Frame Your Words, Actions And Ideas.

Watch How You Think, Don't Limit Success.

A carelessly loose flapping tongue and a spontaneous decision-maker do not make for good business partners. Fire them if you own them.  They are not helping you win any business battles.  Trust me your business will face many battles.  To win at the business game, you will need to eliminate a loosely flapping tongue.  A tongue that spews out words with no idea of how those words can or should be used is a person who is destined to fail in the world of business leadership.  Watch your tongue closely.  Keep it in control at all times.  This kind of rule also applies to the actions and ideas a business owner has decided to process.  Make sure the things a business leader does makes good sense to do.  Make sure the actions and decision plans have had time to become part of a controlled effort before they are put into motion.  A great business owner does not operate well with continued spontaneity.  Continuous, spontaneous decisions do not fair well in the business world.  Get rid of them.  Get rid of those tendencies.  Get rid of acting like nothing has a plan of attack.  These are steadfast business rules.  Learn how to honor them.  These are some of the quiet, yet serious set of rules.   

This set of rules can be broken without a leader recognizing how they were broken.  A negative comment can be made in passing that can cost the leader a lot of needed support.  I once had an employee working for me several years ago.  She was born and raised in the United States but was half Caucasian and half Japanese.  She grew up and married her Caucasian husband.  She was a great employee for many years.  She became a great sales person, too.  Her numbers grew like she understood what she was supposed to be doing in sales.  She had a great knack for getting to know her customers.  One day she had a young couple in the store.  They were new to the area and were moving into a new home in a nearby town.  My employee was helping this young couple select some furniture for their new home.  The process seemed to be going well until she came back to my office and asked me to take over for her.  I was puzzled.  She did not appear to be doing very well, all of the sudden.  I asked her what was wrong?  She said she will tell me later.  She just wanted me to take over working for her with this young couple.  I got up and finished working the sale.  They were a nice couple.  I finished the deal and scheduled the delivery.  When I returned, I asked my employee what happened to her?  She said she could not handle that couple anymore.  She said she went as far as she could to help them but was just about to the end of her rope.  I asked her what was the matter?  She said she could not work with a 'mixed' couple.  He was African-American and she was Caucasian white.  They were married.  I was shocked!  I stood silent for a short moment.  I said, "Well what about you and your husband?"  She said, "That's different."

We need to recognize how our tongue, our actions and our plans can damage the work we do.  This young employee, even though the thoughts were out of line, recognized it.  I know it does not always make sense to think and do things in particular ways.  Sometimes the process of communication goes haywire.  Telling the truth is not always the best thing to say.  Just because she felt that way does not make it right to speak it.  Treating people the way we want to treat them is not always the best method to use.  These sets of rules are real and they matter to success a whole bunch.  Be very careful to control what you say, how you say it and be especially careful in doing what you do for work.  Your words, actions and ideas will often determine how much you will win or lose.  Become good stewards of these three things...words, actions and ideas.

Learn how to stick to success.  This employee was able to stick to success instead of her 'off' ideas about mixed marriages.  She recognized it well enough to eliminate working it wrong and saying something inappropriate to kill her success ratio.  She knew she would fail if she did not get away from the things she was thinking about.  She knew what she felt was likely going to hurt her results.  She made the decision to control what she said, how she acted and removed her presence of ideas away from her selling process with that couple.  She wanted to win even though she knew how she felt.  Winning was more important to her than processing the wrong ideas she was fighting to manage.  The truth is, she felt strongly about mixed marriages.  Even though she was one.  We all have these kinds of confusions running parallel with our own lives.  It might not be about mixed marriages but it will be about some other subject.  We have things we do in our lives that we do not support when others do them.  Humans are funny beings.  Learn how to keep the funny stuff in your life away from the working plans of your business model.  Success has a tendency to run away and hide from a loosely controlled tongue, spontaneous plans and random work.  These are not items listed on the top chart for making success happen.  Get rid of them if you have them.

Some Inventory Rules Need Greater Attention

Every Missing Item Adds Loss To Your Bottom Line.

I am watching the sour economy interfere with good inventory management.    I understand how important it is to cut back on how much inventory needs to be on hand.  I also understand how certain 'slow selling' items need to disappear from the product presentation mix during tough economic times.  These kinds of inventory control moves appear obvious.  However, there is danger lurking in those moves.  Sometimes the obvious logic can sneak right up and bite your sales off worse than the economy can deliver.  I see it happen to business owners all of the time.  There are steadfast rules that have surfaced over time about how a good manager should control the effectiveness of their inventory mix.  Those rules stand the test of time.  They are real, they are effective, they are consistent and the produce better sales results if they are respected.  I am watching some business leaders 'cut back' on inventory without any regard to the heart of some of these inventory rules.  I am watching some business owners actually destroy their sales potential by managing their inventory incorrectly.  It breaks my heart.  They obviously do not know about some of these inventory rules or if they do know about them, they are not giving them enough attention.  They are adding gasoline to the fire of the bad economy.  It breaks my merchandising heart.  Remember, I shop in some of your stores.

Some inventory rules need greater attention.

Some of those rules need to become better defined so the operator can honor how they work.  If the respect for certain inventory rules were increased the sales results would improve.  This is true even in a rotten economy.  The retail outfits that skip practicing the fundamentals of inventory control are the same business models who cannot produce profitable consistency.  If you are managing one of those 'bad results' business models...take notes.  I have a sneaky hunch that some of these inventory rules are getting placed on the back burner.  I also suspect some of these inventory rules are not known by the leaders of those failing models.  Do you think?

I am not your best employee.  I will speak up when I see a wrong being performed.  I am not shy about that kind of stuff.  I love it when I hear the leadership of an organization tell me how they want to have their employees be able to share and expose badly performed activities.  Are you operating a business model with this kind of approach?  Do you work hard on allowing your employees to practice sharing what they think is going wrong?  Do you permit this employee process to flow without fear of retribution?  Does your organization work on correcting wrongs it performs from the bottom up or the top down?  How do you find the wrongs that are going on in your business model?  If some of you are having trouble with this process in your organization, go read Jack Welch's book, "Straight From The Gut."  I know, reading.  Reading is something you do not have time to do.  I am sorry but if you skip reading this book you are skipping the chance to learn a ton about how to build a great employee working organization.  Jack did that thing right.  I think it might have something to do with why that company eventually developed into one of the largest market cap conglomerates in business history.  That company has not measured up to its true potential since he retired, by the way.  I like Jeff Immelt, who took over after Jack's retirement, but he is no Jack!  Jeff does not do it with the same qualities that Jack did.  It shows.  How does you organization measure up to its potential?  Let's examine that question deeper.  Let's get the right information flowing.  I do not necessarily care if it comes from the bottom or the top.  I just want your organization to begin getting the right information flowing.  You want to win, right?  That's what I thought.

