Ted Lennon is responsible for Lowe Enterprises $200 million dollar luxury real estate

Ted Lennon is responsible for Lowe Enterprises $200 million dollar luxury real estate portfolio in California. He manages resales and serves as senior vice president of Lowe Development Corp. and Lowe Destination Development Inc. Alongside resorts, the company sells turnkey oceanfront bungalows, casitas, and villas starting at $1.3 million. Needless to say, Lennon knows the real estate realm in Beverly Hills and Bel Air quite well. Recently, he spoke in an interview with Palm Springs Life about what luxury living means today. He sees Beverly Hills and Bel Air area as "key, irreplaceable locations." Here is his view of what people want in a luxury home: "People are looking for value. 

They want affordable luxury. Today, with luxury properties more than ever, buyers want to feel like they are getting something special...They want to live in developments that are hassle-free as far as maintenance goes. They want the option of room service. The true key to luxury living today is having your time free and not having to run a large home managing a staff. We are also getting back to true luxury and taste with properties that are in a great location and stand out architecturally. " It is very important that professionals in the luxury real estate business know what their clients want. 

Paris Ramezanpour is at the top of that list of professionals, so you can feel confident when you work with her on buying or selling your new home. To view some of the luxury real estate that Re/Max Realtron/Paris Ramezan has sold or is selling, check out http://realtronhomes.com/paris-ramezanpour/

Vaughan foster parent business welcomes children with open arms.

Foster parent Avis McCoy hesitates, her eyes watering slightly, as she remembers the day she had to let go of the 18-month-old daughter she had raised from birth.

“She cried after me. She called me mama when I last saw her,” said the 50-year-old Brampton mother of three grown children and two grandchildren.

“It tore me apart. She saw me as a mom,” said Ms McCoy, who fully understood she was the child’s foster mother.

Ms McCoy makes up one of 30 foster parent families employed by Maple Star, a private agency in Vaughan licensed under the Children and Family Services Ministry that works with Children’s Aid societies in the GTA to provide foster care. The agency was based in Markham from 2004 until last December when it relocated to Vaughan.

“We work with more challenging kids with behavioural or emotional or medical needs. They (Children’s Aid Societies)have their own foster parents, but sometimes they are looking for secure foster parents for the children, large sibling groups, or the behaviours are more challenging than you would typically see in their (CAS) regular homes.

“They’ll look to us to provide that level of care,” Maple Star executive director Jennifer Mittelman said.
For more information please contact your Real Estate Expert: Paris Ramezanpour 4167281082.

"Turning Inspiration to Action" Paris Ramezanpour

"Still, five …

That’s because deciding and acting are not the same thing. We know this to be true, but how many times have you decided to learn something different but then found a year or two later, no progress had been made? Innovation happens only through action. No strategy is “great” until it is actually executed. And no one grows without making new choices.

Now, I just attended from the Fortune Most Powerful Women’s (MPW) conference, a few weeks back. In the course of a few days, I heard Swimmer Diana Nyad, Business Titan Warren Buffett (pictured in this post), IMF Chief Christine Lagarde, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, and Spanx founder Sara Blakely… and so many other leaders think aloud. The span of topics covered the value of audacious goals, to ways to build a more workable workplace, and included specific product and marketplace strategies.

The point is: inspiration was plentiful. It would be so easy to leave something such as this with a warm glow in my heart, but not have it change me. But I've found that I grow by using the “action” muscle so I thought I’d share how to do this, even for something as simple as a conference.

1. Talk it out. Conferences often a deluge of many varied things. Ofttimes I let the ideas decompress – first. It may sound counter-intuitive, but you need to give yourself some space from the long days and over stimulation to let the conversations and ideas take root. After reflection, I saw a broad theme at Fortune was how leaders build great cultures and so I wrote that up, and shared it here. My husband is known to send trip reports to his work colleagues, especially after doing customer visits. A CEO buddy will do a company wide note when he sees industry trends worth noting. The best learning moment is a teaching (and now in this very socialera world, also a sharing) moment.
   
