3 Surprising Truths about Big Goals

3 Surprising Truths about Big Goals

Jim Collins explains the acronym BHAG – big harry audacious goal – in Built to Last.

Big goals and weekend jeans have nothing in common.

We say stupid things because everyone else says it. Give 110%, failure is not an option, think outside the box, and big goals are common meaningless blather. You’re a hazard when you casually say we need to set big goals.

Frivolous language is dangerous because it obscures meaning. Why is big-goal-language pervasive? It makes average leaders feel important. It gives the impression we know something when we don’t.

Big numbers are like Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, fictional things made up by leaders who haven’t done their homework.

Big goals and weekend jeans have nothing in common. Image of two people relaxing in the back of a vehicle.Big goals and weekend jeans have nothing in common. Image of two people relaxing in the back of a vehicle.

Big goals are often fabricated numbers made-up on the way to meetings. Someone thinks, “How can I get more out of people? I got it! We need to increase production by 25%.” (After all, you’re inadequate if you set small goals.)

3 surprising truths about big goals:

#1. Strength

A BHAG makes your knees buckle. Do you feel strong standing beside your big goal? If you do, it might be a good goal, but it’s not a BHAG.

Big goals make you feel weak.

Big goals: When you aim high you are forced to reach out. Image of the moon.Big goals: When you aim high you are forced to reach out. Image of the moon.

#2. Others

BHAGs force you to link arms with others. When you aim high you are forced to reach out. Who can help?

You need a team to reach the moon.

If you can go alone, it might be a good goal but it’s not a BHAG.

#3. Thinking

Big goals force you to rethink. You might be able to increase production by 10% by adding people and working harder. But you must rethink the way you work to double production.

Aiming high deserves more than casual thinking.

What do you know about setting BHAGs?

Still curious:

Why Goals are Dangerous and How to Make them Work

Jim Collins – Concepts – BHAG

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Storytelling: The Secret Sauce to Making More Sales With Email Marketing

Do businesses email their customers too often? According to a recent article on Business Insider, the answer is yes. But not for the reason you may think.

It’s not because customers loathe getting emails from companies. Or because frequent emails are considered spam. It’s actually because most brands nowadays email like this:

They use discounts as their main strategy to persuade customers to buy. But what happens when your customer’s whole inbox looks like the picture above? The inevitable: they stop paying attention to your emails.

Because here’s the thing.

Why would they open your emails if they can already predict the content inside? Why would they buy now when they can clearly see you’ve got discounts all the time? And, most importantly, why would they pick your brand over your competitors?

If you want to stand out in someone’s crowded inbox, you need to do the one thing that everybody else avoids doing: building strong relationships with your email subscribers. Here’s how:

Storytelling is the most effective way to communicate. That’s not me saying it. It’s the countless studies (such as this one, this one, and this one) that prove it, time and time again. Why?

Because storytelling helps you form positive emotional associations with you and your brand. The emotions you evoke with your stories go a long way in defining how people perceive you, creating a stronger connection in your audience’s mind between you and the problem you solve for them. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. 

The truth is, writing story-based emails makes you more than just a brand that sells a solution to their pain: it makes you an entertainer, too. And as a marketer, being able to entertain while selling is like having a superpower. People hate being sold to. But they love being entertained (ever binge-watched a Netflix show? I know I have). 

Plus, with story-based emails, you can easily add more variability to your email calendar. As a result, customers will no longer be able to predict what your next email will be about: a fun story? A new product? Maybe even a discount? Curiosity translates to increased engagement. And increased engagement translates to stronger relationships with your customers. 

So by choosing the right stories to tell in your emails (which we’ll discuss in a bit) and by writing them in an engaging way, you’re guaranteed to keep your audience hooked and excited to read your next email. As opposed to adding yet another sales email to their already crowded inbox.

1. Pick the Right Story 

The storytelling approach will give you little to no results if the stories you’re telling are flat to begin with. No matter how engaging your writing is. 

