3 Truths No One Tells You About Running a Business

There are issues entrepreneurs routinely face that you won't hear about in a business school classroom.

We all know the grim statistics about small businesses. One example: Ninety-five percent of the businesses that launch this year will not exist by 2019. I am convinced that this stat is caused by far more than a lack of money on the part of some unfortunate business owners. It's not business debt, and it's not the economy, either.

It is something in the mindset of these business owners. Some people just don't know what to expect when they start a company. So I thought I'd take a few minutes to share some truth.

1. Problem Solving Is Your New Job

You're going to encounter challenges and obstacles from the day you open your doors. You won't even be able to visualize these challenges before they land in your lap.

Some of these challenges will make you want to give up. And you will give up--if you don't accept the fact that your new title is "Chief Problem Solver." You have to get out there and attack your problems from every possible angle if you want to be successful.

If you aren't ready to jump these hurdles, your business is going to fail, even if you have an awesome new product, a plan to market it, and plenty of money to invest in your new business.

In any given month, I encounter problems that could easily drive any normal person to the brink of insanity. Remember all the office drama you used to avoid? It all started landing on my desk. It's going to land on yours, too.

Early in my career, I wasn't ready for this, and I almost quit, too. I wasn't sleeping. I felt like I was losing my mind. It wasn't clear yet that all of this was going to be worth it.

Now, after 10 years of running my own business, I welcome new problems. I now know they are a chance to grow my business, and grow my own skills as a business owner. You can come out the other side, too--if you prepare yourself for what lies ahead, and if you commit to embracing it.

2. You Get Paid Last

Trust me, it took me a while to grasp this one.

Your employees, vendors, contractors, landlords, and utility providers must all get their checks before you do. If there is anything left over when all of these checks are written, then, and only then, do you get to pay yourself.

You're out of business on the day that you can't pay all of these people. This is especially true if you have employees. If you miss even one paycheck, there will be an uproar in your office. You will kill morale, lose employee trust, and open yourself up to legal problems.

Failing to pay vendors and contractors on time is just as bad. It ruins relationships. The loss of these relationships will soon cause issues within your organization as you drop to the bottom of these people's priority lists.

And I don't think I have to tell you what happens if you don't pay your rent and utilities.

Just getting started? I promise it's going to be months before you ever see a check. Make sure you have money set aside to pay your personal bills during the lean months. Cut your personal expenses if you have to, because there is no way around this reality.

3. There Are No Vacations or Sick Days

You think you're working hard now? Wait until you start your own business.

You're going to get into the office early. You'll end up staying late and working through the weekends. You have to. You're now at the head of a machine that runs 24/7/365. People are depending on you. Until your organization grows, you'll be faced with enough work for literally seven people, or more.

I'm not exaggerating or pulling this number out of a hat. In my current company, we actually do have seven people doing the one job I took on when we started. I worked 12-hour days six days a week for more than two years.

So if you tell me you want to start a business because you're just working too hard now, please don't take it personally if I laugh. It is simply the laugh of someone who knows the truth.

BY LOGAN CHIEROTTI  @LOGANCHIEROTTI

5 Habits That Will Help Spark The Best Ideas You've Ever Had!

There's no magic trick for generating genius ideas, but these habits will have your creative juices flowing--with some practice.

 

What if whenever someone asked you a question, you had tons of innovative ideas waiting in response? You would be a hot commodity; who doesn’t want an ideas machine? Unfortunately for those who want this power, the science behind the eureka moment is tricky. While cultivating great ideas is a process that can’t quite be produced at a moment’s notice, you can get better at thinking in ways that open yourself up to inspiration and, hopefully, generating better ideas.

Below are some ways to push yourself to having the best ideas you’ve ever had:

1. Train Yourself To Think In “Crisis” Mode

According to author James Altucher, you need to be in a constant state of panic and up against the wall for your creative brain to really kick into gear. He writes:

“States of panic are special and have to be revered. Think about the times in your life that you remember--it’s exactly those moments when you hit bottom and were forced to come up with ideas, to get stronger, to connect with some inner force inside you with the outer force.”

