Category Archives: acceleration

  • -
slow growth

Is Slow Growth Better Than No Growth?

Tags : 

The easy answer is, yes. Slow growth is probably happening all around you, sometimes you don’t even realize it. Yet, a lack of action can lead to no growth, and worse, decline.

The operating environment lovingly known as Windows was first released in 1985. It’s grown a lot in 35+ years.

It may have been hard to see it growing from day-to-day but over longer periods it is easier to see.

Much of your daily environment has been changing and growing across months, years, and decades. In addition to computing products, look at transportation, radio and television, and even kitchen appliances. Growth, and lots of it.

People often take for granted what is happening for the development process. Whether it is a technology device or professional growth.

Change and growth often go hand-in-hand, but change can also lead to decline. Stopping or stalling is often the first indication that some decline is about to emerge.

My belief is that the airline industry has declined. The service and reliability of schedules has been in deep decline since the 1990s. While there are many influences and factors, from my experiences, it is a fact. It’s declining.

What are your personal aspirations? Are you growing personally or professionally, or have you stalled, or worse?

Slow Growth

There are many metaphorical expressions and evidence of unrecognized growth. Trees are a great example, they seem to grow very slow, then suddenly, with a more intentional observation, they are big.

Something big or something small, there is change every day.

An idea, an expression, or even an opportunity to see something differently than you have before.

People learn to listen better (hearing is instinctual, listening is a developed skill), observe better, and even be more empathic or generous.

Stops or stalls don’t last very long. As quickly as they happen, without appropriate action they are just about to decline.

This is exactly why whatever is happening in your environment, you need to change. It may be slow, almost unnoticed, but across time it still matters.

Slow growth is always better than no growth.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


  • -
smart approaches

Smart Approaches and Being Well-Educated

Tags : 

Do you use smart approaches to work and strategy? Are you or your team well-educated?

People often talk about being smart, doing smart things, and how to become more successful. Can you be smart and not well-educated, or vice-versa?

Traditional education systems have faced a lot of challenges over the past few years.

Many people suggest that the pendulum is swinging a different direction for higher education. What was once considered essential, or a dream for first generation college degrees within a family, has waned slightly.

Education still matters. It matters a great deal. However, you can be well-educated and not necessarily make smart choices or decisions.

What matters the most for your job, your career, or your business?

Smart Approaches

More experience sometimes suggests smarter. When people have tried something and it doesn’t work, they often try again just a with a little more knowledge.

Learning can happen in many ways. It can happen from experience, from reading, listening, watching, and from a formal setting.

A combination of knowledge and experience seems likely to produce the best results.

Experience only, may give you skills, yet, at the same time it may limit knowledge base to a somewhat fixed opinion.

Can you learn commonsense? Can someone teach it?

Success for many people in the workplace comes more from navigation rather merit. It matters more how you can navigate situations and people rather than the technical aspects of work.

Both are needed, but both are not often in abundance.

Doing things the way you were taught may not always mean you’re doing things right. It is true for what you’ve read, learned, and even what you have experienced.

Being smart often matters more.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


  • -
workplace tenacity

Workplace Tenacity, Turtle Race and Bunny Hops!

Tags : 

How do you approach work? Are you in the groove of getting by, or are you charging ahead by giving the best example of workplace tenacity?

Having the commitment and approaching your work with rigor are characteristics that should not be forgotten. Work is called work for a reason.

One of the best examples of leadership comes to you through role models. Role models often pursue their work unknowingly. They are unknowingly are serving others through their own example.

Are you an example of tenacity?

Workplace Tenacity

Change is a constant. So is the reality of shifting duties, responsibilities, and careful navigation.

Many hard-charging employees believe that the way to succeed is through merit. Merit matters, it matters a lot, but for the fast-trackers it seems that one of the most important attributes is navigation.

Knowing when, how, or having luck on your side and managing it well is just as important as having a technical skill.

Are you flexible? Can you pivot without wavering? Do you compromise, can you balance actions and behaviors while not going too far outside of the lines?

Work is often about mastering your craft. That means not only technically, but by careful navigation.

