How you see

your business

is not how

others see it!

We see what we want to see. We hear what we want to hear. We feel what we want to feel.

How others experience your business and your business message has almost nothing to do with you. It’s all about selective perception.

Pretend your business

is sponsoring a special event . . . a charity fundraising reception, for example. Your biggest customer has donated a pile of merchandise for the feature event drawing. Your assistant has done all the decorations. Your major suppliers have donated hor’ devours and beverages, the local newspaper and TV news reporters are covering the reception. The Mayor is there.

Selective perception

dictates that your biggest customer heads directly to check out the donated prizes when she comes through the door (and to make sure the reporters get the charitable company’s name and address right), your assistant will be fussing with the ribbons and streamers and balloons, your major suppliers will head straight for the bar and foodservice trays (along with the media people who are only there for the freebies), and the Mayor is working the room for votes.

Most attendees are there to be seen.

Getting people to attend an event that they’ve contributed to in some way is easy. Getting them to pay attention to your message and the reason YOU wanted them to be there is not. And the people representing the charity think every one’s there to spotlight and assist their needs. But reality is that everyone who attends, attends for their own reasons, and searches out their own payoffs.

No, it’s not being cynical; it’s being honest. Most people will never admit that they go to or participate in a charity event for any reason other than to help the charity, but the truth is there’s something more in it for them. Nothing wrong with that because –in the end– the charity benefits, but don’t kid yourself into believing that others see things the same ways you do.

The charitable event is merely an example. Others fail to see your perspective in the ways you represent your products and services. Probably 100% of customers and prospects could care less about all the great product and service features you embrace. The “What’s in it for me” benefits are all that really matter.

Are you triggering their emotional

buying motives…or yours?

In fact, NO ONE sees things the same ways you do. No ones sees and hears and processes things in exactly the same ways as anyone else. The perceptual filters in every brain vary with age, health, environment, experience, and circumstances among other factors…and they can change at the drop of a hat.

Some people still walk around blaming a bad upbringing or poor potty training as reasons for certain shortcomings or personality defects. They don’t see the world (or your business) the same way you do.

Well, that may all strike you as fairly depressing news, but there’s nothing depressing about having a heightened awareness of the fact that you need to reach customers and prospects with the sets of words that appeal most to THEM, not you. That’s important stuff!

You might want to consider having a professional experienced, sales-focused  marketing writer with strong psychology training handle the creation and production of the words that represent your business. Your business messages need to feel solid to your target market. Having that happen is not a matter of luck.

Look for someone who knows how to capture and excite a broad spectrum of selective perception filters, who can help direct attention your way, and who can create messages that will trigger emotional buying motives for you.   

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!

You Become

What You Think About.

You’ve heard this from Napoleon Hill, Brian Tracy, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Earl Nightingale, Buddha, Stephen Knapp, Sanskrit, The Secret . . . and the list goes on. But what have you DONE about it?

“Thoughts Are Things” is also the title of a book written by Prentice Mulford in 1889. This great bit of wisdom in just three words (!) from Mulford came long before contemporary authors ever began writing about the power of thought.

“Okay, okay, so it’s been around a long time. So what? This is 2010, the economy sucks, and in my business, there’s no time for touchy-feely mumbo-jumbo stuff that doesn’t bring sales in my door!”

Aha! But it can. And it does. You, though, must first respect it enough as a way of life to follow, as an approach to adapt to yourself and your own business and personal pursuits, and make it be your own.

To work, you must remain committed to it (and to yourself and your purposes) night after day, and day after night!

Mulford explains that we each have two minds:

1) The mind of the body (Need a quick example you can believe? Talk with any cancer survivor.)

2) The mind of the spirit (Go back to the first sentence for a resource round-up to learn more, and as you Bing and Google it, tuck the pieces you get under your business hat. It won’t take much to give yourself a wake-up call, if that’s what you seek.)

Stephen Knapp in chapter 3 of his work “Your Thoughts Create Your Future” http://bit.ly/9PaXsp is an interesting source for more of where this concept direction can lead you on a personal basis, and is a great place to start . . . even for a 30-second zoom read of just a few sentences that pop up on your screen.

