Dean’s Progress Challenge is being Published 2/4/10 – Advanced Copies available here.

Ponder & Progress:  Progress or Change?

“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

– C.S. Lewis 

1.  What transitions are most significant in the world?

2.  What transitions do you see in your professional life?

3.  What transitions are shaping your personal life?

4.  How can you focus on daily progress?

5.  What “next big thing” means progress for you?

6.  What “next big thing” would not be progress for you?

7.  What are you striving for?

8.  What’s next?  Why?

9.  What does progress mean to you? 

10. Which parts of your life are progressing and which are merely changing?  

Be Progress.

PART ONE LINK   PART TWO LINK

 A Couple of endorsements for Dean Lindsay’s The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change

“Everyone has a purpose in life. Nobody is here by chance.  Focusing on the positive and self motivating drivers will move you down the road of progress to realize your true purpose.  Reading The Progress Challenge will help direct you down the correct road.”
– Scott O’Grady
Former USAF Fighter Pilor
Bosnian War Survivor

 “Part Drucker, part Dyer, part Dilbert — The Progress Challenge is an entertaining and practical guide on how to achieve success in business and follow your bliss.”
– Janet Gellici
CEO, American Coal Council

Copies of The Progress Challenge available here.

For Bulk purchase discounts call: 214-457-5656

Contact Dean Lindsay about your next event.

10 Ponder & Progress Questions from The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change by Dean Lindsay.

Dean’s Progress Challenge is being Published 2/4/10 – Advanced Copies available here.

Ponder & Progress:  Progress or Change?

“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

– C.S. Lewis 

1.  What transitions are most significant in the world?

2.  What transitions do you see in your professional life?

3.  What transitions are shaping your personal life?

4.  How can you focus on daily progress?

5.  What “next big thing” means progress for you?

6.  What “next big thing” would not be progress for you?

7.  What are you striving for?

8.  What’s next?  Why?

9.  What does progress mean to you? 

10. Which parts of your life are progressing and which are merely changing?  

Be Progress.

PART ONE LINK   PART TWO LINK

 A Couple of endorsements for Dean Lindsay’s The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change

“Everyone has a purpose in life. Nobody is here by chance.  Focusing on the positive and self motivating drivers will move you down the road of progress to realize your true purpose.  Reading The Progress Challenge will help direct you down the correct road.”
– Scott O’Grady
Former USAF Fighter Pilor
Bosnian War Survivor

 “Part Drucker, part Dyer, part Dilbert — The Progress Challenge is an entertaining and practical guide on how to achieve success in business and follow your bliss.”
– Janet Gellici
CEO, American Coal Council

Copies of The Progress Challenge available here.

For Bulk purchase discounts call: 214-457-5656

Contact Dean Lindsay about your next event.

PART ONE LINK                                                      PART THREE LINK

Insight from The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change by Dean Lindsay, the Find Progress in Change Speaker

Dean’s Progress Challenge is being Published 2/4/10 – Advanced Copies available here.

When a new opportunity comes our way, we internalize it, and size it up as Progress or Change.  This new opportunity could be starting a new relationship, buying an electronic gadget, working extra hours on a project, getting up to speed on a new product line, working to meet quota, anything.  All progress is change, but not all change is progress.   

Let’s say I have an upset stomach. “Man, I’ve got a stomachache.  Ouch!  My stomach is killing me.  This has got to change.”

Somebody hears me, walks over, and punches me in the nose.  Is that change?  Yeah, it’s change.  But it’s not progress.  Well, maybe to the person who punched me, but not to me.

What may seem like progress (good) to one person or group of people may seem like change (bad) to another. Propaganda, book burning, even war and murder are all thought of as “progress” at some point in the minds of the perpetrators (scary).  Because progress is subjective, there is no single factor that clearly determines whether an event represents progress or change. 

However, we can say that we:

• Start businesses to progress, not change 

• Hire employees to progress, not change

• Work on teams to progress, not change

• Make the tough choices and the tough phone calls to progress, not change

• Keep our cool when dealing with belligerent customers to progress, not change

• Cross the road to progress, not change

• Answer the phone to progress, not change

• Spend our hard-earned money to progress, not change. (We would rather keep our change than change, but will offer our best to progress.)

• Diet and exercise to progress, not change

As we age we realize that slowing change can be progress.  Think of the forty-year-old swimmer who manages to equal her performance from five years before. Maintenance is progress in that it avoids change for the worse. 

We do not want life-changing products, services, experiences, ideas, and opportunities. We want life-progressing products, services, experiences, ideas and opportunities.We should be careful not to mistake mere change for progress.  Just because something is new or flashy does not mean it is right or adds meaning to our lives.  And as my friend and fellow author Shama Hyder says, we do live in a “next big thing” world.  However, because all progress is change, people who claim to be 100% “resistant to (any) change” are often choosing to be resistant to the possibility of progress.

