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Menemukan Ide Bisnis yang Menguntungkan di Indonesia

{ September 22, 2014 @ 1:46 am } · { Motivate yourself }
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Oleh Adhika Dwi Pramudita Studentpreneur – Sab, 20 Sep 2014

Banyak Sekali Ide Bisnis yang Bisa Muncul di Indonesia. Bagaimana Cara Menemukannya?
Orang bilang tanah kita tanah surga, tonggak kayu dan batu jadi tanaman. Masih ingat lirik lagu yang dipopulerkan oleh Koes Plus ini? Yup, judulnya Kolam Susu, sebuah frasa yang mewakili begitu banyaknya kesempatan di Indonesia. Bukan tanpa alasan. Pertumbuhan kelas menengah yang pesat dengan perilaku konsumsi yang besar, kita adalah pasar yang menggiurkan bagi setiap bisnis di dunia. Tapi, kenapa di negeri sendiri, seolah kita susah sekali untuk menemukan ide bisnis kecil yang menguntungkan? Jadi, dari mana kita bisa mulai menyelam di kolam susu ini?

Bisnis yang menyelesaikan sebuah masalah.
Setiap bisnis di buni ada untuk menyelesaikan masalah. Ketika orang tidak bisa terus-terusan menyembunyikan uang mereka di bawah bantal, bank muncul untuk meringankan kecemasan mereka. Indonesia memiliki segudang masalah dari berbagai dimensi. Baik dari hal-hal penting yang mempengaruhi hajat hidup orang banyak seperti jalan rusak, listrik yang tidak merata, sulitnya menemukan lapangan kerja, pendidikan yang kurang memadai. Hingga problema yang dihadapi ibu-ibu metropolitan menemukan penyedia perhiasan yang terpercaya. Di antara problema ini, ada kesempatan bagi Anda untuk menghasilkan uang dengan cara menyediakan bisnis yang mampu menyelesaikannya.
presiden sby Cara Menemukan Ide Bisnis yang Menguntungkan di Indonesia studentpreneur entrepreneur startup
Cara Menemukan Ide Bisnis yang Menguntungkan di Indonesia [Studentpreneur]
Change is good.
Meskipun kita mungkin melawan atau menghindari perubahan, akan tetapi perubahan pasti terjadi. Lingkungan, pasar, perilaku konsumen, semua pasti berubah. Apabila Anda mengamati dengan seksama, tren pasar yang berubah-ubah seperti ini justru akan membuka kesempatan-kesempatan baru bagi Anda. Misalnya Anda membuka sebuah situs lowongan kerja. Ketika tingkat pengangguran masih tinggi, Anda menggratiskan layanan Anda untuk menarik pengguna. Ketika tingkat pengangguran sangat rendah, sampai timbul kelangkaan SDM, barulah Anda bisa memanfaatkan basis pengguna Anda untuk menawarkan layanan berbayar pada perusahaan yang tengah mencari karyawan. See? Change is good!

Anda tidak perlu jadi orang terbaik.
Anda mungkin punya satu talenta yang kerap mendapat pujian dari orang-orang di sekeliling Anda. Namun seringkali kita tidak percaya diri untuk mengubahnya menjadi bisnis karena kita merasa belum layak. Terutama karena kita belum jadi yang terbaik di bidang itu. Hal yang menarik adalah: Anda tidak perlu jadi yang terbaik. Anda cukup tahu bagaimana mengerjakannya. Seiring bisnis Anda berjalan, Anda bisa mempekerjakan mereka-mereka yang terbaik di bidang itu.

Jangan mengubah bentuk roda.
Akan tetapi, ubahlah cara menggunakannya. Artinya, Anda tidak perlu jadi inovatif banget sampai harus menciptakan penemuan baru yang mengubah hajat hidup orang banyak (contohnya roda). Sebagai manusia, kita tidak punya banyak waktu di dunia. Maka, menduplikat produk yang sudah sukses adalah cara yang paling populer untuk memulai bisnis. Contohnya di Tiongkok dan India. Cari produk yang bisa Anda jadikan lebih baik, lebih murah, atau lebih gampang digunakan. Hal ini sah-sah saja selama Anda tidak melanggar paten mereka.

