I Am A Rock

I love sixty's music! Yup, turn up the Rock & roll for me! I was listening to Classic Rock on TV today and heard Simon and Garfunkel singing, 'I am a rock, I am an island'

That song takes me back to darker times in my youth, when I'd been hurt by someone or a situation, and I'd sit in my room and moan along with the music and think...

I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock, I am an island!

Oh yeah - I was given to drama in those days. I'm wiser now. I understand what John Donne meant in 1624 when he said that, "No man is an island, entire of itself." Now I know that we are all connected, and that the more we intentionally band together the better the outcome.

The most important things I've accomplished, in business and life, have been in collaboration with others. In the early parts of my business career I joined a master-mind group, and for four plus years we met monthly, a full day each time, to vet each other's ideas, give input on emerging programs and proposals and challenge egotistical thinking and faulty notions. Early on we committed to uncensored honesty and I routinely left those meetings a bit shocked at the feedback, but stretched and sharpened by my colleague's observations.

Early in my coaching career, I joined a small group of coaches whose purpose was to share in large coaching contracts while supporting each other's professional growth. We strategized client relationships, brought in professionals to train us, shared leads and helped build each other's credibility and reach. This experience taught me how to bow to the wisdom of a colleague who was more experienced, and sometimes, simply more passionate than I, on a particular subject or issue.

Throughout the creative process of building programs and products, I've joined forces with designers, editors, artists and media types and I've thought of each of them as a partner, not a supplier. A fine distinction maybe, but an important one. Each partnership has brought me: (1) fresh ideas, (2) specific talent I lacked and, (3) the energy, and sometimes resources, I needed to keep me going when it was tough.

Joint ventures have their challenges; collaboration is not for the faint of heart. If you decide to throw your lot in with others you can expect a good deal of surprising information, opposing opinions, differing objectives, and those ever popular power struggles and personality conflicts. Collaborate anyway. It's the only real path away from naval-gazing and onto excellence. So, what would it take for you to join forces with two or more people in the pursuit of your goals? What stops you from reaching across the table at a networking event or meeting to say, 'Hey, let's work together.'

Remember - you can change it, we can help!

Let's Talk About Power

In the past few weeks, unless you've been living in a cave, you've been witness to the single largest turnover of power the modern world has ever seen. Not since the defeat of Hitler have we witnessed dictators humbled in such dramatic ways. Just ask Zine El Abidine, former President of Tunisia, or Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Ali Abdullah Saieh of Yemen or Muammar Gaddafi of Libya about power. I suspect their answers today might be a far cry from how they would have characterized their power even a few months ago.

Power is an interesting thing. In politics, the workplace and even at home, leaders can hold one of two different kinds of power with their subjects, direct reports or anyone in a lesser position to them. Those in authority can try to exert power over others or they can share power with people. Most of the dictators in North Africa and the Middle East are great examples of men who have maintained power over their people. They rule by fear and their ability to stay in an authoritive position hinges on their military might. Remove their iron grip and the population scatters, looking for another leader.

Companies and teams want powerful leaders, especially during times of intense change. People want a leader with vision, and a demonstrated commitment to that vision, a leader who holds his power because of the respect his people have for not only the position, but also the man. They want a leader with personal power; control over herself and her actions. Most people are looking for a man or women that they can look up to as a role model, someone they can watch demonstrate the values of the organization and not just talk about them.

Most North Americans would chafe against a Middle Eastern style dictator as their country's leader, but there are hundreds of mini-dictators in companies, communities and families all across North America; men and women who behave like tyrants on the job every day. Some of the characteristics of these would-be dictators are:

•A man or women in senior leadership who doesn't know the difference between power and authority. Power is the ability to cause or prevent an action, the ability to make things happen, the discretion to act or not act. Authority is the right to command a situation, commit resources, make decisions, and give directives with an expectation that they be acted upon. It is always accompanied by an equal responsibility for one's actions or failure to act.

•A Manager or Supervisor who doesn't know the difference between discipline and punishment. Discipline is the practice of training first yourself and then others in a particular way of behaving. Punishment is the price or penalty for breaking a rule or agreement made with another party.

•A mother who by-passes her partner when it comes to making important decisions for the children

•A father who lacks insight into his own behaviour and reacts rather than responds to intense situations

What about you? How would your direct reports, or your children, characterize your leadership? Do they see you as a leader who shares power with them, a leader who is adept at discipline and judicious when considering punishment? Do people feel powerful working with you, regardless of your title or position? We are seeing only too clearly what happens to leaders that rule by fear. If you're in a position of authority in your company, church or home...take a moment. Ask yourself, how well am I leading in my role?

