Present Yourself

“Consistently raise the bar in at least one thing daily.” – Raj Gavurla

To improve performance consistently raise the bar in at least one thing daily. By doing so you’ll grow. Before you can grow you need to improve performance. However, you have improved performance and are wondering why am I not growing?

One key objective is the ability to present yourself. Although you have a great service and/or product, people do not just knock at your door until you present yourself. How well you present yourself determines how much you receive and how many people tap you for your services and products.

Examples of presenting yourself:
1. Your appearance
2. Interview
3. Anytime you speak (conversation, presentation (keynote, workshop, facilitation, seminar, video, coaching, acting, etc.), your tone, what you convey
4. Anytime you write (blog, book, website, article, speech)
5. Advocating for innovation (advancements)

So, think of one way you can raise the bar in presenting yourself. Take action to make it happen. More people will buy your services and/or products. You’re worth it.

My example: I worked on my speaker preview video. You’ll see I’ve raised the bar in presenting myself. I will continue to hone and refine my ability to present myself as should you. Watch the video.

Are you planning a meeting for this year or a kickoff meeting for early next year? Book Raj to speak to energize and inspire your team, organizaton or corporation to consistently perform at the top of our game! Call him at 864.569.2315 or contact him at raj@rajgavurla.com with your date, time and location to book your date today!

Write It Down

“Work on higher goals.” – Raj Gavurla

All aspects of life become better when we decide to live a better life.  Work on higher goals to keep things interesting, fun, and enjoyable.  For sure as you make progress regardless of how fast or slow you will reach points of stagnation. When this happens increase motivation and inspiration to look for additional intelligence to ignite your progress.

Innovate in all aspects of life by working on higher goals.  Writing a blog is challenging at times because I’m not sure what to write about.  I cover a variety of topics focused on entrepreneurial leadership in all aspects of life, optimal performance (the zone or nirvana), and living a better life.

I’m writing down my future postings.  This means they are out of my notebook and head and on the canvas.  This also means I have discretion of the order and can extemporaneously add topics.  It also means you can comment or e-mail me at raj@rajgavurla.com to write about a specific challenge, topic, or concern of yours.

How To Motivate and Inspire Your Employees?
Presenting Yourself
You’ve Been Diagnosed With A Disease Now What?
Stop Self-Defeating and How?
Handling Investors
Handling Negativity
Performance Tools
Working With Your Healthcare Provider
Self-Care and Self-Respect
How to Innovate?
Keeping A Notebook
How You Can Help Owners Bring You Into The Conversation to Maximize Impact?
5 Steps to Live Great Dreams
Breaking Through Barriers
Communication In The Workplace
Hone and Refine Skills
Be The Best for Them
Using Thoughts, Words, and Action To Propel Success
Come From A Position of Strength
Building Relationships
Where To Find The Best Ideas

Remember, to comment or e-mail me at raj@rajgavurla.com to write about a specific challenge, topic, or concern of yours.

Are you planning a meeting for this year or a kickoff meeting for early next year? Book Raj to speak to energize and inspire your team, organizaton or corporation to consistently perform at the top of our game! Call him at 864.569.2315 or contact him at raj@rajgavurla.com with your date, time and location to book your date today!

Soak In The Experience: Power of Gratitude

It takes a herculean effort to put on a community fundraiser. There was planning and arrangements to be made. Everything from venue selection to refreshments, registration, tables to arrange for sponsors, canopy, DJ, Zumba, speaker, and humanity.

I attended the NAMI Greenville Walks and arrived early while people were setting up to soak in the experience. Some I knew and many I didn’t know. There were introductions and an emcee, recognition of teams and individuals, and a speaker’s message. Before walking Zumba instructors helped us warm up. We had to “shake it!” I was smiling.

While walking along a scenic route among friends and making new friends the conversation was nostalgic, sky was clear, sun beaming, and you felt the breeze at just the right time. As we crossed the finish line, “community”. Music was playing and people were recognized for their amazing efforts.

As people made their way home there was clean up. The breakdown of tables, folding chairs, and folding the canopy.

The event was orchestrated spectacularly! An experience I’ll cherish for progress, relationships, and friendships. Thank you!

