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Month: December 2018

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Growth Management Personal Development

Helping Leaders Simplify Leadership

In today’s complex business world, leaders want to simplify leadership to be as effective and efficient as possible. Essentially, if leadership were that easy, everyone would be a leader. For many it’s not. Here are a few areas that will help leaders simplify both leadership and organization. Combined these processes will create greater breakthrough results.

Simplify Your Leadership Style

By increasing your ability to positively influence followers, your leadership style simplification is where your focus needs to be in order to move your organization forward. In doing so, your employees will be able to get more things accomplished under your leadership.

At the core of being a leader, there is one key principle: “Leadership is about taking the complex and making it simple,” says Tony Bridwell.

Communication

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
– Albert Einstein

Clearly communicate your vision of where you are going and when you want to get there. Talking about “how” you are going to do something is not simple or clear. Communicate key strategic messages in simple, clear, compelling ways that inspire changes in behavior and impelled action.

Lead Simply

“The courage of leadership is giving others the chance to succeed even though you bear the responsibility for getting things done.”
–Simon Sinek

Empowering your employees allows them to generate ideas and create and produce the solutions to their assigned project. This frees up time for you and managers to get done what you need to, trusting your employees to get done what they need to.

Simplify the Organization

“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.”
– John Maeda

By reducing or even eliminating business complexity for simplification, you need to update your rules to see how relevant they are, lessen the number of meetings and make them more productive with less time, and look at what reports are relevant where they are seen more than once, and look at what works and what doesn’t. Changing how efficient your organization can be helps both you and employees work on what matters most – productivity.

Simplicity Wins

“Nobody got anywhere in the world by simply being content.”
– Louis L’Amour

In order to keep your organization simplified, you do have to keep on top of complexity. Constant reviews before and after a project is worked on and completed helps you accomplish what you set out to do.

Achieving simplicity in your leadership requires focus, clarity, collaboration, and courage to move your employees to work toward the same cause. The ability to simplify complexity needs leaders to involve all employees in order to work together to reduce complexity for simplifying the work that needs to get done.

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Growth Leadership Personal Development Technology

Is Training Putting Your Company Data at Risk?

Data security has come a long way since December 2005, right? That was the month when somebody popped open a car trunk and stole a laptop that contained the records of 230,000 Ameriprise Financial customers.  Suddenly, data security became a big concern, executives heard the word “firewall” for the first time, and companies scrambled to protect themselves.

But how much has computer security really improved? You have to wonder. Only a few years ago, the records of 74,000 current and former Coca-Cola employees were compromised when laptops were stolen from company headquarters in Atlanta.

That’s really bad. But the most pressing question is, how secure is your company data? And because we are a training company, we need to ask . . .

Are your training platforms exposing your company to attacks from hackers?

It’s a troubling question, especially if you deliver training to employees in multiple locations:

Your trainees are logging onto Wi-Fi in Starbucks and other public places across the country. Does that expose you to risk?

You’ve got a powerful new distributed system that lets employees do their training on their smartphones. But is that safe? What if one of your trainees loses a phone? Does that put your company data at risk?

You maintain stringent security in company headquarters, but what’s going on in your regional offices? Can you be sure that laptops and workstations are secure? Remember the hard lesson that Coke learned when company laptops were lifted in Atlanta.

Proactive Steps to Take

It’s reassuring to know there are ways to make sure remote laptops, tablets and phones do not give hackers access to your company data. Here are some defenses to keep in mind:

Remember, the cloud can be a great defense. When your training materials reside in the cloud – in effect, on servers that are maintained by your training company, not by you in house – it is virtually impossible for hackers to use them as entry-points to get into your company’s servers or company records. And if your training modules are organized in separate “silos” so that trainees can access only one training area at a time, you have even more security.

Be sure that trainees are using two-step encrypted passwords to log into your system. “Two-step” means that each trainee must enter two individual credentials to start training – such as a username and a strong password that passes muster. “Encrypted” means that the username and password are “scrambled” so they cannot easily be copied over Wi-Fi or by remote hackers. Also, let trainees know that they are required to log off as soon as they complete different training units. That prevents phone thieves from stealing phones and having easy access to your training materials.

