There are many reasons that good strategies fail.

They range from, poor communication, lack of alignment, difficulty with change, underestimating resources required, failing to train people, running out of time…

But at the heart of all these things is:

How much do your employees care?

If your employees don’t personally care about what you are trying to do, it’s not likely to get done well, on time, or at all.

Give your people a reason to care

Here’s a good example:

The dreaded Mission Statement

You are probably already rolling your eyes at the thought of this…

This can become one of the most draining, irritating, and lame activities you can engage a management team in, and often results in a statement that reads something like:

To be the leading provider of the most innovative products in our space, with outstanding customer service, and the most efficient operations, therefore maximizing shareholder value.

OK employees…Now, hop to it!  (yeah, right.)

The trick is to actually care

If you want a mission that employees care about and can act on, the trick is to start with something you actually care about.

When I work with management teams on this, we start with the question “What do you personally care about?  Why are you here?”

Your employees will never care if your executives don’t.

Your team won’t care if you don’t.

You don’t need to call it a mission statement, but you do need to stand for something and care about something for real, if you want your people to spring into action, solve problems for you and drive the momentum you need in your business.

1. Define your strategy in terms people CAN care about.

If you care about customer service and believe that it is a competitive advantage then say so, and ask for help.

We are going to provide a level of personalized customer service for our products that is so good that our customers are shocked by it. We believe this is our key competitive opportunity.  Providing outrageous levels of service compared to the industry will grow our business, and we will be profitable doing it.

Now you can ask your employees to start solving this puzzle for you.

It gives them something dig into.  It gives them a way to engage.  It gives them something that they can care about too.

2. Talk about why you are here.

Why, personally are you here? at this company? in this organization? What are you trying to do?  Why does it matter to you? What are your values as a leader and as a human?

If you are willing to share your core values, your employees will care more.

You are giving them a basis to support you.  When they talk about work at the dinner table, YOU are the company, much more than anything else is.

If you stand for something they can care about, they will care.  If you only ever talk about projects and schedules, there is nothing for them to personally connect with or care about.

3. Talk about what excellence means to you, and why?

What is it that makes you proud of what you and your team delivers?  What is most important to YOU that your business stands for and shows the world?

Is it innovation, is it service, is it quality, is is an externally validated proof that you are the best? What embarrasses you?  What do you believe is wrong that other companies do?  Why?

If you want your employees to step up, they need to understand why it matters.

So many managers struggle to get their employees to work at the same level of competence and quality that they personally deliver.  Your employees will never care about rising to your level of excellence unless you really show them why it’s personally important to you to operate at this level of excellence.

What if you don’t care?

If you don’t really care about your work or your company, if you are only there because you need the money, remember, while they are paying you, it is your job to lead, so it is your job to find  something you can care about.

If you don’t like the product, care about the way the company treats people.  If you don’t care about the company, care about the customers.

I’ve been here.  Believe me.  It’s better to find something to care about than it is to check out.  You are way more likely to get yourself into a better job later, (and maintain your sanity) if you keep caring about something along the way.

If you don’t genuinely care about something, you employees will not deliver for you.

Your strategy can be great, but if your employees don’t give a damn, your chances of executing go out the window.

I often say that your job is your
job description AND dealing with all the crap that gets in the way of getting your job description done.

Stupid obstacles often come in the form of people’s opinions, corporate policy, changes of direction, fire drills, conflicting goals, delayed decisions, unclear strategies, shall I go on?

It’s always important to remember that you can’t blame your failure on other people being stupid.

Six months or a year down the road, if the reason that you didn’t get something done is because someone else has or hasn’t done has something, you have lost.

The right language

Clearing an obstacle that is being put in place by another person or policy has everything to do with language.

And there are two language techniques I have found to be really useful to get things going your way again when you are confronted with difficult, rigid, indecisive, or stupid people.

1. What is the NAME of the Meeting the other person would WANT to attend?

For example, If your requests for a program change in other organization are going ignored, the name of the meeting YOU want to have with the manger is called something like,  “You are doing this wrong and I need you to change it, because it’s killing me”.

But would they really want to attend that meeting?

Change the name of the meeting to name their problem, not yours.

When you are trying to get someone to do something for you, you need to name the meeting something that is relevant and motivating to them.  “I want  to discuss how my team can solve your most critical competitive issue, with no increased cost on your part”.

Then when you have the meeting, make sure to stay relevant to them.  Describe your problem in the context and actual vocabulary of the business problems they are facing right now, and how the action you are requesting is directly beneficial to them.

If you don’t use the right language, you will not be relevant to them, and you will continue to go unheard, and un-helped.

2. “I’m hoping you can help me…”

The angrier and more frustrated you are, the more you are likely to start a conversation with something like, This is all messed up because [of something you, (or the people you represent are doing)]

Do you really expect their reaction to be helpful at this point?   Wow. thank you for telling me how stupid and wrong I am.  You are so smart, please tell me what do do next? I am at your service.

Even if it is all their fault, if you need to influence them to do something better or different, a far more useful approach is to open with, “I’m hoping you can help me”.

I use this not only colleagues, but with utility companies, hotels, and health insurance providers all the time.  It works like a charm.  I guess, because you are using some charm…

Engage people to WANT to help you

When someone says to me,  “I’m hoping you can help me…”, I always think, “hmmm… I wonder what this challenge might be?  Can I really help? I’m kind of hoping I can help …

This approach builds people up instead of cutting them down.  They have power to help if they choose to.  Giving this small bit of respect makes them want to help you.  People generally like to help.

