By Ken Ingram, MQA President, The Achievement Centre Montreal & Ottawa www.TACresults.com
When it comes to flying faster than your competitors, one of the most innovative people we all know is Santa Claus. It is believed that the weight of his sled has an estimated aircraft taxi ramp of 353,430 tons excluding the weight of reindeers and has the agility of a subsonic aircraft that is capable of vertical short takeoffs and landings. It is further believed that Santa is capable of flying through the air at 650 miles per second when his sled reaches cruising altitude. This equates to an incredible 3000 times faster than the speed of sound. The results is the ability to circle the globe through each time zones and the assistance of earth rotation within thirty one hours. Santa has talented and innovative employees that carry out his every wish, clients who love him and everything he does for them, and a superior robust manufacturing capability that is error free. Santa’s capability makes him the envy of all manufacturing, distribution and service industries. When you think about it he really has no competition because he does it so well that no one would dare try to compete with him. Oh and did I mention that he also only needs to work one day a year?
Now imagine for a moment that you and your management team could achieve similar results and conditions in your business. Well maybe not the ability to fly 3000 times faster than the speed of sound but the rest of his unique talented and innovative leadership abilities. When you think about it every manager and business owner over the last 11 months leading up to December has had multiple challenges to confront. Everything from staff reductions, budget cuts, succession plans and even employees unwilling to change. Without doubt it has been a tough 2015, but now put yourself in the shoes of Santa Claus and your business in the North Pole and apply the same challenges and be thankful that reviewing reindeer and elves resumes was not one of the problems that you needed to deal with this year.
Santa Claus is remarkable because he is passionate about people and business, but without his strong leadership skills where would he be? Without the capacity to innovate and inspire his team, he could certainly not achieve many of his yearly challenges. So take the time to dream, close your eyes and imagine what would be different if in your business all your employees and customers loved you in the same way. Imagine you could bring everyone and everything together to complete your one day mission. If Santa Claus can do it under the most extreme conditions, the North Pole, then perhaps you can do it as well, since Quebec is a lot warmer at least most of the time.
Santa holds a stressful position but and it is his responsibility as the leader of his organization to manage his stress and to help others manage theirs. To reduce stress he needed to develop a results centred leadership style in order to engage and motivate his team of elves every step of the way. In doing so he created the right conditions to enable each person to be accountable for the design and manufacture of trillions of toys.
As a master project manager, Santa has had to fine-tune his business by taking into account the multiple milestones that are critical for an effective overall operating philosophy. So he took the time to analyze the current position of the business and then created a basic road map of where he wanted to be the future. Then worked with his team to develop both short and long-term goals and succession plans in order to fly above local, regional and global competition.
Concerning his own personal productivity and use of time, he mastered his ability not to become distracted and diverted from what is really important in order to achieve each of his goals and objectives. The key to feeling in control is to focus on what is essential rather than what is pressing. He has learned how to be active rather than reactive and this enables him to stay jolly and more importantly, consistent.
Of course, The Achievement Center Montreal and Ottawa cannot take credit for Santa’s personal and professional development; because it was Mrs. Claus who took the time to learn about our ideas and shared them with Santa. So if you would like to get things done in your business and workshop all year long then we suggest that you look for ways to tap into your under used potential because it will be an amazing gift for you and your team in 2016. On behalf of our Montreal and Ottawa team we wish you all the best in 2016. Do you have the audacity like Santa to be the master of your destiny?