By Teresa Lowry

See that black box? I have a confession to make. One year ago, I stood staring at it ready to cry when Coach Ong told me to do box jumps. What had happened to my body that it would not respond to my brain asking it to take flight? To do something that as a third grader I did so easily without a second thought now seemed impossible. Coach said if you can’t jump then step up. So that is what I did, stepping up day after day until the day I took flight.

My question for you, as the new year approaches is “What is your box jump?” What new skill would you like to add to your repertoire? As you set your goals for 2019 we at Aegis Learning want you to know we are here for you. Looking for a promotion, to refine your communication skills, feedback on your blind spots? We are here to help. Coaching you to success is our passion.

Professional coaches can make all the difference. Whether the coach is in the gym or in the boardroom we can all benefit from having someone who can help us develop a plan, encourage us to follow the plan, give us feedback, provide clarity and support us throughout the process.  

A coach can help us break down into incremental steps what might otherwise seem to be an insurmountable goal. With small steps comes a series of successes that can provide the positive energy we need to continue to move forward. Coaches can provide ongoing feedback to insure good habits are formed and bad habits eliminated. Never underestimate the power of positive feedback. You would be amazed at how hard I will work in the gym to hear my coach say, “Good Job Teresa!”

For many of us the added layer of accountability to another person may be just the motivation we need to complete the daily task that moves us towards our goal. Understanding our individual drivers and motivators is important. Our strategy may be a little different if we are highly competitive and extrinsically driven. Working with others with similar goals may be the key to our success.  While those of us who are motivated by reason and logic will want to do our research and due diligence to support and motivate our taking that first step.

A few tips to get started:

            Announce what you want to do.

            Schedule it, calendar it, put it on the daily to do list.

            Enlist the help of others to help keep you accountable.

            Start small.

            Expect setbacks.           

            Reward yourself for incremental improvement.           

This coming year commit to investing in your personal success. Take the first step to having the support you need to take flight.

By Teresa Lowry

It’s that time of year again when our thoughts turn to gratitude and thanksgiving. From the end of November until New Year’s Day many of us become more reflective taking stock and counting our blessings. We may periodically think or say what we are grateful for, but for many of us it is not a daily routine. Let’s use the momentum of this season to note and express gratitude 365 days a year.

Building and maintaining a robust daily gratitude practice can result in a happier outlook on life. A gratitude practice is recommended for everyone. It is essential for successful leaders. You change your life when you change something you do daily. The secret of your success will be found in your daily routine.

Science Says

There is certainly ample antidotal evidence that a regular gratitude practice can have a positive impact on emotional composition. Some would describe it as a form of self-care. World religions and many spiritual paths extoll the virtue of living in a state of gratitude. Now a growing body of research links a regular gratitude practice to better sleep, greater happiness and even lower blood pressure. Says Amie Gordon, PhD, a research scientist at the University of California, San Francisco “Gratitude is a powerful way to boost well-being”. A 2015 study in the Journal of Health Psychology found improved sleep quality for participants after two weeks of keeping a gratitude diary. Other benefits include improved self-control and greater relationship harmony and feelings of happiness.

Building a Gratitude Practice

To develop and maintain a gratitude practice set a designated time and place each day. You are intentionally identifying things you are grateful for and noting them. I am old school and enjoy writing my gratitude list out longhand in a journal. You could use a notebook or binder paper it doesn’t have to be fancy. If you want to journal electronically go for it. This will be a daily entry and each entry should be dated. Make five to ten gratitude notations. People, places, things, nature, animals, events, experiences, the potential is limitless. If you get stuck start with the basics – I am grateful for my breath.

Gratitude 2.0

Once you get started there are additional questions you can ask yourself. For example, include something you did, some action you took where you can give yourself appreciation. Yes, you can be grateful for you. Use all your senses. Touch, smell, sound, taste. Also ensure that at least one of the grateful notations is about a challenge, struggle, loss, hurt or pain. Look deeply for the good in something that was difficult at the time but brought a positive outcome or great lesson for you. Pick one of the items of gratitude and purposefully express it to the person involved.

