But working harder

makes you smarter!

I’ve probably heard “Work smarter, not harder” a few hundred million times in my life (yeah, I know, that’s probably a few more than a million times a day or something. Anyway, it seems like it!)

     So, okay I tried this little “Work Smarter” rule of thumb like 75 million times, and blam! Nothing. I mean you couldn’t even BE smarter than I worked, but blam! Nothing. It was like a big empty room and nothing to do but get frenzied and frazzled about having nothing to do except hang out! (How do teenagers do it? Oh, right, txtg 4 fun n games!)

I tried so hard to work smarter that I was working myself to the bone just  trying to work smarter. And for some reason, I couldn’t get myself to think that I was putting myself on some wonderful new brightly lighted cheerful pathway that would pioneer me a new life through the gloom and darkness!

Then I started reading about great leaders I admired, and guess what? They all worked harder than everybody else. I remembered a boss I once had who commuted daily to Manhattan from Pennsylvania (2-hour train rides each way) and who arrived at the office at 7am and left at 6pm; you figure it out. Helluva life! Needless to say, he was not a happy camper most of the time.

     So what am I saying? There needs to be a point of diminishing returns in human productivity and pleasantness? Yah! Okay, so what’s yours? Have you actually pushed yourself to that point, or do you just talk it? Are you a closet workaholic? Or (Horrors!)  a real one?

Anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s perfectly okay to work like a maniac IF:

A) You enjoy what you do

B) You’re not using it as an excuse to avoid some form of intimacy with family, friends, associates, or significant others

C) You really and truly need to work (and it’s not just so you can afford the $100 wine that your neighbor drinks)

D) You’re a whacko entrepreneur and you know there’s no other way to get ahead in life and have a successful business than to knock yourself out doing whatever it takes…and you have a vacation planned!

E) You aspire to leadership greatness, and know that the best leaders rarely sleep…and you have a vacation planned!

NOTE: If ALL of the above alphabetized items apply to you, start looking up shrinks in your local phone book…you’re going to need someone you can get to, like lickity-split!

# # #

hal@businessworks.US

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Go for your goals, thanks for your visit, God Bless You!

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Make Today A Great Day For Someone!

The gun goes off!

     No, I’m not suggesting some form of warfare is needed for starting a business (though, at times it can feel like being on the edge of a military engagement). I’m talking about a starter’s gun, the kind that’s used to start events, that shoots blanks? Whew! Glad we got that straight.

     Starting a new business, or a new venture spinning out of an existing business–in case it’s been a while and you’ve forgotten–is very much like the beginning of a crew race. Okay, you live in the desert or the mountains and haven’t the foggiest idea about a crew race.

     Maybe you saw one once on TV? Crew races take place in rivers, lagoons, bays, and lakes. Skinny, lightweight 62-foot-long sculls (boats) with 8 rowers (each with a two-handed oar: 4 on the port side and 4 on the starboard side). Yes, there are also 4 and 2 and 1-rower sculls.

     Each oarsman/oarswoman has his or her feet strapped in, and each slides forward and backward on little butt-snuggling seats that actually have each rower precariously perched in such a manner as to practically hang out over the boat edges just inches above the water.

     There’s a “coxswain” (usually a featherweight athlete with  heavyweight vocal cords) in the bow (front) who steers the boat with guide wires and pounds the rhythm into blocks on the sides of the boat. This little person does a lot of yelling through a megaphone. Oh, thatcrew race! Sooo?

     Competing boats get positioned on the starting line, standing still, dead in the water. Oars and rowers ready. Let me try that headline again: The gun goes off! Every rower slams their oars as fast and furiously as they can in and out of the water in order to get some starting momentum and get the boats moving from their dead weight standstill positions.

     Once some forward motion is established (and assuming no capsizings or tangled oars with other crew teams), the coxswain starts in with a quick paced rhythm, calling “in” and “out” for rowers to coordinate oar placements in and out of the water.

     This builds the pace of movement in a smoother, more team-coordinated manner. The coxswain eventually calls out “stroke” as the pace lengthens out into longer harder quicker pulls.

