One of the rules of Attraction is: “Who we are is more important than what we do.”

There are a number of intangible traits that define “who we are” or “who our company is.” Some of the most critical are: Enthusiasm, Integrity, Vision, Selflessness and Identity. When the perception of these intangible’s are regarded highly in the minds of others, we automatically become more attractive regardless of the quality or value of our product or service. Of course it goes without saying that our product has to have some value and perform with a reasonable degree of performance. However far more important are these intangible traits. In this Business Update I want to address one of those intangibles… Enthusiasm.

People are drawn to a person or a company with genuine enthusiasm. It allows us the luxury of NOT needing to chase clients or forcefully pursue relationships. Those displaying authentic enthusiasm seem to be able to magnetically draw to themselves the right circumstances, relationships and resources.

Today there’s a lot of discussion about vision, mission and goals. In fact I see many companies investing loads of time, money and effort in coming up with their “mission statement.” Usually this is a few inspiring sentences that are placed on plaques to hang on the wall or printed on the back of business cards or put on the company web site. Yet I’ve got to say with few exceptions this often amounts to a big waste of time!

 The fact is few of these mission statements accomplish what they were intended to do. That is: “motivate employees to perform at a higher level.” Ironically, however, after a month or so not even the CEO, let alone the employees can even remember one word of the mission statement. So does this mean establishing a mission for your company is a useless task? Not necessarily. Yet in order to understand how to make mission planning a valuable tool we must first understand WHAT a “mission” is. In short a mission is a course of action that a company decides to pursue. It is the road they will travel in order to ensure they arrive at their ultimate destination. It is their plan for achieving their vision. A mission is not something we say, it is something we do. Leaders of companies often make the mistake of developing their mission in the wrong way. They try to figure out what their mission is before they decide WHERE it is they want to go. Imagine trying to do this when going on a trip. Can you really plan HOW you’re going to get somewhere if you don’t know WHERE it is you want to end up? Remember the Cheshire cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland? Alice came to a fork in the road and asked the cat for his help. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. Isn’t the same true for us? As leaders we see our employees going in different directions or we’re just not able to maintain that consistent level of performance that others are achieving. Could it be because we are just a little unsure of precisely WHERE it is we want to get? Developing a mission is quite impossible until we establish a vision. A destination. We must be able to see it, feel it, smell it and taste it. This can NOT be accomplished by the employees or a consulting firm. While the vision should be shared by many, it MUST be totally owned by and burning in the heart of the leader of the company. Unless the CEO or UBC as I call them (Ultimate Big Cheese) is totally driven by their vision it will be meaningless in the arms of their employees. On the positive side however, I have noticed one thing that all great leaders seem to have in common. That is the ability to dream big dreams and create a powerful vision of the future. They seem to have the ability to imagine an ideal future well in advance of creating it. Your vision is an imaginary creation of the ideal life you would like to live, in every respect. You create it as an expression of the values you hold most dear. Brian Tracy says, “From the very day that you develop a clear vision for whom you are and where you are going in life, you begin to become a superior person, and soon you begin to accomplish superior results.” Here’s some advice on how you can develop vision for your company that will help to drive a sense of mission, improve performance and 1. Let your mind float freely – One of the great secrets of success is to “dream big dreams.” It is to let your mind float freely into the future and imagine that you have no limitations on what you can be, have or do. Imagine for the moment that you have all of the resources that you would ever need to achieve the highest goals to which you could ever aspire. Imagine you have all the time, money, people, contacts and intelligence that you could ask for to become everything that you could ever become. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have a dream,” and what followed was a vision that changed a nation. That famous speech is a dramatic example of the power that can be generated by a person who communicates a compelling vision of the future. 2. Create your ideal future – Make a dream list. Let yourself fantasize. What would you like to do? Where would you like to go? What would you like to accomplish? And most of all, what kind of a person would you like to become? Since you attract into your life people and situations that are in harmony with the person you really are, what kind of attributes and qualities would you like to develop in yourself so that you can life the very best life you can imagine, surrounded by the kind of people you would most enjoy? John F. Kennedy did not live to see the achievement of his vision for NASA, but he set it in motion when he said, “By the end of the decade, we will put a man on the moon.” That night, when the moon came out, we could all look out the window and imagine. And when it came time to appropriate the enormous funds necessary to accomplish this vision, Congress did not hesitate. Why? Because this vision spoke powerfully to values Americans held dear: America as a pioneer and America as world leader. 3. Create a “shared vision” – “ I like to recommend a practical exercise to develop your organizational vision. By following this plan you may be better assured that the vision statement that is developed is a shared vision. Plan an uninterrupted time to work on the vision with your most key team members. At this meeting, take an hour to explore your vision. Agree on a rough time frame, say five to ten years. Ask people to think about the following questions: How do you want your community to be different? What role do you want your organization to play in your community? What will success look like? Then ask each group to come up with a metaphor for your organization, and to draw a picture of success: “Our organization is like a mariachi band – all playing the same music together, or like a train – pulling important cargo and laying the track as we go,” The value of metaphors is that people get to stretch their minds and experiment with different ways of thinking about what success means to them. Finally, have everyone share their pictures of success with each other. One person should facilitate the discussion and help the group discuss what they mean and what they hope for. Look for areas of agreement, as well as different ideas that emerge. The goal is to find language and imagery that your organization’s members can relate to as their vision for success. 4. Caution: Do not try to write a vision statement with a group. (Groups are great for many things, but writing is not one of them!). Ask one or two people to try drafting a vision statement based on the group’s discussion, bring it back to the group, and revise it until you have something that your members can agree on and that your leaders share with enthusiasm. Only when you have a clear vision of the future that everyone is excited about can you begin working on the mission or path that you will take. Following this will be the goals or steps along the way. A clear vision will allow you as a leader to propel your company forward. It will make daily decision making far easier for every member of the organization. It will allow the organization to move initiatives forward with greater speed and agility. It will motivate a higher level of performance and commitment among your team. So don’t be afraid to DREAM BIG because no big thing was ever accomplished without some small person dreaming it first!

