Business Opportunities in G8 G20 Northern Ontario

There are great business opportunities in G8 G20 Northern Ontario.

While you are here doing your pre G8 or G20 prep work, be sure to consider Muskoka and north into all of Northern Ontario as a potential place to do business or set up a facility.

Northern Ontario has a stable and educated workforce right across the region. These are people who know how to work and have the smarts to do it. You'll not find better anywhere in the world.

Cities like Sudbury, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Thunder Bay are larger areas with significant infrastructure. But small towns and villages form the backbone of the north and should be considered for business. These are really tremendous locations with solid people. Mindemoya, Gravenhurst, Parry Sound, Espanola ... Huntsville itself where the actual Summit is located.

All this to say ... if you are considering setting up shop in Canada, this vast area of Northern Ontario is a superb place to do business.

4 Ways Leaders can Create a Motivating Work Environment

Women in Business crafted an article titled, Motivating Staff Without Money: Four Budget-Free Ways to Move Forward.  The article outlines four ways leaders can create a motivating work environment. Taking advantage of them don't cost a lot of money, but they aren't designed to be cheap. They are designed to be effective in developing people and improving business.

Perceptively they note that,  contrary to popular perception, your job as a manager is not to motivate your staff. Motivation is internal. Instead, you are responsible for creating an environment in which people can motivate themselves.

Perhaps one of their suggestions will be of benefit to you or spawn a new approach unique to your organization. I quote and have adapted from their original article.


Operate in an Atmosphere of Open Communication - More companies adhere to the philosophy of minimal communication rather than "open book" management. In other words, senior management often assumes that the less employees know, the better.

This doesn't make for a motivating environment. A few simple suggestions:

• Research your organization and its competition on an Internet. Get that competitive blood flowing. Have them improve the public presentation of your company.


• Get listed in Who's Who in Finance and Industry or Ward's Business Directory. Seeing your name lets you know you matter and are a contributor.

Yes, it is simple, but build on it.

Recognize People with Potential - Nothing says confidence and trust like putting someone in a position of leadership with the ability to make decisions.

• Placing future leaders into management development roles. This is not only good for the individual but for the long term success of the company.


• Give your employees more responsibility to test their leadership skill. Some will rise to the challenge. Others may not. But you will be developing capacity all the while.
  

Respect and recognition are two proven ways to retain employees.


Support External Training Workshops - People are much more inclined to feel like they're making a positive contribution to your organization if they're in a learning curve.  Challenge them to challenge themselves.

• Training organizations offer countless one-and two-day offsite workshops. The cost is minimal. Two or three seminars per employee per year may add very little to your overhead budget and allow employees a one-day "sabbatical" to reflect on their careers as well as to reinvent themselves in light of your company's changing needs.
  

There may be a very good return on investment from providing relevant, practical workshop opportunities. I would suggest having some accountability attached to it. Develop a method whereby the employee provides feedback after the workshop on how the learning will be best integrated into their day to day work or translated into department, team or company practice.

Welcome Opinion -  By empowering people, you telling them that they matter to you and your business. By listening to them, they may even have some good ideas about how to make things smoother or more profitable.

Listen to employees. Listening to people may not always be easy, but it can be very beneficial. And when those gems appear that empower the individual and strengthen the organization, you will understand that the effort put into inviting comment and listening to it was more than worth it.

Muskoka Also Hosts 2010 G20 Summit

In addition to hosting the 2010 G8 Summit, Muskoka, Canada will now host the G20 as well. The leaders of 20 nations will visit this area to meet and discuss the important issues of the day. Right in my back yard ...

I mention this because of the positive need for good open doors of communication. Sure, there can be arguments made about optics and politics and all talk, no action and all that goes along with that, but the truth is there are a number of leaders and their team members meeting and talking with each other over the space of several days.

If you can't talk with each other, little is achieved.

Where there is a venue to discuss similarities and differences, national and international needs, hopes and desires, everyone's understanding and appreciation of each other can be raised.

Good relationships are invaluable. But they must be worked at. They take investments of time and energy and as often as possible, proximity.

Where the Summit (or any other meeting) is designed to achieve real goals in an effective manner, good things can be accomplished.

