Employee Engagement practices can be quite important in your leadership skill development. Please share your thoughts about what is important to you in keeping YOU engaged. Share your disappointments and your gratitude below (comments).

Our best,

The Enlightened Leadership Team

We’ve all taken various Time Management courses over the years – we
make lists, we prioritize A, B, & C; we plan to do important things not
just urgent things first. Yet the companies that we work for
unintentionally thwart our best attempts to do the right things at the
right time.

I’ve polled many of my executive friends and clients to see what they
say are the biggest obstacles to productivity. Here they are in order of
frustration:
Planned Meetings (this actually takes the blue, red & white ribbons)
Email overload
Informal “doorway meetings”
Incoming phone calls
Of course the culprit in all of this is just way too much to do in too
little time (And the company dares to list work/life balance as one of the
objectives!)

Here are some ideas we’ve come up with so that the organization can
support you in managing your time better. We’ll start with the topic of
meetings and get to the other categories in later articles. Of course, some
of these ideas will need to be modified to fit a particular workplace, but
you can get the drift.

MEETINGS
Have you seen the poster that says: “We’re going to keep on having
these meetings until we can figure out why nothing is getting done around
here”?

Meeting Periods
Remember college? Classes were often 50 minutes with a 10-minute passing
period. Woe to the professor who tried to keep you late. You were perfectly
within your rights to load up your backpack and leave. Remember too, that
they managed to get a lot packed into those 50-minute periods?
Suggestion: Have all meetings start promptly on the hour and end promptly
50 minutes later unless they are specified as a 2-perriod or 3-period
meeting. (3period meetings should be pretty rare).

Blackout Times
We can’t have work/life balance at 7am or 4:30pm if we offer flex items
and continue to schedule meetings. If you’re serious about allowing
employees to have a life, all meetings should be scheduled between 10 am
and 4pm. The reason we say no meetings before 10 is that every employee
deserves to have the first hour of the day to get organized and get a few
pressing things accomplished before they are called away.

Project Wednesdays
How many times do we feel forced to procrastinate an important project
because we just don’t have 3 or 4 hours of uninterrupted time to work on
it? Here’s the deal! Wednesdays are project days: No meetings, no
expectation that phone calls will be returned or emails answered. The
office door is closed. If you need information from someone for
Wednesdays’ project, you’d better get it handled on Tuesday. The
project day is the day you work on your “big rocks”. It only works if
it is held sacred by the entire organization or at least a department. Just
think of what you could plan to get done if you had a whole day every week
to work on something without distraction!

Meeting Productivity
Some companies require the person calling a meeting to email out or P.A.L.
to everyone at least 2 days before the meeting. The P.A.L. clearly
specified
Purpose
Agenda Items
Length
This helps keep meetings finite and to the point. Promptness must become a
cultural norm. A 10-minute late start in a meeting with 12 people is 2
Executive hours wasted, kaput, down the drain… For fun, we sometimes
throw paper wads at latecomers. It’s light-hearted, but it works.
If the meeting honcho can’t clearly state the purpose and some agenda
items, then it’s not likely to be the best use of your time. This brings
us to the next point, a radical idea…

Meetings Optional
Having Mandatory gatherings sometimes allows us to be sloppy in managing
the tightness and effectiveness of a meeting; people are there because they
have to be there. What if we trusted our employees to know what’s the
very best use of their time? If we ran informative, decisive, well-directed
meetings, that given their job priorities, people would choose to show up.

FORWARD FOCUSED MEETINGS
One of the reasons we have so many meetings is that they’re often so
awful that nothing actually gets done. Forward Focus™ completely changes the dynamic!

Jonette Crowley and the Enlightened Leadership Team

Yesterday was Memorial Day in the United States, a very special day

when we take time to be grateful to those who gave that ultimate

sacrifice – their lives – for the freedom of the rest of us.

I was not personally involved in a major celebration. Instead, I took

extra time…

… to read stories of fallen soldiers in the newspaper and

online. During the day when a short documentary would come up

on TV about a family’s sacrifice, or if I saw a report of a special service

being held, I just stopped what I was doing and allowed myself to

move into a deep feeling of gratitude.

I bought a poppy out in front of the grocery store from an elderly man

who was a veteran of foreign wars. As he shared how the poppies

were made by and bought from disabled soldiers and that 100% of

the proceeds were going to veterans in need, I found myself grateful

for him and all the others involved in this important cause. I proudly

wore the poppy.

As the day went on, I couldn’t help but notice how my little moments

of gratitude were so valuable for ME! I truly HOPE my gratitude is good

for the souls of those who died for our freedom. I’m PRETTY SURE my

gratitude is appreciated by the families of those who sacrificed their

lives. But I KNOW those moments of gratitude were good for my own

soul.

Those special moments of gratitude had a cleansing effect and had

me realize at a beautiful, deep level how trivial most of my worries and

concerns really are. What a blessing to feel that.

Then, this morning I woke up naturally and gradually with a

beautiful sense of peace and gratitude – significantly deeper than I

have felt in some time. I realized that the emotional and honest

appreciation and gratitude that I had felt throughout Memorial

Day was spilling over wonderfully into my new day.

Wow, what a special way to start any day, I realized – in appreciation

and gratitude. What a blessing this entire experience has been

for me. So, I quietly slipped out of bed, put on my robe, and went

downstairs to right this little post.

