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The Power of “I Don’t Know”

November 30, 2010 in Ideas, Leadership, Life, Productivity, Skills, Teamwork, Vision with 14 Comments

“I don’t know” – three words that some people and more specifically leaders, at different times find difficult to utter. I thought of some benefits of saying “I Don’t Know” (in no particular order):

  • Gives Opportunity to Engage Team: When you “open the floor” to your team, it facilitates the team owning solutions. People tend to thrive in environments where they contribute significantly toward solutions. Your team will to rise to the level of the responsibilities you give them. Engaging the team means tapping into a bigger pool of ideas and creativity, some of which may even be better than yours as a leader. Your moments of ignorance or ‘limited knowledge or skill’ can be opportunities for growth for not only you as a leader but your team, use them wisely!

  • Communicates Security of A Leader: This may mean “eating humble pie” for you in some cases. But! Admitting ignorance or limitations tells your team you are comfortable in being you and in your leadership and that the door is open for them to bring ideas. It makes you more approachable as a leader. Saying, “I don’t know” may also give your team more confidence to speak up when they see loopholes or flaws in ideas or plans you present them in future. Thus facilitating “idea-proofing”.

  • Saves Time: The sooner you admit your ignorance and limitations the more likely you are to reach a solution quicker. Get your team going early and avoid avoidable emergencies. Save time and say the ‘three magic words’ sooner rather than later!
  • Expressing, “I don’t know” tells your team the areas in which you need more support in as a leader and team player. Help your team stop guessing how to serve the bigger picture by being a support where you fall short.

What other benefits of ‘saying’, “I don’t know” can you think of?

Something Communicators Must NEVER Forget

November 20, 2010 in Church, Leadership, Life, Parenting, Passion, Productivity, Skills, Teamwork, Vision with 4 Comments

I meet a lot of people every week… I facilitate different types of groups with different types of people. I think life would be extremely boring if we were all alike. I think I’d really hate to have everybody like me. Don’t get it twisted, I really like me and my uniqueness. I would honestly hate seeing another me and losing out on celebrating my uniqueness. If you’re also going to be honest, I think you’d share the same sentiments. AND, because you really know yourself, there may be other reasons why you wouldn’t want other yous… Anyway…

I was reflecting about a group of people I facilitated. As they introduced themselves their diversity became apparent. Besides the fact that they were of different ethnicities, experiences and backgrounds, their personalities and expressions of who they were, were also different. We know this, but it is not always at the fore of our thinking i.e. the differences of people in the crowd or audience. We may share common interests but none of us are common! As a communicator, never, never forget that your audience or target audience are a collection of unique individuals.

One of the implications of this is that you remember to ride off more common experiences than to a personal experience that not everyone may relate to. It may mean making reference to a new ad on tv or billboard etc… Whatever you do as you communicate, remember to find as many things that most people will be able to relate to. Your (potential) audience will tell you how to prepare. Do your best to know as much about your audience prior to your speaking engagement as possible…

For instance, when in the rainbow nation, South Africa, one also needs to be careful how you “season” your communication with words from another language. There are many instances where the same word means a completely different thing from one language to another… Hence the importance of being watchful to find the middle ground.

Another thing I had to remind myself of, was that not everybody responds the way I do. I was reminded of days I’d get frustrated with my audience or group I was facilitating because they just weren’t responding the way “they were supposed to”. Not everybody assimilates things the same and the fact that they are not responding to us or our communication the way we’d rather have them doesn’t mean they are not getting you. It may simply mean that they don’t respond the way you do.  I’ve had people that I thought were totally “out of it” be the ones to come and share about what they learnt from a talk and how they envisage the impact in their lives.

Don’t beat yourself up and diminish the (potential) impact of your presentation by judging based on how you are likely to respond! Engage your audience not yourself! People are not going to respond to you the way you respond because you are the one communicating. Get comfortable with the fact that not everybody will think you or your jokes are funny. We are all wired differently and don’t have the same sense of humor (if any). The primary goal of your communication is not the response as you communicate but that your message gets across in a palatable and concise manner.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that reading your crowd’s response is not important so that you can adjust accordingly. What I am saying is don’t get too hung up on it. Sometimes our perceptions based on response of the crowd  are inaccurate. Make sure you engage your audience to enable your communication, but do not sum up your effectiveness based on how you would respond. Keep in mind your audience is not you and, chances are they are not exactly like that last group you addressed at an earlier setting either. Be happy with responses even if they are not how you would respond (hoping they are positive ones). Remember, we may have common interests but we are all not common!

Your thoughts?

