Smart Things People Do At Work - Acknowledgement.

The number one reason why people enjoy and stay at their jobs is not money. Of course you do work FOR the money, but when employees are asked about what motivates them about work - acknowledgement tops the list every time. Quick question: Do you regularly and specifically acknowledge your direct reports?

Regularly: Not once a year - a more frequent basis would suffice. Specifically: Not a generalized statement: "You're doing a great job!" But a more specific one: "The way you handled the meeting today - you've come a long way. I'm so proud of you!".

When it comes to acknowledgement, do these four things:

1. Gratitude: Show real gratitude and insert it into your acknowledgement.
2. Honesty: Be sincere. No joking. Don't be flippant.
3. Focused: Get them alone, or catch them off-guard — "I need to speak to you . . . "
4. Enthusiastic: Don't make it sound like they are being fired. Smile. Make them feel the energy!

And don't go around the table or office and acknowledge everyone at the same time — that defeats the purpose.

If you regularly and specifically acknowledge your direct reports, you'll find that you will have a more energized and determined team. And how much does it cost? NOTHING. Start doing it today.

Stupid Things People Do At The Office – You Speak & Don't Listen.

This is a fast one - so keep up with me . . . Most bosses speak more than they listen. They think they know everything. They push their views onto their staff any chance they get. And that's STUPID.

1. Shut up.
2. If you must speak, ask questions.
3. Then LISTEN.
4. Ask more questions. LISTEN.
5. Then ask your people, "What do you think you should do?"
6. That's it. They don't want to hear your stories. They don't want you to tell them what to do.
7. They want you to guide them.
8. That means that you ask questions (to get them to think about the options), LISTEN (to give them time to weigh the options verbally), and then ask them what they should do (giving them the ability to guide their own work and empowering them).

When you do this - you are actually motivating your team - allowing them to take charge of their work. This also allows you to be part of the process - to gently guide them when they might go off course or pick them up when they fall down.

So next time you have an opportunity to pontificate - Shut Up, Ask Questions, and LISTEN. You'll thank me.

Stupid Things People Do At The Office – Work Overtime.

Statistics show that 75-80% of the corporate workforce works late 1-3 nights a week. Don't get me wrong here bucko — there are times during the year when you do need to work late — emergencies or a deadline deliverable to a client. Most of the time — working late is due to one of three reasons:

1. Poor Planning - On your part or your bosses. Remember the phrase: "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine?"
2. Time Management and/or Procrastination - You spend work time on unimportant activities and push the more important stuff to later in the day.
3. Showoff - The need to portray to management, the board, your clients, your peers, your staff, or even your family that you are a "hard worker".

Which one are you? Are you a composite of two or even three of these? I was. And it took me YEARS to realize this.

If you can't fit your position into a 40-50 hour window (that's working from 7 AM to 5 PM each day), you need to change a few things. So here goes (in no special order):

• You need to SDR - Streamline, Delegate, or Retire - You probably do too much. Leverage your staff and others to pick up the simple stuff. (check out my post)
• You go to too many meetings (see this post from last week on meetings).
• You haven't set specific boundaries with your boss. You need to train them just like a dog. I'm not kidding - if they try to catch you at 5:30 for an 'important talk' every night, you need to let them know that they can talk to you in the morning.
• Stop goofing around at work. No surfing, no personal phone calls, no wandering the office for casual conversation. Do your work! Check this out.
• Stop procrastinating. Work on the hard stuff first. Break it up into manageable chunks and get it done. Check this out.
• Leave at a reasonable hour. 5 or 6 PM is fine. I know people will notice. But at the end of the day, leaving work to get home for more important activities is critical to your long-term happiness. Work is important — but life springs eternal!

Stupid Things People Do At The Office – Eat At Their Desk.

Do you eat at your desk often? I know you do it. All the time. When 12 Noon rolls around, you think, "I can run down to the cafeteria, grab some lunch on a tray, and run it back up to my desk so I can catch up on email."

That's Stupid.

Candidly, you really need an extra 30-45 minutes to cover email? Email where 60-70% of it is unimportant? (read my previous post on email behaviors)

Here's an idea — go out to lunch. Meet someone outside of the company. Why?

• It gets you out of the building. Anything that changes your location changes your perspective.
• It gets you connecting with colleagues OUTSIDE of the company that you currently work for. You never know - you might meet someone that might offer you a better job. Or you might meet the perfect person to hire for that new project.
• You meet new people. New ideas, new viewpoints, new humor, new stories.
• You get to eat great food - the worst restaurant is usually better than the best cafeteria. Yum!
• You get to see the sun. Vitamin D - here I come!
• You breathe FRESH air. You get exercise outdoors. You might get a better parking spot when you return!

Bottom line — get out, connect with new people and you will see your career blossom. Stay indoors, cocoon in your cubicle, and you will see your career atrophy. Trust me.

Stupid Things People Do At The Office – Meetings.

What's the worst thing that could happen to you at work other than being fired? That's right going to MEETINGS. Just think of sitting today (on a Friday) cooped up in a windowless conference room at 3:30 PM for another hour. Lights dimmed, watching slide #65 with 15 bullet points? Droning voice? Closed door - really hot - the person next to you getting ripe? Is that what you dreamed about when you graduated from college?

Meetings. They suck the lifeblood right out of your body. Here's a little tip — don't go.

