Kick Ass Friday -- Take Action and Achieve

1. 4 out of 5 college graduates of the 2009 senior class are unable to find a job their degree prepared them for. How could you employ this unused talent in your workforce?

2. It cost $848 million to mint US Currency and coins in 2008. Sounds like time for a cashless society. What innovations do you need to get moving with?

3. The time-tested buy and hold stock strategies have netted zero income for the most recent 10 year period. Sounds like it's time for a new stock model. What tried and true methods are you relying on that are as out-dated?

4. Freerisk.org provides a platform for investors, academics and armchair analysts to rate companies. Are you ready or; in fact, being proactive to have the masses rate your organization? Its coming whether you are ready or not. Be proactive!

5. Penmanship was important to our grandparents. Spelling and sentence structure was important to our parents. Speed of texting and computer-generated words are important to our kids. What "penmanship" type traditions are you holding onto that no longer apply to the current marketplace?

6. Compare the computer of 1995 with the computer of 2009. Compare banking services of 1995 with services of 2009. Compare the reading habits of 1995 with the reading habits of 2009. The Internet has shifted everything dramatically, how have you shifted your business dramatically in the last 15 years? Is it enough? Where will your business be in 15 years?

7. More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day. MySpace has 58,000,000 unique users. Twitter has 54,000,000 monthly visits. What is your corporate strategy on social networks? They are no longer an idle curiosity; social networks are a real business application.

8. Free is the new discount. What are you giving away as your lost leader to demonstrate how good your products and services are?

9. In music we remember the one hit wonders with fondness for a few years. In business companies try to ride out their one hit product or service for a few years. Those days are gone. You need a new hit annually. What is your big hit for this year?

10. Giant businesses are not built to shift fast enough for today's markets. Small businesses will have infinite opportunity to grab a niche to be nimble in. How are you positioning your business for the new economy?

When Businesses Fail, It's not Bad News: It's a Sign

Packard Motor Car Company, Westinghouse Electric, Wang, and Arthur Andersen. What do these businesses have in common with big businesses currently on the brink?
Packard was an American luxury automobile built by the Packard Motor Car Company. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899 and the last in 1958.
Founded in 1886, Westinghouse Electric Company was later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse and met its end when what was left was purchased by Viacom in 1999.

Wang Laboratories was a computer company founded in 1951 by Dr. An Wang. At its peak in the 1980's, Wang Laboratories had annual revenues of $3 billion and employed over 40,000 people. In 1999, Wang Global was acquired by Getronics of The Netherlands.

Arthur Andersen LLP, based in Chicago, was once one of the "Big Five" accounting firms. In 2002, the firm voluntarily surrendered its licenses to practice as Certified Public Accountants in the United States after being found guilty of criminal charges relating to the firm's handling of the auditing of Enron, the energy corporation.

All four of these companies were strong well-respected businesses at some point in their arch of existence. Most business models talk about the lifecycle of a business that goes under once what they produce is no longer needed. My professor used the example of buggy whips. It could've been VCR or video tape manufacturers, camera film makers, etc. But not all business fail because their products are no longer needed.

These are four examples of businesses that failed to survive because they were poorly managed, failed to have clear vision, and did not make proper decisions, not unlike the large businesses that are facing a potential end of the road for the same types of reasons today –- failure to navigate changes in the marketplace or make the right decisions.

Businesses fail; in fact, businesses that are unable to be productive, or are poorly led, need to fail. A stronger competitor comes along, the industry has a massive shift, and new techniques arise to replace the old systems that no longer work.
Propping up bad business models doesn’t improve the economy; it weakens it and delays the inevitable.

If your business is struggling this year, don't wait for bailouts, magic phone calls or a return to the economy of the 1990's. Don't expect if you keep on doing what you've been doing, everything will be fine –- it won't.

Do what these dying businesses are failed to do. Take action, take risks, and explore new methods and directions. Bottom line -- if you are struggling, your bad habits got you here. Find the different habits that will rebuild your business even if it will look different than it once did. The world has changed, and your leadership must as well.

