THE YOUNG ENTREPRENEURIAL MIND

Why Lies in the Office Aren't All Bad

ying is bad, right? Especially lying to the boss. But sometimes a little dishonesty can be more helpful than you think.

 

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Maybe George Washington couldn't tell a lie, but that probably doesn’t hold true for your employees. The average person tells approximately four fibs a day, and not all of them along the order of “yes, those pants look quite flattering on you.”

When employees lie, it's a serious matter. But sometimes a little dishonesty can be helpful to your business.
Charalambos Vlachoutsicos, an adjunct professor at Athens University of Economics and Business in Greece and a former businessman, writes about his experience lying to a superior in a blog post for the Harvard Business Review.

“One company I worked in while studying for an MBA at Harvard was an electric appliance wholesaler managed by its founder autocratically and whimsically,” says Vlachoutsicos. The bottom-line driven business owner purportedly ruled with an iron fist, demanding “sales now, no matter how” from his employees, who worked on commission.
Vlachoutsicos admits the competitive--and frequently dishonest--atmosphere that this policy created did not sit well with him. “Fairness has always been the cornerstone of my value system. So although I was selling aggressively, I was always emphasizing ‘honest’ sales… sales not obtained under false pretenses.”
So after attempting to curtail dishonest practices like claiming the company’s vacuums were the fastest on the market (when they weren’t) to no avail, Vlachoutsicos decided to tell a lie.

He called a meeting with his boss, and explained that one of the company’s biggest customers had called to protest after being “lied to” about the features of one of their products. This wasn’t true. No one had complained. But Vlachoutsicos felt that the company’s false advertising policy would backfire--and that they would lose business because of it.

By framing the issue in this way, and by being genuinely invested in the company’s interests, Vlachoutsicos was able to reconcile his values with that of his employer. He learned a valuable lesson in the process: “The truth is that effective management invariably involves a certain amount of manipulation," he writes. "You do not always get your way by being direct. Instead, you have to find a way to bridge the gaps between your values and the culture you work in."

Whether his boss realized it or not, this sort of revelation was exactly what made Vlachoutsicos a good manager and team leader--and what makes good liars (let’s call them “negotiators”) the kind of people you want on your team. They are the people willing to make creative compromises in pursuit of mutual goals--something that both you and your customers can appreciate.

The less noble lies that your employees tell--like “Yes, I’m right on schedule with that end-of-the-year report” or “I’m late for this meeting because my dog got sick right as I was leaving the house”--can reveal valuable insight into your company’s culture, as well.

According to Shawn Achor, CEO of the positive psychology consulting firm Good Think Inc., lies may indicate that the problem is you, not your fibbing employees.
“If a manager is unable to hear about negative things, confusion, or setbacks, then that manager is going to get lied to often," Achor says in an interview with CareerBuilder. "Good managers want an accurate assessment of the present, even if it is not good. Bad bosses want the semblance of progress in the present, at the cost of future successes.”

The next time you're ready to throttle an excuse-giving employee, pause a moment to examine the bigger picture. Are unrealistic deadlines the reason that he is behind on a report? Are her assurances that she understands the task (followed by an inablity to complete it) rooted in a fear of admitting ignorance before her superior? If so, you may want to take some time to emphasize the importance of honesty and communication along the chain of command.


source.www.entrepreneur.com 

12 Surprising Signs You Could Be an Entrepreneur

BY Grant Cardone

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image credit: Shutterstock

Almost every article ever written about entrepreneurship suggests that it's not for everyone. And yet the articles go on to list attributes that many successful people possess as the traits commonly associated with great entrepreneurs, such as a strong work ethic, persistence, persuasiveness and discipline.

For 25 years, I have studied entrepreneurs and discovered that what contributed to their incredible success was not what society typically considers assets. People like John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford and Oprah Winfrey didn't achieve greatness by possessing the traits and following the narrow path recommended by management gurus.

So, don't believe everything others say about you or how they label you. Maybe your supposed liabilities are really your assets. Here are 12 signs many people might consider a liability, but which can actually be indications that you are meant to be an entrepreneur. 

