The Jeffrey And Tracey Info Emporium

It is almost impossible for one to go through his or her adult life without having been asked to speak in public at least once.

You might have proposed a toast to a wedding, or reported in front of a class. At work, you could have done an oral presentation for a promotion. Or you could have faced a group of interviewers before you actually got hired for the job that you now have.

All of these and more would require a person to get up and speak out in front of a number of people.

This can either be a good or a bad experience for the speaker.

In the United States, studies show that public speaking is one of the most common fear that Americans have.

How do we eliminate this widespread public speaking anxiety?

The key is to face your fear, master your material, and rehearse.

Here are some helpful tips on how you can use rehearsing to eliminate the fear of speaking in public:

1. Know your material.

Prepare an outline of your speech and look for bits of information which could be a major point of interest.

Read about every aspect of the topic so that it will not be difficult for you to answer unexpected questions should they come up through the course of your discussion.

2. Have a “dress rehearsal” before the big day.

If you are making a formal presentation in a particular place, go to the venue a day ahead or several hours before the presentation to familiarize yourself with the surroundings.

If there is a rostrum, stand in front of it and test the height. Make the necessary adjustments so that the audience will have a clear view of you as a speaker.

This is also a good time to check out the equipment that you need to proceed with your presentation.

Create charts and photos for a slide presentation to make your presentation more informative and interesting.

Time is also important so you can have a run-through of the entire speech and record your voice while doing so. This would give you anidea of how long it will run. The recording will also reveal the focal points where you can vary your tone of voice for a more lively speech.

It is also a great idea to tape yourself or have somebody do it for you while you are rehearsing your actual speech.

Review the video and look for ways to improve your overall presentation.

Practice makes perfect, so it is very important to rehearse before giving out that all-important oral presentation and help you reduce your public speaking anxiety.

James Masterson is Stand out, Be Recognized and Be Remembered keynote speaker. Click Here To read his latest advice free-online-course.com/masterson

Chances are if you’re interested in this post, you’re looking for a few tips to take your leadership and/or your life, up a notch or two. Read on for a few things that have really helped me make my leadership more explosive after first defining what C4 is.

First what is C4 the explosive: C4 is a high quality, very high velocity military plastic explosive. Your life and your leadership should be like C4: it should be of high quality and be high velocity.

Quality means taking the time to be authentic and to be there for your team, whatever that means to each person in your life and on your team. I make time for a one-on-one meeting with each member of my staff as often as they feel they need it to be. For some, it means a weekly meeting. For others, it’s every 2 weeks, and some only want to check in every month. I make the time at the end of the year and set the whole year’s schedule in early December, before projects and other fires take over my calendar. You have to make the time, it won’t magically happen. It’s so worth it though. I learn more in those meetings than I can observe the rest of the year combined. We talk about how they’re doing on their goals, what’s going well on the team, what tools are missing, and what we need to improve on. I have a weekly sheet that I ask that each person complete at least once a month, whether we meet that month or not, just to check in and make sure we’re not missing anything important.

I couple this with real time feedback about things that are going well and things that I observe to need improvement, and my review process is nearly complete for me, and no surprises happen for anyone on my team. I review the statistics every week to look for trends and talk openly and honestly with each associate to ensure we’re working towards our common goals together.

Velocity means being willing to change your style as needed to meet the needs of your team and the other people you serve. To change now and then is not enough in today’s world anymore. It’s important to change BEFORE you think you need to change, and remember that it’s not all about you! You need to change for the good of your team, of your clients, of your spouse, and for anyone else you serve. Don’t be afraid of change, expect it, and change quickly. The quicker you change things, the easier it is because you’ve spent less time doing that which needs to be changed.

Now I admit, living life while embracing the velocity of change is one of the hardest things for me to do. I know I need to change things, however sometimes I don’t, and it ends up hurting worse and for longer than it needed to. Nobody is perfect, but knowing what needs to be done is half the battle. You might have the same problem, so hopefully together we can hold each other accountable to uphold the standards we need to uphold.

Take the challenge to Make it Great! Be explosive! Increase your velocity and your quality today!

Make it a Great Day!
Phil

Phil Gerbyshak publishes the Make it Great! blog at http://MakeItGreat.blogspot.com. It’s updated many days with thoughts about how to take control of your life and stop letting it take control of you! He also has a personal website at http://Gerbyshak.com. Feel free to stop in anytime or give him a call at 414.640.7445 so he can help you make it a great day!