That's right. Flee . . . run away. You have better things to do with your time.

If you are an attendee to a meeting:

• Try to decline. You probably don't need to attend 25-50% of the meetings you go to. Why? Because most meetings are either superfluous or your attendance will not add any value to the discussion.
• Arrive late — Leave early. Don't just do this, it's impolite. Let the organizer and some key people know that you will be doing this. Then you still get the gist of the proceedings AND cut your meeting time by 25-50%.
• See if you can change the meeting into a short one-to-one discussion. 75% of meetings are too formal, go on much too long, and allow the more mentally challenged executives to run their mouth for hours. Edit it down. If all else fails:
• Keep the meeting on point. If the meeting organizer is not organized, you take the lead and keep people on point. They will love you for it.

If you are running the meeting:

• Cancel it. Do you really need to have this meeting? Can it just be a short conversation between 2-3 people?
• Shorten it. My experience in corporate (20 years) tells me that most if not all meetings are always too long. If you've scheduled an hour, make it 20 minutes. 30 minutes? Make it 15. Any more than an hour, shame on you!
• Get rid of the chairs. Make everyone stand around a whiteboard. Act like a sports coach - ask questions - make decisions. With no chairs, people will want to get out of there ASAP.

Smart executives regularly turn down at least 50% of the meetings they are invited to. That's how they have time to do all the cool things they want to do AND get their work done.

Love to hear your thoughts – comment below or email me anytime! – Rich

I Just Saw An Accident This Morning.

I commute every day on I-95, the most travelled highway in Connecticut. I was in the middle lane, trundling along at 60-65 mph, and the traffic ahead reduced their speed due to congestion (right around Westport). I hit my brakes and slowed my car down to a crawl. In my peripheral vision, I could see the other cars to my left (in the passing lane) do the same thing. Suddenly, an executive (he was wearing a suit) in a black Mercedes sedan moving 25-30 mph slams into the first of the cars on my left and begins a domino effect with four other cars.

It was like watching a movie.

No one was hurt — just shaken up. But it occurred to me that the Mercedes never hit their brakes — so they didn't see or anticipate hitting the car in front of them. The real question is: What were they doing instead of driving?

Texting? Changing the radio station? Talking on their phone? Reading the newspaper (I've seen this before)? Worrying about work? Worrying about his family? Marriage? He certainly was not concentrating on his driving. And that ruined at least five people's Tuesday.

We tend to get distracted often — based on inconsequential things. Nothing was more important at that moment than that driver operating his car. NOTHING.

How many times do you get distracted by the inconsequential? Pay attention — you'll go places. And not to the body shop.

$14.27 Can Change Your Career. Guaranteed.

Every so often, a person comes along, writes a book, and changes the way people act. Napoleon Hill did it with"Think and Grow Rich". Dale Carnegie — "How To Win Friends and Influence People". Peters and Waterman — "In Search of Excellence". Stephen Covey — "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". And Keith Ferrazzi — "Never Eat Alone".

Seth Godin has been writing books, speaking, and blogging for over 10 years. I first was introduced to him with his first book, "Permission Marketing". I then drifted off from Seth after reading a few of his other books but have been following him lately with his blog.

Michael Hyatt turned me onto his latest read, "Linchpin — Are You Indispensable?". I bought it yesterday on my Amazon Kindle and proceeded to stay up most of the night finishing it. This book is going to change the way people think, act, and work.

Everyone knows there is something wrong with business today. Seth crystalizes what the REAL problem is and delivers to the reader clear instructions on how to find their way on how to succeed in the new business world.

Bottom line: Seth espouses what I do every day with my clients.

A short summary from Amazon: "Linchpin is a most unusual, well-organized, concise book about what it takes to become indispensable in the workplace - whether you work for someone else (at any level) or are self-employed. It's about how business has rapidly changed and how treating employees like factory workers (or doing your job like one) doesn't work any longer. We must make choices and take action to "chart our own paths" and add value that others do not. We cannot wait for a boss or a job description to tell us what to do, rather we must just take the initiative ourselves. Only then can we become indispensable "linchpins," rather than replaceable "cogs." "You don't become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to become indispensable is to be different. That's because if you're the same, so are plenty of other people."

Stop what you're doing right now and go out and buy this book. It will change your life.

How To Be Successful Every Day.

  Time to hit work after a wonderful weekend . . . check your email . . . get ready for all those wonderful meetings . . . and make sure you schedule for all the work coming down the pike this week.

Whoops! Forgot to tell you something . . . Most executives tend to forget that their job isn't supposed to crank out work (okay - that's part of your job - but just follow my thinking for a bit).

You are also expected to IMPROVE. CONSTANTLY.

Of course you work. But to be successful in your position, you need to be a machine. A machine that constantly strives to:

1. Do better.
2. Take on additional responsibilities.
3. Never wear out (keep on running and have a bright smile every day).

But how do you do that? Your schedule is ALWAYS full. You come in early, you stay late, and you bring work home. How are you going to IMPROVE CONSTANTLY?

There are three little letters that will help you do that EVERY DAY:    S   D   R

S = STREAMLINE Regularly look at your workload and apply the 80/20 rule to it. Why? Candidly, if you work day-to-day, you tend to get into little ruts in your work habits, your responsibilities, and your inter-personal connections. Not major ruts - small ones. What eventually happens is that they take over your schedule, eking out more and more time, until you find yourself working 60-70 hours a week and 10-20 hours at home.

