How to Add Value as a New Manager without Alienating the Natives

Getting a new job is exciting – but now the pressure’s on to prove yourself…

The first several months of a new job can be incredibly stressful as you work hard to make a good impression and show your new employer that they made a good hiring decision.  But sometimes trying too hard can backfire and your efforts end up alienatating the very people you are trying to impress.  Here is a story of how one manager navigated this tricky terrain:

SITUATION

John had just been hired to head up the Operations Team at a successful, growing company.  He was eager to prove to the board that they had made a good hiring decision, and started the job with enthusiasm.  But his first few months were turning out to be much more challenging than he had anticipated.  He would use his best judgment to make a decision, only to find out he’d accidentally left someone key out of the loop.  He came up with good ideas, only to get push back from people who would patiently explain that the ideas had already been tried. He had basic questions, and was afraid to ask his busy peers for fear of appearing incompetent.  He felt like he couldn’t move projects forward, and feared that those who hired him might start having second thoughts if he didn’t get some tangible wins soon.

COACHING INSIGHTS, DECISIONS, AND ACTIONS

John had always been well-liked and respected in his prior positions, and for the first time in many years he was beginning to doubt himself.  It was a big relief for him to find out that this is a common pattern for anyone moving into a new organization.  There are cultural nuances, jargon, and interpersonal dynamics that everyone in the company takes for granted, and no one thinks to explain to newcomers.  This “way” of doing things is only noticeable when the awkwardness of an outsider’s behavior brings it to the surface.  Usually it takes four to six months for a newcomer to soak up the ins and outs of the new culture, and during that time getting the most basic parts of a new job done can be painfully slow.  Unfortunately, these same four to six months are when you are being watched and judged.  Just when you want to make your best impression, you are completely handicapped.

We discussed various ways to accelerate his assimilation process, and John liked the idea of building a relationship map.  He drew a flow chart of the organization, adding new people and connecting them to others as he met them.  We identified eight questions that would help him understand their goals, how his role connected to theirs, and how they could optimally work together: 

1.  What are your most important goals and objectives?

2.  What do you need most to acieve those goals and objectives?

3.  What do you need in particular from my department to help you achieve those goals and objectives?

4. How do you see my role connecting to yours, and how do you envision us working together?

5. How do you prefer to communicate (e-mail, voice mail, lunches, quick hallway conversations, meetings…)?

6. What are some of the biggest barriers / frustrations / challenges you face in your work?

7. Who do you trust to go to for support and advice when you need it?

8. If I do well at my job, how will that impact you?

His goal was to answer these eight questions for each person on the relationship map.

RESULTS

The relationship map project gave John something tangible to work on, and got him initiating conversations he might otherwise have avoided.  He was initially worried that the project might take away from his work, but he soon saw that the information he got from his conversations enabled him to get more done faster. 

 He found people much more receptive when he showed genuine interest in what they were trying to accomplish.  In one case he discovered that another department was working on a project that could be combined with something his team was doing, and his work with the other department head to make it happen gained him visible win # 1.  He also found that as he probed for what was currently frustrating people, he was able to come up with new ideas that people wanted to try, and this lead to more wins. 

 But most of all, he started feeling like himself again.  His network within the company solidified, and he felt confident asking “stupid” questions anytime he wasn’t sure of something.  Because the relationship map included everyone in his department, he was able to develop a deeper understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, and goals of team members and work more effectively with all of them.

KEY LEARNING

Acclimating to a new organization is usually more stressful than looking for a new job in the first place.  By working with a coach, John learned that this was a normal part of starting a new position, and he stopped questioning his competence.  This also enabled him to take a proactive approach that gave him a sense of control in a situation with a lot of unknowns.  A relationship map is a useful tool for anyone in an organization because it helps you get outside of your own head and see things from the perspectives of those who work with you.  In John’s case it helped him mitigate the natural suspicion that most people have for a newcomer in a corporate environment, accelerate his assimilation process, and build the foundation for a strong network within the organization.

Pass it on…

John’s story is quite common, so if you find yourself in a similar situation don’t despair, and see if the relationship mapping idea will work for you.   You don’t have to use the same questions or even have eight of them.  You don’t even have to schedule meetings to answer the questions; you can challenge yourself to find the answers to the questions in whatever manner most suits the environment.  The point is to create questions that will help you learn more about what things look like from the other person’s perspective. 

 If you have a friend who has just landed, is immersed in the first six months of a new job, or who is responsible for bringing in and coaching new managers – please feel free to pass this story on in case they can use it.

