To Be Productive

10 Time Management Tips and 2 Tools

2012-01-30T08:00:00.010-06:00

Below is a 3-minute PowerPoint presentation with lots of time management tips and tools you may be interested in to help you with planning time this year. The summary below consolidates those listed into 10 basic tips. Also listed below are links to 2 tools mentioned in second half of video that are still available, the other 2 are no longer on-line. If interested, you should be able to find sticky-note and reminder options within most email and phone applications anyway, which may be why those 2 links are gone.

Tips:

1. Focus on and plan tasks

2. Ask for help

3. Maintain balance

4. Do not leave things until the last minute

5. Get in the habit of finishing tasks ASAP

6. Set goals and write them down

7. Reward self

8. Avoid procrastination and minimize distractions

9. Prioritize to do lists

10. Create calendar/planner for scheduling and filtering appointments

Tools:

www.evernote.com

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

Perfect Phrases to Encourage Participation or Creativity

2012-01-23T08:00:00.028-06:00

Perfect Phrases for
Icebreakers book

Meryl Runion and Diane Windingland collaborated on the book Perfect Phrases for Icebreakers, which contains lots of great starters for training and team-building sessions, as well as conversations, meetings, and other events. A few phrase that really hit home with me as a team and meeting facilitator were to help trainers or team leaders get more engagement and participation or to increase creativity in brainstorming sessions. Below I share my favorite three phrase options for facilitating participation or creativity from the various examples provided in the book. Where prizes are given, use candy or a snack bar, or provide inexpensive office supplies that the recipient might find useful in their own job or team role.

Participation (phrases from pages 25-26)

1. Today you get a playing card for every meaningful contribution you make. The person with the most cards at the end of the meeting gets a prize.

2. Today, I’ll be asking for some volunteers to do some activities. I really appreciate when volunteers help out, so I pay my volunteers in

3. I’m giving out words to each of you. They are words like . Another person has the same word as you do. That person is your competition. When you hear me say your word, exclaim . The first person in a pair to note me saying their word gets a point.

Creativity (phrases from pages 31-32)

1. We need some ideas on . The goal of this activity is to generate ideas about and only to generate ideas. Later we’ll evaluate, but for now, instead of saying “yeah, but” say “yes, and.” Nothing is too wild.

2. This is a creative brainstorming session, so let’s start with some creative brainstorming work. Who has an idea about how we can generate ideas?

3. I’m handing out cards for you to write an idea that works to improve our that’s too far out or too radical to really do. (Note: Afterwards review ideas and discuss which are doable, crazy, feasible and inspirational.)

In the introduction of the book, it is suggested that the reader use 3 questions to evaluate a phrase and edit it to meet their needs. This is especially important for the networking questions. Quoted here for reference are those 3 questions:

· What am I trying to accomplish with this phrase?

· Why did I pick this phrase?

· Is there a way I could improve on this phrase for my purposes?

Increase Employee Satisfaction=Increase Customer Satisfaction

2012-01-16T15:00:00.002-06:00

In today’s competitive climate, organizations must focus on not only attracting new customers but also retaining their existing customers.

Picture yourself as a customer. Do you cringe when you see the words “in training” on employee badges? Does your view of the organization diminish when the customer contact employee does not seem to know what they are doing or does not have the authority to handle your request? Have you been working with a contact at a company for months only to learn they are no longer with the company and you now have to reestablish a relationship and understanding of your situation?

On the other hand, are you pleasantly surprised when a customer contact employee takes ownership of your problem and continues to work with you until it is corrected?

So how do you increase your customer’s satisfaction levels? Answer: Have satisfied employees.

The Service Profit Chain

In their book, The Service Profit Chain, Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger conducted an extensive study of profitable service companies and they concluded:

“About two thirds of employee's satisfaction levels were caused by just three factors:
1) The latitude given employees by their management to meet customer needs,
2) The authority given them to serve customers and
3) Possession of the knowledge and skills needed to serve customers.

The other one third come from:
4) well engineered support systems, and
5) recognition and rewards.
The incentives and rewards must encourage them to take "ownership" of the customer's problems and figuratively speaking, the business.”

Notice the connection between what you want as a customer: having your needs met, speaking with someone with authority, a knowledgeable person who has the skills to solve your situation with what employees also want from a job. Employees want to do a great job and when they can their satisfaction increases. Who would want to feel inadequate and not trained or trusted to make a decision that will help a customer?

Here are a few items to consider for increasing employee satisfaction which will in turn, increase customer satisfaction:

Training, Training, Training - Many organizations cut back on training during the downturn in economy. Now is the time to return to training to ensure your employees are confident in their responsibilities.
Empower Employees - Once employees are trained, increase their levels of authority to make decisions to serve customers based on their skills and abilities.
Survey Employees – Ask employee’s regularly what frustrates them when trying to serve customer needs and then put in action plans for correction.

Is Not Having A Crisis Management Plan Risky For Business?

2012-01-12T14:00:00.006-06:00

Video below talks about the risk you take with income and expenses, if you do not have a good crisis plan. In the just over 4 minutes, Alan Stratton explains why a good crisis management plan includes some accounting analysis done right away.

If you want to know the risk to your company reputation, which may be harder to figure in dollars, check out these 2 videos as well. Diane Stein of Joto Extreme PR on why crisis management is important for maintaining a good corporate reputation at http://youtu.be/DdKGvk7e2PQ. Karla Jo Helms, of same PR organization, shares how good press done regularly can help to prevent negative press as part of Crisis Management Strategy in http://youtu.be/qaOShocGDQo video.

If you are convinced to start a crisis management plan, you may also want to review prior posts on communication plan video and crisis management book.

Start Planning to Improve Crisis Management

2012-01-09T14:00:00.001-06:00

Manager's Guide to
Crisis Management

It is a shame that most MBA programs only offer one course or a short lecture series on Crisis Management. Surely they are aware of what has happened to so many companies over the last few years just because they did not plan properly. Are business schools not aware of the research that shows for each $1 invested in crisis management, an organization can avoid a loss of $7?

Do you have an MBA? Did it prepare you for a major business crisis? Does your company even have a crisis management plan? Are you personally trained to help create one or to implement it? If not, then as an introduction to the concept, you may want to read the new book Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management by Jonathan Bernstein. His book covers various aspects of crisis management including prevention, planning, training, press, communication, law, and potential cultural issues for global companies. Below is a sample of a few tips from chapter 3 regarding crisis planning.

Essential Components for a Crisis Plan

1. Make it easy to reference by including both a table of contents and index.

2. Introduce the plan with purpose statement, goals, scope, and policies.

3. Keep documentation (minutes, actions, changes, press releases) related to the plan together.

4. Locate Emergency Operations Center(s) and note location details.

5. Select Team members, assign roles and responsibilities, document who does what.

Core team should be senior executives and select management
Supplemental teams may be required if company has multiple locations
Alternative members should be selected in case a member of other teams is unavailable at time of crisis
Contact list with communication methods (email, phones, etc.)

6. Document possible crisis scenarios, procedures to follow for each scenario and possible communications including press statements.

7. Identify and train spokespersons from teams to speak during crisis

8. Establish communication protocols and methods for using contact list during crisis.

9. Plan communication for all stakeholders and audiences that may be affected by the crisis.

10. Plan to include a “lessons learned” summary of what was done during a crisis to identify strengths and weakness for future improvements.

Ten Golden Rules Of Crisis Communication

2012-01-06T15:00:00.003-06:00

Below is a short 2.5 minute video from a Crisis Communication Conference that was uploaded in 2009. To find out more about future conferences in Europe, visit http://www.crisis-communication.net/. To find out more about crisis management, check next post for a helpful book.

Here is a summary of the 10 golden rules that are presented in the video.

Acknowledge mistakes
Take quick action
Have a long-term strategy
Communicate from management to all levels
Be a reliable source for the media at a comfortable distance
Restrain the desire to win the argument
If appropriate and honest, dare to overreact
Do not try to create consensus
Consider all key audience in communications
Never stop monitoring problems and issues

New Time Management Steps - Learn TAPP

2012-01-01T08:00:00.004-06:00

Do you dance around happily when you thnik about time management? If not, maybe you should consider the easy steps from the book TAPP Steps in Time Management for the New Year. Accornym is explained in the video below using TAPP dancing boots.

GTD - Activity Versus Accomplishment

2011-12-26T01:48:00.000-06:00

GTD is the acronym time managers and tweeters currently use for Getting Things Done from the book by David Allen. Yes, we can get things done by checking them off our To Do List, but are we doing the right things? In my TAPP Steps in Time Management book, I promote doing the right things by assigning priorites and working on the highest (most important) priorities first during your peak performance time. Below is another productivioty pro talking about To Do Lists activiites verses true accomplishment.

Review Often

2011-12-19T11:00:00.000-06:00

Last month I continued my series on better project/task management. I wrote about three ideas for staying on top of your information intake process. These included taking time in the moment to make sure you have captured everything, highlighting important information for later recall and use, and setting aside time for formal review.

This month I want to expand my thoughts on reviews including when and what to review. A formal, periodic review is one of the key elements of the “Getting Things Done” approach to project/task management. It’s important to not only review your calendar and notes but also your goals, objectives, plans, projects and tasks. In looking at my process, I have settled on five key times to sit down and review.

They are:

Annually
At the beginning of each year I like to take time to do two things. First, I like to recap the previous year to see how well I did against the goals and objectives I set at the beginning of the year. Then I like to focus on the new year and establish my new goals and objectives. Once I have these new goals set, I can start reviewing potential projects and build my plan for achieving them. This plan is my guide for the coming year.

Quarterly
Once the year begins, I like to take time each quarter to review my progress against the annual plan. I use this time to review my goals, objectives, and corresponding projects. I check to see if they are still relevant and see if anything new has occurred or changed that might mean a change to my plan. If so, I make the necessary adjustments. I end each quarterly session with a updated annual plan.

Monthly
Each month I stop and assess my progress toward completing my projects. I review each project, including active, on-hold, and canceled. I look at each project and check the progress against my plan. I also check to make sure that the active projects are the right ones for reaching my goals. My goal for this session is to come away with an updated project list.

Weekly
The most important review session is the weekly review. This is when I sit down and review not only my active projects but also the individual actions/tasks. This is when I determine if I am working on the right things daily. I look at both the just completed week and the upcoming one. I look at my project list, my task lists, my calendar, and my notes. I end this session with an updated action/task list and a working plan for the week.

Daily
Finally, I set aside a few minutes at the end of each day to review my daily activities. I check my action/task list, my notes from the day, and my calendar. I use this time to prepare mentally for the next day. This allows me to go home each night and know that I am ready for the next day. This session keeps me on track for the week.

By following through with each of these sessions, I am able to keep a handle on the projects, actions, and other activities that move me toward my goals. Do you follow a similar process? Let me know your thoughts on periodic review.

Create Your 2012 Training Plan

2011-12-12T09:00:00.001-06:00

Last month I discussed how to complete a training needs analysis. Now that you have examined training from three perspectives: your overall organization, the jobs in your organization and individual performance, it is time to put a plan together to successfully implement your training. “What gets planned gets done” is one of my favorite sayings!

Are you ready to get started? First create a training plan spreadsheet to contain all the information you will need. Here are the eight steps I use for creating a training plan:

Step 1: Topics: In the first column list all the topics identified in your training needs analysis

Step 2: Objectives: Next to the topic list what the participants will be able to do after completing the training. You do not have to get too fancy; one to three bullet points are probably enough.

Step 3: Priority: Add a priority column and sort your spreadsheet by priority. How to determine the priority? Consider criteria such as biggest impact to the organization, the most number of people who need the training, the consequences of not supplying the training, etc.

Step 4: Timing: Add a column for the month to conduct the training topic. You can choose specific dates later when you see how many classes you need per month. Consider your organization’s busy and slow periods for choosing your months and dates.

Step 5: People: Identify the job titles and number of people in each job that will attend the training. If you have many people who need the training you may have to schedule multiple sessions of the same topic.

Step 6: Length: How long should each topic take? Answer: long enough to achieve the objectives set in step 2. If the topic is lengthy and your audience can only be away from work for short periods of time, consider breaking the training into multiple sessions.

Step 6: Methods: How will you conduct the training? Will the training be traditional classroom training or an ELearning option? It is important to understand your audience’s comfort level with technology and preferences for learning to determine which method will be most effective.

Step 7: Trainer/Facilitator: Who will conduct the training? Will you use an inside resource or hire someone from the outside with experience in the topic? Will you purchase an ELearning package or a program already developed for you to deliver?

Step 8: Cost: What will each of your training topics cost? The cost might be listed as total for the topic or variable by the number of people who will attend. Since you have listed your topics in priority order you can now consider eliminating or postponing topics.

You now have a training plan and a training budget. Last steps are to get key stakeholders involved to approve your training plan and then you will be able to start scheduling people to attend. Best wishes for a successful 2012 training year!

Out-of-the-box Customer Training on Their Buying Motivations

2011-12-05T07:00:00.039-06:00

If you can not get your sales people to understand that the customer cares about more than the price, then you may need to do a little training. If your company already offers sales training, you may want to consider supplementing it with refresher training at field locations. Meeting Genius offers a pre-boxed training kit called CUSTOMERS: Know what motivates people to buy from you in a box. The box contains a facilitator’s guideline with suggested activities and includes a CD which contains: PowerPoint show, a 2.5 minute video, all handouts, and 4 articles. The training is meant to be delivered .in about an hour by a sales manager, HR professional, or a professional trainer.

Meeting Genius
Business Skills
Training

The materials emphasize and encourage group discussion of the 5 typical motives behind a customer's interest in purchasing a product or service: 1) Desire of gain; 2) Fear of loss; 4) Convenience; 3) Emotional pleasure; 5) Pride. Below are examples of ways to recognize the different motivations that may come out of the discussion topics that are covered in this training. The slides provide tips to determine which motivation is present after the discussion is completed. Of course the best way to find out the customer’s buying motive is to ask questions.

Gain motive:

Is willing to take more risks
Like challenges
Is comfortable with more aggressive decisions
Wants to save money and to make more money

Loss motive:

Losing something or someone important to him
Feels is being deceived
Not getting what was agreed
Not having the deadlines respected

Convenience motive

Likes simple things
Likes fast things
Complains about delays
Complains if the buying process has too many steps or takes too much time

Pleasure motive:

Enjoys the best and more comfortable things in life
Likes to follow the buying process
Is not worried about what others think
Enjoys good quality products and services
Likes to provide the same to others

Pride motive:

Is in search of social acceptance
Has a desire for style, admiration, self-improvement, recognition
The opinion of others is important
Wonders if the product/service will give some status
Enjoys using brand products and services

If you choose to do this 1-hour program, you can deliver the training as recommended in the box or customize it by interspersing your own company examples wherever possible. As an idea to consider instead of handing out the 4 extra articles in class, use the articles as follow-on reinforcement of the training instead. Simply email 1 article per week to participants as an attachment with a question you design to get them interested in reading the attachment. Do this every week starting the month following the date of the training.

Seven Ways To Promote Your Business on Facebook

2011-11-30T07:00:00.000-06:00

Here is another good social maketing video - this time using Facebook resources. Check it out for some great ideas your business can use.

Ways to Leverage LinkedIn

2011-11-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

Ways to Leverage LinkedIn

In under 6-minutes from a marketing expert, learn more than 5 ways your business can use your professional account on LinkedIn to stand-out. Find out why you want to do each and how to:
1. Add blog to profile.
2. Start or join a group.
3. Participate in group discussions.
4. Sahe recent articles as news.
5. Post or find jobs.
6. Answer questons as an expert.

Is everything on your list? Three Ideas for Making Sure

2011-11-19T13:07:00.010-06:00

Last month I continued my commentary on my progress in implementing a new approach and process for managing my projects and tasks. To recap, I have been using a software solution called Omnifocus to capture and manage my projects and tasks. With versions that work on my Mac, iPad, and iPhone, this combination allows me to access my project and task lists in all situations and times. In addition, I changed my approach to note-taking and standardized on a combination of software (Omni Outliner, Evernote, and Notability) and paper (my trusty Moleskine notebooks) for capturing and managing my notes.

While this combination of process and tools works, I have realized that as the project list gets longer, the task list expands, and the meetings and other opportunities for capturing notes increases, there are additional issues I need to address. These include getting captured information from one system to another. And incorporating other systems (email and calendar) into this process.

As part of my ongoing research into the best solution for me, I reached out to a few peers to see what they do.

Here are some ideas I heard.

1) Take time in the moment

This was probably the most mentioned idea.

