Top 10 Social Enterprise Sound Bites

project-colleagues-working-together-planning-success-strategy.

From dozens of suggestions in the npEnterprise Forum, our social enterprise social media site, here is our:

TOP 10 SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SOUND BITES

Social enterprises are businesses that:

  1. Use the marketplace to solve pressing social problems.
  2. Have a primary purpose to do social good.
  3. Serve the common good, making money while solving social problems.
  4. Are values-led and committed to the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.
  5. Use the power of business for positive social change.
  6. Believe the bottom line and social change can be hardwired together.
  7. Develop and sell products or services that address social or environmental issues.
  8. Are values-centered, transparent, and in business for the benefit of all stakeholders.
  9. Are dedicated to making a sustained, positive impact on social and environmental change.
  10. Believe what is good for the world is good for business.

Hope this is helpful in your work.

Good luck!

  • Copyright © 2013 Rolfe Larson Associates
  • Social Impact App, find social enterprises nearby and online
  • Venture Forth! endorsed by Paul Newman of Newman’s Own
  • Speaker, Social Enterprise Summit, Minneapolis, May 19-22, 2013

Useful Quotes for Training and Education, Part I

Useful Quotes for Training and Education
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Excellence is an art won by training and habituation… – Aristotle

Quotes. Every speaker, teacher and trainer uses them so I thought I gather a few and place them here. It is interesting to note that some are subtle in meaning and some are not. Some will reach all of your audiences, some will not. Most importantly, I suggest to you that if the total meaning of the quote is not 100 percent clear to you that you do some research so you do and not lose credibility. For example, Descartes’ is quite unusual and stirring and few people know its origins. There are essays and books on the internet if you interested enough.

Better yet, pick quotes your audience will understand and be able to understand. You will notice I include quotes about education as well as training, not because they are the same, but because how we learn best is the same and you will see that expressed many times. Especially the act of doing rather of doing rather sitting in a classroom, which is more likely to be scene in a classroom than in a training environment.

Part II contains many more quotes, but I wanted to whet your appetite so you’d come back for more and if you have a favorite I haven’t listed, please feel free to put it in the comment section. First, is my favorite.

‘Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

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“I think, therefore I am (Cogito, ergo sum.)” – Descartes

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” – Mark Van Doren, poet

“It is by teaching that we teach ourselves, by relating that we observe, by affirming that we examine, by showing that we look, by writing that we think, by pumping that we draw water into the well.” – Henri-Frederic Amiel (1821-81), Swiss philosopher, poet

“Learning without thought is labor lost. Thought without learning is intellectual death.” – Confucius

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“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” – Mark Twain

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” – Mark Twain

“Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major-perhaps the major-stake in the worldwide competition for power. It is conceivable that the nation-states will one day fight for control of information, just as they battled in the past for control over territory, and afterwards for control over access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labor.” – Jean Francois Lyotard, French philosopher

“There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.” – Arnold Bennett, British novelist

“What I hear, I forget.
What I see, I remember.
What I do, I understand.”
Confucius

“When you know something, say what you know. When you don’t know something, say that you don’t know. That is knowledge.” – Confucius

“To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.”
Lao Tzu

“Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two.” – Octavio Paz

piet_hein
Well, it’s plain and simple to express…Piet Hein, Danish inventor and poet

“The road to wisdom?-Well, it’s plain and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.”
Piet Hein, Danish inventor and poet

“Some, for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote.”
Edward Young

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” – B. F. Skinner

“Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.” – Mark Twain

“Retention is best when the learner is involved.” – Edward Scannell, University Conference Bureau, Arizona

“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” – Albert Einstein

“It’s all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you’re properly trained.” – Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain

“The only kind of learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered or self-appropriated learning – truth that has been assimilated in experience.” – Carl Rogers

“You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself.” – Galileo Galilei

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – John Powell

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough we must do.” – Goethe

“Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Gandhi

socrates
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think. – Socrates

“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.” – Socrates

“The teacher if he is indeed wise does not teach bid you to enter the house of wisdom but leads you to the threshold of your own mind.” – Kahlil Gilbran, poet and painter

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” – Marcel Proust, French novelist

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward

http://www.citehr.com/41401-famous-quotes-training-development.html#ixzz2Qolspre6

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Stay tuned for Part II, probably coming out tonight or tomorrow; it just needs some formatting.

