This week I was in between 
destinations and had Sunday to explore Chicago. It was also the day for the finals of the World Cup Soccer – football to the rest of the world. I figured that Chicago would have some outstanding places to watch the World Cup. Sure enough, the place to be was Chicago’s Soldier Field where they expected to have 15,000 to 30,000 people cheering their favorite team on to victory. To get to Soldier Field from O’Hare Airport, I had to ride the Blue Line train to downtown and then catch a bus, hire a taxi, or just walk the remaining five miles to Solider Field!
But, something happened on the way to the World Cup: I stumbled upon a group of ordinary folks playing various musical instruments – violins, flutes, horns and the like. Well, I didn’t really stumble and the men and women weren’t just ordinary folks. I had the good fortune to observe the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra practicing in an outdoor amphitheater.
As I sat in the early morning sun and listened to them practice, I thought of how many businesses I work with who have their own type of orchestra. They don’t realize the 'sound' they make (or are capable of making) with their team. The sounds on this Sunday from this orchestra were beautiful. These magical sounds were created by professionals who have dedicated their lives to a passion for playing a flute or a violin at a concert level, and as one team. Teamwork was essential. Can you imagine the timpani player going off on his own beat and saying this is my department don’t tell me how to do my job. It would never happen with an orchestra at this high level nor would it happen at a high school band level. Because of the sound it would make if teamwork was not in play. There would be discord – no harmony.
My mind began to wander with the music. What does it take to build a successful orchestra? And how does this compare with employee team building for a successful business? The similarities were obvious and amazing. Even more amazing is that business leaders have not asked themselves: How does our business ‘sound’? To an orchestra their sound is what the audience hears as a result of four key team building disciplines:
Discipline One: Define your success for your team. Begin by defining and then owning a clear vision of what your success will look like. In the music world, the concert is the culmination of interpreting and successfully practicing the composer’s written score. The musicians and the audience will know right away if the sound they have created is successful. Have you communicated your vision for success to your employees?
Discipline Two: Commitment of the individual player. The best performers know their role and responsibility as a musician or member of the orchestra. Each individual member understands the effect of their timing, their precision, and their accuracy. Just as important is the tuning and care of their instrument. And, there would be no performance without the musician’s understanding of the written score. These elements are essential to the success of the orchestra. Do the members of your team have a clearly defined role?
Discipline Three: Following the leader. Every orchestra needs a conductor; a leader and coach. Watching them practice, the conductor will stop them periodically and communicate what he expects from the players. The conductor does not accept mediocrity, he expects greatness from each and every musician each time they play. He communicates to each section or specific performer what is needed from them to reach concert level. Do you coach your employees to greatness?
Discipline Four: Practice for success. Practice certainly makes perfect. But, do you want to play perfectly successful or perfectly awful? Once you’ve got the best people in your orchestra (or on your team) they need to have a clear vision or understanding of what perfection will sound or look like. Then, you all know the old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice. But, one must practice the sound correctly. Practicing correctly makes the sound to your audience -- or customers -- a memorable experience.
The Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, for that short time on that Sunday, allowed me to be a part of their passion. They were masters of their craft and their discipline to practice and perform at such a high level was proof of their success. They were there on a Sunday morning practicing for beauty and success while some were watching the World Cup and still others were watching them! I never made it to Soldier Field that day to watch world-class soccer; instead I listened to world-class musicians. Just by chance on that Sunday, I was blessed to discover a team of masters who possessed a commitment to expect greatness in all they did and the sound was music to my ears.
Here is a challenge for you today, for every day: Ask yourself, how does my business sound? If you don’t like your sound, then check the four disciplines outlined above and make your adjustments. Maybe your team just needs a little more practice. Or maybe you need to take some time developing a more clear vision for your team’s success -- and help them understand what success will sound like. What do you need to do to help your employees deliver top performance? Stop and listen - you can tell by the sound.
Learn more about team building speaker, author and coach, Jim Jackson.
A personal vision statement gives you a map that can move you toward where you want to be -- and away from where you don’t want to be. What is blocking your life right now? What things do you keep doing that aren’t really what you want to be doing? What kind of vision could take you in another direction, away from those things that are blocking you?
Your personal vision can be anything from being the best truck driver, to the best father or mother, to the best student or employee. The important thing is that it makes your life more meaningful because it’s based on the things you truly care about the most—your deepest passions.