Take time right now to transfer items from your email or notes to your calendar or project/task list
If you are in a meeting and don’t have time right now, stop on way to next meeting and make the transfer
Don’t worry about adding all the details, just get the basics listed
Use a system with a quick capture/entry feature (Omnifocus has a quick capture feature, the Inbox)
Plan to come back later and flesh out the details

2) Highlight for later recall

This was another great idea. This makes it easier to later find and recall the action items, dates, and potential projects for completion later.

Find a way within your system to flag or highlight the important information including actions items, meeting requests, etc.
When using paper you can circle it, put stars in front of it, or use some other type of notation or code to signify what it is. There are notebooks designed specifically with space for special notations.
When using software, learn the features of the software. Many have the ability to add highlights, bookmarks, flags, and notes to mark critical information.
Never leave a meeting or conversation, or close an email or book without formally highlighting things you want to recall later

3) Review often

This idea was key. Schedule periodic reviews.

Set aside time periodically to review your notes, project lists, task lists and calendar
Look for open items, missing items, progress, and completion
Flesh out the details for quick captured items
Use the time to look more strategically at your lists
Determine the right frequency for your projects

I have begun to add each of these ideas into my process. Each one requires both discipline and thought. My goal is to work on incorporating them until they are integral pieces of the process.

Let me know what ideas you have for these issues. Next month I will dive further into idea #3, Review Often.

Team Rebuilding and Recognition for the Holidays or New Year

2011-11-13T14:00:00.038-06:00

My most popular on-line team-building article is The Five Stages of Team Development (over 43K hits). Why do you think that is? I think it may be because most people are familiar with the first 4 as defined by Tuckman’s teamwork theory: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. However most do not realize that as he studied teams, he found many teams begin to slump sometime after the performing stage. This may be because they became complacent about their success, got too far away from the learning gained at the beginning, or no longer felt as valuable to the compnay as in an earlier stage. Tuckman called this phase Transforming for continuing teams and Adjourning for teams that needed to be discontinued. I also like Quick’s (author of Successful Team Building) term for stage 5 – Assimilating or Reforming.

Either way, the primary emphasize from the experts for phase 5 is to either show thanks to the disbanding team via a celebration or to use recognition to rejuvenate and motivate the continuous work team. (If you are not sure what the differenc is between a work team and temporay teams, see articles: 8 Considerations For 3 Types of Teams and Difference Between Self-Managed and Self-Directed Teams.) Company management and Human Resource departments need to be more aware of this 5th stage and the importance to making decisions about when team should be disbanded or when employee recognition efforts need to be enhnaved. Do not use budget cuts as a reason to dismiss reward and recongintion programs. Instead look for alternatives methods that can help a team grow but will not be too expensive. Find some ideas in these articles:

Find a way soon to recognize the high achieving teams during the holidays. It can be a end-of-year celebration with small rewards and positive reinforcement. Or you may choose to make it a new year ceremony with recognition elements, role rotation to increase member flexibilty, and setting of new stretch goals using The 4 C’s of Team Goal Setting with each team.

Please note: I will have a team-building book coming to Amazon soon. The plan is to release it first as an e-book. Watch for it under my author name: Shirley Fine Lee. In the mean time, if you are looking for some books for Making Teams and Projects Effective, check out my recommendations by clicking that title within my Amazon Lists.

RELATED STATS: In a Group Processes and Work Teams survey done by Lawler, Mohrman & Ledford of Fortune 1000 companies over a 10-year period (1987-1996), they discovered that the use of problem solving teams increased from 70% to 90%. Also the use of self-managed teams in companies grew from only 27% to 78%.

PLEASE ANSWER question in poll at upper-right of blog to give your opinion of team use now. You can return to the blog at anytime to see the current poll results before it closes. Poll closes at end of year 2011.

Create Your 2012 Training Needs Analysis

2011-11-07T09:00:00.001-06:00

Can you believe 2012 is right around the corner?! It is time to start thinking about your training needs. Does your organization train during the year on an ad hoc basis or maybe you plan training on the same topics every year just because “you always do it?” By analyzing your training needs before you create your training plan you have a greater chance to: 1) achieve your organization’s goals and objectives, 2) develop training content based on the needs of your employees, 3) raise employee performance to higher levels, and 4) spend your training dollars wisely.

Many people believe that completing a training needs analysis is too time-consuming. By asking a series of questions and getting a few key people involved in the process, I think you will find that the benefits outweigh the time you put into the process.

A training needs analysis examines training from three perspectives: your overall organization, the jobs in your organization and individual performance. As you read each of the questions below within these three categories, ask yourself “who in my organization would have access to this information” and get them involved in your process. Use these questions as a starting point to get you and your team thinking, and add other questions that pertain specifically to your organization.

Questions for Your Organizational Needs

What are the goals of your organization this year?

What new products and services will be offered that might require training?

Where is the organization currently missing its target goals, i.e. turnover, customer service, scrap rate, productivity?

Will there be a merger or acquisition?

Is your organization expanding into global markets? You may need to add language and culture training to your plan.

Questions for Your Jobs Needs

What responsibilities and skills are changing in your employee job descriptions?

Are jobs being automated requiring employees to learn new equipment?

Has new software been purchased which will require employee training?

Are you in a highly regulated industry where compliance training must be offered?

Have you promoted many employees from within who now need managerial and leadership skills?

Questions for Individual Needs

What training needs have been identified through your employee performance reviews?

What training needs have been identified through your succession planning process?

Have you hired many new employees? Do you have to offer basic training to get them up to speed?

Do you have employees with long tenure that may benefit from cross training to stimulate a new interest in their jobs?

Next month…now that you have analyzed your training, it is time to create your training plan.

How to Stay Awake in Meetings

2011-11-01T08:00:00.011-05:00

Watch the short 1+ minute, kinda-funny video below sharing 3 ideas on staying awake in boring meetings so no one catches you snoring from the author of RARA A Meeting Wizard's Approach.

BTW: This video is the most popular one on YouTube by this author - your clicking to play can help make it go over 5,000 views before end of year.

Buying Business Books as Recognition Gifts

2011-10-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

I have posted before on Finding Business Gifts Should Be Easy and it (as well as the articles it referenced) was pretty popular. I always recommend each of the Books by Bloggers in the right-hand column of this blog since most are easy-reads with really good content. To expand your options even more, I thought I would update the list in original post with a few more book ideas to include as gifts or put into gift baskets from some of the articles I have written since that post that include newer books.

2 Must Haves for HR/Trainer Bookshelves (human resources and training professionals)
Big Book (3 Game Books) Review (presentations, team-building, or general business)
3 Great Reads for New Positions (management, sales, or business owner)
For social marketing: Customer Relationship Management with The Social Customer and A Twitter Journey: Getting Started the Right Way

You might also want to check out the suggestions and links on the Peak Performance Solutions blog for Business Books as Customer or Employee Appreciation Gifts. Mary Anne Davis shares ideas for sales and motivation books fro customers and employees there. After the New Year, please watch for release of my new books on team building and organization.

Four Steps of Social Media Marketing

2011-10-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

If you read my posts on social networking and marketing, yet still are not sure where to start. Check out this 3+ minute video from marketing experts at Upside Down Iceberg, Learn their ideas on 4 steps for using social media. Links below are to related posts.

1. Find interested people.
2. Deliver quality content.
3. Capture information.
4. Stay in touch.

Pay special attention to their idea for being "top of mind" of potential customers on the slide on 9 Advantages to Socia Media Marketing.

My Quest for A Paper-Less Note Taking Solution

2011-10-22T14:48:00.007-05:00

Several months ago I wrote a post about my process for finding order and sanity in my work by researching, selecting, and implementing a method and set of tools for managing my projects and tasks. This quest led me to decide on and implement the GTD method for task management and install an application suite called Omnifocus to handle the process electronically. Over the last few months I have been working on improving my use of both the method and the software. Along the way, I have uncovered some areas where the new system has helped me improve my efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, I have discovered some additional areas to improve upon. I will address some of these in my next few posts.

The first area I want to discuss is that of note taking and management. If you recall from my previous post, I was mostly using a paper-based system involving Moleskine notebooks. What I began to realize as I started getting used to putting all my projects and tasks in Omnifocus software, was that while I did not have a consistent process for reviewing my notes and transferring the information to my computer-based system. Whether in a meeting, at a conference, brainstorming with others, or just sitting at my desk thinking, I was always taking notes. Most were related to one of my projects or tasks. And many included to do items. I was not always getting these items on my task list.

So I began a new quest. This time to see if I could bring my note taking and management process online. I started by reviewing my paper-based process to make sure I understood what worked with that system. And to understand where the gaps where. That system worked great for quickly capturing information and the style of notebook I used worked like a mini whiteboard (blank pages) so I could take different types of notes in one place. But, the process for finding the notes later was tedious and there was no connection to my online system.

So I needed a system that would work with both my Apple iPad and iPhone. And would allow me to easily move information from the note app to the task management app. I also needed to define a process for using them together. I quickly narrowed my search to a few apps and began using them daily. In fact, to really test my process, I stopped using my paper system entirely to see if I could get by with a completely automated system. For the last several months, I have been using Omnifocus to track my projects and tasks, and a set of notebook apps to handle my notes.

My results thus far have been mixed. While I have been able to get by without using paper, I have found that there are some things that paper is just better for right now. For example, if I need to quickly jot something down, there is not a fast way to do that with a tablet or smartphone. And, if I want to quickly draw something, it can be done but not easily. However, the new system has provided an easy way to move information between different systems. And most importantly, it has provided a way to quickly find information in my notes, even if they were written days or months ago. So I am missing fewer action items.

After all, I still have to get the to-dos done.

Does Your Business Need A Social Web Footprint on Facebook or LinkedIN?

2011-10-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

The world of social marketing for business or information gathering can be confusing to navigate. We need to know what we can say and how best to spread the news about our products and services or to ask questions to get our professional needs met. See ideas in video below from a portion of the presentation "Does Your Business Need A Social Web Footprint?"

For more references, see also archived posts: A Twitter Journey (4 post series), Marketing via Web and Social Media Networks (3 post series), and List of Good Stuff On Social Sites posts. Also watch this blog for more videos on social marketing

Recipe for Happiness

2011-10-10T02:04:00.004-05:00

I had an interesting experience the other day at a restaurant. The waiter had been very friendly and interested in my management book that was sitting on the table. I could tell he had been thinking about this question for awhile when he came over to the table and asked me “what do you think is the secret of happiness?” Maybe he thought someone who wrote a book would know the answer.

I never had a philosophical discussion with a waiter before so his question surprised me, but then got me thinking the rest of the day. What did I think was the secret of happiness? Why are some people happy and others unhappy?

I put the question “what do you think is the secret to happiness?” on Facebook and received a variety of responses such as: friends and family, health, winning the lottery, knowing our purpose and value in life, belief in God, seeing the glass as half full, philanthropy, and one of my favorites “happiness is a choice.”

So after discussion and reflection, this is my recipe for happiness, it has five ingredients:

Purpose: I believe that people need purpose in life. Purpose can vary from raising a family, having a stimulating job, perfecting a skill, learning something new, volunteering for a worthwhile cause, etc. When you can wake up each morning knowing your purpose for that day, you are happier.
Optimism: Optimistic people believe that negative events are temporary. They can see past their current state at a future that seems brighter. They have hope that things will change for the better and that hope drives them to work towards being happier.
Gratitude: There are some people who spend their time focusing on what they do not or cannot have. People who can express gratitude for the things and people they have in their life now are happier. I like to fall asleep at night thinking about five “gratitudes” for that day.
Altruism: When you use your skills, talents, or time to help others in need, you tend to forget about your own problems. According to The Healing Power of Doing Good by Luks and Payne, altruism can have powerful health and healing benefits including: a sense of well-being, exhilaration and euphoria, a more positive and happier outlook on life, decreased feeling of helplessness, loneliness and depression.
Relationships: Having close friends/family to share the joys and sadness in our life makes us feel connected and supported. We feel accepted for who we are but also know that people care enough to encourage our growth and well being. The world was saddened recently by the death of Steve Jobs. His family, in a statement released by Apple, said Mr. Jobs "died peacefully today surrounded by his family." He was not surrounded by an IPod, I Phone, IPad, or Mac.

So what other ingredients would you add to the recipe?

Customer Relationship Management with The Social Customer

2011-10-06T10:25:00.001-05:00

The Social
Customer Book

In the new book by Adam Metz, The Social Customer: How Brands Can Use Social CRM to Acquire, Monetize, and Retain Fans, Friends, and Followers, the author goes beyond Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks to discuss marketing opportunities and methodologies. Metz references a 2010 white paper “The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM, the New Rules of Relationship Management” by Owyang and Wang. Then he goes on to say that they missed a few and he believes there are 23 cases. He explains the first case in detail in chapter 4 and then uses the following 5 chapters to cover the others before moving to methodologies and tools. Below are the 23 social cases Metz presents in his book. Get the book for more insights.

1. Social customer insight (using 5 M’s: monitoring, mapping, middleware, management, and measurement)
2. Social marketing insights
3. Rapid social marketing response
4. Social campaign tracking
5. Social event management
6. Social pull-through marketing
7. Social sales insights
8. Rapid social sales response
9. Proactive social lead generation
10.Direct and distributed social commerce
11.Dynamic social supply reallocation
12.Social demand generation
13.Social support insights
14.Rapid social response
15.Peer-to-peer (P2P) unpaid armies
16.Innovation insights
17.Crowd-sourced reaserach and development (R&D with real-time feedback)
18.Collaboration insights
19.Enterprise collaboration
20.Extended collaboration
21.Seamless customer experience
22.VIP experience (perks)
23.Mobile on-line-location (engage every customer)

Tips and Techniques to Best Use Office Space

2011-10-03T13:00:00.003-05:00

In the below 6.5 minute video, business consultant Colette Robicheau shares her best ideas to organize an office, whether it is in a company or at home. With these easy and economical tips, she will share how to turn the office into a productive environment that will increase efficiency while decreasing clutter.

Master Your Equipment

2011-09-28T22:52:00.009-05:00

Last year I wrote a post (Shoot Every Day) reflecting on one of the best ways to improve your performance. It was based on a conversation between two pro photographers talking on a photography podcast. The conversation centered around how a photographer could get better at their craft. The conclusion was very straight-forward. A photographer, especially a new one, could improve their photos most by shooting more pictures. They concluded that while things such as classes, books, and better equipment were important, getting out and shooting would lead to a larger improvement in their skills and subsequently in their photos. In my post, I related this lesson to business in general and recognized that the advice applied to other occupations as well. To get better at your respective craft or job, you had to get out and do more of it.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I had just returned home from a trip to California where I shot a lot of photos. While looking through my pictures, I was listening to another photography podcast. This host was having a similar conversation to the earlier one. He wanted to know what advice his guest would give a budding photographer trying to get into the business. Figuring the answer would be the same, I almost turned the podcast off. And in fact, she did say that shooting more was important if a new photographer wanted to improve. However, she went on to quickly say there was an even more critical thing to do first. Intrigued, I stopped what I was doing, and listened to her answer. Her answer was one of those answers where you say “Duh!” and then realize that even though it’s obvious, it’s not usually done.

Her advice was to “Master your equipment”.

Wow. Sound advice and so obvious. Don’t just pick up the camera and start shooting. Actually take the time to learn how it works. Read the manual. Understand the different settings. Know what the buttons and switches do. Learn how to adjust them quickly. Be able to work them in the dark. Her premise was simple. In order to transcend the equipment and be able to focus on the subject and just shoot, you had to know your equipment well enough to not have to think about it while shooting. As I thought about her advice, I thought back on my recent trip. While I did shoot lots of photos, I remembered several times when I missed, or almost missed, a shot because I was fumbling with the camera settings or trying to remember which button did what. I had owned the camera for a while, but I had not taken the time to really learn how to use it. Sound advice indeed.

Not only did it hit home for my photography but it also made me think about my business. Are my team and I learning how to fully use our tools and equipment? Are we able to transcend these tools and focus on the customer and the end result? Or do we stumble along the way, trying to get the tools to work? How about you?

Should your business market on YouTube?

2011-09-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

Asking yourself if your business should try marketing on YouTube? Watch this 10-minute video and decide.

Communicate Change Early and Often

2011-09-13T09:00:00.007-05:00

A good friend works for a small accounting firm. The owner is getting married to someone who lives about three hours from the office. Although everyone is happy for his upcoming marriage they are more concerned about the impact to themselves. After all, they reason that either the husband or wife will eventually move since three hours is an impossible daily commute. We have a tendency to look at the world from a WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) point of view. So if their owner moves does that mean the business will close? Will they need to start looking for a job and when? The people working for this firm are business professionals who realize that a change will occur and can and will manage through the change; the problem is that the owner has not shared his plans so they are anxious and focused on their own concerns.

