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It's Not Who You Hire -- It's Who You Fire By Lee Thayer

Firing someone is often a distasteful, sometimes painful, act. It is the end of something. Hiring someone is
usually full of hope and expectation. It can be exciting. It is the beginning of something.
Yet you don’t learn much when you hire someone. It often turns out to be not all you had hoped.
You could learn a great deal about yourself and about others from the process of firing someone, however.
If you can do a better job of firing, you could do a better job of hiring. The most direct way of learning how to do
a better job of hiring lies in what you can learn from the process of firing.

Here’s why:
• Hope and wishful thinking clouds your perspectives when you are hiring someone. But when you fire
someone, you are challenged to understand why.
• Firing can clear the lenses. It can be – ought to be – a very rational process. If you do it
right, you are dealing with bedrock criteria, not wishful thinking.
• If you can figure out why and how and when to fire someone, it will clarify why you went wrong in the
first place.
• If you did a perfect job of hiring people, you would have a perfect understanding of how
to fire people. But most organizations haven’t done a better job of hiring people in spite
of the tsunami of advice about how to do it.
• You have to come at it the other way around. There is no reliable recipe for doing a
perfect job of hiring. You have to learn from your failures – as all leaders have had to do.
• It is figuring out who needs to be fired and why that provides the clarity needed to get better and
better at hiring.

There are always the conventional reasons for firing someone: poor performance, redundancy, obsolescence,
RIF, attitude, and myriad others. There are reasons. And then there are the real reasons.
It is these real reasons the chief executive needs to uncover. You have to plow through the
verbiage and your own thinking to arrive at the real reasons. Was it a poor hire? Was it just a poor
“fit”? Was it the culture of the organization that was at fault? Was it the attitude of the person’s
peers? Was it the person’s boss? Could it even be you?

Done well, this kind of forensic exploration begins to illuminate better hiring practices by starting with reality
rather than the jargon of the day.
To the person targeted for being fired, there is often no correlation between the reasons offered
and that person’s assessment of his or her own performance. Big clue.

Here is the crunch issue:
The person being fired was probably not told at the time of hiring the specific reasons that
might lead to dismissal.
Three mistakes were likely made:
1. The person was probably provided with a list of activities to be performed. That’s the
way conventional “job descriptions” are constructed. There may have been some past
experience or credentials thrown in for the company to hedge its bets.
2. It was likely nothing was said about what was to be accomplished. You can’t measure
activities objectively. But you can measure accomplishments.
3. The person was most likely hired for a “job.” He or she was not hired to a role in the
organization’s future. It is the future that really matters, not the past. Past performance
does not predict well to future performance.

Competence is difficult to measure. So most organizations measure what’s easy to measure – the
financials. But, to use a provocative metaphor:
Financial performance can only be measured in the wake of the ship. It is where the ship is
headed that matters most. And then it is how it is powered and steered to get there.
It is full competence in every role in the organization that seals its fate. If you hire for full
competence to carry forward in a well-specified role, you won’t have to fire for incompetence.
A key ingredient of competence is being in the “learning mode.” The best evidence for being
in the “learning mode” is that the person performs his or her role better today than they did
yesterday. You fire for lack of that. Maybe you should hire for the presence of that.
And, if it isn’t necessary for the person to perform his or her role better, poor performance may
not be the person’s fault. It may be your fault for not making continuous improvement in every
role necessary.

What is necessary will likely happen. What is not necessary may not happen.
Every organization, like every person, arrives at a status quo – ways of doing things that take
precedence over doing them right. Percy Barnevik of ABB fame considered the status quo to be
the enemy. His suggestion? Kill it.
There are people who have one year’s experience repeated 20 times. They become deadwood.
How frequently do you clear the deadwood? Ranchers cull their herdsat least annually, in order to
get better breeding.
Jack Welch eliminated the bottom 10% of performers annually. That takes the uncertainty and pain out of firing.

