Successful Blog

How to apply military leadership skills to your business

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By Ben Morton

The last four years have unquestionably been difficult times for business and the public. In a short space of time we have witnessed the banking crisis, phone hacking and political scandals and the demise of many familiar big brand names such as Blockbuster and Woolworths to name just a couple.

All of these things have brought leadership into sharp focus once again and led us to ask many questions. Two of the most common questions I have heard are ‘Can we trust our leaders?’ and ‘Are our leaders equipped to lead us through these times?’

Linked to these questions are a couple of phrases or buzz words that I have heard more and more lately; Innovation and VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity). It is VUCA that particularly interests me.

The term VUCA derives from the military vocabulary and they have been training their leaders to operate in this world for many, many years. In fact, it’s one of the cornerstones of military leadership.

Here are some of my favourite techniques, taken from the military, that you can use to help you be an effective business leader whilst operating in a VUCA world.

Provide Stability

A leader’s role is to create stability and an air of calm – these tools can help by ensuring that teams are not reliant on particular individuals.

  • Train your team to understand and be able to carry out other peoples jobs.
  • Don’t allow a Job Description document to constrain what your people do – give them freedom to act.
  • Recruit for flexibility, intellect and team ‘fit’ – not just skills in a narrow job role.

Provide Clarity

In times of uncertainty it is important for leaders to communicate and provide clarity where they can.

Ensure that everyone in your team or organization fully understands the vision or end goal as opposed to just their individual task. This means that if the situation changes, they still know what the team or organisation is ultimately trying to achieve.

Tell people what they need to achieve – not how to achieve it.

‘Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.’ General George Patton

These two points will empower your people to act and handle change quickly with the end goal still in mind. The military call this ‘Mission Command’.

Communicate

It is easy to stop communicating when under pressure but the impact on the team can be huge.

  • Communicate regularly and build it into your processes.
  • When teams are under pressure, individuals will often retreat inwards and team meetings stop taking place – this is the worst thing that can happen in difficult times.
  • Establish a routine for team meetings and communications and make them sacrosanct. This gives you confidence that the team knows what is happening and it gives the team confidence in you and the plan.

Communicate early

The military have the concept of a ‘Warning Order’ which tells subordinates early on what little information is available about forthcoming operations. This allows for concurrent activity and provides a faster response time to challenges. Critics will say, ‘But this could waste time if people start working on the wrong things.’ Not so if you have provided clarity and everybody understands the end goal.

Plan for the Risks

The military have a great phrase – ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy’. So what can we learn from this?

  • Consider the ‘threats’, ‘risks’ and ‘what if’s’ that may affect your plan – create a simple Issues and Risks register.
  • Once you have considered the risks – plan for them. Don’t just have a plan B, have a plan C as well.
  • Communicate the risks and plans. It will allow people to act quickly when things change and once again, it gives them confidence.
Author’s Bio: Ben Morton is a Consultant at TwentyOne Leadership specialising in the provision of high quality leadership training, mentoring and coaching. He has approaching two decades experience in leadership, learning and management along with a wealth of expertise in strategic Human Resource management drawn from experience as a Board Member in small entrepreneurial organizations and working in large multi-nationals such as Tesco and TUI Travel.

Having led expeditions around the globe from the Alps of Europe to the Steppe Country of Mongolia and served two operational tours of Iraq as an Officer in the British Army, Ben understands what it takes to lead people in the most difficult of conditions. He’s passionate about sharing his knowledge, experience and expertise. Connect with Ben on Twitter: @benmorton2

Change Your Life Today

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By Michael Costello

Things around us change all the time. Hardware and software upgrades abound. And to keep pace with life we need to change as we go. Our thinking. Our skills. Our beliefs. Our lifestyle. Everything.

We need to do more than adjust our lifestyle to the seasons of the year. Or to roll with the punches that life throws at us. This will help us to get by. And if you wish to settle for that then read no further.

To get the most out of life we need to reinvent ourselves. And to do so now if we are to be ready for the next wave of change that is coming our way.

