HOW DISTRACTED

IS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Surprising 2009 statistics from a notable professional association:

• Average work time since 1999 has increased 20%
• 75% of managers work more than 40 hours per week and must manage 600% more information than 20 years ago
• Professionals average at least 10 hours per week in meetings
• Employees spend 18 hours a week dealing with interruptions
• The US Postal Service processed 203 billion pieces of mail in 2008 (That’s 7,700 pieces each second!)

Sounds like a lot, right? Now contrast that with these two findings:

1.  The Radicati Group found that the number of emails sent PER DAY in 2008 was near 210 billion
2.  CTIA reports Americans sent more than 1 trillion text messages in 2008                                                                                                                                                       And research conducted by the ePolicy Institute found that employees spend as much as 20% of their workday reading and responding to email.

 THE BOTTOM LINE?  Today’s audience is starved for time and inundated with information. If you want your message to cut through the clutter, it must be relevant, timely and creative.

Reprinted from The Corporate Communicator, a free e-zine dedicated to helping professionals communicate more effectively with employees, customers and the media. To get the latest industry news, research and best practices at your fingertips, order a FREE subscription at http://www.thecorporatecommunicator.net

     So what does this mean for the “average” small business owner? Odds are you’ll need to go “outside” yourself and your organization to find a proven and experienced talent capable of understanding your business and your market and your customers and your message.

     It’s generally best to avoid formal “Ad Agencies” or “Marketing Agencies” because they are more likely to pursue industry recognition awards than sales for your company. Be especially hesitant of those that call themselves “full service” unless you have Fortune 500-level budgets to dispose of. 

     Second, ad agencies and marketing agencies (NOTE that many of these now call themselves “Groups” to escape the high-price stigma) are likely to charge excessive fees.

     Their norm is to charge you 15% of all media costs (broadcast time and print publication space and Internet banner fees) they book for you (which of course you can “book” for yourself to bypass that “agency commission.”

     …PLUS 17.65% of all production costs (which include costs of illustrations, photography, printing, studio production, editing, graphic design, list rentals…you name it!)

     …PLUS other fees that are rarely evident until the moment something is needed to be finalized. Don’t you love financial surprises?

     This translates to : SHOP AROUND! There are plenty of good, qualified, experienced freelance writers and small one-man-band and one-woman-band businesses that can provide far better quality creative sales writing and design services for far less money than the big city slicker organizations!

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Input aways welcome: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in    subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  

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Get this blog FREE by list-protected email: click “Posts RSS Feed” (center column)…or pay $1.99/month on AMAZON Kindle. FEEL CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the 305-day “7-Word Story” (center col.). New Hal Alpiar short story Sept. release book from Nightengale Press: THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING…$19.95 ($24.95 CAD) @ Barnes & Noble, OR order special (signed by Hal) pre-publication @$18.95+s&h [$22.45 total check only), payable to: TheWriterWorks.com, LLC. @PO Box 1236, Millsboro, DE 19966. Include ship-to address (mainland US only).  SEPT. 13th IS GRANDPARENT’S DAY! [Details via Blogroll link @ right]

Economic Tsunami?

 Don’t fight it. Float on it!

     There’s no doubt about it, financial stress can overwhelm even the best of business leaders. It takes an unwavering, cock-sure, impenetrable. positive attitude to stand tall while the walls are crumbling.

     Every business owner has been there. Some are getting it for the first time thanks to the economic environment, and–for those–the experience is numbing. How can it be? I’ve worked so hard. We deserve better than this?

     Probably true, but reality dictates that it doesn’t matter. Reality can be awfully cruel and horribly harsh, but reality is where we have to live if we are ever to turn things around. Fantasy is where the losers go.

     First and foremost, when the economic tsunami strikes your business, stop worrying about arranging the beach chairs. Get on anything that floats and plan to ride it out. Focus every waking moment’s energy on where you are, not where you’re going, or even worse, if you’ll get there.

     The more you pay attention to anticipating the other shoe drop, the more you are diverting productive energy and resources away from the places they are most required to ride out the storm, to innovate, to create new revenue streams, to smack yourself in the side of the head and start thinking in new ways.

     The more you worry about the other shoe, the less time, attention, effort, energy and positive forward motion you’ll have available to activate. This will result in the other shoe finding it’s way to thump on your ceiling lickity-split! 

