Being Self-Refective: What the CEO of a $5B Firm Said to Me . . .

The CEO comes into the local office, only occasionally. He is here for a specific reason today. He is here to push his vision and change the way this company does business. And because of that, I get a chance to sit down with him.

About 30 minutes before our meeting I am ushered into a conference room by some assistant and the head of Human Resources for the division of this $5B firm. I am the first one here and like usual, I scope out the chairs and the arrangement of the room.  I am mentally reviewing the meeting ahead of time and calculating where to sit in order to be comfortable second, but first I want to create a "bond" where the CEO feels he can open up to me.

My calculations are shattered as the assistant asks if I want coffee or water. My answer is always the same--no thank you. I am never certain what kind of coffee I will get (it's usually never as good as Starbucks--yes I am spoiled), and the water, well, I've seen people turn on the faucet in the bathroom into a plastic cup that has been reused. So, I am not about to chance my getting some strange disease or illness.

I grab a seat. It's not at the head of the conference table, but it's to the right of it, the one where I can watch the door. I am careful not to lay out my notebooks yet, as I want to see where he sits and I can get a sense of where to move in order to get close enough to create that "bond" I need.

Around five minutes to our appointed meeting time the CEO walks in. He is alone, much to my amazement. Usually the CEOs I have met with have an EA or some PR person--"just in case." In case of what, I am pretty sure I know: to make sure I am not a kook, although my credentials are established. And to make sure what the CEO is not misquoted.

As he walks in, I stand up walk around and we shake hands. He looks around at the table and asks where I want to sit. He doesn't just grab the head of the conference room table--as all Kings and Queens typically do.

He's in a suit. He has nothing in his hands. He grabs a chair and he asks where do we start?  I have 30 minutes for this meeting.

He launches into his vision and explains how hard it is to get people to change. He explains that the hardest change of all is changing where the company has been most successful--where there is revenue already flowing in--in some cases gushing in.

"Why change now? Everything is good," he says. "This is what everyone tells me," he continues.

We talk some more--at around 15 minutes into our "interview" he tells me something that must be weighing on his mind. He says something that startles me. It is self-relfective. He says, some of the problems he has as a CEO, is that when he says something, too many people "go absolute" on him. The people hear what he says and they take it to extremes by applying it to everything in an "absolute" manner.  He has noticed this pattern and is aware that this could cause problems. He is  now very careful about what he says. He explains that he feels somewhat handcuffed, as he is not allowed to "think out loud" or to casually ponder ideas or issues any longer to others. This is the weight of a CEO, because as CEO his words are now of Biblical proportions.

Personally, I think that sucks. I am one of "those people" who like to think out loud. I have learned that this drives many black and white people crazy. So I have learned to be careful with what I am thinking.

He goes on. He says something else that is interesting if not also insightful. He explains, "When I see an issue in the culture, or something in my organization, I have to look back to trace my steps to see what I may have said that may have caused this thing."

It's an interesting meeting and conversation that started with my request for a meeting with the question, "What is it about certain vendors that makes you want to business with them?" To get this meeting, I explained I was doing research, and my promise was that if I ever gathered the research in one place (i.e. a report or book), I would provide the information--free of charge to him and his company. To tell the truth, I was pushed down to a few of his generals--which was fine--as they make most of the decisions.

The answers to the question "What is it about certain vendors that makes you to want to do business with them?" is now compiled and complete. It is now in book-form called "Clientize." The book explains how clients decide and choose one vendor over all the others to do business with. The book is the result of a twenty-five year study of asking clients this question and other related questions, about how clients determine how to buy a complex, strategic, multi-million-dollar solution.

If you would like a copy of this book--let me know.

The Starting Place for the Business Turnaround

In turning around any business, I have learned there are priorities which have to be considered. You may be going, "Sure. Priorities. I get it. Of course. So what?"

What's “so what” is that many executives don't realize that priorities in any turnaround is not what the turnaround artist has to do to turn the business around, the priorities relates more to the case of the problem the business finds itself in. The experienced turnaround artist knows he has to understand what the problem is before he can turn the business around. 

The First Question

The First Question to ask in any business turnaround, usually isn't ever asked. Or if it is asked, it is asked too late. But usually, nine times out of ten, if not more, it's not asked at all. I am not exactly sure why it isn’t asked, but it’s usually because of a three things: not experienced in business turnarounds, too busy (the executives have other day-time jobs), or because they rush to judgement. 

So the question is this: What is causing the business to slow down? 

• Is it the leadership of the organization? (are they inept, can't market, aren't client friendly)
• Is it a bad culture of the organization? (no quality, performance, excellence attitude; slow, sluggish; not caring, no empowered workforce, topdown management; or something else)
• Is it bad processes that create multiple problems? (order processing, proposal timeliness, delivery of product, and other process related items)
• Is it a missed opportunity during the period when the market was hot for services or products that the company missed?
• Is it bad marketing?
• Is it bad sales people?
• Is it a bad product or service?
• Is it a bad reputation of the firm?
• Is there too much overhead causing the price to the customer/client to be too high?
• Lack of cutting edge products or services? (lack of innovation)
• Is it a combination of the above items?

Or has something happened outside of the organization?

• Is there increased competition?
• Is it commoditization of the products or services? (competitors willing to sell it cheaper)
• Innovation from competing firms?
• Is it a new regulation?

A Rush to Judgment

Here's the big thing--the first thing management tells me when I get the phone call or when I sit in the board room: "Our sales organization needs to be replaced."

It doesn't matter what industry, what day of the week it is, whether the person is the CEO, CFO, or President of the Division, it always boils down to this: "Our sales people aren't selling enough. Therefore, they all need to be replaced. Fired. Shot. Killed. Let go. Riffed."

The first time I walked in the organization, the very first day, I right after I get the orientation from HR (there is always this "scheduled" hours or a day of so-called training or orientation--which is nice--but in utter chaos--it's always lost on me) I meet with the sales management or what's left of it. 

The Magic Potion (aka the cure)

Because most organizations have down some "fixing" of their own before I come in, the organization is shell shocked. Everyone is looking over their shoulder, looking for other employment or the organization has been decimated. The "fixing" a lot of organizations undertake is like taking some sort of magic cure. The belief is, If we drink this magic potion, everything will be all right. 

Stated another way, more specifically, the cure looks like this: “If we fire John, we can replace him with someone else--someone better."

The management of the organization then brings in another person--a sales leader--over everyone in sales--someone who has a great track record. This person is going to make everyone dance a certain way. Get people—and this is really what I hear, “Out of the office” to sell. 

Voila—magic. The turnaround is now days away. 

However, one thing management doesn’t realize in the their quest for the savior, is that not all track records are created equally. The track record of the savior is a track record due to a hot market or a hot product or because the person's previous organization has a very defined market.

 This last reason, the “defined market” requires a little explaining. The 

company the person with the track record has is because someone was smart enough to realize that the firm needed to focus and become number one or number 2 in that specific niche. Usually, that defined niche is because of someone else—not the sales leader who is brought in. 