Louis Armstrong Singing “What a Wonderful World”

I am able to attest personally to the power of a daily gratitude practice. I have been making my daily lists for over twenty years. This is a powerful and positive way for me to start each day. There are many repeat notations in my journals. One you will see more than once is hearing Louis Armstrong sing “What a Wonderful World”. No matter where on the planet I am if that song comes on the radio or through a sound system and I hear it I smile and melt. So many of you reading this will have been on my list many times. I am so very very grateful for you my family, friends, my Aegis Learning Team, Honey Badger Team, Bootcamp Team, colleagues and customers. Thank you all for the many ways you enrich my life.

By Teresa Lowry

Research tells us one of the top reasons people leave the workplace is they don’t like their boss. Your leader is the most influential person in the organization to you and the people on your team. People don’t usually leave their job for more money. They leave when the boss is disengaged and disconnected. They leave because they have a rotten boss.

My Aegis Learning colleague Polly Walker recently wrote a great article entitled “7 Deadly Signs of a Rotten Boss”. This prompted me to reflect on my early days as a boss. Having been promoted due to technical expertise and not emotional intelligence I certainly had my share of cringe worthy moments. Some of my rotten boss behaviors are listed below. I take comfort now in Maya Angelou’s words “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better I do better.”

OPEN DOOR POLICY IS ENOUGH

There I was in the big corner office adorned with floor to ceiling windows with an administrative assistant acting as guardian at the gate. My door to her adjacent space was open. I could say I had an open-door policy and tell people if they wanted to see me they could come to my office. The onus was on the members of my team. If they had a question or wanted to see me, they knew where to find me.

Fact: Leadership requires us to make frequent, personal contact with team members a priority. Get out of the office and walk around your organization.

WE ARE NOT HERE TO SOCIALIZE OR HAVE FUN

No need to attend social events or be social. This is work. Serious business. I’ll donate money for your parties, sign birthday and retirement cards, maybe send an email to acknowledge your milestone but don’t expect me to attend your parties and socialize because I am busy working. I am a stoic, private person with no desire to tell the people who work for me anything about me or my private life. Nor do I need to know about your personal life. Any need to socialize should be addressed outside of work.

Fact: Leadership requires relationship depth with team members. Successful organizations work hard and have fun. Create an environment where social interaction is valued and encouraged.

A PAYCHECK IS ALL THE REWARD YOU NEED

What is all the fuss about giving praise and positive feedback to people for doing a job they are getting paid to do? You get a paycheck, benefits, your job is stable. What more do you need? Feedback is provided in your yearly evaluation. If you don’t hear from me it means you are doing a good job.

Fact: Pay provided to team members compensates for the lowest minimum requirement of performance and behavior. Leaders can unlock discretionary effort through relationship depth and consistent positive feedback. When delivering positive feedback be direct and insure your tone is upbeat and positive.

TOUGHEN UP

A rotten boss expects you to accept and tolerate moods swings. Team members should not expect predictability. With great responsibility and the weight of the organization on my shoulders I am entitled to be sullen, serious and unapproachable depending on my emotional set point each day. Besides, this keeps people guessing and on their toes. I don’t want them to become too complacent or comfortable. Managing by fear is a good thing and promotes respect.

Fact: Successful leaders have good self-awareness and self-management. Emotional intelligence is far more predictive of workplace success than intellectual capacity. Consistency in behavior and approach is key in providing your team with a leader who is easy to follow. Solicit feedback from team members by asking “What am I projecting?”

One of the reasons I know what we teach at Aegis Learning works is because I learned the hard way what does not work. The rotten boss behaviors described above resulted in disengaged team members and low morale. Thankfully, you dear reader, now know better and can avoid ever being a rotten boss. Lead Well my friends.

