759 words. Abstract: Salespeople have a blind side, just like quarterbacks. A simple 3-step approach allows catastrophes to be avoided before your sales are sacked.

Are you prepared for what’s going to “get you” tomorrow? I’m not suggesting you live in fear or continually look over your shoulder. Yet I’m puzzled why people, especially salespeople, don’t invest in preparing for what they KNOW is bound to happen.

The movie The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock made people aware of the value of the left tackle. Most people might correctly assume that the quarterback would be the highest-paid member of a football team. What fewer people know is that the left tackle is often the second highest-paid member. Their job is to protect the right-handed quarterback from the rusher they know is coming from their left — their blind side. Football teams pay for protection — insurance, if you will — to prevent predictable problems before they happen. They know it pays to take the long view.

Tackle the Investment
Not taking a longer view is costly. You’ll waste important opportunities, and experience frustration, stress, and unneeded expense. Conversely, when you prepare to protect your blind side, you’ll gain confidence, make better use of your time, and enjoy more money and other rewards. You’ll find yourself long on success and short on failures.

Yet few people invest in protecting their blind side. Although they know specific problems will likely happen, they’re content to deal with them when they arrive. It’s hard not to fall into that mind-set today. Our fast-paced lifestyle makes it hard to do everything we know we should do, and fewer resources (“doing more with less”) further exacerbate these situations. Yet many times we erroneously choose to do the conveniently urgent instead of the strategically important work that will deliver consistently powerful performance.

If you’d like to avoid getting blindsided (again), consider using this three step approach.

I. Get Real
When you consider all of the places that problems can come from, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. Gain some control by evaluating the threats; then you can focus on the ones with catastrophic consequences.

The odds are exceptionally high that the money you recently spent on your life insurance premium will be wasted today, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have invested in that payment because, if you did die today, the consequences could be catastrophic for your family.

While most of your business decisions don’t include death as a consequence, some are pretty serious. For instance:

• Have you been selling to the “wrong” decision maker?
• Does your new client really have the ability to pay you?
• Will the objection you’re not prepared for tank your sale in the 11th hour?

Get real about your potential problems by evaluating their threat levels and then making sure you have prepared to pre-empt catastrophe.

II. Get Records
Once you’re aware of the potential catastrophes coming from your blind side, make plans in advance of them happening to avert them. By “get records”, I mean to write your plans down. Put every action plan into permanent media, a record of what will happen. Like records on a turntable, you want them to be repeatable and accessible. You want to be able to get your hands on the plans you want to use and the tactics you’ll employ at a moment’s notice.

III. Get Ready
Once you’ve evaluated potential threats and isolated the plans and tactics in the form of records that will help you avert them, it’s time to prepare. Review the records on a regular basis to ensure you’ll know how to foil impending catastrophe. Practice those tactics that will help you handle that objection you know is coming, or confirm you are indeed talking to the decision maker. Play your records over and over again so you don’t have to think about them.

Be Comfortable, Not Stupid
If you find yourself blindsided more often than you deem comfortable, you probably haven’t taken time to objectively assess impending threats. We all have too much to do, but don’t let that excuse doom you. When you take time to sit down and assess potential threats, you’ll discover that relatively few carry catastrophic consequences. Once you get clear on what those consequences are, you’ll find yourself motivated to address them… in advance.

If you want to be the highest-paid member of your sales team, you can’t do it if your blind side isn’t protected. Your company can’t hire you a left tackle, so you’ll need to put your own plans in place. If you’re ready to bring more power to your selling game, it’s time to Get Real, Get Records, and Get Ready.

Click to learn more.

© 2010 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson is an expert on ConsultativeSelling and co-author of the new Top Dog Recession-Busting Sales Secrets; get it at http://tinyurl.com/recessionbust. Learn about Consultative Selling at http://consultativeselling.com

Note: This article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

A Question for your Comments: When did your preparation pay off when a potential catastrophe came knocking on your door?

1,190 words. Abstract: Performance improvement can be easy when you avoid your uphill battles. Get past the three myths that are thwarting the success of you and your team.

Who doesn’t get frustrated once in awhile? Either we’re disappointed with our own failure to achieve a goal, or with the failure of someone else we were counting on to perform.

• We work hard and achieve a deadline, but we know the quality of our work has fallen short.
• We’re counting on someone to hit their sales target, but revenues will fall short… again.
• We’ve shown someone over and over how to do something new, but they just don’t “get it.”

Many of us are challenged with the performance improvement of someone, whether that someone is someone else or ourselves. If you’re frustrated in your efforts to reach goals, perhaps you need a better plan for achieving results.

While many factors affect performance improvement, one subtle aspect is often overlooked. By recognizing and managing this aspect, you have an opportunity to avoid the frustration and wasted effort that otherwise occurs. This may be your chance to avoid repeating the same failure-inducing mistake over and over again.

Stop Mything Out

Three myths stand in the way of recognizing and applying a solution. The first myth is the common promotion of the idea that education and skill-building results in success. While those factors are important, we need to accept that learning a topic does not mean you’re assured of applying it successfully, especially in a competitive environment. Going to a training class will help you gain additional skills, but at some point performance improvement plateaus regardless of how much training is received. Yes, education and training support success, but there is more.

The second myth is that hard work is necessary for success. Instead, I contend that most people work too hard but don’t practice enough. If the work is hard, I suggest you may be wasting your efforts on the wrong work. On the other hand, when you find work that is fun and easy for you, continual practice will lead to higher and higher levels of performance improvement. Your practice must be focused on work that is right for you. Work easy and practice hard.

