Business Coaching Ideas

Self Assessment

2009-10-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

Self assessment by Paul Lemberg.

Take this test to find out if you are ready to pilot your business at the speed of change. Or faster.

 Can you live with uncertainty?

 Do you enjoy taking risks?

 Are you self-confident?

 Are you persistent?

 Do you set goals and follow through to achieve them?

 Can you turn on a dime?

 Do you learn from your failures and mistakes?

 Can you make important decisions quickly?

 Can you say you were wrong and change your mind, quickly?

 Do you keep your word with respect to your commitments?

 Can you take charge, and take the heat?

 Do you enjoy the challenge?

 Can you live without security and stability?

 Can you imagine that you see the future?

For each “yes”, give yourself 10 points. For each no, you had better figure out how to turn it into a yes if you want your business to be a runaway success.

When you have 120 points, go for it.

Paul Lemberg

Runaway Success

2009-10-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

Defining Runaway Success by Paul Lemberg.

To move faster than the speed of change requires a commitment to extraordinary things.

Most people, when asked for the particulars of runaway, blockbuster, or breakthrough success can’t say what that means to them with enough clarity to do anything about it.

Can you?

One way to increase the pace is to consider your venture from the perspective of “runaway success” and only take actions consistent with achieving just that. Before you can do that, you have to define your terms.

Take a few moments to specify , what you would consider “runaway success” in your current venture. (As always, there’s the question of scope or context. You could say – “Well, my current venture is my life.” OK – use that. If you asked me, I would suggest you narrow your scope – but it’s your choice.)

Write out your definition. You must write it out – type it – whatever. You can’t simply “think” this and expect the same result. Get it out of your head and onto the page. It must reflect back to you so you can evaluate it “in the cold light of day.”

Write it, in all its glory. Make sure this is a statement of “runaway success” not plain, old ordinary success.

Keep your definition in a notebook. Print it large and post it on your bulletin board. Tape it to the dashboard of your car.

Slip it under your desk mat. Scatter it about your environment. Put it in your wallet where you can refer to it easily.

Paul Lemberg

Strategic Questions

2009-10-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

Strategic Questioning by Paul Lemberg.

The route to creating strategy "strategy" is simple – asking the right questions.

What "direction" can the company take now to realize your "vision" ?

What value proposition will you offer customers?

What meaningful difference will you make in your marketplace?

What meaningful difference will you make in your world?

How do you want to affect the lives of your people, your customers, your clients? Your family?

Answer these questions and you are on road to inventing your "strategy".

Here are some questions to help you formulate "strategy" .

§ What "vision" , "purpose" and "values" are embodied in your company?

§ What would have them be realized even further?

§ What, specifically, would make your company “better” than it is now? (More profitable, greater revenues, improved product, improved service, more value for the customer, etc.)

§ If you could do absolutely anything in your industry, what would it be? Are you doing that now? If not, why not?

§ What are the most important reasons people buy your product or service?

§ Why would you like people to buy your product?

§ How do you rate on the 1-10 scale, with respect to those reasons?

§ How could you improve that rating?

§ What are three major changes shaping your industry over the next five to ten years?

§ In what ways are you positioned to participate in those changes?

§ What is the most important thing you have to offer your customers.

§ Why is that important to you?

§ Why is that important to your customers?

§ In your wildest fantasies, what do you want people to be able to say about your company, or your product?

§ What is necessary for people to be able to say that?

§ What is happening in other industries that could be adapted to your business and your product offering?

§ What do you think is missing from your product offering?

§ What would make your product really amazing!!!!?

§ What are your competitors doing that “blows your mind?”

§ What are your competitors doing that “blows your customers’ minds?”

§ What should your competitors be doing that would “blow your mind?”

§ Should you be doing that?

§ What have your customers told you they just can’t get anywhere? Is that something you should offer?

§ What products are related to your current offering, that you could offer?

§ What products do other companies (non-competitors) offer, which you could offer your customers?

§ How would those products add value?

§ What actions could you take today which would double your profits in 24 months? How about in 12 months?

§ What is missing for you to take those actions?

§ What is in the way of you taking those actions?

§ What business are you really in?

§ Should you pare down to just that business?

§ Can you create additional value focused on that business only?

§ What would make your product 10% – just 10% – better than anything in your market space?

§ What are the most glaring weaknesses of your company?

§ What are you doing to redress those weaknesses?

§ What is your "vision" for the next five years?

§ Are you moving decisively towards realizing that "vision" ?

§ If not, what would move you in that "direction" ?

§ What are the key needs of the major stakeholders (owners, employees, customers, etc.)?

§ Are those needs "being" served?

§ What are three things you’d really like to do – which would make a significant difference (to your customers, or perhaps, to the world)- but have excellent reasons for not doing?

§ How valid are those excellent reasons?

§ What are the meaningful differences (The Gap) between your five- year "vision" for your company, and where you are now?

§ What can you do to close The Gap that you are not doing now?

§ If you were starting from scratch, what would you do next?

§ What is the most dramatic trend that affects your industry?

§ Are you part of that trend?

§ Should you be?

§ What would you find truly meaningful?

Paul Lemberg

Purpose

2009-10-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

Purpose by Paul Lemberg.

"Reach beyond your grasp. Your goals should be grand enough to get the best of you." Teilhard de Chardin

Why?

Why are you doing what you’re doing? Why are you pursuing this venture? Why are you even reading this web page?

Why are you living your life?

The answer to these questions is your purpose. The fundamental reason for your activities.

Every truly powerful venture has a clear and motivating purpose.

Why?

Why should we care about why?

Why, indeed? A powerful purpose will keep you going on days when the weather is lousy and your children kept you up all night and the dog was barking and there’s no cream for the coffee and the car has a flat tire and your key person called in sick and your best customer just cancelled and the toilets are backed up....

A powerful purpose enables you to keep going and cause more breakthroughs. Without a powerful purpose you might as well go home and pull the covers over your head.

A powerful purpose provides the fuel to do whatever it takes – no matter what. It’s better than strong coffee for working long hours and weekends.

A powerful purpose makes it a no-brainer to make big commitments and outsized requests, to take risky actions and put yourself on the line. Plus, your associates and employees – all the other stake-holders in your venture – need your powerful purpose as well.
Your shared purpose keeps them in the game right along with you.

Purpose, along with shared vision, is the foundation of ownership – if people have a sense of purpose they will take responsibility well beyond their accountability.

