REPOST: How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

Employees, even leaders, sometimes lack motivation to accomplish tasks. However, procrastinating can affect a project's timeline or a deliverable negatively. Thus, it's best to find solutions on how to deal with it. This Harvard Business Review article provides some strategies on how to beat procrastination.

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There’s that project you’ve left on the backburner – the one with the deadline that’s growing uncomfortably near.  And there’s the client whose phone call you really should return – the one that does nothing but complain and eat up your valuable time.  Wait, weren’t you going to try to go to the gym more often this year?

Image Source: hjohnmejia.com

 Can you imagine how much less guilt, stress, and frustration you would feel if you could somehow just make yourself do the things you don’t want to do when you are actually supposed to do them?  Not to mention how much happier and more effective you would be?

The good news (and its very good news) is that you can get better about not putting things off, if you use the right strategy.  Figuring out which strategy to use depends on why you are procrastinating in the first place:

Reason #1   You are putting something off because you are afraid you will screw it up.

Solution:  Adopt a “prevention focus.”

There are two ways to look at any task.  You can do something because you see it as a way to end up better off than you are now – as an achievement or accomplishment.  As in, if I complete this project successfully I will impress my boss, or if I work out regularly I will look amazing. Psychologists call this a promotion focus – and research shows that when you have one, you are motivated by the thought of making gains, and work best when you feel eager and optimistic.  Sounds good, doesn’t it?  Well, if you are afraid you will screw up on the task in question, this is notthe focus for you.  Anxiety and doubt undermine promotion motivation, leaving you less likely to take any action at all.

What you need is a way of looking at what you need to do that isn’t undermined by doubt – ideally, one that thrives on it.  When you have a prevention focus, instead of thinking about how you can end up better off, you see the task as a way to hang on to what you’ve already got – to avoid loss.   For the prevention-focused, successfully completing a project is a way to keep your boss from being angry or thinking less of you.  Working out regularly is a way to not “let yourself go.”  Decades of research, which I describe in my book Focus, shows that prevention motivation is actually enhanced by anxiety about what might go wrong.  When you are focused on avoiding loss, it becomes clear that the only way to get out of danger is to take immediate action.  The more worried you are, the faster you are out of the gate.

I know this doesn’t sound like a barrel of laughs, particularly if you are usually more the promotion-minded type, but there is probably no better way to get over your anxiety about screwing up than to give some serious thought to all the dire consequences of doing nothing at all.    Go on, scare the pants off yourself.  It feels awful, but it works.

Reason #2     You are putting something off because you don’t “feel” like doing it.

Solution: Make like Spock and ignore your feelings.  They’re getting in your way.

In his excellent book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman points out that much of the time, when we say things like “I just can’t get out of bed early in the morning, “ or “I just can’t get myself to exercise,” what we really mean is that we can’t get ourselves to feel like doing these things.  After all, no one is tying you to your bed every morning.  Intimidating bouncers aren’t blocking the entrance to your gym.  Physically, nothing is stopping you – you just don’t feel like it.  But as Burkeman asks,  “Who says you need to wait until you ‘feel like’ doing something in order to start doing it?”

Think about that for a minute, because it’s really important.  Somewhere along the way, we’ve all bought into the idea – without consciously realizing it – that to be motivated and effective we need tofeel like we want to take action.  We need to be eager to do so.  I really don’t know why we believe this, because it is 100% nonsense. Yes, on some level you need to be committed to what you are doing – you need to want to see the project finished, or get healthier, or get an earlier start to your day.  But you don’t need to feel like doing it.

In fact, as Burkeman points out, many of the most prolific artists, writers, and innovators have become so in part because of their reliance on work routines that forced them to put in a certain number of hours a day, no matter how uninspired (or, in many instances, hungover) they might have felt.  Burkeman reminds us of renowned artist Chuck Close’s observation that “Inspiration is for amateurs.  The rest of us just show up and get to work.”

So if you are sitting there, putting something off because you don’t feel like it, remember that you don’t actually need to feel like it.  There is nothing stopping you.

Reason #3   You are putting something off because it’s hard, boring, or otherwise unpleasant.

Solution:  Use if-then planning.

Too often, we try to solve this particular problem with sheer will:  Next time, I will make myself start working on this sooner.  Of course, if we actually had the willpower to do that, we would never put it off in the first place.   Studies show that people routinely overestimate their capacity for self-control, and rely on it too often to keep them out of hot water.