By Teresa Lowry

It appeared out of the blue, completely unexpected. The request through Facebook Messenger asked if I would be available to meet her for coffee. She was coming to Las Vegas with her family. I said yes. If she had used her married name I would not have recognized her. She used her maiden name, so I remembered her.

We set a date and met at the Excalibur where she was staying for a long weekend. When I arrived, I shook hands with her sons and smiled at her grandchildren. Her middle son said they had been looking for me, calling past employers and searching social media. The children and grandchildren left for the arcade leaving her and I alone to reconnect.

She shared that for the past 17 years she has worked for social services in her home state. Most recently she was promoted to a position responsible for running a child abuse prevention program. This past spring, as part of a child abuse prevention and awareness campaign, she made a training video to educate and inform professionals in the field. It was important to her that the audience know that they can have a lasting positive impact on the lives of the children they meet. The video was well received resulting in the local sheriff making a request for copies for his department.

This video was personal. She decided to make it real and tell her story and the story of the professionals who helped her. There was the police officer, social worker, detective and teacher. She was a 13-year-old victim of unspeakable abuse picked up by a police officer whose instincts told him she was in more trouble than she was willing to admit. He took his time encouraging her to talk, he reassured her and calmed her fears. He promised protection and safety. She took a leap of faith and told her truth.

The officer rescued her but then she and her younger sister were alone without any family support. Knowing how isolated and lonely protective custody can be for a child the officer took steps to help. He and his wife would visit her and include her and her sister in their family outings.

She recalled the kindness of the detective assigned to her case. As the months in Child Haven dragged on, he made a point to include her in his family activities. She was able to have fun and be a kid again until a relative placement was found, and she moved away.

In high school, a caring teacher took an interest her, mentoring and guiding her to graduation and her first part time job in a bank. She gives credit to this teacher for keeping her in school and getting her through the difficult times when running away was an ever-present option.

Reliving her story through the video sparked a thought. Could she find any of the people who had helped her? She wanted to say thank you. Her son told her he would help. He didn’t give up until he found me.

Thirty-four years ago, I was a 24-year-old social worker assigned to child abuse investigations. She was one of the children on my caseload. I remember the solemn intensity and seriousness she carried at such a young age. Her name was one that stayed with me. We talked for almost two hours. The memories were fresh for her as she described my holding her hand while she cried waiting to testify in court. She said my words of encouragement gave her strength. She reminded me that I had taken her shopping for clothes and shoes on her birthday. She wanted me to know that my kindness mattered. She said thank you. I told her I was proud of her. We promised to keep in touch, hugged and said goodbye.

By Teresa Lowry

To Tell the Truth is a game show that has run consecutively and intermittently since 1956, airing at least one new episode in seven consecutive decades. The premise is that the panelist judges must identify the real central character who is with a group of imposters. The imposters may lie when answering questions while the central character must tell the truth.

We all need truth tellers in our lives and careers. These are the people who can help us uncover our blind spots. Behavioral blind spots are those areas in your behavior and projection of skills that others see with total clarity but in which we have no awareness. This is especially true when it comes to the impact of those behaviors and actions. The behavior itself may not be inherently negative but the impact on other people and team members may be negative or have adverse impacts.

Common leadership blind spots include verbal tone, facial expressions, volume of positive feedback and appreciation, approachability, and empathy. The impact of blind spots on leadership is large. Each unresolved or unmanaged blind spot has the potential to create relationship strains, conflict, distrust and lack of engagement.

There are three ways to uncover our blind spots. The DiSC assessment, 360 feedback surveys and truth tellers/peer coaches. DiSC is a behavior assessment tool that asks a series of questions that produce a detailed report about your personality and behavior. A 360 survey gathers feedback from your colleagues in the workplace. The participants may respond anonymously about your strengths and weaknesses. Truth tellers/peer coaching involves a trust-based relationship in the workplace where feedback can be exchanged with each other.