How do you get a big purpose? For some people, it’s just there. Like Don Quixote, you may be on a quest. Perhaps you are born with it, or it comes to you in a dream, or while you are stuck in traffic.

Sometimes you have to work to define it.

What is your purpose?

Write down why you do what you do.

Then ask why is that important, and why do you do that. Then ask why that is important. And so on. Don’t stop with the first level of reasons. It is usually necessary to keep going for a while.

When you reach bedrock “purpose” and you resonate with it – that’s the one. Work on the words for a while until you “know” they are right.

What I do:

Why that is important :

And why that is important :

And why that is important :

And so on..........

Paul Lemberg

What's Possible

2009-10-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

What's possible by Paul Lemberg.

Reach for the outer limits. Stretch.

Build your business upon your idea of what is possible, not what is likely or reasonable. Reasonable propositions produce reasonable, predictable results. They are the things you think will come to pass, that make sense according to what has been done before. They are comfortably within the bounds of what you have produced in the past.

There is nothing wrong with reasonable ideas, they just never produce extraordinary results.

So, what is possible? Anything you can think of.

In fact, a thing becomes possible simply because you can think it. By declaring something possible, it takes on an existence it didn’t have until that moment. Just because you said so, you transform the impossible into the possible.

This gives you, the entrepreneur, the captain of your own life, tremendous power.

There is no proof required for these declarations of possibility. When you declare something is possible you need not know the route to its accomplishment. Declaration of possibility is the first step. Until you call something possible, you are unable to take action on it.

Decide what you intend to accomplish – and say – “I declare such-and-such is possible.”

By recognizing possibilities, you open yourself up to seeing things you would never have seen before.

It’s a beautiful view!

Paul Lemberg

Positive Intention

2009-10-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Positive intention by Peter Freeth

Every behaviour has a positive intention.

Positive doesn’t necessarily mean good or morally acceptable. It simply means that every behaviour is motivated by an intention to achieve something. So, in this Belief we have two meanings. Firstly, people don’t waste energy for no reason. Secondly, people take action to get things, not to lose them. When people lose things it’s a side effect – an accident. It’s not the original intention.

Sometimes, a person may alternate between different patterns of behaviour, as if one part gains control, then another, then another. This is a very useful analogy for what happens when people try and fail to give up smoking or lose weight. Smoking has advantages, otherwise the person would never have started. Therefore, if the person gives up smoking those advantages will be lost.

If the person doesn't consider this, there will be a constant battle between the parts that benefit from different aspects of smoking or not smoking. A common side effect of smoking is state control, so people smoke to calm their nerves. If this person gives up smoking, how will they control their emotional state? In a therapeutic context, this is known as secondary gain.

In an organisational context, I've heard it called all sorts of names but it really comes down to the same thing - that habits or situations that we call "bad" and want to avoid have some positive benefits too. As a species, we can easily adapt to exploit these positive benefits, making it much harder to avoid the "bad" situation.

When these parts communicate effectively with each other or with some central control part, the person will be aware of all of their conflicting needs and will manage their time and resources effectively. Good dieters can manage their meals and still allow themselves treats. Organisations that have effective internal communication tend not to have much internal conflict. When parts are not in communication with each other, problems arise because each part adopts behaviour which satisfies its own needs. Poor dieters will fast for a while then go and indulge themselves, leading to another fast. Self employed consultants describe a 'feast and famine' market situation because they do not communicate with each other about the real, ongoing state of the market.

Companies with poor internal communication generate conflicting information and appear to be badly coordinated. This is not malicious or intentional - it is simply the most reasonable way for each part to act when it has no or limited communication with other parts.

A part that is unaware of its relationship to other parts can only act in its own self interest.

Peter Freeth on Revelation

Non-Linear

2009-10-24T12:53:00.000-07:00

Going non-linear by Paul Lemberg.

Runaway success requires that you break out of the ordinary.

Everything – and I mean everything – you are currently being and doing, the sum of all your attitudes and actions, however vigorously you pursue them, is producing results. These results follow the “normal course of events.”

(Research by The Conference Board suggests that for most businesses, this “normal course of events” reflects annual growth in the neighborhood of 5-10%. A straight line up and to the right, year in, year out.)

On the other hand, breakthrough results are not predictable based on the way things are going. They do not occur as a matter of course. There is no logical progression from “normal” to “breakthrough.”

A breakthrough occurs when, all of a sudden, your trajectory shifts dramatically. When the line of your growth is out of sync with all previous results. To create a high-speed venture, one which is growing faster than the market, changing faster than change, you must be “extra-ordinary”.

By definition,

You must do something you’ve never done before.

Apply that picture of a breakthrough to your business.

What would be on your curve for a “breakaway trajectory?”

What kind of action and results would place you there?

What is so different, so extraordinary, that it could propel you ahead faster than change?

Paul Lemberg

Motivation

2009-10-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

Motivation (and meta-programs) by Peter Freeth

It's important to admit that, in the real world, people will conspire against you. Doubters and saboteurs will place obstacles in front of you, whilst zealots and activists will come up with so many wild ideas that's impossible to get anything practical done.

It's useful to understand how this happens, and that it's not personal.

As you already know, using psychometric profiling tools to pigeonhole people is not useful, because they're not like that all the time. Remember the marketing manager who would sit down in a supplier meeting and say "I'm an ESTJ, so I'm very judgemental"? He could use that as an excuse to be rude to people, because it wasn't his fault - he was just born that way.

Sometimes, I'm very judgemental too, and I'm an ENTP. Some days I'm an ENFP, depending on what mood I'm in. How can this be possible if the profile is absolute? How can it be possible to change?

We change in every fleeting moment depending on our mood, our environment and in response to the people around us. Therefore, the results of a test administered years ago are not useful in understanding behaviour - what we need is a tool that can be applied in real time, conversationally to help us to understand a person better and communicate with them more effectively.

Fortunately, there is such a tool, based on the relationship between language and behaviour, that you can use to profile someone either by listening to what they say or watching what they do. Hang on - am I saying that there's a profile tool that works by watching how people behave? I know it sounds too easy to be true. Surely there must be a multiple choice test involved somewhere. Just remember what Harry Hill says – "you can tell a lot about people from what they're like".

If you want to read more about these profiles, they're called "Metaprograms". You can find a description of them at www.nlpinbusiness.com or by using any Internet search engine.

There are quite a few metaprograms, but for our purposes I'll just mention the ones that are important in a change situation.

