Articles from 2005

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2005

GOING SOLO ( March 2005 )

At a time when our company Everest Motivation Team Pte Ltd is expanding its team members and staff, I decided to execute a solo expedition ( my first ) to the remote Atacama Desert in north-west Argentina. During this arduous 25-day journey where I was the only human in about 400sq km of rugged high altitude desert and mountains, I managed to make the first Singapore solo ascents of two major 6000-metre high peaks; including the world's 3rd solo via Argentina, of Ojos del Salado ( 6882m ) , the highest volcano in the world. [ Pictures at the expeditions website http://www.everest.org.sg ]

Chances of airborne rescue should anything have happened was nil. To help me gain that edge I needed to have supreme management of my emotional states; to supplant negative, unproductive states with ones of excellence. Self-coaching was essential, especially at times when I kept imagining, in a slightly exhausted, hypoxic state, I had a ' partner' climbing alongside( ! )

This story, it's lessons and actual cognitive behaviour techniques to run your mind-body states at a top level are contained in the presentation GOING SOLO: Lessons in Leadership; as well as a 2-day seminar on self/team leadership. If you have staff or are industries where much of your key people are ' flying ' solo ( eg consultancies, real estate agents, financial planners ) this seminar will help them get in touch with some of the most powerful , yet hidden resources in each of us to succeed.

Contact us at office@everestmotivation.com for an appointment to discuss your staff coaching or leadership needs.


TEAM THEORY AND TEAM APPLICATION

If your 10 -year old child has an issue or problem, you wouldn't approach the problem as though he were a 21-year old would you? So why do so many organisations prescribe solutions for their adult staff and team when, in fact some ' teams' are barely teams, but merely ' infants' . And others are at their 'prime', performing at high levels.

If you are familiar with the Tuckman model of team development from the 1960s, Bruce Tuckman' studies showed that teams go through the classic 4-stage process of FORMING ( roles, unclear, plenty of grey areas in work objectives ), STORMING ( people jostling to have say, cliques form, power struggles ensue ), NORMING ( agreement on most major areas, team tasks/roles clear ) and PERFORMING ( team is more strategically aware; the team knows clearly why it is doing what it is doing. Little direction needed from leader ).

Should you have an issue with your team next time, ask yourself first: what level of maturity is my team at?

An educated guess will go a long way in helping you adapt responses, challenges and motivators to that particular stage. If your team is still FORMING, consider steps to create clearer roles, duties, mutual expectations and trust within a team before attempting to thrust them into situations which demand complex, cross-departmental agreement before progress is made. Many ' teams' in Singapore's corporate world are not even teams by the Payne Team Development Inventory that we use, but merely workgroups and such structures demand a different approach to take the group to the next level.

Again by shifting leadership styles and gaining more understanding of ourselves and our teams, we able to coax the most our of ourselves and our people

WINNING LEADERSHIP – JOSE MOURINHO ( April 2005 )

In late 2004, a Watson Wyatt Worldwide survey showed these results Singaporeans have highest level of job satisfaction in Asia. But only 38% rated their bosses favourable compared to 41% in Asia Pacific. Only 1/3 rd said they were coached or mentored. The survey covered: 115,000 workers from 515 top companies in 11 Asian nations. Only 1 in 4 Singaporean said they could trust management ( vs. 1/3 Asians overall ). In this vein, what examples of effective leadership can we look at? Perhaps we can look at how high levels of rapport combined with the skill to match another person's deep internal programming ( our motivating factors ) are key.

This month, Everest Motivation Team's Chief Learning Officer, Kelvin Chen explores this WINNING LEADERSHIP style

WINNING LEADERSHIP – JOSE MOURINHO

"I have read I have to prove a lot in English football. Sir Alex
Ferguson, is the only European champion ( [sic] club manager ) in this country, nobody else, so I have to prove what?" said Jose Mourinho, manager of English football club, Chelsea, to the media.

Since uttering those words, Chelsea has won the English League Cup, has the Premiership just about sewn up, and is in the semi-final of the Champions League. Mourinho first tasted managerial success with Porto FC, when in his first season, 2002/2003, they won the triple of domestic League and Cup and Uefa Cup titles. The following year he went one better: not just winning the Portuguese League but also the coveted Champions League.

