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Thanks to Week 289 SOBs

May 7, 2011 by Liz

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Home Sick? 7 Productivity Tips So You Don’t Get Sick of Working at Home

May 6, 2011 by Guest Author

A Guest Post By Ripley Daniels

So, youâve been given the opportunity of working from home and the excitement of skipping your daily commute, navigating office politics and being chained to your cubicle have all but completely overtaken you. You are free to work from home and be productive without the confines of an office environment. For the first few months, all is well as you love falling out of bed in your favorite pajamas only to stumble a few feet into your home office. The freedom and autonomy is absolutely priceless. A few months later, the isolation begins to set in. You miss the office chatter and the scheduled breaks with your co-workers. Thereâs something unnatural about spending several hours a day in front of a computer screen with no one to interact with.

If you find yourself running into the issue of restlessness, isolation and depression while working from home; there is no need to worry. Like with anything new, you must learn to adapt to your new work environment. Follow these seven simple steps and you will be whizzing through your work day in no time.

Set up or maintain a regular work schedule. Nothing causes anxiety more than not having an organized daily routine which is what the traditional office environment automatically creates. In order to get into a happy, healthy work rhythm, you must create a work schedule that is realistic and doable and then stick to it. If you are used to starting work at 9AM and shutting down for the day at 5PM, this should be the work routine that you commit to while working from home.
Allow yourself an hour break for lunch and a few small breaks throughout the day. Just as it is legally mandated that employees take lunch breaks and small breaks, you must follow the same guidelines or run the risk of burning yourself out. It is nearly impossible to work eight hours or more without stepping away from your desk so donât feel pressured to slave away in front of your computer because youâre no longer officially on the clock. Set your lunch time and breaks at the same time every day so you can keep a regular schedule.
Get outside and get active. Living a sedentary lifestyle is harmful to your health, sanity and confidence. When you are required to sit in front of a computer while working from home, it can be easy to forget the importance of fresh air and exercise and sunshine. When you do take your lunch break or small periodic breaks, try and get outside for a walk or to make a leisure call to friends/family. Take advantage of your new work environment and fit in some exercise via an exercise DVD or take a mid-day work out class at the gym on your lunch break.
Set up Skype or Google Chat so you can maintain contact with your fellow co-workers while working from home. Telecommuting can be an isolating experience but with the help of social media and various programs, you can stay in touch with your co-workers as if you were right back in your cubicle or office. This is also a good way to keep your socialization skills sharp as telecommuting can easily dull your sensibilities from the lack of human interaction.
Set goals for yourself both professionally and personally. Unlike a traditional job, a telecommuter has the opportunity of enhancing both their work life and personal life at the same time. You have the ability of using your breaks to complete various projects around the house which also serves as a mental break from your daily work load.
Attend industry events and conferences so that you can stay current on the latest technology, products, services and inventions within your field. There is nothing worse than falling behind in your position because youâre working from home and no longer have access to the same information regarding classes or programs. Just because you are a telecommuter doesnât mean that you can mentally check out and not deliver outstanding work performance.
Step away from your desk at the end of each business day and donât look back. If your schedule is 9AM-5PM, you should resist working past your scheduled hours as you will soon find that your energy levels, confidence and productivity will all drastically be affected. Turn your computer off and shut down your home office during the evenings and weekends so that you can maintain some semblance of a normal work/life balance.

Do you have other tricks you use to keep your business well and working?
_____________
Ripley Daniels is an editor at Without The Stress, a passport, travel visa and immigration advisory firm located in Los Angeles.

Thanks, Ripley, for your insight into the problems that are unique to working at home!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

The English Language Doesn’t Have a Word for It

May 5, 2011 by SOBCon Authors

Dear Friends,
Friends seems like such a small word as I sit here — tears of gratitude in my eyes.

It’s 8 days after I left my home to check in at the Hotel 71, where — caught in weird math glitch going on my head about the event account and hotel bills — I actually heard the words “It’s okay. I AM the event,” drop out of my mouth.

I am anything but the event. I simply am the person who sets up the dominoes.

You, who come with your open minds and open hearts, you are the destination and the event. You who have been there more than once know that … at the nuance of setting up dominoes and blending colors I’m fairly good, getting better every year.