So, leaders, officials, representatives, civil society groups ... welcome to Muskoka as you do your prep work for next summer's Summit. Let's make it one where participants truly are civil, where real goals are aimed for and achieved, where relationships are established and deepened and where ordinary people are the focus and beneficiaries of your consultations.

To benefit from working with an Executive Coach who lives in the Muskoka area where the G8 and G20 will be held, please call. 705.687.2711.

Executive Boldness, Unlocking Leadership Paralysis

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there seems to be a general dearth of executive boldness. No, I don't mean there are a lack of executives out there. Generally ... the people are there. The boldness is not.

Some leaders are wired to be bold, but they are hamstrung by politics and procrastination.

To unlock leadership paralysis and avoid mediocrity requires a different way of thinking ... thinking that isn't occupied with looking over its shoulder and watching its backside wondering what people will think and whether or not it's 'correct' or good for your own future.

Executive boldness puts others at the center. It sees possibilities and a better future and goes for it. Boldness puts itself out there ... on the line, going for what is best.

Five Starting Points

1. Make your own decision - Don't be double minded, tossed here and there by every opinion expressed. Listen carefully. Do your analysis. Decide and stick to your decision.


2. Be willing to fail forward - Great achievements have been built on the learning experiences of failure. No leader has made significant gains without having first felt the sting of failure. But what they did different than most was embrace that failure as a stepping stone to the future. They got up and kept going.


3. Don't analyze it to death - There is a time for everything, including moving forward. Some things can stay so long in the thinking stage that they simply die there. Or the time for them passes. Or interest is lost. Or the original vision blurred and put on the back burner. You get the idea. Once you have the essentials, act.


4. Stand out and stand up for something - If it's an idea worth being out in the world, take a stand for it. Don't be mamby pamby. Stand up and be counted. Cast your vision to any who will listen. As articulately as possible make your point in writing, in person and anywhere it will advance your idea.


5. Live above the level of mediocrity - Hum drum leadership abounds. Never, never settle for less than your absolute best. Aim for excellence in all you do. If it's really that good, then you have products and initiatives in your head that need to be translated into reality. Ride the wave of excitement in giving life and leadership your best shot.

If we are going to unlock leadership paralysis and practice executive boldness in corporate, government, business or nonprofit, it will have to start with you and me. Now go out and find a Coach and talk about your next (or first) big bold move.

The Problem with Professional Development for Executives

There is a problem with professional development with executives. Much of it is learned by the seat of their pants.

Growing professionally will happen in three ways:

1. The Individual Takes Charge - A self motivated leader steps up and develops their own executive learning and development plan. They take responsibility and exercise the discipline to see it through.


2. The Organization Mandates Growth - There is a clear path of expected growth and development generally tied to the desired outcomes of the organization.


3. The Individual Learns by the Seat of Their Pants - The leader does what needs doing, is generally swamped by responsibilities and projects. They pick up what they can when they need it. Learning occurs by dealing with fires and scrambling to assemble what's needed for daily leadership.

Obviously the first two are more desirable. They will most surely be supplemented by the reality of number three. The vital questions are:

• Have you taken the initiative to develop your own learning and development plan?


• Have you as an organization understood and invested in the real growth of your people?


• Do you need to change something before your pants catch fire?

Everyone benefits from leaders and executives who are deliberate about growing and improving on the contribution they make.

Leadership Mediocrity

Don't let your leadership be remembered for mediocrity. Step out. Attempt great things. Take the 'risks' that can lead to a  significant difference in people's lives.

I don't know what you lead, but this is your hour. This is your chance to make a difference. You may be in government. You may run a business, small or large. You may be a corporate leader. Perhaps you work in the community, struggling for dollars to advance your cause. Regardless, do what you do with passion and skill.

Significant causes, projects and programs need men and women who will reach for excellence in all that they do. They need individuals who are not afraid to test their limits and perhaps even fail in the attempt ... men and women who believe that what they are doing is worth doing with everything they've got.

People follow those who know where they are going. They listen to those who have a cause. They hear passion and purpose.

You will be remembered. The question is for what.