Be Savvy in a Shifting Labor Market

People who were counting down the days to retirement are now counting the dollars in their dwindling nest eggs and looking at years of more employment. College graduates entering the market are looking at a shrinking economy, a declining job market, and those retirement-aged people staying in the workforce. Who benefits here? You do, the employer; if you take savvy steps to use this opportunity to your advantage.
Not long ago companies had a significant short fall of talent to fill open positions, today the savviest of companies are using this opportunity to strengthen their talent base.

Senior Sensations

As a kid I remember people saying over 30 is over the hill. Then as I entered the workforce I heard people counting down the days to retirement at age 65. As I entered my 30's I had fellow executives retiring in their 50's. Today, retirement is more semi-retirement and it starts around 70.

What are the talents this older age group can add to your workforce to make it stronger? Loyalty. Commitment. Being service-oriented. Workers of this age not only work well in service positions but can teach your younger workers about better communication and customer interaction. The key is finding workers who want to work because they enjoy being busy (as well as keeping the income rolling in) and not just because they have to for the money. Does your interview process know how to separate these two types of potential employees?

The Energetic Tech Age Group

The young people graduating these days are the most tech-savvy generation to come along. The talent here can help your company streamline processes, modernize old school habits, and they have the energy and the passion for projects they enjoy. Remember, energy and passion are better contributions to workforce effectiveness, than grade averages and the school they graduated from.

Forget resumes and college transcripts in this labor market. Build your workforce by the personality traits your workforce needs to become a stronger unit. Now is the time to cherry pick the soft skills that can make or break a company to create the proper mix for your organization to run at optimum performance.

When the Solution is as Bad as the Problem

Last week while in Savannah, I had a free evening and went for a leisurely walk through the city as visitors love to do in the historic city. On this particular evening I witnessed close to two dozen police officers, ticket book in hand, standing on various street corners. I asked one officer what was going on and he told me they were there to issue "crosswalk violations." Essentially, anyone crossing the street against the illuminated orange hand would receive a violation ticket. On one street corner, in a span of less than ten minutes I watched four people get ticketed.

The officers told the violators they were not sure of the level of the fine and the offender would have to call in to get the exact figure. The Savannah city council had recently passed a $208 fine for jaywalking that was widely reported, which made me wonder why the officers were "forgetful" of the amount these violators would be fined. Was this a method to avoid confrontation with stunned tourists? The jaywalking crackdown comes in the wake of an incident in which a Swedish visitor to the city was killed while apparently crossing the street legally.

According to studies done in major cities, "Pedestrian crash experience was little different in elevated fine and jaywalking-focused cities from the rest of the USA where little or no attention was paid to this problem."

The reaction to the death of a pedestrian is incorrectly focused and an overreaction. The "solution" has been blogged on, twittered about, and talked about by every visitor I spoke with in the streets. I heard more than one person comment in varying forms, "Last time I come to this place."

When your solution doesn't solve the problem you are trying to fix, and additionally creates more problems, the damage done has been compounded. In the age of information the damage becomes part of the permanent electronic record and travelers research cities to visit will eventually stumble upon reports of these draconian actions.

Make sure to review your solutions to the issues you are trying to solve. I've found many companies have the same type of knee-jerk response to public problems and actually make the situation worse. Make sure your solutions are not creating additional problems that can have a long-term negative impact.

As far as Savannah goes, I'd advise meeting planners, vacationers and anyone looking to stroll a historic town: Visit Charleston, SC you’ll have fewer "solutions" to deal with.

10 Ways to Sharpen Your Saw for Kick Ass Friday

1. What are you doing to prepare yourself for success in the new economy?
2. What is more important in your company the science of doing business or the art of doing business? Which area needs sharpened for all of your employees? Get to it!
3. What is the defining moment of your career thus far? How do you plan on topping that in the next 12 months? What do you need to be doing today to make that career-defining event possible?
4. How can you create a career-defining moment for another person's career?
5. What personality trait do you need to give up?
6. What is the best business book you ever read? Did you buy all your co-workers a copy? Reread it and refresh your mind, energy and enthusiasm.
7. When was the last time you did something that scared you to the point of shaking? Time to put another one of those events on your calendar soon.
8. Schedule a day to go off the grid and commit the entire day to focus on your occupational future. What do you want to accomplish, how do you want to leave your legacy? What do you need to acquire to reach that target?
9. What one thing could you start doing today to make your body stronger?
10. What was the most fun day of your life? How long ago did that happen? How soon can you put another one of those days in your life?

