How Do Your
Expectations Create Your Own Stress? by Gerry Schmich
Sharon, a new manager,
stormed into my office shouting that the demands of her job were unrealistic and
were "stressing " her out. The workload was extreme, requiring more and more of
her time to balance out the conflicting goals of the organization. She asked,"
why would anyone want to take on this impossible job that takes 40% more of my
personal time and which no one recognizes or appreciates?"
I had to admit that was a
good question.
Job stress is a huge problem
for many people. And it all begins with.....what were you expecting?
In working with hundreds of
managers and entrepreneurs over many years I have come to realize that job
stress begins with us. It begins with our expectations of what the job consists
of, and what the job demands, and what the job gives back.
We are all individuals. We
have individual needs and wants. What satisfies and motivates you may not move
me at all. What causes me to jump out of bed each morning might bore you to
tears.
When Sharon came to me with
her rant I asked her to make two lists. Label one Expectations and label
the other Reality. Now compare these six items:
1- Pay
2- Time required to do the
job
3- Conflicting objectives
(serving many masters who demand different results)
4- Appreciation ( who,
what, how often?)
5- Recognition ( private,
public?)
6- Training
I asked her to get clear
about what she expected from the job versus what the job delivered. She should
look for the gaps between her expectations and the reality of what the job
brings. Only when we clearly see the differences can we see the options to
improve our reality.
Most important to Sharon was
to be appreciated by her boss (me) and her peers. We discussed this one on one
and later in a staff meeting with the other managers. I worked to see and tell
how I appreciated her work rather than just telling her when her work didn’t
meet the standard I expected. Her peers also reinforced and supported her by
voicing their appreciation for her efforts and results.
This situation was a best
case scenario....it worked out for everyone. But what happens if the gap between
your expectations and reality is too great to overcome? In my experience this
happens most with item number three...conflicting objectives. You may feel
ethically torn apart and after discussing with the appropriate individual unable
to resolve it.
Your options then are to
live with it or leave.
I have seen examples of both
options taken. In most every case the stress level was reduced for the person
because they were clear on their needs, wants, and expectations
from the job.
Take a few minutes now to
develop your own Expectations/Reality lists and get clear.
Gerry Schmich
Gerry is an experienced leadership coach.
Feel free to contact him thorough his website at
www.gscoaching.com.
You
finally got that education so...What NOW? Is there a recent college grad among your friends or
family or anyone you know who's just starting a new career? Our thirty-year
veteran career coach and former IBM Trainer, Gerry Schmich (
www.GSCoaching.com
) has some sage advice for anyone anticipating that all-important first step in
business or life in general. "What NOW? - Getting Started" is the first
installment in the "What NOW?" series of audio coaching sessions. This is
a FREE session that you can download and give to anyone you think will
benefit from a bit of career coaching.
WHAT NOW? - Getting Started
Listen to Coach Gerry Schmich's
session to recent college graduates. (To download, right click
HERE
and select 'save target as'.)
WHAT NOW? - Business Networking
Listen to Coach Gerry Schmich's
session on the benefits of networking. (To download, right click
HERE
and select 'save target as'.)
(click the play button to begin
either audio session)
Toughen Up
Gerry Schmich
You see it everywhere.
In books, newspapers, magazines, the net, on the radio and television.
The message is that its bad now and getting worse!
How will we survive these terrible financial times?
Booming bankruptcies, crunching credit cards, swamping student loans, harrowing
healthcare costs, delinquent payments and regressive retirement planning. Add to
this tight jobs, small increases, increasing interest rates, escalating taxes,
higher mortgage rates, spiraling fuel costs, depleting energy resources, yadda,
yadda, yadda...
For cripes sake give me a break! There have always been problems to overcome and
some way, somehow we have found a path through the wilderness. There will always
be options for us to choose from that provide new paths of opportunity for
growth
All we hear from the media and our elected officials is how the government is
responsible to provide funded programs for our retirement (Social Security),
healthcare and education. After all the "baby boomers" are coming and they (we)
are not prepared! Eventually the word on the street follows suit and parrots the
message of the media.
Bull – hooey!
Pardon me if I don’t bother to buy into the hype and hysteria.
Forget about placing responsibility for your welfare on the government or on
anyone else but yourself.
What will you do to support your family and yourself?
