A recent college graduate I know was telling me that he feels pressured in various directions in his life. After talking more about his present situation, along with his history, he admitted that he had been spending a lot of his energy worrying about the expectations and happiness of others—in particular, the members of his immediate and extended family. In fact, though he felt compelled to move to a bigger city for greater career opportunities, he felt held back by the expectations of his loved ones that he remain close and immediately available to them. My advice to him was: There’s no better time than now to claim your own life.

We can only be truly effective in life, or in our career, when we act on our own intuition and respond to our own drives and needs. Sacrificing one’s own happiness and success for the contentment of others is never a worthwhile exchange. Don’t settle for a mediocre life that doesn’t fulfill you when you can live one that puts you on top of the world.

Filed under: Career Limiting Behavior
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It does not matter if you are a college student or a seasoned executive, you are responsible for your own career.  If you are depending upon someone else (a boss or a counselor) to map out a path to success for you, you will be greatly disappointed.

Below are three reasons why you should take control of your career immediately.

Nobody cares about your future more than you.  You have invested the time and effort into your career development.  You need to make it pay off.  If you need some perspective on this put a dollar amount on all the time you spent in school and learning new skills at work.  Add to that any money you have spent on training, books or the cost of your education. Now imagine that as an investment.  If you don’t make that investment pay off no body else will.  It is your responsibility.  Did you just throw all of the investment money away?

Life is better when you do what you want to do.  We all have things that we have to do that we don’t like.  Make it your goal in life to do as many things that you enjoy as possible.  This is how you begin to follow your passion and make your dreams become reality.  Start with this exercise: 

• Draw three columns on a sheet of blank paper.  The column on the far left is the “like to do” column. The one in the middle is the “don’t care” column. The one on the far right is the “can’t stand” column.
• Now carry this paper with you for a week at work. Put everything you do into a column.
• If the number of items on the “like to do column” doesn’t equal the total of the other two columns – you need a new job.

It really is as simple as that.  There are some strategies for reducing the “can’t stand” and “don’t care” columns but it is hardly worth employing them if they overwhelm the good points in your current job.

You will live longer.  Even if I can’t point to a scientific fact that happy people live longer than miserable people – having fun at work will make your work time quality time.  If you enjoy what you do, work time is time you will treasure and actually look forward to.  This will “lengthen” the good times and good times go fast you should be able to fit more into your life.

These are three good reasons to decide to take control of your career.  There are others.  If this post helped you get off your rear end and follow your passion then I’ve done my job.  If it hasn’t then you should look in the mirror and decide what it will take to help you make that decision.

Filed under: Motivation
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This Economist article, which focuses on the wage gap between women and men, makes an excellent point about negotiating:

“Sometimes women are their own worst enemies. Ms. Babcock noticed that male graduates with a master’s degree…were paid starting salaries almost $4,000 above those of female students. On closer investigation, she found that the vast majority of the women had accepted the initial pay offer, but that 57% of the men (against only 7% of the women) had asked for more. Those who haggled raised their starting offer by an average of $4,053—almost exactly the difference in men’s and women’s initial pay.”

Price yourself too low and you devalue yourself. Refuse to settle for less than you’re worth and you send the loud and clear message that you are a valuable commodity.

Filed under: Negotiation
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Fortune magazine reports that the main managerial skill sought by companies today is the “ability to motivate and engage others”, followed by “ the ability to communicate”. In addition, they contend that individual talent is currently more valuable to employers than financial capital or the bottom line. This bodes well for those who work well with people and know how to highlight their own abilities.

Filed under: Motivation
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Once you have set your objectives and broken them down into smaller, more manageable parts, make a commitment to take a single step, no matter how small, every day toward achieving your goal. If you’re swamped with work and you only have five minutes to devote to the task, so be it. That’s better than nothing. Some days you will take baby steps; other days you will move at a good clip. Only by moving forward each day and building momentum will you finally reach your destination.

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Stepping up to the start line is the easy part. Taking all the steps necessary to reach the finish line is the hard part. Achieving goals is rarely easy. If it were, we’d all accomplish everything we set out to do with no problems. So many obstacles can stand in our way—frustration, fatigue, interference from other people, distractions. This is why it is critical to break down goals into smaller parts.

Most people are not very good at working toward a far-off goal while enjoying no rewards along the way. Most of us need periodic motivation and inspiration. A great way to fuel your journey is to break your goals down into manageable steps and track your progress along the way.

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A couple of weeks ago I posted about S.M.A.R.T. goals. Guy Kawasaki weighs in today with his take on goals for entrepreneurs.  He says:

Set goals. The next step is to set goals. Not just any kind of goals, but the right goals, and the right goals embody these four qualities:

• Measurable. If a goal isn’t measurable, it’s unlikely you’ll achieve it. For a startup, quantifiable goals are things like shipping deadlines, downloads, sales volume, whatever. The old yarn, “What gets measure gets done” is true. This also has ramifications on the number of goals because you can’t (and shouldn’t) measure everything. Three to five goals are plenty.
• Achievable. Take your “conservative” forecast for these goals and multiply them by .1; then use that as your goal. For example, if you think you’ll easily sell one million units in the first year, then set your goal at 100,000 unit. There is nothing more demoralizing than setting a “conservative” goal and falling short; instead take 10% of your forecast, make this your goal, and blow it away. You might think such a practice will lead to under-achieving organizations because they aren’t being challenged–yeah, well, check back with me after you don’t sell a million widgets like you conservatively thought you would.
• Relevant. A good goal is relevant. If you’re a software company, it’s the number of downloads of your demo version. It’s not your ranking in Alexa, so telling the company to focus on getting into the top 50,000 sites in world in terms of traffic is not nearly as relevant as 10,000 downloads per month.
• Rathole-resistant. A goal can be measurable, achievable, and relevant and still send you down a rathole. Let’s say you’ve created a content web site. Your measurable, achievable, and relevant goal is to sign up 100,000 registered users in the first ninety days. So far, so good. But what if you focus on this body count without regard to the stickiness of the site? So now you’ve gotten 100,000 people to register, but they visit once and never return. That’s a rathole. Ensure that your goal encompasses all the factors that will make your organization viable.

