Is Your Vision Statement

A Mission?

Does Your

Mission Statement

Have Vision?

You’re getting ready for 2012 and you’re confused? Gee, hard to imagine . . .

Just because the media and politicians tell us the economy is getting better? Just because we’re looking at a healthcare reform that has absolutely nothing to do with healthcare and everything to do with costing small business more? Just because enemy combatant terrorist situations surface from those we’re told are not really terrorists, and from circumstances that we’re assured do not exist? Just because global warming hoaxsters had us running to refrigeration investments?

~~~~~~~

We’re probably feeling like confusion is nothing new, right? So why not live with a little more?

Well, here’s why: The business you own or manage doesn’t need to be as misguided and convoluted as politicians and the media. Remember they get paid for creating confusion. Your success depends on keeping things simple.

Keeping things simple starts with attitude, awareness, and hard work.

First off, don’t let anyone tell you to work smarter and not harder. That’s baloney! Every business success comes from hard work. Next, don’t let people confuse you about the characteristics and values of Mission and Vision Statements. [No, they are NOT the same!]

A Mission statement is essentially a declaration of intent, challenge and pursuit. It is your goal statement that clearly and succinctly explains what you plan to accomplish over what specific period of time and by what means. It is action-focused.

And, like every meaningful goal, your Mission Statement needs t0 be specific, flexible, realistic and have a due date. [Without all four criteria, you’ve nothing more than a wishlist fantasy!]

A Vision statement is a summation of where you see your business in 5-10 years. It is a picture you paint in your mind and share with others. It answers the question: If you succeed in your mission, where will you be?

It’s a set of words that best describes what you imagine to be your future state of existence, and how you expect (hope) to be viewed by others: your employees, associates, vendors, customers, markets, industry or profession, and community. It is dream-focused. It’s primary value is to inspire pursuit of your Mission.

What’s your Mission for 2012? What’s your Vision for 2020?

Oh, and in the same fashion that it helps to start ANY mission with 20/20 vision, it is often most useful to put your 2020 Vision on the table (to keep focused on it) while you develop your 2012 Mission (or while you think up the ways to get where you want to end up).

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More FREE insights on

 2012 “LEADERSHIP”?

Come visit me at TBD Consulting’s Jonena Relth’s site and comment on my Guest Blog posts:

LEADERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

“I” IS FOR INTEGRITY

and “T” IS FOR TRUST.  

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Welcome to the world’s first SMALL BIZ Alphabet Series of blog posts!

Welcome to the world’s first

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES of blog posts — 

“D”…DELEGATION

 Does it make a big difference if I tell you 

to do something . . . or ask you to do it?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Telling you what to do might work out fine in the military, or aboard a plane or boat, or operating heavy equipment . . . or if you’re a prisoner, a horse, or a Cocker Spaniel.

But, in business, unless you –the owner or manager– need to prompt cooperation with others to get a job done, the results you’ll trigger by giving directives cannot compare with the response you’ll get from making a request, which can be astonishing. And when was the last time you got great results from giving orders?

US President and General Dwight David Eisenhower taught his senior officers how to exercise leadership by pushing a tangle of string across a tabletop vs. taking one end and pulling it, which of course ended with the string in a straight line moving in a single direction, instead of a jumble going nowhere.

Yes, sincerity, genuineness, eye contact, backpats, your posture, tone of voice, and and smiles often make the difference. So does the reputation you carry for having integrity and authenticity — perhaps the two most important qualities an entrepreneur can have on the road to success.

And, interestingly, integrity and authenticity are ever too late to cultivate.

Well, okay, you know all that, but how far must you go with the “please” and “thank you” routine? Truth? You’ll never go far enough, and if it’s actually become “routine,” go back to your cave.

Here are a few treasured learnings I can share:

• Even when we think we know, little do we ever really know about what life circumstances will bring, and where we’ll end up with our businesses in the years ahead.

• I have seen discounted, dismissed, dissed and insulted employees turn up years later being the bosses of those who once humiliated and looked down on them.

• I have seen long-term top customers walk away from businesses in an instant after learning about relatives (a son, in one case) who worked for the provider business, unbeknownst to the boss, who were routinely berated, chastised, scolded, yelled at and wrongly blamed for screw-ups.

