There is No Maximum to Human Potential

It is not Rocket Science

Today I received a second call from a PR company pitching an annual service of doing press releases.  I have been planning my 2009 Marketing so when the guy first called me 2 weeks ago I asked him to call back after in 2 weeks and he would have my undivided attention.  He called back today and so my first question to him was how did his service differ from what I can buy online.  He immediately started listing facts about his products with some benefits--cost savings, help with setup, and so forth.  As he was talking it became increasingly clear that he had no clue about my business at all. I asked him if he knew at all what I did and he stuttered out that in fact he had no idea and could I explain to him.  The sad part is I was actually interested in what he was pitching, but the fact is I am not going to do business with any company that allows their sales people to blindly cold call people and waste my time.  I do not have the time to educate a sales person on the basics of what I do.  A quick search on the web will explain enough about my company to have a more relevant conversation.  I then said to him, "You have no idea if I am a dentist or a ditch digger and I don't have the time to educate you so I am finished talking."  

Seriously, it is not rocket science.  It is not a fancy sales technique.  It is simply understanding the other person enough to add value.  The fact that I asked him to call me back in 2 weeks did not even give him enough incentive to take the time to pull up my website.  The fact that people are still trying to sell this way is amazing to me and my mind is boggled by the wasted time and resources.    

10 Business Tips for a Down Economy

1. Stick with the core business. Not the time to try some fringe idea. Do what you do well and do more of it.

2. Try to control costs as much as you can. Postpone unnecessary spending.

3. Stay connected with others in your industry—link together to be stronger.

4. If you are slower than normal, use the time to clean up, plan for the future, rewrite your business plan, take inventory, take a class, plan.

5. Control worry and stress by exercising, connecting with people that make you feel good, and reading positive things.

6. Take your banker to lunch. They have a lot of time on their hands.

7. Take the old customer list and make follow-up calls and book appointments. Look at current customers and find what else you can offer then—other services—other divisions or locations.

8. Don't buy into others' fears.  Really monitor who you are listening to.  Don't freak out. 

9. Use Innovation to get better—how can you improve yourself and your business with new and fresh ideas? How can you help your customers and partners?

10. Make sure you only hire top performers.

Ballmer Rocks!

He came out with a crumpled piece of paper in his hand onto the circular rotating stage and launched in and spoke from memory for 40 minutes never once referring to his scrach paper. Even though the stage was rotating he still paced the circle---sometimes clockwise and othertimes counter clockwise like a tread mill.  He grabbed my attention from his first sentence and did not lose it until he came down for a landing and left the stage.  By the middle of his talk he tossed his paper into the center of the stage and kept on going.  I wondered if his few words on the paper were just a security for him in case he lost his train of thought.  He clearly did not need it and could have talked for hours keeping our attention. 

The Q&A was superb as well as his first question was about how he would solve the immigration problem in the US.  Note: His talk was not about this at all. He answered the question without pause and I sat in amazement as the questioner seemed satisfied.  The next question he fielded was about how he viewed open source like Linux--again a smart and well thought out answer completely off of the top of his head.  A final queston was about when we would see a pen that had hologram capabilities that we could just throw down and have a hologram appear in front of us.  He answered it by saying that it would happen when enough people thought that form factor would be beneficial to them.   He followed it up by saying that it looks like we have our first person to start the demand for it. 

Here are the 5 reasons why Ballmer rocks as a speaker:

1. He speaks from his heart and mind. 

2. ENTHUSIASTIC about what he is saying.

3. Quick on his feet--no hesitations during talk or Q&A.

4. Totally in the present moment and totally real.

5. Incredible gestures and use of hands and entire body to make point.

The Guy from Kodak was my Favorite

I had a brief conversation with a colleague who asked me who my favorite speaker was from the National Speakers Association Conference we had attended a few weeks prior in NY.  This is a conference attended by 2000 speakers with a speaker roster in the hundreds.  

I responded that they guy from Kodak was my favorite.  This "guy from Kodak" is Jeff Hayzlett, the CMO for the company. Here s a guy with a budget in the hundreds of millions of dollars.  He could take a traditional/boring approach to advertising but instead he took the company in a new direction by doing Celebrity Apprentice.  What I loved most about Jeff is his delivery--no-nonsense, non-PC, no fluff and PURE ENERGY! 

 

His enthusiasm towards the Kodak Easyshare printer made me want to toss out all of my printers and start fresh.  

