You’re the boss, but 

are you a happy camper?

     If you’re not a professional athlete and you need energy drinks to keep afloat, or nine or ten cups of coffee every day just to stay alert, on track, and in control, you are definitely not a happy camper.

     You are fighting with yourself and not sleeping much.

     But you’re not alone. You definitely don’t want to hear the latest findings about unhappy work situations, depression, anxiety, stress, illnesses, accident-proneness, and insomnia.

     Just know that the numbers are staggering enough to underscore that you’re in good company, or perhaps bad company as it may be (?).

     Just an awareness of how common these issues are should prompt you to pursue your options.

     But odds are —like a student I remember telling me didn’t think he had enough time to take my time management course — that you continue to manage to sidestep alternative ways of thinking. What’s that “Got Milk?” thing? Uh, got excuses? 

     Sidestepping is an art form all by itself. Sometimes it’s in your own or others’ best interests. Sometimes it’s not.

     Sidestepping is not in your own and others’ best interests when it puts your life or the lives of others on the edge . . . hanging precipitously on the cusp of the kinds of physical, emotional and psychological ailments itemized in the third paragraph above.

Suffice it to say that being overworked, unhappy in relationships, constantly worried about money, jacked up on caffeine, and never sleeping enough is a description that probably fits — at least in part — the majority of Americans in today’s workforce.” 

     Sidestepping is not in your own or others’ best interests when you foster or nurture worklife environments that breed these kinds of symptoms.   Are you breathing?     

     Does this mean you need to be the Sheriff of Civility, and fire offenders, or put them behind bars? Silly, huh? Well how silly is it that you consistently choose to set yourself up to get whacked out by stress, and become the poster-boy or poster-girl for serving up on-the-job heart attack appetizers by setting a lousy example?

     What if you came in to work tomorrow morning and drank juice or water instead of Red Bull or whatever it is that presently floats your boat? (Careful to wean off the caffeine unless you enjoy headaches.) Would people notice? Of course. Would they tease and whisper? Of course. Would it prompt them to think twice about their own caffeine-loading habits?  Of course.

     And would choosing to change that simple behavior be a good thing overall for productivity, customer service, sales,  operations, and your own well-being? Of course. Will it happen overnight? Now, come on, how long did it take to work up to nine or ten daily cups of coffee, or get everybody hooked on energy drinks? 

     This isn’t about three or four cups of coffee a day, or getting into occasional bad moods, or interfering in people’s personal lives. It’s about closing the floodgates.

     This is about recognizing you have a chance to help others to live more enjoyable and rewarding lives by making the conscious choice to help yourself to do that, and setting an example . . . it’s about making that choice over and over every day.

    www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@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!

“As the crow flies” not

  always the best route.

     Regardless of whether you own and/or operate your own business (or department, or classroom, or nonprofit, or military unit) you no doubt share one common key ingredient with other leaders: You schmooze!

     How much you schmooze is a function of:

1) the character of your organization and industry or profession

2) the nature of the people involved 

3) the nature of the tasks to be done 

     But the bottom line is that you must do whatever it takes every day to motivate others to get the job done that you need done.

     Schmoozing methods vary widely.

     In some cases (more so, for example, in military, quasi-military, medical/first-aid treatment, factory floor and fishing boat management, heavy equipment or high-risk construction and farming supervision roles), being direct and issuing direct orders is the accepted norm.

     Schmoozing, in these cases, usually only occurs once leaders and followers are “off the firing line,” so to speak (e.g., lunch, coffee breaks).

     Leaders need to be constantly on the alert for changing business, political, and economic climates that influence and dictate changing work habits and situations.

     Bringing a task team of creative professionals or consulting scientists onto a factory floor, for instance, may call for considerably more diplomacy and sensitivity than would typically be needed to accomplish the tasks at hand. Leading a SWAT Team, on the other hand . . .

     Giving outsource experts direct orders is not likely to foster a spirit of cooperation or generate meaningful results. On the other hand, the follow-orders discipline that keeps the plant safe and productive cannot be abandoned.

It takes skill to walk thin lines.

     Walking thin lines is where real leaders excel . . . 5-star generals, top transplant surgeons, fishing boat captains, counter-terrorism team supervisors . . . they schmooze. They know the who, what, when, where, why, and how of holding hands and nurturing, while simultaneously keeping one hand firmly on the controls. 

     It may take a little longer, and it may involve more mental (possibly even more physical) work to gracefully detour around a highly-charged situation than to directly engage it. So, what is all this speculation and pussy-footing have to do with leadership?

     It is simply a reminder that strong leadership is the product of good judgment, and that every set of circumstances every day calls for exercising fresh perspectives in judgment. But, hey, that’s why you get the big bucks, right? 

     Anyway, before you fly with the crow, ask yourself if what you are doing right this very minute is leading you to where you want to go. Maybe the order you’re about to issue will produce better results packaged as a schmoozy request? Hmmm, something there remind you of the way to catch more flies? 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@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!

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!

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!

All best wishes

                                                                

. . . from Hal & Kathy and our 13 year-old Golden Retriever, “Barnegat Girl,” who asked to wear a patriotic scarf for the occasion.

Please enjoy scanning the archives for helpful entrepreneurial leadership and creative sales hints and ideas.

Hal will retrun Saturday night with some hot new, light-up-the-skies topics and experienced consulting help aimed at helping small business owners and professional practice principals achieve greater success with less stress in less time at minimal expense. 

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!

 

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!

“That honorable stop.”

– Shakespeare

“Leaving a few things

unsaid.”

– Elbert Hubbard

     Call it what you like, but having a mature sense of judgment, restraint, prudence, or tact is one of the world’s greatest measures of effective leadership.

     On a day when world news hovers over a General and a President who both apparently lack this quality, we are once again left to our own devices for finding leadership examples in our own businesses and industries and professions.

     We are bombarded today by many “progressive-minded” management gurus, trainers, coaches, consultants and self-proclaimed “evangelists,” with the need to practice “Leadership Transparency.”

     The notion is being hard-sell marketed that business owners and managers must emulate the open-door characteristics of Leadership Transparency in order to make a difference in this world.

     Advocates also suggest that the word, “transparency,” and transparent actions, need to take the high road of fostering full time open-and-above-boardedness.

     Yet it’s no secret that moderation in the form of exercising discretion will almost always cut us out a better, more productive, less hurtful path to take, than one that is completely and 100% clear.

Being able to see through leadership

can often limit its very ability

to produce meaningful results.

     It’s an instinctive behavior unique to human beings (and especially to all of us “Men Are From Mars” types) to indulge in analytical pursuits at literally every turn in the road.

     When management leaders spill their guts (beans? milk?) and put everything out on the table, they leave no room for analyzing alternatives. Analyzing alternatives paves the way to innovative thinking.

     Economic growth comes from watering and fertilizing and casting sunshine onto innovative thinking.

     One need not be a brain surgeon to qualify for having the awareness that businesses that nurture and encourage innovative thinking are those that survive and thrive. Those that don’t, don’t.

     Leadership effectiveness is dependent on the ability to motivate. Motivating others requires the right mix of challenges and opportunities. How challenging is it to provide complete access to clear open-door directions? Is that action dishing up an opportunity or quietly investing in the status quo?

     Exercising discretion amounts to holding back a little . . . giving followers their own openings, providing the chances to innovate and excel.

     Nobody said leadership was easy, but do we really think we’ll have booming success stories on our hands when we encourage everyone we work with both inside and outside our businesses to know everything that’s going on all the time?  

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!