Make sure robust security protocols are being followed in all company locations. You know your company and its structure better than we do, so you know the obstacles you might be facing in this area.  To make sure that protocols are followed, you might have to deliver regular security training to divisional or regional supervisors. You might also need to have your training director take on the role of security officer by making sure that company security directives are being followed.

Prevention Is Better than Fixing a Breach

One certain thing is that it is much better to take preemptive steps to protect your security than it is to repair the damage after a breach has taken place. When selecting a training development company for distributed training, the best course is to choose one with the expertise to build security defense into your plans from day one.

About Evan Hackel

Evan Hackel is CEO of Tortal Training, a leading training development company, and principal and founder of Ingage Consulting. He is the host of Training Unleashed podcast, and author of the book Ingaging Leadership. Evan speaks on Seeking Excellence, Better Together, Ingaging Leadership, and Attitude is Everything. To hire Evan as a speaker, visit evanhackelspeaks.com and follow Evan on Twitter @ehackel.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Personal Development Sales

Brains Behind the Best and Worst Marketing Campaigns of 2018

Some people think there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but in the world of PR, getting your message right the first time is crucial. If you take it too far and the message doesn’t resonate with your audience, your business and reputation could be on the line. Adversely, if you do something right, you could gain a lot more customers, garner more social network interactions, and even see a rapid increase in sales. This week on my brain health and memory improvement site brainhackers.com, we compiled a list of some of the Best & Worst PR/Marketing Campaigns from this past year.

Here is the latest post from my very talented staff member: 

http://brainhackers.com/brains-behind-the-best-worst-marketing-campaigns-of-2018/

 

 

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Best Practices Personal Development Sales

The Power of Headlines in Writing

Many features can make or break the power of headlines to draw in a reader.

Length Matters

Google usually displays 50-60 characters of a headline, so, regardless of a headline’s length, the beginning needs to be compelling. In general, for English-language headlines, 60-100 characters is the ideal range depending on where your headline will appear.

To break it down further, don’t exceed 34 character in an email headline. This is the number of letters and spaces that will be visible on a mobile phone. Because 55% or more of people read email on phones, they won’t see the rest of the headline.

Facebook headlines should be around 40 characters, Twitter, 71-100 characters, and LinkedIn can range from 80 to 120 characters.

The Numbers Game

 “10 Ways to Conquer Your Phobias”

According to many surveys, putting a number into your headline makes it more attractive. Some surveys say that 10 is the most popular number; other claim that it’s 7.

Numbers make it appear that the article will provide straightforward and practical information, i.e., a “how-to” feature.

I don’t, however, recommend a title that reads something like “101 Things You Must Do Immediately in Order to Succeed.” The reader knows that she or he is never going to do 101 things immediately and will feel that reading the article will be a) pointless or b) frustrating.

Use Emotional Words

 Below is a list of some of the most successful emotional words used in headlines.

  • Free (always a hit)
  • Fun (Who doesn’t want to have fun?)
  • Must-have (What must I have?)
  • Effortless (I need some of that)
  • Special Offer (always tempting)
  • Last Chance (even more tempting)
  • Approved (that sounds legitimate)

You can see a long list of emotional words at https://media.coschedule.com/uploads/180-Emotional-Words-List.pdf

Emphasize the Practical Nature of the Information

Words like “lessons,” “reasons,” “secrets,” “key,” and “trick” are especially successful when combined with a number. “10 Secrets to Transform Your Marriage” could be an effective headline.

I don’t care for the word “hack,” as in “life hacks,” but it deserves to be included here.

Make a Factual Claim

Avoid clickbait, which is an incongruent headline. Clickbait refers to content that deliberately misrepresents or over-promises something. It can be used to entice someone to click on a link that will take them to a web site.

When used in headline content, it attempts to induce someone to read the article.

Readers feel tricked by clickbait. I wouldn’t write a headline that said, “Let Us Teach You How to Become Irresistible.” You can’t deliver on that promise.

“I Can Teach You How to Plant a Beautiful Garden” or “I Can Help You Cut Your Cooking Time in Half” make reasonable claims for people experienced in these respective areas.

Study the Power of Headlines

How better to use your time while you’re waiting on a supermarket checkout line than to scan magazine headlines? I recall my children reading the bizarre headlines In wonderment. “Mommy, are there really aliens in New Jersey?”