Memicu imajinasi Anda dengan kisah sukses entrepreneur lain.
Cerita mengenai kesuksesan orang lain akan membuat kita terinspirasi. Anda cenderung menjadi kompetitif dan berpikir bahwa, “Orang ini saja bisa, jadi aku pasti bisa”. Maka, boleh saja Anda membacanya dari berbagai sumber. Akan tetapi, mempelajari keberhasilan mereka dan menerapkannya pada bisnis Anda, itulah tujuan yang seharusnya.
Jadi Sobat Studentpreneur, mulai sekarang, Anda boleh catat setiap ide bisnis yang Anda temukan. Jadi, ide seperti apa saja yang sudah Anda dapatkan? Jangan lupa untuk mencari partner yang memiliki jiwa “chemistry” yang serupa dengan anda.
Salam sukses.

Sumber: yahoo.com

The 10 Rules You Need to Communicate Effectively

{ September 10, 2014 @ 1:37 pm } · { Motivate yourself }
{ Tags: The 10 Rules You Need to Communicate Effectively } · { Leave a Comment }

Frank Luntz has “engineered some of the most potent political and corporate campaigns of the last decade.” His wordsmithing helped Republican Rudy Giuliani get elected twice in New York — a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-to-1.

Luntz and his polling firm have learned a great deal about language by conducting nearly 1500 surveys and focus groups for a wide range of products and politicians.

The key takeaway from his book is actually part of the title:

It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear.

In Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear Luntz breaks down the ten main lessons he’s learned from years of crafting political messages; lessons we can all learn from:

1) Simplicity: Use Small Words

“Avoid words that might force someone to reach for the dictionary… because most Americans won’t. They’ll just placidly let your real meaning sail over their heads or, even worse, misunderstand you. You can argue all you want about the dumbing down of America, but unless you speak the language of your intended audience, you won’t be heard by the people you want to reach.”

2) Brevity: Use Short Sentences

“Be as brief as possible… The most memorable political language is rarely longer than a sentence. “I Like Ike” was hardly a reason to vote for the man, but the simplicity of the slogan matched the candidate and the campaign.”

3) Credibility Is As Important As Philosophy

“People have to believe it to buy it. As Lincoln once said, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. If your words lack sincerity, if they contradict accepted facts, circumstances, or perceptions, they will lack impact… The words you use become you — and you become the words you use.”

4) Consistency Matters

“Too many politicians insist on new talking points on a daily basis, and companies are running too many different ad executions. By the time we begin to recognize and remember a particular message, it has already been changed… “The breakfast of champions” tagline for Wheaties was first launched back in 1935 and is still going today. Hallmark’s “When you care enough to send the very best” debuted in 1934, and “Say it with flowers” for FTD dates all the way back to 1917.”

5) Novelty: Offer Something New

“In plain English, words that work often involve a new definition of an old idea… What matters most is that the message brings a sense of discovery, a sort of “Wow, I never thought about it that way.”

6) Sound and Texture Matter

“The sounds and texture of the language should be just as memorable as the words themselves. A string of words that have the same first letter, the same sound, or the same syllabic cadence is more memorable than a random collection of sounds.”

7) Speak Aspirationally

“Messages need to say what people want to hear… The key to successful aspirational language for products or politics is to personalize and humanize the message to trigger an emotional remembrance.”

8) Visualize

“Paint a vivid picture. From M&M’s “Melts in your mouth not in your hand” to Morton Salt’s “When it rains, it pours,” to NBC’s “Must See TV,” the slogans we remember for a lifetime almost always have a strong visual component, something we can see and almost feel.”

9) Ask a Question

“Is it live, or is it Memorex?” “Where do you want to go today?” (Microsoft) “Can you hear me now?” (Verizon Wireless)… “Got Milk?” may be the most memorable print ad campaign of the past decade. The creator realized, whether intentionally or not, that it’s sometimes not what you say but what you ask that really matters.”

10) Provide Context and Explain Relevance

“You have to give people the “why” of a message before you tell them the “therefore” and the “so that.”… if it doesn’t matter to the intended audience, it won’t be heard. With so many messages and so many communication vehicles competing for our attention, the target audience must see individual, personal meaning and value in your words.”

