#Leadership : 6 Effective Ways To Get What You Want In Life…Gratitude is the Greatest Drug on the Planet . And there is no side effect. From Hand-Written Thank-You Notes to Taking Two Minutes and Writing Down as Many Things you’re Grateful For as Possible: When we Actually take a Moment to Focus Exclusively on Gratitude, it Shifts our Mood. This is Real Stuff. This Really Works.

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Here are the highlights from my recent interview with Dave Kerpen, New York Times NYT +0.85% bestselling author and founder of Likeable Media, and his thoughts on outsourcing social media, being selfless, differentiating, staying top of mind and gratitude.

young green plant in soil for agriculture, business growth or environment concepts (isolated on white background)

William: Let’s talk about the connection between your new book, The Art of People,and the kind of work that you’re doing in the social media space.

Dave: How can you really even think about people skills without considering social media today? So many businesses want to grow, and they want to figure out how to use social media, but they don’t really have a lot of time. And that’s where our software comes in. But there are certain things that you can’t automate. And people skills are one of those things. No matter how much you take advantage of technology, tools, software, at the end of the day you still have to be a person, and you have to relate to other people.

You can outsource content, advertising, and paid tools to help grow your social media presence. What you really can’t outsource is your individual responses to people and how you talk to individuals. It’s impossible to outsource the one-to-one conversations. It’s okay to have a social media assistant, but you’ve got to be transparent about it.

William: You have identified the most important question you can ask if you want to stand out in a meeting. I’d love for you to share that.

Dave: I can’t have meetings with salespeople every day. But there was this one guy, Michael Kiplin, who said, “Dave, I have one question for you, and I promise I will not try to sell you anything.” This got my attention.

So I sat down with him, and he said, “Any thoughts as to how I can help you?” I said, “I happen to be fundraising right now. You could be helpful by introducing me to a venture capitalist.” So he said, “You got it. I’ll introduce you to a VC.” And I said, “Well, thank you. Tell me about yourself. Like, what do you sell? How much is it?” And he said, “You know what, Dave, I told you I wasn’t going to come in here and do that today.”

So he basically refused to sell. He followed up by introducing me to a VC who didn’t invest in us, but the sentiment was there. A few months later, I called Michael up, and he became our financial planner.

 

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If you act selflessly at first, it’s very powerful. That kind of thing is unforgettable. But you have to do it authentically. You have to truly want to help and have some ideas about how you can help. That’s the difference between somebody who’s going through the motions and somebody who’s very successful with this tip.

William: Is there another “people skill” that you get especially excited about?

Dave: I think that listening is the single most important skill in social media and business and really in life. I recommend truly zoning in, making eye contact, focusing exclusively on that person. And by the way, there’s an enormous difference between listening and waiting to talk. Most people are thinking of what they’re going to say next, and they’re planning. The true listener is really just seeking to understand and will think about what to say next after they’re done listening to what the person has to say.

William: You have techniques for effective networking. Can you share one?

Dave: Sure. I have a chapter in the book called “Wear Orange Shoes: The Secret to Networking.” When I was first fundraising for Likeable Local, I was trying to track down this one particular venture capitalist named Dave McClure out of Silicon Valley. He was in New York, where I lived, for a conference. There were probably over 500 entrepreneurs at this conference, so I found myself really struggling throughout the day to meet him. I was kind of bummed out. And I hear, as I’m staring down at my phone, “I need to meet the man that’s wearing those *** shoes.” And there’s Dave. And of course, I was wearing bright orange shoes as I tend to do. Within several weeks, Dave invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in our business. In a crowded place, having a specific personal brand that helps differentiate you is a very powerful thing.

William: For those of you who’ve never seen Dave in person, he always has on a lot of orange. It’s the brand color for Likeable. Let’s talk a little bit about how to stay top of mind. We get 8 million emails and phone calls. And we’re tweeting and we’re Facebooking and we’re in meetings. It’s pretty hard to stay top of mind.

Dave: Social media has brought an opportunity for you to stay top of mind by essentially staying top of feed, on top of people’s newsfeeds on Facebook FB -0.31%, onLinkedIn LNKD +0.07%, on Twitter, on Instagram. And the way to do that is to curate and share awesome content. We have found that it doesn’t even need to be original content, by the way.

Dentists typically send two postcards a year. You think, “Well, that probably costs a lot.” And it does. But what if you could send two postcards a week? And what if that was basically free? Well, it starts to get pretty interesting. Social media allows you to stay top of mind as long as you’re adding value. I’m not talking about trying to sell stuff every day.

William: You must have a mind-shifting takeaway for folks.

Dave: Gratitude is the greatest drug on the planet . And there is no side effect. From hand-written thank-you notes to taking two minutes and writing down as many things you’re grateful for as possible: when we actually take a moment to focus exclusively on gratitude, it shifts our mood. This is real stuff. This really works.

William Arruda is a personal branding guru and co-founder of CareerBlast, a video platform and virtual coach that helps you get promoted faster. Download his free eBook 13 Things All Successful Professionals Do To Fuel Their Careers.

 

Forbes.com | August 21, 2016 | William Arruda

#Leadership : 5 Reasons Employees Don’t Trust Their Boss or Their Company…Recent Report find that a Lot of Workers are Very Skeptical of their Bosses, and the Companies they Work For. In Concert, that Impacts Productivity, can Lead to a Toxic Workplace, and Hurts the Bottom Line.

