Archive for the 'Small Business' Category

Sep 26 2011

Your Balancing Act

Operating

                        

a small business in 

                                         

times of personal trouble…

                                                              

 

The most frequent consulting calls I get are from business owners who are experiencing personal emotional trauma, and who are trying to either ignore or bull their way through the upsets without acknowledging them.

Many talk and act as if they’re sizing up my marketing experience, but what they really want to know is if I can help them personally.

They throw little test questions out: “Uh, have you ever worked with partners who don’t always get along?” or “Have you had to deal with older family members who started a business, then turned it over to younger relatives?” or “How would you increase sales in a business where the boss’s wife had alcohol or drug problems?”

Some, of course, cut right to the chase: “I just got out of rehab and still have panic attacks, but nobody else can run the business; what can you do to help?” or “My partner is the money behind this business, and he’s an idiot and we’re on the verge of breaking up; can you help pick up our sales while we divorce?”

I have a little reminder note pasted on my workstation:  Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.” You may have to become as old as I am to really appreciate the truth of this, but if you ARE less than 150, I can assure you that truer words were never spoken.

And there’s no discrimination that disallows business owners. We all carry our own burdens through life. How we strike a balance with the businesses we run makes the difference between success and failure. Dealing effectively with the whole mess, time after time, depends on how effectively we balance our own emotions.

Dismissing, or disregarding the reality of what we face accomplishes nothing, and often makes things worse. Jumping headlong into upsets is a get-screwed-up-quick formula that can wreak havoc on both the business and your personal life. Balance means holding the ship steady through stormy weather regardless of preferences.

In other words, this isn’t football,

and acting headstrong can get

 us sacked on the one-yard line 

                                                    

We need to be able to put aside our emotional attachments; we need to be able to let go of some of the ties that bind. We need to accept that we don’t always have all the answers and be willing to go with the flow when problems overwhelm us. Can it be God or an inner spirit challenging us to rise to the occasion? Is it a test of your mettle?

“If you can get through this, you can get through anything,” my wise old uncle used to say, but he never mentioned that there would be a least hundreds of “this” times.

Life is about challenge. So is entrepreneurship. Just make sure you keep your personal life in balance with your family and those around you. If you stand tall in troubled waters, the business will heal itself. Where to start? Try some deep breathing for openers, and then begin to sort out and prioritize before you take action.   

 

# # #

FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Sep 25 2011

Obama’s America

Here’s Mr. O’s idea of business . . . 

 

Everyone gives all the

 

                                      

shirts off their backs

 

                                

to everyone else. Hard

 

                             

work and individual

 

                                 

initiatives count for

 

                                  

nothing.

 

Sorry, Mr. O, but –speaking as a long established advocate of entrepreneurship and small business– we the 30 million small business owners of America have had enough!

Yes, we are the same 30 million people you refuse to acknowledge . . . the same 30 million who made this economy thrive before you came on the scene and made a mountain out of President Bush’s molehill. We are the same 30 million people who hold the key to new job creation and economic turnaround.

Yet, STILL, you refuse and resist us because your empty, naive, ill-conceived crusade to sell out our heritage in exchange for Europe’s failing Socialism is your last desperate attempt to get re-elected. The trouble is, Mr. O, that your political games cannot speak to the realities of life, nor to pulling ourselves out of incipient bankruptcy.

You, Mr. O, “The Emperor With No Clothes,” have falsely led our nation straight into a nearly irreversible economic quagmire of historic proportions, and small business owners have been the victims.

Honest, hard-working people have been victimized into unemployment lines.

Children have been misled.

Seniors are threatened.  

                                                          

Even those who bought into your oratory to elect you, are running scared. The Great Obama Deptression is on the doorstep, knocking. It is no longer a myth. And you are the force behind all the unnecessary pain and suffering. Yet, you continue STILL to unmercifully and relentlessly push the steamroller over small business enterprises.

But, you know what, Mr. O?The reason small businesses exist in the first place is because of the freedom our unappreciated military provides 24/7 — the brave young men and women who serve us, to whom you give only token photo op and sound bite attention– and because of America’s indestructible entrepreneurial spirit!

