Could it be?

All kidding, and references to The Beatles aside, success really is a long and winding road.

The simplest and most direct successes, perhaps like winning some kind of competition, still follow a winding road.

As the success becomes more complex, the road can become even more winding. It can even loop back on itself and seem a little overwhelming at times. And that all serves to make the winning outcome even more rewarding.

Successful communication cultures, whether in our personal lives or in our workplaces are like that. You don’t build culture once and let it grow, you care for it over time, like a plant, or a complex project, and it continues to grow as a result of your care.

Communication culture is not an endpoint, it’s a journey.

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The post The road to success appeared first on HOTBUTTON SOLUTION.

Have you ever wondered how some people have such a great ability to impact our world?

Is it because they can control events and other people?

Or is it because they behave in a way that puts them in a position of influence?

No one can have total control over the things that are happening around them. Nor can anyone truly control others. What can be done, and what you can do, is manage your own reactions and by doing so influence events and people around you.

Power is not controlling others. Power is influencing others. And influence is a natural result of self management. So how do you acquire that skill set? Self management comes from knowing how to identify and manage your own reactions to things that happen, or have happened, around you.

Would you like to have more influence? You can!

Find out more at: www.grafton-sst.com

Or call me, James, direct at 844-498-9066 x.100

Or select a time to chat, at your convenience, with https://calendly.com/jd-lauber

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Have you ever tried to offer some constructive criticism and received a response that was somehow less than you had hoped for?

Have you considered how people normally react to criticism, even if it is sincerely meant to be constructive?

When someone is presented with something they perceive as being a criticism they automatically go into a defensive mindset. It’s human nature.

In order for someone to be open to what you are saying they need to be offered a way to receive it as something other than something that needs to be defended against.

Here are some suggested approaches;

May I offer a suggestion?

Is this a good time for some feedback?

Would you like my opinion?

I have another perspective, would you like to hear it?

These approaches will increase the possibility of your constructive criticism being perceived as invited, thus bypassing the automatic defense mechanism.

This is one example of strategic communication techniques that increase your ability to influence others. These are not tricks, they are tools that acknowledge and work with human nature in order to empower you to create a path toward better results.

Find out more at: www.grafton-sst.com

Or call me, James, direct at 844-498-9066 x.100

Or select a time to chat, at your convenience, with https://calendly.com/jd-lauber

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So what does that require?

When we think of communicating we likely think of what we learned in the classroom. We are trained to focus on spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and the like. As a result, we tend to concentrate more on crafting our words than on crafting the message we need others to respond to.  

While words are very important, they are not what makes an inspirational leader’s message resonate. The key to effectively communicating your message is to focus on others. For truly great leaders this understanding is either natural or well practiced. Here are three things to keep in mind.

1)    Purposefully develop a keen external awareness: Great leaders are practiced at listening carefully and setting aside their personal perspectives. This enables them to be astute in their observations. They are skilled at sensing the moods, dynamics, attitudes, values, and concerns of those receiving their intended message. Not only do they read their environment well, but they are able to adapt their messaging to that environment.

2)    Encourage unfiltered feedback: Some common old school business theories suggest that leaders need to be distant to command respect. The problem with this approach is it encourages people to only share sanitized versions of the truth, and you risk only learning about potential losses or opportunities after it’s too late to react effectively.

3)    Walk the talk:  There is a huge difference between leadership and authority. People will follow authority because they have to, but will follow a great leader because they want to. In order to motivate that shift, your actions need to align with your words. When people feel a leader is worthy of their trust they will invest their time and energy in ways they never would if they sense their leader has poor character or a lack of integrity.

The key takeaway is this: people may do what is required to maintain their security when led by authority. But people will show up with heart and soul when they are led by someone they feel they can trust and who is able to express a vision that resonates with them.

Find out more at: www.grafton-sst.com

Or call me, James, direct at 844-498-9066 x.100

Or select a time to chat, at your convenience, with https://calendly.com/jd-lauber

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Picture anyone who has achieved success. You can be sure that at some point they had to overcome something, which almost certainly required a good attitude. This is an example of attitude being a choice. It may be a difficult choice, but it is a choice.

You cannot change the past. What you can change is your attitude, which will affect your reactions. Reactions in the present create opportunities in the future. I am reminded of a saying, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it”.

When faced with challenges, it is your reactions to people, thoughts, and situations that have the greatest impact on your results. The most powerful people are those who have learned to manage themselves, and by doing so are able to manage their reactions. This is where your true power comes from.

It’s all in your attitude, and you can control it!

Find out more at: www.grafton-sst.com

Or call me, James, direct at 844-498-9066 x.100

Or select a time to chat, at your convenience, with https://calendly.com/jd-lauber

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Put simply, stress is a feeling. A feeling is an emotion. And emotions are our body’s natural biochemical response to something we perceive about an experience.

For example, imagine you’re on a plane and there’s some sudden turbulence followed by a strange noise. Then picture yourself in that situation.

