Managing Transitions

I often use William Bridges work on Managing Transitions to help organizations and people navigate through turbulant times.  Here are some key insights:

Change is an external event- an action or decision (either planned or unplanned) that impacts us as individuals.

Transition on the other hand, is the psychological internal reorientation that we go through in order to come to terms with the change.

All transitions have phases, the more we recognize the phases, the more productive we will be in managing ourselves and others through transitions.

• Phase 1 – The Ending.  All change is loss, even when it is a happy event like the birth of a child.   Say bye-bye to sleep for a while and going out to dinners on a whim!  To move productively through this phase, reflect on what the loss is, then consider things you can do to mitigate the loss.  When losing  a job, losses can include not only income but: regular interactions with colleagues, physical and mental activity, a routine, sense of accomplishment, purpose, etc. The key is to identify for yourself or the person that you are helping through the transition what the loss is, and what you can do about it. For example, setting up regular interactions with a group of people, volunteering, etc.  Also, have fun saying goodbye to the things you won’t miss!

• Phase 2:  The neutral zone. This is a tremendously fertile time of reinvention.  People who figure out to take advantage of the neutral zone will come out of the transition better off. Since the old way of working is gone, people open up to new ways of thinking, stretch their skills and are more innovative. This is where opportunity is found for those that are looking for it.  Many people find new careers, start new businesses, adopt new technology, or simply find better ways to do things.  The key here is to be open and learning so that you can harness the energy in this phase.

• Phase 3:  The new beginning. A time will come when there is a new way of working, different than the past. To be successful in this phase, managagers and individuals need to build in support to sustain the change:  reminders, measurements, rewards, new structures.

What phase are you in right now?  What steps are you taking to move yourself through the transition?

Leverage Technology to Grow Your Business

Dave Fall from Google spoke to our  TAB Members about Search Engines and Online Marketing earlier this week.  Google platforms and other internet technology have changed the way customers look for, find and relate with business.  Business owners do not have the luxury of thinking of the web as an auxiliary channel any more.

Dave is a great speaker and helped us all see:

• The availability of search has changed consumer behavior
• Customers might arrive at your sight in any location as a result of search, every page needs basic info and orientation to your business
• Having a website that is optimized for search is critical – this includes having effective orgranic search strategies AND paid search
• Dave recommends the SEO book and the resources of SEMPO http://www.sempo.org/home
• Blogging is an important tool for being found
• Great examples of  the power of YouTube and viral marketing are: Where the Hell is Matt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY and http://www.bewareofthedoghouse.com/

Now is the time to learn and adopt new technology and practices so that your company has competitive advantage.  

Learn more about  our peer advisory boards and  how we are helping our members grow and prepare for the economic expansion.   Our next workshop is using YouTube and Podcasts for marketing and training.  Go to www.tabnewjersey.com. or contact me www.tinyurl.com/maureenennis.

Make Change – One Simple Action at a Time

My son worked up his chart of chores for the week this morning.  He addded a new one today:  Save the World. In Boy Scouts he learned a story about a man who did his part by just picking up one piece of litter a day.  My son does that now, picks up one piece of trash a day, and in his mind, that falls into the Save The World category on the chore chart:)

It made me smile, and I am certainly happy that he wants to make a difference.  Then I started to reflect on the power of committing to one specific action to make a change.  If you want to manage your time better – reviewing your todo list at the end of every day will make a huge difference.  When I work with groups that are implementing a new system, or adopting a new way of working, one of the keys is to identify one or two simple new behaviors for employees, and have them take that simple action.

What change do you want to make, and what simple action will put you on your way?

Changing Course

This post comes from  Allen Fishman, Founder and Chairman, The Alternative Board

It’s scary when your plans are no longer realistic because of economic challenges, such as the current recession, which are outside your control.  But, don’t let fear get in the way of success.  Fear typically sets up a barrier that can make you shortsighted and stop you from doing the things that are within your control.  In turn, this inaction can paralyze employees leaving them feeling overwhelmed.  If you do feel fear, don’t let your employees see it.  Radiate an unshakable belief in success and your employees will feed off this and respond positively to your course changes.  Employees need confidence in their leaders, so if you have doubts and fears, share them in confidence with your fellow TAB Board members.