1. Hate the Status Quo – It doesn't make sense to you that something has been done the time-honored way with no explanation why. You are not someone who wants to just go through the motions or sit by idly. Nor do you like following the pack.

2. Easily Bored - You find yourself easily bored, and others start viewing you as a problem. But nothing is wrong with you except that you are bored with activities that aren't up to your abilities and aren't challenging. That's why you hated most of the classes you ever attended. Think Bill Gates who dropped out of college to become one of the richest men in the world.

3. Fired from Jobs – You're too creative for your own good when it comes to working for others, and you may have some history, as I do, of losing jobs. Being just a cog in wheel is very difficult for you because you want to create something others can be inspired by and contribute to.

4. Labeled a Rebel - You know that greatness resides outside the lines of conformity and don't think that policies, laws and regulations apply to you. You have been described as a rebel and rule breaker and would defy gravity if you could. 

5. Resist Authority - You have a lifelong record of resisting authority from your parents, teachers and bosses. You don't go along with the agreed upon norms of the group or community you work and live in. 

6. Ready to Improve Everything - You always see how you could do things better. In addition, you are opinionated and freely give your two-cents about your better way of doing things--even when you're not asked. 

Related: How to Stop Over Thinking and Get Things Done

7. Bad at Making Small Talk - You have difficulty making the kind of small talk that so many people get comfort from. This social pattern of relationship and rapport building seems like a waste of time to you and makes you uncomfortable.

8. Bullied in Your Youth - You may have been heavily criticized, picked on and even bullied as a child or teenager. This has caused you to be driven to excel and to prove to the world that you are indeed a force to be reckoned with.

9. Obsessive - You may have been labeled obsessive/compulsive because when you get started on something you have difficulty letting go. Don't let anyone convince you that this is a disease or deficiency. All of the great entrepreneurs become completely immersed in their vision. Howard Schultz stuck with Starbucks even when his family tried to persuade him not to.

10. Scared to Go Solo - The entrepreneur in you is scared of going out on your own—and also terrified of not doing so. This fear is so common in our society because we've been conditioned to think that entrepreneurship is much riskier than getting a "good job." The reality is there is instability in both. 

11. Unable to Unwind - You can't go to sleep at night because you can't turn your thoughts off. An idea may even manifest itself in your dreams. The next morning you find yourself still consumed with that idea, distracting you from the job you're supposed to be doing.

12. Don't Fit the Norm - You have always been a bit uncomfortable in your own skin. Until you get used to the idea that you are in fact different from most people, it could prove to be a problem--or exactly the motivation you need to acknowledge the entrepreneur screaming to get out.

SOURCE: www.entrepreneur.com

5 Ways to Stop Stress Before It Starts

BY Jane Porter

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image credit: Gnomestew

In 2008, at the tail end of a business trip that took her from Kenya to India to Romania, Ellen Barnard realized she needed to make a change or stress would get the best of her. She'd been co-owner and executive producer of the Atlanta-based production company, Tomorrow Pictures, for 12 years and hadn't made much time for exercise or social commitments.

"I wasn't just tired. I wasn't just experiencing malaise. I was really stressed out," Barnard says. "I had an ah-ha moment where I thought, 'If I can get rid of some of this stress, I can be more productive." So, she signed up for a knitting class. To this day, she meets with the group every Monday night. "It was sort of life changing for me," she says.

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Relax. We aren't telling you to take up knitting. Calming as its proponents say it is, knitting itself isn't what made the difference in Barnard's stress levels. It was the simple act of spending time with people in a social setting. Now, Barnard also meets weekly with a group of women entrepreneurs and walks with her neighbors three times a week.

Rather than wait until you feel overwhelmed by stress, try taking these steps to prevent it:

Make time for friends. Barnard's story clearly shows that creating time for friends and family can make you feel less stressed--and perhaps even live longer. A 2010 Brigham Young University study found that a lack of social relationships is comparable to smoking in its negative health effects. But in the presence of other people, the brain produces oxytocin, a hormone that can help lower blood pressure, says Kathleen Hall, founder and CEO of The Stress Institute, an Atlanta-based organization that trains companies in stress resilience.

