Why the proposed change? Task Forces can:
• provide greater opportunities for more volunteers to serve in leadership roles.
• attract volunteers who are especially interested in one project that has a finite time frame.
• assure that too many ambitious projects didn’t land in too few time-starved committees.
• create a more effective way for Council leadership to keep track of each project’s status.

Judging from the detailed and enthusiastic progress reports that Task Force leaders presented at the Council’s February 2012 meeting in DC, this restructuring experiment is a success.

The California Society of Association Executives added great graphics to Tom Pierce’s feature article “Emotional Intelligence – The Leadership Antidote to De-motivation,” published in CalSAE’s September-October 2011 issue of The Executive.  Check it out in our Resource Library www.coachpierce.com/about/resource-library

Here are tips from the article on strengthening leadership skills to inspire motivation:

1. Work on one skill at a time, such empathy.

2. As your empathy increases, your Social Awareness will improve.

3. As your Social Awareness increases, you’ll enhance your overall emotional intelligence.

During the past 15 years, Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has been gaining international acceptance as a key driver of individual and team workplace performance. Tom will fast-forward through the basics of EQ playing clips from hit movies. Then attendees will explore how, by increasing Emotional Intelligence, they’ll ignite excellence in association leadership, internal team-building, and external relationship-building.

The two-day GR School will convene June 22 at ASAE’s headquarters at 1575 Eye Street in DC.

We’ll explore the fundamentals of EQ: self-awareness and self-management, and then focus on the two higher-level EQ skills: social awareness and relationship management.

Tom will contribute interactive exercises, relevant clips from current movies, and humor to jump-start learning.

Kevin will demonstrate how to use (and how not to use) emotional-intelligence skills when you’re meeting with elected representatives for critical-issue dialogue.

You will gain a new respect for the psychology that powers relationship-building, not only in the government relations arena, but in every aspect of your life. For more information on ASAE’s GR School, go to http://www.asaecenter.org/Education/EventDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=56904

Good thing that none of the crowd waiting for the train seemed to need help, because there was none in sight.

Then I spotted an early-thirties woman who might need help. She was blind. She had a jet-black companion dog. An airport employee was escorting her toward the train stop. Turned inward, none of the may-I-help-you trio noticed the woman until the employee got close enough to interrupt the yellow chatter. “Would you help her when the train comes?”

I watched, wondering what would happen when Obligation vanquishes Oblivion. Is it possible, even though your job is to help travelers, that a blind person could be seen as an interruption in your day?

One of the young men sprang into action. Well, sort of. Yellow Shirt’s version of a helpful greeting to the blind woman was simply, “It’s here!” The train stopped. The doors opened. Yellow Shirt walked onto the train with the woman and her dog. I followed, still watching and wondering. Then Yellow Shirt gave his version of goodbye: “Yours is the very next stop!” He whirled and left the train, leaving the woman and her dog to figure out what will happen after The Very Next Stop.

I sprung into the kind of action my dad taught me decades ago, before I became an early-twenty-something.

“Hello. My name’s Tom.”
“Hi, Tom. I’m Bianca.”
“Who’s your friend?”
“She’s Macy.”
“She’s really beautiful. How long have you two been together?
“Three years.”
“Beautiful. Hey, I’m headed to Terminal B, too. What’s your gate number?”
“I’m not sure yet. I’m going to San Francisco.”
“I love San Francisco. I worked there for five years in the 70’s. Bianca, I’d be happy to check the departure board for you, if you’d like.”
“Thanks. That would be great. San Francisco’s my home.”

Bianca and Macy and I got off at The Very Next Stop. We had to make a quick left turn leading to a short escalator leading to a short walk leading to another turn leading to a longer walk leading to a long escalator leading to a flight status board. I checked Bianca’s flight and walked the couple to their gate.

While I was serving as conductor, announcing in advance to Bianca (and Macy) each twist and turn in our route, I was thinking about Yellow Shirt. How well would he have done had I blindfolded him and abandoned him on the Aero Train with one clue: “Yours is the very next stop!” I would have tied his blindfold tight. Very tight.

So…of the cast of characters in this true story, who do you think should be labeled the most “visually impaired”? Not to mention “empathy-impaired” and “responsibility-impaired.”

