Thursday, March 12, 2015

The 50 New Rules of Work

By Robin Sharma
Author of the #1 bestseller The Leader Who Had No Title

The global economy is in a state of acute disruption. Competition has never been more fierce. Consumers have never been so well-informed and loudly demanding. And what worked yesterday just might be obsolete today.

But this time is also a great time, for the astonishing few who are ready to show leadership. Leaders are at their absolute best during messy cycles versus during the easy ones. And messy cycles bring with them gorgeous opportunities.

As I sit quietly on this airplane at 40,000 feet, away from the rallying cries of a wired world filled with endless interruptions, I’ve distilled what I’ve been sharing in my presentations to clients across the planet over the past months, from Kuwait and Dubai to Paris, London and Dusseldorf.

Here are 50 powerful rules to amp up your game so this business cycle is one of your best business cycles yet.

The 50 New Rules of Work

You are not just paid to work. You are paid to be uncomfortable – and to pursue projects that scare you.
Take care of your relationships and the money will take care of itself.
Lead you first. You can’t help others reach for their highest potential until you’re in the process of reaching for yours.
To double your income, triple your rate of learning.
While victims condemn change, leaders grow inspired by change.
Small daily improvements over time create stunning results.
Surround yourself with people courageous enough to speak truthfully about what’s best for your organization and the customers you serve.
Don’t fall in love with your press releases.
Every moment in front of a customer is a moment of truth (to either show you live by the values you profess – or you don’t).
Copying what your competition is doing just leads to being second best.
Become obsessed with the user experience such that every touchpoint of doing business with you leaves people speechless. No, breathless.
If you’re in business, you’re in show business. The moment you get to work, you’re on stage. Give us the performance of your life.
Be a Master of Your Craft. And practice + practice + practice.
Get fit like Madonna.
Read magazines you don’t usually read. Talk to people who you don’t usually speak to. Go to places you don’t commonly visit. Disrupt your thinking so it stays fresh + hungry + brilliant.
Remember that what makes a great business – in part – are the seemingly insignificant details. Obsess over them.
Good enough just isn’t good enough.
Brilliant things happen when you go the extra mile for every single customer.
An addiction to distraction is the death of creative production. Enough said.
If you’re not failing regularly, you’re definitely not making much progress.
Lift your teammates up versus tear your teammates down. Anyone can be a critic. What takes guts is to see the best in people.
Remember that a critic is a dreamer gone scared.
Leadership’s no longer about position. Now, it’s about passion. And having an impact through the genius-level work that you do.
The bigger the dream, the more important the team.
If you’re not thinking for yourself, you’re following – not leading.
Work hard. But build an exceptional family life. What’s the point of reaching the mountaintop but getting there alone.
The job of the leader is to develop more leaders.
The antidote to deep change is daily learning. Investing in your professional and personal development is the smartest investment you can make. Period.
Smile. It makes a difference.
Say “please” and “thank you”. It makes a difference.
Shift from doing mindless toil to doing valuable work.
Remember that a job is only just a job if all you see it as is a job.
Don’t do your best work for the applause it generates but for the personal pride it delivers.
The only standard worth reaching for is BIW (Best in World).
In the new world of business, everyone works in Human Resources.
In the new world of business, everyone’s part of the leadership team.
Words can inspire. And words can destroy. Choose yours well.
You become your excuses.
You’ll get your game-changing ideas away from the office versus in the middle of work. Make time for solitude. Creativity needs the space to present itself.
The people who gossip about others when they are not around are the people who will gossip about you when you’re not around.
It could take you 30 years to build a great reputation and 30 seconds of bad judgment to lose it.
The client is always watching.
The way you do one thing defines the way you’ll do everything. Every act matters.
To be radically optimistic isn’t soft. It’s hard. Crankiness is easy.
People want to be inspired to pursue a vision. It’s your job to give it to them.
Every visionary was initially called crazy.
The purpose of work is to help people. The other rewards are inevitable by-products of this singular focus.
Remember that the things that get scheduled are the things that get done.
Keep promises and be impeccable with your word. People buy more than just your products and services. They invest in your credibility.
Lead Without a Title.

