Can you believe we are only 6 weeks away from 2010!
The traffic in Houston is already getting busier. Surely it’s not Christmas shoppers already! The stores in my area are discounting merchandise to boost early holiday spending…with the extra cars on the road, perhaps its working.

As I start to reflect on 2009 and think about 2010, I am reminded of a set of questions that I like to use to support my clients and my family to say goodbye to the current year and get prepared and excited about the coming year.

I am sharing these questions with you below. These are useful for organizations or individual Leaders.
If you are doing this exercise as an individual, it’s nice to have a good friend or family member participate with you and share your answers.
Have Fun! Send me a note if you have any questions that come up when doing the exercise.

1. What happened in 2009 that did not work?

What are your personal and organizational goals and initiatives that didn’t get fulfilled? (answer like you were reporting to the newspaper. Just the facts. No drama please) Shy away from judging or assessing what happened. This exercise is just stating what happened (like the replay video in football)

2. What was the “Big Issue” of 2009?
What issue did it seem you were talking about all year?
For some it was the economy. What was it for you?

3. Who are you “incomplete” with?

Is there anyone you need to follow-up with?
Anyone you need to apologize to?
Who do you need to thank for their help this year?
(Write down whoever comes to mind when you ask this question.)
Are there any actions to take or calls to make?

4. What worked in 2009?
What was successful? What turned out the way you planned it?
What new projects were implemented successfully?
What new things did you take on successfully?

5. What was your big accomplishment(s) in 2009?
What are you most proud of accomplishing?
What was a stretch for you but you made it?
Be generous with yourself here!

6. What do you want to be acknowledged for?

What did you do that no one knows about? Include the things you did that others saw but didn’t acknowledge you for it.

Anything else you want to say about 2009?

On my next blog entry I will share the questions for creating your goals for the New Year. Happy Thanksgiving. Bambi

What are some keys to performance in any economic environment?

In spite of a down economy, I have had a great year and I am really thankful for the clients we have the pleasure to work with.

However, most of the people I talk to who provide Business Consulting and Executive Coaching as well, tell me they have had a challenging year and their business is down significantly.

So what is the difference between what we are doing in my firm and what other business consultants and executive coaches are doing?

Is it that we are just great coaches and consultants and everyone chooses our firm over everyone else? While I believe we do have methods that are superior (of course I believe in our people and our methodology, that’s why I use it!) I do think there are some great coaches and consultants out there… I don’t think that is what has made the difference.

So what has made a difference in our organization’s results?
What has impacted our ability to produce great results even in a down economy when budgets for training, coaching and business consulting have been cut?

Of course we could analyze this from many different directions. However when I speak to the consultants who have called me to inquire what we have been doing that they aren’t, one thing has become really clear to me.

We have not been operating under the same “context”. So what do I mean by context? And what context have we been operating from that has made the difference?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines “context” as the surrounding conditions, the circumstances in which events occur.

Said another way, context is the world you operate inside of – it frames everything you see and do. It is of monumental importance because it pulls the organization in a particular direction.

The context we have operated from has been from what I have been saying; “There is plenty of business out there! We help great leaders emerge, and people need leadership now more than ever!”

A context of there is plenty of opportunity for our work has created a completely different way of operating; it has changed how we relate to each other, our clients and our prospects.

As a result of a context, there is plenty, we didn’t listen to the conversation about how bad things are, or that there is no business out there, or budgets are going to be tight until 2010… and on and on. In fact, when I did start to buy that, I turned off the news. I know it has been challenging for some people and I don’t want to be insensitive. One of my clients had to layoff people twice and it was challenging for everyone there.

However, if I had been operating from the context of things are bad and companies are not buying… it would have resulted in a different set of actions taken by myself and my team. None of those conversations created a context that would have led to taking advantage of the available business that IS out there.

Another example of how our context impacts results was one of my former salespeople kept saying that selling consulting and coaching was hard. As long as she operated from the context of selling consulting is hard, she found it hard to sell. Although she found people who were interested in talking about what we have to offer and was having lots of meetings with prospects, even multiple meetings with the same prospect, still she was not able to close a contract.

Her conversation created a context, selling consulting is hard, and that resulted in certain actions that did not result in sales, and eventually she left the firm.

For more information on how our performance correlates to how situations occur for us-
I recommend you read my friend, Steve Zaffron’s book. The Three Laws of Performance- Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life.
www.threelawsofperformance.com

So here’s the challenge. What is the context you as a leader are operating from?
What is the context your organization is operating from?
How would you know? Is it a context that supports your goals and objectives?

Welcome to my new blog, On Bambi’s Brain.

I am excited to share my thoughts from more than 15 years of experience in Coaching and Consulting CEO’s and Senior Leaders; in addition to more than 15 years of being a Senior Executive in growing a multi-billion dollar organization.

I intend this blog makes a difference for the leaders I work with, as well as to stimulate dialogues on your different perspectives.

My view is there is always something new to learn. And I believe it is critical for leaders to continue to learn. I continue to create opportunities for my own learning, believing that I cannot serve my clients or expect them to do anything I am not or have not been willing to do myself; in fact I still have a business coach.

I have found that the growth of an organization is directly correlated to the growth of it’s leaders. After all organizations don’t perform, people do.

In my experience organizations where the leaders’ consistently gain new capacities, perspectives and methods are those that are most successful. In fact, I measured the results for more than five years of 10+ divisions within an organization, and those divisions with Leaders who were open to learning, that were being coached and gaining new perspectives and methods consistently produced better results in the growth and profitability of their divisions. In addition their divisions had work environments that brought out the best in their people which resulted in higher customer service measures and employee fulfillment scores as well as low employee turnover percentages.

Being a great Leader requires courage. I am committed to Leaders being all they can be.
In fact one of the things that I observe in organizations is that Leadership is mostly missing. I find that many organizations that I go into are over managed and under led.  How are you expanding your capacity?

Here’s to a new level of Leadership for us all!

I welcome your comments and questions. I look forward to some stimulating dialogues!

Bambi McCullough, CEO, Chrysalis Partners, LLC.