Do you worry about the future? Have trouble falling asleep? Do you have too many things to do and not enough time to do them?

 Tired of reading already? Listen to the audio file on this topic by clicking here. There isn’t a person alive who does not suffer from stress. Some people don’t even know they are suffering from stress because they don’t take the time to notice how they are feeling. Such people often feel overwhelmed, burned out, or stressed out much of the time, no matter whether they are at work or at home. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Only you can control how you feel, but you can’t do that unless you are aware of how you feel. Before I talk about what we can do to reduce stress it males some sense to look a little closer at what is and what isn’t stress. There are all kinds’ misconceptions about stress. Often people become so accustomed to stress that they become unaware of it. Many of us suffer the debilitating effects of stress even though we don’t feel tense. Stress can change the way you treat others or damage your body even in the absence of feelings of frustration or anxiety. Some people believe that stress is something which affects only those who have high-pressure lives. Many ordinary individuals experience the constant stress of worry, leading unfulfilled lives or of not being what they would like to be. Others believe that the only way to lower stress is to change your surroundings or to take medication. Changing your outlook on life is the most reliable and effective way of reducing stress. Stress comes from the way we perceive the world, not from the way the world really is. Stress is not really caused by events that happen to us. It is not events in themselves that cause our distress, but rather the views we take of events. Emotions have a will of their own and cannot be controlled. We can change our feelings by first changing our behavior or by changing our thinking. For example, getting some work done can keep us from worrying about it. Creating a new understanding of a situation can make it less threatening or stressful. Here are a few things we can do to lessen the stress in our lives and ultimately improve the performance of our business: 1. Learn to plan. Disorganization can breed stress. Having too many projects going simultaneously often leads to confusion, forgetfulness, and the sense that uncompleted projects are hanging over your head. When possible, take on projects one at a time and work on them until completed. 2.  Recognize and accept limits. Most of us set unreasonable and perfectionistic goals for ourselves. We can never be perfect, so we often have a sense of failure or inadequacy no matter how well we perform. Set achievable goals for yourself. 3.  Be a positive person. Avoid criticizing others. Learn to praise the things you like in others. Focus upon the good qualities those around you possess. Be sure to give yourself credit and appreciate your own good qualities, as well. 4. Learn to tolerate and forgive. Intolerance of others leads to frustration and anger. An attempt to really understand the way other people feel can make you more accepting of them. Accept and forgive yourself also. 5.  Get regular physical exercise. Check with your physician before beginning any exercise program. You will be more likely to stay with an exercise program if you choose one that you really enjoy rather than one that feels like pure hard work and drudgery. 6.  Talk out your troubles. Find a friend, member of the clergy, faculty member, counselor, or psycho-therapist you can be open with. Expressing your “bottled up” tension to a sympathetic ear can be incredibly helpful. Stress can negatively impact our personal performance as well as the performance of our business. But you don’t have to be a victim if you make a conscious choice to focus on your feelings and choose what to do with those feelings. You don’t have to react to stress; you can choose how to respond to it. For more information on this topic listen to the audio file “De-Stress” by clicking here. 
I hope that this “Business Update” has been helpful in assisting you to improve the performance of your organization. For more information on how the Small Business Advisory Network assists companies in improving their performance, please feel free to contact us at 310-320-8190 or email mark@markdeo.com 