For more resources about training, see the Training library.

A final reminder: I do have a website where you can find other items I have written, including coupons for my best selling, The Cave Man Guide To Training and Development and my novel about the near future, Harry’s Reality! You might even get them for free. Happy Training.

Start Promoting Planned Giving: Bequests I

This posting by: Tony Martignetti.

Last month I gave you two things you need in place to make Planned Giving feasible.

Now we’re ready to start promoting your inaugural Planned Giving program. Who are the prospects?

Your best prospects are:
 55 and over
 loyal, consistent donors, irrespective of dollar amount
 board members, irrespective of age and giving consistency

Lots of charities don’t have age in their database. If you’re among them, do that donor survey you’ve been thinking about and ask for birthdate (preferred) or age. If you’re planning a wealth or other data screening, include an age overlay.

Maybe your constituency is familiar to you and good prospects are popping into your mind. Give it more thought, canvass your staff, and you’ll come up with still more planned gift prospects.

If none of those apply to you, then rely only on giving history (and your board). If someone has been a donor for 15 or 20 years, there’s a good chance they’re in their late forties or fifties, putting you in the ballpark.

If your charity hasn’t been around that long and you don’t have age data, then you’ve got no choice but to consider each of your consistent donors a prospect. Are you sure you can’t get out a survey?

Inaugurate your program with bequests—charitable gifts by will. For several reasons:
 they’re easy to understand
 everyone should have a will by the time they’re 55
 donors like knowing they can change their minds
 donors like knowing they don’t have to tell you about their gift
 there’s no lifetime cost

Those features make bequests the foundation of any Planned Giving program. Expect three-quarters or more of your planned gifts to come from bequests.

The most effective way to promote gifts by will is personalized direct mail. It’s also the most expensive, so if your budget can’t support that, stick with me. There are plenty of other channels, which I’ll cover in coming posts.
Direct mailers should use all the outreach ideas I recommend, not just mail.
If you can afford to mail to your prospects, write an appropriately worded letter. This is the toughest part, I know. It’s also something I routinely do for my clients, so I have lots of experience to share with you next month.
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In May, “Write The Letter & Other Promotion Channels: Bequests II.”
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Tony Martignetti, Esq. is the host of Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio. He’s a Planned Giving consultant, speaker, author, blogger and stand-up comic. You’ll find him at TonyMartignetti.com.
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Have you seen The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
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If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

Why Do You Need a Plan?

Business plans on a white board

Developing strategy takes time and resources. It requires the time and commitment of some of the most highly paid and highly experienced people in your organization. So if your team is not willing to invest the necessary time, I recommend that you don’t do it. Poor planning is often worse than not planning at all.

So why do you need a strategy? Why take time for planning? There are many reasons. But Leadership Strategies’ Drivers Model focuses on five in particular.

1. To set direction and priorities

First and foremost, you need a strategy because it sets the direction and establishes priorities for your organization.

Your strategy defines your organization’s view of success and outlines the priority activities you must complete to make this view your reality. The strategy will help your people know what they should be working on, and what they should be working on first.

Without a clearly defined and articulated strategy, you may very well find that your priority initiatives – the ones that will drive the highest success – are being given secondary treatment.

 

2. To get everyone on the same page

If you find that you have departments working to achieve different aims, or going in different directions, you need a strategy.

Once you define your strategic direction, you can get operations, sales, marketing, administration, manufacturing and all other departments moving together to achieve the goals of the organization.

 

3. To simplify decision-making

If your leadership team is having trouble saying “no” to new ideas or potential initiatives, you need a strategy. Why? Because, as mentioned earlier, your strategy will have clearly outlined the priority activities you must complete to achieve success. Once you are clear on your priorities, it makes it much easier to say no to those potential initiatives that will pull you off focus.

 

4. To drive alignment

Many organizations have hard-working people putting their best efforts into areas that have little to no impact on strategic success. They are essentially majoring in the minors – because their activities are not aligned with the priorities.

