Successful Blog

4 Essential Elements to Deliver Consistently Repeatable Success

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Can You Articulate What Makes Success?

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Once, at least once in your life, you succeed at something big. You learned to read. You graduated. You built something, won something, proved you could do something well and elegant. You stood up for something believed in. You held a friend’s hand through the night. You were part of a winning team. Your team brought in a project in a way that only your team can.

You know the feeling of succeeding. Everyone does.
But can you articulate what made that success?
Can you repeat it, consistently achieve it, and deliver success with confidence?

4 Essential Elements to Consistently Achieve and Deliver Repeatable Success

Success relies on a four important characteristics to be realized – the right mind, the right heart, the right skills and talents, and the right focus and passion in the right direction. How do we align all of these “rights” in a truly successful combination?

  • The right mind – The decided outcome was clear. Success was defined in clear concrete terms. You named it and were determined to claim it.
  • The right heart – The currency was trust not fear. The idea that you or your team wouldn’t succeed wasn’t even on the radar. Getting to the goal was just the plan.
  • The right skills and talents – The chosen challenge was at the right level. Peak performance comes when the challenge stretches us just enough to keep us from being bored without causing anxiety.You played to your strengths. You took advantage of opportunities.
  • The right focus in the right direction – Obstacles, distractions, and roadblocks were irrelevant. When we have our entire focus and passion on the prize, those things that might have sabotaged, undercut, or sidetracked was simply another detail to deal with or ignore on the way to success. If we look back, every roadblock and obstacle to a true success seems like a learning experience, an adventure, or a quest that made the hero’s journey more valuable in our eyes.

Let me say that as clearly as I can. I’m willing to bet that …
Every time you succeeded, just as many obstacles and roadblocks found their way to your path as every time you tried something and left it unfinished.

Those four essential elements of success are all you need to repeat the success that you’ve enjoyed in the past. Everything else — the people, the resources, the money, the business plan, the whatever you might mention — depends on the four that I just named.

We have to know a few things, believe a few things, and take on our path fearlessly. It’s a matter of commitment of head, heart, talent, and focused passion to achievement. Or as my husband just said, “No victory is won by the side that is only willing to fight until it hurt a little bit.”

Which of the four essential elements do you need most to achieve and deliver consistently repeatable success?

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

How to Turn a #Fail Position into a #Win

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Whisperer

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Anyone who’s spent time with me knows that the combination of hotels, airplanes, and my llergies is likely to be disastrous for my voice. Don’t get me wrong some folks are grateful that they finely get a chance to get a word in edgewise, but even they wish I was being quiet by choice. It’s been a problem for as long as I can remember. Back in the 1990s, the executive team where I worked used to put together a betting pool around our biggest conference to pick the exact day and time my voice would abandon me and I would become a whisperer for a few hours.

At SOBCon this year, it happened at the most inappropriate time.

My important talk of the event was scheduled for the afternoon that I lost my voice.

Doing Right Things, Wishing, and Asking the Wrong Questions

It made me worried and cranky to think that I might be letting down a roomful of people I so admire. It made me disappointed in myself that I wasn’t going to be able to deliver the value I’d worked on to deliver. And I’ll admit it took the wind out of sails to think that I couldn’t bring it back. (I’ve since mastered the art of regaining my voice – ha! – so I’ll not be there again.)

I did right things …
I took my allergy meds as directed.
I stopped talking — well whispering — as much as I was able.
I drank tea with lemon and honey.
I mainlined honey after that.
… ineffective right things.

For about three hours, I thought of what I might do to deliver in that last session.
I kept thinking of our friend, Glenda Watson Hyatt, who once wrote to me, “I know why I blog, Liz. Why does blogging do for you?” She knows what it’s like to have so much to give locked in her head. I was wishing her with me, wishing her technology to turn my thoughts into communication, but that wasn’t to be had.

In my head, I kept asking questions …
What can I do to make this situation better?
Who can I ask to help?
How can I get my voice back?
… the wrong questions.

… but the answers all came back as less than what I wanted to deliver. less in this case was even less than missing my best. It was a fail not a win. The people in the room deserved a win.

Then it struck me that how I was looking at the problem was what was keeping it a problem.