I have been in many conference rooms where a team of managers are planning a major change. The discussion will eventually get to what and when to tell the workforce about the change. What typically happens is someone will advocate the position that no one should be told about the change because it will be too disruptive and after all “no one will find out.” That statement should be seen as a danger signal. People are going to see changes in managerial behavior such as conversations stopping when members of the workforce approach or many “closed door meetings.” Everyone will get a sense that something is going on and that will be more disruptive then just telling people about the change in a planned, considered manner.

It is human nature to need information. When information is not supplied it will be “invented” to fill in the gaps. This gap in information results in productivity loss as people speculate as to what is “going on behind closed doors” and each conversation with coworkers beginning with “what did you hear?” In this era of layoffs appearing in the news on almost a daily basis, anxiety becomes high because of a fear of possibility loosing jobs and income. It does not take much to start rumors from spreading. When rumors are spreading what is not happening is productive work.

The second impact to not communicating change with your workforce is a lack of trust develops. People will know that important information is being kept from them and will feel as if they are untrustworthy. That will impact their commitment to the organization and their loyalty.

There are occasionally times when some changes must be kept confidential such as a merger where there are specific legal requirements and contracts requiring confidentially, but most other changes should be communicated as soon as possible. Even if all the information cannot be shared right away or there are unknowns, people will appreciate candor and feeling trusted with any information that is communicated. People will be happy to work for a change that they are involved in and where their opinions are sought.

Your workforce can contribute to or hinder your change efforts. Involving them as early as possible will gain their trust, commitment and input into a successful change.

9/11 Tears Remembered - A Memorial Poem

2011-09-10T09:10:00.012-05:00

On 9/11/2001, I had a “meeting cancelled due to what happened today.” I then found out while Americans were at work or on their way to work, a terrible tragedy happened that we now refer to as 9/11. Some were trying to track down what happened to associates or family, while most of us cried and hugged our loved of us or were glued to the television for more bad news.

Some might say a leadership blog is not the place to share the below poem. I would disagree, as great leadership was shown that day. Not only by our president, first responders, and the passengers on 93, but also by many Americans across the nation who both worked and wept trying to turn things around. I wrote the short poem below as a way to express our continued sorrow at the memory of that day, as well as encourage hope and healing.

Please fell free to share the poem with others. You may get the video at http://youtu.be/eEoRlgLcARU. If you want the word text, a slide, or to find out more about the author: go to my OrgThis blog. If you use the poem, please credit the source. Thanks.

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Learning and Effective Busness Writing Skills

2011-09-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

If you or your employees are having problems writing professional documents that can be easily understood, you may want to review the 10-minute training slideshow with audio below. It provides 6 simple writing tips for better business communications.

If you have students at home, you or an employee is returning to school for a degree, you might want to also check out these 3-minute videos on the Organize This with Style blog:

1. Getting Organized with School Work

2. Managing Study Time by Prioritizing Home Work

Marketing via On-line Press Releases and Article Directories

2011-09-01T06:00:00.002-05:00

In my 2 previous posts, I wrote about using social networks and social media to help market a business. In this post, I would like to discuss using press releases to announce a business start-up or introduce a new product. I also want to let you know another way to share your expertise besides in social network groups or on-line forums, that is through the writing of articles.

Press releases are a great way to let potential clients know about your new business, book, product, or service. Before you look to see if there is a local news blog or PR site to only find local business, you need to have a website or an on-line directory/phone book listing. Then decide what you want to communicate and write your press release according to standard PR guidelines and then customize according to guidelines for the site(s) you decide to use to publish your release. Many of the news or PR sites are free to use or may require a very small fee. Search for PR sites where you can include a clickable link to your website, as readers are more likely to click to learn more rather than copy/paste a URL. If your business is something you are willing to take national or global, check out this List of The Top Free Press Release Sites and compare to The Best Free and Paid PR Websites and When to Use Them.

If you want to spark interest in your business by sharing your expertise, writing one or more on-line articles may be the best way to get your name or your company out there on the internet. Most of the article directories will provide a place for you to put a short biography of yourself and a clickable link back to your website (if you do not have a website, make the link go to your LinkedIn profile). However, you must provide good content for a reader to want to visit your site to learn more about the article’s author. Read the article directories writing guidelines carefully to be sure you can provide a well-written article that will be accepted by the site editors. Keep the articles short but informative. If you have a lot to say on a particular subject, either make it a series of article (part 1, part 2, etc.) or divide it into multiple articles that can stand-alone with an intriguing headline/title to attract readers. Many of article sites provide statistics on your articles so you can see where an interest in your niche might fall. This way you can write more articles on the highest ranking topic. Remember these article sites are providing you free publicity, so you typically will not be paid for your articles. Here are the Top 25 Article Directories to check out:

Another benefit of the free article sites, if that you can also use content on the site for your personal blog if your have one. Read the publisher guidelines on the article site to see what their requirements are before using someone else’s article on your blog. If you do not have your own blog, you might want to consider writing a guest post (which is another form of article writing) on another blog that publishes within your niche to begin your writing campaign. Blogs that allow guest posts typically also have guidelines and provide links back to your site. Send the blog administrator an email to find out what topics they are interested in and what their writing guidelines are. If you have your own blog, as suggested in the previous post on social media, you should find other blogs in your area of expertise and request a link exchange. A link exchange is where you list their blog with URL on your blog roll or link list and they put your blog and URL on theirs. This could increase traffic to your blog and raise your blog in the SEO ranking because of the additional links to it. Read these posts for more on guest blogging:

Let us know if you have any additional marketing ideas or sites you highly recommend by putting them in the comments on this post. Thanks for your help and support in advance!

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10 Leadership Tricks from a Motivational Hound

2011-08-29T07:00:00.025-05:00

The book title True Blue Leadership sounds like a new management book, but then the cover showing a dog might make you think it is something else altogether – yet it is not. This is a new leadership book by Tracey C. Jones that covers 10 management truths (a.k.a. tricks or tips) in 91 pages from the perspective of her dog, Mr. Blue. Althought the book concept is different, it tells it like it should be in the world of business. Below are the 10 main leadership tips as I understood them from the chapters in this book.

1. Work hard for what you want and earn.

2. Be enthusiastic in all that you do.

3. Surround yourself with loyal people.

4. Helping others also rewards you.
5. Do not blame others.
6. Be a leader, not an angry boss.
7. Do not let the noise from others derail you.
8. Where you are going is more important than where you have been.

9. You must continually learn new things.

10. Wisdom can be gained through reading books.

Besides the tips, the book also provides additional reading suggestions at the end of each chapter. The suggested books should provide ideas or inspiration on how to move towards applying the associated numbered trick in one’s professional or personal life. The hound/author gives an opinion on why the reader should get each book and what they may gain from reading it. Below are the book suggestions given in each chapter.

1. The New Common Denominator by Albert Gray

2. Life is Tremendous by Charlie Jones

3. A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard

4. 8 Attributes of Great Achievers by Cameron Taylor

5. You and Your Network by Fred Smith

6. Leaders Without Borders by Doug Dickerson

7. 52 Ways to a Happier Life by Jim Donovan

8. The 12 Essential Laws of Becoming Indispensable by Tony Zeiss

9. Journal of a Climber: Understanding Life’s Journey by Chuck Reaves

10. Books Are Tremendous by Charlie Jones

Anyone interested in meeting the author(s), can check out their book tour schedule at http://www.tremendouslifebooks.net/stopplayingdead/ .

Getting Passionate Performance from Employees

2011-08-26T20:00:00.000-05:00

I recently read through the booklet Passionate Performance by Lee J. Colan and found it full of very good information for company leaders in how to engage their employees. Colan says to achieve the best possible performance from employees requires engaging both their emotional hearts and intellectual minds for the organization. To engage the mind, leaders must provide employees with a sense of achievement, autonomy and mastery in their jobs. To engage the heart requires proving a purpose of feelings of intimacy and appreciation. He provides 2 strategies for management and leaders to use to achieve their goals in each of these 6 areas which are described below.

Engaging the Mind via:

Achievement

1. Eliminate barriers by providing necessary resources, giving employees the authority they need to be accountable for their responsibilities, and making timely decisions when needed.

2. Define clear goals so employee can focus on them and know when they are met.

Autonomy

1. Empower employee involvement in improving their work processes and team performance.

2. Set broad and clear boundaries that allow the employee to determine the best way to do the job.

Mastery

1. Fit the right person’s abilities and interests to the requirements of the position or task responsibility.

2. Seize teachable moments to coach employees and build upon skills.

Engaging the Heart thru:

Purpose

1. Connect employee/team roles to a compelling company purpose.

2. Stay focused on activities that directly support that purpose to best take advantage of employee’s time and energy.

Intimacy

1. Keep teams small to foster better co-worker and customer relationships.

2. Create and reinforce team rituals/celebrations to create an atmosphere of fun and belonging.

Appreciation

1. Find daily opportunities to thank an employee for their contributions and reinforce the desired behaviors.

2. Demonstrate a sincere interest in employees as people.

Will these strategies work for your company? If you are already doing some, great! Let us know how it works in your organization with a comment on this post. If there are some you are not doing, try out a new one each month and let us know how it works for you by adding a comment on this blog post.

Marketing via Website, Blogging, and Video Media

2011-08-22T06:00:00.011-05:00

In my previous post, I shared tips from conferences on using social media for marketing. This post will continue tip sharing with how to design your website and maintain a blog as part of your marketing campaign.

A company website should be viewed as a marketing brochure to engage and interest visitors, as well as communicate what you do. Good website design should include at a minimum: easy for potential customers to navigate via menus or tabs, great introductory page (a.k.a. home page), have product and/or service pages, and provide your contact data (including social networks). For authors, the product pages would be a landing page per book – perhaps an HTML version of the marketing flyer. A good place to start is to check out what your competitor’s websites look like. Do not copy them, but instead use the ideas you find for good design that fits your business and avoid duplicating the bad examples. The experts I have talked with do not recommend having a lot of “flash” because all browsers may not work with it and it often does not translate to smart phones and other devices well. Concentrate on professional and well designed rather than flashy. Visitors may think a flashy site is cool when they first see it but if it is not easy to cancel the streaming video/images or navigate once past the intro, and then they are not likely to return. Always test your website on multiple platforms to be sure you are not missing out on potential viewers. If you are trying to design it yourself instead of hiring a professional website designer, you might want to check out these articles: 8 Tips for Designing a Great Website and Magic with Meta Tags and SEO.

Some people have said blogs are dying due to use of social networks for getting data out in short bursts rather than long text. However, the experts say that social networks are excellent conduits for sharing blog post links because people still want good content. Good content drives people to the blog and great content keeps them coming back. I was told years ago that blogs should be updated either monthly or weekly, just let the audience know what the schedule is. Now the experts are saying that posts should occur 2-3 times per week. And that the post writer needs to hold conversations with their readers by replying to all comments whether or not a question is asked! Also, blog posts should also include images and video with the text content to make them more interesting. Also, the images and video need to be labeled so search engines can find them as well as your content. One thing that all the experts agreed upon was that you should not start a blog if you will not stick with it. It is better to not start a blog than have an abandoned or rarely updated blog showing in web searches. If you are still not sure whether or not to build a blog, check out this article: Will Your Business Benefit From a Blog? Your website site provider may have a blog tool as well as a site creator. If it does not, it is very easy to start a blog and link to it using either of these free tools: WordPress or Blogger.

The experts also recommended using YouTube to not only get related videos for your blog, but to also create personal videos for your website. They suggested having your own YouTube channel containing amateur (made by a friend with a digital video camera) or professionally-made (by a videographer) video clips of presentations to show expertise. Load these videos on YouTube and then share the YouTube channel on your site and/or embed links to play videos where appropriate on website or in blog posts. They also mentioned creating professional book trailers for authors or product presentation slide shows. (FYI: A free on-line tool that may help with making these shows, recording narration, and getting them into video is SlideShare. You can also link directly to your SlideShare shows from a LinkedIn profile.)

If you have other social media tools you find useful for your business, please let us know about them by putting them in the comments for this post. Check back next month for another marketing method.

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Is Good Enough Good Enough?

2011-08-19T00:18:00.009-05:00

Recently I have been looking for a new creative person to join my development team. While going through the interview process I have been struck by an issue that has been part of all creative pursuits for years and is now appearing in a variety of business situations and projects of all types.

Is good enough good enough?

During the interviews I have been asking the interviewees to tell me about some recent projects they have completed where they had to utilize their knowledge, creativity, and skill. I ask them to walk me through their process including how they plan their projects, how they decide what information or content they need from the requestor, and how they work with others as a team. I want to hear how they process all of the incoming information, determine what to build, and decide if they successfully completed the project. Ultimately, I want to know whether the project met their own vision of success.

Separate from the interviews, I have also been in conversation with existing members of the development team regarding their desire to build great things and their feelings of frustration that, for a variety of reasons, they can’t build what they visualize. They want to know how they can grow their skills, expand their knowledge, and deliver great products if they are constantly having to work under a variety of constraints. These constraints range from requests with short delivery timeframes to bandwidth challenges to limited budgets.

Noting the similarities in these two situations, I have added a question to my interviews.

“Is good enough good enough?”

And I have begun to ask my existing team the same question with a slight twist.

“When is good enough good enough?”

The answer in both situations turns out to be, it depends.

For the interviewees, while their initial answer is no, good enough is not good enough, when pressed to discuss the constraints that existed during their project development, they reveal that given the constraints that existed, their real answer turns out to be, it depends. Many times the situation dictated that good enough was enough because it had to be.

And my existing team acknowledges the same conclusion. Based on the business situation and the “Quality, Cost, Price” matrix (triangle) which states that you can typically only have two of these items in play at any one time, the situation will dictate when good enough really is.

There is one additional thing that both my existing team and the interviewees agree on.

If good enough really is good enough, what do you if, for you, it is not?

You work beyond the limits.

You find ways to meet the business objective, hit the business timelines, and deliver the good enough product.

And then you work toward that great product you really want.

You do things such as:

build a parallel deliverable with the desired features
transition the project into phases with the additional phases scheduled after the initial project due date
share the workload or project across the team with different team members handling different sections based on their skill set
show the requestor what could be and asking for more time to make it happen.

So what do you think? Is good enough good enough? Or do you have some additional suggestions for working toward great?

Death by Powerpoint – Is this your Presentation?

2011-08-15T10:11:00.000-05:00

I do a keynote called Perfecting Presentaitons with the 4 P’s which is on creating and delivering business presentations.. During the 2nd P of the keynote, I share an exercise with th group on the right and wrong way to create PowerPoint slides. They learn a lot by trying to find everything wrong with my slides before we discuss the right way to prepare a show.

Watch the very amusing video titled “Life After Deatch by PowerP:oint” (under 10 minutes) below by Don McMillan and ask yourself “Do my slides look like that? Do I talk that fast?” In the video, he shares many of the same tips I do but in a much funnier way. The basic information I share in my keynote and that you will also glean from the video on slide shows are these key points:

Do not type every word of your speech, summarize in slides
Do not use too many font types or sizes – find 1 style that your audience can read easily
Do define your acronyms or technical terms
Do not overuse animations and images
Do not put too many bullets on the same slide (for more see Rule of 6)
Do use graphs and charts but only if they explain data better than a table.

Team Decision Making

2011-08-08T08:08:00.001-05:00

Recently members of the House and Senate appeared to be locked in a stalemate; unable to agree on the conditions surrounding when and how to raise the USA debt ceiling. The Republicans and Democrats each were looking at the situation from completely different perspectives and therefore saw opposing solutions to the issue. Although an agreement was finally reached before the deadline, the situation created anxiety and frustration for the members involved and the citizens of the USA.

Does that sound like something that has happened to you in the workplace? How would you rate decision making in your organization? Do you have different departments or functions that look at situations completely opposite thereby causing anxiety and an inability for your organization to make a critical decision and move forward?

I thought we could take a look at several ineffective and effective ways to make decisions in a group environment:

Railroading = Occurs when one or more team members force their will on the group. This will typically happen when one type of group represents a majority. The minority group’s voice is “drowned out” by the majority’s needs and interests.

Alliances = Occurs when a few team members form a coalition. Quite often there are tradeoffs and deals made where support is obtained for something one group wants in return for supporting a future option. This may work well for members of the alliance, but not always for everyone else or the organization.

Majority Vote = Represents the wishes of at least 51% of the group. This sounds fair however when 49% of the people do not get what they want, frustration can remain. You see this in politics when years after an election people are still complaining about how their candidate was not elected and how awful the incumbent is performing.

Consensus = Agreement among all members of the team based on what is best for the organization. This is the highest level of decision making. It is what we all want from our political and organizational leaders.

Tips for participating in consensus decision making include:

Avoid arguing based on just feelings; use logic and facts.
View differences of opinion as helpful.
Put your opinions aside and truly listen to the benefits another solution could offer.
Avoid changing your opinion just to "go along" with the group.
Look at the long-term view of the issue, not just the short-term benefits of all opinions.
After the decision is made, each member must visibly support the decision.

