 I moved from working in my business to working on my business!
Jim White, Founder Savor Dallas http://www.savordallas.com |
 I found a community of business leaders who make being in business a lot more fun and less lonely.
Jeannine Sandstrom, CEO CoachWorks International, Inc. http://www.coachworks.com |
 I now have a place to be open about my business success and future challenges.
Debbie Mrazek, CEO The Sales Company Author The Field Guide to Sales http://www.the-sales-company.com |
Archive for April, 2008
If you have been using FaceBook then you know how it requires loading various plug-ins to be able to chat with your FaceBook friends. Now, FaceBook has a built-in chat feature that shows which friends are online and allows you to instantly chat with them.
What does this mean to you? If you are prospecting or trying to invite people to join your FaceBook, there’s no more waiting… you can ping them right there and open the door to collaboration. Connecting has never been easier!
And, for those of you who think… MySpace… FaceBook… what next? Remember that FaceBook.com is the choice of Boomer and Gen-X professionals. That means, yes, it is worth your time to figure this community out!
Most of you know that Mark sources technology purchases for many of our clients. He is a wheeling, dealing machine. He just really gets a kick out of getting great deals for people. Recently, he worked with a client to purchase a laptop and the purchase this client thought would be well over $1,000 was less than $650.
TechBargains.com is one of Mark’s stomping grounds. They have specials that are almost too good to be believed. For instance, yesterday they were offering a Dell high-end desktop with 20-inch LCD monitor for $399. Wow! The point is that this is a great place to cruise before you plunk down your cold-hard cash.
We’ve been using this site for many years, and it has been wonderful! They have other non-techie deals, too, so be sure to check it out at least once.
Hi all-
In the last few months I have had the opportunity to meet some young professionals. One is a new MBA grad and the other is in culinary school. I so enjoyed meeting these two young gentlemen. I got to listen to their dreams, to what they want in their lives, what they care about in their work, and what they aspire to be. It was quite inspirational!
As I shared tips and tools for various things… it hit me… since when did I become the ‘older’ professional? I don’t think of myself as older, but I’m hitting one of those ‘big birthdays’ so it means I do have a cool 27 years of work experience under the old belt (yes, I started working at 13).
What surprised me about talking to these two guys is how great I felt in their clouds of possibility. Then it occurred to me that we all can feel like this every single day! Possibility is not just for the youth who have a big stretch of life in front of them!
What is it that you want to expand possibility around? Take an hour (or two) and dream again!
Hugs-
Tina
P.S. What’s closing in on you? Whatever is constricted probably is constricted in other areas too… open the door and air out that possibility! Get fresh with a new way of thinking.
Oops! Now what?
Recently the American Marketing Association called to interview me about “What happens when mistakes are made in marketing?” I thought it was a really interesting topic because I don’t know that people really talk about this sort of thing unless it goes really buck wild like the ad campaign where little boxes thought to be bombs shut down many overpasses and bridges.
After the call, I got to thinking about what people do in general when mistakes are made. To me, whether they are marketing or business, the guidelines appear to be the same.
- Assess the Mess – Take stock of what the situation is. Sometimes the ‘mess’ is seemingly smaller and easier to forgive than a bigger one. What can you do right now to address it?
- Determine a Course of Action – What do you do next? What would serve all involved? What is fair? What is ethical? What reflects your company’s highest values?
- Address the Weakest Link – When things go wrong, it is usually because something within the system or process isn’t working. What can you do next time to address the weak link?
- Know What Matters – Walking on eggshells makes for a tense work environment. Are the company’s culture and values aligned with the expected outcome? Are you walking your talk? What needs some attention?
- Follow It to Completion – After you determine the other areas, walk through the process and look for gaps. Close those and move on!
An oops can appear like any number of things. We’ve written many articles on Jott.com, but one of their big oops! was nowhere on the site do they have the complete phone number. Yes, it’s cool to say 1-800-JOTTXXX but when you are on a smart phone that doesn’t tell you the numbers for JOTT, then it is a pain in the neck. I mentioned this to someone else and that person said they had the exact same experience. If you see an oops! share the oops with the company – you might save a few (or few hundred) oops experiences.
