Month: June 2010

3 Simple Steps To Taking a Quantum Leap in Your Biz

Post author By
Post date June 22, 2010

If you want to grow your business, there are 2 ways you can go about it.

Slow and fast.

Most people end up growing their business slowly. Now there’s nothing wrong with slow. It’s not easy to grow your business period, so even growing your business slowly is better than what a lot of entrepreneurs do.

So let’s talk about fast. Another way to view growing your business quickly is by taking a quantum leap, which basically means you leap frog ahead versus taking your growth one step at a time.

Taking a quantum leap means transforming your business quickly. It means going from $200,000 to a million in a year. It means seeing opportunities fly to you effortlessly.

So if you want a quantum leap, how do you get one? Here are 3 steps to get you started:

1. Think big. Taking a quantum leap isn’t going to work if you’re thinking small. So the first thing you need to do is make sure you’re thinking big. And, maybe even more than that, make sure you’re READY for your business to BECOME big. If you’re not comfortable or if there’s some blocks or obstacles around you growing your business to its fullest potential, you’ll never have a quantum leap.

2. Invest in yourself. There are different ways to invest in yourself. Do you need to build a team? Hire a consultant? Maybe you need to take time to go through a program or information product. Or you need to hire a coach or get into a coaching or mentorship program to move yourself ahead.

Money is a form of energy. And when you invest in a program or hiring a team, that could be the catalyst you need to move you forward in a big way. Because now you’ve put your money where your mouth is (so to speak). You’re taking yourself and your business seriously by investing in yourself.

So how do you know what you need to invest in? You know. You know right now what you need to invest in to grow your business. Whether or not you do it is another story.

3. Failures means you’re moving in the right direction. What?? I can hear you all saying. Here’s the thing. If you design your life and/or your business around never making a mistake, do you REALLY think you’re stepping outside your comfort zone? If you’re trying to never make mistakes, then there’s no possible way you can ever have a quantum leap. Quantum leaps require you to think differently than you have before, to try something you never have. And when you do that, you may end up having a failure or two (or ten) along the way.

Successful people don’t like failure anymore than you do. But they know if they don’t get out there in big way and try new things, they won’t be as successful overall, even though that means risking failure as well. It’s a choice they make because they know the payoff is worth it.

One way to deal with failure is to look beyond it. Focus on the end goal, where you want to end up. Then, when the failures happen, you’re not as concerned with them because you’re looking past them to the where you want to be.

But the biggest part of taking a quantum leap is just to do it. Take a deep breath and jump. And believe the net will appear.

Tags business success strategy, Business success tips, online marketing strategies, small business marketing strategy, strategic internet marketing

People & Relationships

Managing the Transition: How to Face Employee Resistance Head On When Introducing Workplace Changes

Post author By Pamela Swift
Post date June 22, 2010

Article Contributed By Sara LaForest and Tony Kubica

A preponderance of managers and supervisors are overly familiar with long sighs and disheartened groans from their employees when they introduce yet another organizational change or a new initiative. And in the aftershock of a devastating recession, the sighs and groans are turning into fear.

While supervisors do not have the authority to reject or the power to deflect organizational change, they do have the opportunity (and, we believe, the specific responsibility) to clearly and truthfully communicate the reasons for change.

Similar to a stool with three legs, three easy steps can greatly assist managers in creating a sound platform for transition during periods of change:

3 Ways Leaders Can Face Employee Resistance Head On to Make the Transition Easier for Everyone Involved…

1. Managers need to be convinced that the change is indeed needed. For example, the change is either opportunistic or required to ensure ongoing business viability and success. By focusing on what is needed, the options to create it (including an examination of risks or exposure) and the intended results from it, you will determine what change needs to
happen. You will see why the changes need to happen right now. You will able to develop a strategic plan on how the changes will occur.

And, you’ll be able to determine the value and impact that each change will bring to your organization.

2. Next, managers need to understand the change experience through the lens of their employees. Employees will be more open and willing to support change when they are given information that clearly addresses their fundamental questions. Honest, open, timely and truthful communication is absolutely essential during a transition. This means your
management team must agree on an accurate, forthright and unified response to the following five questions.

* What is the change? (Get specific)
* How was the decision made? (Include who made the decision)
* Who does it impact, and what does it mean to them?
* What is the value of the change to the organization and the employees?
(Focus on benefits and effects.)
* What are the next steps? (Describe the roles and actions.)

