The 10 Laws of Life

Being a real fan of simplicity I love these very simple insights to the ideal laws of life.....

Life Law #1:   You either get it, or you don't.

 Become one of those who gets it.

Life Law #2:   You create your own experience.

Acknowledge and accept accountability for your life.

Life Law #3:   People do what works.

Identify the payoffs that drive your behaviour and that of others.

Life Law #4:   You cannot change what you do not acknowledge.

Get real with yourself about your life and everybody in it.

Life Law #5:    Life rewards action.

Make careful decisions and then pull the trigger.

Life Law #6:    There is no reality; only perception.

Identify the filters through which you view the world.

Life Law #7:    Life is managed.  It is not cured.

Learn to take charge of your life.

Life Law #8:    We teach people how to treat us.

Own, rather than complain about how other people treat you.

Life Law #9:    There is power in forgiveness.

Open your eyes to what anger and resentment are doing to you.

Life Law #10:  You have to name it before you can claim it.

Get clear about what you want and take your turn.

Source: “Life Strategies” by Phillip C. McGraw,

    New York: Hyperion Books, 1999.  ISBN 0-7868-6548-2

Why Prospects Challenge Your Pricing Proposition

Your prospects & clients want several things from you, as their supplier.  They look for fair price, quality products & services, and timely service (though not necessarily in this order).  Surveys suggest most consumers want timely and responsive service as a first priority, quality products & services, second, and low prices, third.

Surveys of sales groups over a 20 year period, asking what they thought was most important to consumers, on the other hand have revealed a different, yet consistent perception…low price comes first, quality next and service last.

There’s clearly a difference in perceptions and expectations between the two groups, which is interesting.

Three elements need to be understood in selling situations if you’re going to effectively deal with the challenge of price.

• First is price, which is what we, as consumers, pay for what we buy.  
• Second is cost,  which is what it costs us over time, what it costs us if we do it wrong, do it late, or not at all.  
• Third is perceived value.  That’s the value we expect for the money we pay.

Most consumers tell salespeople they want low price…when what they really want is low cost.  It’s natural to want to take issue with this statement, but consider what you, as a consumer want.  Do you want the cheapest, or do you want the product or service that best solves your problem, answers your need, or fulfills your desire?

The truth is, most prospects or clients want their problems solved.  They recognise they get what they pay for.  They also know that the distaste of poor quality lasts far longer than the sweetness of the tantalisingly low price.

Buyers will object to price when they feel what they’re being asked to pay is higher than the value they perceive in the transaction.  When an ineffective salesperson encounters price resistance, they usually lower the price.

Unfortunately it’s not usually a price or cost issue at all, rather one of the perceived value being too low. What can you do to raise your prospects/clients notion of the relative value of what you’re selling?

A simple way is to find out what is troubling them most, and then show them how your product or service will satisfy, or overcome this need, want, or obstacle…or, even better, exceed their expectations of value.  This way, price will become secondary.  Not cost, but price.

Real sales pros focus on value…that is, what the product or service does for the customer…and not the price they’ll pay.  They understand that while price is an issue, it’s usually not the most important one.  Price will always seem high when perceived value is low.

The way to change the relationship between price and value in the purchaser’s mind is to focus on raising the value perception.  Lowering price only makes them view your original price, as well as the new, lower one with suspicion.

It’ll become evident that you don’t want to introduce price too early in the sales process…especially not before you've had the opportunity to build a value proposition in the mind of your prospect.  If you have a buyer who’s a price-only shopper (they are out there, aren't they), you’ll need to decide what their business will be worth to you in the long run, or if it will ever be worth anything.

History has shown that prospects who make a big deal out of price, expecting price adjustments…will ultimately require a lot of other concessions, extras, etc., as well.  Use their attitude about price and cost as a barometer of the overall quality of the relationship with you and your products in general.

This isn't to say you should never lower price…only that you should never make your first reaction to price resistance a lower price.

Remember!  Once you've set a pricing precedent with a client, you’ll live with it for the life of that relationship …and, of course, anyone they might refer you to.

