Mastering Your Distractions

  I don’t think that I am much different from most people when it comes to wanting to achieve my dreams.  We all have desires and dreams that we are longing to achieve and many of us are chipping away at them each day, bit by bit.

The older I get the more I wonder if I will reach some of the goals I have set for my self on my 10 and 20 year plan.  It seems like the years are moving by much quicker than I expected and I am not exactly where I would like to be at this point in time.  Too many things have gotten in my way and I get distracted way too often.  I could get discouraged and depressed, but what good would that do? I certainly wouldn’t have a chance at achieving my goals then, would I ?

I recently was on a Southwest flight and in their Spirit Magazine they had a short advertisement titled “Docent of Distraction”  It caught my eye as “distraction” seems to be the enemy that I am fighting with most of the time.  The ad was about a new book written by Peter Bregman a Harvard Business Review Columnist.  The title of the book is “18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done”.

As you may have guessed it is about productivity.  The book covers such topics as learning to limit your options, know that you can’t do everything, how to construct a calendar, and creating interruptions in your day.  This book has a little bit of everything you may need in order to get and keep yourself on the right path of productivity and move closer to those goals you would like to achieve.

There has been much controversy when it comes to “time management” and the “to do list”, but Peter has a bit of a twist for his list and it just might work for many of us who struggle with finding our focus throughout our day.  So far I give this book an A+, take a look at the other reviews and decide for yourself if this little pearl might have something that will inspire you to keep headed in the direction you wish to achieve.  Happy reading and enjoy the journey!

http://www.amazon.com/18-Minutes-Master-Distraction-Things/dp/0446583413

Do You Want To Be A Supermanager?

Last month a blog that I subscribe to Manager Better Now  had a post on a new e-book that was available by Greg Blencoe called The Supermanager, (this link will take you to Amazon where you can read the reviews and purchase it yourself.)

Anyway, getting back to the reason for this post; I purchased the book and read it in two sittings.  The book has a great storyline about a manager who wanted to learn how to be the best manager that he could, don’t we all?

He finds a mentor (I won’t tell you how) who is a real supermanager and he agrees to mentor him in the seven management skills that would make him the successful manager that he desired to be.

The seven lessons were taught to him over seven days. The book was very hard to put down because I wanted to know what was going to happen the each day.

Whether you are a seasoned manager or new to the  position, there are a lot of pearls that you will get  from this short, easy to read, delightful (put to the point) book.

I liked it so much that I am planning to use “The Supermanger” as a training guide at an upcoming manager’s workshop.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, that not only is this a great book, but it has an amazing price, 99 cents at Amazon for the ebook download version.  You cannot beat this deal.

I also would recommend that you visit the Manage Better Now blog for more great articles and information on becoming a better manager.

This Year I Will…..

“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” ~ George Washington Carver

Each New Year thousands of people like you and I make resolutions to better their life, whether it is to get healthier, accomplish a goal or to learn to enjoy life more.  But if you had the chance to ask these people how they were doing with their resolution just six weeks later you would find more than half of them either lost sight of their resolution or never made the real effort to begin it in the first place.  The biggest reason for this is that change of any magnitude that takes some effort becomes too difficult for one reason or another that we can justify to ourselves. 

Give The Gift Of Encouragement At Work

 Many years ago I had the opportunity to attend a lecture that was given by Florence Littauer.  For those of you who may have never heard of her she is an inspirational speaker, and her topics are mostly on inspiring and encouraging others and how we can become a person that others love to be around.  When I first heard her I was a young mother of three children under four and was having a hard time just getting through my daily chores, taking care of a family, and I felt that I was the one that needed encouragement so how could I possibly give it out? 

Recently my Aunt sent me one of Florence’s books titled “Silver Boxes” which is one of the lectures I had heard her speak so many years ago, but now I was in a very different place in my life and the idea of being able to give out encouragement was something that I loved doing on a daily basis.  Florence refers to when we encourage others as “Silver Boxes” and how we can not only make other people’s day better, but by giving them words of encouragement we can be changing their life for the better.  I cannot think of a better thing to wake up in the morning thinking about, but how can I make those I work with and those I serve today have a better experience when I am with them.  At the end of the day, your life will be much richer for the encouragement and uplifting words you give someone else, just try it and see. 

No matter what walk of life you are on, life is just too short not to make it better for yourself and those you work with each day.  What a great way to start the New Year….give a Sliver Box as a gift!

More about Florence Littauer

Branding Yourself

If you have not read a good book on marking yourself lately, then this is the one for you.  You, Inc. was written by Harry Beckwith and his wife Christine Clifford Beckwith and is one of the most enjoyable books I have read  in a long time that picks you up and encourages you to brand yourself.  I picked this book up couple of years ago in an airport while traveling and have read it cover to cover a few times.  It has so many great stories and information that I have used multiple times when I  do lectures.  The stories in it are fascinating and inspiring, once you pick up the book you will not want to put it down until you are finished. It covers topics such as relating, attitudes, communicating, tactics and successes.  Whether you are the the business owner, office manager, or an employee, you are marketing yourself everyday to those you meet.  This book will inspire you to take a good look at how you present to others and make you think about how you are branding your best product…YOU.  This is one for your personal library that you will reference over and over again.

http://www.beckwithpartners.com/

Are You Meeting Your Goals?