Get real now—what options do you have to pay down your debts? To save toward
retirement? To provide healthcare for you and your family? To fund your
children’s education? There are always options open to us if we are open to the
options. We might not like what the options are but we need to be tough enough
to accept and do what is necessary. Being tough minded and clear in defining our
wants and needs help to provide a more satisfying life.
The book "The Millionaire Next Door" by T. Stanley and W. Danko lists seven
factors of wealthy people. The first factor listed is, "affluent people live
well below their means." Living below your means is a great place to
start. It is not un-American to live on less money than you make. Living on less
allows us to save and invest, compounding our savings to provide for our future.
The point is that we need to toughen up our resolve toward self responsibility.
We have been ambushed by a culture of consumerism pushing us to accumulate
"stuff" until we are overwhelmed with debt leaving no "seed" money for our
future. By strengthening our resolve to be responsible for ourselves we take
control for our well being.
Here are three things you can do immediately to "toughen up."
How do you picture each part of your life? What
do you want your life to be? Be very clear on what you want and what
sacrifices or trade-offs you will have to make for this life to be a reality.
Everything has a price. Be prepared to pay.
Take a look at your last three months expenditures for places to cut 10% from
your budget.
Set up an automatic deduction for 10% of your take home pay to go directly to
a savings account.
Most people today have a problem differentiating between NEEDS and
WANTS. Being able to answer what you want your life to be should help
you clearly see the differences. Be tough with yourself, serve your needs and
postpone your wants until you can truly afford them.
This is a first step toward responsible action for your future life. Begin it
.....today.
Gerry Schmich
Gerry is an experienced leadership coach.
Feel free to contact him thorough his website at
www.gscoaching.com.
What's your network?
By Lisa Eaton, Shoot for the Moon Coaching
Whether you are new to town and looking for
ways to plug yourself in personally and professionally; have a new business to
share or want to build your existing business, you may have heard that building
relationships through networking is a good vehicle.
What is networking and what does it mean to build a relationship?
Leads Groups and Networking Groups
Leads Groups typically meet once a week or once a month. You bring
business cards, literature and give a 30-60 second “commercial” (see example
below) about who you are, what business you’re representing, etc. Groups
typically have a membership and guests are encouraged to become members once
they see the additional benefits. Leads Groups are exclusive so there is
only one professional representing a particular profession – so make sure you
RSVP. There are international to local Leads Groups - some are
for-profit, others non-profit and costs vary. Some groups are more structured
than others so you’ll want to be sure to understand the guidelines of the group
and get a feel for the energy of the group so you know if it’s the right fit for
you.
Networking Groups typically meet once a month and are structured
similarly to Leads Groups except Networking Groups are non-exclusive so
there may be more than one professional representing the same profession.
Leads and Networking Groups are as much about your own personal and professional
development as they are about presenting yourself in a professional manner.
Since people’s ideas vary of what a professional looks like, acts like, dresses
like etc. it is important to be yourself and work with what you have while
you’re developing the rest. We’re all in process afterall. Often there are
speakers, usually members, at these groups and you too may have the opportunity
to speak about you and your business once you become a member. Few of these
people consider themselves professional speakers and it is a safe environment to
practice getting up in front of an audience. I’ll give you a couple of tips:
check out www.Toastmasters.com and speak from the heart about what you know and
you can’t go wrong!
Tools of the Trade
My commercial might go like this:
Hello, my name is Lisa Eaton and I am a Life Coach with Shoot For The Moon
Coaching. I inspire you to live your ideal life and my passion is working with
spiritual, creative, entrepreneurial women. I provide individual coaching as
well as Group Coaching for Women and invite you or someone you know to take
advantage of a complimentary sample session so you can experience coaching for
yourself. Live Large! Coach Lisa with shootforthemooncoaching.com.
Bring professional business cards and a nametag. If you don’t have
them there will likely be people at the groups you visit who can help you create
them.
Natural Networking
In addition to or in lieu of Leads Groups and Networking Groups, you are always
networking naturally. This simply means that as you go about your daily life -
giving business to others, pursuing your hobbies and interests or volunteering
make sure to build relationships and take them to the next level by sharing who
you are and what you do. For example, when you’re making a purchase or doing
business with someone leave a business card with the person you’re working with.
This works especially well when your card has an offer on it such as a
complimentary initial consultation or a percent off of a service or product.
Even if a small percentage of people respond you will be creating warmth, name
recognition and eventually land a customer or client who makes this form of
networking more than pay off.
