The HP Institute

A useful book on communcation

The HP Institute — Thu, 10 May 2012 09:25:00 +0000

Conversations for Change: 12 Ways to Say it Right When it Matters Most

by Shawn Kent Hayashi.

Shawn introduces some highly useful and important ideas that contribute to effective communication – essential for building trust and buy-in from your people. It contains useful metaphors and concepts that any leader or manager will find highly relevant, practical and easy to implement.

Those ideas include:

Why emotional intelligence is so important in leadership – According to Izzy Justice “In the sequence of an experience emotions come first. Emotions are faster than thoughts. This means emotion trumps competencies, behaviour, and character unless we learn to be self-aware and channel our emotions consciously.”

Our “emotional wake” – Whenever we engage in a conversation or deliver a communication, we share information but also leave other people with an emotional experience. Being aware of the feeling you leave people with in communications leads to a more mindful interaction.

The importance of values – values hold the key to our motivation as individuals and is the glue holding professional relationships together. When our values match within an organisation, we experience success, satisfaction, joy and a sense of belonging. When there is a values conflict, we experience struggle as we fail to fit in. Your own values must match those of the group of organisation you work in.

It’s an interesting read – great for the long weekend.

Happy Holidays!

The Power of Habit

paulrm221 — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:12:00 +0000

Charles Duhigg has written a powerful book that is a must read for anyone serious about leadership and success.

In The Power of Habit, he documents how our everyday actions are governed by habits and how changing even one habit can have a massive domino effect. One case study worth mentioning concerns how Alcoa, a US Aluminum manufacturing company turned around the company culture with just one small change.

In 1987, at a time when people were more focused on maximising profits than worker safety, the new CEO, Paul O’Neill, announced plans to “Make Alcoa the safest company in America.”

Investors were not impressed and many sold their stocks based on that speech. Big mistake. Within a year, profits rose to their highest ever and by 2000 Alcoa’s market capitalisation had risen by $27 billion.

How did this happen?

Two weeks after O’Neill implemented the new safety rules he noticed a small decline in injury rate. Rather than waiting to see if this was a trend, he immediately congratulated the entire company with a heartfelt note celebrating the collective work that saved lives.

By connecting and acknowledging people on a heart level, he seeded pride throughout the organisation. This led to other small changes in behaviours and habits. People started coming in with ideas on how to be more productive, working late, coming in early and so on. Pretty soon, the entire culture of the company started to change to what eventually became one of success.

Habits are infectious. Small wins seed larger ones.

What small seed can you plant today that will make a difference tomorrow?

The Power of Habit

The HP Institute — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:12:00 +0000

Charles Duhigg has written a powerful book that is a must read for anyone serious about leadership and success.

In 1987, at a time when people were more focused on maximising profits than worker safety, the new CEO, Paul O’Neill, announced plans to “Make Alcoa the safest company in America.”

How did this happen?

Habits are infectious. Small wins seed larger ones.

What small seed can you plant today that will make a difference tomorrow?

Yelling Doesn’t Work

paulrm221 — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:40:00 +0000

An oldie but still gold.

In the early 1960′s, when Tom Watson Jr. was CEO of IBM he discovered that one of his executives made a mistake costing the company $10 million. He called the man into his office asking him “Do you know why I called you here?” The man replied “I assume you’re going to fire me.”

“Fire you?” Watson replied. “I spent $10 million educating you. I just want to be sure you learned the right lessons.”

Watson could have easily justified yelling at, reprimanding or firing the executive. That was the expected and easier response. But his choice instead turned failure into an opportunity for learning and growth that ultimately would benefit both men and the company.

It also increased the integrity or wholeness of the company. No doubt people were inspired and encouraged by his reaction whereas another response might have set up a collective fear response. People might then be afraid to take risks for fear of failure.

When we communicate, we do more than convey a thought or idea, we create a world for ourselves and those who receive the communication that will result in either a positive or negative response in the other person.

Too often, we turn our brain on loudspeaker without considering how our words will affect those listening.

Being yelled at or reprimanded leads to a threat response in the brain resulting in resources being channeled away from the working memory which processes new information and ideas. This impairs problem solving, creative and analytical thinking at a time when people most need these resources.

Instead try wholesome communication that respects the other person’s worldview, brings clarity, learning and understanding to the situation resulting in a positive outcome for all involved. This empowers people to learn from mistakes, grow and move forward supporting you and those around you to reach your (and their) greatest potential.

Yelling Doesn’t Work

The HP Institute — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:40:00 +0000

An oldie but still gold.

