So, How Are You?

Tonight’s blog post (for the 2nd time this week!) is dedicated to my wonderful bride of 22 years, married at 10:10 on 10/10… and to me, she’s always been a perfect 10! I love you Kathy!        Happy 22nd! 

     When did you last  take stock of yourself? If it was more than a week ago, you’re missing the boat! I’ll bet you got asked “How are you?” at least a few times today.

     In fact, if it was fewer than a dozen times,  you are not getting out there on the front lines and dealing with customers and employees enough to boost your business up and over the economic disaster wall.

     Alright, so let’s get back  to the point: What kinds of answers do you usually give and get to this “HOW ARE YOU?” question that we all ask, and are asked every single day? Here are a few possibilities just to help you prime the mental pump a little:

“Good. You?” ~~~ “Fine, thanks!” ~~~ “Hey, ha-ha, y’never know, ha-ha!” ~~~ “Old and decrepit!” ~~~ “Erect!” ~~~ “Annoyed!” ~~~ “Fantastic!” ~~~ “Alive!” ~~~ “Vertical, which is better than horizontal, right? Ha-ha!” ~~~ “Super-Dooper!” ~~~ “Hot!” ~~~ “Cold!” ~~~ “Delirious!” ~~~ “Like scrambled eggs!” ~~~ “Angry!” ~~~ “Exhausted!” ~~~ “Freaked!” ~~~ “Not so great; yeah, y’see, I’ve got this…” ~~~ “Aggravated.” ~~~ “Miserable.” ~~~ “Drunk!” ~~~ “S t o n e d.” ~~~ “Ready!” ~~~ “Tired.” ~~~ No need to continue, right?

The bottom line is that:  

A) Nobody cares if you’re tired… or any of those other negative feelings. N-O-B-O-D-Y  C-A-R-E-S. 

B) Whatever you offer as an answer is YOUR CHOICE! 

C) Anything less than “GREAT!” (even if you don’t feel it, don’t mean it, and have a hard time bringing yourself around to say it) will cost you business.

     Why?  Customers don’t want to deal with negative attitude businesses and business owners.

     Employees want  to believe that because you are the leader you are always positive and exuberant about the ways you deal with yourself and others. They want some of the positive attitude magic to rub off on them.

     You are their surrogate parent!  If you don’t evidence positiveness 100% of the time, you risk losing their commitment, loyalty, and dedicated job performance. 

     And suppliers  who deal with negative customers (determined in a large way by how you respond to that daily “How are you?” question) will bad-mouth you to others (including customers) and drag your business under.

     So you have to lie?  No, you have to sound and act positive all the time because it motivates others to support your efforts, be your team, and follow your lead.

     And guess what?  Acting and sounding positive will actually end up making you positive… and your business will be more productive and more successful!   

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Still Think You’re A Leader?

     Last night  we stepped back from the daily realities of running a business to examine some of the attributes of leadership and facing the reality that being “The Boss” and being “A Leader” may not always be one in the same. WOW! If, in fact, you got that far with the thinking, congratulations!

     Reality is  that we all accept leadership as a special quality. Most everyone would probably agree that a leader needs to have vision, knowledge, courage, integrity, discipline, judgment, and all the hackneyed, overblown qualities that earmark presidents and prime ministers and generals and admirals and corporate CEOs (well, okay, some corporate CEOs).

     But how often  do we hear

        about the need for “Tact” and  

         “Knowledge of psychology”? 

     A leader who possesses “force,”  who has tenacity of purpose, an inner “self-starter” drive, a personal magnetism, is rarely considered a person of “tact,” yet “rudeness” is not the definitive issue here; tact is what cushions the force of leadership upon reluctant minds… tact toward both seniors and juniors!

     The true leader  must have an insight into human nature. He or she must be a practical psychologist and must know and understand others. She or he cannot influence people without a deep understanding of what makes others “tick” and what motivates them, and how.

     We have addressed this  a number of times here, that the only way to truly understand and appreciate what makes other behave as they do is to first understand what makes ourselves behave the ways that we do.

Learning what makes you tick  will open the floodgates to figuring out others, and it is that which holds the magic key to superior leadership skills and practices.

