The brief encounters with other people that make up a day at the office — are where authentic presence thrives or dies. Our authenticity represents who we are without guile. It flows from within us. It’s the person we choose to be rather than the person others demand that we be.

Small moments

Expressing yourself will help build trust with your employees and show them that you’re a safe person for them to open up to as well. Encourage self-expression among your employees. Don’t just tolerate it but celebrate it! Encourage everyone to bring their full selves to work each day! Take an interest in who people really are outside of work and their interests and hobbies!

Don’t be afraid of showing your true self.

A virus of false flattery, buzzwords, and spin has infested how we work — how we give feedback and make decisions. These phoney interactions, though often meant to reward employees and impress bosses, do little to foster authenticity or strengthen relationships.

A virus of false flattery, buzzwords, and spin has infested how we work

Authenticity is not a quality you gain once and suddenly embody forever after; it must be nurtured continuously. And when you do so, it produces rewards both large and small — a sense of meaning in your job, a feeling of connection with your colleagues and customers, and the ability to see and seize opportunities as they arise.

Authenticity Nurtured Continuously 

In a world of platitudes, clichés, and career-crucifying performance reviews, authenticity at work can be a risky, even foolhardy option. You might fail to win over your boss or get that promotion you’ve always wanted and worked so hard for. But if you embrace your true self and hold firm to it when appropriate, you’ll have a better chance of finding success and appreciation in the workplace.

In a world of platitudes, clichés, and career-crucifying

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that your true self wasn’t acknowledged? You know, that moment when you feel like you are standing on the edge of an identity crisis? You are not sure what you should be acting or feeling like. Yeah, me too…it’s difficult.

Identity crisis?

It is about being who you really are and allowing the people in your organisation to see that. It is about finding a balance between being yourself and fitting into a business culture — one where the values of your company are aligned with your own values and beliefs.

Bank on being yourself

Most of us were “raised” in the workplace to be “professional”. We were taught that being a professional meant putting our personality and beliefs aside. In fact, many times “faking it” is what it took to get ahead. But is that the best approach? And is it possible to be authentic at work?

What it means to be authentic in the workplace.

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that your true self wasn’t acknowledged?

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt that your true self wasn’t acknowledged? You know, that moment when you feel like you are standing on the edge of an identity crisis? You are not sure…

career

Career

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

teamwork

Teamwork

business

Business

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

The Case For Authenticity At Work

Every great story is infused with novelty.Novelty comes in many different forms:Fresh, new perspectives. Surprising insights. Shock-and-awe moments. Unexpected twists.The goal is to make your audience say: “Oh, wow!”If you’re falling short, dig deeper.

Infuse Novelty

Stories are meant to be shared.The story “K-factor” - a viral marketing metric for growth - should be high.This requires high shareability.To enhance it: Keep it simple and make it easy to “take down” into shorter, alternative versions.

Shareable 

A key to unlocking growth in your writing, startups, marketing, business, or career.

Storytelling is a superpower

“Make it simple, but significant.” - Don DraperA good story may be complex, but a great story is always simple.Try to elevator pitch the story to an uninformed party. Are they able to understand it? If not, you still have work to do.When in doubt, simplify!

Keep It Simple

The best storytellers always define a clear purpose prior to crafting their story.What is the story trying to achieve? What does success look like with this story?Commit to answering these key questions before doing anything else.

Clarity of Purpose

Every great story begins with a well-defined audience.Who is the audience? What do they consciously (or subconsciously) want from the story?Be deliberate with this exercise.Be honest with yourself. The audience may look different than you expect.

Define the Audience

“People have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories don’t have a middle or an end anymore. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning.” – Steven SpielbergStories need structure.Clear narrative arcs (like Pixar’s “hero’s journey”) work well.

Establish Structure

Emotion is what makes great stories stick with you.Think about your favourite stories. How did they make you feel?It’s a safe bet that they elicited a strong emotional response.Learn from this. Weave emotion into the foundational fabric of every story.

Weave in the Emotion

Disney is the greatest storytelling empire of all time.Walt Disney was famous for his focus on suspending reality for his audiences - allowing them to experience his new reality while still being in their reality.Take a lesson from the best. Suspend reality.