I am not saying the new sales leader isn’t good at building sales organizations. What I am saying is that the new sales leader may not be experienced in turnarounds. These are two different solutions to two different problems.    

A sales leader that is brought in, is only qualified for arounds, if the sales leader established a new market or performed a turnaround previously. And here is something to note: the best turnaround specialist is a specialist who has failed at a turnaround before.

But back to the point. Replacing people needs to be done with precision, and for the right reason.

Replacing a Sales Leader and Sales People

No one wants to admit this of course, but finding a replacement for a previous sales leader or a new sales person takes weeks, no, strike that, months. And usually the replacement person/savior who is brought in takes another two or three months (usually six months if you want to really know the truth) to get their feet somewhat firmly planted on the ground. This means they understand the organization, the people, how things work, the market, the services and products, and who is who. Not the least of importance—the clients and what they are buying. 

In the meantime, sales people are jumping ship and service delivery and product people are all antsy ("When is the new guy going to do something?" they say to each other).

In addition, the executive team is wring their hands. Executive management goes through a period of “Wait, let’s see what the new guy does” and then to “Wait, did we hire the right person?” and then to, “We need to push this new guy, things aren’t happening, we need action, we need performance, we need a business turnaround.”

And your competition is picking off your established based of “loyal clients.”

Back to the Basics

To put this all into perspective, let me ask you a question, a question that is a little off the beaten path here relative to this issue—but I find makes my point. 

You have been out to eat. I know this about you. You have been to a restaurant too. And I know this too, you are probably smart. And because you are smart, you know that owning a restaurant is a lot of work. There is more than meets the eye in running a restaurant. Running a restaurant goes from having serving staff, to preparing and cooking the food, to getting customers in the door and back again, and spreading the good news. But there is even more. It’s getting the right food, hiring the right serving people, the right location, as well as having nice seating, background music, lighting, and a whole host of other things.

Let me boil the complex business of owning a successful restaurant down to something simple. Something we can digest—if you don’t mind the pun. Which of the following three, would you rather have in terms of a restaurant in order to be successful?    

• A line of starving customers
• Great serving people (waiters/waitresses, hosts/hostesses, busboys
• Great food

The answer is, 100 times out of a 100, is a line of starving customers. 

You Always Want to Find the Line of Starving Customers

You  always want to start with a line of starving customers. If you have a line of starving customers, you can get your business going. Your meals can even be mediocre. If the customers are starving, your meals can be less than mediocre. Your serving people can even be rude.

Of course, as people satisfy their hunger, they may want better food and better service. But without a group of hungry people to feed, the business is doomed. Of course you could argue that people come in to restaurants for the ambiance, the pleasure of the date, the business meeting. But that’s important only if people aren’t hungry, which we will get to in a minute.

But if I were to open a business, I’d want to place my restaurant in a place that had very hungry people.

If you take this analogy or metaphor, you see that the business that you need turned around, first needs to be a in a place where there are hungry prospective customers. If no one is hungry, you can have the best product that no one needs.

If you have identified a place where there is a hungry line of people, the next thing you do is you get food for them. The next thing you do is not find the best serving people. 

Remember, if the people (customers) aren’t hungry, the best waiters and waitresses cannot make people eat poop or even mediocre food. Even the most polite and considerate waiter (or waitress) cannot make up for crummy food, small portions, burned food, or late food.

So this means the second thing you have to have is really good food. This may mean niching your food to a specific cuisine. You may have to cater to people who like Italian, Chinese, fast-food, or seven-course dinners.  You have to specialize. To specialize means you build a reputation to a degree. It’s “Hey, let’s go to Joe’s. I am in the mood for some Italian tonight.”

It is never, “Hey, let’s go to Joe’s. I’m in the mood for something general.”

Now, if you have crappy serving people, and there are other Italian restaurants, you are going to have to spice up the serving people to create part of that dining experience. 

Don't Get It Backwards

This is where you start. You start with the market. Most businesses that are in trouble, have it backwards. They start with  trying to find the best serving people. 

If you have an underperforming restaurant you don’t say, “Let’s fire all the waitresses and waiter. They suck.” They can’t sell the bad food the chef prepares. They aren’t the once causing the food to be burned. They aren’t the ones who are causing the food to arrive late to the table.

You start with the questions above of course. You look at the market questions first. Second, if there is a market, the second question is the services and products. If you find you have great services and products, you may have an internal training problem and a marketing problem. Perhaps the differentiators are not defined clearly. Perhaps the products and services need to be refined. Once these things are done, you now turn to the sales people.

I Am Not Always Popular

I recommend one thing that always turns the organization on its head when I come in. I ask the executives to pick five prospective clients. Identify the right person or people in those five prospective client who they are to sell to. And then call or email or network to get an appointment with those people. And then go in and meet them. in 90 times out 100, even though the executives say they will do anything to turn the business around, they never follow through.

Of those who do, the 10 out of a 100, these executives  go sure, until they pick up the phone. Then they place the phone down and instead of picking it up to call the prospective client for an appointment, what they do is call someone from sales or marketing and say, “Get up here to the paradise club, where we executives sit, I need you to explain what the service does so I can explain the benefits in order to get the the appointment.”

What happens next is that the executive learns that the messaging from marketing sucks. it’s too garbled. it’s too long. It doesn’t resonate.

What these executives learn for the first time is, it perhaps isn’t the sales team that is not performing, it may be something else.  

I hope you get this—because it is this little diagnostic—that will help you find a starting point to your business turnaround.

Kiss Me and I Will Turn Into a Beautiful Princess

A young gentlemen was crossing the road to get to work, when all of a sudden a voice called out to him. "Pssst," said the voice. Then the voice said, "Over here. I am down here."

The young gentlemen, glanced around and then saw a frog. The frog stared up at the young man and said, "Kiss me and I will turn into a beautiful Princess."

The young man smiled, bent over and scooped the frog up and placed the frog into his pocket.

The frog, excited with the thought it would finally get a kiss, then realized something wasn't quite right. So the frog said again, "Kiss me and I will turn into a beautiful Princess."

The young man pulled the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it again and returned the frog to his pocket and keep on walking.

The frog, now frustrated, said, "Kiss me and I will turn into a beautiful Princess, and you can do anything--and I mean "anything" you want.

Again, the young man pulled the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and placed the frog back into his pocket.

The frog, now very frustrated, started talking a little faster, "Kiss me, I will turn into a beautiful Princess, and I will stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The young man pulled the frog from his pocket and said, "Look, I'm an engineer. I wouldn't know what to do with a beautiful Princess. But a talking frog--now that is really cool."

Leadership and Professional Conduct

Where there is poor management, there is office politics. There has never been more of an exact statement ever made, except for the statement "The sky is blue." Unless of course it's raining.

