Accomplishment Coaching

Are you producing or consuming?

If you own a business and have employees, you’ll want to read this.

If you volunteer your time with charitable organizations, schools or other public organizations, you’ll want to read this.

If you’re a “solo-preneur” working to produce results, you’ll want to read this too.

If you engage the media in some way, shape or form, it’s likely you’re in the midst of a training process.  If you respond to direct mail or advertising by clipping your coupons and certificates, it’s likely you’re in the midst of a training process.  If you watch the news and form certain perceptions of the people you see reported about, it’s likely you’re in the midst of a training process.

A training process that, although completely legitimate and okay, is likely doing damage to your ability to produce money, time, power, love, compassion, results, and life.

You may be rolling your eyes and saying to yourself, “Preston has finally gone off the deep end now.”  No problem.  If you are, this would be a good place to stop reading.

Here’s where I’m going with this idea:

In the age of us being bombarded by information, we are involuntarily put in the position of being consumers of this information.  It shows up without us asking for it, at any time, on any day of the month, and in almost any environment.  Through the consistency of this bombardment, we cannot help but be in a training process to consume more.

Can this really be true?  Just ask the neighbors or friends you have who are in the advertising industry.  They’ve built fortunes from you and me being in this training process.

So, I’m not here to bash the advertising and marketing industries.  I’m in business for myself and I work everyday to meet professionals who will consume my services.  It’s how all of us will eat today in some manner.

However, I invite you to get some altitude on the concept and look at it from 50,000 feet rather than 500.

How can being trained as a consumer disrupt or hinder what you’re up to?

Consider that by being trained consistently and reliably as a consumer, we begin to lose our ability to produce.  We learn through this training process that everything is available for us; that it can be delivered right to our door; that if one place doesn’t have what we’re looking for another will.

This training process begins to dissolve our ability and motivation to create.  It has us become lazy, unmotivated, and (here’s the nasty part) slip into the role of irresponsibility or victim-hood.

Yes, victim-hood.

As a business professional and leader, how often do you work with, manage or lead others?  How many people have you found unmotivated, uninspired and, at times, incapable of producing even modest results?

Personally, how often do you notice those characteristics in yourself?

What stands in the way of you and your team producing results isn’t the economy, your prospects, your industry, the weather, the government, your employees or your mother-in-law.  It’s that you, your team, me and most of our culture has been trained to consume rather than produce.  It’s a “what’s in it for me” culture.  This is a great concept to leverage as a marketer, and in my opinion, it’s not a great concept to deal with when working with others to produce results.

Leadership Practices:

So, what can you do, or who can you be, to “un-train” yourself and your team?  Here are a few ideas:

• When you experience an employee doing just enough work to get by, ask “What would be available for you if you took that one, extra step”?
• When you notice your sales team complaining they don’t have enough resources to perform better, ask them “What resource are you able to create to support your efforts”?
• When you see that you consistently get stopped by negative judgments or interpretations of the economy or industry, ask yourself “What am I capable of producing in this moment”?
• When you notice you or your team depending more on hopes, wishes and prayers to make things happen, ask “What are we willing to declare and fulfill upon this week”?

Success isn’t about getting home runs all the time.  That may be what you’ve been trained to understand when you consume the information that’s put out by media and marketing sources.

Success is about getting up to the plate, declaring a result, taking the action aligned with producing that result, and being with whatever result occurs.  Then do it all over again.

Or you can choose to sit in the stands and watch the game and hope the hot dog vendor comes soon to satisfy your hunger.

Happy Producing,

-  Coach Preston

Preston True Career Development, Leadership Development, Marketing BNI, Business Development, Client Development, Coaching, Entrepreneur, Facebook, Leadership, LinkedIn, Professional Development, Sales and Marketing, Twitter

What hole have you dug?

Stan’s business had been booming for years.  Recently it’s been taking a beating.  Clients have been slow to pay, more prospects are saying “no thanks”, and the constant concern of missing payroll keeps him up most evenings.

“What changed?” he kept asking.  “Things were terrific just six months ago.  I just need to dig in and put all my energy into my business.”  Stan spent the next six months toiling in his business with little results, even though he poured everything he had into it.  That’s when he and I met.

How frequently do all of us follow a similar path… we find something’s not working and we “dig in and put all our energy into our business”, then find we dig ourselves a deeper hole?

