Lonnie Pacelli's Blog, page 20

Free 12/28-29: Crush Those Risks and Issues!

Free 12/28-29: Crush Those Risks and Issues!

Get it at https://amzn.to/2S2E073

#freebook #leadership #kindle #kindlefire #ebooks #ebook #Kindlefreebooks  #Kindledeals #FREE #mustread #goodreads #greatreads #freebie #freebies #kindlebook  #ad #teamwork  #projectmanagement

Don't Ask The Question If You Don't Want To Hear The Answer

Recently I had an interesting interaction on LinkedIn. A young man from a financial services company asked to connect with me, which I accepted. He immediately sent me a message asking to meet for coffee to conduct a personal financial review, and told me his other customers were VERY (yes he “e-yelled” VERY) satisfied with the work he did. Aside from the fact that I’m satisfied with my existing financial advisor, I have a bit of a problem with someone on LinkedIn pitching me right after connecting. I replied with a simple “No Thanks.”

A few days later he responded back thanking me and asking why I declined. I had to decide whether to just ignore his question or respond. I looked at his profile and decided that he really wanted to know and that I could help him with his connect à pitch technique. I told him that I thought his trying to sell me right after connecting was disingenuous; that he didn’t take any time to learn about me and didn’t try to develop any rapport points. He then responded with “When did I try to sell you?” I told him that asking to do a personal financial review and telling me his other customers were VERY satisfied felt like he was pitching me. He then responded with “When did I ask to review your personal finances?” At this point I was curious as to where this was going, so I did a copy/paste from his original message that asked to do a personal financial review. This is where it got really interesting. He responded with the following:
“I never asked you to share your personal financial information online. It was a simple yes or no question. Most nice people on LinkedIn are happy to meet up with me for a chat over coffee. At this point I’ll pass on my offer to meet with you. Best of luck to you in the future.”

I read his message, partly amused, partly shocked. I thought it interesting how he inserted the word “online” in his response (which was never mentioned before), how it was a simple yes or no question (which I answered with a simple no), how nice people are happy to meet up with him (I guess I’m on his naughty list now), and how he’ll pass on his offer to meet up (kind of felt like “You can’t break up with me, I’m breaking up with you first”). He did put a “Best of luck to you in the future” tag on the end to pretend to be professional, but it wasn’t enough to prevent me from blocking him.

I mused over this interaction and decided to call one of my expert sales authors, Nikki Rausch, to get her take on what happened. I told her the story and after saying, “Thanks for making my day,” she confirmed that this was a textbook example of a disingenuous sales interaction. While I was pleased that I didn’t totally misread things, the consultant in me hoped the fellow would have used the feedback as a teachable moment. He asked for feedback, didn’t like it, then told me I wasn’t nice. He did give me one gift; great content for an article.
My one takeaway for you is this: if you’re going to ask for feedback, be prepared to get feedback that you may not agree with. That doesn’t mean you have to act on the feedback. I made it clear to the fellow that my job was to tell him what I thought, his was to decide what to do with it. He could have just said “Thank you, Lonnie,” and went on his way. He took the additional step to not only ignore the feedback but try to prove me wrong and subsequently insult me. He never considered the position he was putting me in. I could have simply ignored his request for feedback, but I thought he really wanted to know why I didn’t want to meet up. Turns out he didn’t give a rat’s tail about what I thought. It was all about him. You can add the words “lack of grace and maturity” to disingenuous when I think of this person. I may forget his name, but I will always remember the company he works for. That company will never get my business.

Asking for feedback doesn’t mean you have to act on it. By all means, if you don’t understand feedback, ask clarifying questions to help you decide what to do with it. But don’t insult the person you asked; they don’t deserve it.

Free 12/21-22: Can You Make a 2AM Meeting?

Free 12/21-22: Can You Make a 2AM Meeting?