“In the course of our lives we may be bombarded with negative thoughts, energies or scenarios that may come not only from within us but also from outside ourselves or from others,” says Knapp.

“All around us is a network of people, businesses, governments, publications, movies and music, all telling us what has been going on, or what they think is best for us, what we should buy and do, or what we should think about something. As soon as we tune into the radio, television, or open a magazine, it all jumps out at us,” Knapp continues.

“Our minds,” he says, “can be receptacles of these thoughts and desires, or even criticisms, which then become a part of our own consciousness if we are not careful. These thoughts are like electrical currents which, although unseen, can be felt and produce internal effects.” More at www.stephen-knapp.com

Knapp theorizes that the more prominent people become in society, which certainly includes within your company, within your trade or industry or profession and the communities your business serves, the more that others “will focus their thoughts and energies on you. Some may simply be envious of you… blame you for their problems.”

Translated for business owners, solid evidence exists that the everyday misunderstandings that lead to business downfall can be prevented.

Knapp’s suggestion is to practice raising the consciousness of those who try to attack you. “First,” he so wisely points out,“there is no attack unless you accept it,” and he labels attack efforts as “calls for help” that we can best deal with by responding with help, instead of reacting.

Happiness is a state of mind. It is, in other words, a choice that each of us can control. We can choose to be happy and not be negatively affected by what goes on around us every day. Is it hard? Sure, if we choose for it to be hard. But we can choose for happiness to be easy.

That doesn’t mean it will be easy every day, or every minute, but happiness certainly will happen more often. The happier we are, the better leaders we become, and the more rapidly and solidly our businesses grow. Can’t we just do this for awhile ’til things get back on track? Can you stop dieting and exercising and sleeping right as soon as you start to improve and feel better?

# # #

931.854.0474 or 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!

A Time To Yield To Experts.

There’s light at the end of the half-full glass, and no end in sight at the half-empty one! And you thought you were in a tunnel? Maybe you are. Maybe the glass is sitting empty on the shelf, or maybe it’s so full, it’s spilling over the top. Maybe that tunnel is one-way.

Confused yet?

How sure are you that your branding and marketing messages are not equally confusing to your customers and prospects? If what you are saying to your target market about your business is not transparently clear, you lose. Period.

Many entrepreneurs mistakenly believe they’re great marketers because they have a great idea. They think they can write great slogans because they’ve spent years getting back pats from warm, fuzzy, encouraging friends and family.

The problem with this is that support like that unwittingly lends credibility to the incredulous, and the entrepreneurs involved take the tacit approvals as further encouragement to pursue their hair-brained schemes and lunatic ventures. It fuels their ego fires.

And, yes, some of those ideas truly are gems–diamonds in the rough–and family and friend nurturing can lead to ill-founded yet awe-inspiring optimism that ultimately anchors many successful new businesses. 

BUT, if you’re confused about how to best express your business thoughts in a captivating manner, imagine how confused those you seek to captivate might be?

The vast majority of small business marketing messages are misdirected, convoluted, not memorable and overly braggadocio.You know the ones who thump their chests . . . 

“We’re the best, the greatest, the finest and most quality-conscious, the most economical, the most customer service conscious, the oldest, the largest, the most traditional, the most modern, the most forward-thinking. We’re the good ole boys. Our family business tradition goes back to the Ice Age (Stone Age?). We’ve been on the Internet since 1999. We support our community. We back up our promises. We guarantee our work. Count on us. We do it all!”  

WHOOP-EE for you, but sooo what? Nobody cares!! 

Being a positive, optimistic, and exceptional  business leader means recognizing that the customer IS always right WITHOUT– short of physical threats or violence--EXCEPTION. Successful businesses literally REVOLVE AROUND the customer.

Successful entrepreneurs are those who fully grasp and understand the need to nurture everyone (customers AND employees AND suppliers) around them in addition to their product and service ideas.

SUCCESSFUL Entrepreneuring…

• The successful business entrepreneur functions from a position of strength, but recognizes her or his limitations and takes steps to shore up those areas with other’s strengths. 

