Small Business Leadership and Sales Blog

 Is your attitude of helpfulness and willing to jump in noticeable by all?

What does your team think of your attitude?

"What does your team think of your attitude?" is kind of a personal issue since attitude is a person's choice in response to a situation or a thing. Every person is entitled to his or her opinion. But since teamwork calls for a quality attitude, then each team member has no choice. Or do they? A positive or negative attitude towards a person, thing, place, event, ideas, and others is a form of judgment. It is greatly influenced by the person's upbringing, environment, education and social interactions. Attitude is not permanent and it can be changed. Social influences can change a person's attitude and therefore, communication is vital.

A person's attitude may vary depending on what they are dealing with. This forms the individual's character traits. Self-esteem, experiences and principles in life can serve as a guide to be consistent and help you project a positive attitude towards people, work and their environment.

Attitude is one vital trait that can be formed but cannot be destroyed without your consent. You do have control over it. How you respond to the daily challenges and circumstances of life you are presented with is always your choice.

Teamwork will succeed if members among the team make it work. The team will benefit if everyone's willing to cooperate and share the same goal. Your attitude is important to your team and what they think about your attitude likewise is important. To avoid misunderstanding and disagreement, it is vital to know your own positive and negative attitudes when dealing with people while at work or at home. Inappropriate attitudes cause work & family rifts, party division and political faction.

Attitude can:
* project a kind of leadership
* hold and bind people together
* inspire people to work and execute together
* empower people plan and achieve together as a team
* influence, attract and lure people to communicate, respond and cooperate.

Memorize this quote. Tape it to your dashboard in your car or on your refrigerator. Do whatever it takes to allow these words to sink into your soul.

“Right attitude will always carry you to the right place, the right people and at the right time.” – Marvin LeBlanc (Author – Come Hell or High Water – Life Lessons from Hurricane Katrina)

 

Make sure not to miss any of Marvin's content. Click on the button below to get access to all of his sales tools, tips and special promotions! 

 

For all businesses, employee performance is the integral factor and perhaps the building block that leads to their success. Employee performance can be greatly improved with the right kind of leadership. Here are the 5 fundamentals I believe are essential for building performance. All leaders must practice the following fundamentals with unyielding determination:

• Commitment to showing other the due respect. Leaders always value the opinions of their teams and followers. Why? The answer is that it gives them a sense of contribution and a feeling that they are important members of any team.

• All successful leaders put in hard work and long hours more so than everybody else because they have a greater calling i.e. a responsibility to make sure everyone is on the right path and working towards goal achievement. The leadership goals to effectively manage a team like, planning, organizing, directing, controlling, and administration take a lot of perseverance.

• Individual goals take a backseat in relevance with the goals of the team because it is only through teamwork i.e. cooperation and co-ordination can organizational goals be achieved. The basic goal of a leader is to ensure that everyone is working in harmony towards the achievement of the organizational goals rather than individual tasks.

• A leader never slacks off. Leaders never make excuses not to do a work or for not having to fulfill an objective. They work relentlessly day in day out until they have achieved what they had set out to do. And that is the key to successful leadership. Not giving up and ascertaining goal achievement is bred into the minds of leaders.

• Leaders take full responsibility of whatever they direct their teams to do and however they plan to carry out tasks for goal achievement. They are willing to be held accountable for any consequence of the actions that they prompt, and that in fact is what inspires their team to follow them unquestioningly.

Hello Marvelous People!

In a world that is consumed by negative media messages, let us take some time today to review a life lived with positive purpose. A life lived with positive meaning. A life that has enhanced the lives of millions.

I have paraphrased for brevity the recent eulogy given by Mona Simpson, Steve Jobs' sister. Her eloquent message shares key experiences and important life traits that we may all consider and reflect upon.

May the words of Mona Simpson inspire you as you travel down your own road. Take the time to reflect on each point, PAUSING FREQUENTLY to contemplate it’s meaning in your life.

His Full Life
• He worked at what he loved and he worked hard every day.
• He was the opposite of absent-minded
• He was never embarrassed about working, even when his results were failures.
• He was never ashamed to admit that he tried and that he failed.
• Although immensely innovative, he was also loyal. (if he saw a shirt that he liked he'd buy 10 or even 100 of them)
• He favored people his own age.
• He was never one to favor gimmicks or trends.
• He was willing to be misunderstood.
• Love was his supreme virtue. He spent time talking about love and kept track and worried about the romantic lives of the people working with him.
• He believed that love happened all the time - everywhere!
• He was never ironic, cynical or pessimistic.
• He loved broccoli, especially in season, simply prepared, with just the right recently snipped herbs.
• He felt that his success at his early age served to isolate him somewhat.
• He loved bikes and loved the Palo Alto Bike Store.
• He was humble and always liked to keep learning.
• He loved colleges and loved walking around the Stanford campus.
• He cultivated whimsy and loved roses.
• He always had surprises tucked away in his pockets. Various treats, words to songs he loved, poems, etc.
• He treasured happiness.