No matter how hard you try— you can never destroy entrepreneurship. New businesses continue to arise every day, even from the rubble your policies create. Entrepreneurial spirit will continue to grow in spite of all your efforts to suppress it.

Every step you take to kill the free market capitalism that built this country to start with, will be met with even more free market capitalism efforts and resistance. It will continue to emerge and be rebuilt again once the November 6, 2012 election ousts you from the national stage once and for all.

Only then, will we 30 million American small business owners exhale and get back to the business of kicking the framework out from under your delusional healthcare efforts and pathetic international relations programs. Only then will we see a nation restored to true leadership and purpose that serves ALL the people.

In case you may have missed it, your sadly misguided administration has been so preoccupied catering to your voter constituencies, it has missed the majority, who are no longer remaining silent.

Your 11/6/12 loss will come from your own lack of leadership and your focus on politics instead of government.

Your loss will be from building dependencies at all costs.

Good luck with your support base of illegal immigrants, Welfare roll recipients, union thugs, screaming nutcase left-wing liberals, Hollywood braindeads, and –sadly, but true and unspoken– black Americans who now see that you are not a savior after all. (You never could fill Dr. King’s shoes anyway!)

Mean-spirited babble? No. It’s the truth. It’s how history books will see your one-term destruction and the downfall of business which undermined your mismanagement of the economy. Small business will rise again and lead America out of the financial quicksand that you brought with you to the White House.    

# # #

FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed 

Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Sep 22 2011

METICULOUSNESS

“Detail” Counts

 

Big Time In 

 

Small Business

 

My first employee review in my first real job accused me of not liking or tending to detail. Decades later, I still don’t like it or tend to it, except as absolutely required by clients, the IRS, or a book manuscript or marketing program that demands it. And even then, I still don’t like it.

After all, how can creative spirit flow freely

 with “detail anchors” weighing it down?

                                                                   

And, it seems when I look back, that entrepreneurs and small business owners of every conceivable description, similarly hate having to deal with detail. Yet, meticulous attention to detail is what often makes a small business become a big business. At every level: finance and operations as well as marketing and sales.

By listening carefully (vs. just hearing) to what customers and prospects say they REALLY want, you engage yourself in the world of providing detail, and the better you do at it, the better you will invariably do at not just servicing, but delighting each person and entity that you confront.

Detail –except in word choices and design applications– is not generally an area that commands great attention from those who provide creative services.

Attention to detail is most typically the milieu of those who provide accounting and legal services, intricate products, operational equipment, and safety-oriented products.

                                        

This doesn’t mean you need to be a bean counter, brain surgeon or rocket ship c0mponent manufacturer to justify the need for attention to detail. In fact, the further away from these “expected” areas of business a customer or prospect encounters what you have to offer, the more likely you are to have positive impression opportunities.

Why? Because most people don’t expect a roofer or plumber, or dog groomer, graphic illustrator, a self-proclaimed SEO or social media  “expert,” or shoelace salesman, to be able to support product and service claims with hard evidence and factual findings –details– that boost and solidify the sales message. 

Details are what drive home the emotionally-triggered sale by providing the objective, factual, unemotional supportive features that purchasers use to justify their decisions to themselves, their spouses, their boss’s, their partners, their associates, employees, shareholders.

Details may not always be fun. But –in every sale, they prevail! Do you? Are you supporting claims with facts? Attention to detail means attention to customers and prospects . . . a practice you can never go wrong with!  

# # #

FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US  302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Sep 21 2011

Multi-Tasking

It’s the middle name for

 

 

most entrepreneurs, but

 

 

is it the source of

 

 

real solutions?

 

Multi-tasking —as in walking post haste to the men’s or ladies room, chewing gum, texting your accountant while cell phone conferencing your lawyer and signing off on a major customer delivery form on a clipboard being held by your assistant . . . and all the time knowing that in just a matter of seconds, you’re going to need at least one hand free.