Source: time.com

Kenali Bahasa Tubuh Lawan Bicara

{ August 18, 2014 @ 3:09 pm } · { Motivate yourself }
{ Tags: Kenali Bahasa Tubuh Lawan Bicara } · { Leave a Comment }

Ucapan bisa saja memperdaya, seolah-olah benar memperhatikan dan menyimak, padahal pikiran melayang pada hal-hal lain.

Supaya Anda tidak “tertipu” dengan ketulusan seseorang, coba kenali bahasa tubuh saat seseorang bicara dengan Anda.

Vanessa Van Edwards, seorang ahli bahasa tubuh dan pendeteksi kebohongan, mengatakan bahwa orang yang memberikan perhatian penuh pada lawan bicara, tidak hanya akan mengatakan bahwa dia memperhatikan sementara jarinya asyik memainkan ponsel atau pandangan matanya tertuju ke tempat lain.

Jika benar tulus, mereka pasti akan melakukan beberapa hal berikut ini:

1. Mereka menyingkirkan ponselnya untuk sementara

Mungkin Anda berpikir, saat mendengarkan lawan bicara hanya diperlukan mata dan telinga. Ini salah besar. Sebab, tanpa Anda benar-benar memperhatikan dan fokus, maka sia-sia saja. Maka dari itu, saat sedang berdiskusi atau mendengarkan teman bicara, pastikan untuk menyingkirkan segala peranti dan benda lain yang bisa memecah konsentrasi.

2. Tidak memutus kontak mata

Orang yang benar-benar tulus memperhatikan Anda, akan melakukan kontak mata yang kuat dengan Anda.

3. Posisi kaki mencerminkan sikap Anda

Bahasa tubuh menyimak atau tidak, terlihat dari cara menyilangkan kaki. Jika Anda menyilangkan kaki, dengan kaki atas menunjuk pada orang tersebut, maka ini menunjukkan minat dan perhatian tulus kepada lawan bicara. Sebaliknya, jika kaki yang disilangkan ke atas mengarah ke bagian lain atau bahkan ke pintu keluar, artinya pikiran Anda berada di tempat lain.

Sumber: kompas.com

Singapura, Dulu Mobil Bekas Kini Rolls-Royce

{ June 1, 2014 @ 1:51 am } · { Motivate yourself }
{ Tags: singapore } · { Comments (1) }

April 30 2013 | By Rina Hutajulu

Fenomena city branding sekarang ini menjadi hot issu di kalangan praktisi pemasaran. Efektivitas city branding disadari penuh oleh beberapa negara di kawasan Asia Tenggaraa, salah satunya Singapura dengan “Uniquely Singapore”. Lianti Raharjo, pengajar dan peneliti city branding dari Universitas Binus Internasional, menyebut satu studi kasus Singapura sebelum seberhasil sekarang.

“Dulu di tahun 1959, pemerintah Singapura mengundang konsultan asing salah satunya seorang ekonom dari Belanda,” kata Lianti Raharjo. Lianti melanjutkan, orang Belanda itu menyebut Singapura di masa itu bukan Rolls Royce tetapi mobil bekas. Kala itu tim konsultan tersebut mencari-cari apa yang bisa Singapura jual, melihat kondisi negara Singa itu memprihatinkan. Penduduknya tidak memiliki keterampilan khusus, tingkat pendidikan rendah, dan kekayaan alam minim.

Tapi akhir tahun 1973, Singapore akhirnya berusaha untuk mendapatkan investor dengan menjanjikan bahwa negara itu tidak akan memberlakukan pajak. Siapa pun yang membangun bisnis di Singapore akan disambut dengan upacara kenegaraan dan akan diliput banyak media. Dengan kata lain Singapore berkampanye bahwa negara mereka pro bisnis. Strategi itu berhasil. Berselang dengan waktu, Singapura pun melirik medical tourism dengan cara membuka peluang bagi dokter-dokter Asia untuk bekerja di negara itu. Singapura yang dulu dianggap mobil bekas kini bernilai tinggi layaknya Rolls-Royce.