Now that's worth thinking about

If you'd ;like to know how to increase the value, focus on the value add in your business attend the Business Growth Program, where we'll challenge you to think differently about how you do business.

Alternately feel free to give us a call on 01626 906348 or email stevegaskell@actioncoach.com 

Why Problem-Based Positioning is a Psychological Magnet

Are you struggling to create a memorable positioning statement for your marketing?  Do you want to stand out from your competition, but the uniqueness of your business seems to elude you?

Here’s a sneaky, vital secret that turns conventional marketing psychology on its head.  By changing your positioning statement, find out how to transform your weakest link into your strongest marketing tool ever.

Avis is Only Number 2…So, Why Go With Them…

Years ago, in the rental car market, Hertz was chugging along merrily, with Avis a distant second.  With one Problem-Based USP, Avis closed the gap.  Its catch phrase, "We’re No.2, We Try Harder," ignited the minds of the target audience like a rampaging bush fire.  They turned a liability into an asset.

Southwest Airlines took to the skies with a similar message.  We’re Smaller Than Everyone Else, it told us, while gently explaining why its service was dramatically better, as a direct consequence of their size.  They also turned a liability into an asset.

In 2001, Harley Davidson proudly boasted how their CEO was 38th on the waiting list for the company's then, new V-Rod motorcycle.  And they took pains to describe how each Harley was lovingly rolled off the plant.  The waiting period, which normally would be perceived to be a negative, was turned into a publicity coup that burned a stamp of quality and a uniqueness into the brains of every prospective Harley owner.

All of these companies took a cold, hard-nosed look at reality.  The superlatives in their business had been taken.  Instead they unearthed their USP, in what most people would consider a disadvantage of sorts.

Are You Doing What Sally Did…

Sally is one heck of a real estate agent.  Barely six months into real estate, and she’s already forging a red-hot path into the top ten salespeople in the country.  While her talents and persuasive powers are formidable, there’s a little something that puts her head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd.

That Little Something is a USP on Steroids…

If she chose to be unimaginative, Sally’s USP or tagline could have ended up as pretty run-of-the-mill.  It could have ranged from a tacky, "Residential Properties for Every Budget," to utterly boring, "Getting Top Prices for Your Home."  All of which would see her struggling to stand out, in a dog-eat-dog me-too marketplace.  A goody-gum-drop USP would get her nowhere in a hurry.  She needed a USP with rocket fuel in its tanks.  Something that would reach out and demand your attention without hesitation.

“If You Sold Your Home in a Week or Less, You Probably Got Too Little…”

How to Create a Knockout USP for Your Business…

The Primary Reason You Should Search for the Hiccups in Your Business…

That’s the USP that Sally created.  Can you see what I mean?  Doesn't that USP go for your jugular?  Sally’s target audience is sellers, not buyers.  If you just sold a house, wouldn't you feel a twinge of regret?  What if you were about to sell a house?  Wouldn't you be curious to find out just a little bit about what Sally does to lasso in a higher return?  And wouldn't you be just a little bit wary if the next real estate agent you met told you that she could sell your house in next to no time?

You've just witnessed the psychological power of the Problem-Based USP.

Let’s assume you’re in the wine selling business.  To own real estate in a customer’s brain, you’d have to do battle with about a zillion other wines.  Yet decades ago, Paul Masson cut through the clutter with a simple statement.  We sell no wines before their time.  With charming simplicity, they turned a negative waiting period into an exploitable advantage.

You too can turn your liabilities into assets.  Stop screaming about how magnificent you are, and look for the apparent glitches in your business.  Let’s just consider a few scenarios.  Are you perceived to be too expensive, extremely slow, or maybe just too busy?

Consider when PsychoTactics.com launched their website and were faced with a similar dilemma. As human beings, we often disdain simplicity and common sense.  The distillation process needed to simplify a concept into easy-to-munch bites is often just seen as common sense, and of no huge intrinsic value.  Taking that liability into consideration, PsychoTactics.com created a USP concept that stressed the fact that everything was not just old, but at least 5000 years old.  In fact, everything has already been tried and tested.  That put them into a mould that was totally different from all the new-fangled marketing angles we hear about every day.  The liability of common sense was turned into the asset of experience.

