Effective Advertising and Info Management

A flourishing business depends heavily on good people management skills. You may succeed in improving in these skills. Having a intuitive skill for communicating with people may be a plus, however you can do numerous things that will make this process simpler. Build relationships: Start by using an individual’s name. Encourage conversation; look individuals in the eye as you are talking. Be respectful, in addition be attentive to everything the other person has to say, regardless of whether you agree with them. The development of the ability to listen is one of the greatest things you can do to better your people management skills. Be sure to show interest in what they can contribute to the business.

Live up to promises: Don’t make promises you can’t keep. When a promise is broken, it will ruin trust, and individuals will not give you their best efforts without trust. When you say something or make a promise, you are wasting your time unless you follow through. You’ll find, if you can’t be depended upon, they won’t be committed when it’s really important.

Feedback is essential: Feedback should be a two way process. Maintaining an open mind with regard to other’s views is an important skill in managing staff. If you can demonstrate that you are approachable and receptive, you prove that you value your co-worker’s ideas, your views will be appreciated in the same fashion. Encouraging open discourse in addition promotes creative problem solving, ways of achieving goals, and improves the team dynamic. When your team can express themselves, the outcome will become important to every employee. Encourage communication: Good communication is central to dealing with employees skilfully. Be approachable, listen attentively to people, be open minded, and encourage each of your team to express themselves. Inspire staff not just to speak with you, but also with each other. The sharing of thoughts is necessary in the creative process, and in listening to one another, it becomes much simpler to find any issues before they might present problems, allowing corrective measures to be taken to prevent any further problems.

A little work is necessary, but the rewards far outbalance the work. By building the bonds of a good team and demonstrating effective listening techniques, you can easily have a successful business.

I have often been asked what the best way to start a business is You can buy a franchise or build a company from the ground up. Both have benefits and downfalls.

There are many franchises available to buy. Many companies you use are probably franchises, from restaurants to cleaning services. When you purchase a franchise you are basically getting a business in a box. When you buy into a franchise, many aspects of the business including marketing are taken care of off. There are many different franchises available. Some will give you the business name, equipment and everything you need for start up, others only give you the basics and you still have to buy or lease a location, purchase equipment and the inventory you will need.

The negatives of buying a franchise however are that you are not free to change much of your business model, and of course the initial outlay. Visit the Key Mergers website for more information or if you would like to f you would like to buy a business or for details of available franchises.

Starting your own business from scratch however means that you can grow the business organically over time, you can limit your initial outlay and you can be as creative with the direction of your business as you like. Depending on how novel your new enterprise is, it is possible that your will have a steep testing curve and will have to make all of your own connections.

So, as you have probably gathered by now, the decision whether to buy a franchise or go it alone are multi-dimensional There is no one size fits all advise.

“That is the way we do things around here.” Have you ever heard that phrase when trying to affect positive change in your organization? It really doesn’t matter how far-reaching the scope of your change. It doesn’t matter if it is a technology implementation, a deferral from the tried-and-true market strategy or simply a change in a scheduled meeting. The ability of your organization to share knowledge and information is predicated on the cultural temperament of your organization and its pace of change. New technology and the ability to analyze complex sets of information for the purpose of decision support have introduced constant change into the business environment. If the culture of an organization is not taken into consideration, changing the manner in which information is exchanged is an uphill climb.

What Really Comprises an Organizational Culture?

Culture is a multidimensional enigma that envelops the organization. Every member of the organization contributes to the culture in some manner. The history, style of leadership, structural stability, level of work-force empowerment and the ability to adapt to a changing environment all contribute to the culture of an organization. Shaping the culture to face changes in the marketplace and environment depends in part on the ability for the organization’s leadership to implement the guiding vision and mission. Every action taken must align with these vision and mission statements that express why the organization exists and how it will corporately conduct itself.

History and Background of Organization.

An organization’s history and background are the foundation that can be built upon or a barrier to overcome. Some of the attributes to consider are:

•The age of your organization. Many well-established companies are slow to change. If they have lasted for more than 50 years, then why do things differently? Conversely, newer organizations tend to sway in the winds of change and haven’t established roots deep enough to know how to react to new situations.

