Archive for the 'Productivity' Category

Apr 16 2009

FILLING YOUR PIPELINE (Not Alaska’s)

Biz Cards in the Men’s Room?

                                                                                                

     Filling your pipeline has to do with how attentively you are keeping as many sales prospects as possible, alive and kicking, at any given moment on any given day! If you make your living by selling, you know what I’m talking about, and unless you’re in one of those numbing slumps, you need not read further.

     IF YOU RUN YOUR OWN BUSINESS, however, you could stand to examine this post a little more thoughtfully. Why? Because when you’re not selling 100% of the time, filling your pipeline is easy to forget. It’s easy to overlook it, or become pre-occupied.

     It is especially easy to drift away from your pipeline when you’re busy tending to new and existing customers and projects. But therein lies the challenge. How can you prompt yourself to physically, mentally, and emotionally rise to the occasion?

     What can you do to rattle your own cage? How can you be running your business AND continuing to network and cold call while servicing others? Knocking on doors, after all, takes time and energy, not to mention travel preparations and expenses.

     Okay enough questions. Here are some answers. CONTINUE TO LEARN ALL YOU CAN ABOUT YOUR SELF! By doing this with relentless attention, you will do a better job of working with others — customers, staff, vendors, prospects, the community. Because the more you know about what makes YOU tick, the more you’ll understand what makes OTHERS tick and the easier it is to be productive in your dealings with them, and inspire their productivity in return.

     CONTINUE TO APPLY ALL YOU KNOW ABOUT HOW TO MANAGE YOUR OWN STRESS! Do deep breathing as routinely as you can remind yourself. Take a cue from wristwatch beeps, from little signs in your briefcase, on your rearview mirror, in your medicine cabinet and refrigerator…whatever works for you. Click here http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=35 for detailed 4-step approach that takes a full 60 seconds! Do yoga, meditate, exercise (regular fast-paced 20-minute walks will do it!), dance, sing, play with little kids…

     PAY MORE ATTENTION TO TIME MANAGEMENT! Return phone calls at 11:30-noon and 4:30-5pm when people are less likely to waste time because they’re getting ready for lunch or their commutes home. Use to do lists (and add interruptions) and colored markers to cross out accomplished tasks (including those added). ALWAYS PLAN FOR DELAYS (BE READY FOR THEM, NOT PROMPT THEM) as times to be productive with phone calls, text messages, pen and paper writing, reading, laptop activity. BRING READING & WRITING MATERIALS EVERYWHERE! Polish up your delegation skills and learn to let go of nonessentials tasks!

     SET REALISTIC GOAL TARGETS OF HOW MANY NEW BUSINESS SALES CALLS AND PITCHES YOU WILL MAKE EVERY MONTH, BY WEEK and stay flexible enough to shift gears if you get overloaded with other tasks or people issues…or underloaded!

     FOLLOW UP. FOLLOW UP. FOLLOW UP. KEEP ACCURATE RECORDS OF EVERY CALL AND DECISION. SEND A GAZILLION THANK YOU NOTES. 

     COLLECT AND GIVE OUT BUSINESS CARDS EVERYWHERE YOU GO. EVERYWHERE. YES, EVEN THERE!  

 Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

 # # #
  CLICK ON  Posts RSS Feed FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG
    ADD TO THE DAILY GROWING 7-Word Story started 217 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

CLICK ON MAGAZINE ARTICLES TAB ABOVE FOR NEWEST PUBLISHED WORK ON “REDEFINING LEADERSHIP” STORY ABOUT 101 YEAR-OLD, BBB-AWARD-WINNING AUTO DEALERSHIP IN DESK MAGAZINE

No responses yet

Apr 10 2009

YOUR OWN PERSONAL STIMULUS PLAN…

Give Your SELF A Chance!

                                                                                  

     Well, unless you’re a major bank or automaker, you’re probably not going to see much of any meaningful stimulus plan benefits coming your way anytime soon. So, here’s how to make your own: “Your Own Personal Stimulus Plan” requires three things.

     All three are FREE (How about that? Not a bad start, huh?).

     Okay, the first of these, which you will need in order to make the most of the other two, is best summed up by staying on this same site, different page, and clicking here: http://halalpiar.com/?page_id=35 (sorry I haven’t yet mastered the little techie trick of consolidating this link into one word).

