Your business may

be your life, but your

life is not a business!

     Entrepreneur, right? So what does it take to jolt your brain out of that innovative thinking tunnel long enough to appreciate and enjoy some of the real-life reasons you exist on this planet to begin with? (Clue: This is not a Red Bull chug-a-lug contest idea!)

     Will a family birth deliver enough power surge to give you a wake-up call? Not enough? How about a couple of funerals? Maybe a fender bender or stepping in your neighbor’s Saint Bernard’s leavings when you’re running late and rushing to an important meeting? A nasty bill collector pounding on your door?

     Stop for a minute. You’ve read this far looking for some kind of answer or provocation or support or or assessment tool, but maybe you need to consider asking yourself more questions before you start looking for answers?

     When, for example, did you last stop to smell the roses? Literally. Be honest here; no one else is looking. When did you last interrupt your compulsive workday habits to sniff?

     When did you last push the paperwork aside to give your complete attention to a troubled associate, employee, supplier, or customer? Did it make you crazy to have to shift gears out of your head space and into someone else’s?

     After all, life is just a bowl of worries, you might think, so why get caught up in other people’s bowls? 

     When you make yourself too busy to socialize or too busy to deal with priorities, inventory your actions to make sure you’re not just doing tasks of avoidance. Do you find the expression, “Yes, but . . .” (or the sentiments it represents) creeping into more and more of your answers. Are your responses to questions starting to sound more like reactions, or excuses?

     If you can respond instead of react, you can never over-react!

     Are you breathing? Click here for the free 60-second exercise

     Your business may occupy most of your waking hours (and probably some dream time too!), but neglecting your health — eating, drinking, sleeping, and exercise habits — and neglecting your family and friends and neighbors and community, is not a good trade-off (unless of course you’re bucking to be the object of one of those funerals mentioned earlier)!

     The better you are at business, the more focused you are on your business, the more rewarding your business efforts, the greater the odds that you are setting a trap for yourself to start to think your life is also a business, or is part of your business pursuits. You will start making excuses to yourself about why you need to stay on the job, to the point of being a crispy, well-done burn-out.

     You may start to look on life, and manage and operate it as if it were a business. This is clearly not a healthy place for anyone to be. Breaks are more than pulling yourself away from the desk or workspace. Breaks are rests for your brain that are like investments, and that will pay back with ever increased energy, productivity, and innovativeness when you return to your career pursuits.

     You need ’em. Take ’em! If you can’t do it, get some professional help . . . no excuses.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Are you driven,

or just driving?

     Next time you slide in behind the wheel, think about how many similarities there are between operating a motor vehicle and running your business. Why? Because it will give you a new or renewed perspective on many if not most of the things you do every day, and shed some new light on old issues that may be clogging up your business works.

     Most of us tend most of the time to ignore business clog-ups, thinking they’ll just go away (or not thinking about them at all), but — like any plumbing problem — things unfortunately have a way of coming to the surface at the least inopportune moments.

     This is not to suggest that your business should be preventive maintenance-driven (unless you’re a doctor, lawyer, accountant or mechanic) because giving that kind of mindset your priority wouldn’t leave much room for fueling up on innovative thinking. But, much like a periodic tune-up for your car, you may want to do a little service work on your business. So, try this . . .

     What does your car have in common with your business when it comes to you exercising control? How much do you really have? What’s controlled by others? Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? Does that work for you? Does it work for your business?

     What is and isn’t safe about operating your car as opposed to operating your business? What is and isn’t productive? Economical? What is and isn’t a good direction for you to take? What laws and circumstances confound, delay and punish you? How often do you need to fuel up? Do you use economy or high-performance ingredients? Attitudes?

     How much baggage and how many passengers can you comfortably carry over what distances? How frequently do you need to detour from the routes you planned? In getting your driving and business missions accomplished, how dependent are you on mechanical and computerized functions? How adept are you at handling inevitable glitches? Are you dependent on others for this? How so?

     How dependent are you — driving your car and driving your business — on your instincts, intuition, experience, training, knowledge, observations, communication skills? How easily distracted are you –driving your car and driving your business — by outside influences (everything from sirens, cell phones, traffic patterns, B to B services, social media, industry trade and community activities, to weather reports, headline news, sports scores and issues, and tire rotations)?

