Laura Benjamin's Newsletter

Laura Benjamin's Newsletter

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Circulation: 1700 give or take a few

Vol. 5, Number 3 - March 2004

Publisher: Laura Benjamin

http://www.laurabenjamin.com

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Quotes of the month: "There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have

contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these

four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we

say it." (Dale Carnegie)

"Her confidence in me completely changed my frame of reference.

It altered how I thought about my own abilities. This may sound

bizarre, but from the minute I got off the phone with her, I

could draw better. You can actually see a marked improvement

in the quality of the cartoons I drew after that conversation."

(Cartoonist Scott Adams of Dilbert fame, after Sarah Gillespie,

an editor at United Media offered him his first contract. At

first he didn't believe her, but she insisted he was good enough

to be a nationally syndicated cartoonist when no one else would

even return his calls.)

More teamwork and leadership quotes at www.LauraBenjamin.com

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In This Issue

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1. Marketing Tips

2. Management Tips

3. Useful Resources

4. Shameless You Know What (always at the end)

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1. Marketing Tips

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From Entrepreneur Magazine, March 2004:

- If unsolicited email worsens, 42% of small businesses

would consider abandoning email for business correspondence

- 61% of CEO's plan on hiring employees in 2004

- 21% of affluent Americans plan to never retire

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When the Business and the Body are One in the Same

What happens when you're a physical therapist and you develop

carpal tunnel syndrome, or you're the "hands-on" owner of a

construction firm and you have a rotator cuff problem?

Increasingly, maturing entrepreneurs who use their bodies as

a major part of their business activities are facing facts that

aggravated injuries or the normal aging process is forcing them

to either abandon or totally reinvent their business. It's

amazing how creative one can be when necessity knocks.

For the past 8 years, Sherry Busch has owned and operated a horse

blanket cleaning and repair business with over 1400 customers up

and down the frontrange of Colorado . An aggravated shoulder

injury could no longer be ignored and she had to consider other

business opportunities that would take less of a physical toll.

By leveraging her knowledge of horses, her established clientele

from her blanket business, and her experience former fleece wear

business experience, she and her husband launched “Risk Out West”

which serves boarding stables, riders, and horse show event managers.

She also went back to school and obtained her paralegal certificate

and has been working in law offices on medial malpractice and liability

claims. It's a great combination of her knowledge and experience in

the horse world, along with her newly minted paralegal experience!

Other business owners who've gotten creative and made a shift:

- Former construction firm owner who coaches and consults start-up

businesses in sales, project management, and operations.

- Professional cyclist who recovered from cancer and switched

to a freelance writing career. He now has his column syndicated

in 85 US newspapers.

- Realtor who evens out the sporadic real estate market by

getting licensed as an appraiser and works from his home office.

- Swimming coach who became allergic to chlorinated air and

switched careers to become a trainer serving the recreation

industry.

Tips to Make a Switch:

1. Don't wait to start succession planning efforts. Identify those

who show promise on your team for taking on new responsibilities to

free up your time. Do ya think your body is going to last forever?

2. Brainstorm all the related interests or activities you enjoy

or have knowledge of. List related products, services, or even

competitors to generate new ideas. Don't filter anything out at

this point.

3. Survey customers by asking, "Where are the gaps? What should we

start doing, stop doing, or continue doing? Is there something you

would like to outsource that we can handle for you?"

4. Launch a pilot program. Pilot programs allow you to experiment,

test results, adapt, and adjust the "rudder" so to speak.

5. Do more of what works. Do what you enjoy and what shows promise

of revenue generation. Allow yourself some time before you move on

to another idea. Don't scrap something you enjoy just because you're

not raking it in during the first few months.

6. Bounce ideas off others, especially if you belong to a CEO Round

Table or other business owners networking group.

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2. Management Tips

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A Motivational Moment

A great motivational moment from a Vice-President of a Fortune

50 company who encouraged one of his top performers to keep her

eyes open for other opportunities within the company. When she

questioned him on his apparent desire to see her look elsewhere,

thinking it might be a reflection on her performance, he quickly

clarified. "On the contrary, it's because you are one of my top

performers that I encourage you to be open to new opportunities.

Since I will eventually move to other positions within the

organization, I feel more confident knowing there are highly

qualified leaders in all corners of the company. It's better

for the company to distribute talent evenly so others have the

chance to learn from you. It also makes my job that much easier

when I move to that new position and have one of my star

performers already in place and up to speed."

What an outstanding way to think big, share the wealth, and plant

the seed that "we're all in this together" rather than the silo

thinking that haunts most organizations. It also did tremendous

things for this top performer's initiative and self-confidence.

Like Scott Adams (above) and regardless of our job title, we all

need to know that we're "good enough" and someone whom we respect

believes in our abilities.