Trust is the foundation of all successful interpersonal relationships, both personal and business. Trust is the confidence or belief a person feels toward a particular person or group. Trust is, therefore, one of the primary binding forces in any interpersonal relationship. It permits people to overcome doubts and unknowns and enjoy peace of mind. The absence of trust causes confusion, worry, inaction, and fear. When interpersonal trust is present, a person feels a confidence that everything will somehow work out. In the workplace, trust is a prerequisite for effective interpersonal communications. Without trust, employees may feel uncertainty, worry, and a sense of insecurity. No relationship, personal or business, can exist for even a short period of time if some element of trust is not present. Trust is an essential leadership training ingredient that binds any human relationship into an effective, working partnership.

Even though trust is fundamental to human relationships, it is actually misunderstood by many people. People use trust, or the lack of it, to explain good and bad relationships with others. Consider the cliché phrases: “Don’t worry, you can trust me” and “Just trust me.” Trust has become both a buzzword and an excuse in our society. Trust is as much abused as it is used in today’s business world. It is used to define and explain; yet few leadership training programs have seriously considered what it is and what it is not.

Psychologists are just beginning to learn how trust really works. Research suggests that trusting relationships are predictable, caring, and faithful. When a manager’s behavior is consistent over a period of time and another person can reasonably predict that behavior, trust is possible. By contrast, it is difficult to trust a person whose actions are inconsistent or unpredictable.

Caring in a relationship involves actions that express consideration toward the other person. Through effective leadership training, a caring supervisor knows when final exams are scheduled at the local college and asks employees who will be taking the tests how much time off will be needed to study. A caring supervisor finds out about a birth, death, anniversary, graduation, or sickness and sends a card to the employee’s home.

Faith is the belief that an employee’s behavior will be in direct response to the trust placed in that relationship. Faith can be demonstrated by communicating clear expectations and then telling the employee, “I know you and I believe you can accomplish this assignment.” Managers who have difficulty demonstrating faith in others typically have difficulty trusting them as well. Trust as a leadership training component can help change this.

Building trust in the workplace is vital for a long-lasting, satisfying, rewarding, and successful relationship. Leadership training helps effective managers practice behaviors that promote and build trusting relationships. They learn to do this with consistent actions each day. In return they obtain the benefits of high-trust employee relations. These benefits include higher morale, increased initiative, improved honesty, and better productivity. All are important aspects of a profitable and rewarding business experience.

It’s not uncommon for people to use the word “trust” to describe a feeling they have regarding some interpersonal relationships. Trust does not magically appear in a relationship without certain elements preceding it over time. And once trust has been breeched it is difficult and sometimes impossible to establish once again.

Three steps pave the path before enduring trust begins. The first step is effective communications. When we communicate effectively with another person we have an opportunity to move that relationship to the second step, which is real understanding. That is when two people have communicated to the point of honest and deep understanding. This can lead to the third step in the relationship of mutual respect. A respecting relationship demands that each person contribute enough respect that it can be reciprocated back from the other person. Unilateral respect in relationships is temporary and superficial. Mutual respect that can lead to trust is much deeper and must come from communicated understanding. Once a relationship has experienced mutual respect it is possible for the participants to experience enduring relational trust. This is a feeling that binds people together over time and through trials.

The four steps are dependent upon the actions or integrity of the individuals involved. Integrity is not only keeping agreements, but it is also “walking the talk.” If, for example, a person communicates deceitfully, how much understanding will there be? And how much respect will the other person have? Ultimately trust will be lacking.

Enduring trust is a leadership training process that takes time and effort. It is clearly the essence of what fuels meaningful relationships.

Test your Trust

Answer the following five statements on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is not true and 5 is completely true.

1. My actions each day demonstrate that I trust my employees.
   
2. My employees can trust me with sensitive or private information.
   
3. I would never betray a trust with an employee.
   
4. I keep confidences and would never share confidential information inappropriately.
   
5. I am able to trust my employees.

Tally your scores from the five items. A total score of 20 to 25 would indicate that you and your employees probably share an atmosphere of trust. A score of 15-19 would indicate that trust is present, but not in abundance. A score of 14 or less probably means that some additional leadership training efforts in building trust would be appropriate.