So what kind of leader is Mourinho (apart from being very successful)? One thing immediately obvious is the great "Rapport" he has with his players. It is said that Mourinho speaks 17 languages (modern football clubs, like many organizations, are a mini-UN) and knows which button to press to motivate each player. After each game, which Chelsea usually wins, Mourinho congratulates all his players on the pitch, starting with his captain. And he does so by hugging them and/or touching their heads; not many managers has this kind of close rapport with their players.

What I think sets Mourinho apart from other managers is that he is a great Motivator in a teammotivated environment. Everyone can be inspired to achievement in a team-motivated environment. With a common goal - winning trophies and bonuses - team members support each other until success is achieved. In this environment, team members care for one another, and everyone is needed for achieving the goal. For this reason, team motivation is extremely powerful. Mourinho says: "I hate to speak about players individually. Players do not win trophies, squads
win trophies. ....I love players who love to win. They not only win in 90 minutes, but every day, every training session, in every moment of their lives".

GETTING INTO A STATE OF FLOW! ( July/August 2005 )

Here's an excerpt from Dan Millman's "The Warrior Athlete":

"Satori is a word from the Japanese Zen tradition which describes thenatural harmony of body, mind, and emotions. When the mind, free ofinternal distractions, is pure attention to the present moment. When theemotions, free of obstructing tension, manifest as pure motivationalenergy. When the body, fully relaxed and vitalized, is sensitive and opento life. When the three centers are in this simultaneous relationship,something clicks; that's satori. It represents a state which the athlete,artist, musician, and every performing artist flashes in and out of onmany occasions."

Think about that - a state where time is altered- havent we been there before? The state of satori is what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described as a state of flow ( The Evolving Self ). Both the ancient easterners and modern western thought leaders have identified this state as a critical state to encourage. Why is this so important?

Think about a state of focus and concentration which is pleasant and powerfully productive. Ever been immersed in an activity where time just flies? And where you are in supreme control of your destiny? That's flow. Ask Michael Schumacher if he is in ' flow' often when behind the wheel of his car. In my own context , I've experienced it in an absorbing rock climb where 40 minutes feels like 15 or 10. or in a 12 hour summit day that feel like a 6-hour climbing day.

Satori and Flow states are critical in helping us attain states of brilliance and excellence. First you have to find that activity ( any activity ) and 'centred' into the activity. From that point of focus, concentrate, enjoy what you are experiencing, and soon, you may enter a state of flow, executing moves with enhanced quality and outcomes.

TRANSFER OF LEARNING: WHY IT MATTERS( Sep 2005 )

We are in a constant state of learning whether we like it or not from the moment of our birth. Unfortunately, sometimes the lessons we learn from our experiences may not necessarily be the correct ones. At the far end of the learning curve, it becomes harder at times to transfer learning from one seemingly unrelated scenario to another. However, a certain connectedness can happen organically if we have a " spirit of learning" i.e. a motivation to learn. At times, some structured facilitation may open up new avenues of learning.

Some of you may have already asked me about how experiences in the outdoors can be transferred into a more indoor corporate environment. At a higher level of abstraction, when confronted with a risk/reward, fight/flight scenario, our behaviours in any setting will tend to be similar. What the outdoors represents is a classroom without walls. We tend to behave in a way natural to ourselves and without the veneer of double-guessing what is expected of us. The challenge for both the facilitator and participant is to work together to derive maximum lessons from individual or group behaviour.

Perhaps the best questions to apply to any situation to help the transfer are those which provoke thought about applications to our ' regular' lives. These include asking yourself or your team:

- How did this experience challenge you in a way you hadn't expected?
- In what ways could the same behaviours which led to success ( relating to a problem/challenge ) be applied in the office?
- What mindsets helped, and which ones hindered a successful outcome?
- What assumptions are we making now about the 'correct' formula for success, and is this applicable in ANY area of our personal/professional life?

There are more such ' coaching' questions which assist self-directed learning. The trick is to have that spirit of learning, and to constantly use experiences or events in life and derive practical and effective learning from them through transference.

