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A Weekly Letter With Tips and Ideas to Improve How Your Life and Business Work - and Other Interesting Things that Catch my Eye!
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June 26, 2017 - Issue 17-26
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Good Morning.
As I write this week's letter, I'm sitting in my son's sunroom in Merrimack, NH, having just arrived here for a six-week visit on Tuesday. Seeing family and friends is wonderful!
Summer's nice, even though our winter in Argentina is very pleasant. Having all the conveniences of North American life is nice. Nonetheless, I'll be glad to return to my haven of personal liberty in rural Argentina. Check out
www.lec.com.ar if you'd like to try to understand why I feel that way. And, if you're a traveler, I'd love to show you around the area when you visit - please call or email a few days or weeks in advance (I can help with travel and lodging arrangements). As enticing as the website is, you need to visit to understand fully what's there.
Now, to the point of this week's discussion.
Benno Dorer, CEO of
Clorox Company, and
the featured leader in an
article we discuss this week by
John Eades, says: "
ideas need to come from the lunch room, not the boardroom".
Ever heard of Benno Dorer?
I'll bet, for most of you, the answer is no. This is a common trait of true leaders - no ego, no desire to be in the limelight, no need for recognition. They just very quietly lead their companies to do great things, while leading from the shadows. I'll get into his ideas a bit more in this week's letter.
Enjoy!
John Stevens at Unity Copywriting
Marketing Support for the Business Coaching Industry
Office and cell phone: 814-590-3854 or 603-835-3215 (I'll get a message wherever I am)
In Argentina: +54(country code) 9 3868 459586
Skype: johnbstevens1943
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Please Help me Spread my Message Where It's Welcome
Please remember to pass this letter along to anyone you think will enjoy and benefit from receiving my weekly messages - just click the "SHARE THIS EMAIL" button at the bottom of this one. If this message was forwarded to you, and you'd like to join us regularly, click on the "SIGN UP FOR EMAILS" button below. You'll be automatically added to my mailing list, and I guarantee that will not generate other promotions. Your privacy is of the utmost importance to me. If you'd rather not receive these messages any more, you're welcome to click the "UNSUBSCRIBE" link at the foot of this message. I'll be sorry to see you go, but I'd rather send these ideas to those who find benefit in them.
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The Best Ideas Come from the Lunch Room,
not the Board Room!
This is an important point I've noticed throughout my career, that the people doing the work very often have the best ideas about how to do it better. They see what's actually happening every day as they do their work. As a result, their ideas are likely to work in the real world. Their ideas are always worth listening to. Occasionally some factor unknown to the worker makes her idea impractical - even so it will almost always have the seed of a concept that fits reality. Besides that, listening - TRULY listening - to your employees is one of the best things you can do to give them a sense that they are part of something bigger than themselves - a powerful motivator!
Of course, good ideas can come from leadership as well. When such an idea comes up, often it's possible to ask enough questions of an employee or an employee team that they hit on the idea during the discussion. If you can make that happen, the idea will be far more readily accepted by the employees than if they have the sense that it's being imposed on them by the leaders.
The most important thing in any exchange is to be sure the employee feels empowered, not oppressed. An oppressed employee is shorn of her self-esteem - made to feel like a slave, rather than a valued contributor to the company's results. In that condition he'll almost surely contribute little and, if he has any "gumption" at all, he'll probably move on to some place where his talents are appreciated.
When - not How!
One of Dorer's statements is "
I engage with my people in the 'when' but I leave it up to them on 'how' they accomplish what we want to accomplish".
This is a tremendously important concept. Telling people
how to do what needs to be done is a poor approach for at least two reasons.
- It leaves them with the sense that the boss doesn't trust them, and it takes away from their commitment to the result of the project and their sense of accomplishment in their work,.
- It's like giving a man a fish, as opposed to teaching him to fish. Give him a fish and he eats for a day. Help him learn to fish and he eats for a lifetime. You see the parallel!
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Do More of What You Love Doing -
and What
You Get PAID For!
