By Debbie Allen

Today’s low unemployment rate is making retailers feel the pressure to keep quailed, motivated and happy employees.

The shrinking pool of available help for retail is taking its toll. Retailers of all sizes are struggling to find and hold enough sales staff to get the job done successfully. Think about finding more part-time staff, creating a job share program or adding creative work schedules to entice more quality applicants.

The impact of this vacuum in the labor market is that there are substantially fewer people available to work. With 280 million people in the US alone, why is there such a problem? There are a few major reasons, including a higher grown in retail chains and technology and other jobs offering higher pay.

In addition, with smaller Gen X population is needed to service and sell to a largely populated Baby Boomer generation and the ever-increasing Gen Y population. The Gen Y generation (ages 1-20) is expected to meet or exceed the huge Boomer generation of over 73 million in the U.S. Bottom line: a growing number of people to service and sell to, with the result being that consumers have had to learn how to service and sell themselves to save time.

If you want to offer great 21st Century Service, you’ve just got to work harder to find quality members of your team today. Here are some helpful strategies that should help you find those winners for your organization.

Hiring Strategies for Creative Recruiting In The New Economy

* Post a sign highlighting your company benefits
* Post a sign offering a free $50 gift certificate for anyone that helps find the next winning member of your team
* Create a brochure about you business and employee benefits
* Post information on the back of your business card about hiring
* Develop a bonus program for your staff to find new employees
* Post help wanted information on your Web site
* Post help wanted information at local colleges and/or high schools
* Ask your customers if they know of anyone
* Inform everyone you are looking: business associates, UPS driver, accountant, business associates - everyone

Questions to prepare before the job interview.

* Why would you like to work here?
* What is your perception of the business?
* How would you handle an irate customer?
* What would be your initial customer greeting?
* Why do you feel you would be a good sales person?
* What would help you to improve your skills?
* How would you go about creating excellent customer service?
* Why have you chosen sales as the career of choice?

How to get the most out of a job interview:
Once you find a good candidate, the job interview is where you’ll get the information you need to decide weather or not to hire him or her. Here are some ways to make the most of each interview:

* Allow adequate time for the interview
* Ask open-ended questions
* Hire attitudes and teach skills
* Get information before you give it -listen more and talk less
* Don’t over promise job benefits, hours or pay
* Don’t try to make it work if it doesn’t feel right
* Always hire on a 30- to 60-day trial period
* Picture them in your business - that new employee represents your image

The purpose of the interview is to gain deeper insight into the applicant’s skills, interests, values and beliefs. And, of course, to evaluate how these skills apply to selling and servicing customers in your business. Remember to ask challenging questions - avoid yes or no responses. Get the applicant to talk to you and sell themselves on the position. How else can you expect them to sell your store to customers?

This article was contributed by Debbie Allen, CSP “The Shameless Success Expert”  who is one of the world’s leading authorities on sales, marketing and effective self-promotion. Her expertise is in retail business, business image, marketing, customer service & sales.As an international business speaker for 13 years, Debbie Allen, CSP has presented to thousands of people in 11 countries around the world. She is one of less than 10% of professional speakers worldwide to have achieved the honor of Certified Speaking Professional by the National Speakers Association and International Speakers Federation.

Good Morning All!

I found this wonderful presentation on a very interesting topic and would like to share it with all of you. Please do tell me what you think!

“I am Not My Car” - Getting Over Environmental Attachments

By Kimberly Englot

In these current economic times, I feel that it is particularly important for people to remember that their possessions do not reflect who they are as human beings. This is a story to help us all remember who we really are inside.

About a year ago, my husband and I were grocery shopping. We pulled into the lot, and parked near a very interesting vehicle. It was a beat-up, black, sub-compact car (similar to an old VW Rabbit, but I don’t know what the make actually was) that had writing all over it! In white (paint or marker, I’m not sure) it had things like, “I am not my car,” “Over 300,000 km and still going strong,” and “My possessions do not define me!” I looked at the rusty, dented car as I walked by and laughed thinking, “They must have a lot of courage to drive that thing around town,” and completely missing the point.