Although I don’t advocate using these kinds of headlines, It Is worthwhile to study the ones that create curiosity.

Also, look at Facebook and LinkedIn headlines to focus on the ones that attract you.

Then practice. Ask others to rate your headlines. It can take time to capitalize on the power of headlines, but it’s time well spent.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Management Skills

Five Steps to Change Your Thinking

When you make changes, are they coming at you from the outside in or inside out? In my 30 years of working with top leaders from business, health care, government and education, I have found that the majority of change comes from the outside in. When a new law is passed, you have to make changes in order to comply with it; when a competitor comes in offering lower prices, you probably have to change some aspect of how you do business; and when a new technology comes out that changes customer behavior, you’ll likely request that your IT department get you on the new products ASAP.

Most of us are conditioned in both our personal and professional lives to make changes based on outside factors. For example, when the stock market goes down, people often sell, and when it goes up, they buy.

Whenever change comes from the outside, we are forced to react to it. Rather than being proactive, we find ourselves constantly putting out fires and managing the latest crisis.

Instead, let’s look at two examples. Did the crowd-sourcing disruptor Kickstarter become a dominant force because it was fast to react? Was being reactionary the driving force in Facebook’s dominance in social media? Nope.

One reason for Facebook’s success is that it picked up where the limitations of other platforms left off. Kickstarter developers took a popular altruistic concept – used by Caring Bridge and others – and applied it to entrepreneurship. I sometimes call this approach to innovating a new business going in the opposite direction.

So, how do you stop reacting to outside forces and become a disruptor instead? Think about the Hard Trends that are sure to impact your organization. Think about the problems and opportunities that derive from them. What can you do now to not only pre-solve those problems before they become genuinely disruptive, but also leverage those Hard Trends into game-changing opportunities?

5 Quick Tips for Thinking Inside-Out  

It is essential to spend at least a small portion of time thinking about your future in an opportunity mode.

1. Build thinking time into your schedule. Try spending a minimum of one hour a week unplugging from the present crisis and plugging into future opportunity.

2. Find certainty in chaos. Instead of feeling blocked by all the things you are uncertain about in your work and life, ask yourself: What am I certain about? Those are the Hard Trends.

3. Be Anticipatory. Based on Hard Trends, think through these key questions: What is sure to happen in the next two to three years? What problems will your company be facing? What problems will your customers be facing (and how can you address those pain points)?

4. Dream a Little. Another good question to ask is: What is my ideal future? What are the steps to get there – whether it’s a business goal or a retirement dream? Or, it could be a bit of both.

5. Put Ideas into Motion. Once you are clear on your vision and have identified the Hard Trends that will impact you, spend some of your opportunity time solving problems before they happen.

The level of pervasive disruption that you need comes from the inside out (making the first move) rather than the outside in (moving in response to something). What events and developments can you anticipate by using your inside-out thinking?

If you need help getting started, try my Hard Trend Methodology, which is the mindset I describe in my latest book, The Anticipatory Organization: Turn Disruption and Change into Opportunity and Advantage.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Win More Negotiations by Using Power Right

“The perception of power is based on how it’s used. Use it right, and you’re perceived as being powerful. Use it wrong and you’re perceived as being weak.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

What does power look like in negotiations? Is it encompassed in the outcome (i.e. he who obtains the most is more powerful)? Is it encapsulated within the flow of the negotiation, or does it stem from another source? You can win more negotiations by using power right, but first, you must know how and when to deploy your power. Thus, your assessment of how to present the presence of power should be based on the negotiator type that you’re negotiating with.

Lead or Led

Power in a negotiation may take the form of the person that’s leading or the person that’s led. In the former situation, a false pretense can be assumed because he assumes he’s in the lead. That can lend itself to a false sense of bravado, which might cause one to expose his hand.

On the other hand, some people prefer to be led in a negotiation. Of the four personality types of negotiators (i.e. Hard/Closed, Hard/Open, Easy/Closed, Easy/Open) the ‘Easy/Open’ negotiator type is the one most susceptible to being led.