It might be more about a race of turtles, not the zig-zag fast hops of rabbits. Observation suggests the rabbits are winning, but one or two hops in the wrong direction can mean devastating consequences.

Consider building skills centered around your expertise and supplementing your efforts by careful navigation.

Technical skills are abundant, the greater challenge is navigation.

Tenacity means you’re in it for the long haul.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


  • -
best tactic

The Best Tactic Isn’t Always Repeatable

Tags : 

Do you need to hire more employees, need more revenue, or you are looking for a way to fast-track you to the top? People often listen for the best tactic or what worked elsewhere in an attempt to replicate it. It may be possible but not always probable.

When you attend the conference or the business meeting there are often discussions about best practices. One fallacy is that often people are discussing their luckiest opportunity but it is presented as a common practice.

What worked once may not always work again especially when it comes to people, mindset, and socio-economic conditions.

Getting your biggest client may have been by luck. A chance encounter, the right place at the right time. Perhaps you met at a business meeting, in a first-class seat on an airplane, or while vacationing at Disney World in Florida.

Does that mean that you should spend each day flying around the country in a first-class seat or hanging out at Disney World?

Have you considered your best tactic? When it comes to business success, personal success, or navigating through your career, what is your best tactic?

Best Tactic

Is it repeatable?

There are some people who should be advising no people. It could even be your own thinking or mindset, an attempt to help yourself but you stay stuck.

Best tactics are likely repeatable tactics. The tactic that when practiced over and over will yield favorable results.

A farmer might plant thousands of seeds, it takes special care, but it is a proven repeatable tactic.

Meeting your largest customer on an airplane can happen, but it is much more by chance than by strategy. At the same time being prepared if the opportunity arises is a good tactic.

People often underestimate the value of repetitive actions or behaviors. The habits that you prepare for and practice every day are the best indicator of what your future success might look like.

When you are giving advice, or seeking it, be cautious of the questions you ask. Be even more cautious of the answers you receive and the strategy you deploy based on the information.

A chance encounter or a lucky break may never occur exactly the same way a second time. However, the tactic of being prepared should it happen may bring you more luck.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


  • -
working hard

Working Hard, Does It Pay Off?

Tags : 

Many people are encouraged that success comes from working hard. There is also the work smart, not hard crowd. Does working hard really pay off?

How would you describe hard work? Is it something that makes you feel exhausted? Is it physical labor?

One definition of working hard may connect people with the concept of effort. Physical labor, emotional labor, the effort to do more, learn more and become more valuable. Does that include working smart? Depending on your definition, yes, it most likely does.

Likely, it is a combination of many things. It includes being smart, or the ability to assess circumstances and situations and learn from them.

The definition of success is different for each person. When you are trying to become successful in your job or career what things should you do?

Working Hard

In some workplaces, the rate of pay is not based on merit. It is based on credentials, years of service, and the definition of the position you hold. The pay then, with a little bit of subjectivity, is calculated using these factors. Should you work hard or do just enough to fulfill the job duties as defined in the job description? Will this pay off?

Your success may also include another factor.

Have you factored in how you’ll navigate your job role?

What is the culture of the business or organization where you work? Does hard work matter, or is it more about navigation? Should you achieve as many credentials as possible in order to achieve more pay or get a promotion?

Should you just be quiet, and stay out of the way?

Nearly every circumstance or situation will be different. What pays off for you is likely going to be a combination of many factors. Some of it may involve credentials, some of it may involve physical and emotional labor. In some cases, it may be largely about relationships.

Does hard work pay off? It may depend on what you consider hard.

The hardest work of all may be figuring out how you will navigate. Does that exhaust you?

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


  • -
time efficiency

Time Efficiency Starts With More Patience

Tags : 

Time and efficiency are not the same thing. Time efficiency probably sounds a lot more like productivity. Is faster better, less risky, and more meaningful? Unlikely.

It is always a race against a clock.

We needed this yesterday.

It’s overdue.

Must be done now.

It’s true, time does cost. Yet, so does a lack of clarity, errors made in haste, and inferior quality.