Some inventory rules need greater attention.  In order to give those rules some greater attention we must first examine to see what those rules are.  Something tells me that most readers could not even begin to list five of those most important inventory rules.  If I was to stop writing right now, many business owners would still not be able to list those five most important inventory rules.  Many business owners are operating their model without knowing what the most important rules of inventory control are.  They have no idea about what those rules are, how they work, why they are important and how to manage them into constant existence.  A lot of business owners are operating their business model blind.  I suspect those might be the same business owners that are complaining a lot about this poor economy we are seeing.  Any thoughts, here?  If you do not agree, go ahead and list five of those most important inventory rules to practice on a separate piece of paper.  Let's see how well you did.

A Leader Without A Mentor Limits Success

Leadership Needs Wisdom.  Wisdom Needs Mentor-ship.

Winning is an attitude.  Winning is a process.  Winning is a combination of placing a lot of crucial  things in motion, all at the same time.  Winning is an order of components strung together massaging the same goal.  Winning comes from the efforts of those who know what to do, how to do it, when to do it and making sure it gets done.  Leaders practice winning ways more often than those who do not lead at all.  Business owners are people who need to win more often than not.  Business success comes form winning a lot.  Long term success comes form a leader who recognizes how to remain disciplined with the tools and requirements of their trade.  Long term winning does not come by accident.  It is earned.  A great business owner did not cheat to become great.  The two do not mix well long term.  Finally, the long term business success owner comes to the surface with the help of others.  Mentors were present along that owners successful trail.  Great success does not come to a 'lone-minded' business owner.  Great success does not come to the leader who operates all alone.  A leader without a mentor is a leader who limits success.

I have some mentors.  I appreciate what they bring to my table of production.  One of my best mentors is my wife.  She brings compassion to my stark way of approaching human dynamics.  I am very cold, calculated and efficient in the way I deal with softer traits humans perform.  I would just as soon flip out some bold quip to quickly resolve a nasty rub with one of my co-workers or employees.  It is my wife who helps me filter out the hardness I use in my method of treatment for the personality challenges I face in my leadership path.  My wife is my mentor in how I process my human relations.  She saves me from myself.  She has saved my leadership countless times in the past.  She fills in where I operate blindly.  She helps me reach better results with added compassion and increased human respect.  I do not naturally possess these important tools.  One of my mentors, my wife in this case, helps me find those tools when they are needed.  She adds the depth to the way I need to become as a better leader.  Who helps you with those missing parts?  A leader without a mentor limits success.

There is no business owner who knows it all.  None.  For every leader who made it big, someone behind them helped them learn how to mold how they did what they did.  Great leaders are littered with good mentors.  Great leaders surround themselves with good advice.  Great leaders know when they have reached their own personal capacity for moving forward with a challenging issue.  Great leaders now when to ask for help.  Great leaders learn how to pay attention to other minds that travel with them.  Great business success does not come from a single mind.  Great business models do not grow up big because one person did all of the great thinking.  A leader without a mentor limits success.

Business owners are leaders.  Some are good at it, some are not.  Some are terrible leaders.  The terrible leaders are the ones who struggle the most with business success.  This observation is not rocket science.  The terrible leaders of most business models are the ones who produce the worst numbers.  Terrible leaders do not usually produce great results.  Terrible leaders have a limited library of success rewards.  There are very few economic trophies on the shelves of their hallways.  The terrible leaders are usually the ones who go it alone.  They like wearing the Lone Ranger's mask.  They like being alone.  They mentor with nobody.  They read nothing worthwhile and have no desire to add new knowledge to the work they do.  Their results becomes the proof for how much help they do not permit to come in.  Unfortunately they help others live the loss they individually produced.  A leader without a mentor limits success.

For those of you who are currently leading a business model through the 'mind fields' of this day and age, without a mentor, I suggest you go find one as soon as you can.  There is no business owner on this planet who does not need a business mentor.  None.  Even Bill Gates has a mentor.  Even Steve Jobs had a mentor.  Even our President has some mentors.  Phil Knight has mentors.  Phil Knight has a multi-million dollar cash reserve, too.  In this day and age, and with this poor economy at hand...Phil Knight has a monster, after-tax, cash reserve.  Phil Knight has a lot of business mentors.  Gee, I wonder if that is a good idea?  Get serious, get a mentor.  Find someone who helps you think in ways you will otherwise ignore.  Get a good mentor.  A leader without a mentor limits success.  Some of the best business models in this world were developed by a group of leaders working together...not by a Lone Ranger.  Lone Ranger's suck.  They do not win as often as we would like to believe.  They lose a lot.  Winning comes form those who accept good advice.  Winning comes from those who recognize the power of a mentors views.  A leader without a mentor limits success.

How Do You Stop Worrying?

Managing Worry Is Part of Cultivating Character

One of the things we all do pretty well is that we worry a good deal.  We know how to worry about things.  We can easily find enough problems to think about so we can worry some more.  Worry is the best way to keep our mind working over time.  If we learn how to worry more often, we can skip trying to waste time sleeping.  We can lay awake all night and think about all of the things that can go wrong in our life and our business management.  Instead of sleeping we can think about all of the things we need to do to fix what we are worrying about.  That way when we get up in the morning we can go fix those things we worried all night about and we can go fix them when we are really tired and grumpy.  I think that is an excellent plan.  Not.  Don't do that approach, please.  It is not a good habit to develop.  It is also a hard habit to break.

You might be surprised to hear how many business leaders practice this kind of plan.  As foolish as it might seem, some do it almost every single night of their lives.  They go to bed to begin their process to worry about stuff that needs to be fixed.  The go to bed to start worrying about stuff.  They do it enough that it soon becomes a very bad habit.  They worry about the next darkened alley.  They may not be standing in a dark alley but they see one nearby and think they are headed in that direction.  They go to bed to think about the ways that dark alley can arrive.  They worry about what might become, not about what has already occurred.  They worry about a darkened future.  Worry is often times the result of thinking about something that is going to happen wrong.  We can see the possibility of the dark alley becoming where we will soon be walking so we try to figure out how to avoid that turn.  We worry about our options.  We do not think our choices will be obvious selections or good enough options when the time comes to exercise them.  We do not think our future choices will help us to avoid that dark alley.  That is why we worry.

