heartharmony.com.au

Today I was fortunate to attend a seminar with Dr John Demartini. Dr Demartini is one of my favourite authors and speakers. Over Christmas I completed his Secrets to Financial Success and put his theories into place. The results have been phenomenal both personally and professionally for me.

One of the things I was reminded at today’s seminar was that everyone has a passion and purpose - something that they are brilliant at doing. Unless you are doing your purpose things will be clunky and difficult. Dr Demartini suggested every few months to stop and look at what you are doing. Review what tasks you are doing that are not towards your purpose and then work out how you can delegate those tasks to someone else to free you up to focus on your purpose.

The corollary to that is you should only hire people to your company to do these tasks whose passion is doing the roles you are looking to fill. If their passion and their purpose is not your role, then you will be stuck having to constantly motivate your employee.

Over the years I have seen this with so many employees. Some people are natural personal assistants/ pharmacists/ economists etc. When they are in the role doing what they love their eyes sparkle and they are full of energy. Take them away from what they love and they flounder. Hire for passion, build the skill.

All of this comes from investing in yourself … in your own growth and development … in investing in your own self esteem and learning that you are bigger than you previously thought you were.

When you invest in yourself, the world invests in you.

It was with much gratitude that today I told Dr Demartini the difference he had made in my life from his work. His take on it was to remind me that I was the one who had put his thoughts into practice … I had invested in myself and had great results back.

So … where have you invested in yourself lately?

If you are interested seeing Dr Demartini here is a link to his events around the world http://www.drdemartini.com/pages/eventcalendar.html

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

Recently I was asked how a company that had never had an employee in manual in place should go about implementing it with their team. It is a very common question and here are my thoughts…

With your team if they have had nothing to this level of detail in place it will be a cultural shift for them. I suggest starting with training your managers first on their roles and responsibilities. Talk them through the manual in some depth – make sure each manager has access to a copy. For the first time they do anything with the new rules – such as recruitment or performance review, sit with them while they go through the process to help them learn as they go.

Your managers will also want input into how the procedures work in their area. They may want to edit the words to better match their understanding or the internal operating processes of your company. Allow that editing process if you can, but you retain final approval of the changes.

Once your managers are aware of the content and have started on the editing, then inform the employees of the manual and its broad contents. Once you have a final version for your workplace I would run a training session where you talk through all of the most important policies with your employees – almost like a new induction.

Make sure each person can access the manual – either electronically or through a printed copy in each work team. Set a realistic timeframe for them to read it and ask any questions – two weeks to a month is time I would give. If you leave it longer they won’t read it. If you leave it too short, you disadvantage some people.

Hold another meeting to answer any questions that may have come up, make any final edits and then a week later the manual comes into effect.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

Anzac Day in Australia is one of our iconic days. Each country has its national days in celebration of what is particularly special about that country. In relation to people who have or been injured in wars, most countries in the world choose to celebrate and remember on a day that marks one of their most impressive victories.

We choose to remember one of the days of our greatest defeat. Ever practical. Ever realistic. Ever blunt. We remember the greatest stuff up in military planning where thousands lost their lives needlessly in battle. Thousands of people who followed their leaders knowing the leaders had got it wrong … but following anyway to their death because it was the “right thing to do”.

On Anzac Day we don’t just remember the military disasters. We remember all of those who fought and lost their lives in all wars and all battles (even the forgotten ones like Korea). We remember the mateship that happens when people face the unthinkable. We remember those who returned carrying mental scars deeper than any physical wound.

And we remember how we as a nation reacted when our veterans returned - sometimes well and sometimes embedding deeper wounds on our veterans psyche’s when we coldly ignored their sacrifices.

We watch the veterans walk a little bit prouder on that one day of the year when it is OK for them to remember the horrors of war … the sounds of battle still ringing in their ears … the loss of comrades felt once again strongly as they march with gaps in the ranks.

Even if we don’t agree the reasons behind the wars - we still recognise and celebrate the strength and courage of those who followed either their personal beliefs or just followed orders and gave their lives, their health or their futures in support of their beliefs.

So on this Anzac Day - I salute all people in all wars … men, women and children. May we eventually learn a different way and never have another war.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

How many times in business do you look for things to be alike - you look for complementary products to add to your range, you look for complementary employees to join your team and you look for complementary businesses to work with.

Many times this is a good solution - things that are similar feel familiar. They are like a pair of comfy slippers that are easy to put on and wear. But …

… sometimes familiar just doesn’t work. I was reading Under the Loupe Blog and Annette was talking about a lovely piece of jewellery she was making with warm gold tones and yet when it came to the clasp gold just didn’t work when she put it on, yet a silver clasp did. Her story triggered my thinking about similarities vs contrast.

Sometimes familiar means you are stuck in a rut and you don’t grow. In your team you need a balance of alike people as well as people with totally different viewpoints - that’s how creativity happens in a group. Thinking from divergent views means you get flashes of brilliance that wouldn’t come from people all being alike. Diversity in a workforce needs to be embraced and celebrated, not trodden on and forced into consistency.

In a business often it is the “left field” product lines that suddenly take off rather than the run of the mill. Who can forget all the trends of things like pet rocks, hula hoops, Bindeez (before we all realised that the dogs running around in circles after eating Bindeez had nothing to do just being happy). What are your left field product lines?

