Monday, October 31, 2011

Break the Nightmarish Cycle of Scary Finances

As an HR consultant, I'm traveling around the country talking about performance improvement, employee development, and leadership skills with business leaders.   Sometimes, the more we talk the more I realize, its not just their worklives that are in ghastly condition.  Many times, their finances are in scary shape; creating stress and disturbances in other areas of life.     I've learned that taking these 10 Financial Vows  can lead to a wealthy and financially-healthy life:   
 1.
Live within your means.

2. Maximize your income potential through education and training.

3. Effectively manage your budget, credit, debt, and tax obligations. 

4. Save at least 10% of your income.

5. Use homeownership as a foundation for wealth building and net worth building.

6. Devise an investment plan for your retirement needs and for your children’s education.

7.  Ensure that your entire family adheres to sensible money management principles.

8. Support the creation and growth of minority owned businesses.

9.  Guarantee wealth is passed on to future generations through proper insurance and estate     planning. 

10.  Strengthen your community through philanthropy. 

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Compensation = Commitment? NOT!

As I travel around the country, consulting, coaching and training my clients, I notice a commonality in the workforce. 

Ulimately, compensation is not enough to make a person happy with her job.

It reminds me of a story about a team of ditch diggers:
The ditch diggers were asked with dig a ditch for $10 an hour. Every morning they will dig the ditch.  Every afternoon they will fill it back in with the same dirt. They were asked to do this all day, every day.  After the first day of work the ditch diggers ask "Why are we doing this?  Why are we digging a ditch and then filling it up again? This doesn't make any sense!"   The foreman replied "Don't worry about why you're doing it.  Just do it.  And by the way, we'll pay you $14 an hour tomorrow."  The next day,  40% of the ditch digger didn't come back to work.  Again, the remaining ditch diggers asked "Why are we doing this  -- are we preparing the soil for something, are we burying power lines, are we going to install an irragation system?"  Again, the foreman responded "Don't worry about why; just do the work we are paying you to do.  Tomorrow we'll pay you $21 an hour."  The 3rd day, 40% of the remaining ditch diggers did not show up.  Even though the pay was getting better and better, the workers were disgruntled and unhappy.  They didn't want to waste their time doing work that had no purpose. 

Workers need meaning and value in their work.   Leaders (like that foreman) need to help their workers understand why their work is important and what they are accomplishing.

People leave high-paying jobs because they are unfulfilling.  My best friend did it nine years ago when she started her own real estate development company.   I did it four years ago when I started my consulting firm. 

My clients often tell me they don't have to worry about employees leaving because the job market is tough and most people won't quit their jobs, even if they are miserable.  I tell them this:  You don't have to worry about the people who leave; Your concern should be the people who stay.  The miserable employees who don't quit continue to impact the business and the bottomline.  They perform at mediocre levels; they negatively affect the morale of the team; they treat customers poorly.  Unhappy employees are more likely to commit theft and even sabatoge.  They stop caring about the business or what happens to it.  They are no longer concerned with helping the business succeed. 

As a leader, you can't make employees passionate about their work.  But, you can help them understand the purpose, importance, and goals behind it 

Sunday, October 9, 2011

WWSJD - What Would Steve Jobs Do?

Like most of the world, I awoke earlier this week, to learn of the death of Apple founder, Steve Jobs.  Most of us will never become to next inventor of life-changing gadgetry such as the iphone, ipad or ipod; However, we can learn from Steve's life and teaching how to invent a fruitful, productive, and successful life and business. 

Here are Steve Jobs' 7 Success Factors. 

1.  Do What You Love.  Passion is everything.  It is worth pursuing and can lead one to great personal and professional rewards.

2.  Put a Dent in the Universe.  Make your mark by being bold and insistent.  In order to do that one needs a clear and concise vision.

3.  Say No to 1000 Things.  Reduce excess and clutter in your life - even on your desk.  Keep it simple.  Steve Jobs used his techonological genius to streamline phones, laptops, and PDAs.  He said 'no' to the way the world heard and bought music.  He said 'no' to old standards in gaming and downloading.  And, by saying 'no', he opened the door to discovery.

4.  Kick-Start your Brain.  Try something new on a regular basis.  A new place, food, restaurant, friend, or way to get to work in the morning.  Seeing and doing new things really does stimulate innovation.

The next three strategies are for business people specifically.

5.  Sell Dreams Not Products.  Describe what you have to offer in terms that will excite people.  Clients are looking for products and services that solve problems, provide answers, and in short make their dreams come true. 

6.  Sell Experiences.  Express the big picture, your vision.  Help your clients see how they will experience, not use, your product.

7.  Master Your Message.  You are always being judged by how and what you communicate.  If you only have 30 seconds with that future stakeholder, investor, partner, or client, what would you say?
Figure it out TODAY.

Steve would want you to leverage his strategies to improve your pursue of success and happiness.  Afterally, he said "good artist borrow ideas,  great artist steal them."