-Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
American statesman, scientist, and printer

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Give more time reminder…

Daylight Saving Time (DST) begins in the U.S. this Sunday, March 14 at 2 am and ends November 7 at 2 am. Be sure to confirm times for all meetings early next week.

Rapport builder: It was Benjamin Franklin who originated the idea of DST in 1784 while in Paris (he was 78 years old… how’s that for inspiring). Its purpose was to get more value from daylight and conserve energy.

(rapport builders: fun information you can share with colleagues & customers… or enjoy on your own)

-Voltaire (1694-1778)
French writer, essayist and philosopher

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Give more brilliance…

Are you sitting on brilliance (waiting for a better day, week, month, year, time to move)?

Be careful to invest your money hours wisely. Time is the only thing you can never get back.

Sure… There are lottery winners. But that’s not the way to bet.

(Here’s 3 minutes with Malcolm Gladwell – author of "Outliers: The Story of Success" – talking about the work that goes into the "overnight success".)

-Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
American inventor and salesman
frequently worked more than 40 hours straight

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Give more thought…

There’s nothing more powerful to the business day than enthusiasm. It excites everyone to positive action…

• you
• your team
• the new customer you just brought on board
• the internal department responsible for the delivery of what you promised the customer
• the receptionist who talks with your customers and associates first

As you work with your people today (and tomorrow) your level of enthusiasm will impact all of them (one way or the other). What do you want your impact to be?

TGIS (thank God it’s Smonday*)

If you have 2 minutes… A little inspiring enthusiasm from my boys.

*Smonday: the first business day of the week for a Smover

They made the best of it. Pure joy.

(the real excitement begins around :48)

Be a Smover.

-St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
French bishop

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Give more resilience…

resilience: noun: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change (from Merriam-Webster)

We all fail from time-to-time (our doing, someone else’s doing, something else’s doing, a combination of each). It’s life.

To be resilient…

1. Focus on results. Embrace the fact that results are what we’re all really after. Effort and attempts are great first steps, but we need to act with commitment to delivering (just like we want people to do for us).
2. Make lessons of failures. Minimize the tendency to make a failure or mistake anything more than a lesson on how not to do something. We need to learn from our mistakes and truly accept them as tuition for succeeding later. And yes… Our mistakes might put us in a bind at times and have some uncomfortable consequences but again, that’s real life.
3. Continue on. Smarter.
4. Reinforce. Support each other (and ourselves) by continually reminding and encouraging one another to deliver on the first three points.

That’s it. Let’s practice it more.

Encourage resilience and email this reminder to someone.

(get the resilience pocket card)

212ers: Did you catch last week’s New York Times piece on the 212 Olympic margins represented by music?

-Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
American cultural anthropologist

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Give more leadership check…

Are you holding yourself accountable as a leader (with a title or not)?

As leaders, we enjoy the responsibility of helping our people develop in a way that encourages them to hold themselves accountable for their attitudes, their work, and their results.

We need to be as disciplined, resourceful, and resilient in our efforts as we ask our people to be in theirs.

Relentless leadership is embracing the fact that the need for reinforcement never ends and uncomfortable conversations are a necessity. This is how we create something special.

Smile & Lead.

(some of our favorite leadership thoughts from Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Today’s quote is on a Love Your People™ card.

-Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)
English biologist and educator

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Give more thought…

When you need a well-earned break, here’s a hilarious 4.5 minute video clip that speaks to the "complain less" principle of Smile & Move.

Let it help you be more amazed (and maybe pass it along to those who could use a gentle reminder that in many cases, we’re luckier than we think).

(from comedian Louis CK on Late Night with Conan O’Brien).

For a different twist on complaints, here’s 3 minutes from Monty Python’s classic sketch, Four Yorkshiremen.

TGIS (Thank God it’s Smonday*)

*Smonday is the first day of the week for a Smover.

Got a favorite? Email us. (Have you seen Be More Amazed?)

Need a ComplainLess™ reminder wristband?

-Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4B.C.-65A.D.)
Roman philosopher and statesman

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Give more days…

63 – 64 – 65 – 62

Those are your quarterly work days of opportunity for 2010 (254 in all… give or take a few here and there depending on where you are).

Roughly 21 days per month. (Put like that, it can seem like so few.)

To lose only two each month to fatigue or a desire to wait for a better day to do something, would be to lose more than a full month of work days each year.

Imagine if your income reflected your slow days (and know that it probably does).

Use this link to print and post your 2010 work days calendar or get your Give More months here.

You do know that, don’t you?

Continual learning is a basic necessity to professional improvement and in many cases it’s other people who will help you get there.

But only if you’re coachable. Are you?

To be coachable means to be…

• Approachable
• Attentive
• Receptive
• Curious
• Objective
• Trusting
• Shapeable
• Confident

It means you must listen with the intent to learn rather than to show what you know.

To be coachable means to lack arrogance and defensiveness… to minimize pride and ego. Completely teachable. Completely trainable. Completely malleable.

(Is there anything more frustrating than the know-it-all in the room?)

To be completely perfect, to need no more training or coaching, is to stagnate or die – and in many cases, to be dismissed. To know everything is to be un… believable.

The best professionals at all levels (and in most fields) require coaching to improve and they know it.

Are you one of them? Check yourself with the 8 points below.

Managers: How much development attention are you giving to your team? 20% of your week would be a full day of nothing but development time… 40% would be two full days, beginning to end.
 
Professionals: Don’t have a “coaching” manager? Consider finding a development or accountability partner.

____________________

A quick 8-point check on your coachability…

Which of these are true and to what extent?

1. I usually allow my manager and others to complete their sentences before responding. (If you don’t, it’s not a good sign.)
2. When I’m given feedback/ criticism, I usually think about it before responding, waiting just a bit. (If you don’t, you’re likely not giving it real consideration.)
3. When I’m given feedback/ criticism, I rarely find myself defending a position or action immediately. (If this is true, you’re probably trying to really learn how you can improve.)
4. When I’m given feedback/ criticism, I ask questions about it in order to try to better understand it. (A good sign.)
5. I feel my work’s purpose is to serve my external customers. (”You’re gonna have to serve somebody.”– Bob Dylan)
6. I feel my work’s purpose is to serve my internal customers (managers, colleagues, other departments).
7. I’ve changed/ revised my position/ approach because of the advice of another individual. (If not, how coachable do you really think you are? No one is always right.)
8. My manager invests time in my professional development (If s/he doesn’t, it might be because of a perception that you’re uncoachable).

There’s no rating scale here. These questions are simply meant to raise awareness (when answered as objectively and truthfully).

____________________

A quick habit to improve your coachability…

After you’re given feedback/ criticism, before responding, ask a question…

• How do you mean?
• Can you tell me more about that?
• Can we talk that through so I understand it better?

Now go be coachable.~>