A Handful of Updates

• OmniFocus is working well for me. I have kept my email inbox clean for over a week, I am confident that everything that really matters to me is recorded in a useful way, and my creativity is on the rise. I'm doing less and getting more done. If you are looking for a software-based system to help keep you on track with all of your projects and commitments, I encourage you to take a look.

• Still seeking a balance between using social media effectively and drowning in it. What's working for you?

• Super excited about the two instructional design contracts I'm working on, and realizing this is something I am really good at and really passionate about. If you know of an instructional design project that may be a good fit for me, I'd love to hear about it.

• I'll be presenting an education session on Selling for Geniuses this coming Saturday at the Women in Aviation International Conference. It will be participative and fluid -- I have no idea how it will turn out except that it will deliver value to the people who attend. I'm looking forward to it!

Discipline

"Discipline" has been a recurring theme in my world recently, most notably in the servant leadership workshop I'm developing for a current client, but also in other arenas of my life. It's an interesting word that means different things to different people. Sometimes it even means different things to the same person, and that's the experience I'm having right now.

A particular theme that comes out of the philosophy of servant leadership is the relationship between the word "discipline" and the word "disciple." Religious connotations aside, a "disciple" is someone who is both a leader and a follower; both a learner and a teacher. Discipline, then, is the practice of living these different yet interconnected roles.

I remember, not very fondly, a teacher I had in high school who seemed convinced that teaching was the opposite of learning. She was closed to all input from students, particularly when the students pointed out egregious discrepancies between her lectures and the text about which she was speaking. Remember what they say about horse training. If you want to train a horse, what's the first thing you need to know? More than the horse.

My teacher's approach to leadership was not one of discipline or discipleship, but rather one of unbending authoritarianism. By standing firm in her position regardless of new information, she lost the respect of her students, the control of her classroom, and most critically, the opportunity to expand her own world with valuable new learning. (It's worth noting here that the students in question were college-bound honor students, and most of the other teachers in the school were outstanding role models of discipline.)

I have certainly been known to fall into the "know-it-all" trap, insisting I'm right no matter what or who contradicts me. Perhaps you have too. "Expertise" confers some benefits. We've enjoyed the benefits of getting the right answer since we first started school. It feels great to be right, and for that reason, it can be easy to get carried away in a brilliant monologue. But all that speaking cuts us off from listening, and thus from the learning that might go with that listening.

Neither will your life be fulfilled only by listening, though. Lifelong learning expands our horizons and enriches our lives, but it is no substitute for action. Pure listening can be treacherous, too -- if our minds become so open that our brains fall out. Balance is key, in this as in all things. The more we can remain open to new experiences and integrate that learning into productive activity, the greater our discipline and the more effective our leadership.

What is your experience of discipline? What does the word mean to you, and how do you apply it in your life? Where is it really working for you, and where is there room for improvement?

Whose "department" is it?

Today I went to the department store that has heretofore been my favorite, to return a recent purchase. The reason for the return was that the garment had, in one washing, shrunk to become a good two inches shorter. I felt that, considering its rather handsome price, the thing ought to have performed better. I asked for a refund, and fully expected the transaction to be simple and quick.

The young lady at the desk informed me -- and looked a bit stricken as she did so -- that the store does not accept returns of anything not in the exact condition it was in when purchased. She agreed with me completely that this was not a reasonable policy, but was powerless to do anything about it. Her manager made his decree via phone from his office.

She assured me the manager would come out to speak to me directly if I asked, but was somewhat doubtful as to whether it would make a difference. We decided to call him out, and when I explained my problem in a tone that clearly expressed perturbation, he relented and gave me my refund.

What can we learn from this situation? Here's what this experience tells me about this store:

1. The customer is considered to be in the wrong when making a return.
2. Money is not to be refunded, even when the product is defective.
3. Uncomfortable conversations about customer-unfriendly policies are left to the front-liners, who must take the heat but are powerless to resolve the problem.
4. Managers play "bad cop" from behind closed doors.
5. Only angry customers get satisfaction here.

This kind of systemic, customer-hostile company policy makes me question the wisdom of shopping at this store, when they are competing in the same market space as, for example, Nordstrom, and in the same geographic space as, for example, Walt Disney World. I've had better service in stores that sell comparable merchandise for lower prices. If you were me, would you go back?

