Another Seven!

I am becoming a big fan of the number 7, do not ask me why, I just love when I come across an article about Sevens! So, here you go, another Seven!
Here is the link for the article: http://michaelhyatt.com/seven-rules-for-more-effective-meetings.html
If you have not heard of Michael Hyatt, or have never read his blogs, go do so, right now!
The man is a genius, and I LOVE his posts.

Here are, The Seven Rules for More Effective Meetings:

Establish Hard Edges- Meetings have a Start and End time for a reason. If your organization is open to just a Start time with no worries about the End time then you will face 'Air Time' when your group starts communicating on irrelevant subject matter, or the meeting can lead down a pig trail and off of topic, which can steer the meeting in a whole different direction, causing the purpose for the meeting to not be dealt with. Make sure all participants are aware of you Start and End time, this is the very first step to having an effective meeting. If you have tardy participants start without them. (make sure you have an assigned Note Taker or Secretary to make sure nobody misses anything) Even if you tardy participants get the foot notes they will miss the interaction of being a part of the meeting and they will realize that they MUST be there on time for the next meeting.

Create an Agenda- "Leaders must set the example here" Make sure that your Agendas for your upcoming meeting are circulated to all participants so that there can be some brain storming. Also, it is important to finish off with the set date of your next meeting, (this is another reason you should circulate your Agenda prior to the meeting) if there are any discrepancies, then your members can make it known. Be flexible and be ready with a reschedule date, if needed.

State the Desired Outcome- Always start your meeting with a Purpose, let your team know what the purposed of you meeting is, and what you would like to see the outcome be. Leave room for input from your members, and be OPEN! Otherwise, your team will learn that you already have your mind set, and there is no reason for their opinions.

Review the Minutes and Action Items- By reviewing your previous meeting you revisit the things some members may have forgotten, and you give any absent members the ability to feel like they are still a part of the mission, even if they were not there. Get a Report from members with assignments, if you do this your team will know that you expect dead lines to be reached, and that you are aware of the process they are taking. This will also ignite an emotion of embarrassment if they have nothing to report, which will cause them to be proactive and make sure they have something to report at the next meeting.

Take Written Minutes- I already stated the importance of having a Note Taker or Secretary. Make sure that your Secretary is not documenting conversation, but simply letting what the main points of the discussions are be known. This will remind members of the action plan, the decisions that were made, and a list of duties for your members to work on (and report on) by the next meeting.

Clarify Action Items- "At the end of the meeting, the person recording the minutes should read off the action items. It is particularly important that these be stated in a specific format.

• Start each action item with a verb. For example, “Review Milford contract with the agent” or “Call Jim and get latest turnover figures.”
• Specify the deliverable. What exactly do you expect the person completing the action to do. It must be an observable behavior with a specific end-point. It may be a phone call, a written report, or a presentation. It should not be a process.
• Assign a single owner to each action. No action should have more than one owner. You want one person to blame if the action isn’t completed.
• Agree on a due date. Get a commitment from the person responsible. Be realistic but put it in writing. This is a commitment and should be treated as such."

Having your Secretary review the minutes also give you, as the leader of the meeting, the opportunity to add anything you may want to include.

Determine the Next Meeting Date-Like I said, this is crucial. It also forces your team to practice bringing their Calendars, in case you need to utilize your back-up meeting date. This will be one less thing that you will have to deal with later.

It is my personal opinion that without an effective meeting, you will not have an effective outcome. Get your team up to speed. Expect Excellence and you will Receive Excellence. Be open and honest with your expectations, and never leave your team (or any members) in the dark.

Killing Creativity

If you would like to read the actual post: http://www.creativesomething.net/post/25586178

I am a creative individual, I thrive off of ideas and innovation, and I love hearing a new idea! I have been reading a blog called Creative Something, which is a blog for creative inspiration, motivation and ideas; and I came across the Seven Creative Sins you NEED to Avoid, and I thought it would be a great follow up to my blog about The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

So here are the Seven Creative Sins:

Thinking that Creativity is Learned- Creativity is a gift, and it is a gift that we all have. Some people are more creative than others, but we are all capable of new, innovative, neat, and original ideas. Learning new methods of creativity is true, but learning Creativity is impossible.

