Five Driving Needs – Part 1 – A Framework for Understanding the Energized Brain

Woman thinking

Your powerfully productive day is the result of an energized brain.

Imagine yourself at the end of a powerfully productive day. You became so immersed in your work you lost all track of time. Every task you checked off increased the buzz. By end of day, the sense of progress was palpable.

What creates a day like that? One could imagine it was sandwiched between two dismally unproductive days. So what changed?

It wasn’t your talents – they don’t change from one day to the next. Neither was it your education, your experience, or skills – they don’t spike from one day to the next. It’s unlikely that gritting your teeth and trying harder contributed a thing.

Consider this possibility: that day was the result of an energized brain. Not raw physical verve and mojo, but what we call intelligent energy – the ability to sustain focus in the midst of distractions, manage your emotions in high stakes situations, process oceans of information, pick out the vital bits of intel and connect the dots in surprising ways.

This article de-mystifies that ever-elusive, powerfully productive day. It doesn’t occur randomly or by chance. There is a pattern:

  1. Your driving needs are fulfilled
  2. Those fulfilled needs energize your brain
  3. That energy endows you with peak performance.

Juices?

Question: what do people mean when they say, “The juices are flowing”?

Answer: Ideas are popping. The volume of ideas, The novelty of those ideas. The usability of those ideas. In short, creativity is getting easy here.

Question: what happens when your phone runs out of juice?

Answer: Brilliant technology – now useless – a paperweight – because it ran out of energy.

Question: what do people mean when they say, “I’ve got the juice to do this now”?

Answer: “I have energy to tackle this.”

The point? Juice is vernacular for energy. You’ve no doubt heard of dopamine – it’s an electro-chemical juice. When it flows – we’re more creative. There are several kinds of juices – each endowing us with a unique functionality. When GABA flows we feel calm. When serotonin flows we feel confident. When oxytocin flows we feel rapport. These juices prime our brains with the connectivity and current that produce peak performance, but they transcend plumbing and electricity by a long shot.

These brain-friendly juices create an emotional state, priming us with feelings of connection, clarity, creativity and confidence. Each juice is a form of intelligent energy that makes our brains smarter and our bodies more vitalized. Juice makes things easier – it shows up in the numbers – and in the work environment.

At Juice, Inc, we have partnered with many leaders to release this intelligent energy in their employees. Here’s what they told us:

Read the full article

By Brady Wilson

Read the next article in our Five Driving Needs Series: Why are Psychological Needs so Biologically Urgent?

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Unused Technology Costs

How much does your organization spend each year on technology? Not just new technology but maintenance and subscription renewals as well?

 

If you’re a medium or enterprise-level corporation, it’s probably not an insignificant amount

 

For that matter, relatively speaking, a lot of small businesses can also point to technology as a good chunk of their operating expense

 

But now the more uncomfortable question…are you using all of that technology you’re paying for?

 

I was going through my invoices last week and realized that I’m still getting charged by our old hosting provider even though we moved our website to another platform several months ago

 

It’s a small monthly charge but, if I hadn’t caught it, who knows how long I would’ve kept paying those fees

 

Now imagine if that were to happen in a larger organization. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen in large organizations, there’s not much left for the imagination

 

A few years ago, we were doing some consulting work for a client who’d heavily invested in a premier financial platform that was running on their on-premise servers

 

They’d paid seven figures for the initial license fee plus a year’s worth of consulting for customization, implementation and testing

 

And every year since they’d been paying close to six figures for annual maintenance

 

During our review we noticed two invoices our client had received from the same software supplier

 

One was for the annual maintenance, but the second one was for annual subscription fees

 

What had happened was, during the year they were going through their implementation, the supplier released a cloud version of the same product

 

And got the finance department to sign up for a one-year subscription so that they could start using the software right away

 

With the idea being that everyone would get moved to the on-premise version when it went live

 

But that road from on-premise to cloud is usually a one-way street. Rarely do you see an organization go the other way

