Be authentic, fully kraft your passion, inspire others and celebrate your successes with zest!

Welcome to Kraft Your Success!

This blog has been created to help bring more success to your work (and personal) lives.  I’m an Executive and Professional Development Leadership Coach and I’m passionate about bringing more success to individuals, teams and organizations.

There are a few ways this site can help:

• Read (and hopefully learn from) the blog articles – post your own thoughts and experiences.
• Check out the resources, especially the reading list!  I’m an avid reader of books on all sorts of topics on the subjects of leadership, career development, management etc.  My favorites are included here.
• Learn about how Kraft Your Success can help you become more successful in your role, your work and your career – by clicking on the various offerings on the right of this blog.

To Kraft-ing your success!

Be authentic, fully kraft your passion, inspire others and celebrate your successes with zest!

In this crazy, fast-paced work environment that we’re all part of it’s hard to remember that the “how’ of getting something done can be just as important as the “what”.  We are, after all, human beings not human doings.

But the doing takes over doesn’t it?  We rush around trying to get it all done.  We schedule, reschedule, check email, send email and go from meeting to meeting.  At the end of the day, we look at our to-do list and wonder:  What did I get done today?

I’m posing that there’s another important question and that is:  How did I get it done?  or How was I BEING while in the midst of it?

We are actually brilliant creatures, not machines.  We have ideas, emotions, insight, intution – all that contribute to who we are and what we’re contributing to our work in the world.  As knowledge workers, which most of us are, we get paid to think.  Not to simply create results – or worse yet automatic results.   In order to be more effective and create great work, we need to take the time to be aware of  the impact that we want to make first and make conscious decisions from there.  In his book, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, Tony Schwartz talks about our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual energy as equally important in success.  Often the piece we do not talk about as it relates to the workplace is the part on the inside – the inner world that we come from.  Yet it all begins there  - with self awareness.   “Self awareness – the capacity for objective self observation – is a way for leaders to recognize their limitations, fuel their humility and make choices reflectively rather than reactively. Cultivating an inner life also makes it possible to grapple with what they believe in and stand for, and make decisions from the inside out, rather than expediently, to drive the next quarter’s earnings” says Tony Schwartz.

One of the easiest ways to not lose sight of how we’re nagivating our work days is to ask yourself this question:  What impact do you want to make?  If we pause and reflect, take a step back and think about it, it can easily impact your next move….the “how” you want to move forward.

Next time you’re in a challenging situation or you have a fantastic opportunity in front of you,  as yourself not only “What will I do next”?  but equally as important “How do I want to BE as it’s occurring”?

The recent WSJ.com article “More Workers Start to Quit” states that “in February the number of employees voluntarily quitting surpassed the number being fired or discharged for the first time since October 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

The article also indicates that the number of employees quitting could continue to grow in the coming months.   Apparently, people were waiting to see more jobs show up as possibilities before they made a move.  Makes sense.  In fact, 60% of workers said they intended to leave their jobs when the market got better – according to Right Management 2009.

The question is – why are they leaving their jobs?  Sometimes money or life choice is a factor, but more often than not it’s due to their lack of engagement.  Most studies suggest that less than 25% of employees are engaged in their work.

Since my work as an executive and career coach is very tied to creating work that brings you passion and fulfillment, many people I meet share their lack of happiness and engagement at the office.  It’s rare to find someone who’s thrilled with their work/role and is surrounded by a team or organization that feels the same way.  Another thing I notice is that then the conversation often leads to the statement “and no one seems to care or be doing anything about it”.

While that may be true depending on your organization, this is also an opportunity for you to take action yourself. “More Workers Start to Quit” ends the article by stating that if most people found another opportunity, “More than 57% of the 1,273 surveyed said nothing could persuade them to stay”.  But isn’t it too late at that point?  If they’re looking, they’ve probably been unhappy.

Why let it get to that point for yourself or others? What can you start doing today?

I hate to be a bit cliche but isn’t it a also about the journey and not just the destination.   As the workforce continues to change rapidly and the average amount of time an employee is at a given firm continues to decrease,  shouldn’t we look at the bright side and be asking ourselves “what can I be doing to engage myself and my team right here and right now?”  If we have  limited time to work with or manage someone, why not focus on what we can do right now to make it the best experience possible?  It’s our choice to act.

