The poor blind man sat on his matt in front of the building begging for money with a sign that read "Please help, I'm blind." A lady approaches the blind man, grabs his sign, turns it over and writes something on the back -then puts it back and walks away. Suddenly the blind man is receiving an unprecedented amount of cash and alms -so much that he is almost unable to keep up with the amount! What did the lady write on his card that caused so many people to give so much -so quickly to the blind man? You can watch the short video by clicking on this link here (to find out): http://youtu.be/pzjEzohHmaM

The power of stories... I had you as soon as I started writing you that story didn't I? Stories cause our brain to stop what it's doing and pay attention. As human beings -our brains are wired for stories. The problem is that most leaders forget this fact. We tend to spout off concepts and theories rather than stories and -not only lose our listeners -but cause our listeners, our friends, or our employees to forget the very important concept we want to get across.

To increase engagement (and therefore -results) try this...

Think about the concept or principle you want to communicate. Then ask yourself "What is an incident in real life that I know about or have experienced that best illustrates this concept?" Then tell the story.

I have a client who has a company that services pulp & paper mills all over our province. They are very big on safety. They want to communicate to their people to always respect the pressure washers they use and to never randomly fire the washer at anything soft. Here's the story they tell their people...

"A few years ago we had a new employee start using this washer. They were amazed at the pressure that it fires off at and they wanted to feel it with their hand. When he put his hand in front of it it immediately sliced off their ring and pinky fingers. It was quick and was over before he even realized his fingers were missing. Please respect the sprayer and never use it randomly on soft objects. Ever."

That's it. Simple and short and unforgettable.

The next time you want to get something across to a group of people or to someone special in your life -use this process. It works!

According to BusinessCoach.com -here is a complete list of reasons why companies succeed. See how many of these you have in your own business! (They aren't in any particular order)...

• The leaders are very clear about their commitment to the future of their business and use outside professionals for advice.
• They have a well written strategic plan.
• They have a written down mission, vision, or purpose statement clearly defined and over-communicate it to employees.
• They have clear communication of company goals and Company commitments (or Core Values).
• They have an up-to-date procedures manual for employees to follow.
• They operate by the philosophy that no one person is more valuable to the company than another.
• They have a written down marketing plan or marketing strategy.
• They have a complete understanding of the market and competition.
• They have adequate capitalization.
• The leaders of the organization are committed to being powerful (NOT forceful).

Christmas time can be overwhelming -even for the best of us! Instead of giving into your negative emotions there are things that you can do to inoculate yourself against them and even create empowering states of happiness throughout the season! Check out these top 10 tried and true methods for thriving in the holidays...

10 Tips for Thriving at Christmas Time...

1. Use the power of acceptance for get-togethers! Don't work on major family or business issues right now! When you're in-laws arrive on Christmas day -that is not the time to deal with major family issues! Write them down -deal with them in the new year in a way where you can work through them. It's unrealistic to expect that you will overcome years of negative emotions and triggers in an afternoon! Change your self talk to: "That is exactly how that person is supposed to act -because they do!" Practice accepting people (your relatives) for the way they are and the way they aren't. As for business -it is not the time to go through your personal list of why you can't stand your coworkers or your boss. If you need to deal with personal negative issues then don't choose the company Christmas party to do it! Again, practice acceptance and you'll be far less stressed and you may even enjoy yourself!
2. Powerfully CHOOSE what you want! You don’t have to attend every staff party, family dinner, kids’ Christmas concert, or dinner party you’re invited to. In fact, the more functions that you unwillingly attend, the more you may be setting yourself up for possible holiday depression and the post-party blues. To decrease holiday stress, prioritize your time and energy by choosing what you want. Saying NO can be a breakthrough for some people!
3. Laugh. Watch funny movies, rent old episodes of Seinfeld, take your kids or young family members skating, skiing, or snowshoeing. Start a "bad joke" contest (informally) with your coworkers (this is where you try to come up with the WORST one liner possible, ie: Why did Captain Hook cross the road? To get to the second-hand store). I read one time of a group of Buddhist Monks who would do "laughing meditations" where they would just start laughing. Once you start it's pretty hard to stop! We know that laughter lowers stress and improves blood flow, which increases your energy levels. The more energy you have, the less likely you’ll be to be overwhelmed at Christmas.
4. Stay spiritually grounded. Because I'm a Christian I take extra time each Christmas season to read my bible more, pray more, and spend meditation time with God. Whatever your religion -this focus on the inner spiritual man can really help supercharge you when being with others over the holidays! I don't think it's ever a bad idea to focus on your spiritual well-being.
5. Get enough sleep. I know this may seem obvious but sometimes we need reminding! A few months back I was going through a rough emotional time and realized that I wasn't getting more than 3-4hrs of sleep a night. I was running full out (in life) and wasn't paying attention to my physical needs as much. So for a few nights I turned all my electronic devices off (at one point I left them all in my office downstairs) to get some much needed sleep. I was amazed at how much more emotionally stable and empowered I felt! You can also be creative -like have a nap in your car at lunch or pick a part of the office that's abandoned and nap it up! I have a colleague who naps EVERY day in the afternoon. He sets his iPhone to wake him up in 45mins and naps. Get your sleep baby!
6. Start new traditions. Sometimes to really thrive in life it's a great idea to start a new practice or tradition! 2 years ago I started the tradition of buying a REAL Christmas tree on my wife's birthday (Dec 17th) to put in our bedroom. She loves the smell of real trees and also loves having a tree in our bedroom! It gives me something wonderful to look forward to and experience. Instead of doing the same old thing every year during the holidays -just sit down right now with a notepad and start to create new ones! Have a brainstorming session with your partner, spouse, or family. Watch them get all excited about it! When you come up with an idea that you like and want to do make sure you schedule it into your calendar so it GETS DONE!
7. Get enough sunlight. Seriously, this is really important people! Some people struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or the winter blues and it's no laughing matter. One article I read said that ALL of us struggle at some level with these disorders and some way more than others. We need to make sure we're getting enough light, even if we're indoor. Consider buying a light box, or research natural ways to lighten the winter blues. I take suppliments like Vitamin D and melatonin which are both stimulated by sunlight, and they both play roles in improving mood and facilitating sleep. Sunlight will help reduce your holiday stress, improve your mood, and help you THRIVE!
8. Mindstorm. Schedule 1hr a week to take a blank sheet of paper and a pen (yes a pen and paper! -no iPads here!) and write out on the top of the page "The most critical problem I need to solve in my business is..." Or "in my life is..." whichever you prefer! Then write out the problem. Write it out again. Ask yourself "Is this REALLY the problem?" Then write out the "real" problem. Once you are satisfied with how you articulated the problem, number down the page from one to twenty and start to list possible solutions. The key here is to have fun! Come up with creative ideas. Just knowing that you are working on the most critical issue in your life or business will give you greater self-esteem, confidence and energy to thrive!
9. Delegate responsibilities. If you’re hosting a big family Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner, ask everyone to help out in some way. The more support you have, the more you'll be able to get done! My wife and I do 2 Christmas dinners during the holiday season at our home -she organizes the whole thing a few weeks prior -complete with various family responsibilities, the menus for the night, shopping times and who does it, cleaning duties, and any and all things pertaining to putting on a large dinner gathering. The funniest thing (to me) is how everyone thinks these things "just happen" and are completely unaware of the work put into it. We love this though -because it is great feedback that we are doing it well!
10. Eat Healthy. Stop the inner story that tells you that you can take a "break" from your eating regimen because it's the holidays. Your body reacts the same whether you are on a holiday or not! I practice tip #1 when they try to get me to eat garbage over the holidays. I'm also careful not to make anyone feel wrong for encouraging me to eat the garbage or if they eat the garbage! Each of us is responsible for our own bodies! When you take on this way of being to eat healthy -you will really empower yourself! The challenge is "Can I get through the holidays and win the game of eating healthy -even through all the temptations and peer pressure conversations?!" When you do it -you'll definitely THRIVE!

