How to Protect Your Professional Edge

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Not only do we have access to countless types of media and information created by others, we are now able to record, organize, and recall our own personal information in more ways than ever before possible. If you can’t remember where you parked your car, it’s not a problem. Just click the fob on your keychain and listen for that telltale beep. If you lose your iPhone or iPad, again, it’s not a problem. You can use the Find My iPhone/iPad app, assuming you originally enabled your device, of course. If you’re not quite sure how to get somewhere, just plug in the address in your car’s Navigation system, or you could even use a Navigation app on your smartphone. If you forget where you saved that picture from your last vacation, or worse, a legal document that you now desperately need, don’t panic. With online storage like iCloud® or Dropbox®, you can access files anywhere. The examples are numerous, but they all point to the fact that technology is an ever-present part of our lives, saving us time, effort, and even memory.

The Risks and Rewards
Along with the perks I mentioned, there are a few pitfalls. Having access to these tools has negatively affected our ability to actually remember the little things. And of course, there are more things to remember than ever before. Do you know 10 telephone numbers? Okay, ten might have been pushing it. How about five? Yeah, me neither. If we can’t remember five phone numbers, what leads us to believe that we are capable of remembering the essential details of our business relationships?

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About the Author

Mike MuhneyCRM pioneer Mike Muhney, the co-creator of ACT! software, is CEO of mobile relationship management purveyor vipOrbit – the first relationship-centric contact manager solution enabling mobile business professionals to manage their contacts, calendar and client/customer interactions across Mac, iPhone and iPad platforms. He may be reached at www.VIPOrbit.com.

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, part 2 of 6

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Leadership Role #1: Reading the World and Creating a Vision

No business is an island. Each organization exists within a rich and ever-evolving set of social, economic, political, cultural, and institutional environments. To a large degree, an organization’s success depends on how well it positions itself in the world. Therefore, one of the most important competencies of leadership is the ability to read the world. This means a leader must be well informed about emerging trends and developments in multiple areas that affect the business.

Grounded in his or her interpretation of where things appear to be headed, an effective leader creates a vision for the organization’s competitive strategy – paving the way for long-term competitive domination.

The capacity to create a powerful vision requires several distinct competencies:

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About the Author

Chris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential ProjectChris Majer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Human Potential Project, is the author of The Power to Transform: Passion, Power, and Purpose in Daily Life (Rodale), which teaches the strategies corporate, military, and sports leaders have used to positively transform themselves and their organizations in a way readers can adept to their own lives and professions. He may be reached at www.humanpotentialproject.com.

How to Grow Your Strategic Mindset

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StrategyDriven Strategic Planning Article | How to Grow Your Strategic Mindset“It just completely caught us off guard.”

That’s a statement you never want to hear as a business leader. But today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world makes it incredibly difficult to plan and predict the future. At the same time, we’re all under pressure to move faster and get more done. So while thinking – and strategic thinking, in particular – is a key leadership responsibility, it often gets pushed aside in the midst of the day-to-day challenges of running the business.

In fact, there’s almost a universal resistance to long-term thinking in many organizations because we’re so focused on today’s problems: Are we making our numbers? Did the products get shipped? Did we resolve the customer issue?

The problem is, when you’re not thinking strategically, not only is it hard to see what’s coming, it’s hard to know where you are. A leader I spoke to recently put it this way: “When I’m mired in the swamp, it’s hard to see anything, much less the future.”

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About the Author

Ann Herrmann-Nehdi, CEO of Herrmann InternationalAnn Herrmann-Nehdi is CEO of Herrmann International, the originators and trailblazers of Whole Brain® Thinking and the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument® (HBDI®). A thought leader in her field, Ann has worked with many hundreds of organizations around the world of all sizes and industries, helping them increase their thinking agility to improve profitability, leadership, productivity, innovation and overall business results. She is an AthenaOnline management expert and a faculty member of the Institute of Management Studies.

Business Performance Assessment Program Warning Flag 5 – Identifying Mostly Strengths

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StrategyDriven Business Performance Assessment Program Warning Flag ArticleAll organizations, including the best of the best, have room for improvement and those not improving inevitably find themselves falling behind competitors. Self-critical evaluations are therefore critical to achieving continuous performance improvement and remaining competitive. Evaluations identifying mostly strengths offer little opportunity for organizational growth.