Your strategy serves as the vehicle for answering the question, “How can we better align all of our resources to maximize our strategic success?”

 

5. To communicate the message

Many leaders walk around with a virtual strategy locked in their heads – they know where their organization needs to be and the key activities that will get it there. Unfortunately, the strategy is not down on paper and hasn’t been communicated thoroughly. As a result, few people are acting on it.

When your staff, your suppliers, and even your customers know where you are going, there are even greater opportunities for people to help you maximize your success in getting there.

 

Once you recognize the need to plan, you now have the role of becoming the catalyst for facilitating the buy-in and commitment of your leadership team and the rest of the organization.

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States.

The Power of the Pen – 2 ways to use it, not abuse it

A-person-writing-with-a-pen

Few facilitators truly understand the power of the pen. When facilitators don’t record what participants say or when facilitators record their own words and not the words of the participants, we are abusing the power of the pen. Abuse of the pen can very easily lead to participants dropping out, participants arguing with the facilitator, and participants not buying into the overall result.

How does the facilitator prevent abuse of the power of the pen? Here are two ways:

1. Write 1st, Discuss 2nd

One of the ways a facilitator prevents abuse of the pen is to write first and discuss second. Consider the following:

  • If what is said is incomplete, you should write it.
  • If what is said can be improved upon, write it.
  • If what is said is not the answer you were looking for, write it.
  • If what is said is obviously wrong, still write it.

By recording what is said, you, as the facilitator, are implicitly saying, “Thank you for making a contribution.” It is vital to positive group dynamics that this happens regardless of whether the contribution was good, bad or indifferent. Each time you record a contribution, you are saying “thank you.” If you stop saying “thank you,” they may very well stop contributing!

2. Write What They Said, Not What You Heard

While writing first and discussing second is important for empowering the participants, an equally important empowerment technique is to write what they said, not what you heard. Facilitators often make it a habit to listen to a participant’s statement, then transform what is said into words more “acceptable” to the facilitator. Why change the words?

  • Some facilitators indicate they change the words to summarize the idea.
  • Others say they transform the words to promote clarity.
  • And, still, others say they are just trying to shorten the comment to make it easier to write.

Whatever the reason for changing a participant’s words, the potential negative impact on empowerment may far outweigh the benefit, as described below.

  • If you try to “clean up” the speaker’s words by writing words he or she did not say, you, as the facilitator, are implicitly saying, “You don’t know how to speak; let me speak for you.”
  • Over time, less assertive participants will tend to get lazy and look to you to “make all their words better”; more assertive participants will tend to compete with you to come up with suitable words for the other participants.
  • In addition, rewriting comments in your own words decreases the likelihood that participants will be able to understand what was meant after time has passed. This effect is a result of you using words and expressions in ways that are familiar to you, which might not be the way the participants express these same ideas.
  • Finally, writing your words can decrease ownership of the result by the participants since the words are yours, not theirs.

These are just two of several techniques for using, not abusing, the power of the pen. Interested in learning more? Take Leadership Strategies’ course, The Effective Facilitator.

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Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., The Facilitation Company and author of the new The Secrets of Facilitation 2nd Edition, The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy. Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. The company is also a leading provider of facilitation training in the United States.

Placement Of Text

A Person in a Suit Sitting on the Bench while Using a Laptop

There are many answers to the question on how and where to place text for images, figures, snapshots, etc. Should text be embedded or placed below, beside, above, or to the left or right of the image. It depends. For simplicity, let’s use the word ‘diagram’ to represent images, figures, snapshots, pictures, charts, etc., in our examples below.

Embedded text box

If the diagram is used to show where the keys (buttons, knobs, switches, controls pins, screws, levers, etc.) are located, use text boxes with arrows pointing to their location.

Large diagram

If the diagram is large, crop it just enough to focus on a particular element. If the diagram is too large, and the text that follows falls on the next page, either shrink the diagram or decrease the font size of the text. Try to keep the diagram and the text together.

Small diagram

If the diagram is small, placing a text box with explanations to the left of the diagram allows for ease of readability. This also leaves room for the reader to scribble in extra notes to the right of the diagram (if they wish).

