Sports defines many lives

I've always said that we can learn a lot from sports.

Brian Kilmeade, cohost of Fox & Friends on the Fox News Channel, recently interviewed me along with 90 other people for his new book, It's How You Play The Game: The Powerful Sports Moments That Taught Lasting Values to America's Finest. Kilmeade interviewed superstar athletes, CEOs, actors, politicians and studied historical figures. He writes about how a defining moment in sports changed each individual's life. Many talk about how the discipline and rules they learned on the field prepared them to handle life and overcome adversity with dignity and sportsmanship.

Sports dominated my young life. For a couple years in a row, I was the St. Paul (Minn.) City high school golf champion. I was captain of my baseball and basketball teams growing up. I was the state junior table tennis champion.

My story in Brian Kilmeade's book goes back to when I was 15 years old playing in the St. Paul Open golf tournament, which was one of the top professional tournaments in the country at the time.

I was playing well when I reached the short, par 5, 18th hole. Sam Snead was in the group behind me. I looked up and saw several thousand people surrounding the green. I had a 2 iron in my hand, and I rimmed the cup for what would've been a double eagle. I heard the crowd's tremendous roar, and I knew that something special had happened. As I approached the hole, the ball was just 10 inches from the cup. I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to seem like I had to think through what would have been an automatic gimme in a social game, so I just went for the tap-in...and I missed it.

I often think about that day. It taught me a lesson that I still adhere to today: Never take anything for granted. I learned not to worry about how other people think I look. I should have gone into my stance and sunk the putt for a 74. Instead, I shot a 75 and missed the cut.

One of the other valuable lessons contained in the book is the power of visualization. NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West always dreamed of "hitting the last shot...I wanted the ball at the end of every game," he said. "I was never nervous because countless times in my head I already imagined what it was like to take and hit the last shot."

Sen. Bob Dole talks about the work ethic he learned from playing high school football and basketball and running track. "...playing sports made me a better man," he said. "...my days as an athlete helped make me a tireless campaigner...if there is one thing I knew I'd always have, it was endurance."

Soccer great Mia Hamm told one of her coaches that she wanted to be "the best player." The coach told her, "It's a decision...to be the best you means being the best every single day." Hamm learned about true dedication and commitment. She learned to push herself as hard as possible in and out of the spotlight. Some of her teammates were even intimidated by her intensity.

Simon Cowell, from American Idol, talks about several embarrassing moments in his sports career playing soccer and running track. He was asked if he would advise his kids not to play sports. "They absolutely will," he responded. "Play—win or lose—but play. Know your limitations...and you'll learn about yourself. Most of all, sports teaches communication and teamwork. Find me a TV show without good teamwork, and I will show you a bad show."

Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, tells about how sports "taught me a lot about being a leader. I learned that in order for me to be successful, my teammates had to be successful. I also learned how to adapt to the coach's style to be successful, which has helped me today."

Supermodel Beth Ostrosky said: "I treat the modeling business as I did team sports. I show up on time. I show up sick. I stay late. It's just in my blood from my days on the court."

"Regardless of who you are, what era you played in, what sport you chose or how much success you achieved, playing the game is all about getting you ready for life," Kilmeade writes. "Winning or losing has little to do with who you will become. Instead, it's how you prepared for the game that determines whether you'll be a winner or loser in life."

Mackay's Moral: There are no gimmes in life.

Harvey Mackay http://www.harveymackay.com/

Stay focused on the big picture

By Harvey Mackay

A reader of this column sent me an email recently, thanking me for a column I had written on getting outside the box. She then told me how she had lost focus for a while, but had turned things around. She encouraged me to write a column on staying focused.

I immediately thought of my varsity golfing days at the University of Minnesota many years ago. Back then The Saint Paul Open was one of the top tournaments on the men's professional golf circuit. Prior to the tournament, I had a chance to meet Gary Player when he was taking a lesson from our team coach, Les Bolstad. Later that evening I went to dinner with the world's future #1 player when he was still an unknown.

The following day at The Saint Paul Open, I saw Gary after he teed off the first hole and ran up to him to say hi. I wanted to tell him what a great time I had the night before. His steely eyes remained focused on the fairway ahead and he never broke stride. "Harvey, please don't talk to me. I must concentrate. I will see you when I'm finished."

I remember how devastated I felt, but I learned a valuable lesson on focus. Many years later when he was world famous, my wife, Carol Ann, and I ran into Gary and his wife in South Africa. I reintroduced myself and reminded him of what happened on the golf course. Gary's wife told me, "Don't feel bad. He doesn't even talk to me on the golf course."

That's the focus that it takes to do your best. If you have the ability to focus fully on the task at hand, and shut out everything else, you can accomplish amazing things.

Arnold Palmer, another golfing legend, recalled a tough lesson he learned about focus in Carol Mann's book "The 19th Hole":

"It was the final hole of the 1961 Masters tournament, and I had a one-stroke lead and had just hit a very satisfying tee shot. I felt I was in pretty good shape. As I approached my ball, I saw an old friend standing at the edge of the gallery. He motioned me over, stuck out his hand and said, "Congratulations." I took his hand and shook it, but as soon as I did, I knew I had lost my focus. On my next two shots, I hit the ball into a sand trap, then put it over the edge of the green. I missed a putt and lost the Masters. You don't forget a mistake like that; you just learn from it and become determined that you will never do that again." Trust me, your friends will understand!

A response Babe Ruth once gave to a reporter sticks in my mind. "How is it," the Babe was asked, "that you always come through in the clutch? How is it you can come up to bat in the bottom of the 9th, in a key game with the score tied, with thousands of fans screaming in the stadium, with millions listening on the radio, the entire game on the line and deliver the game winning hit?" His answer, "I don't know. I just keep my eye on the ball."

In other words ... focus.

How many times have you heard an athlete talk about focus? It's a topic I also hear about frequently in business. The most common complaints? Too many irons in the fire. Too many projects spinning at one time. Too many interruptions. Too many phone calls. Too many emails. Too many things to do. Too little time.

The late Peter Drucker, management consultant and author, observed, "When you have 186 objectives nothing gets done. I always ask, 'What's the one thing you want to do?' In Mexico they call me Senor Una Cosa." (translation: one thing)

Decide what's most important. Make a list every day or every week and prioritize your activities. Scale back the amount of time you spend on meetings; they can be the biggest time-wasters of all. Learn to delegate, and make sure all members of your team follow through on assigned tasks. Set aside a specific time of day to return phone calls and emails, and keep distractions to a minimum. In other words, set rules about how others use your time. And if you're not the boss, work with your supervisor to make sure you agree on priorities.

Stay focused as best you can, and don't let things happen to you - not when you can make things happen.

Mackay's Moral: The person who is everywhere is nowhere."

Harvey Mackay http://www.harveymackay.com/

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Leaders need to show caring is contagious

By Harvey Mackay

A few weeks ago, the day that John Walter was named the new CEO at
AT&T, the stock dropped 2 points. It was the corporate equivalent of
the traditional bone-jarring sack that greets rookie quarterbacks.

"Welcome to the NFL, kid."

Welcome to the corporate big leagues, John.

Leading the corps of business blitzers was "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap, who
got his nickname by sacking 11,200 employees when he headed Scott
Paper.

According to Dunlap, John Walter was not what "suffering
shareholders are looking for."

Well, neither was Walter's predecessor, Bob Allen, another job-slasher,
who pared 40,000 employees at AT&T. This year, while the Dow Jones
industrials are up 16 percent, AT&T stock is down over 18 percent.
Needless to say, employee morale is also in the tank. On the day his
selection was announced, Walter said he regards the job as "25
percent strategy and 75 percent execution."

I hope he means it. The best way to prove it would be for him not to
set foot in his office for 75 percent of his first month on the job
and spend the time with his troops in the field.

Many years ago, another Bell system chief executive named Bruce
Foraker was head of the phone company in New York City. One frigid
January night, upon leaving the theater, Foraker noticed an open
manhole in the street. Realizing that Bell employees were below,
splicing cable in the freezing weather, Foraker dropped down and
joined them for a little chat. It wasn't unusual behavior for him.
He was called the "man of 10,000 friends" because his employees held
him in such high esteem.