Our body chemistry does not need help in producing the wrong kinds of internal fluids.  The production of the wrong kinds of internal body fluids will eventually wear our body out.  Wrong production of unwanted chemistry inside our body will eventually do some serious damage to the important parts of our body functions.  Our health will suffer if we worry too much.  Stress will take its toll on the health of our body.  We will not live as healthy nor as long as we work to enjoy.  It is a terrible plan to adhere to.  It will guarantee an unwanted set of nasty results.  To those who have developed the habit of worry, I just gave each of you one more thing to worry about.  Now your health will find its own dark alley to walk through.  More worry.

The art of worry is a process that runs deep like a bad habit.  If you chew your nails you have developed a bad habit.  Chewing your nails is not a natural bodily function.  It is an action that is prompted by the mind to do when no other reason can be justifiably found.  We only chew our nails because we developed that process as a bad habit.  That is all it is.  Chewing our nails is strictly a bad habit.  It is a habit that produces nothing worthwhile yet we protect it as if it means all the world to us.  We work hard on trying to sneak ways for chewing our nails without getting caught.  We get pretty good at it, too.  We already know it is not a good habit but we protect it anyway.  We seem to believe we gain power when we are able to sneak it by someone.  It is like making a little victory in our lives.  We seem to believe we have won when truly we have lost.  We are truly losing but we feel like we are winning.  Worrying is exactly the same thing.

When we worry we think we are winning.  We think we need to worry to get a victory in how we are living.  We think we need to worry in order to feel better about what we need to do.  We are not winning when that happens.  We only think it is the right thing to do.  We only think we are trying to win.  We are not.  We are trying to lose.  We are losing.  We are destroying the process for recognizing healthy appreciation for the things we have already produced.  We are taking our victories and forgetting about them when we place worry on our hearts.  We are searching for something to destroy the feelings we should be having in how we have won.  We are searching for something to be stronger than the victories we have already produced.  Those victories cannot be real so we manufacture more doom to think about so we can begin to manage what can happen that is bad.  We need bad stuff to happen so we can be correct in how we believe things will turn out.  We hate to be wrong.  So we plan how bad it can go so when that happens we will be right.  We want to be right.  We hate to be wrong.  That is why we worry.  We want to be right.

Some 'Skipped' Boring Things Do Not 'Skip' Hurting Us

Consistence Is Boring, But It Provides Great Success Opportunities

Yesterday on the radio a DJ explained how to stop boredom in your family life.  She was describing how she was trying to get her three children ready to go somewhere this past weekend and one of her girls was not getting ready on time.  She described how her girl, a five-year-old, was one of those tinkering types.  This radio DJ was a single mom with three small children.  On the weekends it is important for the DJ to get all of her domestic stuff done before the work week begins.  She and her group were trying to get ready to go out to the grocery store, the post office and run some other important errands.  This five-year-old daughter was dragging her feet.  She was not getting ready like all of the others.  This time she was busy coloring in a couple of coloring books.  The DJ mom asked her daughter why she was not getting ready.  The daughter said going to town to do errands was "boring."

The mother agreed.  She undressed the rest of the kids and told the five-year-old to finish coloring the pages in the coloring books she was working on.  The DJ mom described how her daughter does not color like any other child.  She described how her daughter colors in 'rainbow.'  Everything is colored in a rainbow.  A shirt, a building, the mountains, the sky, a train...all of them are colored in rainbows.  Nothing has a single color.  Every item has a multiple of colors that are used to cover each item.  The DJ described how important it is as parents to permit our children to express themselves properly.  That is why she chose to allow her daughter to finish the pictures she was coloring.  It was a cute story and I can relate when I think back to how complicated it was to raise our three girls.  I remember similar experiences.  I remember some of the 'hair combing' wars my wife and the girls used to produce.  I remember some of the fashion wars developed when my girls picked out their own clothes to wear when we were going out into the public somewhere.  I could relate to the DJ and her challenging five-year-old who did not want to do the boring stuff in life.

One major problem with that desire.  Success, when done correctly, is very boring.  Success does not usually come from doing things that feel good.  Success does not usually come from doing things that change from one exciting project to the next one.  Success does not usually come from one person dominating all of the others because they stubbornly refuse to comply with how the rest of the group wants to go.  Success can happen without all of these things being placed in a boring line, but it does not happen very often without them becoming part of a boring routine.  True success is boring.  Success is usually the result of doing a lot of right things, a lot of necessary things, a lot of routine things and a lot of unwanted things all in a boring pattern of life movements.  Success does not usually come from random movements that are created to keep us interested in doing fun things all of the time.  Success becomes the by-product of doing a lot of routine things well, on a boring but consistent basis.  A lot of those routine things are not things that we all enjoy doing.  A lot of them are not enjoyable.

There have been thousands of times when I would prefer to color in a coloring book instead of doing some hiring or firing that was necessary for my business model to perform.  Sometimes the responsibility to do necessary routines is higher than the pleasure to ignore those duties by playing with stuff that is more fun to do.  When we skip doing the stuff we need to do we can begin to do the things we like to do.  We skip right past doing the boring things.  We find we prefer to do the exciting things.  Unfortunately, when we skip doing some of those important boring things and those 'skipped' boring things do not 'skip' hurting us.  Some of the important 'skipped' duties often turn out to come back and hurt our success efforts.  We 'skipped' doing them because they were boring.  As a result, we 'skipped' right over the necessary things that help us to produce more success.  We use our desire to do exciting things to justify why we can skip doing the necessary but boring stuff.  We get confused.  We want more excitement and less boring duty patterns in our lives.  We see this desire in our children and wonder why it does not happen more often in our adult lives.  We get confused and manage the wrong ways to honor both.  We forget how success works and compromise our walk on that path of life.  We give in and change the boring routine to honor the creativeness we see in our children.  We believe both cannot happen in the same plane of existence.  We are wrong but do not know how to manage the two together.  We therefore compromise success by giving into random patterns of movements and sacrifice boring routines that are necessary.  We limit our walk to success.  Unfortunately, we are dead wrong.  We can have both.

Unhappy Employees Will Destroy Your Efforts

Your Business Model Should Not Be A Disturbing Scene

Unhappy employees can creatively destroy your success efforts.  They can and they will if given the opportunity.  I used to carry some mixed emotions about this subject.  At one time I had a whole set of thoughts streaming through my mind that supported the idea that I was the boss and they were the employees.  I used to think that what I said goes and what they should do is to make sure whatever I wanted done gets done.  I used to have no gray area in my mind on this perspective.  If you worked for me you needed to do exactly what I wanted you to get done and that was it.  It was not a clouded subject.  I made it very clear that anything other than that would not be appreciated.  I had a strong sense that if you worked for me you were privileged to have this job.  I felt that way and meant it.  I did not hide those kinds of streaming thoughts.  This was how I used to develop my employee/boss relationships.