This beat-up little car started to really get to me; I started to think about my own car. It was getting old, a little rusty and I was often embarrassed to drive it - especially when I knew I’d be parking it beside some of my friends’ shiny brand new cars. I had a good job, it’s not like I couldn’t afford a better car, but my husband and I thought that we’d pay down some other debt and built up our savings before we would get something newer. Telling myself that I was “responsible and pragmatic” about my car-situation didn’t always make me feel better parking beside a brand-new SUV but I pretended that I was okay with it.

After seeing this car everything hit home! “That’s right! I am NOT my car,” I said firmly to myself a couple days later when I was feeling embarrassed about the state of my car. I began to ponder this further in my mind and apply it to other area’s of my life. I am not my car, my job, my spouse, my family, my house, my neighborhood, my level of education, the clothes I wear, the friends I keep, the food I eat. So if those things are not me, then who am I?

Who I am can be defined more by what I am not, than by what I am. My identity lies in my authentic self; the self that is there even after I sell my car, or move to another country. The point I am trying to make is this: if I were to lose my possessions, or change them, would I still exist? And my answer to this is, yes. That is why I don’t entangle my identity with my physical environment. I drive a nicer car now, yes, but I’m still the same woman who drove the old car. I own a wonderful home in the suburbs, but this hasn’t changed me from who I was when I lived in an apartment in the city. And if I had to sell my home, or downgrade my car, I would still be the same person.

Not to say that people don’t change throughout their lives, but I am saying that people should not change because of their things. Possessions don’t make people. Life makes people. So let go of the idea that your designer handbag makes you a better you than if you had a cheap one. Do not fool yourself that driving a BMW means you’re happier than if you were driving a Chevy. Do not let these things define you!

This article was contributed by Kimberly Englot, who is an Authentic Life coach. She is the owner of Authentic Self a business dedicated to helping people uncover their true selves. She is currently working on her new mastermind project: The 2009 Life Cleanse. Check out her website or email her at kimberlyenglot@gmail.com.

Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender.The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain.

He said he would forgo the farmer’s debt if he could marry his daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag.

Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.
1) If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father’s debt would be forgiven.
2) If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven.
3) But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer’s field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag.

He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag. Now, imagine that you were standing in the field.
What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:
1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment. Take a moment to ponder over the story.

The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl’s dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking.
Think of the consequences if she chooses the above logical answers. What would you recommend to the Girl to do? Well, here is what she did ….

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles. “Oh, how clumsy of me,” she said. “But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.” Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one.

And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Most complex problems do have a solution.It is only that we don’t attempt to think. Start your day with this thought provoking story and have a nice day!

Effective communication skills are vital for the success of any organization, irrespective of its size. Everyone reading this will be thinking “oh not that topic again!” or “yeah like we don’t know that already?” or even “my communication skills are great, I don’t need to read this!!” Let me assure you this is not the case here. I just learned something new myself yesterday, and as usual, would like to share it with all my readers.

First of all we need to reiterate the basic meaning of communication. It simply means to get your message across to the intended receiver without any sort of confusion or misunderstanding. SIMPLE right? WRONG!

In life, it’s the simplest things that turn out to be the most complicated! How many of you go home in a happy mood and say a simple sentence to your spouse with no ulterior motive and that simple sentence turns out to be the start of a big fight? This is very common. Similarly you tell your barber or tailor that you want your hair/clothes in a certain way and the result doesn’t quite turn out how you expected?

The same thing happens in the office. You tell your sub-ordinate to do a job a certain way and he messes things up completely. So whose fault is it? Of course you would say it’s the junior guys fault! Take a minute and think. Is it possible that the fault lies with the person giving the orders? Is it possible that the boss wasn’t clear and that’s what caused the mess? Of course it’s a bitter tablet to take, but my friends it’s also very very true.