• I have personally watched businesses run by owners who were rude, constantly preoccupied, always angry, and routinely barking out orders . . . go down and under.

Do you –like the carpenter and heart surgeon– make a practice of measuring twice and cutting once? Do you think twice before speaking once?

Remember

you can delegate authority,

but you cannot delegate

responsibility.

Responsibility is yours alone.

When you ask peopleto get things done, asking nicely is not manipulation, it’s respect. Use words that inspire and that demonstrate your passion for your business: opportunity, challenge, reward, investment, courage, pride, workmanship, spirit, spunk, gumption (add your own) . . . the right words make your passion contagious.

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Hal@Businessworks.US    302.933.0911

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone!

When your business is

born of faith, you march 

to a different drum . . .

That most small business owners maintain any kind of long-term allegiance to the place their businesses were born is doubtful. Yet, as entrepreneurs, they are the most likely group to appreciate and respect the origins and uniquenesses of a business that is born of faith.

Both kinds of small business enterprise owners —those who believe their business calling comes from God, and those who don’t– experience similar dynamics, challenges, problems, and opportunities. The differences are essentially differences in attitude, motivation, and the treatment of internal and external resources.

Small businesses all suffer growing pains. And being on the cusp of economic catastrophe while getting bludgeoned by over-taxation without representation (considering the SBA is a joke) and by over-regulation from a naive, misguided, rampaging  White House that appears intentionally and spitefully clueless, doesn’t help.   

Not many corporate giant, union, or government career types would understand the dynamics, challenges, problems, and opportunities faced daily by small business –any kind of small business– let alone the charitable, servant leadership nature of a business that is faith-based.

Entrepreneurs of every ilk recognize that their own and others’ existences depend on their own initiatives. Unlike corporate and government counterparts, when you own and/or manage a small business, and you’re too hungover to get out of bed in the morning, there’s no option for tossing it off by calling in to take a “sick day”

When you skip work or drag in hours late because you’re feeling depressed or had an upsetting incident at home, or simply didn’t want to face up to a scheduled meeting with a disgruntled partner or financial supporter, or an irate customer, what happens? The business suffers. Do it too often and the business folds.

But when your business is firmly grounded in commitments to serving God by serving all others who come into contact with your enterprise, you have a different perspective on what’s important.

Secular, or non-spiritually-based businesses exist to make money. They are primarily devoted to satisfying their principals and their investors with profits. Faith-based businesses exist to make money to distribute more to their employees, their communities, and to become stronger resources for charitable giving.

Many secular businesses will put income-source customers first and actually disregard their employees, vendors, and “outside” consultants and sales reps. Financial gain and competitive edge become the driving forces. Faith-based businesses typically seek to embrace everyone equally, seeking to distribute trust, respect, and opportunities.

Most secular businesses consider community support efforts non-essential line items to abandon when economic uncertainty drives budgetary belt-tightening. Faith-based businesses facing the same financial stresses may simply switch gears to make their community contributions ones of time and effort, or expertise, or goods and services.

Having had the privledge of working extensively in both secular and faith-based business arenas, I frequently hear questions about what the differences and similarities are. This post is intended to address a few of my observations. They may not all be correct, and certainly they are not all-inclusive.

Can you add some comments

from your experiences? 

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

No good examples from

the White House, but

  small business excels.

 My last post here, “A Sense of Urgency,” raised hackles among some visitors I heard from who all seemed to express the notion that “Standing Still” and former idealist President Woodrow Wilson’s failed “Watchful Waiting” policy toward Mexico should be dictating business and politics today. 

Don’t take it personally, but that’s sick thinking.

Doing nothing, as the White House appears to relish, has never been –nor ever will be– a policy or guideline for small business success. Standing still and watchful waiting may deck the halls of Congress and the Oval Office, but they represent the anthisis of what needs to happen to grow business and military strength.

Small business and military strength must be grown to preserve and protect the freedoms we enjoy in America, and to revive and revitalize our still sinking economy.

The government and big business continue to prove every passing day that not only do they have no answers to this incipient 2nd Great Depression (“The Obama Depression”), but –rubbing salt into the wound– they give nothing but lip service token talk to proclamations of supporting small business. Truth? They HATE small business! 