These ruts steal precious time from those high-value, high-impact tasks that move you forward quickly. So on a monthly basis, stand back and look at your litany of responsibilities, and make highly critical assessments of each one. See how you can eliminate steps in accomplishing each task. Instead of a report, will an email suffice? Instead of an email, would a quick 2 minute phone call be in line? Instead of a phone call, how about a personal drive-by their office? Cut your email in half by using some quick tips (call me - 203.500.2421).

When you regularly cut small steps out of your responsibilities and accelerate your interpersonal communications, they go faster and get done quicker.

D = DELEGATE Take a close look at your responsibilities and see what ones can be delegated to your staff. Or delegated to technology.

That is your job as a manager - to constantly motivate your team and get them to take on more complex and harder tasks. So give them a taste of what you do. Here's the hint - don't give them the fun stuff - give them the tasks that  you HATE to do. They will feel empowered that they are working on management-level responsibilities and you will have more time for more important things.

Or figure out how technology can come to the rescue. Review reports online rather than printing them out.

You'll find that your day gets more fun and you get to work on the stuff that really matters to your business and your success.

R = RETIRE Which tasks take up a lot of time but don't really deliver the impact that merits their priority?

Begin to prioritize all of your responsibilities and pick off one or two - stop doing them - see what happens. It might be a regular meeting that you have, a report that you do, a task that no one really appreciates. Try it - you might realize that no one notices that it's gone.

Candidly - this one is the hardest one to do - but when you get good at it - you'll find that this step delivers the biggest bang for your buck. Try it!

Hiding Is Not Good For Your Career.

During times like these, most executives tend to worry if the axe will be falling near their neck. So what do they do? They power down, think small, take no risks and ensure that they don't appear in anyone's crosshairs.

Unfortunately, this not only does nothing (if they choose, they're going to fire you anyway), it can actually hurt your career.

Why might you be next to be laid off in this economy . . . let's look at the facts:

1. You make too much.
2. You make too little.
3. You're working on a low-level or non-strategic project.
4. You're working on a high-level, very strategic project.
5. You've worked much too long at that company.
6. You are the last one hired, first fired.
7. You're boss doesn't like your face.

What am I really saying here? Firing is capricious. It can happen for a number of reasons and most (if not all) of them have nothing to do with your performance. The reality is: 99 times out of 100, mass firings are due to bad planning by management, not by you. And they have to move fast, cut deep, and recover quickly to SAVE THEIR OWN NECKS. Or they will see the axe coming around the conference table for them.

SO . . . what am I REALLY saying here? In times like these, it is in your best interest to STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. Don't hide.

For example . . . Take a little risk:

1. Speak up at meetings. Let people know your point of view.
2. Have strategic lunches — meet with key executives inside and outside of your company.
3. Ask for more work — but choose carefully — get on that key project.
4. Make it a point of bumping into higher-ups and building relationships with them.

In times like these, companies have NO IDEA what to do. They're juggling all the balls in the air and NO ONE wants to catch one. They just keep juggling and praying they don't drop one.

Smart executives that are go-getters take advantage of this craziness and grab one of those balls. So . . . time to grab some balls.

America's "Can't-Do" List.

Lately, I've been studying the melting of glaciers in the greater Himalayas. Understanding the cascading effects of the slow-motion downsizing of one of the planet's most magnificent landforms has, to put it politely, left me dispirited. By Orville Schell at The Los Angeles Times.

It is impossible to focus on those Himalayan highlands without realizing that something that once seemed immutable and eternal has become vulnerable, even perishable. Those magnificent glaciers are wasting away on an overheated planet, and no one knows what to do about it.

Another tipping point has also been on my mind lately, and it's left me no less melancholy. In this case, the threat is to my own country, the United States. We Americans too seem to have passed a tipping point. Like the glaciers of the high Himalaya, long-familiar aspects of our nation are beginning to seem as if they are, in a sense, melting away.

In the last few months, as I've roamed the world from San Francisco to Copenhagen to Beijing to Dubai, I've taken to keeping a double- entry list of what works and what doesn't, country by country. Unfortunately, it's become largely a list of what works elsewhere but doesn't work here. In places such as China, South Korea, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland and (until recently) the United Arab Emirates, you find people hard at work on the challenges of education, transportation, energy and the environment. In these places, one feels the kind of hopefulness and can-do optimism that used to abound in the United States.

China, a country I've visited more than 100 times since 1975, elicits an especially complicated set of feelings in me. Its Leninist government doesn't always live up to Western ideals on such things as political transparency, the rule of law, human rights and democracy. And yet it has managed to conjure an economic miracle. In China today, you feel an unmistakable sense of energy and optimism in the air that, believe me, is bittersweet for an American pondering why the regenerative powers of his own country have gone missing.

As I've traveled from China's gleaming, efficient airports to our often-chaotic and broken-down versions of the same, or ridden on Europe's high-speed trains that so sharply contrast with our clunky, slowly vanishing passenger rail system, I keep expanding my list of what works here at home and what doesn't.

Over time, the list's entries have fallen into three categories. There are things that are robust and growing, replete with promise, the envy of the world. Then there are those things that are still alive and kicking but are precariously balanced between growth and decline. Finally, there are those things that are irredeemably broken.

