January is one of my favorite months. The feeling of renewal and rebirth that this season brings can be life-changing for so many. For others, especially as we get older, we get stuck back in our grooves.

Why do people as they seem to get older find it tougher to reinvent themselves? To get out-of –the-groove so to speak? Why are the people that are able to reinvent themselves seem to be geniuses that change the world? Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali, Madonna, and even Tony Robbins seem to keep themselves relevant through the times when the “norm” is to have “your time, your glory days” and move on.

Steve Jobs had a theory that as people get older, they become more and more engrained in patterns, and these patterns cause them to start to limit their ability to think creatively. The range of their thinking would become smaller and smaller.

These patterns become our groove, they are comfortable and safe, at least we feel their safe. But are they? Is it safe to get grooved in a career, your role in a business, a business model, a certain kind of product or even an economy?

I love working in technology because the very nature of it forces you to turnover old grooves and think in different paradigms almost every day. You can’t get in a groove in this industry. If you do, the world just passes you by…which is pretty much the way it works anyway, right?

What I mean is, are you stuck in an old job groove? an old economy groove? an old business groove? an old relationship groove? or a even an attitude groove?

A new year is not just a new way to date your checks (if you are still stuck in the groove of writing checks, that is). It is the chance to commit to throw yourself into something new. You are not a train, you are built to create, to solve problems, to produce.

You are designed for greatness by your creator. If you are not making the impact of Mother Teresa or M and M, it’s because you are playing a smaller-than image of which you were created. A groove to deep could be your grave or worse yet, the death of your dreams.

Let this New Year bring the rebirth of your dreams, the creation of a new life, of designing the health, wealth and abundance that you and your family deserve. Here is why I think the older we get, the more we get caught in the groove: it comes down to our ego.

Our ego holds us back and here is why: the history of us according to us becomes our reality. We use our reality to create the reasons for who we are and why we are in a particular station in our life. Good and Bad. We get our ego tied deeply into this perception that we become rigid and defensive of our perception of who we are.

And thus the groove, the more hurt we have recovered from, the deeper the groove…the more pain we have suffered, the deeper the groove…the more we have been attacked, the deeper the groove.

Look, I am not saying there are no positive grooves, ones of success and of love and abundance, I am saying we that more than not, our grooves cause us to be more and more inelastic in our ability to reinvent ourselves to become bigger than our situation.

So dance to the groove rather than get stuck in it.

Tony Scelzo
Rainmakers Marketing Group
317-216-6345
Tony@gorainmakers.com

I met with Troy Burk of Right On Interactive recently, and he asked me a
great question – what makes a great salesperson?

I like meeting with Troy. He asks hard questions, is a good thinker, and
comes from the perspective of literally building Exact Target’s sales team
from the ground up.

I thought long and hard (for about 22-seconds…), and came up with the
following answers:
1.Hard Work – A salesperson can have the cleanest look, best lines, and a
resume that makes him look like a king, but if he is not willing to bust
his hump and make hundreds of calls, he’s worthless.
2.Listening – I have a client who is a horrible listener. He railroads
over what his clients are saying to him, and is a football field away
from catching what his clients “aren’t” saying to him. A great
salesperson is a fantastic listener, and can truly communicate their way
into closing a sale.
3.Connects the Dots – A salesperson who can connect the gaps between
where a clients vision for their company is and the challenges that it
will take them to get their with the salesperson’s product, is worth
their weight in gold. All a client cares about is “how can you get me to
my vision with your product”. Can your salesperson make that connection
for your prospects?

What other traits do you feel the greatest salespeople possess?

Jamar Cobb-Dennard
jamar@jamarspeaks.com

Social Media Consultants Tend to Reheat Leftovers

There are a couple of things that I try to keep constant in my life. One of them happens to be reading Seth Godin’s blog every morning. The post for today caught my eye because of the title, The New Lazy Journalism. The post is excellent because Seth brings up an interesting point that we all need to understand as marketers.

From Seth’s post:

We don’t need paid professionals to do retweeting for us. They’re slicing up the attention pie thinner and thinner, giving us retreaded rehashes of warmed over news, all hoping for a bit of attention because the issue is trending. We can leave that to the unpaid, I think.

The hard part of professional journalism going forward is writing about what hasn’t been written about, directing attention where it hasn’t been, and saying something new.

