Halifax will host the Canada Winter Games in February 2011. One of the venues that was built is the speed skating oval which is located in the Halifax Commons.  The commons is used for a great many different activities in the summer such as softball, tennis, ultimate Frisbee, football, soccer, rugby, picnics, and it is a great place to walk your dog and let him or her play fetch and have time to play with other dogs.  And of course the commons are not used nearly so much in the winter.  That is until now. The oval opened  on December 20, 2010 for public skating, speed skating, school skating and marathon skating. The public response was over whelming. Some public skates had 400 to 500 people skating. Different organizations donated skates and helmets and the Oval became one of the best things that has happened in Halifax for years.

The Oval was planned as a temporary facility.  It cost 2.5 million dollars to build and the six chillers that keep the ice frozen were to be distributed to different locations throughout the province after the games were completed. The cost of dismantling the facility and restoring it to its original grass field was half a million dollars. 

And then the most amazing thing happened. Joachim Stroink, owner of The Trail Shop put up a sign on his store’s marquee to “Save Our Oval.” Andrew Feenstra of Cyclesmith became involved and became one of the principle spokespersons. Several sites were posted on Facebook. I wasn’t able to find the Facebook sights and suggested that we have an on-line petition and website.  Andrew ask Jeff White of Kulapartners if he would develop the website and petition and it was up and running the next morning (go to www.savetheoval.ca).

The first day the site went live we started with two signatures on the petition. By the end of the first day there were 1500.  We asked everyone we knew to email everyone they knew to sign the petition.  People were signing the petition at a rate of over 100 per hour.  Two city councillors came on board as did the mayor.  There is also support from the business community to help support the Oval as well as the opportunity to rent the facility or maybe charge a small admission or donation for those who can afford it. 

In addition to the Save the Oval campaign going viral on the Internet, all forms of traditional media in terms of Newspapers, Radio and Television got on the band wagon. At this point, the Save the Oval campaign has hit a tipping point and it will be hard to stop it.  We have a more alive and vibrant city and we will have a healthier population. Sure the numbers may drop off after the novelty wears off, but there is no sign of that so far. In fact, one of the sporting goods stores reports that they have sold three times as many skates this year as opposed to last. It now takes two days to get skates sharpened anywhere within miles of the Oval and it is very common to meet and greet one’s friends while skating the Oval.  The Oval is the largest outdoor, artificially-refrigerated ice surface east of Quebec City and has an ice surface equivalent to 3 NHL hockey rinks, and there is currently free  helmet and skate Rentals. On-site Amenities include:

• Warming hut
• Portable washrooms
• Heritage display
• Picnic area
• On-site drop off and pick up area
• Skate change & spectator area

It now very much looks like a Tipping Point has been reached and the Oval will become a permanent and very welcome addition to our city. I am working on a campaign to eliminate the importation of blinding display hook into Canada and Nova Scotia.  After my experience in seeing the effects of social media in saving the Oval, I will certainly use social media much more effectively in helping to ban blinding display hooks.  Is there a way that you could use social media more effectively as a leader or influencer at work or in your community?

            Courage

            Creativity

            Innovation

            Collaboration

            Perseverance

            Determination, and

            Hard Work meet.   

There is no better example of this than Temple Grandin, who with the help of her mother, aunt, teachers, mentors, and people who believed in her, achieved more than anyone thought possible and made the world a better place for animals and people with autism.

If you want to be inspired to achieve more than you ever thought possible, I can’t recommend this movie highly enough. You can see a trailer for the magnificent film at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG6UI5BmhuA

Learning does not have to stop because we are being entertained, rather it facilitates the learning process.  If you have other examples I would be interested in hearing about them.

The purpose of this book is to help employees and in particular leaders, at any level, swim rather than sink as they transition to their new role.  The book covers 10 in-depth strategies including how to promote yourself, letting go and not doing your old job, preparing to take charge in your new role, assessing your vulnerabilities and laying the groundwork for success, creating coalitions and keeping your balance. However, I should add that there is a lot of wisdom in the book that can help anyone at any point in their career. 