To learn how leadership training programs and building trust in the workplace can help your organization, contact a CMOE representative at (801)569-3444

Dr. Richard L. Williams has conducted more than 6,000 workshops to more than 250,000 managers and executives.

He specializes in building trust in the workplace, leadership training and development, performance coaching, and quality improvement.

1. Write down one goal that you want to achieve. Let’s not make this the grand goal of your life, something achievable in six months or so.

2. Write down the feeling you will have when you achieve that goal…Ex. (alive, energetic, sexy, accomplished, powerful.)

3. Write down when you will achieve the goal.

I ask you, what is your goal? Did you say what you wrote from #1? Great, but NO, that is not your goal. #1 is never your goal, #1 is just a strategy to get #2. THAT IS YOUR GOAL, to feel a certain way.

What we really want is the feeling that we experience (#2) when we accomplish that strategy (#1). The wonderful part about this is that you can choose to have that feeling anytime you want to have it! I don’t want to ask what you put for #3, because that tells me that you are putting feeling: alive, energetic, sexy, or whatever you said as #2, in the future. You are not allowing yourself to have it in the present moment. It’s funny because I will do this with my coaching clients and their perspective of thinking turns right around.

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT…

What are we doing by denying our self this feeling?

How does it affect us?

How about allowing yourself to have that feeling of #2, and taking action on your goal right now? That will help accomplish what you are setting out to do. You now know that you can have that feeling anytime, it does not have to be attached to a strategy.
What you hopefully have realized is what we do when we procrastinate, or sit on an ambition. We are denying our-self the feeling that we want to feel, because we think it is tied to a strategy. If you think about it, we give ourselves, very often, the feelings that we experience on a daily basis. We decide how we are going to feel, and then we live into it.

Write down a feeling or excuse associated with not working out? _______________________
We have now DECIDED that we are too ______ to workout and we live into it, rationalize it, and buy our own excuses!! What happens to your goals when YOU decide to live into the feeling of ________ that you wrote above? They get put on hold and NOTHING HAPPENS.

Imagine what would happen if EVERY morning you woke up and decided to feel what you wrote for #2? No more excuses in thinking about the strategy, lets feel our goal every day so we can create action.

If your goal is to feel SEXY because the strategy is to loose 20 lbs…it may be quite hard to really feel sexy when you don’t. I suggest however that the only reason you don’t feel sexy is because you BELIEVE you don’t. In order to own this feeling and make it real, we must practice feeling it every moment, every day to master it.

TAKE ACTION

1. On a blank piece of paper, write in large letters the word “EXPERIENCE.” Below it write in large letters what you wrote for #2.

2. Make copies and put it everywhere to remind yourself of the feeling you want on a regular basis. Bathroom mirror, bedside, refrigerator, car, office. We are setting our self up to win.

3. Before you go to bed, starting tonight, ask yourself…What are the top 2 things I wish to do tomorrow, in order to Experience the feeling I wrote? You need paper and pen by your bed…DON’T go to sleep without doing this or I will haunt you all night!! Write down the two actions and WHEN you will do them. If you have a day planner, that is the best “piece of paper” to write them on. Remember, in order to make success a habit and own this feeling, we must practice every day so we master it.

4. When you wake up, 1st thing, read your actions for the day and the Experience “_____” poster you made…DECIDE to embrace this feeling TODAY. Because yesterday is gone, and tomorrow will never come… so all we have is what we feel NOW.

Jeffrey St.Laurent graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a BS in Exercise Science. He holds current certifications from the American Council on Exercise (ACE) as a Personal Trainer and Lifestyle & Weight Management Consultant and from the American Red Cross for Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). Additionally, he is certified through BodyTrainingSystems as a Group Fitness instructor and National Trainer & Presenter. Jeff travels throughout North America giving workshops and providing continuing education to health clubs, personal trainers and group exercise professionals on exercise science, motivation and improving teaching / coaching skills.

Jeff is certified by one of the most highly acclaimed coach training institutions in the United States, The Institute for Professional Empowerment Coaching, iPEC Coaching. His passion for helping people from his health and fitness background has turned into a fierce desire to EMPOWER people to do it themselves through coaching.

Your business can’t go according to plan if you have no plan.

What do you want to achieve this year? More new customers per week? Higher average order amounts? Better customer service ratings? No matter what it is you are shooting for, goal setting is one of the most important things that you will do in the New Year. I’ve got a few tips to help you get there.

