Career Success - Embracing Difference is the Key to Team Success

Career Success - Embracing Difference is the Key to Team Success
We are all individuals with unique personalities,
capabilities and quirks. We each bring something different
to the table. Experience, skills, talents, expectations. It
might surprise you to learn that difference among team
members is actually the beginning of synergy.

You can choose to see difference as a reason for not
getting along or as an obstacle to moving toward team
goals. Unsuccessful teams are certainly known to be prone
to doing that. And, when you hold these views you should
expect to spend more time attempting to mediate conflicts
and resolve issues that are impeding communication and
compromising productivity than dealing with tasks on your
critical path.

Or, you can capitalize on difference so that, at the end of
the day, the sum of the parts is greater than that of the
whole. For successful teams cooperative, joint effort
delivers an end result which independent action could not
have achieved. There is little wasted time or energy
required to manage expectations and massage egos.

Critical to working synergistically is ensuring each person
on the team knows and has shared the answer to the
following questions:

1. What she or he REQUIRES from others working on the team.

2. What she or he REQUESTS from others working on the team.

3. What she or he REFUSES TO TOLERATE from others working
on the team.

The first step then is giving the team members the time to
consider their response to these questions and permission
to answer them honestly, without fear of reprisal.

The next step is creating an opportunity for the team
members to share their personal requirements with one
another. As the team leader, you are responsible for making
sure this conversation takes place early on in the team
relationship, preferably before any other requirements are
discussed as a team.

Once this has taken place, you are ready to discharge other
matters critical to the team's business such as defining
your mission, values, objectives, goals, tasks, timelines,
resource requirements, constraints, success criteria,
performance measures and status reporting metrics.

Synergy starts with communicating openly and honestly with
one another, is reinforced by committing to and working
toward common goals, and ends with sharing the glory of
achievement despite adversity. At the start of the day it's
all about possibilities but, at the end of the day it's
only about your results.

Embracing difference is the key to success because the
opposite of success isn’t failure, it’s
conformity. And the choice is always yours.

----------------------------------------------------
Download more free career tips and advice at
http://www.smartstartcoach.com
Career advancement expert and mentor Linda M. Lopeke is a
leading authority on how to succeed in the 21st century
workplace and the creator of SMARTSTART Mentoring Programs:
Success-to-go for people working @ the speed of life!

A New Hire, An Aquarium and Overcoming The Status Quo

A New Hire, An Aquarium and Overcoming The Status Quo
What does an aquarium have to do with the status quo and a
new hire? More than you think. Read on and see how an
experience in ignoring the rules of good aquarium
management resulted in a lesson that has much broader
application.

At 12 years old, I was a partner in an aquarium. Four of us
owned it and the fish and plants that inhabited it. We got
the money to buy new fish by scavenging 5 cent deposit
beverage bottles. We'd gather the bottles, cash them in
and go to the aquarium dealer and buy fish.

We had developed a pretty good collection of Gouramis,
Angelfish. Mollys and Neon Tetras, along with the necessary
catfish and plants to make our freshwater aquarium look
good, provide cover, and yet remain uncrowded.

The one thing we had done was always buy two fish of the
same kind. But one Saturday we went looking for bottles
– pickings were scarce and we only found enough to
get money for one fish. We really wanted to add zebra fish
to our collection, so we bought just one fish - even though
the dealer advised against it - and brought it home.

We introduced our new fish with little fanfare - we simply
dropped it into the tank. All the other pairs had been put
into the aquarium in their plastic bags for a few hours in
order to let the community get to know them. We were tired
from scavenging bottles, it was getting late, and we were
in a hurry to see how our zebra fish looked in the aquarium.

Our zebra fish darted around and showed a lot of energy
– just what we wanted to liven up the aquarium. We
noticed that all the other fish seemed to get a little
tense with this new fish buzzing around the aquarium, but
none attacked him and we felt that everything would settle
down overnight. We put the cover on the aquarium, and went
to bed.

