Positive Thinking

People are attracted to positive people, people are attracted to bosses who see what is possible....

One xmas morning a little boy came downstairs to find a pile of horse manure on the floor....Does he cry, no....he shouts "Fantastic, all I have to do is find the pony"

How do you react to the manure on your desk...do you see the smell of a problem or do you see the opportunity to show your leadership form?

Do your team need encouragement?

Truett Cathy of Chick-fil-A told an audience at The National Restaurant Association's annual show

"You know how you tell if people need encouragement?"

"They're breathing"

Fantastic - made me smile and also illustrates the importance of motivation at work.

To Be Creative Think with No Barriers

A cement company in Qatar has built a cement factory on a ship - to ensure that they can get the cement around the gulf wherever there is a supply shortage.

Imagine the seen at that meeting when someone suggested that as an idea...but it is brilliant. When you want your team to think of solutions allow the whacky, allow them not to think of constraints...allow them to think freely. If the idea would solve the problem then brainstorm how to get round the constraints....

The Impact of a Leader

It is vital that we understand the impact of our actions on our teams and those around us. We are all human and there will be times when we show impatience, have an outburst etc

But always remember when "you point a finger at others, there are 3 of your fingers on the same hand pointing back to you"

The golden rule is always to provide constructive feeedback in private, give recognition in public.
Learning that element of self control will pay dividends 10 fold.

Appreciate to Accumulate!

The number one reason for people leaving their roles is not feeling appreciated. So a test, try and touch this plus sign, try and touch it on the screen....

+

Have you tried to touch it? If so that was not trying, that was doing...you did touch it.

Trying is a word overused in business...try and do this, well I have tried etc By using the word try you confuse people....they have a way out, they don't know whether you really believe that they can do it.

So tomorrow replace the word try with do. You either do something or you don't do something. Show your belief either in yourself or others.

Customer Service

Here is a story that explains customer service

USAA is the US army insurance....Mrs L, an elderly widow of a deceased military officer rang a rep and said that she was sick, had no medicine, no heat and was freezing. She phoned them because her husband said they would always take care of her. The rep retrieved the records and found that the policy was not up to date....what was she to do? Doing nothing for her was not an option, maybe the rules but not the right thing for the business. So she phoned the Red Cross, Mrs L got her medicine and the heat was restored.

She could have played by the rules, she could have said it is not my job and not my fault, But the essence of the brand would have been diluted. She supported the customer, she helped the customer, she delivered the brand.

Inspiring

Blog Carnival of Business Stories and Anecdotes

Storytelling is a wonderful tool in business and each fortnight I want to hold a blog carnival of anecdotes and stories that either motivates you or that you can use as part of your presentations. If you have a blog article to submit for future carnivals then here is the link

Charles H. Green presents Trust Tip 45: The Three-Second Rule posted at Trust Matters, saying, "The three-second rule can help you win your audience before you even begin telling your story."

Anna presents Corporate Diarrhoea at The Engaging Brand

Praveen presents Business Lessons From Goldman Sachs posted at My Simple Trading System.

Heather presents Using Podcasting as a Business Tool posted at Women in Podcasting

Ruth Mitchell presents Creativity Can Lead to Longevity posted at Buy Outside the Box, saying, "Creativity is the key to quality of life."

Alan presents Its all about Family - Keys to Unlock your Inner Potential posted at Made to Be Great.

Jack Yoest presents Mothers Working At Home posted at Reasoned Audacity, saying, "More and more women are turning to home-based businesses as a way to find emotional balance with their work and with their children.

Jimmy Atkinson presents How to Ace Your Job Interview: 88 Surefire Tips and Tricks | OEDb posted at OEDb: Online Education Database.

Debra Moorhead presents The Wal-Mart Pharmacist posted at Debra Moorhead.com

Laura Ricci presents Two Steps for Change posted at Laura's Winning Ideas, saying, "Teaching a principle of changing behavior with a story"

Karen Lynch presents Showing up for Success posted at LivethePower, saying, ""Showing up" means more than just physically being there."

Alan presents Risk Taking - Living life to the fullest posted at Made to Be Great

Barbra Sundquist presents Who Pushes Your Buttons? posted at HomeBusinessWiz..

