In a recent conversation with a colleague at a consulting company where I partner, we discussed change and how limited the processes are for dealing with the period of transition which is between the change and the new beginning.

As we all know “the only constant in the universe is change”. However most of us want things to stay the same or constant and so we resist change.

If we can initiate a mindset of the Transition as an exciting and creative period, our perspective will change, as will the success of innovation and new initiatives.

As a consultant I have worked with many companies who are engaged in acquisition, merger and reorganization. The stages of transition outlined in William Bridges’ book, Managing Transitions, Making the most of Change, introduce some practical mindsets and actions that make change have a positive transition period that will increase the success of the new beginning.

Change is situational, transition is psychological.

The stages of change and transition are: 

1. The intentional ending phase where we stop doing things the old way and recognize that letting go of the old to make room for the new is important.
2. Transitional Neutral Zone where innovations, new processes and enhanced perspectives can occur.
3. New Beginning vs. New Start.

There are three crucial things to remember to allow change to create a positive environment.

1. The change itself is something that is a given. Often people are expected to move forward without having let go of the previous way. I am sure you have seen organizations move forward with a change without taking the time to let go of the old way, or clarifying what will remain the same and what is going away. A good example of this is a company acquisition; change exists for both the company that is bought, as well as for the acquiring company. Discussions about what will be different are important, with the recognition that some of the old processes will disappear. Often change is only couched as a positive without the recognition that letting go of what has been the norm is a process that is necessary to bring forward new positive behaviors.
2. The second stage, which can be the most neglected, is what Bridges calls the Transitional or the Neutral Stage during which the adjustment to the new takes place. It is important that the recognition of this essential stage be given time and priority for adjustments to take place. This can be a time of innovation and the development of new perspectives that will enable a successful new beginning.
3. The third stage is the New Beginning which is greater than just a new start. The new beginning includes new perspectives and new practical tools that will be used to leverage the change. This follows the opportunity to realistically let go of the old processes and use the transition period for discovery and for innovation that may not have taken place otherwise.

Change management is a skill; however, the how-to for that skill can be learned and implemented if it is given time and priority. Giving an organization the opportunity to recognize the three stages of managing change, and to enable the transition throughout, is an essential first step in creating new reference points for new behavior.

Do you have a question, challenge, or success you would like to share? Please be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia

Often there is discomfort in delegation due to lack of trust which evolves from habitual lack of communication and engagement in the process of obtaining results. In this culture, delegation is more of a piecemeal process meaning ‘as needed’ with mixed results rather than a honed tool used strategically throughout the organization to achieve greater results.

You can accomplish greater engagement with your team(s) today with a quick reconfigure of your team meetings and your individual interviews with your direct reports. Your meetings should be an interactive experience instead of just telling them what is needed. If there is a Strategic Plan for the organization or for the department that your staff has not been involved in creating, then a time for presentation and interactive discussion is an important step to take.

I suggest calling a special team meeting to re-review the priorities for the year followed by a series of priority steps. One of the issues in delegation is that people often do not feel safe asking questions or giving suggestions about implementation. Therefore, it is up to the leader to set the collaborative tone so that engagement in the goals is an ongoing process.

Having coached and consulted with many leaders at the top of organizations, I have had the opportunity to engage with many leaders in the difficulty around delegation because they imagine that results would be better if they had done it themselves.

If you are a leader who lacks trust in your team(s), it is vital that you dedicate time for more extensive and effective communication with them.

Try including the following steps in your next strategic planning meeting to promote trust, team buy-in and empowerment:

• First, include everyone in the presentation of the strategic plan and invite clarifying questions.
• Ask members to think about how they plan to move forward with their piece of the plan.
• Follow up with individual one-on-ones and then conduct a team meeting. The more you can have team members supporting each other in obtaining results the more you are not the only one giving affirmation and clarification.

As your business expands, it will become more and more necessary to empower others to move forward through effective delegation. Time spent in the empowerment phase, beginning with communication, provides the ground work for more effective delegation and guarantees better results.

Click here for the Four Team Focus Meetings I suggest as the beginning steps for greater team collaboration and results. In addition, here is a description of the Collaborative Leadership/Team Alignment Essential Tripod. The points of that tripod are Communication, Accountability and Solution Focus.