The next day we checked on our aquarium, and the zebra fish
was gone! The cover was still on, and it was heavy glass
that could not be moved by a fish. We had no other pets at
the time, and the house was free of rats and rodents. What
we did notice was that the other fish in the aquarium had
returned to their pre-zebra demeanor - everything was calm
and collected in this little community - no tension, and
all the pairs were in their places.

We came to the conclusion that our hard earned zebra fish -
all alone because we lacked the patience to wait until we
had the money for a pair, and introduced with little
preparation because we had not taken the time to introduce
him properly, had been eaten by the other fish in the
aquarium. That was the only possible explanation for his
disappearance.

See any similarities to what so often happens in business
situations? We spend all our time and energy on the
acquisition of a person, we want them to shake things up,
we're eager to have that happen, so we just drop them in
the tank! And they get eaten – figuratively - by the
status quo.

The purpose of this story is to suggest you spend at least
as much time and effort in the assimilation of people as
you do in the acquistion of people. Spend time with the new
person, and with the people who will be part of the
environment that the new person will have to live, survive
and succeed in. Build the bridges of understanding and
expectations that will allow the workgroup to be successful
in accepting the newcomer. If you just parachute them in
– sink or swim – you do so at your own peril.
Make sure the success of people that are hired is a goal of
the hiring manager, and make sure he or she understands
their own performance will be measured on the basis of how
well their hires succeed

Create a structure for followup that ensures the new person
has regular contact with their manager - a structure that
communicates expectations to the hiring manager for how
they are to develop the new person.

If you accept the attitude that every new selection, be it
a hire, promotion or transfer, represents an opportunity
to improve your organization, and you follow that attitude,
you will see a much higher proportion of successful
selections from both a retention and contribution
standpoint.

I wish we'd used that process with our zebra fish. As it
turned out our aquarium never did get another fish –
our little fish community liked things just the way they
were – and we didn't want to mess with the status
quo. Plus, our unsuccessful experience with the zebra fish
made it difficult to work up any enthusiasm for trying
again.

Sound familiar? .

----------------------------------------------------
Andy Cox helps clients align their resources and design and
implement change through the application of goals focused
on the important few elements that have maximum impact in
achieving success - as defined by the client. He can be
reached at http://www.coxconsultgroup.com or
acox@coxconsultgroup.com

Keep Your Feet to the Fire . . . Even If You Have to Start the Fire Yourself

Keep Your Feet to the Fire . . . Even If You Have to Start the Fire Yourself
When you decide to learn about how to create and implement
2,000 percent solutions (ways of accomplishing 20 times as
much with the same time and effort), you'll have opened up
a magical doorway to exponential improvement. In the
process, you'll come to understand how to make rapid
progress by overcoming stalls (bad habits that encourage
complacency) and developing new, more effective habits.
What you probably do not yet appreciate is how rapidly
change can occur, and how large rapid change can be.

Let's look at two examples, one from nature and one from
business, to expand your awareness.

When Is It Time for a Change?

Many learn that evolutionary changes in nature take
millions of years. New research shows that major biological
changes in a species can happen in as little as 14 years,
as reported in Nature ("Natural Selection Out on a Limb,"
Ted J. Case, Volume 387, pp. 1-16, May 1, 1997). Common
lizards native to the Caribbean were transported to small
islands where they were not expected to survive because the
environments were so ill-suited to the lizards. Instead of
dying out, most of the lizard colonies thrived because the
lizards' bodies changed rapidly and dramatically to fit the
new environments. Fourteen years after arrival, the
survivors were as different from their ancestors as a
jockey is from a basketball center.

People should be even more physically adaptable than
lizards when placed in a challenging environment. We should
have the same genetic ability to shift, and we have the
added advantage of being able to shift mentally more than
lizards do. We can use that mental advantage to change our
actions as well as adapt the environment in ways that suit
us using tools we design.

The question before us now is: How can a challenging
environment make a difference for us in achieving a 2,000
percent solution?

