Toward speaking excellence: pdf download

Lynn Jr. Stone, and Marc D. If yes is your answer to this question, then Educating All for Excellence is for you. The lessons he taught me have guided my life, both personally and professionally. There is no better way to describe Bob than "coach", and like the great basketball coaches from his favorite sport, Bob instilled a daily commitment to excellence. If you were fortunate enough to work for Bob, you worked hard, you practiced and refined your craft, competed to win, and took better care of your clients than anyone else.

Those lessons learned early on, not only served me well in each step of my career, but i hope made me a better husband, father, son and friend. In the Quest for Excellence Bob shares this game plan for success in business and life. There are countless people Bob mentored over the years that have gone on to become incredibly successful. Score: 4. More importantly, techniques to sharpen the mind and the various ways of gathering and consolidation of knowledge are explained.

Inspirational quotations from Saints and great personalities in history are given, which should certainly motivate the students to become good human beings, in addition to excelling in academics.

I am sure that these Appendixes will enhance the value of the book, and will be appreciated by the readers. These books were first authored and published by me with generous financial help from the Director, St. So, the first book for students, viz. Other two books, viz. This booklet is the outcome of the lectures delivered by the author over the years to First year Engineering students to motivate them to study as they entered the college.

So, these lectures analyzed the psychology of the students, their dreams and fears, their worries, pressures and anxieties; and, correct attitudes in attending the lectures in the classes, proper methods of studying, preparing for the exams and techniques of writing the exams etc were explained to them. It was felt that a larger cross-section of students would get benefited if the matter contained in the lectures was brought out in a book form, and that was the motivation for this work.

The book is divided into sections: after giving an introduction in the first two sections, i. Various fears and the academic and personal difficulties experienced by the students, are enumerated in section 7. Section 9 is the most important section of this book. Finally, in section 11, inspirational quotations from Saints and great personalities in history are given, which should certainly motivate the students to become good human beings, in addition to excelling in academics.

It is said that George Washington copied these Rules in his own hand when he was a student, and that these Rules had the earliest and most profound impact on his character. Credibility goes far beyond employee attitudes. It influences customer and investor loyalty as well as employee loyalty. They found further that disloyalty can dampen performance by a stunning 25—50 percent.

So what accounts for business loyalty? Price does not rule the Web; trust does. The data confirm that credibility is the foundation of leadership. But what is credibility behaviorally? How do you know it when you see it? When it comes to deciding whether a leader is believable, people first listen to the words, then they watch the actions.

They listen to the talk, and then they watch the walk. They listen to the promises of resources to support change initiatives, and then they wait to see if the money and materials follow. They hear the promises to de- liver, and then they look for evidence that the commitments are met. If leaders espouse one set of values but personally practice another, people find them to be duplicitous.

If leaders practice what they preach, people are more willing to entrust them with their livelihood and even their lives. To be credible in action, leaders must be clear about their beliefs; they must know what they stand for. This practice includes the clarification of a set of values and being an example of those values to others.

This consistent living out of values is a behavioral way of demonstrating honesty and trustworthiness. People trust leaders when their deeds and words match. Who is that leader? What do leaders such as these have in common? Among these most ad- mired leaders, one quality stands out above all else. They all have, or had, unwavering commitment to a clear set of values. They all are, or were, pas- sionate about their causes. The lesson from this simple exercise is unmistak- able.

People admire most those who believe strongly in something, and who are willing to stand up for their beliefs. If anyone is ever to become a leader whom others would willingly follow, one certain prerequisite is that they must be someone of principle.

All exemplary lead- ers share this quality no matter what status they may have achieved. It could be a leader in your local community, one down the hall from you, one next door—and also you. I was a walking corpse. This means that I have to let people know and understand what my thoughts are so that I can become a good leader.

People expect their leaders to speak out on matters of values and con- science. But to speak out you have to know what to speak about. To stand up for your beliefs, you have to know what you stand for.

To walk the talk, you have to have a talk to walk. To do what you say, you have to know what you want to say. To earn and sustain personal credibility, you must first be able to clearly articulate deeply held beliefs.

