One of the most valuable skills you can learn is speed reading. The reason although self-evident is lost on many professionals and entrepreneurs who struggle to keep up with the demands of their careers and businesses. Preeminence means that your reputation, standing and stature as a source of knowledge, expertise and wisdom precedes you. It’s one of the foundational strategies of Exponential Marketing. However, WHAT you read is as important as how FAST you read it.

I created the Preeminence Pyramid to highlight the evolution of a speed reader as he/she matures to develop his/her preeminence and the skills associated with a ‘higher’ profile persona. Of course you can mix and match your reading serendipitously, but the evolution is suggested in this order to ensure the BASE of the pyramid is as wide and as strong as possible. You know to ascend to the next level in the hierarchy when you’ve more or less saturated yourself in the content and context of that particular level/theme.

This of course is a guideline, not a strict rule. It’s just that without the underlying foundational analysis skills, great biographies are read as great story telling rather than as a revelation of the dynamics at play that intertwine the written passages – they greatest distinctions are unwritten and obtained through osmosis – if you don’t possess the basic skills, you simply can’t decipher the code and lose the most valuable lessons.

I’ve recently blogged about the importance of your online photo and image. We’ve all heard the dictum a picture is worth a thousand words. In this instance it’s 2,000.

It always amazes me what the power of the human spirit can unleash when it’s creativity is unbounded. For more images like this one, click on the photo below!

We’ve all heard the expression you never get a second chance to make a first impression, yet online it’s even more important BECAUSE it’s the ‘only’ impression they can make.

just look at the detailed analysis of a Facebook page below… It’s all about the photos.

A poor photo = a poor impression.

I’d like to make success more complicated for you, but in reality it’s not all that hard…*

With a terrible photo, you’re simply not putting your best foot forward. Simple as that.

You don’t have to have ‘movie star looks’ to give a good impression, you just need to make the investment in a professional photo that reflects who you are.

If you don’t make that investment, it’s blatantly obvious and you’ll be regarded accordingly.

Thanks to Ray Keefe of Successful Endeavours for providing this insightful image.

* Let me be blunt. A great photo won’t get you a contract, project or an order, but a poor one might just lose it for you. Think about that.

A good photo costs a few hundred dollars – it’s a bargain if it prevents you from LOSING orders and sales that you otherwise would have had.

I see it all too often with struggling entrepreneurs – they have such a poor online image that no one who searches for them would ever give them the time of day.

Photos are blurry/out of focus, too high or too low contrast, low resolution or too small in size… Poorly cropped or show the person in a casual atmosphere when it should be a professional setting.

Just think about it – in many cases, it’s the single best investment someone can make to improve their career and/or business.

I’ve blogged about about the fact that you can’t afford to be ugly and the controversial concept of erotic capital. I’ve even blogged about how being taller means you make more money. Today’s post is just an update on the beauty premium that according to Professor Daniel S. Hamermesh, the premium is now almost a quarter of a million dollars.
That’s a lotta coin just for being ‘cute’.

Here’s the thing – even though they claim you can’t overcome your physical attributes (symmetry and other physiological ratios) – anecdotally, I totally disagree. There are quick, easy and inexpensive things you can do to increase your own ‘unofficial’ beauty premium or discount… For example in my Job Interview Kit, there are a few suggestions.

Of course there is a line you should never cross, as Michael Jackson proved…

MIchael Jackson Before & After Cosmetic Surgery

Take a cue from elite athletes who know how much to train AND avoid overtraining.

Here are four ways to tell you’re about to hit a performance wall.

Sometimes it’s obvious you need a break, but in most cases you’ll figure it out only once it’s too late. When you work double-digit hours during the week with Saturdays and Sundays no longer a reprieve, feeling overworked, stressed out and fatugued can become the new normal.

Even so, you’ll eventually hit a wall and when that happens it can take days and even weeks to recover the enthusiasm, creativity, and motivation you’ve lost. Not to mention the risk of a breakdown or other physical manifestation.

Fortunately a few of the same techniques endurance athletes use to detect the need for additional recovery can be used to indicate when you need to recharge your work batteries.