Happy and engaged people stay at companies longer and make better employees.  Overall they are more productive, more creative and ultimately contribute to more profitable gains.  Managers have a big impact on the well-being and engagement of their team members.  On an organizational level, positive cultures have been linked to retention and reducing turnover costs.  So happiness ultimately contributes to success.

What’s just one thing that you can try tomorrow to create more engagement in your work or the work of others?

Earlier this week I spent 3 days at Adtech – the largest digital advertising conference. One of the keynotes I found most interesting was Kristi VandenBosch, CEO of Publicis, who spoke about how the hyper-competitive advertising industry should learn to collaborate – especially between digital and “traditional” agencies.  I was particularly struck by this quote: “For agencies these days, true leadership means the ability not to lead, to do what you do brilliantly and surround yourself with people that do other things more brilliantly than you do”.

I believe that this also applies directly to our own personal leadership.  If we do what we do brilliantly and naturally doesn’t success usually follow?  If we put our great talents to work and focus on what we do best,  don’t other brilliant folks show up to work with us?  Is it that simple?

I believe it can be.

We all have our own personal brand.  It is critical that we’re clear on our own strengths, talents and what differentiates us. As Seth Godin talks about in his book “Linchpin”, we need to make ourselves indispensable in order to succeed. And how do we do that?  In the current state of the global workforce, most of us are paid to think. Becoming indispensable means coming up with novel ideas and taking risks to implement then.

As I spoke about in my adtech session on “Maximizing and Managing Time”, 50% of all workers these days do creative work. What does it mean to be creative? Webster says to create means to:  ”make or bring into existence something new”. And it also means pulling together information in a novel way. Novelty gets attention. Attention is an opportunity to give people a reason to differentiate you and your talents from others.  Isn’t that a big step toward being indispensable?

The lines continue to get blurred in the advertising industry as well as many others.  But I pose the following:  Instead of fearing what could happen or trying to frantically get ahead of the curve, why not embrace it?  This could be an opportunity to stand out.  If people are crystal clear about who you are, how you think and what you create, does it really matter how the organizational or industry lines get blurred?   You’ll be the one of the folks standing out amidst the fog surrounded by other brilliant thinkers.

What can you do today to differentiate who you are?

Here’s the scene:

A full day workshop with 40 generation y’rs in the advertising industry in Fort Worth Texas.  We have been hired to provide training on the topics of Improving your Productivity and Supervision/Team Coaching.  My co-leader, Eve,  and I have built what we believe to be a fantastic day of learning, fun and training.  It includes a great balance of information (lecture), interactions, exercises and … well I was finally persuaded to incorporate a short body movement/dancing exercise.   Both of us being German (she more so than me as she has just moved here from Dusseldorf vs my father who was born in Germany), we believe that this heritage will counteract any “touchy-feely”,  California “woo woo” potential reaction during our day.

Yet, in our possession, we have the follow:  a glass jar, a bag of sand, 75 rocks and a Balinese gong.   The rocks, sand and jar for an exercise and the gong to keep time during the day.  This made for very interesting conversation while being searched in airport security.

We round the corner into old historic Fort Worth and I continue to explain to the cab driver that this can’t possibly be where we’re going.   What we see is indeed historic.  A preserved ranch town with what appear to be real cowboys, hats, boots…..saloon. etc.  Outloud Eve says “here come the Californians with a  hippy dippy balinese gong”.  I simply think  - we’re going to get slaughtered by the young Texans.

And in reality, what happened?  Well here are a few things:

• In an exercise on creating agreements and an alliance in a team scenario, one of the team’s mission is a “Nap Room”.  It include new age music, incense, candles, various aromatic spices, a nice zen-like atmosphere and a place where people could meditate and or do yoga.
• The HR Director was open about wanting to steal our Balinese gong.
• A few entered the room late when we were doing the body movement/dancing exercise and quickly exclaimed “Awesome!  I love this stuff”.

It  was a huge hit.  So what’s the learning here?   Well, lots for me.

