Leaders Move People Forward

This week we welcome Guest Blogger Lora Crestan, Leadership Strategy & Business Coach.

Your team is multi-faceted; each member having strengths to leverage that could mean huge growth for everyone, including the organization.  Are you ready to capitalize on what you have in front of you?

Here are a few ways you can get going:

Find new ways to be remarkable – have your team share ideas on how they (and your organization by extension) are different from the rest out there tapping into your marketplace.   What are your customers telling you?

Challenge your team to find ways to fail fast – that means trying new things, living in a ‘beta-test’ world where they (and you) are constantly developing new iterations of their work to suit the needs of their clients while getting better every day.

Make a commitment to spending 60 minutes together each month to focus on team growth and leadership development.  By finding new ways to communicate, and new ways to tackle old problems you will start down a path of mutual growth and start on the path to a new evolution of your organization.

We are now heading into the back-half of 2015…what are you going to do to make sure you move your people forward?

Lora Crestan, Guest Blogger
Leadership Strategy & Business Coach
www.loracrestan.com

Making Time for Yourself

People Like Us tend to make everyone else a priority and focus on all the tasks at hand.  With this philosophy, we sometimes forget to make time for just yourself.

When you are passionate about the things you do and the people around you, it is easy for you to consume most of your time.  Thanks to certain special people you interact with, they show you what you cannot see and bring balance into your life.   They help you understand the importance and benefits of making time for yourself - and it is never too late to start.

When is a good time to make time for yourself?   The answer is to figure out a better balance and the sooner the better.   Lately, I've been focused on work as much as possible, enjoying the volunteer hat and spending wonderful family time watching the sports my daughters are involved in.  Somewhere along the line I seemed to have forgotten to make any time for myself.

Now I'm working on a better balance to ensure one of the top priorities includes making time for myself.   One of the goals is to be at the gym 4 times a week.  Another goal is to go "unplugged" on Sundays - this will be a tough one! 

On a recent weekend, I found some alone time and actually did not make any plans.  It felt good to be all relaxed and refreshed.  Yes it is true all the tasks and stuff will always be there.  It is up to you to choose if it takes up all your time or if you balance it to include time for yourself.

Top 4 Things Leaders Care About

1.  Character

Leaders develop high character in their organizations and make this one of their top priorities to care about.  Defining your Core Values helps to define the character of a company.

Our Core Values are Integrity, Teamwork, Excellence and Commitment which all revolve our Total Customer Experience.   This defines AlphaKOR' high character.

2.   Anxiety

Being aware of the team' anxiety and addressing it helps reduce the level of stress felt by an individual.   Leaders recognize each person' concerns and works with them to help them deal with it in a positive matter.

When the levels are high, understanding and problem solving become more difficult if not impossible.  Decision making processes are clouded resulting in poor results.

These worries can stem from a number of sources, including lack of clear direction, misunderstanding and maybe even the fear of what the future brings.   Communicating a path for each member to follow and understand will help reduce this anxiety.

3. Responsibility

Leaders empower their Team by defining each person' responsibilities and what they are accountable for.  These are clearly defined and understood by everyone.  Coaching is provided along the way to ensure everyone takes on the responsibility and achieves success.

The challenge for many leaders is letting go of taking care of "everything".   Their focus shifts to helping the team take on bigger tasks to help achieve the overall goals.

4.  Energy

We always notice the people in the room who bring the energy - are you one of these people?   Good leaders bring it and teach their team to do the same.

Achieving results requires you to bring the energy all the time.  Sometimes it takes effort within you and remember it is expected from you to deliver this consistently.   Look at the successful people and you will see and feel this vibe.   Embrace it.

Inspired by http://www.kevinathompson.com/care/ 

What Motivates You to Accomplish Great Things?

Ever notice most people who are motivated have lots of energy, are focused and accomplish great things on a consistent basis.

They move with a sense of purpose and with determination they are on a mission.  You can feel their energy when they walk into the room.   People gravitate towards them and engage in discussions or simply listen to what they are saying.  Why are these people motivated?

One of my life long motivators has been the fear of failure.   Yes we all tend to fail and need to fail from time to time to learn from it.  This helps me keep my focus on being successful.  Being positive.  Being energetic.  

What really moves me about this fear is the ability to think positive, to be optimistic and really focus on the goal at hand to be successful.

The result of this motivation?

When we focus on being successful, we can create our own destiny.  It is easy to get frustrated when we hear all the "nay-sayers" around us.  Focusing our energy onto the positive side will help get you to your destiny. 

This destiny can lead to achieving great things.   The positive feedback, the difference one can make and the feeling of successfully accomplishing something great are the motivation drivers to keep yourself going.

Did you know you have the Power to motivate yourself to accomplish great things?

Happy Canada Day

Wishing everyone a very Happy Canada Day!

Spending the day with the Family at home as AlphaKOR is closed, except for the after-hours support team.   AlphaKOR never stops servicing our clients.

The goal is to have an "unplugged" day with the Family to spend quality time together instead of being distracted by our smart phones and tablets.   This will be a tough task for all of us to embrace - already felt the resistance yesterday.

It is a time to relax as a Family and also a time to find some alone time.    Taking these moments to reflect together and to reflect alone how great Canada is.   Most of us never seem to take the time to really appreciate what is around us and how fortunate we are.

We live in peace, not in fear.   We can have just about anything we want thanks to Canada being such a great company.   Find the time today and see what you are thankful for.  Thanks to so many fellow Canadians for all your great support, friendship, mentorship and advice.    

Of course yours truly will reflect on business for a bit.   Part of the Leadership responsibility and thinking as we enter our new fiscal year is:  envision, create opportunities and continue to build our audience.

Proud to be Canadian!