•The origins of your organization

Is your firm a conglomeration of many other smaller entities or a single-site manufacturing firm? There are considerations attached to either scenario. It is important that the history of your organization is known. When the pressure of a change situation is applied, old social norms can pop up. Understanding the origins assists in devising change management strategies.

Leadership Style

How the executives and senior management interact with the rest of the organization sets the tone of an organization’s culture. Granted, these leaders cannot single handedly change the culture. (Unless they fire everyone and start from scratch, not a likely scenario.) However, their leadership style dictates how they interact with their direct reports and the general employee population. These interactions send messages that have an impact on information sharing. Is the CEO sharing information? Does the average employee know the financial health of the company or the markets to be focused upon? Leadership style typically breaks down into two main categories:

•Command and Control - Task orientation tends to be the marquee of the command and control leadership style. Micromanaging the direct reports by telling them what to do, how to do it, when it should be done, by whom and where it should take place exemplifies high task-related behavior. There is only one-way communication with the exception of clarifying questions to make sure the objective is understood completely.

•Delegating/Empowering - Relationship orientation tends to be more facilitative and communicative. This leadership style depends on the synergy of the group to determine the best course of action. The behaviors exhibited included facilitation, listening, supporting and mentoring the other employees so that the best possible course of action can be created together. Employee buy-in is of great importance to this leadership style.

Structural Stability

The ability to withstand a change in organizational culture can be evident through some of the traditional business measures of stability. Financial strength, productivity and market focus are traditional business measures that define the stability of an organization’s structure. However, twenty-first century business models recognize some less tangible attributes of an organization’s structure that affect a change effort’s success.

Are there functional siloed reporting structures or does the business process dictate who works for whom? Do the channels of communication flow freely across functional areas? Can a manager from engineering communicate a problem to a manager in marketing without involving the senior managers from each area? It is important to have the strength of common understanding across the organization to exemplify its structural stability. If open communication threatens the ability to produce, the organization is not stable. This means being able to walk the walk and not just pay lip service to open communication and business process-related organizational structures.

Employee Empowerment Level

Just as the leadership of the organization can have a task or relationship orientation, so can the rest of the organization. Are the employees empowered to make decisions in their day-to-day activities that affect positive business results? The trickling down of decision-making authority tends to strengthen the fiber of an organization. Granted, this also means trickling down the accountability for success as well. Well-trained, well-informed employees are essential to the successful empowered organization. High empowerment and high autonomy need to have well-defined guiding objectives.

Adaptability or Agility

The only constant in today’s business environment is change. Successful organizations seem to adapt to a change in market conditions seamlessly and with minimal effort. How are they able to be so agile, so nimble? The culture is ready for the unexpected. In fact, they expect the unexpected! Unknowns are part of their day-to-day planning and routines.

Vision and Mission Statement Implementation

An organization’s vision and mission should be articulated and available for the entire organization to witness and internalize. A vision gets everyone on the same page and shows where the organization’s future lies. A vision must be shared or an opportunity to buck the system and cause strife presents itself. Work to cultivate a shared vision. The mission statement tells the organization, suppliers and customers who your company is and what its value proposition is to them.

The statement, “Why, because this is who we are,” provides the context in which employees know how to operate and conduct business. The vision and mission are two very important and foundational pieces of guiding information that must be clearly communicated to the entire organization and monitored for adherence to the principles of your organization’s beliefs and ethics. If you cannot share them, then sharing other critical business items is highly doubtful.

Assessing the Cultural Impact on Information Sharing

As previously stated, the ability of your organization to share knowledge and information is predicated on the cultural temperament of your organization and its pace of change. Every organization adapts to change. It’s the speed and flexibility to which this adaptation takes place that determine success. Assessing the culture and understanding how to approach knowledge sharing within the organizational structure supports change efforts.