Now when you follow your passions and put your vision first, you don’t always know how things are going to work out! You may be doing something unconventional that hasn’t been done before or trying something new that you’ve always loved, but never had the nerve to put your faith in before. It’s exciting, but it can also be a little scary.
Being true to yourself seems like it should be the most natural thing in the world. But if it were, everyone would be doing it and, instead, most people are afraid to try. Do you know why? Because when you put your heart into something and invest in it with all your passion, you are taking a risk. You worry that you could be disappointed or make a fool out of yourself.
It’s possible. But what’s worse? Being disappointed -- or never even trying to live your dream?
Give me disappointment any day! If I’m disappointed, I can get up, brush myself off and try again. If I make a fool out of myself, I can do things better the next time. If I live a life with no passion and no vision … if I never take a risk on my deepest dream … if I never put my vision first … then life won’t hold much meaning for me.
To live a meaningful life, you have to identify your passion and create your own personal vision -- and then go after it with all you’ve got. Even if it seems impossible!
One of the best examples I know about creating a new, personal vision and putting that vision first comes from my friend, George. George and I worked together at the Pacific Institute. We called him “Mr. Results” because when George focused on something, boy did he get results! Customers loved that. George was constantly getting job offers from outside the Institute. One of them came from MCI -- and George took the job.
As expected, George was on the fast track at MCI. But he had a wife and three children at home and he wasn’t getting to spend time with them due to the travel demands of his new job. So, George soon realized he’d have to make a change. He wanted to spend time with his wife and be the loving husband he felt called to be. George had a vision of being the best husband and father he could possibly be.
Now, George lived in Lodi, California, a small town of 52,000 people. There’s not a lot going on for MCI in Lodi. George knew that. But he told MCI that he’d be happy to keep working for them, but he was going to be staying in Lodi. MCI said they needed him to travel, so they parted ways.
This meant George was going to have to start from scratch. Since he knew the performance coaching business, he thought, “Why don’t I become a performance coach from Lodi? I can put a certain amount of time every day into work and the rest of my time will be focused on fulfilling my vision to be the best husband and father I can be.”
The thing is, there’s really no reason to think you can be a successful performance coach in a small town like Lodi. Being a performance coach myself, I can tell you that, when I heard about George’s plan, I was skeptical. It’s always been my belief that you have to travel to be a performance coach. You have to go wherever the business is.
George proved me wrong. He changed the paradigm, because his vision was strong. He put all his passion behind his personal vision statement. To be the best husband and father he could be, he needed a job that would make enough money to maintain his family’s lifestyle, but also give him more time to spend with them!
And do you know what? George has exceeded his personal vision. He continues to spend quality time with his family, year in and year out. And he has more business than he knows what to do with!
George is very successful to this day. He turns business away and keeps raising his prices. Why? Because as much as he is committed to his clients, he is more committed to his vision—to be with his family. He’s living with integrity, putting first what matters most. What About You?
Learn about author and professional motivational speaker Jim Jackson.
The Impact of 'Zingers' on Employee Motivation
When it comes to employee motivation, one of the most powerful tools managers have is their words. Words can inspire and motivate -- or they can destroy morale and create a negative environment.
Managers with strong leadership skills know how to coach their employees to inspire performance -- with positive words that encourage people to go where they didn’t think they could go, exceed expectations and become highly competitive in this ever changing market place.
In a positive environment in which everyone is working together toward a vision they can believe in, enthusiasm -- and productivity rise dramatically.
If you introduce 'Zingers' (negative words or comments) into this setting, you create a negative undertow. You may still make progress, but now you're working against the tide.
Zingers have a direct impact on the ability of your business to succeed. They make people become unwilling to invest in your vision and they undermine the trust and safety that is such a vital part of your workplace.
Imagine this situation:
An employee comes to work on time every day and does a good job. The employee hasn't talked to his manager in a while, but assumes that if anything were wrong, he'd hear about it. In fact, the manager is quite happy with the employee's work, but he doesn't know how to express this. Maybe the manager is not as comfortable with people as he'd like to be or maybe he is uneasy because he doesn't know this employee very well.
Instead of saying something positive and supportive when passing by the employee's desk, the manager tries to be funny by launching a zinger. "Look at that stack of papers on your desk!" he laughs, "I can't believe you ever find anything."
