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business thinking to steer your career

How to Save Money on Your Next Purchase

Save_money

I came up with this idea a couple of years back in an attempt to simplify my work and life. I use it a lot, it saves me money, and hopefully it will save you money too.

You know the way your mind latches on to something that you think you need or just want to buy? And then it starts painting an exciting picture about owning this new thing, and your ideas and feelings start dancing around with each other in your mind. It can become pretty hard to pull yourself out of this. Often, out comes your credit card and you make the purchase. Here's what I do to stop this, and it works at least 50% of the time..

I ask myself, "how could I re-organise or rearrange my life (or make better use of the things I already own) such that I don't need to buy this?" This question puts my attention on what I already have and can control to try to meet the needs or purpose of the thing I'm tempted to buy. I often surprise myself that I can meet the needs of the tempting purchase with something I already own. Even if it helps delay the purchase by a few months. Or, I can rearrange my environment or put myself physically in a different position such that wanting that new thing becomes irrelevant or less desirable. This is all about squeezing more value out of the things you already have, and I don't think people do enough of that.

For me, that question is worth a lot of money. I hope you find it useful.

Take Charge and Do the Right Thing

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Here's a really useful and simple reminder to help you create value and be productive.

General Norman Schwarzkopf laid down his 14 rules on leadership, and it's rules 13 and 14 that seem to get the most attention.

Rule 13: When placed in command, TAKE CHARGE!

Rule 14: Do the right thing!

Of course, this doesn't just apply to leaders. We are all in command of ourselves and our own work, business or career. At any given moment, we need to consciously take charge, then do the right thing. It's easy to slip up and get caught up when you're busy and under pressure. It's easy to forget to take charge. And it's even easier to do the wrong thing. So maybe you want to tattoo rules 13 and 14 onto your eyeballs (actually, that might not be the right thing to do). OK, here's your first opportunity to try this out. Before closing this post, sit up, take charge, and determine what the right thing to do is right now, and go and do it!

When Will You No Longer Be Needed?

Best_before

This post could save you your job. Have you checked the 'use by date' on your current role at work? Did you even know that there was one?

There's a date, not too far away and getting closer, when your role in it's current form will no longer exist. You, as you are right now in that role, will no longer be required.

Same applies to your business or organisation. A time will come when it's services, products, processes, people and tactics that once worked become obsolete.

What to do About it

The challenge, I think, is becoming open to the idea that this 'use by date' might be much sooner than you expect. And between now and then there will be a number of waves of change that hit you. One after the other, knocking you back a little each time. Which is why you need to 'add preservatives' to your own value, and to your business. And your organisation needs to do exactly the same. Whatever was responsible for yours or your organisations past success may no longer apply. Even top talent can quickly become irrelevant if it doesn't stay self-aware and self-update - becoming adaptable to new circumstances.

Unfortunately, many people and businesses seem to tick along enjoying the current state of the market and not adding any preservatives until it's too late.

It's easy to cling on too tightly to the idea that what once worked will continue to work. "It worked before, it can work again!" People like to cling on to what they know. It's harder, but more useful to realise that your tactics must continuously be updated. And once you realise that, you need to go out there and find, learn or create and try out new tactics to see what works now.

The best way to add preservatives to yourself and your organisation is to keep up to date, and keeping thinking ahead. Keep learning, moving, watching the market, thinking, innovating, and adapting, and most of all change before you have to!

Wunderlist

Imgres

If you want to get organised and more productive, you might like to check this out..


Being a fan of GTD (Getting Things Done!)  I'm always on the lookout for useful apps/software that use the system. Many aren't worth shouting about, but this fairly new one is:

Here's why:

1. It's free
2. You can use it in your web browser, desktop, iphone or ipad
3. Your data is in the cloud and syncs between all devices
4. You can share lists with other people - you can delegate 'to-do's to other people, attack a to-do list between you ticking things off as you go, or contribute live to a shopping list! That last one has earned me some pretty good things from the supermarket that I've snuck onto the shopping list my wife uses ;-)
5. It looks good (appealing to use!)

There are other useful features too. Worth checking out.

Alternatively, I'm also a fan of this one --> http://www.seizethedayapp.com (for iPhone) which let's you set repeated reminders (something Wunderlist doesn't let you do). Functionally, it's excellent and free.

No excuses to be out of control now!

The No-Nonsense Career Zone

Utopia

Imagine working in a place where there was no nonsense around you. Where everything said and done appears to have a real purpose. Where people don't seem to be pretending to be anything they're not. Where people are genuinely happy and productive. Where they are well positioned, and well aligned and definitely well engaged.

