What happens in Life Energized Coaching?

Life Energized coaching can take you above and beyond your own personal limitations. More often than not, people try to achieve their greatest potential, but don’t even realize what stands in their way. We can offer an unbiased and objective perspective, and can help you realize your patterns and habits.

Life Energized Coaching has supported 100's of Realtors in achieving success by:

• Beginning with personality profile assessments such as the DISC test to determine your personality proclivities.  In other words we determine from the very beginning where your natural brilliances and talents are and where you need the greatest support. 
• For Realtors we use an interactive goal setting program to determine the following:
• Net income desired over the next 12 months
• Broker split
• Expenses expected for 12 months
• Gross closed income (GCI) needed to reach desired net income
• Total sales volume needed to acquire desired GCI
• The % of business which will come from buyers vs sellers
• The average percentage of commission from representing sellers vs buyers
• Determination of the average sales price you will be seeking to work with, which geographical farm area or people farm will help to determine this price point
• Next we will whether you be pursuing mets, non mets or a combination. This will determine your conversion %.  Non mets will be a lower conversion % as opposed to mets such as  past clients, advocates, SOI or a strong farm area. 
• Then we guesstimate conversion percentage of calls to leads, leads to appointments, appointments to contracts and contracts to closings.
• Lastly we break down the annual numbers to monthly and then weekly.

Then we use the Best Year Yet online 12 month goal setting and tracking program to :

• To determine your BIG Why.  We build a vision of your goal destination.  We take peek at where you see  yourself in 12 months as if it's already occurred.  This is exciting!
• Next we review actual accomplishments the past 12 months and even touch on disappointments and lessons learned.
• Next we access limiting belief paradigms and begin to rebuild new strong empowering ones.  We crate new guidelines to keep us on track.
• Then we discuss personal values and the various roles you play in your life for the purpose of building a well rounded plan that supports, business, financial, self care, family, spiritual, mental and emotional stability. 
• It is here where we integrate the real estate production goals we previously discussed.
• We then create the top 10 goals in our life which gives us our final print out of annual goals.
• Then we look at quarterly milestones.
• Our monthly and weekly goals then support our quarterly milestones.
• We stay on track together with strong accountability and determine when we are off the path and why.  
• You will score yourself after each week, month and quarter and have an opportunity to view your progress objectively.

During this incredible coaching process you will have a printed goal sheet after each session to keep close by as you move closer and closer to your goal destination and you receive prospective, accountability and processes to manage emotional energy so that it supports not sabotages your progress.  You experience encouragement and celebrations. 

For more information click here or visit www.life-energized.com or call 888-899-3610 to schedule a complimentary session.

If You Work Very Hard .. How Much Can Your Mindset Affect Your Business ...Really?

In the Best Year Yet online goal planning assessment there are 10 life changing questions. Question #4 "How Do I Limit Myself?" is often the most challenging but it is an opportunity for personal transformation and can make the biggest difference to your success. In order to have your best year yet, you need to make sure you are thinking about yourself in a way that helps you succeed rather than holds you back.

So often many of the 100's of clients I've coached and mentored over the years seem to be completely blind to the fact that they have been engaged in destructive negative self talk to the point where they have cut themselves off from any creative solutions and even potential existing resources which could support them in reaching personal and career goals.

I call these type of thoughts ANTs, Automatic - Negative - Thoughts. They are so insidious and so very destructive. When we continue to feed them just like the real ants, they expand. They go back and tell all their negative friends and relatives to head over to our negative mindset where there is sustenance and before you know it our beautiful sweet emotional mindset is covered with negative thoughts and images which keep us stuck in fear, worry and inactivity.

I recall coaching an agent who, as she entered by office was initially frustrated, fearful and irritated that her business was stagnant. We began our coaching session, as I always do with getting in a quiet place and setting an intention for our session. Next, we begin to focus on what was working in her career, I had her make a list of the clients she was currently working with and who she had in the pipeline and then asked her what was closing and when?  Literally within minutes I saw and she experienced an emotional shift. You could feel it in the room and see it in her eyes. What happened next was amazing. She began to remember lead and lead that she hadn't told me about because she had forgotten about them until her attitude made the shift. When she left my office she had over 25 potential clients in which she had completely forgotten because she had been focusing on what wasn't working.