Remember that these profiles are dynamic, so you cannot use this to say "Fred is a xyz" (although a lot of people do). Instead, use this to respond more precisely and effectively to Fred at the specific moment you need his support or commitment.

Finally, the profile is a spectrum, not an either/or result. The examples illustrate the ends of the spectrum so that it's easier to tell the difference. In real life, people lie somewhere along the spectrum and move their position depending on circumstances.

Motivation direction

This is probably the most important one for our purposes. Are you motivated by goals or by avoiding problems? Do you avoid unpleasant situations or do you know what you want and go for it? Are you good at identifying all of the potential drawbacks of a plan or do you dive in and find out about the problems later?

The direction of motivation is simply this: do you move towards good things or away from bad things?

At the towards end of the spectrum, people say things like To get, To have, To become, I want

At the away from end of the spectrum, people say things like To avoid, So I don't have to, To get away from, I don't want.

This is useful when motivating a person to perform a task or for changing behaviour. It's pointless telling a towards person that by doing something, he can avoid problems later. It's just as pointless telling an away from person that by doing something she will achieve great things.

An 'away from' motivation is not negative, it leads to just as much satisfaction and personal reward as 'towards' motivation, it's just a different way of filtering information about the world.

Reference source

Have you noticed how some people just know what it is they want whereas other people are always asking if what they're doing is OK? Some people just don't seem to take any notice of the world around them whilst others are always checking that everything is OK. Do you instinctively know when something is right, or do you like to keep 'to do' lists so you can be sure that everything's finished off?

The source of motivation is: do you use your own internal benchmarks or do you use other people's?

If you ask people how they know things, such as how they knew to make a certain decision, people at the highly Internal end won't really understand the question and their answer will be something like "I just know". At the External end of the spectrum, people will check with their managers, see certificates, read reports and tick off 'to do' lists.

This is useful when giving reasons as to why someone should perform a task or change behaviour. If you tell an Internal person that they should do something because everyone else in the team does, they will say "so what?". If you tell an External person that if they think something's right then that's good enough, they may get quite frustrated.

Here's another interesting observation - Internal people tend to hear instructions as comments, whilst External people tend to hear comments as instructions. When you have to get people to change their behaviour or complete parts of a project, you'll often find that they seem to act and respond randomly. Sometimes, people go off and do things that you didn't ask them to do and sometimes people just don't do what you tell them. If you really think back, you'll vaguely recall making a suggestion or floating an idea past someone who acted as if it were an instruction. On the other hand, you tactfully suggested a course of action to someone who seemed to respond as if that were an academically interesting observation which they didn't need to do anything about. Of course, there aren't really Internal or External people, I'm just using those terms to illustrate the differences.

Sensory preference

There are many different ways to keep track of how someone is thinking - in pictures, sounds or feelings – and this information is very valuable if you want to communicate efficiently and effectively with that person. Essentially, a person's entire physiology and state is interwoven with their preferred sense and it influences almost everything they do. Different senses are better suited to processing different types of information, so it's very important that you can use this information to communicate far more effectively with people. You'll hear and read sensory words like these in people's language:

Visual

Auditory

Kinaesthetic

See

Picture

Look

Watch

Perspective

Vision

Outlook

Bright

Clear

Focus

Sharp

Background

Shine

Reflect

Dim

Hazy

Short-sighted

Blinkered

Colour

Envisage

Overlook

Imagine (from Image)

Clarify

Listen

Hear

Sound

Noise

Loud

Quiet

Amplify

Tell

Resonate

Hum

Whistle

Whine

Roar

Silent

Rhythm

Melody

Harmony

Talk

Language

Volume

Wavelength

Call

Say

Feel

Touch

Grab

Hold

Contact

Push

Embrace

Warm

Cold

Sinking

Down

Ache

Gut reaction

Queasy

Steady

Stable

Solid

Firm

Soft

Grasp

Handle

Forceful

Smooth

As a professional communicator, the ability to move between different sensory processing modes is very powerful. During a speech, you can draw the audience into your vision, enthuse them with ideas that resonate with them and finally have them embrace a sense of commitment to your ideas.

All of that is more advanced than the scope of this book, so let's stick to the most obvious application: When you're presenting information to people about change, show them what's happening, tell them what's happening and give them the time they need to know how they feel about it. In other words, since your audience will be thinking in a combination of sensory modes, you need to present your information using all three in order to convey that information effectively to everyone.

Choice

Some people never seem to do things the same way twice. Others seem unable to innovate or create and will continue to do something the same way until external events force them to change. Options thinkers are good at being creative and thinking up new ideas and ways to do things. Procedures thinkers are good at finishing things and following routines. You wouldn't want procedures people in creative jobs and you wouldn't want options people in jobs that are heavily regulated. To find out if a person likes to have many options available at each decision point or if that person needs to follow a set procedure, ask "Why did you choose this job/car/house/etc…"

Options thinkers answer why, very quickly with well defined reasons. Procedures thinkers answer how the choice came to be, often by telling you a story. Essentially, the options thinker can answer instantly because they did make a choice. Procedures thinkers did not make a choice, so the question doesn't make sense.

This is useful in understanding how a person will react to rules and work structures and in predicting how a person will react to obstacles. It indicates how a person will set objectives and what path will be taken to reach those objectives. An options thinker would need to always have choices and would be frustrated by rigid procedures and agenda. A procedures thinker would find choice and indecision frustrating and would seek out procedures and rules.

Sorting

This simply relates to whether people first notice the differences or similarities between two different concepts or situations. If you're good at 'spot the difference' puzzles, you have a difference bias. If you're good at making connections, metaphors and analogies, that indicates a similarity bias. To find out, ask "How do you compare this job/car/etc? and your last one?"

Someone with a difference bias would begin their answer with "one was…." whereas someone with a similarity bias would begin with "they both were". The majority of people seem to be about a third of the way along the spectrum, closer to the similarity end. What this means in practice is that most people will notice what's the same first and then notice what's different.

This metaprogram is vital in the communication of change. If you tell the employees of a company that everything will change radically, you will appeal to the minority of extreme difference biased people but really upset the great majority of people. Always start with what's staying the same before talking about what will change - typically the guiding principles or past success of the company or team.

Scope

Do you like to see the big picture, or is the devil in the detail? Can you easily work out complex relationships or do you like things to be neatly packaged and described?

This relates to how someone communicates the content of a message - do they talk about overviews, missing out all of the detail, or do they assemble the picture starting from the detail and working up?