The problem is, most of us are not constantly in this frenzy state (hopefully) so we can’t just come up with amazing ideas at a moment’s notice. So what do you do? Altucher says you have to train yourself to think in crisis mode and compares it to when a runner reaches the point of exhaustion, then miraculously discovers the “second wind” sometimes known as a “runner’s high.”
This high is the eureka moment when really good ideas happen, but to get there, you must be in good shape or you’ll never be able to push past the point of exhaustion. Similar to training your body, training your brain to think past this point of exhaustion, this “crisis” mode, is crucial.

2. Practice, Practice, Practice

To train your mind, you need to constantly be thinking of ideas even when you don’t necessarily need them. Altucher writes about his system:

Take a waiter’s pad. Go to a local cafe. Maybe read an inspirational book for 10 to 20 minutes. Then start writing down ideas. The key here is, write 10 ideas … a waiter’s pad is too small to write a whole novel or even a paragraph. In fact, it’s specifically made to make a list. And that’s all you want, a list of ideas.

Do this every day. Just like your muscles don’t start to build and form until your sweat, you also need to make your brain sweat by coming up with at least 10 ideas whenever you sit down for your ideas sessions.

3. Write Everything Down

In his book, A Technique for Producing Ideas, James Webb Young says that one of the principles of producing ideas “depends largely on the ability to see relationships.” Many of the thoughts we have throughout the day are bits and pieces of knowledge that are separate unless an “aha” moment links them. To get there faster, write every one of those bits and pieces of knowledge you think of down.
Once you’ve collecting your thoughts, your materials will be waiting when your brain is ready to make the connection.

4. Mix Things Up And Distract Yourself

When you need to come up with specific ideas for a problem, consider mixing up your usual environment. Rachel Sklar, cofounder of Change The Ratio and The Li.st, tells Fast Company she prefers to stay on the go so that her “brain can whirl without distraction.”
The distraction that happens when you mix things up is exactly what your brain needs when it comes to creativity, according to Harvard psychologist Shelley H. Carson, author of Your Creative Brain.

5. Let Your Mind Wander

When your mind wanders, you’re usually in a state of relaxation and this is exactly the reason why so many brilliant ideas happen during baths and showers. According to neurologist Alice Flaherty, these happy, relaxed times release dopamine in your brain and the more dopamine that’s released, the more creative power you’ll hold. Hence, showers, walks, and runs are prime times to have a eureka moment.

When considering the tricks above, remember that idea sessions, like everything else, take practice and process to make perfect. There’s certainly no magic formula, but a process can help your ideas flow more freely and help you make the connections you need to have more and better “aha” moments.

Article by Vivian Giang.

5 Tips for Off-the-Cuff Speaking by John Coleman

If it’s true that many people fear public speaking more than death, it’s equally true that businesspeople are condemned to a thousand small deaths in client pitches, in boardrooms, and on stage. And that death can turn slow and torturous when you are asked to speak unexpectedly with little or no time to prepare. One of the key demands of business is the ability to speak extemporaneously. Whether giving an unexpected “elevator pitch” to a potential investor or being asked at the last minute to offer remarks to a sales team over dinner, the demands for a business person to speak with limited preparation are diverse, endless, and — to many — terrifying.

I became more comfortable with these situations through one of my primary activities in college, competitive public speaking called “forensics” (from the Latin “forensis,” which means “in an open court, public”). In forensics, one of my favorite categories was “limited preparation” in which we were given between 1 and 30 minutes to prepare a 5–7 minute speech. The lessons learned in those limited preparation events have paid huge dividends to my work in business. They carried me through my first consulting case interviews right out of college. They’ve helped me address complex questions from bosses and board members. And they’ve helped me when I’ve been put on the spot to address college classes and new analyst training sessions.

No matter your position, they can also be useful to you. Here are a few of the tips I picked up along the way:

1. Define a structure: The pressure of extemporaneous remarks comes from their ambiguity. What do I say? What do I not say? The worst and most stressful business speeches are those that ramble without purpose. In forensics we’d tackle this issue by quickly drafting a structure on a notecard to support our main point — often an introduction, two or three supporting points, and a conclusion. With these on paper, it was easy to fill in the details with stories, examples, and statistics. Now, when I’m asked to offer unexpected remarks over dinner or at a board meeting, I grab a napkin, notebook, or the back of a PowerPoint deck and jot down my main argument and some key supporting points. Then I fill out the examples and data I need to make those points — usually in 20 words or less. Any ambiguity or tendency to ramble evaporates.