Beware of Edgecreep

The leading edge of innovation in products, services, work place design, technology and business leadership is in constant movement. Edgecreep happens like the changing phases of the moon; gradually every day. What is edge creep? In business we recognize this most dramatically in technology. The minute you purchase a computer it is obsolete and something better has already started down the assembly line. Technology is setting the pace for all businesses to recognize edgecreep happens daily.

Edgecreep is how the cutting edge makes its way to mainstream and becomes taken as the standard. GPS in cars, social marketing on the internet, and online access by mobile phone were cutting edge ideas initially and now are considered mainstream.

To no one's surprise the cutting edge innovation is getting to the mainstream faster than ever requiring businesses to get faster into innovation.

What in your business are you proud of as a huge step in cutting edge innovation in product, service or technology? How long ago did that first happen? How has the edge creeped away since that time?

Amazing how mainstream we become unless we are constantly grabbing for the edge. Six months ago twitter was still the domain of a select few early adopter types and today it is talked about in magazines, newspapers and on television shows. In fact, when sports talk shows are taking tweets as well as email; well, it doesn't get any more mainstream than that.

What giant step do you need to make to reposition your organization on the edge again? If you are losing market share – it's not the economy, you've lost your edge.

Are You Riding the Right Horse?

Calvin Borel the jockey who rode Mine That Bird to a stunning Kentucky Derby victory did a very unusual move to abandon that horse for a different mount for the Preakness. He chose to ride the horse he won The Oaks race with and brought that horse, Rachel Alexander, a filly, to a victory at Pimlico Downs.

How hard was it for him to abandon a Derby winner for a potentially better horse? The gamble was significant and the risk to his reputation was large. Fortunately for him it worked out and he has the distinct opportunity to be the first Triple Crown winning jockey who changed mounts.

How willing are you to take risks in order to be in the best position to win?
Organizations who grow and beat the competitors are willing to take on risks, no matter how public the ridicule when they believe in their heart they are doing the right thing.

Apple rode the Mac to victory lane profits for many years before "mounting a new horse" and riding the iPod and iTunes horse to greater profits.

It was a gutsy choice, and a gamble to go after a market that didn't even exist. Shareholders were concerned, employee jobs were at risk. Once again had the gamble not been taken the profits never would’ve been realized.

What is the horse you need to be riding to victory lane? Explore your product line and service opportunities. Is there a better choice for your business to start riding to victory? Is there something you need to move to the back burner so you can concentrate on the fresh and new? To sit and wait on consumers to return or the economy to rebound is not safe; in fact, it is the riskiest step you can take for your business. Look for the best horse in your stable and ride that opportunity hard.

Be Committed to Solving the Problem.

If you really don't care about the problem, the solution is harder to find. This sounds so simple, yet seemingly difficult to grasp. Consider this:

We are fighting a war spending billions of dollars to fight with no clear definition of the problem we are trying to correct and the solution we are trying to achieve. Not to mention, there is no collaborative buy in to the problem as well. No commitment.

TARP was intended to bailout the financial institutions that were in trouble, yet some of them took the money grudgingly because of the strings attached. Once again, there is no clarity of a defined solution because there is not unity in understanding the problem and how it should be addressed. No commitment.

The school system in this country sucks and we are losing ground educationally with respect to the world, yet no one has gained enough commitment to solving the problem; therefore a solution continues to be elusive.

Amazing how such serious problems can't have problem solving commitment. What about your business?

What are the problems in your business that need to be solved? I'm talking the big ones no one wants to talk about, I'm referring to the issues that generate the most heated discussions, that create a verbal war inside an executive meeting.

This is when you know the commitment is on other things than reaching solution. Most often times there is more commitment in placing the blame than in arriving at a complete solution. There is more energy being spent on defending a department or control. When this is the case, a solution is a distant opportunity.

Make a list of the high energy issues you are facing. Make a list of the obstacles to having a fruitful conversation.

Don't Let Your Business Jump the Shark.

When a television show loses its plot and the show goes in a totally different unbelievable direction that show is said to have "jumped the shark." It is a desperation move to do anything to get viewers back and keep advertising revenue dollars.

In challenging economic times, businesses are falling into the same traps. How can you prevent your business from jumping the shark?

