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Diversifying & Simplifying your Communication

By Kyle Chowning 1 Comment

No matter how much you try to communicate to people, each of them are unique, so HOW you communicate matters as much or more than WHAT.

No one method of communication works 100% of the time. No matter your personal preference, the reality is, everybody has their own preference and oftentimes it won’t line up with yours.

So, if you’re a business owner, manager, spouse or parent, take note. The people you interact with on a daily basis are unique, which means HOW you communicate with them is unique too. No one method will reach everybody.

Diversify your methods, break down the details, and be overly obvious (to you), because to most others, it’s not that obvious.

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Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With:

Your thoughts on meetings?

By Kyle Chowning 5 Comments

I’m not a fan of meetings, but they’re necessary. However, sometimes I wonder if we rely on them too much. Below is a challenging post from Seth Godin about meetings.

By the way, if you’re not a regular reader of Seth, do yourself a favor and subscribe to his blog here and now. I often refer to it as the devotional for marketers. Really, he offers practical, but challenging thoughts, on how we’ve fallen in the traps of doing “normal” things day-to-day.

Read it and consider answering this one question in the comments:

If you were responsible for every meeting, how would you change meetings at your company?

If you work directly with me, I’d love your thoughts in the comments section too (yes, publicly).

Firemen, donuts and meetings

When a building is burning down, fireman coordinate their actions, make decisions and save lives.

They do this without Aeron desk chairs or Dunkin Donuts. They do it without subcommittees, McKinsey studies or input from the boss in another city.

To quote Al Pittampalli, “why bother going to a meeting if you’re not prepared to change your mind?” To which I’d add, “Don’t bother having a meeting if you’re not there to change or make a decision right now.”

Somewhere along the way, meetings changed into events where we wait for someone to take responsibility (while everyone else dives for cover).

How would you do it differently if the building were burning down? Because it is.

via Seth’s Blog: Firemen, donuts and meetings.

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Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: ,

Michael Hyatt’s Mentoring Group Reading List Released

By Kyle Chowning 4 Comments

Author, businessman and respected blogger, Michael Hyatt just posted the reading list for his 2012 mentoring group. Here’s the list:

I’ve only read one book on this list. Looks like I’ve got some reading ahead.
Also, Mike has a great heart and vision on mentoring men. Below he makes a great, but disheartening point:

I am contacted almost weekly by people who want to be mentored. If there’s one thing I have learned, it’s that young men and women are desperate for mentors who will build into their lives.

via Inside My Mentoring Group by Michael Hyatt.

I do wish that more men and women would value their own life experiences enough to share what they know and have learned with younger people. Maybe, I should consider the doing the same for those younger than me!?!

Do you have a mentor?

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Filed Under: Leadership, Resources Tagged With: , ,

We are very dangerous.

By Kyle Chowning 5 Comments

You are no more dangerous than when you think what you say and do everyday, isn’t being noticed and does not matter. It matters and it matters greatly. Every word, deed and action has an effect. You, alone, do not determine if those actions are positive or negative. The decision lies with those around you who hear and interpret. You’re at their mercy because at the end the day, you are judged on your actions, not your intentions.

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Filed Under: Leadership

The tension of the already, but the not yet

By Kyle Chowning 1 Comment

Perhaps the following thoughts will be familiar:

  • I want what I can’t have.
  • I wish things to be different than they currently are.
  • A couple of changes could change everything.
  • I can do it better—myself.
  • I see a way out of it and I see a way in deeper.
  • I stress. I talk about it. I struggle with it. I strategize more ways out of it, and then I repeat it all again.
  • Something has to change. And yet, nothing does.

Maybe this tension is a perfect place? Not because we love being there, but because it’s the beginning of the end of our striving? Maybe this is when we realize that it’s not about us? That ultimately, we’re just part of a greater story that takes time to be written and revealed and at the point of these questions, we don’t know the full story yet.

If you believe, as I do, that more is happening behind our backs than in front of our faces, then the point of which we ask these questions and demand the insight is no different than fast-forwarding to the end of a book to resolve the tension in the middle. You could certainly do that, but then you’d miss out on the rest of the story. Yet, in life, we expend a lot of energy trying to resolve the tension in the middle.

So far, the only thing that I’ve learned in the tension of the already, but the not yet is that nothing I do gets me to the end of the book faster. I only get frustrated because my plans are not working. It’s a no-win strategy and game.

But there’s hope. Check out this play:

“No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.” – Matthew 19:26

What scriptures have you found helpful in the midst of your tension of the already, but the not yet?