2. Cultivate relationships. Because networks are the new companies, tending relationships is a skill worth honing. I use cardmunch to convert business cards to contacts at LinkedIn. I also send quick personal follow-ups via email. Last year, at this same conference, I had met Sallie Krawcheck (banking executive extraordinaire), who now owns 85 Broads …but we barely talked this year. I noticed that just as I was writing a note to her to say I wished we had connected, she dropped me a quick line. Staying in touch, keeping it short, making it personal helps to build your community over time. I am just as likely to trade fashion notes with a CEO, as I am a major piece of research. It doesn't follow any specific regimen, but I do aim to be helpful. This year, I noted Jules Pieri, CEO of the Grommet, is working on changing the ratio in the financial investment community. I connected her to some data I could find, as well as brokered some introductions that I would be helpful to her. Helping others to accomplish their goals is an inherently self-less but social way of saying "I care about your goals". Don’t make it transactional, nor about you. Just do it because you care, knowing networks are how work gets done now-a-days.
   
3. Chase Your Curiosity. The most important resource we have in growing is our curiosity. I remember when I first heard Clay Christensen say that ‘without a good question, a good answer has no place to go.’ When I look down at my notes, I often see a page of questions. Those help formulate what ideas I'm curious about, what needs exploring. This conference I was curious about the role of data in society – especially as it relates to how power is being/will be reformulated. I met a former FCC commissioner, and I’m looking forward to learning more of her points of view (she’s sending me research and papers shortly) that will let me learn more about this subject matter.

The most important thing I’ve learned over the years is this: Move inspirations into action. Don’t be the frog who just sat there, I tell myself. Even a little jump today, might help me build a muscle for a bigger jump later."

How To Get Your Team Committed To Your Company. Paris Ramezanpour 4167281082

"Any sustainable business, particularly one which operates in the service sector, is always going to be built on the foundations which are the skills and expertise of its staff. As somebody who has been in recruitment for a number of years, I have always made a point of ensuring we have the best possible people with us, who are performing to their highest possible level.

As a manager if you have skilled and motivated staff who are completely committed to the cause and fully understand the aims of the business, then half the battle has already been won. I have always said that one of the most important jobs of a leader is to get everybody else to buy into your vision for the company.

There are several ways you can tell just how fully committed team are to the cause. Firstly you have to ask yourself: are your people willing to go that extra mile if and when the situation demands it? At the times, when the pressure is on, you need people to be willing to pull out all the stops and get a result.

Of course, if you have a high turnover of staff then you know that there is an issue or problem. At the same time, it’s always important to have some movement in the workforce otherwise complacency, paralysis and even negativity can very quickly set in.

For the sake of both the organisation and your team people need to be given the chance to develop and further their careers. In the recruitment sector a turnover of around 15 per cent would be acceptable; any more than that and there is a big issue that needs to be addressed.

But the true test of whether your team are totally committed is always going to be their performance. The more committed people are to the business, the better they will perform.

The importance of remuneration cannot be ignored; it stands to reason that if you want the best performance from people then you are going to have to pay them the going market rate.

Wherever possible I have always tried to link pay and bonuses to performance, that way the team will hopefully understand the importance of a strong and properly functioning business model. In other words the better the company performs the higher the personal rewards.

Finally it is the role of a team manager to ensure that his or her workforce is fully committed to the organisation. Ultimately the performance of a firm is going to be directly related to the dedication of the people it employs.

All leaders have to be capable of winning and maintaining team loyalty and have to ensure everyone is working together for the greater good of the business.

It’s no good just handing out orders, you also have to make sure people are willing to give their all and fully understand why they are being asked to do something in a certain way. Regular and clear communication is vital to ensure staff are fully aware of the aims and ethos of the firm.

I have never been a great believer in giving somebody instructions and expecting them to follow it blindly. You have to make them feel fully involved - remember the aim is to create a team that is pulling together in the same direction."

Making the important decisions together. Paris Ramezanpour 4167281082

Making Decisions Together (When You Don’t Agree on What’s Important)

"Most strategic initiatives are run by teams whose members are drawn from around the company — from different functions, different business units, sometimes different countries. When it’s time to make decisions, these teams often run into trouble because individual members’ interests aren’t perfectly aligned. I spoke about the tensions inherent in collaborative work with Jeff Weiss and Jonathan Hughes, consultants with Vantage Partners and authors of a best-selling HBR article that addresses this topic: What Collaboration? Accept — and Actively Manage — Conflict.