Social relationships can even make the challenges you run up against seem more manageable. A 2012 study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that people who were alone estimated the steepness of a hill as sharper than people who were with friends. "Social connection will actually change your perceptions of the world around you," says Heidi Hanna, author of The Sharp Solution: A Brain-Based Approach for Optimal Performance (Wiley, 2013) and a fellow at the American Institute of Stress, a Fort Worth, Texas-based clearinghouse of stress-related information. "It's such a core survival need to be part of a tribe or a core community."

Get your nature fix. Being in a natural setting also may help prevent stress. That's why eco-therapy, based on the premise that connecting with sounds and images in nature triggers a calming part of the brain, has been gaining popularity, Hall says. A 2007 study at the University of Essex in England found that people who walked outside in a natural setting experienced more relaxing feelings than those who walked indoors. But if you can't escape the office for a stroll in the park, Hall recommends downloading a nature app to your mobile phone and spending a minimum of two minutes each day listening to anything from the sound of water to birds to rustling trees. If nature sounds aren't your thing, consider listening to calming music, looking at images of natural settings or lighting scented candles, Hanna says. "If you can't get to nature, bring nature to you." 

Feed your brain. Your mother was right when she told you to eat your breakfast. "The first thing the brain needs in the morning is amino acids," Hall says. Going too long without eating triggers a stress response that involves foggy thinking, slower digestion and other negative effects, Hanna says. What to eat to avoid this? A good start would be foods loaded with vitamin B6, which helps produce more of the calming hormone serotonin. These include tuna, turkey and bananas. Hall also recommends blueberries, which contain antioxidants and vitamin C. While coffee is fine in moderation, don't overdo it and send your blood pressure rising. 

Take a few minutes to reset. Preventing stress doesn't have to mean reconfiguring your daily schedule. Hanna recommends taking as little as three minutes between tasks to give your mind a break. "Those short little breaks give the system a chance to reset and decrease stress hormones in the brain," she says. When you're stressed, your body produces too much cortisol, interfering with your mental focus and productivity. It's also important to take a few minutes for a mental break before eating, which helps decrease the stress hormones that hinder digestion. This could be as simple as taking a few deep breaths or visiting with a friend in the office.

Move more. Exercise is critical in preventing stress. If you can't get to the gym for a full workout, take a break to do two minutes of stretches or to walk a few laps around your office building. This will produce endorphins, which help you manage stress, Hall says. Taking that break before meals is important. It not only helps your body process food, but it also can prevent you from gaining stress-related weight around your belly.

SOURCE: www.entrepreneur.com

Glimpse the Future: Inspirational Inventors in the Spotlight

BY Catherine Clifford

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Robert Langer, a MIT biomedical engineer, is one of the inventors who will be honored at the White House today. image credit: Kannair

What are the top inventors in the U.S. up to?

President Obama is recognizing the contributions of a handful of inventors at the White House today. What follows is a list of a few of the standout innovations and the inspiring people behind them.

Bioengineered renewable fuels. Frances Arnold, a California Institute of Technology professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry at California Institute of Technology, conducts research on protein engineering and protein recombination. Her chemical engineering research has implications for environmentally friendly technology, allowing for the production of fuels and chemicals from renewable resources with lower carbon-dioxide emissions.

Moon-based observatory. George Carruthers of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., is best known for developing the first moon-based space observatory, an ultraviolet camera sent to the moon with the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. He started building telescopes and model rockets from an early age and has become known for his community outreach to inspire African-American youth to be excited about technology.

Artificial skin. Robert Langer, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology biomedical engineer, is most famous for his work on new and different ways to administer drugs to patients. He has 810 issued and pending patents worldwide for his work in pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device technology. Langer’s research has led to the development of new tissues like artificial skin for burn victims.

