The Surprising 'Science' of Motivation

The Surprising 'Science' of Motivation

Excellence v Success

The best of the best make their life and work a quest for excellence and understand that there is a difference between success and excellence.

Success is often measured by comparison to others. Excellence, on the other hand, is all about being the best we can be and maximising our gifts, talents and abilities to perform at our highest potential.

We live in a world that loves to focus on success and loves to compare. We are all guilty of doing this. However, to be our best we must focus more on excellence and less on success. We must focus on being the best we can be and realise that our greatest competition is not someone else but ourselves.

For example, coaching legend John Wooden often wouldn’t tell his players who they were playing each game. He felt that knowing the competition was irrelevant. He believed that if his team played to the best of their ability they would be happy with the outcome. In fact, John Wooden never focused on winning. He had his team focus on teamwork, mastering the fundamentals, daily improvement and the process that excellence requires. As a result he and his teams won A LOT.

A focus on excellence was also the key for golfing legend Jack Nicklaus. His secret was to play the course not the competition. He simply focused on playing the best he could play against the course he was playing. While others were competing against Jack, he was competing against the course and himself.

The same can be said for Apple’s approach with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. When they created these products they didn’t focus on the competition. Instead they focused on creating the best product they could create. As a result, rather than measuring themselves against others they have become the measuring stick.

We have a choice as individuals, organisations and teams. We can focus on success and spend our life looking around to see how our competition is doing, or we can look straight ahead towards the vision of greatness we have for ourselves and our teams. We can look at competition as the standard or as an indicator of our progress towards our own standards. We can chase success or we can embark on a quest for excellence and focus 100% of our energy to become our best... and let success find us.

Ironically, when our goal is excellence the outcome and by product is often success. 

Excellence v Success

How a 'Non-Policy' on Holidays Can Be The Break You Need

Silicon Valley success story, Netflix, shows how a non-policy on holidays can provide the break you need. 

The idea is that freedom and responsibility, long considered fundamentally incompatible, actually go together quite well.

In much white-collar work today, where one good idea can be orders of magnitude more valuable than a dozen mediocre ones, the link between the time you spend and the results you produce is murkier. Results are what matter. How you got there, or how long it took, is less relevant.

For more, see -http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/7945719/Netflix-lets-its-staff-take-as-much-holiday-as-they-want-whenever-they-want-and-it-works.html

Culture

View more presentations from Reed Hastings.

In contrast to the Netflix story, most of us believe the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money - the 'carrot-and-stick' approach.

However as Daniel H. Pink says in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us - and as the Netflix story shows - this is a mistake.

Instead, the secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He demonstrates that while carrots and sticks worked successfully in the twentieth century, that’s precisely the wrong way to motivate people for today’s challenges. 

In Drive, he examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose—and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action. 

Drive is the rare book that will change how you think and transform how you live. 

How a 'Non-Policy' on Holidays Can Be The Break You Need

The Anatomy of a Lie

Pamela Meyer, author of Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception explains how we can navigate a world where lying is second nature, and how to move from lie-spotting to truth-seeking, and finally to trust-building.

The Anatomy of a Lie

Motivating Your Staff

One of the biggest issues that frustrates our clients is the level of motivation of their employees. Often, they feel  their employees are not proactive enough, and that they do not take initiative in their roles.

There are three reasons why this is happening - centred around how you, as their leader, and your managers are communicating to them (and with them) and what type of messages you are sending, and/or they are receiving. In some organisations the mixed signals equate to a labyrinth:

1) They don't know you want them to do something.

2) They are unmotivated and don't care enough to do what they are being asked to do.

3) There are de-motivators in the environment that are preventing them from doing what they have been asked/want to do.

A great resource for understanding and addressing the manifold scenarios that may be causing the performance problem is the book, Analyzing Performance Problems: Or, You Really Oughta Wanna--How to Figure out Why People Aren't Doing What They Should Be, and What to do About It by Robert Mager. 

Motivating Your Staff

Encouraging Early Entrepreneurship

We have written recently about the true national challenge being the need to create jobs - http://positiveleadershiplimited.blogspot.com/2010/08/creating-new-jobs.html - and we have also pointed to the role of business in helping to support education - http://positiveleadershiplimited.blogspot.com/2010/08/great-teaching.html.

