Trust

Is there anyone on your staff you can’t trust?

Why are they still there?

Job Descriptions

The most important one you have to clarify is yours.  Write it down now.

What’s your job?  What are your duties each day, week and month?

Are these duties practical for one person? Will you be happy doing them all?

Are they the highest value things you could be doing in your business?

2013 Goals

Surely you have your 2013 business goals written down.  Where are they? 

If they are in your drawer and a secret they won’t matter to anyone but you.

Do the people that need to be involved to make the goals a reality know about them? 

Is there a plan of action for each dept/team member for each month and week to get there?

Ignition

Doing the same old thing but doing it faster or harder can be one way to get a little better result.  But for many of us this strategy will eventually wear us down, exhaust our enthusiasm, and lose our interest.

By taking on a new strategy, forming a new habit, and building a different ladder, we can ignite new energy and passion in us – even if it’s to get the same result.  It can be fun again.

Is it time for you?

Diminishing Returns

That’s when you try harder and harder and get less and less results.

Is “harder” the answer?

Or could “different” be the answer?

More of the same action…

If you do more of the same stuff you’ve been doing you’ll likely repeat this year, next year.

Is that what you want to do?

Dreamers and Doers

You dream of getting _______ result.  If you could shadow the person who gets _______ result now, from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed, what would they be doing?

What are their habits and patterns of behavior and action?

Are you doing that?

Multiplication

As a manager you are likely thinking about how to incrementally add to your effectiveness, add to your productivity, add to your efficiency and your results.

Add, add, add.

What about multiplication?

Death on a dusty window sill

Trying Harder…

A fly on a windowsill exhausts the last of its life trying yet again to hit the glass hard enough to break it and escape.  It doesn’t work, yet it keeps trying; to the end.

Meanwhile, a few feet away there is another window that is open.

“Trying harder” isn’t always the solution; and because it consumes so much of our time, energy and attention, it just may be a big part of our problem.

Feel what your customers are feeling

A bigshot called me personally saying his home needed service (looking for some special attention as if he would need it).  I was on the road, and I told him with confidence to call our 800 number and tell them you want an appointment (like everyone else).  He was very happy with the outcome.  

Pretend you are a propsective customer and call your own company for help.

What happened?

How do you feel?