Think twice before abandoning foundations of your culture.

You have been a flex time work environment and suddenly you feel the urge to lock in everyone’s hours so you can have tighter controls on work productivity, you will lose the investment you made in your employee good will by removing that benefit. If you trust people to get their work done in the good times, trust them in the bad times. Avoid the knee-jerk reaction of trying to grab control and strangling your employee efforts.

Don't lose your public persona.

Under the weight of the pressure to perform, companies are losing the corporate persona and employees and customers are wondering what happened to the corporate attitudes they used to enjoy. This is why incentive trips are still necessary regardless of what political minds say from inside the belt way. It's important to keep the focus and morale up in employees, e3specially the best performers who deserve these trips.

Small courtesies and special treatments customers expect need to be maintained. If you are the hotel with the wine and cheese reception for guests, keep that going. If you are the restaurant that periodically announces free cookies for everyone in the dining room, keep those fun surprises happening. These are what keep your organization fun and unique. Don’t lose that persona.

Resist the urge to take your business in a totally different direction.

I am an innovator and I believe every company needs to be in a mode of constant innovation. When I say don't go in a totally different direction, I mean as a reaction to tough economic times. If you've always been the solid reliable quiet provider of services to your clients, now is not the time to go whacky, and loud. It smells of desperation. If you suddenly expand your product mix to include everything you can thing of providing, you sound desperate.

People don't want to hire a speaker who suddenly is an expert in topics he has never spoken on before anymore than people want to walk into a furniture store and have someone trying to sell them shoes. Yet restaurants are trying to sell any food product they can think of, even if their branding is one type of food, and B2B providers are trying to be a one stop shop.

Stick with what you know, innovate to improve the current services you are delivering. When a TV show jumps the shark they lose their core fans and never capture as many new fans as they want, your business will get the same results.

10 Motivations to Make it a Kick Ass Friday

1. Do you perform excellence for your internal recognition or for someone else's recognition? You can never be disappointed when you are performing at your best for yourself.
2. In what ways have you lost ground from five years ago? Make a plan to recover that lost ground because you know how good you can be.
3. Pick one area of your job you can make an improvement today – and knock it out.
4. Think of today as a marathon race, how are you going to do your final kick at the end of the day to cross the finish line a winner?
5. Look in the mirror and tell yourself, "Today, no one can make me have a bad day unless I let them." Repeat daily.
6. Every day is a performance, the show must go on regardless of obstacles, always deliver your best and remind yourself to make today an "It’s Showtime!!!" day.
7. There is no better feeling when you give your best effort and the results exceed your expectations. Give today your best effort.
8. Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby against 50 to 1 odds. How can you be the long shot winner today?
9. You have family and co-workers counting on your performance today – how can you just sit there?
10. Pick an ass you want to kick today and let your performance blow them away.

The Battle of Ethics and the Economy

On my most recent morning visit to the local Panera Bread Co. I got my customary bagel and coffee and handed the cashier my coffee card to be stamped. She responded Panera no longer accepts those cards. As long as I have been going to Panera they have always offered the coffee card. A customer collects a stamp for each coffee purchase and then redeems the card for a free cup of coffee after 8 stamps.

A sign of the recession? A promotion that had finally run its course? No, according to a customer in line, the rubber stamps Panera used to validate a coffee purchase were now being sold on ebay for about the cost of a large cup of coffee forcing Panera to pull the promotion.

My first reaction was disappointment in those few people who ruin minor benefits for us all. But how is this different from downloading free music from illegal sites on the internet? Or getting a free Kentucky Derby program by showing a signature Visa card even if it's a borrowed one that has already secured five other "free" programs? How about taking all the toiletries from hotel rooms including the occasional hand towel? It's not any different. What is different is the societal shift of what is considered fair game. Even if ethics and the law are violated, "Take care of me first" attitudes are eroding trust, respect, and the foundation of our economy.

If the system can be beat easily, as a society we justify our actions with such phrases as: It's a no victim crime. Big business expects to lose money on the promotion. Not one gets arrested over stealing a hand towel.

I am seeing justifications getting more elaborate, I am watching people feel more comfortable performing these type of actions. I believe there is little difference in the decision between stealing a hand towel and getting medical care you never intend on paying for. There is little difference between the decision to shrink the size of your burgers and charge the same to outright fraud of Ponsi scheme investment programs. The difference is only in the commitment.