It's meant as good-natured teasing, but from the employee's point of view, it's the only thing the manager has said to him directly all week. And it's received as criticism: "Your desk is a mess.” Of all the things the manager might have said when he walked past, he chose to say, “You're a slob."
Even if the employee doesn't take it to heart and worry about his job security as a result, the first interaction he's had with his manager is a zinger - and this just doesn't feel good! Managers who interact with their direct reports on the basis of zingers usually have no idea of the repercussions to motivation and morale. Not only have they set up a negative interaction with the person they're zinging, but they've also established themselves as someone to be avoided -- and they've missed an opportunity to say something inspiring.
Here's another scenario:
An employee goes to the coffee room to refresh her coffee. Three other employees are taking their regular 10 minute break in the coffee room at the same time. The manager, Frank, walks in and says, "So, Julie, you're spending the work day on a break again, I see... I hope you're having fun. That's the important thing."
Julie may know Frank doesn't mind her getting coffee. He may have told her minutes earlier that he appreciates all the hard work she's put in this week, so she realizes he's kidding, when he implies she's goofing off.
But the other people in the room don't know that. All they see is a manager who won't cut his employee any slack. She gets up to refresh her coffee and he ridicules her for it. The rule is that a positives statement makes for a high performance employee and teams that produce quality products. A negative statement does the opposite.
Ask yourself: do you get fired up when you get great reviews or do you look forward to someone saying to you "Take a look at this. It's written so simply, even you should be able to understand it." That was a zinger. How would that make you feel?
Learn to coach people forwards towards the desired end results with positive reinforcement. Zingers don’t motivate. They destroy self-esteem. Are you getting the results you want? Or are you blaming others to make yourself feel better about the bad results? Are you zinging the very people you need to have on the success bus?
To learn more about the power of coaching download a free chapter from my book, Power to Change and discover how you can be a positive influence in your work and your personal life.
Learn more about how to motivate employees here.
One day, I was 
playing golf with Kevin, a good friend of mine. Now Kevin and I have been golfing buddies for a long time. So I don't coach him the way I might coach somebody else. On this particular day, I saw him do something I had
n't seen him do before. We came to a par 3 hole about 150 yards over water. For those of you who don't play golf, that means you have to stand on a tee box, then hit the ball up in the air and get it to land on the green without falling into the water. Otherwise, there will be a penalty.
As soon as I saw Kevin reach into his bag, I said, "Hey, Kevin! Looks like you're going to hit the ball in the water." I wasn't trying to give him negative coaching. I was just stating a fact.
"No, I'm not," Kevin said, getting into position on the tee box. "Oh, yes, you are," I said. "No, I'm not," he muttered. But by this time, he was mad and he said, "Jackson, you travel all around the world coaching people to be positive. Why would you tell me I'm going to hit the ball in the water?"
"It's simple," I told him. "When you walked up on the tee box, you reached into your bag and you pulled out your bad ball. You pulled out your water ball. You didn't want to hit your good ball in the water, so you were thinking about going in the water before I even said anything. You were coaching yourself to fail before I said a word."
A lot of us do this every day. We coach ourselves to lose! Whether we're going on a sales call or talking to our spouse, we pull out our bad ball, because we've already convinced ourselves it's not going to work.
Pulling out your bad ball means you're playing it safe – and playing to lose the game. Like Kevin, you don't want your good ball to get wet, so you use the bad ball - just in case. And you tip the scales toward failure.
You always have a choice. The next time you're tempted to take out your bad ball, stop and ask yourself: why not choose to win?
Learn how you can coach yourself to win with Jim Jackson’s top-selling ‘Coaching Yourself to High Performance’ CD.
Three keys to hiring a keynote speaker.
It is the week before the great Indy 500 and I was explaining to a prospective client who wanted to book me as a motivational speaker here in Las Vegas that there are three keys to hiring a great keynote speaker. I explained to her that hiring the right keynote speaker is like riding in an Indy race cars.
What really made me think of this was I had the opportunity to ride in an Indy car at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway a few weeks back. I realized there were three things that had to happen for me to walk away feeling like it was a great experience. First it had to be fun. In others words it had to be high energy. Second it had to be educational. I needed to learn how the car and driver worked to create a great experience. Third, it needed to be inspiring to go 170 miles while someone else was driving, talk about trust!