I love this brand of coaching which integrates emotional energy management with new technology and traditional skill set development!

To begin your coaching experience here is my gift to you, your very own 12 month online goal planning platform. Pick it up at Life Energized Coaching in the right hand corner of the webpage.  Also feel free to contact me for a complimentary 30 min coaching session.

Are We Living by Design or Default?

I read something this morning that I loved. It read, what is your intention today? What do you want to feel and experience over the next 24 hours?

As I begin to ponder these questions. I became quiet and began to connect in with Spirit in oneness and gratitude. I visualized the day ahead and thought who will I see and what actions will I take? Then I considered what qualities I would demonstrate and what attitude I would hold. Would I be patient, adventurous, loving, grateful?

 Life is made up of a myriad of choices we make everyday. Over the past many years I've noticed that many of my clients in my coaching practice are living by default rather than by design.

I decided a year ago to create a morning call and I call it the "Create Your Day" call. Every day Monday through Friday for 15 minutes all of us on the call are given the opportunity to speak out loud about the blessings in our lives and name those circumstances we are grateful embraced us. Then we set an intention for what we'd like to show up in our day. We've decided rather than blindly propelling ourselves into the motion of the day, we would live our day by design and give our energy to the manifestations we desired to experience rather than just free fall into the agenda of other people including our own sometimes unconscious un-disciplined negative thoughts.

We are more powerful than we sometimes realize. Our thoughts go out and create a path for us. We get to have an impact on that path. By Design or Default?

LIFE-ENERGIZED Blog: How to Maximize SEO

LIFE-ENERGIZED Blog: How to Maximize SEO: Search-Engine Optimization, or SEO, can seem like a mystery to even informed social media professionals. With so many components that go i...

How to Maximize SEO

Search-Engine Optimization, or SEO, can seem like a mystery to even informed social media professionals. With so many components that go into getting your page a good ranking, how can you keep track of all the pieces that matter AND implement a winning SEO strategy? SearchEngineLand.com has taken a stab at organizing the apparent chaos with its Periodic Table of SEO, arranged by on-the-page SEO, off-the-page SEO, violations, and blocking. Here are a few takeaways we’ve gathered from it; for more information, view the chart at http://searchengineland.com/seotable.

• Content is King – Topping the “on-the-page SEO” category, content continues to be the most important element to a webpage’s success. Winning content is that which includes quality (both in being written well and in having information of substance), researched keywords, engagement (tracked by bounce rates), and freshness.
• Link it Up – SEO success isn’t just about what you do – it also involves what your readers do on your site, including what links they post on your pages and how much your page gets linked elsewhere on the Web. Are the links from trusted, respected web sites? That builds your SEO credibility as a likewise trustworthy, respectable page. Again, quality matters more than quantity.
• Beware Spam and Blocks – SEO is smarter than some give it credit for, catching those “tricks” some try to implement to up their page rankings. This includes the major faux pas of paid links, linked spam, and cloaking (showing search engines a different page than humans). These techniques make the quality of your content questionable – after all, if it could stand on its own legs, these sort of techniques wouldn’t be necessary. Another SEO damager is if – and how many – people are blocking your site from their search results. If someone actively avoids your site, it reflects poorly upon your ranking.

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Making time for the ideal sales week

If you were to outline the ideal sales week, what would it look like? That’s a question S. Anthony Iannarino, president and chief sales officer of Solutions Staffing, tackled on his sales blog, and his insights were wonderful. Iannarino’s suggestions all center around the idea of blocking out time for the various activities that makes for sales success. When you work these activities into your week is up to your priorities and unique business model, but the ideas apply universally. 