That is why Clarify Values is the first of the leader commitments we dis- cuss in this book. You have to freely and honestly choose the principles you will use to guide your decisions and actions. Then you have to genuinely express yourself.

You must authentically communicate your beliefs in ways that uniquely represent who you are. The techniques and tools that fill the pages of man- agement and leadership books—including this one—are not substitutes for who and what you are.

The neonatologist who first examined her told us that she had a 5 to 10 percent chance of living three days. Realizing this, a wise and caring nurse named Ruth gave me my instructions.

I want you to come to the hospital every day to visit Zoe, and when you come, I would like you to rub her body and her legs and her arms with the tip of your finger. But Max goes on. You will not have the integrity to lead.

I think leadership begins with caring. We grabbed one off the shelf, and opened it to care. Suffering and caring, discontent and concern, all come from one source.

This is where you must go to who you are. To find your voice, you have to ex- plore your inner territory. You have to take a journey into those places in your heart and soul where you bury your treasures, so that you can carefully examine them and eventually bring them out for display.

You must know what you care about. And until you get close enough to the flame to feel the heat, how can you know the source? You can only be authentic when you lead according to the prin- ciples that matter most to you. But at the end is truth. This is the common lesson we must all learn. To act with integrity, you must first know who you are. You must know what you stand for, what you believe in, and what you care most about. In any organization, credibility building is a process that takes time, hard work, devotion, and patience.

Painful as some of this was at the time, it not only contributed to my challenge but caused me to persevere. It reinforced my intent to contribute to a more encouraging and nurturing culture than what I was experiencing. Every day she used personal journal writing for reflection and contemplation. What have I done inadvertently to demonstrate this is not a value for me? They supply us with a moral compass by which to navigate the course of our daily lives.

Clarity of values is essential to knowing which way, for each of us, is north, south, east, and west. This kind of guidance is especially needed in difficult and uncertain times. The late Milton Rokeach, one of the leading researchers and scholars in the field of human values, referred to a value as an enduring belief. He noted that values are organized into two sets: means and ends.

We will use vision in Chapters Five and Six when we refer to the long-term ends values that leaders and constituents aspire to attain. Leadership takes both. When sail- ing through the turbulent seas of change and uncertainty, crewmembers need a vision of the destination that lies beyond the horizon, and they also need to understand the principles by which they must navigate their course. If either of these is absent, the journey is likely to end with the crew lost at sea.

Values influence every aspect of our lives: our moral judgments, our re- sponses to others, our commitments to personal and organizational goals. Values set the parameters for the hundreds of decisions we all make every day. Radha Basu, cofounder of SupportSoft, explained how being clear about her personal values regarding career provided her the ability to make choices among competing demands, requests, and claims on her time and attention.

If you are clear about your values, and your actions are aligned, it makes all Values serve the hard work worth the effort. We are much more in action. By know- ing which means and ends are most important, we can act independently. We can also recognize a conflict between our own values and the values of the organization or society, and we can exercise choice about how to respond.

Values also motivate. Values are the banners that fly as we persist, as we struggle, as we toil. We refer to them when we need to replenish our energy. For example, John Siegel, M. Without actually saying it, I pushed the button that was in each of us, reminding us of the values we are living and the dream we all have for where we work.

I had the least seniority of anyone, but I could say what I believed in, with confidence and a strength that comes from that personal commit- ment to values, and they listened. The mood changed, we were construc- tively engaged again, and eventually settled on a restructure plan that will improve how our department works.

Just reminding yourself of the principles that are most impor- tant often can refocus your attention on the things that really matter. How much difference does being clear about values really make? We set out to empirically investigate the relationship between personal values clarity, organizational values clarity, and a variety of outcomes such as commitment and job satisfaction.

Figure 3. Along the horizontal axis is the extent to which these same people report being clear about their own personal values. We then correlated these responses with the extent to which people said they were committed to the organization as measured on a scale of 1 low to 7 high.