Are you a business coach, or do you have some role in advising business leaders on ways to improve their businesses? When you're face to face with your clients, that's the work you signed up for and that you love...AND that you get paid for. Writing effective promotional material to attract new business is consuming work. It takes time and mental focus away from your attention to the clients you're already helping. Your coaching work, also very consuming, distracts you from your promotional writing, very likely detracting from its effectiveness. Why not let Unity Copywriting write those pieces for you so you can put your time and effort toward your most important work?
Put My Experience to Work for You...
My career includes several recent years as a business coach, and before that, I worked in various operations management roles for over 40 years, practicing and studying leadership and teamwork. With that background, I'm uniquely qualified to explain the benefits you offer to your clients and prospects. I love writing about this work and I'd love to talk with you about how we can promote your business most effectively. Please let me hear from you!
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I'd Love to Hear Your Thoughts
How do ideas flow in your company? Do workers contribute most of them, and get recognized for them, or are they mostly imposed by management? How do the ideas in any of my messages make your life and business more enjoyable and effective...or, do you have some reservations about them? I always find it fascinating to hear your thoughts and experiences and learn from them.
If you email me whatever's on your mind, please give me a phone number or a Skype address, or send me a Skype contact request (see my Skype address below), and mention that you read my newsletter. It's important to mention this - with all the spammers, phishermen, etc. out there, I'm very selective about my connections on networking services. If your name is unfamiliar to me, I'll consider your contact request when you tell me your reason for wanting to connect with me...
Conversations are often necessary to discuss complex ideas, and conversations occur only in real-time, two(or more)-way exchanges; hence my request for your call or the information I need to call you. Email and other forms of one-way communication are data transfers, and are very useful for many types of communication. However, they are extremely limited in their ability to convey the ideas, emotions, and inflection that characterize conversations (remember that words, which make up the total content of an email, have been estimated to convey seven percent of the total import of a message), so please call me or tell me how to call you.
Just dial 603-835-3215 or 814-590-3854 if you're in the United States or Canada. Of course, if you call from outside North America, you'll need the +1 prefix. If you're calling from Argentina, you're welcome to call my Argentine number, +54 9 3868 459586.
Help me Spread my Message Where It's Welcome...
If you know someone you think will find value in the ideas I discuss each week, I encourage you to forward this to them, using the "
SHARE THIS EMAIL" button at the end of this message. If this was forwarded to you, and you'd like to hear more, please click the "
SIGN UP FOR EMAILS" button below. You'll be automatically added to my mailing list, which I
never sell, rent, or even add a name to without permission.
Your privacy is enormously important to me.
On the other hand, if you'd rather stop receiving these messages, simply click the "
UNSUBSCRIBE" link at the bottom of this message. I'll promptly remove you from the list...and I promise you won't hurt my feelings. It's my desire to send these ideas only to people who find them valuable.
Join me here again next week for more unique ideas on life and business...and
thanks for reading about the ones I've discussed here.
Have a wonderful week
, and contact me
to discuss how we can join forces to add value to what
you
do. Our conversation about how we can mutually benefit from working together is totally on me and, while I'd love to work with you, there's no obligation, or cost, arising from that conversation. You won't pay me a dime until you hire me to write something for you.
Be well, my friends.
John Stevens
Marketing Support for the Business Coaching Industry
Office and cell phone: 814-590-3854 or 603-835-3215 (I'll get a message wherever I am)
In Argentina: +54(country code) 9 3868 459586
Skype: johnbstevens1943
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About John
Throughout a career spanning over 45 years my management style has been one of building teams to bring several competent people together to focus on a common objective.
As I transition to life in the Argentine outback, my focus will shift to helping other business coaches and advisers get their message out to their prospective clients. With my first-hand knowledge of the benefits of effective business coaching, I am uniquely qualified to work with business advisers of all stripes convey their message.
Read More >
Contact Info
John B. Stevens, Freelance Copywriter
Phone: 814-590-3854
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