Bringing people together in a group and getting them to work together is never a very simple, straightforward practice.  The main reason for this is that we all have different set of experience as well as a different set of values that we utilize when working.  This is especially hard for business owners who wonder why their employees aren’t the same as they are.

If you have ever been or are currently in a leadership position or run a business, you know how exciting it can be.  We want to get started and change the world.  We’re smart, we work hard, we care deeply etc.  Things get difficult for us when we start working on changing the world with our teams.

• We start to realize a few things in the team process:
• Not everybody is at the same level in their careers.
• Not everyone is as excited about the project as we are.
• We aren’t easily able to mold people in our image.
• Not everyone has the same work ethic.
• Not everyone shows up to work with the same level of preparation.

As a new leader or business owner, this is a tough concept for us to grasp.  This idea of differences.  We would like to think that because of where we are at that our way is the best and only way.  Of course, it’s not.

The truth is there is really a lot of potential that resides in the differences that we all have.

This is one of the specific tenets of Soul Purpose.  The fact that everyone values things differently and approaches work in a different way can be a good thing for your organization.

The question is, “how do we tap into this and make it work for our business?”

The first thing to do is to work on being more accepting of your team’s differences.  It’s important to embrace the differences in your team as much as possible and in a manner that makes sense.

Once you are ready to embrace, take some time to get to know your people on a personal level and start understanding what it is that they value.  When you understand their values better you are more able to work more effectively with them and understand what drives them.

Last, don’t be afraid to point on your team’s uniqueness and celebrate it publicly.  The mission is what’s truly important to any organization.  The journey to the mission can be done in any manner of ways provided that it is ethical and makes sense for the business.

What are you doing to celebrate your team and their individual values?  How can you better come to the realization that your employees don’t and won’t view things in the same manner you do?  I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

When looking at doing better the first thing you need to examine is how you are being as person.  Before you can change your actions you have to make a commitment to yourself to change the way you are and also be willing to see your world through a different lens.

Leadership can be a challenge whether you are a business owner, a manager or a parent.  What’s the right balance of support and toughness?  How do I get the best out of the people around me?

What really made me think about this topic with regards to business was at a workshop that we run for business owners.  We spend a lot of time talking about relationships and the subject of employees always comes up.  Once you get business owners talking about their employees, you are likely to hear some of the following statements.

My employees are lazy.

My employees don’t seem to care.

Why can’t my employees just get it?

Young kids today are just bad workers.

These are just a few of the comments that you will hear.  The truth is that maybe their employees really aren’t doing that well and there really are bad employees.  However I never once hear business owners talk about how they can do better with regards to leading their teams.  I never hear them ask, “What am I doing wrong?”  It’s always their team.

Penelope Trunk wrote an interesting piece for BNET on how employees need to approach their work.  I respect the article and the place that it was written from as it talks about the employee taking responsibility for the direction of their careers.  I agree with that but I will say this, leaders are leaders for a reason.  Employees are employees for a reason.

Leaders are supposed to handle things better than their employees that’s why they are in the position they are in in the first place.

If employees were that good at holding themselves accountable, they would already be a business owner or a leader somewhere.  The reality is that they are probably not good at doing this currently.

So this puts a lot of responsibility on the leader and it starts with self analysis and a willingness to accept criticism.  If you can continually ask yourself what you can do better as a leader for your people, you will drive much better results for your individual team members as well as your organization as a whole.

How can you do better?  You can ask this of yourself as a parent, as a manager, as a business owners and even as an employee.  If you keep asking yourself this question and don’t allow yourself to filter the results, there’s no question in mind that you will be better for yourself and put yourself in a position to get the best out of people around you.

My top 2 techniques from making great connections are listening and asking great questions.  If you are like many, you are going to be bombarded with get togethers this holiday season so you will have ample opportunity to practice your networking with regards to these 2 tips.

Listening is certainly not ground breaking but it’s funny how bad we have gotten at listening to people when they are talking.  I love text messaging but it has almost killed our ability to stay focused on people and stay in the moment with our conversations.  Most of us try too hard to multitask when we should be just seizing the opportunity to make a new connection.   Where we really run into problems is that some people are still great at connecting and if you can’t engage them properly and show the person that you are talking to some respect, you risk turning that person off to you.

While listening is the key starting point to building connections, asking great questions is the next step to really deepening the conversation.  This skill comes natural to some and takes practice for others.  I like to approach a conversation with someone new to find out two things:  what they are up to and what support they need in the future.