I encourage you to share + discuss + debate these with your team and throughout your organization. Within a quick period of time, you’ll see some fantastic results.

Keep Leading Without A Title.

Yours
www.v4all.org

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The 8 Faces of Exceptionally Creative Leaders

If you’ve been following my work for a while, you know that my core belief is that the old model of leadership is dead and now, anyone in any organization on any part of the planet can show leadership. I’ve seen taxi drivers who display rare-air leadership along with school teachers + breakfast servers + construction workers. Work is changing. And we all can provoke impact and influence if we Lead Without a Title. But here’s the point of this piece: not only do each of us have the potential to be leaders – we each have the potential to be creative. Massively.

Who sold us on the lie that only artists and poets and musicians are Creatives? When we were kids, we all expressed our Inner Rembrandt as effortlessly as we would breathe. We colored outside of the lines, ideated at the slightest chances and were essentially idea factories on two short legs. But then, as we aged, we stifled our creativity as the mortgages, deadlines and the stuff of life took over our days. Sad.

You and I do no favor to the world in withholding our creativity. So, in my sincere effort to help you work + play at your best, I invite you to consider The 8 Faces of the most creative people I’ve observed. These are the qualities that the brightest of the best have. And you can develop them too. Here we go:

The 8 Faces of Exceptionally Creative Leaders

The Madonna

The Face of Madonna will serve to remind you that nearly every great Creative was a perfectionist. Yes, I know perfectionism may not be the most healthy attribute in the world. But facts are facts and when I study the superstars of creativity, the fact is almost every one of them stood for nothing less than ideal work.

A while ago I watched Madonna’s documentary “I’m Going to Tell You a Secret”, which deeply inspired me.

At every touch point, Madonna sweat the small stuff and demanded that every element of every performance was perfect.

Why work on a project if not to get it as close to perfect as possible?

The Picasso

The face of Picasso will reinforce the notion of devotion.

Great creatives don’t do what they do just for the applause and accolades. They do it because they love it.

Picasso used to leave beautiful dinners with his friends to return to his studio to advance his craft.

His art was his passion.

And like every fantastically creative person, he worked with utter devotion.

The Thoreau

The face of Henry David Thoreau will remind you of the need to create space for your creative talent to flow.

We live in a world where too many people have too little time away from the noise of ringing smart phones, constant email and the dumbing hum of the television.

One of my all-time favorite books is “Walden” by Thoreau. He wrote it over a period living by a pond, away from the world. Living in quiet solitude with nature as his daily companion.

We don’t get our best ideas at work. We get them on beaches or in bathtubs.

Create spaces for your your inner artist to present itself.

The Hemingway

The face of Ernest Hemingway will reinforce the idea that hugely creative people are extremely disciplined.

It’s pure myth that the best artists achieved what they did without structure and organization.

Hemingway, the famed author, wrote at the same time every day – whether he felt inspired or de-inspired.

Yes, spark a steady flow of great ideas.

But great ideas that are not executed upon and converted into real results are a waste of time. The world is littered with geniuses who did zero with their big ideas.

The Branson

Richard Branson’s face will remind you to have fun.

Creativity often occurs in the heat of play.

Branson’s a billionaire. But he really seems to have fun at all he does.

Look – no, hunt – for ways to make whatever it is you do fun.

That will open up that part of your brain that drives your best ideas.

The Edison

The face of Edison will remind you that creative mastery is a numbers game.

Yes, we all know the cliche that Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times before he got the light bulb right. But the story’s worth remembering.

Study any genius – in the arts or in business, and you’ll discover the same thing: they succeeded because they outfailed everyone around them.

Come up with a thousand ideas and one’s bound to be brilliant.

