We’ve got to start asking ourselves–and our clients–this question…and seriously entertain the near certainty that the answer is YES!

I suspect that many business and professional leaders do not consider themselves artists. Their education, training and experience ostensibly fall on the left brain side, and cultivation of the right brain side has, in the past, not been seen as practical or worthwhile.

Enter Seth Godin’s Linchpin, his 2010 book exploring what makes someone indispensable to an organization…what makes them a “linchpin.” Like all seminal thinkers, Godin has taken ordinary ideas and made us see them sideways, so we can mine new meaning and value.  In his e-book companion to Linchpin called Insubordinate, Godin refers to Art as “the way you see the world” and the ability to put existing things together in new ways. Here’s his formula:

creation of a juxtaposition that generates a reaction and touches an emotion + lack of compromise + drive to ship = makings of Art

Throughout his book, he refers to “shipping” as that step in the process that gets an idea from brain to delivery, a step that can be sabotaged by everything from fear to procrastination, to lack of vision, to poor systems.

He goes on to say that the best artists exhibit a bias for growth and the courage to try something new. They demonstrate “daily creativity combined with relentless persistence.”

This process isn’t always neat and clean. In fact, it’s usually vibrant and messy–that’s what I had in mind when I chose the photo to go with this post.

So embrace your inner Artist! And remember what Godin says about Jerry Colonna and Fred Wilson, co-founders of Flatiron Partners:

Anyone could have done it.

Anyone didn’t.

They did.

So whatever it is that you do…Just Go Do It!

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Elizabeth H. Cottrell is the principal of RiverwoodWriter, LLC, a writing and desktop publishing business, and of Heartspoken.com: Speaking from the heart about the Power of Connection. She is a Senior Consultant for AvoLead.
LinkedIn Profile |  Facebook URL |   Twitter: @RiverwoodWriter

Our thanks to Preston Yarborough, Innovation Associate, Research and Development at Kaplan DeVries, Inc., for giving AvoLead permission to share the content of the email and attachment below he sent recently to colleagues:

__________________________________________

“For nearly a decade the idea of maximizing strengths rather than fixing weaknesses has captivated HR professionals, coaches, and managers alike. What fueled this trend? What unintended consequences could result?  For answers to these questions, the Center for Creative Leadership recently interviewed Rob Kaiser.

“Kaiser’s latest book, The Perils of Accentuating the Positive (HoganPress), explains the rest of what you need to know about strengths-based development. In this book, Kaiser assembled a host of thought leaders who shared concerns about focusing on strengths while ignoring weaknesses.

“The CCL interview addresses the popularity and appeal of strengths-based development, the dangers of focusing only on strengths, and the important role of strengths, weaknesses, and continuous learning in leadership development. See attached for a transcript of the interview.

Regards,

Preston Yarborough
The Leadership Versatility Index (LVI) Team”

Seth Godin is the author of ten international bestsellers that have been translated into over 30 languages and have changed the way people think about marketing and work. His Unleashing the Ideavirus is the most popular ebook ever published, and Purple Cow is the bestselling marketing book of the last decade. He coined the term “permission marketing” and accurately predicted its impact on sales of all kinds.  I follow his blog regularly and love to see how his mind works.

One of Godin’s gifts is taking every-day things and turning them sideways from the way they are usually used to extract more value and function. He’s done this with PowerPoint in a recent blog post called “Really Bad Powerpoint.” It’s worth reading the whole post, but his key points were so simple and so compelling that I thought members of the AvoLead community would find value for themselves and/or their clients:

• He reminds us that in any presentation, we must transfer emotion and sell our topic. “Logic is not enough,” and neither are boring bullet points or cluttered slides with too much information.
• Use cue-cards to capture the essence of what you want to say (i.e., don’t read your slides).
• “Make slides reinforce your words, not repeat them.” He suggests using quality photos to add emotional depth to what you’re saying.
• Create a written “leave-behind” document with details, notes, and references. Tell people up front that you’ll give it to them at the end so they don’t have to write everything down. Then they can concentrate on getting the emotional and intellectual gist of your message without being distracted by writing, and they’ll have something to take home that reinforces what you’ve said.
• Don’t be vague about what you want from your listeners…ask them. Do you want them to take action? Buy something? Sign up for something? Remember something? Be sure to be clear what this is.