      STOP draining your resources and energy with worry about future fantasy (It’s not here yet, and may never come). STOP draining your strength with dwelling on past screw-ups and who did what to whom (It’s over and past and there’s NOTHING you can do to change it).

START TUNING IN TO THE PRESENT HERE-AND-NOW MOMENT, EVERY PASSING MOMENT, AS MUCH AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN. IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE PRESENT. LEARN FROM BABIES AND PUPPIES. 

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Hal@TheWriterWorks.com or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you!

 When “Not Enough”

is “Too Much”

and “Too Much”

is “Not Enough”!

     Partnerships are seldom what many think they are. People without business experience think of two tough guys who both have their shoulders to the wheel and are pushing their business enterprise forward with equal effort and dedication. Reality check: Doesn’t happen!

     First of all, based on firsthand exposure to many hundreds of partnerships — professional as well as menial, glamorous as well as boring, and adversarial as well as loving, business partners are more often than not opposites in personality, financial stability, educational background, and often age.

[“Family Partnerships” will be explored separately in an upcoming blog post]

     In my experience, it’s unusual when partners actually like each other (including many who also share marriage or significant-other relationships), but they almost inevitably defend one another to outsiders.

     Doctors, incidentally, do this instinctively, and will (unlike “HOUSE” and “ER” and “Grey’s Anatomy”) rarely if ever turn on one another when the chips are down, even when one knows the other is wrong. That’s doctors.

     It’s their job to further the causes of humanity and of those who share the Hippocratic Oath. They’ll whine and complain and throw scalpels, but if it’s really called for, they’ll often take one for the team. 

     Lawyers, on the other hand, will almost always –given the choice– go for the throat. It’s their job to be adversarial. The minute they befriend another lawyer, they’ll end up suddenly facing one another in the courtroom the next morning. They may be entertaining as golfers, but stay alert; they don’t always yell FORE!

     Enough of these big money guys. Let’s focus on the down-in-the-trenches partners who run physical labor businesses, or who provide services FOR the doctors and lawyers, or who came together because they both (or more than two) hated the stagnant company or boss they worked for, and one or both or more had a better idea.

     Not pulling enough weight–responsibility–is often too much mentally, physically, emotionally for the partner(s) who carry(ies) the lion’s share (finances, work hours, productivity, sales, customer service, product/service development, etc.).

     The lack of shared commitment or workload easily ends up taxing the relationship(s) beyond where either is (any are) comfortable. You can imagine where things go from there.

     Pulling too much too fast is just as bad.

     Is this any different than how you treat your body? What’s missing in these examples? Balance? Ah, balance. That elusive, invisible, intangible quality that keeps us all sane…or at least a quart or two short of lunacy.

     Without balance, our bodies go into negative stress overload and produce illness, accidents, and death. Without balance, our families become distant and dysfunctional. Without balance, business partners march to different drummers and businesses literally fall apart at the seams.

     So, what can we do to short-circuit lack of balance from taking its toll? Start with ourselves. Figure out where we are so can get a better idea of where we’re going. Decide if where we’re going is where we want (or need, in order to survive) to go.

     Communicate about these ideas to family and friends AND to partners. AND LISTEN! Partners may hate one another, but they share mutual investments in one another and that counts for something. Relationship history alone dictates the need for open discussion with set (not hidden) agendas.

Balance only comes when you can put one foot in front of the other and focus on each step instead of the finish line. 

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Input aways welcome: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in    subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  

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Get this blog FREE by list-protected email: click “Posts RSS Feed” (center column)…or pay $1.99/month on AMAZON Kindle. FEEL CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the 303-day “7-Word Story” (center col.). New Hal Alpiar short story Sept. release book from Nightengale Press: THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING…$19.95 ($24.95 CAD) @ Barnes & Noble, OR order special (signed by Hal) pre-publication @$18.95+s&h [$22.45 total check only), payable to: TheWriterWorks.com, LLC. @PO Box 1236, Millsboro, DE 19966. Include ship-to address (mainland US only).  SEPT. 13th IS GRANDPARENT’S DAY! [Details via Blogroll link @ right]

Obama, Hallmark, Rush,

airlines, surgeons, tourism!

     What do Obama, Hallmark Cards, all of the airlines, Rush Limbaugh, plastic surgeons and tourism councils all have in common? Whoa! Now that’s a question and a half, right? I mean what could such a collection of diverse interests possibly have in common?