     The coxswain is all the while banging on the boat because rowers cannot always hear the shouted ins and outs because of wind, but they can feel the vibrations of the pounding and respond to that.

     Rowers slide forward and back in time with lifting their oars up out of the water, twisting the handles so the oar blade skims back across the top of the water, then plunging the blade back in for the exhausting pull through the water, then repeating the motion again and again.

     Rowers must concentrate on staying in tandem (from a head-on view, an observer should see but one single rower when the team is in perfect sync). They must also focus on working to not “catch a crab” (getting an oar stuck out of rhythm with the other seven oars, going into or coming out of the water, and creating a splashy puddle).

“Catching a crab” can be serious enough to “catch” an oar blade and take the oar that’s fastened into the oarlock beyond the point of recovery. This will likely turn the entire boat over, which –aside from losing the race and likely damage to the expensive fragile boat– is not a fun thing in 50-degree water with a hooded sweatsuit!  

Are you beginning to see why this athletic ordeal reminds me of starting a business? Are you paddling fast and furiously to get some forward motion? Are you trying to row and steer your fragile, expensive boat at the same time? Are you missing hearing the steps you have to take but feeling the vibrations? Have you “caught a crab”? Are you lengthening out? Capsized?

Hey, there’s always another race!

  # # #  

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

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Get your hidden agenda

out of the closet!

• CLIENT or BOSS or PROSPECT: Here’s a project we’d like you to do. Please tell us how you would do it, how long it would take and what kind of budget you’d recommend.
• CONSULTANT or MANAGER: Who’s the project for? What’s the purpose? Who or what’s being targeted? When do you need it done? What’s the budget you have to work with?
• CLIENT or BOSS or PROSPECT: Don’t worry about that stuff. We’re not sure of the target and we have no due date or budget; you tell us what you think.
• A WEEK LATER: “We’ve reviewed your proposal and we don’t like the target you selected, we think it should be done quicker and it’s too expensive.”

Whaaaaaaaaat?

     Every business or organizational group works on two levels: The level of the task represented on the surface, and the level of the “hidden agenda” — the undisclosed needs and motives of individual group members.

     Personal goals, values, attitudes, and fears impact the ways that individuals react to or respond to the group’s surface task. Hidden agendas siphon off valuable energy that can be used to accomplish the task at hand.

     People play power games by withholding information. By not telling the person(s) on the receiving end of an assignment, what the parameters are for a particular project, the CLIENT or BOSS or PROSPECT undermines prospects for success. By assuring him or herself of increased personal control, she or he is simultaneously dooming the project to failure.

     Hidden under the surface, you’re likely to find many individual conflicting pushes and pulls. Group members (according to a University Associates Handbook for Group Facilitators) have personal and subjective needs for belonging, acceptance, recognition, self-worth, self-expression, and productivity.

     The needs of one disgruntled or over-zealous or manipulative or misdirected individual can block the needs of another, or of the entire group, or the entire project. These blockages can be resolved in a minute, or drag on for years…in some rare instances, a lifetime.

     The Pfeiffer & Jones Group Facilitator Handbook suggests:

I wonder if we have said all that we feel about the issue. Maybe we should go around the table and ask for individual comments so that we can open up any further thoughts”

…as being the kind of statement a leader might ask anytime that hidden agendas appear to be threatening progress. 

     When you detect a hidden agenda, get it out of the closet!

# # #  

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

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WATCH FOR ONE OF HAL’S SHORT STORIES COMING this September in the new Nightengale Press book, THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING…ON SALE HERE! 

When your back’s

against the wall…

lean!

     That’s right. Let the wall hold you up. It will keep you standing, give you a better position to fight back, and allow you a place to push off of. Besides, being backed against the wall is more likely to make you a tiger than a pussycat.

     Tigers win at business. Pussycats do not. Tigers growl and claw. Pussycats purr and head for the litter-box. [And who said a business blog couldn’t be like Animal Channel?]

     I read and hear and see it everyday. It’s as if a thin coat of discouragement Spackle has been swiped across America’s small businesses. There are not as many smiles. [Please don’t stop smiling. Even forced smiles will eventually lead to real ones, maybe even produce a laugh or two!]

