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, philosophy^TM) 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, philosophy^TM) 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, philosophy^TM) that’s predicated on the belief that every outcome starts with a thought, so “To change what they do, change how you think^TM“

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 Sanity^TM, 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.

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