| “Never wish that life were easier, wish that you were better.” – Jim Rohn
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Posts Tagged ‘point of view’
Wish your life were easier?
Monday, October 31st, 2011Problems vs. Solutions
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011Last night at dinner, I placed a bunch of broccoli on my daughter’s plate. Her immediate response, was the same as always – “That’s too much, I could never eat all that broccoli!”
I countered with my classic – “I have a lot of faith in you Corinne, you can do anything you chose.”
I’m OK with my daughter seeing a plate full of broccoli and seeing a problem with no possible solution – she’s 4 years old. However, at some point ( I think I’ll wait until her 5th birthday) I want her to change the way she thinks and recognize that she is responsible for finding a solution to life’s challenges.
Unfortunately, most people still approach problems like my 4 year old. They see every difficulty as an insurmountable challenge and instead of looking for the solution they spend all of the energy putting together a list of excuses why they won’t be successful.
The simple truth is that there are two types of people in this world – those that find problems and those that find solutions.
Guess which one makes more money and has more success?
Which one are you?
CJ McClanahan is the Founder of reachmore, which teaches small business owners how to build a business that runs without them. For more resources on business leadership, please visit reachmore’s seminars
Perspective
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010When is the last time that you have been to a sporting event? Did you have good seats or bad seats?
Your view of the action probably had a great deal to do with how much you enjoyed the game.
It is the same with every single aspect of your life. By that I mean, your ability to be successful and enjoy your existence is directly related to your viewpoint or your perspective.
Consider the following examples.
Brian is a 7 year old boy who lives with his family in Fishers, IN. His dad is a doctor and his mother is an attorney who has decided to stay at home with Brian and his 4 year old sister until they are both in grade school. Throughout his school years Brian is provided with encouragement from his family, friends, and teachers . During the summers he has the opportunity to travel and attend many camps that provide him with great learning opportunities. As he nears the end of his senior year in high school, he has a choice of many different colleges to attend because he has maintained good grades and his parents have the financial means to pay for wherever he selects. In addition, virtually all of his friends will be attending college.
Tyler is a 7 year old boy who lives in a rundown neighborhood in Indianapolis. His mother works 2 jobs to pay the bills and he has never met his father. As a result, Tyler has very little supervision after school and spends this time getting into trouble. Throughout his school years, Tyler receives very little encouragement from anyone. His is constantly fed a message that has convinced him that the most he can ever hope for in life is a job at McDonalds. As he nears the end of high school, he realizes that he doesn’t have the grades to graduate and is considering just dropping out. Very few of Tyler’s friends will graduate High School and none will attend college.
Now imagine that you get a chance to meet both of these individuals the summer after their senior year. Can you imagine how different their perspectives on life will be?
Every time you are tempted to complain about a challenge in your life, I urge you to remember this example. A change in perspective can help turn any obstacle into an opportunity.
In addition, if you would like to learn more about how you can help kids like Tyler right here in Indianapolis please visit The Reach Foundation.
CJ McClanahan is the Founder of reachmore, which provides leadership coaching for small business and executives. Email CJ at cjm@goreachmore.com for the latest on reachmore’s revolutionary executive coaching program, Summit.
Product Conviction Changes Buyers Minds
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010Michael Reynolds and I were having a chat over Twitter in May about Tungle. He asked if I liked it. I told him I hated it – and continued to badmouth the product for another 3 or 4 tweets. Then I got a random tweet from a guy named @mgingras that said, “Hey Jamar – would love to talk to you about your opinion. Are you open to having a call?”
Turns out that @mgingras is Marc Gingras, the CEO of Tungle. Whoops.
Marc and I had a call. I was obviously sold on why Tungle is a neat idea, but a poor example of an end-user application. Marc was sold on why Tungle is at the forefront of online scheduling, and is the best product on the market.
Marc sold me, and challenged this nay-sayer to get on Tungle not just as a periodic scheduler, but as a primary end-user; to sign up for an account and put my schedule out there to be ‘tungled’. He knew his product was the best, and if I used it, I would agree.
I was nervous to trust a system that I felt was confusing and inefficient, but Marc’s product conviction was based on tons of product testing, and hundreds of tweaks to the system to make it perfect.
At this point, I have used Tungle for over 2 months, and it is one of the best productivity tools that I have found this year. Tungle brings me almost as much “productivity-joy” as my in-home personal assistant!
People schedule meetings with me quickly, there is no chain of annoying emails going back and forth, and the technology is integrated with Outlook and by Blackberry. Yes!
Marc’s product conviction changed me from someone who was spreading negative brand messages about his product, to someone who is now a raving fan.
