Change 1 Piece of Luggage And You Can Change It All!

The quickest way to lighten your luggage on a business trip is to leave the unnecessary and unprofitable items out. The same holds true on a daily basis for your company.

One of the greatest drags on a company’s productivity is having everyone’s attention distracted from serving the most profitable and appreciative customers. And by not serving the rest when you recognize them.

Ask yourself:

“What single client is the most distracting to our attention?”

Now pull your team together and identify whether you can easily reorganize and streamline to provide service and products that satisfy that customer. If you can’t figure that out, then it’s time to invite that client to find their solutions elsewhere.

July 30, 2007 | Filed Under Ideas, Inspiration | Leave a Comment 

High Payoff Lessons From Luggage - Step 1

By Linda Feinholz, “Your Success Catalyst”

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself if the ‘baggage’ you’re carrying with you in business is serving you well or diverting your attention?

I spent six weeks on the road on vacation this year. All in a single trip. And I did it with one carry-on suitcase, a briefcase and shoulder bag I hand carried through 7 cities. On planes, trains, metros, buses and ships.

I’m all about being nimble and this luggage actually was. I knew I was likely taking too much. Other people who saw what I was taking thought I was bringing much too little with me.

Packing for trips says a lot about how we live our business lives.

I’ve been working with a family business for the past few years. When I started working with them, the partners said they wanted their business to grow 40%. They all stated that goal.

However, when I asked what that growth should be composed of? Well back to that in a moment…

The load I carried on planes, buses, trains and ships came to 37.5 pounds for the carry-on suitcase alone. If I could have left the 3 skirts, two fancy outfits, assorted jewelry, and a heavy long-sleeved top out of the suitcase, I sure would have. I expected to need the latter for the walk on the glacier in Zermatt, and the rest for the time spent on the cruise ship. I thought I might also use them for dinners in various cities.

My itinerary? Paris, Barcelona, Avignon, Livorno, Chittavecchia, Naples, Mykonos, Istanbul, Kusadasi, Athens, Venice, Florence, Rome, Switzerland, Paris.

My clients’ itinerary? They didn’t know what market they wanted the business growth in. They couldn’t decide which niche they wanted to expand. As a result, they had no way to make decisions about the direction to give the sales team or the marketing department.

They had empty suitcases waiting for their decisions. And they didn’t have any idea what they needed to prepare and carry with them to grow their business.

In addition to my suitcase, my shoulder bag with the lap top computer and cell phone and back up drive and cables and papers weighed in at 15 pounds. And 6 pounds for the purse and its contents that included the last of the tour books.

My trip took weeks of thoughtful planning. Decisions about where we would be going and where we would not. What that would be worth carrying and using, and what not to take. What resources I already had, and which needed buying.

Until I got my clients focused on setting their destination they couldn’t figure out the luggage they needed on the journey to build their business. They were completely stalled.

As a result of their work with me, they set clear goals on providing services to a specific type of industrial building and size of business hotels. By taking the time to research their choices and settle on High Payoff ones, they knew which training materials to develop for their sales team, what sales targets to set for each market, and the new resources they needed to give their operations folks to deliver on those sales.

They also knew which old baggage to leave behind – which unprofitable clients they would stop going after, which sales materials would stop being used.

In 5 meetings they defined their market. In 4 months they scripted and delivered the new training to their sales team. In 6 months they had lightened the luggage their folks were carrying by closing their relationships with unprofitable customers. And they had repacked their bags by giving their staff the new skills and materials that supported their sales and marketing folks closing exactly the type of clients they wanted.

Now that’s the right kind of luggage to take when your company sets off on its growth trip.

July 26, 2007 | Filed Under Ideas, Inspiration, Organization | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Answer and you can change it all

Are you one of the folks who always have an idea or an answer when a question is posed? If you’re quick to offer your ideas, and they’re at all relevant, others won’t bother to offer theirs. They’ll just think to themselves “That’s good enough. Let’s get the meeting over and get back to work.”

Here’s a trick that’s quick to learn and easy to use to slow yourself down and put yourself in ‘listening’ mode so that all the intelligence around that table can participate.

Sit on the hand you normally write with
and hold a pen on the table top in the other hand.

