21 Tips for Productivity

Ready for explosive productivity so you get big things done (and make your life matter).

Here are 21 tips to get you to your best productivity:

#1. Check email in the afternoon so you protect the peak energy hours of your mornings for your best work.

#2. Stop waiting for perfect conditions to launch a great project. Immediate action fuels a positive feedback loop that drives even more action.

#3. Remember that big, brave goals release energy. So set them clearly and then revisit them every morning for 5 minutes.

#4. Mess creates stress (I learned this from tennis icon Andre Agassi who said he wouldn't let anyone touch his tennis bag because if it got disorganized, he'd get distracted). So clean out the clutter in your office to get more done.

#5. Sell your TV. You're just watching other people get successful versus doing the things that will get you to your dreams.

#6. Say goodbye to the energy vampires in your life (the negative souls who steal your enthusiasm).

#7. Run routines. When I studied the creative lives of massively productive people like Stephen King, John Grisham and Thomas Edison, I discovered they follow strict daily routines. (i.e., when they would get up, when they would start work, when they would exercise and when they would relax). Peak productivity's not about luck. It's about devotion.

#8. Get up at 5 am. Win the battle of the bed. Put mind over mattress. This habit alone will strengthen your willpower so it serves you more dutifully in the key areas of your life.

#9. Don't do so many meetings. (I've trained the employees of our FORTUNE 500 clients on exactly how to do this - including having the few meetings they now do standing up - and it's created breakthrough results for them).

#10. Don't say yes to every request. Most of us have a deep need to be liked. That translates into us saying yes to everything - which is the end of your elite productivity.

#11. Outsource everything you can't be BIW (Best in the World) at. Focus only on activities within what I call "Your Picasso Zone".

#12. Stop multi-tasking. New research confirms that all the distractions invading our lives are rewiring the way our brains work (and drop our IQ by 5 points!). Be one of the rare-air few who develops the mental and physical discipline to have a mono-maniacal focus on one thing for many hours. (It's all about practice).

#13. Get fit like Madonna. Getting to your absolute best physical condition will create explosive energy, renew your focus and multiply your creativity.

#14. Workout 2X a day. This is just one of the little-known productivity tactics that I'll walk you through in my new online training program YOUR PRODUCTIVITY UNLEASHED (details at the end of this post) but here's the key: exercise is one of the greatest productivity tools in the world. So do 20 minutes first thing in the morning and then another workout around 6 or 7pm to set you up for wow in the evening.

#15. Drink more water. When you're dehydrated, you'll have far less energy. And get less done.

#16. Work in 90 minute blocks with 10 minute intervals to recover and refuel (another game-changing move I personally use to do my best work).

#17. Write a Stop Doing List. Every productive person obsessively sets To Do Lists. But those who play at world-class also record what they commit to stop doing. Steve Jobs said that what made Apple Apple was not so much what they chose to build but all the projects they chose to ignore.

#18. Use your commute time. If you're commuting 30 minutes each way every day - get this: at the end of a year, you've spent 6 weeks of 8 hour days in your car. I encourage you to use that time to listen to fantastic books on audio + excellent podcasts and valuable learning programs. Remember, the fastest way to double your income is to triple your rate of learning.

#19. Be a contrarian. Why buy your groceries at the time the store is busiest? Why go to movies on the most popular nights? Why hit the gym when the gym's completely full? Do things at off-peak hours and you'll save so many of them.

#20. Get things right the first time. Most people are wildly distracted these days. And so they make mistakes. To unleash your productivity, become one of the special performers who have the mindset of doing what it takes to get it flawless first. This saves you days of having to fix problems.

#21. Get lost. Don't be so available to everyone. I often spend hours at a time in the cafeteria of a university close to our headquarters. I turn off my devices and think, create, plan and write. Zero interruptions. Pure focus. Massive results.

Stay productive.

www.IndigoOceans.com

Top 10 best practices for keeping your business competitive in 2013

Having had the pleasure of working with some exceptional business owners in 2012, we have seen patterns that are transformational for businesses to be competitive even in highly competitive industries. Here are the 10 best practices for keeping business competitive in 2013.

1. Identify your bottom 10% of employees and fire them. Sounds harsh but you can't do great things with poor performers.

2. Identify your top 10% of employees, the folks that run your business, your top performers and the people who are critical to your business and implement a reward system to keep them engaged. They likely are responsible for the lions share of your revenue or your day to day operations. Love them.

3. Give your employees the technology tools they need to be successful. We see businesses bleed to death by a thousand cuts with manual processes, no reporting, limited visibility and slow systems. Tablets for sales, software for accounting, proper network speeds... if you have outgrown a software package, put it to pasture. Upgrading technology will not only make your staff be more efficient but will also make your company more valuable.

4. Document and display your key differentiators and value proposition and make sure everyone - staff, customers, vendors, advocates, everyone, see it everyday. Ensure everyone knows your mantra inside and out and that they are focused on the actions and choices that they make every day are supporting this vision. Don't assume that everyone knows your business or can articulate it.

