Up Market

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• Top 10: Upmarket Articles June 17-23, 2012
• Presence Point: This message will self-destruct in 30 seconds.
• Learn to Navigate Rapid Change

Top 10: Upmarket Articles June 17-23, 2012 Posted: 25 Jun 2012 07:59 AM PDT If you’re looking for sharp insights on running a remarkable business, we have oodles this week! Charlie Gilkey heads up the pack with his piece on disruption leadership, an essential skill in the business world we’re living in right now. New contributor Michelle Shail gives us a different angle on a similar issue, with a musical flavor: Are we simply playing the notes off the page? Diane Bolden teaches us to bring life to our work in ways that truly matter. We have a new, wonderful spotlight profile from Lisa Berkovitz — and Eric Barrett addresses a question that’s on many of our minds as the weather gets warmer. Rachel Rodgers — also a new contributor! — gives us a solid, straightforward run-down of how to save money on common business legal activities. Nando Caban-Mendez gives us excellent clarity on content marketing. Derrick Jones reminds us that banks and loans are not always the right first step for a new business. Mark St. Cyr discusses emotion and logic in the context of successful business communication. And Rhi Llewellyn gives us a much-needed reminder that mistakes are okay… What will you be reading this afternoon? 1. How to Lead Through Disruption The old model of executive leadership often revolved around being able to “stay the course through adversity.” In the age of disruption we’re living in, it’s time to update that model. We need leaders who are far more adaptable and know when to quit earlier, rather than staying the course. 2. You See A Gorgeous Girl At A Party… You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, “Let’s dance.” You show her the moves. You take her on unassuming dates on bicycle, talk a lot, dance some more. Slowly, she realizes you’re rich. By the time you say “Will you marry me?” she’s been waiting for it. That’s Content Marketing. 3. Bring Life to Your Work, and Change Everything For so many, work is considered a necessary evil – merely what must be done to earn a paycheck. As they toil through their workday, the primary goal is to make it to the weekend so they can really live. Going through the motions, working alongside others whose hearts and minds they seldom truly connect with, they withhold the very parts of themselves that make them come alive. 4. Symphonies of Talent Twentieth century talent strategies and mindsets will ensure everyone is playing only what is written on the page… but you will be missing the great symphony of possibilities and sealing your organization's fate in mediocrity — and perhaps extinction. Twenty-first century strategies recognize the individual, promote and reward creative thinking and embrace the process of learning. 5. How To Be Proactive At Work How do you fight the summer doldrums and stay proactive at work? Psychologists have identified three things that matter. If you want to know where your own levels of proactive energies lie, ask yourself the following 3 questions… 6. Stop Chasing Your Dreams & Let Them Come To You: Mastin Kipp's Amazing Story Mastin Kipp is the founder of TheDailyLove.com, an inspirational email that goes out to over 300,000 people daily. The Daily Love was born out of Mastin’s own search for wisdom and guidance to help him find his true purpose and figure out the techniques to best manifest his highest potential. 7. How to Save Money on Small Business Legal Fees Paying legal fees sucks. It's as desirable as paying taxes. Unfortunately, as a business owner, you will have to do it sooner or later. Either you can manage the legal side of your business ahead of time and anticipate potential problems, or you can do it after the problems occur. 8. Emotion vs. Logic is the Wrong Debate A passionate — successful — debate has both sides pleading their case with emotion tied down with logical reasoning. When a debate is structured in this way, the murky waters of business become as exciting as being at the helm, navigating a ship at the Americas Cup. But one without the other, and you’ll never get further than the dock. 9. How Making Mistakes Leads You to Your True Purpose Here in the online business space, it's well known that you can start a new business with nothing more than an idea, a website, and something for sale — and many of us got our feet wet with that exact business model. As a newbie in business four and a half years ago, I tried a lot of things that taught me many valuable lessons. 10. Why Banks are Bad for New Entrepreneurs Why would a new venture want to avoid banks? After all, won’t you need a bank to secure much needed credit lines and other forms of funding? Does not conventional wisdom say your banker should be one of your closest advisors along with your attorney and your accountant? Let’s add this to the growing list of entrepreneurial myths.

Presence Point: This message will self-destruct in 30 seconds. Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Grab the attention of your audience (of 1-1000) and make an emotional connection to rivet it — in 30 seconds. In that short time or even less, your audience will decide if they will trust you or dismiss you, come toward you or run away from you. They will be asking "So what?" You must answer this question from their perspective, right off the bat. According to John Medina’s Brain Rules: “We have the ability to detect a new stimulus, the ability to turn toward it, and the ability to decide what to do based on its nature.” Emotional connection, obtained by tapping into the limbic system of the brain, is the most effective way to get and keep attention. Get very clear on these things ahead of time: Who is your audience? Why is this information important to them? Then and only then, decide How to deliver it. Step into the audience's point of view. What are they feeling? What do they need from you? What is your intention – to persuade, inform, inspire, enrage, entertain? The use of a multi-sensory experience is very compelling. For example: In my Platinum Presence workshops, the first thing I do is ask the audience to stand up, close their eyes and think of a time when they nailed a presentation, interview or conversation. They immediately connect to what it is they want more of – confidence, freedom and powerful presence. Now they are paying attention to find out how to get it again! Here are some other tried and true attention grabbers: Silently make eye contact with your audience without saying a word. One of the most powerful things you can do is just stand there and look at your audience – no one expects it, and they’ll be very curious about what may happen next. Ask a question. Our brains are wired to solve problems. Name the need or problem right up front, and the audience will jump in. Keep in mind that they don't necessarily want to solve your problem, however — only as it relates to them. Use the word YOU: A Yale University study says "You" is the most influential word in the English language. Make sure you use it in the first 3 seconds. Show a powerful visual. Approximately 65 percent of the population are primarily visual learners. Use an unexpected prop. Jill Bolte Taylor's Ted Talk is so compelling for many reasons, but particularly in the "best prop" category — when she brings out a real human brain. What have you tried? What have you found to be the most successful? Please share in the comments below – you all have so many great ideas – no need to re-invent the wheel. Image credit: poolie