CEOs of major corporations have a duty to employees, customers,
shareholders and the communities they operate in. They cannot afford
to ignore any of them.

These days, you have to add a fifth constituency to the stew, the
media.

Robert Dilenschneider of The Dilenschneider Group, a strategic
counseling and public relations firm, recently spoke on "The Public
Aspects of a Chief Executive's Job: Helping Chief Executive Officers
Become Part of the Solution."

"If the shareholders are unhappy, they will drop the stock," said
Dilenschneider. "Estranged employees, studies show, are not as
productive. Customers just walk away if they are not treated well,
and the community can freeze the CEO and his team out, making it
hard to recruit on the one hand and live on the other."

Al Dunlap says that when you find a corporate CEO that takes time
away from his principal business to serve on numerous outside
boards, particularly non-profits, you'll find a company that's
underperforming. I disagree.

I say that when you find a CEO doing just that, you'll find a CEO
doing his job.

Cost-cutting, down-sizing and plant-closings are short-term
solutions. So is just focusing on shareholders.

The name "Dayton" is synonymous with community participation in my
town. The executives of this retail giant, Dayton-Hudson
Corporation, are found on almost every civic and charitable
organization board in town.

Like Bruce Foraker, Don Dayton liked to get out and mingle. He never
took an elevator up to the corporate offices above the department
store that bears his name. He always took the escalator so he could
see more of what was happening on each floor and talk with customers
and employees.

A few years ago, when the inevitable takeover attempt was directed
at Dayton-Hudson, the Minnesota Legislature held a special session
and adopted legislation that stopped it cold.

The reason was stated over and over: We can't lose Dayton's. It's
part of the community.

A lot of names have disappeared from the retail scene, but not
Dayton's.

This year, Dayton's stock is up over 43 percent.

Not bad, Al, for an outfit where the bosses spend so much time away
from their desks.
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Michael Jordan

By Harvey Mackay

An obscure outfielder for the St. Louis Browns, Dick Kryhoski, once
observed, "The first time I saw Ted Williams hit, I knew God hadn't
created everybody equal." The same can be said for basketball
superstar Michael Jordan. We are used to seeing Michael Jordan in
total control. The greater the pressure, the stronger his game:
Michael setting the pace, forcing the action, dictating every move
on the floor by every player with his dominating talent.

So it is no surprise that when Michael announced his retirement from
basketball, the pundits were universally in agreement: good move,
Michael.

I hate to be the skunk at the garden party, but I am not going to
join the hallelujah chorus.

No, Michael. Bad move.

The Michael Jordan that mouthed the words at the press conference
may have looked and sounded like the same Michael Jordan we have
seen ripping NBA defenses to shreds, but it wasn't. It was a shell.

Recently, Michael hit a bad patch in his private life. The gambling
and the murder of his father converged. Like any human being under
the kind of stress Jordan was under, he sought advice. And he got
it. Quit. Take stock. Get away.

That's exactly what you don't do.

You don't quit doing what you do best, you do not abandon the
wellspring of your identity, because you have been blindsided by
life. You cannot regain control over the bad parts of your life by
giving up your control over the good parts.

Let's give the scenario a flip. What do you think Michael would have
done if a) the embarrassing gambling problem had not surfaced; b)
his father had not been killed; and c) Jordan and the Chicago Bulls
had lost, not won, their third consecutive NBA championship ... with
Jordan at something less than the top of his game. Easy. He never
would have quit. His whole professional existence has been built
around the give and take of competitive sports. Sometimes you win;
sometimes you lose. You have to be able to handle both. Jordan falls
off horse; Jordan gets back on horse. Hey, Babe Ruth didn't just set
the record for homers. He set it for strikeouts, too. That's
baseball. That's basketball. That's also life.

If Michael Jordan ever needed doing what he does best, it's now. Now
is not the time to focus on the negative. It's time to get back with
the program.

The point is this, and it's a sad one: we are often forced to make
life-changing decisions under miserable circumstances. Michael
wasn't. Even though his situation was stressful, he wasn't forced to
do anything. He didn't have to sell the farm. He wasn't losing his
skills. He wasn't in the middle of a child custody battle. He was
still in control of the game. He should have put more time between
his immediate personal problems and the decision to end his career.

He would have found it much easier to handle the grief of his
father's death with his demanding occupation taking so much of his
time and energy. Now, without that therapy, he'll have unlimited
time to anguish over his tragic loss.

If he had given himself that additional time, he never would have
made the decision to retire. Now that he has that time, I feel
certain he will reverse himself.

One thing I learned early in life was that an expert in his own
field was just that, and only that. When I first bought my own
business, I remember asking my great corporate lawyer for advice
when I was about to lose one of my customers because of a service
problem I was having delivering envelopes. He had the answer:
rewrite the contract. I did, and of course, I lost the customer.
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Volunteerism: You often receive more than you
give

By Harvey Mackay

You don't have to pledge Skull and Bones or be a country club deb to
meet the right people. There are a ton of jobs that offer that
opportunity but go begging every year for want of volunteers willing
to take them.

Take ushering at your church or synagogue. Maybe it sounds like it's
just one step ahead of stoking the boilers, but it's one of the most
important jobs around the place. It only takes an hour a week, and
there's no heavy lifting. You can look on it as a "poor man's
finishing school." It will help you overcome any innate shyness you
may have about meeting and greeting strangers, and if you do it
properly, you'll really enjoy it.

Smart leaders of growing congregations make sure they have an
ushering crew that stands tall. The ushers set the tone. Is it a
friendly place with a warm welcome or an ingrown deal with very
little to offer newcomers?

The Reverend James Kennedy, pastor of the well-known Coral Ridge
Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, has a church that attracts a
tremendous number of visitors. The ushers at Coral Ridge are
instructed to be certain everyone is welcomed by at least two or
three people and told they "were glad you came to worship with us
today." The church benefits greatly from these volunteers, but so do
the individual ushers who become polished embassadors for their
congregation.

Getting active in an organization can help you in areas where you
may be weak. Afraid to speak in front of a group? You won't be toast
if you join Toastmasters. I did, and I can tell you that the basics
I learned in this organization are the primary reasons for any
success I've had as a public speaker.

Also, Toastmasters helps you develop:

self-esteem,

assertiveness,

confidence and

leadership.

Because volunteerism almost always includes
fund-raising, you have an unusual opportunity to hone your selling
skills. You will get a ton of no's but what better way to receive
on-the-job training than on someone else's payroll.

When you do volunteer work, you can learn how to run a meeting,
prepare reports, serve on committees, supervise others, and a
thousand other skills that can help you in your own career.
Sometimes, it's impossible to learn these things on the job.

Most of the people who sign up for these volunteer chores stay
active for decades. Here's an opportunity to learn teamwork and have
the satisfaction of providing a vital service. You'll make new
friends, and you'll be able to develop other contacts within the
community itself.

Sometimes the rewards of volunteering are unexpected.

Will was a pretty fair high school athlete, but he dropped out of
college before he could make any mark in athletics. He loved hockey
and despite a career of mostly lower level blue collar jobs, he
found enough time to coach kid hockey teams. Most of his friends
thought he was crazy to spend so much time coaching for nothing when
he didn't have two quarters to rub together.

However, one of the contacts he made with his coaching really paid
off, and today Will has a job he never dreamed he could get . . .
sales manager for a well-respected paper company.

Sometimes, the only rewards for volunteering are the satisfaction of
doing a thankless job well. But sometimes, there is a personal
payoff, and it can come in surprising ways.
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Crunch Time

By Harvey Mackay

When I was a kid, one of my favorite ballplayers was Eddie Stanky.
He had a lifetime batting average of .268. Hardly the stuff of
legends. The dish on Stanky was, "He can't hit. He can't run. He
can't field. He can't throw. He just knows how to beat you."

They called Reggie Jackson "Mr. October." He called himself, "The
straw that stirs the drink." Both descriptions were accurate.
Jackson came alive when the World Series was on the line.

Great players thrive under pressure. There's a moment in almost
every game when it could go either way. It's called "crunch time."
How you react when that moment comes is what really matters.

There's a "crunch time" in sales, too.

