Best Corporate Apology Ever…
Yesterday I received a letter from the lovely people at my favourite website – I Want One Of Those.
I ordered a lot of my Christmas shopping from the site, as I have done for some years. This year, they did two big new things – they opened up the site to US residents and became a hot ticket there as well as in the UK; and they advertised on television for the first time.
Their ads were fun and drew the crowds – probably far more then they were expecting. I don’t believe they were ready for it. Normally, iWoot service is the best I’ve ever experienced. No sooner have you finished the order with a final click, than a courier’s tapping you on the shoulder with your delivery. This Christmas was not normal.
Continues…
Article on Firewalking in Ithaca Times
Ithaca man teaches firewalking for empowerment
7/14/2010
Joseph Murtagh
Reporter
That human beings could walk barefoot across hot coals would seem to defy common sense, but for Tony Simons, a certified firewalk instructor who regularly holds workshops on firewalking, it is a way to break down psychological barriers and bring out people’s inner strengths.
“Firewalking can be extremely transformative for people,” said Simons. “It can really change your life.”
A typical firewalk workshop starts off with Simons giving some empowerment exercises that are designed to help participants conquer their fear. One such exercise, Simons said, involves writing down bad habits on a board, such as laziness or procrastination, and then breaking the board in two. It’s all in line with the overall purpose of the fire walk, which Simons said is to raise people’s courage.
“This isn’t so much about giving you courage, as helping you realize the courage you already have,” said Simons. “Firewalking helps people overcome their fear and self-doubt. And later in life, when you’re overcoming other challenges, you can think, ‘I can do this, because I walked through fire.’”
story continues:http://www.ithaca.com/family_and_health/article_577f8533-f14a-5d6c-bf3c-8eeda473a73e.html
Winning through integrity
Personal Leadership Coach, Sharon Worsley, on how important integrity is to winning. Well said, Sharon!
What people think integrity means…
What We are Learning about Behavioral Integrity
I just assembled nine papers, by various teams of scholars, to propose they be presented at this summer’s annual Academy of Management conference in Montreal. That conference is the biggest academic conference for management and organizational behavior each year. Around 10,000 business school professors, and a few consultants, converge on a few hotels in one city each August. The program is as thick as a phone book. About one in three submissions get accepted for presentation. I assembled sets of papers on behavioral integrity in 2006, 2008, and 2009. All were accepted. This year I had enough papers to propose two sessions. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
People are asking very cool questions about how behavioral integrity works. One team of scholars is exploring how leaders’ behavioral integrity affects employee innovation in response to extra job demands. Another looks at behavioral integrity as a buffer that softens people’s responses to their leaders’ violations of values at (get this) a megachurch. Another team, of which I am a part, is measuring behavioral integrity as a driver of patient and staff safety at hospitals in the US and Europe. Someone else has run an experiment to check whether behavioral integrity still increases trust when the promised behavior is bad. Those papers, coupled with my team’s brief review of everything we know so far makes up one session. This stuff is really relevant!
The second session looks at what drives behavioral integrity – as well as its consequences. A sharp student is looking at political skill as a factor that makes it easier for leaders to communicate in a way that conveys integrity. Another team is looking at transparency as a driver. A third looks at Chinese managers’ sense that their company supports them as a driver of their behavioral integrity, which in turn drives both their subordinates’ performance and their own. The last paper in that second set looks at behavioral integrity, transparency and trust in work teams.
I know that is a whirlwind tour. I just scratched the surface in describing these projects, and these projects just scratch the surface of the incredibly rich challenge that is integrity. But I just wanted to share my excitement about the wonderful questions that scholars are asking about behavioral integrity and how it works. We are learning!!
The Firewalk of Integrity
I have just completed my firewalk instructor certification course with the Firewalk Institute of Research and Education (F.I.R.E., get it?). It was a mind-boggling experience is no many ways. I learned some WONDERFUL new training tools for empowerment — and, as side benefits, I felt massively empowered myself by doing all these exercises. Oh, and I also joined a new family that welcomed my integrity work and totally got how integrity is a firewalk. Wow, could I possibly have hoped for more?