Best of all, it turned a problem into a winning USP concept.

Finding what makes you beneficially different is a notoriously difficult task.  However, just about any client or potential buyer will very quickly identify your weaknesses and liabilities.  If it’s a technical problem, you can fix it.  If it’s a conceptual problem such as speed or price, it’s much harder to fix.

This, however, is the key to your success.  The more you try to keep your weaknesses and liabilities under wraps, the more customers will uncover them.  On the other hand, take a liability and turn it into an asset.  Expose a problem to the harsh glare of the spotlight and transform your frog into a prince.  This brave act will gain the instant admiration and support of your clients, while giving you a USP that others simply won’t have the guts to match.

Can You Make the Leap?

Creating a negative USP is a tricky, dangerous tactic, and one not to be taken lightly.  "We're slow and proud of it!" is hardly a selling point, yet fulfills the requirements laid out in this article.  However, if you’ve been struggling with your USP, as many companies do, this is a tactic that may work well for you—as it has with some of the companies above.

It’s time you tickled your customer’s brain with some sharply focused psychological marketing jujitsu.  Find the weaknesses and liabilities in your business, carve them into a dynamic USP, and the attention your business has been craving for, will be yours forever more.

And that’s worth thinking about…

7 Top Tips for Testimonials.

I think we’ll all agree that getting testimonials is an invaluable addition to our marketing mix, be it utilising a case study on printed media, quotes from satisfied clients, having transcript on a testimonial page on your website, or have a video uploaded onto a dedicated YouTube Channel.

As a local business coach I find there is something very ‘British’ about business owners and their quiet reserve, feeling it’s a little presumptuous or rude to ask for a testimonial. The fact here is satisfied clients will, in most cases, be delighted to praise your business when they have had their needs met. In many cases they will be raving about your business to others without your knowledge. The tell tale sign here is often when a business seems to generate a portion of its business through referrals.

So I thought it might be useful to offer 7 ways to generate great referrals:

1.           As for testimonials.  You’ll already know your top clients, they will be delighted to offer you a testimonial. In all likelihood they are probably generating you business through referrals, so the question to ask is why? The answer will be the foundation of a great testimonial.
2.             What problem did you solve? In a testimonial ask for details on the problem you solved? It helps to get to the real reason they conducted business with you and why anyone reading the testimonial will resonate with immediately.
3.             List the benefits of doing business with you. We can often get tied up in wordsmithery, when a simple list of the benefits they will have experienced will form a great simple testimonial.  
4.             Feedback.  Use a feedback questionnaire. Keep the questionnaire concise and to the point, don’t bombard them with loads of questions. Maybe even give them the answers via multiple choice. Always remember to ask for permission to use their answers in your marketing. The best time to ask for feedback is directly on completing business.
5.            You write the testimonial. When you gather the feedback or have a verbal testimonial from your clients it's often a great idea to write it yourself or pass it onto a copywriter to draft it for you. Remember to always send the draft copy of the testimonial to the client to gain permission to use it and confirm they are happy to be named in it.  
6.             Images. Having great pictures with the client, their premises, sealing the deal with a handshake etc. will always help to raise the profile and interest of the testimonial. It will also help to have branding visible to build the visible recognition of your business and indeed theirs, a real win win.
7.              Video. By far the best way to publicise on the internet is with video content, it is search engine rich, simple to receive and with technology today doesn't need to be onerous. You can film and publish a testimonial in minutes. When making a video testimonial remember to make it interesting, prepare the question you want to ask and have a good setting. Not everyone will be prepared to give a video testimonial don’t just assume they will be happy to sit in front of a camera.

With this information it's time to get into action and build your portfolio of client testimonials. Having done business with others (especially B2B or B2C) why not offer them a testimonial, in all likelihood they will reciprocate.

Now that’s worth thinking about.