In my experience working with business owners and professionals, there are two theories as to why this forced myopia method doesn’t work:

1. The myth of individualism
2. Biomutualism

The Myth of Individualism - this myth defines our belief that our success is dependent entirely on ourselves.  In other words, if I’m going to win, it’s all up to me. 

This is truly a myth.  If it weren’t, we’d see millions of sole proprietorships develop into large and profitable organizations regularly.  Instead, we have millions of sole proprietorships, many of whom struggle.

Biomutualism - Although founded in biology, this theory proposes that with biology and another discipline: a) each discipline advances the other, and b) collective discoveries emerge beyond a single field.  In other words, we can produce results AND learn when we embrace diversity and collaboration. 

I want to take this a step further to propose that in the realm of business and self-development, we will produce the results we want if we break out of our tendency toward myopia and individualism.

In Stan’s case, instead of “digging in and putting all his energy into his business”, we had him create a project separate from his business - a fundraising event for a charity he loves.

In the process of developing a team, mapping out the results plan, and engaging his team in taking action to raise money for the charity, his business began to turn around.  What made the difference?

According to Stan, several factors made the difference:

1. The fundraising project forced him to collaborate with a team.  This project demanded a short time frame and Stan knew he couldn’t raise the amount of money he wanted alone in that time frame.
2. The fundraising project required Stan to explore new ways of asking for money by first identifying the myriad of reasons someone would or wouldn’t donate, then revising his approach based on his findings.
3. The fundraising project exposed some of Stan’s “weaknesses” in leadership that he so skillfully hides in his business.  Doing things independently (being a loner), demanding rather than requesting, and operating without a clear and detailed plan would not work.  Those habits had to change or the fundraising project would die.

And they did.  Once Stan started learning what worked in his fundraising project, he began applying that learning to his business.  Eight months later, his business is back on track.

Leadership Practices:

1. Create a project in an area of life that will inspire you - separate from your business.
2. Assess what habits do and don’t support you in your business through self-assessment and the feedback of others.
3. Choose one area of your business in which to collaborate this month.
4. Look for related learning in seemingly disparate areas of your life.

Like Stan, you’ve created success on your own that you can be proud of.  Perhaps the next step to creating breakthrough results lies in diversity and collaboration.

Happy New Perspectives,

- Coach Preston

Preston True Career Development, Leadership Development, Marketing BNI, Business Development, Career Development, Client Development, Facebook, Leadership, LinkedIn, Personal Development, Sales and Marketing, Social Networking, Twitter

Where do you stop?

WARNING: This post is a call to action, not a warm and fuzzy.  Read at own risk.

 

Yet again, MSNBC has done a wonderful job in capturing our attention by leveraging that powerful little human emotion called fear… “Older job seekers struggling with age barrier“.

As much as I cringe at what I imagine to be sensationalism, perhaps there is some truth to the story. 

Many folks find themselves out of work these days.  It’s frustrating, exhausting and often depressing.  It seems as though there’s a shrinking inventory of available opportunities as well.  Is there really a light at the end of this tunnel?

Yes there is, but it’s surely not being created by employers.

You see, an article like the MSNBC one paints a picture of employers being the bad guys.  Age, race, religion and gender are just the beginning of possible discrimination.  And, yes it does happen unfortunately.

However, I invite all of us to look at not just the content of this story, but most importantly at the CONTEXT of this story. 

For me, the context is about job seekers being at the effect of circumstances - i.e. age, race, gender, experience, current economy, industry, etc.  Yet, I see a myriad of job postings on the career websites I frequent, talk to many HR folks who say “I’m struggling to fill this open position”, and hear many stories of people finding employment.  So what gives?

Consider that in any situation, context is NOT the truth, but a possible interpretation.

So what if we really took that sentence to heart?  Now what?

Here’s what I mean…

The economy is challenging right now, not just in Detroit, but across the nation.  Finding a job is more complex and requires more time than it used to.  Fear is the most common emotion we experience these days.  But I have one question for you…

Is that where you stop?

Because if you stop, especially in this economy, you’re screwed.  If you stop because you feel that age, gender, race, money, industry, economy or geography is an issue, you will NOT find employment.  What you will do is spend the majority of your time blaming others for your woes.

This applies to me and the rest of the self-employed as well.  None of us can afford to stop now.  Sure, we’ve got about as many external circumstances as we could ever want as evidence to stop, but that will not do.

For those who have found new employment, new clients, new projects and new money have simply not stopped.  They keep going every day, creating the next opportunity, having the next conversation, scheduling the next meeting, reading the next book.  They don’t stop.