How to Deal with a Micro-Managing Boss

Bosses are tough to deal with in general. They represent authority, and they often bring back memories of what we hated most in our relationships with our parents and teachers growing up. The micro-managing boss is especially hard to handle if you are creative, innovative, and want to make a contribution of your own in an organization. But since quite a few people in management positions fit this profile, chances are you will end up with one at some point in your career. Here are some tips to help you get the space you need to thrive:

1. Understand that micromanaging behavior is driven by the positive characteristics of conscientiousness, diligence, and responsibility; it’s just that they have been taken to an extreme. People often confuse themselves with the quality of the work they produce. As long as they can control the quality of their work, they are ok, but as soon as they have to depend on others for results, they are faced with the fear of representing sloppy or substandard output. Since putting out less than excellent work is SO personally humiliating, they need constant reassurance that the team is performing. Keep in mind that behavior such as constant checking on your progress or reviewing your work has NOTHING to do with how well you perform. It is about your boss, who has gotten so caught up in his or her fears and needs for reassurance that he or she is not aware of how this behavior may be impacting you.

2. You can give yourself space by playing to their standards for excellence and needs for reassurance. Initiate a conversation about expectations and standards of work output, and make sure your boss is clear about where your standards are. If you have a difference of opinion, get it talked out and come to an agreement about what standards you are both comfortable with. Then COMMUNICATE. It’s natural to react to micro-management by doing everything possible to avoid communication. But that just plays into the vicious circle of mutual mistrust and escalates the problem. If you develop a habit of sending a short e-mail on a daily or weekly basis that gives your status on a project and how you are handling situations, the boss gets a stream of continuous reassurance, and wont feel a strong need to check in.

3. Once you have developed a certain degree of trust with your boss, you may want to take it to the next step, and that is providing feedback on the impact of the micromanaging behavior. For example, “I notice that you have redone my last three powerpoint presentations. I understand your desire to have us represented in a positive light, but you may not realize that you are sending a subtle message, that I can’t do powerpoint presentations, and that makes me feel less excited about doing them well in the first place. Is there something specific you are noticing about the way I do my presentations that does not meet the standards we agreed on related to our work?”

Unfortunately, the micro-managing boss ends up fulfilling his own fears. As he takes more responsibility for the work of the team, the team feels completely disempowered and loses the motivation to produce their best work. Soon they are complaining and doing very little, and he is fretting about how they don’t care and he has the weight of more than one job on his shoulders. It may take several attempts to help him turn around, because he needs to let go and allow himself to look bad in order to re-empower the team, build trust, and get to the point where he gets results that are better than he ever dreamed.

If you are a micro-manager, or you work for one, anything you can do to facilitate the change will be a positive learning experience. Giving your boss feedback that enables him to become a better leader is a gift he will be forever grateful for. And if you are that boss, imagine getting rid of the experience of being overworked and not being able to trust anyone, and moving to a place where you get to work with people who consistently go well beyond the call of duty, and you are so honored to be their leader that you would never consider taking ownership for the phenomenal work they put forth.

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Living Life on MY Terms

Testimonial from Kathy Shute:

Here’s the predicament I was in….

I’d been a loyal private coaching client of Nahid’s for several years, and felt I was on track with my life. Unfortunately, then crisis hit. Over the span of a year I underwent a major, emergency surgery that took me out of work. After my recovery, I obtained a new position but after working there for only six months I was laid off. To make matters worse, my husband was laid off a little before I was!

Nahid showed up in my life again with a powerful, new tool.

I was teetering on the brink of depression. These layoffs could have been a blessing with different timing.
But I didn’t have the resources or clarity to move toward any career dreams yet, nor the investment reserves to hire Nahid to help me navigate this crisis.

As fate would have it, Nahid called me to share news that she was starting The Aspyrre Community.
As I listened, I knew it was the perfect solution – exactly what I needed. Cost-effective, authentic group workshops that provided ongoing coaching while I looked for a job.

Here’s the powerful epiphany I had during one of The Aspyrre Community workshops…

During one of my first workshops, I gained clarity about my career and life goals.
What I truly wanted was to be an Artist, a Writer, and to travel the world!

Wow, what a scary thought….if only I had a million dollars or a benefactor.
Here’s where my second paradigm shift came about. Nahid informed me that all I needed was a way to create passive income, affording me more time to paint and travel.

Okay, but how…I wondered? She then told me about a book called, The 4 Hour Workweek, by best-selling author Tim Ferris. It provides a wealth of great ideas about designing your lifestyle and then living it by leveraging your time and creating passive income…just what Nahid was telling me to do!

