Understanding John Maeda’s 6 Principles For Creative Leadership

Understanding John Maeda’s 6 Principles For Creative Leadership
By Aziz Ali on October 20, 2011


Leveraging their experience as influential members of the Rhode Island School of Design, John Maeda and Becky Bermont (VP of Media at RISD) have been lecturing, tweeting, and writing about leadership. John Maeda has developed 6 principles to help grow artists to become competent business leaders and also assist business leaders in borrowing artistic strategies. When he gave his Creative Mornings talk at Brooklyn’s Galapagos Art Space, he fleshed out these principles, Redesigning Leadership, a follow-up to his previous work Laws of Simplicity. According to Soulellis:

One can see that these mantras were written as guiding principles for educators or corporate executives who want to learn from artists and lead more creatively. But this is obviously a valuable and inspiring list for any kind of design professional or anyone engaged with creative growth.

Let’s go through the principles to outline the importance of Maeda’s leadership philosophy. Rather than regurgitate John Maeda’s ideas, this post will strive to digest them:

1. Build From Foundations: Even when the end-goal of the artist is to distance themselves from touching their work, Maeda wants to emphasize the need for core skills like sketching, drawing, and having a rigorous eye for studying raw information. This is less about using ‘old school’ design techniques and more about refining and having a method informed by experimentation and the availability of viable options. Having a foundation enables the individual to communicate across cultural barriers and feeds back to enrich a given discipline and its experts.

2. Craft The Team: Maeda is not known for hiding. In fact, Shanghai Daily asserts that he, as president of RISD, is repeatedly willing to work at the school’s cafeteria or helping new students with their luggage. His willingness to expose himself to different people to develop a better idea of what is being experienced by others. Thus, Maeda not only promotes the idea of collaborating and forming a group of specialists to tackle a problem, but he also wants us to get out of our shells to understand how our decisions influence groups of people that we have little to no interaction with.

3. Sense Actively: Sensitivity is important in a fast-changing, hyper-networked world. Sensing actively deepens the quality of our engagement with ourselves and others, making us more aware of our feelings, the details, and context we are walking into. For leaders shouldering responsibility, it forms an emotional bond that fosters an environment of inclusivity and openness.






4. Take Leaps: The image shown above is Patti Brennan’s Hierarchy of Imagination.

Artists take risks by manipulating and questioning why things are done the way they are. The leaps rely largely on their responses to these questions. The overarching point is that while leaders have great problem solving skills and good instincts, they can learn from artists by following their example to find good ideas in completely unstructured environments, activating the imagination, and improving their ability to join ideas. Imagination and creativity come less naturally to business leaders than elements further down the pyramid.

5. Fail Productively: This principle is simple. It points to the importance of rebounding quickly from loss, anticipating failure without the deterioration of determination, and learning from mishaps. This attitude towards failure creates a resilient vision that enables leaders to stay focused on their objectives and hold a strong team together.

6. Grow From Critique: Good criticism feeds growth and confidence. Having foundational principles helps leaders have an easier time dealing with criticism as it gives them intellectual support, especially when the specific manifestations or executions do not work as planned. As Maeda said himself, “the shortest communication path between two people is straight talk” and leaders are masters of growing from criticism.


http://www.psfk.com/2011/10/understanding-john-maedas-6-principles-for-creative-leadership.html

Network Leadership: A Few Ingredients in the Secret Sauce

Network Leadership: A Few Ingredients in the Secret Sauce



Guest post from Kathy Reich

For a while I’ve been puzzling over what makes a good network leader. The traditional models of organizational leadership clearly don’t apply, but then, which models do? The Grantmakers Gathering on Networks provided a few a-ha moments for me about network leadership:
The first leader or leaders in a network are like first responders at the scene of a crash—they’re in charge of making things happen until the structures get set up to fully address the situation. No one tells them to take on this role—they do it because they see the need, or the crisis, or (best yet) the opportunity. (With apologies to the woman in Rafael Lopez’s network leadership discussion group, who offered this great analogy and whose name I didn’t catch!)
From Leslye Louie of Encore Fellowships (http://www.encore.org/fellowships), network leaders “Seed, then cede.” They find other great leaders within the network, then step back and let them lead.
Developing talent within a network fuels innovation. If you don’t share the leadership, the network won’t remain relevant, and it won’t survive.
When you start building networks, you won’t be out of there by lunch. It takes time, and leaders had better commit to be there for a long time. Years, usually.
Network leaders have to earn their authority within the network. No one is going to hand it to you with flowers and a box of chocolates.
From Marty Kearns (http://www.network-centricadvocacy.net/): Networks empower resilience and redundance in leadership. No one should be irreplaceable in a network.
From Eugene Eric Kim (http://groupaya.net/): the route to change is people.
When it comes to network leadership—and everything else in networks, for that matter—there’s a limit to how much you can prepare. You just have to do, because experience is the best teacher. As Eugene Eric Kim said this morning, “What can you do to start practicing, without having to wait to know what the answers are?”

So, what are you going to do next to lead, in whatever networks you find yourself?



Kathy Reich is program officer for organizational effectiveness and philanthropy at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Follow her on Twitter at @kdreich, or check out the work of the OE program at http://packard-foundation-oe.wikispaces.com/.

http://www.bethkanter.org/secret-sauce/

Aspiring Managers: Learn to Behave Like Adults By Steve Tobak | September 11, 2009

Aspiring Managers: Learn to Behave Like Adults
By Steve Tobak | September 11, 2009

It’s relatively easy to be a successful child. All you’ve got to do is learn how to be cute, get attention, and cry when you’re hurt or hungry. Learning how to be a teenager is much harder; I’m not sure anybody’s good at it. I certainly wasn’t. As for becoming an adult, I’ve been working on that for decades and making very, very slow progress.

Everything gets harder as you get older, and becoming a good manager is no exception.

In fact, becoming a good manager is harder than all of those other phases combined. Why? Because, it not only depends on how much of an adult you’ve become, but how adult your employees are. Not to mention all the management and leadership skills that so-called experts and gurus aren’t even sure about - they debate this stuff all the time.