Marketing via Web and Social Media Networks

2011-08-01T06:00:00.014-05:00

I attended 2 conferences last month, both included talks on how to use social media on the internet to market a business, product, or service. Media methods included the company website, blogs, and social networks. My intent with this post is to share some of the tips I learned on using social networks as part of the marketing plan. I will follow with another post later to cover blogs and websites.

Currently, the benefit of using social networks is if someone who friends, connects with, or follows you really likes something your share, they may pass it on to the people who a in their own list, which means your message is multiplied at not cost to you. It is a digital version of “word-of-mouth” advertising, which is the best you can get.

To start, you need to investigate how people use each of the different social networks before choosing the best for your purpose. You can actually hurt your reputation by selecting a network or method that has a different purpose from what you are trying to do.
After you investigate your network options, choose the best one to begin building a profile. Each of the social networks will allow you to add a personal photo and build a link to your company website. So be sure to take advantage of that to build links back to your site so people can find out details about your company that are not going to be on your social profile.
Do not try to connect with others on the network until you have at least the basic profile built. Many network site give you the option of loading your current email contact list to find people already on the network via their email address.

If you are thinking of using a Facebook page, remember this site is primarily a way to link up with family, friends, and associates you wish to better connect with on a personal level. Because your audience here is so diverse, you need to be careful what you post especially is you use photos. Something your family or old high school buddies might find amusing may be a turn-off for a work associate or potential client. The experts recommend separating your personal profile page from your business by setting up a fan page for your company or for each of your products (or product lines – as an example an author would have a fan page for each book that has been published).

If you have a consulting business, you may want to use a networking service for professionals like LinkedIn. Here people link up to grow professionally and through groups that may share job openings in a particular field or where a need for a consultant or outside trainer exists. You can share your expertise via updates on your professional page, share data with groups you are a member of, and get recommendations for your work from others who are on the network that have worked with you in a professional or non-profit area. Remember this site is for professionals, so no cutesy stuff here – keep it professional!

Of course, everyone had to talk about Twitter. True it limits your updates to only 140 characters (less than the others), but you may be able to build a larger following on this site much quicker. However, a larger following may not necessarily mean the right people are following you. Who are the right people? They are the ones who care about what you have to say and potentially what you may be selling. If you plan to use multiple networking tools, you might consider linking them together – Twitter updates can go to or come from Facebook or LinkedIn depending upon how they are set-up. If you are thinking of using Twitter, you may want to read my blog series (links below) on the Twitter Journey which contain lots of links to great data:

The above are the big 3 to consider. However other sites were mentioned at the conferences too. The key is to check out every site someone invites you to join to be sure it helps you promote your business and/or your expertise. If it will not, then it probably won’t be worth the investment of your time to set things up and send regular updates. Let us know of other sites you recommend by putting them in comments on this post. Check back in a few weeks for another marketing method.

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What, No Email?

2011-07-25T10:35:00.004-05:00

I was listening to a podcast recently when one of the podcasters mentioned a new approach to improving communication and productivity. It seems there are a few individuals, many of them tech savvy, who are deciding to take advantage of the latest technologies to reduce their reliance on the old standard, email. In fact, some of them are going email free. With the emphasis on “Inbox Zero” and other methods for managing the daily barrage of email, it was interesting to hear that some folks have decided they could improve their effectiveness and thus their productivity by eliminating one of the hardest tools to manage. With the tools now available, it’s possible to communicate with the right people when and how you want to without resorting to email at all. With my recent research into better ways to manage my own projects and tasks, this process of reducing my email usage is very intriguing.

I decided to explore the possibilities. Could someone really lessen their reliance on email?

I began by creating a list of topics we typically communicate via email.

Here are some topics usually communicated through email.

• Instructions on projects and tasks
• Directions to events and locations
• Greetings to new team members
• Follow up to requests
• Collaboration on projects and tasks
• Access to documents and files (through attachments)
• Access to pictures and videos (through attachments)
• Links to web-based information and articles
• Links to virtual conference calls and meetings

Not an exhaustive list but enough to think through the next step.

Next, I thought about the places we usually access email. A few years ago, we needed to be at a computer to work with our email. We also needed to be near a phone line to make phone calls. Now with smart phones and tablet computers, it’s possible to access the above information anytime and anywhere. I, for example, routinely carry both my smart phone and tablet computer all the time providing access to multiple methods of communication anywhere I go.

I then made a list of the alternative methods of communication in use today. With the advent of Web 2.0, our communications methods have evolved dramatically. This evolution is allowing us to push email to the background.

In no specific order, these products include:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Facebook and Google+
• Instant Messaging
• Text Messages
• Blogging
• SharePoint

After reviewing my list of technologies, I matched them with the above topics. I found that communicating instructions, directions, greetings, and follow-up could easily be done via Twitter, Instant Messaging, and Text Messages. Collaboration could be done with SharePoint, Twitter, and Instant Messaging. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ could handle a variety of topics including daily communication, file sharing, pictures, videos, and links. Even in corporate America, tools such as SharePoint and Yammer, could provide the same communication possibilities. Finally, products such as Skype and GoToMeeting can be used to communicate via both voice and video. All in all, I could indeed use a multitude of new technologies to communicate with my world and not have to use email.

I did discover one reason I won’t be moving completely away from email anytime soon.

People.

All of the new technologies require that the people you want or need to communicate with, are using the same technologies. In my world, and in many corporations, this is not yet a universal thing. But stay tuned, it’s coming.

More on how to have a RARA meeting!

2011-07-19T06:00:00.004-05:00

RARA A

Meeing Wizard's

Approach book

In a prior post, What a RARA Meeting was explained as an acronym and it gave lots of references including the book RARA A Meeting Wizard's Approach. In this post, I want to share links to 4 downloadable podcasts by Shirley Fine Lee (author) lasting about 5 minutes each on just the 4 RARA components from the book. Click on the podcast titles below to load and listen.

Required Roles

Action-based Agendas

Relevant Records

Assigning Actions

Post Author Info+

Find The Work You Were Meant to Do

2011-07-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

Do you wake up in the morning excited about going to work? Is your job utilizing your strengths and talents?

“Everybody has a calling, and your real job in life is to figure out what that is and get about the business of doing it. Every time we have seen a person on this stage who is a success in their life, they spoke of the job, and they spoke of the juice that they receive from doing what they knew they were meant to be doing.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

The economy has caused many people to lose their jobs recently. Although a job loss can be devastating, some folks have seen it as a “blessing in disguise.” Many of us just drift into an occupation or an industry for a number of reasons. It could be that you were following in your friends or families “footsteps” or it was a job that seemed convenient. When you face a job loss it is a terrific time to reassess just how satisfied you were with your last job and what you would change.

Maybe you love your chosen occupation but would like to now utilize your skills in a different industry. I spoke to one person who decided to seek an accounting position with a non-profit organization where she could continue to utilize her expertise but with a company whose mission she felt was worthwhile.

Another person realized that to follow his passion he would need to take a major salary cut which would impact his family’s financial health. So he stayed in the same industry and occupation but found volunteer work where he could be doing, at least part-time, what he was “meant to be doing.”

It is not just about your strengths, there may be many things you can do but do not actually like to do. So how do you know what you were meant to be doing? Here are a few idea starters:

What Makes You Smile? – Think about the activities you have done in the past that brought you happiness. What did you look forward to doing?
What Energizes You? – When we feel motivated to do something we feel energized, when we do not be feel drained of energy. What motivates you and what drains you?
Look for Patterns – Examine your activities starting with childhood and see if you can find the patterns that made you smile and energized you. Is there a common thread?

I am at a point in my career that I finally have some time for volunteer work. I chose an organization that assists women with barriers to finding jobs by offering workshops and a boutique for a free interviewing outfit. What better fit for a former human resource professional who loves to speak to audiences and to shop!

What do you love to do? Can you utilize your passions to find the work you were meant to do?

“…carry whatever you're supposed to be doing, carry that forward and don't waste any more time. Start embracing the life that is calling you and use your life to serve the world." ~ Oprah Winfrey

Four Step Performance Management Model with Employees

2011-07-05T11:38:00.003-05:00

Solving Employee

Performance Problems

In the new book “Solving Employee Performance Problems” by Bruce, Hampel, and Lamont, a 4-step performance management model is explained in Chapter 2. Then follow-on chapters provide detail how to and templates for different aspects of each step. Here I will attempt to summarize the provided model.

1. Assess the situation before deciding on action or judging employee. To do this gather information about the employee such as work samples, project results, and co-worker comments to validate the assumption before going ahead with a plan for improvement. If an issue truly exists, then proceed to next step.

2. Set expectations for the employee by going over the expected work output and associated deadlines with them. They will not meet management expectations without clear guidelines on what they must do. This process of setting expectations should start with on-boarding and continue through the employee’s career by including personalized SMART goals for the individual as well as communicating the goals of the team they are part of.

3. Coach and correct to help employee through the performance improvement process by providing corrective feedback and reinforcement of positive behaviors. This will build employee confidence and create a better relationship with their manager. (Note: chapters 4, 6, 8 provide excellent examples of 19 common behavior problems, 30 ways to begin a conversations with the problem employee, and 14 examples for a coaching and development plans.)

4. Measure results so that both you and the employee know how they are doing towards their performance goals. This way you can meet regularly to adjust goals or set new goals as needed, rather than wait until the employee has completely missed a goal which means the manager did not help them avoid failure.

In chapter 8, the book also provides a link to HumanResourcesSources.org where a 15-minute podcast interview with Stephanie Montanez in available. Managers and Human Resources may find that interview helpful for step 3 above. The podcast is titled Problem Solving Toolkit for Employee Performance Improvement and contains 7 steps for management and HR.

Learn more to earn more

2011-07-03T07:00:00.003-05:00

The author of Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want -- Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible, Mr. Brian Tracy says “The more you learn, the more you earn!” On Tracy’s YouTube channel, he also offers these 2 to 3 minute business and sales tip videos:

What is the Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP)?

2011-06-28T15:48:00.000-05:00

The Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) designation is an online-based hedge fund training and certification program. The CHP program is a popular and trusted certification program built exclusively by and for hedge fund professionals.

What makes the CHP designation different from other professional designations? There are three main differences: focus, practical knowledge, and study aides.

The CHP is focused exclusively on hedge funds and fund of hedge funds. It is in-depth and comprehensive coverage of this niche area.
The CHP program offers practical knowledge that can easily be applied to a variety of hedge fund positions such as due diligence, compliance, analytics, consulting, or marketing and sales.
The CHP program provides participants with more study aides than anyone else at no additional cost. Participants who register for the CHP get access to over 60 educational videos for free, require no purchasing of expensive external study aides, and complete all of the required testing 100% online to avoid the hassle and costs of dealing with testing centers.

Read testimonials about how CHP Program participants have fit this designation into their overall career plans. To find the requirements of the 2 levels for certification, click on the options listed on the CHP home page.

Disclaimer: This blog post was retained by the Hedge Fund Group as a paid promotion. The writers and administrator on this blog are not liable or responsible for the information presented here or on the linked sites.

Rules for Bootstrapping a Startup Business

2011-06-27T06:00:00.005-05:00

School for Startups
book

In the Bootstrapping Your Business chapter of the book “School for Startups" the authors Beach, Hanks, and Beasley, offer us 23 rules for bootstrapping a business. Below is a summary of those rules for anyone thinking about starting their own small business.

1. Get operational quickly by selling. This maybe easier for a service business because you are selling you, but it can also be done whether or not you have a stockpile of products as long as you plan inventory wisely. (Inventory is covered in detail in another chapter of the book.)
2. Look for quick sales to jump-start your business. Remember you are not in business until you sell something.
3. Offer high-value products or services and make sure you sell the value proposition to get higher pay for your items. (Value proposition is covered in The WOW Factor chapter of the book)
4. Forget the crack team of recruits and do all the jobs yourself using advisors and mentors to help with the tasks you are less familiar with.
5. Under staff by doing it yourself and using contract workers only when needed.
6. Keep growth in check because slow growth requires less cash outflow than explosive growth.
7. Focus on cash, not profit to stay in business for a longer time so the customers will continue to sign-up and profits will eventually come.
8. Associate with other’s brand names through sponsorship, product-line, or loose partnership to build your credibility.
9. Do everything in-house – consider mailing and shipping yourself rather than hiring marketers or other outside vendors.
10. Do sales yourself in the beginning rather than utilize a salesperson. When you do decide you need another salesperson, do it based on commission rather than salary.
11. Start in your house or garage rather than rent or buy space to save overhead costs.
12. Don’t pay yourself or others get family and friend to volunteer to help until you can afford paychecks.
13. Argue every price because you do not know where you can save, how much you might save, or other options the vendor might offer you unless you negotiate.
14. Harness word-of-mouth advertising as it costs nothing and is one of the best methods for getting new business.
15. Use the royal “WE” to make your company sound bigger than 1 person when talking to potential customers.
16. Use free labor, such as interns found through the government, schools, or local networking groups.
17. Look for import/export opportunities by finding international suppliers or becoming one.
18. Get advances or deposits from customers to have money to buy necessary items before starting their job so you are not out any money.
19. Let customers fund your research for the next hot item by keeping your ears open for what they really want in the future.
20. Forecast from the bottom-up to figure out how much profit you must make to control your startup costs and continue your business growth.
21. Ship first, then test by sending new products to customers who can find the bugs for you without your investing time and money in the process.
22. Service businesses are easier to start than a product sales business because they require little upfront investment.
23. You do not need a formal business plan to start selling.

Phased Approach to Change

2011-06-22T23:11:00.009-05:00

The other day, Apple released the newest version of their professional video software, Final Cut X. This release, while touting several new features, also introduced a new process for editing video. This change is so severe, that the new software won’t even read the files of the old software. Needless to say, this release has garnered a lot of press, much of it negative. In fact, the announcement was a trending topic on Twitter the day after the release. Thinking about Apple’s decision, which in the short term at least, is a controversial one, got me wondering how other businesses approach making major changes.

Over the last several months, I observed a local business transition ownership. The original owner, in business for over twenty years, had an established clientele and a specific way of doing business. He was old-school in his approach. While adding some new things, such as a business web site, his business worked the same in 2011 as it did in 2001. And he was very successful. So successful, he decided to retire and sell his business to a new, younger individual. The announcement of the sale, in conjunction with the new owner’s youth, immediately caused some concern in the long time customers. It was educational to see how this new owner smoothly transitioned the business while easing the concerns of these customers.

Here is what he did.

Key Focus Areas
The first thing he did was determine what areas he wanted to focus on. He decided on the staff, the products and services, the facilities, and the marketing approach.

Here are some of the things he did. Note that these changes took place over a six month timeframe.

Company Staff
The first thing he did was start working in the business before he actually took ownership. This allowed him to not only get acclimated wih the customer base, but equally importantly, allowed him to begin building relationships with the staff he would be inheriting.

Products and Services
He started out providing the same services as the original owner. Then as the next few months went by he slowly added new services, which complemented existing services. He also expanded the hours of business providing more options to take advantage of these services.

Facilities and Equipment
He moved slowly in making physical changes. These ranged from new room layouts to better utilize the space to new equipment supporting the new services. He even added a TV in the waiting room. These changes were done so subtly, if you weren’t paying attention you might not have noticed.

Marketing and Communication
He saved this area for last. Only once he had introduced the new services, the new facilities, the expanded hours, did he look at changing the name. This was significant, as the business was named after the former owner. For the first few months he kept all access points the same. Then when he finally changed the name, it was expected and not a big deal. With this change, he also implemented a complete set of modern marketing tools. In addition to the name change, he designed a new web site, set up a fan page on facebook, created a Twitter account and introduced a monthly newsletter/blog.

As you can see, this approach is very different from Apple’s. His phased approach to change has allowed him to successfully transition without controversy and has worked very well.

What Is The DISC Behavioral Assessment?

2011-06-20T06:30:00.000-05:00

Below is a slide show explaining what DISC personality styles are and why they are important to know. You can find out more in archived post Productivity and Personal Behavioral Style.

Importance of Employee Validation

2011-06-13T06:00:00.001-05:00

It is validation that drives the motivation and engagement of your employees. You validate your employees when you communicate, connect with, and acknowledge them and their opinions. Validation is a sign of respect.

On May 25, 2011, Oprah Winfrey finished her 25^thtelevisionshow. During her final episode Oprah shared what she learned and what the show has meant to her. One of the most meaningful things she said that hit home to me as a management trainer and consultant was: "I've talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common: They all wanted validation. If I could reach through this television and sit on your sofa or sit on a stool in your kitchen right now, I would tell you that every single person you will ever meet shares that common desire. They want to know: 'Do you see me? Do you hear me? Does what I say mean anything to you?'"