The numbers in each of the four cells represent the average level of commitment people have to their organizations as it relates to the degree of their clarity about per- sonal and organizational values. Take a look at where the highest level of commitment is. The people who have the greatest clarity about both personal and organizational values have the highest degree of commitment to the organization. Now, take another look. Clarity of Organizational Values High 4.

And in- deed these folks are not significantly more committed than those with lower levels of organizational values clarity. It did us. So we looked again at the data to see if we could understand what people were telling us. Take a look at the second-highest level of commitment which, by the way, is not statistically different from the highest level.

In other words, personal values drive commitment. Personal values are the route Personal to loyalty and commitment, not organizational values. How can people who are very clear about their own values be committed to a place commitment. Think about it. Of course you have. Clarity about personal values is more important in your attitude about work than is clarity about organizational values alone.

Those indi- viduals who are clearest about personal values are better prepared to make choices based on principle—including deciding whether the principles of the organization fit with their own!

Say It in Your Own Words Once you have the words you want to say, you must also give voice to those words. In this book we present a lot of scientific data to support our assertions about each of the five leadership practices. But leadership is also an art. To be- come a credible leader you have to learn to express yourself in ways that are uniquely your own. As author Anne Lamott tells would-be writers in her classes: And the truth of your experience can only come through in your own voice.

You can only lead out of your own. They follow you. One route to a true and genuine voice is in being more conscious about the words you choose and the words you use. Words matter. Words send signals, and, if you listen intently, you just may hear the hidden assumptions about how someone views the world.

Take the following examples from an after-lunch speech we heard a bank manager give to his employees. His intent was to motivate, but as we listened we heard more than that.

We heard a fundamental belief system about how business functioned and what he believed to be important. Somehow it humanizes us. Once we 9 get this right, then the rest will come into place. His is not about business as war, but about business as service and love. Tex and the bank manager are speaking in entirely different voices. Their words are internally congruent for each of them. Each would be disin- genuous and inauthentic if they spoke like the other.

Instead, you are free to choose what you want to express and the way you want to express it. Although credible leaders honor the diversity of their many constituencies, they also stress their common values. Leaders build on agree- ment.

Moreover, to achieve it would negate the very advantages of diversity. But to take a first step, and then a second, and then a third, people must have some common core of understanding. If disagreements over funda- mental values continue, the result is intense conflict, false expectations, and diminished capacity.

Leaders must be able to gain consensus on a common cause and a common set of principles. They must be able to build and affirm a commu- nity of shared values. He asked various team members to recall the NetApp values and provide examples of them at work. Recognition of shared values provides people with a common language.

Tremendous energy is generated when individual, group, and organizational values are in synch. Commitment, enthusiasm, and drive are intensified.

Peo- ple have reasons for caring about their work. When individuals are able to care about what they are doing, they are more effective and satisfied. They experience less stress and tension. Shared values are the internal compasses that enable people to act both independently and interdependently. As noted earlier in this chapter, employees are more loyal when they be- lieve that their values and those of the organization are aligned.

The quality and accuracy of communication and the integrity of the decision-making process increase when people feel part of the same team. They are more cre- ative because they become immersed in what they are doing.

Not surprisingly, these two groups differ in the extent to which they find their management to be credible. When leaders seek consensus around shared values, constituents are more positive. The energy that goes into coping with, and difference possibly fighting about, incompatible values takes its toll on both personal effectiveness and organizational in work atti- productivity. Studies of adaptive corporate cultures—organizations with consistent guiding values, a shared purpose, teamwork, innovation, and learning— showed similar powerful results.

It renews commitment. It engages the institution in discussing values such as diversity, accessibility, sustain- ability, and so on that are more relevant to a changing constituency. Which Shared Values Are Important? Is there some particular value or set of values that fuels organizational vital- ity? Consider this example of three electronics companies, each of which has a strong set of values. The second company is much flashier; its have very differ- important organizational values are associated with ent values.

Each of these companies operates by a different set of values. Is one more successful than the other? No, not really. All three companies compete in the same market, and all are successful, each with a different strategy and culture. Although there may not be one best set of values, you can find some guid- ance from the research on central themes in the values of highly successful, strong-culture organizations. These three common threads seem to be critical to weaving a values tapestry that leads to greatness.