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Filed Under: Leadership

Work for the person coming behind you

By Kyle Chowning 6 Comments

According to the Bureau of Labor, the media number of years that an employee stays at one job is 4.4 years. If you’re ages 25-34, that number drops to 3.1 years. Compared to the industrial revolution when employment tenure was significantly longer, today, it’s not a matter of if, but when you will leave your job.

Leaving is expensive. Best Buy once calculated that it cost them approximately $100,000 to hire, train and bring an employee up-to-speed after another had left…and that’s just what they can quantify. If you’re a small business, someone leaving can be devastating. I find that most small businesses don’t plan for this so when they do, it’s a big deal.

It doesn’t have to be.

As a manager, I’ve learned that if you live by the following five guidelines, not only will you make your job easier, but you will ensure that when transition comes the reputation you worked so hard to build will remain in tact long after you leave:

  1. Create a how-to manual for your job – According to the book, The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Business Don’t Work and What to do About It [affiliate link], 95% of small businesses will fail after 10 years versus 5% of franchises. You know what the difference between the two is? Franchises come with a how-to manual, small businesses don’t. The takeaway? Think long-term and start building a how-to manual for your job or business today—and buy that book. Seriously, it’s one of my top 10 business books.
  2. Work yourself out of a job – Your gifts and talents may not be replaceable, but your job is. If you do your job well then you should know exactly who could and should replace you when the time is right. What that means is that it’s time you begin to work yourself out of your job by training one or more people to do what you do every day.
  3. Manage Up – Take the time to learn and understand how to work with your boss. Believe it or not, a classic mistake by young employees is to think that people need to work with them. You’re wrong. Figure out what your boss needs from you and make sure you deliver every single time…in the way, style, format and method that is most helpful to them…not you.
  4. Make your boss look like a rock star – This is not about them, but you. Your job is to find ways to make sure that when your manager needs to shine, they can. The last thing you want is for them to be put into the spotlight and not be able to recall the information you have because you didn’t take the time to deliver. That will spell disaster and very well could lead you to the unemployment office.
  5. Think company first – If your job is only about you and your career path, please ignore everything you just read (if you read this far). If not, then it’s your obligation to put the company and it’s best interests first. Ultimately that means that 1-4 on this list are not an option. Why? Because in transition, being prepared and ready makes it easier, and less expensive and stressful for everybody.
Help me add to this list. What have you done to help prepare for the person coming behind you?

If you like what you read, please consider a retweet or share. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter where I mainly converse about TV, digital media & marketing.

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Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: ,

Always make them tell you no—twice!

By Kyle Chowning 6 Comments

It was the best of times, and the worst of times.

Cameron Strang pulled me into his office and said, “Why not? Let’s do this thing!” The launch date was set for March 2003. He had the idea. We had the focus, drive and passion. Nothing was going to stop us. We were in our mid-twenties, we had no money, and we we’re determined to change the world.

We had everything going against us: new, small, independent, no money, high expectations and ideals. The niche was focused and narrow, the concept was fresh—innovative actually—but the format was old. Magazines had been around for dozens of years, and if we went off of what everyone told us, we were destined to fail.

I was hired to sell. The challenge was that I was tasked to sell a concept to a bunch of cynics. I didn’t have a sample, statistics, years of research or anything that would make selling easy. It was me, a brochure and our concept. It was go-time.

I called. And called. And called. And called. I hadn’t been trained in selling so it was all on-the-job training. My inexperience meant that I left some of the most awkward voicemails. In fact, on one call, I was concluding my voicemail while simultaneously thinking to myself that I had completely botched that message. Rather than saying “thank you” or “good-bye” I proceeded to say, “In Jesus name, Amen.” I kid you not. As expected, they didn’t return my call.

Cynics are hard to sell to. They don’t want to take your calls so I had to figure out ways to get them on the phone. I’d call early in the morning and late in the evening because I had learned that executives are more likely to answer the phone during those times—and it proved to be true. When I would get the opportunity to talk, I heard no, far more than yes. It wasn’t fun or easy and I had to learn to not take it personally.

It took me three months to sell 22 ads for the first issue of RELEVANT magazine. Over the next two years, I refined my approach and style and eventually I learned how to sell an entire issue in about 1-2 weeks.

The lessons learned during this time of my career were vast. However, the biggest lesson was this:

Always make them tell you no—twice!

We are created to say no. We’ve been doing it since we learned to talk and we haven’t stopped. Yet, the difference between those who try and those who are determined is in the innate drive to not give up at the first sign of resistance: push harder, press for understanding, try another angle and always have a back-up strategy.

By the time I left RELEVANT to launch my consulting company, my team and I had grown sales revenue 900+ percent and almost doubled the number of pages sold.

Next time you’re get a no, I dare you to ask again.

