To evoke the best from others, you must find a vibration that is a match to the best in others.

       -- Abraham-Hicks

I love this teaching. It's simple and profound and best of all, it puts you (the leader) in the driver's seat.

How many leaders want to learn how to get the best from their team members?  The leader reads books on leadership and takes workshops on leadership and yet she struggles. 

Abraham-Hicks suggests that the path to getting the best from others is for the leader to find a vibration (a feeling) that is a match to the best of our team members.

Leaders lead.  They go first.  This means the leader must first find that positive feeling (emotion, vibration) in themselves - - a positive feeling that is a match for the best in others.

We explore how to achieve this in the IATF Leader As Coach Fast Track Program.

With its constant commotion, unnecessary meetings, and infuriating wastes of time, the modern workplace makes us all work longer, less focused hours.

Jason Fried,Co-founder of 37signals, explains why you can't work at work and how to change this.

STOP MARKETING And START Sharing -- A discussion of reciprocity using on-line media for the development of your business, brand, customer, and YOU!

Join us for this live and interactive TeleSeminar to:

• Explore the pros and cons of Blogs, Websites, FaceBook, Twitter and maybe LinkedIn for marketing of your company’s products and services.
• Explore why giving more stuff away creates a magnetic pull of fans and people who value your services and products.
• Explore how your capacity for change, values & commitments can either explode or implode your business.
• Discuss and co-create techniques, processes, plans, and short-cuts to see a rapid return using on-line social media tools.

Here's what you'll learn:

1. Four techniques to re-brand and market existing products and processes you already have.
2. A clear understanding of the necessary steps to create a change of your marketing and sharing in the following steps: 1) Vision, 2) Skills, 3) Incentives, 4) Resources, 5) Action Plan
3. Understanding of why giving stuff away for free elevates your brand and you to expert status; and can get you more people to serve (and profit from it!).

Our guest for this event is Mike Cardus, founder of Create-Learning.com based out of Buffalo, NY.  Create-Learning.com  is a learning and consulting firm that provides experiential development to create great experiences for improved performance and lasting memories.  Mike facilitates, educates, and speaks with groups in a variety of settings including Fortune 500 Companies, small businesses, universities and classrooms. Best known for his high energy and creativity, Mike has facilitated groups from as small as two to as many as three thousand.  Mike's Facebook page is HERE.  Find Mike on Twitter HERE .  Mike is a member of the IATF.

This is a great opportunity to learn about how to grow your business and positively impact more people using social media from someone who has done it.

Call Details

TITLE

 Secrets To Growing Your Teambuilding Business With Social Media

DATE

Thursday, October 7, 2010

TIME

Starts at 1 pm Eastern (NY City time zone)
runs for 70 minutes

PRESENTERS

Mike Cardus with Create-Learning.com
Tom Heck, President & Founder of the IATF

WHAT TO EXPECT

Come to the call ready to participate in small group discussions, share ideas and resources, ask questions, answer quick polls, and be fully engaged as we put the newest distance learning telephone conferencing technology to use!

RECORDING

This call was recorded and archived in the IATF Members Only Area HERE .  Not yet an IATF member?  Join HERE.

Hello Teamwork Facilitators!  It's Tom Heck, President & Founder of the International Association of Teamwork Facilitators, with your September 2010 teamwork ideas e-newsletter.

The economy continues to challenge many, particularly those who work in small and medium-sized nonprofits.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been talking with several Executive Directors (EDs) of small and medium-sized nonprofits about how they handle the development needs of emerging leaders ("rising stars") within their organizations.  Most don't have a clear plan in place.  All of the EDs recognize the need for leadership development, but two big obstacles stand in the way:

1. Cost of the leadership development (training)
2. Time away from work

Large nonprofits (YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs, Red Cross, etc.) don't have the same training and development obstacles that small and medium sized nonprofits do.  The big guys have entire   departments at the national office dedicated to advancing leadership development within the entire (networked) organization whereas the small and medium sized nonprofits are on their own.

