Behavior Matters! - Part 21

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Today I’m Grateful For: Songs

The City of Lakes Rotary Club has a singing group that meets before our Wednesday morning meetings throughout much of the year (we meet at 7:15 AM so they are up and practicing by 6:30 AM – that takes dedication!). Today, they led our program by singing (and getting us to sing) a number of holiday songs.

What a treat!

Songs and singing can bring so much joy and happiness. I love watching my kids as songs are played and they sing along or dance (in the case of my 1 year old who can’t quite sing yet).

I believe that there is a little magic in music that resonates with all of us – and makes us want to sing and dance.

“Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la”

What are you grateful for?

Today I’m Grateful For: My car window being unstuck

There is a sense of justice in the world. As I wrote about yesterday, my car window was stuck open in the middle of winter in Minnesota…and I was grateful that it happened when it did for a number of reasons (see below).

But I’m even more grateful today!

I was on the way to bring the car into the local auto repair shop that is located a couple of miles down the road. I was getting the kids bundled up and the Au Pair ready to take the other car to the shop so that I would have a ride home instead of walking two miles in 18 degree weather.

If you’ve ever tried to get a 1 year old and a 4 year old ready for the snow, you know this is not always easy – so after 10 minutes of haggling, we were ready to go when I realized that the car keys for the 2nd pick-up car were in my wife’s purse with her at work. Ok, unbundle the kids and readjust plan. Now I’ll pick up my wife at the end of the day and we’ll get the 2nd car and drop off the broken window car after that.

Here is the good part…

On the way to pick up my wife, with the plastic taped over the open window, I gave the window button one more try…and to my amazement, up it went!

So I’m grateful that I didn’t have the keys for the 2nd car when I was going to take the broken window car in. I’m grateful that the window miraculously fixed itself. I’m grateful that I saved a few hundred bucks that I am now going to give to charity (Worldbuilders through Patrick Rothfuss’ blog – you should check it out).

All in all – just very grateful!

Today I’m Grateful For: My Car Window Being Stuck Down

Pulling into the parking ramp before my Rotary meeting today, my car window went down but it didn’t come back up…and I’m grateful for that. I know you are thinking “Huh? Have you gone bonkers?” But here is why I’m grateful…I could have been driving down the interstate at 60 miles per hour in the 18 degree weather we have (I wasn’t). I could have to park my car on the road and get the snow plow coming by and sending a foot of snow into the car (I don’t). I could have been at the airport and had to leave my car with window down for a week (I’m not). Thus, in the big scheme of things, this could have been a lot worse and I’m grateful for that.

Its all in how we frame things…as the quote on the bottom of my e-mail signature line says, “”There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Shakespeare

Today I Am Grateful For: Snowblowers

We had 17 inches of snow drop on us Saturday. Combined with wind gusts that created drifts that were a good 3 feet high, I can honestly say that I’ve never been more grateful for a snow blower…

Today I Am Grateful For: Home

I got home last night from being away for four days…what a wonderful feeling to sleep in my own bed and wake up to my children playing downstairs.

Rethinking the 4-Drive Model of Employee Motivation

I have been touting the 4-Drive Model of Employee Motivation since I first read the 2008 Harvard Business Review article “Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model” by  Nohria, , Groysberg, and Lee.   It is a powerful theory on human motivation in general, and in particular, employee motivation.  First presented in the 2002 book, “Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices” by Lawrence and Nohria, the model outlines four main drives of motivation.

At the Lantern Group, we’ve been working with this model for almost three years now.  We’ve posted on it several times in this blog (see 4-Drive Model here, Impact on Leaders here, and other info here, here, here, here and here for just a few examples).

It’s  good – but not perfect.

Right away we realized that it needed to be tweaked.

Read More

I Am Grateful For: Making Thanksgiving Everyday

Thanksgiving!  The perfect holiday for being grateful…this is the holiday that is all about giving thanks and being grateful for what we have.  What a great idea.  A day where everyone in the country looks back at their life and gives thanks for the bounty that we’ve been given.

Wouldn’t it be great if this happened everyday!

That’s what I feel like has happened with my experiment on starting each day being grateful for something.  For me, the last few months have been a mini-Thanksgiving everyday.  I have found that while I don’t always get the opportunity to blog about it, I have been pretty good about waking up and finding something to be grateful for.  It is amazing what that does for your outlook for the day.

I’ve found that it has:

  • Brought a smile to my face most days
  • Made me focus on what’s really important
  • Allowed me to have a little less stress in my life
  • Given me the motivation to actually say “thank you” to a few people I normally wouldn’t have
  • Brought to life how very lucky and blessed I am

Thank you to everyone who has read these blogs and who has commented.  It really has been a very fun experiment that I’ve done.  I’m planning on continuing this, but not sure if I will blog about it as much…let me know what you think.

Leave a comment and let us all know what you are thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Kurt

How Well Does Your Organization Stack Up? Guest blog by Paul Schoening

As the hiring outlook improves with anticipation of the new calendar year on the horizon, election dust settling and corporate tax liability gaining clarity, the talent exodus will begin in next few months.

Are you ready?

If your organization has not installed proactive mitigation efforts, you could lose your best talent over the next 2 quarters (in other words, if your not doing something now, you’re going to pay for it later).  Successful recession recovery strategy should not ignore the critical variable of having the best talent on-board as well as engaging the “survivors”, lest ye not forget;

“High-commitment organizations outperform low-commitment organizations by 47%”

Watson Wyatt

“Engaged  employees are 43% more productive.”

The Hay Group

Our research shows that engaged employees can increase your financial position by almost 200% while disengaged employees can decrease your financial position by almost 25%.

http://www.globalstrategicmgmt.com/engaged- employees.

“In high-growth organizations, 84% of employees know where the organization is headed. In low-growth organizations, only 52% do.”

In Momentum

“Dependence  on remote forms of communication has left many younger workers bereft of interpersonal skills.:

Fast Company

“Camaraderie  between co-workers fuels much more than new business leads – relationships are also key drivers for recruiting, engagement and retention.”

Talent Management Magazine

Must we go on with the quotes? These are some pretty credible sources I might add.

Read More

Today I’m Grateful For: Dan Wilson

Ok, this might seem like a strange one…Minneapolis musician Dan Wilson (formerly of Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic) has some really great music out there.  Not only his music, but the songs he’s written for others (i.e., Dixie Chicks).  It is music that I listen to often.  I find a connection with his lyrics and they inspire me in a way to work harder at this writing stuff (he is a great lyricist).  Anyway, I am on the road today…which means that I’m in a hotel in New Jersey – far away from all the comforts of home.  So it is nice to be able to play a little music and feel a connection back home.  It eases the discomfort of travel and makes these types of trips a little more bearable.

Here is one of my favorite songs…

What are you grateful for?  Let us know, leave a comment.

Today I Am Grateful For: Work

I have been remiss about getting a daily grateful post out – part of the reason has been that I’ve been busy with a lot of work lately.  I realize that I sometimes feel that all this work is overwhelming and that I don’t have enough time to do the things I want to do.   However, I am grateful for the fact that I have these projects – knowing that so many people are without work right now.

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