When I know what a new connection is up to, it allows me to ask deeper questions about what they are doing so I can have a better understanding.  This not only makes the other person feel like you care but it usually teaches me something new about a topic that I didn’t know about before.

By finding out what needs a person may have in the future, this allows you to keep an eye out for opportunities that create value for that relationship in the future.  This is a great way to not only create value and great connections but also a great way to expand your reach by having an impact on your network.

In the digital age where phones can do so much to distract us in our daily lives it’s important to remember that some of the old ways of doing things are still fashionable.  Listening to people and giving them your full attention is one of those things.  What other tips do you have for making better connections?

Our existing relationships can be a great source of inspiration, assistance, accountability, love and friendship.   Small business owners need lots of all of these things.  There’s come a point, however, where you need to make new connections to move yourself and your business further.  This doesn’t mean that your old relationships aren’t important anymore, it just means that you are ready for a new level that only a new perspective and new advice can give you.

This is the point where having a list of people that you want to know is important.  It’s important to prepare your list of people that you want to meet as soon as possible because you never know when you may get a surprise introduction.  Paul Lawrence wrote about one such encounter in a recent newsletter from Early To Rise.   He told the story of a publisher that he was really excited about meeting and knew that publisher would be a great connection for him.  It turns out the publisher wanted a program written on a subject that Paul was not an expert in.  He didn’t let that stop him because he had a plan for how he would handle this request and he accepted the offer.

The thing is, you just never know when you are going to meet someone that can make an impact on your business and your life so you need to be prepared.  For instance, ask some questions regarding why a certain relationship would be important to you.  Can they be a mentor?  Can they be a partner?  Can they get your message out?  You get the point.  So ask yourself why.

Other areas of planning involve understanding your value proposition.  Or in other words, why should this person spend some time with you.  You have to be able to articulate this quickly.  More importantly, have some ideas ready for how you can create value for the connection.  One other thing to consider is the degrees of separation that this person may have to you.  Can you touch base with the person through social media?  Are they going to be at an event that you can attend?  Do you know someone who can make an introduction?

I can’t stress the importance of being prepared enough.  This includes being careful what you wear when you go out.  I have certainly screwed this up a time or two by heading into the office in a pair of shorts and t-shirt with the idea of just going in to pick something up only to find myself being introduced to an individual with a high level of influence.  They may or may not have judged me by my appearance but nevertheless I was self conscious about it.

Think about who you want to know today.  Who’s out there creating massive value in your area of passion and interest?  Make your list today, put your plan together and then work on getting connected.

The first step to managing a disagreement is to define what you actually must agree on.  From there Ed gives 5 Building Blocks of Reality to help you manage the conversation.

1. Information-  This is where you lay out facts.  What are the objective aspects of the issue.

2. Situation- This is the context with which the information was presented or at least your view of it. The background information if the situation is included here.

3. Interpretation- What you see as the conclusion or end result.

4. Approach- How that end result is supposed to be achieved.

5. Beliefs- What you believe personally about the issue.

The approach is start at #1 and work through as many of the building blocks as you need to in order to come to a joint conclusion on what you defined as having to agree on.

This is some food for thought on what you can do next time to keep a disagreement from escalating into an unproductive argument.  The last thing that I feel is important here is to not get emotional about the situation so that you can stay level headed and work through the building blocks.  Who knows, this might even help you resolve an argument with your spouse.

The first step is figuring out where to network.  Some questions to ask include; How much time do I have to devote to this?  Do I have a budget that I can spend on networking?  Where are the best places to go for my industry?

Finding the places to network can be the most difficult task during this initial process.  You can start simple with joining your local Chamber of Commerce and start attending their events.  There are other groups that you can join for a fee like BNI, Corporate Alliance (a local Utah group), CEO Space, etc.  In addition to the pay events, there are several places that host free networking events, such as area colleges and universities.  Two suggestions on finding events right now:  Ask business people you know if they network and where and even more scientific is to just use Google and look for events that way.

Once you find events to attend it’s important that you come to these events prepared.  Find out who typically attends the events and what the structure is.  Put together a game plan for what you want to accomplish at the event.  In addition this is where you need to make sure that you are clear about your business and what it does and be able to articulate this.  I have had many situations where after talking to someone for 15 minutes, I have no idea what they do.  I have also gone to networking events with people where in the car they are wondering what they should say when people ask them what they do.  Don’t waste your time and money on not being prepared.  There are great tips available for networking even is you consider yourself to be shy and introverted.  The important part is implementing these tips.

