Odd Approach to Performance Appraisals

Odd Approach to Performance Appraisals
I just read an article in the August issue of HR Magazine,
published by the Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM) entitled, "Big-Picture Performance Appraisal" by
Paul Falcone.

Mr. Falcone is apparently a best-selling author and I guess
he's well respected in the human resource field...

...but, I was taken aback by what he was proposing in this
article about how to look at deciding on an individual's
overall rating. He suggests that you go back to the
old-school bell-curve concept.

He argues that each unit in the business should first rate
itself on a 1 to 5 scale, with a 1 representing
significantly under performing, a 3 performing at a 100%
level, and a 5 representing significantly over performing.
Let's say a given unit like sales rates its overall
performance a 4.2, Falcone says that the overall average
total score of all employees in the unit should also equal
4.2. That means if you rate some people over 4.2, you need
to make sure others are rated below that number.

I guess the logic is that these two numbers only make sense
if they are equal. Talk about backing into numbers from the
top down instead of the bottom up. In my mind, this doesn't
reflect the actual performance of the individual.

If you are artificially force-fitting an individual's
scores to match a unit's overall score, how is this fair to
the individual? More importantly, how can management look
at people in the same position across the company and do an
accurate comparative analysis?

Another strange point in this article is that Falcone
suggests every business unit and everyone should be
striving to be rated a 5 overall! If a 3 is considered a
100% performance level, it would seem to me that most
people would be striving to be that "A" employee or "A"
business unit. Sure, it is possible that some employees
sometimes perform above expectations, but rarely should the
performance standards be set so that the employee
consistently exceeds expectations for all performance
measures.

If employees are rated 4's and 5's then they are not being
challenged enough. I coach my clients to set the
performance standards for each performance measure in a way
that asks the employee to stretch even to be rated a 3. If
an employee is consistently rated 4's and 5's, how to they
get challenged to get to their next level?

Falcone also fixates on the overall score as the number to
focus on when filling out the appraisal. Here's another
area where I disagree with his thinking. Best practices
says you look at each performance measure on its own and
score it based on the performance standards for that
measure.

At the end of the process an overall score is calculated
using the weighted scores of each measure. I suggest you
take that one step further...

...instead of showing the overall number on the 1 to 5
scale, you convert it to a %. Why do this?

Well, it's natural for everyone to want to be rated a 5
instead of a 3 since a 3 is half-way down the scale giving
it a connotation of an "average" rating when in fact a 3
represents a 100%, or "A", performer .

If you really want to help your company align your human
capital to maximize your company's performance, set the
right performance measures for each position and for each
person and rate them on each of those measures. Don't back
in to numbers set at the top. That's the only way you are
really going to know how your employees are performing so
you can use those results for organizational development,
succession planning, and other human-capital related
actions.

----------------------------------------------------
Mike is an internationally recognized expert at helping
employers meet their business objectives by teaching them
how to get the right people into the right seat on their
bus. Employers face continuing challenges in hiring,
developing and retaining their best employees. Mike guides
his clients through this maze. To experience how this is
done, sign up for a free job analysis survey for one of
your open positions at http://www.eSessements.com .

More prosects than you can handle but not many sign ups for your business

More prosects than you can handle but not many sign ups for your business
You've placed that ad, mailed a prospecting postcard,
handed out your business card, or even shot out an e-mail
offering free information about your business opportunity
or even giving away free VACATIONS. You've followed all
the basic rules of advertising. You've made your offer
stand out from the competition with an attention getting
headline. You have created interest and a desire to find
out more about your offer in your body text. You have made
it easy for your prospect to respond to your offer by
including a toll free number and a web site URL.If you want
to increase the number of people that join you in a
business partnership try these ideas:

Realize that you are not making a one time sale. Your goal
is not just to get them into your company and to buy
product. You are asking them to be your partner and at the
same time you are offering your partnership to them.
Understand that no matter how easy your opportunity may be,
it takes some work and it will require a few skills. Your
new distributors will probably not have these skill when
they join you. That's why you must be willing to commit
yourself to your distributors. This commitment comes
through to your prospect. If it's not there they may feel
overwhelmed by the opportunity and perhaps underqualified.
Being a partner means going the distance for your people by
helping them build their business.