Changing course during tough economies requires strategic thinking, a planning process and a business leader ready and able to make tough decisions.  Focus on what you can do about the problems your company is facing.  For example, one of the areas you need to identify  are “sacred cows” that need to be eliminated.  Often these “sacred cows” are initiatives that should not be continued under current circumstances.  However, the decision that leaders can’t – or won’t- make is to let the money and the human resources time invested in the initiative go down the drain.  In some cases, the original decision to find the initiative was  a mistake and the business owner has a problem admitting they made a mistake.

Many of these business owners don’t take the right action to eliminate the “sacred cows” because they think such an admission will take away from the respect their employees have for them.  This couldn’t be more incorrect.  Typically, all it takes is admitting you made a mistake and then executing a course change that works to earn the respect and cooperation you need to succeed.

If your business plans are no longer feasible, you’ll only be seen as a failure by your employees, lenders and customers/clients if you continue to try and make those plans happen.  So, create course changes that inspire employees to make the changes succeed and show everyone that you are a Strategic Business Leader.

Tools for Managing Twitter

I have been using Twitter for several months now.  I continue to find it valuable in building and sustaining relationships with peers, customers, friends and experts in my chosen fields.  Here are some of the tools that I have found useful as I incorporate tweeting into my ongoing practices.  There are a plethera of tools out there, and more surfacing every day.  I am not an expert in twitter, but I am known for adopting new technology so that I can improve my business and enjoy life!
Twellow www.twellow.com – online directory of all twitter users.  It is a good place to manage who you are following and who is following you.  It will create a streamlined list with profiles so you can immediately see relevance without hunting or pecking through your follower list.  Great search tool for finding the people that you would get value out of following.  I also like the “non” mutual feature.  I check it once a week:  catch up on my new followers and follow back as appropriate.

Hoot Suite www.hootsuite.com- Overall management, I like best being able to rapid fire in a bunch of ideas I have for tweets and schedule them in the future.  Also the shorten URL feature is very useful, as well as search.  I actually do my tweeting from here…much easier to manage the RT, repiles, DMs, etc.

Tweetdeck http://tweetdeck.com/beta/ – Has lots of features, I like it most for FILTERING my listening through categories.  I have all my customers in one category so that I can easily see what they have been upto without the noise of the people  twittering all day long.

Virtual Assistant (VA) – a virtual assistant is invaluable in managing the logistics of social media and all sorts of other activities.  If you don’t have one yet, this is a great time to start.  Click here to learn more: http://yourextrahand.com/what-is-a-virtual-assistant/

Relax and Recharge with our Clam Bake Recipe

One of the keys to success and high performance is recharging through rest, relaxation and family time.  Have a great extended weekend, Happy Fourth of July.  Here is one of our favorite recipes for summer occasions with friends.

Moe and John’s Famous Clam Bake

SERVES 4   ACTIVE TIME:   TOTAL TIME: 50 min 

1/2   of a 24 oz pkg Baby Red Potatoes, halved
4   ears corn, shucked, quartered
1   Tbsp Barbecue Seasoning
1   cup Memphis-Style BBQ Sauce
1   12 oz bottle lager-style beer
1   dozen Wild EZ Peel Gulf Shrimp (16-20 ct), peeled
2   dozen Littleneck Clams, washed
1   clove Peeled Garlic, halved
1   tsp salt + salt and pepper to taste, divided
2   Tbsp Basting Oil (oil with herbs)
Fresh lemon, wedged

 

You’ll Need: 1 EZ Foil Rectangular Roaster Pan (16 1/8 x 11 3/4 x 2 7/8-inch), heavy-duty aluminum foil

Preheat grill on HIGH 10 min.

1.  Add potatoes, corn, and enough cold salted water to cover them to large stockpot. Bring to boil on HIGH; boil 10 min. Drain; let cool slightly. Toss with barbecue seasoning and place in foil pan.
    