His Illness

• Even in his illness, so much was still left after so much had been taken away.
• And he tried. He always tried.
• He was an intensely emotional man.
• Even during his illness, his taste, his judgment and discrimination held.
• While intubated in the hospital, he still sketched:
A- devices to hold an iPad while in a hospital bed.
B- designs for new fluid monitors
C- designs of new x-ray equipment

Important things Mona Simpson learned from her brother.
• character is essential.
• Steve was an absolutist.
• Steve was a romantic
• Steve was idealistic

A powerful idea to apply in our life:

Imagine if you printed and read these words every morning in your quiet time and allow your subconscious mind and your own spirit to be transformed by these character traits.

Might that assist you as you seek to live life with more meaning and purpose?

Drop us an email (Marvin@MarvinLeBlanc.com) and share with us your story on The Life Traits that have sustained you throughout your life.

Yes, we really care and we really read what you share.

Until next time remember that:
Marvelous Performance is ALWAYS - Intentional!
Marvelous Performance is NEVER - Accidental!

See Marvin in action at: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarvinLeBlanc/videos

PICTURE WITH ME 2 men in a Brutal Fist Fight
1 Man Down- almost laying Motionless

I now ask u - IS THE FIGHT OVER?
WHAT WOULD BE YOUR REPLY?

ANSWER:  It's only over if the man on the ground refuses to GET UP!

Marvelous people.  Memorize this -  DEFEAT IS A TEMPORARY CONDITION!

The definition of defeat is the failure to win.  If we allow defeat to keep us down in life we are depriving ourselves of the opportunity to rise above adversity.  Life is full of challenges, each and every day you have battles.  The only time a fight is really over is when the opponent doesn't get up. Think about boxing, when one of the boxers is down, hurting, bleeding and suffering the match is not over unless he refuses to get back up.

The same goes for you in business and in life.  As long as you keep getting up, day after day, you are winning the battle.  Are some battles harder to overcome and get up from?  Of course but the more you practice, the more you make persistency a permanent mind-set the more successful you will be. 

Marvelous people remember this: Defeat is temporary, persistency should be permanent!

Possessing PERSISTENCY IS what needs to be Permanent. In your Being.

REMEMBER- No one can follow you if you continue to lay down!

For more exciting ideas on developing PERSISTENCY and overcoming defeat Grab a copy of my book "Come Hell or High Water" 

 

In the early 1990s, I was a State Farm agent in St. Bernard Parish. (A
Louisiana Parish adjacent to the east side of Orleans Parish) I had not
been an agent more than four or five years. I vividly remember that day
whereby we had a visiting agent come in and speak to our business group.

On this particular day our speaker was named Jay Butler. Jay Butler had
recently retired. He was from the California area if my memory serves me
correctly. His passionate purpose was to travel across the country
discussing some interesting ideas and giving back to his State Farm
“family”. Jay knew that he was in his final months fighting pancreatic
cancer. And because he knew his time was limited he actually worked 7 days a week graciously meeting with clients on Saturdays, Sundays or anytime.

All of us at one time or another have been told, “you know if you go to a
seminar or a workshop and you pick up JUST ONE GOOD IDEA then it was worth all your time.” Well on this particular day, the ONE GOOD IDEA that has
stayed with me for so long and I believe it can help you today is simply
this.

Dislikes/Likes

Take out a Yellow Pad and draw a line down the center of the page. On the
left side of the page start listing all of the things that you do not like
to do in your current job. So, take some time, maybe pause from reading
forward, and really think of all the things that you do not like to do and
write them down.

Now after really working hard on listing the “DISLIKES”, now turn your focus
to the right side of the page. Your “LIKES”. Vertically write down all the
aspects of your job or your career that you really do enjoy & like to do.
Maybe even love to do.

Although this idea’s simple, it is profound. Some of you wont take this
exercise serious enough. Because you long for and search for “the answer”.
And for it to be “the answer”, it has to be more complicated.

WRONG!
Here’s the key points.

1. Every day, when you wake up, you need to spend your time focusing on only doing the things you like to do. Resolve and commit to hiring and creating a team of people that their strengths are the things that you do not like to do, and let them do it. Did you really catch that last statement?