Assessing the organization from a cultural perspective assists in designing change management plans that address the human factors. Acceptance of new information sharing processes and technology by the people who have to enact the processes or utilize the technology is critical to successful implementation. Therefore, understanding the culture from an objective compilation of subjective information gathering begins to map out the barriers to information sharing that can occur. It also exposes the leverage points resident in the organization that can positively impact information sharing as well.

Outcomes of the Cultural Impact

Assessing the corporate culture will propel information-sharing efforts. How? By understanding the context in which knowledge will be perceived and applied. Depending on how favorable and conducive the culture of your organization is to sharing information, the extremes of the knowledge-sharing culture are either to share for the sake of sharing versus hoarding knowledge and information to protect one’s position.
Information Sharing vs. Information Hoarding.

One would think that information sharing is always better than hoarding information. However, sharing information just for the sake of sharing must have a business purpose at its root. For example, a CEO who decides to publish the minutes of his senior staff meetings on the company intranet to prove that the organization’s culture is open will appear to be sharing for the sake of sharing without a sound business reason. Sharing information should support business decision making or propel innovation. There must also be a structured process by which to capture and use the information being uncovered. Capturing the engineers’ problem-solving conversation by the water cooler so that others in the company can benefit from their expertise is the benefit information-sharing activities should return. The corporate culture that supports information sharing is ahead of the one that does not. However, gaining business benefit from the activity requires a structured approach to leverage uncovered information.

Information hoarding is the other extreme. Information and knowledge still represent power. This is truer in today’s economy than ever before. Organizations are learning that employee interactions yield new knowledge and information that can benefit their business in tangible ways. Hoarding is not always a conscience act of holding back information. Interestingly, it’s not always the highly paid senior manager that possesses the knowledge to meet the challenge of the day’s pressing issues. Quite often, it’s the employee that is not invited to the strategy session or even asked to contribute that has the sought-after knowledge. Encouraging and providing an incentive for those often overlooked people to share what they know will show returns to the organization via an increased base of knowledge. Hoarding information results from a lack of trust. If this sounds too familiar, then focus on some strategies that will help leverage your organization’s culture to begin productive information sharing.

Strategies to Leverage your Organization’s Culture

A complete cultural overhaul may not be necessary to encourage information sharing. In fact, trying to take on that task at the same time you are trying to foster a sharing environment may be counter productive to both efforts.

•Change Management

Comprehensive change management requires a three-phase approach that takes human dynamics and human needs into account. Each type of organizational culture needs all three phases to institute a successful change management plan. However, depending on the organizational assessment results, one phase may receive more emphasis then the others. The main objective of each of the three phases is:

Promotion - Envision the future environment with the information-sharing culture in place. Show the benefits to operating in a knowledge-sharing environment and allow the leadership to send encouraging, motivating messages. Create tension between the environment of today and that of the future being promoted. After the education and training phases are complete and the new behaviors are in place on a day-to- day basis, offer incentives to encourage continued practice.

Education - Present the theory behind the vision of the future being promoted to employees. Then the “why” questions can be answered with sound reasoning to build a foundation of understanding throughout the organization

Training - Provide practical application of processes, technologies and environments. Allow participants to experience the new information-sharing environment in a “lab” setting where clarifying questions can be asked and issues addressed prior to integrating the new behavior into the everyday work routines. New human behaviors and practices are being instituted; therefore, the organization must provide the necessary support to ensure success.

•Creating Collaborative Environments

Define knowledge-sharing communities that affect the high- value business processes and target them for the first implementations of structured information sharing. By designing the optimum collaborative community for the organization’s primary business needs, timely, accurate information will be delivered in context.

•Leadership Modeling Behavior

A significant indicator of successfully promoting organizational change is that the leadership models the desired behavior. In fact, the first implementation of an information-sharing environment should be among organizational leaders and from this group to the general work force. Modeling this behavior helps reinforce the commitment to changing a corporate behavior and shows the work force there will be no negative repercussions to sharing information.

•Knowledge Sharing Benchmark Comparisons

Capture analytics of information-sharing actions to create best practices for getting high-velocity work done. Then, benchmark your organization against others in your industry to determine how you compare to your competitors. This will allow you to analyze where the marketplace is pushing your competition rather than where you want to pull them to in the marketplace.

