Tired of Reality?

Ache for Fake?

Comes a time for every professional practice and business owner or manager to step up into the world of make-believe, and take a brain break from daily work realities and nightly reality TV.

I’m not talking a week in the islands or weekend at Disney World or some quality after-dinner minutes with kids or pets. These are all wonderful brain breaks recommended for every working human.

No, I’m talking about introducing a new ingredient in your daily schedule. You already read, right? But do you read right?

Are you filling your head with world news, industry news, market news, balance sheets, income statements, cash flow analyses, and all those advice articles: “How To Be A Better Leader”; “Saving Your Business From Financial Collapse”; “Why Motivating Customers AND Employees Is Like Juggling Seagulls”?

Ah, and even in the car, and late night TV, is it more business news?

Are you getting like one of those Washington DC-area C-Span junkies?

There is more to the world and more to your life than that. There is also more to your business than what you absorb from dwelling on business. And what might that be? Try INNOVATION!

Innovation doesn’t happen when you lock yourself up in a closet for a bunch of hours and suddenly come sweeping out with the magical answer (Note this analogy, those of you who retain creative services, which involves the same dynamic).

Innovation, it should be said, ONLY STARTS with a good idea. Ditch-diggers can come up with good ideas. For innovation to set in, you need a brain break!

Innovation means taking an idea

all the way through to fruition.

It requires comprehensive analysis of the product or service, the market, the competition, the creation and production options, the developmental costs and timelines, the human and operational resources needed, and so on and on, up to the point of launch countdown, and projections that go beyond that.

To foster and nurture innovation and innovative thinking requires a different mindset than is typically engaged on any given workday. The kind of free-spirited thinking that you evidenced when you started your business or professional practice or managerial job.

That attitude is not born of trade journals, online and traditional business media sources, or the rest of what you do every day!

Innovation comes about

from a mental shake-up!

It surfaces when you challenge yourself to look somewhere else besides the worlds of reality that cling to your shirtsleeves 5-7 days a week.

Yes, indulge yourself with travel and friend and family visits, and playing with your kids or pets (or the neighbor’s kids or pets). Take more photographs. Paint. Draw. Write. Get out of the rut.

One of the best ways to take this daily journey to increased productivity and innovative thinking is to do more reading — but not business stuff. Stop choosing excuses. Replace some of that reality overload with visits to fantasyland.

Go buy two FICTION books that look interesting to you. You might even find it surprising that you really CAN enjoy a novel. Set aside 20, 30, 60 minutes a day for it!

Anything from comics to Nelson DeMille’s serious humor stories, or Annie Proulx’s probes into America’s heartland, to Harry Potter books (you thought these were just for kids?), Richard Russo’s and Kent Haruf’s mainstream Americana stories, or a good mystery or suspense thriller. Just NOT business. And NOT nonfiction. And shelve the biographies and memoirs.

Your head needs to swim in make-believe. 

Do this conscientiously for just three weeks — your business cannot help but grow quicker and more brilliantly. Dangerous side effects: Your family, friends, and associates will actually enjoy being around you more. And (Aha!) less stress ( !) and new leadership opportunities!

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

931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Are you and your business

MARCHING or STUMBLING?

You’re a business owner or manager, right? So you rarely know if you’re coming or going, never mind marching or stumbling . . . or jogging for endurance . . . or, for that matter, running scared.

Probability is that these are merely indicators of the degree of rigidity and/or speed you move according to how wildly your entrepreneurial fires are burning. Hmmm, now there’s a thought-provoker.

And it doesn’t help much that we’re living in “The Whiplash Age.” I feel my neck snap back in astonishment almost every day as I hop, skip, and jump through the process of discovering emerging technology methods and products . . . and bamboozling ideas! 

Considering we’ve gone from blackboards and filmstrip projectors to greenboards and overhead projectors to whiteboards and 16mm film projectors to newsprint pads on tripods, video projectors, PowerPoint, virtual meetings, virtual offices, txtmsgs, Twitter, Facebook, and handheld electronic devices (not even to mention the audio metamorphosis of reel-to-reel, then 78rpm/33 1/3 rpm/45rpm vinyl records, to 8-track cassettes, pocket and mini-cassettes, CDs, DVDs, boomboxes, sattelite radio (whew!) . . . and from crank-ups to cell phones . . . WHERE are we going next?