Encouraging early entrepreneurship and developing business leadership skills in young people is another way of creating the conditions that create jobs and secure the future. Getting young people to think about a business they could start and into the entrepreneurial habit earlier in life can help jump-start jobs.

Here is one great idea which Positive Leadership supports fully, which many leading companies around the world are already backing and which could easily be replicated in the United Kingdom:

Encouraging Early Entrepreneurship

Execution

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done is about getting the right things done – about producing positive results.

If purpose is your “why,” and vision is your “what,” then executing is your “how.”  

So, what approach or process do you use to foster a discipline of action?

How do you measure your leadership?    

Execution

The Red Arrows Set The Standard Each Day At Every Level

The Red Arrows build every show around a focus or centre point, and build their team around shared values. Without shared values, peak performance is not possible. Team values must align with an organisation’s purpose, mission, and actions.

At what level does your team operate? It’s time to raise the bar.

Practice #1: Put the Team First

Teamwork isn’t a part time activity. Each member represents the team at all times. Putting teams first is a 24/7 commitment. Their ideas, their voice, their well-being, their efforts; these are most important. Significant and sustainable results follow empowered and cohesive teams.

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” ~ Henry Ford

Practice #2: Walk the Talk

Effective leaders are honest and transparent, and they lead by positive example. This, along with practice #1, forms the foundation of a successful team.

Successful leaders embrace the power of teamwork by tapping into the innate strengths each person brings to the table.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him….But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, ‘We did it ourselves‘. ~ Lao Tzu

What’s your level of trust in others? Are you aligned with your values? Do you walk the talk?

Practice #3: Maintain Peak Performance

Peak performance requires we take time to rest, reflect, and recharge our batteries.

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists of eliminating the non-essentials.” ~ Chinese Proverb

Practice #4: Communicate Vertically and Horizontally

Every member of the team requires clear and effective communication to accomplish their job. At this level of performance, there can be no questions or doubt concerning communication. Does your team communicate openly and honestly?

“All of us perform better and more willingly when we know why we’re doing what we have been told or asked to do.” ~ Zig Ziglar

Practice #5: Prepare to Win

Visualise yourself accomplishing the task at hand. Then do it together with your team.

“Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.” ~ Louis E.Boone

Practice #6: Capitalise on Synergy

Synergy happens when common people align around common goals. Making the team means doing what it takes to fulfill the mission. Each member has a role in the team’s success

“Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people.” ~ Stephen Covey

Does your team prepare to win? Do you?

Practice #7: Clarify procedures

Each team member must know procedures. Every situation requires a proper response. Success comes when preparation meets opportunity.

Practice #8: Foster Positive Attitudes

A can-do attitude make the impossible possible.

“I’m so optimistic I’d go after Moby Dick in a row-boat and take the tartar sauce with me.” ~ Zig Ziglar

Practice #9: Strive for Excellence

By confronting our failures we come closer to reaching perfection. Every team member must earn the right to wear the crest. When each team member accepts full responsibility and strives for excellence, both trust and performance increase exponentially and the team is ready to take off!

“If you did not care at all what anyone else thought about you, what would you do differently or change in your life?” ~ Brian Tracy

Practice #10: Attitude Leads to Altitude

Just in case you didn’t pick up on the importance of #8. You can do all the right things to make your team go, but without the fuel of an unwavering positive attitude, your team and your performance will never soar above the clouds.

“I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.” ~ Charles Swindoll

Is your team ready to take off and reach new levels of success? Are you?

The Red Arrows Set The Standard Each Day At Every Level

Great Teaching

Great teaching is the centre piece of a strong education; everything else revolves around it.’ 

Bill Gates, speaking to the American Federation of Teachers, 

10 July 2010

One example of how business can contribute to education in a very meaningful way is IBM's 'Transition to Teaching' Programme. Through this initiative, which was launched in 2005, IBM is helping address the critical shortage of maths and science teachers in the USA by leveraging the brains and backgrounds of some of its most experienced employees, enabling them to become fully accredited teachers in their local communities upon electing to leave the company.