So the first thing you need to do is to make sure you…

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How to Import Content in WordPress in 7 Simple Steps

Importing content in WordPress is simple when you use WordPress with Hostinger because it’s easy to get started and ensures you have the right capacity to manage your content. Start using WordPress with Hostinger now for $1.99 per month

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS platform for a good reason. It’s an excellent option for blogging or any other type of content-heavy site. Switching to WordPress is a great idea if you run a website on another platform. 

But switching to WordPress doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch. You can simply import the content from your existing site to your new WordPress website. This step-by-step guide will walk you through that process. 

How to Import Content in WordPressHow to Import Content in WordPress

The Top Tools to Import Content in WordPress

Our team here at Quick Sprout has extensively researched the best tools to import content in WordPress. Take these into consideration as you’re going through this process. 

Import Content to WordPress in 7 Easy Steps

Importing content in WordPress might seem like a daunting task at first glance. But it’s actually fairly simple, and the entire process can be summarized in the seven easy steps below:

  1. Sign Up For WordPress with Hostinger
  2. Backup Your Site Files and Databases
  3. Make Sure You Have Sufficient Memory Space for the Import
  4. Identify Where You’re Importing Content From
  5. Export and Review the File You Want to Import
  6. Configure a New WordPress Import
  7. Backup Your New WordPress Content

The bulk of this guide will focus on using WordPress with Hostinger to complete these steps. That’s because Hostinger offers WordPress-specific hosting plans at an affordable rate with all the…

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Episode 1985 Scott Adams PART2: Funny Antics Of Democrats Defending Biden’s Handling Secret Documents

Episode 1985 Scott Adams PART2: Funny Antics Of Democrats Defending Biden’s Handling Secret Documents

Content:

  • Shrinking attention span
  • Trump Org. CFO sentenced
  • FAA computers down
  • Biden’s classified docs at Penn
  • Stephan Collinson’s propaganda word choices
  • 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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Four Sales Tools To Use During This Economic Downturn

When the economy is making all of us nervous, we start looking for ways to make the most of every click and every lead.

Here are the tools that help you close more sales by utilizing your current tricks and contacts, i.e. without investing more in marketing:

1. Walnut.io: Make the Most of Your Product Demos

Product demos are the most powerful sales tools. But they are also the most challenging tools because they often require design skills and live presentations. The result is often unpredictable making it difficult to identify what went wrong with different prospects and how to improve your process.

Walnut is an innovative tool that helps sales reps create personalized and interactive product demos that close deals.

Its key features include:

  • Create personalized and engaging product demonstrations for each prospect.
  • Put together ready-to-go product demo templates by use case that are quick to reuse and publicize.
  • Guide prospects easily with interactive annotations.
  • Use built-in analytics to identify what works well and where you are losing sales.
  • Work faster by integrating all your demo data with your CRM.

In a nutshell, Walnut allows you to increase product demo conversions. It makes your tool more productive by allowing them to reuse demos and focus on what works. It also makes it easier to convince larger decision making units because you can send all your prospects a link to an interactive demo that will help them understand your product value proposition.

2. DealHub: Make the Most of Every Lead or Prospect

DealHub is a deal acceleration platform that helps sales teams sell more with the help of smart technology. It offers tools that make it easier to generate proposals and quotes, and helps teams stay organized and connected, all while syncing data with your Salesforce or HubSpot CRM. 

While other Configure Price Quote (CPQ) solutions require extensive coding and ongoing maintenance, GealHub can be easily configured using code-free settings, to ensure everyone on your sales team gets what they need out of it. The platform also includes tools to help teams analyze and understand the sales process and customer behavior. 

All of this is designed to help teams be more efficient and productive, and to give buyers a better experience.