The turning point….

Meanwhile, I had to be practical and find work. Yet, the industry I worked in was hard hit by the national recession, and offered little in the way of job prospects.  So I read The 4 Hour Workweek and then I became inspired. Partly as a result of these discussions, my husband decided to start an online business that made use of his corporate online marketing and web design skills.

After some time, with no job, but with ongoing support from the Community, I joined up with my husband, and can you believe it? I began using my writing skills in the new business! We also put my artwork online, too, and found an automated high-quality vendor to reproduce and ship it to customers around the world.

My life and career transformation:

Just a year after joining The Aspyrre Communty, I’m working full time writing, painting and traveling the world, while building equity toward my future. I can’t say enough good about Nahid and the direct, ongoing value she brings to members like me in The Aspyrre Community!

Four Stages of Decisive Change

The Stages

* Pre-Stage One – Testing the Waters
* Stage One – The Tornado
* Stage Two – The Marathon
* Stage Three – The Rainbow
* Stage Four – The Transformation

Pre-Stage One — Testing the Waters

You have a dream or a fantasy that you flirt with from time to time in your head. You wonder whether you should try to make it happen. You wonder if you have what it takes. Then you forget about it. For a long period of time – could be months or years, ideas pop in and out of your head. You may even have spurts of energy where you gather information or start moving forward, but they are very short lived. Throughout all of this you feel uncertain. The stage ends when you decide for certain that you will at least give it a shot.

Stage One – The Tornado

Key Entry Point:

Mentally, you decide that for whatever it’s worth, you are going to go for it. This mental decision point may precede action for several months, but the questions you mull over in your head have changed from “Should I do this?” to “How will I do this”?

What it Feels Like:

Exciting, Scary, and Exhausting

What You Can Expect:

1. Every action takes much more energy than you think it should

§ You get extremely anxious as you plan to act

§ What seem to be relatively simple tasks completely drain you – both before and after you do them

2. An emotional roller-coaster

§ Sometimes you are so excited you can hardly breathe as you imagine how you are finally making this happen!

§ Other times you feel discouraged, wrought with self-doubt, wondering if you are taking the right steps, and what compelled you to think you could do this in the first place.

§ Sometimes you are afraid to do something that seems simple and will avoid it at all costs

§ Sometimes you want to hide under the covers and escape from all of it

3. Over-reaction and emotional attachment to results.

§ Discouragement is especially prevalent after getting a result that wasn’t what you hoped for

§ Really needing for something to work out – knocking on wood a lot

§ Complete elation when you get the results you had hoped for

§ Sentimental attachment to first signs of success

4. Sabotage seems to run rampant – both from within and without!

§ Life events, your family, career, obligations pulling you away from your endeavor. Just when you think you are moving forward, something earth-shatteringly important gets in the way.

§ Lots of procrastination, lots of distractions, lots of needing to take a break and relax

5. The people you thought you could count on most for support surprise you.

§ They may offer support but don’t follow through

§ They express anxiety over what could go wrong

§ They know people who could help you but don’t introduce you

§ They keep treating you as if you aren’t going to change

§ You get the feeling they don’t believe you can pull it off

§ You get the feeling they are threatened by your action/success

How to Get Through It:

1. What you most need:

a. A reason stronger than short term results to maintain energy and keep going.

b. Faith, because you have no guarantee of success.

c. Lots of support and encouragement from good friends who believe in you more than you believe in yourself.

2. Realize that everything will take more time and energy than you expect because it’s new – take baby steps, and rest a lot between them.

3. Accept that this will be like swimming upstream, and the current will keep pulling you backwards – persist, persist, persist. When something prevents you from getting something done, reschedule it, or try to do part of it. Chip away and take your time.

4. Gather information, mentors, guides, books, buddies, support like it’s going out of style. You’ll need all of it to help you stay focused in periods of discouragement and self-doubt.

5. Stay Away from naysayers: people who are used to you being the way you are now, people who tell you about all the obstacles.

6. Find new people who haven’t seen you in your last role, who will believe in you in the role you aspire to.

Moving out of Stage One:

You get to a point where you realize that this is going to be a lot harder than you think. You may decide that this is not what you want after all. Or, you may begin to feel a strong sense of determination. The determination moves you into stage two.

Stage Two — The Marathon

Key Entry Point:

You realize that this is going to be a lot harder than you ever imagined, but you are willing to put in the work.