The Future is in Our Classrooms - Pledge version from TakePart on Vimeo.

For more, see - 

http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ibmgives/news/transition_to_teaching.shtml)

Great Teaching

Great Teaching is the Centre-Piece of a Strong Education

'Great teaching is the centre-piece of a strong education; everything else revolves around it. This is the main finding of our foundation’s work in education over the past ten years.

I have to admit – that is not where we started. Our work in schools began with a focus on making high schools smaller, in the hope of improving relationships to drive down dropout rates and increase student achievement.

Many of the schools we worked with made strong gains, but others were disappointing. The schools that made the biggest gains in achievement did more than make structural changes; they also improved teaching. If great teaching is the most powerful point of leverage – how are we going to help more teachers become great?

In 2008 and 2009, our foundation partnered with Scholastic on a national survey to learn the views of 40,000 teachers on crucial questions facing your profession.

Teachers said in huge numbers that they don’t get enough feedback. They’re not told how they can improve. When I was working in software, many times I would look at the computer code someone wrote and I’d say: “Oh, wow, this guy is good. That’s better than what I would have written. What process did he go through? How did he model it?” Whenever I found someone great, I would study how they worked. I looked at every factor that made that person successful.

This happens in a lot of fields.

Some of you may have read a book by Steven Jay Gould about baseball. Gould explains that in the 1920s and ’30s, there was a big gap between the highest and lowest batting averages. But over time, people learned from each other, the gap narrowed – and the average hitter today is much closer to the best hitter.

That’s an important mark of a profession: the difference between the average and the great becomes smaller – because everyone is eager to get better, and they’re doing everything they can to learn from the best. That trend improves the entire profession. But it requires a process: you have to identify the skills of the best and transfer them to everyone else.

That hasn’t been happening enough in teaching. And that give us a big opportunity.

This is the work our foundation is trying to foster in Pittsburgh, Hillsborough County, and other communities that have agreed to be part of two projects we’re funding: the Measures of Effective Teaching project, and our Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching.

The first of these projects addresses a big gap in our knowledge: There has been a lot of research done about the impact of effective teaching, but little research has been done on what makes teaching effective.

That’s the research we’re doing now with nearly 3,000 teachers in six school districts who have volunteered to open their classrooms to visitors, to video cameras, to new assessments, to watching themselves teach and talking about their practice. Many of these teachers are members of the AFT. I want to thank those of you who are here today for being part of this project.

They’ll put special focus on classes that showed big student gains and try to map it backwards to identify the most effective teaching practices. They’ll also look for what doesn’t work. If a struggling new teacher comes to a veteran colleague and asks: ―What am I doing wrong? –  he should get an evidence-based answer. Some years ago, if you wanted to watch a great teacher, you had to find one who was teaching in your building during the hour you had free. But today, every teacher should be able to watch great teachers – to see how a master in classroom management handles a disruptive student, or how a great geometry teacher makes a proof interesting. Even just watching your own class can offer huge insight. One teacher in Hillsborough County said: “It’s amazing how much you can learn when you just sit and watch yourself teach.”

No one can choose a world without change. We choose only whether we drive change or react to it. If you want teachers unions to lead a revolution in American education, please remember: sometimes the most difficult act of leadership is not fighting the enemy; it’s telling your friends it’s time to change.'

Bill Gates 

Great Teaching is the Centre-Piece of a Strong Education

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

View more presentations from Antonio Gadaleta.

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

Are You a Genius or a Genius Maker?

Are you a genius or a genius maker? 

We've all had experience with two dramatically different types of leaders.

The first type drains intelligence, energy, and capability from the people around them and always needs to be the smartest person in the room. These are the idea killers, the energy sappers, the diminishers of talent and commitment. On the other side of the spectrum are leaders who use their intelligence to amplify the capabilities of the people around them. When these leaders walk into a room, light bulbs go off over people's heads; ideas flow and problems get solved. These are the leaders who inspire employees to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations. These are the Multipliers. And the world needs more of them, especially now when leaders are expected to do more with less.

In this video, Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown visit Google to discuss their book Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter. They share the research behind Multipliers and illustrate the resoundingly positive and profitable effect these Multipliers have on organisations -- how they get more done with fewer resources, develop and attract talent, and cultivate new ideas and energy to drive organisational change and innovation. They introduce the five disciplines that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers. 

