The Shallie Bey Daily. Learned Helplessness in Organizations - Ron Ashkenas. By Ron Ashkenas | 1:05 PM June 5, 2012 Here’s a cautionary tale of cultural disempowerment: A number of years ago, one of my colleagues was asked to help reduce bureaucracy and speed up decision-making in GE’s former nuclear business — but was told that nothing could be done because every procedure was based on government regulations. “We’re talking about nuclear reactors here,” the managers said, “If we change the way we do things, something could blow up!” Undaunted by their response, my colleague asked the managers to simply list all of their reports, approval procedures, reviews, audits, metrics, decision forums, standing meetings, and other management processes. He then had them identify which ones the government required, and which had been created internally. Much to the managers’ amazement, the vast majority of these management processes were self-generated — which meant that they could streamline much more than they had thought.
First, shine a spotlight on the pattern. 4 To-Dos for the "Someday" Entrepreneur. Are You An Entrepreneur? The Real Definition Of Entrepreneur---And Why It Matters. Rwanda: Entrepreneurship - I Feel a Bit Cheated but Just a Bit. I feel a bit cheated. The stories I'd heard of self-employment, while still on the other side of the fence, were full of inspiration, energy and a sort of magical wonder. Self-employed entrepreneurs were the new trailblazing renegades in town, confident enough to pursue their own dreams and too boot - super successful at it.
To me, looking on from the outside it seemed that this dynamic world, beset with risk and success in equal amounts - was the stuff made for legends. Or something to that effect. Looking on from the outside it seemed that this dynamic world, beset with risk and success in equal amounts - was the stuff made for legends. First off, you got to maintain your own hours and your workplace could be a mobile arrangement between an office, home or a park, depending on the levels of inspiration for the day.
Perception is an interesting thing. I feel a bit cheated. The Unimportance of Practically Everything - Greg McKeown. Engines of a Smarter Planet. Are You Fighting the Future or Adapting To It? - James Allen. By James Allen | 5:12 AM May 23, 2012 Did you know that an additional 0.1 second in the time it takes a web page to load can lead to a 1% decline in customer activity? Neither did I. But Amazon does. In fact, the company has about 500 metrics that it tracks every day, the majority of them relating to the customer experience.
In our book Repeatability, Chris Zook and I show how top-performing companies typically develop repeatable models that incorporate their strategy in front-line activities. 1 Focus on what makes the company unique, and they ensure that this differentiation is what they actually do for customers, not just what they aspire to do. 2 Embed the key sources of differentiation in the organization, working with front-line employees to create a set of nonnegotiable principles that embody the strategy and inform every decision. 3 Ensure that the organization is agile, that it can adapt quickly to changes in the marketplace. That’s what Amazon does. The result of all that effort? Business Humor: Lessons from a fisherman! « epichub. A wealthy American businessman was at a pier in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman rowed up and docked.
The fisherman stepped out of the boat carrying 2 large yellow-fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fine fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The fisherman replied “Only a little while.” The American then asked “Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish? With the price of Tuna these day, you could make some REAL money! The fisherman said “I have enough to support my family’s immediate needs.” The American then said “Well – with more money, you could live the good life! The fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos.
The American scoffed, “What a waste! The fisherman asked, “But senor, how long will all this take?” To which the American replied, “15-20 years.” How To Master The Arts Of Negotiation And Delegation. By Tim Jahn on May 29, 2012 (photo credit) This is a guest post from motivational speaker, life coach and author Gabrielle Bernstein. Today, I’m a rock star when it comes to negotiating and delegating, but this wasn’t always the case. I spent years under-earning because of my unwillingness to ask for more and my fear of negotiating. This is a common issue I find in women. We haven’t been taught to negotiate or ask for more. We are psyched to get an offer, and we take what we can get. Everything is negotiable. Luckily for me, I hit a hard bottom when it came to my fear around negotiating. In that moment, I was confronted with my deep-rooted fear of negotiating, and had to be honest with myself about how this fear was negatively affecting my life.