Have an AWESOME thriving Christmas!

I often have clients and colleagues ask me what a distinction is. This is because in the type of Business Coaching we do here at Maximum Impact -we use distinctions throughout our programs and trainings. I wrote this to answer the question "What is a distinction?"

Distinguishing Distinctions...

A distinction is one of the 4 basic pattersns of thought (the other three are: Systems, Relationships, Perspectives) and it involves giving concepts an identity or name and distinquishing it from other concepts. All fields of knowledge involve distinction-making. It is a universal thinking skill.When we make distinctions, we form impressions of what something is and single out the things it is not. So a distinction is really a boundary between what something is and isn't.

Once a person distinguishes what something IS and what it ISN'T it becomes part of their schema for understanding the world, automatically. This "knowing" about what something is and isn't bursts through to our conscious awareness in such a way that we have an experience of the difference(s) emotionally AND intellectually.

For example, when you distinguish balance on a bicycle for the first time. This phenominon of "balance" -once experienced- cannot really live in your memory. It lives as part of your "body." A distinction persists like this. The kind of learning that we are talking about here is more of a somatic nature than an intellectual nature. You can know about balance intellectually and even write several papers on it. It is not a matter of knowledge or knowing enough about balance that produces the distinction balance. You distinguish through taking some kind of action with your body. By viewing your body as separate (but related to) your brain and something that has the ability to learn (just as much as your brain) you can start to distinquish balance. So distinquishing balance begins with you taking action on a bicycle. You start to play and do things and persist with the bicycle. You start to discover what balance IS just as much as you discover what it IS NOT. You come to know the boundary somatically! At some point you "get it!" Once you "get it" you cannot UN-get-it!

When you are presented with a distinction -like Integrity- you will only get it by what we call at Maximum Impact "trying it on." This means that you inform yourself of what integrity IS and what it IS NOT. You start to create the boundary. But in order for you to really GET integrity as a distinction. Just like playing on the bike -you need to play with the concept that we present. You take what we say integrity is (and isn't) and apply it to your real life in real time. You wear it like the concept is your concept and not ours. You get feedback from a coach that can point out to you that "this is in integrity and that is out of integrity" and so you somatically learn the "boundary" of this distinction. What will keep you from getting the distinction integrity (or any other distinction for that matter) is beginning with the view that you already know what integrity IS and what it ISN'T. Because if you begin from the assumption that you already have the distinction then you cannot create it freshly or newly in your schema. Remember that our view of integrity is completely empowering and powerful and leaves the person empowered when they are out of integrity and empowered when they are in integrity. So if I (as a coach) call you out on your lack of integrity and you have the experience of being embarressed or feeling guilty or disempowered in any way -that result informs you that you still haven't GOT our distinction of integrity. On the other hand -when I call you out and you have a burst of energy, freedom, or joy -being empowered -then you GET it and can operate in it.

