Survey this, doubters!

(GRATEFULNESS, LIKE FLATTERY,

WILL GET YOU EVERYWHERE) 

I know there’re places in Maine with 9-10 feet of snow. But they know how to deal with it up there. Here, the “near blizzard conditions” that dumped 4-6 inches of immobilizing snow on America’s second biggest peninsula (unless you count Florida as a peninsula, which I suppose…) has given me cabin fever. And when you read the results of some of my phone calls this week, you may think I’ve gone completely off the deep end. But here goes: my unofficial telephone survey shows —

     9 out of 10 business owners from 9 different industries in 6 different states who I’ve spoken with in the last three days (including one with 50 locations, and another with 400 employees, and yet another with three employees) have ALL said the most important thing about the bad economy is that it has made them “grateful” for what they have. 

     All 10? Yup, all 10. They all said the word, “grateful”? Yup, all 10. In fact, in each discussion, gratefulness was underscored as a dominent factor in keeping business growth steady while neighboring businesses were crumbling.

     Hard to believe, right? I thought so too, but the more I probed, the more that I was reassured of the importance of being eternally appreciative on a day-to-day basis as a leading factor in keeping associate, employee, vendor, and customer attitudes positive. And positive attitudes beget positive business!

     “When I look around me at other companies in our industry, I’m really grateful to be where we are right now,” is the kind of comment I heard over and over. “I’m grateful to have such loyal people working for me!” and “We’re grateful to our customers that they trust and support us during these tough times,” and “I can’t tell you how grateful we are to the bankers in this town who have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us and are helping us to get through this recession.”

     SO, take a good hard look at yourself. Go ahead. Go to the bathroom mirror if you need to; lock the door if you need to. Look yourself in the eye. Have you been appreciating what you have? Can you act, think and talk more grateful?

     Maybe you can’t relate to the millions of people without food or clothes or a roof or healthcare because they’re not in your neighborhood, or on your street, or in your back yard . . . because the success you’ve had has served to insulate you from the anguish, poverty, hunger, and ill health.

     But it’s out there, and you need to be grateful that you are not. You need to be grateful that you have managed to be in the right places at the right times and have kept your life and your business on track. It didn’t happen by itself. It didn’t happen by chance.

     It happened because you built a reputation for trust and integrity by demonstrating trust and integrity. Be grateful you had the good sense and judgement and abilities to follow that path.          

     Appreciate who you are and what you have. Appreciate your self!                    halalpiar

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No, you don’t need to move

  your business    

to the Caribbean!

(aaaah, but it might be nice to try for awhile, eh?)

Here’s a 6-Point Approach to creating a more positive climate for your business that comes partly from The Management Analysis Center and partly from my firsthand experience. it works:

1.  BUILD KNOWLEDGE. Know the capabilities of your staff as well as their weaknesses. With the understanding that Heraclitus the Greek philosopher said over 2500 years ago that “the only thing that’s permanent is change,” and that Thoreau once said “all we ever have is limited knowledge,” use what you know to determine (or update) the fundamental goals of your business.

GOAL CRITERIA REMINDER: A goal must have all four of the following criteria, or it is merely a “wishlist,” and not a goal. It must be 1) Realistic, 2) Specific, 3) Flexible, and 4) Have a deadline or due date.

2.  DEVELOP A SHARED VISION OF YOUR BUSINESS GOALS. Let employees participate in the process. Tell them the problems. Listen to their ideas. Take notes. Encourage others to take notes.

3.  DETERMINE WHAT SPECIFIC CHANGES SHOULD BE MADE. Should changes be made in job descriptions or physical layout to improve working conditions?

4.  SET THE EXAMPLE. As an owner/operator or manager, you are a role model whether you like it or not. People pay attention to everything you say and do. You will not be fostering teamwork if you rule by threats and intimidation. Praise in public; criticize in private. Act, talk, and think consistent with the goals you establish.

5.  REASSESS YOUR OWN FUNCTION to make it consistent with the changes you are making. If, for example, you want to establish better communications, you may need to establish a more open door policy, listen more, and listen more attentively! To get more good work from people, seek out and reward the things people do right, and try to overlook those they do wrong. (Remember that small, frequent, one-time-expense rewards motivate best and cost less than permanent ongoing pay raises with accompanying tax and benefit increases)

6.  DEVELOP NEW METHODS AND SYSTEMS for enhancing a more positive climate, such as instituting weekly status review meetings (with set time periods, a clear agenda circulated ahead of time and follow-up report focused only on decisions made and who will do what by when) to evaluate progress, or a reward system for improved performance.

