Thriving or diving in tough and uncertain times … this business tripled after the dot.com bust and 9/11 … how?

Food for Thought from Mike Schwarzer’s Pearls of Wisdom, September 2013

What is Your Attitude to Crisis … Mental Hibernation and Chicken Little or Higher Ground View?

Isn’t it interesting how in times of uncertainty and economic downturn many organisations stick their heads in the sand and disconnect. Drawn into the scarcity mentality of the day they go into mental hibernation, where people become paralysed and hide in a cage. Or they turn into Chicken Little, where people run around like mad chooks with the mindset of cut this and cut that … cut, cut, cut and they cut people too … the numbers that is!

This creates a climate that breeds fear, mistrust, ignorance and resentment. Pessimism creeps in that discourages staff engagement and stifles creativity. This leads to low staff morale and low productivity. Overall a pretty toxic and costly exercise! Nobody wins.

These types of businesses have the energy of a dead fish, lifeless! Think about the people that you know that have low emotional energy … they become energy suckers. How do you like being around them? Ever felt drained after spending a period of time with one? If your business runs on low emotional energy, how do you think that projects to the world and your customers around you? Do they feel compelled to stay away from you?

Higher Ground View

And then there are some organisations that take the View from a Higher Ground, the ones that look to the future. In addition to keeping an eye on the fundamentals of the business, they have a vision and they are forward thinking. They pay attention to where they are and focus on where they want to go. They create a climate of optimism in which people count and encouraged to participate. These organisations have resilience, high staff morale and a collective mindset that stimulates creativity and innovation. They are performing at peak!

These types of businesses have a buzzing energy that is infectious, they are full of life! Ever been around someone that has a vibrant emotional energy? Did you feel charged up afterwards? If your business runs on high emotional energy, how does that project to the world and your customers around you? Do they feel drawn to you?

How does this work?

How Chip Conley TRIPLED his business after the Dot.com crash and 9/11.

After 15 years of rising to the pinnacle of the hospitality industry, Chip Conley, the founder of Joie de Vivre, the world’s second largest hotel boutique chain, found his business undercapitalised and overexposed after the dot.com crash and 9/11. Facing the prospects of losing his company he turned his attention to the intangible factors of the business … the higher level needs of his employees and customers. What is their inspiration and sense of meaning that brings them to work and what is our customers’ emotional connection? And how can we as a business address those higher level needs?

How did he do it?

He began by asking questions … do our people understand our mission? Do they believe in that mission? Can they influence it? Do they feel that their work has an impact on it? He also asked his customers, what is their emotional connection with us in seven different kind of ways?

Customer Loyalty Skyrocketed

As he kept asking those questions that were pointing at the higher needs levels of his people and customers, he found Joie de Vivre’s customer loyalty skyrocketed, employee turnover dropped to one third of the industry standard and during the dot.com bust the company tripled in size.

For more on Chip Conley’s see his TED.com talk Measuring what makes life worthwhile http://www.ted.com/talks/chip_conley_measuring_what_makes_life_worthwhile.html 

Is that something you want?

The world loves energy!

In an energy poor world, high energy counts, especially during times of uncertainty, economic downturn and crisis where people’s emotional energy is poor. People are drawn to good energy. Your customers are drawn to good energy. What energy are you generating as individuals and organisations? Are you customers drawn to you or repelled by you?

Which one do you want?

How do you generate a vibrant and dynamic energy in your business that attracts business in uncertain times?

Firstly, do you want it or not? Do you want to be an organisation that operates from a Higher Ground like the Chip Conley’s of the world? If not, than this is not for you!

Secondly, it’s an inside out game! And it starts with your intention! What environment and condition do you need to create where vibrant energy can occur? How will you show up as an organisation? What will you bring to make that happen? How will you pay attention to your own, your people’s and your customer’s higher level needs of meaning? How will you address them? And how will you measure them? What beliefs and values will you establish that support your journey?

“Managers focus on finding great answers, while leaders focus on imagining great questions” Peter Drucker

Thirdly, you have to keep asking great question or yourself and others. Great questions open the mind and unleash creativity and potential. Point the focus of your questions towards people’s higher needs level, that is where meaning and purpose resides!

Lastly, you have to work it. It all starts as an idea, a concept and unless you work that concept and bring into your mental and organisational muscle it will be just that … and idea and concept.

Mental Hibernation, Chicken Little or Higher Ground View … which one serves you best?

If you want to learn more about how you can generate a vibrant energy in your business and connect with your people’s and your customer’s higher level needs then contact Mike at mike@mikeschwarzer.com or check out the details for our Self-Leadership – Accessing Personal Genius / Coaching Genius training at www.thoughtleadingpeople.com.au/.

to your highest learning and growth

Mike

About Mike Schwarzer

Mike is a Performance Strategist & Modeler and an Internationally Certified Trainer in Neuro-Semantic NLP with the International Society of Neuro-Sematics ISNS. The ISNS is a global NLP community, operating in over 40 countries, dedicated to helping people actualise excellence by transforming Meaning into Performance. He is also a leadership team member of the Institute of Neuro-Semantics Australia the Australian branch of ISNS.

