Freedom to Think and Dream Big» Leadership Archives – Geoff Snyder’s Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog

The More Experiments the Better.

Geoff — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 01:15:35 +0000

In the 1830s, progressive thinking was unfamiliar territory amongst America’s elite. Most intellectuals were members of social clubs where they forged their political, religious, and business alliances.

Having just published Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson was emerging as a serious literary figure. Disgusted with the state of intellectualism, he and his contemporaries, including Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Bronson Alcott, formed the Transcendental Club of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1836.

“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Talk about experimenting. The group met sporadically and kept out those who excluded any topic from examination. From morality to mysticism, the members explored new thoughts, ideas, and concepts previously uncharted. Emerson emerged as a great public speaker whose strong personal belief system gave him the courage to buck popular trends. As a result, he was well rewarded in a career that indulged his passion for provocative thought.

Focus on a vision and work on it from different angles. This will allow for experimentation during the process.

As a leader, you need to envision the future and experiment as much as possible. You just might find the answer you are looking for.

The More Experiments the Better. is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

Bad Writing is Like a Virus

Geoff — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:45:20 +0000

I’ve recently come to the conclusion that bad writing is like a virus: everyone becomes a victim sooner or later. From verbose language to dangling modifiers, not to mention passive voice clutter that not only the pages of unfinished books, but also quarterly and year-end reports, business plans, and presentations. Effectively written communication gets the message across…essential for any leader to succeed. Whether you are pitching for new business or looking for venture capital, you need to get to the point. Good writing uses fewer words, not more. This is something that I still wrestle with today!

In her business writing blog, Lynn Gaertner-Johnston (whose mission is “to quash bad writing habits that linger in the classrooms and cubicles of the 21st-century)” says the number one goal is to keep it simple. In today’s hyberbolic world, you lose your audience’s attention quickly. This is especially pertinent in markets where competition is fierce. Worse, you send a subconscious message of uncertainty in your verbose sentences. Don’t use jargon of phrases your reader won’t understand. That technique often looks like you are trying to hide something.

“I believe more in the scissors than the pencil.” – Truman Capote

The next important stage in editing: Don’t settle just for grammatical corrections and perfect punctuation. Take the time to add value by reworking your message. Don’t be afraid to redraft any weak points. This will help other understand your vision and help you stand out against the competition.

How do you go about proofreading and editing your writings?

Bad Writing is Like a Virus is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

Fishing For Your Team

Geoff — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:35:18 +0000

When fishing for high-quality team members, your organization needs to be your lure. Build a great organization, and you will be able to fish the future leader pool with confidence that your organization can attract the best. In his best book, The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas J. Stanley argues that the wealthiest Americans spend the least amount of time collecting high-status objects. The same principle holds true for most businesses. Most organizations can draw good team members without fancy gadgets, the latest desktop computers, polished words, or smoke and mirrors. They just need to be people oriented.

“If you have great confidence in your lure, you’ll fish with confidence.” – Thomas J. Stanley

Create a place where you team members brag to others about where they spend their day. Making sure your organization is family-friendly and allows members to design flexible schedules to meet family and childcare needs. Until health care stops being job dependent (I’ll touch base more on this in a separate post), offer the best health care, find a way to get the best group plan you can. Find other ways to reward and compensate, like flexible spending accounts or even things like group-plan pet insurance.

Create such a place where yourself and others can share ideas and collaborate.

There are many ways to be creative to make your organization a great lure to the community so that you can go fishing with confidence…and one of the greatest lures of all is to have a great group of people working together at the same goal within your organization.

How confident are you with your current lure and how do you see it helping others achieve their goals?

Fishing For Your Team is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

Failures That Fuel Our Future Success

Geoff — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:28:49 +0000

Napoleon Hill was a pioneer in the genre of books on business success and leadership. His most famous book, Think and Grow Rich, is still on of the bestsellers of all time.