After the event, make sure that you also have a system in place for follow up.  I would be clear about your follow up system before you go to the event not after.  You need to be able to follow up within a couple of days of the event so people still remember who you are.  Make notes on your business cards at the event so you remember what they do and what you want to follow up with them about.  Having a follow up system in place is the best way to maximize your experience and make networking worth your while.

It takes some time to develop good networking channels.  The key is good planning at each of the steps so that you are not wasting time or money.  Most importantly, put together a good business networking plan and start executing now.

How have you had success with networking?  What has been challenging?  What other advice can you offer to networkers?

External tools

Your boss, if you are employed, is one tool for external accountability.  As an employee we all need help getting to our goals and seeing new directions and good boss can help us do that.

A business coach can help guide business owners in any number of business issues from sales and marketing to building your start up.

Life coaching takes a holistic look at everything you have going on in your life and career and gets to the core of you and why you do what you do.  They are able to blend your professional and personal life to allow you to focus on the things in your life that are most important.

Books: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is a great book to help build the right personal habits.

Good to Great by Jim Collins is not just a great book about organizations but good insight on how we can apply these principles to our lives as individuals.

Winning With Accountability: The Secret Language of High Performing Organizations by Henry J Evans.

These are just a few examples of books that can help us with external accountability.

Retail programs and workshops can give us great insight on accountability as well.  There are a lot of great workshops and programs that exist that can help us develop an accountability plan.

Internal Tools

Goal setting: Or for a business, we can call this business planning.  This is a road map that can make sure we are able to assess where we stand throughout our success journey.  This is a seriously overlooked and simple tool for success.

Morning routine:  We call our morning routine a “power hour“.  Regardless of how we do it or what we call it, the key is to get a routine implemented and do it.

Daily markers: Markers in conjunction with your goals are powerful tools to help keep us on track by reviewing where we are at daily.

Time management:  How we manage our time is critical to dictating how we hold ourselves accountable in other areas as well.  Getting a consistent time management system will ensure that we are doing the things that need to be done in a timely manner.

There is not a one size fits all accountability system.  It’s a matter of trying different things out and seeing what works for us personally.  This takes a little time but once we have it done, it makes a huge difference in how effective we are.

What works for you with regards to accountability?  How have you figured out what works and what doesn’t?

I ran across the concept of edit-ability vs. accountability in the book 11: Indispensible Relationships You Can’t Be Without by Leonard Sweet.  The author talks about the colleague who came up with the idea of being edit-able.  The idea is that being edit-able is to be able to accept feedback that can make you better.  Are you willing to let someone else suggest a rewrite into a piece of your life understanding that this is done because they care and not for any other reason?  As a business owners or an employee we may need help towing the line but we also need to be able to accept criticism that will ultimately make us better entrepreneurs and employees.

We have all worked for or with people who feel that they don’t need help and aren’t eager to take suggestions.  Everyone has had the boss that asks you for a suggestion only to talk over you the minute you start giving your feedback.  Their asking of your opinion being  just a show but with no real meaning behind it.  We have all been the victim to our own pride that didn’t not allow us to do the right thing because our ego got in the way.  Being open to suggestions and feedback is a critical piece to our development and our work with an outside coach or mentor.  The more open we are the better and quicker we will improve and get better.

In the end, we all need to have someone on our team that can call us out when we are headed in the wrong direction.  Someone we wont be angry with if they try and edit us from time to time.  Accountability is the force that points out when we are wrong.  Edit-ability helps give us the road map on how we can get better.  Who is the editor in your life?  How have you been hampered by not being open to critique?   How can we better incorporate accountability and edit-ability into our lives?

I am going to talk more about workshops and seminars that you can go to tomorrow to get help with time  management.  Workshops are great and give you great tools but once the seminar is done your training is over and you are on your own.   This is where most of us get into trouble.  Once life starts happening again, it’s easy for us to revert back to our bad habits.  That’s when we need someone to give us that extra push to focus on the things that are most important which is exactly what a coach does.

A coach typically doesn’t tell you anything that you don’t already know, they just give you the blueprint and encouragement to do it.  There are several life coaches and business coaches who also work within the realm of time management and personal productivity.  My suggestion on finding one is to first ask people you know.  I would particularly start with people who are in higher level positions or who are currently successful as they have possibly worked with someone in that capacity or know of people who do.  If you can’t find one word through people you know, try Facebook or Twitter and if for some crazy reason that doesn’t work, you can always use the old stand by Google to search for someone.

Having coaching will help you break bad habits or even help you recognize bad habits that you weren’t aware of.  If you find yourself always scrambling to get things done or constantly in crisis mode, it’s time to make some changes.  Who holds you accountable?  If you have never used a coach,  why not?  If you have, how did it work out?

