Living the life without Regret

The things you didn’t do when you had the chance.  That priceless relationship you neglected.  Those important words you left unspoken…

Every one of us has experienced feelings of regret.  But it’s not too late to set things straight.  We’re still here breathing.  Right now we have an opportunity to change our future.  Right now we can choose to erase regret from our later years.

Here are a few things no one wants to regret when they’re older, and some thoughts on avoiding these regrets:

1.  Not spending enough time smiling with the people you love.

You’ve heard the saying, ‘The best things in life are free.’  Well spending quality time with family and friends, enjoying the antics of a pet, seeing your child smile, experiencing intimate and heart-felt moments with your significant other – these times are precious and free.

Don’t get so caught up in the rat race, working 50+ hours a week, to the point where you are too stressed and exhausted to enjoy your closest relationships.  By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to live on less money, and thus work fewer hours and enjoy more of what matters most.

As we get older, fun is often underrated.  With all of our responsibilities, fun seems like an indulgence.  It shouldn’t be.  It should be a requirement.  When your work life is busy, and all your energy is focused in that arena, it’s all too easy to find yourself off balance.  While drive and focus is important, if you intend to maintain happiness and peace in your life you still need to balance in the soccer games, the family dinners, the intimate dates with your significant other, etc.

2.  Holding a grudge and never forgiving someone you care about.

We’ve all been hurt by another person at some point – we were treated poorly, trust was broken, hearts were hurt.  And while this pain is normal, sometimes it lingers for too long.  We relive the pain over and over and have a hard time letting go.

This creates problems.  It not only causes us to be unhappy, but it can strain or ruin our relationships, distract us from work and family and other important things, and make us reluctant to open up to new things and people.  We get trapped in a cycle of anger and hurt, and miss out on the beauty of life as it happens.

Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness.  If there’s someone in your life who deserves another chance, give it to him or her.  If you need to apologize, do it.  Give your story together a happy new beginning.  (Read The Mastery of Love.)

3.  Fulfilling everyone else’s dreams, instead of your own.

Unfortunately, just before you take your first step on the righteous journey to pursue your dreams, people around you, even the ones who deeply care for you, will give you awful advice.  It’s not because they have evil intentions.  It’s because they don’t understand the big picture – what your dreams, passions, and life goals mean to you.

Have the courage to live a life that is true to you, not the life others expect of you.   Make time to pursue your passion, no matter how busy you are or what anyone else says.

As our friend Steve Jobs once said:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.  Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.  Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become.  Everything else is secondary.”

4.  Not being honest about how you feel.

Say what you need to say, and never apologize for showing your feelings.  Many people suppress their feelings in order to keep peace with others.  As a result, they settle for carrying the weight of their own silence.  Give yourself permission to feel a full range of emotions.  When you’re in touch with what you’re feeling, you’re more likely to understand the situation at hand and resolve it instead of avoiding it.

Also, if you want to connect with others, you need to accept and love yourself first, even when your truth feels heavy.  In the end, expressing your feelings will boost your relationships, including your relationship with yourself, to a new healthier level.  And your open honesty will also help you to realize and release unhealthy relationships from your life.

5.  Being foolish and irresponsible with your finances.

When you spend less than you make you buy lifestyle flexibility and freedom.  You are buying the ability to say yes to the things that matter, because you’re saving on the things that don’t.  Money can bring comfort, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying that comfort.  But it’s important to spend money on the things that truly matter to you, and let go of spending that does not add value to your life.

Live a comfortable life, not a wasteful one.  Stop buying stuff you do not need.  Do not spend to impress others.  Do not live life trying to fool you into thinking wealth is measured in material objects.  Manage your money wisely so your money does not manage you.  (Read Rich Dad Poor Dad.)

6.  Getting caught up in needless drama and negativity.

Don’t expect to achieve long-term happiness if you surround yourself with negative people.  Don’t give part-time people a full-time position in your life.  Know your value and what you have to offer, stay positive, and never settle for anything less than what you deserve.