Creating the Environment for a 2,000 Percent Solution

Let's turn to the business equivalent of the lizard
colonies being relocated onto the new islands where they
faced potential extinction: a corporate loser facing
shutdown. This organization chose to fight the seemingly
inevitable demise of its operations by focusing on
approaching the ideal best practice (the best way that
anyone could possibly operate).

At the time of the decision, the company had the lowest
profit margin (after-tax earnings divided by sales) in the
industry, the second lowest market share (company sales
divided by industry sales), the most debt compared to its
equity, poor stock price performance, and customers who
wouldn't buy the company's offerings unless they sold below
everyone else's price. The goal was to improve to a
leadership position along all of these dimensions.

Within a year of making the decision to improve, the
company increased its market share by more than 50 percent,
more than doubled its profit margin, improved its balance
sheet to reach normal debt levels, substantially increased
its prices, and saw its stock price grow by more than 50
percent. After seven more years, the company's profit
margin was the highest in the industry. It had almost
tripled its market share, slashed its debt to very low
levels and saw its stock price grow by more than 10 times
the market rate. All of this improvement occurred in a
commodity industry in which the annual unit growth rate was
less than 4 percent.

The potential extinction made the officers eager to
consider any reasonable change that might help. The 2,000
percent solution process gave them the road map for which
changes to make.

Using new measurements, the officers identified which
current and potential customers would provide the most
profit and competitive insulation. From this examination,
the company saw an opportunity to make a key acquisition
that would greatly strengthen performance where the company
was doing best. After the acquisition, sales efforts were
redirected to the more ideal customers. Those steps allowed
the company to reach about the fourth step in the 2,000
percent solution process during the first year. Business
performance boomed as a result.

As well as this company performed, it missed greater
opportunities because as soon as extinction was no longer a
threat, complacency set in. The remaining steps in the
process were never executed. Like the lizards in the
Caribbean, they lazed in the sun in their new form . . .
enjoying the improved match with their environment.

Beware of falling into this trap when threats recede. Stir
up a new threat if you have no other way to avoid
complacency.

Conclusion

What, then, should be your organization's goals? We
encourage you to lift your sights to not only make great
strides now, but to create the foundation for even greater
strides in the future, both for current and future
generations of stakeholders.

Here are the questions you need to answer and consistently
act on to start creating 2,000 percent solutions:

• What habits does your organization have now that
could lead it to be derailed by success from creating a
permanent 2,000 percent solution organizational culture?

• How can you use the 2,000 percent solution process
to overcome those habits?

• For your organization to gain the most from your
learning, who should you begin to teach about stallbusting
(overcoming bad habits) and 2,000 percent solutions?

• Which process in your organization is the right one
to begin focusing on to apply what you’ve learned?

• What are your organizational and personal
objectives for helping others learn these ways of thinking
and acting?

• What are your personal objectives for employing the
benefits you'll gain from overcoming stalled thinking and
using the eight-step process outside of your work?

You can use these questions to help evolve into a
self-actualized person who can guide companies and
organizations to overcome the stalls that keep them from
becoming self-actualized as well. In the process, the
organization will find itself focusing on more profound and
satisfying purposes. When the 2,000 percent solution
process is applied broadly through the world, we'll all
enjoy improved health, happiness, peace, and prosperity.
We, our loved ones, family, friends, neighbors, colleagues,
those we serve, and our descendants will be enormously glad
we did.

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 .

The Unique Women’s Zenith Watch Collection

The Unique Women’s Zenith Watch Collection
Whether you’re looking for glamour or a casual
timepiece with style, there is a wide array of
women’s Zenith watches to select from. There are
four different collections to choose from and each
collection offers a number of variations. There are
diamonds, stainless steel, leather and gold within the
various watches.

The first women’s Zenith collection I’ll go
over is the Baby Doll collection. There is an astounding
18 watches to choose from just within the Baby Doll
collection. One of the unique watches within this
collection is the Baby Star Elite, which offers a casual
and flashy watch for every situation. It has a simple
buckle that allows for an easy access putting it on or
taking it off.