3. Lastly, management needs to establish effective ways for sharing (communicating) this information with employees through multiple channels. For example, if there are individual employees who will be impacted more than others (particularly if there are perceived negative implications), general courtesy and good ethic implies you meet first with these
employees. Share the same information but specifically describe how it affects them and their position. This should be done immediately before the departmental meetings. Smaller, team-style meetings provide a more open and comfortable environment for questions and discussion. All-staff meetings are also an option depending on the size of the organization
(such as those with less than 50 employees) and assuming that your message is not laden with “bad-news” to specific employees or groups whom have not yet heard the message. It is also helpful to consistently communicate the message of change as critical for the company, through written format, such as a company memo or newsletter, assuming the message is clear, straight-forward, and focused on the value of the change (benefits), or the sincere effort to prevail (i.e., a legitimate downsize or layoff) in times of challenge.

Managing the transition and implementing change is critical for organizations. Poor behavior, poor communications and poor execution will have long-term negative consequences for the organization.

Remember, change provides opportunity. So, help your employees embrace a new paradigm of change as an opportunity versus the widely held and limiting perspective of change as an unsolicited and undesirable mandate.

How you manage the transition will be remembered by the employees. Good behavior will clearly have positive long-term effects. Poor behavior will lead to contention, lack of trust, lack of productivity and turnover. So unless you goal is to close the business, poor change behavior is not a long-term success strategy.

Actions Have Consequences – Make Yours Positive Especially in the Time of Change

Keeping employees well-informed and engaging them will foster a climate of resiliency and it will build momentum that will advance your organization. This level of employee engagement is reinforced by what Geoff Colvin recently presented in the Fortune Magazine article, How are Most Admired Companies Different. Colvin mentions that champion companies “ensure they understand what employee engagement means, measure it and hold managers (not just HR staffers) accountable for it, and connect it to business objectives…” We strongly believe that change, whether for growth,
improvement or survival/reinvention is key to business productivity, efficiency and intimately, profitability.

About the Authors
Sara LaForest and Tony Kubica are management consultants and business performance improvement specialists with more than 50+ years of combined experience in helping organizations just like yours manage the transition. Failure to communicate head on is just one way to sabotage your business – get our complete “Self-Sabotage in Business White Paper” at: http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com/resources.php and uncover the common, subtle ways we harm our performance.

Tags employees, people

Communication Skills

Business Leaders: Here’s A Simple Communication Strategy to Improve Employee Performance

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date June 21, 2010

In a recent leadership workshop participants were asked to share all the things their peers, subordinates and bosses do that drive them crazy and make their jobs more difficult. Two full flip-chart pages were filled.

Next, the same group of participants was asked to identify the things they wish they would do instead. There was dead silence for what seemed liked an eternity.

It seems to be human nature to focus on the things we don’t want, the undesirable behaviors that we wish others would refrain from engaging in.

Parents are notorious for using this communication style when attempting to obtain behavior changes from their children, and many end up stressed and frustrated by their lack of success.

Instead, parents and business leaders must focus on and consistently ask for the specific desirable behavior they would prefer to occur.

Although leading employees in a business or non-profit is not ‘parenting,’ when trying to influence the behaviors of direct reports and subordinates, it is still vital to focus on desirable outcomes. This includes both focus on goals for the organization and even more importantly focusing on desirable behaviors of our team members.

Most people can articulate quickly and clearly the behaviors that drive them crazy. The behaviors they wish their co-workers, bosses, significant others or children would stop doing. There seems to be no end to the list of these undesirable behaviors.

There are three problems with this approach.

1. It focuses everyone’s energy on the behavior that is undesirable and wherever your focus goes, that thing grows.

2. It lacks specificity and asks the person being told what “not to do” to mind-read and guess as to the specific desirable action(s). For the individual it’s a trial and error approach until they figure out through environmental feedback the acceptable behavior.

3. There is no positive reinforcement when an employee does engage in the desirable behavior so it can be repeated. Many leaders wrongly believe that if someone is doing things right they don’t need to comment since the individual is doing things correctly. They assume they only need to address and correct undesirable behavior so that’s where the focus and comments go. This can be a very demoralizing approach for the subordinate.

Whenever providing feedback to request a change in behavior to achieve greater, more positive results, it is vital to communicate with a focus on the new, desirable behaviors and actions.

Here is a three-step exercise to help you transform any list of undesirable behavior into the preferred desirable behavior:

1. On a sheet of paper draw a line straight down the center of the page, making two columns. Label the left column “Undesirable Behaviors.” Label the right column “Desirable Behaviors.”

2. In the left column write a list of the things that you wish people would stop doing, all the undesirable behaviors that drive you crazy.