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Spinning Retention Numbers

It's tax time in the US and thank goodness for the software

programs that help us fill out all those forms. I particularly love

the little dollar sign that spins around in the upper corner each time

time I add a new expense or deduction. It keeps a running total of

the tax I owe or the refund amount I'll get. Why, I know people who

find that rotating dollar sign quite helpful - they say, "Yup, I just

keep lookin' for deductions until that dollar sign goes the way I

want it to go!" It tells them when they have to work a little harder

to turn the numbers around in their favor. Well, do you blame them?

Hmmmm...kinda sounds like the adjustments we could make to those

employee turnover and retention numbers we report on an annual basis.

Let your imagination run wild for just a moment, and consider the

possibilities...

Hypothetically speaking, what would happen if our annual management

bonuses were partially tied to keeping employee turnover numbers low?

Great idea, right? Incent our leaders to make sure retention is top

of mind, so employees are treated well and therefore are more likely

to stick around.

What would happen, then, if someone decided there really are two kinds

of turnover: the good kind (when poor performers leave) and the bad

kind (when the good performers go). Kinda makes sense, because it

wouldn't really be fair to penalize managers who just happened to end

up with sub-par employees that couldn't handle the job and either

"self-selected" out the door or were gently "encouraged" to leave.

Just for giggles, let's take this one step further. Could it be

possible that as we see that dollar sign spinning in the wrong

direction, we make the following adjustments:

Good turnover will include employees who transfer internally to other

departments, and therefore, these numbers will not count against us

for employee retention purposes. (Interestingly, there are some

departments that people come pouring out of like water running down

the drain.)

We also won't include in turnover numbers any marginal performers who

opted to leave the company. After all, they were just losers, right?

They received a "did not meet" expectations rating this year, so they

were dead weight and needed to go anyway.

What would happen if a large number of employee performance reviews

were systematically downgraded one year to be more congruent with our

bell curve? And what if downgrading those performance reviews tilted

the ratio of good/bad retention numbers?

Perhaps we're digging too deep here. Perhaps there really is no

incentive to skew retention numbers so the little dollar sign goes

the way we want it to go. Is it really a good idea to tie management

compensation to retention/turnover numbers when performance ratings

can often be so subjective? We're just asking the question: is the

wolf guarding the henhouse?

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3. Useful Resources

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Sales and Marketing Management Magazine, March 2004, pg. 24

Making the Grade: Want to create a team of "A" players? Start

focusing on improving the performance of your "B" players.

(This article includes an interview with yours truly)

Can Success Be Its Own Reward? Have corporate scandals and waves

of layoffs left companies hesitant to celebrate even when celebrating

is called for? What's within reason and what isn't? (This article

also includes an interview with yours truly)

http://www.salesforcexp.com/200403/reverb.cfm

www.findyourspot.com

An online quiz to find the best places to live, work, retire.

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4. Shameless You-Know-What...Always at the End

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Mar 10 How to Get Your Site to the Top of the Search and

Other Website Tips, Colorado Springs CO (public workshop)

Mar 18 How to Get Your Site to the Top of the Search and

Other Website Tips, Colorado Springs CO (public workshop)

Mar 30 Federally Employed Women of Peterson AFB Women's

History Month Conference, "Transforming Tawanda: Women

Inspiring Hope and Possibility", Colorado Springs CO

Apr 8 Sybase, "Strategies for Working Parents", Denver CO

Apr 23 Wells Fargo CCG, "DiSC Train the Trainer", Colo Springs

May 6 Colorado Springs Society for Human Resources Management

"Teamwork: There IS an 'I' in Team!"

May 7 Colorado Inscape Publishing Distributor's Workshop,

"How to Get Your Site to the Top of the Search", Denver CO

May 11 Sybase, "Achieving Success", Englewood CO

"Train a Person to Fish" Idea

Train your frontline supervisors, managers, and Human Resources

professionals on one of the most highly validated behavioral

style instruments around. It's Laura's "train a person to fish"

approach to Inscape Publishing's DiSC certification. Host your

own in-house training program and invite those who should apply

behavioral styles knowledge to team development, performance

coaching, conflict management, and interpersonal skillbuilding.

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Laura Benjamin's work has been featured on radio, TV, and in national

publications including Corporate & Incentive Travel, Sales & Marketing

Management magazine, HRM Review, and on www.BlueSuitMom.com .

She is Past-President of the Colorado Springs Society for Human Resources

Management, a Meeting Professionals International "Platinum

Speaker", and her business is registered with the US Central

Contractor Registry as a veteran-owned business. Her Management

Tips newsletter reaches thousands of subscribers worldwide.

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Laura Benjamin International

Colorado Springs CO USA

http://www.laurabenjamin.com

(C)Laura Benjamin International 2004