Get it at https://amzn.to/2S2DQMZ

#freebook #leadership #kindle #kindlefire #ebooks #ebook #Kindlefreebooks  #Kindledeals #FREE #mustread #goodreads #greatreads #freebie #freebies #kindlebook  #ad #teamwork

Annual Goal Setting Using the Nine Crucial Elements to Achieve Good-Enough Contentment

In my book Behind Gold Doors-Nine Crucial Elements to Achieve Good-Enough Contentment I discuss how to achieve what I term "good-enough" contentment in your life. The book is a story about Ty, who seemed to have it all, then one day it all changed. At the end of his rope, Ty had a chance encounter with a quirky old woman who brought him on a journey to discover the nine crucial elements of good-enough contentment and helped him put a plan in place to fill his contentment gaps. His outlook on life changed forever as a result of him thinking through each of the contentment areas, re-aligning his expectations to think in terms of good-enough, and creating a prioritized plan to work towards good-enough contentment. If you haven't read the book yet I recommend you pick it up :-).As a parallel to the book, I developed an excel spreadsheet to help you define good-enough goals and work towards those goals. The Nine Crucial Elements to Achieve Good-Enough Contentment Assessment includes an annual goal setting tab to help you identify what you'd like to achieve by the end of the year for each good-enough contentment element and put steps in place to do it. You can download the spreadsheet which you should use after reading the book.
As you embark on your goal setting journey remember to keep a few things in mind:Be realistic about what you commit to doEvaluate your progress on a regular basisBe persistentDon't be afraid to change your goals if something in your life changes.
Lastly, while this can be an effective tool to help you develop good goals, at the end of the day it's only a tool. You've got to take action and be disciplined to achieve the goals you set out to do.

I'd love to hear about your journey; email me at contentment@behindgolddoors.com.

Here's to a contented and happy new year!

Free 12/14-15: Be a Killer Sponsor

Free 12/14-15: Be a Killer Sponsor

Get it at https://amzn.to/2OTin7f

#freebook #leadership #kindle #kindlefire #ebooks #ebook #Kindlefreebooks  #Kindledeals #FREE #mustread #goodreads #greatreads #freebie #freebies #kindlebook  #ad #teamwork  #projectmanagement

Practical Pillars of Success

Secrets of success?  Oh puh-leeze.  There aren't any secrets of success in my opinion.   Success is achieved through things that we've been taught to do for years and years.  Good old-fashioned hard work is one of your strongest foundations to ensure meeting your life goals.  In addition, building the following pillars on the foundation of hard work will increase the likelihood that you can meet those goals and achieve your dreams.  Check out these four pillars and see if any resonate with you:
Define a stretch goal, but make it believable - By all means, push yourself beyond what you think you can achieve, but if you set a goal of "shed 30 pounds in two weeks" and you don't in all honesty believe you can attain the goal, then don't set it. You'll just say "I told you so" when you don't meet the goal. Keep it real, but make it challenging.Perseverance pays - Not every day is going to be sunny. There will be days where you feel as if the dragon has won. Stick to it and keep trying. Don't let one cloudy day cause you to quit. Don't rely on shortcuts - So, if you want to be a millionaire, unless you hit a huge lottery or aunt Nelda leaves you a bucket of cash in her will, you're going to have to work for it. Looking for an easy way out will just lessen the likelihood of success and will frustrate you when things don't go as you think they should.Work smart, not just hard - Working 90 hours a week doesn't provide any more assurance of achieving a dream career or making a million. Put together a clear goal, define a plan to meet the goal, and follow the plan. Don't spend lots of time on things that don't contribute to your goal, and don't do things yourself that someone else can do for you more effectively.Lonnie Pacelli
Keynote Speaker | Board Director | Autism Advocate | Author | Project Management Expert | Microsoft/Accenture Veteran 
See his books on Amazon.

Free 12/7-8: Back Yourself with the Best

Free 12/7-8: Back Yourself with the Best

Get it on https://amzn.to/2TrAIf5

#freebook #leadership #kindle #kindlefire #ebooks #ebook #Kindlefreebooks  #Kindledeals #FREE #mustread #goodreads #greatreads #freebie #freebies #kindlebook  #ad #teamwork

You Can't Over-Prepare for an Interview

Excerpted from The Truth about Getting Your Point Across…and Nothing But the Truth
A colleague and I were doing some interviewing of upcoming college graduates at a university campus.
Most of them were very prepared, looked presentable, asked great questions, and seemingly did their research. There was one, though, who stood out from the rest, and not in a good way.