(Back to Kyle) The random mention of paid professionals retweeting was a little off topic… in my opinion. However, it does bring up an interesting point.

In a world where days mean nothing and seconds are everything… how do you create content that is new? How do you create something that will be shared? Not because it is a trending topic but because it is original. And because it helps your bottom line.

There are many social media consultants who talk about retweeting, friending, following, building content calendars, and automating tasks. I’m at fault as much as the next… we create content calendars and systems in order to gain more attention online… and we tend not to focus on the important part of the overall puzzle.

Systems and automation are important but only a small part of the puzzle.

One extremely small part…

The biggest puzzle piece should be – our content. The biggest issue in marketing, content creation, and story telling is the lack of…. actual content. Real content! New content!

Let’s say you are having a dinner with important guests. It is important that you find a professional cook… because frankly… you are terrible at cooking. When interviewing for the meal… are you going to hire a professional cook to reheat the leftovers or create a meal that will dazzle?

The same applies to your marketing.

I’m still an advocate of creating your own content but if you need to hire a professional… talk about real content. What does it mean to them and how does it drive revenue.

kyle lacy
(blog) www.kylelacy.com
(join) www.smallerindiana.com
(tweet) kyleplacy

We’ve all been there. After an extensive and thorough search for a key manager, one candidate stands out. This candidate has the right experience, solid qualifications, and a relevant work history, and has given an impressive performance during the interview process. She said the right things, put forward some great ideas and generally presented very well. You commit and make the hire. Three months later, you begin to question your decision. Your new hire’s team appears disgruntled, morale is low, and output and productivity are well behind the figures from the previous quarter. After investigating further and speaking with a few key team members, you realize there is a disconnect—a mismatch. While the hire looked impressive on paper and presented well during one-on-one interviews, your new hire’s style, approach, and behavior on the job are simply inconsistent with the values and expectations of your organization. Your new hire is not a good fit and you need to make a change. We are going to look at seven reasons this could be.

1. Inadequate Capability

Don’t judge a book by its cover, and don’t believe what you read on a resume!

Capability refers to the skills, tools and experience that a person needs in order to successfully perform her job. When any of these factors are missing, there is an increased chance that the employee will underperform.

Diagnostics that help you identify if an underperforming employee has adequate capability:

Skills—Do you know what skills are needed to perform the job and whether the employee possesses those skills? If she doesn’t possess the necessary skills, how will you help her acquire them, and how long do you expect that process to take? Skills training takes time and money, and results are never guaranteed unless there is adequate commitment from both the manager and the employee.

Tools—Even if an individual has the skills and experience to do the job, does he have the tools to deliver peak performance? The tools don’t have to be the most up-to-date, they just need to work well.

Experience—Just because an employee has the skills to do a job doesn’t mean that he has the experience to apply those skills in his specific position. This is especially true for recent graduates, outside hires from different industries and internal hires from different departments.

2. Poor Job Fit

“Fit” reflects the behaviors and interests needed to succeed in a job

Many people fall into the trap of choosing a profession or job that is a bad fit. We are who we are. Our “mental DNA” is influenced both by our genetics and our early life experiences, and it is almost completely formed by the time we are 20 years old. Rather than trying to understand ourselves so that we can choose a calling that builds on our strengths and aligns with our interests, we choose jobs because of peer pressure and societal influences.

Skills can be taught, but behaviors are much more difficult to change

Skills can improve through training and mentoring, but it takes tremendous effort and motivation to change natural behavior. If an individual isn’t motivated to change, then he probably won’t.

It is important to understand a person’s innate behaviors and interests when trying to match him with the right job. Know the job, know what type of person is successful in that job, and then hire others who have the behavioral traits that fit that job. This is easier said than done because it is difficult to gauge behaviors in a job interview, but behavioral assessments can be extremely helpful.

3. Fuzzy Goals and Accountabilities

Clear goals help focus and motivate employees to achieve the desired results

Employees need to be very clear about their responsibilities and about the results you expect them to achieve. Daily work and priorities are easily affected by the crisis of the day, new requests or changes in direction. Setting and tracking SMART goals helps your employees focus on what is most important to your business, and clear accountabilities help ensure that the work gets done with minimal conflict.

