What Your Employer Will Never Tell You

The number of employees with side jobs is on the rise because people just can’t make it on one paycheck. The only answer for many people is to run a business on the side or take a second, part time job. While many employers encourage employees to seek outside employment, others are worried that a second job will affect job performance. Some are even worried that an employee may take a position with a competitor or start up a competing business.

If you have thought about taking a part time job or opening your own business, you should pay attention to the following tips to side step problems with your employer.

Did you sign a contract when you started working for your current employer? Many companies require that new hires sign a non-compete contract. This contract basically says that you cannot work for or start a competing business within a certain mile radius of the company. Some contracts are even more limited. Be sure to read any contractual paperwork that you signed when you were hired before taking employment elsewhere.

If you do take a second job, you should never allow it to interfere with your current work. Do not perform second job functions while on the clock at your first job. Never answer or make phone calls, answer emails or perform job duties. If an emergency happens, take personal time or vacation time from your primary position to take care of it. Try not to make this routine though.

You should even avoid networking for side jobs while you’re on the clock. Granted, it can be tempting to speak up when an opportunity arises especially if you own your own business. Always try to down play your additional employment while clocked in. You can always go back later and talk about your other business.

If holding two jobs proves to be more than you can handle, you should seriously think about quitting your second job. If you cannot quit the second job due to financial commitments, there are other avenues that you can consider. Can you ask for a raise or find a new job that pays more? Is there anything that you can do to cut down your work schedule?

Side jobs of the entrepreneurial nature are especially difficult to juggle. Prioritize and be ready to negotiate with your current employer when your business takes off. It takes effort to keep things balanced, but it can be done if you prioritize and put your bread and butter job first.

Eliminate the F-Words

If you want to get ahead in your career, you have to stop using four–letter words that begin with the letter ‘F’.

No, I’m not talking about cleaning your mouth out with soap. Of course, cursing your boss is probably not going to get you very far. But the F–words I share with you here are far more lethal, more destructive and more devastating to your career and professional fulfillment.

The ugliest four–letter words that begin with ‘F’ can hold you back if you don’t keep them in check. The words?

F _ _ R
F A _ _
F _ N _

Have you guessed them?

The key to career success is to get the F–words out of your vocabulary, mindset and actions. Here’s how.

Fear

“Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear.”
–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sometimes fear is good. If you are walking alone down a dark alley at night, fear will keep you alert. However, in the workplace, fear is often less productive.

I work with lots of clients, many at the C–level, most of whom can become paralyzed or at least ‘slowed down’ by fear from time to time. And once they are able to look at the situation that prompted the fear from a different lens, they open up to new opportunities.

In your job search, fear can prevent you from making a networking connection or asking a high–profile colleague for help. It can impact an interview with a prospective hiring manager or stop you from applying for a position that you would really like to have. Fear impedes success; and fear breeds more fear. So the more you fear, the worse the fear becomes.

Replace the word ‘fear’ with ‘greet’. Greet challenges rather than being afraid of them. After all, a challenge is really an opportunity to shine and to grow and demonstrate your greatness. If you hope for the best rather than fear the worst as you search for your next job, you’ll be far more successful, and you’ll enjoy the process.

Fail

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
–Sir Winston Churchill

If you never fail, you aren’t taking enough risks. And without risk, you don’t grow or stretch yourself. Without growth, you stagnate, while those around you move ahead. Failing, if you look at it from a different perspective, is really a step in succeeding. So replace the word ‘fail’ with ‘grow’.

Often, it is fear of failure that prevents action.

In your job search, failing can be valuable. When you get down to the shortlist of candidates but are not selected, you can learn a lot that will be useful to your next hiring opportunity – perhaps for an even better position. If you chose not to risk failure, you risk growth.

Highlighting your failures during a job interview can be just as powerful. Let a prospective manager know that you are motivated to take calculated risks, and willing to fail if it means learning, growing professionally, and moving forward. Take inventory of events that you classified as failures and look for the growth that came from that. That growth is valuable content for your resume, cover letter, and personal web site.

Fine

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.”
–Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I think fine is the ugliest of all four–letter words. No one gets excited about things that are fine.