Here is the score card as I see it:

Aspects of U.S. life that are still vigorous and filled with potential:

• , which is delivering much of the world's most innovative research and ideas.
• Silicon Valley, which has enormous inventiveness, energy and capital at its disposal.
• Civil society, which, despite the collapse of the economy, seems to be luring the best and brightest young people, and superbly performs the crucial function of goading government and other institutions.
• American philanthropy, which is the most evolved, well funded and innovative in the world.
• The U.S. military, the best-led, -trained and -equipped on the planet, despite being repeatedly thrust into hopeless wars by stupid politicians.
• The spirit and cohesiveness of small-town American life.
• The arts, including our film industry, which remains the globe's sole superpower of entertainment, along with the requisite networks of orchestras, ballet companies, theaters, pop music groups and world-class museums.

Aspects of U.S. life that still function but need help:

• Higher and secondary school education, in which America boasts some of the globe's preeminent institutions. Increasingly, though, many of the best institutions are private, and jewel-in-the-crown public systems such as California's continue to be hit with devastating budget cuts.
• Environmental protection, which compares favorably with that in other countries despite being underfunded.
• The national energy system, which still delivers but is overdependent on oil and coal, and depends on a grid badly in need of upgrading.

Aspects of U.S. life in need of drastic intervention:

• Public elementary education, which in most states is desperately underfunded and fails to deliver on its promise to provide all children with high-quality schooling.
• The federal government, which is essentially paralyzed by partisanship and incapable of delivering solutions to the country's most pressing problems.
• State governments, which are largely dysfunctional and nearly insolvent.
• American infrastructure, including highways, docks, bridges and tunnels, dikes, waterworks and other essential systems we aren't maintaining and upgrading as we should.
• Airlines and the airports they service, which are almost Third World in equipment and service standards.
• Passenger rail, which has not one mile of truly high-speed rail.
• The financial system, whose over-paid executives and underregulated practices ran us off an economic cliff in 2008 and compromised the whole system in the eyes of the world.
• The electronic media, which, except for public broadcasting and a vital and growing Internet, are an overly commercialized, broken-down mess that have let down the country in terms of keeping us informed.
• Print media, which from newspaper publishing to book publishing are in crisis.
• Basic manufacturing, which has fallen so far behind it seems headed for oblivion.

I started keeping these lists because I was searching for things that would banish that dispiriting sense that America is in decline. And yet the can-do list remains unbearably short and the can't-do one grows each time I travel.

American prowess and promise, once seemingly as much a permanent part of the global landscape as glaciers, mountains and oceans, seems to be melting away by the day, just like the great Himalayan ice fields.

Orville Schell is the director of the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations. He is the former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley and the author of many books on China. A longer version of this article appears at tomdispatch.com.

I Love Michael Hyatt.

Who is Michael Hyatt? Well, let me tell you about a man called Mike in Tennessee. I first 'met' Michael on Twitter. The topics he spoke about and the 'traveling' tweets that he posted immediately appealed to me. There was an innate energy about him and what he was accomplishing.

I then visited his site. Two words: "Blown Away". This man — who not only is the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, is an accomplished speaker, leader, and social media guru. He's also a devoted family man — married for over 32 years and has five daughters and four grandchildren.

But what really attracted me to him is his focus on Leadership and Ethics. You see — Michael is rare in today's business world. He actually embraces a strict ethical and moral stance (in business and life) and strikes a decided separation from today's "laissez-faire" attitude of business leaders.

Since I also write about these topics — I was happy to stumble upon a fellow traveler.

So check him out — he just launched a new site — and I love his quote about it:

"My personal philosophy is that if you aren’t continually reinventing yourself, your company, and your brand, it’s only a matter of time before you become obsolete, irrelevant, or go out of business."

Someday, I would like to meet and speak to Michael. I think we have a lot in common.

There's No Speed Limit (Lessons That Changed My Life).

Whether you're a student, teacher, or parent, I think you'll appreciate this story of how one teacher can completely and permanently change someone's life in only a few lessons.

Another Incredible Story By Derek Sivers at http://sivers.org.

I met Kimo Williams when I was 17 – the summer after I graduated high school in Chicago, a few months before I was starting Berklee College of Music.

I called an ad in the paper by a recording studio, with a random question about music typesetting.

When the studio owner heard I was going to Berklee, he said, “I graduated from Berklee, and taught there for a few years, too. I’ll bet I can teach you two years’ of theory and arranging in only a few lessons. I suspect you can graduate in two years if you understand there’s no speed limit. Come by my studio at 9:00 tomorrow for your first lesson, if you’re interested. No charge.”

Graduate college in two years? Awesome! I liked his style. That was Kimo Williams.

Excited as hell, I showed up to his studio at 8:40 the next morning, though I waited outside until 8:59 before ringing his bell.

(Recently I heard him tell this same story from his perspective and said, “My doorbell rang at 8:59 one morning and I had no idea why. I run across kids all the time who say they want to be a great musician. I tell them I can help, and tell them to show up at my studio at 9am if they’re serious. Almost nobody ever does. It’s how I weed out the really serious ones from the kids who are just talk. But there he was, ready to go.”)

He opened the door. A tall black man in a Hawaiian shirt and big hat, a square scar on his nose, a laid-back demeanor, and a huge smile, sizing me up, nodding.

