A smack

alongside the head,

a kick in the butt, or

cash under the table…

are not always

the best motivators!

     Yesterday we resurrected Abraham Maslow’s “Heirarchy of Needs” to explain the compelling backdrop to his definitive theory of motivation, and provide some practical examples. Maslow’s Theory essentially says that effective (i.e., satisfying and productive) motivation occurs only by understanding, measuring and rewarding individuals at the specific need level each represents at any given point in time.

     I suggested the best way to accomplish this is to “be a detective” in order to determine where someone is “coming from” and what it is that best makes her or him “tick.” This, I noted, is particularly important because (except for those with unhealthy emotional burdens) we all tend to change need levels with some regularity, and often instantaneously, depending on circumstances.

For those not connected to Miami CSI or Law & Order, I recognize this detective task can seem daunting to say the least, because you simply may not want to expend the energy or approach the point of intimacy that may be required to determine, for example, a particular employee’s need level.

     So, like many of life’s choices, you must decide how important it really is for you to motivate someone in a manner that is most meaningful and appreciated by that individual, which of course means that it is also most productive for your business.

     If you and your business are in fact heartily invested in a person’s performance and general well-being, you will want to explore the idea of putting Maslow’s Theory to work.

     The most important and effective first step in this process is for you to get better focused on what makes YOU tick! When you are able to figure out your own need level history and movements, you will be putting yourself in a better position to maximize the potential and loyalty of others.

     How to do this: Consider joining a personal and professional development growth group. Many of these cater to business owners and managers who share similar concerns. If you’re not uncomfortably threatened by the idea of it and can afford it, try attending a group therapy session; these can be enormously healthy and helpful experiences if you stay focused on what you can learn about yourself. Or simply take a course in photography or painting or sculpting or creative writing or crafts or pottery. 

     Take advantage of every opportunity to learn more about your SELF . . . who you really are, deep down. Attend self-development conferences and workshops. Read. Try writing a memoir or –an even better (and quicker) exercise that most people find revealing to say the least, write your own obituary.

     See what you can learn about you, about how you respond (or react) to different issues, incentives, people, places, situations. There is no right or wrong here. There is only exploring and learning. Then application. Apply what you find out about what it takes to motivate yourself, and –from that informed perspective– begin to do what it takes to keep the best people on your team.  

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Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

What are you waiting for?

“Annnnny-daaay, noow . . .”

The once famous bank commercial mocking out competitors for their loan waiting times seemed appropriate. How much time did you spend waiting today? How much of that time was a total waste? 

WE WAIT AT, AND IN: lines, offices, reception rooms, hallways, cars, trucks, construction sites, showrooms, restaurants, parks, parking lots, airports, taxi stands, bars, elevators, boardrooms, alcoves, bathrooms, meetings, conference rooms, the water cooler, fax and copy machines, roach coach, training centers, message centers, traffic, bridges, trains, busses, hospitals, airplanes, taxi’s, garages, food lines, courtrooms, examination rooms, visitation rooms, toll booths, ticket counters, lobbies, check-out counters, subway stations, ferries, zoos, concerts, planetariums, sporting events, banks, drive-in pharmacies and fastfood windows, doorways, road construction lanes, and 487,000 others.

AND WE WAIT FOR: bosses, clients, doctors, lawyers, co-workers, underlings, salespeople, associates, lunch dates, online connections, conference calls, on-hold, dinner dates, traffic, bridges, trains, busses, airplanes, taxi’s, breakfast dates, coffee breaks, lunch whistles, clocks, scheduled events, calendar pages, waiters and waitresses, deliveries, contractors, news, alarms, prisoners, bankers, seminars, meetings, accountants, patients, families, friends, people who beat us to the bathroom, and 269,000 others.

AND WHILE WE WAIT, WE SUFFER FROM:

• ANTICIPATION.
• ANXIETY.
• WORRY.
• ANGER.
• EMBARASSMENT.
• EXPECTATIONS.
• DISAPPOINTMENT.
• STRESS.
• INSULT: BEING “STOOD UP” OR FORGOTTEN.