5. Don't let your employees hide behind email. Relationships with clients, coworkers and vendors are not built on email. Pick up the phone, walk over, video skype them - anything where they can hear a voice. Email is a requirement for efficiency but we are seeing less and less personal interaction that is the stickiness of long standing successful relationships.

6. Have one on ones with your employees every week. Even if it's only for 15 minutes. Keep communication open, inspect what you expect, take their temperature. One on ones keep employees focused and helps them understand what is expected of them.

7. For the love of god don't hire friends, your friends kids or family. To date we have never seen this work out. You can't have a level playing field where employees feel there is a fair work environment when friends and family are involved. Don't under estimate how perceived unfairness can damage a culture or worse, they turn out to be below average contributors and you have to deal with that powder keg.

8. Include your ground level employees in product evaluation and new features that will help you sell more and improve the customer experience. Use master minds and white board sessions with your employees to find out what they see from the competition, what customers are saying to them, what product/service exists already that can be improved upon.

9. Make sure YOU as the business owner know the top 20% of the customers who generates 80% of your revenue. Schedule a lunch, invite them in for a facility tour, have a client event, break bread, dinner, breakfast - whatever it takes to get an hour of their time once a quarter. Be part of the team that retains and grows the your revenue and margin. This will also be your insurance plan if a key member of you staff leaves. Besides, business owners like to hang out with other business owners.

10. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. What's going to be different for your business in 2013? Laser focus on a new vertical? Change your comp plan to reward what you want your people to sell? Give every employee commission for enabling the sales cycle? Move the office around to enable collaboration? SEO? New products? Whatever it is, step outside of your comfort zone and mix it up. What do you have to lose?

On behalf of all of us at Indigo Oceans, we wish you every success for 2013.

www.IndigoOceans.com

Always give 100%

Need for Achievement

Need for achievement is not just an expression but an area of study in Psychology. This desire known as N-Ach can be tested in personality tests such as an AVA and TAT. For Managers, Business Owners and Senior execs, being able to determine N-Ach and Grit should be taken into consideration when recruiting and promoting people talent.

Need for achievement (N-Ach) refers to an individual's desire for significant accomplishment, mastering of skills, control, or high standards. The term was first used by Henry Murray^[1] and associated with a range of actions. These include: "intense, prolonged and repeated efforts to accomplish something difficult. To work with singleness of purpose towards a high and distant goal. To have the determination to win". The concept of NAch was subsequently popularised by the psychologist David McClelland.^{[citation needed]}
Need for Achievement is related to the difficulty of tasks people choose to undertake. Those with low N-Ach may choose very easy tasks, in order to minimize risk of failure, or highly difficult tasks, such that a failure would not be embarrassing. Those with high N-Ach tend to choose moderately difficult tasks, feeling that they are challenging, but within reach.
People high in N-Ach are characterised by a tendency to seek challenges and a high degree of independence. Their most satisfying reward is the recognition of their achievements. Sources of high N-Ach include:

1. Parents who encouraged independence in childhood
2. Praise and rewards for success
3. Association of achievement with positive feelings
4. Association of achievement with one's own competence and effort, not luck
5. A desire to be effective or challenged
6. Intrapersonal Strength 

Theory

The pioneering research work of the Harvard Psychological Clinic in the 1930s, summarised in Explorations in Personality, provided the start point for future studies of personality, especially those relating to needs and motives. David C. McClelland's and his associates' investigations of achievement motivation have particular relevance to the emergence of leadership. McClelland was interested in the possibility of deliberately arousing a motive to achieve in an attempt to explain how individuals express their preferences for particular outcomes — a general problem of motivation. In this connection, the need for achievement refers to an individual's preference for success under conditions of competition. The vehicle McClelland employed to establish the presence of an achievement motive was the type of fantasy a person expressed on the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), developed by Christiana Morgan and Henry Murray, who note in Explorations in Personality that "...when a person interprets an ambiguous social situation he is apt to expose his own personality as much as the phenomenon to which he is attending... Each picture should suggest some critical situation and be effective in evoking a fantasy relating to it" (p531). The test is composed of a series of pictures that subjects are asked to interpret and describe to the psychologist. The TAT has been widely used to support assessment of needs and motives.^[2]

The procedure in McClelland's initial investigation was to arouse in the test audience a concern with their achievement. A control group was used in which arousal was omitted. In the course of this experiment, McClelland discovered through analyzing the stories on the TAT that initial arousal was not necessary. Instead, members of the control group — individuals who had had no prior arousal — demonstrated significant differences in their stories, some writing stories with a high achievement content and some submitting stories with a low achievement content. Using results based on the Thematic Apperception Test, McClelland demonstrated that individuals in a society can be grouped into high achievers and low achievers based on their scores on what he called "N-Ach".^[2]

McClelland and his associates have since extended their work in fantasy analysis to include different age groups, occupational groups, and nationalities in their investigations of the strength of need for achievement. These investigations have indicated that the N-Ach score increases with a rise in occupational level. Invariably, businessmen, managers, and entrepreneurs are high scorers. Other investigations into the characteristics of the high achievers have revealed that accomplishment on the job represents an end in itself; monetary rewards serve as an index of this accomplishment. In addition, these other studies found that the high achievers, though identified as managers, businessmen, and entrepreneurs, are not gamblers. They will accept risk only to the degree they believe their personal contributions will make a difference in the final outcome.^[3]

