Dangerous Beliefs Harm Results and Deny 20 Times Greater Accomplishments

In most organizations, dangerous beliefs destroy most
opportunities for 20 times greater accomplishments. In
this article, I will expose some of the worst beliefs to
avoid and explain ways to avoid all dangerous beliefs.

When the CEO Speaks, People Take Action

Management authority Peter Drucker told me that one of the
most dangerous beliefs in organizations is that an increase
in brains comes with being promoted. Here's verification of
that observation: Executive assistants at selected
companies were asked what was the single, most important
thing their CEOs could do better. The aides spoke almost as
one in reporting that anything the CEO said was treated as
gospel. Underlings, for instance, scramble to make changes
even when the CEO was only asking an innocent question. The
CEOs assume that the response would come at little or no
cost from someone who already had the answer. Some
executive assistants estimated that 25 percent of executive
and managerial time in their companies was taken up with
answering such casual inquiries and making changes that
hadn't, in fact, been requested. The assistants wished
someone would advise their CEOs to stop asking casual
questions and making off-hand comments because the rest of
the organization operates on the misconception that these
words are major priorities on which careers will rise and
fall.

I'd Rather Do It Myself

Imagine you are taking a walk and stop to pick up a dime.
While you are focused on that one-tenth of a dollar, a
five-dollar bill floats by. Someone else grabs the
five-dollar bill. Grabbing that dime cost you $4.90.
Ignorant of what they are missing, organizations regularly
incur such large opportunity costs because these lost
profits don't show up on the accounting statements. As
long as an activity ekes out an apparent accounting profit
on its investment that's above the interest rate on U.S.
Treasury notes, corporate financiers are happy. That
misconception keeps many enterprises busy with tasks that
can be much better performed by others, albeit at a higher
out-of-pocket cost. But who cares if the out-of-pocket cost
is higher if the resulting returns are also higher?

Peter Drucker has gone further in observing that
outsourcing should be used to reduce the tasks that
management must do so that more management time can be
spent on the few tasks that add the most value to the firm.
The actual cost of the outsourcing, he has stated, should
be a secondary consideration.

Cutting Costs Can Slash Profits Instead

Cost reduction seems like something you should pursue
whenever possible. But that focus can be a profit-reducing
trap. Minimize costs in one part of a process, and costs
will swell in every other part of the process. For example,
if you run an expensive machine as little as possible, you
may have to pile up inventory in the rest of the production
process to adjust for the sporadic use of the machine.
Equipment used to further process what the machine produces
will also be idle when waiting for more semifinished
materials. The ultimate irony is that organizations
that pride themselves on cost cutting usually show little
or no volume growth. Equal energy put into providing new
offerings that are superior in their benefits might, by
comparison, expand profits by as much as many decades of
normal cost cutting.

"We Use All the Most Up-to-Date Practices": Hardly!

Almost every organization I have ever visited was filled
with people who prided themselves at being the best in the
world at what they were doing. Why were they so confident?
It's pretty simple in most cases. These braggarts had
little idea what anyone else was doing. I've come to
realize that such statements are signs of ignorance,
marking a sizeable misconception stall.

STALLBUSTERS

Encourage Unmasking False Assumptions

A company had assumed for decades that advertising would
work only when demand was highest for its seasonally
consumed food, yet others promoted similarly seasonal foods
all year around. Eventually, an advertising test was run
during the lean part of the year, and sales promptly took
off.

Here are questions to help you avoid making such false
assumptions:

• What are the things that your organization assumes will
almost always work?

• What are the things that your organization assumes will
seldom or never work?

• What are the things that your organization assumes will
probably happen?

• What are the things that your organization assumes will
be unlikely to happen or will never happen?

• On what beliefs are these assumptions based?

• Have those beliefs been checked recently?

• Are those beliefs still true?

