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Being part of great corporation’s life for many years, I have become a big observer of what a successful organization is being built upon. Successful organizations have the knowledge, compassion and foresight to build a sustainable future for humanity and create conditions where all stakeholders win (these are investors, employees, customers, suppliers, society and the environment). How do they make sure that everyone wins? The leaders of these organisations are aware of their own and stakeholder’s wants and needs and constantly look for new ways of getting them met.

It is very well known to any successful leader that in order to keep the organization’s numbers on balance sheets green, he or she needs to encourage new ideas and new ways of implementing them to meet the expectations not only of the clients and customers but other stakeholders too. Creating and sustaining an innovative organisational culture requires many efforts from the leadership team. Here are some ideas I have observed as best practices of promoting an innovative culture:

1. Give thanks for every idea which has been brought to you, even if you cannot use it.  Every idea counts so recognize it, for instance at a team meeting or a regular 1:1.. Remember you want to create an organisational culture where everyone is being encouraged and motivated to share his or her ideas.
2. Welcome new ideas and be mindful of your responses. Look to respond rather than react by choosing your words wisely. Avoid using the phrase “Yes, but..” when ideas are being presented to you. If you really cannot use the idea, try using the word ‘And’ instead of ‘But’ within your response to the employee. “E.g. Yes and the current budget restrictions are quite tight at the moment to move this idea forward. Let us review in the next quarter…” Subconsciously this will not be regarded by the employee as a negative response or a rejection and your employees will still feel encouraged to bring more ideas forward to you.
3. Sincerely listen to the idea being presented to you – ask follow up questions, be 100% present, in other words absolutely NO looking at emails, phone messages or thinking about something else while you’re with your employees. You will demonstrate respect and appreciation by being genuinely interested and present. Remember every energy you give out is being noticed not only by your employees but also by the universe. If you fake it, it will somehow come back to you. This is the universal law of Cause and Effect.
4. Promote courage and overcoming fears–start with facing your own fears as a leader. If you show your employees you can be vulnerable and able to face your fears, they will feel empowered to do so too. According to Richard Barrett (The New Leadership Paradigm) “one of the key strengths of authentic leaders is to face his/her fears as only then he/she knows how to lead him/herself before he/she can lead others”. Think of your employees as your reflection or a mirror. Often the struggle of creating an innovative culture lies in the employee’s motivation and fear of making a mistake due to the possibility of being punished, humiliated or mocked for his or her mistakes. If they are afraid to face their fear, they are somehow mirroring your fears and you need to resolve your fears before helping them to resolve theirs.
5. Stimulate trust – trust feeds innovation, collaboration, empowerment, loyalty which results in a better human interaction, deal making, project success and quality. If mistakes are being made, make sure your employees learn lessons from their mistakes and they move on. The universal Law of Forgiveness states that by forgiving and letting go of any negative thoughts and feelings, we encourage a better and positive future. Whatever you focus on, you manifest. If you constantly focus on mistakes, more mistakes will be created.
6. Spot innovators in your team – these are generalists rather than specialists, they know a little about many things and like to move around to experience new things, don’t fancy tight deadlines, but need some kind of boundaries. Get to know their motivational force in order to keep it running so they constantly work on their creativity. Make sure ideas are implemented.
7. Encourage the employee’s exposure to other environments and jobs by implementing the model of job shadowing or job rotation as a part of their individual development. This opens up their creativity and moves them out of their comfort zone. Encourage them to spend a few hours a month in a different department following somebody on his/her job or working in another location and you will see extraordinary things happen. Apart from feeding their creativity, this approach dilutes internal communication silos, inspires positive working practices to take place, and increases an employee’s engagement and development opportunities.
8. Unique and relevant strategy – If your strategy is vague or fails to differentiate your organisation from the competition, you should change this situation as quickly as possible. Make sure your innovators understand your strategy and strategic goals. There is nothing worse than when innovators come up with new ideas, no matter how creative and indeed innovative they may be, that do not align to corporate strategy.

Remember the culture you create as a leader is a reflection of your values, beliefs and behaviors you hold and use. Your beliefs, thinking and behavioral patterns have been collected by you throughout your life from your family, friends, teachers, bosses etc. and are stored in your subconscious mind. Whatever your subconscious mind is being filled with creates your reality around you. You cannot cheat the universe. The good news is that you can consciously reprogram these in order to create the positive changes you would like to make and see within the organisation or even your private life. Stay tuned for my next article where I’ll share practical tips for reprogramming your subconscious mind to create your ideal reality.LIFE PURPOSE is the unique impact you are called to make for the benefit of others. Only then you come alive.

 “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.” -Henry Ford

All the thoughts we think and the words we speak, as well as beliefs we believe, shape our reality. If we continue to think and believe that we are not good at communicating, we will never move to a role, which requires e.g. selling and marketing skills. Our self-image and the belief we hold about ourselves will always block any opportunities that come our way for us to become experts in marketing.

Why is that?

Our self-image that is stored in your subconscious mind controls our performance. We will never be able to outperform our self-image. This is a fact! Our self-image sets the boundaries for our performance in  our life and in the lives of other people.