Hill believed that having a purpose or a plan is essential to attaining success. He advised readers to think their way through a failure, to view failure as a small part of a plan that will ultimately benefit them. If you analyze failure…see it as a plan with a purpose…it will prepare you for bigger challenges. In this way failure can only make you better because it prepares you for greater responsibilities.

Identify your life’s purpose and proceed with passion. Only you know what to do with it.

Hill’s official biography says he was born in a two-room cabin into wretched poverty. He began working at the age of thirteen as a reporter for small-town newspapers in rural Virgina. He later put himself through college. Meeting the powerful industrialist Andrew Carnegie and hearing his ideas led to Hill’s lifelong project, interviewing the most famous and wealthy men of all time (I will be touching base on this on a later post I have planned, using Tim Ferriss‘ approach discussed in The 4-Hour Workweek). What Hill learned from these men became the basis of his successful books.

An amazing fact is that Hill never mentioned the word “achievement” in Think and Grow Rich…he felt that readers would benefit most by discovering the keys to achieving their goals themselves as the result of his winning philosophy.

How do YOU transform your failures into success?

Failures That Fuel Our Future Success is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

Bite the Bullet

Geoff — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 06:50:21 +0000

Know what you want to achieve. Make a list, if you wish, of the qualities you want to have as a strong business leader. Believing in yourself, knowing who you want to be, is key to success.

Take a moment today and make a list of both short term goals and long term goals.

Now take it a step further. Beyond knowing what you want to be, you have to know which actions will take you there. Your actions have to reflect your confidence in yourself. To become a strong leader, you have to know what kind of leader you want to be and then know how to achieve your ends…produce results…staying true to that idea.

By formally defining your goals and dreams, you are taking the initial steps in turning them into a reality.

After a brief thread of comments on Facebook between an old friend, Jennifer Oakes, she reminded me of a Stoic I studied for a Greek Mythology class once; Epictetus, who uttered his famous line “first say to yourself what you would be, and then do what you have to do” in the first century BC, began his life as a Roman slave. But, that didn’t hinder him. He was determined to stand out from the crowd. He studied the Stoic philosophy and in a few years founded his own philosophical school in Greece, where he achieved fame. Epictetus believed that, despite adversity, you can be a master of your own life by harnessing strength of will and self-knowledge. Epictetus might very well have originated the familiar refrain we hear today: “Bite the bullet.” Regardless of how it’s said, you simply need to get the job done. Just do it.

Ask yourself: “What am I doing today that is creating my tomorrow and how can I make it better?”

Bite the Bullet is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

Credit Given When Credit is Due

Geoff — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:35:25 +0000

A real time player is not concerned about individual credit. Like a true leader, he or she knows that they would not have deserved the credit without the other team members input. And a true leader knows that the credit will come in the long run… that having been part of a successful team will put him in line to be on other successful teams, or earn a promotion, or simply make him or her more valuable when it comes to looking for new objectives.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. – Harry Truman

It’s hard not to care who gets the credit. And even though it takes everyone’s concentrated efforts to get the job done, you need to feel positive about your work even on those occasions when just a few get the credit that perhaps the whole team deserved.

Together Everybody Achieves More

A good team leader will make sure to credit the whole team. When announcing results of a team’s efforts, the leader will emphasize how hard the team worked together, and what each employee contributed to the bigger effort. Don’t worry about team members who didn’t work as hard as they might have or that others might have wanted them to–they will be penalized when they are not picked for a new team. It doesn’t matter once the team’s work is done; it matters for the next time around.

How do you make it known who gets credit when credit is due?

Credit Given When Credit is Due is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

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Trust Your Team

Geoff — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:36:25 +0000

Although motivational words never hurt, sometimes you just have to step back and realize that it’s not just you who needs care and feeding in your daily work life. It might be time to start thinking about those you work with…your teammates, your staff, and your colleagues. You want to get the most you can from these people, because all of you want to deliver the best work possible.

Stay engaged with your team and it’s leaders. The big picture and strategy is the common objective.