1. Keep it Challenging but Realistic.

Any goal that you set for your company should be challenging but don’t over do it. For example, if you had an average order amount of $700 last year, you wouldn’t want to set your goal for this year at $3000 per order. Unless you make drastic changes in how your company runs or what you are selling, that goal is just not realistic. You know best what you may be able to achieve in your particular industry, so be honest with yourself and set your goals accordingly.

2. Write All Your Goals Down.

You may say to yourself on January 1, “I want to get 20 more new customers per week this year.” A few months later you will be saying “Did I say I wanted 20 or 30?” Or more realistically, you have forgotten that you even made that goal. If you have all of your goals written down you will be able to not only go back and check them, you will also be able to go down the list every few months and check to see how many of them you have completed.

3. Assess Your Current Situation.

To set goals you have to know where you are at right now. In 2003 I wanted to assess our customer service rating so we sent out a survey to all of our customers on which they could rate us in each department of our operation. That helped us establish our base. Now we send the survey to every customer after every order. This way we can keep track of how we are doing and if there is ever a hiccup we can fix it quickly. Don’t assume anything. Always assess the current situation before setting a new goal.

It’s Only Going to Hurt A Little…

Now, in financial goal setting for your business, one invariably comes to the question: “How do I decide on a budget when starting a marketing plan?”

This is obviously the first question that you have to answer in order to get started on your new campaign. And in order to reach the income goals you have set for yourself.

So how do you figure out what your budget should be? Here is an easy method to help you find a number that is going to work for you and your business. Some might say that it is a good rule of thumb, but I personally judge things on whether or not they work and get results. That’s all.

Moving on… Start with the amount of income that your company generated last month and multiply it by .14 (or 14%). That means that if you had $50,000 in Gross Income last month you should budget to spend $7000 on marketing in the next month. Wait… I know, it sounds painful but it is just like a shot at the doctor. It might hurt for a minute (or in this case a month) but down the road you are going to be glad that you went through it. Putting that much toward the right marketing will bump up your income the next month and start you on a cycle of steady growth.

I know that some businesses run tighter than others and it is possible that you won’t be comfortable with that amount in the beginning. Don’t misunderstand me, any marketing is better than no marketing. Don’t get discouraged if your budget is lower than 14%. But use 14% as the ideal to strive for because, for me as well as many other growing businesses, it has proven to give the best rate of growth possible. How do I know, you ask? My company has expanded 400% in the past 2 years. Now picture your business at 4 times its current size… There’s that smile I was looking for!

The growth of your business is based on three factors; quality products, great customer service and the proper amount of marketing. If you know you have the first two taken care and you still aren’t experiencing healthy growth then you need to take a serious look at your marketing budget.

So sharpen your pencils, start calculating and decide how rapidly you want your business to grow.

Please take a moment this week to sit down and decide on your goals for the New Year. Even if it is past the New Year and even well into the year, set your goals for the rest of the year.

Everything is easier when are working towards a goal. My goal is your success and I assume that is your goal as well.

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she’s sharing her marketing secrets with others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at http://www.postcardmania.com

Have You Achieved Your New Year’s Resolution?

Now that the new year is underway, a fresh start has been offered to all to achieve the goals we have set in our declared “New Years Resolutions”! So how’s it going? How many of you are on your way to shedding those extra 20 pounds you’ve gained, quit smoking, improved those less than passionate relationships, organized your daily lives, created more balance between work and family, or whatever it is that you desired to change? The lists of resolutions are endless! Are you finding success in your efforts to achieve your goals? My hope is that you are well on your way to changing the habits that have contributed to creating these draining limitations in your lives.

When an individual observes positive change beginning to occur as a result of their declaration to reach a goal, tremendous energy is gained much like igniting a fire within that helps fuel the effort it takes to reach a goals. How many of you are feeling ignited in this way? Do not be too upset if you are among those who have declared to change and are yet, once again, confused as to why you cannot make the changes you wish to gain in order to live your life to the fullest.