If you don’t attack them first and tell them how wrong and incompetent they are,  you stand a far greater chance of getting what you need from them.

I know it is frustrating when the people you are dealing with are actually wrong and/or stupid, but if they are indeed creating an obstacle, it’s your job to clear the obstacle and get the job done, not to prove that you are right and demand their support.

I want to help

I have learned over the years that there are specific things you can do that make all the difference between getting ahead and just working really hard.

Are you getting everything YOU want from your career?

If you’d like to get a real, practical advantage, my membership program is an easy way to do it.

You get lot’s of useful ideas and tools to take more control of your success, and members get live, personalized coaching from me.

Big payoff

Think about it this way.

In the next year, even if you only got one idea that helped you:

• Manage a conversation with your boss better
• Get bigger results out of your team
• Increase your value to your company
• Find more meaning in your work
• Make more time in your life
• Reduce your frustration
• Increase your influence, or
• Get access to a promotion

…the return would be huge.  And I know you’ll get more than one idea.

(Members consider it their personal secret weapon.)

Why not give yourself (or someone else) this advantage?

JOIN NOW
Learn what you get
Browse the Member Library

No Risk

- You have 90 days – money back if you don’t like it.

I really would love to help.

Thanks!

One of the most important things you can do for your career, your success and your sanity, is to be more Responsive and less Reactive.

There is constant pressure to do the urgent things that come in, and these days people are trying very hard to preserve their value in a tough economy and job market.

So they don’t want to be seen as saying “no”.

Put points on the board

It’s important to realize that the real hazard is not about saying  “no”,  it’s in trying to do too much, then failing to deliver on the few things that really matter.

Being reactive is shooting yourself in the foot.

You may think you are being valuable to your company by working tirelessly on everything that comes your way, but if you don’t deliver excellent and visible results where it counts, your company will not give you any credit for being responsive or working hard.

Be Responsive on select things

Success, relevance and recognition come from getting things done that impact the business.

The trick is to appear to be responsive without actually responding to everything.

Here is a key thought:

Always think about aligning your responsiveness  to your Ruthless Priorities, instead of trying to be responsive everywhere.

(Ruthless Priorities are those few things that have so much impact on the business that you refuse to put them at risk, and are willing to risk other things to make sure they get done.)

Be extra-responsive where it matters most, instead of putting all that pressure on yourself to react to everything that comes in.

1. Know your Ruthless Priorities. This requires you give yourself some strategic thinking time.  Be clear with yourself and others about what  your Ruthless Priorities are, and make sure they are the things that have the biggest impact on the business.

2. Filter all emails and requests of your time based on your Ruthless Priorities.  if actions and requests help you get your Ruthless Priorities done, be highly responsive — if they don’t, delete or delay.

3. Focus on your most important stakeholders, your boss, board members, key clients, etc.  Filter all your email and requests so you can respond quickly to those few key people — the ones you  most need to see you as being responsive.

Ways to appear extra responsive,

…without getting sucked into being reactive.

The well placed weekend Email:

You don’t need to do email all weekend or all evening (reactive), but take 10 minutes each evening or weekend and do a quick triage.  If you get something from a key stakeholder and can answer a question quickly, do it.   You get lots of responsiveness points for the quick reply and the weekend time stamp, without actually working on the weekend.

If it is a much longer task, but not required to be completed on the weekend, just fire back, got your message, will be thinking about it and get back to you by noon on Monday. That is the difference between responsive and reactive.

Got it, thanks

When people send you things, respond immediately with something like, “got it, thanks, more later…” That may be the only thing you will ever have to do!

Remember,  you don’t have to DO everything.  But that simple acknowledgment will show you as someone who is responsive.

Think about it… when you send off something that matters to you, don’t you wonder and want to know if they got it and what they think?  Just hearing back from them at all, makes them register with you as someone who is responsive.

Why do you care?

When people ask you to do work for them, read something, review something, call someone, etc., if it does not help one of your ruthless priorities, deflect it, delegate it, or say no.  Since it is not critical to your Ruthless Priorities, if it is not perfect, what you do you care?  Let it go.  Don’t try and add value everywhere or resolve everything.  That is being reactive.

When it matters, get all over it.  Be responsive and be seen as being responsive. Respond with an action plan and a schedule.  I will get this done by Thursday and will let you know that it is done. That is being responsive.

10 IDEAS
FROM THE WEBINAR

MANAGING YOUR CAREER

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Download the PODCAST to learn more about:

Do more than your job description

1. You have more control than you think. But f you want to be building your career and not just doing work, you need to use time differently, and schedule some additional thinking and planning time every month.

Use the Career Year of Action Guide to keep yourself on track.

Necessary Actions

2. Have a desired outcome. Even if you don’t know what you want, you need to set a target so you can tell if you are making progress or wasting time at any point in time. Without an outcome in mind it’s easy to get stuck.

3. Focus on what you are good at. Your current job description is not a life sentence. It is a contract with your company. You need to take ownership to re-negotiate that contract, to put yourself in a position of strength.

4. Always be building stories. Make notes of your accomplishments and understand what important stories they tell.  Build a stock of your best stories, so you don’t forget them, or fail to later describe your work in a way that matters.