The good news is that these five disciplines are not based on innate talent; indeed they are skills and practices that everyone can learn to use, even lifelong and recalcitrant Diminishers. 

Just imagine what you could accomplish if you could harness all the energy and intelligence around you!

Are You a Genius or a Genius Maker?

Creating New Jobs

We can career-counsel people all we want about how to find jobs, but the true challenge now is how to create jobs. The private sector, and particularly the SME sector, is the ultimate engine of job creation; but even the best engine can use a jump-start.

Here is one idea:

Partnerships for job creation. While big companies have tended to be net job-shedders, they create jobs through the small and mid-sized enterprises in their supply and distributions chains. Big can power small. Imagine a national partnership in which big companies pledge to enhance the capabilities of domestic suppliers by providing mentors, investment capital, opportunities in export markets and use of offices abroad, and even insurance benefits as part of a larger pool.

Creating New Jobs

A Leader's Learning

There are three aspects of a personal learning strategy that are critical to the effective learning of eminent performers, senior executives and successful professionals:

First, the strategy must include a method for extracting insight from experience. This allows a leader to gain from the challenges life continually dishes up, including the crucible experiences that define them as leaders. 

Second, a leader’s learning strategy must be driven by a powerful aspiration that encourages growth and adaptation. 

Third, the learning strategy must be built around a concept and regimen of deliberate practice that connects learning and performance. 

Source: Thomas, R. (2008).What leaders can learn from expert performers. Leader to Leader, 2008 (50), p28-33.

A Leader's Learning

Failure is a Wee Test

'

“You have to suffer failure in this game. It dents your personal pride but it is a part of the game, part of life. But if you take a pride in what you do you will learn from it, use it as an incentive. Failure is a just a wee test. You just have to appraise it, look at it.” 

Walter Smith, Manager, Glasgow Rangers FC

Failure is a Wee Test

HP's Leadership Failure

Hewlett Packard’s Board of Directors demonstrated recently that if you violate HP’s Standards of Business Conduct (SBC) you can lose your job, even if you are the chairman and CEO. 

Mark Hurd, who had served as HP’s CEO for the last five years (and chairman for four years), resigned at the Board’s request after an investigation concluded he had engaged in inappropriate behaviour that violated HP’s SBC.

Just as leaders don’t get a free pass when they miss performance goals, there ultimately isn’t a free pass when ethical standards aren’t met. Trust is essential in sustaining business performance. Leadership without ethical behaviour is a failure of leadership.

So when Hurd wrote some time ago in the SBC’s preface that “We want to be a company known for its ethical leadership….” the problem wasn’t that the standard was too high to meet. The issue is Hurd wasn’t engaged in making real what that meant for him.

His message in the preface continued: “Let us commit together, as individuals and as a company, to build trust in everything we do by living our values and conducting business consistent with the high ethical standards embodied within our SBC.”

Tone at the top only counts when leaders use words that they believe in enough to live.  

HP's Leadership Failure

The Art of Possibility

Speaking recently on leadership and problem solving, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Benjamin Zander emphasises that everyone has options. 

"You can face problems with resignation, anger or possibility. These are all valid responses. You have a choice." Choosing possibility isn't always easy, he notes, but it will lead to excellence. It will also lead to a challenging of assumptions -- and assumptions are often roadblocks to innovation.

"Everybody wants out of the box thinking; the question is, how do you get it?" says Zander. "It's very simple. You ask a question: What assumptions am I making that I don't know I'm making?" The key to success inside an organisation, he adds, has to do with voicing these assumptions. "Every organisation, every human endeavour, has to have someone whose job it is to notice what assumptions are being made ... and [who] has permission to say so. Anybody from the bottom to the top should be able to speak about assumptions without fearing loss of any kind."

When Zander's musicians make a mistake, he teaches them not to give in to the voice of doubt or self-recrimination. Instead, he has instructed his students to say "How fascinating!" whenever they make a mistake. To Zander, this means throwing up one's arms and exclaiming "How fascinating!" at top volume. His point: Every setback is an opportunity to learn. Every setback represents a world of possibility. "Education is not so much about the transference of information as the opening up of new categories," Zander notes. "When you are educated in that sense, you are actually walking in a different world. The question becomes, 'What are you going to do now?'".