It's been said that it costs ten times as much to attract a new customer as to retain a current one, and yet policies and systems like the ones described above persist in many companies. Where does your company spend its money? What do you do to retain your best customers, and what policies do you have in place that may be driving them away?

Making It All Work

Many of you, my faithful readers, know I am a huge fan of David Allen, productivity guru and author of the world's best productivity book, "Getting Things Done." His most recent book, called "Making It All Work," was recently released in paperback, and I'm about 30 pages into it.

The promise of this latest book is to guide wayward believers like me toward being able to use the "GTD" system more consistently and more completely. To that end, I've also obtained and started using a computer application called OmniFocus. Optimized for those of us who use Macs, and sporting a matching iPhone app, this program is designed around the GTD principles and intended to support the process of capturing and processing "stuff" to improve productivity.

I'm quite happy so far with how it's all coming together, although I've only been at it for a couple of days. If I don't provide regular reports of how it's working, as well as suggestions as to how it may apply usefully to your life, poke me and ask lots of questions!

Meanwhile, if you are like most of us, overwhelmed with incoming data and struggling to extract meaning from it so you can respond appropriately, you owe it to yourself to read David Allen's books. Very few books about "time management" have spawned a multinational movement, and his have done exactly that. Products, services, Internet communities, and every imaginable tool, toy and accessory have evolved in the wake of GTD. Much of what I recommend and coach with my clients is GTD-derived, and I use the book in my 8-week Strategic Action Mastery development course.

If managing your energy and priorities more effectively is on your list of goals for 2010, drop me a line. I can help.

A Fresh Start

I would be remiss in my duty as a coach if I failed to address the whole "January" phenomenon. Ah, January -- the season of new year's resolutions, fresh starts, "new year new you" promotions, rampant dieting, and every gym in the country bursting at the seams for about three weeks. And the gym owners, Weight Watcher meeting leaders, and makers of nicotine gum going, "thank goodness this happens every year, and only once a year."

So, postulated that you are swept up in the excitement of resolutions, here are some thoughts on how to turn that temporary enthusiasm into a permanent improvement in your quality of life.

1. There is no magic bullet. Really. We all wish fervently that there were such a thing as a free lunch, a diet pill that works, an "effortless" way to get the results we want. There isn't. Things that are worth having must be earned. Please, save yourself the disappointment of wasting money or time on "quick fixes" in your life or your business, and seek proven, sensible, trusted methods for achieving your goals.
2. Show up. Remember what Woody Allen said: 80% of success is showing up. Mailing a check to the gym will not get you in shape. Nobody has ever learned to swim by reading a book. The most expensive, elegantly-bound strategic plan in the world does not lead to business success if it sits on the shelf and collects dust. Whatever you intend to do differently this year, do it. Talk is cheap.
3. Choose to be held accountable. A gym membership is nice, but a personal trainer will hold you accountable. Leadership books are good; leadership coaches are better. Got a BHAG - a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal? Get a BHAG Buddy who also has one, and help each other reach them. (Thanks, Sue. :) ) Until you do the work, a new year's resolution is nothing but window dressing.

I have the good fortune to know, in addition to the world's greatest BHAG Buddy, a wide variety of consummate professionals in a range of fields who can help you achieve pretty much any goal you may have set for 2010. If you need:

• A personal trainer
• A financial planner
• An accountant
• An attorney
• A virtual assistant
• An advertising agency
• A real estate professional
• A nutritional counselor
• A holistic health care provider
• A graphic designer

... please contact me and I'll be glad to introduce you to one that I trust.

If I can help you in any way to achieve your 2010 goals, call me. There's no time like the present to start using more of what you have to get more of what you want.

Pick One, Please

Recently I was driving down the much-maligned Interstate 4, and I saw one of those trucks that is covered with information about a business. The name and nature of the business didn't really stick with me, but one particular bit of lettering really stood out. It said:

"We put quality, honesty and integrity first."

To which I responded, "huh?"

As I understand it, the word "first" refers to item number one. Last I checked, the gold medal is not given to the top three contestants -- only to the top one. So how can three things all be first?

"No, no," you say. "Clearly this business has these three values as its highest priorities, and they are all equal in importance." And I would agree that this was likely the intent of the framers of this particular statement.

But here's the thing -- what happens when you can't do all three at once?

