Abandon Projects, Move People Around

It’s now 2010 and if you haven’t already, it’s time to refocus your companies growth and maturity for the coming year.

There are probably dozens of projects left over from last year. It’s time to dump the projects that aren’t going to pan out and put those resources into other projects that will meet company goals.

Too often, leaders will hold on to old projects because they’ve become attached too them and believe that they can succeed. However, this keeps valuable resources on the project and can hurt moral and profits down the road.

Successful leaders are the ones that can eliminate dead projects and focus on new ones by reorganizing resources.

How Positive Psychology Can Increase Your Business

Positive Psychology is an area of psychology that focuses on positive thinking and happiness and how they correlate with an individual. It has been around just over 10 years and a lot of research has gone into the factors that can increase a persons happiness.

Companies that install ideas from Positive Psychology are finding an increase in employee happiness which has helped increase their bottom line.

It’s no surprise that the happier your employees are, the more productive they will be.

This is something that needs to be instilled at the DNA level of an organization.

I set up a website at Mersio Center that talks about Positive Psychology with the most current research being conducted and trends in the field.

Negotiating Executive Incentive Compensation Packages

Any successful organization will have already reviewed what type of compensation packages they can give out and have a deep knowledge of executive compensation from sources such as Effective Executive Compensation: Creating a Total Rewards Strategy for Executives.

An executive position is a high profile position within a company and most businesses will go above and beyond to bring in successful talent to increase the businesses profit or decrease it’s bottom line.

When negotiating executive incentive compensation packages it’s important to align your needs and desires with what the company can afford.

Some of the more common compensation packages are incentive based. These incentives can be from any sort of goals that you and the company put together.

The reason that an incentive compensation package is important to an executive is because he will get what they put in. If the company takes off and has record profits, that executive will get his share of the revenue generated. On the other hand, if things don’t turn out the way they were meant to, the company will not have to shell out tons of money for goals that weren’t reached.

When the offer comes to the table, you may or may not be pleased with what is offered. Even if you are happy with the package, it may not be laid out how you’d like it. Whatever the case, you may have room to negotiate different terms or add perks that weren’t in the original package.

Just like any other negotiation, it may end at any moment. So try to get the items you want in your package, but know what you can let go of or leave off the table altogether.

MM: BS’ing at Another Tradeshow/Conference

I’m at another one of those God awful conferences, just so I can show my face, see old friends, and bs with those that I don’t even care to meet.

It kills me when I see these new “eager beavers” acting like they’re excited to be at these conferences and how f’ing excited they look to be meeting new people. I’ve seen these guys before. In two years I’ll see these same guys here and we’ll be taking shots at the bar, sharing stories of how we didn’t get that sale because the contract went to China, or a new competitor that moved into town and is undercutting prices just to get new business, or how our receptionist Tammy has been on maternity leave for the last month and we actually have to answer our phones.

I sometimes hate talking to these newbies and telling them about myself. I really don’t care what college you went to or who you worked for beforehand. You just got married? You just had your first kid? So f’ing what. You think I care? Hell no. I’m just talking to you because you’re going to be my drinking buddy at the next conference.

Yea, I know the next year is going to kick your ass. You won’t be the same, I’ll never see “you” again.

So let’s take another shot. That will be fun. Cheers!

Fear of Public Speaking

Many people fear public speaking in almost any circumstance. Some people just can’t do it and will get up there and freeze.

Fortunately, the fear of public speaking can be overcome with proper training and encouragement.

Just like any other skill, public speaking can be learned and improved upon. Many people will join a toastmasters group to polish their public speaking. Even if you’re a great public speaker, a toastmasters group can be beneficial to learn new techniques and also help by giving back and encouraging others.

If you’re going to have any sort of leadership position in your company, or you want to move up the career ladder, it will be important that you can speak in meetings, give presentations, and arouse a crowd at a seminar.

If you’re not already there, get on it and improve your public speaking by any means necessary.