Any salesperson can go through the routine part of a sales call
without much trouble. Opening banter. Formal pitch. Questions and
answers.

I was talking with a top-notch sales pro the other day, and he told
me, "It doesn't take Zig Zigler to write up an order that falls into
your lap. Ninety-nine percent of the time I do everything pretty
much the same as everyone else and I get pretty much the same
results. What I do in the other five minutes is what determines
where my kids go to college."

Every sales job is different. Whatever your line, it still comes
down to the same thing: the moment of truth, the part the whole sale
hinges on. How you handle it separates the superstar from the bench
jockey.

You can carry out a textbook sales call, but if you make your pitch
yet blow the close, you don't make the sale.

Sometimes the most important part is in the approach. You may have
only a few seconds to convince your prospect that he or she would
find it worthwhile to listen to you.

Many of you are dealing in price situations and your company is
never the low cost supplier. Don't kick yourself when you come home
because you think you can't sell your high-priced product. Think of
what a miserable job it is to work for the company that's always the
lowest cost producer. Haggling over pennies. Cutting corners on
quality. Disappointing performance. Unhappy customers.

Some of the highest paid sales pros work for the highest price
vendors. They're able to convince their prospects that it's to their
advantage to pay the extra money.

"Mr./Ms. Customer, let me tell you about the team that backs up this
product. We put our resources into making it and training the people
behind it. That makes us a little different from the others. We pay
more to get more. More quality. More research. Better reliability.
Better performance. Better service. Better resale. Better people. We
don't just sell it and walk away. We'll be there for you. Always. It
will cost a little more now, but it's going to cost a lot less in
the long run."

It's called the value-added approach.

There are salespeople who use it so successfully they make it the
centerpiece of their presentation.

They wait for the prospect to make the inevitable price objection
and then use their response as the launching pad for their close.

They take pride in selling products that cost more than the
competition. They're convinced they're providing their customers
with the best value for the money. Instead of being defensive, they
go on the offensive.

Did I say every sales job is different? Well, so is every sales
situation. It's not always easy knowing when "crunch time" will
arrive. Is it when objections are raised? Is it getting to talk to
the right people? Is it the resale after a customer's so-so
experience the first time around?

Many salespeople spend their entire careers learning a
paint-by-the-numbers approach without really understanding the
selling process. There comes a time when you have to reach beyond
the obvious if you're going to connect with the prospect.

In sports, it's called hitting the sweet spot. It takes a lot of
practice to do it consistently. But if you can do it, you'll never
be satisfied with anything else.
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How Not To and How To Think Creatively

By Harvey Mackay

They say you can't teach creativity.

Maybe so, but it sure can be killed.

"It won't work."

"They tried something like that before, and it didn't work."

"The guy who thought of that before you did got canned."

"The boss won't like that."

"It's too late to try that."

"It's too early to try that."

"Let someone else try that first."

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

"It isn't in the budget."

"It isn't company policy."

"It isn't in the standard contract."

"That's not my job."

"We don't do that here." (Often called the "not invented here"
syndrome.)

My favorite: "Not a bad idea at all! Let's run it by legal."

You won't hear much of that at Fallon McElligott, the advertising
outfit that was once again named Agency of the Year by Ad Age for
1995.

Creativity is the mother's milk of advertising. Here's what Bill
Westbrook, president and creative director of Fallon McElligott, has
to say about some of the ways they generate creativity at their
shop.

"We're in the communications business. We wouldn't be very good at
it if we didn't know how to communicate with each other. We take a
number of steps to accomplish that:

"We always schedule meetings away from
where people generally work. Why? So they're forced to see
what's hanging on the walls outside their own area. That
encourages feedback, comments, compliments, mixing with one
another.

"We hold quarterly meetings with the entire
staff to show everyone the new work that is being done,
including work in progress. At these meetings, we often have one
department make a full-blown presentation on what they're doing.
We want everyone to have a handle on what's going on throughout
the shop.

"Sometimes writers and art directors work
in concert with designers so they have a design perspective as
well as an advertising perspective. It's very unusual in our
business to do this.

"If you work for an advertising agency, how
can you know what they're selling unless you've seen your agency
try and sell it? 99.9 percent of our people had never seen a
full scale presentation of an advertising pitch to a client.
After we landed the McDonald's account, we gave all of our
people exactly the same presentation we gave to McDonald's --
just as though they were the voters/decision makers of the
company." (Westbrook didn't tell me whether the agency's
employees voted to give themselves the account.)

"We gave a lot of thought to what our
common areas would be like. We made a full scale replica of a
'diner,' so that everyone would want to come to eat lunch there
and goof off, take their coffee breaks, rub elbows. Too many
company common areas feel like the design had been inspired by
that scene in White Heat where Jimmy Cagney goes bezerko in the
prison mess hall."

Fallon has succeeded in creating an atmosphere
where creativity can flourish. The agency has just launched the new
$200 million "Arch Deluxe" campaign for McDonald's. It is one of the
largest marketing efforts in the history of the fast-food game.
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Negotiating in a Nutshell

By Harvey Mackay

I got a phone call from a Fortune 500 CEO last week whom I had never
met. After decades of begging the government to relax their
regulatory grip and let his industry experience the joys of
competition, his wish had been granted -- and his bottom line had
plummeted.

He wanted me to talk to his top executives for two hours and zero in
on negotiating strategies.

A bit overwhelmed, I said, "I'm very flattered but frankly, I don't
know if I can talk for two hours on negotiating."

Then I realized I was actually negotiating with myself. As my brain
finally reconnected, I cut myself off. "Well, let me sleep on it and
I'll get back to you."

Later that evening, I began to write down some of my negotiating
experiences and saw that my problem was going to be holding the
speech down to two hours.

I'd already brushed up against the first and second laws of
negotiating that morning in my conversation with the CEO.

Never accept any proposal immediately, no
matter how good it sounds.

Never negotiate with yourself. You'll
furnish the other side with ammunition they might never have
gotten themselves. Don't raise a bid or lower an offer without
first getting a response.

Here are some more rules of the road:

Never cut a deal with someone who has to
"go back and get the boss' approval." That gives the other side
two bites of the apple to your one. They can take any deal you
are willing to make and renegotiate it.

If you can't say yes, it's no. Just because
a deal can be done, doesn't mean it should be done. No one ever
went broke saying "no" too often.

Just because it may look nonnegotiable,
doesn't mean it is. Take that beautifully printed "standard
contract" you've just been handed. Many a smart negotiator has
been able to name a term and gets away with it by making it
appear to be chiseled in granite, when they will deal if their
bluff is called.

Do your homework before you deal. Learn as
much as you can about the other side. Instincts are no match for
information.

Rehearse. Practice. Get someone to play the
other side. Then switch roles. Instincts are no match for
preparation.

Beware the late dealer. Feigning
indifference or casually disregarding timetables is often just a
negotiator's way of trying to make you believe he/she doesn't
care if you make the deal or not.

Be nice, but if you can't be nice, go away
and let someone else do the deal. You'll blow it.

A deal can always be made when both parties
see their own benefit in making it.

A dream is a bargain no matter what you pay
for it. Set the scene. Tell the tale. Generate excitement. Help
the other side visualize the benefits, and they'll sell
themselves.

Don't discuss your business where it can be
overheard by others. Almost as many deals have gone down in
elevators as elevators have gone down.

Watch the game films. Top players in any
game, including negotiating, debrief themselves immediately
after every major session. They always keep a book on themselves
and the other side.

No one is going to show you their hole
card. You have to figure out what they really want. Clue: Since
the given reason is never the real reason, you can eliminate the
given reason.

Always let the other side talk first. Their
first offer could surprise you and be better than you ever
expected.

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Who's Got The Hammer?

By Harvey Mackay

As every salesperson knows, the key to the sale is knowing who's got
the hammer.

The purchasing manager?

Maybe.

If it isn't the purchasing manager, is it the person who writes the
specs the purchasing manager has to follow?

More likely.

Okay, is it the person who draws up the budget for the person who
writes the specs the purchasing manager has to follow?

Quite possible.

All right, is it the person who heads the department of the person
who draws up the budget for the person who writes the specs the
purchasing manager has to follow?

Best bet.