I operated from the stance that you were the hired hand and I was the guiding boss.  Since I was the one who ponied up the money to risk building the business, you do what I wanted done.  I would often remind some of my employees that if you wanted to do it your way, pony up your own risk money on your own business model.  Don't try it your way with my risk model.  I would make that perspective very clear.  It was not kept secret.  I even included that kind of profile in the way I walked.  I had a hard stride that exhibited how I felt about owning my own business.  You know the one.  The one that looks like the walker just finished first place in a beer chugging contest.  Exuberant, confident and loaded with arrogance.  You can still see some of those remains in some of my writing.  That was how I used to manage my employee relationships.  It was more like expecting that my employees should do as I say and quit questioning how I wanted it to be done.  I was the director and they were the staff.  Any questions?

I could write a series of funny books describing all of the damaging and very funny experiences that kind of leadership promoted.  At the time those experiences occurred, very few of them seemed to be funny.  Most of those noteworthy experiences were of the wrong kind to report with pride.  The damage I would constantly be mopping up from the wrong things my staff would perform was also a constant stream of challenging and unwanted stuff.  My earlier years of employee leadership was marked with constant issues of wrong doings.  The issues that involved my employment staff was always filled with garbage and challenges.  Each day was an adventure.  I have a business associate I communicate with once in a long while.  We connect occasionally to share what is going on in each others lives, about three to four times per year.  Whenever he calls I ask him how things are going.  He usually has the patented reply, "High Adventure."  His personal life is a mess.  It always has been.  His business model is a jewel.  Somehow he gets one of them right.  It is always the same, however.  At home, his life is "High Adventure."  At work, his model is kicking well and growing with new ideas all of the time.  My business life used to resemble his personal life.  It was always stuck in the lane where high adventure lives.

I was a troubled business leader.  I had a great disrespect for the people who worked in my employ.  I was a tyrant and an owner who did not necessarily care how they felt about what they came to work to do.  My view was this...if you do not like it you can always go work somewhere else.  I had the 'have at it' position of view.  As far as I was concerned, they could go work for someone else and destroy their model instead of mine.  That was my true view.  I not only had that view, I promoted it and was proud to parade it around.  I made sure every employee understood my view so they can become more productive.  That is exactly how I thought.  That is exactly how I led my gang.  That is exactly why I had so much employee turnover in my furniture retail store career.  At one time, during a ten year stretch, I had employed 180 people.  My full compliment of steady employees during that period of time was 5 people at a time.  My retail store could not support more than 5 employees at one time.  Yet during that ten year period of my operations I had hired 180 people to do those five jobs.  I was turning employees over at a monthly rate and proud of it.  I thought the world was filled with a bunch of lazy people.  None of them wanted to do the work I wanted them to do.  It almost destroyed me.

I grew very cynical.  I become very nasty with how I treated new people.  I did not trust anyone.  I made that position very clear.  I set up very stringent written rules on how my employees were supposed to behave.  I posted those rules all about the facility just far enough out of the sight of my customers.  I had labels posted in the delivery truck to remind the drivers how to use the turn indicators, the brakes, the speed they moved and the safety issues I wanted them to respect.  I had notes of this nature posted on the wall of the restrooms and all around the shop and storage areas.  Every desk had a note of the controlling type to remind the staff what they could and could not do.  I micro-managed every single step my employees took.  I performed that kind of controlling method with a high level of cynicism.  I made it clear that I did not expect them to actually be able to do their jobs well.  I was filled with this kind of resonant behavior.  I was not a good boss and did not even care if you felt that way about me.  Just get your work done.  That is what I pay you for, that is why you earn what you earn.  Get to it.  Quit complaining.

Dysfunctional Leaders Don't 'Get It.'

Dysfunctional Ways Produce Bad Predicaments

I am a dysfunctional business owner.  It took me years to learn how to get better organized.  It took me a lifetime to learn how to manage my work in an orderly fashion.  It still works me over.  I still get frustrated to do the things I need to do in an organized way.  Thinking ahead to anticipate how to avert minor problems is still a major chore.  I find I need to think about a lot of what I plan to do well before I place anything into action.  I find it helps me to reduce the volume of challenges I make by being disorganized if I work in a more organized fashion.  Solving problems takes a lot of valuable time chips to do.  Reducing the frequency of those problems is a better way to operate.  Being dysfunctional from the beginning was a great disadvantage to my business operations.  The only thing wrong with that point is that I did not know how great the disadvantage was.

Dysfunctional leadership kills the potential to efficiently run business models.  A business model that is not efficiently managed in today's demanding markets is a model that is financially struggling to survive.  The problem with this truth is that dysfunctional leaders don't 'get it.'

I know.  I was one of them.

It took me years to recognize how damaging my dysfunctional ways would hurt the effectiveness of my business success efforts.  Once I 'got it' I could see how much damage I was creating.  I could see where I was diverting my success potential.  I could see when I damaged my success efforts.  I could witness when I was producing double and triple work.  I could identify where the most corrections in my dysfunctional methods needed to occur.  Once I 'got it' I could now begin the work on fixing it.  I could now begin to learn how to mange my efforts in a more organized way.  I could anticipate how to become more efficient.  I could reduce the double work, the triple work and the effort to provide better customer service.  I learned how to drop fewer balls, how to remember important things and how to plan for better leadership trust.  All of those improvements helped my business models perform a ton better.  At one time, I was like a lot of lost business leaders.  I was dysfunctional and did not 'get it.'

I have been placed into some very trying positions in my business career.  Those tough positions were my choice to choose.  My career has been filled with doing repair work on messed up business models.  I have been hired to help those models fix what they feel is going wrong.  In each case, different reasons have caused those models to become near their death in each operation.  In the very first case, dysfunctional leadership was the cause for the troubled path that business traveled.  In the second one, it was the owners greed that was the source of the troubled business model.  The third one was caused by a combination of disrespect, greed, selfishness, favoritism and a load of dysfunctional concepts on how to operate.  The fourth one is loaded with a terrible dose of dysfunctional leadership.  In all four cases, the second one was the best business model I have ever witnessed.  It was the most successfully operated one I have ever been a part of in my business leadership career.  The owner was highly organized.  He was very functional in his leadership ways.  He just got very greedy in how he wanted that model to offer him the returns he felt were his to receive.  His greed got completely out of whack.  It nearly destroyed his family and his business model.  The rest of the troubled business models I helped to operate were models littered with dysfunctional leadership.  They did not recognize how badly their dysfunctional ways would hurt their profitability chances.