Outstanding performers are disruptive of the status quo. They are therefore more likely than
mediocre performers to get the axe. If the culture of your organization is a safe haven for
mediocrity, you are not doing a good job of firing.
And if you aren’t, you can’t do a good job of hiring.
One of the hidden reasons for firing people is that they don’t seem able to learn from experience.
They never seem to get consistently better at what they do. Lesson? Make that explicit.
The best CEOs are not in their role to do the job. They are there to learn how to perform their role better today
than they did yesterday. They expect the same of others.
If that’s not why you are there, you should be fired. You are, after all, the exemplar.
The best time to fire someone is the day before you hire them. If you can do that, you will be doing a far, far
better job of hiring.

The bonus is that firing the wrong people for all the right reasons makes room for hiring more of the right
people for the right reasons. But you have to know clearly what those are.
This is why knowing the real reasons for firing people will help you to make better and better judgments about
hiring. In other words, the best way to get better at hiring is to get better at firing.
For what good reasons would you fire yourself? If you really figure that out, you
will do a far better job of hiring – including casting yourself in the right role.

Lee Thayer has been a CEO coach and consultant for 45+ years and is known worldwide
for his work “in the trenches” with executives to create high-performance organizations.
Dr.Thayer has also held distinguished professorships in many of the major universities
worldwide. His recent, acclaimed books include: Leadership: Thinking, Being, Doing; The Good Leader;
Leaders and Leadership; Leadership Virtuosity; How Leaders Think; Explaining Things and The Competent
Organization.

How to Ask During Negotiations

Try Interest-based Bargaining

Although negotiation has always been an important workplace skill, it has long been thought to be the province of men: a competitive realm in which men excelled and women felt less capable. But ideas about what makes a successful negotiation have changed in recent years. Rather than a battle between adversaries, negotiations has increasingly been seen as, ideally, a collaborative process aimed at finding the best solutions for everyone involved. This not only makes the process of negotiating less combative, it has been shown to produce superior agreements: everyone walks away with more of what he or she wants.

This change in attitude makes negotiation more attractive to women, because many women have disliked the competitive nature of much negotiation. In addition, people often react negatively to women behaving in competitive ways, making negotiations a less effective strategy for women to get what they want. The new understanding of negotiations as a collaborative process has eased this problem.

From Contest to Cooperation
The first step toward achieving both issue-related and relationship goals in a negotiation – and reducing negotiation anxiety – involves reframing the interaction. Approach it not as a contest or a competition, but as a chance to share ideas with the opposing negotiator and work together to solve problems that affect you both. When negotiators take steps to insure that the negotiation conversation unfolds as a collaborative dialogue rather than an adversarial contest, the process of negotiation can become far more productive and lead to solutions that would never have occurred to anyone independently.

One of the principal strategies recommended by Roger Fisher and William Ury in Getting to Yes involves using ‘interest-based’ rather than ‘position-based’ bargaining. This can be a great approach for maintaining and even improving the relationships because it focuses the negotiators’ efforts on ways to ‘attack the problem’ – figure out a good solution – without ‘attacking each other by fighting each others’ positions. Techniques for doing this include:

• Asking diagnostic questions (e.g., what problem are you trying to solve?)
• Sharing information about your own interests (e.g., this is important to me because…)
• Unbundling the issues or adding issues (e.g., is there a way for you to achieve what you want and achieve what I want?)
• Brainstorming about possible solutions rather than defending established positions (e.g., let’s try to think of ways to satisfy both of our needs)

   

These techniques appeal to many women because they don’t put relationships in jeopardy – and can significantly decrease their anxiety about negotiating. Women can also appreciate this approach because working together and fostering cooperation are already things that many women like to do and do well. When women need to change their behavior dramatically or act in ways that feel inconsistent with who they are, this tends to ramp up their anxiety, not lessen it. Trying to understand the needs, interests, and concerns of the other side often allows women to get to know the other negotiators better. This doesn’t merely produce superior outcomes; it can actually improve their relationships.