A few years ago I remember a HUGE oops that happened with one of our clients. We weren’t involved – just want to get that straight! – but we did see how it was handled. The oops was in ordering by one of the admins. The result was a $86,000 oops. There was no way to cancel the order. What would you do?
If you are curious… the admin didn’t lose her job, the company wasn’t held responsible for not asking… “Are you sure you want this much?” and a new process was put into place to double and triple check future orders.
How does your company handle an Oops!?
While balancing work and family has received a lot of attention over the years, the truth is there’s more smoke than fire. People work longer hours in downsized and super competitive work environments that pressure people to make family a second priority. Many workers feel they must choose between work and family. Either they must conform to get promotions or sidestep their career for the family–a tough and bitter pill to swallow.
No wonder thousands of good people leave good jobs to take lower level, lower paying, more accommodating jobs elsewhere. This dilemma has fueled the dramatic rise of home-based and female-owned businesses in the U.S.
By creating a Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA), companies can keep good employees and not force them to sacrifice family life. An FWA will help them benefit personally and professionally and the result will be people who are more loyal, committed and productive.
FWA’s allow more options to employees who do not want or need a standard work schedule. A properly prepared FWA allows greater flexibility in balancing roles of work and home. It also can help prevent valuable employees from quitting and taking a less suitable position somewhere else. Most of the time a FWA involves fewer work hours and possibly a proportional reduction of pay and benefits.
A survey by Flexible Resources of more than 500 women seeking flexible work arrangements found that 64 percent of them either quit or were planning to quit because of lack of work hour flexibility. What was alarming was 59 percent of these women never asked their employers to modify their work schedules because they assumed they would be denied or lose stature. Younger women are more assertive in seeking flexible work arrangements than older women; 72 percent of women between the age of 25 and 35 were willing to request an FWA compared to only 30% of the respondents of women aged 36 to 45.
Among those who requested a flexible work arrangement and were told “no,” reasons for the refusal ran the gamut in the following priority:
- We can’t give it to you and not the others (52%)
- You will not be available to others (48%)
- We have never done it before (24%)
- You won’t be as productive as when you worked full time (8%)
- Your job is not conducive to flexible hours (5%)
- There is too much work to do (5%)
- It wouldn’t fit into a team atmosphere (5%)
But FWA’s have drawbacks. People feel that physical presence equals more opportunity for promotions and advancement. Men are particularly vulnerable to the stigma that “if you are not at work full-time you are not competitive.”
Working Mother Magazine has recognized the innovative work/life programs provided by the Bank of America. Its “Child Care Plus” program pays eligible workers an additional $35 a week per child for employees earning less than $30,000 a year. After learning that turnover for participants was about half of the peer group not participating, BofA expanded the program to include workers with family incomes of $60,000 and began to allow workers two paid hours a week to work in their children’s schools. Finally, it added money for college. Bank of America gives $2000 a year for employees enrolled in undergraduate classes and $4,000 for graduate study. As a result they were able to reduce turnover by 50 percent.
True You Marketing Interview with Glenn Baldwin, Virtual CFO
Join Tina Ferguson and Dallas-based Virtual CFO, Glenn Baldwin for this lively one-hour conversation about the five most common mistakes smart, savvy business women make on the financial side of their business. Glenn goes into detail about the things women business leaders can do to work smart, not hard. He also talks about the importance of being true to who you are in your business. Listen Now
Written By Work911
The responsive manager tends to succeed by building bonds of respect and trust with those around him/her. Staff respond positively to responsive managers; they work more diligently, work to help the manager and the organization succeed, and will go the extra mile when necessary. That is because responsive managers act consistent with the principle that their jobs are to help their staff do their jobs. So, a basic inter-dependence emerges based on behaviors that show concern, respect and trust.
