If you live in Sacramento near Land Park area, you will have by now become familiar with “the man at Sutterville and Freeport.” He holds a sign and he dances. You’ve seen this before – a person with a sign pointing to Verizon or a sandwich shop. They’re pretty high energy. But this guy is over the top. I’m not even sure what the sign says. At first, I laughed. He dances and jumps around and he makes eye contact with drivers and he waves to them. Unlike the other guys holding signs, he doesn’t seem to be listening to music. He is probably in his late 20’s. His energy is incredible. He’s on a small island and he really moves around. And yet he also connects with the people driving and walking by.
It was funny to see 13 year old son’s reaction. He waved back to the man and smiled and seemed very happy to see this guy. I don’t know the hours of his job, but he is there nearly every time I go by and he is always dancing and smiling, waving and sweating. After a few weeks of this I noticed that people stop to say, “Hi” to him. People in the crosswalk come over, give him a fist bump and he is always smiling. I’ve wanted to write a blog post on him because I like to blog on things that interest me, but I also like to blog on coaching principles that support business owners in being more productive and more balanced since that is, after all, why I blog. A week ago, I went to Chipotle with my 15 year old son and we watched the guy dancing across the street. I said, “I want to blog about this guy. What is the coaching principle that he represents?” Without hesitation, my son said, “you get to choose whether to have a good time or not.” I thought about this. Holding a sign is probably not a high paying job. It seems awful to me personally, and boring and annoying and potentially exhausting.
And yet this man is out there with enthusiasm all the time. He has put his whole self into it. He has committed to this job. He’s not just doing it 1/2 way and waiting for his shift to end. He’s all in.
I work a lot with people on the concept of accountability which means taking ownership for everything you have in your life and your business so that you can change it if it is not working for you. The concept of choice is often hard for people to accept – the concept that everything you have has come from a number of choices you have made. But once they get that, they realize if your choices brought you here, then next time you can choose differently and you can generate a different result for yourself. An even more challenging concept for many people is that you get to choose your attitude; you get to choose your mood; you get to choose your state of physical energy – tired, energized, enthused, happy, sad, gregarious. I think the man at Sutterville & Freeport is proof of that.
So what’s it going to be? What mood will you choose for today? And how will that choice change the results you generate?
Be sure to comment and let us know.
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If you are in or around Sacramento, read on for info on our summer communication training:
Discover the Secrets of Effective Communication
Do you ever feel like other people are “speaking Greek”? Do other people misunderstand you?
What would change if you learned to communicate effectively with different kinds of people?
- With your clients and customers?
- With your spouse and children?
- With your employees and co-workers?
- With your boss?
The chances are good that about 75% of the population does not fully understand what you are saying or the “language” you are speaking. This is because there are different communication styles with different motivations and different “world views”. This can lead to a lot of miscommunication, misunderstanding, upset and inefficiency.
What if you knew the characteristics of your own style and could adjust the way you speak in order to be understood by other styles? How would that affect your ability to manage well, to bring in new clients, to communicate in your family?
Join Cami McLaren in this upcoming seminar that will teach you how!
- Learn the 4 basic communication styles:
o Driver – the one who gets things done.
o Analytic – the one who develops the plan to get things done.
o Amiable – the one who develops solid relationships with people above all else.
o Expressive – the one who brings fun and vision.
*Discover your own style – you will find you have a dominant style, but also many attributes of other styles
*Learn how to determine the styles of others
*Learn the best & most effective ways to communicate with each of the different styles
*Learn the strengths and challenges of each style – what type of work are you best suited for? where might you need more support in your position?
*Learn which styles are best for which jobs to help with proper employee placement.
*Learn to assemble a functional team and who you need on your team to make it the most effective
*Learn why you may not click with certain personalities and what to do about it if you need to work, or live, with them
In this 3 1/2 hour workshop, you will identify your personality style and learn about your strengths and challenges. You will also learn how to determine the styles of others.
You will learn to be persuasive and clear with different types of people, whether they are staff, colleagues, clients, family members or even disgruntled customers.
To Register: http://www.eventbrite.com/o/mclaren-coaching-3074191754?s=35958625
Cost: $75/person before June 1, with a $5 discount for people from the same organization
Dates to choose from are either:
Tuesday, July 14, 8:30 am – 12pm
OR
Saturday, August 1, 9am – 1pm
Location: Sierra 2 in Sacramento, 2791 24th Street