• The successful business entrepreneur sees people (as well as his or her idea) as the business’s most important asset.

• She or he makes a conscious effort to be positive, optimistic, straightforward, appreciative, and motivational in EVERY single encounter with EVERY person EVERY day. . . exercising authenticity, giving full attention, respect, empathy, and providing solution direction guidance. 

• This means understanding that being genuine 24/7 is not necessarily an easy behavior, but that behavior is a choice. 

Delivering confusing messages to a target market can be worse than delivering no message at all. People will not easily or quickly forget marketing message mistakes. So marketing is just one more place to recruit and rely on professional skills.

An experienced outsider will almost always do a better job of clarifying direction and eliminating marketing message confusion than the business creator.

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or 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!

She Tweets Me,

She Tweets Me Not,

She Tweets Me,

She Tweets Me Not,

She Tweets Me…

Howcum all we 30 million small business owners only ever hear about using Twitter and Facebook comes to us in useless abstract terms?

Do we really care about all the bundles of tech apps and clever little increase-your-overnight-income opps? And how credible are the sources that bombard us with such meaningless, time-wasting minutia? Is there really a business owner anywhere on the planet who actually buys into the daily onslaught of claims being foisted on us by self-anointed “social media experts”?

Surely those online businesses that promise 27,943 new followers a day or 16 million new fans a year can’t be serious? Why is it that mixed in with these thousands of clowns, there is only a handful of resources that truly teach the only information that’s really needed in order to be successful with social media marketing messages?

When was the last time you saw a

good run-down of things to avoid,

when trying to market your business

on Twitter and Facebook?

What’s acceptable as social media business content is far different than what you might put on your website, or in an email blast or a news release or a traditional ad or commercial. More importantly, it is far different than the “socializing” climate that most Twitter and Facebook users indulge in.

I have seen countless scores of respectable businesses stumbling through trying to manage Facebook content (text/words/copy/photos) that is tasteless, vulgar, trashy and often filled with curse words posted by disgruntled employees or vendors, and even by young adult children of the business owner or manager.

Marketing your business on Facebook requires persistent (often constant) ongoing attention and maintenance to ensure that others who don’t share your sense of business decorum are not invading your site with negative associations while you sleep.

Business users of Twitter are not as subjected to outside influence because Twitter is an outbound media vehicle, where people can –like ships in the night– respond to your passing business message with their own passing message but they can’t invade your business message space with negative input.

Facebook, on the other hand, is an inbound media vehicle that allows outsiders to post virtually anything they choose whenever they choose, and it ends up plastered right there next to your carefully constructed heartfelt business message, serving to undermine your business credibility until it can be spotted and removed.

What this distills down to is that business marketing applications in social media can be very effective when they are carefully planned and monitored daily. Yes, daily.

You may think you’re above all that, and are 

capable of simply “winging it.” Think again.

You can’t let other Twitter users provoke you into a debate (or even a one-time comment) about politics or religion unless these subject areas are part of your business foundation.

Don’t believe me? Try it once; your “Followers” will drop like flies. Business-focused Twitter users appreciate business-focused and/or motivational messages, but if those same people do not like your politics, or posts you might make about other taboo subjects (racial profiling, sexism, abortion, anything that’s highly-charged), they will cut you out of their contact base in an instant.

Like joining a game or contest that’s already in progress, enter slowly and politely until you have a clear reading on the unwritten rules. Then plan accordingly and be prepared to stay on top of it every day.

Oh, and please always remember to say “Please”

and especially “Thank you.” Thank you! 

 931.854.0474 or 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!

Two heads may be

better than one,

but not always

two tongues…

When you are planning or starting out to work with another entity, intent on accomplishing a mutual goal, there are some simple steps you might want to take that can dramatically increase your odds for success.

Regardless of whether the root of your pursuit is to save money with centralized purchasing arrangements, add impact to a community fundraiser, introduce a new strategic alliance or affiliate partner, send out a joint-mission news release, join forces launching a new product or service, or just share clerical or cleaning help, the burden of success rests squarely on your tongue.