Any peddler worth their expense account tries to reach up as high up
as they can on the corporate ladder on the theory, usually correct,
that orders from headquarters tend to carry the day. That's basic
selling 101.

But those of us who use that tactic have also learned that the
higher up we go, the more likely that the decision maker we're
trying to reach took the same sales course we did, aced it and will
have a trusted assistant trained to block our access.

Just look how many more people would get to heaven if they knew St.
Peter, the most well-known gatekeeper.

You have to know how to get through.

When I am selling envelopes, I never place a call to a prospect
without first finding out whom their assistant or secretary was.
Easy to do by simply asking the main receptionist before they
connect me to the Big Kahuna's office. When the call goes through,
this sets the stage for a nice one-on-one because I'm immediately
able to address the gatekeeper by name.

Recently, I've gotten even better results by not even trying to
personally talk with the Kahuna persona. I say flat out, "I would
like to work directly with you . . ." regarding an appointment,
charitable pledge, study or report, whatever.

In short, when I talk with BK's trusted assistant, I'm talking with
the person I want to talk with. If BK has enough faith in them to
appoint them to the position of being BK's assistant, that's good
enough for me. All I'm asking is that they use their judgment to
decide if I'm making a reasonable request. If I am, give me their
best effort to see to it that it gets done.

Over the years, I have had a lot better success working with people
in this fashion than trying to run over them or around them.

Treat them with dignity. Respect their power. And by all means,
acknowledge their help. Not with lavish gifts. That's gauche. Just
the little niceties. A creative, handwritten note with a beautiful
commemorative stamp. A humorous card. A favorite plant or flower. A
special book. A separate pit stop, where you stop by to see them,
not BK, just to say "Thank you."

Little things mean a lot . . . Not true. Little things mean
everything!

Pat O'Brien of CBS Sports is a friend. He is a human butterfly. When
he lands, it's for never more than a nanosecond. He is always on the
fly and virtually impossible to track down. For the past five years,
my batting average, at best, is I get through only 10 percent of the
time. That's okay, because I'm continually in touch with his trusted
assistants.

"Tell Pat I'm thinking of him."

"Please see that Pat gets this mailing."

"Tell Pat I just ran across his high school classmate from South
Dakota."

"My daughter Jojo says Pat will love reading the following books."

We've managed to stay close all these years, even though we hardly
ever talk directly. His people are my conduits and vice versa.

Cast your line out and make your network include everyone who can
ultimately give you access or contact with the person you want to
reach.

Access to the decision maker is only a gate away.
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There's No Business Without Show Business

By Harvey Mackay

There's not a lot of difference between showmanship and
salesmanship. When you get down to the nitty gritty, they may well
be one in the same. We're always interchanging the terms. An
exceptional vocal stylist "knows how to sell a song." A first-rate
salesperson "delivers a helluva performance."

A lot of us make our livings selling through showmanship. As a kid,
I loved to go to the State Fair and watch the pitchman who
demonstrated kitchen gadgets. What could be more boring for a
10-year-old than peeling potatoes? Yet how many zillion times have
we walked with glazed eyes past the counter where they sold veggie
shredders? They still draw bigger crowds than a public hanging. And
the bigger the cornballs they are -- the more stupid the
mother-in-law jokes they crack, the more worthless the "absolutely-free-magic-slicer-I'll-throw-in-for-nothing-if-you-buy-right-now"
gizmo -- the more people gather round.

Of course, when you get the peeler/shredder/juicer home and try it
out yourself, you can never do the same tricks with it that the
midway magician who sold it to you did.

But so what? In your heart of hearts, you knew that before you
bought it. You paid for the performance, not the product.

With the birth of cable TV came various shop-till-you drop channels,
where more refined hucksters hawk their wares. It's like being at
the fair 24 hours a day. My favorites are the infomercials where
high powered pitches pump up the virtues of swartzeneggaresque
muscle machines, magic moisturizing creams and, most compelling,
spray-on-hair in a can.

Both the latest -- and oldest -- trend in the restaurant biz is
showmanship. Chains like "Planet Hollywood," "Harley Davidson Cafe"
and the "Rainforest" hype atmosphere more than burgers to lure
customers. This strategy has worked since the first enterprising
pizza shop owner tossed a slab of dough into the air like a juggler,
twirling it into America's favorite meal.

In Japanese restaurants they add a little excitement to the cuisine
by making the preparation resemble a good knife-throwing act.

Look at fast food. You can either buy your hamburger and fries
hawked by a red-haired clown with big shoes or a soft-spoken
grandfather figure who also happens to own the company.

Western Union can deliver any news in straight language . . . but
wouldn't you rather hear "Happy Birthday" in a singing telegram from
a costumed character holding a bunch of balloons?

Been to an auto show lately? In addition to models and "performance
teams," there are cars upside down, gyroscoping and chopped in
pieces to show construction or suspension. And lights, jazzy
platforms . . . the beat goes on.

Who said salespeople/showpeople have to wear plaid sport coats and
talk out of the corner of their mouths?

Take the train. I do. And, there's no practical reason, EXCEPT, the
sheer romance of an engineer's wavebacks to a kid by the side of the
tracks in a thousand train movies. Even though I know better, for me
this slowmo means of transportation will always be a romantic and
mysterious adventure. A mysterious stranger lurks behind every
sliding door. The lonesome whistle blows. Unbeknownst to his fellow
passengers, Harvey is on a secret mission only Agatha Christie could
decode.

There are trains, and there are cranes. Both have a soft spot in
this guy's heart! A crane operator on a big time, big bucks downtown
job is another hidden performance artist. Demolition or new
construction both set the stage. The operators know timing is
everything -- they always save the best show for noon when the
largest crowd of sidewalk superintendents are in attendance. BOOM.
That's entertainment!

Something smells fishy? Have you ever been on the docks when the
fishing boats come in? The crew who are assigned to the cleaning
duty invariably do it where potential fishing trip passengers can
watch them at work. What a fabulous sale/show -- cleaning the catch
and throwing the entrails to the most attentive members of their
audience, the pelicans.
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Holtz Scores on Fourth and Long

By Harvey Mackay

The call came about midnight on Friday, September 8. It was the
night before the Notre Dame football game at Purdue. "Harvey, I'm in
deep trouble and I need your help," said Lou Holtz.

My mind began to race. Had the unexpected loss to Northwestern the
previous week finally sent my buddy around the South Bend bend? Was
this the call I had been waiting for all my life ... was he finally
going to ask me to quarterback the team ("And now entering the game
for the Irish wearing number 62, it's 62-year-old H.B. 'Old Bones'
Mackay.")?

Fortunately, Holtz got to the point before I had the chance to make
a total ass of myself. He was biting and brief. "Something's gone
radically wrong with me the past six weeks. I've lost some feeling
in my legs. I can't walk up and down the stairs. I can't run out on
to the field with the team. When I walk on the putting green, my
right foot drags and makes marks on the turf. And, I'm losing
strength in my hands. It's getting worse day by day."

Well, I may not have what it takes to be a Notre Dame quarterback,
but I've been probed, scoped and carved on by the best medical team
in the country, so I called the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and on
Sunday ... after Notre Dame had beaten Purdue ... Holtz, his wife,
Beth, the Mayo doctor, and fly-on-the-wall Harvey sat down to get
the verdict.

Dr. David Piepgras made the diagnosis. Holtz had a bruised spinal
cord, which has very serious implications. If it is not operated on
"immediately," paralysis can set in quickly.

Holtz ... being Holtz ... instantly glommed onto the word
"immediately." Is that like the "immediately" that your
brother-in-law is referring to when he says he is going to return
the fifty bucks he borrowed from you? Or is it more like the
"immediately" that describes when the government is going to mail
you your tax refund?

"No."

"Does it mean maybe six months from now?"

"No."

"Six weeks from now?"

"No."

"Six days from now?"

"Let me put it this way," said Dr. Piepgras. "We had a fellow who,
against our very, very strong advice, decided that "immediately"
meant he could sneak in just one more round of golf. That was three
days after we talked with him. He's permanently paralyzed."

"Okay, no golf," said Holtz, ready for the next round of
negotiations. He whipped out a calendar from his back pocket.