11 Kutipan Paling Inspiratif Dari Bill Gates Untuk Para Pelajar (serta orang-orang yang mau belajar)

{ May 29, 2014 @ 10:25 am } · { Motivate yourself }
{ Tags: motivasi kehidupan nyata } · { Comments (1) }

1. Dunia tidak peduli mengenai harga diri Anda. Dunia ini akan mengharapkan Anda untuk mencapai sesuatu sebelum Anda merasa menghargai diri sendiri.

2. Anda tidak akan menghasilkan $60 ribu per tahun langsung dari SMA. Anda tidak akan bisa menjadi seorang wakil pimpinan dengan telepon di mobil hingga Anda mendapatkan keduanya.

3. Jika Anda pikir guru Anda menjengkelkan, tunggu hingga Anda memiliki atasan.

4. Memasak burger tidak akan merendahkan harga diri Anda. Kakek Anda memiliki kata yang berbeda untuk memasak burger: mereka menyebutnya peluang.

5. Jika Anda bermasalah, itu bukan salah orang tua Anda, sehingga jangan mengeluh mengenai kesalahan, belajarlah dari mereka.

6. Sebelum Anda lahir, orang tua Anda tidak sebosan Anda sekarang. Mereka mendapatkan itu dari membayar tagihan Anda, membersihkan pakaian dan mendengar kalimat Anda mengenai betapa kerennya Anda dalam benak Anda sendiri. Sehingga sebelum Anda menyelamatkan hutan tropis dari parasit generasi orang tua Anda, cobalah membongkar di ruang Anda sendiri.

7. Sekolah Anda mungkin sudah menunjukkan pemenang dan pecundang, tetapi hidup tidak demikian. Di sebagian sekolah, mereka telah menghapus nilai gagal dan mereka akan memberikan Anda sebanyak mungkin sebagaimana Anda ingin mendapatkan jawaban yang tepat. Hal ini tidak mirip sama sekali dengan kondisi nyata.

8. Hidup tidak dibagi menjadi semester-semester. Anda tidak bisa mendapatkan libur musim panas dan sangat sedikit pekerja yang tertarik pada upaya membantu diri sendiri. Lakukan itu di waktu Anda sendiri.

9. TV bukan kehidupan nyata. Dalam kenyataan, orang sebenarnya harus meninggalkan kedai kopi dan pergi bekerja.

10. Jangan menindas orang-orang asosial. Bisa jadi mereka akan menjadi atasan Anda.

11. Hidup itu tidak adil. Biasakan diri Anda!

Sumber:
Bill Gates

How to Recover from a 3-Day Weekend

{ May 28, 2014 @ 4:20 am } · { Motivate yourself }
{ Tags: recovery from holiday } · { Leave a Comment }

By Martha C. White
May 27, 2014

Three-day weekends are awesome, but here’s the rub: Going back to work today, many of us probably feel about as motivated as a deflated beach ball. It’s understandable that your mind might still be in vacation mode, but it’s not inevitable that your first day back is spent scrolling through pictures of your barbecue on Facebook or perusing celebrity gossip blogs.

For the best advice, we asked bosses how they do it. Here are the top tips from company owners and managers for jump-starting a post-holiday week.

Start early. Since you’re just putting off the inevitable anyway, give yourself a leg up with a head start. “Try and go in a few hours early on your first day and catch up prior to the actual start of the day,” says Andrea Keating, founder and CEO of video production company Crews Control.

Make a plan. Having a to-do list is never a bad idea, but on the first day back after a holiday, it’s especially helpful to keep you mentally focused. “Spend 10 to 15 minutes at the beginning of the day mapping out your desired accomplishments, [and] prioritize the tasks that are most important,” suggests Kimberly Stiener-Murphy, a branch manager at staffing company Accountemps. If your attention starts to drift, the list will help keep you on track.

But don’t start with email. Wading through all your email first thing is just going to bog you down, says Gay Geddis, who heads up marketing technology company T-3. “I think the biggest mistake someone can make in the morning after a long weekend is to sit at his or her computer and respond to emails because it doesn’t set a good pace for the rest of the day,” she says. You’re relaxed, you’re refreshed — take advantage of that momentum by tackling something that requires action. Plowing through a list of cold calls, setting up a conference room for an upcoming meeting or teaching a new employee how to do something are all good candidates.

