inspiration

Leaders: Leading Change Requires Networking Our Inspiration

Volumes are written on leaders’ key steps to leading change. When we list out all the steps, one blatant truth emerges from the fray:

Leading Change Requires Networking Our Inspiration

Leaders, Network Our Inspiration to Lead Change



This statement might bring to mind lots of communication about the change, the reasons why, what’s in it for everyone, and the list goes on.

Are you inspired? Yeh right. No one else will be either. Admittedly communication is critical to leading change. Yet communication is NOT the same as networking our inspiration.

Networking those we lead includes:

  • Starting with mutual respect
  • Earning trust through the heart not just the head
  • Engaging their talents and their spirit thus
  • Building their change-ability to prepare for major shifts



Networking inspiration must start early — the day we become leaders.

Highly directive leaders who rarely engage their teams seem fake when suddenly networking inspiration to spur a major change. People don’t like being changed.

Weak leaders who focus mostly on being liked also struggle with leading change. They have built personal connections based on neediness and their fear is palpable. There is little for others to trust in order to overcome the comfort of the status quo.

We can effectively lead change when we have healthy inter-dependent connections to the team members as well as to the mission of the organization. This healthy balance of head and heart is the inspiration!

The strength of a balanced leader absorbs employees’ fear allowing them to travel new roads unfettered by doubt.



Earning Trust With the Heart & Head
Long before major changes inch onto the horizon, team members are looking to see how we handle difficult situations. Some may be very mission related while still others will relate to team dynamics and morale.

Showing them our clear heads in a crisis is a start. Developing their clear heads for change through coaching and empowerment is networking our inspiration!

Reviewing data with them before a decision develops valuable critical thinking. Using our intuition and tapping theirs builds their change-ability!

    Consider that change involves dealing with the unknown. Invoking intuition gives everyone practice in grappling with grey areas and moving ahead with less than a full picture. With this practice, we network our inspiration and develop their change-ability long before a major change appears.

When we handle individual performance issues, we act appropriately. When we also address team morale issues resulting from performance problems, we celebrate the value of morale in leading change. “Work it our yourselves” is abdication of our inspirational role. “Let’s work this out and create a model for maintaining great morale”, networks our inspiration!

We lead change with inspiration; we succeed when we network the inspiration and build change-ability along the way.



Question: Why do many leaders avoid the inspirational approach when it is so critical to leading change?


From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™


This article was inspired by a Leadfromwithin professional development chat on Twitter founded and facilitated by executive coach Lolly Daskal. Thanks Lolly!

©2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please first email info@katenasser.com for terms of use. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Related Posts:
Leaders, Engage Employees Change-Ability Through Entrepreneurial Spirit
Leaders, Develop Your Intuition

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on employee engagement, leading change, teamwork, and customer service & experience. Kate turns interaction obstacles into business success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

People-Skills: Be & Perform Like a Ferrari

In this day of fast paced connections, it’s smart to fine tune our people-skills to perform like a Ferrari.

We must be quickly aware of and adapt to conditions, select the right speed of interaction, and pick the right words to communicate — all with style. Quite a challenge!

So let’s fast track it with quality components (knowledge) and then road test (practice) and maintain it with continued learning.

People-Skills: Be & Perform Like a Ferrari

Image by:Crystal666 via Creative Commons License



Fast Track Knowledge for People-skills Performance

  1. Make brevity effective not rude. Skip the emotionally inflaming phrases and speak with simple honesty.


  2. Be confident in your knowledge and deliver it humbly. It’s easier to appreciate the knowledge and respect the person when arrogance is not fogging the view.


  3. Influence don’t manipulate. Abandon questions like don’t you think and replace them with open-ended questions that produce true understanding.


  4. Listen don’t label. Labels build barriers; listening builds collaborative success.


  5. Deliver results without running over people. What you ponder, you create. If you think of positive ways to succeed, your communication and people-skills will follow suit.


  6. Express opinions as opinion, not as decrees. There is a time and place for certainty and a time and place to consider other possibilities. You earn great respect for being able to do both.


  7. Opposing views can lead to new discoveries. Opposing each other leads nowhere. Where do you want to go?


  8. Optimism and skepticism are healthy; pessimism is poison. An optimistic outlook and some protective skepticism lift all to tangible success. Pessimism drains the life out of everyone you touch. How do you want to touch others? Choose wisely.

