Don’t be Stingy

When you give away something (advice, a trial offer, or a sample), you engage people’s natural tendency to give back/help those who are giving/helping them.

Does your business engage the reciprocation machine?

“Other people like you are doing it”

In your marketing, are you telling your prospects about others like them who are benefiting from your product or service?

Testimonials and stories – social validation is a powerful tool!

Do you care about you?

Call me crazy if you want.  It’s 11 am on a Wednesday.  I’m on a plane sitting in close quarters to a lot of people.  I’m not going to a vacation destination.  The guy next to me is playing solitaire.  Someone else is listening to music on an iPod.  Others are reading fashion and pop magazines, or the magazine in the seat back pocket the airline gives you. Some are sleeping.  How many people care about making themselves better by reading, writing, learning or doing productive work so they can improve their earning ability?

Apparently amusement, comfort, and entertainment are the priority for most.  That’s fine by me.  But that forfeits any valid complaint they may have about their present situation.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a free country.  I don’t care.  It’s easy to get ahead here – there’s not a lot of competition.

Are you investing in you?  How would your actions answer that question?

Make things happen

You’re in one giant room with all your competitors.  There are those that make things happen, those that watch what happens, and those that wonder what happened.

Your job is to make your company one of the ones that makes things happen in your industry.

Make it happen.

Hire people for who they are

Hiring people and trying to change them into who you want them to be is like marrying someone and doing the same.  It doesn’t work. 

Instead, find out what their real talents are – new and existing people alike – and put them in roles they will excel in.

People will never be who they aren’t.  They will consistently be who they are.

Figure them out and go with it.

Do What You Value

If you say one thing, and do another, people will pay attention to what you do.

If you do what you value, you’ll have to say it a lot less and people will get it.

You’re the leader.  Be out there.  SHOW them what matters.

“Low Mass Business”

Agility matters in times of change.  While your organization should know what purpose it serves and to whom, it should be able to change the way that purpose is fulfilled quickly.  The greater a physical, financial, or psychological commitment your organization has to the past way of doing it, the more vulnerable you are to be wiped out, slowly or quickly, by some new player who doesn’t give a damn about the past.

Are you a lumbering vulnerability?

Say NO

As the leader, people will have lots of suggestions for you.  Do this, meet with them, take this on, do this project, attend this event, sell this product, and on and on.

Sure we need to try things and get out of our box.  But if you say yes to everything, you’ll have less time to make anything great.  You’ll also have less time for you and your other life, and drive yourself nuts.

Make the yeses of yesterday great.  Say no.  A lot.

Motivation

You can’t motivate people.  You can only find people who are self-motivated (most people have some motivation), and don’t demotivate them when they come in the door by treating them like numbers, thieves, dummies to be managed with over control and mistrust, or lack of any communication or training.

Is your company an outlet for people’s inherent motivations to be pursued?

Recruit winners

We make a mistake assuming everyone wants to win – that everyone will do their best. Sure we can release better stuff out of people than their last employer did, and we should. But some people just don’t have it in them – they don’t care or see what’s in it for them personally.  Or they say they want to win, but it’s behind ten other things they value more.

You need winners in key positions – sales, marketing, management.

Do you have the winners you need?