"If I take one day to go home and tell my players and my coaches,
and then come back for one day of preparation and surgery," said
Holtz, yielding each day as grudgingly as if he were giving up
yardage on the football field," and allow six days in the hospital
and four days at home, will I be strong enough to call the plays
from the press box against Ohio State?"

"Ninety percent yes."

Holtz got a surge of energy from somewhere, leaped out of his chair
and shook the doctor's hand.

"Done deal," he said. He looked as if he just landed the nation's
number one college football prospect.

Afterwards, I had the chance to talk to him alone for a moment.

"Lou," I said, "you've known about this for weeks. Why didn't you go
in after the Northwestern game?"

"Bad Karma. The only way I was going into that operating room was as
a winner."

"But what if Notre Dame had lost to Purdue?" I said.

"Hey," said Holtz, "can you imagine how far I could drive the golf
ball sitting in a golf cart?"
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Bring in the 20-mule team

By Harvey Mackay

An old farmer had been plowing with an ox and a mule teamed together. One
day, the ox said to the mule, "Let's play sick today and take it
easy."

But the mule said, "No, we need to get our work done."

The ox played sick anyway and the farmer brought it fresh hay and
corn and tried to make it comfortable.

When the mule came in from plowing that day, the ox asked how it
went. "We didn't get quite as much done," the mule said, "But we did
a fair stretch."

Then the ox asked, "What did the farmer say about me?"

"Nothing," the mule replied.

Thinking he had a good thing going, the ox decided to play sick
again the next day. When the mule returned from the field, the ox
asked, "How did it go today?"

"All right," the mule said, "but we didn't get much done."

"Well," the ox continued, "what did the farmer say about me?"

"Nothing to me," the mule answered, "but he did stop and have a long
talk with the butcher."

You've probably worked with an ox at some point in your career. They
don't start out lazy; they just get bored . . . burned out . . .
comfortable enough to take advantage of the company's absence policy
to the point where their coworkers are stuck picking up the slack
and working harder than they should. And make no mistake, the
coworkers know the score. No doubt they know the butcher, too.

And if you think the mules in your company are the clock-punching,
grunt-work drones who sit in generic cubicles, I've got news for
you. Everybody from the president on down needs to think like the
mule. Being there counts for something. Accepting responsibility
counts for more.

Companies need dependable, committed employees who can talk
themselves into getting the job done even when they don't feel like
working. Some employees use all kinds of tricks: check out the new
car in the driveway and think about the next payment . . . imagine
the next promotion and the corner office that goes with it. . .
calculate the expected cost of college tuition for the rugrats at
home. A little reality check is a good start. But payday shouldn't
be your chief motivation.

The real pros know how to motivate themselves before they start
having bad days. They look at work differently, not just as a means
of making a living, but as a significant part of a quality life.
Their particular mix of attitude, responsibility, cooperation and
accomplishment make them a valuable commodity in any organization.

Joan is a busy realtor with an active family who also manages to
organize a sizable silent auction for her church and spends time
helping at her kids' school as well. Joan's willingness to get the
job done, no matter what the job happens to be, has earned her the
respect and awe of everyone who has ever worked with her. Does she
have boundless energy? No. She's not even a "morning person." Her
secret? "I have exactly twenty-four hours to make life better than
it was yesterday." Joan would probably laugh if I told her she was a
mule.

Mules, by the way, like their jobs and perform well as a result. If
they find themselves getting in a rut, they stubbornly haul
themselves out. That quiet determination is a huge asset in
business. The ability to get over the bumps is frequently the
difference between success and chapter 11.

The mules -- the steady, willing, get-the-job-done employees -- are
worth their weight in gold. Don't confuse the reliable, day-in,
day-out dependability with a lack of creativity. It's usually the
mules, the folks who are there, who find creative solutions to
everyday problems. They know how things work.
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We're just wild about Harry

By Harvey Mackay

At Mackay Envelope Corporation, we are celebrating our 40th year in
business in 1999. One of the reasons we've made it this long is our
phenomenal sales force, as you've doubtless heard me boast before.
They are all A+ students. But one is the professor emeritus of
sales.

Harry Goldfarb decided at the tender age of 25 to flog envelopes.
More than 50 years later, he's still at it. And are we ever lucky
he's still on our team. I'd hate to have him working for the
competition.

When I bought this near-bankrupt company way back when, Harry came
with the furniture. I've long since gotten rid of the furniture.
Harry is not disposable. He's 77 going on 21, and retirement is not
in his vocabulary. Harry will tell you, if you don't use it, you'll
lose it.

So what is it that separates him from the pack? He's a hungry
fighter. A competitor. A guy who believes second is last. And yet,
in his own quiet, inimitable style, he is a class act all the way
with his family, customers and company peers. In short, everybody
loves Harry. If Harry meets 100 people, I guarantee it, 100 people
will like him. He has instant credibility.

Harry is so unassuming he will be shocked to see this column about
him in print. He's the only one at our shop who doesn't know this
piece is being written about him.

The amazing thing is these exact words could have been written about
Harry five years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, even 25 years ago.
Well . . . you get the picture.

Harry hasn't changed 1/10th of 1 percent during his 50-year selling
career. Not in the eyes of his peers or his customers.

How does he do it?

Sincerity, dogged persistence, fanatical attention to detail . . .
sense of humor and a lot of giggles. He knows thine enemy (our
competitors) and is completely knowledgeable about the envelope
business. He is truly the dean of the Minneapolis/St. Paul envelope
community. You may take an order away from him, but you'll never
pick off one of his accounts. Why? Because he will never, never,
never give up.

Remember, when Harry started in this racket it only cost 2 cents to
mail a letter. Envelopes looked pretty much like they do now. He had
no competition from fax machines or e-mail. People actually wrote
letters.

Sure, Harry remembers the good old days, but he doesn't live in the
past. He does provide good old-fashioned service. And he's found
that as times and technology change, service is still the glue that
makes the deal stick.

That's the indomitable Harry spirit I know. And it's lacking in too
many people today choosing sales as a career.

Harry's secret weapon? He'll be there. I guarantee you one day, one
week, one month, one year, our competitors will screw up. Screw up
big time. In the envelope business, job after job has to be right.
When occasional catastrophes happen -- to the other guys, of course
-- that's where Harry fits in. Competitors' customers know they can
call Harry at Mackay Envelope Corporation and he'll take care of it.
He'll come through every time. And Harry knows he can beat 90
percent of the competition just by showing up.

I phoned one of Harry's accounts and asked her, "Why have you stayed
with Harry all these decades? I know it's at least 35-plus years."

She didn't miss a beat.

"That's easy. Harry's a prince and over the years he's hauled
envelopes in his car up to our office . . . actually bought
envelopes from your competitor when you were out of stock to satisfy
us . . . opened your factory on a Saturday to get out a dated
mailing and never has made a pit stop on us at our office without
his million-dollar megawatt smile."

We're just wild about Harry.

If anyone out there thinks they are a Harry, ring us up. Our mission
statement is: To be in business forever.
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Worrying makes you cross the bridge before
you come to it

By Harvey Mackay

Recently I saw a survey that says 40 percent of the things we worry
about never happen, 30 percent are in the past and can't be helped,
12 percent concern the affairs of others that aren't our business,
10 percent are about sickness--either real or imagined-- and 8
percent are worth worrying about. I would submit that even the 8
percent aren't really worth the energy of worry.

Did you know that the English word worry is derived from an
Anglo-Saxon word that means to strangle or to choke? That's easy to
believe. People do literally worry themselves to death. . . or heart
disease, high blood pressure, ulcers, nervous disorders and all
sorts of other nasty conditions. Is it worth it?

Some folks seem to think this is a '90s phenomenon, but I've got
news for you: advice about worry goes back as far as the Bible. We
didn't invent it. We just need to find a way to keep it from ruling
our lives.

I've been spending a lot of time in bookstores lately, in the middle
of a 35-city book tour. From one coast to the other, north to south,
some of the most popular self-help books concern worry, stress, and
simplifying your life. I have a couple of favorite books to
recommend.