Suspend Reality

Shared community is an insanely powerful force.The best stories (and the best storytellers) foster community - they elicit a sense of shared purpose, shared membership in a group, or shared experience.Stories that build communities last forever.

Foster Community

Most great writers and storytellers agree on one thing: starting is the hardest part.There is nothing more daunting than a blank page.So start fast - get a draft down (and don’t worry about how bad it is).Then slow down - write & rewrite as necessary.

Draft Fast, Edit Slow

Storytelling expert Nancy Duarte coined the “what is vs. what could be” framework.First, describe the reality (“what is”).Next, describe the potential future (“what could be”).This framework forces you to create contrasts to craft a captivating narrative.

Create Contrasts

Playwright Kenn Adams created a neat framework - “the story spine” - for establishing structure:Once upon a time there was [blank]. Every day, [blank]. One day [blank]. Because of that, [blank]. Until finally [bank].Fill it in and watch your story take shape

The Story Spine

Inspiration is from Twitter. Found this Twitter thread on storytelling that I think every writer, storyteller or professional should know about. Happy Reading! Thank me later ☺️

writing

Reading & Writing

communication

Communication

Twitter

The eight elements that are fundamental to high performance are:<ol><li>Vision</li><li>Planning</li><li>Process control</li><li>Measurement</li><li>Time use</li><li>Accountability</li><li>Commitment</li><li>Greatness in the moment</li></ol>Applying the 12 Week Year will be uncomfortable because change is uncomfortable.

The Execution System

The physical universe will not respond to your desires, no matter how passionate or intense they are. The one thing that moves the universe is action. An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

<ol><li>Uninformed optimism. This is the first stage and the most exciting as we imagine all the benefits that we are going to get from the change.</li><li>Informed pessimism. This stage is characterized by a shift into negative emotions.</li><li>The valley of despair. Most people give up at this stage. They abandon the reason they wanted to change in the first place</li><li>Informed optimism. The likelihood of success at this stage is higher. The benefits of your actions start to bear fruit</li><li>Success and fulfilment. This is the stage where you complete the cycle and enjoy the full benefits of the change process.</li></ol>

Changing Behaviour: The Five Stages

In God we trust; all others must bring data.

Commitments improve relationships, strengthen integrity, and build self-esteem. Commitment is a state of being bound emotionally and intellectually to a course of action.The ability to keep commitments is fundamental to effective execution. The difference between interest and commitment is that we only do the things we are interested in when we feel like it. But with commitment, we make no excuses.

Interest Vs Commitment

Forget about the 12 month year and instead focus on the 12 Week Year. Why? Because you can get more done in 12 weeks than in 12 months with the right mindset, goals, and strategy.
<ul>
<li>To execute successfully, it is important to have a strong emotional connection to the outcome.</li>
<li>Without a compelling reason to choose otherwise, most people will take comfortable actions over uncomfortable ones.</li>
</ul>

Rethinking Time: Boost Your Performance In The Short Term

Having an annual plan has the following benefits:<ul><li>It reduces mistakes</li><li>It saves time</li><li>It provides focus</li></ul>Having a 12-week plan has three additional and distinct differences from annual planning:<ol><li>Is more predictable than 12-month planning. The further you set your plan in the future, the less predictable it becomes</li><li>More focused. Annual plans have too many objectives and this can cause failure in execution</li><li>More structured. Most plans are never implemented because they don’t have a good structure</li></ol>

A 12-Week Plan

To tap into the incredible power of a personal vision, you need a future that is bigger than the present. Your business vision needs to be anchored on your personal vision.When things get hard the connection between your personal and business vision will help you to focus. When you think about a compelling vision, the neurons that fire in your brain are the same neurons that fire when you act on your vision. What that means is that you can literally train your brain to act on your vision just by thinking about it.

