Visions go by many names, but whatever you call it—goals, plans, objectives, ambitions, aspirations, purpose, aim—it involves a two-step process.

You need to visualize where you want to go and plan how you’re going to get there.

The first part is your vision, whether you’re Steve Jobs with a vision of the iPod, the child who plays doctor and grows up to be a surgeon, the couple who falls in love and plans a family or the laid-off worker whose purpose is to survive the current mess.

The second part is how to get there. As a wise person once said, “a goal without a plan is a dream” and dreams rarely come true.

Whether you’re a manager, student or parent recognize that your goal/plan/objective/ambition/aspiration/purpose/aim is, in reality, your vision and treat it with the respect it deserves.

1. Write it down;
2. think it through;
3. describe it in detail;
4. determine how to achieve it;
5. write down the steps;
6. commit yourself; and
7. do it.

But while you’re doing it remember that visions aren’t carved in stone, they need to breath and live as you do.

That means you may need to modify, put on hold, or even scrap your vision—but not at the first bump in the road.

Visions are worth fighting for, but rarely worth dying for—even metaphorically.

Think of it this way: Life happens; the world happens; flexibility is part of success—INflexibility paves the road to ruin.

Image credit: Jasmic on flickr

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Life is all about choices; every day we make choices and as we do our world changes and we move in a new direction.

Some choices are conscious; others are made with little to no thought.

Some choices lead to good outcomes and others not, but one thing is for sure.

No matter what happens, your light is never truly hidden unless you believe it is so.

Always make your best choice, but if it doesn’t work, know that the darkness will pass and you will change direction again with the next choice.

Image credit: Lucretious on sxc.hu

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Are you familiar with The Onion?

I came across an old headline and laughed at how applicable it is to so many of us.

Search for Self Called Off After 38 Years

Phil Gerbyshak described himself in response to Becky Robinson’s Be Who You Are, in which she said that she couldn’t separate her business self and personal self.

But would she want to?

We are all a product of our MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™).

The biggest difference between personal and professional is the words used to describe what’s going on. We have ‘relationships’ in our personal life and ‘interactions’ in our professional one.

Knowing who we are is important, but constantly updating our knowledge is even more important, because we continue changing as long as we live.

Stopping your search could mean being stuck at that point like a fly in amber.

Along with continued searching, we need to share the information with the world, not just in words, but through our actions. I came across a quote from the movie Fat Like Me that says this best and has always resonated with me.

The world will tell you who you are until you tell the world.

And another one I read somewhere.

What we are never changes.
Who we are never stops changing.

So be your MAP, tell the world and update them frequently.

Image credit: Thiru Murugan on flickr

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To reach their goals entrepreneurs and other small businesses are big users of advisory boards and there’s no reason you can’t create one on a more personal level.

Here’s how to do it; note that the process needs to be done in writing, not just in your head.

1. Think through what you want to accomplish and how the advisors can/will help; write it down.
2. Describe specific areas in which you want assistance, e.g. managing, career planning, job hunting, parenting, etc.
3. Describe what you want from each advisor and explain how their acting as an advisor will also be to their benefit.
4. For each area think about the people you respect, who will listen to you and to whom you will listen.
5. Present your request with enough context for them to understand the above points, the approximate time commitment and your specific reasons for asking them.
6. Discuss it with the person, don’t push them or guilt them into doing it. You want people who are excited/pleased to work with you.
7. In terms of benefits there are many things you can offer other than formal compensation, e.g., be appreciative; if appropriate offer to do the same for them, take them out and discuss stuff over a meal; send flowers; give them chocolate; use your imagination and knowledge of the person.
8. Never overload or abuse your advisors time/energy/interest

How many advisors do you need?

That depends on

• what you want to accomplish,
• the people you can access, and
• the time involved.

Don’t put your advisory group together to impress others (yes, I’ve seen this done), because advisors don’t commit for life and don’t grow on trees you want to access them wisely.

Finally, your advisors aren’t there to stroke you—if you want strokes call your mom—they’re there to tell you hard truths, help sort out confusion and assist you to overcome challenges.

No matter their age they have wisdom, experience and smarts—otherwise why did you ask them in the first place?

Image credit: Andres Rueda on flickr

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This has been levity week and to wrap it up I have a guest post from Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher, authors of The Levity Effect. The book is excellent and don’t miss their blog.

As a public speaker and trainer we’ve discovered over the past two decades that the most memorable presentations and the speakers with the highest evaluations have one thing in common: humor. Well, two things really: humor and fun. They’re not the same thing, though they spring from the same well: Levity. (That’s enough colons to open a proctology lab, btw.)

Levity, as defined by your average dictionary, smacks of negativity—“inappropriate,” “frivolous,” “flippant,” “trivial,” even “giddy.” Giddy?

With descriptors like those, levity’s workplace value ranks well below Communication, Trust and Teamwork and maybe just a molecule above Sexual Harassment, Bullying, and Embezzling.

Let’s face it, levity is misunderstood. After all, who wants a “goof off” to handle company finances, deal with an irate customer, or worse, pilot the company jet?

But the truth is, it pays to lighten up. And that’s the definition of levity that we like best—a lightness of manner. It has a more positive ring to it. In our definition of levity we add other image words: upbeat, patient, respectful, good-natured, joyous, and possibly witty, clever, even hilarious. And not just in the realm of public speaking and training.

You may think it’s hard to measure the return on investment of levity at work—whether a go-cart outing, online vacation photo contest, or a well-timed one liner—but we’ve found a bevy of successful leaders in companies such as Boeing, KPMG and Nike who attest that fun is an essential component of their people, business and innovation strategies.