Dysfunctional leaders don't 'get it.'

The business model owned by a dysfunctional leader is a business model operating with a terrible limp.  It is a model that is littered with added and unnecessary costs.  It is a model riddled with disjointed plans.  It is a model filled with impatience.  It is a model that struggles with the group dynamics of its staff and human resource management efforts.  It is a model that inadvertently delivers poor customer service to its best customers.  It is a model that runs high on troubled excuses.  It is a model that attaches much of its leadership efforts onto the strides of 'friendship' components in its human exchanges.  Absolutes, organized systems, management respect, dignity, profitability and trust are usually absent.  Dysfunctional leaders do not see this side of their business efforts.  They become blind to the importance of these components.  I know, at one time I did not 'get it.'  I was very dysfunctional in my business leadership.  I also denied how badly it hurt my performance success.  I did not 'get it.'

Sometimes The Obvious Is Not So Easy

Leadership Is Permanent

I know I am not perfect.  I was not made perfect.  I fail to operate perfectly.  It is something that is and will forever remain consistent in my human life.  I will forever live an imperfect life.  Guess what?  That process is exactly the same process you get to manage in your life.  You have exactly the same kind of afflictions running parallel to the processed patterns you manage in your life.  You, also, are not perfect.  This truth is a fact that is placed along side every single one of us human beings.  We are not and will never be perfect people.  Quit pretending this is not true.  We all know the truth.  Face it, admit it and move on.  Sometimes the obvious is not so easy.

I have had rotten things in my life occur.  I have generated rotten things to occur in my life.  Sometimes I have been innocent and sometimes I am as guilty as they come.  Bad things happen.  Some of those really bad things are not so easy to deal with and can become bigger thorns than we care to expose.  I think we all would be amazed at what dark secrets everyone finds worth hiding inside the soul of our own minds.  Some of those dark secrets would be very embarrassing to us if they were ever to come out.  We all have them.  Sometimes the obvious is not so easy.

If you lead people in any capacity, you have made the decision to manage a strong relationship with the right to manage higher levels of responsibility.  Certain levels of responsibility come with the territory of leadership.  When you decide to become a leader in any form, you decide to accept this truth.  Sometimes the obvious is not so easy to accept.  Just because it is not so easy to accept does not mean you get to ignore its truth.  Nobody is immune to the written and unwritten rules of leadership.  Those rules come with the territory.  We will be held to the standards those rules deliver.  That will happen with or without our compliance.  Leadership comes with a price.  Leaders either pay that price or suffer.  Sometimes the obvious is not so easy.

I have sat on the 'hot' seat many times in my life.  I can tell you it is not a very comfortable seat to enjoy.  I hate it.  I refuse to sit on it for fun.  I am a tough personality but I do not like the 'hot' seat very much.  The 'hot' seat can wreck lives.  It can destroy people and ruin their public personalities.  It can eat away at the most very private sections in their protected personal lives.  Mistakes that become serious mistakes, the ones that wick off the general public at high levels are the mistakes that can do this kind of damage.  Leaders have a serious responsibility to refrain from making mistakes of this nature.  Big public mistakes are the ones they must refrain from stepping into.  Unfortunately, sometimes the obvious is not so easy to do.  We may be leaders but we are still human beings.  We have our own set of weaknesses we still manage to overcome.  We are not perfect people.  Sometimes the obvious is not so easy to do.

Business ownership includes leadership.  When we decide to go into business for ourselves, we decide to accept the rules of the road that leadership brings.  We may not fully understand that process but we become part of its truth with or without our approval.  We will be held to higher standards of life performance.  Welcome to leadership.  It comes with the territory.  That is what leadership brings.  Sometimes the obvious is not so easy.  True leadership hurts.  True leadership can destroy lives.  It damages careers.  It burns people out.  It destroys relationships.  True leadership, as in the military and public safety, can result in death.  Leadership has with it some very tall responsibilities.  I did not write these rules.  I just know what they are.  I lead in my business world.  That is how I am wired.  I do not misunderstand what high levels of responsibility I accept by the very nature of the things I do.  That is why I must keep reminding myself how to act, how to lead and how to treat the people around me.  Even though I am not a perfect soul, I must keep thinking and reminding myself how my actions will affect the others I pass by.  That is exactly how leadership works.  If you own a business, you have the very exact same level of responsibilities in your leadership patterns.  Whether you like it or not, you must accept these rules of the leadership road.  Sometimes the obvious is not so easy to do.

Joe Paterno, you must do the right thing.  It is the part of our lives that leaders hate to face.  Sometimes the obvious is not so easy.  Leaders want to duck out of the light when the light gets real ugly.  Guess what?  So do I.  Sometimes the obvious is not so easy.  Doing the next right thing is all about becoming a very good and strong leader.  It is not about protecting who you are.  That kind of effort is not on the top of the list when a leader is faced with the 'hot' seats of life.  Nobody cares about how much the price of leadership hurts the leader when something publicly wrong hits the surface of view.  We all expect the leaders to do the next right thing.  That is exactly how leadership works.  That is exactly why we call it the way we see it.  We hold our leaders to higher standards than we would ever expect from ourselves.  We define each pattern of life differently.  Leaders are the ones who lead a different life.  They must pay a higher price, in our view.  That is why we call it the "price of leadership."  It carries a high price.  Sometimes the obvious is not so easy.

Why Add Disadvantage To The Next Move?

A Bad Next Move...

A Good Next Move...

I was insulating one of my sections where my exterior landscaping sprinkler system is located.  The section where six of the line valves are lined up in a row has always been sitting above ground next to the family room of my house.  I decided to build an attractive winter insulated box to cover those exposed valves.  One year it got pretty cold and one of the lines broke from the freeze.  I must not have gotten all of the water drained from it at the end of fall.  Building the box is like adding an extra step to ensure those pipes do not break in the freezing winter cold.  It was a short project.  I figured it might take me a few hours, start to finish.  I was correct.  I had the materials and I just cleaned up my shop and re-arranged everything on the shelf a couple of weekends ago.  I was in good shape to tackle this project.  My next move was ready to go.  No disadvantage in sight!

