Who Knows What You Know

I have to tell you about Roto Rooter. Our sink backed up twice last week. I Googled “fix clogged sinks Orlando,” and Roto Rooter topped the list with complimentary customer ratings. We remembered the old jingle from TV commercials and had an excellent experience with them years ago at Christmas, so I didn’t hesitate to call. “Experience” walked in the door when Ken arrived. He has been with Roto Rooter for 40 years. He assessed our situation, cleaned out the pipes, and we were clog free.

As he was leaving, I told Ken I would recommend Roto Rooter to anyone with clogged drains. He thanked me but said that was a problem. People think of Roto Rooter for cleaning drains but don’t think of them for other plumbing needs, like changing or fixing a faucet. He was right. I wou ld have called Walt’s Plumbing for something like that. It’s an ongoing marketing challenge because so many people think of them only as drain uncloggers.

It made me think of what Women Unlimited drums into the minds of their leadership program participants. It’s not what you know, it’s WHO KNOWS what you know that will get you ahead in this world. If you’re good at something but the right people don’t know how good you are at it, it doesn’t do you any good.

So, my message to you today is: What are you doing or what have you accomplished that others need to know? When you communicate confidently and comfortably about what you do or have accomplished, you are memorable. What do you want people to remember about you?

Do the right people know you do more than unclog pipes?

Your best time

I did a seminar on “Streamline Your Time with Outlook” yesterday at Darden. I saw light bulbs go on when we talked about their best time of day. Many don’t pay attention to it, yet it is a simple, powerful approach to making progress toward your goals.

When is your best time of day? When are you your sharpest, clearest, brightest? What are you typically doing during your best time of day? I hope you’re not wasting it on mundane work. Use it to focus on something important to your growth and your career. Try this: block time on your calendar for your best time of day at least twice a week for the next month. By Memorial Day, you will have made progress toward something important to your success! And you will have created a new habit.

I gave the seminar participants an example of someone I used to work with. He realized his best time of day for reading and digesting new material, industry mags and reports was right after lunch. We thought he was closing his door to take a quick nap. But within weeks of closing his door almost every day for one-half hour after lunch, he was a different person in staff meetings. He had new ideas, was up to speed on the competition, knew what was happening in our industry, and had more energy about his job. All because he was tackling the pile of reading material he never had time for, yet knew his future success hinged on it.

Dedicate time, even a few minutes, during your best time of day to work on something you really want to accomplish.

Hell in the hallway

I was talking with a colleague who is very unhappy where she works. I made her laugh with what my brother would say when he was down: "When one door closes, another opens ... but it’s hell in the hallway!"

Are you in a hallway? Is it frustration with your work, your role, your relationships, yourself?

Often in difficult times, we find out who we really are, what really matters, and what we really want to do.

Try this right now. Be a possibilities thinker. If you could be or do anything you really wanted, and you had no restrictions, if time, money, geography didn’t matter, what would you do? Mute the negative voice in your head. Listen to the positive one. What would you do?

Pay attention to that positive thought. What one step could you take toward it? You can work your way out of the hallway by focusing on possibilities.

You have more strength within you than you may give yourself credit for.

I received a card recently with a Helen Keller quote on the front that touched me. "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." How true!

When my brother was down, he would do something for someone else. Reach out to someone in need. Volunteer. It would get him outside of his head. It always made him feel better. He died unexpectedly two years ago this April at 60 from a brain hemorrhage. We never know how long we have to do what we're here to do.

What hallway are you in? I'd love to help you achieve your possibilities.

Friends are Powerful

You know that good friends make a difference in your life in many ways. They even impact the way you view your challenges.

Researchers asked participants to stand at the base of a steep hill and estimate how tough it would be to climb. Those standing with a friend gauged the ascent to be less steep compared with those who were alone. The longer the study participants had known their friends, the more gentle they estimated the incline to be.*

What could you do today to connect with a friend? It might turn one of your (or their) mountains into a mole hill.

Do you have grit?

I bet you have more grit than you realize.

It’s when you believe in something and know you can’t do it all or make the big impact all at once. So you chip away at it. One step, then another. Until, with dedication and commitment, you achieve what you want…and more. It is how many significant accomplishments are achieved.

In MADE TO STICK, a Fast Company* article, Dan Heath and Chip Heath explain why some of the biggest victories are won an inch at a time:

"…grit – defined as endurance in pursuit of long-term goals and an ability to persist in the face of adversity – is a key part of what makes people successful. In a culture that values quick results – this qua rter’s numbers, this week’s weight loss, this month’s click-throughs – grit can be an under-appreciated secret weapon.