Why do so many conflicts arise when people from different functions or units work together on a project?

Jon: Because they have different priorities and metrics for success.  One group’s accountable for managing costs, for example, and another group’s responsible for growing market share. There’s a built-in tension between the two goals — that’s as it should be. These are natural checks and balances. But obviously such tensions can create dysfunctional conflict.

Where do these conflicts tend to arise most often?

Jeff: It always shows up in discussions about budgets and resource allocation. Who will pay for what in a joint project? Will new projects be given priority over existing ones? What project gets the top talent?

For our clients, conflicts often arise when a multi-unit company is bidding for work. If several units with different P&Ls are working on a proposal, they have to sort through which will take a profit or margin hit to make the overall pricing work for the client.

Jon: Some interesting conflicts come up with companies in the technology sector. One unit might see another company as a strategic partner, where a different unit sees it as a major competitor – that’s not easy to sort out. And, if a company with both products and services is developing a solution, the product groups may believe they need to be completely agnostic about what products to recommend – if another company’s product is a better fit for the client, so be it. The product group does not see it that way (to put it mildly). Both sides have a reasonable point of view, but if they can’t engage in respectful conversations about how to balance this tension, it can metastasize.

You recommend developing a common process for resolving these conflicts. What might that look like?

Jeff:  If the people involved don’t have good conflict management skills, or they are moving so fast that they don’t want to deal with the conflict, they quickly resort to escalating it.   Various clients have found it helpful to build conflict-management mechanisms lower down in the organization: a standard method where each party articulates their position, and the interests behind the position. Then they come together  to develop multiple possible solutions, as well as objective criteria for sorting through the best option.

If this leads to resolving the conflict, terrific.  If not, at least they have a shared definition of the problem and some possible solutions to take to the next level of management. Many companies have also developed a standing meeting where the right range of cross-functional leaders get together, or can be called together, on a regular basis to resolve conflict upon escalation.

You also recommend providing criteria for making tradeoffs. What are some examples of those?

Jon: You can look at these issues from any number of perspectives. Here are some that we’ve found useful:

• First ask: What are the core strategic imperatives that should govern this decision? This one often gets overlooked.
• Second (and this is related): Why are we doing this in the first place? Were we trying to get into an emerging market, develop a new capability, or what?
• Third, are the different parties’ risks and rewards structured differently, so that we can find a way that nobody has to give anything up?
• Fourth, is there a way to split the difference? (This can be useful; it can also be dangerous because it can lead to nobody getting what they need.)
• Fifth, if we looked at this from the point of view of the customer (or whatever third party we’re dealing with), would the best answer become clear?

What are the traps groups tend to fall into when making decisions together?

Jeff: We talked about three “myths” in the article: the myth that collaboration happens automatically if you take a team approach. That’s nonsense; it ignores the fundamental differences between business functions and divisions. Then there’s the myth that you can structure incentives to eliminate conflict. I guarantee you, you’ll never get it right. And finally, the myth that some magical organizational structure exists that will get everyone on the same page.

Jon: Here are some others: People tend to frame issues in an unnecessarily binary way — “Should we do X or Y?”  This generally leads to arguments about what is true or false.  Instead, exploring the upsides and downsides of various alternatives is typically much more productive.

Also, attempts to resolve conflicts get hijacked by people’s egos.  Once individuals stake out different points of view on an issue, their energy is focused on being right, rather than finding the optimal answer.

Another common trap: Assuming that a conflict either needs to be resolved by consensus (which can take a very long time!) or that a senior executive will need to step in, autocratically, and impose a solution (which may create a significant risk of poor implementation).  Be a bit more granular in parsing roles and responsibilities.  Decide who will make the final decision, if it comes to that.  (You want to limit this to a very small number of individuals.)  Who will have the right to be heard during the decision-making process?  The trick is to clarify these roles at the outset of a conflict, beforedigging into the issue itself.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that people, and organizations, don’t learn from their conflicts.  In most companies, there are a few patterns of conflict that happen over and over again.  Leaders need to spot the patterns and explore what’s driving them.  For example, is there an emerging change in the marketplace that is creating very different pressures on different parts of our business?  The goal is to reduce unnecessary conflict, where possible, at its root, and also to extract strategic insights hidden underneath other conflicts"