Summary

Knowing yourself, your limitations, weaknesses and strengths provides an advantage when considering the ability to share and use information effectively. The same is true with an organization made up of people. Knowing the culture of the organization is an indicator of corporate personality. Collectively, the organization’s personality dictates how it will adapt to a change in its environment. Once determined, the correct change management path can be prescribed and information sharing can propel the business value of uncovered knowledge beyond expectations. The synergy experienced by a free flow of relevant information has great impact on your organization’s ability to leverage its information assets.

Maribeth Achterberg is a certified Knowledge Manager with more than sixteen years of experience in the electric and gas utility, telecommunications, retail, real estate and transportation industries. She is president of Verity Management Solutions LLC.

Personally, I am not fond of the whole interviewing process. Unfortunately it’s a necessary part of growth, which I am fond of. It definitely is easier if you have a procedure that you follow when interviewing people for a position in your company.

I am the co-owner of a small business with only 6 employees. We have fairly small quarters to work in, and it is a friendly family atmosphere. When we need to hire someone it is important that we find someone not only very qualified but that will fit into our organization.

Since my business is a technical one (medical billing) it is also important that I hire someone with a brain. I don’t mean that to sound insensitive, but the truth is I am hiring for a position that will require thinking. (I have actually considered putting that in the ad “Data Entry With A Brain”)

I have found that since we have gone to a list of preset questions we have had very good luck with our hiring. The last 3 people we have hired have been good choices. Prior to the last three, we interviewed and hired a person without a preset list of questions and it was horrible.

First of all, the interview starts when the person responds to your ad. Do they follow instructions on how to apply? If you put “no phone calls” then they shouldn’t be calling you, etc. How is their response? If you request a resume it should be neat and up to date. It should, even though it is not required, have a cover letter. Is the experience on the resume related to what you are hiring for, or is it not crucial for the position?

You should look the resume over carefully. Look for unexplained gaps in their employment. Also look for any clues as to why the person may be applying for your position. If they are just graduating from college, and your job is not in their field, they may be looking for a temporary position. This may be ok for you, but for us, we don’t want to go thru the training necessary for a temporary person. Make notes on the resume of any questions you may want to ask them in the interview.

It should be easy for you to reach the person at the number that they provide you with on the resume. Or at least you should be able to leave them a message. Listen the how the person answers the phone, or the message on the machine. These are little clues as to who the person is. If you have to leave a message, they should return the call within a reasonable time.

Once you set up an interview time, pay attention to when the person arrives. Preferably they should arrive at least 5-10 minutes ahead of the scheduled time. Their appearance should be neat and presentable for the position they are applying for.

When the actual interview begins, you should have your list of questions in front of you, with a pen to take notes with. Write down your comments next to the questions as the person answers them. The following is a list of good questions to ask during the interview to help you get an insight as to who the person is:

Why are you applying for this position?

What type of job are you looking for?

If you are currently employed, why are you looking to leave your current job?

If recently unemployed, why did you leave your last position?

What would you say is your strongest quality (qualities)?

What would you say is your weakest quality (qualities)?

If I were to speak to one of your recent employers, what would they tell me is your best quality?

What would they say is your worst quality?

How much work have you missed in the past year due to sickness, or unexpected reasons?

What is the reason for the most time that you miss?

Do you take regular vacations every year at the same time? (Christmas? Summer vacation?)

Do you require medical insurance?

What would you like to be paid? (Not that you are going to pay them what they ask, but it is helpful to know what they think that they are worth. We recently interviewed someone who asked for less than we were willing to pay!)

Give an example of a situation that would arise in the position that they are applying for and ask how they would handle it. (When we are looking for a data entry person, we ask them how they would handle it if they fall way behind on the schedule that we have them on. I know it seems like everyone should know the ‘correct answer’ to that question, but it stills helps you to see what type of person they are by their answer.)

When would you be available to start work? (Again, this question will show you what type of employee they are. If they are currently employed, you would want them to give the current employer notice and not just walk out leaving them high and dry.)