Usually when we think of networking we think of groups but networking is as much
if not more about the one-on-one relationship.
One-On-One a.k.a. Follow Up!
Sometimes we can over-network and get in the habit of collecting business cards
and going to meetings to the point that they almost become social. Visiting or
joining groups will not make your phone start ringing off the hook. On the
contrary, use the phone on your end to deepen and build on relationships
one-on-one with the people you’ve met by following up and inviting them to meet
with you for coffee or lunch. Find out how you can help them personally and
professionally and brainstorm ideas and contacts for them. And don’t just meet
with anyone – prioritize. Are certain people you’ve met “gatekeepers” for your
business or vice versa? Do they typically work with someone who you work with
i.e. Realtors and loan officers or chiropractors and massage therapists. And
don’t forget to meet one-on-one with clients/customers – they are your best
source for repeat and referral business.
Make sure you have a plan in place to track who you’ve met and whether they are
a cold, warm or hot lead for you and your business or vice versa. A good way to
track this is to write on the back of their business card the date and place you
met them. Then follow up with a phone call within 24 hours with the goal to set
an appointment with them. There are software programs, such as ACT, which can
help you track and follow up but a good old fashioned manual tickler system in a
three ring binder can work just as well.
Happy Networking!
Coach Lisa
Coaching Inquiry: Where is your networking serving you and others and where
is it not?
You are invited to take advantage of a complimentary sample session - call me
and I will coach you through how networking fits into your marketing efforts.
Resources:
Getting Business to Come to You by Paul and Sarah Edwards For a list of local
Leads Groups and Networking Groups visit
www.shootforthemooncoaching.com
3 Steps to Better Trade Ads by Donna Beaman
We've all
seen trade ads (those that actually want to sell something), and I think
it's fair to say they'll never be confused with their more glamorous brand
advertising cousins that appear in mainstream publications.
Glamorous or
not, a lot of money is spent on trade advertising. And it can be argued that a
lot of it is wasted. Ever notice how easy it is to flip through page after page
of trade ads without every stopping to actually look at one? There's an
explanation (of sorts) for this.
Trade ads are
meant to sell, not increase brand awareness. So the content and design of the
typical trade ad is geared to providing as much information about a product or
service as possible. The result is that trade ads tend to be copy intensive,
listing all the product features, benefits, and reasons to buy that can be
crammed into the ad.
Trade ads
also make liberal use of bullets, underlines, sub-headlines, etc., just to make
sure the reader doesn't miss anything, and to make everything look important.
All of this makes for pretty tough sledding for the reader (if they make the
effort to read). But it doesn't have to be that way.
Trade ads can
dramatically increase their readership, and turn the cost into a positive
investment, if you keep these three things in mind:
1. Don't
overlook your brand
Trade ads are
far more inviting and engaging for the reader when they incorporate a company's
unique brand identity - logo, tagline, color scheme, etc. Trade advertising
should be recognized as an opportunity to sell and reinforce brand identity at
the same time.
Readers are
much more easily drawn to advertising that communicates a unique brand
personality. So incorporate a sense of brand in your trade advertising and see
for yourself how your ad almost magically stands out in the clutter of other
ads. And watch your readership and response increase.
2. Write
for the reader
Have you ever
noticed the tendency of trade ads to talk about the company, instead of the
customer? Make sure your ad is focused on customer needs, not company
credentials. Remember the old sales adage "if there's nothing in it for me (the
customer), then there's nothing in it for you (the seller)" when you craft your
copy.
3. Create
"quick" ads
Make sure
your ad is created to be "quick." Quick to be noticed, quick to scan or read
and, most important, quick to connect with the reader's needs with your product
or service. Whatever you're trying to sell, the reader has to "get it" quickly
or he/she likely won't get it at all.
Layout is
critical to being quick. Keep your ad layout simple, clean and easy to look at,
even when a lot of copy is involved. Large copy blocks are killers that
discourage readership. So break it up into easily digestible bits.
Trade
advertising and good creative work can, and should, peacefully co-exist. When
they do, the dollars you invest in trade ads will yield bigger returns in
readership and profits.
Donna
Beaman
is a Business Coach and a member of Action International, the World’s #1
Business Coaching Team. For a free critique of your advertising, contact her at
970-402-9260 or
donnabeaman@action-international.com.