Skip the holiday playback. “Reserve water cooler chatter for lunchtime,” Stiener-Murphy advises. “Conversations about the holiday weekend will abound, but try to postpone them until lunch,” she says. Getting sucked into trading stories about what you did over the long weekend will just make it harder to get back into work mode.

Indulge your creativity. Since science has proven that nice weather makes workers more distracted, ease back into the swing of things with more creative or group projects. Collaborative work and projects that require some imagination both benefit from the more stream-of-consciousness frame of mind you might be in on your first post-holiday workday. “Identify the project or initiative that you are most passionate about,” Keating says. Then take whatever next step you need to get the creative juices flowing, whether it’s convening a brainstorming session or heading up a team meeting.

Fix your attitude. We know — yesterday you were on the beach, and today you’re stuck in a cubicle in front of a screen. But try not to resent it, advises Allison O’Kelly, who founded and runs Mom Corps, a staffing and career development company. “We often think of work and the rest of our lives as opposing forces, which makes it hard to get back into a ‘work’ frame of mind after a holiday,” she says. So even if it takes some mental gymnastics, try to adjust your outlook. “You’ll have a better sense of your priorities,” she says.

Next time, plan ahead. Ideally, you should start laying the groundwork for your return before you head out the door on your last day. “Do your re-entry prep before you leave,” Keating suggests. Send out emails early, so you can get back to anybody who responds immediately that day — it will cut down on the number of email responses you have to tackle when you return, she says. And use your out-of-office messages to buy yourself a little extra time. “If possible, put your out of office message to say you will be back in the office after 1 p.m. on your first day back. This will give you an extra morning to prioritize and respond to emails,” she says.

How to Make People Like You: 6 Science-Based Conversation Hacks

{ May 10, 2014 @ 3:05 pm } · { Motivate yourself }
{ Tags: How to Make People Like You } · { Leave a Comment }

How to Make People Like You: 6 Science-Based Conversation Hacks

By Eric Barker

So you want to know how to make people like you? It’s easier than you think.

A while back I posted about how to master conversation skills. Here are 6 more research-backed tips:

1) Encourage people to talk about themselves

It gives their brain as much pleasure as food or money:

Talking about ourselves—whether in a personal conversation or through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter—triggers the same sensation of pleasure in the brain as food or money, researchers reported Monday…

“Self-disclosure is extra rewarding,” said Harvard neuroscientist Diana Tamir, who conducted the experiments with Harvard colleague Jason Mitchell. Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “People were even willing to forgo money in order to talk about themselves,” Ms. Tamir said.

2) To Give Feedback, Ask Questions

If you use questions to guide people toward the errors in their thinking process and allow them to come up with the solution themselves, they’re less likely to feel threatened and more likely to follow through.

Via Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long:

It’s not you searching for problems; it’s him searching for gaps in his thinking process. You want people to look for assumptions or decisions that don’t make sense upon further reflection…The more you can help people find their own insights, the easier it will be to help others be effective, even when someone has lost the plot on an important project. Bringing other people to insight means letting go of “constructive performance feedback,” and replacing it with “facilitating positive change.”

Here’s more on feedback.

3) Ask for advice

Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, persuasion expert Robert Cialdiniand many others have all recommended asking for advice as a powerful way to influence others and warm them to you.

Wharton professor Adam Grant breaks down the science behind it in his excellent book Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success:

New research shows that advice seeking is a surprisingly effective strategy for exercising influence when we lack authority. In one experiment, researcher Katie Liljenquist had people negotiate the possible sale of commercial property. When the sellers focused on their goal of getting the highest possible price, only 8 percent reached a successful agreement. When the sellers asked the buyers for advice on how to meet their goals, 42 percent reached a successful agreement. Asking for advice encouraged greater cooperation and information sharing, turning a potentially contentious negotiation into a win-win deal. Studies demonstrate that across the manufacturing, financial services, insurance, and pharmaceuticals industries, seeking advice is among the most effective ways to influence peers, superiors, and subordinates.

4) The Two-Question Technique

Ask them about something positive in their life. Only after they reply should you ask them how they’re feeling about life in general.

Sounds silly but this method is based on research by Nobel Prize winning psychologist, Daniel Kahneman.

