August 10, 2016
When all the big business stuff is said and done – missions and vision statements written, strategies and systems set, values and cultures established – our long term success really comes down to this: the effectiveness with which we manage ourselves.
“The better we manage ourselves, the better we, the people around us and, ultimately, our businesses, will do,” said Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of Zingerman’s and author of the book Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading, Part 3: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Managing Ourselves.
On Aug. 31, two trainers from Zingerman’s training business, ZingTrain, will travel to Flint to provide some key tips and techniques to managing yourself more effectively. In the meantime, the ZingTrain duo – Ann Lofgren and Timo Anderson – has shared a few of those techniques below.
1. Ask for help!
Many folks, especially small business owners and leaders believe that asking for help is a sign of weakness. Change that belief. Seek help – effectively – from the people around you: peers, employees, bosses, from books, training programs, counselors and mentors. Communicating our vulnerability helps make us real, improves our energy and increases the odds of getting ourselves and our group to greatness.
2. Be willing to embrace the uncomfortable.
Effective self-management often means going where we’re reluctant to go. It’s about learning to discern the difference between the places we resist going because they’re dangerous and destructive, and those we shy away from out of discomfort – because we think they won’t go well, or because we won’t be good at them. If you consciously and constructively confront the latter, you will most likely be in a zone of active learning and on the path to greatness.
3. Write a Vision.
Just like a vision gives your business a clear focus, a personal vision will help put you on track to your ideal future. “All the self-management tips feel really useful to me, but the one that resonates with me the most is the one about writing a vision for the future you seek,” Anderson said. “It changed the way I live. In fact, my wife and I wrote a vision together and it literally changed where we were living within a matter of months!”
“Managing Ourselves: Leading the Life We Want to Lead” is scheduled from 8 a.m. to noon Aug. 31 at the Mott Foundation Building, at 519 S. Saginaw St.
The cost to attend is $40 per person. To register, click here.