2. You cannot amass major income without first mastering the ability to
delegate. But you need to delegate your DISLIKES to team members that are
strong in that area. Their LIKES must be your DISLIKES.

3. You will constantly need to scout and recruit new talent. You don’t do
that just once a year, because you never know when you will lose a team
member. Things happen, people get jobs in different locations, sickness,
health problems, death, accidents. Many perils in life can happen, so you
always must continue to look for people who would be an asset to your team.
But what you cannot do is continue to fool yourself and live under the
illusion that you’re going to ever be strong in the areas that you’re weak.

4. There’s a man by the name of Dan Sullivan. He’s the co-owner with his
wife in their company, “The Strategic Coach”. And one of Dan Sullivan’s
philosophies is simply this: If you spend your entire life focusing on your
weaknesses, what you’re going to have at the end of your life is a long list
of strong weaknesses, but they’re still going to be weaknesses. You are
hard-wired for success, but you have to determine what it is that you’re
good at, and only do that.

The Jay Butler story is an excellent story about giving back to us in his
last year of life, when he knew that he was terminally ill. And the ONE
GOOD IDEA that I’ll always remember is to focus on the things you do well
and delegate to others the things you do not do well that they actually are
strong in.

This message brought to you by Marvin LeBlanc

“Be significant today. And remember significance is almost always
intentional. Significance is almost never accidental.”

Have a great day.

Did you like what you read?  If so I encourage you to share it with your friends and sign up on the right side of the page to be notified when new content is posted. 

Give us your thoughts and feedback!  We love hearing from our readers about how this tip helped to propel you forward in life.

 

Hello Marvelous People!

Our guest blogger is Tyler Winner – President of Dale Carnegie Training for Middle Louisiana and East Texas. His article today on Team Member Engagement offers great tips to use in your next team meeting. Let us know how his ideas help move your team forward at MarvinLeBlanc@aol.com.


7 Ways To Foster Team Member Engagement

As a leader at your business, you have considerable impact on employee engagement, and whether that engagement remains sustained or not.  Because employee engagement is so critical to the success of your business, affecting such areas as communication, development, contribution and employee morale, it becomes a necessary responsibility for all leaders.

Team Member Engagement Directly Impacts The Success Of Your Business.

Businesses with engaged employees benefit from having fewer absences, excellent customer service (acknowledged by their clients), stronger internal communication and employees who are generally more enthusiastic about their jobs and, thus, more productive.  To help you create the sort of dynamic work environment that team member engagement generates, we put together the seven tips below.

7 Ways To Foster Team Member Engagement:

#1. Talk To Your Team: Communication is a two-way street, but someone has to put the keys in the ignition and get the car started, and that someone has to be a leader.  If you want your team members actively communicating with one another, you need to lead by example.  Throughout the day, talk to them about what is happening in the business, about work in the team and about their personal interests.

#2. Get To Know Your Team: Developing a rapport with your employees works in tandem with talking to them.  By genuinely getting to know your team members — their likes, their dislikes, their passions, their goals — you will gain a better understanding of what makes them tick, and in the process help them feel like unique individuals as opposed to human-shaped representations of their job function.

#3. Make Time For Your Team: As a leader at your business, it is important that you are available to the members of your team when they need you.  If you come off as unavailable or detached from the main body of your team, you will create a barrier between them and you.  This will lead to a serious disconnect and inevitable breakdown in communication, directly affecting your business’ success.

#4. Promote Fun At Work: “Fun” in this instance has less to do with fun in the sense of “fun and games” and more to do with employees being enthusiastic about their jobs.  When employees are having fun at the workplace, they are considerably more productive and contribute to a positive energy that influences the success of your business.

#5. Actively Support Your Team: Feeling supported by the rest of the team and the leaders at a business is an important aspect of team member engagement. Said leaders need to look for ways to help their employees grow and attain their business goals in order to combat complacency and prevent employees from growing disheartened with their job and their role in the company.

#6. Provide The Tools They Need: If you want your team members to perform at the top of their game and deliver the very best they can produce, you need to supply them with the right tools for their respective jobs.  Expecting employees to make due with what they have in essence cripples them, and can leave employees feeling that their job is far more of a struggle than it ought to be.

#7. Be Flexible: Ruling with an iron-fisted “my way or the highway” mentality stifles growth and development and creates a static, unchanging, complacent work environment — the antithesis of innovation and design (read: success).  Strong leaders know when to admit their weakness and when to concede to employees who may know more about something than they do, in the process engaging the employee by acknowledging their experience and relative expertise.