Making a “resolution” to change a detrimental habit or improve your negative behavior is a both courageous and admirable! Please acknowledge yourself if you have had the insight to recognize the changes you desire to make in your life. This is an excellent first step to achieving your goal. Unfortunately, creating a goal is only the first step. In order to truly achieve positive change, a plan of action must be developed to allow you to take the steps necessary to reach your goal. Without a plan of action including specific action steps that are measurable, attainable, realistic and timely, permanent change is unlikely to occur. Such a plan is known as a
S-M-A-R-T plan. How smart was your plan of action? Keep in mind that failing to plan is planning to fail. Those people who achieve extraordinary goals in life are not just lucky. Such people set goals just as you may have. The difference in their success is that they also created a plan of action to help them get into immediate action. People who succeed dedicate themselves to continuous improvement on a consistent basis. In order to change you must have a strategy, some step-by-step action plans for changing how you think, feel, and what you do every single day you are alive.
To help you create such an action plan for your own success, two things are require:

1. Creating a SMART plan of action.

2. Disputing limiting beliefs that have stood in your way in the past.

The combination of these two elements is necessary in order to make lasting change. Let us examine each one separately.

Creating a Smart Plan of Action:

The first step to creating a Smart plan is to define your goals for the next 90 days. In doing do, remember to keep these goals specific. After you create the top three goals you wish to achieve for the next 90 days, the next step is to complete the action steps you will need to take in order for you to successfully reach them. As you write these action steps, include in them the result that is gained by following them to remind yourself of their purpose.

An example of this would be:

Goal - I will improve my health and fitness level and lose 10 pounds.

Action Steps-

1. I will begin working out with a trainer twice a week to improve my muscle tone.

2. I will do cardiovascular exercise four times per week to help burn calories

3. I will consult with a nutritionist to design a healthy eating plan for me to follow to ensure that I am eating properly to lose weight.

4. I will plan what I will eat a day a head of time so that I will eat healthy throughput each day.

5. I will keep a journal to record how I am feeling during this process of change to increase my awareness of my emotional ups and downs.

Disputing Limited Beliefs:

The next part of achieving positive change is to understand that, often times we fail to achieve our goals because we have limiting beliefs that sabotage our efforts. In his book Taming Your Gremlin, Rick Carson refers to your limited belief as a “gremlin”. Carson explains that your gremlin is the narrator in your head. He states that your gremlin has influenced you since you came into the world and continues to accompany you as you travel through each day. Your gremlin wants you to accept his interpretation of your experiences and of what is reality. Carson strongly teaches, “Listen to this carefully: your gremlin’s goal is to squelch the natural, vibrant you that is within you.” Given such insight, it is evident to see that allowing your gremlin to feed you your belief of the world or of what you are capable of is not going to be beneficial in allowing you to live your life to the fullest.

With such knowledge regarding the limiting thoughts that interfere with the progress that can be made towards positive change, it is helpful to do a daily assessment of the thoughts that travel through your head each day. This can be done beautifully in the form of a journal. Becoming aware of what you are thinking allows you the opportunity to dispute the thoughts that are not based on what is real but rather on the gremlin that lives within. Often limiting beliefs provoke emotions such as anxiety, guilt, fear, sadness, depression, and anger. By becoming more aware of the thoughts you are thinking and the emotions that those thoughts promote, you will gain clarity as you walk through your process of change. Keep in mind that you have the power to choose what you think. You may, at anytime, replace a negative thought with a more empowering one. Positive self talk ignites the energy you will need to fuel you as you move towards reaching your goals!

For more information on changing in a positive direction and empowering yourself to achieve your goals, you may contact the author at esav1@aol.com or visit her website at http://www.elizabethsavino.com/

Elizabeth Savino is a personal life coach and founder of Sole Life Coaching. She specializes in women’s issues and working with young professionals. Elizabeth believes that with the support, guidance, and motivation of a life coach, individuals gain clarity about what direction they would like to move in.

Elizabeth is a graduate of Bowling Green State University with a degree in Special Education. She began her career teaching students with special needs. Elizabeth has incorporated her teaching skills into her coaching practice buy meeting her clients where they are at and working with them as a team to move in a positive direction. Elizabeth has studied coaching through Mentor Coach and Coach U to obtain certification from the International Coach Foundation which she is also a member of.

In her leisure time, Elizabeth enjoys running races ranging from 5k races to marathons. She has used the determination it takes to train for such races to inspire other women to obtain meaningful goals in their own lives.

To get what we want in life we need to have a plan. Goals are an important part of making plans and being successful. If we want to lose weight, we need to set goals and have a plan. If we want to be fit, we need to set goals and have a plan. If we want to have less stress, we need to set goals and have a plan. You’ve heard that saying? “She that fails to plan plans to fail.” So how can you plan to succeed? You need to start by setting goals following the S.M.A.R.T. formula.