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Still making goals and resolutions? Why?

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Holy frijoles, 2013 is over! How did you do? How did those resolutions and goals you made at the end of last year work out?

Think about the word resolution – the root word is resolve. What was your 2013 resolve? What got in the way of achievement?

Personally, I am against traditional resolutions and goals.

And if my thinking bugs you, don’t be too concerned, you’ll soon be receiving a barrage of offers from various ‘experts’ encouraging you to achieve goals this year and have your ‘best year ever’ – the very same goals you didn’t achieve last year.

Most resolutions and goals set for the New Year are never achieved. Reason? They’re set emotionally and they’re set without an understanding of the circumstances around the goal. Better stated: Your circumstances.

For your 2014 (and all years to come) I have created an easy-to-understand, ‘achievement opportunity’ formula. Once you read it, and a few of the details, you will at once see where your achievement opportunities are, how they may fit into your life, and how you can use this formula to make this coming year a raging success.

Here’s my formula: Situation + Opportunity + Objective + Why + Plan + Intentions + Responsibility = Favorable Outcome.

STOP BEFORE YOU START: Don’t make any resolutions for the future until you have defined your present situation.

IDENTIFY YOUR BIG PICTURE: What’s going on in your life and your career right now? What’s going on with your family, your money, your health, and your happiness? Will your present situation help you achieve and encourage you to achieve? Or will it be a barrier to achievement? What are you seeking to accomplish in 2014 and what is your real resolve to make it happen?

WHAT CAN BE? Identify, in writing, your opportunities. Think about the opportunities that might change or enhance your present situation. What triggers are you hoping to pull this year? What mountains are you hoping to climb? What hurdles are you looking to leap over (without knocking them down)?

Look for opportunities in places you may not be thinking about:

  • Key relationships
  • New social media strategies
  • Trends in your business
  • Technology shifts
  • Apps
  • Blogging

I think it’s also important to separate family opportunities from business and career opportunities. Make sure you have a list for both.

Once you know where you are (situation), and you have identified how you can get from here to there (opportunity), then I recommend you make a 90-day game plan to achieve at least ONE of your opportunities. Not a goal, an opportunity. January, February, March. Document why you want it, what you have to do to make it happen, and what you’re hoping the outcome of that plan will be.

Here are some details of the achievement plan and process:

  • Describe WHAT the opportunity is, the OBJECTIVE that the opportunity creates, and WHY you want to take advantage of it and/or achieve it.
     
    A NOTE ABOUT YOUR ‘WHY’: All too often ‘why’ you want something is left at a superficial level. ‘To make more money’ or ‘to support my family’ or ‘to grow my career’ – those are ‘surface whys’ and may not provide enough incentive to achieve. Once you identify the surface why, ask yourself why again and again until the real why appears. “Why do I want to make more money?” “Why do I want to support my family?” “Why do I want to grow my career?” Second and third levels of ‘why’ will provide the real incentive to achieve. Try it. You’ll be amazed at your own answers.
  • Write a brief, 90-day plan of action. It can be a few short paragraphs or even bullet points. Writing the plan helps clarify your thinking, and solidify your determination to take action.
  • List and describe your DAILY INTENTIONS. What do you plan to do every day to make this opportunity to achieve a reality? Beyond resolution, it’s your resolve combined with your hard work.
  • Figure out the DAILY DOSE. What do you have to do each day to keep the momentum rolling?
  • Come to the realization that in order to achieve, you must take total RESPONSIBILITY for the actions, the results, and the outcome.
  • Describe the OUTCOME in more detail than you described your 90-day plan. Make sure the ‘after achievement’ is clear.

And then the hard part – do it!

Here’s my formula again – try it, it works: Situation + Opportunity + Objective + Why + Plan + Intentions + Responsibility = Favorable Outcome.

Follow my formula and my concepts, and you’ll take your achievement to a new level – a success level you’ve never attained before. I hope you do.

Happy, healthy, wealthy, fun filled-family holiday season and New Year!

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].