NEW Program Announcement!

2006 BUSINESS PLAN REFRESHER PROGRAM™
One day, one updated plan, and you're back on track

Wednesday, January 25, 2006, Central San Diego

Overview
Too many business owners fail to update their business plans regularly. As a result, they lose focus. They become confused about the best courses of action. Commonly, they are unsure whether those actions are aligned with what the business needs and what they want for the business. Decisions take longer than they should. Stress and uncertainty becomes part of the everyday work environment. The total focus commonly turns to just getting the deal, rather than building the business. Use this one day program to get back on the right track.

Who should attend?
A business owner and executives with the authority to evaluate and refresh the company's business plan.

What is the approach?
The process is simple and includes:

• Assessing the business needs and your personal wants
• Review 2005 performance
• Trend review, past three years
• Gap analysis of actual versus desired status
• Resource identification and allocation
• Measurement and gratitude systems
(traditionally called reward systems)
• Leadership fundamentals overview
• Public commitments and 2006 plan overview

Location?
Central San Diego

Follow this link for more information: (Feel free to refer a friend, too.)

http://www.activatepotential.com/programs/programs.html

Happy Thanksgiving, Now Go Home

I notice the same old stories in newspapers about crowded airports and busy freeways. In conversations, I notice the same old attitudes about the holidays, about impending exhaustion, eating and drinking too much and shopping. And I notice the same old behaviors that keep us all racing around and missing the big picture. You'll be glad to know I will not contribute anything to those same old stories today.

Instead, I say this: Go home.

Turn off your computer and the office lights and go home. Warmly wish your coworkers a joy-filled holiday of rest and community and football and just go home. Stop by the store and pick up a special treat for your kids, partner and friends. Drive slowly so you treat your neighbors well along the way.

Go on - just do it. Your business won't fall apart. Nor will the opportunities that have yet to fully germinate before Thanksgiving. Chances are good they will still be growing on Monday.

You are important to your business. You are indispensable to your family. Don't get the two confused - important to your business. Indispensable to your family.

Important to the business - indispensable to the family.

Now, just finish your phone conversation, tell your secretary and business partner that you're leaving for the weekend to go be with your family and friends. The people in the office will understand - even if they don't quite get it.

It's not irrational what I'm suggesting. It's not crazy. Your business will survive.

If you're an employee and you "just can't do that sort of thing..." consider that you really can - with some forward planning.

When the new year comes, put in your vacation request and take the entire Thanksgiving week off. Yes - the whoooooooooole week. I promise your coworkers will welcome you back the Monday after. And I guarantee your family and friendship relationships will be enriched by your extra focus on them.

But for now, for you business owners who have the luxury of calling the shots - make the call now to close early. Go home...and let your staff go home, too. Everyone will be better for it on Monday.

Go home!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Don't Pay Too Much Attention to Donald Trump

I have to admit, I have become an Apprentice viewer. I enjoy talking about it with folks at the local coffee shop. But, more than that - I like watching to see how much management wisdom is being employed by the hopeful apprentices, and by Donald and his team. The more I watch, the more I see a pretty simple approach - and I don't mean in a good way. Of course, the great disclaimer here is, who knows what really happens during the actual tasks. The program is designed to entertain us, first, and inform us, second...or third. Hence, I can only comment on what is shown.

First, the apprentices themselves are a pretty unsophisticated bunch of professionals. They are a bunch, a group - they are far from a team. They are aggressive, back-stabbing, gossipy men and women I would not trust as far as I could throw them. I certainly would not put up with their adolescent behavior in my company. An assemblage of insecure, type-A personalities may make for good television (not really), but it makes for a narrow study in workplace performance.

Then there is Donald. (There is too much to cover in a short blog entry. But, don't worry; there will probably be many more observations in these pages in the future.) I think we need to make a distinction between what makes a financially successful businessman, and (questionably) good television, from that which makes a highly skilled executive.

The Wiser Response
What am I leading up to? Last night, Donald asked one of the apprentices, "Why didn't you motivate them? Why couldn't you motivate your team to accomplish the task?" The apprentice, of course, gargled the marbles in his mouth trying to think of something to say. He went on to describe his teammate's lousy contribution. Of course he did. This would not be The Apprentice if he didn't.

But, here's where he missed an opportunity. He should have sat quietly for a few seconds, reflected and said, "I doubt someone who is not intrinsically, internally inspired - or if you prefer - driven - to perform at the high levels you require can be motivated by someone else. They have to bring the motivation with them. Certainly I would not want to have to motivate everyone on my team. That would make me their daddy. And, I wonder if it's not impossible, anyway. I want them to be self-motivated. Don't you, too, Donald?"

I don't for a second think this would have resulted in a silent, contemplative Donald Trump. He would surely go for being more right than his lowly apprentice. But, in my fantasy scenario, Donald's apprentice would have been the bigger part of correct. One should not expect managers to motivate their teammates; the teammates must bring their own motivation.

True Motivation is Internal
Enduring motivation is not done to us, it wells up from within us - or not, of course. To expect a manager to "motivate" the men and women reporting to him is to ask him to do the impossible. A smart manager learns what naturally motivates a person and appeals to that. If doing quality work is not one of those motivations, she is in trouble.

The kind of motivation that results in sustained high performance is internal, in spite of what Donald, and too many managers in companies all over the country, think.

For a book-length, easy-to-understand exploration of motivation, pick up, Why We Do What We Do. It is sure to completely alter your understanding of motivation - at work, at home and inside yourself...if you are motivated to lead more wisely than before, that is. Hopefully, it alters your approaches to motivating yourself - and others. Of course, you can always call me, too!

Summary
Watch Donald Trump as a TV performer and not so much a good leader.