The other 25%, the 25% that will make or break your future success as an individual or a company is tied to three key things;
Innovation – In today’s world if you are not doing something new, different, increasing your offerings, delivering in a new way, the boat is sailing without you.   If you are marketing the way you have in the past, you will be left behind.  If you are delivering what you delivered last month or even last week, you will be left behind. 
Innovation parties! - Experience leaders take their teams on a regular basis and say, “today we innovate!”  What can we do that is new, different, in line with the interests of our clients to be there for them?  At a minimum an Experience Leader will set aside one day a month as innovation day.  They will not rest until everyone contributes an idea and until innovation is a habit.
Knowing your control levers – What are the key levers in your business?  (People, products, quality, development, sales, investment, technology or more?)  Experience Leaders know what these levers are and how to control them as markets bounce up and down keep the boat afloat in the storm of economic challenges.  They move quickly to change around personnel if people are a key.  They move quickly to change marketing strategies if this is a key. They challenge everyone who works for them to find their levers and their control in the situation.
Make Finding these controls an adventure! –Experience Leaders make it an adventure for their colleagues by asking everyone to determine exactly what they think they can control and what they cannot.  They then take on the adventure of saying how can I get some or total control of the things I think I cannot?  They teach this to everyone who works for them.  With their hands firmly on the controls they can drive through economic typhoons and set their sights on the next best thing for the organization and the people they serve.
The self-interest of clients is your interest! – An experience leader knows the most importance thing for their clients/customers today.   An Experience Leader is right there to help them.  What they needed yesterday is not what they need today.  How they bought yesterday is not how they will be buying today. “What is my customer’s biggest interest today?” is the question that dominates the thought process of an Experience Leader throughout the day.  The Experience Leader asks their team to think about this throughout the day as well in an effort to ingrain the thought.
Don’t struggle with any of these in your organization.  Let a Leadership Mastermind group tackle these and ingrain them in your culture.  Find out more at Leadership Mastermind Groups.

This is a place where people and businesses choose to bring their presence (alo) and a breath of life (ha) to every encounter and to the products and services they provide.  They chose to “share” part of themselves in serving a meal, fixing an elevator, building a road, creating a software program and more.  In return, they create an incredible experience for their customers and buyers. 

This simple word provides leaders with a road-map to getting our work on track today and every day.  Have we brought the full presence of who and what we are to the work?  Have we put our full breath into our efforts or are we holding back? Are we making the product we build or the service we give the real essence of who we are and what we stand for? 

When the people we work with feel these two things from their leaders or managers,  our full breath and our true essence they respond in kind.  New ideas flood into the workplace, a sense of creativity and ease surround tackling the challenges of the day, and the pride in the outcomes is the fuel for the next day’s efforts.

When our clients and customers feel this Aloha spirit, they too want to work with you again.  Returning for the real presence that your service or product brings to them.  They also want the life your create for them in your product or service because you have brought your true essence to them and shared it freely.

I am currently at the Marriott Kauai Beach Club and you could easily say I am just influenced by the sun, the surf, the palm trees, soft breezes and chirping birds.  (Are you imagining all of this yet?)  All of those things are wonderful by themselves.  However, my experience in my stay here is magnified ten fold because of the Aloha that greets me in every encounter.  The housekeeper, concierge, waiter, grounds-person, security, and so on will always pass along an “aloha” and follow that up with just what it means.  I am blown away, when I ask a simple question and get not only a good answer, but so much more.  They bring their presence to our encounters and share freely.  You can actually feel the breath of life in their work with each other by the smiles, not just for the tourists, but their colleagues, who I suspect are friends as well.

Experience leaders know how to bring “aloha” to their workplace every day.  May you be one of them.

Aloha!

Experience leaders find that wisdom or being wise encompasses the capacity to take a broader view of the current challenges and circumstances.  Rather than paying just the bills that are due today, dealing with just the crisis of today or worrying about the quarter, the experience leader is looking at the experience of the organization, its clients, customers, and employees for a lifetime.  They have the capacity to call upon and utilize the skills, talents and abilities of everyone in their organization for current challenges while simultaneously building the future.  The Experience leaders who are going out to their own employees and other leaders and saying, “help us create the future.”  These wise Experience Leaders are the ones who are making it through these challenging times.

