This Week We Celebrate
“Celebrate any progress. Don’t wait to get perfect.”
-Ann McGee Cooper
There seems to be an epidemic of perfectionism out there among women. I keep meeting bright, successful, amazing women and all their focus is on the stuff they haven’t got done, all the things they’re behind on, all the mistakes they’ve made. When you bring up their successes, they brush you off.
So I am declaring that this week is one of celebration. Where each of us celebrates what we accomplish, what we get done. No matter how small, no matter that you only got one part of a project done. The truth is that the ‘to do’ list will still be waiting after you’re dead and gone. So celebrate your victories this week, no matter how small. Give yourself a pat on the back, say thank you when you get a compliment, smile at yourself, be a champion to yourself. Treat yourself with the same kindness and compassion that you use for others. Life isn’t about being perfect and getting everything done. It’s about enjoying yourself and recognizing your accomplishments.
Pressure
“Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.” — Tommy Lasorda, baseball manager
When I read this quote it made me stop and think.
Because whenever I start something new, I always feel a lot of pressure. And after reading this quote, I realized this happens with every new venture because I do start thinking of all the different ways I might fail. Which makes me feel very pressured.
And suddenly I’m not so excited about that shiny, new idea anymore! And then I find myself procrastinating – which only increases the pressure! What a ridiculous thing to do to myself.
So I have just stuck this quote up on my office wall, to remind me every morning to reduce the pressure I put on myself.
Inspiring A Leader
I recently read “Developing the Leader Within You” by John Maxwell. What struck me most about this book was his comment that “success without a successor is failure.” A leader who influences others to follow is a leader with limitations, but a leader who influences others to lead is a leader without limitations. Our language should have a special word to describe this kind of leader.
Maxwell offers some suggestions on how to build a leader who inspires leadership. First, as a leader yourself, ask the right questions about the follower. What are the strengths of the individual? In order to keep followers motivated, they must be working in their areas of strength. Have I reflected the value this follower will receive from this relationship? Followers will continue to be engaged in their work if they are aware of specific areas of personal gain.
Second, leaders must give the right assistance to individuals. By promoting a positive, creative and encouraging atmosphere, individuals will consistently feel motivated to complete the jobs they excel at. Personal mentoring that complements an ongoing training program keeps the follower in the information loop and promotes an attitude of building a career rather than working at a job.
If you have not read “Developing the Leader Within You”, I highly recommend it!
Do let your kids work at McDonalds
I was talking to a business owner this week, and our conversations drifted into how both of us got into our lines of work. We were debating on what skills entrepreneurs need to have, when a thought occurred to me. Ever noticed that the skills you are using for your business today might have been acquired through completely different periods in your life, in completely different jobs?
For example, my problem solving skills come from having an engineering background. My patience and persuasion skills comes from being a volunteer summer camp assistant in junior high school dealing with screaming 5 year-old kids. My sales skills come from a venture in direct selling. And my systems skills are partially drawn from having worked at a pizza franchise for a couple of years in high school. At any point in the past, if you would have told me that they were all great work experiences building towards something I could use in the future, I would have laughed at you. But now I see it all working together.
So don’t discount your knowledge and experience in your past. Think about what skills you acquired through each of your past job or venture, and leverage that unique list of strengths in your business, and find help for the skills you don’t have yet.
And if your kid wants to work at McDonald’s, let them! I find franchises to be great places to learn about how to “systemize” your business. Everything is documented and down to a science. I still remember the script for answering the phone at that pizza joint.
Now if only I can figure out what skill I’m supposed to have learned from that summer in high school I spent in an electronic warehouse counting inventory. I’ll be sure to let you know when I figure that one out.
Time to Take Stock
So, here we are at February 1st already. January is over in a flash and I think this is a good time for everyone to take a moment and think about those changes you wanted to implement at the beginning of 2010. What goals did you set for yourself? Any resolutions? Any new habits you wanted to acquire?
Take the time today to take stock and see if you are doing what you said you would. Chances are, if you’re like most people out there, you lost your good intentions in the rushed days of the month just passed. You may have started January pumped up with energy after the Christmas break and full of intent to make changes in your life.
And now it’s the first day of February and you may have accomplished little of what you had in mind. Don’t just throw your hands in the air and say ‘What’s the point?”. DO NOT give up. It’s a new month. Decide today one small action you can take each week of February to get those changes you want. And then do one of them today.