See you on the highway to success as we handle the curves with ease and style!



From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

Related post: 7 Steps From Brutally Blunt to Helpfully Honest

©2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers consulting, training, DVDs, and keynotes that turn interaction obstacles into business success especially in tough times of change. See this site for workshops outlines, action footage, and customer results.

Want Success? Don’t Let Fear Be the Gum on Your Shoe

When has fear kept you stuck in a rut? At a fork in the road in your career? When your business stagnates in a bad economy? In a dead end situation that others tell you to leave?

As a coach, I hear clients describe their ruts. Fear has them stuck like gum on a shoe. Meanwhile one single step can remove the gum and get them moving.


Don't Let Fear Be the Gum on Your Shoe Image by:Mahalie



When you want success, know you must change yet feel stuck, don’t let fear be the gum on your shoe.

Break free by finding people who have been through something similar — who no longer have gum on their shoes of course — who will share the steps that got the gum off their shoes!

It sounds obvious and here’s the logic.

  1. Fear of taking a step is lessened by learning from those who have survived the step.
  2. Fear of the unknown is countered by those who now know the unknown.
  3. Fear of acting oddly during the change turns to knowing smiles when you hear how they felt and behaved.
  4. Fear of being wrong crumbles under the evidence of their experience.
  5. Fear of being alone on the journey is eliminated when you travel it through their success.


Well established support groups and their members thrive on these principles. Still many people have issues not defined by any established support group.

Fear not. Online chatters, social media friends, bloggers, authors, and professional coaches all have life experiences to share.

My graphics designer, Kimb Tiboni, has chronicled her Illogical Success with personal insight and real life experiences. I have overcome business hurdles and gained inspiration through friends, coaches, and Twitter chats.


Take one step now and leave your story in the comments section below:

    One rut you broke out of and how you did it and/or
    One rut you want to break out of and two answers you seek.



You want success? Don’t let fear be the gum on your shoe! Reach out and step forward in your life, career, and business.


What stops people from reaching out — when it’s so obvious that it is key to success?

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™


©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on customer service, teamwork, and leading change. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

Leaders, 10 Ways to Ignite Greatness Without Leaving Scars

A recent Twitter chat called leadfromwithin raised a question in my mind that affects every leader and manager especially in times of change. When you attempt to inspire teams with your passion, do you scar them or ignite their greatness? 


Use Passion to Ignite Greatness Not Scar Others Image by:fsamuels



Passion that burns others undermines the goal.

Passion that ignites others fuels success.

 

10 Ways to Ignite Greatness Without Leaving Scars

  1. Keep Your Mind Open. When your mind is open to different ways of reaching the end goal, your passion ignites the team’s ideas and greatness. If you close your mind to ideas, it scars the team’s spirit and douses their passion.


  2. Establish the limits of freedom. That might seem like an oxymoron yet it is true. If there are boundaries, state them and then let innovation, creativity, and great talent surface and develop. If you pretend there are no boundaries and inflict them later, it scars the team’s work rhythm and their trust. When boundaries legitimately change, communicate them clearly.


  3. Become a geyser of goodwill. The more times you communicate the positives (when they are true), the more trust and goodwill you build with the team. This goodwil builds the team’s strength to then hear the negatives with objectivity. The sum ignites greatness.


  4. Be honest not blunt. Honesty that doesn’t insult catapults all to greatness. Bluntness leaves emotional scars that toughen future interactions. Classic wisdom says: Attack the idea not the I. That’s a good start. I add, “Disagree without being disagreeable.”


  5. Question before feedback. Your passion for the vision or goal, will scar others if you give negative feedback before understanding their actions. You also scar your credibility and their trust in you.


  6. Refine your message to critical points. Passion has the power to confuse. It causes you to leave out critical information that can ignite the team’s greatness. Exercise: Write your message as a headline and then the bullet points to support it. It is annoying when you first start. Once you know how, your communication will ignite the team’s greatness.


  7. Show You Are Listening. Ever work for leaders who are so passionate that they keep blazing new trails without showing you they heard your concerns? Don’t be a listening leader who appears deaf. Dialogues ignite actionable greatness.