The third myth is that people assume that people who succeed in one area know how to succeed in them all. We see this all the time when people get promoted. Those that fail to achieve in their new roles are scrutinized for their failures. We wonder what’s wrong with them, when there may be nothing wrong with them at all. It’s silly to assume anyone can be good at everything we ask of them. I can tell you from first-hand experience that it IS hard to say “no” when presented with an “opportunity.”

Picture the Perfect Pachyderm

One key insight can help us resolve all these myths and help us understand where and how performance improvement is truly possible. I wish I could take credit for this idea, but it really comes from nature. I guess we could call it a big idea, because I learned it from studying elephants.

These days you rarely hear the words “war” and “elephant” in the same sentence. Yet War Elephants were an important combat tool in Asia and the Mediterranean centuries ago. Armies would enlist elephants to participate in the charge against the enemy to instill fear and breakup their lines. And fearful the enemy should be. Unlike horses, elephants have no reservations about trampling humans. Their thick skins made them relatively difficult to wound with common weapons of the time, and their strength allowed them to carry armor to make that possibility even more remote. Then, to literally top things off, soldiers would strap a mini-fort, called a howdah, to the top of the elephant. Here, a handful of archers could reside with a birds-eye view of their opponents.

Many of us have heard of the Carthaginian general Hannibal. He is noted for taking his army over the Alps to attack the Roman Empire from the north in a surprise attack. In addition to 40,000 troops, Hannibal brought several dozen War Elephants to Europe to traverse the Alps. Unfortunately, Hannibal wasn’t aware of a significant shortcoming of elephants.

Find the Fate-ful Flaw

We can’t really blame Hannibal for this knowledge shortfall, because he never had a chance to meet Professor Fritz Vollrath from Oxford University. Professor Vollrath’s research team did a study on African elephants, using global positioning system (GPS) devices to track elephants crossing the savannas. They discovered that elephants “don’t do hills.” Elephants routinely avoid any types of slopes and hills, as even minor hills make them really hungry. Elephants only eat vegetation, and they need lots of it. Climbing hills requires a significant boost in calorie consumption and that means finding lots more to eat. The researchers reported, “Climbing 100 meters [@300 ft] would burn [2,500 calories] which would have to be either replenished by an extra half hour of foraging or paid for by using up body reserves.”

Now imagine you’re Hannibal, trying to get dozens of elephants over mountains not hundreds, but thousands of feet high. The elephants see the slopes and their instincts tell them not to climb them, but their human handlers drive them forward. Then they get hungry because there’s not enough food growing on the mountain slopes. And a ticked-off elephant has no reservations about trampling people. THAT must have been a fun journey. Sadly, all but a handful of elephants died crossing the Alps.

Role with the Flow

The lesson that elephants (and other animals) can teach us is this: humans are versatile, but no one is good at everything. Performance improvement comes easiest when a human who is “wired” to succeed in a specific endeavor is placed in that role.

• We know Michael Jordan as a phenomenal performer in basketball, yet he was much less impressive in a baseball uniform no matter how much hard work and practice he was willing to perform.
• We saw Susan Boyle become an “overnight success” at the age of 47 on the “Britain’s Got Talent” contest. She owned the stage once given the opportunity to demonstrate the gifts and abilities she has owned all her life.
• I bet we can all name our own examples of people who have taken advantage of every education and training opportunity presented to them, yet are still identified with mediocre performance and lackluster results.

Hopefully that’s not you. Or maybe it is.

Don’t Do Hills

Your uphill battle may not be going literally uphill as it is for elephants. Yet we each face our own challenges. Some of these challenges we were never designed to overcome. When a task seems like an uphill battle to you, consider that maybe, just maybe, you were never intended to do it. Instead, find those tasks which come easy to you, where learning is easy and practice is fun. Aim for performance improvement in those areas where you are “wired” to do well.

We each have our own unique set of gifts, talents and abilities. It may be hard to find them in yourself and in other people but, when you do, results will come fast and success will be easy.

© 2009 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About the author
Paul Johnson is the keynote speaker who describes his approach to transformational leadership at http://TroubleBreaker.com. He enables companies to achieve breakthrough growth and team performance improvement at http://ShortcutsToResults.com.

Note: This article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

A Question for your Comments: When did you say “Yes” to an “opportunity” when later you discovered you should have said “No, thanks”?

1,500 words. Abstract: Perhaps you’re frustrated because your hard work to create a better life seems thwarted at every turn. Use this approach to win against the people and problems blocking the paths to the results you desire.

Despite all our efforts at work, sometimes it seems we make little economic progress. Over the years, many metaphors have been used to describe our despair. “I am…

• running in place.”
• a hamster on a wheel.”
• stuck on a treadmill.”

My favorite is, “I feel like a dog on linoleum.” When we’re not getting ahead, who is cheating us out of the rewards we deserve for our efforts? Many are potentially to blame:

• Bosses that show favoritism at work.
• Unfair labor practices.
• Oppressive decisions inflicted as a result of greed, jealousy or ego.

While it may be true that these events cheat you out of rewards and opportunities you deserve, these events are not the ones you should worry about or even attempt to fix.