Identify the False Assumptions That Need to Be Immediately
Challenged

Some misconceptions require more immediate correction than
others. Here are questions to help you set priorities for
where to turn your attention first:

• Which false assumptions have large potential consequences?

• Where can your organization's actions make the largest
difference in offsetting false assumptions?

• When would you need to act to get the most benefit or
avoid the most harm?

• What is the minimum evidence to indicate that you should
act immediately?

Use Assumptions That Reflect Actual and Critically
Sensitive Conditions

In most cases, no one will know what's going to happen in
advance. In the same way that the Titanic's designers
didn't think about sideswiping an iceberg, no one will
forecast such unusual events. You can only prepare by being
humble in assuming that many things can go wrong and work
on scenarios to prepare for those improbable, but highly
significant, events.

Open your mind to new ways of thinking about a volatile,
unpredictable future with these questions:

• What assumptions have worked best in the past for
organizations that operated in circumstances somewhat like
yours?

• Which of these assumptions fit your organization's values
and style?

• Which of these assumptions would be received
enthusiastically by users of your offering, customers,
employees, partners, suppliers, shareholders, lenders, and
the communities you serve?

*****************************************************

With these new perspectives, you can contain and eliminate
dangerous beliefs that deny you and your organization your
full potential to accomplish 20 times more with the same
time, effort, and resources.

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Rreserved

----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. Free advice on accomplishing 20 times
more is available to you by registering at
=====>

http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Leadership is not a position

Instead Leadership is a way of being.

Customer Service Manager.. Inventory Manager.. Supply Chain
Vice President.. Business Consultant... Instructional
Designer... V.P. Of Manufacturing ...CEO and CFO... Project
Manager

These are all positions and in these positions you may or
may not exhibit leadership skills. It is possible to
perform these roles and not be a leader. I didn't say it
was possible to perform these roles excellently and not be
a leader however. In any of these roles, you have role
power and your "reports" are forced (assuming they want to
keep their job) to listen to what you have to say and do at
least most of what you ask them to. That has nothing to do
with real leadership and your power goes away the instant
the role position goes away.

How much better would it be for you to have the ability to
lead others by who you are and the messages you send out
with your voice, your body, your energy, your mind and your
spirit? In other words who you authentically are! That
means who you really are at the very core of your being.
Not a polite face or a political façade but the feelings
and emotions that come from your core and therefore creates
an aura of confidence and harmonious desire to be in your
presence and follow you because they believe in you, trust
you and respect you.

So how do you become this leader? The first step is to
become more self aware. How do you present yourself, how
does your presence affect others…do they feel at ease
around you…do they know..like…and trust you? Or are they
tense and unsure around you? Do you know what your energy
or your body language is telling the people you want to
lead?

I have found the only way to have more self awareness and
to exhibit great leadership skills is to slow down, learn,
listen and begin to trust my own body. Only as you trust
what your body tells you and listen to it can you exhibit
harmonious energy that literally engulfs your potential
followers. Leadership is only possible if you have
followers. Getting and keeping followers is only possible
if you embark on a journey of self awareness and
management. This is the first step in your leadership goals
and the first step in Emotional Intelligence.

Working with horses has taught me to have more self
awareness and to learn to manage my whole being which
means: my body, my energy, my emotions, my real intention,
my mind, my spirit, my feelings and my thoughts. A horse
responds instinctively to who you are on the inside no
matter what "face" you put on for the outside world. The
horse responds by being excited, unruly, antsy, not
listening, bucking, running, not moving at all when asked,
by being dull or by ignoring you to name a few ways they
respond to you. They also respond to any uncertainty, fear
or lack of self confidence you are feeling regardless of
how much you attempt to cover it over. In other words they
respond to what is authentically going on inside you.

Horses respond to you the way people around you want to.
But people have been trained by years of hiding their
emotions and putting on their polite face to attempt to
hide how they are really feeling around you. While the
horse will openly show you how they feel about you. The
horse has a heightened instinctive and intuitive sense and
no social or political barriers to showing their responses.
The person will respond internally. Now don't for a minute
think that they are not responding to who and what you are
exhibiting just because you may or may not pick up on these
internal responses. It is these internal responses to you
and your leadership skills that will make or break you as a
leader.