Portable oxygen. Norman McCombs is best known for inventing the portable medical oxygen concentrator, an electrically driven appliance that delivers oxygen on demand. He had been Senior Vice President of AirSep Corp. in Buffalo, N.Y., which was acquired by Chart Industries Inc. Patients with chronic lung diseases depend on portable sources of oxygen and the 4.5 pound, battery-operated oxygen device has been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration allowing those dependent on oxygen to fly on planes where they once weren’t.

LASIK eye surgery. Gholam Peyman of Arizona Retinal Specialists is the retinal surgeon who invented LASIK eye surgery, which corrects the vision of nearsighted patients. Peyman holds more than 100 patents for a variety of medical devices and surgical techniques.

Energy efficiency. Art Rosenfeld, is a guest senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and a renowned energy scientist known as an ambassador for promoting energy efficiency innovation. He had been part of the research group that won a Nobel Prize in the 1960s for discovering subatomic particles. In the wake of the 1974 OPEC oil embargo, Rosenfeld switched his focus to energy conservation. He has served as a senior advisor to the Department of Energy’s Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, on President Clinton’s National Science and Technology Council and twice on the California Energy Commission.

Rheumatoid arthritis treatment: Jan Vilcek is a professor of microbiology at New York University’s Langone Medical Center and one of the inventors of the rheumatoid arthritis drug Remicade. More than 2 million patients have been treated with Remicade.

What is the most inspiring invention you have heard about lately? Leave a comment below and let us know.

SOURCE: www.entrepreneur.com

5 Tips for Training New Salespeople

John Treace

If you want a strong sales team, you need to give your new hires some TLC

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When you hire a new sales rep, the last thing you want is to end up having to fire the person after a few weeks or months. That hurts the whole company. Not only have you invested time and money in this person, but customers and other employees tend to get nervous when they see a new hire walking out the door. Yet many companies throw salespeople into a new job without enough training or encouragement.

Here are a few tips that will give your newly hired sales reps a better shot at success: 

1. Set up a peer-mentoring program.
The first 90 days of a sales rep’s tenure is the highest-risk period. In these first few months, new reps will struggle with many questions from customers. Some will become discouraged. One cost-free way to help them through this phase is to assign an experienced salesperson on your team to mentor one or more new hires. Ask the veteran rep to keep an open dialogue running each day, so that the new hires have someone to come to with questions or concerns.

2. Start with easy sells.
For the first few months, focus new hires on products that are quick and easy to sell, not on the more complicated ones. Nothing builds confidence more than making a sale, and these early, quick sales will help new reps establish relationships with customers. If you don’t have easy-sell products in your line, consider adding some, even if it's just for this purpose. You’ll find that it greatly benefits your business.

3. Don't forget the nitty gritty.
Learning the ropes of a company's often-complex structure can be tough for new sales hires. And when a rep is confused about how the organization works, it’s hard for him or her to efficiently solve customer problems. For instance, at one company I worked for, customer shipping information might come from one of three different departments depending on the type of product being ordered, and new reps had trouble figuring out which department to call when customers asked for delivery dates. To solve this problem, assign someone on your team to instruct all new reps on the company’s structure and procedures.

4. Publish success stories.
New salespeople are always looking for tips on improving their close rates. You can help by emailing everyone a few sales tips and success stories from seasoned reps each week. These mini-newsletters will not only show the inexperienced hires how to get better results, but the emails will also bolster their confidence. "If she can do it," they’ll say, "so can I!"

5. Do a weekly check-in.
There’s nothing more powerful for new reps than knowing that you—the leader—care about them and want to see them succeed. A weekly five-minute phone call from you can work wonders in terms of a new hire’s morale and effort. Simply touch base: Ask how he or she is doing or whether there’s anything you can do to help.

Using these five tips will raise your sales reps’ chances of success, boost your overall retention rate, and increase sales. When you show that you care about each employee's success, you quickly outpace leaders who simply make a hire and move on.

John Treace has more than 30 years' experience as a sales executive in the medical products industry. He spent more than 10 years specializing in the restructuring of sales departments. His new book is Nuts & Bolts of Sales Management: How to Build a High-Velocity Sales Organization.