After a one-minute welcome, we were sitting at the piano, analyzing the sheet music for a jazz standard. He was quickly explaining the chords based on the diatonic scale. How the dissonance of the tri-tone in the 5-chord with the flat-7 is what makes it want to resolve to the 1. Within a minute, I was already being quizzed, “If the 5-chord with the flat-7 has that tritone, then so does another flat-7 chord. Which one?”

“Uh… the flat-2 chord?”

“Right! So that’s a substitute chord. Any flat-7 chord can always be substituted with the other flat-7 that shares the same tritone. So reharmonize all the chords you can in this chart. Go.”

The pace was intense, and I loved it. Finally, someone was challenging me – keeping me in over my head – encouraging and expecting me to pull myself up, quickly. I was learning so fast, it had the adrenaline of sports or a video game. A two-way game of catch, he tossed every fact back at me and made me prove I got it.

In our three-hour lesson that morning, he taught me a full semester of Berklee’s harmony courses. In our next four lessons, he taught me the next four semesters of harmony and arranging requirements.

When I got to college and took my entrance exams, I tested out of those six semesters of required classes.

Then, as he suggested, I bought the course materials for other required classes and taught myself, doing the homework on my own time, then went to the department head and took the final exam, getting full credit for the course.

Doing this in addition to my full course load, I graduated college in two and a half years – (got my bachelor’s degree when I was 20) – squeezing every bit of education out of that place that I could.

But the permanent effect was this:

Kimo’s high expectations set a new pace for me. He taught me “the standard pace is for chumps” – that the system is designed so anyone can keep up. If you’re more driven than “just anyone” – you can do so much more than anyone expects. And this applies to ALL of life – not just school.

Before I met him, I was just a kid who wanted to be a musician, doing it casually.

Ever since our five lessons, high expectations became my norm, and still are to this day. Whether music, business, or personal – whether I actually achieve my expectations or not – the point is that I owe every great thing that’s happened in my life to Kimo’s raised expectations. That’s all it took. A random meeting and five music lessons to convince me I can do anything more effectively than anyone expects.

(And so can anyone else.)

I wish the same experience for everyone. I have no innate abilities. This article wasn’t meant to be about me as much as the life-changing power of a great teacher and raised expectations.

A professional musician (and circus clown) since 1987, Derek started CD Baby by accident in 1998 when he was selling his own CD on his website, and friends asked if he could sell theirs, too. CD Baby was the largest seller of independent music on the web, with over $100M in sales for over 150,000 musician clients. In 2008, Derek sold CD Baby to focus on his new ventures to benefit musicians, including his new company MuckWork where teams of efficient assistants help musicians do their “uncreative dirty work”. His current projects and writings are all at sivers.org.

Five Reasons Why Leaders Fail (& Why Failures Lead).

It's hard to be a leader in today's economy. Add that you need equal parts of courage, vision, empathy, and reality (Peter Koestenbaum's Leadership Diamond) AND get your work done, it's almost impossible. I've reduced my list of hundreds down to five — and here they are: 1. You move from confident to cocky. There is a fine line between confidence and cockyness — my definition:

Confident - fully comfortable in their skin, able to hold their own in most situations, but always willing to learn from others to better oneself. Cocky - fully comfortable in their skin, able to hold their own in most situations, knows it all - and let's everyone know that fact.

Be more humble — keep your mind open to new ideas. This leads me to my next reason:

2. You speak more than you listen. Pontification is a rampant disease of leaders. Candidly, as you move from communicating to pontification, you slowly lose the attention of the very people that you are speaking to. Communication is a two-way street — so feel free to let your people know what you are thinking and impart key information, but please fit in a bit of listening to complete the circle. It will go miles whenever you communicate with your team.

3. You care more about your performance than your team's performance. This primarily affects new managers than accomplished ones, but it does creep in sometimes when times are hard for the company. We all fall back on touting our own laurels rather than bringing up the rear with stories of the real performers of your company — your team. Try to pick one person and one action every so often and message it to the people that matter. It will pay dividends in exposure and good will from your team.

4. You manage upwards significantly more than downwards. A corollary to the previous reason — when we focus on ourselves, we tend to manage upwards to hone impressions of our performance. When we spend time doing this, we tend to forget that our job is to manage our people — which is quite easy to do:

a. Give them the information they need to do their job. b. Motivate them when required. c. Help them get rid of any obstacles.

If you spend more time on your people, everything else will fall into place. If you would like to read more on leadership, read this.

5. You care more about where you're going than where you are. Everyone becomes enamored with shiny objects — add to that a bit of executive ADD, and you tend to look elsewhere for better vistas. I'm not saying not to do this (it's always good to keep your options open), but you also need to pay attention to where you are. Too many executives come onto the scene, make a big splash, pull in a big client or coup, and then immediately get distracted and look for other shores to conquer. Slow down, enjoy the accolades and see if there are bigger beasts to manage where you are — it might pay off in the long run.

Get Ready For Annual Reviews!

It's the most wonderful time of the year . . . Yes — it's that time to prepare for annual reviews. Most leaders look at this as a frustrating zone between a rock and a hard place (is this you?).

Why? On one hand, you're responsible for accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organization — for making sure the job gets done. On the other hand, you have to get that job done with and through other people. And those people have agendas of their own — agendas that sometimes run counter to the goals of the business and your personal expectations.