Here's The Truth

It happens to me all the time. I'm at an event or a company meeting talking about change when someone pulls me aside and says, "Ok, I know what you're saying, but between you and me...do people ever really change?"

Yes Virginia, change is possible. But, only if you can't live without it. Changing yourself, and that's the only real change in the end, is hard work. Most people never do it. The masses arrive on the planet, look around, decide how to get by and spend the rest of their lives doing just that...getting by. I think it's why we're so enamored with celebrity and achievement. We see what someone else has accomplished and think...I could never do that.

So, here's the truth. Change is possible and transforming yourself, your company or your team is possible. But... and there's always a but.... you can't move forward in life while holding onto everything from the past. Something's gotta go. And sometimes, someone's gotta go.

Here are a few things you can start letting go of before the too much more time goes by:


1. Let go of old beliefs that hold you back:
About who you are or who you were supposed to be
About the way life was supposed to be
About needing to know how before you begin

2. Let go of people who hold you back:
People that are negative and critical of your efforts to change
People that want you to stay the same for their sake, not yours
People who have a world view that is antagonistic to yours (keep those people who see the world differently and challenge your thinking...they're helpful)

3. Let go of your fear of the unknown. The first step you take will make some of the unknown, known.

4. Let go of believing you have to do it all by yourself. We are all in this together, especially when we are changing.

Ready? Now, take your first step! In my experience, first steps are always accompanied by fear. At the beginning, the fear is huge. But every time you take a step, the fear lessens. With every milestone you reach, the fear diminishes and you get stronger.

You've made thousands of decisions that have brought you to where you are right now in your life. Are you satisfied? Or do you want more: something else, something different, or the next level? What do you really want? Forget about being practical and rational for a moment and let yourself say it. Let yourself dream it.

If you want your team, your company or your life to be different by say, 2015, you need to start making bold new decisions today. I coach people to take bold steps. I believe you can change! Call me.

What's Your Role?

If you've been in one of my Leading Change workshops you know that I believe that business change environments dictate the style of leadership you should adopt. Business As Usual is best served by 'Champion' leaders, while Intense Change responds well to a 'Coach approach'. When groups are in Crisis people need a more directive 'Captain' in charge and Business Chaos responds well to the gentle influence of a 'Catalyst' leader.

Traditional leadership models often fall short during intense organizational change. The notion of all the really big decisions being made by the guy or gal at the top, seldom works during business as usual, and research suggests that a clearly articulated 'leader role', shared by people at all levels, seems to work best when the work is intense.

Some interesting ideas about crisis leadership have come from researchers at the US Army Research Institute who wanted to find out which leadership strategies fared best for teams working in "highly dynamic and stressful situations". For ten months they observed the Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore Maryland, a world-renowned urban facility that treats more than 7,000 patients each year with severe, often life-threatening injuries.

The center's trauma teams are made up of three key leadership roles: the top-ranked position, held by the 'Attending' surgeon; the second-ranked 'Fellow' position, followed by the third-ranked 'Admitting' resident, with the players changing from day to day, week to week and month to month. A trauma team's lifetime is short - about 15 to 60 minutes - with individual leaders coming and going while the leadership positions remain rigid, but flexible.

Researchers observed that the team's active leadership role shifted frequently and fluidly among the three individuals. The researchers described what they saw as a, "paradoxical leadership system characterized both by rigid hierarchy and dynamic fluidity." They watched junior members of the triad defer in times of their own uncertainty, and more senior leaders step up, only to step back again when the junior leader could handle the situation. This dance of leadership allowed for minimal errors, shared accountability and critical on-the-spot learning and mentoring.

Could this model work in your company? Could it be that, as companies increasingly rely on interdisciplinary teams, work becomes more dynamic and issues gain complexity, that this decidedly hierarchical yet fluid and flexible model works best? Perhaps this 'tag-team', 'relay-race' approach to leadership is a best practice in the making.

What do you think? I'd love to hear about your leadership roles and how they actually get played out in a crisis.

Are You the Most Likely to Succeed?