Our focus here is the care and feeding of your truth tellers. First, make a conscious decision to surround yourself with people who will tell you what you may not want to hear. Ask yourself: Do I provide a safe place for my truth tellers to give me feedback? Do I solicit and welcome feedback? When feedback is given do I argue against it, become defensive or ignore it? Our goal and the best way to accept feedback is to listen and express thanks.

I am fortunate to have many trusted truth tellers in my life. In my experience they appear in three distinct forms. They are the Comedian, the Drill Sergeant and the Angel. Each has given me valuable feedback about how I am perceived by others.

The Comedian uses humor to point out my behavioral blind spots. They may mimic or exaggerate my direct sharp tone or my lack of empathy. They pantomime my out of control ego. This is always done in a way that I know they have my best interest at heart and I can’t help but double over laughing at them and myself.

The Drill Sergeant is direct, to the point and unemotional. They are often the toughest to listen to because they are so blunt, but they have the courage to tell you what no one else will. They will tell me when my breath is bad, I smell, I’ve gained 20 pounds and when my pontificating sucks all the air out of a room. They don’t sandwich their comments with compliments or disclaimers. Despite the delivery I know they want me to be successful.

The Angel tends to tell me the truth indirectly by way of story, allegory or innuendo. They often model the behavior they hope I will adopt. They set a good example. Feedback is delivered with kindness and compassion. Their observation can be the easiest to accept although it is often very subtle, so I must stay diligent and listen closely to their counsel.

Listen to and thank your Comedian, Drill Sergeant and Angel. Author and teacher Michael Beckwith reminds us in Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential “be grateful that life brings us all that we require to wake up…We discover within ourselves the humility to be a beginner over and over again, which keeps us teachable.” Our goal is to stay teachable and ready to listen when our Comedian, Drill Sargent and Angel show up to tell the truth. Oh, and if the Comedian, Drill Sergeant and Angel all call you an ass, put on a bridle.

By Teresa Lowry

How many times have we heard ourselves or others say there aren’t enough hours in the day? We all seem so busy. But being busy does not mean we are productive. We are often absorbed in low level tasks or worse yet nonproductive behavior falling victim to a self-engineered lack of time. However, when we have a plan, know what is important and focus on our priorities it is amazing how much we can accomplish.

IF IT IS NOT ON THE LIST IT WILL NOT GET DONE

Good leaders have a daily plan. Even if the plan is interrupted or we have one of those days where the unexpected takes over there is still significant value in the planning process. Everything needs to go on the daily plan. It all needs to be in one place. Eliminate using multiple systems, choosing instead a single system that is easy to use.

The plan must include tasks, projects, appointments, meetings, notes and other pertinent information for all facets of life. If an event, meeting, or task is not planned prepare for it not to occur. Tip: Perform least favorite task first to avoid procrastination.

BE SINGLE MINDED AND FOCUS

Good time management requires discipline, the creation of good habits and the elimination of bad habits. Patterns of thought and action develop over the course of a lifetime. They impact our quality of life and interactions. Once we become conscious of the patterns we have formed we can revisit them and make new choices. Just as we have power to create patterns of thought and action we have the power to change them.

Time mastery involves adding new habits and dropping nonproductive ones. Identify a few new habits to control and master that would give more time each day to engage in critical leadership activities like coaching, visioning and mentoring. Tip: When the task requires deep concentration alternate your focus in 30-minute increments, shifting to a lighter easier task for a mental break.

ELIMINATE TIME PARASITES

A time parasite is any event or activity that saps productive time. They can be personal, part of the everyday workday, or single events. They sap valuable and productive time. They cause interruptions requiring restarts of thought. They can become habitual and expected. Most are ones we control or are behaviors of others that we have accepted or reinforced or occur due to lack of established boundaries.

The key to managing a time parasite is to identify, diagnose and apply a strategy to it. For every time parasite there is a strategy for reduction or elimination. Some of the common time parasites are meetings, personal calls, correcting other people’ s mistakes, failing to delegate, email and web surfing.

