I remember one company who had hired me to do some consulting had a problem with office gossip.

I noticed in particular how many employees would stop and chat with one particular secretary to exchange the latest company gossip.One way to create more grief and less productivity is to have employees consistently hang around the “Gossip Cooler” at your place of employment. As evidenced by the many gossip column blogs and magazines, some people have an innate interest in learning about and discussing the shortcomings of others. It seems as Earl Nightingale once said, “they seem to get a feeling of importance by putting other people down.”

Another way of looking at it, “when you throw dirt, you lose ground.” Not only do you lose ground, you lose the very essence of life – your time. If you find yourself caught in this kind of office situation, make sure you have a plan to make a clean and prompt exit.

If you sense that the discussion you or your employees are engaged in is headed towards a name bashing of employees or managers, try this strategy:

Wait for a pause in the discussion when you can interrupt yourself and then change the topic of the conversation.

Your comment could sound something like this: “I wasn’t aware of that happening… Oh, by the way I was going through my notes for the ACME project and here is what I suggest…

By having a plan you can avoid much of the office politics that wastes so much of you and your employees time.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

I remember in one of my first jobs, the owner of the company I worked for started a weekly newsletter.

In this newsletter he made it a point to try to mention many of the employee’s names.

His theory, which was a good one, was that… people would be more likely to read the newsletter, if their name was somewhere in the copy.

The first time I noticed my name in the newsletter he merely used my last name. I didn’t particularly like this approach of using just my last name. Like the Platinum rule points out, “do unto others as they want to be done unto. “

In a private conversation with him, I suggested that he use my first and last name when mentioning me in his newsletter. He listened to me, expressed his surprise and mentioned that he really didn’t think it mattered. I assured him that it mattered to me. He thanked me for my feedback and promised to use my full name in the future. Much to his credit, from that point forward he always referred to me in the company newsletter and in his verbal discussions by my first and last name.

Do not assume that nicknames or the use of a first or last name is appropriate with the people with whom you work. One of the best ways to find out, is to have a sincere conversation with each person, and ask them how they prefer to be addressed and ask them for the correct pronunciation of their name

Using and pronouncing the preferred name of your employees and co-workers goes a long way in building the kind of mutual respect and rapport that people want and need. Using their proper names will boost their productivity. When you do this you will be taking a major step in creating the kind of environment where people love to come to work.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Just the other day, a friend was telling me recently of how she was asked to help a major company tackle a business problem they had been having for months.

They had tried all the traditional methods but had got nowhere..As a mother of 3 young children, my friend decided to try something different with them (they were mainly middle-aged men). She suggested they look at the problem with the eyes of children. To put them in the right mindset, she took them outside the office and sat on the grass and asked them the question, “If you were a 7-year-old child, what game would you play to solve this challenge?”

The answers she got were remarkable, from the ridiculous to the imaginative, from the subtle to the blindingly obvious. It opened up a whole new range of possibilities that eventually led to a successful solution.

Getting Back to Your Childlike Mindset

One of the problems of experience is that it limits our creativity. The more we think we know about the world, the more we reject what we think doesn’t, and won’t, work. Someone once compared it to being given a block of marble when we are born and chipping away at it to create our view of the world. By the time we’re adults, we’ve created a sculpture from our block but it is only one way of seeing the world. In the process, we devise a set of rules of what works and what doesn’t and so constrain our creativity. The only answer is to get back to a child-like mindset.

Re-Discovering Your Natural Creativity

To return to the natural creativity you had when you were a child, do the following…

• allow yourself to wonder like a child

• be completely present here and now

• allow yourself to become detached from what you thought was “real”

• don’t look outside yourself for answers; believe all the answers are inside yourself just waiting to be discovered

• don’t live for others’ views and opinions• kick away intellectual mindsets of the ways things ought to be.

Try these simple things each day from now on and not only won’t you age, you’ll also find endless innovation for your small business and never short for creative ideas.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

One evening, a Chief was telling his tribe a story about two dogs that live in his mind. One of the dogs he described as fearful and pessimistic, the other confident and optimistic.

“These dogs are involved in a constant struggle,” he told them. One of the members of the tribe asked, “Which dog wins?”

The Chief answered,“The one I feed.”

