Subject: [Partnerwerks TeamWisdom Tips] HOW POTENT ARE YOUR GOALS?
Welcome to Partnerwerks TeamWisdom Tips!
by Christopher M. Avery, Ph.D. (http://www.partnerwerks.com)
August 8, 2002
Read by 2965 professionals in 46 countries.
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Wish to subscribe or unsubscribe? See last section, below.
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TeamWisdom(TM) Tips promotes individual mental skills and
behaviors that create highly responsible and productive
relationships at work.
This week's line-up:
1. 10-Second TeamWisdom
2. Welcome Notes
3. HOW POTENT ARE YOUR GOALS?
4. 5-Minute TeamWisdom Stretch
5. Uncommon TeamWisdom Resources
6. TeamWisdom Quotes
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1. 10-Second TeamWisdom
If you are exerting what feels like too much effort to get
something done in your life, team or organization. Or, if
you've plateaued and not making progress, check the potency
of your goals.
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2. Welcome Notes
Thank you for caring enough about your own effectiveness at
work to be a subscriber.
We are back from vacation and knee deep in projects again.
It feels good. Vacations are a great "pattern-interrupt," a
way to completely change your world for a short while so
upon returning to your routine, you can see it with fresh
eyes. I hope you incorporate positive pattern-interupts into
your life.
--
I'm so excited to be personally leading not one but two
sessions of Being Powerful in Any Team before the end of the
year! I've made myself unavailable for speaking engagements
or client work during these times so join me in the
beautiful Texas Hill Country for this high-impact learning
event. If you think you're to busy to attend, you've got to
see our productivity improvement guarantee. And if works a
little slow, then this is a great time to invest in
leadership development!
October 21-23, 2002
December 2-4, 2002
Details and on-line registration at
http://www.beingpowerful.com. Enter affiliate code "TIPS"
for a 10% discount only available to TeamWisdom Tips readers
and your colleagues.
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2. HOW POTENT ARE YOUR GOALS?
The purpose of a goal is to keep you in motion. Here's a
personal example. I've long wanted to participate in a
multi-day organized bike ride such as the 300-mile Aids
rides or the MS150 rides. I recently worked it out with my
calendar and family to register for an MS150 ride happening
in early October. Since I registered last week my behavior
has altered tremendously, and, without my exerting effort to
change or discipline myself. I've changed my workouts,
adjusted my diet, altered my sleep pattern, replaced the
battery for my sports watch, cleaned and lubricated my bike,
and revised the spreadsheet I use as a training log. For all
the motion it has "pulled" me into, I'd say that my
intention to do that 150 mile bike ride is a potent goal!
(If you'll consider supporting me in attaining this goal,
please see my letter at http://www.partnerwerks.com/MS.htm.)
America's leading success guru Tony Robbins claims there
are no lazy people, only people with impotent goals. I
agree. Without going into psychological detail, suffice to
say everyone has potent dreams, desires, wishes, wants,
fantasies, visions, and drives within them. Buckminster
Fuller said it well: "There's something spontaneously
arousable in each and every one of us." The difference
between highly motivated people (those are the one's in
motion) and so-called lazy or low-motivated people is that
low-motivated folks are satisfied with impotent goals. They
haven't yet learned to discover and tap into the potent
drives that dwell within them.
For example, consider that I realized my diet had segued
from what I knew served me best, but changing required too
much e-f-f-o-r-t (I've had one coach use the term
"efforting" to describe making--rather than allowing--
ourselves to do things). My workouts and fitness level
drifted along with my diet. I knew it, and wished it hadn't,
but it seemed to take too much e-f-f-o-r-t to do anything
about it. For months, I knew that my training log could be
revised to better track my training, but the e-f-f-o-r-t to
change it just seemed unreasonable. Get the picture?
If you are "efforting" to make changes and to get things
done, or, if you (or your team, department or organization)
are/is not in motion, then take the hint and examine the
potency of your goals.
Here are a few important distinctions:
-When you close in on a goal, realize that only another goal
will keep you in motion (I always like to be planning two
vacations into the future!!).
-Achieving goals, coming close to goals, and even doing our
best and missing goals by a mile all deserve acknowledgement
and celebration, else future goals might be impotent.
-Realize that the meaning and thus the potency of a goal
sometimes changes across time or as your proximity to it
changes (witness the number of people who skip graduation
ceremonies).
-Impotent goals are worth letting go.
-"Efforting" is an important message about one's direction
or the potency of one's goals. The most incredible people I
know seem to get everything in their lives done effortlessly
and enjoy every bit of it. And I'm not talking about people
who were born into advantage.