Responsive managers also influence those above them in the hierarchy. Because responsive managers have the ability to read and act upon the needs of their “bosses”, they are perceived as helpful and reliable, or in a simple way, very useful. This allows them to get the “ear” of people above them in the system, and further helps get things done when needed.
Contrast this with the limited influence of the Unresponsive manager. The unresponsive manager is restricted in influence because those around him/her do not respect or trust them to look out for their welfare. Influence is more limited to the use of power coming from the formal position, and fear, a motivational component that is hard to sustain over time. Unresponsive managers tend to be perceived as self-interested, or at best uninterested in the needs of those around them. They also tend to be perceived by those above them as less reliable and less useful due to their focus on empire building, organization protection, and self-interest, rather than getting done what needs to be done.
2 Key traits of a Responsive Manager
- Able to put aside personal concerns to listen to those around them. As a result, they know what is going on, and know what is both said, and said between the lines. They have the knack of appearing to know what people need even if those needs are not expressed directly.
- Acts upon knowledge, attempting to help fulfil the needs of employees, superiors, etc. Responsive managers wield influence to solve problems for those around them, often before even being asked.
Example:
An employee had been working for a government branch for about a year, having moved to the city as a new resident. In a casual conversation, the supervisor noted that the employee wasn’t looking his or her best, and asked how he\she was feeling. The employee explained that he\she hadn’t been feeling well lately, and sounded very tired and overwhelmed. The supervisor determined that the staff member didn’t have a local family doctor, asked if he\she would like the Human Resources supervisor to help arrange an appointment, and then proceeded to do so immediately. The problem turned out to be a minor one.
In this example the supervisor was able to identify that the staff member was in need of some help, despite the fact that the staff member did not state this explicitly. Note that the supervisor didn’t pressure the staff member to go to the doctor, but identified needs, checked them out, and then acted upon them. In this case, help consisted of direct, helpful action.
2 Questions to Always Consider as a Manager
1. If you are a manager or supervisor, how can you modify your own behaviors so that you become and are perceived as more responsive by
- your staff
- your boss
- your customers
2. What is your definition of a “responsive employee”? Can you identify your “favorite employees”, and how they are responsive to you?
True You Coaching
Want to learn more about your talents and how you can strengthen those for more success? We work with the CoreClarity mapping system that supports the results of Gallup’s StrengthsFinder Assessment. The results we’ve seen with coaching clients have been truly amazing, and I can’t think of a greater way to serve people than to help them see what is genius about who they are and what they have to offer the world.
Lest you think there is a gap between this and marketing, I can assure you that this process helps you know how to share who you are and what you do in a way you’ve likely never seen before. Even I’m amazed at how it can help build a mission statement that speaks to the heart of others.
This 90-minute session is $375. You receive a CoreClarity map, a one-to-one in-depth coaching session with me, and also laser coaching for areas where your talents could be working better and where your talents might be working against you. For more details contact Brandie!
“Thank you so much for working with me to really explain how my talents work and how they support me in my business and in life. I am claiming my talents, and enjoying them a lot more now that I see it’s just me. What a relief to work with them instead of against them. Clarity is definitely the end result!”
Sarah P.
Hi all-
Only in Texas can you see a longhorn topiary. We took a quick trip with Chance and his classmates out to the Arboretum this morning. What a beautiful day it turned out to be.
As we strolled the grounds, I realize that in every single thing we do, every choice we make, every breath we take (for you Police fans), we are sharing who we are with others. Just like the longhorn topiary, you can do things that are uniquely you in your business.
One of the things I love to do is send hand-written notes with little gift cards and quote cards. Do I have to do this? No. But I really love to and you can’t believe how people appreciate little things like that.
This spring reminds me of how creative Mother Nature can be… and what a way to get inspired to do things the same or differently depending on how you look at it!
Hugs-
Tina
P.S. What has become a drag in your day-to-day? What can be infused with inspiration? Vow to take one thing this week and look at it as new and see what a new view will do!