PS- It’s time for my weekly podcast click the button below to listen and enjoy.

The first thing to make sure that you do is to leave the conversation that you are having with a specific course of action for follow up.  Letting someone know that you liked what they had to say and that you would like to connect.  You can schedule a time to do that right then and there (not as likely as people don’t always carry their schedules around with them) or you can let them know that you will be giving them a call and then get a rough idea from the other person when a good time may be.  This doesn’t have to be specific it can just be a range or a block of time.  Setting this up ensures that you will actually do it and it sets it up in the other person’s mind as well to be expecting a call.

The second course of action is to make your follow up immediate.  Don’t wait a couple of weeks to follow up with someone.  In this day and age we have access to so many more people that it becomes difficult to remember everyone that we talk to.  This is especially important at networking events where you are exposed to hundreds of people.  In this case it’s not OK to use the method from the movie Swingers and wait 5-7 days to call the person that you just talked to.

Now that you have followed up immediately, the last thing you need to do is speak with clarity and confidence.  Make sure that you articulate clearly what conversation you had with that person and what your idea was for the relationship going forward.  It’s probably a good idea to take notes during times where you are having conversations with multiple people so that you can write down key phrases and ideas from the conversation that you can reference later.  By doing this, you make yourself more memorable to the person on the other end of your conversation and sound more sure of yourself as well.

Having a solid follow up process is key when you are having conversation and building relationships.  Without it, you are wasting your time.  What ideas have worked for you in the past when following up with people?  What success have you had a result of your follow up efforts?

With regards to listening, this incorporates not only what you are hearing from someone in the moment but also any preconceived notions that you already have about this person.  These preconceived notions can stem from previous conversations or actions and appearances.  A good example of this is someone who is consistently unreliable coming to you with what could be a legitimate reason for being late.  Even though the reason may be legitimate, to you it’s just another excuse from a flaky person.

In certain situations, I think it’s OK to filter some of what we hear based on past experience.  However in the context of relationships and conversations in your career or business, we sometimes let our filter keep us from having authentic and productive conversations with people we are meeting for the first time.

One reason we do this is based off of someone’s outside appearance.  You may be engaged in a conversation with someone that may be dressed “odd” from your viewpoint and it totally kills your ability to have a conversation with them that has any depth.  We think that if they dress differently, there must be something wrong with them and therefore look for opportunities to not have a conversation with them because of our own superiority complex.

Another way that we hinder conversation and connections before we get to know someone is when we hear something about that person we are meeting that is negative.  We often allow someone else to influence our opinion about someone before we have even given the realtionship a chance.

In these situations, we  judge people and conversations when we feel that they will not have anything important or meaningful to say.  We refuse to let go if our preconceived notions and allow us to have a conversation in the moment.  How often do limit our relationship capital by allowing filters to dictate what we get from a person?  Usually that filter consists heavily of our own egos.  Has this ever been an issue in the past?  What instances have you judged someone before getting to know them only to realize that they had a lot to offer you personally?

I will talk more extensively tomorrow about listening but for today I will just talk about the simple act of listening attentively.  Listening attentively means looking at the person while they are talking to you and making sure that you are actively participating where appropriate.  I am sure we have all experienced the person who just can’t seem to pull themselves away from their phone to stop texting while you are speaking with them.  They don’t listen to your conversation and then ask a question that you already answered but they didn’t hear it because they weren’t listening.  This drives me crazy and I avoid talking with these people as much as possible because I hate wasting my time.

The second step is to engage the person that you are talking with appropriately.  Ask questions that drive the conversation that you are having to deeper levels of understanding.  This lets the person that you are talking to know that you care about what they are saying.  When you engage people to further the conversation, you also learn more about the person.

Listening and engaging are important tools to getting to know the people around you at a deeper level.  When we engage people beyond the surface level of conversations, we are able to know more about those people.  The more we know about them, the more we are able to build resources to have great relationships and have a group of people put together that can further our careers or assist us in our businesses.  All it takes is a little practice and the ability to care.  It’s really that easy.

PS Podcast time.  Click the button below to listen.

About two and a half years ago I had started contemplating a move out of corporate America and into something else in my career.  Before I get into the story, I want to make it clear that it’s not about me, it’s about having opportunities and not doing anything about it.  So as I am contemplating a move, a good friend of mine hears that I am thinking about moving on from a 10 year career and starts talking to me about partnering with him in business.

That sounds good right?  It was and is.  Where I went wrong is that my friend had been successful with his business practice for about 5 years before we started talking, he was driving a Bentley and the funny thing about it is not once did I ask him what he was doing and have a meaningful conversation about his business.