First, an oldie. Dale Carnegie's "How To Stop Worrying and Start
Living." It was first published in 1948, but the advice is just as
fresh and valuable as it was then and is right-on for the new
millennium. Being a chronic list maker, I found two sections that
really knocked my socks off. Both were about business people trying
to solve problems without the added burden of worrying. Carnegie
credits Willis H. Carrier, whose name appears on most of our air
conditioners, with these silver bullets:

Analyze the situation honestly and figure out what is the worst
possible thing that could happen.
Prepare yourself mentally to accept the worst, if necessary.
Then calmly try to improve upon the worst, which you have already
agreed mentally to accept.
Bingo! You can handle anything now. You know what you have to do;
it's just a matter of doing it. Without worrying.

Another approach I like is a system put into practice at a large
publishing company by an executive, named Leon. He was sick and
tired of boring and unproductive meetings marked by excessive
hand-wringing. He enforced a rule that everyone who wished to
present a problem to him first had to submit a memo answering these
four questions:

What's the problem?

What's the cause of the problem?

What are all possible solutions to the problem?

Which solution do you suggest?

Leon rarely has to deal with problems anymore, and he doesn't worry
about them. He's found that his associates have used the system to
find workable solutions without tying up hours in useless meetings.
He estimates that he has eliminated three-fourths of his meeting
time and has improved his productivity, health and happiness. Is he
just passing the buck? Of course not! He's paying those folks to do
their jobs, and he's giving them great training at decision-making.

Another little gem that's made its way to a #1 New York Times
bestseller is Richard Carlson's "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, and
it's all small stuff." Of course, being an aphorism junkie and slave
to short snappy chapters, I've found this book can improve
perspective in 100 small doses. I love the chapter titles: "Repeat
to Yourself, 'Life Isn't an Emergency,'" "Practice Ignoring Negative
Thoughts," and my favorite, "Let Go of the Idea that Gentle, Relaxed
People Can't Be Superachievers."

The point is, you can't saw sawdust. A day of worry is more
exhausting than a day of work. People get so busy worrying about
yesterday or tomorrow, they forget about today. And today is what
you have to work with.

I remember the story of the fighter who, after taking the full count
in a late round of a brawl, finally came to in the dressing room. As
his head cleared and he realized what had happened, he said to his
manager: "Boy, did I have him worried. He thought he killed me."

Now that's putting the worry where it belongs.
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Disappointment is opportunity in disguise

By Harvey Mackay

On Super Bowl Sunday, it was a real challenge for me to watch the
game at home and not wish I were in Miami losing my voice and
cheering for my hometown team, the Minnesota Vikings, to win it all.

Of course, we should have been there. The best offense in football.
A record-breaking season for scoring the most points ever. The
perfect kicker. The Vegas favorite to win the Super Bowl. And then,
ouch! The overtime loss to Atlanta. I've never heard the "Thunderdome"
so quiet. Sixty-five thousand silent fans. The disappointment was
crushing. We all sat there in shock. We were waiting for something
-- anything -- to make it all better. Not this time. But there's
always next year.

Handling disappointment is one of life's little challenges, and
often an indication of how we deal with adversity at work as well.
Anyone who has been in business can tell war stories about the bumps
in the road. But if they've outlasted the competition, ask for their
stories about survival. They've figured out how to turn
disappointments into opportunities.

Lose one of your best customers? Bummer. But it's not necessarily a
defeat. Find out why their orders are going elsewhere. If you messed
up, fix what you can and resolve not to make the same mistake again.
If the purchasing manager has a new brother-in-law who sells for
your competition, well, that's not a disappointment anymore. That's
your new challenge. Just don't lower your expectations. If you
expect nothing, that's exactly what you'll get.

Didn't get the promotion? Be honest with yourself. Were you right
for the job? Was it right for you? Do you have a future with the
company? Use your disappointment to do some soul-searching. If there
were two qualified people ahead of you, it could be a matter of
timing. If you've been passed over before, it's time to quit being
disappointed and recognize that you might have to jump to another
lily pad. You'll thank your old company later for helping you get
out in time.

Take a lesson from James Whitaker, the first American to reach the
summit of Mount Everest. Even though he was emotionally and
physically prepared, he encountered more than his share of
disappointments: avalanches, dehydration, hypothermia, and the
physical and mental fatigue caused by the lack of oxygen at 29,000
feet. Why did Whitaker succeed where so many had given in to their
disappointments? "You don't really conquer such a mountain," he
said. "You conquer yourself. You overcome the sickness and e
verything else -- your pain, aches, fears -- to reach the summit."

Achievers, like Whitaker, focus on the road, rather than the bumps
in it, to reach their destination.

Okay, you're on the other side of the desk. Can't find the right
person for a job? That's not a disappointment, that's a business
emergency. It's time to call in the pros. I use a headhunter and an
industrial psychologist for all my key hires. I can't afford to be
disappointed.

Is your staff underperforming? Time for another look in the mirror.
Perhaps they're as disappointed in you as you are in them. If you
can make their job more satisfying . . . challenging . . .
rewarding, do it. The results won't disappoint you.

Next time you're on the golf course, pick up your golf ball and take
a close look. The first golf balls manufactured had smooth covers.
An avid, but broke, golfer couldn't afford new ones, so he used
whatever he found along the course: beat up, nicked golf balls. His
playing partners soon noticed that their smooth-covered balls didn't
fly as accurately or as far as his. What was going on? But they
finally figured out what gave their friend the advantage.

Today, golf balls have as many as 432 dimples. The "rough spots"
enhance the ball's distance and accuracy.

Life's like that: rough spots sharpen our performance. And more
often than not, the obstacles can be turned into advantages. You
just can't let your disappointment get in the way.
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Manage your time or others will do it for you

By Harvey Mackay

I'll never forget an important time management lesson I learned in a
seminar many years ago . . . especially how the instructor
illustrated the point.

"Okay, time for a quiz," he said, as he pulled out a one-gallon
wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on the desk 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 the jar full?"

Everyone in the seminar 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.
This caused pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces
between the big rocks. Then he asked the group again, "Is the jar
full?"

By this time the class was onto him. "Probably not," we answered.

"Good!" he replied as he reached under the table and brought out a
bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all
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 up 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 really try hard, you can always
fit some things into it."

"No," the instructor replied. "The point is if you don't put the big
rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."

So, today, tonight, or in the morning when you are reflecting on
this story, ask yourself: What are the 'big rocks' in my life or
business? Then, be sure to put those in your jar first.

And by the way, you get the same size jar as everyone else. No
exceptions.

What changes from person to person is the size of each rock. I've
got a couple boulders in my jar: family first, always. Things like
friends, my company, my speaking/writing "hobby," maintaining my
network, my volunteer commitments, my health, and my religion all
take up a lot of space. The gravel is all the stuff that takes up
more than a few minutes but doesn't necessarily happen every day,
like a committee assignment, a vacation, learning new software ...
you get the idea.

And now, the sand. You can decide whether to be that 98-pound
weakling who gets sand kicked at him, or the creator of a
spectacular sand castle. The sand is the yes/no stuff that
absolutely has to fit around everything else after it's in the jar.
A little piece of sand in your eye is a big pain, and those are the
ones that get the no-thank-you right off the bat. A little sand on
an icy street is one of life's little pleasures when you live in
snow country as I do. You choose the sand. It's your jar.

In other words, it's your time. Change the rocks, gravel and sand
into hours, minutes and seconds. Then decide what your priorities
are and how much time you'll spend on them. If you don't, someone
else will decide for you and you'll end up with a jar full of heavy,
jagged, nasty shards that nobody could touch without getting stabbed
by another rock. Do you really want to spend your time working on
other people's priorities?

As Benjamin Franklin said, "If we take care of the minutes, the
years will take care of themselves." Good time management is taking
care of the things that matter most to us first and keeping that jar
of rocks in sight all the time.

My friend Lou Holtz has a great formula: W.I.N. -- What's Important
Now? Use some of your precious time to figure out what's important
in your life and you will win.
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Tell the truth or pay the consequences

By Harvey Mackay

Introductory Chemistry at Duke University has been taught for about
a zillion years by Professor Bonk and his course is known
affectionately as "Bonkistry."

One year, two guys were taking Chemistry and doing pretty well on
all the quizzes, midterms and labs. They were each getting a solid
"A" going into the final exam. They were so confident that the
weekend before finals they decided to go up to the University of
Virginia to party with some friends. Due to bad hangovers, they
overslept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to Duke until early
Monday morning.