     Anyway, you need only to spend 60 seconds on this link page to get it. And–on top of everything else–I guarantee that if you treat the exercise seriously and do it faithfully just 1-3 times a day (for a minute each, even while doing something else!)–in just one week!–you will feel and be happier, healthier, more productive, and have a stronger sense of self-control. You will be more personally stimulated and better equipped to rally your own economy! 

What have you got to lose besides stress and upset feelings? I know. Right! And FREE! What more could you ask for? How can I be so sure? Because it’s worked for 20,000 out of 20,000 people I’ve taught it to who have treated it seriously and who have done it faithfully.

     Let go of doubt, skepticism, dubiousness (now there’s a word!) and just allow yourself to be receptive for 60 seconds. 6 0  S E C O N D S !!! Your age and level of health have no bearing on effectiveness here. Give your SELF a chance to be and feel better every day.

     Okay, now comes the second and third things (you thought I forgot?). These may be even easier now that you’ve mastered the first. Here’s the “Personal Stimulus Plan” deal:

     Go find yourself some person who is younger than 7 years-old and spend an hour with her or him…listening, singing, dancing, playing, whatever floats this youngster’s boat. Get down on the floor (or at least eye level) and enjoy the company. Be sure to listen 80% of the time! Learn something from this child, and learn something about youself in the process.     

     Next (and this need not be the same day, but as soon as possible afterward): Go find yourself some person who is older than 80 years-old and spend an hour with him or her…listening, singing, dancing, playing, whatever floats this oldster’s boat. Ask questions. Listen. Get into her or his “head space” and enjoy what you experience as you learn something new and as you learn something new about you.

Take the new stimulated you to work and watch what happens. It’s not, btw, a bad idea to give this little plan legs every quarter, every month, even every week.

OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS! Happy Entrepreneuring!

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

 # # #
  CLICK ON  Posts RSS Feed FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG
    ADD TO THE DAILY GROWING 7-Word Story started 211 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

CLICK ON MAGAZINE ARTICLES TAB ABOVE FOR NEWEST PUBLISHED WORK ON “BROADWAY COMES TO DELMARVA” STORY ABOUT WILMINGTON, DELAWARE’S HISTORIC DUPONT THEATRE!

One response so far

Apr 09 2009

ENTREPRENEURS & SELLERS ASK THEMSELVES…

“Is what I am doing right now

                                             

helping me get

                                                                                 

where I want to go?”

                                                                                         

     This is a very Gestalt question in some ways because it prompts a focus on the here-and-now, present, what’s-happening moment that’s right smack in front of your face (…which mentally and emotionally, is the healthiest place your mind can be!).

     In other ways, though, it may seem too futuristic a focus for Gestalt purists because it could be construed to be entertaining or spotlighting the destination or finish line instead of the here-and-now journey. 

     But no matter how you philosophize it, the bottom line is that the question works!

     In fact, the more often you consider this question, the greater its impact. Of course, you are the only one who can answer it. And it should probably go without saying that it can only be as effective as you are honest with yourself. But what will prompt you to ask yourself in the first place?

     If it’s not beneath you, or too contrived, or too childish, there really and truly is no better way than to plaster your life with it. Print it out in different sizes and colors with different fonts. [If you’re the artistic type, try different shapes and illustrations to go with the words–a clock, a goalpost, a stack of money, a portrayal of you as the boss, or physically fit, or in perfect health, or whatever result you seek.]

     Next, tape the different versions to your bathroom mirror, your closet shelf, the inside of your refrigerator, your dashboard or sunvisor. Put a small version on your watchband or watchface frame, your rearview mirror, inside your wallet or pocketbook, inside your briefcase, on your TV screen frame and remote control, on your computer monitor, as a screen-saver . . . anyplace you will see it during the day . . . and leave these question prompts up for three weeks.

     Take them down in 21 days, when you will hopefully no longer need them (at least if and until you find yourself drifting back into wasteful behavior patterns: dwelling too much on the past, for example, which is over and you can do nothing about anyway, or worrying too much about the future which hasn’t come yet, and may never anyway!).

