Tag: Success

Focus to Create Hot Moments

Posted on by

Magnified Focus

focus - magnifyWhen I was a child, we used to take our magnifying glass outside and in the hot Florida sun we would hold it up and see the light shining through it on the ground below.  If we then moved it about we could focus that light into a single beam that would then start to burn a blade of grass or an ant.  The focus was the difference.

Note to parents:  if you are concerned that a kid who might read this has been suddenly given a way to perpetrate mischief, I got news for you; they already know this and if they don’t will soon discover it on their own.  I did.

Refracted light illuminates.  It can brighten and reveal.  It can even offer a low-level of heat.  This is both beneficial and productive.  Try reading or performing open heart surgery in the dark.  Try finding anything small that you dropped on the ground.  You likely won’t find it until you are able to provide ambient light to reveal its location.  Refracted light reveals but doesn’t empower.

Focused light provides power and heat and intensity.  Sunlight gathered by panels gets focus and turns into electrical power.  A laser in very simple terms is focused light.  Apply enough focus to the light and it provides intense and powerful energy.  The focus is the difference.

Your Laser Focus and the HOT MOMENT

When your energies get refracted, poured out all over the place, you may get illumination but you won’t get power.  It is not until you focus your energies on a particular point that you are able to unlock the intensity and power; that you are able to generate a HOT MOMENT.  The focus is the difference.

When we can create a HOT MOMENT, we build intensity and energy and power.  It drives us forward and isn’t easily stopped or even slowed down by anything that gets in the way.  We need momentum to keep us on track and on focus.  Once we lose focus, we lose momentum and the HOT MOMENT is gone.

To create a HOT MOMENT, identify your target.  Without a target, there is no focus.  A target must be very specific.   Identify what success is for that target.  Is it a deadline reached, value-added to a person or group, a product sold, a goal reached?  Once you have the target, funnel all your energy on it.  It doesn’t have to be for long periods of time; a laser accomplishes a lot even in just short bursts.  The focus is the difference.  Act immediately, don’t wait to “feel like it” or for the “right moment”.  The right moment comes when you create it; you will feel like it after you start doing it.  Act now and put all your energy into it and ride the HOT MOMENT for as long as you can.  Reward yourself for accomplishment.

Action Plan

  1. What one thing requires your focus this week?
  2. What does success mean for that thing?  How will you reward yourself for achieving it?
  3. Personally brainstorm for 10 minutes on ways you can dedicate more energy on that thing.
  4. What is the HOT MOMENT you can create through this?

The Lie of Experience as the Best Teacher

Posted on by

Experience Happens

You have probably heard it said hundreds if not thousands of times during your life.

Experience is the best teacher.

Every day, from the moment you rise until you put your head on the pillow, you are going through a series of experiences.  Some experiences are what we would call good; nice things happen, we feel happy about it.  Others….not so much.

See the Ah-Ha! Moment of the Week on this topic.

Mistakes are painful when they happen, but years later a
collection of mistakes is what is called experience.
-Denis Waitley

Here’s the thing:  if every day we ALL have experiences then why is it that most of us don’t get any smarter?

More Than Experience

someecards.com - They say experience is the best teacher. That's why I'm so smart. I've screwed everything up at least twice.If experience were truly the best teacher, then would it not logically follow that each of us would be getting smarter every day and would never repeat the same mistakes because our experience would have taught us better?  Is that what happens in your life?  Is that what happens around you?  You know what I am talking about, the people who keep making the same mistake they made yesterday and the day before, getting the same results, and not getting that it ain’t gonna work that way.  Why?  If experience is the best teacher, then they should have already learned not to do that again.

I have to admit to being hardheaded this way sometimes.  I’ll do the same dumb thing over and over again, somehow expecting different results.  I might rationalize it, excuse it, or simply learn the wrong lesson from previous experience.  I’m not an idiot, I am a fairly bright guy.  Why isn’t experience teaching me anything?

Experience Plus

The truth is that experience alone is no kind of teacher at all.  It is REFLECTIVE EXPERIENCE that really makes the difference.  It is how we analyze what we experience that allows us to draw the appropriate conclusions and lessons from what happens to us and engage in positive behaviors to prevent it from happening again.  That reflection needs to be timely; it needs to happen within a short period of time after the experience.  It should not be rushed.  The best approach is usually to spend a little time at the end of the day thinking about what good things happened, what not so good things happened, and examining them.   Ask questions about each experience:

  1. What was good (or not so good) about it?
  2. Who was involved?
  3. What was the outcome?
  4. Was that the outcome I anticipated?
  5. What would have been a better or ideal outcome?
  6. Why did it happen that way?
  7. What can I do differently to change the outcome?
  8. How can I use this to add value to someone else?

Experience as an Even BETTER Teacher

The last question leads to the last point.  As the Denis Waitley quote said above, mistakes are painful.  So even if we are learning from our mistakes, we still have to go through the pain.  Just a show of hands out there, who likes to go through pain?

