The U.S. Military uses typical training techniques and modifies their delivery in order to turn an ordinary person into an extraordinary leader.

When we think of military training, sometimes we think of a drill sergeant screaming in the face of a new recruit. Although this does happen, the branches of the U.S. Military utilize some of the same techniques we use in corporate training - except the delivery is different. This delivery creates the extraordinary members of the U.S. military.

Many corporate organizations refer to their new hire programs as “boot camps” - it’s an appropriate nickname, but in theory only. A military boot camp, as well as a corporate one, uses accelerated learning techniques. A great deal of knowledge is crunched into a short period of time, but that’s where the similarities end. Military boot camps use shock value and “break down” techniques as a way to mold a recruit into someone else, while leaving the best characteristics of the person intact. According to one former member of the U.S. Navy, the boot camp formula is break down, instruction, and reinforcement - both negative and positive. The other element of training is adaptation - the military consistently adapts the training recruits receive in step with changes in the world. Perhaps that’s a page corporate training can take to heart. Continue reading this post…

If you’re serious about using your changing yourself, for personal and professional growth, then, at one time or another, you’ll need to address these 7 normal, predictable challenges.

In all the years we’ve been coaching and counseling, doing seminars and developing self-help tools for people, we’ve found that almost everyone has to face at least one of the following:

1. Resistance to Change. Let’s face it: The familiar is comforting, even if it’s not good for you.

2. Lack of Familiarity. It can be as if a voice in your head says, Hey, my mom and dad didn’t do it this way, so it must not be right for me.

3. Fear of Making Mistakes. You can be paralyzed by this fear, which is in itself the biggest mistake you can make.

4. Not Enough Time. Sometimes this is simply a matter of emotional or intellectual laziness, coupled with a lack of real desire.

5. Wanting to Be Right at All Costs. Needing to be right neutralizes your willingness to work things out. Continue reading this post…

Why be just one of the crowd?  Why suffer in silence because your voice is unable to be heard?  Following the herd is the most sure fire way to be lost.  Why is it then, that most of us are trapped in the herd of mediocrity.  Why do we continue to conform to being average.  Is there something that causes us to cluster toward the average, instead of stepping out into greatness?

I believe that many of us, individually and corporate, just don’t know how to break out and distinguish ourselves.  Most of us are also fearful that if we do ‘dare to be different’ that we will appear to be foolish or weird.

What steps, both small and large, can you take to breakout and start out on the path less traveled.  Here are a few steps that you can take that can point you in a new direction:

Continue reading this post…

In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, an Italian economist and sociologist, Vilfredo Pareto, noted that 80% of Italy’s money was held by 20% of its population. More study concluded that other countries had the same imbalance in wealth distribution. The Pareto Principle became widely used to explain and motivate in other areas, such as sales, marketing, personal development, and human resources. When you look at the 80/20 rule mathematically, the distribution can change. What do today’s mathematics say about the Pareto Principle? Is the 80/20 rule still accurate or has a shift occurred?

In general terms, we can say that 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. In marketing, Pareto is used to say that you have to expend 80% effort, including manpower and money, to gain 20% in sales. From the sales angle, we can say that 20% of our customers carry the majority of our worth. In Human Resources, the Pareto Principle is assigned to dreamers versus achievers - where the 20% are the ones who actually get the work done. With that understanding, let’s look at what numbers tell us about our work in the 21st Century. Continue reading this post…

“Technology on its own isn’t strategic. But technology combined with the business idea is more strategic than ever.  In fact, the ubiquity of technology is what makes it strategic.”  — Jim Champy (Re-engineering Guru)

“Character is what you have left when you’ve lost everything you can lose.“

“My great-grandfather use to say to his wife, my great-grandmother, who in turn told her daughter, my grandmother, who repeated it to her daughter, my mother, who used to reminder her daughter, my own sister, that to talk well and eloquently was a very great art, but that an equally great one was to know the right  moment to stop.”  — Mozart