5 Things to Un-Learn From School

5 Things to Un-Learn From School:
You spent a lot of time getting an education. But if you want to make it as an entrepreneur, it's time to forget some of what you learned.
You spent a lot of years in school. You learned a lot.
Some of what you learned you need to un-learn as soon as possible. Here are five key attitudes you should adopt instead:
1. If you only do what you're told, you'll excel.

I know. School was hard.
But not that hard.
If you did what you were told--go to class, do the reading, turn in assignments on time, etc.--you could get As. Initiative was not required and, in fact, was often frowned on.
Now--whether you work for someone else or run your own business--doing what you're told makes you average. Not superior, not excellent... just average.
To be above average, or to achieve better than average results, you must do two things:

Do what others are willing to do, and do it better, and

Do what others aren't willing to do

Otherwise, you're just average.
2. Being micro-managed is to be expected.
Sure, you felt overly-controlled in school: Dates, timelines, rules... not to mention the seemingly arbitrary policies and nonsensical assignments. You saw graduation as the day you would finally have more freedom.
Nope.
In school you paid people to criticize, direct, and at times micro-manage you. Now you're the one getting paid... yet you somehow don't feel it's fair that investors, partners, or customers can dictate what you do, sometimes down to the smallest detail?
Don't expect someone to trust you to perform a task or service–and give you money to perform that service–until you've proven you can be trusted to perform that service.
Then, once you've proven your skills, if you still feel micro-managed it's your responsibility to change the situation. Communicate before you are communicated to. Answer questions before questions are asked. Demonstrate your value before you are asked to prove your value.
No one wants to micro-manage you. They have better things to do with their time.
If you're being micro-managed it's probably because you need to be.
3. Your time off is the highlight of the year.

You may have forgotten your mom's birthday, but I'll bet you knew the exact day every semester ended and the start and end of Spring Break. And you lived for snow days.
So it only makes sense to see weekends and vacations as the highlight of your working year, right?
Actually, no: If you feel you endure the workweek just to get to the payoff of the weekend, you're in the wrong business. Find work you enjoy; then you won't see time off as a chance to finally do something fun but as a chance to do something else fun.
While you'll never love everything you do in your professional life, you should enjoy the majority of it.
Otherwise you're not living–you're just working.
4. Getting criticized means you failed.
Here's another pay/paid dichotomy. In college you paid professors to critique your work.
So now that you are the one getting paid, why is it unfair for someone--like a customer, investor, or key partner–to critique your work?
It's not.
When you get negative feedback, see it as an opportunity. Think, "Wow, I didn't realize I wasn't doing that right. I didn't realize I wasn't doing that as well as I could."
Criticism is a chance to learn--and this time you're getting paid to learn.
Never complain when someone pays you to learn.
5. Success is based on toeing the line.

Say you disagreed with a professor's point of view on a particular point. You may even have been right... but the only way to get an A in the class was to parrot the professor's take on the subject. Except in rare cases, confirming and following the rules was everything.
In business, conforming only ensures that you will achieve the same results as other people.
If you want to achieve different results you'll have to think and act differently. Do your homework, think critically, and don't be afraid to create your own path.
But don't be different just for the sake of being different. Be different because it's who you are and what you believe... and because it will get you where you want to go, with your integrity and your sense of self intact.

