Category: Success Attitude

Interruptions intrude everywhere into your daily flow: marriage conversations (and other intimate activities if you have children at home), phone conversations, and your work flow.

Research indicates that it takes you anywhere from 10-20 minutes to re-engage fully with the task you abandoned when interrupted. So if you encounter 3 interruptions daily at work, that’s about one hour lost.

So when was the last time you had just 3 interruptions?

More like 33, right?

How well do you deal with these interruptions?

Implement into your work flow these three strategies for positively dealing with interruptions and watch as your sales increase with greater productivity and you get out of the office earlier to do what you love with those you love:

Listen

There is a line in the movie Pulp Fiction that goes something like this: “Are you really listening or just waiting to talk?”

As we really listen to each other, our eyes contact, our intellect and emotions connect, and we give full attention to the communication experience. An interruption-resistant bubble forms around us…if we’re really listening.

The common courtesy of listening isn’t so common these days with mobile technology’s immediacy ever in hand. A beep or ding intrudes with alarming regularity.

The path to extreme productivity lies in really listening to people and projects. When you listen, you focus intently and deflect interruptions.

Locate

Interruptions happen regardless of how well you listen. A client calls. A customer walks in. A team member has a question.

Locate your interruptions strategically. Establish appointments with yourself to return voice mail calls and emails. Create team meeting experiences and push others to jot down questions and bring them to that time.

When you must put out a fire, locate your place in the project or the conversation. Think of it as a bookmark, or dog-earing a page. Jot a post-it note. This simple act reduces your search time in getting back into the flow.

Leverage

Sometimes an interruption is fortuitous. It intrudes with new information that is directly applicable to a person or project. Leverage it in that moment with gratitude.

Or, the interruption brings knowledge relevant to another task on your to-do list. Locate it for easy reference later. Make a quick note for later leverage and return to the person or project at hand. By doing so, you keep your current listening engaged, locate it readily when you’re ready, and leverage the interruption, transforming it from pain to profit.

Sure, interruptions intrude multiple times daily. When you listen, locate, and leverage them, you implement your profitable actions with greater productivity while increasing sales so you get out of the office earlier to do what you love with those you love.

About the Author

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they get out of the office earlier. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.

Article Contributed by Dr. Joey Faucette

Days are getting shorter. It’s dark when I wake up and gets dark earlier at day’s end. The temperatures are cooler in the mornings. The seasons are changing…

…and apparently no one cares what I think about it because no one called or emailed to ask. I have no control, much less influence on the changing seasons.

Ridiculous for me to expect? Of course.

Almost as ludicrous as the conversations I have with business owners about their change experiences. They expect a call or email. They want someone to ask permission.

That’s an unrealistic expectation today. Change happens.

The one controllable is how you deal with it—whine or win? Pout or profit?

Here are 3 Keys to Profit from Change:

Believe the Change is Real

Our first reaction to change is usually, “Why? What’s wrong with the old way?” We crave the familiar. Our brains recognize it and know what to do. Often we weren’t consulted about the need for change or the rationale. “Here is it is. Deal with it” is the typical response.

Say to yourself, “It is what it is. I will make the best out of it.”

Then list the reasons it’s real, e.g., “My franchiser said so,” “That OS is no longer supported,” or “You can’t buy parts for it anymore.”

This listing helps you avoid denial, beat back fear, and move forward to believing the change is real. 

Bridge from Familiar to Unfamiliar

Now detail the change by starting with what’s familiar. Most likely the change performs the same basic function as something you do currently, just with enhancements. What is that function? List everything included in the change that you recognize.

Next describe and list the unfamiliar aspects of the change.

Now connect the familiar to the unfamiliar. What lines up as similar? Your fear and anxiety diminish with this exercise because your cognitive—brain—overcomes your emotive—gut—in recognizing the familiar. You bridge from the familiar to the unfamiliar.

Build to Support the Change

Finally, ask yourself, “What are the opportunities to grow profits?” Perhaps the technology involved allows you to generate business while you sleep by providing improved customer access. Or, maybe productivity grows which maximizes profitability.

Look at the systemic changes necessary and ask, “What must we do to adapt? Who needs training and development? How do we accelerate revenue growth? How can we best leverage new opportunities for profit increase and diversification?”

These questions focus you on the positive dynamics of the change. Think of them as the features over which you do have control and influence.

Then implement your answers so you increase sales with greater productivity and get out of the office earlier to do what you love with those you love. Change and Work Positive!

About the Author

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), Work Positive coach, & speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they leave the office earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover the free webinar about the coveted 7 Weeks to Work Positive Coaching Program at www.ListentoLife.org.

 

 

Make a to-do list. And then crush that shit.

If you’re like me, administrative tasks seem menial and mundane. But an organization can’t run without the completion of these tasks (and more importantly, efficient completion). So make a list of priorities and start checking things off. You know that old adage “don’t put off to tomorrow what could be done today”? That is most true for successful businesspeople.

Do not to seek success; seek to break down the walls that you’ve built around yourself that keep you from success.

This, for all my fellow literature lovers, is a take off of one of my favorite Rumi quotes, which goes like this: “Your job is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” Seeking success is like putting the cart before the horse. You need to put energy into creating an environment that will be an incubator for success. This starts with you personally and should radiate into every facet of the company.

Don’t stop seeking opportunities.

If you’re not feeling challenged at work, then what the hell are you doing? Complacency is something for which successful people never settle. Let’s say that you’re the best at your job. What else can you add to your plate? I’m not even relegating this to developing a professional skill; volunteer to organize a social for the office, take a leadership role on your intramural kickball team or simply offer to spearhead a new process.

Emulate successful people.