"Consider the difference grit makes even in a naturally gritty place like West Point. To be admitted, cadets must have impressive marks on multiple dimensions such as SAT scores, class rank, leadership ability, and physical aptitude. They’ve been tested as leaders. Yet during the first summer of training, a grueling period known as Beast Barracks, one out of every 20 cadets drops out.

"When Angela Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania analyzed these incoming West Point cadets, she found that a very simple survey gauging grit – in which people self-assess on statements such as 'I finish whatever I begin' – could predict who would survive the Beast Barracks better than any existing West Point measure. 'Grit may be as essential as talent to high accomplishment,' D uckworth wrote.

"… Grit is not synonymous with hard work. It involves a certain single-mindedness. An ungritty prison inmate will formulate a new plan of escape every month, but a gritty prison inmate will tunnel his way out one spoonful of concrete at a time.”

Since reading this article, I’m making "I have grit" my mantra for the challenges I wish I could wave a magic wand and finish quickly. It has helped me make progress with a positive mindset. The trick is to keep your vision of success – you successfully completing whatever it is -- in mind, in crystal clear detail. A crystal clear vision of you as the success you want to be, brought to mind every day, will get you where you want to go.

What will grit help you accomplish?

Let me know if you would like to talk about it.

Thank You

I have a thank you gift for you.
Every year at Thanksgiving, I like to send my past, present and future clients, colleagues and friends a thank you for the opportunities we’ve had to work together. It is such a joy helping you be the best you can be.

Throughout the year, my messages are about streamlining the way you work, deal with leadership challenges, relationships, etc. This time it’s about how to streamline YOU!

You know, we’re going to have many tasty treats over the next six weeks (Mmm!), and it’s easy to let the holiday hustle and bustle take precedence over taking care of ourselves. Yet we don’t want to start the new year off behind the 8 ball. Right? We want to look and feel our best. That’s important because when we feel good about ourselves, our interactions with others improve as well.

So my gift to you is to get Fit In The Kitchen!* Click to access.
Six simple yet powerful exercises to get energized, smooth out kinks, and ease stress at the end of your day. Doable at your kitchen sink! Do them 2-3 times a week and by January you will feel stronger, look trimmer and beam with more self-confidence.

You are the first to receive Fit in the Kitchen. Feel free to pass it on to your colleagues, friends, and family because they won’t hear about it anywhere else. Make it your gift to them! It works for men and women, all ages. In fact, the model in the photos is almost 60 and shaved her head to minimize hair care time. Now that’s one sure way to streamline!

I hope you will try Fit in the Kitchen and let me know how it works for you. Better yet, join me as I make the commitment to do this routine 3 times each week throughout this holiday season. (Tip to self: remove chocolate from kitchen.) If you have questions regarding the exercises, contact Peggy. She will be happy to respond via email.

Let’s start 2011 feeling good about ourselves in every way: Physically, Intellectually, Emotionally, Spiritually ... PIES! Mmmm.

*Peggy K is a seasoned personal trainer in NY who offers customized programs for those who want to be physically strong and agile. A key feature is improving posture to optimize appearance and function for each individual. She’s not a boot camper. Her approach is thoughtful, considerate of your physicality, and she has a particular interest in working with women concerned about osteoporosis. See a sampling of what she offers at Fit in the Kitchen.

Room to Read

I just finished reading a very moving and motivating book about an international marketing executive who takes a vacation for the first time in nine years and has a life-changing experience. He intentionally goes to the other side of the world to climb in the Himalayas so that he's outdoors, physically challenged, and can't be reached by cell phone. A visit to a poor rural school in Nepal shocks him when he sees they have less than a dozen books, left-behinds from mountain climbers, locked away as too valuable for the kids to handle. He promises to return with kids' books the next year. As a boy, he spent countless hours in the library and can't imagine these kids not having anything to read. Their future is bleak, just as it has been for their parents.

Email to friends and family in Australia and U.S. requesting used kids' books sets in motion a tremendous outpouring of support for his vision to bring books to this and other poor schools. That's just the beginning. He quits his lucrative, high-level job with Microsoft. Splits with his girlfriend (she prefers their life filled with business perks, not donating time and money to help poor kids in rural third-world countries learn to read). Moves on with his dream, creating a highly respected non-profit, "Room to Read," that donates books and raises funds to open schools in the poorest areas of Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka (after the devastating tsunami) and Africa. John Wood travels the globe with his passion to improve the lives of poor children. Donors believe in his mission because a high percentage of donations goes directly to the schools and scholarships. Scholarships for girls is a key ingredient because he sees first hand that girls are not valued in poor countries, yet they will change the future through their mothering if they are educated.

I'm glad a friend lent me "Leaving Microsoft to Change the World" by John Wood. It reinforces my belief that each of us can make a difference if we want to. It doesn't have to be this big....what is your Room to Read?