6 Lessons in Influence from a Karate Master

The HP Institute — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:15:00 +0000

My karate teacher (sensei), Masataka Mori is a 9th Dan and the chief instructor of the International Japanese Karate Association. Even though I haven’t trained with him in years, he will always be my sensei. If he walked into a conference full of hundreds, or even thousands of people, you would instantly know who trained with him. They would be the ones standing and bowing towards this one man. This would include anyone on stage. Such is the respect he commands.

Here are six ways you can garner that level of respect and influence.

1. Be 100% congruent to your work. Karate is about leadership, respect for yourself and others, and integrity. Mori sensei lives his life in integrity and with total commitment to karate. It isn’t what he does, it is who he is. This is also fits in with his values, talents and interests. His conversations, movements and being all are a perfect expression of a master. Ensure what you are doing and where you are is the right fit for you. Never try to fit a square peg into a round hole. It doesn’t work.

2. Be completely reliable. We know exactly who sensei is and can rely on him to deliver on what he promises. If he says 10am, we know it will be precisely 10am. That gives us certainty and the knowing what our time with him will be like. To have power and influence you first need to give people certainty. That is the foundation for trust and respect.

3. Accept others for who they are, even if they are different to your expectations. There far more people who train with only a superficial interested in karate than there are true devotees. He instantly knows where you fit in and doesn’t judge. He accepts however you want to train and works with you to your commitment. However, he only puts individual attention and time into those who are truly committed. In this way everyone is left with a choice and responsibility for their development.

Not everyone at work is going to be fanatically devoted to the organisation. Sometimes people are unwilling. It doesn’t mean they can’t provide a valuable contribution. Tailor your attention to match their commitment and find a way for the others to contribute. You never know, they might come around.

4. Only see people for their greatest potential. Sensei relates to people as their highest self and ignores the rest. In relating to people as all that they can be, you enable others to have a window into their own abilities and greatness. When you see the best in others, you help lift them out of their own self-criticism and doubts. It is inspiring, moving and intoxicating and motivates others to give more. Remember, people often are their worst critics and focus on their inabilities. Shift their focus to what they are great at and they’ll do more of that.

5. He respects the belt. There is the story of the karate student who, when he received his first black belt bowed. When he received his second level, he bowed lower. When he received his third, he bowed even lower. Sensei is a 9th dan, the highest ranking belt in the world today. He wears it, not with pride, but with the knowledge of the responsibility that comes with that power. As a result he is not arrogant about his abilities and accomplishments, nor is he humble. Instead, he has achieved a comfort in his skin and an inner peace with who he is. He both owns and respects his power and position. To what extent do you?

6. Be unwilling to hear complaints or talk of failure. Sensei is unwilling to listen to fears or concerns for what we can’t do. That “can do” culture in training is so strong that no one even says the words “I can’t” or “I’ll try.” There is no try. There is no failure. There is just do. You do, do, do until you succeed. Up until that point, you are doing, not failing.

I remember one evening, as I was warming down after a training session, Sensei stood in front of me and said “One step punch.” While it was so long ago that I can’t recall how far away he was, I do know it was way beyond what I thought I could reach in one step.

At that time I had had three knee operations and struggled to relax my body into the right position to be fluent in my movements. I had constant pain during training and thus, often held back from stepping forward to the fullest extent. I was willing to accept my perceived limitations. He wasn’t.

There was no saying “I can’t, it’s too far.” or even “We’ve just trained for 1 1/2 hours, I’m exhausted.” All I could do was nod and go for it. So, I did and did and did and then reached him. It was a real triumph.

Then he stepped back. “One step punch.” By that time I was really worn out, but again kept on doing until I reached him. I was exhilarated and while I didn’t expect him to jump up and down, I was hoping for a smile.

Instead, he stepped back. This time, my internal dialogue is unprintable. It took many more doing until I reached him, but I did. He nodded and walked away.

In that moment, I completely altered my perceptions of what I was capable of doing. Never again did I entertain being unable to do something, just unwilling.

That day I learned that the potential within me was far greater than I might ever fully comprehend.

Often people need a champion who believes in them enough to ignore their whining and push them beyond what they can see is possible. As a leader, you need to see the potential within and continually relate to that possibility until it is brought forward.

When you show people that you believe in them and are unwilling to allow for anything less than their best you will have their respect for life.

6 Lessons in Influence from a Karate Master

admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:15:00 +0000

Here are six ways you can garner that level of respect and influence.

