• Make a “to don’t” list. Another gem from the inimitable Tom Peters. Prepare a list that contains all the things you shouldn’t waste your time on – useless tasks, unnecessary meetings, worthless phone calls, and so on. Then place it next to your “to do” list – and stick to it. (More here.)

• Carry a notebook and pen. Thomas Edison did it. Virginia Woolf did it. And so did Charles Darwin. They toted a notebook with them everywhere and wrote down ideas that popped into their heads… Page through the notebook occasionally. Trust me: This is a fantastic way to spark ideas and to weave creativity into the fabric of your life. (More here and here.)

• Hone your elevator speech. Be able to explain who you are, what you do, and why someone could benefit from your unique talents – in 30 seconds. Then cut your pitch to 15 seconds. Practice it. Sharpen it… Caveat: An elevator speech shouldn’t sound like an elevator speech. It’s really an exercise in being honest, concise, and interesting.

• Establish an opening ritual. Try to begin your day the same way. If you work at home, maybe take a short walk before you go to your office. Have a cup of tea or read or meditate before starting your work. An opening ritual will ease your mind, body and soul into the day. (More here.)

Read more here: http://time.com/137972/work-smarter-not-harder-17-great-tips/

The three biggest obstacles to taking Free Days are panic, guilt, and confusion:

• Panic: “I’ll take Free Days when this is all over.”
• Guilt: “How can I take a vacation when my team has to work?”
• Confusion: “What will I do if I’m not at work?”

Let’s look at each of these three:

“I’ll take Free Days when this is all over.”

Of course, it’s never over — there’s always something you could be doing for your business. The most successful entrepreneurs, however, evolve out of being “Rugged Individualists” who do everything themselves, and learn to delegate, empower others, and focus on doing what they do best.

These skills become even more important when emergencies happen. As associate coach Russell Schmidt says, “If you can keep taking Free Days when the roof is falling in, then you’ve arrived.” Besides, when you go too long without taking Free Days, everything starts to seem like an emergency.

Driving this feeling of panic is the notion that, should you step away, there would be a catastrophe. In our experience, though, stepping back creates simplicity.

“How can I take a vacation when my team has to work?”

By starting your own business and raising it to its current level of success, you’ve risked a lot and put a lot of yourself into the company. Your team members (who get weekends, annual leave, and statutory holidays off, by the way) haven’t made this kind of investment, so it’s perfectly appropriate if you’re rewarded differently. And if you really want to be of service to your team members, remember that you’re far more valuable to them when you’re fully rejuvenated and present.

Lots of entrepreneurs ask us, “How can I get my team to work on their own, without having to constantly come to me?” Leave from time to time — that’s how. When you’re not there, your team members get a chance to catch up and to learn how to make decisions and take action independent of you.

“What will I do if I’m not at work?”

This is the biggest obstacle for many entrepreneurs. Work is rewarding — you’re good at it. You get things for being good at it. The rewards in other parts of your life might be less tangible or measurable, and you might not be as good at them. Consistently going back to work, however — either physically or mentally — can quickly become a habit.

Our experience from working with thousands of entrepreneurs tells us that one-dimensional people are vulnerable to losses in other areas of their life, such as deteriorations in their marriage or health. And paying exclusive attention to work isn’t even a good business strategy, since business ultimately becomes the only thing you know. Creativity always involves an element of novelty.

No matter how much you love your work, there are always other realms in life that can give you opportunities to express your Unique Ability®. And what’s all this success you’re building actually for if not to provide you with a rich life? Free Days are an investment in your future happiness and productivity that you won’t regret.

Strategies for taking great Free Days.

It takes some practice to get the hang of Free Days, and, like diet and exercise, they need to be an active part of your life, not just something you know would be good for you. Luckily, the practice is its own reward!

Here are some strategies that really work:

1. Schedule your Free Days in advance.

As you look over the time ahead, try to schedule Free Days just before periods when you know you’ll need to be your most productive. Think of it this way: one vacation, one breakthrough; two vacations, two breakthroughs; and on and on.

By booking your Free Days in advance, or even putting someone else in charge of your Free Days, you save yourself from having to justify or negotiate them with others — or yourself — at the time.

2. Do what you really want to do.

One Program participant pointed out the risk of making your Free Days just a different set of obligations, spending the whole day doing things for everyone but you. His remedy is taking what he calls “me days.”