Add in that everyone thinks that they've done a spectacular job. Mix in the unrealistic expectations of the business (no big raises) and you have a volatile stew of emotions to quell each time of the year. So here's how you do it.

STEP ONE: Schedule all your reviews to occur in one day (this is usually the hardest step). Odds are you should have between 5-7 direct reports (any more and you are not really managing them correctly — a future blog post topic) — so make them 1 hour each — more than enough time. Most executives tend to procrastinate on this step — so get out your calendar and do it! If you can, try to meet offsite so you are not interrupted. I find that office reviews are easily interrupted and that disrupts the entire effect of the review — your personal one-on-one with your direct report.

STEP TWO: Meet with finance/HR and understand exactly how much money you will be working with in 2010. This will allow you to clearly define exactly how much you can increase your team's salaries (and their team's salaries). In larger companies, there usually is a matrix (which I hate) — I feel that the delivery of merit should come from the manager, not HR. At the end of the day, you need to know how big of a bag of money/benefits you have to work with.

STEP THREE: Develop a prioritization schedule of your team — this includes criteria to rank them. I break them up into three areas:

Outstanding Performers (OP) - Your "top of the line" people. They not only get everything done, they surpass your expectations. They are your right hand people (you would be SOL if they left tomorrow). You need to recognize them accordingly.

REVIEW: Keep them happy. Give them the kudos they deserve (and broadcast it to the rest of the team), give them the money (but not too much), and increase their responsibility and exposure in the organization (this is the most important area). Studies show that executives are motivated more by being in on things, exposure, increased responsibility than getting more money. Of course, money is good, but it wears off quickly.

Performers (P) - They do their job. Some do it better and surprise you, some make mistakes that infuriate you. But overall, they get their job done and cause minimal problems. If they left, it would be difficult, but not impossible, to find a replacement.

REVIEW: Your goal here is to turn this opportunity and move these people to Outstanding Performers. This is where the money comes in (show it to them). Acknowledge their work so far and give them more responsibility outside of their area. Recognize their accomplishments and discuss their misses. Your goal is to show them the map to move upwards.

Performance Problems (PP) - They are missing the mark in one way or another. It could be technically — not doing their job correctly OR socially — not communicating, managing, or playing well with others. They could be serial screw-ups, not in the right position, or not doing their job (lazy). They should be reorienting their vision upwards or you will be showing them the door.

REVIEW: These are the most critical. They are either moving up or out. They need to understand what they are doing wrong and show them how to rectify it. These people need to be managed closely — you need to be stern with them (no side conversations). No money — and a possibility that they might lose some money. Usually, PP executives walk away with a task to come back with a plan to do better. Candidly though, this should not come as a surprise to them - if you've been managing them correctly, they should have seen this coming for months. If not, don't wait until the annual review to dress them down.

STEP FOUR: How do you do your reviews?  It's easy (I did this for years and it works like a dream):

Outstanding Performers (OP) - You do these. It's important that YOU personally recognize their performance.

Performers (P) - They do their own. And then you edit accordingly.

Performance Problems (PP) - You do these. It's important that YOU personally provide discipline verbally and in written form.

STEP FIVE: Facts. Facts. Facts. Leave emotion at the door. Every review should focus on three areas: 1. What was expected of them. 2. What they accomplished. 3. How they accomplished it. That's it.

Feel free to add emotion after the review to either congratulate or discipline. My prescription is to increase the congratulations as much as possible and rein in the discipline as much as possible. Just my two cents.

That's it — if you have any questions or comments — let me know!

Reorganize Yourself.

Okay — Thanksgiving is over and you probably are lucky enough to have the day off. Take part of today and devote two hours to reorganizing yourself. Take a fresh look at how you are organized and look for opportunities to improve. You will probably discover several areas where you can eliminate some personal time wasters simply by becoming a little better organized. 1. Throw things away! Yes, even those ticket stubs from your last concert. Ask yourself, "What is the worst thing that could happen if I throw this away?" Most of the time, you can live with your answer, so start filling that wastebasket!

2. If you get heartburn from throwing stuff away, create a "bin of last resort" under your desk. I usually use a Rubbermaid bin to collect the pile. When it fills up, I take the bottom third of the pile and throw it away since I haven't touched any of the papers in 3-6 months. In addition, if you toss something important in there, it's easy to find, because it's in there chronologically.

Happy Tossing!

Business Spotlight: West Star Farms

Every so often, I run into a unique and powerful business offering that I feel is changing the landscape of business as we know it. West Star Farms is one of those businesses. Enjoy!

By Gillian Telling at United's Hemispheres In-Flight Magazine.

“Who ordered the weather?” someone says to no one in particular, as clusters of strangers mill about in a disorderly line waiting to get a cucumber, mint and gin cocktail provided by a local distiller called Death’s Door Spirits. Everyone murmurs in agreement: The weather is amazing-sunny, clear, breezy. The roving outdoor dining outfit Outstanding in the Field has, on this early August afternoon, alighted on the property of West Star Farms, seven miles outside of Madison, Wisconsin. From our perch near the makeshift hilltop bar, everyone watches as a table for 140 is set up in a field below, a bright white tablecloth snaking in between deep green rows of lettuce, scarlet carrots and corn. As gourmet meals go, this tips the scales of casual and pleasant.