We lived in different cities and didn’t talk much except for when I was in town.  Even when we got together, we didn’t talk about business. As it turns out, after talking with him, some of the things that he was working on were in direct alignment with things that I loved doing and I had no idea.  It was like my friend lived this life that I was clueless about.  Some of this had to do with the fact that I didn’t want to act weird about his success.  I didn’t want to overemphasize the money.  When you have friends who have high levels of success, friendships can end in a hurry if not managed correctly on all sides.  You have to deal with different goals, envy, resentment etc.  I wanted to be careful to keep things as similar as possible.

My point of the story is this, I knew someone for years who had success and not once did I think to ask that person what they were up to and open up specific dialogue about his business and success.  What a missed opportunity!  The opportunity was not about the money but the utilization of my skills and doing more meaningful work.  If only I had asked the right questions or any questions for that matter, I would have embarked much sooner on a path that would have led me to utilizing my talents more fully and at an ealier date.

When you are engaged in conversation by conscious of the types of questions that you are asking that person.  Don’t wait to have meaningful conversations with people that you know and admire.  Who are the people in your life that you should be having meaningful conversations with and aren’t?  It could be a friend, family member, coworker, boss, a person you admire that works in the same industry.   There are tons of great conversations out there waiting to happen and these conversations could change your life forever.

Who are you not talking with that you should be?  What success have you had with asking meaningful questions in the past?

When you own your business everything is on you.  When you make a mistake that costs money, it comes out of your pocket.  This is hard for new business owners to grasp initially when they have come from corporate America jobs where you are playing with house money.  In the short term you would rather not have this concept learned by making an error in judgement that you pay dearly for.  Mentors can help you sidestep certain mistakes the new business owners make.  The first step is recognizing that there are things you don’t know, that you don’t know. A mentor has been there and done that and will help you recognize your blindspots.  This simple aid can save your business thousands of dollars.  A good mentor is eager to help you avoid making these mistakes and allowing you the fortune of learning from his/her mistakes.

If you work with a mentor in your field (which you most likely should) then you get to take pages from their playbook to make your business profitable faster.  You can learn how to market, structure your offerings etc.  The important thing with this is that you get what you give.  It’s important to find ways that you can create value for your mentor as well.  The better you are at doing that, the better the information that you will receive.

Profitability is the bottom line benefit of working with a mentor.  Keep more money in your pocket with less expense and out more back in your pocket with increased revenue.  Work with a mentor to get your business to the next level that you are looking to achieve.

PS Podcast is here again.  Click on the button below to listen.

To get off on the right foot with mentoring, you need to know what your needs are.  There are three important components to setting up your relationship.  Planning up front on your part, communication throughout the relationship and coaching.  The better you understand your needs upfront the more likely you mentoring relationship will be a success.

In terms of planning, the first question to ask yourself is what are my areas of need?  Is it technology?  Is it leadership?  Once you have identified your needs you can then think about what you want to get out of the realtionship and what you can give to the relationship.

Speaking of what you can get and give.  Communication is the ultimate piece to a mentoring relationship.  Questions to ask yourself are; how coachable am I? What is my communication style?  In what areas can I provide value to my mentor?  How do I want to be held accountable?  In the beginning you want o evaluate your mentor’s communication style to make sure that it is a good fit for you.  Some people like tough love.  Others can’t deal with it.  I can’t stress the importance of making this a two way relationship.  The more you give of yourself and your experience, the more you will get from your mentor in return.  A good mentor will ask these questions and evaluate where you are at.

The mentoring  relationship works best when the mentor lets you decide what the plan of attack is in your areas of need and allows you to ultimately make decisions.  You don’t want a relationship where someone just tells you what to do and when to do it.  You want your mentor to hold you accountable and let you know when you aren’t living up to your end of the bargain.  The coaching aspect will be the key to everything that you implement.

These are what I think are the most critical aspects of the mentoring relationship.  Take a look at mentoring relationships that you have observed in the past.  Like the proverb at the beginning says.  You can spend a lot of time learning things on your own or you can go right to the source and be ahead of the game that much faster.  A great mentoring relationship has the ability to impact your life forever.  What mentoring realtionships have worked for you in the past?  What was good about them?

In the case of laziness, most people I talk to about using mentors mainly shrug their shoulders about the subject.  A lazy person response is usually, “I don’t know”.  This is a weak excuse in the age of Google with so much information at our fingertips.  So it really boils down to effort.  Meeting with a mentor requires us to actually go out and find one and speak with them.