To get what she wants, a woman can’t be too aggressive or direct. Recent research has identified ways for women to be influential and effective without making themselves less likeable and bringing social sanctions down on their heads. This research has shown that for women, the key to safely and successfully exercising their influence is to ‘be nice.’ Like being likeable, ‘being nice’ is expected of women – it’s a gender norm requirement. To ‘be nice’, a woman must seem friendly, act concerned about the needs and feelings of others, and avoid being confrontational. Several research studies show that women are most influential when they are ‘friendly, cooperative, confident but non-confrontational, and considerate.’

When women go into a negotiation, in addition to arming themselves with information, ideas, and resolve, they must also bring an arsenal of friendly, non-threatening social mannerisms; they must be prepared to be cooperative and interested in the needs of others; and they must avoid being confrontational. This does not mean they need to back down or give in. Although this approach can often produce better results, many women may resent that women have to work so hard not to offend in this type of situation. Treading the fine line of appearing competent, ambitious, and competitive, but not at the expense of others, is a tall order. To the extent that women have to maintain a ‘bilingual’ impression of themselves (as both nice and able) in order not to be perceived as overbearing and dominant, their situation is more difficult and tenuous in comparison to their male counterparts.

This article was written for w2wlink by Marsha Clark. For more information and to check out more of Marsha Clark, visit http://tinyurl.com/3r6y4m8 and be ready for our online webinar on Oct. 11. You don't want to miss it.

Recharge for Family and Work

Work/Life Balance

Professional women often think, "Vacation—are you kidding? With all these work projects and responsibilities and laundry building up?" Yet, a vacation is probably just what is needed to enhance productivity and creativity at work, as well as better functioning in the family. If you are not sure you need a brief getaway, take this short quiz. Read these statements and count how many of them describe you.

Do I Need a Vacation?

 1. I’m snapping more at my spouse or family.

2. I am not as productive at work.

3. I have been getting more colds, headaches or stomach upsets.

4. At night I feel as though I’ve "hit the wall" and just collapse into bed.

5. My husband and I are living friendly but separate lives.

6. The household looks as though a tornado hit it.

If three or more of these statements apply to you, then you would benefit from a vacation. Here are six tips about how a getaway can help.

Tips on the Benefits of Short Vacations

1. Knowing you are going away increases your effectiveness at work. You get more focused and say no to the less urgent things at work—like going out to lunch or running across town to that new wine store. The prospect of a vacation can also spark better family functioning. Suddenly, mom realizes, for example, that she is doing too many of the family tasks. Preparing for the vacation heightens her awareness that she needs to delegate some of the family responsibilities to her spouse and children.

2. As work and family life get out of control, the stress hormone cortisol compromises health and effectiveness. Bodies need a break from being in overdrive for too long.

3. Brains need a vacation from stress hormones. When there is a work problem, over-concentrating on it blocks out good ideas. The brain repeats a person’s problem-solving habits. Using the same techniques lessens the expression of new solutions. Remember when a "lightning bolt of an idea" hit you while driving, cooking or taking a shower? This phenomenon happens when the brain is freed up to activate other neurons that permit new thoughts. So, try lying on the beach, strolling through a quaint town or bird watching to allow the brain to relax its focus and invite in new plans.

4. Busy professional, married women sometimes short-change their spouses emotionally. Vacations provide time to renew passion and closeness. A refreshed marriage produces the calming hormones that counteract the negative side effects of too many stress hormones.

5. If you include your children on your vacation, you strengthen your relationships with them. When you and your children are having fun is one of the best times to introduce new family rules and responsibilities. During fun times because the brain’s pleasure hormones dominate, they can blunt children’s potential negative reactions to increased tasks and expectations.

6. Brief vacations prompt a family to build a vacation fund by becoming more frugal and wise about spending. For example, each member can ask: "Do we really need to buy potato chips, ice cream or the latest magazine?" At the end of every week, family members contribute their savings to the vacation fund.

Go ahead, take some time to recharge. Everyone will benefit.

This article was written for w2wlink.com by LeslieBeth  Wish.

Build Your Business While Making a Difference

Social Responsibility for Professional Women

We all have at least one cause that’s dear to our hearts, a tragedy we'd ike to help alleviate, or an injustice we’d like to remedy.  But it’s not easy to take time away from our hectic lives to raise money for charity, especially if we have a business to run.  Yet we can use the business to raise funds for the charity, and the fundraising can actually help the business grow. How do we do it?