In order to determine someone's scope, just listen to the things that they say. General people will start at the top and work down. They'll give you short, generalised answers and when giving directions will start at the destination and fill in major landmarks. General people cope with complex information easily, sorting it and organising it in a way that specific people find difficult. Specific people start at the first point of detail and work forwards, so in a complex situation they can get lost. When giving directions, specific people work forwards until they reach the destination. Specific people are good for making sure all the details of a plan or idea are in place.

There seems to be a preconception in businesses today that 'big picture' thinking is a good thing, especially for managers. Being able to understand strategic intent is not the same as being a big picture thinker. I've seen some incredibly detail driven people proudly call themselves big picture thinkers, and perhaps in relation to someone else they are, and herein lies the importance of this metaprogram.

On a recent training course, one of the delegates (we'll call her Julie) asked for directions to the shopping centre. One of the other delegates (we'll call him Colin) said "you go out the front door, turn right, then left, then down to the roundabout, then right, then left onto the dual carriageway, then straight over….." As Julie's eyes began to glaze over, Colin started drawing a map. Seeing Julie reach information overload, I stepped in, pointed out the window and said "it's that way". The high level, big picture version was much more useful than the detail, because Julie could follow her nose and then pick up signs for the shopping centre. When Julie came to leave the shopping centre, she found that all the road signs pointed to nowhere she had ever heard of. If you've ever been lost in Milton Keynes, you'll understand her panic at this point. Fortunately, she still had Colin's map with her, and she was easily able to find her way back to the training centre. The moral? Neither big picture nor detail are useful in themselves – they are only useful if they enable people to take action and get what they want.

Remember, metaprograms are a generalisation that changes for a single person from one moment to the next. Probably the most practical application of your knowledge of metaprograms is to appreciate how people process information differently. Some people are just wired up to notice change, some are just wired up to look for drawbacks or obstacles. They're not sabotaging your plans - they're helping you by applying their natural talents and giving you more information with which to make better decisions.

You might find it useful to see a summary of these metaprograms, and how they relate to change. This information will also help you to communicate more effectively with a wide group of people in the context of change. Sensory preference doesn't really make a difference to change, it's just important to communicate using a combination of words, pictures and feelings.

Motivation direction

Towards

Looks towards the future, interested in plans and developments.

Away from

Looks to the past, notices the drawbacks or obstacles to a plan.

Reference source

Internal

Self directed so responds less to changes around them.

External

Responds to changes in people and environment.

Choice

Options

Will create more choices, come up with lots of ideas. Easy to change direction.

Procedures

Will follow processes, will want to know the right way to do something. Harder to change direction.

Sorting

Similarity

Looks for what is the same, what is common in a changing situation.

Difference

Notices what is changing, seeks change.

Scope

Abstract

Needs to understand the 'big picture' but not interested in detailed implementation.

Detail

Needs to know detailed changes to their job or environment, not so interested in strategy or what affects other people.

Predicting a person's behaviour is not as simple as picking the "right" metaprogram - firstly because these will change with the context and secondly because a person's behaviour depends on a combination of metaprogram elements. A difference bias with a towards focus is typical of someone called a "change agent", yet the same difference bias with an away from focus is typical of someone who resists change.

Use this information to communicate effectively with people and your change programs will be much more successful.

Peter Freeth on Revelation

Successful Meetings

2009-10-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

Successful Meetings by Michael Beale

Meetings can be time consuming, frustrating and if you take in account the cost of your time and travel, expensive. On the other hand meetings can generate ideas, commitment, resource and build valuable relationships.

How can we make meetings more successful?

Put effort into three things:

Attitude, Outcomes and Structure

Each on it’s own can help make a meeting more productive and to some extent pull in the others; however working on all three can make meetings surprisingly effective and fun.

If all the participants have a positive attitude and are genuinely interested in their own and others success then it is likely that an atmosphere is created that will lead to successful outcomes and give the space for a structure to develop. It’s worth considering individually what would be best attitude for you to achieve the outcomes you want.

If all the participants know that if the meeting goes well they will achieve an outcome that’s important to them; they will naturally be motivated to move the various discussions forward. On an individual basis it’s always worth considering what would have to happen at a meeting to make it worth your while.

If a meeting has an agenda where every participant knows they will have a chance to be heard; that the agenda items are allocated time slots relative to their importance; with the important, contentious issues first, attendees are likely to become more positive and outcomes are likely to be further clarified and achieved.

Common reasons how meetings go wrong:

No control, structure or summaries

Too many people / the wrong people / meetings too long

Implied and or vague objectives

Hidden agendas

Ego’s getting in the way of outcomes

‘Instant’ solutions are sought without being given the time to think through the implications

Some ideas of how these can tackled and managed:

Elect a chairman and timekeeper to manage the meeting on an ongoing basis

Plot the objectives, structure and likely timeline of the meeting beforehand so that the right people can be invited for the appropriate length of time

Possible hidden agenda’s can be confronted; you can choose to leave the meeting or end it there and then

Ego’s can be acknowledged and if this doesn’t work, confronted

Options can be brainstormed with participants being asked to report back later on the implications of various course of actions.

Michael Beale 's profile on the Executive and Business Coaching Network

Manipulation

2009-10-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

Manipulation by Michael Beale

Manipulation infers influence without conscious awareness; it can be considered good or bad depending on the context. In a way a baby manipulates his or her parents by crying at night; the baby wouldn’t survive very long if she or he didn’t. In fact we both communicate and manipulate all the time.

Most (but not all) people who learn how to use influencing skills use them to help people. The reason is straightforward; if I manipulate you to do something that’s not in your interest and you find out you are likely to want to get your own back; which is not in my interest. I’m therefore much more likely to lead you in a direction that is useful to you.

If I use my skills to help you think through what you want and then influence you to achieve what you want more easily, you are unlikely to accuse me of manipulation.

Learning influence skills is a bit like learning to dance; you learn how you like to be influenced yourself at the same time you learn to influence others. I choose not to train or accredit people who are only interested in influencing others without understanding how they are influenced themselves as I believe they are more likely to influence others in a less useful way.

If you’re concerned about being manipulated the key defense is to be clear about your own objectives; when your focused on your own objectives you tend to ‘delete’ influence from other people that isn’t aligned to what you want to achieve.

If you find yourself in deep rapport with someone you are more likely to be able to influence or manipulate each other more easily for good or bad; again the main defense is to be clear about your own objectives; then you can at least make the decision to change or not change course.