I think when Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great” he was expressing his belief that establishing trust in any relationship is the place to start. Getting others to trust you stems from your trust in them. This is a foundation of a good team. You can build on loyalty and trust and get spectacular dividends. Treat your colleagues to reflect your belief in them and their talents. Never miss an opportunity to tell them how great they are, and after a while, they’ll not only beleive it (becasue they are great), they’ll prove themselves great.

Pay close attention to your actions. Attitude reflects leadership.

Keep the team spirit high. You’re the catalyst in this equation. It is your task to bring out the greatness in others by treating them as valued players in your mission. Inspire them by your example, and they will in turn inspire others. It’s a winning formula.

How are you maintaining trust within your team?

Trust Your Team is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

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Inspire Your Team to Innovate

Geoff — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:50:43 +0000

Highly motivated people are the reason that any organization can develop a successful product or service. But what motivates them to begin? Is it the compensation, or do they have tons of pride in what they do? Harvard Business School professor Bill George believes that the pride felt by inventing something valuable cannot be matched. When he said “competitors will eventually copy an innovative idea for a product or service, but an organization of highly motivated people is very hard to duplicate,” he is clearly stating that an environment of innovation is much more motivating than an environment of copycatting. Creating a better mousetrap is a big step down from designing the original invention.

Let your team use it’s unique attributes, not just it’s traditionally trained skills

Let your team feel pride in their work by allowing them to be unique. Don’t always send them off to repeat someone else’s success. They should be able to experiment, innovate, and create success of their own.

Breeding this kind of atmosphere entices the best people to come to work. Most creative thinkers don’t want to do the same-old, same-old their entire career. They didn’t spend four or more years in college, accumulating tens of thousands of dollars to be a mimic. Almost everyone dreams of putting his or her unique stamp on the world, and this alone creates the motivation for success. So give your highly motivated industrious team the time they need to come up with something great.

How are you inspiring your team to innovate?

Inspire Your Team to Innovate is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

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Encourage Your Team with Passion

Geoff — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:33:12 +0000

The word “commitment” has recently turned into business jargon, a buzzword whose meaning has been lost through overuse and dilution. You want your team to be committed, to “buy in”, so that their passion will drive up the energy level of the organization and produce stellar results. But most employees are rarely committed to the degree you’d hope. It’s not that they lack the essential passion to feel committed (or that they aren’t compensated and rewarded enough). Rather, Australian business mogul, Richard Pratt believed that most of the time they simply don’t understand the goal or strategy to which they should be committed. After a little bit of research, I found that a staggering 95 percent of all employees are largely in the dark about strategy, according to research from Harvard Business School.

Encourage Your Team with Passion and Sincerity.

While encouraging employees to be committed is important, the encouragement will fail it it’s simply “rah-rah” blather. Experienced employees see through this rhetoric in seconds. Instead, encouragement must also include a crystal-clear explanation of the company’s adopted strategy, as well as answers to all the employee questions. And this approach is even more important if the work on the table is a one-off project, the kind of job that is successfully done when the people involved are fully aware of the goals and how to achieve them. If you offer them substantive and valuable encouragement, commitment is sure to follow.

How do you encourage your team to be fully engaged?

Encourage Your Team with Passion is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

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If You Are Drowning And I Throw You A Life Jacket… Will You Catch It?

Geoff — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:29:57 +0000

I was talking to a friend the last night who works in sales. Being that it was the end of the month yesterday, it was a good time to review how well his sales department did, as well as take note of what they could do to improve their numbers for next month. The conversation focused on building trust with both the sales team as well as the customer. I’m not sure how, but I some how got talking about the movie Boiler Room.

Ben Affleck plays a character named “Jim Young.” He delivers this pep talk to the new recruits in this movie about a group of stockbrokers working out of a strip mall “boiler room” in Long Island. He’s all fiery and passionate, and Seth Davis (played by Giovanni Ribisi) is hooked. He doesn’t know yet that the firm, JT Marlin, is a “pump and dump” operation. All he knows is that he might become a millionaire overnight.