When I was in High School, every year the senior class chose a boy and girl who we thought would be the, 'Most Likely to Succeed'. We cast our votes for who we saw as having the magic combination of characteristics that would ensure career and life success. We were teenagers then and the science behind the voting was imperfect, of course. We selected candidates who were good looking and popular, more often than academically sound or ambitious. I never made the list.... ah, the tragedy!

So, what are the characteristics that make a change effort, Most Likely to Succeed?

When you're working on a project, solving a problem or loosing weight, there's nothing quite like the Big break-through. We're all looking for those dramatic surges of progress, those quantum leaps. We love the energy that comes with a major find, a timely innovation or the discovery of a brand new way of tackling an issue. Yeah...that's the key ingredient - right? Well, not exactly.

Oh, those mammoth advances happen sometimes, and we need to be looking for them and ready when they materialize. But the kind of change that lasts, is mostly the incremental kind. It comes by taking one well-considered step after another, again and again. This is especially true when you're introducing anything completely new to internal or external customers.

Here are some characteristics of innovative ideas most likely to succeed.

Stepped: These are ideas or processes that can be adopted in segments or phases. Users can ease into them, a step at a time. Even better adoption comes when customers or staff can use the new idea, product or process in parallel with what they are already doing.

Trial-able: This is when the idea, process or product can be test-driven on a pilot basis. Customers can see it in action first and incorporate it on a small scale before committing to full enchilada.

Minimal Risk: If it doesn't work, people can return to pre-innovation status. Eventually, of course, you want people to feel like they can't live without it, but in the beginning -at least in theory - it's possible to go back to zero.

Familiar: It looks and feels like things that people already understand and use, so it is not jarring to their systems. It's consistent with other experiences, especially successful ones.

Congruent: It's in line with the future direction of the team or company; it 'fits' with where other efforts are heading anyway. It doesn't require people to rethink their priorities or pathways, even though, of course, it changes things.

Ego Building; Simply put...it makes everyone look good. Enough said.

These key qualifiers leave plenty of room to promote revolutionary ideas under cover of evolutionary change. Remember, to find and grow a market for anything means tucking ideas in close to what users can adopt easily and then leading them to the next phase.

We work on crafting this type of approach in the Leaders Summit If you want to explore just how likely to succeed your change ideas are, give me a call. Maybe I can help you get voted in this year!

Where's Your CEO Going Today?

I hate reality shows...well, maybe hate's a strong word, but the contrived scenarios, the melodramatic participants and artificial cliff - hangers leave me pining for a good PBS program. But there's a new series in town that I think is fascinating.

Have you seen "Undercover Boss" yet? It's the new CBS reality series where a CEO of a major corporation goes incognito, deep into his company to see what his employee's work lives are really like. The maiden show featured Larry O'Donnell, President and CEO of Waste Management. He pulled shifts on the garbage trucks and hung out with local supervisors, all without them knowing who he really is. The end result of his foray into the lives of the 'little people' left him feeling that, things have gotta change around here. After he reveals who he is, he sets about implementing the changes, he sees the need for, and the show ends with the locals grinning from ear to ear.

Watching the interactions between the CEO and their employees, should raise some interesting questions for the senior leaders among us. Do you know what life is like for your front line employees? When was the last time you spent time with them, or invited them to a planning session or gave them an invitation to give you anonymous feedback and critique? To put a fine point on it - how in touch are you with the day-to-day realities of the workers in your company? And, if it's been a while - or maybe never - that you've made a concerted effort to investigate your employee's working challenges, how can you possibly expect to get those same employees to implement the changes you want?

The key factor in an employee's decision as to whether they will cooperate with the company's change agenda is how attached, appreciated, valued, heard and understood they feel by their immediate supervisor, and how much the company is interested in their working realities associated with the changes. Too often, when there's a change announced, management talks only of the benefits to the company and fails to factor in the 'transition' the employees will have to make in order to accommodate the new routines and processes.

Now, maybe your CEO can't / won't consider going 'undercover' and finding out for him/her self what needs to happen...but could you? Would you be willing to do some version of this with your direct reports? Might you spend a day doing the jobs of your front line employee's? I just wonder how it would affect the way you view their participation, or lack of it, in your grand plans.

Here's a challenge for you leaders out there - close your Outlook, walk out of your office, walk down the corridor and/or drive to one of your company's operational sites and spend a day. Talk to the people, not with your 'title' front and center, but with humility and curiosity. It might just surprise you what you see and hear.

