Increasing Employee & Client Engagement

I have a lot of great memories from Thanksgiving.  In my childhood, that was one of the most special times because my family would travel to Chicago every year as a huge family gathering.  Now, we all live within 20 minutes of each other so we see each other at every holiday, which doesn’t diminish the luster or specialness, but it sure was cool back then.

In honor of Thanksgiving tomorrow, I want to share why we should all be happy no matter our current circumstances.

As I was thinking of Thanksgiving… I really paid special attention to the two combined words that make it up… Thanks & Giving or the Giving of Thanks.  I hear my grandmother in my head telling me to give thanks in everything I do and to be thankful no matter what.

That is a challenge and very hard to do…  It is hard to have a smile on your face when it feels like your world is crumbling down around you.  I was talking to my dad yesterday and we were talking about what a hard year it has been.  We were sharing that we have never worked harder, but with not the results you would expect from the effort.  It is not the fun work, like when things are booming and at least if you are working hard it bears great fruit.

You may of read the Peanuts Comic Strip… which had a great illustration and what I want us to use as our mantra this Thanksgiving.  Snoopy looked in the window, “How about that? Everyone else is eating turkey today, but just because I am a dog I have to eat dog food.” Then he jumps up on his roof and says “Of course, it could have been worse, I could have been born a turkey.”

It can always be WORSE…  I am sure 90% of the world would trade for my so-called problems.  In Atlanta we had the worst flood for our city ever.  It was a one in over 500 years flood.  People are devastated.  Thousands of people are still displaced, no homes, no furniture and everything they owned is gone.  88% of the people did not have flood insurance because they were not even close to a flood zone.

Here I am feeling a little down, and I have my health, my home, my wife and son, a great job, food on the table, clothes on my back…  Shame on me.

The best thing we can always do, is turn the focus off of ourselves and turn it on those who really need the thoughts and prayers and NOTHING will change your life & focus faster.  Go help feed the hungry this Thanksgiving.

If you live in Georgia, I hope you will help me raise money for the flood victims.  I am co-hosting the Not So Silent Night Holiday Bash at the St Regis in Buckhead on Thursday, December 3 from 6:30 – 10:30.  After this year we can all let off a little steam, but do it in a way that helps people.  We have partnered with the Atlanta Furniture Bank and The Cobb Disaster Recovery to help bring the relief that is needed and help rebuild not only the community, but also people’s lives.  The cost is only $30 to attend.

We are also calling for sponsors.  We have 3 levels.

Lifeboat - $1000 will get you 4 people into the party, coverage in Atlanta Daybook with logo, logos on the site, press at and after the event.
Life Preserver - $500 will get you 2 people into the party, coverage in Atlanta Daybook, name only and some press at and after the event.
Helping Hand - $250 will get you 1 person into the party, coverage in Atlanta Daybook – name only and some press at and after the event.

You can go to our site at http://atlholidaybash.com or you can register at

http://atlbash.eventwax.com/the-not-so-silent-night-holiday-bash/register

Here is a little intro video by Randy Barnes

For proof of the radical changes I saw a couple of great video’s.  One you may of seen and the newest one that was just updated last month.  Take a view.

3.0 - October 2008

4.0 September 2009

Even though 20/20 vision is about clarity of sight with distance, this actually was referring to the year 2020. 

 Do you remember in the 80’s when we sang, Party Like its 1999.  Did we think we would live in a world like the Jetson’s by now?  Well we are not there yet, but the world is changing faster.  The last 6 months to a year seemed to change as much as the first 9 years of the decade combined.  Technology is rapidly shaping the world.

With this decade coming to an end and a new one beginning… I wanted to give a months notice that we need to really take a look forward.  However, it will be just as important to take a look back where the only real 20/20 vision is useful. 

As the world moves faster our visions gets shorter… We lose track of long-term goals because we do not feel like they will be as relevant because of all the change.  The problem I see with most long term plans is that they are isolated and not contingent.

Goals are basically intentions… right?  Your strategy needs to have goals that are congruent and leading you where you ultimately want to end up.  It is easy to get off track.  The first half of the decade I thought I had all these great “goals” of getting my MBA and other isolated things.  They were great in their own way but they were not leading me to where I wanted to go.

I do personal branding workshops & boot camps… and really worked hard putting together 10 steps that help hinge upon themselves that will keep you going toward your ultimate goal.  Success is not an event, it is a journey.  It is taking a look at everything that is possible and defining its potential and putting action steps into performance.  Every action needs to set you up for your next action and build upon that.

So as you start thinking about the next decade, use 2020 vision.