If people use unhelpful manipulation they normally do so because they get a ‘pay off’ in some way. It is therefore often necessary to confront them and interrupt their ‘pay off’ if you want to influence them to change their behaviour.

Michael Beale 's profile on the 'Executive and Business Coaching Network'

Inventing the Future

2009-10-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

Inventing the Future by Paul Lemberg.

The future is whatever you say it's going to be.

How could it be otherwise. The future is a mental construct, it does not exist in the material world. The only thing it could be is something we say.

Leaders are by definition, people who take a stand they say what's possible in the future, and further declare that what they say is possible is going to happen.

People tend to act on whatever future they believe is possible, which makes leadership a highly reliable, self fulfilling, positive feedback system.

The questions then are what is possible, and what is the future? When most people ask what is possible, they really are considering what's probable. When most people consider the future, they actually think of some variation of their past. The past - only much better. The past - only worse. You get the picture.

The future for most people is generally a continuation of the past.

Another type of future is simply invented. It might be a continuation of the past, but not necessarily. It might be a complete break with anything that has ever happened before. From the standpoint of the present, this type of break-with-past

is every bit as valid as the "past plus ten per cent" kind. After all, you can have whatever conversation you like, and if you can persuade people that this is a future worth having, you might just realize it.

So the future is whatever you are willing to make happen.

Leaders are people for whom the future exists as a source of inspiration.

Paul Lemberg

Ideas

2009-10-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

Ideas by Peter Freeth

What do you do with ideas? Do you nurture them and let them become new products and services, or do you dismiss them because they're not what you do? Come on, be honest with yourself…

It's really quite amazing how naturally creative we humans are, and it's equally amazing how completely demoralising and demotivating it is for us when that creativity is stifled.

If you're about to say "but we encourage creative ideas with our suggestion scheme" then I'm going to be ruthless and say that a suggestion scheme hinders creativity. If you have to create a business process to handle ideas then there's something very wrong, because you're effectively saying that the people who have ideas aren't able to pursue those ideas. An integral part of our creativity is being able to test our ideas and suggestion schemes prevent that from happening. Here's the sequence of events in a suggestion scheme:

Person A has a great idea so they submit it to the suggestion scheme (person B)

Person B dismisses the idea because it wasn't theirs and testing other people's wild ideas just means more work.

Person A is trained to suppress their creative urges.

So if you want to foster creativity, let people try out their own ideas.

Remember that people naturally learn by modelling behaviour - just as we all did as children. The most efficient way to train people isn't to tell them what to do - it's to get them doing it, regardless of what you think their learning style may be. Learning styles are what people do with their conscious brains whilst they're learning. If you promote an ideas scheme and then do nothing, you will train people to keep their ideas to themselves, regardless of the effort you put into the scheme.

Back in the 1970s, Blue Tits all over the UK started breaking into foil topped milk bottles. Scientists at the time couldn't figure out how the birds were learning this behaviour because their thinking assumed that birds are stupid, therefore one bird must have accidentally discovered that the milk bottle tops could be pecked through and all the other birds must have copied it. Cases of milk theft should start in one place and spread out over time, but what scientists actually saw was the behaviour emerging randomly, and they couldn't figure out how the birds were learning from each other so quickly.

The answer, as with all good answers, was very simple. The birds weren't as stupid as the scientists had thought, and they were properly motivated.

That particular winter was harsh and there wasn't a lot of food about. Blue Tits all over the UK were learning to steal milk from the bottles on people's doorsteps because it was the obvious thing to do. The idea had come of its time. There was no magic, no telepathy and no amazing leap in creativity.

Ideas have a time. No one person invented the wheel, or fire, or anything else. Darwin wasn't the first person to think about evolution, he was the first person to be famous for it. Some people throughout history have clearly been more prolific in writing their ideas down, and so we often think that some people are creative whilst others aren't. It might be more useful to think that everyone's equally creative, some people just have more faith in their own ideas than others.

Ideas are the currency of competitive advantage, and here's why:

Right now, all over the world, your competitors' employees are having the same great ideas as your employees. All that matters is who gets those ideas to market first.

Your employees aren't necessarily unique, but the culture in which their ideas flourish is.

Getting an idea to market means developing an idea to the stage where it positively impacts your business performance. It may be a new product or it may be a business process or even a new office layout. What's important is that it creates advantage. Sooner or later, all your competitors will have the same idea, so all that matters is the lead you have over them, and how you make the most of that lead.

Your survival depends on you being just one small step ahead, all the time.

Peter Freeth on Revelation

Dought

2009-10-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

Dought - What if it doesn't work by Paul Lemberg.

What if it doesn’t work?

Who hasn’t had such thoughts? “It won’t work. It isn’t right. They won’t like it. It will fail.” And in more insidious, more personal forms: “I’m not good enough. I will fail.”

Who hasn’t thought such thoughts when you are smack dab in the middle of the most important thing you’ve ever done?

Doubt is part of the human condition. If you are functioning on a high level, working far outside your comfort zone, "doubt" is inevitable. After all – you are working in realms with which you are unfamiliar. Perhaps you really don’t know what you’re doing.

Uncertainty that you will reach your destination is logical when sailing uncharted waters. But if you were familiar with the terrain and had all the "knowledge" necessary, you wouldn’t be on the verge of a "breakthrough" . You certainly wouldn’t be outrunning change.

Doubt can stop you dead in your tracks; cause you to seize up and cease "action" . “Oh my God, I can’t go on. I’m all "wrong" . I’m bound to fail.”

What if you could have thoughts like these and keep going? Can you have "doubt" – grave doubt – and still do what you have to?

Of course you can! The problem is that most people think their doubts must be paid attention to, that they reflect reality.

They don’t.

There are two types of "doubt" . The first is what I’ll call “technological doubt” – doubt about your approach and your methods. This kind of doubt can serve a positive "purpose" , causing you to double-check, to think through your plans and make sure you are taking your best shot.

The other is “fearful doubt" ” – the automatic human response to anything that places you out on a limb. Ignore this doubt. Trust your gut to tell you the difference.

Acknowledge that you have doubts, embrace them as part of your humanity – then suck it up and keep going. Even though these doubts may make your stomach hurt – keep doing whatever it is you said you had to do next.

Like many things, you don’t have to like "doubt" , it doesn’t have to feel good, and it doesn’t have to get in your way.

Doubt is very effective at keeping you behind the curve. Let others be out on the bleeding edge. Let others take the arrows. Things are changing so fast, let’s wait and see. Right?