So, for all you relatively new, aspiring managers, and for those supposedly seasoned veterans who are honest enough with themselves to admit that they’re still trying to figure it out, here are three relatively critical but not necessarily intuitive tips I’ve learned by trial and lots of error along the way.

Try to act like a mature adult. As I alluded to above, the best managers are those rare individuals who actually behave like mature adults. What does that mean? It means being as honest, comfortable, and empathetic with your own issues and shortcomings as you are with your strengths and skills. Only then can you do the same for others, and that’s what good managers do.

Do the work - hands on. Work your tail off learning the basics of your trade and industry, whatever that is, while you still can - before you get promoted and lose the opportunity. Why? No matter how smart you are, that’s the only way to get hands-on experience that will engender respect from employees and help you to make effective management decisions down the road.

Become adept at 5 things: finance, selling, presenting, negotiating, and business communications.

Finance. I don’t care if you manage engineering, HR, IT, sales, whatever, you need to learn about finance. Why? Because that’s how companies are run and how business works. Period.

Selling. To sell your own programs internally you have to learn how to open doors, help constituents and peers to make informed decisions, and close deals.

Presenting. It’s hard to imagine your career going anywhere unless you can deliver an effective presentation. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t born with the presentation gene.

Negotiating. Negotiation skills are critical to resolving conflicts, driving consensus among peers and other key constituents, and developing your own career.

Communicating. Great managers are also great communicators; it’s a critical success skill. Unfortunately, they don’t teach you about business communications in school.



http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/aspiring-managers-learn-to-behave-like-adults/2833?tag=content;drawer-container

10 Things That Good Bosses Do By Steve Tobak | October 22, 2010

10 Things That Good Bosses Do
By Steve Tobak | October 22, 2010


As we discovered in 7 Signs You May Be a Bad Manager, bosses aren’t usually aware that they are bad bosses. The fact is that nobody wants to believe they’re the problem. Nevertheless, there’s a bell curve for all things involving people, which means there are few really bad bosses, few really good bosses, and most of you fall somewhere in the middle.

To me that says, for the vast majority of you, there’s lots of room for improvement.

So, if you’re not exhibiting any of the 7 Signs, that’s great, pat yourself on the back. Still, if you really want to up your management game, maybe even vault into the executive or ownership ranks someday, you’d better start doing at least a few of these 10 Things That Good Bosses Do.

Incidentally, this isn’t from some academic study. These are real attributes of real bosses, culled from decades of observation, which motivate and inspire employees to perform at their best.
Pay people what they’re worth, not what you can get away with. What you lose in expense you gain back several-fold in performance.
Take the time to share your experiences and insights. Labels like mentor and coach are overused. Let’s be specific here. Employees learn from those generous enough to share their experiences and insights. They don’t need a best friend or a shoulder to cry on.
Tell it to employees straight, even when it’s bad news. To me, the single most important thing any boss can do is to man up and tell it to people straight. No BS, no sugarcoating, especially when it’s bad news or corrective feedback.
Manage up … effectively. Good bosses keep management off employee’s backs. Most people don’t get this, but the most important aspect of that is giving management what they need to do their jobs. That’s what keeps management away.
Take the heat and share the praise. It takes courage to take the heat and humility to share the praise. That comes naturally to great bosses; the rest of us have to pick it up as we go.
Delegate responsibility, not tasks. Every boss delegates, but the crappy ones think that means dumping tasks they hate on workers, i.e. s**t rolls downhill. Good bosses delegate responsibility and hold people accountable. That’s fulfilling and fosters professional growth.
Encourage employees to hone their natural abilities and challenge them to overcome their issues. That’s called getting people to perform at their best.
Build team spirit. As we learned before, great groups outperform great individuals. And great leaders build great teams.
Treat employees the way they deserve to be treated. You always hear people say they deserve respect and to be treated as equals. Well, some may not want to hear this, but a) respect must be earned, and b) most workers are not their boss’s equals.
Inspire your people. All the above motivate people, but few bosses have the ability to truly inspire their employees. How? By sharing their passion for the business. By knowing just what to say and do at just the right time to take the edge off or turn a tough situation around. Genuine anecdotes help a lot. So does a good sense of humor.

All this adds up to an environment where people feel appreciated, recognized, challenged, and appropriately compensated. So what do you think? How do you measure up on the good boss scale?


http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/10-things-that-good-bosses-do/5868?tag=content;drawer-container

The Relationship Mirage.

The Relationship Mirage

Posted by Doug Weaver on October 19th, 2011 at 4:46 pm

A good friend in the industry recently sent me “Selling is Not About Relationships,” a Harvard Business Review blog post by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson. If the subversively counter-intuitive headline doesn’t grab you, the inherent logic of the post and its supporting research surely will. And if you’re hiring sales talent in the digital world, pay close attention.

Through their organization, Corporate Executive Board, Dixon and Adamson studied more than 6,000 sellers across 100 companies and multiple industries and organized them by selling style into five distinct categories: Relationship Builders, Hard Workers, Lone Wolves, Reactive Problem Solvers and Challengers. Of these five groups, Challengers — those who “…use their deep understanding of their customers’ business to push their thinking (and are) not afraid to share even potentially controversial views…” — make up fully 40% of all effective, high performance sellers, regardless of industry. Relationship builders? They’re the least represented of any group among high performers: dead last, with only 7% of all star performers.

How can this be? Sales is all about relationships, right?

Many publishers have created dual strategies to serve these environments. The CRO and sales team drive the right-brain direct sale effort. The left-brain effort is largely outsourced to a huge cast of players (it takes a village) who manage what is collectively called “the remnant strategy” or “secondary market.”

The truth is that relationship sellers often cater to and support their existing relationships to the point where they begin enabling them. They’ll often give the customer the short term “want” rather than exposing the deeper, long term “need.” And it seems to me that relationship sellers often do best work in tight, confined spaces, where there’s a well-defined buying channel: better yet, a single decision maker.