Believe in our cause, and utilize what we've already established in our businesses to advance our philanthropic goals.

I won’t lie. It takes time and a great deal of ingenuity. But it’s well worth the effort. By creating a partnership between your business and the cause of your heart, you create a symbiotic relationship that enhances both. The more you build your business, the more power you have to make an impact on those less fortunate, and the more you make a difference, the more successful your business will become.

Too good to be true? It’s not. Believing in your cause is at the very center.  When my youngest son was diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes nearly six years ago, I’d just seen the publication of my tenth book. I was a busy mother of five, helping my husband run our energy-conservation lighting company while fulfilling my writing contracts for two and sometimes three books a year. I had the deep desire to "save" my son and others like him from the devastating effects of diabetes, which is the fifth deadliest killer. But I didn’t know where to start. Neither did I think I could eek one more minute out of my day.

That all changed the night I went to a silent auction at my son’s elementary school. As I stood there, staring at all the fabulous items up for auction, it occurred to me that I already possessed the ability to make a difference and could do it in conjunction with my work.

I went home from that fundraiser so excited I couldn’t sleep. Because of my books, I’d already established a lot of traffic at my Web site. My idea was to utilize that traffic, to ask my readers to join forces with me in raising money to fight diabetes.

I did that via Brenda Novak’s Annual On-line Auction for Diabetes Research, which runs May 1 – May 31st at www.brendanovak.com. The first year I raised $34,982; the second year, $62,700; the third year, $153,750 for a total of over $250,000 in just three events. And it all stemmed from my business, and my business grew along the way.

Can you do the same thing? Of course. The secret is this: You must feel absolutely passionate about the cause you choose, that usually means there has to be a personal connection. It’s your passion that drives your philanthropic success--your business is just the vehicle.

Written originally for w2wlink.com by business woman and best selling novelist, Brenda Novak.

 

Four Steps to Help Improve and Spotlight Your Value

Strategy for Professional Women

Is there “buzz” about you in your company or industry? Do people frequently come to you asking for your expertise or input? Is your value to your employer or client obvious? 

As a professional woman, building a positive reputation for yourself within your company or industry can generate more opportunities, bigger promotions, better projects and more money!

One of the biggest mistakes many women leaders make is avoiding the spotlight. Time after time, our women clients tell us stories of being “lost in the shuffle” when it comes time for promotions and opportunities. Most of the time, it’s not because they lack the skills or the ambition to rise up in the ranks, but because they’re not visible within their organizations.

Our client Carla was a brilliant EVP for a global financial services firm. She led a team of hundreds and her division was outperforming others within the company. But she came to us with a concern – she felt she wouldn’t rise up the ranks to the management team because no one really knew her successes. 

After speaking with Carla’s colleagues – we confirmed her suspicions. Sure, they all knew her division performed well, but that’s about it. No one knew about her personal leadership qualities that had led her team to success. No one really knew what Carla had to say outside of her formulaic updates at meetings.

It turns out Carla felt she was too busy to step up to speak at company conferences and events. She shunned the public relations department when they came to her looking for expertise for industry journals or other publications.  The bottom line: Carla wasn’t putting a priority on visibility. In a dog-eat-dog world, being visible is essential to standing out from the pack. 

Here are four ways to help ensure your value to the company is recognized:

1. Talk about BIG ideas.

Women tend to speak very specifically about projects or ideas. We like to talk details! But in business, companies and teams need leaders who speak strategically. In EVERY conversation, meeting, presentation or speech  you need to be talking about BIG ideas. To really become known as a leader, you need to motivate and inspire every audience with your strategy. 

2. Seek out speaking opportunities.

Speaking is one of the best ways to become known as a leader and share your expertise with the world. But you can’t just sit around and wait for conference planners to come calling. Put yourself out there and let people know you want to speak. If you work for a large company, your marketing department would probably love for you to offer yourself as a speaker. If you have your own company, it’s even more important that you get out and speak about what you know and do. Call every meeting planner or conference planner you can think of where you can get on stage and shine in front of the right people.