“Hey Chris, how’s the new guy in sales doing?”

“Oh, he’s fine.”

Fine, adequate, average, OK. Do you want your work or candidature to be described with these words?

Yet, you were trained from a young age to become fine. In fact, your full–time job has probably involved resolving weaknesses instead of maximizing strengths. Sure, I think it’s great to improve your weaknesses – but not at the expense of maximizing your strengths, and only if those weaknesses will get in the way of your success. When you apply your strengths to everything you do, you raise yourself far above ‘fine.’ You become great, excellent, exceptional, extraordinary. And that’s how you want to be known. Isn’t it?

When you stop being fine and focus on your greatness, people will use superlatives to describe you. You start to build your personal brand around those things that make you differentiated and interesting.

Replace the word ‘fine’ with ‘great’ and strive for greatness by leveraging strengths rather than improving weaknesses. Never settle for adequate.

If your resume or online identity is fine, work with a career coach to make it great. And if you interviewing skills are ‘fine’ practice interviewing until they are stellar. After all, with so many candidates for each open position, it isn’t likely that the hiring manager will be satisfied with fine.

Eliminate the F–Words

To eliminate these words, practice makes perfect. And the key to eliminating them is to first recognize when they are part of your vocabulary and your actions. So it’s up to you. “Fear, fail, fine” or “greet, grow, great”. Decide which words will be a part of your vocabulary and approach to your job search, and then make decisions accordingly.

Be great!

Deliver a Presentation like a PRO

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off Macworld 2008, he once again raised the bar for presenters everywhere. While most deliver information, Jobs inspires the audience. After analyzing his latest presentation, I’ve extracted the 10 most motivating elements to incite listeners.

1. Set the tone. “There is something in the air today,” Jobs projected to the crowd to open the Macworld conference. By doing so, he set the tone for his presentation and hinted at the key product announcement–the ultrathin MacBook Air laptop. While every presentation needs an angle, it doesn’t have to be unveiled right away. Last year, Jobs waited until the 20–minute mark. When the time was right, he noted, “Today Apple reinvents the phone.” Once you identify your angle, make sure to weave it throughout your presentation.

2. Demonstrate enthusiasm. It’s impossible to deny Jobs’ passion for computer design. Next time you’re crafting or delivering a presentation, think about infusing it with your personality. Most speakers get into presentation mode and feel as though they have to strip the talk of any character. Remember, your audience wants to be wowed, not put to sleep. The audience will follow your lead. So set an enthusiastic example.

3. Provide an outline. Jobs set expectations by noting, “There are four things I want to talk about today. So let’s get started…” Verbally opening and closing each of the four sections helped to make clear transitions between talking points. For example, after revealing several new iPhone features, he said, “That [the iPhone] was the second thing I wanted to talk about today. Number three is about iTunes.” Make lists and provide your audience with guideposts along the way.

4. Make numbers meaningful. When Jobs announced that Apple had sold 4 million iPhones to date, he provided context for the figure. “That’s 20,000 iPhones every day, on average,” Jobs explained, “What does that mean to the overall market?” Numbers don’t mean much unless they are placed in perspective. Connect the dots for your listeners.

5. Try for an unforgettable moment. This is the moment in your presentation that everyone will be talking about. Every Steve Jobs presentation builds up to one big scene. In this year’s Macworld keynote, it was the announcement of MacBook Air. To demonstrate just how thin it is, Jobs said it would fit in an envelope. Jobs drew cheers by opening a manila interoffice envelope and holding the laptop for everyone to see. What is the one memorable moment of your presentation? Identify it ahead of time and build up to it.

6. Create visual slides. While most speakers fill their slides with data, text, and charts, great presenters do the opposite. There is very little text on a Steve Jobs slide. Most of the slides present one idea for the audience to walk away with. This is further supported by see–and–say syncing. For example, when outlining, “The first thing I want to talk to you about today,” was accompanied by a slide with the numeral I. When he discussed a specific product like the iPhone, the audience saw a slide with an image of the product. Inspiring presenters are short on bullet points and big on graphics.