When the interview is over, you may want to indicate to the person when you expect to make your decision. Once we interviewed a person for a specific position and during the interview we determined we didn’t think that the person was qualified. We advised her that we didn’t think she was qualified. She asked us what duties we felt she wasn’t qualified for and then stated that even though she didn’t have the experience we were looking for she felt she could learn the jobs that we needed done. We decided to take a chance on her and it turned out to be a great decision. So sometimes it pays to let the person know how you are leaning during the interview.

The above list of questions can be a good start to a successful interview. All of the questions may not pertain to your particular situation but you can use the list as a guide and change the questions to fit your situation. The important thing is that you go into the interview with a plan.

Recently, I felt appalled to see a political candidate running on the motto of “Demand More!” That motto oozes extreme nerve, and implies some people think it is o.k., as the saying goes, to “rob Peter to pay Paul.”

Well, this “Demand More!” philosophy led me to thinking about “leeches.” I define “leeches” as people who devote their time and energy trying to get something for nothing - including you and your company.

YOU LET “LEECHES” INTO YOUR COMPANY

Most companies have hired “leeches.” These are employees who look forward to using every vacation day more than they look forward to putting in a day’s work for a day’s pay.

“Leeches” call-in “sick” after they use all their vacation days - to use their “sick-days” as vacation days. They also use all “personal days” you offer, even if they do not really need a “personal day.”

“Leeches” do just enough work to avoid getting fired - and not one bit extra.

“Leeches” steal property from your company and your customers. They aim to keep anything that is not nailed down.

When you put a “leech” on your payroll, your employees know you hired a lazy bum. It conveys you do not value their productivity because, if you did, you would not make a “leech” their co-worker.

HOW TO AVOID HAVING “LEECHES” IN YOUR WORKFORCE

You can eliminate these parasites in two ways:

1. Get rid of “leeches” you have

2. Stop hiring “leeches”

DE-EMPLOY “LEECHES” WHO WORK FOR YOU

Get rid of “leeches” in your company. A great way to terminate them is to insist every employee writes goals that

a. are measurable

b. have deadlines

Then, evaluate each employee on whether the person achieved his or her goals.

Important: Do not evaluate annually. That gives “leeches” too much time to rip you off. Instead, evaluate your employees quarterly. Productive employees like to shine often. But, “leeches” will shriek because they are vampires you are forcing into the light. After all, they are vampires who suck profits and productivity out of your company - if you let them stay.

Since “leeches” often fail to achieve measurable goals with deadlines, you can de-employ them. Actually, you are doing them a favor: They do not really want to show up at work, anyway.

4 WAYS TO AVOID HIRING “LEECHES”

As author of the book “Hire the Best — & Avoid the Rest,” I will give you four ways to avoid hiring “leeches” and lazy bums.

1 Way to Avoid Hiring “Leeches” = Make Applicants Fill-Out a “Character Test”

Many of our clients use the “P.A.S.S.-III® Character Test” to help avoid hiring “bad apples.” It takes only 10-15 minutes for an applicant to fill-out, and you only need 1-2 minutes to score it. The applicant’s scores tell you how “risky” the applicant is on three key attitudes:

a. work ethic

b. trustworthiness, e.g., possible stealing

c. drug/drinking attitudes

You, of course, would prefer to hire applicants who score “low risk.” Applicants who score “moderate risk” are not as desirable, but the “P.A.S.S.-III® Character Test” gives you specific questions to judge how “risky” the “moderate risk” applicant is. (Note: If an applicant scores “high risk,” then you quickly show them out the door!)

3 More Ways To Avoid Hiring “Leeches” = Clues in Job Interviews

Glorious news: “Leeches” give you clues in the job interview to help you weed them out of the running.

First interview clue: During the interview, a “leech” applicant asks about days employees do not need to work: Vacation days, sick-days, personal-days, and holidays. An applicant who really desires to work focuses on the possible job - not on days off-work.

Second interview clue: Applicants who turn into productive employees can tell you many quantified results they achieved in previous jobs. In contrast, “leeches” mainly spout vague blathering about “doing work.” Do not let them fool you: People who cannot tell you specific results they achieved are not worth hiring.