Here are Godin’s five rules for a great PowerPoint presentation:

1. Always use fewer than seven words on a slide. He feels VERY strongly about this.
2. Avoid trite graphics – spring for quality stock photos.
3. Forget the transitions (dissolves, spins, etc.) that PowerPoint offers.
4. Use sound effects strategically and pick your own, not the built-in ones.
5. “Don’t hand out print-outs of your slides. They don’t work without you there.”

Keep the end goal in mind: an audience that is engaged and interested and will be more likely to remember the core part of your message. Godin loves to buck the status quo and always encourages his readers to be unique. That’s how we become memorable. He knows it’s hard, but his message is, “It’s worth it!”

In parts one and two I described the power of “showing up” and “honoring your heart.”  Now we turn our attention to speaking your truth without blame or judgment.  It seems like it should be easy, but it can be a little more difficult than it may appear!

Step one is acknowledging deep within you, really and truly, that “your truth” is not “THE truth.”  No kidding!  It’s amazing how many of us lose sight of that simple idea in the heat of the moment.  Your truth is important (remember–”honor your heart”!), but it is very different from “The Truth.”  [Sidebar tip: A ground rule I often suggest to client teams is "Offer your observations as your perception rather than fact."  That single ground rule can be powerful for improving team communications. ]

Once you’ve taken responsibility for your own perceptions, step two is sorting out how to present your truth without also placing blame and judgment on the others involved.  For example: “Rich, when you raise your voice in meetings like you did today, I feel really tentative about offering my opinions” is very different and much easier for Rich to hear and respond constructively to than “I hate it when you yell!  Leaders aren’t supposed to yell–can’t you get it through your head that everyone shuts down when you do that?  You’re ruining the team!”  In the first example, the person has spoken his own personal truth about the impact of the yelling, owned his reaction as his rather than generalizing to a group, and has done so without blaming or judging Rich, the yeller.  The latter example just pours gasoline on the fire. Sure, perhaps Rich can hear the passion and distress in the speaker and step back from that to listen, but it takes a big person to unhook from that kind of blame coming at him.

Another example: “Bill, the last three weekly reports you’ve given me have had errors in them.  I use your reports to build the reports I give to our boss.  When you give me inaccurate information, it spreads upwards leading to poorly informed business decisions and makes us both look bad to our boss.  It may even have implications for how we are treated during the budgeting process.  I am not willing to let this continue.  What is going on here from your lens?”  There are no accusations of carelessness or stupidity, no histrionics or drama. Simple facts, personal reactions and perceptions of the implications form “your truth.”  An invitation for the other person to share his view of the situation opens up the space nicely for significant progress to be made.

These techniques work in a dynamic way–once Rich and Bill have heard the feedback, they are likely to offer a reaction, calm or otherwise, which is when Showing Up and Honoring Your Heart come back into play again.

When we are acting as coach, peer, friend, spouse, partner, or parent, these tools encourage and allow you to listen more clearly to what is happening for the other person and to speak your piece as well, all in service to problem-solving and relationship-building.  From that place of broader understanding, without blame or judgment, solutions are much easier to identify.

Give it a try and write me back here to share your stories!

Our good friends and colleagues at Discovery Learning®, Inc. (DLI) are offering a Change Readiness Gauge™ Introduction and Certification half-day workshop on June 1, 2010, in Greensboro, NC, and AvoLead is pleased to promote it to our fellow professionals. This new and innovative assessment for measuring an organization’s current ability to manage change was designed by Chris Musselwhite, president and CEO of Discovery Learning®, and Tammie Plouffe, managing partner of Innovative Pathways.

Never has such a measurement been more important or so critical as we help our client organizations assess and embrace change from so many different directions. Quickly identifying their readiness to manage change can better equip them to survive and thrive.

Get certified now to use this valuable assessment by attending the June 1st workshop. Benefits include listing on DLI’s website, access to experienced survey user group, and DLI referrals. Certification or qualification is required for product use. The $250 package includes an electronic facilitator guide, a PowerPoint presentation, a webinar, a follow-up coaching call, 10 individual assessments, 1 group report, and access to the online assessment center (a $1090 value).

• June 1, 8:30am to noon
• Discovery Learning, Inc., 431 Spring Garden St., Greensboro, NC 27401
• Call 336-272-9530  or Email sgoins@discoverylearning.com to reserve your spot!