If the thought of this leaves you sweating about how you'd handle the questions and feedback you might get, let me help you. Come join me, and an eager group of managers from several industries, on April 27 & 28 for a two- day coaching immersion experience - the Coaching Clinic. Let me show you how to have powerful conversations that will begin the change within the conversation itself. One of the concepts we teach in the Coaching Clinic is - if in doubt...ask. Make a commitment to begin to ask more questions and see what happens!

Are You Ready for 2010?

You can feel the optimism in the air can't you? Everyone from Bay Street bankers to the Tim Horton's servers seem to feel that 2010 holds a promise for better times. Reading all the predictions for the coming year would be a full time occupation right now. And if you did take the time to listen to the Psychics and pundits, it's a sure bet that some of their ideas will be dead on and some will prove to be wild guesses at best.

One thing is for sure - radical change is in the air. Whole companies, and some industries have all but disappeared from the landscape. Those of us who are still standing are looking hard at doing business in fresh and innovative new ways.

As things get better, we will all need to be different to really capitalize on the momentum a rebounding economy generates. Doing business in a different way requires a fresh look at what your leadership is about and how you exert your influence.

One of my goals for 2010 is to be a richer source of support and information to my clients. Senior leaders tell me that they would love to read more, but aren't sure which books are worth their precious time. If that's how you feel, I've got good news for you!


I love to read and usually have a couple of books on the go all the time. So, I'm going to do the legwork for you (or is it eye work, or maybe brain work...whatever). Each month you will find a new link to my YouTube Channel - Book Bytes where you can view a brief (under two minutes) video of me, sharing with you, one or two key messages from a popular business book. I'll be highlighting the 'change' relevant information in each book so you can learn new ideas without the hassle of reading the whole book yourself. Just to clarify, I don't get any kickbacks from authors for this...it's simply my way of offering more value to you.

So, look to your right - see the button? Now click on it and take a look. Let me know what you think. And if you have suggestions for books that I should read (for you) just send your ideas to me at peggy@peggygrall.com

The world of research and books is fascinating and, along with you, I look forward to discovering new ways of leading change this year.

Learned Anything Lately?

The Toronto Star has declared that the recession is officially over. Really? Whether the financial wizards at the Star are right or not, every new day brings more signs of people and routines returning to their pre-recession normal. As the financial dust is settling, the big question on everyone's mind is, of course, will the buying public adopt a new, more rational, sane approach to lifestyle purchases and debt, or will they resume their forty-year spending spree?

The recession has been tough on millions of people: lost jobs, foreclosed homes and retirement dreams have vanished. It's also been devastating for thousands of companies, and sobering, to say the least, for governments on both sides of the American border and abroad.

The big question is really this - have we learned anything from the events of the recent past? Will individuals, companies and governments change their ways? And, can we collectively learn from our mistakes? Conventional wisdom says, 'those who change best are those who must'. So, do we really need to change our ways, now that many are going back to work, credit is being extended and the fear mongers on CNN has moved on to other 'Breaking News'?

My hope is that we all transform our recessionary experiences into lessons learned. To do that we are going to need to:

Stop/Reflect: What's happened for you and to you in the past few months? Ask yourself, what's clear to me now that was hard to see a year ago? We hold more power than we're generally willing to own up to. How many times has your personal or professional history repeated itself? What part have you played in the creation of, or participation in, the recent economic storm, and what part could you play now to move yourself, your team or community forward?


Claim Your Victories: What's worked for you this past year, in spite of the circumstances? What have you done well? And, who and what helped you get through this mess? If you've weathered the past year and are still standing - then high-fives all-round! And don't - as my uncle used to say- forget to, dance with the ones who brung ya. Give a shout out to all your friends, family and colleagues that have helped you keep your stick on the ice.

Draw Some Lines: Learning from the past means bringing what you know now into your future. For a whole lot of folks, that's going to mean drawing a line in the sand and learning to live within their means and making better buying and business decisions from here on. For companies it may mean watching more carefully for 'moving cheese'. In the now famous fable, "Who Moved My Cheese?", Hem & Haw were caught off guard when their supply of cheese vanished bit by delicious bit. Maybe you were too.

So, right now - write down three things you will stop doing and three you will start doing that can ensure that those 'predictable surprises' are kept to a minimum!

Don't waste a good crisis! Make some decisions about how you want your life and career to be - then call me, and together we'll make sure you don't back over your new line.

What's Changing For You?

I don't usually say much about what's happening for me personally in this ezine, but it's been an exciting few weeks for me - and I'm just itching to tell you all about what's changing in my world.