How to Motivate Employees? The Best Answer Ever

How to Motivate Employees? The Best Answer Ever:
Effective motivation comes down to one surprising word... which might be why so many leaders fail to do it right.
No business is better than its employees, which is why engaging and motivating employees is so important.
Too bad it's rarely done well.
Maybe that's because all the theorists and strategists and experts make motivating people seem much more complicated than it needs to be. Is it possible there's a simple and straightforward answer to the question, "How can I motivate my employees?"
It turns out there is, and Dick Cross, an eight-time turnaround CEO, founder of The Cross Partnership, founding partner of Alston Capital Partners, and the author of Just Run It!: Running an Exceptional Business is Easier Than You Think, has it.
According to Dick, motivating employeesor anyoneis based on one word.
Patience.
Say you want to instill a sense of urgency. The best way to get people to go fast is to let them know why there's a need to go fast, and then be encouraging and patient with their progress.
How many times has a boss or coach ranted and raved about what needs to happen by when, "Or else!" Probably more often than you like to remember.
And how often did the ranting and raving achieve the intended result? Probably less often than the ranters and ravers like to remember.
That shouldn't come as a surprise, because it's a pattern we learned to follow as children. People, including kids, don't like to be threatened. Threaten me and I'll resist. Spank me, ground me, reprimand me, put a letter in my file, demote me, and you'll fail to change my attitude. In fact, you'll increase my resolve not to comply.
Physically you might overpower me, but you'll never get me to do any more than the minimum required to get by.
And that's a huge problem, because minimum compliance efforts never produce great organizational accomplishments.
But if employees like how you treat them, know you believe in them, understand what needs to get accomplished and understand why it's so important... they'll generally accomplish great things.
The key lies in getting them to want to help you, which is only possible when you 1) exhibit an understanding of what is possible, 2) care about them, and 3) are willing to accept the absolute best they can deliver.
Under those conditions, most people will give you their all.
Do the opposite and they won't. There are few things more de-motivating than feeling you are trying your best but still letting someone down. You've been there. No matter what you did, it wasn't good enough. Eventually you decide hard work isn't worth it. That's why there is little more motivating than the prospect of amazing a person who genuinely cares about us.
Who do we generally care about the most? The people we feel believe in us the most, which makes them the people we least want to disappoint: Moms, favorite teachers, best friends... and remarkable bosses.
Those are the people to whom we give our all; they believe in us... and we don't want to let them down.
And that's why motivation ultimately comes down to patience. Showing patience is an extraordinary way to let people know you care about them. By showing patience and expressing genuine confidence in them, your employees naturally will be motivated to find ways to do things that will amaze everyoneincluding themselves.
And how do you make motivation last?
The key is to understand that sometimes your employees must go slow in order to go fast.
A burst of speed that drains physical and emotional energy is not worth the effort because it's not sustainable. Speed that builds gradually, that forgives mistakes along the way, and that allows people to figure out for themselves how to maximize their potentialthat kind of speed, and patience, creates a feeling of motivation that lasts forever.
Motivation? It's all about patience.
Adapted with permission from Just Run It!: Running an Exceptional Business Is Easier Than You Think by Dick Cross (Bibliomotion, 2012).

7 Great Ways to Help Employees

7 Great Ways to Help Employees:
What's a cheap, fast, and easy way to stoke employee productivity and interest? Tell them how they're doing.
Most executives are more knowledgeable about hardware infrastructure and software applications than they are about the people they work with. But investment in people delivers far higher returns. Companies don't come up with ideas; people do. So stop agonizing over your IT spend and start developing your people.
Here are seven approaches to keep in mind:
Dole out feedback immediately
Feedback should be relayed as soon after an event or action as possible. Otherwise, the input isn't memorable and may not come across as sincere. If someone was very helpful, creative, or insightful at a meeting, say so before you leave the room. One of the reasons computer games are so compelling is because they deliver instant feedback to drive engagement. There's a lesson in that.
Make it frequent
Don't wait for annual or quarterly appraisals. On a regular basis, think about the key people you work closely with and ask yourself: What have they done recently that was great? Then email or call them and communicate these messages. Make this a habit. Actively look for feedback moments.
Offer detailed comments
Generalized, vague feedback–"You're doing a great job"–is nice but not effective because it doesn't tell the recipient what they can do more of. So describe specifically what was good and why it was important. This kind of feedback is more powerful because it shows you paid attention and it shows you are sincere. It also tells your colleague what to build on and repeat.
Be appropriate, of course
Negative feedback should almost always be articulate privately and is always better face to face. It should always be accompanied by recommendations for improvement. "This didn't go well but it will go better if you..." Negative feedback without any recommendation provokes anger or frustration and is likely to leave the recipient feeling powerless.
Make sure you get your facts right before making a judgement, too. Don't just assume you know why a mistake happened. Questions are better than answers here: What went wrong? How do you think we could have handled this better?
Consider how the individual receiving feedback likes to communicate. Some like email, others like phone calls, some prefer texting, or instant messaging. Different generations have distinct preferences too. Where possible, give feedback how the other person desires to receive it.
Offer relevant points
Only give feedback on stuff that matters. Compliments on clothes, sun tans, or, say, weight loss are great for friends but not for colleagues. All feedback should focus on behavior that makes a difference to the business or an individual's ability to conduct business.
Be careful with comparisons