Yeah, didn’t think so.

So how can we avoid the pain?  Simply by learning from others experience.  In fact, I believe that other people’s experience can be absolutely the best teacher for us.  Examining the experiences of others allows us to be more evaluative about it because our minds are not clouded by emotion or pain.  We can assess the decisions, the process, and the outcomes and attempt to come up with practical applications to help prevent it from occurring in OUR lives.

One of the best ways to allow people to share stories with you.  Stories allow experiences to be personalized; we connect with them better and connect with the people involved.  Reading the biographies (and autobiographies) of people we admire also is an excellent way to do this.  If they have any level of transparency, they will readily share their mistakes in their stories and we can derive great lessons from people we know to be accomplished persons.

Action Plan:

  1. How are you going to implement regular reflection on your experiences?
  2. Pick at least two people that you want to learn from this month.  Get books about them, publications, web sites about them, or just sit down over coffee (or drinks) and talk to them.  Make notes on what you learn

The Key to Your Personal Loyalty

Posted on by

Personal Loyalty

The Critical Mass of Loyalty

Some form of loyalty factors into every level of our lives:

  • our business or career success
  • our leadership
  • our personal relationships
  • our spiritual growth

IMG_20130911_154341Often loyalty is the missing factor that helps lead us to success in many endeavors.  Without loyalty, we cannot gather and lead effective teams and success eludes us.  Without loyalty,  we cannot lead or be lead by anyone because loyalty is what creates the dependent bonds that allow us to follow or care enough to lead.  Without loyalty all personal relationships fail because they drop to the level of simple transactional relationships instead of the caring and devoted connections that become permanent.  Without loyalty, we cannot devote ourselves to enlightenment and growth because we will never to open to having our heart touched or our soul fulfilled.

So critical is loyalty as a factor that the author of Think and Grow Rich and many other self-improvement tomes Napoleon Hill once said,

“Lack of loyalty is one of the major causes of failure in every walk of life.”

Loyalty Out Leads to Loyalty In

loyalty_memeThe best way to garner loyalty is to give loyalty freely.  By freely I mean that you build relationships and award loyalty without reservation once trust has entered in.  What you don’t want to do is wantonly through your loyalty around to whomever is the flavor of the week.

What are some qualities that demonstrate loyalty.  Use the word LOYALTY to remember to practice these qualities in your life.

Love others before they deserve it or earn it.  Care enough to want to add value to them.

Open your mind to the positive attributes of others.  Too often, we look for reasons to not enter a relationship instead of the reasons to enter.  If you are looking for a reason to be unhappy or dissatisfied, you will always find it.  EVERYONE has positive qualities, the question is how do you bring them out.

Yield to the needs of the other over your own.  It’s hard to be loyal to others when you are too busy putting yourself first.  A loyal person always puts others first.

Accept others as they are, warts and all.  Realize that YOU can’t change them.  Be prepared to take them as they are or not at all; and in most cases not at all is a choice that causes you miss out on anything positive that could come from the relationship.

Live to serve others.  Seek to add value in every encounter, with no expectation of receiving value in return.  Relationships, whether business or otherwise, are not always transactional; it’s not always a trade.  Be prepared to accept value when it is offered to you, but don’t expect it.

Trust others.  This is critical.  You cannot give loyalty unless you trust and you cannot receive loyalty unless you are trusted.  In an interesting twist, people who don’t trust are generally not trusted.  Think about it, how many people do you trust who quite clearly do not trust anyone else?

Yearn to spend time with others.  In a busy world, we too often have a tendency especially with business relationships to want to go in, conduct our business, and go out.  Big mistake.  Take the time to build.  Get personal.  Ask questions beyond the sale.  Build friendships, not just business partners.

When you apply these principals, you will develop loyalty to others and earn loyalty from them.  You will build mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationships that touch the heart.  They enlighten and enrich and are profitable; sometimes financially, sometimes spiritually, sometimes relationally.  They add and receive value.

That’s the key to a successful life.

 

Customer Loyalty Isn’t Really a Secret

Posted on by

Loyalty to Your Business

“I learned from Mr. Wrigley, early in my career, that loyalty wins and it builds friendships.
I saw it work for him in his business.”
Ernie Banks

Loyalty to Your Employees

In yesterday’s post, we talked about building employee loyalty.  We emphasized investing in them, building relationships with them, focusing on growth,  focusing on giving loyalty, focus on empowerment.  When we focus on what we give to the employee of today then most will give loyalty in return for however long they are with us.  Some won’t, no matter what we do.  That’s the risk we take.

Loyalty to Your Customers

loyaltyHow is it any different with our customers?  We HOPE to build customers for life.  The reality is that most will leave us at one point or another for a variety of reasons.  Some may abandon us for the lowest bidder.  Some because what we provide is no longer necessary for them; they have outgrown us or simply no longer need what we offer.  That said, building customer loyalty is still possible and could be boiled down to this simple statement:

Treat your customers like you treat your employees.