Huh? Tongue? What’s that about?

When we buy into a plan or idea or action with another person or business or organization, one that brings mutual benefit to the surface, the responsibility for making things work depends on the mutual ability to communicate clearly.

This translates to using word choices you both understand (vs. jargon that only you and your people can readily digest) and consciously limiting descriptions, requests, suggestions, and commitments to the right amount of words — avoiding with equal disdain too much or too little input. Of course, the flapping of the tongue also necessitates the listening of the ear!

U.S. Naval Academy class underlings are subjected to many disciplines. One of these is the response that’s traditionally been required to be delivered (with a salute) to any upperclassman who asks the question:

“Sir, I am greatly embarrassed and deeply humiliated that due to unforeseen circumstances beyond my control, the inner workings and hidden mechanisms of my chronometer are in such inaccord with the great sidereal movement with which time is generally reckoned that I cannot with any degree of accuracy state the correct time, sir.  But without fear of being too greatly in error, I will state that it is about __ minutes, __ seconds, and __ ticks past __ bells.”

That’s a great tool for cultivating discipline. And those who can rattle out that response (plus many others!) on the spot should be valued and appreciated for their commitment. The thing is that the military (and God Bless Our Troops!) is not business.

In business, and especially in collaborative business where the other entity may not be a deeply-known entity, the response must be “3pm” (or “3:15” or some other approximation) because anything more or less creates confusion, and confusion costs money. Effective collaborators articulate just the right amount of information to get the job done.

When you agree to work with an “outside” business, take the responsibility for getting it right. Take the extra time and trouble to make sure that you’re not only on the same mission, but that you’re also on the same channel, speaking the same language.

“Let me make sure I understand you” or “Do I understand you correctly to mean…” or “Can you give me an example of what you mean by that?” are all ways to help ensure that you and your “partners” will get to where you’re going. Don’t worry about what others think of your efforts to clarify. Worry about failing to achieve the mutual goals if you don’t.

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!

“I’m too busy for you!”

(Translated: “I’ll never be a leader because

I don’t really care about anybody else!”)

Is “I’m too busy for you!” the verbal or nonverbal message you might be putting out to others?

I just read a promotional endorsement written by someone I know who, years ago, I used to respect. He starts out his explanation of why the particular newsletter he raves about is one of a very few that he actually makes time to read. He opens his statement by saying:

“I’m busy — painfully busy, so

I’m stingy with my time…”

Pull-eease! Who cares? The source, though, may want to know that comments like this scream of the kind of personal frustration known to have led many to depression and isolation.

It would be viewed by not a few psychology professionals as the monolithic signature of an individual who has deep fears of experiencing any forms of intimacy with others.

“Intimacy,”defined by ground-breaking Gestalt Psychology authors James and Jongeward, “is free of games and free of exploitation. It occurs in those rare moments of human contact that arouse feelings of tenderness, empathy…genuine caring…and affection.” 

Businesspeople are not immune to these kinds of connections and cannot hide behind “business” as if it were a protective shield. But many don’t know that they’re doing it. It may be going on for so long, that it feels natural to be a “workaholic.”

Some may say, why interrupt my career mission to get close enough to someone who will want me to pat their hand when they have a crisis? Dealing with other people’s crises slows me down and forces me to sidetrack.

Much has been written in the literature of Gestalt and Reality Therapy about those who play the “Harried Executive” game in life and business.

These are people who define themselves as “overwhelmed” and “overloaded” and “swamped” and “up to my ears…”

They make themselves too busy to have to spend any genuine quality time relating to others.

This is not a healthy mindset, but it is often masked by offering token attentions and participating in general socializing. It frequently requires professional counseling and coaching to move this type of behavior beyond the personal relationship barricade the person has set up for her or himself.

That you might be conveying to others that you are too busy for them, means you are close to the edge of the abyss that forecloses on many of life’s most valuable opportunities.

“I’m too busy” type statements can also be taken by many to mean:

“You’re worthless to me;

  get out of my way!” 

(Can there be any more insulting an attitude to communicate?)