Envisioning Your New Future

To achieve life balance, you need to be purposeful in how you spend your time, energy, and effort.<ul><li>When our attention is spread over various subjects and conversations, we apply very little of ourselves to any individual activity. This can result in feelings of being burned out, exhausted, frustrated, and disconnected.</li><li>To make the most of your time, be present in the moment. Your thinking will be clear, and decisions will come easily.</li><li>You can neither change the past nor act in the future. All you have is the eternal, right now.</li></ul>

Be Here Now

<ul><li>Scorekeeping will provide you with a knowledge base that will guide decisions and lead to better performance and success.</li><li>Scorekeeping will let you know whether what you are doing is effective.</li><li>Measurement builds self-esteem and confidence because it documents progress and achievement.</li><li>The data simply focuses on achievements. It is not concerned with effort or intentions.</li></ul>

Measuring The Effort: Scorekeeping

Accountability is accepting that you have a choice. That everything that you do in life is a choice. It is small thinking to see accountability as a have to rather than a choice.With such a mentality you will only produce a minimum of results. When you understand that true accountability is about choice and taking ownership of your choices, everything changes. You move from resistance to empowerment, from limits to possibilities, and from mediocrity to greatness.

Accountability And Ownership

<ul><li>The actions that we take create our long-term results. While we plan for the future, we act on the day.</li><li>If you want to be truly effective, your daily activities must align with your long term vision, strategies, and tactics.</li><li>A weekly plan will translate your 12-week plan into daily and weekly action. Your weekly plan should cover your strategies and priorities.</li><li>Your long term and short term tasks and your commitments in the context of time.</li></ul>

One Week At A Time

<ul><li>The important actions are usually uncomfortable ones. And the secret to living up to your potential is to value the important stuff.</li><li>Vision is the starting point of all high performance.</li><li>Barriers to physical performance exist in the mind.</li></ul>You must be clear on what it is you want to create. Most people focus primarily on their business or career, but business is just part of life, and it is actually your life vision that gives traction and relevance to your business

Creating Your Personal Vision

<ol><li>Strong desire. A clear and personally compelling reason will make you do things</li><li>Keystone actions. A few core activities account for a majority of your results</li><li>Count the costs. Counting the costs means being ready to commit time, resources, and so on</li><li>Act on commitments, not feelings. If you learn to do the things that you need to do despite your feelings, you will surely be successful</li></ol>

Keys To A Successful Commitment

When creating your vision, focus on three-time horizons:<ol><li>Long-term aspirations.</li><li>Mid-term goals about three years to the future.</li><li>12 weeks.</li></ol>Pitfalls when creating a vision:<ul><li>You don’t take the power of vision seriously.</li><li>The vision isn’t meaningful to you.</li><li>Your vision is too small.</li><li>You don’t connect your vision to your daily actions.</li></ul>

Creating Your Vision

Your supply of time is completely inelastic and perishable.When you are not purposeful about how you spend your time, you leave results to chance. Block out regular time each week to deal with strategically important tasks. Examples of performance time:<ol><li>Strategic blocks. A three-hour block of uninterrupted time that is scheduled into each week</li><li>Buffer blocks. Time set aside to deal with all the unplanned and low-value activities like email and voicemail</li><li>Break out blocks. Time for resting and reflection</li></ol>

Working With Intentionality

The guide to shortening your execution cycle down from one year to twelve weeks Most organizations and individuals work in the context of annual goals and plans; a twelve-month execution cycle. Instead, The 12 Week Year avoids the pitfalls and low productivity of annualized thinking. This book redefines your "year" to be 12 weeks long. In 12 weeks, there just isn't enough time to get complacent, and urgency increases and intensifies. The 12 Week Year creates focus and clarity on what matters most and a sense of urgency to do it now. In the end more of the important stuff gets done and the impact on results is profound. Explains how to leverage the power of a 12 week year to drive improved results in any area of your life Offers a how-to book for both individuals and organizations seeking to improve their execution effectiveness Authors are leading experts on execution and implementation Turn your organization's idea of a year on its head, and speed your journey to success.

productivity

Productivity

timemanagement

Time Management

books

Books

The guide to shortening your execution cycle down from one year to twelve weeks Most organizations and individuals work in the context of annual goals and plans; a twelve-month execution cycle. Instead, The 12 Week Year avoids the pitfalls and low productivity of annualized thinking. This book redefines your "year" to be 12 weeks long. In 12 weeks, there just isn't enough time to get complacent, and urgency increases and intensifies. The 12 Week Year creates focus and clarity on what matters most and a sense of urgency to do it now. In the end more of the important stuff gets done and the impact on results is profound. <ul> <li>Explains how to leverage the power of a 12 week year to drive improved results in any area of your life</li> <li>Offers a how-to book for both individuals and organizations seeking to improve their execution effectiveness</li> <li>Authors are leading experts on execution and implementation</li> </ul> Turn your organization's idea of a year on its head, and speed your journey to success.