     And what do you DO when you’re thrown into that jungle described above? What did you do today in delay? And don’t try to excuse yourself with some haste makes waste explanation because I know that you know that each of the bullet items above is a CHOICE! The only thing that makes waste is waste. Waiting time is valuable.

     HOW ABOUT CHOOSING FOR THE WAITING TIME TO BE HAPPY AND PRODUCTIVE TIME, AND USE IT TO: Write? Take notes? Take pictures? (I met a guy created a complete photo essay while standing on line at the post office, and actually published it!) Text Message? Make phone calls? Plan? Follow-up? Research? Read? Make contacts? Make contracts? Network? Study?

     Can you, in other words, do something more constructive with your valuable time here on earth than to stare like a zombie at some waiting room TV tuned to some negative news network? Just because you have to wait, doesn’t mean you sacrifice your humanity for sheepdom.

     Always carry pen and paper and/or laptop and/or tape recorder and/or camera and/or a book you’re reading and/or a cell phone and/or some luggage to put all that stuff in . . . and don’t forget the umbrella and parachute . . . hey, ya never know! 

     Some action, remember, is always better than no action . . . unless “action” to you means smoking, drinking booze, eating candy bars, snorting or shooting up drugs, punching/biting/kicking, stabbing, shooting, or bank robbery.  

     And you may think, like the song, that “My time is your time,” but it’s not! Because you only ever have NO time or LOTSA time, or ANYtime, or SOMEtime, or have been having a HIGH time for a LONG time. Oh, right, there’s America’s PASTtime, which is a great way to PASS time in the SUMMERtime or SPRINGtime, but seldom in the WINTERtime.

     If all that’s not enough for you, remember that “Time and tide wait for no man.” (No mention of women in that philosophy so it must be because women have “THAT” time), and then there’s “He who hesitates is lost” (which most men are!). Okay? Okay. Later.  halalpiar     

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HERE’S YOUR CHOICE…

___YES, before I do Hal’s (free) 60-second, 4-step

stress solution, I want to read a little bit about stress!

Okay, skip over the NO choice below and the link line under that, and read a little bit first. Then you can come back up to the link anytime you like as you absorb all these great stress factoids that follow. 

___NO, I’m wired and I don’t want to read anything. Just 

   give me Hal’s (free) immediate 60-second magic NOW! 

Okay, here you go.  You get it right here on this site by simply clicking www.halalpiar.com/?page_id=35  When it works for you, please send others here for a dose –friends, family, associates, neighbors, lovers, enemies– anyone who you would like to see be more relaxed and have better control of themselves and their lives. And of course please come back and visit again soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     STRESS does not come from outside you. It is something you produce inside your body by the way you choose to react or respond to people, places, events, behaviors, and things (like a difficult person, an unpleasant environment, a boss’s frown, a car that won’t start, or an overdue bill).

     STRESS is positive as well as negative. STRESS is necessary for getting out of bed in the morning and for doing the tasks we do every day…even for reading this sentence right now! But too much stress becomes physically, mentally, and emotionally unhealthy. It is the most serious drain of human productivity in our lifetime.

     EACH OF US experiences OVERstress in different ways. Some get headaches. Some get stomachaches. “knots” or “butterflies”. Some get back pain…tightness of the neck and shoulders, legs or chest. Some eat too much. Some drink too much alcohol. Some smoke too much. Many get high blood pressure. Most who get high blood pressure also get other ailments, diseases, emotional disorders, or set themselves up for accidents and, all too often, heart problems.

     MOST OF THE BREATHS we tend to take most of the time are too shallow. If you can breathe more deeply and more often every day, you will think more clearly, perform more confidently, feel more relaxed and be assured of achieving maximum productivity more often. You will be healthier. You will be more in control of your feelings, your actions, your circumstances.