3. Polish your spotlight presence.

Your presence is much more than your wardrobe or grooming. A leadership presence means paying attention to your body language. A leader has good posture, makes eye contact with others, has a firm handshake, and shows appropriate facial expressions. Leaders don’t rush into meetings late with things falling out of their arms. They walk into a room like they OWN it.

Your posture, demeanor, voice, gestures and expressions all communicate your confidence and your ability as a leader.

4. Offer to lead a women’s initiative or other company project.

Many companies have their own programs solely for advancing the skills of their women employees. Many law firms and professional services firms host networking events for their clients and the business community. Whatever your company does, get involved! Even better, offer to lead a project! The contacts you make will be invaluable, your name will be plastered all over promotional materials and press hits, and your visibility will skyrocket. 

Visibility isn’t a want, it's a need, if you’re going to stand out among the other experienced, knowledgeable leaders in your company or industry. Avoiding the spotlight might mean you have more time to dig in the weeds and do the “day-to-day” work, but it also means you’ll fail to be recognized as a leader. Create visibility for yourself by seeking out the spotlight then embrace the possibilities!

Written originally for w2wlink.com by Sarah Woods.

 

Set a Standard of High Expectations With Accountability

Advice for Women in Leadership

Professional ball teams with a chance of getting to the championship set high performance standards for their team members. It is imperative that professional women in leadership positions do the same in business.

It has been my experience in consulting with organizations the past seven years that few business leaders are consistent enough in communicating job performance expectations. Even fewer do a good job of holding their employees accountable to the expected job performance. This is a lesson women business leaders must learn.

The reason this is an important area for business women to focus on is that a recent study of 34,000 employees showed 60 percent of those who reported their companies were doing too little to correct poor employee performance said they were not positively engaged in their work. On the flip side the survey showed that 73 percent who believed their company did address poor performers were positively engaged in their work.

On championship athletic teams, poor performance is not tolerated. Under performers are held accountable and replaced. Although in the business world it is more difficult to replace employees from a practical, tactical and legal standpoint, professional women need to understand that it should be just as easy to set clear expectations for employees and hold them accountable to those performance expectations.

If a standard of high expectations is the norm within a company culture, team members that are a fit for that type of culture appreciate the fact that they and their team members are held to a high standard and, as such, will participate in holding each other accountable to the standard.

Another key for women in leadership positions to remember is that they must also hold themselves to the same high standards expected of others in the organization. They must model the behavior they expect from their team members. The quickest way to lose the engagement of otherwise positive, high-performing employees is to show up with a "do as I say, not as I do" leadership style.

At a leadership conference many years ago, I heard retired Army General Norman Schwartzkopf give a keynote address in which he discussed this very subject, saying, "Successful organizations set high standards. When high standards are set and clearly communicated, more times than not, people will work to meet and even exceed those standards." This is the foundation of any championship team.

In working with both male and female business leaders, I’ve noticed two challenges to applying this approach. The first is that leaders fail to set and communicate the high performance standards for fear of being seen as too demanding or autocratic. The second, which is related to the first, is the fear of not being liked.

I’ve learned from my own personal experience that it is much better to be respected than liked. If, as a business leader, you try to be liked, you will end up being neither liked nor respected. If you lead by communicating clear expectations with specific accountabilities and you give your people the latitude to learn from their mistakes while celebrating and reinforcing their wins, you will be both respected and liked.

This is the reputation to which professional women on their way to leadership roles should be aspiring.

Written originally for w2wlink.com by Skip Weisman. Contact Skip at www.weismansuccessresources.com.

Women in Business awards honoree

Lisbeth McNabb has been nominated for the Women in business award through the Dallas Business Journal. Send her your congrats!

 

 

The Top Two Secrets of Successful Professional Women

Tips on Effective Leadership

A number of years ago the Catalyst group did a survey of women in fortune 500 companies who were at the VP level or higher. They asked them to describe the behaviors that led to their success. The number one answer at 71 percent was “exceeding expectations.” The number two answer at 67 percent was “communicating with men in a manner with which men were comfortable.”