     This brings us back to the journey. It is more fun and healthier all-around to be tuned in to where you are instead of where you expect to end, but that doesn’t mean you should gloss over your goals. Always keep them (your goals) on the horizon you aim for, but pay closest attention to each step you take–as you take it–instead of tripping over your own feet while you become preoccupied fixing your gaze on the distant target.

     My question: Is whatever you are doing right now helping you get where you want to go? Your answer?

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

 # # #
  CLICK ON  Posts RSS Feed FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG
    ADD TO THE DAILY GROWING 7-Word Story started 210 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

CLICK ON MAGAZINE ARTICLES TAB ABOVE FOR NEWEST PUBLISHED WORK ON “BROADWAY COMES TO DELMARVA” STORY ABOUT WILMINGTON, DELAWARE’S HISTORIC DUPONT THEATRE!

2 responses so far

Apr 08 2009

PEEKING THRU CORPORATE KEYHOLES…and other tips for entrepreneurs

“We’d punch in, then get lost!”

                                                                                            

     I not so long ago interviewed two young men who were employed by a major hospital as administrative assistants, assigned to departments that were noted for transcience and frequent physical relocations. Both had been collecting paychecks and full benefits for more than a year. Neither ever did any work, and no one (including their assigned supervisors) knew who they were.

     They would punch in on the timeclock every day and then “get lost,” as they put it, in the corporate healthcare mechanism. They admitted to frequenting the hospital lunchroom; the neighborhood coffeeshop; and the hospital grounds, parking lot, and roof! Sometimes, they even went fishing!

     At day’s end, they would punch out and go home. My report to hospital executives was met not by astonishment as you might expect, but by ambivalance. “Oh, well. that’s to be expected in an organization this big and diverse,” said one of the financial VP’s.

     Well, you can certainly read all kinds of things into that little scenerio, but my first thought–once I got past the shock–was one of gratefulness at not having a business that was so chaotic and out of touch with reality.

     But then as I began peeking through other corporate keyholes, so to speak, I discovered an avalanche of disrespect and undermining “take-whatever-I-can-get” attitudes, from Fortune 500 boardrooms, to monster sales organizations.

     Oh, I’ve often thought, if only every entrepreneur could have seen and experienced the outright theft of time (and supplies) that happens every day in nearly every large company. If only entrepreneuriual types could have a realistic perspective of:

A) What they’re up against in competing with “the big boys,” they’d be a lot less intimidated and far less concerned with the idea of losing customers and prospects to such bumbling, self-absorbed organizations, and 

B) What they might expect to have to deal with as their businesses grow, so they could act now to prevent the kinds of lethargic and outright law-breaking attitudes that many large businesses breed.

     There are many things we as small business owners/operators and managers can learn by watching our big business brothers and sisters. One of these is to focus on companies known for productive motivation.

     You can expect to see heavy emphasis on management making small frequent rewards for good behavior–and even failures when they are achieved through earnest, good faith efforts. Such recognition policies keep good people, and keep good people on task!

     Keeping the best employees takes time, attention and effort. It takes the ability to maintain a sense of balance and good humor in each encounter each day with each employee.

     It takes an awareness–like it or not–that others see management (especially owners) as parents. They watch every move, listen to every word, and strive to please with words and deeds. What a great opportunity that just knowing this, presents as a pathway to enhance your (and their) prospects for business success.

     “Your People Are Your Most Important Asset!”

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

 # # #
  CLICK ON  Posts RSS Feed FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG
    ADD TO THE DAILY GROWING 7-Word Story started 209 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

CLICK ON MAGAZINE ARTICLES TAB ABOVE FOR NEWEST PUBLISHED WORK ON “BROADWAY COMES TO DELMARVA” STORY ABOUT WILMINGTON, DELAWARE’S HISTORIC DUPONT THEATRE!

No responses yet

Apr 05 2009

GOT BUSINESS? (Are you selling BENEFITS?)

Bite-The-Apple Time!

                                                                        

     An Amazon 5-star selection book that I wrote (DOCTOR BUSINESS…How To Boost Your Practice And Build Long-Term Relationships, for physicians) presents an example of a dentist who was running an expensive series of totally ineffective newspaper sports section ads headlined: “Yes, now we have mucosal blade inserts!” (Well, at least he used the magic number of seven words you always hear me harp on!)