MEA CULPA AND LESSONS LEARNED

I am going to focus on a couple of time parasites that challenged me as new leader. These fall under the adage of when I know better I do better.

Meetings. Personal confession: When I promoted into a leadership role I became responsible for convening and conducting meetings. I naively gave little thought to the art and skill of facilitating management meetings. Just set a time, place, invite people and then talk. Right? Wrong! My meetings were marathon feats of endurance that tested the attention span, patience and bladder of even the heartiest team member. Participants adjourned wondering what had been accomplished. Tips: Keep meetings to an hour. Always have an agenda and defined purpose. At the end recap and review critical items and next steps.

Personal Calls. This time parasite showed up for me under the guise of being a good parent and spouse. Calls from my child that he forgot his lunch, his math homework, his gym uniform. Calls to my spouse: what do you want for dinner, do you have a grocery list for me? A couple of these interruptions each day can add up to over an hour of lost productivity and impacted focus. In hindsight these calls were unnecessary. Leaders set the boundaries for friend and family calls at work. They control whether they respond. Added bonus. Not responding to every challenge your child has created increases the likelihood of their taking responsibility and problem solving. I remember growing up in a house where the rule was that we did not call mom or dad at work unless the house was on fire. There are positive outcomes possible if we stop taking every phone call or text from our children. In addition to increased productivity for the parent there is increased self-reliance for the child. We train our family by the behaviors we accept and the boundaries we set. Let them know that you will make uninterrupted time for them when you get home.

Productive leaders have a daily plan, focus and make good use of time at work. This in turn reduces stress and gives them more hours in the day to engage in high level leadership activities such as mentoring, team engagement, and visioning.

By Teresa Lowry

I love books and I love to read. As a child weekly trips to the library were greeted with anticipation and delight. Such a place of abundance. All those books. Later, every house I lived in contained bookshelves with stacks of books, read and unread. Bought, borrowed or gifted, each shows up at the right time. There are books on my iPad although nothing can replace the touch and feel of a book in my hands. Cracking the spine, the fresh pages, the anticipation of what’s ahead. About those fresh pages. This won’t last long. Invariably there will be smudges of chocolate on the pages. I also love chocolate.

If I really enjoy a book I want to share it with you. Books educate, entertain, and take us away. My personal favorites are the biographies of great leaders, historical novels, and all things inspirational. I am excited to combine my two passions leadership training and reading, and share with you our Aegis Learning friends, what I’m reading this month.

THE GAMBLER: HOW PENNILESS DROPOUT KIRK KERKORIAN BECAME THE
GREATEST DEAL MAKER IN CAPALIST HISTORY

The Gambler by William C. Rempel is the biography of Kirk Kerkorian the business tycoon and humanitarian. This is the rags-to-riches story of the visionary self-made billionaire who transformed the leisure industry and Las Vegas. Kerkorian exemplified so many of the attributes we teach at Aegis Learning. He was a humble leader. Described time and again as low key and unpretentious he traveled without an entourage. He drove a Ford Taurus and always paid his own way even in his hotels and casinos. He relished his personal anonymity. A generous benefactor, you will not find his name on buildings or statutes. Requesting anonymity was often one of the requirements of accepting a donation or gift from him.

Another key leadership quality was his practice of delegating to his trusted executive team. He relied on the judgment of his key people. Rempel writes that Kerkorian had come to appreciate how much more he could accomplish by delegating management decisions. As delegator in chief Kirk trusted his team to manage the details. That meant no muddied chain of command, no interference from above.