     So where did all these words of wisdom come from? Yes, I have taught semester-long courses and untold training programs on the subject, but guess where tonight’s and last night’s LEADERSHIP material originated?

     If you said  the U.S. Army during World War II, you would be correct! There’s nothing new here. It’s all about being motivated and dedicated to assuming the responsibility for leading others, and it doesn’t matter if it’s 1941 or 2009.

The fact remains that ongoing self-discovery births and facilitates the best of corporate, organizational, political, and military leadership in every instance. Are you really doing all you can to lead your organization (even if it’s just a staff of one!) to successful performances?      

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OK, Boss, but are you a leader?

     A leader  has been defined as one who must first have a cause to lead, then possess an inner urge — the spirit of a crusader — in furthering that cause.

     Next,  it has been said that the leader must have a determination and even a ruthlessness in carrying that cause to success in the face of every obstacle.

     Finally,  a leader has been noted as someone who must be able to engender in those being led a willing and even eager cooperation in that cause.

Since the distinctions are not always clear, and since most of us reading this own or run a business, it may be worth taking two minutes out of our lives to assess some of the 8 basic differences between what we may know of someone who is a leader, and someone who “the boss.”

• The boss drives employees. The leader coaches employees.
• The boss relies on authority. The leader relies on good will.
• The boss says “I” a lot. The leader says “We” a lot.
• The boss says “Get there on time.” The leader gets there ahead of time.
• The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown. The leader fixes the breakdown.
• The boss knows how it is done. The leader shows how it is done.
• The boss makes work a drudgery. The leader makes work a game.
• The boss says “Go!” The leader says “Let’s go!”

I recently read of 16 key qualities that “have often been identified as indicators of strong leaders. These include: Vision, Knowledge, Force, Courage, Decision, Tact, Judgment, Knowledge of Psychology, Loyalty, Interest in Subordinates, Justice, Personal Dignity, Selflessness, Personal Integrity, and Discipline.” (and tomorrow night, we will explore some of the more curious points on this list!) 

It’s also been suggested to me that these 16 may be but “just a few of the many qualities desirable in a leader” . . . in fact, I have seen one study which identifies 83 (!) leadership qualities . . . and that “the line of differentiation between those qualities which go to make up a leader and those qualities which go to make up character is thin.”

It’s perhaps worthy of mentioning here as well that those qualities which go to make up character are EXACTLY what the character of your business AND YOUR BUSINESS BRANDING are all about! (and tomorrow night, we will likely experience some element of surprise at the source for much of what’s included in tonight’s post! Tune in Sunday night around 9:45pm ET!)      

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Stuff always gets worse

before it gets worse.

December, 2008: Gutless, Incompetent, Greedy: The US Postal Service http://halalpiar.com/2008/12/no-more-room-for-snail-mail/\

March. 2009: Having grown up a mailman’s son, maybe I’m just sentimental (or simply as stupid as the PO?) http://halalpiar.com/2009/03/23-lifelines-tossed-to-the-post-office/

August, 2009: Not just tech triumphs, the PO is a self-fulfilling sinking http://halalpiar.com/?s=postal+service

     …and yes,  there were other blog posts beating on the PO, and hoping for some light to penetrate the organization’s self-imposed deathwatch. But no, it mustn’t be in the cards. The US Postal Service does nothing to help itself, choosing instead to just keep digging a deeper grave!

The most recent proof  of ignorance came in the form of a 32-page atrocity of an ignorant, out-of-step excuse for a magazine delivered, it appears, to PO Boxes nationwide.  Campbell-Ewald Publishing should be ashamed of itself for putting out such politically-motivated trash in the name of the dying Postal Service, instead of taking a constructive stand on behalf of Postal Service customers!

  It’s just more evidence  of the sea of federal government incompetency that dictates to and surrounds the United States Postal Service … surely an organization (and I use the term loosely) destined for the next federal bailout after, let’s see, is it newspapers that are now being considered?

Please, spare us the insult!  Why on Earth cannot SOMEone with some business savvy step forward and get Congressional blessing to take control of this rapidly fading and no longer relevant entity that has simply lost touch with reality.