Using a table

For explanations of crucial mechanisms, create a table below the diagram, and list the names of the instruments or devices in one column and the explanation or usage of it in the adjacent column. If additional diagrams are needed, crop and embed them to fit into the table cells.

Instructional text

When giving steps to perform a function, use the table format and place it below the diagram. Number the steps in the table, followed by a heading, such as ‘To initiate…..’ followed by sub steps (if needed). This is an easy format for readers to follow and they can also easily see what tasks need to be accomplished. As above, if one of the steps require another diagram, shrink or crop it and embed it into the table with the explanation to the left of the image (again for ease of readability).

Text Placement

I tend to always put the text below a diagram. We read from left to right and downward, so it is natural and easier for the eye to move down to read text after a diagram rather than up. Also, the image of the diagram is still fresh in your mind as you read down. The only time I have used text above a figure is when explaining, e.g., a graphic or chart or anything that involves numbers. For example, if the preceding text of a diagram is similar to any of the following statements: ’In the following xxx. .’, ‘For example…’, ‘Note the following…’, then I would place the diagram after the statement.

There is controversy as to whether or not to place text after or before diagrams, images, figures, snapshots, etc., so check your company style guide first. See what the company prefers. It may be the total opposite of what was stated in this post. Just remember to keep your format consistent. Too many different views can confuse the reader.

Please leave a comment and let us know what format you prefer?

Temperament: The Key To A Development Professional’s Success

A smiling businessman sitting at his office

This posting by: Tony Poderis

When hiring a professional development officer, the emphasis should be placed on the personality characteristics which are important for the appointed person to be able to effectively carry out the position requirements.

Specifically, you hire someone who can accurately and effectively communicate the mission of the organization, and who understands the importance of close interaction and teamwork among the development office, public relations and marketing, other professional staff and management.

This person will also represent the organization externally in ways which foster the best possible relations with volunteers, actual and potential donors, and sponsors and granting agencies.

In succinct terms the requirements are:
— Knowledge of basic skills of fund-raising management
— Superior organizational and communication skills
— Donor and volunteer service mentality
— Analytical capabilities
— Conceptual skills

Position Temperament
Considerable attention should be centered upon the personality aspect of the individual involved, since, most often, the right temperament will dictate whether or not he or she will be successful. The development officer must be willing and capable of maintaining a low profile, allowing the volunteers and donors to receive the proper credit.

The development professional must be flexible, persistent and very attentive to detail. He or she is an organizer and director, as the principal charge is to develop numerous efficient and compelling opportunities for donors to give their support, and at the same time making those experiences satisfying and rewarding for them.

From a newspaper essay written by syndicated columnist Sidney Harris titled “Temperament for High Office May Succeed More Than Talent”:

“Most of us prefer to ignore our temperamental incapacities for certain jobs and functions. We imagine that because we have the skills and the knowledge and the expertise, we are thereby fitted for the task.

“Yet it has been my observation over the years that temperament is the most important ingredient in many crucial posts – and one that is too often ignored, both by those who proffer the jobs and those who accept those jobs.

“It has also been my observation that more people succeed by temperament than by talent, especially in those jobs where relating to people is the prime ingredient. A person cannot be dumb, but need not be especially smart if he or she has a native shrewdness and tact in handling people; whereas a far smarter person may come to catastrophe by overvaluing brains at the expense of other personality factors.”
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If you have a question or comment for Tony, he can be reached at Tony@raise-funds.com. There is also a lot of good fundraising information on his website: Raise-Funds.com
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Have you seen The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
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If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

Five Steps to Analyzing Training Needs and Solutions

training key points guide

Don’t believe me? It’s basic critical thinking. I look around the internet and people are always asking how do you do this or that, what are the steps? Sometimes I smile and say, “If I tell all my secrets…” Actually I have Mary Ellen Guffey to thank for her article, Five Steps to Better Critical-Thinking, Problem-Solving, and Decision-Making Skills from 1998. I’m just going to borrow her title points and we can try to fill in the blanks with training points.

