In our work with Fit Leaders, we often borrow a concept from Albrecht known as Moments of Truth. A Moment of Truth (MOT) is any episode in which the consumer or customer comes into contact with any aspect of our organization and gets an impression of the quality of its service.

Each MOT presents us with the opportunity to please or delight our customers by going above and beyond their expectations. At the same time, each MOT introduces the risk that we will disappoint, confuse or enrage the customer.

Think about your own work and relationships, and try to identify all of the MOTs that exist as your customers (including your team) interact with you. This defines your “cycle of service”.

As an example, recall the last time you needed to be seen by a healthcare professional, perhaps for an annual physical. Here is a list of some of the MOTs we might imagine if we put ourselves in the shoes of the patient.

• Call for an appointment.
• Find a parking place.
• Enter the building and try to orient yourself.
• Read the signs to find where to go.
• Ask for directions.
• Check in.
• Show your insurance card and fill out forms.
• Sit in the waiting room.
• Go with the technical assistant into the exam area.
• Have your vital signs taken.
• Discuss your physical condition in an interview.
• Go through a series of tests and measurements.
• Be seen by the physician.
• Check out and pay your bill.
• Find your way back to your car.
• Drive out of the parking lot.
• Wait for the results of your exam.
• Receive the results.
• Call for follow-up treatment if necessary.

How many of these MOTs were positive and shining for you? How many of them were negative, irritating or just plain dull? It is often surprising how many distinct MOTs there are in almost any service interaction, and how many opportunities we have to truly serve our customers.

What are you doing, specifically, that is making others feel served? And, when you are not pleased with how you handled a MOT, what specifically are you doing differently next time to increase the likelihood of delighting your customer?

Begin with your own chart of individual MOTs, and then track your customers’ experience at each point along the chain of service. Our job as leaders is to maximize the number of positive MOTs for our customers, and to enable our people to provide the highest-quality service to their customers.

Change is rarely easy, and when we go to work at modifying a behavior, relapsing to our “old way of doing things” is fairly predictable.

Many people point to the need for “discipline” if we are to successfully bring about lasting change. In fact, we often hear that some people are just “so disciplined” they can accomplish anything, while others constantly fail because “they have no discipline”.

Discipline can seem too hard, like an unrelenting taskmaster, often leading some to just give up, concluding they don’t have what it takes to make change stick.

I prefer to think of change as a more gradual replacement of an existing habit with a new and more positive habit that serves us better.

As an example, let’s consider a leader that has an email Inbox with thousands of emails, some read and some unread. The leader knows, intellectually, that having a cluttered Inbox takes additional time to find important messages and/or documents, and often contributes to missed deadlines or missed opportunities when emails are not read or addressed in a timely manner.

Even when this leader knows how to manage his or her email Inbox in a more efficient and effective manner, it can be difficult to apply the simple three-step process we teach in our time management course called The Vanishing To-Do List™.

The solution to an out-of-control email Inbox is the development of a daily habit that causes us to apply a proven process that over a short amount of time creates the manageable Inbox we desire.

Rather than trying to become more disciplined (which can be an uphill battle), or simply giving up because “we just don’t have enough discipline”, we can instead decide to spend a set amount of time each day going through a three-step process that can create our desired outcome.

While some may see little difference between developing a new habit, through consistent practice, and forcing ourselves to “be more disciplined”, the results we see with our clients speak for themselves.

Committing to daily habits, and holding ourselves accountable for the small or big changes we seek in our lives, can create more positive momentum without all of the baggage we often associate with past failures around becoming “more disciplined”.

Seen this way, all of us have the ability to make change in our lives, one new habit at a time. Start today!

When prompted for examples of creative genius, many of us conjure up images of Archimedes and his overflowing tub (“Eureka”), Newton and the falling apple or Franklin and his kite.

While moments of insight and sheer brilliance often appear to come out of nowhere, this is not always the case.

Creativity requires seeing things differently and managing our fear of the unknown. To effectively build and maintain a creative culture, it is also important to avoid the most common creativity killers including premature editing, groupthink and playing it safe.

One creativity tool used by several leading companies is a process known as SCAMPER, which asks the following questions that explore a number of possible changes to any existing product, service, methodology or process.

Substitute – Are there any components of our product that can be substituted or replaced with something else? (Think substituting artificial sweeteners for sugar in soda pop to create the diet soda product line.)

Combine – Can our product be combined with other products to create a new product? (Think smartphones that combine the traditional phone with other capabilities such as a camera, a GPS, etc.)

Adapt – Are there ideas from other industries that we can borrow and apply to our product? (Think electric cars that are adapting the use of laptop batteries as their energy storage medium.)

Maximize or Minimize – Are there components of the product that can be enlarged or shrunken? (Think iPAD mini.)

Put to Other Uses – Are there completely different uses for your product? (Think many pharmaceutical agents designed initially to manage one condition that are found to effectively treat other ailments.)

