“WHAT” Do You Want?

11 02 2013

Excerpted with permission from The Power of Who by Bob Beaudine

Bob Beaudine & Bob Tiede

(Personal note from Bob T:  I have been blessed to call Bob Beaudine one of my best friends (or as Bob B would say “My WHO”) for 15 years!)

Almost every day in my recruiting practice, people call me to talk about their Dream Job.

Unfortunately, what I often hear are vague generalities such as “I’ve always wanted to be in sports, Bob. Can you place me in one of those jobs?” 

Ref Coach Groundskeeper Broadcaster

My first thought is—“What job? Which sport?  Do you want to be a referee, a coach, a groundskeeper, or a broadcaster?”

Sports is a big field (no pun intended). Remember Tom Cruise as the sports agent in the movie Jerry McGuire?

Tom Cruise - jerry-maguire

He made a statement that I often say to job candidates, “You have to help me help you!” You’re going to have to be a little more specific about exactly what it is you’re looking for and whether or not you’re currently qualified for the position.

You may be asking, “So how do I look for it? How will I know when I find it?”

looking-through-the-lens

Discovering your “What” in life is like peering through the lens of a camera while you make adjustments to bring the picture into clear focus. It’s like seeing your reflection in the water after the pond becomes still. It takes a little patience. You may be one of those rare individuals who knows exactly what it is they want to do in life and you’re looking for the fastest track possible to take you where you want to go. Good for you! Go for it! Let’s talk.

But for most people who still have a few question marks to work through there’s a process involved. And this is where the dropout rate begins to go way up. I’ve seen it happen a thousand times. Somebody wants something, whether it’s a job or some other goal. But then they find out—“It don’t come easy.” There’s a price to pay in terms of time and effort. So, they give up.

Why? Why do competent, talented individuals drop out of the process of discovering their “What” before they even get started? This may surprise you but one of the biggest reasons is fear. Fear of failure keeps more people stuck in the safety of the status quo than anything else. They’re afraid the search will be futile. Yes, launching into the unknown can be a little scary but it’s also exhilarating. You just have to keep the exhilaration from turning into anxiety. Anxiety wants you to believe your nightmares instead of your dreams. Exhilaration is energy on steroids. It’s a major rush. You just have to “keep it between the ditches.”

This is not only true of those seeking a Dream Job. It also applies to those seeking to achieve any goal or fulfill any aspiration.

Most people never get what they want for three simple reasons.

1. They don’t ask. No one can help if they don’t know what you want.

2. When they do ask, they ask the wrong people. For some reason, people are uncomfortable asking their “Who” for help. As a result, they’ll ask most anyone except their friends, who are the only ones with a motive to help.

3. When they do ask for help, they ask too vaguely. Even if I’m motivated to help a friend, I can’t do it when I don’t know what he or she wants.

When you’re daydreaming, where does your mind wander? Do you have a recurring dream?

I’ve asked these questions of countless people over the years and the most common response has been “I just don’t know.”  They go blank. Just when they need direction, purpose, and perspective, they come up empty.

Too many dream seekers never decide “What” they want to do in life. They’re bewildered by the multitude of choices that can cause them to lose hope in finding that “one thing” they were meant to do. When that happens they commit a colossal blunder. They settle for whatever comes along because it’s convenient. It’s the path of least resistance. Big Mistake!

Bob Beaudinepower of who

Sports Illustrated named Bob Beaudine ”the most influential man in sports you’ve never heard of.” As CEO of Eastman-Beaudine, Bob manages the nation’s leading executive recruiting firm in sports and entertainment. The Power of Who provides a STEP by STEP plan to help you find your dream through the Power of Relationships.

You can connect with Bob Beaudine on:

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Do You Have All the Facts You Need?

1 10 2012

Guest Post by Judy Douglass C2012

Questions are bread and butter for a journalist.

In my years of journalism training and experience we had six specific questions drilled into us:  the five W’s and an H.

First we had to get the facts:  Who, What, When, Where.

Then we moved on to the most important question:  Why?

And sometimes we asked the H question:  How?

When reporting, it is important to get the facts right, and to seek to understand not only what happened, but why.

The same is true in the rest of life:  in families, with friends, with coworkers, as leaders.

Before we jump to conclusions or make decisions, we need to ask some questions.

Who?  Who is involved?  Who is affected?  Who else might shed light?

What?  What happened?  What led up to it?  What are the results, outcomes, consequences?

When?  Though this is not always needful information, it is good to ask.  When did this situation begin?   When did it become a concern?  When did efforts to resolve it begin?

Where?  Also not always essential, but sometimes knowing where things happened, where the people involved were can be helpful for resolution.

Why?  Don’t skip this one.  Make the effort to go deeper, to understand motives and actions and emotions.  Let people express their own thoughts and responses—the why’s as they see them.

How?  In resolving interpersonal situations, how is important.  First, how did this happen, or get to this point?  What led up to the current reality?  And then, how do we resolve this, move forward, find a win-win?

