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If you cannot see this here, you can view it at http://www.peopleempowered.com.au/newsletters |
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Newsletter January 19, 2010 Inspiration for 2010 |
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This is the first newsletter for 2010. I've decided to do things differently this year. I'm going to share with you snippets of ideas, thoughts, opinions and inspiration, rather than long articles. Quite a few people who filled in my survey asked for more of this type of content. I want you to join me and share some of your thoughts also. Daniel Pink's Latest Book - Drive I've just listened to a great interview with Daniel Pink on his new book, "Drive". If you don't know his work, then introduce yourself to it by listening to this interview with Elizabeth Marshall. His two previous books - "A Whole New Mind" and "Free Nation State" I found quite inspirational. He is a very creative and imaginative writer who opens up new ways of thinking about ideas. He says that he sees his purpose as "writing books that help people to see the world a little more clearly and live their lives a little more fully." "Drive" is about motivation. He studied the science of motivation and then "translated" it into practical terms so that we can use it in our day to day work. He says that while many managers believe that their people are passive and inert and that they will do nothing unless they are threatened, he believes that most people are motivated to be actively involved in their work. He does believe they need to be motivated but that the secret to enduring motivation is not rewards, but 3 other important things. 1.Autonomy, the urge to be self-directive. 2. Mastery, the desire to get better and better at something that matters to us. 3. Purpose, to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. He says we need to be in organisations and with managers who encourage those three things in their people. But, he also has some great ideas for people who are in an organisation where these chief motivators are NOT present. Listen to the MP3 recording yourself. If you haven't time to listen to it now, right click and "Save As" because I'm not sure how long the link will be active. Here is the link.
http://marketingmarshall.com/recommends/danpinkcall Let me know what you think and I'll share some of your ideas. Email me at ______________________________________________________________________ What About "Internal Consultants"? You well might be asking what are "internal consultants". They are all the people who work in your organisation who have a great amount of accumulated experience of what is good and not so good in the organisation, what could be improved and how everything could be streamlined or function better. They are the people that leaders and managers often don't consult with about what's happening in the organisation. CEOs are far more ready to put out large sums of money to bring in "external consultants" to advise and tell them what they need to be doing. One of the best ways of engaging people in the organisation is to use them as "internal consultants". It's a way to value their opinions and ideas and to let them know that you want to meet their needs and aspirations, as well as those of the CEO or Board. They need to know, however, that they have to do the job well. Whingeing, complaining, criticising is not on. What is wanted is constructive ideas and suggestions to remedy and change problem areas in the organisation. So these 'internal consultants" need to come up with alternative ways of managing difficult situations and suggested desired outcomes. There is a good article in today's HR Daily Called "Revamp Your Induction Program To Engage Graduates From Day One", that is, use your new graduates, or new people to your organisation, as "internal consultants" in developing your induction or orientation program. They are the ones that know all about it. They know whether it was helpful, unhelpful and what could be improved. If you'd like to read this article, sign up for HR Daily. It is free and is excellent if you are interested in people and HR issues. Here is the link: http://www.hrdaily.com.au/nl06_news_print.php?selkey=1358 Share your experience on how you have used your employees as "internal consultants" and what the positives and negatives were of the experience. Email me at info@peopleempowered.com.au _________________________________________________________________________ A New Look At New Year Resolutions - Setting Goals on What You Are Going To Stop DOING. If you haven't picked it up yet, the emphasis is on "DOING". How easy it is to be "doing" things all the time, keeping lists of things to do, marking them, and measuring our success by how many we had ticked off, how many things we had done. In fact, our business was epitomised by the extent of our "busy-ness". But what if we stopped "doing" and started spending some time "being"? What would that mean? It would mean that we spent time with ourselves in reflection and quiet time. This is time to recharge and relax, but it is also time to let go of what is and let in what we haven't yet thought was possible. I remember hearing Scott Peck, the famous psychiatrist and author, talking about this. As the author of what I believe is still the biggest selling self-development book in history - The Road Less Travelled - he was famous and highly respected. He had a very busy private practice; he travelled the world giving lectures; he wrote books. His colleagues asked how he had time to do all this. He told them that he takes 2 hours for himself in the middle of every day, just to "be". He would meditate, reflect, read some inspiring book, wander his garden, to recharge and refocus himself. He called it his "prayer time" because that was the only way, he said, that people wouldn't interrupt him. He tells how his colleagues scoffed, saying that they were too busy to take two hours off in the middle of the day. His response: "Well, that's why you can't do what I do." So what do you need to stop doing because it stops you from being? Where is the "being" space in your life? What is it that puts you most in tune with your real self? Start living in that "being" space in 2010. When I was doing a lot of marriage and relationship counselling, I'd often have couples where the women were wanting to leave. The guys would say: "I'll do anything if you'll stay". Then they'd start "doing" everything and anything. They'd come back for the next session and I'd ask how things were going. The guy would always say: "Good", because he'd begun to do all the things he had remembered she had wanted him to do for years. He was very busy "doing". Yet when I asked her how things were, she'd say: "Nothing had changed." The guy would be devastated. When I'd check with her that he had been doing all those things she wanted, I'd ask her what it was she wanted then. She would always say: "I just want him to be with me." Most of the guys didn't know what their women meant when they said that. What the women wanted was the men to spend time with them, to be in their company, to talk with them, to be interested in them, to sit with them, to let them know that they enjoyed just "being" with them. And if you want to understand a bit better what "being" rather than "doing" is all about go back to the January 2008 newsletter and read "Remember What Is Important In Life" and "To A Child, Love Is Spelled T-I-M-E." Here's the link http://www.peopleempowered.com.au/newsletter/vol-3-no-1-january-2008 I hope you'll be inspired to create a list of things you will stop DOING so that you have time to start BEING. Have a wonderful 2010. 
Maree Harris PhD  |
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Watch your emails next week! A colleague of mine, Dawn McCooey, is launching her new book next week - Keeping Good Employees On Board - Employee Retention Strategies to Navigate Any Economic Storm. I'll be sending you out further information next Wednesday 27th January.. If you buy the book she is giving away hundreds of dollars worth of bonus gifts to the lucky purchasers as her way of saying thank you. So watch for my email.
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Another Thought on Motivation. I like this quote, but don't know the author. People are like sticks of dynamite. The power is on the inside. And nothing happens until the fuse is lit. You can light the fuse for all your people with the way you empower them and value and appreciate them.
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People Empowered Survey. Thank you to all the people who have filled in the survey on what they want from joining this mailing list. Yours responses have been enormously helpful and I'll be acting on them. The survey closes on 31st January, 2010, so it you have made a response, I would really appreciate your thoughts. You can just tick the boxes and that will only take you a few minutes, but if you have time to write some comments, that may take you 10 minutes. Whatever time you can give will be most appreciated. Here is the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z3SH6K6 |
