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July 21, 2009

The Secret Sauce For Successful Implementation

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , — Admin @ 8:02 am

We are pleased to have a guest Blog by Miki Saxon, RampUp Solutions while Holly is off on vacation!

How many times during your career have you attended training, or read a book, that offered tools and taught techniques that fired you up only to find yourself unable to implement them?

A frustrating experience and even more so when others seem to apply them effortlessly. That’s especially true when those who do succeed are less experienced or skilled than you.

What’s going on? Most likely the difficulty lies in your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophyTM) and it is your MAP that needs to change.

People can’t implement any method unless their MAP is synergistic with it.
Unfortunately, most management and leadership training assumes that participants have a certain kind of MAP or they wouldn’t be there.

But that’s not true-MAP is as individualistic as snowflakes-no two are identical.

MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophyTM) is the basis for everything you do-it’s the why of life.

Everything you do and say is a mindset, grounded in your attitude towards others, which, in turn, is based on your personal philosophy.

MAP is learned, not innate, and it changes, either passively, through the influence of those around you, or actively, in ways that you consciously choose.

That’s why learning better management, leadership, parenting, etc., is a far cry from actually accomplishing it. The difference is similar to the difference between stain and paint.

  • Paint learning means coating what you already think with new ideas or approaches. The problems arise when the underlying attitudes and thoughts, i.e., MAP, are inconsistent with the new ideas-the greater the discrepancies between the two the more difficult it is to successfully implement them.
  • Stain learning means that the new ideas sink in and actually become part of your MAP. That also means being willing to modify or change your MAP when the value of the new ideas is greater than the cost of change.

The greatest thing about MAP is that it’s completely within your control.

Changing it requires a strong desire, the right catalyst-awareness-and a journey through each of the four levels of competence:

  1. unconscious incompetence,
  2. conscious incompetence,
  3. conscious competence, and
  4. unconscious competence. (Most people believe they never reach this level since, by definition, when they do reach it they aren’t aware of it.)

Although there are as many types of MAP as there are people, I’m often asked what comprises “good” MAP. Keeping in mind that my answer is totally subjective, I think good MAP is (in no particular order) positive, open, flexible, honest, secure, interested, enthusiastic, patient, sincere, encouraging, caring and loves creativity (its own or others).

Once your MAP is on board and you start implementing, be careful not to confuse process with bureaucracy.

  • Process is like MAP, it gets you where you want to go, whereas bureaucracy stifles whatever it touches;
  • Process, like MAP, is ever-growing/ever-changing, while bureaucracy is carved in stone.

Finally, remember that in the high stakes employee productivity, motivation and retention game MAP is worth more than money.
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About the author: Miki Saxon is founder of RampUp Solutions, Inc.

Miki has been coaching startup executives on their cultures and communication skills for 10 years using a system she developed called MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophyTM) that’s predicated on the belief that every outcome starts with a thought, so “To change what they do, change how you thinkTM“

In 2003, she shifted from consulting to a virtual coaching model to accommodate both her clients’ preferences and a move to southern Washington State.

RampUp Solutions is also developing Option SanityTM, the first program to provide an automated, CEO-defined approach (based on the founder’s philosophy) to awarding stock options for any company instituting a stock plan. Beta testing is set for mid-Q3, with full release in Q4. Interested parties should contact miki@RampUpSolutions.com or call 866.265.7267

Miki writes two blogs, MAPping Company Success and Leadership Turn.

August 7, 2008

Traveling Along The Road To Effective Management: Thoughts on Airlines & Leadership

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — Admin @ 1:59 pm

What a whirlwind! Talk about heavy travel… over the last 11 days I have been in 10 different airports, flown 4 different airlines and have had a whole slew of experiences with various types of management and leadership styles! It’s no secret that the slumping economy and rising cost of fuel have affected the airline industry. However, I can’t help but to wonder what the senior leadership of those struggling airlines would think if they could view their companies thru the eyes of a road warrior like me or perhaps even a casual traveler like many of you. Would airline executives be comfortable with the way their vision of customer service, quality and operational excellence is actually coming to life and being applied in the trenches? Countless delays, cancellations, cutbacks and curt staff members certainly is not the way to achieve any desirable management or leadership vision.

I often read the airline provided in-flight magazines when I fly and coincidently, the first few pages of all of them usually have articles on customer service, on how valuable their customers are or about all the changes being made to constantly improve. However, as a traveler, I have not seen these changes come to life. Do they bother to communicate these changes or promises to their employees? If so, in what manner, how and when? And do they make it clear to employees what excellence looks like when the airline employees are living those promises? My gut on this is ‘no’ just based on my travel experiences in the past 12 months alone. One thing I do know is traveling. I average no less than 3 days a week of travel – all over the world and I can count on one hand the number of great airline experiences I have had in the past year. Now that’s really saying something.

Without a clear and constant focus on informing, inspiring and engaging the employees of the airline organizations, how do leaders expect service levels and customer satisfaction or loyalty to increase? It is no secret that ongoing communication and engagement with employees has never been a strength of corporate America, but today- more than ever- it is a necessity.

As a consumer, I have too many options and too many forums to vent my frustration with anything less! And with the supersonic pace we are traveling today, you cannot assume mentioning expectations once is going to garner the desired result. Leaders today have to be even more vigilant about keeping what is important to their brand and what is valued by their customers front and center for themselves and their entire organizations…there can be no other way.

© 2012, The Human Factor, Inc.