2. Put the punchline first: When I worked in consulting, one of the cardinal rules of communication was “punchline first.” Any presentation should have a clear thesis stated up front so that listeners can easily follow and interpret the comments that follow. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen business presenters ramble through a speech with the audience wondering to the very end about the point of the comments. Giving a good business speech is not like telling a good joke. Don’t save the punchline for the end.

3. Remember your audience: All it takes is a few lines to make an audience feel acknowledged and a speech feel fresh. Tie the city in which you are speaking into your introduction. Draw parallels between the organization you’re addressing and one of the stories you tell. Mention someone by name, connecting them to the comments you’re offering. These are small gestures, but they make your remarks more tailored and relevant.

4. Memorize what to say, not how to say it: How many times have you practiced exactly how to say something in your head then frozen up or completely forgotten in the moment? In forensics speeches, we’d often have 5–10 citations to remember, 3–4 examples with names and places, and 3–4 supporting statistics. That’s a lot to research and remember in 30 minutes or less. The trick was this: We’d focus on memorizing key stories and statistics, rather than practicing our delivery. If you spend your time on how to say something perfectly, you’ll stumble through those phrasings, and you’ll forget all the details that can make them come alive. Or worse, you’ll slavishly read from a PowerPoint or document rather than hitting the high points fluidly with your audience. If you know your topic, the words will come.

5. Keep it short: Blaise Pascal once famously commented, “I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter.” While it seems like the challenge of speaking with limited preparation would be finding enough to say, the opposite is often true. When at a loss for words, many of us underestimate the time we need — cramming in so many stories and points that we run well over our time and dilute our message. No one will appreciate your economy of words more than your listeners, so when in doubt, say less.

There’s no substitute for practice in offering impromptu remarks, and there are many things to consider when preparing for a great talk. But mastering a few basics, like those above, can make these public comments less stressful to prepare and easier for audiences to hear.

How to be a Perfect '10' When it Comes to Sales!

Selling can affect your psyche.

Losing a sale makes us feel bad, closing a sale gets us excited, approaching an unresponsive prospect makes us uncomfortable. But our daily sales interactions can seriously affect how we feel. It takes a conscious effort to address those feelings. Addressing our emotions about selling can be difficult, but taking sales personally can be overcome with five seconds of guts. The five seconds of guts is used to consciously focus on your personal feelings of self-worth and reaffirm that your role as a salesperson cannot influence your personal value.

During a training session, I was discussing the difference between personal identity and role performance with the group. I asked a question that is challenging to answer publicly, especially in a group of peers. The question was, “So we know that on a scale of 1 to 10 we should view ourselves as a 10, but how many people in this room can honestly say in their heart of hearts that they are confident they are a 10 no matter how they perform their job?”

Only one woman in the room, Carol, had the guts to raise her hand. I was a little skeptical, thinking that Carol was just providing the answer she thought I wanted to hear. It’s rare that I come across a salesperson that has such confidence without putting a conscious effort into maintaining identity value.

So I said, “Carol, I’m shocked. I’ll often have people say 8 or 9 but it’s very rare that someone confidently says they are a 10. Why are you a 10?”

All eyes went to Carol. One person actually said, “Yeah, how can you be a 10? You’re saying you have no room for improvement?”

Carol didn’t wilt for a second. Her explanation has become a common way I describe mustering the guts to maintain a strong personal identity regardless of role.

Carol said, “I used to compete in gymnastics through college. Many times the competitions got really intense and lots of gymnasts really beat themselves up if they performed poorly. I did as well up until high school when something occurred to me. Before I start my routine I am a 10. As I finish my routine, the judges detract points for the errors I make. But after getting my score, no matter how poor it is, I default back to a 10 for my next routine. I’ve defaulted to that system in my sales career. I’m always a 10. Prospects and clients can detract points from how I perform, but I start the day as a 10 and I will start tomorrow as a 10.”