One ED at a medium-sized nonprofit told me she would hesitate to provide leadership development to an emerging leader on her team because the average person only stays a year or two (especially true with Gen-Y).  So her team members do their best without any leadership training.  Before the recession, the ED found this system worked.  Now the challenges are great and her staff lack the leadership skills to move forward with confidence.

There is another way.

What if you provided cost-effective, results-driven leadership development to your emerging leaders (rising stars) knowing full well that staff would likely stay for one to three years?  The investment in staff development would pay off in two ways:  1) Your organization benefits from having inspired, capable leaders and 2) Word gets out in the employment marketplace that your organization is the place to go to receive the leadership training needed to advance careers (regardless of where one works).  This is the same approach many large, forward-thinking corporations are using (as reported by Gen-Y expert Bea Fields).

If you're the Executive Director of a small or medium-sized nonprofit, I want to talk with you and learn about your leadership development needs so we (the IATF community) can support you.  Take a look at the IATF distance learning leadership development program Leader As Coach Fast Track Program and let me know if this is the type of leadership development that would benefit your emerging leaders (rising stars).  Take a look at the IATF member benefits and let me know if your emerging leaders would benefit from inclusion in this inspired community of movers and shakers.  Let's talk.

Upcoming TeleSeminars

Member Buzz Roundup

The IATF community is AMAZING.  Check out what some of our members are up to: 

• Demetris Booth shares secrets of Collaborative Intelligence.  CLICK  HERE for more.
• Terrance Bradford enrolled in Transformative Studies Ph.D program.  CLICK  HERE for more.
• Badari Ambatti at NYC Outward Bound changing lives.  CLICK  HERE for more.
• Lauralee Nieves-Hughes builds stronger virtual community.  CLICK  HERE for more.
• Jaime Cipperly works with high performing sports team.  CLICK  HERE for more.
• Mike Cardus uses knives and marshmallows to help a team.  CLICK  HERE for more.
• Diane Crampton develops free training videos.  CLICK  HERE for more.

Video Clips

• Secrets of Motivation by Dan Pink.  CLICK HERE
• Can A Team Lead Themselves?  CLICK HERE
• Example of Poor Leadership Coaching  CLICK HERE
• Lessons about the Leader As Coach  CLICK HERE
• How NOT to do PowerPoint  CLICK HERE

Free Leadership Skill

Looking for a no-cost method for becoming a stronger leader?  It's the same method 90% of the super successful employ.  CLICK HERE

The video clip below provides a demonstration of the phrase "Can't see the forest for the trees."

How many teams an organizations end up like this?  Well meaning people putting forth lots of effort only to realize they weren't thinking far enough ahead.

This is the value of a teamwork coach.  One of the coach's most important jobs is to anticipate and look into the future. 

"Is this the right thing for us to do?"

"What happens if we succeed?"

"Have you ever considered...?"

"What's the message here?"

"What question should you (we) be asking right now?"

Learn how to be a powerful team leader at the IATF Leader As Coach Fast Track Program and you'll be able to see further into the future.

Are you still charging what you were in 2007?  If yes, you may need to rethink this.

Are you starting a business and have no way to determine how to set your fees?

Good news for those in the IATF community who own a business (or plan to start one)!

Entrepreneur Business Coach Ali Brown is our special guest speaker for this event and she will share some powerful quick tips on evaluating how much you should be charging, as well as a special strategy that can help you generate quick cash while you raise your rates!

On this call you will learn: 

• How-to determine if you’re selling yourself short and missing out on thousands of dollars worth of hard-earned profits!
• Simple strategies for increasing your rates – and how to set them in the first place
• Your key factor in commanding a dramatically higher rate
• How-to introduce your new rate with success. (There’s a positive way and a negative way to announce an increase.)
• How to handle client complaints with any rate change.  (it’s inevitable, so prepare how to turn it around into a win.)

The psychology you're currently using to determine your pricing structure may be outdated and thus, limiting the amount of prosperity you're truly capable of experiencing.