5. Make your own experience. Your current job will not provide the experience you need for your target job. It is up to you to get experience in that job and practice that job before you get it.

6. Become known in the role you want. If the powers that be don’t associate you with the kind of role you want, you wont get there. Do the necessary things to fill the gaps, build support and communicate.

7. Network before you need anything. You need to stay present and relevant with your network if you want to use it to help you advance or move. Give generously to your network before you need to ask for help.

8. Don’t get stuck in the weeds. The most successful people were not the ones who were less busy along the way. Use your time strategically. Rise above the details and tactics. Get the right stuff done.

9. Be willing to LEAP and be scared. If you want to get ahead, you need to step up, go for things, and trust yourself to learn along the way and build a team to support your weak areas. If you are terrified, you are doing it right.

A good thing

10. Managing your career is not a selfish or harmful activity. The more you are in control, the stronger, and more strategic you are, the more you can help your team,  and add value to your company.  The more satisfied you are in your work, the more effective you will be.

WANT SOME SUPPORT WITH ALL THIS?

Members:

Download the Podcast and the Career Year of Action Guide for FREE

Non Members:

• Purchase this PODCAST
• Purchase the Career Year of Action Guide

Or Why not Become a member?

I want to help

I have learned over the years that there are specific things you can do that make all the difference between getting ahead and just working really hard.

The “Secrets”

There is no reason why the “unspoken rules of success” need to be secret.  It’s just that most people don’t bother to talk about them.

So I do!  — in my membership program. As a member you get key insights, practical tools you can use right now, and live personal coaching from me.  (I had lots of help.) So now I share.

Big payoff

The membership is paying off for people.

For $179/year, even if you only got one idea that helped you:

• manage a conversation with your boss better
• get bigger results out of your team
• increase your value to your company
• find more meaning in your work
• make more time in your life
• reduce your frustration
• or get access to a promotion

the return on $179 would be huge.  And I know you’ll get more than one idea.

(Members consider it their personal secret weapon.)

Why not give yourself (or someone else) a career gift for the new year?

JOIN NOW (and get the Career Year of Action Guide for FREE)

Learn more
Browse the Library
Get a real, concrete advantage next year.

No Risk

You have 90 days – money back if you don’t like it.

I really would love to help.

Thanks!

I don’t know what it is about the start to 2010 but, 4 people have talked to me about executive presence in the past week!

Presence and Success

The conversations are about confidence, respect, being valued, being recognized, getting your ideas heard, and taking risks.

You can get good at it

This comes naturally to some people, but probably fewer than you think.

People often say to me, well this is easy for you, this is one of your strengths. I can tell you this was not always so.

I can remember early in my career being very nervous,  timid, or awkward in certain situations, and being worried and defensive when I had to meet or spend time with “important people”.

And because I was always young for the job I was in, I was often coached that I needed to work on my “gravitas” my or executive presence.

I eventually got there. Here is what I have learned:

Executive Presence has 4 parts

1. How you Feel
2. How you Look
3. How you Behave
4. Never appearing overwhelmed

1. How you feel

Be who you are

If you are being who you really are, you will be comfortable.  You will come across as strong.

Here is where people argue, but I can’t do that.  Who I really am is a surfer, and I wear beach clothes and tell jokes and I can’t be like that at work.

The trick is to still be the comfortable, relaxed person you are on the weekend, and bring all that  positive, real surfer-dude energy to your work environment.  You don’t need to bring the beach sand and the margaritas to work to be who you authentically are.

If you are positive, focused, like to challenge yourself, and have a sense of humor solving tough work issues, people will be drawn to that and respect you (as long as you get the work done too!)

If you instead overly contrive a non-surfer, buttoned-up, false work-persona, you will never be fully comfortable in it and your executive presence will always take a hit.

Be confident

This is really the crux of the issue.  It’s hard to be comfortable if you are not confident.  There are two schools of thought here.

1. Go into therapy for years to work on your self confidence
2. Do it anyway – Be fearless even when you are not confident.

I read an interview with the comedian, singer and improv performer Wayne Brady, which had a big impact on me.

I am paraphrasing, but he said when he needs to do an improv or anything on stage, if he is confident about it, he does it full on, all the way. But if he is standing on stage thinking, “hmm, I’m not sure this one is going to work, or I’m not sure this is going to be good”  He does it full on, all the way, anyway.

Don’t ever back off when you are not confident

He said that it never helps to second guess yourself and approach a performance apologetically in case it might not work out.

In fact, being tentative about what you are doing will guarantee that it doesn’t go well.

I have thought about that every time I have been in a situation where I was not as comfortable or as confident about my role, my performance, my argument, or my task, and I can tell you, it makes a huge difference. It’s always better than the moderated, apologetic version.

Fearlessness is a requirement

Fearlessness sets successful people apart.  You probably know lots of people who are not as talented as you, but have more executive presence.  Why not allow yourself at least that much?

Something that I talk about in my upcoming book in a chapter called “Executive Confessions” is that:  Everyone is Bluffing.

There is no executive that knows everything about the job they are in.

They are successful because they are willing to put themselves out there, make presentations, make decisions, and lead even though they don’t know everything personally.

The people that scramble around to learn and master every detail are the ones who get stuck because:

1. it is an endless task
2. so it uses up all your time
3. and you never actually step up and get around to leading

They believe that they can only be competent (and therefore confident and comfortable) if they know all the details.  But they are sacrificing their executive presence, and failing to lead.