You might be rejuvenated by spending time on your own, or by being surrounded by other people. You may enjoy high-energy activities or quiet time. For some, a natural environment is a soothing break from our technological civilization.

Whatever you choose, it’s important that it’s consistent with who you are and what you need. If you’re planning Free Days with friends or family members, involving them in the planning will ensure that you come up with something everyone enjoys.

If you’re stuck for Free Day ideas, check in with your lifetime goals, and see if there’s anything you can do that will move you closer to them. Or you might want to start small and achieve something you’ve been meaning to get to for a long time.

3. Let your team members help you.

Your team members can see when you’re tired, even if you haven’t noticed yourself falling into that state. When it seems like they’re not understanding you or that they’re just not “getting it,” that’s a sign that you need Free Days — and they have a vested interest in helping you take them! Their results depend on your creativity, for one. And you can be sure they prefer working with the rested and rejuvenated version of you.

4. Train your clientele.

There are two ways you can wean your clients and customers off having constant access to you. First, help them understand that Free Days mean that when they do get to be with you, you will always be fully charged and fully present with them.

Second, in certain areas, your team members have a Unique Ability that actually enables them to take better care of these clients and customers than you can. So, in presenting this change, you can reassure them that you’re leaving them in the hands of a specialist. If they’re properly introduced to this concept and the transition is smooth, their experience of your business can actually improve: Getting less of you personally can be an opportunity for them to get more of the value they come to you for.

Just do one thing. If you don’t already have a Free Day strategy in place, just start where you are and do one thing — book a single Free Day, brainstorm about locations or activities for your free time, or have a conversation with your spouse or friends about something you could do together. All that matters is that you do something, however small, to start developing the Free Day habit.

The most successful entrepreneurs manage to achieve a balance between their personal and professional lives. If you consider that balance an important part of your lifetime goals, Free Days can provide a crucial strategic tool for making sure you attain it, and that you enjoy all the freedom your success affords you.

1. Driving into a convenient lube-and-oil service, rather than changing the oil in your car and rotating the tires yourself;
2. Taking your clothes to a dry cleaners for cleaning and pressing, rather than washing and ironing them yourself;
3. In the good old days before digital photography, driving to local kiosk buildings or drugstores and dropping off film to have it developed, rather than learning the process, creating a dark room somewhere in your house, and using those smelly chemicals yourself
4. Using a lawn maintenance service – the kind where you don’t have to mow or rake your yard;

If these kinds of activities have always been around, why all the fuss?  Simply put, outsourcing at a business or organization level is much more complex.  The risks and stakes are much higher.  Yet companies successfully outsource some type of service in many ways including the following:

1. Paychecks are often produced by specialty payroll companies;
2. Larger organizations outsource the support of health benefits to specialist companies;
3. Claims processing is a long – time outsourced service;
4. Billing and accounts payable are often provided by outsourced companies.
5. Companies typically outsource computer and office equipment maintenance.

So here’s mistake #1 – Jumping in too fast.  I was so desperate to have someone immediately that I did not do a proper evaluation.  I hired someone immediately only to find out a month later that she still has not done the job. If I was to do it all over again, I will do the standard of having to sit down and have a strategy.

To avoid mistake #1 – Outsourcing should be a means to achieve some strategic goal.  Think of a sourcing strategy that would provide you with the overall direction, sequential order, and boundaries that your company determines are best for it.  When you jump in too quick you forget to ask the question:  What do you expect to attain?  Don’t assume outsourcing will make everything better, and certainly don’t embark on an outsourcing effort before you define where and why you’re heading in your chosen direction.

How to implement:  I’d like to introduce to you Strategic Coach’s Activity Inventory

Step 1:  List 40 types of things you do while working in your business; for example, open the mail, meet with managers, call clients, strategize to solve client issues, determine new business strategies, delegate and so forth.  Be as specific and comprehensive as possible.

Step 2: Draw 4 circles and label the innermost circle as Unique Ability, the 2^nd circle, Excellent, 3^rdcircle is called competent, and the 4^th ring incompetent.

Step 3: From the list that you created in Step 1, categorize each activity:  UA, Excellent, Competent, or Incompetent

Step 4:  How much time are you currently spending in your unique ability?  What’s your one year goal?  Building a support team is not something that can be done in a day.  It will be an ongoing activity for the rest of your business and career.  As you take each small step, you will experience greater confidence and results.