If you're not talking to your prospects on the phone, you
need to. The best way to build relationships over distances
is on the phone. Simply sending out a package and then
crossing your fingers for a "big hitter" isn't going to cut
it. E-mail by itself won't do it either. Most people
cringe when I tell them that they need to get on the phone.
It's something not too many non-sales types enjoy.
Remember that statistically 95% to 97% of the people who
join a network marketing program never earn over $200 a
month. Most never earn a dime. The same percentage of
people (05% to 97%) do not use the phone as a part of their
prospecting efforts. Coincidence? I doubt it! To overcome
fear of the phone I recommend that new people (or people
who are ready to get serious about their business) start by
simply calling all the respondents to their ads before they
send out a package. I also will tell you that roe playing
over the phone with a sponsor or upline or spouse will also
help you greatly. Thus removing the marbles from your mouth
and being ready to work.

To make it extra easy, start out by only verifying the
person's address. You'll be surprised at how often
addresses get misunderstood and written down wrong. In
this one call you have given your prospect a voice to
associate with the package they will soon receive. You have
become a real person to them. And you didn't have to make
a sales pitch or answer questions! You may be nervous
about calling people, but after you talk to a hundred
people you will be quite comfortable on the phone. And at
this point you will have added a valuable new skill to your
arsenal. Rehearse what you are going to say also. Everyday
before getting on the phone you must practice. Just like a
singer that warms up before the concert you need to warm up
before calling. Once you are comfortable start getting
serious by asking your prospect if they have been in
networking, what companies they are looking at and even ask
them if they have the necessary funds to invest in a
business. Don't send too much information in your first
package. We tend to overwhelm prospects with multiple
brochures, tapes, videos and booklets. Too much
information can be a bad thing. I recommend that your
first package contain a cover letter with a personal twist.
Not a sales letter as much as a personal letter explaining
the package. If you have a personal success story, either
with the product and/or service this is the place to tell
your prospect about it. Write the letter as you would to a
friend. Be personal, warm and friendly. In addition to
your cover letter (which can be one or more pages) include
a brochure or some other company prepared literature on
your opportunity and product. If you have a large number
of products you may not want to send information on all of
them at one time. Next you can add an audio or video tape
if you feel it's appropriate. Another good thing to add is
a free product sample if you have a product that lends
itself to this. Your prospect should be able to review the
information within a half hour. So again, keep it simple. A
Web URL is also a good thing to throw in or even tell them
about on the phone.

Make sure your info package sells you and your opportunity.
When you go through your package try to look at it from
your prospects point of view. They have probably never
seen your company before. Even if they have, what is it
they see when they open your package? Is your message
clear? What are you offering? What is the product and what
will this do for the prospect? It may be clear to you but
that does not mean it will be clear to your prospect. Have
a friend review your package and give you an impression of
it. If you're a Leaders Club member you can have someone
from our marketing staff review your package for free.
They'll give you an overview and even a few tips on how to
improve your package.

Follow-up with your prospect. A good follow-up can forgive
even a poor info package and it can often double your
results. The problem is that less than 25% of distributors
who use the phone (we're talking just a handful) make
follow-up calls. Interestingly, that's also about the
percentage of people who make full-time incomes in network
marketing. A follow-up call is a sure sign of your
commitment to your prospect. It's the perfect opportunity
to make sure that they got the package, had time to review
it and to answer any questions that they might have. If
you're not comfortable in doing this by yourself then get
with your upline and have them do a few three-way calls
with you and your prospects. Once you get comfortable you
will do the same for your new distributors.

Keep up the contact once they have joined. One of the
biggest complaints I hear is that new distributors never
hear from their sponsor or upline. If you want to build a
long lasting, loyal downline and keep attrition to a
minimum then you must build a relationship with your
people. The people who will stick with you even when things
don't go as planned are the ones you have a relationship
with. Amway is a prime example of this. The rank and file
make very little money with Amway, yet they stick around
because they are made to feel like they belong to something
special. If you and your company are special then you need
to make your people feel that way too. To build that
relationship you must communicate with your downline
especially your first level people. An occasional
telephone call works the best, but you could also
communicate via e-mail or even regular mail for that
matter. What I'm talking about here is interaction. Just
sending a newsletter does not qualify as a relationship
builder. A newsletter is fine for the rest of your
organization, but not for your first level people.

Follow these steps and I know that very soon you will not
only be getting calls from your advertising you will also
be getting new distributors as well. Beyond that you will
also be making a lot of new friends and hopefully a lot of
money too!