The Waste of Life
When we’re feeling stuck and not making the progress we want, frustration is often the symptom. We’re frustrated with our failure to achieve, our failure to earn, and our failure to attain a position of comfort and stability. By escaping the tyranny that is holding us back, our liberation will give us the ability to enjoy steady progress and enjoy more of the fruits of our labors.

My inspiration for this article came from Chris Anderson and his new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price (Chris is also author of the best seller, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, published in 2006). In Free, Chris Anderson explores the concept of waste. He points out that in the animal kingdom, mammals (including humans) have an unusual attitude toward waste. In short, we have an unhealthy aversion to it.

It’s actually bred into us because of our procreation patterns. He points out that the Bluefin tuna releases up to 10 million fertilized eggs in a single spawning season. Of those, maybe 10 will make it to adulthood. That means one in a million survives, and the rest are wasted. While the numbers are smaller, the story is pretty much the same for insects, reptiles, amphibians and birds. Only mammals attempt to preserve every life.

I was watching the Discovery Channel and learned that hundreds of sea turtles hatch from a single nest in the sand and then scamper down the beach into the ocean. The camera showed how one of them didn’t make it; a crab caught it and was going to eat it for dinner. Admit it; don’t you feel terrible about that? While we can rationalize that that’s the way nature is supposed to work, we still don’t like it. Our nature tells us not to waste anything, even the life of a single baby sea turtle.

Waste Not, Want More
This means that, deep down, we believe we live in a world of scarcity. Resources are limited. The number of jobs is finite. Energy is expensive. And for every problem, there is only one right solution.

That last statement is the myth that is cheating you out of the progress you desire. In our search for the perfect answer to our problem, we continually seek more information, spend more time, and consume more resources. Why? Because we want to find the perfect risk-free approach. Why does risk repulse us? Because we are genetically programmed to avoid waste.

Perhaps your progress has been limited because you’ve been trying to engineer the perfect risk-free solution to each of your problems. Perhaps you should start considering that there may be a million answers to your problem. Pick one. Try it. Repeat as necessary.

This simple approach allowed Thomas Edison to bring us the light bulb. He “wasted” 999 versions so he could produce the one that worked. None of us care about those 999, yet they were critical to the process that eventually produced success. Understand that none of your failed efforts are ever really wasted as long as you don’t neglect one little thing.

While this may seem like a simple concept to understand, overcoming millions of years of evolution is no easy task for us. Let’s break this down into three distinct components that can make this concept easier for you to internalize.

I. Choose to Waste
See? You’re already feeling guilty. Here we are, living in an age when we’re trying to preserve our planet and the daily news is filled with reports of our dwindling oil reserves, food shortages and unemployment statistics. Yet there are many things you could choose to waste with little consequence to you or anyone else.

• Long-distance minutes.
• Space on your hard drive.
• The fuzzy leftovers in the back of your fridge.
• The clothes in your closet you’re really never going to wear again.

Sometimes I waste air-conditioning. On days that are warm, but not too warm, I turn on the air conditioning in my car and roll down the windows. I want the fresh air, the breeze and the connection to the outside, but it’s a little too warm to rely on just a breeze to keep me comfortable. I decided that once the air conditioning is running, having the windows up or down has negligible impact on my fuel consumption but major impact on my comfort.

Choosing to waste like this makes it easier when it comes time to face a problem and you have to make a choice. More often than not, the choices available are not mutually exclusive. Just pick one and get going. As long as you don’t neglect to learn something from each attempt — like Edison did — none are really wasted.

II. Take a Second Chance
After you’ve made a choice and tried it, you’ll often find that it doesn’t work. Be kind to yourself and give yourself a second chance (and a third and fourth as well). I routinely try new things. When they work, I keep doing them. If they don’t work, I try something else. Thomas J. Watson, former president of IBM had this to say: “The way to succeed is to double your error rate.” He understood the value of learning from mistakes, and as a result built IBM into a huge business.

I’ve spent the better part of my career in sales, and have frequently needed to take a second chance. In one case, a customer got a little aggressive deep in the negotiation phase. When I wouldn’t acquiesce to his demands, he threw me out of his office. I never saw or spoke to him again. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t get the order. I took a second chance and figured out a different way to “close the deal” and earn the commission.

III. Let Possessions Flow
At an early age, we all learn the word, “Mine!” We tend to get attached to and protective of our possessions like our houses, cars, and the money in our bank account. Instead of being a collector of possessions, I’m suggesting you accept that they will ebb and flow during your life like the tides of the oceans. Sometimes you’ll have to give something up for the opportunity to make progress.

In baseball, base runners know that they have to take their foot off first base to have any hope of attaining second base. They are vulnerable to being called out whenever they are not safely standing on a base (the only totally risk-free way of attaining second base is by hitting an out-of-the-park home run). Letting go is the key to achieving more.

Unfortunately, letting go is another form of waste to us mammals. This innate behavior was supposedly used successfully to hunt monkeys. A hole was cut in a coconut just large enough for a monkey’s open hand to enter. The coconut would be tethered to a nearby tree, and then some nuts would be placed inside. A passing monkey would discover the nuts, reach in and grab them, but couldn’t remove their hand because their closed fist was too large to fit through the opening. There they remained, unwilling to let go of the nuts even as the hunters returned to kill them.