This is where effective communication skills comes into action and will help you to minimize these mishaps. The main goal of any form of communication, whether, verbal or written, should be to lessen the frequency of problems at each stage of this process, with clear, concise, accurate, well-planned communications. You can very well imagine that if a pilot or doctor gets the wrong information the result could be deadly!

We all know that the basic communication process involves the following steps and that the space between each step is the area that leaves room for error and ambiguity, and those are the points that I will target.

Before I go further I would like to introduce the person from whom I learned this new communication skill (which I am going to share with you ahead). The source is a very fine female entrepreneur, corporate trainer and my friend Karen Allawala.

Many of you may know her, but for those of you who don’t, let me introduce you.
Karen Allawala began her training 30 years ago in the USA speaking from different podiums advocating the importance of soft skills training in the work place. At 21, while living In the United States, Karen became an entrepreneur and later helped many young people in starting their own businesses. The University of Houston invited her as an adjunct professor to teach their students to develop promotional ideas for start up companies. As a result of her coaching, out of a class of 18 students, 11 students successfully started their own companies using her innovative ideas.

Karen had a business writing workshop yesterday and was kind enough to invite me. She requested me to stay after lunch and attend a part of the session and an activity.

During our discussion she had revealed to me that she has started her first business at the age of 10! She borrowed story books from her friends and turned each story into a role play. Then,during the summer vacations she earned money by running an educational activity center for young children where she taught them many things and involved them in the story book role plays. It was a win-win situation as Karen earned money and the children of the area were involved in educational activities. The most touching part was that she used the money she had earned to buy her two younger sisters their first bicycles.

While living in Pakistan, Karen introduced a new formula to assure clarity and focus in business communication. This method triggered general acceptability in Pakistani corporate circles especially in the rapidly growing telecommunication and financial services industries. Karen developed a unique business writing program that revolutionized the way people write in business environments.

The business program she developed revolves around the concept of E Prime.

E-Prime, short for English-Prime, is a modified English syntax and vocabulary that does away with all forms of the verb to be: be, is, am, are, was, were, been and being, and also their contractions. Sentences composed in E-Prime seldom contain the passive voice, which in turn may force the writer or speaker to think differently .By eliminating most uses of the passive voice, E-Prime encourages writers and speakers to make explicit statements, making the written text easier to read and understand.

Some use E-Prime as a mental discipline to filter their own speech and translate the speech of others. For example, the sentence “the movie was good”, translated into E-Prime, could become “I liked the movie”. The translation communicates the speaker’s subjective experience of the movie rather than the speaker’s judgment of the movie.

Here are some more examples:

Standard English Vs E-Prime

1. Are you happy with the discussion in the meeting?
Did you get desirable results in the meeting?

2. Is there any important call/message for me?
Did the President call me?

3. How was your weekend?
Did you enjoy your trip to the farm house during the weekend?

4. Where is my medicine?
I can not find my medicine in my cupboard. Have you seen it?

5. Do you have any plans for tonight?
Tonight, would you like to dine out with me?
Tonight, do you plan to attend Sara’s wedding?

6. Why are you late?
I observed you coming 30 minutes after the class started. Can you explain your reason for coming late?

7. What happen?
Two cars had an accident. Did you see what happened?

8. Why are you asking too many questions?
You have asked 10 questions during last 30 minutes. Do you find this course difficult?

9. Where are the children?
At noon I saw the children playing in lawn. Where can I find them now?

10. Meeting is/has been arranged with president.
On October 16th at 9:00 a.m., I have arranged a meeting for the President and you in the Presidents office.

