Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Honesty Does Pay
Monday, April 29, 2013
Why you should write daily
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
How well do you trust yourself?
Monday, April 22, 2013
The customer is whoever gets your work next
This weeks sparkenation.
The famous Japanese Industrialist Kaoru Ishikawa once remarked
"The customer is whoever gets your work next."
In moving house recently I have experienced some brilliant customer service and some very poor customer service. The challenge in one instance has been when excellent and poor are from different organisations and one is relying on the other. As a result of the poor I have not yet received what I need. Of course the brilliant is now a distant memory.
Are there strong links in every aspect of your supplier-customer chain?
Be the difference you want to see in the world.
Ian
More sparkenations.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
The Web Site Guide: What Not To Worry About
Even though social media has become more prominent in your marketing, your Web site is still one of your most important online tools, because it's the place people go before they eventually decide to do business with you. However, many business owners are making some common mistakes with their Web site, possibly because of things that used to be true in the past. Here are five things you don't have to worry about with your Web site.
1. Don't worry about re-doing your graphic design.
It seems some Web site owners change their site design more than they change their underwear. A new design alone won't magically transform your Web site - any more than a fresh coat of paint will magically transform a retail shop.
Sure, if your site looks dated or amateurish, and that's turning away business, it might be worth considering a new design. But most Web sites aren't in that situation, so a new design won't help.
For most Web sites, though, the real problems are in the navigation and content - in other words, how people find their way around your site, and then how useful they find the information they read. So do worry about that, and leave the design to another day.
2. Don't worry about a fancy home page.
The home page is the first page that most first-time visitors will see. Its purpose is to show them immediately the site is worth investigating further, then convince them you understand their problems, and then lead them to another page within the site. You can't do this with a big graphic or flashy animation. It's OK for the home page to look good (in fact, it should), but not at the expense of leading the first-time visitor to the next page.
3. Don't worry about social media links.
It's become a common trend to include links to your social media platforms - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and so on - prominently on your site. Although there's nothing wrong with that, think about what this is trying to achieve. The real purpose of these social media sites is to lead people to your Web site, not the other way around.
Do worry about making it easy for people to get in touch with you directly. Include contact information, including your e-mail address, phone number and perhaps even a postal address if appropriate, prominently on your site - preferably on every page.
4. Don't worry about a static Web site.
It wasn't so long ago that I was recommending that you keep constantly updating your Web site with new articles, videos and other content. That helps to keep the site fresh, and encourages site visitors (and Google!) to keep returning to it.
However, that's because less important now, as long as you have a blog for this purpose. Your blog should be the place where you keep posting new, relevant, high-quality content - and that will lead visitors back to your Web site.
If your blog happens to be part of your Web site, then the site automatically stays fresh and current. But even if your blog is separate, it will still attract visitors to your site.
5. Don't worry about getting more traffic.
What??? Am I really saying you shouldn't care about getting more traffic to your Web site? Yes ... sort of!
Of course, in theory the more visitors you get to your Web site, the more successful it will be. But in practice, most Web site owners try too hard to get more visitors and don't work enough on convincing those visitors to take action.
If you're already getting some visitors to your Web site, look at ways of making the site more appealing to them, and focus on converting them to take action. That will probably be far easier - and more profitable - than trying to get more visitors.
Look at it this way: If 1 out of every 100 visitors to your site takes action (and that's not an unrealistic amount), then 99 of them are not taking action. If you can convince just one of those 99 to take action, you'll double your profits! Contrast that with the effort it takes to double your traffic.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Gifts and high performance with Jim Cathcart - the recording
Jim provides some truly great insights into as he says "nurturing our nature" including our velocity and our natural values.
My next candid conversation is on May 9th. My very special guest will be David Penglase, author of Intentionomics. Details here.
Be the difference you want to see in the world.
Ian
PS
To purchase your copy of Jim's wonderful book The Acorn Principle that includes a chapter on our natural values please go here.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Knowing when to clear and when to be ambiguous is a hallmark of great leadership
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Handling Appraisals: A Leadership Challenge?
- Excellent Appraisals - Give Credit to Your Team. You have every right to enjoy the moment that is culmination of your hard work. However, the rating is also a measure of contribution made by your team. Make your success a measure of the team's collective performance and express your gratitude to the team publicly. Not only will your team share your happiness, it will give them inspiration.
- Average Appraisals - Display the 'Never Give Up' Behavior. Throughout the past year, you have been egging your team to deliver on each project/task, coaxing and mentoring them to tide over challenges and obstacles, now its your turn. Remember, the next financial year has already started, and you have goals ahead of you.
- Poor Appraisals - Decide your Options now. You should have known it coming if your boss has rated you poorly. Surely, you have not delivered somewhere. The options are to either resolve to make a dramatic recovery to prove your bosses wrong, or to quit and move on. Clearly, your organization considers you dispensable. The choice is your's; to prove them wrong or right. However, the main requirement still remains - remain stoic, and in control. If you do that, your team will develop a greater respect for you for displaying such leadership behaviuor
- Before the Meeting. Make sure that the location allows meaningful and respected discussion, with no interruptions. This appointment should not coincide with a period of great work urgency. Give sufficient notice to the team member for sound preparation and allocate sufficient time to do the occasion justice.