There comes a time in life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama and the people who create it.  Staying out of other people’s drama is an incredibly effective way to simplify your life and reduce stress.  Surround yourself with positive people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad, so you can focus on the good.  Life really is too short to be anything but positive and happy.

7.  Never making your own happiness a priority.

For the average person happiness is a choice, yet numerous people are unhappy.  There are many reasons, but it all boils down to one simple principle:  They choose something else over happiness because, it often takes less effort to be unhappy.

To find true happiness in life you have to follow your heart and intuition.  You have to be who you are, and design a lifestyle and career that fulfills you – no matter what that entails or what people say about it.  And it is never too late to do so.

So be happy; be yourself.  If others don’t like it, then let them be.  Life isn’t about pleasing everybody.  Begin today by taking responsibility of your own happiness.  You are the only one who can create it.  The choice is yours.

8.  Never making a difference in the lives of others.

Every person can make a difference, and every person should try.

In life, you get what you put in.  When you make a positive impact in someone else’s life, you also make a positive impact in your own life.  Do something that’s greater than you – something that helps someone else to be happy or to suffer less.

Remember, making a positive difference in one person’s life can change the world, maybe not the whole world, but their world.  (Read The Road Less Traveled.)

9.  Failing because you were scared to fail.

If your fear of failure, or of not being perfect, has driven you to take the safe road of doing nothing, you have already failed.  Accept the fact that everyone fails, but don’t accept the act of not trying as your form of failure.

If you find yourself at a point of intense decision making where you’re caught in a spiral of over-analysis and hesitation, and you’re making no progress, take a deep breath, break the spiral, make an educated guess on the next logical step, and take it.  Even if you get it wrong, you will learn something that will help you get it right next time.

Your failures along the road to your goals are simply opportunities to learn and grow.  You might not be there yet, but if you keep moving forward, you’ll get there eventuall

Women in Leadership-Challenging the “Glass Ceiling”

For women who are striving to reach the upper echelon in the corporate world, much has been said about hitting the “glass ceiling.” Does the glass ceiling exist today and, if so, how can women break beyond it to achieve top leadership positions within their organizations?

“Tooting your own horn is just one of the many ways that you can increase the likelihood that you’ll shatter the glass ceiling and snag keys to that corner office,” said Nicole Williams, best-selling author and LinkedIn’s connection director. “If you’re uncomfortable speaking up about your accomplishments, then your best bet is to seek out a sponsor or a mentor in your office who can vouch for you.”

According to a survey of 1,000 female professionals in the U.S. conducted by LinkedIn and released in October, nearly one-fifth of professional women never had a mentor. LinkedIn found out that 52 percent of those women said that they had “never encountered someone appropriate.” Additionally, 67 percent of the respondents said that they had never been mentors because “no one ever asked.”

“Waiting in the wings for a mentor to discover you or hoping that your company will implement a mentoring program aren’t your only options,” Williams stated. She suggested taking control of your professional life. Use resources such as LinkedIn to search for professionals by title and find potential mentors in your zip code.

Corporate versus nonprofit:

Is there a difference for female professionals?

Gretchen Faro is the chief executive officer and president of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland. She has held several nonprofit management positions, including positions with MAGNET, Northern Ohio Youth Orchestras, The Herb Society of America, and the Cleveland Chapter of City Year; Prior to that, Faro worked in corporate finance and manufacturing with companies such as Ameri-Trust, Eaton Corporation and Gould, Inc.

When it comes to the idea of hitting a glass ceiling, Faro said gender has not been a huge issue in whether career opportunities came her way. “I actually benefited from women who did fight that fight long before I did. What I found in my career was that there were women ahead of me that had cleared the path in terms of capabilities and skills for the job.”

Faro said that the onus is on each individual woman to understand what she wants career-wise and make it happen. Don’t make excuses or complain that you are being overlooked for a promotion. She also highly agreed with the LinkedIn finding that women need to find a mentor. “Women coming up through the ranks may now have more of an advantage in that realm. That’s because there are more female leaders today and more women who want to serve as mentors. That wasn’t quite the case when I was first starting my career.”