Here are eight activities to make time for in your ideal sales week, in order of priority:

• Prospecting – Opening relationships that open opportunities is the most important activity a salesperson can undertake. Consequently, it deserves a high priority and requires proactive planning and scheduling. Where will you turn to meet prospects? Be sure to go beyond the obvious, easy sources. Know your target audience and then think of where they would congregate – both online and in person.
• Face-to-Face Sales Calls – There is no substituting good old-fashioned face time, especially when it comes to developing a clientele. In-person interaction provides the greatest opportunity for value creation and advancing your sales opportunity. “The quality of your results is the quality of your calendar as it pertains to appointments with your dream clients and clients,” Iannarino said. Start scheduling these meetings in advance, and keep at least a few scheduled a week or two out at a time.
• Nurturing Activity – “The best opportunities for producing killer sales results lie with your coldest non-opportunities, your dream clients who are presently using a competitor,” Iannarino said. Place your focus on a dream client whose business would put you to the top of the leader board.
• Sales Call Preparation – Sales calls are not a time to “wing it” or play things by ear! Do your homework first, researching the client’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. What can you offer to them that will solve their problems? Remember, focusing on benefits is far more effective than drilling into your product’s features. Make solving their pain points your top pitch.
• Follow-up Activities – The trust that underlies all relationships (especially in business) is built on a foundation of commitments kept. Even the most effective sales calls may fall flat with results if no follow-up work is done, so be sure to do what you say you’ll do, from emailing along an article that would be a value-add for your client to checking the stock of their favorite product. As you’re drumming up new business, don’t neglect to reach out to current clients and contacts with phone calls or thank-you cards.
• Voicemail and Email Responses – In today’s always-connected communications climate, responding to emails and voicemails can be a never-ending task. Iannarino suggests blocking out a couple of set times (i.e. 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.) to respond to incoming communications, rather than breaking to do so constantly throughout the day.
• Update Sales Force Automation – Customer relationship management is critical, and a number of automation software options can make it a breeze – as long as you use it. Don’t let too much time pass between updates, or else important information can fall through the cracks. “The best time to do this is with the last half hour of the day, while the conversations and ideas are fresh in your mind,” Iannarino said. He recommends spending a half hour each day to input notes from sales calls, new contact information, action items, and pipeline progress.
• Personal Improvement – Of all the investments you can make, investing time in yourself pays off the most long-lasting dividends. Make an effort to always be honing your abilities and advancing education, whether it be listening to an audiobook while driving between sales calls or reading a chapter a night of a book that will help your professional development. Remember to expand beyond “sales” titles, too. That professional development can come most effectively in strengthening people skills, not just sales techniques.

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REVIVING THE LOST ART OF CONNECTION

In today’s fast-paced, digital world, it gets easy in the hustle and bustle to overlook the human aspect of a business relationship. “The foundation for successful networking and relationship building is making a good connection—that initial contact with someone rooted in mutual interest or experience that breaks down the wall that exists between us,” said Randy Haim, managing partner of Atlanta-based Bell Oaks Executive Search. “These connections should emanate from your genuine desire to learn about the other person and determine what you have in common.” 

In his whitepaper “Connecting… The Forgotten Art of Social Interaction,” Haim outlines 10 connection-building skills to develop before your next big networking opportunity. Here are a few: 

• Ask questions – This may be one of the oldest pieces of networking advice, but it holds true: you are more interesting when you ask questions. People love to talk about themselves, particularly to someone they can tell is listening with genuine interest. As you get them talking, listen actively, looking for common ground.
• Get personal – We’re often trained to avoid personal information in business conversation. However, conversations are human interactions, and those personal components – faith, family, values, perspective – are what make us who we are. Don’t shy away from sharing your values and talking with someone about theirs. However, getting to this personal level is uncomfortable for some, so gauge the reaction you receive and proceed accordingly. When done well and with a warm reception, this is a powerful way to an authentic, deep dialogue that can lead to a strong relationship.
• Use humor – Laughter is one of the easiest icebreakers. Jokes veer toward awkwardness, but when you use humor by making light of a situation or poking fun at yourself, it can build an instant – and positive – bond.
• Connect through content – Don’t be afraid to take the next step in showing someone you’re genuinely interested in what they have to say by putting that interest into action. If your contact mentions struggling with a professional development challenge and you’ve recently read something on the subject, go ahead and send them an email with the link to the article or a review of the book. This creates a point of discussion and follow up for future interactions.