I was recently selected to be the Chapter Chair for the Women President's Organization's two Toronto groups. The WPO, headquartered in New York and boasting 86 chapters world-wide, is a non-profit membership organization for women presidents of multimillion-dollar companies.. My role as Chapter Chair is to meet monthly with these fabulous women and facilitate, or 'coax the genius' out of the group; my task is to help them grow their businesses to the next level. I'm pumped about this opportunity. These gals are savvy business women and I'm looking forward to spending time with them and creating high-value interactions for their meetings. I'm anticipating that, while I guide their round-tables, I'll have my own thinking challenged as well!


My next Big News is that I've been awarded the National Speaker's Associations' highest earned designation - Certified Speaking Professional! I've been working towards this goal for the past five years, and on July 19th in Phoenix, Arizona I'll walk across the main stage and grasp it in my hot little hand! Less than 10% of the nearly 5500 Professional Speakers in the association have achieved this level and I'm honoured to be receiving it.

Lastly, and this is the part that involves you-all - I've been listening to you. In response to your requests for services to make personal- change more successfully - we're spinning off a new web site in the fall, designed to help you do just that! The site will provide you with a truck-load of resources and allow you to join with other 'Changers' to learn more about the nuts-n-bolts of transforming, and give you an opportunity to buddy- up with others, to change what you thought you couldn't. Oh, and there's even going to be a Biggest Changer Challenge! So, stay tuned, we'll be telling you more about this exciting venture over the next few months.

Ok, so enough about me. What's changing in your world? They say that, "a change is as good as a rest", and I'm a believer. With my recent changes I've been infused with a new sense of excitement and energy.

So, what could you change that could re-boot your enthusiasm? What behaviour, habit or way of thinking and/or responding could you transform that would juice up your career or personal life? Think about it - then get busy doing it! If you want a personal guide to help you, check out my "Just Change It!" book and the accompanying Workbook. They have been designed to walk a would-be changer step-by-step through any change, personal or professional. If you get started today - where could you be by this time next month?

Are You Hopeful?

I was talking with a colleague this morning and asked how, and what, she was doing in this tough economy. She said she was seeing clients, fulfilling contracts, but mostly, she said, she was spending her time spreading hope.

Ah, the optimists are worth their weight in gold right now, aren't they? There's enough fear and hand wringing around to stuff a stadium and what the world, and our organizations, need now is hope!

The world got a glimpse of what a hopeful leaders looks like last week when Obama (we can just call him Obama now, can't we?) gave his first unofficial, State of the Union Address to a packed house. If you missed his speech, take a listen to what he said in the first three minutes.

"But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before. The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach...those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more."

Regardless of your national allegiance or political preferences, this is change leadership at its hopeful best. No one knows exactly how or when recovery will come, not even Obama, but isn't it great to hear someone express optimism that it will? It's inspiring to be around people with a, 'take that hill' response to fear.

So, who's listening to your vision for the future? What's your team, friends and family hearing from you right now? What are you spreading?

There are reasons to be hopeful right now. Here are just a few:

Everything ends: good times end - and so do tough times. It's just a matter of time before the economic and political pendulums begin to swing the other way. Look for it, be ready when it starts - heck, be the first one to move in the other direction. Lead the charge back to sanity from your desk.

You're tougher than you think: the same skills that pulled you through your teenage angst, a previous job loss, your divorce, your parent's health crisis - or the last recession - are still within you. Flex those muscles again. You have what it takes to move beyond your current place - look for it within yourself, own it, call on it now!

Spring is coming: for those of us living in cold climates - the winter is almost over! All those gray landscapes are just about to burst with color. Those icy winds will soon give way to warm breezes, the crocuses are just under the surface ready to leap to our rescue and....YES, like mighty sleeping giants, we will rise again! Kiss your winter thinking good bye and get ready to welcome your spring self!

Hope is what keeps us moving forward. Hope builds confidence and invites people to take a risk and step out. With hope in your heart you can stare down the fiercest of circumstances!

Would it be helpful if you could engender hope in others? How would you, your team or organization benefit if you knew how to engage people to help them find a renewed sense of optimism and the energy that comes with it?

Join us for a two-day learning experience aimed at doing just that.

Are You In?

It's the sign of the times that Starbucks has launched their new Shared Planet Program. They are inviting us all to do our part to realize their goal of 1 million community service hours donated this year. For your pledge of just 4 hours of work they will give you a free cup of coffee. (Want a date square with that?)