     When I asked him about the message, he explained that the mucosal blade inserts were mushroom-shaped devices that he surgically implanted in the jaw to anchor dentures more securely than with the use of adhesives. He said patients would have much stronger use of their teeth.

     I redirected his ad into a major senior citizen news publication (at a much lower rate than he had been paying), and revised his ad to say, “Now you can bite an apple again!” My seven words outperformed his seven words by an astronomical amount. In fact, his phones wouldn’t stop ringing. Denture-wearers were lining up to be evaluated for the procedure.

     So, yes, choosing the right audience and the right vehicle to reach that audience is half the battle, so to speak, and simplifying the message to sell the benefit is the other half.

     What are your sales messages saying right now? Are they focused on product features or customer benefits? Are they running in inappropriate print environments or inappropriate broadcast environments? Are you making the best possible use of the Internet? Website(s)? Links? Blog(s)? Emails? Webinars? Podcasts? Social networks? Business networks?

     Did you know that most of these suggested Internet vehicles can be free, and can actually have more impact than pricey traditional advertising approaches? If you’re not at least actively exploring these options, you either have very deep pockets, an influential relative in traditional media sales, no budget, or (hopefully not) you’re invested in growing yourself a reputation for reckless spending!

     If you are exploring all this, but having trouble with the confusion crunch, or with sorting out the high-priced smoke and mirror SEO specialists from the outdated email database suppliers, who are looking to rent you their email lists that include prisoners, newly-born infants and 27,000 dead people… or you’re simply not sure that your message is the best it can be… send me an email Hal@TheWriterWorks.com with “Confusion Crunch” in the subject line. I’ll respond promptly.   

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

 # # #

  CLICK ON  Posts RSS Feed FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG
    ADD TO THE DAILY GROWING 7-Word Story started 206 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

3 responses so far

Apr 04 2009

SMALL BUSINESS STIMULUS PACKAGE

Here, Mr. President:

                                            

Take this and run with it!

                                                                 

     Okay, all you government and big-business corporate executives, take this! Everyone except you guys knows that small business is the lifeblood of America, and that small business is the single greatest and most important creator of jobs. For now, we’ll forget about why you don’t know this, and just move forward.

     Here is what we need to straighten out the crooked economic path that you folks all contributed to and nurtured and reinforced. We need to present every American small business (1-20 employees) with a choice of 5 stimulus options. Before you laugh up your respective sleeves, re-read the first paragraph.

Here’s the select-one-only choice that needs to be offered:

1) You choose OPTION A and receive an outright, no-strings-attached grant from the government for $5,000 to be used against pay off of bills over 60 days old from the date of application. I shouldn’t need to spell out all the resultant benefits; just think about it for 30 seconds!  OR…

2) You choose OPTION B and receive a $15,000 payment for $15,000 retail value worth of your products or services, which you deliver to any government agency you choose that can use what you sell, or any charity of your choice if no government agency can use your products or services. Surely you need not think about what this would accomplish.  OR…

3) You choose OPTION C and receive $30,000 in two $15,000 payments, six months apart for creating one new parttime (20-hours/week) job with no benefits, and—using pre-determined criteria—prove the job’s existence and value after twelve months.  OR…

4) You choose OPTION D and receive $70,000 in six equal payments for creating one new fulltime (40-hours/week) job with benefits PLUS one new parttime (20-hours/week) job with no benefits, and—using pre-determined criteria—prove the existence and value of both jobs after twelve months.  OR…

5) You choose NONE of the above, and receive a $10,000 tax credit.

     Oh, but how would this ever be administered? Use the Energy Department which performs next to zero value services at any measurable level. They have enough personnel to oversee and monitor such a program. 

     You don’t like the details of this proposal? Then change them. Do anything you want with them, but do SOMEthing with them. Show small business the respect small business deserves!                                                                                                          

Here, Mr. President,

                                                                             

is the bottom line:

                                                        

     You want to reverse the economy? You want people to be happier and healthier? You want to see new jobs created? Then stop asking other government employees with no business experience and corporate executives with no realistic sense of business operations how to do it.

(These people are corporate management operations experts; corporate management operations has nothing to do with the kinds of day-to-day small business activities that made this country great and that hold the key to today’s present need for economic recovery!)