Do yourself a favor, and embrace the fact that your willpower is limited, and that it may not always be up to the challenge of getting you to do things you find difficult, tedious, or otherwise awful.  Instead, use if-then planning to get the job done.

Making an if-then plan is more than just deciding what specific steps you need to take to complete a project – it’s also deciding where and when you will take them.

If it is 2pm, then I will stop what I’m doing and start work on the report Bob asked for.

If my boss doesn’t mention my request for a raise at our meeting, then I will bring it up again before the meeting ends.

By deciding in advance exactly what you’re going to do, and when and where you’re going to do it, there’s no deliberating when the time comes.   No do I really have to do this now?, or can this wait till later? or maybe I should do something else instead.   It’s when we deliberate that willpower becomes necessary to make the tough choice.  But if-then plans dramatically reduce the demands placed on your willpower, by ensuring that you’ve made the right decision way ahead of the critical moment. In fact,  if-then planning has been shown in over 200 studies to increase rates of goal attainment and productivity by 200%-300% on average.

I realize that the three strategies I’m offering you – thinking about the consequences of failure, ignoring your feelings, and engaging in detailed planning – don’t sound as fun as advice like “Follow your passion!” or “Stay positive!”  But they have the decided advantage of actually being effective –which, as it happens, is exactly what you’ll be if you use them.

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REPOST: How Intel Gets Social Responsibility Just Right

This Time.com article shares how Intel incorporates "social responsibility" to achieve success.

Image Source: business.time.com

Intel co-founder Andy Grove once noted that some of his fundamental views on running a business were based on reading Peter Drucker’s foundational work, The Practice of Management, 30 or so years after its publication in 1954.

The experience, Grove said, illustrated “how long some of the principles . . . last and retain their appropriateness, even as things change.”

Another 30 years down the road, whether they know it or not, the folks at Intel are living out what Drucker prescribed on those very same pages—especially in the book’s concluding chapter, “The Responsibilities of Management.”

Last week, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Intel Chief Executive Brian Krzanich announced that Intel was the first company to reach a significant milestone: It is now manufacturing and shipping only “conflict-free” microprocessors—that is, computer chips devoid of minerals that come from those mines that pass their profits on to warlords in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other violence-ravaged parts of Africa.

Armed groups, which reap more than $100 million a year from the mineral trade in eastern Congo, regularly slaughter innocents as they jockey to control the region’s most valuable mines and transportation routes. Meanwhile, the minerals being illegally extracted—coltan, tin, tungsten and gold—wind up in a host of name-brand electronic products.

“The minerals are important, but not as important as the lives of the people who work to get them,” Krzanich said.

At a most basic level, Intel’s initiative is a reminder that businesses do not exist in a vacuum and that many of their everyday decisions ripple far out into the world—a notion that Drucker spelled out in The Practice of Management, long before the term “social responsibility” first came into fashion.

“What is most important is that management realize that it must consider the impact of every business policy and business action upon society,” he wrote. “It has to consider whether the action is likely to promote the public good, to advance the basic beliefs of our society, to contribute to its stability, strength and harmony.”

Lest there be any question as to what he was driving at, Drucker reinforced this idea in his 1973 book Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices: “One is responsible for one’s impacts whether they are intended or not,” he asserted. “The social impacts of the organization are management’s business.”

Drucker added that management has a particular responsibility “whenever its special competence gives it authority” to act.

Such was certainly the case here. Intel—and Intel alone—possesses the knowledge to manage its supply chain in a manner that promises to eliminate the company’s use of conflict minerals.

Even then, it was “a significant challenge for us,” Carolyn Duran, who helps direct Intel’s global sourcing and procurement, told NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Indeed, it took several years for the company to figure out how to trace what is mined in the Congo to a series of smelters and then verify the provenance of the various minerals through third-party audits and on-site visits. Already, she said, Intel has seen smelters “changing their behavior” because of the pressure.

Some observers have dismissed Intel’s efforts. They point out that Krzanich and his team have been motivated, at least in part, by a 2010 law that requires companies to publicly disclose whether their products contain conflict minerals.

“The new U.S. law doesn’t restrict any sort of trade,” the web magazine Engadget remarked when the measure first came out. “It does, however, allow companies that don’t use bloody rocks to label their products ‘conflict-free,’ so we’re sure astute marketing gurus are developing plenty of new all-plastic gizmos even as we speak. For the children, of course.” Another report suggested that Intel and other companies aren’t “too keen on the bad PR” that might stem from their electronics being branded full of conflict minerals.