If you have any doubts about the wisdom of giving yourself a make over, consider how well placed you would have been ten years ago if you knew what you know now. Had the skills you have now. And the expertise you have now.

Identify what you need to change

Do you want to lose weight, stop smoking, drink less or exercise more? Most people want to do one or the other of these things. And try as they might, they almost always fail to make the change they desire.

If one of these changes is high on your list then ask yourself, “are they the real problem in my life?” Jules Evans tells us that we use our habits to help us to cope. The truth is that when we smoke, drink, overeat or under exercise it only makes things worse for us.

Don’t be misled by these symptoms. Get at the real problem. Identify it and deal with it. This is the real change you need to make. Only then can you move ahead and make the most of your future.

Possible candidates

Make a list of ten possible hidden causes of any unhappiness and anger you experience. The unhappier you are to put something on the list the more certain you can be that it should be there.

Take your time. When you have ten issues, narrow them down to five. Then four. Three. Two. And finally settle on one. Sleep on it for a few days. If it is the right one you will know it for certain. Even if you do not feel happy about it.

This is what you need to change. And you will not be able to move forward until you do so. As I discovered when I identified a lack of purpose was the key issue I needed to address.

Change tactics

Allow yourself plenty of time to change. Any worthwhile change takes two months or so to become a habit. We need to put a well thought-out support system in place to see us through this habit-forming period.

Set yourself a goal. A “S.M.A.R.T” goal. One that is Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Realistic and has a Time frame. This will give you a target to aim for. A standard to measure the progress you make. And it puts your change project on your personal agenda.

Go a step further and set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) for yourself. For example, my BHAG is to “Write one world class post for my Personal Development Blog every week.” Which I have about a 50% chance of achieving provided I manage to acquire the knowledge and skills I need to raise my performance to this level.

A BHAG can inspire you. It raises the goal out of the ordinary into the extraordinary. Gets you to think big. And to focus on acquiring the knowledge, skills and other resources you need if you are to have a chance to achieve your goal.

Do you have a BHAG or SMART goals? Share yours in the comments and we’ll keep each other accountable!

Author’s Bio: Michael Costello has retired from the corporate world where he worked as a Director of Training and Development. He is a positive psychology enthusiast who writes a personal development blog at www.personaldevelopmenttoolbox.com.

Small Steps to Productivity

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By Rosie Gollancz

“I cannot make my days longer so I strive to make them better.”
Henry David Thoreau

Working for a startup means that I rarely experience a day that seems long enough. Being part of a small team also means that there isn’t anyone to fall back on, so getting your job done and doing it well is really important. The sheer number of responsibilities each person has on a daily basis mean that we have all had to take a step back and reassess both our work and relaxation time in order to ensure that we’re getting the most out of each.

I’m going to share some things I’ve learned, which I hope might help you increase your productivity at work and your sense of calm at home as well.

Having said this, I wish that I had a mind-blowing hack to share with you – one that would help you instantly become many times more productive. In reality, one of the first things I learned was that there wasn’t one all-encompassing solution that would overhaul the way I work and play.

In my experience, becoming more productive is about making small improvements to habits you have already established, or a schedule you have unwittingly become accustomed to. Although it wasn’t always easy to put these things place, the benefits they brought about were almost immediate.

My first secret to optimizing productivity: sleep.

Working in a sleep-focused company, I am surrounded on a daily basis by research on the negative effects of sleep deprivation and its potential effect on your mood, productivity and general wellbeing. It was therefore, the first thing I turned to in my quest for self-improvement!

When I’m not well rested (which means having anything less than 7 hours of quality sleep) I really struggle to concentrate and my emotions take a nosedive. So, in general, I aim to keep to a regular schedule that sees me in bed by 11.30pm each night, ready to get up at 6.03am sharp.

Unsurprisingly, research has repeatedly shown that even relatively mild sleep deprivation impacts negatively on mood, cognitive performance and even motor function. Even keeping to the same routine won’t help if you’re not getting enough sleep each night with dips in performance being observed in those who feel they have ‘adapted’ to their lack of sleep [1].

