Archive for Confidence vs. Arrogance
What makes someone a good decision maker?
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Risk vs. Rewards
Successful business leaders tend to be very observant and are exceptionally good at decision-making. Part of what makes them good at making the right decision quickly is their education and past experiences. A business-savvy executive acts fast, but not without clear intentions and strategic thought.
Your past experiences, direct and indirect, is the raw material you use to make smart, strategic decisions. For this reason, it is very important to be fully vested in all that you do, hear and see. Those who pay attention and “live in the present” tend to be better decision makers.
If you missed important information in a previous conversation or meeting, don’t try to work around it. Go to the source and ask questions. The ensuing conversation will not only fill in the missing data, but it may lead to other insights that would otherwise be missed. Invite an opinionated friend over to strategize. Plenty of great ideas come from thought-provoking conversations. Once you decide to take your idea to the next level, the strategies below can help you turn your idea into a successful venture:
- Self Confidence – having a confident demeanor will captivate your audience
- Conviction – believing in your message will influence others to do the same
- Education – knowing your subject matter as well as your competition’s products and services will give you an edge in business as well as the ability to answer pointed questions.
- Follow through – it is not enough just to make a sale. Follow through on your commitments and promises. Delivery and service after money has changed hands is key to a happy, and long-term, client.
Even the best decison makers occasionally have to change course midstream. Don’t be afraid to re-evaluate when new information is available. If there is too much to risk for the reward, then make the decision not to proceed. If you find you are unable to provide what you promised, partner with someone who can help and immediately provide a time frame to your clients. Having an unhappy client can set back your business and recovery can be very slow.
Don’t be afraid to admit you’re wrong
Posted by: | CommentsYour biggest mistakes and egocentric decisions that were wrong may be your biggest savior moving forward. Admitting to your mistakes and clarifying through discussion what you did wrong and how you overcame the challenge is a testimonial to your humaness.
It is sometimes draining to listen to people stuck in the whining. Those who are focussed on problems rather than solutions tend to tell the same story over and over again never getting to a solution. Moving these types of clients into solution oriented thinking is not difficult but takes some effort and hand holding. Often a client who has been problem and drama centralized will be quite defensive when you first bring to their attention how often they spend obsessed with the problems and blame before they really can see their part in the whole thing. If their talking about it often enough and it is still a problem they are part of it.
Coaching people into being solution oriented is a productive challenge I enjoy. If a client of mine comes to me with a problem I expect them to solve it quickly and the money they spend for my help best be recouped one way or another within 3 months or I did not do my job.
Part of my job is making others look good. Helping my clients be better story tellers guiding them to talk about a problem briefly but turning to how they solved it quickly is one of my first goals especially with managers. A great leader will get out of the drama and whining phase and move to motivating through experience and success. Your most captivating personal stories that show you are human will include the errors you made and how you stood up to the challenges and solved them.
We all make mistakes, admit when you are wrong and stop trying to force the squares into the circles.
Personal Safety Training
Posted by: | CommentsI recently took a course on personal safety with my daughter facilitated by Larry Kaminer at The Personal Safety Group their website is http://www.personalsafetygroup.com . I found this course to be one of the best safety trainings around and it was a great mom/daughter bonding time. The class was scheduled for 3 hours but the captivated group asked questions taking this into overtime.
We learned a lot of great techniques to improve our chances of avoiding being a victim of a crime. Larry Kaminer our instructor gave us some real life experiences for the teens and mothers in the class to practice what they learned.
Larry Kaminer is a brilliant instructor and has established several different programs reaching a variety of audiences. We took the Teen Safety Training but he also has classes in the following categories:
With hardships hitting so many people increased criminal activity and safety risks are on the rise. I recommend this training to prepare and give skill sets to reduce you or your employees chances of being the victim of a crime durring these troubling times.
If you have regret fix it now
Posted by: | CommentsIf there is any regrets in your life there is no time like the present to fix it. The energy wasted on regrets is draining and it is important to take time to make right any wrong you still hold on to. Once you fix the past the present because a more relaxed state of awareness and new opportunities open allowing you to strengthen your passion and conviction to embrace and take hold of your future.