 
As you work to better connect with new contacts at a personal, human level, you’ll be surprised at how naturally and easily networking becomes. Focusing on individuals as people, not stepping stones to success, forges a deeper bond that may sustain beyond the business at hand.

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Baby Steps Toward Social Media Prowess

Recently I was talking with a friend whose baby girl has just started to crawl. While watching footage of this little gal get around – hesitantly and haltingly at first – it made me think of how important it is to progress strategically and methodically toward any destination or goal, including in social media.  

While it’s important to begin with the end in sight, we also need to take joy in the journey to get to that end. If you want to be a social media pro, remember to value and savor the steps along the way as you engage with the various tools and methods to tell a story. Make sure you learn to walk before you run: 

• Crawl – When entering the world of social media, it’s vital to remember that you’re still dealing with individuals interested in human stories. Don’t get distracted by the tools and platforms. Take the time to first understand what your (or your institution’s) inherent systems and processes, resources, and culture are. What are institutional barriers you may face in going social? Public companies face different issues than private companies, and different platforms make more sense for different audiences (e.g. a LinkedIn group vs. Facebook, depending on if you’re B2B or B2C). Thinking through what makes the most sense before starting will increase your chances for success – and decrease the chances your institution will write off social media as a fad or flop.
• Walk – After you’ve made a strategy, begin engaging with one tool at a time. It’s important to take a note from the Johnson & Johnson playbook and get a presence in one platform launched and running well before branching out into another. Also, don’t discount the importance of building on your own real estate first. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook may be buzzing upon everyone’s lips, but they could be supplanted by the next big thing – remember MySpace and Friendster, after all? If you start an in-house blog on your own website, you’ll have control over it regardless of external forces. Be flexible as you try new things, remembering that nothing is permanent, but also be committed to the overall purpose behind social media: connecting with your audience. See what works, changing and adjusting as you go.
• Run – Once you’ve mastered getting a social media presence launched, you’ll hit that prized end point of having a fully integrated social business, complete with measurable tracking and analytics that help you better understand the impact communicating with customers has on your business. Remember, the connection between social media and ROI may not be measurable in strict numbers, but social breeds customer loyalty, and that’s something that can’t be slapped with a price tag.

 
The process of implementing a winning social media strategy takes patience, but as you enjoy each milestone on the way to running with the best-practice examples, you’ll be able to savor the successes along the way with your lasting audience.

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Protein-packed breakfastS improve weight loss

There’s a reason bacon and eggs have been a breakfast staple for ages – a protein-rich breakfast does wonders to keep one’s body satisfied longer. But did you know that a healthy, protein-packed breakfast will also curb your cravings and reward-driven eating behavior? 

According to Heather Leidy, an assistant professor in University of Missouri’s Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, lots of protein in the morning reduces the brain signals that control food motivation and reward-driven eating behavior.  She reached this conclusion after studying breakfast-skipping teens for three weeks. One group continued to skip breakfast or ate 500-calorie breakfasts of cereal and milk while the other group ate high-protein meals of Belgium waffles, syrup and yogurt. 

Immediately before lunch, researchers used fMRI technology to study participants’ brain activation responses. Results showed that while both meals led to increased fullness and reduced hunger throughout the morning, the breakfast with more protein led to even greater changes in fullness, appetite, and reward-driven eating behavior.  

