What Kinds of Answers

Do You Give?

     I once had a boss who answered every question with a question. It became so predictable, I hardly ever asked him something without having all the backup information ready … I guess he was more savvy than I first imagined; and I learned from the annoyance factor alone.

     I had another boss who spouted out “Yes” or “No” (mostly “No”) as a response to everything asked of her. And if you tried to ask an open-ended question, she would tell you to rephrase the inquiry for a “Yes” or “No” response! Except for gaining some insight on the management style of a control freak, I never learned much of anything from her.

    When you answer some one’s question, do you elaborate on your thinking? By sharing your rationale, are you cultivating leadership or teamwork? Does this way of dealing with others take more time and effort? Absolutely. Is it worth it? Only you can say.

     The bottom line though would seem to be that when you have a business-vested or personal interest in the individual asking for your opinions, advice or decisions, you will probably be more interested in sharing the reasons behind your answers.

     So then along comes all the great psychological motivational gurus armed with studies which prove that those with whom time, patience and effort are spent will rise to the occasion and outperform those who are ignored or who are not taken so securely under the wing.

     Aha! Does that then mean if you explain yourself to some and not to others, you are exercising bias and perhaps precluding the potential success of those you simply snap at with your “Yes” or “No” verdicts?

     Short of sitting in some corner and chanting “Life is just one big manipulation operation and the chips need to fall where they may!” you might want to consider the following:

A snappy retort that’s not pointedly requested is an insult. It presumes the individual posing the question has no value and is not worthy of your time and energy.

Every question asked of you represents an opportunity to teach, and a chance to demonstrate leadership by example.

The way that you respond to questions is as important as your answer in the lineup of how others measure your leadership value, your trust, and your reputation.

Thoughtful questions and answers form the cornerstone to the building of employee loyalty and exceptional performance. And those qualities are the makings of innovative thinking, increased sales, heightened productivity, and a solid posture in the communities your business serves. 

……….Visit Hal’s Guest Blog Posts………. 

GOT A SICK WEBSITE?> @http://bit.ly/6iYe6g 

WHAT’S YOUR T-SHIRT SAY?> http://bit.ly/7K0s4a

 LEADERSHIP SEARCH?> 12/30 @http://bit.ly/XhN1h

 DOES NO BEAT MAYBE?> 1/6 @http://bit.ly/74qlG5

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Water, Sunshine, Fertilizer 

and Good Hard Listening!

     The most common report from thousands of employees (in hundreds of surveys done over the past 20 years) is that those who indicated they liked their supervisor all said something like:

“I like my boss. She listens to me.”

OR

“I like my boss. I can talk to him.”

      So maybe you don’t care about being liked? Then click off to some vampire/zombie site and be done with you. A little harsh? No, and do you know why? Because you should care.

     Because, even though management isn’t a popularity contest — and there’s surely some truth to the old saying that you don’t have to like someone to do business with him — reality dictates nonetheless that people who do like their bosses prove over and over that they are more responsive, more productive, and more loyal.

     Being liked comes from one place: mutual respect.

     Respect for others comes about most often from listening, not just hearing. Consider the following:

     During a hectic business day, it’s normal for your mind to wander when you’re listening to someone talk. Most people talk at a rate of 100-150 words per minute (double this if you’re a chimpanzee, a disk jockey, or a teenager). But we listen at the rate of 600-800 words per minute. In other words, our minds (those of us who still have them) are going at a rate about four times faster than someone is speaking.

     When you’re speaking, this speed difference works in your favor because it lets you think ahead. But when you’re listening, the speed difference breeds daydreaming and impatience.

     The ability to listen and observe aggressively — to really hear and see what someone is communicating has far greater business implications than simply gaining insight.

     In selling, there is no greater asset!

     Your employees and customers are constantly revealing themselves in ways that will go unnoticed unless you are aggressively involved in listening to them and observing them … instead of thinking about what you want to say and trying to figure out how to squeeze in your ideas.

     The statements people make about themselves— the signals they give off — are both conscious and unconscious (“body language” if you will), but understanding these signals enough to make some positive use of them depends entirely on your ability to pick up on them … to listen aggressively and to observe aggressively.

     Active listening requires practice, but it will help you get more from what people actually mean, which might be quite different from what they are saying. Oh, and you won’t daydream … there won’t be time for that when you’re busy listening and observing.

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

“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!