DealHub’s key features are:

  • Guided Selling Playbooks are tools that help salespeople create accurate quotes, sales materials, and legal contracts. 
  • Contract Lifecycle Management helps manage contracts, their progress, as well as handle electronic signatures and storage. 
  • DealRooms are virtual spaces where buyers and sellers can work on deals, and see each other’s actions in real-time. 
  • The Sales Workspace is a place where sales teams can see their own completed and outstanding tasks, as well as analytics (what works well and what yields no results) all in one place. 
  • The Open Data Platform makes it easy to connect with…

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Patriot Software Review – What Makes Patriot Software Great and Where Patriot Software Falls Short

Patriot is an online payroll and accounting software company founded in 2002. The company had humble beginnings, but today Patriot positions itself as one of the simplest and most affordable payroll and accounting software available to American businesses. It specializes in HR management, time and attendance, accounting, and payroll management.

Patriot is an ideal software for small businesses. It isn’t just budget-friendly but also offers robust, quick, and accurate payroll management services for businesses with less than a hundred employees. 

Patriot brand logo.Patriot brand logo.

Patriot Software Compared

Although Patriot is an excellent option for small business setups, it did not make the top list of payroll software. Gusto, our top pick, offers exceptional service and outstanding features for remote and hybrid workforces, ranging from talent management to onboarding checklists. Take Gusto for a test drive with a free demo.

  • Gusto — Best for dispersed workforces
  • Paychex — Best for experienced payroll teams
  • OnPay — Best for simplifying all things payroll
  • QuickBooks Payroll — Best for solopreneurs and small teams
  • ADP — Best for never outgrowing your payroll provider

You can find in-depth reviews of these payroll software services here.

About Patriot

While Patriot did not make our list of the top five best payroll services, it can still hold its own. The tool offers robust accounting and payroll services, HR management, and time and attendance features for small businesses. 

Patriot is perfect for startup founders without prior knowledge of accounting and payroll. The software helps you deposit and file taxes, pay vendors, handle invoices, track cash withdrawals and deposits, and record payments. With a starting price of $17 per…

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The Best Pill To Lower Blood Pressure

This is the most effective pill to lower blood pressure, cholesterol and cut the risk of heart disease.

The ‘polypill’ is a new hope to cut heart attacks and strokes by a third, research finds.

The polypill is a once-daily pill with a combination of four different drugs at a low dosage.

Several studies have focused on the effect of the polypill and all suggest that the tablet can substantially reduce high blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

The polypill tablet contains two blood pressure lowering drugs, a blood-thinning drug and a cholesterol-lowering statin.

Currently, prescriptions for each individual drug are much higher than the polypills at a fixed dosage.

For example, cardiovascular-related drugs such as lisinopril is 10 mg, aspirin is 75 mg, atenolol is 50 mg, and simvastatin is 40 mg.

However, a daily polypill contains a lower dose of four medications used in preventing heart attack and stroke.

One study treated their patients with polypill made of three blood pressure lowering medications: 25 mg losartan, 12.5 mg hydrochlorothiazide, 2.5 mg amlodipine, and one cholesterol lowering drug: 10 mg atorvastatin.

Patients who were on the polypill saw a reduction of 9 mm Hg in their systolic blood pressure, whereas the usual care group patients only had a 2 mm Hg reduction in one year.

Also, low-density lipoproteins (LDL), known as “bad” cholesterol, in the polypill group dropped by 15 mg/dL compared to those in the usual care group who only had a reduction of 4 mg/dL.

The researchers points out that patients are naturally more likely to stick with a one-a-day pill rather than following procedures and routines for taking several medications at different times of day.

On top of that, it is more cost effective and it can be made available universally, making it cheaper for those with low socioeconomic status and in poorer countries.

Dr Munoz, the study’s first author, said:

“Patients face a variety of barriers to getting the care they need.

Those barriers can include cost and complexity of medication regimens, so innovative strategies are needed to improve the delivery of preventive care, especially when it comes to socio-economically vulnerable individuals.

When it comes to preventing cardiovascular disease, simple strategies like the polypill may offer key advantages for patients who face barriers to accessing medical care.

Simplicity is a big advantage of the polypill.

It’s once daily; easy to understand; and doesn’t require adjustment.

Patients are more likely to take their medications as prescribed, which is good for them and their frontline providers.”

The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine (Munoz et al., 2019).

