LISTEN TO ME

Leaders Listen to Others First

Leadership is an attitude. Leadership is a lifestyle. Leadership is a moral compass. Leadership represents the “will” of an organization. Leadership is a powerful presence, yet the leader is humble.

Leadership is not something that a person “turns on” in front of co-workers. A leader leads by his or her actions. As Aristotle said, excellence is a habit and you can apply that to leadership.

The 3 words that will kill leadership are: Listen to me. The lack of leadership is characterized by a person using his or her influence to coerce or manipulate people into action (fear is a common tactic). You know the type who stands in front of people and pronounces, “It’s my way or the highway.”

This lack of leadership from a person is connected to his/her narcissistic attitude. From Greek mythology, narcissism refers to a person who is in love with his/her own reflection. Freud felt narcissism was a failure to suppress childlike behavior in adulthood. Leadership and narcissism are direct opposites; a leader cannot be a narcissist.

The cornerstones of leadership are sacrifice and a genuine interest in the well-being of others. Mother Theresa is one of the truly great examples of leadership. She could have done her humanitarian work from the comfort of Vatican City. Instead, she refused the Church’s offer and continued to live among the people she served until her death. Her lesson: never distance yourself from those who need you.

Narcissistic behaviors are the opposite: self-centered and greedy. Narcissistic people are abundantly represented by those spiritual and political leaders so enamored with him/herself that a scandal is inevitable. They only pretend to serve people, instead advancing their own agenda.

So when a person says, Listen to me instead of I want to hear you, you know what kind of person who employs you. You may have no choice but to stay under those conditions; just keep you expectations and opinions in check. There is no freedom of speech in a workplace without quality leadership. (In the classroom, the quickest way to alienate students is to say listen to me. By the time the words are spoken, those students’ minds have already left the building. An essential part of learning is the presence of student challenges.)

If you are working on sharpening your leadership skills, the most productive actions are your physical presence and active listening. People want to be heard, they want to be involved and they want to feel that what they are doing is meaningful. It’s not difficult to walk around, greet people with a smile and ask how they are doing today. Like Mother Theresa, spend your energy among your people.

In Lee Iacocca’s new book, Where Have All The Leaders Gone?, the title leaves no doubt as to his purpose. Iacocca’s framework is his 9 C’s of Leadership: Curiosity, Creativity, Communication, Character, Courage, Conviction, Charisma, Competency and Common Sense. According to Iacoccca, no one has mastered all of these attributes, but everyone has a foundation that includes pieces of each trait.

Here’s a suggestion: start with your strengths and then build. Take those 9 traits and begin a list of how you see yourself in each category (the strongest are the easiest to identify). Find a confidant to help you sharpen your list and give you objective feedback. Look for mentors, read books, establish a list of admired people and why you admire them and finally, be genuine to those around you so they will feel comfortable offering advice that will help you grow.

(Ironically, I think his leadership advice misses the mark: pick good people, have a good team around you and set priorities. That is a recipe for success reserved for a few, for example, assembling a potent baseball team like the New York Yankees. Leadership in everyday settings is about taking a diverse set of people, creating a vision, help them attain success and as a result they freely choose to follow their leader.)

Here’s one final tip: when asked, “Are you a leader?” respond with a “No.” Tell them you are a learner and the people around you are the teachers.

Unbelievable Healthcare Spending

Medicare became law in 1965, as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. In 1970, Medicare costs were $7.5 billion.

In 2006, Medicare’s budget had ballooned to $408 billion and in 10 years, it is projected to be $863 billion! Given the monthly premiums paid by seniors, medical co-payments, deductibles and the shameful prescription coverage plan, where is all that money going?

Access to affordable and quality medical care is a basic right in modern society. It is not an opportunity for healthcare-related companies to make record profits from the pain and misery of citizens.

America has enough resources to provide the best healthcare in the world. Unfortunately, America cannot overcome, or hope to survive, greed.

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GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

COMPANIES NEED TO TRAIN EMPLOYEES

Same Complaints Everywhere

They have finished secondary school but they can’t add without a calculator.