 

Jeff evangelized the brand Kodak better than most preachers on Sunday morning.  I will never forget his talk and message.  

How Competitive are You?

Seattle just hosted The Boeing Classic--and in true Seattle spirit it rained for most of it.  My office is downtown and I noticed early last week that the golfers must be staying at the nearby Westin because I private shuttles with the Boeing Classic logo on the side kept arriving and dropping off guests.  On Thursday morning I was walking back to my office from a few blocks away and ended up walking with a three of the pro golfers--who I will refer to as Larry Moe and Curly to protect their identities.  I asked LMC how much rain they endured the day prior and they said they had endured rain on 13 out of 18 holes and that rain gear really came in handy.  As we continued to walk they asked me about my work and I explained how I work with senior executives and help them with their strategic objectives.  As we continued towards my office, there are two options for entry.  One is to go through one building, the other is to go around one building to the other side.  I chose the going through--the three of them argued about what way was faster--two of them said it would be faster to go around and one of them wanted to enter in my direction and go through.  The two convinced the one and they all three selected the around the building route and I entered through.   What happened next is the point of this blog entry.  I went into my building, rode the elevator up to my office, dropped my bags, and then took the elevator down to then continue through the building to go grab a coffee.  As I entered the adjacent building, the three golfers noticed me and they came over and said, "We beat you in--our way was faster."  I smiled and agreed with them and then entered the coffee line. As I stood in the coffee line, I played the scenario back in my mind and have continued to be amused at the fact that these three guys could turn an everyday act of walking down the street into a competition.  I was also amazed at how pleased they were when they confirmed their suspicion that their way was faster after all when I emerged into their building after them.  I did not have the heart to tell them of my pit stop to drop my bags.   I just let them think they won the race I did not even know I had entered.  I then compared my approach to life with theirs and realized that I am just not a competitive person in that sense.  I do not look at beating other people or being better than someone else at something. I am instead competitive against myself and want to do better each day than I did the day prior.  On Friday I had lunch with a certain NFL player that I told him about my run in with the golfers and how it made me consider my competitive nature.  He went on to tell me that he was similar to me in his competitive nature so this made me feel better knowing how successful he is as a person and athlete.  Through it all, I have decided to stay as I am and continue to have the daily goal of doing a little bit better than I did the day prior.  

SUCCESS Magazine List of 27 Best Resources

 

NEW SURVEY RESULTS:

One in Three Americans Want to Own Their Own Business

 

Also:  SUCCESS Magazine Names 27 Resources to Achieve Success

 

New York,

NY

(July 1, 2008) – A new survey conducted by SUCCESS magazine, the preeminent publication for personal achievement, found that 33 percent of Americans say that their top goal in life is to run their own company. Coming in a close second, 31 percent stated that their top goal is to retire early. These were followed by raising a family (16 percent), purchase a dream house and get in shape (both 10 percent).

 

The uncertain economy, coupled with across the board layoffs and job cuts, may have contributed to this strong desire from respondents to open their own businesses – and have more control over their financial futures. 

 

In a subsequent survey, which generated 1,200 responses, nearly 20 percent of Americans responded that they lack life goals.

 

“We were surprised to find that nearly one in five Americans answered ‘No’ when asked if they had life goals,” said Darren Hardy, publisher and editorial director of SUCCESS. “This sentiment encouraged us to create our list of 27 resources that could help get people on the path to success. The No. 1 resource—a personal list of life goals.”

 

The Life Goals survey was conducted to coincide with the SUCCESS feature on the “27 Resources for Your Success,” a list of essential tools and technologies to help achievers gain the competitive edge. The 27 resources include:

 

• Mentor/Coach—those who seek excellence have a coach. Even Tiger Woods, who has written books on how to master you golf swing, has a swing coach.

 

• Personal Reading/Listening Library—being a consummate student can be the single greatest factor contributing to your success.

 

• News Aggregator/Reader (RSS)—Sites like iGoogle and Bloglines.com allow you to create personalized news feeds so you can stay current on happenings in the world.

 

• On-site or Virtual Assistant—when growing a business your time is too valuable to get bogged down with lesser-skill functions, so get a part-time or virtual assistant through AssistU.com.

 

 

The SUCCESS magazine surveys were conducted on SUCCESS.com among a national sample of 2,834 and 1,200 Americans, respectively. The margins of error are +/- 1.84 percent and +/- 2.83 percent, respectively, at a 95 percent confidence level.