Third interview clue: Applicant exudes laziness. Most managers find “problem employees” are 1 - 3 of the following:

■ Lazy,

■ hazy

■ crazy

Remember the saying, “If it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” Well, if an applicant walks and sounds lazy, then the applicant probably is lazy. Do not bet your career “hoping” a person will work better then s/he acts and sounds.

YOUR ACTION PLAN to STOMP OUT “LEECHES”

You now can use this two-prong method to keep “leeches” out of your company:

1. De-employ “leech” employees by proving they are unproductive

2. Avoid hiring “leeches” by using

a. P.A.S.S.-III® Character Test

b. 3 interview clues

Your result: Everyone in your company will consider you an outstanding manager.

Copyright 2005 Dr. Michael Mercer

Michael Mercer, Ph.D., is a pre-employment test expert, public speaker, and founder of The Mercer Group, Inc. in Barrington, Illinois. Dr. Mercer developed the widely used Abilities & Behavior Forecaster Tests. You can view information on these tests at http://www.mercersystems.com

He wrote 5 books, including (1) Hire the Best — & Avoid the Rest, (2) Turning Your HR Department into a Profit Center, and (3) Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change. You can subscribe to his free e-Newsletter at http://www.DrMercer.com or contact him at (847) 382-0690

(Excerpted from Week Six of the Jim Rohn One-Year Success Plan)

One of the amazing things we have been given as humans is the unquenchable desire to have dreams of a better life, and the ability to establish goals to live out those dreams.

Think of it: We can look deep within our hearts and dream of a better situation for ourselves and our families; dream of better financial lives and better emotional or physical lives; certainly dream of better spiritual lives. But what makes this even more powerful is that we have also been given the ability to not only dream but to pursue those dreams and not only to pursue them, but the cognitive ability to actually lay out a plan and strategies (setting goals) to achieve those dreams. Powerful! And that is what we will discuss in detail this week: How to dream dreams and establish goals to get those dreams.

What are your dreams and goals? This isn’t what you already have or what you have done, but what you want. Have you ever really sat down and thought through your life values and decided what you really want? Have you ever taken the time to truly reflect, to listen quietly to your heart, to see what dreams live within you? Your dreams are there. Everyone has them. They may live right on the surface, or they may be buried deep from years of others telling you they were foolish, but they are there.

So how do we know what our dreams are? This is an interesting process and it relates primarily to the art of listening. This is not listening to others; it is listening to yourself. If we listen to others, we hear their plans and dreams (and many will try to put their plans and dreams on us). If we listen to others, we can never be fulfilled. We will only chase elusive dreams that are not rooted deep within us. No, we must listen to our own hearts.

Let’s take a look at some practical steps/thoughts on hearing from our hearts on what our dreams are:

Take time to be quiet. This is something that we don’t do enough in this busy world of ours. We rush, rush, rush, and we are constantly listening to noise all around us. The human heart was meant for times of quiet, to peer deep within. It is when we do this that our hearts are set free to soar and take flight on the wings of our own dreams! Schedule some quiet “dream time” this week. No other people. No cell phone. No computer. Just you, a pad, a pen, and your thoughts (you get to do this in the workbook exercises this week).

Think about what really thrills you. When you are quiet, think about those things that really get your blood moving. What would you LOVE to do, either for fun or for a living? What would you love to accomplish? What would you try if you were guaranteed to succeed? What big thoughts move your heart into a state of excitement and joy? When you answer these questions you will feel Great and you will be in the “dream zone.” It is only when we get to this point that we experience what Our dreams are!

Write down all of your dreams as you have them. Don’t think of any as too outlandish or foolish - remember, you’re dreaming! Let the thoughts fly and take careful record.

Now, prioritize those dreams. Which are most important? Which are most feasible? Which would you love to do the most? Put them in the order in which you will actually try to attain them. Remember, we are always moving toward action, not just dreaming.