It sounds awkward but in fact is easy and looks ‘normal’ to others around the table. Your mind becomes short-wired, distracted and stays alert to the reason you’re doing it. You’ll be able to easily listen to the discussion and give others a chance to get their ideas on the table. As your hand plays with the pen, you’ll find it simple to wait through the discussion to see if you’d like to add anything. And what you add will always be relevant and useful and better than ‘good enough!’

July 23, 2007 | Filed Under Inspiration | Leave a Comment 

3 Paths to Profit With High Payoff Silence

One of the greatest challenges that business owners and entrepreneurs face is when to talk and when … not to.

I found one of my clients running meetings by announcing the topic and stating her opinion about the solution to it as she kicked off the discussion. And she was giving the topic one whole meeting to solve the challenge she and her team were facing. She was falling into an action-oriented trap.

I’m all for quick solutions and clear plans. However, she didn’t recognize she was missing all the information available in the experience and intelligence around the table.

The purpose of the meeting was to set the direction for her staff for the next six months. She wanted it all laid out in 60 minutes so everyone could ‘get on with getting work done.’ That urgency had her staff throwing out lots of action ideas. Lots of head nodding was happening before the measurable goals for all the action were named.

As a result of our work together, she’s now using the 3 Keys of High Payoff Silence that result in much more powerful and profitable plans and solutions.

1 – Build In Silence To Get Participation

We’ve all been trained to have instant answers when questions are posed to us. It starts in grade school and follows us right into our adult business lives. Our ongoing challenge is to probe to see if the answers are actually addressing the intended question. We’ve all been trained to have instant answers when questions are posed to us. It starts in grade school and follows us right into our adult business lives. Our ongoing challenge is to probe to see if the answers are actually addressing the intended question.

If you’re running a meeting to explore new answers, new solutions, new ideas, your role should be to pose the question, ensure it is clearly understood by everyone, and to monitor that the discussion stays on topic.

By your skillful use of ‘silence’ in the rest of the time you are asking everyone else at the meeting to actually discuss the issue and not just agree with ideas you may add, or fling their quick answers on the table.

2 – Build In Silence To Get A Range Of Ideas On The Table

Different personalities work with information in different ways. Regardless of the education level, and even the specific discipline of the people around the table, some folks are talkers, some are solvers, and some are synthesizers of ideas. When my clients work purely from the ideas of the talkers and solvers at their meeting, they’re often missing the meat.

Don’t let the talkers set the agenda or control the content of your meetings. The ideas of the talkers and solvers may be perfectly good ideas, but the synthesizers often note to themselves what has been missed. Synthesizers are comfortable sitting in silence and thinking about what they are hearing. If they’re not invited into the conversation they won’t bother to try to get a word in edgewise. You’ll never know it because they’ll move on to other things after the meeting.

Manage the discussions rather than letting them be free flowing. Use techniques like Round Robin to professionally and politely ensure that everyone has the opportunity to bring their thoughts to the light of day. You’ll get the full value of everyone’s time, intelligence and efforts.

3 – Build In Silence To Get Innovation Into Your Plan

The first pass of ideas, answers, and suggestions should never be your last pass. Rather, it should be considered a warm up brainstorming exercise. It’s sort of like shaking off the quick answers so that the rich ones can come to the light of day.

I’ve taught my clients over the years that the ideas that make it onto the table during the first meeting are usually only the 80% complete. When everyone pushes away from the table, their minds have the opportunity to chew on the ideas they’ve offered and they’ve heard.

Create breaks in the discussion so that everyone’s unconscious and subconscious can join the discussion. Those breaks can be 15 minutes for light topics, or 1-2 weeks for critical complicated issues. During that gestation period is usually when the extra 20% of innovative brilliance has the chance to find its voice.

And that’s where the ideas for how to make it happen faster, easier, in new ways peek out from behind all those quick answers.

When you use these 3 Keys you’ll unlock the solutions and profits that have been hiding in the minds of everyone around the table.

July 19, 2007 | Filed Under Ideas, Inspiration, Vision | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Emergency and you can change it all

Warm up your ‘Avoidance’ muscles. Set aside 15 minutes each day on your calendar for the next fifteen days and label them “Contingency Planning.” On the first day, answer the following question:

“What are the top 10 external changes that could occur?”

Use the next ten days to explore each one. Then use the following four days to introduce the issues to the rest of your team and assign their thinking the issues through further.