     How much are you willing to pay to be able to pursue certain directions in the driver’s seat of both your business and your car?

     If you just scan these questions and answer only a couple, odds are pretty good that prompting some quick assessment thinking on your part will pay back your periodic time investments for giving yourself check-ups and arranging occasional servicing.

     Bottom line: Your car? Change the oil every couple of thousand miles; drop it off for regular servicing and keep aware of performance and tire pressure issues. Your business? Change the routine every couple of months; hold regular weekly “how goes it?” status meetings (Mondays better than Fridays); hire occasional consultants to bring fresh perspectives to your doorstep a few times a year. Keep aware of performance and pressure issues.    

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless:  You, America, and Our Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

WORD DIFFERENCES

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

      Small subtle “TWEAK” changes in your website wording can make a monumental difference in your site visitor traffic, the all-important numbers of “quality” visits, search engine rankings, inquiries, sales leads, revenues, revenue streams, and profits.

     First of all, talking about “small,” here’s some free advice that should be obvious, but it is obviously not:  human beings older than 30 do not like to have to squint to read a sales pitch. Period. A gift certificate or love letter, maybe. But not a sales pitch.

     Your website’s job one is to make it as easy as possible for prospects to become customers.

     Tiny text? Unless you’re building a family practice in ophthalmology or optometry, give it up! And don’t let some artsy techie convince you that people are used to reading .7 size type, and that the smaller it is, the more space that’s available for design impact.

     If you need more design space, cut back your text. Most sites talk too much anyway.

Now, here’s the biggest difference you can make a difference about, that word differences make:

     Get rid of all language that could even be remotely associated with being a distant relative to your Uncle Braggadocio! This means killing any words in any marketing materials, broadcasts, news releases, traditional media, websites, emails, banners, billboards, sandwich boards, matchbook covers, skywriting . . . you get the idea . . . that suggest, sound, or look like:

I~ME~MY~MINE~

WE~OUR~OURS~US

     Oh, sure, well that’s easy. Easy, perhaps, depend-ing on where you live, but not in most places on this planet! Pull up any ten small business website home-pages. Odds are good that the text content language contains more than a couple of these kinds of references. In fact, there are probably as many strewn across corporate giant sites as well, come to think of it.

     The point is this: NOBODY CARES how great you are or how great you think you are so stop talking about yourself and lock into answering each prospect’s and customer’s only concern: “What’s in it for me?”

     RE-phrase your messages to instead emphasize words that suggest, sound, or look like:

YOU~YOUR~YOURS~

YOU’D~YOU’LL-Y’ALL

     Instead of “Our team of trained professionals,” try “Your team of trained professionals.” Instead of “Our program is designed to help our clients…” try “Your program is designed with your needs in mind… ” Instead of “We analyze your needs,” try “Your needs are assessed based on the results you seek.”

     Instead of “You can count on us,” try “You can be certain.” Instead of “My paintings will look great over your mantle,” try “Your friends will envy your great taste when they see the paintings you select here.” Instead of “We work as your partner,” try “You get a partnership attitude, not just a sales pitch.”

     As many words as you use to tell your story and deliver your message, there are that many opportunities to tweak what you have and make it work better. If you see your son consistently stepping out of the batters box as he swings for strikes instead of hits, wouldn’t  you want to see a knowledgeable experienced person help him adjust his stance and his attitude at the plate?

# # #

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”    [Thomas Jefferson]

Hal@Businessworks.US         931.854.0474

Guidance to 500+ Successful Business Startups

Creating Record-Sales for Clients Since 1981!

Once you’ve gathered it,

what do you do with it?

     We’ve all experienced it, some more than others. Leaders, campaigns, competitors, gamblers, teams, and combatants “get on a roll.” 

     Webster’s defines it as “strength or force gained by motion or through the development of events.” The Flip Dictionary says it’s “drive, energy, force, impetus, motion, thrust, tide, velocity.” Roget’s Thesaurus adds “push, drive, impulse, go, and speed” to the list.

     As a human attribute, it can be here one minute, and gone the next . . . it’s all about MOMENTUM.

     One baseball team gets two runs and goes ahead, gaining momentum in the game, but the next two batters strike out and the third out is made by an amazing outfield catch. BOING! Momentum shifts.