I ponder at how easily and quickly we put people into boxes.  Often subconsciously.  And often it’s to try and understand.  Yes, it’s great to anticipate what an audience will be receptive to.  That’s just smart.  But when we anticipate what people might do based on our assumptions about them, we may create unnecessary limitations on the impact we could have.  We may be putting up an unnecessary obstacle.

And what was the feedback?  Well, overall great!  And each person had their own unique takeaway, their own likes and dislikes.  Of course!  We are unique individuals.

What a great reminder to stay open to what is instead of what could be.  And to remember that as much as we are demographically, psychographically, socio-economically, or in this case regionally etc part of a certain group, we are much more than that.  We are unique individuals.

To my dear Texas friends – thank y’all for the great reminder .

P.S.  Only 2 people didn’t enjoy the dancing.

In the last 2 posts we focused on completing 2009 and bringing the new learning to 2010.  Now it’s time to apply it!

Step Three:  Imagine ahead to December 2010

Write a list of your Wins, Gains, and Breakthroughs for 2010.  This part is very important:  Be specific and write them as if they have already happened.

For example,

I have increased my income by x%.

I developed better relationships with my team and retention is 100%.

I landed the dream job I’ve been wanting and feel like I’m making a difference.

I have at least one award-winning idea.

Now, take it a step further.  Double and spice up each of your goals.  If your goal is to increase your income by 30%, make it 60%.  If your goal is to land your dream job, then land it AND work 10% fewer hours in 2010.  Yes, goals need to be specific and also realistic .

However, when I challenge my clients to increase their goals in this exercise, often at least two things happen:

First, they start connecting to a much bigger picture about what’s important.  It’s not just about the 60% increase in income, but what possibilities that opens up for them.   (In a previous post I talk about the re-occuring themes that we all seem to want more of in our jobs, but tend to push aside for the smaller and shorter term goals. These themes are:  ideation/creativity, relationships, meaning – and will be addressed in future articles).

Second, they suddenly become aware of how plausible these new goals can be.  After all, the whole point of setting goals is to focus on consciously and intentionally creating goals instead of letting it just happen.  Why not make them the most exciting, riveting, intoxicating and dreamy as you can imagine?

Next, create SMART goals. You know the drill.  Specific, measurable etc.  but expand them to fit what’s really in your business context and will work for you.  Should “measurable” really be “meaningful”?  Measurement is important – how else will you know you achieved it?  But find something that works for you.

Ask yourself:  What’s one dream you have in 2010 that seems almost too good to be true?  And what would you do if you achieved it?  Then start creating goals to achieve it.

In my last article, we discussed “closing out” 2009 by reflecting on the year. This is a great first step.  But equally as important is the learning that comes from it and what you do with it.  These are the next critical steps to building more success.

Step 2:  Identify lessons learned in 2009.

List 6-8 lessons learned that you want to carry into 2010.

For example,

• “I learned that I work best when I star t my day earlier.”
• “I learned that I’m more productive if I schedule most meetings in the morning.”
• “I learned to take more risks”.

This exercise locks in the learning from this past year and helps to set the intention for the next.

Make a commitment to reflect on these lessons on a regular basis.  Post them or have them close to your desk.  The more you remember what you learned, the more you won’t repeat the same mistakes and will reach your goals more quickly.

Ask yourself:  What are your key lessons learned that you want to carry forward? What’s your plan to make that happen?

More to come on building success in 2010.

In my last article I discussed the importance of getting beyond information overload,  juggling to-do lists and managing email 24/7 , and instead beginning to identify what’s most important to you in your role, work and career. As we begin the new year,  it’s a great time to get clear on just that:

• What’s most important to you as a leader in your organization (or role)?
• If you could only do one thing to bring more success to your work/career in 2010, what would that be?
• What do you want to be spending more time on?

How great does it feel to start a new year with fresh ideas and new goals?  Personally, I love the sense of possibility and excitement that a new year brings.  But in order to successfully produce what we want in the future and fully intend to commit to our goals.  As leaders and executives, it’s as important to reflect on the past. Learn from it, accept it, close it, celebrate it.  Do whatever it takes to “complete” 2009 in order to create more space for what you want next.

Step 1:  Reflect on 2009.