A positive answer on the first question will lead to them feeling more positive about their life in general when you ask the second question.

Via Thinking, Fast and Slow:

The same pattern is found if a question about the students’ relations with their parents or about their finances immediately precedes the question about general happiness. In both cases, satisfaction in the particular domain dominates happiness reports. Any emotionally significant question that alters a person’s mood will have the same effect.

10 Times You’re Better Off Saying Nothing at All

{ May 10, 2014 @ 2:41 pm } · { Motivate yourself }
{ Tags: silence, time not to talk } · { Leave a Comment }

10 Times You’re Better Off Saying Nothing at All

Bill Murphy Jr
May 9, 2014

You know the saying that sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all?

This post is in partnership with Inc., which offers useful advice, resources, and insights to entrepreneurs and business owners. The article below was originally published at Inc.com.

You’ve probably read before about the key phrases that greatest leaders say every day.

But great leaders are also wise when it comes to the opposite strategy: Sometimes, the smartest thing to say is nothing at all.

I’m not referring here simply to the advice your mother might have given you about keeping your mouth shut if you don’t have anything nice to say. Instead, think of the big moments when people come close to achieving goals, accomplishing great things, or even just developing good relationships and encouraging people to like them more. Sometimes, a simple slip of the tongue can set them back and destroy all they’ve worked for.

It’s the same issue whether we’re talking about negotiations, investigations, or plain old conversations. So, in the interest of preventing us from wishing wistfully that our mouths had been on Mute, here are 10 times when the sounds of silence are the best sounds of all.

1. When the other side in a negotiation starts debating against itself.

Sometimes people get into a spiral of bad negotiating tactics. They wind up outsmarting themselves–perhaps making an offer and then rejecting their own offer because they think you won’t take it. Imagine a customer who opens a conversation by saying that he understands you can’t cut the price on your product before asking for some smaller concession–and then maybe even convincing himself that even that’s too much to ask for.

For a fun, extreme example of this in action, see this video from The Princess Bride. Often your best move in that situation is to keep your mouth shut and simply stay out of their way.

2. When you’ve asked a question.

We all know these people, right? They ask questions but can’t wait for you to finish so they can offer their own viewpoint. Sometimes they don’t even bother waiting and instead try to hurry you along with verbal cues–“uh-huh, uh-huh, right, right, right…”

When they asked for advice, what they really meant was, “Let’s fast-forward to the part where I tell you what I think, instead.” Don’t be like them. To paraphrase baseball great Yogi Berra, you can observe a lot by watching, and you can also learn a lot by listening.

3. When the other side misunderstands (and you don’t have a duty to talk).

A lawyer once told me about selling a client’s company. To make a long story short (lawyers love that phrase), the negotiation went much more smoothly than she’d expected. Eventually, she realized this was because some whiz-kid M.B.A. on the other side of the table had made a simple math error. That led him to overestimate vastly how much money the acquiring company would likely make after the deal was done.

The lawyer was overcome with apprehension, until she realized the right thing to say: nothing at all. That way, she wouldn’t be breaching her duty not to misrepresent facts to the buyer, but she also wouldn’t do anything to scuttle her client’s deal. The moral of the story is that you don’t always have an obligation to correct someone else’s mistakes.

4. When you don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.

Silence is awkward. As a result, people often rush to fill it. I used to use this tendency to my advantage when I was a trial attorney taking depositions in civil cases. Sometimes, I’d ask a witness an open-ended question, and even though the witness’s tone of voice suggested he’d finished his answer, I’d just continue to wait expectantly, as if anybody with half a clue would understand he had to keep it coming. Sometimes, the witness would keep going and dig himself a bigger hole.

You never have to fill a silence, especially when you don’t have anything useful to fill it with. (In those cases, it’s true: Everything you say may well in fact be used against you.)

5. When you need someone else to get the credit.

As President Harry S. Truman once said, you can accomplish just about anything if you don’t care who gets the credit. Sometimes, that means staying quiet just long enough for someone else to think of your solution and propose it as his or her own.

6. When you are bragging, as opposed to sharing.

This one is among the scourges of social media. Go on Facebook, for example, and sometimes it seems as if everyone you know is eating well, taking amazing vacations, running marathons, and enjoying storybook relationships.