There are four different colors you can choose from with
the Baby Star Elite; pink, baby blue, silver and white.
Whichever color you select, the color of the case
coordinates with the color of the dial and the leather
strap. The dial is then topped off with a plethora of
glistening diamonds.

The next women’s Zenith watch collection is not quite
as big with only six models to choose from, but is equally
unique. One of the models, the El Primero, has a 4021
automatic movement with chronograph, power reserve
indicator, an open dial displaying the movement and a heart
shaped small second-hands at 9 o’clock. You can
choose from rose, yellow gold, and a number of different
colored steel.

The Glam’Rock collection offers women the glamorous
watches from Zenith. There are eight different models
within the collection, each having their own style and
flash. A few of the watches have a shiny stainless steel
silver bracelet and others have a black calfskin strap.
The background of the dial has a number of stars
accentuating the style, which is finished off with a large
star shaped open dial that shows the escapement movement.

The last women’s Zenith collection is the Starissme.
There are eight different models within this collection to
choose from, all being fairly similar to each other. The
unique design on the dial has a star at the 12
o’clock spot, and then numbers one through eight.
Each number on the dial gets bigger as you go from one to
eight, with the eight craftily taking over a majority of
the left side. Lastly, a star on the upper left hand side
of the dial is open to show the escapement movement.

Each collection of the women’s Zenith watches offer
something a little different. You will find diamonds,
leather, stainless steel and a unique design with every
timepiece Zenith offers.

----------------------------------------------------
To obtain information on the beautifully crafted Womens
Zenith Watch visit our Zenith watches section
(http://www.watchesonnet.com/zenith.html). For information
on Patrick Bedford or to browse our large watch section
visit Watches On Net (http://www.watchesonnet.com )

Career Success - The Mystery Key to Mastering Work/Life Balance

Career Success - The Mystery Key to Mastering Work/Life Balance
Is there such a thing to be had as work/life balance? Of
course there is! But it helps to understand what is really
meant by it in order to manage your commitments toward
having any hope of achieving it. Like “family
values”, work/life balance is very easy to talk about
and quite a bit more challenging to actually live. Each
requires substantial personal commitment, particularly if
you want to be successful.

Experiencing work/life balance probably requires an
adjustment to your way of thinking. Most people think in
one dimension following a linear thought pattern. They see
things as absolute and respond only one way, either
positive or negative. We can or we can’t do it.
Let’s call this first wave thinking.

Some people use expanded thought patterns. They see and
compare things from two sides, both positive and negative,
and make choices on the basis of analysis. For them the
issue is one of “maybe we can AND maybe we
can’t”. This is what's called second wave
thinking.

People who achieve work/life balance are third wave
thinkers. They use complete thought patterns, compare
things from multiple angles and see all sides and
perspectives. They look at things from the inside out and
the outside in. Successful people are almost always grand
masters of third-wave thinking. Their approach is always
“how can we make this happen?”

Here’s how this translates to the challenge of
achieving work/life balance. First-wave thinkers believe it
means trading 8 hours of work for the guarantee of an equal
8 hours of time to devote to having a personal life. The
second-wave thinkers see work/life balance as 8 hours of
work buying 8 hours of personal life but they are willing
to invest some or all of their personal time in additional
work when they feel it’s the only way open to the
reward of success. Sadly, neither one of these two groups
experience much work/life balance regardless of the number
of hours logged at the office or spent at home.

Third-wave thinkers, on the other hand, see that work/life
balance is not a matter of equal time for both pursuits.
Rather, it is a matter of accepting that to give more to
your work, you must get more from your life, and to give
more to your life, you must get more from your work. The
values actually added and subtracted are always changing as
they are in constant motion. As long as you remain aware
of where you are at any given time in your work and in your
personal life, you will always be able to maintain a fine,
healthy, and satisfying balance. Welcome to professional
nirvana!