----------------------------------------------------
=====================================================
If you'd like to learn more about a brand new prospecting
system that builds YOUR primary business and generates
multiple income streams, go here:
http://www.pathtopresident.com/r/blindguy55
Remember you can also learn more of the 35 years in Network
Marketing from Dr Robin Rushlo at
ttp://www.cashwithbooks.com
=====================================================

Imagine Ultimate Perfection to Help Shrink Your Work Week to Two Hours

Imagine Ultimate Perfection to Help Shrink Your Work Week to Two Hours
To get your week's work done in 2 hours, you'll need a
2,000 percent solution approach. The steps for creating a
2,000 percent solution (accomplishing 20 times more with
the same time, effort, and resources) are listed here:

1. Understand the importance of measuring performance.

2. Decide what to measure.

3. Identify the future best practice and measure it.

4. Implement beyond the future best practice.

5. Identify the ideal best practice.

6. Pursue the ideal best practice.

7. Select the right people and provide the right motivation.

8. Repeat the first seven steps.

This essay looks at eliminating mental barriers in step
five.

Remove Blinders to Envision Perfection

The ideal best practice is simply the most effective
process that can possibly be accomplished by anyone over
the next five years. It will usually exceed the future best
practice by a wide margin, and the ideal best practice
reflects a performance level that might not normally be
reached for decades. Here's an example: In corporate
communications, an ideal best practice would mean having
all employees receive, understand, and act on a message in
appropriate ways within a few seconds. We know that's
possible because those seeing a fire, smelling smoke, and
hearing a fire alarm in a building will respond
appropriately in that amount of time. By comparison, your
organization's performance today represents a tiny fraction
of what is possible. People perform nearly perfectly all
the time in many different ways. Put those perfectly
performing individuals into an organization, and it's often
like removing 99 percent of their intelligence. That's the
negative result that follows from employing poorly designed
processes.

Before searching out the ideal best practice for your
process, let us observe that you are seeing the ideal best
practices of near perfection all around you on a daily
basis. But chances are that you don't notice the near
perfection at all. Instead, your focus is probably on what
isn't working well … and becoming either frustrated or
annoyed.

Get the Message of Why Near-Perfection Routinely Occurs

Here are questions that my clients and students have found
to be mind-opening. These questions provide the key to
exponential success. Most people can do this exercise in
less than an hour. But even if you spend more time, you'll
be way ahead of those who never answer these questions.
Keep in mind that understanding is more important than
speed.

• What are 50 examples of how individuals perform near
perfection on a regular basis?

• What are 50 examples of how people in groups perform near
perfection on a regular basis?

• Why do these near-perfect performances occur?

• What's missing from your organization's approach to its
most important tasks for your organization to improve
to near-perfect performance?

Here's an example to get you started: Employees are very
good at cashing their paychecks. Rarely do paychecks go
uncashed. Why? Unless employees are very wealthy or
extremely forgetful, they need to cash or deposit their
paychecks in order to buy food, pay for shelter, and run
the rest of their lives. For most people, not cashing a
paycheck would be like trying to hold your breath for the
rest of your life. It's an activity that cannot be
sustained. Many examples of near-perfection draw on these
elements: It's a natural thing to do; people enjoy doing
it; the consequences of not doing it are severe; people
understand the consequences and know exactly what they have
to do.

How High Is Up?

Managers often feel confused when they try to decide how
tough to make corporate improvement goals. Imagine that
your organization's output has been rising at 5 percent a
year in units while revenues per employee have grown at 3
percent a year. Many will be tempted to choose this
historical performance as a target.

Most leaders will choose goals that are 30 to 50 percent
likely to be reached. Setting more challenging goals can
stimulate higher performance by making the tasks more
interesting for employees and other stakeholders. But it's
a bad idea to set high goals without providing a clear
direction for how to succeed and helping employees gain
confidence in the likelihood of reaching the goals.

Utilizing the ideal best practice focus provides a major
improvement in goal setting by identifying both a higher
standard and one that is achievable and credible to
employees. In essence, you get more stretch with the same
degree of psychological comfort.