It is only through self awareness and self management that
you can become the leader who people want to follow!
Emotional Intelligence is as Great Leadership is not a
Position but a way of Being. Learning leadership skills
begins with becoming more self aware. Self awareness and
management is the foundation on which you build your
leadership skills. … and possibly more…. important to
becoming a great leader as any technical skill you might
have in your role position.

----------------------------------------------------
Jean Starling has an MBA in International Business and is
an author, speaker, trainer, business consultant and coach.
With over 20 years in corporate leadership, management,
consulting and training she is an expert at helping
individuals and businesses reach their goals. Author of
Taking the Reins, a book of stories that teach leadership
in a new more innovative way.
http://www.taking-the-reins.com . Contact
mailto:jean@Taking-the-reins.com .

Invest in your brand...not price promotions!

Harvard Business Review: Invest in your brand...not price
promotions! A recent article in the Harvard Business Review
had this to say: "Our research into the role of marketing
strategy in brand performance indicates that companies are
paying too much attention to short-term data and not enough
to the long-term health of their brands. They routinely
overinvest in price promotions and underinvest in
advertising, new-product development, and new forms of
distribution." (1.) Now retail thrifts are not well-known
for new-product development but most everything else in
this HBR citing had an application for us. And whereas
this article is chocked full of good information, there is
one especially-meaty point I want to focus on for a few
minutes.

Here's what it is-sales promotions may not supply the big
bang thrift retailers think they do. Admittedly, sales
promotion revenues provide a powerful lure to repeat
promotions but a careful study of shopper behavior suggests
that over time, a strategy of heavy utilization will
actually decrease profit margins. "Shoppers aren't naïve;
regular sales promotions encourage them to wait for the
next sale rather than purchase a product at full price."
(2) In short, sales promotions may drive spiked revenue
streams, but there is little evidence to suggest a positive
effect on total sales over time. The article goes on to say
that the total impact of discounts is only 80% of their
short-term effect. To say it another way, the effects
measured over the long-term are 20% less positive that they
first appear. By contrast, the long-term effect of
advertising can be 60% greater than its short-term impact.

So what do we do with this information? I guess it might
be this. In the rush to increase your revenues, don't
develop an over reliance on sales promotions-especially if
any level of predictability to the sales. Shoppers will
learn the pattern . . . and shop it. Over the long haul,
your revenue baseline will not appreciably increase. A
better practice might be to invest more heavily in getting
shoppers to come to your store then, impress them with the
quality of your brand. Retail thrift shoppers already
expect low cost items: that's why they shop you. Why not
limit sales but impress your customers with the total
experience. Have fun!

Leonard M. Lodish and Carl F. Mela, "If Brands Are Built
over Years, Why Are They Managed over Quarters? Harvard
Business Review, (July –August2007) p.105 Ibid, p 108

----------------------------------------------------
Talon Company is North Americas premiere company for
in-depth, cutting edge information and strategies for
starting and growing retail thrift businesses. Visit us at
http://www.taloncompany.com

Cold Calling: The Myth of Cold Calling 2.0 and other Urban Legends

I receive Google Alerts daily on my favorite subject of
conversation, cold calling, and I read them. I'm always on
the lookout for an opportunity to contribute to a
discussion on cold calling, sales, or any other related
subject, especially if I can inject some self-promotion!

In the over four years that I've been following this
subject, I've gotten very good at spotting trends, and
there's one that is popular right now: The idea of "Cold
Calling 2.0."

Whoever coined this term no doubt took the name from Web
2.0. However, the idea that cold calling is any different
today than it was in the past is far-fetched and ignorant
at best. In my opinion, attempting to dupe salespeople and
small business owners that there is anything new or
different about cold calling that might work in today's
economy is problematic at best, and downright unethical and
dishonest at worst.