July 16, 2007 | Filed Under Organization | Leave a Comment 

Are You Practicing High Payoff Avoidance?

Napoleon Hill and many motivational speakers who followed him speak of the natural and necessary progression from idea to decision to action. Lack of the first two means no meaningful action will take place and success sits on the sidelines, waiting.

In over 20 years of working with growing businesses I’ve found the true most frequent triggers for action. I imagine you’re familiar with them in your personal life. Each drives us from having an idea to make a decision and take action. Three of those motivators are internally driven and the fourth is externally triggered.

Hunger, Desire, Avoidance, Emergency

I wonder if you realize how they influence your actions in leading and managing your business? And how much your business success depends on each of them?

Hunger for success is at the root of entrepreneurial endeavors. At times it’s a hunger to achieve a financial goal. At others it’s a passion to get a new product or service or technology into the marketplace. That hunger is enormously useful for my start-up clients. It keeps their attention finely focused. It underlies their management decision making and cuts through their distractions

Desire takes many shapes in the business world. The desire for recognition is powerful for my clients rising in leadership roles inside organizations. They know that the recognition and advancement they’re seeking depends on their achieving the target goals set for the organization, and motivates them to sharpen their collaborative and team building skills.

Emergencies are probably already familiar to you.

Just as in personal situations, business situations can demand a change of plan. The leader’s plan, the manager’s goal, and the entrepreneur’s vision can all stall out when unexpected external circumstances occur.

And upon occasion those unexpected events can constitute an Emergency. Each of these can be a powerhouse motivator to action. They each keep your leadership and management attention on the actions most important to your business’s success.

But are you familiar with the power of “Avoidance?”

Avoidance is a hidden motivator that deserves deliberate attention in every business. Maybe that’s not what you expected to hear from me? Well, in any plan I work on with my clients, the question we’re sure to include is “And what if our assumptions are incorrect, wrong, or just slightly off?” That question ensures time is spent on the ‘contingency’ thinking that makes plans robust instead of reactive.

One of my small business clients, Jack, was faced with an involuntary change of his business model due to a law that was enacted. He had the Hunger for success and the Desire for recognition with his clients.  The idea was there – redeploy the company’s skills and reputation in the industry to serve the same clients with other valued services. The decision and action were missing.

He’d put off doing his contingency planning before the law was enacted. And for more than 10 months after it reshaped his industry he sat immobilized until I began my work with him. Finally we’d figured out the 18 months of marketing he would have do to build his ‘new’ business, and he’d begun reorganizing his operations.

Then three of his five key people left. That constituted an emergency!

Half his revenue was already gone. If his old specialized business would be shrinking even further in 6 months but still had valuable clients to serve today, and his new brand and services had not yet built momentum, then who to hire? What skills and experience were needed? What training was worth investing in?

In too many instances I find business stalled because leaders are unprepared for handling the Emergencies and handle them poorly. They rely on Hunger and Desire to create their momentum. They resist putting any time or effort into Contingency planning, and wait until the Emergency raises its head to ‘handle’ it.

When I calculate the costs of time and expenses spent on cleaning up emergencies rather than on contingency planning there is anywhere from ten to thirty times financial impact on the business.

Not only was Jack not ready for the emergency of staff leaving, he was nearly a year behind his competition in reshaping his business with his clients. And every one of the steps needed to handle the ‘emergency’ would have been prepared under less stressful circumstance in the contingency planning. And the situation would have been solved less expensively.

By skipping over Avoidance, entrepreneurs haven’t built up the analytical skills and decision-making processes for taking Emergency actions.

How to incorporate Avoidance in your business? The normal day-to-day execution of your plans should be delegated to competent, capable, experienced people. Twenty percent of their time should be spent on contingency planning for their own areas of your business on behalf of the company over all. You need everyone on your front lines building the skills and agility for the company to be able to respond to ‘emergencies.’

Handling the unusual and unexpected events of business is 50% of the focus of leadership. It is a High Payoff activity that needs your attention, if you want to accelerate your results, and get them accomplished easier, Your time needs to be spent on raising the Avoidance questions for your company and getting responses thought through so you’re prepared for those ‘emergencies’ and can get them solved faster when they do occur.