All of the assessments and personality typing I’ve taken over the years points to the reality that I am a strategist. On one I fall in between being an expert problem solver and a passionate entrepreneur. I’m probably a good mix of the two.
The point is that strategic people start at the end and back up then determine many different ways to get to that end point. For me, and the many other strategic thinkers in the world, we ask… “Where are we going?” In fact, we can’t even listen to the other details until we know where we are going. It wouldn’t make sense to us otherwise.
Why am I telling you this? Well, because I want to share why asking yourself about the end can help you begin.
I see people with a disease I will call tactical-itis. This is the strong propensity to do, do, do with little regard to what the desired outcome is. How does this happen? Actually, it’s easy. It happens when we are looking around at what others are doing. It can happen when we aren’t sure WHAT to do. It can even happen when we just want to do something.
A surefire sign of tactical-itis is lots of action and few results. Or… few results of what you want.
Here’s an example. A client called exasperated by how overwhelmed he is in his business. He’s running here, running there and his plate is more than full. I’m working and working, but my sales are down and I just can’t seem to figure this out! I need to get on that new newsletter we’ve been talking about. Let’s get that newsletter going right away.
I listened patiently and then asked a few key questions…
Q. What is your primary focus right now?
A. Attending to everything I’m committed to.
Q. What will it take to reach your sales goal?
A. Following up on old leads, finalizing the three proposals I haven’t had a chance to do, and returning calls to the five people who called last week.
Q. So what keeps you from making those calls, doing the proposals and what not?
A. All of this stuff I’m doing… that’s what!!
Very quickly, we honed in on the problem, which was not the newsletter that wasn’t implemented. It was that this super successful professional was overbooked because of a larger sales goal he set for himself. The good news is that his efforts were paying off… the bad news was he didn’t have the team and system in place to handle the new work.
His truth is that he hates to write proposals, and loves to be out and about like a social butterfly. We did some simple math and determined based on what he loves to do, the sales he has and the opportunities that are flowing in that he has the resources to outsource this pain in his bu** as he calls it.
When you begin with the end in mind, it’s easy to bypass tactical-itis. When we know we aren’t doing what we need to do or what our business needs we hold this feeling in our bodies. When we feel enough of it, we want to get rid of it. And, usually, it looks like… get me something! Let’s get moving! When we can be honest and look at where we are and remember where we are going, it’s a lot easier to get there.
Tips for Beginning With the End in Mind
- Know your destination point – get clear. Ensure this is the real destination point. Sometimes we set big goals for ourselves, create new products, companies and a host of other things not because that’s what we really want but because it can be a great substitute for what’s lacking. I wish I could say I haven’t seen this before, but it is more common than you can imagine. Before you get started ask… Is this what I want? Or do I want this because I think it will give me something else I want?
- Ignore speed limit signs & road bumps. Ask yourself, What is the fastest way I know how to get to this? When we begin to think about doing something, the opportunity to get mired down with ideas about ‘how’ to do things can appear. Let your mind work for you. Brainstorm with others to get their ideas. You will amaze yourself at how creative you can be!
- Make a plan. I’ve seen business plans that were drawn in Crayola crayons. That lady is a multi-millionaire today. Plans don’t have to be boring and stuffy. Make no doubt about it, though, you do need a general road map of how to get where you are today to where you are going. Make your plan your way knowing it will change as you go.
- Get ready. Before you go, be sure you have most everything you need. The more prepared you are the easier the ride will be. Do you have your team in place? Do you have the tools you need? Do you have ideas about how to deal with a flat on your road of success?
- Adopt a winning mindset. When you know where you are going to end up, your mindset will be a lot more relaxed. You can stop and enjoy the scenery. You know you have the people, processes and programs in place to support your journey. Your winning mindset will allow you to arrive in style… not merely slide into your destination. Working with a coach, having a buddy coach or a peer is a great way to keep your mind sharp and set to success.
The next time tactical-itis rears its head, be sure to look at the basics and begin again with the end in mind!