The Starck

Philippe Starck is awesome. And part of his awesomeness stems from his love of minimalism.

Here’s where I’m going with this one: genius resides in simplicity.

The best inventions were the simplest inventions.

Further, de-clutter your workspace + your home + your mind.

Breathtakingly beautiful ideas can’t flow when your energy’s being taken up by the messes around you.

The Ford

Ok. Last one. The face of Henry Ford will remind you to trust yourself.

I’ve made my biggest mistakes when I’ve listened to the chattering voices around me vs. trusted my own instincts.

Self-belief is a powerful leadership quality.

Nearly everyone laughed at Ford’s concept for a car. His reply: “If I’d listened to the people around me, I would have built a faster horse carriage.”

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

How to Network When You're Socially Awkward

When you’re socially awkward and your social calendar shows it, setting goals like starting a business or leading a movement might seem impossible.

How can you possibly waltz into a crowded room and leave with a dozen business connections if you can barely look a stranger in the eye? And let's not forget that oh-so-mind-numbing round of small talk passed around in rooms of strangers as they try to gauge who can help them get where they want to go in life.

You can't figure out how to talk about anything so you stand there as quietly as possible, cramming your mouth with cheese and crackers, hoping you don't unintentionally blurt out an offensive statement.

Relax. There is nothing wrong with you. You don't have to change who you are.

Just because you can't thrill a crowd with witty banter doesn't mean you aren’t fascinating. In fact, you may be brilliant. Don't talk yourself out of trying to start your business just because you heard somewhere that an effective business leader must be a social butterfly.

You don’t have to play by the old rules: This is the digital age. There are a plethora of ways to connect with others who will value your ideas even if you don't engage in the traditional meet and greet. Break the rules and become a digital butterfly instead.

While extroverts believe that focusing on connecting with others through digital means is just a way for you to hide behind your computer, understand that your digital persona can be an important tool for sidestepping your social limitations.

When you create authority with your digital presence, it will speak for you even when you’re tongue-tied. Check out these four ideas:

1. Join online groups for professionals.

Do you think that just because you're the only person you know who is interested in creating life-size dolls, say, that there aren't others out there equally as fascinated by this?

Virtually any topic that you're building your business around has a thriving online community of people who are wild about doing the same thing.

Find them by searching hashtags or doing a simple web search. When you introduce yourself, you will learn things that would have taken you years to discover on your own. And the best part is you will never have to go sit outside alone in the car for 15 minutes to recover from a socially triggered anxiety attack.

2. Create your own community.

It’s not easy to socialize when you're following the social standards set by someone else. Why not go out on a limb and create your own community that welcomes people in areas related to your field?

Create a Meetup group, a Facebook group, a Google Plus community or even a Reddit thread so that like minds can find you.

You will be the leader so you can structure the activities and set standards for how people interact with one another. Become the creator instead of asking for permission to join and you will never be at a loss for words because you will be too busy building.

3. Host online webinars.

Organizing a webinar that invites leaders and shining personalities from your industry to share their knowledge is a great way to network without having to schmooze. You can streamline the delivery of word of the latest developments in your industry directly from the mouths of those developing them all without doing one breath check.

You can even invite one of the masterminds you admire to be the host of the event while you manage the back end of the project. Invite participants by using your best communication tool: email.

This communication tool was created to help everyone communicate more efficiently. Don't let anyone lead you to believe that communicating by email is a crutch when you know that this tool helps you represent yourself in the best way.

4. Create a digital-media platform.

The very best way to stay in the loop and relevant in your industry is to create a digital-media platform. A website, blog, video channel or podcast that consistently provides value to your industry is a significantly strategic and brilliant endeavor.

When you create a digital platform that showcases the best ideas and innovators in your industry, you will attract bright minds who will want to know and befriend you without having to meet for cocktails.