     Momentum untangles a sales pro from an ordinary day and throws her into the control seat of a speeding locomotive.

     Like a giant hand gently pressing your spine forward, momentum is a psychological phenomenon that produces surges of self-confidence-boosting thoughts and behaviors.

     No one goes home at 10am after making a big sale at 9am. That’s when he trots off instead to see all the non-committal hanger-on prospects, that’s when the sales lead generation task becomes challenging and inviting.

     Those are the moments of “Well, let’s not stop here; now I’m on a role; lemme into that pipeline! Now’s the time to go get those other sales that I’ve been dragging my feet on.”

     Business leaders of every description thrive on momentum. When everyone in a department “clicks” and the workload is happily and productively dispensed with, leaving time for a celebratory water cooler or snack room gathering, that’s momentum in action.

     The funny part is that the same thoughts and actions that serve to gather momentum also work to sustain it.

     Making conscious choices to do whatever it takes to make things work to your favor, and then making those choices again and again and again and again throughout the hour, and the day, and the week, and the month…is all the magic you need. Even in sales.

     I know, I know, sales –that is, selling– is a multi-faceted, job function that demands more than attitude. Or does it?

     Sure, your appearance and product/service know-ledge, promptness, a genuine smile and handshake, a couple of attractive “deals” up your sleeve, and a strong listening skill-set are all critical ingredients, but the attitude you choose to practice dictates how well those multi-facets perform!

     And what’s this to do with leadership? Sales and selling are just part of the business. Perhaps, but every business needs every person in the business to be selling all the time, every day.

     Selling needs to be as much the responsibility of the owner and the operations head and the financial head and the IT head as all the other functions they perform. Even in big business.

     Talk to yourself. Tell yourself you won’t settle for sedentary status quo hours and days and weeks. Remind yourself that you’ve got what it takes and that it’s all inside your head.

     No one else and no event can control what you think. What you think and how you act are 100% your choice. Choose success and productivity and keep choosing it.   

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless:  You, America, and Our Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

If you seek

sales fireworks,

check your sparklers!

     Business owners constantly want more sales results than they’re typically ready to put their shoulders to the wheel for, in terms of the marketing words (their “sparklers”) that they’re using.

     The average response to meeting the need for coming up with the right sets of words to represent business products, services, and ideas is a lazy one. Either wing it, delegate it, or hire some fancy high-priced group of self-proclaimed experts.

     None of these work.

     When you wing it, it’s like not fastening the screws that hold your product parts together, or not providing the terms of the services you offer.

     You are not in business doing what you’re doing to be a great marketing writer any more than you’re in business to be a great lawyer or accountant (unless of course your business is a law or accounting practice!).

     So why waste time and energy (and ultimately money) trying to be something you’re not, when you have the option to be driving your business to a successful destination?

     Okay, so you won’t wing it; you’ll hand it off to that assistant instead . . . someone who’s always writing some book, or poetry, or funny Facebook posts. When you delegate the task, regardless of what you think might be signs of talent rising up from someone on your staff, you should expect to get the inadequate results you get.

     I can assure you after seeing hundreds of these dynamics, what you get back will simply not be professional enough a representation of your business strengths put into the customer benefits language needed to succeed at producing the sales results you seek. What you get, in fact, could very well end up undermining your other sales-building efforts.

     When you hire a fancy group — advertising or marketing or PR agency — you are probably playing about 85% odds that the group you hire will be very skilled at not letting you know that they are more preoccupied with winning themselves some type of marketing, advertising or PR award than they are with helping you make sales.

     When “getting sales” is what’s important, being “pretty” and having the best designs don’t always count for much.

     Odds are also that they will be fantastically talented at not letting on that they don’t really know how to help you make sales. Ask them if they’re willing to work on a expenses plus performance incentive basis. That question usually separates reality from fantasy.

     If the words you’re using don’t sparkle enough to spark action, find a wordsmith. Do some homework and scout around for an experienced individual who has a proven track-record in writing words that get sales results for clients.     

     You need fireworks? Start with someone who knows how to spark sales with sparkler words . . . words that attract attention, words that create interest, words that stimulate desire, words that bring about action, words that prompt satisfaction.

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You and America and Our Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

Bleak prospects, but . . . 

