Leading Change, are you courageous enough to go there first?

Mike Schwarzer, TLP 6 Insight Reflections, 12 July 2016

Over the years I have had many conversations with people about the workings of life. Things like life in general, relationships, work, politics, the state of the economy, sport, business, international conflict, etc. The conversations that I find most intriguing are with the ones that are good at finger pointing and complaining about the behaviours and actions of others. They tend to have very strong and narrow minded opinions i.e. how parents should be raising their children, how teenagers should behave, how politicians should spend our money, how people should be punished and the list goes on. They are generally good at telling others how the world SHOULD be run and how people SHOULD think, feel, behave and act accordingly.

Yet more often than not, they are the people who display the very behaviours and qualities that they are critical of in others. They are fighting fire with fire!

I often like to challenge them with the question … “In what way is the way you behave different to that of the people and groups that you are criticising?” To which many respond by defending and justifying their position!

I also see this behaviour in the world of business. Organisations look for ways to keep up with the ever increasing speed and complexity of change and to maintain their competitiveness. So they try to change their cultures and the behaviours of their people. They review and come up with new values that the organisation should operate by to make that happen. Then the following occurs, and I have seen this take place. Management instructs the human resources, training or organizational development department to bring about this change. To INSTALL the chosen values into their frontline personnel. To tell those front line troops to be Happy Little Chappies and demonstrate resilience, flexibility, creativity, innovation, collaboration, teamwork, commitment, respect, to serve, honesty and the list goes on.

Yet when management is asked what they are doing to display the new values they get uncomfortable and pointing the attention away. It’s about ‘them, the staff’ not us. What they are missing when it comes to organisational culture … it is meant to be ONE culture, it’s a collective! It is not one for management and another for the rest of the staff. Especially if both cultures are incompatible and moving in opposite directions.

Values are not the words written on the wall. Behaviour is telling what they are!

I once asked a client what their organisational values were. To which they replied, with a searching mind … “I just read them the other day”!

The values of an organisation are not the words written on the wall. Values show up in behaviour. If creativity and innovation are key values yet staff is discouraged or ignored when voicing their ideas than creativity and innovation are NOT the driving values. Discouragement and ignorance are!

The bottom line with values is not the value itself but for what purpose you want them. What is the value in the value? That should make your head spin. Let’s look from this perspective, values are only words, and words have no meaning other than the meaning that we give them, the trueness and usefulness of that meaning. For new organizational values to impact on the effectiveness of the business their meaning must be embodied in the culture. Now that doesn’t necessarily happen by default, especially if it is a big shift or if the shift is not aligned with the individual values of employees.

Showing the way by going ‘there’ first!

“Become the change you want to see!” Ghandi

So how do you bring your people along on the ride and adapt new values? It begins with you and your leadership. It begins with Ghandi’s ‘Become the change you want to see! I love this quote. Whatever you want to create and what you want to see changed in others, you go there first! If it is an attitude, a behaviour, a quality, a way of relating or a way of doing things … show the way, go there first!

If you want to create peacefulness in the world, be peaceful! If you want to create kindness in the world, be kind! If you want to create respect in your world, be respectful!

Don’t change people! Create environments where people want to come along for the ride!

If establishing a Creative and Innovative Culture is of importance to the sustainability of your operation then ask yourself … what environment you want to create for creativity and innovation to occur. What does creativity and innovation imply? What stimulates and drives a creative and innovative mind? What allows the mind to come up with new visions, fresh ideas and insights? It’s a mind that has clarity and that focuses on possibility. That is curious, playful and observant with the absence of judgment. Mix that with a collaborative and collective spirit and you have a very potent force at your disposal.

The idea here is that you don’t have to change people. Treat people as they already have all the resources and qualities they need. They already know how to be curious, playful and observant. They already know how to collaborate and think as a collective.

Your job as the leader is to create a space where your people bring forth their inner resources and qualities. Where they want to come along for the ride!

Here is my challenge for you!

This is what I want you to do. Pick an area in your work, that involves other people, where things are not travelling as well as you would like. And for the next working week, if you are not already, show up with a curious mind when you engage and communicate with your staff, colleagues and your clients. Listen to them with nothing on your mind. Just be there and observe. Hold their space. Do this playfully. And by that I mean just have fun with this exercise and enjoy the learning.

At the end of that week email me at mike@thoughteadingpeople.com.au and tell me little about your experience with this exercise and also ask any question that you may have.

Remember, leading change begins with going first!