     When your back’s against the wall, turn around and examine the wall. Odds are it’s stronger than you. It’s probably been around a few years, without food or water, or without even using the bathroom…though it does likely have a roof over its head.

     Next, talk to the wall (especially if it’s brick, so you finally will know what all those people mean who claim to liken their discussions with their hi-tech-self-absorbed teenagers being “like talking to a brick wall!”).

     Okay, so now you’ve leaned against the wall that your back’s up against, you’ve looked at and appreciated and respected the wall, you’ve talked to the wall…what’s next?

     We need only drift back a few wonderful years ago when that question was never openly posed for worldwide consideration but received an earth-shattering response nonetheless.

     Are you thinking back and remembering? The assertive response to a none-question, offered in a stern but reassuring tone of voice by none other than the great leader of the free world, who is clearly a “one of our greatest presidents” candidates:

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”  

I say to you here and now once more, in the immortal words of Ronald Reagan, as if he were here to consult you on your business trials and tribulations:

Tear down this wall!

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

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  Is Your Business   

Half-Pregnant?

     I am convinced that the number one reason for business failure is not the economy, not insufficient capital, not poor management, and not over-regulation by government, though all are symptomatic.

     Government interference is of course particularly irksome because it’s being crafted, dictated, and delivered by an arrogant socialist stampede of naive, incompetent leaders whose total business experience equals zero.

     So, what IS the number one reason for business failure?

     Dig deeper.  

     In the past few years, I personally experienced or had first-hand reported more than two dozen incidents involving owners, operators, and managers of sizeable, established businesses hurtling their business interests the wrong way down one-way streets with reckless abandon.

     All have either since collided or failed or are on their way

All have or had the following characteristics in common:

• Lack of follow-through and a vested interest in maintaining the status quo (amazingly, even after hiring outside consultants to ignite, stimulate, and motivate!) 
• Disregard for and disrespect of their employees, with tokenism providing the prevailing wind 
• Disregard of the very talents and solutions they were outsourcing to shore up their own shortcomings (hard to believe, especially after paying for services, but true!) 
• Complete resistance to initiate two-way “partnership style” communicating
• Not having a sense of urgency.    

     I reduce all of these weaknesses to driving a business the wrong way on a one-way street. It’s noteworthy that many of them talk(ed) the good talk…but to themselves: Mission Statements with no teeth!

     Without keeping open to and encouraging two-way communication by exercising strong listening and feedback skills, by making assumptions instead of addressing differences, and by disregarding the very consulting input they were paying for (and then not providing feedback), they were/are setting themselves up for failure. 

The economy, under-capitalization, poor management, and over-regulation are excuses. Businesses succeed–even with all of these factors working against them–by communicating openly at all levels all of the time. Communicating openly at all levels all of the time is the ultimate trigger for business transparency.

Transparency, like pregnancy, cannot be half-way.

# # #  

 Hal@TheWriterWorks.com or comment below. Thanks for visiting. 

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

The World’s Greatest Expert

on Death and Dying–

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD

–Points to Five Stages:

• Denial and Isolation
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

     She said we –all of us–  must experience each of these five stages to one degree or another in the order they are shown above with every loss experience. The only exceptions being instances where people get stuck in a given stage and never get beyond it.

     So as business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs, some of us experience bits and pieces of these five stages everyday with daily losses.

     Kübler-Ross said that losses are not limited to human death, and can  include the loss of a limb or faculty, or ability… loss of a valuable possession (a home, a car, a business), loss of companionship (including divorce and separation), loss of freedom (including jail), loss of a job, loss of a client, loss of a prospect or opportunity, loss of self-esteem, loss of authority, etc., etc.

     And to a lesser degree, we even experience these stages when we lose a dollar, a photograph, a letter, an address, a contest, and so on.

     So what’s the point? Healthy successful people do everything humanly possible to channel all their energies and mental focus on reaching the level (or “Stage”) of ACCEPTANCE as quickly as possible, and on maintaining themselves at that level as permanently as possible.