Leadership Practices:

In service of building your muscles around not stopping, please answer these questions and consider these actions…

1. What’s that uncomfortable place you just won’t go?
2. By not going there, what story about you is kept in place?
3. Based on that story, what are you really committed to?
4. Write a letter to yourself two years from now, reflecting back on the past two years.  What will your “two years ahead” self be telling your “today” self?
5. What five people will you call today to generate a conversation about possibility?  Do it again tomorrow.  Then again, and again, and again.
6. Create a structure for support to keep you empowered and in action such as our career coaching program.

Your next opportunity may arrive in your lap by surprise, but only after you’ve taken the action to create the circumstances that would have it happen.

Happy Action,

- Coach Preston

Preston True Career Development, Leadership Development, Marketing Career Development, Coaching, Entrepreneur, Facebook, Faith and Business, LinkedIn, Personal Development, Social Networking, Twitter

Can I trust this?

Yet again, LinkedIn Answers creates fuel for thought.  These three questions were asked recently and brought up a powerful conversation about trust:

There are likely a million ways to answer these.  Here are two:

• “Deciding” to trust is actually an oxymoron.
• Trust is a gift you give, not one you get.

First, if you consider the roots of the word “decision”, you’ll find it’s defined as “to kill” (i.e. “de” = of, “cide” = to kill or killer).  When we “decide” to trust, we actually build a case with evidence of whether someone or something is trustworthy or not.  If we find evidence they are trustworthy, we’ll trust them.  If we find evidence otherwise, we’ll figuratively “kill them off” (not trust them).

Second, consider that we as human beings are actually already related 100% in everyway possible.  We have hearts that love, lungs that energize and dreams that pull us forward.  In other words, we’re the same thing, regardless of culture, skin color or ideology.

But it’s our minds that mess us up, especially around trust.  Our minds create, store and fuel our stories.  Stories about how Bob didn’t do what he said he would when he said he would do it.  Stories about how Sally’s upbringing makes her a mean person.  Stories about how someone did something that didn’t meet my expectation so now they’re untrustworthy.

This is all a farce.  Our stories are simply interpretations of how things went or will go.  Our stories are a completely unreliable source of truth.  Our stories are exactly what keep us from trusting one another.

So, perhaps what there is to do is simply offer our trust as a gift.  When we offer it as a gift, we:

• give our trust without a story
• give our trust without killing anything or anyone off
• build our ability to be with risk
• create powerful relationships
• empower the person we give trust to follow thru without the fear of negative consequences

Yes, trust truly is a powerful tool as is a hammer.  Both can be used to build and to destroy.  Practice giving your trust as a gift and you might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Leadership Practices:

• Choose three people this week to whom you’ll offer your trust as a gift (i.e. with no expectation of repayment)
• Journal about your experience; the struggle, the doubt, the anxiety, the stories and the results
• Rinse and repeat.

Happy Gifting,

- Coach Preston

Preston True Leadership Development, Spirituality Client Development, Coaching, Facebook, Leadership, Personal Development, Sales and Marketing, Spirituality, Twitter

Better than push-ups

Last night I attended a workshop hosted by Corey Perlman, the author of eBoot Camp.  I thought I knew a thing or two about Facebook and a ton or two about LinkedIn (not so much with Twitter).

Within 15 minutes, I knew two things:  a) I had better put down my ego, and b) find the seatbelt that came with my seminar chair as we’re floorin’ it!

Here’s just one of the 100+  nuggets I learned last night:

Did you know that you can actually do a keyword search in not only Google, but within LinkedIn as well? 

Why would you want to do that?  By identifying the most popular keywords that apply to your product or service, you can design your LinkedIn profile, website or blog to use those words… which leads to more traffic to your site.

The best part of this… it’s free to find those words.  I’ve had SEO (search engine optimization) experts quote thousands of dollars to do the same thing.  Just one of the gold nuggets that came out of Corey’s seminar.

If you’re wondering how to make the major social networking sites work for you without them draining all of your time or learning capacity, I highly recommend reading Corey’s book and attending his eBoot Camp seminar.

Happy Tweets,

-Coach Preston

Learn more about Corey at:

http://www.coreyperlman.com/

http://www.ebootcampbook.com/

http://www.facebook.com/coreyperlman

http://twitter.com/coreyperlman

Preston True Marketing Business Development, Entrepreneur, Facebook, LinkedIn, Professional Development, Sales and Marketing, Social Networking, Twitter