Can you, or anyone who works with you, actually afford to practice being too busy, never mind flaunting it as in the above example?

Time is our most precious and cherished commodity. Of course we need air and water and food and clothing and shelter, but time is what drives those needs.

One of your grandparents no doubt once told you that “Time and tide wait for no man” (a statement that predates modern English and whose authorship is ascribed to St. Marher in 1225) and that “No man is an island” (attributed to the Englishman who was proclaimed the greatest of all metaphysical poets, John Donne, 1572-1631). 

Surely you’ve heard those statements somewhere? Maybe they are worthy of re-considering from time to time.

What kinds of nonverbal “I’m too busy” messages could you be sending out? Arms and/or legs crossed defensively in meetings? Parentally looking over the tops of your glasses at other’s suggestions that seem too time-consuming?

You keep checking your watch, the clock on the wall? You keep checking for text messages? You keep reading emails while someone is speaking with you? Do you walk ahead of others you’re speaking with, or shoulder to shoulder?

Do you pick up the phone and dial when someone approaches you? Do you put off invitations to family gatherings and neighborhood events, or show up to smile and handshake a few people and then slide out the side door when others seem preoccupied?                                                                    

You may want to listen to yourself more…and, hey, check out that great smile of yours in the mirror once in awhile!

 302.933.0116 or 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!

Is There a Crack in Your

Business Liberty Bell?

Dear Ship Captain:

Maybe your people were never at liberty to learn how to hold on to customers when economic seas got rough? No, bungee cords are not the solution! Giving your people the freedom and incentive to learn is the solution. Why now when every penny counts? Because every customer counts! And the bigger the waves, the more widespread the sense of panic — for your customers and customer businesses as well as for your own.

Your customers may not be in the same boat 

. . . but they’re in the same boat!

This of course doesn’t apply if you’re working in a cushy, tax-dollar-supported government position — one of those newly-created jobs we hear about that are simply adding to our catestrophic national debt. (Sorry, had to get that dig in because, regardless of who did what to whom or who blames whom, the fact remains that those artificial “new jobs” are a large part of why things are the way they are.)

Bottom line is that you have to know that being in the same boat as your customers (and your neighboring and affiliated businesses) translates to the need for teamwork in order to survive in storms, and help ensure that every one’s rowing in the same direction. (You’ve seen the Olympic motivational poster: TEAM…Together Everyone Achieves More. It’s true in business too!)

What can you do about weathering this storm

beginning first thing Tuesday morning?

How can you take a firm foothold of quiet leadership? How can you promote and foster teamwork between your own unsteady business and your nervous or floundering customers who may be on the cusp of giving up their loyalty to you, in favor of less expensive products and services?

The first answer: SET AN EXAMPLE. Show your employees and your customers (and other businesses) how to lead your common interests out of the darkness. Sure you have a vote in November, but that’s 60 days away and, even with sweeping changes, it maybe another year before any entrepreneurial-job-creation relief surfaces. (This may help you get started: http://bit.ly/bo3ZJy)

The second answer: FIRST AID. Give your staff a “refresher” crash course on how to trip over yourself trying to delight every customer and every prospect. Keep reminding them to treat every business visit and contact the way they would want their closest family and friends to be treated. Make sure that “The Customer Is Always Right!” is not just a token expression.

Check out an A-1 classic customer service training video entitled “Give ’em the Pickle!” with Bob Farrell http://bit.ly/gD1b6

Develop an incentive planor program that rewards exceptional customer care efforts. Keep in mind that cash is not always the best or most sought-after reward. Read up on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs motivational theory; it works. Start with Net MBA:  http://bit.ly/mKk7D Scroll to “Implications for Management.”

The third answer: LONG-TERM CARE. There are many competent training organizations that specialize in customer service and customer relationship development and management that you can contract with for ongoing or quarterly session programs. Annual and semi-annual efforts are a waste of time and money. Here are two of the best resources to contact: 

Consider a customer-centric “Train the trainer” style leadership program from an organization like TBD Consulting (contact Jonena Relth) www.TBDConsulting.com for options that can bring your designated human resource person up to speed to be able to run ongoing in-house programs.