And so it is with each of us. Every day we have a choice. We can choose to focus on all the things that are wrong with the economy and our business or we can choose to focus on the infinite possibilities available to us and the power we have to affect positive change. It’s our choice.

Consider two separate conversations I had with two small business owners.

To each of them I asked, “How are things going?”

The first answered, “Things are really tough. This is the slowest our business has ever been.  We’re just trying to keep from going under.”

The second answered: We’re a little slower than usual but we’re using this time to do all the things we’re not able to do when business is booming.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“We’re brainstorming clever ways to cut costs, improve quality and serve our customers better. We’ve also added new services, updated our website and started a newsletter. While our competitors are cutting corners and services, we’re innovating. We’ll come out of this slow time a stronger and better company – we always do.”

Same economy. Two different ways of looking at it.

If you have completely bought into the idea that the economy is bad and the source of your faltering business, of course you won’t believe in your power to affect change and, therefore, you’ll most likely take no action to innovate and you’ll be stuck with the same old ideas you’ve always had.

If, the other hand, you believe that every economy presents new opportunities to serve and make money, you will go about every day with a hopeful, optimistic attitude as you seek and respond to the opportunities that present themselves.

It’s your choice but if you’re looking for innovation, all you have to do is change your mindset.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

How much better would you feel knowing you could wake up and have all the clients you wanted knocking down your door?

My good friend… Fabienne Fredrickson is offering her free audio CD “How to Attract All the Clients You Need” that’s filled with tons of small business ideas to you for absolutely nothing…

Get it now >>

Thousands of people have already listened to it and seen major results because of her small business ideas. Get your copy now to discover how to attract a steady of stream of clients and how to get your business to work for you.

Request your free CD today >>

Charlie

P.S. And while I’m big on a good night’s sleep, just a word to the wise – you snooze you lose.

To Your Success,

Charlie

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

Do you have employees –  ones that like to get paid?

What’s the best way to manage your payroll?

When I hired my first full time employee, I knew I needed… a simple way to ensure she got paid, and that her income taxes were paid, along with social security, unemployment and workmen’s comp, all of which need to be paid here in the State of Connecticut to be in compliance even if you just have one full time employee.

Being already busy as I wanted to be, and not being an accounting maven I signed up with ADP, a well-known payroll service, to handle all the paperwork. And it all ran smoothly. My assistant got paid and I didn’t have to deal with cutting individual checks for all the related taxes, and stuff.

When I brought a new assistant on board, there were a lot of things we had to worry about. Getting her accustomed to wearing many hats was a challenge but not impossible with the right training. But the one thing we struggled with more than anything during that time was something we least expected.

And ADP’s payroll services were okay, but their pricing was high and their services were aimed at a much larger company and weren’t the best for small business management. That’s why when I hired on my next full time employee, we decided to find an alternative, one that worked better for a small company like mine.

When the time came to cancel with ADP, what should have been an easy process turned into a real headache. ADP insisted that any changes to the account could only be made by the person who had set up the account and was incidentally no longer with our company.

And this nonsense went on for not just a week or two but months, and thee was still no cracking them. Eventually we got access, but the lesson was learned – if you want attention, avoid signing up with a large company like ADP.

After doing some research, my assistant suggested signing up with Intuit. The whole thing was done online…taxes, everything. At the time, it seemed to be a good solution – they touted themselves as the best small business payroll management option. It wasn’t until a few months into using Intuit, we started getting notices from the State of Connecticut and realized Intuit wasn’t paying associated taxes. Then even after we notified them – nothing. No change and to say the least no customer support.

Two strikes and Paychex was the payroll service we tried next.

Much to our delight, their service has been outstanding. They even offered to meet and go through all the details to get us set up, meeting my assistant at a Brooklyn coffee shop. After treating her to her favorite drink – a chai latte with soy – Matt from Paychex fixed Intuit’s tax blunders and set up our payroll system correctly.

Paychex is more expensive than Intuit… but as the old adage goes, you get what you pay for. And that was especially true in this case.

So, if you’re looking for an easy way to manage your small business payroll, our recommendation is… that you avoid ADP and most definitely give Intuit a pass and use Paychex.