 The Experience leader’s vision and wisdom is not created in a vacuum, but with the wise input of many, many people stretching even beyond their own organization.  Vistage, the largest CEO organization in the country, is well aware of the power of this collective wisdom and thus creates an environment where 12-16 leaders can join together to use collective wisdom to meet challenges and create the future.  They provide one of places Experience Leaders can go to get the common sense and good judgment of many and create powerful futures for their organizations.

These are challenging times, there is no doubt about that.  These are also the times of great opportunity.  The times for Experience Leaders to make use of the knowledge we have gained in the past and from others to become wise about the future of our organization.

Experience Leaders also make good use of “Leadership Masterminds” to collect this wisdom in their organizations.  I am convinced that where these collectives exist you will find that not only are the challenges met, but the future is being created.

To find out more about “Leadership Masterminds” email barbara_j_brannen@yahoo.com.

Right now our country, the USA, is trying to elect someone who will create the experience we want in our lives, living in our homes, villages and cities, and doing our work.  As we look at the candidates we have to ask ourselves the question, “what is the experience they have created for the people around them in their other leadership roles?”  What a leader does, with even one person working for them gives us an idea about all their values, strategies and tactics to handle challenge and growth.  An experience leader who creates an good experience for the person assigned to the task usually ends up with a sound outcome and results that move things in the right direction.

So the question on the table is, who are the leaders in your organization that will allow it to be a place that attracts and retains the best people for your mission and strategy?  Are they leaders who know and understand and will be more attuned to what is happening for each person?  Will they will note that with so many different generations in the workplace, what is working with one group may in fact be creating a totally different experience for another?  Then will they move to create good experiences for both?  Will they will be aware that an experience in one division may create a totally different and not as productive experience in another?  As an experience leader, will they will encourage their managers to try different things?

Experience leadership is about understanding the multi-faceted approach that will become the cornerstone of businesses in the next decade.  Moving away from from “for one and all” to encouraging the creation of “different strokes” for differing people and areas of responsibility.

One of the best ways I saw this manifested many years ago was when a call center offered each of its clients a different pay plan for the agents that would serve them.  This allowed them to create an “experience” in each unit around gain-sharing, bonuses, hourly rate increases, etc.   The leaders of this organization understood that they experience that each unit created correlated to the service of each customer.  The organization had long term employees, ecstatic clients who in turn had happy customers.

When I fly an airline I can see that the experience of the agents, flight attendants and pilots is most likely based on the experience that has been created by their leaders.  There are vast differences in my experience from one to the other  and I wonder about the leaders who create such a far reaching impact by the experience of how they work with the people who report to them.

The question that will be critical to the promotion of anyone who will lead an area or even manager one person will be, “What experience are you capable of creating?”  With strong experience leadership an organization will be able to address the differences in the workforce, the differences in the divisions of their organization and most importantly, the future.

To find out more about integrating experience leadership into your organization check with me about a “Leadership Mastermind” for your group at barbara@letsplaymore.com.

Read more about experience leadership looks like in the on-boarding process.

1. Smile - right now while you read this.  Notice your heart rate drop a point or two.  The heart rate of the people around you will drop as well.

2. Get up, go out the door and tell someone, anyone they are doing a good job, (with real meaning).  Say no more and just come back to your work.  Your mind is clearer and your colleague that you just appreciated is clearer as well.

3.  Listen - just walk around to five people, ask and then listen to what is on their minds today.  You will feel more informed, they will feel more empowered to get things done.

4.  Decide anything that has been lingering out there and needs a decision now.  You will feel better for having started the action and your colleagues will be anxious to make it happen.

5.  Learn, something, anything that will make you a better leader today.  Ask one person how you can improve and then work on that for the week.   You will get better and everyone you lead will be better for it.