Here's an example: I had a coaching call today with an
individual who spent over four figures (yes, four figures!)
on a package from one of these "Cold Calling 2.0" gurus.
What was he taught for that obscene amount of money? To
send e-mails to companies, pretending to ask for help, all
with the lowly goal of learning who the contact person is.

Well, that's a lot of effort - and a bit of lying - just to
find out who the contact person is. After all, the sales
interaction doesn't even begin until that contact person
is, well, contacted ... and I'm guessing the recommended
advice is the old, ineffective, obsolete cold call.

Let's face it: A cold call is a cold call is a cold call. I
don't care if it's a direct, in-your-face, old-school cold
call, or a sneaky,
pretend-to-be-someone-I'm-not-to-get-a-contact-name cold
call. (And if all you have is a contact name, you still
haven't even made the cold call!)

Here are some key reasons why cold calling - whether it's
"old-school" style, or especially this sneaky "cold calling
2.0," continues to become less and less effective as time
goes on:

1. Cold calling lacks honesty and integrity. I've been
talking a lot lately about honesty and integrity. They need
to be the foundation for everything you do, end of story.
Without building on those principles, nothing else you do
will last for the long term. Sure, you might get a lead and
maybe even a sale now and then by being sneaky and telling
little white lies, but what will that do for your
reputation and self-esteem in the long term?

I have many clients and students who now receive 100% of
their business from referrals. Do you think this could be
possible if they didn't live and do business by the
highest, utmost standards of honesty and integrity? No way.

A big part of the "cold calling 2.0" myth is using a new
"angle" to cold call. Well, I hate to break it to you, but
honest, ethical people don't have to use "angles" or
"gimmicks" to do business.

2. Cold calling provides zero value to others. Another
subject that's coming up a lot in my talks and programs
lately is that of giving value first. If you give first,
with no expectation of reward, and no strings attached to
your giving of value, you will reap rewards like you've
never dreamed possible. People will look up to you as a
trusted business adviser, they will respect you, and they
will see you in an entirely different light than your
competition.

Here's the clincher: You can't give value first if your
initial contact with a prospect is through a cold call.
Instead of positioning yourself as a generous provider of
value, all a cold call does is position you as a hungry
salesperson who just wants to get a sale ... with no regard
to providing any value first. This is precisely why closing
rates of leads that come from cold calling are the lowest
of all, or as my friend and author Jeffrey Gitomer has
said, "Cold calling has the lowest percentage of sales call
success." It's also why prospects tend to trust cold
callers far less than other salespeople - they wonder
what's wrong with you and your company that you have been
forced to cold call - the last resort of a desperate
salesperson - to drum up business. It doesn't speak highly
of you or of your company's financial stability.

3. Cold calling strictly limits your income by time. Due to
the sheer amount of time required to make enough cold calls
to get enough qualified leads, you will never make a high
income by cold calling. Think about it - with all the time
it takes to run appointments, meet with prospects and
customers, handle customer service issues, attend sales
meeting, write proposals, prepare reports, attend training
(including your own continuing education), and so on, how
on earth are there enough hours in every week, day, and
month to make all those cold calls? There simply aren't!
Sure, if your product or service is a great offer and
you're good at cold calling, you might manage to eek out
100% of quota and hang on to your job for another month,
but do you really want to spend the rest of your life
eeking out your quota and starting over again next month?
Of course not! I assume if you're taking the time to read
this article, it's because you're focused and have high
goals for your career and your life and want to make the
big bucks!

You're not going to make the big bucks cold calling. Even
if you're some kind of cold calling genius who can make it
work, you're going to severely limit yourself by time and
never reach the six-figure and higher income brackets. The
only way, and I really mean the only way, to achieve that
is through leverage. You need to have lead-generation
systems in place that work exponentially, and
simultaneously, to generate the quality and quantity of
leads you'll need to have to make the big bucks. That's
what will open the doors to promotions to upper management,
consulting opportunities, or my own path - becoming a
bestselling author and speaker.

