Today is the third anniversary of a day registered by a friend of mine, Stephanie West Allen.

Today is What You Think Upon Grows Day.

This concept is hard to ignore and certainly isn't a new idea - witness Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy; think about such things."

Philosophers and writers have said in different ways through the centuries, and they are all correct.

What we think upon grows.

It isn't so hard.

Think about things you want and desire. Think about abundance not lack. Think about positive things.

Think about love.

Think about peace.

What You Think Upon Grows.

We can apply this in our lives personally, and we can model it with great power.

If I am a leader, how should I think about my team? By focusing on their faults, or by being mindful of their potential?

If I am a trainer, expecting great things from willing learners will get me mucfurtherer than assuming people don't want to be in the workshop.

If I am trying to be more creative, think creative thoughts.

Assume the best of the Customer making the unusual or challenging request, and you will render better service.

I could go on, but you get the idea - think about it.

Happy Anniversary to the day. Thanks Stephanie for making this happen.

To read more of Stephanie's thoughts on this concept, go to her article.

Also posted in Creativity, Customer Service, Leadership, and Training

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I am an early riser. My family knows it. My neighbors know it. And many of my colleagues and Clients know it. I know that in the early morning is some of my most productive time.

Lots of people have asked me about why I rise early and I have always felt that part of it is habit and part of it is biological. And while I have always told people to find their own rhythm, it is hard to question that most of the most productive people I know get up relatively early.

I mention this because I read a very interesting blog post early this morning on Steve Pavlina's blog called, How to Be an Early Riser. Steve writes much about his own strategy and approach, why being an early riser makes sense to him and how to change your own sleep patterns.

I finished reading the post largely agreeing with him - speficially on three major points:

1. Go to be when you are tired, not when the clock says it is "bedtime" He says don't go to bed unless you can fall asleep within 5 minutes. This has never been my strategy, but has always been my practice. Listen to your body and sleep when you need it.

2. Use reading as a gauge. If you can read and keep reading, you probably don't need to sleep yet. If you are dozing after a page or two, it is time.

3. Finding a standard morning wake up time has great benefits. While I am not quite as regemented as Steve, I would guess I am much closer to his description than most people.

If you think about sleep, would like to modify your sleep habits, wonder about the connections between sleep and productivity, I encourage you to read this post. It has certainly struck a nerve with some people as at the time of this writing it has 93 comments (many of them worth reading too).

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I read about a great approach to identifying creative ideas, especially suited for generating new product ideas.

Don the Idea Guy's Post is called Build Successful Ideas From Trends.

He suggests that it is easier to sell an idea that has a factual basis, especially in a business setting, and it is hard to disagree. Hi suggestion? Take facts or trends that you read and use them as the basis or spur for creativity. He has a great example, and walks the reader through it in an interesting way.

While you are reading the newspaper, listening to the news or reading your favorite blog today, watch for a trend, and see if you can use it to help you generate new ideas!

Also posted in Creativity.

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Networking is something I have been working on getting better at in the last year or so. Some who know me think I'm a natural at it. I'm not sure I agree. Even if someone is a "natural" at meeting people and finding common ground for a connection, that is just a small part of being an effective networker.

My desire to get better at this skill has led me to learn much by reading, observing others who are skilled at it and doing more of it myself. I find it an extremely valuable, rewarding and fun way to build my business by first serving others.

That's why I was interested to get a sheet of paper from a colleague, Hazel Walker, known as the Queen of Networking (hey, that is what is on her business card) in Indianapolis. Hazel owns the Indiana BNI franchise and is one of my networking mentors.

The sheet of paper lists 16 Proficiencies of Social Capital and Networking. (You can read the list HERE).

While there is lots of great stuff on this list, number 1 of Level Two struck me right away:

- Consistently Follow Up and Connect with your Network.

This is so important and too many people I've been around don't follow-up. I know that I sometimes have faltered in this area too, but you can't overstate its importance.

If you schedule time to go to a conference, party or networking event, schedule time to follow-up. If you leave the conference without time in your calendar scheduled for calls, thank you notes and other connecting, you won't get it done.

And if you don't get it done, you wasted the time in making initial connections.

Follow-up

Follow-up

Follow-up.

Make it your mantra.

Gotta go - I've got some thank you notes to write.

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I recently recommended Bernie Dekoven's blog in my ezine Unleash Your Potential, and today I realized I should have shared that review on my blog as well.

So now, I will rectifiy that omission (and I will likely run some other great recommnedations in the next couple of days too. So here it is.. an edited version of my recommendation for Bernie Dekoven's Deep Fun FunLog.

There are blogs, and weblogs, but only one (that I am aware of) FunLog. This blog, written by brilliant designer and maven of fun, is well… fun.

Any given post might relate thoughts on the value of fun to our work, or describe a new game for your consideration, or describe an interesting website, or share insights from a recent project he has worked on.