     They paint pictures with words and sell them from a stage that’s literally dripping with seduction. And of course there are others. I just picked these because they’re such unlikely bed partners. Okay, here we go. Follow along. Yes, if sales are important to you, there IS a valuable lesson here.

     It’s not too big of a stretch to see how the traditional approach to schmaltz-layering, that Hallmark has so wisely (and effectively) invested of itself over the years, has rung up spectacular success. Here’s a business that makes bigger profits than bagels.

     The company buys up a zillion tons of paper, much of it scrap, folds it into four zillion tons of little envelopes and message cards, prints a few mushy words on the cards and sells the card and envelope for $5 each or thereabouts, times four zillion! 

     What’s the value enhancement? The messages they put in these cards appeal to our psyches. They seduce our egos. What did Obama do to get elected? The same thing. What’s he trying to do now with his go-for-broke healthcare fantasies? The same thing. 

     What do the airlines sell? The seat and space you are actually renting and the transporting expertise to get you where you’re going? Are you kidding? They sell you the destination! They sell you smiling hand-holding couples skipping through the surf, cliff divers in Mexico, pubs in Ireland, koala bears in New Zealand.

     Plastic surgeons selling elective procedures present us with(carefully air-brushed) photos of the killer bathing suit-clad model that we all could no doubt be. We know we could be because the word description with the picture tells us that just a few little nips and tucks here and there can give us the same results. No mention of course of the anesthesia and procedural risks, the recovery sacrifices, the expenses. 

     Rush Limbaugh sells us concepts; he’s a genius at seducing our brain frustration centers by painting verbal pictures of how good it can be if we simply think and act more conservatively, more fiscally responsible and more respectfully of the vigilence that gives us our freedoms and the values that give us our American heritage. (Now THERE’S a unique thought!)

     Island resorts: “Ooooh, let’s get together and feel alright…” Regardless of the location or message, you can be sure they’ll be nothing about the expenses, the lousy transportation, the pricey rooms and meals, the bad water, the pickpockets, the badgering street vendors, or any of the other lovely amenities you only learn about too late or sometime after your psyche has been sold. 

Selling the psyche requires you to paint pictures with words because the right word…is worth a thousand pictures!

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Input aways welcome: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in    subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  

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Get this blog FREE by list-protected email: click “Posts RSS Feed” (center column)…or pay $1.99/month on AMAZON Kindle. FEELING CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the 300-day “7-Word Story” (center column). A new Hal Alpiar short story is coming in September in a new book from Nightengale Press: THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING…soon at Barnes & Noble @ $19.95 ($24.95 CAD), OR order special (signed by Hal) pre-publication price @ $18.95 plus $3.50 s&h [$22.45 total check only), payable to: TheWriterWorks.com. LLC. and mail to POBox 1236, Millsboro, DE 19966. Include ship-to (U.S. only) address.  REMEMBER SEPTEMBER 13th IS GRANDPARENT’S DAY! 

2nd only to the government,

big business gets an F

All of us who own and operate or manage a small or medium sized business know that the world’s most incompetent excuses for “businesspeople” reside in dark, damp little squirrel holes of government and academia buildings. They are the poster boys and girls for business stupidity.

But right after these poor ignorant, unrealistic souls, maybe not even a full rung lower on the ladder, are the braindead, money-wasting corporate executives who spend half their lives in limos, cabs, commuter train barcars, business class airline seats, and fancy restaurants.

These are the hot-shot 9 to 5 executives who travel better, eat and drink better and live better, higher-income lifestyles than either the government doo-dahs or the academic muckity-mucks.

But that doesn’t make them smart, or productive, or successful.

Most of them are none of those.

It simply makes them people who don’t have what it takes to start and build and grow their own business ventures, but who are not quite as stupid as those who work for those who get elected.

They are also a hair more savvy than those who merely pretend to know what it’s all about, and who instead of doing, end up teaching young people how to do and not do the things they themselves don’t know how to do and not do.

It’s interesting to me, by the way, that so many of these corporate suits seem to think they are Henry Ford’s and Bill Gates’s and Mary Kay’s when they get anywhere near a calculator or Excel spreadsheet.

Reality is that this country is in dire economic straits today because of corporate mentalities that STILL don’t get it, that STILL are unproductive, that STILL squander taxpayer (and stockholder) money left and right. (Actually, I have fresh evidence from today, if anyone’s interested in details.)

What’s wrong with all this is not just the consequences of incompetence but the systems that breed it: educational institutions, government agencies, and Fortune 500 corporations.