Vloggers sometimes speed up their final product, a time-lapse of sorts, get through the slow spots faster. Someone might fast forward through the commercials of a recorded television show. Install a Chrome browser extension to speed up viewing of video content. Is it the same experience for everyone?

Of course, it isn’t.

Setting Pace

People have different life experiences, different listening and perception skills, and even a pace that feels just right.

Some people walk faster, others slower. Read faster, read slower. Enjoy the moment longer, or skip the moment altogether.

The result? Like most things in life there is a sweet spot in the middle. Outliers tend to exist on either end of the continuum.

Time management matters but it is more than just streamlining a schedule.

Finished first is important, but a nice-looking boat that won’t float has much less value.

For workplace leaders, sometimes you have to go slow, to go fast.

Time Efficiency

A team pushed too far will have more mistakes, more waste, and increased issues with quality. Worse, when the team learns more about the metric used for measurement and the pressure is high, integrity starts to slip.

A team member falling behind is often skipped rather than supported. It’s a harmful cultural scenario that applies more pressure to top performers as they make up for lagging contributors. Eventually, top performers burn out, feel abused and misused.

Individuals and organizations often need more time efficiency.

That often starts with more patience. Get everyone onboard. Run on all cylinders.

Don’t wait, get started.

The clock is ticking.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


  • -
learning investment

Learning Investment, Is That What You’re Making?

Tags : 

Many people invest in retirement programs. Some people invest in real estate. Buy a home and count on its value appreciating. What about learning? Are you making a learning investment?

You have daily, weekly, and monthly bills. Turn on the lights, drive to work, or pay for cable TV? These really are not investments, they are more in line with what you would consider expenses.

While some of those may be consistent with the cost of doing business or earning a paycheck, they really aren’t a direct investment.

Is learning an investment for you?

Have you attended college or some form of specialized training? Did you have to take out a loan, or save really hard in order to pay for it? If so, is it an investment or an expense?

It may depend on what you do next.

Learning Investment

Making a commitment to improving your skills is probably not an expense. It’s not the same as the cost of doing laundry or buying food.

An investment would suggest that you are spending time, money, or the energy to do something or create something that is going to provide a return later. The idea of course is that the return has more value than what it originally cost.

It’s an investment.

When you buy a book, and read it, it might be an investment. When you sign up for a workshop or take a class, it should be considered an investment.

If you join a trade association, a Chamber of Commerce, or some form of professional organization or club, it might be an investment.

Most motorized vehicle purchases are not an investment. They depreciate instead of appreciate in value. The same is true for your electronic purchases, such as your smartphone, laptop, or camera. They may be tools or toys, but they are likely not an investment.

Learning produces or enhances skills. It may add to your competence and your ability to earn more.

You can attend college or go to a specialized seminar. The act of going may feel like an expense. Being committed to learning and using the knowledge gain is an investment.

Learning may be one of the most economical investments you can make.

Do you see it that way?

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


  • -
workplace scarcity

Workplace Scarcity Causes More People To Act

Tags : 

“It was important because it seemed like it was our last chance.” Sound familiar? Workplace scarcity often drives people to action. Is that a good thing?

It seems like the U.S. economy is thriving on the concept of scarcity. Everything from home appliances, to building materials, to canning jars. Nearly every day someone has a story to share about something that they wanted to buy only to find little or no supply. I think it all started about a year ago with toilet tissue.

Fear compels people to do irrational things. It encourages quick decisions that are sometimes thoughtless and reckless.

When it comes to sales, the principle of scarcity is not a stranger. Sales teams often thrive on the principle of scarcity.

You can even observe it in television shows such as American Pickers and Pawn Stars. These shows often illustrate that the price increases when there is a belief that the item in question is scarce.

Does it affect behaviors and decisions in your workplace?

Workplace Scarcity

Almost everything is a rush. There is a race against time to produce faster, newer, fresher, and always be the first to ship. It doesn’t matter if it is services or products, it is a race.

The pace of business today often results in a lack of patience for decisions. Patience is not the same as procrastination, and a lack of patience is often created when there is a feeling of scarcity.

We need to hire someone fast.