If you lack focus, you may be so busy working in your business that you don’t spend enough time working on it.  A mentor is great for helping you to recognize these areas and create awareness for you.  Make sure that you are taking the time to evaluate resources.  It’s important to take a step back on a weekly basis to see how things are going.  Focusing on the big picture of your organization is critical.

In the end, mentoring is a tool to help make your life easier.  You have access to someone who has a vested interest in your success.  You may think you don’t have time but that thinking is limited.  Mentors can create more time in the long run of your business by speeding up your learning curve and giving you objective advice.  So my question is, what are you waiting for?  Why haven’t you used a mentor in the past or currently?

The SBA has posted a few links on mentoring that you can view here, SBA mentoring, one of the organization that they list is SCORE.

From www.score.org, SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

SCORE utilizes entrepreneurs to coach individuals who want to start a business or currently own a business.  You can utilize their services at no cost to you.  You can meet with someone in person or online and you can meet with them an unlimited number of times.

Your Mentoring (www.advancedmentoring.com) is another place to go for mentoring when you need help with your business again at no charge.  You can post a profile there and be a mentor or mentee.  Contact is primarily online but this site has an added feature where you can participant in a sort of online mastermind group with other individuals that share a common interest.

There other organizations where you can find mentoring.  CEO Space is an organization that I am familiar with and when done right can be a good source for mentoring.  The main thing is that we never have all of the answers and a mentor can be someone that can help us regardless of what stage of business we are currently in.

The presentation was created by Roy Williams of the Wizard Academy and was presented by a friend and business partner Michael Drew of Beneath The Cover and Promote-A-Book.  Compliments of Wikipedia, civic society is described in the following manner:

Civil (Civic) society refers to the arena of uncoerced collective action around shared interests, purposes and values. In theory, its institutional forms are distinct from those of the state, family and market, though in practice, the boundaries between state, civil society, family and market are often complex, blurred and negotiated. Civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces, actors and institutional forms, varying in their degree of formality, autonomy and power. Civil societies are often populated by organizations such as registered charities, development non-governmental organizations, community groups, women’s organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, trade unions, self-help groups, social movements, business associations, coalitions and advocacy groups.

We have seen this definition come to life through social media as more and more people are joining the collective discussion.   The Pendulum Presentation presents the need for authenticity in our marketing and everything that we do online and in society as a whole. In the social media landscape it’s not OK to take without giving.  It’s not OK to talk in a grandiose manner on something that you can’t deliver on.  If you are not prepared to give value in a straightforward manner, the only thing you will get is blacklisted and shunned.

We have seen the shift to the civic mindset in business as well.  Competition and squashing your opponent is making way for cooperation and collaboration.  We are seeing the rise in business associations that focus on improving the collective whole of business not the singular interest of any individual.

What are your thoughts about this?  Are you seeing the pattern of a civic society?  What’s the next step as we transition into this stage of our history?  How are you using social media and networking more in the service of others?

When you help someone up a hill, you find yourself closer to the top. ~ Brownie Wise

Service to others.  It seems like a lost art in our “service economy”.  Regardless of how many bad experiences we have with certain business, the companies and people that are finding ways to serve the masses are the ones that are profitable and living fulfilled lives.

We talked last week and this week about value creation and its’ different components.  Service to others goes hand in hand with the value creation message.  If you want to achieve true and lasting success, how you impact people’s lives for the better will dictate your success.  It seems counter-intuitive to think that looking out for others actually serves our interest.  We seem to have a real misconception about what capitalism is all about and how to effectively work within the system.  It’s one of the biggest complaints I have about our current capitalistic mindset.  The mindset is to get ahead, I have to stomp someone else out of the picture.  If you have success, that means there is less for me.  These limiting mindset end up working against us in our business or at our job because we forget about the people who matter; our customer, our teammates and our employees.

A great service story for me is that of Chick-Fil-A.  Is this place not the most friendly fast food place in the country?  While living in north Denver in 2004, I accepted a move with my company to Colorado Springs.  For a period of 3 months I commuted 50+ miles to work each day while we looked for a place to live.  Every morning I took the toll road (E470) and stopped at Chick-Fil-A for breakfast.  On my first visit, I literally thought the kid who was helping me was mocking me because he was so friendly.  It actually pissed me off at first.  It was upon stopping a few more times for their delicious chicken biscuit sandwiches that I realized that this was how they rolled.  I went from suspicious to impressed.  I have had similarly great exeriences with Chick-Fil-A in different cities in different states.  Enough so that I know it’s not an accident.  Service is what they are about.  If you don’t believe me, go to a Chick-Fil-A on a Wednesday night for family night.  The experience is positive and says to me, we care about you teh customer and we most likely treat our employees well too.