  8. See Talent in Mistakes. A team’s greatness is harnessed through individual contributions to the same goal. Differences in talent and perspective often produce outcomes that you might see as mistakes in light of the end goal. You can also see the talent that produces those unexpected outcomes to ignite future greatness.


  9. Recognize Initiative and Celebrate Learning. One uncomfortable truth about igniting greatness is that not all team members will want to be great or rise to greatness. Leaders and managers, with heart, mistakenly minimize greatness in the quest for team harmony. The good news is there’s a better way. If you recognize those who are showing more initiative and achieving greatness and also celebrate all that are learning, you preserve team harmony without sacrificing greatness.


  10. What is #10? How do you make sure your passion ignites greatness without scarring others?


From my experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers consulting, training, DVDs, and keynotes on customer service, teamwork, and leading change. She turns interaction obstacles into business success in tough times of change. See this site for workshop outlines and customer results.

Our Future is Behind Every Customer

This year for National Customer Service Week, I ask each of you to look behind every customer.

For a moment, don’t look at metrics, scripts, forms, procedures, the structure, the flashing queue light, the long line, or the clock. Look behind every customer to discover the true need, the future, and success. Our future is behind every customer.



Graphic by: Kimb Manson


Customer Service – Stripped to the Core

  1. Behind every customer is the unknown yearning to be known. That’s our future of customer loyalty.

    2. Empathize!

  2. Behind every customer ID number, is a person with a name whose needs we can fulfill. That’s our future. That’s success.

    3. Ask for their name before their ID number!

  3. Behind every customer question – odd, crazy, simplistic, or repetitive — is a chance to move them to the future and success.

    4. Listen with an open mind!

  4. Behind every customer is another person whom we impact with our actions. Our care is growth for both. That’s our future and theirs.

    5. Follow-through!

  5. Behind every impatient customer is our future success with the tough times of life. That’s a future of skill and ability.

    6. Study up!

  6. Behind every customer are the factors that define great service to them. Look behind the customer to reach that future.

    7. It’s a one-to-one match!

  7. Behind every customer is limitless potential. Cultivate the future.

    8. Go to the well!

  8. Behind every customer is the heart of our success. It beats for our future.

    9. Maintain heart health!

  9. Behind every customer is a wealth of knowledge free for the taking. Learn!

Is there a #10? What would you add to this list?


Lead the future of customer loyalty …

Listen
Emapthize
Assess
Deliver

Don’t leave it behind!

Offer: Subscribe to this Smart SenseAbilities™ blog and download your thank you gift poster of Our Future is Behind Every Customer. Print it and hang in your customer service area for continued inspiration!

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers consulting, training, DVDs, and keynotes for customer service and teamwork — that turn interaction obstacles into business success especially in tough times of change. See this site for workshops outlines and customer results.

Leaders, Realizing & Mentoring Someone’s Dream

With ONE Simple Question!

Leaders, managers, investors, parents, and coaches, are often realizing and mentoring someone’s big dream.

The bigger and more outlandish the dream, the greater the disbelief and concern.  This doubt can produce unhelpful reactions like “what are you thinking” or “it sounds too risky”.

Yet there is ONE simple question that powers success with both inspiration and practicality.


Realizing & Mentoring Another's Dream With ONE Simple Powerful Question Image: KLW Photo



The ONE Simple Question

“What do you picture?”

This questions powers positive inquiry, broader and deeper perspective, dialogue, and research. It unearths understanding of:

  1. What does the dreamer think it will take to make the dream a reality?
  2. How complete or accurate is that picture?
  3. What strengths and how much endurance does the dreamer have?
  4. What obstacles does the dreamer foresee – internal and external?
  5. How will the dreamer handle missteps and mistakes – psychologically and practically?
  6. What help, truly, does the dreamer expect?



What do you picture is a far better question that what is your plan? The latter requires great foresight of details at the start yet doesn’t assess the dreamer’s true readiness.

For leaders and managers with a tough career slot to fill, knowing the applicant’s vision of that job is critical to a successful decision.

For parents with wide-eyed teenagers or high achieving college students, asking what do you picture encourages them to consider their dream more deeply without killing their spirit.

For investors in new inventions, knowing how the inventor thinks and pictures the future will affect the win or lose.

For coaches, this one simple question — what do you picture – sets up a positive non-directive dialogue with those they coach.

