Effective Writing – Dear Reader,…

You are writing a document to your audience because you need to tell them something that is important to you. You are passionate about your subject – are you writing a proposal, and you creating a sales sheet, educating your customer, etc? I know you just want to share your passion but hold on, there is more to consider before you begin to write.

What does you reader need to know to make a decision? Remember a business document is supposed to cause an action. It is important to determine what information is needed to cause this action. Before you start to write consider, from your reader’s viewpoint, what do they need to know to make the decision you want?

You might find that what the reader needs to know is not the same as the information you so passionately want to share. It is important to recognize this distinction. When you begin to write in the way the reader needs information, you begin to become a more effective writer.

Try it – let me know if it helps.

Effective Writing, the beginning

Did you know that every document you write in a business setting is supposed to cause an action? This applies to presentations as well.

When you write to friends, family, or creatively it does not require anyone to do anything. They can read or not – no expectations.

Business is all different.

We write or present to communicate a message that creates action. This includes emails, proposals, reports, position papers, etc. Take a look at the things you write this week. Is there a clear call to action in each document (or presentation)? What do you want the audience to do with the information you just provided? You do want them to do something, right? When you read this blog do you know what action I want you to take? I want you to look at your writing and ask yourself, “So what? What do I want?” and make sure that you answer the question.

Try it – let me know if it helps.

Foundations and Dreams

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.” Helen Keller

I came across this quote from Helen Keller and it made me think about how I run my business. I am a dreamer, new ideas fall out of my head all the time. I imagine being able to solve complicated business problems with simple elegant solutions. This quote reminds me that my passion for the big dreams need to be the same passion that cares for the fundamentals of my business. Or put another way – pay attention to the details.

So I’m sharing with you to say dream big and stay passionate to your vision and to the care of your foundation.

Destructive Communication – how we enable it.

One way to look at the negative relationships we find ourselves in is to take a look at how we communicate. A definition for negative communications that Dr. Roger Allen uses is a term called collusion, “a circular and mutually reinforcing negative interaction.”

It goes like this: Boss doesn’t trust Staff to make decisions and so becomes involved in the details of the decision-making. Staff sees Boss as lacking confidence in their decision making so lets Boss make more of the decisions. Boss sees staff not working through the decision making details so takes more responsibility. Staff sees Boss taking work so stops working on the same thing. The Staff stop making decisions.

Wow, that spun out of control fast! Have you seen that before? (If you have teenagers I know you have.)

There are two viewpoints in this downward spiral, Boss and Staff. Each party has viewed the situation from a different perspective and behaved according to their perception. It creates a cycle and we continue to feed it. We continue to view this from our point of view only and don’t realize there could be another reason for this series of interactions.

So as you read this think about difficult relationships you may be in and could you break the cycle? Could you look at communication the other person’s lens?

It is not easy and the secret is trust. If you want to know more send me an email.

Business Goals vs. Personal Goals?

Do the personal goals you have for life align with the goals you have for your business? Have you not ever thought about it like that? Or do you not even know?

If you feel frustrated, unhappy or unproductive at work (or running your business) a contributing factor may be that the things that are important to you are not what is expected of you at work.

For instance, it is important for you to be home for dinner every day to spend some time with the family. Well, maybe you haven’t thought about it that way but your spouse sure gets angry when you keep showing up late or not at all. You have missed your dinners with the family because work has kept you later and later. Those late nights at work are really not very productive for you because you know that when you get home you are in trouble for not being home earlier. Your work output in those late hours is not your best. In fact you can’t focus and you become snappy to your co-workers as the clock approaches 5:00 PM.

What is going on? Subconsciously you are committed to family first or, heck, maybe even those are the words you say but your actions have you putting work first. You have given work the time that they have paid for and now you are giving them free time at the expense of your most important life priority. Well no wonder you are snappy and not so productive! No wonder your spouse is upset, it looks like work is your number one priority!

The great news is that you have choices and can make conscious decisions.

Step 1: Recognize if you personal life goals and your work life goals can live happily together.

Step 2: Let people know what your goals are.

Step 3: Communicate compromises you have to make and give those compromises timelines. If you keep up the same behavior as above you really have chosen work as the first commitment. If it is to finish a project, that project must end and family will be first. Your family will know it because you are home for dinner.

Step 4: Reward yourself for make conscious choices about your life. You are in charge.

Step 5: Repeat.

This isn’t easy and sometimes not very clear at all. If you are frustrated, unhappy, or unproductive take a look at the goals in your life and see if it makes sense to you. This is the beginning of a work-life balance.

If you need help figuring it out, drop me a line, I’d be happy to help.

Create Hope

I was reading in the paper today about the fluctuating economy and the worries it creates about continued employment. Leaders must create hope for future success.

We all know that businesses face the potential of adverse cash situations and there are times when considering layoffs are essential to saving the business. How can you keep your staff focused on delivering quality services and products? Create hope about the future.

Your staff wants to help. They want to make a difference. They can see the risks and the challenges. If you give them hope, a reason to believe that some hard work will help turn the company fortunes around the staff will dig in and perform.

But creating hope is more than words. You act how you think. Let me say that one more time; you act how you think. As the leader of your organization, if you do not believe in your mind that the company can turn around then your words of hope will be empty. Your body language will betray your words and you will lose the focus of your staff.

In tough times create hope for the future. Make plans. Be committed. Tell the staff. Together you will pull through the tough times and be a stronger company and a stronger person.

Systems create money

There are a lot of activities going on in your business. You have the main operations to run, customers to stay in contact with, bills to pay, bills to send, employees to manage, employees to develop, etc. How do you keep this going without losing any critical steps? Build systems.

Systems create order out of chaos. Systems are about the big topics in your business: one for customer relationships, one for inventory, one for accounting, one for sales, etc. And in each system there are many different processes. It is possible to have processes and no system design. In fact, this is very common.

What do systems do for you? It makes sure that you have sufficient inventory to serve your customers. It makes sure that your invoices are sent out timely and your taxes are paid. A system makes sure that each employee is evaluates every year and given opportunities for development.

And how does this create money? Time is money and systems help you create time and manage time. For instance a systemized invoicing process helps this get done faster and invoices sent out sooner. That means money comes back to your business sooner. Money in the bank collects interest.

Creating systems takes some time investment but once it is done you should reap the rewards of efficiency.