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e-News from TWD

July, 2008

$300 billion a year in productivity losses!

e-News Archives

Greetings;

During This time of Recession we are already reading a host of “How to Survive Articles” as well as “Quick Fix Systems” that the “experts” are capitalizing on.

The Disengaged!

The secret to keeping your business viable and thriving during this time is to maintain impeccability with existing integrity in all that you do as a business leader.

The secret is to engage your employees so that they want to keep coming to work and producing. Studies are revealing that well over 50% of our American Workforce are not engaged in their work. Estimates that “actively disengaged” workers are costing US businesses $300 billion a year in productivity losses!

There is no shortage of skilled and bright people to employ. What is missing however is the matching of their skills with the positions they’ll enjoy. Creating a good match between the employee and the job they are hired to do will make them eager to produce and they’ll want to learn more and stay engaged in their work.

Your job as leader is to inspire, support, challenge and provide them the necessary resources to keep them growing, learning and achieving. How you treat your employees is the other part of the equation.

Reducing benefits, fear tactics, layoffs and threats have been too prevalent, even in times of abundance, and they are becoming increasingly so as people get scared with their financial concerns and the overall economic challenges. How you treat your employees will translate in how they treat each other, your customers and to a large degree their family members. This ultimately makes the difference in whether your company thrives through the recession.

As money becomes more of an issue and the economy struggles, we absolutely believe you are smart enough, bright enough and aware enough as a business leader to create the needed changes within your business. Since you already know yourself, your employees and your customers, if you have treated them well, following these 6 non-negotiable principles will continue to pay dividends and help solidify your companies place in your industry.

These principles will afford you the opportunity to keep thriving in your business and will help secure employee engagement.

If you are struggling in your business than these 6 principles will facilitate dramatic change for your company. The greatest secret we’ve ever discovered is that the external world doesn’t affect our security.

It’s all an inside job. Once you understand that creating great success in business and maintaining it is attained through your thinking, your beliefs and your actions, then you are insulated from the ups and downs of recessions, market fluctuations and global changes.
The following are what we’ve come to understand as the principles that create, promote and sustain success while maintaining integrity.

1. Trustworthiness-Always do what you say you are going to do in a timely fashion. It can’t hurt to go above and beyond the agreed upon commitment you have made.

2. Honesty-Be impeccable with what you say to your employees and your customers. Always make good on your word. In addition assess your level of self honesty. Do you violate or adhere to your own code of ethics, even when times are tough?

3. Authenticity-Operating and acting from the core of your being. Being genuine and down to earth.

4. Neutrality-Being open minded and refraining from arrogance and self righteousness. Practicing the art of empathy to gain deep understanding of your employees and customers needs. Letting go of ulterior motives with a willingness to adjust as the external world presents opportunities (not challenges).

5. Kindness-Doing the hard to do thing because it will ease another’s burden. Taking time to value, appreciate and praise your employees and customers. Offering more, not less when you get into fear of lack, to your employees and customers.

6. Surrender-Making real what’s real. Letting go of the illusion of control. When forces at play (economic downturns, rising gas prices, etc) come at you, cease fighting and berating that which you have no control over. It is surrendering that we find true freedom and gain victory. Solutions can then be revealed.
Solution
Trans-World Dynamics (TWD) knows and understands that Engagement has to be a leadership-driven initiative from the most senior level all the way to the front line. No one affects an employee’s engagement as much as his or her immediate leader. Engaged leaders coach proactively for success, inspire loyalty and trust, and build an environment in which employees are motivated and engaged.

Through TWD’s Culture Cure Program, we drive engagement from the top down by utilizing the six steadfast principles found in the THANKs® program of Trustworthiness, Honesty, Authenticity, Neutrality, Kindness, and Surrender.

There are dozens of companies claiming to be able to solve your employee engagement issues through employee surveys, leadership assessments, employee profiles and so on and so forth.

Look, the bottom line is people! People have a basic need to be happy and to be of service. Through our extensive research we have found that Fear is the master at creating the illusion that most people believe we’ll lose something we have, or not get something we think we need or are entitled to.

Investing in your people and believing that by doing so is the stimulation that a company needs to be not only competitive but to become the vanguard of their industry. TWD is dedicated in changing the corporate culture that reaches far beyond the corporate environment but attaches itself to the very core of human relationships.
Bob Sugar, CEO and Brad Stevenson, COO of Trans-World Dynamics, LLC are invited regularly to be keynote speakers for different companies. They also write monthly articles and produce monthly podcasts on the THANKs® principles as well as address a variety of other topics. Please feel free to go to their website at www.Thepowerofthanks.com to learn more about them and their programs.

