Michael Hyatt's Blog, page 62
May 23, 2017
17 Online Marketing Influencers To Keep Your Eyes On In 2017 [Appearance]
In this Forbes article, I am included as one of the top influencers to watch in 2017.
Event:
17 Online Marketing Influencers To Keep Your Eyes On In 2017
May 22, 2017
How Reading Old Books Gives Us New Perspective
3 Reasons to Overcome Bias and Understand the Whole Conversation
One trait common to leaders is a passion for books. Reading improves our thinking, people skills, and more. Leveraging a library of history, biography, philosophy, business, and psychology can give leaders a competitive advantage. But there’s a hidden bias working against us.
We live in a culture that places a premium on things that are new. Discontent, if not a virtue, is certainly a way of life. Understanding this, marketers highlight “newness” as a primary attribute of their products, assuming that this equates to better.
The implication is three-fold:
New is more valuable than old.
New is more relevant than old.
New is more accurate than old.
The book industry plays along. For as long as I can remember, there’s been a relentless focus on the new. Reporters, reviewers, podcasters, and bloggers mostly cover fresh voices and the latest releases. And bookstores dedicate less and less space for what the trade calls backlist—titles more than a year old.
In fact, booksellers typically give up on new books after sixty to ninety days and ship the unsold ones back to the publisher. Why? To make room on the shelves for the avalanche of still newer books in the pipeline—about a million every year.
There are some signs this is changing. User-directed sites like Goodreads promote old books along with the new. And anyone can now locate obscure, out-of-print books in a few clicks through Amazon, AbeBooks, or Project Gutenberg.
But why read old books in the first place?
Out with the New
The bias toward new books goes back a long time. C.S. Lewis addressed it in an introduction to a translation of St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation back in 1944.
“There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books,” he began the essay.
Lewis wasn’t calling for a boycott of new books but for a more balanced approach to what we read. “I myself am a writer, [and] I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books,” Lewis said. “But if he must read only the new or the old, I would advise him to read the old.”
3 Reasons to Read the Old Books
Lewis gave three reasons why we ought to read old books, especially the classics. Lewis’s focus in an introduction to a book about the Incarnation, was theology. But the point applies more broadly as well.
1. Old Books Have Been Tested
A new book has yet to be proven by the test of time. Its ideas are still on trial and non-specialists may be in no position to judge it.
Over time, if a book has any staying power “all its implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) [are] brought to light.” Old books that have not been forgotten have been remembered for a reason. Something about them stands up and demands our attention.
2. Old Books Give Us Context
Lewis compares reading a new book to stepping into the middle of a conversation. People may be in the middle of a debate about a point made earlier in the conversation. Or perhaps they are laughing and making asides.
You the reader have little idea what is being said, because you missed the beginning of the conversation. Reading the old books lets you understand the whole conversation.
3. Old Books Remove Our Blinders
Every era has its own particular outlook, which is good at seeing certain truths and blind to others. Contemporary writers who seem to oppose one another share many of the same unspoken assumptions.
None of us can fully escape this blindness, but the cataracts get a lot worse if we read only new books.
“The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books,” Lewis explained.
The perspective that reading old books can give us is important not because our ancestors always got it right, but because they saw things we might easily miss, and wrote these things down for our benefit.
“Two heads,” said Lewis, “are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.” In this sense, Lewis says quite humorously, books from the future would be just as good a corrective as books from the past, but, unfortunately, they are more difficult to obtain.
A Simple Rule to Counteract the Bias
In the final analysis, Lewis is a realist. He concedes that his readers will not likely confine themselves exclusively to old books. (And it’s a good thing for those of us who make our living publishing new ones!)
He compromised by saying, “It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one until you have read an old one in between.”
“
You missed the beginning of the conversation. Reading old books gives you context.
—MICHAEL HYATT
Question: What old book has meant the most to you? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
May 20, 2017
May 19, 2017
How to Get Away From It All
5 Ways to Leave Work Behind and Reboot Your Soul
As summer approaches, you might be deciding if you have the time or money for a vacation. Americans have been taking fewer vacation days.