There is a parallel here. The parallel is that when there is office politics, the sky is hardly ever blue. In offices where there is poor management, there is little or no leadership. What people do is they resort to the lowest common denominator. The environment becomes negative. People walk around on guard. They are more concerned with how they appear, their image, their prestige, and thereby things turn into a zero sum game. Things become negative where people are so focused on not losing something that they are speaking in misdirections, sending cryptic emails, attending meetings to win or at least not lose, and performing actions to cover their backsides or take something from someone else.

The organization becomes dysfunctional very quickly.

This usually happens because the leadership of the organization doesn't know how to lead and set the example. It is often a result of warfare with other divisions. It is often a result of not setting principles and rule and speaking and living a code of professional conduct.

It is also a by-product of multiple organizations having separate P&Ls treeing up into another larger unit.

I realize I am on the verge, the precipice of organizational heresy. Every organization should live and die on its own. Eat or be eaten. Kill or be killed. Be number one or two. Good is the enemy of great.

I get all that. It's the stuff of testosterone, chest thumping, I am bigger and stronger than you, jungle warfare. We are beyond the jungle aren't we?

Teamwork is a force multiplier. Infighting or politics is a force divider. Politics weaken the organization. It is like the black plague of Europe--a scourge of death and destruction and panic.

A real leader understands the importance of professional conduct and behave in a manner that lifts people, inspires people to be better. To lead others take skill and acumen. To manage others takes no skill at all.

If you ask ten people, what would make you work harder, smarter, better--all of them would say, "Someone (a leader) who inspires." When asked what this means, people say, "Someone who respects my talents and allows me to draw upon my strengths."

Managers don't know how to do this. So they manage people like they manage projects. Managers look for what's wrong, they look for holes, and what can go wrong. This is a great way to manage a project and manage things. But it is a terrible way to lead people.

Inspire people. Look for their strengths and allow them to flourish. Explain how you want your managers to manage and lead. Explain that the goal is for the company to grow, the division to grow and that is one for all and all of one.

You know you are getting somewhere, when your team meets, and people are actually conducting themselves in a manner where people say, "How can I help you?" to another colleague and really mean it and follow through.

Don't Negotiate Like Willy Loman

Two Extremes Professionals Take When Negotiating
When I watch professionals negotiate with a client, they either give everything away--that is--they try to give everything the client wants--or they fight the client every step of the way because they "don't want to be taken advantage of." These two extremes  appear as acquiescence and hostage taking.

These two positions are on opposite sides of the spectrum, and appear to look like they have nothing in common. This, however, is not true. The thing these two positions have in common is that professionals who negotiate in this manner are not as strong as they could be when entering the negotiation. What I mean by this is these professionals have not thought through what their client needs and wants and have not tied these back to why the client needs and wants these things. This is the start to establishing your value.

Extreme Position 1: Capitulating is Not a Strategy for Client Satisfaction
What you have in these two positions is, on one side you have acquiescence. The professional acquiesces, he or she gives in, capitulates, by operating from a fear-based mentality in order to "win" the business. This give in approach is a weak position because the professional wants to "get it over"--he or she doesn't like the "game." And that's all a negotiation is--a game.

The other part of the fear-based mentality that runs through these professionals' minds is, "If I negotiate, the client will get angry with me, and perhaps not like me, and perhaps look for another provider of services and solutions."

I get it though, to some of us it feels like a matter of life and death. This is the underlying fear-based thought process. And that frankly, is where the trouble starts for the professional and the firm. When you feel you have everything to lose, you do.

One thing to realize that will help you change your need to capitulate is this: Clients'--all of them--never want to deal with "needy" people--or needy firms. To clients "needy" equals desperate. Desperate equals going out of business. Going out of business means no one else is buying what the professional has to offer. And if no one else is buying, why should I be the only one, thinks the client. Unless the firm is selling pencils--and since this is a commodity--the client doesn't mind getting a commodity that works, a commodity that won't jeopardize the client's business, at a bargain, if not a steal.

Understand Your Value: Stop Acting as if You are a Commodity 
If what you provide does offer value and isn't a commodity, like a set of pencils, as a professional you had better come into the negotiation understanding that the client needs you and your services. But only understanding isn't enough. You need to understand why the client needs you and your services.

This is not arrogance--this is confidence. This kind of confidence is based on competence. Confidence based on anything other than competence is lacking in character; it's a sham. People smell shams. This is one place you cannot "fake it until you make it."

Extreme Position 2: Hostage Taking
Way over on the opposite side of the spectrum is the "offensive player." This person takes a tough stand--this person is "hostage taking." They are ready to not concede anything. They take an all or nothing position. They act as if they are ready to walk away.

In reality, professionals with this attitude are usually hiding their fears, and the offensive stance these professionals take, is really a defensive stance. Instead of giving anything away, these professionals think they are going to be "screwed." These defensive professionals cloak themselves in a shroud of offensive behaviors that sound tough. They say things like, "Why do they want this? They are asking for too much. No! Tell them, no."

Often these are the people who are sitting in corporate offices or are not on the frontline doing the negotiating. I've seen this scene play out a million times. Alright, not a million times, but a lot. It's sad, if not outright comical, because the person from headquarters who is acting tough, refuses to give in to anything the client wants, is not in front of the client, uses this approach to "coach" the local team who is actually doing the negotiating. The person at headquarters is "coaching" the local team to be "tough." This person is taking a "hard line" and is telling the local team, "They either want us or they don't--we should walk away" all in the name of a point or two in margin.

By the way, I am not decrying points of margin. I like margin as much as the next P&L manager does.

Sooner or later, someone on the local team realizes he is negotiating with two sets of people: headquarters and the client. He realizes that he is caught in a bind. The local team cannot win with the client or the "tough people" at headquarters. The local team is caught in the middle--"the damned if you do and damned if you don't" position.

The local person who is smart, says to the person at headquarters, "Can you come here and help us?" Of course, the person on the other side of the planet says absolutely--as this person has a chance to come in and show everyone how negotiating is done. When the person comes to "save the day" and meet with the client, this savior sits in front of the client and capitulates everything away. The savior now sees the light of day. They too, don't want to lose the client's business. This is crazy--and if you have been in business long enough--you recognize this as a true pattern.

In any negotiation, you have to do some ground work. Here are seven key points to any effective negotiation.

1. Key to Any Negotiation: Understand What the Other Party Wants and Why
What happens in both cases is the professionals involved don't take the initial step in understanding what is of value and establishing the value with the client. These professionals don't try to see things from the client's point of view, and then sell (persuade, cajole, coax whatever word suites you) the client on why this (what the client wants that cannot be given) hurts the client, hurts the professional's ability to deliver, and how "it" (what the client wants in the manner the client wants it) hurts the client, the client's objective, and ultimately the client-professional relationship.