Step 5:  Ask yourself the question: What improvements do you need to make in order to spend more of your time in your Unique Ability?

Do you need help to implement this to your business?  If you want to apply for a VIP Day for an Outsourcing Breakthrough Session,  please email customerservice@lourdesgant.com to schedule a time with me.

© Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

We hear a lot in the world of strengths about managing, rather than fixing, our areas of lesser or non-talent. That’s good advice. But to truly overcome the barriers our non-talents can present in our lives, we need to do more than manage them: We need to embrace them. Let me explain.

So there I was, in the summer of 2008, in the aisles of Kmart in Charlottesville, Va. Our oldest daughter and I made the 1,200-mile trip from Lincoln, Neb., to Charlottesville where she was to do her internship at the University of Virginia. We drove her 2002 Honda Civic pulling a U-Haul trailer behind — which is in itself a story worth telling, but for another time. Anyway, back to the aisles of Kmart. I was there picking up some household items for Julie’s apartment when my phone rang, and it was my wife on the line. This wasn’t alarming, because she and our younger daughter were due to get on a plane that morning to fly to Charlottesville and join us for the weekend.

But what was alarming was her tone of voice, and even more so what she said: “I noticed that we didn’t have any hot water this morning, and when I went down to the basement to check on it, I noticed a pretty big puddle under the hot water heater. I think it’s leaking. What should I do?”

At that moment, upon hearing those words, my brain froze. All I could manage to say for what seemed like five minutes was “Oh no!” over and over and over again. Here I was, 1,200 miles from home, and my wife and daughter still had to drive over an hour to get on an airplane that was departing in two-and-a-half hours. I couldn’t think, and the more I berated myself for not being able to think of what to do, the worse it got. Finally, my wife talked me down from my mental ledge, and we came up with a plan that involved a friend who knew nothing about hot water heaters, a plumber, and replacing the water heater while we were out of town. In the end, it all worked out.

But that incident caused me a great deal of frustration, because it was not the first time something like this has happened: an unexpected event — maybe even a minor emergency — throws off my plan, and I have a “freak-out” moment. Why does this happen? I would think. Changes shouldn’t throw me, I like change! I like risk! I like challenges! I am smart! I should be able to handle it! Why can’t I? The more I would fight the “brain-freeze” and “freak-out” moments, the worse it would get. What’s more, the more I fought it the longer it would take for my Strategic and Ideation themes to kick in with an idea and plan that my Command would be eager to put into action.

Why was this so hard?

The answer was to be found in my Theme Sequence Report: I have Adaptability at No. 27.

“Aha!” (Yes, I really did say “aha!”) No wonder I don’t handle changes to my plan very well! I am not “go-with-the flow, take-life-as-it-comes, live-in-the-moment” type of person. I have a plan, a system, a process — and I am usually armed with plans B, C, and D if plan A doesn’t work out. So if something comes along that I didn’t plan for, Wham! I am hit with a freak-out brain-freeze. I am not going to be able to adjust and adapt right away — it’s not the way I am wired. And you know what? That’s OK. I can’t change my basic wiring. I just need to let myself feel what I am feeling and it will pass. So I resigned myself to a life of inadaptability.

But then a funny thing happened.

Once I acknowledged — no, embraced — my lack of Adaptability, I found that the duration of my freak-out brain-freezes got shorter. Once I knew that I was going to feel that way when the unexpected came moseying by for a visit, the freak-out was not nearly so intense and passed much more quickly. I quit fighting it, I quit trying to be something I am not. And once I accepted and embraced that, who I am came to the rescue much more quickly. It’s as if my dominant talents were saying, “Dude, get out of the way! Let us help! We can do this if you let us!”

So that is what I learned, and something I take into my coaching: I am not adaptable in the StrengthsFinder sense of the word. And that’s okay. Actually, it’s better than okay. And it’s a lesson I pass on to those I coach: Embrace your Dark Side. Because only then can you overcome it with your greatest strengths.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Albert L. Winseman, D.Min., is a Senior Learning and Development Consultant at Gallup. Al has led change management programs and executive leadership sessions at Gallup since he joined the company in 2000. Winseman has contributed to Gallup’s thought leadership as a featured writer and content editor for the Gallup Tuesday Briefing (now Gallup.com) and as an author and coauthor of two Gallup Press books, Living Your Strengths and Growing an Engaged Church.