If you're out in the ocean, you have two choices: Swim back
to shore and live on, or tread water until you die. Cold
calling, including the new, so-called "cold calling 2.0"
tactics, are treading water. Do you want to break through
and move to the next level and beyond, or do you want to
continue treading water?

Hopefully those points clear up this idea of "cold calling
2.0" and expose that urban legend as just that - a legend.
I'm tired of hearing from struggling salespeople who have
spent hundreds, or in some cases, over a thousand dollars
on these "new cold calling" courses, only to have them
fail. Save your money, use your brains, and think for
yourself ... and stop treading water with those ineffective
and time-consuming cold calls!

----------------------------------------------------
New York Times bestselling author Frank Rumbauskas has
taught tens of thousands of salespeople how to stop cold
calling forever! His training and products teach
salespeople how to generate hot leads without cold calling
and how to keep their power and remain in control of sales
situations. Frank also consults with businesses large and
small to build lead-generation systems that will provide a
consistent supply of ready-to-buy leads for their sales
forces. For more information please visit
http://www.nevercoldcall.com

Do You Know the ABCs of Career Change?

Making a career change is one of the toughest job-search
challenges. For clarification, "career change" means much
more than "job change." A career change means choosing a
completely new profession or industry. A "job change" is
simply changing employers within the same industry and
profession.

Why do people change careers? The two main reasons are:

* The industry or occupation becomes obsolete (or is
outsourced overseas)
* Job dissatisfaction (If you dread going to work on Monday
morning, you're probably in this category.)

What makes a career change so difficult? After all, most
job seekers attempting a career change know exactly why
they would do well in a new profession or industry. The
problem comes down to communication. Most job seekers have
difficulty communicating in their resume their ability to
excel in a new career. Resumes, by definition, focus on
career experience (history), but career changers need
employers to see their expertise (current skills) in order
to be viewed as a viable candidate.

If you are attempting a career change, it becomes easier
when you understand the ABC's of career change:

A: Assess

B: Bridge

C: Communicate

Assess what you want changed.

Before you can make a successful change, you must decide
what needs changing. Is it the duties you perform? Your
overbearing boss? Your current geographic location? The
industry you work in? The size of company you work for?
The level of responsibility you hold? Once you pinpoint
your exact source of unhappiness, you're on your way to
making the correct choice for change.

Bridge the gap between what you've done and what you want
to do.

The key to selling yourself based on your expertise rather
than your experience is transferable skills. Transferable
skills work like bridges to help you cross over from one
industry to another or one occupation to another.
Transferable skills are those skills you now possess that
qualify you as a viable candidate for your career change.

Communicate your ability to excel in your new profession or
industry.

Your resume is your front-line communication tool to
prospective employers. No matter how well you interview,
if your resume doesn't sell you, there won't be an
opportunity to convince them in person. Use your
accomplishments to prove the strength of your transferable
skills, and you'll get interviews faster and with more
enthusiasm.

An experienced career coach can help you apply these ABCs
to your current resume and your interview skills. Once you
practice the ABCs of career change you'll be on your way to
changing your career and changing your life-for the better!

----------------------------------------------------
Deborah Walker, Certified Career Management Coach is
uniquely qualified to help job seekers through career
change. Her background as former executive recruiter and
veteran career management professional provides an
insider's perspective on the challenges specific to career
transition. To find out how Career Coaching can help you
check out
http://www.AlphaAdvantage.com

How the Silent Treatment Creates Customers

Sooner or later you will have to ask someone to buy
something from you. Whether you have a retail store, and a
couple has been admiring an expensive couch for the last 20
minutes, or you are a consultant or coach who has just
finished an initial conversation with a potential client,
the question is waiting to be asked. "So, are you ready to
buy?"