Charlie

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

If social media was a party, many of us would be headed home before it even got dark out. That’s because everybody seems to be talking about themselves:

“I’m standing in line at Starbucks.” “I’m starting my day with a hot cup of chai tea.” “I just dropped my kids off at school. It’s pouring rain!”

The most important question to ask yourself before posting anything is… who cares?

Chris Brogan, who is arguably one of the top social media marketing experts in the world and whose blog has been ranked Number 1 by Advertising Age magazine, says we should be spending 12 times as much time talking about other people as we do about ourselves.

His tips:

-If you’re not spending time using a twitter search or the search part of your social media marketing application, you’re missing one of the best opportunities that social media offers. You can search for people who are talking about certain topics. Following conversations is usually more valuable than following people.

-We should be listening far more than worrying about what to say.

-Sharing helpful tips and information from other people, makes us more valuable to the people who follow us. 80 percent of Brogan’s Twitter posts are responses to things other people have tweeted.

-No continual “barking” about your products. People aren’t on social media to buy. They’re on social media to read. So give it a a rest every now and then.

-The only difference between an audience and a community is the way you turn the chairs.

Instead of sitting around wondering what to tweet try searching, sitting back and relaxing. Sometimes the world around us is much more interesting than we remember and can provide inspiration and material in ways we never thought possible.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

I remember one manager telling me that he once had worked for a different company, and was to receive a special award at the annual banquet.

He finished his shift earlier that evening and hurriedly drove over to the hotel where the banquet was being held. By the time he arrived…the awards ceremony was nearing completion.

The president had already passed his name earlier, and thus ignored his presence because he didn’t want to slow the evening agenda. This employee felt invalidated and hurt…And rightfully so.

Don’t make a similar mistake with your awards system. Make the person receiving the award feel special. People like to receive the recognition due to them; they like to feel important.

One of the best ways to get the kind of behavior you want is to outline specific criteria for
identifying outstanding job performance. Then consistently reward it when you get it. By putting together an incentive program for your employees, you are making a positive statement that you value good work.

Find out the kinds of incentives and rewards that are important to your employees and managers by asking them. You can do this in one-on-one conversations or in staff meeting. Once the program is instituted, be sure to constantly work at improving it. If the program is started and there is no follow-through, it can result in creating cynicism and resentment.

The awards don’t have to be fancy cars or elaborate trips to Hawaii. Something quite simple and inexpensive will work. It could be a dinner for two at a popular restaurant. A gift certificate to a popular retail store or a picture of the employee or manager in the monthly newsletter or on the wall in the lobby is also effective. Other ideas include a special designated parking spot for a month or a framed certificate of achievement. All awards should include a personal word of thanks from the president or owner.

The key to an effective award system is that it should be ongoing and include something that will be remembered. Sometimes, although a cash reward is appropriate, many employees and managers will end up spending the money on bills. The result? They don’t remember anything special from earning the award.

Once you’ve decided on the approach you will take, call a general meeting with all of your employees and managers. At this time, explain to them why you are instituting the incentive program and explain how it will work.

Make sure they understand the process. By encouraging questions and suggestions, you will help employees feel more comfortable with it. After one month, make any necessary adjustments. Re-evaluate it on a regular basis and constantly work on improving and refining it.

Answer the following questions to determine what and how you’ll reward your employees.

1. What type of an incentive system could you implement in your company?

2. What kind of efforts would you reward?

3. How much could you budget for this system?

4. What kind of incentives or rewards would you be able to provide to your outstanding employees?

By using a system to consistently reward your employees and manager, you will create a built-in incentive system for them to constantly strive to do the best job possible. You’ll be surprised at how much harder they work and how much their performance improves.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

If you’re like most business owners, you’ve probably spent some time thinking about your business goals for 2011. Or maybe, like many of us, you’ve made a few New Year’s resolutions about getting in shape, being more focused, or eating better.

And if you’re like most of folks, you came out of the gate with plenty of motivation. That first day back from the holidays, you were ready and rarin’ to go. You knew exactly what you wanted to achieve and you attacked your goal with gusto.

But if you’re like many goal-setters, you’ve also hit a bit of a stumbling block in the last week or so. Maybe you went off your diet. Maybe you missed making your goal of 5 new contacts a day. Or maybe you just lost your enthusiasm.