You also need some slightly left field alliance partners in your referral mix. Yes, businesses that are similar but not competing with you can be a great source of leads, but often totally different businesses can be an untapped oil field of referrals. I think that is why leads clubs such as BNI work so well - totally different businesses all wanting to give their customers a great result.

Today think about whether your business is “too” consistent - and whether or not you need some contrast to trigger new results.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

This week I watched a brilliant documentary called “Lemonade Stories”. The documentary interviews a number of entrepreneurs about their mother and the influence she had on their life. In a number of the interviews the mother was also interviewed.

The interview I most loved was Richard Branson with his mother Eve Branson. I have long been fascinated about Richard Branson and how he takes traditional business ideas and turns them on their head. For the first time I could see where he gained this skill and approach … his mum Eve.

Eve Branson is one of the fiestiest, funniest and fascinating people I have seen in a long time. She was one of the first air hostesses back when planes regularly fell out of the sky. She embraced new ideas, tried new approaches and helped stretch her shy son into what he is now. The closeness between Eve and her son Richard was very clear from the movie.

The documentary is quite thought provoking - are entrepreneurs born or can they be made?

I would love to hear your thoughts. What influence did your mum play on your entrepreneurial spirit?

For those interested - I saw the documentary on this month’s edition of Spiritual Cinema Circle - a monthly DVD of films that make you think, that I have sent over from the USA. Lemonade Stories is also available from Amazon.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Yesterday the unthinkable happened. My computer (3 months old) died. No worries - I’ll just move over to my back-up computer I thought. I switched it on … it had ground to a halt also. I said many magic words I can tell you!

It turned out the mainboard on the new computer had suddenly decided to do its own version of the dead parrot sketch and the back-up computer needed a visit from my IT GP to work some magic.

Of course my mobile phone also decided to be temperamental yesterday to add to my comfort levels. Luckily my admin guru Penny was around to deal with the calls on her mobile for me!

I had backed up as per my regular schedule onto my external hard-drive, with the last back-up on Friday night. I had an intuitive hunch on Monday night to run another back-up but ignored it (note to self - listen to intuition more).

Less than 36 hours and I am all back up and functioning. Granted I am uncomfortable with cables running everywhere, and I am running between two desks … but I am still functioning with only a few days data to reconstruct until the main computer returns.

So - what would you do if all your computers suddenly crashed like mine did? Would you be able to function? What systems do you have in place to deal with disaster? Does everything work as it should - have you done a trial run?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

• 12:32 Stunning Sunshine Coast Aerial Photos tinyurl.com/6nmfs2 #
• 13:22 Beautiful Brisbane - worth moving north for! tinyurl.com/5cbz99 #
• 13:43 OK - I admit I need a holiday - Aerial Photos of the Gold Coast tinyurl.com/6g6mqk #

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I was reading the Tall Poppy blog where Ann talked about the invisible leader - the person who is not up front leading the troops but staying behind bringing issues into focus, marshalling people and resources and planning for the future.

It is similar to the concept of Leader as Servant by Robert Greenleaf

“It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead…The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons, do they grow while being served, become healthier, wider, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”

Through extensive work with Greenleaf, Larry Spears, the director of the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, identified ten characteristics, which describe the essence of a servant leader. The characteristics are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of others, and building community.

Unlike leadership approaches with a top-down hierachicalstyle, Servant Leadership instead emphasizes collaboration, trust, empathy, and the ethical use of power. At heart, the individual is a servant first, making the conscious decision to lead in order to better serve others, not to increase their own power. The objective is to enhance the growth of individuals in the organization and increase teamwork and personal involvement.

(Source Wikipedia)

This style of leadership naturally suits women - Quentin Bryce who has been just announced Governor-General of Australia epitomizes the servant leader style of leadership.

In a workplace the servant leader is often not the nominated “boss” of the company - often it is the Executive Assistant, wife of the boss or some other female role within the company. These women are the real leaders of the company - often invisible, generally under-appreciated and yet without them the company would not be financially successful.

At your next meeting look for the traits of the servant leader - see if you can spot the true organisational leader from the one in the role. The results may surprise you.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

I love clever ads - Ameriquest has a brilliant series of very funny ads around the theme “Don’t judge too quickly”. Many times people remember the humour but forget the company name - these ads have a great balance of both.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony

Just a quick heads up on a really fantastic marketing training for green, local, community minded, holistic and otherwise conscious entrepreneurs if you live in or are travelling to Canada in May.

It is run by my colleague Tad Hargrave who is a brilliant marketing teacher and has some great ways to help conscious entrepreneurs build their businesses. He doesn’t run these workshops often, so when he does it is worth finding a way to get to them if you can.

The best part of the weekend is that it’s done on a pay what you can basis (seriously). Meaning - you don’t pay anything before you go and you only pay at the end what you thought it was worth based on what you can honestly, afford.

Here’s the basic info.

WHAT? Radical Business Intensive (marketing training for 20 or so conscious entrepreneurs)

WHERE?

• CALGARY: May 1-4. 16 spaces left.
• EDMONTON: May 8-11. 10 spaces left.
• TORONTO: May 29-June 1. 14 spaces left.

COST? Pay what you can/want at the very end. Seriously.

FOR MORE INFO AND APPLY TO COME: http://tadhargrave.com/RBI

It’s worth checking out!

Until next time Ingrid Cliff Heart Harmony