But also that …

for every nuance that I pick up from the air, from your eyes, and from the timbre of your words, I always will be woefully inept at seeing the obvious while I’m living it. It’s just not my gift.

And those of you who can see the obvious, don’t for a second think it’s not a gift, because those of us who can’t, know it is.

For every nail we hammered into every board we set as we raised the barn that was SOBCon this year, I know many friendships were forged between the splinters and between the cracks in my voice. I know it was you who did that.

Terry and I did what we could to make an environment, but you were the experience.

People say lives were changed by what happened in that room, over that weekend. Ours were too. We can’t take credit for that.

I know what I bring.
Terry knows what he brings too.
Do you know which parts were you?

With all of my head, all of my heart, and all of the meaning lives in my fingers and my feet, I’d like to thank every one of you who showed up to give and receive — attendees, presenters, sponsors, volunteers, family, and friends — those who watched on the stream — and that Starbucker guy who can’t seem to remember his own name.

My gratitude for what I learn from you is so deep.
The English language doesn’t have a word for it.

You already have changed the world.

Thank you.
Liz

Help, I’m a workhorse and I’m stuck…

May 5, 2011 by patty

by Patty Azzarello

I recently received some input from a reader that defined the perfect storm of being stuck in the workhorse trap. Here it isâ¦

Iâm the workhorse for our volunteer emergency communicator group. There are 4 of us, but here lately Iâve been the only one answering the calls from the City for severe weather (tornadoes, severe hailstorms, etc.) even in the middle of the night. Problem is, by the time the City gets to me, theyâve already tried the other members with no luck. Iâve said something, but so far no results.

Since lives and property may be at stake, I feel itâs important to have someone doing the job. So, I do itâ

But I say something to the rest of the group every time since the 5th time in a 3 day periodâ now, itâs been 13 times in a week that weâve been called and Iâm the only one who would answer the call. Okay one guy had surgery twice this week, first on his eye and again on his foot so he gets a pass. But the other 2? One is a definite flake and the otherâ¦ well, I really donât know.

Iâm tired, and we still have more shots at being called again in the next 2 days. I feel bad saying âNO, SORRYâ I canâtâ when itâs the City Office of Emergency Management or the National Weather Service, but I might just have to, and tell them that Iâm exhausted. After all, weâre VOLUNTEERS!

First, letâs look at the situation

1. THANK YOU. The world is a better place because of people like you that are willing to make personal sacrifice and step up when others need them.

2. Many people in their jobs feel like this. They feel they are the only one capable or available to the work. The work must get done, so they do it. Even though lives are typically not at stake, their values wonât let them drop the work.

3. In your case, lives are actually at stake! Truly, the work must get done.

4. Because you are all volunteers, there is no official way to insist that people do the work.

5. You have tried to raise the issue to get the rest of the team to step up to no avail â so you are stuck being the workhorse.
What can be done?

The first point to remember is that even if you can order people around, you are much better off if you can persuade them to be emotionally committed to doing the work. This makes everything better.

Second, itâs important to note that when I talk about getting out of workhorse mode, it is never about abandoning the work. The trick is to figure out how to get the critical work done without doing it all personally.

Sure, sometimes you need to work 24X7 when there is a crisis, a deadline, a big opportunity. The problem arises when that becomes a steady-state way of working.

If you want to get out of work-horse mode, donât expect your manager or business partner to make it better.

YOU need to be the one to invent a new approach to make it better. Stick to your instincts that this is not right. Devise a plan to change it.

Here are some suggestions to improve the situation:

Your desired outcome: Â Have other people to share the workload with.

There are two basic ways to achieve that outcome:

1. Get the people on the team to step up?
2. Get new people

Get People on the Team to Step Up

1. Record the data about what has happened. Data is not opinion or emotion. It canât be argued with. Keep a record of all the phone calls that were made and what the response was from each team member.

Call a meeting of the whole team and share the data. Ask everyone to comment on it.

2. Discuss the teamâs desired outcome. What does successful service look like? What will it require? Ask everyone to contribute to the definition of the process and the required commitment and responsibility.

Be really clear what the responsibilities are. Ask everyone on the team to talk about their ability to respond to their share of responsibilities.