U B wearin 10 yrs?

(Where Will You Be In Ten Years?)

A long weekend with grandchildren beats two years of graduate school for practical small business development input education. It tops all the TV reality shows too! Assuming you can stop long enough to follow the latest WII~iPod~WiFi~Skype~Twitter~Facebook~Skiff~Kindle~YouTube APPS, you may have some sense of tech developments dragging business by the heels across the universe … but you don’t know Jack compared to most 8 year-olds!

• My 8 year-old granddaughter has her own website, illustrates and writes her own books, is into performance ice-skating, and plays on a girl’s basketball team.
• Her 14 year-old sister has her own weekly (sometimes daily) political blog, aspires to a Senate seat in 2026 as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court; she’s on a competitive synchronized ice-skating team.
• Their 12 year-old brother creates his own computer-designed amusement parks and roller coasters in between basketball and soccer team schedules and playing the trumpet in his school band. 

    Ho-hum, so do all kids today do that stuff. They’re all walking Googles with maniac time crunches. ~~~~RIGHT! AndYOU have kids in your life. And what are you learning from them besides that their lives are nothing like ours were when we were their ages. In fact, our existences have probably been closer to our parents’ existences than they’ve been to the lives of our own children … y’think?

     So where on Earth (or beyond) does that leave us with our world of small business when we take a step or two or three down the road apiece? Are we all tangled up in our past issues to the point of missing what’s happening now? Or — equally unhealthy — are we lost in future reveries to the point of missing what’s happening now?

     What keeps us centered and focused on the present? Young children, babies and puppy dogs all seem to possess that certain present, “here and now” sense of awareness, lack of inhibition, lack of preconceived notions or judgments, and — as a result — are able to think and create and innovate with reckless abandon!

     Take a lesson from them. Play on the floor, in the grass. Watch and listen. Let them lead; you follow. Ask and understand. What are they doing that can help you do a better job right now with what you’re doing? If you think that answer is something to sneer at, you may be having a problem with choosing your behavior. Maybe no one has let that be okay for you. Maybe you haven’t let it be okay for yourself! Why should you? Keep reading…

     So, here’s the kicker: Go to this link  http://bit.ly/Bb1Tw  now for 60 seconds; give up that adult resistance thing and put this “here and now” focus tool to work for yourself. Use it to pry open your business eyes and ears a little.

     I’m told by many that it’s changed their lives. Hey, and it’s free. Let me know how reckless you can let your thinking be with that one big problem that’s been making your business crazy. Go on. Tax your imagination. Start with this 60 seconds …   

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 LOOKING FOR LEADERSHIP? See Hal’s 12/30 Guest Blog Post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

 WONDERING WHEN NO is Better Than MAYBE? See Hal’s 1/6 Guest Blog Post in BonMot Communications’ Angelique Rewer’s FREE HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED e-zine www.thecorporatecommunicator.net 

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America runs on small business!

Small business runs on

competition.

Competition runs on sales.

     It’s beyond me why no one in government has yet to figure out this relationship, or be able to translate it into the two following, near-unanimous, conclusions by leading national and global experts:

Free market price competition, state-by-state, is the only workable answer to healthcare reform.

Small business sales success is the ticket to job creation, and job creation is the only workable answer to economic recovery.

     I can understand that most politicians have little or no experience in business, but I cannot understand why they so adamantly refuse to acknowledge the truth of the two statements cited above … why they simply cannot deal with the simplicity of each. 

     They have political agendas. Who cares about their political agendas? Do you know anyone who cares about their political agendas? Our economy and our healthcare reform plans are sitting deep in the bottom of the toilet because our elected officials have agendas for self-aggrandizement, self-promotion, and self-preservation.

     Last time I looked, these people lugging around their agendas were supposed to be representing the taxpayers who have hired them. Hmmm, now there’s a unique thought! Just imagine how much would be possible to achieve if elected officials were not preoccupied with protecting their own butts.

     Imagine if politicians actually served those who elected them, instead of pandering to the government agencies, big business entities, and union constituencies who trip over themselves clinging to elected (and bought) coattails, seeking stimulus money to bail out of the holes they’ve dug for themselves.  

     In fact, ask any group of small business owners, and they’ll tell you that that federal and state government leaders are misguided, ill-informed, inexperienced, and completely unrealistic. They are trying to appease small businesses with a ridiculous, unnecessarily and overly-complicated loan program that no small business owner has time to deal with. And who needs a loan now anyway? Why do tax-incentives have to be Rubix Cubes?