Our book, “The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up,” is backed up by a one million-person research study and offers up lots of ways to make money while making merry. Here are a few quick ideas that paint the proper picture of Levity…

• If they’re laughing, they’re listening: Whether you’re about to make a presentation to senior management to get funding for your big idea (outsourcing to primates), pitching a sales prospect who could make your year, or trying to engage a troop of distracted Campfire Girls, great communicators know that a little humor goes a long way toward creating unforgettable messages.

• Comedy can coax creativity: The work world isn’t suffering from a dearth of tedious, stiff brainstorming sessions. Research shows you can boost creativity scores by exposing people to humor or play before you start a meeting.

• Laugh all the way to the bank: Managers who use more levity experience higher employee productivity, engagement and retention. People with a sense of humor climb the corporate ladder more quickly and earn more money than their peers. And executives hire and promote the humorous more often than the dour. Wouldn’t you?

• Put a spring in your voicemail: As soon as you get into the office today, lighten up your tired voicemail with some quick company trivia or at least a modicum of joy in your voice. That is, after all, how we greet people face to

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Before you can implement any of the ideas in The Levity Effect you need to take inventory and be sure that your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) is in tune with the idea. Being in tune with levity is much more a matter of how you think than how well your sense of humor works.

1. Do you smile more often than you frown?
2. Do you think about work in terms of enjoyment and fun?
3. Are you glad when a colleague succeeds?
4. Are you happy most of the time?
5. How easily you laugh at yourself?

I know you are smart enough to figure out what the answers should be, but to have any benefit you need to answer honestly’ after all, no one else will see them.

The correct pro-levity responses are ‘yes’ to the first four and ‘easily’ to number five. If your responses are different you need to sit down and have a long talk with yourself.

How do you adjust your MAP? Part of it is awareness, but there is things you can do while working on the deeper changes.

1. Make it a point to smile, or at least not frown.
2. Look for what is good at work, what you enjoy, and the specific things that do make you smile.
3. Whether you’re jealous or just don’t care be positive and congratulate your colleagues when they do well; not just the big things, but all the little stuff that goes on every day. Be sure that the congratulations/recognition/appreciation fit the event. If you have a problem being sincere think about how you feel if a colleague snubbed your accomplishments.
4. Follow Napoleon Hill’s advice and “think, act, walk and talk like the person you want to become and you will become that person.”
5. This one is more involved, so we’ll examine it in depth on Thursday.

See you then!

Image credit: dmealiffe on flickr

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Much will be done today to commemorate the lives lost on September 11, 2001. The story I’m going to share has a different focus than most and one I believe is worth your time.

Among those who died that day was the husband of a woman I knew casually and because our acquaintance was casual I was surprised when she called nearly six months later.

I’ll call her “Kerry” and we talked for hours, but the kernel I want to share is this.

She needed support to move; not just move on, it was too early for that, but to physically move.

Kerry said the reaction to “Craig’s” death changed when people found out he died in the attack. It changed from sympathy or empathy to an almost macabre interest in how she felt because he died “that way.”

Many seemed to feel that her politics should change (she is ‘liberal moderate’, her words) and that the event should be the main focus not only in her life, but also for her two young daughters and she didn’t want that.

Kerry said she called me because she remembered my saying that I found it sad that John Kennedy Jr.’s life seemed to be defined by his father’s death; that he never was able to become anyone other than the little boy who saluted at the funeral.

Kerry said that she didn’t want her kids to be forever known as “Kristy/Jenny-her-father-was-killed-in-the-September-11-attacks”

The problem was that many of her family and friends were horrified at how she felt. They acted as if losing Craig September 11 made his death a national symbol, not a personal tragedy.

We talked many times over the next few months and the upshot was that Kerry did move far away where no one knew them. When Craig’s death came up in conversation Kerry just said that her husband had died; she said when her daughters were mature enough she would tell them what happened, but not until they had the opportunity for a normal life—not one filled with other people’s baggage.

I think for Kerry I was “the stranger on the plane,” the uninvolved person to whom you can say anything because you will never see or hear from them again and I was honored to play that part.

The death of a parent is always tragic. I know; I was five when the driver of the car in which my father was traveling fell asleep at the wheel and drove off a mountain road.

The point I want to make today is that we don’t forget, but we do move on and as we move we grow and change.

No matter how horrendous the event we all have the ability to choose what defines us and what memories rule our lives.

Never allow others to force you into a role that fits their view of what should define you.

(This post also appears today at Leadership Turn)

Image credit: StarLight on sxc.hu

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This is the final post in the Evolution of Business series and I hope you’ve enjoyed it.

Evolution offers a wealth of ideas for companies looking to survive in the marketplace; but these four simple guidelines will provide a solid starting point for innovation and growth.

Deliver complete results. Every single organism must compete in every generation. Incomplete organisms, or prototype products, simply will not survive. Drive your teams to deliver complete tests, even when the tests are very limited. Push every test to complete something. The best tests connect directly with the customers. In evolutionary terms, every organism must survive in the environment. Make sure your experiments survive in your market environment.

Measure Everything. Change without a direction is simply chaos, but you cannot guess effective directions for change. As much as you may want to lead or direct the change, it won’t work. Give up, let go, and simply measure everything. The results will point the way to effective change.

Cycle swiftly. Run short, fast tests. Some software development teams compile the entire product every day. This discipline forces the development teams to deliver complete results on a daily basis.

Connect with your customers. They are the ultimate arbiters of your products/services and the source of your survival. Go out of your office to meet with them and live with them. Bring them in-house to live with your teams. Closer, deeper connections with your customers will drive faster, better development.

Best wishes and great success in your evolution and growth in 2009!

See you next year.

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