Know when to shut up! They don’t call me Gabby for nothin! Learning to shut my mouth didn’t come easily, but it has greatly helped my sales skills. Solopreneur does not scale. I spent nearly eight years trying to do it all. Jennie Wong (drjenniewong) Hire Candidates With Entrepreneurial Qualities. When Millennial Branding and analytics company Identified.com combed through millions of Facebook profiles recently to glean insights about how the social network is being used professionally, they discovered something surprising--among young people (so-called Gen Y) the fifth most popular job title was "owner. " At the time, Millennial Branding's managing partner Dan Schawbel told Inc.com that he believes the entrepreneurial life appeals to younger workers because, "they can have an impact on Day 1, whereas in a large company, they would have to go through months of training only to be stuck in a single role.
" They also "saw their parents work for large companies for decades and don’t want to same fate. They don’t trust large companies," he noted. All of which is well and good if you're a young person bent on starting a business and want to know you're not alone. But if you're a bit older and the owner of a more established business, what good could this information possibly do you? Great Businesses Don't Start With a Plan - Anthony Tjan. By Anthony K. Tjan | 11:29 AM May 16, 2012 You want to start a business. So you need a plan, right? No. As part of the research for a book I’m co-authoring — Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck, due out in August from HBR Press — my colleagues and I interviewed and surveyed hundreds of successful entrepreneurs around the globe to better understand what it takes to be an entrepreneur and build a really great business. Instead, their business journeys originated in a different place, a place we call the Heart.
It’s not that all planning is bad. At a business’s inception, resources are limited, and the best content for a business plan is real-world data based on testing aspects of the concept. It’s not just start-ups. So don’t worry too much about a business plan. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. There appears to be a perennial market for how-to classes, books, and templates that promise almost “color by number” instructions for populating business plans. A hierarchy of business to business needs. If you're selling a product or service to a business--to a non-owner--consider this hierarchy, from primary needs on down: Avoiding riskAvoiding hassleGaining praiseGaining powerHaving funMaking a profit In most large organizations, nothing happens unless at least one of these needs are met, and in just about every organization big enough and profitable enough to buy from you, the order of needs starts with the first one and works its way down the list.
That means that a sales pitch that begins with how much money the organization will make is pretty unlikely to work. Instead, the amount of profit has to be tied in to one of the other more primary needs of the person sitting across the table from you (as well as the committee or boss she reports to). B2B selling is just like regular sales, except the customer (who might not be the person you're meeting with) is spending someone else's money (and wants to please the boss). Www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/Programs/ES/BPEA/2011_fall_bpea_papers/2011_fall_bpea_conference_hurst.pdf.
Man vs. Machine: Will Human Workers Become Obsolete? | PBS NewsHour | May 24, 2012. JEFFREY BROWN: And now, more on the challenges of creating enough new jobs in an ever more automated and high-tech economy. NewsHour economics correspondent Paul Solman has the story. It’s part of his ongoing reporting Making Sense of financial news. NARRATOR: American labor, management and capital. PAUL SOLMAN: Our favorite economics cartoon is a piece of free market propaganda from decades ago that envisioned a sort of cornucopia machine of the future, manned by the happy and lucky American worker, given the name King Joe.
ACTOR: Hi, folks. NARRATOR: Joe’s the king because he can buy more with his wages than any other worker on the globe. PAUL SOLMAN: Or at least, back in the mid-20th century, he could. Today, our NewsHour inclusive statistic of all un- and under-employed totals more than 26 million Americans, nearly 17 percent of the work force. COMPUTER: I have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. MAN: Watson? COMPUTER: What is Jericho? MAN: Correct. Watson? Why We’re So Bad At Teaching Entrepreneurship. Decades of research have shown that students are very interested in being their own bosses. In the ’90s, for example, a Kauffman Foundation study found that two-thirds of high school students wanted to become entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, the same study found that more than 80% felt they had not learned anything about entrepreneurship in school.