I took Monday off so I could do a few things around the house to winterize.  One of those things was to insulate that line of sprinkler valves.  After my wife left to do her work, I got started.  I took a short cup of coffee outside and began measuring for my initial cuts.  I took out the necessary tools and set up a cutting area for the work to begin.  I was not in a rush and things were moving along very smoothly.  While I was working on the insulation box, I noticed a couple of other maintenance issues that could also be done.  I did them while I was working on this project.  That was a very good 'next' move.  Those maintenance issues were some of the insignificant ones that I have been putting off because they were needed but not necessarily urgent.  I did not really have those extra things on my list but now they are done.  Advantage, me.  I was feeling pretty sparky.  A guy outside in the late fall with his tools doing stuff that is needed to be done.  Having a cup of coffee once in awhile and enjoying the project work.  Like I said, advantage...me.

Sometimes we work in this kind of mode.  We find pleasure completing some stuff we have been putting off.  I do this kind of work once in awhile in my office, too.  Sometimes there is somewhat important stuff piling up on my desk that should be done and filed away.  Certain things get put off and begin to get moved around from corner to corner before they are actually completed properly.  Those things get put off and buried underneath the other stuff that is slowly piling up, too.  We know we need to get to it but it is not pressing yet.  So it gets placed away from completion for now.  That kind of stuff happens.  Building the insulation box for my sprinkler system in my yard was one of those kinds of 'put off' projects.  I have been meaning to build that box for a few years now.  I am now finally doing it.  Yesterday it was being measured, cut and built.  I was winning with each next move.  No disadvantage in sight.

It feels good to begin wrapping up a project that we have been putting off for a very long time.  When we begin doing one of those piles on our desk that is growing mold from being placed too long in its pile we begin to feel good about completing that pile.  It feels good.  We begin to look for the next move.  We feel good about making progress on a delayed project.  There is a certain sense of added accomplishment.  It is a good feeling.  We feel like we have reached a small victory.  I was feeling this way when my insulation box was taking form.  I have thought about building this box for a few years now.  I am excited that it is really going to happen and so far it was looking pretty good.  My next move was decided.  I would go have lunch with my wife.  I am ahead on the project and I only have a few more things to do to wrap it up.  I am also feeling a little extra good since I completed a couple of other small projects that have been also delayed.  Doing the insulation box led me to complete a couple of other ones, too.  I am ahead of the curve on this one.  Lunch sounds good!  I can allow some disadvantage to come into play with this project.  I was ahead of the curve.  A small disadvantage was perfectly fine to allow.  Anyway, lunch sounds good.  It would be a nice break.

Isn't this how we do it?  We justify how to add disadvantage to our goals and project needs?  Sometimes our next moves are slight admissions to allow some kind of disadvantage to appear.  We believe we can manage some small disadvantages to our efforts for completing important tasks.  We agree to do this with ourselves.  We change our focus, temporarily.  Disadvantage, me.  My choice, however.

I took a break form the insulation box project and headed for town to have lunch with my wife.  I agreed to take some shredded reports to the recycling center for her when I arrived.  We had lunch and enjoyed the time.  She said her shredder got jammed, however.  So I took out some tools from the back room of her office and began to remove the large paper jam inside the wheels that shred the paper.  It was not easy to do.  It took me about forty five minutes to complete that project.  It works well now.  She kept on apologizing to me for taking me away from my insulation box project at home.  I was fine with it.  I was winning on the insulation box project and it looked like I would only need an hour or so to finish it up.  Taking the time to repair her shredder was no big deal.  I had the time.  I left to go drop off the shredded materials at the recycling center.  I have not seen the owner of that business for quite some time so we talked for a little while.  We got caught up sharing some things we have not been able to share for a few years.  It was nice seeing him.  We had a couple of good laughs.  He was not on my 'next' move schedule, however.

Now my first disadvantage has grown.  Lunch with my wife has been extended to a trip to the shredding recycling office.  Now I have expanded my disadvantage.  I have moved to include something else to take me away from my original focus.  My insulation box project is now on 'hold' for a little while.  I not only agreed to do a couple of more things on this 'lunch' trip I got caught sitting down to chit chat with a friend I have not seen for quite some time.  Several forms developed that add disadvantage to my insulation project. These have become my 'next' moves.  The insulation project is quietly put on hold, again.  Disadvantage, me.

It has now been a couple of hours since I was back at home finishing my insulation box project.  This short lunch break took more time than I had originally planned.  Now my winning clock was beginning to feel the pressure.  I would need to return back and get moving on that project if I wanted to finish it in a comfortable amount of time.  As I began to leave the recycling center, I remembered how I wanted to talk to my mechanic about doing a tune-up on our Audi automobile.  The recycling center is located out near that mechanics shop.  So I decided I had enough time to go see him, since I was already near his shop.  I was in my wife's car, the Audi, because she had it loaded with the shredded paper.  Perfect, I could take it out to his shop.  I had discovered a new 'next' move.  Isn't that how it happens?  We get sidetracked by more important stuff that pops up when we least expect it.  Projects get put on hold this way.  We bounce around from duty to duty trying to do the efficient stuff as we move along.  We get sidetracked easily with that kind of thinking and movements.  I was now headed for the mechanics shop.  One more 'strategic' disadvantage could not hurt.  This time, the disadvantage would be another good move.  I can justify doing this step instead of rushing home to finish building my insulation box.  Strategic work is always good, right?  I gave it some thought and decided to add one more disadvantage to my home project.  I added disadvantage to my next move.

You Cannot Invent A New Color

"Always, just a little bit of black!"

This was a phrase I heard a lot from an interior design instructor.  "Remember," he said, "Always add just a little bit of black!"

I went to school years ago to get my design degree.  I was employed back then by the second largest furniture store retailer in the country and they added to my department duties the manager responsibilities of the design studio.  The studio was attached to the rest of the furniture store facility and employed five interior designers.  My design background was very limited.  I figured that if I was going to agree to add that department to my list of managerial responsibilities, I would need to bring myself up to speed with the duties those employees performed.  I felt my leadership would be best served by knowing a little bit more about what those employees were trying to do.  My company would pay for the schooling.  I was single and could add the extra time to my life calendar.  I went to school after hours, studied and received my certification.  I learned a lot.  It was a great help to my twenty-seven year career in the furniture retail business.

Everyone of us has a few things we seem to remember the most from some of the experiences we have had in the past.  I remember a lot from my sports career and the things my coaches used to repeat teaching.  I remember some things I learned in college that have always stuck with me.  I remember special things I have learned in some business leadership classes I took later in my career with the SBA and International Leadership Training.  Certain phrases, concepts and ideas just seem to stick with you from many of those experiences.  They have become part of some of the character we own.  One of those great phrases I carry along with me is one I learned in an interior design class.  It came from a really good instructor.  That is usually how we remember some of those great phrases.  We liked the person who said it.  It might have been a high school coach, a grade school math teacher, a college professor or a business mentor.  We sometimes remember some special phrase they used over and over.

