Business and Money Tips

Many people never achieve their goals because they set bad goals.  EXAMPLE #1: GET FIT BAD GOAL: “I want to get fit" or  “I want to lose 10lbs.” GOOD GOAL: “I want to eat 3 healthy meals per week and go to the gym 2 times a week for 15 minutes each.” Notice how we’re focusing on the   process   at first, and starting off conservative: Anyone can eat just   3 healthy meals in a week . And anyone can go to the gym for 15 minutes. Set yourself up to win. EXAMPLE #2: MONEY BAD GOAL: “I want to save $1,000 this year.” GOOD GOAL: “I want to have $200 per paycheck automatically transferred to my vacation savings fund for 1 year.” EXAMPLE #3: SOCIAL SKILLS BAD GOAL: “I want to work on my storytelling so I’m not so awkward at parties.” GOOD GOAL: “I want to complete the Udemy online course it in the next 4 weeks.” We need to create a SMART Objective. SMART Objectives are: Specific Measurable Attainable Re levant and Time-oriented ...

As a manager or leader, how often have you set goals and plans with your team, coach them properly, only to find out that they could only do half of what you planned? Managers and leaders around the world have often asked this question: how can we lead our teams more effectively?  Can we get more things done? A new discovery in the way companies like Google and FaceBook run reveal that there is a better and more effective way to get things done: Never Set an Outcome. You see, you set a ‘goal’, like double sales this year, for your team. But what happens is an outcome, and there is no way you can control an outcome. In business many bosses set goal of "doubling sales in this year".  In fact what they are setting is an outcome.  Their goal should be on things that they can work on, like getting more customers, earning higher average dollar sale from each customers, coming up with new products, etc. Companies like Google, after setting goals, do not leav...

Last week, the CEO of the world's largest software company launched a new product called 'Doors 10'.  This CEO said that his goal is not for people to not just use this new product, but to love it. It is like me setting a goal to get my girlfriend to love me. That cannot happen in life. A goal is something that you set as a target so that you can work towards it .  The goal is based on things that you can work on and things that you can control .  What happen when you achieve your goal is called an outcome.  Note that the outcome is the result of your goal plus other things that you cannot control , like the response and reaction from other people.  In short, a goal is something that you can control but an outcome is not.  So base on this understanding you cannot set a goal for your girlfriend to love you.  You can set a goal for you to woo your girlfriend, but you have no absolute control over the outcome of whether your girlfriend will love y...

Questions are the answers, and smart people don't ask smart questions but empowering questions, questions that give you more power.  Does 2015 need to be better than 2014.  If so, do you have the plans to make it happen?   Do you commit to doing those things, some of which you find uncomfortable, which will bring you results for 2015? Are you working on strategic opportunities, or are you still looking out for transactional opportunities? Is your boss going to help you get what you want?  Can you ask your boss for more?  If you are the boss, is your team helping you to achieve your goals?  Can you get better team and ask for more results from them? Are you resolved to only spend your valuable time and resources with truly good opportunities for improvement ? Will you listen more to your customers, your boss, your colleagues, your vendors and people that will help you in your work?  Will you engage them with questions , rather than try to ...

In our management and sales courses, we use this famous 4-Step RAST Model to teach our trainees in problem solving. I shall use the case of Getting Your Team to Achieve Their Goals as an example: Step 1: Recognize the Problem Recognize that there is a problem, and don't be egoistic or pretend that there is no problem.  The problem here is that our team is not achieving the goals, and we must not accept this as norma l but recognize this as a problem. Step 2: Actual Reasons for the Problem We need to find out the Actual reasons for the problem, and not be blinded by some non reasons like opinions and 'everyone is doing this' type of excuse.  We must be thoroughly objective in finding out the actual reasons, and not be swayed by some subjective hearsay.  In this case study, we find out that the actual reason for the team not achieving their goals is a lack of competency and confidence. Step 3: Solutions for the Problem With the actual reasons out, we can pi...