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Trust and loyalty are difficult to come by in the professional world. While the millennial generation seems happy enough to job-hop their way to the top, more and more employers are looking for ways to increase employee loyalty within their organizations. Finding new and trustworthy employees is difficult and expensive, and even as many people are willing to lie on their resumes to get the job they want, most wouldn’t want their employers betraying their confidence in similar fashion.

Free- Rusted Tanker

But there have been signs that the tides are turning. Employers have started to implement new ways to keep employees around, and the numbers show that more raises and promotions are being handed out to loyal, long-time workers. That means there is at least some sort of divide being bridged between management and labor, in some organizations.

When we dig a little deeper, however, it becomes clear that there’s still a wide gulf when it comes to confidence in our employers. The latest Trust Barometer report from Edelman all but confirms it. The annual report, now in its 16th iteration, took the pulse of tens of thousands of workers, in an effort to see just how much trust (or distrust) is prevalent in the economy.

The findings? A lot of workers are very skeptical of their bosses, and the companies they work for. In concert, that impacts productivity, can lead to a toxic workplace, and hurts the bottom line.

This is a wake-up call for any business leader who underestimates the importance of building trust with employees,” said Nick Howard, executive director of Edelman’s employee engagement business in Europe in an accompanying press release. “Edelman’s special report on Employee Advocacy shows that non-trusting employees are far less likely to say good things about their employer. And worryingly, the bad things they say will be believed by consumers.”

Christopher Hannegan, executive vice president and lead of Edelman’s employee engagement business in the United States, echoed Howard’s sentiment. “The findings are very clear,” he said. “Consumers trust companies that treat their employees well. Companies that have ethical business practices. Are transparent and open. And respond well to problems and crises. Equally clear is that these are the topics that employees are most trusted to talk about.”

Here are five of the chief reasons Edelman’s Trust Barometer says employees don’t trust their employers. Do you agree with any of them?

1. Engagement

Where there’s a lack of engagement and communication, there’s a lack of trust. We see the same dynamic at play in our personal relationships, and that extends to the employee-employer relationship as well. When there are limited lines of communication and engagement, skepticism bubbles up. You start to worry about potential changes that you may be missing. It’s difficult to manage — and employers who keep employees in the dark are feeding distrust and discontent in their ranks.

It also leads people to believe there is something to hide, which obviously leads to distrust.

 

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2. Short-term thinking

“Short-termism” is when a company or leadership team puts short-term profits ahead of an organization’s long-term goals and survival. It’s how you end up with car companies cutting corners like GM or Volkswagen’s recent scandals, or how we end up with huge disasters like Deepwater Horizon. It’s about making the quarterly numbers look good, at the expense of long-term projections. And employees hate it.

“More than two-thirds of people feel that CEOs are too focused on short-term financial results,” said Howard.

3. Belief in the company

Do you believe in your employer? That is, do you believe in the company’s mission and purpose? People want to work for employers who are addressing society’s needs, and positively impacting their communities. That may mean taking measures to protect the environment, or simply taking care of employees so that they can afford life’s necessities without struggling. But there’s an evident gap in Edelman’s numbers that show employers are coming up short. And that breeds distrust and contempt.

 

4. Product quality

This is a call back to the discussion around “short-termism.” People trust companies that create and sell high-quality, reliable products and services. It’s easy to work for a company that puts pride into its work, and pumps out products people love. Think of companies like Apple, for example. If you can personally stand behind your employer’s products, it’s easy to trust them.

Now, put yourself in the shoes of a Comcast employee. You’re consistently fielding calls from angry customers about being overcharged, and how their service is out. That’s going to take a toll on your pysche, and how much you trust your company.

5. Ethics

Most of these other points boil down to this: ethics. While we’re all taught to act ethically, so many headlines fill the newspapers and cable news networks about corporations or individuals taking short cuts, ultimately earning a big pay day at the expense of everyone else. We saw ethics go out the window during the financial crisis, and by decisions made at (again) GM and Volkswagen.

Employees want to work for ethical companies, who aren’t doing shady things, and are cleaning up after themselves. If they don’t, then what kind of example are they setting? It becomes hard to trust your company, and its leadership, when all kinds of unethical behavior is being exhibited.

If your own employees don’t trust you, you can bet that customers won’t trust you either.

Check out Edelman’s complete Trust Barometer report.

Follow Sam on Facebook and Twitter @SliceOfGinger

 

CheatSheet.com | August 21, 2016 | Sam Becker 

 

Your #Career : How To Tell If You’ll Fit Into A Company’s Culture Before You Take The Job…An Interview isn’t Always the Best Place to Learn What it’s Really Like to Work in a New Office, But There are Ways to Find Out.

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Jocelyn Greenky really hates fluorescent lights, so when she started a new job years ago, she showed up with a floor lamp a few weeks in and dragged it over to her desk.  “It did not go over well,” she says. That’s how Greenky discovered that every office has its own culture—and as a result, how sometimes even the smallest acts can look like a rebellion.

portrait of Young pretty business woman work on notebook computer in the bright modern office indoors

Now with more than 20 years of experience as an office culture and politics expert, Greenky says you should always understand a company’s norms and no-no’s before you accept a job there. “As the new employee, you have to adapt to the culture rather than the culture adapting to you,” she adds.

Previous research has shown that our coworkers and managers have a big impact on our productivity and job satisfaction. And workers surveyed by Glassdoor reportedthat company culture was more important than compensation and work-life balance.

So if you like chit-chat and a background hum, you probably won’t be happy in the tomb-silent office where you just interviewed. Or if you love coming up with new ideas and taking big risks, you may not like a place that doesn’t embrace change.