Even with commonly identified values, there may be little agreement on the meaning of values statements. One study, for exam- ple, uncovered different behavioral expectations about the value of in- tegrity alone. A common understanding of values emerges from a process, not a pronouncement. This is precisely what Michael Lin discovered when he became the tech- nical support manager for a small wireless company. One of his initial actions was to bring people together just for that purpose, so that they could arrive at common and shared understandings of what their key priorities and values were and what these meant in action: The last thing I wanted them to feel was that my values were being imposed on them.

So each person talked about their own values, the reasoning be- hind them. In this fashion we were able to identify the common values that were important to us as a group. The key values that the team and I felt were most important to model were honesty, responsibility, customer focus, and teamwork. This led us to drafting a team credo: Do whatever it takes to satisfy the customer. The process of deciding on one common set of val- ues was an extremely valuable unifying and clarifying experience.

Instead they must be proactive in involving people in the process of creating shared values. Imagine how much ownership of values there would be if leaders actively engaged a wide range of people in their de- velopment. Shared values are the result of lis- tening, appreciating, building consensus, and practicing conflict resolution.

For people to understand the values and come to agree with them, they must participate in the process: unity is forged, not forced. Someone who knows all about resolving conflict and building consensus around a unifying set of values is Pat Christen, president of HopeLab, a non- profit organization that combines rigorous research with some very innova- tive solutions to improving the health and quality of life of young people with chronic illnesses.

Pat found that shared values were critical guide- posts when difficulties arose: Our staff and external collaborators have competencies that were really critical to our success with Re-Mission, but their different perspectives were often in conflict with one another in terms of how we should move for- ward with the project. Our leadership role was to manage these tensions to bring out the best in everyone. It was an extraordinary challenge, but I believe that when you reach difficult crossroads in an organization, you go back to your core values and you constantly ask how you should be be- having and what path you should be taking in order to align your values with actions.

The manner in which the staff rose to the occasion in pro- ducing such a high-quality product is a real testament to having a set of core values and using them to guide how you act and behave in the world. For values to be truly shared, they must be more than advertising slogans.

Constituents must be able to enu- merate the values and must have common interpretations of how those val- ues will be put into practice. They must know how the values influence their own jobs and how they directly contribute to organizational success.

One word of caution: shared values should never be used as an excuse for the suppression of dissent. When dissenting voices are silenced, and when shared values become unquestioned doctrine, freedom of expression is lost— and with it goes innovation, creativity, and talent.

Freedom of expression is essential to creating a culture of contribution and commitment. If leaders desire long-term sustainable growth and development, then freedom just may be that value that makes possible all the others. A unified voice on values results from discovery and dialogue. Leaders must also be prepared to discuss values and expectations in the recruitment, selection, and orientation of new members.

That journey involves an exploration of the inner territory where your true voice resides. There must be agreement on the shared values that everyone will commit to upholding. Shared values make a significant and positive difference in work attitudes and performance, and a common un- derstanding of those values emerges from a process, not a pronouncement.

Unity comes about through dialogue and debate. We talk throughout this book about building your competence to lead in each of The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. Here are three actions that you can use to Clarify Values for yourself and others. Write a Tribute to Yourself Begin the process of clarifying your values by reflecting on your ideal image of yourself—how you would most like to be seen by others. Hundreds of people will gather to pay tribute to your contributions to your family, your colleagues, your organization, or your community.

Several people will make speeches praising your performance and your character. What words or phrases would you most like to hear others say about you? How would you like to be remembered tonight? What descriptions would make you feel the proudest? If you could write these tributes yourself, what would you want them to say?

These descriptive adjectives and phrases may well be lofty and ideal. Write Your Credo Imagine that your organization has afforded you the chance to take a six- month sabbatical, all expenses paid. You will not be permitted to communi- cate to anyone at your office or plant while you are away. Not by letter, phone, fax, e-mail, or other means. But before you depart, those with whom you work need to know the prin- ciples that you believe should guide their decisions and actions in your ab- sence.

