It’s everywhere- on Guy Kawasaki’s  AllTop portal, in the New York Times new Happy Days Blog,  Psychology Today,  Inc. and many more on-line and print publications.

Human potential seminar leaders like Tony Robbins and T. Harv Eker have adjusted their content delivery in recent months to address the Upside of the Downturn.  It’s a strategic approach, and  it’s more than positive thinking.  (Hope alone is not a strategy).

The Value of Volunteering

One strategy that continues to emerge in various forms when examining the Upside of the Downturn is the increased focus given to the VALUE  of volunteering.

Like many of you, I started volunteering when I was 14.  I worked at one of the first recycling centers in the USA in a small community in northern Illinois 4 nights a week. The proceeds from our efforts helped fund our high school’s symphonic band’s performance at an International Youth Music Festival in Vienna, Austria. Since then I have volunteer with over 25 community organizations and businesses and have served on several boards of directors.

Last week I was invited again to deliver my High-Impact Volunteer Management™ seminar as part of the Performance- Focused Leadership Seminar series for Board Presidents, Directors and Committee Chairs for the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce  (42 chambers total).

Businesses and social-profits alike benefit from volunteer capital. One of the re-occurring challenges most organizations encounter is keeping good volunteers (including board members and committee chairs).

Keeping the Good Ones

As in the private industry, the best way to insure volunteer retention is to adopt a strategic approach with a Volunteer Recruitment and Development Plan in place in your organization or business. This includes targeted recruitment, a solid orientation program, low-cost, no-cost recognition, and a performance management/professional development plan in place that includes on-going feedback and performance reviews.

So what is the best way to develop on-going communication and feedback with volunteers?

It’s the  R.A.P. method:

REVIEW the PAST: Take a look at the performance objectives mutually created during the first 30 days of the volunteer’s on-boarding.

ANALYZE the PRESENT: Ask your volunteer what she feels are her major accomplishments in the past (X) months  (particularly as they relate to over-arching organizational goals).

PLAN the FUTURE: Ask your volunteer what changes/support she would like to see in the future.

If you are wanting to enhance volunteer performance and retention in your organization, be sure you can meet the following needs* of your volunteers:

• I need a sense of belonging.
• I need to be part of the organizational planning of our objectives.
• I need organizational goals and objectives that are clear and obtainable.
• I need to feel that what I am doing has real purpose and contributes to welfare of the organization and community at large.
• I need autonomy and collaboration in setting standards for performance.
• I need to know what is expected of me (not a laundry list of “duties”.)
• I need to have challenging responsibilities within my range of interests and abilities.
• I need feedback about my performance and our progress.
• I need to be kept informed.
• I need to have good rapport with and confidence in the leadership of the organization.
• I need recognition, as it is due.

(The Volunteer Creed, adapted from The Effective Management of Volunteer Programs, Marlene Wilson)

Performance Management is an on-going year-round communication process undertaken in collaboration with a volunteer and her organizational leader(s).  With mutual goal setting, on -going communication, individual recognition, and the R.A.P method, your volunteers can become your organization’s  greatest evangelists.

Need help developing a High-Impact Volunteer Management Plan for your business, organization, or upcoming event? Please contact me for a complimentary (20- minute) consultation.

Thus, I am delighted to be  one of 20+ contributing writers to the just released publication,

42 Rules for Successful Collaboration

What do Cisco, Disney, Toyota, Mindjet, Adminstaff, Joire De Vivre have in common?

RULE #29   Use Leaders as Collaborative Strategists

2009, ©Shera R. Sever & SuperStar Press

Get the right people on the bus and in the right seats, with a commitment to building a best-in-class collaborative culture.

Focus on internal-facing collaboration that encourages collective intelligence (simple yet intentional engagement).

Recognize those within the organization who consistently share information, resources, responsibilities, while engaged in and committed to organizational and personal excellence.

Start with Talent Management

• Get the right people on the bus. Build a superior team by recruiting those who have a track record of working and playing well with others, and communicating with transparency, while confronting brutal facts.

• Make collaboration a core competency for any position. Define the specific functions and expectations in the professional development plan.  When collaboration is a core value, employees are able to see the results of their work and the impact it has on company, clients, and colleagues. This in and of itself is the reward.

