Greg's Right FIT #444

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Routine
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Routine

• When you are going through change and forced to alter your routine, you focus. When routine never changes, days blend into each other and even small obstacles knock us off track.
• Unexpected corrections to routine parts of your people's work is management. A regular part of the job. On the other hand, unexpected positive feedback on routine work is rare and carries a lot of power. Try to mix some in, next week.
• If you find it hard to keep the quality high on routine, repetitive tasks, try making a trigger. For example, set a time limit, use a timer, and listen to the same music. 
• Take a minute to appreciate your routines. They serve a purpose. They help reduce stress, provide a restful state, and when used sparingly, give you energy in a crisis. 

Being Human - Adding vs subtracting

To change our thinking to be more oriented to Momentum, let’s start by looking for triggers.

(from "The Sales Momentum Mindset")

So, Greg, you ask, how exactly do you cut or stretch restraints?

Good question. For example, let’s look at one segment of our Momentum wheel for how it works. For instance, let’s say you’re looking at your wheel, and you think, “The first thing I’m going to do is make sure my wheel is in balance. I’m going to rate myself on each of these four areas, giving myself a score of 1–10 in the two segments.” After completing this exercise, you see one area where you can improve: Intellectual Firepower. You rate yourself an 8 in every area but that one, where you’ve given yourself a 6.

Since you know you need a little improvement, what will improvement look like? How will you know you’re making progress?

If you tell yourself, “Self, the easiest way for me to improve my intellectual firepower is to read a little bit of a sales-related book every day,” that is a strain on restraints, a revving of the engine. You are adding to your already busy day.

You could also say, “Self, social media is making me feel dumber. The easiest way for me to improve my intellectual firepower is to stop looking at it first thing in the morning,” that is cutting a restraint, a release of the parking break. You are taking something out of your already busy day.

Both approaches work, and they tend to work together. Cutting out 20 minutes of mindlessly scrolling social media every day, and replacing it with 20 minutes of reading sales books is a great strategy.

If I am advising you, though, my bias is for cutting the restraint. When you start your day mindlessly scrolling through social media, when does that happen? Are you grabbing your phone before you go use the toilet, scrolling as you do your business? If that’s the trigger, what can we do to remind ourselves of our intention? What about putting a sales book in the bathroom? First thing in the morning, as you feel nature’s call, you see the book and—click—you’re reminding yourself about your commitment to intellectual firepower.

It works.

Random Stuff

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery." – James Joyce

I am at a lake house, fresh from an hour-long float, and rummaging around the kitchen for an ice-cold beverage when I bump into a friend. I know her from the neighborhood, but also from invitations to talk to her college students about business communications, specifically networking. 

"Where is your newsletter? I look for it in my email on Fridays at 3:30," said the professor.  

I'm distracted, a little confused, but I take her question as a compliment. "Thank you for reading!" I said.

Then it hits me. It's Friday 6pm and she didn't get my email. Oh, no. She didn't get it because I didn't send one. I didn't send one because I forgot to write one. A victim of my routine being interrupted by a midweek holiday.

I used to work at an oil refinery over summers when in school. Blue fire-resistant Nomex coveralls. Steel-toed boots. Yellow hard hat to indicate my status as a newbie. (I remember white hardhats were management). I was part of the safety department. One of my jobs was to keep the incident signs updated. These were reminders of the number of days with an injury at the plant. Working at the plant wasn't dangerous, but there were a lot of moving parts and employees needed to stay alert.

One day there was a safety incident and the next day I had to get around to every area of the plant and update the incident signs from like, 2,609 days without incident to zero. A bunch of the guys gave me a hard time. A few were actually mad about it. I thought, "settle down, big guy, it's just a stupid sign," but they were affected and didn't like it. 

My newsletter on Fridays at 3:30pm sign just went to zero. 

Thank you for the notes, checking to see if I'm good. Everything is great. The holiday took me out of my routine and I missed it. Annoying. Grr.

I appreciate how those oil workers felt.