Wilson Ng presents Profits Straight to the Bottom Line posted at Reflections of a BizDrivenLife, saying, "As a business owner, understanding your cost structure in view of optimizing bottom lines, and maximizing price making decisions is a must."

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Business 101: Teaching Myself Entrepreneurship posted at The Digerati Life.

Debra Moorhead presents “The Science of Getting Rich” Evaluated, Part Two posted at Debra Moorhead.com.

Vahid Chaychi presents 7 Common Things Between a Good Website and an Active Volcano! posted at Internet and Search Engine Marketing, saying, "There are 7 common things between a good website and an active volcano. If your website has these 7 common things, it is a good one otherwise you have to make some changes in it."

Benjamin Yoskovitz presents Always Gunning For The Next Big Score posted at Instigator Blog, saying, "Using a personal experience of being in a cab (and being surprised by it) I try and related those experiences to business and ways of succeeding in business."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
anecdotes and stories for business
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

Humility and Humour for Leadership Development

With all the stress and strain of everyday life, you can easily lose a sense of humour and a sense of reality. Well, remember Rule 6 as described by Omar Khan in Timeless Leadership.

Two world leaders were sitting in Conference. The host leader saw one of his staff fretting and fuming. He looked and said "Remember Rule 6". The staff member relaxed and moved on. The other world leader was intrigued. Then a few minutes later a Cabinet minister came in highly vexed, again the host said "Remember rule 6" the minister chucked and relaxed.

The other world leader then asked "What is this miracle rule?" The host said "DTYSBS - Don't take yourself so bloody seriously! The rule is to remind us that we are all human, what we're worrying about today we probably won't even remember in six months and the best way to engage our creativity to deal with the situation is to disengage our ego!"

The other leader said "And what are the other rules?" The host turned and said "Oh we haven't made those up yet!"

Emotional intelligence is a key part of management and leadership. Understanding the need for self control and also humility is a key part of being successful.

Positive Thinking - The Power of a Manager

Seeing the positive side of life is important for leaders. Here is a little story

"There was a medieval knight who attended a dragon slaying school - he was afriad so Merlin gave him a sword with magical powers and after that he slew dragon after dragon. Then one day Merlin sprung a trip on the group - the students rushed off but later the medieval knight realised that he had picked up the wrong sword. But he carried on and when faced with the next dragon, he slayed it. He was so proud and rushed back to tell Merlin - Merlin laughed and said "I thought that you would have guessed by now; none of the swords are magic. The magic is you believing."

As a manager you are like Merlin and can give all of your team that belief that they can achieve anything - a magic phrase....."I trust you, go on do it, I beleive in you."

Self Development and Building a Team

A native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said "I feel as if I have 2 wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is vengeful, angry and violent. The other wolf is loving and compassionate." The grandson looked at his grandfather and said "Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?" The grandfather looked and said "The one that I feed"

Often we don't stop and feed the compassionate side of us. You choose whether to be angry or to inspire. I know which one I like to choose as inspiring others is one of the best feeling in the world, to see your team grow and develop because of YOUR leadership...wow!

Continuous Improvement is Key to Business Success

A curse of business can be complacency, of taking the foot of the gas when things are going well. Here is a story to show you the importance of focusing on improvement as a manager/leader.

"A hunter said to his guide 'This seems to be a very dangerous cliff. It's a wonder they don't put up a warning sign.' The guide replied ' They had one up for 2 years but no one fell off so they took it down!"

See the danger here?? However, how many times do you do this at work. For example maybe the employee or customer surveys come in great...so you feel confident and take your focus away from keeping them happy. Results over time need continuous focus, continuing dialogue....management succeeds just like money - the more you put in, the more you get out.

So ask yourself today, "What area have you lost focus, because you think it is OK?"

Facts or Communication of the facts?

Often at work it is not the facts that are important it is how we portray them.

An example

A company always held a summer picnic, which included a hugely contested softball game between 2 departments that had developed a great rivalry over the years. They only played one game every summer, but argued over it all year!

Dept A won the game, but Dept B posted the following write up..." Department B is proud to announce that following this year's softball game, we finished in second place, having lost only one game all year. We also offer condolences to Department A who finished next to last, after only winning one game all year"

Truth - yes! But what a great way to turn a potential negative into a positive...