     Government is trying to ramrod an unwanted, unworkable, astronomically expensive healthcare reform program down the throats of small business owners, and simultaneously smokescreen the public into thinking it’s in every one’s best interest when it clearly is not.

     Maybe America’s government and corporate giants and unions do run on donuts and promises and paybacks, but America’s small businesses are fueled by genuine competition, authentic innovation and accountable sales. 

• Small business owners know how to reform healthcare with free market enterprise price competition.
• Small business owners know how to fix the broken industrial manufacturing and financial communities with value-adding and innovation instead of cash handouts.
• Small business owners know how to turn the economy around by creating jobs that big business cannot. And frankly, it sucks that the government flat out refuses to give small businesspeople the chance to do these things that government is incapable of achieving.

     Competition makes life work. Sales are both the heart and the fuel of business. And small business is the engine of our economy. Small business owners don’t talk about “downsizing” and “cashing in political chips” and “taking loans to pay loans.”

     Small business ownerstalk about “opportunity costs” and “cashflow” and “innovation” and “asking and listening to their customers.” They equate sports with their businesses and use competitive terms like: Slamdunk! Goal! Hole-in-one! Gamepoint! TKO! Touchdown! Grandslam! to describe their sales efforts!

     Which sounds healthier to you?

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Humility Beats Flattery

     Sure, it’s nice to give and receive flattering comments — when they’re sincere. Trouble is that truly genuine sincerity is about as rare as a flock of spotted owls landing on your Uncle Sid’s satellite dish.

     Humility, on the other hand, is internally driven and –by its very nature — never questioned for authenticity. Contrary to Hollywood’s overblown theatrics, humility is not a simply silent behavior that requires a reverently bowed head, hat-in-hand, innocently blinking eyes presentation. Humility is an active choice.

     Both words (humility and flattery) are over 700 years old.

     “Humility” at Dictionary.com is defined as the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or modest estimate of one’s own importance, rank, etc… humbleness.

     “Flattery” is defined as excessive, insincere praise; fawning; pandering.

     So how would you categorize the last time you exercised these behaviors in your dealings with associates? With employees? With Customers? Vendors and suppliers? Referrers? Within your industry or profession? Your community?

     What did each incident get you? I’m willing to bet the ranch that your humbleness outperformed your pandering in terms of triggering positive responses … 100% of the time! Would that be an accurate assessment?

     So what’s preventing you from choosing the winning behavior more often?

     The answer to that question is: YOU!

     It is an active and conscious choice to deal with others in a sincere or insincere manner.

     Choosing humility translates to giving genuine credit to where genuine credit is due, even when you may not like or agree with the source, and this especially applies to those who work for and with you.

     It also means being careful to not underestimate the performance capabilities or the sincerity of others, again especially of employees.

     How can you best accomplish these ends?

• By listening 80% of the time.

• By paraphrasing what you just heard, in your own words, and checking with the source to make sure you have a clear understanding of the other person’s thinking and intent, and that you’re not imposing your own bias into other’s ideas and suggestions.

• By asking for examples, to better clarify statements.

• By taking notes so you can

  • Sleep on it when time allows

  • Recover where you left off when you get interrupted (which can sometimes last hours or days)

  • Accurately reflect other’s comments and credit them appropriately

  • Build others’ self-esteem; when you jot down notes of their comments (and, by the way, directly ask them to slow down so you can keep accurate notes), you are quietly saying that you value and appreciate others and their ideas.              

Bottom LIne: 

Don’t think that because you may already have a successful business, that you have all the answers. Odds are you may simply have been lucky to get to where you are, and that you really don’t have ANY answers.

Regardless of what you believe, you and your business can only stand to benefit by listening carefully — and with a strong sense of humility — to what those who surround you have to say. My best guess is that you’ll surprise yourself!

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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!

 The birds and the bees and

the geese and the trees all

communicate better than

you!

At least, that’s what the odds are. They all spend their lives at communicating. You probably spend yours energizing your business, and not giving a whole lot of thought to keeping those around you informed or engaged in dialogue any more than you think you need to, right?

Ah, but energizing your communications is the highest form of energizing your business.