- During the Meeting. Go through the job profile along with the goal sheet of the employee. Highlight the real priorities and recall if there have been changes in targets, methods and/or people. Also recall the general performance level of the employee during the period and recollect details of any highs/lows in performance. Consider if employee needs more knowledge or increased skill and recall any other known need. Prepare some key points to make and key questions to ask.
- At the Meeting. Give due recognition for good outcomes in performance and put shortfalls in context of the total job. Keep in mind that the purpose of performance review is to move towards improvement in job performance and personal attributes, hopefully on a joint basis. Remain watchful for reactions of any kind to all that happens at the meeting and then respond appropriately. Keep a firm grip on own emotions.
- Dealing with Conflict. If conflict does arise, it needs attention. This means that you should have already considered what your reaction should be. The following are some of the techniques that you could use: -
- Hostility must not be ignored; it must be dealt with
- Don’t fall into the trap of responding with an emotional reaction
- Listen attentively and show you are doing so
- Listen open-mindedly; this comes through to the other party
- Keep control of your own features, smile when you can
- Make frequent eye contact
- Control your body language, for example, don’t tense up
- Show you appreciate the importance on the issue to the other person
- Use the other person’s name quite often
- Be courteous and friendly and control your voice
- Let the other person see that you expect normal behaviour
- Analyse the true cause of conflict and apologise, if appropriate. If not, don’t
- Gently, but firmly, get back to any unfinished business
- Don’t let the meeting end on a bad note
- Use ‘I’ language. The employees should speak for themselves and express feelings and opinions clearly.
- Direct Criticism. The criticism should be directed at something said or done. It should not take the form of a personal attack.
- Tell Consequences of Action. The employee should be told exactly and concrete terms what has been done or left undone and what the consequences were.
- Identify Behavior Changing Possibility. The criticism should be directed at something the employee has the possibility of changing in the future. He/she must be given the chance to express feelings and explain behavior.
Why team building is out and team growing is in
Monday, April 8, 2013
Build more of a home wherever you belong
This weeks sparkenation.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Dual Leadership: Success or Failure?
While the empirical evidence on leadership structure is limited, much of the recent evidence appears to support the view that separating the titles of a CEO and Chairperson would improve corporate performance. Firms that switched to a dual leadership structure had better long-term performance than firms which maintained combined leadership.
To an extent, the shared leadership between the Mrs Sonia and Dr Singh has worked to an advantage. At times when Mrs Sonia bore the brunt of the opposition over her loyalties, or her plans to prop her Rahul Gandhi for the PM slot, it was Manmohan who deflected the attacks by highlighting more important decision making and economic issues. And when Prime Minister drew flak on his timid nature and display of lack of aggression and urgency in certain sensitive issues, Sonia was able to take a step forward to plan some strategic alliances to create a political climate that engrossed the other parties and the media and gave him the much needed space.
However, in a blog on the same subject, the author says, "The duo of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh was once hailed as a perfect combination – she directs the policy as the UPA and Congress party chief and he implements as the head of the executive. Somewhere down the line the combination has stopped working and instead has paralyzed normal functioning of the government. Sonia Gandhi’s proclivity has been populist and supposedly pro-poor measures like the NRGEA which leak with corruption on way to delivery. She is not enthused about economic reforms and growth measures which the Prime Minister would like to take up and which are expected to bring in prosperity to be shared among countrymen. But Manmohan Singh cannot move an inch without approval from 10 Janpath which is not readily forthcoming. So there is a paralysis both in policy planning and implementation."
- The dual leaders must complement each other. This have been formalized in the Bales-Parsons model and according to these ideas one leader should be instrumental and one expressive. The instrumental leaders is characterized by a more instructive, enterprising approach and the expressive leaders are characterized by a more solidary, thought provoking view on leadership. Even though the model makes clear that one leader could posses both the instrumental and the expressive leadership abilities it is made clear that the case with two leaders complementing each other is the preferred one.
- The leaders must know how to cooperate and respect the authority of the other leader. Any differences in the leaders (e.g. the growing divide between the opposition party BJP's leaders Rajnath- LK Advani )
Friday, April 5, 2013
How many times have you really wanted to do something – take your leadership the next step up, follow your heart’s desire, committ to a new goal but have shied away? Pulled back because you felt you weren’t ready, the time wasn’t right or you got distracted from what really mattered?
It is one thing, if there were legitimate reasons for not taking action. However, many a time, we have also not done what we really wanted or taken that next step because of our limiting self-talk and underlying beliefs. Thinking and beliefs like – “I just need to do one more course before I am ready” (then another and another!); “can I really do that” or “what if it doesn’t work out?”
We talk ourselves out of things even before we begin. Our dreams, desires or goals beckon but we don’t honour them sufficiently; instead – prioritizing it to a vague another day, another time, maybe never.