3. Create an actual calendar for who is on call each day. Set an expectation that if you commit to be on call that you WILL ANSWER. Have everyone sign off on the schedule as a group commitment to one another.

4. Be super clear that there are only two choices, sign and commit or leave the group. There is no room for broken commitments when it is a matter of life or death.

If you are afraid of losing people on the team by doing this, remember that the people who are NOT answering the phone on a regular basis are not part of the team anyway. (They shouldnât get to talk big and pretend they are a volunteer if they donât do the work.)

They are not helping. Ask them to leave. Get new people who will be committed members of the team.

Get new people

A critical factor of getting out of workhorse mode is making sure that you have a team that is capable of doing the job.

No matter how vital the work is, staying in work-horse mode long term is the wrong answer.

You need to take it upon yourself to create a team or a process that can get the work done that really matters, without burning up your time personally.

If your current team canât cut it, you have to change the team.

If you are an individual, you need to influence. You need re-negotiate the work to focus on the most critical outcomes, and recommend a new, better process that achieves the desired outcome in a different way.

In any organization, volunteer or business, people get burned out, leave, or have other priorities come up in life. It is important that you are always cultivating a pipeline of new people that can (and want to do) the job.

When you look at the people who are not performing, decide âCanât or Wonâtâ.

Canât you can work with, Wonât is not worth the trouble.

Cut them loose. Get people who are motivated to help. That will be your only way out of workhorse mode long term whether you are in a group of volunteers or leading a business team.

Also, there are lots more ideas about workhorse traps and escape routes in Chapter 3 of my book, Riseâ¦ They Shoot Workhorses, Donât they?
What do you think?

IF you have any other ideas for this generous and tired emergency response volunteer, please share them in the comment box below!

The Book List: 42 Rules for your New Leadership Role and The Little Book of Leadership

May 4, 2011 by teresa

The Book List: a weekly series by Teresa Morrow

Iâm Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors & writers to help them with their online book promotion and marketing. As part of my job I read a lot of books (I love to read anyway!).

The books in The Book List series will cover a range of topics such as social media, product development, marketing, blogging, business, leadership, organization, career building, finance, networking, writing, self development, and inspiration.

’42 Rules for your New Leadership Role’ by Pam Fox Rollin

“Pam gives us that rare gem of a bookâthe perfect blend of proven tactics solidly grounded in the latest research. 42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role offers smart, busy leaders the proven mindsets and
practical to-do’s to make their strongest start as they rise in the leadership ranks. She also provides great tips on leading change across your organization. Refer back to the book often, and take every
chance to hear Pam speak about leadership.”
Sharon L. Richmond, Director, Change Leadership Center of Excellence, Cisco Systems

“Pam and I met 10 years ago when we started our coaching company. Since inception Pam has been one of our most effective and loved coaches. Her clients love her because of how she helps them reach
the heights they were capable of. 42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role represents the best of what she has learned over the years. Buy this book, and expect it to change your life!”
Scott Blanchard, Executive Vice President, The Ken Blanchard Companies

Book Excerpt

Now that you’re stepping up to a new leadership role, you’re far less likely to receive useful guidance than earlier in your career. This holds true whether you are in your first manager role or an experienced leader joining top executive ranks. I find this problem is especially acute for new Directors and VPs. You’ve been hired at these levels for your track record, so people assume you know what to do.

However, just because you were successful in your last role doing or managing marketing, accounting, engineering, or whatever you did, doesn’t mean you know how to make a strong start at your next job.

One-quarter of senior executives promoted from within fail in the first 18 months; one-third of outside hires fail. Many flame-outs can be traced to missteps during their first quarter. More importantly, for the 60â75 percent of leaders who survive into the second year, their effectiveness and trajectory are powerfully affected by choices made as they start.

If you’re like the technology leaders, marketing executives, and top teams I coach, you might notice how easy it is to become so caught up in fighting fires that you forget to shut off the gas. Or, you suspect you’re lousy at certain aspects of leadership, so you ignore them and hope they won’t bite you. Or, maybe you never learned the rules in the first place! Leadership is an apprenticeship craft. With the trend toward more “flat” organizations, your boss may be stretched so thin that he/she can barely advocate for your team, let alone mentor you. Welcome to your new leadership roleâyou have a bigger job, in a tough climate, with very little support!