Well, even if this assessment is only partly right, it still means you are completely wrong. Sorry for the hard line here but I don’t imagine you’ll get much tough talk from those who work for you, or from your mother or your dog. And a good swift kick in the butt can sometimes get the head in gear if you know what I mean.

Are you communicating too little to your associates and staff? (Do they tilt their heads and squint a lot?) Or perhaps you tell them too much? (Do they nod politely and look at their watches a lot? Pull up the sidewalks and get outta Dodge if they start listening to their watches!)

Or do you communicate just the right amount? How can you know what the right amount is? (Do your people sit up or lean forward and ask questions? Do they take notes? Do they ask for examples? Do they repeat what you said to make sure they’ve got it right?

HA! Do YOU do these things?

How often do you engage those around you in real heart-to-heart business discussions? Do you directly ask for their opinions, and actually l~i~s~t~e~n to their responses?

Did you realize that MBWA (Management By Walking Around) is still considered the approach of preference for most successful owners, operators, managers, and virtually all entrepreneurial leaders? People like to have you visit their work sites and talk with them about what they’re doing.

When you can do this every day, you are helping ensure greater attention to detail and pride of workmanship. Plus you can leave when you want to, and it’s  good exercise. It will keep you in touch with what’s going on in your business day to day, and will even discourage time-wasting activities.

Have you thought lately about the direct relationship between taking your people into your confidence and the boost it gives their self-esteem to know that you (their surrogate parent) regard them highly enough to confide in them, to ask their opinions?

Did you know that every time you help boost an associate or employee’s self-esteem, you are also helping to build her or his self-confidence, and that — all by itself — can produce increases in both productivity and sales?

Like the most effective rewards, communications are best delivered frequently and in small energetic doses … “bursts,” if you will. Remember you want what you say to be contagious because motivated employees who feel they are making a worthwhile contribution will outperform your expectations (and your competitors!) every time.

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   Hal@Businessworks.US   931.854.0474

  Open Minds Open Doors 

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

Kiss Staff Infections Bye-Bye!

     By now, all of us know, or have heard (or we believe instinctively) that the majority of hospital deaths are the result of complications compounded or initiated by staph infections. These can be traced back to caregiver professionals and support staff not properly and frequently enough washing their hands. 

     Who woulda thunk it?  Such a simple thing.

     Well, not only is it true, but I believe it’s even truer (though never researched) in business.  It’s no secret that the majority of business failures, corrupted products and ineffective misguided staffs and services come from poor management. 

     Management (even when it’s more task than people-oriented) is all about interfacing, interacting, and encountering.  It’s about keeping a clear and receptive mindset.  Open doors open minds! SO WASH YOUR HANDS!  

     Now I’m not talking about hot water, soap, scrubbing and towel drying.  I’m talking about:

1. Closing your eyes for just 10 seconds (perhaps 5 if you’re telemarketing, and not at all if you’re driving!) before and after every customer/employee/vendor/investor encounter,
2. Taking a deep breath http://bit.ly/Bb1Tw (to focus and maintain blood pressure) and
3. Mentally (imagining yourself) washing your hands, like a doctor between examinations. 

     For many who try or maintain this practice, it helps to go through a 2-3 second physical action of briskly rubbing your hands together.  The action sends a reinforcing mental message to your brain.

     Do it before and after EVERY meeting, conference, phone call, email, letter, overnight delivery, and text message exchange, you are after all being a doctor, aren’t you? 

     You ARE examining, aren’t you? 

     You ARE listening, exploring, considering, assessing, recommending, deciding, weighing, evaluating, checking and re-checking, sizing up, assuring and reassuring, projecting, planning, strategizing, and predicting, aren’t you?

     And what happens to your brain when you’re on the fly and go straight from one encounter to another without –it sometimes seems– even breathing?  Go on, answer this last question.  I’ll wait.  Okay, and how does that stress translate to your body? 

     Headaches, backaches, toothaches, stiff neck, upset stomach, constipation, diarrhea, short temper, edginess, leg cramps, burning eyes, skin rash, urinary infection, or worse — cancer, heart problems?  Bottom line: is it worth it? 

     TRY THIS 10-SECOND APPROACH for just one week –January, 2010, is a perfect test period.  Try it and see what happens. 

     Here’s what you’ll get:  IF you’re honest with yourself and IF you actually follow the prescription, you will be more tuned in to each person you communicate with; you will be noticeably more productive; you will GUARANTEED feel better – mentally, physically, and emotionally; you will more positively affect others around you. 