At one time Americans used their vacation days, according to research by Project: Time Off. We took an average of 20.3 days a year right up until the turn of the century. That’s when the findings reveal a sharp drop off of about 4 days. Project: Time Off worries the loss may be a permanent reduction in vacation.
2015 was a typical year. Americans left 658 million vacation days unused and “lost 222 million of them,” according to Project: Time Off. “Those days cannot be rolled over, paid out, or banked for any other benefit—they are purely lost.”
Several years ago, I found myself in the same boat.
Chasing Waterfalls
I had scheduled a short time away at a lodge in British Columbia at the invitation of my friends Bob and Maria Goff. But there was tons of work to complete and only so much time. Then a week before leaving I found out we would have neither cell phone service nor Internet access.
“No way,” I thought. “I cannot be offline right now. I have too much going on.” But I reluctantly went along with it, and I’m forever glad I did.
In just a few days it helped to change how I think about vacations as a time of rejuvenation. Afterward, I identified five elements that made it so amazing. These represent five ways anyone can get away and reboot their soul.
I went someplace beautiful. Bob and Maria Goff’s lodge is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. There is also something about being in the great outdoors that connects you more directly to God and to your place in his world. It provided me with much-needed perspective.
I was fully present. The Internet and cellphone fast turned out to be exactly what I needed. It allowed be to be fully immersed in the experience without the temptation to be somewhere other than where I was.
I had deep conversations. I don’t naturally seek out people I don’t know. Here I was in the wilderness with twenty people, most of whom I didn’t know—at all. Yet, I found endless delight in hearing their stories, comparing notes, and crying when I left them to come home.
We spent time alone. The retreat had the perfect balance between structure and spontaneity, group time and alone time. My friend Don Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz was there. Periodically, Don shared with us his thoughts and then asked us to spend some time on our own reflecting on a specific question. I prayed, wrote in my journal, and just enjoyed being.
I had an adventure. The first afternoon, Bob Goff took us to Chatterbox Falls, located at the end of Princess Louisa Inlet. We squeezed behind the waterfall, in the slim corridor between the solid rock wall and the falling water. The sound was deafening and the water was freezing. At Bob’s prompting, we walked through the falls, feeling the full force of the water as it pummeled us from above. The experience was exhilarating!
Unplug and Reboot Your Soul
My time at the lodge wasn’t long—only two-and-a-half days. But I learned from the experience the importance of getting away from it all and unplugging to reboot my soul.
Now, every year Gail and I take a solid month off and we weave all five elements of that lodge experience into our holidays. I can’t wait to get away later this summer.
You might not be able to manage a full month off. But I bet you can take more time off than you think. I urge you to take time, unplug, really get away from it all and have an adventure.
It will rejuvenate you, and you’ll come back stronger than ever.
“
Get away and unplug. You’ll come back stronger than ever.
—MICHAEL HYATT
Question: What about you? What reboots your spirit? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
May 18, 2017
Vote on Your Favorite Book Cover [Photo]
I am so excited to announce my forthcoming book, Your Best Year Ever! But I need your help—Will you take a few moments to let me know which book cover you like best? All you have to do is click here, answer the questions, and that’s it! Can’t wait to hear from you.
Make sure to actually click to let me know which cover is your favorite. If you just comment below, it won’t be factored in the survey results. Thanks so much!
May 17, 2017
3 Habits of Highly Effective Coaches
How to Step Back, Ask Questions, and Get Results
If you’ve ever had the benefit of a great coach, you know just how powerful coaching can be. But leaders know it can sometimes be difficult to coach the people on your own team.
It’s one of the main reasons people are reluctant to delegate work in their Drudgery and Disinterest Zones. It takes so much time and effort we’re tempted to throw in the towel, even though it would save us tons of time in the long run.
But it doesn’t have to be so frustrating.
I recently spoke with coaching expert Michael Bungay Stanier about his new book The Coaching Habit, which can help us all to get the most out of coaching for the least effort.
“Your job as a leader and a manager is to help people become more competent, more confident, more capable, more autonomous,” he says. “Because that helps them, but honestly it helps you. Because I’m betting nobody here is going ‘Well thank goodness I can just coach people all day because I’ve got nothing else to do.’”