Challengers, on the other hand, use point of view and fresh thinking to positively disrupt the environment. In my mind, they’ll succeed bigger and faster but — perhaps more importantly — when they fail, they’ll fail faster too. What they won’t do is tread water and be put in a subservient position out of deference to “the relationship.” We’re also in a world where the digital media seller (and media sellers in general) will increasingly have to embrace enterprise selling: navigating through big, complex organizations filled with people with whom you don’t yet have relationships . In those kinds of environments, I’ll bet on the challengers to create engagement and traction, while the relationship sellers may end up wondering why they can’t get their calls returned.

For those who may be thinking, “but digital media and marketing are different,” you’re right. There’s a ton of complexity here, lots and lots of moving parts and shifting alliances. So let’s factor in “complexity of sale” into the equation. When you do, Challengers make up 54% of all high performance sellers; Relationship Builders fall to 4% of the total.

In our business, the safest move is always to hire the Rolodex, the rep with the contacts…the relationships. But with those sellers demanding huge hiring premiums today, isn’t it time to break the cycle? Let’s find some Challengers and give them a go.


Posted by Doug Weaver on October 19th, 2011 at 4:46 pm


http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2011/10/19/the-relationship-mirage/?ref=IMEDIANEWS

Anything Is Possible

Anything Is Possible
Anything is possible (when you believe)
Anything is possible (do you believe?)
Anything is possible (believe!)

What’s your dream
that sometimes seems impossible?
Let the voices fade
that tell you it’s improbable
Hold on to what you love
Hold on to what you Dream of
and you will be unstoppable!

Anything is possible (when you believe)
Anything is possible (do you believe?)
Anything is possible (believe!)

What’s your dream
that sometimes seems illogical?
When you try and fall
your Dream can feel intangible
Chin up, try again!
Stand up and carry on!
and your Dream will become visible!

Anything is possible (when you believe)
Anything is possible (do you believe?)
Anything is possible (believe!)

Hey, hey, I believe!
Hey, hey, I believe!
Hey, hey, I believe
that I am unstoppable, because…

©2011 jen hannah


http://www.nimbitmusic.com/jenhannah/#grateful

Everyone is a Teacher

Everyone is a Teacher



It’s rarely a surprise to learn that successful people are lifelong learners. The amount of information that’s available in our world is growing at a mind-numbing pace. People who have more information gain a tremendous advantage over people who don’t. What many people don’t realize is that successful people are also usually teachers, as well.

Forms of Teaching

There’s a saying that I share in my annual seminar, Breakthrough to Success: “Be a student to those above you, a fellow traveler to those at the same level, and a teacher to those below you.” In other words, everyone is a teacher.

Here are 4 common ways you can play the role of teacher.

BEing. By simply BE-ing who you are, you can teach others by example. Whether it’s demonstrating grace under pressure, fearlessly pursuing your goals, or simply existing in a place of love and joy, being yourself can be one of the most powerful ways of teaching.

Sharing. Even a simple conversation or passing comment can contain a nugget of wisdom that will profoundly change the life of someone else. People sometimes limit what they’ll share with others for fear of overstepping their bounds, being too personal, being ridiculed or other reasons. If you have an impulse to share something with another person, follow your instinct.

Mentoring. Success Principle #44 is “Find a Wing to Climb Under.” In other words, find a mentor with whom you can study. If you want to achieve a goal, it helps to learn from someone who has already navigated the journey you want to take. Recognize that as a successful person, you can mentor others as they pursue the goals you’ve already achieved.

Study groups. The greatest gift you can give someone is a gift of empowerment and love. What could be more empowering than helping others get free of their limiting beliefs and giving them tools to create the life they truly want?

One way to facilitate this change in the world is to lead a Success Principles study group. You’d be amazed at how radically you can change a family, a team, or a business simply by having everyone use the same success principles at the same time. You don’t have to be a master of the principles; you merely need to be willing to facilitate the discussion. Click here to download free study guide to teaching the basic principles.

Formal teaching. If you want to impact the world in a bigger way, if you have a body of knowledge to share and/or if you are truly passionate about a subject, you may feel called to offer seminars or workshops. Teaching is my core genius and one of my greatest joys, which is why I’ve been leading seminars since very early in my career.

When I recognized that I was ready to impact the world in a bigger way, I started a Train-the-Trainer program so I could personally teach and mentor a small number of people each year how to teach others the Success Principles. Students and graduates of this program include everyone from professional speakers and trainers to managers, business owners, and parents who want to share these valuable principles in more structured ways within their companies and homes.

A Key to Mastery

High achievers often teach from a place of service. They know that the information they have may be exactly what someone else needs to achieve a goal. Because they have an abundance mindset, they recognize that by freely sharing what they know, their generosity will be returned tenfold by the universe.

But teaching can also benefit you directly by helping you develop a deeper understanding and mastery of a topic. To share what you’ve learned, you must clarify your ideas, confront inconsistencies in your own thinking, and more closely walk your talk. Most importantly, teaching requires you to read, study and speak the information repeatedly, which reinforces your own learning. “If you want to learn something, read about it. If you want to understand something, write about it. If you want to master something, teach it.” ~ Yogi Bhajan



The World Needs You

You are a unique individual, and the lessons you have learned over the course of your life make you a unique teacher. High achievers learn from every experience, not merely from formal learning opportunities, such as attending seminars or reading books.

The lessons you can synthesize from your many experiences are invaluable. By being willing to share what you have learned, whether through informal chats or more formal encounters, such as seminars, you’ll contribute greatly to the success of the people you touch and the world as a whole.



http://www.jackcanfield.com/articles/career-a-business/item/1050.html

5 Ways to Increase Self-Esteem

5 Ways to Increase Self-Esteem



“I need to increase my self-esteem” is a statement I hear often from my students. Their belief is that once their self-esteem is higher, they’ll be able to achieve more and become greater successes.

While it’s true that a high self-esteem can assist you in creating the life you dream of, the mistake most people make is how they think about self-esteem. It’s not a thing to be increased or decreased, although that is the common terminology. Instead, self-esteem is a verb; it’s the process of esteeming yourself.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, esteem means “to set a high value on: regard highly and prize accordingly.” In other words, the process of boosting your self-esteem starts with deciding that you are valuable and treating yourself as such.