An experienced facilitator and coach, with an ability to connect and align people and organisations, he helps them to fine tune their performance wizardry to bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to go!

For more information about Mike visit www.mikeschwarzer.com and  

www.thoughtleadingpeople.com.au.

Does how you see and experience the world serve you?

Food for Thought from Mike Schwarzer’s Pearls of Wisdom, September 2013

Are you a person who wants more from life and to get the best out of yourself? Are you a leader or a manager in an organisation who needs to get the best out of people and deliver results in a demanding market place? Are you part of an organisation that has to solve complex problems and that wants to stay ahead in difficult and unpredictable times? Are you a coach, a trainer, an educator, etc who wants superior communication and coaching skills to engage and to make a bigger difference in your clients' lives?  Are you someone who wants harmonious and fulfilling relationships with your loved ones, friends, colleagues, children and others? Are you someone who wants to maintain your sanity in a changing and challenging world?

Then read on ... and look out for the little experience taster :)

"You don't see and experience the world as it is. You see the world as you are!" Jamie Smart 

Who hasn't experienced moments when you felt that the world was to blame for all your worries and feeling sorry for yourself with an energy that was repelling. You seemed to be at war with yourself and your external world. And in this scenario didn’t the world and the people around you look just the way you felt? You disliked the world and the world disliked you. People didn’t particularly want to be around you and it seemed that they were the cause to all of your problems. You’ve got little collaboration and got not much done! At the end of the day you’ve felt exhausted and burned out.

On the flip side you may also have experienced the opposite. Moments when you felt on top of the world, full of joy, enthusiasm and highly motivated with an energy that was infectious? And funny enough, the world and the people around you looked beautiful. There seemed to be a harmony between you and your external world. You liked the world and the world liked you. It was easy to get on with people and they seemingly were eating out of the palm of your hands. Solutions to problems just appeared. Your creative juices were flowing with new ideas and insights. Time was flying while you were engrossed in activities that would normally be a drag. At the end of the day you felt alive with energy to burn and a strong sense of wellbeing.

How do you see and experience your world? Which one do you prefer? Would you like to be able to spend more time in those moments of joy, enthusiasm and high energy? Being on top of your game? Being in the now? Having clarity and presence of mind?

What difference would that make to your life and your work? What difference would it make to the performance and sustainability of your organisation?

With your permission, think of an area in your life that gives you a little grieve, that holds you back, where you come up a little short and where you feel at the mercy of your circumstances. This might be in your personal life, the lack of living purposefully and fulfilled or the relationships with your loved ones or your friends that you may not see eye to eye with. It might be a goal that you have that seems too difficult to reach, that book you want to write, that career change you want to make, that weight you want to lose and that fitness you want to gain. It might be life’s pressures that get to you. It might be the stress that you have with annoying co-workers, non-performing staff or demanding managers that give you a hard time. It might be pressure to keep up with the ever changing working world that seems to become more ambiguous, complex and unpredictable and the increasing customer demands that come with it!

Whatever it is that gives you grieve, do you like the way you think and feel about it? Does it serve you? Does it support you? Does it enrich you life? Do you want more of it? How much longer do you want to keep it?

ONLY READ on if you if you can strongly say NO these question above! Can you? Good!

So, have you had enough of this way of thinking and feeling? YES? Are you ready for something new? YES? Would you like to live, work and play at your highest potential? YES? Keep reading …

Now … imagine that tonight after you go to bed and while you’re sleeping, a miracle happens, and the problems that brought you here were immediately solved, gone … just like that. Now you have what you have longed for.

Notice your sense of here and now … right now … being fully present to your environment and what you are engaged in … the conversations that you have with your loved ones and your friends, looking at them in wonder and curiosity and seeing their world through their eyes and feeling a sense of connection with them and with something more than just you. Notice how you are pursuing the things that are important to you with passion and drive … that’s right … lost in time … this may be your fingers tapping away on the keyboard … as the words to your book are easily flowing from your mind or perhaps this is just you hiking in the woods, being in touch with nature and enjoying the beauty of the land. Feeling compelled for daily walks and exercise regimes lifting weights and running on the treadmill as you notice your body’s new shape and your energy levels rise. Being fully present in the here and now, feeling a strong sense of purpose and looking at the world with curiosity and wonder … notice how you easily connect with your colleagues, staff and customers … notice how engage them conversations and the questions that you asked … the infectious energy you create … the new ideas you generate and solutions to problems that magically appear … because that and much more your inner genius can do … can you not?

As you read through those lines become aware of your awareness … notice your state, notice how you feel, notice your energy, notice what you are aware of, notice what you are paying attention to.

Now being fully in this state, this feeling, this energy … think of the event or circumstance in your life that has given you grieve and that has held you back or slowed you down. Being in this new state, what do you notice about this event now? What are you aware of? What does it mean to you now? How much are you at its mercy now? What are you thinking and feeling now? If you were to step into the event and look at yourself from there … what do you notice about yourself? How are you different? Being in this state of mind and feeling how do you perceive this event or circumstance now?