Rather than taking the final then, they explained to Professor Bonk
that they had driven up to the University of Virginia for the
weekend and had planned to come back in time to study but they had a
flat tire on the way back and didn't have a spare, so they didn't
get back to campus until late Sunday night.

Professor Bonk thought this over and then agreed that they could
make up the final on the following day. The two guys were elated and
relieved. They studied that night and went in the next day.
Professor Bonk placed them in separate rooms, handed each of them a
test booklet, looked at his watch and told them to begin. They
looked at the first problem, which was something simple about
molarity and solutions and was worth 5 points.

"Cool," each of them thought. "This is going to be easy." They did
that problem and then turned the page. They were unprepared,
however, for what they saw on the next page. It said: Which tire?
(95 points)

As the father of three children, one of my rules -- especially when
they became teenagers -- was to tell me the truth immediately. I
insisted David, Mimi and Jojo tell me the truth about anything bad
they had done or were a part of. And I had to know right away -- not
a day or week later. If not, they would pay severe consequences.

That philosophy seemed to work for me, and quite frankly, I've
always believed that telling the truth is the best policy.In
business, it's a must.

A few years back, the Forum Corporation of Boston, Mass., studied
341 salespeople from 11 different companies in five different
industries. Their purpose was to determine what separated the top
producers from the average producers. When the study was finished,
the results were startling. It was not skill, knowledge or charisma
that divided the pack. The difference came down to one trait:
honesty. When customers trust the salespeople, they buy from them.

At Mackay Envelope Corporation, we don't tolerate anything less than
honest negotiations and delivery guarantees. An envelope is a very
standard commodity. Sure, the paper, the glue, and the size can
vary. The end product can probably be duplicated by a hundred
companies. But nobody can match us day in day out, job after job,
envelope after envelope, smile after smile. Our customers know we'll
do what we promise. They've even occasionally forgiven us for an
honest mistake because they know we'll make good on our word.

We also don't do business with vendors who are less than upfront. It
could eventually affect how we deliver to our customers, and we
don't like to lose customers. Our sales force wouldn't stick around
for long if we made their job harder. Can you blame them?

Telling the truth is not always a trait we associate with
politicians in our country, and the recent events in Washington is a
perfect example of what happens when the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth is in question. We all have our own opinions
of what has happened, but how would you like to be remembered as the
president that 80 percent of the population didn't trust? You may be
able to keep your job in politics with those numbers, but I can't
think of another profession where you'd have the same result.
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Leadership - Connect to Engage!

Author: Richard Gorham

It's been said many times that true leadership is measured by ones ability to motivate and influence others.

Leaders must work hard at motivating people to take action necessary to drive change and to ultimately increase results.

Even though most people would agree with the definition of leadership as the ability to motivate and influence others, most people still have trouble translating the definition of leadership into actionable and measurable steps.

The biggest obstacle faced by many leaders is simply figuring out how to effectively motivate and influence an entire team comprised of unique individuals.

Let's face it, not everyone is motivated by the same things, nor is everyone influenced to take action or change behavior based on the same factors.

So, what can leaders do to motivate and influence the ENTIRE team?

Here is the elusive one-word answer: CONNECT.

Leaders must invest the time in each and every one of their team members to, get to know them - to build a connection based on trust, honesty and respect. (Keep in mind, this personal connection must always remain professional and appropriate. Enough said on that.)

Taking this one step further, leaders must create opportunities for team members to connect.

This personal and professional connection will draw you and your team together, to work more effectively to improve efficiencies and increase production and profitability.

To help you envision the ultimate in a leader that successfully connects with his/her team members, let's look at a fictional example. Any ""Trekies"" out there? Don't flip the channel, this will be quick.

Even if ""Star Trek"" is not a TV favorite of yours, odds are you probably know enough about the long running series to appreciate our example.

Regardless of which Star Trek captain you visualize, all are terrific examples of leaders (albeit fictional) who have a unique connection to each and every member of the crew.

It's also obvious to the viewer that each team member has an unwavering allegiance to the team, the mission, and to his or her leader. (envision Captain YOU!)

Just imagine your own team having such a solid connection, both with you and with each other.

Picture you and your team facing exciting and challenging situations together, ""Exploring strange new worlds!"" and ""Boldly going where no one has gone before!""

Maybe this means taking your team to the #1 spot in your company, and/or reaching new levels of efficiency and/or production!

The prospect of leading a team that is connected is exciting isn't it?

Ok, we've talked about connection and the importance of building a connected team. Next we see that connection is the key ingredient leaders must leverage in order to raise the level of employee engagement.

An employee that is engaged in their work will typically run circles around employees who are working simply by showing up and ""going through the motions"".

If an employee is engaged, it means that they feel they have a stake in the outcome - an honest desire to contribute to something greater than themselves, or even monetary gain.

The engaged employee has emotion tied to their work. Perhaps that emotion comes out of a sense of loyalty and connection to their leader or other team members.

Top leaders understand that in order to connect with their workforce, they need to leverage the power of emotion. Only by connecting with the individuals can a leader create a powerful team consisting of employees who are committed and engaged.

KEY MESSAGE: CONNECT TO ENGAGE!

Now that we now understand the concepts of connection and engagement, so let's get specific and share some examples of how a leader can achieve the connection that will inspire employee engagement:

1. Leaders must know up front where they are taking their team. They must ""believe in"" and ""see a clear vision of the future"". In order for you to know when you have achieved your vision, the vision must be measurable. Here are some examples of a vision with measurable results.

Showing most improvement quarter over quarter.

Achieving balanced performance - your team is listed in the Top 3 ranking in every key category.

Reaching the net income annual goal, or gaining market share over a key competitor!

2. Leaders must communicate their vision in a way that inspires others to ""believe"". Communicating change can be difficult.

Communicating a clear action plan that everyone can understand lessens anxiety. Change always creates opportunity. Turning the anxiety of change into excitement for opportunity should be the goal of the leader when communicating the new vision. Here are some examples:

Breakdown vision into individual goals so team members understand their roles and responsibilities.

Hold all team kick-off meeting to unveil overall vision and action plan. Add fun and excitement. Anticipate questions and be prepared to overcome any perceived barriers.

Implement tracking and regular progress reporting to keep team focused on achieving each step leading up to the ultimate goal.

3. Leaders must support, promote, inspire and motivate team members to realize the vision. Motivate team members by giving everyone an opportunity for personal gain, above and beyond their regular pay. For example:

Introduce a special incentive program. (This doesn't have to cost a lot of money.) Base awards on a percentage of ""net"" gain to the organization - not just one persons ability to achieve an individual goal.

Offer ""interim"" awards to key contributors once the team achieves mid-level goals.

Make a point of ""celebrating"" the small wins, which will ultimately lead to the BIG WIN! Use gift certificates, lottery tickets, recognition awards, etc - praise and recognize individual and team accomplishments along the way.

4. A team is only as strong as its weakest link. Leaders must hold team members accountable for their duties and responsibilities. This is only fair to those employees doing a great job. Hold accountable any team member who is not doing his/her fair share. In order to achieve great things, you must expect great things from your people. Consider these examples:

BE CONSISTENT in your counsel. Hold yourself accountable! Did you TEACH? Did you COACH? Only then can you EXPECT!

BE CONSISTENT in your counsel. 1st offense = verbal warning (ensure clarity of roles and responsibilities)

2nd offense = written warning (get signature for documentation)

3rd offense = final notice (employee must understand that you will support their choice to either improve immediately or to move on to a more rewarding opportunity.)

4th offense = termination

And finally, BE CONSISTENT in your counsel.

In wrapping up this conversation may we reiterate one last time - when you have succeeded in creating a team that is connected, you can count on each of them having a higher degree of personal engagement toward meeting the goals before them.

Still wondering if this connection thing is really that powerful of a concept? Real quick, think about the following examples of leaders who have connected with people on a broad scale, and the kinds of results that came from achieving such a powerful connection:

1. President Reagan - connected so effectively with the people of a foreign nation and around the world by effectively communicating the words ""Tear down this wall!""