 

So they went live, but everyone kept using the cloud version

 

And because there was a disconnect between the business and IT, the subscription would auto-renew each year and finance would pay the renewal

 

At the same time, IT would get an annual maintenance invoice for the server-based version and that would get paid as well

 

Now I know that a lot of you are hearing this and thinking about a time when this might have happened in your organization

 

Or you’re wondering if it’s happening right now

 

Folks, it’s September, which means a lot of your IT contracts are going to be coming up for renewals

 

And if there’s ever been a year when it was absolutely critical that you only pay for what you’re using…it’s this year

 

If you’re going to survive 2020 and still be standing in 2021, you have to get a handle on your IT spend

 

But you’ll never be able to do that until you have a handle on your IT contracts

 

And that’s where I believe we stand head and shoulders above everyone in this space

 

Because I designed a platform that gives your procurement team everything they need to properly manage contracts…and they’ll do it for pennies on the dollar

 

So take 5 minutes to see how OneView works

 

And if you need some help with your year-end renewals, reach out to us. We can help with that too

 

Mohammed Faridy

[email protected]

 

 

 

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How to Negotiate With Your Existing Suppliers

“If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles”

       Sun Tzu, The Art of War

 

When it comes to negotiating with a supplier you know versus a supplier you don’t, the tendency is to prefer the one you have an existing relationship with.

 

There could be several reasons as to why this would make the most sense:

 

       Renewing an agreement for goods and services that are already being provided.

       Engaging a supplier who is already on site for time-sensitive work

       Leveraging pre-negotiated terms, conditions and/or pricing

 

However, these are not the most common reasons for businesses to prefer their incumbent suppliers to new ones.

 

The main reason we negotiate with incumbents is because we know them.

 

When I needed new tires I asked my mechanic what he would recommend, since he had been servicing my car for the last 6 years. Tires were not his specialty and I knew I would pay a premium by having him find and purchase the tires for me. But I also knew that he would recommend the best tires based on his knowledge of my car and the way I drive it.

 

Similarly, we tend to prefer looking to our incumbent suppliers for solutions to our problems because we feel that they will recommend what is best for our organization based on their knowledge and experience from having worked with us.

 

This makes complete sense, and in most cases would be the recommended approach. The goal should be to have 80% (or more) of your annual spend go through your top 20 suppliers.

 

But this should not mean that we forego the negotiation. A healthy supplier relationship is built not only on trust, but also on transparency and mutual benefit. Good suppliers understand this and are willing to open up discussions for a mutually beneficial agreement. The rest are looking to make a quick buck at their customer’s expense.

 

I recently had the good fortune and misfortune of representing a client in negotiations with two very well known software suppliers. The client had acquired another company through a divestiture and both suppliers were incumbents of the divested entity.

 

One supplier came to the table in the full spirit of partnership. Their team brought forth all of the knowledge they had gleaned over the years in licensing their products to the divested entity. They understood the architecture and proposed solutions that would allow my client to maximize their investment. They also provided industry insight that demonstrated an understanding of my client’s business beyond what their software did.

 

The other supplier pointed to their existing license agreement with the divested entity and stated that, since it did not allow for assignment of licenses, my client would need to re-purchase all of the licenses that were currently installed or face legal recourse.

 

In the end, we negotiated a short-term agreement with one supplier and established a longer-term strategic partnership with the other.

 

I will let you guess which supplier my client no longer uses.

 

Leveraging existing relationships doesn’t mean giving in to the incumbent’s demands, but rather negotiating mutually beneficial agreements with the suppliers that want to be true business partners and not just vendors that sell you things.

 

Have you recently negotiated with an incumbent supplier, or are you preparing to do so anytime soon? If so, I would love to hear about any challenges you’ve had to overcome or tips you may have for the rest of us.

