Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Monday, September 29, 2008 at 1:21 PM
Categories:
Executive Coaching,
Performance
I have a good friend who is a die hard Oregon Duck fan...I think since before his birth! Over the years we have ribbed each other over the UW Husky/Duck rivalry (I am currently taking the brunt of all this). Several months ago we committed to getting tickets to this past week’s game between the Boise State Broncos and his beloved Ducks. It was a great 4 days of renewing our friendship, our love for golf (he got the better of this too!) and taking in 3 glorious hours of football at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. Well, I guess it was only glorious for me. Wearing my blue and orange and surrounded by a sea of green and yellow, I yelled my head off for BSU most of the 4 quarters...and lived to tell (write) about it.
It can be an interesting study to take inventory of where our ‘devotion’ lies. At the beginning of the game Autzen Stadium was so loud that my ears actually hurt. I am happy to report that there were many stretches during the 2nd and 3rd quarters when the decibel level was considerably lower as BSU ran out to a big lead. But it was amazing to watch people’s emotions ebb and flow as the Ducks fell behind, then mounted a furious comeback only to fall just short. Some fans took the whole thing in stride. Many came up to me afterward and, in a gesture of good sportsmanship, congratulated me (as if I had anything to do with it!). Others had their day, week and maybe whole season ruined because of the outcome.
What is it that you find yourself devoted to? What is it that will get you emotional? What (or who) would you die for if push came to shove? Your spouse? Your kids? Your business or job? Your team? Your bowling or golf score?
I have found myself doing a little re-evaluation of my priorities lately. Good thing to do a couple times a year. It bring more perspective and hopefully more real life.
By the way...my friend and I are still friends. Our friendship has survived many years of ribbing and will survive many more. Although, if I have very many more rounds of golf like I did last week playing with him, we may start going to the opera instead!!
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 at 11:08 AM
Categories:
Miscellaneous,
Performance
I think that we would all agree that an important component to being effective at our occupations is maintaining a work/life balance that allows us to get our ‘batteries recharged’ on a regular basis. There are things we need to do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis (not taking work home, getting enough sleep, etc.). Most would agree that getting away from work for an extended period of time is also important. That is what I am doing right now.
A year ago my family made plans to take a boating trip through the San Juan Islands in Washington State…I am writing from that trip. We rented a 49’ yacht out of Bellingham and have been on the water throughout the islands for a few days now. The weather has been beautiful. Having grown up in western Washington for most of my life I am well aware that the crystal clear skies that we are experiencing are extremely rare (although the chances in increase the first week of August) and for them we are grateful. 
We are currently at the Friday Harbor Marina on San Juan Island. The past few days have been filled with exploring islands, a lot of ‘attempts’ at fishing (not much luck though), pulling up quite a few crabs, watching whales and overall a lot of messing around with my kids, a son in law and one of his friends (Skipper Dan).
It has been a great time to wind down from the busy work schedule that I keep and think about other things for a change. I am ‘pretty sure’ that I will return to work, but for now it has been great to watch the boats go by, Puffins and seals dive for food and enjoy the blue, glassy smooth waters and play card and board games with my ‘game addict’ kids. I have yet to win!
I hope that you all have vacation plans for before the summer is out. I know that the time away has been very good for me.
Posted by
Lynn McConnell on Monday, July 21, 2008 at 3:21 PM
Categories:
Talent Management,
Job Benchmarking,
Performance
ALL PRESENT AND ACCOUNTED FOR? LOOK AGAIN……
Presenteeism is alive and well in the workplace. Generally, presenteeism is a term for those ‘walking dead’, the so-called loyal employees who drag themselves to work when they should be home in bed.
But I contend that Presenteeism goes beyond those ‘walking dead’. Any employee who is not fully engaged and working to their top capacity can be guilty of Presenteeism. What’s the harm in surfing the net occasionally, or Googling the latest Madonna videos, or taking an extended lunch, or making extended personal phone calls?
According to which report you read, statistics state that from 50% to 81% of all employees now in the workplace are disengaged, or not performing their jobs to their full capacity – they are practicing Presenteeism. Some may be actively looking for new jobs, others just wasting time chatting, gossiping, griping, or talking about the latest episode of “The Bachelorette”.
What’s an employer to do?
The first thing to do is make sure that you are hiring the right people into the right jobs. Technical expertise is not enough – the job must reward what motivates the employee the most. Even though an employee might have the skills to be a good researcher, if they are a person who loves being part of a team and gets their energy from interacting with others, they will soon wither and become disengaged by being stuck doing research by themselves. Or throwing someone into a sales job where they are forced to deal with people all day long might be stressful for someone who prefers to work alone.