What it Feels Like:

Hopeful, Frustrating, Like Real Hard Work

What You Can Expect:

1.  You have more clarity about what you want – you can visualize your goal.

2.  Most of the time you have confidence that you are doing the right thing.

3. You begin to let go of all expectations, because you seem to continuously break records for all time horrible results.

4. You know the positive results are a long way off, but you see evidence of change, and are optimistic.

5.  You have times where you are achieving really great results and you feel really good about yourself and your endeavor.

6. You have times where you feel like for every step forward you take, you are taking five steps backward.

How to Get Through It:

What you most need:
1. Resources: energy, motivation, money, time, health, friends, creativity, optimism, survival skills, something to fuel you for a long haul.
2. Balance: the ability to step away from it and enjoy other parts of your life.
3.Perspective: a humble detachment from your failures and successes, the ability to see what you will have gained from your work/investment regardless of the outcome.

4.  Develop a sense of humor, learn to laugh at yourself

5.  Be willing to try new things. Learn from everything you do – what went right, what went wrong, what can I do better?

6. Creative Problem Solving: You will run out of money, you will run out of time, you will run out of energy, you will be on your last leg over and over and over again. Learn how to survive and stick it out one more month.

PreMature Stage Two exit:

You run out of resources and can’t figure a way out of it. You must decide to drastically change your plan, either by taking a detour or a break. In most cases you can maintain your direction at a lower level or you will revisit it later. In some cases, the new direction presents a new opportunity, and the experiences you’ve had so far integrate into your new direction.

Moving on from Stage Two:

You start getting more comfortable with both positive and negative results, because you’ve seen positives turn to negatives and negatives turn to positives before. You are more focused on the process than the results. You begin to work more effectively and efficiently. It doesn’t take as much energy to do what needs to be done.

Stage Three — The Rainbow

Key Entry Point:

You are focusing on the process more than the outcome, you are working more efficiently and effectively, and your confidence is increasing – regardless of the results.

What it Feels Like:

Confident, Exciting, Relieved, Energizing

What You Can Expect:

1. You aren’t there yet, but you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and you know now that you can make it.

2. You are starting to get more positive results.

3. You still make mistakes, and have disappointments, but you react to them differently – you view them as part of the process: you learn from them and move on.

4. You feel more confident.

5. Other people are starting to see you as an expert. People who didn’t seem to believe in you before are coming around.

6. Sometimes you feel that you can’t meet the expectations of others – that you are a farce – that they are seeing you as an expert when you really aren’t.

7. Now that you have mastered the basics, you begin to see new things that you need to learn and do better.

How to Get Through It:

1.  Take advantage of your ability to be more efficient and effective to get more done and accelerate your success.

2.  Think Excellence – raise your standards; use your new skills to produce the best results you are capable of.

3.  Focus on refining everything you do so that it fits in well with your life and you really enjoy doing what it takes to be successful.

4.  Make sure to enjoy the process – this is actually the most enjoyable stage of the entire change cycle.

Premature Exit:

Much less likely in this stage but may occur because life happens. Usually in this stage you can handle problems or detours and get back on track fairly quickly.

Moving on from Stage Three:

You’ve gotten so close to your initial goal that you no longer doubt that you will meet it, and maybe you increase it. You feel confident and natural in your new role. You begin to spend less time thinking about your actions, and begin to do them automatically.

Stage Four — The Transformation

Key Entry Point:

You’ve completely integrated the change into your life. You know longer think about it because it’s “you”.

What it Feels Like:

Natural, comfortable, routine, sometimes boring or disappointing, the thrill is gone

What You Can Expect:

1.  There is no turning back because your change is part of you – it’s who you are, what you do. You would have to go through an equally dramatic change process now to change BACK to what you did/who you were before.

2.  You are beginning to focus on other areas of your life.

How to Get Through It:

Typically in this stage you are done, and you are thinking about the next thing in your life that you would like to change.

Confusions Kills

Life is a journey, and it often doesn’t matter which road you take. But if you aren’t clear about what you want, you might not take any road, and that’s the most debilitating type of time-wasting; it’s the kind that takes your life.