Bungay Stanier warns there’s something standing in the way of good life coaching: our own instincts. We often approach coaching in exactly the wrong way.
There are three habits we must adopt to make coaching better for us, better for those who we are coaching, and better for our organizations: give less advice, ask questions instead, and ask the kind of questions that help our teammates learn and grow.
1. Give Less Advice
The first change is something we need to stop doing, or at least drastically slow down. When members of our team come to us seeking feedback, we jump in with advice. That’s the wrong reflex to have, but it’s all too common.
“We are all advice-giving maniacs,” Bungay Stanier cautions. “We love it. We don’t even know what the problem is, but we’ve got some thoughts about how to go around fixing it.”
All this rampant advising “feels pretty good,” he admits. It flatters us, and sometimes it even solves specific, small problems. But it creates a bigger problem: Our teams, those who we are coaching, become too dependent on us for answers. It stymies their development and it frustrates us as more and more requests for help mount.
The blame here often lies with ourselves. Our quick answers have sent the wrong message, training them to rely on us and not work things out for themselves. It’s “debilitating for them, exhausting for you,” Bungay Stanier says.
The first habit we must adopt is becoming slow to offer advice. What do we offer instead?
2. Ask Questions Instead
Bungay Stanier looks to science for how our brains are wired for success or failure. He learned,
Neuroscience says that if people are feeling autonomous, feeling that they are important, feeling like they are clear on what’s happening, feeling like you’re with them, they’re much more likely to stay engaged and actually bring the best of themselves.
Asking questions is the best way to promote those feelings. That’s the second habit.
When a team member pops in your office or Slack channel to request help solving a problem, probe them first. Say, “That’s a great question. Before I share my ideas, what ideas do you already have?” and listen.
I’ve done this myself and so often it works. People usually come up with the answer that I would have given them, but it’s ten times more powerful because they come up with it on their own. They feel brilliant. They feel smart. And the problem gets solved.
But what if their first answers clearly miss the mark? Should you jump right in with the right one? No.
3. Ask Better Questions
Try something else first. Ask, “What else could you do?” Bungay Stanier calls this the “best coaching question in the world.” The point isn’t to grill your team member but to force them to expand their thinking on the subject and to show them that you actually value their thinking and would like for them to do more of it.
Asking questions designed to help team members learn and grow is the third habit.
Some expert coaches go so far as to take a purely Socratic approach. Bungay Stanier doesn’t say that. He acknowledges that your experiences are useful too, and can be shared. But he says it is hugely important that we ask questions and that we learn to ask better questions as we go.
“People do not learn when you tell them stuff,” says Bungay Stanier. “It goes in one ear. It goes out the other ear pretty quickly.”
Experience is a great teacher, but it’s limited by itself. Our people really grow “when they have a moment to reflect on what just happened.” You can help put them in that state of mind by asking a very specific question: “What was most useful or most valuable about this for you?”
It’s a great question in an unbelievably useful book. And there’s so much more to it than what I can fit in one blog post. These days coaching is my No. 1 job. If I had read The Coaching Habit earlier in my career, I’m confident I would have seen better, faster results with far less frustration.
Question: Which of these three habits do you need to adopt in your coaching? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
May 15, 2017
Using Keyboard Shortcuts to Boost Your Productivity
4 Ways to Kick the Mouse Habit and Save Time
I am not a big fan of computer mice. Every time I have to take my hand off the keyboard, it costs me a few seconds. This may not sound like much, but it adds up over the course of a day.
Instead, I like to keep my hands on the keyboard. With a little memory work and the right tools, you can boost your productivity and run circles around your mouse-dependent colleagues.
The trick is to use keyboard shortcuts. What are these? They are combinations of simultaneous key presses that perform specific actions that might otherwise require pointing and clicking multiple times.
Keyboard shortcuts usually require a combination of modifier keys (command, option, control, and shift) plus other keys—either a letter or number.