Of course you should answer this for yourself, but you may get some ideas here: http://bit.ly/bDOOVf

What are you doing to keep pace? Is your business keeping up with your market? With your industry or profession? 

Perhaps you’re ahead of yourself? http://bit.ly/bWXxIq

Are you over-spending? Under-spending? Over-communicating? Under-communicating? Are you being taken advantage of by advertising agencies that claim to be Internet experts?

How about Internet specialists who claim to be marketing experts? Just because someone anoints him or herself as an SEO or web design guru, doesn’t automatically qualify as expertise in marketing.

In fact, odds are excellent that Internet savvy techies know next to nothing about marketing.

ASK.

Ask what any of these people know about the psychology of selling, about verbal and nonverbal communication, about how to deal with traditional media rate cards and package structures, about branding.

Ask when they last wrote a branding themeline that established a clear market leadership position.

Ask for examples of major sales boosts that could be attributable to their work.

Ask for specifics.

If you can’t get satisfactory answers to these questions, you may have the world’s greatest Internet expert in front of you, but don’t pay a penny for marketing services that do not clearly trigger your market’s emotional buying motives. http://bit.ly/bwkfdr

Look at it this way: If I haven’t a clue about what makes your customer tick, then I also have no clue about how to attract prospects for you, or create interest in what you have to sell, or know how to stimulate desire for your services or wares.

And if I can’t do those things, I certainly have no idea of how to bring about action or how to prompt and promote feelings of exceptional customer satisfaction. http://bit.ly/bMDGcy

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

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

 STOP telling everyone

how great you are,

and just BE great.

BE what you sell!

Forget about giving away too much. If you have a service to sell, stop talking about it, and start providing it!

The fastest road to a consulting assignment is the one where you simply start BEING a consultant.

Assume the role. Ask good questions and make diplomatic suggestions. Demonstrate your expertise. No need for overkill. Just give your prospect a taste of what you’re all about.

There are many dozens of produce markets in my State.

The one that gets the lion’s share of business is the one that greets you with fresh cut slices of the latest fruit shipment, or a cracker with some of that homemade jam they sell.

Or you get home and find a free onion or green pepper in the bag of string beans or potatoes you just bought.

Savvy retail price clubs and supermarket chains do the same “try it/taste it!” deal with packaged foods. Must be something to it, huh? When did you last turn down a free sample? When did you last offer one?

Did you think people don’t notice the freebies you give them? Do they rush to buy what you treat them to? Not always, but they’ll think better of you, and eventually, they’ll buy!

Sure, there are always freeloader types who hit and run whatever they can get away with, but the vast majority of us like to get a sample slice at the deli counter, a flavor sample scoopful at the ice cream store, free website redesign recommendations from the Internet consultant, free bookkeeping ideas from the accounting firm, and new revenue stream ideas from the marketing consultant.

When a prospective ad agency client asks for some creative ideas, and they get a well thought-out action plan supported by some targeted primary and secondary research as cornerstones to support the creative recommendations, the ad agency is going the extra mile to provide a sample of its range and thoroughness.

Oh, and yes, dear lawyers, it’s bad enough you charge clients for every fraction of a breath you take:  Bite the bullet when it comes to your “get-acquainted” prospective client interviews.

Charging people to size you up is not the way to start a relationship, and it matters a lot to most who might consider your services.

Doctors: When you’re seeking patients, grant them time to interview you without an office visit fee.

Showing prospective customers, clients, and patients a little bit of what you know is only part of making the sale. Showing them how you are as a person, how you relate to them and the needs they have, how you communicate with them is even more important.

Remember –especially with service and consulting businesses– to “chunk up” your recommendations.

Resist the temptation to come off like a know-it-all or to charge in with ten (or even more than one or two) pages of recommendations. Simply pace yourself and act yourself. Avoid pandering or patronizing.

If you do all this and don’t get the business you seek, it’s not business you want.  

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

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

VOTE TODAY

FOR YOU, YOUR FAMILY,

AND YOUR BUSINESS!

Support candidates who will 

implement REAL job creation 

tax incentives for America’s

entrepreneurs, who will step

up to override the President

and repeal “Obamacare” to

establish free-market health

care competition, who will

breathe life into the tax-and-

spend suffication of America’s 

small businesses. 