Do you see and hear your employees? Do what they say matters to you? Here are a few ways you can show employee validation:

Ask Their Opinions – Employees have a view point which may differ from yours since they do the work on a day-to-day basis. Asking their opinions on issues related to their work and then acting on their suggestions shows validation.
Be Available for Questions– By being open to questions from employees you will learn what concerns them and perhaps find out training needs or barriers that are preventing them from moving forward. This demonstrates that you are willing to make time for them and their issues.
Provide Recognition – Show your employees that you have noticed their work and appreciate their efforts. Give them credit for their ideas and suggestions when speaking with others. Your employees will see that their work really matters to you and feel validated.
Complete Performance Reviews on Time – Employees know when their review is due, when their manager is late completing it, they feel unvalued.. When their manager completes the form and has a performance discussion on time, it gives employees the impression that they are worthy of their manager's time and attention.
Smile – As you pass your employees make eye contact, smile, and say hello. So many managers walk quickly by their employees without acknowledging them making them feel “invisible”. A simple smile says “I see you and I value you”.

Next month’s blog post…another lesson from Oprah Winfrey: “Start embracing the life that is calling you and use your life to serve the world."

Start Virtual Team Meetings with a Little Business Improv

2011-06-08T06:00:00.007-05:00

Since I am a contract facilitator at important business meetings or team-building events, I often get asked what should be done differently for virtual meetings verses face-to-face meetings. The basic requirements of any good meeting remain the same – follow the RARA meeting management approach of establishing Roles, starting and ending on time by following an Agenda, keeping Records with all decisions and the decision-making process documented, and assigning Actions before the end of the meeting. The main thing to keep in mind for a virtual meeting is for everyone to be more patient because you will not have the visual cues when someone wishes to talk or is ready to move to the next topic that you get in a face-to-face meeting.

Virtual meetings require the use of technology to communicate effectively. It is important that everyone knows how to effectively use the technology. Plan some training or quick reference guides on all the technologies to be used to start off on the right foot. This will ensure everyone is able to concentrate on meeting topics rather than trying to figure out how to mute/unmute when necessary over the phone or on computer speakers.

My previous 2 posts were about requirements for virtual team members and leaders to create the best team mix. To increase the team’s future success, the team should have their first meeting face-to-face. The team leader should personally contact each member, welcome them to the team by explaining how they fit into the group, and let them know when and where the first meeting will be. Then at that first meeting, conduct an activity that will make the team members more aware of the pros and cons of certain behaviors in meetings that will bog the group down. In the new book “Business Improv” by Val and Sarah Gee, they provide a great activity for this startup meeting. I have adapted this activity for virtual teams to use in their first face-to-face meeting and summarized the instructions below. There are also other activities in the book that can be done in future face-to-face meetings and a few relationship building ones that may be done in virtual meetings or by pairing up members outside the meeting.

Business Improv book

Business Improv Activity for Effective Meetings (#68 in book)

Your Objectives:

Recognize underlying issues and cause of disruptive behaviors to eliminate them.
Manage the need to control other’s behavior by creating personal accountability.

Activity Instructions:

1. Before starting the activity, begin with a short explanation of how you plan to handle regular meetings and unscheduled meetings only if necessary. Try to keep this talk under 5 minutes.

2. Do the activity in 4 rounds spending 2 to 3 minutes on each round.

Round 1: Individually and silently, have each team member think about what behaviors before, during, and after a meeting may cause disruption or annoyance, and result in ineffective meetings They should select, but not share, the one they feel is the worst for the next round.
Round 2: In small groups of 5-6 people, have the team members hold a mock meeting on any subject they choose. During this meeting, everyone is to demonstrate to the fullest the bad behavior they selected in round 1.
Round 3: Each individual member must now think about what the opposite behavior of the one they just acted out could be. If anyone can not determine an opposite behavior, ask them to consider a good behavior they think should be used in meetings.
Round 4: In the same small groups, have the team members hold a mock meeting on any subject they choose. During this meeting, everyone is to demonstrate to the good behavior they selected in round 3.

3. After the activity, debrief by asking the 3 questions below and allowing everyone on the team an opportunity to share their opinions on each question. Try to limit this discussion to 8-10 minutes at approximately 3 minutes per question.

“What was the biggest difference between meetings that were disrupted and those that were not?”
“What are the human needs behind the disruptive behaviors?”
“What specific actions can you take to stop disruptive behaviors during meetings?”

Assessing the Effectiveness of a Virtual Team Leader

2011-06-06T18:00:00.016-05:00

In a previous post, we looked at members of virtual teams using information from the book “Manager’s Guide to Virtual Teams .” This post provides a summary of the sample self-assessment based on the 7 competencies of effective virtual team leaders in the book. This mini-assessment is for managers to use to decide if they are ready to lead a virtual team. If this assessment shows the manager is lacking in any area, they can use the book and other tools to fill-in the missing pieces for a more successful team.

To take the assessment, rate yourself by asking the questions below and answering using this scale:
4 = Always , 3 = Frequently, 2 = Sometimes, 1 = Never
Any areas in which a potential leader has a score less than 3 may imply a need for research and learning on the part of the future virtual team leader.

1. Leader

Help the team understand what it is responsible for?
Respond to communication from team members within 24 hours?
Empower the team by ensuring it has the authority, resources, and accountability it needs?
Provide effective interventions for teams, including face-to-face meetings on a regular basis? (See my next post for an activity to jump start team meetings.)
Ensure effective information-sharing, problem-solving, and decision-making processes are in place?
Manage by sharing info/data, not by unnecessary rules and regulations?

2. Results Catalyst

Focus on results?
Clearly state the limits within which the team can make decisions?
Actively support team decisions that are within stated boundaries?
Strive to manage by guiding principles rather than policy only?
Make sure the team establishes and uses operating guidelines?
Establish clear performance goals and metrics jointly with the team and discusses regularly?

3. Facilitator

Model good meeting preparation and facilitation?
Help the team use effective decision-making processes?
Sensitive to group dynamics and deals effectively with dysfunctional behaviors?
Help the team solve problems; ensures the use of problem-solving tools? (Problem types include: Technical, People, and Business)

4. Barrier Buster

Actively work to remove unnecessary, policies, procedures, and practices that hinder team performance?
Correct differences between what the company says it wants people to do and what it rewards people for doing?
Work with team members to help them overcome feelings of isolation?
Help the team to understand, recognize, and manage different kinds of conflict?
Recognize when he/she is a barrier to the team and takes action for improvement?

5. Business Analyzer

Communicate information about what is happening in other parts of the organization?
Ensure team members know how to use communication technology effectively?
Act like serving the customer is the most important priority?
Discuss specific data about with the team on a frequent basis?
(Data includes: Product/Service performance, Competitors, and Finances)

6. Coach

Build problem-solving skills in and transfer responsibility to others by asking questions rather than giving answers?
Ensure team members have effective ways to communicate with each other?
Allocate time and money for training and development activities?
Deal with poor performance appropriately?
Exhibit good feedback skills and teach the skills to team members?
Ensure the team develops and uses appropriate technology protocols?
Technology includes email, phone, web meeting/conference tools, etcetera?

7. Living Example

Provide a personal example of the way people act in a team setting?
Admit mistakes freely and openly?
Follow through on agreements?
Willing to do things that are personally inconvenient if it helps the team?
Will do what is right even if it may be disruptive to personal career goals?
Behave consistently with corporate values and ethics?

Besides the assessment, another suggestion to team leaders from the book I found interesting was the flipping of the traditional weekly progress report. Not only do the team members send reports to managers or update the team project plan, the leader sends a report to the members of what he/she is doing for team and provides advance notice of when he/she is available/unavailable.

Permission to reprint was granted by the publisher.
Disclaimer: McGraw Hill makes no representation or warranties as to the accuracy of any information contained in the McGraw-Hill material, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall McGraw-Hill have any liability to any party for special, incidental, tort, or consequential damages arising out of or in connection with the McGraw-Hill Material, even if McGraw-Hill has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
See also To Be Productive blog Disclaimer at bottom of site.

Starting a Virtual Team with the Right Membership

2011-06-01T06:00:00.032-05:00

Manager's Guide to
Virtula Teams book

In the “Manager’s Guide to Virtual Teams” by Kimball Fisher and Mareen Fisher they state the 3 reasons a virtual team may need to exist are because members: are not located in same office building, may work different shifts or in different time zones, and/or come from varying cultures. Working with virtual teams (a.k.a. GDT) can be hard if the manager has not selected the correct members and does not make the effort required to get all members to work as a team.

In this post, I will focus on summarizing chapter 6 of the book, which is starting up or refocusing a virtual team. The chapter provides tips for 3 typical team start-up activities that can not be skipped for a virtual team, even if they are a temporary project team. The standard activities include:

Creating a charter (a.k.a. mission/purpose and results/objectives for team)
Defining roles and clarifying responsibilities
Establishing operating guidelines (a.k.a. ground rules or team behavior, which in my opinion should include participation in meetings, problem-solving and decision-making processes – the book also suggests some good methods for the last two in later chapters).

Included in this chapter is an activity which I have seen some technical teams optionally put in their operating procedures in order to better work together. It is required for virtual teams as a 4th activity; it is the establishment of technology-use protocols. To save time, I will not write about these 3 team items since it is possible to find many articles on all 3 and find suggested ideas for developing each in many team-building books.

Instead, I would like to paraphrase the attributes that the Fishers believe virtual team members must have, since some of these may be different than the requirements for co-located work or project team members. Here are the attributes to consider for a virtual team member:

Can work independently with little/no supervision but is not a loner
Is self-disciplined so that he/she will start and complete tasks
Will enjoy working on a team and has good interpersonal skills
Gets good results through use of good judgment and necessary skills
Is competent in both work/project skills and required technology
Accepts accountability for self and work responsibilities

In the “Manager’s Guide to Virtual Teams”, the authors also stress the importance of orientation for new members, team training, appropriate training for all in necessary business-related skills, and taking time to celebrate as a team. Continuous learning is encouraged with team-building activities in both live and web/video meetings as key to helping the virtual members feel more like a part of a team. They suggest doing short easy relationship-building activities at least monthly in virtual meetings and then do other types of team-building at event or meeting dates when the group gets together at the same location.

For more from the book, see my next post on Assessing the Effectiveness of a Virtual Team Leader.

Words Have Power!

2011-05-30T08:30:00.003-05:00

You have heard it is not what you say but how you say it. In other words, words have power. Watch this video and see what they mean.

OPW-Make More Money and Enjoy Your Life Part 3

2011-05-23T05:00:00.000-05:00

You are back after reading parts one and two and ready to invest in OPW (other people’s wisdom) in a big way. You now know that having your life account full and growing is a very wise investment on your part for your greater productivity, income growth and life enjoyment. That is a wise recognition and you are on the right path. Let us continue.

You are aware that the wise counselors mentioned in part 2 are your mentor(s) and your Master Mind group. Let us enlarge and expand the detail and clarity of who they are. In future posts, we will give you five important tips on how to enlist their assistance.

A mentor is simply a wise advisor or counselor. Here is some insight: both genders work; older or younger works too; skin color or culture is irrelevant; formal education is nice but not necessary; proximity can be very helpful but is not mandatory; socio-economic status is also irrelevant. Those are a few of the issues that should not be a big barrier if there is a willingness and readiness for both parties. Take down the old traditions or self-imposed boundaries and broaden your horizons.

Having more than one mentor can be especially helpful. Going back to the first post, I make it clear that having ‘others’ (plural) who you trust is the imperative in enjoying and benefiting from OPW. Trust is the foundation and starting point for a worthwhile relationship developed slowly, carefully and over time. Our world is more complex and changing faster than ever before and being able to draw from 2, 3 or more qualified, diverse and specifically unique advisors is extremely helpful in adding to your “life account.”

Recognize this too; a mentor may be there for a reason, a season or a lifetime. There are no standard time commitments nor is there a “perfect” mentor that will endow you with the holy grail of wisdom. Mentors (like protégés) are people and with each person there comes both the good and the bad. Choose wisely.

A Master Mind group, defined by Napoleon Hill who originated the term over 73 years ago, is the “coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people for the attainment of a definite purpose”. Actually, you have the beginning of a Master Mind when you and your mentor come together in this type of relationship. But in most cases the more people you add to your group who can and will work in a harmonious way the quicker and better will be the results for all. A group of four to eight people chosen carefully will bring a ‘multitude of counselors’ to your aid giving you more OPW than you can imagine.

Fill up your life account with OPW and watch your productivity soar, your income grow and your life enjoyment flourish.

Do the Do (Due)

2011-05-18T21:39:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago, while driving home from an appointment, I had this vision of lots of water and me on a small boat in the middle. It quickly occurred to me that this vision represented my current mental state when thinking of all the projects and deliverables on my plate. While I was getting the big projects done, I had this sense I was missing things on the smaller ones. I decided to stop, review, and get a handle on things.

I began my review that evening by listing out all the projects I could think of in each category of my life. After reviewing the list, I realized I needed a better, more comprehensive, and focused approach and system for managing my projects and tasks. I set a goal to design a system that would allow me to better manage my projects, both work and personal, now and in the future.

Having used a variety of approaches and systems in the past, I wanted to take the time now to find the right fit for my goals and style. In the past I had success with both paper-based systems, such as Franklin-Covey, and all technology-based systems such Pocket Informant and MS Outlook. More recently I have been using a hybrid approach of paper (Moleskine notebook) and technology (my laptop/PDA). In my review, it was easy to see that while I had some of the tools and processes in place, they were not working as well as I would like. So I decided to begin a quest to find the right system to achieve my goal.

My quest began on the internet. Writing for a blog about productivity, it was not a surprise to find lots of information on project and task management on the web. Sifting through information on different approaches and tools, I narrowed my search to systems and tools supporting the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. To learn more, I read blogs (including this one), I searched on Twitter, I liked pages on facebook, I read support forums, I listened to podcasts, I watched videos, I checked out ebooks, and I talked to friends. I even downloaded trial software and tested their approach to handling projects and tasks. All told I spent a couple of weeks, reading, listening, watching, and playing.

So where did I end up?

Knowing I was looking for a system based on the GTD approach helped to narrow down my research. So did knowing I could adjust my system later as relevant new ideas emerge. Next, with a criteria that the solution must allow me to manage both personal and work projects, I concluded it would have to work on my personal equipment (a Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad). So I targeted solutions that would work in the Apple world. Along the way I will figure out how to incorporate my PC-based work tools into the process. And I will keep my Moleskine notebooks. I still like to take notes the old fashioned way. So my solution is a merger of paper and technology.

I have settled on an approach and a supporting software suite (Omnigroup's Omnifocus) and am in the process of creating my system within it.

In the meantime, no matter what system I end up with, I still have to “Do the Do (due)”.

Undercover Boss gives new perspectives on old concepts

2011-05-09T14:30:00.000-05:00

What else can we learn from the TV show Undercover Boss besides leadership lessons? I think the end of season had some new perspectives for management and us. As always, click on the company name in the descriptions below to review the video of the show for yourself.

Having been an Education Manager at a large corporation, I found Tim White’s finale episode interesting. He is the Chancellor of the University of California in Riverside. His personal lessons in leadership of course were an emphasis on continued education; with a few surprises on how budget cuts can have negative results on both employees and customers (students in has case). I liked that he recognize leadership potential in employees and students, understood the need for role models to future generations, and importance of everyone having goals to work towards and plans for achieving them.

Shelly and J.D. Sun, co-founders of BrightStar Care visit at-home childcare and elderly care facilities to see how things are going. This was a delightful and heartwarming program with the emphasis on quality and having the right people doing each job, and building loyalty to the brand’s reputation. Not much more I could say about leadership lessons though. What did you think?

David Kim, CEO of Baja Fresh Mexican restaurant chain reminds everyone what hard work really is. What I found most endearing about this show was not so much leadership lessons, as the “American Dream” is still alive. Immigrants still see the U.S. as the best country to live in, follow their personal beliefs, and succeed in business while maintaining the importance of family. That makes me proud. I was so impressed with their “freshness” and customer service promises I wanted to try out this place, unfortunately they did not show any location near me on their website.

President and CEO of Synagro, Bill Massa goes to gross and disgusting waste water treatment facilities that recycle waste into useable fertilizers for farming and home gardens. He really learns hat dirty work is hard but you have to do it fast and try to keep safe too. Working in sludge - Yuk! If you like the Dirty Jobs show, you might find this episode fun to watch. Main lesson – make sure your employees have what they need, not just for doing the job but for comfort during breaks.