'Always remember just a little bit of black' was one of those phrases that this instructor used a lot and to this day, I remember well.  The other phrase he used a lot was this one, "You cannot invent a new color.  They have all been defined."  That one stuck with me forever.  I use it a lot, too.  When I see someone trying to do something different that does not need to be done differently, I use that phrase.  "You cannot invent a new color."  I try to get their attention to illustrate to them to quit trying to do what they are doing, incorrectly.  "You cannot invent a new color, stop trying.  They have all been defined."  This phrase helps them to see that they may be trying to do something in a way that has already  found its defined success.  Business owners often work hard on trying to invent a new way to do an old method.  I find this kind of work a good thing.  I have found better ways to do many old tasks in my career.  I am one of those owners who tries new things and new ways.  Sometimes I discover a new method to do an old task that works better.  I like those discoveries.  They motivate me to try and invent other new ways to do things.

Operating this way once in awhile can help separate the good from the really good.  I like to be on the really good side of those things.  That is why I keep on trying to invent new ways to do old things.  It helps feed my creativity needs as well as produces a better way to operate once in awhile.  Getting out of the box and inventing some new way to do something can be very useful at times.  I have developed the habit to practice this process once in awhile.  However, if over-used, inventing new ways to do old things can lead to doing some things very wrong.  I know, I have done that more than I would like to admit.  I have made some very bad mistakes while trying to invent a new way to do some old things.  They were so bad that I wished someone had stepped in and told me, "You cannot invent a new color.  They have all been defined."

If I Delay A Decision, I Just Made One

Learn To Make Decisions

Procrastination is a decision.  Did you know that?  If I delay making a decision because I need more time to think about it as I put the decision off, my decision becomes a "no" for now.  It is certainly not a "yes" decision.  If it is not a "yes" decision, it becomes a "no" decision...by default.  If I procrastinate making a decision, it means I made a "no" decision.  For now, it's a "no."  A decision you procrastinate means you are having a tough time saying "yes."  It means "no."  Just say "no" and get onto the next one.  If I delay making a decision, I just made one.  It means, "no, not for now."  The words have just not caught up with the thought.  The action is already in place.  I have not said "yes."  It is not a "yes."  The action is not, "let's do it."  The action is not "go for it."  The action is not "go ahead, do it."  The decision delay is not one of those choices.  It is a "no."

If I delay a decision, I just made one.  Everyone knows that a delayed decision is not a confirmation.  It is not a "yes" decision.  Only a "yes" decision is a "yes."  All others are a "no."  Fess up to it and get on to the next decision.  Quit stacking them up.  They bog down what you need to be spending your energy on doing.  Waiting to make a decision kills the great leadership a business owner needs to have happen.  Decide if it is a "yes" or not and move on.  When a decision comes into play treat it as if you only have one choice.  It is either a "yes" or it is a "no."  That is it.  You do not need to delay your answer.  A delayed decision should not be one of your choices.  Quit using it as a choice.  Decide and move on.  Treat your decisions more clearly.  They are either "yes" or "no", not "let me think about it."  "Let me think about it" is a "no."  Fess up.  Get on with it.  Devote your waste of energy on this one to something more valuable.  Say "no" and move on.

I see so many business owners become afraid of making "no" decisions.  They so want to be well liked that they delay making a "no" decision to remain popular with those who want the decision to be "yes."  The owners put off the decision to remain in favor of being liked.  Those kind of owners believe they have escaped the damage of a "no" decision.  Not true.  They have added anchors to the boat of leadership that has now drilled a small hole into the side of its stern.  Eventually, those added anchors will pull that boat down low enough to begin taking on water through all of the small holes they are drilling.  Their leadership will slowly begin to sink.

If I delay a decision.  I just made my decision.  It ain't "yes."

If I do not match my actions with my deeds, what do you think my followers will think?  If I do not match my words with my actions, what do you think my followers will think?  Owners, you are the leader of that business model.  Act like one.  Make a clear decision.  Be a clear leader.  Match up your actions with your deeds.  Then match your words to your definitive actions.  Quit tip toeing around and be a clear leader.

Picture this wooden boat.  It is made like a small row boat.  It was wooden slats in its total design.  It has one anchor to use to hold it still in a lake.  You can 'park' your boat in one place with this anchor.  You can pull up the anchor and row the boat all around the lake.  Now drill a hole into the side of the boat, just above the water line.  It will not start to sink.  The water is not high enough to leak into the hole on the side of the boat.  You are still safe.  You can safely row the boat all around the lake and never worry about taking on any water.  Drill another hole next to the one you just made.  No water coming in, you remain safe again.  You can drill as many holes into the side of your wooden boat and never worry about taking on any water to sink it.  Drill away to your hearts content.  The boat will still float.

What would happen to that process if you had to take on another anchor each time you drilled a small hole into the side of the boat?  Every time you drilled a hole into the side of the boat, you had to add another anchor.  How many holes could you drill before the added anchors would sink the boat low enough to allow the water to reach the holes on the side of the boat?  Sooner or later, the water would begin to leak into the boat and sink it deeper.  Before long, the water begins to add the weight to lower the boat.  Now the water begins to work against you.  Before the holes were drilled, the water was your friend.  It helped to float the boat.  Now it has become your enemy and it is determined to sink your boat.  You are faced with a whole new set of problems.  You will need to work harder to get the water to quit trying to sink your boat.  You will need to get rid of some of the water.  You will need to spend a bunch of new energy trying to bale out the unwanted water.  As the holes sink lower, more holes will let more water come in.  Lots of holes, lots of water coming in trying to sink your boat.  You will need to bale out water faster and faster.  Pretty soon all of your energy is spent trying to save your boat.  Too many holes, too many anchors and too many leaks.  You are no longer rowing a boat around the lake for pleasure.  This is exactly what leaders do to their business models when they delay making decisions.  Same thing.

How Do I Fix A 'Grumpy' Business Owner?

Grumpy Owners Find Their Business Work Hard To Do.

How do I fix a 'grumpy' business owner?  You don't.

They need to learn how to fix themselves.

If you work for a 'grumpy' business leader, get used to it.  They will remain 'grumpy' until they either learn to like what they are doing or change what they are doing.  Both of those choices remain the sole responsibility of the person who holds the 'grumpy' attitude.  'Grumpy' needs to decide which one it is.  Everyone else needs to get on with what they do.  Ignore 'grumpy' and move on.  'Grumpy' will find something to be 'grumpy' about regardless of what anyone else does.  Go do your work well and quit worrying about what 'grumpy' thinks of it.  'Grumpy' will be 'grumpy' about anything they choose to be 'grumpy' about.  It may be something good that someone did or it may be something skipped that someone did not see to be done.  'Grumpy' will find something to be 'grumpy' about.  That is the nature of someone who is 'grumpy.'  That's what they do.