Integrity is one of the most difficult distinctions to get because 99% of humans don't (or are unwilling) to give up (for the moment) their current distinction of integrity (ie: their current BOUNDARY of what it IS and what it ISN'T).

For example, take the famous FedEx logo below. For some people -recognizing the forward pointing arrow in the picture (as illustrated by filling in green in the negative space) will be a new experience and for others who have already experienced (or distinquished) seeing the arrow -you won't be able to ever look at the FedEx logo again without seeing the arrow. This illustrates the power of distinctions.

Once something is distinquished it cannot be un-distinquished! And what I'm talking about here is somatic learning! The moment you distinquish the arrow -you have a wonderful experience. Like seeing something newly for the first time! There is an emotional burst. Biochemically your brain releases chemicals that give you a sense of wonder and joy. Most people have a reaction of joy. They will smile. They will have a rush of energy. They will feel possibility flood their being.

This isn't anything new. We are just putting words to describing it.

Remember the first time you distinquished yourself as an identity? There is ME and the me I am is not THEM! You intellectually, then somatically created a boundary between you and others! You're thoughts may have resembled something like this: "These thoughts and feelings and this body is ME and everything else is the OTHER." That is the distinction "identity."

How about when you distinquished death? You know when someone is dead and when they are not dead. You didn't have to study for years to distinquish that either!

The reason we deal in distinctions is because they powerfully and quickly alter who we are being in the world. Our coaching is based on shifting who the other person is being -not what they are necessarily doing. Having the same way of being and doing different actions usually doesn't alter results very dramatically but when you alter your way of being then actions that become available to you via this new way of being can very quickly and dramatically alter your results!

By Regina Brett



To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.

 It is the most-requested column I've ever written. When my odometer rolled over to 50, I updated the list.

Here it is:
1.

Life isn't fair, but it's still good.


2.When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.


4.Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.


5.Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.


7.Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.


9.Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.


10.When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.


12.It's OK to let your children see you cry.


13.Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.


15.Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.


16.Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.


18.A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19.It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.


20.When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.


22.Overprepare, then go with the flow.


23.Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.


24.The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"


27.Always choose life.


28.Forgive everyone everything.


29.What other people think of you is none of your business.


30.Time heals almost everything. Give time time.


31.However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32.Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.


36.Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.

37.Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38.Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.


40.If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.


41.Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.


42.Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.


43.All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.


44.Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.


45.The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.


47.Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.


48.If you don't ask, you don't get.
49. Yield.


50.Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift...

Regina Brett is the author of God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours. Her book is an inspirational collection of essays and stories about the lessons life taught her along the detours of life. 
 
She was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist twice, in 2009 and 2008 for columns she wrote for The Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper. Learn more at www.reginabrett.com

You have decided to step it up!
To "amp up" your personal or professional growth curve!

You have booked the workshop, ready to read a book a month and look for a Coach.

Congratulations!

Here is one often misunderstood area essential for personal growth.
FEEDBACK - It is the major tool in growth and development. In order for you to get the most out of your efforts to improve, let me offer a few truths about feedback.

Here is what I have observed about feedback that may work for you:

1. Feedback is the breakfast of champions – It is what all serious learners seek.

Sometimes feedback is winning a race, or losing money on an event – these outcomes tell me some things that I am doing that work, or do not work. The feedback is neutral, not right or wrong, not good or bad. It is simply a clue to me to examine what I am doing. To observe what worked or what is missing. To “course correct” to get better results, or not – and get the same results next time.

2. All feedback is valuable – people see things differently than I do – they have a different perspective. Not right or wrong, not good or bad – but valid because it is their perspective. And valuable because how else will I know how other people see me unless they tell me?

• It just is… the feedback.
• It is impersonal.
• It is how I occurred to them.
• It is valid because it is their experience of me.
• It is a clue for me to examine what I am doing.

3. I don’t have to agree with all feedback - in fact people are not looking for my agreement, they are simply seeking to serve me, by giving me their perspective. Wow! How great, that people care about me enough to give me their feedback. I want to be hugging them, thanking them.

4. I cannot grow without feedback. Therefore I seek it out, I speed it up by doing more, asking for more, listening more and changing more – not to please others but to become more of what I am called to be… I cannot get there on my own I need others to give me feedback.

Doing more means I get more feedback, and that means I grow faster. If I ignore feedback then I do not grow. It is your responsibility to examine what you are doing to cause feedback to come from people in a certain way. “I am the cause of every effect.” You create all feedback from who you are being at that moment.

What might work for you:

Accept all feedback with “Thank you for that feedback.” Or “Thanks, I will give that some thought.”
Rejecting feedback may communicate you reject the person, and that you are not interested in growing – and that is not true of you.

Always be willing to give honest, positive and appreciative feedback to others when the opportunity presents itself.
Sow the seed of feedback in others and reap the blessing of feedback in your own life and performance.

See people as valuable human beings.
As soon as we label people, name them anything other than human beings, we diminish them and we ourselves are self-deceived.

We are closed to the great learning that is there for us.

And I am not committed to that!

Leadership Positions’ Job Descriptions

The Leader/CEO/President: Since you are ultimately responsible for the measurable results (profits) of the organization your priorities are: hire people,TRAIN people, delegate.

Vice-President: Since you are going to be held responsible by the President for the results (profits) of the department you must recognize your priorities are hire people, TRAIN and DEVELOP people

Manager: Since you are going to be held responsible for the productivity of the team - you must recognize your job is hire people, TRAIN people and motivate your people.