3. In right hand column write the alternative desirable behavior you would prefer to have people engage in. Ask yourself “what do I wish they would do instead?” There must be at least one alternative desirable behavior for each undesirable in the left hand column.

When you focus on desirable behavior it gives you something measureable. It is easier to judge if the desirable behavior was fulfilled. Trying to prove a negative, that something you didn’t want to happen didn’t happen, is much more challenging, it’s subjective and can be open to debate.

Additionally, catch people doing things right. Make specific comments regarding what you liked about the actions an employee took to complete a project or task. Tell them you’d like to see more of that type of behavior. This will reinforce positive behavior and make it more likely it will be repeated.

Failure to focus on desirable behaviors when communicating is just one of “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication.” If you or other leaders in your organization are struggling to get greater results from your personnel at any level, the problem can be just one of two things, either habits of communication or how performance is managed throughout the organization.

For other issues of leadership communication you may want to visit www.HowToImproveOrganizationalCommunication.com and get a free special report “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication” that will show you how to fix these sins, communicate like a champion and build a championship organization.

About the Author:

Skip Weisman works with organizational leaders to improve personnel, productivity and profits by helping them “Create a Champion Organization,” now you can get his latest white paper “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication” at www.HowToImproveOrganizationalCommunication.com this will help your organization communicate effectively and take action with commitment towards a shared compelling vision.

Tags Communication Strategy, Employee Performance

Networking

Dig Your [Networking] Well Before You Are Thirsty

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date June 20, 2010
1 Comment on Dig Your [Networking] Well Before You Are Thirsty

Your future career is only as good as the quality of your extended network. A network is a social and business resource that must be cultivated and nurtured over time. Your network supports and sustains you in the good times, but is the key to your survival in the bad times.

The time to build these contacts is not when you are looking for your next job.

My friend Bob recently found himself staring at unemployment. The start-up he was working for found itself no longer a start-up, but a thriving, mid-sized firm listed on the NASDAQ. This organization was enjoying such success largely due to Bob’s leadership, but now the company needed a different kind of leader. So Bob started looking around at who he knew in the industry and realized that he hadn’t spoken to anyone for about 3 years. Hmmmm.

Too often, people start networking only after they need something. Imagine a friend or relative who only calls when he needs money. Do you take his call? Do you look forward to hearing from him?

Effective networking means creating contacts and relationships now. Dig your well before you’re thirsty as Harvey Mackay says.

If you choose your network members wisely, they can nourish more than your current position and future career. This is Value Based Networking.

Most people accept the fact that health studies show the connection between long-term life, health and happiness is based on the quality of the relationships that support us. Few of us think of this as an investment we make for our future…but it is an investment just like education or exercise.

Value Based Networking is about creating value for others and in turn receiving value from them. It’s about taking charge of this critical advantage in life in a planned and strategic manner. Regardless of where you are in your career or life, if you are looking to make your future bigger than your past, you need to invest in the people who have helped you achieve your current success and those who can do so in the future.

Here is an exercise we’ve developed to help you begin Value Based Networking:

1. List 10 people best able to bring value to your career, today and in the future.

2. Now, prioritize.

3. Then think about the value they bring to you.

4. And then, the value you (could) bring to them.

5. When was the last time you had contact with this person?

6. And finally, what actions could you take to invest further in this relationship?

Most of us are uncomfortable “investing” in people for the sole purpose of accessing their knowledge and connections. We want to bring value to the relationship perhaps in the form of our own knowledge and connections or unique skill or interest. It’s a case of mutual value for mutual benefit. If you can be clear about what you want, you can begin to take action today to expand your value based network.

About the Author:

The Balanced WorkLife Company is dedicated to helping the best get better while they enjoy the journey. Our programs give you access to tools and methodologies that allow you to break through the barriers and achieve your goals while also helping you enjoy a balance between and within your job, your career and your personal life. Whether you are a seasoned professional or just starting your career, the Balanced WorkLife Company can help you achieve your ultimate potential. To learn more, visit www.balancedworklife.com and download our free report “The 16 Most Common Networking Mistakes to Avoid,” which is jam-packed with information to help you develop and build long-lasting business and social relationships.

Tags balance of life, Balanced Work Life, employee onboarding, management roles and responsibilities, Networking, onboarding process, value based networking, work life balance definition, work life programs

Newsletter

BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 101

Post author By Pamela Swift
Post date June 13, 2010

Cover Story

Kleenex’s Feel Me

Kleenex recently took a very bold move, replacing their logo with the words ‘Feel me’. The UK firm Anthem was approached to create packaging that conveyed the softness of their tissues as well as generated new excitement and interest….

Continued in BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 101 >>>