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Composure: Maintaining Balance When the S$!* Hits the Fan!

Posted on by Jeremy Lurey

Keep Calm and Carry On

According to dictionary.com, “composure” means: serene, self-controlled state of mind; calmness; tranquility. My less formal – although quite likely more actionable – working definition of composure is “maintaining balance and keeping grounded when the s*@# hits the fan.”

A friend of mine recently shared how impressed he was with my ability to stay grounded and composed even in the face of the greatest of adversity which seems to pop up from time to time. His more complete thought actually was, “Jeremy if there’s ever a terrorist attack, I want you to be there by my side!” While that’s flattering to hear, I guess I just don’t know how else to be. Maybe it’s the generally blessed life I live in Malibu, California that calms my soul. Maybe it’s the life lesson I learned from my mother years and years ago never to tick off people who can help you if they choose to. That was originally intended as advice from the travel agent to her son for when you’re standing in front of a gate agent in an airport terminal having just found out that your flight was cancelled or otherwise delayed. I’ve found it to be quite transferable to most other areas in life!

Regardless of where I picked up my ability to maintain my composure when “stuff” happens, it does seem to serve me. As funny as it may sound to simply remain calm, breathe, and resist the temptation to throw a childish fit, it’s actually a tremendous source of strength and power not to react. Read more ›

Posted in Balance, Breakthrough, Composure, Control, Personal Accomplishment, success, Visioning

Holy Cow! Zappos Influences a Whole City with Passion Groups and Sustained Change

Posted on by admin

In Part 1 of this blog series, I wrote about our tour of the Zappos’ facility in Henderson, Nevada and how we were influenced by the extraordinary culture and people we met.  Our host Jamie Naughton, Speaker of the House and a senior leader at Zappos, provided us a shuttle to meet her in “The Beat” coffee house, where, in 2013, Zappos will complete a radical and surprising move of their operations to a downtown Las Vegas neighborhood called East Fremont.  An authentically hip, non-gaming zone sandwiched between the Fremont Street experience of the original Las Vegas strip, near the Smith Concert Hall (where Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh recently invested $2M) and next door to the Civic Center and Courthouse.  Zappos will actually begin renovating these buildings, the company’s future home, next year.

jamie

The Beat coffee house is headquarters central for 31-year-old Jamie who holds down the fort for conversations with local community and business leaders, as well as after-work meetings of employee “Passion Groups” engaged in changing the face of the community they will occupy in two years.  Read more ›

Posted in Corporate Culture, customer service, employee engagement, Empowerment, Fun, Innovation, Jamie Naughton, Las Vegas, Passion Groups, Sustained Change, Tony Hsieh, values, Zappos

21st Century Management the Zappos Way

Posted on by admin

I’m feeling a bit out-of-date and stuffy today.  Last week, Plus Delta’s CEO Jeremy Lurey and I toured Zappos’ Headquarters in Henderson, Nevada just outside Las Vegas.  If I hadn’t been there to see it first hand, I would have a hard time integrating what I’ve read into just how unbelievably youthful, crazy weird yet motivating the environment is.  Click here to see it for yourself. At the end of the tour, Jeremy and I took the traditional picture next to a throne to prove that they treat their customers like royalty.  You get to choose what hat to wear.  Well, at Zappos, teams rule, and the power lies in the involvement and creativity of their people.  When it was our turn, simultaneously Jeremy and I picked hats that were complete role reversal of boss and staff.  We got it!

JeremyPamCrowns

Don’t get me wrong, Jeremy is a great boss!  And he is much appreciated as a mover and shaker in our field of OD and Change.  But Plus Delta doesn’t live and breathe “21st Century Management” (see Denning’s new book, The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing The Workplace For The 21st Century) like Zappos, which models the changing workforce of tomorrow.  Read more ›

Posted in Corporate Culture, customer service, employee engagement, Empowerment, Fun, Innovation, Jamie Naughton, Las Vegas, Passion Groups, Tony Hsieh, values, Zappos

How to Hold Attention: Clarifying Your Message and Getting It Into the Heads of Those You Are Addressing Before It’s Too Late!

Posted on by admin

This article derives from a short talk I give every September to my Boy Scout troop’s high-school age staff called ‘How to Hold the Attention of 80 Kids.’

As I thought more about the subject, and reflected on past experiences I have had both as speaker and as a member of an audience, I realized that in answering the question about how to hold someone’s attention it’s necessary to also address a second question: what do I want my audience to get out of this conversation, and how do I tailor what I say and how I say it so they get it?
shouting
Addressing an audience can mean making a simple announcement or making a speech of much greater length. When everyone is involved in the conversation, whether as speaker or as listener, thoughts and ideas flow easily. But there are always countless distractions to divert your audience’s attention, and when you don’t convey information smoothly and in a way that it is easy to absorb and understand you don’t give your audience members a good reason to stay interested and will likely lose them quickly. It is easy to get an entire audience’s attention – for a moment – but if you don’t take steps to keep it for as long as you need to you may lose the opportunity to get your message through.

Read more ›

Posted in Holding Attention, Leadership, Public Speaking

“Horrible Bosses”: A Powerful Wake-Up Call for Any Leader

Posted on by Jeremy Lurey

horriblebosses
Have you seen it yet? The movie “Horrible Bosses”… I’d like to think I’m not a horrible boss. Fortunately, when I asked my staff about this, on Facebook of all places, telling them I’d pay for their movie ticket and a bag of popcorn out of my own pocket as long as after viewing the movie they in fact confirmed I wasn’t a horrible boss, I received very positive feedback suggesting I’m actually a pretty good boss – I dare say maybe even better than many.

