Develop Excellent People

“You build better companies by building better people.” Zig Ziglar

You don’t build excellent companies by having the right CEO or the best product. You don’t build an excellent company with the right technology or the right location. You build excellent companies with people – the better your people – the better your organization. Our people are and always will be our greatest asset.

Developing better people should be your goal in business. As a motivational speaker, I have devoted my life to helping others develop their lives and their careers. I challenge and motivate others daily to develop excellence. Yet I’m only one person. I don’t work in your office, touch the people you touch or have the skills you have. You are the agent of change – only you have the ability to build better people in your organization. No matter what your role, no matter what your position – you can make an impact in building up the people around you.

Are you willing? Are you ready to begin the process of developing excellence in your own life and in the lives of others? Are you ready to work for it?

Building better people isn’t easy. It takes time and energy. It means sacrifice. It means doing things that are uncomfortable. It means we must give of ourselves.

The bottom line is that it’s easier to sit back and just live in our own little world. It’s safer and requires much less effort. Yet I do not believe it is as rewarding to sit back and just let our life go by. It is much more meaningful to be an active part of building better people.

Some Simple Ways to Build Better People:

Ask yourself, how can I make their day? Before you walk into your office, stop and ask yourself how you can make someone else’s day. Ask yourself this every day. Make it your mission to make at least one persons day every day.

Do not gossip. Gossip is the number one killer of workplace morale. It’s a disease that kills organizations. As a leader you can NEVER be part of gossip. It destroys your reputation and the trust of your people. DO not gossip, do not listen to others gossip and do not ask others for the latest bit.

Be approachable. Keep your door open, share your own life and admit your mistakes. Make every effort to be approachable. The more approachable you are the more you will learn about your people and your organization. If you’re not open – people will withhold important information from you and your company will suffer. Excellent organizations are open and transparent. They are places where people feel comfortable sharing their opinions. If you are approachable, you are on your way to creating an open and honest environment.

Ask for their opinion. The best way to build better people is to let them talk. Ask them for their opinion. Let them talk, share their ideas and give suggestions.

Share good news. Stop sharing everything that goes wrong and start sharing all the little things that go right every day. Make a conscious effort to share good news, celebrate the little things people do and look for what is right every day.

Look for success. People do great things every day – look for the wins. Look for the people who need to be recognized. Focusing on success will attract success because what we look for we will find. Find success in your people and your organization today.

Offer to help. Everyone needs help at some point. As a leader we are constantly helping others. And we must keep helping them. Make it a priority to offer help when you can and then give it with a good attitude.

Author's Bio

Michelle Neujahr

Michelle Neujahr provides motivational keynotes, in-house training seminars and small business consulting services to organizations ready to take their business to the next level.

With more than a decade of experience as a motivational speaker, Michelle has given over 1,000 presentations to audiences across the country.

For more information, please visit http://developingexcellence.blogspot.com

Work With People Who Tell You "Go to Hell"

That’s right. If someone hasn’t told you to “go to hell” in the last few months, something is probably wrong. Maybe not literally telling you to “go to hell” but you need people around you who have the courage to do so when all their options have been exhausted. You have to have people around you with the courage to stop you in your tracks.

You need people to challenge your ideas, test them, and make sure they are good. If not, you’ll be responsible for heading up a bunch of mediocre projects because no one in your office had the courage to tell you a poster-board presentation just wasn’t good enough. Why do you think the last Star Wars movies were dismal affairs? No one told George Lucas that his ideas were stale; instead he was allowed to create a sea of nonsensical characters.

If your idea faces little resistance it will automatically be weaker than the idea would be if it had that been debated. Conversation and criticisms help people refine, build, and strengthen their ideas so that the ideas will be able to stand independently once launched. Obstacles are only put in your path to test the strength of your ideas and your ambitions. Don’t let detours get you down– make them help you.

Before you present an idea to a group of people it’s essential that you detect any flaws in your argument so you know what the critics will say before they even think it. Thinking your ideas through help you respond to your critics or fix any problems that did exist. It can be a trying process since it’s your idea and you may look at it like a mother looks at her trouble-making son and only see positives. Just don’t do it. You must, in William Faulkner’s words, “kill your darlings” in order to see your idea, your project, clearly. When you think your project is ready to leave its cradle–let objections and criticisms improve your idea.

Next time you are putting together a team make sure you take on at least one person who will be bold enough to poke holes in your ideas and plans. Make sure that someone can tell you to “go to hell.” The criticisms you receive might be superficial or trite, but the act of taking a break and thinking about every possible weakness will strengthen your ideas.

Well, maybe not “go to hell”, that might be over the top, but you get the idea–sometimes it’s important to be stopped in your tracks and while it’s important in making sure you produce it is also important in keeping you on the right track pragmatically and morally. Sometimes when you slip you must have people around you to audit what you do in order to make sure you do it right within acceptable parameters.

Author's Bio

Samuel Bacharach

Samuel Bacharach is the McKelvey-Grant Professor of Labor Management at Cornell University’s ILR School. He is the Director of ILR’s New York City based Institute for Workplace Studies as well as the Director of the Smithers Institute and the director of the New York City-based Master of Professional Studies. He blogs at:http://bacharachblog.com/