SOURCE: www.inc.com

9 Ways to Forge Better Partnerships

BY: Geoffrey James

Business success depends on your ability to keep your partnerships healthy and happy.

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Business success usually demands partnering with other people and other firms to get big things done. Some partnerships are formal, like outsourced supply chains, while others are less formal, as when salespeople from different firms partner to win a complex opportunity.

It's thus in your interest to know exactly how to ensure that your partnerships, both formal and informal, remain healthy and happy, as well as highly likely to result in mutual success.

Here's a nine step process to achieve this, adapted from a conversation with Ed Rigsbee, author of The Art of Partnering:

1. Prepare to Relinquish Some Control

It's a natural tendency for entrepreneurs to seek to control of their destiny. However, partnering always involves leaving yourself vulnerable to the failing and failures of your partner.

At the very least, a partnership requires that you share knowledge--like your own limitation and the weaknesses of your firm--that you might not feel comfortable revealing to another person or another company.

2. Understand Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Before you can considering a partnership, you must first understand what you and your firm bring to the table and, by extension, where you might need some outside help from a partner.

The easiest way to do this is to create a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) diagram. If you're truly honest, you'll be able to identify areas where you might be able to help a partner as well as areas where you could use some help yourself.

3. Select the Right Partner

Seek out individuals or firms that have strengths where you have weaknesses and vice versa. For example, if you have great products but little sales experience, you might look for a firm that has mediocre products but a history of sales success.

It's also important to assess the other party's willingness (and psychological readiness) to partner. Just because another firm has a capability you need, that's no guarantee that they're ready to share it.

4. Build a Partnership Consensus

Once you've broached the idea of a partnership with the other party, hash out a working agreement of who is going to do what and when. Build a plan of action to address whatever opportunity you're intending to pursue together.

If it's a formal partnership, you'll need a contract, of course. However, if the partnership is informal, you should still create a written outline describing detailed explanations of activities, expectations, and responsibilities of each partner.

5. Adopt a Strict Code of Ethics

Ethics between partners are what makes a partnership possible. The "golden rule" here is to "be the kind of partner with whom you'd like to partner." It's not enough to BE honest; you must also avoid the appearance of dishonesty as well.

By the way, ethics are even more important if the business you're conducting has a lot of risk involved. As Ben Franklin once said: "We must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

6. Go Beyond Your Commitments

Successful partnerships--especially those formalized by contracts--require trust between the partners. The best way to increase the level of trust in a partnership is to always deliver a bit more than you said you will deliver.

To use an analogy from outside of business, the best marriages are characterized not just by both parties meeting their minimum commitments (e.g. no adultery) but actively doing extra, on a daily basis, to try to make the other person happier.

7. Be Patient With the Partnership

If the partnership develops problems, don't give in to anger or frustration. Meet your partner more than halfway. If there's money on the table, dispose of it fairly or offer to buy your partner out.

Above all, avoid taking any disagreement with your partner to court. The end result of a court case will be pennies on the dollar for you, and even that is only if you're lucky.  Chance are the only "winners" will be the lawyers.

8. Monitor and Measure

Ineffective communication is the primary reason that partnerships fail. As with any other business situation, it is measurement that provides the basis for meaningful and effective communication.

Strive to have enough ongoing communication so that both parties can monitor the relationship both at the "macro" and "micro" level. Then when challenges pop up, you can both work together to quickly address them.

9. Celebrate Frequently

Getting a partnership from initial handshake to a long-term, mutually-profitable relationship requires plenty of "emotional fuel." As the partnership progresses, both parties will need to invest time and energy to maintain and strengthen the relationship.

The best and easiest way to do this is to celebrate--really celebrate--every time the partnership achieves something significant. If you really want the partnership to thrive, make that the celebration includes some extra compensation for everyone involved.

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Geoffrey James writes the Sales Source column on Inc.com, the world's most visited sales-oriented blog. His newly published book is Business to Business Selling: Power Words and Strategies From the World's Top Sales Experts. @Sales_Source

SOURCE: www.inc.com