Looking beyond the knowledge and technical experience a job calls for is imperative in this day of downturning economies. Businesses need to know that the people they are employing are engaged and productive. In order to keep employees engaged you have to provide them with work that is meaningful, challenging, and fun. They have to feel that what they are doing is making a difference, and that they are important to the success of the company they work for.
Learn more about the
job benchmarking process that will help ferret out these ‘soft skills’.
Posted by
Ron Price on Monday, June 30, 2008 at 6:53 AM
Categories:
Leadership Development,
Executive Coaching,
Performance
One of my favorite weekend activities is reading. When I allow inquisitiveness to overrule my childish desire to finish one book before starting another, I like to read from several related books simultaneously. This weekend was one of those times. I moved back and forth from several different books exploring something I refer to as “quantum” leadership. It is based on synthesizing and applying much of what has been learned over the past two decades about quantum physics, quantum mechanics, and systems thinking. One of the most important aspects of quantum theory is that the relationship between the parts is more important than the parts. Here is one of the excerpts from my reading that is most stimulating to me in my own exploration of leadership:
“We tried for many years to avoid the messiness and complexity of being human, and now that denial is coming back to haunt us. We keep failing to create the outcomes and changes we need in organizations because we continue to deny that ‘the human element’ is anything but a ‘soft’ and not-to-be-taken-seriously minor distraction. We barely manage to survive the seemingly endless procession of organizational change fads and new ideas, each of which promises to make organizations more effective. CEOs acknowledge that about three-fourths of these efforts have failed. This terrible record of failure is, in my estimation, due to approaches that are predominantly technical and mechanistic. New technology is purchased; new organization charts are drawn; new training classes are offered. But most human dynamics are completely ignored: our need to trust one another, our need for meaningful work, our desire to contribute and be thanked for that contribution, our need to participate in changes that affect us.”
“Beyond the fads that have swept through large organizations, think of all the contemporary leadership problems that are variations on the theme that we don’t know how to work together. We struggle to help teams form quickly and work effectively. We struggle to learn how to work with the uniqueness that we call diversity. We are terrified of the emotions aroused by conflict, loss, love. In all of these struggles, it is being human that creates the problem. We have not yet learned how to be together. I believe we have been kept apart by three primary Western cultural beliefs: individualism, competition, and a mechanistic world view. Western culture, even as it continues to influence people everywhere, has not prepared us to work together in this new world of relationships. And we don’t even know that we lack these skills. In a simple example of the difficulties created by this ignorance, many MBA graduates who’ve been in the field a few years report that they wish they had focused more on organizational behavior and people skills while in school.”
“Leadership and the New Science – Discovering Order in a Chaotic World”, Margaret J. Wheatley
This hits close to the core of why Price Associates exists. We are explorers, along side our clients, to help discover new opportunities in a changing world.
Posted by
Ron Price on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 1:56 PM
Categories:
Leadership Development,
Executive Coaching,
Performance
I met with a great company this morning that is growing by leaps and bounds (who says there is a recession going on?) This company was started close to 10 years ago and they will generate revenue in excess of $100 million this year. The key to their success is also the greatest challenge they now face.
In the beginning stages, most companies succeed or fail based on the vision, passion and will-power of an entrepreneur. If they succeed the early years and grow, this same energy that was the key to survival can easily become the greatest limitation to continued growth. The problem: dynamic entrepreneurs can only carry the company so far and eventually the weight of their success begins to wear them out, or build a prison of their own making. The business depends on their decisions, their active involvement, and their motivation to continue its success. The problem is that growth creates more work and demand for decision making, energy and discipline than one person can provide. Initially, entrepreneurs work to solve this by adding “administrative assistants,” even when they give them titles like Vice President or Operations Manager. The title might sound like a decision maker, but the reality is that important decisions are still made by a solo practitioner at the top.
Smart entrepreneurs recognize this challenge and begin re-thinking their leadership role. They nurture others to take responsibility for performance, they learn to identify and develop leadership talent and they begin shifting their focus toward creating future success through wisdom and talents of others. They empower professional managers to build infrastructure, create systems and develop plans, all while avoiding a new set of organizational dangers; complacency, entitlement and bureaucracy.
It is a challenging journey, but many have successfully navigated this transition to a more professional, stable management style while not losing the energy, passion and uniqueness that brought their early success. The company I visited today is struggling with these realities and carefully laying the foundation for the next generation of success.