2. It's All About Value
So establishing value is first step to effective negotiating. Understanding what the client wants and why is critical to successful discussions. Being able to explain to the client the ramification of why something can't be done a certain way is another critical step. But it's hard to this confidently, without having established the first step. This doesn't mean taking a hard line. In fact just the opposite. You as a skilled negotiator has to be able to finesse not giving the client something that damages you and your firm and your firm's ability to deliver, and find a gray corner, where no one is looking and be able to say, this might give you what you are looking for. This presupposes you understand why the client wants this certain thing.

3. Find Alternatives, Have Options, Offer Solutions
By finding alternative solutions to getting the client what the client asked for may be the next most important thing you can do. It demonstrates your ability to find a solution--and be creative--and most importantly--if you are dealing with the person responsible for the project--create a relationship based on value, competence, confidence and mutual goals. Remember I said, no client wants to deal with a professional or a firm that is desperate? The opposite is also true: clients--all of them--want to work with professionals who are collaborative in nature--looking out for the clients' interests and be willing to say no and here is why, but here is a way, a better way, to get you what you need.

4. Clients Have Enough Friends--They Need Strong Partners
I am telling you that if you get this--this one little point--everyone who says "The client likes me" will no longer ever have to say that. Because "liking" is weak. Good people find something to like in almost everyone. However, being able to know (not have to say to others) that you add value to the client and the client respects your opinion and advice, is way more valuable.

Providers of services need to be a partner of clients in the solution of the client's problem or fulfilling their needs. This ties back to your value. What is your value? Not from your perspective, but the client's perspective.

5. Don't Sell Yellow Lead Pencils
Remember this point because it's a big one, No Value. No Negotiation. No Deal. If you have't established value, or are not on a firm foundation. You are a commodity and the client will take you to the cleaners. If your client thinks you are selling yellow lead pencils, your client is going to seek the lowest price. Fast shipping and quality service won't even be a part of the negotiation equation.

6. Don't Be a Willy Loman
Professionals get caught up in this likability game. Sure, don't be a jerk. As one client I interviewed for my book Clientize said, "Be authentic. Unless you are a jerk. Then be someone else." No one wants to do business who are jerks. But likability isn't value. Your likability is nice--but if you think that matters, print up a new business card that states you are working for Willy Loman.

And if you are working for Willy Loman, you are basically a dinosaur and all dinosaurs are extinct. Except no one will care and no one will find you in the Museum of Natural History, because there are too many of you. You're not that rare a find.

7. See Negotiating as a Game of Strategy
Of course, when negotiating you have to think things through--it's like a big game of chess. And that's all negotiating is--a big game. If you can start there--seeing negotiating as a game and preparing for the game, and not see this negotiation as a matter of life and death, you are coming in from a position of strength not weakness. I said preparation and this means you have to establish value based on confidence that is rooted in competence. Never forget this--so be competent, and if you are, you are going to be much better off in the long run.

This is the foundation of negotiations--any and all.

Why Consultants Can't Run Meetings or Is It Me?

In almost all cases, it seems that consultants don't do a good job at running meetings. I am not sure why that is, but I have my guesses. I know, guessing is not a good word to use with some of you.

I am in a meeting. I am not sure where we are. I am not sure how we even got here. But here we are, in the middle of it. Worse, I am not sure where we are going. Worse still, if there is such a thing, these are people I work with, people who report to me.

"Wait. Where the heck are we? You. Stop talking while
I am trying to get a handle on things."

I can't call a timeout. That would be bad. I don't want to embarrass my staff. The truth is that isn't the real reason. The real reason is I don't want my staff going back to the office and telling everyone I am a control freak and took over the meeting. I can hear the voices now: We were doing great until he took over. He can't help himself; he just wants to run everything.

I am annoyed. I try to not show my feelings by remaining expressionless--so I sit still. The more I try to remain still, the more I am sure I am squirming. I can feel my mouth, my jaw, the words start to form--but I gain control of myself and not the meeting--I don't say anything.

"If only" I begin to think. If only we had an agenda and confirmed the items with the client before the meeting started. If only I forced everyone, no strike that, that's the control freak I am afraid of looking like being coming out; if only I persuaded, (that's close enough, I am a control freak and I have to get over that) the team to sit in the client's chair and think about what's on their minds before we created the so-called "agenda" that we didn't put together beforehand, and didn't confirm with the client.

The team, who haven't tried to become better (improved themselves) thinks running a meeting is natural, and it has to be "spontaneous." No rigidity here please--we are free thinkers and, oh, by the way, everyone thinks like us, because we think logically and we are rational. So who couldn't follow our thought process and our conversation? And besides, we have a lot to share with the client, we don't have time to think about how the client thinks and how the client receives and processes information. Why do we need to know what's a priority for them? We know what should be a priority for them: what we are about to tell them, that what should be the client's priority.

The client? They were fully engaged.
We captured their attention right away.
I am not clear why they aren't calling us back.

I am now watching to see if the client is squirming as much as I am squirming on the inside. I cannot tell. He is poker faced. I look to his right. His colleague is sitting there taking a note or two every few minutes--she looks--well--I think she looks unimpressed. I think she is creating the to-do list for the remainder of the day.

I listen to my team. We are droning on and on. No pause. Just a lot of words coming out. I couldn't interrupt if my life was depending on it. No space between the words. Not enough space without talking over someone and really making a bad show of it all. They'd be pissed: Control freak. Jerk. I am going to transfer out of his group--to the other group.

I am now waiting for the meeting to close. It does. The client says, "Let us think about it. We will get back to you." The two kisses of death. And stated in one sentence. I am right. The meeting was not a good one. I don't feel good or vindicated. My team doesn't know what those two words mean yet. I am doubtful they ever will.

We don't hear back from the client. The team doesn't call the client--they don't think it's good form to call the client--they don't want to "intrude" on the client. They want to give the client "space."

I call the client. I can't wait. I am not a waiter-type person. It's good and bad this not waiting thing. I think I am becoming better because now I can wait one more day before doing something. But I think that's more like procrastination sneaking in on my to-do list than it is becoming patient.

The client is still not calling us back.

I resolve to become a leader some day and resolve to find ways to coach my team into doing what I want the next time. I realize that's not leadership and thereby revise my thought: I resolve to help my staff become better at running meetings, but all them the space to learn on their own. I add: without placing a boat anchor around my neck and pushing me off the bow of the ship. Am I muttering? I think I am.

They (my team) are oblivious why the client isn't returning our calls. It must be a bad prior relationship with the firm. Yes, that's it. I remember someone said we did some work for the client ten years ago . . . And the team just rationalizes away the issue.

I am working on myself. Let's see what I can do to help them . . .

How To Become Indispensable to Clients?

This is a question that is asked and never answered very clearly, very articulately, or at any length. I will attempt to answer this question, a question that people ask me that I too sometimes cannot quite put my finger on because it requires more than a minute. While not exactly a recipe, I will provide lessons and ideas you can incorporate into your business and daily regimen with your clients and your staff. Here are some ideas accumulated and distilled for your reading.