Click Here to read his entire post.

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Trying to get a job by mass mailing resumes is like performing brain surgery with a wrench and some pliers.  It might work but there’s a good chance you could make the entire situation worse.  For every successful job campaign that involves a bulk mailing, there are 10 horror stories.

Unfortunately, mass resume mailing is usually the first thing people think of when it comes to a job search.  In my mind, this is a “pull the goalie” strategy.  Here are some ideas that are more effective and less risky:

Contact College Alumni. Contact your local college alumni coordinator and ask for a list of graduates in your area.  Look for familiar names and call them.  Reintroduce yourself.  Set aside some time to catch up.  Use this meeting as an opportunity to ask if they know of any positions that might be a good fit for you. 

Another successful tactic is to “cold call” alumni in companies where you desire to work. Ask for an informational interview.  This could lead to a valuable referral.

Volunteer in a couple of charitable organizations that have a high-profile.  Assume as much responsibility as possible in these roles.  This will give you positive exposure to the members of the organization.  This is more of a long-term strategy but a rewarding and effective one.

Contact former colleagues who have moved on. Former coworkers who have left your organization will have some awareness of your talent.  Contact them about potential openings in your industry or even in their company. 

Make certain the industry recruiters know you and know that you are looking.  Do your best to schedule meetings with them and not just send a resume.  Routinely refer friends and colleagues to recruiters for searches (not just for employment) this helps build trust.

As I stated, most of these strategies are long-term.  This is why it pays to implement some of them when you have the first inkling that you may be unhappy.

Filed under: Career Commonsense
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According to Salary.com’s 2005/2006 Employee Job Satisfaction and Retention Survey, 65% of employees plan on looking for a new job in the next three months.

This is a common characteristic of a workplace warrior.  These hardworking folks are the backbone of any large organization. They put in their time and may provide essential services to their company, but they create little individual value. This lack of value creation leaves the workplace warrior subject to staff reduction from budget cuts or outsourcing. Their only defense is to move to another job before these issues catch up with them. They will often change jobs only to find that their new situation is essentially the same as their old one. 

So what do you do if you realize that you are a workplace warrior?   

Click here to learn more about the Career Intensity Matrix and Workplace Warriors.

Filed under: Personal Strategic Planning
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Buzzoodle Ron offers a tip that can help you create new career opportunities.  He says:

“If someone is worth contacting once, they are worth contacting once every 3 months. They will tell you to stop calling if they really do not want to talk to you. More than likely, they get your message and just do not have the time in that instant to reply. If they are like me, they probably have good intentions but sometimes forget to answer an email or voice mail.”

Keith Ferrazzi calls this process “pinging” and it works well for keeping your personal brand fresh in the mind of many of the folks who are your biggest fans – your friends and business associates. Leaving a quick voice mail telling people that you are thinking about them, their business or a problem that they have discussed with you is a great way to let them know that you’re availabile as a resource.

When someone views you as a resource, your value increases.  People who are valuable are presented with opportunities that often lead to great careers.  

Filed under: Personal Marketing
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This week, I have presented five irrational fears:

1. Fear of the Unknown
2. Fear of Failure
3. Fear of Commitment
4. Fear of Disapproval
5. Fear of Success

In additional to the topic-specific suggestions I have offered for overcoming each of these fears, I would like to suggest one all-encompassing strategy for annihilating trepidation in all facets of your life: put a time limit on the driver of your fear.

For people who feel immobilized by worry, putting an expiration date on the time period in question is a very effective strategy. Commit to try a new idea for three months. Bind yourself to trusting the unknowable future for one month. Try on one year of maximum success. When the clock runs out, you are free to choose between returning to your previous way of life or embracing the new. You have risked nothing but a short amount of time.

Filed under: Career Limiting Behavior
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The final fear I would like to discuss this week is the fear of success. Those wanting to embark on a journey to greater fulfillment, faced with the prospect of significant immediate and long-term change, often worry that:

a) Other people will not approve of their new life/career/choices.
b) The pressure of their new life may be too difficult to bear.
c) They will neglect their family, friends, or former responsibilities.

Point A is the fear of disapproval, which I discussed yesterday.

Point B is related to fear of the unknown. Ask yourself why you believe you will have a hard time managing your life once you achieve your aims. Consider the new energy and vitality you will enjoy when your career is unfolding successfully and satisfyingly.

Point C has an element of the fear of commitment about it. My suggestion for dealing with it, which I will come back to later today, is the same that I posed in that discussion on Wednesday: put a time limit on the driver of your fear.