Let Go and Get Going
Sometimes we need to be willing to release what’s already in our grasp so we can move on to something better. When you’re feeling stuck and yet afraid to let go of the familiar, consider that the worst case scenario is seldom the most probable scenario. The things we most fear rarely materialize. You CAN work around the obstacles that are making it difficult for you to achieve the progress and gain the rewards you desire and deserve. Always begin by believing that there is more than one “right” answer to the problem you’d like to solve. Pick one and get going. Don’t cheat yourself out of the better life you’re searching for.

© 2009 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson is the keynote speaker who gives teams the courage, motivation, and insight to overcome obstacles and create breakthrough growth opportunities at http://TroubleBreaker.com. Learn about business growth topics at http://Paul-Johnson.com.

Note: This article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

A Question for your Comments: When has taking a second chance paid off for you?

My definition of crowdsourcing is opening up the design of anything new to public input. Often the result is a better, faster and less expensive than when the traditional approach — a small, hand-picked team of domain “experts” — is used to accomplish the task.

As is often the case, those defending the traditional design and development approach complain that opening up the process to the masses will cause loss of wages and market chaos. Such is often the talk when a more efficient and creative way of getting things done (a business shortcut) comes into play.

If you have your doubts, read the book Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. It will convince you that being open to collaboration is key to maintaining competitive advantage in our evolving economy.

1,383 words. Abstract: You can make good money even a recession. However, you can’t do that using the same approach and the same strategy as everyone else. Help people get the 3 things they focus on in a recession and you can prosper now.

Of course you can make money in a recession. That’s not really a question. You’ll most assuredly make SOME money. The real question is: Will it be enough? You’ll be happy with the answer to that question with the right approach and a solid strategy.

A Healthy Approach to Earning
If you are like most of us that are not independently wealthy yet, you need to find a way to keep on earning right through this down economy. Let’s first face the reality of a recession so we can adopt a healthy approach that will give us hope and help us deal proactively with our need to make money during this recession. This first step will help you avoid worry, hardship and sleepless nights.

Accept the reality that earnings in a recession, on average, are down about twenty percent. That means that companies and the people who work for them will secure — on average — only 80% of the dollars they could have earned before the recession for the same kind of effort.

If you’re out of a job, your earning are temporarily zero. If you still have the same job you had a couple years ago, you’re probably working 25% harder with the hope you can hang onto your paycheck. Of course, some folks are doing even better than they did a couple years ago. If you’re not among them, you have an opportunity to make a few changes and join these people who are making good money despite the recession.

A Plan to Earn More
If you can’t afford to lose your job, you probably can’t afford a 20% pay cut either. If you want to come out ahead during this down economy, you need a new plan for earning. I used this plan over 25 years ago when I was caught up in the last great recession. In 1980 the inflation rate was 13.58%, in 1981 mortgage rates were 16.63%, and in 1982 the unemployment rate was 9.71%. Yet I was buying new cars and new houses despite the fact that I was a working greenhorn in my early 20′s with a growing family. If you’ve never been through a down business cycle like this before, having hope means having a plan.

To do well in a down economy, reorient yourself to pay attention to the three things that people in a recession care about: Secure, Save, and Augment.

Secure: People will spend money in a down economy to hang on to what they already have. We work hard to acquire assets and our first priority is to protect them. In a recession people will gladly invest in firearms, security systems and The Club. They also prefer to spend their money on sure bets with near-zero risk of loss. While banks around the country were closing, Synovus Bank came up with a new plan that enabled large depositors to have their accounts insured for up to $7.75MM, far above the FDIC insurance cap of “just” $250,000. As a result, they saw their deposits mushroom by $1.4BB in just 6 months. Because Synovus Bank has a plan to make their customers feel secure about their money, their future through this recession is secure as well.

Save: After assets are secure, cutting costs becomes a top priority for many. The promise of saving money is a much-used selling strategy that becomes especially effective when buyers are short of cash. However, if all you do is lower your prices you’ll likely just make your situation worse. A more successful strategy is to come up with a way to offer a less expensive product or service in place of a more expensive one. Self-service car washes can replace full-service washes. In-home entertainment options can replace nights out on the town. Geico has aggressively gone after the car insurance market with the premise that, since you have to have car insurance anyway, you might as well replace your more expensive policy with a comparable Geico plan and save hundreds each year. Their offer to help us save is apparently working; as of January 2009, they report that their growth will enable them to add 870 employees in Q1 ’09 alone.

Augment: With revenues and income down an average of 20%, more people will be looking for ways to augment their earnings. If you’re a business, it means finding neglected markets to develop new sources of revenue. For individuals it might mean a part-time job or developing a business to run “on the side.” When the economy is down, people are not only more receptive to considering new ways of making money; they’re actually looking for it. Avon Products, Inc. reported that active representatives grew 7% from 2007 to 2008, resulting in record revenues for 2008, up 8% over 2007.

Your Personal Earnings Plan
For you to make more money in a recession, create your own plan to help OTHERS to Secure, Save and Augment. They will pay you to help them achieve their objectives in these 3 areas. Depending on your situation, you may have up to 3 different ways to develop and execute your own plan.

The first area is in your own job. If you are currently employed, your employer is eager to find ways to Secure, Save and Augment. Take the initiative and come up with ideas in these 3 areas. Can you find a way to help the company Secure existing paying customers? Do you see a way to replace a current process with a more productive one, resulting in Savings for your company? Could you pioneer a method for accessing new markets to Augment revenue for your company? Once you identify the idea, make the extra effort to execute it so that you are undeniably connected to the successful outcome. When you help your company succeed, keeping your job is often one of the rewards.