1. The best and clearest answer to this question is: By providing quality services. Quality, as most of us know, is in the eyes of the client. That is, the client defines quality. Quality services are those services deemed important by the client--each individual client. To be specific, this means each client account and each person within the client account. What do clients and individuals deem important? Usually tasks and projects they aren't qualified to perform or have some amount of risk assigned to them.
2. Where do I find important tasks and projects? By looking for and identifying trends, issues and especially requirements that are required by a government regulation. 
3. This means accepting difficult assignments. Difficult assignments may be defined by tight timeframes, high risk tasks and projects, low-margin-for-error tasks and projects, bleeding edge assignments, and/or assignments that require measurable business results.
4. Be responsible. This means take responsibility for accomplishing small projects and tasks outside your primary assignment. If the client asks could you look into this? Do so. If the client says can you fix this? Create a new statement of work. The two tasks are totally different. One is to inquire and shape an issue. The other is to address it. One takes little time and effort; the other takes more time and effort.
5. Take on tasks and projects that other consultants steer away from--but the client needs performed. Yes, it may mean doing something you did 10 years ago and isn't bleeding edge, but it is important to the client now. There is a difference between being indispensable and a prima donna. These types of tasks mark the difference between the two.
6. Provide competent, differentiated service. Do such things as preparing a memo--a short one--that details where you are in your project--a status update. Prepare a short memo regarding a problem you have come across that is outside the scope of you current project. Set up a meeting to walk the client through an issue or an important change in direction or provide a face-to-face update.
7. Identify issues and problems not related to your project or main assignment. 
8. Never reveal other clients' problems or issues to your current clients. 
9. Keep confidences. If the client tells you something don't be the one to tell others unless the client (the person telling you the confidence) says outright that he or she wants you to carry the message to others. Even then, be careful as to not appear as a gossip or breaking a confidence. It's always best to not say something someone else told you that was said one-on-one or with some degree of confidence.
10. Never disparage clients, people or competition to your client. Never complain about your staff, your colleagues, your management, or your firm.
11. Stage decisions for your clients. When appropriate make sure certain tasks have a point in their timeline when a decision needs to be made. This means bringing the decision to the client at the appropriate time. "Staging a decision" does not mean you are making it appear that a decision needs to be made--that is a form of deceit and manipulation which you never want to be associated with.
12. Avoid any sense of impropriety. Avoid this like spotting poison ivy in a garden. Steer clear, way clear. Remember Shakespeare here: "The fragrance of the rose lingers on the hand that casts it." Well smells linger on the hand that casts other things too. 
13. Arrange choices and alternatives in order of priority in terms of the clients priorities, the client's values, but always avoid making a decision for the client that the client should make.
14. Never usurp the client's right to make a decision or to be wrong.
15. Never correct the client when it obvious to others that he or she is wrong.
16. Tell the client--but only when absolutely necessary--that they are about to drive off a cliff. And don't wait until they are on the edge of the cliff with two wheels already hanging over the edge. And after you tell the client they are about to drive off the cliff and they still prefer to keep on driving, get out of the car and stand back. You don't need to be a back seat driver at this point. 
17. Be available. When the client calls--no matter what time of day they call--call back immediately. Immediately means also when the client is going to chew your head off because of something someone in your firm has done.
18. When things go wrong--correct them. Offer no excuses. Offer an apology yes--but never argue or try to talk your way out of it. Take responsibility means taking responsibility when and where you own the issue. This doesn't mean sometimes.
19. Keep the client informed--always.
20. Don't orchestrate problems or stage meetings to stay in front of the client. But do use opportunities that are important to inform and allow the client to hear and understand the issue.
21. Be professional. Look professional, act professional, and speak like a professional. Speak in terms of getting things done.
22. Learn how to say something concisely. Learn that a period can go right after the words yes and no. Clients--almost all that I have met--hate (yes, hate) when someone drones on and on. 
23. Learn how to speak in public. This means learning how to present something. If you can boil a complex topic down to three points and are able to state those three points clearly--you are on to something. Think green light, yellow light, red light. There are only three lights so we can remember what they mean. It's also the reason why there are three numbers to the area code and races (on your mark, get set, go). If you feel uncomfortable speaking join Toastmasters.
24. Give presentations on cutting edge topics, technologies, trends, and/or regulations to keep the client informed.
25. And last, don't be a jerk. No matter how smart you are, no one likes a jerk.

No. 2 Idea of Five Ideas to Jump Your Professionalism Right Now

The first idea was Read--read for an hour (at least an hour) in the morning on something related to your field--whether it's sales, consulting, leadership, management, project management, innovating, etc.

We are on to the second idea. Work every day from a To-Do list. You may be screaming, "Is that it???? Are you kidding me?

Yes that is it. No, I am not kidding you.

This one idea will transform what you in different ways so positively that your personality and your image and your ability to be reliable and get things done. It will make you the "go-to" person and best-in-class.

Big Mistakes
Our biggest mistakes around time management and getting things done are as follows:

1. Treating every activity the same as all the other activities. 
2. Not understanding what you were hired to do and therefore not doing what needs to be done.
3. Not setting priorities on your work and activities.
4. Not writing things down on paper, that is, believing you will remember everything that needs to be done.
5. Not following through on what you committed to get done.
6. Feeling overwhelmed because you believe you can remember it all

Prioritizing

One of the biggest lessons to learn is prioritization. You can't do everything but you can do the important things. Understanding what is important takes some time to get into your head. One of the tools to use was made famous by Stephen Covey and it looks like this diagram below.

This is a simple chart. It breaks up the important, urgent, not important and not urgent. As simple as this next sentence sounds, it also sound contradictory. Focus on the important (Quadrant 2 in the diagram above) and allow everything else to slide. Yes, that's right. Skip the Urgent (where possible) and skip anything Not Important either all the time or all the time (yes, I said that on purpose). 

There should be very little if anything in the Important & Urgent Quadrant. Of course if there is, you must get that work done now. But remember this: you can be tricked into thinking or believing that the urgent is important--when in fact it's not. Urgency or the urgent creates a feeling that this item is important and therefore, that where you should be spending your time. Don't be tricked into this. The urgent is seldom important. And important is seldom urgent. This is why we allow the important to slide.

Examples In Prioritizing

Here's an example we all can relate to. You know exercise is important. You read about it, to hear it on the news, and even your body craves it. Yet, it's hardly ever urgent. So it's easy to skip if you believe you should be focused on doing the urgent. Does that make sense? 

Now let's talk about Urgent & Important and how it pertains to work. Here's an example: A client is ticked off--something failed. It's urgent that you get this addressed, because the client's network is down and no one there can work. Now this is a great example of important-- and also urgent. You have got to get the client's network up and running again--now--or as soon as now as possible. Now that make it urgent. It's now, now, now. 

What makes it important is that your reputation is on the line. It is your client after all. They entrusted you with their network. They have repeat business. Other prospective clients may hear about the disaster. Are you with me? Often we blend urgent and important. It is key we start separating why the two are different.