Eliminate – Are there components or features of your product that can be eliminated? (Think gluten-free foods.)

Rearrange or Reverse – Is there an opportunity to rearrange or reverse engineer the process? (Think Soda Stream as a means of making your own soda pop.)

How can you apply SCAMPER to your own products and processes to unlock the creative potential of your team?

Many organizations pay lip service to transparency while, at the same time, refusing to share vital information with their employees. There are often a host of reasons for why “we can’t share that”.

At Google, transparency is a core value. Google believes it is their responsibility to maximize transparency around the flow of information related to their tools and services. They believe that more information means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual.

Quint Studer, author of Straight A Leadership: Alignment, Action and Accountability, observes that organizations with cultures of openness and freeflowing information fare better. According to Studer, transparent leaders help employees stay connected, reduce complacency, spark creative solutions and create organizational consistency leading to faster, more efficient execution.

When it comes to acting with transparency, there are nine specific behaviors that can increase the “what you see is what you get” perception of leaders.

1. Overwhelming Honesty
2. Seeking Feedback
3. Maintaining Composure
4. Letting Your Guard Down
5. Keeping Promises
6. Handling Mistakes Well
7. Delivering Bad News with Compassion
8. Avoiding Destructive Comments
9. Showing Others That You Care

Transparency starts with opening up lines of communication with an organization’s own employees and creating an environment that invites and encourages internal dialogue, and providing a welcoming and supportive workplace for employees.

How have you personally demonstrated one or more of the above behaviors in the last six months?

What types of information are you sharing with your team on a routine basis?

What types of information are you withholding from your team?

How will you and your colleagues achieve more transparency with your employees and your customers?

As 2013 takes hold, what new ideas will you discover by reading books that will change the way you view the world, your job, your contributions and your relationships?

One of my goals this year is to read at least 30 books. That’s 2.5 books a month. For me, this is quite manageable, as I do most of my daily reading at the gym while on the elliptical trainer.

To get you going, here’s a list of some of the books I plan to read this year. If you have thoughts or recommendations of other books, please send them to me, as I get some of my best leads on new books from you, my readers.

Here’s what’s on my list today:

The $10 Trillion Prize: Captivating the Newly Affluent in China and India by Silverstein and Singhi
Extreme Government Makeover by Miller
Peak by Conley
The Pumpkin Plan by Michalowicz
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Kuhn
StandOut by Buckingham
Why Are We Bad at Picking Good Leaders by Cohn and Moran
Influence by Cialdini
Collaboration by Hansen
The Laws of Subtraction by May
Leading Teams by Hackman
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
To Sell is Human by Pink
The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin
Platform by Michael Hyatt
The Little Book of Talent by Coyle
Give and Take by Adam Grant
Contagious by Jonah Berger
Happy Money – The Science of Smarter Spending by Elizabeth Dunn

Happy reading! Happy growing!

For some leaders, this may be about expanding existing product and service lines, while for others the focus may be on innovating and bringing fresh ideas and programs to the marketplace. I suspect for many of us it is a combination of both.

In addition to our focus on next year’s business strategies and the results we expect to achieve at work, many leaders also spend time at the end of each year to reflect on and renew personal goals in the important areas of health, finances, relationships and personal growth.

The sad truth for many of us is that these desires and hoped for results in the year ahead, whether personal or professional, will not be realized. The reason for this likely outcome is something that Kim Yost, CEO of Art Van, and author of Pumptitude and Maximum Pumptitude, describes as our not really, really, really wanting these outcomes and results.

I had the pleasure of hearing Kim Yost speak last month at a meeting of The Collaborative Group, where he challenged everyone present to pledge and commit to the steps necessary for reliably achieving the results we plan for 2013, including setting clear goals and objectives, building a gamebook, keeping focused on priorities, and continuously asking “What’s working?” and “What’s not working?”

2013 can be our best year ever if we commit to being “all in” and to holding nothing back.

In our Fit Leader’s Program, we talk often about The 90 Day Runway™ where we encourage our clients to set and accomplish 90-day goals. For most of us, a 90-day period creates a sufficient runway to achieve meaningful progress toward our goals, and it is a short enough period to compel action now.

I invite you to join me in getting pumped up for a spectacular year ahead.

While failing to receive support for our recommendations and requests can be frustrating and demotivating, is it possible that we are presenting our proposals in a “foreign” language?

The language of influence for engineers is often different from the language of social workers, and the language of influence for account managers can be different from that of senior vice presidents.

I’m obviously referring to more than whether we all speak English or French or German or Danish. Too often, when crafting our proposals, we think in terms of our own biases, our own goals and our own metrics.

To be successful ourselves, we need to recognize what others need to be successful, and then frame our approach in ways that link their success to our success.

One way to do this is to learn the language of influence for those we seek to persuade. By acknowledging or validating what others need before laying out our own proposal often softens whatever resistance might naturally come our way.