It's a noble effort - and a fine marketing campaign for Starbucks. They pose the challenge and then ask the question - are you in?

We're in interesting times in North America and that question begs an answer from all of us. It's a question about commitment; for Starbucks, it's a challenge of putting your sweat-equity where your coffee-lovin mouth is.

Starbuck's definition of 'in' goes something like this; If you want the freebies that we're handing out, you gotta anti-up with a promise of lending your time and talent to saving the planet. Not a bad trade if you ask me. Saving the planet, like an organizational transformation effort, will take everyone's full participation to make it happen.Good for them!

So, let me ask you - what do you do when your company announces a change? Do you go All In?

I've observed an interesting phenomenon in some companies. Soon after the rumours begin to fly about some upcoming, unpleasant change, many of the leaders begin to vanish. They just seem to disappear. They're 'in meetings', taking vacation days, working at home with a perpetual 'out of office' messages on their email. For their staff it appears that they've just 'left the building'. And when you do get a rare glimpse of them, they're sporting that 'don't ask me' look on their faces.

They are anything but all in.

Now it's natural enough for leaders to feel the same fear and worry that their people feel. Natural maybe, but like giggles in church, not helpful to those around them. The vacuum created by the physical and emotional absence of leaders during times of challenge and uncertainty leave people more fearful, more sure that the bad news leaking out through the rumours is bound to get worse.

When fear is high, people need leaders to lead. They need to 'talk to' and 'touch' their leaders more often than usual. They need that calming effect that the presence of a committed leader brings to an uncertain environment.


So, as a leader, what can you do when the task is BIG, you are as scared as the rest?

Be Real - Remember when Dan Rather appeared on the Late Show right after 9/11 and was asked how he was feeling about reporting such a tragedy? He teared up - and his approval ratings skyrocketed. He didn't try to hide his emotions, but shared them instead. Authenticity rocks!

Be Present - Stay visible, walk around, talk to people, ask how they're doing. No one expects you to have all the answers or respond like an emotionless robot. If you don't know what to say in some instances or how to answer a particular question, be honest and say - 'I don't know'. And then do your best to get and share up to date information.

Be Empathetic - Daniel Goleman, author of Primal Leadership has enlightened us all to the power of empathy - that response that says - I see you, I hear you and I get how you're feeling right now. I may not be feeling exactly how you feel, and I may not be able to do much to change your circumstance - but I get what your experience is right now - and I care.

That's what it means to me to go all in during a change effort. It means bringing your whole self to the game. It means focusing on the needs of others and doing your part to keep the effort moving forward.

There's no time like a new year to brush up on your leader skills. Call me if you'd like to experience a coaching program that can help you do just that. And, if you're interested in having your team learn some powerful coaching skills as well ...don't wait. Grab everyone and Go All In!

Will Obama Win?

If you're following the American election, and if you're not - how in the world are you avoiding it? Then you know that, at this moment Obama and Mc Cain are locked in a dead heat to the finish line - with Obama in the lead. It's been fascinating to listen to them both talk about the changes they will make if elected.Both are promising sweeping, multi-issue, complex, radical change. Both are handing out assurances for a better life; greater prosperity, increased safety, a revolutionized health care system, bolstered infrastructures and sounder financial markets, and they - so they say - will make it happen. They both guarantee bold - yet compassionate - leadership and, both have 'plans'. Sounds great - doesn't it?

But, beneath the veneer of political boasting lurks the reality of how change actually happens. When one of the contenders finally steps into the White House they will be faced with the sobering truth - change ain't for sissies.

Change happens one conversation at a time and the new President will need a savvy Transition Team of people dedicated to reaching out to the larger group; men and women who see themselves as agents of the change - willing to be the Commander and Chief's eyes and ears on the ground, feeding information back about how the change is really going and make recommendations for course corrections. No man, or woman, is an island and no one person can pull off this magnitude of change alone.

This time next month, the waiting will be over. In the meantime, what are you doing to get your team ready for their changes? Do you have a Transition Team in place? The Leaders Summit is a comprehensive learning program designed to you with the techniques and skills to make good on your promises for transformation.

To activate an entire nation like the US towards change means budgets to analyze - and then slash, wars to retreat from - or finish and literally millions of ordinary people to mobilize. It will require overhauling complex systems, engaging former archenemies and significantly disrupting the day-to-day routine of literally millions of businesses and households. And that's only the process for inside the US boarders - the ripple effect out to the rest of the world will be, well HUGE.