     YOU WILL BE more of the person that you’re capable of being that you’ve always wanted to be (and be happier at it)! Pretty good stuff, huh? It truly is. So, now, go back to the top of this post and click on the link and get started NOW making stress work FOR you!    halalpiar

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DON’T FISH OFF

COMPANY DOCKS!

     This old warning from my first boss about 2,000 years ago is another of those moralistic admonitions that stands as true and tall today as it did then, maybe even more so.  It is virtually (and probably literally) impossible to conduct business as usual, when you’re dating your cubical mate, or “fellow secretary” (hmmm) or the boss’s brother or sister (actually, mother, in one example I heard of)!

     It never seems like it could possibly be a problem (HA! Have you been following this season’s “24”?) until it becomes a problem.  On-the-job sexual relationships threaten everyone on the job.  The ripples (and occasionally shock waves!) can compromise more than just participant integrity.  How about the integrity of a nation, Mr. Clinton?

     Is this advice rightfully proclaimed “sexist” in and of itself?  Well, you know, certain stereotypes, like certain examples of police profiling, exist for a reason.  “Brokeback Mountain” aside, we rarely if ever hear about tough guys getting it on.  I mean, when was the last time you saw two construction workers tongue kissing or holding hands at lunch hour?

     On the other hand (pun intended), the career environments and lifestyles of healthcare and hospitality industry professionals–particularly doctors, nurses, therapists, hotel/motel managers and housekeepers–provide the makings of a breeding ground for on-the-job sex. 

     Where else are workers surrounded by beds, working in close quarters and dealing with physical contact and physical needs?  Where else do workers take breaks in co-ed locker rooms and linen closets.  And aren’t these all people who work exceptionally long hours often under high stress? 

     With The Corporate Communicator ezine (free via www.bonmotcomms.com) telling us that “the demand for transparency is at an all-time high,” don’t we need to step back a minute and see that “TRANSPARENCY” in business means EVERYTHING in business?  

     Transparency is not a limiting concept.  Rather it suggest a notion that is all-encompassing.  Obviously, intimate relationships with people at work is as much a part of that as a business’s ability to deliver the products and services that it says it is delivering  

     Knowing where to look for what and for whom at any given moment on any given job is a wonderous thing.  And of course there are always exceptions, but at a time when jobs are at a premium, it’s not likely to be in anyone’s best interests to be looking for sex in all the wrong places, y’think?     halalpiar  

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Okay, workout freaks, listen up!

     Lifting every day for 3 hours a day is sick.  Running 5-10 miles a day every day is sick. 

     And those are just for openers on the physical front.  Mental and emotional compulsions are just as bad.  

[First of all, if you are one of these maniacal types, you’ve already clicked off to some body-building or aerobics site by now anyway, so –we should be down to those who have just been thinking about, or considering, doing all that lifting or running or whatever other form of exercise that occupies equal blocks of time, effort and attention.  And that’s a good thing because –for you– there is still hope!]

     For openers, you should know that I don’t hate exercise.  I play softball (mostly second base) 2-3 times a week, all year long.  I do stretching and isometric exercises for an hour every day, seven days a week.  I walk two dogs every morning and every night (well, okay, night walks are quickies) and I hustle up and down 16 stairs 7-10 times a day, more on weekends. 

     I used to run 5-10 miles every day – rain, snow, ice, heat – 365 days a year for ten years, so I know from compulsion.  Yes, back problems from road running eventually forced me to the 3 S’s (softball, stairs and stretching).

     Here’s the thing: When you exercise ANYthing (your body, your mind, your emotions) on a compulsive basis, where you get the guilties for missing one day, you are functioning in such an overdrive mode that you are throwing your body, mind, and emotions out of whack! 

     You are creating discord, stress, and imbalance for yourself. 

     You cannot function as a whole person when part of you

commandeers the rest of you. 