Young’s ‘inspirational’ message offers a lot of truth. When you’re cold calling, someone is always going to close the deal. Make sure the person is you, and not the prospect on the other end of the line. You must be relentless to avoid being on the receiving end of a “thanks, but no thanks” sign off.

Of course, this is where we part company from the high-pressure, fast-talking sales techniques on display in his boiler room. For one thing, not many sales close on the first approach. The first chat is your opportunity to tip the balance, with you in control making the right points and asking the right questions. You begin to build rapport with the prospect as you explain how the solution you’re offering is the best one for his situation. And you hope that future meetings will build on that rapport and turn into trust.

If You Are Drowning And I Throw You A Life Jacket… Will You Catch It? is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

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Turn Every Disaster Into an Opportunity

Geoff — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:33:33 +0000

One way to turn disaster into opportunity is to simply show clients or customers how well your company stands up for it’s products and/or services. It is amazing how may times a customer will come back to a company despite having received a bad shipment, a late delivery, or the wrong color order if the company goes the extra mile to fix the mistake.

The best-case scenario is that not only will you have a loyal customer, but you will also have a customer who relates his or her experience to someone else. What could be better than to earn great buzz about your company after you took care of someone when something went wrong?

Make customer service your number one priority. Often people just want to be heard or have something fixed. Remember: they wanted your product or service to begin with, and they still want it…they just want it a particular way!

Most successful businesses realize that every department that deals with the outside world is an offshoot of customer service. Sales, marketing, shipping, and even accounting need to put on their best business face with every interaction. This way, you can turn lots of disasters into opportunities.

Turn Every Disaster Into an Opportunity is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

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How Far Will You Go?

Geoff — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:18:05 +0000

How far will you go? How high can you jump? What risks are you will to take to find your destiny…to find what is right for you?

Taking risks isn’t easy. We often have to conquer our fear or insecurities. We have to be ready and eager to jump from the familiar to the unknown. Getting there is often downright scary: What if it doesn’t work out? What if I fail?

The only way we’re going to find out is to risk it! If we’re having trouble making the change, we need to look within ourselves to see what is causing our resistance. Overcome it. This is part of having the will to take risks…over coming fear to make that jump into the unknown.

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Eliot

The Noble Prize-winning writer T.S. Eliot was talking about symbolism in poetry he wrote the above-mentioned line, but it applies to every aspect of life. Indeed, the quote has been adopted as the slogan for numerous societies and organizations. Before he achieved international fame as a poet, playwright, and essayist,Eliot worked in a bank. By choosing the path of writing…at best, a chancy economic future over a salaried position at an institution…he was clearly willing to risk going too far to see just how far he could go.

Ready, set, go. . . make that same leap into the unknown!!

God bless. ~ Geoff Snyder

How Far Will You Go? is a post from: Geoff Snyder's Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog - Freedom to Think and Dream Big

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Freedom to Think and Dream Big» Leadership Archives – Geoff Snyder’s Leadership and Team Collaboration Blog

The More Experiments the Better.

Bad Writing is Like a Virus

Fishing For Your Team

Failures That Fuel Our Future Success

Bite the Bullet

Credit Given When Credit is Due

More From Geoff Snyder

Geoff Snyder Recommends

Trust Your Team

More From Geoff Snyder

Geoff Snyder Recommends

Inspire Your Team to Innovate

More From Geoff Snyder

Geoff Snyder Recommends

Encourage Your Team with Passion

More From Geoff Snyder

Geoff Snyder Recommends

If You Are Drowning And I Throw You A Life Jacket… Will You Catch It?

More From Geoff Snyder

Geoff Snyder Recommends

Turn Every Disaster Into an Opportunity

More From Geoff Snyder

Geoff Snyder Recommends

How Far Will You Go?

More From Geoff Snyder

Geoff Snyder Recommends