That is the essence of a strong personal identity. Even when performance is poor, it doesn’t mean that you as a person should feel that reflects on you as a person. Every morning Carol took her five seconds to reaffirm that once again she had defaulted back to a 10.

It’s critical to have a strong personal self image because we will perform consistently to the manner we view ourselves. Tens expect to perform like a 10 and typically do. Those with a lower self-image will lower their personal expectations because they feel they are incapable of performing as a 10. If we confuse our role performances with our values as a human being, our self-image will go up and down with each performance. We constantly work to bring our performance into line with that self-image. Without a 10 rating for our self-image, our role performance will be limited.

by Matt Neuberger, Matt Neuberger is the president of Neuberger & Co.

Score a Meeting with Just About Anyone

We’re all inundated with meeting requests these days. It’s easy to say no to the egregious ones, like the stranger who recently emailed me to suggest that I meet with him on a specific date so I could provide him with free career coaching. But — though I know better than to ask for pro bono resume critiques — I’ve certainly been on the other side of the equation at various times, having my meeting requests turned down or ignored altogether. In fact, most of us probably have; in an increasingly time-pressed world, almost no one has the leisure to connect “just because.”

Here are the strategies I’ve learned over time to ensure the people I want to meet are more likely to say yes.

Recognize where you’re starting. A good friend can easily drop you a line letting you know they’ll be in your city and suggesting a meetup. “You can write with a presumptive tone at certain levels of intimacy,” Keith Ferrazzi, the author of the networking classic Never Eat Alone, told me during a recent interview. “But you have to lead with certain degrees of currency when you don’t have that level of intimacy.” In other words, strangers should never presume that the other person wants to connect with them — that fact needs to be established first. So in your initial message, you need to give them a good reason (the “currency” that Ferrazzi mentions), which could be anything from a PR opportunity (such as interviewing them for your blog) to something you can teach them  (how to improve their search engine optimization) to the opportunity to connect with another guest they want to meet at your dinner party. Make clear the value proposition of getting to know you; otherwise, it’s far too easy for them to underestimate you and assume you don’t have anything to offer.

Start with a modest ask. An hour or a half-hour doesn’t seem like a lot of time. But if you’re one of 20 or 50 requests that week — which isn’t an uncommon number for busy professionals to receive — it can quickly become overwhelming. So don’t ask to meet for lunch; aim smaller, so it’s easy to say yes (a strategy I describe in “How to Land an Interview with a Cold Call”). I recently agreed to a phone conversation with one aspiring author who vowed in his email, “You must have a full schedule, so I will get to the point quickly and can keep the call to less than 10 minutes.” In the end, I didn’t speak with the author for 10 minutes; our call, which proved to be engaging, lasted 30 — despite the fact that I likely would have rejected a request for that amount of time. That’s the same strategy that well-known psychologist Robert Cialdini discovered in his early research on door-to-door fundraising campaigns for the United Way. Adding five words to the standard pitch — “even a penny would help” — doubled contributions. “Because how can you say no if even a penny is acceptable?” Cialdini told me in an interview for my forthcoming book. “We doubled the number of people who gave and no one [actually] gave a penny. You don’t give a penny to United Way; you give a donation that’s appropriate.”

Always find a warm lead. No matter how successful you are professionally, there are always going to be some people you’d like to meet that haven’t yet heard of you. The challenge is to break through and ensure they view you as a colleague — someone “like them” — rather than a stranger impinging on their time. Finding mutual contacts is one of the best ways to do it. Even Ferrazzi, known for his networking prowess, still has “aspirational contacts” he’d like to meet. In those cases, he says, “I leverage others to help with outreach.” Facebook, with its “mutual friends” function, makes this simple; LinkedIn — which charts connections out to the second and third degree — makes it even easier. Having shared contacts introduce you puts you on peer footing and gets your relationship off to the right start.

