 The show tune “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music is a popular holiday song penned in 1959 and still going strong! The song is about focusing on positive things in the midst of difficult times. Certainly, this year has presented opportunities to practice that discipline. The economic turmoil has stretched leaders in many industries to think of new ways to approach personnel management, productivity, sales, and innovation. Part of successfully dealing with difficulty involves focusing on positive truths as one adapts to change and re-direction. Here are three of my favorite things that I hope will encourage you.
First—integrity. Maybe in your leadership experience there’s an ethical issue, a moral temptation, or emotional abuse. Your steady determination to do what’s right no matter what is going on around you is like a shining star. This value of integrity may not call attention to itself, but it stands out! Take heart; practicing integrity is always a good investment. Continue reading Favorite Things…
 Ahh, the aroma of her cookies in the oven was extraordinary! I didn’t get to see my grandmother very often, but I remember her chocolate chip cookies as a highlight of our visits to her home. The whole place felt cozy and inviting, and I felt like a special guest as she finished the last batch of the old fashioned recipe and served them warm. What a lasting and delightful memory!
There are behaviors in leadership that elicit “good feelings,” like grandmother’s cookies. Is there a leader that you enjoy working for or with—just because you like the way you feel when you work together? Maybe it’s that you feel valued as a person; or, you feel respected. It could be that you share a similar sense of humor and it makes the day go well. It’s possible that you “click” for reasons you can’t explain. In any case, there are leaders who connect with people in ways that produce great working relationships as well as great bottom line results. As the American poet, Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Continue reading Grandmother’s Cookies
 Workflow is the way things get done. It happens daily, whether we design it or not. It consists of the steps from start to finish of any given process; it could be laundry, ironing and storing clothes as well as printing and assembling documents at work. Getting things done takes shape in our personal and work environments as productive, nonproductive, or worse—a waste of time. So why not design workflow to get the results we want?
Three things make a successful workflow: a plan, the resources, and the people. Most leaders would be pleased if these three components were in place every time they started a project. The reality is that the perfect combination of these factors rarely occurs on its own. Leaders must be creative, flexible, and resourceful to get the results they want through intentionally designing workflow. Continue reading Design Your Workflow
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