John Hersey Leadership Blog

We have had a tremendous response and some frustration to last weeks teleseminar,
HowTo Thrive in Tight Times . It is not surprising to us that most of
your questions, comments and concerns were around Action 1,
Focusing on the top 20% of your income and/or impact producing
activities.

We never said it would be easy. Nor did we say to not do those
“other activities” that were necessary to the running of your
business.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

“As the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree
into one or two vigorous limbs, so should you stop off your
miscellaneous activity and concentrate your force on one or a few
points”

We all have necessary and important activities to perform in the
normal course of keeping our businesses going in the desired direction.
However, all too often we do these instead of the critical income and impact
producing activities.

We have heard people say, “I can’t possibly do that top 20%
thing. It is a great idea but won’t work for me. There is just too
much to do around here, and I am the one to do them.”

All true! However, doing many of these activities keeps us from
zeroing in on those that produce big results.

Think of it this way; if you had an emergency that required you
to leave your office and only spend 20% of your time working, what
would you focus on? Who would you delegate those “other important
activities” too? Which of these “important” activities would you
let go off?

We hope you find this deeper dive into the subject helpful. Let
us know by commenting below.

In today’s business and economic climate, knowing your people and loving them may be one of your top three most important daily activities.

It’s amazing how little most Leaders know about the personal lives of the people they work with. More importantly, most Leaders don’t have a clue as to the real strengths of most of the people reporting to them. As Leaders you have know about your employees’ education, technical skills, behavioral style, and values.

Knowing your people doesn’t have to involve any uncomfortable or sophisticated systems. Just talk with them. Having real conversations with people can produce amazing results. Furthermore, you can just ask employees what they think their strengths are.

Strength Workshop Worked for Wells

By knowing each other better, we can honor each other’s strengths instead of working at defending our own ways of doing things. John and I will never, ever do things the same way. But focusing on our strengths and looking to each other’s greatness, we don’t have to be right. We just have to be effective. These same benefits will accrue to any organization using these incredibly powerful tools.

To help o help you get to know the strengths of those around you we are offering a complimentary Teleseminar, How to Accelerate Your Success by Knowing your Strengths

, on February 5 at 4:00pm Mountain time. We will introduce two tools, the JigSaw Challenge and the “I AM” statement. These are the most revealing and effective tools we have ever developed to help you get to know how to be your best!

Here are the details:

Date: February 5, 2009
Time: 4:00pm (Mountain Time), 3:00pm (Pacific), 6:00pm
(Eastern)

For more information and to register please go to:

http://www.johnhersey.com/strengths.htm

Even if you have a schedule conflict on February 5, get registered, and after the call we’ll send you information on how to access the tele-training replay.

Knowing your people is loving them and loving them is what they need most today.

We are looking forward to being with you on the call.

Best Regards,

John Hersey & Beverly Belury

PS: If you have a friend or business associate who might benefit
from this offer please forward this information to them.