•1 Simple Action to Boost Your HIGH Payoff Life
Who knew I'd get a lesson for creating successful teams and productive organizations in a Paris Metro station?
I got it loud and clear, and I'd hate to keep it to myself when it could change your life in High Payoff ways!
I grew up in Switzerland. I've been back to Europe several times since graduating college in the USA. As I planned this trip with my niece, I thought about what she might enjoy doing. I wanted to uncover great haunts to take her to on our trip. Even so, I know we each tend...
•3 Steps To Break Through Overwhelm!
Every once in a while, things simply pile up. Like luggage for a long trip.
Take me for example. I'd been 'planning' a trip overseas for six weeks. People started asking me "Are you ready to go?" two months before my plane was due to take off. I cheerfully said "Of course not!"
Then four weeks before lift off I started creating piles of the stuff that needed to come with me. Every weekend my thoughts were occupied by shopping for the right clothing for different climates, finding 3 ounce...
•5 Fresh Steps Will Help You Graduate to HIGH Payoff Activities!
If you're like most people who are running a business, as an owner, an executive or an independent professional you get so immersed in the doing you miss your own graduations.
Two of my clients are graduating this week.
"Judy" has been studying how to run her professional services firm in a more productive and profitable way for over 6 years. "Michael" has been getting a masters degree in marketing his business.
Don't let appearances fool you! They aren't in formal school environments. Yet...
•5 Steps To Overcome Procrastination
I have a problem with procrastination.
I have clients who say they're stalling because "It's so easy to do it later...or tomorrow...or next week."
For me, the issue is a different one. If I clear the decks, what's the really important stuff I'll need to take a look at?
It's so much easier to stay in my comfort zone than to create that new service or product and create that new test.
In fact, even though I've accomplished a high payoff business and life, I still find myself facing the...
•Boost Your Productivity By Clearing Those Shelves!
Just like my solopreneur coaching clients, I know that it's always a challenge to fit in all the activities you dream of for building your business. With work, family and a home to keep up, let alone trying to stay fit, who has time to 'give your all' to growing your 'company'?
It's not only our To Do lists that can preoccupy our attention.
At times I've notice a distracting whisper like mice chewing in the walls. It diverts my attention to such an extent that I get barely one-half of my...
•Bring Your Passion to Work
What do you do with your passion?
Ralph passed his on through his art and through the skills he taught his students. Ralph Bacerra passed away at age 70 this week.
His death has had me thinking about passion and dedication.
As an artist, Ralph was passionate about clay, glaze, form and design. He was renowned for several philosophies in ceramics: simplifying the complex by - making something difficult to accomplish done easily, - taking out what is extra rather than adding, and -...
•Build Your Business by the Numbers
I've spent a lot of time in meetings during the past two weeks and I found myself noticing opportunities for productivity that my clients kept missing. Each time, I spotted the same missing element: no one was keeping their eye on the numbers.
A manufacturer was using two entire days for his monthly management meeting. That's Days! Not hours!
A financial advisor insisted he's "been at his work so long there are no new ideas for marketing my business.
An executive coach was planning a...
•Coming Up Dry On The "Vision" Thing
I had a conversation with one of my clients last week. We'll call him Dan. All my clients know that I focus exclusively on consulting to and coaching business owners and professionals who have a vision they're trying to accomplish... and are fed up with feeling stalled. And Dan was stalled!
His point was that he doesn't get out of bed in the morning thinking about his Vision... he's thinking about his To Dos.
And those to do's are a looooong list that doesn't feel productive. They feel like...
•Does Your Business Represent Who You Are NOW?
? What was once a 'perfect fit' has changed, several times in fact. I was reminded of that when I joined 250 colleagues at our annual get together this week. That's 250 of over 1,000 members of the ProVisors organization of expert business advisors in Los Angeles. As I chatted with people I haven't seen in months, or even a year, we caught up on all the ways we've each grown and changed our own businesses.
Time and again in those conversations we described the business model we're now using,...
•Get Your Slipped Plans Back On Track
Have you ever had "one of THOSE days?" You know--the kind where you want to hit the "pause" button, then rewind and start over?
I was 'gifted' with one of them this week.
It snuck up on poor unsuspecting me. Well, actually, I've noticed that's usually how they happen - one event quietly and simply follows another until the only words coming out of my mouth are "Of course, that's exactly what I ought to expect from a day like today!"