But so what? If customers care about this issue—and I sure hope they do—then what is wrong with trying to give them what they value in this regard? What’s the problem with using “conflict free” as a marketing advantage?

“The ideal approach,” Drucker declared, “is to make the elimination of impacts into a profitable business opportunity.”

Duran leaves no doubt that Intel is, in fact, aiming to do just that. “It will be up to the public and ultimately consumers to determine and highlight those that are doing the right thing and those that are choosing to turn away,” she said.

After all, many companies have failed to respond as aggressively as Intel has. A 2012 report by the Enough Project, which is working to end the atrocities in Sudan, eastern Congo and elsewhere, ranked Intel, HP, Motorola Solutions and Apple as having made the most progress on conflict minerals. It put Nintendo, HTC, Sharp, Nikon and Canon at the bottom of the industry list.

Intel’s latest step—though neither foolproof nor a panacea—marks a “huge breakthrough,” said Sasha Lezhnev, an Enough Project senior policy analyst. “It really does help move the supply chain from being opaque and turning a blind-eye on its sourcing to being more transparent.”

If Intel attracts customers as a result, that should be a cause for celebration, not cynicism.


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REPOST: Resistance: A Stranglehold on Business

Why do people resist change, especially in the workplace? This TIME article shares some insights regarding this matter. 

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The ability to adapt and change is essential to business success. But not everyone embraces change so easily. These tips can help you identify and eliminate resistance in the workplace.

Anyone familiar with the Star Trek universe knows that resistance is futile. Unfortunately, real-life resistance to change is alive and well and often firmly entrenched in many small businesses. Common signs include ideas that never reach fruition and initiatives that go nowhere.

There’s a huge difference between taking a conservative approach and failing to adapt to changes in the market, in customer needs or in technology. Resistance on that level can have serious consequences and leave you wide open to competitors who are willing and able to adapt and capture your market share.

In an article at Small Business Computing, Rick Maurer, an organizational consultant and author of “Beyond the Wall of Resistance,” notes that workforce resistance causes approximately 70 percent of organizational change to fail. You can fight back using these steps to identify resistance and break down the barriers to effective change.

Step 1: Identify resistance

Blatant criticism is an obvious sign of resistance. However, the other side of that coin is the easy yes, and while more subtle, it’s no less dangerous. Employees or managers who agree quickly may not have thought things through thoroughly, whether out of a desire to be seen as cooperative or to avoid giving offense. Either way, they might not really understand what they’ve agreed to, and that quick yes can quickly turn into a protracted, passive-aggressive no.

Take the time to explain your thinking, and make that sure everyone understands the full scope of the changes and why they’re necessary.

Step 2: Identify the reasons

Employees resist change for three basic reasons. In order of severity: they don’t get it, they don’t like it, or they don’t like you. Look for someone on your team who’s harboring at least one of these perspectives anytime you have a project, processes or other business initiative that’s stalled.

Step 3: Fix it

If they don’t get it, you need to find a new way to deliver your message. Repeating yourself won’t help; they heard you the first time. Instead, try a different approach or provide additional education or training.

If they don’t like it, chances are someone finds something about the new process frightening or uncomfortable. Look at the situation from their perspective. This can help you present the information in a way that addresses their fears or concerns.

If they don’t like you, simply be direct and ask them. You may have to press further if all you get is a polite, but evasive response. Maurer believes these situations are usually a matter of trust. If you outrank the person or people involved, use an anonymous survey with a comment area to discover reasons behind the lack of trust.

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This Bertrand Management Group blog site provides tips and relevant articles on business and management.

An online brand identity: Creating and owning it

Image Source: marketing.revriv.com

A brand identity singles out a particular product, service, or company. It may refer to taglines, color schemes, logos, and trademarks. It represents a reputation and it reflects everything equated with the brand. The key to building a strong online brand identity is consistency.

The first step to enhance brand identity lies on the visuals, which includes the brand logo and color schemes. As the core of the visuals, the brand logo should be versatile, that is, usable in different online platforms—from websites to blogs to social media channels.

Image Source: digital-results.com

In terms of color scheme, matching the brand’s main color to those used in other platforms is like waving a flag. For example, on Facebook, one can enhance the page’s overall identity by customizing the cover photo. On Twitter, the brand could wear the time-worn color theme that marks the brand’s territory on the color wheel. The goal is to realign ongoing materials in every platform for consistency, especially for online campaigns.