She suggested that women might have an edge in leadership positions in the nonprofit industry. That’s because they have a natural ability to connect to their employer based on the mission of the organization. Additionally, women have a strong sense of collaboration and work well in teams. Women have a tendency to deflect glory, Faro said. It’s easier for them to say, “Oh it wasn’t me. It was the whole team.” It’s something that comes naturally to women and a way that we’ve learned to thrive in the world; It’s through a sense of community and family.

Alternatives to the glass ceiling:

A nationwide survey of women released in November shows that sacrificing personal life to quickly climb the corporate ladder may not be worth the journey for many of today’s professional women.  The third annual “Women and Workplace” survey, conducted by the Polling Company/Women Trend, finds that 65 percent of college-educated women, age 35 to 60, prefer to have more free time in their lives than to make more money at their jobs.

Another trend over the past 10 to 20 years is that women are starting their own businesses in record numbers. Women were frustrated with the glass ceiling and the difficulty of being able to rise to higher levels in their companies. “They realized that they didn’t have to keep banging their head against it. They could go off and do it themselves, having greater control over what they make, whom they work with, when they work, and what they do,” said Jeanne Coughlin, a certified professional behavioral analyst and principal of the Coughlin Group. She is also president of the Cleveland chapter of the Women Presidents’ Organization.

Leadership development skills and training:

In addition to finding a mentor and learning the art of self-promotion, women need to develop their leadership skills career experts advise; especially those who aspire to top-level jobs in their organization.

A good exercise a woman can do is a S.W.O.T. analysis, suggested Jeanne Coughlin of the Coughlin Group, who also participates in Leadership Lorain County. Take a look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Look at yourself as a brand.

Here are tips to increase your likelihood of landing a leadership role:

Ø  Make sure that you understand what exactly “leadership” is, and identify the skills that go into being a better leader. Those skills include communicating, listening, negotiating, problem solving, and holding effective meetings. 

Ø  Look into leadership development training in your area. Local Universities, colleges, and business seminars offer many types of programs, for instance. Most of the programs address the skill piece of leadership development.

Ø  Speak to others in positions to which you aspire. Ask them how they got to where they are in their careers and how to build leadership skills.

Ø  Volunteer in nonprofit organizations. Choose something that you are passionate about. It will help you identify new leadership opportunities. Leverage that when communicating your leadership experiences and skills when you move to another organization.

Terminated: Your last five minutes!

You are being terminated from your job this week and your boss would like you to sign papers; You prefer to not sign anything.

Do you have to sign them?

Well, it's true that the only thing they can really do to you for not signing is fire you, which they are already doing. That said, what does signing the papers mean?

There are generally three types of papers involved in a termination. The first is simply a statement that you are being terminated and it may or may not say what the reason for that termination is. The signature asked for is an acknowledgement that you have received the information. It is not (generally) an acknowledgment that you agree with their assessment of the reason for termination.

There is absolutely no reason not to sign this type of paper. It merely says, "Yes, I received and read these papers." Not signing them won't change anything about your termination. (It's not like they'll say, "Oh dear, John won't sign these papers, I guess he'll have to keep working!") If you don't sign, it's most likely that your manager and another witness will write, "John Doe received papers on 4/22/2012 and refused to sign." If your termination is because of a layoff of some sort and they would have considered you for rehire, and then you've just had your status changed to "Ineligible for re-hire."

If it is something that says you agree with their assessment and you don't, you don't have to sign. (For instance, "I acknowledge that I came in late 7 times in the past 30 days and therefore I am being terminated.") If they pressure you, you can sign it with a note that says, "Signing as to receipt only."

The second type generally details what your obligations are. This can be something like a relocation agreement or tuition reimbursement. Again, your signature is just acknowledging that you are aware of these obligations. Not signing doesn't make them go away.