     How out of touch with reality are many world-class athletes?  Do you really think they live happy lives?  How out of control is your work ethic if you are consumed by fitting in your three-hour workout every day?  What kind of social life can that possibly leave you? 

     What is the push all about?  What exactly are you trying to prove?  To whom?  Don’t you think it’s worth exploring ways to live a more well-rounded existence?  Where do you think compulsive exercise behaviors will take you in life?  Is that really where you want to go? 

     If you own or manage your own business, or think of yourself as an entrepreneur, you need to maintain health and fitness but find other outlets for yourself.  The world’s greatest authorities on fitness all agree that three serious 20-minute workouts (even brisk walks) a week should be enough for most anyone to maintain good health and fitness levels. 

     I don’t pretend to be a fitness expert or to suggest what is best for you, but I will tell you that –for me– regular exercise in moderation keeps me happier and healthier and more in touch with myself, and sharper in business than I ever experienced through my ten years of compulsive running.  halalpiar

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A doctor is a doctor is a doctor. 

So why should you expect the doctor to be a lawyer? 

     There are some who are both, of course (like from personal experience, I think there are probably also dentists who moonlight as plumbers!), but training and experience usually dictate expertise.  You’re not likely to find a physician handling tort reform, class action suits, or wills, real estate and corporate law. 

     With the same reasoning then, why should a doctor be expected to understand and practice sound customer service principles?  Because physicians are not simply technicians working on car engines.  They are, as we who have been patients know all too well, dealing with human beings. 

     And there is, though some doctors have yet to notice, a difference between machines and bodies.

     Okay, so medical school doesn’t much emphasize the importance of bedside manners, but it doesn’t take a whole lot of living life (even IF it’s been mostly in a medical closet) to appreciate that physicians are rightfully expected to be compassionate and understanding and empathetic enough to help their patients cope and rise above difficult physical and emotional pain and ailments. 

     Don’t you think?  So what makes it okay for any of us to sell or market products and services to others without taking enough interest in the buyers to check back with them?  Why is it not important for us to make sure our customers are STILL pleased with their purchases? 

     Why do we think doctors shouldn’t get away with ignoring our humanness, but it’s not a problem to sell someone something and then push them out the door or over the cliff and dismiss them from our lives?  Do we think there’s no chance they’ll ever return?  That they won’t tell anyone else to visit us? (or not?!) 

     When I was a college teacher on the Jersey Shore, I referred to this way of thinking as “boardwalk mentality” because tourists could be sucked into anything on the boardwalk while they were there vacationing and treating themselves and their families to some good times . . . and they’d be gone in a week and never return anyway . . . or if they did, they’d never remember getting ripped off, so screw’em!

     Well, besides the fact that those days have gone, that even boardwalk concessions are more customer-conscious, and that doctors and lawyers (well, okay, not lawyers) have become more patient satisfaction savvy, many sales and marketing people still avoid customer service followup calls. 

     They do so at their peril, and naively thinking it’s not costing them repeat sales.  It is.  And will eventually (sooner rather than later) cost them a job.  A word to the wise . . .                       halalpiar 

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Dwelling on the past

…is emotionally unhealthy, but a short visit there

can help your future planning and present focus!

     Let’s go back to this past Friday for a minute.  [See Friday, 2/13/09 blog post below for details]. 

     A number of you have asked whether my Twitter-contact talk-radio host Dan Gaffney in his Friday morning broadcast of my situation (with a children’s book manuscript I edited and my lost contact information for the author) actually produced anything. 

     Well, as most everyone who knows me knows, I am not often in praise of the media (though it’s mostly  “mainstream” media I’m critical of for taking advantage of human frailties and emotions simply to stir up sales by using disparaging and exaggerated reports that are totally subjective, often completely false and –more frequently than not– highly manipulative).  There.  Had to say that.  I feel better now. 