Most people say things like, “I want to be thinner” or “I want to get fit” or “I want to be healthier, happier, less stressed etc.” These are not goals you can plan to achieve. They are wishes or desires. S.M.A.R.T goals are:

S       =   Specific
 M       =   Measurable
 A       =   Action Based
 R       =   Realistic
 T       =   Time Bound

Be specific about what thinner, fitter, healthier or less stressed means to you. Make your goal something you can measure. Being thinner means losing how much weight or being fitter means running how many kilometres? What does less stress involve for you?

Make sure you will get into action about your goal by basing it on a true desire. If you are not excited about your goal, find ways to make it more fun. If you’re trying to lose weight then save all the money you usually spend on chocolate and put it towards the reward of a holiday or new clothes.

Be realistic about your goal. Losing two or three kilos a week may be difficult and unhealthy, so plan to aim to lose a half a kilo or one kilo a week instead. If the goal is realistic you will stick to it.

Lastly make your goal time bound by giving it an end date. This gives your goal a sense of urgency and makes you get into action about it. Keep this date realistic.

This week look at your goals and make them S.M.A.R.T. “I will lose 20 kilos by January 28th 2006” “I will be able to run 5 kilometres in 15 minutes by February 16th 2006” Above all don’t fail to plan. Plan to succeed!

“Lisa Branigan is a certified Life Coach helping successful women create a less pressured, more enjoyable lifestyle.” She is a speaker, writer, new coach mentor, regular guest on ABC radio and contributor to magazines and newspapers. Lisa enjoys coaching women to improve their health and life in personal phone sessions, working with leaders in acquiring coaching skills for professional use and helping new coaches feel the fear and do it anyway!

Contact Lisa for a “FREE” 30-minute phone coaching session and get started on achieving your goals today!

Email: lisa@quantumcoaching.com.au
Website: http://www.quantumcoaching.com.au/

In 75 years time almost every person reading these words will probably be dead. Some, like me, will be long gone before that time - unless, of course, some scientist creates a miraculous anti-aging pill. Scary huh?

The way that so many people keep putting off significant life goals you would think that they had thousands of years to live. “Ah, I’ll leave it till tomorrow / next week / next month / next year / whenever…” These words are thought and uttered by millions every minute of every day.

Life is short. It’s shorter than most people realize.

When it comes to time everybody gets treated the same way. It doesn’t matter whether you are a pauper or a king. Time does not discriminate. No matter how much money you have you will never be able to purchase any units of time. Time does not care what you look like or how talented you are. It doesn’t care where you were born or who your parents are or what nationality you are.

Apart from the air we breathe, water, food and shelter, it is our most precious commodity. From the moment we are born we begin to use it up.

Why then are so many people prepared to waste time? You know that you are not going to live forever. You know that every passing day just reduces the amount of time you have to fulfil your life goals. Set a date. Make a promise to yourself. Put some checkpoints in place. Measure your progress on a consistent basis.

How important are your goals? Are they significant enough for you to expend the required time on bringing them to fruition? Well? How just important are they to you?

Father time will not wait for you. Make a start today. Write yourself a plan. Stick to it. Spend your time wisely. You will never get it back. Become inspired.

This article comes with reprint rights providing no changes are made and the resource box below accompanies it.

Become inspired: Click here to receive Gary Simpson’s short “zenspirational” weekly message PLUS an immediate FREE copy of his inspirational e-book “The Power of Choice.” Read this and you will NEVER waste time again - guaranteed!

You’re probably familiar with the idea of setting priorities. You look at your list of goals or projects or tasks and sort them in order of most important to least important. Then you focus your attention on the most important ones before you tackle the less important ones. Nothing too surprising there…

But let’s say you have a new priority come into your life, and it’s one that requires a nontrivial time investment. Maybe you want to start an exercise program, and you want to devote a few hours a week to it. You don’t feel like you have any free time where you can just insert your exercise routine. The whole idea of free time is a bit silly anyway. You’re always using time for something, even if it’s purely for leisure activities or rest.

So the only way you can insert something new into your life is to delete something old. You’re already filling each 24-hour day with 24 hours of habitual actions, whether this be sleep or work or rest or even just being lazy. You can’t just stuff an extra hour in there and create a 25-hour day. (Well… I suppose you could if you have a very flexible schedule, but then you’ll lose about 2 weeks at the end of the year.)