Supposing the only way you could get the highest quality material available would be to purchase it from someone you knew was importing it illegally. Knowingly breaking the law while claiming to hold honesty as a core value would be dishonest, or at least out of integrity, right? But in order to maintain integrity and honesty, you'd have to settle for the second-best quality. When push comes to shove in business, only one value can reside in the top spot. As a business owner, you get to pick which one, but you can only pick one.

Have you reviewed your company's values lately? If not, check two things: first, check that your list of values is written down in order of priority. Second, do some exploring of the reality on the ground, and make sure it is consistent with your professed values. If you say you value honesty and the evidence suggests your employees don't trust each other, something is wrong. If you say you value good customer service and you get a lot of complaints, something is wrong. What values are evident in your work environment? How do they compare to the "words on the wall"? Anything need fixing?

Holiday Strategies for Keeping Your Balance

If you are striving for a balance between faith, family and career, there’s a good chance the holiday season is your most challenging time. Although intended to be about faith and family, the holidays too often become a jumble of events, tasks and chores that leave us drained of money and energy. If this sounds familiar, and you’d like this year to be different, here are some strategies to try.

Set an intention. Before you start making your plans, decide what you’d like to do, feel, and experience. Do you want to stay home, or travel? Whom do you want to be sure to see or visit? What are your “must dos” — those events or activities that make you think, “it just wouldn’t be the holidays without that?” Do you love a busy calendar, or would you prefer to spend a more quiet time with just a few loved ones? Be specific. The more clear you are about what you want, the less likely you will be to let other people’s priorities drive your planning.

Keep good company. You should never have to do a holiday-related task alone unless you really want to. Shop with a friend, cook with your kids, decorate with your spouse or your family. If a seasonal task feels like a chore, don’t do it. You won’t miss the chore, but by doing it, you might be missing something a lot better.

Be realistic. Chances are there will be far more opportunities than your calendar or your pocketbook can handle. Choose only those that fit with your intentions. Be sure to consider your regular life obligations. Your priorities don’t need to change just because your halls have been decked with boughs of holly, and you certainly won’t find yourself with tons of extra time or cash. Let your intention for the season drive what you do, and also what you don’t do.

Say no! If an invitation doesn’t match your intentions, politely decline. Everyone else is just as overbooked as you are, and they will forgive you for missing their parties. We tend to worry a lot about what we aren’t doing, and that distracts us from the joy of what we are doing. Make choices on purpose and be at peace with them. Save your apologies for actual mistakes.

Understand “balance.” Balance does not mean spending exactly one third of every day on each of your three top priorities. It means being true to what’s really important to you and doing the best you can. Schedule the important things first—your family time, your “me” time, and your fun time. Then worry about all that other stuff.

The holiday season gets more hype than a mega-blockbuster summer movie, and it’s easy to get carried away with hopes, expectations and commitments. Take time to connect to the reasons you have to be thankful and celebrate, then create your experience in that light. Happy Holidays!

Reasons and Excuses

As I have worked through my day, reading and listening to clients, colleagues and others tell me their reasons why various things have not been accomplished over the past week, month, or year, I have arrived at a state of profound gratitude.

As it happens, I have not made an entry in my blog in almost two months. There is no good reason for this; I simply have not done it. I am neither proud nor ashamed of this fact. I have two months of incontrovertible evidence that writing in my blog has not been my highest priority, and that's that.

Some of those who have shared their stories with me have been considerably less lucky. A few have been extremely ill or had family members who were ill. One has wrecked her car. Another, due to circumstances genuinely outside his control, had to file for bankruptcy for his business in order to protect his personal assets and his clients' interests. While these friends have my sympathy, their stories have also made me deeply grateful to have no good reason for anything I have not achieved in the last two months!

Someone once said, "if everyone put their troubles in a great big pile for all to see, each of us would gladly grab back our own."

One of the challenges of coaching is to understand when a client's reason is a reason, and when it's an excuse. Sometimes it doesn't matter -- while a situation may not be your fault, it is nevertheless your problem and must be resolved in any case. In almost every case, there is a lesson that can be learned. Character traits like patience, determination, honesty, resolve and humility offer themselves for adoption when we fail to achieve a goal or complete a task.

Take out an undone thing in your life and set it on the table for examination today. Ask yourself why it's not done -- not in a judgmental way, but with an attitude of genuine curiosity. What lesson lies in the un-doneness of this item? What would need to change in order for you to check it off your list? So what if you do, and so what if you don't? How long has it been languishing, and how much longer do you think it might have to wait? Is there something about this task that you are avoiding or dreading? Is there anything about the circumstances of the task that you are pretending not to know? What is this situation trying to tell you about yourself?