But how accurately can you pinpoint a company’s culture before you’ve actually worked there? Here’s what Greenky and other experts recommend asking and observing before you show up with your own lamp—or even take the job.

START READING

Bouvier Williams, PhD, president of Your Personal Brand Solution, says to read through the organization’s annual reports, find any articles about it in popular publications, and of course, scope out its own website—all before your first interview there.

“You’re trying to get the flavor of the organization,” Williams says. “Does it come across as bureaucratic? Is it an organization that really believes in and fosters innovation?” And, most important, “Does it line up with the things you believe?”

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NOTICE EVERYTHING

Greenky says that as soon as you step into a prospective office, you should start observing. What are people wearing? Are their desks messy? Do they have earbuds in or are they talking to each other? Is there an open floor plan? If people work in individual offices, do they keep their doors open?

Pay close attention to body language, too, Williams says. See whether people are smiling, if they seem engaged, and whether they look happy to be there. “Not everybody in the company can happen to be having a bad day at the same time,” he adds, so if you’re surrounded by frowns, that should be a red flag.

FIND THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Asking about summer Fridays or dress code may turn off a hiring manager during the interview process. Even questions about expected work hours can be shaky ground. But Greenky says you can absolutely ask your would-be boss to define their office’s culture. “See what they have to say,” she adds. “If somebody says it’s very corporate, for example, that means they play by the rules—that it’s more formal.”

Williams also recommends asking some of these “subtle but revealing” questions as the interview progresses. For example: How are employees developed in the company? What happens when someone makes a mistake around here? How is risk-taking rewarded? How can people share their opinions about the work environment? What are some of the things that might get under your skin about working here? How does the organization deal with managers who manage poorly?

READ THE HANDBOOK

Yes, people really do read the employee handbook. No, it’s not weird to do it before you even have the job. If the hiring process is cruising forward and you’re seriously considering a position, Greenky suggests asking for a copy of the handbook. The rules and regulations inside can tell you a lot about a company’s culture—including how much it likes rules and regulations.

GET A GUIDE

Both Greenky and Williams say talking to a current or recent employee is essential. Comb your own networks first. If that doesn’t turn up a connection, Williams recommends using LinkedIn to find past employees. He says to let them know you’re interviewing at the company and ask if they have a few minutes to talk about the culture there. “Be prepared to ask some fairly targeted questions,” he adds. For example: Can you describe the office politics? Is there high turnover or constant churn?

Greenky suggests “tell me about your day there” as a good opener with current or former employees. She says it’s also a chance to ask all those questions you may not want to ask a potential boss about dress code, lunch breaks, expected hours—and maybe even lighting. That could shine a light on whether or not you’ve found your dream job, or if you should think twice before accepting their offer.

FastCompany.com | MOLLY PETRILLA  | 08.19.16 5:52 AM

#Leadership : 6 Concepts Your Millennial Employees Wish You Understood…One of the Things you Learn very Quickly, When you Hire a Staff, Is that a Bad Boss is the No. 1 Reason Why People Quit their Jobs.

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One of the most fraught challenges that an manager/entrepreneur can face is the management of employees. Plenty of books have been written on the subject; plenty of classes have been taught. But it’s only when you’re suddenly sharing an office full of millennials with their own distinct personalities, strengths, weaknesses and dreams – each of whom is looking to you for leadership — that the real learning begins.

workaholics-2

One of the things you learn very quickly, when you hire a staff, is that a bad boss is the No. 1 reason why people quit their jobs. Nobody wants to be a bad boss. And nobody has to be a bad boss – not if you put in the time and effort it takes to become the leader that your employees need. Naturally, that’s easier said than done, particularly because employees rarely feel comfortable offering tips to their boss on how to behave.

Fortunately, managers/entrepreneurs who hang in there long enough often become masters of putting their employees in a position to succeed. It’s a crucial part of building a viable business. Even bosses who are beloved by their staff, though, could learn to be more effective if they were better able to view the world through millennial eyes.

Simply put, millennial employees work harder and remain more loyal if they believe their boss understands them and their needs. Here are six important considerations that your millennial employees wish you recognized.

1. Their time is more valuable than money.

It’s no great secret that employees hate it when their boss keeps them in the office late or bombards them in the evenings and on weekends with emails, phone calls and homework. Don’t do that. But your respect for your employees’ time should go further than that.

Most projects require teamwork, and when one of your team members completes their part and turns it over to you, they expect you to complete it promptly so that they can move onto the next thing instead of waiting on you. It’s imperative that the boss is not a bottleneck, preventing an efficient office, so always respect your millennial employees’ time as much as your own.

 

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2. They want to know what’s happening with the company.

Does your office operate on a need-to-know basis? Your millennial employees are probably not happy with that arrangement.

Workers usually aren’t offended if they’re not included in a company’s decision making – they know that’s your job. But they do resent being kept in the dark about the company’s plans and direction.

Employees, who endure too many surprises or can’t be sure what your business will look like in six months, begin to feel that you don’t trust them. Nobody does their best work for a boss or a business that doesn’t trust them with essential information.

Learning to manage people effectively can sometimes take a career – some would say longer, when it comes to millennials. Even then, your employees probably won’t love you for it. But if you keep their interests in mind while running your business, they just might love to work for you. Isn’t that the kind of company where you’d like to work too?

3. They want to learn something.

It’s rare these days for a worker to stick with the same company for their entire career, for many complicated reasons.

One surefire way to keep them, though, is to make sure that they’re learning new skills on the job. It’s better for the company because your staff is constantly improving its knowledge and skillset, and it’s better for the employee too.