The following day after watching the French Open Final, I took a walk in the neighborhood. As I approached the halfway mark, I saw three kids with a Kool Aid and lemonade stand at the main intersection. One asked would I like Kool Aid or lemonade and then another asked do I want a straw and then another said it’s free for walkers. They are our future. A snapshot of inspiration I’ll remember forever. Thank you!

Are you soaking in your experiences with gratitude for those who helped make it an amazing experience?

Are you planning a meeting for this year or a kickoff meeting for early next year? Book Raj to speak to energize and inspire your team, organizaton or corporation to consistently perform at the top of our game! Call him at 864.569.2315 or contact him at raj@rajgavurla.com with your date, time and location to book your date today!

One Big Idea To Propel Team and Company Performance

What is one big idea to propel team and company performance? You hire the best and invest in training. Your employees have resources at their fingertips to perform. Yet, it seems the pareto principle still applies.

What if the percentages were reversed? Eighty percent of the people do most of the work versus twenty percent? Your company’s performance would make a giant leap. How? The one big idea is learn how to learn.

I’ve been attending regular meetings of one of the largest employers in the state. The team of thirty receive instruction, watch a video, and dress rehearsal. Then they perform. As they do it’s obvious some didn’t hear or didn’t remember specific instructions. In most organizations this would cause problems, however, the team and especially its fearless leader respond instantly without pointing blame. For example, you don’t hear phrases like “she told us to do this”, “weren’t you listening”, “either you can do the job or you can’t”, “do it yourself”. It really is one of the most amazing things I’ve seen.

This team also coaches each other. They have one hundred percent doing most of the work. Not eighty or twenty percent.

Does your team perform so well? If not, implement to see just how much better your company’s performance will be. What can be done to raise performance? When the time is right, they actually teach one another thinking tools used to execute what is done so well. You’ll find the end result is achieved in multiple ways.

By learning how they learned to execute the teammates can understand if there is a better and faster way to learn and execute. Usually there is. Now your team has gone from one level of performance to a higher level. Do you have a team that performs so efficiently?

They obviously know how to recruit the best people. Because none of the team members were trained to act this way. Amazing!

Taking a closer look at the team five ingredients stand out:

1. The supervisor, leader, and team members are diverse and have subtle people skills.

2. There is education/training (instruction, video, peer coaching), dress rehearsal, and event. In other words, education/training (your components), rehearsal, and project.

3. The environment is world class.

4. During and after projects anyone can give feedback to help increase performance. Ninety percent of the time the leader decides whether or not to implement in front of the team. The other ten percent the leader needs to think it through.

5. They realize their team members are living great dreams (their work/job at the company) and they have great dreams outside of work/job they do for the company they actively support.

Implement this one big idea to propel team and company performance.

Are you planning a meeting for this year or a kickoff meeting for early next year? Book Raj to speak to energize and inspire your team, organizaton or corporation to consistently perform at the top of our game! Call him at 864.569.2315 or contact him at raj@rajgavurla.com with your date, time and location to book your date today!

Trigger Success

“Use compelling motivational thoughts to propel you throughout the day.” – Raj Gavurla

Each of us have successes, hopes, and dreams and each of us has adversity whether small or big.   Being on the platform in front of very successful people, successful people, and those who have adversity, I’m amazed at the human spirit.  People have dreams, resiliency, and are filled with hope and success.

Yet, a person can also cave in.  Our own thoughts and the motivational words of others invigorate us to make progress whether small or big.  Thoughts and words really have a huge impact!  You may be on the verge of success or failure.

Instead of looking to ward off your triggers to avoid decline (not excelling at work, gaining weight, exercise is a drag) think of “trigger success”.  Yes, triggers can be very motivational.  Of course, we want to excel at work, be at our optimal BMI, and have a fit mind and body.

So instead of focusing on negative triggers to avoid think of a sub dream to your dream.  Your dream isn’t yet to be achieved and thinking about it too much will take you away from taking action (doing the little things).  By having a sub dream it will be easier to take action because you aren’t overwhelmed.  Make a greater effort towards your compelling vision of your sub dream than your dream.  Why?  Because by achieving your sub dream your dream will come racing towards you and becomes greater.