I've found that this is a very sacred time, when a
potential sale is approaching. Because it is so sacred,
after you ask someone to purchase, the moment can feel very
pregnant indeed. The air can suddenly seem so thick you
could cut it with a knife.

As a business owner, the worst thing you can do is splash
into this space with more words. It's time to be silent and
wait for their answer. After all, you asked a question,
it's their turn now. It's best to be silent and wait.

But why is it so tempting to jump in?

When you ask the question, what you are really doing is
painting a picture of the future. They don't have a couch,
and you've just painted a picture of the future where they
suddenly have a couch. They also have less money than they
did before (having spent it on the couch.) It's a future
they haven't lived in yet.

But they've already been considering the purchase for at
least 20 minutes, possibly much longer, why should your
question add to the situation? Because they can't create
that future on their own: they need your help. When you
show up and ask the question, all the pieces line up to
make this potential future a reality. It helps them step
towards the future they want.

Suddenly, it's real.

Sufi teachings, as well as quantum physics, teach us that
reality is being created anew in every moment. We're all
99.9% empty space, with some charged particles bouncing
around inside. The experience of our physical reality is
constantly in motion, being given life again and again and
again in every new version of the Now.

Mostly we live in oblivion of this (thankfully). It would
be pretty hard to get through the day if you had to
experience the utter nothingness and miracle of rebirth
every time you sit down to eat your grapefruit.

I'm not going to suggest that every time someone considers
buying from you you need to deliver an ecstatic moment :-).
But I do believe that whenever we consider taking an action
that could significantly change our lives, strong emotions
come to the surface.

Your question is the catalyst.

When you ask the question, you suddenly took a powerful
potentiality and --boom-- solidifed it. And your future is
at stake too- in a few minutes you may no longer have a
couch, and your business may be $2000 richer.

Once you ask the question, the most effective thing you can
do is give your potential customer the silent treatment.
Just be quiet. Shhh. Zip it. Don't say anything.

Mmmmphpbbbmmmhphbb...

Shush! :-)

Why it's so hard to stay silent: Sympathy versus Empathy

Sympathy is "feelings of pity and sorrow for another's
misfortune." Empathy is "the ability to understand and
share the feelings of another." Most of us are trained, in
challenging situations, to go into sympathy.

Example of sympathy: "I'm so sorry the garbage truck
smashed your car." Example of empathy: "I saw what that
truck did to your car. I'm guessing you are pretty angry
and upset."

The difference? The sympathetic statement focused on you-
how you felt about your friend's car. The empathy focused a
statement of witnessing "I saw what the truck did to your
car," and then your best reasonable, heart-felt guess on
how your friend feels about their own car. In sympathy, you
steal the spotlight. Empathy you give the other person
centerstage.

So how can you keep silent? And what does it have to do
with your business?

Keys to the Silent Treatment, and an example

• While you are sitting there silent, instead of focusing
on them, bring your attention to yourself. How are you
feeling? Nervous? Tense? Excited? Enthusiastic? Let
yourself take a few moments, your prospective customers
won't notice- they're busy in their own thoughts. Notice
how your body feels, notice any emotions you are feeling.
Don't try to change your emotions- if you are nervous, be
nervous! Notice how nervous feels, and make space for it.
And breathe.

• After you've checked in, begin to ask your heart, "Hmmm,
if I'm feeling this way, I'm wondering how they might be
feeling." Look at them, or, if you are on the phone, pay
attention to the tone of their voice. Do they sound or look
tense? Excited? Calm? See if you can empathize- that is,
feel the same feelings you are imagining they might have.

• Finally, bring your attention to your heart. If you have
done the Remembrance, or another heart-centering exercise,
you may have noticed a vast feeling of spaciousness in your
heart. That space is big enough to hold how you feel, and
how your prospective customer feels, without needing to
change or fix anything.