Where elite athletes are concerned, chronic overtraining can actually defeat the fitness purpose and result in decreased stamina, power and speed. Sometimes after an inlfection point has been reached, the harder they train the slower and/or weaker they get.

The same thing happens to us when we’re overworked at the office, on the job.

Of course we then put in more hours to compensate and get even less done!

So how can you tell the difference between feeling overworked and really overworking yourself?

Here are 4 ways to ensure you stay at your professional best so that you are in peak performance state.

1. Check your resting heart rate. Every day, before you get out of bed, take your pulse. (There are plenty of free apps that make it easy. Some even log results.) Most of the time your heart rate will stay within a few beats per minute. But when you’re overworked and stressed your body sends more oxygen to your body and brain by increasing your heart rate. (The same thing happens when athletes overtrain and their bodies struggle to recover.) If your heart rate is up in the morning, do whatever it takes to get a little extra rest or sleep that night.
2. Check your emotions. Having a bad day? Feeling irritable and short-tempered? If you can’t put your finger on a specific reason why, chronic stress and fatigue may have triggered a physiological response and sent more cortisol and less dopamine to your brain. Willing yourself to be in a better mood won’t overcome the impact of chemistry. In extreme cases, the only cure is a break, starting with a good night’s sleep!
3. Check your weight. Lose or gain more than one percent of body weight from one day to the next and something’s wrong. Maybe yesterday was incredibly stressful and you failed to notice you didn’t eat and drink enough or maybe you failed to notice just how much you actually ate. Lack of nourishment and hydration can impair higher-level mental functions (which may be why when we’re overworked and feeling stressed we instinctively want to perform routine, less complex tasks.) And eating too much food—well, we all know the impact of that.
4. Check your, um, output. Urine color can indicate a lack of hydration (although sometimes it indicates you created really expensive urine after eating a ton of vitamins your body could not absorb.) The lighter the color the more hydrated you are. Hydration is a good thing. Proper hydration aids the absorption of nutrients and helps increase energy levels. If your urine is darker than usual the cure is simple: Drink a lot of water.

The key is to monitor each of these over a period of time so you develop a feel for what is normal for you.

Pay special attention on weekends and when you take a vacations. If you notice a dramatic change, especially a positive one, that’s a sure sign you need to change your workday routine.

Don’t think this is only for elite athletes. If you want to be the best you can possibly be, no matter what your profession, whenever you slam into the workload wall you are far from our best.

Don’t even think you don’t have the time to take a short break or get a little more sleep. You can’t afford NOT TO.

If you don’t monitor your workload (and stress), eventually your mind and your body will hit a wall and force you to take a much longer break than you can really afford…

So why not avoid the collision in the first place?!?!

Women’s History Month began Thursday, March 1, 2012, and ends Saturday, March 31, 2012. Women entrepreneurs are known to be successful and have differentiating characteristics to their male colleagues in fact Erotic Capital is one of the more controversial measures and gender arbitrage one of the most opportunistic.

That being said, everyone has challenges on their way up the ladder or success. A recent article by Lauren Carlson highlighted the 5 ways women sabotage their success. I thought it was worthy to bring them to your attention because by knowing what they are, you can avoided or at least minimise them.

Here is my take on the 5 ways women sabotage their success, using Bree Robbins Top Dog at Paddington Pups as a mini case study.

1. Being Afraid of Self-Promotion

The concept of self-promotion is an Exponential Marketing Strategy called preeminence whereby you create a professional persona that transcends who you are in a relevant context so people know who you are and what you’re about. if you are shy, let your results speak for you. Every time you accomplish something, you don’t have to scream it from the rooftops, but let people know what you’ve done. Everyone wants to deal with a “winner”.

Psst! Did you notice that Bree’s title is Top Dog – not CEO or Managing Director?!?! Hmmmm… Something to think about!

2. Undervaluing Themselves and Their Services

When you promote yourself and your products, you want to do it in a natural, fun way. As the short video below demonstrates. You don’t have to be flamboyant or provocative to sell yourself and your products. Do it naturally and authentically, just don’t sell yourself short by NOT doing anything.

