FranklinCovey’s Next Best Seller - 4DX

As a company that produces world-class training content for individual effectiveness and leadership, FranklinCovey is also known for our best-selling books.  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The Speed of Trust are just 2 examples.

On Tuesday, April 24^th, we released our newest book, The 4 Disciplines of Execution, written by our Global Execution Practice Leader, Chris McChesney, our VP of Innovation, Sean Covey and one of our top Execution Consultants, Jim Huling.  On 4/24 it was #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases!  We are confident that this book will become our next best-seller.

Based on over a decade of research and development and implementation with thousands of clients, Chris, Sean and Jim, share what we believe is the enabler to all corporate strategies, 4DX.  This book is endorsed by thought leaders like Ram Charan, Clayton Christensen and Fred Reichheld.  This book is also endorsed by countless executives that have actually implemented 4DX into their organizations.

The authors explain that the number one killer to executing strategic goals is what they like to call, The Whirlwind (aka: the day job).  Executing strategic goals is not that hard.  Executing strategic goals in the midst of today’s whirlwind is difficult, but not impossible.  To learn more, watch this video narrated by Chris.

Not only does this book provide hope to the reader, but it provides details to the process for the leader.  If you are curious and would like a taste of 4DX, click on either or both of the links below:

·         Download a FREE Chapter

·         Download the press kit

·         North American Tour Dates

You can also read recent articles by Forbes and Fast Company.  Don’t forget to order your copy today!

Curious about what 4DX can do for your company?  Let’s set up a meeting with your FranklinCovey Client Partner!  We’ve helped clients in almost every major industry execute operational, financial and satisfaction goals that have had dramatic impact on their bottom line! 

Ready to get started?  Request a meeting using the form on the upper right side of this page or contact me via email.  Also consider joining us for one of our upcoming executive showcases in your area.

Creating execution-capable organizations one at a time,

John Vakidis

Unleashing Talent

Employee engagement is one of the most common topics that I hear among leaders.  Getting employees engaged really depends on HOW you lead, build trust and execute as a company.  You can take a high performer and put them in an un-winnable environment and watch the engagement get sucked right out of them over a period of time.  Or, your top performer will quit and go somewhere else… like your competitor!

Unleashing Talent relies on leaders to be able to engage in meaningful conversations that enable their team members to contribute their talent to the organization’s needs.  Leaders need to create a clear picture of how team members will add value.  They need a process for consistent goal achievement.  Leaders and directs must be held accountable towards achieving individual and team goals.

Once a leader can unleash the talent of their workforce, they can achieve greatness and everyone will feel engaged on the team.  Just for fun, below is a video of a highly engaged employee.  I hope it makes your day.   

If you would like more information about partnering with FranklinCovey to help you increase employee engagement, contact me via email or request a meeting on the top right side of this page.  We have a variety of way we can impact your organizations productivity, execution and engagement.

In your corner,

John Vakidis

Execution 101

If Strategic Goal Execution was only as easy as the diagram above!  Michael Mink with Investors.com recently wrote an article titled, Execute Company Objectives By Nurturing Accountability.  The author quotes Sean Covey, Chris McChesney and Jim Huling from their new book The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Make Your Most Wildly Important Goals Happen.  Their book will be released in just a few short weeks!

Michael goes on to write about tips every leader should consider: Prioritize, Act, Fuel the Fire, Create Accountability, Evaluate, Enable, Energize.

At FranklinCovey, we have boiled down execution into 4 key steps that we like to call, The 4 Disciplines. 

They are:

·         Focus on the Wildly Important

·         Act on the Lead Measures

·         Keep a Compelling Scoreboard

·         Create a Cadence of Accountability

Once organizations “install” The 4 Disciplines of Execution through our Manager’s Certification Process, they typically outperform the initial goals set in place.  Goals that have never been achieved can be achieved in months.  This transformation happens, simply because organizations are now able to get their middle performers to behave like their top performers.  In many cases, it is a 4X improvement, which has a dramatic impact towards the bottom line!

Watch this video below and allow Chris McChesney, our Global Execution Practice Leader, to provide you with more information.

 

Be sure to follow me on Twitter so you’ll know when the book is released.  I am positive it will be one of the best-selling business books this year!

All the best!

John Vakidis

How Much of Reality is Perception?

It’s that time again… yes, another post from my friend and colleague, Mark Murphy.  As a facilitator of 7 Habits for many years, Mark brings great insight today about our paradigms and how that affects our reality.  Enjoy!

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I recently watched a TED clip (above) by Shawn Achor, author of the book “The Happy Secret to Better Work”.  He is the CEO of Good Think Inc. and studies the science of “Positive Psychology”.  In economics and statistics, one of the first things taught is how to eliminate data that falls outside of the average, how to eliminate the outliers to achieve the average.  But if you’re studying potential, creativity, energy or productivity, it’s imperative to escape what he calls the “Cult of the Average” in science. When asked the question “How fast can a child learn how to read in a classroom?”, science immediately changes the question to “How fast does the average child learn to read in the classroom?”  Then the class is tailored to the average.

“Positive Psychology” studies the physical and psychological implications of the premise that if we focus on what is merely average, we will remain merely average. Instead of automatically deleting the outlier in science, Shawn Achor believes we should study that outlier and ask “why”, not just to move people up to the average, but to move the entire average up.

The news constantly bombards us with stories of corruption, war, crime and sickness until our brain begins to believe that this ratio of negative to positive information is the norm. “It’s not necessarily reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality.  If we can change the lens, we can change not only our happiness, but every single business and educational outcome at the same time.”

In Victor Frankl’s autobiography, Man’s Search for Meaning, he recounts his horrific experiences as a Jewish Austrian psychiatrist held prisoner in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.  He says that ultimately it wasn’t physical strength or endurance that made the difference between those that survived and those that didn’t.  Those that survived had a vision of some greater purpose yet to be fulfilled in their own lives.  It was that deep inner sense of purpose and mission that often determined the difference between life and death.

I love Marianne Williamson’s book A Discourse on Miracles.  In it, she states that it’s not what happens to us in life that determines our happiness, but rather how we choose to respond to what happens to us that determines our happiness.  I’ve observed that very premise often in my own life.  I know people who have been handed everything in life that they could ever want and are still miserable people.  I’ve also known people who seem to endure trial after trial in life and yet are still very upbeat, happy people. 

Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, says it this way: “No one sees the world as it is…we all see the world as we are.”  Every individual has a lens of beliefs  and experiences (paradigms) that we use to interpret the world around us. 

If we desire to change our lives we can simply work on our behaviors.  But if we want that change to be enduring, lasting and meaningful we need to change our beliefs.  If you listen to Shawn Achor, there seems to be a growing body of science that backs that up.

- Mark Murphy, FranklinCovey Consultant             

Copyright © 2012 - Mark Murphy

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Wishing you a Happy Easter Weekend!

- John Vakidis