All three of these happened to me and they are much like hiring a keynote speaker for your convention or business meeting. When you hire a keynote speaker they need to be entertaining, educational and motivating. I was thinking about this at the track so I shot a video. Tell me what you think.
Learn more about engaging Jim Jackson as a speaker for your next event.
The Secret of 4 Obvious Choices
What are you doing to drive the success of your business? How many minutes or hours have you wasted sitting and staring at a monthly report hoping and wishing the bottom line was different? How can you get your business to be more profitable? How do you get your team fired up to look for the many opportunities that are just waiting to be taken advantage of? No, your phone will not magically ring with brand new customers calling nor will your e-mail box fill up by itself with business requests. What is the secret to success? If only you knew the secret that everyone else seems to know but you.
There is a risk in telling you the secret - the risk of exposing all those self-help writers out there who continue to make money by selling versions of what they believe the secret might be. These writers have painted success as a mystery and then conjured up some magical formula to satisfy the mystery - just like a magician. And, why should a magician reveal his secret when we all know it is just an illusion with the sole purpose of entertaining us? I will tell you the secret; but first, I have good news for you: You can get fired up right now and you can succeed. It's your choice.
The power of choice is a wonderful gift we have all been blessed with. You can choose to be excited or not. You can choose to be proactive or not. You can wait for the phone to ring by itself or you can pick up the phone. You can either sit on your rear-end or you can get up and get going. (And, by the way, one of those 5-hour energy drinks is not the answer; you'll get fired up all right, and then drop like a stone.) The choice is yours. Here are three options to help you choose:
1. Do nothing, just sit and wait. Nothing will happen, but you can blame me as I told you to do nothing.
2. Get up and leave. Go do something that has nothing to do with work. I'll wait for you on the first tee.
3. Decide on the outcome and results you desire. Focus on what you expect and then commit to achieving today that which moves you closer to your vision. Ask yourself: What do I need to do different now to get the results I desire? And then just do it. It's that simple and you're the only one who can do it for you.
4. Did I mention there is a fourth option? There is. Shut up and fail. You'll be broke, of course; but it is a valid choice. After all, isn't that what you've been focusing on lately?
If there is a secret to success, here it is: You have now (and always have had) a choice. Choose action and you'll succeed. Action is better, and will always outperform a wish list.
Learn about top motivational speaker & coach, Jim Jackson.
Martha Stewart Cleans Windows for Las Vegas Keynote Speaker
I was cleaning the window in my office today with Martha Stewart window cleaner. I purchased it at Home Depot on a dare with 
myself. A dare because I could not be seen leaving Home Depot with Martha Stewart under my arm. After all one goes to the hardware store to buy tools and not to be seen with Martha Stewart. To my surprise, I was amazed at how well it cleaned the windows with no streaks.
Now I only tell you this story because I had a pre-conceived belief about Martha Stewart after all she is a chef not a window cleaner manufacturer. As I was cleaning the windows on the outside, I could almost instantly see the change but it wasn't until I came in my office and sat in my Herman Miller chair that I could see the difference. My windows were the cleanest they have ever been.
Then I thought how many times does our own vision get obscured because of pre-conceived beliefs? My vision was like my window obstructed by dirt. I had dirty thinking about Martha Stewart and not that kind of dirty thinking but the dirty thinking that almost kept me from trying the window cleaner.
Where else do I have pre-conceived beliefs that are blocking me from trying something new? What about you? Where are you saying to yourself I can't get ahead in this market. If your vision is blurred because of the years of affirming that you can't sell in this market than you won't it is like having dirty windows and not wanting to try Martha because of who she is.
Let your competition own the belief this market is bad and you try something different. You never know, success may be one clean window away. Go clean you window now.
Learn about Las Vegas motivational speaker, Jim Jackson.
How to Motivate Employees
Have you had a day when you knew it was going to be the best ever? Only to have the kids run late getting to school. The traffic was bad on the way to the office. You show up to work and your team informs you that they are not going to meet your deadline. All before you had your first cup of coffee. You ask yourself what is wrong with this picture. Why can't my team be more motivated?
Yet you're probably motivating your team with old worn out techniques that usually create a temporary increase in performance.
Even better is finding yourself as a manager always having to push them and as long as you're pushing they keep the performance up.
What is missing?