Come join us and explore how to charge what you're worth on this interactive TeleSeminar with Entrepreneur Business Coach Ali Brown.  

Ali is the founder and CEO of media company Ali International, LLC, which includes the Millionaire Protégé Club, Ali Magazine, Ali Boutique, and Shine Events.

In 2009, Brown's company Ali International ranked #263 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies in the nation. In 2010, Brown was a recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year award.

This is your chance to join a live call and ask Ali questions about your business pricing situation.

Call Details

TITLE

 Are You Charging Enough? Strategies for the New Economy

DATE

Thursday, September 30, 2010

TIME

Starts at 1 pm Eastern (NY City time zone)
runs for 70 minutes

PRESENTERS

Ali Brown, founder and CEO of Ali International LLC
Tom Heck, President & Founder of the IATF

WHAT TO EXPECT

Come to the call ready to participate in small group discussions, share ideas and resources, ask questions, answer quick polls, and be fully engaged as we put the newest distance learning telephone conferencing technology to use!

RECORDING

This call was recorded and is now archived in the IATF Members Only Area HERE .  Not yet an IATF member?  Join HERE.

IATF members live in 35 countries and are doing amazing work.  Here's a sample of what's going on...

Collaborative Intelligence uncovered in Switzerland

Demetris Booth at Congruent Minds in Switzerland has developed a new series of public workshops around the concept of Collaborative Intelligence (CI).  The number of teams and organizations who need to collaborate to thrive is increasing exponentially.  This CI program helps position teams and organizations so they remain competitive.  Demetris is also an active member of the International Coach Federation (ICF), and is participating on the Technology Task Force which is researching, defining, and recommending technological changes to the ICF web presence and service offerings to coaches and business partners worldwide.

Transformative Studies Ph.D.

Terrance Bradford at Stephen F. Austin State University was accepted into the Transformative Studies Ph.D program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. The primary focus of the doctoral program is to develop thought-leaders who are committed to exploring leading-edge issues in innovative ways that combine scholarship, creativity, and self-inquiry. Terrance will conduct a study on the effects Life Coaching will have on academic success when applied to college students living in “on-campus” university housing.

NYC Outward Bound School delivers giant complex program

Badari Ambatti with the NYC Outward Bound School tells us about a life changing program for 397 students enrolled in the Macauly Honors Program at the CUNY campuses across NYC.  This is the tenth year in which NYC Outward Bound have provided the incoming students with a day-long Outward Bound experience as part of their orientation to the Honors program.  The students were divided into 24 different crews, with each crew participating in a service project and various Team building initiatives, as well as in a Poetry Slam at which they performed a poem that they had created.  View PHOTOS HERE.  Watch the POETRY SLAM winners HERE.

Supporting a Global Team

Lauralee Nieves-Hughes at WorldVision.org decided to learn Sharepoint to help her team collaborate with greater ease.  WorldVision has 40,000 employees located in almost every country in the world.  The new Sharepoint website Lauralee developed helps unite all of the offices with one voice.  Lauralee reports that developing the Sharepoint site was a challenge and a great experience. 

Sports Team works on Teamwork

Jaime Cipperly with Lotus Lake Discovery Center in Williamstown, Vermont had the pleasure of working with a local high school varsity soccer team.  This high functioning team came to Lotus Lake Discovery Center to work on teambuilding and communication.  Of the 20 team members, only 6 were American and the rest were a mixture of refugees and exchange students.  Jaime's program design was just what the team needed to explore teamwork at a deep and personal level.

Teambuilding with Knives and Marshmallows

Mike Cardus at Create-Learning.com shares the program design he developed for working with a CPA group (shares photos to) - -CLICK HERE and.  Mike shares the slides from an Executive MBA teambuilding program he led HERE and photos HERE.

Videos Available on Conflict Resolution and Team Communication

Dianne Crampton at CoreValues.com is building a series of free video tips for companies to share with their employees or to use as discussion points for team meetings.  Resolving Team Conflict video is HERE and Improving Team Communications video is HERE.

Did you know that rewards for top performers may actually lead to WORSE performance?