Learning something new keeps them engaged, and they know that if and when they move onto a new job, your company will have made them a better employee. If your employees aren’t learning anything, they aren’t improving themselves, and they’re apt to go someplace where they can.

Related: This is How You Create the Ideal Millennial Workplace

4. They hate the open office concept.

For years now, more and more offices have switched to the open-office model, where employees share a communal workspace with small or nonexistent partitions between their desks. The theory is that this approach fosters communication, collaboration and transparency. But that isn’t how your millennial employees see it.

Chances are, millennials believe that you put them in an open office simply so that you could keep an eye on them. Again, this erodes trust.

Additionally, many staffers complain that the noise and distractions all around them in an open office hamper productivity. Nobody grows up hoping to work in a cube, or worse yet, around a table, like a kindergartener. And if you maintain a private office for yourself, they’ll resent you for it.

Related: Want to Understand Millennials? It’s Simpler Than You Think.

5. They want praise and a raise.

As managers/entrepreneurs, we often expect and demand that our teams will always strive to do their best work in order to share in the company’s success. And often, they do – at least at first.

But if millennials’ hard work, engagement and sacrifice isn’t rewarded, you’ll quickly catch them turning in the bare minimum. Bosses have tried all sorts of carrots and sticks to keep their employees stretching for success, but only two things really move the needle: praising quality work and raising compensation for top performers.

In a perfect world, millennials wouldn’t need encouragement to do their best. But in the real world, people get hooked on praise, and nothing motivates like more money. Don’t fight it, utilize it.

Related: Millennials Are Not the Only Ones Who Want Feedback

6. Nobody really loves their boss.

As the leader of your organization, you deserve your employees’ respect and you need their trust. Where many managers/entrepreneurs go wrong, though, is coveting their employees’ love and admiration, too.

No matter how fun you make your workplace or how deeply you involve yourself in your millennial workers’ lives, the fact remains that nobody loves their boss. And nobody wants to.

Your millennial employees need a leader with vision who is smart, fair, and encouraging. What they don’t need is a hero. If you need more love in your life, devote more time and energy to developing friendships and family. If you try to turn your employees into a family, they’ll respect you less for it. Help your workers to love what they do, not love who they work for.

Learning to manage people effectively can sometimes take a career – some would say longer, when it comes to millennials. Even then, your employees probably won’t love you for it. But if you keep their interests in mind while running your business, they just might love to work for you. Isn’t that the kind of company where you’d like to work too?

 

Entrepreneur.com | August 19, 2016 | Steven Kaufman

#Life : The 4 Attributes You Must Develop to Achieve Everything You Want in Life…Everyone wants Success. But are You Willing to Change?

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Without change, there can be no growth. And in order to get what you’ve never had, you must become someone you’ve never been. Before you go into the woods, you’ll need a map. Rest assured others have forged the route before you. Their experiences can help guide you to your own best you.

concept of a lightbulb on sand (environment issue)

Live forward by making a life plan.

With “Living Forward: A Proven Plan To Stop Drifting And Get The Life You Want,” authors Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy help you begin to become the architect of your own life. Most of us make plans for everything — vacations, dinner, our children’s school functions. But rarely does a person make a life plan. If I asked you to summarize your life plan, could you tell me? Probably not.

If you finally want to live with more intention and purpose in your life or become an entrepreneur now and not later, then your extraordinary life is on the other side of your life-planning design process.

“Living Forward” offers solid advice in several key areas:

  • Understanding why you need a plan (because as humans, we drift and get distracted).
  • Learning how to create your life plan beginning with the end in mind (answering, “What legacy do you want to leave behind?”).
  • Making it happen (triaging your calendar and scheduling your priorities).

Many of us see change as threatening. Some even regard it as the destroyer of what is familiar and comfortable rather than the creator of what is new and exciting. Unfortunately, comfort is the enemy of excellence.

“For the timid, change is frightening, for the comfortable, change is threatening, but for the confident, change is opportunity,” motivational speaker Nido Qubein writes in “Stairway to Success: The Complete Blueprint for Personal and Professional Achievement.”

Decide what you’ll do with your current opportunity. In order to grow and achieve new heights in your life, you must make a commitment to change. Focus your attention on growing in areas that will add personal and professional value. Don’t let your comfort zone kill the excellence within your reach. Make your life plan today.

 

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Distill your thoughts and actions to 4 key attributes.

New York Times best-selling author Brendon Burchard believes there are four cornerstones to achievement. In “The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive,” he writes that if you truly want to succeed in your career, you must develop four attributes: desire, direction, discipline and distraction radar.

Desire. You have to really want it. Your new endeavor should make you feel alive — it might even keep you up at night. Your desire to develop greater KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities) will lead to you becoming a better person in the process. The challenges you encounter will test your boundaries, forcing growth.

Direction. Desire is one thing, but you need to harness it by learning to stretch your competency. You must be willing to educate yourself in new ways. You might take a class or attend a seminar, read a new biography, participate in a webinar, ask for help or seek out mentors. Learn how others have achieved a goal, model it, and mimic their strategies while you carve out your own path. Be a student of life. Continue to read and expose yourself to new ideas. Never stop learning.

Discipline. Success is within your reach if you’re willing to be more consistent than ever before. You must establish habits and repeat them every day until they are second nature. Ask yourself, “What discipline could I consistently follow to get me where I want to be in my career?” Don’t think of discipline in a negative way. Think of discipline as the joyous pursuit of your dreams.