Filed under: Career Limiting Behavior
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The first suggestion in this month’s Entrepreneur article on improving your business is “Make Your Employees Matter”. Think about the times you have worked someplace you felt valued versus times you have been unappreciated. The difference in your performance was probably enormous.

CareerVision.org reported last year that “only 20 percent [of workers] feel very passionate about their jobs”.

People need to be inspired. People need to feel that their voices are being heard. I believe that most of us are hard-working at heart. Laziness and apathy surface when we are not challenged, motivated, and appreciated. Treat your employees, and everyone else in your life, as the valuable assets they are, and the returns to you will be tremendous.

Filed under: Entrepreneurship - General
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“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” –Abraham Lincoln

Whatever you believe stands in the way of your success, the truth is that nothing does. We all have a hundred reasons not to do something. What are your reasons to go for it?

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Those facing a significant life change often experience fear of disapproval. Perhaps your friends and family doubt your new ideas and don’t want to be troubled with you shaking things up. If everyone supports your current lifestyle and admires you for it, maybe it’s best not to change.

Successful people throughout history have been scorned for their choices. Most highly driven people, however, are not all that concerned with what people think of them. By their very definition, roads to great success are usually uncommon and unconventional.

To deal with this fear, practice standing up for your lifestyle. If someone disagrees that your choices are best for you, thank him for his concern and go right on your way. You don’t need everyone’s approval. Being who you are in spite of popular opinion will earn you respect in the long run.

Filed under: Career Limiting Behavior
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Meetings stink.  Internal meetings (events that do not include customers) are most often unnecessary and a waste of time.

If you must have a meeting, Ryan at 37 Signals offers four points to make sure they are not a waste of time.  They are:

1. Begin with a specific problem. Meetings are wild horses that always try to run off course. Yoke the meeting to a specific problem. “Improve the flow on the New Entry page” is better than “Talk about New Entry page.”

2. Meet on site. Meet at the site of the problem instead of the conference room. Get in front of the code, in front of the UI, and talk about it together. Point to real things and suggest real changes.

3. End with a solution and responsible parties. Your next action will be concrete if the problem is solved. You’re ready to go when you know what will be done and by whom. If you can’t find a concrete solution, end the meeting and come back when you understand the problem better.

4. Celebrate, shut up, and do something. Celebrate the solution. It’s good when heads come together and solve a problem. It’s great when they get back to work and build the damn thing.

A few other points:

Short meetings are always better than long meetings.  After the first fifteen minutes nobody is listening anyway.  Get the issues on the table and get out. 

Assign follow-up and accountability.  If a good idea surfaces assign it to someone and set a date for completion right then and there.

Announce when an issue is “closed”.  Saying things like “I think we have closure on this, lets move on” will help end internimable discussions about trival issues.

Again, avoid meetings when possible.  On-on-one sessions are generally more effective. 

Filed under: Accelerants
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In seeking a better life and a better career, many people think they need to add new elements. If you’re not happy and successful, something must be missing, right? I would like to suggest, however, that in many cases, subtracting elements is the key to clarity and focus. When we strip away the noise and clutter in our mind and life, we expose our fundamental core values. Getting acquainted with those, minus all distractions, solves problems and reveals solutions.

Filed under: Self Awareness
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A Business Week article on how to find a great business partner suggests networking as a way to find talent. If you aren’t already networking, start. Excellent opportunities arise from the most unlikely of contacts. Talk about your goals with everyone—you might be surprised at the people and places your people know.

Filed under: Networking
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Fear of commitment is one of the more paradoxical of the five irrational fears. In most cases, a commitment-phobe is worried that in dedicating himself to something, he is either:

a) limiting himself and eliminating the possibility of his doing something else well, or
b) binding himself to something he is not capable of doing.

The root of point B is actually fear of failure, which I discussed yesterday.

Point A describes the agony of choice. These days, we are glutted with options. TV stations, Web sites, books, CDs, cars, mp3 players, even jeans (relaxed fit, slim fit, low-rise, boot-cut?), and, yes, career possibilities.

For those who feel overwhelmed with options and afraid to settle on just one, I have a simple suggestion: put a time limit on your fear. Instead of wasting energy worrying about whether you’re on the right path, why not fling yourself headlong into the area and find out exactly what you can accomplish? Putting a limit on the time commitment removes indecision and gives you the freedom to explore and grow.

Filed under: Career Limiting Behavior
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Businesses often make large wholesale changes without putting much thought into the long-term implications of their short-term decisions.  This happens almost everywhere so don’t try read into this post as an indictment of one firm over another. 

Changes are made to entire departments without a second thought.  Positions are eliminated and divisions closed in response to a bad market cycle. We hear things like “the company is reacting to conditions in the market” or “in this economy we just can’t afford to operate the way we used to”. This is a common story in the corporate world. We regularly see executives blunder their organizations into bankruptcy because of a lack of solid long-term strategy (or even the lack of a short term plan).

We recognize these corporate failures when we see them yet we apply a different standard to our careers. Why is it acceptable for our career remain stagnant for years at a time with zero growth? Why do we have to undergo a major career reorganization every few years by switching jobs?

My friend Mike the hotel manager is a great example of this concept.  He works for a large and profitable hotel company.  He is very good at his job and he aspires to become the General Manager of a large hotel one day.  He has all the skills he needs to do this job.  His performance is excellent (as rated by his superiors and demonstrated by his hotel’s financial statements). The problem for Mike is one of opportunity.  His career has taken him to a point where there are only three or four jobs in his company that meet his criteria (GM of a really big hotel).  Those positions are not only competitive but they are not frequently vacated.