I'd love to hear what you learn!

Do the Voices in Your Head Bother You?

When I first got into the business coaching business, I heard a lot of fellow coaches warn me about "self-limiting beliefs" and "negative self-talk." And I smiled and nodded a lot, thinking I understood what these guys were saying.

Then I heard, from a variety of directions, about the importance of keeping a positive attitude about your business and your opportunities. Things like economic downturns and seasonality, I was told, were part of that body of self-limiting beliefs, and I must refuse to let those things provide excuses for underperforming. Recession, I was told, was all in people's heads. And again, I smiled and nodded a lot, and truly thought I understood.

And then the news was on about the "bubble burst" of the real estate market, and the various other factors that added up to a really pretty serious economic situation that was rocking the country and in turn, the world. This was no ordinary recession, even by alarmist media standards. This was serious. And even those people I admired most, who were really living that positive attitude and succeeding in their businesses, started to struggle hard to keep it together. Some of them even closed their doors - and nobody was as surprised by this as they themselves were. "I've been in business for 30 years," they would say, "And I've never seen anything like this." Indeed, the only people who seem to find this familiar are those who've been around since the 30s. To their credit, they will tell you to quit your whining, because you're still eating a lot better than they did then.

This, then, is the acid test of self-limiting beliefs and negative self-talk. This current economy may very well be the worst you've seen, or will see, in your lifetime. And here's what I have to say about that.


SO WHAT?

The only thing that happens if you talk about the horrible economy all the way to the bankruptcy filing is that you have plausible deniability about your own role in it. Honestly, is that going to make you feel better? And is it even true?

Your success or failure is ultimately about you. It's about the choices you make and the attention you pay to the realities of the market and your strategies for finding the opportunities in it. As long as there is anyone left in this world who needs what you offer, there will be a business offering it. So it's up to you to decide whether it's you or your competitor who is left standing at the end of the game. The ones who fail will be the ones who listened to the voices in their heads (and the ones on TV) instead of sizing up the situation and getting down to business.

I've come to a much deeper understanding of what all those people were talking about when I first got started with my coaching practice. It's not simply about being "positive," and it's certainly not about creating a set of happy beliefs that fly in the face of reality. It's about tuning in to the reasons why you do what you do, and finding the real passion that makes it worth whatever you have to endure to do it. Tune in, every day, to your personal vision and mission as well as the vision and mission of your business. Get excited about how your work changes the world for the better. And make up your mind, right now, that your customers have a deep and genuine need for your product or service that you owe it to them to meet.

There's nothing lightweight about this "positive self-talk" stuff. This is about true love and true joy -- and that is serious business.

No Extra Charge

I get periodic e-mails from Michael Port, the author of "The Think Big Manifesto." He ends each e-mail with a cute postscript: "P.S. I don't charge for typos, they're just my gift to you :) " This got me thinking this morning about how attitude impacts everything we do, large and small.

This postscript accomplishes three things:

First, it acknowledges, and even celebrates, the little imperfections that are inevitable in life because we are all human. In so doing, it lets Michael worry less about spelling and more about content, which is a perfectly reasonable approach for a quick e-mail update.

Second, it shuts down the trolls -- the people who feel compelled to pick things apart and send mountains of critiques and corrections. When this happens to me, it tells me the reader was paying more attention to the spelling than the content. And while I myself am a stickler for such things, and find errors terribly distracting in written work, I work hard to strike a balance between appreciating the intent and helping refine quality only when that help is appropriate. Criticizing is a lot easier than creating, which is why there are a lot more complainers than there are creators.

Third, it emphasizes the positive. Michael seeks to be a giver and a sharer of good stuff. He brings the attitude to his work that it is a gift to those who care to receive it. The message is, "everything I create - even the small mistakes - is a unique gift I am giving to the universe." With that approach, he's bound to be inspired by what he's doing, and strive to make it the absolute best it can be. And by focusing on the positive, the rest is seen for what it is: a minor distraction in the periphery of the critical path.

Incidentally, I've never seen a typo in any of those messages. :)

What are you doing today that is a unique, creative gift to the universe? How does your present task, no matter how small, make a positive impact? If you don't feel like you're doing good in the world, what needs to change - the task, or your attitude about it? What specific, concrete thing can you do about it right now?

What does it mean to "win"?