 

About SUCCESS Magazine

SUCCESS is designed specifically to serve the growing entrepreneurial and small-business markets. SUCCESS features personal-development thought leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs and other achievers who offer practical advice, ideas, tips and training on leadership, goal attainment, time management, selling, motivation and more. Bound into every issue is also a free DualDisc™ (CD & DVD in one) featuring exclusive compilations of success training from leading personal-achievement experts. SUCCESS retails for $5.95 and is distributed nationally with an initial printing of more than 1 million copies. Visit www.SUCCESS.com for more information.

 

# # #

 

 

ACCOUNTABILITY

As a major component in the base foundation of a business model, accountability is one of the most under used attributes. All interaction of employees, vendors and customers need to have interaction with some form or level of accountability.

 

Our business systems need to have three parts intertwined in all of its policies and procedures: Integrity, Accountability & Grace.

 

Integrity (Company Value System): These are the principles you must be guided by:

 

Value of people

Purpose

Honesty

Patience

Kindness

Self-control

Gentleness

Teachable

Competence

Quality

Open communication

 

Accountability:

     

     Placement of responsibility:

 

Employer and Employee relationships:

Employers responsibility to provide an environment for employee success

Employees’ responsibility in performing to expected levels in order to maintain employment.

 

Company and Vendor relationships:

Company’s’ responsibility to interact with fairness, integrity and honesty.

Vendors’ responsibility to perform to levels of expectation in order to maintain use as a vendor by this company. 

 

Company and Customer relationships:

Company’s responsibility to interact with fairness, integrity and honesty.

Customers’ responsibility to perform to levels of expectation in order to maintain use as a customer by this company.

 

Tracking System in place that monitors each employee, vendor and customer performance levels compared to real world forecast & goals.

 

Employees: All employee interaction from time of hire, new training and forward moving business performance goals implemented should all be in written form and reviewed with each employee. At the bottom of each written document the following should be reviewed and then signed by both the employee and employer:

 

I have read and understand all of the above expectations. I, realize it is up to me, the employee, to perform to expectations in order to maintain employment.

 

 

 

____________________         _________­­­­__   

Employee                                               Date

 

 

 

______________________        __________

Owner or Manager                                Date

 

Vendors: All vendors need to have a written documentation of levels of expectations based on the products and/or services provided. This will need to be created by you for you and your particular vendor. Most vendors want you to sign an agreement so they can hold you accountable. This needs to be reciprocated back to them as well.

 

Customers: All customers need to be held accountable, by us making ourselves accountable to them, from clear documentation of what products or services we are going to provide and at what price and when such products or services will be provided.

 

*We do not move forward without clear communication of price and time by having customer signatures, initials, E-mail or fax confirmation as well as possible verbal recorded authorizations.

 

 

Grace: All involved in this business world revolves around human interaction and with that brings into account human error, judgment, existing levels of knowledge that may be lower than performance levels require, emotional stability issues… the list of the “improvement areas” of the human condition could go on!

 

The point here is that everyone makes mistakes, poor judgments and poor self esteem attitudes and with that, lower than expected or acceptable performance levels. So what do we do with this?

 

We “value” the person(s) involved and truly desire for them to move forward and achieve success and grow. We provide a reasonable amount of coaching, mentoring and leadership to get them to success levels.

 

We “forgive” their short comings and provide the above mentioned accountable environment where they can grow.

 

We “release” those employees, vendors or customers who will not bend or move to a new level of success whether it is in attitude or expected performance levels. It is NOT gracious to “hang on to” underperformers after reasonable levels of investments of time, training, education and coaching has not produced the results needed. You would be not only doing the employee, vendor or customer a disservice, but yourself, other employees and your financial and emotional bank accounts as well!

 

This article was written by Dave Schedin, founder of CompuTrek Management Systems and Associate of HumanPoint. Dave has over 27 years of experience in the automotive field. He works with leaders in automotive to implement systems for increasing production and marketing results in additional profits as well as high customer satisfaction and retention. He lives in Gig Harbor, Washington with his wife Merrillee. 