After having:

1.  A compelling vision of a sub dream to your dream

2.  Mentally prepare and have the thought “trigger success”

3.  Take action by doing the little things.  If/when you have a negative thought, have the thought “trigger success”.  You’ll instantly engage in the thoughts needed to execute the little things.  For example, call a prospect or other infinite motivational words you’ve read or heard from others relevant to doing the little things.  That’s why you attend events, read, and talk with people.  You have a mind full of them.  Are you using them?

Here’ a message from a peer:

“Never lose sight…just may happen…thanks, for your visions, and your wishes!!”

4.  Review your progress

5.  Find ways to perform better.  Usually this involves learning how to learn.  It will keep you from burning out.         If it’s too hard, then the thoughts aren’t in place.  If you are coasting, then raise the bar to make progress.

It’s number three that makes all the difference.  Use the word “trigger” in a positive way not the way it is usually portrayed (example, what’s the trigger that causes that problem).

Trigger success.

Are you planning a meeting for this year or a kickoff meeting for early next year? Book Raj to speak to energize and inspire your team, organizaton or corporation to consistently perform at the top of our game! Call him at 864.569.2315 or contact him at raj@rajgavurla.com with your date, time and location to book your date today!

Coaching A Mom About Her Son

“Enable others practical dreams and your practical dreams will also occur.”  – Raj Gavurla

A mom was talking to me about how her son (five and a half) loves to play sports.  He’s into basketball, football, baseball, and soccer. He is intelligent and watches on t.v. and knows all the rules and has his favorite teams and players his mom proudly informs me.  However, as she was talking I could hear the crackle in her voice and the concern she had.  Although he loves to play with his friends, he loses almost every time.  His mom told me he plays with kids who are a couple of years older and he’s smaller.

Being a competitive mom, she doesn’t want his self esteem to diminish.  His parents tell Tim, you don’t win them all sometime you lose.  It brought back memories of my childhood.  Although I didn’t play basketball at age five and a half, most of my friends were a couple of years older at age eleven in the neighborhood.  They are the ones who introduced me to sports on a higher level and we played a lot.

Some had more raw talent than others.  However, we know talent can only get us so far.  Most were introduced to sports, learned from someone, and watched on t.v.  Therefore, I advised her she was being a great mom setting up a goal for them to play and watching for fun and safety.  Then, I coached her to get involved with seeing her son win more by learning about basketball herself and having him show/teach her how to play.  This was a shock to her because she may have shot a ball five times in her life and probably played only in gym class.  I coached her to teach basketball to her son and by learning the skills to play he will easily win more often.  The talented kids who don’t also learn will lose more often.  What resource did I recommend to her?  The Art of Basketball by Oscar Robertson (for all ages and levels including professional).

I’m sure Tim’s mom will look into other resources like YouTube, etc. because it’s important to her and her son. Your kids need you to share with them by being involved with their practical dreams, hopes, and successes.

Are you planning a meeting for this year or a kickoff meeting for early next year? Book Raj to speak to energize and inspire your team, organizaton or corporation to consistently perform at the top of our game! Call him at 864.569.2315 or contact him at raj@rajgavurla.com with your date, time and location to book your date today!

Performance Tools for Entrepreneurs, Businesses, and Athletes

Performance tools for entrepreneurs, businesses, and athletes

Interview on GBNTV with Diane Bogino:

Are you planning a meeting for this year or a kickoff meeting for early next year? Book Raj to speak to energize and inspire your team, organizaton or corporation to consistently perform at the top of our game! Call him at 864.569.2315 or contact him at raj@rajgavurla.com with your date, time and location to book your date today!

Entrepreneurial Shift: Better Results In Less Time

While networking I met a guy who had the same twelfth grade English teacher as me. He asked, what do I remember about her? I said, “she liked tools”. Besides teaching English, she felt a sense of nostalgia when she saw tools neatly stored on a peg board in a tool shed. I also remembered, it being the first time I gave a speech. Preparing was a daunting task; however, she gave the class a tool for speech preparation. Her tool was to open with something memorable to get the audience’s attention. Therefore, I opened my speech in French.