Just as sitting is apparently the new smoking, time is the new money. No one can afford to give it away carelessly these days. If you’re asking someone you don’t know for a half-hour, or even 10 minutes, you have to think of your request like you’re making a VC pitch. Why should they speak to you? How can you establish your credibility upfront? How will it benefit them? How can you pack the greatest ROI into the shortest time? If you can answer those questions well, you should be able to get a meeting with just about anyone.

Dorie Clark is a strategy consultant and speaker for clients such as Google, Yale University, Microsoft, and the World Bank. She is an Adjunct Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future. Follow her on Twitter at @dorieclark.

Leaders Who Take No for an Answer Build Trust

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inCharlie is a charming, highly persuasive marketing executive for a growing technology company. He’s a delight to work with — until you tell him what he’s asking for isn’t possible.

Then, his charm rapidly dissipates. On a good day, you’ll get a reptilian smile with, “I’m sure someone with as many years in the business can find a way to make this work”; on a bad day, it’s a terse “just find a way.” No amount of reasoning will work with Charlie because, in his mind, there are two types of people: winners and losers. And Charlie doesn’t lose.

The media is filled with stories of CEOs, celebrities and highly paid sports figures run amok with their inability to take “no” for an answer. Whether their reactions are all-out tirades or a more subtle approach like Charlie’s, leaders who must hear “yes” at all costs put their organizations’ financial health at risk. Moreover, these win-at-all-cost types create a culture that damages trust.

According to Loyola University professor Linda Stroh, people who consistently respond poorly to being told “no” are on track to be perceived as one of the “bad guys” — people who are not to be trusted. Stroh, the author of “Trust Rules: How to Tell the Good Guys from the Bad Guys in Work and Life,” has done research to uncover the key elements that make a person trustworthy. The ability to accept a rejected idea graciously indicates a person is more likely to be perceived as trustworthy.

Persistence and tenacity definitely pay off. But at what point does sticking to your guns become a liability and threaten the trust between you and your team? Here are three ways to tell if you’ve crossed the line:

The thrill of victory. Many business people are former athletes; they enjoy the thrill of winning. When you engage with your colleagues, do you get a buzz when the interaction turns competitive? Be aware: are you unconsciously setting up a win-lose scenario in your mind? Remember, you and the people you lead are a team, not adversaries. If you are somehow thinking you need to “win” the argument, or have your specific idea adopted, you’ve stepped over into trust-damaging territory.

The need to be right. My kids often argue over the smallest details, struggling to maintain who is “right” over the debate at hand: “You said that I said that it happened on Wednesday.” “No, I said that YOU said it was on Thursday. I was at Jimmy’s on Thursday, so I couldn’t have done it on Thursday.”

And so on; the argument continues over irrelevant minutiae. Sadly, similar debates occur with adults in the workplace, as well. The problem is, when we’re embroiled in the discussion, it’s hard to step back and see how ludicrous the conversation has become. When you’re in a discussion in which there are differing opinions, and the debate centers on a small detail, pull back. Can you make the choice to be wrong (or simply concede the point) in order to help the team move on?

The tendency to take it personally. Not every disagreement from a team member is an attack on your character or your intellect. Believe it or not, some leaders are perfectly comfortable with their team members saying, “Um, Stacie, that’s a terrible idea, and here’s why.” They’ve cultivated an atmosphere of “tell me if I’m off track,” and their employees are comfortable giving difficult feedback. If you’ve never heard your team push back on your ideas, then most likely you are somehow sending the message that disagreement is a bad thing. The next time a spirited debate takes place at a meeting and you feel your ideas are being attacked, remind yourself that it’s the idea being questioned, not who you are as a person.

Leaders like Charlie, who see “not taking no for an answer” as a sign of strength, may win in the short term, but their actions have long-lasting negative effects. Their inability to listen to others’ opinions and, if appropriate, concede a point, drives down trust within their team. They overplay the persistence hand, and in doing so, damage not only their personal credibility, but their organization’s ability to thrive.

Jennifer V. Miller is a is a leadership development consultant whose writing and digital training materials help business professionals better lead themselves and others so they can achieve greater career success.

Four Tricks for Unlocking Your Imagination so you can Innovate!