Here’s some of my example video testimonials. 

The Time Efficiency Lesson

The Time Expert

One day an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget.  As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, “Okay, time for a quiz.”

Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide mouth Mason jar and set it on the table in front of him.  Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.  When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”

Everyone in the class said, “Yes.”

Then he said, “Really?” He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel.  Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the space between the big

rocks.

Then he asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?”

By this time the class was on to him. “Probably not,” one of them answered.

“Good!” he replied.  He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand.  He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel.  Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?”

“No!” the class shouted.

Once again he said, “Good.”  Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim.

Then he looked at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!”

“No,” the speaker replied, “that’s not the point.  The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”

What are the “big rocks” in your life?  Time with your loved ones?  Your faith, your education, your dreams?  A worthy cause?  Teaching or mentoring others?

Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or you’ll never get them in at all.

If yo'd like my FREE Time Target Top Tip, register your details below and you'll get access to some great time efficiency insight and tips. Start to take control of your time, start to focus on your Business rather than working in it. Register now.

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Are You In The Know?

Coming out of the dark ages, we lived in the Agrarian Age where wealth was created from the land and, therefore, a few landholders had the power and wealth of the nation.  Battles were fought over land and the differing resources that the geography possessed, giving title deeds to the victor.

The Industrial Revolution changed this order. The era of capitalism was born with the creation of factories engaging workers through Adam Smith’s division of labour principles and the production of mass market goods, provided ever more cheaply through ever greater size of operations and the economies of scale employed.  This era started in the seventeenth century and culminated with massive industrial complexes such as Henry Ford’s car plants in Detroit.   

In the Industrial Age, the ability to attain capital, own and run factories by organising workers and machinery led to wealth for the individual.  There was a fundamental shift in financial power from the land to capital.   On a global scale this became the age where America industrial might showed itself and then latterly German engineering prowess and Japanese production efficiency rose to the fore.  Within all this there was the creation of industrial magnates, tycoons and a new rich.  It was also the birth of the middle classes.

In the latter half of the twentieth century we witnessed the birth of the Information Age which has allowed rapid global communications and networking to shape modern society.  Communications around the globe are now instantaneous through a multitude of channels with access to information on any subject only one click of a button away.

The providers of these channels and sources have prospered on an unprecedented scale benefitting from a global marketplace with seemingly no financial boundaries or constraints.

The Knowledge Age is now upon us and it has profound effects for business.  Once you have access to all the information you may need on any subject, instantaneously available at no cost, then what next?  Where’s the competitive advantage?

It lies, now, not in the information itself but how you know how to assimilate it, using one’s experiences, intellect and understanding to create added value to customers – and on a constant basis.  The Knowledge Era upon us is where ideas are paramount.  In this era, knowing how to use the relevant information in a digestible, implementable form and take it to market quickly is the key to success.  It has never been truer that it’s not what you know it’s what you do with what you know.   A good depth of knowledge, enables asking the right questions, to get the right decisions, to take the right actions and then – get the desired results.

In summary in the Knowledge Age a business owner needs to apply constant learning to their own development and seek out the best advice and ideas from knowledge rich sources of business.   In a competitive market those that choose to know more about their ever-changing marketplace and take Action will win.  

Compete on Value not Price

Discounts versus Profits

Do you have (or have you ever had) one of those salespeople who thinks that giving a discount is the easiest, quickest way to make a sale?  Of course, they may be right, but what about the profit (your profit) they’re giving away?

If your product has a profit margin of 30% and your salespeople give a 10% discount to make the sale, you’re losing a massive, one-third (33.333%) of the available profit!

During a seminar for the buyers of a large retail group with branches all over the country, an attendee shared the following tactic: “My job is easy.  I just let the salesperson make a full sales presentation.  I ask questions and listen to their explanations.  When they’re finished, I simply say, ‘I’d like to place an order with you, but your prices are too high...’ and I then simply sit there and enjoy myself, because the once-confident salesperson suddenly doesn’t know what to do or say next.  With much less conviction and enthusiasm, they may repeat the benefits and features of their products, but most of them get in to see me by giving me a lower price in the first place.  Whatever new price is offered, I usually respond by saying, ‘You’ll have to do better than that!’  And more often than not, they do…in fact, do better than that!  I get lower prices by just sitting there, enjoying the game!”  The buyer isn’t stupid.  But you don’t have to lose.