For social media and websites, on the other hand, messaging must be unchanged and should hark back to similar names, key phrases, and slogans. This makes the brand more recognizable and consistent.

Image Source:forbes.com

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REPOST: Lead Your Employees Somewhere Positive and Other Must-Read Business Tips

This Entrepreneur.com article consolidates some useful tips for business owners.

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Business owners know more acutely than most people that change is inevitable. It is a fact of life. But not all change is positive, and it becomes difficult to lead employees when they think you are taking them in a bad direction, says Mark Sanborn, president of Sanborn & Associates Inc., a Lonetree, Colo.-based leadership development firm.

But that doesn't mean your employees don't have guts and grit. "They can even handle the challenges and sacrifices of a new undertaking if they believe there is a payoff on arrival," says Sanborn. He tells the anecdote of a client whose vision statement for his company was full of financial goals but was silent when it came to quality of life for employees.

"I wasn't surprised that nobody could remember what the vision was, nor care about achieving it," Sanborn says. "Their vision statement became effective when it was rewritten to express the future for all stakeholders, including employees." 

Treat customers with respect.
Selling doesn't come naturally to everyone. Some people feel uncomfortable putting themselves out there for the sake of their idea, product or service. One way to help yourself relax is to make a connection with your prospective client, says Cristi Young, founder of No.2 Creative, a New York City-based branding firm. Treat him or her like a person. "You'd be surprised how many people forget to say hello, ask how their weekend was, or remember a personal detail they shared with you last time you met. Connect and care first." 

To retain employees, give them a meaningful career path.
Chances are you can't compete with Google and Facebook when it comes to employee salaries, but a high salary is not the only carrot you can provide to retain top employees. One way to keep them around is to provide them with opportunities for real growth in their career, says Carolyn Betts, founder of San Francisco-based Betts Recruiting. She recommends having a frank discussion with employees on their yearly employment anniversaries about how they see themselves growing within your company. "Share your thoughts with where you see them headed and what opportunities exist for them to continue to be challenged," she says. 

Base your marketing strategy on customer behavior.
As a business owner, you may welcome the rise of mobile traffic even while assuming you can shoehorn your old marketing strategies onto the new platforms. Not so, says Jayson DeMers, founder of AudienceBloom, a Seattle-based SEO agency: "If you're not delivering your marketing messages in a way that's tailored specifically to the experience of a smartphone or tablet user, chances are you're turning customers away." Find out how your customers are using their mobile devices, and what their expectations are. "Data from your existing website analytics program can give you mobile insights, as can targeted surveys, [which can] form the foundation of your mobile content strategy," DeMers says. 

Choose investment bankers, not investment banks.
When choosing an investment banker to sell your business, the experience and know-how of the individual(s) doing your deal is more important than the firm to which their name is attached, says Jay Turo, chief executive of Growthink, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm. "Information technology and social media have leveled the playing field between big and small investment banking firms," he says. Your personal chemistry with the banker also matters. Ask yourself how, when and where you prefer to communicate, and then evaluate bankers on how well they match up.

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Bertrand Management Group helps business owners achieve their business goals through careful planning and execution. For more tips and updates, visit this blog site.

REPOST: 10 Ways to Motivate Anyone

This article from Inc.com shares the importance of understanding how certain types of employees think and how business leaders can use this information to better motivate them.

Image source: motivateplay.com

I am often asked about how I keep employees inspired and productive. It's an essential question since companies today must accomplish more, with fewer people. The most successful start-ups must be lean, nimble, and fierce.

In a nutshell, you should hire bright, energetic, innovative employees. Then offer them the right incentives--the ones that will impact their personal brain and personality types--to keep them mentally and emotionally invested in doing their best.

It's impossible to talk about motivation without mentioning Drive, a book by best-selling author Daniel Pink. (His TED lecture was turned into a fabulous video.) Pink notes that people perform best when they are given autonomy, opportunity for mastery, and the belief that their task is meaningful. He says money is not the best motivator, and that employees want to be "players, not pawns."

Pink believes Google's "20% time," in which employees may spend one day a week on whatever they want is a shining example of how allowing intrinsically-based motivations (a sense of accomplishment or purpose) can flourish. Personal endeavors from "20% time" resulted in Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense. Long before Google--back in 1948--3M instituted the "15% solution" or "dream time," which yielded both Scotch Tape and Post-It Notes.