FOUR TIPS TO EMPOWER PEOPLE:( Oct 2005 )

1) Set parameters and really commit to them:
It is extremely motivating to be able to know what you can do and when you can do it. By knowing your area of empowerment, it gives great flexibility in dealing with clients, your parents ( if you are a teenager for example )and gives you a sense of ownership. But for this to happen, the partner in your process must truly commit to empowering you and others. Get that agreement.

2) Don't get in the way:
Self-explanatory. Once you are empowered, accept that you *may* make mistakes. What can kill your enthusiasm is the boss cutting in ever so regularly to ' remove' that empowerment. Bosses, take a leaf from Robert Sutton's provocative book "Weird Ideas That Work" - where he says " reward success AND failure. Punish indecision". Basically, to take your team to the next level, allow the people you empowered to get on with the job, and even make mistakes

3) Conduct regular reviews
Powerful contracting can be done if there is agreement to have a review on a pre-set basis. The intervals can be flexible but long enough so that those empowered can have time to prove themselves or their methods. Regular reviews allows both parties to pull-back or to expand the scope of authority/freedom

4) Expand the power circle
If (3) has gone well, don't be afraid to expand the scope of power an employee, subordinate, teenager i.e. increase the diameter of their ' power circle'. If you are the source of authority, empowerment leads to your team being a force multiplier, instead of being merely extensions of yourself. Case in point: a 1996 Himalayan expedition saw the original team split in two for practical reasons. By empowering the lead team to call the shots in establishing the route to the summit, instead of controlling every aspect of the climb's tactics, the leader managed to pull off a summit success for most of the team by the end of the expedition. I know this works. I was that leader

So, in short, Commit, Get Outta the Way, Review and Power up!

"I CAN'T GET MY PEOPLE MOTIVATED!! " ( Nov 2005 )

Does this refrain sound familiar? In countless offices and organisations, managers and leaders are wringing their hands with the issue of staff motivation. Here are a few points that can help you:

Here's the bad news - no one can motivate anyone. Anyone who claims to be able to do must also be selling some snake oil by the side. People motivate themselves through a combination of a higher purpose in their life e.g. be financially free, raise a great family, and everyday behaviours that manifest these desires. Work with them to discover what these are, and help them translate these into daily behaviours which not only help them get to those goals , but also help the organisation achieve its targets. Ask, ask ask! In short, create an environment where intrinsic motivation can flourish. This may include appropriate rewards, an empowering work relationship, conditions to succeed, tolerance of failure and so on.

You can't work with people unless you and them share a connected, desired future - in whatever way. If you are a boss of a team, ask yourself how skilful you are in seeking to build rapport with your team. By doing so, you begin to appreciate their perceived universe. Once 'inside', you have a much better chance of making people see what direction you would like them go with you. What do you do, say, appear to be like when at moments of great rapport? Model these, repeat, see the results, adjust your behaviours again until you get the desired level of ' connectedness'

Once you begin to get a desired state ( OK, there may be some relapses, sudden loss of faith etc ), practise testing the elements you introduced that brought about that mood, state, attitude that you wanted. Reinforce them if they are identified to be the ones that worked - discard the others; make it part of the routine . This can be as simple as having rituals unique to your team to celebrate " wins".

Do some of these things and let me know your results!

HAVING A SENSE OF BEING ( Dec 2005 )

We are greater than the sum of our parts. We are more than just ' doings', we are ' beings', and as we go into 2006, spare a thought about who you are and want to be. Often you have to do something in order to be something. However, at times, we forget that the most powerful moments we have ever experienced are when we are just ' being'. Knowing when to differentiate the two becomes critical in a crises of identity or loss of confidence.

My friend Doug Scott, who has scaled more new mountaineering routes and difficult peaks that I can ever imagine, espouses a philosophy that embraces the importance of having a sense of being, always. Because this state can never be taken away from you. Your job can evaporate and your business can be ruined, but no one can take away your sense of being. Having this sense allows you to follow that next step to exploring the ' what next' in your life without the burden of a title or a job designation. So as you go into 2006, spend some time focusing on who you are, in relation to where you are - instead of what you want to do. That can wait a while.

Just sitting by the beach and experiencing the sensation of a warm breeze and an azure sky is truly one way of exploring your sense of being. Cats have it too - just watch them gazing and absorbing the world around them with half-closed eyes. On that note, I'm off to be with my cat and share a sense of being, and nothing else.