• Create a Collaboration Manager/ Coordinator position to promote, coordinate and manage your internal systems for knowledge sharing, skill and learning development. Look beyond HR, Marketing or Corporate Communications for this collaboration evangelist. Design the position around competencies and overarching organizational goals and objectives.

• Engage all your people in “big picture” solutions. Interestingly enough, a 2008 study available through the Society of Organizational Learning shows that fewer than 35 percent of employees from 100 companies surveyed, know or are clear about how their role fits into the bigger picture—the overall business objectives and strategic plan. Best leaders motivate with questions, not initiatives.

• Focus on “internal facing” online communities. Awareness Networks released their 2008 white paper, revealing that 82 percent of over 162 leaders surveyed have seen that Web 2.0 technologies (particularly “company branded” Wikis) increase knowledge sharing, employee collaboration, and improved internal communications, and help employees “find” each other.

• Continue to make Learning & Development a top priority. Optimum learning and development occur in systems where there is a rich web of interactions—and this is collaboration. As organizational leaders, ask where collaborative learning communities could be built or expanded upon?*

What new leadership and communication skills are needed cross-functionally to allow for full collaborative engagement in your organization?

*Note:  Some of the most impressive learning communities are being birthed in the non-profit sector. Paul Hawken’s WiserEarth.org site encompasses shared knowledge and learning communities from more than 13,000 organizations worldwide.

It’s a constricted lens that complains about all the things we don’t have or all the problems in our life.  But as my reader, you’re bigger than that- right?!

The Gratitude Scan

I’ve re-instated The Gratitude Scan into my morning daily practice by starting each day expressing thanks for all the abundance in my life.  Right now can you think of at least 3-5 things you are thankful for? How about 10? or even 20?

Starting tomorrow morning before you get up, release anxiety, stress and noise in your mind by expressing gratitude before you engage in any other activity! I find writing down all that I am grateful for to be a very powerful practice.

Excellence is a habit!

If you keep it up daily, you’ll start to notice a sense of peace, joy, and renewed confidence.  As a result better, clearer decisions,  more resilience, and a peacful “knowing”  are at your fingertips.  And most of all, you will attract more blessings, synchronicity, and  opportunities to you. And now, let’s take this a step further.

Practicing an Attitude of Gratitude in the Workplace

1. At a future meeting, ask everyone in the room to share something they are thankful for about their job:

• this could be as simple as a window in their office
• an ergonomic workstation
• a manager who really cares
• a supportive co-worker
• or the learning experience associated with a current project they are working on.

2. Let your co-workers, boss, and employees know how much you appreciate them. A simple note, e-mail, or dark chocolate(!?) at least once a week can uplift everyone’s spirit and add to the sense of collaboration in the workplace.

3. How can you let your clients know how much you appreciate them?

• Send a one or two line weekly motivational tip or favorite quote
• Offer a free resource reminding your clients that you are on their team to support their continued success.
• Call them on the phone
• Host a gratitude luncheon for your clients.
• Remember: Good things come to those who collaborate!

As the season of Thanksgiving is approaching let’s  make a special effort to have an Attitude of Gratitude. Engage yourself in activities and environments that reinforce your JOY!. It’s your birthright!

As Michael Moore writes in his post today, “we have experienced a stunning, whopping, landslide of HOPE in a time of deep despair.”

One my mentors, James Kouzes, laid out a seemingly simple, yet powerful leadership model and evaluation tool for personal and organizational leadership in his 2002 best-seller, The Leadership Challenge.

After eight (8) long, painful years, America (the USA), has finally elected a leader that:

• Models the Way
• Inspires a Shared Vision
• Challenges the Process
• Enables Others to Act
• Encourages the Heart

We have seen that anything is possible with focused intention, commitment, and ACTION. The world has been longing for a leader like Obama.

In Hebrew, “Obama” means Lightening. May he electrify and purify the past by co-creating and helping us all rebuild a better future. Let’s support this transition by awakening our own personal leadership practices.

We are all the messengers of change!

Initially, a two- day seminar which I developed in 2007 for the CARAT Executive Leadership Institute, this course emphasizes the synergistic systems inherent in  talent management, retention, learning, and overall organizational effectiveness and growth.

