by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, For Executive Coaches, How to Set Goals
“For human beings the really important evolutionary advantage is our ability to create new worlds.”
…
“In fact, I think now that the two abilities – finding the truth about the world and creating new worlds-are two sides of the same coins. Theories, in science or childhood, don’t just tell us what’s true – they tell us what’s possible, and they tell us how to get to those possibilities from where we are now. When children learn and when they pretend they use their knowledge of the world to create new possibilities. So do we whether we are doing science or writing novels. I don’t think anymore that Science and Fiction are just both Good Things that complement each other. I think they are, quite literally, the same thing.”
The World Question Center at Edge.org
Alison Gopnik
Psychologist, UC-Berkeley
Coauthor, The Scientist In the Crib
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, For Executive Coaches
…the killer apps that have really worked on the web have always been about connecting people to one another. So, whether it is instant messaging and e-mail as communications to connect people to one another, whether it’s photo-sharing as a way to connect people to one another through photos, or blogging as a way to connect people to one another through the words, people have always been social and the killer apps that have really succeeded on the web have always been social.
Google’s Joe Krauss in
Knowledge@Wharton
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, For Executive Coaches, Team Manager Skills
I got a call from a salesman looking for my help to close a business owner. The salesman was frustrated because the owner so needed the product but was not making a decision, though he was willing to keep talking.
The business owner was tired and frantically busy as his company grew past 100 employees. He was traveling more and more, continually meeting prospective clients, reviewing active projects, and checking on employees. He was proudly a stickler for quality and involved with every detail. His company’s reputation for excellent work was a foundation of their success and growth.
My immediate response was, “Wow! He must have a terrible time retaining key employees.”
“How did you know that?” the salesman exclaimed, “He says that’s his #1 problem.”
“Of course it is. The best people (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, For Fun
Here’s an article I had published as the cover story of the August 1997, issue of Small Business News. My executive coaching clients still find it useful.
I remember when I sold my first business and got a “real job.” A “real” job is the kind with set hours, limited responsibilities, and weekends off.
Weekends off! What an alien concept. Once I got used to the idea of free time and stopped bringing “special projects” and extra reading home, I noticed something very odd. I got a whole lot more done on the Mondays after a relaxing weekend than I had after struggling with work for seven (or seventy) straight days. Abe Lincoln is said to have declared that if he had eight hours to cut down a tree, he would spend four hours sharpening his saw. Vacation is for sharpening your most important tool: yourself.
Long-term Vacation Planning:
Grow your staff
I once asked the President of a division of a public company, “How do you account for your great success at such a young age?” After a moment’s reflection, he (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, For Executive Coaches
What is more amazing about Tiger Woods: his athleticism or his focus? David Brooks writes, in the New York Times, that:
Woods seems able to mute the chatter that normal people have in their heads and build a tunnel of focused attention. … He was, as always, locked in, focused and self-contained.
You may not have time to practice golf, but you can always practice mental discipline.
See also World Changing Coach about Tiger’s father.
See free, easy Meditation Instructions on this blog.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Technology Tips
Here is a timely article from David Pogue of the New York Times on how to stop most unwanted, advertising and nuisance text messages:
AT&T: Log in at mymessages.wireless.att.com. Under Preferences, you’ll see the text-blocking and alias options. Here’s also where you can block messages from specific e-mail addresses or Web sites.
Verizon Wireless: Log in at vtext.com. Under Text Messaging, click Preferences. Click Text Blocking. You’re offered choices to block text messages from e-mail or from the Web. Here again, you can block specific addresses or Web sites.
Full article and advice for other carriers is here.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, For Executive Coaches, For Salespeople, Sales Techniques
Establish the habit of slowing down your responses to questions, to save time and trouble. A simple and effective way to do this is by training yourself to respond to every question with a clarifying question. This gives the questioner a chance to explain why they asked and what they are trying to accomplish. You’ll be surprised how often the quick answer you might have given would not have helped them –or you– at all.
Suppose, for example, you shipped that big report yesterday, just as you had promised. Today the client telephones and asks, “Have you (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, For Executive Coaches, Leadership Development
I recently came across this email I sent to a client after an executive coaching conversation. It has broad applicability for leaders.
The key from today is: get very clear about and keep your attention on the future you are committed to and the values at your core. Develop the discipline to pause and assess each event and communication in light of your commitments. Take your next step in service to your future, not as a reaction based on automatic, unexamined assessments from your past. Learn your triggers (people exhibiting disrespect, for example, or lack of candor) and move them into the realm of choice instead of letting them run you.
People follow a leader who is pulled by a compelling future and is adept at using data from a variety of sources, even unfriendly ones. They are made uncomfortable by an authority who is the victim of events or who devotes his energy to repairing the past. Instead, use the precious present to set-up a fulfilling future.
—Tony Mayo
Click to download as a printable Adobe .PDF file.
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, Leadership Development
I have been an adviser and executive coach to business owners for years, as well a being a serial entrepreneur myself. A common question is, “Why does my company need to grow (or grow faster)? I make enough money, I am comfortable at this scale, what gets better with growth to compensate for the extra work and stress?”
I have answered this question several ways for myself and clients but I never (more…)
by Tony Mayo | For Business Owners, For Salespeople, How to Set Goals
Three versions. One contemporary, the second hundreds of years old, and the third thousands. One colloquial, the other literary, the last allegorical. The same abiding wisdom.
One:
A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.
“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.
“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.
The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.
The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”
“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life.”
The American interrupted, “I have (more…)
Recent Comments