5 Good Habits to Build

• Believe in yourself. The first step in creating greater self-esteem is to believe in yourself. It’s your responsibility to take charge of your own self-concept and your beliefs – including belief in your worth, your talent, your abilities, and your potential.

• Identify 9 major successes. Research has repeatedly shown that the more you acknowledge your past success, the more confident you become in taking on and successfully accomplishing new ones. A simple way to start this process is to take an inventory of your major success. Divide your life into three time periods – from birth to 15, 16 to 30, and 31 to 45. The list three major successes from each time period.

To really convince yourself that you’re a successful person who can continue to achieve great things, keep going with your list. See if you can identify 100 or more of your life successes.

• Keep a victory log. Recall and write down your successes each day. This will log them into your long-term memory, enhancing your self-esteem and self-confidence. Whenever you need a boost of self-confidence, reread what you have written. Keeping and referring to your victory log keeps you focused on your successes instead.

• Display success symbols. What you see in your environment has a psychological impact on your moods, attitudes and behavior. Surround yourself with awards, pictures and other objects that remind you of your successes. Create a special place in your home – such as a hallway, shelf or even the top of your refrigerator – to display your symbols. This will subtly program you to see yourself as someone who has consistent successes in life.

• Keep your agreements. One of the most commonly overlooked ways to boost self-esteem is to keep your word. Every agreement you make is ultimately to yourself, even those that involve other people. Your brain registers agreements as commitments. If you don’t follow through, you learn to not trust yourself. You lose integrity and faith in your ability to produce a result. Don’t undermine your sense of personal power – keep your commitments.

Increase Your Capacity to Take a Risk

To understand the importance of esteeming yourself, imagine you were playing poker. If you have 10 chips and I have 200 chips, who do you think will play more conservatively? You will, of course, because the stakes are higher for you. Two losing bets of five chips each would put you out of the game. I, on the other hand, could lose five chips 40 times before I was out.

Your self-esteem is like a stack of poker chips. The higher it is, the more willing and able you are to take the risks that will lead you to greater success. Use the ideas shared in this article to create and maintain the high levels of self-esteem you need to get where you want to be.


http://www.jackcanfield.com/articles/career-a-business/item/1051.html

Put the Action in Attraction

Put the Action in Attraction




When activated, the Law of Attraction can make it effortless to achieve your dreams. But many people are missing a key ingredient that negates all of the important inner work they do – action!

Law of Attraction teachers Esther and Jerry Hicks, speak often about the importance of the inner journey and the action journey, explaining that one hour of internal work has the same impact as seven hours of taking action in the outer world.

The problem is that many people spend so much time on inner work, that they fail to spend adequate time in action. Balance between inner and outer work is essential.

Here are 5 ways you can move into action – starting today:

1. Develop a strategic action plan. By creating a detailed list of every action steps that you need to achieve each goal, you’ll find it easier to move into action. You won’t waste time wondering what to do – you’ll see it clearly laid out before you. In addition to creating action plans to achieve your goals, identify steps to take to overcome every one of your obstacles – both inner and outer.

2. Follow the trail. Identifying what action steps you need to take doesn’t have to be difficult. After all, other people have blazed a trail for you to follow. If you want to shorten your learning curve, find someone who has achieved the goal you’re pursing. Ask them what steps they took to achieve success … then follow their lead.

3. Rule of 5. When Mark Victor Hansen and I published our first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, we were overwhelmed with possibilities and ideas for making the book a best-seller. A wonderful teacher, Ron Scolastico, shared a powerful piece of wisdom. “If you would go every day to a very large tree and take five swings at it with a very sharp ax, no matter how large the tree, it would have to come down!” From that lesson came the Rule of 5, which simply means that every day, you must do five specific things to move your goal toward completion. (Daily utilization of our new Top 5 Action Cards is the simplest way to ensure that you are taking meaningful, daily action to achieve your goals.)

4. Involve others. If you’ve developed a habit of spending too much time involved with inner work, it’s easy to let yourself slip when it comes to taking action. Sharing your specific commitments with another person can be powerful in ensuring that you follow through on what you vow to do. An accountability partner is someone who meets with you daily by telephone to share your commitments for the day – and to hold you accountable for meeting your goals. A coach can also help to hold you accountable, as well as help you explore what might be fueling your behavior when you don’t keep your commitments. Finally, a business partner can be a tremendous support. I am blessed to be business partners with Patty Aubery, holds me accountable, as well as motivates and inspires me when I’m feeling funky. I do the same for her. We each have unique skills and talents that we bring to our partnership, and we keep each other in action.

5. Check your beliefs. Many of us have beliefs that limit our success – including beliefs about our ability to take action, about our capabilities, and about what it takes to succeed. Take time to identify any negative beliefs that might be impeding your desire or ability to take action, such as If you find that you have negative beliefs regarding action – such as “It doesn’t matter what I do, it’s not going to work anyway.”

Chapter 33 of The Success Principles includes powerful exercises to shift limiting beliefs.

In addition, I’ll offer you something that I use myself: A small sign on my computer that says, “So what? Do it anyway.” So what if you’re afraid? So what if it’s expensive? So what if you’ve never done it before? So what if you don’t have all the information? Do it anyway, because once you take action, you’ll get feedback, and feedback tells you how to do it better.

Remember, the last six letters in the word “attraction” are “action.” If you want to achieve results, you cannot only work on your internal world. You must also take action!


http://www.jackcanfield.com/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&id=1037:put-the-action-in-attraction

Go the Extra Mile For Greater Success

Go the Extra Mile For Greater Success



If you want to really excel in business, school and life, go the extra mile. Give the people around you – your customers, your team, your family – more than they expect, and you’ll be handsomely rewarded with loyalty, referrals, opportunity and money.

Successful people go the extra mile – and they stand out as a result. They get the promotions and the loyal customers. They grow their businesses twice as fast and attract the best employees. They receive financial rewards and job security. Best of all, they go home at night feeling satisfied and bursting with self-confidence.