According to the “2008 Ethics and Compliance Risk Management Practices Report, one-quarter of organizations have a desire to engage employees in learning, but are challenged to put their corporate values and integrity into action.

One of the key (and often times) most challenging strategies in birthing a learning culture in an organization is to discard the old paradigm of organizational “silos”.

Learning is not a one-time event. A true learning culture is based on an organization’s mission and core values where learning (human capital development) is transparently woven into all roles, functions, divisions and regions of an organization.

Understanding that Human Capital (Workforce) Development is an organization’s greatest asset is critical. Like any transformation, evolving into a Values-Based Learning Culture does not happen overnight, but rather requires strategic, thorough assessment of leaders attitudes, management approach, and current learning curricula.

Read more in this months’ issue of Chief Learning Officer.

Like many clients I have worked with, I am a Personality Type Seven in the Enneagram System meaning, I like to keep my options open. In Northern California, some call this “going with the flow”, and may use this strategy as their chosen methodology for postponing decision-making and commitments.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am all for being in the flow. After all, that’s where magic happens. There is a great awareness that arises in this “Being with What Is”- or as Gil Fronsdal calls it, the Practice of “Not-Knowing”. Socrates said, “The realization of not knowing is the beginning of wisdom.” Practicing being comfortable with the unknown, yet trusting in an inherent wisdom by keeping the channel open is what Martha Graham coined, “The Blessed Unrest”.

I have spent many months in this “Blessed Unrest, practicing the “Not-Knowing” inquiry. I’ve learned to befriend radical uncertainty. When we practice being comfortable with the unknown, a deep inner knowing does emerge of a what is possible. This or something better! We don’t need to have all the answers to take action towards a desired outcome.

With the recent explosion of The Secret & The Law of Attraction, we have all been reminded that desires and passion coupled with focused intention and trust is the most powerful formula for manifestation. In order to create change and see specific results, it is essential to put our attention on what we want.

The Key is to FOCUS on the OUTCOME
as if it already EXISTS.

So, do you want to create the momentum that will produce optimal results in your business or organization? Would you like to attract more ideal clients? Increase your revenue? Double your income? Transition into a new career? Try these seemingly simple steps for 60 days and see the results:

1. Write your goals as affirmations. Writing is essential.It creates suggestion in the subconscious. Use present tense, with specifics: It is now March 2008, I have/am________ or my company is/has________.
Write what you will be doing and feeling when you are living in this outcome. Include as much detail as possible for evidence of achievement. This is a critical component in knowing/seeing that you have achieved your desired outcome.

2. Read these goals aloud 2-3 times a day- first thing in the morning and right before bedtime is very effective.

3. Use visuals to support your goals/affirmations: Create a collage or vision board. If you are leading a management team, facilitating a change initiative or strategic visioning process, I recommend using more sophisticated graphic template guides such as those available at www.grove.com.

4. Surround yourself with people who will support the achievement of your outcomes and hold you to high standards. Remove yourself from people and environments that do not support your vision.

5. Get inspired. Read autobiographies and biographies of your heroes, living or not. I was very motivated in my recent re-reading of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and following his “secret” 100%.

6. Saturate yourself with learning. Engage in personal development workshops and seminars. Harv Eker’s Millionaire Mind Intensives and Guerilla Business School are life-changing.

7. Vow to Play a Bigger Game. Marianne Williamson said it best: “. . . we ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”

8. Maintain a consistent exercise program and balanced, healthy nutrition. Drink plenty of water. Reduce/eliminate sugar, alcohol, caffeine and red meat intake.

9. Every moment is a choice point. Living in this realization is very empowering. If you find yourself unclear at a choice point, be with the uncertainty. As one of my mentors often reminded me in times of anxiety or fear: ‘Don’t do anything, just be still.” Allow the inner flame of clarity to emerge. Then, refer back to the picture /words of your DESIRED OUTCOME and select an ACTION(S) that propels you towards your desires and goals.

10. Have fun with the process and enjoy the journey!

If it’s humanly possible, you CAN DO IT!

We all need support. Are you seeking a professional partner and vision keeper committed to helping you achieve desired outcomes in your business, organization, or with your “blessed unrest”? If so, contact me.  I’m here to serve!