As a coach, the first question I ask at the beginning of an engagement, and again at the beginning of every coaching session, is, “What do you most want out of our time together”? What most clients want most of the time is clarity. Here are a few of the most common examples:

1. I want to figure out what to do next in my life
2. I want to figure out how to handle this business situation
3. I want more clarity about why I’m reacting to this person
4. I need help making a decision I’m conflicted about

When you are clear, it’s easier to act decisively and move on. When you are confused, it can feel like an endless holding pattern, and it impacts everything you do. Overwhelm at work stems from not being crystal clear on the one priority you can focus on now to get the most impact. Weak negotiating comes from not knowing what you want and when you are willing to walk away. Ineffective networking, sales and job-hunting all stem from not being able to clearly articulate what you have to offer and how that maps to someone else’s need. And one of the most painful results of confusion is a pattern of consistent direction changes, as you force yourself to make decisions in the name of moving forward, and your lack of clarity plagues you with ongoing doubt.

If you feel confused about your direction, a situation, a relationship, or an upcoming decision, here are a few ways to move to a place of more clarity and better decision-making:

1. Know your values

Your values are not automatically the same as the values of your parents, church, community, or social group. You can often pick up on a values conflict when you know the right thing to do, but you don’t feel motivated to do it. An example is going after a prestigious job or high-income business opportunity. In the United States, we place a lot of importance on how much money someone makes, but people need to feel personally fulfilled. It can be confusing when you have an opportunity to make more money, but you aren’t personally excited about the work involved. This dilemma can go both ways. What if, as a mom, you believe you should stay home with your children, but it drains you, and you miss the intellectual stimulation and camaraderie you got from being at work? Most people have five to eight very clear and strong values. Know yours, and be willing to stand for them.

2. Know how much control you have

One of the exercises I do frequently with clients shows how much control you have in any given situation. Confusion often stems from trying to control something that you can’t control. Maybe you have a certain degree of influence over the situation. Maybe all you can really control is your response. Once you acknowledge how much control you really have, it’s easier to decide what actions you are willing to take, and when to stop spinning your wheels and let go.

3. Acknowledge your dreams and test them

A common fear from the “choosing a life direction” category goes something like this: “What if I tell everyone what I really want, and then I fail?” We all have “pie in the sky” dreams that aren’t completely realistic. The problem isn’t having those dreams; it’s clinging to them in secret. If you keep the dream a secret and fantasize that you’ll make it happen one day, that dream prevents you from considering any other opportunities or truly experiencing the life you are in right now. The best thing to do with a pie in the sky dream is: bring it to the surface and commit to doing something about it. If you do this, one of two things will happen: (1) you’ll realize how hard it’s going to be, and you’ll decide you want to go for it anyway, because it will be worth the experience even if you fail, or (2) you’ll realize how hard it’s going to be, and you’ll decide you don’t have the energy, but maybe you’ll discover another way to enjoy what you love about it within the parameters of your real life.

4. Resolve internal conflicts

Internal conflicts come up when you get caught between two things that are important to you, and it seems that they are mutually exclusive. For example, “I want to succeed in business, but I also want to spend quality time with my family”. If one side keeps winning out over the other, you might want to go back to item one and take an honest look at it. Perhaps you feel that family “should” be a value but it really isn’t? It might be hard to admit, but this awareness provides you with a powerful level of freedom and clarity. Let’s say you realize that you love working, and that you don’t really enjoy spending time with family. This doesn’t take away from your commitment to your family, but it empowers you to think about it differently. You can ask yourself, “What is the minimum time I could spend with my family so that I am living up to my commitment?” You may find that it takes less time than you thought. Perhaps you choose to reserve one hour, three nights per week to eating dinner with the family, and you make sacred a weekly 24 hour period from Saturday at 2pm to Sunday at 2pm. Turns out you could work after dinner every weeknight, put in a few hours Saturday morning and a few hours Sunday evening, and still provide your family with the consistent quality time they need.

5. Make all decisions right

The truth is, every road will take you somewhere, and provide you with great opportunities, as long as you are paying attention. Most successful people don’t make the right decisions all the time or even most of the time. What distinguishes successful people from those who flounder, is that successful people trust themselves, and make the most of their decisions. They choose to learn something from every experience, and they know that new opportunities can always be created, simply by taking action. If you are struggling with a difficult decision, the best question to ask yourself is: “what’s the worst that can happen as a result of each choice, and if it does, how will I still benefit”? Once the pressure is off, and you realize that no decision is going to ruin your life, you are in a much better position to make the best decision, because you are no longer afraid of the results.

When you think about it, confusion is probably one of the top two or three killers of personal effectiveness. One of the best ways to stay clear is to get a coach, and get into a consistent pattern of talking every week or two. While hiring a coach can’t guarantee that you will double your income or land your dream job, it’s almost certain that you will get more clarity as a result of your coaching conversations. Sometimes people hesitate to invest in a coach because it’s hard to measure the return on your investment. One way to measure this for yourself is to look at how often you struggle with confusion, not just in business decisions, but in handling both personal and professional relationships, and managing your career and your life. Then ask yourself, if you were consistently clear, what would you be doing differently, and how would your life be different as a result?