The author explains the five conversations that you must have with your new boss. The first is The Situational Diagnosis Conversation where you have to agree to the current situation, for example is it a turnaround, a start-up, a realignment or a sustaining-success situation?

The second crucial situation is The Expectations Conversation whereby you will both have to understand and negotiate expectations. There is a wise saying that we either manage expectations or the expectations manage us. 

The third conversation is The Style Conversation. In some ways you will have to match or use your boss’ style, in other cases you can negotiate differences. I once read that style trumps substance every time and many a people have agreed on the situation and the expectations, only to derail on style. So negotiate and observe style very carefully and get advice on this and all of the other conversations from trusted advisors.

Not surprisingly, the fourth conversation is The Resource Conversation. You can be a great success in the first three areas, but unless you have the resources you need to get the job done, you will most likely fail.

The last conversation is The Personal Development Conversation. In some ways, personal development is just as important and in some cases more important than salary. Your personal development in terms of courses, mentoring, coaching and stretch assignments will go a long way in helping you move into your ideal career, will add to your work and career satisfaction, and will help shape your legacy. Of all of the conversations this is the one that most people pay the least attention to. 

I would like to give one more example of the strong sense of the wisdom that is contained in this book is to use the following example of dealing with cultural changes that you may face in the first 90 days in the new role. 

There are three different kinds of culture changes that can overlap during your transition into your new job. For example: You move to a new company that’s also in a new city or region, you’ll face organizational and geographic culture changes. It is useful to assess your culture adaptation challenge on a scale of 1 to 10 on each of the [following] three dimensions. On an organizational culture dimension, a 10 would be a move from a highly centralized, process-focused organization to a highly decentralized, relationship-focused organization. On the profession culture dimension, a 10 would be a move from finance to human resources or visa versa. Finally, on the geographic  dimension, a 10 would be a move from Minneapolis to Tokyo. If the total of these three numbers is 15 or greater, then you are facing a major cultural shift. To avoid missteps, you must devote significant energy to understanding and adapting to the new culture of cultures. 

This is just one example of the depth of understanding that Watkins brings to leaders as they face the transition to their new role. I can’t recommend this book highly enough, for those who are making the change and for those who are there to help make the transitions work as well as possible. The cost of not making the transition is extremely costly to all those who are involved, including the bystanders who will see how well the organizational culture supports or does not support employees as they move through some of the most important transitions in their careers. This is not to say that every transition will be successful. However by following the tenants laid out in this book, everyone will have a significantly better chance of making their transitions successful and/or learn from the mistakes that will invariable be made.

On a scale from 1 to 10, promoters are customers who give a company 9 or 10 ratings. They reported the highest repurchase rates by far, and they accounted for more than 80 percent of referrals. 

Passives rate the company 7 or 8.  This group repurchased and referral rates were a lot lower than those standpoint of promoters, often by 50 percent. Motivated more by inertia than by loyalty or enthusiasm, these customers may not defect ─ until somebody offers them a better deal. 

Detractors give a rating from 0 to 6. This groups accounts for more than 80 percent of negative word-or-mouth comments and their criticisms and attitudes diminish a company’s reputation, discourage new customers, and de-motivate employees. In other words, they suck the life out of a firm.

The Net Promoter Index is equal to the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors. We live in a feedback rich world, but most organizations do not harvest the feedback that exists to help them move from good to great. In this blog we are looking at employees scores rather than customer scores.

For example, when Enterprise moved into the airport car rental business, the operators were encouraged to experiment.  One operator started offering a bottle of chilled water on the shuttle bus and his customer satisfaction scores went through the roof. Because Enterprise is diligent about sharing best practices, offering chilled water became a standard practice at Enterprise.  “Other examples of Enterpirse’s enhanced services are picking you up at your home, office, or repair shop.”   

