Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Monday, July 27, 2009 at 6:26 PM
Categories:
Miscellaneous
I had a chance to see the animated movie ‘Up’ a couple nights ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a lot of great humor in it and was very well written. Without giving too much of it away, it is the story of a boy who meets a girl. She is a girl full of life and adventure. He is instantly attracted to her and mesmerized by her dreams. In fact, they promise each other as little kids (and cross their hearts!) to go on a great adventure together.
Well, they marry and have kids and have financial problems and have more kids and have health problems and...you get the idea. They never do go on that great adventure together. From time to time you see the boy (now a grown man) look off in wonder and disappointment that they never did it. She eventually dies and he is left to a life of anger and even more disappointment. He takes it out on everyone that comes in his path and he begins to squander his life away.
Eventually he makes a wonderful discovery that changes his perspective in an instant. And he suddenly realizes that you don’t have to go away to a certain place in order to live a life of adventure. You can live that life of adventure wherever you are. Realizing that it is not too late, he embarks on his.
Many of you are facing things in your life right now that threaten to take away your life of adventure. The default answer to that is the current economic situation that affects us all. But it could be health, relationships...this world is filled with opportunities (excuses) for you to pack it in and give up on your dreams.
Don’t do it. Hang onto whatever dreams are in your heart and don’t let them be stolen away. In the middle of whatever circumstances you are in look for that silver lining that will build more character into you and make the culmination of your dreams even more satisfying. Keep looking ‘Up’!!
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 4:08 PM
Categories:
Talent Management,
Human Resource Systems
One of the things that I enjoy doing in my job is helping companies hire the right people. It is very gratifying to me when a client of ours comes back to me, letting me know that the person I helped them hire is one of the best decisions they have made. Helping a company hire for a position could include one or more of the following elements:
- Reviewing and helping them improve their hiring and interviewing practices
- Advising them on the types of questions to be asking (and not asking) in interviews
- Developing position specific benchmarks aimed at finding high performers
- Sometimes doing a full candidate search
- Evaluating candidates against the established benchmark
In the past few weeks I have seen a significant increase in the demand for candidate evaluations. There are more companies looking to hire new people than there were just a few months ago. A client from one of the companies I work with (they are in the construction business) commented that it felt kind of strange to be hiring, but work was picking up and the need was there. They had scaled back considerably last fall, but now it was time to ramp up for a much welcomed increase in business. Another business in the software industry is seeing increasing sales and needed both an additional sales person and a customer service manager.
I know that we are not back yet to the ‘good ole days’, but I wanted to pass along this little bit of good news. There are some companies hiring out there and that is definitely good for our economy.
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Friday, March 27, 2009 at 6:24 PM
Categories:
Training & Team Building,
Performance
If you are in sales of any kind, I would highly recommend that you read “Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play” by Mahan Khalsa (1999). I have read many, many books on sales and sales management over the years and his book has gone right to the top of my list.
The subtitle for the book is “The Demise of Dysfunctional Selling and the Advent of Helping Clients Succeed”. He challenges his readers to examine their motives for selling. Do we really have our client’s needs in mind as we ‘pitch’ our products? Are we really committed to finding them the very best solutions...even if we don’t happen to have them? Are we willing to invest the time that it takes to build relationships of trust with our clients so that we continue to monitor their pulse even after we have ‘sold’ them?
The book is easy to read and understand. His principles are practical and logical. I am going to spend some more time discussing some of his principles in an upcoming webinar that I am conducting. It will be on Tuesday, April 7th at 10-11am (MDT). For more information, you can visit the Events section of our website or contact Shelly in our office at 208.442.0556.
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Wednesday, March 04, 2009 at 3:29 PM
Categories:
Training & Team Building,
Leadership Development
Is your team functional or dysfunctional?
Like many of you, I am a big fan of Patrick Lencioni’s books. They are easy to read, are written in story form and pack a big punch. Now, if there were just a few more pictures...
Seriously, Lencioni has a way of taking complicated, volatile situations and simplifying them so that the real issues and potential solutions become a lot more obvious. He has written ‘The 5 Temptations of a CEO’, ‘The 4 Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive’ and ‘Death by Meeting’ among others.
Recently I have been working with one of our clients who is having a lot of internal struggles. Power trips, insecurities and a whole lot of pride. I have been using Lencioni’s ‘The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team’ as a guidebook to help them become more clear about the areas that they are having a hard time with. While the solutions to those problems are not easily embraced and implemented, the message is clear; their root problem is an Absence of Trust, which has led to Fear of Conflict, which has contributed to a Lack of Commitment and Avoidance of Accountability, and ultimately an Inattention to Results.
They have a lot of work to do to get to a place where they are fully ‘functional’ as a group, but Lencioni’s tools have been a big help in the process. You can check out more about Lencioni at www.tablegroup.com.
Posted by
Tim Eckstrom on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Categories:
Talent Management,
Leadership Development
I lost one of my best friends a couple weeks ago. I met Leo back in the early 80’s and we had been friends ever since. We worked at the same place of employment and even lived next door to each other for a time. Frankly, we didn’t have a lot in common in those early days. I was a sports fanatic...he didn’t know the first thing. But there was a chemistry and friendship between us that survived over 25 years, in spite of us moving many miles and states apart.
Leo got sick almost 10 years ago...the kind of cancerous sickness that cripples your body over time and makes living...well, not really living. I got one last chance to see him about 4 weeks ago. Although we had been talking on the phone 3-5 times a week, it was the first time I had seen him in a couple years. I barely recognized him. I won’t go into the details, but suffice to say that he didn’t look anything like the Leo I had known from years before.
However, although his body was failing him, his mind and spirit were still sharp and very much alive. While many people do not handle sickness and hardship very well, from a faith perspective, Leo made it clear to anyone who wanted to know that his faith in God was strong and he expected to see Him any day. Yes, there was some honest fear about death at times, but he knew where he was headed. He continued to maintain a positive view of life to the very end.
Times are tough for almost all of us right now, particularly in the financial arena. All of are being challenged to make tough decisions. If we let it, it affects our attitude and how we treat those around us. It is easy to become fearful...easy to expend a lot of energy worrying about the future...a future we seem to have very little control of.
I am grateful for the gift that Leo gave to me these past many years. He helped me to have a balanced ‘perspective’ when I thought things were getting tough for me. He helped me with my own faith battle. He was a good friend and has helped me to value even more the other friendships that I have been gifted with. I hope that his example will help you have a better perspective as well.