Healthcare viability

needs hospitals to

 be re-invented

     Like a rotting apple in the middle of a basketful, poor management skills can breed themselves into a virtual (and often literal) sea of incompetency before anyone realizes they’ve been overtaken by dumb and dumber, suffering damage that’s too late to reverse.

     DOCTOR BUSINESS is a book I wrote fifteen years ago after more than twenty years of healthcare management consulting experience. It extolled the virtues of entrepreneurial thinking and business management techniques as essential to successful medical practice development.

     The dynamics and principles of that book still apply today, but — with hindsight — I can now see that I failed to recognize the ever-building tsunami of hospital administration ineptness which was emerging and gathering force at the time.  

     Power-crazed hospitals  — rather then entrepreneurially adapt themselves to technology and market-place changes, and do a better job of running their own businesses —  have instead stuck their noses into commandeering business-unsavvy physician partnerships and professional associations.

     Doctors who lack business sense have been buying into hospital physician relations programs that infiltrate and end up controlling their practices. In the process, many of these business ability-shy hospitals have effectively choked off all prospects for medical practices to function as viable business entities.

     Compounding the antics of small-minded hospital muckity-mucks, the new Obamacare health system will have the same kind of disastrous financial and healthcare environment impact as the millions of gallons of oil that continue leaking into our planet’s seas.

     It’s hard, nearly impossible, to excel as any kind of business manager when what it is that you’re managing comes under the scrutiny and control of a bigger, less capable entity that’s operating at cross purposes with your pursuits and interests.

     For more than the past two decades, many hospitals have been being run by groups of administrators whose sole qualifications are typically that they are or were wannabe physicians. Many are med school or government or academia dropouts.

     Some have MBA and MS degrees tucked in their pockets, but it’s my best guess that the vast majority have no meaningful small business experience or sense of reality.

     Wielding limited skill-sets, these people continue to assume controlling positions with running the business affairs of medical practices without having any solid small business management experience or expertise.

     The result, not unlike most government programs, is frequent failure.

     I have had up-close-and-personal vantage points to witness half a dozen hospital failures (and am presently watching another in the making) and the demise of a dozen physician-run medical practices at the hands of intrusive hospital controls.

     Medical practices are small businesses. They need to be run like small businesses in order to survive and thrive. It’s in the best interests of all Americans that this happen.

    But birthing a competitive free market healthcare system doesn’t mean clamping down on medical practices or trying to consolidate all insurance entities under a government umbrella, or having politicians control physician and treatment choices.

     It does mean doctors need to learn more about business and accept that role, and it does mean that hospital administrators need to back off trying to manipulate affiliated practices and start driving more energy into re-inventing themselves to ride marketplace changes more effectively, and anticipate those to come.  

302.933.0116   Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals!

God Bless You and America and Our Troops. 

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Two Simple Examples:

“Do!” vs. “Say!” and

“How?” vs. “Why?”

     I’ll never forget the lesson I learned many years ago as a young college professor when I tried using a Gestalt Therapy “Empty Chair Role-Playing” technique with a disgruntled student in a business career development classroom.

     I used the wrong word. The angry student nearly injured at least two or three other students because I said “do” instead of “say.” 

     Facing an empty wooden chair I placed in front of him, I draped my jacket over the back and asked Tony, who was extremely annoyed with his boss, what he would do if his boss was in that jacket sitting in that chair facing him right now.

     Tony strode defiantly toward the empty chair, picked it up and flung it full force over the six rows of floor-divers and ducking heads, smashing it to smithereens against the back wall. Lucky for him (and for me) that no one was hurt.

     You’re the boss, right? Ask any employee WHY she or he was late to work or an appointment or meeting. What’s the response? Ask WHY some operational function broke down or WHY your best customer account had been gradually cutting back their orders while increasing competitive purchases. What are the responses you get?

     The word, “Why?” is a request for reasons. It is a set up for anyone to respond with excuses. Asking “Why?” will never solve a problem.

     The most current example of how this word mix-up fails, comes from a befuddled White House asking why the catastrophic Philadelphia train derailment happened, instead of taking a genuine leadership position and asking “HOW?” . . . “HOW can we fix it?” would certainly have been a better approach and accomplished more. Corrective actions speak louder than analytical investigations. 