     These people haven’t a clue. Their ideas are lethargic and unrealistic, and just plain won’t work because they don’t understand the down-to-earth dynamics of how to dig out of a hole. It takes a shovel and an I-can-do-it attitude.

     In our country, the only people with these tools are entrepreneurs and small business owners. Give them shovels (the 5 options above) and they will dig! All the corporate and government resources in the world will not get down in the trenches and get the job done.

Why? Because you cannot dig out of a hole while sitting

in a tower or the backseat of a limo or private jet.

     We are past the point of pretending. Politics aside for just one minute, if that’s possible, why is it that the people most capable of turning things around are not being given meaningful opportunities to do exactly that?

     If you, Mr. President, are willing to take what is a more-than-reasonable risk and charge small business with the solution, you will be astonished at how many of us will rise to the occasion and get the job done. I hope only that this thinking makes it to your doorstep while there’s still time to act on it.  

Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

 # # #

  CLICK ON  Posts RSS Feed FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG
    ADD TO THE DAILY GROWING 7-Word Story started 205 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

4 responses so far

Apr 01 2009

BUSINESS MUST “SELL ITSELF” OUT OF THIS MESS

Hope Is NOT The Answer.

(Neither is government spending nor business borrowing!)

                                                                       

     The old business adage, “NOTHING HAPPENS ‘TIL THE SALE IS MADE” applies more today than ever! I have noted here often that budget slashing, and save-on-expenses mentalities end up digging an even deeper hole because they divert energy away from what needs to be done to put the economy on a rebound and growth track.

     Economic recovery can ONLY happen when more businesses decide to make it happen. We have to blow off mainstream media’s efforts to drag the public into the maelstrom they’re busy creating in their relentless quest to sell more print advertising space and more broadcast commercial time.

     When businesses decide to focus on sales and entrepreneurial pursuits, we will see increased financial stability across the boards. Sounds simple, huh? Unfortunately, our own business-inexperienced government is essentially leading the blockade to progress on this front…token small business incentives don’t cut it!

     Add to the government’s misguided energy and maniacal spend and borrow and tax mentality the sad truth is that many business people have simply given up, and the saving-grace focus we’re talking about turns out to not be so simple after all. 

     Government spending and business borrowing? Digest this (following) quote made 5 days ago in a European Parliament speech by Daniel Hannon MEP who was targeting the English Prime Minister with some realistic advice:

You cannot spend your way out of recession,

or borrow your way out of debt!”

[See www.Hannon.co.uk for more.]

                                                                                                       

     If you are an entrepreneur or run your own business, you need to be resolute in your thoughts and actions. You need to be literally invulnerable in your convictions that hope may spring eternal, but it simply does NOT fuel or grow business in any way–never has, never will. ONLY sales do that.

     Like throwing two baseballs at equal velocity with both arms simultaneously, the most difficult task for any entrepreneur or business owner is to be running your business and selling your business at the same time. Yet that is what has to happen.

     This means, you must be willing and able to go the extra mile with customers, prospects, employees, vendors, your industry, your community, your family, and your own health and fitness. Dropping any one of these from the pursuit equation will collapse the energy around those that remain.

     Okay, HOW? you ask. By paying attention to having fun instead of feeling pressure (the feeling-pressure guys have already boarded up and left town). By paying more attention to exercise and eating and sleeping right, by laughing more, and by learning and using stress management techniques , by taking a yoga class, a jog, a walk, another walk, more walks. 

     As for help, what’s suggested here isn’t much, but–like everything else in life–suggestions are what you make of them. It’s always your choice about how to proceed. The rest of what happens is up to you.  

Good Night and God Bless You!  

# # #

  Posts RSS Feed FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG
   

One response so far

Mar 23 2009

Effective Public Relations Beats Advertising, and Costs Less!

PR IS NOT

                                                

A SERIES OF STUNTS!

                                                     

     If your goal is to attract attention to your business or brand, go stand on your head in traffic and eat watermelon, but don’t believe for even one minute that Public Relations is the answer. PR is not a series of stunts.

     Businesses that insist on misusing PR as a tool to take them on a promotional binge from one event to the next will soon lose enough credibility to cost them press release coverage at times when it counts most, and will end up hanging around, hands in pockets watching their blog sites go down the tubes, probably pulling their websites down along with them since search engine rankings are very much a function of blog activity.