Think about it this way.  By definition,  this goes against building any executive presence because people always SEE you in the weeds.

2. How you look

It matters.  You may think that what you say and think and do all matter more, and they do, but what about the people that only ever SEE you?

When you walk into a room, if you want to be seen as someone who is in charge, someone with presence, you need to look the part.

I have seen executives who are very casual get away without this, but their confidence and other leadership behaviors are off the charts.

If you want to stack the deck in your favor, pay attention to your appearance.  You don’t need to be a fashionista, but you should make sure your clothes really fit well, your shoes are not grubby, and your hair style and glasses are of this century.

No one ever felt more confident by wearing a cheap suit.

In fact I heard that when Sean Connery first started playing James Bond, they got him a really good suit and then encouraged him to wear it all week and even sleep in it.  This goes back to feeling comfortable.  One of the reasons Sean Connery pulled off James Bond because he was comfortable in the suit!

Trick:  Quality clothes that really fit you (superficial outside improvement) will make you feel more confident (meaningful inside improvement).

3. How you behave

How you talk and act, and what you say and do, either build or degrade your executive presence.  Being comfortable and confident give you a huge head start, of course, but the specifics matter too.

Whether you are in a room with your team, a large function in your company, or a meeting with your executive committee, board or other big, scary people, it is important to show up as, and be recognized as a leader with strong presence.

Step up!

If you are in a room with your team, lead.  Step up.  Don’t just be in the room or at the dinner with them.  Say something.  Have a point of view.  Reach out to them. Bring them together as a team with your words and actions.

If you are in a room with big executives, show up.   Meet them.  Get a sense of what they are most interested in and talk to them about that.  Ask some questions. Get input and feedback. (fearless, remember).

Don’t just stick to your prepared presentation and your work.  Do some research. Have a story that they will relate to that has nothing to do with work.

If you stay in the shadows, or are timid because you are nervous about being there, you are showing them you don’t really belong there.  Be a full person, willing to engage.

4. Never Appearing Overwhelmed

This is probably a sub-category of How you Behave, but it is one of the most hazardous to your executive presence.

Think about it this way.  If you appear overwhelmed in what you are currently doing, you are by definition showing that you are not ready for a bigger job.

Part of executive presence is to look like you are doing your job with ease and grace.  Even if behind the scenes it is chaos, what people should see is you calm and in control.

Deal with the overwhelm privately.

Don’t cancel meetings at the last minute, don’t act rushed and impatient.

Don’t get upset or defensive when people do things that throw you off course.  Just say “let me take that input and get back to you”, and then go off privately and scream, get frustrated, re-work or not, and go back calm and in control.

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Use your strengths

I talk about focusing on strengths a lot.

In fact, if there is any secret formula for success… it is thousands of years old, and it is:

Really know yourself, know your strengths, and put yourself in a position to be doing what you are good at most of the time.

Tuning your job over time to really suit your core strengths will make you more successful and happier in your work.

When you are doing things you are good at, you will thrive, the crowds will cheer, it will seem easy, and the rewards will come.

But LEAP from your comfort zone

However, I also talk about the fact that a key factor for driving big success is to be willing to leap from your comfort zone –  and to be willing to be uncomfortable (terrified) some of the time as you navigate the new, or bigger environment.

Is there a contradiction?

No.  Let me explain…

Strengths not skills

One of the things that makes this do what you are good at such a fundamental truth is that it is not about skills — it is about core strengths.

It is not about the work skills you are currently practiced in, and therefore comfortable at.  It is about the core strengths that define who you are and why you are good at what you are good at.

Your comfort zone is the familiar environment

Your comfort zone is largely defined by the people, places, and tasks of your work, the things that become familiar.  That can be the trap.

Be willing to break free of the familiar.  Be uncomfortable by taking on something in a new geography, bigger scope, or different market…

But then land squarely on your core strengths to get you through the new, scary, uncomfortable terrain.

For example, skills are things like being good at: consumer marketing, telecom, banking, information systems, retail supply chain, software development, public sector, pharmaceutical sales…

Your strengths are much more fundamental than your job

Strengths are things like decisiveness, empathy, ability to get to the core of a complex problem, working through conflict, taking action, being analytical, winning people over, competition, finding common ground, rationalizing lots of inputs, seeing the future, understanding how systems and organization work, thinking strategically, executing and implementing, connecting people.

These strengths could be applied to any of those jobs or skills.

If you jumped from consumer banking to retail supply chain, but were good at rationalizing lots of inputs, and understanding how complex systems and organizations work, you could leap from your comfort zone but still leverage your strengths to re-tool a newly competitive supply chain.

If you moved from telecom to information systems, but are great at finding common ground, seeing the future, and connecting people, you could establish a new business model really fast, and get a new plan executed quickly because that is your power alley.

Strengths, more than skills, drive advancement

If you were pursing a big promotion in your function, you won’t get it because of your functional skills, you will get it because you are gifted at helping people understand each-other, driven to compete, working through conflict, and thinking strategically.  (Or whatever your unique combination of strengths are).

It’s a good time to think about your unique strengths

As we start the new year, it is a great time to be reflecting on your strengths and what makes you thrive in your work.  Then build your plan to get more of THAT into your job description.

Many people are looking for new jobs either because they lost their job in this challenging time, or because they want to find a job that is more fulfilling and more fun.