The great motivators of sales forces and teams know what drives each individual of the team. Breaking news..... People do not work for you so you can meet your goals they work for you to meet their own goals and dreams. The best managers know what their people's goals are and the reasons why they come to work. For some it will be to provide for their family. Some it is to give their children education and a better chance in life. Others it is for the toys that money will buy. There are many different reasons as to the personal benefit for working for you. You need to know why people work for you.
Go find out! Ask why do you work here? What motivates you to do what you do each day? What is your life dream? When you know these answers you have the insight to become a great motivator. Then start asking the question; is your performance moving you closer to your goals or away. What do you need to do differently to achieve your objectives? What support can I provide to assist you?
A friend of mine who was a very successful high school football 
coach said I know what you mean. As soon as I found Johnny wanted to go to college I asked him if he thought the recruiters would look closely at him if his passing statistics were higher. Another player wanted to be popular with the girls. I asked him do you think the girls would want to meet you if you scored more touchdowns. All of a sudden I became a great motivating coach because I knew what drove each player.
Managers when your people seem to lack motivation go back to the basics and find out what drives them. You then reinforce their belief systems by telling them how well they are doing and this builds a strong self-image. You practice each day the habit of positive reinforcement. Your expectation is that they are the best at whatever they do. In fact when they don't measure up to your expectation you say to them, "your performance doesn't match my world class image of you and your performance is usually better" and say you're better than that now go be the best and excel. I always ask managers what they say to the top performers on their team and usually they say nothing or celebrate their high performance at the employee of the month meeting. Why? They know they are the best and so does the rest of the workforce. Than start treating everyone as if they are the best.
The best athletic teams of the world are always trimming the poor performers and looking to bring better talent to the team as a result the better teams keep getting better. How is your team?
Need help motivating your team? Learn about Jim Jackson's Team Building workshops!
Learn more about employee motivation here.
Building self confidence
As I watch American Idol there seems to be a common theme from the judges. They coach the participants by telling them they need to have more self-confidence.
I can only imagine what the contestants are thinking. It may sound something like this, I am not projecting self-confidence and I am on national TV. Are they kidding me? I will just run down to the drug store and buy a bottle of self-confidence. Yea right so they try to fake it until they make it and give the judges a little attitude to demonstrate confidence.
I have been there myself until I learned what I am going to teach you. Just so you know I had 37 different jobs by the time I was 27 years old. I can remember people telling me just have more self-confidence. My self-doubt would go into overdrive trying to learn how to have self-confidence right now and why did I not have it whatever it was. I was coaching myself backwards by asking myself what is wrong with me.
The Power of Suggestion
Why is coaching yourself so important? Because we, as human beings, move towards what we think about. Whatever we're thinking about, we move toward-whether it's what we want or what we don't want.
It's like driving down the road. Have you ever tried to cross the white line and not hit those little bumps?
What do you focus on? You focus on the bumps. It's almost impossible to go between the bumps until you learn the art of looking for the spaces while you're driving down the road.
We move toward what we think about. Say you're on your bicycle, riding down the road. You see the rock in the road up ahead. You don't want to hit the rock, but if you see it and keep focusing on it, what will you hit?
In our minds, the power of suggestion is absolutely powerful. You use it all day long, whether you know it or not. Either you're coaching yourself or someone else is coaching you by telling you how you are.
And it's working. Your life is turning out exactly like the coaching you're receiving all day long. It's very powerful stuff.
Coaching is so powerful that I'm going to tell you to do something that's very important. I can't emphasize it enough. Listen very carefully: Stop the negative coaching!
Do this for the next couple of days. Only say positive upbeat things to yourself about yourself and others. Your days will seem much brighter. Do this one positive coaching exercise for yourself. Focus on what you want!
You can go to my website http://jimjacksonlive.com and download the chapter on coaching from my book Power to Change free.
Back to the American Idol, self-confidence starts before you ever walk on stage or in the door at work. You coach yourself forward by saying this statement as if it has already happened. I am confident in who I am and I know I am very good at what I do, I need only my opinion to be happy and successful. The key is to visualize this in your mind walking in and performing at the highest level. I do this each time I go on stage to deliver a keynote in front of 1,000's seeing success before it ever happens and when it does in real life that is called self-confidence.
Discover the secrets to building your self confidence and more with Jim's inspirational BREATHE program!
Jim Jackson - Midwest Speakers Bureau Showcase Speaker