In other words, this is a site where the specific content may be random, but the niche is clear. The niche is fun, or as Bernie’s URL defines it, Deep Fun

Among the posts since I made my initial recommendation, the post on Baggyball caught my eye. (Yes I said Baggyball.) In typical Bernie fashion he describes a new way to make a "ball" of sorts, then describes the invented game of Baggyball, complete with rules. It is a perfect introduction to Bernie and his mastery of well, Deep Fun.

Take the time to click over and read some of his blog - I promise you'll have fun.

Also posted in Creativity, Teamwork and Training.

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I do.

Why? Because I don't drink coffee.

Yesterday morning I went into my local Starbuck's for a meeting and ordered a Grande Earl Grey tea, because, like I said, I don't drink coffee.

They were out of Earl Grey, so as I paid for my flavored hot water I said "just give me Awake", knowing that it is another good black tea flavor.

And they were out of it too.

I ended up drinking some herbal tea variety which was fine, but not the reason for blogging about the experience. I blog about it because as they handed me the Vente size (the big size - larger than I ordered), they also handed me my money back.

Some people, with a different perspective who might be having a bad day might have been quite peeved by this lack of inventory management. While I was inconvenienced I was happy to pay for my drink regardless of the flavor. But they insisted on giving me my money back.

It is a simple gesture, done automatically and without thought - in other words they didn't wait to see if I looked upset (I think I was quite pleasant) to offer the refund and no one went to a policy manual either.

It was simply good Customer focus and Customer service.

You may be thinking it is easy to give me my money back because their real cost was insignificant - a little water, a cup and two tea bags. And while that might be true, but if you stop at that you have missed the lesson.

Starbucks won more of my meetings, and many coffee and tea orders, even though I can't be on wireless internet access there for free, because of the gesture. Their residual revenue from my decision is significant.

They won more of my business for the gesture, but the gesture came from great hiring, training, and systems that made it a very pleasant and automatic service recovery.

And whether you drink coffee or not, you can learn from that.

Also posted in Customer Service, Leadership and Training.

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As a leader we must remain focused, as I stated in Tip #5. It is equally important that we help others keep their focus.

We can do that by modeling - being focused ourselves.

We can do that by setting priorities that don't change frequently, allowing people to focus on those priorities.

We can focus on focus - in other words letting people on our teams know how important it is and that it will be an area of coaching and encouragement.

Focus creates clarity and leverage - and is something worth focusing on.

Also posted in Leadership.

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You may have noticed that I, like many other bloggers have a list here of other blogs I read. Those on the list are ones that relate to the topics I write about. But I read many other blogs too.

I read blogs about sales, marketing, business, PR, and blogs about blogging.

Wayne Hurlbert's Blog Business World is one of those on the list. I had read it for some time and then, at the start of the month Rosa Say of The Talking Story Blog, asked me to contribute to a process of giving a "lei" or positive review of one of the other blogs in her Community.

I was pleased to find that the blog I was "assigned" was Blog Business World.

Wayne's focus is helping entrepreneurs think about marketing, blogs and more. He does a great job of that with very frequent posting (better than me, certainly in the last few days). His posts are longer than many other bloggers, but that certainly isn't a problem, because he writes clearly and always has something great to say.

While I could point to many specific posts, two within the last couple days have been especially valuable to me and reading them will tell you what I mean about Wayne's valuable content.

Last Friday he wrote Podcasts: How professional should they sound?. Since I have been playing with the idea of doing podcasting the timing was good and he provides both great insight and links to other pertinent resources.

The day before that he wrote about bloggers as event speakers. Since I speak, I found this an interesting thought - to be willing to speak on the topic of blogging. Whether that makes sense for me, it certainly makes sense for many of my fellow bloggers.

If you can't tell by now, if you are interested in marketing, and all things blogging from a business perspective, you will be pleased by both your first and many subsequent visits to Blog Business World.

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As leaders we often have many competing issues, challenges, and tasks (that is certainly how I feel both as a leader and a human being today). Guess what?

That is life.

To be an effective leader we must continue to be focused. We must provide a consistent vision of the future we are leading people towards.

Of course we can have new ideas. But the new must be prioritized and more importantly, discussed and created in the context of your focused future vision.

It is the only way you will succeed. And it is the only way those you lead will remain productive and enjoy their work.

Focus.

One thing at a time.

Focus.

Put everything in proper perspective.

Focus.

Also posted in Leadership.

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Last week I facilitated a two day Internal Consulting Skills Workshop. As a part of that session we talked about expertise and how most people don't value the expertise they have.

One of the first things we need to do to be more successful in getting our expertise valued and used (a great way to think about consulting) is to value our own expertise.

I've thought about it a lot since the session ended - trying to convince people quickly that they under-estimate what they know.

