ep36. (Blog) Watching in Disbelief
Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister
Release Date: 09/03/2014
The Real Magic Needed To Provoke Greatness in Your Team: An Interview with Lee Cockerell, former Executive Vice President (Retired & Inspired) Walt Disney World® Resort
Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister
Want employees who care greatly about creating remarkable results? Listen to this interview! Lee Cockerell is one of the most down-to-earth and transparent leaders I’ve been privileged to interview. Far beyond management and leadership, Lee got to the heart of what’s needed to provoke greatness in yourself and your team. Enjoy! Resources from the interview: Learn more about Lee Cockerell’s speaking and online courses . Here’s to your greatness, Misti Burmeister
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A Simple Strategy to Get What You Want Out of Your Career
Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister
“Why don’t they put more time and attention to that client? If they don’t, they might lose them.” “Can’t they see I would be excellent in that position? Why don’t they consider me?” “Don’t they understand that if they’d just have more team building activities throughout the year everyone would work better together? Collaboration clearly improved after our yearly retreat.” “Why don’t they spend a little extra money on the furniture in our waiting area? At least they could provide fresh tea/coffee and relaxing (or energizing) music for guests!...
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Developing a Healthy Sense of Self-Worth is Imperative to Success
Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister
Running beneath the surface of our conscious awareness is a set of beliefs—sort of an autopilot of assumptions and expectations. The role models we’re exposed to as children, along with the stories we consistently hear, instruct our belief system and set us up to repeat patterns that create the results we see every day. Do you know the beliefs you bought into as a child that continue to create your current reality? I thought I did, and then I came face-to-face with the reality of an undesirable result I’ve recreated too many times to count. Frustrated and angry, I’ve found myself...
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Leadership: Here’s How Simple it is to Promote Team Cohesion
Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister
Why do leaders struggle to create collaborative work environments where team members step up and do whatever it takes to create remarkable results? Is it because they haven’t set a vision that is compelling enough? Maybe. Is it because they haven’t counseled their team enough about the importance of working together, despite the weekly—no daily—reminders? Probably not. Is it because the team hasn’t decided on a shared set of values? I doubt it. The biggest reason leaders struggle to rally a team is less about what they’re doing and more about what they’re allowing. While enjoying...
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Why Establishing Core Values is a Waste of Time and Money
Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister
Company culture experts urge leaders to establish clearly defined values to serve as a guide for decisions and behaviors throughout an organization. To ensure they have the best representation of the values shared among those in leadership, companies often spend gobs of cash and time on experts who ultimately produce a document aligning the most common ideals. Mounted on the wall, and often on the website, these key words or phrases are meant to ensure everyone is on the same page about what’s expected and acceptable. While these values are typically...
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5 Questions That Will Truly Impact Your Life in 2017
Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister
The greatest teachers in life are rarely the ones with great advice. They are remarkable role models who consistently show the way, while asking the kind of questions that stop us in our tracks. Their questions infect us with the kind of curiosity that leads us in the direction of our own answers. You know the kind of person I’m talking about. Their question pierces through our internal chatter and commands the truth we’ve been searching for. In November of 2016, I witnessed a teacher so committed to his craft that he not only showed the way, but provoked questions in...
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The Truth About Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister
We shy away from sharing or expanding into what we have to offer in the most obscure ways. We think that getting out of our comfort zone means doing something big, which is exactly what keeps us trapped and doing what we’ve always done. Finishing up lunch with a client at a nice restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland, I kept thinking about that beautiful basket of bread (that we didn’t even touch) going into the trash. While a business lunch is perhaps not the right environment to request a to-go box for the bread, I found myself imagining the delight of handing it off to a homeless...
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A Simple Strategy for Increasing Your Impact
Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister
In a rush to get from one experience to the next, we may miss the simple and seemingly superfluous opportunities to inspire greatness. Believing that inspiration only comes in oversized packages, we may forget to look for the tiny (barely noticeable, really) opportunities to inspire others into action. Having an “off” day and needing a shift in scenery, I headed to the pool for a workout. The moment I pulled into the parking lot, I started talking myself out of swimming—“It’s been a rough day… I could just go across the street and grab a hot tea, read and relax,” I...