Here is the big picture: Life is too short to not pursue your dreams. Someday your life will near its end and all you will be able to do is look backwards. You can reflect with joy or regret. Those who dream, who set goals and act on them to live out their dreams are those who live lives of joy and have a sense of peace when they near the end of their lives. They have finished well, for themselves and for their families.

Remember: These are the dreams and goals that are born out of your heart and mind. These are the goals that are unique to you and come from who you were created to be and gifted to become. Your specific goals are what you want to attain because they are what will make your life joyful and bring your family’s life into congruence with what you want it to be.

Until next week, let’s do something remarkable!

Jim Rohn

Reproduced with permission from Jim Rohn’s Weekly E-zine.
Copyright 2005 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved
worldwide. To subscribe to Jim Rohn’s Weekly E-zine, go to
http://Jim-Rohn.InspiresYOU.com

In Steven Covey’s excellent book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” he tells a well-worn story about the use of time.

In the story, some professor guy (I think) stands at the front of a class, with a big jar. In the jar, first of all he puts some big rocks, and asks the class, “Is it full now”.

Mostly they say, “Yes”.

Then he gets some smaller rocks and these fit in quite nicely too, just between the big rocks. Again, he asks the same question, “Is it full now?”

The group, a little more suspicious say, “Yes”, because it seems to be.

He then gets out a bag of sand and surprise, surprise, those tiny grains of sand squeeze down beside the smaller rocks, filling up the tinier spaces. “Full?”, he asks.

“Sure”, say the increasingly dubious bunch of students in the audience.

Finally, trump card is the water, smaller than sand, of course and finally, as we aren’t getting too sub-molecular about it, the jar is full.

Impressive huh?

The professor then asks,

“What’s the moral of the story?”

Of course the class, thinking they’ve spotted the trick here, say,

“You can always squeeze a bit more in”

A standard and pretty smart reply. The professor, however, is a step a head (all that professorism does it, of course!).

“The moral of the story is that you need to get your big rocks in first, or all that other ’stuff’ gets in, way too soon and takes up all the space.”

Cool story?

The point of course, relates to managing your time.

What are your ‘big rock’ things?

Well, for sure it isn’t all the little jobs you do. All the fire-fighting (or it may be in the short-term, but that is another day).

The trick is to create spaces, ring-fenced, as they say, to do the good stuff.

In business, this is a list something like this:-

1. Planning for the future

2. Time with your people - good, focused one-on-one time preferably

3. Coaching your people in their work

4. Developing others around you

5. Delegating constructively

6. Creating Succession Plans

7. Building relationships

8. Developing new business opportunities

9. Fixing problems once and for all

10. Making time for a life outside the business

There are more!

Covey and his big rocks eh?

He calls them Quadrant Two activities. If you don’t spend time putting these first into your schedule, truth is, you will never fit them in and things will never evolve and grow.

© 2005-6 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com.

To achieve success you must narrow your vision on your plan. The
question you should consider, is it focus or tunnel vision?

The former refers to bringing into focus, to adjust the focus of (as the eye or a lens), to concentrate attention or effort on the most urgent problems

Tunnel vision is constriction of the visual field resulting in loss of peripheral vision, like looking down a tunnel, unaware of what is going on around you. The expression “tunnel vision” may also be used as a metaphor for narrow-mindedness or to describe researchers or investigators (such as entrepreneurs) who pursue an investigation with their conclusion already decided and proceed by only accepting evidence that supports their conclusion and excluding any evidence that contradicts their assumptions.

Adjusting the focal length brings what you are viewing into a sharp focus. At the same time it makes everything else fuzzy. The mind is much like the eyes and adjustable lenses. If you go forth like a horse with side blinders on, ignoring your peripheral vision, you may miss danger signs or opportunities.

Sometimes we stare and unconsciously hold our eyes open without blinking. This causes strain and a feeling of dry and tired eyes. Keeping the eyes moving and changing the focus is the way to break this cycle. The mind can be put in a trance when we concentrate at one thing for a long period of time. This can produce a zombie like feeling and hamper production. Use your
imagination to explore different ideas. This will keep you alert and you just might discover a gem.