Stock up, there is going to be a shortage coming soon.

Rumors are that the only supplier on the east coast may go out of business.

Through advertising we often see things implying scarcity.

Hurry, last one.

Limited collector’s edition.

This item won’t last long.

Is scarcity working for you or against you? Are there issues connected to trust when it comes to scarcity?

Have employees been scared into hasty decisions so many times that they are immune to the thought? Does it create a failure to act when action is required?

Acting fast is often important. Acting right now, may imply a different spin.

Scarcity can be both a sword and a shield. It can be the difference between saving a situation or costing you dearly.

Awareness of how scarcity springs people to action is important. It is as important as trust.

Leaders are role models for behaviors. How you communicate, advertise, and make decisions will become part of your culture.

If you’re thriving on selling with scarcity tactics you can expect the same with your team as they make decisions and choices for what happens next.

One thing often follows scarcity.

Buyers remorse.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


  • -
best employee

Best Employee, It Always Depends On The Crowd

Tags : 

Have you ever wanted to be the best employee? Do you strive for excellence, opportunity, and are a responsibility junkie? Perhaps you are one of the good ones.

Businesses often seek to scale. They want to create an organization that can be proud of the work that they accomplish.

Often they seek to be the best in their community, the best in their region, their State, or go really big and be one of the best in the World.

Some businesses have done this. Microsoft might be one, or Amazon, the financial services sector has some, and certainly many more. The vision and mission of a business can seem overwhelming at times.

Yet there are many business endeavors that seek to serve a smaller market. They have a niche and they may not be global, they may not be Statewide or even regional. In some cases, they may be hometown heroes. Serving a small, but very viable audience.

There are millions of songwriters and performers, but only a few become Worldwide sensations. The same could easily be said about comedians, sports stars, and book authors.

What does success look like to you?

Best Employee

Are you seeking to achieve recognition in your job or career? Have you been known to be the best of a small team, or maybe moved up step-by-step until you reached the C-suite? Have you switched jobs, careers, or relocated to achieve more?

Plenty of people are trying to make their mark. Often, it isn’t about the money. It is about the recognition, the appreciation, and the feeling of accomplishment.

Achieving your success may be closer than you think. Serving a small audience and doing it well is likely much more rewarding than setting your sights on being an overnight success and being immediately propelled to the best in the World.

Being appreciated in a group of twenty-five feels good. Much better than be one of a hundred thousand, or one of a million trying to get a click, a like, or a view on social media channels.

Be a star of your group.

Start with the smallest viable audience and grow from there.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


  • -
learning commitment

Learning Commitment Changes Your Job

Tags : 

Commitment means commitment. It isn’t about a half-hearted approach. Having a learning commitment is often visible, and it’s always a game-changer.

Many small businesses start from a hobby, an interest, and lots of initiative. Some of those small businesses will grow very large, some not as much.

There are two reasons for the differences between small and large. The first is that the owner may not want to grow it big, and the second reason is that something gets lost in the commitment.

Although on a smaller scale, workplace employees have similar outcomes. Employees that are really committed to the mission often rise above the rest. Those approaching their work half-heartedly, not so much.

Many employees suggest that they are committed. Is that suggestion visible?

Learning Commitment

Spotting commitment really isn’t that difficult.

Committed employees study.

They study the actions and behaviors of role models. They also encourage and desire training, they study written materials, watch videos, read books, attend conferences, and are always committed to learning.

Change is an obstacle or a blessing. A hurdle to jump or an opportunity to capture.

Someone who is coasting backs away from obstacles and hurdles. The energy commitment is lacking, the drive towards creating more success doesn’t really matter.

If they’re on the clock, the clock continues to click and they are satisfied with that.

They are content and complacent.

Having a learning commitment is a game-changer. Each successive learning experience is a win. It’s a win for the organization and it’s a win for the employee.

You can always identify who’s committed.

They’re uncomfortable with coasting.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.


Search This Website

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Blog (Filter) Categories

Follow me on Twitter

Assessment Services and Tools

Strategic, Competency, or Needs Assessments, DiSC Assessments, 360 Feedback, and more. Learn more