In an optimum positive climate, people know exactly what it is that is expected of them and where they fit in. Everyone shares the same goals. They know how they can be effective and what kinds of behavior will be rewarded.    halalpiar

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“We should enjoy here

while we’re here,

’cause there’s no here there!”

                                                                                      –ZIGGY

     Okay, all you entrepreneurs, don’t start with the excuses that you have no time for time management. That’s a choice. You know as well as I do that you need to MAKE the choice and TAKE the time to do a few things besides business, and that this is as good a day as ever to give it a go!

     Yes, it really is true that you need to take time out to eat. Maybe you thought that candy stash in your desk drawer would get you through the day, or that your idea of good nutrition and getting your daily “greens” meant the pickle on a Big Mac or the fried green pepper with the sausage sandwich, but guess what?

     So that little kick in the butt reminded you to eat something that’s actually good for you. Good. Next, let’s look at how else you spend your business-steamrollering 24 hours (besides the 4-7 hours sleep). No, YOU look. I don’t really want to know. Take 20 seconds out to look at how you’re allocating those 17-20 hours each day. If it’s all work and . . . you know the rest.

     I just want that you should open your mind to open some doors by building in at least two or three of the following seven activities every day to supplement your focus on the thought that you need to take time to WORK because it is the price of success.

     Why should these other seven activities matter? Because too often (besides WORK) ill health and broken families become the price of success. So here . . . seven focused activities that those most successful businesspeople of good health and strong families routinely include in daily existences:

1. Take time to THINK; it is the source of power.
2. Take time to PLAY; it is the secret of perpetual youth.
3. Take time to READ; it is the foundation of wisdom.
4. Take time to WORSHIP; it is the highway to reverence.
5. Take time to BE FRIENDLY; it is the road to happiness.
6. Take time to LAUGH; it is the music of the soul.
7. Take time to DREAM; it is hitching your wagon to a star.

. . . and, the bottom line: CHOOSE to take time to live!  Or as cartoon character Ziggy once said:

“We should enjoy here while we’re here,

’cause there’s no here there!”

 # # #

RIP Paul Harvey,

1918-2009

The greatest radio commentator

in American history

You touched our hearts!

Thank you and bless your soul for your “Good Morning’s” and “Page 2’s” and “The rest of the story.”

And thank you especially for all the professionalism, daily inspiration and good humor that you brought to so many for so very many years.

You were truly a man among men, and will stand for all time as one of the world’s greatest salesmen. Your mastery of both news reporting and voice delivery will never be matched.

You have set the example and held it aloft for all public figures everywhere to follow, the torch of trust that is most dearly needed in today’s world.

With God’s blessings, may we all learn from the light you have cast, and pass it along to brighten the darkness of others. We will miss you, Paul 

 . . . Paul Harvey . . .

. . . Good Day!

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

 Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

What ARE you smoking,

Mr. Woodward?

     Yesterday, an Associated Press writer named Calvin Woodward naively proclaimed that “Small businesses don’t create jobs!” What are you smoking, Mr. Woodward?

     In his astonishingly unprofessional, biased, gushing diatribe, he attempted to influence readers to join him in blindly supporting the terribly misdirected, partison-political “stimulus package” that takes direct aim at entrepreneurs…that seeks to cripple America’s small business owners and operators who account for the vast majority of U.S. job creation.

     As if that wasn’t insulting enough, Woodward went on to note that there are twenty million (20,000,000!) small businesses in this country that don’t even have employees. What an utterly ridiculous and misleading statement!

10 QUESTIONS FOR YOU, MR. WOODWARD . . . 

1. What, Mr. Woodward, do you think the twenty million small business owner/operators DO if they are not “employees”?
2. Where do you think new jobs come from?
3. Where do you think new jobs come from?
4. Where do you think new jobs come from?
5. Where do you think new jobs come from?
6. Where do you think new jobs come from?
7. Where do you think new jobs come from?
8. Where do you think new jobs come from?
9. Where do you think new jobs come from?
10. Didn’t Apple and Microsoft, as just two quick examples) come from one-person businesses that started in garages? 