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Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , ,

Three reasons to never actually do anything

By Kyle Chowning 2 Comments

A couple of months ago, the HR department at the company I work for launched a walking program to motivate and inspire people to become more active. The program came chockfull of incentives for those who were interested in participating. You could accumulate additional vacation time, win individual and departmental awards, discount on your insurance premium and more. They promised that they would make it interesting and challenging by offering “big” incentives for people who walked a certain number of steps every month including up to nine chances to win a free vacation.

To be honest, I didn’t plan on participating. At the time of the announcement, my wife and I had just had our third child and with two other kids (age 3 and 2), I didn’t need one more thing to add to my plate. I was out. I had made my decision.

One week later, I was sitting in a meeting with our executive team. We were discussing a number of issues and then someone said, “You’re participating in the walking program, right?” Before I could utter a response, I began to feel something I haven’t felt since high school: intense peer pressure. Would I reveal that I wasn’t planning on participating or should I act as if I had all along?

I caved.

“Of course I’m participating!” Days later I received my “tracker,” and I was off. However, I quickly ran into a problem.

If you wanted to be eligible for any of the incentives, you had to walk 195,000 steps a month, 4-5 miles/6500 steps a day, for tier one participation and 240,000 steps, 5-6 miles/8000 steps a day, to get a raffle ticket for the free vacation. I was only walking 2000-3000 steps a day. So rather than stepping up my game, I complained.

I sent an email to HR and asked them to reconsider the number of steps needed to hit the goal. I told them that I thought it was unrealistic for a large majority of participants. They politely replied that I was the only one complaining. Ouch.

I had a decision to make. Step it up, or shut up.

I had plenty of reasons to participate. In fact, I’ve been wanting to shed about 20lbs for…I don’t know…about five years. So what was my real excuse?

Let’s be honest. When it comes to advancing, and I don’t mean progress, I mean making remarkable advancements at work, career, future, financial, weight loss, etc, we are prone to focus on why we can’t do the work…and we’ll use just about every excuse we can.

I still had a decision.

Today, I’ve walked 603,516 steps (approximately 429 miles) since March 10, 2011. I’ve hit tier one for two months and tier two (free vacation) once and am on pace for both this month. The best part, I’ve lost over 14lbs.

Yesterday, I ran into the HR ladies while leaving work. They asked me how my steps were coming. I enthusiastically gave them a report and they snickered at me while repeating the contents of my email: “But I can’t do it.” Ouch, but in a good way…they were right to make fun.

So, back to the subject at hand: “Three reasons to never actually do anything.” Here they are:

  1. I’ll do it later - Actually, you won’t. Do something today. One thing. Then you can say you started.
  2. I don’t have time – Are you sure? You make time for what you value.
  3. I just don’t want to – This is likely true.

My good friend, Rob Sperti, once said, “Until your values change, you won’t change.”

What are you waiting to change about your life?

 

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Filed Under: Leadership, Productivity Tagged With: , , ,

5 things I’ve learned about persistence from my 2 year old

By Kyle Chowning 2 Comments

I have a two year old boy, Caleb, who is constantly on the go. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve begun to notice that his energy and enthusiasm for life is unstoppable—really, it’s unstoppable. For example, in our subdivision, we live on a cul-de-sac that is essentially a roundabout. When we go out to play in the yard, he isn’t climbing trees, playing with trucks or jumping around on the grass, he’s running multiple laps around the circle for fun.

When he plays with his older sister, he grabs and runs. It’s a fun game—to him. To her, it’s just mean. When you tell him to stop, he will for a moment, but then the game picks up again. This time slightly different than the last. The back forth ensues as long as it takes for his mom or I to notice.

When he plays indoors, it’s in and on everything. He thinks he’s invincible so he therefore runs, leaps, flies and jumps, oftentimes landing close enough to a corner to make my heart leap, only to be relieved by his smirky smile and laugh.

In all of these things, he’s often corrected: don’t jump, don’t take that from your sister, don’t do this, don’t do that. Caleb—-STOP!

Imagine if we had the persistence of a two year-old for just one moment. Here are five things I’ve learned from watching him:

  1. Don’t let NO stop you. Persistence demands repetition. Which leads me to my second point.
  2. Be aware of how your actions effect others - By all means, become self-aware. This is the key to being a strong leader!
  3. Rest/Eat/Play & Repeat – The key to keeping a two year old living optimally is rest, food and play. Adequate measures of all of these will make for a healthy, active life.
  4. Jump! – The risk is often greater in your head, than in reality.
  5. Laugh & have fun – If there’s anything that I’ve learned from my two year old, it’s to laugh and by all means, have fun. Everything to him is an opportunity for fun. Every single thing.

What have you learned from your two year old?

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Filed Under: Leadership
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