7. Give ’em a show. A Jobs presentation has ebbs and flows, themes and transitions. Including video clips, demonstrations, and guests creates the feeling that the presentation is more of a show than a lecture. Enhance your presentations by incorporating multimedia, product demonstrations, or giving others the chance to say a few words.

8. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Despite your best preparation, something might go wrong as it did during the Apple CEO’s keynote. Upon attempting to show a few photographs from a live Web site, the screen went black. Jobs smiled and said, “Well, I guess Flickr isn’t serving up the photos today.” By moving forward and recapping the new features he just introduced, it was no big deal. Don’t sweat minor mishaps. Have fun.

9. Sell the benefit. While most presenters promote product features, Jobs sells benefits. When introducing iTunes movie rentals, Jobs said, “We’ve never offered a rental model in music because people want to own their music. You listen to your favorite song thousands of times in your life. But most of us watch movies once, maybe a few times. And renting is a great way to do it. It’s less expensive, doesn’t take up space on our hard drive…” Your listeners are always asking themselves, “What’s in it for me?” Answer the question. Don’t make them guess. Clearly state the benefit of every service, feature, or product.

10. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Steve Jobs cannot pull off an intricate presentation with video clips, demonstrations, and outside speakers without hours of rehearsal. Jobs rehearses the entire presentation aloud for many hours. You can see he rehearsed the Macworld presentation because his words were often perfectly synchronized with the images and text on the slides. A Steve Jobs presentation looks effortless because it is well–rehearsed.

Use this 10–part framework to wow your audiences. Many observers claim Steve Jobs has charisma. True. But he works at it. Nothing in his presentations is taken for granted. He studies the art of telling a story to inspire his audience. You must do the same to electrify your listeners.

Create Opportunities During the Most Ordinary Days

This article illustrates the opportunity you have to help your organization become more successful by adding value to your customers.

There’s More Than One Way To Score

Fortunately, it’s much easier to go to the ball in business than it is in soccer. In a soccer game, there is only one ball and there are 14 to 22 players trying to kick it. In business, there are countless opportunities to add value no matter how many competitors are on the field.

Create Value–Added Opportunities

Take out a sheet of paper. On the front side, write down the three most important measures your organization wants to improve this year. Space each line out so you have plenty of room to write after each one. On the back side, write down the three most important measures your customers would like improved. Space these out as well so you have plenty of room to write.

On the front side, after each improvement, write down bullet–point ideas on what you can do to achieve your ideal result. Then, do the same for each of the desired customer measures on the back.

Examples of Creating Value Where Opportunities Seem Hidden

The key to being seen as a play–maker in business is to consistently create value for your organization and customers when it is not at all obvious as to where the opportunities to add value lie.

Here is what the front side might look like:

Increase sales with current customers.

• Talk to ten customers this week. Ask, “What value do you feel you received from your purchase?”
• Look for common denominators in the answers. Then brainstorm for other products and services that can reinforce that value.
• Ask three other people to join in the brainstorming session, particularly people from product development, marketing, and operations.
• Give credit for any new product ideas to other people.
• Volunteer to oversee a team committed to creating a new prototype product that can add increased value to current customers.

Generate sales with new customers.

• Write a white paper for internal purposes on leveraging the lessons learned from current customers called, “Leveraging Customer Insights: How Happy Customers are the Eyes to New Customers.”
• Volunteer to market our company’s products to a small number of people in a new demographic.

Reduce operating costs for current customers.

• Look at the entire flow of creating and selling a specific product to a given customer, and identify the cost to the company at each point in the process.
• Look for overlap in the process for various products.
• Identify where costs are being repeated that could be reduced by timing the overlap of the activities for different products to coincide at the same time.

Here is what the back side might look like:

Close the gap between a customer’s expected time of receiving a product and the actual time of delivery.

• Ask ten customers when they expected to receive a specific product and when they actually received it.
• Let the sales department and the operations department know about the gap from expected delivery to actual delivery.
• Ask for ways to reduce this gap. Offer the suggestion of adding 15% more time to any estimate to keep customer expectations realistic.

Reduce the overall cost of the buying experience for the customer.