 I don’t think that I am much different from most people when it comes to wanting to achieve my dreams.  We all have desires and dreams that we are longing to achieve and many of us are chipping away at them each day, bit by bit.  The older I get the more I wonder if I will reach some of the goals I have set for my self on my 10 and 20 year plan.  It seems like the years are moving by much quicker than I expected and I am not exactly where I would like to be at this point in time.  Too many things have gotten in my way and I get distracted way too often.  I could get discouraged and depressed, but what good would that do? 

Pay The Right Employee

Let me start off by saying this is not about paying employees less for what they do as I believe firmly that a “workman is worthy of his wages” and people should be paid according to what the going pay scale is in the area that they live in, and for the job duties that they are employed to do, that is just good practice management.  Now with that said, what I want to talk about is that you cannot make an employee a great one, just by paying them a great salary.  Jim Collins the author of the best seller Good to Great states that “Greatness is not a function of circumstance.  Greatness it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.”  Each person chooses how they will do their job, either unsatisfactory, satisfactory, good or great, it is their choice.  One of the driving factors of whether a person becomes a great employee is if they are the right person for the job they have been hired to do.  Many times employers will hire someone without really taking the time to search for the right fit because they are in desperate need to have a warm body fill the spot so they don’t fall behind.  But in the long run hiring the wrong person causes even a bigger set back and a more costly one.  Time spent looking for just the right person to fill a position is time well spent once you find them.  As a business owner you need to know exactly what the job position entails that you are offering and as a prospective candidate if you cannot get satisfactory details of the position then I would hesitate to take the job, as there is nothing worse than having to quit or let someone go after a couple of weeks when it all could have been prevented in the first place by having a detailed job description presented.  The whole purpose,as you know, is to find the perfect fit and that really is about finding the person who can work with your existing team and is excited about what they will be doing.  Last year we needed to hire a front office assistant, this would be a frontline staff member who our patients would come in contact with.  It was very important that we find someone with a great personality and the ability to handle people well.  After interviewing multiple experienced, well-qualified office assistants we ended up hiring someone just out of school with no experience at all. Why, because of the raving reviews her instructors gave about her.  They went on about her willingness to help others, stepping up and doing things without being asked and that she was the most friendly, warm and sincere student that they had seen in a long time and they felt she had excellent work ethics even though she had never worked before.  During our many interviews with this candidate her genuineness and excitement to work with us shined through.  Her smile and laughter is the contagious kind and her work ethics have proven to be impeccable.  She is the right fit for our office and it was worth taking the time and several interviews with her in order for us to make sure she was the right one for our team.  We also had her interview with all of the staff members to make sure they agreed with the decision, as they will have to be working together and many times they pick up on things that the manager or business owner do not.  When all is said and done the team as a whole needs to fit together and work together like they were meant to be together along and you cannot pay for that to happen.  It is finding the right people to work together as a team that will make a business good from good to great! 

“People are your most important asset, turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset.  The right people are.”  ~ Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great 

http://www.jimcollins.com/

How Are You Selling Yourself?

Everyday in almost everyway we are selling ourselves to someone.  This is an interesting thought, but it is very much true.  Just think about what you did today at work, how many phone calls did you make?  When you made these calls I am sure you were on your best behavior because you wanted to come across nice and pleasant to whomever you were calling.  Yes, you were selling yourself.  Or how about how your interacted with your boss or co-workers, didn’t you try to do your best today when working with them?  You were selling yourself.  Whatever interactions we have with others and whatever way we are behaving during that moment we are selling ourselves.  Now hopefully we are selling something that is worthy of being purchased, but that is a choice we make.  Harry and Christine Beckwith have written a book called “You, Inc.” (the art of selling yourself).  I read this book back in 2007 when it came out and so much of it has stuck with me and the way that I approach those I meet each day in my encounters.  Beckwith starts the book by making an interesting statement saying that “Living is selling” and he goes on to say from our early childhood we made pitches to our parents either to take us somewhere, to buy us something or allow us to do something.  We were making “sales pitches” to them, some of us were pretty good at it too.  The stories in this book are great and the lessons learned are valuable, it helps you to see how you are presenting to others and how they may see your “sales pitch.”  I read this book in one weekend and then purchased for our employees as I felt it had that so much information to glean from, and they loved it.  There are a lot of great books out there and this I think happens to be one and it is an easy read, which makes it better.  The stories and pages just zip by, I think I hurt my neck while reading it from nodding up and down in agreement to what they have say and laughing to myself over the great, but simple lessons.  Whether you are an avid reader or not this book is definitely a must read on my list and I am sure you will agree.

“Life is a sale. And the path to success at both living and selling is the same.” ~ Harry Beckwith

Is There A Better Brand Of You?

If you have not read a good book on marking yourself lately, then this is the one for you.  You, Inc. was written by Harry Beckwith and his wife Christine Clifford Beckwith and is one of the most enjoyable books I have read.  I picked it up a couple of years ago and have read it cover to cover a few times and have used it for references multiple times in lectures.  The stories in it are fascinating and inspiring, once you pick up the book you will not want to put it down until you are finished. It covers topics such as relating, attitudes, communicating, tactics and successes.  Whether you are the physician, office manager, front of back office staff you are marketing yourself everyday to those you meet.  This book will inspire you to take a good look at how you present to others and make you think about how you are branding your best product…YOU.

http://www.beckwithpartners.com/