Here are four ways you can kick the mouse habit:
1. Learn System-Wide Keyboard Commands
For example, on the Mac, these keyboard shortcuts generally work in every program:
Command-,
Set the application preferences
Command-A
Select all text
Command-B
Bold the selected text or turn on the bold style
Command-C
Copy the selected text to the clipboard
Command-F
Find text
Command-G
Find next occurrence of text
Command-I
Italicize the selected text or turn on italic style
Command-N
Create a new file
Command-O
Open an existing file
Command-P
Print a file
Command-Q
Quit the current application
Command-R
Preview the elected document
Command-S
Save a file
Command-T
Show the available fonts
Command-V
Paste the text from the clipboard
Command-W
Close the current window
Command-X
Cut (and delete) the selected text but places it on the clipboard
Command-Z
Undo the last action
This just scratches the surface. You can find numerous online references with a complete list of shortcut keys. One of my favorites is the MacRumors: Guides. Windows has similar system-wide keyboard shortcuts.
2. Learn Application-Specific Commands
In addition to system-wide commands, each application has its own specific commands. For example, I live in Apple Mail. Common Mail shortcuts include:
Command-R
Reply only to the sender
Command-Shift-R
Reply to all
Command-Shift-F
Forward message
Command-1
Goto inbox
Command-2
Goto outbox
Command-3
Goto drafts
Command-4
Goto sent
Command-5
Go to trash
Every application has its own unique shortcut keys. Usually these are listed in the applications documentation. It may be a little “geeky” to read through it, but I’ve found it worth the investment.
3. Use a Keyboard Application Launcher
This is what takes it to an entirely different level. Typically, on a Mac, you launch an application by clicking on an application in the dock (via the mouse) or going to Finder, selecting the Applications folder, and scanning through all the application files. With a keyboard launcher (like Keyboard Maestro), you can launch an application by typing a few keystrokes. Your hands never leave the keys. I have a keystroke combination for every program I use on a regular basis.
4. Use a Keyboard Macro Program
This type of program takes a few keystrokes and expands it into a word, a phrase, a paragraph, or even an entire document. I use TextExpander. When I type “;blog ”, the program replaces that text with the URL of my Web site: http://michaelhyatt.com. If I type “,addrh” (for address, home), it replaces the text with my home address.
The possibilities are endless. Basically, you can create a macro for anything you find yourself typing over and over again. TextExpander even comes with several preloaded sets of abbreviations, including spelling corrects and HTML snippets.
Every time your hand comes off the keyboard to grab the mouse, consider it a penalty. And while you’re at it, think how you can create a keyboard shortcut using one of the methods above to avoid ever having to do it again.
Question: Do you make extensive use of keyboard shortcuts? What tools do you use? How has it impacted your productivity? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
May 13, 2017
May 12, 2017
Three Reasons You Can’t Afford That High-Maintenance Client
How to Spot the Relationships that Will Only Drag You Down
Several years ago I had a client who was really “high maintenance.” This was someone with unreasonable expectations of me and my company.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see that on the front end. I was too focused on the supposed opportunity. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long to find out we had a problem.
As we closed out the first thirty days, I sat down with the client and a few of his staff members to review our progress. I had worked hard—more than the size of the account warranted—in an effort to exceed his expectations. I was sure I had hit it out of the park.
Not so much.
The client was very unhappy. Not only did he not praise me for what I had accomplished, he didn’t even acknowledge it. He focused exclusively on what I hadn’t done. Talk about the-glass-is-half-empty. I was stunned.
Not surprisingly, the client fired me a few months later. It was very painful. But as difficult as that experience was, it did lead to some positive outcomes, starting with me beginning to understand the need to clarify expectations from the get-go.
But here’s where it gets interesting. A few years later that same client came back to me and practically begged me to take him back. Stupid me. I did. (I’m not proud of it.)
I naively thought this second time would be different.
He’s changed, I told myself. I even assured my staff—and my wife—that he had changed. Besides, I reasoned, I have also changed. I’m a better manager this time around.
I was wrong on both counts.