Al’s top five strengths: Ideation, Futuristic, Maximizer, Strategic, Command

Check out https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/About/ to learn more about your strengths and what strength based leadership is about.

Most negotiations start with both sides having a set of assumptions regarding what the other side wants, needs, or are able to do, or not do.  One of the purposes of the negotiation process is to discover if your assumptions are valid.

Never trust your assumptions because they are likely to be as wrong as right.

Let’s look at some common assumptions many business people start with:

“They will never pay that much.”
“They don’t want to do business with us after the last mess-up.”
“We’ve got to have it done in 60-days.”
“There is a lot of competition.”
“They would never be interested in this option.”
“He doesn’t have enough money.”
“I’m sure we’re not the low bidder.”
Assumptions like this can defeat you before you even start negotiating.  These assumptions lower your own expectations, influence the outcome of the negotiation; and may, in fact, be dead wrong!

Be careful!  Your assumptions can:

*  Cause you to make high offers when low ones are called for.
*  Influence you to make low demands and quick concessions when opposite actions are warranted.
*  Seduce you into believing deadlines when patience is by far the better course of action.
*  Create potential hurdles that can move you in the wrong direction.

Don’t fall in love with your assumptions.  Part of the negotiating process is to check them out.  Assumptions are neither right nor wrong until proven so.

Assumptions place boundaries on the potential outcomes of a negotiation.  The better you validate these boundaries, the better position you will be in to create truly Both-Win outcomes.

If you want a complimentary strategy session of how you can use this in your business,  please email customerservice@lourdesgant.com to schedule a call with me.

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And in this article, I’m sharing with you one of the exercises I did to create my sentence i. e. my brand statement.  Here is your cheat sheet to crystallize your personal brand according to Susan Critton’s “Personal Branding For Dummies”

Your unique promise of value and your personal brand statement are closely linked; the statement is an expression of the promise. Both of them focus on what your target audience expects from you; they create an expectation of what you can deliver. These are probably the most important pieces of your personal brand profile, so you want to get them right before you start to communicate with your target audience.

Your unique promise of value is the promise you make to your target market that your brand will fulfill. It clarifies and communicates what makes you special. You must be able to live up to this promise.

You use your unique promise of value to write the all-important personal brand statement. When you work on your statement, envision your best self. To begin your thought process on what your brand might include, answer the following questions:

What three or four key words describe your essential qualities quickly and clearly?

• What is your essence factor, the core of who you are? “I know I am in my element when __________.”
• What is your authority factor, the knowledge that you hold and skills that you possess? “People recognize my expertise in _________.”
• What is your superstar factor, the qualities that set you apart? (This factor is how you get things done or what you are known for.) “People comment on my ability to ___________.”

To help you get started writing your statement, use this fill-in-the-blanks template. Don’t be constrained by this language; simply use it as a starting point.

I use my ___________ and ___________ for ___________.

Known for ___________, I ___________.

Using ___________ (key trait), I ___________, by providing ___________.

Through my ___________, I ___________, when I serve ___________.

Check the complete cheat sheet here:  http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/personal-branding-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

If you want a complimentary strategy session of how you can use this in your business,  please email customerservice@lourdesgant.com to schedule a call with me.

Here is her perspective:

1. What is the difference between a product and a service in an intangible world?

A product is sold to you with no consideration of your needs. There is no discovery process for your objectives and no ethics regarding your ability to pay for the product or attempt to ensure that it will remain useful to you. There is definitely no follow-up or regular assessment of your needs after purchasing.
A SERVICE however includes clear and meaningful discussion of situation and recommendations are backed up by math that ensures you making the right purchase for the present and the future. It involves meaningful regular dialogue in the future, so that any changes in YOUR life can be re-assess by what you have purchased. (ie your impression of the compensation your advisor received for insurance was based on the quality of the service.)