For more, see: http://mbvt.knowledgeatwharton.com/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&ID=2537

The Art of Possibility

The Mentor Leader

Tony Dungy retired as coach of the Indianapolis Colts just two seasons after winning the Super Bowl. Since then, he's worked as an NFL analyst, a motivational speaker — and now, as a writer. His new book, The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People & Teams That Win Consistently is about the importance of mentoring.

In his book, Dungy cites former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll as someone who taught him a lot. Dungy played briefly for the Steelers, and then coached under him until Noll's retirement.

"He knew how he could help people," Dungy says. "He was a teacher, he was a guy that was very good at selecting people, getting them to fit in — he wasn't the guy that was going to sit there and motivate you intrinsically. That wasn't what he was best at. So he hired people that were good at that."

Noll even hired other, more motivational speakers to come in and address his team before games.

"That's part of being a good leader as well," Dungy says. "Recognising your strengths and making sure you utilise them, but also recognising your weaknesses and coming up with ways to overcome that."

When he retired from football, Dungy cited the all-consuming nature of being a head coach as one of the reasons for his departure.

For excerpts from the book, please go to: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129000617

The Mentor Leader

'Presence' Determines Leader Success

The personal quality of presence is one of the most important factors contributing to a leader's successful performance.

A leader's presence can be classified by three categories: weak, strong negative and strong positive. Of the three, leaders with a strong positive presence are the ones who have the greatest positive impact in building a motivated, high-performing workforce.

What indicators demonstrate a strong, positive leadership presence?  If the following conditions exist, you have a strong positive presence as a leader:

*Your organisation reflects the core values important to you personally.

*Organisational members implicitly trust you.

*Members admire and respect you for who you are (what you stand for) as much or more than what you are (your title or position).

*Your drive and passion inspires exceptional performance throughout the organisation.

*Members are aligned and committed to standards, goals, and the direction you have set for your organisation.

Executives who score low on these factors are likely to experience much difficulty in leading their organisations, especially during tough economic conditions. 

'Presence' Determines Leader Success

'Presence' is a Key Component of Leadership

One of the most important, yet often overlooked leadership competencies is one that many call ‘leadership presence’.

This looks different from leader to leader because everyone brings unique experiences and sense of self to the role.

However, regardless of individual influences, extraordinary leaders share four common practices that add up to an effective and commanding presence. They are clear on their purpose, they act authentically, they elicit respect and they act with confidence.

Effective leaders have a clear sense of purpose that also aligns with the organisational mission. This serves as their compass when tempted to deviate from the mission and purpose in order to please others. They also accept that in the process of holding to their purpose, they will have to make tough choices that can result in losses and casualties.

Authenticity has two parts: staying true to who you are as you lead others, and bringing forth those parts of yourself that influence others to follow you. Environmental forces will test your ability to stay true to who you are. Authenticity also involves encouraging others to follow you by playing up the parts of yourself they can most relate to and that meet the needs of a situation. In other words, you want to manage which face you put forward in a given group of people. This is not about acting in a fake way, but instead knowing about which parts of yourself serve you best and which to play down at any given time.

Leadership presence is magnified when respect is earned from colleagues at every level. When people don't take you seriously, they are not likely to follow your lead. Those with leadership presence have mastered the ability to deliver their message in a way that is in sync with their intentions and that ultimately elicits respect. Gathering feedback from those around you can be a great way to identify how you are perceived and help you determine how to best adjust your style so that you generate the respect and buy-in that great leaders are able to inspire.

Finally, individuals who possess real leadership presence portray an air of confidence. They manage any self-doubt behind the scenes so they can promote a face of certainty to others. If your confidence is lagging, consider how this ambiguity might affect people's comfort in following you. Finding a trusted confidant can provide you with an opportunity to sort through your concerns and avoid de-motivating the people you hope to lead.

By managing your leadership presence and making and implementing intentional choices about your style, you can keep others invested in your mission and inspire them to be engaged and productive contributors.