When I sat down with Mike to ask him about his plan for the future (back in 2000) he responded that he was “waiting for a spot to open up” in one of these large hotels.  His boss at the time had convinced him that it was in his best interest to take a job in Peru – temporarily.  Mike and his family moved to Peru (from Chicago) and were very successful there.  In 2002, because a “spot still had not opened” Mike moved to Shanghai, China.  He worked hard and was again very successful.  Guess what.  Still no “spot open”. So it was on to Malaysia for Mike in 2004.  Mike’s performance has again been exemplary.  He has received many company awards yet he is miserable and he wants to return to the United States.

At this point in his career Mike has a dangerous combination of tunnel vision and emotional investment in his current employer.  He feels that if he looks at switching companies he will lose what he has “invested”.  He has also become blinded to the fact that there are about twenty other companies that have positions that he could fill (or could have filled years ago). If you talk to Mike he will tell you that there is more to the situation than that.  He’ll talk about stock options and benefits.  He will mention his 401K plan and the difficulty in switching everything over.  All of those things are excuses.  They are reason he gives himself for not setting a course to achieve his career dreams. It’s easier to “wait for a spot to open” then it is to commit to a course of action. 

It is not good enough to set a goal for your career; you need to have a plan to achieve it.  If Mike sat down and plotted a strategy to help him reach his goal he would have become emotionally invested in his future. This would have opened his eyes to other possibilities that may exist outside of his current employer.  When faced with the choices of taking “temporary positions” overseas he could have looked at his strategy and asked himself, “How does this temporary move help me get closer to my ultimate goal?”

Successful careers require a strategy or at minimum a plan.  A plan is generally a short term path to get you from point “A” to point “B”.  A strategy is a flexible course of action that can change and morph with events to still produce your desired outcome.  To have the career of your dreams in the long term you need a strategy but if you’re stuck in a bad situation you at least need a plan to get you back on track.

Filed under: Personal Strategic Planning
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If your going to call in sick, don’t use these lines (they come to us from Careerbuilder and MSN):

These are actual examples of excuses people gave to their bosses when they called in sick. 

As someone who has been on the receiving end of many bad “sick calls” I can tell you that I always respected the truth.  People never want to feel stupid and using a line like this insults the intelligence of your boss.  In the end, you have a responsibility to your employer to report to work as you are scheduled. 

If you really are sick, you should stay home.  Otherwise be straightforward with your boss. Try to work something out honestly before you resort to using a bad line.

Filed under: Career Limiting Behavior
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A CNN Money article on retirement cites a University of Wisconsin study that “found that an extra $10,000 of wealth increases the odds that a retiree will rank among the most satisfied by less than 1 percent” and further suggests that being involved in rewarding activities is much more likely (roughly 12% more likely) to contribute to overall happiness. Similarly, he who follows a career path merely in pursuit of wealth is less likely to find happiness than he who follows his passion.

Filed under: Self Awareness
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Career Intensity will not be in stores until May 17, 2006.  There is a place you can get an Advance Reading Copy of the book and learn to blog at the same time.

The first 25 people who sign up for Mike Sansone’s Blog Course will receive a free copy of Career Intensity: Business Strategy for Workplace Warriors and Entrepreneurs. 

Not only will you leave Mike’s course with some great insight on blogging, but you’ll also be the envy of all of your friends because you’ll have a book they won’t have for months!

Click here to sign up for Mike’s course today.

Filed under: Career Intensity - The Book
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Yesterday I touched upon the topic of the power to win clients over with personal, individualized service. This is but one of many advantages that entrepreneurs and small business owners have over large companies. Communicating directly with your customers day after day, moment to moment, gives you a tremendous edge. While the big guy and his team hammer out marketing strategy and new ideas in a chain of meetings, you can respond to ever-evolving client needs now. Little pleases a customer more than seeing his requests and ideas brought to life.

What opportunities are unique to you?

Filed under: Accelerants
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Fear of failure can be paralyzing. No one wants to lose respect, credibility, or reputation. However, what you must keep in mind when confronting your fear of failure is that almost all successful people have in their wake just as many defeats as triumphs, if not more. You don’t often hear about the failures and setbacks successful people have faced because the focus is almost always on their achievements.

Bravery has nothing to do with never failing—it manifests itself in going for what you want in spite of the risk of failure. Every defeat affords hard-won lessons. In fact, you can be proud that you earned those. A true winner is persistent and firmly resolved to execute her plan, no matter the obstacles.

Filed under: Career Limiting Behavior
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Successful people, careers, and businesses improve continuously. Superachievers are pleased with their accomplishments but always strive for more. Each win becomes a foundation for future successes. What was your last victory? How will you use it to propel you to the next?

Filed under: Career Intensity Challenge
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Recently, people have been asking me why I blog.  I just put this post up on The Power of Perception and I think it belongs here too.

I am a blogger. 

This means I host a website that I update regularly with whatever I want to say (actually I host three sites – but that’s not important right now).  People often ask me why I blog.  I blog for three reasons.  They Are:

1)      To help people.  I like helping people.  If one person reads one of my posts and it makes a slight difference in their business, I’m happy.

2)      It helps me think.  Blogging helps me crystallize my thoughts.  When I write something, I really need to focus on the topic to make sure my thoughts are “on point”.  Focused thinking generates a lot of good ideas.  I like good ideas.