1)   List all of your Wins, Gains and Breakthroughs.

2)   List all of your Losses, Disappointment and Breakdowns.

Now, are any of these past events still consuming you as you try and move forward?  Was there a promotion you were vying for that didn’t happen that’s creating negative energy?  Did you close fewer deals than you’d hoped and feel a sense of disappointment? For any of the above that need closure, take the time to do what’s necessary to make that happen.  Accept it, acknowledge it, or do what it takes to complete it now.  Whatever you do, don’t beat yourself up.  It’s time to move on.

Ask yourself:  What are you willing to let go of in order to achieve more success in 2010?

More to come on how to gain more success in 2010.

I had the great honor of speaking to a group of senior advertising agency media executives at the iMedia Summit last week. The presentation was entitled:  ”Maximizing your brain and energy at work.”.  The engagement and feedback around this topic was incredible.  No surprise, because we’re always trying to find ways to be smarter and more effective with how we spend our time at work (and in life).   But what struck me most was how many people talked honestly and humbly about how they’ve lost connection to what’s important in their work – simply because they have no time.

While we can’t find time, we can make time for what’s important.  Yet our days are  focused on managing information – email, meetings, juggling tasks.    In my research on the topic of managing time, I found that on average we will spend 10 years of our life on email. Worse yet, studies show that our IQ drops 10 points when we multi-task.  And when we multi-task it makes us less productive. Seems like a lot of time to allocate to something that’s making us less intelligent and less productive.

When I coach my clients on how to become more successful in the work that they do, time is almost always a topic.  So I ask this question:  ”If time was no issue, what would do more of at work?”.  The answers seem to fall into 4 areas:  Strategy, Ideation/Creativity, Relationships, Meaning.  Do any of these resonate with you?  I bet they do.  And interestingly enough as I began this blog article, I came across a Harvard Business Review article entitled “What Matters Most?”. It’s an excellent synopsis of one-word answers to what’s important from key thought leaders around the word.  Ah….proof again that we are all looking for the some of the same things. They list words like meaning, autonomy, compassion, generosity, ease…. and 65 others.  As a wise coach friend once said, “At the end of the day, we all just want to make a difference.  And we hope that someone notices”.

As the end of the year fast approaches, take the time to think about what’s really important to you in 2010. What do you want to be spending more time on?  What difference do you want to make?

Then focus your energy there, remind yourself daily, and notice the difference!

The next few articles will focus on the concept of time.  Please come back for more or forward to others.

TOM FIELD: Hi, this is Tom Field, Editorial Director with Information Security Media Group. We are talking today with Heidi Kraft, a leadership and career coach and founder of Kraft Your Success Coaching and Consulting. Heidi, thanks so much for joining me to talk about this today.

HEIDI KRAFT: Thank you, Tom, for having me. It is great to be here.

FIELD: So I have read your blog, I have looked at your site; you talk a lot about the softer side of leadership. Help define this for us, what are the soft skills in leadership?

KRAFT: Well, the softer skills ironically are the ones that are a little bit more difficult to define. So when you think about hard skills, it is easy to say that some one is great in math or they are a really great project manager, or they are increasing sales by “x.” The softer skills are the things like sympathy, could be confidence even. You know, you hear this term “being a people person,” so they are not necessarily things that people can measure as easily, but they are things that are really, really critical for leadership.

FIELD: So Heidi, particularly in financial services where we spend a lot of time, it has been a hard year and hard skills really have been talked about. Tell us why the softer skills are so important now of all times?

KRAFT: Wow, perfect question. I actually think about this in a couple of ways. In what you are pointing to in terms of what is happening now is a leadership challenge, right? So I think about this as how leadership has changed and the need that is necessary in order to have a new kind of leadership. If you think in the past about what it has been like, which is really the sort of hierarchal approach telling people what to do as opposed to working with people. I really believe that there is a shift that is happening right now, and that people need to be more collaborative, they need to be more innovative, and they really need to be focused on developing that rapport. Let’s face it, we all love working with people that like us and we like, right? So there is something that is really important about it. Even if you think of President Obama, which whether or not you agree with his politics, people are describing him as calm and open and empathetic and yet commanding. So if you think about that kind of energy, and those are things that are usually not easy to measure, but you sure know it when you feel it. That is one reason. And the other piece I think about is just how we are so pressed for time, sort of this information overload with instant message and email and twitter and facebook and all of those things that are going on, we are working 24/7. What tends to be happening is that that human connection is missing more, and so I think there is a real opportunity for leaders, in any discipline, to really take that as an opportunity to do some things differently. When I think about some of the ways that I work with my clients, I would challenge them. For example, five times a day when you are typically going to send an instant message or an email, do something as simple as picking up the phone or have that communication face to face. .