Small business hangs on in spite of the formidable clout corporations and the government have in tow — PRECISELY because small business owners, operators, and managers are responsive to market needs. There’s no time wasted studing market share and shifts, or testing stuff to death. A sense of urgency is ever-present.

As small business owners, we must –first let Mr. Romney know that it’s not just “Corporations” that “are people.” Small businesses are (to a FAR greater degree) “people” too! (And, BTW, DNC Chairperson Debbie Schultz in protesting even the “Corporations=People” equation simply demonstrates that her ideology is dumber than dirt.

Of course “businesses are people.”

ALL businesses.

Next, we need to teach responsiveness by

example within our business enterprises.

Acting responsively and responsibly with every interaction –customers, other employees, suppliers, even what may appear to be disintersested inquiries– means instilling and reinforcing awareness that EVERY person’s needs and wants are the most important in the world, with never an exception. 

Translation:

Cultivate respect and an action attitude.

Sales professionals know this instinctively and typically make a practice of attacking problems before they become disasters. Stop looking to Washington for guidance. Take a page from sales pros.

The US Government 

is presently leaderless.

Consider the total lack of urgency and response to The Gulf Oil Leak; Mid-West Floods; Moammar Gadhafi; Japan’s Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster; Illegal Immigrants Pouring Across US Borders EVERY night; The Debt Crisis; and 20 more calamities. 

Your business would fold if you practiced such laxadasical “take another vacation” attitudes.

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  Hal@Businessworks.US   302.933.0116

  Open Minds Open Doors 

   Thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

CHANGE is hardly ever a  

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Hal@Businessworks.US  931.854.0474

  Open minds open doors. 

 Thanks for visiting and God bless you.

   Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

When you carry a grudge

. . . there’s no room to

carry your business!

The old Dutch proverb and German expression,“Vee grow too soon oldt, und too late shmart” sums up much of why we fail miserably to fully understand and effectively cultivate relationships. Our seeming inability to let go of the angry feelings someone close to us once provoked has toppled many business ventures, even entire empires.

                                                                                       

But, ah, the ability to forgive and forget those who crossed us up is a choice. 

And the consequences of making or not making that forgive-and-forget choice are the differences between:

• Having peace of mind, plus the energy to pursue both business and personal success–because by letting go and moving on, you are marshaling your energy and exercising control of you, captaining your own ship.

VS.

• Suffering a permanent or recurring headache that’s potentially terminal to you and your enterprise– because by holding on, you are wasting energy and choosing to subject yourself (and ultimately your business) to someone else’s control.

Carrying a grudge is

what leadership is not!

Many of us carry more grudges than we are probably conscious of. We keep them in our throats, and they come out as guttural utterances when certain names or circumstances surface. We keep them in little invisible knapsacks in our brains that send a flood of upset feelings into our nervous systems whenever they’re unzipped.

Some people get tight chest muscles (love relationships), tight shoulders (related to responsibility), backaches (associated with memories), stomach flutters, fists, headaches, leg pains, shortness of breath, indigestion, diarrhea, constipation, toothaches . . . it’s called being over-stressed, and it’s debilitating. For an entrepreneur, it can kill.

Ask any cardiologist.

Stress is both physical and emotional. It can be good (like the stress that keeps you sitting up straight in a chair), or bad (DIS-stress!), like the level that produces symptoms such as those in the earlier paragraph. Carrying a grudge, having revengeful feelings, like uncontrollable anger or road rage, can be a self-destruct path of no return.

Recognizing that letting go is a choice may not make doing it any easier, but that –itself– is also a choice. You can choose to make it easier. You can also ease the process by practicing more deep breathing and/or by taking a yoga or meditation program. Doctor-sanctioned serious exercise, like daily jogs and brisk walks can also help.

Think of it this way–

Every minute of your life that’s consumed by harboring angry or frustrated or disappointed feelings about another person (even, and perhaps especially, family!), or entity or event or policy is a minute you will never get back, and it’s a minute that you are choosing for someone or something else to reach inside your brain and control your thoughts.

And you are facilitating that impossibility to happen. After all, no one else can really control what you think and how you behave, except you . . . unless you choose for that to happen.

Now, why would you want to do that?

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Hal@Businessworks.US 

  Open minds open doors.

 Thanks for visiting and God bless you.

  Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

June 29, 2011: Today’s Presidential Press Conference . . .

Mr. Obama:

“Call me naive, but my expectation

   is that leaders are going to lead.”

The American People Respond:

“Duh!”   

Really, Mt.Obama, you can do a whole lot better than kick around the subject of leadership and pretend you know what it means. You clearly haven’t the foggiest idea about it. Talk with Rudy Giuliani. Read Peter Drucker. Watch some newsvideos of Ronald Reagan. Visit today’s issue of the TBD Consulting “Leadership News” newsletter.

Making a mockery of something you have no ability to do doesn’t speak well of you or the office you hold.

• My mother would have accused you of being “the pot that calls the kettle black.”
• My father would have told you to “Pull yourself up by the boot-straps and start getting the job done you’re getting paid to do.” 

ANY small business owner has better better common sense leadership skills than you have demonstrated.

In fact, in all of history, there has never been a leader of any consequence who has repeatedly gone out of his/her way to consistently blame others for his/her own inadequacies, except you!

Placing blame and analyzing it accomplishes zero–as ANY successful business owner will tell you–unless of course you’re Judge Judy.

Then again, you would need to be open-minded enough to even ask in the first place, and you’ve proven yourself incapable of that. To the average American, the relentlessness you exhibit in your pursuit of who and what to blame is pathetic. You long ago ceased to be effective as a leader, and especially because you think you’re a great one.

Nobody else thinks you are

• . . . certainly nobody else who cares about our still sinking economy that you killed when you had a chance to breathe life into it; that’s called a “blown save” in baseball.

• Then there’s your Lybian Quagmire that you insisted on rushing into with a cocky attitude and no respect for our military; that’s known as underestimating the competition.

• Ah yes, and lest we forget the catestrophic daily oil spill you wasted more than a month analyzing instead of responding to.

• Business owners will tell you when a customer fails with your product, you rush to the rescue with a quick-fix and find out what went wrong later, after you’ve resolved the problem.

• Oh, and the selective weather disasters you chose to respond to? Please. Everyone knows you’re a puppet to begin with, but there’s no reason on Earth that people who’s lives were devastated by floods in the Midwest should be ignored while those raked over by a crushing tornado get immediate attention because they’re in a “blue” state.

• It would be a crime to not at least touch on your simpleton behavior in misappropriating tax dollars to union-thugs and incompetent corporate automakers. Thank the Lord for Ford!

• Again, small business owners will tell you to not get mixed up with those big business muckity-mucks and their union thugs. Advice too late for you no doubt.

Leadership is all about openly motivating others to get the job done that needs doing.

It’s about transparency and respect and authenticity.

It’s not about photo ops, sound bites, grandstanding, or being “amused” as you claimed to be today over being accused of lacking leadership effectiveness . . . which you do.

“Amused”? Surely you jest! 

True leadership? Americans would welcome it, and I’d be first in line. But after seeing the trainwreck you’ve created in such a short time, and how long we’re going to have to be paying for your foolhardy healthcare plan, I don’t hold out much promise. I’m just thankful you’ll never be part of the small business world you seek to destroy.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

 Open minds open doors.

Thanks for visiting, and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

It’s not all about the numbers . . .

How you time your

purpose and your passion

 determines your success.

“Life is timing,” says a man commonly reported to be one of the world’s top 20 motivational speakers: Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, author and editor of nine business and personal life and leadership books, including one with over two million copies in print in 12 languages.

When you want to demonstrate some proof to yourself of the importance of timing and being able to make timing adjustments, go find the nearest batting cage; swing at a round of fastpitch baseballs; then take some deep breaths and swing at a round of slowpitch softballs. (Do them in the opposite order if you really want to challenge yourself!)

Hey, sometimes it’s the little things in life, like baseballs and softballs that can humble the best of us.

The reality though is that there’s much to be said for “being in the right place at the right time,” Of course saying and doing “the right thing” is what makes the difference. Just as adjusting one’s swing to the pitch is what makes a great hitter, adjusting your purpose and passion to the circumstances is what makes for great business success.

And it’s not all about numbers!

The answers to your marketing needs, e.g., will not come out of statistical analysis of market research. Leave that stuff for the corporate and government types who need to juggle and analyse numbers to cover their butts. You have a small business to run, and there’s no time for that. You try things. They don’t work. You adjust them.