Businesses are failing  left and right. Families are struggling to make a living. The federal government sends $529 million tax dollars (reported today!) to Fantasyman Al Gore’s new automobile company so he can manufacture and sell cars in Finland! If this isn’t astonishing all by ityself, you must be living on Mars!

So along comes the Postal Service  with yet another elaborate, expensive promotional piece with thinly disguised heavy support for badly misguided Administration environmental policies. Why am I reminded of the story about being preoccupied with rearranging deck chairs while the cruise ship is sinking?

How many families  can you think of right now that are worried about environmental problems? It’s a little hard to focus on the spotted owl and Mr. Gore’s make-believe global warming issues when there’s a need to put food on the table and pay the mortgage… or pay for the gas to drive the car to go to the post office to pick up the mail!

Wouldn’t you think  the Postal Service would be standing on its head to compete in the marketplace and make the most of its resources to exercise some leadership geared to helping businesses get back on their feet instead of throwing bad money after bad money producing pricey lackluster materials that no one cares about?

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No, there’s never

a day that you’re

 not being evaluated

by SOMEone!

     Maybe you thought  since you run your business or department that you have passed all the tests and no longer need to be on the alert for others’ assessments? Braaaaaaaat! Wrong! You are being evaluated right this very minute by SOMEone, even as you read this.

     How do I know?  Because years of frontline experience as a consultant, writer, and teacher have proven the point thousands of times over.  Business owners, managers and entrepreneurs are high-profile folks who — like it or not — project parental images to almost all employees, many customers and most suppliers. YOU are a surrogate Mommy or Daddy. Yes, you are!

     And that image carries certain responsibilities.  You don’t have to agree with me or like what you’re hearing, but it’s the absolute truth! At some level, which is arguably different for everyone, people think of their bosses as parents. They won’t admit it, but they do!

     So, Daddy and Mommy,  if you want productivity from your employees, sales from your customers and cooperation from your suppliers (and referrers and investors, by the way), you need to adjust your attitude to make the most of the recognition afforded you, even if it is an unconscious and/or unwelcome level of recognition.

     Does this mean  you should now start treating everyone around you like children? Hardly. It does mean, though, that you need to be a touch more neurotic than you already may be because you need to be — as Thoreau once advised — forever on the alert!

     Like accepting the heat if you work in the kitchen,  recognizing and making the most of the respect accorded you is not only necessary, it is a great opportunity. Every encounter you have every day with every employee and customer and supplier is an chance to demonstrate your leadership and your integrity.

     You are being watched  when you think no one’s looking. You are being listened to when you think no one’s paying attention. You are having your Tweet read on twitter by someone somewhere who could make a difference for you and your business.

     Don’t make yourself into a basket case  over this news. Choose instead to honor and respect those who look up to you and who seek your guidance and who lurk quietly in the shadows waiting to learn from you.

     You have what it takes.  You got to where you are because you believe in yourself and your ideas. Accept the responsibility to lead and motivate and encourage and teach others around you because it will come back to you when you least expect it. Guaranteed! 

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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!

Cultivating leadership

below?

What’s happening

above?

“Leadership is not just telling people what you want… it is getting people to do what you need them to do.”

— JON ALTERMAN, Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic & International Studies

     I’ve often told the story  that’s now regarded as classic leadership style about (Pre-U.S. President) General Dwight David Eisenhower, during WWII, when he was addressing a group of his officers at a makeshift table on the battlefield with a piece of string.

     He first pushed the string  across the table with thumb and forefinger and demonstrated the end result being a tangle. Next he took the end of the string between the same two fingers and shook it a bit before gently pulling it, demonstrating the straight-line formation of the string… and made his point clearly that troops who were pulled by their leader would perform better than those the leader pushed.

     Are you pulling or pushing?

     You own or manage a business  and are solely responsible for motivating your troops. You set the example. If you are pushing people, others below you are pushing people. Pushed people get resentful and become uncooperative.

     If you are stepping out onto the front lines  and pulling others along, you will be more likely to gain and retain the respect and loyalty of those below you who you are pulling. They will believe in you and trust you and follow you.

     This thinking and approach  is as critical at the very top levels of federal and state and local government as it is in multinational corporations and in Mom & Pop retail stores. Small business is not immune from Eisenhower-style leadership. In fact, it’s the place to ignite the kinds of larger, global applications that will eventually bolster world economy.