Instead, he stepped back. This time, my internal dialogue is unprintable. It took many more doing until I reached him, but I did. He nodded and walked away.

In that moment, I completely altered my perceptions of what I was capable of doing. Never again did I entertain being unable to do something, just unwilling.

That day I learned that the potential within me was far greater than I might ever fully comprehend.

When you show people that you believe in them and are unwilling to allow for anything less than their best you will have their respect for life.

Quick productivity boost

paulrm221 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:49:00 +0000

Throw out your 10-page to-do list.

It’s daunting and overloads your working memory, which is energy intensive with a short bandwidth.

Instead, keep a shorter list for each day that you can tick off as you go. Maximum one page.

Make sure you have a few easy items (low hanging fruit) that you can accomplish easily for a quick win. If you find that you’re stuck or stalled, choose a small item to build back your momentum.

If you really have that many things to manage over time, break down your big list and group smaller actions under larger categories. Ensure that you are only faced with one page each day.

Finally, diarise as many of those items as possible so that when you look at your list you know you have a plan in place. Your stress levels will go down along with any sense of overwhelm once you know you’re working your plan.

When your stress is reduced, your body will channel resources to the parts of your brain you need most during the day. You’ll think more creatively, solve problems more easily and overall be more productive.

Quick productivity boost

admin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:49:00 +0000

Throw out your 10-page to-do list.

It’s daunting and overloads your working memory, which is energy intensive with a short bandwidth.

Instead, keep a shorter list for each day that you can tick off as you go. Maximum one page.

Make sure you have a few easy items (low hanging fruit) that you can accomplish easily for a quick win. If you find that you’re stuck or stalled, choose a small item to build back your momentum.

If you really have that many things to manage over time, break down your big list and group smaller actions under larger categories. Ensure that you are only faced with one page each day.

Brain fog

The HP Institute — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:19:00 +0000

After a weekend of holiday eating and activities, I think it’s appropriate to tackle the Energises pillar of the SHAPES model — it represents managing the ability of your body and brain to operate in a peak performing state.

Since my knee surgery last July, I’ve maintained a healthy diet and exercise regime to minimise inflammation (pain) in my knee. I’ve reduced, and in most cases, eliminated, processed sugars, breads and other grains, and animal fats. I also keep really fit exercising 3-5 times a week. It’s paid dividends as far as recovery, but had some unintended benefits. Mostly around my levels of energy and mental clarity.

This weekend I indulged a bit too much on the high carbohydrate, sugary foods. The result? I woke up the next day with a foggy brain and exhausted body and am struggling to get my act together.

While many people associate a diet high in processed and sugary foods with weight gain and heart disease, you may be surprised to learn this also lead to a decline in cognitive functions – even from just a few meals.

While our brain needs sugar to function, it is best sourced through fruits and vegetables. This enables your body to metabolise the sugars slowly and gradually, making it readily available for your brain and body to use as needed. Combine this with adequate exercise means you’ll have less chance of excess sugar in your body that’s stored as fat.

The exercise also boosts circulation in your body and brain, supporting cognitive functions and general health and well-being. Exercise is associated with higher levels of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) which promotes healthy nerve cells and seems to play a role in improving memory and recall.

A diet high in refined carbohydrates and over processed foods (white breads, sugars, cereals, soft drinks, lattes) leads to increased levels of insulin production, which plays a role in making glucose available to your cells.

Eat this way often enough and your cells become resistant to insulin so the sugar goes straight to your fat cells where it is stored for future use. In other words, your hips and thighs get the sugar, versus your brain and body.

The problem is that your cells in your brain and body no longer have access to the fuel they need. They’re starving while your body is storing.

The result? Foggy brain and sluggish body.

Highly processed, sugary foods taste good. They are engineered to appeal to our desire for an immediate fix and have been shown to have the same effects on our brain and bodies as drugs such as cocaine and marijuana.

In the game of great leadership and peak performance, you need to think hard about the long-term effects.

Try this on for one month. It’s pretty simple and feels great.

Eat mainly whole foods that look like something recognisable—steak, not sausages. Give up the sugars, fried foods and processed snacks. Get food from your fridge, not your cupboard and make sure you understand and can picture everything you put in your mouth. Personally, I can’t imagine what Propyl P Hydroxybenzonate looks like so would prefer not to eat it.

Try grilled versus fried foods. Eat plant oils versus animal fats. Raw versus cooked vegetables.

Then notice how much better you feel. Once your taste buds adjust to real food, you’ll discover it actually tastes great and doesn’t come with the brain and body fog.