KERKORIAN AS RISK TAKER AND COURAGEOUS LEADER

The key leadership principal that appears time and again when reading about Kerkorian is that he was a fearless risk taker. Three times in twenty-five years he would build the world’s largest resort hotel in Las Vegas. His first record breaker, the International Hotel opened on July 2, 1969. The naysayers and pundits expected a flop. Kerkorian persevered. On a personal note, the progress of the International Hotel was watched closely by my family. My dad, a carpenter, was fortunate to obtain work on the construction of the International. He would come home from the site and regale us with stories about the magnitude of the project and all the fancy amenities. At 30 stories tall we could see the hotel from our nearby neighborhood. Kerkorian went on to break records and build the largest, literally “Grandest” hotels in Las Vegas two more times.

Risk taking, and risk tolerance are important leadership characteristics and skills. Effective leaders must challenge paradigms, confront difficult situations and take risks on a daily basis. Calculated risks. With each action, the leader must determine the desired outcome, identify the potential negative consequences of the action and then choose if the risk justifies the reward.

KNOW WHEN TO HOLD EM, KNOW WHEN TO FOLD EM

Effective leaders understand that all applications for courage need to be considered in a broader and more global perspective. Simply put, there are times to fight and times to keep quiet and acquiesce. Giving ground tactically on a single issue or event is not a sign of weakness. Rather it is a sign that the leader has exercised the good judgment to maintain power and credibility to use courage another day.

As the story goes, Kerkorian waged a tremendous campaign to buy Chrysler Corporation. Rempel reports Kerkorian had one of the most audacious strategies ever floated over Detroit: a buyout that would take the nation’s number three automaker private. The company fought him. Ultimately, he did not get the takeover he had hoped for. One of Kirk’s most enduring and endearing qualities was his limited capacity for grudges. He didn’t collect them. “Its business” he would say and move on.

SO MUCH MORE

I highly recommend The Gambler. Yes, much of the story involves my home city of Las Vegas but there is so much more. Kerkorian’s humble beginnings, years as a World War II pilot and airline owner provide the backdrop for the development of a courageous leader and entrepreneur. His interactions with Howard Hughes, Ted Turner, Lee Iacocca and other visionaries make for a fascinating and educational read.

By Teresa Lowry

Mindfulness. The state of being fully present, letting go of the past and not worrying about the future. Leadership requires you to be fully present. Strong leaders are mindful.

A lack of mindfulness costs U.S. businesses up to 9 billion dollars a year. There is also the loss of connection with team members. Think of the missed opportunities for empathy with customers and our team because we are not fully present. Consider the stress to mind and body when we live in a state of regret for the past or anxiety about the future. Eckhart Tolle, in his book “The Power of Now,” says that we are addicted to time, always looking at the past or toward the future. Seldom do we find ourselves constantly in the now.

With mindfulness we have less stress and better focus. We enhance our ability to listen and respond in a meaningful and connected way. Our improved focus means fewer mistakes, greater productivity. This is the quality of living we desire for ourselves and others. One of the ways to cultivate mindfulness is to engage in a regular meditation practice.

Leadership of Self

Transcendental Meditation was part of my childhood experience, fostered by a mother who was ahead of her time. Sadly, I did not carry the practice into my adulthood. I had the foundation and believed in the benefits from both philosophical and scientific perspectives. I read all the books and articles. Intellectually I agreed with the benefits of meditation: stress reduction, clarity, peace, yet a daily practice eluded me.

Then it dawned on me. Could it be that my ego was addicted to stress? Had my intensity and multitasking become a way of proving to others that I was important, a hard worker? I wore my stress like a badge of honor. Proof if you will, of my commitment to my organization. What was the result? Predictably my frenetic way of operating did not give confidence to my team or customers. It often unnecessarily ratcheted up the intensity of a crisis. With an overly assertive tense tone and rapid pacing I created a toxic environment. The faulty logic was as follows: if I am calm, centered, peaceful, the organization will think I am not working hard enough, lack passion and commitment.

Most team members report that the stress level in the work environment is influenced by the leader. When the leader is stressed the team feels it and embodies this stress. When the leader is calm, positive and centered the stress levels in the workplace are reduced. Our response to stress has become a habit. Like all habits it can be modified or eliminated.