2. Boris Yeltsin - won support from people all across the globe as he stood on a tank and quite literally stared down the face of communism.

The final point here is that you do NOT need to be a world leader in order to be a great leader. Through the power of connection you can inspire a higher degree of employee engagement which will enable you and your team to achieve new levels of efficiency and production.

Enjoy the journey!

About the author: Richard Gorham is the founder and President of Leadership-Tools, Inc. His web site, http://www.leadership-tools.com is dedicated to providing free tools and resources for today's aspiring leaders. Offering high-quality tools in the areas of Business Planning, Leadership Development, Customer Service, Sales Management and Team Building.

Having FUN In Leadership

Author: Richard Gorham

"Don't measure your life by your goals, but rather by what you are DOING to achieve them." –Unknown

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is getting so wrapped up in achieving results, they forget to ensure that people are having fun along the way. Indeed, having fun is a key ingredient of keeping employee morale up, and inspiring people to continue to work aggressively toward a common set of objectives.

We here at Leadership-Tools.com were recently discussing the subject of inspirational leadership. Although our discussion took many detours into various subject areas, we found ourselves returning to the basic concept of - having FUN in the workplace.

As a leader, you might be thinking that ""FUN"" is important, but it cannot be paramount in terms of achieving results.

We challenge you, however, to not just think of having in terms of the ""webster"" definition.

As a leader, YOU need to define fun, and communicate YOUR definition of fun to your team.

First, let us lay the foundation with a bit of ""FUN - philosophy"" as we work toward our own definition of ""Leadership Fun in the Workplace"".

We believe there is a huge difference between highly successful leaders and those leaders who are working incredibly hard, but not quite achieving the same level of results. The difference, we believe, is in leadership styles. What do we mean?

The highly successful leader today facilitates, leads by example, encourages and participates with their team members to achieve TEAM results.

When the entire team feels fully engaged and a part of the process, then every team member takes personal pride in achieving the results.

Having FUN along the way supports engagement of each team member. Think about it, being ""engaged"" is fun.

Let's be frank, the days where the leader is a strong authoritative director and where all employees simply wait to see what the manager tells everyone to do does NOT produce the results that are recognized by a fully engaged team. The leader may be having fun, but his/her subordinates certainly are not.

Managers who want to micro-manage all the details are finding that it is virtually impossible to do. The marketplace simply demands too much for one person to micro-manage their team.

We all have incredible people working for us, and if we are effective leaders we need to create an environment where every employee feels like they are empowered, and understand they are expected to proactively contribute. Okay, let's get to our definition of Leadership Fun in the Workplace.

To those of us here at Leadership-Tools.com, FUN is NOT always laughing, being light-hearted, having low stress, and being comfortable.

Quite the contrary – FUN is:

Working in an environment where people are challenged, they learn new skills, they grow, they seek opportunity and advancement, they take risks, they ask forgiveness - not always permission. People with these traits make an organization grow - these people succeed more often than fail - and ultimately reap the rewards and recognition of one who consistently achieves results. They stay motivated with the knowledge that they are the exception to the common rule of human behavior. All told, they are having FUN because they make a difference and a contribution - they simply do not allow themselves to settle for the status quo. They would rather experience ""engagement"" - because being engaged - is FUN! Good luck, and have fun.

About the author: Richard Gorham is the founder and President of Leadership-Tools, Inc. His web site, http://www.leadership-tools.com is dedicated to providing free tools and resources for today's aspiring leaders. Offering high-quality tools in the areas of Business Planning, Leadership Development, Customer Service, Sales Management and Team Building.

A New Age Of Small-Unit Leadership

Author: Brent Filson

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

Word count: 828

Filson asserts that the key to organizational success is not just a function of large movements of capital, people, and infrastructure but in a single, priceless aspect, small-unit leadership. He offers suggestions on how to develop and institute small-unit leadership in your organization. Small-Unit Leadership By Brent Filson Recent mergers in many industries remind me of a point that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower often made, ""Generals move the pins on a map,"" he would say, ""but the front-line troops have to get the job done.""

And the key to the job is leadership, small-unit leadership, leadership of the most basic units or teams of an organization.

Without good leadership in front-line units ­ the squad leaders and platoon commanders or their business counterparts, the supervisors and first-level managers ­ organizations stumble, no matter how skillfully the pins are moved on the map.

Yet in bringing leadership programs to many businesses in a variety of industries during the past 20 plus years, I've seen many companies neglecting small-unit leadership.

Time and again, I have seen technologists promoted right off the lab bench to become team leaders; I've seen assembly workers promoted off the line to be supervisors; and salespeople made local managers and yet they were not helped in substantive ways with their leadership skills.

Instead, their employers were focusing on the pins and maps, the re-engineering, acquisitions and divestitures.

Sure, the stocks of those businesses got quick boosts, but I wonder how well-positioned the businesses are to achieve consistent earnings growth over the long haul without skilled, small-unit leadership.

Consistent earnings' growth is linked to consistent top-line growth. Such growth rests on a tripod. One leg is strategy, the pins on the map; the other leg is resources; and the third leg is execution. Small-unit leadership is the execution leg.

So I submit that in the coming years, businesses will come to realize the importance of small-unit leadership to top-line growth and earnings' growth.

In fact, the coming years will reveal an exciting new age in small-unit leadership. Businesses that champion such leadership will be tremendously competitive.

Here are a few ideas on how to make it happen.

First, the CEO and senior executives must recognize the vital importance of small-unit leadership. I'm not talking about their simply paying lip service but having instead a passionate conviction that small-unit leadership is indispensable to growth.

Senior executives must encourage small-unit leaders. Celebrate their achievements. Help them overcome their failures. Measure their leadership performance. Develop compensation that stimulates them to advance as leaders.

The Marine Corps, an organization with a robust tradition of small-unit leadership, has institutionalized high-level commitment to small-unit leaders. For instance, in chow lines in the field, the lowest ranking troops eat first, the highest ranking last.

(How might the cultures of some organizations start to be changed for the better if, for instance, its executives gave small-unit leaders parking perks, while they, the executives, took their chances in the main lot?)

Top leaders who demonstrate commitment to their small-unit leaders will have committed small-unit leaders.

Without top-down commitment, effective small-unit leadership will not flourish through the whole business but instead in relatively ineffective, scattered islands.

But top-level commitment, though necessary, is not sufficient. A passion for small-unit leadership should soak the entire culture of the organization. Everybody must catch the spirit of and contribute to maintaining a culture of small-unit leadership excellence.

The word culture comes from the Latin root meaning ""to cultivate."" To grow small-unit leaders, everybody in the organization must cultivate them. Spot them early. Bring mentors into their lives. Set their expectations high, not only for themselves but for their colleagues and leaders above them. Encourage them to develop leadership in others.

A successful executive told me that his career was changed by a small-unit leader. At one time, the executive was a high school dropout working on the assembly line.

""During breaks,"" he said, ""I always had people gathered around me. I had this knack of getting them interested in what I had to say. One day, my supervisor told me something that changed my life. He said, 'I've been watching you with people, and you're a natural leader. With more education, you could go far.'""

The executive said, ""Until then, I had never looked at myself as a leader. Suddenly, I had a vision in life. I was something I didn't know I was: a leader. I finished high school, went to college, and came back here.

""That supervisor 's passion for leadership defined my career.. He was always spotting potential leaders and helping them become leaders. His teams consistently racked up the numbers because of his leadership. He had me understand that his level of leadership is tremendously important in our company.""

Finally, the business that is serious about small-unit leadership must systematically develop them through well-thought-out, comprehensive training programs.

In the coming New Age of Small-Unit Leadership, leadership development people will have extremely important roles to play. They will be seen as some of the most important leaders in the organization, since their interaction with small-unit leaders will be contributing directly to top-line growth, to having people get the job done where ever the generals place their pins in the map.

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and has worked with thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 20 years helping them achieve sizable increases in hard, measured results. Sign up for his free leadership ezine and get a free guide, ""49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,"" at www.actionleadership.com

About the author: The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He has worked with thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 20 years helping them achieve sizable increases in hard, measured results. Sign up for his free leadership ezine and get a free guide, ""49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,"" at www.actionleadership.com