If you are selling, or have others selling for you, you must protect your price and your margins.  Teach your people not to hesitate or stutter when a buyer insists on a lower price.  Start negotiating!  Start using tactics to hold firm on your prices.  Sell value…perceived and real

Here’s Why:

Do you think it’s possible to work 50% less and earn the same income from selling?  You bet it is!  Here’s how:

Suppose your company sells pumps, with selling price of £10,000 per unit.  Assume that your net cost per pump is £7,000.  That means that the net profit on each pump would be £3,000.  If ten pumps are sold at the full price, the net profit for your company will be £30,000.  Compare this with again selling ten pumps, but this time at a discount of ten percent.  The total selling price for ten pumps is then £90,000.  The net cost for ten pumps remains at £70,000.  The net profit has decreased to only £20,000 compared to the original transaction £30,000 where no discount was given.

If your company continued to sell at ten percent discount, then you’d have to sell 15 pumps to achieve a net profit of £30,000.  Here’s how it looks:

Sales             Discount          Gross Sales                 Net cost                        Profit

10                    0%                 £100,000                         £70,000                       £30,000

10                  10%                    £90,000                         £70,000                       £20,000

15                  10%                  £135,000                       £105,000                       £30,000

What are the lessons to be learned from this example?

A ten percent discount means your company must sell 50% more units (15 instead of 10) to earn the same profit pounds.

A ten percent discount means someone has to work 50% harder to earn the company the same.

By not giving discounts, in essence the company can “work” 50% less and earn the same income.

In spite of this, you might still think, “But, if I don’t give discounts, I’ll lose sales!  It’s an industry norm to give them...everyone does.  If I don’t give discounts, they’ll go to the competition!”

And you may be right, of course.  You may lose a few deals if you don’t give discounts…but the good news is you can afford to…and still make the same or more profit.

Here Are 10 Things You Can Do to Foster a Culture of Innovation and Creativity…

1.       Live in the possibility.  Know that every problem has many possible solutions. Stand in the belief that you and your team can find a better way to do anything you put your minds to.  Practice CANI—Constant and Never-Ending Improvement.

2.       Always question what you do and why you do it.  All too often tasks and projects creep into our processes that aren't necessarily in keeping with our mission and purpose.  Make sure everything you do is in alignment and produces the results intended.

3.       Challenge long-held beliefs. Just because something's always been done a certain way doesn't mean that it's still the best way.  As Anthony D'Angelo said, 'Just because something is tradition doesn't make it right.'

4.       Don't accept the first solution right away.  There are many possible solutions to every problem.  Most people go with the first plausible one that comes up and they miss the value of thinking longer and finding more effective and elegant answers.

5.       Read. You can't learn less.  The more you know about something, the more you find that you DON'T know.  By adding to your knowledge base, you find more and more associations.  And making associations is where seemingly magical things happen.

6.       Have fun. Coming up with ideas on how to do things faster, easier, with fewer resources really is fun.  And things that are fun to do get done more often.  Schedule regular brainstorming sessions and practice green-light thinking.  Order pizza for lunch and focus on a problem or process and generate as many ideas as you can.

7.       Get around people in different industries.  By stepping out of your familiar territory, you open the door to new and different viewpoints you can use to your advantage.

8.       Challenge your team to look deeper.  When Henry Ford asked his engineers to design the V-8 engine, they said it couldn't be done.  He said it WILL be done—and eventually, they did it.

9.       Make sure you have adequate 'moodling' time—time to do nothing.  When we're constantly engaged in DOING things, we don't provide the fertile ground for ideas to take root.

10.   Charge your subconscious. Give your mind something to work on while you sleep.  Select a problem you want solved, a process you would like improved or a new product you would like to create before going to bed and then forget about it.  Tell yourself you want at least three elegant ideas by the next day and then expect to receive them. Trust that it works.

