The Mind is A Beautiful Thing Learn To Use It--Dr. Luciano Santini

Hello everyone, today is a day that I will talk about a few different things. How many times do you either receive or give a performance review? How many times do you feel that what you were given does not come close to your true evaluation?

I have found that so many people are so disappointed when the receive their performance review because what management feel needs improvement doe snot make sense half the time. I did a research on this subject and what I find is that most management in both for profit and non profit organizations are so out of touch from the real world that instead of giving a real performance review what they give is a ready made template.

What does this do to both the organization and to the person receiving this performance review? Well for starters it hurts the organization simply because the person will either feel great or feel like leaving the company and leaves a question in their minds: Does this manager really know what he/she is doing?

My friends this is a failing process because most of the time the leadership do not know how  to improve the persons performance unless they actually place themselves in a position to actually teach the skills needed to improve performance. 

I hear so many times that older people do not function as they should in today  world when the truth is that management focus on the issues and the age instead of actually focusing on the behaviors people show. Leaders need to focus on what the needs are and train and lead by example and give praise when they succeed.

When management sit down with a staff member and give them their review sometimes things are not understood as they were meant to be and people will assume they do understand what they heard.Often, however they fail to check for accuracy of what was stated and thus creates issues in the future. Management need to be able to expand on what they say to staff members making sure that there are no problems with what was written or explained and this is where many will fail

One other issue that I find in many organizations is that management rarely sit down with staff and ask them about any issues they may be having which may affect their jobs. Ok Ok perhaps some do but then they do not follow up and fix the problems and that can sometimes become a bigger problem because then staff will not trust anything you say. if you fix the problems staff informs you then it will show responsiveness and they to will respond to your needs when called upon.

By doing the above shows that you are not only trying to help create a better working environment but actually engaging them and creating a better working team. I have to tell you it is much better to have a team that works as one. On e thing that I always suggest to organizations and their leaders is that when you assist your staff be genuine be a real person even if it mans that you may have to lower your guard a bit.

 leaders are human too and make mistakes like everyone else, however real leaders will laugh at their own flaws and they do not play make believe because they know that it is better to be than to seem to be.

Character is accurately reflected in one’s mental attitude.

Napoleon Hill

Without a strong foundation built on positive character traits, success will not long endure. It is virtually impossible to fake good character. Phonies are quickly spotted because they haven’t the substance and determination to maintain the charade. Developing good character begins with a positive attitude. Your desire to be a good, decent, honest, considerate person must first take place in your mind. When you make the decision to become a person of character, you will also find that you are much more willing to do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do.

" I believe that to change the world the world needs to be willing to make the change for a better tomorrow"-Dr. Luciano Santini

Let us start with the word "Change" What is change and what does it mean to an individual and to a business?

Well let us take a look a the definition for the word;

As you can see there are many ways to change and but the one that sticks out the most for me is the first description of the word change. To make the form,nature, future course. What does this mean?

verb (used with object), changed, changing.

1.

to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone: to change one's name; to change one's opinion;

to change the course of history.

2.

to transform or convert (usually followed by into):

The witch changed the prince into a toad.

3.

to substitute another or others for; exchange for something else, usually of the same kind:

She changed her shoes when she got home from the office.

4.

to give and take reciprocally; interchange:

to change places with someone.

5.

to transfer from one (conveyance) to another:

You'll have to change planes in Chicago.

6.

to give or get an equivalent amount of money in lower denominations in exchange for:

to change a five-dollar bill.

To me it means that to make change you have to be able to realize into the future the change that needs to take place and what it it will look like before any change can happen. It is true that one person can make in the moment changes but these are what I like to call band-aid changes. These type of changes are not long term and they will actually hurt the individuals progress.

This quote says it all and so well.as individuals we are free to change at any time,but the problem is that most people are afraid of change itself and that is where the problem lies. The questions becomes prevalent when you see the struggles an individual faces when change needs to take place  and this happens because most individuals have no idea how to make the changes.

Let talk about change in businesses both for profit and for non profit organizations. In most cases organizations are also afraid of change but the difference in business as opposed to the changes for an individual is that it not only affects one person but many and thus the issues arise. I see so many organizations always speak and push the 3-5 year strategic plan. The problem with this plan is that it will take a minimum of 1 year before this plan is even implemented or it may take longer in which sometimes it does.