If we are going to right this economy, and put America back to the top of producing nations, we need to make a basic shift in our mentality. It's time to get back to building a foundation of hard work, ethics and respect. Our business, government and local leaders need to lead the way convincingly to gather a momentum of followers. As long as we are a country of "Take care of me first" attitudes we will never restore what we once had.

Three Options for a New Workforce (Part II)

The biggest disconnect employers are now facing is how unprepared this new generation is for the working world (unless you are a technology business) and how little companies are budgeting for employee development. Simply, the older generation is expecting the new hires to work hard at self development to get up to speed of making a difference in the workplace and the younger generation is looking for the employer to prepare them for the work they want accomplished in the same way schools prepared them to graduate: Exciting and entertaining delivery of information directly related to what will get them to the next grade (or promotion.) This is part 2 of this information.


2. Train with the job in mind.

Some organizations are retooling their training to best prepare the employee for the job they have been hired for. With ISO 9000 type documentation and focus, job descriptions are translated line item by lime item into a training task that teaches the most effective and efficient ways to perform the tasks for maximum profit for the organization. With engineering specificity expectations are set for the only right way to carry out the functions of the job. A generation-wide attention deficit disorder will cause newly hired employees to lost interest and tune out instructors and learn the basics only to then add their own interpretation on what works best for them. This will create friction in the workplace and that revolving door to continue to swing.

3. Teach, coach and mentor throughout the process.

One of the most important expectations of this generation's new employees is keeping their interests in mind at all times. This is also how to keep your best performers committed to staying on your payroll. As long as the new employee knows you are preparing them best for their career growth and success, they will stay attentive, work hard to provide top performance. Training needs to be a combination of effective professionally prepared learning from experts they can respect filled with plenty of Q and A, not monologue delivery of boring information. Once the training has begun, it should be continuous along with coaching along the way to develop people and ensure there is no sink or swim mentality. A mentor should also be assigned as a career counselor, friendly ear, and giver of sage advice. This is the continuation of the training process that is personal and critical to long-term success of these employees. This is a generation that will stay with employers because of personal commitments within the organization, not because the organization itself.


If all of this sounds like a budget breaker, or more trouble than it's worth consider this. How much productivity are you losing through that revolving door of employees leaving? How many customer mistakes are occurring because of an untrained, poorly developed workforce that is costing your organization thousands if not millions of dollars in revenue? How much are you losing from poor morale, minimal effort and a negative buzz about why everyone is constantly leaving?

If you answer these questions honestly, you will see a new training/employee development approach isn’t a budget breaker; rather it is a money maker. The future is uncharted territory; don't let the way it's always been be your guide.

Three Options for a New Workforce (Part I)

Imagine if you never had to worry about winning, because you were taught your entire life that everyone is a winner. Your favorite after school activity was a video game and if you were about to lose you can always hit reset. Or, if you really had the desire to put forth some serious effort; you can log on the internet and find the "cheats" for beating the game!

Imagine if you never had to worry about getting good grades because your grades were considered the responsibility of the schools, teachers and parents and besides, the government has created a program of "No Child Left Behind" so you were guaranteed to make it through school no matter how hard everyone had to work to get you to your diploma. Sure you will sweat some standardized tests along the way, but teachers will teach your classes directly toward giving you the information to pass the tests. So its actually more a test of how well teachers understand the information on the tests than an evaluation of your comprehension ability.

And even though you are growing up in a single parent household, you are constantly being told you are living a good life, you are a great person and most importantly you deserve the best of everything whether you strive hard to get it or not.

Imagine if you then graduated from high school and had no concern about providing for meals and lodging because you can always live at home with one of your parents to take care of the bills. Besides, you don't have any bills other than the credit cards you are reaching your credit limit on. But who cares! The cards are only asking you to pay a monthly minimum and like your friends have done, if the burden of that gets too heavy, just stop paying the cards until they no longer work, and then walk away. You can worry about your credit score later.

Finally, you find a job that peaks your interest and you are in your job interview. After the person representing the company finished describing the job you ask the questions that are most important to you about this job:

How much vacation do I get?
What benefits do I get?
How soon will my first promotion be coming?
When do I get to renegotiate the terms of employment? (Because, I don’t mind this starting pay as long as we can revisit this in 60 days because I will have experience by then.)