“Everyone who brought a plate, please leave them over here!” calls out Katy Oursler, the special events director for the company. As an OITF novice, I didn’t come equipped. I ask the woman in line in front of me if it’s okay. “Oh, sure,” she says. “It just makes for a prettier table if everyone brings a different plate.” (Plus, you bring it home with you when dinner is over, saving the organizers from having to rent flatware or haul it around in the old bus with which they tour the nation. Smart.)

Piles of baguette rounds, sour cherries and three different types of goat cheese have been set out. I fill up a napkin and dig into some of the best chèvre I’ve ever eaten, insisting the women ahead of me try some. But they already know; they made it just three days earlier. Anne Topham and Judy Borree from Fantôme Farm, just down the road, have been producing small batches of the stuff since 1984. With just 14 goats, they sell only locally. “We don’t want to get bigger,” Topham says. “We like staying small. We’re like the opposite of the American dream.” They’re here because tonight’s guest chef, Tory Miller from L’Etoile restaurant in Madison, has been religiously serving their cheese from the first time he tried it, and it plays a part in tonight’s menu. “I love it,” he says, stopping by and saying hello to Topham, who is nicknamed the Godmother of Goat Cheese. “I haven’t found anything I didn’t like it on.” At this point, Oursler and OITF founder Jim Denevan gather everyone around a barn silo to meet our host farmer for the evening and learn about this event, which costs $180 per person.

Ten years ago, as the executive chef at Gabriella Café in Santa Cruz, Denevan was using only locally harvested organic produce long before it became de rigueur. He’d regularly shop for the day’s ingredients at the farmers market, where he chatted up the farmers about their jobs and how they cultivated their crops. Denevan was familiar with farm life; his brother, a hippie 15 years his senior, owns an organic apple farm in nearby Santa Cruz, where Denevan worked during the summers as a teenager. (Bill Denevan was one of the country’s first officially certified organic farmers.)

It dawned on Jim that others might also enjoy knowing how their food was made and where it was coming from, especially since this wasn’t the massproduced fare most of us are used to, but painstakingly grown, cured, churned or raised by hardworking farmers who love and cherish their products. And so he began regular farm nights in 1997, inviting the suppliers of his ingredients to come in and talk about how their harvested bounty landed on the customers’ plates. These farm dinners were such a success that Denevan decided to take the show outdoors, literally setting tables up at the farms themselves. Outstanding in the Field has now spawned multiple copycat ventures, but the original remains the most popular.

Over the years, Denevan has held dinners at any number of magnificent locations: hidden seaside coves, on cliffs overlooking abalone farms, on an island in the Puget Sound where the tide lapped at guests’ feet, in vineyards and orchards and at over 100 organic farms and community gardens around the U.S. Next, Denevan and his team will go global, with dinners in places such as Bali, Italy, Spain, France, Australia and New Zealand.

Because the main goal is to bring the food providers and the guests together, much of each evening is spent meeting and learning about the artisans who provide the food and drinks, and of course, the farm on which the meal is served. “Let’s hear it for the farmer!” Denevan calls out, and everyone cheers as he introduces West Star’s George Kohn, a shy, Santa Claus- looking fellow in dungarees. Kohn recalls how he and his wife bought the 40-acre farm in ‘93 and have come to grow around 90 varieties of crops, the majority of which are distributed among 76 families through the local community-supported agriculture group, or CSA. Kohn says he’s so serious about organic farming that if he has the slightest suspicion some crops were accidentally sprayed by the neighboring farm’s airplanes, he has them tested or just throws out the whole batch. He takes us on a complete tour of the farm, stopping to show us cucumber plants treated with a granular form of coyote scent “to keep out the raccoons.”

During the tour, it’s hard not to notice chef Tory Miller chopping multicolored tomatoes in his makeshift kitchen, which consists of two propane tanks and portable grills. The walk around the farm builds up our appetites, and everyone scrambles to the table when dinnertime is announced, free to grab chairs wherever they like.

“Hey, New York!” someone calls out in my direction. “Come sit over here!” My tablemate turns out to be an excitable film producer named Cody who lives in Minneapolis and keeps us all entertained with stories about growing up the son of Montana farmhands, not knowing until he was a teenager that vegetables could actually be bought in stores. The wine is poured liberally, and the first part of the five-course dinner comes out familystyle, in a big bowl: West Star Farm beets topped with Anne and Judy’s “La Roche” cheese, dressed with smoked almonds, white balsamic and wildflower honey.

This is followed by those bright tomatoes we eyed during the tour, topped with Willow Creek pork belly and arugula. The proprietors of Willow Creek roam around, talking about their business. One’s a fourth-generation hog farmer; the other has secret recipes for Polish kielbasa that have been passed down for more than 100 years. The belly is followed by their pork loin atop a sweet corn tamale with dark chocolate mole sauce, and after that comes another main dish of Fountain Prairie Farm ribeye. In between collective exclamations of “yum,” “mmm,” and “ohmygod you have to try this,” conversation is easygoing, 137 strangers bonding over the unique experience of eating well in such an unusual setting.

Meanwhile, the sun has set and a bright moon appears. Thousands of flickering fireflies surround us. Denevan, increasingly relaxed now that most of the work is done, chats with the guests about his life touring the country and setting up dinners. He stops at our section of the table and regales us with the tale of a recent dinner in Minneapolis, during which dessert had to be served in the greenhouse when a thunderstorm came out of nowhere and drenched the farm. “It was maybe the most phenomenal dinner ever,” he says. “We all stood in the greenhouse drinking wine and eating dessert as this incredibly intense storm engulfed us. We were all yelling and having a great time. And then it completely cleared up twenty-five minutes later.”

