Month: January 2022

What’s Right About Being Wrong

Nobody enjoys being wrong, but there are worse things.

For instance:

     Being wrong and not knowing it (while everyone else does).

     Being wrong and being unable to admit it.

     Being wrong and not understanding why you are wrong.

     Being wrong and not benefiting from the insights of others.

But there are several good things about being wrong if you are willing to admit it.

First, It means you are reasonable. My wife Darla has an uncanny intuition and is not only smart but also has great insights into people. There have been (too) many times when I disagreed with her assessment of someone only to learn she was spot on. I could defend my indefensible conclusion, or admit not just to myself but to her that I was wrong. Unreasonable people never admit they were wrong, or that they were responsible for an outcome.

Second, it means you are open. The only way that you can discover you are wrong is to be open to the possibility. Too much certainty can be a bad thing if it keeps you from considering new evidence or insights. If you are too in love with your ideas, you’ll never re-examine them for validity. A good and true idea can withstand scrutiny.

Third, it means you can learn. As cliche as it sounds, the older you get the more you realize what you don’t know. The good news is that wisdom can come with age (it isn’t guaranteed) but knowing it all never happens. The older I become, the less certain I become of the less important ideas I once held. And even a few cherished ideas have not withstood the test of time.

Fourth, it means you can relate. Imperfect people don’t trust perfect people, probably because they only exist in the imagination. Whether or not admitted, we are all imperfect beings searching for true insights and ideas. By accepting that you might be wrong, you admit that you are not above the fray.

Fifth, it means you are human. It is the human condition to be wrong, yet it threatens many. A healthy self-esteem isn’t threatened by sometimes being wrong. It is reflected by being open (see the second benefit above).

None of these benefits are reasons to be sloppy in your thinking or execution. But when–despite your best efforts–you find you are wrong, revisit the good things that can come from it.

 

Mark Sanborn is an award winning speaker and Leadership Expert in Residence at High Point University, the Premier Life Skills University. For more information about his work, visit www.marksanborn.com. 

Author: Mark Sanborn

Mark holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association (NSA) and is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Cavett Award, the highest honor the NSA bestows on its members, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the speaking profession. In 2020, Global Gurus…

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Influence – Sobering Truths and Delightful Opportunities

Influence – Sobering Truths and Delightful Opportunities

“… financial advisors are 37% more likely to commit misconduct if they encounter a new co-worker with a history of misconduct.” HBR

“… individuals tend to mirror the food choices of others in their social circles, which may explain one way obesity spreads through social networks.” Harvard Gazette

“When one employee leaves, the departure signals to others that it might be time to take stock of their options, what researchers call ‘turnover contagion.’”

59% consider quitting when a co-worker quits. NYT

Influence. What's true of people after you're done splashing on them?Influence. What's true of people after you're done splashing on them?

Acknowledge influence:

You are you, in part, because of others. If I met five of your co-workers before meeting you and all of them hated work…

you probably hate work.

Three responsibilities of influencers:

The opposite of being influenced is responsibility.

Take responsibility for your splash-power – the impact of your presence on others.

What’s true of people after you’re done splashing on them?

#1. Notice the things that influence you.

If you don’t notice your influences, you are controlled by them.

This is as simple as falling prey to click-bate. You wakeup in 15 minutes having forgotten what you were looking for in the first place.

Click-bate is distracting influence. People create it to serve themselves, not you.

Distracting influences dilute the impact of your life.

#2. Choose your influences.

Hang out with people who reflect who you would like to become.

“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” Unknown

#3. Be an influence.

  1. Think more about your impact on others than their impact on you.
  2. Choose your water. Show up to splash encouragement, insight, and energy on people.
  3. Like people. See their strengths. Work to help them achieve their goals. Liking is a powerful influencer.

The people who influence you are the people who believe in you. Henry Drummond

Who are the positive influencers on your team? How are you multiplying their impact?

How might leaders maximize their splash-power?

It’s Today!

Join me on zoom TODAY for a live conversation with Mark Miller, VP of High Performance Leadership at Chic-Fil-A. I’ll ask some questions. Join in the open Q&A. There will be prizes.

We’re celebrating the launch of Mark’s tenth book, “Smart Leadership.”

Register here: https://bit.ly/3yMLpxY

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Six Limiting Beliefs That Hold You Back

Six Limiting Beliefs That Hold You Back

“Shut up Nate. You’re never going to be any good… We’re not good at wrestling and we never will be.” Nate Zinsser’s classmate

By the time Nate became a junior in high school, the wrestling team had its first winning season in decades.

Today, Dr. Zinsser is the Director of the Performance Psychology Program at the United States Military Academy at West Point. This post is based on our conversation and his new book, The Confident Mind.