• Follow one entire sales process from the time a customer thought about buying a certain type of product to the time they actually bought and used the product. Keep track of both dollars and hours invested by the customer in this process. Do this for ten customers.
• Share your research with members of the marketing, sales, and operations teams. Facilitate a discussion on how the process could become less expensive and less time–consuming for the customer.
• Volunteer to test new ideas for a handful of customers to see what the real–life experience of the new process would be like for them.

Have customers appreciate the marketing they receive from our organization.

• Ask ten customers what they appreciated and what they did not appreciate about the marketing they received on a specific product.
• Ask customers for specific examples of marketing they have received from other companies that they have enjoyed the most.
• Share these customer insights with members of the marketing team. Ask for their input on what could be done to improve the customer experience with the marketing they received.

Finding Hidden Value is Like Searching For Gold

Just as with the successful gold diggers in the 1890’s, digging for hidden value requires perseverance, courage, creativity, and communication skills. It takes courage to do something off the beaten path like conversing with customers and presenting insights to other members of your organization. It takes tact and sincerity to get other people involved in meaningful conversations without them feeling that you are acting in your own best interests.

Having said all of that, it is far easier to find gold via adding value for your organization and customers than it was for people to find real gold by sifting through sand.

“Go to the Ball”

Don’t wait for your boss or another employee to show you how to add more value to your organization and your customers. Step back, clarify the measures your organization and your customers want improved, identify ways to add value, and then go after those opportunities. And then please meet with my six–year–old soccer players to help them “go to the ball.”

How to Deal with the Daily Drama of Economic Trends

What is an Economic Trend?

You probably have a more technical definition of an economic trend than I do, but here’s mine. An economic trend is a bunch of dots. If you took all of the economic performances of all of the businesses around the world on a given day and averaged them into a single dot, then you would have the beginning of a trend. If you did that every day for several weeks, months, and years, then you would have a bunch of dots. You could then draw a best–fit curve that represents the flow of the dots. At that point you could say, “We’re heading into a recession,” or “We’re in a recession.” You could then use either of those statements to justify slowing down spending to save capital and to stop investing in creating innovative ways to add more value to customers.

I suggest you don’t do that.

The Importance of Perseverance and Perspective

The more important factor in determining your long–term success as a business is not how the dots are trending, but rather your willingness and the willingness of the people in your business to persevere and sustain your focus. Especially on creating value for your customers and prospective customers. I’ll talk more about perseverance in a moment.

The current economic trend needs to be kept in perspective. Nine weeks ago I spoke to a group of business owners at the Ritz–Carlton in Naples, Florida. We discussed the psychology of the economy. As I was talking about the impact of the recession, I almost started giggling. Here I was standing at a beautiful hotel in a beautiful city talking about a recession with a group of folks who were going to play golf that afternoon on a beautiful course.

This recession is not The Great Depression. My parents were born in 1928 and 1929. They literally grew up in The Great Depression. My grandfathers literally worked their butts off to get any money to put food on the table.

We’re still living in some of the very best economic times in the history of the world. They may not be as amazing as they were three years ago, but they are still pretty spectacular. In the U.S., we all got a little too caught up in the housing boom and now we’re paying for it. Just like when we got a little too caught up in the dot–com boom of 1999 and the gold rush boom of 1890. When we start thinking irrationally and assume we’ve found the secret to easy wealth, we do some pretty silly things and then we pay for it. But we’re going to be okay. That is, we’re going to be okay if we don’t talk ourselves out of future successes.

The Role of the Media

The media’s job is to search for and deliver information and stories. In sports, information is that the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Houston Astros. Information is not very exciting. What makes money for the media is the story that is crafted from the information. So now the media reporter has to find a compelling story to keep the interest of the viewer or reader. Consequently, we might read that Tony Larussa, the manager of the Cardinals, made a brilliant decision to bat the pitcher eighth in the lineup and it turned out to be the pivotal move in the game. (And if the Cardinals lost, the story would have been what a bonehead manager Larussa is for batting the pitcher eighth.)