Another strong alternative –and one that can work independently or in concert with a program like Jonena’s– is Pro-Star (contact Meredith Bell) www.ProStarCoach.com –an exciting new way to provide every employee with their own individually customized computer skill development training and follow-up program, one that also allows for each participant to communicate regularly with her or his hand-picked skill development support team. 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or 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!

“BARNEGAT GIRL”

10/15/97 – 9/1/10   R.I.P.

We are in deep sadness for having lost a dear family member and great friend and companion today.

It’s never a good time for letting go. This is especially true for the one who’s been the loyalest, sweetest, and most fun-loving guardian of our lives for 13 years. But today, Barnegat was called to a higher place. Her body simply couldn’t survive her permanent puppy mindset any longer.

She was a trooper through and through. No animal on earth could possibly have had more heart than Barnegat Girl. She protected. She inspired. She mended fences. She stood tall in troubled waters. Her smile was real and contagious.

She loved the cold weather and making “dog-angel” imprints in the snow. When we brought her home, it was in one hand; she was the size of a football. Today, as she left us, her 95 pounds of upbeat spirit will live on.

Barnegat had taken us through three moves to three different homes in two different states and she outlived two wonderful male cocker spaniels “Sam” and “Tuckerton” who each thought she was their big sister.

Barnegat loved chasing baseballs and tennis balls and swimming in the ocean –even in the winter ice and snow.

She bounded at the slightest beckoning. And would rise to any occasion regardless of the circumstances.

The proof of her disposition was proven by hundreds of tugging, pulling children over the years that she would reward with licks again and again. 

Her travels took her to the mountains and the ocean coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and the mountains of Vermont, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, plus the coast and farmlands of Delaware . . . and –of course– untold lakes, rivers, streams, lagoons, and creeks all along the way. 

Yes, she was a “privileged child,” but never failed to earn her keep, or be loving and attentive to all who entered her life.

God Bless You, Barnegat Girl, and thank you for 13 years of unsolicited love and trust and the kind of friendship that all on Earth should strive to equal.

It’s lonesome under my desk . . . but YOU, sweet girl, will never be forgotten.    

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or 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!

Feuding Families,

Combative Couples,

Peeved Partners  and

Belligerent Boards

Constant arguing, bitter and mean-spirited discussions, “business infidelity,” resentment, continuous bickering and back-biting, breaking trust and undermining confidences, changing changes.

. . . I want out and it’s time to go!

Or, as the renown Scottish farmer/poet Robert Burns’ prophesied in 1786 with his “Ode To A Wee Mouse” in what may be the world’s most quoted and paraphrased bits of advice: “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” (often go awry, or wrong)   

                                                        

How can you continue with the financial problems? The Mission and Vision disagreements? Operational differences? Business expansion and “parenting” plans vs. consolidation?

Do your business and business relationships look increasingly fragile? Are partners distancing themselves? Does collapse seem imminent?

Divorce between married couples is now in the mainstream of American life, and unfortunately serves to set the table for acceptance at a business level. What else is a business partnership besides a marriage? And family business upheavals can be the worst of all because they frequently involve or contaminate marriage relationships that are the very underpinning of a business structure.   

And those who are caught in the middle typically suffer the most. In a couple marriage relationship, it’s the children. In a business partnership it’s the partner families, employees, employee families, investors, suppliers and vendors and last, but not least, the customers! Nor does the damage line always stop there. In many instances, a neighborhood, community, town, region, industry or profession can also be negatively affected.

Ways to patch things up:

Start with giving the other person or people involved the benefit of doubt. You got into this relationship because something was extremely positive. By re-focusing on whatever that was, you may find that existing differences can be easily reconciled. Isn’t it worth a try? Don’t you have a lot invested in each other? Wouldn’t it be easier to move the business forward if differences could be worked out than to simply part ways and have to start all over again?    

So here’s the plan:                             

• If you can get past that first step of thinking, sit down and write out on paper with a pen, a statement of agreement to seek to resolve differences. Each principal involved in the dissension climate must be willing to do this.