I wrote 42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role to fill that gap.

Based on two decades of coaching senior leaders, helping executive teams craft strategy, and guiding Stanford MBAs, I describe a proven set of approaches to teach you what you’ve yet to learn, remind you of what you already know, and inspire you to become the best leader you can be in this jobâ¦and your nextâ¦and your next.

As you read this book, take what I say as a starting point for your own good thinking. Adjust what you find here to serve your team’s needs, the market conditions, the cultural context, your goals, and your personal leadership approach.

The intense learning curve and unfamiliar environments of a new job make it difficult for your brain to consider options and make decisions as well as you usually do. When brains are overloaded, people tend to rely on what they’ve done before, even when that didn’t work very well or is out of place in the new context. Ironically, this tunnel vision and rigidity is especially true of leaders who have experienced successâpeople like you who have been promoted or recruited for a new role.

So use this book to prompt what you want to do at each phase of your start. Ask yourself what from this material will be useful to you in the week ahead. See what results you’re getting, and come back to this process at the end of the week. Consider the rules, make up your own mind, act, observe, and reflect. Repeat. Succeed.

About Pam*:

Pam Fox Rollin coaches executives to succeed at the next level. She specializes in helping functional leaders who are taking on broader roles with greater strategic opportunity and management responsibility. Pam is also known for expert work with assessments (personality, leadership, 360s) and for designing and facilitating unusually productive leadership offsites. Her company, IdeaShape Coaching & Consulting, advances leaders and teams at top and emerging Silicon Valley and Bay Area companies in biotech, technology, and consumer products. Before founding IdeaShape in 1999, Pam consulted with Bain & Company and Accenture; her MBA is from Stanford, where she often serves as a Guest Fellow, helping top MBA candidates develop their leadership skills.

You can order a copy of ’42 Rules for your Next Leadership Role’ online at Amazon. *this information came from Amazon.

Next, I would like to introduce you to a book on the business book list on Amazon: ‘ The Little Book of Leadership: The 12.5 Strengths of Responsible, Reliable, Remarkable Leaders That Create Results, Rewards, and Resilience’ by Jeffrey Gitomer.

‘The Little Book of Leadership by Jeffrey Gitomer

This book came out recently on the new releases (business) list on Amazon. You can also check out my recent blog post on this blog about his book, Social Boom.

The Little Book of Leadership: The 12.5 Strengths of Responsible, Reliable, Remarkable Leaders That Create Results, Rewards, and Resilience (Hardcover)
“As with Gitomer’s other books, this one is packed with bite-size gems that are worth living by, and learning from… this time on leadership. One of the core tenets he starts with is discussing how leadership must be earned (and how to get there), by one’s actions and not just conferred respect via position. He makes you look inside yourself to see where you’re providing authentic, likable leadership in a way that hits home.

Like his other books, all of which I’ve read at least a few times (thanks for the ribbon in these, too, a nice touch to keep ’em from getting dog-eared), this one makes you think about how others perceive you. And how to build a personal leadership philosophy, backed by actions, attitudes, belief and effective communications with others, that really makes sense.

Above all else, I like this book because it models how to develop personal responsibility for providing leadership (which in a way we all need to study, to be leaders of our families, in communities, as entrepreneurs, as well as formal managers and execs), and the checklist of activities and “things to keep in mind when leading others” that can make a big difference.

On a last note, I will say I’m very glad Gitomer’s gone beyond just sales training to correctly teach and show us all about how to develop a winning attitude, how to communicate and brand/position ourselves effectively, how to lead successfully and live a life worth living. He’s always been a great role model — thanks Jeffrey for all you’ve done for us. It’s sincerely appreciated. And much-needed in these dark times… you’re a beacon. Thanks.”
Kenneth Calhoun – Amazon Reviewer

About the Book
A new and impactful book on leadership from the perspective of leaders

What makes a leader relevant? It’s not their place of employment, job title, experience, or status in life?it’s their resilience. The true measure of any leader is his or her ability to react based on past experience and gut feelings, respond in real time to current circumstances, and then to recover quickly and move on with new lessons learned. The Little Book of Leadership combines classic style with the latest innovations to challenges the reader to self-evaluate every facet of their leadership, coaching, and communication abilities in order to better formulate what actions can be taken to improve their natural skills. Ideas and answers are provided for every challenge.