Don’t Focus on WIIFM
In Marketing 101, you learn that customers are always thinking “What’s In It For Me?” Although this might be common thinking, it’s the kiss of death when it comes to success.

If you want to excel, stop focusing on what’s in it for you. Don’t worry about whether it’s fair to give more when you’re not being compensated or recognized for it. Don’t adopt the “it’s not my job” mentality. This type of attitude shows that you’re focused on yourself, but you’ll see bigger results more quickly if you make other people the focus of your attention.

Going the extra mile shows that you pay attention to detail, that you consider all the small things that really make a business successful, that you care about your image, and that you belong with all the other people who work hard to achieve. You will attract new business and new opportunities.

4 Questions to Ask
Here are four simple questions that can help you evaluate how well you’re putting this principle into play in your life:
What do most people expect? To know how to exceed expectations, you first have to know what expectations are. What level of service do customers expect? What do your vendors want? How about your employees or master mind partners? Look at every important relationship you have, and discover what the minimum expectations are.
Take a candid look at your performance. Do you exceed expectations? Do you surprise people with more than they were expecting from you? Do you look for ways that you could be of more service, or for projects that you could help out on? Or are you skating by, meeting expectations and providing average value?
How are you willing to go the extra mile? What kind of extra service are you willing to provide in order to stand out from the rest? If you aren’t 100 percent willing to deliver service above and beyond expectations, why not?
What can you do to exceed expectations? What added service would your customers love, but don’t expect? How could you better serve your boss and company? How could you provide more value to your students? When Mike Foster ran a computer store, he never let anyone walk out of the store without a box of components. He delivered the computer, printer, modem and other components. He then spent two hours setting up the system and training the customer how to use it. He wildly exceeded customer expectations, and his store dominated his local industry as a result.

Hard Workers Become Success Stories
Listen to any success story and you will hear of someone who worked exceptionally hard to get what they wanted. You’ll hear how they put in the extra time, did what wasn’t part of their job description, and over-delivered on what was asked of them. You’ll hear how they stuck at it until they broke through, and usually you’ll hear how it only took them a couple of years to do it.

What have you been doing for the past couple of years? The same thing? How quickly have you advanced? How quickly has time gone by? Think of what you could accomplish if you made it a habit to exceed everyone’s expectations. Image what doors could be open to you if you decided to be of better service and value.

Be willing to treat everyone like you’d treat your dearest friend. Don’t skimp on service. Don’t be mediocre or run of the mill. Show people what you are capable of. Show them that you care about your image and reputation. When it comes to success, the people who are willing to go the extra mile get there that much faster!


http://www.jackcanfield.com/articles/career-a-business/item/1015.html

Go the Extra Mile For Greater Success

Go the Extra Mile For Greater Success



If you want to really excel in business, school and life, go the extra mile. Give the people around you – your customers, your team, your family – more than they expect, and you’ll be handsomely rewarded with loyalty, referrals, opportunity and money.

Successful people go the extra mile – and they stand out as a result. They get the promotions and the loyal customers. They grow their businesses twice as fast and attract the best employees. They receive financial rewards and job security. Best of all, they go home at night feeling satisfied and bursting with self-confidence.

Don’t Focus on WIIFM
In Marketing 101, you learn that customers are always thinking “What’s In It For Me?” Although this might be common thinking, it’s the kiss of death when it comes to success.

If you want to excel, stop focusing on what’s in it for you. Don’t worry about whether it’s fair to give more when you’re not being compensated or recognized for it. Don’t adopt the “it’s not my job” mentality. This type of attitude shows that you’re focused on yourself, but you’ll see bigger results more quickly if you make other people the focus of your attention.

Going the extra mile shows that you pay attention to detail, that you consider all the small things that really make a business successful, that you care about your image, and that you belong with all the other people who work hard to achieve. You will attract new business and new opportunities.

4 Questions to Ask
Here are four simple questions that can help you evaluate how well you’re putting this principle into play in your life:
What do most people expect? To know how to exceed expectations, you first have to know what expectations are. What level of service do customers expect? What do your vendors want? How about your employees or master mind partners? Look at every important relationship you have, and discover what the minimum expectations are.
Take a candid look at your performance. Do you exceed expectations? Do you surprise people with more than they were expecting from you? Do you look for ways that you could be of more service, or for projects that you could help out on? Or are you skating by, meeting expectations and providing average value?
How are you willing to go the extra mile? What kind of extra service are you willing to provide in order to stand out from the rest? If you aren’t 100 percent willing to deliver service above and beyond expectations, why not?
What can you do to exceed expectations? What added service would your customers love, but don’t expect? How could you better serve your boss and company? How could you provide more value to your students? When Mike Foster ran a computer store, he never let anyone walk out of the store without a box of components. He delivered the computer, printer, modem and other components. He then spent two hours setting up the system and training the customer how to use it. He wildly exceeded customer expectations, and his store dominated his local industry as a result.

Hard Workers Become Success Stories
Listen to any success story and you will hear of someone who worked exceptionally hard to get what they wanted. You’ll hear how they put in the extra time, did what wasn’t part of their job description, and over-delivered on what was asked of them. You’ll hear how they stuck at it until they broke through, and usually you’ll hear how it only took them a couple of years to do it.

What have you been doing for the past couple of years? The same thing? How quickly have you advanced? How quickly has time gone by? Think of what you could accomplish if you made it a habit to exceed everyone’s expectations. Image what doors could be open to you if you decided to be of better service and value.

Be willing to treat everyone like you’d treat your dearest friend. Don’t skimp on service. Don’t be mediocre or run of the mill. Show people what you are capable of. Show them that you care about your image and reputation. When it comes to success, the people who are willing to go the extra mile get there that much faster!


http://www.jackcanfield.com/articles/career-a-business/item/1015.html

Seven Qualities of Master Achievers by Brian Tracy

Seven Qualities of Master Achievers by Brian Tracy

If you think the way successful people think and adopt their success habits, you too can be successful. Here are seven qualities of the top 1% of successful people.

They Are Ambitious
They see themselves capable of being the best. They see themselves with the capacity of being really good at what they do. This was a really big thought for me. It held me back for many years. When I saw people who were doing better than I was, I naturally assumed they were better than I was. And if they were better than I was, then I must be worse than them, so that would mean they were superior and I was inferior. That is a big problem in our society.