For two days this week, I worked in a place like that! At least that's how it appeared to me. Something very obviously struck me about the entire group I worked with. They were all exceptionally nice and friendly, seemed perfectly happy, were helpful, smart and proud of their company and their work. They were proud to tell me that they don't use acronyms in their company, or other pointless corporate cliches, and they cut all the other usual crap too. And I could see it before they told me. I'm sure it's not perfect there, but what I saw appeared to be. There was no negativity or insecurity it seemed. Everyone working well alongside each other. Everything co-ordinated and apparently running smoothly. You could almost feel the respect, certainty and control flowing around the room between people. Wow.

So, who was responsible for creating this no-nonsense zone?

Was it the employer? Well....partly. They've done well. But it takes two to tango doesn't it? I'd like to give the employees credit too. They got themselves into that position. I talked to them and asked a lot of questions about how they positioned themselves. Turns out they were the sort of characters who were happy to just be themselves. Then apply for a job.

Step 1: be yourself
Step 2: apply in accordance with step 1

Obviously they did their research, then planned and then actioned their way in. They beat their competition because they applied for the right job. They actively pursued something fun and exciting to them that enabled them to behave authentically and make a living being themselves. They were genuinely the right fit. And it seems they've been well rewarded, spending their working days in the no nonsense zone.

Using Email to Easily Solve Your Own Problems

Ideas

Recently, I've been pretty chuffed with myself because I've accidentally (and easily) solved some of my own problems without even trying. I thought I'd share how I did this with you so you can try it too.

It's happened quite a few times now. I've had a problem that I felt I needed someone else's help with. I opened an email and began giving them the background on the problem and began discussing my options. And all of a sudden, the solution hit me. Through 'thinking out loud' into an email, and ensuring I articulated it such that it was clear and understood by someone else, I inadvertently got a clearer view of the problem and what was involved and was able to fine tune my thinking, analyse it better and make my decisions. This of course felt great, and I could then discard the email saving the other person's time. The email became redundant, but my time was well spent, and I arrived at my desired result faster. What a clever old sausage!

I've decided to use this approach more often and more purposefully. You should try it too. Just open up a document and start writing. It's important, I think, to write as if you're writing to someone else so that you choose your words carefully and explain as clearly and concisely as you can. Get to the point. Focus on the 'must know' facts around the problem before dipping in to the 'nice to know'. Then bash out some thoughts to fix things. Talk around it, pull it apart, look at your options, weight them up. Make a decision. You might impress yourself.

I heard someone once say that 'the main problem with thinking, is we don't do enough of it'. I think we get lazy and too quickly ask someone else to do our thinking for us. And then we often blame them if we're not happy with the outcome. Time to take the responsibility back!

How Surfing Can Help Your Career

Surf

When I first arrived as a fresh pom in Australia, I felt obliged to learn to surf. It was both fun and challenging of course, but also very rewarding in many ways. Just like your work should be.

In fact, when I think about surfing and the process you have to go through to earn the reward, it's not dis-similar to your career. The simple process of surfing can help you improve how you approach your work.

Here's how they're similar:

Find Opportunity

First, you have to work hard (or smart) to get out to the right opportunity - the big wave. You have to know what you're aiming for, why you're doing it, and it doesn't hurt to motivate yourself by picturing what it would feel like to ride a wave. In your work, what big wave would you like to catch, and how would it feel if you rode that wave well?

Entry Point

So, knowing where you're heading, you next have to choose the right 'entry point' in to the water so that you can get out with a fighting chance against the waves heading towards you. You checkout the surf and choose your entry point. And you know you're going to need some puff and stamina to paddle out. In your work, how will you get from where you are to where the opportunities really are in the fastest, easiest way possible?

Deep Breath and Focus

In you go, knowing full well that a series of waves are about to challenge your progress and try to push you back. You expect them. So too should you expect them in your work! They can tire you out, but you've got to try to refine your technique to make best progress through them. It's a learning process. Worse still, each wave is not the same. And as time ticks by, the force and size of the waves also change. So you have to keep adapting. Sound familiar in your work?

Wait for the Right Opportunity

Once you're out deep enough, you could try to grab any wave. But you probably won't get on it. You need to pick the right wave. The one that works for you for your level of competence. It has to be big enough too. The one you feel you can get the highest realistic return on. Again, you have to learn your way through. To conserve energy, it's worth waiting for the right opportunity.

Go for it!

You see your wave coming. You quickly prepare and do what you can to maximise your chances. And you try to get on it but.....inevitably get thrown off by the big wave. Now you're back nearer to where you started. The sea and the waves have repositioned you. And you have to navigate through another set of waves to get back to where the opportunities are. But this time, you go back having learned a thing or two.

Repeat

It often takes a number of attempts. I heard once that "you have to be poor at something before you can become good!" So be comfortable when you don't do well. But the point is, certainly with surfing, you feel you're getting nearer to the reward. So you keep going. That's the attitude you need in your work. So long as you are learning, then applying what you learn, then it doesn't matter if you're falling off too. So long as you keep learning and keep trying, you're taking steps closer until eventually you get it, and enjoy the rewards.

