Operations

Are you giving your staff a Christmas bonus this year? How about a holiday party or other recognition this month? Many small business owners struggle with deciding exactly how to share the spirit of the holiday season with their teams — and very often they also struggle with figuring out how to pay for these extra one-time-a-year expenses.

Over the years I have witnessed everything from the business owner bringing in sandwiches for the staff to share all the way up to expensive all-weekend destination parties. I’ve seen Christmas bonuses range from a grocery store gift card for a turkey up to tens of thousands of dollars paid annually around this time of year.

Do you…

React based on assumptions?
Get caught up in others people’s problems?
Make decisions because of what others might think?
Often bypass your own best practices in your company?
Intend to document how you want things done but don’t ever seem to get around to it?

I don’t know about you but while I am working, I am constantly fighting distractions — from the web, my kids, a co-worker or just my mind wandering off. It takes incredible discipline, focus and great systems to keep on task as an entrepreneur. Now add to the mix the holidays and busy times between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Despite our best intentions, with all the shopping, parties, cooking, cleaning and holiday events (whew!), staying on top of business goals gets even more difficult.

5.5 Steps to “Doing it Now”

– Prioritize. Before you even check your e-mail make a list of 4 things you want to accomplish today.
– Do ONE thing at a time
– Take a physical break where you step outside at least every 90 minutes
– Allow yourself to fully focus on the project in front of you
– Ask yourself “What will I have if I finish this now?”

Last summer I was in a store shopping for a birthday present for one of my kids when I got the call.  My brother, sobbing on the phone tells me his son had just drowned. My nephew Jacob was gone.  At 21 he had his whole life ahead of him.  Jacob was strong and funny,

Ok so you didn’t do it yet…it’s never too late to get started.    The wonderful thing about life is that today is a new day and today you can choose your actions in this moment.  One small action at a time towards your goal. I recently read an e-mail  I wrote to my own

“The greatest promise of the systems perspective is the unification of knowledge across fields” ~Peter Senge Everything is a system. The very breath we take is a wonderful, complex, magical system. A system is simply the way something happens. As a business owner your systems determine your success. The way you do things in your

(Sept. 21, 2012) Today is International Day of Peace. I believe that if each human on this precious earth felt seen, heard and understood then there would be peace. Peace in our families, peace in our communities, peace in the world. On this International Day of Peace I challenge you to look around you to