Distraction Radar. You inevitably will be distracted from your goals. Many things compete for your time — emails, phone calls, social media, television and the list goes on. The world will toss its agenda in front of you. You have to be savvy enough to recognize distractions and move them out of your way. Listen to those moments your distraction radar sounds a warning and take away these interruptions’ power to sap your time and energy.

Related: To Achieve Your Goals You Must Become Attractive on the Inside

To begin thinking more intentionally about these four attributes, ask yourself a few pointed questions tomorrow morning:

  • What do I desire today?
  • What direction will I take today?
  • In which area will I be disciplined today?
  • To which distractions will I not succumb today?

Plan how you’ll deal with resistance to change.

In order to continually implement these four attributes, you need a system — a framework — to which you continually return when you fall off the motivational wagon. It’s resistance at work, and it happens to the best of us. In Steven Pressfield’s book “The War of Art,” he puts it quite bluntly.

“Resistance’s goal is not to wound or disable,” Pressfield writes. “Resistance aims to kill. Its target is the epicenter of our being: our genius, our soul, the unique priceless gift we were put on earth to give and that no one else has but us. Resistance means business. When we fight it, we are in a war to the death.”

Related: 5 Proven Ways to Turn Failure into Success

Start each day focused and productive.

How you wake up and start each day is vital to your levels of success in every area of your life. Author Hal Elrod makes a compelling case in “The Morning Miracle: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM).” He writes that “Focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days — which inevitably create a successful life — in the same way that unfocused, unproductive and mediocre mornings generate unfocused, unproductive and mediocre days and ultimately a mediocre quality of life. By simply changing the way you wake up in the morning, you can transform any area of your life, faster than you ever thought possible.”

Aren’t you excited by those words? I know I am. Remember, when you start changing your habits, you are changing who you are becoming. It’s by far the greatest determinant in your quality of life now and in the future. Still, most people avoid change. This will not be you. This is your time to banish self-limiting thoughts and share your gifts with the world.

Related: How to Wake Up at 4 a.m. and Be Successful

S.A.V.E. yourself from an unfulfilled life.

The framework that helped Hal Elrod can help you. He identifies six practices as Life S.A.V.E.R.S. Each letter signifies meaning.

The first “S” is for silence. Elrod starts his day silently to reduce stress and anxiety. During his silence, Elrod likes to meditate, pray, reflect, do some deep breathing and concentrate on gratitude.

“A” is for Affirmations. Elrod challenges readers to identify five simple outcomes that create personalized affirmations:

  • What you really want (program your mind with beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that are vital to you being able to reach Level 10 success).
  • Why you want it (when you are clear about your deepest whys, you will gain an unstoppable purpose).
  • Whom you commit to being, in order to create your new reality (life gets better only when you do).
  • What you commit to do to attain it (write down an action step or steps and stick to your list).
  • Which inspirational quotes and philosophies you’ll read to influence your thoughts (my favorite motivational speakers are Jim Rohn and Zig Ziglar).

“V” is for Visualization, a tool most successful athletes use. I like to call it intentional daydreaming. Visualization enables you to see a future you want. When you do it often enough, you’ll look for ways to make that future your reality. Visualization can be a powerful aid to overcoming self-limiting habits such as procrastination. It helps you find the willpower to take necessary actions and achieve your goals.

“E” is for Exercise. Author and thought leader Robin Sharma said, “If you don’t make time for exercise, you’ll probably have to make time for illness.” Get moving. You might never feel like working out, but remember that emotion follows motion. Once you start moving, you’ll feel good you did it.

“R” is for Reading. It’s said that “A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.” You must develop a love for reading — or at least remember the previous point about emotion following motion.

The last “S” is for Scribing — another word for journaling. When I get something out of my head and onto paper, I see it more clearly. Journaling can help you gain mental clarity as you reread your own thoughts in black and white.

Devote six minutes each morning.

You might think all this will take too much time to do each morning. Do you have at least six minutes to spare? Then you have enough time. Just take one minute for each.

  • Minute 1: Wake up and say a prayer of gratitude.
  • Minute 2: Repeat your affirmations to help tap into your unlimited potential.
  • Minute 3: Visualize yourself smiling and laughing with a loved one.
  • Minute 4: Write down a reason you have to be grateful today.
  • Minute 5: Read a page or two in a personal or professional development book.
  • Minute 6: Run in place for 60 seconds.

Realize it takes daily discipline to form new habits.

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments,” Charles Duhigg writes in “The Power of Habit.” That bridge must be crossed daily. Habits are behaviors you repeat regularly and most often, subconsciously. As Duhigg puts it, “People do not decide their future, they decide their habits and their habits decide their future.” The key is consistency.

Elrod agrees. He believes it takes at least 30 days to solidify a habit. You might feel discomfort or even some pain in the first 20 days. The transformation comes in the last phase, when the new habit becomes a part of your identity. It transcends the space between something you’re trying and who you are becoming, leading you to associate pleasure with your new habit.

  • Days 1 to 10 are Phase One: Unbearable.
  • Days 11-20 are Phase Two: Uncomfortable.
  • Days 21-30 are Phase Three: Unstoppable.

To achieve real, meaningful change, you must first design your life and then emulate the four attributes every morning. The first step begins with dedicating yourself to this new purpose.

Will you commit?

Entrepreneur.com | August 17, 2016 | Meiko Patton

#Leadership : How to Get the Best from your Employees without Burning them Out…What is it that Drives Employees to Lose Faith in their Employers, Lose Motivation in their Careers, and Drives them Away from your Company and to Another?