And that's worth thinking about…

UPGRADE COLD LEADS TO REFERRAL STATUS

The primary reason people do business with you is they feel a high level of trust.  They trust you as a person, they trust your company, your product/service, and your price/value package.  This is why referred leads will consistently convert to clients 80%-to-100% of the time, while yellow page, or non-referred leads convert, at best, 20% of the time.  There’s a significant transferal of trust because of the mutual association with the referring person.  The idea here is to cause cold-calls to become warmer.

Creating a culture of referrals in your company. 

The underlying purpose would clearly be to accelerate the trust level your prospective clients/customers feel toward you and your company.  Here’s an idea you might use to achieve that.  Unfortunately, few companies ask new prospects "how did you hear about us?"  In doing so, it would help to track the return on investment of their marketing/advertising budget.  Even though most companies haven’t embraced this concept, I’d suggest you adjust your approach a degree or two further, and focus on gathering a variety of information that will enable you to connect the prospect to an existing, satisfied client.  Consider creating a script/process to gather additional information, such as:

·       where do they work, and have you done any work with other people at that firm

·       what do they do, and what other lawyers/teachers/insurance people, etc. have you worked with

·       where do they live and who else in that neighborhood, city, region, geography, or country have you done business with

Always be thinking about creating networks of inclusion.  Find a way to connect yourself to your prospect through a mutual association.  You’ll find trust levels soaring and sales closing faster and at a greater rate.

The Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs model in 1940-50s USA, and the Hierarchy of

Needs theory remains valid today for understanding human motivation, management training, and personal development. Indeed, Maslow's ideas surrounding the Hierarchy of Needs concerning the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfil their own unique potential (self-actualization) are today more relevant than ever. Abraham Maslow's book Motivation and Personality, published in 1954 (second edition 1970) introduced the Hierarchy of Needs, and Maslow extended his ideas in other work, notably his later book Toward A Psychology Of Being, a significant and relevant commentary, which has been revised in recent times by Richard Lowry, who is in his own right a leading academic in the field of motivational psychology.
Abraham Maslow was born in New York in 1908 and died in 1970, although various publications appear in Maslow's name in later years. Maslow's PhD in psychology in 1934 at the University of Wisconsin formed the basis of his motivational research, initially studying rhesus monkeys. Maslow later moved to New York's Brooklyn College.
The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs five-stage model below (structure and terminology - not the precise pyramid diagram itself) is clearly and directly attributable to Maslow; later versions of the theory with added motivational stages are not so clearly attributable to Maslow. These extended models have instead been inferred by others from Maslow's work. Specifically Maslow refers to the needs Cognitive, Aesthetic and Transcendence (subsequently shown as distinct needs levels in some interpretations of his theory) as additional aspects of motivation, but not as distinct levels in the Hierarchy of Needs.
Where Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is shown with more than five levels these models have been extended through interpretation of Maslow's work by other people. These augmented models and diagrams are shown as the adapted seven and eight-stage Hierarchy of Needs pyramid diagrams and models below.
There have been very many interpretations of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in the form of pyramid diagrams. The diagrams on this page are my own interpretations and are not offered as Maslow's original work. Interestingly in Maslow's book Motivation and Personality, which first introduced the Hierarchy of Needs, there is not a pyramid to be seen.
Free Hierarchy of Needs diagrams in pdf and doc formats similar to the image below are available from this page.

click to enlarge

(N.B. The word Actualization/Actualisation can be spelt either way. Z is preferred in American English. S is preferred in UK English. Both forms are used in this page to enable keyword searching for either spelling via search engines.)