The key determinent of innovation is your PEOPLE
The key determinent of profitability is your PEOPLE
The key determinent of productivity are your PEOPLE
The key determinent of customer satisfaction is… your PEOPLE

Have you guessed how you need to adjust your current job description?

The only question is: “Can you react to this reality quickly enough to save your job, your team, your company?

99% of Organizations I work with are overwhelmed. Or over committed or are experiencing some kind of over capacity. This will help you deal with that!

Bob Dunham (Newfield Network) has some powerful distinctions around this concept of [what I'm calling] overwhelm and I want to share them with you...

First of all as human beings we are fundamentally observers and actors in the world. We observe (experience, assess, and form ideas based on what we see or observe) constantly and the better we get at this the more powerful we become. We also are actors -we take ACTion from how we observe. So what do you observe about being in overwhelm?

Overwhelm is driven by an opinion, an assessment that there's more to do than what I can do. It's a construct inside the mind. A story about how we are observing life and circumstances. We need to start here.

There's also emotional spaces we go through when we experience overwhelm. It produces a series of emotional spaces that lead down a downward spiral. These emotional spaces can be labelled as the following...

1. Heroic: this is when the worker says something like "I'm going to take care of this on behalf of the organization. It may take some long evenings -even some all-nighters but I'm going to bite the bullet and get this done!" So the strategy to experiencing more to do than they can do is to do more! Most of us only see this strategy and follow this line of reasoning.
2. Hopefulness: When being a hero starts to occur as not working -when we realize that there really is way more to do than what we can do we enter into an emotional state of being hopeful. We say something like "Good things happen to good people right? So I'm sure this will work out!"
3. Fantasy: When things aren't working out for us we drift into an emotional state of fantasy. This is where we aren't connected to reality. We ignore the warnings others are giving us and are stubborn. We keep plodding through the muck and mire thinking that we will get there. It is a space beyond being hopeful.
4. Resignation: The next phase is that we are resigned. It is a kind of disappointment. We see the world as a place where we can't win. Others win but not us. We give up the idea of winning altogether.
5. Cynical: This is where we are in an emotional space of believing that the world will never let us win. We may or may not be down about this "fact" but that is exactly how it occurs to us (as a fact).
6. Criminal: This emotional space is where we make promises even though we know we don't have the resources or ability to carry them out. We have no intention of carrying it out but we go and make the promise anyways. This is where integrity and responsibility do not even exist in the framework of the mind.

It takes awhile to get to Criminal but there are ways we can deal with our overwhelm before we get too far through the spaces.

We need to first of all be better observers of ourselves. Recognize that we are in overwhelm. This is the place to start.

The most powerful way to do this is to calm our body and emotions. This process is called "centering." Centering is about calming the body and the mind.

What centering does is allow us to take action from a calm mind rather than from a space of panic. It will allow us to look for the BEST interpretation of our current circumstances.

One of the most powerful methods for centering can be found in Stuart Heller's book "Retooling On The Run: Real Change For Leaders With No Time" on pages 33-35 (Called "The Practice Of Centered Presence"). I highly recommend it!

Other ways to get centered are to go for a walk. The idea is to get out of your current circumstances and shift your point of view. The key to overwhelm is that we are "locked into" our current way of viewing because of how the world is occurring to us. So if we "walk out of" our current occurring world -we can walk into a different one. From the "different one" we can look back into our former one and see things we couldn't see before.

We can also get centered by having a shower, walking our dog, going to Starbucks and getting a coffee. When you experience overwhelm -there are really powerful things to do in order to get into a more productive space!

Sometimes leaders I work with get to the point where so much is happening they can experience an increasing inability to control their agenda and are left resigned and frustrated. If this is you right now -that's awesome! If it isn't you right now -then at some point it will be! Either way -listen up! :-)

What is going on is that you are spending way too much time reacting to the day-to-day demands of managing the business. You are wondering how you will ever be able to spend more time on activities that will truly make a difference. Here are the hidden keys...

This is NEVER a time-management issue. Ever! It is strictly an issue of priority. We always spend time on things that we consider a priority.

Be willing to question EVERYTHING on your agenda. Are these activities the best way to fulfill the legacy you are passionate about? (or the "end-in-mind" you are passionate about?).

Know the intrinsic 4 areas of leadership accountabilities of all leaders and the amount of time (in percentages) that you should be spending on each area. They are...

Ensuring good management of the present business (25%-40%)
Creating a COMPELLING future (25%)
Nurturing a network of key relationships (10%-25%)
Empowering your team to be extraordinary (25%)

More on these...

Ensuring good management of the present business (25%-40%)

• maximize what you've currently got
• ordinary leaders spend 70% of their time here
• extraordinary leaders spend somewhere between 25% and 40% (depending on the circumstances)
• your job as a leader is to ensure that OTHERS provide strong management of the current organization
• also that others get on with creating the vision for the next life of the organization

Creating a COMPELLING future (25%)

• if you are not creating the future, no one else is doing it and it is not being done
• fact: your organization will pay dearly for the lack of a compelling vision, a solid strategy, and a business model that truly supports the strategy
• shift from being mainly concerned with the "how" (how you are operating, how efficient you are, etc.) to being mainly concerned with the "what" (what opportunities to pursue, what partnerships to form, what technologies to back, and what experiments to start)

Nurturing a network of key relationships (10%-25%)

• create a large, powerful, and meaningful network of key relationships
• crucial to the implementation of the future as well as to your present success
• what is possible for your organization increases dramatically when the depth and breadth of its relationships increase
• in this area you can expand your ability to capture or participate in new business opportunities by nurturing relationships with key suppliers, key clients, key government leaders, or potential partners!