The second situation to consider for your earnings plan applies if you serve customers directly. Perhaps you are in sales, or you have your own company. In a recession you have to consider reworking your value proposition. Perhaps your previous success was connected to your innovation, quality or timely delivery. Now it’s time to reframe your offer to appeal to buyers who are looking for opportunities to Secure, Save or Augment. Don’t take the easy route and just offer your customers lower prices; all your competitors have already thought of that. Perhaps your quality enables you to offer a risk-free guarantee that will make buyers more Secure. Your innovations might enable customers to discover a new way to Save through using your product or service. You could offer your best customers an opportunity to augment their incomes by paying them for leads they refer to you. You’ll enjoy big payoffs for creativity in a recession.

Third, supplement your own income by offering a product or service that will help people Secure, Save or Augment. Those new Avon representatives were looking to Augment their own incomes by selling Avon products to others. However, Avon products do little to help others Secure, Save or Augment. While their customers may continue to buy cosmetics, cosmetics in general are not a significant growth market in a recession. Repair services become more popular during recessions; if you can sew, or fix shoes or appliances, you’ll be in demand. Perhaps you could offer a dog-sitting service so that others can take a part-time job to Augment their income. You could sell energy saving devices or do-it-yourself instructions. It all depends on your expertise, and everyone is a relative expert in something.

Focus There
Unless you’re willing to accept a drop in earnings of 80 percent — or more — you need a recession-ready plan that’s based on a realistic approach to what’s on peoples’ minds today. Cutting your own costs won’t be enough; you can’t save your way to prosperity. Instead of focusing on personal cost-cutting, focus on ways to help OTHERS Secure, Save and Augment. Do that with some creativity and you can join the folks who are making good money in spite of the recession. Then your question will be: should I spend it on a car, or a house?

© 2009 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson of Shortcuts to Results LLC collects business shortcuts and shows people how to find and apply them for performance improvement at http://ShortcutsToResults.com. Learn how to become a niche marketing expert at http://NicheExpert.com.

Note: This article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

A Question for your Comments: What are people doing to earn more that is working during the recession?

What do we really know about our leaders? We yearn to know enough to be confident in following them and, ideally, to emulate them. Perhaps you can name the leaders in the forefront of your industry or profession. Maybe you believe you could be more successful if you could be more like them, so you study their works, buy their books and perhaps even seek jobs in their organizations. Even when you've studied all you can about them and believe you understand the keys to their success, you don't. There's one more thing you must do.

Your quest for excellence is a noble journey. Unfortunately, the path often leads to insane frustration instead of triumphant success when seemingly little things are overlooked. Sometimes just one simple thing is the key to resolving the performance barriers that have been holding you back, allowing you to finally achieve your objectives with ease.

Show or Tell
It's been decades since apprenticeship was the common road to mastery of a profession or craft. Today college is the conventional answer, with knowledge dispensed via lecture halls, online courses, and e-mail exchanges with professors. Connections are casual and not very close. Today we are more isolated from the people from whom we need to learn. Technology makes it easy for leaders to protect their personal space and keep learners at a distance. Yes, we're learning, but we're not learning enough. We are not learning the important piece.

No matter how intently we listen to what others say, no matter how closely we watch what they do, our mimicry will be imperfect because we really won't understand why they do what they do. We must get close enough to understand the back-story. If we want to truly learn from another, we must get close enough to hear them breathe.

Nano Lessons
The leaders in our profession have made thousands of tiny choices which, in combination, have enabled them to perform at high levels. To perform similarly, we must understand their value system and how they came to make those choices. That's how successful leaders of the past learned to succeed.

• Benjamin Franklin served as an apprentice to his brother James to learn the printing trade. Franklin's success as a printer later funded his kite flying and political ventures.
• James Lick was the richest man in California when he died in 1876. He learned the piano making craft from his father, and Lick's mastery of those skills was the cornerstone to building his fortune.
• Levi Strauss learned the clothing business working side-by-side with his older brothers Louis and Jonas in New York City. Six years later he moved to San Francisco to open up shop, and soon discovered an opportunity to apply what he knew to make rugged trousers for the gold miners.

Go to the Source
The words a leader uses and the acts they perform are only clues to how they think. Every person has an historical perspective and a point of view, or lens, they use to look at the world in which they perform. Unless you get close enough to hear a top performer breathe, you'll never have the opportunity to learn and discern those things. How a leader thinks is the key to understanding how they take in information, process it, and send it out, much like breath. Until you understand the source of what they say and do, you're missing the key ingredient that will enable you to duplicate their successful performance.

The top performers in any area of expertise require years to acquire and apply what they know to perform at peak levels. Be patient. A need for speed defeats success. Invest the time to build relationships and learn from the best, and allow breathing to occur at its natural pace. Don't rush it or you'll hyperventilate and get dizzy. Set aside the e-mail and the Internet, and arrange to spend long periods of time working side-by-side with the leaders from whom you want to learn. Breathe the same air long enough and one day you'll find others eager to duplicate your excellence as well.

© 2008 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson the Trouble Breaker (http://TroubleBreaker.com) works with organizations like ADP, AutoNation and Roller Skating Business Magazine to convert trouble into double and triple digit performance breakthroughs. Discover neglected markets with The Great Brand Rush at http:/NicheExpert.com.

Note: This article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

A Question for your Comments: What precious insight have you gained from a close encounter with a leader?