Hard/Closed

The most combative of the negotiator types will be the ‘hard/closed’ negotiator. His mental perspective is, ‘the only way I can win is if you lose.’ Thus, he’ll fight you for every gain you acquire and be very reluctant to make concessions unless he receives something in return. Just as an aside, some negotiators will adopt this posture to assess your response. That means this style of negotiation is not his preferred manner to negotiate. You can gain insight into the validity of his attempts by adopting the same demeanor, making a small concession and seeing how he responds or challenging him per his demeanor. In either case, don’t engage too deeply until you’ve gained enough of an assessment to know definitively what he’s up to.

Hard/Open

This negotiator type will not be as rigid as the ‘hard/closed’ type, but she may be close. She won’t be as gruff. Her demeanor will be one of allowing you the hope of acquiring more of what you seek if you go along with her plans.

With this type, go slow. Allow her to lead you to gain insight into her plans. Again, make small concessions when appropriate and request concessions to determine how amenable she might be to a give and take process. Don’t attempt to be heavy-handed with her. If you do, she may stiffen and become the ‘hard/closed’ type.

Easy/Closed

The ‘easy’ type of negotiators are the most amenable types to negotiate with. While the ‘easy/closed’ type will be the most difficult between the two, she will still be more open than the ‘closed’ types.

With this type of negotiator, adopt a power position; this is to let her know that you recognize the power you possess in the negotiation. Don’t pose it as an outright threat. Instead, position it as the silent stick that can be employed if the carrot doesn’t work.

Easy/Open

This is the easiest type to negotiate with. He will be amenable to following your lead. Be sure not to spook him. If he feels safe in the negotiation, he’ll follow your lead without question; he’ll even do so to his detriment. But he wants things to appear fair, so be aware of this trait in him. The best power to employ is the appearance of no power. Let him think he’s in the lead and you can lead him from behind.

When using power in a negotiation, the way you employ it based on the negotiator type will impact the success you have with it. By knowing when and how to employ your power, you’ll be in a more powerful position throughout the negotiation … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating! 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com 

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.TheMasterNegotiator.com/greg-williams/

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Categories
Personal Development Sales

4 Ways to Prevent Sinking in Startup Expenses

You’ve probably never heard of Worcester Polytechnic Institute near Boston. But, a lot of big-name engineers and tech companies regularly recruit WPI graduates. They welcome the students’ well-rounded education, and the fact that many of them take classes in management, business, and entrepreneurship.

Recently, we participated in their executive speakers series. We spoke about the three central proficiencies of entrepreneurship: Cash Flow Management, Personnel Management, and Distribution Management. We shared lessons we learned while building the Barefoot Wine brand—lessons that we think all business must master to be able to endure and prosper.

A lot of entrepreneur wannabes fear loss of control or failure of their business due to lack of money. They’re aware that many startup businesses collapse because they’ve committed too much before seeing positive cash flow.

But what they actually need is sales! Sales earn investments in equipment, personnel, and real estate—not the other way around.

When we spoke about Cash Flow Management, we offered this advice to avoid preventable costs, and further the runway until sales take off.

Keep Minimum Inventory. Aim for at-the-moment production. Even though you’ll be tempted to reduce cost through buying in bulk, holding onto unsold inventory can be expensive, and can eventually get your company in trouble. Quantity purchases must be justified by sales volume. So, find suppliers who will keep goods in the warehouse until you need them. And offer quantity discounts to buyers for cash to boost positive cash flow. We’ve learned that buyers sell big when they buy big—and they reorder quickly!

Utilize Hidden Assets. Do you have an unused room or garage you could use as an office to get started? For our first two years, we used the laundry room. Maybe your family members can help out here and there. Bonnie’s nephew and mother lived and worked with us. How can you reorganize and optimize your workspace? Our desk was an old door on two sawhorses. This gave us a cushion for the surprising cost of sales needed to get our company off the ground, as you will discover very soon.

Extend Your Terms and Credit. Think of your vendors as strategic partners. Benefit from each other’s growth. Gain the trust of your suppliers through consistent meetings where you share opportunities, challenges, and goals. Be empathetic if you’ll be late paying your bill by giving vendors advance notice and a payment plan to make it up to them. Develop a long-term agreement so they plainly see your loyalty. Just be patient. Over time, your positive performance will earn you the better terms and higher credit limits you’ll need to save your cash flow.

Outsource to Local Service Providers and Producers. There are companies right in your region that can help out with many goods and services you’ll need. And you can pay as you go, removing the need to tie up capital in office space, manufacturing, or hardware. If you create your contracts the right way, you don’t even need to accept delivery of any product that doesn’t match your quality control guidelines. We found success without ever owning a vineyard, a winery, or an office.

