Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Book....It's Free!


I am (again) offering free copies of our C.E.O. Phil Geldart’s Book “In Your Hands: The Behaviors of a World Class Leader”. This offer is available to all Training and Executive functions within non – vendor companies.

I am also hoping that you will write a revue after you read the book and send it to me.

To qualify for the book please e-mail Rebekah Geldart (with the subject line Book offer from Todd) at rebekah.geldart@eaglesflight.com with the following information:

1) Name
2) Company
3) Title
4) Work Address
5) Work E-mail
6) Work Phone Number 
7) Define any opportunities you have where you would consider using Eagle's Flight

In Your Hands: The Behaviors of a World-Class Leader

Content for our leadership courses is drawn from the bookIn Your Hands: The Behaviors of a World-Class Leader, written by Phil Geldart, C.E.O., Eagle's Flight.
The format is an easy-to-read style with illustrations and quotes summarizing the content on the left-hand side, and the detail on the right hand pages. The result is a book that is of value to those at all levels of leadership.

The text is broken into nine sections, each with several smaller units. This allows the reader to go quickly to a specific topic rather than reading through the whole book in sequence. Alternatively, the book can be read from cover to cover in “bite size” units.

In Your Hands: The Behaviors of a World-Class Leaderpresents a complete package. Together, the application of all the concepts in this book will allow the reader to deal with those they lead in a manner that enables them to make the greatest contribution possible. While the material is presented in small, easily read and understood units, when taken as a whole, the book provides a reliable guide to becoming a truly world-class leader.

Topics include:
- Accelerating Performance™
- Brilliant Interpersonal Communication™
- Beyond Time Management™
- Executional Excellence™
- Producing Champions™
- Setting the Pace™
- Core Principles, Clear Priorities, Crucial Practices™
- Mastering Organizational Communication™
- Leading in Transitional Times™

Watch the video below to understand the power of this book and how to utilize it.

I look forward to connecting with you! 

Todd Mitchem


Friday, April 30, 2010


10 Things to bear in mind when maximizing the results of a training function



When one of my clients told me recently that she was the only remaining member of the company’s twenty person training department, I was at first shocked. Then I asked, “How could I help?” She asked that we prepare a list of things she needs to consider as she picks up the pieces. Below are the results that I sent her from Eagle’s Flight. Of course we at Eagle’s Flight are here to provide guidance on all these points, including providing content, but my hope is that you can utilize this information as a guide to help you.


1) Vision: Have a clear and stated line of sight between the intent of every course and delivery on the company’s plans/objectives.


2) Content: Concentrate more on participants being able to leave knowing exactly how to apply what’s taught rather than covering a lot of theoretical content.


3) Teach Less: Learn More: In each course cover off less material, and put more time into practice. This ensures participants truly understand what’s expected.


4) Inspire Accountability: Require participants to have a prior discussion with their line manager regarding an expectation of improved performance as a result of the course.


5) Build Relevance: Establish an “advisory council” of line managers as a preliminary screening group who’ll review courses for relevance and practicality before they are given.


6) Experiential Approach: Wherever possible have learning be experiential and discovery rather than “lecture and workbook.”


7) Engage Senior Leaders: Use senior managers throughout the course content, either live or on video, to provide company specific relevance.


8) Training Transfer: Build pre and post course work into all content to ensure the learning does not fade and has on the job practical relevance.


9) Integrate: Link all learning and development to other HR/OD functions such as: performance management, succession planning, career planning and high potential programs.


10) Results: Have as a test for the training functions, the following question: “Are we committed to delivering training programs or to delivering the results possible through training?”

Email me anytime with questions!
 
Todd

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Three Lessons from the Trail to your Work

Let’s Ride!


“Three lessons from the trail to your work.”