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

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY TODAY! Restore sanity to the tax and spend mentality that’s undermining and strangling America’s small businesses. Vote to move small business forward. History proves at every turn that thriving small business is the ONLY road to a thriving economy.  

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

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Big sales volume begins

 with courageous owners!

Company management that fails to deliver wholehearted commitment

to sales and marketing efforts to win new business

fails to win new business.

In my experience (with many hundreds of all-size businesses), the problem originates not with inferior marketing or sales. It is the product of the top people in the organization who have personal or leadership defects best characterized as ignorance, incompetence, or naivety.

What else could make people so threatened to justify keeping themselves at arms-distance?

Look at it this way: The marketing people develop a new creative approach for attracting  sales prospects that represents a new, possibly “outrageous,” departure from industry norms.

What they’ve come up with may seem a bit too risque or intrusive to top management, but it is well-supported by both primary (focus group study) and secondary (database evaluation) research that clearly reinforces the potential and appropriateness of the message and format.

Sales management loves it and can easily see the prospects of high impact. Yet something about the new approach makes the boss(es) nervous, and prompts a “Get back to the drawing board!” response.

The daring approach is inevitably scuttled in favor of something more tame and more in line with the boss’s(es’) gray-flannel-suits-with-white-shirt-and-dark-tie mentality.

This new toned-down approach fails. The marketing people are fired and the sales leader(s) –now shrouded in skepticism– are being kept around until less-rebellious replacements can be found.

Does any of this sound familiar? Of course it does. I can name a hundred companies off the top of my head that have failed or are presently failing solely because they have had indecisive, unimaginative, non-visionary, chicken-livered wimps in the driver’s seats . . . start with those that were innundated with bailout tax-dollars!

Weak-kneed, do-nothing, glad-handing, back-patting politicians are running this country at every level of government. Why should private business owners and managers be expected to simply not follow suit?

Isn’t it, after all, a whole lot easier to just not make waves? Isn’t it simpler to merely buy into the “blame game” instead of a “roll-up-your-sleeves-and-make-things-happen” leadership role?

You know what? Beside that we have a federal government with no business abilities or experience, it takes genuine courage to take reasonable risks in business. It takes genuine courage to act out beliefs that are based on facts and deductive reasoning and experience.

It’s a whole lot less work and aggravation to take the low road, to be a wussy spewing out meaningless messages of hope and change, to make mediocre decisions that produce mediocre marketing, which results in mediocre sales.

If you work for someone like this, get your resume updated. (Try www.classicresumes.com)

If you ARE someone like this, get yourself inspired. It’s a choice. Give yourself a day off, dress down, and visit some crowded places where you think your target-types of customers spend time (College or university campus? Hospital lobby? Grand Central Station? A boatyard? A racetrack? A stadium? A nursing home? A church or community event?)

Observe. Listen. Ask questions. Take notes. See what you can learn about the kinds of people you need most to reach with your sales message. Decide what you can do differently. Go back to work and dare to be different. You might surprise yourself!

 Support those who endorse free market competition healthcare and REAL job creation tax incentives for America’s entrepreneurs! 

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

 931.854.0474         Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM ECHOES…

“LAY-D-DEES AND

GENTLEMEN-MEN:

WELCOME TO THE

TWO-THOUSAND

AND-TEN-EN-N

WORLD-D-D SERIES

OF

BIZZZZ-NESS-ESS-ES-S!”

Imagine your staff and coaches (lawyer, accountant, banker, etc) lined up along the first base foul line as you’re introduced to a stadium filled with business professionals.

You salute to the crowd’s cheers as you jog out to homeplate, shake hands with the big-name muckity-mucks, then high-five each of your employees as you work your way along the line.

The Star-Spangled Banner. Back to the dugouts to get ready for the action. Then, it’s “PLAY BALL!” and off you go. 

So maybe you don’t think like that, and maybe you scowl and snigger, or shrug your shoulders in dismay or indifference at such fantasy. http://bit.ly/cX77gB

Because…you know in your heart that even if there was a Business World Series, your little company or home-based business wouldn’t get any closer to it than the ticket scalpers out front.

