps. Aaron Beck, the "father" of cognitive therapy, revealed seven thinking traps that make people particularly vulnerable to depression. a) Jumping to conclusions; b) tunnel vision based on a biased view of the entire situation; c) amplification of negative events and diminishment of positive events, or vice versa; d) making things personal, automatically blaming yourself when things go awry, or the flip side; e) blaming others when things go wrong, becoming the angry victim; f) oversimplification - always and everything generalizations; g) mind reading - assuming you know what the other person is thinking. Let's add an eighth - h) emotional reasoning, measuring reality against the emotions you feel at the moment.
3. Deeply held beliefs. These are ideas about how people and the world should operate, who they are and who they want to be. Often these values guide us in behaving in ways true to ourselves, but sometimes they get in the way of our ability to live the kind of life we want and explain why we react the way we do.
4. Problem solving abilities. Your thinking style may lead you to misinterpret the causes of a problem, which then causes you to pursue the wrong solutions. We all need the ability to test the accuracy of our beliefs about problems, then find solutions that work.
5. Gaining perspective. This is monkey mind at it's best! We often have a tendency to "what if" ourselves into abject misery, rather than recognize the obstacles that REALLY exist or are most likely to occur, and then determining solutions to get around/through those obstacles.
6. Gain focus. When your emotions overwhelm you, or you can't concentrate because your thoughts keep wandering, it is helpful to find activities that allow you to calm your mind so that you can focus on the immediate task. These could be contemplation, positive imagery, prayer, meditation, yoga, controlled breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, etc.
7. Intentional change to counter-productive beliefs. Utilizing your new found skills in problem solving and perspective to intentionally work on situations immediately. You will ask yourself one of three questions.....
a) A more accurate way of seeing this is.........,
b) That's not true because.......,
c) A more likely outcome is.....and I can....to deal with it.
Once you learn and practice these skills, you will face situations that once might have thrown you with confidence and clarity. Your composure will improve, and you will have the inner power to create the life you want for yourself.
Georgia Feiste, owner of Collaborative Transitions, located in Lincoln, NE, is a business, career and personal life coach, writer, and workshop facilitator. She has more than thirty years experience as a corporate executive in the insurance industry. Georgia currently writes columns for the Lincoln 55+ Senior Newspaper and Touche, a local magazine. Her website is http://www.collaborativetransitions.com
Decision Points
by George W. Bush
Acquiring all the books written by U.S. presidents would result in a surprisingly small collection. Though there are some anthologies of presidential papers and speeches from the 19th century, true autobiographies are rare, the most notable being that of Ulysses S. Grant. That's all changed beginning with Harry S. Truman. In fact, since Truman, every president with the obvious exception of John F. Kennedy, has written some sort of post-presidential memoir. Their writings provide an interesting look behind the fence of the White House and into the rarified atmosphere that is the U.S. presidency.
Of course, past presidents seem quite interested in their legacy and might be accused of writing memoirs to burnish their image as they fade into history. As an amateur student of history, I enjoy reading these books; but, to me their real value is the portrayal of what is certainly one of the most difficult and unique leadership challenges any person can shoulder.
The reader of an autobiography must always keep in mind that the work is written by the subject, and therefore must be more critically analyzed. Presidential autobiographies have an additional problem in that the author knows details about the events they relate that must be forever withheld from the general public. With these cautions in mind, I read Decision Points by George W. Bush.
President Bush took office under a cloud. The election of 2000 was a trying experience for the candidates in particular and the country as a whole. Though this cloud would stay with his presidency for the entire eight years, to his credit Bush did not let it sway his agenda. The keystone of that agenda was a push for education reform - until September 11, 2001.
As Bush details the events that followed that historic day the heavy weight of leadership clearly emerges. He explains his thoughts immediately following the attack and why he took the actions he did. He demonstrated that a leader is most effective when able to remain outwardly calm and remember that people are relying on him or her for thoughtful leadership.
Many other events happened during the Bush years and he is refreshingly honest about what he feels he didn't do well. In discussing Hurricane Katrina and the devastation the Gulf Coast, he clearly lays out the mistakes that were made, including his decision to fly over New Orleans, instead of landing. Again, his explanation provides a good lesson for leaders. Knowing that any presidential visit is very disruptive, and stopping at that time would pull people away from the important task of trying to save lives, it seemed like a good decision. However, leaders must always remember that the perception of their action may have more impact than the action itself. Bush's decision was based on his desire to not exacerbate the situation. His action was seen as the exact opposite; as lack of concern for suffering people.
In the 222 years since George Washington was inaugurated as the first President in 1789 there have been only 44 presidents making that office one of the world's most exclusive leadership clubs. The U.S. president accepts a leadership role more difficult, more wide ranging, and more publicly scrutinized than any other. How he performed in that role provides a treasure trove from which the rest of us can glean lessons to become better leaders.
For those who were paying attention during the Bush presidency, Decision Points provides no real historical revelations, though Bush does discuss some very effective policy to help African nations fight AIDs which didn't get a lot of notice in the American press. There does seem to be a "set the record straight" agenda and maybe even a little legacy management, but I would expect that and it certainly doesn't take away from the value of the book. Whether you thought George W. Bush was a great president, a terrible president, or somewhere in-between, if you have leadership responsibilities, you need to read this book. Its significance is the view of rare leadership challenges.
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