Business Lessons my wife taught me part 1

Listening is an talent, hearing is a norm. What do I mean by this? Anyone can hear, even those who are deaf can hear per say via sign language, but to listen is to truly have an understanding of what is being communicated. Its the ability, to see through all the noise happening around you to be able to catch the meaning of what others are communicating. Notice I said ability? What is Ability?

a⋅bil⋅i⋅ty

 –noun, plural -ties.

1.power or capacity to do or act physically, mentally, legally, morally, financially, etc.

To listen is a choice not a happenstance. We must want to do it and have a desire to do it, whether we agree or disagree with the communication/communicator.

As I listen to the rhetoric in politics, business, and life in general, I am noticing a lot of people who are threatening to listen but in fact are only doing so in placating terms only. We have a human illness of hearing flu. We are not listening to anyone other than ourselves or those who feel or think like us. My challenge for the week is to stop and listen to an opposing point of view. You may not like it, agree with it, or even follow it, but listen to it.

Last night my wife and I were talking. She's a novice in the business world and lacks the formal education about how run a business, but her wisdom is wicked accurate. She simply gave me some sound sage advice, or observations about some of my aspirations that hurt and I didn't like them, but guess what? After hearing her and choosing to listen, she had it right on. What was the lesson? It doesn't matter. What does matter is that after listening I avoided some detrimental choices. First of all, thanks babe your my best adviser for a reason and second, stop and listen this week.

Best to your personal development.
Evan Glassett

Building Your Business from Within

For the last 10 years I’ve been training leaders and employees across the country in leadership, management and communications. It has been an experience for me to see the wonderful companies that we have in this country. So many people, working so hard, to be successful. What an inspiration to see these people working to improve themselves, their teams and their companies.

I’ve been impressed with a few of the leaders that I have worked with because they have stood out to me among all the companies that I have worked with in very particular ways.

1. 
   They are willing to investing in their most important asset, and that is their people.
2. 
   They don’t set themselves apart from their employees in the training and development of their teams. In other words they require the same from themselves as they do from their employee. In the words of Donald T. Phillips author of the “On Leadership” series, they Travel with their troops.
3. 
   They expect their teams to hold themselves and respectively them also responsible for what is done.

Emphasizing these three areas is crucial to building your business. To see why, let’s look at each one and how it affects the potential success of your business.

1. 
   Willingness to invest in your people
   Far too often I see employee’s being trained or developed because of a problem that needs to be corrected or a issue that has arisen and must be addressed or worse yet to be “seen” as investing when in reality its just to do something with the budget. This is chasing the solution rather than preempting the solution. These successful leaders are looking at the needs and potential needs of their individuals and teams and they are going to the solutions before the problem comes to them, so that when a problem does arise, the individual or team is prepared to confront it and deal with it. What’s more is that they as leaders are learning and growing at the same time by willingly investing in their teams. When times get tough economically speaking they invest in their people rather than cut their peoples learning and growth. The result is that when times get tough the teams are well prepared to weather the storm.
2. 
   Travel with the troops
   These leaders don’t do one thing and then expect their teams to do something else. When I have gone to train these groups, their leader or leaders are there front and present learning and growing with the teams. He/She allows themselves to be part of the team on an equal level never above their people and by doing this they garner the respect of the people that they lead. Their teams in turn see the leader as someone who they can trust; respect and best yet, follow.
3. 
   360 degree of responsibility
   These leaders give and expect. They give willingly and freely but in turn they expect their teams to take responsibility for what they do. 100% of the time I have observed that because of steps 1 and 2 as previously discussed, the teams always take responsibility. The leaders also expect the teams to hold the leaders responsible. This is another way to show the team that while they are the leader, they hold themselves at the same level of value and respect as the team.
   

Building a business is more than just having a set of clients or customers. It doesn’t matter how it look on the books or from the outside. It all starts with building from within. A positive open relationship between employee’s and leaders must exist for a business to build properly.

Building your business can be and should be an exciting thing. Remember to build from within first and the rest will be easier.

Good Business to you
Evan Glassett
President
Evergreen Team Concepts

Overcome A Lack of Self Discipline....My thoughts

Self discipline is perhaps one of the most ignored aspects of personal development. Its not simply procrastination, its also having self discipline to do those things which we like to do but don't want to. Procrastination is not being able to pull our lazy butts out of the chair to do those things we hate to do.

Here is a link to an article that I think address the how in how to fix the problem of self discipline.

http://www.eruptingmind.com/cultivating-trait-self-discipline/

Enjoy

Evan Glassett

Random Thoughts at 5:00 in the A.M.