Sleep loss has also been shown to have a negative impact on your working memory, so the longer a task takes to complete the worse your performance becomes – when you consider that tasks take longer to complete when you’re sleep deprived it really is a lose-lose situation [2,3].

Why 7 hours a night? This number is as individual as your shoe-size – I’ve chosen mine based on how much sleep I need to feel alert and motivated the following day. To sum up, not getting enough sleep has the potential to affect everything from your work performance, insight, risk assessment and even your communication skills [1] so why not make sleep a priority for 2013?

If you still need some convincing, I’ll point you towards the study which found similarities between the effects of sleep loss and half the legal limit for alcohol when driving on a person’s mental performance [4]. If you wouldn’t show up at work drunk, then you shouldn’t show up sleep-deprived either!

My second pillar of productivity: happiness.

Research has shown that when you are happy at work you put more effort in and, in turn, you are more productive [5]. Being happy was defined by these researchers as ‘experiencing positive emotions’, but it might not be just happiness affecting your productivity – general well being was linked to increased productivity as well.

Findings such as these definitely ring true for me – inevitably, there are days when you feel sluggish and struggle to be productive, but by and large, the key to unlocking your potential may just be finding that delicate balance between hard-work and time-out.

How can you do this?

One very simple thing we’ve started to do is make sure we take time out to eat lunch together as a team away from our desks each day. In doing this we’ve bonded better and having a few laughs and a chance to relax during lunch keeps us motivated for the rest of the workday.

Second, we’ve started reserving 45 minutes each Friday for a ‘team talk’ – each person has the opportunity to nominate himself or herself on a Monday to give a talk on a topic of their choice. Highlights so far have included a beginners’ yoga session and an interactive face-painting lesson! It might seem like a significant time investment but it has led to an increase in the team’s confidence and makes sure that we always end the week on a good note.

In accepting that there are only so many hours in each day, I have found it easier to focus on making those hours count, but there’s no doubt that it takes effort and willpower to work on yourself. In fact, the desire to become more productive has provided an excuse to work on some bad habits I’d been keen to change but had never gotten around to!

References

[1] Pilcher, J., Huffcut, A.I., (1996). Effects of sleep deprivation on performance: a meta analysis. Sleep, 19(4), 318-326.
[2] Durmer, J.S., Dinges, D.F. (2005). Neurocognitive consequences of sleep deprivation. Seminars in Neurology, 25(1), 117-129.
[3] Lim, J., Dinges, D.F. (2008). Sleep deprivation and vigilant attention. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1129, 305-322.
[4] Williamson, A.M., Feyer, A.M. (2000). Moderate sleep deprivation produces impairments in cognitive and motor performance equivalent to legally prescribed levels of alcohol intoxication. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 57, 649-655.
[5] Oswald, Andrew J., Proto, Eugenio and Sgroi, Daniel, Happiness and Productivity. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4645.

Author’s Bio: Rosie Gollancz is the Community Manager at Sleepio.com a clinically proven sleep improvement programme grounded in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques for when you just can’t sleep. You can also keep up-to-date with the latest sleep research on the Sleepio blog and Twitter @Sleepio.

Six Steps to Getting the Attention of Journalists on Your Own

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By Gini Dietrich

I am a communications professional. My entire career has been spent at PR firms – first at Fleishman-Hillard in Kansas City, then Rhea & Kaiser in Chicago, and I started Arment Dietrich in April 2005.

One of the most important things I learned early in my career was how to build relationships.

It started with journalists, then moved to the executives within our office, and finally with the executives at our client’s offices.

I spent many years cultivating relationships with journalists: Getting to know their beats, understanding what they would or wouldn’t cover, and even knowing when they celebrated their birthdays so I could send a card or cupcakes or booze.

And then 2008 hit. Newspapers folded, popular magazines went under, and a lot of my friends – those I’d known for more than 10 years – lost their jobs.

Suddenly the journalists who were left had to cover automakers, small business, and manufacturing…even though small business might have been their only beat previously.

They were too busy to take phone calls or go on media tours or even sit with you for an hour to talk about what you had upcoming.