Meditation

Meditation is a practice where you focus your mind on a particular object, thought, or activity to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm state. It is an excellent way to strengthen our focus and gain mindfulness. Start small. Really small. Commit to a few minutes each morning. Identify a location that is comfortable where you will not be interrupted. Sit, close your eyes and take deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Note that we tend to become shallow breathers as we power through our days. Deeper breathing helps us both mentally and physically.

Resist the siren song to do something else. Ignore the washing machine buzzer, that the baseboards need to be cleaned, never mind the dog hair accumulated on the sofa cushion. Leave electronic devices in another room. Forgive yourself the relentless mind chatter and to do lists. Clear your mind, always returning to your breath and positive affirmation for the day. A few minutes each morning as you fortify this practice into habit is a great beginning.

The 2017 Nevada State Bar convention included a session on mindfulness meditation for attorneys. There we were in a room filled with calm, deep breathing recognizing that unless we find alternative ways to manage stress the legal profession (like most others) will continue to be challenged by members who turn to self-defeating, unhealthy even dangerous behaviors to cope.

I am pleased to report that I have come full circle. The meditation practice that began in childhood, lost during the ego driven years, is now back. This enables me to start each day from a place of mindfulness, calm and peace. Thanks Mom!

By Teresa Lowry

Recently, I was walking in the park with a friend who is an assistant department head of a large organization. As a leader who understands the value of self-care and exercise she meets with me to walk and talk several days a week. On this bright, crisp morning she wistfully commented “Well we lost another one…” referring to a talented millennial working in the IT department. She, a Generation Xer, and I, a Baby Boomer, pondered the challenge of leading across generations.

The greatest diversity in the workforce is now age. Disengagement costs companies $450 billion dollars a year. It can cost $15,000 to $25,000 to replace each Millennial. A leader who understands generational differences and drivers is better prepared to implement strategic and targeted engagement strategies.

Knowing that the Baby Boomers workplace objectives are security and stability, that Generation Xers look for opportunity and achievement while Millennials want contribution and enjoyment will allow you to craft an environment in which all team members feel valued and contribute to the success of the organization.

I recommend we first review our own perspective and remember that those we lead do not always share the same values or drivers. As a Baby Boomer, I wore my “workaholic” work ethic like a badge of honor. I believed this was the correct example to set for my team. Never mind my lack of work life balance or a complete lack of fun in the workplace, my 1950’s values were not resonating with many Generation Xers and Millennials. Until I was educated and understood that Generation Xers and Millennials value work life balance it did not occur to me that my value could be viewed by them as a misguided flaw.

Engage Baby Boomers by listening to what they have to say. Utilize them as experts and mentors. This also ensures critical knowledge transfer. Communicate to other team members the value Baby Boomer wisdom can contribute to their long-range career goals.

Generation Xers yearn for process flexibility. Communicate what the organization needs and then give them the ability to forge a new way of getting the job done. Provide a healthy dose of competition, praise them for their results and you will see increased engagement from this group.

Millennials thrive on disruptive innovation. They want the freedom to start the process over from scratch. And they want to have fun while they are doing it. Acknowledge their efforts not just results. Connect them to your organizational vision and mission in a way that fulfills their need to contribute to the greater good.

As a leader in your organization you want to value each group equally, foster empathy and respect for differences and honor what each generation contributes to the work place. This will drive your ability to recruit and retain different generations in your work place.

By Teresa Lowry

I am fascinated by the process that takes us from knowing what we need to do to be successful to actually doing it. Nike encourages us to “Just Do It”. Life experience tells us it is not always that easy. We know the actions we need to take to be better leaders, better humans but how do we get from knowing to doing?

At Aegis Learning we are committed to creating a way forward for you. Successful leaders have energy and stamina. Leadership Impact teaches you to cultivate a positive emotional composition which results in increased physical energy. With more energy, we can maintain the habits created to meet our goals. To stay the course, we have peer coaches and mentors to hold us accountable. We can remain committed to positive habits by understanding our internal and external motivators.