There will be time for plans and details. Yet if you skip the picture and go right to the plan, the plan will be incomplete. It will lack success factors that are found within the dreamer not within the plan.

Have you tried this question — what do you picture? What was the result and response?


From my experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach


©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, guides people from inspiration to action. Her workshops, consultations, keynotes, and DVDs, turn interaction obstacles into interpersonal success and business wins. View footage, keynote topics, workshop outlines, and customer results at this site.

Customer Service, What You Picture, You Create

Working on the front lines of customer service can be wonderful or terrible. It depends on your mindset – on what you picture — not on the customer. Surprised?

It’s actually good news. What happens when you interact with others is not completely random. Success is within your grasp because what you picture, you create!

It’s not voodoo. It simply that what you picture or think about, you focus on, say, and do.

Customer Service: If you picture it, you create it.

Customer service starts with picturing that you can make a positive difference.

If instead you picture difficulty or conflict, you will focus on being right, being heard, and being in control. All of this creates the difficulty you pictured at the start.


The Story

I walked into the airport luggage service office when I arrived at my destination and my luggage didn’t. As the line inched forward toward the service rep behind the computer, I noticed that each person leaving the office was surprisingly calm.

When I reached the service rep, he handled my problem with empathy, accuracy, and calm confidence. Before I left the room, I said to him: “I teach customer service to large corporations and reps tell me how stressed out they are. How do you stay so positive with so many people in here complaining?”

He replied: “Kate, if they’re smiling when they come in here … they’re in the wrong room!”

He understood what people would naturally feel and he became the picture of a man making a difference.

    Picture the positive and you reduce your fear. Result: Increased listening that guides the interaction to success.

    Picture the positive and you feel influential with no need to control others. Result: A collaborative success instead of a target shoot.

    Picture the positive and you project empathy and connect sincerely. Result: You make a difference and that is great customer service.



One informed rep with a positive attitude and one customer-friendly policy of delivering luggage created a positive customer experience instead of a social media rant.

What you picture you create!

What will you and your teams picture before you all start work tomorrow? I hope that it’s caring for customers and making a difference.

Yours in service,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach


Related post: Customer Service, Key Link in the Chain not Life in Chains

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers workshops, keynotes, and consultations that inspire the ultimate interaction with customers. Leaders have been booking Kate to bring both her customer service experience and intuition to their success — repeatedly. See this site for customer results and book Kate now.

Success in Two Words – Be Memorable.

Starting a company? Looking for a job? Attempting to sell your house? Trying to change careers? Get noticed by being different but …

to achieve success — be memorable.



Memorable is not just what makes you different.  Memorable connects you with others in ways that matter to them.

Success in Two Words - Be Memorable.



Memorable affects others.

Memorable creates a story.

Memorable builds a trust.

Memorable sparks an insight.

Memorable fosters respect.

Memorable eliminates doubt.

Memorable comes back to you.

Memorable keeps you present.

Memorable changes their reality.

Memorable reflects value.

Memorable brings you into their future.





Be Memorable!

    Do you have noticeably good planning skills? Add and use foresight to be memorable. Prevent a problem on a project or discover and open an opportunity for your customer, your boss or your organization. Outstanding skills get you noticed. Using them to help others makes you memorable.


    Are you a remarkably fast learner? Your boss can hand you anything new and you can do it? That’s good. Learn before the skill is needed and you increase your value. Start today to be memorable tomorrow.


    Do you have a special talent for teamwork? Worthwhile in today’s collaborative workplace. Excel at it during times of stress, low morale, or critical change and you will be memorable to every leader.


    Are you a people person? Sales or customer service is your sweet spot? Certainly a plus. To be memorable, deliver wonderful service recovery with urgency. Offer customers compensation even for the smallest inconvenience. It builds phenomenal trust and reaps gratitude. You will be memorable!

Kick Start Your Success
The suggestions above are just a few examples. Try these questions to discover how you can be memorable:

  1. What three things do most people notice about you? Why? The answer will uncover ways for you to be memorable.
  2. What is one strength that people don’t notice in you? Start using it in ways that matter to others.
  3. What are two areas in your work or personal life where you see a need, a void, pain, fear, or doubt in others?. Fill the need/void or remove the pain, fear, or doubt. You will be memorable.