     Yes, of course there’s a bit more to this last example. It would seem to most businesspeople rather inconceivable that anything as potentially disastrous as a derailment by a government-run railroad that resulted in at least 7 deaths and hundreds of injuries could be ignored for half a day, and even then, still be preoccupied with where to place blame instead of how to solve the problem.

     So, yes, timing is a critical ingredient in word choice, but difficulties often start and end with the exact words selected and used. Before you might jump to conclusions about some issue in your workspace, you may want to respond prudently instead of react in ways that simply make the situation worse.

     Pause long enough before speaking to consider how the recipient(s) might perceive the words you choose, as well as the integrity of your timing.

     These examples and this discussion are not far-fetched by any means. Imagine such vast differences (as between “do” and “say” or “how?” and “why?”) in word choices you use — or overlook or let slide —  in your advertising, marketing, promotion, public relations, customer service, sales presentation.

     Was it your grandfather who said “think first and speak second”?

   # # #

931,854,0474       Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. 

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Cocky professionals,

headstrong business

owners, and

fantasizing gamblers

are doing it

as you read this!

     For many, running a business or professional practice gets too easily entangled with subliminal ego-based behaviors. There’s a tendency for many owners or senior partners to take the road of self-importance because — short-term — it’s easier and more gratifying.

     These are the nonproductive avenues that surface when business and practice leadership is mistakenly equated with micro-managing. Inevitably, as doomed attempts to prove micro-management hunches are correct, dollars are often nonchalantly tossed on the table.

     Do feelings of control breed expressions of unrealistic self-confidence? 

     Well, yeah! Just take a good look around you. How far away is the closest boarded-up business? Same town? Same neighborhood? Same street? Same building? Have you checked out what happened? Guaranteed that the more you sift through the rubble, the more likely you’ll come up with the reason being poor management. Period.

     Underfunded? Poor management. Not enough sales? Poor management. Too many non-productive employees? Poor management. Not enough innovation? Poor management. Ineffective customer service? Poor management. Marketing that didn’t work? Poor management. Lousy economy? Poor management’s ready excuses.

     Whatever, whomever, wherever, however, whenever the blame, judge and jury will find “Poor Management” guilty on all counts.

     There comes a time in the maturity of business life when reality strikes and says: “You know what? You really don’t know it all. Not only do you not know it all, but IF you keep throwing good money after bad and taking UN-reasonable risks, you’ll need only to know where to find the unemployment line!”

     Hopefully this kind of wake-up call comes early enough in life to avoid having to board up the windows or take loans to pay loans.

     True entrepreneurs— whether retailer, manufacturer, distributor, online geek, doctor, lawyer, or Indian Chief — only take REASONABLE risks. Hollywood portrayals aside, true entrepreneurs don’t bet the farm or give away the store. They don’t bluff at cards because they don’t play cards. They don’t buy lottery tickets or bet on horses. None of those risks are reasonable.

     This isn’t to suggestthat business owners and professional practice principals need to be Scrooges, tightwads and cheapskates. It does suggest that all business owners and managers can stand to be reminded to exercise greater caution with the ways they choose to spend their hard-earned money . . . jnstead of allowing business road rage to take over!

     It means finding and surrounding themselves with proven, qualified, experienced people who can be trusted. Easier said than done. Absolutely! But nobody said entrepreneurship was easy. 

     It means letting those people do the work they’re best at, and accepting that not everyone is cut out to be Donald Trump or Thomas Edison or The Lone Ranger. Leadership, in the end, is all about managing and motivating and inspiring others to get the work done that the leader needs done.

     It’s about not throwing more money on a table that’s been losing its legs to random chopping and sawing. Besides, unlike baseballs, footballs, basketballs, and the bull, money is not for throwing.                             

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals!

God Bless You and America and Our Troops. 

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT Day for someone!

Tonight’s blog post is dedicated to my friend Ernst Dannemann who died yesterday as he approached his 89th birthday.

I have been fully absorbed in writing Ernst’s memoir for the past year, and finished the text just a couple of weeks ago. A truly remarkable man I admire and respect, Ernst arrived –out from under Hitler– in NY Harbor at age 15 (with minimal English), graduated high school and signed into the Army in response to Pearl Harbor, became a decorated soldier and a U.S. Citizen, courted a Holocaust survivor for 60 days and ended up married to her for 60 years, started as a chicken farmer and built a highly successful 6-state retail fabric chain.