• Example: Someone called me about coaching- someone who is
'known' in their world, and I was a little nervous thinking
"This person called little me." In discussing my individual
services, and my price, I realized I was starting to babble
a little bit. I took a breath, made room for my
nervousness, and the tension in my shoulders and belly. I
reminded myself it was okay, that I was here only to be of
service, which of course reminded me that they called me-
that they needed help. Ahhh, maybe I don't need to be so
nervous after all. This person needs help... hmmm... I
wonder how they are feeling?

Staying in my heart, using Remembrance to connect to them
silently, I zipped my lips, and only answered the questions
asked. Result? New client. Why? I'm convinced it wasn't my
fancy words, but my silence.

Let yourself rest in that spaciousness, and wait to hear
how your prospective customer answers your question. If
they ask a question, answer it, and then rest back into
your heart. You'll be giving them the heart-centered silent
treatment.

And you might be surprised when they say, "Yes. How do I
pay?"

----------------------------------------------------
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your
Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your
Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line.
He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the
globe succeed in business without lousing their hearts. Get
three free chapters of the book online:
http://www.heartofbusiness.com

Break the Death Grip of Delegation Dysfunction and Enjoy the Dream of Owning Your Own Business

Delegation dysfunction plagues most small businesses.

Here's how it works: You give something to someone else to
do. They put it on the bottom of their pile. You check on
it and discover that it's not done. You press them on it,
and it finally gets done (with rolled eyes and cold stares).

But it's not done right and you end up doing it yourself.
That is the definition of dysfunction!

"Getting things done through others is a fundamental
leadership skill. Indeed, if you can't do it, you're not
leading," declares Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan in
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.

FOUR ESSENTIALS FOR GETTING THINGS DONE THROUGH OTHERS

In spite of this dysfunction, delegation actually does
work. More importantly delegation MUST work or we're doomed
to doing everything ourselves. Here's what it takes to get
things done through others:

1. Clearly identify the jobs that need doing

Effective delegation starts with knowing what needs to be
done. As obvious as that statement sounds, it is where most
businesses fail. Strong dynamic leaders have an idea of
what they want done, but never communicate it clearly,
leaving others trying to read their mind.

Not surprisingly, most employees are not good a reading
other people's minds. As a result, expectations are
unfulfilled and everyone is unhappy. All because no one
took the time to clearly define what needed to be done.

Like the old Fram® commercials where a grizzled mechanic
says, "You can pay me now or you can pay me later," up
front time spent clarifying expectations saves hours of
wasted effort.

2. For each of those jobs specifically state WHO is going
to do WHAT by WHEN and HOW (or NOT HOW)?

Here is the blocking and tackling of delegation:

Choose the right person to give a project to (WHO), that is
the person for whom a task is the best fit for their talent
and ability. Specifically outline the parameters of the
project (WHAT) and set reasonable deadlines for its
completion (WHEN). Also set intermediate milestones toward
the completion of those deadlines and check on those
milestones faithfully, adjusting them if needed (also WHEN).

Finally determine the best practices that should be
implemented to complete the project (HOW) and the
methodologies that should be avoided entirely (NOT HOW).

Again, a little time spent at the beginning of a
project-this should take LESS than an hour-reaps big
rewards. Write everything down and distribute it to
everyone on the project.

3. Provide the time and training for your people to excel
at these jobs.

What passes for delegation in most businesses is really
dumping. Or what I call "drive-by delegating" where leaders
shoot people with a list of things to do and speed away to
the next victim.

Effective business leaders view delegation as a process NOT
an event. It is a process that takes time. Be patient with
people and let them adjust to the learning curve of
acquiring a new skill. It is also a process that takes
training, giving people the tools they need to excel at
what they do.

The problem is that we wait until the last minute-until we
ourselves are utterly overloaded-before we ask for other
people's help. We then don't have the time to adequately
train our people. But time and training is critical for
getting things done through others. Look into the future,
even for a few months, and identify the jobs you might ask
other people to do. Then get them started on learning those
jobs.