By Todd Mitchem


Buffalo, Wyoming is possibly one of the last places in America where you can still taste the simple life. When my father and I arrive, we always feel as though we have shed the deadlines and cares of the business world and become part of the Wild West; we become cowboys! Life on this working cattle ranch seems simple to an outsider, but to the ranchers who work here every day, life is a never-ending work in progress. After about twelve hours in the saddle we also remember that, while we may be paying for our one week work vacation on the trail, we have a job to do. The fifteen hundred head of cattle must be moved from the low lying ranch to the mountain pasture before the week is over. The only method of moving this many animals this far on this challenging terrain is by horseback. This is a fun time, but work to be certain.


Every year when we visit, we expect to enjoy ourselves beyond imagination, because each cattle drive is different than the last. We always expect to work with the same great people, eat the same great food and enjoy the feel of the saddle beneath us as we drive the cattle across the mountain. This time, however, I saw parallels in ranching and in life that I never expected to learn.


Lesson #1 – Flexibility - the key to your overall success


Waking up in the morning on the trail, you know that the day ahead will be a hot fast day of cattle rustling so there is a feeling of anticipation and excitement in the air. Today, your success may be determined by the way you handle your horse when a bull breaks from the herd. Your success may rest in the way you follow John’s directions; as the trail boss, he will have the final say. Things change and if you come to the Ranch with a preconceived notion or assumption of how the trip will go, you will be disappointed, but more importantly you become a liability to the crew. Everyone must be flexible if the entire crew is to reach that mountain. There is no time for your petty egoic inflexible nature. You must bend and mold to the mission at hand. These are animals after all and they have no care for your agenda. In your work the same is true. One of the classic challenges teams of people face is the lack of flexibility. How many times have you been so rigid in your “win” mentality that your judgment was clouded?


Flexibility is the key to success in the business world. As the business changes or your customers change their interests, you too must adapt. Flexibility is the key to your success!


Lesson #2 – Work smart.

“Don’t ride out ahead of the herd or you might turn them back”


This lesson was one that one of the other guest workers learned the hard way. After only a few minutes of riding, this guest was restless and decided to ride up to the front of the herd. This herd stretches over a mile and at many different points John has asked certain people to hold the line in a specific area. Your role then is to ride along on that side and make sure that cattle do not break off into the thick woods. Instead, this particular guest became restless and rode to the front yelling at the cattle the entire way. As he galloped about 20 feet ahead of the first few heifers in the front, they became nervous and promptly turned around. In an instant, hundreds of cattle were facing the opposite direction and running into the back half of the herd. Many of us, led by John, quickly rode into the middle to stop the disaster. It took some time but we finally turned them all back.


Often I see business leaders who operate this same way. They get out ahead of the customer or the company. This can intimidate the clients or colleagues which leads to the entire project or situation turning the other way. Stay focused on the Big Picture of your company and your team. Getting to know your customers or your colleagues begins with paying attention to them all of the time, even when you get restless. After all, they know the mountain better than you do and if you help them stay on the trail, you will all make it to the top of the mountain together. If you reach the top without them, you have failed.


Lesson #3 – Leadership from the middle:

“Keep your eye on the whole herd.”


As we approach the top of the trail and our final destination, I ride in the middle of the herd so that I can keep the center strong and push the front if needed. From that perspective, I am able to see the entire herd stretched out across the mountain top. As I watch John moving from the back to the front, I notice that he is strongly leading from the middle. He leads from all over because this gives him the most balanced perspective. Because of this style of leadership, he knows where the problems are going to happen before they do. When there is an issue, he is quick to respond.


The old thinking of leading from the front is gone just like the pioneer in the Old West. Your leadership strength in your business, community, family and work comes from your ability to see the entire picture and then execute based on the totality of the information available. How narrow is the view if you are only riding in the front or in the back? As I watched John lead us, I realize that we were being successful because he understood our abilities and placed us in positions where we were strongest. He then was able to let us do our work while observing the big picture. True leaders work the project from all angles.