     Why do PR-abusive companies create this downward spiral to start with? Because the public (whether it’s industrial trade, clients, patients, other professionals, or John Q. off the street) isn’t stupid. And media writers and editors, even less so…when careers are on the line, there’s a whole lot less tolerance of artificially-inflated newsworthiness tossed to the wind by overzealous organizations that are too preoccupied with day-to-day sales survival tactics to appreciate the need for strategic planning.    

     Effective PR is all about building SOLID relationships with the news media by consistently demonstrating the value of what it is that your product or service does and the value of whom you are in your industry, profession, and community.

     Why does the relationship need to be so emphatically “solid”? PR is a trade-off. For you to get free promotional mentions and news release and photo coverage (that, incidentally, research shows to be ten times more credible than paid advertising messages), you must be willing to perform at the whimsy of the editors and writers who decide on whether or not to accept what you provide them with.

     They will always be much more receptivity to what you provide when what you provide is professionally written and executed and followed-up on. My guess is that 80% of effective PR is follow-up. Ah, but that is what builds relationships, right?  

     And, by the way, effective PR will boost your branding efforts far beyond advertising for usually a fraction of the costs associated with advertising. A recent study finds this is particularly true for businesses connected with engaging and complicated product manufacturing and marketing processes.

     In fields like financial services, automobiles and consumer electronics, almost 30% of brand value is associated with solid PR performances that result in increased brand name mentions in print, broadcast and electronic news media. 

     What this means is that in economic downturns like the one we’re experiencing, it is wise to boost  your PR efforts and reduce your advertising expenditures. But that’s not to imply a straight exchange.

     It is to say that your PR efforts need to be professional, and your advertising needs to be more focused and more contiguous with your media relations efforts. There’s some delicate balancing and juggling acts involved, but you’re already a pro at that or you wouldn’t have your own business to start with, right?  

 Good Night and God Bless You!  halalpiar     

 # # #

  CLICK ON  Posts RSS Feed FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG
    ADD TO THE DAILY GROWING 7-Word Story started 193 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

No responses yet

Mar 20 2009

THE BUSINESS TWITTER JITTERS

Twitter Is What It Is. Period.

                                            

     Hardly a day passes anymore when I don’t hear some business or professional practice owner or operator or manager, or an entrepreneur talk nervously about “not getting the Twitter thing.”

     Usually, the fearful comments end with some justification for not dipping a toe in the water by cavalierly tossing off a laundry list of non-business-related “Tweets” that they saw or heard about. Twitter won’t have any value to you if you start out seeking for it to BE something.

     Twitter is what it is. While there appear to be some basic Twitter Etiquette guidelines, they seem to me to only be for the benefit of those who want them. And many Twitter users simply don’t care what those folks want. Other than for legal purposes, and in abiding with contractual agreements, there is no right or wrong Twitter use. The medium is free to flow as those who use it choose for it to flow for themselves.

     So, unlike any other media, Twitter has a mind all its own and those who work and play with it find it far exceeds what most people would probably define as a “social” vehicle. It is both one-way and two-way (and actually a multiple-way) form of communication.

     Many believe the whole purpose of Twitter is to acquire and constantly add as many “followers” as humanly possible so that every statement they make will be seen by 88 skillion people that they’ve attracted. Many others could care less about massive followings and are looking instead for people with similar interests. And so it goes on and on, varying according to human nature and whimsy.

     Twitter participants can be categorized (some steady and ongoing, and others changing with the wind) as sometimes or all the time or alternatingly or multiplicitingly fitting what we might characterize, in no particular order, as:

Parent~~Adult~~Child~~Crusader~~Politico~~Professor~~

Preacher~~Motivator~~Problem-Maker~~Problem-Presenter

~~Problem-Solver~~Popularity Contestant~~ Control Freak

~~Bitch~~Networker~~Tree-Hugger~~Active Adventurer~~

Business Promoter~~Teeny Bopper~~Flake~~Peacenik-Hippie (yeah, still a few of these around)

~~Animal Lover~~Mystic~~Goofball~~Irate Egotist~~Joker

~~Gay Pride Activist~~Black Rights Activist~~Womens

Rights Activist~~News Reporter~~Rhymer~~Dear Abby

~~Counselor~~Advisor~~Consultant~~Game Player~~

Headline Writer~~Cartoonist~~Recruiter~~ Solicitor~~

Salesperson~~Shrink~~Sports Fanatic~~Political Fanatic

~~Religious Fanatic~~ADD YOUR OWN 80 OR 90 MORE

TO THIS LIST!

