Leave “Back To

The Future”

in the dust and

the old movies!

Leadership’s a funny thing, especially when running a small business. The more we try to figure out what went wrong, the less we move forward. Big unionized companies and government agencies can afford the luxury of assigning task teams to look back and determine who did what to whom and why and wherefore.

Small businesses can go broke while their heads are turned.

More than any other organizational entity on Earth, small businesses must remain the most flexible and the least concerned with exploring, assessing, and resolving old problems. In other words, if it’s broke (and not impacting the lifeblood of our business), we need to step over or around it and move on. Fixing stuff takes too much time that is better spent with forward motion … innovative leadership by example!

We need to remind ourselves that anything longer than a minute-old is:

1. Fantasy (because it’s not in the here-and-now present reality of time and space) and
2. Over with and impossible to change.

HOW do we keep our minds focused on the reality of what we’re dealing with day to day —  instead of what happened last week, or yesterday, or an hour ago? The fastest and most effective way that tens of thousands of successful business owners and managers use to accomplish this (and, by the way, that’s free, and takes all of 60 seconds!) is to simply take a couple of deep breaths.

     For specific reinforcement on this, take a quick side trip with your mouse and click here to take some deep breaths.

     The bottom line is that no matter what method we use . . . checking our watches, turning up the music volume, pinching ourselves, playing with a puppy or a baby, taking a slug of ice water, rubbing our foreheads briskly or rubbing our hands together briskly, phoning our desk lines with our cell phones and talking to ourselves (well, okay, maybe just let it ring once!) . . . if it works and it joggles our brains into the present moment, it’s a good method. We need to keep using it.

Recalling past incidents, problems and solutions, accomplishments can have a positive effect on our here-and-now decision making as long as we are consciously managing those “Back to the Future” visits from our present existences.

We get ourselves in trouble when we choose to allow ourselves to get lost with past thoughts, reveries, daydreams, nostalgia … whatever we want to call these experiences. Why? Because getting stuck in those mental journeys  is rarely if ever productive and — in a work setting — will almost certainly not help us establish or maintain the forward motion we need to grow our businesses.

   Is it very unlike running down the field carrying the football, and suddenly stopping to think about the circumstances surrounding your last touchdown?

Small business leaders must prompt, promote, and maintain continuous forward movement, be prepared to “turn on a dime” as the expression goes, and stay focused as much of the time each day as possible on the customer, supplier, employee, market opportunity that’s smack dab in front of our faces, not dwelling on history. Save that journey for your accountant.

# # #

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY/ CONTENT/ CONNECTION

Higher impact. Lower costs.

——————-

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Entrepreneurship & Expansion Coaching    931.854.0474

Go for your goals, thanks for your visit, God Bless You!

Step Back From Your Business.

    When’s the last time you clicked your own “Refresh” button? After bursting out of the New Year’s gate, it’s only natural to get a little weary rounding the home turn, headed toward Valentine’s Day! But NOW is the perfect time to adjust your course and your attitude about the course that you’re on (this, btw, is not an endorsement of happy hour).

     You already have your goals. And they’re specific, flexible, realistic and due-dated. Your new value-added products and services are off to a good start. Prospective customers are filling up the sales pipeline.

     Cutbacks haven’t left you with as many disgruntled employees as you imagined and most, in fact, have been rising to the occasion. Your marketing programs are working off sparser budgets and dipping into some unknown territories.

     You’ve innovated the innovations and things feel okay.

     Well, don’t shoot the messenger, but guess what? If things feel okay:

A) That’s not good enough. Maybe “okay” would have put you in cruise control a few years ago, but not in this economy, and not in this supersonic-tech-paced lifestyle. Things have to feel a whole lot better than “okay” to survive and thrive.  

B) A rolling stone gathers no moss (Thanks, but no — I didn’t make that up. Actually, my version has always been “Some action is better than no action”!). The point is to save the lounge chair and iPod for vacations and retirement. 

My friend Kevin Bousquet who runs www.InterlakenInn.com — a GREAT place for meetings — once said about tending to management transparency (as Jonena Relth calls it at www.TBDConsulting.com): “There’s plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead.”  

C) Do the 10-minute escape-to-reality thing, and in all probability you’ll surprise yourself. It’s not hard; in fact, your 3 year-old will help if you get stuck. Ready?

1. Step back from what you’re doing, clean off your eyeglasses (or take a couple of deep breaths http://bit.ly/Bb1Tw while you press gently against your closed eyelids for ten seconds), and

2. Take another nine minutesand 50 seconds to clean up, straighten out or rearrange something in/on/at your worksite that will help you be more effective.

3. One last step back, away from what you’ve just done. Another deep breath can’t hurt. And look at what you’ve just done. Critique yourself. What did you just learn about your self that you can apply to re-energizing and adjusting the course you’re on? Who can best help you?

What are you waiting for?  What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? (Valentine’s Day is on the way!)

Hmmmmm? 

……….Visit Hal’s Guest Blog Posts………. 

GOT A SICK WEBSITE?> @http://bit.ly/6iYe6g 

WHAT’S YOUR T-SHIRT SAY?> http://bit.ly/7K0s4a

 LEADERSHIP SEARCH?> 12/30 @http://bit.ly/XhN1h

 DOES NO BEAT MAYBE?> 1/6 @http://bit.ly/74qlG5

 # # #               

Effective Communications

Requires EFFORT!

