Removing Barriers in 2010

New Year's Resolutions! Now is the time we think about weight loss, debt reduction, better relationship, or whatever goal has touched our heart or mind this year. I have plenty of goals as I am sure you do as well. One area of thought is what barriers do I need to remove in order to reach those goals?

Last summer my daughter and I went to Ireland. In the western part of the country there are walls like a patchwork quilt all over the place. The walls were put up years ago and left. I could discern no current purpose for them other than no one wants to put forth the effort to take them down.

How many old walls/barriers do we have up in our life that we just haven't taken down. Some may be meaningless, others could be significant obstacles to those resolutions.

So, how to you take down walls? Thoughts?

Untouchable in the New Normal

Are you replaceable? What extra value do you bring to your organization? Can your work be substituted by technology?

Many articles and podcasts are speaking about the "new normal". As with any recessionary environment, companies are readjusting their cost structures, processes, and methodologies to compete. One factor is reducing labor costs or increasing productivity of the workforce.

This pressure requires each person within an organization to determine what value they bring to the company beyond requirements of their position. That value can be internal or with external clients. Relationships become important and critical to accomplishing results. This value makes the employee "untouchable" or irreplaceable.

What is your strength/talent? What relationships do you bring to the organization? What creative or innovative ideas are you offering to drive value or reduce waste?

Principle #3 Arouse an Eager Want

This is perhaps the most difficult of the initial principles in How to Win Friends and Influence People. What is it that others want? How do I motivate my team? How do I get the client to commit?

We all are in the business of understanding others. The key to arousing an eager want is found in the next behavior of building genuine interest. I have heard that we can motivate no one, but simply find what already motivates them. Perhaps the same is true with this principle.

So, what do we do? Here are three quick suggestions:

1. Where is the person already motivated and energetic? Finding out what already gets them going will clue us in to what will get them going now.

2. Where have they been motivated in the past? Past behavior indicates future action.

3. Test and review. Try several options and see what works. Be sure to pay attention to results!

Best of luck! Feel free to post on this blog and let me know your successes!

Behavior #2: Honest and Sincere Appreciation

How do you look at the world? What do you see in others? What is the first thought as you think about co-workers, employees, neighbors, or friends?

Dale Carnegie encourages us to see in others their strengths and talents. What is going right versus going wrong. Most current business literature implores us to build our people by emphasizing their strengths.

Without doubt, it is easy to see the best in those that are the best. There also may be those on our team that any positive attribute will stretch our thinking. Frankly, the best opportunity for us lies in the middle. Those tireless performers who constantly bring what was asked to the table. The consistent middle is ripe ground for development and praise. This probably includes those closest to us personally.

Take time this week for praise. Take mental time away from the current news and distress and instead spend time in your car thinking of the strengths of others. Let me know what happens...

How to Win Friends - Principle #1

Don't Criticize, Condemn or Complain.

Dale Carnegie starts his most famous work focusing on our internal dialogue as we are around others. This fundamental concept encourages us to view the world through the eyes of what's possible. In addition, we are also encouraged to see others in our organization, team, or community in terms of their strengths and talents versus their faults.

Beyond the reality that most people wouldn't agree with our critical assessment of them, the capacity to focus on strengths enables us to use the resources of our people in the best way possible. We are able to put them in the "right seat" of our bus.

The final thought on this principle involves our internal dialogue. How much effort is spent each day determining our shortcomings? The encouragment today is to not criticize, condemn, or complain about ourselves.

Looking for Daffodils

We are beginning to see the signs of spring! After what seemed like a cold winter, the grass begins to green, the Bradford Pears start showing white, the forsythia bloom, and the daffodils come out. It seems to me that this year the Daffodils were the first and most obvious sign of the coming warmer temperatures and longer days. A first movement in the symphony of spring….
With current economic news ever present in our media and minds, there is a tendency to hibernate, hole up, cocoon, or withdraw from the confident enthusiasm that drives our personal and business results. Not for a moment trivializing the real problems with which we have to contend, nevertheless, fixation on those problems hinder the formation of solutions.
Perhaps you need to see some daffodils in your business, some signs of the coming spring. I trust they are already there, waiting, if we look patiently and positively around us as we drive along.
So as you move about this week, going from place to place, look for the yellow by the roadside and think of the color in your life. Begin to see the spring and get excited about the coming opportunities.

J. Allyn Walker

Starting fresh

Here we go! The first, maybe last, blog from Business Innovation Partners! Why blog about innovation? When could be a better time to utilize the assets of our businesses to accelerate our results? Here we go!

First, what are our assets? Create a list of the strengths of the organization, your personal strengths, and the processes you rely on to get results.

Second, what is the return on our assets? Not the physical assets of the business but the return on our processes, strengths, and personal characteristics.

Finally, how can we increase the ROA of at least one asset in the business?

Here we go!