The third type of termination papers is a bit more serious. These are generally legal agreements that involve you promising to do X and the company promising to do Y. They can be asking you to agree not to sue (generally such a document is known as a "General Release"), not to compete for a certain time period, or to not recruit your former coworkers. In exchange the company offers you severance, waves repayment for education or relocation, or allows your 401(k) to be fully vested even if you haven't worked the requisite number of years.

This type of document is extremely important and you should run it by a lawyer before you sign (or don't sign), unless you feel confident that you understand it. No matter what the person who hands the document tells you, what is written prevails. So if there is a non-compete clause in the document, but the HR person says, "Oh don't worry, we never enforce that," they can enforce it if they want to.

In this case you have to evaluate if you want what the company is offering more than what they want you to give up. If it's a layoff and you feel like you weren't chosen for any illegal reason (such as race, gender, pregnancy status, etc), then signing a release saying, "I won't sue you!" is no big deal. Even if you think you were terminated for an illegal reason, if the severance they are offering is more than a token amount, it's probably more than you'll see in a lawsuit and you should consider signing.

No matter what, make sure you keep a copy of any document you sign.

Generally refusing to sign documents because you're angry just burns a bridge. How you handle yourself in a termination can have a huge impact on what your manager says when someone calls him for a reference. And destroying any goodwill that you have isn't worth your temporary temper tantrum.

What is your opinion?

Innovation of the 21st Century Business

Armed with this perspective, where might management innovation go from here? I offer three short predictions for debate and discussion: 



First, Management Innovation will become more collaborative. Opening up the innovation process will not stop with accessing external ideas and sharing internal ideas. Rather, it will evolve into a more iterative, interactive process across the boundaries of companies, as communities of interested participants work together to create new innovations. Organizations like Syndicom, for example, have already established a community of spinal surgeons who meet up virtually to share effective protocols for screening patients for new therapies, and new methods and techniques to achieve better patient outcomes when utilizing those new therapies. 



Second, Business Model Innovation will become as important as technological innovation. It is generally accepted that a better business model can often beat a better technology. Yet companies that spend many millions of dollars on R&D seldom invest much money or time in exploring alternative business models to commercialize those discoveries. Not all business models are created equal, and we will learn how to design and improve business models in the coming decade. The rise of multinational companies from BRIC economies will further advance this trend. 



Third, we will need to master the art and science of innovating in Services-Led Economies. Most of what we know about managing innovation comes from the study of products and technologies. Yet the world's top advanced economies today derive most of their GDP from services rather than products or agriculture. To preserve prosperity and high wage employment in the advanced economies, we will have to learn how innovation works in services, which is likely to differ from how it works in products. If we incorporate the above two predictions as well, one can predict that the winning formula for managing innovation in the next decade will be via open services.


What are your personal thoughts?

Willful Blindness… The Rupert Murdoch Case

Was the News Corporation boss negligent, incompetent or willfully blind? There are lessons for all leaders in the hacking saga and the findings of the House of Commons committee.

The biggest threats and dangers we face are the ones we don't see – not because they're secret or invisible, but because we're willfully blind. By failing to see – or admit to our colleagues or us. – the issues and problems in plain sight, leaders can ruin private lives and bring down corporations.

Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, after its investigation into News Corporation, has concluded that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to run an international corporation. It said: "on the basis of the facts and evidence before the committee, we conclude that, if at all relevant times Rupert Murdoch did not take steps to become fully informed about phone hacking, he turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications. "

Whatever your opinion of Rupert Murdoch's media outlets, this is a damning verdict on a man who has built one of the world's largest and most powerful media businesses. It leads anyone who runs a business to ask: have I, at all times, taken steps to be fully informed about what is going on in my organization? What might be getting in the way of my seeing what I most need to understand? 