If you have any questions on team delegation and empowerment or would like to share a particular challenge or success, please be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you!

~Patricia

Because of the technology available to us, information travels at great speed. Truth, misinformation and assumptions also travel quickly. Without clear communication and connection between individuals and groups the misinformation can give impetus to the wrong direction or wrong conclusions about moving forward. Today’s business teams are globally located in different time zones with differing cultural norms. However, I have found it’s not the only situation in which quality communication and connection are difficult. This problem has been present even when teams are located in the same building. What is needed is a change in leadership mindset; the adoption of a different perspective and a reordering of priorities that support quality communication, collaboration and engagement throughout the organization

It is critically important that executives be more than just the boss, they must be a role model for leadership in order to motivate and drive their organization to achieve at a higher level.

Here’s what I mean:

When You’re Just the Boss

The boss is someone who sets the strategic plan and the team does what they can to satisfy and deliver results. Communication goes on without true connection because each person has a hidden agenda that is not approached. The hidden agenda of the team is to maintain their position and to hope that the boss will notice what they do. The agenda of the boss is to have the implementation happen and for the team to do what they are told to do. Communication and follow up does not occur so the team wonders if they are right about the conclusions they make.

This may seem to be an extreme scenario; and most bosses would deny that is their position. However, it is quite often what is experienced by the team, regardless of the boss’s intent.

In my experience working with leadership teams, while the boss is at least somewhat appreciative of the team, they often complain that their team does not own the strategy or are not strategic in their thinking. Yet, it is often the boss who needs to connect in a more meaningful way with the team members to engage them in the strategy, foster ownership, and get them thinking of creative solutions. Team members typically report their boss does not create time for interaction or follow up on decisions.

Most team members want to please the boss, however, they are not informed often enough when they do something well. When issues or concerns arise they may not be approached and resolved in a productive way because blame or a sense of being patronized is what is perceived by the team.

Result: the strategic process misses the creative input of the team who are often vying for position with the boss. Often what needs to be done is seen as a requirement rather than a creative opportunity because the team has not been engaged. Because there is lack of communication regarding issues or completions, the flow of work is interrupted or stalled.

This can occur at high levels in any organization.

When You’re The Leader

Communication and connection with the team is seen as a priority, not a soft skill or something to do at a dinner or a party. Regular connections occur which relate to strategic planning, implementation and individual development. This means that regular 1:1 meetings include the elements that go into a Performance Review, on an ongoing basis, and are tied to specific actions and results within a strategic plan.

The top priority of a leader is to hold the vision and strategy intact, while others bring forward results. If there are issues regarding results, they are addressed with the team as they occur. This allows the leader to attend to their own peer-leader relationships, enhancing the overall business performance of the organization. Delegation is seen as a priority, and there are integral processes set up for Strategic Planning, Accountability, and Solutions that are inclusive in accessing the resources of the entire team.

As a leader, the accountability process becomes a working solution with collaboration and partnership rather than competition. Accountability includes ownership which is established at the beginning of an initiative or set of goals. Leadership includes perceptiveness of the team members so that specific areas are addressed when necessary. This can now be done more effectively because time has been given for the creation of quality connection and trust within the team.

Leading inspires others to achieve more. Being just the boss can actually impair the engagement process of your team which will diminish progress, and sabotage your success.

If you have a leadership question or challenge you’d like to share, be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you!

~Patricia

One of our models that I use quite often to help business leaders overcome this mindset is the Collaborative Leadership/Team Alignment model, which starts with an offsite team meeting that demonstrates the essentials, identifies areas that need improvement, and is followed up by series of follow-up meetings to make sure the results are sustainable. When leaders are interested in learning, we can work with them easily to bring the elements of collaborative leadership into everyday business, using a Four Meeting Process model that brings in all of the elements.

One of the strongest elements of this model is that in order to create and move into high performance, it is necessary to learn to communicate and to connect with team members at all levels. One of the connection areas involves setting up an environment where it’s safe in leadership meetings to discuss challenges and problems as part of a report to team leaders and peers, without feeling threatened. In addition, time is allowed to create an environment and process for receiving ideas, and for having ideas that might not be seen as the best solution right away. In other words, a place to safely risk creative and innovative thought.