How to view it: In a recent article here on w2wlink.com, a different study from Catalyst reports the “damned if you do and doomed if you don’t” double bind that professional women face. It is very helpful to know that both Sylla, Charybdis exist. The trick is to know how to sail your boat between them (Yes, I get the irony of using this Greek metaphor – I simply do not know the male counterpart).

The fact is that these double standards exist and will continue to exist for some time. As an individual, you need to know how to sail these waters successfully. And according to professional women who have already succeeded, exceeding expectations and learning how to communicate successfully are your two top tools for success. The more awareness you have the more power and real choice you have. 

How to Do it: In order to exceed expectations, you need to know what the expectations are. Make sure you and your superiors know what the goal is and how it is going to be measured. Do not assume that they know what the goals are or how they will be measured. Once you know what the goals and measures are you can make sure that you invest your energies wisely to meet and exceed those goals. Then when the time comes to review what you have done, you can say, “Wow The goal was ‘x’ and I achieved ‘X’+30%.”

With respect to communicating in a manner with which men are comfortable, there are many things you can do, including reading my other articles that are often about this topic. In today’s article I want to introduce to you the concept of “communicating with the 4 C’s to increase your ability to make men feel comfortable with you.” (We only have space here to talk about the first two.) The four C’s are Confidence of message, Clarity of message, Coolness of message and Consistency of message.

There are two aspects to confidence. One is masculine (in the Yin and Yang sense) and one is feminine. The masculine version of confidence is assertiveness. The feminine counterpart is assuredness. Assertiveness communicates the idea of  “I will do it.” Assuredness communicates the idea of “It will be done.” Professional women (and men for that matter) need a balance of both. There is clearly a male double standard when it comes to women acting assertively. My experience has shown me that women who only try to develop their assertiveness crash on the rocks of appearing too aggressive. The way to navigate the passage is to also develop assuredness. (Developing assuredness will get a future article.) In order to get a sense of assuredness, think of times that you simply knew that a goal would be achieved, without a sense of over striving. In sports it is being “in the zone.” One woman I talked with said that it never occurred to her that a man would not listen to her and take her point of view seriously. Make sure you develop your assertiveness and assuredness evenly.

Clarity of message is a much easier concept. The idea of getting clear and specific expectations and measurements is an example of clarity of message. 

Another example is to be short and to the point. Refrain from giving too many explanations that justify your point (This is a behavioral aspect of assuredness.)   

Get rid of “qualifiers” in your speech patterns. These include phrasing statements as questions, such as, “Do you think we need to increase the budget 10 percent?” when you really mean to make a statement. “ I think we need to ...”   

Reduce the use of disclaimers such as: “I am not sure … if this is the best way to solve the problem. …”

Eliminate non-assured hedge words such as: sort of, maybe, perhaps (unless you are doing it on purpose for strategic reasons).  

Finally, abolish the use of tag questions such as, "Okay?" and, "Do you know what I mean?"



www.marsvenusatwork.com
bob@marsvenusatowrk.com

 

To share or not to share? What a question!

As successful business owners and corporate executives, many of us struggle with finding a good balance between being fierce leaders and taking the glory and profit of our hard work versus sharing the profit and the responsibility of the risk. Over the past few years, I have been involved in several initiatives, some small, some large, where some of the ventures died before they saw the light of the day, as people around the boardroom struggled with, well, sharing the pie!

In the beginning, the honeymoon-stage made everyone feel like the sharing was fine. However, as negotiations became tighter, you could feel the tension in the atmosphere, as the refinement of the deals and the desire to take it all became more tangible.

Let’s do the math: if I have a pie to share and this pie represents 100 pieces and you and I decide to split the pie in half, we would both have 50 pieces each, correct? If we then invited others to play with us and we decided to divide the pie into five equal parts, then each would take 20 pieces home. I’m working very hard now and would really prefer to get 50 or even 100 slices of this pie. If I will work 24/7 either way, and I know I will take full responsibility, then I want the whole pie for me!

