Tag: Choices

The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability

Posted on by Nkozi Knight

The Oz Principle, written by Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman, is a popular management book that explores the concept of accountability in the workplace. The book draws on the classic story of The Wizard of Oz to illustrate how individuals and organizations can take ownership of their actions and outcomes to achieve success. In this blog post, we will summarize the main ideas of The Oz Principle and explain how they can be applied in the workplace.

The Oz Principle presents a framework for personal and organizational accountability based on four key principles: See It, Own It, Solve It, and Do It. Let’s take a closer look at each of these principles:

  1. See It: The first step in the accountability process is to see the problem or opportunity clearly. This involves identifying the root cause of the issue and understanding its impact on the organization. Seeing It requires individuals to be honest and objective in their assessment of the situation, without making excuses or blaming others.
  2. Own It: Once a problem or opportunity has been identified, the next step is to take ownership of it. This means accepting responsibility for the outcome and committing to taking action to address the issue. Owning It requires individuals to be accountable for their role in the situation, regardless of whether they were directly responsible for the problem.
  3. Solve It: The third step in the accountability process is to develop a plan to solve the problem or capitalize on the opportunity. This involves working collaboratively with others to identify and implement solutions that address the root cause of the issue. Solving It requires individuals to be proactive and creative in their problem-solving approach.
  4. Do It: The final step in the accountability process is to execute the plan and achieve the desired outcome. This involves taking action and following through on commitments to ensure that the problem is fully resolved or the opportunity is fully realized. Doing It requires individuals to be persistent and disciplined in their efforts to achieve success.

The Oz Principle emphasizes the importance of accountability in driving individual and organizational performance. By following the See It, Own It, Solve It, and Do It framework, individuals can take control of their actions and outcomes, and work together to achieve shared goals. The book provides practical tools and strategies for implementing accountability in the workplace, including the use of performance scorecards, team charters, and action plans.

In conclusion, The Oz Principle is a powerful management book that offers a fresh perspective on accountability in the workplace. Its four-step framework provides a clear roadmap for personal and organizational success, and its practical tools and strategies can be applied in a wide range of settings. By embracing the principles of See It, Own It, Solve It, and Do It, individuals and organizations can achieve greater accountability, productivity, and success.

What Emmett Till’s Mother Taught Me About Grief and Justice

Posted on by Nkozi Knight

On Feb. 26, 2012, my entire life changed in ways that I could never imagine. Within an instant, after the brutal and inhumane killing of my son, …

What Emmett Till’s Mother Taught Me About Grief and Justice

Five ways of expanding your business internationally

Posted on by Nkozi Knight

The global economy is changing thanks to worldwide connectivity. Companies across the globe are communicating with others without delays or hassles …

Five ways of expanding your business internationally

5 Tips to Get Your First Business off the Ground

Posted on by Nkozi Knight

Building your first business is tough. Building any business is tough, but your first is going to be especially difficult – you have no mistakes to …

5 Tips to Get Your First Business off the Ground

7 Ways to Transform Your Money Mindset

Posted on by Nkozi Knight
 

The level of abundance in your life in any area (love, friendship, success or finances) is a reflection of your inner state — what you hold in your mind and heart.

Want to create a healthy and loving wealth consciousness? Here are seven ways to transform your money mindset.

1. Forgive your past.

So many of our unquestioned beliefs and behavior patterns today around money are simply things we picked up at childhood or our past. They are not true and they don’t serve our highest good.

Forgiveness is a way to release them from our heart and energy field, so we are no longer blindly re-creating the same patterns and keeping ourselves stuck at the same level of abundance.

Grab a piece of paper and write down all of the painful memories you have around money –involving your parents, lovers, bosses or even yourself — that make you feel icky, stressed, anxious or frustrated.

Now, go through your list and practice forgiveness until you release the negative charge from each memory. You could try:

(a) Using a mantra such as: I forgive you. I’m sorry. I love you.

(b) Placing your hand on your heart and simply letting yourself feel the emotions that arise — giving yourself permission to feel them fully without attaching a mental story to them. Often as you let your feelings rise and observe them without judgement, they will naturally dissolve.

(c) Having compassion. Maybe your parents fought in front of you or didn’t have enough money and it caused you pain, but they were doing their best from their level of awareness — and they were probably re-creating the patterns they had learnt when they were children. Everyone is a divine loving inner spirit deep down — sometimes our true nature just gets temporarily obscured, like a cloud covering the sun.