Passion, determination and fearlessness are qualities most successful entrepreneurs and small business owners are known to possess. But where does imagination fit in? It’s imagination, after all, that leads to creativity. It’s imagination that fuels innovation. And, as conventional wisdom goes, if you don’t innovate you may not survive.

While memories of childhood — of looking towards the stars to create your own worlds or playing games with friends while making up new rules as you go — are normally the first things that come to mind when thinking of “imagination,” the ability to imagine doesn’t disappear upon entering adulthood.

Of course, as a small business owner, when you’re in the throes of paying bills or seeking funding, hiring or firing employees, and finding new customers while keeping the ones you have happy, there doesn’t seem to be much room for letting your imagination run wild.
How do we get past the barrier of day-to-day responsibilities and pressures to get to a creative space? I know from my work with start-up founders involved in the Constant Contact Small Business Innovation Program that these tricks work for anyone looking to unlock their imagination.

1. Inspiration is everywhere, so go out and find it

There is no limit to the number of places where you can find a great idea. However, it does take some practice to train your mind to be constantly on the lookout.
To begin, I recommend these activities:

• Scour the news and competitive landscape. Keep regular tabs on what is happening in your industry, what your competitors are doing, and what trends are occurring among both businesses and consumers as a whole. You can often discover ideas that can apply to your business.
• Become aware of what you like in the products and services you use. Hypothetically, take your interest (bourgeoning on obsession) with Instagram. It’s just a photo sharing app on its surface, so what makes it so addictive? For you it may be streamlined and simplified layout, or the pre-set filters that allow you to easily create something beautiful that you otherwise would not have been able to make, or maybe you just like to stalk your friends. You may find an idea in your favorite products that can strengthen your own business offerings.
• Get out of the office and observe the world around you. While customer surveys are certainly valuable (more on that later), it is also valuable to go out and see consumers in the field. Observing how the world works with a lens of “how can I make it better” can go a long way in developing your professional imagination.

2. Listen — and I mean really listen — to your customers and their pain points

A lot of businesses only talk to customers in order to mitigate problems. Take your business one step further and use conversations with customers to spark an idea to improve your business. Some easy ways to collect feedback include sending out surveys via email, asking questions of your Facebook and Twitter followers, or simply having a conversation with someone at your place of business.
For example, innovation and design firm IDEO recently worked with State Farm Insurance to find ways to better build relationships with millennials. Through extensive rounds of interviews with consumers between 18 and 35 years old, IDEO discovered that millennials found insurance companies to be intimidating and unwelcoming. With this information in hand, State Farm and IDEO sought to introduce brand-new State Farm brick-and-mortar locations, designed specifically to accommodate and educate millennials on insurance. The results were, well, quite welcoming.

3. Step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself in new ways

We all have a tendency to think in limited perspectives based on our strengths and experiences. If you have a marketing background, you may look at your product in an entirely different way than if you have a design background.

When stuck in a creative rut, many songwriters will switch to an instrument other than their one of choice in order to become re-inspired. Push yourself to consider different perspectives and think of problems from a different angle and you too may soon see great new ideas form.

Similarly, push yourself to think bigger. It’s perfectly fine to have “pie-in-the-sky” ambitions as long as you remember that not every idea will result in success. Search engine giant Google is particularly good at this. Take a look at its recent ventures: wearable technology, self-driving cars, smart thermometers. Do any of these fall in the category of its “bread-and-butter” search engines? No. Will all of them succeed? Probably not. But it is through Google's willingness to push itself that it has become one of the most successful companies on the planet.

4. Make distractions mandatory

At our Small Business InnoLoft, it’s common to see Nerf gun fights and skee ball competitions. Taking a step away from your everyday tasks gives your mind the space to wander — or simply not think at all — for just a bit.

The benefits of distraction have been scientifically proven. The Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology found that 20-minute “progressive relaxation” midday breaks reduced stress in the afternoon, helped blood pressure, produced better sleep quality, and more.
The benefits of fostering imagination and creativity are many, from the creation of a rewarding work environment to the discovery of those “wow” moments (big or small) that make your business a success.

And remember, as George Lucas put so well, “You can’t do it unless you can imagine it."