But what if this was the only time you had and the time is now? Last week while having coffee with my friend and colleague, Amanda Fleming and discussing our work and business, we both agreed that, “the time is now.” This is also a sentiment I have heard echoed with my clients, colleagues and friends. Perhaps it’s a gift of the aging process, a recognition that we need to move and do what it takes if we want to give our dreams, aspirations and inner knowing a chance. There is potency as we realize that life is not limitless and we feel compelled to give it the best shot we can; whatever it takes.
Interestingly studies have also shown that when older people were asked about their regrets, their answer was not what they did but more what they didn’t do. From a mindfulness practice, the time is indeed now as this is the only moment we get to live in and experience. And in the moment, as Eckhart Tolle says – there are no problems or issues; only awareness.
So how about you?
1) Is there something you would love to do or be but you are putting this off and have been doing this for a while now?
2) If the time is now, what might you do that you aren’t doing currently?
3) What might you commit to and what might you let go off?
Regardless of our age – the time is now – so give it all you got!
Jasbindar Singh is a coaching psychologist and leadership development coach based in Auckland, NZ.
16 ways to help your employees to feel more valued, fulfilled, and loved
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Is Your Optimism Sabotaging Your Online Success?
Many business owners are optimistic, and that's usually a good thing. There's a lot of evidence to show that optimists tend to be healthier, happier, and have better relationships than pessimists. But it isn't all good news! There are also some things that optimists don't do as well as pessimists, and they can be holding you back from achieving your goals. This applies in many areas of life, but is very common with Internet marketing, which usually takes more time and effort than most people expect.
Here are five common mistakes that optimistic business owners make with their Internet marketing strategy, and how to overcome them.
Mistake #1: Setting expectations too high
There's nothing wrong with dreaming big dreams and setting "stretch" goals, but if your expectations are unrealistic, it's easy to become disappointed quickly.
For example, you might start publishing a blog or e-mail newsletter, and expect it to bring you a lot of incoming traffic, and a lot of profitable incoming traffic as well. Unfortunately, this rarely happens you're very lucky. Building a following online takes time and persistence. If you expect too much too soon, you'll be disappointed - and there's a risk of giving up too soon as well.
So don't expect too much too soon. When you start, focus on the process, not the outcome; and measure your success by the quality of your material and the consistency of your publishing it.
Mistake #2: Expecting it to be too easy
This is related to the previous point, but it refers to the process rather than the outcome. Overly optimistic people under-estimate the amount of time, effort, focus and money involved in doing tasks. In other words, they expect things to be easier than they really are, which can lead to disappointment, frustration and stress when the rubber hits the road.
For example, you "know" creating video is easy, because millions of amateurs upload video to YouTube every day. But when you come to record your own videos, you might be surprised at how long it takes to get it just right.
With many online tasks, the only real way to know what's involved in a task is to actually do it. So to overcome this problem, get started as soon as possible, and then use that experience when making future estimates. In other words, don't estimate how long it will take to record 20 videos. Record one video instead, and then estimate how long it will take to do the other 19.
Mistake #3: Overlooking potential problems along the way
Overly optimistic people also don't think about problems and obstacles along the journey, so they don't have contingency plans, alternatives and backup strategies in place.
For example, you might delegate your social media management to a smart, savvy, Gen Y staff member in your organization, but what if she leaves one day - and leaves you in the lurch? If you don't have some backup plan in place, this can bring your entire online strategy to a grinding halt.
The solution to this problem is easy: Create contingency plans. You don't have to cover every possible thing that could go wrong, but at least consider the most obvious possibilities. You will usually find it doesn't take much to be able to recover from small bumps along the way - as long as you have considered them in advance.
Mistake #4: Failing to learn from failure
Most people who go on a gambling trip to Las Vegas will lose money. But the optimists who return to Las Vegas are likely to lose more money than the pessimists. That's because the optimists brush aside their losses from the first trip (for example, "Oh, well, at least I didn't lose that much") rather than learning from their mistakes.
This happens with online marketing as well. I've seen many people try something online, discover it isn't working, and then give up with a shrug of their shoulders, happy that it didn't cost much time and money. That might be true, but they often never find out why it didn't work, and will probably make the same mistake with the next thing they try. This is especially true with many online marketing techniques, because they really don't cost much to get started, so it is easy to shrug them off if they don't work, rather than investing time and effort in making them work.
Mistake #5: Not putting a safety net in place
Overly optimistic people jump into a new venture head first, cutting all ties with the past and assuming they will never have to take a step back. Now, there's certainly something to be said for creating this sort of forced commitment, but it isn't always appropriate, and it's sometimes very risky.
For example, when Facebook first launched its "Pages" service, which allowed organizations to create their own presence on Facebook, some business owners (foolishly) decided to close down their Web site and e-mail newsletter, and turned their full attention to their Facebook page. But that wasn't a smart choice, because they no longer owned their online properties, and were subject to Facebook's whims.
Be a realistic optimist!
Have you made any of these five mistakes? If so, at least realise you're not alone!
This doesn't mean you shouldn't be optimistic - far from it. The secret is not to be overly optimistic. Be optimistic, but be a realistic optimist.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Are you listening and taking appropriate action when your employees tell you the truth?
Ian