Is Your Company Designed Around Your Strengths?

Most of us have an idea about what our character strengths are. A few years back, a scientist named Christopher Peterson developed a global list of 24 strengths that all humans have. These break down into the following six major categories:

Wisdom and Knowledge: Creativity, Curiosity, Judgment & Open-Mindedness, Love of Learning, Perspective
Courage: Bravery, Perseverance, Honesty, Zest
Humanity: – Capacity to Love and Be Loved, Kindness, Social Intelligence
Justice: Teamwork, Fairness, Leadership
Temperance: Forgiveness & Mercy, Modesty & Humility, Prudence, Self-Regulation
Transcendence: Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, Gratitude, Hope, Humor, Religiousness & Spirituality

The science objective was interesting. Since Chris was a psychologist and most psychologists focus on nasty diseases like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and the like, I could see how he could get pretty sick of working with sick people. There was a brand new field emerging called positive psychology, which strangely enough, studied how to get us normal people from, well, just being kind of normal or not sick to a higher form of wellness called thriving where we were not only healthy but having a satisfied, meaningful, engaged, and happy life.

The 24 character strengths are a way to measure how we can tap into our natural character and leverage our best traits to become even better. The fun part is you can take a free test to see what your top five strengths are.

Millions of people have taken this test already. You can go online here, register for free, and get your scores immediately: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx
The test you want to look for is the VIA Survey of Character Strengths, under the Engagement Questionnaire section.

Now what does this have to be with your work day? Everything. I’ll share with you my top five strengths:

1. Creativity, ingenuity, and originality.
2. Curiosity and interest in the world.
3. Gratitude.
4. Love of learning.
5. Leadership.

If you know me at all, you are probably nodding your head right now. I use my strengths every hour of the day. From helping my clients think of new revenue lines and new ways to help clients (creativity) to the “I appreciate your business” and “thanks” lines that I put in almost every email (gratitude) to running a group training program (leadership and love of learning), I “walk my strengths.”

Take the test. Then see how you can change your perspective to see your daily routines through the eyes of each strength you have. For example, if your key strength is curiosity (actually the most common #1 trait for people), are you always wondering how things are working, how you can do something better, or asking why? Doing more of that will fulfill you even more, and when you can do that in light of improving the client’s condition or your boss’s condition, then you have harnessed your strength for the good of your workplace.

The next step, once you become aware of your strengths and how you are currently using them, is to tap into them even more. How can you begin to use your strengths more throughout your day in the work you do and at home? You may want to write each of your top five strengths on your calendar, one per week, until the end of the year, so you can have fun with leveraging their usage.

It’s so refreshing to focus on the positive aspects about ourselves for a change instead of the negative. Give yourself the gift of knowing your strengths and using them more and more each day.

Let me know what yours are; you can post them right here on my blog. You know I’m curious to find out, of course!

Do You Have a “Money Maker Hour” in Your Business?

Every working day, we’re all slammed with hundreds of things to do. We might need to occasionally slow down and ask ourselves whether we are working on the most profitable things we could for our business. Are we constantly fighting fires, dealing with urgent but not important client matters and neglecting the things that could grow our business?

One way to move off this treadmill is to create a “money maker hour” in your business. Look at your to do list and identify the highest return item you can be doing in your business. There might be something in the back of your mind that hasn’t even made it onto your to do list that you know would make you money.

You’re probably not going to find this high-return item in your email inbox. Your highest return item is not necessarily going to be found serving existing clients, although that is going to be bringing the revenue in, which is essential. You’re not going to find it in designing your logo or getting your website done. You’re not going to find it when you answer an unscheduled telephone call. You’re not going to find it going to a networking meeting. And you’re not going to find it when you’re double checking an employee’s work. None of those are high return.