FIELD: So Heidi, I want to ask you a question from a couple of different perspectives here. First, from management’s perspective, how do you make these softer skills valued in an organization that maybe had valued the harder skills predominately?

KRAFT: Well you know that is a great question, too, because part of this, like I said, is that softer skills are harder to quantify. I am not sure, are you familiar with the term emotional intelligence?

FIELD: Sure.

KRAFT: Okay great. So that is a term that a lot of times is used synonymously with interpersonal skills. What we know is that typically top performers, 90 percent of the top performers, are usually high in emotional intelligence versus just 20 percent of low performers. So just from that standpoint, from a management standpoint, who wouldn’t want the person with emotional intelligence because they are going to be climbing up the ranks much more quickly and being more successful for that organization?

And another thing to quantify for an organization is retention. Obviously this is an important measurement, and we also know the implications of organizations that are constantly losing people and the cost to rehire and to retrain and a lot of times — again this is from the same study I was looking at today interestingly enough — that has to do with the leadership and interpersonal skills. There was just a study that said, 68 percent indicated that it’s the lack of interpersonal skills and leadership skills that are actually having people quit their job; that they are reporting to individuals that just don’t know how to develop that rapport.

So it has a huge impact on an organization, and I would imagine if you asked somebody to actually do an assessment of what the cost for that retention is, that that would be a pretty impactful reason to take a look at that and employ these sorts of programs.

FIELD: Let’s flip this around now Heidi. Let’s say that I am an emotionally intelligent person, which of course I am. I am in a company where the management doesn’t embrace these skills. How does someone from the staff’s perspective try to steer management in this direction, toward the softer side of leadership?

KRAFT: Well, it is tricky, there is no doubt. I loved what you said that when you are coming from a place of being emotionally intelligent, and you already have that skills, and emotional intelligence starts with self awareness, that is the first step, self awareness. And the next step is what do you do with that, which is self management. And then there is this other piece, which is about social awareness and then relationship management.

But if we come back to that first critical step, if you are not aware, then you are not necessarily going to be making a change. So you, as someone who is aware, you have to have the ability to influence the organization because you know how to be emotionally intelligent. So again, one of the greatest things you can do is just model it. People, again, start to notice when people are doing something different. They can’t quite put their finger on it, but they can feel that they are doing something different.

So one way is to model it, and the other thing is to point out great skills. A lot of times when you are in a meeting and you can really see someone successful in a conversation, maybe it is a sales pitch, and you might just pull them off to the side afterwards and say ‘How are you actually able to do that?’ Do that around someone who might be a peer or a manager who could have influence. Part of it again is pointing out really, really great examples so that they can see it. Another idea is to just find allies. Management “as a group” is a pretty broad term. There has got to be somebody on a management team that really gets this and that would embrace it and be willing to bring in, whether it be a program or coaching or speakers here and there or a mentoring program, whatever it could be to bring that into an organization. It just takes one person as a key influencer to make something like that happen.

FIELD: Now Heidi, particularly in information security organizations, which we deal with, you have got people who are focused on their academic education, or professional technical training. For these folks, what do they need to do to start focusing on developing these softer skills?

KRAFT: Well, again, this can apply to any industry, and I mentioned this piece of self-awareness and I really, really strongly believe that it is the starting point. I mean, part of it is to start with assessing your own skills. So there actually are some different online resources that can be used. There is a website called talentsmart.com, I believe, they actually do a quick test there you can take, and there is a book that you can buy, and I think it’s like $20 bucks or something. You can get a sense of how strong you are in this area.