Yes, entrepreneurs live in the fast lane, and yes multi-tasking is a way of life for the small business owner. But does the end always justify the means? Surely you’ve heard more than once from a filled-with-wisdom grandparent type that “Haste Makes Waste!” and have no doubt proven the truth of that to yourself a few times, true?

But now you have passed all recollection of those life experiences into the deep, dark, dingy caverns of your mind and no longer carry the need to heed such warnings anywhere near your front burner, and in fact probably harbor them back in that little storage area that holds memories of a flunked course, a failed romance and poor toilet training when you were three.

Though –aha!– the more you try to do in a hurry, the more likely you are to screw something up. Why? Because it’s been scientifically proven many times over that the human brain (though many protest the thought with what they believe to be contradictory examples) cannot do more than one thing at a time, meaning in the exact same moment.

Unconvinced?

Sit in a chair.

  • Lift your feet off the ground. turn your ankles so your feet make small circles (any direction you like — one in one direction and the other in another, or both in the same direction; it doesn’t matter).

  • Next, get your hands moving in sync by turning your wrists.

  • When you start feeling like a well-oiled machine, try to reverse direction with your hands while maintaining the original direction your feet have been moving. Or switch and reverse foot direction from your hands.

The point is that multi-tasking may look impressive to others who are easily impressed, but don’t expect that any kind of steady diet of trying to do more than one thing at a time is going to produce some miraculous level of off-the-charts productivity to write home about.

It is not better to do half a job well instead of a whole job not well. Doing half a job well simply means the job is only half done. Period. Doing a whole job not well means that effort and determination were present, and that, presumably, something important was learned in the process. Uh, this is true at least for most successful entrepreneurs. The rest? Who knows?

# # #

FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Sep 20 2011

Rotten Writing?

Books, billboards, news

 

releases, website content, 

 

magazines and magazine

  

articles, posters and

 

displays, newspaper

 

 columns, surveys, signs,

 

 postcards, brochures, 

 

commercials, promotional

 

 emails, direct mail, photo

 

captions, jingles, branding

 

themelines, package labels,

  

training curricula, promo

 

literature and exhibit

 

 materials, webinars, sales

 

presentations, seminars 

  

lyrics, booklets, speeches,

 

 ebooks, blog posts, scripts

 

  business plans, marketing 

 

 strategies, love letters,  

  

manuals, greeting cards,

 

and matchbook covers

  

Ever write any of these yourself? How’d it come out? Did you get the results you wanted? What happened? Are you a skilled writer? An experienced wordsmith? Probably not. If you’re reading posts on this blog site, it’s because you’re an entrepreneur, a small business or professional practice owner, manager, or principal, a student, or a leader.

If you fit any of those kinds of career descriptions, odds are that you are marketing a product, service, or idea (or some combination) and the daily challenges of keeping your business or organization moving forward leaves little room for you to indulge in fantasy of seeing yourself as a talented writer. And you’re smart enough to know when to get help.

One telling characteristic of successful entrepreneurs, in fact, is that they know how to pull their ideas forward while leaving necessary professional services up to professionals they engage — CPA, attorney, management consultant, and more often than not: creative services, especially writers and designers.

Entrepreneurs, after all, are the catalysts of business and the economy, and serve as mirrors of society wants and needs. They alone are responsible for new job growth (not corporations, and certainly not government). As a result, entrepreneurs are also the most sensitive of business people, and the quickest to recruit outside expertise when they see the need.

Small business owners are far more in touch than their big business counterparts who are obsessed with analyzing with what message content and structure communicates best, and sells.

They recognize that one dot or small sweep of a design line, or one word can make the difference between sale and no sale.

They respect and appreciate the value of expertise.

 

So the list above is not just a teaser or composite of writing applications. It is a list of real business-related (yes, even love letters!) writing needs that most entrepreneurs are confronted with at one time or another. It is also a list of writing applications that anyone you hire to write for you should have experience with, at least most of them.

I know. I’ve written all of the above many times over. And I can tell you that a marketing writer who hasn’t written a book doesn’t know how to tell a story, and stories sell. A website content writer who hasn’t written radio and TV commercials has no sense of writing concise, punchy stuff that’s short and sweet, and short and sweet sells.