This kind of audacious transformation will require a willingness to cooperate never seen before; it will mean a giving up of values held dear by many who will cling to the status quo, even if the current state of affairs is crumbling. In short, the mammoth change that both men are promising will be an enormous undertaking, requiring the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job and - you guessed it - time. Lots of time.

There will be no quick fixes for the US regardless of whom the voters choose. Those of you leading teams and organizations know this. You understand the challenges you face when trying to get a group of people to change - imagine a whole country! Now, both these men believe that this kind of change is doable, but that it will take the commitment of 'every American' to make it happen. Well, not quite. How do you get wholesale commitment from everyone in a change effort? You don't. And, you don't need to.

But what the new President will have to do, just like any other change leader, is gain the support of a key portion of the electorate; a group fiercely committed to seeing the change happen.

Are Your Customers Changing?

How do you know when your customer's needs have changed? Do you know what's meaningful to them? What keeps them up at night? And when your products or services are changing, how do you let your customers know?

Not all customers leave suppliers because of price, product or options. Research tells us that many leave because they feel that the company doesn't understand them and what they really need.

68% leave because they believe the company doesn't care about them
14% leave because they are dissatisfied
9% leave because they are lured by a competitor
5% leave because they are influenced by friends
4% leave because they simply move away

How are you letting your customers - both internal and external - know that you care about them? When organizations are in flux, and that's just about everyone these days, knowing how others are changing is just as valuable as knowing what your team or organization are up to. Being blindsided by other people's changes stings. Don't let it happen to you.

I suggest that you look for every opportunity to build communication bridges. Bridges that allow information to flow to and from your customer in ways that keep you and them informed about shifts in either party's operations or requirements.

Speak to them. Listen to them. Call them on the phone. You remember - it's that small black devise on your desk that harnesses radio waves and allows you to actually have an old fashioned conversation. Use it. Call your customers and ask them how they are. Sound simple? Apparently this kind of communication is exactly what your customers are waiting for - a supplier that sees themselves as a partner. A supplier that has time for them. The kind of time it takes to pick up the phone and say - hey, what's changed?

If you want some help with the kinds of questions that can get to the shifting priorities and issues in a group, give me a shout. I've got some ideas that just might help.

My telephone number is 905-659-6683.

The US Presidential elections are heating up. As I write this, Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama are racing towards the Democratic National Convention, neck -n- neck. There is no doubt that this is an historic competition for the hearts and votes of the American public. Most political analysts agree that, in terms of policy at least, there is very little that separates these two Presidential wanna-bees. But, in practical terms... their approach to the race is worlds apart.

Setting politics aside for a moment, I think there are priceless lessons in change leadership being modeled by these orators every night for us on CNN. Washington Post columnist E.J.Dionne Jr. says of Hilary, "she has answers to hard questions, but he (Barack) has the one answer that voters hunger for: He offers himself as the vehicle for creating a new political movement."

Barack Obama speaks of hope, and hope is the one thing that prompts people to believe that change is possible. George Packer spoke of listening to Barack speak to the crowds this way, " Within minutes, I couldn't recall a single thing he had said, and the speech dissolved into pure feeling ...which stayed with me for days." There's something fascinating going on here.

What's happening isn't new. It's been said that when Cicero, the Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist and philosopher spoke, the crowds declared, "How well he spoke." But when Demosthenes, a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens spoke, the crowds exclaimed, 'Let us march!"

How many executive announcements about some company change have you sat through where the content was - the company, blah, blah, blah, or quality and profits, blah, blah, blah? And, how did these factual, structured pronouncements make you feel?


Ok, so what lessons can we take from the drama that's playing out on the world stage? Here's what I see:

• People need substance, but the facts are seldom enough to inspire people to act
• People are hungry for hope - at work and in their personal lives
• You don't have to have all the answers to inspire confidence and propel people to action
• Real engagement is an activity of the heart

Whether the thrill of what's possible will trump a battle cry of, having answers to the tough questions remains to be seen. What we know for sure is that how you communicate is at least as important as what you communicate when it comes to engaging people's hearts and minds.

How are your change communication skills? Are you compelling? Is your message to your family, team or organization filled with hope?

If you want to bring your change communications to the next level, call me; I just might be able to help.