Here are some ways to be a better breakfaster:

• Be handy – If weight loss is a priority for you, don’t leave the house empty-handed in the mornings. Keep portable protein-rich foods on hand. Hard-boiled eggs, nuts, and string cheese are great to grab and go, either for an immediate breakfast or a healthy mid-morning snack.
• Cook quickly – If you can spend a few more minutes in the kitchen, shoot for a slice of toast with peanut (or almond) butter, a quick scrambled egg, or a smoothie with protein powder. One of my quick favorites is to warm a whole-wheat tortilla, spread it with almond butter and cinnamon (which is proven to help your body process sugar), and then wrap it around a banana.
• Order wisely – If the drive-thru still calls your name, be sure you order the right item. Egg McMuffins are surprisingly diet-approved – they’re only 350 calories each and are packed with protein. Go for an egg burrito over anything starchy like French toast sticks, and if you have the willpower, skip the hash browns.

 

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How to Work a Room

Have you ever wondered how to master the art of mingling? At social functions, you can always spot a person or two who seem to effortlessly work the room, weaving in and out of conversations as they connect with almost everyone in their path. Networking with that kind of social finesse doesn’t come naturally to most – but thankfully it’s a skill that can, in fact, be learned and mastered through practice and preparation. Here are some tips to develop the skill set to catch the attention of those who will benefit your professional network: 

• Be positive – When you meet new people, what runs through your head? Your instinctive reaction may speak volumes in terms of the return you receive. Attitude often guides behavior, and what you think before you walk through the door will influence the “vibes” you give off to those you meet. Are you prone to negative self-talk? (“Why would they want to talk to me anyway?” “There’s no way I’ll stick out from the crowd.” “Meeting people just isn’t my strength because of _____.”) Believe it or not, many – if not most – people have the same reaction in group settings. When you shift from thinking you can’t to thinking you can, however, you can take the lead and bring others out of their shells. That kind of initiative radiates positivity and will make an impact on those you meet.
• Make it all about them – In his seminal How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie emphasized the importance of sincerely showing interest in other people. A person’s name is the sweetest and most important sound in any language, according to Carnegie, and remembering it works wonders to win a good first impression. Try to find ways to make the other person feel important, like talking to them about their interests. It’s easy to find common ground with most people if you listen actively when asking where they’re from, where they went to college, asking about why they chose their career path or enjoy certain hobbies. Be sure that you do so sincerely, though – there’s nothing more off-putting than faked interest. Sincere interest is usually met with reciprocal sincere interest, however.
• Identify clear goals – What is it that you’re hoping to take away from the event? Defining even one or two objectives for a networking event or situation will help you hone in on what you need to do to meet those as well as to measure success after the fact. Are you looking to learn more about a particular field? Develop prospective sales contacts? Meet a particular person about whom you’ve heard good things? When you have your objectives in place, work backwards and prepare how to meet those, thinking of what questions to ask, how to approach a new contact, etc. This will help you avoid being tongue-tied and uncertain when in the moment, instead coming off as confident and natural.

 
After you’ve done all your preparation, make sure that you physically work the room – moving around increases the number of people with whom your path will cross, after all. Get out there and show them all you’ve got!

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How to Work a Room

Have you ever wondered how to master the art of mingling? At social functions, you can always spot a person or two who seem to effortlessly work the room, weaving in and out of conversations as they connect with almost everyone in their path. Networking with that kind of social finesse doesn’t come naturally to most – but thankfully it’s a skill that can, in fact, be learned and mastered through practice and preparation. Here are some tips to develop the skill set to catch the attention of those who will benefit your professional network: 