Someone who’s never written a billboard hasn’t even a clue about how to write branding lines because the discipline is the same:  Aim for 7 words or less and tell a story in those 7 words that has a beginning, middle, and ending . . . and is persuasive. And in direct mail, the more you tell, the more you sell — that means, literally, a blanket of billboards.

Writing emphasis must always be “you” focused (not “we”). It must attract attention, create interest, stimulate desire, bring about action, and deliver satisfaction. All writing –even an instruction manual– represents an opportunity to make a sale and/or create a favorable impression. The writing you have now? Does it work as hard as you do?

 

# # #

FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Sep 19 2011

MOLD

Do you fit it,

 

 

grow it, break it,

 

 

or live with it?

 

 

 

I know how much you’ve been wanting for some intellect rising on this complex subject matter, so, okay, here it is. After reading this post, may you never again need to deal with mold in your career! This is my take on the subject:

 

If you “FIT the mold,”

. . . you probably work for big corporation and you’re happy as a pig in mud with your weekends, vacation, personal and sick days, benefit plans, and your acquired ability to analyze things to death while you cover your butt with one hand, and climb the internal political ladder with the other.

You also don’t like your your $50 tie, $100 white shirt, or your pay, but hey, who does?

You’re no doubt fed up with commuting costs too, but keep a lid on that complaint because fitting the mold also assures you of lunch hours, coffee breaks, holidays off, your own cubicle — maybe even a corner office if you’re a hot-shot — and you don’t want to sound too ungrateful with such long lines at the unemployment office.

 

If you “GROW mold,”

. . . it’s because you’re ambivalent, lethargic, basically lazy, and skilled at staying under the radar on the job. The last time you were innovative was when you helped the neighbor’s kids set up a lemonade stand in the driveway. Other than that, you’ve never had to think for yourself.

Your most complicated decisions have typically been whether or not to deal yourself another hand of solitaire. At least 3 people in your family have benefited from your counseling about how to qualify for welfare and food stamps. You work for the government.

 

If you “BREAK the mold,”

. . . Congratulations! You’re an entrepreneur. Here are a couple of links that will shed some light on your bizzare behaviors. You don’t buy lottery tickets, take long vacations, bet the farm,  or head off to AC, Las Vegas or Mohegan Sun with your paycheck every month — because you take only reasonable risks.

You have a big ego, but don’t expend a lot of energy struttin’ your stuff because your msission in life is to make your business idea successful. You grew up in or around a family business, hated school, resented authority, sold something door-to-door, and you are free-wheeling but practical.

Your neighbor’s father, who worked for the government for 35 years, once helped you set up a lemonade stand in the driveway.

 

If you “LIVE WITH mold,”

. . . you are a more-tolerent-than-is-good-for-you business manager or partner who knows your boss needs a swift kick in that place that corporate guys always cover. You know a shakeup is inevitable, but don’t like to make waves, and probably feel beholden to your boss or partner for taking you in when times were (like today?) less than promising.

Oh well, there are always mold removal services . . . probably a useful awareness for November 6, 2012.

 

# # #

FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Sep 18 2011

TICK-TOCK-TICK-TOCK-TICK-TOCK-TICK-T

You already know this, but

 

perhaps you’ve forgotten:

  

  You and your business are

                         

here on Earth to make a

  

d  i  f  f  e  r  e  n  c  e  !

 

Does that mean you need to revamp your food business to offer only organic produce, fruits, meats and poultry? No. You may want to consider a direction like that for business reasons, but making a difference for others is not a pursuit that –unlike government bills and riders– has restrictions attached.

Making a difference with your business doesn’t mean you must suddenly be a better Boy Scout or Girl Scout. It does mean holding to a higher integrity, and offering goods and services that don’t inherently harm people. Cigarettes come to mind. Oh, and don’t rationalize with raves about all the tobacco industry jobs and good deeds.