Empowering your team to be extraordinary (25%)

• increases organizational capacity
• don't only be concerned with leaving a business legacy of hard assets: understand the impact of leaving a people legacy as well
• 3 fold role here: 1. get individuals in key leadership positions to be high performers, 2. get teams to be high performance teams, and 3. Coach the next generation of leaders

(Source: Your Coach (In A Book) by: Robert Hargrove & Michel Renaud)

Application trumps information.

This is one of Maximum Impact's "themes" as it were. We love this theme because of the truth behind it.

No matter how much we THINK about something -THINKING about it makes absolutely NO DIFFERENCE out here in the real world. We tend to think that what we think about an issue or a strategy in business makes some kind of difference. I get caught up in this kind of thinking all the time!

It's when we can take an independent action. An action that is separate from our thoughts about it. It is in THIS state that we start to produce different results. As a coach I am most concerned with your results NOT your philosophies, ideas about, or conclusions you have drawn about any given subject. I can't coach your thoughts. Your mind is not available to me to SEE how it works!

In business if you have the idea that you have to AGREE with something before you do it -you'll get left behind. When I worked for companies I was asked to do tasks and carry out strategies that I thought were completely stupid and irrelevant. I didn't agree with it. I sometimes had conversations about that but most of the time it never worked in changing whether or not I was to carry out the strategy or task.

It was ONLY AFTER RESULTS were generated (or not generated) when I had some power to have a conversation about those strategies or tasks. It is because results matter! What you think about them doesn't matter so much.

I ask my clients to take certain actions. Even without agreement to those actions. This measures their level of coachability and will also have them doing something different than they are used to. The ones that are not coachable like to argue and try to take the focus off of themselves (they're not taking any action about most things!). I request that they argue with me by using the results through action instead of using their mental faculties. There is usually resistance at any turn!

As soon as they take action and decide to be coachable they start to see very different results (this really does mess with their head). By then they usually GET what coaching is about. It's about RESULTS!

If you want to have intellectual conversations then you would need to hire a therapist! :-)

from the desk of Mary Mershein

Lululemon shares were $2 in 2007. Five years later they were $76 and the company was worth $10 billion. One reason for the growth was the creation of "scarcity" in which stores kept only a limited supply of merchandise. Low inventory levels forced customers to buy or lose out when the item goes out of stock, creating a buying frenzy. Lululemon also rarely sold items on sale, even charging over four times the price of similar items at the competition.
Costco was the first company to grow from zero to $3 billion in sales in less than six years. As of Feb 26, 2012, net sales for the first half year were $44 billion. Similar to Lululemon, Costco carries many items for a very limited time, encouraging customers to buy while they can. Costco does not carry multiple brands or products whose cost is too high, even if it’s a popular brand such as Coca Cola. Costco also does not stock extra bags or packing materials. Products are delivered to stores on shipping pallets and displayed that way, rather than arranged beautifully on shelves. There are also long lineups at the cashiers, hefty membership fees and the inconvenience of buying items in large bulk sizes.
In 1919 the first Loblaws grocery store opened using a new retail concept called self-service, the opposite to the traditional full service. Under full service, store employees fetched items for customers, weighed items and calculated the total purchase. The total was then added to the customer’s account for later payment. Home delivery was usually included free of charge. Under the new self-serve model, customers browsed freely throughout the store, picked-up their own goods without the aid of a staff person and then paid at a central cashier. There was no payment on account or home delivery. As with Lululemon and Costco, popular items might not be in stock to encourage customers to come again. Despite the lack of service, Loblaws is now Canada’s largest grocery store chain. On Dec 31, 2011, Loblaws had annual net earnings of $769 million on revenues of $31.25 billion.
Selling at an inconvenience. Refusing to sell. Selling out. Self-selling. High price selling. Low price selling. Selling directly from shipping pallets. Selling memberships. Creating urgency to buy through scarcity. These are all NOT the typical sales tactics of a traditional retailer where full service with plenty of convenience and a variety of in stock products arranged beautifully on shelves are the norm. Yet, these tactics drove these companies to success.

Accounting does not record sales strategies as having any value even when they are the key success to generating sales and company growth. In contrast, financial statements record inventory. More inventory increases the assets on the balance sheet and the value of the company. Yet it was the lack of inventory which often created the sales frenzy to drive the growth and value of these companies.

How does your company sell its products? Is there plenty on the shelf or limited supply in hot demand? How do you sell yourself?

©2012

Mary Mershein, CA is a professional accountant with a master’s degree in management who believes common sense is our greatest financial analysis. Additional common sense can be found at www.moosemoney.wordpress.com.

I went to Disneyland last week for a long awaited family vacation.  We were excited to get off the plane and be greeted by the sunny hot weather of southern California after leaving Vancouver’s grey wet skies.  The sun was shinning, the palm trees were swaying, and our hotel pool…was being painted.   The staff at the hotel “felt our pain” and were able to upgrade our room to a much larger family suite.  We were initially very upset as the pool is a big part of our vacations, but the willingness of the staff to work with us and  find a solution helped cool us down.  Besides, we had access to the pool right next door so we could live with the compromise.  What impressed me though, was the helpful attitude of the hotel staff.   In fact every Disney employee we encountered had the same pleasant and helpful attitude toward us…and especially our kids. 