 

OneView

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Strategic Leadership for Men

Strategic Leadership for Men

Thursdays, 5-6pm ET

Starts July 23, 2020

Price: $430 for 8 interactive sessions

Registration Link: https://sagewisdom.levellingup.ca/strategic-leadership-for-men/

 

Strategic Leadership for Men

Led by Jenn Lofgren (Master Certified Coach, Forbes Coaches Council, Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, Dare to LeadTM Certified Facilitator, CPHR & SHRM-SCP)

The role as a leader can be a challenging and isolating journey for everyone and especially for men. Today, there are few venues or communities for men to explore their leadership challenges and development with other men. For many men, this leads to feelings of loneliness, overwhelm, doubt, anxiety and much more.

As leaders, the first step to creating results through others is to develop yourself first. I believe the journey of leadership development requires courage, connection and perspective with a safe group of peers.

This accelerator group will create a support space with other men in leadership to connect with your peers and to learn key strategies to expand your strategic leadership. You will create weekly action plans to put your learning into practice and strengthen your authentic leadership.

NOTE: This Accelerator Group is for men only, and recommended for mid-level leaders holding titles like: Manager, Director and VP

You will LEARN:

  • Understand how your reactive tendencies create limited leadership success
  • Explore the role risk, fear and toxic expectations play in triggering your reactive
  • Learn the three reactive tendencies and which one you default to the most
  • How to develop by leveraging tendencies and which one you default to most
  • How to develop by leveraging your strengths, not your weaknesses
  • The role of vulnerability and mindset in developing strategic leadership
  • Strategies to respond vs react in challenge and crisis

You will ACHIEVE:

  • Clarity on your path to leadership effectiveness remaining true to who you are
  • A two-page leadership development plan to advance your leadership over 6-12 months
  • Understanding of the gifts of your leadership style and how to adapt in leading others
  • Relationships and community with other men in leadership
  • Skills to expand your leadership community with other me

Register Here

What is LevellingUp?

Many of us feel abandoned or alone in our leadership roles, and we’re looking people who can join us on our journey.  By combining interactive coaching & collaborative community, LevellingUp offers a unique, powerful, and affordable way for growing professionals to secure success and experience joy.

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Upcoming (Virtual) Professional Development Session on Free Trade Agreements CUSMA (USMCA), CETA and TPP

Learn more about the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) which entered into force on July 1, 2020, replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Empower yourself with the current knowledge and tools when dealing with suppliers, shippers, carriers, banks, freight forwarders, customs brokers, CBSA and other Participating Government Agencies involved in your international supply chain in North America, Europe and in the Pacific region

Date & Time: August 12 and/or August 13, 2020 | 9 AM – 12 PM EST
Location: Zoom
Member Price: $595 for 2-Half Days and $395 for 1-Half day | Non-member price: $895 for 2-Half Days and $495 for 1-Half Day

Register Here for 1-Day and/or 2-Days Sessions.

 

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COVID Recovery and Preparing for the Fall Wave

COVID Recovery and Preparing for the Fall Wave

Date: Aug 26, 2020

Time: 4:30 PM (EDT)

Location: Zoom Virtual Platform

Supply Chain Canada, Ontario Institute and OPBA Jointly Host Their Third Learning & Networking Event (Virtually)

Stay tuned for more details.

Opening Note: Laura Cocuzzi, Manager – Procurement & Planning, Region of Peel | Board Member – Supply Chain Canada, Ontario Institute

Panel Introduction: Chris Penny, Kinetic GPO

Panel:

Umesh Kalia  – Procurement Manager, City of Vaughan
Tina Iacoe – Procurement Manager, City of Hamilton
Tracey Dennis  – Chief Procurement Officer, The Ottawa Hospital
Mai Gagujas – Procurement and Supply Chain, The Manitoba Securities Commission

Register here

Pricing

  • Member – $10
  • Non-Member – $20

Earn 2 CPD Points

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Free Webinar – Are My People Ok?

If you are a leader you need to know this.  Your people are coping with unprecedented levels of stress right now.

In this video you learn what three things you can do right now to help your people.

