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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.
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