How God Rescues

October 29, 2010 in Chrstianity, Church, Leadership, Life, Ministry, Vision with 0 Comments

“… Right across the street they set up their own salvation shops and noisily hawk their wares. After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on his terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have nothing to show for it.” Romans 10:3 (The Message)

In the above verse, Paul was writing to the Romans about the extent and wealth of our salvation. The verse comes out of the context where Paul was talking about how we do not have to ‘work’ to earn our salvation but that it was matter of believing in ones heart confessing with their mouths Jesus’ Lordship. What captivates me about Paul’s language is that He speaks about how people did not want to “deal with God on His terms”.

From the stage of entering into a relationship with God right up to seeing him rescue us from life’s challenges, man is always tempted to give God terms. At other times, like Israel, we are blinded to God’s working and limit Him to only working in one way or avenue. Sometimes we even prescribe to God, the God of infinite wisdom how He is to come to our rescue! We forget that our heavenly father is greater than us. He sees things we cannot see, can do things we cannot do!

“I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work. God’s Decree: “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think”  Isaiah 55:9 (The Message).

If you’re looking to God to come to your rescue I’d like to encourage you to stop giving God terms on how He should rescue you. God is not limited to the one or two ways you can see. We belittle God when we consciously or subconsciously make our limitations His! Stop gauging God’s ability through your own! Our God is greater and stronger and, faithful! Look to Him and expect Him to work on His terms and He will surprise you!

After The Preview, Before The Feature

October 22, 2010 in Leadership, Life, Passion, Productivity, Teamwork, Vision with 0 Comments

When preparing to launch new projects, products or campaigns we often expend a lot of energy, time and other resources. We do this in order to ensure that whatever our focus starts off well and we get off to a flying start. After spending a lot of time and resources the launch becomes a flop. This is likely to happen when we have not take the time after the preparations, before the start, to replenish ourselves and resources. It is of the essence to allow enough time between that gap of finishing tests etc and the actual launch. Fill the gap with things that will allow for rest and replenishment.

The need to take adequate rest as part of our work is often stressed. But we tend to overlook the importance of resting or allowing  “breathing” before kick off! While preparations are to ensure that everything is in place before take off, we forget that we are actually using some energy that we will also need after launch. Take time to ensure that you, your team and resources are adequately replenished before launch. Rest is a form of preparation that is often overlooked. Don’t use so much energy in rehearsals that you lose momentum for the actual show! Don’t expend too much energy in the warm up, before the actual match…  If you do make sure you’ve done enough to get it back before the “main feature” .

My Lessons From Last Week – Week 6

October 18, 2010 in Ideas, Leadership, Life, My Lessons From Last Week, Productivity, Squash, Teamwork, Vision with 0 Comments

On Whose Terms?

As I reflect on last week, one of the strongest lessons that seems to stand out is my the question, “how have I been responding to some challenges lately?” I dealt with an institution that needed a lot of documents. This is a normal part of organizational life, for the sake of record keeping,  accountability etc. Like the saying goes, “if’ it’s not on paper it doesn’t exist”… Anyway, I had to do what seemed like a hundred and one trips, phone calls and emails as I attempted to give them all they required from me. At some point I got very frustrated. If I needed their help I had no choice but to meet all the requirements.

This is the nature of life; we are often forced to work with situations we are not happy with. But because they contribute to the outcome we desire, we have to work with them. It is human tendency to want to change everything to fit us or what we consider unique to us. We go about life  acting and thinking, “no one could possibly be in a dire circumstance as I am”. We’re generally “me-centered”…  We sometimes even expect life, our work etc to fit in to how we want it… Sometimes we spend a lot of time trying to change situations instead of cooperating with them. I am no longer going to waste time trying to change things I do not have control of.

Last week I was reminded that there are always going to be situations I am going to be able to change and at the same time, ones I will not be able to change. Instead of trying to change circumstances or systems I have no control over, I am going to simply look more into how I can work with them. Perhaps even work with some of these ‘systems’ to change them! In think there are times we have to work with the challenges and not against them to get the best out situations.

On The Squash Court

A friend of mine made the same mistake I made a few months ago. Just before his match, he added a new grip to his racquet. He did not replace the one that was already there, but wrapped the new one over the old one. If you ask most people that play racquet sports they’ll tell you that it does significantly affect your grip and subsequently your shots and game. Immediately after adding the grip he got on the court and went straight into his match. Because the feel of his racquet had changed drastically it affected his shots. Toward  the end of the match he ditched the newer grip… The difference immediately showed; he was able to better gauge the strength in his shots and better “place” the ball… Unfortunately too late in the game, and he lost!

The lesson: don’t introduce drastic changes before a major “game” if you can avoid it! One of the reasons why change sometimes causes colossal failures is because it is introduced too fast. When you introduce change in your life, organization, team, family etc, it may be worthwhile to do it at a manageable pace. If you haven’t been running don’t wake up and plunge yourself into a twenty kilometer run… Run the shorter distances first and build your stamina. Increase the distance as your stamina builds. Play practice games with the new grip before playing the match with it!

What one thing did you learn last week? Please do share…

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