What might be a high return would be going to lunch with a college friend that works in a position where he can refer you a lot of business. Now s/he’s not going to probably call you up one day and say, “Let’s go to lunch.” You’re going to have to take the initiative to call them, and it might feel a little uncomfortable, but it could result in a huge amount of business. Another money maker hour item could be taking time for coaching. Another idea is to work your LinkedIn network to find someone you know at a company that can bring you a big account. These high return items – money makers — are a little bit scary, so we avoid them with the excuse that we are too busy serving current clients. By staying in the safe routine, we miss any chance of actually crawling out of the grind and taking our practice to the next level.

Please carve out an hour every day to come up with and do these money makers. If that sounds too overwhelming, start out with an hour a week. When you put these tasks on your to do list and get started, you’ll be shocked at how your revenue is going to change.

Here are a couple of other examples:

• Calling an influential industry contact to see what we can do together.
• Setting up a speaking engagement and going out to speak to 1,000 of your ideal clients.
• Calling your top client to see how you can help him or her further
• Coordinate an event with a couple of other partners and get some sponsors to help cover the costs.
• Making time to design a new program or a new revenue stream.
• Sending that email to a public relations company, journalist, or TV/radio show host.
• Submitting a speaking proposal for an annual event where all your clients are.

What can you do that is going to bring in a significant amount of business across a multiple number of clients? That would be a money maker hour task.

Keep your money maker hour pristine. Avoid the temptation to check email or answer the phone during money maker hour! It’s certainly easy to fall back on comfortable habits instead of doing the uncomfortable, but once you get started on money maker hour, you will eagerly anticipate it.

Try out money maker hour on your schedule, and let me know what you think.

11 Sources of Wealth We Can Celebrate

We all have far more sources of wealth available to us in addition to the assets we normally count as financial wealth.   A great skill to add to our tool box is that of resourcefulness.  Learning and practicing being resourceful has always come in handy for me while traveling, working, and making changes in my life.

As you go through the list, take an inventory and make a list of all of the resources you have available to you in one form or fashion.  By the end of the article, you might be amazed at how wealthy you really are.

• Your financial wealth is measured in currency.  This includes cash, all bank accounts, retirement accounts, annuities, stocks, bonds, commodities, and other market investments.
• Your property wealth includes real estate and personal property such as furniture, dishes, clothes, jewelry, and a car.
• Your wealth of abilities, experience, education, and skills provides you with a livelihood and is what you can trade others for other categories of wealth.
• Your social wealth includes the friends you have and the financial wealth, property wealth, and abilities they are willing to share with you.
• Your organizational wealth includes any companies you own and run and/or that you are an employee of.
• Your community wealth includes the value you have accumulated within the groups of people that you frequent and services you qualify for from nonprofits.
• Your civic wealth includes services you qualify for as a citizen, such as police protection, fire department.
• Your family wealth includes the family you have and the financial wealth, property wealth, and abilities they are willing to share with you.
• Your spiritual wealth includes your faith and your actions to support the divine.
• Your emotional wealth includes your ability to feel and act out of love, sharing, and unity.
• Your physical wealth includes the state of your body and how you nourish and support it.

Do you feel richer already, just seeing the multiple categories that you can draw wealth from?  There is an abundance of sources that are ready to support your wealth.  And if you felt that you would like to strengthen any of the areas above, then you can now make plans to do just that.

5 Tips to Manage Overwhelm

The exact solution to managing your overwhelm will depend on what the source of your overwhelm is. You can also be suffering from more than one source of overwhelm. Here are five tips to help you manage the most common sources of overwhelm.

1. Find support.

Is your overwhelm related to your packed schedule? If so, one solution is to get some help in the form of contractors, employees, or volunteers. A quick fix is to list five to ten of the most mundane daily or weekly tasks you do, and hire and train an intern on a part-time basis to do those tasks for you. Even a few hours a week to start will be a big relief.

2. Set boundaries.

Is your overwhelm due to client demands? Learn how to control the flow and limit the channels of inbound requests for your time and expertise. A couple of ways to do that include cutting off certain communications:

a. Schedule all phone calls. Don’t answer an unscheduled call. If this sounds impossible, try doing it one day a week to start with. Let your clients know you’ll be available for them four days a week, but the fifth day is for you.
b. Limit the communication channels that you will respond to. Don’t answer faxes or social media messages, as an example.
c. Check email only twice a day. I know. We’re addicted, and this is much harder to do than it sounds.