 

Being a person who is always evaluating employee performance and quality of service, I was happy to see this trend repeated everywhere we went no matter what time of day.  It didn’t matter if it was the hotel manager or the guy cleaning the street at the end of the day, everybody had the “Disney attitude”.  Disney understands that their people contribute as much, if not more, to the visitor’s experience as the rides and Disney characters do.  Almost every Disney employee took the time to bend down to eye level and have a short, friendly conversation with my kids no matter how busy it was.  This focus on customer service is one of the reasons why the Disney organization has continued to grow during times of recession.   Disney also knows that if they “wow” you enough with customer service, you forget you’re paying $3 for a bag of chip and $8 a beer.

by Mary Mershein

On May 16, 2008, it was announced that major renovations, including a new retractable roof, would begin on BC Place Stadium at an estimated cost of $150 million. The BC Place Stadium was re-opened in September 2011 with actual cost of repairs a whopping $563-million.

On March 5, 2012 The BC teachers went on strike asking for a 3% increase in salary. The B.C. Teachers' Federation estimates this increase will cost $1.3 billion over 3 years. The B.C. Public School Employers' Association estimates $2.1 billion. In three years the actual costs will be known. Will they bear any resemblance to either of these estimates?

The dictionary defines an estimate as a calculated approximation which is USABLE. Is an estimate which varies so much from actual usable?

Wall Street estimates the new Apple iPad will sell 1 million units on March 16, 2012, the day it is scheduled to go on sale. If it sells more than 1 million will that mean Apple management did a great job or that they under estimated sales with bad data?

John Sculley was CEO of Apple from 1983 to 1993. Under his management sales at Apple increased from $800 million to $8 billion, in constant growth that exceeded all estimates. Steve Jobs did not work for Apple during this period of spectacular growth. He left Apple in 1985 and did not return until 1997.

When Jobs took over Apple in 1997 as CEO, Apple had revenues of $7 billion. Five years later, revenues were down to $5 billion. All estimates predicted this was the end of Apple and Steve Jobs.

But it was actually just the beginning.

From 2002 to 2012 Apple revenues exploded to $108 billion. This is achieving more than 10 times the growth of John Sculley. Today Apple is now more profitable than Microsoft with half the number of employees. Who estimated this? Who predicted in 2002 when Apple was a money loser on the brink of bankruptcy that it was actually on the brink of spectacular growth? Perhaps it was Steve Jobs. He did not estimate sales and profits. He estimated a vision of amazing products that the world wanted. It was this vision that made Apple.

It is a requirement under the rules of accounting to disclose estimates made by management in financial statements. However, vision, the most important of estimates, does not appear in financial statements.

What kind of vision do the leaders of your organization have? Do you have a vision that can grow a company from bankruptcy to $100+ billion in 10 years?

©2012

Mary Mershein, CA is a professional accountant with a master’s degree in management who believes common sense is our greatest financial analysis. Additional common sense can be found at www.moosemoney.wordpress.com.

Had an interesting conversation with a manager today.

• He has some big goals. That is good.

• He has some desire to succeed in his new position of management. That is also good.

• He has no tools to develop people.

Without developing people, new goals of bigger numbers are like Fantasy Island – you know it exists but you can’t get there from here!

His response in the past is to move some people out, hire new ones and start over. He likes to think he is tough enough to succeed – he shared the stats on his turnover rate like it was a positive example of how strong he was.

Hmmmmm. Maybe not the best plan….

Since most people are not familiar with what it takes to develop people, we suggested some “Maximum Impact” options which included transformational content – and timely help with specific application. A plan of “life on life” mentorship, and yes even a “money back” satisfaction guarantee.

Got this interesting response.

“This is not a good time for us to do something like this.”

Do you ever have that moment when there is a sudden inner dialogue in your head? Thoughts fly through that you know you will never say out loud?

My inner voice:

1. No, a good time would be 5 years ago – but since we can’t go back and repair the damage done to dozens of people that have failed here and left beat down, don’t wait another minute!

2. Oh were you thinking that developing people is something that is supposed to be easy? Something you can do when you have nothing else on the schedule? When would that be, exactly?

3. Did you think it will be like rolling downhill – taking the path of least resistance? Sure, sure this is something that we can do part-time in the summer, when half the people are on holidays and the other half barely working 3.5 days a week.

4. Don’t be afraid! We can help you with this – your people are dying for some help and we can help you get it for them…

My outer voice:

Thanks for your call….sure we can talk later….of course, yes, let’s do that.

My inner voice:

Sorry people, please forgive me.

I did not get through to this guy and there is no help coming.

Just bigger goals, bigger push, but no new understanding of what works.

In business we tend to ignore the soft skills and concepts and focus on getting dollars into our wallets. This focus limits the amount of dollars that will actually flow into our wallets! :-)

There's a basic soft skill that I call "being complete." This distinction is simple and powerful and will always yield a result in the business world.

When we are complete with things we are free to focus fully on the task at hand as well as operate from a creative paradigm.

How do you know you aren't complete with something? You can't let it go. It haunts you (or at least hangs around in your brain more than you are comfortable with). Getting complete can be difficult because of all the crap we have around it. Things can be over or "finished" but the person can still be incomplete. High School is a great example, there are people who have graduated High School, gone on to College and are currently in their careers who are still not complete with High School. The thought of getting complete about High School is misunderstood with the idea that you are somehow weak or mentally inept. Others may even judge you in saying something like "Dude, it was HIGH SCHOOL! 20 years ago! Get over it!"