829 words. Abstract: Michael Phelps is an extraordinarily talented athlete who can do wonders in the swimming pool. Yet the man is average. Discover how the average among us can compete and win the way Michael Phelps does. Learn how an average person can make a splash and never get wet.

Michael Phelps is the gold standard in the swimming pool, but don’t think of him as exceptional and special. He is just like you and me. Average.

How can that be? At the 2004 Athens Olympics, Michael Phelps claimed 8 medals: 6 gold and 2 bronze. He holds 4 world records and 11 individual world titles. Phelps is favored to break still more records at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Nothing average about that! Truly, Michael Phelps is an extraordinarily talented, gifted, and capable athlete who shines brilliantly in the swimming pool and on the medals stand. You and I certainly can’t compete with that.

A Zero in Every Ten
Fortunately, we don’t have to. That’s the beauty of being average. On a scale of zero to ten, 5 is average. We’re all given a different mix of strengths and abilities. While we might be a 0 in one area (like me in a swimming pool), we’re likely 10 in another area (like Michael Phelps is in the swimming pool). Or maybe we have two strong talents, one at an 8 and another at a 7. Zero, 8, and 7 averages out to … 5. Average.

When we see Michael Phelps glide through the water, we really don’t care what his zeroes are. His coach doesn’t make him run during the team’s dry land training because Phelp’s flexible ankles — an asset to swimming — make him prone to tripping and falling. We’ll probably never see him win on Dancing with the Stars, but that really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Michael has (1) discovered his key talents and (2) is applying them daily.

Strengths Select You
We, on the other hand, continually worry about "fixing" ourselves where we are below average. "I can’t diagram a sentence." "I speak with an accent." "I can never remember where I put my glasses." So what? We’ll never enjoy all we can from life if we spend our time working on the weaknesses. We need to find ways to tap into our strengths, to (1) identify our 8′s, 9′s, and 10′s, and then (2) put them to work for us every day.

The Gallup pollsters have done research over decades that show top performers are not those that repair their weaknesses. Instead, top performers discover their strengths and then sharpen and polish them to make them even better. In their book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, authors Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton list 34 strengths that everyone enjoys in some combination, plus point readers to assessment tools to enable them to discover their top five strengths.

Michael Phelps has found at least one of his strengths, and it’s a thrill for the rest of us to see him apply it. Whether he’s pulling through the water with those huge hands, torpedoing the competition after a turn, or closing a race to finish well ahead of the rest of the field, we’re excited to watch. But what about us? We’re meant to be more than just spectators in the game of life.

Late is Still Great
You are really great at something; have you found it yet? Alan Opdyke of Snellville, Georgia wins awards for breeding guppies. Bill Porter of Portland, Oregon became a top salesman despite his cerebral palsy. Michael Phelps is lucky because he found — with the help of a coach and his family — something he is good at while relatively young. Yet late bloomers are all around us. Charles Hurme won the USTA National Senior Hard Court Tennis Championship when he was 90. Just because you haven’t found your 10 yet doesn’t mean you don’t have it in you.

If you’re still thinking I must be writing about someone besides you, that you have no talents and abilities above a 5, you’re wrong. You’re not inadequate, you’re just chicken.

Maybe you’re reluctant to try new things. Maybe you’re afraid to get hurt, physically or emotionally. Maybe you’re terrified to discover another thing you’re not good at. What if Edison had chickened out after his 999th try in his quest to create the light bulb?

Listen for "Wow"
Accept the fact that you’re average and do something positive with it. Stop wasting time working on abilities at which you’ll never be exceptional. Shift your efforts to trying things that interest you. Act on your curiosity and desire. Pay attention when people pay you a "Wow" compliment. Take a chance on yourself. Challenge yourself to find the excellence within you. Don’t ever let anyone imply that you are "just" average. Find your strengths, and then have the courage to apply, hone, and polish them. Stand Out. Excel.

It’s unlikely that we’ll ever join Michael Phelps in the pool, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make a splash in our own way every day. We may all be average, but in some way we’re also extraordinary as well. Find and apply your "extra" and you’ll be far from ordinary.

© 2008 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson the Trouble Breaker is a keynote speaker who works with organizations to convert trouble into double and triple digit performance breakthroughs. Discover breakthrough concepts at http://www.paul-johnson.com. Visit http://TroubleBreaker.com for presentations on performance improvement.

Note: This article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

A question for your Comments: What do you know about Michael Phelps that enables him to excel?

1160 words. Abstract: Think business, think tropical. At first, they may not seem to go hand in hand. Yet we know that "having the right attitude" is important. If you’re ready for boldness, clarity, diversity, friendliness, style, and a new definition of professionalism, you can find it all in the tropics – even the energy of life itself! You’ll be more successful – and have a gas doing it – when you approach your business with a tropical attitude.

Think business, think tropical. At first, they may not seem to go hand in hand. Yet, you’ll be more successful — and have a gas doing it — when you approach your business with a tropical attitude. You can find it all in the tropics… even the energy of life itself! You just have to see what’s already there, and bring it to work with you every day.

Color Me Bold
First, take a moment to embrace the colors of the tropics. We’re talking vivid green palms, crystal blue lagoons, fiery red sunsets. These are not colors for wimps. Mauve and taupe are not found below the 30th parallel, except on the backs of tackily-dressed tourists from colder climates.