How to Turn a #Fail Position into a #Win

I’ve often had amazing people around me who give me great advice — my mom, my dad, yeah my brothers, VanFossen, Starbucker, Roth, and many others, including a guy named Fred. I started thinking about things they’d told me at times like the one I was in.

  • You’re always cooking up brilliant strategies for other people. Be brilliant for yourself! – Lorelle VanFossen
  • Do you remember that Sesame Street skit “which of these things is not like the others”? — Carol Roth
  • Decide what you want to do and you’ll have all of the help you need. — Terry “Starbucker” St. Marie
  • I love your brain! — That guy named Fred.
  • Call me back, I hung up on you by mistake

That’s when I literally turned a full circle, tilted my head, and looked again.

After hours on the wrong questions, the right question came.

How could I turn having no voice into a strength?

My brain started conspiring.
My eyes lit with mischief.
My feet started dancing with enthusiasm.

I went into the main room,
asked someone to hand me a flip chart and a marker,
and returned to the side room to write 27 pages.

Those 27 pages became a keynote titled “Not Speaking is the New Black by the Event Whisperer and Friends”

And ironically, as I wrote my thoughts filled with meaning, my voice came back … probably because I realized I didn’t need it to share what was in my head.

Terry asked 28 people from the room to participate by reading one page aloud to the room for all of us. If you follow the link above you’ll see what it said, but that’s not the point of this post.

The point of this post is that

No matter what you think is working against you.
No matter what you think is your weakness or your lack.
It’s the way you’re looking at it that’s holding you down.

Step back, do a complete turnaround, tilt your head, and look again.

You can turn that #fail position into a #win.

I bet you’ve done that at least once. I’d love to hear your story.

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

Related:
Not Speaking IS the New Black

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

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A Guest Post By Ripley Daniels

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So, you’ve 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. There’s 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.

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  1. 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.
  2. 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 don’t feel pressured to slave away in front of your computer because you’re 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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 you’re working from home and no longer have access to the same information regarding classes or programs. Just because you are a telecommuter doesn’t mean that you can mentally check out and not deliver outstanding work performance.
  7. Step away from your desk at the end of each business day and don’t 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?
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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!!

Help, I’m a workhorse and I’m stuck…

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by Patty Azzarello

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

I’m the workhorse for our volunteer emergency communicator group. There are 4 of us, but here lately I’ve 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, they’ve already tried the other members with no luck. I’ve said something, but so far no results.

Since lives and property may be at stake, I feel it’s important to have someone doing the job. So, I do it—

But I say something to the rest of the group every time since the 5th time in a 3 day period– now, it’s been 13 times in a week that we’ve been called and I’m 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 other… well, I really don’t know.

I’m tired, and we still have more shots at being called again in the next 2 days. I feel bad saying “NO, SORRY– I can’t” when it’s the City Office of Emergency Management or the National Weather Service, but I might just have to, and tell them that I’m exhausted. After all, we’re VOLUNTEERS!

First, let’s 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 won’t 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 – 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, it’s 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, don’t 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:  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 can’t 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 team’s 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 shouldn’t get to talk big and pretend they are a volunteer if they don’t 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 can’t 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 “Can’t or Won’t”.

Can’t you can work with, Won’t 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, Rise… They Shoot Workhorses, Don’t 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!

A Checklist for Building a Solid Partner Relationship

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Moving With New Tools to New Relationships

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The past few years bloggers and brands have worked together to move messages through communities and across the Internet. It was a natural transition for a broadcast-based system to move some of their marketing and advertising from print publishers to online audiences.

In many cases, what has occurred is that brands have chosen to use the new tools with an outdated view to how reaching customers work. Though the brands have given this new relationship a new name – blogger outreach – that implies relationship, the goal behind the outreach is often still product mentions in the form of blog posts and eyeballs looking at them.

It may be easier on the short term to hire a blog post or offer something free in hopes of getting bloggers to write about it than to develop a relationship, but as more big and little brands bombard big and little blogs with pitches and product samples, the less attention any brand can get.

And it always was true that …

Old thinking and old methods aren’t the best use of new tools in a new cultural mix. The best brands — businesses big and small — are already making the move from outreach and focus groups to partnerships. The best business bloggers are taking the initiative to build relationships like that too.