There are so many ways to accomplish positive cash flow in your early days. These are just a few that worked excellently for us. And, if you’re fortunate enough to have investors, they’ll be at ease when you display resourcefulness by reducing the need for cash.

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

 

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Skills

DIY Personal Branding

It was great to be in New York last week and meet so many in the C-Suite Network and other Advisors!

It’s hard to cover everything in such a short amount of time, so I want to write down some tips that you can all use in your personal branding efforts.

I’ve done a lot of work in my own personal branding as I mentioned up on the stage. It’s really been a learning experience figuring out what works, what doesn’t, and what really fits my personal brand. I am always evolving in that sense of what I will add, change, etc. Also, I am constantly balancing what to put under the company brand, what is under the Mari Anne Vanella brand, and what is part of both.

I mentioned LinkedIn a number of times, and that’s because that is a digital office workspace that YOU control. Think of years back, you would go into someone’s office and look around and get a feel for who they are, today that happens on calls many times….so that physical office that told you so much about prospects has moved online in many cases. Is your online office saying what you want people to know? Even other thought leaders that have pretty robust websites, blogs, etc. still have a healthy LinkedIn profile. That’s because LinkedIn has SEO value, it will be one of the first things (if not the first) that come up when people search for you… And they WILL search for you if they are considering working with you.

When I first started my company, the idea of personal branding was still pretty unheard of. But with the physical office space moving to the digital office space it’s opened a lot of opportunities for professionals to get their name out there. In 2000, working remotely and having a distributed team was an odd business model, but over the years I have closed millions of dollars of business with organizations I have not met in person. What they discover about The Vanella Group, Inc. and me personally helps them make those decisions.

I realize there are people that are reluctant to do a lot on LinkedIn, or they think it’s not important. I can say with a lot of confidence that if you invest the time in creating a solid profile on there it will get the message out that YOU want out there. If there is a lot of white space when prospects are looking for what you do, they mentally fill in the blanks with things they assume, i.e. you are not on top of modern trends, you are not knowledgeable of common digital practices, etc.  Part of the training I do for teams include using LinkedIn to get up to speed quickly on who you are about to have a meeting with. It will accelerate your prospects feeling good about you when they can get to know you online.

If there is nothing to see online, they might think that you’re a late adopter and you haven’t gotten on the digital wagon of maintaining an online presence. If they are really pushing an online presence, you may get ruled-out without ever knowing it because they think it isn’t an area you work in. In today’s digital world, that’s not that great of a message to send out.

If you are online but don’t update your digital presence, what do people discover? Do you still have your last job on there as your current job, that also sends a weird message. If you are a consultant promoting a business and your last job is what they see when they look you up, your consulting business looks more like “unemployed.”

I also see LinkedIn as a place to show some generosity. I tend to find it strange to see people working at a company in a leadership role for a number of years, and no one took the time to write a solid endorsement for them….or visa versa. It puts out a message that could be construed as not having a lot of loyalty or influence. That may not always be the case, but when I see people that freely give praise to their team and their team and other colleagues taking time to share their positive experiences, it says something about them. I have never met anyone that has or has given a lot of recommendations to be a cold person.  It is a great way to give back to people that helped you get where you are. Is there anyone you can do that for?

What are some things that you can do right now?

Think of what your brand is. Is it modern? Is it edgy? What is unique? What do you do that no one else does? What part of the solution you bring is special? Put it on paper so you can mentally organize it. Name it something even….productize your solution.

Do you have a unique process you bring? I mentioned on the stage that I know no one does what my company does, and I built out a strong methodology around it. I own the Telesales 2.0® mark. I designed it to be different.

The value of doing this is twofold because it’s a methodology that is unique to my company and differentiates our solution, and it’s also something that I created that adds to my personal brand.

What have YOU created that you can package into something unique that YOU own?

A challenge I see with services related companies is trying to be all things to all people and having a cloudy message. It’s a good exercise to distill those top areas that you are solving into a 1-3 areas and those other auxiliary types of things that you do save for live conversations. That may not always apply, but if you can narrow it to something very concise, it is worth considering.