 In Murdoch's case, my argument is that one of the biggest problems he suffered from was not personal, but structural: power.  Power encases its recipients in a bubble. Some of that bubble may attain a physical reality: encased in limousines, private jets, and hotel suites, very powerful individuals rarely inhabit the same world as the rest of the world. Protected from the knocks and bumps of daily life, the powerful don't encounter the unscheduled question or unexpected mishap that shows where things could be going wrong.  Academic studies have shown that those with power are more optimistic, more abstract in their thinking, and more confident that they're right. So mentally they're in a bubble, too.

Perhaps most potently in Murdoch's case, powerful people can't escape a trap. People who tell them what they want to hear surround those who hold power, hiding or minimizing what they imagine their bosses don't want to know. On one level, this is not personal; it afflicts everyone. Ambitious executives want to please their bosses, so they deliver the good news and bury the bad. It's assumed that conflict is undesirable so anything that might provoke it mysteriously disappears. Leaders themselves need do nothing to encourage this. The ambitions of those around them is enough to ensure that they are surrounded by smiling bearers of success stories.

 Murdoch isn't the first and he won't be the last to be caught in this power trap. John Browne, when he led BP, was famously ensnared in it, blind to the dangerous operations, which led to accidents and fatalities. His later memoir acknowledged as much. He wrote: "I wish someone had challenged me and been brave enough to say, 'we need to ask more disagreeable questions'. "

It takes enormous energy, fortitude, and humility to see that power isn't just a privilege, but also a problem. To solve it requires finding and protecting people whose job it is specifically to ask the hard questions, to test assumptions, and challenge received wisdom. It also requires corporate governance and directors to do likewise. Most of all, the problem of power challenges all leaders–whether of billion-dollar businesses or small companies–to appreciate that, however much they say they want to hear the truth, no-one will believe them until they see the delivery of bad news rewarded.

What is your opinion?

Achieving Your Goals…For Real!

 How would you like a shortcut to success? A strategy to follow that would help you get what you want in the most efficient and effective way possible? 

If you're like me, you have a limited number of hours in the day and a limited amount of energy to get what you need to get accomplished while at the same time going after your bigger goals. Get ready to learn a simple four-step strategy that will help you create your best life in the most streamlined way possible.

1. Know your desired outcome. When you use your car's navigation system, do you type in all of the addresses you don't want to go to or just the one where you do want to go? Clearly, it is critical to know your desired outcome. What do you want to achieve? What are you going after? How would you like it to be? Now is not the time to be casual, vague, or even humble. Imagine you've rubbed the magic lamp and you get one shot at requesting what you want. Get clear and get specific.

2. Take action. The best advice I could give you about reaching your goals and creating a better life? Get started. Simply do something -- anything, really. Don't fall into the trap of having to know the best action to take to get started because this will cause delay. In fact, it's a crutch many of us use so we don't have to get started.

Analyzing 1,001 treadmills to find the best combination of features is far less scary than going to the gym and getting on one. You can see this dynamic at work in meetings -- let's schedule another meeting to talk about everything we need to do instead of actually getting started. But why do we get stuck in this inaction trap? It's safe. We are afraid of doing something that may be wrong. Inspiration is fickle. You'll feel it one minute and then poof, it will be gone the next unless you nurture it with movement -- taking action and getting started. It's better to throw the gauntlet down by doing something -- even the wrong thing -- than staying in your head and losing the inspiration.

3. Focus on feedback. Remember the hot or cold game you played as a kid? What if you played that game but didn't move? You'd never know if you were getting closer or farther away from the prize. If you stay in your head too long and try to analyze every conceivable next step, you'll never know if your path is leading you closer or farther away. Taking action is how you get feedback. Take the step, because even if you are wrong, that will give you valuable feedback so you can adjust your approach.

4. Be behaviorally flexible. If you notice your actions are not leading you to your desired outcome (or maybe not as quickly as you wish), then you have to be flexible in your approach. It's not enough to just notice what you are doing isn't working; you have to shift your strategy. If you keep hearing "colder," as in the game above, then stop moving in that direction even if you've invested a lot of time and energy. Stop, turn, and take a step in a different direction until you get closer to your outcome.