Written by Andy Miller,chief innovation architect at Constant Contact.

Creativity Is Not Innovation (But You Need Both)

"Creativity" and “Innovation” are two words that constantly get thrown around in brainstorming sessions, corporate meetings and company mission statements. There's no question that these values are highly prized in the fast-paced modern workplace, but do leaders who use the terms truly know the difference between them?

Shawn Hunter, author of "Out Think: How Innovative Leaders Drive Exceptional Outcomes," (Wiley, 2013) defines creativity as the capability or act of conceiving something original or unusual, while innovation is the implementation or creation of something new that has realized value to others. Business leaders frequently interchange creativity and innovation, without understanding what separates the two.

"Creativity isn't necessarily innovation," Hunter told Business News Daily. "If you have a brainstorm meeting and dream up dozens of new ideas then you have displayed creativity, but there is no innovation until something gets implemented."

 Hunter noted that many leaders focus more emphasis on generating creativity on demand, instead of simply building innovative products, processes and interactions. "Innovation isn't a mysterious black box," he said. "It can be simple small tweaks to existing processes, products or interactions. And by focusing on the process [of innovation], and not the heroically creative individual, we can build innovation at scale."

In other words, process is replicable and scalable; a creative individual is not. Once leaders understand the difference between creativity and innovation, they can work on inspiring both among their team members and building a culture that supports these values.

"While leaders can foster innovation, the organization as a whole must also support innovation through the makeup of its culture and the way it designs its processes," Hunter said. "Sometimes the best way to spark innovation is by allowing activity within the organization that deviates from the norm but that may lead to positive outcomes." 

Hunter cited the birth of Starbucks' now-popular Frappuccino drink as an example of how leaders giving their employees some room for deviation allows creativity to blossom into innovation. In the early 1990s, the staff at a Santa Monica, California, Starbucks invented a new drink and asked an executive to propose the product to headquarters, where it was ultimately rejected. Later, the same store invented another drink (the Frappuccino), and the executive asked the staff to quietly make and sell the drink to local customers. It quickly became a hit, and the management group implemented the successful idea companywide once its value was proved.

"The Frappuccino turned out to be one of Starbucks' most popular and profitable drinks," Hunter said. "And, according to [Starbucks' then-vice president of sales and operations] Howard Behar, it happened because someone was allowed, and even encouraged, to experiment with a new product that deviated from the company's core product line."

by Nicole Fallon, Business News Daily Assistant Editor 

10 Phrases That Will Make You a Better Leader

Want to be a better leader? Try improving your vocabulary.

No, I’m not talking adding the latest management and leadership buzzwords or jargon to your repertoire. If that’s what you’re looking for, try the Wall Street Journal’s Business Buzzwords Generator. You’ll be able to walk around uttering leadership gibberish such as “Moving forward, it’s time to act with strategic vector and transform our team bandwidth”and “Looking forward to 2015, ideation will be key to our ability to impact the solutions holistically.”

I’m talking about adding some powerful phrases to your vocabulary that will engage and motivate, encourage people to come up with ideas, and inspire commitment.

It’s not an exhaustive list – just a collection I’ve picked up over the years – so please feel free to add your own in the comments section.

1. "How can I be a better leader?" Credit goes to Marshall Goldsmith for this one. Variations of the question include “How can I be a better parent?” “How can I be a better spouse?” and “How can I be a better child?” Just make sure to listen and say …
2. “Thank-you.” Use these two powerful words as a response to constructive feedback (which should be seen as a gift), positive feedback, as a way to express gratitude for going the extra mile or a job well done, or when someone brings bad news or a problem to your attention.
3. “Nice job.” Variations include “good work” and “way to go.” Giving positive reinforcement becomes even more powerful if when it’s specific, timely, and you can explain why (positive impact), but let’s not over-complicate it too much for now.
4. “What do you think?” Credit goes to Tom Peters for this one. Asking someone for their opinion or ideas is the ultimate demonstration of respect. And when you get those ideas, don’t forget to go back to #2.
5. “How can I help?” Often used as a way to express support during a development discussion, in problem solving, when someone is going through personal difficulties, or when problems or ideas are brought to your attention.
6. “What’s possible?” Credit goes to Jack and Carol Weber for teaching me the importance of “possibility thinking.” Instead of coming up with reasons why something won’t work, ask yourself and others “what’s possible”. And if they do come up with examples of how similar ideas have been tried in the past and have not worked, use the phrase “Up until now.”
7. “I don’t know.” Use this when you truly don’t know the answer to a question or solution to a problem – it demonstrates humility and authenticity. It goes well with “what do you think” as a follow-up.
8. “Why is that important to you?” This question demonstrates that you care, and you’ll learn a lot about the person’s motivation and values.
9. “Help me understand.” A much better way to understand someone’s logic, reasoning, feelings, etc… than “really?!” or “seriously?!” or “what the heck are you smoking?!”
10. “I believe in you.” I may have saved the best for last. What a way to express confidence in someone’s ability or potential!