There is also an entrepreneurial thinking tool to be entrepreneurial. People associate being entrepreneurial with starting a business. This is a form of entrepreneurship, however, there is intrapreneurship (corporate entrepreneurship), and the application of entrepreneurial thinking in our work and daily living.  People focus on creating a better service or product to be entrepreneurial. How do they come up with a creative innovative idea?

There are several entrepreneurial thinking tools to stimulate entrepreneurial ideas and determine whether your service and/or product are entrepreneurial.  One of my entrepreneurial thinking tools is a simple graph showing better results vs. less time.

If your service and/or product can produce better results but not in less time then it’s not entrepreneurial. If your service and/or product can’t produce a better result but can be done in less time it’s not entrepreneurial. However, if your service and/or product can produce better results in less time then it’s entrepreneurial.

Examples: Carriage buggy vs. car, typewriter vs. computer, ship vs. plane, shorter route to work, learn a tip to make something easier to do in less time, no internet vs. internet, land line vs. cell phone, no exercise vs. exercise, no nutrition vs. nutrition

Therefore, take a look at the marketplace. Can you create an entrepreneurial shift (ES) by raising the bar to produce better results in less time? How about applying the tool in your productivity at work or in something you are passionate about at home?

By having an entrepreneurial tool you’ll reduce apathy and create natural endorphins seizing opportunity and stimulating you to the next level of success.

Are you planning a meeting for this year or a kickoff meeting for early next year? Book Raj to speak to energize and inspire your team, organizaton or corporation to consistently perform at the top of our game! Call him at 864.569.2315 or contact him at raj@rajgavurla.com with your date, time and location to book your date today!

Leadership Mood Is Essential: To Perform Your Best

© iStockphoto/creacart

In response to a discussion on the effect of a leader’s mood on the performance of a team, a participant in a recent leadership workshop made this heartfelt and realistic remark: “I cannot see how I am expected to be in a good mood for four quarters in a row.”

The point is well taken. But can you afford, as a leader, to even entertain this thought?

All of the research on employee performance points to the contrary.

There is a concept in French which is called “Noblesse oblige”. It means, roughly, that wealth, power and prestige go hand-in-hand with certain social responsibilities – in other words, with privilege comes duty. It is a privilege when we have the opportunity to lead a team of people, but with it comes many responsibilities, chief of which, some leadership pundits would contend, is managing moods.

In a Harvard Business Review article called Leadership That Gets Results, Daniel Goleman cites research which shows that up to 30% of a company’s financial results (as measured by key business performance indicators such as revenue growth, return on sales, efficiency and profitability) are determined by the climate of the organization.

So what is the major factor that drives the climate of an organization? It’s the leader: in Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence, Goleman states that roughly 50-70% of how employees perceive their organization’s climate is attributable to the actions and behaviors of their leader. A leader creates the environment that determines people’s moods at the office and their mood, in turn, affects their productivity and level of engagement.

Afterglow or Aftermath?

Witness the number of times you may have driven home with an internal glow, reliving a positive encounter with an upbeat and supportive boss, perhaps savoring a “bon mot” about your performance that he or she left with you on a Friday afternoon. How great it made you feel, and how eager you were to get out of bed on the following Monday morning, and get back to the office to give that man or woman the very best that you had to offer. That’s the “afterglow” that lingers and gives you renewed energy to be more productive, to bring your finest talents to work.

And think about the reverse of the afterglow – the aftermath, or bitter aftertaste. This is what Susan Scott, in Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life, One Conversation at a Time, brilliantly calls “The Emotional Wake.” That’s what lingers with you after being the recipient of some acrid remarks from a leader in a negative mood. How did that affect your determination to overcome difficulties in a project, to keep your heart fully engaged in the process, to want to continue to give that person your very best game?

Contagion and Consequences

Leadership literature is full of studies attesting to the consequences of a leader’s mood. One such study involved 62 CEOs and their top management teams and it showed that the more upbeat, energetic and enthusiastic the executive team was, the more co-operatively they worked together, and the better the company’s business results. The study also showed that the longer a company was managed by an executive team that didn’t get along well, the poorer the company’s market returns.