That brings us back to the original subject, are you a 'grumpy' business owner?  If you are, you will likely learn how to find stuff to be 'grumpy' about even if that stuff does not deserve it.  Stuff will make you 'grumpy.'  That is how you have learned how to operate.  You get 'grumpy' about stuff.  It negatively affects your staff, your customers and your family.  They will learn how to try and avoid doing certain things that really need to be done.  They will avoid those things because they know it has a good chance to make you more 'grumpy.'  Your business model will not be able to get everything it needs from their working habits.  They will deliver only that stuff that they know will remain safe to do.  They will become partially productive.  You will be paying people to remain partially productive.  Forever.  You will be receiving a less-than-desirable return on that human investment.  Forever.  You can replace the persons who slip into that mold and soon discover the new ones did exactly the same thing.  They, too, will eventually learn where to avoid doing what makes you more 'grumpy.'  'Grumpy' business leaders have unproductive staffs.  Period.

If you are a 'grumpy' business leader your business model is not getting the best bang for its buck.  It never will.  If you like that kind of leadership, by all means remain 'grumpy' about stuff.  If you can afford to operate in this day and age with that kind of leadership, be it far from me to describe why you should change.  Quit reading this post and come see one tomorrow.  I promise not to talk about 'grumpy' leaders tomorrow.  You can comfortably leave this one and come back to read tomorrow's post.  That way I will not be wasting your time.

The first step to remove 'grumpy' is to admit how much it is costing my business model.  Once I see what it is doing to my pocket book, I can begin to change that drain.  I need to go to work on some of my bad habits.  I need to learn how to feel when I am getting 'grumpy' and try to address it before it gets too far along.  I think the first thing I need to do is to figure out whether or not I like doing what I am doing.  'Grumpiness' is usually a symptom of not being very happy about something.  Am I happy that I own a business model?  Am I happy about leading people in my business model?  Do I like what I am doing?  Do I like what my job requires?  These are real questions that must be observed honestly.  Check them out.  Try to find out if you like what you are doing.  Maybe you do not like what you are doing.  If you do not like what you are doing, it is going to make you 'grumpy' to do what you are supposed to be doing.  Again, this stuff is not rocket science.  Quit trying to make it so difficult.  You may simply dislike what you are supposed to be doing.  You might no longer like to own a business model.  You might no longer like doing business leadership.  Therefore, when you are faced daily with having to do what you do not like to do, you get a little bit 'grumpy' about it.  You do not like it anymore.

Let's fix that.  Remember how money works?  It gravitates to solutions and runs from problems.  Let's work on fixing this feeling we have come to know about what we no longer like to do.  Let's get a solution to this problem.  The problem has arrived and is quietly chasing the money away.  We need to fix that problem.  We need to find a workable solution so the money feels more attracted to show up.  That is how money works.  I know you want more money.  If you do not want more money, I know your business needs more money.  They always do.  That is one of the true confessions of owning a small business.  Those models always need more money.  It is one of those 'givens' we all learn how to live with.  Learn to live with it.  I know your model needs more money.  That way we have all the right reasons to go find a better solution to fixing our problem we have discovered.  We need to fix what we do not want to do.  We do not like it anymore.  What should we do?  It is making us 'grumpy' all of the time.

Pick A Day, Then Stick To It

Pick A Day, Then Stick To It.

Procrastination is simple to do.  It takes no effort to make procrastination happen.  Do nothing and procrastination appears.  That is the extreme way to become good at procrastination.  I have some things that I automatically place onto the procrastination trail.  In my life those things usually get a lot of my 'do nothing' respect.  I typically procrastinate doing those things that I do not want to do.  Unfortunately, on that long list of things that I do not like to do are some things that need to be done.  When those important things find a place on that procrastination trail, a small collision occurs.  Demand and expectation usually runs right into that thing that is hiding on the procrastination trail.  It usually is not pretty.  I should have picked a day and do that thing I was procrastinating.  I didn't.

I usually notice it does not take very long to complete the work I was procrastinating to do.  In fact, I find it usually takes the better part of one day.  That is about it.  One day of dedication will usually do the trick.  Most of the time, I can complete the project I was procrastinating in just about one full day of dedicated effort.  For the most part, I find that is true.  So why do I skip that day?  Because I am procrastinating.  That's why.

Pick a day.  Any day will do.  Let's say Thursday this time.  On Thursday I will sit down and do the thing I have been procrastinating to do.  I need to produce an employee packet for describing how to do the detail arrangements to our new delivery program.  They want these packets.  They have described how they need a list of things they are supposed to do each time they arrange a delivery set-up for our customers.  It is not a hard project but I just dance around it somehow.  So I will pick a day to complete it and stick to that day.  Thursday will be that day.  I pick Thursday.  Pick a day, then stick to it.

Got any projects you are procrastinating?  Pick a day.  Pick Thursday like I did.  We should pick a day together.  That way we can check to see who really did the project on Thursday.  We can see who still wants more time to procrastinate and who is willing to stick to it.  Go ahead, pick Thursday.  Let's try Thursday to do a single project we are putting off.  I picked the employee 'delivery' packet project to do.  I will do that one.  Which one will you do?  Select one.  Do it on Thursday, with me.  You do yours and I will do mine.  We will check on Friday to see which one completed their project.  Be aware, however.  I picked an easy one.  I suggest you pick an easy one, too.  Or else I will finish mine and you will still be procrastinating yours.  Your project will still be sitting on the procrastination trail waiting for a small collision.  I am planning to get mine removed from that trail on Thursday.

See how this works?  If you have been wanting to complete writing a new song, pick a day and stick to it.  If you have been wanting to call up a close friend, pick a day and stick to it.  If you have been putting off some garden work, pick a day and stick to it.  If you have been putting off an important employee meeting, pick a day and stick to it.  Just pick a day.  Any day will do.  Do not look at your calendar.  Do not try to find a time slot.  Do not figure out when would it be a good time.  Just pick a day.  Do not pick the time slot, just the day.  All you need to do to kill procrastination is to pick a day and stick to it.  You might not actually finish the project, but if you pick a day you have a better chance to get most of it done.  In most cases, all of it will get done.  The problem we have is that we list the project down and pass over it when we work our lists.  We skip it.  We procrastinate one more time.  Just pick a day, then stick to it.