A CEO of a former client of mine used to always tell his leaders during the 3-day “Leadership Excellence” workshops we facilitated that leaders across the company typically work at 1-2 levels below their pay grade. The fact of the matter is that most leaders are promoted into their current positions simply because they excel technically at their jobs – not because they are well-skilled or trained in people management practices. So how do folks like this – and let’s face it, I’m clearly one of those very guys and gals – learn to be great bosses? Lots of on-the-job, trial-and-error experience and a willingness to be humble and learn along the way. Read more ›

Posted in Leadership, Management, organizational culture, Performance

A Day of Culture

Posted on by Jeremy Lurey

No this isn’t a story about opera or the performing arts. It’s not a story about the melting pot of America either. This is a story about great corporate culture!

Yesterday, I took a break from all my normal work routines, flew to and from Las Vegas on Southwest Airlines, and toured Zappos’ current and future facilities in Henderson and downtown Las Vegas – an area called “East Fremont”.  What a treat! And what a vivid reminder about the power of employee engagement and corporate values on organizational performance.

Rocco and Randy

Read more ›

Posted in customer service, employee engagement, Empowerment, Fun, values

The Horrors in Healthcare: Why HMOs Just Don’t Work!

Posted on by Jeremy Lurey

To alleviate any concerns, I’ll start with the happy ending of this tragic story. My 12-year-old son Dylan is just fine. His toe will heal, the staph infection will become a memory of the past, and if all goes well he will even play soccer again in the fall. That’s the good news! The bad news is the horrendous state of healthcare in America that has taken its toll on Dylan, his parents, and likely millions and millions more throughout our country over the years.
dylan

Four weeks ago, Dylan kicked the bath tub getting out of the shower. He got a deep laceration right below the nail on his big left toe. Not such a big deal at the time. Definitely not something that a band aid and some ibuprofen along with dad’s famous TLC didn’t take care of. Fast forward 2 weeks though, and he re-opened the wound twice jumping on trampolines and such at two different birthday parties. The second time was the clincher for this tale as one of his friends stepped on his toe – and the open wound – giving him not just a bad break to the bone but also creating the perfect storm of freak circumstances for a staph infection. By now, you are probably wondering what moved me to share this with you all. Well read on to see how the saga of horrors in healthcare has at best contributed to an unpleasant and effortful experience. Read more ›

Posted in Family, Healthcare, Healthcare Reform, HMOs, Insurance, Soccer

Having a Boss is Like Having a Second Child

Posted on by Jeremy Lurey

For those of you who do not know me, I am Plus Delta’s Executive Assistant. Not only do I handle many of the administrative duties within our growing firm, and coordinate and assist with marketing and business development efforts, I am also the assistant to Jeremy Lurey, the firm’s Founder and CEO. We work very closely, and I’ve become very involved in managing many of the details of his professional (and often personal) life.

At the end of the day, when I leave the Plus Delta office, my job is nowhere close to being finished. I still have hours of work to do after I leave, and before I return the following day. This is because, like many women, I am a working Mother. I have the distinct pleasure of getting to leave my horrible office in Malibu every day around 5pm (click here to see the terrible view that I am stuck looking at all day, every day) and getting to go home and spend time with the most amazing 3-year-old boy in the world.

Gage Read more ›

Posted in Executive Assistant, Persnickety Boss, Working Mother Tagged with: , ,

Plus Delta’s CEO Recognized by The M&A Advisor

Posted on by Jeremy Lurey

On June 17, 2011, Plus Delta’s Founder and CEO Dr. Jeremy Lurey was once again recognized by The M&A Advisor as part of their Top “40 Under 40” Recognition Awards.  Created last year by The M&A Advisor, these awards celebrate the 40 leading M&A, financing, and turnaround professionals who have made tremendous accomplishments before their 40th year. In 2010, Jeremy was recognized as one of the inaugural 40 Under 40 Award winners. This year, he is proud to be named one of the 40 Finalists.

M&M Advisor 40 under 40 Awards

The 2011 “40 Under 40” Award winners were chosen for their individual accomplishments and particular expertise from a vast group of international nominees and by an independent judging panel of distinguished business leaders. And Jeremy likely deserves the award more now than when he won it the first time in 2010! Read more ›

Posted in Awards, merger and acquisition, recognition, The M&A Advisor, turnaround Tagged with: , , , ,

Battling Resistance and Getting “Buy-In” with Kotter and Whitehead

Posted on by admin

What change or innovation did not begin with the planted seed of a great idea?  Is YOU believing in your good idea enough?  Is enthusiastically presenting it to a group knowing it will make a crucial difference going to keep it from getting shot down?  John Kotter and Lorne Whitehead have delivered in their book “buy*in: saving your good idea from getting shot down” (Harvard Business Review Press, 2010) a defensive-driving, counterintuitive approach to protect those good ideas from unfair attach strategies that naysayers, nitpickers, and handwringers deploy with great success time and time again.

What we really want and may not be so effective at is to gain support by respectfully engaging your adversaries, standing your ground, and saving the day! Sound intriguing?  I forewarn you they are not tactics for the fainthearted.  The authors encourage you to “invite in the Lions”.  You may even become traumatized by the plain talk that leads you to relive some of your greatest failures.  But as with any Kotter book, your thinking will be turned upside down in a fresh and amusing way, and you will be forced to learn before you know what hit you.  How does the world’s foremost authority on Leadership and Change get inside our head’s like that?  And this time it’s not with Penguins (see Our Iceberg Is Melting), but a fairly docile Citizens Advisory Committee at the Centerville Library, wanting to put in new computers, and one fantastic idea. Read more ›

Posted in Book Review, Change management, Leadership, Lorne Whitehead, Resistance, transformation

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