If you'd like to see your team become more innovative then don't provide bonuses.

Weird right?

Makes no sense.

To understand this, you've got to read Dan Pink's book "DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us"

Watch the entertaining video below for a few very important lessons.

This video is from the Fast Company 30 second MBA program.

NOTE:  Clicking on the photo will take you to the Fast Company website to view the 30 second video clip.

The video clip below shows a team competing in "The Amazing Race" (a TV program).

Pay close attention to the coaching.

Coach:  "Don't give up on me now.  Just focus."

Launcher:  "I'm not giving up.  I'm just frustrated."

Coach:  "You got this sister.  You are super, super close.  Right in the kisser.  Show that knight who's boss."

Watermelon Launcher gets hit in the face with a watermelon!

Coach:  "Are you okay?"

Launcher:  "I can't feel my face. I have the worst headache ever."

Coach:  "I don't doubt it."

Launcher:  "So what do we do now?"

Coach:  "You have to finish."

Launcher:  "What?!"

Coach:  "There's no out."

Launcher:  "I can't even see straight."

Coach: "They don't call this the Amazing Race for nothing."

The coaching provided in this video clip is an example of what I refer to as a "Traditional Leadership Style." This style of leadership places relationships second (or third) and "winning" in the number one spot. 

Just imagine this coach leading a team at the office.  What do you think her staff turnover would be?  How deep would her "trust account" be? (thank you Stephen M.R. Covey) 

This style of leadership might have worked during the industrial age but it definitely won't work in the Inspiration Age - - an age where our prosperity (economic, organizational, personal, etc.) is determined by our ability to inspire ourselves, our team, our organizations, our communities, our world. 

Learn how to lead using a powerful leadership operating system based on love and abundance HERE.

The Leader As Coach understands the following distinction: 

discern vs. judge

To discern means to observe information and then draw conclusions based on that information.  Discern is when we are able to pick up every aspect of what is occurring or what we observe without having to judge the person as in compare, diminish, make wrong or feel better than.

A team leader discerns better when

• his needs are met
• he doesn't get his energy from the other person (team member, client, etc.)
• he doesn't feel pressure to perform
• he is independent

People judge because they're threatened in some way or reminded of a piece of themselves that is yet to be reconciled.  Compassion is also important because it keeps the observation on the discernment side vs. the judgmental side.

NOTE:  One can discern without judging and still have a strong opinion and/or label or peg the person.

Discernment can be an active process vs. just a passive one.  It's the Leader As Coach's job to peg, or discern, who their client (direct report, coworker, team member, etc.) is, where they're at, what's in the way, and what's really going on.  The Leader As Coach who thinks less of a team member, diminishes them or stops standing up or behind them (as in putting them in a small box) is judging, not discerning.

In the video clip below, which do you see happening?  Discerning or judging?

Virtually every teamwork facilitator will be faced with giving a presentation involving PowerPoint slides.  Most people make TERRIBLE slides.  If you find yourself laughing at the video below it's probably because you've seen the same mistakes many times.

Go to Presentation Zen to learn how to do PowerPoint the right way.  This post is particularly helpful.

Jack Canfield, author of "The Success Principles" and co-author of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series says mastermind groups are “one of the most powerful tools ever used by successful people.”

Mastermind groups are used by Anthony Robbins, Mark Victor Hansen, John Assaraf and many others.

Napoleon Hill, author of the famous book Think And Grow Rich, is credited with first describing the "mastermind principle." (see video below)

DEFINITION: 

Mastermind -- Two or more minds working actively together in perfect harmony toward a common definite object.

Mastermind groups are simple and yet profound.  Simple in that the uninitiated might see them as "support groups".  Profound learning and growth is what comes out of them.

If you want to be a strong leader then you need to experience the power of a mastermind group.

I've been a member of several mastermind groups and I facilitate others.  Christine Kane offers these 7 tips for creating a successful mastermind group.

"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  US Declaration of Independence

"Whoever is happy will make others happy, too." ~ Mark Twain

Clearly, happiness is important.  We all seek out opportunities to be happy.  Some people appear to be happier than others. 