If you’re willing to put out the extra effort because clear, concise and accurate communications is important to you and your business, be prepared to take a more active listening role. As you may need to project yourself more assertively, be equally conscious of the need to become a better listener.

Resist the temptation to skip ahead in your mind while someone else is speaking. Stop trying to imagine what’s next and, perhaps even worse, stop reviewing in your mind over and over what has already been said. You can always check that later, or simply interrupt to request a once-over on the part you missed or didn’t understand.

When your mind races ahead of what’s being said, or drags behind to mull over something that has already passed by, you miss the present moment and the statements that are being made, as well as the nuances of expression and intonations that give the words their true meaning. You must work at staying focused and not allowing your mind to drift.

How can you keep your listening and comprehension skills on the front burner? Follow these four simple rules of good listening:

1. TAKE DEEP BREATHS. Just as flames die without oxygen, so will your ability to keep focused on the present moment die out when your “normal” way of breathing fails to get enough oxygen to your brain. By deep breathing (which no one needs to notice if you practice it enough), you will also be prompted to not cross your arms or legs or hands…all signals that subconsciously tell the speaker that you are mentally “closed off” and not receptive; often these nonverbal signals communicate defensiveness as well.

2. TAKE NOTES. Writing down what you hear keeps your brain uncluttered by getting the words from the speaker through your ears, into your brain and down your arms into your hands and fingers and onto paper (or your keyboard, if appropriate for the setting and circumstances). You can keep your notes and look at them anytime without the distraction or taxing of your memory that occurs when you carry the comments or instructions around in your mind like a ping-pong ball lottery drum filled with tumbling numbers. Taking notes helps you listen more carefully.

3. MAINTAIN GOOD EYE CONTACT. It’s a fact that just as you can “hear” a smile, you can “see” what you hear in person. In other words, good eye contact (not staring) communicates attention and interest. You will also absorb more of what the speaker really means by the words used, by watching for gestures and facial expressions in the process. Can you look in the mirror and tell yourself how happy you are while actually communicating something else with your face, hands and posture?

4. PARAPHRASE WHAT YOU HEAR by repeating back what you got from it in your own words, and in the form of a question. “Do I understand you correctly to mean that…?” (finish the question with your own words, interpreting what you think you understood). “If I understand you correctly, you’re saying…is that right?” works fine too. The speaker will be flattered. Asking for examples is another great technique.

The point is to take responsibility for listening carefully and taking notes and repeating back things to clarify and make sure that what is said is what you heard. It’s YOUR job to be sure that YOU’RE right, right?

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Happy St. Patrick‘s Day!

What happens for you on this day every year? Do you get up and put on green clothes? Pig out on corned beef and cabbage? (This “traditional” meal is an Americanism, by the way. Like pizza not coming from Italy, the Irish eat spareribs and sauerkraut on St. Patrick’s Day!)

     Maybe you eat green bagels (ah, many of these in New York, but positively not an Irish thing!) Can you even find a florist with any green carnations left? Do you get smashed on green beer and end up with a hangover on March 18th?

Or is today just a day like any other?

     Y’know what? I think that if you think this day is just like any other, you have a problem needs fixin’ because what you’re really saying is that everyday is just like every other one, that nothing much changes and that nothing much is special, except maybe Fridays at 5pm and your birthday, right?

     Well, hopefully this isn’t you we’re talking about, but maybe you know someone who fits that description? And if you do, maybe wish her or him Happy Birthday more often!

     The secret of a prosperous business is to practice the secret of a prosperous life. The trouble is that practically no people get this until they achieve AARP status. The secret, after all, of a prosperous life only comes with the hindsight and wisdom of age and the kinds of genuine appreciation and gratefulness that only come from deep, deep inside.

     To me, it’s a lot like learning the positive and productive life changes that come from discovering the simplicity, value, consciousness and energy flow that come from deep breathing.

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

Click this link for a free, 60-second, 4-step “how to” that can change your life. No sales pitch. No gimmicks. Just a valuable “how to” that you’re likely to wish you’d learned long ago!       

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

     What can we do to come to realizations like this sooner in life? Maybe nothing. Maybe we just need to be grateful to have finally grabbed the brass ring (whoops! showing my merry-go-round age again!). and we should just take it and run!

     Well, breathing and running can get us nowhere if we’re living on a treadmill and afraid to step off. Breathing and running won’t take us where we want to go if we don’t believe in ourselves. and believe that we have the ability to get there, wherever “there” is for each of us.      

The point is that EVERY day –St. Patrick’s Day and the day after St. Patrick’s Day included— is a new opportunity to be the best that we can be, to do the best that we can do!

It’s a new opportunity to move another step closer to the “there” that we want to get to, the “difference” we want to make.

     Making your life happen the way that you want it to happen is 100% in your mind. It is your CHOICE! When you find your brain falling out and weakening and upset feelings coming in, STOP! Take a deep breath, focus your mind on where you are and what you want and start going there.

     Dump the upset baggage and go forward. Make today and tomorrow and the next day, and the next, EACH the special day that you deserve to have. Choose it! Use it! STOP with the excuses! Do it!

God Bless You and

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

EVERY DAY! 

 # # #

Make today a GREAT day for someone!