Is all of this about social sharing or social bragging? If you find you’re leaning toward the latter with the things you talk about, maybe it’s time to be quiet.

7. When your comment is more about you than the other person.

Suppose your co-worker Sally is excited for her plans for the weekend. You catch yourself ready to tell her about a better place than what she’s planned or why she should take her trip on another weekend–maybe when the weather is better, when the traffic will be less hectic, or when she’ll have fewer competing commitments.

Aw, that’s really nice of you–as long as you’re sure your comments are truly intended to improve her experience or offer good advice. If there’s a chance you’re commenting out of jealousy or pride, however, maybe you’d be better off zipping it.

8. When you want someone else to grow.

This is a similar point to when you want someone else to get the credit for a good idea. If you have a second grader in your family, chances are you could do her homework for her without much effort. But what would be the point? You want her to learn and grow, which means she has to be the one to come to the conclusions on her own.

The same thing is true in many other circumstances. Instead of leaping forward to answer a thoughtful question that you know the answer to, sometimes it makes sense to hold back and let others figure it out.

9. When you are clearly boring people.

I admit it. I’ve got what’s called “the Irish gift of gab.” I enjoy telling stories. My wife laughs at how often I seem to wind up telling total strangers the story of how she and I met and got together. It’s a good one, though! You see, we’d gone to college together and dated for a while, but then broke up…

OK, I’ll hold off on it for now, and that’s the point. Most of us can tell when we’re holding court for an audience that simply couldn’t care less. In that case, cut it short, wrap things up, and stop talking.

10. When you begin a speech.

I love this example, and it’s something I first put into practice when arguing appeals in court.

Whenever I give a speech, I try to start out with a long, uncomfortable pause. Doing so puts the audience ill at ease for a moment and gets them rooting for you. They worry that you’ve lost your notes or that you’re about to keel over from a panic attack. That way, when you start talking, you’ll have at least a few of them on your side, happy that at least you haven’t made them witness an embarrassing meltdown (h/t, Winston Churchill).

This Is the No. 1 Thing That Holds Most People Back From Success

{ April 22, 2014 @ 3:06 pm } · { Motivate yourself }
{ Tags: #thing that holds you from success } · { Leave a Comment }

What’s the number one thing that holds most people back from success?

It’s not intelligence or hard work.

It’s your attitude.

Sound like the drivel your parents told you when you were 16 that inspired eye-rolling? That’s what I thought, too.

But then I kept seeing the same thing over and over from experts and research…

The War For Talent Is a Myth

Marketing genius Seth Godin says it’s actually a war for attitude:

…it’s not really a search for talent. It’s a search for attitude. There are a few jobs where straight up skills are all we ask for. Perhaps in the first violinist in a string quartet. But in fact, even there, what actually separates winners from losers isn’t talent, it’s attitude.

What does Harvard tell its MBA students is the number one thing when negotiating salary?

First, they need to like you. That’s the first component. The things you do that make them like you less make it less likely that you are going to get what you want…

Now I’m not saying attitude is everything. There’s experience, education and other factors, of course, but…

…you’d be surprised how little even some of those matter.

Hard working? Meh. Overrated.

Stanford MBA school professor Jeffrey Pfeffer explains the research shows performance is only loosely tied to who gets ahead.

Via Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don’t:

The data shows that performance doesn’t matter that much for what happens to most people in most organizations. That includes the effect of your accomplishments on those ubiquitous performance evaluations and even on your job tenure and promotion prospects.

Studies show being liked affects performance reviews a lot more than actual performance.

Via Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don’t:

In an experimental study of the performance appraisals people received, those who were able to create a favorable impression received higher ratings than did people who actually performed better but did not do as good a job in managing the impressions they made on others.

It’s a Popularity Contest—And Often for a Good Reason

If you catch yourself saying, “But I’m right and they’re wrong!” — congratulations, you now have a confirmed attitude problem.

Yes, it is a popularity contest — and not necessarily unfairly.

People with more friends at the office perform better at the office.