The more you can learn about your strengths, the better you can define, go after, and position yourself to win a job that is going to put you in your power alley.

Get an advantage in the interveiw.

It is also worth noting that being clear about your strengths in an interview will make you stand head and shoulders above other candidates who are only talking about their skills and experience.  See also Don’t be Boring.

Even if you plan to stay in your current job, the more you can focus on your strengths and tune your job without leaving it – renegotiate the contract of your job with your company to include more of the things you are naturally good at, the better you will do and the more satisfied you will be.

Some resources:

Strengths Profile
There is a book plus online strength profile I use in my work that you can get from Amazon.   Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath.

Career Workshop
Building your Personal Brand by understanding your strengths is a big part the the Career Building workshop that I do.  You can register for a live session if you are in the bay area, or get the workhop on DVD.

Both include the Strengthsfinder Profile and other tools to get to the essence of your strengths and help you understand why you are good at what you are good at so you can use that to your advantage in your career.

This is a re-post of an article I co-wrote with my personal trainer some time back.  It’s well worth a read as we all get started in the new year!

by Patty Azzarello & John Fernandez

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In this article, I asked my personal Trainer and Fitness expert, John Fernandez to contribute to a discussion on fitness.

John will share what really works, and explain why doing things the right way gives the best results.

Our goal is not to tell you what you should be doing, but to give you some ideas and information for getting the most out of your workouts, based on John’s expertise and my suffering!

Get the most benefit from your workouts

Patty: I always talk about getting a bigger payoff for the effort you put into your work. I hate wasting time, and I like working with people to help them find ways to get a bigger professional and personal payoff for the time and energy they put into their work.

Likewise, when I met John, I quickly learned that he had the same approach – If you are going to spend time working out, you should get the biggest payoff for that time that you can.

John: When I met Patty it was clear that she was a successful executive with a hard work ethic. She was working out, doing spinning classes, lifting weights… but it was clear to me that she was not getting enough results from her efforts.

Many executives I talk to believe they are benefiting from an exercise program because they are putting regular time and effort in, but many of them also express frustration with the level of results they are achieving. Many also feel that they are losing ground in the aging process.

After a year and a half with me [now almost 4 years], Patty not only has increased the effectiveness and “the payoff” of her workouts, she has described the benefits as “life changing”.

Your workouts – what works.

Patty: The diet and fitness industry likes to sell the concept that you can get great results without strenuous exercise, because that’s what sells — not because that’s what works.

I’ve learned from John a few key lessons which I’ll share my perspective on, and John will tell you what you are really supposed to know about each one.

• Lesson #1: It has to be Strenuous.
• Lesson #2: Mix it up
• Lesson #3: Use your whole body
• Lesson #4: Stability and Core Strength
• Lesson #5: Jumping, even though it seems so unreasonable

Lesson #1: It has to be Strenuous

I am often at the gym with John, who has me on a treadmill, and the people on either side of me are happily doing their time, reading a book or watching TV, walking, or jogging for 30, or even 60 minutes.

John will get me on the treadmill, crank up the incline to its maximum setting, set the speed at an almost-need-to-be-running pace, and then give me a heavy ball to hold over my head while I do it. After 2 minutes I’m ready to throw up.

John has me running and jumping, lifting heavy weights, doing exercises where you expect to be sitting, but instead balancing on one foot (on a squishy pad), doing circuits, speed drills, and pulling on a pulley in more ways than you can believe is possible.

Always, it’s strenuous! John, why does making sure it’s always painful make such a big difference?

John: Everything I work for as a health and fitness professional is geared towards increasing your power output, which results in being more functional and developing the ability to DO MORE, whether that is exercise or enjoying life.

My approach in training is to create a workout that is very demanding and beyond the level of what “that” client thinks is hard. Then once the client performs at that level regularly, they have genuinely advanced. (Then I need to make it more demanding again.)

It’s not just about strengthening the body it’s also about challenging what you believe you can do.

Training your mind about what is possible is as important an exercise as it is to train your body, and that’s one of the pieces a lot of people leave out. If you’re not doing things to challenge yourself, you are not getting the experience of breaking through limits.

Patty often comes to the point where she thinks she can not keep going –everyone gets to that point. But the more often you get to that point and pass through it, you’re teaching yourself, body and mind, how to break through.

Whether you are an athlete, a CEO, or a busy parent, this helps you do more than you thought possible in your workout and your life. It feels great for the client, allows them to get real benefit from the workouts, and it’s exciting for me to see.

Lesson #2: Mix it up

Patty: We have never done the same workout twice, and in fact, every workout even after 2 years has at least one exercise I’ve never done before. [after 4 years, the most challenging things do repeat, but always mixed in with other different stuff.]

Apparently when your body gets used to the exercise you are doing, the elliptical machine, the spinning class, laying on a bench moving heavy weights around, you lose the benefit because as your body adapts to it and guess what: it is no longer strenuous!

I used to think that getting comfortable with a hard workout meant I was getting really fit — if it’s not as hard, I must be stronger. Apparently, that feeling of doing the workout well means it is no longer effective. Heavy sigh.

So the lesson here is that doing different stuff all the time makes sure you keep the level of misery sufficiently high to get the biggest benefit for your time.

John, tell me it isn’t so!

John: The first point is that the human body is an incredible organism built for survival, so one of its main functions is to expend as little energy as possible. In order to do so, it continually adapts to the stress placed upon it.

