EQUALITY: SO SIMPLE BUT SO FAR.

     

     I'm looking at the election process in Brazil from internet because  I´m living overseas, for sure I have my side in it however what caught my attention so far it is the prejudice. All started against homosexuals and then with people who live at north of Brazil (called nordestinos), when I thought it was over the ebola diseases started also a prejudice with people of color.
     Unbelievable, we are in 2015 and for how many years more the human being will have this kind of behavior? In addition to that there are wars with hatred due to more prejudice in many other countries that seems will never cease.

     We look at the history and we can get amazed of what happened thousands of years ago, guess what it is still happening.I tend to see the cup half full, that´s why I believe that the human race has improved along the years but we must accelerate this process. 

     This situation has an impact also in many companies, because those who has a strong prejudice attitude are working somewhere and their values, beliefs and negative energy are running from one chair to another.

     Anyhow, we must make our lives better, it is in our hands to be happier and respect the other, we really can change the world and companies.
     Leaders can neither support nor practice any kinds of prejudice, people really matter and most of all, we are all the same.

CHANGE IS A GOOD THING !!

   

        CHANGE IS GOOD, few people look at it as a bad thing, they are used to do what they know with who they know, feel comfortable and forget that they need to keep learning and growing as a human being. 
Imagine that a company is a bus, the president is the driver and all the people that are inside the bus are employee of this company.
        The driver has its itinerary and he is very good to accomplish it, everyone feel safe to be driven by him and get to places they already know. They do not hesitate to do things according to what he asks them to do so, they believe and trust him.
This bus does a long trip, along the way few people get off it and do not come back and others get on and become party of it.
        However for some reason - weather is not the same, roads has changed, the itinerary does not make people happy anymore, and so on - the driver and all people inside the bus start having a hard time to accomplish their objectives, they get late in certain cities, skip others and do not visit all places planned.
        Both, the owner and driver take the decision that someone new will be behind the steering wheel, the unknown feeling start affecting people inside the bus. They can not see yet two things, first one is that the new driver can take them to places they have never been and learn things they have never known.Second one is that the previous driver is happier, he found something new, it is improving himself as well, a different wind is taking him forward.
        During a short period, more people start getting off the bus and more getting on, after while the bus is full of excitement, new ideas are bubbling up , new bonding, new places are explored and people start seeing the landscape differently from the window, with brighter colors.
        It looks like that the change has made everyone better and happier !!! Keep growing, open your mind, time does not stop!!!
     

THINGS ARE GOING WELL. AREN´T THEY?

    I have seen companies overlooking problems when business are going through a great moment, then all of sudden what was heaven starts to fall apart when goals are not met. When this situation comes up they might 

have two ways to go.
     Look at short time and squeeze the business to make it perform the way it was predicted even though nothing has really changed; thus they might be able to improve it shortly but will not put the engines fully back on.
     The second way should be looking right to the problem and find the causes of not meeting that goals. Take a breath and put your efforts to understand it, build a strategy to change what it is not working properly and start executing it looking at short and long period. You should be able to combine the execution for short results with the long run strategy.
    Be careful and wise, do not stop improving and innovating your business ( product, process, departments and so on) there are always opportunity to do it better, keep developing people and celebrating companies achievements.

METAMORPHOSIS

   Very often I find myself trying to remember who I was as a child, what I thought, wanted, and made ​​me happy.What should I  do to have a little more of that innocence, that child behavior and remembrance?

    This week while I was returning from my vacation I found myself thinking about that again, I was awakened by my eldest son. "Dad, I do not want to go back to Brazil."" Why ?" I asked him." I wanna go back to Grandma's house because there has chickens, chicks, rabbits and my cousins ​​are also there to play with me."
    I explained to him that we should go back because our home is in Brazil; on my right side I saw my youngest son standing on the airplane chair playing with people from the back seat.
    He looked at me, got down from his chair and came smiling to sit on my lap, at that moment I understood. It was in front of me the whole time, a little bit of Thomas as a child is in my children.
   What a joy to see him again, just a little, in front of me and consequently understand my children much better, looking at them with another point of view.
    Moreover it makes me deeply remember who I was and who I am, sure this will help me create who I will be.

ORGANIC OR INORGANIC LEADER ?

How often have you crossed with someone and got that fake smile or that nice fake behavior?