• Exchange copies of these statements without commenting or responding.

• Plan a follow-up Q&A clarification discussion the next day (no rebuttals permitted) to review one another’s comments.

• Plan an open discussion of the Q&A clarification discussion a week or so later.                                    

• Next, and again something all involved must be willing to do: write out one sentence on paper that identifies exactly what you identify as the most critical problem.

• Then each needs to write out clear specific improvements desired in the form of a goal statement that is specific, flexible, realistic, and has a due date. 

Or get professional counseling:

An “outside” consultant who is experienced and skilled in both business management and human relations can help each individual involved put her/his differences in writing, channel productive exchanges, and foster committed attitudes aimed toward working through the differences.

A professional can help set up a recovery path with a schedule for renewable  efforts, and a contingency exit plan that can serve to strike a balance and encourage renewed efforts to make things work. Many leadership training-based organizations can provide assistance in identifying and retaining qualified coach/counselors.

This is always a better solution-approach than slamming the door and walking out! And it just might work! 

 302.933.0116 or 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!

First and third OR

first and reverse?

Given the enviable place to have runners when you’re up (first base and third base), you might think tonight’s post is another baseball story, or first down and a reverse hand-off in football . . . Sorry, sports fans: This one’s about an unusual car, and your unusual business decisions . . . but that’s getting a step ahead; let’s get back to the car. 

I once had a choice of gear combinations for a car I was purchasing. I needed something to get back and forth to college, back and forth to work, and back and forth to parties (some things never change!). A friend of mine, Joe, had THE car for me!

It was an all-black 1954 Sunbeam Talbot 90. Now you may think that sounds like it should be on  the kitchen counter for blending your okra and lima bean smoothies, but it was a car — a classic luxury vehicle in England in its heyday.

It had a sunroof, leather interior, rumble seat, running boards along each side, a hidden pull-out bar in the back, fog lights, six hidden compartments, and barely a mark. It was only a few hundred dollars “because it had a little gear problem,” but “had to be seen,” Joe said. He was right. It was a dream car. Almost.

The “little gear problem” meant I would have to make a decision. I could have only first gear and third gear, OR only first gear and reverse gear. Hmmm. First and third meant revving the thing up to 20-25 mph (which sounded like a dozen weedwhackers in flight), and then quickly “pop” it into third gear (it had “Synchromesh” for gear shifting with some ease) and cruise along, having completely by-passed the missing second gear.

OR . . . I could have first gear and reverse gear – always a good thing, said Joe, in case I ever needed to back up! I asked about speed, but was advised that “something had to go” and I could only have one or the other. With first and reverse, I would of course be able to parallel park, and get out of sticky situations (a date’s driveway?) without having to get out and push.

I could floor it in first and get to the weed-whacker noise level, then pop it into neutral and coast to a crawl, then pop it back into first and floor it again, etc. I took first and reverse. My decision didn’t please a lot of other drivers, but I couldn’t imagine never needing to go backwards.

Has your business been forced to go backwards in this economy? Were you prepared for it? Were you barreling along going forward when you first saw the telltale signs of government incompetence rewarding big dumb companies for doing everything wrong instead of smart small businesses for doing things right? Did you have to shake your head like a wet dog? Are you still?

Decisions that plan for future disaster (building an underground bomb shelter, investing in emergency crank-up radios with every news item about increased awareness of terrorist “chatter,” taking a loss on eBay for your world series ticket options for the Cubs and the Mets) are not always the best to actually implement, but thinking through contingency arrangements is always a good thing.

Developing an exit strategy for a brand new business is like having a pre-nuptual agreement. It seems like a stupid negative influence at the moment of highest positive attitude. It flies in the face of gut instinct. But it is not a bad idea, and it will almost always be of primary concern to any person or entity who is investing in the new business. 

Leave your self and your business “wiggle room.” You may not need to build a bomb shelter, but you’d better know where to go  and when if the business/market/industry or profession you’re involved with, or your state/region/nation continues to step deeper into an economical abyss. Have a plan. Keep it in your pocket. But have one. You might need to back up a little some day. 

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

302.933.0116    Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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