Here's an example of how one man created vast wealth for
his family simply by thinking about the ideal best
practice. Early in the 20th century, no one knew how to
recover the oil and gas under a body of water, whether that
water was a lake, a bayou, or the ocean. One wildcatter had
the foresight to realize that someday it would be possible
to drill inexpensively in shallow water. He looked for
hydrocarbon fields where there were successful oil or gas
wells in surrounding bodies of water, and he bought the
mineral rights under the water, even though no one yet knew
how to drill there. He was confident there was oil and gas
there, and he was mostly right. For pennies an acre, he
ultimately added tens of millions of dollars to his family
estate. How did he figure out such a possibility?
While the actual best practice of the day didn't permit
drilling for petroleum in shallow water, technology did
exist then to build structures in shallow water (he had
seen piers and bridges jutting up from the ocean floor and
lake beds) and laying watertight pipelines. If these
capabilities were combined, he reasoned, you could drill
and transport petroleum products from wells located
underwater. He estimated that the cost would be about four
times the usual cost. To offset that expected cost, he
looked for dry land wells that produced at least four times
the usual volume for successful wells.

You can apply similar thinking to anticipate where
breakthroughs can be made in the next few years and to
seize major advantages by grasping those opportunities
before they are perceived by others. By scooping up the
best opportunities for your organization, competitors will
be left to fight over less favorable options when they
finally realize what they are missing. Your advantages will
be long entrenched and hard to dislodge when that
realization occurs.

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

----------------------------------------------------
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. You can find free tips for accomplishing
20 times more by registering at:
=========> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Corporate Gifts - Giving Away Profits

Corporate Gifts - Giving Away Profits
To cement excellent business relations there is nothing
better than a little gift giving, whether to an important
client or a valued employee. But be sure to follow the
guidelines or corporate policy of the company which is to
benefit from your gift. There are often restrictions placed
on the value of the gift. Guidelines can be obtained from
the personnel department.

After checking corporate policy, a gift should be selected
carefully according to the position, interests and hobbies
of the recipient. While the holiday season is the most
popular time for the giving of corporate gifts, there are
many other occasions which can be made the most of,
including the anniversary of an important date for the
business, such as its founding, the opening of a new office
or the opening of a new office or branch. On a personal
level, a retirement or marriage, the birth of a baby and a
new promotion are excellent moments to show appreciation,
encourage loyalty, strengthen team ties and stimulate the
emulation of achievers of course, gift giving should be
limited to only a few occasions a year.

As for the company logo, while having this appear on the
gift does act as free advertising, it is only appropriate
for gifts which will be in use daily, such as key chains,
drinking mugs, caps and ballpoints. The logo should never
be used if the gift is meant to come from you personally.
Appropriate gifts include electrical goods and appliances,
travel or alarm clocks, food such as hampers, tickets for
shows or travel and that old favorite, desk accessories.
Be sure if you are giving internationally that you are
abiding by the customs of the country where you are giving.
Inappropriate behavior could backfire and be extremely
damaging to your corporate image. In 2005 corporate gift
giving sank among U.S. companies against of pre-tax
profits, despite the huge corporate responses to Hurricane
Katrina and the Asian tsunami which were so splashed across
the media. US companies gave more than $1bn in disaster
relief for victims of these disasters. The overall amount
given by leading companies such as Wal-Mart, Citigroup and
AIG rose 14 per cent to $8.56bn, but a percentage of
pre-tax profits declined to 0.9 per cent from 1.1 per cent
the year before. The decline was perhaps not unexpected,
given profit growth. Two-thirds of the donations from
companies were in kind.

The top bods generally want their philanthropy to be
aligned with their business strengths. Deloitte, the
consultancy, prefers for example to withhold cash and to
offer its services to charities instead. Pharmaceutical
companies such as Eli Lilly and Merck and Pfizer tend to
give a larger proportion of medicine and supplies than
cash. Annual contributions from 88 leading donors are in
the region of $10bn, which is about half of all corporate
philanthropy in the US. The median gift is about $32m. The
other 17,000 companies in America are clearly not pulling
their weight. .

----------------------------------------------------
Jerry Carpos of http://www.portraitkingdom.com features
captivating business corporate gift. Be informed with the
latest in the corporate world and see how oil portraits
amaze both your employees and your clients.

Tips To Finding Movado Discount Watches

Tips To Finding Movado Discount Watches
Movado watches are some of the finest quality watches
around. The problem is because of its high quality, only a
portion of society can afford to purchase a watch of its
caliber. There are certain places that you can find Movado
discount watches, but you have to nag the supplier to
assure yourself it is genuine.

