Category: Leadership

Who to Fire

fireFired, laid off, reduction in force, rightsizing whatever you call it. The basic idea is removing someone from their employment.

When the determination is made that its time “let go” of certain people, how do you decide whom to remove?

Selecting the wrong person could leave your company mired in mediocrity.

Be blind. Be blind to color, to age, to gender, to ability, to family situations, to what you pay them.

Select on performance. Look at the numbers. But not just the tangible numbers. Dig deeper. Look at the intangible numbers. What are intangible numbers?

In sales, don’t just look at the number and size of deals closed. Look at the number of doors opened. Look at the number of relationships built. Look at the number of positive qualities to his or her personal brand.

In engineering, don’t just look at the number completed projects. Look at the number of lines of code. Look at the defect rate. Look at numbers resulting from innovative ideas. Look at the quantity of leaders saying she has the ability to translate business needs to solutions.

In accounting, don’t just look at accuracy. Look at numbers of years of experience. Look at measurements of integrity. Look at the number of times the complex was made simple to understand.

It’s never easy to pink slip someone. But when you do, select on performance.

(image courtesy of Chuck Grimmett on Flickr)

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Todd Brockdorf
Better than Average Guy
Author, Speaker, Consultant
[email protected]
Download Better than Average: Excelling in a Mediocre World

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Turning Fear into Abundance

Turn Fear to AbundanceWe are scared. Scared that we won’t have a job. Scared that we won’t sell a product. Scared that we won’t make payroll.

We play in fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of loss. Fear of spiders.

The opposite of fear is abundance.

Somewhere will hire. Someone will buy. There is enough.

Change from a fear mindset to an abundance position to increase your chances of success.

What you verbalize comes true. If you think fearfully, speak abundantly.  Turn the fear into faith. Faith that you will succeed. Faith that your ideas will be heard. Faith that you will stand out from the crowd.

Look around. We live in the age of abundance. Access to the world’s information is in our pocket. We have more food than ever before. More people live in freedom. And it’s only getting better.

Find another customer to buy your goods. Take that lower paying job to make ends meet. Start the idea you’ve been putting off. Do what you need to do to persevere.

Someone somewhere needs your talents, services, or products. Go find them.

(image courtesy of Andy Potter on geograph)

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Todd Brockdorf
Better than Average Guy
Author, Speaker, Consultant
[email protected]
Download Better than Average: Excelling in a Mediocre World

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Embrace the Off-Season

Those who stand out from the crowd embrace the off-seasonNo matter what your chosen profession, chances are, you have an off-season – a time where work slows down. Those who stand out from the crowd, embrace the off-season.

If you work in a business office, maybe it is around the end of December. If you are in retail, maybe it is around February. If you are a professional football player, it is the summer.

We all have periodic times when our work activity is lighter than others.

What do you do during your off-season?

The Better than Average find a way to embrace their off-season for good. They turn their down time into productive time. They make mole hills into mountains. They work out what needs to be shaped up.

6 Activities the Better than Average Do to Embrace the Off-Season

If you are at a loss as to what to do during your off-season, here are 7 items you can do to get you started.

1.   Strategic Planning – Create it, tweak it, dust it off, it doesn’t matter. Personal or professional. Homemaker or home builder. Coach or contributor. We can all have a strategic plan for our businesses, ourselves, and even our families. Get out the crystal ball and project the future – three to five years ahead. How will “it” be if you could have it any way you wanted?

 2.   Annual Planning – Annual planning is the “let’s-look-at-the-year-ahead-of-us” type of planning. Take those actions from the strategic plan due the next year. Develop greater detailed actions, if needed, to reach the targets in the strategic plan. Add any new items that should be accomplished during the year. As they say, “You can see clearly now, the rain is gone. You can see all obstacles in your way.”  You’re singing now, I can tell. Stop singing and ask yourself, what do I deserve to accomplish this coming year?

 3.   Financial Planning – Another way of stating financial planning is budgeting. Money. Cash. Payola. Once the annual plan is completed, how much money do you need to accomplish it? Will you be breaking the bank?

4.   Training and Development – Like athletes exercising their muscles, the Better than Average exercise their minds during the off-season. Take classes. Read educational books (click here or here, depending on your preference). Attend seminars and conventions. Learn new skills and refine old ones to stand out from the crowd. What did you learn today?

5.   Network – It is the perfect time to network with others in the field, as everyone tends to have the same off-season. Connect with past coworkers. Reach out to recruits. Say “hi” to the new guy. Who do you need to meet?