The second point is that fat and glucose are the primary sources of fuel for your body. In order for them to be used efficiently the body must receive enough oxygen. In the presence of oxygen your body will allow fat and glucose to be burned as fuel.

So basically, as you adapt to an exercise and it becomes easier, it requires less oxygen and therefore uses less fuel.

What is technically happening is that if you continue to place the same stress on your body over and over again,with the same exercises, your body will increase its ability to use those specific muscles, and distribute oxygen and blood to the specific areas of the body used for that exercise.

This is how your body adapts, and as it adapts it will require less oxygen so it can use the least amount of energy/calories possible.

This is why you stop seeing improvements when you keep doing the same workouts.

The way I avoid this is by constantly mixing up the exercise variables of an individual’s training program. Mixing up the stress placed on the body with varied exercise counteracts the loss of muscle and bone, allows you to maintain a high metabolism rate, (burn more fat) and fine tunes the nervous system. All these contribute to living life well, with maximum function and preventing injury.

Lesson #3: Use your whole body

Patty: Working with John, I have learned that exercising only one part of your body at a time does not provide nearly the benefit that you get when you use your whole body, both from the standpoint of the effectiveness of the exercise itself, and the efficiency of using the same amount of time to do multiple exercises at once !

Here’s an example:
Imagine being face down on an incline bench and doing reverse flys with dumbbells. You are exercising your back and your arms.

Now instead, to use your whole body and spend the same amount of time,

• First, lose the bench and stand up
• Now,  stand on only one foot
• Now,  do a one leg squat as you the move the dumbbells in front to start the reverse fly
• Raise up and out of the one leg squat as you do the reverse fly while extending your other leg behind your back
• …while balancing on one foot

In the same amount of time you are exercising your back your arms, your quads, your glutes, your hamstrings, your core,  improving your balance, and getting some cardio in as well! Same amount of time, way more exercise!

It’s clear that you get more exercise for your time this way, but John, why is this whole-body approach more effective in general?

John: Total body workouts may be a new concept for those who have been following bodybuilding programs that focus on training individual body parts or training programs based on machines.

There’s a lot of pushing and pulling, but the hips, pelvis and trunk which are the key areas for ALL movement are not tied into these types of training.

When you take a whole body approach, you achieve more support around the joints that other machine training programs ignore, because you’re engaging groups of muscles to assist in producing, stabilizing and reducing force.

Because you are engaging so many different groups of muscles and energy systems there’s little chance of overtraining your body, you burn more calories, and become less prone to injury.

Total body workouts are what allow you to meet the imposed demands of any physical activity because they allow you to achieve functional static AND dynamic strength, flexibility, and core stabilization in all ranges of motion.

Lesson #4: Stability & Core Strength

Patty: If you’re not sure about your current state of core strength try this. Get on the floor and face the ground as if you are going to do a push-up/press-up. Like a plank in Yoga. But instead of being on your hands and your toes, put your forearms on the ground and make sure your shoulders are directly over your elbows.

Make sure your back and your hips stay straight by tightening your abs and contract your glutes so your hips don’t drop.

Now hold that position and have someone time you for one minute. If you find that easy, good for you! If not, you have found your core.

John: Many people think core is just about abs. Core development is not about how many crunches you can do, or having a 6-pack, it is about controlling posture and maintaining spine stabilization throughout movement.

Your core is where your center of gravity is and where movement begins.

It consists of the abs, glutes, hips, lower back (lumbar), thoracic spine (mid back) and cervical spine area (between your shoulder blades).

Stabilization is the key to all movement, regardless of whether speed, strength, flexibility or endurance is dominating the movement. Real movement does not occur on a stable piece of equipment, in a neutral spine position, in one plane of motion.

Movement is a series of events that involves groups of muscles working together precisely to maintain our posture over a changing base of support.

As adults we need to rediscover and reactivate this type of movement into our exercise program, as we did when we were younger climbing the monkey bars, pushing up and down on the see-saw, climbing fences, crawling in the sand box, twisting, or lunging to catch a ball.

These same movements we learned naturally as children can be used to build a fitness program that will give you a more functional body that will be leaner, stronger and more powerful.

Whole body workouts also improve joint stabilization, flexibility, mobility, and everything else that contributes to your optimal posture and lowers risk of injury.

Lesson #5: Jumping, even though it seems so unreasonable

Patty: Jumping was probably the biggest shock to my system. Before I met John, I had literally not jumped for 30 years.

Through a combination of back problems, and the low impact aerobics surge in the 80’s, I decided that there was really no need to jump anymore.

Well apparently there is. It has to do with power, and keeping up your fine motor skills as you age. Remember jumping rope for hours when you were a kid. Try it now for 2 minutes. It’s much harder!

John: I stated before that movement is a series of events that involves groups of muscle working precisely together to maintain our posture over a changing base of support.

However, I did not mention that all movement is dictated by the nervous system. The nervous system is a conglomeration of billions of cells forming nerves that are designed to form a communication network within the body.

Most people are aware that the aging process causes muscle atrophy, however many are not aware that the aging process also causes neural atrophy.

This means that the substances and structures involved in sending messages to and from the brain deteriorate altering the way the brain functions.

Because of these changes, the brain may/will function slower. Older people may react and do tasks somewhat slower and some mental functions may be subtly reduced. This includes things such as short-term memory, and the ability to learn a new movement pattern. Therefore, older people are more vulnerable to injury.