Whatever the reason, you find yourself off track…frustrated…and wondering why you can’t stick to a game plan for longer than a couple of weeks.

Well, I’ve got good news for you.

There’s a reason why it’s so hard to stay focused on your goals, even when it’s something extremely important to you. And it has nothing to do with your level of willpower or self-discipline.

You see, we human beings are creatures of habit. We like our routines. In fact, this resistance to change—any sort of change—is hard-wired into our collective psyche.

That’s because change doesn’t happen all at once. It’s the accumulation of thousands of small actions performed over time. Your life changes because of small decisions that turn into small actions. Like deciding to make that extra phone call. It’s making yourself go to the gym, even when you don’t want to. It’s pushing yourself to stick to your schedule and get things done, even though you have a nearly uncontrollable urge to check your Facebook page.

In other words, there’s rarely an immediate reward for making these changes. As adults, no one is going to give us a gold star if we reach our goals. In fact, chances are that your friends, family, and business associates will try to keep you stuck in old patterns—often unconsciously. That can make it even harder to reach your goals.

So how do you stay on track with your goals?

Simple. You have to reward yourself. Or, more accurately, you need to allow yourself to reward yourself.

Let me explain. Remember the last time you did “the right thing”? Maybe it was making all your phone calls for the day by 10am. Maybe it was getting your schedule for the week done well in advance—and sticking to it. Maybe it was just saying “no thanks” to the donuts being passed around at an office meeting.

Whatever that decision or action was, how did you feel afterwards? Probably pretty good. You stuck to your guns and did what you knew you needed to do. You may have noticed that you felt happier, more energetic, and got even more things done that day.

That’s because those small, positive actions cause us to self-reward. When you make the right choice—however small it is–you feel better about yourself. And unconsciously, you start to see yourself as a person who makes the right choices. That creates momentum…and soon enough, those choices become second nature. And before you know it, you’ve reached your goal. In many cases, you may blow right past it—taking yourself to new heights the “old you” didn’t think possible.

So there you have it: if you want to change your life, change the little things. That doesn’t mean that you don’t set big goals. It just means you don’t try to achieve those goals all-out, right away.

But the truth is you can’t change your entire life. You can only change your next action. That’s it.
So, what’s your next action going to be? Will it bring you closer to your goal…or push it further away?

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..

One of the biggest challenges facing small businesses these days is translating IDEAS into INCOME.  Most organizations are fully aware of the need to come up with big ideas and many have sophisticated systems, processes and techniques for doing just that.  Unfortunately, this is often where creativity and innovation meet a roadblock.

Large and small organizations just don’t always know what to do with those ideas that are generated.  They don’t know how to translate those ideas into income – into results and outcomes. They don’t know how to bridge the gap.

So, as an entrepreneur/small business owner your success lies in knowing how to close that gap.  So, then, you ask, how exactly do I do that?

Here are a few suggestions and questions to get you started:

• First, define your challenge – the problem – you are trying to solve or need (unmet need) you are trying to meet.  Be clear on the challenge and what success looks like, including a big goal that will compel you to make a change and inspire creative thinking and action.

• Then, check how you are going about the process of getting insights.  Secondary research is important – statistics that is, about what people like or don’t like about your products/offerings, however, it is equally important to observe your clients, watch them in their natural environment and spend time understanding them to come up with fresh, novel ideas for value.

• Also, check your idea generation processes.  How are you generating ideas?  How do you challenge those in your organization to come up with big, bold innovative ideas – different from what your competition down the street comes up with?  Remember to be aware of your beliefs and the beliefs that don’t serve you or limit you from taking risks.

• Once you’ve determined that your idea generation process is most effective, what system and tools do you have in place to capture those ideas, vet them, approve them and find sponsorship – that is, someone who is willing to go out on a limb and support the ideas?

• And finally, gain success and momentum by piloting or testing your ideas on a few or a limited population.  Through some trial and error you will help to realize your success more quickly if you test (prototype) your ideas and then work out the kinks before a full-scale launch – our FREE guide can be downloaded at www.ivibeglobal.com to get more details and implementation tips.

©2012All Rights Reserved by Charlie Cook or Blog Post Author..