Denevan’s culinary adventure will continue stateside through December, when he’ll take a little winter break to toil over his large-scale public artworks (gigantic earthworks not unlike crop circles) and confer with Oursler on future OITF destinations. “It’s so exciting to see people have such enthusiasm for knowing where their food comes from,” he says. “It really brings meaning to the table. And everyone likes being outdoors. It’s just fun.”

Made The WSJ Again!

Sue Shellenbarger from the Wall Street Journal called me a few weeks ago. She asked me about what key Time Management tools that I might know of. Over a number of phone calls we discussed the basic philosophy of time management, some key tools that my clients use (GTD, Pomodoro, FranklinCovey), and even introduced her to an incredible coach that wrote a book on time management — Keith Rosen.

In the end, Sue hit another one out of the park with this piece. Check it out!

The Secret On How To Succeed At Almost Anything.

A lot of executives are out there looking for the 'holy grail' of success. They bulk up on education, they cajole and maneuver, they scheme and plan. In the end, it comes down to just one action — performed consistently. Over the past few days, I've been running a series of workshops for a Fortune 50 company. One story I tell is the one where I was a lowly coordinator in the Marketing department. One day, the senior vice-president announced that the executive team is working with a NYC agency to develop a self-running sales CD for all 1000 account executives. This CD would be a virtual brochure — showing how the company does it stuff with graphics, audio, and movies. The price tag was in the millions and it was going to 'change the way we present to clients." Candidly, the SVP was not too happy about this.

I went back to my small office and thought about what I just heard. Let me let you in on a secret . . . I am the king of Powerpoint. Back then (and today) I could do ANYTHING with Powerpoint, even cook you dinner. You have to remember — all Powerpoint slides were a series of bulleted items (and they still are today - a real crime). So I began to play around with it, developing a series of 5-10 slides that had our logos, graphics, audio, and movies (big stuff for 1995!).

After 2-3 hours (and some calls to close colleagues in sales to get their feedback), I knocked on the SVP's door. Let me say, he was blown away. He asked me to stay after work so we could talk more. When 6 PM rolled around, I was the only one in the office and in walks the CEO, CFO, and CMO of the company. My office! My VP says, "Rich, show them what you showed me this morning." So I walked them through it.

Cutting to the chase:

• They loved the idea that it was infinitely modifiable.
• They canceled the NYC agency project the next day.
• I received time, resources, and a budget to roll it out nationally.
• I then went on a nationwide sales training tour to roll it out (the most fun I ever had in business!)

I eventually received a promotion, an incredible raise, and won Chairman's award (10 out of 10,000) win it annually.

Hidden Secret? It was INITIATIVE. I didn't have to do what I did — I could've sat in my office and dutifully done my work.

But I didn't. I took a chance. I used my technical skills — I leveraged my relationships with colleagues — and I took a risk presenting it to the SVP of the department.

How are you taking INITIATIVE in what you do today? Have an idea? Make it reality. See an opening? Go for it. Most of the time, we are too tired, lazy or scared to take charge and change something. There is no special sauce to initiative — you just have to make  up your mind and do it.

So Go Do It.

Go For It. NOW.

I Love Chris Brogan.

Go out and buy "Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust" right now. In fact, download it onto your iPhone immediately (via Kindle for iPhone). I just finished this book and found at least 15 new ideas that I can implement immediately into my business and work routine. Have a product or service and want to increase sales? Then buy this book. Want people to hire you or have you speak more often? Then read this book. Want your lemonade stand to rock out more then the other kids? Then get this book.

In Trust Agents, two social media veterans show you how to tap into the power of social networks to build your brand's influence, reputation, and, of course, profits. Today's 'online influencers' are web natives who trade in trust, reputation, and relationships, using social media to accrue the influence that builds up or brings down businesses online.

The book shows how people use online social tools to build networks of influence and how you can use those networks to positively impact your business. Because trust is key to building online reputations,, those who traffic in it are "trust agents," the key people your business needs on its side.

• Delivers actionable steps and case studies that show how social media can positively impact your business
• Written by authors with over ten years of online media experience
• Shows you how to build and wield influence online to benefit your brand
• Combines high-level theory with practical step-by-step guidance

If you want your business to succeed, don't sit on the sidelines. Instead, use the Web to build trust with your consumers using Trust Agents.

3 Powerful Tips To Energize Your Team.

It's Friday. It's been a hard week and you're looking forward to the weekend. Doesn't your team feel the same way? Here are some quick leadership tips to energize your troops and make them feel like a million bucks:

1. Call them at home. Tell them how much you value their work. Make it a quick call - no more than 2-3 minutes, no business talk. Tell them that you really appreciate their service and how important they are to the company. This simple reach-out will power them for another 100,000 miles.
2. Send them a card. Not a Hallmark card — a simple Crane stationary 4x5 card with a powerful message. Leave it on their desk.
3. Take them out to lunch. Make it a spur of the moment thing (let them know in the morning). Tell them how much they mean to you and ask them about their ideas for the company.

We all get caught up in our work and the pressures that accompany that work. Take a step back and recognize the people that make it all happen — your team.