These were the last 4 shows of this season. To see the last season, go to Undercover Boss Dances thru Holiday Season and work backwards to the other shows. To review more of this year’s season, Start with Undercover Boss Continues Lesson Learned for Corporate Strategies. If I get a chance later this week, I’ll look at the March shows I missed on-line to see if there is anything new or worthy of blogging.

Spring: A Time for Growth

2011-05-03T07:30:00.006-05:00

The ground is thawing, flowers and trees are blooming, the world is turning green…it must be spring! I see spring as a time for growth, for renewal and for fresh approaches. To prepare for a fall harvest, you must also prepare the soil and plant in the spring. Crops will not grow overnight so it takes advance preparation to reap the rewards of a bountiful harvest.

How does this concept translate to the workplace? Spring is a good time to examine your career and skills for renewal and growth. Starting the preparation process early ensures that when “opportunity knocks” you are ready for the opportunity.

A colleague of mine, Jane, was frustrated that whenever her next opportunity was posted internally, she did not get the job. She asked for feedback and was told she needed to finish her degree in business and show leadership skills. Jane was determined that the next time she would be ready. To start her growth, she enrolled in college and volunteered for special projects at work that would show her leadership skills.

My nephew Samuel is graduating from high school. He would like to become a medical technician. Samuel researched the best schools in his area to receive training and also asked employers what they look for in technicians. Armed with this information he now has a plan to get a job he will love in four years.

To get ready for your future opportunity and achieve future growth, create a career action plan. Here is a three step process with questions to begin your plan:

1) Analyze Your Career: What do you like about your job? Are you satisfied or are you ready to move to your next opportunity? What other job would you like? What is your next logical step? What skills will be needed for your next step?

2) Analyze Your Skills: What are your current strengths? What strengths do you have that can be applied to your next career move? What skills need strengthening for your current and future career step?

3) Build Your Skills: What training and development opportunities does your organization provide? Do your career goals include a degree or professional certification? Your organization may provide tuition reimbursement.

What will you plant this spring to achieve growth in the future?

Sixteen Rules for Influencing Powerful People

2011-04-28T18:00:00.001-05:00

Influencing Power
People book

In the new business management book Influencing Powerful People by Dirk Schilmm, 16 chapters provide different rules regarding engagement of strong leadership. The book in broken into 4 sections: attributes of these people, building a relationship with them, specific work functions for someone working with them, and learning your personal power in helping build their legacy or eventually one of your own. Multiple examples of people who have shown they possessed the necessary skills in dealing with others are given using people famous in business or for leadership roles.

Below are the 16 rules in summary form, as I understood them to be.

Understanding attributes of powerful people
1. Get ready for a potent mix of brilliance and drive, because they are smarter and more ambitious.
2. Know how to manage the supremely confident and when to exercise smart influence, stand up for ideas, or help out.

Building your relationship with powerful people
3. Master the art of first impressions, because powerful people make decisions quickly.
4. Know what you are doing by taking assignments you are competent for and that utilize your strengths.
5. Save energy for when it counts, because working with them requires preparation and stamina.
6. Practice humility and admit mistakes if you are a team player, remember the limelight belongs to the powerful person.
7. Show appreciation with active listening and reflection of the powerful person’s communication style.
8. Sidestep power with diplomacy by questioning in private rather than confronting in a meeting or group.
9. Remain committed, but guard your independence in finances, actions, and personal ethics.

Working with or for powerful people
10. Get results as quickly as possible and communicate plans and problems to reduce their desire to micromanage.
11. With a differing skill set, you can cover their weaknesses as a complimentary strength, but make sure your job is valued.
12. Facilitate the impact of raw power by translating the powerful person’s vision into workable action plans and being willing to clean-up if necessary.
13. When appropriate, ask questions and provide advise to get them to think before they act
14. With the right relationships, you can get them to rethink, slow down on, or stop potentially bad decisions.
15. They are coachable only for new tasks, roles, or meetings; otherwise use caution and beware of using formal feedback tools.

Learning your own personal power
16. Keep it real and learn to use your own power well.

OPW-Make More Money and Enjoy Your Life Part 2

2011-04-25T05:00:00.004-05:00

Welcome back if you are here after reading part one. Your curiosity must be piqued and your search for good value is enough to bring you back. Congratulations, you are on the right path. (If you are asking what OPW is, please go back and read part 1.)

Why is OPW important and how much do you have in your life account at this point? What do I mean? Just like a bank account we all have a “life account” that is the cumulative wisdom we have acquired. We grow that wisdom from living life and from learning from those wise counselors mentioned earlier. We make deposits into and withdrawals from that life account everyday. Hopefully you are making more deposits than withdrawals.

Because we only have 24 hours in a day and some of that is horizontal (sleeping) we do not have a great abundance of time to get new knowledge and apply it, thus giving us wisdom. That is why it is imperative that we find and observe those that have a surplus of wisdom in their well to dip our cup into. Otherwise making large daily withdrawals can quickly begin to deplete your life account or give you a dry well in one category or another.

So, how do you find that wise counselor or better yet a whole team of them? That is what I promised to show you.

First, clarify and define who you are and what you want. Determine your V.M.V.; Vision, Mission, Values. What is your vision or dream of where you want to be and what you want in your life or business in the next 10 or 20 years? What is your life or business mission (also known as your purpose)? And finally, what are your values? What are your top five core values; those things that mean the most to you and that you are not going to compromise on at any cost?

When you have clearly defined and written those insights on paper you change your life. As you look at, think about and build your commitment to living those guiding principles you send out signals. Those signals immediately attract others to you who are like you. And that is exactly what you want. Those who share the same or similar V.M.V. will be the best candidates for your mentor and Master Mind group. Why?

When you have others who are like you they will support, encourage and challenge you in the way you need and want to become all that you can become. Your mentor(s) can give you wise advice, hold you accountable and possibly connect you to others who will assist you on your quest. Carefully observing this person will make large deposits into your life account.

Your Master Mind group will expand and build on what your mentor does and give you a harmonious power base of like minded supporters who want for you what you want for yourself; more productivity, more money and a better life.

Do you have any comments or questions thus far? More next time in part 3…

Entrepreneurs, do you know your business DNA?

2011-04-23T20:30:00.013-05:00

Entrepreneurial

DNA book

If you small business is floundering and you can not figure out why, maybe it has something to do with your entrepreneurial DNA. You could be trying to run the wrong type of business for your leadership type. Or you could have the right business for you but you are getting in your won way of success. Find out what your DNA type is by taking the on-line assessment at www.bosidna.com/test. Then get Abraham’s book Entrepreneurial DNA to find learn more about yourself, get strategies to capitalize on your strengths and overcome you weaknesses, and build and action plan for success. While you are waiting for your book order to come in, review the tables below to begin the journey of knowing yourself.

Builder	Opportunist
Specialist	Innovator

The BOSI (pronounced bossy) DNA Quadrant to find out which other DNA types are best to partner with or have on an advisory board because they may reflect certain attributes that help them understand their leader’s type strengths or they may possess missing style components that are needed to offset weaknesses in their leader’s type. Same column, same row, or opposite corners may be the best or worst mix depending upon the DNA possessed by potential business partners. Exactly the same type may be the worst type of partnership since both will have their own ideas on how things should be managed.

DNA Type	Strengths	Weaknesses
Builder	- Apply the “golden threads of business” to build systems and highly scalable selling ventures - A majority of the time is spent working on the business because he/she has people and system who work in the business - Natural-born leaders with potential investors, employees, and customers drawn to their vision and brand	- Work./life balance is generally out-of-balance for an extended period of time, leading to collateral damage - If left unchecked, both home and business relationships become strained and fractured - Find it extremely hard to ask for help, even harder to back down from an disagreement
Opportunist	- Very high work ethic when focused on a particular venture, 10-18 hour day don’t scare them - Being optimistic towards life, allows him/her to shake off short-term setbacks which gives a market advantage against pessimists - Very coachable especially when entering a new industry and seeks out top producers to learn from	- Saying NO to opportunities is very hard, will continue to cost money time, headaches if left unchecked - Doing due diligence on an opportunity is painful, sees analytical people as “slow” and “closed-minded” - Tend to juggle too many income opportunities, it is hard for them to pick one venture and focus on it exclusively.
Specialist	- Study to excel n their trade and invest in continue education which gives an advantage over some other types - Being relatively risk-averse keeps him/her from taking unnecessary risks when unrelated business opportunities come up - Recognizes the importance of personal relationships and puts emphasis on building healthy relationships with clients and employees	- Gets stuck in the box when it comes to growth strategy, this may prevent the venture from achieving true potential - It is hard to transition from an hourly-rate mindset to a leveraged distributions mindset which means having to staff up for the company to grow - Tend not to go outside their industry for expertise and advice, this safe strategy prevents them from accessing “game changing” strategies
Innovator	- Pipeline is rich and abundant; given enough time and resources, they can have several new products - He/she cares much more about quality then profits, this can create fanatical customer loyalty for the product/brand - Expertise makes them credible in the marketplace; investors, employees, and customers are drawn to participate with them	- Business development is no a strong suit and if left unchecked, the product/service could die - Tend to lack a “BS” filter so smooth talkers could convince them to give up unusual control in the company or technology - Tend to carry other people’s burdens including employees and customers; if left unchecked can become a source of stress and emotional fatigue

In his book, Abraham encourages business owners, presidents, and CEO’s to have their executive team take both the BOSI test and a DISC assessment to make sure there is a good mix of personalities on the team for better results. You can find some information on DISC written by other writers on this blog at these resources: Productivity and Personal Behavioral Style and Simply Said - The Impact of Adapting to Styles.

“They say entrepreneurship isn’t brain surgery. I say it is brain surgery. It is brain surgery you do on yourself – without the anesthesia.” – Joe Abraham

The quadrant, table, and quote above are adaptations and excerpts from tables in the book Entrepreneurial DNA author Joe Abraham, copyright 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission to reprint was granted by the publisher.

Disclaimer: McGraw Hill makes no representation or warranties as to the accuracy of any information contained in the McGraw-Hill material, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall McGraw-Hill have any liability to any party for special, incidental, tort, or consequential damages arising out of or in connection with the McGraw-Hill Material, even if McGraw-Hill has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

See also To Be Productive blog Disclaimer at bottom of site.

Communicate or Inform?

2011-04-22T19:03:00.004-05:00

Recently I attended a management offsite meeting where I was asked to facilitate a segment on professional development. I set out to find a relevant topic. In looking through our catalog of offerings, I noticed that much of the content focused on either leadership or coaching. Very little of it targeted managing itself. So I decided to find something on managing. I found a small workshop that focused on becoming an effective manager based on the findings of French businessman, Henry Fayol. He was one of the first to develop a general theory of management. His theories, still in use today, focus on six functions of management. This workshop covered five of them (Planning, Organizing, Commanding, Coordinating, and Controlling (Monitoring). I want to drill into a key point within one.

The third function, Commanding, is a critical function. It is where the rubber meets the road. This is where things happen. It is all about communicating the plan to the right team at the right time for them to do the activities that deliver the goals and results of the business. The first interesting element of this function is the title, Commanding. In the 21st century business, this term usually takes on a negative connotation. When Fayol established it, it had a much broader and less offensive tone. He likened this step to a ship’s commander and their role. To allow for easier assimilation in today’s business environment, many people now refer to this function as Communicating. It’s this new term that I want to focus today.

In our conversation around this function, we uncovered two words that get used interchangeably, Communicating and Informing. We concluded that while similar, the words actually mean different things and are more complimentary than alike. As managers we need to be aware of the difference when working with our teams.

To inform is to simply pass on facts or information. It is a one way conversation. A monologue, if you will. To communicate, on the other hand, is a much more complex endeavor. It means being able to share and understand each other’s thoughts. It is a dialogue between two or more people until there is a joint understanding.

For example, your boss sends you an email with some key performance statistics, and an attached PowerPoint slide. You briefly review it and forward the email to your team. Later, your boss asks you if your team is on board with the new structure detailed in the PowerPoint slide. You tell him: “Yes, I communicated the information to my team.”

But did you?

In this scenario, after reviewing the differences between communicating and informing, you will realize that you merely informed them. You did not meet with them individually, or as a group, so you do not know if they understand the changes and are “on board with them” or if they even looked at the email. To have truly communicated with them, you should have scheduled a meeting, or conference call, talked about the information, asked if they had questions and had them share their thoughts with you.

As you can see, it’s easy to confuse the two. In our fast paced business environments, just informing teams happens more often then we realize. So, take time to know whether you need to communicate or simply inform. There is a place for each. Learn when to use the right one.

Let me know if you understand!

Please share your comments below.

Nine Reasons Managers Fail

2011-04-17T05:00:00.005-05:00

Managers, Can You
Hear Me Now? book

Denny Strigl and Frank Swiatek recently collaborated on a book titled Managers, can you hear me now? It focuses on success lesson from the management style used at Verizon Wireless. In this book, 9 reasons managers fail to be as successful as they can are presented, along with ideas to implement as solutions in different chapters. In this post, I hope to summarize their points and add a little of my own perspective. For more details on becoming a better manager, please consider getting this book.

1. They fail to build trust and integrity.
How to build it:
- Say what you mean and mean what you say
- Seek input and feedback from your team
- Treat customers and employees with dignity
- Be dependable and meet your commitments
- Create clear focus and objectives
- Create a climate of open communication

2. They have the wrong focus.
Focus on:
- Growing revenue
- Getting new customers
- Keeping existing customers
- Eliminating costs

3. They do not model or build accountability.
How to be accountable:
- Take action
- Make decisions
- Be proactive
- Own issues and problems
- Demonstrate your commitment
- Rise above the circumstance
- Take necessary steps to get results

4. They fail to consistently reinforce what is important.
Reinforce:
- Your message of what is important
- Goals and objectives for organization

5. They over rely on consensus.
How to make decisions:
- Empower employees to make decisions about their work
- Consider others opinions but make your own decisions when time allows
- Decide yourself when quick action is necessary
- If you make a bad decision: admit it, fix it, and move on

6. They focus on being popular.
Focus on:
- Building trust and respect among co-workers
- Delivering concentrated results
- Holding concise “to-the-point” meetings
- Putting people in the right job

7. They get caught up in their self-importance.
Remember to:
- Drive results by meeting company goals
- Recognize contributions of your team
- Stay focused on what is best for the organization

8. They put their heads in the sand.
Rise-up by:
- Stressing open and honest communication at all levels
- Encouraging employees to bring up problems and issues
- Sharing accountability for results
- Learning to better manage your time

9. They fix problems - not causes.
How to fix it:
- Prevent reworking same issue
- Assign appropriate resources to solving the problem
- Take the time to discover root cause(s)
- Do not point fingers - work together

“The ultimate goal of a successful manager is to have this total commitment spread throughout the entire organization at all levels so that a results-focused culture is created.” - Denny F. Strigl

Plan Your Sales Message by Asking Questions

2011-04-14T05:00:00.008-05:00

The Sales
Messenger book

You must know what your customer needs, wants, and their motivation for buying before you can begin to sell your product or service to them. Giving the same pitch to everyone will often result in few sales. Instead, learn to ask questions to get at the root of the customers problem so you can then help them understand how what you are selling solves their particular problem.

So the customer does not feel like they are being interrogated verses being partnered with to solve their problem, start by asking their permission to present your questions. Here is an example of how to start "To make the best use of our time when we are together, my purpose at this time is to get your answers to a few questions. Do you mind it I ask them?"

After you have permission, start by asking open-ended questions to find out what your customer is doing in the area that your product or service can help with. Do NOT try to sell at this time or ask about how they may use a competitor. Instead focus on their current use, their needs, their desires, and possible objections they have to technology or problems they encounter with other things they have tried. Listen closely to their responses and take notes. This should be a give-and-take session with the customer. You can use the notes later to customize a presentation or do a follow-up discussion with the customer.

Below are some ideas for ways to start questions that get the customer thinking about current or potential problems. You can use the answers to help build your case when you are ready to present your product or service.

Are you aware…?
Does it concern you …?
Could there be a problem if …?
What would happen if …?
According to …?
How would it fell if/to…?
Did you know …?

It takes building relationships through understanding of your customer and their specific needs to make a sale. It may take several phone calls and meetings before a sale can be completed. Keep the individual customer in mind when building the relationship and you will eventually get that order.

*NOTE: The questions above come from chapter 5 in The Sales Messenger: 10 Lessons for Sales Success in Your Business and Personal Lives book by Mary Anne Davis. Click the IPG link to hear a podcast interview with the author about the new book from Inside Personal Growth.