These explorations into the achievement motive seem to turn naturally into the investigation of national differences based on Max Weber's thesis that the industrialization and economic development of the Western nations were related to the Protestant ethic and its corresponding values supporting work and achievement. McClelland and his associates have satisfied themselves that such a relationship, viewed historically through an index of national power consumption, indeed exists. Differences related to individual, as well as to national, accomplishments depend on the presence or absence of an achievement motive in addition to economic resources or the infusion of financial assistance. High achievers can be viewed as satisfying a need for self-actualization through accomplishments in their job assignments as a result of their particular knowledge, their particular experiences, and the particular environments in which they have lived.^[4]

Measurement

The techniques McClelland and his collaborators developed to measure N-Ach, N-Affil and N-Pow (see McClelland et al., 1958) can be viewed as a radical break with the dominant psychometric tradition. However, it should be recognised that McClellend's thinking was strongly influenced by the pioneering work of Henry Murray, both in terms of Murray's model of human needs and motivational processes (1938) and his work with the OSS during World War Two. It was during this period that Murray introduced the idea of "situation tests" and multi-rater / multi-method assessments. It was Murray who first identified the significance of Need for Achievement, Power and Affiliation and placed these in the context of an integrated motivational model.

Whilst trait-based personality theory assume that high-level competencies like initiative, creativity, and leadership can be assessed using “internally consistent” measures (see psychometrics), the McClelland measures recognize that such competencies are difficult and demanding activities which will neither be developed nor displayed unless people are undertaking activities they care about (i.e. are strongly motivated to undertake). Furthermore, it is the cumulative number of independent, but cumulative and substitutable, components of competence they bring to bear while seeking to carry out these activities that will determine their success. Accordingly, the N-Ach, N-Aff and N-Pow scoring systems simply count how many components of competence people bring to bear whilst carrying out activities they have a strong personal inclination (or motivation) to undertake.

An important corollary is that there is no point in trying to assess people’s abilities without first finding out what they care about. So one cannot (as some psychometricians try to do) assess such things as “creativity” in any general sense. One has always to ask “creativity in relation to what?” So McClelland’s measures, originally presented as means of assessing “personality”, are best understood as means of measuring competence in ways which break radically with traditional psychometric approaches. (See Raven (2001) for a fuller discussion).

Fortune Cookie Wisdom for Sales: On Success

What is Grit?

Thinking of some of successful people, one of the greatest attributes they hold is grit. It's an odd term and not main stream in most talk paths, more studies have come out on how grit contributes to over achievement.

I pulled this off Wikipedia as a reference and it has some interesting definitions, links and empirical data.

If you DISC or personality test your candidates, perhaps a "Grit" test would be a better gauge of future success, especially in sales.

Grit in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait, based on an individual’s passion for a particular long-term goal or endstate coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their respective objective. This perseverance of effort promotes the overcoming of obstacles or challenges that lie within a gritty individual’s path to accomplishment and serves as a driving force in achievement realization. Commonly associated concepts within the field of psychology include "perseverance," "hardiness," "resilience,” “ambition,” “need for achievement” and conscientiousness. These constructs can be conceptualized as individual differences related to the accomplishment of work rather than latent ability.This distinction was brought into focus in 1907 when William James challenged the field to further investigate how certain individuals are capable of accessing richer trait reservoirs enabling them to accomplish more than the average person,^[1] but the construct dates back at least to Galton, and the ideals of persistence and tenacity have been understood as a virtue at least since Aristotle. Although the last decade has seen a noticeable increase in research focused on achievement-oriented traits, there continues to be difficulty in aligning specific traits and outcomes.

Definition of Grit

Grit is defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” ^[2] Building upon biographical collections of famous leaders in history, researchers and scientists have reached similar conclusions about high achieving individuals. Specifically, those individuals who were deemed more successful and influential than their contemporary counterparts typically possessed traits above and beyond that of normal ability.^[3][4][5] While ability was still critically important, these individuals also possessed “zeal” and “persistence of motive and effort.”^[2] Duckworth and colleagues (2007) believe this dual-component of Grit to be a crucial differentiator from similar constructs. Grit is conceptualized as a stable trait that does not require immediate positive feedback.^[2] Individuals high in Grit are able to maintain their determination and motivation over long periods of time despite experiences with failure and adversity. Their passion and commitment towards the long-term objective is the overriding factor that provides the stamina required to “stay the course” amid challenges and set-backs. Essentially, the Grittier person is focused on winning the marathon, not the sprint.

Literature Comparisons

Grit and Positive Psychology

Grit also ties in with positive psychology and in particular, with perseverance. As mentioned earlier, the ability to stick with and pursue a goal over a long period of time is an important aspect of Grit. This area of positive psychology has been interested in the process of perseverance as a positive indicator of long term success.^[6] Grit’s inclusion of the perseverance construct is perhaps unsurprising as Angela Duckworth was a doctoral candidate under Martin Seligman.