Use SMART goals to create clarity and improve the employee’s performance

Specific–Your employee has a much better chance of accomplishing a specific goal than a general goal.

Measurable–Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set.

Aligned–The individual’s goals need to support the organization’s priorities.

Realistic–To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work.

Timed–A goal should be grounded within a time frame; otherwise there is no sense of urgency.

4. Poor Relationship with Manager

Do as I say and not as I do…clear as mud!

A poor relationship with one’s boss is the number one reason for failure at work. There are two common flashpoints that adversely impact performance.

1. The employee is unclear about the manager’s expectations. Goals should cascade down from a manager to his employees so that everyone understands how they contribute to the objectives of both the team and the organization. If an employee does not understand the goals she has been given, or if she hasn’t been given goals at all, then it is on her to seek clarity.

2. Managers fail to adapt their styles to the employees’ preferred styles. Every employee/manager relationship is unique and requires a different management approach.

Managers and employees who understand each other’s preferred styles will better understand how to communicate and work together effectively. We have identified seven factors that strongly predict the compatibility between a manager and her workers. These are: self-assurance, self-reliance, conformity, optimism, decisiveness, objectivity, and approach to learning. Assessing a manager and her employees allows her to use objective information about herself and her workers so that they can work more effectively toward a common goal

5. Poor Relationship with Co-Workers

Can’t we just all get along?

There are four primary factors that harm relationships among co-workers:

1. Insensitivity toward others–Insensitive co-workers damage any sort of team dynamic and potentially expose the employer to hostile work environment and employment discrimination law suits.

2. Unclear accountability–Conflict between interdependent employees or groups emerges because they are unclear about business objectives, priorities, and deadlines, as well as processes and resources for delivery.

3. Poor cultural fit-Cultural fit refers to the employee’s compatibility with the organization’s values and mode of operation. While the employee presents well on paper and performs well during one-on-one interviews, the employee’s style, approach, and behavior on the job are simply inconsistent with the values and expectations of your organization.

4. Incompatible styles–Co-workers have communication styles and natural behaviors that simply don’t mesh well with one another, and neither is willing to adapt his style. This creates conflict and hostility, which creates stress and distraction for the entire team.

6. Health and Wellness Issues

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

Approximately $260 billion in output is lost each year in the US because of health-related problems. Whether they are absent from work altogether, or present but working at a reduced capacity, employees suffering from physical or mental illness have difficulty performing at their peak.

Employees spend approximately 36% of their total waking hours at work. This makes the worksite an ideal place to provide workers with the knowledge and skills needed to help improve attitudes and behaviors concerning health.

A comprehensive worksite health promotion program typically contains six elements:

1. Education about—and encouragement of—healthy living, focusing on overarching lifestyle changes. Disseminate information and build awareness of healthy living issues, preferably tailored to employees’ interests and needs.

2. Supportive social and physical environments. This includes implementing policies that promote healthy behaviors and reduce risk of disease.

3. Links to related programs that help employees balance work and family life.

4. Worksite screening programs ideally linked to medical care that ensures follow-up and appropriate treatment as necessary.

5. Processes for supporting individual behavior change with follow-up interventions.

6. A continuous improvement process that enhances the program’s effectiveness.

7. Physical and Environmental Factors

Snug as a bug in a rug

Numerous behavioral studies have proven that a pleasant and comfortable work environment improves worker productivity and reduces turnover. For example, indoor temperature affects several human responses, including thermal comfort, perceived air quality, sick building syndrome symptoms, and performance at work. Researchers in Finland showed that when the interior air temperature was 86°F, worker performance was 8.9% below worker performance at the optimal temperature of 71.6°F.

Physical Factors

1. Workplace layout encourages efficient communication flow but minimal disruption

2. Ergonomically correct workplace reduces fatigue and distractions to reduce errors and injury

3. Safety awareness and concerns that can cause stress and accidents

Environmental Factors

1. Temperature

2. Air Quality

3. Lighting Conditions

4. Excessive Noise

5. Traffic

Indeed, it has been found that a productive work environment requires that management be able to positively motivate its employees in an infrastructure that is amenable to employees’ needs.

Dan Lacy
Growth & Profit Coach, Financial Strategist, Cash Flow Doctor, CEO Mentor
dan@dynastybuilder.com
phone: 765-644-8887