This is one of the hardest of dilemmas for business owners and for top executives, often restricting the potential for growth. Here are some suggestions that will hopefully assist you as you are making the big decision on whether to expand on your own project or to seek for cross-collaborative opportunities or business associations:
1) Know Thyself: I don’t mean to repeat myself, but some people love to play solo. That’s fine. If I hear, though: “I’ve had five partners and my business associations ended in legal trouble,” then I’d say, like in a marriage, associations may not be for you, unless you really want to work on making this association work. Examine what worked in the past and what didn’t work for you. Outline the lessons-learned, to have a better idea of what may work – or not – in the future.

2) Take your time to evaluate pros and cons: Why are you seeking for a partnership? Is your company going under and you need new blood? Are you exhausted from working 24/7 and you would truly like to enjoy sharing the responsibility? Or do you love to have the opportunity to work hard on your own and have fun working with other high-accomplishing individuals? Is this a great time for you and your company to grow?

3) If you truly want to expand and move on to the next level, though, this may be a good time to think about how you could broaden your pie and find other talented collaborators who could complement your abilities, bringing value and fresh stamina to your venture. Use this as your barometer: although your associates should complement your capabilities, they should bring a comparable amount of energy and dedication in order for the partnership to work.

4) Do the Math: If you work on your own and your pie consists of 100 units, if you bring four additional associates who bring their own experience, knowledge and business acumen they may help expand the pie to, say, 1,000 units; then, you would have duplicated your whole asset in number of units! True, you are now sharing the pie with more people, but your piece of the pie has just doubled!

5) Court your alliances: Of course, get to know your potential associates and ensure that you do all the preliminary work to determine whether you will be able to work together. Check to see that they have a great track record and inquire about how their past associations worked for them: are they liked by past partners, employers, colleagues, associates, spouses and children? (I come from an Italian family and I am a woman, so I will look closely at how they treat their family, waiters, strangers and even their pets!)

Creating collaborative opportunities can grow your company exponentially. Think whether partnering with other talented individuals holds the key to your growth.

3 Tips to Improve Your Communications

Communication Skills for Women in Business

There are many different communication styles, and your communication style determines how you manage your projects and your people. Communication styles are categorized in a multitude of ways. Various personality type indicators are one way communication styles are classified. Neurolinquistics label communications styles by the five senses. Although these are effective ways to understand and work with communication styles, there is a simpler approach that makes a big difference when understood: Are you predominantly a reader/writer or a speaker/listener?

One kind of communicator prefers to be briefed on issues by being spoken to. She will ask that you read though any long documentation and give a spoken summary or written summary with a verbal walk-through. She prefers to be called or met with rather than emailed. According to Peter Drucker, 50 percent of the Presidents of the United States have been reader/writers and 50 percent speaker/listeners, The Effective Executive (Drucker, 2002).

The other kind of communicator has an affinity for reading documents and would rather be handed a report to spend time analyzing and reviewing. The reader/writer communicator would also rather give written instruction and direction. The reader/writer prefers as little spoken dialog as possible at the extreme end of the communication spectrum.

Although both communicators will expect written documentation with the same level of thoroughness and comprehensive coverage, one will prefer to be talked through the information and refer to it as needed, while the other will not appreciate dialog. To realize that you are one kind of communicator and someone you work with may simply be another – can be an "aha" moment that helps make work go much smoother.

Three tips on managing to maximize work based on knowing your communication style and surmising that of those with whom you work:

Let your team know what kind of communication you prefer when there is latitude for more freedom of style and when you must have adherence to a particular format, such as for an accounting or expense document.
Understand that people have differing communication styles and respect others’ style as much as possible, especially as they lead in their areas and projects.
In creating teams, try to place individuals together who have similar styles when possible and encourage team members to compromise and work with each others' differing styles and preferences.

Since communication is a means to get a project done or facilitate the way someone works, workers respect, value and find empowering the freedom to manage their projects using their own communication style. They perform better the more they can control this aspect of their work. Sources for more information on communication styles include: Loosen Up Your Communication Style at Harvard Business Working Knowledge and Business Communication Styles at relationships911.org.