Since the nervous system dictates movement it makes sense to train the nervous system too, to ensure that the communication between the nervous system and muscles stay developed to increase your reaction and reflexes.

Here is where the jumping comes in. Jumping is a form of plyometric exercise. Plyometric exercise is designed to boost your reactive strength – in other words, to train your nervous system and increase your power. Examples of plyometric training involve jumping up and down, jumping on and off of a box, running steps or jumping rope.

The goal of plyometrics is to train both the muscles and nervous system to react quickly. Combined with increases in strength, muscle size, flexibility, and function that you get from developing your core strength, plyometric training will make your body function as if it were years younger.

The payoff

Patty: OK. I’ve found John’s approach to be hard work but it’s worth it. I have indeed found it life-changing. Here are a couple of things I’ll share:

Enjoying life more.
Being stronger, more fit, and improving balance and coordination, let’s you do more. You can be more energized (and successful) at work and you can have more fun. Or you can carry more groceries into the house in one trip. All in all it makes life better.

The workouts about kill me, but the improvement in my strength and energy has been remarkable, and even noticed by others.

You can eat more without gaining weight!
Ok, so all this talk about improved health, function and energy aside, here’s a real benefit! John recently informed me that for every pound of muscle you add, it requires 50 calories a day to maintain it.

What I “heard” is that for every pound of muscle you add, you can eat 50 calories more a day without gaining weight!

This lends itself to some interesting math: If you add 5 pounds of muscle, which is what I did over 2 years, (and got smaller in the process) that is 250 calories a day. That’s 1750 calories a week.

So what this means is that if you generally eat a reasonable diet, then each week, without gaining weight, you could eat a small pizza or a family size bag of chips, or two spectacular desserts, or have 11 extra glasses of wine! I’m not giving nutrition advice here (obviously!) — but in my world, this is a real payoff!)

Summary: Three Things

If I had to summarize what I have learned from John and experienced — what gives you the most benefit from the time you invest in working out, and has the biggest impact on strength, fitness and losing fat, here it is in 3 points:

1. Strenuous: If it’s kind of comfortable, it’s not doing you much good.
2. Mix it up: If it’s the same all the time, it’s not doing you much good.
3. Jumping: It not only trains/maintains the nervous system and increases your power as John described, but it’s a great way to accomplish #1 and #2!

Thanks John for providing so much interesting and specific information about what works and why it is so.

Contact John

You can contact John Fernandez at esteem2@aol.com or check out his website at www.personaltrainingsf.com

John Fernandez has been involved in all aspects of the fitness industry for over 18 years from personal training to directing sales and business development initiatives for large health club chains. He was awarded Gold’s Gym Personal Trainer of the Year in Northern California.

John has been featured in national fitness magazines and has competed in 10 bodybuilder competitions, winning the title,” Mr. New York” in 1995. He holds certifications from the National Academy of Sports Medicine for Sports Performance and Corrective Exercise.

Carving out and committing time

You’re not alone if your work is interfering with your workouts.  Many people I work with  have this topic on the agenda — How to manage being fit and having a career.

I mention this only to let you know that you are not alone if you are struggling to be both fit and successful at work.

Everyone must find their own solution to this, but I have found some of the common factors to be:

Clarify your motivation:
Is it feeling better, looking better, living longer, aging better, more energy to enjoy your family and life? What’s yours? Focus on it. Any successful fitness program consists of three things: diet, exercise, AND motivation.

Really consider your schedule:
Can you find 2 hours a week? Even if it’s only 1 hour each day on the weekends? Once you achieve that, then maybe one more hour once during the week?

Can you ask your spouse, or children, or boss to provide some flexibility so that even one day mid-week you can get home one hour later or get to work one hour later?

Schedule it, for real
Make an appointment with yourself, or make an appointment with a trainer. As wonderful and smart as trainers are, I have found a huge part of the value is that when you have an appointment with a trainer and you are paying for it, you actually do it!

I admit without shame that this is a crutch for me, and it works. With our without a trainer, schedule time, protect it, and use it.

Younger Next Year:  A Book Review

Read this book: Younger Next Year: by Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge.

You can’t stop the aging process entirely, but there is science to prove that you can turn off the decay and the degenerative aspects of aging.

It explains the science behind this in simple terms, and outlines a program that anyone can follow if you want to be, well, Younger Next Year.

I found it quite inspiring. It’s written by a former lawyer and a doctor. To summarize briefly:

• The lawyer retired at age 60 and his biological age measured at 70.
• For the next 10 years he worked with this doctor and they wrote a book about it.
• The punch line is that when he turned 70, his biological age measured at 50!

The Premise

The basic scientific premise is that your body has one of two chemical processes at work at any point in time: growth or decay. The important thing to note is that is one or the other, there is no neutral.

But the great news is that you can flip the switch from decay to growth at any age. How?

The short answer is: Exercise 6 days a week, one hour a day. And it’s important to use a heart rate monitor to make sure that you are really exercising. The exercise specifics the book recommends are as follows:

• 2 days a week, exercise at 80% of your maximum heart rate
• 2 days a week, lift weights
• 2 days a week, exercise at 60% of your maximum heart rate

This may seem an unreasonable amount of time when working in the peak of your career, but if you think forward to retirement, it’s a great deal. It only takes an hour a day to turn off the decay completely! There are examples in this book of people in their 80’s and 90’s skiing black diamond runs and cycling mountain passes. It is inspiring.