How to Solve Repeating Problems

The first time you encounter a new problem, what you most need is information and expert advice. But repeating problems are frustrating, because no matter how many experts or “proven solutions” you apply, they just keep coming back.

Repeating problems keep coming back because they are symptoms of a deeper issue. As long as you focus on the symptom, it’s just like pulling the top off a weed and leaving the roots – no matter how much time, energy, or money you invest, it will just keep growing back.

For solutions that last, you need to find the source of a problem, and make a deeper systematic change. Of course roots are underground, and they don’t usually look much like the big plants that show up as weeds in your garden, and it’s the same with problems and the systems that cause them. They often don’t look alike at all. So how do you find the roots?

You need to look for patterns. In some cases, you can sequence the events that happen before and after a problem. Sometimes you’ll find the source in the personalities and relationships of the people who are involved with the problem, including yourself. Here’s an example:

EXAMPLE

Customers want the product yesterday, production skips steps to rush the product, someone makes a mistake, the customer is angry, someone rushes to fix the problem without documenting what was done, later the customer asks for a standard replacement and gets the wrong part because documentation was missing, the customer is angry, someone rushes to help, etc. etc. etc. In this case:

1. The repeating problems are: Angry customers, mistakes in production

2. The “repeating but temporary” solutions are “appeasing angry customers with fast customer service”, and possibly some form of “training or disciplining production employees”

3. The pattern is: Rush, rush, rush to appease the angry or demanding customer, make mistakes in the rush, customer gets angrier and more demanding.

4. The root of the problem is: Rushing

5. Now we look at what causes us to rush around in response to a customer request. Dedication to the principle that the customer is always right? The fear that we will lose the customer? The need for approval?

There are many possible solutions. One might be to brainstorm on ways to talk with customers about the benefits of waiting one more day for the product so you can uphold your quality standards. The important thing is that you are addressing the issue at the source and changing the system that causes the problem. Notice that this deeper solution is almost the opposite of the solutions you would apply by only looking at the surface problem.

EXERCISE – “Getting to the Source”

Here is a series of questions you can ask yourself to help you discover what is at the bottom of a repeating problem you are facing today:

1. Write a brainstormed list of when this problem has come up for you before:
1. In what way was it similar to the problem you have today?
2. In what ways was it different from the problem you have today?
3. What solutions did you implement then, and how well did they work for you?
4. Why would or wouldn’t you want to try those solutions now?
5. If you have tried some of the same solutions, how were your results different this time from when you had the problem before?

6. What key people, issues, dynamics, or components are the same every time or most times you’ve had this problem?

7. What thoughts and feelings come up for you consistently every time this problem comes up?

8. When this problem comes up, what does it make you wonder about yourself, other people, or the world?

9. If you could change yourself, other people, or the world, what would you change to make this kind of problem go away forever?

10. How much control do you have in this situation? Do you have complete control over the problem, some influence over the problem, or no control over anything except your response to the problem?

Make a list of possible actions / decisions available to you. Make a table like the one below to analyze possible solutions.

Possible Action / Decision

Worst Possible Consequence

Best Possible Result

How I will handle worst possible consequence

How I will benefit from worst possible consequence

If you have identified a pattern in your business or your life and would like to e-mail me your responses to this exercise I would be happy to share my feedback and comments.

How Getting Organized Impacted my Business

I first hired an organizer in 2003, wrote this article 2 years later, and still pull it out every few years and re-post it.  Even now, 7 years later, I still have most of the systems in place that my orginal organizer set up for me – and I stand by the claim that having great organizational systems has a direct impact on revenue!

So, here it is again:

HOW GETTING ORGANIZED IMPACTED MY BUSINESS

One day about two years ago, I decided to find out how much the clutter in my office was costing me.  The answer amazed me.  After a few days working with a professional organizer, I immediately increased my monthly income by about 50%.  And if you can imagine anything better than that – my stress level dropped to almost nothing.  What I learned about organizing has made a huge impact in my business and my life.  Here are five things I learned about the value and process of organizing that were key to achieving such amazing results:

1. Organizing, weeding, and taking care of open issues are distinctly separate activities.  Try to do them at the same time, and you run into trouble.

If you’ve ever hired a housecleaning service, you may have noticed how quickly they get the job done.  This is because all they do is clean.  They don’t get distracted picking up clutter, or fixing broken things, or deciding if something should go to Goodwill. 