* Chapters include information about the 12.5 leadership strengths: From insights to legacy and every element in between. Morale, Attitude, Resilience, Opportunity, Guts, Measurement, Coach, Celebration, Next-level, and Lost Secret of Leadership
* Foreword by Dr. Paul “Doc” Hersey, creator of Situational Leadership
* Other books by Gitomer: The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource, Revised Edition, also by Wiley, The Little Red Book of Selling (Bard Press) The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude (Pearson)

Whereas other books rely on theory or philosophy, The Little Book of Leadership takes leadership into the real world of business, providing proven methods for becoming a successful leader.

About Jeffrey*:
AUTHOR. Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The New York Times best sellers The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Black Book of Connections, and The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude. All of his books have been number one best sellers on Amazon.com, including Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Patterson Principles of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching!, and The Little Teal Book of Trust. Jeffreyâs books have appeared on best-seller lists more than 750 times and have sold millions of copies worldwide.
*courtesy of book website and/or Amazon

You can purchase a copy of ‘The Little Book of Leadership’ at Amazon.

Defining Greatness: Delicious Chocolate Lollipops

May 4, 2011 by Guest Author

By Jael Strong

Greatness is associated with unusual power and intensity. When something is “great,” it conveys excellence and brilliance; it is truly impressive. So, is your blog great?

We must face reality. The vast majority of blogs fall short of greatness. Mediocrity seems the aim for many. But isn’t this to be expected? With millions of blogs in existence, and more being added each day, can we expect a flood of greatness? No, of course not. But don’t we want to be listed among the greats? Sure, who doesn’t?

So, what are the ingredients for greatness? I wanted to come up with something witty, but all I can muster is Delicious Chocolate Lollipops, commonly known as Design, Content, and Loyalty.

Delicious design

Blogs should be inviting, accessible, and navigable. Great blogs appeal to the eye. A trademark image and a catchy slogan can go a long way. Readers can easily remember these things, making it that much easier to find you again when they get a hankering for a good read.

Hand-in-hand with this is the concept of simplicity. A cluttered blog is just asking for readers to click away. I hate it when I go to a site and I am inundated with a plethora of useless links and advertisements. It’s like going to the mall around on Black Friday; I feel like I’m being pushed and shoved, and it takes forever to get what I came for.

A well-organized blog will not deluge its readers with nonsense. Rather, it should be like sitting down to eat a decadent dessert made especially for the reader.

Smooth chocolaty content, please

Appealing to the eye is good. Appealing to the mind is great. Once a reader is attracted to a particular blog, the writer should deliver with some great content. An excellent idea delivered poorly is like promising a moist chocolate cake, but bringing a piece of crusty, dried-out, cake-from-a-box instead.

How are you delivering your concepts? Do you try to be original? Are you checking for distracting grammatical errors? Do you mix in some humor? Most importantly, is your content relevant and up-to-date, providing something that readers are really looking for?

The loyalty lollipop

Loyalty is like a lollipop, you love it and you carry it with you wherever you go. A great blog is a blog people will think about even when they aren’t in front of their computers. They’ll recommend it to friends and colleagues, and look forward to being engaged by it again.

How do we build this loyalty? Bloggers have come up with some great tools for this. Of course, we should always encourage comments. Another tool is allowing guest bloggers to write for you. Sponsor contests and allow short humorous submissions that you will in turn publish on your site. Welcome feedback. Make your blog an open room where readers feel like they are part of the process.

Of course, loyalty is not one sided. You must be loyal to your readers as well. If you sponsor contests, allow submissions, or welcome guest posts and comments, keep up with time lines and respond to your readers. Also, keep a schedule that your readers can recognize. In other words, don’t take two months off without writing and then expect a warm reception on your return.

By combining quality design and content with reader loyalty we can all aspire to greatness and rise above the average. Talk to us, what tools for greatness do you utilize?

—-
Jael Strong writes for TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She has written both fiction and non-fiction pieces for print and online publications. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas.

Thanks, Jael