In good times and in tough times, the surest and safest tactic is to become the best value generator you can be.

Here are ten things you can do to generate and bring great value to your stakeholders.

1. Be clear about the most important - the vital things.
2. Identify the key people you serve.
3. Learn their concerns, needs and issues.
4. Don’t let not knowing inhibit you – ask questions to better understand until you feel you do understand.
5. Develop versatility in your communication. Over-communicate.
6. Practice situational awareness – What makes the people around you excel? What are their data-processing preferences? What are their decision-making styles? What will offer the best help?
7. Think and reason for yourself. Develop and express a viewpoint.
8. Take initiatives. Stake a position. You learn more and are more engaged once you have staked out a position. You learn most by helping others.
9. Seek feedback. Never take criticism or rejection personally. Continue to improve and optimize.
10. Find a mentor or a coach.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Nov.06.2008 :: Entrepreneur, Personal Growth, Tough Times :: No Comments »

A response to a crisis follows three phases:
Phase 1: Looking backward – this begins with denial and continues into argument, anger and bargaining.

Phase 2: Looking lost – when anger and bargaining with what was and is no more has been used up, it gives way to confusion. The reference that was used as an anchor is no longer there, and there isn’t a new point of reference yet.  Confusion leads to feeling and looking lost which gradually may lead to surrender.

Phase 3: Looking forward – If the second phase has led to surrender it opens a way up into a third phase. From surrender and acceptance there is a shift toward looking forward, to identifying new opportunities and to adaptive emergence.

Some never go past the first phase. Some stay at the second phase for far too long. Resilience is being able to metabolize from phase one through two and quickly move into the third phase.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Nov.03.2008 :: Innovation, Organizational Development, Personal Growth, Reflections, Tough Times :: No Comments »

What is the leadership test in tough times?

1. To stay clear, cool and centered, and to focus on what matters most.
2. To recognize and assimilate the situation you are in, without being overwhelmed.
3. To free your people to engage in the most essential tasks and to help them create your organization’s future.
4. To uphold your core values and principles, while being ready to adapt in a shape-shifting situation.
5. To resist the downward spiral of diminishing returns and defeat.
6. To identify and frame opportunities amid fear and uncertainty.
7. To stay open minded and at the same time execute your strategy.
8. To invest in creativity and innovation.
9. To build confidence and trust.
10. To create a vision that rallies all stake holders

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Oct.27.2008 :: Leadership, Tough Times :: 1 Comment »

Never run to the bottom of the tank. It is the most dangerous thing that you can do. When you use yourself to the very last drop of energy and willingness, you start using up a precious energy that was not meant to be used. The last drop of energy is a crucial safety reservoir to be retained for self maintenance, to fuel your recovery and daily replenishment. Running to the bottom and then running on empty is dangerous. You make yourself brittle and susceptible to illness.

Make it a point to notice the red light on your energy dashboard.  Work on building your resilience and recoverability reservoirs. Never run Empty.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Sep.17.2008 :: Know Thyself, Personal Growth, Tough Times :: No Comments »

Good times present great opportunities. Tough times present a great many opportunities too. How do you approach challenging times? What opportunities do you find in tough times?
Here are ten things you can do in tough times:

1. Learn new skills.
2. Take time to explore ideas, places and possibilities that looked impossible previously.
3. Stay well, fit and healthy. Discipline yourself to engage regularly in your preferred sport or exercise. Maintain good nutritional balance.
4. Sharpen your focus on what matters.
5. Reinvent what you do and how you do it.
6. Discover alliances that are based in true value and trust.
7. Re-examine your beliefs: do they stand the test of the times? Do they deliver you to the right place in yourself? Test new assumptions about life, about work and about business.
8. Clarify the difference between ‘musts’ and ‘wants’.
9. Let go, forgive and enjoy.
10. Discover that there is no reason for fear – here you are in tough times and you are managing, it is not the end of the world.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Sep.12.2008 :: Personal Growth, Tough Times :: 1 Comment »

What’s the most important mindset you need to have when facing tough times? There is plenty of doom talk all around. The economy, oil, war, financial meltdown, GM, Fannie and Freddy - you name it. The good news is the world is not coming to an end tomorrow. But abrupt changes are underway. These changes bring with them challenges filled with opportunities.

How do you react when you’re faced with a challenge?

People approach tough times with unproductive mindsets that assume the worst for themselves and those around them or with productive mindsets. The key, the most important thing to know - the most important mindset to have - is that you have the power to choose your mindset. It’s easy to fall into a number of unproductive mindsets, but you can learn the signs and practice shifting and reframing these into productive mindsets.

Click here to find out about the unproductive and the productive mindsets you can choose when faced with a challenge.

© Aviv Shahar

Aviv Shahar :: Sep.04.2008 :: The Key, Tough Times :: No Comments »