It is necessary to focus on the area you are working in, but be aware of what is going on around you. One can get caught up in his creativity and think it is brilliant until it is compared with the competition. Concentrate on what you are doing, but don’t let it hypnotize you.

Your mind will be sharper if you feed it with a variety of things. Think about your plan, but always consider how you might improve it. You need to rely on your strengths and beef up your weaknesses.

Are you concentrating on your method so intently that it makes everything else blurred? Focus on other methods occasionally and then go back to yours. You might see something that you could adapt into your system to make it work better. Don’t ignore evidence that your plan is flawed. Inspect it closely and determine how to correct it.

Is your advertizing plan the best it can be? Do you track all areas to see which area is best and which is weakest? Have you compared your website with others to see how you measure up? What are they doing that you don’t do? How could you make yours more appealing?

Being an entrepreneur is about using your mind in the right way. It is easy to get to thinking the wrong way and make wrong decisions. Look at it from several perspectives to analyze it correctly. There must be a balance between performing your routine and doing research into the best methods. Spend time reading, but don’t be overwhelmed with an overload of information. There are many good articles and other sources available. Pick some of the best and learn from them.

Concentrate on your work but don’t focus so sharply that it becomes tunnel vision. Spend time relaxing with family and friends. Sometimes you get so close to your work that your mind becomes frozen. Taking a break will help you reset it, so that
the course of action becomes clear.

This article may be published if the resource box is left intact. It would be appreciated if you notify me when you do at lynn_b2@yahoo.com.

Lynn Bradley is also the author of the book, “Climbing the Heavenly Stairs.” You were created for success. Discover what Jesus said about doing seemingly impossible things. Learn how to live life to the full. Read more by clicking on the following link. http://www.thelynnbradleybook.com

One of the things that frustrated me while in school was that most of the psychology books specialized in complicating things. It’s the same with many self-help books as well. I always wondered why relationships, change and meeting goals couldn’t be made much more simple.

To that end, here are five simple steps to making goals attainable:

Write it down

We all carry around in our heads great ideas, intentions and goals. The problem is that is where they often remain - floating around in our heads, taking up space and never being acted upon, much less realized. If you really do want something to happen, write it down. In fact, the simple yet powerful act of writing down your goals automatically increases the chances of meeting them. This is because even the weakest ink is so much more powerful than the strongest memory.

Another advantage to writing down your goals is that you now have them in front of you. Reading your goals on a regular basis can motivate you and keep you on course each day. We all have full days with lots of distractions. Having your goals right in front of you allows you to focus on the activities that push you toward your goals and tune out the distractions.

Break it down

This is the first place people often get stuck. You’ve set some attractive goals. Then you look at how much has to be done and how distant the goal seems to be, and you stop there. Break down your goals before you break down.

Many of the things we do on a regular basis are broken down into smaller chunks. A week has seven days, a day has 24 hours, an hour has 60 minutes and so on. Even a pizza is cut into slices and then eaten a bite at a time. Take your goals and break them down into small, manageable pieces that can be handled one at a time, a day at a time, a week at a time, and so on.

Take small steps

Here’s the second spot where we tend to get stuck. Now that you have broken down your goals into manageable pieces, begin to take one small step at a time. As you begin to take and complete small steps, both your confidence and motivation will grow. Most people don’t begin. You begin.

Take the next step

This is the third spot where people tend to get off course. You get off to a good start and then fail to follow through. Ask yourself “now that I have accomplished this step, what’s the next step I need to take?” Then either take that step right away, or at least get started on it.

This builds your momentum and can carry you through to the completion of your goals.

Take one more step

This is sometimes called “going the extra mile,” and it’s the major difference between winners and champions. Winners take all of the steps listed above. Champions take an extra step, run one more block, lift one more weight, read one more page. When you don’t believe you can take one more step and then do, that’s when you become a champion.

So, here is what I’d like to invite you to do:

Choose a goal you would like to accomplish, write it down, break it down, begin to take small steps, take the next steps and then take the extra steps.

Then enjoy what you have accomplished.

For more tips and tools for achieving your goals visit
Tools for Successful Living