So, my plan is to take a few minutes tomorrow morning as I awaken

to think about what I am grateful for. I’ll be running on that question,

“What am I grateful for?,” even as I drop off to sleep.

I can only imagine, as I work with my team today at 

Enlightened

Leadership Solutions

, how my starting my day from gratitude will

naturally spill over to gratitude for them and everyone else I

encounter during the day. That will make me a better leader -

I have no doubt.

Leading from a place of gratitude is a powerful place from which

to lead.

I would enjoy your thoughts and comments about this!

In gratitude for YOU!

Ed Oakley

Technorati Tags: appreciation, gratitude, memorial day, POPPY

It’s finally time to let you know what’s in the upcoming “Leading Change in Difficult Times” webinar series. Here is the info in 11:32 minute video:

Printed information about the Leading Change series HERE.So, here are questions we invite you to comment on below:

What do you like about what you’ve seen or heard about this webinar series?

What else would make this course especially valuable to you, your team and your organization?

What other questions do you have?

How would being able to successfully lead your organization through significant change make a difference in your life?

Technorati Tags: CONTENT, leading change, webinar

Here is the 4th in our series of videos about Leading Change
in Difficult Times. We’re hope they’re providing great value.

This video focuses on the specific stage of Transition that
we call the Twilight Zone. Ed Oakley provides a couple of tips
for moving people through this stage. Enjoy!

Please let us know how this was helpful to you, as well as the
questions it raised! You can email us at change@enleadership.com,
or you can leave a comment below.

Our best to you as you guide your organization through successful
change!

The Enlightened Leadership Team

Technorati Tags: forward focus, leading change, RIGHT QUESTIONS, transition

We hope you are getting value from these videos on
Leading Change. It is such a critical factor in how we
will weather the storms of the economy as organizations
and invidividuals.

Video #3 discusses the three Primary Organizational
Systems. Any one or all three might be impacted by a
major change effort, yet it is unrealistic for us to address
the issues of all three, or even two, at the same time.

The video discusses the importance of determining the
system that it is the greatest constraint to successful
change – whether it be Strategy, Structure or Behavior.

Please give us your comments below, or email them to change@enleadership.com Also, make sure you have signed up on at least one of
the videos so you’ll get them all.Soon, we’ll be providing details about the webinar series.

To your successful change!

The Enlightened Leadership Team
1-800-798-9881
303 729-0540

Technorati Tags: BEHAVIOR, leading change, PRIMARY ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS, STRATEGY, structure

Change, change and more change. Of course the real issue
is the psychological and emotional challenges that our people
go through during change.

This second video in our series starts to address this transition that people
(you, me, our employees, families, etc.) WILL go through.

Enjoy and see how you can value from the information.

Be sure to give us your comments below, or email us at change@enleadership.com.

To YOUR successful change efforts!

The Enlightened Leadership Team

Technorati Tags: completion, HARD PART, leading change, SOFT PART, transition

We’re ready to start sending you some free videos about “Leading Change in Difficult Times.”

The first video is called “7 Steps to Successful Change Initiatives.” This video will give you a bit of overview about how to address major change.

CRITICAL! Be sure to sign up so you’ll get the additional videos, as well.

ALSO! Notice that there is a download link for a handout below the video.

Enjoy!

The Enlightened Leadership Team

Change Management at Enlightened Leadership Solutions

Technorati Tags: BEHAVIOR, change-initiatives, leading change, STRATEGY, structure

The reality is that change, itself, is pretty quick and mechanical. We flip a switch and we’re now using a new system. We make an announcement, and someone is a new manager. We painfully announce a layoff, and it is done quickly. We completely reorganize our business. It takes some time to plan, but once it is announced, it is done quickly.

The change is not the issue. The issue is the psychological and emotional process that people ALWAYS go through in their transition from the way it used to be – with which they had become very comfortable – to the new way.

It’s the People part, the Soft part – that makes all the difference!

This transition process in people occurs EVEN IF the change is a really good thing. That has always baffled me, but it is true. Even if it is a very positive change in the long run, people still go through their own individualized psychological process – and every person does it at their own pace and in their own way.

The new way might be a different job, a different boss, a totally new process of work, a new computer system, a new benefit plan(or personal change such as a change in a relationship, a death of a loved one, even winning the lottery, etc) – it doesn’t matter what the change is.  The issue is not the change. The issue is the emotional turmoil, chaos and confusion we go through during the transition from the old to the new.

And that transition is NOT instantaneous.

As managers-leaders-owners, how well we manage these transitions will make all the difference in the impact of the change on our business.

Whole businesses have failed because of poorly executed transitions.

The GOOD NEWS is that a well-led transition can enhance your organization’s effectiveness and position you for success better than you’ve ever been.

Sometimes, change is inevitable. There is no choice.

How we make the transition is ALWAYS A CHOICE! And that choice makes all the difference as to whether the change creates miserable failure or exciting results.

Stay tuned for more on this topic. And share this with others in your organization and your friends. They’re all being impacted by change!

To getting your organization through change in a way that positions you for higher success!

Ed Oakley

Technorati Tags: CHANGE, emotional-process, SOFT PART, transition

Share your comments below!

The Enlightened Leadership Team