Any of this sounds familiar? The baby boomers reading this will just shake their heads in amazement wondering how anyone can think like this. The Generation X people reading this will say, yup I see this attitude entering my workforce daily. This is the approach of the newest generation to enter the workforce.

Is there a disconnect in the workplace? You betcha!

The biggest disconnect employers are now facing is how unprepared this new generation is for the working world (unless you are a technology business) and how little companies are budgeting for employee development. Simply, the older generation is expecting the new hires to work hard at self development to get up to speed of making a difference in the workplace and the younger generation is looking for the employer to prepare them for the work they want accomplished in the same way schools prepared them to graduate: Exciting and entertaining delivery of information directly related to what will get them to the next grade (or promotion.)

This leaves companies with a couple of training options. Which one does your organization choose?

1. Keep training as it has always been.

Training has typically been some classroom instruction followed by some hands on learning and then its time to learn on the go. The revolving doors of employees coming and going that executives whine about are a good indication of how well the status quo of training is working out. This is not a sink or swim generation of potential employees. They have too many options (one being living at their parents' home unemployed) to tolerate what they believe is not in their best interest. This type of training direction will also drive the most employable best talent to other companies who have a better initial approach.

The rest of the options will be posted tomorrow, be sure to check back for the rest of the story.

Whittle Carrots Aren't So "Wittle"

How do you take a product with no market growth, 70% waste, and no pizazz then turn it into a trendy product, with higher profits and significant market growth? You think fresh baby!

Baby carrots have become the snack food of choice for moms across the country. They are healthy, sweet, and bite-sized. For many health conscious eaters they are the "crunch" to have with sandwiches replacing the fatty potato chips or fries. I see baggies of them frequently on airplanes as passengers have learned in this age of "bring your own food on board" they are easily portable, need no refrigeration and are tasty.

In the 1960's the average American ate 6 pounds of carrots a year, today we eat close to 10 and a half pounds. What turned the tide for this veggie in demand?

It may be a surprise to many, but baby carrots aren't baby at all! They're normal sized fully grown carrots cut into 2-inch sections, pumped through water-filled pipes into huge drum peelers and whittled down to the munchies size Americans love to crunch.

Mike Yurosek of Newhall, Calif., got tired of seeing 400 tons of carrots a day being tosses away at his packing plant in Bakersfield. The carrots being thrown away are too twisted, unsightly bent or broken to sell. In some loads, as many as 70% of carrots were tossed. Mike considered how he could salvage the carrots?

Yurosek knew frozen food companies routinely cut up his long, well-shaped carrots into cubes, coins and mini-carrots. So why not package them fresh in smaller sizes? He did the first batch by hand with a potato peeler and decided this was a go. After some practice and investment in some machinery, Mike sent the baby carrots to a Los Angeles supermarket for a trial. The response he got? They only wanted those kind of carrots from now on.

The babies were a profit boom. At the time stores were paying 10 cents a bag for whole carrots and sold them for 17 cents. They now paid 50 cents for a 1-pound package of baby carrots and sold them for $1

Now it's your turn

Question 1: What are you accepting in your business because it's always been that way?

Question 2: What is one simple way you can change how your product is used to find a new market, increase profit or both?

Baby carrots are now a snack food, while the larger carrots never had been considered as anything more than a vegetable. By innovating the product, the product became more profitable in its new incarnation as a snack food.

My sister's family is a big fan of home delivery pizza. At the center of each pie is a plastic disk with three legs on it to prevent the pizza box from crushing into the pizza toppings. These are on every home delivery pizza, so I am sure they are of minimal expense. But what if the manufacturer of that piece of plastic knew of the alternative use we found for this throw away item?

Turn those plastic pieces upside down and they make the perfect hard shell taco holder! Now, does that plastic piece have more value? Could it be sold to the general public for more than it is sold to the pizza restaurants?

As one of my clients said, "Sometimes you have to ask someone outside of your family whether your baby is ugly or not." As far as the carrots go, these babies are beautiful.

10 Wacky Ideas for Kick Ass Friday

Either I've used one of these ideas or my clients have and each of them had a very positive impact on the team to get them motivated, focused and enjoying their jobs.