Do you like that way of thinking and feeling? YES? Does that serve you? YES? Does it support you? YES? Does it enrich you life? YES? Do you want more of it? YES? Do you want to keep it? YES?

Well done, you have just tapped into your inner genius, a flow state or being in zone. You have just scratched the surface of what is possible.

Elite athletes know this state. That is what sets them apart from the rest. They know how to access their best states and be fully present and aligned with their highest intention their craft and focused on what they want to achieve.

What stops you from learning how to access your best states, being aligned with your higher intention and live a fuller and richer life? 

How do you want to see and experience your world so that it serves you? 

If you want to learn more about how to access your best states, your inner genius and live, work and play at your highest potential and with peak performance then contact Mike at mike@mikeschwarzer.com or check out the details for our Self-Leadership – Accessing Personal Genius / Coaching Genius training at www.thoughtleadingpeople.com.au.

to your highest learning and growth

Mike

About Mike Schwarzer

Mike is a Performance Strategist & Modeler and an Internationally Certified Trainer in Neuro-Semantic NLP with the International Society of Neuro-Sematics ISNS. The ISNS is a global NLP community, operating in over 40 countries, dedicated to helping people actualise excellence by transforming Meaning into Performance. He is also a leadership team member of the Institute of Neuro-Semantics Australia the Australian branch of ISNS.

An experienced facilitator and coach, with an ability to connect and align people and organisations, he helps them to fine tune their performance wizardry to bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to go!

For more information about Mike visit www.mikeschwarzer.com and  

www.thoughtleadingpeople.com.au.

Self-Leadership, Does your thinking have you or do you have your thinking?

Food for Thought from Mike Schwarzer’s Pearls of Wisdom, September 2013

A few years ago I was working with coaching client who was a department head in a 5 star hotel. He was regarded as difficult to work with, very reactive and a bit of a rebel by other department heads and senior managers. He often clashed with his general manager in executive meetings having heated discussions over issues that dragged out to an hour. During one of our coaching sessions he had an insight. He said “I thought that what we think is a given, all we can do is to manage what we think”. ‘His thinking had him’ and at the mercy of his circumstances. And because he was caught in that mindset he had only limited flexibility in responding to his circumstances. He suddenly realised that he could actually change what he was thinking. Now ‘he had his thinking’ and choice about how to respond to his circumstances. As a result, the discussions with his general manager were now more civilised and the issues resolved in ten minutes.

People and organisations are not random in the way they think, feel, speak and perform. They operate in accordance to a map, their inner map of reality, the way they see world. Within that map lies limitation, potential and possibility … failure and success. 

The map is always right! 

Did you know that the map is always right? Your inner map is about what you hold to be true about your world, about yourself and others. From that perspective you cannot not act out your map, it is your servant. It shows up in your way of thinking, feeling, behaving and speaking as an expression of what is going on in your map. 

The question is … does the map serve you or limit you? What is the magic key? 

Learning how the map works, how we create it, the dynamics it generates and how to change it so that it serves us gives you the magic key. The key in ‘having your thinking’, generating and accessing your best states and presence of mind! When we operate from our best states we tend to

• have a higher quality of mind
• have greater awareness and resourcefulness
• think and act with clarity, focus and flexibility
• feel in charge of our feelings, thoughts and behaviours
• see possibilities and come up with ideas and solutions to problems
• relate and engage well with others
• bring the best out of others
• make good decisions
• stretch our abilities
• etc

Self-Leadership is an Inside Game!

Self-Leadership is an Inside Game, the Inner Game of Leadership and it starts with enriching and stretching your map with quality meanings. The more useful meanings you can give to your life’s events and circumstances the more choice and flexibility you have in your ability to respond, to perform and to serve.

This works for you as an individual or as an organisation. It affects the quality of how you lead yourself and your life, the difference you make to the lives of others, how you bring out the best in yourself and in others, how you contribute to the success of your business or your organisation and the community. It affects how an organisation operates in complex and ambiguous environments. It affects its culture, how it works as a unit and how it interacts with its customers. How it maintains its ability to learn, to be creative and innovative and experiences greater levels of resilience, optimism and motivation. 

What quality meanings do you want to hold to be true and embody so that they serve you and others? 

Curious to learn more how to enrich your map with quality meanings? Then contact Mike at mike@mikeschwarzer.com or check out the details for our Self-Leadership – Accessing Personal Genius / Coaching Genius training at www.thoughtleadingpeople.com.au/.

to your highest learning and growth

Mike

About Mike Schwarzer

Mike is a Performance Strategist & Modeler and an Internationally Certified Trainer in Neuro-Semantic NLP with the International Society of Neuro-Sematics ISNS. The ISNS is a global NLP community, operating in over 40 countries, dedicated to helping people actualise excellence by transforming Meaning into Performance. He is also a leadership team member of the Institute of Neuro-Semantics Australia the Australian branch of ISNS.

An experienced facilitator and coach, with an ability to connect and align people and organisations, he helps them to fine tune their performance wizardry to bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to go!

For more information about Mike visit www.mikeschwarzer.com and  

www.thoughtleadingpeople.com.au.