What Can a Dog Teach You about Leadership (WT485)

What Can a Dog Teach You about Leadership (WT485)

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by Shirley Dalton | 11 Oct, 2019 | Blog, Leadership

WT485 What Can a Dog Teach You About Leadership

The past few weeks, we have had the opportunity to “dog sit”. It has been a fantastic experience, especially when it comes to implementing the leadership training I provide for others.

The first night was a bit rough. I am assuming the dog was missing its owners. He didn’t understand where they were and who these two new people were, so he did his best to assert himself as the leader of the pack. 

The next morning, Ross and I decided that one of us had to assume the leadership role.

Here’s some leadership principles that the dog taught us:

  1. There can only be one leader.
  1. Consistency is key, especially if you make new rules.
  1. Praise and reward go a long way.
  1. You must be present and give people (and dogs) attention, lest they start looking for it in ways you would prefer they didn’t.
  1. Adaptability and flexibility are also key skills for success (survival).
  1. Gestures work better than yelling.
  1. Teaching new skills requires patience and good communication skills. Not everyone speaks your language.
  1. If somebody does something wrong, it’s best to discipline them straight away, in a firm and caring way.
  1. You must plan for and allow time for fun.
  1. Systems and routines help to maintain order and increase efficiency.
  1. Clean up your mess as you go.
  1. It’s ok for the leader to learn new skills as well.
  1. Sometimes you have to change the environment to change behaviour.
  1. How you structure your teams and choose your personnel can have a huge impact on the results. (The dog next door influenced our dog to dig holes so they could socialise together, and get up to all sorts of mischief, not to mention the possibility of truanting.)
  1. Your team know when you’re out of sorts. (I was sick with a cold over the weekend and he sat by my side the entire time, giving me great comfort and support.)

Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks? I certainly did.

The dog we looked after was an 11 month old puppy, full of beans and energy and lots and lots of love.  The more attention he got, the more pats (Touch love language) and belly scratches, the better he behaved and the more fun we had.

Makes you think, who really was the leader and who learnt the tricks?

I’m Not a Bad Person (WT484)

I’m Not a Bad Person (WT484)

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by Shirley Dalton | 4 Oct, 2019 | Blog, Mindset

WT484 I'm Not a Bad Person

Sally was sitting in the waiting room of the Doctor’s surgery.

Across from her was an older woman who looked like she had experienced some hard times.

Her hair was dishevelled, long and grey. Her clothes were ill fitting and her shoes needed mending.

She was on the phone talking very loudly, with the phone on speaker.

Sally couldn’t help but hear the conversation:

“I’m not a bad person,” the lady said.

“Why me? I’m starting to lose my faith. All these things have happened to me and it’s been a tough year.”

Sally cringed as she listened to the woman’s conversation.

“You may not be a bad person,” she thought, “But you do have bad thoughts.”

If only the lady knew what Sally knew about how the brain works and how we are responsible for what happens in our lives.

If only she knew that it was her limiting beliefs that were causing the thoughts, the feelings and her action or inaction, which produces her results. If she knew that, she would look deep into her limiting beliefs and change her thoughts so she could create a better future.

It’s our neuroscience and our vibrational reality that dictates what happens to us in our lives.

Bad stuff happens to us when our beliefs are out of alignment with what we want to create. Dr. Raymond Charles Barker calls this “unintelligent thinking”; not because we are stupid, rather because we are not tapping into the amazing intelligence that is all around and part of every one of us. You can call the intelligence God, the Universe, Consciousness, whatever you like.

The facts are that we are not bad people, however on occasion we do have bad thoughts and it’s these bad thoughts that create our misery.

Likewise, when we have good thoughts and operate in alignment with our empowering beliefs, we create amazing things for ourselves.

Your mission this week is to check in with your thoughts and feelings. If you’re not in a good place, see if you can identify the thoughts that may be causing you to feel this way. I’ll wager that there is a limiting belief behind them and it’s the limiting beliefs that we want to work on.

If you’re interested in knowing more or want to get rid of these beliefs that are holding you back, reach out and we can chat some more.

Dogs Don’t Discriminate (WT483)

Dogs Don’t Discriminate (WT483)

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by Shirley Dalton | 27 Sep, 2019 | Blog, Mindset

WT483 Dogs Don't Discriminate

It was early morning and Ross was driving me to work with a client for the day.

I noticed a dog jumping all over a man who was sitting on the cold cement on a blanket.

The dog was on a leash and its owner was doing her best to pull the dog away, but it was having none of that. 

The dog clearly liked the man and continued to strain on its lead; tail wagging furiously and a big tongue doing its best to reach and lick the man’s face.

I was intrigued as I watched this and realised that the man appeared to be homeless, or at least he was begging.

Next to where he sat, he had two old crumpled cardboard boxes. I assumed they were to collect money or other donations.

He seemed to be enjoying the affections of the dog.

As we travelled past them, I couldn’t help but notice that dogs don’t discriminate.