Dan McCarthy is the director of Executive Development Programs at the University of New Hampshire and runs the Management & Leadership channel of About.com. He writes the award-winning leadership development blog Great Leadership and is consistently ranked as one of the top digital influencers in leadership and talent management. 

What is Real Power?

Leadership just isn’t what it used to be. Thank goodness! We’ve all known of organizational cultures where the managers’ use of command and control is a source of power. Because we are now in an age of flattened organizational structures, global broad based knowledge, and speed-of-light decision making, real leadership power lies in work relationships that are formed and intentionally sustained.

In the next 20 years, we’ll see more change in how managers lead. Although here are still pockets of managers who grasp for power through force and strength, they’ll leave and be replaced with a new type of manager. This manager will be adept at real power. They’ll share influence by being a catalyst to bring out the best in their stakeholders and organizations.

They’ll focus on others as a significant investment as opposed to simply checking off items on a “to do” list. The managers who are adept at force and control will not survive, except perhaps in rare cases where safety and security may be necessary.

Up and coming managers: be ready! Your time will come to lead on a bigger scale and change the world! You might as well begin learning about how to have real power now. Your real power is in:

Relationships: Always pay attention to the relationships you need to foster that are mutually beneficial. Develop them, sustain them, and mend them as necessary. This doesn’t mean you have to be best friends with those you lead; it simply means that you need to be able to work with each other for the common good. You don’t even have to like each other, but you do have to clean out your personal closets of assumptions, judgments and beliefs to be able to achieve together. Be honest and foster trust at all times, especially when you disagree.

Collaboration: Gone are the days of competing with internal (and sometimes external) stakeholders to foster creativity or to get you want. Collaboration is the new currency in the sense that it goes miles beyond cooperation (which generally means to “go along” even though you might disagree). When you collaborate, you leave behind your self-interest to achieve goals for the greater good. Embrace collaboration and model it for others.

Equality: Real trust doesn’t happen without a sense of equality between leaders and stakeholders. Inequality is behind the use of force, fear, coercion or control, and it breaks trust. When that happens, lost revenue or missed opportunities aren’t far behind. Don’t put yourself “above” others by judging them to be something less than yourself. Everyone has a stake in organizational success, and when you lead in the spirit of equality, trust and success will follow.

Conversation: All ideas, progress, relationships and success are built on a foundation of conversation. Yet, when you are so focused on getting things done, you may forget that the people doing the work need dialog to be their best. Stop and think often about the conversations you need to have; then, have them! You can’t lead alone, and powerful two-way conversations are crucial to making the right decisions.

Coaching: Consider what our organizations will become when every leader believes that coaching others is an imperative instead of a time-waster. Coaching grows people, and when people grow, organizational performance thrives. One of your real powers is knowing how and when to coach others. When you coach, you are able to watch the expansiveness for thought, creativity, and innovation that occur in others. You can revel in the impact this has on your organization.

We’re at the precipice of a new time that calls for new kinds of power. Embrace these new sources of power and watch your organization flourish!

Mary Jo Asmus is an executive coach and a recovering corporate executive who has spent the past 12 years as president of Aspire Collaborative Services, an executive-coaching firm that manages Fortune 500 corporate-coaching initiatives and coaches leaders to prepare them for bigger and better things.