Ernst worked his way up to be trusted advisor to 6 governors, close friend to a U.S. President and contenders, and a U.S. Vice President and contenders, as well as many nationally prominent senators and congressional leaders.

For his volunteer work and his Brotherhood Award from The National Conference of Christians and Jews, Ernst won the highest honor given to a civilian in the State of Delaware. Many will miss him dearly. He was a true gentleman as well as a great father, grandfather and great grandfather in every sense of these words and titles. . . and, I believe, Ernst, though never a Scout, could have easily been the poster boy for the 12 principles embodied in the “Boy Scout Law”:

A Scout is trustworthy, 

loyal, helpful,

friendly, courteous, 

kind, obedient, 

cheerful, thrifty,

brave, clean, and

reverent. 

     Okay, so put aside everything you know for a minute and evaluate your business performance as it measures up against what we should have learned as Boy Scouts (or, sorry, Girl Scouts, but I don’t know their “Law”). Can you 1-10-rate yourself and your business performance against each of these twelve points and come away with a hundred points?

     Can you figure out your strengths and weaknesses in matching or not matching each of these qualities. Does your customer service mission sound anything like this? Do you have employee policies, written or simply understood, that come anywhere close to the elevated level of these twelve behavioral traits?

     Where are you short? How can you bolster that up? What steps can you take tomorrow morning to boost even one of these and make it a shining star for your business? What’s preventing that? Is it attitude? Is it what others think? Is it too hard or time-consuming? Is it just something you feel you’re stuck with? Are you remembering that behavior is a choice?

     Are you remembering that you can choose to make these values ring throughout your business everyday and that all you have to do is decide to do it and keep deciding to do it, over and over? Hmmm? Imagine. Imagine what else we can learn from our youth that can work for our business growth now? Maybe it’s worth visiting a local troop meeting to learn some leadership skills long forgotten? 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Ha@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God bless you. God bless America and our troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

Please excuse me

for not looking up,

but I am listening

carefully… BULL!

It’s the unconscious “game” we all play every day and most vehemently protest when we’re caught red-handed.

Some who recognize the fallibility of its practice at least have the courtesy to acknowledge the shortcoming at the same time that they practice it in your face. Others just play dumb when you call them at it.

Don’t let employees pretend they’re listening to you while they’re reading or writing or surfing the Net or watching TV, or –and here’s the biggy–  driving a car! It’s been proven conclusively time and again that the human mind simply cannot concentrate fully on two things at the exact same time. If the answer to your question, “Are you driving right now?” is “Yes,” set a call-back time and hang up!

Yes, concentration can alternate rapidly, but there are no double-barrel brainwave tunnels that facilitate thought process focus on more than one item, idea, situation, person or place at any given split second. 

You can’t do 2 things at the same time!

So what does this mean if you own and/or manage a business or part of a business? It means when there’s important information to share, you need to flat-out tell distracted employees — like many assertive classroom teachers tell students — that you will wait to speak until you have their full attention.

By the same token, you need to return the behavior by facing the person who’s serving as a news source to you. (No, not network TV news anchors; most of them deserve less attention than a bad car commercial)

It means you need to teach others around you — by example. It means you need to subtly demonstrate (preferably without making an issue of it) that good back and forth eye contact (not staring or glaring) enormously improves the accuracy of communication and also reinforces self-esteem.

It means you could do no greater service to the elimination of errors by consistently paraphrasing (repeating in your own words what you understand others to be saying, as a way to check accuracy points with them). “Do I understand you correctly to mean __________?” is a highly effective verbal tool for that.

It means that both you and the information source will benefit enormously in pursuing common goals and thought processes by asking for diagrams and examples.

Ask the speaker to stop or slow down until you can take notes. Not only will this force a more careful explanation, and help prevent errors, it’s also a flattering and ego-boosting technique.

Sure this all takes more time. Of course it’s more effort. But the results will launch your rocket quicker, safer, and more productively than those who trip over themselves rushing to light a fuse that may not even be connected.

 Just ask yourself if you want the job done right the first time. If the answer is yes, take the extra time and effort to communicate the who, what, when, where, why, and how.    

302.933.0116    Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. 

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!