The reason is implementation and execution techniques that differ too much and the biggest reason of course is the knowledge an individual needs to accomplish the goal of implementation itself.By the time the 3-5 year plan starts you are already behind 3 years due to the movement of many things such as technology or the needs of people which when the plan was created was an immediate need and now the needs are different.

We need to have an understanding of the needs as an individual so we can see the future and the end results that we are trying to accomplish. In business it is the same thing  but with an added feature which is constant learning and constant developing of ideas to keep with constant change.

" I believe that to change the world the world needs to be willing to make the change for a better tomorrow"-Dr. Luciano Santini

By all means tell the world how good you are — but share the credit and reserve the blame.

You should let others know of your achievements, with these provisions: Do it with your actions first and make sure you share the credit with others who helped you along the way. A fundamental principle of leadership that has not changed over the centuries is: Share the credit for success with others, but take the blame for failures alone.

 

Because Of Our Empty Nature We Can Reshape Who We Are

Hello everyone and how are we doing this day my friends. It has been a crazy week and as most of you know most schools started and of course the kids the kids. I know most of us stayed home for a few days to help the wife and keep her from going crazy. I asked myself so many questions regarding the mind and how it works.

My friends I do not remember if I ever shared the fact the I actually went to Medical school for one year at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and well obviously I did not stick with it. It was not for me  and some people still ask me if I regret it. I can honestly say no! I have some friends that did stay with it and well their lives are not what I expected them to be.

Their lives have lots and lots of money which is shared with many people and and have family members that well do not have the best relationships. I asked some of my friends regarding how the mind works and well they only had to say I do my job the best that I possibly can and well in all reality that is all we can ask of anyone right right.

The other thing I would like to share with you is that yes I also have had my bad times in my life and had to really search for myself who I was and why I was who I was and I have to say it was a journey. Back in 1999 I actually lived with the monks in a monastery for one whole year. when I left after a year of intense studies on the mind and meditations of which changed the way I looked at my reality in this world. 

I have found that sometimes when I do speak to people in general they have a hard time understanding why I say the things that I say and at the times that I say them. Buddhism is a way of understanding life and the world from a perspective that is rarely looked upon.

This type of training emphasizes the value of investigating reality and finding the truth about the outside world as well as the contents of our minds. The main themes that are studied are rationality, empiricism, skepticism and pragmatism. I always find the best in people or I should say try to. I know and understand people to a point that sometimes it becomes scary and sometimes I wish I did not know or understand people so much because it can become overwhelming at times.

I have found that by simply talking to people I can get a great sense of their security or their insecurities and how much it has affected their adult lives by the way they talk to people and by the way they act out barriers and obstacles but it can also be funny. It is strange to see people how they act around people from different ethnic groups and how they are willing to serve or help a perfect stranger.

Rationality:  The quality or state of being agreeable to reason which most people are not.

 Empiricism: The practice of relying on observation and experiment especially in the natural sciences.

Skepticism: An attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object

a :  the doctrine that true knowledge or knowledge in a particular area is uncertain.

b :  the method of suspended judgment, systematic doubt, or criticism characteristic of skeptics.

 

Pragmatism: A reasonable and logical way of doing things or of thinking about problems that is based on dealing with specific situations instead of on ideas and theories.

 

I have to tell you that I love all of the above but my favorite is Pragmatism because it has been great in finding solutions in business for all my clients and individuals in both  life in general and in business. In business it is a great tool because if you have a clear understanding why they are not buying your services you can implement certain techniques and well figure out the issues. In life if you have a clear understanding of people then you can actually figure out the needs of people and actually help them!!

 

I will give you this to think about my friends and if you can understand this and really out some deep thought into it your life can change. In this world we are but on borrowed time and there is much pain and suffering but the great thing about our minds is that we have the power to change it.

 

 

 

Design Thinking or Thinking Outside The Box -Luciano The Key Santini

Hello my friends and I would like to thank all who continue to believe in my abilities to be your service provider whether as an individual or your business. One think that I would like to start talking about is what is called Design Thinking what is design thinking?