Busy entrepreneurs will make time for you because they appreciate being celebrated for their efforts. You will earn the right to stand among the best without ever wondering if you fit in. You will fit in when you learn how important it is to create a place for yourself.

urs
www.v4all.org

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Master the Concept of Leverage to Get What You Want in Business and Life

Do you want to achieve more sales, close more deals and take more control in your life? Of course you do. You’re in luck because there is an everyday word that has the unique ability to dramatically change the outcome of nearly any daily situation -- particularly those in business. If you can learn how to properly identify and control this concept, your life is sure to never be the same.

So, here’s the word, the trick, the magic wand -- it’s called leverage. Yep, leverage. Leverage comes in many different forms and plays a particularly important role in the financial world -- which is another article entirely so we’re not going to cover it here. Instead, we’ll look at leverage as applicable to our daily lives in business.

What is it?

Simply put, leverage is the advantage that exists when a person or entity has the upper hand. They may have achieved this position from a variety of means including a greater knowledge or experience base, exclusivity in a particular market, lower product pricing, better service options or even superior personal relationships -- with special emphasis on the word "personal."

For example: Ever tried to get your kids to quiet down in a restaurant by handing them a video game? That’s leverage. You have something that they want and the result of this transaction is that they act how you want them to. Your leverage is gone the second those batteries run out.

Understand where you sit.

It’s critically important that you have a clear understanding as to where you do and do not have leverage. Assess your position to determine which party has the greater need or want and which provides more value in certain areas. If your opposing party is in need of something that only you possess, you can use leverage to push for better pricing.

If you don’t have that exclusivity, you’re likely missing the leverage required to achieve your elevated price -- unless you’ve created additional value that elevates your negotiating position, and therefore your leverage. Now, there are surely situations where that may not be so clear, but it’s important that you constantly assess your position of leverage and adjust accordingly.

Here’s a safe assumption: If you’re unsure whether you have the leverage in a particular situation, you don’t. It’s always better to know that you lack leverage than to be unsure as to where you stand, as at least then you can make informed decisions as to your next best move.

Find what they want or need.

If you don’t have proper leverage in your given circumstance, go and find it. Start with understanding the motivations of the person you’re working with and build additional value by solving their problems or exceeding their needs.

If you’re selling a product, your value -- or what the consumer feels they are getting in exchange for the price -- acts just like leverage. The better the value, the more the consumers desire your product and, therefore, the more leverage you have. As your leverage increases, you are better able to affect a positive outcome that is to your advantage -- which in this example is likely additional revenue and increased margins.

Leverage is all about understanding what another party desires and figuring out what you need to fulfill it, then using your position to gain an outcome in your favor. It is important to note, however, that leverage can be used both for good and for bad. Bad leverage results in one person winning and the others losing -- typically a consequence of working with bad people -- whereas in good leverage situations, all parties can benefit from the outcome of the transaction or deal.

Most smart people tend to avoid doing business with those that overuse their leverage -- you know, the bad people. Instead, be a good person and use your leverage responsibly while creating win-win situations.

Yours - www.v4all.org

Entrepreneurs Need to Stop Doing These 10 Things, Right Now

Being an entrepreneur is hard. It's really hard. There isn't a playbook, instructional manual, video or biography that can possibly provide you with enough information to make it easy.

While the difficulty is just part of the deal, there are a number of things that founders often find themselves entangled in that, without question, make it harder. Let’s take a look at a list of the things that you, as a founder, need to stop doing -- right now.

1. Lying to yourself or others about your traction

It’s awesome if you’ve had 70,000 downloads for your new app in the first three months or that you generated over $1 million last year in revenue. It’s not awesome if you only have 2,000 monthly active users or actually lost $2 million overall. These are numbers that you are hiding behind, lying both to yourself and everyone else as you shout them from the mountaintop. At some point, you’ll begin to believe them -- then you’re in serious trouble.