Though I rarely report on news stories now, I use these questions every day.  With my family, in my ministry, in every day relationships and decisions, who, what, when, where, why and how enable me to live in reality and relationship.

What about you?  Do you get the facts, the why and the how as you make decisions?

Judy Douglass is a writer, speaker and encourager.  She partners with her husband, Steve, to lead Campus Crusade for Christ International.  A former magazine editor and author of five books, Judy travels the globe to love and encourage staff to believe God for the more He wants to do in and through them.  She writes at Kindling (www.inkindle.wordpress.com) and tweets @Jeedoo417

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Questions as the Ultimate Leadership Tool

3 09 2012

Excerpted with the permission of the author from Leading with Questions pages 22-23

Another example of a leader who makes effective use of questions is Commander D. Michael Abrashoff.  Through what he calls “Grassroots Leadership,” Commander Abrashoff turned around the operations of the USS Benfold, one of the U.S. Navy’s most modern warships.  His methods were not complex, yet the results were astounding.

Under Abrashoff’s twenty-month command, the Benfold operated on 75 percent of its allocated budget, returning $1.4 million to the Navy coffers.  The promotion rate of his people was two and a half times the Navy average.  The predeployment training cycle, which usually takes a total of fifty-two days, was completed by the Benfold crew in just nineteen days.

A third of all recruits don’t make it through their first term of enlistment, and only 54 percent of sailors stay in the Navy after their second duty tour.  Commander Abrashoff had 100 percent of the Benfold’s career sailors signing on for another tour.  It is estimated that this retention alone saved the Navy $1.6 million in 1998 (Crowley, 2004).

What did he do to stage such a turnaround in less than twenty months?  As he himself remarks, he continuously:

  • Asked questions
  • Listened
  • Then he acted on what he heard

Almost immediately upon taking command, he had a fifteen to twenty minute personal interview with each of his staff of three hundred.

He asked each person these three questions: 

  1. What do you like best about this ship? 
  2. What do you like least? 
  3. What would you change if you could?

Abrashoff acted as quickly as he could to implement the ideas that came from these questions.  He realized that simply following existing procedures and doing things the way they had always been done could no longer be effective.

Abrashoff set the vision and trusted his crew.  He helped people take pride in their work.

Whenever I didn’t get the results I was looking for on the Benfold, I tried to look inward before flying off the handle.  I also asked myself three questions each time:  

  1. Did I clearly articulate the goals I was trying to achieve? 
  2. & 3.  Did I give people the time and resources they needed to succeed? 

Eighty percent of the time, I found that I was part of the problem and that, through my actions alone, I could have altered the outcome significantly.

Abrashoff questioned every rule.  He noted that when an officer or sailor came to him for approval or a signature on something, his first questions was always, “Why do we do it this way?”

If the answer was, “Because this is the way it’s always been done,” I would say, “That is not good enough.  Find out if there is a better way to do this.”

After a while, people began doing their homework before they ever brought issues to me.  And they could explain, “This is why we do things this way.”  Or, “We’ve thought of a better way to get this accomplished.”  It drove my officers crazy, but by creating a culture in which we questioned everything, we were training our people to keep their eyes open to new ways of doing business [Abrashoff, 2002].

Now three questions for you:

A.  When you you going to ask yourself:

  1. Did I clearly articulate the goals I was trying to achieve? 
  2. & 3.  Did I give people the time and resources they needed to succeed? 

B.  When are you gong to ask your staff:

  1. What do you like best about working here? 
  2. What do you like least? 
  3. What would you change if you could?

C.  What are you going to do with the answers you receive?

Michael J. Marquardt is the President, World Institute for Action Learning and a Professor at George Washington University. Mike is the author of 20 books and over 100 professional articles in the fields of leadership, learning, globalization and organizational change including Action Learning for Developing Leaders and Organizations and Leading with Questions.

http://www.wial.org

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Find Your “WHY” to Improve Performance

30 08 2012

Guest Post by Sean Glaze

What is your motivation?

“WHY” do you lace up your shoes in the morning?

One of the things every great performer does to improve performance, regardless of their field, is find their “WHY.”

Imagine if I told you about a hidden suitcase, across town, that  was filled with 800,000 dollars and I told where it was located, and that you could have the cash if you were able to get to the suitcase in the next three hours… would you find a way to get there?

Would traffic stop you?

Would you care about the weather or less important things on your schedule or other people wondering why you were so determined to get across town?

Would you waste time and complain about the obstacles along the way, or just get past them in order to reach the suitcase and get what was inside?

Now, imagine I told you the suitcase was full of “Monopoly money” instead.

Would that suitcase be your only priority and motivate you to overcome obstacles?

You see, the difference between the two suitcases, and what is likely your very different levels of motivation when considering going after them, is the why. When the “WHY” is big enough or important enough, the “HOW” normally becomes much easier to figure out.

But if the “WHY” in your life is just “Monopoly money” – if it isn’t really something you are passionate about – you will come up with excuses or busy yourself with distractions and be far less motivated to overcome obstacles in your path.

Some people are motivated by money – but that only lasts so long… Carrot and stick reward systems are the least effective of all motivators.