Design thinking as a process for problem-solving

Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking is a process which includes the "building up" of ideas, with few, or no, limits on breadth during a "brainstorming" phase.^[13] This helps reduce fear of failure in the participant(s) and encourages input and participation from a wide variety of sources in the ideation phases. The phrase "thinking outside the box" has been coined to describe one goal of the brainstorming phase and is encouraged, since this can aid in the discovery of hidden elements and ambiguities in the situation and discovering potentially faulty assumptions.

One version of the design thinking process has seven stages: define, research, ideate, prototype, choose, implement, and learn.^[2] Within these seven steps, problems can be framed, the right questions can be asked, more ideas can be created, and the best answers can be chosen. The steps aren't linear; can occur simultaneously and be repeated.

 A simpler expression of the process is Robert McKim's phrase "Express–Test–Cycle".^[3] An alternative five-phase description of the process is described by Christoph Meinel and Larry Leifer: (re)defining the problem, need finding and benchmarking, ideating, building, testing.

I have to tell you that when I took this class in business school I took it to fulfill a credit and had no idea how important this would be someday in business and though it has been around for a long time. I never thought the need for it but I realized that I have been doing this for such a long time for businesses I just called thinking outside the box with the belief that for every problem there is a solution. 

The one thing that I have always believed and has embedded in my mind from one of my professors and mentors is that a leader can come up with great ideas and great programs but if that leader has no idea how to get people to buy into the new idea and then if that happens the the BIG ONE the EXECUTION must happen and that is where the problems comes in EXECUTION is where most so called leaders will fail.

This is what I see when I assist businesses: What I see is that leaders in that organization will come up with great ideas and then just push them on to other supervisors and expect them to execute and what happens here is that they will fail. Then the Leader will do what most do and that is blame the supervisor for not executing correctly. The fact is as follows which is that the leader should have been extremely clear in execution process to assist and put their supervisors for success and not failure.

The crazy thing regarding this process is that it is OK if we fail.

Your failure may prove to be an asset, provided you know why you failed.

Napoleon Hill

There are a few occasions during our brief time on earth when most of us experience great flashes of insight, great moments of truth that forever change the course of our lives. Most of those experiences result from spectacular failures, not from outstanding successes. 

It is from the failures that so chagrined and dismayed us that we learn the most lasting lessons. When you are the unwilling recipient of a great moment of truth, extract the useful lessons and then put the entire episode behind you. Learn from your failures, forget about them, and move on to better things. 

"No Such Thing As Perfection But Nothing Wrong In Striving To Get There"-Luciano Santini

Hello to all my continued followers and thank you for your support and constant willingness to send in your comments and suggestions because that where all my inspiration to continue to write comes from. Thank you Thank you.

As the photo says it above:How to get started on a journey to perfection in whatever you do. Let me tell you something from the get go. There is no such thing as perfection and one must have a clear understanding of this and what it means. It means that anything that has been created by an individual will never ever be perfect because someone will always come around and tell you it needs change.

Guess what and I hate to bust your bubble but they would be correct. You see you need to know what you do not know and know that you do not know and be able to accept it as such. I find that most people in positions of power will exert that power on people either to control them in the now or in their future which by the way is so wrong in so many ways and yet they do it out of their own fears of rejection or loosing that power.

There is a very clear recognition that although control over material things is a source of some forms of power such as money, buildings or business because you hire the staff. Some people believe that because they own the business or sit in a high position they can do the latter,however ownership of the business or having acquired a high position is not a sufficient basis for the right to influence people.

You know the one thing that I have always told my clients during a coaching session is the following; When people do not follow you or they resist any change in any organization you need to ask yourself why?

Why do they resist me every time I try to make a change? That is the real question. Most so called leaders do the opposite they do not ask the questions and thus end in failure because there will be resistance and change will never ever happen. 

What they do next is the worst thing they can possibly do and that is they start to create issues and problems for people in their organizations because this will be the way to influence others and change the environment by frustrating their staff members to the boiling point no return and the people will either quit or do something wrong out of the fear that has been imposed on them and they are let go. 

I have seen this kind of leadership behavior which is again so wrong in so many ways because the lives of people and heir families are affected in so many ways and why because the so called leaders do not know how to lead again know what you do not know and accept it!!

The question every person in a high position of power needs to ask themselves is if they have fulfilled the prerequisite of a leader?