Whether you are starting a new business, in charge of a new product launch, wanting to re-connect with your spouse, wishing to get healthier, or hoping to create your best life, keep these four steps front and center, and they will help you achieve your goals faster and more efficiently.

What is your opinion?

Identifying the Bad Boss, before it is too late.

You go for a job interview, answer all their questions, and then there is that inevitable moment: do you have any questions for us? This is your moment to find out whether you want the job and, in particular, what kind of person your putative boss might be. So what are the questions that will reveal his or her true colors?

1. Of all the people who have worked for you, who are you proudest of -- and why? You want to work for someone who will help you grow, develop and advance. If this boss hasn't helped people progress, this could indicate a fear of rivals -- in which case, you'll be held back. It may also suggest that no significant mentoring or coaching will occur, in which case: what, apart from salary, will you gain from the position? On the other hand, if the executive can cite a number of people who've gone on to a wide range of opportunities, you could be onto a winner.

2. Can you describe a disagreement within the project, job or department and how it was resolved? All healthy departments argue: that is how organizations think. If there's no debate, there's no thinking. What you want to glean from the answer is whether there is a professional level of confidence around healthy disagreement. If there isn't, then your own views won't be welcome -- a sure sign that politics trump intelligence. Avoid.

3. Are there formal opportunities to mentor or coach rising stars in the firm? If you can't be a mentor, it's highly likely you won't get one either. Many job candidates hesitate to ask if they'll get mentoring or coaching (they think it looks weak), so this can be a good way to find out without appearing to ask.

4. What did the last person in this position go onto do -- and what were they like? The background to a vacant position is always interesting. If the past incumbent left under a cloud, some of that opprobrium may attach to the position -- in which case, beware. If they've advanced inside the firm, it means you could too. If no one really knows -- they're lying and you should have a serious rethink. It's helpful to know how the job was done before, if only because it is far easier to follow someone who is different; if they're too similar, you may find it difficult to assert your own identity.

5. How far have the expectations and requirements of the position changed since it was first created? If it hasn't changed at all, there's a high likelihood that this is a pretty stable -- but possibly rigid -- organization. Whether that is to your taste or not is a personal choice. But you want to know before you go any further whether you're jumping into a torrid or a stagnant pond.

None of these questions will get you into trouble -- but they may stop you jumping into it.

What is your opinion?

Are You a Great Employee?

This definitely isn't the first time somebody's written about what makes employees special. But it may very well be the first time someone's telling you what will genuinely get your management excited about you and ultimately get you promoted; No kidding.

Look, you've got to understand the reality here. People will cite ridiculously esoteric research studies and pull all sorts of popular, feel-good stuff out of their utopian behinds -- whatever it takes to get you to click. That's great for feeding your ego and your addiction to distraction, but it doesn't do squat for your career.

This is different. It's not some kumbaya fluff that will get you a big pat on the back, a "Nice job, buddy" from the boss, or a gift certificate for a cheap dinner. This is what employees really do to distinguish themselves in the eyes of management. It's how up-and-comers become up-and-comers. It's how you get recognized and moving up the corporate ladder. It's what today's top executives did when they were in your shoes.

 

Take responsibility for hot projects with a fearless attitude: And get this. If it works out, you don't waste a lot of time basking in the glory, at least not at work. Maybe you go out and celebrate with the other team members. That aside, you're all about finding the next big challenge. You're hungry for more. And if it fails, you don't point fingers. You take full responsibility and learn from it. And you know what? That's when management will start to see you as one of them. That's big.

Demonstrate natural leadership: That means when you take charge of something, people naturally follow, even though you don't have the title or the authority. Never mind everything you read; that's what natural leadership is really all about. There are all sorts of different styles that work, but mostly it comes down to a fearless self-confidence and charisma that people find magnetic. That's like gold in the corporate world.