To round out the review of the book, the other (non-exercise) parts of the program are:

• Eat healthy (not any specific diet)
• Stay connected, care about people
• Stay involved, care about causes
• Keep learning and challenging yourself
• Have a good time and enjoy living

I can tell you from my experience that even 2 hours a week of the right kind of exercise makes a huge difference. In terms of movement, power, energy, balance, stamina, I definitely feel younger than I did two years ago.

Hi Everyone,

Happy end of 2009!  Whew.

I hope you get a  chance to celebrate, share time with the people you care most about, re-charge, and get 2010 off to a good start.

So many people have joined the blog this year.  Thank you!  I’ve done a round-up of the most read blog posts in 5 key areas in case you missed anything.

1. Grow Your Business

• Customer Cost or Care?
• Customer Value and the P&L
• The  Polar Bears Have Had it
• How companies waste leads
• Service or Torture?

2. Be a Better Leader

• Are you smarter than me?
• Average isn’t Enough
• OOPs, the crap IS the job
• 10 Reasons to go on a Vacation
• Mission Impossible
• How to Hire a Star

3. Build Your Network

• 10 Things to Give your network
• Authentic Networking
• The Power of Weak Connections
• High Value Online Behaviors
• Get Help! (best photo of the year)

4. Be More Effective

• Make More Time
• Fight the Bull
• Is email killing you?
• Why do you measure things?
• Ready, Set, Stall…

5. Get a Better Job

• Are You a Workhorse?
• Don’t be boring
• Six Career Hazards
• Just Start Doing the Job
• Do you Stand Out Enough?

Thank you for following my blog

Your feedback please!

Please send me your ideas and feedback about things you’d like to see in the blog next year.  There is a link to email me in the left column of the blog.

Thanks You very much for your interest and support this year.

Happy New Year !!

Here’s hoping 2010 brings more prosperity and peace in the world,  and more good stuff for you, your family and your work.

.

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10 IDEAS
FROM THE WEBINAR:
TUNING YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

Download the podcast to learn more about:

Your Current Brand

1. You have a Personal Brand right now whether you know it or not!
Find out what it is and don’t leave it to chance!

Your brand is defined by what others perceive of you.  They base that on the behaviors that they see from you most consistently.  How can you better demonstrate the things you most want to be known for?

2. Consistency is KEY. Being consistently bad is better than being inconsistently good!  Inconsistency causes disappointment.  Consistency builds confidence, trust, and credibility.

Changing Your Brand

3. If you want to tune or change your Personal Brand, you need to turn up the volume on new consistent behaviors that demonstrate what you want to be known for, and turn down the volume on those you don’t.

4. Evolve a Positive: You can evolve a positive brand attribute that is not well targeted to your current professional situation by attaching or partnering new behaviors to current ones.  Don’t just be focused, be focused AND action oriented.

5. Recover and rebuild. You can get rid of negative brand attributes, (or climb out of a hole you dug with a screw up) by purposefully stopping certain behaviors and adding positive ones consistently over time – it takes time to give people a reason to trust a new behavior.

More Visibility and Relevance

6. Be more relevant. Don’t be well thought of but off base. If  you have a strong brand that  is not relevant to your current environment, (like if you have made a job change and people don’t see you as strong in the new role) add a focused new set of behaviors which create the new impression you want to give.

7. Be more visible. Don’t be well thought of but blank. If you are  respected in your small circle, but largely unknown and invisible, you will need to select something specific you want to be known for and tune your behaviors and communications to give people the right hook for what you want them to know and respect you for.

Using and Reinforcing Your Brand

8. Re-inforce it. Use your brand in every interaction – every meeting, email, presentation, sales call, every partner meeting… when you keep your brand top of mind and use it in every situation you will be perceived in a consistent, positive, trusted way.

9. Create your own personal role model. Your Personal Brand should describe the  best version of your self, and be a picture of someone that you can look up to and strive to emulate at every interaction.

10. Be more satisfied: A strong Personal Brand is based on your core strengths and values.  It is WHY you are good at what you are good at.  If you define and live your Personal Brand, you will be more effective and more satisfied in your work.

GET THE PODCAST

TUNING YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

Members:
Download the Podcast for FREE

Non Members:
Purchase this single podcast or Become a Member

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SHOULD YOU BECOME A MEMBER?

I want to help

I have learned over the years that there are specific things you can do that make all the difference between getting ahead and just working really hard. This is at the core of my work. So I share. (I had lots of help) I want to help.

I think all talented, ambitious people deserve access to the insights and support they need to get ahead. There is no reason why the “unspoken rules of success” need to be secret.  It’s just that most people don’t bother to talk about them.

So I do!  — in my membership program. As a member you get key insights, practical tools you can use right now, and live personal coaching from me.

Big payoff

The membership is paying off for people.  For $179/year, even if you only got one idea that helped you manage a conversation with your boss better, get bigger results out of your team, increase your value to your company, find more meaning in your work, make more time in your life, reduce your frustration, or get access to a promotion — the return on $179 would be huge.  And I know you’ll get more than one idea.

(Members consider it their personal secret weapon.)

• JOIN NOW
• Learn more
• Browse the Library

No Risk -

You have 90 days – money back if you don’t like it

I really would love to help.

Thanks!

Patty