dangreer – Dan Greer

Maintaining Margin For What Is Really Important

dangreer — Tue, 03 Sep 2019 06:00:10 +0000

Most of us are over scheduled and have way too much stress in our lives. As a reaction to the pressure of the present we often find ourselves looking back and longing for a time when life was simpler and slower than it is today.

What we selectively seem to forget is that the past had its own set of problems and even though things may have been slower that does not mean they were better. When we live in the past we also are blinded to the blessings of the present and are not able to enjoy what we have that is good in our lives.

In Richard Swenson’s book entitled Margin he deals with this romantic mentality of turning back the clock to a better time. He writes, “The analogy of a clock is not helpful. It is not the question of a clock, but a compass. The issue is not chronology, but direction.”

It is impossible to create more time in any given day. With that reality clearly in mind then we are only left with two options. We must know what is important each and every day and make sure those are the things that get done.

What is not so clear is that this does not mean adding these important things to an already full calendar. The ability to know what to say no to on a moment by moment basis is the only way we will have the emotional, spiritual and physical margin we need to live today without regrets.

Clocks can only tell you what time it is while your personal compass can tell you what to do with your time. Big Difference!!!!!!!

3 Ways To Create A Legacy

dangreer — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 07:00:18 +0000

I have attended a lot of funerals over the years. The one common denominator is in every service someone is trying to communicate the legacy of the person who has died. There are some patterns I have noticed when people have lived their lives in such a way that truly leaves a mark on the world.

Begin With End In Mind-All of the people that really made a difference took the long look about life and determined what they wanted the top accomplishments to be in when it was over. When a person values relationships as a top priority, then you can see a pattern throughout their lives where other people came first. If you want to be known for something later, then you need to start investing in other people now. The most important people are the ones at home.

Leave Everything Better Than Found It- This is the type of person that is always trying to help others be successful and is not consumed about themselves. If they are a leader in the corporate world they are not looking out for number one, they want their teams or their companies to be better when they leave than when they came. The true test of someone’s leadership is not when he or she is there but what happens when they are gone.

Gave Away More Than They Took– In the end people are either more consumers or contributors. The consumers see other people as a means to their end while the contributors see other people as the end. These are the people that are always adding value to whatever they do from community involvement, personal relationships, work contributions and helping in their neighborhoods . They simply love to give more than they take and people are moved by their humility and servant spirit.

It is never to late to work on your legacy. The really important thing is taking the time to decide what you want it to be and then when the time comes other people will gladly step up and write your eulogy for you.

Problems With The Boss

dangreer — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 12:00:03 +0000

All of us have worked at some point in time for someone who at worst just could not get it done or at best was personality challenged. We come into our jobs with the hope that we can be a part of the solution and yet there are times when we don’t see the progress we had hoped for.

I changed jobs three times in the first five years out of college because I thought the problem was external. If I could just get with the right company with a great boss then I would be successful. To my shock I realized that the real problems were internal and I was simply carrying all of my personal issues from one company to the next expecting different results.

These are some of the things I have learned over the years about problems with the boss:

Check Your Motives—make sure that your real agenda is to do what is best for the organization and not for yourself. When you make it a priority to help make your boss successful then it becomes a win-win for everyone.
Keep It Real—when things are not changing at the pace you had hoped you have a choice to make. You can get your feelings hurt and start telling people what they want to hear and emotionally quit or you can have the character to tell the truth with a respectful attitude.
Watch Your Tongue—if you allow your concerns to become public in an inappropriate way then you just became part of the problem and not part of the solution. You should never say anything negative about another person to someone else because it will only spread disunity and destroy team moral.
Do Your Job—when we get in the negative cycle not only are we causing problems for other people we are not focused on getting our own jobs done with excellence. We must show up every day with a clean heart and high level of commitment to be and do our best.

I can promise you it is not in your job description to change your boss or even your organization for that matter. What is there is a clear set of priorities that need to be done by a person who is mature enough to stay positive when things don’t go their way and passionate enough to never settle for anything less than their personal best every day.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

dangreer — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 12:00:53 +0000

There has always been a delicate balance in goal setting between what can be done and what could be done. Goals should be realistic and achievable but they also must be courageous and challenging. Safe is not good enough anymore and we must be willing to take risks that stretch us outside our comfort zone to achieve greatness.

I absolutely love this quote that is extremely timely in our current environment, “Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much no suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt, 1899

When President Kennedy said in the early 60’s we are going to land a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of this decade the overwhelmingly majority of people thought he had lost his mind, and yet we did it.

