When we know all the secrets to success the world of work can be wonderful, rewarding, and we can be more successful than we ever dreamed.

All of us deserve mentoring from people who sincerely care about us, people who will help us to see our gifts and talents, as well as our deficiencies, people who are willing to share their own failures, successes and lessons learned just when we need that the most. We need each other – in fact we cannot succeed without each other.

Everybody is indispensable and the world deserves for each one of us to prove it.

On February 24-25
Bob Heavers and Barbara Brannen are launching
Onboard and Indispensable,
and we want you to join us.

This 2-day interactive program is filled with best practices, and designed to help people take greater responsibility for living and working more productively. It’s about ordinary people achieving extraordinary results. We’re tapping into human potential and empowering people to make a bigger difference for their employers and coworkers, and their family and friends.

Who should participate in Onboard and Indispensable?
• Team members at every level – new hires to current employees in need of a higher level of success.
• Managers and leaders will gain insight into what behaviors create a productive and responsible workforce.
• Employees or friends who deserve a fresh perspective or a boost to their quality of life … or someone searching for a new position.

Register for February 24-25

Tuition for the February program is only $295 per person, plus your input and evaluation. Send 3 people for $750. Learning materials, lunch, snacks and follow-up coaching by phone are included. To reserve your seat(s) just call Barbara at 303-478-0712 or Bob at 303-552-1025, or email Barbara@everibodimatters.com, Bob@everibodimatters.com or go to http://www.w3shoppingcart.com/cart/product.cfm?i=38317&c=3065.

Expect a life- changing experience that will pay tangible dividends right away.

There is a lot of news at the moment about leaders in politics and business and their ability to lead well and with integrity.

While we may wish that everyone in a leadership position would always do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, that is humanly impossible.

What is possible is to do the best we can and continue to “go forward.”  To get caught in the trap of never moving on important issues has long range consequences in every situation.

With the use of a simple checklist the ability to move forward occurs in a timely manner, (notice that is not quickly, but timely),  and with a strong possibility of success.

Here is that simple list;

1. Have we asked all the right questions of the right people?  (Inclusion)

2. Has all the data that could tell us anything about this situation been reviewed and understood?  (Homework completely done)

3. Have we taken the time to assess and analyze the impact of our decision on all parties?  (Remove our biases and see the big picture)

4.  Are we initiating an action that will do the most good with the least harm?  (Is this the best we can do?)

5.  Have we taken into account the long term effects of what we are about to do?  (It isn’t always about just today’s issue)

6. Are we able and capable as an organization to do this in a timely manner? (Do we move at the right speed?)

Just for today, “go forward.”

In March of 1969 the Cyganovich and Andrews Lumber Dimension Company in Owego, New York was burned to the ground.  The fire was so intense that large heavy equipment used to plane the wood, gluing machines, saws and more were melted to scrap. Nothing was salvageable.

The three owners, Ted, Tony and Bill were faced with the loss of their livelihood and inadequate insurance to rebuild.

As the three men contemplated what they should do, they had to attend to their customers, their bank and others involved with their business.  As Ted placed the calls to their clients to explain that pending orders would not be filled and their uncertainty about being in business in the future, he heard something he did not expect.

Their five biggest clients responded to the news immediately.  Each one indicated that while they would have to go elsewhere to fill their current orders they would wait for them to get back into business and purchase from them again when they were.  And all five did just that.  This commitment became collateral to allow bank loans and credit extensions from suppliers.

The quality and service provided by this company was so far superior to anything else available that their clients knew they were worth the wait.

Who would wait for you? Do you know exactly what it is you do that is worth the wait?  Do your employee’s?  How is that protected in this economic downturn?  How is enhanced?

Check your value regularly, protect always.

Who believes in you and why?

Create a strategy meeting for your team, company or staff that is based on these questions.  If you need help with asking the questions or facilitation for this process call Barbara Brannen at 303-984-9271.

It is a little known fact that really good leaders got that way because of their friends.  The best leaders and executives are people who
•     Trust and respect the advice of friends
Leadership does not happen in a vacuum.  It takes many minds, many ideas, many debates and even more so, many different pieces of advice.
I am a HUGE fan of West Wing, the television show that went off the air over 3 years ago.  However, even today what is portrayed in this series validates many things we do not know about.
For example, in the closing episodes of the last season, the incoming president selects the man who ran against him for president to be Secretary of State.  Why?  Despite their differences he respects the man’s intellect, considers him a friend and knows he will get good advice that he can trust from him.
Who are your friends?  Who do you trust?  Do you appreciate the value in this to make your decisions not just good, but great?
As a Situational Specialist, Barbara can be that trusted advisor for you and your organization. (Listen here, to what one client found in Barbara’s advice) Contact Barbara at 303-984-9271

In reading the book, “Red and Me” by Bill Russell this weekend I was struck by the secrets to leadership that came out in Bill’s description of Red Auerbach as his coach.  The reason these are so striking is that they are not all the normal things we see in leadership, executive teams and management.

•    For example, some of his descriptors were “mathematician of the highest order, understanding the efficacy of equations, especially in problem solving.”

Now I freely admit to being a “math/numbers nut” and my clients quite frequently hear me say, it all boils down to the numbers.  I also insist it is math we mastered by the 6th grade, not necessarily algebra.

How are you at the numbers?  Nine times out of ten in a situation that I am called upon to assist in, we start with numbers, work with numbers and end up letting numbers know if we are getting where we want to go.

Bottom line,” do the math,” and find people who can do the math to work for you.

Call Barbara Brannen, a Certified Situational Specialist to help your company make their numbers.  (See where she has done this before by clicking here.)

As a nation we are preparing to receive the benefits of the recently passed Economic Stimulus package. As a business you are now in a position to marry your strategic plan for 2009 to these benefits.