2. Change your story.

The poet Rumi once said: “This world is like a mountain. Your echo depends on you. If you scream good things, the world will give it back. If you scream bad things, the world will give it back.”

He is referring to the Universal law of creation. Your inner world (thoughts, beliefs and feelings) creates your outer reality.

Do you find yourself saying or thinking things like: I’m so broke… Making money is hard… I’m always down to my last dollar… I never have enough… Wanting money is bad or greedy…?

Try changing your story around money. Start saying and thinking things like: I’m so blessed… I have everything that I need… the Universe always takes care of me… I give to the world and I receive… it is safe for me to have abundance… I am provided for.

3. Open your mind to infinite possibilities.

When it comes to manifesting, your logical mind can be your worst enemy.

It has a limited capacity to think beyond what it already knows, and it can be quick to tell you things like: Well, you can’t earn more from your current job, so receiving more money is, frankly, impossible.

When you have unexamined assumptions that you can only receive money in certain pre-determined ways — like a pay cheque from a day job — you block the Universe from finding other amazingly creative ways to bring you abundance.

Begin asking the Universe: What would it take for more money to flow to me? What would it take for me to get paid for being me? What would it take for creative ideas to come to me?

4. Practice gratitude.

The world is a reflection of you. When you look around your life and see and feel lack, the Universe receives the message to send you more lack.

So many of us suffer from a condition called Onlyness. We look at our bank balance and think: I only have $42. We look at our wardrobes and think: I only have these clothes to choose from. We look at our lives and think: I only have this much love, friendship, success, wellbeing or happiness.

When you start looking around your life and seeing everything as evidence of abundance, and feeling thankful and deeply grateful, the Universe sends you more abundance.

Look at your bank balance and think: Wow, I have a whole $42 to spend, that’s awesome. Look at your wardrobe and thank: Wow, I have warm clothes for my temple, how amazing is that? Look at your life and think: Wow, I already have this much love, friendship, success, wellbeing and happiness, and I am excited for even more. I am so grateful to be alive, adventuring in time and space, and I am going to soak up and appreciate every moment.

Bless your money as it goes in and out of your life. Bless it as you buy something as simple as your morning coffee. Pause and give thanks to the Universe for providing so much for you.

5. Create space.

When your life is full to the brim with old energy, memories and clutter, you are not symbolically or energetically creating space for abundance to come into your life.

Do a life assessment — look lovingly and honestly at your home, possessions, bank balance, love life, friends, career, leisure time, wellbeing and lifestyle.

Where are you not being true to your heart, soul and values? What needs to go in order for you to feel freer, lighter and liberated?

The more you remove anything that no longer serves you, the more space you create — physically and emotionally — for new people, opportunities and abundance to flow into your life.

6. Know your worth.

You are a divine spiritual being having a human experience.

You are the Universe experience itself through you. Your creator desires for you to experience endless happiness, peace and fulfillment.

Until you know your true nature and worth, you will probably experience feelings of guilt and doubt around receiving and abundance.

When you wake up to who you really are, you begin to realize that you are not here just to struggle and survive – you are here to love, create, expand and thrive.

7. Take small steps to cultivate the feeling of abundance.

Abundance is not a number on a bank statement, a large house or a luxury holiday. Abundance is a feeling.

Think about what abundance means to you. Does it mean freedom? Does it mean generosity? Does it mean indulgence?

When you know what abundance means to you, you can start taking baby steps to cultivate the feeling of abundance on a daily basis.

You can do this through visualization (imagining your dreams already being real) or by looking around your life and coming up with creative ways to feel the way you want to feel.

Maybe you feel abundant when you: spend a whole hour with a good book and a glass of wine; cook dinner for friends; have freshly washed hair and wear your favorite outfit; or carry a $100 note in your wallet. Start doing these small actions more often.

When you create the feeling of abundance within you, the Universe will pick up your new signal and start bringing you circumstances to match your new vibration.

Elyse Santilli Writer and life coach at NotesOnBliss.com, your guidebook to happiness and creating a beautiful life

Elyse is a writer, life coach and happiness teacher at NotesOnBliss.com and the creator of the Beautiful Life Bootcamp online course. She teaches people to align with their inner spirit, design a life they love, and expand their happiness and inner peace. For updates and inspiration, sign up now.

