Keys to personal success by Team Technology ©1995-2005

Work/home life balance

You are looking for personal fulfilment.

Your organisation is looking for business results

Are you looking for an appropriate balance between the two?

You can't change who you are
But you can change the role you play

It's a common mistake to think that team success is achieved by individuals playing to their strengths. Whilst this can sometimes be true, often it is not.

This can be illustrated by thinking about which hand you use to change gear when driving a car, in Europe, or in the UK. Do you use your preferred hand, or do you use the hand dictated by the layout of the car?

Like most people, you have a preference that is consistent throughout life. But daily living requires the effective use of both hands. In a similar way, you have behavioural preferences, as indicated by your personality type. But you need to undertake many roles to meet the daily demands of life and work. Finding out your preferences can help you find out who you are. But to achieve success in team work and personal fulfilment, you should focus on what you can change - the roles you play:


Keys to successful team work
Adaptation – the ability for a team to use the team role that is most appropriate for the task in hand or the situation
Synchronisation – the ability for a team to coordinate their use of team roles in order to collaborate effectively


Keys to personal fulfilment
Flexibility – the ability to be able to use any of the team roles, when it would be most effective to do so.
Balance – having an appropriate degree of stretch between your preferences and your role to provide both development and fulfilment (ie not too much stretch, which can cause stress, nor too little, which can cause stagnation and/or boredom)

See more at http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/keys-to-success.html

... Listen Leadership by J.R. Perry

The problem in business leadership today is NOT the ability to create a Vision. The problem in today's leaders is the lack of ability to listen. The listening I speak of is multi-faceted. There is listening to employees, listening to suppliers, listening to advisors, listening to the competition, listening to the marketplace and most importantly, listening to the customer.

The constant in business as we all know is change. So when change takes place on proportion that can no longer be ignored and forces us to pay attention, it is really just that our listening has been turned off until that point in time. So now that business people are forced to listen they have usually been so far out of the loop that they do not understand what others are saying. So what is the solution? We know change cannot be deterred so the solution must be in the response we give to the circumstance of change.

Jay Perry owns the Automotive Business Consultants Inc. ABC is a Performance Coaching company specializing in the Collision Repair Industry. He can be reached at www.a-b-c-inc.com

Tribute to a legend - by CoveyLink

One of the world’s great business minds graduated last week. With honors! It is with great respect and even awe that we acknowledge the passing of revered business authority Peter F. Drucker last Friday, November 12th, a few days shy of his 96th birthday.

With 39 books written over 75 years, Chairman Peter (as he was affectionately called) was, in our estimation, the most influential business thinker and writer of the 20th Century. He has influenced our thinking as well of the thinking of the most respected business authorities of our day including Jack Welch, Jim Collins, Stephen R. Covey, Ken Blanchard, Warren Bennis and countless others we are not personally aware of.

Early last year, in an interview with Forbes magazine, Mr. Drucker was asked if there was anything in his long career that he wished he had done but had not been able to do.

"Yes, quite a few things," he said. "There are many books I could have written that are better than the ones I actually wrote. My best book would have been "Managing Ignorance," and I'm very sorry I didn't write it." We wish he’d gotten to that one too.

Mr. Drucker consulted business leaders and non-profit leaders well into his 90’s leaving the legacy of staying productive and contributing throughout one’s life. He strongly believed and taught that people were assets, not costs and thus shifted the thinking of several generations of business leaders. He extended pro-bono to non-profits, again modeling high ground behavior for other business leaders. He encouraged business leaders to give back to the community by developing a parallel career in non-profit organizations.

Chairman Peter’s words continue to echo through the halls:

"Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business has two - and only two - functions: Marketing and Innovation. Marketing and Innovation produce results. All the rest are costs."

“The number one difference between a Nobel prize winner and others is not IQ or work ethic, but that they ask bigger questions”

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

" One either meets or one works."

"The only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction and malperformance."

"Stock option plans reward the executive for doing the wrong thing. Instead of asking, 'Are we making the right decision?' he asks, 'How did we close today?' It is encouragement to loot the corporation."

Jack Welch attributed a simple question by Drucker for one of Welch’s most profound insights. In Jack’s words, "Drucker said: 'If you weren't already in this business, would you enter it today? And if not, what are you going to do about it? ‘Simple, right? But incredibly powerful’."

Drucker's simple question ultimately led to Welch's operating maxim that if a GE unit could not be No. 1 or No. 2 in its field, it should be sold.

"Peter could look around corners," philanthropist Eli Broad, who knew Drucker for 30 years, told the LA Times, Friday. "He would say things that seemed rather simple but in fact were very profound. He saw the future."

In the foreword to one of Drucker’s last books Jim Collins wrote: “Drucker liked to tell the story of a Greek sculptor from 500 BC who was commissioned by the city of Athens to construct a set of statues to ring the top of a building. The sculptor toiled for months longer than expected, making the backs of the statues as beautiful as the fronts. The city commissioners, angered by this extra work, asked: ‘Why did you make the backs of the statues as beautiful as the front? No one will ever see the backs!’ ‘Ah but the Gods can see them,’ replied the sculptor.”

In essence this brief story lends insight into how Peter chose to live his life. He left this world a better place than he found it and took with him the only thing that accompanies us out of this life, his indomitable spirit and a significantly informed intelligence and experience.
We are confident Peter Drucker will continue his influence beyond this world. It’s certain his influence will continue to touch ours. Bravo Peter. Way to finish strong!

"Aude aliquid dignum" (16th century Latin: "Dare something worthy")

Keep making waves,
CoveyLink

Intelligently Brief Insights™© CoveyLink 2005