With Social Media still being relatively new to so many people, everyone is still trying to figure out the protocol & rules of engagement.   The same way the sociology of the handshake evolved.  How far to stand, the firmness of the grip etc.  As people were learning, it had to be very awkward because each person had a different set of information of what it should be like.  To simplify, just assume the difficulty was in the same culture because I can not even imagine all the cultural barriers and obstacles.

With the tools of the Internet…  it is very easy to track what is being said about us, our products, our company or whatever you track.  Never mind that it is human nature for us to want to be proactive, aware and alert of everything that is being said about us anyway.    We always want to feel like we are in control and make sure we are leading the conversation.

The challenge comes with how do you decide when to act and when to sit back…   Well, let me urge you to use the words of the bible… Be quick to listen and slow to speak.   Social Media is a fantastic listening tool.  When you hear something you do not necessarily want to hear.   Your first instinct will be to refute, but don’t… use restraint.

Before you hit send on that email or comment… let it sit there for a few hours.  Seek to understand first.  See if it can be handled offline outside the lights.  Show that you really care and are not doing it just to show responsiveness publicly.

If you do what is right, then you have done your job…  If you try to prove it by you doing something publicly, it may appear insincere.  This is not your chance to get a spotlight. The best PR will be if that person affected shares the goodwill or resolution.  If they do not, then they don’t.   Keep it on their plate.  If they do share, it will have 10 x the impact then if you did it.

Why??? Because it goes back to the authenticity and genuineness the situation offers.    Your actions will speak louder than your words.  Your intention no matter how pure may be misconstrued.  Remember you will not be judged on your intention because their perception is their reality. 

So before you decide to jump in and control the situation, stand back and look through the window.

With Halloween this past weekend, it got me thinking about Fear.  Fear of the unknown.  Fear of a future event.  I wanted to share some of my learnings from my past as a collegiate athlete and golf professional. 

When we have fear… we tighten up, our heart rate & pulse speeds up, we stop breathing (sometimes literally) and we focus on the future and unknown rather than the task at hand.  So instead of focusing on the execution we get stuck in fear.

The best athletes and gamblers in the world know that to conquer fear… you have to stay in the moment.  The best know how to look at the current situation for only that, the current situation.  They do not get caught up in what ifs and they do not place value on the moment.  They do not make it bigger than it is. 

Just because the atmosphere is louder or larger… does not make the actual act any different. 
A five foot putt whether you have $5 riding on it or $1 million is still just a 5 foot putt.  A free throw in your backyard, or in a game or to win a championship is still just a free throw.  The hoop is the same height, the distance is the same, but the circumstance is different.  However, when you couple the act with the circumstances, it changes everything…  The expectation changes within yourself and with the fans or spectators.

The best athletes in the world know… how to stay in the moment and not get ahead of themselves.  They treat a championship game mentally the same they would a regular game at the park.  It is a way of devaluing it mentally so they can perform at their greatest peak performance. 

I see fear in business all the time…  Employees, managers & owners are faced with decisions all the time and fear is bound to set in.  Will the decision they made be successful?  How will people look at the decision they made?

I have seen grown men afraid of “prospecting or cold calling”…  I say to them… you are afraid of picking up the phone and speaking into it?  Of course not, they are afraid of the result.  I have to teach them to separate the act from the result.   What is the absolute worst thing that could happen… they can hang up.  Whoa that is scary…

I love speaking in front of groups & audiences…  I know tons of people who are truly afraid of getting in front of a group and speaking.   I have seen them speak to me so I know they have the ability & are capable.  We know the problem is not that they are afraid of opening their mouth, but rather they fear the result.  They fear the result of saying something wrong or what people will think of them etc.   So when I teach people to get in front of a group of 10 or 100 they have to separate the act from the result.  Then apply tactics.  One thing I have seen work is to connect eyes with one person and feel as if you are speaking to them only and then moving your eyes to another person to deliver the next line etc.  Then no matter the size of the audience you are still speaking one on one…

Here are a few things I believe you can do in business or anything in life to help conquer fear.

1. Have a Routine… Even Tiger Woods feels nervous and has butterflies.  He knows how to channel it.  He is one of the strongest mental athletes alive.  He relies on a very strict routine that keeps him in that moment’s process rather than the future. When making a decision, preparing for a presentation, client meeting, or a call have a set routine.

2. Stay Objective… Keep things objective and away from subjective.  Most fear comes from a first person perspective.  By keeping things objective then it will also keep it from the first person perspective.  Everyone in that same position would make that same decision based on that set of information.  That belief also can instill confidence.

3. Stay in the Present… Anything you face with fear will have some future consequence facing you.  Strip away the future result and look at the situation from the present state.

4. Unbundle… Take the information and the decision and unbundle it. Most decisions are based on multiple sets of wrapped information.   If you took all the crap out of the decision and just looked at the core of the decision would you still make the same decision?  Does it have more or less fear attached to it?