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Energy, Enthusiasm and Economic Downturns
Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister
They should is a trap that kills enthusiasm and growth faster than any economic downturn ever could. When you catch yourself thinking, “They should or shouldn’t,” stop and ask yourself, “How can I help them reach their goals?” Consider letting go of the shoulds (work harder, pay their dues, respect me) and shouldn’ts (go above me, think so highly of themselves, be so lazy), and instead focus on communicating your vision while helping them reach their goals. Their success is your success, regardless of whether you’re the boss or the employee. Embrace this...
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How Stagnation Leads to Poaching…With Customers and Employees
Provoking Your Greatness - Misti Burmeister
Greatness chases greatness. Companies and leaders in continuous pursuit of evolution (personal/company brand), worry more about keeping up with demand then poaching. On the flipside, those who hoard resources and acknowledgment wind up losing their most precious assets to the competition. Sitting in one of the nicest business clubs in Washington, DC, just before the start of an event, Lena, a fellow businesswoman, peeked over her computer and asked, “Excuse me, are you familiar with LinkedIn?” “I’m no expert,” I said, “but what do you need?” “If I...
info_outlineAre Your Employees Watching on in Silent Disbelief?
It’s no surprise that hard working, loyal, creative team players work best for companies whose leadership has a strong and compelling VOICE.
On the flip side are the companies whose VOICEs are meek and muted, and whose employees come and go unnoticed. At this company, success is likely defined in dollars, hard work is measured in hours, and leadership sets itself apart from the rest of the team. Employees become disinterested in the company, because the company is disinterested in them.
When I asked my friend and swim partner, Caroline, why she resigned from her previous position, her response went something like this:
“The company bus had the wrong people in the wrong seats, and the driver had no license and no map. And, the bus was heading toward a cliff.”
Then she added another statement about the right people, standing on the sidewalk, watching helplessly in silent disbelief.
When I asked who was responsible for the success - or failure - of the company, she didn’t hesitate. “No one. Everyone was out for him or herself, concerned only with putting their time in. Everyone dreamed about big profits, but skipped over the part about creating something awesome that people would want to buy, or buy in to.”
Exhausted and irritated, Caroline left the company.
THE COMPANY HAD NO VOICE
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Vision |
The future was blurry. No one could see where the company was headed. |
Imagine what would it have done for the team if they knew what all their hard work was going toward. |
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Ownership |
No one took responsibility for success – or failure. |
What if the CEO cared about the team’s success, and demonstrated what success looked like? |
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Intention |
No one knew - or cared - what was happening. Driving off the cliff was fine. |
Had the leadership team cared about what was happening, the team would have fed off them. |
|
Community |
They were only in it for themselves. |
What might have happened if they had pulled together as a collection of people who cared about the outcomes they generate together? |
|
Energy |
Spinning on a wheel is exhausting – and boring. |
Rather than having her energy drained, Caroline could have been excited and dedicated. |
Reignited Through His VOICE
When Greg, the CEO of an up and coming company, called to recruit Caroline, she could, “see his vision becoming a reality.” His team was fully enrolled in his vision, and they were invested in the company’s success.
Greg was sharing his VOICE, and as a result, it became stronger and more compelling as each new team member jumped on board to help him. He was not looking to simply lead his team, but rather to achieve a specific outcome.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION: How’s your VOICE? What small change can you make today to strengthen yours?
Learn more about how the VOICE model can help you uncover greatness – in yourself and in others.
Today, Caroline is reveling in the energy of her new company’s environment, and has found a VOICE of her own.
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Thanks to Dexter Britain and Gillycuddy for their music contribution and LN Lurie for producing this podcast.
What describes your perfect team? Inspired? Collaborative? Loyal? Driven? Contact Misti Burmeister today for help building your dream team.