How have you been memorable in your work or personal life? Please share your story in the comments section below to inspire others.

To our continued mutual growth,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach


©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers workshops, keynotes, and consultations that turn interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. Leaders have been booking Kate for 21 years to fill the gaps of diversity with business wins. See this site for customer results and book Kate now.

A Bold Question for Employee Engagement

Long before employee engagement became a management trend, one very effective leader (who prefers to remain anonymous) was asking employees and teams a bold question to understand and engage them.

A Bold Question for Employee Engagement -- Image by: Purpleslog






What’s in it for you?

By admitting a human truth, this question:

  1. Grabs attention.
  2. Provokes thought.
  3. Unearths motivation.
  4. Discovers the potential and uncovers the warts.






When used by a great leader, this question, starts the necessary discussion of balancing “I” and “we” and keeps this delicate balance on everyone’s radar.

This bold question sends a bleep every day asking employees to find something that motivates and engages themselves to contribute at their highest potential.

When used without connection to this delicate balance of “I” and “we”, it can spiral into a horrible case of entitlement and “me-itis — what will you, the leader, do to motivate me?”

The key difference:


Do you inspire employees to engage themselves?
or
Do you think employee engagement is primarily your job as the leader?



Leaders, who inspire employees to engage themselves deliver something very valuable to the organization –  unlimited possibilities from sustainable talent.

Even during critical changes in direction, these employees will still be thinking:

  1. Here’s what I bring to this new initiative and what I will get out of it to keep me going.
  2. How can I improve to contribute to the whole?
  3. How can I manage my extremes and best fit my strengths to the new order?



Employee engagement that creates an entitled workforce is a disaster you can avoid. Ask a bold question to inspire employees to engage themselves and keep the balance. The results are startling.

What type of responses do you think you will get to this bold question?

What would you learn about potential hires, current team members, and potential leaders from asking it? Please add your voice in the comments section below.

From our shared experience to mutual success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish, please email, info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers workshops, keynotes, and consultations that inspire change, action, and success. Leaders have been booking Kate for 21 years to inspire teamwork for business wins. See this site for customer results and book Kate now.

People Skills: Be Deserving Not Entitled

Relationships can sometimes be damaged with ONE word. The word entitled is one such word. For some it conjures up images of pride, excess, privilege, and even laziness. Yet for others it uplifts and gives a sense of security.

However, if we change that ONE word from entitled to deserving, the negative connotations seem to disappear and the positives remain.

People-Skills: Be Deserving Not Entitled

Perhaps because there is a balance to the word deserving.

It suggests giving and thanks.
It describes effort and earning.
It connotes quality and trust.
It sustains and doesn’t drain.



Which sits better with you?

  • A leader that is entitled to your trust or deserving of it?
  • A company that is entitled to your customer loyalty or very deserving of it?
  • An employee that is entitled to a promotion or truly deserving of it?
  • A parent that is entitled to your respect or deeply deserving of it?
  • A friend that is entitled to your attention or clearly deserving of it?
  • A spouse that is entitled to your love or certainly deserving of it?

    • As the leader, the company owner, the employee, the parent, friend, or spouse, which would you prefer to be — deserving or entitled?

    Which means more to you? Which means more to those in your work and personal life? When people agree on this, it breeds harmony in organizations, teams, and families. When they differ, it can cause ongoing conflict.

    I vote to be deserving not entitled. What’s your vote?

    From my perspective,
    Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach


    ©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

    Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, explores, learns, and teaches professional people-skills for workplace success. Teamwork, customer service, and leading change are her passions. Her natural intuition about people fills the gaps of diversity for business success. See this site for workshop outlines, DVDs, and customer feedback.

    Accept Reality Sooner & Speed Professional Success

    Success takes commitment and persistence. Most want success sooner than later. If you are one of them, accept reality sooner and you speed success. The old adage that ignorance is bliss — or as some live it, denial is bliss — comes at a cost. It delays success.

    Accept reality sooner & speed success.



    Speed Professional Success

    1. What are you strengths and what, truly, are your weaknesses? The sooner you accept the reality, the sooner you will start using your strengths in more ways and working on your weaknesses.


    2. Leaders, which of your team members are propelling the mission forward to success and which, if any, are useless drag. Accept the reality sooner and you will more likely give recognition that will inspire the team to even greater heights. You will also have necessary conversations with those who are not committed. Success requires both.