Say, "Sure, no problem, will do," and then do it: Its one thing to have a solid work ethic and get the job done; that certainly key in the real business world. But it's another thing entirely to always accept challenging assignments with open arms and a simple, "No problem, will do" acknowledgement. And the tougher it is, the more confidants you sound and the harder you work to make it happen. That's the sign of an employee who needs a promotion or two.

Roll with the punches without taking things personally: Sure, it's hard to keep your balance when the rug's just been pulled out from under you. But let's face it. The nature of contemporary business is one of constant change, reorganizations and layoffs. Programs come and go. Companies too. One day you're rolling in resources, the next day you need three signatures for a chair. That's the way business is. And if you're flexible, you're adaptable, you've got fortitude and you don't take things personally, that's big.

Think of the company's goals as your goals: I know, the jaded among you will say that blind loyalty to a company will enslave you and get you nowhere. Well, there's truth to that. After all, any employee can be fired or quit, and that's as it should be. This is about understanding how companies operate and making the company's or the department's priorities your own. When you start to identify with the goals of management -- live, eat and breathe them -- then you start to become management. Yes, that's a good thing.

Do whatever it takes to get the job done, even when you're not getting paid for it: Look, success in the real world doesn't work like tit for tat. First, you put yourself out there, take risks, do the work, and accomplish things. Then, and only then, do you get to put your hand out and say, "Give me some." Then, if your company doesn't take care of you, you learn a lesson, put your accomplishments on your resume, and move on to a better place that values overachievers like you.

Grow the business or improve the bottom line: Yeah, I know it's not popular, but that doesn't make it any less critical or true. These days, it's all about doing more with less. Being more efficient, effective, scrappy, innovative, motivational, engaging, and not only that, happy about it. Think of it as a problem-solving challenge where the problem is how to grow the business or cut spending while improving productivity. Like it or not, that is what it's all about.

I would love to hear your opinion.

The Right Marketing Plan

A marketing plan should be a written document, not scratching on a cocktail napkin or recalled from memory. To take your business to the next level requires preparing a written marketing action plan every quarter.

Without a 90-day marketing GPS to guide you to your destination, treacherous roadblocks and time-consuming detours can keep you from reaching your goals. Even if you are a one-person sales department, you should know where your leads are coming from.

Try not to look at planning as an obligatory to-do, but as a way to solve tangible problems like generating awareness and improving credibility. Think of it as a way to solve lead generation problems before they arise. Here are some checklist steps to guide you:

1. Attack strategy quarterly. Begin developing a strategy-driven marketing action plan every 90 days. Marketing plays a vital role in successful business ventures, yet many sales people often overlook its systematic implementation. Put down on paper how you are going to do three things:

-- Generate leads for the sales team

-- Build awareness of what your company sells

-- Enhance the credibility of the organization

2. Think strategic first. Too many individuals believe that the tactical plan -- the newsletters, press kits, trade shows, banners, 800-numbers, display advertisements, logos and giveaways -- comes before the strategic plan. Those promotional, publicity and advertising tactics (and there are hundreds to choose from) should be contained within a well-orchestrated marketing action plan. But first create your strategic messages that will generate leads, build awareness and enhance credibility.

3. Update what's happening now. The situation analysis introduces the company and includes:

-- A brief overview of the product or service

-- A brief overview of the personnel involved

-- A past history of the company

-- Its present performance

-- Financial information, if appropriate

4. Profile away. Profiling is a bad word these days, but it works here. The product or service profile provides information regarding the specific items you intend to market. By addressing the following categories, a profile emerges. They include:

-- Position Statement: The niche the product or service is intended to occupy

-- Description: The product or service described in detail

-- Pricing: The methods used to establish pricing. Questions such as, "Will discounts be offered?" are asked

-- Market maturity: The overall market maturity is addressed

-- Quality/Reliability: What level of quality is being portrayed? What's the relation to price?