Three Steps How To Change Your Self Image     

1. Be honest with yourself and be clear on what you want to have, do or become in your life. There is a reason why corporations use a vision in their strategies. The vision determines the company’s direction. When you know where you’re going, you instinctively start looking for and finding the multipliers that will get you there.

Your imagination is limitless so visualize yourself as you truly wish to be. Don’t be shy, don’t be humble and definitely do not think thoughts like: …Oh, I know what I want but can’t do it; or I am not smart enough to become this kind of person.. or.. I am not good enough to get there… Nobody is perfect and we all learn and constantly acquire new skills, knowledge and competencies through our experiences – which also includes our mistakes!

Dream big; imagine whatever you want in your mind! Nobody can control your mind, unless your allow it so why not go over the top?

2. Find a pen and paper and write down a detailed description of what you want in life including the kind of person you want to be. Next, believe that you can be happy, wealthy and healthy at the same time, imagine yourself like that, and write everything you see down.

3. Continue to build this picture in your mind and get comfortable with it. Picture yourself joyful, healthy, and prosperous and notice the feeling you feel while you are imaging it. Repeat this visualization as often as you can, ideally when you are feeling relaxed. From a scientific point of view, when you put a good feeling to your new self-image you will activate new brain cells which will trigger you to consider new actions and ideas that you can carry out in your life and these will ultimately start to bring you closer to your Brand New You.

How is it going to happen? Through your desire!

Many people who use the word DESIRE tend to get it mixed up with the word ‘expecting’. The word desire comes from the Latin word DESIDERO which means to long for, to feel a very strong want for something to happen or to have something. To truly desire something you must be ready to give up something else in your life in order to get it. Let us be honest, it would not be called desire, if it was so easy to get what our heart wants.

Be patient and have faith. With your new self-image, you are on the right track. If you need help to build your new self image and get it stored in your subconscious mind, just drop me a note and I will be happy to provide more tips on mental training.

Sunny regards from beautiful Vienna, Austria.

Zuzana SchwalbW.Bennis)

What Do You Desire In Your Career?

Those who read the book or saw the movie “The Secret” will understand the power of the law of attraction and how it draws objects of desire and the people who desire them together. The law of attraction enables us to attract everything we think, believe and desire because the universe we live in wants us to be happy and wants us to receive it. We all possess the tools we need in order to achieve what we want in our lives through our pure power – our perception, will, imagination, memory, reason and intuition. All of these tools are within us, we just have to use them.

How does it relate to the law of attraction?

The law of attraction is a combination of physical & non-physical (cosmic) world. What we perceive as matter in the physical world is made out of atoms and those atoms are made out of energy. When we look through a microscope, we see that everything around us is moving – energy. As human beings, we create a higher energy through our mind since we think on frequencies. Have you ever wondered why you’ve sometimes felt a big urgency to contact somebody and when you did, you found out that this person was urgently awaiting your phone call because she needed to talk to you? This is because you felt the vibration of her thoughts, which made you make that phone call. Our thoughts create vibrations, which lead us to take actions and actions bring results.

What does it have to do with you and your career?

Well, you are what you think and you act according to your thoughts. Your thoughts are coming from two sources: a conscious mind and a subconscious mind. Our sub consciousness mind is full of beliefs we hold about ourselves which we have collected throughout our lives from our family, friends, teachers, personal experiences etc… Often, we don’t even realize what we think, speak and believe about ourselves until we consciously start being more aware of ourselves.

As a child, if you always heard that you were slow in thinking or not very smart, then it’s likely that you began to believe this to be a fact and continue to hold onto this belief about yourself. As a result, you will attract people, situations and experiences that reinforce the belief as the truth.

As a HR Professional, I am often asked about career growth: But how can I get this job? The greatest advice I can share is to have faith, believe in yourself and be open to changes and challenges. In other words, face your fear and you will get there. No doubt about it! If it excites you and scares you at the same time, then it’s the right choice.

What are the steps to move ahead and get your dream job?

1. Get to know yourself – start to notice the thoughts you regularly think and the comments and words you speak about yourself and others. Are they positive or negative? What beliefs do you hold about yourself that are not necessarily true or, are not serving you well as you work towards this dream role?
2. Make a firm decision that you really want to go after your dream job and stick to it. Expect only what YOU desire. The universe will deliver to you only what you desire, not what your family, friends or partner told you you SHOULD desire.
3. If your vibration is positive, in other words, if you ONLY think positive thoughts, you will feel good about yourself and your life and as a result, you will attract experiences and people into your life that will lead you through a path and enable you to receive what you want.
4. Have a strong belief that you will get the job, start to see yourself achieving it through your imagination – visualize it and it will happen.

This is indeed a familiar theory to those who studied positive & cognitive psychology or mental training. Or as Steve Jobs said: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever”

Enjoy the journey and believe in yourself!

Zuzana Schwalb

Source: The Secret, Rhonda Byrne 2006; Proctor Gallagher Institute

Your INTUITION is the most honest and reliable advisor you can ever have.