• Be positive – When you meet new people, what runs through your head? Your instinctive reaction may speak volumes in terms of the return you receive. Attitude often guides behavior, and what you think before you walk through the door will influence the “vibes” you give off to those you meet. Are you prone to negative self-talk? (“Why would they want to talk to me anyway?” “There’s no way I’ll stick out from the crowd.” “Meeting people just isn’t my strength because of _____.”) Believe it or not, many – if not most – people have the same reaction in group settings. When you shift from thinking you can’t to thinking you can, however, you can take the lead and bring others out of their shells. That kind of initiative radiates positivity and will make an impact on those you meet.
• Make it all about them – In his seminal How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie emphasized the importance of sincerely showing interest in other people. A person’s name is the sweetest and most important sound in any language, according to Carnegie, and remembering it works wonders to win a good first impression. Try to find ways to make the other person feel important, like talking to them about their interests. It’s easy to find common ground with most people if you listen actively when asking where they’re from, where they went to college, asking about why they chose their career path or enjoy certain hobbies. Be sure that you do so sincerely, though – there’s nothing more off-putting than faked interest. Sincere interest is usually met with reciprocal sincere interest, however.
• Identify clear goals – What is it that you’re hoping to take away from the event? Defining even one or two objectives for a networking event or situation will help you hone in on what you need to do to meet those as well as to measure success after the fact. Are you looking to learn more about a particular field? Develop prospective sales contacts? Meet a particular person about whom you’ve heard good things? When you have your objectives in place, work backwards and prepare how to meet those, thinking of what questions to ask, how to approach a new contact, etc. This will help you avoid being tongue-tied and uncertain when in the moment, instead coming off as confident and natural.

 
After you’ve done all your preparation, make sure that you physically work the room – moving around increases the number of people with whom your path will cross, after all. Get out there and show them all you’ve got!

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Getting the Right Landmarks on Your Success Roadmap

Picture this: you’re heading off on a road trip to exciting – but unfamiliar – territory. Do you just set off on the open road and hope you eventually somehow reach your destination? 

While some adventurers might take this approach, most people start out a journey with a roadmap, complete with landmarks that help them identify they’re on the right track, whether it be roadside attractions or cities that are along the way from Point A to Point B.  

The same principle applies in life – and especially in sales, where success is determined by our ability to bring together skills, business processes, resources, and natural talents in order to help customers and contacts buy into our vision of value within whatever product or service we’re selling.  

Here are some benchmarking landmarks to include on your roadmap to the destination of success:

• The essentials – Your trip won’t go too far if you don’t include some gas stations and pit stops along the path, right? Similarly, it’s critical to focus on the essentials from the get-go. These would include any metrics and benchmarks that are reasonable to expect when looking at one’s skills and effectiveness. While the specifics will vary by industry and objective, they generally will include a strategy for growth, basic sales processes and systems, personal competencies, management practices, and skills development.
• Goals and objectives – If you think you’re driving to California and your passenger thinks you’re off to Calgary, there’s a problem. Sharing common goals and objectives helps everyone involved understand how to get to your overarching organizational vision. These goals and objectives should be specific and measurable, with intermediary expectations set along the way (i.e. quarterly performance goals of a certain dollar amount or number of sales conversions that will show progress toward the annual goal).
• Values and principles – What’s the purpose behind your journey? Undertaking a long trip to see a close friend or ailing relative will drive you with more meaning than traveling for an obligatory appointment. Likewise, these values and principles breathe life and heart into your sales journey. How do the two differ? Values are broad fundamental beliefs– things like acting with integrity, exceeding expectations, or serving the community. Principles are more a part of the everyday tactical business execution, like nurturing client relationships, knowing the competition, or proactively managing risks and promoting awards.
• Reward systems – Remember asking “are we there yet?!” on childhood road trips? The promise of a cookie or some other tangible reward at the next gas station can work wonders for encouraging patient behavior for a child. The same idea applies to adults in a sales environment. Acknowledgement for reaching a certain goal, exceeding performance expectations, or winning a competition gives team members an added boost that helps them drive on in their sales efforts. The best rewards are those that are outlined in advance, giving all team members something to work toward, and align closely with your overall business strategy.

 
Get a free copy of your Best Year Yet 12 month goal planning program at www.life-energized.com

Request a 30 min laser focus complimentary coaching session with Wanda Peyton - 888-899-3610

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Making the most of your mornings

Does getting out of bed the hardest part of your day? Most people aren’t naturally what you’d call a “morning person” – the types who are bright eyed and bushy tailed upon rising at the sound of their alarm clock. Just because it doesn’t come naturally doesn’t mean it can’t happen, however. By following a few simple tips, you can train your body and up your A.M. productivity – and, in doing so, increase your health by sleeping more and starting your day without the stress of running late.