Well, first of all, don’t be so sure! Perhaps you and your staff are no match for the Texas Rangers or the San Francisco Giants, but the fact that you’ve even read this blog post this far speaks to more than your fortitude. It says things about you. It proclaims your commitment to your business. (Why else would you be here, now, dreaming about your business “team” playing it’s heart out on FOX, worldwide?) http://bit.ly/cCSo0V

Whether your business has already made it to “The Bigs” or is still on the way — or has lost its way — there is little difference in the amount of pride you must have for having accomplished what you’ve accomplished so far (yes, even if you’ve lost your way, which simply means you need a new map!).

Consider that you’ve taken your business through turbulent times, a string of humiliating losses perhaps, to arch rivals. The inability to make clutch hits and get those RISPs across the plate. Turmoil in the locker-room? Public scandal? Yet you’ve somehow survived it all, including cash crunch issues that devastated other teams.

You are still, even if barely, in one piece, doing business. By itself, that’s cause to celebrate. (Ginger ale instead of champagne?)

More important, though, is where you go from here, the paths you take, and how you work your way around stadium traffic-snarled detours to get to the next set of division and league playoffs en route to the next world series. Will you recruit from within your own farm system or go out and pay top dollar to get that hot-shot superstar you’ve always wanted on your team?

Will this be the year for new uniforms? Will you hold the line on ticket sales or offer more discounts to keep your customer-fan base? How much more charity can you afford? What to do with vendor union efforts to drive prices higher and unreasonable demands by player agents?

The more you think of your business as a serious championship contender, the more likely it is that it will be. 

What are some of the slogans? “Ya Gotta Believe!” and “We’ve Got No Place To Go But Up!” and “See You At The Top!” 

But the bottom line in sports and life and business is always the same:

SUCCESS IS THE JOURNEY

     . . . NOT THE DESTINATION!      

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

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY November 2nd. Vote  

to move small business forward . . . Support those

who endorse free market competition healthcare 

and job creation tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

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

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

WHASSUP, DOC?

Dear Doctor –

When I wrote DOCTOR BUSINESS© (the book, a 5-star Amazon selection), it was six years before the 9/11 that changed the world. It was at a time when medical and surgical skills were measured by case experience and mortality numbers, not “patient volume.”

Having survived the struggle to be allowed to practice medicine gave you what many called a “license to steal.” 

In the mid-90s, and before that, where you did your internship and residency actually mattered. Public outcries for better bedside manners were surfacing more frequently. The extent of your family’s wholesomeness or dysfunctionality was a much-admired or maligned affair. Your vacations were flamboyant.

With whom you played golf on Fridays was a measure of your community prominence.

You stuck up for other doctors even when they were wrong (and even those you didn’t like). Because doctors then were doctors. And while everyone around you watched and listened to you, even when you least knew it, and whether they liked you or not, you were never disobeyed.

In short, you were God. 

But all that has changed. Now there’s computerized rigmarole, electronic record-keeping, patient emails and texting, Google and Bing. There’s supposed to be less, but it seems now there’s more paperwork.

Your liability insurance premiums could choke a horse. Society’s contentious mindset chews up your precious time (you have no inventory, right?) in legal tangles.

And the bumbling federal government hasn’t even a clue about how to run healthcare, or the need for nurturing free-market competition in order for healthcare to survive as a profession.

Your professional practice and what’s left of your personal life are so dictated by know-nothing politicians that there’s not much room to wiggle free, except onto a shrink’s couch or into an early grave.

                                                            

Let’s face reality.

Like professional sports, medicine has become big business. The difference is that professional athletes have agents to handle their business needs. You have you, and you never learned business.

Maybe you’re entrepreneurially-minded, but it’s highly unlikely that you ‘ve developed enough expertise in finance, marketing, human resources, management, and customer service in addition to medical skills to make the final cut as a businessperson. Yet you are a businessperson. You might hate it, but it’s who you have to be in order to survive as a doctor.

This means you need to rely on others who are probably not as reliable as you. (Medicine does, after all, teach reliability.)

Here’s the bottom line:

You can find qualified and proven lawyers and accountants and marketing (practice development) experts (and, no, these are not people who deliver subs and popcorn and ethnic luncheons to referring physician offices!), and you can find a good leadership manager type to be your office manager or practice administrator, but if your grasp of human resources and human relations and customer service isn’t working, none of the other business helper arrangements will work.