Delight Your Customers

2011-04-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

Last month I visited a client’s location out of state and was thrilled when they made my travel arrangements for me. They booked a rental car from Enterprise. I was a little surprised because I did not think that Enterprise had locations at airports but was prepared to keep an open mind. Was I impressed! I was warmly greeted by the shuttle bus driver; he called ahead with my name, and helped with my bag. At the location someone opened the door for me and I was greeted by the agent who handed me a business card with her name so I had someone specific to talk to during my whole rental experience. I was then walked to my car by another employee who helped to examine the car for any scratches, checked the gas tank and offered not just the full tank refueling option but various other options such as just prepaying for a quarter of a tank. She figured this was what I needed based on where I told her I was going and the amount of traveling I would be doing. Wow!

What did they do to delight me as their customer? They acted as if they valued my business. They were prompt, service was personalized and they listened. Air travel is difficult and stressful these days and I was left with the impression that they wanted to relieve my stress by having warm, courteous, customer focused employees and practices.

All your employees are customers too outside of the work environment. They go to restaurants, purchase groceries, talk to their phone supplier, get their car repaired, etc. They know what it is like to receive good and bad service and how it makes them feel. Here are instructions on how to lead a valuable interactive activity on delighting customers in your organization:

During a meeting, ask for volunteers to tell a story about poor customer service.
Everyone else listens to the story and lists on a flip chart what the customer service person did to make it a poor experience.
Ask “how did it make you feel to receive bad service?” You are likely to hear things such as: not valued, not listened to, frustrated, angry, etc.
Ask for volunteers to tell a story about great customer service.
Again, all other participants at the meeting list specifically what the person did to make the experience delightful and how it made them feel.
You now have two lists…one with poor service items and one with good service items.
Ask “is there anything on this list we should be doing more of to make our customer feel valued?”
Participants then are asked to develop their own action plan on how they will renew their commitment to delight their customers based on the good customer service list they just developed.

This activity is a great energizer for your employees. We frequently become so transaction focused as we repeat the same information or go through the same process over and over, day in and day out. It is valuable to take that step back and remember that what we are doing and saying is either frustrating our customer or delighting them. We all have the opportunity every day to give the same wow experience I had at Enterprise to our customers.

Remember: ”You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied.” - Jerry Fritz

Teambuilding events must be worth the business investment

2011-04-05T13:05:00.006-05:00

I am often asked to facilitate team building events. Occasionally the person coordinating the event from the client corporation is tasked with setting up a fun day, but most often the team’s manager is hoping to solve a problem within the team. It is important to know what you want from a team-building event before contacting a potential facilitator or facility.

When I am contacted about team building, I listen to what the coordinator says is needed, which typically emphasizes the word “fun”. My response is “I have lots of activities that are fun, so we can definitely do that. What is it you want your team(s) to learn at this event?” I guess I need a better way to communicate this questions because I sometimes get a reply that they want “team-building not training.” If there is nothing to be gained from the event other than a day of fun, is it really worth the company’s investment of not only the event cost but the employee time in attending? Yes the event may help the team members bond with other individuals, but how does this equate to working together?

After I explain that I am not selling a training workshop, instead I want to know how to help the team develop and work better together using the best activities. I need this information to suggest fun or thought-provoking activities for the team to do during the event so that they make the most of their investment. Then the coordinator wants to know how I an do this so he/she can go back to the teams’ manager, sponsor, or leader to find out the answers needed to design the best of the team-building time. Questions I provide are along these lines:

Does the team have an issue that is keeping them from moving forward with their work? (Examples: accountability, attendance, attitude, communication, cooperation, conflict management, creativity, diversity, email etiquette, flexibility, meetings, presentations, time management, training plans, trust, recognition, or respect)
Does the team have a defined mission and goals or objectives? Do they have ground rules for working together and team member responsibilities? If not, would the event be a good place to include developing those as a team or sharing that information with them?
Does the team need to experience designing processes, planning quality improvement efforts, serving customer well, solving problems, risk-taking, or making decisions on their own?

After they take notes from our discussion or ask me to send the questions via an email, I ask “Will the management person sponsoring the team-building event be attending a portion of the day or participating along with the team?” If they are not planning to attend, I suggest they come to kick-off the session and set the stage for the day. Often the manager will agree to do a kick-off and many choose to come back at the end of the day to hear what the team members got from the team-building event. If they are planning to attend as a participant, I ask they arrive early so we can discuss ground rules before the team members arrive.

Many times, I am pleasantly surprised by a manager or team leader who personally calls me back to discuss their actual needs for the team. Occasionally, I get a call back from the coordinator telling me the manager, sponsor, or leader wants to discuss with the team what they want to get out of the day. I think this is great and offer to send a listing team and member characteristics that the team may want to review to help them select categories for learning activities. Or if preferred, the team can download a team evaluation from my website and use the results from that to decide what they really need as a team to work better together. After a decision of what type of categories team-building should encourage, I begin working with the coordinator on event location, date, and agenda planning.

Does your company do annual events or more frequent team building activities? Are those team building activities or team training options producing the desired results? Are they worth the investment your company is making in its people? Add a comment to let me know what you think about team building events.

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OPW-Make More Money and Enjoy Your Life Part 1

2011-03-28T07:00:00.002-05:00

Here is an educated guess. You are not reading this blog for entertainment, spiritual enlightenment nor for your lack of something else to do. You are here looking and expecting to gain something of value or worth. Right?

Now that we have your basic reason for being here perhaps this title titillated your interest enough to cause you to begin a quick scan of the content. So that brings you to here, and our next educated guess. You are probably asking, “what is OPW’?”

OPW is other people’s wisdom. Today our society, our culture and our world is spinning so fast and furious we can not possibly try to keep up with even the bare necessities without the qualified and able assistance of ‘others’ whom we trust.

Here are the facts. Data is free, just like air. It is every where, and although polluted like the air, it is around us 24-7-365. Information is cheap, just like gum used to be. With the web and our information rich society we have some reasonably good quality information attainable quickly, cheaply and with little effort. So where does that leave us? Ah yes, wisdom.

Wisdom, that is golden, that is valuable and that is worth seeking. The way the wisdom literature defines wisdom is ‘knowledge applied’. The famous Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius said, “Wisdom and right action are the same thing.” You get wisdom when you apply knowledge and with it comes understanding. What a package!

We turn to the TV, the radio, the web or the company water-cooler to get all the relevant daily news we need. We go to certain specialist like our primary physician, our dentist, our accountant or our hair stylist to give us the insights and updates on how we are doing in health or hair categories. But where do we turn for wisdom? Again, the wisdom literature points us to ‘wise counselors’.

So where are these wise counselors? How do we find these men and women of wisdom who can give us good counsel to be more productive, make more money and enjoy our life? Actually, they are all around us if we will only start looking and listening for them.

They are found in the pages of great books or other good learning materials. You may meet some walking the halls of companies in your city and others are in places of worship or education. Occasionally you will even find one of these wise counselors in a humble and unexpected place like your circle of friends or family. Amazing, is it not?

You can find your own wise counselor or even assemble your own wisdom team with just a little work. In our next post we will show you why it is important and how to do it.

Information Gathering or the Value of Research

2011-03-24T23:04:00.004-05:00

Recently, in a conversation with some sales managers, the conversation turned to some challenges their people were having expanding their relationships with key customers. Specifically, the managers talked of how some sales people were able to start a relationship while working to get the contract signed but didn’t know what to do afterward. Their issue was not knowing what to talk about in subsequent meetings. Therefore, they were hesitant to schedule them. The managers asked if I had any thoughts or possibly some training material that might help.

After further discussion, I made the following recommendation. Rather than offering another training class, I recommended a coaching solution that the managers could implement themselves. I recommended they help their people master the art of information gathering or research. This step, typically the first one in most sales processes is the most neglected and yet most beneficial one. I suggested that the managers emphasize the benefits of effective, ongoing research and have their people practice this process with them. I mentioned that the research should focus on the following areas.

Your company

The first place you want to stay up-to-date is your own company. Sounds obvious but many people neglect this area. How well do you know who you work for? Do you have a good understanding of the vision, mission, and key goals of your company? Can you discuss your company’s value proposition? Are you current on the product offerings? What about process changes?

Your industry

The next place you want to stay up-to-date is your industry. Are you up-to-date on the latest innovations? How well versed are you with the direction the industry is headed? Do you understand how your company fits in the industry hierarchy?

Your Competitors

And what about your competitors? This is typically the hardest area to get good information, and therefore the easiest to put off until later. Do you know who your competitors really are? Would your customers agree with you? What changes have happened to their business models? Have you sampled or otherwise experienced their products to form your own opinion of their merit? Are you able to easily comment on the features and benefits of their products? Do you know why they get selected when they win?

Your customer

The last area is the most obvious, your customer. Do you know what their current vision, mission and key goals are? Have these changed recently? Do you have a good understanding of where they are going next? Do you know what their top initiatives are? Do you know how we fit into supporting these initiatives? Are you aware of any changes in their internal hierarchy? How deep and wide are your contacts within the company? Who else are they doing business with in your space? What other providers can we partner with to service them?

Finally, what do you know about their industry and their competitors? Are there any major changes in directions in their industry that is going to impact them? Do you know who they compete with? Do you know where they stand against their competitors?

The managers thanked me for my suggestions and told me they would keep me apprised of their results. What about you? Do you run a sales team? What suggestions do you have for this topic? Let me know in the comments.

Create an Emergency Response Plan

2011-03-14T05:45:00.001-05:00

Natural disasters appear in the news just about every day; earthquakes in California, tornados in Kansas, hurricanes in New Orleans, flooding in New Jersey. Although natural disasters may change by location, every business may face various risk factors. In addition to natural disasters there are human disasters such as blackouts, theft, workplace violence, explosions, etc. It is important therefore that organizations create a cross functional team to develop an emergency response plan. By making the team cross functional, you can be assured of a diversity of viewpoint on how to protect your business and how to get your business functional again after a disaster strikes.

Start by brainstorming a list of the probability of natural disasters in your area. Develop a rating system from virtually certain probability to improbable for each.
Repeat by potential human type disasters.
Then create a plan. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has developed list of resources that will assist you.

What about your employees during times of natural disasters? What would you do if:

1) Your business is closed due to damage?

2) Your employees cannot get to work due to local conditions?

3) Employees are unable to come to work because they are dealing with their own circumstances as a result of the disaster?

Your plan should include decisions for if your business is closed permanently and temporarily. It is essential that you keep communication channels open with employees during disasters. A major concern will be “do I still have a job?” and they will also have questions on how and if they will be paid and if their benefits are still available. Here are a few items to consider:

Examine where critical information is stored, both physically and electronically to prevent irreparable physical damage from crippling the company’s ability to communicate.
Keep an accurate emergency contact list to be able to reach employees.
Establish and publicize communication methods (e.g., web site, telephone chain, recorded announcement) to keep employees current on the disaster status.
Create a process for payroll and benefits processing if you need to administer off site.

In 'Treatises of Fistula' (c. 1425) by J. Arderne said "Forewarned is forearmed. Knowledge of imminent danger can prepare us to overcome it.” Chances are your business will never sustain a natural or human disaster, but it is reassuring to have a plan to immediately put into place if it faces such as situation in the future.

Easy Time Management Techniques

2011-03-08T23:56:00.002-06:00

When I speak or train on time management topics using TAPP, I typically ask the audience to share some of their tips as well. I feel people often learn the best techniques from listening to each other. Many of the tips given at these presentations are variations on something I may have already shared from TAPP on Tasks, Appointments, Priorities, or working with People. Others are job or tool specific alternatives that an audience member feels works very well in their particular industry or organization. I have captured the “WHY” people find the five most often mentioned techniques helpful in the article The Top 5 Best Time Management Practices.

If you find something new you would like to try or want some new ideas for methods you already use, you can check out my book TAPP Steps in Time Management and/or read more of my on-line articles from my website. Below are 2 links each to potentially helpful information on how to begin implementing each of the 5 techniques into your personal time management system.

1. Create a daily “To Do” list.

- Start: 5 Basic Time Management Tips for the To Do List

- Enhance: 5 Simple Time Management Tips for To Do Lists

2. Write down appointments.

- Time Mgmt Ninja: Why You Need an Appointment for Tough Tasks
- Video: Time Management is Not Being Late

3. Determine work priorities.

- Article: Improved Time Management Includes Setting 3 Priorities

- Instruction: 10 Outlook Features to Save Time, Reduce Stress, or Promote Peace of Mind

4. Set alarms.
- Article: The Never Late Call - Set Alarms for Appointments
- Instruction: How to Set an Alarm on Your iPhone

5. Break-up large projects.
- Article: 3 Excuses for Procrastination and How to Overcome Them
- Article: Procrastination - 13 Techniques to End it

You may also want to check out the Gomestic post The 5 Rules of Time Management of Self-made Millionaires which restates 3 of the 5 practices and provides 2 different tips. Please share any other time management ideas you find personally helpful with our readers by adding a comment to this post.

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Six Thinking Hats and Six Sigma

2011-03-01T06:00:00.000-06:00

In another post on this blog, DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats was presented as a method for decision-making. Here I’d like to reference it as a problem solving and quality improvement tool. The underlying principal behind the introduction of creativity and innovation in the Six Sigma process is the ability of the organization to achieve breakthrough process improvement at a rapid pace rather than work only on incremental improvements step-by-step.Six Thinking Hats is a technique for stimulating and generating innovative ideas and solutions that will help improve the overall potential of Six Sigma in business improvement and development. Creativity is required in each facet of the DMAIC Cycle:

Define – Project selection and the opportunity for breakthrough.
Measure – What are the best ways to measure? Are there different ways to measure? What will be key customer requirements now and in the future?
Analyze – Different efficient methods for data collection and analysis will result in new approaches to looking at improvement opportunities.
Improve – Creativity in experimental design, process design and optimization without new approaches will by definition be flawed and conform to the old way to doing things. The old clichés of making a better mousetrap rather than designing a system where mice do not enter.
Control – Creativity in control and monitoring can have profound implications on the improvement effort. New and different ways of control will result in more efficient and optimized processes.

It’s overwhelming to see the results that can be accomplished by a person or team who know how to separate emotion from facts, the positive from the negative, and critical thinking from creative thinking. Six Thinking Hats is a time-tested toolset that boosts creative performance and innovation output. It provides a framework to sort out six different ingredients in thinking. Each person uses the same tool, at the same time, on the same challenge. It is called focused parallel thinking. Six Hats will increase creative and innovative performance by helping your and your team:

Break the idea killer habit that shuts down the creative process. It takes less than eight seconds for an idea, suggestion, or proposal to be criticized.
Generate powerful new ideas that are outside of the mainstream.
Follow a practical process for idea evaluation.
Consider a broader range of possible solutions and select the ones that best meet the business need.
Select opportunities to pursue based on balancing value against risk.
Develop action plans to minimize risk.
Sell well thought out ideas to management and clients with more confidence.

You can strengthen your future with fresh new thinking. The current business environment demands it. The measurable results from Six Thinking Hats include: shorter meetings, thorough decisions, better communication and easier problem resolution. By mentally wearing and switching symbolic “hats” (thinking dimensions), individuals or teams separate thinking into six categories for analyzing matters objectively, creatively, and comprehensively.

Six Types of Managers to Manage

2011-02-27T22:00:00.011-06:00

Managing Your
Manager book

“You’ll also find that each of the six types reflects the complexity of bosses. In other words, each type of boss has good points and bad ones; each type functions well or poorly in certain situations; and one type may be great for a direct report with a certain personality and terrible for another direct report who has a different style. What I’ve tried to do is reflect the reality of each common boss and not divide them into good bosses and bad bosses—which isn’t to say that all these types are created equal. As you’ll see, one of them is more difficult to work for than the others (at least for most people), and one of them is more fun.

I think it’s fair to give you a snapshot of each type here, though with the proviso that this snapshot doesn’t do their complexity justice. Still, I think it will be useful if you start thinking about these types...

The Bully—aggressive, command-and-control type; can deliver great results, but can also take bad risks and be a tough person to work for.
The Good—consistent, calm, communicative, but has problem with risk or anything that upsets the applecart.
The Kaleidoscope—shifting persona focused on accumulating and consolidating power; extremely bright and business savvy, but also difficult to get to know the real person and easy to resent controlling personality.
The Star—high-energy, dramatic, and action oriented, but has little patience with red tape or anything that requires patience; impulsiveness can get the group in trouble.
The Scientist—highly logical and reliant on a theory of the case, open to feedback, but also can stubbornly stick to a theory beyond all reason; can also be distracted and difficult to communicate with in this state.
The Navel—big ego in need of constant feeding; this ego can drive group to decide and execute with speed and skill; can also drive people to distraction as this boss makes everything about him.”

Above is an excerpt from the book “Managing Your Manager Your Manager: How to Get Ahead with Any Type of Boss” author Gonzague Dufour, copyright 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Permission to reprint was granted by the publisher.
Read 1st post on Smooth Sailing with the Bully Manager.

See also To Be Productive blog Disclaimer at bottom of site.