6. Start a Leadership MasterMind Group in Your Company today with my help.  Just call 303-984-9271 and we will get you on your way.

Look no more!  It’s here, there is a way and you have found it today!  Barbara Brannen comes to your organization with a trailer load of new ideas, fun solutions and expertise that will really make you sit up and believe that not only is there a way to have everything above, but even more.

So, how does she do it?  First, Barbara believes in the experience of work and therefore she brings the experience of working in your company right into the room and allows you to look it with fresh eyes.  Next, she takes that experience and turns it into a plan to improve every part and piece until no stone is unturned and no experience is ever the same.  From what you say on your website to the front door, from how people are on-boarded to how they are approached when their performance is not up to par, Barbara is going to load you up with tools, strategies, ideas, and fun.

Barbara has spent over 30 years with organizations that did amazing things like triple in value and become “THE” employer of choice in their markets to companies that moved flat revenues to new heights and created a line at the door to work for them.  She is the author of several books, including “Office Peace” a great fable on the perfect place to work!  She is a professional speaker which makes her fun, experienced and eloquent with you and your organization.

Isn’t it time for some new strategies for your organizaton?  Find barbara at barbara@letsplaymore.com.  

EnerCast will be the fuel to help you address a myriad of challenges and situations. 

EnerCast is here to help the cast of employees you have so carefuly chosen work at an optimum level.

 EnerCast will help you with:

•  Leadership Training
• Implement the changes needed after an employee survey
• Meeting and retreat facilitation with higher energy and better results
• Help you move to your new strategy and goals
• Create a more collaborative culture
• Increase productivity
• Create an “Employer of Choice” environment
• Reduce Turnover
• Human Resource Audits
• Overcoming the effects of layoffs or other stressful events
• Integration strategies for your people from mergers or acquisitions
• Create an extraordinary “On-Boarding” experience
• Introduce new concepts to the organization
• Help to get the right people in the organization
• Design effective rewards and recognition programs
• Benefits and Compensation Strategies
• Employee Relations
• Situational Specialist
• Edu-tainment Keynotes and Training

Why sleep?  Dr. Maas demonstrated a hundred different ways that our lack of sleep, meaning anything less than 8 hours, makes us less effective and really, not as smart as we can be.  Our favorite clip was a young man talking before he started out on the questions for “How to Be a Millionaire” that he had not slept the night before, but “was fine.”  He missed the very first question, you know, the easy one that is just there for fun.

Why play? I talked about how we are depriving ourselves of the energy and the intelligence that is at our finger tips in just five seconds of play.  The audience indulged me by showing that we could raise their thinking and energy with efforts as small as putting on a hat.  We found the secrets to getting this simple concept into our lives and our businesses without being “unprofessional.”  More importantly the audience learned how play took organizations from $75 million to $210 million in four years and another from $32-$50million in half that time.  Play is powerful to keep leaders in the driver’s seat and knowing how to let the duck do the talking for them at times was also part of the fun.  There were tears when they learned how play saved 400 jobs and how play saved a life.  There was laughter as we looked at how and when our childhood play serves us so well today.

Why Laugh?  We all know the answer to this one.  Emily explained so much about what is going on in this world through the powerful use of philosophy and laughter.  She asked us why does it always have to be either/or and challenged us to make it either-or, meaning we could have two contradictory thoughts side by side.

The three of us are dedicated to helping leaders know that the “business” of leadership must be married to the realities of life.  Sleeping MORE,  Playing  MORE, and Laughing MORE will get you a lot further than those extra hours you are putting in.  Go home and play, laugh and then get some sleep!

You see my New Year started off so-o-o-o-o-o-o bad that my son commented. “Mom, you have no where to go but up.”   What happened was the septic system at my mountain cabin froze (more…)

When Scrooge is taken by the Ghost of Christmas Past to see himself as a young intern in Fezziwig’s store they come upon a scene of great merriment and laughter.  It is the company Christmas party.  As everyone departs (more…)