6 Ways to Motivate Different People in Your Workplace

 

Research conducted in 2004 found six different segments in the American workplace. All workplaces, especially large ones, will likely employ some of each type of worker. The list includes:

1. Fair and Square Traditionalists, who want their work to provide stability and a secure future.

Motivate them by:

• Asking for and giving them feedback
• Talking to them frankly
• Discussing the mission and their role in making it happen

2. Accomplished Contributors, who prize teamwork.

Motivate them by:

• Nudging them toward team leadership roles
• Giving them specific measurements of their success and growth
• Asking them what they want to do next

3. Stalled Survivors, who see work as work, not life.

Motivate them by:

• Focusing on work-life balance and what to do when one is out of kilter
• Putting them on teams that provide support, empathy and role models
• Helping them plan for their career future

 4. Demanding Disconnects, your least satisfied workers.

Motivate them by:

• Giving them non-routine tasks
• Discovering their strengths to use on the job
• Paying attention to their ideas

5. Maverick Morphers are enthusiastic and like trying new things.

Motivate them by:

• Providing a congenial work environment
• Letting them know what's going on
• Discussing their progress

6. Self-Empowered Innovators like work for the sake of work.

Motivate them by:

• Giving them responsibilities that allow for learning and growth
• Ridding their path of obstacles
• Allowing them to stretch the company's vision    

Article by:  Jim Sirbasku, CEO

Profiles International

Six Worker Segments

 

Q: When Are Assumptions Good? 

A. Never, When Options Exist 

 

Even employers with the best of intentions are guilty of assuming too much. As they see workers of different ages, genders and racial makeup working side-by-side, they might think that this one fits in a group that wants to multitask at a fast pace because she is young, while her counterpart from another generation is interested in slowing down.
 

As we learn from experience, assumptions are often wrong. That young person may prefer devoting her attention to one workplace issue at a time, while her older co-worker is the multi-tasker. Many things, including life stages, could affect each of them. And if a leader changes work assignments based on erroneous assumptions, he could end up with disgruntled or absent employees, high turnover and unfinished projects.
 

The only truly effective method of managing diverse employees is to look at each one as an individual and to understand what motivates them. Then, coach them regularly to get the behavior you want.
 

Last month we stressed the importance of coaching and how effective coaches connect with individual employee needs. Supporting our goal of knowing what it takes to engage our workers and coaching them regularly to higher performance levels is research we conducted with The Concours Group and Age Wave. The findings, published in the manual WHY We Work, helpfully define six different segments of employees working in our organizations. This research found that different groups of people need different things to remain engaged on the job. This finding is widely relevant because most organizations, especially large ones, contain some of each group.  
 

Briefly, the six worker segments include:

1. Fair and Square Traditionalists, who make up the largest part of the workforce at 20 percent. They are loyal and traditional, as their name implies, and want their work to provide stability and a secure future.
2. Stalled Survivors, who represent 19 percent of the workforce. These workers see their jobs as a necessity. It is not the most satisfying part of their lives. These are often a firm's younger workers.
3. Accomplished Contributors, about 17 percent of the workforce. These loyal players often go above and beyond. They place a high value on teamwork.
4. Demanding Disconnects, 15 percent of our workers. As their name suggests, they are the least satisfied with work and the least committed to it.
5. Maverick Morphers, also about 15 percent of the workplace. These workers are generally young, like excitement, and do not fear taking risks.
6. Self-Empowered Innovators, about 14 percent. These employees make up the most engaged segment of the workplace and derive personal satisfaction from the job.

 

As Baby Boomers retire in larger and larger numbers, the workforce will contract. That means you will have a smaller pool of potential employees to choose from, and they will reflect all of the differences you see in our changing society. To succeed at coaching and managing, employers will have to study their workforce more intently than they did before and learn what makes them tick. 

You are likely seeing these different segments in your workforce now, and perhaps did not fully understand the transformation taking place or realize how widespread the changes were. Now that you know, why not take the time to find out what your employees want on the job? 

Assessments can aid you in identifying job fit and worker satisfaction, which can lead you to the best segment makeup for your organization. They can tell you which employees are well suited to their positions and which ones might benefit from a change. Once you know your employees, you will know which ones work most productively together and the combinations that could lead to disaster. And as your organization delves more deeply into coaching, your leaders will thank you for charting the territory in advance.  

Article written by Jim Sirbasku, CEO
Profiles International 

 

Turn it around for good

Tonight I watched a story on Evening Magazine about a family from our area that is setting off in a few days to bike across the United States.  They are leaving from Gig Harbor, WA on 5/18 and will arrive at the Statue of Liberty in NYC on 9/11/08.  What is so significant about this is Bob, the father, has only 1 limb.  He has one arm so he will be "pedaling" his bike 40 miles per day with his one arm.  To learn about Bob Mortimer, his family and his journey you can visit his blog or website.