Perhaps nowhere is a leader’s mood more crucial than in the service industry where employees in a bad mood can, without fail, adversely affect business. In one of a multitude of such studies involving 53 sales managers in retail outlets who led groups ranging in size from four to nine members, it was found that when managers themselves were in an upbeat, positive mood, their moods spilled over to their staff, positively affecting the staff’s performance and increasing sales. We can all take an inspiration from organizations such as Starbucks who place great value on the importance of creating a positive climate for employees which, in turn, ensures a pleasant customer experience and repeat visits. “We are always focused on our people” is an explicit statement to new recruits on the company’s career site.

When we move the curtain a bit, we can see clearly that a leader’s bad mood is a source of infection – an emotional contagion that eventually spreads across people to entire units. We can learn a thing or two from leadership in the military. Imagine the effect on troop morale and energy that an “overwhelmed”, “anxious”, “worried” or “irate” leader would have? And how about a leader who is plagued by uncertainty? “Indecision,” as HA Hopf puts it, “is contagious. It transmits itself to others.” It can become debilitating and habit-forming in an organization, as people take their cues from the leader’s state of mind.

Inconsistent Means Unpredictable

We could argue that the occasional bad mood, the occasional rant, on a bad “corporate hair day”, is excusable. Often, we refer to this type of behavior with statements such as: “She can’t control her temper sometimes, but she is so brilliant”. Or, “He has an amazing mind but he has a tendency to shout at people when it’s stressful.” It is as though brilliance is an excuse for bad behavior. And it may very well have to be in some environments – but the message it sends to constituents is one of inconsistency, which is an undesirable trait in any leader. We want our leaders to be predictable because there is comfort and safety in predictability. Predictability engenders trust and an unpredictable leader elicits anxiety and, in some cases, even fear, both of which negatively affect performance and productivity.

Of course, no leader steps out of the elevator in the morning with an intention to spread a bad mood around but, as sure as there is gravity, events occur during the course of some days that can derail even the best among us. To be clear, we are not advocating that leaders turn into a shrink wrapped version, complete with false smiles and fake cheerfulness. Constituents spot a non-genuine smile anyway and are very adept at noticing when a leader infantilizes them.

The Right Mood?

There are, of course, no easy solutions to managing emotions on an hourly basis in the often difficult circumstances in which leaders must operate and make decisions. However, we can draw some advice from another Harvard Business Review article entitled Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance. First of all, it’s important to note that a leader’s mood has the greatest impact on performance when it is upbeat. But it must also be in tune with those around him.

Goleman et al call this dynamic resonance. “Good moods galvanize good performance, but it doesn’t make sense for a leader to be as chipper as a blue jay at dawn if sales are tanking or the business is going under. The most effective executives display moods and behaviors that match the situation at hand, with a healthy dose of optimism mixed in. They respect how other people are feeling – even if it is glum or defeated – but they also model what it looks like to move forward with hope and humor.” The operative threesome here is “optimism”, “hope” and “humor”. As someone once put it, leaders are dealers in hope.

Steps Towards Better Performance

So what are the specific recommendations? Your mood and behavior affects performance. How do you work on attaining the consistent, emotionally intelligent leadership behaviors that breed success in yourself and others? Here are a few other suggestions to consider that can improve your and your team’s performance:

1. Model Meeting Behavior
   Take a hard look at your behavior in meetings, which are often “cauldrons of emotion.” Do you model the way by setting a positive tone right from the start? Or do you impose your own “pace” based on how you feel at the moment? Aim for a calm, relaxed mood, and a consistent, positive approach.
2. Look for Good in Others
   Long before leadership books were in vogue, Andre Malraux, French novelist and statesman, reminded us that one of the central objectives of a leader is to make others aware of the greatness that lies in them. Be known in your organization as someone who is always on the lookout for what is right with people. It engenders good will and is good for business.
3. Read the Climate 
   Do you have a good reading of the climate of your unit or organization? Can you accurately sense what the emotional atmosphere is? Is it upbeat? Is it energized? Is it down or dejected? Do people seem slightly apprehensive and somewhat cautious in your presence? Can you ask a trusted acolyte if the atmosphere changes when you are away?
4. Be Pleasant and Cooperative
   If you are an emergent leader, and working on having a pleasant personality is not a priority for you, consider putting some effort into cultivating this prized quality. It is almost impossible to have executive presence without it. Be cooperative, for example sharing ideas and shortcuts. This is another example of how mood affects productivity.
5. Be Emotionally Attractive
   Along that vein, focus on being emotionally attractive. This links to the concept of resonant leadership. Resonant leaders are individuals who have the ability to manage their own emotions and those of others in a manner that drives the success of their teams and organizations. In Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others through Mindfulness, Hope and Compassion, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee explain that resonant leaders create a positive emotional tone in the organization and engage and inspire people. As the title of their book indicates, these leaders possess three core qualities which are: mindfulness, hope, and compassion. Consider making these a part of your arsenal as a leader.
6. Manage the Emotions of Change
   Be particularly mindful of how you manage emotions if your organization is undergoing change: how you handle emotions during these crucial times can help or hinder the change process. It’s a known fact that if the resistance to change is emotional, it is the hardest form of resistance to overcome. As the leader handling a change initiative, don’t avoid the emotions that accompany the change process. Set the mood and manage the emotions – or they will manage you.

If you cringe at the whole notion of emotions in the workplace, including talk of empathy and compassion, intuition or discussions of emotional intelligence, I encourage you to reconsider this mindset. Hone your intuitive ability, and listen to those hunches that hint to you that something in your behavior and actions on bad days is causing a ripple effect on others. These are the whispers we try to dismiss when we elect to focus only on “rationality”. Intuition is a precious tool worth including in our kit. Einstein put it best: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

As the leader, you have in your hand the switch that can control the intensity of engagement of the people who do the work in your organization. It’s like being a director in a movie: “The first work of the director is to set a mood so that the actor’s work can take place” (William Friedkin, American movie and television director/producer.) A leader’s upbeat mood metaphorically oxygenates the blood of followers – it’s a transfusion into the corporate arteries. It may be one of the most potent contributions you can make as a leader.

Copyright © 2007-2013 by Bruna Martinuzzi. All Rights Reserved.

Are you planning a meeting for this year or a kickoff meeting for early next year? Book Raj to speak to energize and inspire your team, organizaton or corporation to consistently perform at the top of our game! Call him at 864.569.2315 or contact him at raj@rajgavurla.com with your date, time and location to book your date today!

Increase Productivity and Performance

As a professional, getting a hold of your mood will help you increase productivity and performance.  Nutrition, exercise, and endorphins for your work is essential to increase productivity and performance.

Here are four sure fire ways to increase productivity and performance:

1.  Get a hold of your schedule.  It may be one of the easiest things to do yet we want to look for a more complex solution.  Block out certain times and days of the week to work on important projects or life’s essentials to make your day, week, month, and year filled with success.  Then guard set times against intrusions.  Your mood will be set to generate better results.

2.  Your environment should be motivational and have supportive relationships towards practical dreams work, goals, and mission.  Without this it will be very difficult.  However, you can adapt by sharing with the right people.  They are your supportive relationships.

3.  Then, you need structure, a process, and the ability to consistently find ways to raise the bar.

For example, your schedule has a structure, so does each project.  Then identify the process.  Do you need to make ten calls today, what questions will you ask, how will you respond, and what do you want to accomplish.  This takes professional communication skills.  Work on increasing your verbal, written, and presentation skills to achieve better results and put you in a better mood.

4.  Then you must consistently apply the structure and process to set a record.  This will keep you motivated and you will not be bored.  If three out of ten calls were a success, how can you increase it.

You’ll be in a good mood because naturally success feels better than the same results or rejection.

Nutrition —> Exercise —> Endorphins for work comes from having a —> Schedule —> Process —> Consistently Apply —> Set A Record —> Better Results, Moods, and Wins

Are you planning a meeting for this year or a kickoff meeting for early next year? Book Raj to speak to energize and inspire your team, organizaton or corporation to consistently perform at the top of our game! Call him at 864.569.2315 or contact him at raj@rajgavurla.com with your date, time and location to book your date today!