Archive for the ‘Personal Development’ Category

by Bea Fields, Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach
and President of Five Star Leader Coaching and Training

“When is John going to get me that report?”
“What is going on with the marketing report? When are they going to finish that thing?”
“I can’t believe Mary is so late in making those phone calls.”
“Okay…who dropped the ball this time?”
“Hey…that’s not MY job.”

Does this sound familiar? If so, your small business team may be faced with a big challenge with accountability, which results in finger pointing, frustration and broken trust…both with your employees and your customers. Personal responsibility and accountability can put an end to the blame game, saving your business thousands if not millions of dollars by increasing productivity and overall job satisfaction, which results in very satisfied customers. These five basic approaches can support you in increasing accountability, which are simple, yet they require actually building a culture of accountability for your business.

Communicate the big picture- Accountability stands a better chance of succeeding if everyone in your business embraces a larger responsibility for the success of the entire company. Spend time talking individually with team members about how his or her project affects the vision and mission of the business. With this communication, people can make wiser decisions from the context of the “big picture” rather than from the perspective of what may seem to be a detailed and boring task.

State clear expectations- If one person on your team does not meet your expectations, the entire team can fail. It is important from the very beginning of any new project to state the expectations clearly and repeat them over and over again until your team really “gets it.” These expectations need to be crystal clear, including dates, who is responsible for what, the details of the task and how you want the finished product delivered. If your expectations are fuzzy or confusing in any way, your team can break down, and the fine and very important details can fall through the cracks.

Accountability work groups- One of the best ways to achieve accountability is to develop shared accountability among team members. Accountability within the team can be accomplished by what Morris R. Shechtman calls “accountability groups,” groups which give team members the permission to speak and listen in a way which is frank and open. This accountability group can include 2-5 people and can then serve as a small unit of people working together to confide in with struggles, weaknesses and insecurities. They can then find creative strategies to work together in the direction of the growth the team intends to achieve. Read the rest of this entry »

by Mitch Meyerson

“Every year I make a list of New Year’s resolutions, and by the end of January I can’t even remember what was on my list.”
“I have this great idea for a book, but I never get around to putting it down on paper.”
“Just when I start moving towards my goals I seem to hit this wall.”

Sound familiar? If you could “just do it” you probably would have done it. If you’re strong on ideas, but perpetually stuck at the starting line, the following tips will help.

• Be specific about what you want

Change “I want more money,” to “I want to earn $60,000 by December 31, 2004.” Revamp “I want to write someday,” to “I want to write forty pages by August.”

Keep your goals simple. Too many goals are overwhelming, a good excuse for doing nothing at all.

• Be suspicious of your failures

There’s an old saying that people vote with their feet. It means we are exactly where we want to be no matter how much we complain.

Be suspect of any goal you’ve had for more than five years and haven’t achieved. One man spent more than seven years trying to finish his MBA, dropping classes, taking extensions on papers, only to discover that he really didn’t want the degree at all.

When you’re doing what’s close to your heart, it’s easy. Work with your nature. Be suspect of anything that seems too difficult. People find it easier to blame themselves for laziness than to admit that it’s a difficult process to face up to who we really are and what we really want. It feels lonely to admit that we might be different from others, that your goals aren’t the same as theirs. Your failures might be your way of protecting yourself from becoming what you never really wanted to be.

What’s your current goal? Why do you want it so badly? Write two paragraphs answering these questions. Then convince a friend. Notice any possible resistance coming up. Ask yourself again “Is this what I really want?”

Read the rest of this entry »

Building Personal Power
(excerpted from Six Keys to Creating the Life You Desire)
by Mitch Meyerson

(Before developing the GMC Program, Mitch Meyerson was a prominent therapist and author of three personal growth books. Here is an excerpt of one of his articles. He coaches on personal growth issues as well).

Penny, a thirty-one-year-old public relations specialist recalls her worst experience. “Basically, my job was to convince feature writers at the local newspapers to write a story about a client’s charity event. I phoned the first reporter on the list and went into my pitch.

“Look,” he yelled, cutting me off mid-sentence, “there’s some damn charity event in this city every other week. Why are you bothering me with this?”

“I started feeling like an idiot. “But this is for muscular sclerosis,” I stammered.

“Big deal,” he said, hanging up.

“I knew he was just a jerk, but I couldn’t make another one of those phone calls the rest of the afternoon. I felt completely shut down.”

Shut down. That sinking feeling that begins like butterflies in the stomach then turns into something that feels like a fist is an event most people can identify with. Like a balloon deflating, our entire emotional state sinks down in seconds. We become quiet, withdrawn, ashamed. Curiously, only certain situations and people tend to “shut us down” and make us lose our personal power. One person criticizes us, and we shrug it off. But another person so much as looks at us the wrong way and we’re devastated.

What shuts us down? Usually it is a combination of the following: Read the rest of this entry »

by Mitch Meyerson and Laurie Ashner

It took Beth, a bright, motivated, 30-something manufacturer’s rep months to figure out that what she was feeling wasn’t paranoia. “I had to sell out of the showroom five times a month. I’d be with a customer and glance over at my boss. He’d be whispering to the vice-president. His hand was cupped over their mouths. I stared straight at them, and they kept whispering. It was totally unnerving. How can you function with your boss walking around whispering about you when you’re trying to work?

You can’t. By some strange serendipity Beth met a woman at an industry function who had dated her boss. They became fast friends. “You’re not imagining things,” the woman said. “He once told me that the only reliable management technique is fear. One night he got totally drunk and passed out on my couch. Before he went down he told me that his goal in life was to rip off every person who walked into his showroom.”

Welcome to the dysfunctional work environment–DWE, for short. Beth’s experience may sound extreme, but she is hardly alone. Read the rest of this entry »