Political struggles are common in most work environments, and they sometimes seem to get particularly fierce in academia. I'm aware of one such struggle happening right now. It involves the heads of two departments within the same college. One of the department heads is a collaborator who believes resources should be generously shared for the benefit of students. The other is a competitor who believes in departmental "territory" and self-aggrandizement at the expense of others.

Each of the two departments fielded a student team in a national competition over the summer. The collaborator's team had the resources they needed to do well, and shared their ideas and their tools with the competitor's team. In turn, the competitor's team stole parts, broke tools, and actually sabotaged aspects of the collaborator's project. And sadly, it worked -- the competitor's team performed much better in the competition, and brought home prize money, which was secreted away into the competitor's departmental budget instead of being allocated for future team efforts (as was done with the prize money won by the collaborator's team).

But here's the question: who really won? Many of the students on the competitor's team were horrified to learn of the sabotage efforts, and equally horrified to learn that portions of their entry were plagiarized from the other team's work without due credit. The competitor's existing team members are asking to join the collaborator's team, and at the same time fearing the consequences to their degree programs. The competitor is forcing students to work on his team in order to receive necessary credit for graduation, rather than recruiting interested and willing team members. The resources that used to be openly shared are being carefully inventoried and locked up. The culture of the collaborator's department has, by necessity, changed from one of generosity to one of suspicion. Should we wonder why these kinds of shenanigans happen in the workplace when role models at school enable, and even encourage, this kind of behavior?

Climbing to a "win" by stepping on other people's heads may work for a short time, but it's not responsible, sustainable, or even very satisfying. A friend of mine used to say, "the cream rises to the top, but so does the scum." Well, both get skimmed off, too -- and taken to very different destinations.

Is there a competitor in your organization? Are there any collaborators? Who is winning, and what are you losing?

Smile and Move

Take a look at this fun little video. Some inspiration for your Thursday morning.

Edit: I can't seem to get the "embed video" code from their website to work in my blog post, so here's a link to the page:

Smile and Move

Selling for Geniuses

Masterminds Unleashed:Selling for Geniuses has been released and is now available for sale on my website.

I am so excited to hold the book in my hand after all the months of writing, re-writing, and collaborative editing we all did together to make it happen. Now it's here, and I'm looking for opportunities to share it with businesspeople who can benefit from the great ideas it contains.

If you know of a business networking organization, trade group, or club that needs a guest presenter, please invite their speaker coordinator to contact me. If you refer me to a group and they book me as a speaker, I'll send you a complimentary copy of Selling for Geniuses!

Language Barriers

Communication challenges seem to be a recurring theme in my life over the past week or so. Curiously, being in Puerto Rico was the least of them.

Puerto Rico has two official languages, Spanish and English. In San Juan, you can be all but guaranteed a fluently bilingual professional to help you in whatever shop, restaurant, or hotel you happen to patronize. We found that to be true probably 80% of the time or better throughout the island as well. When we did encounter someone who claimed not to speak English, they usually meant only that they weren't particularly fluent. Between their better-than-advertised English and my pitiful Spanish, our genuine desire to communicate got us where we needed to go in a remarkably efficient and friendly manner. The only real challenge I had was in learning that Puerto Rico is not the right place to practice your Spanish if you're not fluent. Puerto Ricans expect you to speak the language you know, and if you talk to them in Spanish, they assume it's because you know it. Once I understood what was expected, I had no trouble communicating.

Understanding what's expected is key in communication no matter what the language. People who should have almost perfectly congruent dialects, like for example coworkers in an organization, run into communication problems all the time. "Speaking the same language" is not just about vocabulary and grammar. It's about attitudes, expectations, and assumptions about what particular expressions mean.

Case in point: one of my most frustrating communication experiences last week was with one of the people I was traveling with. He is an American and a fluent, native English speaker, so that wasn't the issue. We were talking about planning. He asserted that he has never seen planning work, and further, that a colleague of his has researched and found no firm evidence that planning has any kind of positive impact on project success. He is a proud procrastinator and a firm believer that things should be allowed to happen "organically" -- that if you put the right people on a project, they will just get it done with no planning required.

Now, it's not that I don't believe him. For him, planning has probably backfired more than it has helped. I know, though, that planning does work -- if it's the right kind of planning. My response, which fell flat because he did not understand what I meant and sent the group's conversation in a different direction, was that planning doesn't work when you plan from front to back. You have to plan from top to bottom.