3. Not Asking for Directions

This is where women can make the most improvement – to get the advice, coaching and mentoring that men have been getting for decades.

Listen to Bree’s experience with the devastating floods that swept through her doggy day care facility. She has been a coaching client for several years – you can hear the wisdom that defies her youthfulness because she has learned how to think strategically about business to deal with ANYTHING that is thrown her way.

4. Making Relationships the Priority

When Paddington Pups was flooded, 200+ clients came to the rescue helping get the business back on its feet in a record 8 days. That is priceless – not on financial grounds but because it shows that there is a real relationship withing the Brisbane dog-loving community so strong that it can overcome the worst of circumstances.

Relationships of course also extend to the commercial, advertising and promotion aspect of your business. For example, Bree nurtured a relationship with Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer and was ‘rewarded’ with a site visit and an extensive interview (shown below).

The lesson here is: Don’t be shy – follow your dreams and aspirations!

5. Being Afraid of Making a Mistake

Even though women do tend to be perfectionists, all successful entrepreneurs have this gene, it also causes an affliction called perfectionis.

Just remember that “perfection is the poison of profitability”. Trying to be perfect all the time is not only impossible, it’s not profitable. Perfection is NOT necessary for success. Seeking perfection is admirable and necessary for excellence, but there comes a time when “good is good enough”.

For example, blog posts. It’s better to get 1 or 2 out every week with timely, relevant information than to try to create perfect prose only once a month.

I always tell my clients that with more than 3,000 pages of content on the Internet (including 7 blogs) I have more content with typos and grammatical errors than most people have IN TOTAL CONTENT. Of course I do go back and edit them when they are pointed out, but I don’t hesitate to blog and try to get it perfect each and every time… I just do it as best I can – like this blog post. It’s not ‘perfect’, but good enough to give you some solid advice you can put into practice!

So there you have it – my take on a great article by Lauren Carlson that I hope helps you run up the ladder of success two rungs at a time!

As a reader or subscriber to this blog, you know that I teach public speaking skills to business owners and executives as well a Persuasion Presentation Principles that Unleash The Speaker Within You.

One of the most popular presentation tools is Powerpoint. That being said, Powerpoint can often KILL rather than improve a presentation.

Watch this short video to make sure you’re not killing your presentation attendees!

DEATH BY POWERPOINT

At one time or another chances are you’ve worked in a Toxic Team…

You know what I’m talking about don’t you?

One of those teams where the week feels like this:

MOANday
TEARSday
WASTEday
THIRSTday
FIGHTday

Seriously though, there are some common traits that are alive and well to some degree in all Toxic Teams and the reason I’m giving them to you is because sometimes you’re in a Toxic Team and you don’t even know it!

As human beings we are very good at adapting to our environment so what this means is, we can sometimes not only endure highly stressful or demoralising situations BUT actually trick ourselves into thinking what’s happening is ‘okay’ or ‘normal’.

So here are The Top 5 traits of Toxic Teams you need to know about:

1. Favouritism – It is very clear to you that there are some people who have somehow been anointed and are part of the ‘in’ group.  These ‘special’ people get preferential treatment, the best performance reviews, the biggest bonuses, taken to lunch with the boss and when they underperform the manager looks the other way.
2. Snakes in Suits – The manager hardly ever acknowledges you or anyone else in the team for that matter for the great work they do because they’re too busy taking credit for everyone else’s hard work.  You sometimes wonder if the boss even knows your name… The bottom line is, these managers have no time for anyone that cannot further their OWN career and when things go well they’re right there to accept the kudos and when they go badly they’re Missing in Action.
3. Mind Numbing Meetings – You dread the meetings and will do anything to get out of them because they’re disorganised, start late, always run over time, are dominated by grandstanders, no one ever follows through on agreed action items and last but not least… They’re BOOOOOOOOOOORING!!!!!!!!
4. The Mirror Treatment – “We’ll look into it.”  You know this one don’t you?  Every time you need something fixed, need some action taken or waiting to hear the outcome of an important decision you get that famous throwaway line, “We’ll look into it.”  Funnily enough these are the same managers that invite your suggestions or feedback for improvement only to ignore them!  Sometimes there’s even a nice little box where you can put your comments… Just to give you a bit of false hope that things may change.
5. The YES Man (or woman) – If you’re working for a YES Man it’s excruciatingly frustrating!  They won’t make a decision, they’re always REACTIVE because of poor planning, you don’t know if you’re coming or going due to constantly changing priorities and you end up with work from other departments because your boss CAN’T SAY NO.