The world has changed dramatically in the last decade. The power of technology and the globalization of all the world economies are driving change in unprecedented ways that no one could have imagined either just a few years ago. When this recession is over we are never going back to the ways things used to be.

What goals are you setting for yourself and your organization that are commensurate for the challenges that lie ahead in the 21^st century? They must be big hairy and audacious if they are going to lead to outstanding performance.

5 Critical Characteristics of High Performing Teams

dangreer — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 12:10:28 +0000

Most leaders agree that we have moved from a leadership model that prioritized the positional power of the leader to one that involves the input of others included on their team. However, there is still a lot of misunderstanding about the changing role of the leader and the appropriate role of the team members.

One of the best books I have read on this subject is The Performance Factor by Pat MacMillan. The book not only deals with all of the philosophical issues involved in this major leadership transition but goes into great detail about practical execution.

The critical characteristics of all high performing teams are:

Clear and Common Purpose
Accepted Leadership
Effective Team Processes
Solid Relationships
Excellent Communication

As in all current accepted leadership theory, they place an extremely high priority on getting the right mix of people on the team. The key here is diversity of skill sets and experience so that the combined synergistic effect will reach its maximum potential.

The leader’s role is still very critical because they have to be able to draw everyone into the project at hand with passion and then be able in the end to reach a decision that works best for bottom line. This is not a personality contest or group therapy it is still about producing outstanding results that accomplish critical priorities.

4 Critical Team Dynamics for Leading Change

dangreer — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 12:06:12 +0000

How many teams have we put together over the years to help us lead the change process only to realize several months later that nothing happened that was sustainable? In John Kotter’s excellent book on Leading Change he gives four key characteristics that must be in place for the team to be successful.

Position power: Are enough key players on board, especially the main line managers, so that those left out cannot easily block progress?
Expertise: Are the various points of view- in terms of discipline, work experience etc.- relevant to the task at hand adequately represented so that informed, intelligent decisions will be made?
Credibility: Does the group have enough people with good reputations in the firm so that its pronouncements will be taken seriously by other employees?
Leadership: Does the group include enough proven leaders to be able to drive the change process?

When I have been responsible for leading major change initiatives all of these types of people must be involved. The other important dynamic is that you must avoid people who will try to take over the group and lead by positional power and the other extreme of individuals who will not engage and confront the brutal facts with their active participation.

The 5 “T” That Will Tell Your Story

dangreer — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 11:00:26 +0000

I have often heard that no one call really preach your funeral, you have already done it. All they can do is to tell the stories from others perspective about what you valued during your life. I have never heard one person say they wish they had spent more time at work but rather valued relationships. Mark Merrill has some great insight:

“Have you done any work on your obituary, recently? I’m talking about working on things that matter now. You see, the way you live today will determine what your family will write about and talk about after you have died.

7 Things There Will Never Be Enough Time For

dangreer — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 11:00:50 +0000

One of the biggest turning points in my leadership journey was when I saw Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Up until that point, I was almost 100% reactive and never thought about taking responsibility for things that were important but not urgent. Carey Nieuwhof does a great job with taking this principle to the max:

“There are at least 7 things in leadership there will never be enough time for…unless, of course, you make it. And smart leaders do. My guess is that whenever you read this, you’re already feeling pinched for time and a bit overwhelmed.”

10 Characteristics Of Good Leadership

dangreer — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 11:00:55 +0000

Leadership at times is complicated and extremely difficult. What works in one situation does not work in a similar one. Some people adapt early to change others oppose it with all their might. It takes time to delegate and develop new leaders and there is risk involved. Ron Edmondson hits all these issues and more in this great post:

“When I first wrote about the characteristics of good leadership it was almost 6 years ago. At the time I had been a leader for well over 20 years and had studied the field o leadership academically. My posts were designed to be informative, but honestly, even more, they served as a checklist reminder of sorts for my own attempts at good leadership.”

5 Myths About Burnout

dangreer — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 11:00:06 +0000

This is a heavy but necessary subject for everyone to deal with seriously. I have experienced burnout and it is a scary place to be. You are in a dark place and you don’t know why, therefore you don’t know how to get out. Paula Davis-Laack has done her homework:

“Burnout is a work-related process of chronic stress and disengagement, and if you’ve ever been through it, you know the toll it can take on your work and life. The worst year of my career was the year I burned out practicing law, and it took me over a year to self-diagnose the illness that ended up changing my life.”