Grit and Intelligence

One of the best predictors of future achievement has been intelligence.^[7] This relationship has been found in scholastic achievement as well as in job performance.^[8] As such, one might expect that grit would be strongly correlated with intelligence. In fact, this prompted one of the early questions asked in Grit research, “Why do some individuals accomplish more than others of equal intelligence?”.^[2] Somewhat surprisingly, in four separate samples, Grit was found to be either orthogonal to or slightly inversely correlated with intelligence.^[9] This means that Grit, unlike many traditional measures of performance is not tied to intelligence. As the researchers have suggested, this helps explain why some very intelligent individuals do not consistently perform well over long periods of time.

[edit] Grit and Personality Measures

The Grit measure has been compared to the Big Five personality model, which are a group of broad personality dimensions consisting of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.^[10] In one study by Duckworth and Quinn, the Short Grit Scale (Grit–S) and 12-item self-report measure of Grit (Grit–O) measuring Grit was strongly correlated with conscientiousness (r = .77, p <.001 and r = .73, p <.001) (2009). While Grit is related to conscientiousness measures, it also differs from conscientiousness in important ways. For example, while both Grit and conscientiousness are often associated with short term accomplishments, Grit is also associated with longer term and multi-year goals.^[2] This long-term persistence and dependability are important aspects that make Grit distinct from conscientiousness. Another personality characteristic that is often linked to Grit is the need for achievement. One way in which Grit differs from the need for achievement is that individuals with high scores in Grit often set extremely long-term goals for themselves and pursue them deliberately even without positive feedback,^[2] while need for achievement lacks this long-term component.

Comparison with related psychological constructs

Traditional constructs in this area include perseverance, hardiness, resilience, ambition, and need for achievement. Grit has been argued to be distinguishable from each of these in the following ways. Perseverance is the steadfast pursuit of a task, mission, or journey in spite of obstacles, discouragement, or distraction. In contrast, Grit is argued to be trait to perseverance. Grit enables an individual to persevere in accomplishing a goal despite obstacles over an extended period of time.^[2] When compared with the construct of persistence, Grit adds a component of passion for the goal.^[11] This goal passion also contributes to the ability of the individual to sustain effort over the long term.

Maddi (2006) defines hardiness as a combination of attitudes that provide the courage and motivation to do the hard, strategic work of turning stressful circumstances from potential disasters into growth opportunities.^[12] While Grit is primarily a measure of an individual’s ability to persist in obtaining a specific goal over an extended time period (Duckworth et al., 2007), hardiness refers to an individual’s ability to persist through difficult circumstances and does not address the individual’s long term persistence toward a specific goal.^[2] Maddi (2006) developed a theoretical model of hardiness as a tool for developing resilience.^[12]

Resilience is a dynamic process in which an individual overcomes significant adversity, usually in the form of a life changing event or difficult personal circumstances. Resilience can be conceptualized as an adaptive response to a challenging situation.^[13] Grit involves maintaining goal focused effort for extended periods of time, often while facing adversity but does not require a critical incident. Importantly, Grit is conceptualized as a trait while resilience is a dynamic process. Finally, resilience has been almost exclusively studied in children (cf. Luther, Doernberger, & Zigler, 1993) who are born into “at-risk” situations.^[13] Although resilience researchers recognize that adults likely demonstrate resilience in a similar manner to children, the resilience process has not been studied in a mature population.^[14]

Ambition is broadly defined as the desire for attainment, power, or superiority. In contrast to ambitious individuals, Gritty individuals do not seek fame or external recognition for their achievements. Ambition is often associated with a desire for fame.^[15] Unlike ambitious individuals, gritty individuals do not seek to distinguish themselves from other people, but to obtain personal goals.

McClelland (1961) describes need for achievement as a drive to complete manageable goals that enable the individual to receive immediate feedback.^[16] In contrast to need for achievement, Gritty individuals consciously set long-term goals that are difficult to attain and do not waver from these difficult goals, regardless of the presence of feedback. Additionally, need for achievement has been studied for almost 50 years and has been found to positively correlate to self-efficacy and learning goal orientation.^[17][18] These links have not yet been tested in the Grit literature.

Scientific Findings

The primary scientific findings on Grit come from Duckworth and colleagues’ examination of Grit as an individual difference trait capable of predicting long-term success.^[2] It was proposed that individuals who possess a drive to tirelessly work through challenges, failures, and adversity to achieve set goals and are uniquely positioned to reach higher achievements than others who lack similar stamina. In a series of six studies Duckworth et al. proposed, developed, and tested a two-factor Grit scale with notable results. In addition to validating their Grit scale, the authors also found support suggesting that Grit provided incremental predictive validity for education and age above and beyond the Big 5 personality traits (Study 2); that higher levels of Grit were more highly associated with cumulative grade point average (GPA) in an Ivy league sample when compared to those with lower Grit levels (r = .25, p < .01; Study 3); that Grit predicted retention after their first summer in two classes of cadets at the United States Military Academy (Study 4); and that participants in a National Spelling Bee with higher Grit scores typically work harder and longer than less Gritty peers, ultimately resulting in better performance. This series of studies provides empirical evidence that an individual difference conceptualized as Grit can account for significant variance in performance across a variety of settings. Grit predicts beyond the typical and unrelated cognitive construct of IQ and can account for variance over and above what is observed in the Big 5 personality construct of conscientiousness.