The Ranch is an experience that changes your perspective. Out there you understand that you cannot dwell on your mistakes or you may lose cattle. The way to success is to stay flexible, lead from the middle while understanding the needs of your customer–the cows. Also remember, if you graze in the same spot for too long you will end up with a mouthful of dirt, so keep trying new things to improve yourself and your business.


By the way, if you don’t fall off the horse sometimes you are just not riding hard enough!


At Eagle’s Flight we practice what we teach. To find out more, call or email today!


This video shows how much FUN it can be to work with, or for Eagle's Flight.



Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Motivation Through Leadership


By Todd Mitchem VP Business Development and Phil Geldart CEO

What motivates us? Is it money, encouragement or power? In your company what motivates the people who work for you, with you or around you? Leadership often believes that people must “self motivate” but is that truly the best course?

A key component of leadership is the responsibility to motivate others. However, too often the leader assumes that motivation need only be done “when required,” or at previously determined times. Not so. People require frequent motivation to move towards the objective. This motivation needs to be heartfelt and the leader must be held accountable to this motivation.

As leaders provide words of encouragement, coaching or positive guidance, the individual is able to remain focused and clear about the value of their contribution. The nature of motivation is that it sustains momentum; consequently when you anticipate that momentum is lagging, it is a clear sign that motivation is in order. This takes rigor and discipline to accomplish on a daily basis and in the face of daily pressures. The necessary motivation must be at the forefront regardless of these pressures.

Given that it must be done frequently, several approaches are necessary to avoid repetition. There are five specific approaches which you can take to provide this motivation.

1. Repetition: Remind the individual often of the original objective and the important part which they play in it.

2. Celebration: Individual, group or team successes should be celebrated. It is an effective and fun way to recognize milestones and to motivate teams.

3. Compare: Consider how the individual and the team are doing compared to others, not only in your own workplace but in your marketplace and their past performance. When the comparison is made there will be opportunities to learn, grow and discover new ways of doing things.

4. Measurement: As individuals are able to track their progress and see it measured, the results can be highly motivating when success is reflected by these measures. When measurements show a shortfall, a skillful manager will draw lessons from this so that improvements can be made.

5. Validation: When possible, make others aware of the progress of your team or individuals on your team. This way, you have not only served to motivate, but also to educate those around you who depend on the team’s results for their own progress.

A strong part of motivation involves creativity. Sometimes a word or a handshake is sufficient, or occasionally a more elaborate event should be planned. The type of motivation used will vary, but the basic principle behind it remains the same: motivating others requires speaking the truth, speaking passionately and speaking with compassion. The power of motivation should never be underestimated.


Check out the video below on how FIRE kindles FIRE by our CEO Phil Geldart!


Sunday, February 7, 2010

“5 Steps to a more results focused vendor/client partnership”


Power up Partnerships


“5 Steps to a more results focused vendor/client partnership”


I had an interesting year in 2009 from personal and professional perspectives. As a new VP with Eagle’s Flight my quest was to truly become an “Eagle” in my all areas of my life. That meant reporting to the CEO, biting off a huge sales goal and attempting to navigate through a down economy. It also meant growing in amazing ways professionally while expanding my thinking around executive leadership. Oh and by the way, do this all while still living up to my email signature mantra that begins, “Father, Husband...” To say the least I was in for a ride.


Have you ever made a decision that you knew would impact every aspect of your life only to get about a month into that decision and say, “What was I thinking?” Not me. I go into things with my hair on fire and travelling at two hundred miles per-hour. I lead with instinct, gut or whatever name you have for that little voice inside you that constantly says, “GO THAT WAY!” It is a strange life, to be the one people look at with eyes of curiosity mixed with a little fear, yet it has always worked for me. Eagle’s Flight and I are a powerful combination because the programs are a little like that in the sense they make a person curious.


