Kent Blumberg

Ten reasons I keep coming back to Toastmasters

Sometimes life gets too busy and I can't make it to a Monday evening meeting.  But whenever I can, I'm going to hop in the car at 6:40 pm and head to the meeting of GSU Baton Rouge Toastmasters.  I keep coming back for ten reasons.  For the same ten reasons, you should consider visiting your local Toastmasters club.

7 alternatives to New Year's Resolutions

Everybody's talking about resolutions today.  My search of Technorati turned up more than 76,000 posts using the word.  However, resolutions often don't work, and they may even be bad for your health.  This is particularly true when we focus on trying to fix some perceived shortcoming (being overweight, for example).

It doesn't need to be that way.  Here are seven alternatives to the resolutions tradition.

Knowing what drives you and others increases your effectiveness

Knowing what's important to you makes it easier to decide "what's next" for you.  Knowing what's important to others makes it easier to persuade them to do what you need them to do, to give them meaningful recognition, and to communicate your ideas in a way they will understand.

I often work with executives who are confused about which of many possible next steps makes the most sense for them.  As long as they are looking only at the next step it's often impossible to decide which to choose.  Once we sort out what's really important to that person, however, the choice becomes clearer.  My job is to periodically remind them of the core motivators we have discovered and ask them which next step seems to most honor those motivators.

On the other hand, my business owner clients sometimes encounter an employee with whom they just can't seem to connect.  Rather than fire that person and try to find someone else for the job, a bit of understanding about values and motivations might be just what the doctor ordered.

Here are a few tools to help you sort out what's important.

Invest in all areas of your life for enhanced effectiveness

I work with business owners and entrepreneurs, helping them achieve their business goals.  Inevitably, that means we work on other areas of life, too.  You see, we bring all of ourselves to our work.  If we are dissatisfied with any other area of life, it will inevitably impact our ability to meet our business goals.

The Wheel of Life (see the picture to the left) is a great tool for exploring our level of satisfaction with eight areas of life and deciding where to increase our investment of time, energy and money.

Here's how you can use the wheel in your life.

Change your response to events in order to increase your personal effectiveness

In their book, Play to Win!, Revised Edition: Choosing Growth Over Fear in Work and Life, Larry and Hersch Wilson offer a simple formula for changing how we respond to events around us:  Stop-Challenge-Choose.  Here's how to use it to reduce your stress and improve your results.

Join Toastmasters and hone your speaking and leadership skills

[Update:  Corrected author name on Toastmasters blog at bottom of post.}

Looking to improve your public speaking skills?  Need to learn how to think faster on your feet?  Hoping for some leadership practice, too?  Consider joining Toastmasters.

My sister and brother-in-law appear on MSNBC this weekend

For those of you in the US who are up early on Sunday morning:  my sister and brother-in-law will appear on MSNBC's Your Business. The show airs at 7:30 am Eastern time on Sunday.

“Your Business,” hosted by JJ Ramberg, focuses on the world of America's small business entrepreneurs, featuring profiles, news, advice and tips.  Here's what they say on the website about this Sunday's show:

This week the Your Business panel of experts will take a look at a business that's dealing with some major problems, and provide the owner with creative strategies to help him grow.

Don Dominguez runs K & F Select Coffees, a 25-year-old, family-owned coffee company that made its name primarily as a private-label product supplier. He also runs two coffee bars and sells a line of organic coffee. Don is concerned that the private-label business may have gotten as big as it can. The coffee arena is getting more competitive and product costs are rising. He's at a loss as to how he should market his organic coffee, since his retail exposure outside his own stores is very limited. Don hasn't spent much money on independent marketing because cash flow is tight. The company's revenues have leveled off, and he has already made changes to avoid losing money. Don will talk with the panel and find out how he can further adjust his business plan.

Panelists
Simon Sinek, CEO & Founder of SinekPartners Corp., a consulting company. Sinek also teaches graduate level marketing at Columbia University's Strategic Communications Program.

Susan Wilson Solovic, CEO & Chairman of SBTV.com, the first television network on the web dedicated to small business, and author of "The Girls' Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business."

And here's more about Wendy and Don's business.

Take back your time - "Cut To The Chase"

"You know what really drives me nuts?  Then people come into my office for a five-minute conversation and, an hour later, they're still there!  Why can't they cut to the chase?"

So begins Stuart Levine's great little book of ideas about time, Cut to the Chase: and 99 Other Rules to Liberate Yourself and Gain Back the Gift of Time (Currency Doubleday, 2006, 207 pages).  Written for all of us - anyone who realizes that time is the essence of life, that time is the only non-renewable resource, and that time deserves careful attention- Levine's book contains 100 ideas to help you take back your time.

Book Review: "My Answer is No"

Do you ever have trouble saying no?  I've written here before about how to say no, but sometimes fear gets in the way of following the process I suggested. That's where Nanette Gartrell's new book, My Answer is No . . . If That's Okay with You: How Women Can Say No and (Still) Feel Good About It comes in handy.

MEN:  Keep reading!  In spite of the sub-title, this book will also help you say no.  And if you are powerful enough not to ever have trouble saying no, this book will help you make it easier for those around you to disagree with you constructively.  That's probably good for you and good for them.  So read on!

Fish and bubbles

Shot while diving somewhere on the Great Barrier Reef in 2000.  I've always liked the lines in this one.