That’s my story of service to other in action from the corporate side.  I realize that there are other ways to serve outside of business as well.  We will talk about Philanthropy from a business owner’s standpoint later this week.  How do you create value for people?  This can be at your job or in your business.  What are your experiences that you would like to share about service done right?  How are you helping others in your journey to the top?

PS. It’s podcast Wednesday click the button below to listen to this week’s podcast on value creation.

]]> http://buildyoursoulpurpose.com/what-it-takes-to-get-to-the-top/feed 0 12:37 When you help someone up a hill, you find yourself closer to the top. ~ Brownie Wise Service to others.  It seems like a lost art ... When you help someone up a hill, you find yourself closer to the top. ~ Brownie Wise Service to others.  It seems like a lost art in our "service economy".  Regardless of how many bad experiences we have with certain business, the companies and people that are finding ways to serve the masses are the ones that are profitable and living fulfilled lives. We talked last week and this week about value creation and its' different components.  Service to others goes hand in hand with the value creation message.  If you want to achieve true and lasting success, how you impact people's lives for the better will dictate your success.  It seems counter-intuitive to think that looking out for others actually serves our interest.  We seem to have a real misconception about what capitalism is all about and how to effectively work within the system.  It's one of the biggest complaints I have about our current capitalistic mindset.  The mindset is to get ahead, I have to stomp someone else out of the picture.  If you have success, that means there is less for me.  These limiting mindset end up working against us in our business or at our job because we forget about the people who matter; our customer, our teammates and our employees. A great service story for me is that of Chick-Fil-A.  Is this place not the most friendly fast food place in the country?  While living in north Denver in 2004, I accepted a move with my company to Colorado Springs.  For a period of 3 months I commuted 50+ miles to work each day while we looked for a place to live.  Every morning I took the toll road (E470) and stopped at Chick-Fil-A for breakfast.  On my first visit, I literally thought the kid who was helping me was mocking me because he was so friendly.  It actually pissed me off at first.  It was upon stopping a few more times for their delicious chicken biscuit sandwiches that I realized that this was how they rolled.  I went from suspicious to impressed.  I have had similarly great exeriences with Chick-Fil-A in different cities in different states.  Enough so that I know it's not an accident.  Service is what they are about.  If you don't believe me, go to a Chick-Fil-A on a Wednesday night for family night.  The experience is positive and says to me, we care about you teh customer and we most likely treat our employees well too. That's my story of service to other in action from the corporate side.  I realize that there are other ways to serve outside of business as well.  We will talk about Philanthropy from a business owner's standpoint later this week.  How do you create value for people?  This can be at your job or in your business.  What are your experiences that you would like to share about service done right?  How are you helping others in your journey to the top? PS. It's podcast Wednesday click the button below to listen to this week's podcast on value creation. The Power of People, Your Life Your Purpose Podcast Brandon Allen no no http://buildyoursoulpurpose.com/the-underlying-theme-of-social-media http://buildyoursoulpurpose.com/the-underlying-theme-of-social-media#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:13:23 +0000 Brandon R Allen http://buildyoursoulpurpose.com/?p=119 I have been thinking a lot about why we use social media today.  The reconnection with past friends, the ability to connect with people more frequently that live far away and also the possibility of finding like minded individuals that you may be able to do business or collaborate with in one way, shape or form in the future.  These are all great things.  The problem is that I think we start to forget why we blog, use Twitter or Facebook, comment on other people’s blogs.  When it’s all said and done, the underlying theme is to build meaningful relationships.  The key word being meaningful.

While I was thinking about this, I ran accross this great post regarding the subject:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/building-relationships-is-more-important-than-building-links-alone/8158/

It made me think about how easy it is to forget why you are doing things and focus on the end result rather than the journey.  For instance the above article brings up the practice of commenting on blogs and why it’s important.  Most importantly it talks about the right way to do it.  Make meaningful comments, read several of the blogger’s posts before commenting etc.  I know I have been guilty of making comments in the past just for the sake of making a comment or rushing through the process.  I realized recently that taking the care to make every contact you have value based is more likely to produce the meaningful relationships we are looking for.

On the “friend based” application side, several times a week, I receive “friend” requests from people that I don’t know and that don’t introduce themselves in the process.  This isn’t a huge deal to me but what ends up happening is that if you don’t introduce yourself to me at the request, I quickly forget and never cultivate the relationship.  It’s not enough to say hello.  If it was I would have had a ton more dates in college. I am not trying to get Ron Burgundy here and tell you that I am a big deal.  