Movado, meaning always in motions, has built a reputation
for design innovation. With its artistic style and
distinctive quality and design, Movado watches have climbed
to the top of the ladder in the watch industry. At such a
high retail price, it limits the amount of people that can
enjoy the fine piece of art that these watches have to
offer. There are Movado discount watches, but there are a
couple obstacles you face with this route.

The most difficult aspect to finding Movado discount
watches is finding authentic ones. There are suppliers all
over the internet that are attempting to sale fraud Movado
watches for the same discounted price as real ones. The
best way to avoid this is to avoid purchasing from small
unknown websites on the internet. If you feel that you
have found a legitimate small website, make sure that you
continuously nag the supplier regarding the authenticity of
the watch.

The next problem with finding Movado discount watches is
tracking them down over the internet. Some of the better
places to find Movado watches for cheap include amazon.com
and auctions.overstock.com. The last website mentioned is
great because it allows you to bid for the watch. This way
you have the ability to possibly get the watch even cheaper
than you had initially thought.

One method to finding Movado discount watches that does
take more time on your part is price comparing. There are
certain websites that will display Movado watches and
several places that sell it for different prices. If you
click price compare, it will show you the price for each
place it is sold at along with a clickable link to track
the watch down. This will make it convenient and quick to
find the cheapest price for your Movado watch.

Finding Movado discount watches can present a challenge,
but if you are willing to put in the effort to find the
watch for cheaper, you will have success. Because of its
impeccable design innovation, it is worth the trouble to
find these watches for cheaper if you can't afford or don't
wish to spend the high-retail price from the get go. The
biggest concern you need to consider is purchasing a fake
Movado watch. As long as you research and are careful, you
should have no problem finding a Movado discount watch.

----------------------------------------------------
For more information about Luxury watches visit
watchesonnet.com (http://www.watchesonnet.com). To find a
great Movado watch visit our Movado Watches Section
http://www.watchesonnet.com/movado.html).

Your Team In The Game Of Life

Your Team In The Game Of Life
While I was coaching one of my clients last week, I
realized that his dissatisfaction with his current life
situation was a direct result of his choice in "teammates".
He asked me "John, how can I just leave my friends?" My
answer was "subtraction is just as important as addition in
life". You will become a product of your associates! So ask
yourself, "Am I around the right people in order to achieve
my WHY in life?"

I wrote the following article over one year ago, and since
choosing the right "teammates" is such a crucial step to
you being successful in life I decided to have you read it
again!

Your mastermind team consists of the first three people
that you speak to when you begin your day. During the first
seven minutes of your day, you should read your WHY card
and know exactly why you climbed out of bed and what you
will be doing throughout your day. After reading your WHY
card and setting your goals, you should then begin to make
contact with your mastermind team.

When developing your mastermind team, take the following
factors into consideration:

* Who do I know that motivates me throughout my day? * Who
do I know that empowers me to reach my WHY? * Who do I know
that gets me excited about life? * Who do I know that will
continue to encourage me to through rough times?

Take a look at a two VERY POWERFUL SCRIPTURES about the
need for a mastermind team;

Ecclesiastes 4:9,10 "Two are better than one, because they
have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one
will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone
when he falls, or he has no one to help him up."

Proverbs 11:14 "Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety".

Each person on your mastermind team should be excited about
his life and consider each day a gift. Just think about
those times during the year such as your birthday and
Christmas in which you receive gifts. Would you ever say,
"No thanks" and push those gifts away? Of course you
wouldn't. You would be excited and grateful that someone
thought enough of you to provide you with such nice things.
That's the same reason that we refer to today as the
"present," because each day is a gift from God for us to be
grateful for and to be excited about! Your mastermind team
should encourage you to reap the benefits of every day by
empowering you to achieve your WHY in life.

Now, reflect back over the last three days and think about
the first three people that you spoke to each morning. Ask
yourself the above-mentioned questions and determine if
those people are mastermind team material. If the answer is
no, some changes need to be made. You may run into
obstacles and find yourself somewhat confused about whom to
make part of your mastermind team. If this happens, then
just feel comfortable knowing that I will be on your team
and help you to determine who else in your life will help
you to achieve your WHY.

Once again, I challenge you! Get to work on developing your
mastermind Team!

Until next week,

Find Your WHY and FLY!