  1. Identify and clarify the problem.
  2. Gather information.
  3. Evaluate the evidence.
  4. Consider alternatives and implications.
  5. Choose and implement the best alternative.

At the university where I teach, we start the students off with critical thinking; the logic is to get the students not to just absorb material but to think about it and use it–not unlike training reasoning. I routinely refer to this as creative thinking because even though it appears dry on the surface, digging deeper, brainstorming, exploring, and playing what if are essentially creative tools.

Let’s put this in training terms now.

  1. First, we want to know if the problem is real or perceived and the age-old training question: we want to identify that the problem a company has is indeed due to a lack of training. As you know some problems are not training problems at all, but organizational. I, for one, don’t like to do business with anyone who would take a job from me and do work that didn’t need to be done in the first place. So, we find out the extent of the problem and research the company to “clarify” the nature of that problem.
  2. Next, we will gather information to evaluate the nature of the evidence (the causes, pinpointing the need that we have determined that needs to be addressed to help us determine what kind of training could be beneficial to resolve the issues
  3. Evaluating the evidence for us means looking at all the factors that affect training an organization: size, level, method and balance that against possible solutions to the problems at hand. Not only that, but here we are looking for spoilers: misinformation, office politics, rigged statistics, etc. We need to ferret out the truth.
  4. All the while we are looking at alternatives to training and different kinds of training, and even if we are the right trainers for the job, as well as the implications our training may have in the short and long term. We must take into account cost factors as well as methods. We are scrutinizing ourselves just as must as we have scrutinized the problem.
  5. Decision time. It would seem now we have enough material to deal with, and that’s just from the company-level; there is also the hands-on training to consider that comes next, and to consider ways to monitor it in the future to see the training lasts or needs refreshers.

So, there you have it. Five steps to analyze needs and solutions. It’s not as hard as it sounds. These are things you may be doing without thinking. Now you know what to call them: critical thinking about… or if you want to be different creative thinking about…, which is my choice. If you aren’t doing this already, maybe you should. It’s basic creative thinking. By the way, Mary Ellen Guffey is a business communicator with several books. I’ve heard there are striking similarities between good trainers and good communicators. Here’s another link you may find helpful in your search for connections: Using Design Method for Problem Solving.

Short one for me this time.

By the way, if you are looking for a good, how-to on doing a basic needs assessment, here’s a good place (besides our Training Library) to start: http://www.dirjournal.com/guides/how-to-conduct-a-training-needs-analysis/

For more resources about training, see the Training library.

I do have a website where you can find other items I have written. For more information on my peculiar take on training, check out my best selling The Cave Man Guide To Training and Development, and for a look at a world that truly needs a reality check, see my novel about the near future, Harry’s Reality! Meanwhile, Happy Training.

Introversion Isn’t Something to be Managed

Introversion-Isnt-Something-to-be-Managed

(Guest post from Jan Terkelsen )

Have you ever thought that managing people with introversion is challenging? Or that you have to “manage” them in some way. I’m guilty. Yes, guilty of seeing introversion as something that you have to change or manage.

As a Myers Briggs practitioner and workshop facilitator I am often asked to run team sessions so teams can understand how to communicate more effectively with each other and with external clients.

When I first began my career running these workshops and prepping for workshops, I would start to collate the workshop participant’s type reports, and see if the majority of their preferences were for introversion or extraversion. If I knew that the majority of people in the workshop were introverts, I caught myself saying “Oh no, how am I going to keep the energy up, or the discussion going? How can I get the discussion happening so we can really flesh out issues, or How am I going to keep my energy up so I can deliver a great experience?” (Yes, that last one was all about me.)

Notice the comments were about energy, engagement and discussion. This is what most people consider to be important inputs into a workshop, meeting and team environment; however, an introvert may see it differently. This is where we have one the biggest dichotomies in the corporate workplace.

The corporate workplace is set up to congratulate and validate extraversion yet 50% of the people in the corporate workplace have a preference for introversion and the gifts of introversion is exactly what the corporate workplace needs.