If that resonates with you and you want to learn more about leading change by going first and tapping into their collective wisdom of your people read on. If not, I like to thank you and I look forward to serving you with my next reflection!

to your best

Mike

PS Are you ready for the next step?

Here is how it is going to work!

We are in the business of helping leaders and organisations to solve the problems that they have not been able to solve elsewhere and create the results they want to achieve.

We help them to step outside of themselves, out of their blind spots and get a wider view. We help them to create bigger minds with a bigger capacity to operate in and through complex environments.

Think of the things that keep you and your team awake at night? What problems would you like to have solved that would make your time working with us worthwhile? If we could help you do that, what would that be worth to you?

How to solve those problems and more is what you will experience when you work with us.

Our approach is transformational and works best if you fit the following criteria:

• You are a new or seasoned leader of people (i.e. team-leader, department head, general manager, sales manager, HR professional, training professional, OD professional, coach, etc).
• You work in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environments.
• You are asked to do more with less. To create better outcomes with less resources.
• You’re an enthusiastic, optimistic, open minded and friendly people-person.
• You genuinely want to make a difference and create an environment where people can flourish and organisations can thrive.
• You have an open approach to learning, and are willing to step out of your comfort zone if necessary.
• You can keep a secret.

If that’s you, then reply to this email here or call +61 419 866 427 and let us know a little about some of the pressing challenges that keep you awake at night and what would be one thing that you could do better or do more of that would make a difference in your life and your work. If emailing, make the subject line “Transformational Leadership'.

Why work with us?

“My conversations with clients used to be transactional, now they are transformational. It’s not about the widgets I sell anymore, it’s all about the relationship with the person. It’s really exploring and addressing the client’s needs and solving their problems instead of a preset agenda of what to sell. This shift in my thinking has profoundly increased the business I am generating now”

Connor O’Rourke, General Manager Sales, Datacom Systems SA, Adelaide, SA Pty Ltd

 

“When working with a client just recently, I was able to bring into play a number of the principles about the higher intentions and states that they are in. After doing this program it really helped me to understand the nature of our higher intentions and also to communicate this to my clients … you could see the light bulbs going off for them.”

Listen to how one of our programs impacted on Michelle Holland, former Manager, People & Culture, City of Salisbury, SA and a recent graduate! Click on this link https://youtu.be/gDNT4rgsUD8 or the picture above.


Want to collaborate with us to help you solve your problems? 

Contact me here or call +61 419 866 427 and explore how we can support you in solving your problems.

to your highest and best

Mike

PPS if this is not for you but you know of someone that might be a good fit please forward this email to them and ask them to reply to this email address mike@thoughtleadingpeople.com.au.

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.

Leading change through turbulent times: How compelling is Your Message?

Mike Schwarzer, TLP 5 Insight Reflections, 29 June 2016

I often start my reflections with pointing your focus into a certain direction … to listen with nothing on your mind. Why is that you ask? Because the message of what I am sharing with you is not in the words I am writing, it is behind those words. When you read with a busy and intellectual mind your focus is on the words and the meaning that you give those words. That is its function. Now I am not saying there is no value in this but the intellectual mind is biased and can get in the way of seeing beyond that bias and create blindspots.

When you are reading with a quiet and empty mind you tap into what I call the domain of creativity and deeper insight. This is where you step above your blindspots. This is the space where you see with greater clarity and where fresh thought and the answers to your problems emerge!

If you could tap into that space, would that be useful to you? Then give yourself permission to suspend your judgment and read with nothing on your mind!

Do you care and do you want to make a difference?

Now my approach and thinking is not for everyone. It is for leaders and influencers who genuinely care about the wellbeing of their people, to grow with them and through them. It is for leaders and influencers that want to create meaningful and sustainable workspaces and organisations. Those that want to make a difference to the people they serve and the wider community. If that lands with you then this conversation is for you!

Leading Change and the Power of Your Message!

I have recently had the pleasure of teaching hundreds of vocational education students the art of presenting in public. Most of these students are inexperienced in speaking to an audience and quite anxious about it. The nature of the program asks them to pick a topic that involves a contemporary social issue which can be confronting to them and their audiences.

While assessing them, I started to notice a difference between the ones who seemed to connect and engage well with the audience and who got their message across, despite their nerves, versus the ones who didn’t do as well.

The ones that didn’t do well seem to mainly focus on ‘The What’ they where delivering, their key points and the content of their presentation. They were trying to remember their content and worried about the bits they’ve missed.