----------------------------------------------------
John shocks millions globally by exposing the truth about
how to achieve monumental life success despite the labels
that society has placed on you. Through his award winning
live seminars, power-packed training programs, live
tele-classes, weekly ezine and website
(http://www.FindYourWhy.com), John Di Lemme has made
success a reality for thousands worldwide.

Are you the next Donald Trump or Richard Branson?

Are you the next Donald Trump or Richard Branson?
Have you got what it takes to be a world class
entrepreneur? Or would you be better off as a senior
executive in the corporate world?

In a recent White Paper on Competitiveness, the UK
Government said "Entreprenuership and innovation are
central to the creative processes in the economy, to
promoting growth, increasing productivity and creating
jobs. Entrepreneurs sense opportunities and take risks in
the face of uncertainty to open new markets, design new
products and develop innovative processes. In the
knowledge-driven economy this process is critical in large
and small businesses alike."

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, a useful starting
point would be to assess your own competencies. Ask
yourself: how do I compare to the Donald Trumps or Richard
Bransons of the world?

A study of 17 successful entrepreneurs identified 9
competencies that can predict, with about 80% accuracy,
which individuals have the characteristics of successful
entrepreneurs of the future.

This study showed the entrepreneurs to be people who are
driven and focused, with a huge capacity for work. They
also revealed themselves to be individuals with high levels
of integrity and a democratic and generous approach to
sharing success. They had an eye for developing a business
that would stand the test of time and that would contribute
to their local community.

But what made these individuals truly outstanding is the
passion they have for what they are doing. That passion
feeds their success and drives them forward.

Dr David McClelland, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at
Harvard University, one of the world's leading authorities
on leadership and motivation, proved that entreprenueiral
behaviours can be developed and that once these behaviours
are developed, business performance improves.

If it is possible to develop these entrepreneurial
behaviours, how do you do it?

Firstly, make sure your chosen field is something that
really grabs you, something you believe in completely and
can talk about confidently. Remember you will have to
convince others it's a good idea and there will be some
risk-taking involved! Know your stuff, know your market,
know your limitations, and then go beyond them.

Take the initiative - if you don't do it no one else will!
Or if it is a really good idea, if you don't take the
initiative someone else might! Take the lead on issues and
set a good example for any employees you might have and
also to the investors.

Set goals and performance measures for your people so that
you can assess progress. It's a give and take world so
reward your employees when they do well (but only when they
do well).

Be honest with yourself about how well things are going.
Communicate closely with your employees and tell them if
they're not up to scratch. They can either shape up or
ship out. The Donald Trump "You're fired" line in The
Apprentice TV show comes to mind.

Take care of yourself psychologically. You are the
visionary, the leader. When things go right, make the most
of it, feel good about it and use that to move on to the
next challenge. Beyond the competencies, there are
practical skills that the entrepreneur needs to develop.
There are hundreds of things to consider when setting up a
business - planning, getting funding, selling and everyday
administration such as health and safety and payroll.

Above all, individuals must respect the huge amount of
personal sacrifices successful entrepreneurs have made
along the way and also recognise that success owes a lot to
hard graft, determination and long hours as well as drive,
commitment and a brilliant business concept.

----------------------------------------------------
Pam Kennett is Founder and Director of WealthBeing. Pam has
worked with entrepreneurs to help them establish their
businesses. WealthBeing is a wealth education and coaching
company which helps individuals develop practical skills
and knowledge to build their wealth. For free resources,
downloads and articles visit http://www.wealthbeing.co.uk
or contact Pam direct at mailto:pam@wealthbeing.co.uk

Types of Logos: Text, Symbol and Combination Logos

Types of Logos: Text, Symbol and Combination Logos
There are three basic types of logos: text, symbol, and
combination logos. The type of logo that will work best for
your company depends on a number of considerations, such as
the size of your company, the uniqueness of your name, and
a variety of other factors.

Text logo

A text logo (also sometimes called a logotype or word mark)
is a logo largely made up of the text of the company's
name. This type of logo can have some graphic
elements-lines, boxes, borders-that interact with,
surround, or even form the letters. However, the graphic
elements should be used as an accent to the text, not as a
major or equally-weighted part of the logo. A text logo
works well when:

- You have a multi-word business name. If your business
name is made up of many words, that are not commonly or
easily abbreviated, or when an abbreviation may not be
appropriate developing a text logo will keep the logo
design as simple and clean as possible.

- You're working with an innovative, unique business name,
as with Yahoo or Google. In each case, the business name is
enough to make the logo memorable.