Briefly, technology crashed on every front, every deadline...
•High Payoff Lessons from Delos, The Captain and Art
Taking a long cruise can shift it all!
On day ten of a 12-day sweep around the Mediterranean, I was reminded of one of the critical success factors behind creating High Payoff Results in business and in life.
I passed a woman in the corridor one morning who was doing the 'pivot dance.' You know the one. You have the ball of one foot anchored to the ground as the other foot circles around it. You start to step forward, pause, turn back, pause, waver back and forth as you try to decide where...
•How to Avoid the "Poof, Gone!" Syndrome - Use Systems That Work For YOU
I learned for myself years ago that I have "Poof, Gone!" Syndrome.
Many of my clients do too. If you're like most busy professionals, the thought of sitting in meetings with consultants, or in day-long workshops to learn How To Be More Productive is not the highest item on your priority list.
You'd rather explore new ideas, create products and services, develop a new relationship, or work with your clients... and the wrong tools and systems divert our attention and we loose track of what...
•Is It Time To "Reset" Your Business?
? When is 'too much to do' finally enough? I mean enough to have you reach out and slap your personal and business 'reset' button?
I was working with my client, Brenda, last month when she looked me dead in the eye and said "There's no way to get out from under this list of what I need to get done."
We could have gone on and on about prioritizing her lists, rank ordering them by fit with her strategy or sorting by the highest payoff at the bottom line. She could have found relief by...
•Is Your Business Waiting For a Quake?
? Does Your Business Need Shaking Up?
For many people it takes sudden shocking external events like the earth shaking under their feet to cause them to pause and refocus on what's important in their lives. For others, the pending loss of a loved one can have the same effect. And sometimes, the right words at the right moment can trigger a shake up that reorganizes our thinking and the choices we make in our lives and our work.
I'm writing to you from a hotel room in San Diego as the sun...
•Let Me Reduce Your Stress! - Productivity Tips
I got an email recently from someone saying, "I don't have time to read your newsletters. It's stressing me out. You need to turn them into quick tips."
If you're like me, your in-box is constantly 'pinging' you that another newsletter has arrived.
So I've given it a lot of thought and did some samples.
Here's what that could look like:
"People and their organizations get further, faster and easier when they're more productive. Since organizations accomplish nothing unless people are doing...
•Make Antoni Gaudi's Secret to Success Your Own!
One of my favorite times in my consulting and coaching is when a light bulb goes off and the person I'm working with has an 'ah ha!' moment and spots a new opportunity.
Very often when I'm working with established professionals it takes some real in depth probing to uncover the high payoff idea that no one else has spotted. 90% of the time those ideas come from my clients' personal passions and interests.
If you want to spot the results of passion and personal interests, you won't find...
•Perk Up Your Business with a 'Persistence Review'
The common element everywhere in life and in business seems to be Persistence.
My clients are using their new management skills to create different results. My new MasterMind buddy Maritza Parra is getting her book published. And I've been holding the focus on getting three separate web sites designed and launched for different purposes.
Each of those endeavors requires deliberate attention in order to achieve the tasks of the goals we've set. And that attention leads to taking specific...
•These 5 Steps Get "Low Payoff" Out of Your Life
We each face the same issue when we're immersed in a topic or a challenge: We get lost in a forest of low payoff ideas that show up and lose sight of the High Payoff choices right in front of us. And the more lost we feel, the less certain we become of what path we should be taking, what activities should get our attention.
Successful leaders and managers don't escape from running into low pay-off opportunities; they're just very effective at keeping their attention on the High Payoff...
•Time To Boost Business With A Fresh Conversation
Have you ever noticed how often your conversations are ... "reruns?" And have you given any thought to how that pattern is helping or stifling your business growth?
Let me explain what I mean.
We each tend to spend time with the same people in the same environments, read the same type of books, watch the same genre of movies or television programs, follow the same sporting events... Year after year. Meeting after meeting. Conversation after conversation. There's nothing wrong with that ......
•Why Your Customer Service Is Going Off Track
This past week I spotted a trend among my clients. You might call it the 'dash'... everyone is sprinting to prove they're making changes in their business's productivity as if that is a badge to earn all by itself.
And too often they are speeding down a track that is taking them to actions and solutions that will cost a lot of time and money and not even solve the issue at hand.
You may be caught in the same sense of urgency, starting an unnecessary race. So I thought I'd share the steps I...
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