You should take this analogy and use it to think around your current work and the challenges you face. A lot of the people I work with seem surprised and often frustrated to keep experiencing changing circumstances, processes and approaches in their work. These are the waves that will continuously head your way. These days, to stay realistic, in control and strong in your approach you must expect these waves and you must be willing to deal with them, so long as you're heading purposefully towards relevant opportunity and reward. You must ensure you are learning as you go through each and every one. And you must get out to a position where you can see opportunities coming your way. Then seize them when you can.

Where are you right now in this analogy? Are you heading out towards opportunity? Are you getting knocked back?

 

How to Beat Experience and Get Ahead (aka 'The Hare and the Tortoise')

Horse

Who's better and more valuable to a business? The experienced, or the up to date?

 

They say 'an ounce of experience is worth a tonne of theory'. But these days, in some critical business areas, is an ounce of being 'up to date' perhaps worth a tonne of experience? 

Trouble Ahead for 'The Experienced'?

'The experienced' will argue that history repeats itself. And that there are fundamental patterns and principals that will always apply. And maybe they're right, sometimes. Some may argue that the only thing that's certain is change itself. Regardless, meanwhile, the 'up to date' will continue to work on being up to date. And they could outperform the experienced.

The experienced can become complacent and irrelevant in some areas. Rising stars often fall, despite their experience, making way for the 'up to date'.

These days it's quick and easy to become out of date in your products, services, and in how you try to achieve things, because you're competing against the NEW (and the unknown!) You're competing against fast change and innovation. Like the hare and the tortoise, despite your past successes, if you slow down and don't keep up to date you may be overtaken. Nokia unfortunately recently experienced this.

How 'The Experienced' (and anyone) Can Get Ahead

These days, the 'up to date' often sink 'the experienced'. But the experienced have an advantage over the 'up to date' that the up to date just can't compete with:

'The experienced' can get up to date much faster than the 'up to date' can gain experience!

Unfortunately, many of them don't. Sometimes because they're out playing golf, proud as punch with all their experience. Just like the hare.

There are 2 things that come to the top of my mind that 'The Experienced' who want to remain relevant in the marketplace should do:

1. Everyone has weaknesses, experienced or not. Peter Drucker said something along the lines of "the purpose of the structure of an organisation is to make weaknesses irrelevant'. A smart experienced person would ensure that all angles are covered and that their products and services are backed by experience and by being up to date (or rather, being ahead!) This means they need to listen to and respect those who are up to date. This might just work and give them the edge.

2. They should consider applying this to themselves too. Up to date can trump experience. But experienced + up to date is powerful.

My take on it: it's not about one or the other (and if you think it is, you're about to be overtaken).

Whoever you are, if you're competing in the marketplace, I'd suggest you develop experience in becoming up to date, fast.

My new 'Smart Series' helps you and your employees do that. Click here.

If you think this might be useful to others, I'd be grateful if you share with your network.

Reward Employees Now, or Later?

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Which business would win with all else being equal:

1) The business who puts performance and results first and then rewards its people when it feels it can afford to? (we'll let you have that when you deliver us this)

2) The business who rewards its people right now by providing the right platform, encouragement and support for their people to create maximum value and as a result earn the emotional and mental rewards that come with that? (what do you need in order to deliver us/our customers this?)

Some organisations lean one way, whilst others lean the other. Both types compete for market share.

What's often overlooked, is it's not just the customers who vote the winner. The first round of voting comes internally from the employees, whether the employer likes it or not. And increasingly these days, employees are aware of other options and opportunities to re-cast their vote. These days, we're all frequently exposed to other possibilities, many of which lean the other way.

I'd like to hear your thoughts, but it seems to me that organisations need to win over their good people first (and immediately) - see point 2 above - before trying to win over their customers.

Make Work Fun

Waiting

Following reading plenty of articles and surveys showing how disengaged and unsatisfied so many people apparently are in their work these days, I was excited to watch an episode of 'Grumpy Old Men' the other night called 'The Grumpy Guide to Work'.

The thing is...

...I laughed lots at the start as they talked about office life and the routine in their deadpan way. And then I began to stop laughing and just found myself nodding at what they were saying. I turned to my wife and said 'this is an account of real life, marketed as a comedy!'

If you've not seen it (and you like that sort of thing) I recommend watching it. And if you do, just ask yourself if you are in the right position or role. Because when you're in the right role, what the guys on the show said, doesn't apply. And if you think you probably are in the right role but a few things need changing, then start working on a plan to steer things towards what you want. Work on your learning and performance in the right areas, and get some leverage to negotiate a better deal with those who pay you.

What really struck me after watching it was just how many people are prepared to put up with being unhappy in their work for as many years as they do. You might not be able to make a big change fast (although you might!) but nothing can stop you beginning work on digging your escape tunnel now.