Planners frequently create plans based solely on time. They have a project and a deadline, and they create milestones to connect the beginning to the end. These milestones may or may not reflect realistic time frames, and may or may not account for other variables such as required man-hours, budgets, unexpected equipment failures or other setbacks. Such plans almost never account for the intangibles in a project, such as the relationships among the people working on it or other characteristics of those people that may have bearing on their capacity to do the work. Perhaps most importantly, plans that are solely time-based seldom include the motivation for doing the project. "To get it done by the deadline" is not an inspiring reason to do the work. It doesn't capture the value of the project or its impact on the larger organization. It doesn't speak to the needs of the customer or the potential for personal satisfaction in accomplishing a team goal. It doesn't even really express the consequences of failure to meet the deadline.

If you want your plan to have an impact on the project, plan from the top down. Start with vision and mission -- the reasons why this project is important and how it fits into the big picture. Get all of the team members together to discuss the benefits of completing the project, and the consequences of failure. Brainstorm the critical goals related to successful completion and the obstacles that may get in the way. Make sure everyone understands their own role in the project, how their role fits, where their personal deadlines fall and how their performance impacts the success of their team mates. Be sure each team member has a clear understanding of what's expected and why, and how to "cry for help" if things are not going according to plan. Get genuine commitment, not just a reluctant head-nod, from each and every team member. Once you've addressed the intangibles and the "what-ifs," then you'll have the information you need to create a rough timeline based on the tasks you need to complete. From there, you can determine a realistic deadline, SMART goals, and a concrete plan of action.

Sure, it's complicated. But the critical first step is to make sure everyone is speaking the same language. When everyone knows what is meant by "plan," and has a shared base of assumptions and expectations about the nature of the project, you're well on your way to successful completion.

Stopped in my tracks

I've been scrambling since Wednesday. Not really recovered from the previous trip, leaving for the next one tomorrow, spinning the plates of work tasks, laundry, a speaking engagement yesterday, unpacking, re-packing and generally trying to keep my head above the water.

This morning, a quick check of my email stopped me in my tracks.

It seems a friend of my family (actually a distant cousin), of whom I have many fond memories from my childhood, drowned in Lake Erie a few days ago. He was 65. I am profoundly shaken by this, and deeply saddened.

As with most experiences I have had over the last several years of my life, my way of processing the emotions of it seem always to translate into analysis. What's the lesson of this experience? What might I do differently from now on? What could I learn, and what could I teach, from this place of new wisdom (in this case, the phrase "sadder but wiser" surely seems to apply)?

These are the thoughts I have about the loss of my family friend.

First, there's the really obvious one. He was swimming off a small boat, and was not wearing a life jacket. Had he been, he certainly would still be alive today. By the time you know you need your life jacket, it's way too late -- always exercise the greatest caution around boats and water.

Second is the not quite so obvious one. In this particular circumstance, two friends took a boat out on the water, anchored it, and went in for a swim. The anchor failed to hold and the boat got away from them. The friend who survived swam directly for shore. The friend who didn't, swam for the boat -- most likely putting more importance on recovering the errant vessel than on getting directly to safety. Make sure you have your priorities in order, and think before you act - especially when you feel like you don't have time to think.

Third is the subtlest lesson, and maybe the most important of all of them. Tomorrow is promised to no one. I hadn't seen our family friend in years, though I thought of him often. I thought about calling my Dad to get his phone number or his email address, and just never got around to it. I would have loved to see him, talk to him, just shoot the breeze and see what new geeky fun project he was working on this week. But I never did. And now I never can.

Every one of us has someone like that in our lives - and probably several someones. We're probably more likely to catch up with a client or supplier on a consistent basis than with a dear friend. Take a minute today to think about the most important connection you could make, and make it. Don't make excuses about being too busy, and don't wait.

And hey - tell them I said hello.

Exercise

Achieving my goal of writing two blog posts a week requires some discipline that has been a challenge to maintain during my travels these past couple of weeks. Tonight as I contemplated possible topics, I thought about the word "exercise." It struck me that several of this word's meanings are relevant to my blogging goal, and might also be relevant to a goal you are currently pursuing.

"Exercise" means action. It can mean physical activity for fitness, or activity done to build a skill (as in a writing or math exercise), or a drill or practice activity (like a military exercise). It can also be a ceremonial action, like commencement exercises, or a way of taking action, like exercising a privilege. We can exercise our bodies, our minds, our rights, and even our religion. Or a troubling thought can exercise us, causing a workout of worrying. We can exercise control, or exercise caution, or exercise the dog with a long morning run.