Thinking there is a Right Way and a Wrong Way-Usually, there is more than one answer for any given situation. There is rarely and honest to goodness 'black and white' situation. When it comes to creativity there is always a black, white, green, yellow, or blue way. (you get what I mean) When you are faced with a problem, let your mind flow over the situation, think about a solution, and then challenge yourself to take a different approach and come up with another solution.

Not Taking Risks-Creativity is all about innovation, and pushing the envelope. If you never step out of your comfort zone, you will NEVER meet your full creativity capacity.

Focusing on Logistics-As humans it is instinctual to go by the book, plan an out come, and go the safe route, but if every creative person did just that, then we would have nothing original! The easiest way to steer clear of this 'sin' would be to break out of you shell, and open yourself up to possibilities, forget about guarantees.

Being Creative Half of the Time-I am super guilty of this, I am the type of person that like to follow the rules and go with the flow, I don't like rocking the boat, or stirring up trouble. However, creativity is about just that! Find new ways to stretch your creativity, and expand your knowledge. Ask questions. Find a new way to do something. Try being creative 100% of the time, even the simplest change can do just that.

Creating and Critiquing at the Same Time-This is another thing I am terribly guilty of. I am my biggest critic. As a Human Being you will find yourself mentally bringing your ideas down. Open your mind (yes, to even YOURSELF) let your mind wonder, come up with a crazy idea, and see it through! Challenge yourself!

Duplicating, not Creating-The BIGGEST Creative Sin there is! Never duplicate someone else's work, draw inspiration from and idea or article or product and create your own spin from it. If you find something you like enough then you will respect it to let it be, and challenge yourself to create something completely different.

I hope you find these helpful. What are some other 'Creative Sins' that you would add?

Powerful Pieces

I have a special kind of love for organising, and it is because of that love that I have a deep addiction to LISTS. I make multiple lists daily, I enjoy organising, prioritizing, and re-organising; which leads to more and more lists! So when I came across this blog from one of my favorite bloggers, Rich Gee, I just had to share it!
http://richgee.com/2011/03/top-10-powerful-pieces-of-advice-to-be-successful/

In this blog Rich lists 10 Powerful Pieces of Advice to be Successful (I should mention that Rich is one of my favorite bloggers because I have another great passion for Self Help and Person Growth reading material) while reading this blog and taking what I did from it, I came across another list and I wanted to expand on that list:

6 Key Learnings:
It is my belief that if you understand and respect these 6 keys, your possibilities open up immensely.
1. Don't be rigid about planning out each step well in advance...it's not possible to do.
-By all means plan and plan ALOT when it comes to big or important issues, but do not dwell on every single conceivable out come or pig trail, you will never answer all of your "what if"s, and that is a fact.
2. Build on what you are good at, and avoid relying what you aren't good at.
-Ever heard of 'play to your strengths'? Sure you have, and it is for good reason too. I am a firm believer in reaching out of your comfort zone to find your niche, you never know what hidden passion you may have lying behind your heart. However, when it comes to your big business issues, or important things do what you are comfortable doing, and get help or advice on the things you know are just not your thing.
3. Focus on what you can do for others (start with the boss) rather than whats in it for you.
-Many people will tell you I am a big ball of warm and bright love. I will tell you this, the more you do for others, the better you will feel. There is some amazing and indescribable feeling that you get when you put everything you can into something for someone else, it is an elating selflessness and I challenge you to strive for that feeling.
4. Keep at it. Practice makes perfect.
-If something isn't meant to work, you will feel it. However, you try for something and at first you don't succeed, try again. Try taking a different approach, and you just may end up surprising yourself!
5. Take on big challenges and learn from them.
-You can't win them all, and you defiantly can't win them all alone. If you find failure, learn from it, figure out what went wrong, and you will do better next time. Do not dwell on your mis-haps, but appreciate them for what they are, learning experiences.
6. Make a difference.
-This is the easiest thing to do. What may seem like an insignificant thing to you, may mean the world to someone else. Reach out in your work place, in your family, in your community. Do what you can, its better than doing nothing.

I hope these lists have touched you like they did me!

Networking by Connecting!!!

If you are like me you are fueled by a generation that is constantly networking, I don't find out what my sister is doing or if my mother wants to go to lunch by calling her, I don't even email them anymore, all I have to do is check my mother's Facebook status to see if she is free, or check my sister's Twitter to see when her next Cheerleading Game is. Some will argue the difference between Networking and Connecting, but to me this is Networking, not Connection.
In the business world, however, it is very important to be very comfortable in both areas. While reading a blog from Rich Gee I came across this very fun way of reminding yourself ways to Connect.