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Each of us is motivated by needs. Our most basic needs are inborn, having evolved over tens of thousands of years. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs helps to explain how these needs motivate us all.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states that we must satisfy each need in turn, starting with the first, which deals with the most obvious needs for survival itself.
Only when the lower order needs of physical and emotional well-being are satisfied are we concerned with the higher order needs of influence and personal development.
Conversely, if the things that satisfy our lower order needs are swept away, we are no longer concerned about the maintenance of our higher order needs.
Maslow's original Hierarchy of Needs model was developed between 1943-1954, and first widely published in Motivation and Personality in 1954. At this time the Hierarchy of Needs model comprised five needs. This original version remains for most people the definitive Hierarchy of Needs.

http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence Theory (EQ - Emotional Quotient)

Emotional Intelligence - EQ - is a relatively recent behavioural model, rising to prominence with Daniel Goleman's 1995 Book called 'Emotional Intelligence'. The early Emotional Intelligence theory was originally developed during the 1970s and 80s by the work and writings of psychologists Howard Gardner (Harvard), Peter Salovey (Yale) and John 'Jack' Mayer (New Hampshire). Emotional Intelligence is increasingly relevant to organizational development and developing people, because the EQ principles provide a new way to understand and assess people's behaviours, management styles, attitudes, interpersonal skills, and potential. Emotional Intelligence is an important consideration in human resources planning, job profiling, recruitment interviewing and selection, management development, customer relations and customer service, and more.

The EQ concept argues that IQ, or conventional intelligence, is too narrow; that there are wider areas of Emotional Intelligence that dictate and enable how successful we are. Success requires more than IQ (Intelligence Quotient), which has tended to be the traditional measure of intelligence, ignoring essential behavioural and character elements. We've all met people who are academically brilliant and yet are socially and inter-personally inept. And we know that despite possessing a high IQ rating, success does not automatically follow.

Different approaches and theoretical models have been developed for Emotional Intelligence. This summary article focuses chiefly on the Goleman interpretation. The work of Mayer, Salovey and David Caruso (Yale) is also very significant in the field of Emotional Intelligence, and will in due course be summarised here too.

Emotional Intelligence - Two Aspects

This is the essential premise of EQ: to be successful requires the effective awareness, control and management of one's own emotions, and those of other people. EQ embraces two aspects of intelligence:

• Understanding yourself, your goals, intentions, responses, behaviour and all.
• Understanding others, and their feelings.

Emotional Intelligence - The Five Domains

Goleman identified the five 'domains' of EQ as:
Knowing your emotions.

1. Managing your own emotions.
2. Motivating yourself.
3. Recognising and understanding other people's emotions.
4. Managing relationships, i.e., managing the emotions of others.

Emotional Intelligence embraces and draws from numerous other branches of behavioural, emotional and communications theories, such as NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), Transactional Analysis, and empathy. By developing our Emotional Intelligence in these areas and the five EQ domains we can become more productive and successful at what we do, and help others to be more productive and successful too. The process and outcomes of Emotional Intelligence development also contain many elements known to reduce stress for individuals and organizations, by decreasing conflict, improving relationships and understanding, and increasing stability, continuity and harmony.

http://www.businessballs.com/eq.htm

What do you want to achieve? Goal Setting.

Why Set Goals?

Goal setting is used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your self confidence, as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you've set.

Many people feel as if they're adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile. A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and haven't set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

Starting to Set Personal Goals

You set your goals on a number of levels:

• First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.

This is why we start the process of goal setting by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.

Setting Lifetime Goals

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least, by a significant and distant age in the future). Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.

To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you):

• Career - What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
• Financial - How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals?
• Education - Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
• Family - Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
• Artistic - Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
• Attitude - Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
• Physical - Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
• Pleasure - How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!)
• Public Service - Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?

Spend some time brainstorming these things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best reflect what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals that you can focus on.

As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want. (If you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants - however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)

Setting Smaller Goals

Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan.

Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.

Then create a daily To Do List of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals. 

At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your higher level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.

Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.

Staying on Course

Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis.

Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience. (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary.)

SMART Goals

A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants (some of which we've included in parenthesis), SMART usually stands for:

• S - Specific (or Significant).
• M - Measurable (or Meaningful).
• A - Attainable (or Action-Oriented).
• R - Relevant (or Rewarding).
• T - Time-bound (or Trackable).

http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html