Huh?

Bear with me.

I spoke last week at a Young Professional Leadership Group meeting about the importance of SELF leadership, which is especially foundational at the intersection of leadership and business development.

You know how you get in a zone when you’re speaking, and you say something unplanned, unscripted, and unrehearsed — and it makes an impact?  Well, I had one of those moments with this group.

We were talking about leadership and guiding others. I was extolling the virtues of having permission and then letting people know what you like and how you like it, asking for what you like, etc. and out of my mouth I hear the words, “It’s like sex”.

Well, this meeting was at 7am and not only did that comment wake everyone up, but it caused me to blush.  Which ended up creating an openness and intimacy in the group dialogue, much to my surprise. Authenticity, baby!

Anyway, I got the following e-mail comment from one of the participants later that day: “Have you read the book “Fascinate” by Sally Hogshead?  If not, I think you will find it very beneficial with your work.  Whether you knew it or not, you used the lust trigger in a very effective manner this morning.”

I did not know that! I thought it was an embarrassing blunder!  Lust trigger.  Who knew?

Here’s what Amazon says about the book:

“What triggers fascination, and how do companies, people, and ideas put those triggers to use?

Why are you captivated by some people but not by others? Why do you recall some brands yet forget the rest? In a distracted, overcrowded world, how do certain leaders, friends, and family members convince you to change your behavior? Fascination: the most powerful way to influence decision making. It’s more persuasive than marketing, advertising, or any other form of communication. And it all starts with seven universal triggers: lust, mystique, alarm, prestige, power, vice, and trust.

Fascination plays a role in every type of decision making, from the brands you choose to the songs you remember, from the person you marry to the employees you hire. And by activating the right triggers, you can make anything become fascinating.

To explore and explain fascination’s irresistible influence, Sally Hogshead looks beyond marketing, delving into behavioral and social studies, historical precedents, neurobiology and evolutionary anthropology, as well as conducting in-depth interviews and a national study of a thousand consumers, to emerge with deeply rooted patterns for why, and how, we become captivated.”

Of course, I bought the book!

Well, we got a lot of snow here in Maryland.  Historical, record-breaking amounts of it, in fact.  We had 3 blizzards in 2 months, the last two just 3 days apart.   Saturday’s (blizzard #2) dumped 33 inches on us, and then Tuesday’s dumped another 15 inches.  Yeah, we don’t exactly have the infrastructure to handle that much snow around here. It’s not like we are Denver, or Boston.  We’re DC for heaven’s sake!

I couldn’t resist sharing some of the humorous images that have popped up during the “snowmageddon” of 2010, just so you can get a sense of the mood around here as we dig out…

Do you spend your life in front of your computer screen?  Check out this hilarious video!  Some days I feel just like this!

Okay, this post has nothing whatsoever to do with leadership or business development, it was just sent to me via email and it made me laugh out loud, so I’m sharing it with you.  Hope it brings some giggles to your day as well!

Random Thoughts for the Day:

1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.

13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this — ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day “Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?” How the hell do I respond to that?

19. I think the freezer deserves a light as well..

20. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

Great leaders know when to assert authority and when a course correction is the better choice.  Check out this video about a submarine captain and his Homer Simpson experience at sea (D’oh!). So, is perception really reality?

Every leader, business owner, and sales person knows that it’s all about the numbers.  A leader of one of the business units at DuPont that I coached recently sent me this cartoon, which made me laugh out loud! 

Nailing the Numbers

Just goes to show us, leadership shows up in all sorts of situations!  :)  I wish I knew who created this so I can attribute it properly!  Leadership is a dance, you know.