Now, if you were actually on the plane, that feeling you would get is your body’s biochemical response to the perception of risk. That biochemical response is designed to physically prepare you to take action. It’s intended by nature to serve you. You may have felt a little hint of it just by imagining yourself on that plane. So here’s one of the ways it gets tricky. You weren’t on the plane. It was just a thought. The biochemical response was triggered by the thought, more specifically the perception of the thought.

Quick footnote, this also applies to each of your hot buttons.

So the true source of stress is your reaction to a thought. And that could be just a memory. But the point is that perception is something you can manage at will. With surprisingly little training and some practice, you can shift your perceptions so that stress is only there when it serves you and in a way that serves you.

This is a quick glimpse at just one of the foundations of human behavior that you will learn about in our workshops and programs.

Imagine having the tools at hand to choose when and how you allow stress to affect you. Think about the power that would give you, being in control of your stress, and of your hot buttons.

Now imagine being in an environment where everyone had that same power. Imagine the difference that shared power would make in your daily life.

How can you do this?

Find out more at: www.grafton-sst.com

Or call me, James, direct at 844-498-9066 x.100

Or select a time to chat, at your convenience, with https://calendly.com/jd-lauber

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The post Reframing Stress appeared first on HOTBUTTON SOLUTION.

It’s full of great insights and it’s also a peek at a candid Simon Sinek.

It’s a great nine and a half minutes!

https://youtu.be/tttv9lRPcLA

The post Feedback is a Gift appeared first on HOTBUTTON SOLUTION.

Leadership’s role is to lead by example with messaging reinforced by behaviours. Team members’ role is to echo management’s lead with their own reinforcing behaviours.

And that is what many organizations struggle with, the behaviours part. For culture to work, you need both leaders and team members to understand the impact of their behaviour on the organization’s culture.

For many, recognizing their impact on the organization’s culture does not come naturally. But it does come willingly when leadership presents and reinforces by example the importance of individual behaviour.

This is why training is key. Culture is tied directly to how people communicate with each other, and interacting to create change is a skill. Most people will happily interact better with each other when provided with the skills to do so. It’s human nature. It’s a key part of our shared survive and thrive instinct.

An organic culture of enthusiastic teamwork is the payoff.

Find out more at: www.grafton-sst.com

Or call me, James, direct at 844-498-9066 x.100

Or select a time to chat, at your convenience, with https://calendly.com/jd-lauber

____________________

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The post Culture is Misunderstood appeared first on HOTBUTTON SOLUTION.

The cause is primarily a combination of accumulated stress and an employee perception that they are just names and numbers.

The solution is a combination of demonstrating that you are interested in your employee’s wellbeing, that you understand there is stress and disruption, and making it clear that performance rooted in teamwork is a priority in your organization.

Making it clear that you care is delivered through management by example and policy, which is the expression of your corporate culture. Making corporate culture stick requires engagement, which is a result of a healthy and informed communication culture.

Creating and maintaining an informed communication culture is just one of the many reasons our workshop will be so valuable to your organization, it’s a game changer.

Find out more at: www.grafton-sst.com

Or call me, James, direct at 844-498-9066 x.100

Or select a time to chat, at your convenience, with https://calendly.com/jd-lauber

Click here for an article with more information on quiet quitting https://medium.com/shain-e-thomas/have-you-ever-thought-of-quiet-quitting-your-job-74f1d6c82112

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So perhaps a better question may be, is ego useful?

Yes, it is, in that it can serve a useful and necessary purpose. It is after all a part of the basic survive and thrive instinct.

But what about the notion that ego is a bad thing that motivates bad behavior? The truth is, like most things, there’s more than one way to look at ego.

On the good side, ego can drive accomplishment by motivating people to compete, with themselves or others, to do more than what came before. When that leads to greater effort and achievement for the purpose of making our shared world a better place for everyone then the ego can be considered good.

On the flip side, when ego is used for power over others then ego could be considered bad. We have all seen people who demonstrate egotistical behaviors that have caused hardships for others.

So it’s not ego itself, but rather how it is used that suggests if it is good or bad.

It all boils down to this, managing your ego is an important key to success. And in a more universal way, managing what others perceive as your message is an even more important key to success. Accomplishing both (or managing self) takes focus, skills, and practice. Success is a natural outcome of managing self in your own best interest.

All high achievers manage self, and you can too. It starts with learning how our environments influence us, then learning to manage our reactions to those influences.

And that is the power that communication, aka soft, skills provide you with.

Find out more at: www.grafton-sst.com

Or call me, James, direct at 844-498-9066 x.100

Or select a time to chat, at your convenience, with https://calendly.com/jd-lauber

____________________

May I ask you to follow the links (below) to my LinkedIn business pages to click the like and follow buttons? Your support will make a big difference and is very much appreciated. Thank you.

LinkedIn/business/GraftOn-SST: https://www.linkedin.com/company/grafton-sst

LinkedIn/business/HotButtonWorkshop: https://www.linkedin.com/company/james-lauber

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