If you aren't in the game, you'll never win

A friend of mine shared a video with me on "famous failures" (see below, or click this link).  As many of us move into setting goals for 2010, I found it to be very inspiring.

Some things to think about for this year:

• How are you allowing others to limit you or keep you from achieving great things?
• What risks can you take that would tap into your passion and strengths?
• Are you being ambitious or persistent enough?
• Who can coach or mentor you to help you bring out your best?
• What things are you doing now that feel like a waste of your time and talents, and how can you stop doing them?

Happy new year!  And make sure you are in the game in 2010.

Nail it or fail it?

"A small thing you nail can be better than a big thing you fail."
-- James B. Johnson

I was in a meeting the other day and we were discussing some objectives for a new team that is forming, and Jim (my CEO) said the line above.  He has been quite effective in getting our company to increase our success in both large and small things, so I tend to listen to what he says.  As many of us begin to make plans and set lofty goals for 2010 (personally and professionally) I thought this quote was worth sharing.

The balance can be tricky - I know of many times when I have set some seemingly impossible goals, only to one day discover I've achieved them.  But I can think of many more lofty goals that I never got done.

Making the impossible happen

So what's the difference?  I'd say the successful "impossible goals" that were accomplished in spite of their 'impossibleness' had a few things in common:

• Heartfelt commitment.  Each of the impossible goals that got done was something I deliberately committed to, far beyond just lip service and platitudes.
• Sustained passion.  These goals also tended to be things I could not only get excited about, but I could stay passionate about.
• Engaged others.  I think this is linked to the sustained passion - I am good at evangelizing the things I'm passionate about, and that's when I recruit others to my cause.
• Clarity of desired outcome.  This is not always what it seems - these outcomes are specific, but not in a checklist sort of way.  For me, the best outcomes are framed in terms of what it will feel and 'be' like when we are successful.
• A good idea of how to get there.  It's kind of like David Allen talks about in his "Getting Things Done" model - you won't be successful until you can see yourself doing it.  That doesn't mean you have all the answers, but it does mean you have a good idea of some of the things you need to do to get the answers.

Get your wins along the way

The interesting aspect of Jim's quote above is that you need to feel like you can win.  The art here is to set at least some goals that are challenging, but that have a high probability of getting done.  If you never win, you never feel like a winner, and you can create an unhealthy dynamic within your team.

I've seen lots of sports teams where it took one good win to turn the tide from a losing record to a winning one - there is something very powerful in the psychology of even a small win.

This is true at many levels:

• As managers, part of our job is to help our teams feel challenged, but to have enough wins along the way that they feel like winners. 
• As team members, we need to hold our teams accountable to blending the possible with the impossible.
• As parents, we need to help our kids learn to set goals that stretch them but allow them to taste success on a regular basis.
• As individuals, we need to set our own goals with the same philosophy. 

It's a delicate - but very important - balance.

How do you approach this challenge?  Any best practices (or hard-won lessons) to share?

The Market Has Changed. Have You?

If you're involved in selling anything in today's economy, you know that priorities, business drivers, and competition are very different than they were a year or two ago.  So, what's a sales professional to do?

Author Paul D'Souza knows where you're coming from.  As an experienced sales guy he has done a lot of the analysis for you and his book, "The Market Has Changed - Have You?" is just what you might need to develop your own strategy to adapt to the new market dynamics.

Paul's book takes you through 25 steps exemplifying what he refers to as the "Wha-Do" sales philosophy (apparently, "Wha-Do" means "The Way of Harmony" in Japanese).  This philosophy is all about creating leverage through people (relationships) and applying repeatable principles and business practices.

(Paul has more on the Wha-Do philosophy on his site)

A solid foundation

A lot of the concepts Paul brings to bear are rooted in things you've heard before - setting goals, understanding your motivation, setting out a plan, developing discipline in how you execute, etc.  But a couple of aspects are different in this book.

First, Paul comes at this from the perspective of a sales person.  If you're involved in selling, you know that you hear "no" more often than you hear a "yes" so it's vital that you have clarity of purpose and a compelling reason to keep driving until you get another "yes."  The methods Paul exposes in this book will "snap in" to your selling workflow pretty easily without feeling unnatural or fluffy.

Second, this is as much a workbook as it is a reading book.  The book is filled with worksheets, cues, and examples to enable you to go from a cerebral understanding of the material well into the next step of documenting and personalizing the content.  In other words, if you really follow the process and use the worksheets provided in the book, you'll have your own plan - not just a bunch of new ideas.

It's about what you bring to the table

I think Paul's methods work because they tap into your inner strengths and motivations, but they are also anchored in creating clear and compelling value for your customers.  By design, this will drive you to better understand your customers and why they buy so you can increase the odds that your approach and message will resonate with them.

They also help bring you beyond your "one against the world" view and tap into your colleagues, your mentors, and even your customers themselves to increase your success.