2. Focusing on too many things at once

Guess what? You only have 100 percent of your time to split up between your professional activities. If you do too many different things simultaneously, you’re just splitting up your 100 percent into pieces that ultimately resemble slivers of poor performance. Instead, spend 100 percent of your time and focus on becoming excellent at one thing.

3. Working yourself to death

The concept that you need to work grueling hours to be an entrepreneur is not a rule, it’s a choice. Technology has advanced to the point where you can get inexpensive help with literally anything. If you’ve chosen not to learn to use the wealth of outsourcing and automation opportunities that would allow you to have a life and a normal night of sleep, that’s your fault and nobody else’s.

4. Following shiny objects

There’s no quicker way to drown your new enterprise than chasing too many opportunities. Yes, it’s in our nature as entrepreneurs to notice new opportunities and look for solutions to them, but you must remain focused on the task at hand. The best entrepreneurs in the world remain unshakably focused, and you must too.

5. Building terrible "lean" products

The "minimum viable product" (MVP) concept has a lot of value, in theory, but doesn’t always translate to production-level quality. So stop using the lean startup methodology as an excuse to put out crappy, underdeveloped products. You’re only wasting your own time.

6. Using the word "I"

Humility is important, particularly when your company begins to grow and bring on outside team members. There is no better way to disenfranchise them than to take credit for everything that comes out of the door. Stop being arrogant and replace “I” with “we.”

7. Building companies with no revenue

If I hear one more pitch where the entrepreneur says, “we’re not worrying about revenue until X happens,” I’m going to poke my eyes out. You’re starting a business, not a hobby, and the likelihood of you building the next Snapchat is fantastically low. Instead, create something that provides users with this magical thing called “value.” If you’re lucky (or smart) people will be willing to pay for it.

8. Asking investors to sign non-disclosure agreements

If you’re doing this, you’re screaming, “I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing”, which doesn’t typically bode well for potential investment. Here’s the thing, investors are investing, not stealing ideas and building companies. On top of that, it can take quite a long time to build your brand and networks as an investor and I can assure you that if they were indeed stealing ideas, it would fly through the startup community like wildfire.

If you’ve found the secret to creating nuclear fusion and are truly worried about it, be sure to work only with known and respected investors.

9. Thinking that you're the only company in your space

When you claim to not have competition, you’re either being dishonest or ignorant. Here’s the problem: competitors aren’t always direct replicas of your business -- think Walgreens and CVS -- but can be other larger companies with potential interest in your space -- Apple or Google -- that have huge amounts of cash to throw at the problem you’re trying to solve.

10. Building photo sharing and mobile dating apps

Sorry to break your heart, but those ships have sailed. You need to stop building companies that are incrementally, or 10 percent, better than what already exists. Instead, be creative and build your business around new innovations, ideas and even industries.

urs

www.v4all.org

5 Tips for Getting the Most Important Things Done Every Day

5 Tips for Getting the Most Important Things Done Every Day.

Getting the right things done is a daily struggle for most entrepreneurs. The battle cry of an entrepreneur’s struggle is “boy am I busy!” Are youreally that busy or does it just make you feel good to say that?

When I ask entrepreneurs or business executives “why are you so busy?” I get a “to-do” list recitation. But what are you really getting done? Are you tackling the right items on your list? Are those things yielding the results your business needs to thrive?

As a “busy” entrepreneur, maybe you mistakenly measure success by the length of your “to-do” list or the number of hours you work. Bottom line, you have to break down the wall you have built around yourself and find the freedom from your current daily routine.

You can start to tear down this wall by answering the following questions:

Do you find that you waste time and money and miss opportunities?
Do you find yourself involved in a fair amount of “fire-fighting” and feel like you are moving from crisis to crisis?
Do you run from task to task without seeing any measurable progress?
Are you pulled in multiple directions at once with little or no time for you?

Entrepreneurs always have things to get done, but there’s usually an equal amount of “to-do” items that can best be described as “distractions.” You know, the “stuff” that gets in the way and pulls us every which way other than the right one.