A problem happens when you try to do this 25-hours-into-24-hours shove. That hour will have to be stolen from somewhere else. Most of the time people don’t choose where this hour will actually come from. They may assign it a time, but they won’t consciously think about what’s going to be displaced from that time slot. This can result in feeling stressed or overwhelmed for no apparent reason, which often leads to procrastination. Maybe the displaced activities were more important than you realized.

The idea of setting posteriorities means that you consciously and deliberately choose what to delete whenever you start doing something new. So if you want to add 30 minutes of exercise to each day, where will this 30 minutes come from? Will it be stolen from sleep time, family time, lazy time, fun time, thinking and reflecting time, etc.?

Ideally whenever you add a new priority to your life, you want to delete a posteriority. Just as you make a list of what’s most important to you in life, you can also make a list of what’s least important to you. Take note of what you do each day that just isn’t that important. Where can you steal time from unimportant activities to be reassigned to more important ones? Can you delete watching some TV to add some extra reading? Can you delete superfluous web surfing to add more thinking time?

Sometimes setting posteriorities is very challenging. Once you’ve achieved a nicely balanced life, and then you want to start a big new project, you may find it difficult to steal time from other activities because now everything seems important. I had this problem when I started writing my book. This is a big project, and I’m presently investing about 40 hours/week on it. That’s 40 hours I have to displace every week in order to complete this project — a huge amount of time. In the beginning I naively just tried to squeeze it into my already busy schedule without consciously deciding what 40 hours I would delete. I dropped maybe 10 hours consciously, so I was trying to squeeze 70 hours of activity into those 40 hours. Obviously that didn’t work too well. I had to consciously pick out another 30 hours to drop, and that required making some hard sacrifices. Some of it came from sleep, some from family time, but most of it came from other work activities. I had to start passing up a lot of business opportunities that I would normally have taken advantage of. I had to start saying no a lot more often. Now virtually every week I have to say no to at least two or three tempting business offers. In the short run most would be successful, but in the long run I’d never finish my book if I said yes too many times. And ultimately the book project is much more important than the sum total of all these smaller projects, as tempting as they seem.

It can take a bit of careful reflection to know what’s important to you and what isn’t. For example, suppose you’re currently working a full-time job and decide to start your own business. Many people will try to do this by starting the business in their… ahem… spare time while keeping their full-time job. And this certainly works for some people. Spare time doesn’t really exist though, so what’s being displaced? Often it’s family time, leisure time, or exercise time. So if you work on your new business an extra 2 hours a day, you’ve not only increased your total work time by 2 hours, but you’ve also reduced your recovery time by 2 hours. And this often throws life out of balance and can lead to physical and emotional overwhelm. I confess to being rather intimately familiar with this situation at times.

An alternative way of handling this situation is to steal that extra time for your new business from your existing work time. Depending on what options are available to you, you may be able to scale back your hours, switch to a part-time job, quit completely and work on your new business full-time, use accrued vacation time and sick days to take off one day each week, steal small blocks of time during your regular workday for your new business, etc. Obvious some of these options will displace some income, but for many people that is a better choice than displacing too much leisure time.

Copyright © Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina
Personal Development for Smart People
http://www.stevepavlina.com
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog (blog)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles (articles)

Steve is intensely growth-oriented. He trained in martial arts, ran the L.A. Marathon, and graduated from college in three semesters with two degrees. He can juggle, count cards at blackjack, and make damn good guacamole. Steve is also a polyphasic sleeper, sleeping just 2-3 hours per day and only 20 minutes at a time. So chances are good that he’s awake right now.

1. Making promises when you are not sure you can keep them can lead to a loss of respect.

Take making promises seriously. View a promise, as a commitment made with an understanding that circumstances might arise that would make it impossible to keep them. Make those circumstances very clear to the person at the time promises are made. Breaking a promise can lead to a loss of respect on the part of the employee. He may question your integrity. A leader must have an impeccable character to earn the confidence of his employees. Don’t make promises you can’t keep and in that rare circumstance that you do break a promise, face the employee eye to eye explaining in detail why you were not able to keep your promise. Be honest about it.

2. Some employees whine, especially sales people. It’s part of their DNA. That does not mean you should ignore complaints that you consider whining.