When presenting to a management team or a finance executive, we might want to show how our proposal will lead to a specific return on investment, a cost savings or an increase in productivity.

Pretending that everyone shares the same passion we do for a particular issue can lead to our surprise when our ideas are rejected or sent back. Our challenge is to connect what we want and need to what our audience needs and wants.

The next time you prepare to win others over, consider speaking to one or more of the individuals who will be evaluating your proposal to check in and ensure your language of influence is working. If not, spend some time “translating” your language before you make the pitch for real.

One of the more common sources of misunderstanding and wasted effort in organizations today is the disconnect that often arises between “what we think we hear” and “what was intended” in our communication with others.

Even when we seem sure we understand what has been said, when we do not take the time to confirm our own understanding by asking questions before we end a meeting or conversation with someone else, there are opportunities galore for confusion and surprise down the road.

Let me give you an example of how this can happen.

I know several leaders who have a style of “thinking out loud” when meeting one-on-one with others or participating in group discussions. Perhaps this is your style, or maybe you work with someone where this is true.

It is very easy for us to assume that what we are hearing is a “final answer” when in fact the other person is still vetting alternatives and is simply using the interaction or conversation as a way to continue to evaluate his or her final position.

The problem occurs when someone leaves a meeting with a boss, or some other decision-maker, thinking that “marching orders” or “executive support” has been provided, and based on that belief the individual proceeds to implement a program or rally support from others.

What often happens next is the individual who thought he or she was given approval for moving forward in one direction begins to learn that others have been encouraged to pursue another direction “with the support” of the boss or decision maker.

What each of these individuals may not realize is that they have read too much into their conversations with the boss and/or they simply heard what they wanted to hear.

Take the time to determine whether a boss is truly at a point of decision or whether he or she is simply in the middle of evaluating all possible directions. By asking “Is that your final answer?”, or some variation of this question, we can prevent some of the frustration, confusion and wasted effort that often accompanies the sense that the boss is sending mixed signals or is changing his or her mind, when in fact our boss is utilizing multiple conversations to arrive at the best decision for the organization.

The biggest downfall for senior leaders is the perception that they do not follow through on what they say they will do.

Many change initiatives are sold using fear. While these “Do or Die” messages can motivate in the short term, they are not as sustainable as we may think in the long run.

The most successful change programs recast or reframe the reason for change.

Dr. Dean Ornish created a successful change program for reversing heart disease by replacing the “fear of death” with a new vision of the “joy of living”, convincing heart patients they could feel better, not just live longer.

Lou Gerstner, shortly after taking on the job of reforming IBM in the early 1990s, discovered that all of his experience and expertise in strategy and finance wasn’t going to get the job done.

Instead, Gerstner’s turnaround efforts would depend critically on reframing the mission of the company toward services rather than mainframes.

Similarly, Steve Jobs’ turnaround at Apple succeeded largely by shifting the focus from a “marginalized player vanquished in the battle for market share” to “creative innovators who dared to ‘Think different’”.

Contrary to popular belief, we’ve also learned that radical, sweeping and comprehensive changes often are easier for people than small, incremental changes.

IBM’s turnaround, for example, hinged on a radical shift from selling computer hardware to providing services. This required a tremendous and rather immediate cultural shift.

Most organizational transformations (restructuring, retooling and rightsizing) often are complete within two to three years, and tend to be drastic in their execution. And, almost always, these organizations enjoy quick, tangible results.

So, the next time you are leading a change initiative, remember to reframe the reason for change in a way that is positive and compelling rather than negative and frightening. This will increase the odds that others will be enrolled in the change program.

And, be prepared to move beyond existing paradigms in a non-linear fashion to implement comprehensive change whenever you can. Taking decisive action creates tangible results more quickly and keeps people on board for the long haul.

And then…, we encounter real-life relationships and experience real-life interactions that invariably disappoint us and frustrate us.

When this happens, we can easily find ourselves fixated on how “unreliable others can be” or how “uncommitted” our coworkers or bosses seem to be.

Sometimes our assessment of the situation is spot on, and sometimes we may just be imposing a set of expectations that is unrealistic or approaching our projects and relationships with less patience than they require.

Whatever the cause, we can let these challenges get the best of us, and we can get so discouraged we can begin to think that we will not be able to overcome whatever is getting in our way.

Whenever this happens, and it seems to happen with some frequency in the real world in which we live, we always have a choice.

We can allow ourselves to lose focus and get bogged down by the circumstances confronting us, or we can keep perspective and remain focused on what is most important to moving the ball down the field.

Acknowledging disappointment, while staying focused on the future, is an important characteristic of Leadership Fitness.

By bringing patience, optimism and determination to their projects and to their relationships, Fit Leaders remain focused on their work and don’t let others push them off course.

Rather than wasting valuable time and energy on trying to change others, Fit Leaders keep their eyes on the prize and continue to model the behaviors and/or attitudes critical for long-term success.