- You're designing a logo for a large company that offers
many types of products, services, or a combination of both,
that may be hard to define or "wrap up" in a single picture
or symbol.

- You're designing a logo "for the long haul"-there is less
concern about your company "outgrowing" a text logo-they
are timeless and classic.

- Trademark protection is highly important-as long as your
business name is unique, then a text logo will also be
unique.

A text logo may not be the right choice if:

- Your business name is not unique; this can mean
difficulty for building your brand recognition. Then,
without a symbol, the logo will be more difficult to
remember or to associate with your business.

- Your business name does not describe what you do, it can
be hard to tell what products or services you offer when
just a text logo is used. Taglines or other graphic
elements will need to be employed to tell your audience
more about your business.

Symbol logo

A symbol logo is the opposite extreme in design from a text
logo. This type of logo includes neither words nor
letters-only symbols, images and shapes.

A symbol logo works well when:

- Your company already has a high level of brand
recognition. If who you are and what you do are already
widely known, then you can use a symbol logo as an elegant
and clean solution.

- You have been using a combination logo for some time and
have now built up enough brand recognition for your symbol
to stand alone. This is a common transition for a logo
design to take when your company grows.

- You have a unique symbol in your industry-you wouldn't
want to be confused with or mistaken for anyone else in
your industry!

- You have the time and energy to trademark your logo, and
then to police and enforce that trademark. This is how you
ensure that your logo continues to be uniquely yours.

- You have a global presence and can develop a universal,
graphic symbol that speaks to you and audiences.
Additionally, a symbol can have meanings on many levels,
and can also have different meanings in different cultures

A text logo may not be the right choice if:

- You are a company just starting out, you must have the
budget and desire to educate your audience on your new
symbol logo. This can be a difficult task.

Combination logo

A logo that in some manner combines both a symbol and the
company name. The symbol and text can be integrated
together, side by side, or with one located above the other.

Combination logos are the most common type of logo for
several reasons:

- A combination logo offers the best of both worlds. This
type of logo offers a memorable logo graphic that tells the
story of who you are, what you do, and what makes you
different, all in conjunction with your business name for
easy identification.

- A combination logo is an excellent choice for a small- or
medium-sized company or a company just starting out, to
begin to build brand recognition, because a combination
logo is both visually strong and explanatory. The symbol
can speak to the services that the company offers, while
the company name increases the company recognition.

- Combination logos are easier to copyright and protect
than a symbol-only logo, because the logo symbol will
always be used in conjunction with the business name. This
automatically makes the logo unique.

You can use this guide to determine the best type of logo
to design or to have designed for your company, based on
the size of your business, how well-known you are, your
business name, and your business plans, among other
factors. Choosing the right type of logo design is the
first step in building your company's visibility,
credibility, and memorability.

----------------------------------------------------
Erin Ferree is a brand identity designer who creates big
visibility for small businesses. As the owner of elf
design, Erin is passionate about helping her clients stand
out in front of their competition and attract more clients.
Her "Define Your Difference Branding Workbook" will help
you with your brand definition - the most important step in
the logo design process.
http://www.elf-design.com/products-define.html

Leapfrog Years Ahead of the Competition and Accomplish 20 Times More!

Leapfrog Years Ahead of the Competition and Accomplish 20 Times More!
Did you ever play leapfrog as a child? If you did, you
probably landed just beyond the other child. But if you
had used a springy trampoline to launch yourself, you could
have gone a large distance beyond. Wouldn't that be fun?
What if you could use a rocket-assist pack on your back to
fly like you were on the moon hundreds of yards past the
other person? I think that would be even more fun, don't
you?

Let's look at how you might get a similar advantage over
your competitors by shooting way past their future
performance before they get there.

The steps for creating a 2,000 percent solution
(accomplishing 20 times more with the same time, effort,
and resources) are listed here:

1. Understand the importance of measuring performance.

2. Decide what to measure.

3. Identify the future best practice and measure it.

4. Implement beyond the future best practice.

5. Identify the ideal best practice.

6. Pursue the ideal best practice.

7. Select the right people and provide the right motivation.

8. Repeat the first seven steps.

This essay looks at step four.

Jump Past Where Everyone Else Wants to Go

Successful leapfrogging the future best practice (the best
anyone will do in five years) requires that your best
change leaders unify efforts. These leaders must commit to
this challenging objective and shift the organizational
culture to support them. Those working on the
implementation must become masters of understanding the
subprocesses needed to make the successful change.