No employee thinks his complaint is insignificant even if you think it is whining. It is still a problem even if the complaint is taken lightly or ignored. In fact it may grow and fester. An effective leader will address the complaint and not be afraid to tell the employee it is whining or trivial by explaining why. Even though the employee may not hear the answer he is looking for, the leader will not lose respect due to inattention. Of course how he delivers the message is important and should be done without belittling the employee.

3. A leader must show consistency and fairness in his treatment of employees.
Do you vary your approach with employees, being lenient with some and strict with others? There is a fine line between treating all employees exactly the same and showing consistency in the treatment of employees. Employees are all individuals with different backgrounds, different values, different goals, different ideas and different motivational factors. The ability to recognize the differences in people and the ability to apply variable leadership methodologies is an important characteristic of effective leadership. That being said, it is extremely important that a leader does not show favoritism and give preferential treatment to employees. A lack of consistency in the leader’s treatment of employees destroys teamwork and trust. Do not give special privileges unless a special situation warrants it, and everyone understands it.

4. Becoming buddies with your employees is not a good idea and Corporate Recreational Mating is an absolute taboo. That does not mean that you should be cold and aloof. Leadership is about relationships but you must not develop a personal relationship to the extent that it compromises your ability to take command and show control when necessary.

Aloofness can detract from effective leadership. You can be friendly without losing authority or compromising your position. A leader must demonstrate competence and vision and at the same time show a sincere interest in the well being of his employees. Anyone whose job is to influence people and direct them in their work must maintain friendly contact with the group.

5. Being able to collaborate, share ideas and not be threatened by the transfer of intellectual capital is extremely important to promoting a team concept and an atmosphere that promotes confidence.

Sharing your thoughts, experiences, knowledge along with coaching and mentoring is showing confidence and self respect. This supports a culture of camaraderie. Share information whenever issues in your realm of responsibility affect operations in other manager’s areas. Absolutely do not circumvent the authority of managers reporting to you and don’t go around other managers.

6. Refusing an employees request without creating resentment is a tactful necessity of effective leadership.

The ability to say no without creating hostility is important. The key to accomplishing that objective is to recognize the request with sincerity and explain in detail why the request cannot be granted. Being sincere demonstrates concern and makes your personal regret believable.

“The ideal leader is courageous, strong and persistent, wise – but what really separates him or her from the pack is passion and vision. It’s not enough to be skilled administrator or a world-class manager. No, to be a true leader, we need the passion of our dreams – and a vision of how to make them real. Passion and vision are transforming forces that will fail unless we fuse them into one powerful source for change.
“Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric”

• A leader doesn’t follow others footprints—he is always first in line creating a new road map to follow

• A leader doesn’t panic in a crisis he becomes a pillar of strength for others

• A leader doesn’t look for the light at the end of the tunnel—he carries the light

• A leader doesn’t flaunt his title—he finds the time to be more than his title

• A leader doesn’t get up early to make himself better—he gets up early to help make others better

• A leader has a vision—he doesn’t dream—he is the dream and he communicates his vision

• A leader isn’t arrogant but he commands a presence. He is confident.

• The leader is not the one taking credit for success first but he’s the first one to credit those who helped create success

• The leader may not be the most valuable player but he is the player most valued

• The leader does not like being called the reason for success— He realizes success depends on the people you surround yourself with–after all he is the leader

Eric (Rick) Johnson

Dr. Rick Johnson (rick@ceostrategist.com) is the founder of CEO Strategist LLC. an experienced based firm specializing in leadership for wholesale distribution. CEO Strategist LLC. works in an advisory capacity with company executives in board representation, executive coaching, team coaching and education and training to make the changes necessary to create or maintain competitive advantage. You can contact them by calling 352-750-0868, or visit http://www.ceostrategist.com for more information.

Rick received an MBA from Keller Graduate School in Chicago, Illinois and a Bachelor’s degree in Operations Management from Capital University, Columbus Ohio. Rick recently completed his dissertation on Strategic Leadership and received his Ph.D. He’s also a published book author with four titles to his credit: “The Toolkit for Improved Business Performance in Distribution,” the NWFA & NAFCD “Roadmap”, Lone Wolf-Lead Wolf—The Evolution of Sales” and a fiction novel “Shattered Innocence.” Rick’s next book due in November is titled; Lone Wolf – LEad Wolf The Evolution of Leadership