Where appropriate, make comparisons with prior performance ("We're getting much better at this!") or with competitors ("Exxon could never do this!"). This builds pride and a sense of accomplishment, which both drive the desire to do better still. Do NOT ever compare employees with peers or direct reports or any one else inside the organization. That only creates gossip and politics.
Make a difference
Without feedback, people feel invisible and insignificant. They may feel that they, and their hard work, are taken for granted, or that you don't care about them or their work. This only makes it more likely they won't care about you and your work either. Feedback builds and reinforces the connection between you.

How to Sell if You Hate Selling

How to Sell if You Hate Selling:
Your success in business depends upon your ability to sell. It's time to get over your bad attitude.
"I hate selling."
I've heard that statement a thousand times–often from entrepreneurs whose success depends upon their ability to sell their ideas, their firm and their products.
And that's a shame, because if you hate selling, you'll never be good at it, and that means at least lost revenue–and in the worst case, company failure.
In my experience, it's the entrepreneurs who really love selling who are the most successful. Steve Jobs, for instance, was incredibly good at pitching his products. Watch any video of Jobs at an announcement, and you can absolutely feel his sense of joy–not just in the product, but in telling a story about the product. Jobs loved selling; there's no question about it.
Time for an Attitude Adjustment
When I interview the CEOs of start-ups, I can usually predict whether or not the company is going anywhere by the way the CEO talks about selling. If they think it's the soul of success, they're going to do well. If they think it's a chore, not so much.
So, if you hate selling, it's absolutely in your interest to get over it–and, even better, cultivate a love of the selling process. And that's what this post is about.
To help you through this process, let's examine the root of this "hatred." In my experience, people "hate selling" because they hold one or more of the following beliefs:

• Selling is manipulative. Many people (entrepreneurs included) swallow that hokum that sales is all about manipulating people into buying something that they don't really want to buy. By this line of thought, the typical salesperson is a fast-talking slick-head. Who wants to be like that?
• Selling is annoying. Selling sometimes involves repeated emails and phone calls, both of which tend to be unwelcome. Most people have had unpleasant experiences with pesky salespeople who won't take no for an answer. And who wants to be a pest?
• Selling is boring. Most business tasks can be undertaken full speed, with progress limited only by the amount of time you're willing to spend. Selling, however, involves plenty of "hurry up and wait" while prospective customers mull things over before they "get back to you."

If you personally hold any of those three beliefs (much less all of them), there's no way that you won't "hate selling."
So the way to change your emotion about selling is to undercut those beliefs with different beliefs that will create a different emotion.

• Selling is actually helping. Once you make the decision that you'd never, ever sell somebody something they don't need, you're free to see selling for what it really is: helping somebody else get what they want. Most of the time, selling is all about making people happy by providing them with what they truly need. What's manipulative about that?
• Selling is actually sociable. If you make the decision that you're not going to annoy anyone–much less a prospective customer–you're free to look at the selling process in terms of making new acquaintances and having interesting conversations about stuff that interests you. (Hey, isn't that why you got into business?) It's fun for you and it's fun for the other person, too.
• Selling is actually learning. When you decide to learn something valuable in every sales situation, selling becomes far more interesting than watching TV or playing a computer game. People are fascinating–and never more so than when they're making decisions. Get curious and you'll never be bored again.