1. Take your management team, sales team, or if you are in a small office, the entire team to a summer blockbuster matinee during work hours complete with popcorn and drink!

2. Have a video camera record an employee doing their job for an hour. Watch it together and both of you offer commentary. What did you learn? What could be done better? How much wasted effort was there? What was done perfectly?

3. Create a birthday recognition. Everyone likes to be appreciated on "their day." Be sure the appreciation is what the employee wants not just what you want to do.

4. Put a keg tap in the conference room (under pass-code lock) and gather the management team or sales team for a beer after hours weekly. The conversations will make your company thousands of extra dollars.

5. Take your team to lunch but they don't get to look at the menus. Have them roll dice to see which lunch entree they get to eat. Unless food allergies are involved, it's only one meal, it's learning to deal with being out of control, and it builds comfort with trying new things. If a food allergy is in the first choice, let them roll again. They don't get to know what they ordered until it arrives at the table. Watch how each person reacts to the situation. What did you learn?

6. Have each team member write done on a separate piece of paper the one thing that hate about each of the other team members. Fire up a grill and have everyone throw those papers on the fire. Tell them those issues are now up in flames, let it go and let's move on. So as not to waste good charcoals, grill some burgers in your parking lot and make lunch for the team.

7. Have each team member write down on a separate piece of paper the one thing they love about each of the other team members. Have them presented one by one to each team member. Do it right, and it will be very powerful. (After wards a group hug and singing of Kum Bay Ya is optional.)

8. Have management prepare and feed every other employee in the building. The sacrifice done in the right spirit will be greatly appreciated. I found grilled steak dinners were the most well received.

9. Set a big hairy goal for the company, as people contribute to that goal they get drawing tickets into the drum. When the goal is met, draw for a big hairy prize like a Cooper Mini. If the goal is missed draw for something much smaller like 100 gallons of gasoline. Sure that's a big difference. You want them to work toward the goal.

10. Offer an amnesty day where people can admit any major mistakes without any fear of retribution. If you though "Yea, right." Your company needs this more than ever! If you thought, "But we do that every day now because we are solution-focused not blame-focused." Give your team a huge pat on the back – you are in the groove already.

Never Teach a Pig to Sing

I saw a sign in a bar that caught my attention. It read: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It is a waste of your time, and it annoys the pig." Not any different from executive training and development. When you want to develop a great leadership team you need the right players with the right talent to be developed. So many managers want to create superstars out of also-rans, but you can't teach a pig to sing. Don't get me wrong, training and development is critical to leadership success, but you need good raw materials and talent to start with. Focus on what is there to be developed instead of trying to put in what isn’t there.

1. Don't waste time trying to put in what was left out

How many times have your played the "If only" game when talking about employees? Whenever you are dealing with employee or leader performance remember skills and knowledge can be taught and processed into results, while talent is something given. When your "if Only" comments revolve around, "If only she had a better understanding of how to follow up with her staff," or, "If only he knew the proper techniques for delivering a performance evaluation…" These are types of things that can be learned. But if you are wishing for such things as, "If only, he didn't have such a temper, if only he could handle the pressure better, if only he liked being around people", then you are trying to put in what was left out, and your returns are going to be below your expectations and your investment of time, energy and money.

2. Try to draw out what was left in

When developing leaders and employees it is best to find out where their strengths are and further develop what they do well. Obviously, not all leaders are created equal and there is no singular right way to manage and lead people. Analyze what your leaders are doing well, and figure out how to go deeper in the development of those things. The key is in figuring out what is keeping them from being a pinnacle performer. Is it like I mentioned previously, that they just don't have the talent for the position or is it in there and just need to be drawn our and better developed?

They say in basketball you can't teach height. Yet, All-American Tyler Hansbrough of the University of North Carolina was able to overcome his height disadvantage against most opponents by drawing on his strengths of tenacity and non-stop full speed ahead approach to the game. The coach knows he is better served by fueling the strengths Tyler has instead of wishing he would grow a few more inches!

Are you wishing your leaders would simply grow something they don't have or are you investing in developing what they already have in order to make them better? Evaluate your leadership team and note where they have talent that needs to be developed rather than trying to fill them with something they didn’t have, because sometimes teaching them to do what they are incapable of is a waste of your time, and annoys the manager.