11. He is crying.
When his mother slapped him, he started crying.

12. Karen is a good teacher.
In our opinion, Karen can teach English perfectly.

13. Sir, lets have a cup of tea I am feeling sleepy.
Sir, would you like to have a cup of tea with me?

14. I am coming
I will be at home in half an hour.

15. What is happening?
I heard the students shouting at each other. What happened that made them so angry?

16. I am getting late.
I will not reach class by 9 O’ Clock.

17. What are your plans?
What topic did you plan for your PhD?

18. What would you like to do tonight?
Tonight, would you like to go out for dinner?

19. We are having fun.
Learning e-prime seems interesting.

20. We are going together.
All of you will join me to the principal’s office to inform her about the fighting incident.

21. How is market today?
Today, does the market look stable?

22. Are there any chances for getting big deposits today?
Today, do you expect more deposits?

23. How was your meeting?
What conclusions you reached in the meeting with Mr. Vajpayee?

24. You are looking great.
Your face glows when you wear pink.

25. Are you coming tomorrow?
Tomorrow evening have you planned for tea in my home?

26. How was your paper?
Did you do well in your Business Writing exam?

27. Why are you not sleeping?
I observed you roaming around in the middle of the night. Why don’t you try resting in your bed?

28. Why are you watching movies instead of informative channels?
I believe watching informative channels instead of movies will help you in your studies.

29. What is wrong with you?
You do not appear attentive in class. Did you not sleep well last night?

In these examples, using E-Prime makes it harder for the writer or reader to confuse a statement of opinion with a statement of fact. This is where we can claim that using this method can make the communication more simple, clear, concise and effective.

Due to my commitments, I was unable to attend the entire workshop, but the part that I did attend was very interesting, very innovative and also fun. The best part is that I learned something new! I would highly recommend that if anyone needs to excel in business writing, do take some time out to attend one of Karen’s workshops. I guarantee you will walk away with new skills and will enjoy the learning process as well!

With the beginning of the current financial meltdown and global recession of an unprecedented kind in the last 4 decades the corporate world has been scrambling for answers to new questions, questions that were never asked when basking in the luxury of flowing smooth business profits and cash or were pushed aside because the external market competition kept occupied the leaders of business institutions. As the current recession deepened layoffs have been reported from across the globe to cut down on costs or reduce operations.

Concerns have been rising amongst the HR practitioners as layoffs continue. There is a noble desire to find alternative ways with a view to reduce the impact on the job market. An interesting question that is often raised is: What if we reduce salaries across the board and retain the people instead of resorting to layoffs and making people jobless. Today I would like tackle this question from an organization perspective.
Cutting salaries and laying off are not two mutually exclusive options and the implied assumption that each of them will serve the purpose of cost cutting in the same manner, stands to be questioned heavily too.
Laying off implies restructuring the organization because many job positions will be either eliminated or merged with existing ones. The result will be an organization where job profiles undergo a change and it retains people who can fit into this smarter structure. In other words, restructuring will result in different skill set requirements leaning substantially toward multi-skilling and multi-tasking; many under-utilized potentials can get a chance to prove their worth and the overall motivation may actually go high (”they went and we remained - sigh!”).

In short, this re-engineering may come as a blessing in disguise and give the organization more depth, trigger a durable change process in values and culture and who knows take the organization to higher levels not thought of before. Just because the occasion for this exercise has been thrown at the company by the strained economic environment doesn’t necessarily mean that the company cannot take advantage and reap the same benefits from the restructuring exercise as it would have done if the same was done as a proactive exercise in normal economic conditions as well.

On the other hand cutting salaries across the board may serve an altruistic purpose (that too is a perception I choose to leave for some other occasion), it may give rise to some other problems in management. First of all, the same people will be doing the same work. Perhaps at lesser efficiency because of the recessionary impact on the business. In no way can we regard this situation as healthy for building an organization for the future.

Moreover, it is known in basic texts that money is a dis-satisfier, meaning less money can de-motivate, more money will not necessarily motivate. The recall of the fact that “My job was saved” is very brief. What lasts is the perpetual memory that “I am getting less than before”. Yes, that’s human nature.
We must remember that an organization thrives with high spirited employees not with bemoaning ones. The overall atmosphere of despondency, however temporary that may be promised to be, will not be conducive to the organization’s performance, it would rather be highly damaging because it is this difficult period through which a highly spirited and committed human resource will steer the company out of the troubles. More than ever before, therefore, you need a highly motivated human resource.