Leadership presence can be the foundation upon which leadership strategy and business strategy come closer together over time, creating leaders who are agile strategists, thinkers and implementers.

'Presence' is a Key Component of Leadership

Executive 'Presence'

Toss a stone into a pond and watch what happens. The ripples move out from the centre growing larger as they swell before receding into the glassy surface of the water. There's something familiar and predictable about this pattern in nature. But how does it apply to corporate leadership?

If you are in a position of authority, influence or leadership those closest to you have the clearest sense of the motivations behind your actions and words. Beyond this inner circle, employees in your organisation interpret your words or actions without knowledge of your motivations, and therefore, without proper context. Here lies the greatest area of risk in communications.

How then can you influence the way you are perceived beyond your inner circle?

Executive presence. You know it when you see it. That elusive "it" quality shared by great leaders throughout history. The way they walk onto a stage as though they belong there; or into a room as if everyone is a friend. They are polished, positive, direct, professional and authentic. They look you in the eye, and they seem to understand. Not only do they come off as strong, confident and in control, they are wonderful to be around! When you're with a leader who's got "it", YOU feel strong, confident and more in control…inspired, really.

What leaders with great executive presence understand that we can all learn from is the concept of "the ripple effect". How a common sum of qualities and competencies that create this "presence" can impact hundreds if not thousands of people in your organisation…even if you never personally interact with them.

No one is born with it. Every leader can adopt the common attributes of great executive presence. Every leader can influence the way they are perceived throughout their organisation.

It's a simple as 7 key elements:

Substance - Whether in verbal or written communication, make sure your message and language are clear, concise, interesting, informative and intelligent.

Personal Style - Your wardrobe and grooming speaks volumes about your leadership presence. Make sure you dress in a polished, appropriate manner and set the standard for your organisation.

Physical Presence - If you've ever received bad news from someone who is smiling, you know how important body language and facial expressions are to clear communications. Align your non-verbal and verbal messages, and be sure to demonstrate energy, vitality, confidence and ease.

Vocal Skill - Like body language, the way you use your voice will dramatically impact interpretation of your meaning. Control the way others receive your message through tone, pace, volume and inflection. Maintain a clear, pleasant, expressive and confident tone.

Manners/Etiquette - Have you ever noticed how great leaders seem to demonstrate elegance, finesse and ease regardless of the challenges they deal with? They understand the rules of business etiquette, and they respect those rules. They are gracious, grateful, generous and thoughtful.

Listen, listen and listen more - Be receptive to new information, listen attentively and make yourself available. Encourage expression by engaging when others speak and listening without judgment.

Work Environment - Consider the impact of your own personal space - if you're suit is custom tailored, your car is a fine European model, but your desk is a cluttered mess, what will be remembered most? Your building, office and desk should be clean, organised, pleasant and inviting, reflecting your professionalism.

Executive 'Presence'

Flow (or 'Being in the Zone')

Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, “What makes a life worth living?” Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of “flow.” Flow is an oft cited concept in organisational literature today. This video gives a great introduction to the concept: 

Flow (or 'Being in the Zone')

How to Avoid Mistakes in Managing Traumatic Change

Turbulent times put leaders to the test. How people handle unwelcome surprises and unexpected blows to the best-laid plans can exacerbate a run of bad luck — or turn things in their favour. Traumatic change is hard enough without adding insult to injury. When crises occur, leaders need to know how to avoid the traps that make it harder to recover. 

Here are 13 common mistakes and some guidelines for avoiding them.

1. Pressure to act quickly undermines values and culture. Leaders take drastic steps quickly with no time to explore alternatives. Values about participation, involvement, or concern for people disappear. Cynicism grows.

Solution: Avoid the temptation to announce instant decisions. Find issues that can benefit from employee input and assign teams to tackle them.

2. Management exercises too much control. In crises, decisions get pushed to the top. Because top managers are rethinking everything, people below go passive and wait to be told what to do. Initiative declines; innovation goes on hold.

Solution: Establish short-term tasks that empower employees to seek quick wins, giving them a feeling of control over results.

3. Urgent tasks divert leaders' attention from the mood of the organisation. Managers are swamped with meetings and decisions. No one takes responsibility for assessing the impact on employees' motivation and performance.