There is no way to pretend to be who you aren´t, it might work for a while but sooner or later your soul will come out.

Nowadays there are many books teaching how to be a leader, additional to that there are also feedbacks, training, pos-graduation and plenty of other tools.

However, most of the time those things can´t change the tree´s root, it can make it look better for a while but that tree will never give a different fruit, it will always be an apple tree.

Again, we need to choose our leaders looking inside not outside, tools will help us to make that decision; however it can´t be what drives it.

NEIGHBOUR´S GRASS IS GREENER

I just came back from a business trip, on my way back home all I could hear were people complaining about their country, while comparing it with few others in Europe.

They forget that those countries also have their problems; everybody and everyplace have room to improve.

For instance in Sweden there was a riot at immigrant’s suburbs and they were still trying to understand what to do to fix the root cause of this cultural problem.

Of course we need to look up to see who is better in order to motivate us to get there as well, but in our pace, values and own way. 

Copying what somebody did it is not  100% effective, it can help on short term (incremental innovation) but we must also do something beyond that (radical innovation).

The human being keep thinking that the neighbour´s grass is always greener, the same think happens in all companies.  There are a lot of people trying to make this world and companies better, are you doing this or just complaining?

Look at your job today, if you are not happy with it stop looking at the negative side of it and at least once start with the positives ones. Get to work on the negatives to make it either go away or become positive, don´t wait someone to do it for you.

At the end if you still feel unhappy, maybe it is time to emigrate to somewhere else, try to find a place that fits who you are, who you want to be.  

Still blaming others for what is happening in your life? 

STRATEGY

There are new players in the market every day , have a great short, medium and long term strategy means to be ahead of competition.

Moreover we must have the right people on board and know very well our consumer ´s needs.

React to our competitor it is a delayed movement , the key is to be always ahead and inovate,  that way we will  be able to see the big picture. Exploring new opportunities that will not be explored by the ones that are behind fighting with a lot of pain either to be alive or to keep current position.

When this is done with a great execution, timing is our ally not enemy.
Be sure where you want to get, and how you will get there, execute well and do not forget to be fair and honest. 

Keep your  values above everything, the best you can do it is to improve them along the way.

GROWING UP

As a child we enjoy our life freely and learn new rules, behaviors and values , the main education come from our parents and school.

As a teenager still learning from our parents, however friends, school and midea start having more impact in our education.

As an adult we start practicing daily what we have learned , a lot of mistakes are done and few individuals learn from it and move on to be a better person , others can not see it and get stuck, kind of lost.

To me what hold us together are Family and Education (strong values) we have, I really admire the ones that overcome lack of both things and still make a difference.

At the end of this journey comes the question , What have we done and become in order to make everybody´s life better ? 
A Leader makes people´s life better, what we are is the leader we will become.

LISTENING MORE

It´s interesting to realize that we were also wrong in a subject that we thought that just the other part had to be blamed.

Now and then we think that we are either the victim or right in a certain situation,  we forget to sit down , opened up our ears and hold our mouth back a little bit.

When we do that, very often the conclusion is that both sides had its reason, and a way out of it can be found easily. Moreover, we are able to grow  as a human being, get to know ourselves better.

I believe that most people will not do something to hurt the other one (cup half full) , sometimes they just don´t know that this is happening.

Communication, that´s the key.

CLIMBING UP

Being a leader is not just to take a team to the mountain peak, it is about how you will take
them to that goal.

Providing food, water, training, sharing responsibilities and assuming risks, right equipment, celebration , rewards, planning and predicting good and bad outcomes along the way.

Last but not least do not forget to do it with a lot of joy, motivation and great communication.

Develop yourself and your team throughout this journey is a must, we do need to keep learning and developing ourselves, that's the key. 

LEADER ( Reason to be ...)

Often we see people wanting to be a leader to prosper , get a better life , to be on control, be rich ,is it anything wrong with that?

Not really, however this must be a consequence, a truly leader wants to make 
people (employees and their family, consumers and shareholders) life better. 

He knows that his actions will make this world a better place to live. 

HIERARCHY (careful)

Trust 100% on what your direct report and research tells you it is a receipt for failure.

A leader must walk down the pyramid to see, feel, talk (privately) to employees, that way he will be able to find out whether his vision and strategy have been communicated well or not.

Moreover, he will be able to Identify problems with people management and open a straight communication channel through the company.