In 2011, the National Chamber Foundation and Junior Achievement got essentially the same responses from high school students in a nationwide study. I’ve been trying to rectify this situation since the 1980s, when I set out to teach students that it was possible for them to be self-reliant and to start a business. We thought this would be a fairly easy goal, especially with the support of a policy from the new U.S. But we were wrong. (MORE: How Entrepreneurship Can Fix Young America) Funding Has Been Paltry It’s Extremely Hard to Change the Curriculum Teachers Rarely Have Entrepreneurial Experience — or the Right Mindset Dr.
National Elevator Pitch Champion Chris Westfall presents the 12 Most Unforgiveable Pitch Mistakes. Getting ready to give a pitch, whether elevator, investor, or otherwise? An effective pitch can help you to get a job, get a raise, get a date and more. An effective pitch can improve your career, your finances, your relationships and your community. But, if you include one of these twelve show-stoppers, your elevator will always be stuck on the ground floor. Take note, and be sure to leave these out of your pitch, if you want to persuade and influence your listener! 1. If you’re pitching as if your life depended on it, you’re already dead. 2. If you can’t be authentic, you’ll never be heard. 3. Delivering a rehearsed speech is a great job — for actors. 4. You know what’s wrong with schmoozing?
5. “My name is Kevin, and you’re welcome for shaking my hand. 6. The opposite of overplaying your pitch, this quiet-size approach leaves your listener wondering, “Why am I here?” 7. When the stakes are high, your nerves will always be invited to the party. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Using the Customer’s Knowledge Gap. In its infancy… marketing was designed to grow and push the curiosity of the consumer. It was monumental to the buying of billboards for the increase of market share in a given location or product line. In the technology driven world of today… where marketing is drilled down to a dull roar and people are ignoring… practically everything… curiosity will always reign supreme. Curiosity (in the marketing sense) can be defined as a GAP in the consumer’s knowledge (Check out Made to Stick, page 84). The curiosity or knowledge gap has the potential of being completely debilitating for the individual.
So many times companies try to throw the facts at their consumers without telling them why they need to learn it in the first place. I don’t care about the flex mumbo jumbo. Functionality is only a piece of the puzzle. Can You “Adapt” Like Richard Branson? I’m not a fan-boy by nature – leaders are real people, and they’re all imperfect. I just don’t have it in me to fawn over another person’s brilliance, at least not more than a little. Respect?
Absolutely. Even admire. But the very concept of celebrity seems a silly conceit to me. Having said that, I’ve admired Richard Branson for some time now. I read a few articles he’s written recently, and I think I’m on to at least one more of his tricks that had eluded me: smallness. Whether Branson puts a name to it or not, he practices the central tenet of Tim Hartford’s new book, In the early pages of Hartford introduces us to what he calls The Palchinsky Principles. . – Seek out new ideas and try new things. – When trying out something new, do it on a scale where failure is survivable. – Seek out feedback and learn from your mistakes as you go along. The big mistake of most sizable companies is that they avoid and discourage the first of these principles, variation. As I said, I’m not a fan boy. 3 Secrets of Successful Midlife Reinvention. A half-dozen years ago — when I was in my mid-50s, with two successful careers under my belt — I set out to settle some questions that friends, colleagues, clients and I had begun to wrestle with: After a career of 20, 30 or 40 years, am I a done deal?
Is it true that success is a younger person’s game? Might I have talents or brainpower that I'm unaware of? Can I make money and make a difference doing something I love? Many people I knew around my age had already seen their previously “invulnerable” jobs, companies and even industries derailed by technological or global change.
With the onset of the Great Recession, even the most fortunate among us found that our financial nest eggs and long-term plans were much shakier than we had ever imagined. My 3 Discoveries About Reinvention 1. Neuropsychiatrist Richard Restak wrote that “the brain of an older person is not inferior to that of a younger counterpart; instead, the brain of an 80-year-old is organized differently. 2. 3. How to Have a Rewarding 'Protirement' As a life coach, I've counseled countless people contemplating a midlife change of direction. Let me tell you about three remarkable people I’ve worked with in the past couple of years: Adam spent his career climbing the corporate ladder as a health care executive.