I'm awake this morning because of a massive wind storm that is hitting SLC, as a prep for the bigger snow storm that will hit today or tomorrow (http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7889008).

As I'm sitting here reading the news, I am wondering if subjects like Brittney Spears loosing her kids (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,320428,00.html), or Penelope Cruz kissing her sister in a lesbian lip lock (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,320136,00.html) are really that important.

Today we have so many other issues that are of importance to our society. The Hollywood left is one of the most vocal set of complainers of how this country is being destroyed and they blame it on the conservative right. Have they stopped to look at themselves? Have they actually looked at what they are doing and or promoting? Hmmmmm

Have a great weekend.

E

Do we practice what we preach?

This last week has been filled with emotions for me. I have really come to appreciate the idea of practicing what we preach as trainers and developers of people and organizations. Let me explain how I got there.

A dear friend of mine passed away on Oct 6, 2007. He had an interesting life. He held some very dear beliefs which he strayed from in his life. As a result of his straying from his core beliefs he contracted an illness that would later contribute to his early death. But after 14 years or so, he decided that what he needed to do to be true to himself is to live his beliefs and to honor what he believed at his core and in his heart. He courageously faced those changes with a wonderful spouse and partner by his side. What a magnificent man he was and what an example he was of doing what you believe. He was an actor by hobby and in his heart. His crowning role was that of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. His life reflected that of Ebenezer Scrooge. His soul was once lost and then resurrected.

How does this fit into the work of training and development? Before I answer that, allow me to apologize to Scott who I am convinced is looking down on this conversation and to his beautiful bride Tammy for using his lesson to me and I hope many others as a teaching point for growth.

So the question is again, how does this fit into the work of T&D? How often do we as developers of people stray from our core beliefs? We teach about time management, assertive communications, responding not reacting, and so on and so on. Are we living what we preach? I observed a colleague once who was teaching a class on treating others with respect and how to listen to others and not loose your cool and then, when this individual got into a tense situation, stopped listening, lost their cool and treated the other individual without any respect and when I called them on it, instead of owning up and saying “Ya, I lost it”, they found every opportunity to excuse or justify it.

My friend never once excused or justified what he had done. He often would own up to it and use it as a tool to better himself and those around him. What a lesson he taught me. What an example of doing what you believe and believing what you do.

I ask myself and my colleagues, are we practicing what we preach. I hope so.

In a fitting fair well to my dear friend, another friend simply stated, “God bless you merry Gentle man”.

I echo this sentiment and I am honored to have known him.

Success to all.

My Tribute to Scott Morgan

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14294085612

Tribute to Scott Morgan
By Evan Glassett

Thank you Scott, my brotherly love will always be with you.

A Friend of Mine Called Scott

A friend of mine went home today, a friend of mine indeed

A friend of mine let go today, to plant another seed

He showed the way to come to Christ, an example to us all

By working hard to overcome, the nature of the fall

As a friend of mine he showed to me, the strength to rise above

The challenges that life may deal, and he did it all with love

A husband’s love he gave to his bride with purity in heart

A husband’s care he shared with her while still carrying his cart

The cart he carried was full of pain and physical demand

Yet with a smile and eager soul he followed a greater command

A better man is hard to find this man we all call Scott

I bid you all one thing for sure let us forget him not!

God Speed Scott Morgan

A dear friend went home today. He leaves a wonderful bride behind who is one of the choice souls of God on this earth. This dear friend was also a choice soul. I'll miss him for the rest of my life.

Thank you my friend for what you taught me in life.

Your Friend always.

Evan

Dealing with Tough Conversations

I had a great opportunity today to work with a member of one of my classes. I have been providing some training for this particular client now for about 9 months and have gotten to know the individual employees. There are some great people in this company.

This employee and I were talking about how to dispell rumors and how to get rid of fear. It was a great discussion but two questions came out that were important for him and I think they are important for all of us.

There are always tough conversation that we have with people and those conversations can make us crazy and get us tense, so to help us through this and to keep us sane, here are two questions that I think we ought to be asking.

“What am I assuming?” And the second question is, “What else might be true?”

These are meant to get us thinking in a critical sense to help us solve or navigate the issues.

So remember:
What am I assuming?
What else might be true?


Success

Evan

Think Before Speaking

Tonight I had the opportunity to read through some dated materials that I had on my laptop. I was looking for some support material for a class that I'm doing and the following piece was one that came to the top of my stack.

There are severl points that are of importance here and I think they hit me due to the fact that they hit home for my personal situation. Anyway, I'll let the article speak for itself.

Think before speaking or acting Family disagreements are normal, but emotions may lead to words or actions that we regret. Thinking before reacting can help family members calm themselves and find positive ways to express feelings.