2. Blend BBQ sauce and beer in small bowl; set aside.
    
3. Add shrimp, clams, garlic, salt, basting oil, and beer mixture to foil pan. Cover tightly with large piece of foil, sealing well.
    
4. Cook about 12 min, until shrimp reaches 130 degrees internal temp and clams have opened; to check, carefully cut small X in top of foil cover and insert thermometer through slit into shrimp. When seafood is done, remove pan from heat. Use oven mitts to carefully remove foil cover; avoid steam. Discard any clams that do not open. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let rest at least 2 min. Squeeze lemon wedge over each serving.

 

 

Top Performing Employees in a Challenging Economy

I recently read an article by Bruce Caris, my TAB colleague.  He commented that in the current economic downturn there has been a lot of concern regarding how to make sure employees are held accountable and only top performers remain with the company.   In reality, it  takes,  the same level of attention regardless of economic conditions.

Bruce suggests these four principles to create an environment of motivated, high performing employees:

1. Mutual understanding and alignment of expectations
2. Feedback on performance
3. Opportunity to meet or exceed expectations
4. Accountability and recognition

Research has found that employees are happiest when they know they are contributing.  As business leaders, it is up to you  to create an environment that promotes success.  Reflect on  these four principles and decide what changes you need to implement in your business.

When Being Second is Good Enough

My son Sean’s 1st great teacher is a wise woman.  She knows how to address problems in ways that completely avoid conflict and disruption, full of insight on what really is important to others. 

One of the most brilliant moves she made this year with Sean was to designate him as the one who always gets to be second in line.  This may not sound earth shattering, but there was plenty of conflict at the beginning of the year.  Sean was constantly scrapping to be FIRST – in school, at soccer practice, you name it.  It became a behavior that needed to be addressed, and my little talks about why you can’t always be first didn’t make a dent.

Somewhere along the line, Sean’s teacher designated him as always being second in line.  Brilliant move!  It gave him what he needed: a routine spot that was his, close to the front.  Everyone continued to jockey for first but he was always guaranteed 2nd.  Granted, I was not always there to witness how this all played out in the 1st grade classroom, but the times I did watch, I was amazed by the elegance and savvy of the solution.

I have heard when it comes to google searches…it’s not worth paying for first, because people check out the first 3 that come up.  Getting yourself in second position takes less investment, with basically the same result.

So…when it comes to business, where are you jockeying and wasting resources to be in 1st when a consistent second meets your goals?

R.I.P. Outlook

For some time now I have read that google threatens to take over Microsoft’s business. At first I didn’t even get the connection. Then as google evolved from search to other tools, I saw how it might be possible that the mainstream would one day gravitate to web based applications for document management.

Now I have experienced it personally. I have been growing more and more dissatisfied with email over the last few months. As organized as I am, and tech savvy at using rules, folders and filters in Outlook I could not manage all me email. I once loved my outlook, it was a haven of everything at my fingertips and in its place!  Structure, in my often frenetic world.

Lately I just have not been able to keep the spam and junk out… or convince the people I communicate frequently to use good email etiquette so I had a hope of keeping up.   One of my peer advisory board members mentioned google premium apps, so I installed it over the weekend.  I LOVE IT!    They do have a tool to let you sync with outlook, but after tooling around in gmail for a while and getting set up and can see it is much more powerful. 

• Conversations are automatically grouped together
• Archive has a whole new meaning…and makes it much easier to keep on top of what is urgent vs just an email you don’t want to let go of
• Contacts/groups is a richer interface

I even love my seashore background setting that changes as the day goes on.  It reminds me when it is time to STEP AWAY from the email!

Check it out: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html

This posts just scratches the surface of how google premium apps can change the way you communicate and coordinate with others.

Business Owners: 3 reasons you must use social media now!

If you are a business owner…. check out our latest podcast with the three reasons you must consider social media:  http://tinyurl.com/3-for-socialmedia .  Listen to my TAB colleage Laura Ali’s powerful take on what social media can do for you now.  Take her up on the offer at the end of the podcast… I am glad I did!