Solution: Appoint a team of natural leaders to monitor the culture, take the pulse of employees, and coach managers on an effective process.

4. Communication is haphazard, erratic and uneven. Things change quickly, leaders are distracted, and it's not clear who has accurate information. Potentially destructive rumours take on a life of their own. Time is wasted.

Solution: Develop an interactive communications site to reach everyone with the same information in a timely fashion. Keep it going after the worst of the crisis is over.

5. Uncertainty creates anxiety. Executives don't like to say "I don't know," so they wait until they have definitive answers before they talk to their people. But people can't commit to positive actions while mired in anxiety.

Solution: Establish certainty of process when there can't be certainty about decisions. Create a calendar of briefings so that people know when they'll know. If there are no answers yet, say so.

6. Employees hear it from the media first. Aggressive journalists dig for information, and items can run in the media before employees hear about them — e.g., workers who heard that their plant was closing on the radio while driving to work. Middle managers look dumb and uninformed. Employees feel insulted and left out.

Solution: Keep the press out. Develop networks of employee-leaders to connect an information chain.

7. There is no outlet for emotions. Anger and grief mount with no way to express or deal with these emotions. People might start acting in strange ways, undermining teamwork.

Solution: Create facilitated sessions for venting. Teach managers about dealing with trauma and ensure that they acknowledge grief and anxiety.

8. Key stakeholders are neglected. Busy internally, leaders fail to engage other key constituencies. Customers, dealers, suppliers, government officials hear only the media's and competitors' slants. They get nervous and withhold support.

Solution: Manage relationships. Identify all groups that need to be communicated with regularly and devise a plan for reaching each.

9. It seems easier to cut than redeploy. Reducing budgets or people in equal proportion everywhere seems easier than taking time to reassign people or reallocate resources. Inevitably, strong performers are lost when they could have served elsewhere — including in sales roles.

Solution: Establish a pool of strong performers from areas with cutbacks. They might be able to help the business in another way — or be called back for special assignments such as supporting the transition.

10. Casualties dominate attention. Sometimes leaders want to do the humane thing by offering help to people who are cut, while neglecting the "keepers" on whom the future depends. Some of the keepers don't know that they are valued and decide to leave.

Solution: Meet individually with leaders of the future and show appreciation. Offer recognition for extra problem-solving efforts during the crisis period.

11. Changes are expedient, not strategic. Managers often restructure by removing the weakest or newest people, without regard to business needs. The unit does what it has always done but with fewer people. The opportunity for change is lost.

Solution: Identify a team and process to re-examine mission and priorities, to redirect activities toward more productive future uses.

12. Leaders lose credibility. The shock of crisis, lurches in business strategy, and performance shortfalls make top leaders' words less credible. Why believe any new strategy now? Motivation drops.

Solution: Make short-term, tangible, doable promises, and keep them.

13. Gloom and doom fill the air. Everyone is preoccupied with the negative current situation. They feel guilt about the people who are being let go. Morale sinks, and it is hard to find the energy to be creative or productive.

Solution: Show that there is a future beyond the crisis. Repeat a credible positive vision. Emphasise the steps being taken to avoid reoccurrence of the present crisis — how we're going to change so that this won't happen again.

Leaders make their own luck. In the face of traumatic change, it is important to take the time to anticipate and avoid the 13 unlucky mistakes. Learning better acts of leadership when change is difficult will help everyone get through the crisis to find better fortunes ahead.

For more, see - http://blogs.hbr.org/kanter/2010/03/13-unlucky-mistakes-in-managing-traumatic-change-and-how-to-avoid-them.html

How to Avoid Mistakes in Managing Traumatic Change

If You Think You Can, You Can

When you think that you’ll lose, you’ve lost;

For out in the world you will find

Success begins with a man’s will –

It’s all in the state of mind.

When you think you’re outclassed, you are.

You have got to think BIG to rise;

You have to FEEL sure of yourself

Before you can win a great prize.

Life’s battle does not always go

To the stronger or faster man;

But soon or late the man who wins

Is the one who THINKS he can.

Uknown

If You Think You Can, You Can