But when you're incomplete there's no way to "get over" it. Because something's incomplete. You need to do something, hear something, or say something to get complete about that. Once you're complete -it will no longer weigh you down, get in the way, take up space in your thoughts, feelings, or being. It's gone. Done. COMPLETE!

Sometimes we carry incompletions around our whole lives and don't even know it. I had coffee with an old acquaintence a few weeks ago who wanted to make amends for something he did to me over 30 years ago. I was between 9-12 yrs old. I couldn't even remember the deed. He brought it up and pushed through the conversation. Feeling incomplete himself about the whole thing. I didn't think much of it at the time. I thanked him, told him I forgive him -and we kept talking for awhile then we went on our way. On the drive home I was overcome with emotion about it. Kind of snuck up on me. It was a wonderful experience to become free of a blind incompletion in my life. It was really peaceful. Again, the power of completion.

So what does this have to to with attracting business to you? Just EVERYTHING! When you are complete you become a clearing for more powerful relationships to arise. You start to serve others with more clarity and focus on them -not yourself. This is automatic as you become more and more complete.

All business is about relationships so it stands to reason that you will be increasing your relationships and therefore your business.

To get compete, take a book and write out EVERYTHING you can think of that you regret, are disappointed in, want to repeat (this could be a good thing -not just negative things!), or events that happened that you feel have shaped who you are today.

Next, ask yourself what you would need to do (any actions you need to take) that would have you never have to think of this event again. Or you may have to hear something (from someone or something online). Or you may need to get into communication with someone to say something about this event. To have that person really listen to you and "get" you. It is the act of being "gotten" that has completion occur.

Once you do this you'll notice things change in your life and business almost automatically because in a way you now are seeing life through a very different context. It's a new view that isn't tinted by the incompletions of your past hanging around.

This blog post is not complete. :-) 

by Mary Mershein
Founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson launched MySpace in January 2004. Six months later Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp./Fox bought MySpace for $580 million. By 2007 Myspace had 300 million users and was valued at $12 billion
.
During the spectacular growth Myspace users came to include businesses selling products, most notably bands selling music. As Myspace commercialized, the original users stopped coming. In June 2011 Murdoch sold Myspace for a paltry $35 million.

Today we see Facebook undergoing a similar trajectory. In February 2004 it was a place for students to make friends online. Eventually new members were anyone or anything. Facebook commercialized when companies joined as “friends” transforming Facebook into a marketing and customer relations tool. Now your boss is on Facebook reading your personal conversations.

As with Myspace, commercialization caused the original users of Facebook to leave. By June 2011 Facebook lost 7 million users in the US and Canada and growth slowed. It continues to slow in other countries. Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, announced a sale of Facebook on February 1, 2012 through an IPO. The IPO values Facebook at $75 billion.

But only time will tell if Facebook joins Myspace as a ghost town in cyberspace.

In contrast, January 27, 2012 marked the 132th anniversary of the patent for the electric light bulb. General Electric, the company that Thomas Edison founded in 1892 with his light bulb invention, has grown to over $750 billion. That is the equivalent of growing by $75 billion every 10 years for 100 years. Or, maintaining roughly the same growth as Facebook for 100 years.

After 132 years in business General Electric still sells light bulbs. After only 8 years, Facebook is no longer a website dedicated to students.

In January 21, 2011, President Obama invited the CEO of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, to become his economic adviser on fixing America's economy. Mark Zuckerberg was not invited.

Leadership is not about only starting, building, selling a successful business. Superior leadership is about a vision to create an enduring business.
What kind of vision do the leaders of your company have? The kind that means it will be around in 100 years?
©2012

Mary Mershein is a Chartered Accountant with a master’s degree in management who believes common sense is our greatest financial analysis. Additional common sense can be found at www.moosemoney.wordpress.com.

I came out to my car Saturday morning and found a ticket on my windshield.  I was pretty “ticked” off to use acceptable blog language.  The city had warned me that if it snowed more than 2” all cars needed to be off the road so the snowploughs can do their job.  Fair enough.  The problem was it called for rain and a balmy 5 degree Celsius temperature.  Hardly winter weather.  “Not a problem,” I told myself.  Ill just go to city hall Monday and explain that they have an over zealous by-law officer handing out tickets like confetti at a wedding.   Besides, I had a seminar to do that morning and it was time to put on my game face and practice what I preached. 

 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy to put the matter out of my mind.  I knew I couldn’t do anything until Monday, so why waste time and energy thinking about this injustice.  I kept throwing it out of my consciousness and it kept creeping back in.  It was like wrestling a 200 lb gorilla.   Eventually, I was able to replace the “ticket incident” with more positive and useful thinking, but it surprised me how much a part of me wanted to hold on to this.  Ego?   Pride?  Who knows?  Regardless of why I kept replaying the incident, it did go away with some effort.  Not right away, but it eventually evaporated and allowed me to put my time and energy towards more useful activities. 

 

All too often people don’t change mental directions when faced with similar situations.  Sometimes we need to force ourselves out of these harmful meditative states.   Eliminating these thought patterns as soon as you are conscious of them will give you more time for more productive thinking as well as protect against torpedoing your mood for the rest of the day.  You’ll be happier and the people around you will be happier.  I went to city hall the following Monday and showed them the errors of their ways.  I saved myself $50 that day, but more importantly I saved myself a perfectly good weekend. 

Companies don’t need a great leader! from Mary Mershein

Great leaders maximize their own personal goals.