In 2009, Duckworth and Quinn found additional support for the Grit construct when they developed and validated a more condensed version of the Grit Scale (Grit-S) by removing four of the previous items and improving its psychometric properties. Using samples from the data collected in their 2007 studies, the authors were able to achieve complementary results that suggested the positive relationships between Grit and educational attainment, GPA, retention in college, and success in a national spelling bee competition.

Future Directions

Questions may surface relating to what additional cognitive and non-cognitive traits play complementary roles in the development of Grit. Of additional interest may be how the distinctive environmental conditions, specifically the interrelationships of emotional and cognitive load, might moderate and assist in explaining why some individuals succumb to significant challenges or struggle with obstacles that block their path to goal achievement, while others are able to overcome these barriers. The United States military believes that this and similar constructs may assist in explaining why some soldiers are better equipped to handle the psychological trauma of combat.^[19] Other on-going work includes investigations of the combined or multiplicative impacts of both cognitive and Grit-like predictors of achievement in leader adaptability situations.^[20]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grit_(personality_trait)

Fortune Cookie Wisdom: Where the Grass is Greener

Fortune Cookie Wisdom for Sales on Commission

Fortune Cookie Wisdom for Customer Service

When you are having a bad day in sales...

Find a little inspiration :)

The Do's and Don't of submitting your resume

Don't have your mother submit your resume for you. 

On principal alone you would never get the interview.

Fortune Cookie wisdom for sales: On making money

How Collaboration and Social Networks Improve Productivity

Report|McKinsey Global Institute

The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies

July 2012 | by Michael Chui, James Manyika, Jacques Bughin, Richard Dobbs, Charles Roxburgh, Hugo Sarrazin, Geoffrey Sands and Magdalena Westergren

In a few short years, social technologies have given social interactions the speed and scale of the Internet. Whether discussing consumer products or organizing political movements, people around the world constantly use social-media platforms to seek and share information. Companies use them to reach consumers in new ways too; by tapping into these conversations, organizations can generate richer insights and create precisely targeted messages and offers.

Social media’s untapped productivity payoff

MGI principal Michael Chui discusses the potential value in using social tools to enhance communications, knowledge sharing, and collaboration within and across enterprises.

While 72 percent of companies use social technologies in some way, very few are anywhere near to achieving the full potential benefit. In fact, the most powerful applications of social technologies in the global economy are largely untapped. Companies will go on developing ways to reach consumers through social technologies and gathering insights for product development, marketing, and customer service. Yet the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that twice as much potential value lies in using social tools to enhance communications, knowledge sharing, and collaboration within and across enterprises. MGI’s estimates suggest that by fully implementing social technologies, companies have an opportunity to raise the productivity of interaction workers—high-skill knowledge workers, including managers and professionals—by 20 to 25 percent.

MGI’s report, The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies, explores their potential economic impact by examining their current usage and evolving application in four commercial sectors: consumer packaged goods, retail financial services, advanced manufacturing, and professional services. These technologies, which create value by improving productivity across the value chain, could potentially contribute $900 billion to $1.3 trillion in annual value across the four sectors.

Two-thirds of this potential value lies in improving collaboration and communication within and across enterprises. The average interaction worker spends an estimated 28 percent of the workweek managing e-mail and nearly 20 percent looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues who can help with specific tasks. But when companies use social media internally, messages become content; a searchable record of knowledge can reduce, by as much as 35 percent, the time employees spend searching for company information. Additional value can be realized through faster, more efficient, more effective collaboration, both within and between enterprises.

The amount of value individual companies can capture from social technologies varies widely by industry, as do the sources of value. Companies that have a high proportion of interaction workers can realize tremendous productivity improvements through faster internal communication and smoother collaboration. Companies that depend very heavily on influencing consumers can derive considerable value by interacting with them in social media and by monitoring the conversations to gain a richer perspective on product requirements or brand image—for much less than what traditional research methods would cost.
To reap the full benefit of social technologies, organizations must transform their structures, processes, and cultures: they will need to become more open and nonhierarchical and to create a culture of trust. Ultimately, the power of social technologies hinges on the full and enthusiastic participation of employees who are not afraid to share their thoughts and trust that their contributions will be respected. Creating these conditions will be far more challenging than implementing the technologies themselves.

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/mgi/research/technology_and_innovation/the_social_economy

Social Networking Policy considerations

By Mikal Belicroft

For as long as I’ve been writing about the National Labor Relations Board and social-media use policies, I’ve been advising businesses to ensure that their policies and guidelines for employees are reviewed and vetted by legal counsel. That’s because the NLRB hasn’t been a bit shy in ruling that a number of employers have violated the National Labor Relations Act when setting such policies. The problem was that the board hasn’t exactly been forthcoming in providing specific guidance with respect to what it wants to see in such policies and guidelines in the first place.