3)      It’s fun.  I enjoy putting my thoughts in a place that keeps them organized.  I also get great satisfaction out of seeing other people respond to something I have written.

Many people think that blogging is part of my grand integrated marketing communications strategy to sell lots of books. That’s not entirely true.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to sell books but that’s not why I blog.

In fact, I wrote a book for three reasons.  They are:

1)      To help people.  I like helping people.  If one person reads…………

Filed under: Career Intensity - The Book
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Yesterday I revisited an excellent Entrepreneur article from a few months back (October 2005), “75 Reasons to Be Glad You’re an American Entrepreneur Right Now”. A couple of standout points:

• These days, consumers are less trusting of big, anonymous companies and are drawn to more personal relationships with business partners. “Technology in particular seems to have turned customer service into a line of happy talk and useless phone trees,” says Ripley & Thorne Construction company co-founder Noel Ripley. “So now real service is valued more highly than ever.” In a sea of megacorporations and one-size-fits-all customer service models, modern business owners enjoy amazing opportunities to forge powerful and lasting relationships with clients.

• Today, there are 20 times as many formal angel investment groups as there were in 1996. More venture capital is available. Investors are hunting worthwhile investments. That’s where you come in.

Filed under: Entrepreneurship - General
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Each day this week, I am going to discuss one of the five irrational fears I outline in Career Intensity and suggest strategies for overcoming it.

Fear of the unknown is one of the most debilitating obstacles people face. Most people feel secure in familiar circumstances and are not comfortable risking what they have for uncertain rewards.

To train yourself to overcome this fear, start out taking small risks. Track your progress and see how often your efforts result in victory. You will probably succeed most of the time. Get acquainted with risk and condition yourself to take more significant leaps. Trust your intuition, but if that fails, trust the numbers and your track record.

Filed under: Career Limiting Behavior
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Your career is fragile. Your personal brand can take a serious hit if your reputation is damaged in any way. Personal contact with others – particularly when you are trying to convince them to take action – is a moment of truth for your personal brand. You need to be extra careful to when managing these interactions. The five rules to guide you are:

Rule 1: Believe in yourself and have faith in the quality of your product. The foundation for reinforcing your brand during the sales process is a belief in the quality of your product. If you’re an Entrepreneur and you don’t believe in what you’re selling, then you are working in a fantasyland. If you’re an Intrepreneur in the workplace, you must believe in the task at hand – or at least in its potential – in order to feel good about selling it to someone else.

Rule 2: All of your dealings must be moral, ethical, and legal. Each interaction you have in persuading others must meet all three conditions. You have to be able to look yourself in the mirror after every interaction. You should be proud to tell others about a deal you made with a prospective client, coworker, or employer. You should never feel embarrassed by your actions while trying to convince people to work with you.

Rule 3: Your efforts in persuasion must follow The Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. No one likes to feel as though they were played for a fool. You should approach any interaction where persuasion comes into play as though you’ll be treated the same way in the future. Call it business karma. What goes around comes around.

Rule 4: The other person must always leave the interaction with her dignity intact. There will come a time in your career where people will be told to work with you because they have to; or you will win a big negotiation; or you will have the upper hand and have to work with the person with whom you competed. In these situations, you need to allow the other person to maintain her dignity.

Rule 5: The best ideas are their ideas. It’s astonishing how much work you can get done if you allow others to take the credit. It’s even more powerful when the other party believes that the magic idea was theirs in the first place.

If you do noting else but follow these five rules, you will increase your chances for career success.

Filed under: Personal Marketing
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It doesn’t matter whether you are meeting with someone face-to-face, over the telephone, or via videoconference – you need to be able to convince him that you can provide him with something of value. Intrepreneurs, Entrepreneurs, and everyone who aspires to become either must be able to communicate and sell their ideas to others. The first step in this process is to have a quality product. In this case, the product is you and the value you can provide.

One of the fundamental principles of Career Intensity is to demonstrate your value to your customers. There is no better opportunity for value demonstration than when you have a big idea and you need to share it with your customers or your boss. Just expressing this idea in a clear coherent fashion will not be enough to make it a reality. You must sell it to them. You must persuade your constituents that you are credible and that your idea is the best thing they have ever heard.

The need to sell is universal. Everyone in the workforce – whether they are working in a company or as an entrepreneur – needs to be able to influence the behavior of others in a favorable way. In short, everyone sells. So, becoming a master persuader can be helpful in a myriad of situations:

Making a Case for Financing – Entrepreneurs need to secure financing to make their business dreams a reality. In order to obtain the capital necessary to start or expand a business, you must have a solid business plan and you must be able to convince others that your plan will succeed.

Intrepreneurs need to secure financing for internal initiatives. Most of these negotiations occur during budget planning. Many good ideas die a slow and painful death because a manager is unable to persuade her boss of the merits of funding and implementing them.

Motivating Employees – There is no such thing as blind faith when it comes to managing employees. The command-and-control style of management just doesn’t cut it anymore. Even the U.S. Armed Forces are teaching soldiers the “Why” behind the orders. Selling vs. telling is the way to combine leadership with development. This is true for those in corporate roles as well as for Entrepreneurs.

Winning over the majority of the group – especially in cross-functional work teams – is an approach that results in improved productivity and increased dedication and loyalty. Employees who buy into management’s approach to the task at hand will put greater effort into their work. This effort is transparent to customers and often translates into higher sales and profitability.