"You are in front of a big, white home. You look down and see the mailbox, you look up and see your whole family waving to you, leaning out the top windows of the house. You look over and see a beautifully, ornate chimney with a huge, yellow, leather work glove sitting upon it with all five finger pointing in the air. The glove is holding an old, wooden tennis racket and a bi-plane (like the one Snoopy flies) breaks through the strings of the racket, flys around your high school, comes to a soft landing on your football field and touches the goal post."

This story is a mnemonic. It teaches you how to connect with someone by encapsulating key questions within an inane, weird story you'll remember. Let me break it down:

• Mailbox - Hi, my name is Erica Beck. What's your name? Where do you live? What part of Walton?
• Family waving to you - Are you married? Do you have kids? (if they say no, don't feel uncomfortable, just say, "Boy are you lucky!"
• Huge leather work glove - What do you do? Where do you work? What is it like to work there?
• Wooden tennis racket - What do you do for fun? What are your interests?
• Bi-plane - Do you travel for business? Did you go on vacation this summer?
• High school - Where did you go to school?
• Football field - What sports are you into?
• Goal post - What goals are you shooting for this year?

 So, the next time you are in a situation where you are trying to mingle and Connect with people, remember this fun little story and it will help you out!

5 Work Place Rules You SHOULD Break

To read the article for yourself here is the link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/19/living/break-work-rules-rs/index.html?hpt=hp_bn8

1. Stay Away From Emotional Topics
Sure the old rule of thumb is to shy away from personal type of conversation in the work place, but I believe you can grow closer with your colleagues and even your bosses if you jump into personal conversation with them. Appreciate others for their differences and learn to accept other points of views and I believe once you establish the differences in your team you will be able to appreciate your group even more.
As for awkward situations and confrontational situations GET IT OUT! It is so much easier to swallow your pride and get over the fear of what the other person may say or feel than to keep pushing sour grapes to the side. Approach the other person out of love and to solve the problem, not to stoke the fire. Once you get your personal problems solved and out of the way you will be so much more open to team work and process improvement building.

2. Climb the Career Ladder
Everyone has heard the saying, "Dress for who you WANT to be, not for who you are." What if you are completely happy with who you are, what if you love your current position, what if you are self employed; these are some of the questions many people in the business world are starting to consider, and it is known that having a broad range of careers versus a climbing linear career is more appealing to bosses now-a-days. It is no longer about your title, but about being an asset to your company.

3. Do What You Were Hired To Do
It used to be known that you were hired for a reason, and that reason alone; with fear that if you stepped out of those boundaries you would be in trouble. In the new business world it is looked highly upon if you step out of the lines to expand your worth. Take a good look at your position, forget about what you are supposed to be doing and look at what you COULD be doing. Gain some recognition and let it be known that you are more than your job title.

4. Live At the Office
If you burn yourself out at your office and surround yourself with nothing but job related issues you will do just that, burn out. Get a hobby, learn a new skill, pick up a journal or a musical instrument, or just spend some good ole fashioned family time with your loved ones. It is an essential part of your job to work on your personal goals and aspirations, do the things that inspire you outside of your cubicle. By reaching out into your dreams you are flexing your creativity which will make way for new and innovative ideas for the organization. If you get stuck on a task and you just don’t know where to go, take a moment, breathe, and do something that you love to do. You just may unlock a part of your creativity that will open up your mind to a solution you would have otherwise never thought of.

5. Network 24/7
We are in a whole new technological world; there are numerous social networks that make it almost effortless to network with your personal and professional contacts. Get a Facebook, get a Twitter, or find any other social network that works for you in your profession. These outlets make it so easy to network without going out of your way to talk with your contacts. In this fast paced world it is almost impossible to sit down and have a meeting with your colleagues, but you can follow them on Twitter, or message with them on Facebook, and you can stay in the business loop, without everyone having to sacrifice to keep the organization up to date.

This is a Blog about a Blog

I have become a Rich Gee fan, if you would like to read his blog for yourself here is the link:
http://www.richgee.com/2011/03/grow-your-business-and-have-fun-with-a-blog/

I get asked the question all the time, "Erica, why do you blog?"
Let me answer this with an extremely simple answer...because its fun!