If you want to take a deeper dive into this topic, join me for my free webinar on July 14th at 11:00am ET.

Register Today

 

Jacqueline Arnold  ●  Founder

519-386-9610  ●  [email protected]

www.iheartmywork.ca

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Free Webinar – Ask an Expert – Legal and HR Advice on Re-Opening & Re-Engaging Employees

Looking for some legal and HR tips for re-opening and re-engaging your people?

Join other business owners and organizational leaders in Simcoe County for the Ask an Expert session with Tim Timpano and myself on Jun 29 at 3pm.

Join Tim Timpano, Partner, Specializing in Labour & Employment Law & Business Law at Downey Tornosky Lassaline & Timpano and Sophie Mathewson, Strategic Advisor & Coach at Prism Group International as they help businesses navigate human resources and employment challenges as they re-open and operate in a COVID-19 world.

Businesses will be provided with information regarding:

  • Best practices for re-engaging employees
  • Managing employee expectations & ensuring a positive employment experience
  • Employer & employee obligations for safe workplaces
  • Constructive dismissals in Ontario
  • Answer questions from businesses and employers, including a Q&A session

Register Today!

 

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Strategic Leadership for Men

Strategic Leadership for Men

Thursdays, 5-6pm ET
Starts June 11
Price: $430 for 8 interactive sessions

Register Here

Strategic Leadership for Men
Led by Jenn Lofgren (Master Certified Coach, Forbes Coaches Council, Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, Dare to LeadTM Certified Facilitator, CPHR & SHRM-SCP)

The role as a leader can be a challenging and isolating journey for everyone and especially for men. Today, there are few venues or communities for men to explore their leadership challenges and development with other men. For many men, this leads to feelings of loneliness, overwhelm, doubt, anxiety and much more.

As leaders, the first step to creating results through others is to develop yourself first. I believe the journey of leadership development requires courage, connection and perspective with a safe group of peers.

This accelerator group will create a support space with other men in leadership to connect with your peers and to learn key strategies to expand your strategic leadership. You will create weekly action plans to put your learning into practice and strengthen your authentic leadership.

NOTE: This Accelerator Group is for men only, and recommended for mid-level leaders holding titles like: Manager, Director and VP

You will LEARN:
• Understand how your reactive tendencies create limited leadership success
• Explore the role risk, fear and toxic expectations play in triggering your reactive
• Learn the three reactive tendencies and which one you default to the most
• How to develop by leveraging tendencies and which one you default to most
• How to develop by leveraging your strengths, not your weaknesses
• The role of vulnerability and mindset in developing strategic leadership
• Strategies to respond vs react in challenge and crisis

You will ACHIEVE:
• Clarity on your path to leadership effectiveness remaining true to who you are
• A two-page leadership development plan to advance your leadership over 6-12 months
• Understanding of the gifts of your leadership style and how to adapt in leading others
• Relationships and community with other men in leadership
• Skills to expand your leadership community with other me

What is LevellingUp?
Many of us feel abandoned or alone in our leadership roles, and we’re looking people who can join us on our journey. By combining interactive coaching & collaborative community, LevellingUp offers a unique, powerful, and affordable way for growing professionals to secure success and experience joy.

Share

Free Webinar – Leadership Ask Me Anything

Leadership Ask Me Anything

Friday, June 12; 2-3pm ET
Price: FREE!
Register Here

Leadership Ask Me Anything
Free advice from an expert for your business or personal leadership challenges!

What leadership problems are you facing RIGHT NOW?
Bring them to this interactive discussion and get solutions.

LevellingUp Sage in Residence: Jean Parker (Leadership Coach, CFO, Educator, BBA, BEd., ACC) will offer her advice and insights.

What is LevellingUp?
Many of us feel abandoned or alone in our leadership roles, and we’re looking people who can join us on our journey. By combining interactive coaching & collaborative community, LevellingUp offers a unique, powerful, and affordable way for growing professionals to secure success and experience joy.

Share