What drives us to truly learn as humans? Contrary to what you see in classrooms, it is not long Power Point presentations, catchy phrases or hours of a training professional lecturing us about our behavior. Ultimately the driving force in unlocking our human potential is experience. When you were a child you did not learn to ride your bike because someone spent three days with you, in a classroom, showing you elaborate presentations on the mechanics of the bicycle. You never went to seminars about how to unlock your inner rider. So how did you accomplish learning the seemingly daunting transformational skills necessary for riding a bike on your own? You just got on the darn bike and rode it. Certainly you often fell off, skinned up your knee and even crashed a time or two, but if you learned how to ride a bike you did so through experience. The transformational power of experiential learning is a container in which anything is possible around the individual’s own growth. So when I embarked on my journey in January of 2009 I came with my own sense of fearless accountability but armed with the most powerful weapon in the learning world today, experiential learning. What I experienced changed the way I work so hopefully it will help you as well.


The year was challenging no doubt. Many of my clients were loosing budgets for training in droves, many more were shifting budgets, and in several cases the sales close process seemed to drag on forever. There was a sense with every engagement from the simple one program, ten thousand dollar “Promises, Promises!” to the larger two million dollar roll out projects that it was becoming more and more difficult for companies to get a decision made about learning. Even with all of that challenge I was determined. To me there was one permeating thought I just could not get out of my head - leaders down to the front line employees needed Eagle’s Flight. Companies were desperately trying to plug the holes so as to not drown in an economic downturn tidal wave, yet they were forgetting that without people growing, learning, and unlocking fulfillment through mental expansion, ultimately the tidal wave would come from within the organization. In every meeting I would listen to the needs of my contacts but I could hear the underneath message, “Todd I agree with you, but they are not letting me spend money.” Something had to shift in this relationship if I was to assist them in educating the senior leaders about the RESULTS of training. This meant this was going to only happen if there was a total understanding that I was their partner who genuinely cared about every person in their organization. My mission then became very simple. Be a partner and leverage the engine of experiential learning to the fullest. Showing that Eagle’s Flight was without a doubt the most innovative company in this space made one part easy, proving that I was a partner….now that was the challenge.


What is a partner? Truly?


Being married for a while now and having three amazing kids I can say with certainty that a true partnership is complex. Regardless of its complex ever changing nature however, a true partnership needs one element that without it the whole partnership is doomed to failure. Transparent trust is an element my wife and I established early on. We live by it. Sometimes the day is messy with kids needs, our individual needs and the needs of all around us. There are days where we have rather challenging discussions. What we always agree on however is that we are partners fully engaged in the experience of marriage together. We share it all to keep the trust strong. In our marriage the saying is, “I appreciate all of you.” Trust then is the base of, in my mind, all client/vendor partnerships. Including Transparent Trust, here is my complete list of E.A.G.L.E partnership principles:


Engage Transparent Trust – This is the foundational base of any partnership. When interacting with clients or vendors go into it with your cards on the table. Instead of hiding facts, company relevance or the details of your needs, share them. If I am there to show you how Eagle’s Flight could help you meet the needs of your company, you must tell me the needs. If not, I will be flying around in the dark. Eagles have great eyesight, but we are not psychic. There is only good that can come from mutual and Transparent Trust. If you are not willing to build this foundation then don’t allow the initial meeting to take place.


Assumptions No More! – Instead discover each other. Most of my first meetings with partner clients are spent in discovery. After all, I need an intimate understanding of the company’s history, team, leadership, needs, and challenges if I am to innovate solutions with you. Often the vendor can feel a little like a doctor with a closet full of remedies if you, the client, would only tell the truth about the company’s medical history. The lesson here for both vendor and client is to ask questions, discover and never assume anything. I don’t want to put your leg in a cast if it’s your head that hurts.