If on the other hand, the client's invoice is incorrect, and someone from accounting is calling you saying, "This is urgent to get fixed" and they are almost screaming "It's important"--you may feel compelled to fix it now. That is, you may feel compelled to drop your important stuff to do theirs. 

It feels important and it feel urgent. Certainly someone from accounting is pushing you. However, if instead you ask the person in accounting if this has to be done now this very second, or even today, the person--if she or he is calm and rational and isn't trying to create a mountain out of a molehill, will probably say, "No, you don't have to get it done today. But I have to send out new invoices Friday, can you get it done by Thursday?" Now you have something that is important to the person in accounting and they are relying on you--and of course you are a person who can be counted on--but it doesn't bubble up to a crisis and it's not that important. So you can fit it into a slot on your To-Do list or calendar when you have "downtime." Or said another way, when you have time on your calendar rather than dropping everything else you have to do. 

By the way, if you have the accounting person's action "fix the invoice" and the client's issue "their network is down"--which one is a higher priority? Of course, the network. However, unless you are the network technician, once you have gotten the best and brightest addressing the client's network there is little else you can do. Except to go over and reassure the client you understand the critical nature of their network being down. This means you can fret and wait or you can get on doing other things you need to be done. Opt for the later.

Memorize the Diagram-And Focus On Quadrant 2

The diagram below goes into more detail and provides you a guideline as to how to approach this concept of focus, manage, avoid and limit. Take a look and mentally absorb this concept right now into your mind.

Now this is very important: We typically avoid Quadrant 2 because the important is seldom urgent and it hardly ever feels fun and exciting to do. In fact, things like going to lunch fits into Quadrants 3 and 4--depending on how you justify lunch with colleagues. We can even make it fit into 1 or 2--with a bit of rationalization can't we? 

Or how about the one like picking up our dry cleaning. We can make that one fit any one of the Quadrants. "I have no shirts to wear tomorrow" makes this seem urgent and important. We can fool ourselves by going to the dry cleaners in the middle of the day and we drop everything else because we apparently don't have anything to wear tomorrow. Have you been there? 

What Were You Hired To Do?

This is where we get into: What were you hired to do in the first place? If you aren't sure, go back to your job description. Or go ask your boss. It might freak her out if you ask, "What was I hired to do?" It might freak her out because she may ask, "What the heck have you been doing for the past four years?" Or she may say, "I can't remember. Why are you here?" Or worse, she may make something up on the fly and not give much thought to it. 

So let's try and talk this through for a minute. Why are you here?

I am going to take the role of sales person as my example. You know a sales person has to sell. Selling is the life blood of the organization. No sales equals no business. No business equals no revenues. No revenues equals no way to cover costs. And guess who is a cost? I am sorry, it's you. You are a cost. You are on the P&L as a cost. You are lumped into a little line item with all the other "costs." You, therefore, may be in jeopardy of losing your job, if there is no revenue to offset you an your friends. This is simple organizational economics. As scary as this sounds. And by the way, no one ever explains it to you when you are interviewing. Now that you understand this you are as smart as most MBAs. So congratulations, you are an MBA now. Well, maybe not quite. Sorry MBAs.

So back to the sales person role example. What do you think a sales person does, besides goof off, fly to exotic places, eat big meals, and back slap a lot? If you are a sales person what are the activities you have to perform to be successful? Let's look at the list below. Are these what a sales person was hired to perform?

1. Cold call to get appointments.
2. Present products and solutions.
3. Get accounts receivable invoices corrected.
4. Build proposals.
5. Deliver customer satisfaction reports.
6. Pick up dry cleaning to have clothes in order to look sharp.
7. Eat lunch with your buddies at work.
8. Meet with various people in the client account to understand their issues and needs.
9. Go to day care and meet with the teachers because your child is throwing spaghetti-o's at other little kids.
10. Understand how the client buys and provide a winning solution to seal the deal.

Okay. If you are in sales-can you see what items you were not hired to do? Even if you are not in sales, can you see what a sales person should not be doing? 

Yes, I see you have to check out your child at day care. I get that this is important. But is that what you were hired to do? The answer is a resounding no. 

If you grab the items above that you should not be doing, the list left over are a list of things that fall into the Quadrant 2 work--the things you were hired to do. Items 1, 2, 4, 8, 10 are what you were hired to do. For those of you who are not in sales you may think that these things are easy to get done. This is absolutely incorrect. A lot of work is required prior to actually doing these items. For example, in order to do item 8, you have to figure out who are the important people to meet with. Then asking for appointments doesn't occur with one phone call or email. It takes sometimes a dozen calls and emails to get hold of someone and convince them to meet. And that's just the beginning. Once they get the appointment, the client reschedules, invites others into the meeting and asks questions that are off-topic. Meaning: getting prepared for a meeting takes a lot of prep work and planning. 

So when you are wondering why the sales person can't get an account receivable item straight--it's because they have a hard job. Also a poor sales person will jump on this activity--the activity of getting accounts receivable straight--because it is tangible and it is not as difficult as the other things they have to do. It's a mistake to give sales people these "easy" and not-on-their important things to do list; but this is an entirely different point and I could take this off topic.

Everything else? Those fit into 3 and 4 Quadrants. This sounds cold--so what about thing like eating with your buddies (item 7)? This item is not important and not urgent. What about dry cleaning on the list? Not important and certainly not urgent. And just because you have the time and freedom (yes, you are out and about) doesn't make it important. 

And if you have your To-Do's done today--don't start doing unimportant stuff. Work all the time you are at work. There's a novel concept for some of you. To keep you on track and keep you from straying into doing stuff you aren't being paid for, allow me to reintroduce the "To-Do" list.

The Power of a To-Do List

From this moment forward--I want you to write down everything you have to do. In fact, write down on a piece of paper everything you have to do. Everything. Do this now. I truly mean it; stop and write down everything you can possibly think of you have to do.

Did you do it? Probably not. But do this after you complete this reading then. I will go into why in a few moments. I want you to create a main list, a "Master List" of everything you have to get done. Everything large and small. Things you have to do at home and at work. This is where you capture everything you have to get done. You can capture it and should capture it on clean piece of paper. Don't use our laptop. Write everything you believe you need to do down on this paper. It may take several sheets. Include things like picking up the laundry and meeting the teachers at day care. Everything.

When you write things down, even the urgent, things--activities--requests, all things tend to lose their sense or feeling of urgency. You can look at these items on paper, things feel more rational, they lose their potency most of the time because they are out of your head attached to emotions of fear, dread, and urgency. When you look at your list from the lens of Quadrants 1, 2, 3, or 4--you can see the urgent is not the important. 

Prioritizing the To-Do List-Jump Starting Your Career

A simple way to help you fit these things into a prioritization is the method I learned from an author who wrote a book that is about 80 pages long. It was a great little book: If You Haven't Got the Time to Do It Right, When Will You Find the Time to Do It, by Jeffrey Mayer.