The reality is that I am interested in building a relationship and a simple introduction certainly helps that process and keeps the transaction in my mind.

Keep this mind as you are out on the web 2.0 landscape that the building of meaningful relationships is king in all you do.  When you are connecting with people give them a reason why connecting with you will be meaningful. Create the value that you wish to receive in your relationships.

Both of these questions are important to answer.  More often than not, we go to an event where we are not prepared and are hesitant to approach people as a result.  We often don’t know what we are trying to accomplish and therefore end up talking to one of two people.  Either yourself or someone that you came with.

I ran across these 5 tips for networking and mingling:

http://careeradvice.suite101.com/article.cfm/network_mingle_at_work_events

Take a look at these tips and make sure that you have a well thought out plan for the next event that you are attending.  The majority of people do get nervous when they are meeting people for the first time.  Planning will help you get past that and be the networker that you need to be.

Step 1. Take an inventory on who you already know.  Next to each person list what he or she does.  Circle the ones that will be beneficial to get better acquainted with this year.  In a separate column, write down who you need to know.  This can be by profession or if you have a certain person in mind that may be able to help you, write their name down.

Step 2. Put together an action plan on when and how you are going to approach these people.  You must do this right away.  Do it all at once.  Don’t try and do it as you get to it.  Create the time and space today to make this happen.

Step 3.  If you need to get out and meet some of the professionals that you need, start thinking about where to go.  Professional orgranization are always a good place to go, chambers of commerce, connect groups, local professional clubs etc etc.  It doesn’t have to be a professional club.  There are great networking opportunities within your alma mater, fraternity or sorority and religious organizations just to name a few.  Don’t limit yourself here.  Do you know a great connector or networking?  Call them if you are having trouble.  Again, with this step schedule 2-3 months out and have a plan of action at each event.  Make calls to figure out who will be there and what they are doing and then figure that into where you see synergy with your networking plan.  The point is to be prepared.

With a specific game plan in mind every time you are networking, you will see an increase in results and business as you surround yourself with like-minded individuals.  Put your networking plan together today.  Any other great networking tips out there, I would love to hear them.

What relationships currently exist that are assets?  Who do I want to build relationships with this year?  Where do I need to go to meet these people?  And the last question is,  who in my life is a currently a liability?

Take a few minutes this weekend and jot down the answers to these questions in your journal.  This will be an easy step to take to help you identify existing resources and also a way to forge new ones with effort as the main cost.  This is just one of the many simple steps that you can take to get your 2009 off to a swift and prosperous start.

Are we still talking about business?  We are but we are also talking about human beings as capital for your business.   Calling human beings capital may not resonate with you intially (or never) but I use it to illustrate the importance of building relationships with people inside of your current circle and out.

This spririt of cooperation will be vital to small business survival.  It’s time to make connections that are mutually beneficial.  A story I have referenced a few times regarding the actions of Boston Beer, makers of Sam Adams beer, comes to mind here.

http://appellationbeer.com/blog/sam-adams-sharing-hops-with-smaller-brewers/

Take a look at the relationships that you currently have and take a look at some relationships that you would like to forge.  Social media is a great tool for meeting new people who have like minded interests.  Start using it if you are not.  I would love to hear from the relationship builders out there to know what you are doing to build meaningful relationships in and out of your marketplace.

I was a victim of ignoring all of the resource and opportunity that I came in contact with on a day-to-day basis.  I finally woke up about 2 years ago and asked friends and family a simple question, “What are you up to?”  You may not be thinking that this is ground breaking and it’s not.  I was so focused on daily activities that most of my questions involved where we were going for dinner or when our next get together was.  I never asked meaningful questions about what people were doing to create change in the world.  The crazy thing is that when I started asking, it turns out that I knew some pretty amazing people who also knew some pretty amazing people.  (I promise I’m not bragging, they are most likely friends of mine because of pity.)

When I discovered this, it was like a whole other door opened up in my life.  I was able to create a support structure for the creation of ideas, access to relationships for mentoring, access to skills that I didn’t/don’t possess.  I didn’t pay for much of it up front is the great part.  The even better part is that I have been able to create partnerships that are win/win as well.

Once you get clear on what you want.  Start looking at your resources, particularily with regards to the human capital around you.  Tapping this resource will be key in 2009 to continuing your move forward as an entrepreneur.  No one is successful by themselves.  We all have help along the way.  We just need to know who to ask and how to ask for it.