This is a compelling read and well worth your time if you're a sales or marketing professional looking for an advantage. 

But this book is not just for hardcore sales people.  It will also help anyone who relies on relationships in their job, such as doctors, dentists, personal trainers, retailers, investment bankers, business development, alliances people, and more.

Check it out, and start adapting to the new reality of the market.

Change Things Up To Get Better

A lot of the fitness articles I read talk about the importance of varying your routine to accelerate your improvements in workouts.  The premise is that if you do the same exercises all the time and use the same amounts of weight, your body gets used to the routine and becomes more efficient.  What that means is that you get less benefit out of the same amount of effort.

I think that concept can apply to other parts of life, to some degree.  If you keep doing the same thing week in & week out, the routine can get  a bit dull, and you don't improve your skills as much as when things were new and challenging.

So, what kinds of things can you do to change up your routine and make it challenging again?  Here are some ideas (a mix of personal and professional kinds of things):

• Read a different kind of book to make your mind think about new things.
  If you usually read fiction, read some non-fiction.  If you usually read management books, read some fantasy.  If you usually read self-help books, try reading a few biographies instead. 
• Take on a new project in an unfamiliar area.
  Sometimes, nothing helps get your juices going like working on something unfamiliar.  Ask to be involved in (or even lead) a project in a new area.
• Swap the cerebral for the physical.
  If you normally spend most of your time in front of your computer, how about starting a project or activity that requires you to get out and do something physical? It could be sports-related, or it could be carpentry, or even just cleaning out your garage.  Get moving!
• Put yourself out there.
  Volunteer to teach something - even holding a brown bag lunch on a topic you know can be challenging fun.  Start presenting - either at work or in a group like Toastmasters.  Or, do a video blog or something you've never done before online.

And there are, of course, lots of other possibilities. 

So, what do you think?  Does this ring true for you?  What have you done to mix things up in your life that you'd recommend to others?

More Useful Tools for Travelers

I've been using a few new travel tools lately that I think are worth sharing with you.  These have all been "field tested" and have not been discarded (that's a good sign for someone like me).

MetrO Worldwide Most smartphones Free	MetrO is a very easy-to-use application to help you plan routes from one place to another using public transit.  It is a single app that can deal with multiple cities through downloadable "modules" for a huge list of cities around the world. I first used MetrO a couple of weeks ago in Berlin and it was extremely helpful - it helped me plan my route for the day, helped me figure out my options when I deviated from my plans, etc.  On the MetrO site, you will find links to download the app for your specific phone type, then you can download the appropriate maps from within the application.
HelloFlight.com US only Browser-based Free	This informational site is very useful for finding out what delays might impact your travel - whether from weather, congestion, or some other reason.  It currently works in the US only but, since I fly most of my miles in the US, I find it helpful. In addition to the delay information, you can find out lots of interesting things such as flight history for specific planes, specific flight numbers, as more.  There are also a number of cool tools, such as one tool where you can tell it which ZIP code you live in, and it will tell you what flights are scheduled to fly over (and when, and at what altitude). Find out more at HelloFlight.com, and see a list of features on HelloFlight's tools page.
TripIt  & TripIt Pro Worldwide iPhone app, plus browsers and mobile browsers Free plus fee-based Pro features	TripIt is an interesting application.  It lets you aggregate all your itineraries and travel plans into one spot, making it easy to track your upcoming trips.  Adding an itinerary is a piece of cake - after you've registered, simply forward your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and it will automagically process the details and add it to your account (it knows who you are because you tell it which email addresses you'll be sending from).  I haven't had an itinerary rejection yet, regardless of format - text, HTML, and PDF.  You can also add or edit trips manually, should you so desire. Once the itineraries are up there, you can share and compare them with anyone you like.  For example, I have around 60 people "connected" to me on TripIt and it tells me who'll be near me on future trips so we can plan to get together for drinks or dinner.  I've used this quite a bit, and this alone is great. For more features, you can upgrade to the Pro version for a reasonable annual fee (more details on the TripIt Pro page).  My favorite Pro feature is the real-time flight status feature.  This does things for me like: Tells me exactly 24 hours before my flight that I can check in online, if I wish Alerts me if there are any changes to my flight - delays, gate changes, cancellations, etc. If my flight is delayed, it will suggest alternate flights Sends "connection reports" to my phone to tell me my arrival gate, my next departure gate & terminal, and how many minutes I have to make the connection.  This feature has already made the difference between me making a flight and missing a flight. Obviously, the Pro features are most useful to those of us who travel a lot.  If you're not sure, you can take a 30-day free trial and try it on for size. Regardless of whether you use TripIt or TripIt Pro, I highly recommend this application.

Hopefully you'll find something useful here to make your travel a bit easier in the coming weeks and months.  And, as always, if you have any must-have travel tools I'd love to hear about them.

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