How do I know this? Before spending most of my career as a small business owner/operator, I was a college professor, a government employee and a Fortune 500 executive. That’s like the been there, done that thing.

Thankfully, I saw early on that none of these (academia, government, corporate) paths held out any promise of a successful life journey for anyone with energy and ambition and common sense and basic business instincts.

And here’s what I conclude: 

. . . when we can ween ourselves from societal dependence on misguided government, fantasyworld academia, and thieving corporate America . . . and put wind behind the sails of small business . . . only then, will we turn this ship around! 

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 Hal@TheWriterWorks.com or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. 

Go for your goals, good night and God bless you!  

Are you professional, or

are you A professional?

     Many people are professional in mind, body, spirit and/or the ways they conduct themselves at work as employees of businesses that sell products and multi-provider services.

     For those who fit this description, congratulations, but you should probably hit the road here because –tonight– I am only interested in the other kinds of professionals… those who have nothing to sell except their personal knowledge and/or skill services.

     You know who you are because you’re still reading.

     You are a self-employed one-man-band or one woman-band.

You are a sole-practitionerdoctor, dentist, chiropractor, nurse practitioner, writer, painter, craftsperson, psychologist, designer, photographer, illustrator, teacher, consultant, lawyer, accountant, architect, “middleman” agent (individual insurance and real estate folks, for example), athlete, coach, massage therapist, physical therapist, speech pathologist, occupational therapist, musician, entertainer, computer guru. More? I’m sure I missed a few.  

     Here’s the economy deal we (I am a writer/consultant) are all struggling with:

• None of us have a warehouse full of products or, in fact, any inventory; None of us have a string of partners or bank of phone or computer operators.
• We can’t wake up, go to bed, or eat lunch with the rest of the world. Most of us work evenings and weekends. Sick days? Vacations? Huh?
• There is just so much of each of us to go around, and to make the most of on any given day, so the issue is not so much the economy as it is productivity. Is this ringing any bells?
• Productivity reduces itself to how we make the most of our time. Time management is an essential skill. Prioritizing is an essential skill. Money management is an essential skill. Creating new revenue streams is part of that.
• And, of course, stress management may be the most important of all skills because it allows us to do or prohibits us from doing all the rest.

     If you’re trapped in this vicious circle of having no time for time management, and too much stress for stress management, and you’re wound up trying to get water from a stone, STOP already! Take inventory of your SELF!

     It’s really okay to step back for 5 minutes of your life and think about where you are and where you’re going. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Start by taking some deep breaths:   http://halalpiar.com/2009/05/4-steps-in-one-minute-zero-stress/  [This 4-step, ONE-MINUTE technique works!]

     Good! Now, go look in the mirror, ANY mirror. If you are satisfied with what you see, get back to work, thank you for your time, and goodnight.

     If you don’t like the face staring back at you:  1) Start MAKING time for time management by tuning into priorities and asking for help (with anything you can ask someone for) to take away some of the time-eaters. 2)  WORK at your breathing until it’s not work!  3) Eliminate excuses.  4) Do it now! 5) Remember that your behavior is your choice.

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Input aways welcome: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in    subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  

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Get this blog FREE by list-protected email: click “Posts RSS Feed” (center column)…or pay $1.99/month on AMAZON Kindle. FEELING CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the 299-day “7-Word Story” (center column). A new Hal Alpiar short story is coming in September in a new book from Nightengale Press: THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING…soon at Barnes & Noble @ $19.95 ($24.95 CAD), OR order special (signed by Hal) pre-publication price @ $18.95 plus $3.50 s&h [$22.45 total check only), payable to: TheWriterWorks.com. LLC. and mail to POBox 1236, Millsboro, DE 19966. Include ship-to (U.S. only) address.  REMEMBER SEPTEMBER 13th IS GRANDPARENT’S DAY! 

SELF-EMPLOYED?

Defragment and

give your SELF a

stimulus package!

     There’s plenty of unused storage space in your mind, believe me. Even if it’s just a little teeny bit true that Einstein supposedly only used about 10% of his total brain capacity, where does that leave the rest of us? I mean, give that about 27 or 28 seconds of think time right now.

     Think about all that extra (empty?) space in your brain that’s available to put to work. Leave it plugged in tonight and just click on accessories> defragment. By the morning, VOILA! You’ll be ready for anything.

     Maybe we should sort out who’s working where first. That way, when you’re all freshly defragmented, you’ll be in a position to make more of what you’ve got, or jump into something different.