In others words, stop dumping on your people in the name of
delegation. Start developing them into the fully capable
employees that they can be.

4. Follow-up each assignment politely, but religiously on a
daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

Finally, you must follow-though on everything that you
delegate. No exceptions. Inspect what you expect.

Don't wait until the end of a project to inspect either.
Check in at first daily just for a quick update. As you
gain confidence that a project is well underway, have
weekly times where you touch base. NEVER, however, let more
than a month slip by without meaningful inspection of
anything others are doing for you.

Accountability accelerates performance. Simple, polite,
honest accountability creates a culture of execution within
your company. "Follow-through is the cornerstone of
execution, and every leader who's good at executing follows
though religiously," Execution: The Discipline of Getting
Things Done again advises.

ENJOY THE REAL DREAM OF OWNING YOUR OWN BUSINESS

When you break the death grip of delegation dysfunction,
you will enjoy being a business owner again. You will have
gathered a team of people around you who are just as
serious about the success of your small business as you
are. Together you conquer the world!

That's the dream you had when you sarted your business.

----------------------------------------------------
Bill Zipp is a seasoned small business specialist. Bill has
spent thousands of hours working with hundreds of business
leaders across the country, and his proven program, The
Business Fitness™ System, provides a step-by-step plan for
building a strong, self-sustaining small business. For a
FREE Special Report, The 3 Biggest Killers of Small
Businesses Today (And What YOU Can Do About Them!) visit
http://www.LeadershipLink.net .

Rubber Compounding Bags

Batch Inclusion film or bags derive their name from the
fact the bag itself along with contents is actually
included in the production batch or during rubber
compounding. The bag once melted and dispersed in the
molding process becomes part of the product being made.
Batch inclusion bags typically hold chemical additives for
large scale industries such as synthetic rubber and plastic
compounding. Often the additives involved are difficult to
handle and weigh to little or are hard to dispense
automatically. These could include colorants, fillers,
resins and even some polymers for large scale mixing.
Because the bag and its contents become part of the batch
meaning the material make up of the bag or film will be
evenly dispersed throughout the banbury process. The user
will realize a cleaner environment along with other
benefits such as reduce labor cost, reduce disposal cost
and clean up cost, better hygiene. The bags or film has a
number of benefits like more efficient use of raw materials
and a more consistent mixtures of compounds. Also, you will
find the use of material in a sealed bag allows for a
reduction in storage space when compared to an open
container such as metal containers or plastic containers
and sometimes paper bags. As sealed bags can pile in a bin,
cardboard boxes, tubs, or carts. What has happened with the
bags is that they have started to do is color code them for
two reasons which are to identify the proper materials are
going into the batch and also to make sure the material
becomes dispersed in the batch as it is mixing.

Benefits of using Batch Inclusion Bags are improve quality
and batch uniformity insures 100% compound ingredients go
into the mixing of the material when doing in house
weighing, batch inclusion bags eliminate the risk of
cross-contamination due to chemical residue in tubs and
weighing containers. Speeds up production so the operator
does not spend time cleaning up after each batch is poured
into the process. Will increases productivity and
eliminates the need to weigh ingredients in-house through
the use of having the product weighed and ready to be
thrown into a batch of rubber which eliminates the need to
clean out tubs and weighing containers also reduces the
amount of solid waste disposal going into the land fills.
You will have less product loss due to spillage and
minimizes the accumulation of costly additives in the dust
collectors. The idea is to minimizes worker exposure and to
provide improved manufacturing processes through the use of
the batch inclusion bags because now it is part of the
product.

----------------------------------------------------
David Banig has been in the Flexographic printing industry
for 32 years and has had various patents along with hands
on experience. If you are looking for someone to improve
your packaging P&R Flexible is the inovator of todays
packaging world.
http://www.prflexbag.com