Cost cutting is not an exercise in arithmetic it is an exercise in attitude reformation. It is a change of paradigm of looking at half glass of water differently. And it is a shift towards value enhancement rather than a clinical exercise of cutting numbers down. This is time for innovation. Not for saving a few jobs at the expense of the organization’s future.

However, a word of caution in the end. It has been widely observed that while people are laid off, the top management’s select few choose to enhance their own perks and also visibly by upgrading their cars, taking away higher bonuses etc. as if the exercise in layoff entitled them to a performance bonus of sorts. This is highly damaging for the organizational morale. While the top management may not be laid off just to reduced numbers, it should also be made to realize that it is the top that bears greater responsibility in tougher times and should shoulder that responsibility with grace. As a token for morale boosting, even cutting down on some of the perks temporarily may be advisable but certainly not the other way round.

This article was contributed by Mr. Anis Motiwala, a Management Consultant at ABACUS Consulting

BY TAMARA DORRIS

Whether you cold call on prospects or fancy yourself more of a relationship-building type of person, let’s face facts. We all have to pick up that big, hairy beast that, at times, seems like your mother-in-law on steroids. If we’re honest with ourselves and each other, we will admit the times when our intentions were as pure as the driven snow (”I’m going to call 10 FSBO’s and 10 Expired’s before 10 AM”). But then, there we sit, staring at that beast, all but sure it is staring back at us…down to our very soul it seems! Then there are those of who refuse to acknowledge that they face any kind of fear whatsoever.

In fact, I recently heard from an agent who fit into this school of denial…she said, “I’m not afraid of the phone,” she informed me, “it’s just that I don’t have time for it.”

What?

You sell houses for a living and you don’t have time to call people? Like to see her numbers. Anyway, these darlings-in-denial tend to say they just have so much to do that they can never fit in phone time (I know these are the same people who rent the season series of Desperate Housewives and Nip Tuck). But people, let’s be real. WE ALL NEED TO CALL PEOPLE TO STAY IN BUSINESS! That being the case I want to shift gears and provide five ways you can turn your fear into power and pick up the phone with the same gusto my dog Sage barks at the wind (sure that someday she will catch it!).

1. Plan. First of all, we all respond better to taking actions if it’s pre-planned. I know many of us do this, starting out the day with every intention of calling past clients, or whomever, but since it’s uncomfortable, we don’t do it. After all, it’s not like Coach Tamara is watching (or is she?). Setting your intention in writing and on your calendar, noting the block of time that you’ll make your calls suddenly makes your intentions more tangible and improves the likelihood that you’ll follow through. If you can’t be accountable to yourself, who in the heck can you be accountable to?

2. Turn your fear into power. As I always tell my students and clients, fear feels the same as excitement. In fact when people are hooked up to wires and heart monitors, it’s literally impossible to tell the physical difference between fear and excitement. Your heart beats, your pulse increases, you might get light headed, etc. So how do YOU know you’re really afraid? What if, in fact, you are so darn excited to make some serious, long over-due connections that you just think you’re scared?

3. Feel the Fear and do it anyway. Believe it or not, you and only you are in charge of moving through self-doubt and fear and just putting the metal to the petal and pick the darn phone up! Fear is nothing more than misplaced worry and procrastination is the same thing, but you haven’t yet identified what you’re afraid of. Big bears in the wood, yes; increase interest rates? maybe, but telephones, never. No reason. The worst thing that can happen is that you get hung up on (you’ll survive), you catch someone at a bad time (you’ll call back), or you get a voice mail (lucky dog).

4. Plan your reward. Decide ahead of time something nice you will do for yourself once you’ve made your calls. While I’m not advocating a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, maybe giving yourself a few minute to chat on Twitter, clip your toe nails, or pet the dog, reveling in your success will do. For me, if I’ve been a good girl and talked to at least 5 brokers on “call day,” I get to enjoy a glass of good red wine with dinner. Hence, I’m always a good girl.