Whereas the students who did very well were focused on ‘The Why’ they were delivering their presentation, their message! They were very clear on what their message was, why it was important to them and how to express that message in a way that reached their audience. Funny enough, when the message is clear, the content seems to fall into place. Even if some bits get lost in the process, the key message still lands!

But that’s not all!

An embodied understanding of their message, expressed through them!

As part of the preparation of their presentation the students have to develop a presentation plan. One of the key tasks I set them is … What is their key message? Why is that topic and message important to them? Why should the audience listen to their message?

The students who get that seem to develop an embodied understanding of what is important to them about their topic and their message. Because of that, they become the message. They don’t just verbally deliver their presentation. Their message is expressed through them. It is grounded in the way they show up, in their conviction, in their body, in their tone of voice, in their energy. The audience doesn’t just hear the message. They can also see it and feel it. It is compelling, influential and impactful ... it connects!

What is your message and how well is it grounded?

Let’s translate that to your individual and organisational leadership. How well is your work unit and organisation travelling? What is the message that you are projecting onto your people? How is it impacting on them? Are they drawn to it and collaborating with you or are they put off and resisting?

You cannot not project a message … you are the message! It shows up in you. It is all over you. It is expressed in your behaviours, in your energy and your actions. It might be subtle but people still smell it!

If your message only focuses on ‘the what’ your business is about and what it does it may only be a place that people come to earn a living.

If your message also reflects a clear vision and a meaningful purpose, that is embodied and expressed in your leadership and throughout your organizational culture. Then it becomes a place where people go beyond their call of duty and their paycheck!

Which place do you rather lead from? Your choice! In a turbulent world, choose wisely!

If that resonates with you and you want to know how develop a well grounded message that connects with your people, brings out the best in them and that taps into their collective wisdom read on. If not, I like to thank you and I look forward to serving you with my next reflection!

to your best

Mike

PS Are you ready for the next step?

Here is how it is going to work!

We are in the business of helping leaders and organisations to solve the problems that they have not been able to solve elsewhere and create the results they want to achieve.

We help them to step outside of themselves, out of their blind spots and get a wider view. We help them to create bigger minds with a bigger capacity to operate in and through complex environments.

Think of the things that keep you and your team awake at night? What problems would you like to have solved that would make your time working with us worthwhile? If we could help you do that, what would that be worth to you?

How to solve those problems and more is what you will experience when you work with us.
Our approach is transformational and works best if you fit the following criteria:

• You are a new or seasoned leader of people (i.e. team-leader, department head, general manager, sales manager, HR professional, training professional, OD professional, coach, etc).
• You work in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environments.
• You are asked to do more with less. To create better outcomes with less resources.
• You’re an enthusiastic, optimistic, open minded and friendly people-person.
• You genuinely want to make a difference and create an environment where people can flourish and organisations can thrive.
• You have an open approach to learning, and are willing to step out of your comfort zone if necessary.
• You can keep a secret.

If that’s you, then reply to this email here or call +61 419 866 427 and let us know a little about some of the pressing challenges that keep you awake at night and what would be one thing that you could do better or do more of that would make a difference in your life and your work. If emailing, make the subject line “Transformational Leadership'.

Why work with us?

“My conversations with clients used to be transactional, now they are transformational. It’s not about the widgets I sell anymore, it’s all about the relationship with the person. It’s really exploring and addressing the client’s needs and solving their problems instead of a preset agenda of what to sell. This shift in my thinking has profoundly increased the business I am generating now”

Connor O’Rourke, General Manager Sales, Datacom Systems SA, Adelaide, SA Pty Ltd

 

“When working with a client just recently, I was able to bring into play a number of the principles about the higher intentions and states that they are in. After doing this program it really helped me to understand the nature of our higher intentions and also to communicate this to my clients … you could see the light bulbs going off for them.”

Listen to how one of our programs impacted on Michelle Holland, former Manager, People & Culture, City of Salisbury, SA and a recent graduate! Click on this link https://youtu.be/gDNT4rgsUD8 or the picture above.


Want to collaborate with us to help you solve your problems? 

Contact me here or call +61 419 866 427 and explore how we can support you in solving your problems.

to your highest and best

Mike

PPS if this is not for you but you know of someone that might be a good fit please forward this email to them and ask them to reply to this email address mike@thoughtleadingpeople.com.au.

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.

Are you a Real Leader or All Talk?

Mike Schwarzer, TLP 4 Insight Reflections, 15 June 2016

Are you a real leader or all talk? What does this question evoke in you? How does it make you feel? Annoyed? Defensive? Intrigued? Curious?