It's enough to make you wish that reading my blog would burn calories. :)

In order to accomplish any goal, you're going to need to exercise something. Whether you are exercising your judgment, your self-control or your six-pack abs, you need to take action in order to get the results you want. If I want to achieve my goal of making regular blog entries, and get the desired result of a large community of engaged readers following my blog, I'll need to exercise my best creative thinking and language skills on a daily basis. What do you need to exercise in order to achieve your goals?

If you'd like some help designing a results-focused exercise program to achieve your business goals, give me a call!

Life Lessons from the Movies, episode 1

Legally Blonde was on TV last night. I have seen this film more times than I'd care to admit, and if you haven't, I recommend it. It is not high art, but it is cute and funny and charming, and embeds some valuable lessons in its story.

(I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum.)

One of the key themes in this movie is misjudgment. Many of the characters are not what they at first appear to be. The protagonist in particular, a fluffy blonde sorority girl from L.A., turns out to be a caring, thoughtful, keenly intelligent and principled person who changes the lives of several of the other characters. The sidekicks become heroes and the romantic lead gets kicked to the curb. The snobbish prep school ice queen gets sent out for the coffee, and the clumsy comic relief gets credited with giving the star "the greatest pleasure I've ever known."

So what's the life lesson? Misjudgment comes in every flavor, and that goes double in the work place. If you work in an office with more than 50 other people, odds are there's at least one person in each of these categories:

• One climbing the corporate ladder who doesn't care whose head they step on
• One accused of that, who in reality is struggling to provide for a family and needs that promotion desperately
• One who seems shy but in reality just needs someone to reach out to them
• One who is not shy but who prefers to work alone and avoid work friendships
• One who gossips about everybody
• One who hates being in that gossipy conversation but is afraid to stand up to the gossip
• One who has a fantastic idea that would make the office run better, but whose opinion is never sought
• One whose opinion is sought constantly but whose ideas are rarely useful
• One whom everyone pretends to like because of their position, but who isn't very nice
• One whom nobody likes, who would be a fast friend if given the chance

How would your office environment be different if everyone felt comfortable and safe to be who they really are? How would fully understanding, respecting and trusting all of your coworkers change the way you work? How would the people in your company treat customers differently if they felt fully appreciated and empowered by that respect and trust? How might your business get better bottom-line results if you could consciously create that kind of workplace?

Judging Books By Their Covers

Here's some news from Harvard Business Review that probably won't surprise you: consumer expectations about products have a greater impact on their buying habits than the products themselves. In other words, if a marketing campaign or a salesperson creates an expectation -- that a product will taste great, be less filling, outperform the "leading brand," or deliver great value -- odds are the consumer will make their purchase decision based on that information.

Now, what may surprise you is this: curiously, they may do this even when their experience doesn't really support that expectation. And even stranger, they may have the experience they expect of their purchase, even when the facts of the experience don't match the expectation.

Since that is a bit of a convoluted statement, here's an illustration, quoted from the article in HBR:

"Recent brain-imaging studies show that when people believe they’re drinking expensive wine, their reward circuitry is more active than when they think they’re drinking cheap wine—even when the wines are identical."

What does this mean to you? It doesn't mean you should sell cheap stuff and charge more for it, but it does mean you should not be shy about setting high expectations for your clients when you have a strong offering. And you should charge appropriately. Don't charge what you're really worth -- nobody can afford that, because you are worth more than you can possibly imagine. But do create an expectation that you provide an experience of superior quality and value, and set a commitment point consistent with that expectation.

Thomas Paine said, "What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly." This HBR research confirms that great truth in empirical terms, in case you ever doubted it. By charging a fairly high (meaning high, but fair) price for quality service, you reinforce the client's expectation that they are getting something of value. As an added bonus, the client is more likely to experience the results you have promised, if for no other reason than that you promised them. In my experience, clients take a more active and cooperative role in the work I do with them if they have paid a premium for the service. The project is almost always a win-win, because both the client and I have made a commitment to their success.

Check out this article in the Harvard Business Review for the full scoop.

Commitment Point

I was composing a blog article this morning in which I needed to use the term "commitment point," and I realized that since Selling for Geniuses hasn't been released yet, most of my readers may not be familiar with that term.

