May 20th, 2010
Want to make more money, share the wealth. Share your time, your experience and yourself freely with others. We are all here to be part of a big family learning, giving and experiencing a fruitful life. We need to stop looking at the success of others as something that is preventing us from obtaining our goals. Some of us sit in front of the television watching reality T.V. watching others amass wealth and popularity and don’t take the tips we learn and put them into action. It is ACTION that is the key to success. Study how these people achieved their success. Watch them interact with others, how they deliver their product or service. Most importantly how do they interact with others? Long gone are the days when hard work was almost automatically rewarded and tenure was the key to retirement. It is now more than ever all about strategic action from the first day on the job.
How do you strategically plan for a promotion and added opportunities without loosing my own identity? You ask others to evaluate your performance, your delivery and your presence. It may be tough but you will learn that there is more to the image you see in the mirror. Ask your family to be brutally honest because they will provide you the balance you need between co-workers, superiors and how others that have known you for years may see you. You may have changed more positively or need to change to keep up with the times. Ask yourself when the last time was that you attended a class, read an industry article and participated in a company team building event. Mash all together and stir with your own identity.
People are always asking themselves “what have you done for me lately”, where is my incentive to a mentor or promote this person? Being a giver will place you in the forefront of their minds when opportunities present themselves. Always be asking for more information creating learning opportunities for yourself. In doing so, you will also hear about business developments and changes within the organization sometimes before others do. Why because most people like being a resource, givers. While they are giving be sure to return the favor with helpful information that you have learned and ideas to help them succeed.
- Create your plan. Make an effort every week to connect with someone outside of your business unit.
- Be the one to invite others to lunch or coffee. Be the one to start conversations because those who do the invitating are complimenting the other. You are demonstrating that you are interested in them and you will be remembered for it.
- Invite others within your business unit to coffee or to lunch. Nuture your relationships just like you would your house plant. Feed and water often!
- Don’t be shy. Share your success and give credit to all that helped you achieve it.
- Remember if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Ask for opportunities to attended classes or participate in presentations that are given by other business units.
- Dress to impress. We have all heard that if you want the corner office job, you need to dress like you already have it. Keep up with style trends. Keep your shoes clean and in good shape.
- Exercise and sleep well so that you can be at your very best. Being sharp and responsive will not only make you look like you are an active participant it will make you stay young.
- Love thy self and value what you have to offer. Value your life and be grateful for all that you have. If you value yourself, others will too.
Your incentive is the reward of achievement.
Love thy self and value what you have to offer. Value your life and be grateful for all that you have. If you value yourself, others will too.
Your incentive is the reward of achievement. Love thy self and value what you have to offer. Value your life and be grateful for all that you have. If you value yourself, others will too!
Tags: awards, corporate incentives, donor incentives, motivation, reward
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April 19th, 2010
Just like your spring wardrobe, you may not have spent a lot of money on giving your business a new look but with a new shade of lipstick you are attractive and in style. You studied trends and shopped wisely while continuing to invest in your image.
If we look back to September 11th, one of the most dramatic events in our recent history, we will discovered companies that continued to invest in themselves reaped the rewards of increased business. They stayed in front of their customers and demonstrated their true belief in our country and in their business. Their investment softened the long term effects of the economic downturn and created success.
Recently, some business owners got spoiled with rapid growth and high dollar receipts. They did not spend time training employees on cross selling, customer service or enhancing their technical skills. Educated and happy employee are less stressed, more effective and motivated to support their companies.
Look to your Customer Service Department. Your customer service staff receives and delivers valuable information to your customers every single day. Why not teach them to sell and keep them motivated to act as sale representatives. Incoming calls are much easier to convert into a sale than a cold call. Invite your customer service representives to marketing and sales meetings to develop their sales skills. When the phones are not ringing, discuss call trends. What are your customers saying? Are they suggesting new products or services. When customers have a complaint what are customer services representatives doing to change the customers mind about your company? What seems to motivate your customers to call in? What incentive do you offer your customers to continue to do business with you?
Cutting back on your marketing budget and overallimage will not only get tongues wagging, it will not provide you withcontinued exposure. If you move to a cheaper location you will be less visible and the your existing customers will get the impression that you may be edging closer to going out of business. Your employees must believe that you firmly believe in your business and are striving for success. The more positive your customer’s and employee’s experience is withyour company, the more word of mouth marketing you will receive. As our economy begins to become more positive you will find yourself ahead of the competition.
