Immaculée Ilibagiza is a Rwandan American author and motivational speaker.
She is also a Roman Catholic and Tutsi. Her first book, Left to Tell:
Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, is an autobiographical work
detailing how she survived during the Rwandan Genocide. She was featured on
one of Wayne Dyer’s PBS programs, and also on a December 3, 2006 segment of
60 Minutes.

Immaculée shared her harrowing story of escaping genocide, while losing her
family… and I marveled at her journey of resilience. I considered my own
fear and anger… Continue reading →

Immaculée Ilibagiza is a Rwandan American author and motivational speaker.
She is also a Roman Catholic and Tutsi. Her first book, Left to Tell:
Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, is an autobiographical work
detailing how she survived during the Rwandan Genocide. She was featured on
one of Wayne Dyer’s PBS programs, and also on a December 3, 2006 segment of
60 Minutes.

Immaculée shared her harrowing story of escaping genocide, while losing her
family… and I marveled at her journey of resilience. I considered my own
fear and anger… Continue reading →

Sam Adeyemi is a dynamic Teacher, Coach and host of the motivational program – SUCCESS POWER – which airs on radio and television stations around Africa and in Europe. He is passionate about teaching Success, Leadership and Financial principles through seminars and the media. He is in high demand as a speaker internationally. His teachings have motivated, encouraged and spurred on loads of people to start or advance their careers and businesses.

He has authored several books including the best selling – Parable of Dollars. Others include “Ideas Rule the World”, “Start with what you have”, “Sex Straight Talk” and “Second Revolution”.
He also pastors the Daystar Christian Centre in Nigeria with a vision to raise role models in the society. And he is President of the Daystar Leadership Academy through which he helps professionals and entrepreneurs to cultivate excellent leadership skills.

Drawing on the disillusioned start of his church 22 years ago, Pastor Sam reminded us that real and sustainable transformation begins with helping people experience a sense of new identity. 

This new identity is not new, rather they have not lived into their truest self. An individual bases his/her identity on their circumstances, the voices of people who have given them labels based on behavior, economic status and environment. 

Sustainable change is not about cosmetics, it is about a change of the heart. 

What a person sees and hears over time, enters his/her heart and life goes on auto-pilot.

Providing a change in what people see and hear will, in time, get into their heart… and true identity can be embraced. This happens in these ways: 

• Describe your vision over and over. New identities should be found in the vision.
  • I’m wondering…
    • How will I describe people? How will I speak to them as they will become? Am I seeing who they already are? Am I recognizing their “today” value and worth and uniqueness?
    • How will I treat people – employees, teams – as they will be, as though they are already are?
  • Sam asked us to REMEMBER: The leader is not there because he/she is important, but because the people following are important.
• Set up a structured training system.
  • I’m wondering…
    • How does the training help people become who THEY are… and not merely creating people who are the people we think they should be? 
• Model transformation.
  • Walk the talk. Be consistent. 
• Reinvent yourself over and over. 
  • I’m thinking…
    • This cannot be about changing our identity, but rather it is about learning and continual becoming – in order to be our Truest Self.

Sam’s vision to call out the best in people; his vision to not merely look for the already-arrived leaders, but to believe in, trust, develop and care for people who bear God’s thumbprint to LOVE, to BE, to be Difference-Makers.

Continue reading →

Sam Adeyemi is a dynamic Teacher, Coach and host of the motivational
program – SUCCESS POWER – which airs on radio and television stations
around Africa and in Europe. He is passionate about teaching Success,
Leadership and Financial principles through seminars and the media. He is
in high demand as a speaker internationally. His teachings have motivated,
encouraged and spurred on loads of people to start or advance their careers
and businesses.

He has authored several books including the best selling – Parable of
Dollars. Others include “Ideas Rule the World”, “Start with what you have”,
“Sex Straight Talk” and “Second Revolution”.
He also pastors the Daystar Christian Centre in Nigeria with a vision to
raise role models in the society. And he is President of the Daystar
Leadership Academy through which he helps professionals and entrepreneurs
to cultivate excellent leadership skills.

Drawing on the disillusioned start of his church 22 years ago, Pastor Sam
reminded us that… Continue reading →

Marcus Buckingham is a British author, motivational speaker and business consultant. Basing most of his writing on extensive survey data from interviews with workers in countries around the world, he promotes the idea that people will get the best results by making the most of their strengths rather than by putting too much emphasis on weaknesses or perceived deficiencies.

WE learn nothing about excellence from failures. Only by studying excellence can we learn excellence. 

• 8 questions/conditions in Excellent Workplaces:
  • Purpose
    • WE: The team is really enthusiastic about the mission of my company
    • ME: I clearly understand what is expected of me
  • Excellence
    • WE: On my team, I am surrounded by people who share values
    • ME: I have the chance to use my strengths every day at work
  • Support
    • WE: I know my teammates have my back
    • ME: I know I will be recognized for work I do
  • Future
    • WE: I have great confidence in my company’s future
    • ME: I always feel challenged to grow

Great leaders integrate BOTH the WE and the ME. We tend to think of WE considerations most often, but without the ME questions we miss serving people as the individuals they are. 