Partnering for training success

2011-02-25T15:52:00.005-06:00

You are a department manager and want to address some deficiencies in a couple of your team members. You like to support the corporate training program, so you access the training catalog on your intranet. You see some offerings that might be helpful but don’t see any that are available in the near future. You reach out to the corporate training manager and ask if there is anything he can recommend for your situation. He says that everything they have available is listed on the training catalog and states that they are backlogged and won’t be able to design something new any time soon. You thank him and move on. Needing to address your issue quickly, you start looking through material you have in your office. You find some stuff you think will work, pull it into a PowerPoint deck and deliver it to your team. If you don’t find anything, you head out to the local bookstore, check out the business section, find a book that looks like it will work and buy some copies for your team to use as a study. If neither of these ideas work, you remember that a course you took several years ago might, so you dig it out, make some modifications, and use it with your team.

You are the corporate training manager and recently received a call from one of your department managers asking you for some help with his team. You listened to his request, reviewed both your current offerings and upcoming projects, and let him know you would not be able to help him right away. Now you hear through the grapevine that he is doing his own thing to solve his issue. This concerns you because you really want to be able to help your business partners, and know that you will probably have to get involved later anyway to help insure his people understand the official corporate approach.

Sound familiar? This situation happens quite often in corporate America, especially in tough economic times such as these.

So what can you do?

One idea I have seen work extremely well is for the two managers to partner together and develop training content that can be delivered as needed by either the training team, or more importantly, by the department leader himself.

To make this work you will need to do the following:

Corporate Department Manager

1) Assess and evaluate each person on your team and determine the gaps
2) Meet with the training manager to share the needs and requirements of the team
3) Base your requests around the roles, responsibilities, and assigned competencies for role
4) Take the time to learn how to effectively teach, not just coach your people

Corporate Training Manager

1) Take the list of needs and requests and design impactful training content that addresses the requirements of the jobs.
2) Design the material in simple, modular format incorporating instructor-led content with job aids, coaching kits, webinars, etc.
3) Design the coursework so it can be delivered in a variety of settings including one-on-one and group environments
4) Set up time to train the corporate manager on effective training techniques
5) Commit to maintain the content the same as other training deliverables

This is a simple approach but it has been effective in setting departments up for success. It’s a great way to share the load between the functional department and the training department. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Smooth Sailing with the Bully Manager

2011-02-20T22:00:00.004-06:00

“A number of years ago, I went sailing with my boss at the time, and it started out wonderfully. The sun was shining, the wind was steady, the sea was calm. Best of all, my manager was in a great mood, and we were having a great time talking about work issues as well as other matters. A few hours later, though, a front moved in and the sea became rough. As conditions deteriorated, he reverted to form. As a manager, he was a Bully type—tough, aggressive, decisive, used to giving orders and having them obeyed without question. Though he could be gracious and accommodating when it suited his purposes, his classic Bully traits would come to the surface whenever he was under significant stress. As the wind stretched the sails tight and the boat rose, fell, and tilted at a precarious angle, my boss ordered me to put my life jacket on. He snapped at me when I asked a question. He shouted at me to get something from the other end of the boat and told me, “Hurry up!”

I recognized that he was becoming the tough captain of the ship rather than my friend and colleague, and that he was responding in the only way he knew how to a difficult situation. Nonetheless, it wasn’t a life-or-death situation but one that required him to take charge. An outside observer would have thought him rude and bad-tempered.

Fortunately, I understood this type of boss and was accustomed to this type of mood swing when he was under pressure. I understood that this wasn’t a time to challenge or question him; I didn’t take his rudeness personally. I followed orders, and as soon as we were safely back in port, he returned to his old charming self. He complimented me on how well I had done in a difficult situation, and I thanked him for helping us get back safely.

In many ways, we interacted the same way at work. I had learned how to handle him when he was being difficult. I knew when I could question his directions and when I could not. Because I grasped his Bully type, I was able to maintain a strong working relationship with him, and he in turn was supportive of my career aspirations in the company.

I don’t want to make this sound easier than it was. It took time and study to figure out this managerial type. The Bully was complex, like all the types we’ll discuss. He had good traits and bad ones, and it took a while to identify what made him tick and what ticked him off. But I had observed and worked for other Bullies in the past, and I was able to “get” him eventually. This made managing my manager infinitely easier than it would have been, especially when he was under stress.

Most bosses today work in highly stressful environments. I’m sure my sailing metaphor isn’t lost on you—every manager is trying to navigate through stormy seas as companies and industries undergo significant change. To deal effectively with a boss under pressure, you need to know her well. I’m not saying you need to know her personality as much as her managerial persona. Certainly the two concepts are related; many people’s best and worst qualities are muted when you’re having lunch with them or interacting with them socially, but when they put on their boss hat and they’re struggling to meet a tight deadline, they change. They exhibit certain traits that define them as bosses rather than as people.”

Above is an excerpt from the book “Managing Your Manager Your Manager: How to Get Ahead with Any Type of Boss” author Gonzague Dufour, copyright 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Permission to reprint was granted by the publisher.
Visit again to read next post 6 Types of Managers to Manage.

Disclaimer: McGraw Hill makes no representation or warranties as to the accuracy of any information contained in the McGraw-Hill material, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall McGraw-Hill have any liability to any party for special, incidental, tort, or consequential damages arising out of or in connection with the McGraw-Hill Material, even if McGraw-Hill has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
See also To Be Productive blog Disclaimer at bottom of site.

Communicate Change to Everyone Impacted

2011-02-14T16:30:00.000-06:00

I think we have all heard that you can not over communicate during times of change. Even if change is communicated internally within a department, it is also critical to make a list of everyone else impacted by the change and develop a communication plan to include them as well.

“Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” ~Arnold Bennett, British novelist

Here is a story to illustrate. Eric is a process engineer in the quality department and as part of his job he interfaces with a programmer in the technology group. Eric takes requests from the operations department and works with his assigned programmer to create changes to the system. One day, Eric’s programmer called to say “would you like to meet my replacement in India who is here to train in our systems?” Eric is shocked and surprised. No one told him that he would be interacting with another programmer, never mind someone offsite in India 11 hours ahead of his time.

So what went wrong? The information technology department employees all knew about the change and had created a plan to implement the change. They were happy with the change. The problem is they did not consider the impact on people outside of their group. Here are a few change communication tips to apply to your next change initiative:

1) Advance Communication: Providing advance communication of the change allows everyone to adapt to the news and begin thinking of the impact of the change to them and their jobs, both positively and negatively. No advance notice as illustrated in this story, led to first confusion and then frustration. Eric did not have time to think about the change so he could articulate his questions and concerns.

2) Reason for Change: Clearly articulate the “why” of the change. People usually only welcome change if they are dissatisfied with the status quo, if they are satisfied they may resist change unless given a reason. Make sure that the reasons are provided to everyone who may be impacted by the change. No particular reason was given for outsourcing the programming for this system to India.

3) Discuss Barriers: Once you have communicated the change and the reason for it, it is time to get people involved by asking about what barriers exist that could impede the successful implementation of the change. After brainstorming barriers, move quickly into problem solving involving others in the process. You may have already thought through barriers and have developed solutions but quite often others will see unanticipated barriers and can be included in creating workable solutions.

Organizations are under a constant bombardment of change. To make your employees more change resilient it is critical to communicate, communicate and communicate some more.

Making Decisions with Six Thinking Hats in Meetings

2011-02-07T05:00:00.009-06:00

Six Thinking Hats book

The Six Thinking Hats designed by Edward DeBono can be a great help in meetings for any type of team trying to get work done. For example, the 6 hats work well in decision-making and problem solving meetings. The black and yellow hats can be used to explore both the risky and beneficial aspects of an idea in a rational way. The blue and green hats help with controlling the meeting and encouraging creative thinking. Whereas the white and red hats require analysis of data while allowing a safe way to express emotions tied to an idea.

You could use all 6 hats as a meeting process when working on a team for solving a problem or when innovative and creative ideas are needed. Some hats may even be used twice. As examples, in problem solving the white hat is used twice and in creative sessions the green hat is used twice. The blue hat is used throughout the meeting to: open the meeting, transition between hats, and close the meeting. Thinking hats is a defined process to make sure all perspectives are considered and that good questions are asked before making a decision in any type of meeting.

You do not have to use all 6 hats in every situation. For example if you only want to evaluate whether something is a good fit for you personally as an individual. You could use the black and yellow hats as a way to make a Pro/Con List or start a PMI Chart on what you are considering to help you make a go/no go decision. Or if you are an entrepreneur who wants to quickly review a business opportunity, you would use the white hat to review available data, utilize the green hat to develop ideas on how to take advantage of the opportunity, and put on the yellow hat to find potential benefits for your ideas. Or perhaps you or your group wants to look for several alternatives, you would come up with the alternatives using green hat and then evaluate them using yellow and black. When reviewing alternatives, always wear the yellow hat first to find out what might work with an idea and allow a little more time for yellow than for black. It is harder for others to see what might be right about an idea than to find what is wrong – make sure black is second so you do not eliminate a potentially good alternative before it really gets thought-out.

If you would like an example project using Six Thinking Hats, check out MindTools’ Looking at a Decision from All Points of View. Try thinking hats in a meeting and come back to post comments on how it worked for you and your team.

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Undercover Boss Continues Lesson Learned for Corporate Strategies

2011-02-01T09:17:00.002-06:00

We continue our TV watching of the hit show Undercover Boss to see what new lessons can be learned for our leadership from those taught or learned in the programs. In previous posts we looked at the newest episodes for those months; now let’s look at the non-repeats for January 2011.

Sheldon Yellen, the CEO of BELFOR a disaster restoration company, works with his clean-up and construction crews to get a better picture of the job they do and how they interface with customers. Although he knows recognition and raises are important for hard work and job changes, he worries that employees working side jobs will hurt his reputation because some feel they do not get enough pay or that work is scarce. At BELFOR, they froze hiring and wages to save jobs in down-turn economy, but employees were not told this, so they saw it as corporate taking away pay even when giving a promotion. On one job, Yellin shows shortcomings of some bosses where they take anger or frustration out on subordinates rather than themselves or the process their company uses. He shows himself to be the bigger man by apologizing for wrong behavior rather than letting it slide like many managers do – the RESULT increased respect for management who admits their mistakes rather than blaming others. He also recognizes that illiteracy can be a problem that influences job growth for employees so he has his training department begins work on how to reconcile the issue. I like how he summed things up as the people take care of the company, so the company should take care of them.

President and CEO of UniFirst, Ronald Croatti, visits uniform manufacturing locations better appreciate the skills of his employees and listen to their needs and ideas. He emphasizes that management needs to take advantage of creativity and ideas of employees who know best how to improve their jobs.
He learns that some HR policies penalize good employees rather than prevent bad behaviors, so he determines to look at his tardiness rules. He also learns that mergers and buy-outs require communication to be successful. This is especially important if you want to build and maintain culture or sense of family among employees as is his management goal. To aid this process he determines to make sure all employees are aware of programs avail able to them rather than just assume newer member of corporate family will know the company they are now working for.

Kevin Sheehan, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line since 2007, explains his goal of increasing profits and reducing turnover. He learns that not every brilliant idea from corporate pans out in the field. Before implementing new process or equipment, check to see how much it costs to install and work it involves for employees against the ROI on customers actual desire for it. In almost every position, employees pointed out need for employee recognition, family time, and upward movement opportunities within the corporation. Sheehan acknowledged that customer interaction and satisfaction were key to success and employees were an important part or making that happen.

In these episodes, C-level leaders learned that leadership needs to not just send down a mandate but explain the strategy. Having a communication plan that helps employees understand the strategy can prevent problems and misunderstanding. Be sure to ask for questions from employees to improve communication and get better results from the overall strategy.

What do you think about corporate communication? What lessons have you gleaned from watching Undercover Boss? Please share in comments. See next UCB post.

Time Management is Not Being Late

2011-01-29T08:58:00.001-06:00

Worried about always being late? Consider the ideas presented in this video from the author of TAPP Steps in Time Management.

Video quotes 2 appointment axioms by Shirley Fine Lee that are valid for meeting, time, and project management. The 2nd could also apply to goal setting or career planning.

“Do not make others wait! Call if you will be late.”
“Always plan time to get there or you may end up nowhere.”

Find more videos on time and meeting management at http://www.youtube.com/meetingwizard .

Is There Still Room for a Well Composed Email in Today's Fast Paced World?

2011-01-26T21:39:00.010-06:00

In a world of instant messaging, text messages, multi-media text messages, facebook status updates, and 140 character tweets, is there still room for a well composed, well thought out email?

While I use each of these newer communication vehicles daily, I still find the need to put together a concise, on-point email that clearly conveys my message. The other night I had an interaction with a colleague that got me thinking about the process I use when I have an important communication, email is the chosen method, and I want to insure my point is clear. Knowing that this process has been proven to work time and time again, I thought I would share it with you.

While wrapping up some last minute to-dos, a co-worker stopped by my desk to see if I would be leaving soon. I replied that I was working on this one email and it would be a while longer before I would be able to leave, She wondered why it would take so long, She wanted to know why I couldn’t just throw some thoughts together and be done with it. I replied that I had a process that I followed whenever I had important email communication, especially when it was going to executives as this one was. This process helps me make sure my message is clear, concise, and to the point. I told her I would share my process with her later.

Here is my process.

I follow these steps each time I have a critical communication, especially in email.

1. Review the issue or topic that requires a response
⁃ Quick reply possible? Respond and move on
⁃ More thought required? Follow this process
2. Determine whether originating an email or responding to one
⁃ If originating, have a clear understanding of what to communicate and why
⁃ If responding, have a clear understanding of what is being requested or communicated to you
⁃ If any questions or concerns exist, reach out with a set of clarifying questions before replying to original email
3. Review all related emails and other documents for relevant information
4. Copy relevant information into the body of a blank email and create on screen repository
5. Create a list of key topics to be covered (outline them if necessary)
6. Write the first draft (don't worry about structure, flow, or look and feel)
7. Pull relevant information from on screen repository as needed to make or highlight points
8. Take a break. Let the ideas germinate in your mind
9. Review draft and begin rewrite process now paying attention to flow, structure, look and conciseness
10. Complete revision and begin editing process
11. Read one last time, and in critical situations, have co-worker, peer, or boss read before sending
12. Hit send and move on

Yes, this process has several steps and takes a little more time to complete. However, I have found that when I follow the process I gain more time later by not having to clarify, explain, or otherwise spend time going back and forth on an issue. Try it. And let me know, in the comments, if you have a process you use with your communication.

Performance Management - Do You Ever Wonder Why?

2011-01-24T17:05:00.002-06:00

Do you ever wonder why your managers and supervisors fall short of being truly effective leaders? Do you question why your latest leadership seminar did not achieve the results you expected? And, do you wonder just what it takes to develop the leadership capability that your bottom line depends upon (your leadership talent is critical to your organization's success)? The answers are simple and budget friendly. It takes three actions…….DONE WELL:

1. Assessment…..you have to understand developmental needs

2. Intervention….through targeted learning & coaching

3. Accountability…..using performance measurement & feedback

Assessment: You can determine the learning & development needs of your managers and supervisors for very little budget. This feedback can include both quantitative and qualitative understanding of both strengths and weaknesses including suggestions for improvement (do more of this, do less of that, or maintain). If you skip this step (& most organizations do), you are very likely to spend budget on something that may not be needed and, worse yet, will not close the necessary leadership performance gaps. Use an assessment method for 30 days to see how effective it is in identifying performance gaps, determining learning needs, and developing leadership capacity.

Intervention: There are more options available today…..we know the solution is not always a workshop or seminar. In fact, we all understand clearly that a single learning event will have very little effect on the desired future performance. We now know more about coaching & mentoring (sometimes all this takes is a little time and focus to organize…and no budget), there are online learning programs for continuous development, webinars, & virtual learning communities. ProStar Coach provides a dynamic, interactive online learning community; it is a totally new kind of online subscription for improving professional/personal development skills.

Accountability: This is where most organizations fall short. Here is what usually happens: a learning focus is decided and then a decision is made to "throw" some training at it, and then we sit back and hope for the best…..we hope the training "takes" hold and that change happens. This is like taking your budget and tossing it up in the air and hoping it lands where you want it to. The result is a very low ROI for the effort. Learners must understand that they will be held accountable for improving and closing identified performance gaps. This is where your Performance Management Program enters the picture. Reassessment is an important part of insuring accountability for ongoing development. People want and need constructive and accurate feedback. If you are serious about leadership development, it is important to provide more than the annual "anecdotal" feedback conversation.

A quality Performance Management Program includes a clear understanding of current skills and talent, a targeted intervention with a variety of learner options, and reassessment to assure accountability and continuous developmental progress. It really is that simple.