Creating Alliances – Persuasion is critical in creating alliances among peers or potential business partners. Having friends or allies is valuable in companies large and small. In order to create alliances, you need to be able to persuade others that you are the type of person who will provide them with value.

Building Teams – Every business can benefit from improved teamwork. Persuasion is a critical component in helping create teams and in keeping teams working together. A team has to adopt a unified mindset to achieve a goal. Individuals need to be convinced that the team’s goal is beneficial to them as well. This requires persuasion.

Getting a New Job – If you are in the large segment of the population that is unhappy at work then you will undoubtedly be looking for a new job at some point in the future. A job interview is nothing more than a sales meeting. It is an opportunity to sell yourself. You must persuade your target (the hiring manager) they you are the best thing to ever happen to his company.

To sell yourself, your products, or your ideas, you need to become a master persuader. This means that you must understand how people think, act, and make decisions. You need to learn how to influence people so that you can win them over to your way of thinking, yet effective persuasion is both a skill and a responsibility. Before you can learn to persuade others, you need to understand the Rules of the Road for master persuaders.

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CNN Money spotlights 49 leaders and their philosophies on success. A few highlights:

Approach what you do as a leader, not a participant.
George Shaheen—CEO, Siebel Systems

Surround yourself with people smarter than you.
George Steinbrenner—Owner, New York Yankees

Learn to trust your gut.
Paul Pressler—CEO and president, Gap

Work hard, have high standards, and stick to your values.
Ivan Seidenberg—Chairman and CEO, Verizon

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It’s no wonder that successful people have made it—they’ve been practicing achieving goals all their lives. A superachiever approaches every task and interaction with a desired outcome. When he sends an e-mail, he has an objective in mind. Every phone call has a purpose. He attends meetings prepared to make his case and get what he wants. Successful people know what they want, and they pursue it intensely. They use the momentum gained from attaining small goals to propel them toward larger aims. Practice setting small goals for yourself, and see how larger accomplishments follow.

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Opening up physical and mental space leaves room for increased productivity and goal attainment. The outcome-driven individual seeks to remove clutter from her mind, home, office, and business. Here are a few simple ideas for trimming the fat:

• Sort your e-mail into folders of priority. Leave only the most pressing items in the inbox you face each time you check your messages.

• File away anything not being used at present—in your office, your home, your kitchen, your mind.

• Focus your energy and effort on your best clients and projects. Say no to people and filler assignments that do not move you closer to your objectives.

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Dave Lorenzo is an author, strategist and trusted advisor to some of the most successful companies and executives in the world.

He regularly shares his expertise through his weblogs:

The Power of Perception is a discussion on Integrated Marketing Communications
SoHo Savvy is dedicated to the needs of the Small Office | Home Office Businessperson
The Career Intensity Blog is an ongoing discussion about business strategy for workplace warriors and entrepreneurs

Dave’s first book: Career Intensity: Business Strategy for Workplace Warriors and Entrepreneurs will be released in May 2006.

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In the spirit of the high school eavesdropper, Boulder, Colorado market research firm Umbria is digging up consumer dirt posted in blogs.

“…the application knows that ‘awesome’ is a stronger endorsement than ‘pretty cool,’ and that ‘shoddy’ is less damning than ‘abominable,’ thanks to several employees with Ph.D.s in linguistics and artificial intelligence.”

A Fortune Small Business article points out that while Umbria commands only a 10% share of the blog research market, they have increased automation and engineered linguistic algorithms to refine search techniques and sort comments by age and gender, which amounts to cheaper and more immediately useful results for clients. Pretty cool.

Filed under: First, Best or Different
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Most of us know someone who has a negative take on everything. Often obsessed with stability and constancy, these people dismiss new ideas as foolhardy, absurd, or even dangerous.

Motivations for naysaying are manifold. These people are almost always jealous, insecure, or afraid, and they don’t want to be left behind as you navigate your path toward success.

When I am faced with a skeptic who scoffs at my ambitions, I thank him for his concern and move along my merry way, leaving his negative energy with him.

In the sage words of Mark Twain, “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

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An Economist article from last week reports that Larry Page, co-founder of Google, decided upon reading a Nikola Tesla biography at the age of 12 that he would also be a great inventor but would go one step further and change the world. Twenty years later, Page is several million keywords closer to doing just that.

A highly effective way of attaining any goal, however minor or tremendous it may be, is visualizing success and behaving as though you have already made it.

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Why is it that so many workers feel such a deep sense of duty and loyalty to companies that wouldn’t hesitate to trim them away if a flagging bottom line demanded a snip? What binds someone to a situation in which the company is getting at least ten times the return on their investment in a human resource? Is it the need to believe in something larger than oneself? Are the Zeus, Poseidon, and Athena of yesterday the Intel, General Motors, and Verizon of today?

You are your own best advocate, and you alone are responsible for navigating your path to success. Is it wise to trust your boss or the human resources department to chart the best route for you?

If you have not found what you want in your company, you’ll be doing everyone a favor by moving on to something more suitable for you. For maximum career gain, your ultimate loyalty must be to yourself.

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A recent Forbes article spotlights Zazzle.com, a new Web company that capitalizes on consumers’ desire for the unique. What do you get the guy who has everything? Postage stamps with his picture on them, of course! Customers can personalize T-shirts, stamps with real U.S. postage, posters, and cards, and they are not restricted by minimum orders or long waits.