GET YOUR EQ IN THE GAME

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is critical to successful leadership. Emotions drive attitudes and beliefs. Attitudes and beliefs drive behavior. 80% of our reactions, responses and decisions are driven by our emotions. Emotions have an impact (positive or negative) on our physical energy. By managing your emotions, you can consciously choose to operate in a zone of optimism and enthusiasm. Improved emotional health allows for increased energy to accomplish our goals.

At a recent company retreat several team members expressed a desire for more time to accomplish various goals. Highly accomplished and very productive professionals, these are the same people who the busier they are the more they accomplish. This started me thinking about whether the answer to what we need is more time or do we really need more energy?

In their book “The Power of Full Engagement” Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz conclude that energy not time is the fundamental currency of high performance. Their study reveals that performance, health and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy. In addition to monitoring our emotional composition to support increased energy we require the creation of positive habits.

To jump start new habits you need motivation. Back to EQ and knowing yourself. Motivation is unique to the individual and the habits we will cultivate must resonate at our core. Organizational theorists Thomas Malone and Mark Lepper have identified several sources of intrinsic motivation: Challenge, Curiosity, Control, Fantasy, Cooperation, Competition, and Recognition. Determine which motivators resonate with you. These intrinsic motivators become key to the creation of new habits.

HABIT IS WHAT KEEPS YOU GOING

Jim Rohn said it best “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” Set up your surroundings to support your goals and habits. In “The Power of Habit” business reporter Charles Duhigg found the key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive and achieving success is understanding how habits work.

For me, exercising seven days a week, at the same time every day lead to making it a habit. There is no decision to be made on whether today is the day or telling myself I can do it tomorrow. I removed the decision-making piece from the equation. Set up your surroundings to support your goals and habits. Changing into my exercise “uniform” first thing in the morning helps reinforce the habit. Cultivate habits that align with your intrinsic motivators. Next, establish your accountability team.

CHOOSE YOUR ACCOUNTABILITY TEAM

J.E. is my Shero. She works the graveyard shift as a nursing supervisor in Labor and Delivery at a local hospital. Married, with four active teenagers at home, J.E. finds the time and energy to attend an 8am Bootcamp workout at my gym. Committed to her health and fitness, this also qualifies as her “me time”. J.E. has a strategy to hold herself accountable. She pays her trainer or work out partner $40 if she does not show up. Her husband has similar habits and shared goals and together they compete in obstacle course races. J.E. knows the power of having friends and family hold her accountable.

Even if we put our workout, meditation, self-improvement related activities on our to do list or calendar many of us are far too willing to break a commitment to ourselves. If we have a friend or partner that we are accountable to we are more likely to not want to disappoint them so we show up. Most people are far more likely to maintain a new habit if they are accountable to a partner, coach or team. Personally, I am intrinsically motivated by a team environment. The thought of running a Spartan Race by myself sends my mind into excuse mode. If I am with a team, the commitment to others ensures I will be there to perform at my highest level.

At the office, choose a colleague, peer coach or mentor to help hold you accountable. Schedule regular meetings. By determining when, where and how it will be done your success rate will be substantially higher.

AEGIS LEARNING THE PATH FORWARD

Aegis Learning provides the tools needed to keep learning alive. The Aegis PATH is a series of emails delivered to you after you have completed a program. Each email will have Five Keys to continue to work on and remember to create the best application of skills possible. There is a self-assessment tool option with each email for you to assess where you are and create an action plan for where you want to be. Your supervisor, mentor or program sponsor will also be receiving a set of emails with discussion points and specifics of follow up. This feature will keep the learning and culture changing competencies in your organization alive.

It is up to you to connect the learning to action by understanding your motivations and creating habits that support successful leadership competencies. Let your accountability team support you. Continue to reassess and evaluate your progress and you will go from knowing to doing.