The problem with organizing our own stuff is that everything we own requires a decision or reminds us of something we intended to do.  So, instead of “getting through the box”, we spend our time taking care of what we find in the box.  This approach takes a lot of time – it’s common to end up with the box still full hours later. Working this way is frustrating and overwhelming.

The professional organizer sees things differently.  She sorts through an entire box in 20 minutes, easily.  She has no emotional attachment to the items in the box – to her they are simply objects with a use, size, shape, and category attached to them.  Her job is to get them into piles and find homes for them.  All the things that need to be taken care of get put in a “take care of” pile and can be addressed once the organizing part of the job is done.

2.  Everything has a home, absolutely everything. 

You can’t put something away if you don’t know where it goes.  If you look at a pile of clutter, in most cases it exists because 80% of the contents either don’t have a home, or the home is not easily accessible.  Anything that will reside in your space, even temporarily, needs a home.  This includes keys, borrowed books, business cards, thank you notes, and single sheets of paper with scribbled notes on them.

The “home” is specifically designed around ease of use.  It’s located where the item is most often used, and it has a container or hook that fits.  The containers and hooks are critical.  They make it easy to retrieve items and easy to put them back where they belong.  They also reduce the chance of items getting in the way of each other.

The biggest benefit of assigning homes to everything is that a mess that used to take three hours to clean only takes ten minutes.  Why?  Because you grab the stuff and put it where it belongs.  You don’t even have to think.  I thought that when my office got organized, I would have to file a few minutes every day to keep everything looking perfect.  What I found is that even if I let my filing stack up for an entire month, I could get caught up on it in less than 20 minutes.  What a relief!

3. Create decision criteria, so you know immediately what to keep and what to throw away

If you don’t decide what to keep and what to throw away you have a lot of items taking up space that don’t have homes (because you aren’t sure you’ll keep them) and aren’t in the trash (because you haven’t decided to let them go). 

Here’s where my organizer really helped me.  She gave me a simple over-riding guideline, and asked really good questions whenever I was confused.  It went something like this:

The over-riding guideline:  You only keep something if you use it regularly, or you love it.

Then, every time I wasn’t sure about something, she would ask me a series of great questions:

        a.  What situation are you keeping it for?
        b.  How often does that situation occur?
        c. What will you do if that situation occurs and you don’t have it?

Inevitably we would find a lot of things I was keeping because they were “too good” to throw away.  Now all these items get donated to places where they will be used.

Once I had created my rules, everything went much more quickly.  I would “weed” first, by throwing out or donating everything that didn’t fall into the “keep” criteria.  Then once I got to the organizing, it was simply a matter of sorting and finding homes for everything that was left.

4. I wouldn’t have done it myself. 

If I pay close attention, this is what happens when I organize alone:  I get frustrated because it’s taking too long; I get bored because it’s not interesting work; I get distracted because I think of other important “revenue producing” activities I should be focusing on; I get angry when I discover something I intended to do that fell through the cracks; I stop and try to solve problems as I uncover them.  All these negative thoughts and emotions drain my energy and pull me away from the task at hand.

With my organizer the experience is quite different:  She sorts quickly and easily because she has no emotional connection to my stuff.   As issues come up, we discuss them, and because she has lots of experience with similar situations, decisions come quickly.  There is a sense of teamwork, forward movement, and the relief of having someone experienced to lean on who will insure that the project continues to move forward, even when I’m lagging behind.

5.  The return on investment is enormous. 

For me it was several thousand dollars. It started with about four extra hours per week.  On top of that I had a more powerful presence that came from knowing I had everything under control.  I was more prepared when I gave presentations, I had a better follow up system, I put more thought into my writing, because I was more relaxed about taking the time to think.  That translated into more powerful personal interactions, which translated into more business.  My monthly revenue immediately increased by about 50% after the initial organizing effort, and never dipped back. 

It’s been about two years now since my first experience with an organizer.  Since then I’ve continued to use an organizer periodically, to replace systems as they become obsolete, or to save me if I’ve let things go for more than a few months.  Even though it’s a smaller, more intense effort, I consistently experience more confidence, more time, and increased business in the weeks following the visit. 

Copyright @2005 – 2010 Nahid Casazza   www.aspyrre.com

Four things you should know to grow your business

When my clients complain that they are not getting enough clients, a little probing usually reveals that they have under-estimated how much effort it takes on the front end to generate the results they desire.

