Santosh Rathod

It is said that if you want to be successful, you must surround yourself with great people. One of the most challenging aspects of running your own business is finding great people and than keeping them. For those of you that run businesses larger than just yourself, it seems we are always trying to create that special energy where everything is harmonious and smooth. You know how delicate this is because one bad apple on the team can spoil the whole bunch. I believe one of the most important things we can do as business owners and managers, is re-invest in our people on an on-going basis. There is nothing more important than the continuity and energy of the group as they represent your brand and deal with your customers. Here are some tips to help you build a winning team: • Encourage Them— We all like to be encouraged. A vote of confidence to your staff, a moment of connecting with a staff member on an excellent act they performed, a simple quote emailed to your staff on a daily basis, or leaving them a voicemail every morning with some inspirational message. Catch people doing good things and than verbally praise them. Immediate praise is a great way to boost confidence and energy and these are vital for the success of your employee.

• Reward Them—We all like to be rewarded if we do something good. This doesn’t necessarily mean they just need to get a good pay check. Money isn’t always the prime motivator. Public forms of recognition, an email recognizing their efforts that is sent to all colleagues, provide them with more responsibility that comes with greater potential reward, or ask them for their input on key situations.

• Provide Feedback—It is said that “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” Too many times we have expectations of our employees and we fail to communicate them to our staff. Ken Blanchard talks about not being a “seagull” manager where you just go in and dump on people. Once again, catch people doing great things and praise in public and condemn in private. Feedback should be provided frequently and informally. Even a 3-5 minute conversation can help an employee grow and develop. While it is important to have annual reviews where you sit down for an hour or so and provide structured feedback to your employees, on-going spontaneous feedback is vital for the success of your team also. In Jack Welsh’s book “Winning” he talks about great leaders provide candid feedback on an on-going basis. Communicate your expectations clearly, provide them resources to help them get their job done, and provide feedback on their performance. This helps them grow and realize their potential. Not easy to do but a must if you want to build a great organization.

• Allow Opportunity—Employees often want to know there are growth opportunities within the organization. Provide your team with potential to grow. Whether it be to create product, expand their role, develop a program, take ownership of a certain task, or assist you with a specific need, know their strengths and give them an opportunity to grow. Guide them, steer them, provide resources for them to succeed, but let them spread their wings a bit if they deserve it.

• Show Appreciation—Out of a recent poll of ten items on “What Employees Want”, employees responded with “full appreciation of work done” at #2 (“Interesting Work” was voted #1 by employees). Ways to show appreciation are often “easy” to do but owners/managers often neglect it. A simple “thank you” or verbal recognition for going above and beyond are powerful. A hand written thank you card is powerful. A gift certificate is a great idea. A birthday card on their special day is a nice touch that you remembered their day. It doesn’t have to be big but a simple sign of appreciation goes a long way in making your employee an integral part of the team.

• Be a Great Listener—All of us are extremely busy. That doesn’t buy us the excuse that we are too busy to deal with our staff. There is nothing more important than listening to your own people. They often know the pulse of an organization better than the manager/owner but we often don’t give them the time to talk. A great leader listens to his people and makes decisions based on their recommendations. Our people want to feel like they have “a voice” in the organization. Listen to your people and be open, honest, and compassionate.

• Celebrate Success—If your team wins, celebrate. If you had a great quarter, great year, or got word of a fantastic accomplishment, celebrate with your team. All people like a celebration. Ideas can be something as simple as having lunch catered in or extravagant as a weekend retreat away for your team. Celebrations boost spirit and energy and often do wonders to ignite the energy of your group.

• Provide Team-Building Events—Time away from the office are often great ways for your employees and even families to connect and help camaraderie. Examples may include team softball game, beach day, attend a conference together, bring in a motivational speaker to facilitate a day of “personal development”, or volunteer your time to a needy organization one day.

• Provide “Personal Development”—Closely connected to the above statement, our employees love to have “coaching” facilitated to them. I love to take my staff through different exercises to help them grow personally. Last year, I had a “Growth 2006” program that was based on meetings every 3 months to facilitate an individual’s personal growth. This year we have had our “Transformation 2007” program based on personal transformation. These programs are powerful to do as our own staff takes time to strategize their own life. “Blue Sky Time” to work on your business and your life is critical for all people and I have found these few hour programs are awesome for providing employees clarity in the direction in which they are moving.

• Be a Great Leader—The art of leadership is critical for the success of an organization. Great leaders provide energy, motivation, vision, feedback, communication, teaching, mentoring, and lead by example. Read books on leadership and management and constantly spend time investing in your leadership skills. Behind every great team, there is typically a great leader and great individuals. It is the time spent to meld and grow your team behind a common mission and vision that creates a special environment in which to thrive.

All of these points are ways in which we can build a winning team. It takes a lot of time and energy to lead an organization. It seems like we are often just putting out fires or waiting for the next fire to occur. My encouragement to you is that you take “ownership” of being a great leader and invest the time in doing the things necessary to keep your team growing in the right direction. There is nothing more valuable than your team. Invest in them and everyone will reap the benefits.

ACTION STEP: Determine what you can do this week to be a better leader. Choose 2 or 3 items and decide what steps you are going to commit to this week to help build up your team. Be aware of the energy and environment when you implement these few things.