Image of a flamingo holding its head high. Put yourself in a position to be more confident about yourself.Image of a flamingo holding its head high. Put yourself in a position to be more confident about yourself.

Six limiting beliefs that hold you back:

#1. Remember your failures.

It’s better to focus on memories of effort, success, and progress and the vision of the future you really want.

“Put yourself in a position to be more confident about yourself.” Dr. Nate Zinsser

#2. Always be your own harshest critic.

It’s better to reserve self-judgement for times when you can calmly acknowledge your weaknesses without belittling yourself.

#3. Always be logical.

Logic throws out creativity, joy, and the discovery of the things that give life its greatest meaning.

#4. Become really good before you become confident.

Stop thinking, “What else could I have done?” There is ALWAYS more you could have done. Confidence is a choice that you make regardless of the situation.

#5. Worship the experts.

Beware the tendency to overestimate others and underestimate yourself.

#6. Above all else, don’t screw up.

“I have found that nothing erodes and destroys confidence more than the fear of making mistakes in performance.” Dr. Zinsser

(The above list is adapted from, The Confident Mind, by Dr. Nate Zinsser.)

Confidence begins with the first win:

Sun Tzu said, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

The first victory is in the mind.

Dr. Nate Zinsser in his own words:

What limiting beliefs do you see around you? In yourself?

How might leaders defeat limiting beliefs?

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The Personality Trait Linked To The Strongest Immune System

Outgoing or introverted? Which personality types are best at fighting off infection?

Outgoing, sociable people also have the strongest immune systems, a study finds.

Extraverts typically seek out new experiences, prefer to take charge and are outgoing and talkative.

Extraverts tend to have better social skills, they feel more positive emotions and are more motivated.

Those who are the most conscientious and careful, though, are most likely to have a weaker immune system response.

Conscientious people are systematic and dutiful and are more likely to follow through on their plans than their less conscientious peers.

The research found no evidence, though, that a tendency towards negative emotions was associated with poor health.

The study, published in the snappily titled journal Psychoneuroendochrinology, gave personality tests to 121 health adults (Vedhara et al., 2014).

Along with assessing the five major personality factors — extraversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness — participants had blood samples taken to measure genetic factors known to be important in immune function.

Professor Kavita Vedhara, who led the study, explained the results:

“Our results indicated that ‘extraversion’ was significantly associated with an increased expression of pro-inflammatory genes and that ‘conscientiousness’ was linked to a reduced expression of pro-inflammatory genes.

In other words, individuals who we would expect to be exposed to more infections as a result of their socially orientated nature (i.e., extraverts) appear to have immune systems that we would expect can deal effectively with infection.

While individuals who may be less exposed to infections because of their cautious/conscientious dispositions have immune systems that may respond less well.

We can’t, however, say which came first.

Is this our biology determining our psychology or our psychology determining our biology?”

.

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What is Brand Equity in Marketing? (How to Become Memorable)

There are two cans of soda on a table. One is a Coca-Cola can, and the other is a cheaper, white label cola brand. Which do you choose?

You’ll probably choose Coke because it’s more familiar. It’s the safer bet. 

Coca-Cola has brand equity that makes people gravitate towards it. With the right framework, any startup can achieve this in their industry.

In this article, you’ll understand what brand equity is and how to build it so your audience reaches for your product, service, or solution over the rest.

Why brand equity matters now more than ever

Every day in the U.S., almost 12,000 new business applications are submitted. In the SaaS industry alone, it’s estimated that every company founded in 2019 had around ten competitors on average.

If you haven’t invested in brand awareness and built connections, why should anybody choose you over all that competition? 

Without brand equity, you can’t tap into a customer’s “consideration span” when they’re ready to buy.

Invest in relationships so when the time comes, your audience will instinctively choose your solution to fill their need.

Take Shopify. It’s one of many ecommerce software platforms on the market but only the fifth most popular by market share.

Image source

It’s also not the cheapest ecommerce platform: Squarespace plans start at $12 per month, Woocommerce has a completely free plan, and Shopify’s plans start at $30 per month.

Yet, in 2021, Shopify posted record sales, growing 113% year-over-year and doubling in brand value to $828 million. Squarespace on the other hand, grew 24%.

Why did entrepreneurs turn to Shopify to launch their start-ups and not one of the more widely used and cheaper platforms like Squarespace or WooCommerce?

Brand equity. 

Since its launch in 2006, Shopify has positioned itself as the best solution for small-end and startup entrepreneurs.

Whereas, Squarespace’s value proposition is more about building a beautiful website.

Image source

Shopify has also funneled a ton of resources into educating its audience and helping them succeed.