Via The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work:

…when MIT researchers spent an entire year following 2,600 employees, observing their social ties, even using mathematical formulas to analyze the size and scope of their address books and buddy lists, they found that the more socially connected the IBM employees were, the better they performed. They could even quantify the difference: On average, every e-mail contact was worth an added $948 in revenue.

The best predictor of team success is not smarts or effort — it’s how team members feel about one another.

Via The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work:

The better we feel about these workplace relationships, the more effective we will be. For example, a study of over 350 employees in 60 business units at a financial services company found that the greatest predictor of a team’s achievement was how the members felt about one another.

It’s Not About “Fair,” It’s About “Trust”

Don’t scream “That’s not fair!” Life is not a strict meritocracy like grade school.

School can warp our heads. In the working world there’s rarely one exam where you’re an individual contributor who gets an all-defining grade.

In the education system, collaboration is called “cheating.” In business it’s the main way things get done.

And wherever there is collaboration, there’s the issue of trust.

Does the company trust you’re on its side? Do the company’s leaders trust you’re aligned with their mission and goals?

Hard work might not always be rewarded but research shows true believers get ahead:

A recently published BYU business study finds that employees who are “true believers” in the mission of their organization are more likely to increase in status and influence than non-believers…

The study found those who exhibit a strong belief in a brand’s mission or cause become more influential in important company circles, while those simply focused on punching the clock become more peripheral players – regardless of formal company position or overall performance.

Cynthia Shapiro, a former HR professional, lays things out pretty clearly.

Via Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn’t Want You to Know—and What to Do About Them:

The closer you bring yourself into the appearance of alignment through your daily actions and choices, the more favorable the company’s opinions of you will be, and the more secure your job will be. How will you know? Those who are seen as being openly in alignment are the ones who gain recognition, favor, and promotions— even if they don’t have the best skills. Maybe I’d better hit you with that one again: those are the ones who get ahead regardless of their skills or performance.

Highly skilled employees, with seemingly great value to their organizations, are let go every day because they are perceived to be a potential risk and cannot be trusted. Conversely, employees are being promoted who don’t have the best skills and may even have to be taught how to do the job, at great expense and time, because they appear to be in alignment and the company feels they can be trusted over others.

What To Do Next

Keep in mind the lesson of Don Quixote:

If you want to be a knight, act like a knight.

How’s this apply to the office? Here’s my workplace equivalent:

Be the person you were in your interview.

That’s what they hired. That’s what they hoped they were getting for their money.

You were positive, enthusiastic, well-prepared and aimed to please.

What more could a company ask for?

Source:
Eric Barker, time.com

What’s The Most Effective Way To Change Your Behavior And Improve Your Life?

{ April 19, 2014 @ 4:28 pm } · { Motivate yourself }
{ Tags: What’s the most effective way to change your behavior and improve your life? } · { Leave a Comment }

Changing your environment is the easiest and most powerful way to change your behavior.

Altering the things in your home and your office and carefully picking the people you spend time with will bring you greater and more effortless results than anything else.

But you’re an objective, self-determined, independent, unique snowflake, you say? No, you’re not.
Those around you affect more of your behavior than you think. Poor fitness, car purchases, lateness, having children, charitable contributions, divorce and stupidity are all contagious.

Your environment manipulates your decision-making more than you care to know as well. You act warmer when it’s warmer and colder when it’s colder. Context rules how you eat; you consume more when plates are bigger and food is closer. When you see kindness, you are kind. What you wear affects how you act.

Sorry to squash the idea of soulmates but who you date is only 2% about what you want and 98% who is nearby. The boost from caffeine and the fun of a roller coaster makes you think a date is more attractive that they really are. The happiness of relationships is often more about the fun places you go and things you do together than the characteristics of the people in it.

The reason you’re often so good a predicting other people’s behavior and so bad at predicting your own is because when forecasting other people’s actions you always take context into consideration. With yourself, you assume you’re objective.
We are often lazy creatures of habit, strongly influenced by the world around us. We don’t even use our leisure time to do what we really enjoy, we do what’s easiest. And without a prod we don’t do the ethical thing, we do what’s convenient.
But the predictability of our reliance on context points to a remarkably effective method for improving one’s life:

Manipulate your environment so as to make what you should do easy and what you shouldn’t do hard.

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