    3. What is the ONE thing in your work or life that eats away at you. Be honest with yourself. What is it? Why does it eat away at you? Admit the reality and you are more likely to work to change it or accept it as an absurdity of life. Success comes sooner with either approach.


    4. If your business is having trouble, push aside fatalistic worries that drive you to denial. Accept the reality and bring a mastermind group or expert consultants together to build a recovery plan with you. Admit the truth sooner; success is close at hand.


    Truly stuck with unchangeable conditions? Delayed by family issues or health problems?

    Accept the the reality of the moment instead of struggling against the impossible. If you’re not where you’re at, you’re nowhere. In this case, changing your professional goals for the time being may be the fastest route to success.

    What personal or professional story will you share with us to speed success?

    Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, inspires leaders and teams to identify and overcome obstacles to success. Her energy is legendary, her insight objective, and her results tangible.

    Leaders, Don’t Coach a Bad Attitude

    Business success — be it corporate, mid-size enterprises, innovative start-ups, or small businesses - depends on the positive can do attitude. It is also weakened and destabilized by a bad attitude.

    For business success, leaders, inspire people to choose a positive attitude but don’t coach a bad attitude. The latter is a waste of time and money. The team members who bring a positive can do attitude use your inspiration to deliver success. An employee with a bad attitude just uses you.

    Are you surprised to hear me, The People-Skills Coach, say don’t coach a bad attitude?  Well, I am not speaking about an employee who offers a different view, contributes alternate solutions, or is having a bad day.  I am referring to an employee who under performs, is under-motivated, constantly negative, analyzes but doesn’t deliver, or refuses to work with necessary constraints.

    One leader recently asked me, how long do you work on the bad morale of a negative employee? I replied, never!  You cannot work on someone’s morale.  People choose and own their individual attitudes.

    Coaching a bad attitude means you are spending time on their mission instead of the mission of the organization.

    Inspire Positive Attitudes; Don't Coach a Bad Attitude!

    Positive can do team members …

    • Offer realistic solutions to fix frustrating/difficult situations they don’t like.
    • Own their occasional bad day.  When they ask for assistance, they try the suggestions you offer vs. negating your ideas and continuing to complain.
    • Learn from many situations – the good and the bad – instead of complaining about them.
    • Initiate actions to deliver success.

    If you are thinking or saying the following about a constantly negative team member, you are enabling a bad attitude:

    “But this employee …”

    • “Just needs more time to develop a positive attitude.”
    • “Will come around eventually.”
    • “Is still recovering from the previous bad boss.”
    • “Is having a rough year.”
    • “Is young/immature.”
    • “Is good in a crisis.”

    Would upper management be swayed by these reasons when trying to assess the value of your organization? Or would they ask you to calculate the cost of having employees who don’t use positive attitudes to fuel outstanding results?

    What can you expect instead? A positive attitude to create business success now; someone who is capable of choosing a positive attitude doesn’t need more time.  An employee who had a dictatorial boss before could be thrilled by a chance to work with a better leader now.  Young employees can be positive about the possibilities that lie ahead. Team members who are good in a crisis have the mental strength to choose a can do attitude daily.

    Leaders, if you struggle with the idea of expecting a positive attitude, ask yourself why?

    Do you:

    • Want to be liked more than you want to achieve success
    • Fear the necessary conversation about a bad attitude
    • Believe you have the power to change people
    • Believe that expecting and requiring a positive attitude means you are a tyrant/ogre
    • Feel bad about yourself if an employee has a bad attitude toward the job
    • Believe that positive employees won’t want to work in your organization

    I see this trend among: certain personality types, managers who are leading their former peers, and leaders who replaced a rough demoralizing micro-manager.  Yet coaching a bad attitude doesn’t change the bad attitude.

    It can also demoralize the committed team members who endure the bad attitude while you try — in vain — to coach. It takes you all off course.

    Get back on track. Expect a positive attitude and inspire the possibilities that come from it!

    Feature team successes and lessons learned.  Recognize innovative thought, outstanding effort, commitment, and action.  Express your appreciation at the end of the week for tough situations handled well.  Let no complainer disillusion or distract you and the team from the true mission.

    Positive attitudes are not denial of the difficulties the team faces.  They are the very fuel for overcoming obstacles to reach business success.