Brian P. Moran

Michael Lennington

The 12 Week Year

So, the New Year is here and we're all pretty pumped up for it; making resolutions and setting goals. We all probably think it's going to be the same this year; set goals, try to achieve some of them and well, whatever the case, we tried but should that be what we look forward to?

What's New This Year?

Funny story, so I had a chat with someone and realized maybe, this year, I need to do something different for a change. It wasn't about setting new goals or trying to do something else. The truth is, we are building our lives, writing our stories and the character doesn't change but the circumstances do. It isn't about setting new goals or making new year resolutions, instead, it has to be about building on what has already been started.

Try Something Else For A Change

You are not different, you cannot suddenly become a New person because the number of the year changed from 1 to 2; you are still the same person you were and you are still working on the same things you started. What did you start last year? What did you commit to in 2021? 2022 is not for starting new things, it is for building on what has already started, afterall, isn't that the evidence of change? The proof of growth?

Keep Working On What Has Already Started

Whatever you decide, remember; you cannot look forward to a new year and keep leaving things undone. The New Year is actually just a number change, every other thing remains the same: you are still you, still in the same place, living the same life with the same old people. Search your life, what needs pulling together? What ideas started out as thoughts but need to grow into full blown projects? What dots need connecting? We are a sum total of the things we repeatedly do, the change that comes with being consistent. Here's to wishing you a very Happy New Year!! Cheers 🥂🥂.

Connect The Dots; Pull The Pieces Together

I think we need to think differently this year and every other year, going forward. 

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

Why we set new goals 

Credit terms should be set by the supplier in agreement with the customer, because there are many limitations involved when a buying organization decides to set their own credit policies.

Credit terms should be set by the supplier

Getting paid within 30 days of invoice date is the goal as defined in most small business cash flow management systems. Late payments can have a series of negative effects. For example, late payments may increase the risk of bankruptcy or insolvency, which normally lead to a loss of a contract and an interruption in cash flows to the business. Furthermore, late payments will lead to a reduction in working capital which is essential for any business to continue operating smoothly.

Late Payments.

Please check the credit rating of your customers before you extend them credit. If you don't, you'll be in for some nasty surprises. Your customers will be in the habit of not paying their bills on time and if you don't find this out on time you're going to have wasted a lot of money.

Check the credit rating of your customers

This is a credit sales agreement and should include the terms and conditions of credit sales between a creditor and a customer. This document, once signed by both parties, sets out the agreed credit terms in accordance with the law and may also be referred to as a 'credit sales agreement.'

A credit application form/agreement

<ul><li>The type of customer,</li><li>The size and financial strength of the buyer,</li><li>The supplier's operating cycle,</li><li>Seasonality,</li><li>Payment history,</li><li>Supplier's profit margin</li></ul>

Factors that affect business credit terms:

The person's job is to make sure invoices are sent on time and follow through on aligning your credit management strategy with every customer interaction. You need someone responsible for making sure the money is paid to your business.

Have someone dedicated to tracking debtors

Every credit policy tells you what your company will do if a customer doesn't make a payment on time. It also tells you what process you have for doing that. You have to have a credit policy because it affects your cash flow and the risk of loss if customers do not pay.

Savvy credit management

Having credit limits in place will fundamentally help your business in two ways.<ol><li>It establishes clear rules for you and for your customer</li><li>Credit limits work as a protection for you and your business.</li></ol>

Establish credit limits

Credit management is my biggest lesson for the past 24 months. I personally lost $6, 000 to a client in Malta because of a lack of good business credit management on my part. I don't want you to make the same mistake. 

Credit management, in short, is a process of collecting money for goods or services provided to another person. Learn from my mistakes and do better ☺️

The Case For Authenticity At Work

Twitter

The 12 Week Year

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

Why we set new goals

CURATED BY

The Case For Authenticity At Work

Twitter

The 12 Week Year

It's time to Read like a Pro.

Why we set new goals

CURATED BY

It's time to
Read like a Pro.