Then I saw one of my daughter's coloring/activity books. Along with the pictures to color and other simple exercises, I saw a Connect the Dots puzzle.

From the context of the other lines/pictures on the page I had some idea what the picture would be when she connected the dots, but it wouldn't be clear until the pen went from 1, to 2, to 3, etc.

That is what we need to do - connect the dots. Our expertise, knowledge and perspective allows us to connect the dots for others.

As a leader, give people enough context and background to really understand a task or action plan, in other words, connect the dots. (This is equally important as a parent.)

When helping Customers, use your expertise not in a way of talking down to but in a serving and educational way. When the Customer understands your offering better and in a more complete way they will value you what you have offered. You have connected the dots.

When teaching or training someone on something, whether as a trainer, coach, leader, parent or what ever, use examples. Give people an idea of the nature of the situation. Give background. Give additional data. Connect the dots.

In so many ways when we begin to value our expertise (recognize that not everyone already knows what you assume to be obvious) we become more confident, productive and valued. Recognize that I am not talking about becoming arrogant or condescending. In every case my suggestions come from a serving, helping perspective.

Your expertise can help others in dramatic ways, if you take the time to help them connect the dots.

Also posted in Leadership, Customer Service, and Training.

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There are all sorts of days to celebrate all sorts of things. With slight cynicism many think some of these days are created by Hallmark or some other card company. Nurses Day and Sibling Day are two from the last week alone.

One of these "made up days" that few are cynical about though is Mother's Day. While it is the busiest day for dining out, is the day with this highest long distance phone traffic, and is among the highest volume days for flowers and cards, people don't seem to mind.

It is easy to see why.

It's Mom after all.

My mother has played a central part in every stage of my life.

She gave birth to me.
She nurtured me in the days and months before my memories began.
She cleaned cuts and scrapes.
She taught lessons about living with honor and grace.
She provided me with a shining example.
She taught me the beauty of flowers.
She taught me the importance of and joy in reading.
She taught me my first card game (one she made up - "Matched Pairs").
She supported me with I was mentally or emotionally hurt.
She is one of the two or three people in the world that can make me laugh until I cry (and sometimes hurt).
She has cried with me.
She has brightened my day with a phone call or email.
She has believed in my dreams.

She also makes the best pies in the world.

She has provided me with both an example of love and selflessly blanketed me with that love in every day of my life - including some days when my actions probably didn't warrant it.

I could write on, but I won't. You see this is just the smallest of tokens to proclaim my love for my mother. It is written for her.

It is also written for you. Because it is because of feelings and memories similar to mine that we all make Mother's Day what it is.

I'm sure you will talk to and show your love for your mother today. Beyond that though, do it a week from Tuesday and on September 6th and the day after Halloween.

Mother's deserve more than a day. They deserve constant reminders of our love and appreciation.

Happy Mother's Day Mom.

I love you.

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... is the title of an article at FastCompany.com. Lots of people have blogged about it. After reading it, I know I could comment on several components of the article.

One major message is that change happens more effectively when it is reframed to the right emotional connections. Since change IS hard, and since we know that we really make decisions for emotional, not logical reasons this shouldn't come as a surprise, and yet the examples shared in the article are captivating.

The article ends talking about us as learning beings, something certainly dear to my heart and a part of my personal and business philosophy.

If you haven't gotten the message yet, I hope you will read this article. :)

Also posted in Leadership and Training.

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I recently worked with one of my Clients, Indiana Farm Bureau, to discuss with their organization the differences between process and project work. I helped them uncover some differences and see how more and more of their work is becoming project based, rather than purely process driven. This realization that they are having is true in most organizations. More work is becoming project based.

Then, yesterday, a participant in an Effective Internal Consulting Skills workshop made a comment that struck me as profound.

She said, "I get called in for project work or panic work."

Panic work.

I'm guessing you either smiled or cringed as you read that phrase.

Far too many people in far too many organizations know what panic work is. We call it by other names: Urgent work, problems, or putting out fires, but we are all too familiar with it.

Panic work comes when our processes aren't well enough set, defined or followed. Panic work comes when we haven't established processes at all - or haven't changed them in 20 years.

Some people thrive on panic work - they love the challenge and the adrenaline rush that comes with solving the problem, satisfying the Customer in a dramatic "save" or otherwise "saving the day."

While people might profess to like it, it is one of the biggest challenges that organizations face. Too much of our work is panic work. We don't invest the time to build, document and/or improve standard processes. By having standards, we free ourselves to use that adrenaline for more creativity, new product development or delighting/Wowing Customers.

As more of our work becomes project based, the only way, paradoxically, that we can succeed is by making our processes more solid. This will reduce the panic work and allow us to use our potential to create even greater results.

Thanks to Patti Besuner for the phrase.

Also posted in Customer Service, Creativity, Leadership and Teamwork.

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