Triage for Maximum Effect

Narrow your focus to a few areas of highest promise so that
you do not water down your potential for results. Begin by
segmenting those aspects of exceeding future best practices
into three categories that:

1. Can be implemented almost immediately with little effort.

2. Can be implemented within two years with effort and
attention.

3. Can be implemented over more than two years.

In your triage agenda, you can probably do most things that
fall into the first category easily, quickly, and with
little help except where the activity stymies a
high-priority item from the second category. The challenge
comes in selecting from the second and third categories.
Here's an important limitation to keep in mind: You
probably cannot make more than three or four changes at the
same time that involve the same people. You'll make the
most progress when you pick the best balance of near- and
intermediate-term benefits while placing the least strain
on your people and resources. To that mix, add anything
else you can do through aggressive use of outside resources
that doesn't increase the internal burden. Within that
agenda, give high priority to actions that will give you
the most benefit over the next two years. Organize your
efforts so that some significant benefits will be realized
every six months or so to keep everyone motivated and
working effectively.

We're Almost Done-In

Since the thinking involved in steps five and six (finding
and approaching the ideal best practice, the best anyone
will ever be able to do) will suggest other outstanding
choices, beware of setting too many firm projects at this
step. After all, you may be ready with better ideas from
step six within just a few weeks. But if completing step
six will take more than a few months, you should begin to
implement some of what has been identified in step four.

In this case, my recommendation is that you reserve some
change capacity (such as time of key people, analytical
resources, and budget) beginning around the time that you
will have some new projects to add. This approach may mean
that you will choose to mine category 1 from the triage
list more heavily for now than category 2.

Outsourcing for Outstanding Possibilities

To estimate how long it will take you to put a new practice
in place, look at the experience of those who preceded you
in implementing those practice elements. Then consider
whether your organization will be a faster or slower
learner and integrator than they were. As you consider your
choices, be open to having the company you studied or some
of its former employees be an outsourcing provider to speed
your progress. Simply because you want to employ a certain
subprocess doesn't mean that you need to become the world's
expert in that area.

Go Where the Benefits Are the Greatest

Beware of taking quantifications of likely benefits too
literally. One project may appear to offer ten times the
potential of another project, but the former project may
also be a hundred times more difficult. Instead, emphasize
places where you can effectively concentrate your resources
while facing little resistance from any stakeholder or
competitor. Choose a project that seems to offer more
benefits, however, when two competing projects present
similar difficulty and degrees of opposition.

STALLBUSTERS

Understand Your Track Record for Implementing Beyond Future
Best Practices

Organizations vary widely in their ability to exceed future
best practices through assembling new combinations of
subprocesses. Many overestimate how well they will do in
bringing groundbreaking new directions to an industry. Ask
yourself these questions:

• What significant attempts has your organization made to
improve over the last five years?

• Which attempts achieved their purpose on budget and on
schedule?

• Which attempts did not?

• What were the apparent causes for the two types of
results based on discussions with those who worked on the
attempts?

• How many successful implementations were key individuals
able to work on at once?

• What could you do in the future to improve your
organization's effectiveness in such implementations?

Develop Project Plans to Exceed the Future Best Practice

Your ideas for projects to exceed the future best practice
will usually come from research into what others are doing
and planning to do. To test the direction you should take,
check out what's involved by developing project plans based
on the answers to the following questions:

• Which projects have a favorable cost-to-benefit ratio?

• Which projects have an affordable cost compared to your
resources and limitations?

• Which projects have a reasonable likelihood of success?

Compare Your Plans to Past Results

• Which of these potential changes look like your past
successes?

• Which potential changes look like your past misses and
messes?

• Do the opportunities to use your strengths in
implementing future-best-practice-exceeding changes provide
you with enough benefit to exceed the future best practice?

• If not, what are the simplest, most effective ways to
enhance your organization's ability to provide or
absorb more valuable improvements?

• What is the risk of failing to succeed?

Looking Ahead

Remember to keep some time available to look at the
opportunities you will develop from considering steps five
and six. Ideally, pick projects needed to surpass future
best practices to mesh with the projects that will come out
of your work with steps five and six.

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

----------------------------------------------------
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. You can find free tips for accomplishing
20 times more by registering at:
=========> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .