Maximize Your Professional Performance with a Live Training and Development Workshop - Win at Work 101

I’m always really excited about leading live professional development workshops … I love the richness and diversity created by live groups as participants interact with me and with each other during the learning and development activities.

With only 10 places available this workshop promises to be a powerful opportunity for the chosen few who join this exclusive group at Castle Hill on Saturday 4th October, 2008. Registration at the early bird investment finishes at midnight, Friday 26th September 2008.

Please note that the Saturday of the workshop falls on a long weekend in NSW, so you can participate in the workshop AND still have two days for your weekend! Good news, hey?

Success stories

Success stories from live WIn At Work 101 workshops become excellent case studies for my Win At Work book, which will be published by a New York publisher. Will you be a success story and be included in my new book?

Check out Sharon’s success story …

Click here for more details on how you can maximize your professional performance and win at work with training and development from LeaderCoach THE VALUES SPECIALISTS

In a hurry?

Start building your Peak Performance Platform now… call our office on +61 2 8850 6834 for your Registration Pack or email [ karyn@leadercoach.com.au ]

For many years the urge to share what I have learned about how to maximize your professional performance AND stay true to what you really value has burned in my spirit.

My passion is to see men and women liberated from the constraints of conventional wisdom about what it takes to win at work, and empowered by the truth, backed up by the principles and practices that deliver real results.

And now I know for certain that the Win at Work Book WILL be written and published!

How do I know? Glenn Dietzel at Awaken the Author Within has just announced that I am a joint winner for live mentoring in his Books Mean Credibility program. This was a global competition and I am truly humbled to have been chosen as a joint winner, along with Laurie Kirk of USA. 

Here’s the video announcement of the competition winners.

Why am I asking for your help?

It’s very important to me that the finished Win at Work Book is as real and useful as possible for my readers, so I am still conducting surveys and collecting case studies from employers, employees and small business owners.

How can you help?

If you are willing to be involved in surveys, short courses and case studies you can register your interest here

Your registration will also give you access to some useful freebies and sneak previews of the Win at Work book.

Sherlock Holmes was an expert at culling clues and cracking codes to find answers to the mysteries he investigated.

Your future professional performance and in fact the whole of your life are to some extent mysteries waiting to be investigated and solved.

Here’s a great collection of practical strategies we can learn from the fictional Sherlock Holmes and his colleague Dr Watson to help us win at work AND be true to our values … enjoy!

To win at work small business owners must be true to their values, just like employees.

Recently I’ve been asked by several would be small business owners how they can choose the right business for themselves. Here’s where I suggest you start - with yourself!

Ask yourself these questions and take the time to reflect and then write down your HONEST answers:

1. What are your primary natural talents?

Your best skills and strengths come from your natural talents. Do you know your Talent Code? The more you can work from your talents the more productive you will be.

2. What do you value?

Your values are your inner motivators and you need to build them into your life every day in order to keep yourself motivated. Check out Twelve Top Reasons to Know Your Values. Have you cracked your Motivation Code yet?

Have youdiscovered your hidden value?

If you are like the rest of us you will have within you a hidden storehouse of treasure that you can bring to your business. Pick up this free eCourse to help you find your hidden value.

3. What are your existing skills?

Are you great at practical, hands on tasks like making or fixing stuff? Are you good at working with numbers or information? Are you a techie person? Do have have great people skills? Are you friendly and helpful on the phone? Can you imagine yourself in a specific role, working from home?

Do you have a big picture of how your products or services meet a need in the marketplace AND a picture of all the small things you need to do to make it happen?

Are you ready and willing to expand your skills?

4. Are you equipped to be self employed?

What knowledge, skills and mind sets do you have about running a small business? Do you understand the legal, financial and taxation responsibilities? Who would use your services? How will you let the world know your services exist? Online, offline, both? Would self employment suit your personality and lifestyle?

Are you willing to learn new knowledge, skills and mind sets to ensure your success? Are you willing to take on a mentor? What criteria will you use to choose a mentor so you don’t get ripped off?

Who will be your mastermind partners and how will you mutually serve each other?

Will you surround yourself with positive, supportive people? Are you willing to read and listen to inspirational messages? Get your FREE Mini Motivators here.

Do you have the skills and strategies you need to manage your time, money and energy effectively so that you can avoid burnout and overcome overload?

And last, but certainly not least, are you willing and able to serve your customers or clients with a genuine can do and will do attitude? Are you someone your customers can trust to deliver good value?

I do hope this helps to jump start your thinking and wish you all the best in your quest to win at work AND be true to your values.

What can you learn from a man, a boy and a donkey about how to win at work, AND stay true to your values?

Do you know what really motivates you and how valuable that knowledge can be? Check out the short story in this video for your first clue …

What do you stand for? What’s your hidden value? Watch the next video in the series here. I would love to hear from you, so please leave your feedback in the comments box below.

Your Hidden Value - discover what REALLY motivates you to win at work

This 10 minute video is a sneak preview of one of the learning activities in my online course My Hidden Value. It explores the connection between your values, your beliefs, a sense of meaning in your work, and the impact of these on your motivation to win at work. Let me know what you think about the information in the video Values, Meaning and Beliefs.

Is it useful? Share your wisdom and leave a comment in the comments box. You may need to click on the Comments Box to open it so you can leave a comment.

What does it mean to "live your values?"

G’day from Sydney, Australia …

A recent controversial performance on American Idol provides a great example of the power generated by being clear about what you value (your motivation code) and what action you are willing to take to express that value fully in your life.

The performance triggered a massive number of postings and responses on YouTube. Here’s what happened … on April 9 American Idol closed with a performance of Darlene Zschech’s contemporary Christian worship song, "Shout to the Lord."

Just one small oversight … they changed the lyrics without the composer’s permission. Their version started with "My shepherd …" instead of "My Jesus …" Here’s the April 9 version

So Darlene, being true to her highest core value (worshiping Jesus), contacted them and pointed out their error. Not because she wanted any recognition or to wield power, but because she believes that the lyrics were given to her by God to inspire Christians around the world to heartfelt worship, and because she would be denying her most deeply held value if she lay down and played doormat to such a blatant dilution of the lyrics.

The result? On April 10 Idol presented a revised arrangement and included the God given lyrics of "Shout to the Lord". In my opinion (and I’m not a musician) the second version was a much more inspired and inspiring arrangement. Here’s the April 10 rendition

The big question is: what motivated the producers of American Idol to take liberties with the lyrics of a copyrighted song?

In exploring the possibilites the first thing we need remember is that our values are our primary motivators, our lifestyle priorities and preferences, our motivation code. What we value is what we want more of in our life. So we make decisions and take certain actions in an attempt to get more of what we want. When we get more of what we want, we are living our values.

The second thing we need to recognize about values is that our values compete with each other for our attention, sometimes causing value conflicts within ourselves.

A third and very significant factor is that our core values can create powerful passions that call for a deep emotional response when threatened or stifled.

So here’s my educated guess about what led the American Idol producers to change the lyrics of Shout to the Lord … a misguided marketing decision, based on a lack of clarity about the core values of a huge chunk of their viewers.

Wanting to reach the widest possible audience, without offending anyone, they assumed the best way of doing that would be to water down the lyrics, to avoid alienating the non Christians or anti Christians in the Idol tribe.

In effect, they tried to represent a worship song as a "generic" inspirational song. The difficulty with that approach is that our values are NOT generic, they are specific and in reality it is impossible to present "value neutral" entertainment, because every decision and action in each person’s life is based on values that are not only specific, but are also personal and emotionally charged.

What the American Idol producers grossly underestimated was the passion of millions of Christians around the world for the core values expressed in "Shout to the Lord", which is the most widely recognized and sung contemporary Christian worship song across the globe.

Responding to the outcry of tens of thousands of viewers globally, Idol producers made the smart marketing move to represent the song with a new arrangement and the original lyrics.

Millions of Christians loved it. Tens of thousands expressed their appreciation in comments on YouTube. Some expressed their opposition. Thank God for democracy! Personally, I’m grateful to live in a democratic society where we have freedom of religious expression.What we all need to remember is that freedom walks hand in hand with responsibility … and responsibility walks hand in hand with respect for the values of others.

Full credit to American Idol for a timely response to what could have been a marketing disaster. They recognized and responded to the values driven call for a change of direction, and the publicity that has resulted from the initial blunder and the subsequent correction could not be purchased at any price.

And full credit to Darlene Zschech for walking her talk (or should that be "singing her song"?)… clearly she has cracked her personal and unique motivation code and is willing to allow her values and actions to shout to the Lord.

An invitation to comment on this post … Is my take on the Idol happenings on the mark? What do you feel was behind it all?

G’day from Sydney, Australia …

I’m glad you’re reading this because I need your help … I’m just putting the finishing touches to my 2008 WIN AT WORK - Without Sacrificing Your Values workshop series and want to check that I’ve got all bases covered.

I‘ve enclosed a link to a short 5 question survey, and would love to get your feedback so I can meet my clients’ needs more effectively. Please feel free to give this link to 2 or 3 of your friends and associates who may be managers, HR Managers or T&D Managers, or others who are interested in maximizing their own professional growth.

Please accept my thanks in advance, and get ready to receive a surprise from me as a token of my appreciation for your time and effort. Here’s the link to the survey: http://www.winatworkzone.com/2008-survey1.php

I’m looking forward to reading your responses and suggestions. 

This survey is now closed, but you can register to take part in more surveys at www.WinAtWorkBook.com

Do you know your unique motivation code (your values)? Do your actions align with your values?

To win at work AND stay true to your values, you need to be able to answer YES to both questions.

Here’s a story that illustrates the point …

The Tale of the Man, the Boy and the Donkey

An old man, a boy and their donkey were going to town. The boy rode the donkey and the old man walked. As they went along, they passed some people who remarked it was a shame that the old man was walking when the boy was riding. The man and boy thought maybe these critics were right, so they changed places.

Later, they passed some people who remarked, "What a shame that he makes the little boy walk". So they then decided they would both walk.

Soon, they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So they both rode the donkey.

Next they passed some people that shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey. The boy and man thought they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey.

As they crossed a bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and it fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story … If you try to please everyone, you might as well kiss your ass good-bye!

How does this apply to winning at work, without sacrificing your values?

When your goals and actions are based on your own values and value priorities, (your unique motivation code), you are much more likely to remain consistent in your focus, and therefore achieve your professional performance targets more readily.

Take a minute to share one of your wins or losses based on being true or NOT true to your personal values, in the comments box below …

Value your life, live your values The focus of this entire site is how to win at work, AND stay true to your values. Why the focus on values? Because your values are what focus you!

So, here we go with the top twelve things you need to know about your values:

1. Your values are what motivate you. They are the bridge between your inner desires and outer reality.
   
2. Your values are your lifestyle priorities and preferences, your unique motivation code. You need to know what your values are. They silently guide your words, your decisions and your actions. Get to know them … unless you want to be led through life by a stranger.
3. Knowing your values gives you clarity - you can make decisions based on choices, rather than habits.
4. Some of your values are more important to you than others. They are your core values and usually remain consistent over a long period of time.
5. Your values are with you 24/7. There is no distinction between personal and professional values. There is however, a distinction between what is an appropriate context for living out some values.
6. Your values are not necessarily predictors of your behaviour. For example, you and I may both value leisure and play. I might (would) choose to live that value by going to the opera, and you might choose to go rock climbing … same value, different expression.
7. All people, regardless of race, colour or creed, share 5 human needs: survival, freedom, fun, belonging and power. How you attempt to meet those needs depends on your values … your lifestyle preferences and priorities.
8. Your values come from your world-view. Your world-view is a set of (mostly unconscious) beliefs you hold about how the world works, or how you believe the world should work. The formation of your world-view was influenced by many factors as you were growing up: family, culture, geographic location, socio-economic conditions, media - old and new, peers, education, religious affiliations, groups such as Scouts and sporting clubs, and significant life events.
9. Your values and your ethics are not the same. Your values will motivate you, usually unconsciously. Your ethics will constrain you, usually based on conscious choice.
10. Clarity around what you value will help you choose more compatible friendships and business partners.
11. Knowing your values helps you to be clear about what you DON"T want in your life … your values are a guide to the boundaries you have in place in your life.
12. Consciously choosing to live your values leads you towards being more of who you were created to be.

Let’s make it a baker’s dozen and give the last word to the Bible:

13. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:21) Your treasure is what you value, so get to know what your values are, and learn how to live them.

What experiences have you had as a result of living or NOT living your values? Take a minute to share your response in the comments box below.