As an observer of senior leadership meetings, I have seen reports read that outline accomplishments with no reference to current challenges. In general, the challenges may be discussed with one or two other trusted colleagues, but are not presented as an ordinary part of a leadership meeting. As a collaborative leader, it becomes important to make wins and challenges a regular part of meetings.

The Collaborative Leadership/Four Meeting model sets the framework for greater team engagement, and provides an opportunity to build trust, allowing for partnerships that create a sense of confidence and connection. During the second meeting, the focus is on peer-to-peer accountability partnerships. In the third and fourth meetings, the team learns to give both wins and challenges, and sets up a format for receiving input regarding challenges that are occurring for each member of the team. This becomes a regular function for the team, rather than something that occurs as a crisis.

A great illustration of this is contained in the book, American Icon, by Bryce G. Hoffman, about Alan Mulally, the out-going President and CEO of the Ford Motor Company.

As I was discussing this book with a colleague, I was told that he used a version of the Collaborative Leadership/Team Alignment model to begin the amazing turn-around in his own company that has occurred over the last 8 years.

Here is a description from a Forbes article, Why Ford’s Alan Mulally is an Innovation CEO for the Record Books, written by Sarah Miller Caldicott, that describes the use of this process well:

“At his very first weekly session, Mulally’s direct reports showed green lights with just a few yellow lights sprinkled in. Mulally calmly indicated that this could not be possible; the company was in a financial straight jacket and steadily losing market position. He urged them to roll up their sleeves and ask new questions, putting away their boxing gloves. Lots of red lights showed up at the next Thursday morning meeting. By personally modelling candor and a willingness to openly speak about complex, taboo subjects, Mulally built a safe operating environment for his direct reports.

When Executives regularly looked for vulnerability among their peers and practiced self-preservation over collaboration. Mulally changed all that, making executive meetings a safe environment where data could be shared without blame, improving collaboration and setting the stage for innovation and success.”

I was very pleased to see how this model of meeting and sharing both wins and challenges was used in a large global arena, and had the effect of changing a culture. It verified the power of this part of the Collaborative Leadership model.  The safety for interaction and ideas in a team environment is vital, and using opportunities to create more connection builds to this point.

Also, this addresses the concern I have developed as I sat in on executive meetings, and witnessed the lack of connection among top peer leaders.  Mulally addressed this so well, and using this format will give you tips on beginning that change in your current culture.

Be sure to take a look at our Four Meeting Model as well for tips on creating more engagement and performance from your teams.

Do you have a leadership question, challenge, or success you would like to share, please be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia

However, there is an old saying that continues to be true: “if you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what we’ve always gotten.” Have you noticed that your way forward often looks the same as it did last year even if the results you got were not what were promised? A new answer is to examine how the team and the entire organization are connecting and engaging to create the desired strategic results.

Today we find ourselves at the end of another calendar year with the bright promise of next year less than a month away. So what are the questions we want to ask as we move forward and create the implementation plan?

There are so many ways to create strategy and yet implementation seems to be something we can do successfully only if we are willing to open up to new information and new perspectives. This involves using all of the wisdom and vision that are available.

Here are some important questions, inspired by Judith Glaser, author of Creating We, to ask as you strategize for 2014:

1. As we create the future, what behaviors do we want to bring forward?
2. Who are we and where are we going? Ask high-level questions that describe the business as a whole vs. just specific initiatives or priorities.
3. What are our values and are they aligned with all of the people who need to step forward to implement our plan?
4. What are the important values of the customer, both internal and external?

The purpose of high level discussions is to have a broad picture to then refine to create strategic plans.

Another important question to ask as the above are answered is: How do we engage those who will fulfill the promise, and develop a way for them to interact and to succeed? This is where there is often a disconnect and when the implementation process begins to lose focus and direction.

I suggest developing a scientific approach to implementation that recognizes and develops the most important resource in any business; the people and the teaming who must be successful to create results.

The mindset that communication, connection and engagement are essential must begin at the top. The leadership team begins the process of communication by development of specific goals for connection and engagement. This lays the groundwork for the other two essentials which are accountability and a focus on solutions rather than the problem.