Get Flexible – “There is nothing more flexible than water and nothing more powerful.” That flexibility is the key to success throughout business is certainly most prevalent in the partnership between vendor and client. Often, the complexity of human interactions causes us to stand our ground or not move from our point. Inflexibility is many times caused by a strong sense of ego. When your ego, or the need to be right, surpasses the need to get results in the partnership flexibility dies. When you engage the ego you are essentially Edging Greatness Out. In partnership there is no win, only desired/promised results or not. Be flexible in your approach to the other by listening and using phrases like, “yes and” instead of “I’m sorry but” As our CEO Phil Geldart often will say, “When listening to others, imagine a chalkboard in your head. When a person starts speaking to you that chalkboard is blank. As they continue to speak imagine they are writing their intent of their words on the chalkboard. Then be flexible in your response based on the intent of their words.”


Leap in for Results – Many times people just start talking. On the vendor side it is usually because they want to get their service message across quickly. The vendor then works vehemently toward an information dump. On the client side the response is more about vague concepts designed to feel standard so as to not give away the challenges of that particular organization. (See partnership rule 1) A true, vendor - client partnership is different. In this level of interaction we only respond for results considering all of the other partnership principles, related context and needs. Leaping in for results literally means that you leap in when the time is right with a passion for achieving the desired outcome. If you are on the client side it also means that as you sell your vendor into the organization do so with that same passion. Think about it this way, in every interaction both from vendor and client, you should be working to close to the next phase of the partnership. Clients can learn a great lesson here. For example, one of my clients called to download literally EVERY initiative he had for the year. Then he said, “Tell me where you see Eagle’s Flight helping here.” Now, that is Leaping in for Results based on Transparent Trust!


Engage their Passion – I call this the heart of the partnership. What is it that makes the partner tick? Do they love baseball, food, family, or work itself? Whatever the passion you as a partner must engage that passion. Get to them on their level. One of my partner clients at a multi-billion dollar organization loves to be involved in the process of developing programs. When his company was interested in using Eagle’s Flight for a roll out to all of their ten thousand employees I kept reminding him that he would be involved in the process of developing the custom content. His passion was ignited to say the least thus creating a joyous experience working with him on the project. We could all feel his passion coming out in the work. Dare I say, it made the project even more enjoyable?


When I took on the year of 2009 I did so as a Father, Husband, and VP Business Development. My incoming sales revenue topped out in the millions, I watched our youngest son walk for the first time, my daughter got her first stitches, my wife and I took our first vacation in four years, I brought someone on my team who is becoming an Eagle, and (by using the partnership principles illustrated above) my clients became something more than merely clients. Through partnership we learned to trust each other and achieved amazing results. What will 2010 hold for the economy, or business at large? I don’t follow trends or listen to the news so you won’t get that perspective from me. What I do know, is that 2010 will hold for me many more opportunities to make new partnerships, and to experience new ways to solve challenges for my existing clients using Eagle’s Flight experiential learning. The real question is - what will 2010 hold for you? I hope this article gives you some insight into what is possible. After all what companies really want are eagles not pigeons.


Go be an eagle!



By Todd Mitchem

Father, Husband, Business Development

Eagle’s Flight

www.eaglesflight.com


Todd Mitchem BIO


With over sixteen years in the, training, entertainment and learning worlds Todd Mitchem brings a unique blend of business, personality and engagement to everything he does. Todd is passionate about helping clients initiate change and solve challenges within their organizations. Successfully doing this time and time again is one of his greatest professional accomplishments.


Eagle’s Flight


Eagle’s Flight has been an innovative leader in “experiential” learning for more than twenty years. These cleverly masked business simulations have allowed clients to engage both the head and the heart of their employees. In order for these experiences to be effective, Eagle’s Flight works diligently to understand your business needs and to apply relevance to the participant learning.

The Eagle’s Flight offerings include skill-based program development, conference training events and substantial leadership initiatives. In addition, a large portion of Eagle’s Flight’s expertise is in custom program development. Within each of these business segments, the point of difference remains the same – a focus on results, driven by a unique experiential approach and brought to life by dynamic people.