 6.   Complete the Odds and Ends – What have you been putting off? Go through the stack of mail. Cross off a To Do item that is starting to go stale and crusty. Call your mother (hi Mom!). No matter how small, you will feel immediate relief of one nagging pain. Take that first step. What do you need to complete today?

 

(image courtesy of Mr. Cheer or Die at Viking Underground)

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Todd Brockdorf
Better than Average Guy
#1 Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Thought Leader
[email protected]

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What myths do you still believe?

Christopher ColumbusDo you still believe Christopher Columbus “discovered” America? Do you still believe in the Tooth Fairy? Does Santa Claus exist?

I hate to pop your petunia, but he didn’t, it was your mom or dad, and sorry, but no.

We all have mythological knowledge that we have to unlearn – some told by our parents, some taught by our schools, some heard from our cousin’s friend’s uncle.

The question is when do we wake up, realize we’ve been told false information, and write our own conclusions?

Do you still believe that you cannot get that promotion? Do you still think that you are not leadership material? Do you still imagine it’s too late to follow your dreams?

With today’s technology and abundance of opportunities, barriers to entry are lower than ever before.

If you need an app for that, outsource it to a freelancer.

If you desire to be a news reporter, start filming.

If you want to raise chickens, they’ll deliver them through the mail.

Stop making excuses. If you really wanted to do it, you would make the time. You would self-select some activity already in your schedule and stop doing it.

Maybe you would wake up a half-hour earlier and turn off the TV a half-hour earlier the night before. Maybe you would forgo that extra piece of cake and walk an extra 20 minutes. Maybe you would read a book instead of status updates.

What myths do you tell yourself to “justify” your behaviors?

If a one-armed hippopotamus attack survivor can raise three kids, what’s your excuse?

If you want to be a writer, write. If you want to be a speaker, speak. If you want to be a comedian, get on stage.

There is no substitute for doing. There is no cure for inaction. There is no progress in sitting still.

If you want to change your lot in life, take that first step.

 

QUESTION FOR YOU –

How did you work on your dream today?

 

SOMETHING FOR YOU –

For a white paper on 11 Easy Ways to Stand Out from the Crowd, shoot me an email and you score it for free!

 

(image courtesy of etchasketchist on Flickr)

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Todd Brockdorf
Better than Average Guy
#1 Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Thought Leader
[email protected]

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Are you the hunter or the hunted?

Those who seek fame, want product sales, or desire raving fans, are those who want to be hunted. When you are hunted, you are wanted.

Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton, and Apple all want to be hunted. They want raving fans, fame, and product sales. And we buy it. Well, I haven’t personally bought any of the three. But there are people out there who do.

In business, recruiters are called Head Hunters for a reason. If you are good at your job, they want to find you. They want you to fill their open position. You have become the hunted.

The opposite of hunted is ignored. If you are trying to build something – fame, recognition, profits – you want to be the hunted. The last thing you want is to be unheard, unrecognized, and unengaged.

We want people to join our tribe, stick up for us, and gossip about us. We want to be loved, respected, and appreciated. In short, we want to be hunted.

 

4 Ways to Become the Hunted

  1. Consistent Brand – Be known for something. Everyone has a personal brand – intelligent, dependable, arrogant. What’s yours? Don’t know? Ask some people. Be reliable in who you are or what you want to become. What message are you sending?
  2. Stand for Something – Have a philosophy. Make a method for your madness. How do you approach business, life, love? What do you hold in high regard?
  3. Be Relatable – If they can’t identify with you, they won’t recognize you. It’s not about you. It’s about them. They want to be you. They want to stand in your presence and feel what it is like to be you. They want to experience all of the good parts of who you are. How do you honor your audience?
  4. Be Accessible – With social media, your audience is now only one click away. Respond, reply, and react, to your followers. Move them from fans to fanatics. A direct reply could make them as giddy as a schoolgirl with her first crush (not that I know anything about that). What are you feeding them?

In the animal kingdom, it is best to be the hunter. In the human kingdom, it is best to be the hunted.

 

QUESTION FOR YOU –

Are you the hunter or the hunted?

SOMETHING FOR YOU –

For a white paper on 11 Easy Ways to Stand Out from the Crowd, shoot me an email and you score it for free!

_____

Todd Brockdorf
Better than Average Guy
#1 Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Thought Leader
[email protected]

 

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