The same things we focused on to build employee loyalty make a difference to your customers as well.

  • Customers are interested in doing business with people they believe care for them, can help them, and can be trusted.  They more than a product from you, they want a relationship.  Treating your customers as your friends takes the relationship beyond the exchange of goods and services into something more meaningful, effective, and profitable.  If your thought is “well I wouldn’t want to be friends with my customers!” then you either need to change customers or (most likely) change YOU.
  • Customers want to be treated with respect and regard.  They, like employees, want to feel that they are important.  That their contribution counts.  That they make a difference in your life.
  • Customers want you to help them grow.  Whether you help them grow their business, grow their profits, or grow them; customers want what you provide them to add value beyond the product or service they purchased.  They are looking for you to look out for them and help move them closer to their goals.
  • Customer are looking to be empowered by you.  It makes anyone uncomfortable to feel totally dependent on someone else.  It makes them feel helpless.  If you teach them to develop enough knowledge and ability to make intelligent decisions and provide input, you make them feel in control and loyalty will develop as a result.  My family doctor has worked with me enough to where I can ask intelligent questions.  He welcomes my questions and input.  We make treatment decisions together.  He makes me feel in control of my healthcare.  That’s why he is still my family doctor for 15 years.

Your Actions

  1. How many of your customers would consider you to be their friend?  How would they define that?
  2. Think of your best customers.  What can you do TODAY to show appreciation?
  3. How can your empower your best customers to deepen your relationship?

Why Aren’t Your Employees Loyal?

Posted on by

Loyalty Is…..

Loyalty Generations

loyalty - Boy Scout

Technically, I am a Baby Boomer, although I am right near the end of that generation and in some ways identify with Generation X‘ers as well.  So call me a Boomer X.  I mention that because early on, Baby Boomers were taught what the previous generation shared with them in terms of work and loyalty.  You left school, went to work for a company and stayed with them your entire career (at their discretion).  Very rarely did you have any control over what role you filled, whether or how you advanced, how you grew, when you retired, etc.  You were expected to be loyal to the company at all costs.  Very rarely was that loyalty returned.  Some organizations rewarded loyalty by returning loyalty to their people, but most focused on punishing disloyalty and showing very little appreciation for those who were loyal.  One of the reasons I identify with Generation X as well as the Boomers is that Generation X started to reject that.  Generation Y and Millenials even more so.
This topic is also covered in the Ah-Ha! Moment of the Week!

Changing Loyalty Landscape

The landscape of what loyalty means in the business world has changed.  Most people don’t stay with an organization more than about five years before they move on.  You can attribute that to poor work ethic if you wish, or lack of loyalty; but the reality is simply that today’s worker refuses to buy into the one-way street of loyalty.   They expect loyalty to be a two-way street.  If they are loyal to the company they expect some loyalty in return.  Since as a manager or business owner you will almost inevitably have to hire at least some people from Gen Y, you must change your thinking to follow that theme.   Change your focus on what you expect out of loyalty.  You have to be willing to commit resources to help somebody become better at what they do with the knowledge that they most likely will be with you forever and may eventually take what they have learned from you and go somewhere new.  That’s the gamble of investing in people, but the alternative is a bigger gamble with consequences even more significant if you lose (and you will).  So think in terms of how you can maximize your investment over the short term and long term.    If you can get somebody up to speed, maximize what they can produce for you, and maximize their potential over the time period they are with you, then it’s a win-win.

Encouraging Loyalty

So here’s some tips to help you along.
  1. Focus on Relationships — Building relationships with your employees.  Understand their desires, understand their dreams so you can help them move towards that.  Remember the three questions you must answer for them are do you care for me, can you help me, and can I trust you.
  2. Focus on Growth — Invest in your employees with formal training, modeling, mentoring, and providing them with challenges to push them out of their comfort zone.  The more you can help them and move them closer to their potential, the better they are going to produce for you.
  3. Focus on Empowerment — Equip them and authorize them to take the steps they need to take to produce for you.
  4. Focus on Communication — Communicating with them at all times.  ALL TIMES!
  5. Focus on NOW — Forget about forever.  Work on building loyalty for the time they are with you, allowing them to give you the best return while you are giving the best to them.

Here’s the Bonus

goldWhen you invest in your employees and give them time, resources, training, caring, and influence –  show them loyalty – then many of them will be loyal in return.  Not all of them, maybe not even most of them.  But the ones who count.  Remember you are looking for the golden ones anyway; the ones who will yield greatest returns for you.  You are mining for gold.  As Dale Carnegie says,
“Developing your people is a lot like mining for gold.  You have to move a lot of dirt to get to the gold.  But you don’t go looking for the dirt, you go looking for the gold.”

Your Action

  • What will you do today to begin looking for the gold?
  • How can you best invest in your employees for the short and long term?
  • What are you willing to give up to reach that?

Call Now