CHANGE & PROGRESS Questions to Ponder in Next Post.

Be Progress.

PART ONE LINK                                                         PART THREE LINK

 Three endorsements for Dean Lindsay’s The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change

“The Progress Challenge is a much needed kick in the pants for all of us. Dean Lindsay’s witty words and questions will wake up your sleeping intentions and challenge you to move forward with purpose in your life. What an enlightening book!”
– Ken Blanchard,
coauthor of The One Minute Manager®
and Leading at a Higher Level
 
“The Progress Challenge is an excellent guide to both personal and professional success.  The book helps the reader understand that change is inevitable, yet progress is a choice.  In Lindsay’s words…”be progress”.”
– Jim Keyes
CEO, Blockbuster

“If you desire to become a better leader, I recommend you add Dean Lindsay’s The Progress Challenge to your leadership toolkit.  I especially liked the insight into the life and work of Viktor Frankl as well as Dean’s use of humor throughout the book – a valuable and enjoyable read.  The Progress Challenge is an honorable challenge that anyone aiming to make a positive difference should take.”
– Ramon F. Baez
Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Kimberly-Clark Corporation

Copies of The Progress Challenge available here.

For Bulk purchase discounts call: 214-457-5656

Contact Dean Lindsay about your next event.

Insight from The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change by Dean Lindsay, the Find Progress in Change Speaker

Dean’s Progress Challenge is being Published 2/4/10 – Advanced Copies available here.

“It is not strange … to mistake change for progress.”

– Millard Fillmore (13th U.S. President)

( Click here for Part Two.)

Change happens. We can’t avoid change.

• New technologies are created.

• Markets bear and bull.

• Companies merge.

• Organizations come together.

• Children are born.

• Rain falls. Tides turn. Lives evolve.

We are always in some form of transition, always arriving at some new place and dealing with new rollouts, new ideas, new everything. The very molecules inside the cells of our bodies are in constant flux. Our world and our lives are always changing, but they are not always progressing. It is natural to resist what we view as change. However, we embrace what we view as progress.

Progress means: forward movement, advance, gradual betterment. It takes awareness, character, discipline, and effort to progress.

Change is inevitable, Progress is a choice.

The word progress carries a forward thrust and focus, a vibrant and transcendent quality that the words change and even success don’t deliver. With every success comes the desire for more success.

When we reach a goal, our natural ambitiousness tells us that the goal is also the stepping stone to the next, possibly more rewarding and worthwhile, goal. Therefore, every success establishes a new norm, and brings with it the question: What next?

The road to success is always under construction. We are always striving for something. (I will share that the something I am referring to is not a person, place, or thing, but rather a feeling. A mixture of six feelings, to be exact, but we will deal with that soon enough.) Continual striving can become quite unpleasant and unhealthy if we do not take time to soak in the positive buzz – feelings – from our forward momentum.

When we focus on daily progress, we are able to feel daily satisfaction. With every forward step, we see more clearly, our confidence grows, our position improves, and our options multiply. We progress toward today’s goal on the strength of our past progress. Once achieved, today’s goal becomes tomorrow’s launching pad.

“Out of every fruition of success, no matter what, comes forth something to make a new effort necessary.” 

– Walt Whitman

Click here for Part Two.

Be Progress.

Quick shout out to Alex Pope

 If he were among us today, eighteenth-century English poet Alexander Pope would likely be one popular guy on Facebook. It was he who wrote the lofty words, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Pope is said to be the third most frequently quoted writer in the English language, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.

Alexander may not be on Facebook, but I am, and would be happy to add you as a friend.

Friend me at: www.facebook.com/DeanLindsay2468

I am on Twitter too: www.Twitter.com/DeanLindsay

 Three endorsements for Dean Lindsay’s The Progress Challenge: Working and Winning in a World of Change

“Finally a meaningful book with a workable process for progress.”
– Gerhard Gschwandtner
Founder and Publisher
Selling Power Magazine

“Stop the management fads and the ‘program of the month.’  In The Progress Challenge, Dean Lindsay captures the issues and presents real, relevant, actionable solutions to the challenge of driving continual progress in business and life.” 
– Tim McRay
Leadership and Diversity
Mercedes-Benz Financial

“The Progress Challenge should be mandatory reading.  In a time of economic slowdown, innovation and new approaches become even more important. Dean Lindsay gets it absolutely right and if we could all follow his advice the global business world would be a better place.  Dean is an inspiration for any business leader whether in the USA or in Europe – a true Progress Agent.”
– Birger Husted (Prague, Czech Republic)
Partner, UniqueConsult

Copies of The Progress Challenge available here.