    Create an environment for a positive can do attitude and then expect it from everyone.

    What other actions do you recommend to create an environment for a can do attitude? I welcome your comments below.

    Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers inspiration action to corporate teams in diverse industries and verticals. She is tapped especially during times of great opportunity and change. See this site for keynotes, workshop outlines, and testimonials.

    The Opposite of Leader is Not Follower

    Classic business wisdom proclaims that there are leaders and followers. It is a myth! There are leaders and influencers — not leaders and followers.

    Every action that so-called followers take or don’t take in response to a leader’s vision, influences the end result. The opposite of leader is not follower; it’s influencer.

    In fact it would be better to forgo the word opposite and say: The complement of a leader is an influencer or collaborator.

    The leader and follower concept has been a comfortable thought because of its simplicity. Yet it isn’t true.

    Although we gravitate to concepts that simplify, the leader and follower concept can have grave results. This is not a semantic discussion nor a silly debate over words. It is a disincentive to employee engagement.

    For Employee Engagement, The Opposite of Leader is Influencer, Not Follower Image by:smemon87

    A leader inspires discovery and initiates new paths to tangible success for the business. A leader’s complement are the influencers. They take critical steps to deliver success and discover more new paths along the way.

    Do your employees see themselves as the influencers they are?

    Or is your leadership style delivering the comfortably simple, yet untrue, message that they are followers?

    How to detect it?

    1. In your next all hands meeting ask: “What is the opposite of leader?” The answer and discussion will be a telling reflection of your message and leadership effectiveness.


    2. Check your words, actions, demeanor, policies, and processes. In what areas do your employees think they are not allowed or skilled enough to give input? Even if you are not an order-giving directive leader, you may still be communicating the myth of leader/follower.


    3. What’s your tolerance for risk? The lower the tolerance, the greater the chance you are communicating the myth and treating them as followers.
      Consider the customer service reps (CSRs) that are told to read from a script. It is a leader’s desire to minimize risk that tells these CSRs they are followers not influencers. Yet again, it isn’t true. Their actions affect outcomes in ways the script can’t control.



    What invalidates the leader/follower concept? Additional human interaction. For example, a customer’s reaction to a CSR reading a script is something that the CSR must handle without that script from the leader. That CSR is an influencer on the leader’s vision. Team members are also influencers when they collaborate on the vision.

    The project team members interacting with all involved to deliver a successful end result are influencers on that project — no matter how strong the leadership.

    For years, sales executives have seen their sales reps as the influencers they are. It’s time that all leaders live the truth that all employees are influencers.

    It doesn’t create chaos. It creates success.

    Your thoughts and inspired discussion are welcome in the comments field below. What else invalidates the leader/follower concept in business? Is there a better word than influencer? Or do you disagree with this post?


    From my professional experience to your success,
    Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

    ©2011-2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please first email info@katenasser.com for terms of use. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

    Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™ delivers workshops, keynotes, consultations, and DVDs that turn interaction obstacles into interpersonal success in sales, service, teamwork, and leading change. Her 20+ years of teaching and advising corporate teams during transitions have produced stellar results.

    Collaboration: Seek Opportunities, Cut Opportunists

    Collaboration expands everyone’s greatness when they all seek opportunities and are not opportunists. Whether an entrepreneur, a corporate employee, a leader of a business or corporate team, an educator, a student, or a non-profit volunteer – we all reap the benefits of collaboration when we contribute at least as much we take.

    Opportunists build their own success while seeming to help others. On the surface the appearance is one of collaboration; you will see it is superficial by (ironically) looking deeper. Why think about this? If you encounter opportunists, why not just avoid them in the future?

    Collaboration is powerful mechanism for success. It also requires trust, belief, giving and confidence in others. Opportunists betray the trust through manipulation with often hidden ulterior motives. This impacts future collaboration, teamwork and morale.

    Collaboration: Opportunity not Opportunists Image by:Peyri


    It changes the dynamic in sometimes unidentifiable ways. You only know that things are not the same. Collaboration and teamwork are not as dynamic, natural, or successful. Mistrust and feelings of foolishness have taken root.

