Oct 24 2011

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”I”

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Anger/Conflict,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Contacts/Networking,Customer Service (CRM),Decision Making,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Happiness,Leadership,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Problems=Opportunities,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Relationships,Reputation,Retailing,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Trust

 “I”…INTEGRITY 

 

“Integrity is

doing the right thing

even when no one is watching.”

–  C.S. Lewis

A person of integrity. Everyone wants the label, but few ever earn it. What’s the roadblock? Human nature. It’s in our bones that when push comes to shove in times of trouble, and having integrity implies being generous — we tend instead to recoil and become selfish.

Integrity means keeping your promises. It means standing up for what you believe in no matter the cost. It suggests honorable behavior in the face of temptation to be dishonorable. What kinds of behavior constitute “dishonorable”? Surely, you can think of examples. Here are a few:

  • A business owner who consistently sells used or outdated products or services as new
  • An investor seeking 70% ownership in a business startup venture for cash infusion that represents just a dollar-value fraction of the entrepreneur’s confirmed and already contributed sweat equity.
  • A professional practice partner recruited under the guise of promised freedom to function in her area of specialization who is back-seated into generalist tasks through a contractual loophole.
  • A business partner who accepts responsibility for operations, but then instead spends fulltime efforts in sales which he knows nothing about.
  • The boss who repeatedly gets in the face of irate customers, rather than simply satisfying customer requests –even unreasonable ones.
  • The verbally-agreed-to partnership that’s thrown to the wind when one of the founders is introduced (by the discounted partner) to a money source . . . and the money source himself, who clearly places no value on the relationship or the investment opportunity.
  • Successful business owner refusal to provide growth opportunities for entry-level employees because increasing their responsibilities will force increased compensation packages.

The Dash To Integrity

                                      

Being selfish, as in greedy and being unnecessarily protective, is not the same as being self-ish as in “oriented toward one’s self,” which is a positive direction for personal growth.

Being tuned in to what makes you tick is the most effective tool available on the planet for having a better sense of how to deal most productively and most happily with others.

In fact, being self-ish is a direct road to integrity.

 Odd, isn’t it that a dash between “self” and “ish”

can make such a dramatic difference?

                                

Truth is that when we can be more focused on HOW we choose certain behaviors, we can then be more focused on improving ourselves by improving our own behaviors, which better equips us as leaders to more positively impact other’s behaviors.

It may be worth the reminder, by the way, that all of these actions build character and integrity.

All these actions are also choices. So the place to start or re-start yourself on the path to higher integrity –for yourself and your business– is to recognize that you can take initiative at the drop of a hat, or iPad. Simply make more choices in favor of integrity, and know that you are free to make those choices beginning this second! 

 

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Hal@Businessworks.US    302.933.0116

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Dec 13 2009

Why College Degrees Are Meaningless

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Choosing Behavior,Communication,Corporate Management,Decision Making,Delegation,Empathy,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Feedback,Gestalt Therapy,Goals,Innovation,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Listening,Management,Mental Health,Motivation,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Reputation,Sales,Self-Confidence,Small Business,Stress Management,Teamwork,Time Management,Trust

You’re going to work for a

                                                 

living SOME where, right?

                                                   
Recommended: Print & pass to a business hopeful attending or considering college
                                                                                                                  

     So you’ve earned a PhD, an MBA, LLB, MD, MS, MA, and all kinds of bachelor and associate degrees. You are Mr. or Mrs. (maybe “Dr.” ?) Joe (Josephine?) College, in the flesh. And the academic credentials got you a decent job. Now what? Do you seriously believe your 4.0 grade average means you’ve got what it takes to thrive … even survive?

     After your punishing (and expensive!) labs, coursework, exams, thesis papers and consulting with so-called “Academic Advisors,” if you have learned anything less than HOW to put ALL of the following to work, you’re in big-time trouble, and college put you there.

     Can you honestly say you have learned how to practice (and hopefully excel at) ALL of these attributes?:

  • Making Decisions
  • Managing Stress
  • Managing Time
  • Managing Customers
  • Communicating Clearly
  • Being a Leader
  • SELLING
  • Delegating
  • Innovating
  • Being a Team Player
  • Listening and Giving Feedback
  • Organizing
  • Empathizing
  • Respecting Others
  • Being Genuine, Honest and Transparent
  • Valuing Experience
  • Accepting Criticism
  • Setting and Pursuing Goals
  • Being Accountable and Cultivating Trust
  • Avoiding Political and Psychological “Games”

     Give or take perhaps a couple of the above items, these are the attributes that add up to being effective in business or professional practice (ANY business or professional practice) and without which, your road to success will be a long one indeed, especially if you aspire to a forward-moving or productive management position.

     Good leaders do all of these things well. So do good salespeople. All good leaders are also, not incidentally, good salespeople [SEE TOMORROW’S POST ON THIS SUBJECT!]  

     What’s sad about all this is that institutions of higher learning (other than a very small handful that do in fact address a number of these subjects as part of academic platforms on, for example, nursing and entrepreneurship and some behavioral sciences like human development) not only scoot around these issues; they outright reject them.

     Colleges and universities (again with rare exception) fail to value reality. They are invested in fantasizing on the past which will never come again, or the future which hasn’t yet arrived, and may never. They refuse to acknowledge their hands in front of their faces.

     So YOU end up losing out to an arcane system of learning that fails to deal with preparing students for life in the real world. It’s true.

How do I know? I’ve worked extensively in creative roles with Fortune 500 companies, as a consultant with entrepreneurial businesses and professional practices, as a management trainer for over 20,000 business and healthcare executives, and as “Professor of the Year” at a major university and two colleges. I’ve been in the thick of it.

     You DO have a way out. There IS hope. You need to first accept that you’ve been taught subject matter, not real life applications, not how to succeed. Second, you must commit to yourself to learn as much as you possibly can about yourself as possible.

The more you know about what makes you “tick,”

the more skilled and successful a leader you will be.

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Reply Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US (Subject: “Blog”) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day!  Blog FREE via list-protected RSS email OR $.99/mo Amazon Kindle. Branding Line Exercise: 7–Word Story (under RSS). GREAT GIFT:new Nightengale Press book THE ART OF GRANDPARENTING http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

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