That all changed recently when the agency -- which is responsible for, among other things, investigating and remedying unfair labor practices -- issued a 27-page memo (PDF) on the topic. In it, the board reviewed social-media policies from several businesses that it claims run the risk of infringing on employees’ free speech and labor rights, then offered guidance for businesses going forward.

Among the recommendations to businesses when creating and distributing social media policies for employees are the following six points:


1. Know and follow the rules: All of your employees should be urged to read your social media policies and guidelines, and you should make it perfectly clear what is considered inappropriate, being assured that such acts will not be tolerated.

2. Be respectful: The board suggests that your policy explicitly state that employees should be “fair and courteous to fellow associates, customers, members, suppliers or people who work on behalf of the employer.”

3. Be honest and accurate: This includes never posting information or rumors that are known to be false.

4. Post only appropriate and respectful content: Specifically, maintain the confidentiality of company trade secrets and private or confidential information; express only personal opinions; don’t represent yourself as a company spokesperson without permission.

5. Use of social media at work: Don’t use company equipment for personal messaging unless it is work related.

6. Media contacts: Don’t speak to the press without checking with the company’s human-resources department or function beforehand.

The NLRB acknowledges in the memo that more fine-tuning of social media policies and guidelines on the part of employers will be necessary in the future. For example, warning employees about releasing confidential materials online might sound reasonable, but such action might prohibit those very same employees from discussing and disclosing information regarding their own conditions of employment, which the board considers a "protected concerted activity."

Six Ideas for Finding New Sales Leads

Sometimes in life, you kick over a rock and find a thriving colony of activity. So, too, in business. With so many tools, niches, sites, apps and platforms to look for and nurture customers, it's easy to overlook less obvious opportunities. Here are some to try.

1. SlideShare
SlideShare.net offers the ability to upload and share presentations, e-books, PDFs and webinars. It isn't exactly a backwater, but it's a bit of an undervalued spot. With 60 million visitors per month and 130 million page views, it's the world's largest professional content-sharing community and one of the top 200 sites on the web.

SlideShare is also one of the only high-traffic platforms that integrates organic and near-seamless lead generation. The network's LeadShare service requires viewers to fill out a contact form in exchange for downloading a presentation or PDF, and it encourages viewers to contact the business for additional information at various points throughout a presentation. Of course, this feature comes at a price: To enable lead-capture, you'll have to spring for a Pro SlideShare membership, which can cost $19 to $249 per month.

2. Product videos
Well-produced product videos are a slam-dunk for increasing sales. Visitors to housewares retailer StacksAndStacks.com were 144 percent more likelyto make a purchase after seeing a product video, according to analytics technology company Kissmetrics.

Keep product videos brief--less than 30 seconds is optimal--and consider embedding calls to action in a way that's helpful and not irritating. Online catalog aggregator FlipSeek does this effectively; for example, it can make the cute shoes a model is wearing clickable, providing a direct link to the corresponding product page.

3. E-mail signatures
Including a brief, text-based call to action in your e-mail signature may not be the sexiest idea, but considering the volume of e-mail you are likely sending, it's a tactic worth trying. Consider integrating your blog's URL, a new e-book or some other relevant download into your e-mail signature as a way to nurture relationships with prospects. Technology like WiseStamp allows you to add dynamic content like your latest blog post to any outgoing message.

4. LinkedIn Answers
Browse the questions asked on LinkedIn and use your expertise to solve problems for others, looking for opportunities to link to your relevant product or service. But, as with most things in life, moderation is key: Don't shill your own stuff unless it truly offers a relevant solution.

5. Error pages
Turn the most boring pages of your site (even a 404 error page!) into lead-gen opportunities.Mint.com's playful error page  shows a nerdy-looking developer saying, "Page not available. But Justin is." It goes on: "Justin is a Mint developer who likes slow cars, sharp crayons, reheated pizza and awkward silence." The page gives links to other Mint.com pages "if you're more interested in personal finance."

6. Pinterest
This new kid on the social media block is worth checking out as a traffic-generating lead-gen referral tool. Visits to the invitation-only online bulletin board skyrocketed in the second half of 2011 to 11 million. Brands with compelling boards drive traffic to their own sites.

What's "pinnable" for a business looking to generate leads? Consider moving beyond product shots to include other images, infographics, videos or articles. My company's page, features vintage marketing ads as well as marketing fails, charts and stats and a board reserved for business "inspiration."

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223129

5 Sales Tips to Recharge During the Lazy Days of Summer

Many people accept that a slowdown in sales  is a fact of business life during the lazy days of summer. Well, nothing could be further from the truth, and as a business owner you need to get out of that frame of mind.

A summer slowdown may be something many people want because they expect this to be a season for vacations when the living is easy. But you don't have to accept that. When others go to sleep, you need to wake up. If you follow these tips, you can create opportunity for your small business while others are off to the beach.