The economy has replaced Iraq as the lead story in most of the media that I read and watch. And since there are a lot more media outlets than there were 15 years ago, the need for more compelling stories for the media to tell is overwhelming. As a result, we get bombarded every day with bad economic news.

Here’s my advice: don’t let the media talk you out of what you are capable of achieving.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

That’s one of my favorite quotes and it’s from Franklin Roosevelt. He said that during The Great Depression. Recently, I thought about that quote in more depth. What is “fear itself”? “Fear itself” refers to the psychologically debilitating perspective that things are really bad and they are only going to get worse no matter what I do.

In other words, the only thing we have to be afraid of is the possibility that a critical mass of people could feel that no matter what they do the economy is never going to get better. If that happens, then we could be in real trouble. That’s called “fatalism.” When people feel they have no control over their future, they stop investing in developing themselves and their employees. They stop trying to innovate and create more value for other people. They just say to themselves, “Whatever is going to happen is outside of my control so I’m going to roll up in a little ball and try not to get hurt.” If that happens, we’re in a world of hurt.

My nine year–old daughter, Sarah, had a sleepover with five of her girlfriends for her birthday. Around 11:30 PM, Sarah came upstairs to our bedroom and said to Barb and I, “We hear keys shaking downstairs and it’s getting louder and louder.” She looked worried. So we came downstairs and looked around. After looking for burglars, we finally discovered that the noise was the zippers on the sleeping bags and the noise was getting louder the more the girls shook around. All they really had to fear was the fear they had of the noise.

The Sources of Perseverance

What are the sources of perseverance? I think there are two factors: confidence and enthusiasm.

Confidence

Confidence is the degree to which you believe you’re going to succeed in an upcoming situation. The more you believe you are going to succeed in an upcoming situation, the more likely you are to persevere.

Over the past 20 years I’ve read on average 30 books a year or approximately 600 books in all. I’ve learned so much from these wonderful books. However, on the topic of confidence, the business literature is pretty pathetic.

80% of the books never mention confidence as a factor in generating long–term success. 10% make fun of the topic and say that “confidence” is a soft skill. 5% say that to develop self–confidence you should pound on your chest and repeat aphorisms like, “I am great.” These aphorisms do not increase your belief that you will succeed in an upcoming situation. All that happens is you get a really sore chest. 4% say that self–confidence is a very important factor in long–term success, which isn’t very helpful because we already knew that. Then about 1% of the books actually talk about how to strengthen self–confidence, which is the piece that is really useful.

Strengthening self–confidence is a two–step process: review past successes and preview future successes.

Recall a time in your life when you overcame the odds and did something that you or somebody else didn't think you could do. It could be at any age level. What was your goal, what were the obstacles, how did you persevere, and what did it feel like when you won? What lessons did you learn from that experience that you could use in your current situation? Don’t just think about this exercise, actually do it. Write down your answers. Reading what I wrote will have no impact on your confidence going forward. You actually have to stop and recall one of your past success stories. Share the story with another person. Self–confidence is built on previous successes, but you have to pause long enough to actually recall those stories.

Then to tighten up your confidence, focus on a future success. Answer these questions: what do I want to achieve, why do I want to achieve it, and why do I expect to achieve it? Write your answers down. Don’t just think about the exercise.

Enthusiasm

I learned a lot from Dale Carnegie, both from his books and his classes. However, I disagree with him on one thing. He said, “To be enthusiastic, act enthusiastic.” I think if you act enthusiastic when you’re really not you will come across as a fake. People will doubt your sincerity.

I think developing true enthusiasm is a two–step process:

First, clarify the purpose of why you do what you do for a living. What is your purpose beyond the paycheck?

Second, focus everyday on fulfilling that purpose.

I’ve been asked many, many times over the past 23 years how I maintain my enthusiasm. The truth is I have a clear purpose. My purpose is to work with people so they achieve great performances. That was my purpose when I was a college soccer coach, when I was a high school math teacher, when I worked with someone as an executive coach, when I gave a keynote or a seminar, and when I wrote an article or a book. And it’s still my purpose today. I’m writing this article with enthusiasm because I’m focused on my purpose. I want you to achieve an extraordinary performance in whatever you do for a living.