Lipstick Tips:
- What is new in your industry?
- What seems to be working for your competitors and those in complementary industries?
- Who can you collaborate with to create a non-competitive canpaign?
- Do you have an interesting story?
- Is your website easy and fun to use?
- Do your employees survey their customers?
- Do your employees really know about your products and services?
- When was your last positive all hands meeting?
- Do you have a customer and employee incentive program?
- Have you considered moving to a better location taking advantage of lower rent?
- Have you taken advantage of a marketing interns?
- Do you reach out to your community? Do you host open houses and fun events?
- Do you post interesting and informative blogs each week?
- Do you research current and effective keywords?
Put some lipstick on your business and go out there and make them take notice!
Tags: awards, blood donation incentives, customer incentives, motivate employees, point rewards
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March 30th, 2010
It is spring, a time for renewal and a fresh start. We invest time in spring cleaning around the house, plant flowers, wash off the lawn chairs in preparation for BBQ’s and fun times ahead. It is also the perfect time to do the same with your business. Consider this a season of renewal. Take a step back and look at your business, what needs to be cleaned out and spruced up? Do you need to invest in your website? Do you have a clear goal of what you want to accomplish this season? What role do you want your employees to take during your business’ renewal? New Year’s Day is not the only opportunity to get motivated and set goals.
Businesses have been cutting back and reducing their marketing budgets so much that they are not going to be ready to take part in the economic renewal. When is this finally going to happen? Now, there are signs everywhere. Restaurants have wait times, people are buying kids spring clothes and businesses that have worked wisely have actually expanded. As with the early signs of spring, you will miss the signs of the renewal if you don’t look for them.
Companies that continue to provide good service, new servics and keep their names out there have a greater change for growth. Give your customers a reason to take a second look. If we all think about Hallmark stores, we know that each season we go into their stores for a birthday or Easter card we know that seasonal marketing is everywhere capturing our eye to bring into their stores. The only thing that does not change is the good service we come to expect with each visit.
We all have experienced challenges during this economy but we must look forward to come out of it. We know that there is a day when we will finally be in a good place forgetting exactly when things all began to be positive once again. It is funny how we can remember when things began to go bad but not so much so when things began to be positive again. Working together with others we can keep ourselves focused on our own motivational programs with small rewards along the way.
Motivational tips for you and your employees:
1) Have a grip party for a 1/2 hour. Discuss light weight problems this economy has caused your company, have each participant find one funny solution and move on.
2) Hold a meeting outside in the beautiful spring weather to inspire a discussion about how you will renew your business. Ask each person to provide at least 3 solutions but how deeper discussion for a follow up meeting.
3) Thank your customers with added services and pleasant changes to your store or website.
4) Survey your customers for their opinions on how you could serve them better, why they do business with you and how you can motivate them to do more business with you.
5) Look to your competition, visit their stores and websites what is it that you found to be attractive about their business. Note the positive differences between you and them.
6) Read, research and rediscover your industry. What has changed since you went into business? Can you develop a niche in your industry?
7) Provide reward programs using platforms that focus on providing capitvating incentives that attract customers again and again.
Whether you are thinking about customer retention or buiding your business, use the freshness of the season to start you off in the right direction.
Tags: awards, motivate, motivation, motivational, motivational programs
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September 27th, 2009
Emplicity an Irvine human resources outsourcing service, gives its employee of the month something more than a plaque. It’s the use of an E-class Mercedes Benz with “Employee of the Month” on the side.
Here’s the first winner Lorraine Ontiveros, 23, with her company-supplied ride:
 Lorraine Ontiveros The company calls its employee recognition “Driving to Success” and has employees vote on their peer who best exemplifies the chosen theme for the month.
Ontiveros was the landslide winner in July for the theme: “positive attitude.”
“The first time I drove the car, people were waving, giving me a thumbs up and even taking pictures of the car and it was a bit distracting, in a good way,” Ontiveros says.”It kinda felt like I had the paparazzi following me.”
In August she passed the keys to Jennifer Meehan, who fellow employees decided best exemplifies “excellent teamwork.”
 Vic Tanon, Emplicity founder Emplicity founder Vic Tanon says he’s always trying to figure out how to reward and incentivize employees, which isn’t that easy in a recession.
“We have a lot of Gen Y employees who want recognition in different ways,” he says. “We wanted to make a loud statement when recognizing our employees and felt that a nice ride would give people something they could proudly take home and show to mom and dad and to their friends.”