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We all want to maximize productivity within our businesses, large or small, yet the techniques of the past are rarely sufficient for a modern workforce. More and more, I’m finding that the personal touch goes a long way toward employee productivity, as well as morale and retention.

Free- Stones stacked on each other

What is it that drives employees to lose faith in their employers, lose motivation in their careers, and drives them away from your company and to another?

I find that it’s often a combination of bureaucracy and stress. To minimize both, you need to identify what it is that your employees reject, and figure out a way to fix the issue.

1. Minimize the red tape

One of the most frustrating walls an employee encounters is requiring permission to do their job, time and time again.

Yes, there are security reasons for some measures. But often, old policies from petty managers trying to hoard power have led to “the way things have always been done” inertia, which keeps bad rules in place.

Just like in marketing with conversion rates, minimizing the number of obstacles between employee and desired outcome will increase productivity.

2. Be liberal with non-financial benefits

I completely understand that many businesses operate on tight margins. Your best employees deserve raises and bonuses, but when the budget doesn’t allow it, you have to do something.

Why not offer a bit more paid time off or allow the occasional work-from-home day? Sometimes it can be as simple as setting up a room for the occasional sanctioned, on-the-job nap.

Personally, I’d much rather have an employee feel safe nodding off for half an hour than having them doze at their computer getting barely anything done for half their shift.

 

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3. Ditch the performance review

Or, rather, make sure they’re relevant if you have one. Performance reviews are a source of stress even for good employees — check out impostor syndrome — and they’re often just filed away and never referenced again.

Unless your reviews are both accurate and used regularly, they’re probably doing more harm than good.

Frankly, I think official performance reviews are an antiquated relic from the ghost of management past. If you’re paying attention and have a working relationship with your employees, you’ll be able to tell how they’re performing.

More importantly, if you’re open and they can come to you with problems they face, you can help stave off the issues that drive down their morale. Half of the reason for a negative performance review is toiling under strict conditions that limit an employee’s ability to work in the first place.

 

4. Establish a way to report and address problems

Part of this comes from fostering a culture of gentle management. I’m not saying you need to make friends with all of your employees, but you should be approachable and attentive when they have something to say.

If the problem is a business system, consider why it’s causing an obstacle to productivity and look into alternatives. If it’s not something you can change, at least consult with the employee about why that’s the case.

One circumstance that may come up is when an employee is the problem. Sometimes a new hire just isn’t working out, and their coworkers are better positioned to see it than you.

You don’t need to set up an anonymous tip line for bad behavior, but you can accept employee advice when a developer tells you the new guy is consistently breaking things and barely doing their job.

5. Trust your employees to do what they do best

Ideally, you will avoid the above situation by hiring a competent, intelligent team. The number-one thing you can do is stay out of their way and let them do their thing. Eliminating red tape and bureaucracy is one part of it, but another is being more of a facilitator than a dictator.

Provide guidance and advice. Establish goals and plans. Don’t micromanage their hours and set unrealistic deadlines. If they need more resources, help them obtain them or explain why the restrictions exist. Keep them in the loop and aware of what’s going on in the bigger picture, so they know what they’re working toward.

The ideal situation is one of trust, awareness, and facilitation. The days where management is a harsh gatekeeper of information and resources are gone. We live in a world where your best employees will be more than happy to jump ship unless you give them a reason to stick with you.

Sometimes, yes, that’s going to be money, and yes, you’re going to lose some good employees when your budgets are tight. You’d be surprised, however, just how many good people are willing to stick around when you simply have a pleasant place to work.

James Parsons is a content marketing influencer, entrepreneur, and writer. He writes for large publishers including Entrepreneur, Inc., and The Huffington Post. You can reach contact him on his website or on his Twitter profile.

 

Businessinsider.com | August 18, 2016 |  James Parsons 

 

#Leadership : 3 Tough Habits You Must Drop to Succeed…Your Success or Failure to Create and Scale a Business will Come Down to the Kind of Habits you Incorporate Into your Daily Life.

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Follow the habits of highly successful entrepreneurs, and there’s a good chance you will become one too. Strong personal habits that might positively impact a business include: healthy eating and working out, saving money and tithing.

young green plant in soil for agriculture, business growth or environment concepts (isolated on white background)

Strong work habits might include a regular cold-calling regimen, weekly networking and delegating. There are hundreds of personal and professional habits that make for a great business, but unfortunately there are a few bad habits that are so ingrained within most entrepreneurs that they die hard.

Here are the three difficult habits to kick that may be ruining your business.

Related: What’s Behind a 10-Year ‘Overnight’ Success Story?

1. You pay attention to the stories, not the facts.

Two weeks ago, you told your top salesperson that her performance numbers are off a bit, and she needs to work on getting her numbers up.

Since then, she hasn’t attended your weekly sales meetings. The story you tell yourself in your head is that she is angry, and she is probably seeking employment elsewhere. You’re telling yourself that she doesn’t care about your meetings anymore.

This is a story, and there’s a good chance it is not accurate.

The facts of this situation are that you told her she needs to increase performance, and she has missed two sales meetings. It’s very easy to confuse the stories we tell ourselves with the actual facts of the situation.

Stories create emotions, which cause us to react, and those reactions are based on conclusions drawn from typically false inferences. Being an effective leader will require you to break the storytelling habit that’s happening in your head. Instead, separate the facts from the stories, and make decisions based on what you know for sure.

Related: 7 Behaviors of Successful People

 

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2. You only believe what you believe.

For the most part, what you believe about anything has been firmly implanted in you by others throughout your lifetime.