A Checklist for Building a Solid Partner Relationship

Great brands, savvy small businesses, and the best business bloggers know the best business relationships are a partnership in which both sides align goals and work together on a shared mission not a single campaign or opportunity. Here’s a checklist for building a solid partner relationship that can do that.

  1. Check for similar team size and bias toward action. What you’re looking for is a similar time-goal orientation. If your business can turn on a dime and needs one person to make a decision, you’ll be at a disadvantage working with a business that is highly driven by several step processes. The business with the most approval stages always wins control.
  2. Check for shared values and like standards. What you want to determine is that you and your partner agree on what makes great work and great service to each other, the business, and the customers. These intangibles can’t be described in a contract. They have to be discussed deliberately. Do that.
  3. Check that you have the same vision and mission in view. What’s important to determine here is that your mission critical goals for the work are truly aligned, that you see the same ending outcome, and that you’re sharing the same kind of risk. Find out before the work starts if your views don’t match — you don’t want to find out later that you were building a partnership and the other team thought of you as a channel of distribution.
  4. Check that you agree on roles, process, and vocabulary. What you want is concreteness of the “how” the partnership will work. This conversation will bring you to who owns which part and what responsibilities go with that.
  5. Check that you have clear boundaries and realize differences in your time-goal orientation. What you want to bring up here is the idea of “scope creep.” How will you alert each other when the relationship needs re-balancing? What will be the communication methods for changes to the plan, the process, or resource and budgetary needs?
  6. Check that you have discussed how you will share the risk and share the benefits. What is important here is a conversation about how the vision will play out, what will be required from both teams to secure the win, and how the rewards will be shared when you bring it in.

This checklist is a conversation that stands outside the making of a deal memo or a contract. It’s a relationship meeting of the minds. The accuracy of the conversation needs to be tested after you’ve gone through the checklist. You can do that easily by following these two rules.

  • Take one small unit of work through the process to verify your thinking about the roles and the scope of the work. At each step of that prototype, keep what worked and revise what didn’t.
  • Throughout the relationship, review the results quickly, constantly, consistently and adjust to keep improving the process and the relationship. As you build trust, sleek down the checkpoints to let each partner do their work without unnecessary interruption.

Sound like a lot? It’s really not. If you think about it, it’s two meetings and keeping your head, heart, and vision in the partnership. They say a good partner can divide grief and multiply success. I can tell you that this process can bring you a lot closer to ensuring that.

How do you build a solid partner relationships?

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

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Reinventing Is Futile – Connect to the Brilliance in You

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Reinventing ourselves.

What are we thinking when we say that? Is the plan to pull apart our DNA and restring it? Shall we just set aside those skills and talents we came with? Genetics doesn’t work like that. Our DNA is coded with four letters A, C, T, and G. The order in which they’re set not only differentiates us from other species, but also from each other, except our identical twin.

We can’t just toss aside the A, C, T, and G to reach in a box of letter beads to recode a new set of letters we like better. We can’t really even rearrange our current code with any sense of surety.

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Add to that the wealth of experience that has brought us from the moment we gave our first cry and opened our eyes to this moment in time. That experience has moved, molded, and made us into unique beings. We can’t relive our experiences either.

Our genetics and our experience are the foundation of who we are. They have burned the pathways in our brains that move and manage information. They have set the personal comfort zones that we find in the human experience. If we try to deny those foundations, to become something other, we end up a bad facsimile. We can’t replace bits of our being the way an inventor might change out a set of wheels for skis.

Reinvention is futile.
I can’t reinvent myself into you.
You can’t reinvent yourself into me.

But you can reconnect to the best that you are.
And I can reconnect to the best that I am.

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People and stars are made of the same stuff. And as every star is shines with its own brilliance, so do we. When we reconnect to that we know deep in our genes and our experience, we become a richly alive, unique human being.

Even the smallest star shines with it’s own brilliant light. And we are like the stars. No one brings what you are. No one can replace you. No one can shine as you.

What’s irresistible is the brilliance you are.
Reinventing yourself is futile. Connecting to your brilliance is powerfully fruitful.
The world will be just that much brighter when you do.

Be irresistible.

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

I’m a proud affiliate of

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