     Now on to “The Good Media.”  Most local media (though it certainly is not beyond also being misguided) at least tends to feature on-air and technical professionals who –to me– always seem to be warm, endearing, concerned, community-minded, straightforward and engaging local personalities. 

     And whenever they do have political axes to grind, they at least approach the task with a sense of care, compassion, and craftsmanship that we would never see from major media moguls.

     Anyway, Dan Gaffney is one of those good media guys.  And his loyal listener base, I have discovered is as responsive as it is huge.

     After my not being able to locate my promising, estranged, young author since Thanksgiving, Dan Gaffney produced the “lost” author’s business name and cell phone number, and put it into an email for me within an hour after he finished his show. 

     I called the number.  The author and I had a joyful telephone reunion (I got his home number too this time) and we’ve scheduled a meeting Wednesday evening.  Thank you all for the nice and encouraging comments and inquiries.  And thanks again, Dan for the assist. 

Why can’t network TV and big-time newspaper people have some of these fine qualities?  It’s called being authentic.      halalpiar      

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Others are not living

in your shoes…

     When your business is struggling is not the time to be joining hands with other struggling businesses.  It’s time to bail out and back off all your good-intention, admirable community do-gooder projects before they end up flushing you down the tubes and out of existence.  There comes a time when you need to muster your forces to be able to come from a position of strength.

     Clinging to involvements with borderline business value when your business is suffering, for example, simply because they’ve gained you a reliable, responsible reputation in your town or county –and you’re reluctant to let anyone down who’s counting on you– is just plain stupid!  

     The local chamber of commerce and Rotary Club and Kiwanis and Little League managed just fine before you got involved and they will survive economic downturn times because someone will always run to the rescue.  But, if your business is sliding rapidly downhill, and you’re starting to worry about upcoming meals, get off the public service merry-go-round and tend to your own needs until you are back on your feet. 

Is what I am doing this very minute

leading me to where I need and want to go?

. . . is the first question you must ask yourself. 

And, once I get to where I need and want to go, will I then be in a better position to contribute even more time, money, and effort to achieving the community goals that my present pursuits alone are draining from me and my business?

. . . is the second question to answer.

     Don’t be worried about what others will think.  Others are not living in your shoes.  Others are always quick to drain your resources when they don’t want to contribute their own.  No one will fault you for doing what you have to do to survive. 

     And in this economy, you need not feel ashamed or embarassed.  Instead, feel smart that you are taking proactive steps to make yourself better and put youself in a position to be able to contribute more to your community.  Others will be much happier to see you return a year down the road and come roaring back into the organization running on all cylinders. 

     Tuck in your tail.  Realize that the best thing you can do to help others is to help yourself first so you can be in a position of strength to reach out to those who need it, instead of offering your hand while you are standing on thin ice yourself.  Take a sabbatical and work to restore the solidity of your business foundation.     halalpiar

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“Opportunityville” . . .

every entrepreneur’s weekend! 

     Prowling America’s corporate halls on Fridays still produces an eerie aura of management abandonment and employee lethargy.  Given that weekends in this country now seem to start on Thursdays, the fact is that Fridays have become a sharp thorn in the side (poke in the eye?) to 9-5’ers who can’t sprint from their offices to their weekend festivities fast enough! 

     “HA!” you exclaim, “Good riddence to bad garbage!” you rudely proclaim.  Why?  Because YOU are an entrepreneur! 

     You started, or are in the process of starting (or probably both), your own business and you are TGIFing all over the place because now (FRIDAY!) starts the best time of the week to get some productive work done. 

     For the first time since last Sunday night, you have wrangled your way through 50 or 60 hours of sweat equity without financial disaster or customer base collapse, and have now earned the blessed arrival of 5pm Friday when –like living a dream– you can finally work for two whole days more with no interruptions. 

     It’s time to followup, catchup and plan (sounds like a law firm!).  Weekends, to you, are Opportunityville! 