    Preserve the Purity of Collaboration

      Give yourself permission to be on the lookout for opportunists. It doesn’t mean you are a cynic. You can collaborate as an optimistic realist and keep your radar tuned for signals.
      If you are a leader, define with your team the difference between a collaborator and an opportunist.  Of course make sure you are the former!   Build a culture of collaboration through initial discussions, modeling the behavior, monitoring progress, and making changes.

      Cut opportunists if they are unwilling to authentically collaborate.  This is tough decision for some if the opportunists are contributing results while the impact of their manipulation is less tangible.

    If an opportunist has stung you, don’t leave the stinger in. Learn the signals to avoid being stung again. Life is learning so learn from it. Discover your inner strength to recover from bad times. Go forward and create success with authentic collaborators.

    Tune Up Your Radar to Spot Opportunists

    It is the pattern of behavior that defines an opportunist — not any one moment. Spot the pattern to avoid cynicism.

    Opportunists …

    1. Give half-baked praise or promotion of your contributions.
    2. Compliment you personally or ask about your personal well being while ignoring your occupational pursuits and professional contributions.
    3. Sometimes, not always, they take credit for your thoughts and ideas.
    4. Take more than they give. They accept help from authentic collaborators when the focus is on them or their work and contribute the minimum for apperances when it isn’t.

    What else would you add to this pattern list?

    What other implications are there for having opportunists on your team?

    What ambiguity or confusion do you experience in spotting the difference between collaborators and opportunists?

    Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers workshops, consultations, and keynotes to take you and your teams from inspiration to action. Corporate teams, mid-size businesses, and governmental agencies have achieved more success with Kate’s insight and experience in teamwork, leading change, customer relations, and communication within diversity.

    Careers: Optimism & Realism to Be The One

    Picture a decision maker about to decide who will be the one. It might be a leader about to delegate responsibility, a hiring manager interviewing job applicants, or an executive doing succession planning.

    What will sway that decision maker to pick you to be the one? Beyond specific qualifications, a clear demonstration of optimism and realism could tip the scale your way.

    “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” ~William Arthur Ward


    Optimism to Be The One by:SamKinsley

    Realism to Be The One














    The optimism in you will:

    1. Inspire innovation and propel success
    2. See possibilities that others don’t
    3. Encourage and lift others up
    4. Strengthen the resolve and commitment
    5. Energize during the last mile of the journey

    The realism in you will:

    1. Minimize risk by identifying and rejecting the truly impossible
    2. See the struggle and overcome it
    3. Know when to adjust course and do it
    4. Build strengths and counter-strengths to ensure success

    When you have both optimism and realism, you outshine others that otherwise equal you in qualifications.

    This duo makes you valuable in varied careers and roles:
    As a leader, you will inspire to action.
    As a sales rep, you will dream big and deliver.
    As a project manager, you will master the details yet the details will not become your master.

    In truth, optimism and realism make you valuable in any career. What examples would you add to this list to showcase the value and power of having both?

    We often think of that certain people as optimists and others as realists. Yet these traits are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to develop both optimism and realism with astonishing results for your career and the organization.

    To strengthen your realism, spend time with realists (not pessimists). Ask them what about practical suggestions and alternatives makes them feel comfortable. Then ask yourself, what about realism disillusions or blocks you? In the intersection of this discussion is the path to your development.

    To heighten your optimism,
    -Start each day by reading an inspirational thought or viewing a short 2 minute video like The Power of Attitude or The Nature of Success. Inspirational thoughts and videos are the tangible expression of optimism.

    -If just the thought of doing this makes you cringe, watch a video just once and then write down what about the lack of details makes you so uncomfortable.

    - Write down one positive result you have seen at work when others are inspired. After that if optimism still doesn’t move you, you may develop and embrace it just to tangibly lead others to the same place you are going — success.

    I was inspired to write this post after participating in a chat on Twitter — BeTheOne — founded and hosted by Mark Sturgell (@pdncoach) and Bridget Haymond (@BridgetHaymond).

    Kudos to their optimism to see the possible value and realism to make it happen. Join the Be The One chat the first Saturday of every month to develop both.

    I wish you the strength and success of this balance,
    Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach


    ©2011 Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, Founder & President, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you would like to re-post or re-publish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission.

    Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers inspiration to action in keynotes, workshops, consultations, and DVDs on teamwork, customer service, communicating across diversity, and leading change. See this site for examples of the success she has fueled.

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