To sum up, the people who achieve work/life balance have
stopped looking at work as simply a means of making a
living and have realized it’s one of the elemental
ingredients of making a life. So, the next time you are
experiencing dissatisfaction at work and unhappiness in
your life and are ready to blame it on a lack of work/life
balance, stop and ask yourself this important question,
“How do I want it to become and what personal actions
will carry me there?” Then, as they say in the Nike
commercial, “Just do it!”

----------------------------------------------------
Get more free career tips and great advice at
http://www.smartstartcoach.com
Career advancement expert and mentor Linda M. Lopeke is a
leading authority on how to succeed in the 21st century
workplace and the creator of SMARTSTART Mentoring Programs:
Success-to-go for people working @ the speed of life!

Product Review DIY Accounting Limited Company Accounting Software

Product Review DIY Accounting Limited Company Accounting Software
Accounting Software Strengths

As the whole small business accounting software for a
limited liability company is written on excel spreadsheets
all bookkeeping transactions are visible. Each excel
workbook being arranged in 12 monthly worksheets. Prime
data entry excel spreadsheets being provided for sales,
purchases, cash, bank, savings account and credit card
account. Financial transactions such as sales or expenses
are then simply listed on the appropriate months' sheet.
And should a change be necessary any item can be easily
changed. This simple listing process is a huge advantage to
non accountants as no previous bookkeeping or accountancy
software knowledge is required.

Bank spreadsheets can be entered by listing the items that
appear on the bank statement and include a box to enter the
statement balance each month. The formulae within the excel
spreadsheet then automatically checks that the entries made
agree with the statement balance producing effective bank
reconciliation. A good feature that ensures entries are
recorded accurately in the companies accounts.

From the lists of sales and purchases plus the bank
statement entries all the information is automatically
transferred to the financial accounts file. In this file is
a trial balance which actually automates all the double
entry accounting transactions. No entries are required
removing the need for users to have accounting experience.
The Trial Balance is purely an accounting solution, visible
and contains an audit check to again ensure the company
accounts are accurate with no entries are required. The
lack of entries in the area of accounting makes the product
an ideal package for companies requiring a small business
accounting software package.

Within the financial accounting software file is an
automated monthly profit and loss account to enable limited
companies to track their financial performance and very
important, the package also produces a balanced profit and
loss account and Balance Sheet in the correct format for
submission of the final accounts. This set of final
accounts automatically gathering the financial information
from the basic entries made and includes the statutory
notes required for a set of company accounts being
published.

Quarterly vat returns are generated for vat registered
business and is also suitable for non vat registered
business. To produce a vat return clients simply go to the
vat file and select the quarter end date from a drop down
menu and the figures for the vat return are automatically
generated. The vat calculations can be disabled by non vat
registered small businesses by simply changing the standard
vat rate from 17.5 to zero making the accounting software
suitable for both vat registered and non vat registered
businesses.

The fixed asset schedule is preset with the capital
allowance tax rates to automatically calculate capital
allowances when fixed assets are entered. Depreciation is
also automatically calculated with preset percentages that
can be changed as required.

The limited company corporation tax liability is also
calculated automatically in such a way that all the
calculations; additions and deductions are both automated
and visible. Capital allowances on both existing and new
assets being shown on the corporation tax calculation.

Accountancy Knowledge Required

The limited liability company accounting software is based
upon single entry of transactions requiring no accounting
or bookkeeping knowledge. All the accounting knowledge
required to perform the double entry of transactions which
is a required feature to produce a balance sheet has been
automated. The company accounts package has a feature so
that the previous years' figures may be entered and lists
of opening debtors and creditors recorded. A minimal level
of accounting knowledge is required to correctly list the
closing debtors and creditors and check the totals of those
lists agrees with the automated balances shown on the
company accounts balance sheet

Very Low Priced

At £15 the accounting software can save many businesses
exempt from a full audit the need to employ an accountant
potentially saving hundreds of pounds in professional fees.
Hundreds of small limited companies with up to 20 employees
also purchase the DIY Accounting Payroll Software which is
sold separately from £14.99 and fully integrates into the
Financial Accounting Software.