And the role of a communications professional changed, when it came to media relations.

Getting the Attention of Journalists

Almost exactly four years ago, Steve Strauss – the small business expert at USA Today – wrote an article called, “Should Entrepreneurs Twitter? Uh, No.”

I read it with great interest, mostly because I had had amazing success using Twitter to build our brand.

In it, he detailed the four reasons entrepreneurs should not use Twitter. I very thoughtfully responded on his article and pointed out the four reasons they should use it…and the other social networks, too.

Because my comment was thoughtful and professional, he called me and we talked about social media, in general. About 30 minutes into the call, he asked if we could go on record.

What came of that conversation was, “Twitter for Small Business…Reconsidered.”

Because he’s like everyone else – swamped with little to no time to listen to pitches from PR professionals – he reads the comments on his articles to see if there is anything worth revisiting or diving into more deeply.

The Response Campaign

Hence, the response campaign was born.

It’s not a very creative title, but my team and our clients know what it means: Spend the time to read and respond to journalists and they’ll eventually add you to their Rolodex of trusted resources.

Here is a step-by-step process to create this magic for yourself:

  1. Choose one newspaper, magazine, or blog that makes a difference in your industry. It can be Wall Street Journal or it can be one of your trade publications. Choose just one.
  2. Once a week, comment on one article, blog post, or editorial. If you disagree, fantastic! Say so. But do it professionally. Being negative or criticizing without a solution isn’t helpful. Professional discourse is.
  3. Keep this up.
  4. After about six weeks, the journalist will feel like he or she is beginning to know you and will call you for a story in the works.
  5. Every quarter add another publication, so you have four that you focus on each year.
  6. Don’t be afraid to go after the big publications. If your expertise adds value to the stories they’re reporting, comment away!

If you are consistent and post intelligent comments once a week, you’ll soon have developed relationships with journalists who call on you when they need someone to interview.

Yes, it takes some time. Yes, it’s hard work. Yes, it requires that you keep up with your reading. But it works 100 percent of the time. Wouldn’t you rather do that than send a news release to 1,000 journalists and not get a single bite?

Author’s Bio: Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based integrated marketing communication firm. She is the lead blogger at PR and marketing blog, Spin Sucks, co-author of Marketing In the Round, and co-host of Inside PR, a weekly podcast about communications and social media. Connect with her on Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

Asking For Feedback From Clients: How and Why It’s Vital

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By Jennifer Escalona Dunn

Every business owner likes to think that his or her business is great and is operating at 100% efficiency. If your clients haven’t complained and your bank account is fine it’s easy to pretend that nothing is wrong. However, you could be setting yourself up for huge problems down the line if you maintain this illusion.

Undoubtedly, one or more of your clients has something to say about the services you’re providing. Whether or not they’ve told you personally is irrelevant; sometimes people don’t like to upset the apple cart and won’t tell you what you think…unless you ask!

Why Feedback is Important

This isn’t to say that your business is falling apart at the seams. It’s only natural that a problem might crop up from time to time.

However, one problem that occurs all the time may end up harming your business in the long run. Wouldn’t it be terrible if some little thing you could have easily taken care of irreparably damaged the work you’ve done over the years?

It may seem like you’re tempting fate by bringing these issues up in the first place. After all, if you’re asking about the problems people have, doesn’t this give them a chance to focus on what’s wrong?

This may be true, but you want these problems coming up when you can control them rather than out of the blue. If your problem is being late with assignments, one or two won’t kill you – a whole year of it, though, certainly won’t help your bottom line.

How to Get Feedback

Feedback is pretty important to the long-term health of your business, but how do you go about getting it? Is it as simple as just asking each client or should you use other methods?

Ideally you want as wide a sample as possible. As stated before, some clients may not be very receptive to freely giving out their opinions. Their ideas are still valid, though, so you need to provide an avenue for these people as well.

One idea is to make an anonymous survey on Facebook or a service like SurveyMonkey. This way all clients can provide their opinions without fear of backlash from you. Not that you would yell at them, but some may have trouble getting over their hesitation. Of course you can always email clients individually. In the email you can provide a link to the survey or they can just reply to your message.