Image source: slowdownfast.com

There's no question that intrinsic motivation is essential. However, I do not agree with Pink that all extrinsic motivation (raises, bonuses, commissions, awards, titles, flex time, and other perks) is harmful. A skillful entrepreneur keeps employees motivated with a combination of both.

That said, there is no cookie-cutter approach to motivating your people. What inspires one person may leave the next cold. When you understand an employee's thinking and behavioral preferences, you'll be able to maximize his or her enthusiasm. This will help you get your workforce aligned and moving in the same direction, and you'll see incredible returns.

1.   Analytical types want to know that a project is valuable, and that their work makes a difference to its success. They need a leader who excels in a particular area, and whose expertise they believe benefits the group. They prefer compensation that is commensurate with their contribution. If they have done a tremendous amount of work on their own, don't expect them to be happy if you reward the whole team.

2.   People who are "structural" by nature want to know their work aids the company's progress. They prefer a leader who is organized, competent, and good with details. They like to be rewarded in writing, in a timely manner, in a way specific to the task. An encouraging email is appropriate to communicate with them.

3.   Social people want to feel personally valued, and that what they are doing has an impact on a project. They go the extra mile for a leader who expresses faith in their abilities. They prefer to be rewarded in person with a gesture that is from the heart. If your own preference is for written communication, send a handwritten note to a particularly social employee.

4.   Innovative employees must buy into a cause. To them, the big picture matters more than the individual who is leading the charge. They prefer to be rewarded with something unconventional and imaginative, and would find a whimsical token of your esteem very meaningful.

5.   Quiet staffers don't need a lot of fanfare, but they appreciate private, one-on-one encouragement.

6.   Expressive people feel more motivated when assignments are openly discussed and an open door is available. They like public recognition, with pomp, and ceremony.

7.   Peacekeepers hope everyone will move in the same direction. They'll never demand a reward or recognition, so it's up to you to offer it.

8.   Hard-drivers are independent thinkers. If they agree with you, they'll be highly motivated. They will let you know what they'd like as an extrinsic reward, and they tend to want whatever it is right away.

9.   Those who are focused team members must have confidence in the leader and in the project, or their motivation may falter. They want know up front what kind of reward they can expect. Make sure you follow through on whatever is promised.

10.   Flexible people go along with the team, as long as a project does not contradict their morals or beliefs. They're also happy with any kind of recognition.

Image source: robertsontrainingsystems.com

Watch for the weakest link among your employees. If you have a slacker who consistently does less than everyone else but seems to get away with it, this can dampen the motivation of everyone else.



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REPOST: Look After The Suits - They Drive Competitive Advantage More Than Strategy Or Innovators

Sebastian Bailey shares in his article that every individual has a unique contribution to a business' success or failure.

Image Source: forbes.com

What makes the biggest difference to revenue, brilliantly creative people, a ground breaking strategy, lean processes or strong middle management?

In 2008, MIT School of Management researcher Ethan Mollick set about to discover what has a greater impact on performance within the computer game industry: people or process. Armed with data about the revenue and ratings of 1,536 games across 602 firms, he looked at what proportion of performance could be accounted for by individual contributors – the game designers and managers – and organizational factors. Controlling for team size, the year the game was released, the genre, publisher and whether the game was a sequel or included licensed content, he discovered that individual contributors accounted for 25% of the difference in revenue generated and 19% of the difference in ratings. This was at least equal to the variance accounted for by organizational factors. What’s more, individuals in managerial roles had a greater impact on performance than the creative designers. When the blockbusters and flops were removed – the top and bottom 10% according to revenue – designers accounted for just 7% of the variance, compared to 27% accounted for by managers.

Far from being interchangeable, individuals uniquely contribute to firms’ success or failure. And even in an industry which rewards creativity, managers had a greater influence on performance than the innovators. For all the hoopla surrounding the innovation process and the attention and rewards lavished on innovative individuals, managers are the ones who facilitate communication, encourage organizational commitment and, ultimately, translate that innovation into reality. Perhaps it is no surprise that Tim Cook went from COO to CEO – for all its emphasis on the shiny and new, Apple knows that what really drives success is good quality operations.

Of course, a single entrepreneur can influence an entire market; some say that top computer programmers produce the same amount of work as 10 – 20 average programmers and, according to some estimates, 6% of publishing scientists account for 50% of published articles. Clearly, individuals do matter. But few industries pay as much attention to individuals at the lower level, like middle managers, who are often largely responsible for making the strategic vision happen.

The lesson for business leaders from Mollick’s research? Middle managers matter more than you think – so it pays to invest in them. 

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