Its tools are designed for beginners and its brand marketing focuses on helping would-be entrepreneurs build successful businesses, as evidenced by their Quickstart Guides: 

And its customer stories, which act as social proof to show customers what people like them have achieved on the platform: 

Shopify boasts 891K followers on Instagram, compared to Squarespace’s 294K followers and WooCoommerce’s 36.3K followers.

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Episode 1633 Scott Adams: Let’s Follow the Science and Wag the Dog Because We Are Mostly Idiots

Episode 1633 Scott Adams: Let’s Follow the Science and Wag the Dog Because We Are Mostly Idiots

Content:

  • Where are the Olympic sponsors?
  • Our scientists have become PR people
  • CNN complains about rally against mandates
  • Russia, China, Iran doing military exercises together
  • Ukraine and Taiwan heating up at same time?
  • Wag the dog play with Ukraine
  • If you would like to enjoy this same content plus bonus content from Scott Adams, including micro-lessons on lots of useful topicsto build your talent stack, please see scottadams.locals.com for full access to that secret treasure.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Top 5 Best Paper Folding Machines – 2022 Review

Most workplaces have to fold many documents each week, costing them a lot of time and money.

Paper folding machines are here to help—as the name implies, these machines automatically fold paper for you. They can deal with multiple documents and papers and prepare them to be professionally sent out at speed, saving you more time and money than you can imagine.

Let’s take a look at some of the best machines.

The Top 5 Best Paper Folding Machines

  1. Martin Yale 1611 — The Best for Multiple Fold Styles
  2. Formax FD 38X Automatic — The Most User-Friendly Folder
  3. Intelli 102 AF — The Best for Durable, Long-Lasting Performance
  4. MBM 98M Automatic — The Best Compact Paper Folder
  5. Duplo Manual DF 755 — The Best for Tracking Paper Counts

So those are the best paper folding machines available today—let’s dive in a bit further.

#1 – Martin Yale 1611 — The Best for Multiple Fold Styles

  • Multiple folding styles
  • 9000 sheets per hour
  • 150-sheet capacity
  • Automatic paper feeding

Get it now

It’s tempting to think that paper folding machines are all the same, but the truth is: many paper folding machines offer different folding styles and even more besides that. The Martin Yale 1611 is all about folding techniques.

Designed for offices, churches, schools, and mailrooms, this paper folding machine can fold your paper in seven different ways. There’s the Letter Fold, the Half Fold, the Z-Fold, the Double Parallel Fold, the Gate Fold, the Engineering Fold, and the Church Fold. The number of different folds gives you options, and you’ll be able to test them out to see which is ideal for you.

The Martin Yale 1611…

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The Simplest Way to Have a Meaningful Day

The Simplest Way to Have a Meaningful Day

Living without meaning makes beasts of us all. Just bury your head in the mud to escape drudgery.

Don’t let environments bully you into exhaustion. Walk through the door dedicated to manage meaningfully.

Managing with meaning turns muddy drudgery into play.

Living with meaning is easier than you might think.

Image of a pink flamingo with a long nose. The things others can't do give meaning to the things you can do.Image of a pink flamingo with a long nose. The things others can't do give meaning to the things you can do.

Meaning in three or four words:

Strengths are bearings to anyone who feels adrift.

Write your name on a piece of paper and write beside it your talent, gift, or strength.

(Your name) a (your strength)

  • Mary a relationship builder.
  • Peter an energizer.
  • Betty an influencer.
  • Bob a getter-doner.

Functioning within your strength is effortless effort.

You’re like a kid on the floor with a coloring book, tongue out and feet dangling in the air, when you engage in meaningful action.

Working without meaning reduces you to a frantic windmill groaning in a hurricane.

The dignity and energy of managing with meaning:

You might end the day exhausted, but meaningful action results in gratifying fatigue.

Jobs don’t give you meaning. You don’t find meaning at work; you bring meaning to work. A manager who walks through the door drowning in stress and consumed with problems is little more than a beast.

Tips for creating your meaning statement:

  1. Meaning often hides behind recurring frustrations.
  2. Impact points to meaning. What positive impact do you frequently provide? Do you aspire to provide?
  3. Limit your focus to areas of maximum impact. Meaning enables you to set boundaries.

Opportunity:

Don’t be discouraged when others aren’t like you. Perhaps your strength is seeing the big picture and you work with people who just want to get things done.

The things others can’t do gives meaning to things you can do.

How might you live meaningfully today?

How might you help others live meaningfully?

Mark Miller just launched his 10th leadership book, and I’m delighted to host his Virtual Launch Party! Mark your calendar for Monday, Jan 24 at 2 PM, ET to celebrate Mark’s new book, Smart Leadership. There will be prizes and an opportunity to win a gift from Mark! Register here: https://bit.ly/3yMLpxY

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