We have feelings of inferiority, and these feelings of inferiority are often translated into feelings of undeservedness. We don’t feel we deserve to be a big success. The word “deserve” comes from two Latin words meaning “from service.” You deserve 100% of everything you make and enjoy as long as you get it from serving other people. Your rewards are in direct proportion to your service. If you serve better and serve more and serve at a higher level and serve more enthusiastically and serve a higher quality, then you’ll have a wonderful income and you’ll deserve every penny of it. You must see yourself capable of being the best.

They Are Courageous
They work to confront the fears that hold most people back. The two biggest enemies to your and my success are fear and doubt. Eliminating fear and doubt is the key. The key to eliminating fear: If you want to develop courage, then simply act courageously when it’s called for. When you do something repeatedly, you develop a habit. Make a habit throughout your life of doing the things you fear. If you do the thing you fear, the death of fear is certain. To overcome fear of rejection in prospecting, you must realize that rejection in selling is not personal. Top salespeople do not fear prospecting. Face your fear. Do the things you fear. The ability to confront your fear is the mark of the superior person. If you have high ambition and you decide to be in the top 10%, and you can confront your fears and do the things that are holding you back, those two things alone will make you a great success.

They Are Committed
The top people in every field, especially the top salespeople, are completely committed. They believe in themselves; they believe in their companies; they believe in their products and services; they believe in their customers; they have an intense belief. We know that there is a one-to-one relationship between the depth of your belief and what happens in your reality. And if you absolutely believe in the rightness and the goodness of what you’re doing, you become like a catalyst. You create what is called a transfer, like an electrical transfer of enthusiasm. People like to buy from people who truly believe in what they are doing. People who are not committed to what they do lead very empty lives. The second part is that caring is the critical element in modern selling. Caring is a critical element in life, as well. All men and women who enjoy great lives care about what they do! They have passion about what they do. They love what they do.

They Are Professional
Top salespeople see themselves as consultants rather than as salespeople. When you think of the word “consultant,” what words come to mind? When do you call a consultant? A consultant is a problem-solver. What word does not appear when you think of a consultant—the word “salesperson.” We don’t think of consultants as salespeople. The most successful consultants in America are the very best salespeople of their services. When a person is positioned as a consultant in the mind and heart of the customer, he is not seen as a salesperson. Do people like to be sold? Do people like to be helped to improve their lives and work? So they look upon a salesperson as someone who sells them. Selling is something you do “to” someone, and people don’t like to be done to.

So when you think of being a consultant, here is the key. How do you position yourself as a consultant with your customers? Of course, you act like a consultant, but even before you get the chance to act like a consultant, you build a rapport. And the most simple answer of all, and this is the most profound principle: People accept you at your own evaluation of yourself. Consultants come in and have a cup of coffee. Salespeople wait in the waiting room and have a glass of water. If you say you’re a consultant, your customer will accept you as a consultant. From now on, position yourself as a consultant. Think of yourself as a consultant. Remember, 80% of what you accomplish on the outside is determined by who you are on the inside. How you see yourself determines how the customer responds to you. The customer’s perception of you determines how much they buy and how much they recommend you to other customers.

They Are Prepared
They review every detail in advance. To be in the top 10% requires additional efforts. It requires doing things that the average person is not willing to do. It requires making sacrifices the average person is not willing to make. It requires reviewing every detail of every call or situation before every business meeting. But the difference it makes is extraordinary. Before you go into a meeting, do your homework. Successful people are more concerned about pleasing results than they are about pleasing methods. When you sit down with a client, there is nothing more complimentary to a client than the feeling that you have prepared for the meeting.

They Are Continuous Learners
They recognize that if they’re not continually getting better, they’re getting worse. They read, they listen to CDs and they take additional training. The professional never stops learning. So read, listen to CDs, take continuous training.

They Are Responsible
They see themselves as president of their own personal services corporation. The top people in our society have an attitude of self-employment. We are presidents of our own personal services corporation. You work for yourself. The biggest mistake we can ever make is to think we work for anyone else. We work for ourselves. The person who signs our paycheck may change; our jobs may change, but we are always the same. We are the one constant—we are always self-employed. The fact of the matter is—this is not optional, it is mandatory—you are the president of your own company, you’re the president of your own career, your own life, your own finances, your own body, your own family, your own health. You are totally responsible. We are responsible. No one will ever do it for us. It’s the most liberating and exhilarating thought of all, to think that you’re the president of your own life.

SUCCESS Publisher Darren Hardy presents The New Mentor Package, with his top-selling Living Your Best Year Ever success planning system and three of Jim Rohn’s best-selling CD programs: Challenge to Succeed, The Art of Exceptional Living and Take Charge of Your Life. Plus receive 2 Special Bonuses—ONLY $147! Click here now for complete details or to order!




http://www.yoursuccessstore.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1647&utm_source=ya_2011-07-20&utm_medium=email&utm_content=articlebutton&utm_campaign=ezines

Are You Living Your Passion?

Are You Living Your Passion?


If you want to be fulfilled, happy, content, and experience inner peace and ultimate fulfillment, it’s critical that you discover your purpose. Without a purpose as the compass to guide you, your goals and action plans may not ultimately fulfill you.

I believe that each of us is born with a life purpose. Identifying, acknowledging, and honoring this purpose is perhaps the most important action successful people take. They take the time to understand what they’re here to do – and then they pursue that with passion and enthusiasm.

For some of us, our purpose is obvious and clear. We’re born with a set of talents and through persistent practice, we develop our talents into skills.

My children are prime examples. It was clear from the moment they got on the planet what they were interested in. One son wanted to draw all the time, and he is now in the art world. Another son was always tapping out rhythms on paint cans and dishes, and he’s now in the music world, along with one of his brothers. My daughter is in the literary world, and my stepson is definitely in the business world. They had natural talents that were clear indicators for what they ended up ultimately being passionate about.

For some people, though, it’s not as easy to identify a passion. Alternatively, you may enjoy what you do, but on deeper exploration, discover that you’re passionate about something altogether different than what you do. There are two processes that I’ve found to be extremely helpful in discovering – and living – your passion.

The Life Purpose Exercise

The Success Principles describes a simple process that can help you identify your passion in as little as 10 minutes.

The process involves answering three questions:
1. “What are two qualities I most love expressing in life?” For me, it would be love and joy.
2. “What are two ways I most love expressing those qualities?” For me, it’s inspiring people with stories like the Chicken Soup books and empowering people through my live trainings, home study courses, books, DVDs and teleseminars.
3. “What would the world look like if it were perfect right now, according to me?” For me, it would be that everyone was living their highest vision in the context of love and joy.

Once you have answers to all three questions, you can combine them into a single statement. My life purpose is to inspire and empower people to live their highest vision in the context of love and joy, and for the highest good of all concerned.

To identify ways that you can live your passion, ask yourself this additional question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how actively am I living this passion, or how actively am I living this purpose?”

If your answer is anything less than a 10, ask yourself, “What would I have to do to make it a 10?” The answers that you come up with are the action steps you need to take so that you can begin living your passions on a day-to-day level.

The Passion Test

Developed by Chris and Janet Attwood, the passion test is a simple, yet elegant, process. You start by filling in the blank 15 times for the following statement: “When my life is ideal, I am ___.” The word(s) you choose to fill in the blank must be a verb.

When Janet took me through the process, my statements looked like this:
My life is ideal when I’m being of service to massive numbers of people.
My life is ideal when I’m helping people with their vision.
My life is ideal when I’m speaking to large groups.
My life is ideal when I’m being part of a spiritual leaders network.
My life is ideal when I’m creating a core group of ongoing trainers who feel identified with my organization.
Once you’ve created 15 statements, you identify the top 5 choices. To do this, you compare statements #1 and #2 to identify which is most important. Take the winner of that comparison and decide whether it’s more or less important than statement #3. Then take the winner of that comparison, and decide whether it’s more or less important than statement #4, and so on until you’ve identified the passion that is most meaningful to you. Repeat the process with the remaining 14 statements to identify your second choice. Then repeat the process until you’ve pinpointed your top 5 passions.

Next, create markers for each of your top five passions, so that you can look at your life and easily tell whether you are living that passion. For me, a marker would be “When I’m helping people live their vision I’m giving at least 20 workshops a year for at least 10,000 people total, and at each event, people are coming up afterwards and saying, ‘You’ve really empowered me to live my vision.’”

One you know what your passions are and how your life will look when you are living it, you can create action plans to turn your dreams into reality.

To learn more about this process, I highly recommend the Attwoods’ book, The Passion Test.

Just Lean Into It

Once you identify your passion, you don’t need to overhaul your life completely and all at once. Instead, follow Success Principles #24 and “Lean into it.” Start living your passion, and stay in tune to the feedback you’re receiving and how you’re feeling. Adjust how you’re living your passion, until you feel that you’re living in bliss.

I’ve recently created a new DVD called Discover Your Soul Purpose specifically designed to assist you in identifying your passion and creating plans on how you can be expressing and living your life’s purpose. To learn more about this exciting DVD click here.

http://www.jackcanfield.com/articles/personal-growth-a-spirituality/item/1044.html

Jack Canfield’s Top 7 Success Tips

Jack Canfield’s Top 7 Success Tips

1.) Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life. One of the greatest myths that is pervasive in our culture today is that you are entitled to a great life-that somehow, somewhere, someone is responsible for filling our lives with continual happiness, exciting career options, nurturing family time and blissful personal relationships simply because we exist. But the real truth is that there is only one person responsible for the quality of the life you live. That person is YOU.



2.) Be Clear Why You’re Here. I believe each of us is born with a life purpose. Identifying, acknowledging and honoring this purpose is perhaps the most important action successful people take. They take the time to understand what they’re here to do-and then they pursue that with passion and enthusiasm.



3.) Decide What You Want. One of the main reasons why most people don’t get what they want is they haven’t decided what they want. They haven’t defined their desires in clear and compelling detail...What does success look like to you?



4.) Believe It’s Possible. Scientists used to believe that humans responded to information flowing into the brain from the outside world. But today, they’re learning instead that we respond to what the brain, based on previous experience, expects to happen next...In fact, the mind is such a powerful instrument, it can deliver to you literally everything you want. But you have to believe that what you want is possible.



5.) Believe in Yourself. If you are going to be successful in creating the life of your dreams, you have to believe that you are capable of making it happen...Whether you call it self-esteem, self-confidence or self-assurance, it is a deep-seated belief that you have what it takes-the abilities, inner resources, talents and skills to create your desired results.



6.) Become an Inverse Paranoid. Imagine how much easier it would be to succeed in life if you were constantly expecting the world to support you and bring you opportunity. Successful people do just that.



7.) Unleash the Power of Goal Setting. Experts on the science of success know the brain is a goal-seeking organism. Whatever goal you give to your subconscious mind, it will work day and night to achieve...To engage you subconscious mind, a goal has to be measurable. When there are no criteria for measurement, it is simply something you want, a wish, a preference, a good idea.


http://www.jackcanfield.com/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&id=235:jack-canfields-top-7-success-tips-

Cokelat Turunkan Resiko Wanita Terserang Stroke

Cokelat Turunkan Resiko Wanita Terserang Stroke
Tribunnews.com - Kamis, 13 Oktober 2011 17:40 WIB

TRIBUNNEWS.COM - Anda penggemar cokelat? Jika iya, berbahagialah Anda karena sebuah penelitian menyebutkan, banyak makan cokelat ternyata dapat menurunkan resiko stroke pada wanita.

Penelitian yang melibatkan 33.000 wanita Swedia ini menambah fakta yang mengatakan bahwa kakao ternyata baik untuk kesehatan jantung.

Peneliti dari Karolinska Institut di Stockholm menganalisis data dari sebuah studi mamografi yang mencakup laporan diri berapa banyak wanita makan cokelat pada tahun 1997. Para wanita tersebut berkisar di usia 49-83 tahun.