     If you work for a big company, raise your hand and leave the room. If you work for someone else in a small company or you work for an organization of some type, or you’re in school learning how to work for somebody else…or you don’t work (Wow! What’s thatlike?), you’re probably not reading any of this anyway because you’re too busy surfing FaceBook.

This now leaves us with the heart of the businessworld: YOU!

    You run and/or own and/or manage a business,

OR you are self-employed.

     Oh, there’s that nasty hyphenated word again: self-employed. This simply means that you run AND own AND manage a business. I love you for that…but don’t get yourself worked up over my affection because what do I know?

     Federal and state government leaders don’t think you count.

     Obviously they haven’t a clue about how Apple and Microsoft got started in garages by self-employed geniuses. Anyway, don’t hold your breath waiting for some kind of  stimulus package since “self-employed” doesn’t count as a small business in government circles.

     I saw a handful of governor-conference-attending governors on CSPAN last night, including I am sorry to say, Delaware Governor Jack Markell who clearly doesn’t get it…who thinks his small business job creation plan to help established small businesses get bigger is going to have big economic impact.

     Sorry Jack. You need to get real, and talk with (LISTEN TO) some of Delaware’s thousands of self-employed small businesses –the ones that are NOT established, that are struggling to get established to see what they need to get up to 3 or 4 or 11 or 25 employees…and TIP: it’s not more loans!

     Making stimulus package room for startups and struggling self-employed is like making disk space by defragmenting. Clear out the junk, the spam, the space-wasters.

     You see what I’m saying here about brain capacity?  Defragmenting cleans up your harddrive. The same concept will clean up your brain, and help you focus on how to be more productive with your time and energy.

     You can be sure of not getting government support, so what can you be sure of? Your SELF! And how do you make that start to work for you? The same ways that Messrs. Jobs and Gates made their one-man-band garage ventures start to work for them.

     They made the choice. They worked hard at their ideas. They didn’t give up when things looked bleak. They didn’t worry about stimulus packages. They put their heads down and charged. You can do that too! Start tomorrow morning…after you defragment tonight!     

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Input aways welcome: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in    subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  

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Get this blog FREE by list-protected email: click “Posts RSS Feed” (center column)…or pay $1.99/month on AMAZON Kindle. FEELING CREATIVE? Add your own 7 words to the 297-day “7-Word Story” (center column). A new Hal Alpiar short story is coming in September in a new book from Nightengale Press: THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING…soon at Barnes & Noble @ $19.95 ($24.95 CAD), OR order special (signed by Hal) pre-publication @ $18.95 plus $3.50 s&h [$22.45 total check only), payable to: TheWriterWorks.com. LLC. and mail to POBox 1236, Millsboro, DE 19966. Include ship-to (U.S. only) address.  REMEMBER SEPTEMBER 13th IS GRANDPARENT’S DAY! 

 Turn up the heat, Mr. Biden!

I’ve been ranting and raving here for over a year that small business has proven time and again that it represents the one and only solution to our continually sinking economy. And just because the temperature hit 94 here today doesn’t mean it’s time to turn down the heat.

     Mr. Biden, you told us this week to “Just look around” and check out the great economic recovery in full swing. Uh, and you’re looking where?

     Mr. Biden, America is emphatically NOT on the rebound track that you have the chutzpah to be delivering sound bites on. You’re flat out wrong about the picture you’re trying to paint of booming job creation scenarios and an economic turn-around that’s rushing us back into high-roller high times.

     It’s simply not true, Mr. Biden, and you know that it’s not. Period.

     In fact, if you’ll pardon my brashness, Sir, perhaps you could better be using the influence of your position to develop some MEANINGFUL small business job creation incentives that go beyond the empty, token proclamations of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

     The SBA is so out-of-touch with reality that it hasn’t had a clue about the trials, tribulations, challenges, and opportunities of small business since the day it was founded. Their latest “incentive” plans prove it!

     I served two consecutive 2-year federal appointment terms on what’s been called the country’s most important SBA regional advisory council (NY/NJ/CT and the USVI. I resigned because the two dozen membership seats were filled with major corporate executives. I and one other member were the only ones who owned and operated small businesses. The job of representing and cultivating small business interests was not getting done.

     It is not getting done now. You are not getting it done. Why have you not surrounded yourself with small business owners, and immersed yourself in the process of their day-to-day existences?