I first did a firewalk three or so years ago, as the first evening of a three-day goal-setting retreat. What a thing! First the firewalk convinces you that you can do anything, and then you spend a few days setting up a BHAG (“big hairy audacious goal”– a Jim Collins expression) that you can live your life into. That was when I decided to become a thought leader by 2014. Anyway, the firewalk was outrageously empowering and deep, had that effect on everyone present, and nobody at all got hurt! So, now I am trained and certified to share that experience with others.
I see myself offering simple firewalks — stripped down, they pack a whole lot of personal transformation into a single evening. I also see myself doing integrity dividend firewalks, both as one-evening events and also as part of longer integrity dividend programs.
How, you might ask, is integrity a firewalk? Let’s start with the fact that integrity is sometimes terrifying. It can mean confronting the messes you have created, telling people things they do not want to hear, admitting vulnerabilities, changing comfortable habits, holding yourself accountable, holding others accountable, others holding you accountable… A lot of scary stuff. Fear is by no means the only thing that keeps people back from integrity — there is also greed and sloth and a few other of the deadly sins. (Come to think of it, why isn’t fear one of the deadly sins? Perhaps it should be. It has certainly caused people to do some horrible things.) Anyhow, fear is something that holds many people back from going for fuller integrity. So now, with use of the firewalk and some other exercises, I help people conquer their fear.
I am thrilled to be able to offer that gift to people.
Special Issue on Leader Integrity
Hey, folks–
My google alerts just told me that I was being cited on the web, and I found a whole issue of the International Journal of Leadership Studies dedicated to this critical topic. Have not read all the articles yet, but they look promising. I know some of these guys. Nice work!
http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/ijls/new/home.htm
Be the Guy
My friend and colleague Kevin Basik has been involved in leadership training for Air Force at the Air Force Academy, The Citadel, and nationally for Air Force ROTC. When he teaches, he tells the following wonderful story. _________________________________________
I was a young lieutenant in the Air Force in San Antonio, playing a rare round of golf with my father in law, when we got paired up with another two-some. The other gentlemen were Ed, a successful computer consultant from the San Antonio area with a thick Boston accent, and his friend, “Snake” (honestly), a Marine Corps officer, visiting from out of town.
During the round, my father-in-law and I learned to truly like and appreciate both Snake and Ed, and could see why they had been successful in their respective careers. We occasionally swapped seats in our carts and chatted with Ed and Snake. Over the course of the 4-hour round, we learned that Ed had also been in the Air Force – originally enlisted, got out, earned his bachelor’s degree, and then served 4 years as an officer. I could tell that Ed appreciated this Air Force bond we had, and he really took me under his wing during our round. With 18 holes complete, both Snake and my father-in-law had to leave, but Ed and I stuck around for a beer or two in the clubhouse. Thinking that I would be getting out of the Air Force in a couple years, I was interested in getting mentored by a very successful executive – and one I could relate to personally.
Why Codes of Conduct are Horrible… And Necessary
The last thing a busy, effective, results-driven executive wants is a new book of rules, to be strictly followed and enforced. Especially if that book of rules is long and detailed. Who has time to read it, much less consult it? And that goes double if that book of rules forbids practices that seem like the only way to get things done in the countries where you operate. Bribes. Gifts. Finders fees. Playing by immaculate rules is well and good for the home office, where local laws make for a relatively even playing field. But forbidding practices that are widespread in places where you do business means tying your hands… and perhaps not being as effective as you could be. Not getting quite as many contracts. Not making your numbers. Not excelling. Is it any wonder that most codes of conduct are met with fear and foot-dragging? “Please do not ask me to do a very hard job with my hands tied.” You cannot blame managers who want to remain as effective as they can be.
Dilbert Highlights a Classic
Do I really need to add anything to this?