I love being able to read an article or blog and being able to do my own spin of it. I love being able to take a subject and spin it into my point of view. It is so wonderful to be able to read something, or create an idea, or just get on my soap box and vent for a little while. It doesn't really matter to me if someone reads my posts; the thing about blogging is that I do it for me.
I created Believing in Achievement so that I could journal my personal growth progress. I love reading articles about personal growth and understanding personality types and anything for growing in a personal and professional setting. Blogging has given me a creative and helpful outlet to put my thoughts out there. It has also given me a communication tool to use with my co-workers. It is so uplifting when one of the ladies I work with tells me that they read my blog and that they agree with what I have to say.
Believing in Achievement has given me so much, this blog has helped me grow and it gives me a little getaway during my everyday life. I can escape from my customers or whatever crazy situation is going on in my life, and I can just dwell on what I am thinking. I would encourage everyone to start a blog, even if you do not like to write, just jot down a thought or something that happened to you that day. It is fun, helps open your creativity, and stretches you to keep moving forward.
I am currently working on starting a blog for my BeautiControl. I am an Independent Consultant of their products and I love and believe in the products and everything that the company stands for. This blog is going to help me connect with other women who are using the products or have questions about them, and help me connect with my BeautiControl Team.
Remember you can blog about ANYTHING! That is what makes it so much fun, a blog can be as personal or impersonal as you want it to be.

To Grow Your Business, Leave Your Door Open...

To read the article for yourself go to this link: http://www.richgee.com/2010/05/to-grow-your-business-leave-your-door-open-whenever-possible/

Rich Gee talks about the advice from his older brother and how to succeed in college by leaving his dorm room door open. Now, I never had a dorm life, but I can relate with this method by personality. I believe I am an 'open door' type of person; I am an easy listener and I am easy to conversate with, I make friends easily and I can relate to many different types of people.

This method sparked my interest because of my workplace. These are simple, easy to do ideas and they are just a couple of ways to build your business' success.

• Be open to your current clients/customers. You should always be available with someone who is working with you, or someone you are working for. Have different modes of communication, phone, email, or other social media sources such as Facebook or Twitter. If your client cannot get in touch with you, then how are they going to feel comfortable enough to send more people your way, or return themselves? If there is no communication how are you going to accomplish anything?
• Ask for feedback often. Not only is this helpful for understanding the faults of yourself or your business to help build change, but it is also a very helpful tool to understand what your customers or clients enjoy about you and your business, so that you can keep doing what your people want you to do!
• If you can, meet with your clients face-to-face. In my line of work as a Clerk majority of my business is face-to-face. However, I also answer the phones and deal with customers via email and most of my customers always say, "it is so nice to be able to see the face that has been helping me!" and I believe that is so true in any type of work. Sure meetings and conferences can be more convenient over Skype or the phone, but I believe a team can collaborate better when working face-to-face, and this also builds confidence with your customers or clients. Technology is very advanced and it is easy to take care of business without dealing with a human reaction at all, but I believe we all still crave that human interaction.
• Be flexible with your business model. Leave your 'door' open to new ideas, different input, another point of view, and other things that could help build onto your original idea or concept.
• When out in the world, hide the sunglasses, iPod, and newspaper. Keep yourself open to different types of people, you never know what type of business will present an idea that you could use in your line of work. Don't hide from the world, embrace it, and make it fit your business or work place.
• Ensure that any client/customer touchpoint encourages connection and conversation. Just because you have a website with information doesn’t mean your customer or client can’t hear that information from you or a real person. Ensure that you follow your customers or clients through the process of their business with you. Be open and let your customers know that you are open to whatever mode of communication they find best suits them.
• Use social media (like Twitter, Linked In, Facebook, etc.) A lot of people in the business world shunned these types of outlets for a very long time, but they are now realizing that these outlets open up your span of people you have the ability to communicate with. Be open, be willing, and be ready for the possibilities!
• Play your music loud to attract others. The way I took this idea is, find out what attracts your customers, what attracts other people that would otherwise pass by your business, find out what attracts people and make it loud, make it bright, make it bold and throw it into the next level to keep them people coming!
• Teach your colleagues and team to leave their doors open too. If you are the only one leaving your 'door' open your customers and clients will realize that, and they will favor you and your business, but keep in mind they can find other open door businesses very easily. Get your team involved and if you open some 'closed door' people in your group, then your business will have an even greater effect!