Charm School for the Steelworker

I worked with a fast growing company that had an ex-steelworker for a CFO. Growing up in the rust belt and working in the mills of the late 60's he developed his management style and approach to employees and life in general: Work hard, play hard and just deal with me being "rough around the edges".

It was the "rough around the edges" which caused his steel company employer to send him to sensitivity training because of the complaints with his approach. To this day the CFO refers to that as the time he was sent to charm school. When I was hired to work with this new company in developing leadership, I heard this story from him over lunch on the first day I was there. I asked him how charm school worked out. His reply was, "It didn’t do me a G'dam bit of good." Followed by a hearty laugh. He later confessed he did learn how to better understand how people see things differently and that he needed to have different approaches to managing a workforce, but he was still a man with his rough edges permanently in place, and proud of them.

Focus on Strengths

The old farmerism of "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" also applies to leadership development. You can't make someone be who they are not. People can modify behavior and learn new techniques and skills to becoming a better leader. The key is setting up the proper expectations and clearly defining the expected outcome. When I coach executives or work on leadership development programs with my clients I concentrate on this piece of leadership wisdom:

People can only change so much

Someone who is not a people person is not going to attend a class and suddenly feel the need to embrace the world and give everyone a hug at the end of the day. These type transformations only happen in the movies or over decades of therapy. Can someone that is xenophobic learn to appreciate differences in people and modify how to approach them for pinnacle performance results? Absolutely. Just don't expect it to be accomplished with a completely different personality than the one they currently have. The key is to focus on results and progress toward the desired outcomes.

Make Sales at the Speed of Smell

We've learned how to touch our prospects with striking visuals, with auditory stimulus that either recalls the familiar or showcases new talent. Why do you think 70's and 80's music is so popular in ads today? It's a way to get prospective customers to call back to their own history and access a positive memory. Sights and sounds, but what about smells?

The inside of a new car.
Cookies baking in the oven.
Fresh bread.
New leather furniture.

Can't you just smell at least one of these? My entire house smells different with the arrival of my new furniture. When people get in my car they notice that "new car" smell. The nose is the final frontier in touching prospects and customers for most organizations.

How can you get in touch with your clients or prospects by talking to their noses? Every industry has a scent they can relate to. The oils used in manufacturing, the scent of ink for printers, the smell of money fresh from the Fed. The next step in marketing is to touch people's noses. What are they ways you can differentiate your organization from the competition? Grab them by the nose.

I once played Pebble Beach golf course and it happened to be a day they were aerating the fairways which means there were little grass plugs everywhere. I grabbed a plastic bag from my golf bag and started scooping them up! My foursome thought I had been in the sun too long. But when I send some of those grass plugs to prospect letting them open a bag to smell what it was like to experience Pebble and own a piece of the course, now I had their attention and it was better than any description I could have written.

Find a way to hit ALL of your prospects senses.

10 Freaky Facts for Kick Ass Friday

Maintaining your focus on your job on Friday is critical. Let these 10 bits of information keep you focused on why your job is important to you and your organization especially on the day most people want to start the weekend early.

1. 24% of all newly hired sales associates will not prospect -- ever! Improve your hiring profile.

2. 45% of all newly hired sales associates will not close a sale -- ever! Leave the closing to the experts.

3. 79% of all leads generated at a trade show are never followed up.

4. 82% of all homeowners can't tell you the name of their Realtor if they bought their home more than two years ago. How lasting is your customer impression?

5. With the economy on life support, many health professionals are worried that even more folks will put on "recession pounds." How is your exercise program coming along?

6. 90 per cent of businesses that lose data from a disaster are forced to close within two years of the disaster. How effective is your disaster recovery program?

7. If your household income was $150,000 or higher last year, you were in the top 5%.

8. Through our social training we have allowed interruptions to eat up 2.1 hours of our day (28% of the average workday.)

9. Spam accounts for 14.5 billion messages globally per day. In other words, spam makes up 45% of all emails.

10. Over 141 million cans of SPAM are sold worldwide each year. If you pay too much attention to socializing and email spam, you may find yourself dining on more of this SPAM.

Instead of falling into the common trap of coasting into the weekend, why not Kick Ass today.