Here are two specific options for increased communication that you can do right away:

1. Share your agenda: Begin  by framing your agenda so that others are clear about it. It is framed as an idea with an inquiry about how the listener or group is responding to what you have said. Many of us remember meetings that went nowhere because the agenda was not adhered to and conversations degenerated into distraction. This can result in the fear of questions, so we need to redefine how we frame and communicate our agenda as we encourage people to take more accountability for their conversation and ideas.
2. Ask questions: The  other people in the room may have questions for clarification, and they may be hesitant to give opinions. I have been in senior leadership meetings where the CEO declared an idea and others just nodded and agreed. After the meeting the VPs went to each other’s offices and gave their opinion to one other person, and never shared with the group or the CEO. This created fragmentation which was not recognized because the habitual non-communication was built into the process of the team.

You as a leader you need to establish a safe environment for your team to interact and to share points of view, as well as ideas for implementation.

Accountability partnerships will help expand the opportunity for team members to be held accountable by peers, as well as their leader. In this model everyone is a leader, even in the group of peers. In this model, leadership is not a role but an individual and organizational behavior.

The implementation process for next year’s strategic plan is something that will be ongoing and necessary as goals are met and challenges are handled. At each staff meeting remember to give some attention to the process of communication and state the focus of the agenda. As this continues, the process of being effective in communication and in engaging others will become more automatic and habitual.

Here is a short assignment to put engagement first as you begin the process of implementation.

1. A business goal that I would like to accomplish this year is:
2. How can my associates or other members of my team enhance and develop my vision?
3. What can I do or say to engage others?
4. What do I want to hear or experience to be more engaged?
5. How can I become more engaged myself?

Answering these questions begins the process of engaging and alignment that makes the accomplishment of objectives move more quickly and effectively. See how it works for you!

Have a good couple of weeks and I look forward to connecting again soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions, challenges or successes you’d like to share, please be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia

What are the changes necessary in mindset and behavior that will enable her to take that jump, and how many of you know top executives who have not done that? You may even suspect that you yourself need to expand vision and connections but do not know how, or have not found the time when so many immediate things are calling.

Expanding your Leadership network, as well as creating strategic partnerships can be important steps. Often these network connections can occur outside of your organization, and once you establish those, it becomes easier to find connections within the organization.

How often have you been called upon to lead an internal project that involves two or more functional units of the business? Have you noticed how difficult communication about the simplest things can be stymied by lack of understanding, almost as if you were speaking different languages?

Another client of mine decided to contact the other Vice Presidents in his organization and schedule a lunch that could be repeated once a month or even once a quarter. What happened for him was that he created a totally different perception of the other senior leaders and began to communicate more effectively. His mindset altered because they were seen as resources for him in his own work and he could visualize the possibility of joint endeavors with them as a reality.

My current client is part of a large organization that has a myriad of community connections. For her, creating a leadership network in the larger community will increase her profile, increase the profile of the business, and create opportunities for joint ventures and innovative opportunities.

Often this kind of activity sits on the back burner as internal needs and crises take the energy and time of top leaders. As you create time for these activities, there is an opportunity to develop your team to interact and communicate as leaders with each other. Are you the hub of your team wheel or do the team members interact and partner together?

Developing your leadership team is an activity that takes some time and focus. I bring it up here because that activity goes along with creating time for your leadership network both within and beyond your organization.

With focus on collaborative leadership, leadership behaviors within your team can be expanded. The development of partnerships and projects can evolve so that you do not have to be involved in the everyday detail and trouble shooting.

Once the communication and connection is established your ability to delegate with confidence increases and there is an increased sense of ownership and engagement. The intra team partnerships can create an opportunity for accountability support so that when they report in at meetings they can give a good picture of what is working, what is not working and the plans for moving forward.

Your action plan for the week: Make a connection with another leader either within your organization or outside and plan a lunch or coffee.

Have a good two weeks and if you have any questions, challenges, or successes you would like to share in the meantime, please be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia

His organization has a retreat every two years in a beautiful spot; while enjoyable, he found himself wondering what he was doing there, and what positive result could be expected, especially in the area of behavior change. His feeling is that the discussions during these retreats about the coming changes in medicine are important but do not address the day-to-day difficulties in engagement and collaboration.

He wanted my opinion as a consultant about retreats and if they are worth the money and time that is spent, especially if one of the goals is behavior change. Clearly a good time can be had,  some camaraderie and sharing can occur, but can this translate into change that can be measured and felt in real time?

