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Autumn 2005 Newsletter (Newsletter Archives)     Download Adobe Acrobat Version

Update From Eileen

The Rites of September:

A new school.
Graduation.
A new school.
Graduation again.
A new school. The pattern continues.

It starts in kindergarten with five year olds wearing paper mortar boards. It moves through the excitement of middle school, the angst of junior high, the pressure of high school, and the bravado of college. And still it continues. Most of us discover that adult life requires more learning, graduation to the next level, new learning, graduation. The pattern continues.

Some years, September holds an almost catalytic prompt for me to seek what is the NEW. I must learn and graduate to another level. Yahooooooooooooo!

And other times, I don't WANT to learn. Can't I just stay put for awhile? Keep the routine, the known, the patterned, the dependable. Oh noooooooooooooo!

This September, McDargh Communications is straddling the "oh no" and the "yahoo".

(1) Our web site requires vast overhaul. Oh nooo! The new design and navigation shall be ready soon. Yahooo!

(2) My current preview video STILL doesn't come close to capturing the true results and energy of my work. Oh nooo! A new preview video should be completed before the end of this quarter. Yahooo!

(3) Bonnie Jo Davis, my right hand administrator of 10 years-the maven of article placement, marketing packets, newsletter mailings, and all things web- wants to spread her wings in other directions. Oh nooo!! Double oh nooo!! I'm going to need to learn how to streamline my business, understand more technology, and rethink what adds true value. Yahoo! (Ok, I admit-a tentative yahoo. It's so much easier to just stay put.)

Time to walk the talk. In my work, I encourage personal development and self-leadership in charting one's course. Bonnie is more than ready to graduate this coming November. I just hope I'm as fast a learner as she is.

Ever learning,

Energize Your Workforce With a Family-Friendly Setting

Although salary continues to be an important aspect of job selection, support for working parents is also a key issue when professionals choose a new job or decide to stay at their current job.

Family-friendly companies must have six traits to make Working Mother magazine's list of the "Best Companies for Working Mothers." The first trait is an established philosophy concerning balance between work and home, and the second trait is the existence of flex time and other alternative working arrangements. The third trait involves available child-care options for employees, and another trait is the availability of adoption assistance, paternity leave, and sabbaticals. The fifth trait involves women in executive and managerial positions and the final trait is the existence of work/life balance training for employees.

I can attest to the last trait. Benefits do not equal balance because most of us have never been trained how to examine the different facets of our life and make wise choices. More and more I am being asked to keynote or present in-house programs on balance. The issue is a growing concern around the globe!

Must Read Books

The World Café: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter by Juanita Brown with David Isaacs (2005, Berrett Koehler, ISBN 1576752585)

Tired of same-old meetings? Wish that you could truly have conversations that actually resulted in bringing people and ideas together. meaningful ideas and meaningful results? This is a book of case studies that demonstrate the various ways a world café conversation works. Connection is at the core of what I do and conversation is the key. This book offers a look at high level conversations-the place where, one day, we'd all like to be.

Get Unstuck & Get Going.On The Stuff That Matters is a dynamic self-coaching tool from Michael Bungay Stanier and available only at http://www.boxofcrayons.biz/cmd.php?af=305895. Although I have never recommended anything I haven't read or used, this came with amazing testimonials from people whom I respect. I didn't want you to wait until my next newsletter to order it. Use it individually, in your teams, or for coaching clients. It combines 125,000 different ways to get unstuck with the Action Acceleration Sheet, a powerful and efficient self- coaching process.

Must Watch Movies

March Of The Penguins. If there was ever a lesson in team work, responsibility, tenacity, and determination, it is found in this fascinating documentary on the life of the Emperor Penguins of the Antarctic. The human species has it easy compared to the male of this bird kingdom. For a sequel, I want the film of the intrepid photographers who filmed this sucker!

Workers Average Only 3 Productive Days A Week

A global survey undertaken by Microsoft states that workers average only three productive days per week! The Microsoft Office Personal Productivity Challenge (PPC), which drew responses from more than 38,000 people in 200 countries, rated workers' individual productivity based on their responses to 18 statements about work-related practices.

Unclear objectives, lack of team communication and ineffective meetings are among the top time wasters that workers around the world say make them feel unproductive for as much as a third of their workweek on average, according to results of the online survey.

How productive is your organization?

New Products Available

Surviving and Thriving with Difficult People—4-CD set is now available through our online store.

Happy Workers... Happy Stock

Sirota Consulting tracked the stock prices of 28 companies that had monitored their employee morale during the past four years. Companies with a "high morale" saw stock prices increase more than five times those of the half dozen "low morale" companies. The stock performance of high-morale companies bested the industry average by 16 percent versus 6 percent.

High morale companies are hallmarked by fair treatment and a send of achievement in their work, pride in their employer and productive relationships with other workers. Employees who work for companies where one of these factors is missing are three times less enthusiastic and less productive. (David Batstone, http://www.rightreality.com)

Welcome to the McDargh Clan

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