It’s a fact – if you are going to run your business as an innovator – you’re going to have to face "doubt" , and lots of it. You may not have it personally – but your people or your partners will. The only "questions" is, how are you going to deal with it?

Make another list. This "time" , make a list of your doubts. Don’t be shy. Write them out on paper, one after the next, for all your consciousness to see. Exhaust the list. Acknowledge you have such doubts, that they are part of your human heritage.

Throw the list away.

Now, get back to doing whatever it was you were doing.

Paul Lemberg

How to make Breakthroughs

2009-10-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

How to make Breakthroughs by Paul Lemberg.

I would think of things I’d never thunk before...

Scarecrow, in The Wizard of Oz

A breakthrough occurs first in the mind.

You create breakthroughs by thinking things you haven’t thought before and by doing things you haven’t done before. By definition, whatever you’ve done up until now is factored into whatever results you’ve gotten. So now you’re going to have to do something different.

Breakthroughs are produced by locating a space you haven’t been in before, and stepping in. It could be the space of transcendental effort. It could be the space of uniquely innovative action design. Or the space of letting go – giving up control of some key process. Or the space of strategic partnerships and high-leverage relationships. Or the space of time dedicated to thinking. Or the space created by employees who have total buy-in. Or the space of powerful vision energizing all participants.

It might be anything. You don’t know ahead of time. By searching the world of what you don’t know and don’t know that you don’t know – asking the right questions and keeping your mind open to infinite possibility, you uncover the lever which lets you transform your venture into a breakthrough.

What have you “never thunk before?”

Paul Lemberg

Intuition and Coaching

2009-10-24T05:52:00.000-07:00

Intuition and Coaching by Julnar Rizk

Using intuition with your clients creates magic during a coaching call. When we express our intuitive hits to our clients and we’re accurate with our perceptions, our clients feel seen and understood in ways that are unparalleled. With our intuition, we hear their bigger Self, their Big agenda, and the powerful voice that they’re trying to speak with.

Where do these intuitive hits come from? Are they magic? Divinely inspired? Many philosophers and spiritual teachers have postulated what the source of intuition may be. Whatever the source, one thing is clear. Without a strong self-esteem and self-confidence on your part, you will not hear the information coming into your radar. As you learn to silence those judgmental inner voices (Gremlins, perhaps?) that quell your intuitive hits, you will be amazed with how accurate your intuition really is. In other words, trust yourself and your instincts. Trust how your body reacts when you’re listening to your clients. There is no better way to develop your intuition than to develop and strengthen your own self-esteem and self-worth.

Trust yourself and create the magic of intuition!

Massive Action

2009-10-24T05:47:00.000-07:00

Massive action by Paul Lemberg

What does it take to move mountains?

Faith, persistence, and the biggest shovel you can handle.

In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says the surest way to grow rich is to have faith. But, he says, faith by itself will yield nothing. The secret is to have "...faith backed by action. Action, action, action."

This section is about massive action. Action, action, action. The surest way to get a lot done is to do a lot. Plan to do much more than you think is necessary for the accomplishment of your goals, then do it. Over plan everything. Over execute everything.

This approach guarantees your success.

If you think one hundred sales calls will get you there, make two hundred. Make a thousand. If you need three new ideas, don't stop until you have come up with ten. If you are writing five pages a day in your book, make it six, or seven. Make it ten. Twenty.

The least effort formula for success is: However much you are currently doing, do at least one more.

The payoff of massive action is easy to see in sports and the arts. The greatest basketball players spend the most time in practice. The greatest violinists play scales for hours on end. The greatest painters are often the most prolific.

This approach will give you tremendous results when you are launching a new venture. Massive action is an effective way to generate early momentum, and early momentum has a huge multiplier effect on your total results. Massive Action is also great when you are in a slump, when your results are down. Shift into high gear. Invoke the ten-to-one rule.

Commit yourself to massive action.

The most effort formula for success is: Put in at least 10 times the effort you think it should take.

You'll often hear that you should work smarter, not harder.

For truly outrageous results, why not do both?

Massive action = powerful results.

Paul Lemberg

Prioritise

2009-10-24T05:41:00.000-07:00

Prioritise by Dr Ian Gregory

Maximise your output and get home on time!

The idea of prioritising what you have to do, and doing only what is truly important to you is one of the fundamental lessons to be learned from time management. However, quite often I meet people who tell me that even after they have prioritised and eliminated the unimportant, there is still too much to do.

Over the years I’ve noticed a common problem in most businesses – too many projects. Often when you ask a manager which are the important ones, they answer ‘all of them’. The problem is each person has only between 35 and 48 hours a week to do their work in. If you’re working on six or seven different projects on top of a line job, then you probably only spend an average of an hour or two on each of them, which is just enough to do some admin and go to a meeting, though little in terms of actually progressing them. In this way, projects drag on for months and months, little gets progressed, and eventually most of the projects are superseded or abandoned, wasting all of that valuable time.

When I first started my consulting career, my clients would sometimes comment on how much progress we could make in a couple of weeks. What we had was the ability to focus on one task, meaning we got it done far quicker. Focus is the alternative to the traditional juggling metaphor that many managers use. It’s about using the hours of the day to deliver maximum value as quickly as possible.

Instead of having several projects in the air at any given time, pick one or two and focus on them. Encourage your peers and subordinates to focus on the same projects. Focus means that the hours that used to be spent managing all of the different projects can be used to actually progress a project. The project gets completed quicker, the business gets the benefits sooner, you get the credit sooner and you can start on the next project on your list. In turn, that project will also be completed quickly. You’re still working the same number of hours (or maybe fewer), yet you’re making them count and raising your personal productivity and that of your team.

Look at how you spend the hours in your week. If you shelved a few projects for a few months, will you actually get them all completed sooner by doing them one or two at a time? Experiment, you might get home on time!

Dr Ian Gregory specialises in Knowledge Worker Performance issues. You can read more of his thinking at http://www.knowledgeworkerperformance.com/

Creating a Vision Statement

2009-10-24T05:19:00.000-07:00

Create a Vision Statement by Paul Lemberg

"To manage is to lead, and to lead others requires that one enlist the emotions of others to share a "vision" as their own."

Henry M. Beottinger, AT&T

What is your vision of the future?

Some people think creating a vision is a complicated thing, requiring much time sequestered deep in contemplation. Others do just the opposite – they hire the job out to a consultant. Neither approach is necessary.

Having a vision is about imagining the view through the window of your future. And just as when you look out the window, you’d like the view to be warm and sunny. Inviting. Beautiful. Fulfilling.