The consulting company Bain did a study in which their researchers surveyed North American employees who had worked ten years or more for the same company. The results were not promising:

These long-term employees are the heart and soul of most enterprises. They’re the people on whom the organization relies, the people who carry within their heads most of the institutional memory, skills, and knowledge that set a company apart from its competitors. They’re supervisors and team leaders, marketing and finance specialists, experienced technicians and sales people. They’re the veteran frontlines who help train newcomers.  

[However] they are a jaded lot. Only 39 percent trust their leaders to communicate openly and honestly. Only 33 percent believe that employee loyalty at their company is appropriately valued and rewarded.  Only 28 percent say that their company values people and relationships above short-term profits. 

[More importantly] Only 19 percent, fewer than one in five, can be considered promoters ─ people who can be counted on to provide enthusiastic referrals for the company that employs them.  If you calculate an NPI for these employees using the formula ─ promoters minus detractors ─ you come up with minus 29 percent. In other words, detractors outnumber promoters by a wide margin in businesses across North America.   

The author of The Ultimate Question concluded that:

Firing people who demonstrate the wrong values can be as important as hiring those with the right values. P. 144

Employee engagement is just as important as customer engagement. For example,

In much the same way that customer referrals represent the largest and best source of new customers, employee referrals are the best source of good new applicants. [For example both JetBlue and Westjet] have been able to staff its customer-service department almost exclusively through Internet postings to existing service agents who then forward the openings to friends and relatives they think would be a good fit with the airline’s culture. p.143

WestJet’s [utilizes an] innovative hiring and monitoring practices. “Rather than having [a] supervisor monitor customer [telephone] calls for quality, peers review and rate them, knowing that their own calls will be monitored too . . . The team-play approach is integral in hiring new WestJet Pilots. Candidates have to be recommended by pilots on staff.[1]

[I]t’s safe to assume that each negative comment neutralizes from three to ten positives. For example, consider the process you might go through in searching for a dentist when you move to a new town. If you hear one negative comment about a particular dentist from a trusted friend or colleague, how many positive comments will you need to hear before you select that dentist?

Are your organization’s customers Promoters, Passives, or Detractors? These concepts are fully explained in Harvard Business professor Frederick Reichheld’s groundbreaking book, The Ultimate Question[1] in which he demonstrates that organizations such as G.E., Intuit, Dell and Enterprise Rent-a-car use the Net Promoter Index to great advantage both in terms of profitability and customer loyalty.

Promoters are customers who give a company 9 or 10 ratings. They reported the highest repurchase rates by far, and they accounted for more than 80 percent of referrals. 

Passives rate the company 7 or 8.  This group repurchased and referral rates were a lot lower than those standpoint of promoters, often by 50 percent. Motivated more by inertia than by loyalty or enthusiasm, these customers may not defect ─ until somebody offers them a better deal. 

Detractors gave a rating from 0 to 6. This groups accounts for more than 80 percent of negative word-of-mouth comments. Some of these customers may appear profitable from accounting, but their criticisms and attitudes diminish a company’s reputation, discourage new customers, and de-motivate employees. The suck the life out of a firm.

The Net Promoter Index is equal to the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors.

The premise of this blog is that we live in a feedback rich world, but most organizations do not harvest the feedback that exists to help them move from good to great. “One stellar exception is Enterprise Rent-a-car which found that by measuring and consulting with their promoters “has helped Enterprise move to the top of the customer satisfaction by word of mouth rather than expensive advertizing.” 

One of the world’s best examples of a detractor and the damage it can cause is David Carroll who had his guitar smashed by United Airlines. When United decided not to do anything to correct the situation, David Carroll   wrote a song ─ “United Breaks Guitars” ─ which went viral when it was posted on YouTube and covered by every major media including TV, newspapers, radio and magazines. By the way, at last count this video was seen by 8.7 million people. Although this is an extreme example, the Internet has done wonders in giving customers power to rate their vendors ─ both good and bad.   