The single most important and bottom-line learning after 25 years of research, is this:

Leading is understanding the talent and work of each individual and how we help that individual make their significant and unique contribution to the team.

This can be accomplished by Frequent Strengths based Check-ins about Near-term Future Work, asking two questions: What are your priorities? How can I help? 

None of us, none of us wants feedback; we want attention, we want coaching attention…help me get better.

Continue reading →

Marcus Buckingham is a British author, motivational speaker and business consultant. Basing most of his writing on extensive survey data from interviews with workers in countries around the world, he promotes the idea that people will get the best results by making the most of their strengths rather than by putting too much emphasis on weaknesses or perceived deficiencies.

WE learn nothing about excellence from failures. Only by studying excellence can we learn excellence. 

• 8 questions/conditions in Excellent Workplaces:
  • Purpose
    • WE: The team is really enthusiastic about the mission of my company
    • ME: I clearly understand what is expected of me
  • Excellence
    • WE: On my team, I am surrounded by people who share values
    • ME: I have the chance to use my strengths every day at work
  • Support
    • WE: I know my teammates have my back
    • ME: I know I will be recognized for work I do
  • Future
    • WE: I have great confidence in my company’s future
    • ME: I always feel challenged to grow

Great leaders integrate BOTH the WE and the ME. We tend to think of WE considerations most often, but without the ME questions we miss serving people as the individuals they are. 

The single most important and bottom-line learning after 25 years of research, is this:

Leading is understanding the talent and work of each individual and how we help that individual make their significant and unique contribution to the team.

This can be accomplished by Frequent Strengths based Check-ins about Near-term Future Work, asking two questions: What are your priorities? How can I help? 

None of us, none of us wants feedback; we want attention, we want coaching attention…help me get better.

Continue reading →

Marcus Buckingham is a British author, motivational speaker and business
consultant. Basing most of his writing on extensive survey data from
interviews with workers in countries around the world, he promotes the idea
that people will get the best results by making the most of their strengths
rather than by putting too much emphasis on weaknesses or perceived
deficiencies.

WE learn nothing about excellence from failures. Only by studying
excellence… Continue reading →

Juliet Funt, CEO of Whitespace at Work, is an advisor to Fortune 500 companies, a tough yet loving guide to thousands of WhiteSpace friends, and a warrior in the battle agains… Continue reading →

Juliet Funt, CEO of Whitespace at Work, is an advisor to Fortune 500
companies, a tough yet loving guide to thousands of WhiteSpace friends, and
a warrior in the battle against reactive busyness.

We are getting less and less comfortable with the PAUSE in our lives. It
has become a memory for many of us. The PAUSE is slowing down enough to
experience new ideas, fresh thoughts and break-through… Continue reading →

Laszlo Bock is an American businessman who was formerly the Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google, Inc. Prior to joining Google, Bock served in executive roles at General Electric, as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, and in various roles at startups, nonprofits, and in acting.

Bock observed that at the 14-15 different jobs he held, what was consistent was that each organization had a gap between stated values and actual, functional values. 

He ventured into HR because of those disappointing experiences. Reflecting on his time at Google, the principle and practices that made GOOGLE successful is universal.

The most important thing – Give your work meaning. And as a leader, it is to provide an environment where work has meaning for every employee. 

For work to have continual meaning, the reasons why, the joy of the work MUST be communicated over and over and over again. Meaningful work is defined as meaningful when teh experiences at work

1. Figure why you are doing the work you’re doing – remind yourself every day.

2. Ask people around you: why are doing this?

3. Listen to stories face-to-face from those who benefit from the work your’e doing.

4. Do this over and over and over again.

TRUST:

• Organizations miss the foundational truth that people are innately good. Believing this will breed trust in the people working for us and with us.
• One practical expression is to invite the team to post / share their present goals, fostering connection around shared goals to fulfill the WHY.
• Inviting people to voice what needs to be fixed, followed by empowerment to provide solutions communicates VALUE and TRUST.
• Give the staff more FREEDOM – to the point of feeling uncomfortable about the freedom granted. 
• LISTEN to ideas generated from the freedom – and say “yes, do it!”

RECRUITING / HIRING: 

• We hire poorly because we make immediate judgements that we spend the rest of the conversation time looking for things that affirm our original thoughts.
• Don’t let the people who are responsible for hiring, do the interviewing.
• Commit to hire someone better than yourself; someone you can learn from.

Then – over and over and over and over – do this. 

Do your people right and they’ll do right by you.

Bock left Google recently and is launching a new initiative called HUMU. 

Continue reading →