-- New market potential: The potential size of the market is assessed

-- Delivery of service: An explanation of the service delivery mechanism is given

-- Packaging: Includes overall presentation of the product or service and its delivery

-- Image: The impression customers receive from employees, facility, furnishings, stationary, etc.

5. Make the first the last. The executive summary consists of a one-page, top-level summary of the entire plan. It's placed at the front of the document, but it's the last thing you'll write. Its purpose is to convey the gist of the plan to stakeholders, investors and anyone else who needs to know these facts in a hurry:

-- The scope of the plan in an outlined paragraph

-- The product or service being marketed

-- For whom the plan is being prepared

-- The time period the plan covers

-- The geographic area where the implementation occurs

-- The strategic messages and the tactics to get them to the target markets

If you manage to write two or three paragraphs for each of the topics, you'll end up with plenty. But no more than 10 pages, please. From there, you can refine your tactics. More important, you've taken a big step forward because you've written your strategy down on paper.

I invite your comments!

Are you working for a Dysfunctional Company?

I was reading about how Barack Obama and George W. Bush are the most polarizing presidents of the past 50 years, meaning they had the largest gap in approval ratings between democrats and republicans.

Some think there's a chicken and egg aspect to the question of which came first, our divisive leaders or our divided nation, but I think it's entirely a function of leadership. If Obama and Bush were effective leaders, the nation wouldn't be so divided.

That's because, by definition, leadership is about somehow getting people with disparate views to coalesce and execute on goals and plans they would never agree to on their own. Clearly, that's not happening in Washington and that's why America's so divided; Makes sense, right?

Now, it's tempting to paint all ineffective leaders with the same brush. You can get away with that in politics. Just label the incumbent a big fat loser, vote the bum out of office and call it a day. But when it comes to the corporate world, that's not entirely practical because, well, it's often hard to tell the losers from the keepers.

For example, I've worked with micromanaging control-freak jerks that were remarkably effective leaders. They united people and accomplished great things. On the flip side, I've known good executives who were well liked but, nevertheless, couldn't get everyone moving in the same direction.

While companies may not have political parties to deal with, polarizing leadership and divisive management are real and entirely common issues that destroy organizational effectiveness and ultimately lead to operating failure in companies big and small.

Since we can't really solve a problem without identifying it first, here are seven signs of a dysfunctional company with polarizing leadership:

Ivory tower effect: When self-important executives make decisions in a vacuum or otherwise barricade themselves in their expansive corner offices, which create a nasty cultural divide between management and employees. On the contrary, I knew one executive VP who insisted on sitting in a cubicle with his people. Good man.

Warring factions: You hear it all the time: "There's a natural tension between sales and marketing"; or "Come on, everybody hates HR," like it's an inevitable feud between warring factions. That's bologna. There's nothing natural or inevitable about it. It's dysfunctional, it's divisive and it fosters rivalry instead of alignment.

Strategy du jour: When dysfunctional executives consistently overreact to a single data point and take the entire organization in a new direction. Often the result of hallway or ad-hoc meetings in obscure places and making decisions in the absence of those who are actually responsible for that sort of thing.

Analysis paralysis: When executives, especially from warring factions, chronically debate issues to death, going down one rat hole or knock-down, drag-out fight after another without actually making decisions because there's no clear leadership to drive consensus.

Walk on water behavior: When leaders either consciously or subconsciously hoist certain groups up on pedestals while denigrating others. Besides being divisive, that also creates "walk on water" behavior where exalted groups aren't subject to standard processes like budgeting, for example.

Silo mentality: When teams, departments or entire divisions act as if they're independent from the rest of the company, usually in a defensive "it's us against them" sort of way when fighting for resources; Often the result of being denigrated by a dysfunctional and divisive CEO. A.k.a. "bunker mentality."

Sacred cow: A pet project -- usually owned by a founder -- that's immune to criticism and the company's standard processes. In other words, it continues to be funded long after it shouldn't. Also leads to passive aggressive behavior where the exec in charge agrees to kill it but never actually does.

I would love to hear your opinion!