The client had not changed. He was still the unreasonable, demanding tyrant he had always been. He could still turn on the charm when he needed to, but fundamentally, he was a narcissist. Nothing I could do—or could ever do—would change him. It was all about him.
But I hadn’t changed that much either. I am pretty good at creativity and execution, but I am not superhuman. I had not suddenly acquired dazzling new powers. In fact, in some relational experiences like this, I am admittedly a slow learner.
Regardless, here’s what I distilled from that second experience:
Some people are just high-maintenance. They operate out of their “woundedness,” to borrow a phrase from John Eldredge. I am never going to please them. I will only deplete myself trying.
High-maintenance clients are a distraction. They suck up more than their fair share of resources. In fact, if I let them, they will suck up everything I and my team have to offer. They are a bottomless pit.
They keep me from serving others. I am better off to say “no” and spend the time searching for low-maintenance clients—or at least reasonable ones. It’s really not fair to my other clients or my teammates to keep these “Me Monsters” around.
I don’t mean to sound unkind, but there are just some people you are not called to serve. You can spend all your time caught up in the drama of their demands and accusations, or you can move on.
The sooner you cut the cord and fire them, the more productive—and happy—you’ll be. No matter how big the opportunity appears to be, it’s just not worth the maintenance involved.
“
You can spend your time caught up in the drama of high-maintenance clients, or you can move on.
—MICHAEL HYATT
Question: What is the worst high-maintenance relationship you have ever experienced? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Three Reasons You Can’t Afford That High Maintenance Client
How to Spot the Relationships that Will Only Drag You Down
Several years ago I had a client who was really “high maintenance.” This was someone with unreasonable expectations of me and my company.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see that on the front end. I was too focused on the supposed opportunity. As you can imagine, it didn’t take long to find out we had a problem.
As we closed out the first thirty days, I sat down with the client and a few of his staff members to review our progress. I had worked hard—more than the size of the account warranted—in an effort to exceed his expectations. I was sure I had hit it out of the park.
Not so much.
The client was very unhappy. Not only did he not praise me for what I had accomplished, he didn’t even acknowledge it. He focused exclusively on what I hadn’t done. Talk about the-glass-is-half-empty. I was stunned.
Not surprisingly, the client fired me a few months later. It was very painful. But as difficult as that experience was, it did lead to some positive outcomes, starting with me beginning to understand the need to clarify expectations from the get-go.
But here’s where it gets interesting. A few years later that same client came back to me and practically begged me to take him back. Stupid me. I did. (I’m not proud of it.)
I naively thought this second time would be different.
He’s changed, I told myself. I even assured my staff—and my wife—that he had changed. Besides, I reasoned, I have also changed. I’m a better manager this time around.
I was wrong on both counts.
The client had not changed. He was still the unreasonable, demanding tyrant he had always been. Yes, he could still turn on the charm when he needed to, but fundamentally, he was a narcissist. Nothing I could do—or could ever do—would change him. It was all about him.
But I hadn’t changed that much either. I am pretty good at creativity and execution, but I am not super human. I had not suddenly acquired dazzling new powers. In fact, in some relational experiences like this, I am admittedly a slow learner.
Regardless, here’s what I distilled from that second experience:
Some people are just high-maintenance. They operate out of their “woundedness,” to borrow a phrase from John Eldredge. I am never going to please them. I will only deplete myself trying.
High-maintenance clients are a distraction. They suck up more than their fair share of resources. In fact, if I let them, they will suck up everything I and my team have to offer. They are a bottomless pit.
They keep me from serving others. I am better off to say “no” and spend the time searching for low-maintenance clients—or at least reasonable ones. It’s really not fair to my other clients or my teammates to keep these “Me Monsters” around.
I don’t mean to sound unkind, but there are just some people you are not called to serve. You can spend all your time caught up in the drama of their demands and accusations, or you can move on.
The sooner you cut the cord and fire them, the more productive—and happy—you’ll be. No matter how big the opportunity appears to be, it’s just not worth the maintenance involved.
“
You can spend your time caught up in the drama of high-maintenance clients, or you can move on.
—MICHAEL HYATT
Question: What is the worst high maintenance relationship you have ever experienced? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