He suggests taking the list of your things to do and examine each item. On the items that are going  to take longer to do, place the number "1" next to each item. On the items that take a medium amount of time place a "2" next to the item. On the items that take a short period of time to do place a "3" next to those items.

So a phone call may have a 3 next to it--if it's a relatively short call - say five or ten minutes. Since it takes a short period of time to do and get done--that activity earns a 3. A report may have a 2 or a 1 next to it. A report takes time--the amount of time depends on the complexity of the report, who you have to get your information from, and the length of the report. 

Are you with me so far? So, picking up your dry cleaning gets a 1, possibly a 2. Why? Because it takes a lot of time to drive across town to do this. Unless of course you are on your way home and you pass by the cleaners. But it still takes time. So perhaps it becomes a 3 (not much time at all), but more than likely it will get a 2 (it will take some medium amount of time). 

Remember the first labels of 1, 2, and 3 is the amount of time it takes to accomplish.

Now, after you've gone through your list and placed a 1, 2 or 3 you are going to do another 1, 2, 3 type thing. It might seem weird--but stay with me.

Place a 1, 2 or 3 next to the items you've already labeled. A "1" in this case means this is critical to your job.  It is extremely important. A "2" means that this is somewhat important and a "3" it means it is not important or hardly important to your job. 

Picking up laundry is a what? It is a number "3." So picking up laundry would have a label next to the line item on your To-Do List of "3-1." A 3-1 says: it's not important and takes a lot of time. Are you with me?

Let me say this at this time. You may be wondering why not just A, B, C the list instead of 1, 2, 3? That's right--it's pretty similar. If you prefer A, B, C--I am not the one in control, you are. If that works for you, then do it. The key words there are "do it." You don't need anyone's permission to do something different. The problem with most people, including me, is sticking to something and making it work. 

The Power of This Concept Will Blow YOU and Your Colleagues Away

This idea of a listing out all your "to-do's" in this manner is so powerful, that it will turn your life inside out, upside down, and then right side up. You won't recognize what happened once you get into the habit. And this is not hyperbole.

You will find that you are so focused that you cannot believe how laser like you are in your activities and results oriented you are. People will take notice, which is not what you are after, other people noticing that you have your act together is a by-product of having your act together. This is another topic by the way. The word "this" being "image management." This is more about psychology and our dependency on others and wanting their approval and recognition. But let's skip that one for now.

Priorities Become More Clear--and You Become More Focused 

As you capture everything you have to do on this piece of paper, your list will grow. And your priorities will actually lessen. In other words, all those things that were so very pressing and important, are actually not as important as you thought. And you want to capture everything on this paper until the point you have multiple pieces of paper with activities that are prioritized.

What happens when you complete an activity? You draw a single line through it. One line please and not several. You want to be able to go back to the list again if necessary to see the activity in case you need a phone number or recall what the activity was about. 

When I say capture everything--I do mean everything.

The Master List and the Daily List

Another note: you will have a daily to-do list. This is where some people freak. "Two lists??" they cry. Yes-two. You copy over from your large list--the Master List--to your daily list those things you need done today. Yep. A little writing and seemingly redundant. However another powerful way to focus your attention on matters that are truly important. 

Here is the Master List and what it may look like:

Now here is what the Daily To-Do List looks like:

Note that the Master List is on a piece of lined paper. Nothing spectacular. Also note that this is not my To-Do list for real. So any interpretations and judgments are not required--the same for my Daily To-Do List.

The list keeps what I have to do in front of me--so I don't become someone else's priority. I focus on what I need to get done--what I was hired to do. I don't put this on my iPhone, my iPad, or my laptop. I am not trying to get too fancy or too automated and there are a couple of reasons. I want to be able to carry my Daily To-Do list with me wherever I go. 

The Daily List

You will note that this list--the Daily List is on a nice leather case. And it is on a Daily Calendar from Day-Timers. It is small enough to place on the restaurant table if I go to lunch with a client so I can take notes. The notes are on the flip side of the page where my To-Do's are. It looks professional, neat, and it appears (here it comes) that I have my act together. I am a serious student of the business world. People get that and have said, "I am one of the most organized people they have seen." My response: if they only knew. Staying disciplined, takes discipline and practice. I do drift off course every so often. I am what they call "human"--for the most part.

Other Ideas On The Daily List

I like to create my Daily To-Do List in the morning. I keep it by my side when I am reading so if I have as stray thought I can capture it then and there. Others like to the do the list the night before. I have found when I rewrite my Daily To-Do list in the morning it energizes me and refocused my attention on the important matters. It makes me rethink what is to do first.

What to do first? Do as many "1's" as possible. The 1's I am referring to here are the important critical to the job 1's. I may do a number of 1-3's first to kick start things. Or I do the 1-1's first--which truly tend to be more important than the 1-2's and the 1-3's. I eat the frog first thing in the morning. I get the important out of the way.

Also--I batch my tasks. This means, if I have a number of things that are similar, I batch them together and do them. Here's what I mean: I batch all the phone calls together and I make them. I batch all the emails together and I write them.

Make Other Get On Your List--Get Off Theirs. Their Priority Is Not Your Priority

This leads me to another thing. Emails. What a nightmare. People want to write rather than talk. But that's the way of the world and rather than fight it and criticize it--I need to learn how to manage it and use it to my advantage. So I can allow email to dominate my life--and we all know how many we get--as I am not as fortunate as some of the politicians who don't write any or who have only written two in their entire life--I live and die by emails in my company. So, I sort through them at different times during the day. This doesn't mean I don't check my emails to see who sent what. But it does mean I don't have to read them at that moment. I do read clients' emails right away, my boss's emails right away, and my boss's boss's email right away. Others? I leave until later. I am not going to be on someone else's To-Do list. I have my own dependencies and I have my own work to do. This may sound harsh--but I am here to say--I have serious work to do.

I am going to place a stop here for now. There are many other things I can tell you like:

1. Keep your Master To-Do List in front of you on your desk

1. Carry your Daily To-Do List wherever you go.

1. Schedule blocks of time on your calendar (laptop) and block the time out from others in order to work on your Daily To-Do's and long term projects.

1. Block out time for exercise - a daily routine that you need to make a 1-1.

1. Get into the habit of making this work for you. It will feel unnatural to capture everything on your Master To-Do List. It will feel even more unnatural to rewrite your activities on your Daily To-Do list and it will feel as if you are wasting your time. You are not. I can assure you of that.

1. Don't fall prey to technology. Trying to automate this will actually make it more complex than it needs to be. And as I have said before, writing to power to the brain and to the process of thinking, which few people do any more. When was the last time you left your iPhone or Droid device at home? Or in the trunk of your car?

1. Do first things first, second things hardly ever. In other words, do those things that have a "1" in front of them. Remember the "1's" are the first for a reason. Also the 1-1's are perhaps the most important to do and require blocks of time which require you to block out those blocks on your calendar.