What was the first thought on your mind? “How dare you Mike, questioning my integrity as a leader!” Or …”Mmmhhh, that looks interesting, I wonder what this is all about?”

The Frame controls the Game!

“Does the thought have you or do you have the thought?”

Whatever was on your mind, it influenced the quality of your thinking and how you’ve experienced this thinking. Consequently it led you to take action and open this reading.

And not just that, it influences the quality of what you getting from the following content of this post. Are you reading with a closed and judging mind? Are you comparing it to what you already know? Are you discounting what I am sharing with you?

Or are you reading it with nothing on your mind? A mind that is open and curious for fresh thought, for new insight, and for seeing new possibilities?

The frame controls the game. As human beings we have the ability of cognitive thinking. We can bring meaning to the world out there. Living in the world of thought means we can interpret and evaluate what we see and what we hear out there in our external environment. Not just that, we have to ability to make assumptions about our assumptions about it.

Living in our assumptions means we see and experience life through a distorted reality. It shows up in our behaviours. In the way we feel it in our bodies and the way we act. It shows up in the way we engage with others.

Here we can get into trouble! This can create major blind spots for us. Most people do not understand the nature of cognitive thinking and how it drives our understanding of how we think life works. This creates a false reality based on our assumptions that we hold true. The thing is, we always live in a false reality. In the world of thought there is no escaping from this false reality, nor is it a bad thing. None of us is immune to this.

However it becomes a problem when we think that our reality is the only reality. Then we act through the limits of that reality and project those limits onto others. Here we can easily buy into our thinking and that of others and being reactive to it.

Get out of your own way and see a world of possibility!

The trick is to get out of your way, to step back and see your reality for what is. It’s just your made up reality. It exists and is only true within the confines of your thinking. When you have that level of awareness you can gauge for the usefulness of what occupies your mind. You can act on it or not. You can question it. You can expand on it. You can explore it. You can step above it.

The more perspective you have, the more ways you can see the world in, the more choice and flexibility you have in dealing with what life is throwing at you. The ability to step above your thinking allows you to see with greater clarity and possibility. Here we operate through the richness and insightfulness of our thinking and engage with that of others in harmonious ways.

Real leadership is transformational leadership and it starts with YOU!

Transformational leadership is about engaging people’s minds through understanding, valuing and connecting with their higher level needs or intentions, which I have written about in previous reflections. Chip Conley, the founder of Joie De Vivre, founder of California’s biggest boutique hotel chain tripled his business during the Dot.Com crash and 911 by doing exactly that. Watch his TED talk on ‘Measuring what makes life worthwhile’ here.

It begins with you, how you lead yourself. In involves your ability to question and to step above your own thinking and to expand it. Your willingness to explore and to operate from your highest intentions. And to lead the way for others to do the same.

When you begin to do that, you’ll change the name of the game. You’ll find yourself operate in a state of flow. You’ll experience greater clarity of mind where solutions to problems miraculously appear. And you’ll connect and collaborate effortless with others. That is transformation in play!

So, are you a real leader?

‘A vital ingredient in a disruptive world!’

Many years ago I heard a great definition for a leader.

“Firstly, a leader has followers. If nobody is following you, you are not the leader. Secondly, what is the reason why people follow someone? Because they think that the person they follow knows where he or she is going!”

People generally follow someone they trust. Someone that stands for something! A person that has a sense of purpose and vision and that inspires people through that purpose and vision. Someone that leads through people and that shows them the way!

This is a vital ingredient for a real leader leading in a disruptive world. A world where being creative and innovative is the key to staying competitive and sustainable. And the ability to be flexible and adaptable to the changes that come with it!

This has to be done collectively and collaboratively, through people. A real leader’s role is to bring out the best in their people. To give them a sense of empowerment and create a space where employees can tap into their full potential.

Leaders who do not focus on bringing out the best in their people are a reliability to their organisation. They are costing their organisation and holding it back!

How do you bring out the best in your people and tap into the collective wisdom of your workforce?

It all begins with the assumptions that you make about people and how the world works. And how these assumptions either limit you or empower you in the way you engage with them and the quality of the contribution they make.

The clue is here! Are you a disempowering or empowering your people? Are they working against you or for you? Are you holding your organisation back or are you driving it forward?

What are the underlying assumptions that either hold you back or drive you forward?

If that resonates with you and you want to know how to connect with your people, bring out the best in them and to tap into their collective wisdom read on. If not, I like to thank you and I look forward to serving you with my next reflection!

to your best

Mike

PS Are you ready for the next step?