CALL or WRITE NOW to find out how they will speak at your company for FREE!

Copyright 2007 Trans-World Dynamics, LLC. All rights reserved.
THANKs(sm) is a registered servicemark of Trans-World Dynamics, LLC.
All rights reserved.

The content of the Trans-World Dynamics, LLC e-News may be forwarded in full without special permission provided it is used for nonprofit purposes and full attribution and copyright notice are given.
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Trans-World Dynamics, LLC | PO Box 82512 | Albuquerque | NM | 87198

Last week my daughter Rachel finished her last day of middle school. In the rich tradition of our relationship, I Bob took off of work on her first day of summer break so we could hang out together.

We enjoyed a leisurely Friday morning still in pajamas with a delightful sleep in, a home cooked breakfast and the watching of a Gilmore Girls DVD; one of my daughters favorite TV series. In the mix, we engaged in some rich banter and meaningful conversation about the completion of another year of school. As we wound up our relaxing and joyful morning, we made our way out into the world to accomplish a multitude of errands.

I was in “dad heaven”, thoroughly enjoying my time with Rachel; the sharing, the giggling and the shared feelings of gratitude for being alive. Our last stop of the day was to pick up some “carry out” for lunches that we would eat back at the house.  We stopped at the Pavilions where Rachel purchased a Keva juice and I, a salad from Quiznos with honey mustard dressing. Pulling into the driveway to our home we observed the tons of stuff we had picked up as we scavengered around Albuquerque. Rachel grabbed the lunches and I grabbed my coffee cup and a few other items as well. This was clearly a 2 trip endeavor between the car and the house. As Rachel approached the house, one of the containers of honey mustard dressing fell out of the bag and splattered into the driveway.

I felt an immediate surge of anger boil up inside of me. I put my coffee cup on the car hood and it too fell on the ground which served to fuel my anger. I took the bag with the salad from Rachel and in angry silence walked swiftly into the house. My daughter verbalized that “everything is ok dad” as she proceeded to grab a couple of paper towels to clean up the mess in the driveway. In my scorn I told her I would hose down the mess and not to bother with the paper towels. And so I did. Once the moment passed and the 2 of us sat down to eat lunch, the shame of my reaction to the incident was bubbling up. I spoke to Rachel about how sorry I was for my disproportionate reaction and that it had absolutely nothing to do with her. She replied by iterating how her clarity of knowing me so well allows her to not take it personally.

Rachel has witnessed my anger and annoyance on a number of occasions over the years and fortunately because she has a very strong, healthy core, it allowed her to hold a solid emotional boundary with me. We had a very rich dialog that manifested out of this event. As the shame dissipated I reflected over the years of my life (as I often do after a growth opportunity presents itself) acknowledging the gravity of rage I once carried. This rage had roots back to early childhood. Getting this perspective allowed me to come back to the acceptance of myself, allowing me to gain perspective on the progress I have made. I have been actively addressing this character flaw for 25 plus years, and it seems to be in no danger of fully extinguishing itself. Honesty is one of the core principles in our THANKs® program that many of you who employ our services get to work with.

We believe that self honesty is an indispensable principle towards the creation of self change and transformation. With that said, it is very clear that there are, for each of us, character flaws that keep journeying with us throughout our lives. Brad and I have worked with many clients who have mistakenly believed that they have been relieved of a particular flaw only to find it blind sides them at some point. They find this unexpected recurrence to be unacceptable and then proceed to berate themselves unmercifully. As we actively address these demons as part of our journey within, to equal measure the acceptance of their existence is essential.

If we are honestly working towards the decreasing and eventual elimination of these character flaws that have haunted us, then the acceptance allows us to coexist with them. Whether it’s our anger, pride, greed, fear of lack, gossip, selfishness or any other shortcoming that reveals itself in our character at unexpected times, it is the acceptance of these flaws that gives us as much freedom as their elimination. In no way does the acknowledgment and acceptance of these character flaws negate us from the accountability of the harm they do to others. When our shortcomings hurt someone else, we are 100% accountable for making amends and asking for forgiveness. There is a wonderful technique that allows for the daily application of intention and self honesty to help us work with our inner demons. It also serves to bring us to increasing acceptance of self with the existence of these flaws. First and foremost, we will have to engage in a self honesty appraisal of what these demons are.

Once this is accomplished then we can begin to work with the “Intention and Direction Loop” that Brad and I created in our continued quest to live the THANKs® program. We have found so much value in this methodology that we have been using it as a tool for clients to integrate into their daily lives. The following is a step by step process that engages you in the facilitation of addressing and actively dealing with your inner demons as well as creating greater acceptance of yourself. Below are the 7 building blocks for successfully addressing and effectively dealing with your inner demons. Each one builds on the preceding one taking you through an “Intention and Direction Loop”. Give it a try and see what you think!