Another important thing is to stay current and educate yourself. I mentioned on the stage how I keep Google alerts for myself, my company, but I also do that for topics and industry trends. I put the Internet to work for me so is delivering to me the content that I want to consume. I run across a lot of great content that I wouldn’t have discovered through the regular channels, so it’s a great way to identify sources as well. I can also see where others are using dated methods, are running into obstacles, and it helps me better define my deliverables.

Keeping your accomplishments current is also another important factor in how you brand yourself.  I’ve seen people that put minor accomplishments from 20 years ago in their bio that could be weakening their brand. What you did in 1992 is likely not super relevant to what is happening in 2019.  If you go too far back without a solid recent list of output, you run the risk of looking stale. I believe a lot of people that complain of ageism also put out aging messaging about themselves…not that it doesn’t exist, but why put something out there that causes more harm that good?

Something I see from time to time is a company with a pretty good website, but they don’t put their management team on it and we don’t really know who’s behind the curtain. Today’s buyers are astute, especially in executive-level services, and they want to know who you are and what you do. I would even recommend working with a content consultant or somebody that can help you to have a consistency across your website, your bio, your LinkedIn profile, Twitter, etc. Me personally, I spend zero time promoting anything professional on Facebook because my prospects just aren’t there, that goes with Instagram too.

I tend to avoid heated topics outside of my industry because it only would serve to alienate prospects. I do however engage in discussions about related topics that are flat out against what I know to be true. When I see people promoting the “cold calling is dead” message, I will gladly jump into that discussion. People do take calls, they don’t take bad calls…99% of the calls they get are bad calls. So that is another thing to think of, how will you engage in topics where there are differing opinions. Or will you step outside of your industry space and engage in other discussions too?

Another thing to consider is what you want to be discovered vs. what you don’t. I don’t want to impact my SEO results with things that are unrelated. I have an equestrian site that I don’t put my name on because I don’t want to have all this stuff come up that impacts my main business results.  People that know me know I adore my animals, I share photos on Twitter, etc. But one thing I don’t want is to have my potential clients of The Vanella Group, Inc. searching for B2B telemarketing and finding dressage and costume demo content.

There’s much more I could comment on, it’s a big topic and one you have to periodically stop and assess what needs to be changed. Please connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, or feel free to email or call me.

Have an excellent week!

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

8 Tips to Clear Out the Leadership Clutter Before 2019

As we wind down the year, we’re told as executive leaders to start thinking about goals and resolutions for the New Year. But before you rush off willy-nilly into what new projects and initiatives you’re going to tackle in the next twelve months, you might need to think about what you’ll let go of so that you can make room for the new stuff.

For instance, I was in a Sunrise Yoga class the day after Thanksgiving, sweating my you-know-what off, and our instructor encouraged us to check our thoughts about the past and our worries about the future at the door.  “Because, you see,” he went on, “you need to get rid of all of the toxins and all of that ‘crap’ to make space for what’s possible right now.”

I began to think about how true this is, not only in yoga class, but in life in general. Now don’t get me wrong, we all have days when we feel like the “hot mess express,” and I’ve certainly had my share of those days. Please don’t hit delete and move on to your next email or pressing item, but hang with me for a moment. I promise I won’t get all soft and new agey on you.

My family can tell you I love to do some purging of stuff around the house and office. I’m like the anti-hoarder (I think that at times my kids have been afraid that I was going to haul them out to the curb, too!). But I just love the clean, light feeling of making space in my physical environment. My mantra has long been “outer clutter = inner chaos.”

This runs true in organizations as well. We all have to clear out the clutter in our leadership practices, as well, so that we can have room for new, improved, and exciting ways of doing things.

8 tips for clearing out your leadership and organizational clutter:

1. Kick the status quo to the curb. Similar to cleaning out your closets, just because it’s familiar, doesn’t mean it’s your best look. Get out of your comfort zone. Often we hold onto shoes, habits, and ways of doing things because they’re familiar, and “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” (Or those are the shoes we usually wear with those pants/that dress.) Shake things up a bit.

2. Reassess and ditch processes and systems that have become inefficient. Tom Peters said “Over time, even a beautiful system tends to get elaborated and elaborated. We end up serving the system instead of having the system serve us.”