Here is how it is going to work!

We are in the business of helping leaders and organisations to solve the problems that they have not been able to solve elsewhere and create the results they want to achieve.

You are going to spend three days with us where we coach the life out of you and stretch your mind.

But you have to hurry, this is your last change to register for this financial year's final program. Click here to book or email me here to secure your seat.

We help them to step outside of themselves, out of their blind spots and get a wider view. We help them to create bigger minds with a bigger capacity to operate in and through complex environments.

Think of the things that keep you and your team awake at night? What problems would you like to have solved that would make your time working with us worthwhile? If we could help you do that, what would that be worth to you?

How to solve those problems and more is what you will experience at our upcoming public ...

Think of the things that keep you and your team awake at night? What problems would you like to have solved that would make your time working with us worthwhile? If we could help you do that, what would that be worth to you?

How to solve those problems and more is what you will experience at our upcoming public ...

SELF-LEADERSHIP – Accessing Personal Genius Program
The Structure & Tools to Make Change Stick and to Tap into Your Creative Wisdom! 
Adelaide, 21 to 23 June 2016

In this program you will experience the structure and tools of making change stick, what we call meaning into performance and tapping into your creative space of mind. Change involves taking new thinking (mind) and embedding it into behaviour (body). The reason why many change initiatives fail is that the new thinking never reaches the behaviour. Additionally, creativity resides outside the conscious mind.


We know the structure of that process and have the tools to make the shift as well as step into your creative wisdom.

In this program we will share this structure with you and teach you the tools to create lasting change and transformation and the insights that come with it.

We’re looking for a small group of very specific people for this 'transformational leadership' program.

• You are a new or seasoned leader of people (i.e. team-leader, department head, general manager, sales manager, HR professional, training professional, OD professional, coach, etc).
• You work in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environments.
• You are asked to do more with less. To create better outcomes with less resources.
• You’re an enthusiastic, optimistic, open minded and friendly people-person.
• You genuinely want to make a difference and create an environment where people can flourish and organisations can thrive.
• You have an open approach to learning, and are willing to step out of your comfort zone if necessary.
• You can keep a secret.

If that’s you, then reply to this email here and let us know a little about your background (if you don’t know what to tell us about, look at the list above for inspiration). Also tell us about some of the pressing challenges that keep you awake at night and what would be one thing that you could do better or do more of that would make a difference in your life and your work. Make the subject line “Transformational Leadership'.

Why this program?

“My conversations with clients used to be transactional, now they are transformational. It’s not about the widgets I sell anymore, it’s all about the relationship with the person. It’s really exploring and addressing the client’s needs and solving their problems instead of a preset agenda of what to sell. This shift in my thinking has profoundly increased the business I am generating now” Connor O’Rourke, General Manager Sales, Datacom Systems SA, Adelaide, SA Pty Ltd

 

“When working with a client just recently, I was able to bring into play a number of the principles about the higher intentions and states that they are in. After doing this program it really helped me to understand the nature of our higher intentions and also to communicate this to my clients … you could see the light bulbs going off for them.”

Listen to how this program impacted on Michelle Holland, former Manager, People & Culture, City of Salisbury, SA and a recent graduate! Click on this link https://youtu.be/gDNT4rgsUD8 or the picture above.

Want to collaborate with us to help you solve your problems?
What a better opportunity to invest your end of financial year budget in the up skilling of your leaders with leading edge thinking! Click here.

More about this program!

This is an ideal program if you want to live a higher quality of life, have meaningful relationships with others, create lasting change and achieve greater results for your business and for your clients.

It will give you the insights on how people create higher level meanings and intentions about their world. How those meanings and intentions are then manifested and experienced in their neurology which consequently drives their behaviours i.e. Mindsets that support or limit people’s quality of being in the world, their performances at work and play, and their ability to achieve personal and business goals.

Understanding the structure of that process will give you the tools to engage a person at their higher levels of thinking (meanings and intentions) and create transformational and lasting change from inside-out (changing mindset, fundamentally thinking differently about their world, Big WHY) rather than from the outside-in (changing behaviour i.e. doing things differently).

This program is transformational and can be a life changing experience for you as many other participants have.

Contact me here or call 0419 866 427 if you have any further questions about the event.

To register and to take your magic to the next level reply to this email and I will email you a registration form. Alternatively visit our site click here.

to your highest and best

Mike

PPS if this is not for you but you know of someone that might be a good fit please forward this email to them and ask them to reply to this email address mike@thoughtleadingpeople.com.au.

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.