Another example is when you go to a restaurant, you will invariably be asked how is or how was your meal, ninety-percent of the time, the answer is good or very good.  Not much useful information here.  Smart restaurants will ask their wait staff to ask one additional question and keep track of the answer. That question is: “What one thing could we have done to make you meal even better?”  If the answer is the mashed potatoes could have been warmer, then Bingo, the restaurant can determine if this was a one off problem or something that is more systematic. If it is a one off problem, offer the customer a free dessert, if it is systematic, determine the root cause and fix it. This illustrates the ineffectiveness of a low-yield question, “How was your meal?” to which we almost always receive a good, or very good, vs. a High-yield question, “What is one thing we could do to make it better?”

Exercise:  Think of an example of a low-yield question, such as “How was your meal?” that is asked regarding customer service in your organization and then develop a systematic way to gather pertinent information by asking a high-yield question to improve your customer service. For example, at Enterprise you will be asked the following three short questions when you drop off your car at the end of the rental:

How was our service?

What could we have done to make your experience better?

If there was a problem, what can we do to make it up to you? 

 Fred Reichheld, the author of The Ultimate Question recommends, “Firing people who demonstrate the wrong values can be as important as hiring those with the right values.”( p144) He also recommends that organizations record what their promoters say and “[I]ncorporate this learning directly into marketing messages and advertising copy. It is obviously much more efficient to have promoters write the ad copy than to pay an ad agency; but more important, these customers know the right message to communicate. One final benefit of asking promoters to express what they would tell a friend is that, once they articulate the answer, they are move likely to relay it to a friend just because it’s on the tip of their tongue and the top of their mind.”   

B.M.

F.M.    Leadership is the most important factor in the success of any  project, organization or  social reform. In fact, the  leadership  factor  can almost guarantee success or failure. Therefore, Canada needs an abundant and reliable supply of competent leaders in all sectors ─ now and in the future.  

Currently we are heading into a crisis of demographics. Most  baby boomers will be retired in ten years and the next generation, Generation X is significantly smaller.  Therefore, we have to ramp up leadership and succession planning or we will have a huge leadership deficit. To do this we need a greatly improved leadership infrastructure. Our current leadership infrastructure is extremely hap- hazard. We need to identify the gaps, find a way to fill the gaps and share best practices from across Canada.  

If we do not want to suffer as a country we need to realize that leadership can be effectively developed, just like capacity in hockey and other sports is developed.  In fact, leadership can be developed in 80% of the population, where 60% are  average to good, and 20%  are gifted, and are able to expand their capacity to lead.     

We have to think about the long-term, which is the pipeline. A great example of a pipeline is how we develop hockey players starting with Tim Bits™, which is where children start playing hockey and get coached in playing hockey at a very early age. It takes about a generation to produce results. In the same vein, leadership needs to be imbedded in  the curriculum starting with elementary school. Our children have to be able to practice leadership, get coaching, feedback and continually improve just like they do in sports, in academia and the arts.  

At the other end of the spectrum is a hothouse approach for high potential leaders. These are the people who will be leaders three to five years from now.  Therefore, we need to put all kinds of resources into both the pipeline infrastructure as well as the hothouse infrastructure.     

In sports a great example of a hothouse is “Own the podium” and the pipeline is “Participaction.” A great example of a hothouse in business is New Brunswick’s Wallace McCain Institute. The way the institute works is that every year a small, exceptional group of high potential entrepreneurs are invited to be in a program that challenges them to share insights and experiences with each other and with guest presenters in order to take themselves as leaders and their businesses to the next level.  
In conclusion, we need to offer solutions that are doable,  we need to get more of the right people involved, we have to provide hope  and start moving. 