For an extra treat, I’m including a short video that will hopefully inspire you to get busy and get calling!

This article was contributed by Tamara Dorris a.k.a.Tamara “The Real Estate Therapist” Dorris.Tamara has been quoted as a personal development expert in such publications as, Seventeen, Woman’s World, O Magazine, Woman’s Day, Arthritis Today, Weight Watchers.com, Wall Street Journal.com, Zest for Woman, and many more. She’s also been a guest on numerous television and radio shows all around the world and a local keynote speaker for numerous events and functions.She’s written seven personal development books (including two that are real-estate specific) and numerous published articles, e-book and reports.(read about her new book here!)

Are bad employees ruining your business?
4 Simple Steps To Identify and Clear Bad Employee Behavior

By Stephanie Frank

It’s a brand new day. You wake up after a great night’s sleep and get ready for work. You have objectives to meet, deadlines approaching and meetings scheduled which will make for a very full day. After a quick breakfast and a cup of your favorite morning beverage, you head to work.

Then your day goes haywire.

Traffic jams make you cranky. Nothing on the news you wish to hear. The parking lot is full and it is hot outside. You finally make it to the office, already tired and sweaty from the commute. You walk in to find your employees, the same ones who are supposed to be helping you move forward, stuck in permanent water-cooler chatter. They scurry back to work just as you arrive.

Mistakes, apologies, Internet surfing and just plain goofing off are ruining your productivity and the productivity and profitability of your company. In short, you have C.R.A.P. - Confusion, Resistance, Apathy and Procrastination in the driver’s seat. It’s time for a new approach to getting things done!

Before we go any further, let’s get real here for a minute. Do you really believe that people come to work saying to themselves “I wonder how I can mess up this company and get paid for it?” Probably not. Down deep, every human being wants to be a part of something they can be proud of. The rampant “what’s in it for me” apathetic approach to work cannot be tolerated. At the same time, it’s an almost insurmountable job for an organization or individual to be responsible for changing the attitude of every employee individually. While simple steps can be taken to reprimand bad employees, the root of the problem must be addressed as an organization before real change is to take place.

The root of the solution to the problem is a simple formula called F.A.S.T. In short, your employees need to have the right Focus, take the right Action, have the right Systems, and be on the right Team in order to provide your company with the most profitable return on investment.

So how does this formula work? Let’s take a look:

1. The Right Focus - Bad employee behavior is rampant when employees or managers are isolated and do not know the “bigger picture.” People need to know what is expected of them and why. With downsizing happening, many employees have taken on the job of others and have lost sight of this original focus. They are unsure how their job fits in with the company objectives, which can lead to resistance and procrastination.

Additionally, employees need to know the actual requirements of their job and what is considered success. For example, a bank teller may be required to process a particular type of transaction in a specified amount of time, or may be required to process x number of customers in an hour. This sets a guideline for both employees and management/leadership of the organization by which success or failure can be measured.

2. The Right Action - Time productivity is a primary component of success, yet we are all bombarded with daily distractions, interruptions and “can you just fit this in now?” requests. Ill-equipped to handle the ever-increasing amount of information, email and phone messages, many employees are simply overwhelmed by the amount of work required and goof off because they can’t handle it all.

In order to set people up for success, allow them to have an hour a day of “focus time” where they are not allowed to be interrupted. They will use this time to tackle those high priority items on their list of tasks to complete. This promotes a feeling of accomplishment and success and demotes the frustration of having too much to do.

3. The Right Systems - Take a look at how things are being done - do employees take the simplest and cleanest route to accomplishment or are they stuck in the process maze? The harder it is to get things done, the more your employees are apt to be confused, nervous or just plain resistant to going through the pre-established systems.