How much conviction and belief do you have in your product or service? Are you so confident in your service that you would challenge a complete stranger to become a client, and let the product speak for itself?
Product conviction sells new customers and it helps you keep the one’s that you have.
On a scale of 1-10, how high is your product conviction?
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is the Vice-President of Business Development for reachmore, which provides leadership coaching for small business and executives. For more resources on business leadership, please visit http://blog.goreachmore.com.
Empathy
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Today, I plan for each client by developing a unique strategy that will help them achieve their goals.
This was not always the case.
During my first few years as an executive coach and advisor, I treated all of my clients like a mathematical equation.
For example, I had many clients that had a problem generating new sales. So, I rolled out my lead generation system + a conversion rate process and expected tons of new sales.
It’s simple math I told myself. Every business and business professional is essentially the same and if I just implemented the system we would have success every time.
What I soon learned is that while the every business is built upon the same fundamental principles (generate a lead, convert that lead into a customer, get them to buy more often and spend more money each time – repeat) business professionals are all very different.
I now realize that we (business professionals) are all a little nuts.
Each of us has a unique viewpoint, set of circumstances and background. These make us very different.
As a result, before we can address any challenge or implement a new solution we need to really understand the person with whom we are dealing.
This requires that we follow the advice of Dr. Stephen Covey and “Seek first to understand before we are understood.”
While this advice seems simple and straightforward, it is extremely difficult to put into practice.
I have sat in on hundreds (if not thousands) of conversations between individuals who were both trying to convey their viewpoint.
Here’s what I typically observe. One person starts to argue their point. The other person waits for a few seconds and as soon as they hear the beginning of the argument they stop listening and begin to formulate their response.
They seek first to be understood and give absolutely no thought to understanding the other individual.
This leads nowhere and often results in both individuals telling me that the other person “just doesn’t get it and never will!”
If you want to have the best chance of having a meaningful conversation with another person that effectively leads to a resolution you need to make certain of two things before you respond to their point of view:
1. You have a crystal clear understanding of their point of view.
2. They realize that you have a crystal clear understanding.
Once this is complete, you have then earned the right to respond.
I am not suggesting that you agree with their view – it’s OK to agree 100% with their opinion. However, it is critical that you hear them out and show that you respect their opinion before communicating yours.
Here’s a simple strategy to help you put this into practice – wait 2 full seconds before you respond to anything they say. For most of you (us) this will seem to last an eternity.
Trust me – it’s worth it.
CJ McClanahan
reachmore
(317) 576-8492
www.goreachmore.com
Empathy
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Today, I plan for each client by developing a unique strategy that will help them achieve their goals.
This was not always the case.
During my first few years as an executive coach and advisor, I treated all of my clients like a mathematical equation.
For example, I had many clients that had a problem generating new sales. So, I rolled out my lead generation system + a conversion rate process and expected tons of new sales.
It’s simple math I told myself. Every business and business professional is essentially the same and if I just implemented the system we would have success every time.
What I soon learned is that while the every business is built upon the same fundamental principles (generate a lead, convert that lead into a customer, get them to buy more often and spend more money each time – repeat) business professionals are all very different.
I now realize that we (business professionals) are all a little nuts.
Each of us has a unique viewpoint, set of circumstances and background. These make us very different.
As a result, before we can address any challenge or implement a new solution we need to really understand the person with whom we are dealing.
This requires that we follow the advice of Dr. Stephen Covey and “Seek first to understand before we are understood.”
While this advice seems simple and straightforward, it is extremely difficult to put into practice.
I have sat in on hundreds (if not thousands) of conversations between individuals who were both trying to convey their viewpoint.
Here’s what I typically observe. One person starts to argue their point. The other person waits for a few seconds and as soon as they hear the beginning of the argument they stop listening and begin to formulate their response.
They seek first to be understood and give absolutely no thought to understanding the other individual.
This leads nowhere and often results in both individuals telling me that the other person “just doesn’t get it and never will!”
If you want to have the best chance of having a meaningful conversation with another person that effectively leads to a resolution you need to make certain of two things before you respond to their point of view:
1. You have a crystal clear understanding of their point of view.
2. They realize that you have a crystal clear understanding.
Once this is complete, you have then earned the right to respond.
I am not suggesting that you agree with their view – it’s OK to agree 100% with their opinion. However, it is critical that you hear them out and show that you respect their opinion before communicating yours.
Here’s a simple strategy to help you put this into practice – wait 2 full seconds before you respond to anything they say. For most of you (us) this will seem to last an eternity.
Trust me – it’s worth it.
CJ McClanahan
reachmore
(317) 576-8492
www.goreachmore.com