• Set a sleep routine – Don’t underestimate the importance of your circadian rhythm. This regulates how your body runs, and it craves routine. Ideally, you should wake up from a light phase of sleep, not a deeper stage. It’s that deeper stage that leads to a foggy head and lower functioning. If you set a bedtime and stick to it (within 30 minutes) and get up around the same time each morning, your body will reset to the routine. The hope is that eventually you will be able to wake yourself up sans alarm.
• Get active – Working out first thing in the morning may not sound tempting, but the effects pay off. Even if it’s as simple as taking a half-hour stroll, kickstarting your morning with cardio will boost your energy levels throughout the day AND help you wind down at night, leading to a deeper night’s sleep.
• Provide the right fuel – While a donut and a cup of Joe may be an easy way to get your blood sugar rising, it can also lead to a sugar crash a few hours into your day. Reach instead for some quality fuel – oatmeal, fresh fruit, or a veggie omelet. Always on the go? Make hard-boiled eggs that you can grab on the run for a protein-packed breakfast.
• See the light – Light has a huge effect on the body’s triggers to sleep or wake up. Switch on a bright light or open your blinds right when you wake up. Conversely, avoid bright lights – yes, including electronics – for that last hour before you plan to hit the hay. This will help your body begin to wind down from the busy day and slip into that deep sleep you need for rejuvenation.

 

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Sharing the Vision

What is it that makes you passionate and motivated? For conductor Benjamin Zander, it’s classical music – and as a leader, he works to help his musicians catch the vision. 

“It’s one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he’s leading to realize whatever he’s dreaming,” Zander told the audience at TED in 2008.   

As a musician matures, he or she learns to play with passion and engagement – and their impulses are reduced as they focus on the entire piece instead of notes. Likewise, as a leader, our focus should be on the long line of the vision.  

Zander had a leadership revelation the moment he realized that he, as the conductor, doesn’t make a sound. Rather, all of the conductor’s power is in making his players powerful, helping them to carry out his vision. 

“I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people,” he said. “If their eyes are shining, you know you’re doing it. If the eyes are not shining, you have to ask the question: ‘Who am I being that my players’ eyes aren’t shining?’ That’s a totally different world.” 

Successful leadership is not about wealth or fame or power. It’s about shining eyes. Share your passion with colleagues and employees, and as that enthusiasm and sincere drive shines through, they will catch the vision and help your dream become reality. 

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Managing Expectations

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw 

Communicating effectively is one of the most important skills to develop in business. While there are several reasons why, one of the most important from a leadership perspective is to be able to adequately manage expectations – in other words, you must be able to help those you manage understand what to expect from any given scenario, from timelines to structure and protocol. By managing expectations, you are then able to stave off conflicts before they spring up.  

How can you communicate more effectively to help manage expectations?

• Define expectations: Conflicts and frustration often arise from a lack of information. When initiating a project, be sure to help team members understand why the project is needed, what the plan is for addressing that need, and how you intend to execute that plan. As you set out to make the project happen, look for ways to build camaraderie and trust. A little goes a long way in creating connections among those who will rely upon one another’s skills and abilities to make a project become reality. Also, don’t overlook establishing expectations among your customers. Communicating with them that a much-requested product or service is in the works, along with periodic updates on progress, will do wonders for building buzz and assuring customers that their requests aren’t falling on deaf ears.
• Explain the problem: It’s rare that a project – or anything in life, for that matter – will go according to plan. Consequently, you’ll have to redefine expectations and give updates on progress throughout the life of a project. While it can be intimidating to report that a project will be delayed, it’s better to communicate that up front than to let the initial timeline expectations linger unchanged. Of course, that said, reporting a delay should come only after your team has exhausted all options to make up lost time and get the project back on track.
• Offer a solution: While it’s important to explain why a project is facing a setback, it’s even more important to follow up immediately with a solution of how you plan to amend the disruption. It shows thoroughness, proactivity, and accountability – all traits that merit respect. Be sure to answer the question “What’s in it for me?” as you present the solution to a specific audience, whether it be internal team members or customers. Addressing the needs of a specific audience will resonate better than general information to which they cannot easily connect.