One lesson we all learn when we look back over our regrets and resentments is that patterns begin to show themselves and lessons are revealed. These patterns tend to show resemblences when we failed to learn a life lesson different circumstances and drama arise in our lives attempting to give us a chance to learn a lesson again and again until we get it right.
Taking an inventory of these regrets and finding a way to fix things will free us from the bondage of repeating mistakes. Make peace before it is too late. By cleaning up these regrets and moving forward you will feel more satisfied.
As an example for 20 years I have had a client talk about how she only has a high school education, finally she just registered for school to earn her College degree and no matter how long it takes to earn that degree I am sure it will be less time than she spent complaining about not having one.
Free E-mail advice, support, guidance all week long
Posted by: | CommentsThis is my first week back after a crazy vacation in Thailand and the avoidance of the death trap at the Taj in India. So with charitable spirit and gratefulness for life and family I will offer email support for free all week. Feel free to contact me via the contact page on here and I will get back to you quickly with some great totally free coaching and consulting support all week long.
Happy Holidays!
Shellee Hale
I want a refund!
Posted by: | CommentsWhen can I as a tax payer demand a refund? Never say never. This is absolutely the worst decision making I have ever seen in my life by policital figures it is one sham after another up there on Capital Hill. Give me a break $4million dollar bonuses for AIG executives – what the heck did they do to deserve a bonus? Then this bank using the “bail out money” to buy a bank in China.
Ok so here I go I think we should ask for a refund and block any more of our money being given out to anyone. I want my money back. I will deposit it in my bank and make purchases in American products and maybe even buy a new American made car with it. This will do a lot more to keep jobs and increase revenue flow into our economy.
This new proposal to hold taxes for two months will do very little for the people who have already been victims of irresponsible corporations and that SEC thats the biggest pyramid scheme program I have ever seen. Look the hundreds of thousands of people who just lost their jobs many who needed to modify mortgages now can’t qualify because they don’t have an income so giving them some tax relief and more time to get a new job is better than paying off the negative balance sheets caused by corporate executive greed and irresponsible spending.
We paid taxes and trusted you all in Washington to do the right thing with our funds and you all have failed us miserably. This is no longer a Republican/Democratic blame game and we have to stop going over and over the problems and come up with a real viable solution that does more than line all your pockets. I am done with your bad decisions anyone else think that we should get a refund?
I say go back to those loser CEO’s and other executives you all over paid and get your money from them not us tax payers.
What to do when chaos is all around you?
Posted by: | CommentsA very wise person told me years ago that almost every where you go there is a bathroom and when you’re in the middle of something chaotic and uncomfortable the best thing you can do is remove yourself and use the excuse of the bathroom.
Disengaging from chaos is your only chance of survival. It is best not to try and figure everything out all the time some things are best not understood as knowledge brings responsibility and if you have been working with irresponsible people go with your gut and get out now before you get implicated.
I learned a long time ago that proving what you know is true is not that important, your only finding proof to satisfy others opinions which means your still validating your worth on their judgement. If you are centered and confident others opinions of your intuition is worthless anyways.
Trust yourself and make decisions that you can live with.
An example of this is a client who recently fell into depression over his gut telling him that there was inappropriate accounting practices with a public company he worked for. He felt that quitting his job was not an option because his family relied on the income for support. After discussions and some guidance he did quit and cashed out all his stock. He ended up ahead as had he stayed he would have lost nearly 75% of his worth as the economy downturn and the lack of the Peter’s to pay the Paul’s stopped for this organization and they were exposed. Now his intuition won’t be used against him if he is called into questions about what he knew and when because had he gone the way of his personality and waited until he figured it all out and had the proof he thought he needed the ending of this story would have been very different. He gets to live with a lot less regret having relied on his intuition.