What about happiness and teamwork?

What is the relationship between the success your team experiences and the level of happiness your team members experience?  Chicken or the egg?  Which comes first?  Team happiness or team success?

What is your responsibility as a leader to promote or effect happiness on your team?

What exactly IS happiness?  What does it mean to be happy?  How happy can we expect to be?

  To answer these questions I've invited happiness expert Gretchen Rubin to the IATF.

Gretchen is the author of the NY Times bestseller "The Happiness Project" which I found to be a wonderful book.

The Happiness Project is a memoir of the year Gretchen spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happy--from Aristotle to Martin Seligman to Thoreau to Oprah.

“A cross between the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, and seamlessly buttressed by insights from sources as diverse as psychological scientists, novelists, poets, and philosophers, Gretchen Rubin has written a book that readers will revisit again and again as they seek to fulfill their own dreams for happiness.”
— Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want

Wikipedia has an entry on "Happiness At Work" that starts with the following:

Despite a large body of positive psychological research into the relationship between happiness and productivity, happiness at work has traditionally been seen as a potential by-product of positive outcomes at work, rather than a pathway to success in business. However a growing number of scholars, Boehm and Lyubomirsky included, state that it should be viewed as one of the major sources of positive outcomes in the workplace.

Resources mentioned during this TeleSeminar:

• SELF TEST:  Are YOU the One That Everyone Finds Difficult?
• BOOK:  The No Ass Hole Rule by Bob Sutton and Bob's great blog

Come join us and explore happiness and teamwork on this interactive TeleSeminar with Gretchen!

Call Details

TITLE

Happiness & Teamwork -- Exploring the connection between happiness and team success

DATE

Thursday, September 23, 2010

TIME

Starts at 1 pm Eastern (NY City time zone)
runs for 70 minutes

PRESENTERS

Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project
Tom Heck, President & Founder of the IATF

WHAT TO EXPECT

Come to the call ready to participate in small group discussions, share ideas and resources, ask questions, answer quick polls, and be fully engaged as we put the newest distance learning telephone conferencing technology to use!

RECORDING

For a short time you can download the recording of this call HERE for free.

CLICK HERE to get the recording which is archived in the IATF members only area. Not yet an IATF member?  Join HERE.

REGISTER HERE

CLICK HERE to register.  It's free!  After you register, we'll send you the secret phone number and "PIN".  Registration is closed.

The 38th Annual International AEE Conference will be held on November 4 - 7, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Envision 2500 passionate and committed experiential educators convening in the city that never sleeps!

Imagine the energy, discussions, mentoring, sharing, and discovering that will happen with a gathering of such a diverse and varied group of dynamic professionals.

This is a wonderful opportunity to be a part of a community that shares a commitment to transforming lives through experiential education.

Sample of Workshop Topics

• Adventure-Based Programming
• Business Development
• Challenge and Ropes Courses
• Environmental Education
• Experienced Based Training & Development
• Facilitation and Processing
• Leadership Development
• Mind/Body/Spirit
• Program Administration
• Research and Evaluation
• Risk Management
• Schools and Colleges: Higher Education
• Schools & Colleges: K-12
• Social Justice and Ethics
• Therapeutic Adventure/Adventure Therapy

There are so many great people presenting workshops this year including our friends:

• Sam Sikes -- "A Foundation of Trust"
• Chris Cavert -- "Chiji Cards: Beyond Processing"
• Jason Kipps -- "Accountable Teambuilding in a Web 2.0 World"
• Michelle Cummings -- "Got Tossables? 10 Teambuilding Games Using Tossable Props You Already Have"
• Jennifer Stanchfield -- The Art of Experiential Group Facilitation and Teaching"
• Michael Gass & Lee Gillis -- "Kinesthetic Metaphors in Adventure Therapy"

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  CLICK HERE to view all the workshops.

This year the conference takes place in Las Vegas and is sure to be amazing.  CLICK HERE to learn more about this conference.