It may be time to do an internal systems check. Ask your employees which systems make it difficult to do their job in an efficient and timely manner. Prioritize those which are most often reported, and fix it. Create new and more streamlined systems that do the work with less effort, and employees will step up to be more productive.

4. The Right Team - We all know how important it is to have the right person for the job, and the right team to make it happen. Yet all too often, people are asked to step into doing jobs that have been vacated with disastrous results. Simple tasks to some people may be daunting to others, which leads to decline of the organization.

It may be time for an internal individual audit of each of your team members. Schedule a private interview with each one and ask them what they believe they contribute to the team, what is working for them and what is not working for them. Then ask them what they need to be completely successful in their position. The results may shock you, and when you take corrective action, they will also take corrective action, and profitability (not to mention productivity) will grow to new heights.

People have always been, and probably will always be the single most important asset to any organization. At the same time, those same people can be the biggest problem in any organization. By putting this formula into place, you will immediately see where you or your organization can create a structure that enhances both employee happiness and productivity which eliminates confusion, resistance, apathy and procrastination - and all those wasted trips to the water cooler.

This article was contributed by Stephanie Frank. She works with organizations who want to improve people performance and pump up their power to profit. She is the author of the best-selling book, The Accidental Millionaire and founder of The Success IQ University, specializing in personal success, productivity and leadership education. What’s YOUR Success IQ? Find out here.

For those of you who think I just made a typing error, I would like to clarify that NO, I did not. I wrote inconvenient and that’s exactly what I meant. Let me tell you why…

For people in the Sub-continent, whenever we hear of an international chain or brand coming to town, we get very excited and can’t wait till the day that company opens its doors to the general public. We keep track of the date of inauguration and then make a deliberate effort to go pay that shop a visit. We are very polite people and make our guest company feel welcome!

But what happens when that company doesn’t reciprocate the courtesy? Well it can tarnish the company’s image and create a lot of angry customer’s! Let me take you on a short INCONVENIENT trip to Metro Cash and Carry-Lahore.

My mom and my 5-year old daughter were eagerly awaiting the opening of this outlet, as it was very near by and Convenient. Well that image was about to take 180 degree turn! They happily drive over and parked the car in a vast parking lot which seems to be almost empty and it was only the 3rd day after the opening. Holding hands my mom and little princess walked up to the huge doors and made their entry. To the right was a cafeteria and a children’s Play Area. Now I don’t know about the cafeteria but the Kids area was in a dark desolate corner that seemed more of a rehabilitation center for juvenile delinquents, than a play area. The best part was that it was totally unattended. Meaning if you drop your child there , it will be sheer luck that you will find him/her there on your way out. You must be thinking “O.K. if it’s that bad then just don’t leave your child there!” AHA!. Well that’s when the next inconvenient factor comes into play.

Avoiding the play area, my mother continues with her grandchild and passing under the security system fitted door is stopped by two female employees and taken to one side for interrogation. They ask her “Do you have a Metro Card?” Even though she is in awe and astonishment by being halted in this manner, my mother replies in negative. The lady then very bluntly tells here “Then you are not allowed to enter the store” .OK now my mother is really taken aback. She asks “why not?” Instead of getting a reply she is shooed off as the lady says “Since you don’t have a card, please go to counter number two”. In sheer amazement at these unfamiliar new rules, she walks up to counter two and ask the individual how she can get this ELITE Metro card. Another series of questions and inquiries take place and my mother eventually finds out that she does not have any of the requisite documents on her that were required to acquire this Elite card. The man on counter two then has a quick change of heart and tells her she can go in anyways.

Now once again while proceeding to enter …..she is asked to stop. “NOW WHAT?” she asks, this time in total annoyance. The lady there tells her that she can enter but my 5 year old daughter cannot, as it is a rule that no one under the age of 10 can enter the store and must be kept in the unattended play area. OK now that was the limit! Enough is enough! So my mother and daughter both turn around to leave and are gain stopped by the same lady and are asked” Ma’am your leaving? Aren’t you going to buy anything?”