Is it really possible to change your beliefs and consequently learn to love selling. Oh, you betcha. I'm a perfect example.
When I started my own freelance writing business more than a decade ago, I dreaded selling for all the reasons I listed above. However, I quickly figured out that my success would be just as dependent upon my ability to sell as my ability to write.
If You Aren't Selling ...
Back then I was writing mostly about high tech, but over time, as I learned more about selling, I was drawn to start writing about it. Now I think it's one of the most interesting parts of the business world–because if sales aren't happening, you don't have a business.
I've also learned that selling is like any other human endeavor: The more you do it, the better you get at it. Also, when it comes to selling, a little bit of effort put into training yourself goes a long way. Ultimately, it becomes like riding a bike, automatic and easy. Fun, too.
So, if you still hate selling, I strongly recommend that you put those old beliefs aside and change your attitudes. After all, whether you like it or not, you're going to have to sell in order to be successful. Learn to love it, and you'll achieve your goals far faster.
If you enjoyed this article, click one of the "like" buttons to the left and sign up for the free weekly Sales Source newsletter.

4 Smart Ways to Be More Creative

We spoke to Jonah Lehrer, author of the bestselling Imagine: How Creativity Works, to learn how entrepreneurs can be more innovative.
For some entrepreneurs, a great “aha” moment is the spark that leads to the formation of their company. But just one ‘aha’ isn’t going to do it. Once you’re up and running, you may need new products, a better way to deal with your hotheaded marketing chief, or a knotty production issue you can’t seem to solve. So how do you get more everyday creativity into your company – and enhance the odds that when you need a breakthrough, you’ll get one? Inc’s Kimberly Weisul spoke with Jonah Lehrer, the author of the best-selling Imagine: How Creativity Works, to get his advice for entrepreneurs.

Stop brainstorming. That’s right. Despite the fact that brainstorming is one of the most widely-used tools for coming up with new ideas, Lehrer says it doesn’t work. Why? Because the first rule of brainstorming is not to criticize. And criticism is great for idea formation. It’s crucial if you want your ideas to be any good. As Lehrer says, “Criticism draws us out. It wakes us up.” He also says that groups that engage in criticism come up with 20-25% more ideas than other groups, and their ideas are rated as more original.

Surround yourself with diversity. Real intellectual diversity. If you studied engineering at Stanford, and all your friends are Stanford engineers, it doesn’t matter how much racial diversity you’ve got between you. You’re not getting the diversity you need to enhance your creativity.

If you want to be more creative, you need to widen your social circle to include people who really are different than you. Lehrer cites a study of 766 Stanford Business School grads who went on to form their own companies. Those who had a diverse circle of friends—their buddies ran the gamut from biologists to ballet dancers – were three times more innovative than the rest, as determined by the number of patents and trademarks they held.

Talk to strangers. This is a good way to get new people and new ideas into your life. Talking to strangers has been shown to improve your luck, for the same reason. It exposes you to new ways of thinking and new connections.

Imitate the city. Cities never die, says Lehrer, while even Fortune 100 companies last, on average, about 45 years. Why? Lehrer says cities force us to mix and mingle, but unlike companies, they don’t micromanage. “The mayor can’t tell you where to live,” he says.

A successful company should be run the same way, says Lehrer, using the example of Pixar under Steve Jobs. Jobs wanted it to be easy for employees from different departments to get to know each other. So he put the cafeteria and the gift shop in the lobby of the building. It didn’t work, because the animators, for example, still had lunch with other animators. They never had conversations with the folks in accounting.

So Jobs decided there would be only two bathrooms in the whole building, and he put them in the lobby. Predictably, everyone hated it at first. No one wanted to have to walk all the way across the building just to use the bathroom. But now, says Lehrer, pretty much every Pixar employee has a tale of their “bathroom breakthrough.”

You may not be able to relocate the bathroom in your building. But what else can you do to make sure your startup is run like a city – and not like a big company?