To find out more about how master Canadian Leaders are inspired by vision and fueled by passion, attend the 1^st Halifax Leadership Symposium on September 28, 2010 at Pier 21 ─ The Future of Leadership in Atlantic Canada: Challenges, Opportunities and Innovative Solutions. Our keynote speakers are Françoise Morissette author of Made in Canada Leadership.  Françoise is the director of a pan Canadian leadership institute to help raise the level of leadership in Canada by sharing leadership best practices from across the country. Cora Tsouflidou, the founder of Cora’s Restaurants, who turned a café in Montreal into 120 restaurants across Canada. Chris Power, president and CEO of Capital Health is talking about the future of health care and Phil Fontaine the former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, is speaking about the type of inclusiveness we need today and will even need more of in the future because the Conference Board of Canada says that by the year 2031 we will have 23 people in Atlantic Canada to do the work that 50 people do today. For more information and to register at the early bird discount rate of $299, visit www.futureofleadership.dal.ca. The book The Seven Strategies of Master Leaders is available at independent bookstores and at Chapters and Chapters online and at www.BradMcRae.com

If you take the public universities in Canada and you exclude the private universities in the States, such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, etc., and you compare the public universities in Canada with the public universities in the states, you will find that Canadian universities are funded at 60% of the level of the public universities in the States. This is why our Canadian universities have larger classes and more multiple choice exams. It also shows up in NESS, the National Student Survey of Engagement where the US scores higher than Canada and the ability to teach in Canada is less concentrated because there are more students per professor. The final thing I say when talking to my university friends is that it is instructive to compare UW to MIT and the University of Michigan because we want to be their Canadian equivalents. At the UW the faculty student ratio is 27 to 1, at the University of Michigan it is 10 to 1, and at MIT it is 4 to 1. If you compare dollars from tuition fees, operating grants and private income, the UW is funded at $11,000 per student per year, Michigan gets $27,000 and MIT $100,000. As I tell my friends in business, imagine yourself selling your product or services and your competition has 10 times the resources you do.

The good side of that story is that UW is already the equal to the University of Michigan and MIT in many of our programs. That means that we are being as efficient as possible with what we have. Therefore, even a small incremental investment in us is very appealing because it has a very good ROI (Return on Investment) so every additional dollar spent on higher education would go a long way. 

This excerpt illustrates the types of pertinent questions David Johnson asks, both of himself and others to benchmark the University of Waterloo. He then uses the answers to those questions to develop credibility as a leader and to make a strong case for bringing his vision that Canada should be a world leader in higher education, innovation and research by 2020. 

To find out more about how master Canadian Leaders are inspired by vision and fueled by passion, attend the 1^st Halifax Leadership Symposium on September 28, 2010 at Pier 21 ─ The Future of Leadership in Atlantic Canada: Challenges, Opportunities and Innovative Solutions. Our keynote speakers are Françoise Morissette author of Made in Canada Leadership.  Françoise is the director of a pan Canadian leadership institute to help raise the level of leadership in Canada by sharing leadership best practices from across the country. Cora Tsouflidou, the founder of Cora’s Restaurants, who turned a café in Montreal into 120 restaurants across Canada. Chris Power, president and CEO of Capital Health is talking about the future of health care and Phil Fontaine the former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, is speaking about the type of inclusiveness we need today and will even need more of in the future because the Conference Board of Canada says that by the year 2031 we will have 23 people in Atlantic Canada to do the work that 50 people do today. For more information and to register at the early bird discount rate, visit www.futureofleadership.dal.ca. The book The Seven Strategies of Master Leaders is available at independent bookstores and at Chapters and Chapters online and at www.BradMcRae.com

There is no better place to learn about trust than during a crisis. Both Tony Hayward, the embattled CEO of British Petroleum and  Michael McCain, CEO of Maple Leaf foods had to face the worst news any Chief Executive Officer had to face. BP caused North America’s worst ecological and environment disaster as a result of the sinking of the Deep Water Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. In Canada, twenty people died and countless others were horribly sick due to Listeria that was found in three of Maple Leaf Food products that originated from its Toronto meat plant. 

The examples that were set by these two men, both what they said, how they said it, and how well or not well they said it resonated with their respective audiences, shareholders and constituents were as different as night and day. Tony Hayward was cold, aloof and pre-occupied. Perhaps his worst statement was that he wanted to get his life back which was in stark contrast with the people who live and work in the Gulf who may never get their lives back.  Among the statements that Hayward made are:

Almost nothing has escaped.