From my own personal experience of being involved in certain relationships, I have come to realize there are three different levels of Soul Mates. We discussed Soul Mates in a previous article of mine, ‘Soul Mates - Do they really exists” now we should keep our eyes open and pay closer attention to our relationships, in order that we might recognize those soul mates. Soul mates have different tasks to fulfill in your life, and likewise theirs. It is not always the case that these relationships will exist on a level where ‘physical’ interaction is involved and this should not be confused with their initial task toward you. Some Soul Mates are here only to serve as being a link between two other Soul Mates of theirs in the first place. This alone is a very important and significant task, as without that link the reunion of the other souls might not ever happen. We will identify with the different characteristics of those Soul Mates together and you should, therefore, be able to detect some of them who are present in your life at this time.

As you can see, there is no limit to what a true Soul Mate might do in order to provide their support and, on many occasions, it is not fully understood why they do so. You might question my statement and wonder why a Soul Mate will give up his or her own Soul Mate to provide a link for someone else to move on in! I mean is this not the dream we are searching for all of our lives? Well, that’s beauty of Soul Mate, that is, unconditional love!

Soul Mates are a universal flow of untapped energy that we can relate to as love and many of us do not understand the meaning of this. It is the same thing we keep avoiding all our life when we don’t invest ourselves fully in our relationships anyway! On an unconscious level, Soul Mates tap into that energy of unconditional love.

Regardless of the level of your Soul Mate, it does not mean in any way or form that Soul Mates have to be involved in a physical relationship in order for them to be together. In any of those levels, it is very easy to fall into the trap of taking things for granted. This should be avoided at all costs. Both Soul Mates have to be ready to embark into their journey together, and this is very important for the relationship to succeed.

Here are the three levels of Soul Mates I have come to realize and understand through experiences of my own:

Level One: Your mirrored image – These are a rare example. However, it is possible that they do exist in each of our lives at one point or another. We might have one or two in a lifetime from this category, if we are lucky! What makes them special? Soul Mates of this sort come into our life in a fast, weird and unexpected way. The situations and events in our lives begin to change of their own accord, in order to accommodate the arrival and the reunion of both Souls. In such a case such as this, it is can almost be said that it is ‘written in the stars!’ Both Souls have to be ready for each other, as I did explain before it is not enough to sustain the relationship at its full potential, only by existing as Soul Mates. This level is the strongest and most powerful type of Soul Mates. They do have many similar interests and share an almost equal interest in their life direction. They will think alike, and in many cases will be able to continue speaking a sentence where the other one has left off. They are a mirror of each other, although they do not have to be exactly the same. However, each one compliments the other with their individual strengths and weaknesses and they will understand each other by being on same ‘wavelength’.

Level Two: Your Supporter – Soul Mates of this sort are everywhere around you. Try to take deeper look at the people who surround you. Just look around when you are in dire need of help or guidance in a ‘life or death’ situation or at a time when you have a heavy burden on your shoulders. Who is around you and ready to listen to you when you really need their assistance? Think of the people who bring you comfort and peace when you need it, or who answer your call when you need some help. These types of Soul Mates do have unconditional love towards each other which can sometimes be difficult to comprehend. Is there someone in your life, of whom, you can relate to being there in that fashion?

Level Three: Your Provider – We encounter these types of Soul Mates in situations that might feel ‘weird’ or perhaps in some un-expected places. We like to refer to them, sometimes, as being our angels. If they occur, they usually will not stay in our lives for a great length of time. You might come across a Soul Mate of this kind when you are just wondering along the street, thinking away to yourself and from nowhere someone will provide with you a small message that will open up a possible answer to those ‘thoughts’ you have upon a certain circumstance in your life. These Soul Mates are placed on your path ‘out of the blue’ and we might never see their face again! We then carry on, feeling blessed at having had them in our life at that necessary moment. Their role is to provide us with an answer or a push toward making a small decision in order to keep us moving in our lives and struggles at that time. Can you relate to such an occurrence in your life?

I asked my guides the question, “will I ever meet my Soul Mates?” They replied, “You keep searching throughout your life for the perfect partner for you, but, have you ever questioned if you are a good example of a Soul Mate for someone else?” In reality, the importance is not in hunting to find the right Soul Mate or partner for you. The importance is in whether you yourself are willing to be the ‘right’ Soul Mate or partner for someone else! Life is a two way street, but, are you ready to be the right one for someone else?

In the end, we all can be the ‘right’ Soul Mate for anyone we choose in our life, but only when we are ready to treat our partner as a human being, as a soul and to cherish every moment spent with them. Also it is crucial that we learn to let go of the fact that we do have differences between us and any ‘ego’ that exists in any relationship. How ready are we? That’s the bottom line! The search has to start from within ourselves first”.

From my account of how Soul Mates exist in our lives, we can see that they are everywhere around us and we have been blessed since the day we were born! How much real attention do we pay to the people around us? I believe that most of the time we do take these people for granted! Why? One main reason is because we become too self-centered, leading to us disregarding those people around us who provide us with help, who listen to us and generally do sympathize with us in our time of need. After all, it is not only about providing someone with sympathy, but about acknowledging people for who they really are.

I would also like to mention here that any relationship that brings the union of ‘Old Souls’ is above all and the best time and example of soul mates being together, the reason being, for what they will bring to each other in terms of growth, understanding and appreciation. As a result of their union their wisdom, compassion, value of each other and evolution of consciousness will flourish in a way that would be almost impossible for them to achieve if they were united with another soul that is less highly evolved than what they are themselves. In such a case the older soul will always feel a huge gap or that there is something missing in the relationship in terms of their overall understanding and awareness of each other and it is only because the souls exist on two completely different levels of consciousness. I will not go into too much detail here on the subject of ‘Old Souls’ as I will have an article next month which focuses primarily on this topic.

At the end Soul Mate is about unconditional love. If you have that and you can provide that to anyone around and especially towards your partner, I believe you find your Soul Mate after all!

Wishing you all to be with your Soul Mates!