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Well-Being is a Team Sport™: How to Lead a Winning Team

Well-Being is a Team Sport™: How to Lead a Winning Team

New Book Giveaway!

Leave a comment on this guest post by Dr. Richard Safeer, Chief Medical Director of Employee Health and Well-Being at Johns Hopkins Medicine, to become eligible to win a complimentary copy of his new book,  A Cure for the Common Company. (20 copies available)

Deadline for eligibility is 1/23/2023.

International winners will receive an electronic version.

Make time to take a breath, take a walk, and check in with yourself. Image of a person walking a dog in an empty park. Make time to take a breath, take a walk, and check in with yourself. Image of a person walking a dog in an empty park.

You got promoted. You got your MBA.

No one ever said your leadership would impact the health and well-being of your team; your workforce.

It does.

On average, a doctor spends 17-24 minutes with a patient. Your employees spend 2,000 hours in the workplace each year. Who do you think has more influence on your team’s well-being? Their doctor or you?

Five easy steps to lead a winning team:

#1. Be a well-being role model.

Visibly demonstrate well-being is part of your day. If your employees can’t see your healthy habits, be sure to weave them into the conversation so they know that your well-being is a priority. What the boss says and does gets noticed.

#2. Make well-being a team priority.

There are very few strategies that fundamentally improve everything for your team and one of them is to be healthy and well. You can make well-being a team priority by:

  • Including well-being on the team meeting agenda. 
  • Creating an annual team well-being goal (one that doesn’t require your employees to step on a scale).
  • Removing barriers to well-being.

#3. Lead with gratitude.

We can’t tell our team members enough that we appreciate their contribution. Find what’s going right and say, ‘thank you.’

#4. Practice self-care. 

When you are not well, you will not be the best boss. Most workers experience tension and stress during the workday. When the stress is coming from the boss, everyone feels it. Make time to take a breath, take a walk, and check in with yourself. 

#5. Smile.

Smiling at work can enhance your mood and help others feel happy. And research shows happiness increases productivity.

How might leaders support the well-being of team members?

Learn more about how to lead with well-being by listening to Ten Minute Well-Being Tips for Managers.

Dr. Richard Safeer is the Chief Medical Director of Employee Health and Well-Being at Johns Hopkins Medicine, and the author of A Cure for the Common Company: A Well-Being Prescription for a Happier, Healthier and More Resilient Workforce.

Connect with Richard on LinkedIn



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How to Become Self-Employed: 5 Key Moves for New Freelancers

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Employee Scheduling Issues Starter Guide: Learn The Basics

Employee scheduling issues can be a nightmare for managers and team members alike. Besides the obvious negative impact on workplace productivity and morale, it’s also one of the main reasons employees quit. If you want your business to continue running smoothly and prosperously in the long run, managing employee scheduling problems should be our top priority.

This guide takes a deeper look at common scheduling problems—its most common types and effective tips to overcome them—to boost employee productivity and organizational profitability.

Why Is Effective Employee Scheduling Important?

A well-planned schedule is the difference between satisfied, productive employees and lethargic, frustrated ones. Optimal scheduling also ensures you have the right people present at the right time to deliver quality customer service.

Here are five reasons to give you more insight into why resolving employee scheduling issues is worth it:

Adequate Staffing

As a business, ensuring customers have the best possible experience is your biggest priority. But to ensure this, you need to always have enough staff on duty, preferably with members who can deal with customer needs promptly and effectively.

Employee scheduling allows you to plan your staff needs ahead of time, eliminating common employee scheduling issues like last-minute cancellations and employee no-shows.

Smooth and Uninterrupted Daily Operations

For any business to thrive, smooth and steady daily operations are a necessity.

As a manager, you’re responsible for chalking out your employees’ job roles and informing them about their work hours. In turn, the employees should ensure they complete the assigned tasks within the allotted time frame. This will ultimately create a well-oiled system that helps maximize productivity.

Fair Treatment of Staff

Another advantage of employee scheduling is the fair distribution of workload.

Allocate and keep track of overtime hours to avoid overburdening employees. You can also allocate leaves using schedule reports,…

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