People who have a preference for Introversion:

  • Get their energy from the inner world of ideas, concepts and emotions.
  • Tend to think then talk then think. Yes, these are the people who never, or rarely, put their foot in it, or regret what they say.
  • Tend to be brief in their communication and dialogue.
  • Prefer to have one on one or intimate interactions with people.
  • Like to reflect and analyze information before commenting.
  • Tend to get deeper insight after a conversation.
  • Prefer to share well thought out or near perfect thoughts and ideas.
  • Usually have a depth of interests and are subject matter experts.
  • Prefer written information ahead of time so they can reflect and process the information.
  • Tend to have contained body language.

After facilitating and coaching thousands of people, I know that introversion is just a preference and the gifts and talents that introversion offers is just as relevant and important as the gifts of extraversion.

As a manager you will need to accommodate a variety of styles, preferences and competing demands.

By increasing your level of self awareness and understanding of your communication style and strengths, you can then use this knowledge to manage and coach others in your team, so they can demonstrate their gifts and talents. This is the best way the team can leverage from each others’ strengths.

It isn’t that introversion needs to be managed; it needs to be validated and acknowledged. Understand that people with a preference for introversion do not show the outside world their strong suit; we are not privy to their best, most dominant process or way of thinking. Introverts leave that for the inner part of their world.

Isabel Briggs Myers, the co -creator of the MBTI and author of Gifts Differing, likens it to a General and an Aide. The Introvert’s General is inside the tent and we, the outside world meet the Aide so we see their least dominant preference or process.

Only when the business is very important, or the friendship is very close, do other people get in to see the General himself. As a result, the outside world can underestimate an introvert’s abilities and also get an incomplete understanding of her talents, wishes and point of view.

So, if you are managing a team with introverts, be mindful that by having just ordinary contact with them they haven’t necessarily revealed what really matters to them. If there is a decision to be made, they should be told about it as fully as possible and if it is important to them the General will then come out.

Let’s start to see introversion as a gift and talent and something to be celebrated and validated. Perhaps then the general will come out more often.

People open up and do their best work when they know like and trust the people they are dealing with. Be that type of manager.

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Jan Terkelsen is an Executive Coach helping business managers to become business leaders and their staff to become high performing teams. Using a range of modalities – Executive Coaching, Team Coaching and Facilitation and Corporate Speaking – Jan also specialises in the use of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), for one-on-one coaching purposes and for improving team dynamics and communication. http://www.janterkelsen.com Ph 0425 795 938

Why I’m Cynical about the Consulting Profession

young-woman-looking-suspicious-disapproval-face

Years ago, I remember going out on sales calls with one of the partners in our consulting firm, Marv Weisbord. We would most often be asked in to help a leadership team that was struggling. So, we’d be sitting with a group of managers listening to them talk about their difficult issues. I’d find myself jumping ahead and beginning to think of possible solutions……..team building, coaching, a visioning conference, a process improvement project, etc. I knew that they would stop talking at any point, turn to us, and ask what we would recommend. They probably suspected that we already had our proposed solution in our hip pocket. Meanwhile, Marv would continue to ask more questions and probe deeper. Finally, they would stop talking and ask us for our recommendations.

Marv would then calmly stand up, walk up to a flipchart, and create an approach to help solve their problem. It was always both original and brilliant. And the clients knew it. I once asked Marv how he knew what to create with so much pressure on him. His response was to say that he trusted himself to create an approach in the moment based on their struggles. It’s almost as though he was just letting his arm, hand, and magic marker go wherever they chose to go. I know that’s an exaggeration but, basically, he trusted himself.

I learned so much from these experiences. I learned how difficult it is to sit there and listen……truly listen…. when you know damn well that you have to be “on” in a few moments. Your mind automatically fills up with potential solutions and you stop listening. Your anxiety takes over. Getting up to a flipchart while not knowing for sure what you are going to create is just plain difficult. Yet, ironically, it is probably the most critical skill in consulting.

Unfortunately, that skill has become a dying art. Most consulting firms are now “expert” oriented. They have an approach or a product to sell whether it is team building, coaching, process improvement, strategic planning, or restructuring. They already have their prescribed solution when they walk in the door. A solution in search of a problem. They pretend to listen and then get up and fit their solution into the situation, regardless of whether or not it’s a good fit. Thus, my cynicism.