     I know, you’re more worried about your family right now,  right?. Then start focusing more on “getting people to do what you need them to do” by pulling instead of pushing.

     It matters not  that you sell pizza, luxury automobiles, chickens, well-drilling, website designs, media advertising, crabs, healthcare services, insurance, pickles, legal services, clothing, or real estate.

What matters is that you keep working every single day at making your leadership style better because the solidity of your customer base is only as good as the day-to-day performance of your employees, and your employee performance is only as good as the constant attention you give to the kind of leadership you provide.

Your leadership speaks of your integrity.

Your integrity is your brand!  

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Hal@Businessworks.US    302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Is your self-fulfilling prophesy

destroying your business?

• “Harry, you look terrible. How do you feel?”
• “Oooooooh, terrrrrrible.”
• “Terrible, huh? That’s too bad. How’s business?
• “Oooooooh, terrrrrrible.”

~~~~~~~~

• “Hey, Marian, what’s up?”
• “Not much. What’s up with you?”
• “I just saw Harry.”
• “Oh, and how is he?”
• “He’s terrible.”
• “Really? That’s a shame. I thought he was doing okay. In fact I was just on my way to him to put in a big order, but maybe I shouldn’t be doing business with him anymore. If he’s as terrible as you say, and he’s not doing well, then he’s not selling much, and his inventory must be getting awfully stale.”
• “Oh, I’m not sure about his inventory, but he looked terrible, and when I asked how he was, he said ‘terrible.’
• “Yeah, well that’s enough for me. I can just as easily deal with George down the street. He doesn’t seem to have many customers, but he always says that things are terrific, and he always acts bright and cheerful. I have to believe his products are always fresh.”

~~~~~~~~

     Have you looked  in a mirror lately? I mean REALLY looked? Have you tape-recorded and listened to yourself talking to customers (employees, vendors, anyone?) on a recent phone call? Are you choosing for the lousy economy to creep into how you represent yourself and your business to others? 

     Do you know — beyond any shadow of doubt — that you are consistently projecting the power of positive thinking? Does your voice and do your posture and facial expressions exude enthusiasm? All the time? Uh, ALL the time? A~L~L the time?

     Do you think you can  just put on an act from 9 to 5, or just on Thursdays? Is your brain programmed to think “TGIF” every Friday morning, and then slow to a standstill by noon, getting ready for the weekend?

     Do you still think of Wednesday  as the “hump” day to get past so you have a clear path to TGIF? Do you own or run a business? Maybe you should read this post one more time. Have a great TGIM week starting Monday (or even start a little today?)

     Oh, and guess what the fringe benefit is?  Besides that you’ll increase sales:  You’ll feel happier and be healthier! It’s a proven fact that forcing yourself to project a positive attitude consistently, even when you don’t feel positive, will end up turning upsetting negatives into positives and make you happier and healthier. What have you got to lose?

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Exceptionally Rewarding?

OR Extremely Frustrating?

     Common to most volunteer groups  I’ve experienced as a management consultant and trainer is that they bite off more than they can chew! Goals are generally vague and too all-encompassing, which creates feelings of frustration, prompts rapid turnover, and frequently results in failure.

     Remember that group goal structures  and criteria are no different than the ones I’ve discussed here for individuals. http://bit.ly/aaCJpz     http://bit.ly/ay6N2C   are two good examples worth checking] 

     For a goal to be a genuine goal  and not a “wishlist” item, you’ll find at the above links — among other points — that a goal must be specific, realistic, flexible, and have a due date, and it must adhere to all 4 criteria. You may want to re-read the last sentence. It contains the guts of establishing goals that work for individuals as well as groups, and it’s worth giving some thought to each of the 4 criteria.

     Why are meaningful goals  particularly important in working with volunteers. Because achievement leads to feelings of success, and feelings of success are the ONLY attributes that can sustain and justify volunteer effort. 

All other problem solutions mean little unless (volunteer group) members feel that they are progressing toward an achievable goal.