Building a business requires you to innovate, which means you must question every belief you have.

Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh didn’t believe that people would never buy shoes over the Internet because they couldn’t try them on, and thus Zappos was built.

Steve Jobs didn’t believe that a phone could just be a phone. He believed it could be a computer, a camera and a music player. One of the hardest habits to break is believing what you’ve been groomed to believe your entire life. If you can break this habit, there’s no telling where your business will go next.

Related: 8 Great Entrepreneurial Success Stories

3. You ignore criticism.

It takes a very healthy ego to build an empire. To have a Virgin-sized business you need to believe that you can be, do and have anything that you put your mind to.

That being said, one of the hardest habits to break is believing you are better than you are. When an employee or customer tells you that your product, your service or your attitude sucks, it’s easy to revert to old habits, and defend the honor of this amazing business you have built.

You have 500 great customer reviews, and one that is glaringly terrible. It’s easy to write-off that one bad review in your head, but if you can break the habit of ignoring criticism, there’s a good chance that there’s more to learn in that one bad review than in the other 500 good ones combined.

Entrepreneur.com | August 18, 2016 | Stacey Alcorn

Your #Career : How to Recover from a Bad Job Interview…If you’re Like most People, you’ve Left a Job Interview or Two with that Sinking Feeling in the Pit of your Stomach. You Just Knew you Didn’t Get the Job from the Way Things went During the Interview.

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If you have ever been in a situation where the interview turned into a runaway train, there are still some things you can do to recover. With some practice, you’ll be able to save your interview from going south.

Male hands holding pen in working environment

 Here are a few tips for how to salvage a job interview gone terribly wrong.

 

Problem: Your hands are shaking and you can’t stop sweating.

Solution: Take a few deep breaths

Nothing can ruin an interview faster than sweaty palms and a bad case of the shakes. One reason you may not be performing well during the interview is because you might be letting your nerves overwhelm you. Job interviews can be incredibly stressful, so it’s not surprising if you feel a bit anxious during your meeting. If you feel yourself getting anxious and jittery, take a few deep breaths so you can calm yourself down. It’s hard to stay focused and relaxed if you can barely catch your breath due to nerves. Once you breathe deeply, you’ll feel calmer and able to think clearly enough to answer the interviewer’s questions.

 

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Problem: You only catch half of the question because you’re planning what to say next.

Solution: Ask the interviewer to repeat the question and then try to stay present.

Don’t start to answer the question in your head before your interviewer is even finished asking her question. You’ll not only make yourself more nervous but also lose track of the conversation. Concentration is key during a job interview. It’s easy to focus so intently on how you will answer a question that you miss what is being said. Take time to relax and listen to what the interviewer is saying to you. The best way to save face is to say that you want to make sure you answer the question thoroughly, so you’d like her to repeat the question one more time. If the interviewer feels you weren’t listening, that will be a strike against you. Try your best to play it off and then stay present from then on. If you need help staying focused, repeat the question back to yourself (in your head, of course) before answering.

 

Problem: You bombed the job interview.

Solution: Send a follow-up note.

What if you did all of the mistakes mentioned above? (You were a nervous wreck, you rambled through most of your answers, and you didn’t catch half of the questions.) We’ll be honest with you: Your chances of getting the job are quite slim. However, don’t give up hope. You may come across an exceptionally forgiving hiring manager.

If you completely bombed the interview, your best bet is to send a follow-up note. Thank the interviewer for his or her time and then briefly answer the questions you had trouble with. Who knows, the interviewer may have a change of heart and take your updated answers into consideration. Following up shows not only that you’re interested in the job but also that you’re aware of and willing to work on your flaws. Just keep your fingers crossed and look for other jobs until you hear back.

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CheatSheet.com | August 18, 2016 | 

#Leadership : Ask Yourself These Five Questions Before Making Any Major Decisions…Asking these Pointed Questions will Illuminate your Choice and its Implications in a Totally Different Way.

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 Everyone hits a crossroad from time to time. We get stuck in a state of indecision on a problem that seems to have no correct answer, and at times, it can be maddening.
Free- Direction Rail Tracks

The most important decisions, whether in work or in life, never really seem to fall in the black or white. They linger in the gray, where they can remain for a dangerously long time. The journalist Hunter S. Thompson once wrote, “A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.”

Instead of letting circumstance make your next vital decision, Joseph L. Badaracco, the John Shad professor of business ethics at Harvard Business School, believes that the answer will reveal itself after answering five important questions.

As Badaracco writes in the Harvard Business Review:

Where do these questions come from? Over many centuries and across many cultures, they have emerged as men and women with serious responsibilities have struggled with difficult problems. They express the insights of the most penetrating minds and compassionate spirits of human history. I have relied on them for years, in teaching MBA candidates and counseling executives, and I believe that they can help you, your team, and your organization navigate the grayest of gray areas.

1. WHAT ARE THE NET, NET CONSEQUENCES OF ALL MY OPTIONS?

The first step in making any important decision, suggests Badaracco, is to objectively analyze all of the possibilities, and consider their real-world outcomes. He explains that this process needs to be distinguished from a cost-benefit analysis, and shouldn’t be limited to outcomes that can be measured or counted. After all, if numbers and data could solve this query, they wouldn’t be in the gray zone in the first place.

“Your job is to put aside your initial assumption about what you should do, gather a group of trusted advisers and experts, and ask yourself and them, ‘What could we do? And who will be hurt or helped, short-term and long-term, by each option?” writes Badaracco.