     The United States of America would not even EXIST without entrepreneurs and small business growth to create jobs.

     It’s called Capitalism, Mr. Woodward. It works. It’s been proven. It’s called being careful with spending. It works. It’s been proven. Show us a Socialist agenda that works, Mr. Woodward! Show us that the doomed-to-failure stimulus plan is not a socialist tool to create deepening dependency on government. Of course it is. Every entrepreneur knows that. 

     And don’t you think the coming $13 a week more in every paycheck will be the height of disillusionment when a year down the road the unchanged tax laws will require employees to cough all that money (and more!) back up, plus re-tax small businesses to boot?

     I heard The Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore (WSJ Editorial Board and Senior Economics Writer) comment today on WABC New York Radio that “entrepreneurs are capitalists and capitalists cannot exist without capital.”

     He explained for the public what all of us already know who run our own businesses: that entrepreneurs start new businesses and expand existing ones, and need capital investments in order to do those things. While some of these ventures fail, many (like the two examples above) succeed and create jobs as they grow.

     The so-called stimulus package does everything possible to put a chokehold on small business owners and entrepreneurs. Where does that leave us? Isn’t it jobs that ultimately stimulate the economy? Well, maybe not. Maybe jobs are not as important as many of us believe.

     Maybe we who own and run small businesses should all just throw our hands up and quit, and file for unemployment and foodstamps and welfare and other “stimulus” plan handouts. Hey, life would be easier, wouldn’t it?

     Oh, wait, I forgot, we can’t all do that because there wouldn’t be enough businesses around to pay the taxes to support these “spread the wealth” programs. And we surely wouldn’t want to prevent needy folks who choose not to work from having a chunk of change from all that wealth spreading.    Halalpiar

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A smack

alongside the head,

a kick in the butt, or

cash under the table…

are not always

the best motivators!

     Yesterday we resurrected Abraham Maslow’s “Heirarchy of Needs” to explain the compelling backdrop to his definitive theory of motivation, and provide some practical examples. Maslow’s Theory essentially says that effective (i.e., satisfying and productive) motivation occurs only by understanding, measuring and rewarding individuals at the specific need level each represents at any given point in time.

     I suggested the best way to accomplish this is to “be a detective” in order to determine where someone is “coming from” and what it is that best makes her or him “tick.” This, I noted, is particularly important because (except for those with unhealthy emotional burdens) we all tend to change need levels with some regularity, and often instantaneously, depending on circumstances.

For those not connected to Miami CSI or Law & Order, I recognize this detective task can seem daunting to say the least, because you simply may not want to expend the energy or approach the point of intimacy that may be required to determine, for example, a particular employee’s need level.

     So, like many of life’s choices, you must decide how important it really is for you to motivate someone in a manner that is most meaningful and appreciated by that individual, which of course means that it is also most productive for your business.

     If you and your business are in fact heartily invested in a person’s performance and general well-being, you will want to explore the idea of putting Maslow’s Theory to work.

     The most important and effective first step in this process is for you to get better focused on what makes YOU tick! When you are able to figure out your own need level history and movements, you will be putting yourself in a better position to maximize the potential and loyalty of others.

     How to do this: Consider joining a personal and professional development growth group. Many of these cater to business owners and managers who share similar concerns. If you’re not uncomfortably threatened by the idea of it and can afford it, try attending a group therapy session; these can be enormously healthy and helpful experiences if you stay focused on what you can learn about yourself. Or simply take a course in photography or painting or sculpting or creative writing or crafts or pottery. 

     Take advantage of every opportunity to learn more about your SELF . . . who you really are, deep down. Attend self-development conferences and workshops. Read. Try writing a memoir or –an even better (and quicker) exercise that most people find revealing to say the least, write your own obituary.

     See what you can learn about you, about how you respond (or react) to different issues, incentives, people, places, situations. There is no right or wrong here. There is only exploring and learning. Then application. Apply what you find out about what it takes to motivate yourself, and –from that informed perspective– begin to do what it takes to keep the best people on your team.  

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Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

RULE ONE: Be a detective!

