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STRATEGIC PLANNING IS YOUR TEAM’S COMPASS AND ROADMAP TO NAVIGATE UNCERTAINTY

Creating Certainty in the Midst of Uncertainty

A strategic plan provides a flexible compass and roadmap for your organization. It has you analyze present and emerging circumstances and project into the future.

These days, I coach leaders to look at planning like molding clay. Continuously molding the plan as circumstances shift.

Done right, strategic planning can be an easy, fun, and inspiring process for involving all team members. It amplifies and accelerates the success of any team and organization.

Here are the 4 overarching phases of the process…

The 4 Phases of  Strategic Planning

  • The 4 Phases of Strategic Planning and the 12 Step Strategic Planning Process1st Phase: You and your team Clarify the direction to take the organization and why to do it.
  • 2nd Phase: Organize so that all team members are on the same page, moving in the same direction, toward the same common goals.
  • 3rd Phase: Your team Acts together collaborating to implement the action plan and keeping the plan alive.
  • 4th Phase: Monitor and adjust the plan to ensure the team is Realizing results that fulfill mutual desires and expectations.

Here are the 12 steps of the strategic planning process within each of the 4 phases… Read more

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STRENGTHEN YOUR C.O.A.R. WITH STRATEGIC FOCUS

Strengthen Your C.O.A.R.-Clarify-Organize-Act-RealizeHave you Strengthened Your C.O.A.R. (Clarify-Organize-Act-Realize) for 2023?

Do You Want to Be a CREATOR or REACTOR?

We can choose to be creators or reactors in life. A creative life is a joyful, expansive life. A reactive life is a stressful, diminishing life.

When I find myself feeling emotionally and physically exhausted, I take a break from the chaos to refocus my attention onto something more satisfying—energizing future positive possibilities. It comforts me to remember that this too shall pass, so why not plan a rendezvous with the spectacular!

We feel most alive and energized when we are moving toward an intention/goal.

This is a great time to focus on strengthening the C.O.A.R. of your business and life by creating a new intention, project, or solution.

Here’s my four-phase Strengthen Your C.O.A.R. TM process that I have discovered during my 35 years of business consulting and project management… Read more

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REIMAGINE YOUR DESTINY WITH BUILT-IN FLEXIBILITY

When dealing with today's uncertainty, reimagine your destiny by preparing for the unknown and focusing on what matters most now.Dealing with Today’s Uncertainty

Are you and your team feeling anxious about today’s uncertain business climate?

You’re not alone.

With record inflation on the heels of a global pandemic, businesses of all sizes are anxious about what the future holds.

I can surely relate. It certainly has disrupted how I serve my clients.

Prepare for the Unknown

What has worked time and again to ease stress in times like these is to CREATE A FLEXIBLE PLAN that can be molded like clay as circumstances change.

The key word is “flexible.”

The best companies expect the best and PREPARE FOR THE UNKNOWN.

Thinking through ways to pivot, before you need to, will give you and your team an INCREASED SENSE OF PURPOSE AND CONFIDENCE.

Focusing On What Matters Most

This approach will help you and your team to FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS MOST now, with an eye toward the future.

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3 NEW YEAR RITUALS TO RE-ENERGIZE YOUR BUSINESS

3 new year rituals to re-energize your businessThis time of year, I enjoy practicing 3 rituals to re-energize myself and my business that I think you’ll find valuable as well. At the beginning of each year, I reflect on where I’ve been, celebrate where I am now, and project where I want to go. 

 

Here are the 3 new year rituals I suggest you practice to re-energize yourself and your business:  Reflect, Celebrate, and Project

  1. Reflect on the Past Year

  • List all the successes that you have achieved personally and that your team has achieved together.
  • Identify all the adversities or problems you have overcome personally and as a team. Realize that they were truly blessings in disguise that will help you deal with similar issues in the future.
  • Use the successes and lessons learned during the past year as a springboard to new adventures in 2023.

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Create a Balanced and Fulfilling Life

Balanced and Fulfilling LifeDo you want to create a balanced and fulfilling life? Do you feel like your life is spinning out of control with all the chaos and turbulence that we have been experiencing lately in the world in the form of Covid, hurricanes, wildfires, and politics, etc.?

If so, now is the perfect time to refocus your attention on the things that you can control and restore balance back to your life. Don’t let others dictate what you should focus on. Invest some personal time on self-discovery to refocus your energy on the important areas of your life. This quick self-assessment can help.

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Assess the Success of Your Organization in 10 Minutes

Wow, can you believe we’re already midway through 2021! Have you assessed the success of your organization lately? This quick and easy organizational assessment tool will take you only 10 minutes to see what’s going well and what to improve.