The victims of corporate scandal will be large as many were unaware of the “Enron” type accounting practices that went on behind closed doors. You don’t have to open that door and see what’s going on if something does not feel right get quiet and make a decision you can live with.
Did we learn anything from the Orange County Bankruptcy?
Posted by: | CommentsIn 1994 Orange County’s mismanagement became the largest bankruptcy of a municipality. When the city treasurer bet the county’s money on highly risky investments and the county lost billions of dollars. Reading back through the information I believe we may soon face similar issues across many cities in America. When Government Fails: The Orange County Bankruptcy is a summary of what happened. Although the natural disasters i.e. Katrina, Ike etc. have added another factor besides the economic downturn and bad investments a new and ever growing list of failing American Cities and States are emerging . I really think that there are many who did not learn any lessons from this and are faced with exactly the same troubles with the current market crash.
With these entities collecting less taxes and the rapidly falling real estate price, limited credit available, growing unemployment and deficits like we have never seen before we are in a multifaceted deterioration of what we once knew and relied on from our public resources provided by our cities, states and government.
It will take miracles and hard work to turn this around. If anything can bring us together I believe this reversal of fortune is the time. We should start by coming together with our friends and neighbors and just start getting to know each other better. We should watch out for each other’s homes and families and neighborhoods. Don’t wait for a tragedy to happen before you get to know the names of the people that live around you take time today to reach out and exchange names and numbers.
Remember as cities cut employees the Police, Fire and Rescue services may be compromised, hospital waits may be extended and more families can reduce incidents by building a network of people that can help from within their area. Set up a coffee or just knock on a door make an effort to meet someone new on your block or at your kids school. That little neighborhood watch program is making a comeback so be part of the “in” group and do your part to make sure you and your neighbors are working together to successfully keep your community from random neighborhood crimes and tragedies.
Creating a brag book to boost your self esteem
Posted by: | CommentsIf your self esteem has lowered due to unfortunate circumstances I recommend taking some time to create a brag book and start adding to it. Go back as far as you can and collect all those achievements and clippings that represent who you are and your growth over the years and compile them into a portfolio for yourself to remind you of your accomplishments.
Creating a brag book will reinforce the positive achievements in your life. This task is rewarding in many ways as we have grown we often forget important activities that made us who we are today. Going back through these things may open doors to opportunities you may have not realized existed based on past achievements.
This book will also help you re-evaluate the possibilities for your career and give you more discussion points when selling yourself for a new position. You will also be able to discover areas which you previously had touched on and could further expand that would increase your desirability to a potential employer or opportunity.
Creating a brag book is a great way to tell your story and prepare documentation to support your background and achievements. Start with a great basic large binder and three hole punched plastic sheet covers and put your resume in the front of it then working in reverse chronological order. Do your best to include any proof of statements on your resume as well as any recommendations, certificates, news articles, transcripts etc.
A one stop shop brag book will do a lot to boost your self esteem and will also give you a tool to use when attending interviews and substantiating your story.
Do not take more than your share.
Posted by: | CommentsPeople who look at body language can often tell if you give too much or if you take too much by your posture. If your shoulders tend to be forward as well as your body in the giving position your probably an easier target to take from. On the other hand a person who has their shoulders back more upright may be a little harder to sell as they tend to be takers.
I believe it is important to be balanced you have to be as good of a giver as you are a receiver. The world tends to work things out when this balance is not in place, so if you have been taking/receiving most of your life often events will take back what you did not deserve. We often here of people with great wealth living on a roller coaster with great highs and lows of wealth not really learning this lesson. We have most recently seen this in the stock market, all of the great wealth generated for many corporations who convinced us that growth was there and traded many multiples times earnings have had to give back that wealth to posture them in-line with reality.
As you look into your balance today and moving forward try and get off the roller coaster ride with those who have yet to learn this lesson. Living with less highs and lows will give you more stability and freedoms. Make sure that you are giving back and keeping your commitments to what you say you can and will do and be open to receiving what you deserve and is rightfully yours and be thankful for what you give and get in your life.