Zazzle is not the first customized product site, but they have trumped the competition with their high quality, ease of use, flexibility, quick delivery, and attentive customer service.

The one who does the job better, smarter, and faster wins every time.

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Many people stay in jobs they don’t like because they don’t want to give up their employment benefits and “security”. How secure is a person, though, who depends upon the company he loathes to look out for his best interests?

Author and entrepreneur Harry Browne says, “Security comes from your ability to deal with the world, not from a guarantee from someone else. When you know that you’re capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer.”

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K’s Blog reminded me of a critical point that I need to pass along. 

You must set your own goals.

Too many people try to keep up with their neighbors (or a work colleague, or a classmate, etc.).  You need to benchmark your career success against yourself. 

Striving to be “best in class” or to dominate the competition is great.  I’m not knocking being competitive.  Truly competitive people are passionate about what they do.  It is this passion that fuels their drive. 

Playing to win because you love the game is the only way to remain competitive for the long haul.  My pole vaulting coach use to say:

“The bar is only there to measure how high you jump. If you set a personal best and you don’t win the event you have taken a huge step toward winning the next event.  You should be happy with your achievement but not satisfied with today’s results. That’s how you know pole vaulting is for you.”.  

This is the way you should feel about your goals.  If you reach a new height in your business/career you should be happy but not satisfied. If you feel that way then you are on the right track

Set your goals and achieve them because you love the pursuit of perfection in your business/ your career. If you are in it for any other reason, chances are that there is something better you could be doing with your time.  

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“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” -Annie Dillard, author

How did you spend your day? How would you like to have spent your day? What can you do this week to move yourself one step closer to the place you’d like to be?

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The most indispensable employees are those who make valuable and unique contributions to their organization. Many people do this, but few make it known. Here are five tips for communicating your career growth to your supervisors and customers:

1. Keep a written log of successes. Report each one of these in your performance review meeting. Use active language (created, enhanced, streamlined) to describe your work.

2. Reference personal accomplishments in conversation and e-mail correspondence. For instance: “Using the new database I’ve developed, I’ll be able to update you much more quickly.” Respond to influential team members directly—don’t default to going through your supervisor.

3. Update your supervisor with any training you’ve completed or certifications you’ve earned.

4. Get involved in meetings. Come prepared with fresh ideas for improving processes and your business. Meetings afford excellent opportunities to be noticed and heard.

5. Ask your supervisor for new responsibilities. Let her know that you’re ready to move to the next level.

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“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” -Nelson Mandela

One great way to build equity in yourself is through training. Take a class. Learn a new piece of software. Hone your presentation skills. Anything you can do to set yourself apart gives you an edge. Is there an area in which your team or supervisor is weak? Inform yourself on the subject, and became a unique asset to the group.

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Free Money Finance discusses a Kiplinger’s Personal Finance article on debunking career change myths.   If you’ve never read this great blog I urge you to start now.

As usual FMF provides us with some valuable insight.  Here’s the money quote:

“In most companies I’ve worked in, if Joe the finance guy wanted to move to marketing, the finance bosses would see him as not a team player in love with numbers (thus dooming his career there) and the marketing guys wouldn’t want him. After all, who wants a number cruncher to design and run your ad campaign?”

If you want to change disciplines, your current company is probably not going to be thrilled.  If you are successful, they are probably madly in love with the expertise you’ve developed.  They have probably also helped you gain some of the skills and knowledge that have made you successful.  They will want to see their investment pay dividends for as long as possible.  Think about it as a return on investment analysis (ROI) on you. 

The flip side of that coin is if your not successful.  If that’s the case, you’ll likely be signing your walking papers by asking to change disciplines.

So how do you make this work?  One way is to try a “part-time” strategy.  Start by networking with some folks in your desired field. If you can swing it, take a graduate course or two in your “new” field.  These courses will give you some insight and they will also provide some networking opportunities – even if only with the faculty.

I know that this may appear to be time-consuming but making this kind of a radical change will almost always involve some form of sacrifice.  It’s better to sacrifice time up front than money or perhaps your employment later.

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“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” – Thomas Edison

Take a few minutes today to write down three career goals for yourself, as broad and long term or as narrow and immediate as you like. Then think of two actions you can take this week to support each of these goals. Do one of them today. Do another tomorrow. Each day, take one step on the path to accomplishing an overarching goal.

A great idea or goal is but the seed. The hours of work you spend tilling, planting, watering, and tending the seeds yield the harvest of success.

Filed under: Goals, Personal Strategic Planning
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How did you spend your Sunday? Did you relax and enjoy the day, or did you feel a sense of creeping dread as Monday loomed ahead? If the thought of returning to work dampens your enthusiasm for life, it’s time for a change. Wouldn’t you rather start each new week with a feeling of hope and excitement?

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Martin Luther King, Jr., in whose honor a federal holiday was established in 1983, is a model example of a man who channeled his passion, embraced strategic thinking, persuaded masterfully, generated enormous buzz, and persisted in the face of threats, harrassment, and even the bombing of his home during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. He fit several generations of civil rights progress into his 39 years, and only his assassination in 1968 stopped him on his unflinching path toward justice.

In his monumental 1963 speech, he advised, “Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.” He made his dream a sweeping reality. What is your dream, and how are you going to bring it to life?