Lots of clamor lately about MOTIVATING employees, associates, and salespeople. It’s really simple…if you work at it. Some things, it’s true, really don’tever change! Managerial motivation is one of them.

The definitive theory, first published in the early 1940’s by Abraham Maslow and still taught today in university management programs, remains “MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS.”

• Maslow’s theoryviews an individual’s motivation as a predetermined order of needs. PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS are the most basic and imperitive until they’re met. It’s hard to need more than food, water, clothing, and shelter, for example, if survival is not assured.

• Once physiological needs are met, Maslow said SAFETY NEEDS would rise to the top. So, now that you have enough to eat and drink and can keep warm and dry, your mind moves to the need for protecting those fulfillment’s. This accounts for concerns like air bags, insurance coverage, fences, alarm systems, locks, escape ladders, and investments. 

• As safety needs are satisfied,Maslow said we move up a level to SOCIAL NEEDS. Seeking acceptance from others, giving and receiving friendship and affection are key desirables.

• With social needs met, we pursue ESTEEM NEEDS: recognition with items and actions that show appreciation and enhance reputation…things like trophies, plaques, certificates, prizes, awards, special dedications, news release mentions, etc.

• Maslow said at the top of all needs is the need for SELF-ACTUALIZATION: realizing one’s own potentialities for self-fulfillment, for continued self-development, for being a successful, creative, and balanced person who is self-satisfied and has reached a point of total accomplishment. 

As we move from one level up to the next (and Maslow said we can only occupy one level at a time in any given moment), we can easily tumble back down to lower levels in an instant.

A job loss, pay loss, family death, injury, flood, fire, or hurricane are just a few of the kinds of tragic and debilitating events that can trigger someone who may be at a self-esteem level on Monday, for example, happy with being honored at a special luncheon, to suddenly find him or herself all the way back down to a physiological need level by the end of the week, or even the next morning.     

Okay, so how does this work day-to-day in practice?

To motivate people in ways that are most appreciated and most productive requires the motivator to be tuned in and aware to what need level someone is at on any particular day and reward that individual at that level!

Recognition doesn’t mean squat to someone with a broken-down car or inability to pay for a child’s braces, or someone who lives where there are frequent break-ins and who needs an alarm system.

Cash doesn’t mean anything to someone who’s inherited a family fortune and is working to gain acceptance by others, or some form of recognition to brag about. You can only know a person’s need level when you can know what’s going on with that person’s life and what makes that person tick! 

You don’t have to cozy-up to every employee or spend more time than you choose with them.  You do need to pay close attention to the things they talk about and the ways they talk about them. It means…you need to be a detective!  Go motivate!

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  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Buyers “A Sea of Skepticism”

     TRUST is what reversing this economy is all about. And we can’t wing it with lip service. Consumers are a sea of skepticism. In fact, by just telling customers and prospects to “Trust Us” we are setting a failure tablecloth out for the picnic!

     We’ve got to earn and demonstrate trust to make it move from low to high by investing time, energy, and dedication to proving the value of the products and services we represent. We need to do this with consistent performance. We need to do this instead of pushing unit and commodity sales.

     One of my all-time great sales motivational heroes, Zig Ziglar, teaches adherence to the acronym T.R.U.S.T:

T~~THINK

R~~RELATE

U~~UNCOVER NEEDS

S~~SELL SOLUTIONS

T~~TAKE ACTION

     You’ll find this and more, by the way, in past SUCCESS magazine stories and Zig Ziglar’s sales-inspiring newsletters as well as new and time-tested thinking from Zig’s son Tom on Twitter, even in recent posts here like: FEARLESS SELLING

     Anyway, one SUCCESS article’s lead-in quote is from Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Sales.

     Gitomer says, “Today’s salespeople better be question-based, value-driven, customer-focused, and be able to prove their product rather than try to sell it. Proof,” he says, “comes from testimonials, not sales presentations.” 

Or, if I could put a little phrase-twist to work:

The proof is in the pudding,

not in the words on the package.  

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Hal@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

HERE’S YOUR CHOICE…

___YES, before I do Hal’s (free) 60-second, 4-step

stress solution, I want to read a little bit about stress!

Okay, skip over the NO choice below and the link line under that, and read a little bit first. Then you can come back up to the link anytime you like as you absorb all these great stress factoids that follow. 