Fostering teamwork is creating a work culture that values collaboration. In a teamwork environment, people understand and believe that thinking, planning, decisions and actions are better when done cooperatively.

As One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard discovered, people recognize, and even assimilate, the belief that “none of us is as good as all of us.” High Five, The Magic of Working Together.

In America, many of our institutions such as schools, our family structures, and our pastimes still emphasize winning, being the best, and coming out on top. Workplaces that exemplify and reward teamwork are not yet the norm.

Organizations, however, are working on valuing diverse people, ideas, backgrounds, and experiences. As part of the social transformation that we see taking place globally, collaboration, co-creation and cooperation seem to be values that are being more readily embraced and promoted in organizational development.

Having consulted many senior managers, educational, and organizational leaders over the past 13 years, I’ve included here my Ten Tips for Building Terrific Teams as your quick guide to cultivating successful teams, encouraging creativity and innovation, and attaining optimal results within your business or organization.

TEN TIPS for BUILDING TERRIFIC TEAMS

1. Communicate Clear Expectations. It is crucial that team members know why they are working together, and how their role, functions, and outcomes contribute to the bigger picture and overall success of the organization, its clients and coworkers. As a leader, how clearly you communicate the overall vision, mission, and values of the organization will be the power driving the team forward.

2. Have an agenda with objectives at team meetings. Allow time for progress updates, discussion, brainstorming, and action plans. It can be particularly beneficial if the meeting facilitator is trained in Cross-Cultural Awareness, or Marshall Rosenberg’s NVC practices. Using these techniques will help keep a diverse team cohesive and focused, encourage everyone’s participation, and can easily diffuse and transform stagnation. Change, creativity and solutions are not birthed in a static environment. Are necessary concerns and misunderstandings raised and properly addressed on your team?

3. Include your consultants and independent contractors in your brainstorming meetings. One of the biggest mistakes some organizations make is to not include consultants and independent contractors in staff meetings, project updates, long-term goals and vision. You will get a lot more mileage from your consultants when they are included in discussions and sessions affecting your organization’s direction and growth. Consultants are typically natural networkers and wealth of resources. They can easily be a powerful contributing factor to your organization’s long-term success and expansion.

4. Cultivate an atmosphere where team members can appreciate the diversity of talent on the team, not just in skill set and areas of expertise, but from a whole person perspective. If the team is working on a long-term project consider investing in the Myers Briggs assessment, DISC or an Enneagram training for the workplace.

5. Have a rewards or recognition program in place. Giving public recognition on the company intranet, newsletter, or in a staff meeting, or rewarding high-performers with gift certificates to a spa or event, are just a few low-cost, no-cost ways to acknowledge team members for a job well done.

6. Build fun and shared occasions into the organization’s agenda. Hold potluck lunches; take the team to a performance or cultural event. Host dinners at a local restaurant, (include your associates’ families) or plan an outdoor event such as hiking, bicycling, or even river rafting.

7. Encourage collaborative leadership models within your workplace. Move away from traditional, hierarchical leadership models that are deadening to the human spirit and that can create separation, distrust, and a competitive environment. Focus on cooperative models for team performance. Rotating facilitators at your weekly or monthly meetings is one way to begin this shift. Appointing co-managers to lead a project is another effective strategy.

8. Create opportunities for giving and receiving feedback. In his recent visit to San Francisco, the Dalai Lama continually emphasized the importance of dialog, along with education and training. How well trained are you and your people in examining assumptions, active listening, asking for clarification, and other non-defensive communication models that make it safe for you and your associates to express needs, be heard, and enthusiastically create innovative solutions with and for each other?

9. Provide resources. One of the surest ways to create chaos and diminish motivation, performance, and morale is to expect people to perform without the tools and resources they need to deliver outcomes they are proud of. Be sure everyone has the basic information and tools they need to perform, including healthy, ergonomic workstations.

10. Form a Green Team at work. Help your people raise their awareness of opportunities to save energy and contribute to a healthy and sustainable environment. By allowing others to take leadership and responsibility, passion takes hold. A green team can be very motivational for employees who want to make a difference in their work environment.

Got a great organizational team story? I’d love to hear it, along with any other feedback you’d like to share.