Good Luck.

Five Ideas To Jump Your Professionalism Right Now

I'm sitting here in my kitchen drinking my second cup of coffee, reflecting. I am thinking about the one or two things that seriously changed my life--both professionally and personally--that I did what looks like a long time ago.

As I am reflecting about these things, I am thinking, no, I am wondering, why no one else does them. Perhaps it is because people don't know about these things. To me, today, they are obvious. That's because time has created a habit, a universal law for me, that tricks my mind into believing that these things are too basic and that everyone knows about them.

What time has also done--and I mention time here twice for an important reason--is it has created an accumulation effect. Like muscle, it has allowed the action to build upon itself day after day creating momentum, like a little snowball rolling down a long mountain picking up speed and more snow until the little snowball is massive. Except this snowball is rolling down a mountain that goes on forever, or until you die or stop doing the action. Time has allowed knowledge to build upon knowledge upon more knowledge.

With that let me introduce the first of five things that I know will change your life.

First Idea: 
Get up every morning an hour earlier than you normally get up--before anyone in your house gets up and do this one thing: read a book. Not just any book, but a book that is related to your field. If you are in the field of management, pick up a book on management, leadership, or motivation theory. If you are in sales--read sales books. If you are a programmer--well you get the idea.

Read for this one hour. Lean into your book. And don't do anything else--(except what I tell you later below).

This one simple idea is perhaps the easiest thing to do that you will not recognize or believe the benefits that comes along with this little exercise. One hour a day every day for the rest of your life. When you get up don't turn on the radio, or the TV, or look at the news on your iPad. Make coffee of course, but open the book and read. Reading is to the brain like exercise is to the body.

Even if you were not a good reader in High School or College, you will be learning how to read better just by reading overtime.

You will become better at your job. You will know after some time reading in your field, the right things to do immediately at work when events call for action, because you have used your brain to not only learn what someone else has written, but because your brain is able to project or play out events in your mind before they actually occur, because of your reading.

You see, if you are truly reading, you are creating images in your head and playing the images out, like actors in a play. Your brain becomes wired (because of the neural paths created from thinking) to do the actions advised in these books because of the reading.

You will know the positives and negatives of such actions that others before you had. You will learn about other options, choices you have that you haven't considered, and you will feel more inspired, aligned to your work and your profession and feel compelled to be the best you could possibly be--over time.

When I learned this (I learned this from Brian Tracy and I owe him a lot) I put this idea into action immediately. It blew me away. I felt better before I went to work because the information was positive. It also made me feel better because I felt like I was on a path to somewhere--instead of drifting. I was learning from others who had gone before me and used their words as a positive coach. I want to add the word "positive"--because most good books have a positive tone through them. Any book that has a negative tone that you pick up--put it aside. This hour of the day is too very important for you to feed your mind with anything other than something inspirational, positive, or something motivational.

I added a couple of things to this idea. I went to the library and started pulling a lot of books from the shelves on leadership, management, sales, and consulting. I started there--the library first because I couldn't afford to buy the books. Later I could afford to buy the books and I did. Except my house became flooded with books. I was able to buy a bigger house (I became more successful with reading and acting upon the ideas) and built a library for all my books. Now, I am considering to go back to the public library because I have way too many books. And because of something else that made the books somewhat obsolete after I read them. By the way, the books had highlighting all the way through them. But the important thing I did was that I started taking notes. Taking notes jumped my reading, it accelerated my learning.

Accelerate Your Learning
Buy a notebook and take notes. Even if you aren't sure what to copy into your notebook do not be concerned. Start with copying whole paragraphs, even pages from the book you are reading into your notebook. This is your notebook and it acts a vehicle to cement the ideas into your brain faster and more permanently than just ordinary reading. When you take notes or copy passages, you are using

multiple senses. First, you are visually reading the material. Second, you are sub-vocalizing (auditory). And third, you are writing (kinetically). You have three modalities that are being used in concert to drive this information into your brain.

Warning: Your Mind Is Lazy and Wants To Trick You
A warning: your mind is a little lazy because you have probably not disciplined it. It will say, "Hey, why are you rewriting this material? Isn't that a little ridiculous?" Then the mind will answer it's own question: "Yes it is ridiculous. Just read, don't take notes. Besides you're wasting paper and time." Then your mind will say: "Look, over there. Isn't that the TV? Turn it on. Let's see what they are saying on the news." And soon, it will be all over.

Say to your mind, "Sure I get it. But after awhile, you'll see a difference and we will have a good new positive habit." Keep on saying this until your mind obeys.

The beauty of rewriting passages is you won't believe the difference in the meaning of a few words when you read them, and the meaning when you write them. If you read something and then copy it into the notebook, you will gain huge insights you never would have gotten by just reading the passage. This was and still is startling to me. I am often surprised and amazed what I thought the writer was intending and then later how deep her thoughts and ideas were when I rewrote them.

By the way, there is no law in rereading books. This same thing occurs later in life as you grow in your knowledge and ability. You may have skipped an entire passage earlier, but now, some time later, you will say to yourself, "This one concept is so important, how did I miss it?" That's the beauty of going back to great books.

Another advantage is you can carry notebooks as you travel and reread your notes. You can accumulate notebooks--and these become reference points over time.

I know what you may be thinking. I have an iPad, a Nook, a Kindle or some other smart device. I get that. I am not a luddite. Well maybe I am. I have two iPads and I carry them around with me when i travel as well. But to me, a book is a book is a book. Perhaps you can get the information to your notebook through you smart device--and if so--good for you.

The important thing I can tell you this one idea--reading for one hour, every morning, will blow you away. It was, and is so important that when I first heard of it I couldn't believe it. Yet, I tried it. I figured I had nothing to lose. And it set me on fire. I learned psychology and what makes people tick. I learned how to present to clients. I learned the order in which people take in information based upon the words they used. I learned that not all people think the same way I do--and that if I wanted to be more effective with colleagues, bosses, and clients, I had better become better at communicating with them. I learned leadership concepts and I learned who was full of crudola as authors and avoided them. I learned who the great thinkers were and who were the great practioners who weren't inventing things to put in a book in order to say they wrote a book.

I was so excited by this one idea that I started getting up two hours earlier than normal in order to read and study. This one idea turned my life and career around. I was heading down a path of mediocrity because where I came from no one worked too hard. Where I came from no one "made it." Success was for the other people--not us. But, I learned that others, like me, made it on their own through hard work, by not sleeping late, and doing little things, incrementally over time that made them successful. Steve Jobs didn't just one day wake up and say, "Let's make the iPhone." He too, had his trials in life. By reading, you will find everyone had their down moments and you will find they have many of the characteristics you have in them. In other words, you can do anything you put your mind to.

Try this one thing today (okay this morning is over--so try it tomorrow) and it will--I guarantee it--blow you away.

PS - I said "five things" as part of this title. Stay tuned for more of these later . . .