That’s a big business/government style-defense. Drive responsibly, say the alcoholic beverage companies. We grow forests, say the paper mills and logging companies that strip mountainsides bare of trees. You can add your own examples here. Hypocrisy has become a mainstay of corporate marketing, PR, and government control.

You can’t make a difference on Earth

by being two-faced.

(Politicians take note.)

 

And —TICK-TOCK-TICK-TOCK-TICK-TOCK-TICK— time marches on, so the amount of time you have to improve the business and personal lives of those around you and those who come after you are perhaps a whole lot less than you might have imagined (or maybe never thought about!) when you rolled out of bed this morning.

Bottom line: The time to act is NOW!

 

Start thinking about your legacy as you’re reading this, and take just one step in the direction of putting those thoughts to work by the time you walk away from your keyboard. Carpe Momento!

Recommended guiding words:

The old hit song lyrics from Seals & Crofts —

We may never pass this way again.

 

                                      

“There’s no time like the present,” my father always said. “Time and tide wait for no man,” my mother always said. “DO IT” says Nike. Now, entrepreneurs seem to know this instinctively, but they also seem to limit their hurries to business deals instead of to their own internal missions. Those little voices that point to reality.

What speaks to your ears from inside your gut? It may be different than the words that come from your brain. Words from the brain can be easily over-thought, manipulative, too rational, too unemotional, too logical — the stuff that corporate and government analysis paralysis is made of — What comes from your gut has no limits.

So maybe your gut instinct to meet your down-deep-inside legacy goals isn’t finding a platform in your business pursuits? Then set up something separate to make it happen. A new division, revenue stream, referral channel, product or service line extension . . . something that addresses your true life purposes.

Running a successful business is problematical enough; why saddle yourself with yet another entity? Because if the business isn’t satisfying your inner needs to, for example, help needy people and organizations, a nonprofit charitable or educational family foundation might. What’s the worst possibility?

You start a foundation and can’t make the time to run it? Find someone who believes in your purpose to step in, and you simply provide the guiding light. You start a foundation and the goals or mission become obsolete? Redefine them. You’ve already re-invented yourself and your business at least ten times over. Well?

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US   931.854.0474

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Sep 15 2011

Bring Back Paper Bags

Throw up in ’em. (Yuch!)

Make masks.

(For nonsmoker & nonBBQ parties)

Carry diamonds.

(They DO in NYC Diamond District, except in rain)

Use ’em for baseball gloves.

(Kids DO in The Dominican Republic – Ouch!)

And a lotta people couldn’t

punch their way outta one!

 

They’re biodegradable, and thus”sustainable.” That alone should appease all the dirt people, tree-huggers, and eco-freaks out there.

(Yes, some of us only worry about dumb stuff like the economy, jobs, Qaddafi, unions, leaving 3,000 troops in Iraq, and critical issues like “All My Children” finally leaving TV, if Casey Anthony was really guilty, and will it be a Yankees vs. Phillies World Series).

Anyway, I think it’s time to return to the substance and simplicity of yesteryear by bringing back the all-time king of convenience — the plain brown paper bag! It was used for more tasks and had more “apps” than your PC, laptop, iPOD, iPAD, BlackBerry, Wii, electronic reader, invisible fence, and barcode scanner combined!

Once upon a time . . .

One of the jobs Fat Norman and Skinny Frank did (they ran the grocery store downstairs from the apartments by the railroad tracks on Chatsworth Avenue, in Larchmont, New York) was to collect customer order money and put it in the cash register — a fancy drawer with a hand crank and a little bell that rang when it opened.

No plugs. No adding machine.

Brothers Norman and Frank both kept a crayon behind one ear. When you brought all the groceries you wanted to get to the counter (no shopping carts) and piled them up, out came the crayons . . . and a brown paper bag.

The left side was for one-word descriptions of items (carrots, milk, bread, toilet paper, etc.). The right side was the important side; that’s where the prices were written.

Norman usually broke his crayon when he tried to add up the column and carry the two. His pudgy hands hated the task, and Mother always found addition errors on the bag (which was of course also the receipt).