     At last there’s no one around to bother you.  It’s your chance to think through how you’re going to shoot your business out of the cannon Monday morning . . . or how you’re going to open your 27th business while you keep juggling businesses 21 through 26.  (1-20 are either running on their own or –more likely– folded or sold or squandered or lost, but big-time learned from). 

     That’s okay.  It is, you know, what entrepreneurs do best is learn from their mistakes, get up and dust themselves off, and plunge back into things from a different direction. 

     Imagine what a solid strong economy we’d have today if corporate and government executives who are floundering around in their vast sea of incompetency could do what entrepreneurs do! 

     But asking them to learn is really asking too much.  It would after all fly in the face of their instincts to believe that they need only repeat what failed, again and again, until it eventually succeeds, which of course it doesn’t. 

     If you just clicked on this post and are reading this because you were perhaps thinking about igniting those deep-seated entrepreneurial fuses that you think you have because you had a lemonade stand as a kid, and you were thinking that this whole life pursuit direction seems glamourous, think again.

     Being an entrepreneur means being committed.  It means your business will be your spouse.  It means you may be living for your business more than your family.  Always?  No, but neither does it always rain (unless you’re in Ireland, where you carry your raincoat as often as your wallet!). 

     As an entrepreneur, you must be prepared to think, then act (vs. corporate tendencies to think, then think, and think again) every day . . . and especially on weekends! 

     TGFE = Thank God For Entrepreneurs!  Without them, we’d have zero jobs and no economy whatsoever!  Now, if we could just get government decision makers to make some decisions that assist small business in creating real and meaningful job growth . . .   halalpiar         

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The secret of college is

in learning how to learn.

Make your kids work to earn at least part of their college education.  Even if you can afford it, don’t give them free college, especially business majors!  They won’t appreciate it, and no matter how great their grades may end up because they are unencumbered from having to work, the odds are they will fail in business.  Disagree?  Read on.

First of all, this advice is coming to you from a former two-time business professor-of-the-year and student work internship program director who is also an entrepreneur (having helped start hundreds of successful new businesses) on top of solid Fortune 500 corporate experience.

At some point your college-bound son(s) and/or daughter(s) will have to face the reality of the need to gain real-world work experience.  Sooner is better than later.  And, in fact, it’s been my experience that those who hold jobs while attending college tend to be universally better performers both in class and on the job.  

Most college and university internship or cooperative education programs produce vastly superior students AND better workplace candidates.  Why?  Because nothing in any business textbook or computer program can come close to the value of hands-on experience gained on a factory floor, a retail store, a business or professional practice office, a showroom, studio, warehouse, or any form of sales.

Be aware that in today’s and the foreseeable future’s business climate (unless a college graduate is headed toward a career in law or medicine or allied medical sciences), college grades matter to absolutely no one except maybe the students and maybe the parents.

Recruiters and hiring interviews are more focused today on candidate answers to open-end questions.  How someone handles herself/himself on his or her feet (and has shown the ability to apply on-the-job experience to the classroom and vice versa) is light years more important than what an individual memorized in a management course, or than reiterating what is already on the person’s resume.

The truth is most business employers prefer an ambitious 2.5 GPA graduate with good communication and social skills who worked his or her way through college in a sales or office or manufacturing position, than a 4.0 GPA graduate with zero real-world work experience, who mumbles, shakes hands like a fish, and can’t look you straight in the eye.  That shouldn’t be surprising.  Wouldn’t that be your preference too?          

Sorry to burst bubbles here, but the secret of college is not being able to ace tests in accounting, finance, management, marketings, sales, advertising, economics, retailing, promoting, packaging and pricing, public relations, Internet business, etc. 

At least two truisms support this platform: 1) There are no rules in business.  Business moves forward by experience and innovation, not formulas, 2) The secret of college is in learning how to learn.  Subjective teacher ratings are far less important than having learned how to learn.

If you’re sending your kids off to college to learn business, let them prove to themselves that they can earn business learning by working while they learn.  The ROI is better for all involved.  

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