Step 1: Sit down quietly for 15 minutes and think about patterns, behaviors and/or attitudes that have been a part of your adult life that you have struggled with.

Step 2: Write down these patterns, behaviors and/or attitudes that you have struggled with throughout your adult life.

Step 3: Each morning, depending on how ambitious you are, you can write down or just contemplate on one of these behaviors, patterns and/or attitudes that you would like to work on for the day. Focus on your intention and direction. Ask yourself how you want to behave and what behavior or attitude you want to bring into the day in place of the existing behavior or attitude.

Step 4: Take a few minutes to think about where this change will challenge you the most and think about how you want to respond in that situation or circumstance. You now have intention and direction on the desired character trait you want to display.

Step 5: As you embark on your day take a minute mid-morning and another minute mid-afternoon to take a spot check inventory of how your intention and direction is going. Just take note. In addition, pay attention throughout the day when you are achieving your desired intention and when you aren’t. If you can catch yourself in the old pattern, behavior and/or attitude, see if you can switch gears to your desired intention. This will take lots of practice (The secret about change is that you can make the desired change regardless of how you feel in the moment. If you feel angry and tend to fly off the handle, try staying focused on your intention and direction even when you feel the anger).

Step 6: At days’ end, take 5 minutes and account for how the day went. Focus on your successes as well as the times you came up short on your desired intention. Write down any changes you want to add into the intention and direction for the next day.

Step 7: This is where you loop into the start of the following day. Start the same process over again, bringing with you the information from the day before. In addition, when you are ready, you can add new behaviors, patterns, and/or attitudes that you want to focus your intention and direction towards. This looping keeps you plugged into a daily process and habit. This principle of intention works only if you work it. Day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year, a positive accumulative effect will manifest. The hardest part for individuals is staying consistent with the practice, and developing it as a daily habit.

The practice of this intention principle works wonders to increase our levels of self acceptance if the motive truly is to change for the better. We have found this methodology to be most successful when worked on with group or professional support. Reporting the events of the process on a weekly basis, as well as receiving support and getting questions answered, has helped countless individuals transform their lives, even when the ongoing challenges of their character flaws continue to resurface at different times. As is said in the 12 step recovery rooms, Practice not Perfection! As always, let us know what you think and how this is working for you. We love the e-mails as well as your shared experiences on our blog. Be well. Bob & Brad

The other day, I was stopped at a local gas station pumping gas in my SUV trying to justify the amount of money I was going to be paying for this fuel when it happened. I young man and his son pulled up across from me at the pump. The adult was yelling at the son about being late coming home from school. The adult got out of the vehicle and slid his credit card into the card read still yelling at his son. The son had the look of a deer caught in the head lights of an 18 wheeler bearing down on him. “Well, of course the poor kid has that look on his face” I said to myself. I just happened to turn toward the father when our eyes made contact! He looked at me for a few seconds and with a low gravelly voice said “what’s your damn problem”.

Let me tell you, I had many thoughts go through my head at this point. And at first, not a one was very kind. Oh, there’s that darn word, you know which one, the kind word. I continued to make eye contact with him and smiled. When I said, “did you hear that gas prices are going up again this week”? He looked at me like I was nut, little does he know, right? I turned and smiled that the son who was still sitting deep in his seat on the passenger side of his car. I asked the son if he goes to school around here. The son turned and looked at his father as if he was looking for permission to speak.

The father said to his son, “Go ahead boy, answer the man”! The son turned back toward me and said “I do, I go to Wilson Mid School”. At that point I began to carry on a conversion with the son for a few minutes, and yes, I was still filling my 30 gallon SUV! During this time, I watched the father out of the corner of my eye and noticed that he was starting to calm down. The father finished and started to get back into his car. The son thanked me for talking with him and smiled. The father looked over at the son and said, “Are you ready to go”? The son replied with a nod of his head and turned forward. As the father looked up at me I said, “You have a wonderful and polite young man there, someone to be proud of”! The father turned to his son and smiled. He looked back up at me and said, “I do and I am. Thanks for reminding me”!

An act of Kindness goes beyond what we can sometime imagine. By being Authentic to ourselves it becomes so much easier to be our authentic selves to others. When we are passionate about being who we are from the inside out, our authenticity flows into the nooks and crannies of the world that we would never think could be possible. What we do and how we do it starts as an inside job. Working from within will begin to change our exterior landscape. The more we work from the inside out, the more the external world changes.

Do you have a story that changed you or someone around you? Please share it with us. THANKs for everything!

 

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