There is nothing wrong with this. However, if the goals of these leaders are not in line with the goals of their company, these great leaders become bad for their company. 
Consider the British newspaper “News of the World” established in 1843. It was the biggest selling English newspaper in the world with a circulation of over 8 million at its peak compared to the Wall Street Journal which had a peak circulation of just over 2 million. 

 In 2007 the editor of News of the World, Clive Goodman, admitted to publishing articles obtained by phone hacking and went to jail. In 2011 the newspaper paid fines to the victims and shut down. The parent company News Corp. made 20% return on investment in 2011. The executives, including CEO Rupert Murdoch, profited while the newspaper was destroyed.

So how does an organization ensure management and the company both want the same thing?

The answer is communication. Rupert Murdoch and the other executives at News Corp. testified before a parliamentary select committee in November 2011 that they were unaware of any wrongdoings.

The higher up a manager is in the organization, the less connection there is with staff. Once you reach the Executive and Board level decision makers receive almost all of their information funneled through a few individuals. Sometimes they employ analyses which cannot show the entire picture of what is truly going on. This is how situations are created where those in charge benefit from the demise of the company.

However, when people talk to people, face-to-face, on a regular basis it is much harder to disguise the truth. There are no numbers to manipulate. There are no one-sided stories. Any deviations between what the company wants and what the individual wants become evident and can be corrected before harm is done.

Companies don’t need a great leader. Great leaders are individuals working towards their own goals.

Companies need fraternities. These fraternities are groups of leaders all working together for a common cause.

And the next time you attend a leadership training course, don’t go alone! Take the Board of Directors and the CEO with you.

©2012

Mary Mershein is a Chartered Accountant with a master’s degree in management who believes common sense is our greatest financial analysis. Additional common sense can be found at www.moosemoney.wordpress.com.

In February 2003, a group of tourists excitedly waited to embark on a hot air ballon trip over the beautiful Californian wine country. One tourist decided to help out the ballon crew by holding unto the basket as they were about to light the ballon's propane burner. As soon as the burner was lit, the ballon un-expectantly soared high into the air carrying the helpful tourist with it. In seconds the ballon went upwards, 10…100…and finally to 300 feet in the air before the tourist could no longer hold on and fell to his death in front of 30 other people.

As tragic as this story is, it is not the first time this has happened. In fact ballon crews are trained never to let both feet leave the ground.

This rule is not limited to the world of ballooning. We see this analogy in many other areas of life. The entrepreneur who finds himself deeper and deeper in debt and feels that sales will soon pick up and he'll be out of the red. The gambler who is in the hole and thinks his only chance is to continue betting in order to get that big win. The person who is married to an abusive partner and tells herself that her partner will change his ways.

As human beings, I think we all need a level of optimism. Lord knows I live on it. But we need optimism that is balanced with reality. How the situation really is…one foot on the ground. Our ideas, aspirations, and thoughts should be looked at in an objective manner, or better yet, seek input from someone who will. The old rule, safety in numbers is good to remember here as we may unconsciously seek out the opinions of those who we feel will support our ideas or stroke our egos. Look for several trusted sources to review your plans and ideas with. The more objective the individual the better.

There is always a certain amount of risk in any new venture, relationship, or path in life, but limiting your risk and knowing when it's time to cut your losses (or maybe not to start at all) is invaluable information. We need to be willing to take at least one foot off the ground if we want to grow and improve our environment, but having a clear cut off point or a turn around time is essential.

Once you get more information, experience, and stability in your new endeavour, then you can swing that foot on the ground into the basket and enjoy the ride.

 

Is this the end of the Internet?  By Mary Mershein

Companies are in business to make money.

Nowhere in financial records is there a place for ethics, morality, law abiding or decency.  Income statements recognize only financial gains and losses.  As a result, corporations are encouraged to maximize profits with actions that may not always be in the best interests of the public. 

This may include dumping pollution in the environment (Feb 2011 Chevron fined $8 billion for damage to the Amazon), hiring labor at slave wages in poor countries (July 2011 Nike employees in Taiwan earn 50 cents an hour) or treating staff so ruthlessly they want to commit suicide. (Jan 2012 Foxconn employees in China) 

Leaders of such companies include the richest people on earth who are frequently admired and respected despite these seemingly immoral transgressions.  In their situation, the end justifies the means.  So why do leadership courses continue to preach ethical behavior?  Why would companies, bent on profit, want ethical leaders? 

The answer is sustainability.  History proves over and over that a single minded pursuit of profit eventually leads to downfall. 

Google’s “Don’t be Evil” philosophy was created in 2004. It was challenged when it went up against China’s censorship policies.  When Google threatened to leave China in 2009 rather than comply with China’s censorship demands, Google’s share price fell by 8%.  

Google backed down and complied with China’s demands.  Later in 2009 Google dropped its “Don’t be Evil” motto.    

In 2011 Google faced censorship demands by India but this time there were no threats by Google to leave the country and no drop in share price.  Now, in January 2012 South Korea is considering adding its own censorship demands.   What country is next?  In the pursuit of profit how far will Google go?  When does this result in a censored internet? 

Will a censored internet even be viable?

Ironically the end of an open internet would mean the end of Google.  

We still need ethics and leadership courses to prevent decisions that result in short-term profits at the expense of the long-term viability of the company. 

What kind of decisions does your company make?

 

What kind of decisions do you make?

 

©2012  

 

Mary Mershein is a Chartered Accountant with a master’s degree in management who believes common sense is our greatest financial analysis.  Additional common sense can be found at www.moosemoney.wordpress.com.