If the errors were in the store’s favor, Mother would send you right back with the bag and instructions on what numbers to jab your fingers at. Frank, though, was always right.

Frank did an old business trick that must have enhanced his mathematical accuracy. He’d wet the tip of his crayon with his tongue when the price part was hard, like five pounds of mixed onions at 3 1/2 cents a pound for yellow and 4 1/3 cents a pound for red.

Sometimes he had to turn the bag over and use the other side as a worksheet.

Everything was packed with great care . . . with always a piece of penny candy tossed in . . . and handed over with a smile, a thank you, and “tell your Mother hello!”

The bags were only doubled up when you had messy, bloody stuff or if it was pouring rain. They were always recycled for garbage and returning empty soda bottles for a penny each.

One time, Norman caught kids taking bottles from the back alley and re-paperbagging them to bring around the front and turn them in. He broke more than crayons that day.

The bags that survived became –you guessed it– plain brown wrappers for gifts, packages, storage, and shelf paper.

Slower, simpler times indeed, but something to be said for the personal exchanges and personal service attention required by the absence of technological advances.

So, just a good old story? I don’t think so. I think there’s a message here about the occasional value of looking back to gain a better perspective for looking forward.

# # #

FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Sep 14 2011

Business Body Barometers

Hopefully, your mouse is pointing to (and clicking on) the HIGH TIDE box on the right~~~>

BUT, where is your foot pointed?

                                                               

YES, I have better things to do. NO, I am not a kinetics (body language) expert nor a walking lie detector. Like most business owners, I muddle through exchanges with others –using a combination of what I know and feel from experience– to decide on another person’s intents, genuineness, and ability to perform up to my belief system.

But I have written and taught considerably on the subject, and am frequently asked about practical business applications. So, remembering that you’re not licensed to practice psychotherapy, here’s enough body barometer stuff to shrink out some of those business head cases you deal with:

Let’s first distinguish between verbal and nonverbal communication, keeping in mind that: A) words themselves do not have meaning; only people have meaning, and that: B) Only 7% of communication is generally believed to be verbal. (38% is believed to be tone of voice, and 55%, nonverbal!)

Nonverbal communication, I recall, is accomplished in 9 different ways (there may be more, but who needs more?):

  1. AMBULATION — How someone walks. Big differences in the messages coming from someone who swishes vs, stomps or swaggers, bounces, strides, or drags.

  2. TOUCHING — The most powerful form of nonverbal communication. Consider the differences in touch for expressing anger, interest, trust, tenderness, warmth . . . and the differences in willingness to touch or be touched.

  3. EYE CONTACT — When do pupils dilate? What’s in your unconscious mind about eye colors? Trust? Sincerity? Forthrightness? Does someone stare, shoot daggers, avoid direct eye contact, glance slyly?

  4. POSTURING — Are arms and legs crossed defensively? Stand or sit slouched or erect. Severe threats promote fetal positions.

  5. TICS — Uncontrollable nervous twitches may indicate a sensing of possible threats.

  6. S UBVOCALS — Um, er, uh, whew! . . . and grunts and groans, whistles, loud swallowing, tongue clicking.

  7. DISTANCING — We each have our own Space. Comfort zones vary by person, geographical region, country, and by odors.

  8. GESTURING — A wave, thumbs up or down, an OK sign or angry fist, a V can all be acceptable in one place and not in another.

  9. VOCALISM — Say: I LOVE my children! vs. I love MY children! vs. I love my CHILDREN! vs. I love my children! Same words, but do you hear different meanings?

STROKING arms, legs, or hair often indicates a lack of affection (perhaps at the moment, perhaps in general). See if talking about how valuable that person is to your business stops that activity.  SMILES are great, but can often be a defense mechanism. THE FACE ALONE CAN PRODUCE 250,000 EXPRESSIONS! (Weird research, huh?)

Sports guys and politicians use THUMBS UP and THUMBS DOWN. Hitchhikers point THUMBS SIDEWAYS.

CONFIDENCE is often expressed by pyramiding fingers, by hands in pockets with thumbs out and by hands held behind a stiff back.

