by Deborah Leverett | Jul 19, 2013 | Blog, Uncategorized
Do It Anyway – Author Unknown “People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds. Think big anyway. People favor underdogs, but follow top-dogs. Fight for some underdog anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People really need help but may attack if you help them. Help them anyway. Give the world the best you have got and you might get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best that you have got anyway.” Today, push your refresh button, shake off the bad and give your best and give your all. Happy...
by Deborah Leverett | Jul 15, 2013 | Blog, Uncategorized
Helping individuals lead and manage change is what I have done my entire professional life. I have learned a lot about people, change and all the reasons it doesn’t happen. You’ve heard them as well: I’m afraid, it will never work, we don’t have the right tools, leaders, resources, etc. But one of the biggest reasons that I see is almost never talked about: change requires effort and many people are just plain lazy and don’t want to exert the effort that it takes to change. Sustained effort demands sustained discipline– many are so weary of day-to-day demands that the thought of doing more overloads the circuitry! Many people believe the fallacy that working long hours will make them successful. They don’t understand that without growth and change working hard will only result in a life that is a grind. It’s so much easier to go with the flow downstream — to turn on the computer, t.v., netflix, music, get locked into business as usual thinking. Put the life on autopilot. It’s the way most people live. Our habits are all a result of our strength (or lack thereof) of character. Daily thought patterns direct our daily decisions and we live our lives in a mesmerized state. See: Frank Mesmer This is irresponsibility and passivity at its fullest. But these are behaviors practiced by the majority because it is easy. So what’s the antidote? You have to find out what motivates you – reading about others’ success is often helpful. 50 Secrets of Rich & Famous. But it still comes down to how much of a difference do you want...
by Deborah Leverett | Jun 28, 2013 | Blog, Uncategorized
The Why Not the What
by Deborah Leverett | Jun 21, 2013 | Blog, Uncategorized
10 things that are a must for building a positive culture. Culture: how people are treated, how decisions are made, how information flows, and what standards are accepted. Culture is set by leadership and is seen on the front line. Culture grows one of two ways: either by neglect or by design. A culture by neglect is ineffective, dysfunctional, stresses position over performance and the goal is to maintain the status quo. A culture by design is meaningful, productive, focused on people and the goal is to constantly improve. The leader sets the standard for what is acceptable and what is not: the leaders’ moods, attitudes, facial expressions and actions are watched and emulated. To be an extraordinary organization, set standards of excellence. Not to be confused with perfection, excellence is when the talent can consistently use their skills to the best of their ability with the resources that are available. Excellence produces wins! The positive culture promotes and rewards individual strength of character. Do the right thing at the right time for the right reason. The positive culture promotes organizational integrity: where the vision, beliefs and principles of the organization can be seen acted out in what happens every single day. The positive culture exists where there is a culture of service to employees as well as customers and vendors. The positive culture attracts and keeps top talent keen on problem-solving and generating...
by Deborah Leverett | Jun 14, 2013 | Blog, Uncategorized
It’s always a good sign when an organization is able to attract top talent. It means there is vision, purpose and a palpable sense that the organization is aiming to challenge the status quo. High performers thrive in the environment where they can exercise and grow their skills by handling important tasks and projects. They see themselves as partnering with their employer and not as an employee who needs to be told what to do and how to do the job. But, when the top performer is treated as just an employee working to collect a paycheck, or has to deal with micromanagement, or is not heard (this simply means the boss does not listen); then you can bet this talent will be looking for greener pastures soon! I want to talk about the toxic management style of micromanaging. The micromanager is the one who is always looking over your shoulder, checking in, and sending e-mails to check on your progress. Here are some other signs: Pretends to delegate, but watches over like a hawk. Spends their valuable time in overseeing the projects of others. Begins by correcting tiny details instead of looking at the big picture. Takes back a project before it is finished if they find a mistake. Frowns upon others making decisions without consulting them first. Micromanaging happens either because they’re control freaks , or because they fear the job won’t get done well, if at all. What’s the result of micromanaging? I’ve seen top talent just shut down and begin behaving like an employee collecting a paycheck. They stop offering ideas and some even begin...
by Deborah Leverett | May 24, 2013 | Blog, Uncategorized
Resisters to a change initiative are often looked on as stubborn and old guard. They are even identified as problem employees who don’t want to participate in the process. But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. For most organizational cultural change initiatives that take several years to materialize, it is time well-spent for leadership engage resistors in the dialogue. They might find out the resistance reveals the passion the employee has for the organization. When some people display resistant behavior, it can be they sense losing cultural values that are most important to them. This passion stems from seeing a crucial part of the old culture on the verge of disappearing. With a performing arts center moving into a larger and more modern venue, there was intense emotion around losing the intimacy of the small, original theater. For a hospital that had been in one location for 50 years, people were visceral about losing the personal staff-to-patient relationships. For a small, private university deciding to become a major player, it was the fear of losing one’s whole professional identity of a faculty who deeply cared about students. These are all worthwhile values and, in each of these cases, leadership made the wise decision to keep the resistors in the conversation. There are many reasons why individuals oppose and resist change in an organization. Sometimes it is fear, complacency or just plain inflexibility. But many times, resisters resist because they don’t want to lose core cultural values. It pays off to pay attention to these...
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