Ask yourself these four basic questions to help you quantify the effort it will take to reach your goal.  Sometimes just knowing your numbers is enough to depersonalize the process and get you motivated to act!

1. How many deals do you need to close each month to make your numbers?

You should be able to see from your history what an average new client will spend, and what repeat customers typically buy.  Take into consideration that you will naturally lose business regularly through no fault of your own, and expect some surprises.

2. What are the key steps in your sales process–from when you first meet a prospect to when they become your client?

At each key stage in your sales process, prospects get eliminated or move to the next stage.  Know the steps, and encourage potential clients to move from one stage to the next, deliberately feeding the system that feeds you.  Many people are ready to buy but won’t move forward unless you call them.

3. Of the prospects who begin your sales process, how many complete it to become your client?

This ratio is critical because it gives you power, no matter how “bad” it is.  If you know you have to call 100 people before one will say yes, then you can only feel good after your first 50 “no’s”, because you only have 50 more to go.  But if you don’t know your numbers, you may end up completely deflated after 10 calls and consider yourself a failure.

4. What kind of marketing do you need to do to generate at least as many prospects as you need for item #3?

There’s no getting around making calls and having conversations to get the results you want.  However, if you know how many contacts you need to make, you can find a way to enjoy the process with confidence that the results will come.

Top Business Mistakes – Keeping Your Idea a Secret

Top Business Mistakes Business People Make

Mistake #1 – Keeping Your Idea a Secret

Dear Nahid,

I had an idea for a business and I took an entrepreneurship class to learn how to put it into action.  I made the mistake of sharing my idea when the instructor asked, and was later disappointed to learn that another student had a friend who was working on the same type of business.  I’m not sure what she told her friend and I feel betrayed.   What do I do now?  Do I scrap my idea?  In the future should I have people sign a non-disclosure agreement before talking about my business, to protect my idea from being stolen?

-Furious

Dear Furious,

It’s not easy to grow a business and even if your classmate passed on some of your ideas to her friend, she may not implement them.   A business owner can usually only focus on about one initiative at a time. Great ideas are usually a dime a dozen, while getting the business to operate smoothly so you can breathe easy at night is priceless. 

Most new entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking that a unique idea is the key to success, and because of their protectiveness, they have a hard time moving forward and putting their idea into action.  They only talk to people who are willing to sign non-disclosure statements, and even then are somewhat vague about what they plan on doing.

The fear is, “What if someone steals my idea?”  But what you may not realize is that at least two thousand other people in the world probably have the exact same idea you do.  It’s not the idea itself that makes a business, it’s the execution of that idea, and as the business grows, things will normally change. 

Innovation is definitely important in business, but it usually doesn’t show up as “one great idea” in isolation.  The most cutting edge companies have a consistent process of innovation as part of their culture; one that enables them to constantly come up with new ideas in response to new situations that arise on a daily basis.   By the time tomorrow hits, yesterday’s idea becomes old news.

In my experience, the best entrepreneurs do a lot of talking about their ideas before they start a business.  They use these conversations to “test” an idea by seeing how potential customers respond to it, learning what other people have done, and discovering in advance what they will be up against.

When you don’t talk to people about your idea, potential customers don’t find out about what you are doing, and they are unable to give you feedback.  Thus, by the time you are ready to “launch”, you may not have enough resources left to bring your product to market and adapt your product or services to what you learn from that feedback.

When you don’t talk to people about your idea, you miss the opportunity to hear the stories of the other people they know who also had similar ideas, and learn from someone else’s mistakes, or get a true handle on what your competition is. 

When you don’t talk about your idea, you miss opportunities to learn, collaborate and partner with others, leveraging your personal resources and increasing the chances of building a viable entity.

Remember your idea is only the initial seed of your business.  To give it a chance of coming to life, it will need to grow and change in participation with its environment.  What that means is having conversations with people, asking questions, collaborating, experimenting, and using the success of your competitors as inspiration to keep building on your idea to make it better.  Established businesses rarely fear their competitors copying or stealing their ideas.   In fact, they often use the competition to fuel even better ideas.    

If you are afraid someone will steal your idea, it might be a good time to do some research.  See how many people you can find who are doing something similar to what you are thinking of doing.  Ask a bunch of questions about their ideas.  And then ask yourself, “am I stealing their ideas if I already was thinking about this?”   Knowing what others are doing, or are considering doing,  can I still build a business in this market and be unique enough to have an edge?   This type of questioning will fuel the innovation in your mind, AND give you the information you need to move forward.

It’s great that you have a great idea.  Now take the first ten steps and see what happens!