Out of the gates I knew this was going to be an interesting interview. He showed up ten minutes late for his interview time. He looked literally as if he had awakened ten minutes before the interview. He had on an old sweatshirt, jeans, and sandals and hadn’t bothered to brush his hair.
He hadn’t researched my company, didn’t understand what products we developed beyond our flagship product, and didn’t know what types of jobs we were looking to fill. The most amazing thing, though, was that he came in expecting me to sell him on the company versus him demonstrating why he was someone worth pursuing. My decision was made in the first minute of the interview. It was my easiest interview of the day.
If you want to work at an organization, the message is crystal clear; you have to put the effort in up front to impress them enough to want to talk to you more. First impressions do matter greatly, and it’s not enough to just avoid a negative first impression. Neutral first impressions will at best position you equally with other candidates and, at worst, put you at the bottom of the list. Why some candidates gamble with first impressions completely boggles my mind; it is completely within the candidate’s control to create that positive first impression. If someone doesn’t care enough to make the strongest impression possible then I don’t want them as an employee. End of story.
Get prepared for that interview and use the following as some ideas to help you:
Do your organization research – In today’s internet culture, learning about most any organization is only a few mouse clicks away. Learn about what the organization sells, how many employees they have, their sales and net profit, their key business challenges. The more you know and the more you can show you know, the more you’re likely to impress your interviewer.Talk to someone who already works at your potential employer – Got a friend, relative, or casual acquaintance who works at the organization? Buy them a cup of coffee and learn about their experience with the organization. You may learn things that either confirms the organization is a good fit for you, or that cause you to not want to work there.Ask someone to mock-interview you – Ask a friend, colleague, or family member with experience in interviewing to run you through a mock interview. The goal isn’t to be gentle and lob softball questions at you. Your mock interviewer should ask you the difficult questions and get you out of your comfort zone. The better you are able to respond to the difficult questions in a mock interview, the better you’ll do when the real interview comes along.Learn as much as you can about the job – Ask your contact at the company for a job description prior to the interview. Talk to others who work at the company. Talk to someone with a similar job at a different company. Any little bit of information you can dig up will help.Learn about your interviewer – Find out the name of the person or persons who will be interviewing you. Has he or she written any books? Has he or she published any articles? Is he or she doing a speech or presentation somewhere you can attend? Do you know someone who might know the person? Does the interviewer have information either on the organization’s website or his or her own website? You may learn about a common interest or idea that could help you establish a connection with your interviewer.
Dress the part – For Pete’s sake, dress like you want a job. Make sure shoes are shined, shirts or blouses are pressed and hair is combed. Even in today’s casual environment, most employers are expecting interviewees to dress business formal. I’ve never chosen to not hire someone because he over-dressed for an interview, but I’ve declined quite a few who looked like they just crawled out of bed.
Be on time – ‘Nuff said.
I can’t think of a single instance in my experience where someone was been eliminated from a job search because they were too prepared for the interview. Do your homework, prepare for the tough questions, and dress up for the interview and you’ll leave a positive impression on your interviewer. It may not guarantee you a job, but it certainly won’t hurt your chances either.

Excerpted from The Truth about Getting Your Point Across…and Nothing But the Truth
Lonnie Pacelli
Keynote Speaker | Board Director | Autism Advocate | Author | Project Management Expert | Microsoft/Accenture Veteran 
See his books on Amazon.

Free 11/30-12/1: 31 Tips to be a Best-in-Class Project Sponsor

Free 11/30-12/1: 31 Tips to be a Best-in-Class Project Sponsor

Get it at https://amzn.to/2DMYdux

#freebook #leadership #kindle #kindlefire #ebooks #ebook #Kindlefreebooks  #Kindledeals #FREE #mustread #goodreads #greatreads #freebie #freebies #kindlebook  #ad #entrepreneur #projectmanagement

Accompany Delegated Problems with Guiding Principles

Recently I ran across a situation that reminded me of leaders needing to delegate responsibility while remaining engaged with what the team is doing.  At one of my former employers we had a particularly thorny issue which required multiple groups to work together to address.  It was important that I delegate resolution of the issue to the team, but it was also important that the team had a glimpse into some of my thinking on the issue.  When I delegated the issue to one of my managers for resolution, I also articulated some guiding principles that the team needed to keep in mind while resolving the issue.  What this allowed me to do was not only provide some considerations for the team to noodle over while coming up with a resolution to the issue but also empower the team to make the decision as to what to do about the issue.This approach works out great for a few reasons:  
The leader gets to set some direction on the resolution without dictating the resolution
The team is empowered to make decisions while understanding the leader's point-of-view on the issue
The team is more likely to come up with a resolution which won't have to be reworked because it falls outside of the leader's expectations
As a leader, make sure you empower your team to solve problems and make decisions; just don't be hesitant to express some guiding principles or points of view that the team needs to consider in making the decision.
Lonnie Pacelli
Keynote Speaker | Board Director | Autism Advocate | Author | Project Management Expert | Microsoft/Accenture Veteran 
See his books on Amazon.