You are not to write a long report, however. It usually takes about five to ten minutes to write a Credo Memo. We do not pretend that this exercise is a substitute for more in-depth self-discovery, but it does provide a useful starting point for articulating your guiding prin- ciples.

To deepen the clarification process, identify the values you listed in your memo usually they appear as key words or phrases and put them in order of priority. Or rank them from low to high. Or place them on a con- tinuum. Forcing yourself to express preferences enables you to see the rela- tive potency of each value. Explain the Credo Memo process to them see previous action and give them each time to write something—five to ten minutes should be sufficient.

Once they have all written their own Credo Memos, ask each person to share with a few colleagues in small groups what he or she wrote. Ask them to describe both what they wrote and why they selected the values they recorded in the memo.

Before they begin, you can model the process by reading your memo to them and telling them why you prize the values you chose. Remind your team that the objective of this activity is clarity.

Once each person has had a chance to express key values, ask the groups to reflect on what was discussed. Ask, What are the common values that were expressed? The critical thing is that you begin to build consensus around a common set of values that emerges from the group and not one that is imposed from the top. This in turn has had an effect on my mood, and I can see how this is also reflected in the ways others perceive me at work. Under- standing my values allows me to be more passionate about my work and gives a focus for what everyone on the team should be striving for.

While his company was applying a product upgrade to the live system of one of their customers, something went terribly wrong. This was a critical process for their customer, and there was simply no way they could wait until the next regular workday to work on the problem. This voice was fundamental in my decisions about getting person- ally involved in taking action and pulling the team together on a weekend.

He described the situation, and learned that it helped im- mensely that he had already spent several hours testing the scope of the issue. But he clearly understood that even if the situation had been handled suc- cessfully, the wounds to morale and motivation would probably have been deep. Before the team de- parted, Juan went to each team member, one by one, and thanked them per- sonally for all their hard work.

Then he sat down and followed up. This was indeed very rewarding. Leading by example is how leaders make visions and values tangible. Setting the Example is all about execution. How consistent are they in deed and word? He shared a personal story with us that clearly communicated how powerful modeling is, at home as well as at work. I sat him down in that big chair behind my desk. Call somebody in here and fire him. We send them through the daily choices we make. We send them verbally and nonverbally.

Mary Godwin became acutely aware of the messages she was sending as vice president of operations of a company that creditors were threatening to put into bankruptcy. My credibility de- pended upon this, and so I had to set the example for others to follow.

In the end, they met the deadline from their creditors and kept the com- pany from going into bankruptcy; most important to Mary, the entire opera- tions team stayed on board through the whole process. Cor- nell professor Tony Simons offers telling evidence of this. What you do speaks more distance from loudly than what you say. Their mission is to represent the values and standards to the rest of the world, and it is their solemn duty to serve the values to the best of their abil- ities.

Here are a few signal-sending actions to consider as you work to per- sonally exemplify the shared values in your organization. Spend this precious nonrenewable resource on the most important values. Author : N. A Publisher: N. Author : J. The apostle Paul was no different from us in this regard. He stated in scriptures that what he wanted to do he did not do and what he did not want to do he found himself doing in spite of himself. The apostle Paul discovered ways to address this seemingly insurmountable obstacle to his growth as a Christian, and so will you in this book.

In Excellence of Soul I will share from the Bible what it says about the soul and how you can learn to control your emotions in every situation of life. This book is full of biblical truths and experiences from over twenty-five years of seeking answers to one of the most important areas of the Christian walk.

Please join me in finding growth and healing. But whatever one thinks about the conclusion, it must be agreed that the manner in which it is defended is intrinsically important. Desjardins starts from the unassailable premise that the dialogues are internally unified, and that everything in the dialogues is there for a reason. Her method, then, is to show how some of the features of the dialogue that are usually not taken very seriously actually are very important. Of course, she is not the only scholar taking this sort of tack, but what she makes of the various elements of the Theaetetus is a most impressive construction.