For Bulk purchase discounts call: 214-457-5656

Contact Dean Lindsay about your next event.

Funny Business Leadership Speaker, Sales Training

Dean Lindsay, Author of The Progress Challenge, on Progress vs Change

Follow him at: www.Twitter.com/DeanLindsay

Endorsements for The Progress Challenge : Working and Winning in a World of Change

“Finally a meaningful book with a workable process for progress.”
– Gerhard Gschwandtner
Founder and Publisher
Selling Power Magazine

“The Progress Challenge is a much needed kick in the pants for all of us. Dean Lindsay’s witty words and questions will wake up your sleeping intentions and challenge you to move forward with purpose in your life. What an enlightening book!”
– Ken Blanchard,
coauthor of The One Minute Manager®
and Leading at a Higher Level
 
“The Progress Challenge is an excellent guide to both personal and professional success.  The book helps the reader understand that change is inevitable, yet progress is a choice.  In Lindsay’s words…”be progress”.
– Jim Keyes
CEO, Blockbuster

“If you desire to become a better leader, I recommend you add Dean Lindsay’s The Progress Challenge to your leadership toolkit.  I especially liked the insight into the life and work of Viktor Frankl as well as Dean’s use of humor throughout the book – a valuable and enjoyable read.  The Progress Challenge is an honorable challenge that anyone aiming to make a positive difference should take.”
– Ramon F. Baez
Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Kimberly-Clark Corporation

“The Progress Challenge is a fun to read book crammed full of thought-provoking, practical and motivating take-aways.  With the 6 P’s of Progress, Dean gives us all the incredible opportunity to be purposeful in creating progress, not just change, in our lives and work.”
– Julie Weber
Senior Director, People
Southwest Airlines Co.

Be Progress.

Funny business leadership speaker video, Dean Lindsay

Unfortunately, a tremendous amount of human energy is used unproductively in talking past or “at” each other. We often fail to make a real connection with someone because we have a set of behavioral preferences that do not mesh with those of the person on the other side of our bifocals.

Progress agents can utilize a keen awareness of individual behavioral differences and, without being chameleons, modify their own preferences to make favorable impressions .

Even though we are all unique, most people do fit into a certain style or predictable pattern of behavior. People with similar styles tend to exhibit specific types of behavior common to that style. Such patterns of behavior influence how people prefer to communicate and interact.

“Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We need to strive to understand and embrace these different behavioral styles. This makes us better able to interact with other folks, even those who appear to be very different and sometimes hard to understand. When we identify the behavioral differences in ourselves and others, we can adapt our style to create a comfortable environment for the person we are speaking with.

A solid understanding of the DISC behavioral model is useful. DISC assessments measures observable behavior and emotions. The development of the DISC model is based on the work of American psychologist Dr. William Marston, an expert in behavioral styles.

In 1926, Marston published The Emotions of Normal People, in which he grouped people along two lines: either active or passive tendencies relative to their favorable or unfavorable view of the environment and their relationship to that environment.

Say what? Here is a view the DISC Behavioral Model from 30,000 feet:

Some people are Reserved and some are Outgoing. One type is not better than the other.

Some people are People-Oriented and some are Task-Oriented. One type is not better than the other.

Each of us is a unique blend of: Reserved or Outgoing, mixed with the quality of being People-Focused or Task-Focused.

Marston’s DISC research showed how behavioral characteristics may be grouped into four fundamental styles (D.I.S.C.):
Dominance
Influence
Steadiness
Conscientiousness

D – Dominance

These are the Task-Oriented, Outgoing Types.

These folks are direct, demanding, determined, and decisive. They are confident, competitive, take-action doers.
They will likely ask WHAT questions more than HOW questions.

Some famous dominant behavior types are:
Donald Trump, Margaret Thatcher, Henry Ford, General Patton, Mark Cuban, Barbara Walters, Vince Lombardi.

To deliver a solid first impression to D-types:
Be concise and direct. These people need prestige, authority, and control.

I – Influence

These are the People-Oriented, Outgoing Types.

These folks are interactive, inspirational, impressive, and interested in people. They are friendly, outgoing, emotional “talkers.”
They will likely ask WHO questions more than WHY questions.

Some famous influential behavior types are:
Oprah Winfrey, Will Farrell, Bill Cosby, Sally Field (You like me. You really like me!), George Lopez, Bill Clinton, Wayne Brady.

To deliver a solid first impression to I-types:
Skip the details, socialize, and show excitement.
These people need recognition, acceptance, and to be heard.

S – Steadiness

These are the Reserved, People-Oriented Types.
These folks are stable, sensitive, and supportive. They are loyal, dependable, and good listeners. They will likely ask HOW questions more than WHAT questions.