Mark Deo

This business update I want to respond to a few questions submitted on our blog. Both questions have to do with corporate culture. The questions posed were:

1. Why is the corporate culture so important?2. Can the culture be changed or does it simply evolve of its own volition?While there are some slight differences in definitions of corporate culture, most experts agree that it is the shared “taken-for-granted” assumptions, beliefs, values, expectations and rules that members of a work team or organization hold. This is essentially the guiding light for team interaction, expectations and decision making. The culture is revealed by studying the relationships of the members.Changing the corporate culture must emanate from the top. The leadership of an organization such as the CEO and the senior management team is the single most critical success factor in a culture change effort. Today corporate leaders have to invest significant amounts of time and energy into a culture change effort and they must personally live, and model the new cultural ethos. Members of the team CAN NOT change without the leadership first changing. Let me say that again: members of the team CAN NOT change without the leadership first changing. This is absolutely essential. In fact when leaders DO choose to “trade-up” their values and belief systems, change often magically occurs.But in order for the cultural change to take hold within the organization, the members must be re-educated on what is important to the future of the company and how to make decisions that are consistent with that purpose. Therefore the change effort must be accompanied by clear vision, mission and value statements in providing direction and behavioral guidelines for the new culture. Again these must go beyond words cast into a plaque that is hung on a wall. It must be evidenced by daily actions which fall in line with the values espoused.While working with companies to assist them in creating market growth we often find that the core issues of the company’s value systems must be addressed. In these cases we will often bring in our associates from Fifth Wave Leadership. They have worked with organizations large and small to affect cultural change quickly and effectively. In fact the CEO of this organization, Morrie Shechtman is someone who often works with the leadership of our clients assisting them in evaluating and implementing change from the top. Morrie has graciously allowed us to offer to those in our network a greatly reduced rate in working with CEOs and their team. If this is something that interests you please contact me and I will arrange to get you in touch with Morrie directly.Again, the corporate culture is critical to the growth and continued health of your organization. I urge you to invest your time and resources in discovering how you might create change and ensure growth and leadership in your industry.

You’ve heard of the book, “Death of a Salesman.” This article is about the death of a family. What does that have to do with running a small business, you ask? I’ll get there in a moment. First, let me ask you a question: Is your business like a family?

I hear this all the time. “You know Mark our business is different, its just like a family.” I know business owners and managers say this to communicate something positive about their company’s culture. I think this is great! But I always smile when I hear this. I often want to ask, “Oh yea, what kind of family is it like?” But I don’t, because I’m practicing my Dale Carnegie principal of “letting the other person save face.” I smile because the relationships within a company CAN be just as screwed-up as the relationships within a family.For example, consider how favoritism can cripple the relationships within a family. It happens, you know. Its happening right now. The results are far reaching and dramatic when one sibling is treated differently from another. The favored sibling feels that they are not as obligated to perform at a specific level in order to gain a specific reward. Since they are favored they know from experience that they will not be held as accountable as the next sibling. The rules can be flexed for them. Everyone in the family knows this. Consequently there is resentment, anger, hostility and conflict. The unfavored sibling is no longer motivated to perform. No matter what they do, they can not live up to the admiration of the parent. This causes frustration and embarrassment. It can even result in vengeance and criminal activity in order to “get even.” The “I’ll show them” attitude.What makes favoritism so insidious is that it can be exercised in a very subtle manner. It may manifest itself in the WAY things are communicated. For example, imagine a circumstance where two siblings alternate weeks taking out the trash. When the unfavored sibling fails to take out the trash, the consequence may be for the parent to say, “I can’t even depend on you to take out the trash.” When the favored sibling fails to take out the trash, the consequence may be for the parent to say, “just make sure you get it done next week.” The favored sibling gets another chance, while the unfavored sibling’s wholesale capabilities have been diminished. This is rarely done in a purposeful way or even through subterfuge. It happens on a subconscious level. Before we know it the words are out and the damage is done.This works precisely the same way for a business organization. As owners and managers our goal is to induce greater teamwork, a more harmonious workplace and improved productivity. One of the most important factors in building teamwork is the leaders ability to implement what I call “equitable response.” Equitable response is the leaders ability to react to every team member in the same manner in any specified circumstance. In other words, their ability to treat people relatively the same under any given set of circumstances. For example, don’t allow one employee to arrive at work late because she lives further away or because she has to pick up the kids at school. Credibility is lost when owners and managers are inconsistent in rewards and punishments.Here’s what I counsel my clients to do:

1. Consistently reward positive behavior and punish negative behavior. CONSISTENTLY!
2. Don’t allow yourself to be manipulated by employees.
3. Don’t allow your personal opinions to influence the way you respond to team members. The fact that you may like or dislike them should NOT play a role in the reward/punishment process.
4. Let the time you spend with team members become part of the reward. Conversely you should limit the time spent with those team members that fail to maintain performance. Tell them what is expected in no uncertain terms. No idle chit-chat.
5. Model competent behavior. They will do as you do, NOT as you say.
6. Provide consistent feedback and predictable consequences.
7. Set realistic and clear expectations.

In my consulting practice, I rarely see these things consistently being done in small companies. Often times owners and managers have a whole set of rules which apply to different people in the organization at different times. This causes confusion, stifles communication, hinders teamwork and creates fear. It usually ends up with excessive turnover and even anarchy. Sadly the result is the death of a company family.Does this mean we shouldn’t attempt to replicate the family atmosphere in our companies? Certainly not! We should replicate the model of the healthy family where everyone knows what is expected of them and everyone is rewarded and punished with equanimity.I hope this helps you to learn some new ways to create a healthy corporate culture in your organization. If you are wondering what else you can do to implement a revolutionary change in your business, check out our web site at www.marketingquestions.com.

I think we are all proud of our fathers at some point in our lives. Especially when you’re hanging out with your third grade pals comparing notes on what kind of job your Dad has.

I’ll never forget asking my father what kind of work he did when I was just a tyke. I knew he went to work everyday but I didn’t have a clue (or a concern for that matter) what in the heck he did there. Not at least until my friends started telling me what their Dads did. 

I found out that my friend Nick’s Dad drove a truck. Pretty cool job I thought. My friend Ricky’s Dad was a cop. Even cooler! You can’t imagine the disappointment when I asked my father what he did for a living. 

Dear old Dad casually told me, “I’M A PEDDLER”.Now I had visions of my Dad walking down the street with a pushcart yelling: “Get your rags. Fresh rags. Deo Rags here.”

How could this be? What would I say to my friends? I wanted to hide in the closet and never come out. (People wonder why I have “issues” even today.)

Luckily, Dad noticed my ashen face, slackened jaw, and watery eyes as a sure signs that I was on the verge of breaking into tears. He sat me down and actually explained what it was that he peddled.

You see it turned out that my Dad was one of the founders of what turned out to be a $200 million conglomerate! Yet he saw himself as a peddler.

I’ll never forget what he told me on that day too many years ago. He said, “Mark, no matter what you do in life you will need to get people behind you. A peddler is a very noble thing. They are anyone who peddles their ideas. They are people with vision and passion.” That message was never far from my mind as I went through life. I have found that regardless of the role that I am playing, peddling or “selling skills” are critical to success. 

I have been fortunate to have the greatest minds in management and marketing as guests on my radio show. People like Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Jay Abraham, Jack Canfield, and Seth Godin. All of these gurus agree that selling skills are not just for salespeople.

Tom Peters said, “to put it bluntly: If you can’t sell, you’re dead. Yes, selling is essential – whether it’s your newest consumer product or an idea to increase internal productivity.”

Phil Guarascio, GM’s vice-president for advertising and corporate marketing said, “I sell ideas and visions. The challenge is to help people see things that they may not be able to see for themselves. Now, I’m not a visionary from the blinding-flash-of-light school. Instead, I base my ideas on intuition, on facts, and on specific opportunities. The greatest resistance that I encounter from people whom I’m trying to sell to is grounded in discomfort — which really comes from a lack of understanding. So a great salesperson, in effect, knows how to sell understanding.”

David M. Ogilvy, founder, Ogilvy & Mather advertising said, “In the modern world of business it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them using good salesmanship.”

Regardless of the type of work that you do: management, administrative, clerical, production, quality control, finance, you name it; the most important thing is winning people to your way of thinking. I want to encourage you to find a way to sharpen your selling skills. Get tapes or CDs, attend a class or seminar, read books or magazines on the subject. 

I would also like to invite anyone reading this to attend my upcoming Dale Carnegie Sales Advantage Class in Long Beach, California every Monday night. This class will give you an advantage in your career regardless of whether you are in sales or not. To enroll please contact Dale Carnegie at 562-427-1040.

And remember, if you ARE a salesperson, you’re in good company. As my Dad said, “there ain’t nothing wrong with being a peddler!”