Are You Busy or Productive?
I have come to realize that time management can make or break the success of a business. When is busy being productive? The trap I see for entrepreneurs is that productivity creates administrative busyness. It is easy to fill time by looking after the administrative duties of a business; that’s why many hard working people watch as their incomes drop.
A simple approach to evaluating the productivity of your work is to list your business related activities over the period of a week. If administrative tasks take up more than 20% of your time, these should be delegated to an assistant. The value of your hired help can be calculated by figuring your own hourly wage when you do only what is productive. Look at where your time is most valuable and aim to delegate out all the other daily tasks that just need to get done. Don’t get busy, get productive.
What’s Hot in Business in 2010?
One of my favorite resources is out again – the current Trend Briefing that highlights 10 trends for 2010; it always inspires me.
No matter what business you are in, pay special attention to this trend – Real Time Reviews. Your customers are getting more involved in your business, whether you want them to or not. So think about ways you can make this a good thing for you.
A Year for Improved Productivity
This year, I’ve decided to do business differently – I’m pledging to cut down my stress level, if not cut stress completely out of my life! To achieve this, I’m going to be (more) productive.
Here are a few of the things I’m going to do:
1) Rate my daily activities as high, medium, or low in the realm of brainpower. This gives me a good sense of what needs to be done in the morning, when I am most productive. I also figured out what hours of the day I work most effectively, and will schedule the “high brainpower” activities for that time.
2) When energy runs out, take it as it is. I’ve decided that when I’m not feeling 100%, I’ll take a quick 15 minute time out or break to rejuvenate myself, rather than slogging through activities. I’ll return to my work refreshed and ready to hit the ground running!
3) Create boundaries. I have set time for business and non-business. Last year I let these two bleed into each other. My goal is to stay disciplined – turn off the phone and computer during non-business time.
4) Touch things once. Rather than read an email and then go back to answer it a few hours later, I’ve decided to implement a rule whereby if I read an email, then I’ll respond right away and get it done rather than waste my time later by re-reading it.
What are you doing to make your year more effective? I’m always up for suggestions!
Why Smart Entrepreneurs Underperform
Most of the business owners I come across are pretty smart. They have great ideas, great spirit, and relentless tenacities to get things done. After all, you don’t venture into entrepreneurship if you don’t have these qualities. However, where I see some entrepreneurs suffer in performance is in the area of “overloaded circuits”. We tend to cram a lot into every day. Do you multitask a lot, for example – do you check e-mail, talk on the phone, and have lunch at the same time? Is this a regular occurrence?
In this day and age where we are constantly bombarded with information and live life at an ever-increasing pace, it’s easy to fall into the trap of doing a lot of things every day and yet not getting anything important accomplished. As a result, we turn into people that find it difficult to stay organized, set priorities, and manage time. We react to problems as they happen instead of managing what happens in our lives.
Don’t undermine your strengths and talents because of overload. A few tips to help you get started:
- take care of your physical foundation: get adequate sleep, watch what you eat, exercise
- each day, build some “think time” into your schedule that is free from appointments, e-mail, and phone calls
- before the end of a work day, schedule your tasks for the next day and stick to them
- break large tasks into smaller segments, and reward yourself for each small task done!
If you feel overwhelmed, slow down, move around, take a brisk walk. The idea is that your business is a marathon, not a sprint. Do like the marathoners do – run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute, repeat. Give yourself permission to take the long term approach and move towards a more productive, better balanced, and rewarding environment!
The Rule of Once
Being effective at sales requires that you be an excellent manager of your time. It means you make your work hours really count. And you can only do this by handling things once. Yes – once. I am talking about paper, voicemail, and email. Taking time to read, look or listen to things more than once is lost time. This really hit home for me when I read “The Ultimate Sales Machine” by Chet Holmes. He states: “If you spend just 15 minutes per day to reread documents or emails, you will waste 97 hours per year where no action is taken.”
Are you kidding me? What could you accomplish with an extra 97 hours a year? So get rid of the clutter and bad habits you are hoarding. Starting today, implement a new rule: If you touch it, take action. Don’t read that email or listen to that voicemail unless you are ready to tackle it. Yes, this will be hard to do in the beginning, but for my clients who have implemented it, they have seen a real jump in profitability and they find they have more free time. So I dare you to try it! Drop me a line and let me know what happens.