Concentrate your business learning on strengthening your communication skills.

You don’t need to run for office. You need to facilitate having others run your office for you.   

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY . . . Support those

who endorse free market competition healthcare 

and job creation tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

____________________________________ 

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

It’s YOUR business, but

everything doesn’t have

to get done YOUR way!

One reason brand new and struggling old businesses fail is that the entrepreneurial founders feel like they have to do everything themselves, or else . . .

Or else WHAT? 

Or else it won’t get done right?  What is “right”?  Who says what is “right” and what is “wrong”?   

Are you really meaning to say that “No one else will do this task the way I would do it”? 

Start with this: It’s unlikely ANYone will ever do ANYthing exactly the way you do because no one else could possibly be as motivated as you, because it’s not her or his business.  It’s YOUR business. But there comes a time for trusting the babysitter.

So what’s the next best way to deal with things? Here’s some “SHOULD” reasoning . . .

If you’re lucky and have been careful in recruiting and hiring, you should be able to expect that someone else really is capable of doing whatever task that’s needed.

And that individual should be able to get it done in a manner that you should be able to live with (assuming that the end result is the same as it would have been had you done things your way). 

Ah, but, you know what? There are a lotta “shoulds” there!  If you can’t tolerate someone else’s method (assuming the other person’s time and expenses are not totally out of whack), you need to simply get on with doing the task yourself and not bitching about it. 

Of course if that’s the case, you need also to realize that you’ve stumbled onto a roadblock to your business’s growth: namely, YOU! (Hey, there’s another choice, btw: you can always turn your business over to someone else and just go get another life!) 

Let’s face it, delegating is not easy when you’re used to doing everything yourself, but your business can’t grow if you can’t get others to get the job done. It’s called leadership. And motivation. And trust. And transparency. And consistency.

Delegation requires encouragement, training, back-up support, and incentives. 

Small frequent rewards work wonders. 

So does a physical pat on the back for a job well done (regardless of whether it was accomplished in exactly the same way you would have done it or not), a handwritten note, recognition in a news release or on a plaque or certificate.

Cash, in other words, is not always the answer. A special bonus or reward that fits that person’s needs usually is. 

Only you can decide what motivates best and you can only do that by getting to know what makes each individual tick!  That means you need to get to know those who work for and around you well enough to help them achieve what’s important to them! 

Oh, one parting thought: You can delegate authority, but you can’t delegate responsibility! So don’t hand it all off and walk away. Stay tuned in. VOTE NOVEMBER 6, 2012.

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY

. . . Support those who endorse

free market competition healthcare 

and job creation tax incentives

for entrepreneurs! 

____________________________________ 

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“Oh, it’s Saturday night

  and I ain’t got nobody. 

I got some money cause

I just got paid…” 

You know that song? Are you singing it right now? Then you know what? Too bad you “ain’t got nobody,” but you’re a lucky boss because it’s not everyone these days who can say they’re getting paid.

If you’re not getting what’s owed you and you own or manage a business, there are other options besides law suits, bankruptcy, or hiring a couple of thugs from you-know-which-State.

This screwed-up economy being what it is, if you haven’t stepped back to re-visit your Accounts Receiveable policies and practices recently, maybe this coming week is a good time to jam an up-dated A/R assessment into your schedule.

You might start with an up-to-the-minute cash flow analysis so you have a sense of the shifting sands.

Next, take a good hard look at what your customer payment and credit arrangements are. Have you adjusted terms to both encourage sales and account for customer needs to avoid major lump-sum payments? Have you done this is a way that also allows you some breathing room? Take some deep breaths

HOW you explore this issue is influenced by the type of business you’re in.

Retail and wholesale operations do not have the same dynamics as manufacturing or B to B. (i.e., what works for a car dealership won’t work for a mattress manufacturer or an IT consultant.) 

Every business, though, has key customers.

And special allowances must be made for theses entities whether you’re drilling their teeth, constructing their townhomes, providing their office supplies or maintaining their insurance coverage.

Will your key customers fold or migrate to lower-priced competitors if you don’t extend them better terms? This need not mean lowering your prices, but it might mean extending payment time terms, or offering special incentives for timely payments. Can you go to a “baker’s dozen” with product sell offers, or with service hours? Take a lesson from construction guys.