While this task is more difficult than it seems, it’s a strategy that chess players learn to master. The game requires players to look at the board and reimagine how it will shift based on theirs and their opponent’s decisions.

“You’re constantly looking two, three, four moves ahead,” entrepreneur and former star of the youth chess circuit Justin Moore once told Fast Company. “If you do this move, what’s the countermove? What are all the countermoves? And then for all of those, what are all of my potential countermoves? Chess is constantly teaching you to think about what comes next, and what comes after that, and what the repercussions could be,” Moore explained.

 

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2. WHAT ARE MY CORE OBLIGATIONS?

Whether it’s your boss, your shareholders, or your children, the decisions we make in life will often affect those around us, and we must consider our obligations to each stakeholder, says Badaracco. He adds that we will often be tempted to only consider immediate stakeholders, most likely the ones that sign our paychecks, but big decisions require us to consider the deeper responsibility of our actions.

“How can you figure out specifically what these duties oblige you to do in a particular situation?” he writes.

By relying on what philosophers call your ‘moral imagination.’ That involves stepping out of your comfort zone, recognizing your biases and blind spots, and putting yourself in the shoes of all key stakeholders, especially the most vulnerable ones.

3. WHAT WILL WORK IN THE WORLD AS IT IS?

This question requires us to consider the contextual circumstances of our decisions in a realistic way, the way the world really exists today, rather than the way we would like it to.

“After considering consequences and duties, you need to think about practicalities: Of the possible solutions to your problem, which is most likely to work? Which is most resilient? And how resilient and flexible are you?” writes Badaracco. “To answer those questions, you need to map the force field of power around you: Who wants what and how hard and successfully each person can fight for his aims.”

4. WHO ARE WE?

This self-reflective question, explains Badaracco, forces us to consider how our decisions shape the person or organization we really are, and not the one we want or imagine ourselves to be. By acknowledging that such decisions shape our sense of self, he believes that an understanding of the self is vital in the decision-making process.

“This question asks you to step back and think about your decision in terms of relationships, values, and norms,” he writes. “What really matters to your team, company, community, culture? How can you act in a way that reflects and expresses those belief systems? If they conflict, which should take precedence?”

To help arrive at this answer, Badaracco suggests thinking about the decision as a chapter in a person or company’s history, and how that chapter would fit into the overall narrative. “Of all the paths you might choose in this gray area, which would best express what your organization stands for?” he writes.

5. WHAT CAN I LIVE WITH?

Good judgment, Badaracco writes, is as much about understanding and analyzing the situation as it is about staying true to our values and ideals. Ultimately, the big decisions force us to determine what matters most and what matters least.

“How will you figure out what you can live with?” asks Badaracco. “End your conversations with others, close the door, mute the electronics, and stop to reflect. Imagine yourself explaining your decision to a close friend or a mentor—someone you trust and respect deeply. Would you feel comfortable? How would that person react?”

via: Harvard Business Review

 

FastCompany.com | August 15, 2016 |  JARED LINDZON 08.15.16 5:00 AM

 

 

Your #Career : That 9-to-5 Job You Hate Isn’t As Safe As You Think…Most People haven’t Jumped into the Crazy, Be-Your-Own-Boss World of Entrepreneurship Because they’re Tied to an Anchor: the Job they Think is Safe and Steady.

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That same “safe” day job keeps people’s side hustles in the category of fun projects that never reach their full potential. In reality, it’s probably a good thing. Diving right into the deep end of the work-for-yourself pool isn’t right for everyone.

business woman with her staff, people group in background at modern bright office indoors

Realize you’re already taking risks.

Being your own boss is risky, and there are no guarantees. Some people can’t handle the stressors that go with the territory. But as scary and risky as it is to launch your own business, odds are you’re taking bigger risks right now by counting on your 9-to-5. Your supposedly steady gig can change or end at any time, likely for any number of reasons. If you don’t have a side project to earn money and ramp up into full-time work, the anxiety around starting your own company pales in comparison to what you’ll feel if a pink slip comes your way.

Related: How to Improve Your Gut Instincts

 

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Make time to build something that really matters.

Many people want to do more than their day job. They want to launch an app, start doing some consulting work, build a tech startup or take on an entirely new challenge. When I talk to people about starting a side business, the biggest objection I hear is they don’t have time to dedicate to it right now.

Not enough time? They don’t have one or two hours a week? Everybody has a spare hour a week. But some people rather would be all or nothing, apparently. Here’s some breaking news: A day contains 24 hours for everyone. Successful people, millionaires and CEOs don’t get extra time in their days. They just are far better at prioritizing the time they have.

Related: How to Wake Up at 4 a.m. and Be Successful

Invest in yourself and your future.

Let’s assume you buy into the idea you can spare an hour or two a week to work on your dream project. What’s the downside to dedicating that time? Honestly, not much. Yes, you’ll be down a couple of hours each week. But you’ll gain knowledge and experience to put you a whole new level above those around you.

Invest some time and money into the possibility of the upside. It can be nothing short of life-altering. What if your app takes off and starts making you serious money? Or your startup gets thousands of users a week? Imagine waking up one day with the unbelievable freedom to do whatever you want or being the boss everyone looks up to. An app on the side can change your life.

Related: 7 Habits of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs

The potential upside is the reason you need to do more than just go to work every day at some job you hate — while someone else gets rich. Figure out how you want to live the rest of your life and do whatever it takes to get there. The over-inflated risk of reallocating a few bucks and one or two hours a week is no excuse to waste away with no backup plan for the worst-case scenario.

Entrepreneur.com | August 17, 2016 | Steve Eakin