But the biggest piece I notice in getting started is you have got to have the reason and the motivation to change, right? So a lot of times we have got to be in some sort of, I hate to use the word pain, but it’s reality. Something happens in order for you to say ‘I really have got to make a change.’ So whether you are being bypassed for a promotion, or you are being told you need to develop more rapport, you are getting feedback in your reviews, something has got you to this point. So having that motivation is really critical.

And then one of the things that I really suggest is to find ways to try out different behaviors and practice it in a way that is safe. So this can sound of funny, right? Because we are trying different behaviors, and that can make us feel really awkward and vulnerable, but it might just be to find someone that does what you want to be doing well, and learn from them. Ask them what they are doing that is helping them be so successful. And then ask them if they would actually help you and give you feedback after you try that. So, as a coach I am just a big believer in numbers and having commitments, and so some of the things I do with clients, for example, is just ask for three positive and three areas of encouragement after every meeting, and be transparent about the things that you are learning because I believe that people really are willing to support you if they know what you are working on.

FIELD: So Heidi, if we could boil this all down to a piece of advice, let me ask you this. If you have got someone who wants to start developing their own, or their organization’s, softer leadership skills, what should they do? Where should they start?

KRAFT: So I think again that goes back to the point of 1), start by assessing your own skills. It is a great starting point and, the other is to get — I am repeating a little bit of what I just said a moment ago — but really it is to get feedback from others and find a way to find some allies or people who are going to support you in this. And then just practice.

One of the things that I think helps a lot in terms of that self-awareness piece is to just notice what your tendencies typically are and, again, since this is about change and learning, it is to try to take the time to learn something different.

So just to give a quick example again, if you are meeting and you are the kind of person who when things get really heated your instinct is to jump in and be abrupt or get louder and yell — we all know people like that right? It might be something where the next time you feel that urge, and again that could be that you might feel tense or you might feel sort of shaky or sweaty or whatever that physical reaction is, it is a clue so try something different. Sit back and see what happens if you don’t speak, or just pause and reflect, and that is part of that, again taking that change and starting to develop those kinds of skills. So I like to think of it as: It is baby steps.

FIELD: Heidi, that is great insight. I appreciate your time and your thoughts today.

KRAFT: Thank you very much. Glad to be here, Tom; appreciate it.

FIELD: We have been talking about the softer side of leadership, and we have been talking with Heidi Kraft, Leadership and Career Coach and Founder of Kraft Your Success Coaching and Consulting. For Information Security Media Group I’m Tom Field. Thank you very much.

Are we becoming less accountable? How often do you own your part?

I do my best thinking when I run. And I do my best running when I think – especially about things that get me charged up! I run faster.

Today I ran fast.

A friend recently sent me a book that someone was writing about online dating. After 50 pages of ranting on about how tortured he was by the dating process, insulting his dates, and trying to contain his anger in a book disguised as a helpful tool to those new to online dating, I couldn’t stand to read one more page. The negative, defensive energy exhausted me.

What charged me up about this? His overall energy was blame. He blamed the online sites for how they operate. He blamed the dating process in general. He blamed men for not understanding women and women for not understanding men. Blame, blame, blame!

I kept waiting for the part in the book where he had an “ah-ha moment” – when he woke up or discovered something new about himself. Something! Anything! My friend warned me there would be no Hollywood ending. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see him walk off into the sunset with his shiny new love after the end of his rant nor was I expecting to learn about how his new awakening sent him on a pilgrimage to India for the next year. But geeze….in 125 pages, not one moment of self reflection.

And as my fingers type this right now, I’m struck by how I’m also blaming him. I’m blaming him for what his book didn’t do for me and I’m blaming him for not looking at himself. Ha! Caught!

So what’s the lesson here? For me it was to ponder this. How often am I really accountable for my own actions or for my impact? What’s the impact that we want to make on others and the world and are we willing to look at ourselves in the process? As leaders in organizations, how often do we blame others – our clients, our employees, the system etc without owning our part?

These are often the questions that I ask my clients when I coach them to become more successful in the impact that they want to have. Self-awareness is the first step in being a great leader in your life.

So this is why this book charged me up: his lack of and accountability. And perhaps my ability to be blind to my own.

That’s humbling. And that’s probably worth another run.

What are your thoughts?