No, tropical colors are bold and straightforward. They imply some risk-taking, a willingness to hang it out there, a willingness to take a chance on hearing a “No” for the opportunity to hear a “Yes.”  We won’t move ahead by always playing it safe. If something is really worth doing, really worth risking the consequences, it’s boldness of action that brings those dreams to fruition. Be bright. Be bold. Be tropical.

Clarity Therapy
Tropical colors are also about contrast. They’re about bright colors, multiple colors, laid side by side; clear lines of definition that command attention and assist recognition. Do you claim to be “the leading provider of premier solutions to valued business partners”?  Bad news; you’ve got a case of Lookalika disease. I recommend a trip to the tropics for treatment, healing, and therapy, not necessarily in that order.

Take the poinsettia plant. The contrast of the red leaves against the green makes that plant stand out in a stunning way – especially when they grow six feet tall in the tropics! We need to stand out in our environment, or get lost in the background. We need to clearly separate ourselves from the people who compete in our space. We need fresh lines of definition so that people can understand how we’re different in a positive way. That brightness and clarity makes it easy for people to find you, identify you, and do business with you.

Diversity University
A tropical attitude also respects diversity. Tropical rain forests cover less than 6% of the Earth’s total land surface, yet they are home for up to ¾ of all known species of plants and animals. Much of the beauty of the tropics stems from the variety of foliage and the animal life it supports.

We, too, lose our vibrancy, our “Wow!”, when we’re all the same. Yet many organizations seem to think they can conquer their market by mandating paramilitary processes and straight-line thinking. IBM became famous (or is it infamous – I get those two mixed up) for their salesforce of blue suits and white shirts.

Of course, things are different today. Many organizations recognize that diversity of culture, race, gender and, ultimately, thinking is where their innovation and top performance comes from. This is despite the fact that it takes more effort on our parts to learn to live and work together when we’re all so different.

As Steven Covey puts it in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, "It’s unity, not sameness, that’s cool.”  (I paraphrased a little). When you embrace a tropical attitude to respect and unify diversity, you’ll have all the competitive edge your business will ever need.

Waves of Warmth
And how could you have a tropical attitude and not be warm and friendly?  I want to feel good and smile at people for no apparent reason. When I wave at people, I’d like them to feel good about waving back. OK, maybe they could just return my voicemail.

Sure, we all know that people do business with people, and relationships are important. So let’s drop the unfriendly behavior, like taking cell phone calls in the middle of a conversation, or multi-tasking when we should be focusing on the relationship at hand.

If people really do business with people they like, what are you doing to make it easy for people to like you?  Take on a tropical attitude and help your customers and co-workers warm up to you. Stop being so busy once in a while. And wherever you are, be there.

Naturally You’ll Win
A tropical attitude will help you relax. When you’re enjoying the tropics, you’re relaxed, you act more natural. When you operate in a relaxed, natural state, your personal strengths and talents can shine through. The best part of you is brought to the party. You don’t even need a margarita to “loosen up!” 

You can use the best of your own style and personality to get the job done in a way that’s natural for you, in a way that feels right, that "fits.”  The paradox is that you’ll get to your desired results quicker when you don’t rush to them.

In sports, players talk about being in “the Zone,” when everything comes together and you just become unstoppable. Sure, first you prepare, you practice, you get ready to go. Then it’s time to lighten up, let go and play your game in your own way. Don’t worry, be scrappy!

Dead Man Talking
Now don’t think for a moment that having a tropical attitude is unprofessional. A tropical attitude is professional; it’s just not formal. When I hear someone say, “We’re professionals,” the first words that come to mind are stiff, boring, dead. It’s difficult to foster genuine business relationships when you’re stiff and boring, and impossible when you’re dead. First and foremost, a professional shows genuine care, consideration, and respect for the other person. They listen carefully, respond decidedly, and act with integrity.

Following formalities can actually get in the way of professionalism, because they are artificial and can disguise the real you. “How are you?” … “I’m fine, thank you.”  Did a real exchange take place?  “May I help you?” … “No, thanks, I’m just looking!”  Can’t we communicate better than that?  After all, a tropical attitude is vivid and bright, without being shocking or obtrusive. Perhaps you can rework some of your conventions and rituals of business to reveal your professionalism in an informal way. Let your tropical attitude reflect the real you and show what you stand for.

Alive to Enjoy
Perhaps most of all, the tropical environment is alive. It has its own energy and vibrancy that stimulates powerful creative forces and allows the mind to find new solutions to old problems. From the first promise of a sunrise to the final reassurance of a sunset, the fresh patterns and hues that change with the light of day can help you make new connections and discover new options.

The tropics let you think without actually making you think. Ah, paradise! Bright, active, energizing, and alive… just the way I prefer to feel every day on the job. You’ll learn to enjoy every day and expect success when you start doing business with a tropical attitude.

© 2008 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson the
Trouble Breaker is a keynote speaker
who works with organizations to convert trouble into double and triple digit
performance breakthroughs. Discover breakthrough concepts at http://ShortcutsToResults.com.
Visit http://TroubleBreaker.com for
presentations on performance improvement. Call Paul direct in Atlanta, Georgia, USA at (770) 271-7719.

Note: This article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

1,137 words. Abstract: For many of us, job satisfaction is elusive and
work has become a four-letter word. Discover how you can upgrade your
situation so you can be paid to play and make "work" go away.

"Savannah would be a good place to retire." That stray comment wafted my way from the folks conversing at a nearby Atlanta Bread Company table. Have you thought about where you would like to retire?