A quote from a US politician seeking election? A comment from a freshman college math professor? A discouraged small business owner from anywhere USA? No; though that kind of quote does pop up frequently in US dialog.

Actually that quote belongs to a director of human resources from a Brazilian company. Brazil has many of the political educational issues found in the US. Many of their traditional educational strategies have failed in the eyes of Brazilian businesses and politicians. Brazil’s economic growth has fallen behind other developing countries and the blame is directed at education. Brazilian politicians are vowing to change the system and create a new legion of 21^st century workers.

Another political effort that will ultimately fall short, much like the US-based No Child Left Behind legislation. The problem is that knowledge in every arena is growing faster than schools can teach and re-tool. Teach any work skill you choose. By the time the person graduates and is hired, the information is dated. Education will not be any more successful anticipating future workplace needs than was Sisyphus with his boulder. Completely modernized a school, spend millions of dollars in capital improvements, books and computers, hire the best instructors and for one, maybe two years, your school will be relevant to the workplace. By year three, it will be dated.

The answer is two-fold. First, schools need to take a liberal arts approach to K-12 education. Teach all students the basics in reading, math and writing and blend those skills with creative programs such as art, music, debate clubs, chess and school writing projects. Wait a minute you say; don’t schools already do that? Yes and No.

Schools teach those skills in K-6 and in nearly every instance, standardized tests reveal that teachers and students are doing an excellent job. In fact, on the world scale, K-4 results in reading and math ranks as one of the best. But by eighth grade, most of the momentum is lost and by the eleventh grade, the US is mediocre at best in world rankings.

The reason for that free-fall from best to mediocre is the transition of the classroom from student participation to blackboard lecturing as students get older. The connection between learning and creativity is squelched in favor of preparing for standardized tests. Plus schools in their effort to be efficient and seen as improving fail to make education relevant to all students (especially those students with no intentions of attending college).

In many school districts, nearly 50 percent of the students have no focus for their education other than graduation (for the majority of students that is a given as long as they maintain attendance). For these students they are just there. Schools focus on students who are college-bound by offering more challenging courses, AP courses, labs, creative writing and extra-curricular activities such as leadership academies.

Schools need to create learning environments that benefit all students and at the same time prepares student with the same degree of engagement that is evident in K-4. If every student can read and write at their grade level, much of what is currently missing will be resolved. (Successful attainment of these skills is reinforced with creative outlets.)

The second part of the solution is industry training and development. This used to be part of every industry: train the workforce and promote workers through a system. As knowledge changes, it is much easier to tweak workplace education rather than let outsiders anticipate what is necessary. But workplace education issues are two-fold.

One, industry and business don’t want to cut their profits by providing training and development. Providing education means having an education department and employees who leave the job to attend courses. This kind of commitment cost money and in the short-term productivity and profit will decrease. While it is less costly to push those efforts into schools and adult training programs, the long-term effects reduce productivity and profitability as companies are ill-equipped to respond quickly to new developments.

Second, the more a company invests in their workers through education and training, the harder it is to justify termination during slow periods. An investment has been made and losing that worker also terminates years of training and preparation.

Once again, short–term company profits are desirable over long-term benefits. If companies can’t arbitrarily terminate workers, how can they weather downturns and recessions? Unfortunately, this is not an argument but a self-serving attitude. By having a skilled and veteran workforce, downturns and loss of productivity are less likely to occur.

From another perspective, record profit in industry and business makes it difficult to accept the notion that there are inadequate numbers of skilled employees. People must be doing something right to be that productive. And that means schools are readying people for today’s job market.

One final comment about industry and business training. Only companies know what they need from an educational standpoint. Only companies know the most effective means of training and education to fit their needs. Company sponsored education and training is the answer to future growth and productivity.

Does the US have a workplace training and development issue or is this another round of politicians attempting to justify privatizing the public education system? Is it really education’s objective to provide human cannon fodder for companies? Or is education the act of developing minds and bodies to be good community citizens?