     Put “WASH YOUR HANDS” reminder notes on a sign over your desk, stuck to your phone and computer screen.  Ask a co-worker, friend or associate to ask you: “Did you wash your hands?” before and after you turn a doorknob, before and after you lift and replace your phone, start or end your meeting . . . improvise here; just keep making the effort. 

     You will, I promise, astound yourself! 

More on 2010 “LEADERSHIP”? Come visit me and comment on my Guest Blog post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

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“Consumers are statistics.

  Customers are PEOPLE.”

–Stanley Marcus, Chairman Emeritus, Neiman-Marcus 

     In case somewhere between the thin divider line between 2009 and 2010, you might have lost sight of what’s important and instrumental to boosting business in these bleak economic times, I give you (Ta-ta-ta—-ta-ta!) the CUSTOMER!

     Former Ford Truck Operations Gen. Mgr. E.P.Williams is quoted in Tom Peters and Nancy Austin’s book, A Passion for Excellence, as saying:

We must always think the customer is in the middle of the thrust of what we’re trying to do.”

     Does that apply to small business too? Absolutely! Does it matter what kind of business you have or how old or new it is? Absolutely not!

     The challenge then is not in thinking, “How do we make more money?” It is in thinking (and acting on) “How do we get and keep more customers?” OR “How can we do a better job of providing the products and services that will attract more new customers and more return customers?”

     We already know that people buy benefits, not features. We already know that people buy products and services because of an emotionally-triggered buying motive (not a logical, rational, unemotional one!). We already know that every behavior (including buying motives) is a choice.

     And we already know if you’re reading this, you probably own or operate your own business or manage one, or part of one and/or that you’re an entrepreneur … so LEADERSHIP is also important to you.

     If you could lead the business or part of business that you’re responsible for into an ongoing, daily pattern of catering to customers and prospects with innovative new and value-added products and services that provide genuine benefits, wouldn’t that be a great beginning?

     If you could do that, you need only find a great writer/marketer (not just a marketing writer, mind you; there’s a big difference!) who has a proven track-record for triggering emotional buying motives and helping to attract the kinds of new and repeat customers you want. 

     Well, here’s the good news: You CAN do all that. It’s easier than you think. It means not accepting that the economy is a hovering doom. It means having the courage to cast off the past and the constraints that mindless politicians continue to force on small business.

     It means taking the road less traveled. This is not just empty talk, or hype. This is reality.

     If you’re serious about your customers, listen to them … and lighten up. Then watch what happens.  

More on 2010 “LEADERSHIP”? Come visit me and comment on my Guest Blog post at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site http://bit.ly/XhN1h

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The best “CHANGE” message 

Pity all you want, but

nothing happens ’til you’ve

put yourself in other’s shoes.

     Okay, you’re a leader. You own and/or operate and/or manage a business, or part of one (or you’re a sales professional, which is essentially the same thing!). You need to wear many hats, day to day, and probably one of the most difficult of these to keep balanced on your head (and for most leaders) is the one that dictates your role when serious, draining emotional problems arise.

     Odds are you have no training as a shrink or you would be one, and it’s bad enough being constantly looked upon by others who think of you (and sometimes openly treat you) as a surrogate parent … then along comes tragedy, or calamity, or personal, or family, or community, or even a company upset or grief period.

     And it’s often hard to know how to respond.

     First of all, respond. When you can respond instead of react, you can never over-react, and you will more likely than not help others to also respond instead of react too. That’s a good thing. HOW do you make that happen? First recognize that responding instead of reacting (like all behavior) is a choice! Next, try:  http://bit.ly/Bb1Tw 

     When you can focus your response energy on empathy and being empathetic (which the dictionary defines as “understanding and sharing the feelings of others”), you can help yourself and others to be immensely relieved, productive, positive, and motivating.

     When you focus instead on sympathy and being sympathetic (which the dictionary defines as “feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune”), it’s rare to experience an outcome that’s anything more than one that has simply piled on more pity and sorrow.

     We need only to turn to what’s probably the greatest exampleof our lifetimes — in the defining behavior, for example, exercised by “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani after the infamous terrorist attacks of “9/11” — for inspiration and a lesson in the values of using empathy in leadership. His ability to put himself in other’s shoes, and to help a panicked nation be there with him by virtue of his acts and words, sprouted calm and order and honor and harmony from the chaos.

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