     Everything else is non-productive. Everything else leaves us feeling deflated and defeated and negative. Some people stay in these places their entire lives. Some are institutionalized. Some do themselves in.

     Stages 1-4 are pure torment. We must go through them, but the goal needs to be to move through them as rapidly as our minds and bodies allow us to. Getting through the maze may take friends and rescuers to stand by shoulder to shoulder. We have all performed that function for someone else, but perhaps have forgotten?  

     Keep always in the front of your mind that no matter how out of control it may feel to be stuck somewhere in denial and isolation, or in anger, or in a bargaining position, or a state of depression, it IS a matter of choice!

     The minute we choose to accept loss, the quicker we can get on with a happy and productive existence and make the most of the short time we each have here on Earth…make the most of the relationships we’ve been blessed with: with other people and places and purposes.

     We need not choose to lock ourselves into suffering and misery. Life and business life are way too short to have wasted time and energy with anything besides being happy and healthy and in active pursuit of our dreams.  

# # #  

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

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THE FUSE AND THE FUEL

Igniting business and professional development with authenticity

Living in a monastery…you have more opportunities than you might have elsewhere to see the world as it is, instead of through the shadow that you cast upon it.”    

(From BROTHER ODD by one of my favorite authors, Dean Koontz)

     Being in the driver’s seat of your own business, you have more opportunities than you could ever have elsewhere to see your company, your organization, and the products and services you offer as they truly exist, instead of through your own biased eyes.

     How? By asking! Ask everyone you speak with every day—staff, customers, vendors, sales reps, your landlord, competitors, your mother-in-law. Well, okay, maybe you can skip your mother-in-law.

     Ask each person what she or he thinks of your company, your products and services, your people, your reputation, your community involvement, your pricing. Stop being afraid of what you think you might hear. Respect and appreciate honest answers. Every answer can help you be more successful! 

     Carry and use a pocket notebook. You remember notebooks? Those covered pads you write in with a pen (or heaven forbid, a pencil)? Make it your mission to collect feedback, suggestions, ideas, opinions, comments (WITHOUT reacting, rebutting, arguing, yes-butting, or defending; simply absorb them), and then DO SOMETHING WITH THEM!

     Separate and categorize what you collect. Consolidate the ones that are similar or that somehow tie together. Ask yourself what you’re learning in the process: “What I’m learning right now about myself and my business is__________”  is the statement to complete and bombard yourself with as many times a  day as possible.

     This is an especially good exercise to do when you’re wading knee-deep through boring conference calls and meetings, during commutes (unless you’re driving!) and while waiting for appointments or transportation.

     Process the information you write down. Honestly consider what you are in fact actually learning about yourself and your business. When you do, you will be taking a giant step toward rocket-boosting your creative mind, accelerating your own professional growth and development, and igniting the business initiatives you’ve always wished you could set fire to… but never had the fuse or the fuel to work with. Now you do.

# # #  

 Hal@Businessworks.US  or comment below.

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

Are you a Zippity

or a Doo-Dah?

“You can never resolve a problem by condemning it.”

–World-famous author/consultant Wayne Dyer

     They may not always be right, and they might not always do things right, but Zippity’s get things done!

     Doo-Dah’s typically bungle what they attempt and rarely make attempts on their own to get things done anyway. For a Doo-Dah, it’s easier to make excuses than to take action…easier to complain about a problem or condemn it, than to attack it or solve it.

     How many Doo-Dah’s surround your business and personal life? Stop reading here for 30 seconds, and count them. Think about it. Go ahead: count! I’ll wait. How many?

     Are you helping them? Are they helping you? If you’re not gaining something by association, you’re losing. There is no middle ground. Either you are doing a good deed by spending time and energy (and perhaps money?) with each, and can afford to do that, and want to do that…OR you are losing speed, quality, credibility, and success.

[It may be useful here to remember that achieving the success you seek will surely afford you greater opportunity to help more Doo-Dah’s, if indeed that’s a goal for you!] 