You’ve heard that successful people go to bed early, wake up early, carry a notebook for jotting down great ideas, make a to-do list every day, communicate effectively—and the list goes on and on. Strive to emulate the practices of successful people in your life that you admire instead of holding on to seemingly abstract ideas of success. It doesn’t always have to be about reading Steve Jobs’ memoir. Look to a professional you admire—a teacher, a boss, a family member or a mentor—and ask them about their good and bad habits. Emulate the good ones and stay aware of the bad. If you’re present, you can probably avoid some pitfalls they’ve already endured.

Stop reading advice columns written by people you don’t know about being successful.

Seriously, you gotta get out there and find out what works and what doesn’t for yourself. Start by getting out of the office and into the world, which will inspire you in ways you never thought possible. Whether you’re a business owner, an executive, or an entry-level associate, make your professional goal to be an idea machine. When you see something that you love or detest, ask yourself why. This is how you develop your values, which is imperative for any successful person.

About the Author:

Amber Ludeman is CEO of social marketing firm matchstick social headquartered in Charleston, SC. matchstick specializes in the social branding of small-to-medium-sized businesses.

The annual U.S. celebration of the Declaration of Independence’s signing is this week. While many just eat hot dogs and watch fireworks, let’s Work Positive and discover 3 strategies from the Founding Fathers’ experience that we can use to achieve our own positive business independence.

Attention

The U.S. Founding Fathers viewed “taxation without representation” as the negative mental model cast by a negative British government.

What negative mental models receive your thoughts’ focus? It could be anything from the way you determine your attitude each morning by watching TV “news” to a scarcity mentality from which you grab and rake everything you can wrap your arms around.

Who are the negative people that get your attention? From an employee or coworker, vendor to regional manager, they suck your positive time and energy even after you go home. It costs too much to do business with some people.

Is your business positively growing this way?

The first strategy is to determine today to develop a more positive mental model independent of your status quo. Feed your attitude something more positively nutritional for breakfast. Grow an abundance mentality by thinking about all you do have instead of what you don’t.

Determine to give your attention to positive mental and social energies so your business will positively grow independent of current negativity.

How?

Intention

The second strategy is to declare your positive determination to transform your attention.

The Founding Fathers of the U.S. signed a document that clearly stated what they believed to be true as the positive recasting of their attention and why. It’s known as the Declaration of Independence.

Our positive thoughts and relationships to which we give attention organize and crystallize when we declare in writing what we believe to be true. The most powerful fuel for focus is your pen.

Write down what you positively declare your independence from today. Write about more than just what you’re against. Notice the U.S. Declaration of Independence primarily focuses on positive truths that to the signers are self-evident. Keep your word count tight and positive as you declare your positively transforming mental model and social relationships.

Action

You’ve determined to do business more positively by transforming the thoughts and people who receive your attention. You’ve declared your determined beliefs.

Now it’s time to act—the third strategy.

The British response to the U.S. intention for a more positive focus of attention was “Bring it on.” While the U.S. may have preferred acquiescence, war ensued.

Every action has a consequence. In business as in life, you are 100% responsible for your actions and their consequences. You start your journey to Work Positive with the first two steps when you determine to positively realign your thoughts and relationships and then declare them. There are many more steps down that path. Sustaining the positive change means you perpetually act in the 5 core practices of a Work Positive lifestyle.

The Revolutionary War came at a great cost to both the Americans and the British. Yet it was necessary for global growth to occur.

What one action will you take today to positively grow your business?

Create your own celebration as you implement these 3 strategies for your positive business independence.

About the Author

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they get out of the office earlier. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.

 

Article Contributed by Dr. Joey Faucette 

The All Stars align for the National and American League All-Star Major League baseball teams this week. So how are they chosen? And what can you learn about how you can positively be an All-Star in your business?

Here are 3 Ways you can grow your business so you will positively be an All-Star:

Be Engaging

Major League Baseball selects its starting lineups for both teams by fan voting. Fans go online, have 25 votes per person to cast, and select their favorites.

Your customers/clients vote for you, sometimes in ways of which you’re unaware. Sure you see their votes as they walk in the door, call, purchase online, and sign a contract—all of which show up on your P&L.

What about when they refer a friend over lunch? Or, tell a coworker in the break room?

Engaging your customers/clients seeds loyalty. Loyalty’s fruit is referrals. Your harvest grows.

How do you engage your customers/clients so that they vote for you?

Engage them and be their All-Star. Solve their problems. Make their lives easier. Create an experience.

Be Exclusive

All-Star voting is by position.

What exclusive position do you play in your customers’/clients’ minds?

When they think of you or your business, do they search all over the field? Or, do they go immediately to your position?

There’s a direct connection between how they think of you exclusively and your level of engagement with them.

Perhaps they think of you around your unique selling proposition (USP). Is it based on value? Or, exceptional customer engagement? Or, ease of use?

Or, are you more exclusive than that? Have you clearly identified your niche? Sure, everybody should do business with you, but more often everybody’s business is nobody’s business. For example, do you engage customers who are dog owners, and prefer Morkies?

The more exclusively you identify your customers/clients, the more they know what you do, how you do it, and refer you to their friends; thus positively growing your All-Star business.

Be Excellent

The selected players are great at their positions and hitting a baseball. They hold records and help their teams succeed.

Such excellence often takes years to develop. They arrive early and stay late, hustle and work hard. They learn and grow through repetitive practice.

What do you do daily to improve your business skills?

The pace of change increases weekly, affecting your business in all kinds of ways. Evaluation and skill development produce excellence over a lifetime.

Lots of business people intend to be excellent. Fewer act in strategic, measureable ways that over time lead to excellence.

As Jim Rohn was fond of saying, “There’s very little traffic on the extra mile.”

Be excellent by doing excellence daily in your business. As you do, you positively become an All-Star business.

About the Author

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they get out of the office earlier. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org.