Do my people perceive me as a legitimate leader and worthy to hold this position?

I know the politics and I understand them very clearly though sometimes hard to swallow. In most organization leader positions are filled either by appointment or election and many questions will arise regarding the legitimacy of the appointed one.

 I have to say though that sometimes the appointed one does not fit the bill in the organization and so because that appointed one is a either a friend of someone in the hierarchy of influence thus will be placed in a place where people that have been around for a long time can carry the appointed one until retirement.

I have also seen mostly in highly bureaucratic organizations that knowledge of organizational rules and regulations is another type of expertise that may become a source of power over those that are new to the organization.

 The problem here is that when you hire someone who may not know all the rules and regulations from the get go but is an expert at implementation of regulations and has the practical experience can and will see right through these type of leaders. In these type of organizations I have also found that success form innovation leads to greater credit but if one fails it will lead to greater blame.

Opportunity will not interest itself in the person who isn’t interested in it. Napoleon Hill

In a free and democratic society, the number of opportunities for achievement is virtually limitless. In every business or profession, there are innumerable opportunities to invent new products, to improve manufacturing and administrative processes, and to offer better service than the competitor down the street.

All Learning Has A Start and A Finish And Emotions Will Always Be Present-Luciano The Key Santini

Hello and good day to all who read my blogs and writing all over the internet. I have to say that none of this would have ever been possible if not for all the great comments that inspire me to write for you every weekend. Life has a way of planning out each and every day for each one of us. I have written regarding (EI) or emotional intelligence  so what exactly is Ei well it is being aware first and foremost of who you are before you can even begin to understand someone else. I love the following quote by one of the greatest philosophers that ever lived; 

"All learning has an emotional base."
-- Plato

 Great right but do we have a clear understanding of what this means. In business my friends if you do not have a clear understanding of your business.clients and staff there is no way that you will be able to manage staff or run a business and for sure not communicate with clients. EI is the ability to be able to control, perceive and more important than all of that the ability to evaluate your own emotions and those around you.

Emotional intelligence involves our ability to understand, express, and control our emotions.  Image: Cultura/Liam Norris / Getty Images

When you begin to perceive others emotions you have to be able to read a persons non verbals signs or body language which can get sticky.

Having the ability to Understanding Emotions:

  The emotions that we perceive can have many ways of seeing what they mean. If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of their anger and what it might mean. For example, if your boss is acting angry, it might mean that he/she is dissatisfied with your work; or it could be because he got a speeding ticket on his way to work that morning or that he's/she's been fighting with his wife. or her husband. 

Or the worst case scenario that they are in a leadership role but has no idea in relationships with people or may have a difficult time trying to understand people's emotions

If you must meddle in human relationships, try to be a peacemaker. You will find that you don’t have much competition. "Napoleon Hill"

When faced with a conflict between others, most of us are more inclined to walk away from the situation than to become involved. If we do allow ourselves to become a participant, it is usually by adopting the position of one at the expense of the other. Of course, such behavior does little to resolve the dispute and may in fact exacerbate the problem. But when you make a genuine attempt to help resolve the situation, you should not be surprised if you’re the only one. 

 

We are all complex individuals with feelings and emotions we often don’t fully understand. Sometimes the mere involvement of a disinterested party is enough to help resolve the dispute. Make sure, though, if you are the one in the middle that you don’t allow yourself to get into a position where you must choose between the desires of one person over the other. Work toward a compromise that best suits everyone’s interests. 

 

Another one which plays a huge part in business is conflict resolution. What is conflict resolution? This seems to be a big question almost everywhere I go.

 

Conflict resolution is a way for two or more parties to find a peaceful solution to a disagreement among them. The disagreement may be personal, financial, political, or emotional. When a dispute arises, often the best course of action is negotiation to resolve the disagreement. Here are a few ways to see conflict.

 

Wrong Way: An inability to compromise or see the other person’s.

side.

Correct Way: The ability to seek compromise and avoid punishing.

 

Wrong Way: An inability to recognize and respond to the things that matter to the other person.

Correct Way: The capacity to recognize and respond to the things that matter to the other person.

 

These are just two ways to see conflict and to see the issue within yourself or the inabilities and the to see or find a way to learn the abilities needed to accomplish resolution.