Executive Summary: Team member engagement, for any business — no matter what you do or what your size — is absolutely crucial.  As a leader at your business, it falls on your shoulders to take the first steps towards engaging your team members.  It may take a bit of effort, but in the end, the payoff is immeasurable.  Engagement motivates employees, creates a work atmosphere charged with excitement and energy, better communication and so much more. Bottom line: Team member engagement improves your business in every way.

Your Next Step: If you want to find out more about how Dale Carnegie Training can make your business more effective, or need more information on this subject, please send us an e-mail at tyler_winner@dalecarnegie.com.

Make it a great day!

Hello Marvelous People! Stick with me here for a second.

Take out a clean sheet of paper and draw one big circle.

Now draw 3 lines across the circle, making 6 different sections.

Now you have what looks like a beach ball, right?

You’ll now insert the following words in each of their own sections.

1.
Most Significant Event – Personal
Most Significant Event – Professional

2.
Personal Issues & Frustrations
Professional Issues & Frustrations

3.
Personal Goals
Professional Goals

4.
Personal Dreams
Professional Dreams

5.
Ideas that can make us better?

6.
How can I help?

With the tool of “The Beach Ball” you will have a 1 hour monthly focus supper with your team members.  Afterall, you’d probably agree with me that it’s not unreasonable to spend ONE QUALITY HOUR with your team members monthly.  The Beach Ball, used consistently month after month, serves as a conversation guide.  I strongly suggest an early supper right after work and definitely away from work. Somewhere casual. Somewhere that feels comfortable. Somewhere that’s not so loud that you can’t hear each other communicate. Afterall, that is the whole point of the “Beach Ball” tool.  Try it. Enjoy the process and you will be amazed what you might discover about your team members. Remember, “LISTENING IS NOT WAITING TO TALK”

Some people are men and women of few words. To work in an office with such people is truly a blessing.

Most workers, however, are stuck in a workplace where they hear about everything from a co-worker’s baby-making plans to his/her estranged relationship with their father or mother.

Talking about such topics might be OK to share over cocktails with your best friend — they are not OK for the workplace.

Why? Because people spend more time at the office with co-workers than anywhere (or anyone) else. Some workers have trouble drawing the line between business and friendship, says Susan Solovic, co-founder and CEO of SBTV.com, and author of three books, including Reinvent Your Career: Attain the Success You Desire and Deserve. “It’s a social environment as well as a work environment. However, you must remember: While you can be friendly and develop a good rapport, business is business and friendship is friendship.”

These days, your job security is unstable enough as it is. The last thing you need is to make an off-the-cuff remark that gets you fired (or shunned from the likes of your co-workers). To help keep your career on track, here are 6 things you should never say (or discuss) in the workplace:

1. “That’s not my job.”

When you boil things down, everyone does things that “aren’t their job.” If everyone complained that a certain task wasn’t in the offer they signed, the labor force would be in more trouble than it already is. If someone asks for your help, take it as a compliment. He or she obviously values your input or thinks your skills would be good fit for the task. Not only will it help earn good office karma (you never know when you’ll need help from other colleagues), but it never looks good to only do the bare minimum. And no boss wants to hear those four words!

2. “I don’t mind helping you with that.” (With a fake smile pasted on your face.)

There’s nothing worse than someone who offers to help and then complains about it later. If you take on a task with a smile but don’t really want to do it, your help is as good as no help at all. When you work without enthusiasm, it’s never your best effort. Plus, don’t say you’ll do something if you have no intention of actually completing the task or you’ll earn a reputation as an unreliable person. Your colleagues are relying on you, so your decision not to follow through impacts their jobs, too.

3. “Don’t tell anyone I said this, but … ”

Anytime you start a sentence with that phrase, you’re asking for one thing: The recipient of your knowledge to, indeed, tell someone you said that. If it’s really a secret, keep it to yourself. Whether you know someone in the office got pregnant by the mail guy or you found out what the boss makes, you’re going to get credit for spreading the news. Plus, if a co-worker is gossiping with you, most likely he or she will gossip about you.

4. “I haven’t gotten a raise, EVER.”

Since most employers base salary increase on productivity (not longevity), asking for a raise based on how long you’ve been with the company or how long it’s been since your last one will tell your boss only that you want more money — not that you deserve it. Instead, prove the raise is merited.

5. “I’m so … stressed out/busy/sick of working here.”

Constant complaints about your workload, stress levels or the company will quickly make you the kind of person who never gets invited to lunch. If you don’t agree with company policies and procedures, address it through official channels or move on.

6. “I have (insert weird, gross or inappropriate medical condition) here .”