While the stimulus package will go to many things from police and teachers to the environment and rebuilding highways, there is a flow through to most businesses as they align with these projects and initiatives.

Understanding how our economic stimulus package will flow through to your business should be simple exercise if your strategic plan is simple, visual and fluid.

Here are a few steps for you to consider at this time:

1. How does your development plan dovetail to where people and businesses will need and want to spend their money this year?

2. Following this, does your sales team have their plan set for the same question?

3. Where in your strategy do you refer to this stimulus and the possible effects it may have for you?

4. Do you have all the details of this plan?

5. Who in your organization is charged with keeping abreast of this plan and other developments in the economy this year?

Remember that bringing in someone to help you integrate this with your current plan and challenge your team to incorporate this into their work this year could be essential. A Situational Specialist is there just for this purpose. Find out more at Situational Specialist.

Possibly this workshop on Strategy and Tactics will help you get there.  Click here for details.

If you have not read any of the details of this plan please check out this article “How the Economic Stimulus Plan Could Effect You.”

“We always have enough time to do what needs to be done.”  Alan Cohen (A Deep Breath of Life)

My friend above, Alan Cohen, taught me many valuable lessons in life, but none more important than this one, “If you are a servant of time rather than letting time serve you, you are a prisoner.”

Today email, cell phones, PDA’s and more have made us less free than we believe we are.  While we brag about how “connected” we are and how “quickly” we can accomplish things, we fail to see how we have imprisoned our abilities to be creative, learn and grow for ourselves and in our work.

Do yourself and those you serve a favor today and think of the following things;

#1- What is the most important thing you have to do today for your work?

Think about this from the following perspective;

Will it meets the needs of an existing client in such a way that the quality of what I do and my customer serve to them will be memorable?

Will it bring business to me/us?

Will it support the structure of our business in such a way to make it more sustainable in time?

#2 - What is the most important thing I will do for me to day?

Do I need to spend some time on my health? With my family?  Get new tires?  Make a dentist appointment?

Not all priorities have to be large, but they must fit into the bigger picture of building a life and a career that you love.*

*Be on the lookout for Barbara’s new simple rule book, “Building the LIfe You Love” in March of 2009

Nothing, absolutely nothing about 2009 and people and work will be the same as any year before this.

Yes, people will go to work.  Yes, they will receive money for their efforts.  No, their benefits, holidays, vacations and retirements will not be the same in many cases.  No, how you resolved issues in the past will not always work now.  No, people are seeing you as an organization through very different eyes.

The “situation” this year is going to be demanding in ways managers and organizations have never dreamed of before.

Exactly what are those demands going to be?

#1 - People are being affected by things outside your workplace.  Spouse and children laid off from their jobs reducing household incomes and creating stress that will carry into the workplace.

Question;  Do you know what each of your employees is dealing with today? FIND OUT!

#2 - Do it better, do faster, do it with less is the name of the game.  Cash is being reserved and answers to old problems that involved spending the money needed to fix it are not necessarily the answers today.

Question:  What is in place in your team/division/organization that helps stimulate and create the new solutions?  Who is devoted to this? FIND OUT!

#3 -  Whenever a situation like our current economic conditions hits the fan, you must be much more engaged with your people.

Question:  Are you in your office or out their with the team? Have “Everything Going Right Meetings” at least once a month to help people feel th successes you know are there.

Get a “Situational Specialist” on retainer NOW so you can have someone at the ready to help you every day this year and make it a successful year!

Yesterday we got to see what a “situation” looks like and where it can really become a point of controversy if not handled correctly.  Rain came pouring down in Philadephia as they attempted to play the fifth game of the World Series.

Understanding that “situations” like this occur, not only in baseball, but in business and how to approach them is a key component of “Certified Situational Specislist”s” work.  So let’s have some fun and see how a Situational Specialist might have approaoched this situation.

The key components to assessing a situation are;

1. Knowledge about the situation - this means the rules, regulations and norms

2. A good sense of the people/players involved and what is the best for them

3.  An ability to ask some tough questions around the various components of the situation, using the knowledge and know how of others

4. Creating a framework for the situation that all parties will understand.

The question is, did all of these things happen?  Your call.

A Certified Situational Specialist© is someone who is requested to look at a current challenging situation with one person, several people or an entire department or company. The Situational Specialist then works to create a solution that fits the current challenge.  Unlike coaching and consulting the specialist is made aware of a limited timeframe to bring information about the situation to you.

Creating an understanding of the outcome that is desirable and the timeframe is critical.  The Certified Situational Specialist© will then work on how to get there within those parameters.

Each Certified Situational Specialist © will use a variety of methods they have utilized in other situations to help them assess what is happening and get you to a solution or series of solutions quickly.

A Certified Situational Specialist is someone who is;
a.) Not a coach, however many of us are skilled to take coaching assignments
b.) Not a consultant, however we are also often called upon to consult as well
c.)  Is someone who is knowledgeable and savvy in assessing a specific situation related to their background and expertise and able to recommend a course or direction for next steps.  At this point a coach, consultant or other parties may become involved.  A Certified Situational Specialist© will parachute in for a short period of time which is preset after the initial consultation on the situation, then exit precisely at the end of that timeframe unless otherwise engaged by the client.  Please understand that the major skill of a Situational Specialist is objective assessment and the ability to verbalize workable alternatives and options in a limited timeframe.

The Certified Situational Specialist is an exceptional individual who has worked for many years in a specific area or body of knowledge.  The work this person has done is acknowledged by CEO’s, clients, colleagues and direct reports.   A Situational Specialist has over 25 years of training in interpersonal dynamics at an executive level, as validated by the organizations or clients they served.