July 12, 2007 | Filed Under Inspiration | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Goal And You Can Change It All!

When was the last time you reviewed your goals? You may not intend to set up businesses with 40-generation life spans. What of 40 months? 40 days? 

In less than 40 minutes you can set clear goals for your efforts and energy and for the rest of your team.

Put your calls on hold. Open a word document or pick up a pen and pad of paper. Close your email so you won’t be distracted and answer the following question:

“What is the goal I want to accomplish in the next 40 days?”

Once you’ve written it down, design the email and in-person conversations you’ll have with everyone whose work supports that goal so you can get them all aligned behind it!

July 9, 2007 | Filed Under Inspiration | Leave a Comment 

High Payoff Lessons from Delos, Me and Art

By Linda Feinholz, “Your Success Catalyst”

Taking a long cruise can shift it all!

On day ten of a 12-day sweep around the Mediterranean I was reminded of one of the critical success factors behind creating High Payoff Results in business and in life.

I passed a woman in the corridor this morning who was doing the ‘pivot dance.’ You know the one. You have the ball of one foot anchored to the ground as the other foot circles around it. You start to step forward, pause, turn back, pause, waver back and forth as you try to decide where you meant to go. Competing thoughts overload your brain until you have to stand still and laugh!

The Mediterranean civilizations of the past 3,500 years knew their stability would be undermined by that dance. Leader after leader knew their success depended on one core factor: Have a Crystal Clear Goal.

For example, the city leaders of the Island of Delos reinforced their goal generation after generation – their cities’ commercial successes depended on it. Delos was known to all the citizens of the major and minor civilizations of its day, decade, centuries as a result of their goal: Be known as “The Place to Come to Make Tributes to Your Gods.”

Civilization after civilization built their branding stories around the temples, which drew pilgrims, which required the infrastructures of city planning, tourism management, shipping, construction, entertainment, and so on.  A thousand and one activities taking place daily to deliver on the services needed by the pilgrims resulted in centuries of millionaires before the dollar was imagined.

Delos could have been any island in the ring of Cyclades islands, with sheep on its hills. Instead it sustained itself as the “Venice” of 40 generations.

The captain of this Princess ship knows his ship’s voyages success depend on knowing one goal: satisfy each ‘vacation pilgrims’ dreams. And those dreams are varied. I intend to make it to bingo every time it’s offered. My niece is looking for safe places to talk and dance with her newfound friends. Art, the businessman sitting next to me at an internet terminal, brought his teenaged son to experience a way of life different than the sleepy town they live in before his son heads off to college. He knows his guests’ experiences depend upon every crew member’s understanding those dreams and managing the floating business’s activities to deliver on them.

Art know it too. He intends to give his son a chance to see the range of opportunities for what he could build with his life while he keeps his internet based business moving and his email cleared out so he can return from vacation without 1,000 email messages waiting for his attention. He manages his time and activities accordingly. Art has sold one successful business and launched five new ones.

And Me? My goal is a day of variety and activity while we’re at sea so I don’t pass it reading a book. I can do that any day of my life at home. I’m using the ship’s list of programs to plan for today’s “At Sea” activities to stick with my goal to ‘play’ throughout the day: sunning before 10 when the burning rays strike, bingo at 11:15 so I can laugh and hiss when the numbers are called, take a salsa lesson and sample the chef’s fare…. All before 2 p.m.

Delos was the center of trade for the ocean routes for eight hundred years. That’s 800! Its leaders had to know their goal and reinforce it with every daily activity in their city for 40 generations,

Success depends on knowing your goals so that your time energy and efforts are all aligned to accomplish them.

Are you doing the ‘pivot dance with your business? Delos, Art and I invite you to set your goals today.

July 5, 2007 | Filed Under Inspiration | Leave a Comment 

Change 1 Passion And You Can Change It All!

You have a chance to completely reshape your world and inspire others when you add it to your work in the world!  

Grab 2 pieces of paper. On the first piece, create two columns. Now in the left hand column list what you love about your work. In the right hand column list what bores or frustrates you.

When you’ve finished that page, turn to the second page and answer the following question:

What personal passions do I have?

Let your mind play with the various ways your passions might be incorporated into your work and watch how it starts to be very much like play!

July 2, 2007 | Filed Under Inspiration, Vision | Leave a Comment