Fair and Balanced Leadership!

Take the time to plan your life, not just your day.

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Fair and Balanced Leadership!

1. Lessons-in-Leadership
   • Fair and Balanced Leadership!
     Take the time to plan your life, not just your day.
2. Meeting for Results
   • Special Reward and Recognition Tool – My Favorite Things!
3. The Juice Bar
   • A Team Leader’s Special Message.
4. Reader Meter
   • Rave Reviews!
5. Site News
   • On the Horizon

Fair and Balanced? This term is used quite frequently these days and seems to be a popular catch-phrase used by media outlets and news reporters.

In terms of leadership, we must also remember to be fair and balanced. While this is certainly true when dealing with professional issues, it is especially true in terms of how we lead our personal lives.

This issue is focused on the need for leaders to take a step back to re-assess their own reality.

It’s too easy to forget to take stock in what we have achieved and to take the time to feel good about our accomplishments.

We don’t always remember how important it is to occasionally stop what we’re doing for a moment and just “be grateful” for all that we have, all those that we love, and for all that the future holds.

As most of us come to work each day, we sit down and plan our day. We then set out to complete and check off our To-Do lists. However, how often do we sit down and purposefully plan our life?

Ask yourself the following three questions:

1. What is the outcome that I must achieve in order for this day/month/year to be successful and fulfilling?
2. Why is this important to me?
3. What specific steps must I take in order to achieve this outcome?

Now apply the preceding questions to each of the following LIFE categories:

• Family
• Financial
• Physical
• Spiritual
• Emotional
• Professional

By going through the above exercise, you will no doubt realize how well you are currently “owning your own outcomes”. Be Fair to yourself, and ensure you lead a Balanced life.

Moral to the story: Take the time to plan your life, not just your day.

The following tool can be used by leaders to determine what kinds of things are held in high regard by individual team members. Knowing this information makes it very easy for leaders to reward and recogize employees for a job well done.

As you can see by the completed example below, it doesn’t take a lot of money to be able to properly recognize and reward an employee. Sometimes it’s the simple things that mean a lot to a person.

Ask each of your team members to fill out the following questionaire. Keep these forms on file so that you can easily refer to them when the time comes for you to say a special “thank you”.

Reward and Recognition Tool
My Favorite Things!
Name:____________________
Number	25
Color	Blue
Dessert	Cheesecake or German Chocolate Cake yummmm..
Flower	Alive, ok, a rose I guess
Candy Bar/Candy	M&M's Plain
Restaurant	Morton's, or Ruths Chris Steakhouse
Fruit	Banana
Vegetable	Potato - cooked almost anyway - not big veggie eater.
Cookies	Ranger Cookies - hmmm.
Department Store	Home Depot
Mall	Home Depot - what can I say, I'm a guy.
Breakfast or Lunch Spot	Fat Alberts (in Sellwood, it's awesome)
Wine or other Beverage	Red, Merlot - Like to try different brands
Soda	Diet Coke
Hobby (s)	Woodworking, home repair, ie. Puttering.
Pets at home? Names of pets?	Cat - one too many :)
Book	Be Quick, But Don't Hurry - John Wooden
Movie	Brian's Song
Collectable	Silver Dollars - I have 52 that are from the 1800's.
Cartoon Character	Tommy - Rugrats (he's big in my house)
Cologne/Perfume	Drakar
A Gift Certificate from or to do?	Home Depot
Birthdate	6/20/1969
Anniversary month, year with Company	3/8/1988
Music Artist	Kenny Chesney - George Strait
Magazine and/or Author	Men's Health, - John Grisham
What else, not listed above, would be a great reward for you?
Working with all of you is reward enough…. :)
Ok, I really enjoy gardening and woodworking.

If you would like to receive the Free Word File containing our "My Favorite Things!" tool - which will ensure you always know how to effectively reward and recognize each employee based on "what they want" - simply click here to request your:

Can you relate to this issue? If so, perhaps this short email memo might help you to empower your team on ways they might overcome these busy times.

"Team,

I’ve recently had more than one discussion with members of this team regarding the time pressures we are all facing in light of the multiple initiatives we are being asked to lead.

First of all, let me just say that I do believe these concerns are justified, we certainly have a lot going on right now. (This is one of the topics I planned on discussing at our next in-person meeting, but perhaps I should quickly address it now.)

Let us make no mistake, we all must do our part as leaders in successfully managing these initiatives. Unfortunately, we aren’t allowed the luxury of “opting-out”. However, this is also a good time to remind everyone to please NOT allow yourself to bear the total burden squarely on your own shoulders.

Each of you can be totally "accountable" without being totally "responsible" for every single task.

You each have other people that report directly to you. You also have business partners within our organization as well as various outside vendors that we might ask for assistance. Take this busy time (as you are being asked to do more) as an opportunity to expect more of your own team members and business partners. I am confident that through your leadership and support, they are up to – and will welcome - the challenge.

For example: If you have a conflict with your schedule, ask someone else on your team to take the call or meeting on your behalf; OR take notes for each other and then debrief afterwards; OR in some instances, you may have to decide what’s more important and make a judgement call as to how you must spend your time. (Yes, I really said that. Let's ensure that common sense and good judgement always prevail, ok?) :)

To be sure, this is a uniquely busy time right now. I realize this. You each are empowered/encouraged to DECIDE what's important in order for you to meet your objectives.

I trust, and expect, each of you to do your part to lead this team to victory.

We have no time to allow allow ourselvees to be victims of circumstances beyond our control. It's ok to push back when necessary, realizing of coarse that there are some things that are mandatory.

Leadership - is not simply doing what you are told, right? Just be able to justify your decisions and know that I have faith that your decisions will be sound. I ask that you ensure I am informed so that I know what I can expect, AND IF YOU AREN'T SURE - please call me to discuss.

Lastly, understand that I am aware of the fact that there are "real" time pressures present - there always have been and there always will be - this issue is not new. But how we deal with every set of circumstances is totally up to each of us.

I am open to your thoughts/suggestions and solutions on what we can do to more effectively address issues of this nature.

I appreciate your hard work and I thank you all for your leadership!"

- Manager/Company Name Withheld for Confidentiality

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- Linda

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