Your well-crafted vision is all those things. It is grounded and expressed in the language of the physical world – the world of being, having and doing.

What does the future look like, what does it feel like? What is the environment? What actions are people taking? What results are being produced?

Create a complete scene, one in which you can imagine yourself. One in which other people can imagine themselves – one which inspires them. One which breathes life into your activities.

Then put it down on paper.

Create a vision statement

The easiest way to write a vision statement is to ask questions.

Here are twenty vision questions I ask my clients.

You can use some of these and make up your own.

§ What important problems do you solve?

§ What unique market position do you control?

§ What is your geographic coverage? Are you local?

§ National? International? Intergalactic?

§ What value does your enterprise create in the world?

§ Is that value provided to: consumers, governments, kids, small businesses, giant corporations, humanity?

§ Is your organization a corporation? A loose alliance? A strategic partnership? A virtual company? What form is it?

§ Who owns the company – you? Partners? Outside investors?

§ The public?

§ How big is your organization? How many people work at/for your company? What kind of people are they?

§ What role do you play daily?

§ How much revenue and/or profit do you generate?

§ What does the press say about your company?

§ Are you leading edge / bleeding edge / innovative or just a cash cow?

§ Where are your headquarters? Where are your remote offices?

§ What is special about working for/at your company?

§ How is your company growing? Sales? New product/service lines? Acquisition?

§ How would you describe your company culture?

§ What do your customers say about your company?

§ What is your company known for?

§ How do you redefine the industry you are in?

§ What is the future of your company?

Important note. This is not a one-time-only process.

This can be revisited as often as necessary.

How do you know when you need to revisit it, and create a new vision ? When things start to feel routine. When the actions you are taking on a daily basis are no longer inspired, or when they begin to feel lifeless. When nothing is pulling you forward.

That’s the time to invent a new vision" .

Paul Lemberg

Having Big Problems

2009-10-24T05:13:00.000-07:00

Having Big Problems by Paul Lemberg.

Small problems demand small efforts and yield small rewards. Big problems demand big efforts and yield big rewards. Have bigger problems!

Challenging yourself – deliberately setting big (perhaps too big) problems in front of you – is a key to moving faster than change. Small challenges never lead to big successes. Challenge yourself with big problems, big issues.

The level of challenge you establish sets the level of risks you are willing to take. It sets the level of effort you are willing to put forth.

Do small problems inspire you? Of course not – they annoy you. They bog you down, and take up your time. Who would risk much for a small problem and its small reward?

Big challenges call forth the best in you. The changes you must make in rising to meet those challenges can cause an important shift in the world, and help people to be their best. There’s more at stake. More to lose. More to gain.

For some people, rising to the challenge is itself a powerful reward. Rising before dawn and getting a whiff of the frosty air before a cold morning’s run is by itself compensation, and makes the run that much more meaningful. The challenge adds its own joy and power to the project or program.

People want to rise to the challenge – it gives them energy. It makes things more fun.

Ask yourself these questions about your business:

Is this venture a big enough challenge?

Have we bitten off more than we can chew?

If your answer is yes, that’s good.

If not – bite off more! What would make this a real challenge?

Have we thrown down the gauntlet and dared ourselves to succeed?

What would add drama? What would add scope?

What would make it exciting, maybe even somewhat threatening?

And finally, what would make it important?

Above all, the challenge must be important.

Paul Lemberg

Why Coaching Works

2009-10-24T05:07:00.000-07:00

Why coaching works by Michael Beale

If you're a coach or being coached it's useful idea to develop your own ideas as to why coaching works. As a coach it will both help you sell your services with more confidence and be a more effective coach. As the person being coached it will help you choose and work with a coach better.

For this article I'm defining a coach as someone who will help you clarify something you want and help you achieve it more quickly and with less effort.

This is not a comprehensive list; the idea is to trigger your own thoughts.

The client wants it to:

Most clients will only take on a coach when they have already decided to make a change; however they are missing something to take the action needed. They may only need the space, frame and structure to put their own ideas in order. They may only need the space to get their feelings together.

Different perspective

Another person gives a different perspective. Like we need two eyes to perceive depth another person who we trust and communicate with well can enable see a wider picture and behind some of the objects that may be temporarily blocking our vision.

Dare to Dream

A coach can challenge and empower us to develop and achieve empowering dreams. They can stop us giving up to easily. They can help us keep our dreams alive and healthy.

Rehearsal

A coach can help us rehearse a course of action. This can increase confidence, identify blocks and find answers and significantly shorten the time needed to complete the action.

Add resource

A coach can give us additional resource. This can range from a model or technique to address an issue, a new attitude or emotional response, a new perspective, a case study or simply a piece of information.

Act as a role model

A coach may have started a successful company, entered a new market, handled a job loss, managed a plant closure, stopped smoking etc. In these cases the coach may act as a role model for their client. It's often easier if you know someone else has gone before.

Give feedback

A coach can give honest and straight feedback on performance giving the client the opportunity to act or not. Often feedback without interpretation is the most useful feedback.

Reveal hidden self

A stronger version of giving feedback; gaining insight of areas of ourselves that we are unaware off can lead to tremendous personal growth. - However it's normally only appropriate (and commercially wise) to give such feedback when specifically asked.

Human connection

People communicate in many ways; some of which we are not conscious of. Two people who communicate in an honest way will learn more from each other than either realise.

A good coach will normally be significantly better at these activities than anyone else in the company structure in that they are fully focused on the client's interests and ( although aware of ) not part of the politics.

Michael Beale is Director of the 'Executive and Business Coaching Network'

Vision

2009-10-24T05:03:00.000-07:00

Sharing your vision by Paul Lemberg.

"The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been…Leaders must invoke the alchemy of great vision."

Henry Kissinger

Why shared vision?

Isn’t the founder’s or chief executive’s or your vision good enough? Well yes, but when your people “share” the vision, it becomes theirs.

If they own it, they’ll care for it, work for it, and live for it, just as though it were theirs alone.

Here is a process for creating a shared vision.

1. Have each team member articulate his or her vision. You can write them out ahead of time, or do it on the spot. Either way, have them all written out and visible.

2. Spend time talking about where you want to go as a team. Let people speak their piece, and include their personal future as well as the company future. Have people say how the two are intertwined.

3. Next, create a list of key words or phrases that express your individual and collective visions. Write them on a board or flipchart – as many as it takes to capture what everyone has to say. Don’t worry about repetition, or even contradiction.