Of course having just returned from the GILD Institute and having coached and consulted with some extraordinary leaders, I know this is possible with effective engagement and follow-up. However, I also know that a one-time experience is not the answer, even over a week or two, without the ability to follow up and change behavior in real time.

I was struck by his concern that people do not listen, and realized that preparation for listening, change and accountability is necessary and not something that can be overlooked.

So how do you create behavior change as a leader both for yourself and for the team of people that you lead? And more importantly can you create the change in your team of peers?

The focus of this article is behavior change in your leadership team of peers because that is the most likely place to develop relationships that will have the broadest impact, and where a system of accountability can be developed that will cascade throughout the organization.

There are three important aspects to address as you move toward more effective communication and alignment:

1. Communication:

a.  Make this important. As a leader, set up time for one-to-one conversation with peers who run other functions or departments.
b.  Create a meeting where people re-introduce themselves in terms of how they see themselves and what is important to them.
c. Encourage participants to share how they see their role impacting the organization and this team.

2. Discuss accountability and how to create strategic partnerships to support achievement of individual and team goals.

3. Create a process for focus on solutions rather than blame when issues arise.

Make these points part of the agenda of each meeting. Sometimes they will take five minutes, and sometimes they will take a good part of the meeting. However, the results of this focus will make real change in the success of strategic goals.

There is a question that I heard many years ago and it came up again this year, “What is your primary team, the one you lead or the one you are on?”

The overwhelming answer at first is, “the one I lead.” The more practical and useful answer is, “the one I am on.”

Why? Because the willingness to address the team you are on gives you the opportunity to look at your own behavior in the area of communication, creating partnership and focus on solutions. You can bring this awareness to the team you lead, and understand issues from experience rather than theory.

Have a great couple of weeks and let me know if you have comments, suggestions or challenges that we can discuss here – I’d enjoy hearing from you! Patricia Heyman

Even if you have a path laid out and are using your time to complete something that is a priority, interruptions are part of the day, especially if you have not created a system for more scheduled check-ins with your staff and your peers.

Recently, at the suggestion of a client, I read The 12 Week Year, by Michael Lexington and Brian P. Moran which creates a new time mindset away from the year and into a more realistic time period to complete goals. In addition, the premise of the  12 Week Year allows leaders and implementation teams to look at a 12-week period for creating goals and completions that lead up to the major goals for the year. It is important, however, to view the time period as 12 weeks and not a quarter as the latter continues the mindset of a year.

The other aspect of looking at time differently relates to scheduling time and keeping the commitments you make to yourself.

How many of you use your calendar for meetings without designating time for reflection or completion of research or a project? In my upcoming new book, Jumping from the I-Pod to the We-Pod, I discuss the importance of taking time to prepare as it enhances value as a leader, and your personal influence in executive meetings. I share an example of a wonderful COO with a great deal of talent and wisdom who was quiet in the meetings with the CEO because his lack of time to reflect created a lack of confidence to speak and share perceptions and creative ideas for innovation and business improvement.

In many settings calendars are public so a meeting can be scheduled for you by someone else if the time is free. If you set an appointment on your calendar for reflection and completion and call it a meeting regarding whatever you are working on, no one will push that aside as they look for your free time.

As a leader, time to reflect is of paramount importance. Time to prepare for executive team meetings of the team of your peers and top leaders or a team meeting with the team you lead, requires some prep time to create an effective meeting. (Please visit the main blog page for more discussions on effective meetings.)

In the consultation session that I am offering the time period for your vision is a year. You can take the clarity of vision for moving forward and create 12-week goals for yourself and with your team to bring time into a new and supportive tool for implementation and engagement. Visit here to sign up for your consultation session today.

If you have a question, challenge or particular success story you would like to share, be sure to leave a comment, I would enjoy hearing from you. – Patricia

I urge you to consider the use of a version of the Collaborative Leadership/Team Alignment Process in your organization in the coming year; a description of the process is available for download here. I also want to encourage you to begin to change the mindset of your meetings as you go so that interaction in these meetings becomes more relevant and productive as the team becomes more collaborative.

Below are some  beginning processes that will alter the mindset and flow of meetings, using the communication and connection components which are so important to essential collaboration.