My mother is a very calm and gentle creature, but an insulting account like this one tends to bring out the worst in a person. My mother very angrily replies “How am I suppose to buy anything when you won’t even let me enter the store”. The lady then adds fuel to fire and gives her a smile and says ” OK thank you and have a nice day”

THE REBUTTLE
Most of you may think that the entire blame lies with the lack of training of the METRO employees. I beg to differ. My perspective is totally different.

After this insulting incident I went online and did a bit of research on the cash and carry concept. It turned out to be exactly what I thought. The simple meaning that pay CASH and CARRY away your goods. So far, so good.

I then went on to explore the concept and business model of METRO. Here is what I found:

• METRO Cash & Carry announced its operations in Pakistan in January 2006. Since then, it has established itself as a self-proclaimed potential market leader in wholesale. Pakistan opened its first store in the city of Lahore in October 2007 and another one just 4 days ago.

• Then I saw the -10 METRO Cash & Carry principles

• Next is-Who are our customers?- OK now here is the part where things get interesting
Only commercial customers are allowed to purchase at METRO Cash & Carry. All customers are registered and provided with a customer card. This means that the company does not sell to private end consumers.
Now the underlined portion may not seem as something that should be highlighted. But to me this is THE MAJOR FAULT this chain has made. You see, while going all out in advertising their opening, not one single ad mentioned that this store is not for the common man and that their business model was B2B ONLY.

You have to understand that Pakistan is a developing country with many issues, the most dire being power shortage. Not every one has access to the internet and even those who do, like me, are not going to check all the rules of shopping and the requirements before visiting the outlet. The main reason may be that this is the first store of this kind to impose such rules and regulations. It’s no wonder that this chain failed to gain popularity in The UNITED STATES and was a terrible failure. No one in USA will leave their child behind, especially unattended nor will they stand for any kind of un-necessary and insulting hindrance.

The owners claim that their business model is an internationally transferable concept. But that is only true if you make the new country of business familiar with such a concept, as they failed to do here. This is the voice of the common man and it can not be avoided.

The Major Marketing Flaws:

• There is totally no mention, anywhere, that METRO is only for Professional customers and that the common man may not enter.

• The staff, itself is ready to wave this rule and make a card for the COMMON MAN if they have an ID card or business card, which contradicts their own rule.

• Many the private customers have been shopping from the MERTO that opening in 2006 and therefore, if they revoke that privilege on the new outlet, some sort of communication should have been made with the customers to avoid insulting incidents and angry customers.

• The “NO CHILD UNDER 10 CAN ENTER” along with a few other rules, are things that are not even mentioned on the website. How do you expect someone to know this if you don’t tell them? One brings a child and then you insult them by saying they can’t go in because it’s a rule?

• Such rules and regulations are not something welcomed in democratic countries. But if they are necessary, then why are they not displayed outside the premises instead of having employees insult you? Even if you pick up any form of ad that METRO has given for this new outlet, you will not find these rules written anywhere.

• Now how do you expect someone to know all this if you do not communicate this information openly and properly and then gain feed back if this has been understood or not. METRO has gone against all the tenets of proper communication and were too overconfident of the fact that their business model is “internationally transferable.”

• Why is the process of getting a METRO Card so complex, and not instant as mentioned on the website?

Summing this all up you can see that METRO is definitely not a convenience store!

If one has a positive attitude and outlook on life, that person can really achieve great things. That positive outlook on life can help one to view things in a whole new light and find positivity from any where. Similarly I came across a very nice article that mentioned these simple yet extremely motivating little 8 points that I would like to share with you!

1. The Ceiling Says: Aim High
2. The Fan Says: Stay Cool
3. The Mirror Says: Reflect Before You Act or Speak
4. The Clock Says: Every Second Counts
5. The Window Says: See the World in a New Light
6. The Calendar Says: Be Up To Date
7. The Door Says: Be Open to Opportunity and Push Hard To Achieve your Goals
8. The Rack Says: Put New Things in Ur Life