Making Excellence Easy

I help people make hard things easy, "deep" things simple and challenges more fun.

Learn more about my

Services, Books,

and

Seminars

Archive for April, 2007

Team Building Seminar at Children’s Services Council

Friday, April 27th, 2007
Creating and delivering the seminar Building High Performance Teams for The Children’s Services Council of Broward County was sheer delight.  Not only were the staff at CSC an excellent group to work with, I always find myself having a ball with the participants.  The seminar focused on the three keys to strong leadership and how that plays a powerful role in building teams that impact organizations.  This group was so enthusiastic that a great part of the morning morphed into a valuable Q & A session in which leaders shared their experiences and enjoyed each others ideas.
Working with groups like CSC make up for those days when the LCD projector fails and coffee does not show.
They are simply a pleasure to partner with – everytime!   Thanks again Roxanne, you are the best!!!
Future seminars for CSC include a repeat performance of Building High Performance Teams, and two additional sessions on Management Skills.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Friday, April 13th, 2007

In the book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey talks about the importance of making emotional deposits in relationships. Like a bank account, he explains that healthy relationships thrive when there are more “deposits” made  then “withdrawals”. A relationship can weather life’s withdrawals with a healthy account.  Simple math, really.  However, if no or very few deposits are made in the relationship, but withdrawals constant (which can be displayed in an infinite number of ways), it can damage the relationship, often leaving it irreparable.  The relationship then becomes a ”delinquent account”.  Try getting cash from “zero balance”.  It just does not happen.  Have you ever experienced a one-sided relationship that got old real fast?

At the end of the program after teaching this idea, participants always express enthusiasm for learning of the emotional bank account.  I am excited at the value they see in practicing these principals, but remind them of one thing.  I caution them not to make what I call “transparent deposits”.  These are deposits made with the intent to gain something as a result of the deposit.  For example; if someone needs something from you, and they quickly attempt to “deposit” with the intent to make an immediate withdraw, this point is missed entirely.  I warn that this is not what the idea encourages.  It encourages that with the relationships you value, it is essential to practice making genuine emotional deposits to sustain them.

Character is much easier kept then recovered. – Thomas Paine

Addiction or Preference?

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007

In his book Handbook to Higher Consciousness, Ken Keyes encourages readers to have ”preferences” over “addictions” on the path to happiness. He shares that when we are “addicted to outcome”, we experience negative emotions and encourages readers to just prefer.

I found this to be a wise practice if one is moving in the direction of creating a vision via the law of attraction.  When I practice having preferences, I still feel peaceful regardless of the outcome.  You can still have goals and work toward them, but we all know ya can’t control life itself!  When your happiness does not depend on “having to have” a certain outcome, you can maintain a higher vibe of energy consistently – often attracting better outcomes.
Wayne Dyer, bestselling author of many great books noted once that he used to carry Ken Keyes’ book around with him.  Personally, I ”accidentally” bumped into this book 10 years ago in Kansas City.  In truth, I decided to politely ”break away” from 6 colleagues I thought quite rude to a homeless man on our way to lunch, then found this adorable book store to hang out in instead.  I had a really interesting conversation with a stranger who directed me to this little yellow book – and its still one of my favorites!  Don’t ya just love synchronicity?