Nobody cares about your aches and pains, the weird fungus on your foot, your infertility woes or the bad gas you got from eating Chinese food last night. To your employer, your constant medical issues make you seem like an expensive, high-risk employee. And to your co-workers, you seem like an attention-seeking hypochondriac.

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Marvin LeBlanc is a left-handed, right-brained, fun-loving Cajun that is obsessed with Life Performance and Overcoming Adversity. He is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker and founder of Marvelous Performance Systems. Marvin is available for business retreats, keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, & individual coaching programs. His book “COME HELL OR HIGH WATER” will be available in the Fall of 2011 through New York Publisher www.BloomingTwig.com. To rent Marvin’s brain, contact him at www.MarvinLeBlanc.com and request a Free Personal Coaching Session.

Hello Marvelous People!

Chris Voss is someone that I read & follow his blog regularly. You should too. His recent blog brought me back to the early 1980’s. It was a time in my life that I made a choice that would effect me positively for the rest of my life.

I was passionate about wanting to succeed in life, but I was bitter and frustrated & needed some serious guidance and direction.

So I went to the Yellow Pages and looked up the Dale Carnegie Courses in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My mentor would become Jim Winner, the local sponsor in Baton Rouge for the Dale Carnegie Courses. And it was then that I would be introduced to the poem below. Print the poem, put it in your wallet or purse. Read it regularly. Meditate on it. Let it become absorbed into your being. And over time it will have great meaning for you. I promise.

Chris in his blog states:

I was watching a show on Bill Parcells, the successful NFL coach. He talked about how he’d always carried this poem with him. It’s very inspiring and I hope you enjoy it.

“The Guy in the Glass” by Dale Wimbrow, (c) 1934

When you get what you want in your struggle for self,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The fella whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He’s the fella to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.

Source: Theguyintheglass.com

-Take a moment to look into a mirror. Do you like the person you are inside? How does it make you feel? What can you improve?

“Make Marvelous Happen!”  Let me know how I can help?

Peace, Love and Gumbo!
Marvin LeBlanc, LUTCF, CNP

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Marvin LeBlanc is a left-handed, right-brained, fun-loving Cajun that is obsessed with Life Performance and Overcoming Adversity. He is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker and founder of Marvelous Performance Systems. Marvin is available for business retreats, keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, & individual coaching programs. His book “COME HELL OR HIGH WATER” is available here for purchase. To rent Marvin’s brain, contact him at MarvinLeblanc@aol.com and request a Free Personal Coaching Session.

Hello Marvelous People!

Okay, by now you should be sick of articles and blog posts that talk about your 2011 goals.

But have any of those articles “INSPIRED YOU TO ACT”? Because if you have a perfect plan and you don’t BEGIN TO EXECUTE THAT PLAN WITH MASSIVE ACTION, then you will spend 2011 just like you spent 2010. It’s time to DO MORE, BE MORE, EXPLORE MORE! Don’t just be a candle in the wind, Marvelous People. As my mentor, friend and Certified Speaking Professional Mikki Williams says: “BE OUTRAGEOUS, it’s the only place that’s not crowded!”

May I offer this one warning? Go back and look at your 2011 “WRITTEN GOALS”. (Yes, written. If it’s not written, it’s not a goal, it’s a dream. More specifically, it’s a fantasy pipe dream that’s not going to come true for you.)

Assuming you are NOW looking at your written goals, can you honestly point to an item that has anything to do with the subject of Personal Development Training? Personal development training is not company training. Point: you may know company knowledge, policies and procedures but without developing your soft skills, your effectiveness will be severely limited. Complete knowledge, policies and procedures do not make you more productive – personal development and human relation skills do.

The soft skills are the hardest skills to master. Human Relations Skill development is critical. Human Relations Skill development does not have a destination. It is an endless journey. Work harder on yourself than any other item.

So here’s your CALL TO ACTION.
1. Stop planning. Start MASSIVE ACTING on your plan.
2. Let yourself go for – MORE!
3. Put your WRITTEN Goals in your Purse, Wallet, Refrigerator and Bathroom Mirror NOW!
4. The Soft Stuff is the Hard Stuff!

Peace, Love and Gumbo!

Marvin LeBlanc, LUTCF, CNP

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Marvin LeBlanc is a left-handed, right-brained, fun-loving Cajun that is obsessed with Life Performance and Overcoming Adversity. He is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker and founder of Marvelous Performance Systems. Marvin is available for business retreats, keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, & individual coaching programs. His book “COME HELL OR HIGH WATER” will be available in the Fall of 2011 through New York Publisher www.BloomingTwig.com. To rent Marvin’s brain, contact him marvinleblanc@aol.com