     Distancing yourself from Doo-Dah’s may seem cruel, and may be impossible when family is involved. Ha! Hit a nerve there, huh? Well, considering that most shrinks will tell you that everyone has a dysfunctional family, it should be no surprise that you ended up with a Doo-Dah brother-in-law or uncle or cousin or parent or child.

     But guess what? If you don’t start taking steps sooner than later to surround yourself and your business with Zippity’s, you run the risk of falling prey to the disengaged incompetence of the Doo-Dah’s now and forever after. It’s your choice.

     If you really can’t let go of being Mr. or Ms. Do-Gooder and you’re not into switching to a priesthood, nunnery or social worker career, then you’d better learn to live with your business and your life being universally uneventful, stale, and stagnant…an investment in the status quo.

[Can your business survive that? Can you?]

    No, it’s not a likely scenario if you are actually still reading this. And assuming you are still reading this, get yourself Zippity’d and stayZippity’d.

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

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WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.

–Continental Airlines

OPEN MINDS.

OPEN DOORS.

–United Technologies

     I’ve never been a big fan of Continental since they lost my business presentation luggage 14 years ago (note, by the way, how long we harbor ill feelings about a bad customer experience!).

     In all fairness, though, I must confess that Continental’s branding line stands head and shoulders above all others in the airline industry.

     In fact, “WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.” actually serves to set a best practices philosophical mark for small business to emulate. Doubts? What small business have you ever heard of that couldn’t stand to improve itself by working hard and flying right?

     How about ANY business for that matter? And, while we’re at it, might we also want to consider application of “WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.” to any PERSON? Just imagine what a pleasant and productive world this would be if we could all live by these four words.

     Not good enough to get you cranked up?

     Okay, how about adding four more words that come from a great corporate campaign of old for United Technologies: “OPEN MINDS. OPEN DOORS.”

     So there you have it. Put ’em together and what have you got? 8 words that can literally reverse global economic woes, change the world’s governments and politics for the better, and produce increased, ongoing opportunities for cooperation, growth, success, and universally happier existences.

     Sounds great but how do you start? By getting started. At home. In your own office. On your own work site. With your SELF:

“OPEN MINDS. OPEN DOORS.

  WORK HARD. FLY RIGHT.” 

     Start now. Tonight. Tomorrow morning. 8 Words. Write them on paper and tape them to your computer screen, cellphone. desk drawer, briefcase, rear-view mirror, medicine cabinet, ceiling fan, wristwatch, your son’s forehead! Watch what happens. You will astonish yourself. I guarantee it!  

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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!

Life is more like baseball

                                                           

than any other sport.

____________________________ 

This post, repeated from a year ago is dedicated to one of my softball league buddies, Jimmy Travers, whose great sense of fun and spirit left us this weekend for his next life.

Thanks for the laughs and the hustle. Hit ‘em where they ain’t, Jimmy!

___________________

   With every inning a decade long, where only a few of us actually get into extra innings, life is more like baseball than any other sport! 

     We walk, strike out, we get some foul tips, and sometimes manage to get big hits in the clutch.  We make errors.  We tag others whenever we can, and avoid those who come barreling home. 

     We get cheered when we perform.  We get booed when we don’t.  There are times when we need to get a glove and get in the game, and other times when we need to step up to the plate.  All of us have to sacrifice from time to time, and a few of us steal when no one is looking. 

     Those who are exceptional travel inside the park and make round-trippers.  And have you ever balked?  When did you last set the table, or be in a clean up position?  We relax on deck, and work when we’re in the hole, and we work even harder to stay away from arbitration, appeals, getting thrown out, and avoiding the bullpen or —heaven forbid— being shut out! 

     We go through different coaches, and we fire managers, but no matter how much money we make, we still always do what the owner and general manager order us to do. 

     Usually in our later decades, we bring in short and long relievers, and of course the eventual closer.  But reality is that we only live life in the National League . . . because we never get to have a designated hitter! 

     If Shakespeare was right that “All the world’s a stage . . .” he had to be talking about our love affair with the diamond.  Diamonds are, after all, forever!

# # #  

 Hal@TheWriterWorks.com or comment below.

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