Circle of Success Assessment Tool

Circle of Success Assessment Tool

The Business Energizers™’ Circle of Success TM organizational assessment tool will enable you and your employees to see at a glance the “flat spots” that are hobbling your organization as well as the areas in which you are maximizing your potential. I consider it an organizational medicine wheel.

I have been using this simple, yet revealing strategic planning tool for many years when I work with the organizations I serve. It provides leaders, like you, with a quick visual assessment of many of the ingredients that generate success and profitability in organizations. It’s also a remarkable, engaging teambuilding exercise.

 

Here’s how to use the tool to assess the success of your organization:

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Facilitating Effective Virtual Meetings Even While Traveling

Facilitating Effective Virtual MeetingsFacilitating effective virtual meetings can be accomplished even while traveling. This is a necessity for my wife and I who are full-time RVers that operate our business as we roll across America. Here are 10 tips I have learned.

During the past 35-years, I have served my clients as a facilitator, trainer, speaker and coach. Pre-Covid I did so 80 percent in-person and 20 percent virtual. During Covid the balance shifted entirely to 100 percent virtual. This has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It has enabled me to serve my clients more efficiently while simultaneously enjoying our nomadic RV lifestyle. Read more

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Cope with 2020 by Practicing Purity, Patience, and Perseverance

Practice Purity, Patience, and Purity

Twenty years ago, I learned a valuable life-principle for dealing with chaos and uncertainty that has helped me to better cope with 2020 by practicing purity, patience, and perseverance.

My three trips to an ashram in India from 1996 to 2001 continued to reinforce the importance of living this revitalizing triad of values. It has served me well especially when dealing with chaos and uncertainty like we are collectively experiencing today. Here is how you can feel greater confidence, comfort, and calm by applying the 3 P’s—purity, patience, and perseverance—to your life and business…

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How to Transform Pesky Problems into Energizing Goals

Trail Blazing, leadership training and development, leadership coach, business coach, team building, problem-solving

 

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”  ~ Albert Einstein

 

 

The Decision that Lifted Me from Chaos to Clarity

Tired of the 2020 chaos? Covid-19 and other simultaneous 2020 societal, financial, political, and climate crises have sapped our energy. Sapped our lifestyle. Sapped our businesses. The problem-solving process I am going to share with you reenergized me.

A few months ago, I decided to stop staring zombie-like at my television and computer screens discover the latest distressing updates that were mostly out of my control. Instead, I decided to take some productive actions within my control which has made a huge difference with creating some order in the midst of the chaos. I decided to be an optimistic Creator rather than a pessimistic Reactor to my life circumstances. It has made a huge difference in my business and personal wellbeing. The process I followed  can yield similar results for you.

In April I sat down with a low-tech piece of paper and pen in hand and began answering the problem-solving questions that I learned as a student and instructor for Dale Carnegie Systems. The process that I am about to share is adapted from Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. It’s a process that I have used successfully for the past 30 years as a project manager, business owner, and business consultant.

Basic Steps for Effective Problem-Analysis

Before I share with you the specific steps that I used to get out of my funk, these are the overreaching basic steps for “Strengthening Your C.O.A.R.TM” through effective problem analysis: Read more

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Do Values or Principles Matter Anymore?

Do values or principles matter anymore? If so, what is the most important value or principle you live by? Why?

For me, two intertwined principles seem to rise up from deep within our collective humanity during trying times such as these we are facing today—a global pandemic, widespread unemployment, and the recalibration of political, cultural, gender and racial justice. These principles have been my guiding light throughout my entire life especially during turbulent times.

Hope and Healing After 9-11-01

One such time I remember is the aftermath of the 9-11-01 events. I was inspired, at 45 years old, to pedal my vintage bicycle 3,369 miles in 70 days from Phoenix, Arizona, to Ground Zero, New York City to honor the heroes of 9-11. Supported by my wife, Lyn, we rolled across America and shared a powerful message of hope and healing with thousands of people across America. People shared heartwarming stories with us, grounded in timeless principles that can help each of us be more peaceful and joyful no matter what is happening in our lives and the world.

The Golden Rule principleThe Golden Rule

The principle that echoed the deepest in my heart and others’ hearts that I connected with during my bicycle journey—and has echoed again during this present chaotic time—is The Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated. This overreaching principle embodies values such as respect, caring, trust, honesty, and simply being nice.

 

The Diamond Rule principleThe Diamond Rule

Another equally powerful principle is the flip-side of the same coin. I call it The Diamond Rule: Strive honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view. It means to walk a mile in another person’s moccasins to better understand their unique perspective. Read more

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