Stay Focused on Your Approach

When Trevor Immelman won the Masters Golf Tournament a few weeks ago, he said that during the final round on Sunday he never looked at the leader board until he was standing on the 18th green. He said he didn’t want the results of the other golfers to affect his approach for each shot. He knew he was in the lead going in to the final round, and he had already decided on his approach to each of the holes. He maintained his focus all the way to the end.

As you look to the remaining months in 2008, decide on the approach you are going to take to deliver value to customers and then stay focused on delivering that value regardless of the results of other people around you.

Maintain a Historical Perspective

I spoke at an international sales conference last week in Nashville, and had lunch with a person from Australia. I was whining about $4 per gallon gas prices, and he woke me up. He said, “Four dollars is cheap. In Australia, it’s more like seven dollars.” Then he really hit home. A six–pack of beer in the U.S. that is $5 costs $16 in Australia.

During my seminars, I usually ask folks to turn off their cell phones. One day a man took a call and stood up. He gathered his papers to walk out. I thought, “My gosh, can’t these folks get away from work for a few hours to concentrate on their own effectiveness.” Then he said to the group, “My wife is very sick and she’s in the hospital. I have to go be with her.” Wham. Instant perspective. No matter how serious the economic trends become they are not as serious as life or death.

In order to deal with the daily drama of economic trends, maintain your perspective and continue to persevere.

6 Don’ts for the End of Your Presentation

ert Decker, CEO of Decker Communications, Inc., gives a quick six don’ts to avoid for successful presentation. He highlights that last three seconds would be how people remember you. Those six don’ts are:

• Don’t step back.
• Don’t look away.
• Don’t move on the last word.
• Don’t raise your hands.
• Don’t rush to collect your papers.
• Never blackball yourself

If you avoid those, you should able to show more confidences in front of the audience, and they will receive a deep impact from your presentation. Read Bert’s post for more details on each point.

Time management tips

Here are some time management tips that I heard on the radio:

Cut your workday by 30 minutes
Although this sounds like it would just make you have less time to accomplish that which needs doing, apparently you’ll be more efficient because you’ll know you have less time in which to do things. I guess it would force you to prioritize and determine which items really need to be done and which ones can be put off until a later date. My only question is: who is going to sell this idea to my boss?

Don’t multitask
This tip is music to my ears: I am terrible at multitasking (I can’t even eat or drink and walk at the same time) and it’s great to hear that studies have shown that it takes four times longer to do a task if you’re doing it in conjunction with other tasks. And think of all the errors that can happen when you’re doing a few different things at once! I keep thinking I’ll make a terrible mistake at work due to my attempts to multitask; the fact that we deal with confidential information makes it that much more frightening. Of course in an office setting, where people come to you with requests that they always seem to need “as soon as possible”, it might be hard to avoid having a couple of things going at once. But you can jot down a few things and then go back to the original task and finish it off in its entirety instead of jumping from task to task. That way you’re not losing any brilliant ideas that come to mind and you’re (relatively) focused on one task.

Don’t look at email first thing in the morning
I’ve heard different variations of this tip before. You’re (presumably) your most fresh and energetic in the morning so it makes sense that you spend those precious hours on work that requires you to be fresh and alert. Responding to inane email requests is therefore not the best use of alert self.

I’ve also heard that you should check email only once or twice a day (once in the morning and again in the evening). This is a wonderful time saver; I’ve tried it. The only time it gets tricky is when a coworker sends you an email and then comes to your office shortly thereafter to make sure you got their email! This can end up using more of your time as you’re now forced to read the email in the coworker’s presence and respond right away. But once coworkers know when you’ll be checking emails, they’ll know when to send you an email that requires your immediate attention.

Another related tip I’ve heard is to try to touch something only once. For example, if you pick up a file, do all that needs to be done to the file before putting it away. This means you might have to spend more time with the file than you planned but at least when you put it away you know you’ll be done with it for a while. This is a more efficient way of handling large numbers of files, and it also helps with minimizing the chances of mixing things up when multitasking. This is another tips that definitely works!