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

PERSONAL SUCCESS

Hard Work Not Enough

Remember that old axiom of work hard and you’ll be successful? There are so many clichés like Keep your nose to the grindstone and Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. For generations people in America believed that hard work and success were synonymous. Unfortunately, not anymore, unless you re-define what success means to you.

When US employment was over 90 percent in manufacturing and agriculture, hard work could be your ticket to financial and emotional success. Most manufacturing jobs didn’t even require a high school diploma. A person could earn a substantial wage and live the American ideal. It was hard work but the rewards reinforced a view of success. There were set work hours and plenty of time for family and friends.

Now manufacturing jobs are part of American folklore and hard work means longer hours and earning a few dollars above minimum wage, hardly enough to support a family nevertheless spend any time with them. And if you really work hard and are rewarded with increasing pay, today’s companies terminate you because you have become too expensive to keep.

If you ever needed a reason not to buy electronics from Circuit City, remember the 3400 people who were terminated recently because they did a good job, worked hard, got pay raises and then were terminated because of pay that was out of line with the industry. Whenever a company states it is offering competitive salaries, interpret that as paying you a wage that is in line with the industry and that pay increases could eventually cause you to lose your job. Circuit City is not the only service industry employer terminating employees because of higher pay. A spokesman for the company said they were just following service industry standards.

Hard work in today’s economy means that you need to have a high level of critical and creative thinking. Today’s jobs are sitting down and office based or standing on your feet teaching all day Working with your hands means using a computer, telephone or a whiteboard.

Do not underestimate the difficulty of good thinking. It is hard work and not everybody can do it. Remember Henry Ford’s comment? If thinking were easy everyone would do it.

Hard work today is not as much physical as it is mental determination. The hard part of today’s job is staying on the task and not being distracted by the 100 things that pass by you everyday. Focus is the hard part of today’s jobs.

Unfortunately, good thinking coupled with determined focus does not yield high pay. Ask any of today’s recent hires in the K-12 educational system. The average salary for new teachers is under $35,000. Currently there are 66 baseball players earning over $10 million per year. Both teachers and ball players work hard but only one gets paid what they are worth. (Wouldn’t it be great if these 66 baseball players started their own private schools and paid teachers a respectable middle-class salary?)

Look around at people in your community. Many of them are working multiple jobs. They work long hours. Yet, they are not financially or emotionally successful. They have a difficulty saving money and time to spend enjoying the company friends and family.

Is there an alternative? Yes. People need to end their commitment to consumerism and start living small. Lives need to be simplified by removing the excess. Instead of working hard to have money, work hard to have relationships.

No matter how much money you earn it will never be enough if you keep buying things. Instead, cultivating friendships and developing quality family life is both rewarding and provides renewable sources of satisfaction and contentment. Do you really need Blu-Ray HD-DVDs?

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

BUILDING CHARACTER

11 Principles

From the Character Education partnership, here are 11 principles for comprehensive and effective character education the group is promoting:

1) Promote core ethical values as the basis of good character

2) Define character comprehensively to include thinking, feeling and behavior

3) Use a comprehensive, intentional, proactive and effective approach

4) Create a caring school community

5) Provide students with opportunities to engage in moral action

6) Provide a meaningful and challenging curriculum that helps all students to succeed

7) Foster students’ intrinsic motivation to learn and to be good people

8) Engage school staff as professionals in a learning and moral community

9) Foster school moral leadership and long-term support for character education

10) Engage families and community members as partners in character education

11) Evaluate the character of the school, its staff and its students to inform the character education effort

This list is admirable and necessary but these principles need to start with parents not teachers. Schools are the partner to supplement character building enforced by parental guidance.

Schools are only part of the solution for building good character and leadership skills among the today’s youth. Beyond parents, other community institutions responsible include church/spiritual, government, business and social/recreational outlets. Without community and parental involvement, schools are powerless to effect widespread change.

Once again it looks like public schools are being asked to take control for something that is the domain of parents. Like childhood obesity, schools are powerless to correct this behavior without the help of parents. Character building cannot be a subject imbedded in a curriculum. It is part of culture and of civilized society and must be constantly demonstrated and reinforced by everyone.