     The point is that if you have a business or professional practice and the above cluster of characters have scared you away from making good solid business use of this social media phenomenon, you are not thinking like a true entrepreneur.

     You need to try it before deciding it’s not for you. Isn’t that what you would do with anything else? Don’t choose to feel intimidated by Twitter just because you don’t get it. It’s really quite simple. And, in fact, as I noted many months ago, it forces you to strengthen two major communication tools: Conciseness and Persuasion, plus it requires high level focus on the “here-and-now” present moment, which is also a critically strong business building block.

     There is no rule about having to get addicted to Twitter, though many apparently are (and even brag about it)! You can plug and promote business and professional practice ideas, products and services in a way that gets response– in just 10-15 minutes a day! (Yes, I’ll tell you how for free if you call me: 302.933.0116)

                                                              

 # # #

  FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone!

One response so far

Mar 18 2009

“COMMUNICATION MOTIVATION” KEEPS TOP EMPLOYEES ON TOP, AND RISING

Put this on your wall

                                                                        

     Effective communication is commonly attributed 80% to listening and 20% to speaking. Experts report that as much as 87% of communication is nonverbal. So where does that leave us, besides all tangled up with sign language?

     Martin Yates, in his best-selling, well-on-the-way-to-becoming-a-classic business book (KEEPING THE BEST…And Other Thoughts On Building A Super Competitive Workforce; published 1991 by Bob Adams, Inc., Holbrook, MA) says essentially–among many other A-1 working management concepts–that your effectiveness as a communicator is as heavily dependent on the follow-up actions you take, as it is on what you say and don’t say, and how you move or don’t move.

     Yates advises, for example, that after soliciting input, the boss needs to “make a visible effort to act on it and credit its source. It is counterproductive,” he says, “to solicit good input from team members, then put it into action with no accredidation (or worse still, with incorrect accreditation).”

     Yates proceeds to suggest (to owners/operators/managers) to praise creative ideas whenever they surface. This, he says, “encourages innovation and success-oriented thinking.” Yates paraphrases the old standby message to praise in public; criticize (when it’s absolutely necessary) in private.

     His emphasis on “accentuating the positive” [See also my Prentice-Hall Action Report article, “Theory A” (for “Attitude”)  published a decade earlier on the same topic] “build(s) positive behavior. It cannot be repeated enough: whatever behavior you recognize [positive, negative or ambivalent] will be reinforced” [and will produce more of the same]!

     So, the bottom line here is that if you are managing others and not getting what you want out of them, you must look first to your self. Ask yourself if you are paying more attention to scolding, belittling, and taking people to task than you are focusing on searching out the good behaviors and publicly rewarding those?

     I know a highly skilled healthcare practitioner and prominent researcher who maintains a “Wall of Shame” where he posts representations of every manner of employee screw-up, from dumb memos and emails to photos of his people caught in embarassing moments or doing the wrong things with patients. He laughs about it, and says his people all laugh at it too, that it’s become a “company culture kind of joke.”  

     Well guess what? The wall that started with 2-3 isolated pieces of incriminating paper is now covered with the evidence of a steady stream of bad behavior. And not only does that “company culture wall” speak for itself, so to speak, but so does this organization’s employee rate of turnover.

     People leave there–rapidly and happily–for lower paying jobs. Is he successful? His research is successful. As a businessman, and a professional, he’s earning just a small fraction of his potential… because his reputation for emphasizing the negative now precedes him.

     It’s a much easier, more enjoyable, and more productive thing to reward positive behavior than negative, and if you don’t agree, I’ll print out your comments and paste them on my wall!     

God Bless You and Good Night!  halalpiar  

Special thanks to my friend Doyle Slayton www.salesblogcast.com for the indirect inspiration   

 # # #

  CLICK ON  Posts RSS Feed FOR YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS BLOG
    ADD TO THE DAILY GROWING 7-Word Story started 188 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

No responses yet

« Prev - Next »




Search

Tag Cloud