Other Features

The product has a stock control feature to monitor any
stock losses. The limited company accounting software
contains a wages interface that fully integrates the DIY
Accounting Payroll Software when those files are saved into
the same folder as the accounting software files. Being
written on excel spreadsheets all transactions are visible
and capable of being changed by for example overwriting any
errors as opposed to a database system that requires new
transactions to be entered to reverse previous entries. The
sales and purchase spreadsheets include columns for
entering CIS tax deductions and payments and the
certificate numbers. The CIS tax being then automatically
entered on the self assessment tax return. As the small
business accounting software is written on excel
spreadsheets then it is essential that users have a version
of excel from 1998 onwards installed to use the program.
The accounting software also works fine with an Open Source
spreadsheet package.

Conclusion: to Buy or not to Buy

Exceptionally good value, very easy to use and produces
exactly what every small limited company requires in a
small business accounting software package, automated
accounts requiring no bookkeeping skills and no previous
financial accountancy software experience with the valuable
end product of a fully automated final set of accounts for
the limited liability company.

----------------------------------------------------
Terry Cartwright is a qualified accountant in the UK
designs Financial Accounting Software
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/index.htm
on excel spreadsheets providing complete Business
Accounting Software
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/companyaccounts.htm
for every small limited liability company.

Philadelphia Real Estate - The Tortoise or the Hare?

Philadelphia Real Estate - The Tortoise or the Hare?
Philadelphia, situated between New York and Washington, DC,
is often overlooked by many as the thriving, vivacious city
that it truly has become.

We don't attract the number of investors that some of our
big city rivals such as Miami, Las Vegas, or some hot spots
in California might. You won't find our streets littered
with movie stars, paparazzi or neon lights. Very few folks
here in Center City Philadelphia have swimming pools or
driveways.

Poor, poor Philadelphia....

Oh, and soaring, monthly double digit appreciation in home
values? No, we don't get much of that either. This sorry
backwoods of an urban area suffers from such neglect.
Bummer, eh?

Uh, no. Not in the least. Very few Philadelphia real
estate owners are upset with such dismal happenings here in
town. In fact, many of us are delighted.

Keep your Brittany Spears, your tofu cafes, and your oxygen
bars. We have little use for such effects. You see, we
are your slow, stupid cousins. Those of us who buy a piece
of Center City Philadelphia real estate, such as a
Rittenhouse Square Condominium or Old City loft, see those
investments appreciate at an awfully slow, five to fifteen
percent per year, or so....that latter figure being in a
good year, running down hill, with the wind to our backs.

But you see, the difference is that Philadelphia real
estate has sustained this kind of growth in value for
almost twelve years in a row. And according to various
newspapers and publications, such as The Philadelphia
Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News, there doesn't
seem to be an end in sight.

Philadelphia, forever the tortoise, has been able to keep
the pace going and going. We don't seem to have a gross
oversupply of unsold inventory, our owner-occupancy ratios
are very high (not a lot of out-of-town money bulking up
the ownership ranks amongst the Philadelphia condo set),
and the subprime debacle has played little into our
appreciation forecasts.

Although some Philadelphia real estate novices are put off
by the fact that you generally have to wait a few years to
see some value growth on your new construction purchase,
Old City lofts and Rittenhouse Square condominiums, for
example, do eventually appreciate in value.

So, it boils down to the fact that Center City Philadelphia
condominiums and other Center City real estate may not be
as fast out of the starting gate as other cities, and we
may always be the real estate stepchild to the home values
of our peers, but it does appear that slow and steady wins
the race.

And personally, as a REALTOR as well as a home owner here
in town, I would like to thank all the Philadelphia real
estate buyers and sellers who have made this win possible.

----------------------------------------------------
Mark Wade is a Philadelphia REALTOR who is "the" Center
City Philadelphia condominium specialist. Mark's vast
knowledge of what's trendy and which finishes buyers look
for when selecting a home hope both buyers and sellers of
Philadelphia real estate make the most of their investments.
View Center City condos for sale at
http://www.CenterCityCondos.com