That’s a trick question. The real question is: Why would you want to EVER retire? After all, if you love what you do AND you’re getting paid for it, why would you ever want to stop?

"Obviously," you say, "Paul Johnson does not live on the same planet I do. My job is frustrating and unfulfilling, like it is for most everyone else I know." It seems everyone is working for the weekend.

Life Revived
What if it doesn’t have to be that way? It’s a shame to think we are missing out on our life, at least for 40 hours a week (who am I kidding? According to The Week magazine, the average male works 100 hours more per year than they did in the 1970′s, while the average woman works 200 more hours.) In 1854 Henry David Thoreau wrote, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Does that apply to us today? After all, this life is the only one we get.

If "work" has become a dirty four-letter word for you, I bet I can guess your story. It’s probably similar to mine. We finished school and had to find a full-time job (in my case, I started working BEFORE I finished school). We didn’t have any experience so we couldn’t be too picky. Eventually we accepted a job, not necessarily because the industry, or the work, or the future looked particularly exciting, but because it came with a marvelous fringe benefit known as a "paycheck. " Still it was all exciting because it was all new. Before we knew it, we developed our skills and got good at what we were doing. We earned promotions and raises, and soon acquired stuff like a mortgage, spouse, dog and 2.5 kids, not necessarily in that order. Somewhere along the way we realized that we’re not too happy with what we’re doing for work. Every day. Two hundred twenty days per year.

Did your "starter" job accidentally become your career? Perhaps "work" has become a dirty four-letter word because we feel trapped in an industry, a career or a company. We can’t afford to make a change now. Because we accepted a job early on, we’re expected to accept our lot in life now. Oops.

Fresh Advice
For decades young people have been encouraged to pursue what they’re good at irrespective of what they like to do. My high-school counselor told me my high test scores meant I could "do anything I wanted." That was so NOT helpful. Nobody suggested I should consider a career choice based on something I actually LIKED to do. As a result we stop exploring our options when we’re much too young, and then settle on a career much too early.

Here’s the problem I suspect you’d like to solve: you would like to find a way to get paid as much or more than you do now, and derive more satisfaction from work. In short, you’d like to get paid well to play.

Let’s explore this using three simple concepts, Good, Like and Pay. For many of us, we accepted a job and got Good at it such that employers are willing to Pay us to do it. Unfortunately a lot of Like is missing, so we engage in weekend hobbies such as tennis, fishing or reading to fill that void. If we could have a "redo at life," we would be better served to have explored things that we’re Good at that we also Like, and then find a way to make it Pay.

If you could find a way to do that now, you’ll earn much more tomorrow than you do today. Why? When you Like your work, you immerse yourself in it. You’re happy to read more on the subject, and you’re happy to think, explore, and analyze related topics why you’re taking showers, doing laundry and cutting grass. When you can immerse yourself in something you love for 40 + hours a week, it doesn’t take long to develop expertise that will make you highly valued and highly paid in any domain. As the late Earl Nightingale observed, one half hour of study per day will make you a nationally known expert in that field in just five years. Do you like what you do well enough to study it for a half-hour every day, or is reality TV more appealing?

Play in the Intersection
Here’s what you can do to start making the shift. First, take inventory of what you’re Good at and what others, like your employer, will Pay you to do. That’s a great foundation.

Next, observe what you Like. Specifically, take note of the experiences that you enjoy recreating for yourself time and time again.

Third, explore different ideas and options for ways to combine what you’re Good at with what you Like to do in ways that will Pay. Put together a plan to move you to that intersection.

When you execute your plan to move you to the center of Good, Like and Pay, your work will truly become your play. Retirement? Forget about it!

What do you have to lose? Trade in those unfulfilled dreams and feelings of frustration for joy, fun, satisfaction… and more money, if that’s what you want.

Play with Purpose
If you’re searching for purpose in your life, consider this: God doesn’t want you to settle. He (or She) gave you talents and abilities, likes and dislikes, so you can make a valuable contribution to the world we all live in and be rewarded in ways that will truly satisfy our needs. Don’t believe the myth that work and play are mutually exclusive. It’s merely coincidental that work and play are both four letter words.

James A. Michener offers:
"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both."

Of course, these are just a few of my observations and opinions. I may be full of it. . . or not. But I am wondering, what’s keeping you from solving this problem for yourself? What successes have you had in finding a balance between Good, Like and Pay so you could make work your play? If you’d like to continue the conversation, please feel free to share your Comments below.

© 2008 Paul Johnson. All rights reserved.

About The Author:
Paul Johnson the Trouble Breaker is a keynote speaker who works with organizations to convert trouble into double and triple digit performance breakthroughs. Visit http://TroubleBreaker.com for leadership presentations on performance improvement. Call Paul direct in Atlanta, Georgia, USA at (770) 271-7719.   

Note: This article is available for reprint at no charge. We only ask that you include our copyright notice in your reprint, along with the About the Author information we provide at the end of the article.

As you may remember, my article suggests that we say "sorry" way too much, and at inappropriate times. Julie gives some specific examples of how great performance is negated when workers are needlessly sorry. Plus, she suggests how we can analyze why we might use "I’m sorry" when we really mean something else, and how that self-awareness can lead to performance improvement and business breakthroughs for our careers (Julie’s specialty is career coaching and work-life balance).

You can find Julie Cohen’s website and some great career resources at www.juliecohencoaching.com.