 
Clear and continued communication is vital to keeping all of your shareholders informed on a project’s progress. By managing their expectations, you’ll be able to reduce or eliminate frustration and confusion – which, in turn, will reduce how much emotional energy they bring into their interactions with you on the subject. This serves to reduce the risk of potential conflicts, creating an environment of collaboration and understanding.

Fear or Faith?

Have you ever desperately needed an answer or solution about something in your personal or career? Have you found yourself playing over and over the mental movie of the problem and the fear of what might happen it you didn't find an answer and find it fast?  Have you been in a place where the more you dug around for an answer from a place of fear .. you not only felt worse emotionally .. but still no answer?  I think this has happened to everyone I've ever coached including myself at one time or another.  In fact it happened last week.

Last Friday I left the office in total frustration after trying countless times to figure out why my mouse kept freezing.  I had so much I needed to do before packing it up for the day but my mouse function was stuck and do was I!  It should be such an easy fix, I kept thinking to myself, after all I had just purchased the computer less than 3 months ago.  There must be a reset button or something to push to fix the problem .. but where was it?  Has this ever happened to you?  I could literally feel the frustration mounting inside me.  I heard myself saying "this shouldn't be happening, this is a new computer!"

As an emotional energy management coach I am always focused on what is the lesson here?  What is the Universe trying to teach me or tell me?  Of course the more frustrated I became the more out of alignment I found myself.  If there was a lesson  to learn,  I couldn't see it.  I had allowed myself to move so far out of spiritual alignment (the place of calm knowing that all is well)  that both the lesson  and the solution had escaped me.

Well it was  after 5PM anyway so I reluctantly surrendered, packed up my things including my computer and went home.  On the drive home I was hoping that after the computer cooled down maybe it would reset itself. That would be great!  But the lesson in all this was still missing me.  Was there a lesson I asked myself or was I reading too much into all this?    

The weekend was busy and with other activities on my mind and  I forgot about my computer challenge until returning home on Saturday.  I grabbed my computer when I got home, held my breath, turned it on, crossed my fingers and toes and with my eyes glued to the screen watched the little arrow freeeeze again.   

This time the lesson began to reveal itself as it always does when I am open to it.  And here it is. There is not only a lesson but a solution in every challenge but we will not have access to the solution until we are able to relax, let go and trust.  For me, this meant   If I could let go of my entangled frustrated energy and clear the emotional pathways for the expectation of an answer .. It would reveal itself. It meant I had to deliberately manage my thoughts and consciously declare that I do have control over what I choose to dwell on, that I could decide to either focus on what wasn't working or use that energy to focus on possibilities and perhaps even get in a little gratitude for what was working and then consider my options. 

As I think back over my life and career including every difficult and seeming impossible situation or transaction this process has proven to be incredibly powerful over and over again.  I remember the times I've said to myself and others when coaching we cannot get to solution from frustration, anger or fear.  Somehow, someway we must stand down, step back, let go and step into the feeling that even when we may not see the answer at that present moment, still there is an answer hovering to reveal itself to us.

And so for me, the pathway was cleared and the answer was revealed. Something occurred to me that I didn't see before and that some of you reading this may have though of immediately.  Reset!  The computer needed to be reset to it's original configuration! How do I do that and will I lose files?   Google it, I thought.  If that doesn't work try You Tube!  And there right before me was the solution! I had found a step by step demonstration on how to reset my exact computer. I followed the instructions and  by the next morning my computer had gone through a reset.  I gently picked up my precious little laptop that I had come to really appreciate in a whole new way and placed it own my lap and pushed start.  The screen loaded up and somehow I knew this time all would be fine and then when I saw that little arrow moving everywhere that my mouse wanted it to I let out a howl!  Alright!  Praise God!  

I then thanked God for the experience and the refresher on an old lesson. Faith and Fear cannot occupy the same place at the same time.  Today I choose faith .. What about you?