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I have always been a proponent of setting goals based upon the SMART goal development methodology. Many individuals have taken credit for the development of this acronym over the years and I would love to give credit where credit is due but it is impossible to determine who first developed this paradigm. What I do know is that it is helpful in developing effective goals at any level.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Tangible. A goal must fit all of those criteria in order for it to make your list.

The first quality of a goal is that it is specific. The more detail you can bring to your goal, the more likely it is that your brain will perceive it as real. A great test to measure the specificity of your goal is in answering the five “W’s.” The five “W’s” involved in goal setting are:

The next step is to make certain you can measure progress on your way toward goal accomplishment. You know that your goal is measurable when you can apply specific objective criteria to help track your progress toward completion. The best question to use to test the measurability of your goals is, “How will I know that I have accomplished this goal?”

Measurement has a very powerful effect on progress. Simply put, things that get measured get done. To define how you will measure your goal, ask yourself questions that begin with How much, How many, and How often. Use strategies such as target dates to make sure you remain on track.

The next quality your goal must have is that it must be achievable. In other words, it must be possible. Initially, achieving your goal may seem like a stretch. That’s fine; you want a goal that will make you reach. When you set a goal that channels your passion, your brain goes to work figuring out ways to make it happen. You develop the attitudes, skills, and knowledge that help you move down the path toward achievement. Gradually, you begin to see opportunities that you may have previously missed. As you begin to take advantage of these opportunities, you bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goal.

You can attain virtually any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a timeframe that allows you to carry out those steps. A goal that initially appeared distant and unattainable gradually becomes closer and more possible, not because your goal changed, but because you grew and expanded to match it. The change occurs within you. When you write out your goal, you commit to it. This builds your self-image. You begin to see yourself differently. The work you do toward goal achievement helps you believe that you are worthy of the goal. When you realize that you deserve this success, you begin to develop the traits that will help lead you toward achievement. That’s the power of goal setting and achievement and why you must set goals that are achievable.

Next, your goal must be realistic. To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective you are both willing and able to spend time and energy achieving. A goal can be challenging and still be realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. You will stretch your goals as your self-confidence increases. It is critical to make sure that every goal represents substantial progress. A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a less challenging one because a minor goal requires a low level of personal motivation. Some of the hardest things you ever accomplish actually seem easy because you approach them with passion and zeal.

Finally, your goal must be tangible. A goal is tangible when you can experience it with at least one of the five senses. Can you taste, touch, smell, see, or hear the results? If so, then you have a tangible goal. If your goal is tangible, or when you tie a tangible goal to an intangible objective, you can envision it before it is achieved. This helps program your mind and reinforces the belief that achievement is possible.

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Much has been written about goal development. If you look on the Internet, there are numerous websites dedicated to the development and implementation of goals. Having too much information can be as problematic as not having enough information. In focusing on developing goals that will help lead to success, you must adhere to the principle that less is more. Having fewer goals will allow you to focus specifically on the things that can help you define your future.

There are two guidelines that you must follow in order to make goal setting a powerful tool in your overall pursuit of success. First, the power of a goal comes in writing it down on a sheet of paper and then in reading it every day. The more frequently you read it, or even better, the more frequently you write it, the closer it comes to resembling reality. The power of the commitment that is required to transfer thoughts into action cannot be underestimated. By writing your goals down on paper, they become clear and focused. As you continually read them and write them, you begin to familiarize your brain with the possibility that these goals can become reality. If you write down your goals daily and envision the achievement of those goals in vivid detail, you will begin to convince yourself that these goals are indeed possible.

The second guideline in making goal setting a powerful achievement tool is to always state your goal using positive terminology. Focus on what you are going to do right rather than what is wrong with your current situation. The time for developing goals is not the time for problem diagnosis. Rather, it is the time to picture this achievement in its ideal and unadulterated state. The reading or writing of a goal should fill you with positive energy that you can focus toward a positive outcome. If the nature of your goal is to stop something from happening (or to stop doing something), you should focus on the positive consequences of that action as you write your goals.

An example of this would be the benefits of maintaining a healthy weight. Let’s say that you are 10 pounds from your ideal weight. You are going to achieve your ideal weight by eating food that is better for you and exercising. You will gain energy and feel better. So when you write your goal it should read something like: “I’m going to weigh XXX pounds by XX date so I can have more energy and enjoy life”

Making a conscious effort to focus on the positive consequences of goal achievement will help program your subconscious to aid in your goal achievement.

If you keep these things in mind as you set your goals you will find that it is easier to stick with them through to achievement.

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Another characteristic of super-achievers is the competitive drive they have toward goal achievement. While most of these individuals are externally competitive – meaning they love to compete with other people – there are those who are internally competitive – meaning they love to set and achieve goals. They live to accomplish tasks better, faster, and more efficiently than the next person, or to best their own previous performance. They love to break their own records.

Although some people are naturally competitive about every aspect of their lives, everyone feels passionately about something. People with Career Intensity find a way to channel this passion toward the achievement of their goals. This passion stokes the fire that fuels that internal competitive drive. They tend to this fire and cultivate it so that it burns continuously. Intrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs find new and exciting ways to challenge themselves and keep up the motivation necessary to make their goals a reality.

In most cases, this passion occurs naturally. The goals that these top achievers select are born from that passion. The people who are superstars are the ones who enjoy the process of achieving the goal as much as they enjoy the reward that is associated with the goal itself. For these individuals, the process of goal setting is truly as much about the journey as it is the destination.

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