More times than not you will get “seduced” by shiny objects, which are things that seem more important than they actually are. The challenge for entrepreneurs is not only finding a way to fight distractions, but conditioning yourself not to be tempted in the first place, all in order to get the right things done.

Here are the five simple steps to help you to get the right things done:

1. Ask.

Start each day with this question: What is the one thing that I can/should do today that will get me closer to my goal or desired result? Work on that first and complete the task. You must first have specific and clear goals. Without them there is no way you can determine the most important tasks.

2. Priorities.

Create a daily list of things to do: Work on the high value tasks first. High value tasks are those that increase important business factors like revenue and profitability. High value tasks are also those that help you achieve your goals. As such, you have to define “high value” as it relates to you and your organization.

3. The 4 D's.

When the “right thing” isn’t clear, apply what I refer to as “The 4 D Rule” – every task that you are faced with must “fit” into one of these four categories:

Do it. You are the best person to handle this task.

Delegate it. Though this is something you could probably do, it’s not the best use of your time or skills. Delegate it to someone who is better suited to handle it.

Defer it. Not everything has to be done at the same time; set priorities to stay focused on the right things for the given time period.

Dump it. This is a task that doesn’t have to be done at all; it represents “busy” work and no value will result from it being done.

4. Pause to consider.

Take small breaks during the course of the day to evaluate your current situation. Give yourself the opportunity to validate that you are working on the right things.

5. Focus.

This last step is very important: Stop multi-tasking! While you can probably do more than one or two things at the same time, you are not Superman, and it’s impossible to actually focus on more than one thing at the same time. Continue multi-tasking, and your results will begin to reflect your lack of focus.

Yours Happily

www.v4all.org

Sunday, March 1, 2015

'Focus on Your Passion. Nothing Else Matters.'

www.v4all.org

As founder and chief shoe giver at TOMS, a retail company with a mission of social entrepreneurship -- Blake Mycoskie launched his company eight years ago intent on giving back. The premise of TOMS was simple: For every purchased pair of shoes another pair would be donated to children in need in 60 countries all over the world.

The spirit of this trademarked "One for One" philosophy has informed how TOMS has grown, as the company added eyewear to their repertoire and moved into other ventures.

Last year, TOMS Marketplace was launched -- a digital hub that calls attention to similarly socially-minded companies and gives customers an opportunity to shop with a cause in mind.

And this spring, TOMS got into the coffee business, directly trading with the farmers that grow their beans and giving a week of clean water to the communities that need it most for every bag sold.

We caught up with Mycoskie, an award-winning serial entrepreneur, former Amazing Race competitor and the bestselling author of Start Something That Matters, to talk about always putting the customer first and the importance of following your passion, wherever it takes you.

Q: Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently when you were first starting up?
A: I would have never decided to enter a business where only a handful of companies or customers can determine your fate.

Q: What do you think would have happened if you had had this knowledge then?
A: I wouldn't have tried to start a cable network [Reality Central in 2003]. I tried to start a reality TV cable network and ultimately failed, because we could not get necessary distribution on the big cable operator platforms.

Q: How do you think young entrepreneurs might benefit from this insight?
A: Even if you have the best idea in the world and tons of customers that want it, if there is a platform, channel, retailer that will get in between you and your customers, you could have a problem. If they love what you are doing, that's great, but if they don't, you have to figure out a way to get directly to the end user with your product and service.

Q: Besides inventing a time machine, how would you have realized this wisdom sooner?
A: I would have read more business biographies. The most successful entrepreneurs who write them are transparent about the mistakes they have made and what you can learn from them.

Q: What are you glad you didn’t know then that you know now? Why?
A: How hard it is to start a shoe business. How hard it is to build a business when you are committed to giving something away every time you sell something in a one-for-one manner, and lastly, how many red eye flights you would have to take to save money on hotel rooms!

Q: What is your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
A: Focus on your passion. Nothing else matters.