They don’t know who is rich or poor. Who knows if they see fat or thin, big or small, different coloured skin and hair. They don’t know who is smart and who isn’t. They don’t know who works and who doesn’t. They mostly love and accept everyone.

Pity that the lady couldn’t allow the dog and the man to enjoy some affection.

What makes us discriminate?

How come we can’t behave more like dogs and be more accepting towards others?

Your action this week is to be mindful of your thoughts, feelings and actions and notice whether you find yourself discriminating or accepting others.

It’s Reception (WT482)

It’s Reception (WT482)

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by Shirley Dalton | 20 Sep, 2019 | Blog, Customer Service

WT482 It's Reception

The phone rang.

“Hi Shirley, it’s Reception. Are you guys extending over the long weekend?”

I had no idea who Reception was, nor to what she was referring. 

I had to ask her, “Reception. Reception from where?” 

She didn’t give me the answer I was looking for. 

“Are you guys extending over the long weekend?” she repeated.

My mind was racing.

What reception? What about the long weekend?

Then it suddenly dawned on me. She was the receptionist at the caravan park we were staying at.

I was working onsite at a client’s premises and normally wouldn’t have even answered the phone, however I had forgotten to turn it to silent.

I realised she must have thought that I was sitting around in the caravan park and of course I would know who and what Reception was.

Wow! Talk about lack of communication and automatic listening. I was making up all sorts of things in my mind to explain this situation.

I couldn’t help but think that a little (or a lot) of phone technique or scripting was needed.

How about something like, “Good morning, I’m Julia calling from Your Favourite Caravan Park. I’m ringing to confirm whether you are planning on extending your stay to include the long weekend.”

If she had introduced herself, the company and reason for the call, it would have prevented my negative reaction, anxiety, confusion and anger.

Your customer doesn’t always know who you are or why you are calling. Your customer doesn’t always understand what you’re talking about or trying to communicate.

Here’s your action for this week: 

  1. Discuss how you would have reacted if you received the introduction I did from Reception?
  1. Discuss how your Receptionist would have handled the call?
  1. Review your policies and procedures and make sure you have your standard scripts documented. 
  1. Train and support your people.

Your business’ reputation is far more valuable than simply being referred to as  “Reception”. 

You Need a Driver (WT481)

You Need a Driver (WT481)

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by Shirley Dalton | 13 Sep, 2019 | Blog, Business

WT481 You Need A Driver

I’ve mentioned a few times about the REACH profile. In the past few weeks, I’ve worked with a number of companies where the executive team have completed their profiles.

It has been really interesting to see the results.

In some companies, they have at least one of each profile (Counselor, Coach, Advisor and Driver), whilst others are missing a Driver. 

You need a Driver. A Driver is focussed on the “what”. They are results and outcome focussed and they will push us to get things done.

Without a Driver, we can tend to take it a bit easy and may not accomplish as much as we are capable of.

Ross is a Driver and I’ve noticed how he drives me.  On occasions when I want to wimp out and leave it for another day, he will push and let me know that I have to get my work done so he can do his. Uh! I don’t like it. However, I recognise the need for someone to do the pushing.

Here are the key words for the profiles and how they fit together.

Counselor – “who”. They focus on the people and are great at creating team and welcoming and inducting new team members. 

Coach – “why”. They’re great at inspiring and rallying others around a cause once they understand why the cause is important.

Advisor – “how”. They want to know the details and will push you to share how you plan on achieving your goals.  Interestingly, one of my clients recently demonstrated this perfectly in a management meeting when he pushed the Chair (a Counselor) for “How? How are we going to achieve this? What is your plan?”

Driver – “what”.  What are we looking to achieve? What is the outcome we want? What resources do we need?   

Ideally your management team should have at least one of each to ensure your company covers all important aspects as mentioned above.  At the very least, you need a Driver.

Clean Up Your Mess (WT480)

Clean Up Your Mess (WT480)

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by Shirley Dalton | 6 Sep, 2019 | Blog, Leadership

WT480 Clean Up Your Mess

Years ago, Ross and I attended a week long conference with Jack Canfield, best selling author of The Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books in Scottsdale, Arizona. The conference was called “Breakthrough to Success” and was based on one of his other best selling books “The Success Principles – How to Get from Where You are Now to Where You Want to Be”.

One of the lessons Jack taught us was to take 100% Responsibility for ourselves and our actions.

It was confronting at the time and yet so liberating.

This week in our leadership experience, I shared a similar exercise with participants.

We were discussing how it is never too late to clean up your mess. In other words, you can always say sorry or assert yourself, even if you think the moment has passed.

Here’s a couple of questions from the exercise.

Starting with “If I were to take just 10% more responsibility for ………. I would ………..”

What are you doing that is not working that you need to do less of?

What are you doing that is working that you need to do more of?

What are you not doing that you could try on to see if it works?

What will you commit to doing as a result of this exercise?

In other words, what mess are you responsible for and what can and will you do to clean it up?

When will you do that?

Let me know what your commitment is by commenting on this post.

It’s amazing how much we can achieve when we know we are being held accountable.

Are you willing to clean up your mess this week?

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