Peneliti menemukan selama dekade berikutnya, ada 1.549 kasus stroke, dan para wanita yang makan lebih banyak cokelat memiliki risiko yang lebih rendah terserang stroke.

Asupan coklat tertinggi pada waktu itu adalah konsumsi 45 gram cokelat per minggu. Sementara yang rendah hanya 8,9 gram per minggu.

Meski demikian pemimpin penelitian Susanna Larsson mengatakan, bahwa penelitian ini belumlah sepenuhnya bisa diterapkan di kehidupan nyata. "Mengingat desain penelitian observasional, temuan dari studi ini tidak dapat membuktikan bahwa cokelat itu yang menurunkan risiko stroke," jelasnya.

Sebab menurut Larsson meskipun kakao baik bagi jantung, konsumsi cokelat dalam jumlah tak wajar juga akan memberi efek kontraproduktif. "Jadi penelitian ini tidak memberikan free pass untuk Anda menyantap cokelat," tambahnya.

Stroke adalah suatu kondisi medis yang serius yang terjadi ketika pasokan darah ke bagian otak terputus. Orang berusia di atas usia 65 tahun adalah yang paling berisiko terserang stroke. (Sumber: Sehatnews.com)

Editor: Dewi Agustina | Sumber: Sehat News
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Mau Lebih Sukses? Ikuti 4 Kebiasaan Ini

Mau Lebih Sukses? Ikuti 4 Kebiasaan Ini
Tribunnews.com - Kamis, 13 Oktober 2011 21:16 WIB

TRIBUNNEWS.COM, JAKARTA — Dibandingkan dengan laki-laki, perempuan memiliki tantangan lebih besar dalam menjalankan karier atau bisnisnya. Maka wajar saja, perempuan kerap kali membutuhkan dukungan semangat dari sesamanya. Tak heran jika perempuan cenderung lebih banyak berbagi satu sama lain demi menyuntikkan semangat untuk menghadapi berbagai tantangan dalam pekerjaannya.

Anda mau tahu kebiasaan apa saja yang dapat membantu wanita meraih kesuksesan? Simak tips berikut ini:

1. Selalu percaya diri, tetapi tetap rendah hati
Perempuan memiliki kepercayaan diri yang tak kalah dengan laki-laki. Namun, kecenderungannya laki-laki sering kali terlalu percaya diri. Sedangkan perempuan cenderung menyeimbangkan kepercayaan dirinya dengan kerendahan hati.

Kimberly Roussel, entrepreneur sukses di Los Angeles, pemilik restoran 24 jam, klub di Hollywood, dan perusahaan katering berbagi kiatnya. Roussel meyakini, kepercayaan diri yang ditanamkan orangtuanya sejak kecil membuatnya lebih berani mengambil risiko dan mampu mengatasi rasa takut. Begitu rasa takut dan kekhawatiran mengenai berbagai hal teratasi, atau bahkan hilang, dunia lebih terbuka dengan Anda melalui berbagai cara yang tak pernah disangka, katanya.

2. Memonitor emosi
Emosi bisa menjadi sumber masalah di tempat kerja. Apalagi jika Anda tak mampu mengendalikan dan memonitor emosi. Boleh juga belajar dari pria mengenai sikapnya yang cenderung tak menanggapi suatu masalah secara personal. Karena dengan cara itu, Anda takkan terlibat dalam masalah emosi di tempat kerja.

Johnson Mandell, penulis buku best seller "Career Comeback" menyarankan jika emosi mulai menguasai diri di tempat kerja sebaiknya beri waktu untuk diri sendiri.

"Pergi saja ke toilet, tenangkan diri sendiri," jelas Mandell. Namun, jika hal ini terlalu sering dilakukan, artinya Anda selalu mengalami masalah emosi di kantor. Kalau sudah seperti itu, ada baiknya evaluasi kembali situasi kerja di kantor Anda. Boleh jadi bukan suasana hati Anda yang bermasalah, melainkan memang situasi kantor yang tak kondusif.

3. Terstruktur dan terorganisasi
Untuk mencapai target pekerjaan yang diharapkan, bahkan oleh diri Anda sendiri, Anda harus mengatur strategi. Lakukan semua pekerjaan dengan terstruktur dan terorganisasi dengan baik. Buat daftar pekerjaan yang harus Anda selesaikan setiap harinya, dan fokus untuk menuntaskannya dengan baik.

Samira Asemanfar, pendiri salon di Los Angeles, mengatakan, bekerja memerlukan persiapan. Dan, persiapan tersebut sudah dilakukan Asemanfar setiap sore.

"Saya selalu mengevaluasi diri setiap sore, apa yang sudah saya lakukan hari ini. Apa yang harus saya selesaikan besok, dan apa saja urutan pekerjaannya," tuturnya.

4. Meningkatkan kemampuan berkomunikasi
Perempuan secara alami memiliki kemampuan komunikasi. Bahkan, sosok perempuan introvert sekalipun mampu berkomunikasi. Meski begitu, kemampuan komunikasi pada perempuan tetap perlu ditingkatkan.

Kunci suksesnya bukan pada kemampuan berbicara, melainkan lebih kepada kehati-hatian dalam berbicara atau berkomunikasi. Agar sukses dalam pekerjaan, perhatikan hal detail, termasuk dalam berkomunikasi. Hindari salah bicara, atau salah menuliskan hal kecil yang berdampak terhadap pencitraan Anda.

Maseena Ziegler, penulis buku best seller di Hongkong berjudul "Ladies Who Launch in Hong Kong" mengatakan, tanamkan dalam diri bahwa Anda adalah perempuan cerdas, memiliki tutur bahasa yang baik, dan berkualitas. Sikap positif ini akan membantu Anda untuk menghindari berbagai kesalahan kecil dalam komunikasi, yang bisa merusak citra Anda. Karena jika terlalu sering berbuat kesalahan dalam ucapan atau saat berbicara, menunjukkan karakter yang tak teliti dan tidak mempedulikan sesuatu secara mendetail.

Editor: Dewi Agustina | Sumber: Kompas.com
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