3. Sweep out those snarky thoughts about people. “Assume the best, and confirm the rest.” Assume positive intent.

4. Stop spending time with those soul-sucking people who drain the life out of you. This will create space for you to be able to invest in the people who add value to your life.

5. Clear your calendar of meaningless meetings. Or find a way to make them meaningful. Ask yourself if each meeting is a productive use of your time. If it’s not, could the information be shared via email? Save the meetings for the things that need to be batted around, cussed, and discussed, eyeball to eyeball.

6. Get rid of those habits that aren’t serving you. Addicted to your phone? (BTW, NO one ever admits this.) Try setting some boundaries for yourself. Put them away during more of your interactions so that you can really be present to your team.

7. Banish bureaucracy. Organization expert Cynthia Kyriazis said, “Clutter is symptomatic of delayed decision making.” Same is true in organizations. When “the boss” has to make each and every little cotton-pickin’ decision, he or she usually become the bottleneck. Bureaucracy is the clutter of many organizations today, and it slows everything down and creates resentment and frustration.

8. Dispose of the stuff and focus on creating experiences.  For the past few years, my husband and I decided that instead of buying a bunch of stuff for our kids for Christmas, we instead wanted to create experiences and make memories with them. We invested in family vacations, gone to Jazz Fest, and spent a lot of time fishing and beaching together. How could you replicate this in your work? Could you be more intentional about how you want people to experience you?

Of course I’m not telling you to be a neat freak, nor do I want to insinuate that I am a neat freak, because I most definitely am not! But, just like we need to clear out the physical clutter in our homes and offices, we need to regularly clean up and clear out the metaphorical clutter in our leadership and organizations.

CHIME IN:

  • How will you make this “purging” a regular practice going forward?
  • What habits or practices will you get rid of to make space for new and improved ways of doing things?

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Jennifer Ledet, CSP, is a leadership consultant and professional speaker (with a hint of Cajun flavor) who equips leaders from the boardroom to the mailroom to improve employee engagement, teamwork, and communication.  In her customized programs, leadership retreats, keynote presentations, and breakout sessions, she cuts through the BS and talks through the tough stuff to solve your people problems

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Do You Suffer from the Illusion of Success?

“Success has many suitors. Are you prepared to be embraced by success?” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Exactly what is a success? You hear people talking about success but seldom do they speak about what it means to be successful. Some people may see what they consider to be a bum laying on a grate and deem him as lacking success. Is that true? Might that individual be so happy with where he is in life that he would consider himself to be successful?

The meaning of success can only be determined by you! And, it’s very important that you define what that means. Its meaning will shift throughout your life but unless you define it at every stage of its change, you’ll miss the opportunity to define its meaning for your future.

When you define what success means to you, you’re defining your future. You’re setting psychological neurons into motion within your own brain to acquire the goals that will determine the degree of success you’ve achieved at some point in the future. That will determine the actions you engage in, the friends you associate with, the job or business activities you indulge in, etc. When you define what success means for you, you set a road map of how you’ll reach the weigh stations along the path to success.

So, don’t create the illusion of success by a lack of its definition. Instead, determine what it’s related to as it relates to the person you wish to be in the future. The better you define what success is to you, the greater the chance you’ll have at creating a plan to become successful. There will be illusions along success’ path but they won’t create the distraction that they would have produced had you not defined its meaning. Plus, you’ll be in a better mental place to banish any illusions that would present themselves as a ghostly harbinger to distract you from your path. That will reduce the angst and stress that you would have placed upon yourself.

Once you acquire the insight to determine what success means for you, you’ll be more mindful of the actions that lead to greater success … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations? 

You should never enter a negotiation without having defined what a successful outcome is. You should also define what a less than stellar outcome will look like. Even if you must exit a negotiation prior to its end, you can still view it as a success. It could be viewed as such when considering the time you might have wasted in an endless loop that was going nowhere.

During your strategy planning stage of your negotiation, highlight what a successful outcome will look like and mean to you. Make sure you assess what you think it will mean and look like for your negotiation counterpart too. With a picture of the meaning of success for both of you, you’ll have a greater understanding of how he’s feeling if it starts to slip from him. That, in turn, will allow you to use the illusion of success to keep him on that path or reward him by giving the presence of success back to him. Regardless of your choice, you’ll be in a stronger negotiation position, and that’s something that every negotiator seeks.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

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