Learn to Navigate Rapid Change Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT If you step out of the adrenaline rush of trying to keep up… stay afloat… what do you notice?  What are the big picture currents sweeping us along? We are living in some fast water. We are very much in the current, navigating in-between space, living in an era of transition — a set of rapids, followed by a bit of calm (if we’re lucky) traveling down river — destination unknown. Transition is different from change. Change involves going from one thing to another in an environment that is somewhat familiar or coherent (calm water). Transition means operating in an environment that is unfolding and actively evolving with little to anchor us with familiar feeling as we travel through the turbulence. What are the currents? Things don't work like they used to. New solutions are beyond our sight line. We pick a course, paddle, and try not to fight the current while avoiding the rocks we can see. Information and data are exploding at exponential rates. What you "know" is out of date almost as quickly as you integrate it. Computers and artificial intelligence are much better at keeping up with mountains of information, searching for relevant data, sorting, evaluating, processing and analyzing data than we can reasonably expect to be.  What is our value if it is not what we know? How can we avoid what we can't see? How can we trust the current? Technology is reshaping relationship, community, expectations of transparency and privacy and what has any value beyond free. When we are shooting the rapids, we can't change the water level, position of the rocks, etc. Technology will continue to shape things in unexpected ways. Information in and of itself has little currency. It is what we do with it that determines value.  Our individual experience may not keep up with the rate of change. How can we demonstrate our relevance to a working world changing with such speed? We are becoming more reliant than ever before on community and others for connection, relevance and survival. There are those people who know our essential value… those qualities that go above and beyond our current positions and what we know. Those willing to throw us a line if we are tossed overboard. What can we do with all of this? Times of transition call for living with uncertainty, staying open and alert to opportunity while navigating change. To thrive, we must transcend our past experience in a fast changing ecosystem. The new set of rapids we are approaching won't look exactly like the ones we just went through. You must look beyond your today knowledge and data to have sustained value and quality of life in the world that is unfolding. Your value will come from your unique qualities and ways you combine disparate experiences, information, and your signature strengths to discover new solutions. Your value is your ability to navigate the particular stretch of white water you find yourself in at any given point. Your quality of life will be colored and influenced by how you approach turbulence, whether you engage it as invigorating and challenging because you are prepared for the experience, or whether you attempt to cling to every rock — getting battered and exhausted from the strain of trying to avoid getting swept along. Just as you can't see around the river bend, you can't know what lies just ahead.  But you'll be better equipped to enjoy the trip and navigate it well, if you prepare. What can you do to prepare? Develop resilience and nurture your capacity for creativity! Become a creative navigator! What are the behaviors you can practice to develop your creativity? Take time for personal enrichment. Enrichment activities are those that stimulate your curiosity and tickle your desire to simply enjoy and explore. Have deep conversations with people who are not like you – people who have diverse perspectives, backgrounds and experience. Humans enjoy spending time with people who are just like them. We feel more comfortable that way. But exploring other perspectives and having the capacity to hold multiple points of view open the door to finding the thread of truth in every perspective. That thread of truth you find talking to another navigator might be just the life line you need! Practice a balance discipline like meditation that strengthens the observer part of your brain. The observer allows you to stand apart from the constant stream of narration that goes on in your mind long enough to see what else is out there — see past the rocks and get beyond the roar of the falls. It enables you to choose where you want to place your focus and attention rather than simply line up behind whatever flight of fancy your internal narrator is directing you to, from moment to moment. Meditation can also add calm and a feeling of centered-ness during disorienting, chaotic times. Practicing balance disciplines and having a strong foundation of values that tie us to an authentic core of what is most important provide much needed emotional ballast during turbulent times. Transitions call on us to leave behind comfortable routines. We must be selective in deciding what still has value and relevance and can be brought with us, and we must say goodbye to the things that simply don't work anymore as unnecessary weight. Your insights and ability to adapt to what is unfolding will be sharper and more valuable from a wise observer perspective, armed with an ability to draw on broad enrichment and creative capacity combined with your signature strengths. Use your observer to survey the currents and choose a course. Take only what you need, adapt to the currents, paddle like crazy and if you fall out… face forward, feet up as a buffer, and look for that lifeline from a fellow traveler. Image credit: Gwen Kinsey

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