INSECURITY is frequently communicated by pinching, chewing (pens, pencils, pipe, fingernails, gums), by hands stuffed deep into pockets, as well as by smoking, fidgeting, jingling coins, tugging ears or mustache, or underclothing, by someone who frequently covers her or his mouth and /or “ahems” often.

HOW a person lights and holds a cigarette, pipe or cigar, how he or she writes (including pen pressure), how glasses and eating utensils are held and used, how food is picked up and eaten. These are barometers. So are the ways people greet and say goodbye to one another. Handshakes (firm, wimpy, bone-crushing?). Hugs and kisses. Who touches whom?

The boss’s hand on someone’s shoulder shows authority. People in power feel comfortable touching subordinates, but not the other way around! Is it acceptable to touch a pregnant woman? Holding one’s hand to show the palm is regarded as a sexual attraction signal, especially when pupils dilate.

Watch how people move toward and away from one another — Distances? Who moves first? When?  Is someone’s foot pointed toward you when she or he speaks with you, or toward the door? Effective communications requires effort!

# # #

FREE blog subscription: Posts RSS Feed

Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0911

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

No responses yet

Sep 13 2011

Did You Brush Your Teeth Today?

Insensitive Leadership  

                                             

Breeds Lethargic Followers

 

 

Few behaviors undermine a small business owner’s authority quicker than a corporate micromanage attitude. When you hire people to do a job, explain what needs to be done by when, and what you’ve learned to be the best way to do it, then leave them alone. Visit them and talk with them and respect their input

Resist the temptation to physically and mentally hover over those who work with and for you.

Stop asking dumb questions in order to feel reassured that things are going right.

The more you keep checking on the obvious (“Did you brush your teeth today?”), the more insulting your reputation becomes

                                            

. . . and the less that people will respond when important issues arise . . . the less motivated and innovative they’ll become.

. . . people who are not challenged to be innovative are not motivated, and will often head for greener pastures. Those who remain are either ambivalent, desperate, or just plain lazy: the makings of a great team, huh? 

 

If you hired the right people to start with, help out when asked, but otherwise leave them to work on their own. The world won’t end because a new hire doesn’t do the assigned tasks exactly the same way you would do them. In fact, odds are that if you leave them to their own devices, they may come up with an even better way to handle things.

The more people you engage, the more willing you must be to let go. Letting go, in all of its applications, may be life’s hardest task. But it doesn’t have to be hard. You can choose for it to be easy. With a new hire, that means setting the stage carefully before you put the spotlights on and open the curtain.

Employee handbooks that outline expectations, job responsibilities, mission and vision statements help get people properly oriented. Policy manuals that spell out your rules and regulations, benefit programs, etc. help keep people properly oriented.

So that brings us back to the hiring process.

And don’t feel bad about screwing up.

No boss ever gets this right the first time.

                                                   

All the HR training, resources, and psycho and statistical analysis in the world cannot replace the trial and error process that produces experienced instinct and personal judgement. Sombody “fits” or doesn’t. Ask your grandfather about square pegs in round holes.

When you end up with good people, keep them good by not “riding” them, by not “getting on their cases,” by not “bugging” them with your pet peeves; they are your pet peeves, and who cares? I recently heard a small business owner ask an employee if he remembered to close the safety latch on a tool he’s worked with daily for ten years.

You can bet the boss won’t be getting any great new innovative ideas from that employee, or probably any other.

If you feel the need to assume, assume that you don’t have all the answers, assume that you have competent employees and assume they have better solutions than you — you who are in the forest with the lawyer and accountant and customers and vendors and partners and lenders and investors — you who may not see the trees.

How to make the most of motivational dynamics? Ask. Listen. Take notes. Request feedback. Encourage experimentation. Reward efforts as well as results. Create an open discussion environment and free-flowing exchange of information.

Use small frequent rewards according to need (not yours, theirs. See Maslow’s Hirearchy of Needs). Oh, and remember to brush your teeth.

# # #

  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

« Prev - Next »




Search

Tag Cloud