Can you put more of a burden for collections on third party negotiators — your bank, finance company, credit and collection firms?  It may be less expensive to bite the bullet and pay for outsourcing help than to drag your staff people, who are inexperienced with the finesse needed to succeed at this task, away from the work they do best.

Careful if you opt in this direction . . . 

Insist that contracted people who actually connect by phone or letter or email treat your customers respectfully and courteously. Be sure you are in control of all interface scripts and personnel. Plant a “secret-shopper” or two on the list to gain a firsthand accounting of how your hired guns perform, and make sure they are honoring your sensitivities. They are contacting YOUR customers, not theirs. 

In their zealousness to earn their percentages, many collection organizations “rough-house” targeted debtors or unleash a barrage of annoying calls from (too often) non-English-speaking callers to the point of prompting backlash, instead of gaining cooperation. 

Okay, okay, I know. It IS Saturday night, after all. So go enjoy. But make a mental note for Monday to check out if the policies and practices you’ve been following are working for you or against you. The same can be said, by the way, for evaluating candidates, so:

HELP SAVE THE ECONOMY November 6th, 2012.

Vote to move small business forward… Support 

those who endorse free market competition and 

 job creation tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

____________________________________ 

302.933.0116    Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

 The “Inner Game”

of Covering Butts

There are three levels of political “game” playing in every business.

LEVEL I.  –WHOLESOME 

Most productive and well-intentioned among these three levels of business politics are what I call the WHOLESOME game players. Their agendas are comprised of earnest pursuits.

They are passionate about their lives and invested in making the most of their roles to nurture, enhance and grow the businesses that support them. They stimulate innovative thinking and healthy competition. They seek to make a difference.

They are leaders and team-players both. These are invigorating people who enjoy the daily challenges and opportunities of their lives and careers, who share and sweat and sacrifice to make a business work.

LEVEL II. –MANIPULATIVE  

On the flip side of business politics are the MANIPULATIVE game players. These are crafty, strategic-minded, self-indulgent “hallway hoverers” and “meeting Marxists.” They carry hidden agendas.

When they’re not busy disrupting or fostering disruption, they lurk in the shadows, watching and listening and figuring out how to fold what they learn into what they can use for themselves. Government and quasi-government agencies are–like tape-edged mattresses to bedbugs–breeding grounds for manipulative games and players

These are insecure people who do everything possible to undermine and inhibit others, who never hesitate to cut quality and value corners, who expend inordinate amounts of time and energy covering their butts, and raising their own flags.

LEVEL III. –MALLEABLE 

The word of choice here is malleable. It means easily taught or managed (also, easily hammered, which is significant). The MALLEABLE game players are really non-gamers, but will go with the wind as it best seems to suit them on any given day.

They aim to please, but not make waves. In a room full of foul language, off-color stories, sexist or racist remarks, they will quietly nod and smile just enough to not stand out. They will also work their tails off when motivated by a WHOLESOME game player. 

These are the people who comprise the majority of America’s workforce.

Like following the motivational applications of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (by rewarding others at the place in time, and at the level of personal needs that they will most respond to), you –as the business owner or manager– must be a detective to be an effective leader. You need to ferret out those whose self-serving behaviors are threatening to flush away your hard-earned business success.

And, by the way, if your business is still alive and kicking through this pathetic economy, it IS a “success”!

How to get started? If you are in the LEVEL I group above, you are already well on the way.

You would do well though to refresh your brain with some Google or Bing searches of Maslow’s Hierarchy and dig into the structure and meaning of it. Measure what you know about each person involved with you, and decide current need levels for each. Reward their efforts accordingly. Often, a news release or car servicing works better than cash! (And remember that need levels can change daily, even hourly!) 

As you stumble into individuals who appear unaffected by your efforts, spend talk time with them to confirm or deny the evidence. If the investment in getting a person on track is worthwhile, go FOR it. If not, let go OF it!

[If you want a little coaching with this, or have a particularly sticky staff issue, give me a call.]

You can save the economy by helping to move small business forward . . . Support those who support free market competition healthcare and job creation tax incentives for entrepreneurs! 

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302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

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 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

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