Some famous steady behavior types are:
Mister Rogers, Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, Florence Nightingale, Mahatma Gandhi, Tonto (The Lone Ranger’s faithful Indian companion).

To deliver a solid first impression to S-types:
Be reassuring and take it slow. These people need security, appreciation , and time to decide if there should be a relationship.

C – Conscientiousness

These are the Reserved, Task-Oriented Types.

These folks are competent, careful, calculating, contemplative, and cautious. They are analytical, detailed, and do not show emotions readily. They will likely ask WHY questions more than WHO questions.

Some famous conscientious behavior types are:
Emily Post, Tom Landry, Isaac Newton, Columbo (OK, not a real dude, but you get the point), Johann Sebastian Bach, Michelangelo, Sherlock Holmes (again, not a real guy).

To deliver a solid first impression to C-types:
Be prepared and structured. These people need facts and are committed to quality.
Of course, all typologies are approximations. People display varying amounts of these four dimensions rather than just one. However, understanding the four different behavioral styles makes us better able to make positive impressions, even with those who we see as “different” or hard to understand. Being sensitive to these differences creates a relaxed environment where people want to move the relationship forward and offer their best.

Recognize and respect individual nuances, make adjustments, use good judgment, and adapt. Learning and incorporating the DISC model of behavior is valuable for increasing trust and keeping communication open.

In my work with individuals and within organizations, I have had the opportunity to research and utilize several useful educational tools based on the DISC behavioral model. Feel free to contact me for further information.

A few interesting side notes:
Much later in his life, Dr. Marston created “Wonder Woman” while serving as an educational consultant for DC Comics. Authoring the Wonder Woman comic, Marston used a pen name: Charles Moulton.

The desire to understand the reasons for our diverse behavior has been an age-old preoccupation. The explanations of the ancients were interesting:

Empedocles (444 B.C.), the founder of a school of medicine in Sicily, believed that everything is made of earth, air, fire, and water. These external elements combine in an infinite number of ways, thus explaining the diversity of behavior.

In 400 B.C. the Greek physician Hippocrates came to the conclusion that it is not external factors that shape behavior. He disagreed with many of his day who believed human behavior was determined by being born under a certain astrological configuration of planets. Hippocrates theorized that it was something that takes place “inside” the individual.

Hippocrates believed that if people had a fast, hot fluid running inside their body, they would be direct, decisive, and a leadership-type person. If one had a fluid that was warm and slow, that person would be family- and relationship-oriented.

Even though Hippocrates’ ‘blood theory’ didn’t hold much water, it was the first substantial method for identifying and grouping types of human behavior.

In fact, those who have analyzed the effects of turnover say that as much as 80 percent of its cost is hidden. It is estimated that the average cost to refill an upper management and executives post is 1.5 times the annual salary of the job. Turnover is a fact of corporate life — just ask any HR professional. While turnover can’t be stopped, it can be reduced by identifying and addressing its many possible causes. Unfortunately, employers often don’t even know that their employees are dissatisfied until they receive their resignation notices.

In many cases, employees leave because the job is not living up to their work expectations. Work expectations are those things people consider likely to happen in their job situation, either now or in the future. We create these expectations from a combination of our past work experience, age, gender, personal goals, race and a variety of other factors. Our expectations about work have a powerful impact on our behaviors and play a key role in driving our attitudes.

Typically, certain expectations — such as job duties, salary, and work hours — are clearly understood by all parties in an employment situation. However other expectations are closely linked to an individual’s concept of work and often times go unacknowledged. Examples of these include: personal recognition, self expression and job stability.

In assisting clients in uncovering employees’ work expectations, we were introduced to a commendable tool. Managing Work Expectations – Transforming Attitudes is a unique and highly interactive self assessment created by Inscape Publishing. It is designed to help people uncover and explore their work expectations in a variety of employment situations including:

* working on a team
* transitioning to a new position
* experiencing organizational restructuring
* creating meaningful performance reviews
* making the most of daily routine

Understand that the key concept is personal accountability — even adjusting one’s unrealistic work expectations when necessary — not getting the organization to meet everyone’s expectations. I am so impressed with this tool, that I am beginning to add it to our Big Phat Goals business program. It assists us in supporting clients in managing their employees’ expectations before they become job hindering issues.

Individuals with realistic, well-communicated, clearly defined expectations find more satisfaction and have a greater commitment to their work than people whose expectations go unspoken or unrealized. Organizations that retain and develop satisfied, committed people reap the benefits of higher productivity and reduced turnover. Plus, studies show that where there is low employee turnover, there is low customer turnover. But then, what else would you expect?