Now the good news…

If you’re stuck in a Toxic Team, there is a way out – outperform and outproduce your way out of it!

Seriously.

I mean that – if you can totally outperform your toxic team members, someone who come and snatch you away – either another department of better yet – a headhunter (recruiter)!

The key is to document what you’re doing so you have PROOF of your PERFORMANCE and results and making sure it’s as public and noticeable as possible – so the interested parties who are searching for talent can find you.

Some bad news…

Chances are if your team’s toxic, there’s not much you can do to change it – you want to LEAVE it as quickly as possible, either within the same organisation or another company.

Toxic Teams are like cancer – once they infiltrate their way in, there’s almost no chemotherapy available to eradicate it.

Sorry, but that’s the truth.

Let’s face it – no one enjoys interviews. They’re awkward, stressful and time consuming. In many (but not all) hiring cases, they’re a necessity.

This cartoon is a funny example to illustrate how you can create a memorable interview that reveals if the person you want to hire is right for the job. It’s both a metaphor as well as a practical example. In this instance it’s appropriate if you’re hiring for a position that requires the person to be able to read instructions, have manual dexterity and patience!

When I was in the printing industry, I had 3 or 4 specific tasks I would give a candidate at the first interview. All the tasks were designed to weed out the inexperienced or unskilled who “oversold” their abilities by revealing their deficiencies.

For example, I would ask them to open a ream of paper – if they proceeded to peel open the wrapping paper, I would stop them and end the interview.

I would ask them to stack a pile of a few hundred A4 sheets that had been collated, but were not neatly stacked. (There is a specific strategy to do this.)

These are revelatory and instantly assessable – they are pass/fail with no grey area for misinterpretation.

Every industry, profession, trade or process has tell-tale habits and techniques that you can use to quickly assess a person’s skills, abilities and aptitudes.

Ideally, you create 3 or 4 to ensure that the analysis is multi-dimensional. In my case, I had 4 tasks and a candidate had to pass 3 out of 4 to continue to the second, short list interview.

I worked for an IT company that had a technical proficiency test that you had to get 17 out of 20 to proceed to a second interview. PhDs would often struggle, obtain a score of 15 or 16 and would be rejected – to their utter bewilderment.

A process is a process and if it works to acquire the skills, aptitudes and capabilities you’re looking for – stick with it!

Of course there are thousands of personality and behavioural tests that can complement this approach, but that’s a discussion for another blog post!

I have mixed feelings about willpower and it’s importance in goal setting and achievement. The main reason is that if you have a clearly articulated goal, outcome or dream you want to achieve that really excites you, you don’t need any willpower to get it done.

Willpower to me is an excuse for impotent goal setters.

Without exciting goals you would need willpower to get motivated.

For example, I don’t smoke. It takes no willpower for me to avoid picking up a cigarette, cigar or pipe. The same is true for overeating. I value my vitality, health and wellbeing so much that I don’t overeat or abuse alcohol or other ‘substances’.

If you’re struggling with willpower and are trying to harness more of it – you’re probably heading in the wrong direction.

Focus on your goals, dreams and aspirations instead.

When you do, you’ll find an unquenchable thirst for achievement that will create relentless enthusiasm within you and you’ll be of the same point of view that willpower has no place in genuine and authentic achievement that is congruent with your life’s purpose.

Give it some serious thought the next time you think you’re lacking in willpower – or when you see someone with very little of it.

Share these thoughts with them because that’s what someone did with me when I was a teenager and it changed my life and perspective forever.