5 Common Networking Mistakes You’re Making

Posted on by Nkozi Knight

Mixer_0By Scott Kriz

Building a network of people that you don’t get along with is completely pointless.

The Leadership Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question: What’s the best way to network? is written by Scott Kriz, CEO of Bitium.

All too often, I see people at networking events exchanging business cards and starting up superficial conversations for obviously one-sided, self-serving purposes. But what happens when you leave the happy hour or the conference? How many of those conversations resulted in something substantial? Networking should be viewed as the beginning of long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationship. While there’s no formula to creating a valuable network, there certainly are guidelines. Here are five lessons I’ve learned while building and strengthening my network:

Be authentic
When I was fresh out of college, I used to attend events and come home with a pile of business cards, trying to figure out how each person could benefit me in my career. Guess how many of those turned into valuable relationships? Not one. Realizing this, I stopped bringing cards with me to events. Instead, I started attending events with smaller groups of people and focused more on getting to really know everyone on a personal level. Over time, I found that people with whom I shared common personal interests tended to provide more value than those with closer professional ties.

See also: What a game of chess can teach you about networking

Listen and ask questions
While I love sharing stories, I have never learned anything by hearing myself talk. So I try to focus on learning from other people’s experiences by taking a genuine interest in that person and asking them questions instead. For example, a few years ago, I found out the CMO from Microsoft had retired and was living in Southern California. Marketing has always been an area that fascinated me because it didn’t come naturally. I wanted to learn about marketing from the top mind in B2B marketing software so I could better understand it for my own business.

Through my network, I found out that she was going to be at a local accelerator event so I decided to attend as well. It’s amazing how generous people are with their time and their knowledge when you express genuine interest. Mich Mathews is now an investor and board member for Bitium–and a close friend of mine.

Seek out people that you like
Building a network of people that you don’t get along with is completely pointless. Every one of us has our own opinions, tastes and tolerances. Spend your time with people you like and you will find natural alignment. When I started my current company, I was lucky enough to have a co-founder that I had enormous respect for both personally and professionally. We wanted to hire the smartest employees, of whom we also enjoyed working with. Everyone on our current team has been hired through a personal or professional connection. I’m proud of this, not only because I love what we do as a company, but because I love the people that I am building the company with.

See also: Business cards aren’t outdated and 4 other networking tips

Put yourself in someone else’s shoes
Some of the best networkers that I know are busy and overcommitted by nature. In order to leverage their networks appropriately and get the introductions I want, I’ve found that the less intrusive and more specific that I can be, the more likely they are to help out. Put yourself in the shoes of the person who is being solicited and read the content of the email as if you are that person. Make your email request is concise, specific, not completely self-serving and most importantly, easy for them to forward on to the person you want an introduction to. Help them help you.

Be yourself
Remember that everyone is just a person, no matter what they have achieved or how well-known they are. It’s easy to get star struck when meeting someone you’ve read about or who is considered a ‘celebrity’ in your industry. Approach them like you would anyone else at an event. Too many times people try to force a conversation because they really admire someone and want nothing more than to be associated with that person. Relax, have fun and don’t try to foster relationships that aren’t natural.

Read all answers to the Leadership Insider question: What’s the best way to network?

How to work a room at an important networking event by Carol Leaman, CEO of Axonify.

The one question you have to ask everyone you network withby Clark Valberg, CEO of InVision.

3 signs you’re a serial meet-and-greet networker by Shadan Deleveaux, director of sales multicultural beauty division at L’Oréal USA.

Forget what you know about networking. Do this instead by Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge.

3 networking mistakes you don’t know you’re making by Dan Finnigan, CEO of Jobvite.

Why face-to-face networking will never go out of style by Kevin Chou, co-founder and CEO of Kabam.

How to effectively network (even if you dread it) by David DeWolf, president and CEO of 3Pillar Global.

The only thing you need to keep in mind when networkingby William Craig, founder and president of WebpageFX.

Why social media alone won’t get you a job by Gary Vaynerchuk, co-founder and CEO of VaynerMedia.

NYSE President: I owe every job I’ve ever had to networking by Tom Farley, president of the NYSE.