There are many other ways you can set boundaries, but this is a start.

3. Prioritize.

Is your overwhelm due to wanting to have it all? A lot of times we stay busy doing things that are urgent but not important. Then we get overwhelmed because we do not get to the important things. One way to solve this is to put your to-do list in priority order. Carve out at least one hour a day to work on the most important thing on your list. Some coaches call this your Power Hour. You’ll be thrilled at how much progress you will make in just one week.

4. Carve out de-stress time.

Is your overwhelm mostly emotional (for whatever reason)? Critical for your emotional well-being is to make time for laughter, relaxation, friends, family, and whatever you do to blow off steam. Our mindset, moods, and overall mental state can contribute mightily to overwhelm. We now know from neuroscience that learning how to de-stress is a set of skills everyone can acquire and significantly benefit from. It’s a field called resilience if you want to Google more about it.

5. Perspective and purpose.

Is your overwhelm due to a variety of factors? When times get overwhelming, what keeps me going is maintaining perspective and understanding my purpose in life. It’s important not to blow little things out of proportion. If I’ve had a tough day, I remember that I don’t live in a war zone, I’m not in prison or held hostage, there hasn’t been a hurricane or flood, and I haven’t been a crime victim. My “tough day” suddenly becomes a great day, and if I got to spend even a minute helping someone or serving my purpose, then all the better.

Fail Fast

One thing I learned last year in my million-dollar diamond mastermind program that was priceless was to learn how to fail fast. This idea requires some explaining and an open mind!

The crux of it is that many entrepreneurs procrastinate when it comes to implementing changes in their businesses because they are afraid to fail or afraid of what people will think.

A great example in my own business occurred while I was in the program last year. It took me a while to get around to writing my “Living Fearlessly” binder, which was my first attempt at productizing what I learned in my neuroscience program about how our brains process fear. I found my emotions around “putting myself out there” quite interesting: it was scary to think I might be rejected and the product might not sell. So I would delay finishing the product.

It’s no coincidence that most people stay stuck in jobs because they are too afraid to make the entrepreneurial leap. It’s no coincidence that many entrepreneurs don’t get away from hours for dollars to packaged, leveraged systems because it requires putting yourself out there in a new way. It’s no coincidence that most entrepreneurs stay stuck at a relatively low revenue level because they don’t learn how to systematize their business, which requires giving up some control, which is scary.

So how do you fail fast?

1. Know it’s OK to fail in the first place.

In the last 18 months, I’ve created nearly a dozen products. Two have been real winners, one has been a real flop, and a few are just too much trouble to market. Before I did them, I had no idea what would work, what would sell, and what would flop. I had to fail fast on a few to find the nuggets of gold in the winners.

2. Don’t wait until it’s perfect.

I am sure that there are typos in every one of my products and on my web pages too. I am also sure that typos will turn some people off. But as long as they don’t impact my client’s results or get me in trouble with the government, I’m going to continue delivering imperfect products with typos. Being perfect can delay entry into the marketplace and increase the price I have to charge my clients.

3. Give yourself permission to fail.

So what if no one bought your last idea, and you thought it was going to be bigger than pet rocks. It’s not the end of the world. Your family still loves you. In a month, your clients won’t remember. Your business will go on. We tend to catastrophize what will happen, but it hardly ever comes true.

4. Take massive action.

Success is a numbers game. The more things you try, the more successes you will have. It’s as simple as that. Get out there, and get out there fast. When you fail, get out there again, fast, with something else. There’s no time for wallowing in past failures when you are an entrepreneur! You have to keep moving.

Failing fast is one of the best lessons I learned last year. So if you’ve been waiting to try something, stick your foot out, lean forward, and get in motion.