The TIPS FOR SUCCESS I want to impart to you before you start taking action and stop reading are:

• Make team alignment a priority and communicate that to your team
• Set up a team meeting to discuss and to introduce the process
• Know that the team alignment process with a consultant and with the team during regular interaction will take time which will be made up by creating more efficiency and implementation with a new mindset
• Give yourself as the leader the coaching and reflection time to develop new goals based on the fact that 21st century business demands collaboration
•  Be open to new ways of thinking and doing and to your own leadership expansion
• Know that empowerment of the members of your team will create more time for strategic thinking and interaction with other business leaders

As you begin to move into the prospect of focus on the Team Process, as well as the content of work, you can use the map we have created in the Four Meeting description that can be accessed here.

We suggest that the four meetings be held no more than two weeks apart, that attendance be required as much as possible, and that you schedule the meetings in advance so all four are on the calendar.

Please feel free to contact me with questions about using the four collaborative leadership introductory team meetings. I would be happy to set up a time for discussion.

I finally flew out of Kennedy on Thursday but it was quite an adventure, taking a total of 14 hours; from New York to San Francisco, with a change of planes in Dallas, and finally another flight to Albuquerque, my final destination.

You my recall in my last post that I asked a question; “When you have a chance to create direction, do you take it or do you defer?” I had so many opportunities to test this premise, just on the trip home alone, and it has definitely influenced my mindset as I consult, coach and plan since returning to a more normal schedule.

During the first leg of the trip, the car I reserved and paid for in advance to take me to the airport at 7am presented the first set of opportunities. At 6:30 am I received a call telling me they would be a half an hour late, assuring me I would arrive at the airport in plenty of time for the flight. I then received a text from the car service on my phone saying I needed to re- confirm the reservation. When I phoned, the line was busy and it took about 15 minutes to get through. I was then told they would come, however, “there was no gasoline available and maybe if I could, I should get someone else.” They did agree to keep their agreement, but I decided in the meantime that I should try to get a car that did not take reservations and would come only on a moment’s notice. As luck would have it, we went downstairs to wait on the street corner and saw a town car and flagged it down. The driver was on his way home as he had only ½ tank of gas left, and thought he would be unable to get more. But for some reason he decided to pick me up, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go, and left word for the other car that might come. I was able to cancel with them and received a refund.

On the way to the airport we picked up another passenger on his way to Haiti, which certainly gave me pause to consider how big challenges can be for some. The charge for the ride was more than 1 ½ times the usual cost and which the driver disclosed as I entered the car. The driver would only take cash; and would you believe that was the exact amount of cash I had?!

Traffic on the other side of the highway was bumper to bumper but kept moving on our side. I arrived at the airport in plenty of time. As I boarded the plane another bit of good luck happened in that my request for an upgrade was granted at the last minute so I flew for six hours in much more comfort than would otherwise have occurred.

In San Francisco I had another opportunity to create direction when I was informed that the flight to Dallas would be delayed. and after a time it became evident that I would miss my connection. I went up to the desk and suggested another direction and got a flight to Los Angeles and a connection to Albuquerque which added to the time spent getting to my destination, but lowered the amount of time I would be in the air.

So why is this relevant to creating a direction rather than deferring to circumstance or others? I realize that the trip was a microcosm of the business world today. Restructuring is taking place frequently. Just today I spoke with a client who is in charge of a department in a large health related corporation. She was told that her department will be cut by more than half to provide for a new group of leaders who will be focusing on growing the business following a new acquisition. Many of you are experiencing similar things and it goes to the heart of why collaborative leadership and alignment is a clear path for meeting the challenges of restructuring.

When it feels as if you have no control over the outcome of events, you can set up a project for yourself that focuses on creating a network of connection with colleagues. A large impact can be derived from gathering peers with whom you can share ideas and best practices. As these ideas are honed they can then be communicated very effectively, with support, to top leaders.

As a top leader use this opportunity to create greater connection with other top leaders to open pathways to more effective communication. As I spoke with a new leader today, we created a plan for him to focus on his expertise, communicating that expertise and creating a brand that becomes known to all of the leaders in the organization. Time can be set aside each week for various actions that lead to greater awareness of others and greater influence within the organization for you.

I encourage you to review our blog articles which discuss steps you can take within your own area of the business as well as your outreach to other peer leaders working in other business areas.

Wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving Holiday in America and a wonderful two weeks wherever you are!