Marketing is not a rational, unemotional, objective, cut and dried, black or white series of numbered quantifiable events. It’s an art. It’s a psychological-based creative art form. It requires substantial experience with and adaptations of psychology. It seeks to impact peoples’ minds with a message. Every person’s mind is different!

What about how you conduct yourself? What about leadership? Good timing and making good timing adjustments means there are some important “Don’t’s” to guide you as you step up to the plate:

• PLEASE DON’T say one thing to an employee, customer, associate, consultant, referrer, supplier, sales rep, investor, lender, and then do another!

• PLEASE DON’T promise any of those people what you can’t deliver.

• PLEASE DON’T promise what you won’t deliver.

• PLEASE DON’T ask for meeting options, and then change them when you get them.

• PLEASE DON’T set meetings or appointments (note especially, professional practices) and then keep people waiting without some definite, reasonable, truthful, and on-time explanation. Acknowledge people waiting in line! And, by the way, a visiting sales rep should be treated just as importantly to you as your best employee or best customer.

• PLEASE DON’T host a meeting and then interrupt it with non-emergency cell calls or txtmsgs that really could wait.

• PLEASE DON’T call for a meeting and then change it on the fly at the last minute.

This is all starting to sound like a reminder list for exercising integrity? HA! YES!

HOW you time things, HOW you time your purpose and your passion is what others measure you by. It’s your own yardstick that you create. So, yes, integrity it is. Sizing up when and where to swing your bat counts alot. HOW you swing it counts most! 

Drive your imagination forward with reality.

Open minds open doors.  

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

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

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

24 Hours from right now,

you will have used up

86,400 seconds of your life.

Will you have made them count?

How often do you micro-manage your SELF? From all I’ve been able to determine in studying truly successful people, is that they seem –universally– to do this on a fairly regular basis. They plan and deliver to themselves short periods of introspection.

A few minutes a day perhaps. Or maybe an hour or two over the weekend? Is it time to prime the pump and recharge the batteries?

“I take yoga,” one person tells me. “I run (walk, jog),” others proclaim. There are also, of course, the “workout freaks” whose lives revolve around the gym and the weights they lift.

The bottom line, though, is that –while all of these and many other methods are great for all-around good health– it takes that extra conscious attention to the unconscious to be fully productive and rise above the limits of physical accomplishment.

Don’t abandon yoga or running or lifting. Take them to the next step and make them work for you.

Creative and spiritual people excel at this.

Some part of them knows instinctively when and where and how to mentally and emotionally “drop back” into themselves for a “How Goes It?” self-inventory and assessment.

It’s rarely as formal and compartmentalized as this suggests, but it nonetheless serves to rally your energy and your focus.

If you’re serious about wanting to take as full advantage as possible of every passing day’s worth of 86,400 seconds, you will not be offended by my never-ending suggestions to integrate more deep breathing into more of your life: Just click here for the free 60-second exercise that can change your life, and ignite your business.

Deep breathing gets more oxygen to your brain for better decision-making and it stimulates blood flow for more relaxed, not weaker, less stressed muscles. It works for every level of health and fitness. You will feel better!

The combination of effects rewards those who make deep breathing an ongoing practice, with substantially-increased self-control, self-confidence, and better health. It’s free. With little practice, it’s also “invisible.”

With improved self-control, self-confidence, and health, also comes a much-enhanced ability to respond instead of react to what would otherwise be stressful external circumstances and individuals.

If you don’t react, you can never over-react!

That single benefit is generally the “crowbar” that separates true leaders from lifelong followers. And if that’s not enough, be reminded that self-control and self-confidence come partnered with HIGH TRUST!

Who wants to follow someone who’s out of control emotionally, or for whom they have no or low trust?

So, making the most of your next 86,400 seconds will serve to point you in the direction of strengthened self-control and leadership. What more could you ask? Uh, odds are you’ve probably just used up 100-150 seconds reading this post. That leaves you with about 86,200 seconds in the next 24 hours. make the most of them!

And remember that pausing to enjoy, and to introspect, helps ensure that your next round will also be productive! Oh, and did I mention “HAPPY”? Well, if you’re feeling mentally, physically and emotionally healthier, and getting more accomplished . . .

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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!