     According to  the training profession benchmark University Associates Editors Jones and Pfeiffer in one of their classic  Annual Handbooks for Group Facilitators, “All other problem solutions mean little unless (volunteer group) members feel that they are progressing toward an achievable goal.”

     One way to accomplish the task  of setting realistic objectives — based on consensus and group decision-making methods — “is for volunteers to set aside a block of time to devote totally to planning,” say Jones and Pfeiffer.

     Volunteer groups,  the much-acclaimed editing team experts go on to say, also need to establish meaningful and appropriate contracts between group members and the organization. And these contracts need to spell out what each individual can and will do.

     To function at a high performance level,  volunteers should also have regularly-scheduled group meetings, individual written job descriptions, and a permanent agenda item of “Are we meeting our job descriptions and how should they be upgraded as we go forward?”

     Leadership and accountability  require designation of project leaders and a volunteer coordinator, plus a “buddy system” orientation arrangement for introducing new group members. Rewards (e.g., expense grants, certificates, academic credits, extra training opportunities, news release coverage, commendation letters), and attention to the process that evolves are all critical ingredients in making volunteer group leadership work.    

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Analytical

BELONGS TO SCIENCE AND BUSINESS

Kidding

BELONGS TO GOATS

Teasing

BELONGS TO HAIR

Wired

BELONGS TO ELECTRICIANS

Criticism

BELONGS TO THEATREGOERS

Judgements

BELONG TO COURTROOMS

Pushiness

BELONGS TO BULLDOZERS

Lecturing

BELONGS TO CLASSROOMS

Crowding

BELONGS TO SUBWAYS AND SARDINES

Got some thought-provoking additions? Share what you can. They belong to everyone! 

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Leaders who fail this

exercise fail as leaders

     As the leader  of your organization, department, division, constituency, team, troop, household, office, clinic, crew, institution, property, building, club, store, or factory, you have and will form a number of prejudices in your lifetime.

I can tell you  that these feelings are your choice and you should choose something else, but it won’t make a difference. If you truly intensely dislike some segment of society, odds are the feelings are so deeply rooted that a BandAid isn’t going to heal the gaping wound.

     You CAN,  however, take some time (and, yes, it is worth it) to examine more carefully what it is exactly that tips your scale into tiltsville. At least you will have narrowed down the ugly feelings enough to have the good sense to know when to walk away from a potentially volatile situation, vs. setting yourself and others up for an explosion.

     First of all,  and this is important, remember that you need not like somebody to do business with her or him. Of course it’s nice to enjoy a customer or prospect’s company because it makes the sales process (Oh, yes, leadership IS sales, because leading IS persuading, right? But you know that of course!) more pleasant.

     But, you know what?  For some peculiar reason I’ve never figuired out, odds are that the biggest and most important leadership (sales) accomplishments have occurred with people who you are not particularly fond of. So…

Half the battle is knowing what prompts you to think the way that you think before the circumstances arise that prompt you to think that way!

Can you look in the mirror and give yourself honest

one-word judgments/assessments of these 46 types:

Men? Old men? Young men? Middle-aged men? Women? Old women? Young women? Middle-aged women? Children? Infants? Toddlers? Adolescents? Teenagers? Black people? White people? Blondes? Brunettes? Redheads? Bald-headed people? People with wigs? Toupees? Beards? Mustaches? Tattoos? Face piercings? Tongue piercings? Pierced Ears? Indians? Pakistanis? Mexicans? Frenchmen? Muslims? Jews? Irishmen? Asians? Fast talkers? Slow talkers? People who don’t look you in the eye? People with bone-crusher handshakes? People with fish fillet handshakes? Rednecks? City slickers? Tree huggers? Overweight people? Underweight people? Handicapped people? Athletes?   

     Here’s my best guess on scoring: 

• If you dislike/distrust more than 10,  you have a problem that you should confront and deal with because it’s keeping you from being successful in your leadership role.
• If you dislike/distrust more than 20,  you’ll be happier as a hermit than as a leader. Cash in your assets and head for a cave.
• If you dislike/distrust more than 30,  please run, don’t walk, to the nearest psychotherapist and beg for help (and until you get help, keep yourself locked up at home watching Animal Channel)!  
• Ah,  did we raise some consciousness here? Good! Happy Week! 

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