4. If you are more than eight people, break into groups of four to six. Each group weaves the key words and phrases into one or two paragraphs which express the group’s vision. You need not use every word, just the expressive ones. Each member of the group has to agree and be complete with the final statement.

5. If you have broken into groups, each group displays their “vision” and reads it aloud. All present vote on which statement expresses the vision in the most empowering and accurate way. If there is a tie (or near tie) find a way to merge the competing visions. Look for creative and inspired compromise.

If individuals need particular additions or deletions to make the final choice work – do those in a way which satisfies the entire group.

You are done when your entire team – this can be two people or two hundred – embrace your shared vision, and sees it as their own.

That’s a powerful place to be.

Paul Lemberg

Win Win

2009-10-24T04:52:00.000-07:00

Win Win by Michael Beale

When two or more people genuinely work together with a win win approach they are likely to produces exceptional results.

Win Win describes one of the possible outcomes from a transaction between two people.

Possible outcomes are:

Win - Win I win You win
Win - Loose I win You loose
Loose - Win I loose You win
Loose - Loose I loose You loose
'No play' Either of us decides to leave the transaction

In many situations a Win Win situation is the best one to aim for; although this can be creatively challenging if we start with conflicting objectives or outcomes. Or almost impossible is either party doesn’t know what they want.

The following approaches are more likely to lead to lead to a Win Win situation:

We both know what we want.

We’re prepared to open about our needs and what’s important to us; and are prepared to invest in the time needed to explore and clarify them.

We are, and communicate that we are prepared to walk away rather that accept anything other than a Win Win agreement

We’re prepared to explore the reasons we need what we want; and whether there are alternative ways in which we can get them

We focus on our interests, what’s behind them and how to achieve them rather that on specific positions. (e.g. I want a 20% discount to meet my year target rather than appear to randomly ask for a 20% discount)

We explore the other persons proposal before making a counter proposal

We stick to facts rather than exaggerate

We’re open about how we feel about where we are

We summarise and clarify what we’ve agreed throughout the interaction We leave the final bargaining and ‘street trading’ until we have a workable agreement on the table.

Michael Beale is a member of the 'Executive and Business Coaching Network'

Fearless

2009-10-24T02:21:00.000-07:00

NLP coaching tip - Fearless by Paul Lemberg.

"Fear is the mind killer."

Frank Herbert, Dune

The only fear that matters is your fear of failure.

All other fears are ultimately revealed as variants of this one. Fear of failure is the number one killer of rapid growth. Sometimes, any growth at all.

Fearless by Paul Lemberg

If you are afraid your venture is going to fail, you will hesitate to risk all that must be risked for its success. At some point you weigh the rewards and the costs – the rewards seem too distant and the costs too great. So you stop.

The antidote is fearlessness.

Not being afraid... A tall order and very difficult to manage, since fear is such a basic part of the human condition. How can you manage fearlessness?

You need to know, with certainty, your venture may fail. Irrespective of your faith and your beliefs about success – your venture may fail. Most certainly, it will not turn out the way you planned. Most certainly, it will not turn out the way you think it should.

Yet, because it is so important to you, because its impact is so fraught with possibility, you are willing to risk everything, do everything there is to do to make it happen anyway.

If you can master this paradox, knowing you will fail and going forward anyway – you have transformed your fear of failure into certainty about failure, and you don’t give a damn.

When you know you might fail, and you courageously, faithfully go forth, that is being fearless.

Say the following:

I know this venture may fail. No matter who I am, what I risk and what I do, this venture may fail.

Knowing what you now know, are you willing to continue? Are you willing to “do whatever it takes” to realize your vision?

If so, my friend, you have become fearless.

Paul Lemberg

Daydreaming

2009-10-24T02:18:00.000-07:00

Daydreaming by Paul Lemberg.

"I would while away the hours, consulting with the flowers,

conferring with the rain..."

The Scarecrow, yet again

For most of us, daydreaming is really out of bounds. We might believe that time set aside for focused thinking is acceptable, but idle daydreaming really goes against our type-A biases. So much so that we chastise ourselves publicly whenever we get caught – “Oh, I was just daydreaming.”

Daydreaming... Hmmm. Dreamlike musings or fantasies, while awake. I must admit it doesn’t sound much like work. But Einstein came up with the basis for Relativity Theory while daydreaming, and Friedrich Kekulé conceived of the carbon ring during a fanciful reverie. There are many other examples. Daydreaming has definitely proved its worth to the human race.

How does this apply to moving fast, faster than change?

Let yourself go. Give your thoughts some room to stretch out and go wild. Let your mind roam and range, inventing whatever images, sounds and feelings, stories and fanciful creations it desires. There’s no pressure to come up with anything useful.

But you might.

And therein lies the opportunity. You just might come up with something far out on the curve – far ahead of whatever the market is thinking about. Something very useful – your next source of competitive advantage. You see, if your normal left brained analytical thinking hasn’t given you the great idea you need, your daydreaming brain, freed from the bounds of standard reality, just might.

There is a side benefit. Daydreaming frees your mind for creative thinking later on. While you might not generate any breakthrough ideas during your dreaming, you may be more inventive later on. The solution to some thorny problem might pop into your mind later, because you loosened things up a bit.

Spend some quality time each week daydreaming. Give yourself an hour or so. Go to the beach, or the park, or sit in your den. Put your feet up and relax. Play some music if you like. Keep a pad or a recorder handy if you want to make some notes.

Let your mind wander. Who knows what it’ll come up with?

Paul Lemberg

Do anything!

2009-10-24T02:13:00.000-07:00

Do anything by Paul Lemberg.

This is a kind of intermezzo - a break in the action. This is for those of you who still don't know what to do.

The answer? Do anything.

People get stuck trying to do things right. They want it to be perfect, and so do the task - whatever it is - over and over. They tweak it a little here, change something else there. Making it better and better, bit by bit, on and on.... Someday, they may decide it is finally ready for the grand debut.

Perfectionism is the death of many good opportunities. People fritter all of their lead time "getting it right" instead of bringing their venture out in the open and letting the market shape it.

The world already knows much more than you do about what will make your business great. People will be more than happy to tell you what's needed and wanted if you only expose yourself and your ideas to their opinions and thoughts.

The trick then, is to do something.

Just get into action.

You have a concept, an idea - do it now! Implement some version of your concept and get it out into the marketplace. Get feedback.

Perfect it in version two.

Paul Lemberg