The lesson from this true story? There are many. I’ll suggest one and you can post others:

What’s your true story these days? Are you spending most of your time turning inward, either to yourself or to your same-old-same-old buddies? think about turning more of your time and attention outward.

There’s a lot to see.

I’d been looking for limes in all the wrong places, focused on future gin and tonics, not on Saturday morning small-talk with strangers. But I responded to the young grocery clerk, who was busy extracting old asparagus from a bin to make way for a new crop. But not too busy to engage a customer.

“Yes, it is starting to heat up.” Not wanting to sound like I was slamming the door on the conversation, I added, “I played golf at 7 this morning and it was nice and cool. Then about 10, when the sun burned through, it started warming up.” I felt certain that this searing insight fulfilled my spoken end of the unspoken politeness bargain, and I waited for the obligatory “Have a nice day.” I was wrong.

He observed, “Our weather is nothing like the heat wave they’ve had in the East, huh?” When I made the fortunate mistake of explaining that I was visiting from the East, my revelation triggered the following revelation:

“Oh, then welcome here! You know, a lot of Easterners are scared of earthquakes. But what if you are playing golf and your golf ball lands this far from the hole.” He dropped a few asparagus spears back into the bin and spread his hands about a foot apart in the classic fish-that-got-away position. “Then an earthquake comes along and shakes the ground and your golf ball goes in the hole! Hey, it’s nature. You can’t fight it. You win!”

Ever since Asparagus Boy dropped what he was doing to make a human connection with someone he’d never met, I’ve been thinking less about The Big One than about The Big Hole-in-One. All it took to transform my shopping experience, and maybe my own attitude, was a little small talk and a Big Idea. What a joy it is to shop in a small town where employees understand old-fashioned friendliness. The town? Los Angeles.

The lesson? There are many. I’ll suggest one and you can post others:

Are you spending your workdays culling stale asparagus, or are you taking time out to cultivate a fresh attitude?

Those two reactions look alike. I was thinking this morning how vastly different they are. Today, we launched the new Pierce Management Development site at www.coachpierce.com. Reflecting on the past six months, I realized that a website is not a necktie. It’s not one “thing” that you either like or you dislike. Well, if a website is not a necktie, then what is it?

Our new site—and every website, rusty or shiny—represents a whirlwind of the rational, the emotional, and the irrational. Concepts advanced and rejected and, occasionally, advanced again and accepted. Mini-frustrations and maxi-triumphs. Design and re-design. Pre-writing and writing and rewriting. Cropping good photos and stopping bad ideas that once seemed good. Internal and external thinking, and internal and external linking. Search engine optimization and sleep minimization. Did I mention rewriting? Finally and mercifully, launch.

Oh, I almost forgot to ask, “Do you love our new website?”

In a bloodless coup and welcome change, my business partner Lu Ann Dillon recently became the chief executive officer of our company, Pierce Management Development. I remain president, happily focused on executive coaching, leadership and management training, and facilitating critical-issue meetings.

As Lu has taken charge of our strategic planning, digital redesign, and administrative areas, her good work has relieved me of a weight on my shoulders I didn’t know was there. I had been operating like Igor, Marty Feldman’s character in Young Frankenstein. When Igor was told that the hump on his back had mysteriously migrated from one side to the other, he responds, “What hump?”

But during the previous ten years operating as a “sole proprietor,” was I really singing a solo? Had I truly been a hermit, scratching storyboards on the dank walls of my cave, then turning them into PowerPoint slides, with no help from anyone else?

I thought about Lu Ann’s continual support during that ramp-up decade. And I thought about David, who created logos and business cards and the first Pierce Management Development website. And Greg, who gave me unerring guidance when I was teaching at the U.S. Chamber’s Institute of Organization Management. And Binney, the manager at Kinko’s, who actually remembers my name, has eye contact, and provides great last-second service. And my executive coaching, training, and facilitating clients who have taught me at least as much as I have taught them. And the professionals at ASAE and ASTD and many other acronyms. And so many more advisers, some for pay and some just for play.

Warning: If you crave the life of a hermit, never become a sole proprietor. For your business or nonprofit to remain healthy, you’ll need more healthy relationships than ever in your life.