Isn’t it interesting that he institution most closely associated with character building is not demanding to “lead the charge”? Spirituality is supposedly a high priority among US citizens, so where are the people representing the various ministries offering to provide character building studies? Aren’t these individuals the character builders?

Students need character building education but don’t expect teachers already burdened with trying to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind to be the solution. They are support and they lead by example but they are not the solution.

Job Loss

A person losing their job has been a way of life since the early 1980’s when the world (notably Japan and Germany) caught up with dominating US companies. Manufacturing was the major force in the US job market 25 years ago but it was undermined by an emerging world economy that could build quality products for less money. The era of “jobs for life” had ended.

According to the US Department of Labor, the US averages about 2 million lost jobs per year. In 1997, 1.44 million jobs were permanently lost. The best year came in 2000 when only 1.1 million jobs were lost (during the economic boom) and the worst year in 2003, when 2.85 million jobs were eliminated (the tech bubble burst). In 2006, 1.69 million jobs were terminated. Because change can come quickly instead of taking generations, employment is dynamic (new jobs are created and old ones eliminated).

The point is that people should not be preparing to do one job and instead should have the attitude that employment is a constant state of change. Instead of trying to anticipate what might be the next great job, prepare for everything and anything. The best way to accomplish that goal is to read and to practice your writing skills.

If you can learn, think and translate your thinking to paper, someone will hire you.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC

REGRESSION TO THE MEAN

Average Is Natural

It takes much work and energy to reach and sustain excellence. Dedication to excellence is against our natural being. As humans we are more suited to enjoy life, be average and stay among the masses. We know this by observing nature.

In laser physics, a powerful light is created when an electron releases excess energy (a photon) because it is unable to sustain a higher orbit. By releasing new found energy, an electron returns to its original orbit.

The electron will stay there indefinitely and without much effort until a new external stimulus occurs such as a new source of energy. The process begins again with an excited electron absorbing this new energy, rising to a higher orbit and, in time, releasing that energy and returning to its “comfort zone.”

It is absurd to think of electrons as “people” but people are electrons. Billions of electrons connected together with a magnetic attraction that defines our human presence. People are bundles of energy; stand near a person and feel the warmth.

Hence, we need to be stimulated in order to be innovative, creative and productive. Ignore people, but give them the basics of life and they are quite content to stay in the huddle of the masses or just be average.

Teachers are external sources of energy who stimulate students to reach new levels of energy. Unfortunately, not all students have access to dynamic classrooms. There’s not enough time or resources to create a learning environment for innovation and creativity that energizes students. It’s more efficient, money and time wise, to lecture, test and evaluate the methodology. It is a formula for average.

In the workplace, leaders are the source for energizing employees to be innovative and creative. Unfortunately too many employees do not have access to dynamic leaders who get them involved and energize their thinking. It is more efficient to give directions or plan a day’s work and have managers who oversee that effort. It is a formula for average.

It is our nature to take it easy and enjoy each day. If you plop people in front of a TV or video game console, they will spend the day being amused by these activities. Provide new video content to enjoy and you may never get them to leave the room. It is a formula for average.

To effect change, we need to energize people to attain new orbits. Everyone likes the thrill of new energy and it doesn’t have to be based in fear. Energize people by asking them to get involved and then teach them how. Even though it is impossible for people to sustain their new found energy, they will release new ideas, innovation and creativity that will stimulate others and keep the process going.

Here’s another lesson from physics: Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle basically states that the more you observe an object the less likely it will be seen in its original state. In essence, the mere action of observation changes the observed object. This is why leaders interact with people. When a person knows you are interested in them, they respond. We can energize people by paying attention to them. (Cautionary note: Heisenberg’s principle also states that if you only focus on one object the other object will atrophy creating an imbalance; hence take time to offer equal attention to everyone.)

So our choice is to either to take action to be a stimulus or allow people to regress to the mean. Given all the uncertainty in the world the one certainty is that people are not naturally attracted to achieving excellence.

Visit www.3MinuteLearning.com

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE

© 2007 3 Minute Learning LLC