So what does all of this goal stuff have to do with
TeamWisdom? Just this: Many leaders and partners don't
realize that a potent goal for them might be impotent for
others. Thus a stated team goal that doesn't put other
people into motion is an impotent goal. Often, leaders or
partners mistakenly think something is wrong with the
people! The leaders who truly understand that the purpose of
a goal is to put people into motion, don't declare something
a goal until they observe what moves their teammates. Hint:
Ask teammates and partners what's in it for them to work on
_this_ project _this_ time, and keep the conversation going
until energy wells up. There's a goal in that energy
somewhere. Find it!
Get started with this week's 5-Minute TeamWisdom Stretch.
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Get your copy of "Teamwork Is an Individual Skill: Getting
Your Work Done When Sharing Responsibility" at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576751554/partnerofficeont/
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4. 5-Minute Practice Tip
Examine your life and work for one situation where you are
exerting what you feel is too much effort in order to
achieve something. Ask yourself whether you are truly
committed to this or not (you probably are, but you might
decide it's worth giving up). If you are committed to it,
but don't want it to feel like effort, look for a potent
goal to attach to it that will make it appear effortless.
Want more goal setting strategies? See Uncommon TeamWisdom
Resources below for information about a great newsletter and
eWorkbook by author and speaker Dr. Tony Alessandra.
I wish you a world of responsible and productive
relationships at work.
Faithfully, Christopher
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FREE! . . . Introduce me to any company's meeting planners
and/or leadership development managers and I'll send them a
marketing kit full of testimonial letters that will make you
proud. Then I'll send you my book (sells for $18.95) or the
print version of the Leader's Guide (sells for $22.95). Just
direct folks to the page below and cc us at
teamwisdom@partnerwerks.com:
http://www.partnerwerks.com/ServProd/ca_talk.html
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Christopher will be traveling to and speaking...
- September 12, City of Santa Ana Managers Conference, Santa
Ana, CA
- October 14, AT&T Project Management Symposium, Basking
Ridge, NJ
- October 21-23, Being Powerful In Any Team, San Antonio, TX
(http://www.beingpowerful.com)
- October 26, Pepperdine MSOD Alumni Conference, Lake Tahoe,
NV
- November 12-13, The LawPartnering Forum, NJ
- December 2-4, Being Powerful In Any Team, San Antonio, TX
(http://www.beingpowerful.com)
- December 12-13, ProjectWorld, Santa Clara, CA
(http://www.ProjectWorld.com)
- February 17-19, 2003, Being Powerful In Any Team, San
Antonio, TX (http://www.beingpowerful.com)
- May 13-15, 2003 Being Powerful In Any Team, San Antonio,
TX (http://www.beingpowerful.com)
Is Christopher coming to a city near you? Want him to speak
at your company or meeting? See
http://www.partnerwerks.com/Servprod/ca_talk.html
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5. Uncommon TeamWisdom Resources
Fellow author and speaker Dr. Tony Alessandra offers an
excellent and inspiring eWorkbook that will help you create
potent goals. You can buy it for only $9.95 at
http://www.alessandra.com/goalsetting
Or, to get it for free, sign up for his excellent 52-week
series of emails on self-improvement and then encourage two
of your friends to also sign up. Send an email to
alessandra@aweber.com, or got to http://www.alessandra.com
and click on the box that reads "free 52 week email series."
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Got a teamwork problem? Conduct free keyword searches of
more than 150 articles on TeamWisdom at
http://www.partnerwerks.com/TeamResrc/ttarchive.html
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6. TeamWisdom Quotes
Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that accompanies
important ongoing activity.
~Paul Goodman
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take
your eyes off the goal.
~Hannah More
To live for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of
the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
~Unknown
In absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely
loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.
~Unknown
The reason most people never reach their goals is that they
don't define them, or ever seriously consider them as
believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they
are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will
be sharing the adventure with them.
~Denis Watley
Do not turn back when you are just at the goal.
~Publilius Syrus
Reach high, for the stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream
deep, for every dream precedes the goal.
~Pamela Vaull Starr
The greater the loyalty of a group toward the group, the
greater is the motivation among the members to achieve the
goals of the group, and the greater the probability that the
group will achieve its goals.
~Rensis Likert
My goal in life is to survive. Everything else is just a
bonus.
~The Lockhorns
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Copyright 1998-2002, all rights reserved. TeamWisdom,
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by-line: Christopher M. Avery, Ph.D., author of "Teamwork Is
An Individual Skill: Getting Your Work Done When Sharing
Responsibility," and president of Partnerwerks
(http://www.partnerwerks.com). And please send us a courtesy
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