2. What is the difference between a salesman and a trusted advisor?

A salesman will show you the three sample portfolios, private equity investments, stocks or mutual funds that did the best over the last 6 months to 3 years and will tell you that is what you should invest in to make big money. As most industries and asset choices cycle up and down – you find yourself buying at a high each and every time. They practically ignore you after purchase is made. A trusted advisor starts with what your needs are (for income or return or objectives for estate planning), and looks for the lowest risk solutions that meet those needs. A trusted advisor also considers aspects that are not directly related to the investment like tax strategy (after all – it’s what you keep – not what you make). A trusted advisor spends the time to help you understand your investment choice to the point where you are comfortable enough to see it through should external influencers (like political and economic events).
If you don’t start with the right questions, you will end up with a salesperson each and every time, and will forever be dis-enchanted and dis-illusioned about what traditional investing can be for you.

I do not disagree with what her definitions are but I think it is deeper than that. One of my favorite authors, Daniel Pink, in his new book “To Sell Is Human” prove the deeper part of influencing/moving others through selling. Here’s a video of what the book is all about of the new ABC’s of selling:

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If you want a complimentary strategy session of how you can use this in your business, please email customerservice@lourdesgant.com to schedule a call with me.

When and how to use it?

To figure out any changes you need to make to live your life according to your biggest desires and goals.

• When you need inspiration around your future and your goals.
• When you realize you’re not living your life the way you really want to.
• To avoid getting caught up in living your life the way others think you should.

Here’s how the exercise works:

Step 1: Age you’re going to die. If you can think of a number of how many years you want to live, what would that be? This is the age you’re going to die. Write down the age at which you think you’re going to die. Answer spontaneously, based on the number that comes to mind. This number will be based on family history, your own health, your observations of those around you, and your beliefs about longevity.

Step 2: Specifications. Determine what you want your life to be like the year before you die. Create a detailed picture of your life in the following areas: physical, mental, financial, the quality of your relationships, and your self – assessment of what your life was all about.

Step 3: Age with extra years. If you can think of a number of how many years you want to extend your life from the number in step 2, what would be that figure? If these specifications were true, it’s unlike you’d die the next year. How many extra years would you live? Add the extra years to your first number in step 2.

Step 4: Ask yourself what you’d really want to do with these bonus years. Write down the specific activities you’d like to be doing if you were free to do whatever you wanted.

Step 5: Age now. Write down your current age and ask yourself: When would I like to take these extra years? Why not start now?

Step 6: Age in 3 years. Write the age you’ll be in 3 years. Start to live your next 3 years in alignment with your extra years.

If you want a complimentary strategy session of how you can use this in your business, please email customerservice@lourdesgant.com to schedule a call with me.

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Here is a fact that might be interesting to you: According to Harvard Business Review happy employees have an average 31% higher productivity, their sales are 37% higher, their creativity is three times higher. Think about that, what would a 37% increase in sales do for your company’s bottom line? So take your income from last year and imagine a 37% increase. Wow! So let me ask you again, have you ever really thought about what you could do to make your employees happier? Well, it is the 5^th areas we are going to talk about and it’s called Quality of Life Audit. What does this audit do? It increases employees’ productivity, champion the company’s vision and mission and most importantly increases your revenue.

 

Have you ever thought of what you could do to make your employees happier?

Well, the answer is Quality of Life Audit. What is a Quality of Life A

udit? Well, it is part of my Increase Your Profit System where you can work to strategize your human resources and talent management to make sure that every hire is the right person for the right job inside your business.

What does that do for you? It’s going to give you the freedom to empower these employees, give them autonomy to make your business run efficiently and profitably.

If you want a complimentary session of the “Increase Your Profit System” please email customerservice@lourdesgant.com to schedule a call with me!

Here’s a video I did last year: http://vimeo.com/45845848

What does it cost you to hire and train a new employee?

Well, actually there’s a study out there and the cost to hire a new employee is $57,968.00. This is staggering for those companies.

Have you ever wondered what it costs when you actually have a bad hire?

What do I actually mean by a bad hire?

A bad hire is having a wrong person that costs you money to train. You owe it to your company to have the right hiring decision because the cost of a bad hire is an astounding $840,000. Have you ever thought of protecting your company from these bad decisions?

Well, the answer is human resources audit. What is a human resource audit? Well, it is part of my Increase Your Profit System where you can work to strategize your human resources and talent management to make sure that every hire is the right person for the right job inside your business.

What does that do for you? It’s going to give you the freedom to empower these employees, give them autonomy to make your business run efficiently and profitably.

If you want a complimentary session of the “Increase Your Profit System” please email customerservice@lourdesgant.com to schedule a call with me!