How a leader thinks, empowers, guides, and motivates people
is critical. When people dislike a leader's efforts,
they will (consciously or
subconsciously) try to make their leaders look bad. At the same time, they will
only do
things that will make themselves look good. Fortunately, if the leader
is well respected, people may then be willing
to take a risk and do the right
things that may even make their leader look good.
The solutions to almost all corporate problems already
exist within the combined minds of every individual. A
leader's job is to
empower these individuals to take responsibility for their jobs, feel free to
unlock their creative energies, and provide creative and more productive
solutions.
Unfortunately, in our rapidly changing and evolving
environment, people are suffering. Many don't trust anyone anymore, least of all
anyone in management. They are afraid to make mistakes or commit to anything
that makes
them feel uncomfortable or that may ultimately fail. They believe
that the organization is simply using and abusing
them, believing that while
they do all the work, management gets all the glory and rewards. They feel that
no one
really cares about them, that is, until they make a mistake.
Having been used and abused, people are reluctant to do
their best. They refuse to take responsibility for their
own careers. As such,
they are neither peak performers nor productive.
Gary’s leadership presentations help leaders take
responsibility for their careers and master the keys to guide
their people
become peak performers. Critical elements in performance include obtaining
creativity ideas, find innovative solutions, using effective communications,
developing a flexible mindset, and being motivated.
Leadership Lesson
To understand the performance effect of a bad leader,
consider a time when a leader treated you unfairly.
Remember how it made you
feel. What did that leader do to make you feel that way? Did you let you him or
her know how much the incident bothered you? Do you remember the leader’s
reaction to your comment?
Did it really make any difference?
Now remember how that incident changed the interactions
between the leader and you. How did it affect your performance? Were you able to
trust that leader after the incident? If you were in that leader’s position,
what
would you have done to correct the situation?
By reviewing examples of bad leadership, you can quickly
understand how you should handle similar situation
in the future.
Achieving Excellence
Leadership is indeed a journey where challenges are met
with flexibility and courage. Leaders must guide their
people to meet adversity
with strength and competition with creativity. For an organization to excel,
everyone,
from executives to front-line managers must display leadership
excellence. Naturally, in order to lead and
transform people and organization, a
leader must begin with him or herself. A leader must first be an example
of what
he or she expects from others. Then, through diligent actions, clearly outline
the behavior expected of everyone.
Gary’s presentations and consulting will show you how to
lead by example. It provides you effective tactics to
achieve excellence and
help others to improve their performance and productivity.
Dr. Yamamoto’s Presentation and Educational Philosophy
A true educational experience draws out the wisdom from
all the participants. In this way, attendees are not
being lectured or told what
to do. Instead, they are allowed to bring out the wisdom they have gathered over
their lifetimes. Gary capitalizes on that wisdom and creates a true educational
experience, one that pushes the
limits of their knowledge and experience and
challenges them to move to the next level. Gary then works with participants to
help them change their mindset and create an effective plan of action they can
commit to.
Copyright © 2008 by Gary K. Yamamoto.
All rights reserved. No part of this article may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior written
consent of the author.
Performance: The Do More, With Less, and
Better Manifesto
by Gary K.
Yamamoto, Ph.D.
In most organizations, leaders and managers have been given
the job of increasing
productivity – the “Do
More, with Less, and Better
Manifesto.” To meet this need, leaders have their own personal techniques to
push, and pull, and bribe their people to become peak performers.
In general, people do not have to be forced to become peak
performers. They already want to succeed. After
all, no one gets up in the
morning and says, “Yep, this looks like a fine day to ruin my career.” Although,
sometimes you have to wonder when you observe the behavior of some people.
People’s performance is driven by two factors, their
ability and their behavior. To achieve performance
excellence, they have to
excel in both areas.
Improving a person’s ability is relative easy to
accomplish. People need the right tools, the right job skills and knowledge to
do the job. They quickly learn what to do and how to do it.
The second factor, behavior, is more difficult to improve.
A person’s behavior is driven by their state of being
and their ability to
motivate themselves.
A person’s state of being is made up of five factors. If
any one or more of these factors turns negative, and
they can do so at any time,
performance and productivity suffers. These factors are, emotions, stress,
attitude,
self-image, and self-esteem. If, for example, a person’s emotions turn
negative because they thought the ticket
they received from a policeperson was
unfair, you can expect that their performance and productivity will suffer.
The
same is true for high stress levels, bad attitude, poor self-image, and low
self-esteem.
People are also able to control their own motivation.
Everyone is motivated, but that motivation may not be in
the direction that a
manager or the company desires. An unmotivated worker may be a motivated golfer
or
bicycle rider. Unless the company’s business is selling golf equipment or
repairing bicycles, the worker may
not be motivated.
Fortunately, people can become responsible for their own
motivation. Once they understand the key factors
that control a person’s
motivation, they can change their motivation towards any job or task. This
places the responsibility of motivation and ultimately job performance and
productivity on the individual.
People who are able to maintain a flexible mindset, control
their state of being, and keep themselves motivated
are the best employees.
Issues such as, teamwork, communications, interactions, productivity, and change
become non-issues. They have learned to empower themselves and take
responsibility for their actions.
Performance Lesson
To understand how a bad state of being can affect a
person’s performance, consider a time when someone at
work was very upset.
Remember how you felt interacting with them. How did you feel about them? What
was
your reaction to their behavior? Did they apologize for their seemingly
inappropriate behavior? Did their apology
really make a difference in your
mind?
Now remember how that incident changed the interactions
between that person and you. Did you work well
with them in a team situation?
Did you go out of your way to help them discover an innovative solution? Did
you
go out of your way to help a customer or client they were helping? How did it
affect your performance?
Were you really able to trust that person after the
incident? If you were in that person’s situation, what would
you have done
differently?
By reviewing examples of bad state of being and motivation,
you can quickly understand how you should
handle similar situation in the
future.
Achieving Excellence
Doing a job is easy. After learning the fundamentals, work
often become routine. Performance then becomes dependent on a person’s mindset,
state of being, and ability to motivate him or herself. Every employee should
know how to control his or her own performance level. With high performance
employees, a flattened
organizational chart becomes a reality, as each employee
is now responsible for their own performance and productivity.
Dr. Yamamoto’s Presentation and Educational Philosophy
A true educational experience draws out the wisdom from
all the participants. In this way, attendees are not
being lectured or told what
to do. Instead, they are allowed to bring out the wisdom they have gathered over
their lifetimes. Gary capitalizes on that wisdom and creates a true educational
experience, one that pushes the
limits of their knowledge and experience and
challenges them to move to the next level. Gary then works with participants to
help them change their mindset and create an effective plan of action they can
commit to.
Copyright © 2008 by Gary K. Yamamoto.
All rights reserved. No part of this article may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior written
consent of the author.
To get
more information on Gary, please contact his agent -
click here.
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