Emplicity is a 14-year-old professional employer organization plus outsourced human resources service. It has 35 employees and offices in Irvine, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Antonio and Los Angeles.
The monthly award also helps emphasize core company values, Tanon says. Each month’s theme is one value re-enforced on a daily basis.
Employee recognition is a communication tool that reinforces and rewards the actions and behaviors you most want to see people repeat, says Susan Heathfield at About.com.
Her “Five Most Important Tips for Effective Recognition” include:
- Establish criteria for what performance or contribution constitutes rewardable behavior or actions.
- All employees must be eligible for the recognition.
- The recognition must supply the employer and employee with specific information about what behaviors or actions are being rewarded and recognized.
- The recognition should occur as close to the performance of the actions as possible, so the recognition reinforces behavior the employer wants to encourage.
- Don’t want to design a process in which managers select the people to receive recognition.
Tags: awards, employee rewards, incentive programs, rewards
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July 2nd, 2009
Summer typically is a tough time of year for charities. People are on vacation and out of school. Whether your donors are blood donors or financial donors the key to keeping them thinking about your organization is fun!
Think back to your summers as a young adult what types of things made you stop and take notice? Get out a pad of paper for some neat ideas that will not only get your donors in, it will get their families in too.
- Host an educational water safety event.
- Collaborate with MADD or other organization providing a public service.
- Give away tickets to the nearest water park for donations.
- Host a parking lot concert for donor drives.
- Create a baseball themed contest. Provide give aways for each run scored in addition to points they have earned for their individual donations.
- If Type O blood is in demand, soccer themed events are a big hit.
- Local athlete presentations and sports camp.
- Dance presentation on site.
- Have a luau party during the month of July with food and beach toy give aways. Ask your team to join in on the fun wearing Hawaiian shirts.
For online charity websites:
Create an incentive wall that allows people to post short comments about their experience and invite others.
Add interactive games with gift incentives for their participation.
Short term theme events with interesting facts and online prize awards.
Host live and informative classes on nutrition.
Post your organization’s wish list.
Be sure to keep your website up-to-date and interesting. Stale information will only lead visitors feeling that your organization may be on vacation mode too.
Keep the energy up in your organization by providing employee and volunteer incentives. If they are motivated, they will help your organization reach its goals.
Tags: awards, gift incentives, incentive, rewards
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December 2nd, 2008
Fear of commitment, fear of responsibility, fear of loss, and fear of confrontation are all symptoms of the two core fears. All of these surface fears fall into two categories which are the core fears: Fear of Failure and Fear of Success.
If you experience fear of commitment, responsibility, growing up, or change, your core fear is the fear of success. If most of your anxiety comes from fear of rejection, confrontation, or not measuring up, your core fear is the fear of failure.
Let’s talk about the fear of success. The fear of succeeding and then having to maintain that success can be daunting. The fear of success is the most powerful fear over most people because it relates directly to the three inborn fears. Fear of falling, fear of loud noises, and fear of abandonment.
The fear of falling represents the belief that once you’ve achieved success; there’s no place to go but down.
The fear of loud noises correlates to sudden change. Perhaps you’ve been working toward something for months, and then, overnight it seems, something comes through and suddenly you are successful.
The fear of abandonment is very real to a person on the journey of success. You might lose friends when you become successful. They might be jealous of your success, view you as arrogant, or feel that you just don’t fit into the “old group” anymore. We have sayings like, “It’s lonely at the top,” and your inborn fear of abandonment is challenged.
These three fears are inborn and naturally reoccur from time to time. You can counter them by replacing them with truth. Discover your truth about what success means to you and live your life based on these truths. Then you will silence these inborn fears and conquer the dream busters.
Face Your Fear of Success
Tags: awards, gift certificates
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July 11th, 2008
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.
All disciplines affect each other. Mistakenly the man says, “This is the only area where I let down.” Not true. Every let down affects the rest. Not to think so is naive.
Discipline is the foundation upon which all success is built. Lack of discipline inevitably leads to failure.
Discipline has within it the potential for creating future miracles.
The best time to set up a new discipline is when the idea is strong.
One discipline always leads to another discipline.
Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.
You don’t have to change that much for it to make a great deal of difference. A few simple disciplines can have a major impact on how your life works out in the next 90 days, let alone in the next 12 months or the next 3 years.
The least lack of discipline starts to erode our self-esteem.
Tags: awards, rewards
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