1. Make a firm decision not to participate in a slowdown. Don't allow your employees to buy into this thinking because I assure you that they will make a summer slowdown one of the first excuses if there are any issues with their job performance. Hold a daily meeting to discuss what you are going to do to prosper--not contract—this summer. Set clearly defined goals and list the activities that need to be undertaken to achieve them. Give yourself deadlines for your goals and create a no excuses, no negativity environment. You'll be surprised by what you can achieve.

2. Work your power base. Get out in front of the summer slowdown and let your best customers know you'll be available all summer. Target anyone who has bought from you in the last 90 days through direct mail, phone calls, emails or social media. Get into regular communication with these customers and figure out how to expand your business with them. For example, find out what you can do to assist as they prepare for vacation or to help fill a gap in their absence.

3. Target busy customers who can't take a long vacation. Focus some of your marketing efforts on prospective customers who plan to be around in July and August. Remember that these are clearly busy people who are pressed for time and can't afford a vacation or leisurely summer work pace. Take the initiative by distributing flyers, getting on social media and updating your website to let people know you will be around, too, and can offer something valuable to help them deal with their time constraints. For example, if you're an auto dealer, take that new convertible by the customer's office and let your prospective buyer test drive the car and sign the paperwork there. Or if you're a lunchbox delivery service, let prospects know you can provide food so they don't have to leave their comfortable, air-conditioned offices.

4. Offer a value-added proposition to avoid discounting prices. You will probably need to make even more profit from each sale to compensate for decreased summertime volume. So, figure out creative ways to repackage your products or services to provide something extra, such as a special summer-themed promotion. For example, I took two of my lectures series and packaged them into a Fourth of July special. The value-added proposition: When taken together, the lectures are both more informative and effective.

5. Service is senior to selling and needs to be top of mind. Service should be a year-around commitment, of course, but it is even more important during a summer slowdown when your competitors go into that "living is easy" mode and take their eye off the ball. Show that you are motivated to make things happen quickly and empower employees to accommodate special requests, even if it means opening your business early or letting customers enter your establishment in flip flops or beachwear. This is your chance to shine and make a lasting impression. After all, your goal is to make sure your new business keeps coming back to you long after summer is over.

Source

http://www.frontrow-solutions.com/ and http://www.entrepreneur.com/sales/index.html

5 Things I learned this week...

The best part of consulting is the variety and here are 5 things I learned this week...

1. When someone is having trouble staying focused - use the white board.


2. If you have a work place bully, you need to write them up under the workplace violence and harassment policy


3. People can ruin their professional reputation and screw up a perfectly good funnel in the 15 days before and after they hand in their resignation


4. Salesforce puts on a class act and highly sophisticated show seen this week at Cloud Force. Lots to learn from how these folks put on an event. They even colour code the laniers so they can pick out customers from vendors to recruits at a glance.


5. Tankless hot water heaters can run 3 showers and the dishwasher all at the same time with endless hot water.

Mistakes of a CEO and Change Management

Change Management, Process Improvement, New Directions - call it what you wish, but avoid these common mistakes:

1. Fanfare -  "Here we go again." "Another program to weather." "This too shall pass!" Sound familiar?

All too often organizations announce big changes and new programs with big events and fanfare, but then very little actually happens. The initial energy and enthusiasm fades, specific changes are never identified let alone implemented, results aren’t realized, managers don’t adjust, or maybe something even better comes along leading to a new "launch" with new fanfare.

The easy part is the announcement. And the fanfare is fun and contagious. But if your staff isn’t capable of the details, the follow-through, the implementation, then your program will die and the cynics will reign supreme, ever bolder in their determination to out-last any new program.

Furthermore, while ostensibly trying to generate energy, the fanfare simply signals big change and thus, raises anxiety. An impoverished understanding of the program purpose, path or impact will leave most people uneasy.

2. Controlled Messages - If it tastes like manipulation, smells like manipulation and sounds like manipulation, it is manipulation! Respect your employees enough to know they will recognize manipulation when they are the victims of it.

I’ve seen organizations so determined to control messages that they plan every communication, ration information, create concentric rings of need-to-know circles, and pretty much eliminate all honest, straightforward, two-way communication. I can’t think of a better way to widen the Us vs. Them gap within a company. Nor a better way to erode trust. Never mind the productivity sacrificed to scheming and whispering on one side, guessing and fuming on the other.

3. Closed Door Planning - Who are you kidding? Do you really think you can mastermind a new way without involving the people who know the situation best? Trying to "Do It To Them" is both arrogant and misguided.

4. Extensive Training - Extensive training is a cornerstone of many change programs. But many people return to their old habits the minute they get back to their desks despite the excitement exhibited during training. And if the training is filled with new acronyms, complicated techniques, and secret decoder rings, people will either give up or become distracted by the means at the expense of the goal.

5. Big Hairy Audacious Change - More likely, Big Hairy Audacious Embarrassment. Part and parcel of the others – the boisterous fanfare, dramatic unveiling of goal and plan, and massive training – add huge expectations. Everything big. More "big" than substance. Almost like announcing that you intend to win Wimbledon when you’ve yet to hit your first tennis ball.

The purpose of change management is to make change successful. The largest component of many change management programs often involves managing people’s reactions. Unfortunately, as the above list suggests, many change management efforts actually create anxiety, the exact opposite of their intentions.