I think the environment of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest.

The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into [the Gulf of Mexico] is tiny in relation to the total water volume.

The oil spill is on the surface. There aren’t any plumes.

What the hell did we do to deserve this?

There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I’d like my life back.  

Yeah, of course I am (when asked if he sleeps at night)

There is a saying that if something happens once it could be an accident. If it happens twice it could be a pattern, and if it happens three times, it most assuredly is a pattern. In all of the above quotes there is a marked minimization of the problems associated with the oil spill. There is proof that BP took shortcuts and was ill prepared. The Centres of Disease Control states that 90% of accidents are predictable and preventable. BP took unacceptable risks. The fact that Hayward has almost no sense of presence, understanding and conveyed no sense of caring or empathy for the environment and the people’s who lives and livelihoods have been decimated ─  just added insult to injury. You can see the ad that PB made by typing in “A Message by Tony Hayward” and “I’d Like My Life Back” into the YouTube search box.  

In stark contrast, Michael McCain became the embodiment of the pain that befell the victims, his company, his employees that McCain was imminently believable. You can see his apology by going to YouTube and Typing in “Maple Leaf Apology”.  

When Listeria was discovered in the product, we launched immediate recalls to get it off the shelf, then we shut the plant down.

To Canadians who are ill and to the families who have lost loved ones, I offer my deepest sympathies. Words can not begin to express   our sadness for your pain.

This week our best efforts failed and we are deeply sorry.

I commit to you that our actions are guided by putting your interests first.

There is a formula that says that Trust = (Authenticity/Credibility/Presence + Reliability/ Dependability + Professionalism) divided by Self Interest where self interest is defined in the negative sense of self interest such as pre-occupation with self and/or personal interests vs. interest in the welfare of others.     

You can hear confidence, sincerity, caring and compassion in Michael McCain’s voice but not in Tony Hayward’s voice. It is because of these factors and how they contribute or take away from trust that explains why Michael McCain is still president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods and why Tony Hayward, who became the most hated man in America, was removed. I invite you to watch these segments on YouTube that embody trust and its absence. The distinction becomes even more clear when you listen to each man’s speaking with your eye’s closed. 

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.  ─ Alan Kay

There is another technique to help us make a better decision in developing and moving our career forward. You have two choices regarding your future: you can wait for it to happen, or you can invent it and then work to achieve it. In this blog we will look a technique that will help you create your desired future: The “Letter to the Future”. The “Letter to the Future” is your own personal north star. Once you have articulated what you want as clearly as possible, it will serve as a guide, and draw you towards it. To write your own “Letter to the Future,” pick a time ─ 5, 10, 15 years from now, or any length ─ longer or shorter that is meaningful to you. Date the top of the letter with that future date. Imagine the intervening years have passed and you are writing to a friend (pick someone you know, like and feel comfortable talking to about your career). Use the friend’s name in the salutation, as “Dear Terrye” (friend’s name) or if you prefer, pick some other supportive person to whom you can comfortably imagine writing about your vision of the future.

Writing the letter from the future will feel strange at first. Most people get a feeling of intense improbability because writing about the future in the past tense just does not make sense. However, as you progress in writing your letter, it will feel more and more comfortable. Amazingly, most people find that by the time they finish their letter, usually a part of what they need to do and how to make those changes, becomes much clearer. In other words, we usually have more of the answer than we think we do. Writing the letter from the future helps us tap into some of our own personal but hidden wisdom.