 

    

To Know What You Do Not Know And Admitted Is Key To Business And Life-Luciano The Key Santini

Good morning everyone and how is everyone doing this wonderful day. Thank you to all who follow me and continue to inspire me to write for you and for all the great comments and suggestions. Know what you do not know and admitted that you need help understanding a concept or a task will give you more credibility then doing a task and not know what you are doing and never asking for clarity.

Here I am facilitating a great seminar on Leadership

People who will try to stay up with a knowledge based person but who will never admit to their incompetence. I find this sometimes to actually hinder a business person because this does not mean that the person is stupid it simply means this person does not know or understand. The person however will be considered stupid when they do not admit that they need help to understand what they do not understand in the first place.

Incompetence

Sam Ashe-Edmunds has been writing and lecturing for decades. He has worked in the corporate and nonprofit arenas as a C-Suite executive, serving on several nonprofit boards

Incompetence means different things to different people, but generally it denotes the inability to do a job to a satisfactory standard. If an employee completes a task on time, without errors and the way he was asked to do the work, the employee is considered competent. If the final product goes beyond what was asked of the employee, the employee is more than competent.

 Indicators of incompetence include work being submitted late, over budget, with errors or requiring considerable help from others. There is always the other side to this story and that is  that sometimes the person who asks someone to do or complete a task either does not know how to do the task themselves or they gave the wrong instructions to begin with. This happens more then the professional world wants to believe.

Poor Communication

Just because you give someone instructions doesn’t mean you’ve done your job. A competent employee asks coworkers or clients if they received the message, if they understand it and if they can meet the request. Waiting until deadline to learn that a project won’t be delivered is another form of incompetence -- you should check in with key stakeholders during the course of a project to evaluate its status. If you are not able to properly and clearly communicate your thoughts or your superiors’ instructions to others, leading to problems at work, you are not competent to work with others, no matter how good your intentions.

How often does this happen when your boss tells to do a task and then you have no idea how or what to do? This also happens all the time I see this on a daily basis with organizations and well it is funny to see but not funny on the consequences for the unfortunate people who receive the tasks but no real direction from those who have given the task.

It is a reality that most organizations know is happening but tend to ignore due to lack of communication skills or lack of having skills to resolve any kind of conflict.

Employee engagement
Here is another huge issue in all organizations large or small non profit or for profit. This issue is across the board through out the world. Employee engagement doe snot happen by OSMOSIS, believe when I tell you it does not happen by OSMOSIS it really does not!! I hope I made that very very clear because some leaders!! believe it does and yes it makes me laugh to see this take place in front of my eyes and then I ask did they understand what you just said and the reaction is of course they did they have been here for a long time.

Then I ask another question: Do you know what you just asked them to do? The answer is yes of course. I then ask for an explanation and of course this where it starts to get clear to me that NO!! they did not know what they asked they only knew what it meant and how it should take place theoretically and that is where the problem lies in most organizations.

Most (Leaders)  theory works in the real world and guess what?
THEORY:

  THEORY (noun)
  The noun THEORY has 3 senses: 1. a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena- I like this one but never the less it is accepted knowledge and the key word here is variety
2. a tentative theory about the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena- This one well I believe it is self explanatory.
3. a belief that can guide behavior- Key word here is guide!!

Josh Bersin

Contributor

Creating a high performance work environment is a complex problem. We have to communicate a mission and values, train managers and leaders to live these values, and then carefully select the right people who fit. And once people join, we have to continuously improve, redesign, and tweak the work environment to make it modern, humane, and enjoyable.
And despite the simple models engagement vendors use, the reasons for low engagement and turnover are varied.

• Some companies are going through transition and the leadership and management hasn’t re-engaged people.
• In others the workload is too high and the performance management process is flawed.
• Others have a lack of investment in development and talent mobility, making it difficult for high performers to advance.
• Some have a non-inclusive culture (perhaps as a result of history) and cannot attract and retain today’s more diverse workforce.
• Others just have old fashioned working conditions that simply make work difficult.

Our research shows that building a highly engaged workforce takes combination of many things, each impacting people in different ways. And with the influx of younger workers and the proliferation of technology at work, the whole environment has to be more flexible and transparent.