For a better chance of success, consider the flip side of each mistake:

1. Save the fanfare for celebrations of genuine success

Celebrate genuine success, even small steps, in order to build momentum. Success increases energy, enthusiasm and the appetite for more success. It’s contagious. Start small and others will line up to join the improvement process.

2. Think in terms of increasing communication rather than controlling it

First, be sincere. Maintaining trust is as important as ever. People can handle a lot if they trust they are being treated honestly and fairly.

Help people understand the current situation, why improvement is important, and the reasons for focusing on a particular area. Be clear about desired outcomes; be open to discussion about methods of achieving those outcomes. Listen to concerns and try to understand how they see things so that you can help them gain a greater understanding of the situation and implications. Appeal to their self-interests by clarifying their contribution to and dependence on company success. Tell employees what you know and admit what you don’t know. Express the desire to work together to achieve the desired outcomes.

3. Open the doors

Change is most alarming when it is done to you and the destination is unknown. Be clear about the destination and then involve employees in determining how to get there. Reveal the current state fully, float alternatives or provide tools for developing alternatives, reiterate the goals, particularly the reason they need to care, and let the improvement opportunities speak for themselves.

Most of the time, you won’t make good choices without the help of your employees. You certainly can’t succeed without the help of your employees. Partnership is critical when trying to make substantial improvements.

4. Use Just-In-Time Training

Provide tools and techniques as they are needed so that employees are motivated to learn and have immediate opportunities to apply what they have learned. Also, appeal to common principles and familiar thought processes in order to leverage existing strengths. Cryptic techniques and jargon intimidate. The most successful approaches are usually the simplest.

5. Leverage Success

You can and should leverage success every step of the way to significant improvement.

• First of all, target specific, important, but manageable, areas that are ripe for improvement.
• Develop a systematic, repeatable approach to improvement. One advantage of starting small is that you have an opportunity to test drive an approach and tweak it to match your company’s culture and skill level.
• Build interest and commitment through a series of small successes.
• 'Spread' the systematic approach to new projects, primarily to those eager to participate in the success they have witnessed.

This leveraged approach lets your organization learn how to change and helps to develop a culture that seeks opportunities to improve.

Change Management, in capital letters, seems to have become a goal in and of itself, rather than a means for achieving other goals. People can get so preoccupied with "Doing Change Management" that they have become distracted from the real goals. Be clear about your reasons and your destination. Then listen and you will know what to do.

Thanks to www.AnnLatham.com for the advice!

The happy secret to better work

How cool is Tedx? Here is Shawn Achor who studies positive psychology and it's impact on productivity.

http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html

YESability: Driving Growth with Yes

In a world that is moving from a global economy driven by mass production to one driven by mass customization—a now economy—the demand for mass ingenuity, mass engagement, and mass action, has never been greater.

In Business at the Speed of Now, author John Bernard says that there must also be a shift in the way we manage our organizations. “Centralized innovation and decision-making, the mainstays of the Mass Production era, simply cannot get results in a world where unlimited choice demands real-time response.” What is required is leadership at all levels—“one that enables employees at all levels to solve problems and seize opportunities autonomously and instantaneously.”

To navigate this shift from mass production to mass customization people need the freedom to sieve every opportunity to solve problems quickly and efficiently. This requires a move from what Bernard calls “then” thinking to “now” thinking. “Then relies heavily on centralized control and specialization, whereas now relies heavily on decentralized autonomous action.” It requires a YES mindset. It means “ensuring that the people who first encounter customer problems possess the tools, skills, information, and authority they need to say yes now—YESability.

YESability doesn’t mean anarchy. Bernard explains, “Replacing no with yes does not mean that from now on you give everyone permission to do whatever they want. You draw clear boundaries to establish order, and you provide language and methods people can use to solve problems. You become an enabler of action rather than an unwitting obstacle to performance.”

Every employee must be provided with five crucial elements:

1. Context (“Where are we going?”)
2. Accountability (“What role do I play?”)
3. Skills (“What abilities do I possess?”)
4. Facts (“What data must I access to make decisions?”)
5. Authority (“Do I enjoy the freedom to act without fear of reprisal?”)

YESability is important for developing leaders at all levels. While Bernard’s focus is on customer relations, it is important to think of his approach in terms of interactions within the organization.

The 9 Rules of THEN	The 11 Rules of NOW
Follow orders even when they make no sense.	Listen to your customer carefully.
Keep your mouth shut and your opinions to yourself.	Keep the company goals in mind.
Please your boss because he/she controls your future.	Measure your performance.
Do not challenge management or you will be labeled a troublemaker.	Access the data you need.
Blame others when things go wrong.	Use data to make good and speedy decisions.
Do not waste company time on social media.	Understand what your decision costs.
Punch the clock and leave your work at the office.	Do not hide problems or they will go unsolved.
Never complain, never explain, except after work.	First please the customer, not your boss.
Say no to customers who demand an exception to company policy.	Do not be afraid because your boss has your back.
	Honor the process not the department.
	Strive always to say yes to customers.