Some people are motivated by excitement or fear… they are either so excited about where they are going, or afraid to stay where they have been, that it becomes a powerful “WHY.”

But the most powerful “WHY” you can identify is loyalty to a person or cause that you love.

When you are motivated to do something for others, you rarely let anything get in the way of achieving your goal.

What is your “WHY?”

If you haven’t asked and answered that question, you will always be at a performance disadvantage when you face competition who has answered it.

Chris Paul was raised in North Carolina, and his grandfather had a large hand in raising him.

The day after Chris Paul signed his scholarship to play at Wake Forest, his grandfather was murdered at 61 years old… outside the gas station where Chris had grown up working with him.

For the next game his high school team played, he vowed to honor his grandfather by scoring 61 points… one point for each year of his life.

He had never scored more than 39 in an entire game before.

But Chris Paul scored 24 in the second quarter alone. He had scored 59 with 2 minutes left in fourth quarter – and after driving to basket and making the layup, he was fouled.

He missed the free throw on purpose and left the game with the 61 points he had pledged to score for his grandfather. His team won the game.

So how did he score so many points?

He had a “WHY!”

If your “WHY” is big enough your “HOW” becomes easy.

When you get tired, or frustrated, or begin to doubt… it is your “WHY” that will give you the energy you need to keep going. Your “WHY” won’t let you give up.

Galatians 6:9 says “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not lose heart.”

What is the “WHY” that will keep you focused and not allow you to lose heart?

Find your “WHY!”

As an experienced author, speaker, and team-building coach, Sean Glaze engages and influences audiences with a unique blend of dynamic content, interactive activities, and practical action steps. If you are interested in team development or need a team building speaker for an upcoming event, you can reach him at sean@greatresultsteambuilding.com.

(You can also follow him on twitter for teamwork insights and resources!)

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“Why You Need to Ask Why” Guest Post by Mitch Ditkoff

10 05 2012

2010Questions.jpg

Some years ago, there was a big problem at one of America’s most treasured monuments — the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.

Simply put, birds — in huge numbers — were pooping all over it, which made visiting the place a very unpleasant experience.

Attempts to remedy the situation caused even bigger problems, since the harsh cleaning detergents being used were damaging the memorial.

Fortunately, some of the National Parks managers assigned to the case began asking WHY — as in “Why was the Jefferson Memorial so much more of a target for birds than any of the other memorials?”

A little bit of investigation revealed the following:

The birds were attracted to the Jefferson Memorial because of the abundance of spiders – a gourmet treat for birds.

The spiders were attracted to the Memorial because of the abundance of midges (insects) that were nesting there.

And the midges were attracted to the Memorial because of thelight.

Midge.jpg

Midges, it turns out, like to procreate in places were the light is just so – and because the lights were turned on, at the Jefferson Memorial, one hourbefore dark, it created the kind of mood lighting that midges went crazy for.

So there you have it: The midges were attracted to the light. The spiders were attracted to the midges. The birds were attracted to the spiders. And the National Parks workers, though not necessarily attracted to the bird poop, were attracted to getting paid — so they spent a lot of their time (and taxpayer money) cleaning the Memorial.

How did the situation resolve? Very simply.

After reviewing the curious chain of events that led up to the problem, the decision was made to wait until dark before turning the lights on at the Jefferson Memorial.

That one-hour delay was enough to ruin the mood lighting for the midges, who then decided to have midge sex somewhere else.

No midges, no spiders. No spiders, no birds. No birds, no poop. No poop, no need to clean the Jefferson Memorial so often. Case closed.

Now, consider what “solutions” might have been forthcoming if those curious National Parks managers did not stop and ask WHY:

1. Hire more workers to clean the Memorial
2. Ask existing workers to work overtime
3. Experiment with different kinds of cleaning materials
4. Put bird poison all around the memorial
5. Hire hunters to shoot the birds
6. Encase the entire Jefferson Memorial in Plexiglas
7. Move the Memorial to another part of Washington
8. Close the site to the general public

Question Mark man sitting on it.jpg

Technically speaking, each of the above “solutions” was a possible approach — but at great cost, inconvenience, and with questionable results.

They were, shall we say, not exactly elegant solutions.

Now, think about YOUR business… YOUR company… YOUR life.

What problems are you facing that could be approached differently simply by asking WHY…. and then WHY again… and then WHY again.. until you get to the core of the issue?

If you don’t, you may just end up solving the wrong problem.

THE FIVE WHYS TECHNIQUE

1. Name a problem you’re having
2. Ask WHY it’s happening
3. Get an answer
4. Then WHY about that
5. Get an answer
6. Then ask WHY about that – and so on, five times

By Mitch Ditkoff,

Mitch Ditkoff is the co-founder and President of Idea Champions, a highly acclaimed management consulting and training company, headquartered in Woodstock, NY. He specializes in helping forward thinking organizations go beyond business as usual, originate breakthrough products and services, and establish dynamic, sustainable cultures of innovation.

www.ideachampions.com/weblogs

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