Here's the book excerpt that explains what I mean:

Commitment point is to a service relationship as “price point” is to a product on a store shelf. When we talk about professional services, cost is not the only, or even the most important consideration for many clients. As a business coach, I ask a prospective client to commit not only their dollars, but also their time and personal energy to the process of professional development. The client absolutely must trust me, believe the process will work for them, and be prepared to commit many hours of concentrated time and effort to our work together. The same could be said of a patient’s commitment to work with a doctor to treat his cancer, or a client’s commitment to work through an estate plan with her attorney.

A box of cookies on a store shelf carries a low commitment point. I can throw it into my grocery cart, pay a few dollars, and consume it at my leisure. A cell phone has a slightly higher commitment point. I have to learn how to use a particular phone’s features, pay a higher price, and typically enter into a multi-year contract. Most of the services being provided by readers of this book will likely have a high commitment point, involving potentially thousands of dollars of financial investment as well as significant time and effort on the part of the client. A sales process that will work at the “box of cookies” commitment point, will probably not be sufficient to persuade a client at the “estate plan” or “cancer treatment” commitment point.

And now you'll know what I'm talking about in my next post!

The following is a "reprint" -- an article I wrote for my November 2007 newsletter. Rather than archive some of these articles on my website as I have done in the past, I'm going to let Blogger do that and take advantage of the opportunity to revisit some ideas my newer readers may not have seen yet. It's also an opportunity for me to rethink those ideas and do a bit of editing. I have about a half-dozen, I'd guess, and I'll post them at intervals over the next few weeks. * * * "Sustainability" is a buzzword - one with all kinds of connotations about being "green" and "saving the planet." These ideas get embraced by some folks, and dismissed by others who say "there's no good science behind all this global warming stuff." To me, sustainability means something less fraught with political implications, but rich with implications for other aspects of your business and your life. Sustainability simply describes the capacity of your business to continue doing what it's doing. An interesting statistic in a recent magazine article notes that Americans generate an incremental five million tons of trash between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. Fortunately for people in the landfill business, this staggering spike in waste generation only lasts a few weeks. And as anyone who's ever breathed a heavy sigh of relief on January 1 can attest, the level of consumption and activity that generates all that extra garbage is NOT sustainable throughout the year. Excessive consumption is a habit that is just as bad for the checkbook as it is for the planet. Even moreso now than in November 2007, people are paying attention to issues of consumption and waste in the context of "eco-friendliness," but for business owners, this issue shoots straight to the pocketbook. By taking a good hard look at everything you are using, you may be able to find ways to reduce your consumption while boosting your local economy (and by that, I mean the economy in your own office!) What does your business consume? Where do you get it? How much do you pay for it, and how much of it do you throw away? Could you get a quality alternative for less money? Should you be buying a higher quality alternative, that would cost more, but last longer? What do you know about your suppliers' sustainability? Are you aware of, and do you agree with, their policies and behaviors regarding environmental or economic impact in their communities? A large corporation might carefully track the usage rates of paper, pens, or staples when it would seem as though such things represented a minuscule fraction of their operating costs. That same corporation could then spend millions of dollars cleaning up the industrial waste it gets caught dumping into a nearby lake. (Just in case you didn't see a connection between environmental and economic impact....) Small businesses tend to have the opposite problem. They rarely make million-dollar mistakes (other than opportunity costs - but that's another article). They do, however, sometimes waste money on small things. If you buy the "cheap" tool or machine and quickly break it or wear it out, it's likely to be more economical to spend for the good one than buy the cheap one multiple times. If you are getting a bargain price for items online, make sure the total with shipping is really still cheaper than it would be to shop locally. If you are sourcing "cheap" ink cartridges or office equipment, be aware that these items are sometimes "factory refurb" rather than new, and may not perform like a new one would. This does not make them bad choices -- as long as you know what you're getting, how long it is expected to last, and how the price/performance scenario stacks up against comparable items. Last but not least, be just as aware of what goes out of your office as what goes in. A typical office environment goes through a lot of paper, and that is difficult to avoid. But there's no good reason for that paper to end up in a landfill. Many communities will recycle for free that which they would charge you to haul as trash. Recycling programs also exist for most types of electronics and office equipment - check with your municipal government or one of the national office supply store chains. Sustainability is about being able to keep doing what you're doing. Take a few minutes every day to work on your business rather than in it, and always be looking for ways to improve.