The great film director George Lucas once said, “Your focus determines your reality.” Psychologists have estimated that we have between 50,000 - 70,000 thoughts a day. With all that going on in our heads, no wonder it is no small task to get ourselves to focus on key issues. But, in order to achieve success, we need to learn how to focus these thoughts on WHAT MATTERS MOST. If we let our attention jump from one thing to another, we will have a busy, but most likely, an unproductive day. Simple example: If you chase two rabbits, both will escape; when your focus is scattered, your effectiveness is diminished.
James O'Toole, a professor and leadership expert once said, "95% of American managers today say the right thing … 5% actually do it." On every front, poor LEADERSHIP is destroying companies. Unnecessary turnover of employees and disengaged employees, costs companies billions of dollars each year. People don’t leave companies, they leave bosses. 46% of employees leave their job because they did not feel appreciated. 75% of employees listed their immediate boss as the most stressful part of their job. But, the reverse of this … smart, shrewd, wise, astute, GREAT LEADERS have found that happy employees are 31% more productive and 56% better at sales.
Your customers are invited guests to your party and everyone they encounter in your company needs to assume the position of being “their host.” Customer service excellence has always been and will always be the most critical competitive advantage for any business. Your competitor can copy your store, warehouse, or facility design, your product mix and even your pricing … but you can make it where they will never be able to copy your incredible customer service.
Recently, I heard a prominent speaker declare: “I think motivation is garbage.” She went on to say, “Motivation is never there when you need it. Ever, Ever, Ever!” She even said that we have all bought into this big lie that motivation really works. The speaker went on to explain her statement, but nothing she said changed my opinion of how TOTALLY wrong I think she is.
According to the Small Business Administration, there are 543,000 new businesses started every month, but only roughly 18 percent of them will ever succeed. The leading causes of small business failure are:
Decision Fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making. Researchers have discovered by analyzing more than 1,100 decisions over the course of a year ... Judges, who would hear the prisoners’ appeals and then get advice from the other members of the board, approved parole in about 33% of the cases, but the probability of being paroled fluctuated wildly throughout the day.
April 15, 2018
by Robert Stevenson