___NO, I’m wired and I don’t want to read anything. Just 

   give me Hal’s (free) immediate 60-second magic NOW! 

Okay, here you go.  You get it right here on this site by simply clicking www.halalpiar.com/?page_id=35  When it works for you, please send others here for a dose –friends, family, associates, neighbors, lovers, enemies– anyone who you would like to see be more relaxed and have better control of themselves and their lives. And of course please come back and visit again soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     STRESS does not come from outside you. It is something you produce inside your body by the way you choose to react or respond to people, places, events, behaviors, and things (like a difficult person, an unpleasant environment, a boss’s frown, a car that won’t start, or an overdue bill).

     STRESS is positive as well as negative. STRESS is necessary for getting out of bed in the morning and for doing the tasks we do every day…even for reading this sentence right now! But too much stress becomes physically, mentally, and emotionally unhealthy. It is the most serious drain of human productivity in our lifetime.

     EACH OF US experiences OVERstress in different ways. Some get headaches. Some get stomachaches. “knots” or “butterflies”. Some get back pain…tightness of the neck and shoulders, legs or chest. Some eat too much. Some drink too much alcohol. Some smoke too much. Many get high blood pressure. Most who get high blood pressure also get other ailments, diseases, emotional disorders, or set themselves up for accidents and, all too often, heart problems.

     MOST OF THE BREATHS we tend to take most of the time are too shallow. If you can breathe more deeply and more often every day, you will think more clearly, perform more confidently, feel more relaxed and be assured of achieving maximum productivity more often. You will be healthier. You will be more in control of your feelings, your actions, your circumstances.

     YOU WILL BE more of the person that you’re capable of being that you’ve always wanted to be (and be happier at it)! Pretty good stuff, huh? It truly is. So, now, go back to the top of this post and click on the link and get started NOW making stress work FOR you!    halalpiar

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LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP!

Well, just in case you ever had any doubts about that classic old four-word warning that’s probably been around since caveman days, I’m here to tell you it could just as easily have been uttered for the first time this morning!

93% of social network, texting and email communication

is ineffective because they spawn a mentality of hiding!

     In the same fashion that most overweight people get where they are by eating in order to avoid expressing their feelings (It’s hard to say how you really feel about something or somebody when there’s food going down your throat!), most inadequate communicators are ineffective at getting their messages across because hiding behind the magical, mystical Twitter avatars makes it convenient to never have to actually engage with someone else, or develop any degree of intimacy. 

     In fact, the in-and-out “hits” Twitterers make all day are actually designed to keep others at a controlled distance, and at best can only serve to create flighty friendships. 

Now don’t misunderstand this.  I use Twitter.  I think it’s GREAT!  It forces people to think and act in the present, “here and now” monent and that alone is monumentally healthy from an emotional standpoint.  So I’m all for it for that.  It also forces concise thinking, another outstanding benbefit. 

     But it is NOT a method of effective communication because it completely overrides and inherently disregards the ingredients of effective personal communication.  The point is: do not expect it to be something it’s not. 

     Social networks and texting and emails do not effective communication make! 

What’s underlying all this assessment?  Effective communication is only 7% verbal!  38% is transmitted by tone of voice and — are you ready for this?  55% (that’s 55%) of effective communication is conveyed by nonverbal body language. 

     HOW you sit, stand, walk, gesture, wink, blink, cross your arms and legs and ankles, the ways you grunt, wiggle, twist, lean, laugh, snarl . . . HOW you come across . . . is what counts to the receiver. 

     Now consider that if you are in sales, and you ARE in sales no matter what you do (unless you’re a recluse).  How much should you rely on communication TOOLS and how much do you need to communicate clearly one-on-one?  A rake and shovel do not = a garden.  To sell what’s important to you, you must accept responsibility for sounding and looking and acting responsible, and reassuring.

     You must also be an outstanding observer and listener in order to measure your impact and pace and ability to focus on benefits.  Read and learn all you can about body language and practice your tone of voice with tape recordings.  Use social network, texting and email tools, but don’t expect them to do your job for you.  If you use any tool the wrong way, you can hurt yourself.

     Stay tuned in.  Stay alert.  Listen hard.  Watch your prospect AND YOURSELF carefully.   halalpiar

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