Here are some ideas to try:
Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Imagine that you are the person who is about to hear your words. How would you feel? Remember, children often hear the tone of voice more than actual words.

Take a “time-out.” When you are about to say something negative or harmful, take a step back and calm down. Get away from the situation until tempers have calmed.
Attack the problem, not the person When a child makes a mistake, parents should address the mistake without condemning the child. You can talk with family members about inappropriate behavior without making them feel that they are bad people.

Here are some suggestions for talking about mistakes:
Focus on the behavior, not the person.
Think about the words you use.
Do they condemn the person or the behavior?
Control your tone of voice. An angry voice can make a small problem bigger. A gentle tone promotes peace and builds trust.
Use words that show love Words can have a powerful impact on family members, even when you are only teasing. If you tell your spouse or children that they have—or don’t have—certain qualities, you help shape their self-image. A child who is labeled “smart” by parents has a better chance to do well in school. A child who is labeled a “slow learner” may struggle.

Here are some ideas for using words that show love:
Use positive words. Help family members build confidence by avoiding negative labels. Your words should show love and acceptance.
Let your children be themselves. Avoid labels that pressure children to perform as you want them to.
Express confidence in your children’s abilities. Always encourage them to do the best they can.
Respect All of God’s children deserve to be treated with respect.
The same respect and kindness that a couple showed each other before marriage should continue throughout the marriage.
The common courtesies that we offer to our friends and coworkers should also be extended to our own family members.
When family members treat each other respectfully, the home is an enjoyable place to be.
Forgiveness Sometimes a spouse or other family member may hurt our feelings. Even though they are sorry, we may find it easy to hold a grudge. We may remember the wrong again every time we become frustrated or upset with them. This can be very damaging to marriages and to families.
We should cultivate a spirit of forgiveness in our homes. After all, all of us make mistakes, and all of us need forgiveness. Jesus taught that if we want to be forgiven of our wrongs, we must forgive others Matthew 18:21–35.
Forgiveness is essential to achieving peace in our lives and harmony in our family.

"If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. It's the hard that makes it great."-- Tom Hanks, A League of Their Own
I do not own (nor do I pretend to own) a corner in the market for truth. Nonetheless, here is the truth according to Fritz: Authentic Listening is the First Step in Communication With IntegrityWhat is "authentic listening"?

Authentic listening occurs when you respond to the speaker in ways which indicate to him that you care about what he's saying and give him every opportunity to complete his train of thought. Authentic and empathic listening are wrapped in the same cloak. The idea is to let the speaker know without a doubt that you are focusing your attention on his words and feelings with the specific intent to understand his point.

Learning to listen authentically will literally change your life. How, you say? Well, to begin with
· You will become more attractive to others and they, in turn, will be attracted to you
· You will learn much about the human condition
· You will glean important information about a person that others may miss
· You will appear thoughtful and intelligent: it's impossible to showcase your ignorance when your mouth is shut
· You will be practicing self-control and self-discipline, which are always good things
· Your will substantially improve your relationship with every person in your life, whether business, familial, or friends
· You will be more confident and have more control of yourself in conflict settings
· You will develop greater self esteem

How Do You Listen Authentically?
There are specific strategies that are regularly employed in authentic listening. Do not underestimate the simplicity, the significance and the excellence of these techniques.
1. Close your mouth. Authentic listening and talking are mutually exclusive.
2. Don't predict or judge the outcome, or argue with the speaker mentally. Get out of your head and get into his.
3. Watch your body language: does your posture indicate you're interested in the speaker? Are you maintaining eye contact with him? Are you nodding when appropriate, smiling or otherwise physically communicating your attention to what he is saying?
4. Ask questions when you do not understand something or need clarification.
5. Put on his shoes. Put yourself in the other person's place mentally so that you can better relate to his point(s) of view.
6. Control your emotions. Better yet, leave them behind. Your worries, fears, problems and emotions prevent you from listening authentically.
7. Listen to what is not being said. When you are listening authentically, you have the wonderful opportunity to "fill in the blanks" in the speaker's communication. Often times what is not stated by the speaker is more important than what he's said.
8. Listen to how something is said. Inflection, intonation and strength of the speaker's voice may tell you more about the speaker's personality and values than mere words.
9. React to his ideas, not to him, specifically. This technique is especially helpful when you don't particularly like the speaker. Remember, you don't have to like someone to learn from them. But you cannot learn from them without listening to them authentically.
10. Be consistent. Practice these techniques in every communication. Ask the speaker if he felt that you had "heard" what he was trying to communicate.

Success!

Evan