The purpose of dating the letter and writing it to someone you actually know is to strengthen the psychological realism of the letter. Imagine in this future you have successfully resolved the current changes, transitions and uncertainty in your life.  Describe what your ideal career would look like and how you got there.  In other words, at the time of the letter writing, you are living a wonderful, joyous, healthy, satisfying life. Alternatively, you can describe how you are spending your time, starting with getting up in the morning to where you are living, and/or what your relationships are like. Lastly, it is a good idea to update your letter to the future periodically and see where it is the same and where it has changed.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: 

First, by reflection, which is the noblest;

second by imitation, which is easiest; and

third by experience, which is the bitterest.    ─ Confucius  

The last four blogs looked at how Master Leaders are Master Decision Makers. We will now look at tips that can help you become a better decision maker about your career. In this blog we will look at the power of reflection to harvest lessons that will stand you in good stead for the rest of your life. For the purpose of this exercise, you need to briefly describe three of your best career experiences. Then you need to reflect on these experiences and derive the lessons available in them. I will use myself as an example and then you can follow suit and derive your own lessons.  

Three of My Best Career Experiences. You can learn a great deal by looking at both the similarities and the differences in your best career experiences. One of the reasons that an historical perspective is so powerful is that sometimes your best experience only turns out to be the best in terms of learning in retrospective and it may be difficult to identify the lessons learned at the time of the experience. Therefore it is a good idea to look at your best experiences over the entire life-span of your career.   

My first example of a positive career experience is as follows. After vacillating for years about whether I would finish my doctoral studies or drop out, I finally decided unequivocally to finish my dissertation.  I distinctly remember, exactly where I was, as I was walking through the University of British Columbia campus, when I decided that I would finish my dissertation no matter what the circumstances ─ No more waffling, No more indecision.  I would Finish ─ Period. 

Subsequently, I found and invited a world-class mentor to be my primary research advisor.  I then did the research, analysis and writing, sometimes working up to 18 hours a day and completed the dissertation in time to meet the deadline to graduate. At one point, I had to be assertive with the committee as to what I could and could not do in a reasonable time frame and suggested the additional work they recommended would make a great follow-up study.    I also put together a highly functioning team for my doctoral committee.  Although writing my dissertation looked like a highly individually oriented activity, it was really an exercise in mass collaboration with myself, my advisor and committee, and my support network including my exercise partner who helped me manage the great deal of stress involved in taking on such a large, multi-faceted project.  

In my second example of a positive career experience, although I didn’t fully realize it until I started writing this blog, was that I replicated this collaborative model in the writing of my sixth book. My team of researchers, editors and family support kept me going ─ especially when the going got really tough. The crunch came during the final editing of the manuscript. All my other books required extremely minor revisions, such as adding or eliminating a comma here and there or moving a few paragraphs around.

In the final editing of this book, The Seven Strategies of Master Negotiators, I worked with three different, extremely competent, extremely professional and extremely demanding editors at McGraw-Hill Ryerson who used three different coloured Post-It-Notes™.  When I received the final manuscript, I had an anxiety attack on the spot. The manuscript looked like it had the measles; there were so many suggested changes. Each note requested major revisions. For example: the writing had to be crisper and clearer; the numerous interviews, which were the heart of the book, had to be shortened; and the transitions and  conclusions of the chapters needed to be stronger and tighter ─ and all of this had to be completed within two weeks. Not only did my team of three editors help me write a much better book ─ they also taught me a great deal about writing and book publishing that has stood me in good stead in all of my subsequent writing projects.  

My third very positive career experience also revolved around writing, and the fact that all three of my best experiences involved writing is telling me something. The third writing collaboration that worked exceeding well was publishing my first self-published book ─ From Our Grandmother’s Lap:  Lessons for a Lifetime. Not only was this a very collaborative endeavor, but I also learned a great deal about publishing and cover design. I also entered into a very innovative and collaborative manner to sell the book because it was sold primarily through Credit Unions at Christmas rather than through traditional book stores. Since it was the only book for sale at the Credit Unions, and was used as a fundraiser, the book really stood out and sold exceedingly well ─ so I learned about innovative marketing.    

Lessons Learned: The lessons learned from all three positive experiences listed above involve the critical importance of: collaboration, focus, writing and publishing. In fact, now that I think about it, this is the model I need to follow in all of the large projects I undertake such as the establishment of  The Atlantic Leadership Development Institute.

It is now your turn to reflect on your best career experiences. Exercise: Briefly describe three of your best career experiences.