As he approached 60, he wanted to retire from his full-time job but still needed to earn an income. Adam wondered: What could the next stage of his life look like, and what would make him feel fulfilled? After a lucrative career as a powerbroker in the investment business, Hilary was in her 50s and single. She was determined to leave behind the cold East Coast winters and find a path more in sync with her values. She also craved an outdoor lifestyle. Amy, a divorced insurance professional, raised two sons as a single mom then became the primary caregiver for her mother. Chances are you can relate to at least one of these three stories. What 'Protirement' Is All About “Protirees” choose not to fade into retirement. Stay fit. The Art Of The Normal Business | Small Business News, Ideas, Marketing, and Lending. Importance of Hiring Freelancers Today.
Still broken. Emergency room doctors. 10 Startups Changing the World And What We Can Learn From Them. Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything - Tony Schwartz. Suddenly You're the Boss. 12 Most Critical Steps in Creating a Business You Love From Home. Dancing on the edge of finished. A Simple Plan for Writing One Powerful Piece of Online Content per Week. 9 Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs. You will be judged (or you will be ignored) Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success. 1 + 1 = 3: Ken Burns on What Makes a Great Story. Tools and Calculators | Social Media Tools You May Be Missing Out On : Innovation happens with lightn | Small Business News, Ideas, Marketing, and Lending.
Starting Up A Small Business Advice | Small Business News, Ideas, Marketing, and Lending. Business Sleep Problems | Small Business News, Ideas, Marketing, and Lending. Successful Business Owners | Small Business News, Ideas, Marketing, and Lending. My Generation - Boomer Edition. Deloittesa.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/business-process-before-technology1.pdf. #178 You’re an entrepreneur if… Following your passion is bogus. Micro Business Infographics | Micro Business Perspectives. Technical Writing – Operations Manual v Procedures Guide — Technical Writing Tips.
Entrepreneurship: Lessons from Richard Branson's Mother. Young entrepreneur: Know thyself | Get to Work. Top Startup Businesses for 2012 | The Business Finance Store. Seven Ways to Build Trust as a Leader. Successful baby-boomer entreprenuers - Expect long days (1) Four Ways Content Marketing Builds on Thought Leadership.
DebtFree Part of Definition of Successful Retirement. Americans Unprepared to Live to Life Expectancy. Business growth strategy. Hard work on the right things. 10 Inspiring TED Talks for Startups. Why We Can't See What's Right in Front of Us - Tony McCaffrey. Douglas LaBier: Can You "Grow Up" During Midlife? Here Are Five Ways. Misha Glenny investigates global crime networks. Is Entrepreneurship for Everyone? The Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company. Running Your Own Business. What are my options for buying or starting a business?
What Motivates Successful Entrepreneurs? The Best Path to Success is Your Own - Gianpiero Petriglieri. Entrepreneurs: Understanding business costs - May. 11. Entrepreneurs: Running your startup - May. 11. Entrepreneurs: Buying a business at 50 - May. 11. Why ask why? The next free ebook (Squidoo!) How to make money online. The Challenges of Launching an Encore Career - Planning to Retire. Reinvent Your Career by Writing Your Own Narrative - Christopher Bowe. Inside Small Biz Guru Michael Gerber's Dreaming Room. 17 Great Business Ideas for 2012. So You Want to Run a Lean, Mean Startup Machine? Here's How.
How You Can Climb Global Growth Curve. No Cash? 5 Tips to Start a Business Without Money. Peter Pronovost’s checklists better intensive care. Five Points about Developing an Entrepreneur Mindset. The flipping point. Multimillionaire Entrepreneur Jane Wurwand on Self-Reliance | Video. - SecondAct.com. Top 10 Reasons People Postpone Retirement. Recipe for the New 'Retirementality' A simple antidote to a corporatized, unfeeling, profit-maximizing world. The E Myth Revisited « David Przybyla. DARING. Reconsidering decisions. 'X' marks spot for determined dreamer. Half of Baby Boomers Risk Retirement to Support Adult Kids - Current Rates, News and Information about Retirement Planning.
Michael Gerber: The Four Mind-Sets of an Entrepreneur: Innovators Forum Guest | EOS Worldwide. 6 Habits of True Strategic Thinkers.