by Michelle Geromel | Goal Setting
Do you remember when you were in college and everything was done on volunteer basis? I was the GM of Kalamazoo College?s radio station my sophomore year. We had almost no money, and the place was a disorganized mess. During our DJ meeting everyone agreed that we needed to clean and organize so that we have a better work environment, but no one was really motivated to do anything about it. I finally decided to take some of our money and offer pizza and soft drinks to anyone who came and helped organize and clean one Saturday evening. Not only did people come, they brought their roommates. And after work began, I ordered pizza and sodas and a lot was accomplished that night. The work evening was so successful, we had a second one with even more in attendance, and even more accomplished then the first time. It was a value able lesson about motivating and rewarding people who aren?t being paid. But it translates into management as well. People love good free food. And they love to be acknowledged. Most employees would love a free lunch. And luckily, even for union employees, a free lunch is an acceptable reward, as long as it is offered to the entire department. Reduce the costs of lunch by having it delivered, or having one of the admin pick up the lunch from a good quality restaurant. (Sometimes delivery fees of large quantities of food is high.) And have that same admin, or another go to the local store and purchase soft drinks in litters, as well as cups, plates and utensils...
by Michelle Geromel | Goal Setting
Less than a year ago, a client of mine was laughing at the idea of having a social media strategy. But after having an open mind enough to implement the first half of the social media strategy I suggested for him, here?s what he has to say. ?After working with Michelle for about 6 months a revenue stream that was previously 20% of our business has increased to become 75% of our business revenue. At the least cost ever for advertising & marketing.? I might add that this revenue stream was the one that got his juices flowing and made business fun. And so through his changed marketing strategy, he was able to focus more of his time and energy on the side of his business he enjoyed the most. And at the end of the day, isn?t that what most entrepreneurs want? I first got into social media as a way to promote my art. The art market has really changed in the past 5 years. And the way most artists made their money has changed as well. With gallery after gallery closing their doors, unable to cope with the recession and changes in buying habits of their clientele I wanted to find a way to feel more at-cause over my sales. Social media has allowed me to do just that. And now the overwhelming majority of my sales come from online sources (between 85-95% of my revenue annually). All thanks to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. All driving sales to both my independent websites as well as online art retailers. And of course my consulting work, is...
by Michelle Geromel | Goal Setting
There are times when even when Leadership Alignment activities have been planned and executed with precision, they fail. And in my experience, they fail not because the activities were faulty, but because the real resistance, the real issues were never discovered. Why? Because leaders can be a very tight-lipped bunch, and wary of those not officially in their ranks. Let me give two examples. When I was working at Deloitte we were creating the HealthCare?s Clinical Information Systems Toolkit to compliment The Heart of Change methodology that was co-written by a partner at Deloitte. We were doing this work because at the time there were a few spectacularly failing implementations occurring throughout the industry at world-famous hospitals. And we felt we could help. The implementations had failed because the doctors has not been adequately involved in the process and were categorically refusing to use the systems. Deloitte was not involved in any of the failed implementations, but was looking at them as an opportunity to learn and prevent similar issues occurring with their own clients. So I created a list of reasons why I thought doctors would want to support a CMS implementation which included better customer service, and better patient care. This list was then given to the partner on the team who was also an MD. He took this list to his colleagues and they rejected all of my reasons. They told him, what they and others like them, had not been willing to tell non-doctors. So they told our MD why they were opposed to CMS systems in very honest terms. For example, most doctors not...
by Michelle Geromel | Goal Setting
I am a person, as you know if you have read some of my blogs, who is highly motivated and very into accomplishing what I set out to do. And I am someone who if you ask what a goal should entail will tell you it should generally have a way to define success, normally with a date attached to that goal.? This helps you arrange goals in preference to length of time they might take, and also enables you to maybe put more or less focus on it given when you have given yourself to do it. That said – two years ago there were a few goals on my sheet, that I set every year, and I wasn?t getting. In particular, I had a goal to get married and have children by a certain age.? And I was getting really depressed because even though I had set that goal, was dating and being open to possibilities, I was still single.? Not for lack of dates, but from a lack of meeting the right guy. So I sat down with my clearing practitioner, Jayne Johnson, and I told her I was having trouble with my goals.? And she gave me some advice that surprised me.? (Given that she gives an excellent course on setting goals, one I have taken repeatedly over the years, because it is so helpful in the goal setting and achieving process.)? She said – yes, generally goals are ?suppose? to have a date. ?They are suppose to be specific, otherwise how do you know if you have achieved them?? But – if setting a...
by Michelle Geromel | Goal Setting
As busy business owners and key executives, we often feel indispensable to the business. And while this is probably a very accurate representation of reality, we still need to find time to take off an allow ourselves to unplug. There are a myriad of studies regarding this topic. And while I?m sure most everyone is aware of them, still a large portion of entrepreneurs and executives find themselves working 7 days a week. Why do we do this to ourselves? I think because we forget why time off and rest are so important. If you are in the group – here?s a list of 5 key reasons why taking time off will actually help your business and you. 1) We get hooked on the adrenaline rush that comes with needing to get the team, or a project, or the company over a hump. And when that time is over, we are so use to that temporary high that comes with working around the clock, that we continue to do so even when it is no longer necessary. A good doctor will point out that we will burn out our adrenals this way. Which will lead to weight gain, decreased sex drive, and overall fatigue. 2) We need sleep. Everyone?s body is different. And men typically need less sleep then woman. But generally, everyone needs somewhere between 6 and 8 hours a night. Without sleep tasks that take use 30 minutes can now take hours. So if you want to maintain key analysis skill, and quickly and efficiently make good decisions and crunch numbers quickly, get some rest. 3) Recharged...