     Do you think that walking through a diner and glad-handing the employees is giving you some great small business insight, or that it’s endearing you to or helping small business?

     Do you think there is some other answer to our economic catastrophes outside the province of small business? I’d love to hear that answer.

     It is waaaaay past time to get involved with the only hope that remains: small business! Do it now. Roll up those white sleeves and get yourself in the trenches.

     Visit the farmers in your own State! Listen to the retailers who are suffering through low tourism. Meet with struggling automotive dealerships who have been thrown under the bus by the same automakers your boss is rewarding for their screw-ups by passing out truckloads of tax dollars in a feeble, misguided attempt at business management.

     When you’re put in charge of running what is arguably the world’s biggest business and you have no business or management experience, and you can easily see that small business  job creation is what turns around economies, why do you bury your head in the sand?

     Why do you choose paths of arrogance and abstinence instead of humility and outreach to bring in the experts. No one knows business like  small business owners. Listen to them. Act on their behalf. Help them create REAL new jobs.     

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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!

Snap your suspenders too hard,

and your pants’ll fall down!

     Every minute of every hour of every day, human beings are making mistakes. Many of these happen at work. The workplace sometimes seems to breed screw-ups! Have you noticed a few in your life? Just here and there of course.

     Well, you may say as you sit back and snap your suspenders, “Ya win some, ya lose some, and some get rained out, but there’s always another ballgame!” Yup. And there’s always another screw-up!

     Now, let’s talk “mistake” vs. “person” for a minute. Either and/or both can be legitimately referred to as “screw-ups,” so it’s often the situation that technically dictates what we mean by the term.

     Oh, right, people we might designate as “screw-ups” are probably the most likely ones to commit the evil errors that cost them their reputations, but so what? In the end, when the deed is done, and damage assessments are rolling in, what’s the difference who did what to whom?

     Getting squared away, you say, returning to normal (whatever that is) is what really matters. That’s certainly a bell-ringer statement, but guess what? It DOES make a difference who did what to whom because knowing the answer sets the table for everyone else to learn something important.

     The standard screw-up who screws up sweeps (shovels?) the screw-up under the rug, slinks off into dark shadows and –once convinced of escaping unscathed– whistles her or his way to lunch hour or the time clock or into commuter rush hour.

     Hmmm, ever see anyone whistling in standstill traffic? Figure it could only mean a screw-up has taken place (or perchance some other type of event has occurred that we shy away from discussing here since loving grandchildren sometimes visit!).  

     Well, here’s the bottom line: Screw-ups are a good thing if they are part of a genuine effort to advance your business, if they can be learned from, AND if the circumstances can be openly shared with everyone else in your business!

     Hey, no way! Sounds nice, says you, still suspender-snapping away, but people don’t own up to mistakes. Well, if that’s the conduct code in your business, you may be actively investing in your own demise as screw-ups get bigger, have greater impact, and are more surreptitiously dispensed with.

     When’s the last time you got away with something you shouldn’t have? Do you really want your business mission wrapped around sneakiness?

I hope that wasn’t you that just tip-toe away from your screen?

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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! 

Food-for-thought

thoughts . . . 

on leadership.

What are yours?

     “Making the right choices,” says America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani, “is the most important part of leadership. Every other element–from developing and communicating ideas to surrounding oneself with great people–relies on making good decisions.”

     “Humans,” says Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan, “are the only species on earth that will follow a totally unbalanced, unstable leader.” He goes on to say that “Balance comes from all four parts of ourselves–intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and instinctual–in alignment”

     Author/management consultant Marvin Weisbord says in twenty-five years, the leaders he has learned the most from have “certain knacks. They focus attention on valued aspirations. They mobilize energy by involving others. They face the unknown without answers.”

     “The ability to step up to the plate and provide the necessary leadership is the key determinant of achievement in all human activities,” says motivational guru Brian Tracy. “Great business leadership,” he says, ” is characterized by honesty, truthfulness, and straight dealing with every person, under all circumstances.” 

     Leaders, says one of America’s great entrepreneur successes Deaver Brown, “are often like the Pied Piper, turning around to find a group following them wherever they go. They can ignite their followers almost at will.They have the remarkable talent of being able to inspire devotion and loyalty, mustering excellent performances from average people.”

     U.S. President General Dwight David Eisenhower defined leadership as “the ability to get a person to do what you want him to do, when you want it done, in a way you want it done, because he wants to do it!” 

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Hal@Businessworks.US     302.933.0116

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