One helpful tip is to have specific questions in mind. If you have concerns about your timeliness, for example, ask questions about this. Focusing your efforts can yield better results as it concentrates clients’ energy on that issue rather than fumbling around trying to figure out what might be wrong with your business.

Also remember: not every piece of advice you get is going to make perfect sense. In fact, you may receive flat out terrible advice from clients. Don’t immediately discount it, though. Try to figure out what they’re really saying and get to the root of the problem. It may end up helping you in the long run.

Have you ever received negative feedback from clients? Were you surprised? How did you rectify the situation?

Author’s Bio: Jennifer Escalona Dunn is the owner of Social Street Media where she writes about small business, tech and finance for sites like WePay and Outright. You can find her on Twitter @jennescalona.

How to Write and Get Your Work Published

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By Alisha Webb

Many people feel as though they have a story in them, or simply the innate ability to get an important message out there, but the majority don’t really know how to go about doing this. Here are some tips as to how.

getting published

The yearning

Writing is in your blood, at least it should be if you feel like you have something to say that you would like to get published. If it’s not in you, then it can be the hardest thing in the world to push and so perhaps you shouldn’t even begin to try. If you feel that it is there, however, but you don’t know how to let it out, then this might be the right place for you.

Writing cannot be learned in the same way that you used to read your textbooks at school in order to fill you in on the parts that you weren’t sure of in your English literature exams. It can, of course, be studied, but the dedication and need to get published goes a long way past any kind of formal training.

Routine

From afar, writing might seem like some romantic pastime; a passionate, instinctive practice that soars through the writer and forces itself onto the page. In an ideal world this would be true and it would also be very easy. Unfortunately, this type of gift is a very rare one and the vast majority of all writers really have to force themselves to put the words on the page. The double misfortune is that those words often just do not want to come and instead you are left staring at an empty page.

Once you have accepted that the words do not always, or even often, flow like water, it is essential that you designate a part of your life to writing. You name the time, as this is preferably done daily, and then you eradicate everything else from your life during that time. This is not a magic trick that will unleash your natural powers, there still will be many hours sat alone and wordless, but this 100% commitment to your work on a daily basis is of paramount importance if you really hope to eventually succeed.

Admit your imperfections

A big predicament many writers find themselves in is that they are unable to ever finish the work they have started. It is very easy to fall into the trap of being incapable of letting your work go. You must admit that nothing will ever be perfect and know when is the right time to call it a day on a certain piece of work. If you don’t do this you run the risk of getting stuck in a rut which you can’t move on from. It is much better to have two or three “finished” pieces of work that you are not completely happy with rather than dwelling needlessly over one that will never get finished. Even the great novels that you read at school would be tweaked by their authors if they were able to go back to them now. Accept that yours is not everything you hoped for and move onto the next one that you promise will be better.

Read

You cannot operate in a vacuum. If you want to get published you need to be aware of the places where your finished work could find a home. Being aware of what is out there and sending these people your work often helps you make initial connections that will prove more fruitful in the future. This is an essential part of the process. Reading other people’s work can give you the confidence to see that there is a market for the material you yourself are looking to write.

Do not fear rejection

Sending out your first piece of work to an editor can be the most nerve wracking thing in the world. You have laboured over this piece of material for hours and now you have to let somebody tell you that it isn’t any good. You have to be ready for rejection. It is likely that you will be knocked back many more times than you are accepted, but this is all a part of the real learning process. Never take praise or criticism personally and be thankful for all and any of the comments that you get. The flutter you feel in your stomach when you see an email or a letter come back to you from an editor is one of the best feelings in the world. Remember that this feeling comes before you know whether the answer is a positive or negative. It really doesn’t matter all that much. If you are a true writer, you will carry on regardless, and one fine day they will be writing English literature textbooks that include your own work.

Good luck.

Author’s Bio: Alisha is a British writer working out of Barcelona and a content developer at York Notes; you can connect with her on Twitter.