How much can you fit into a day?

The “experts” give you the following guidelines:

• 30 minutes of exercise
• 45 minutes of personal grooming
• 2 hours of time with family and friends
• 45 minutes of news
• 30 minutes with pets
• 2 hours on housekeeping, errands and chores
• 90 minutes commuting
• 18-23 minutes shopping (depends if your male or female)
• 1 hour cooking and eating dinner
• 1 hour on entertainment
• 18 minutes on dental care
• 2 hours with spouse (quality time)
• 30 minutes volunteering
• 10 with plants
• 1 hour of “me” time
• 7-8 hours of sleep
• 8 hours of work
• 15 minutes of spiritual development

Total: +/- 34 hours

Funny thing… I don’t get that many hours! No wonder I’m tired. How do you decide what you are going to do with each day? Are you doing what you want to do, need to do, that others determine you should do? Are you prioritizing the important and not urgent?

If you are a business owner, the puzzle is even more complex. Remember: Keep activities un-urgent. Determine if activities are important. Make sure you are following your own priorities and not those of others. Put the big rocks in first.

The theme of this season is Creativity.

If things have never been this way before, then you must do things that you have never done before. What the heck are you going to do? Redefine your product? Create new revenue streams? Finely tune your expertise? Where does your future success lie?

Core Competencies, Critical Success Factors and Competitive Advantage are important elements of any business whether you have identified yours or not. I have tagged them as Three “C’s” because as a business owner it is wise to understand what they are and how they can help you focus and develop your growth, success and lead you on the path to creativity.

Core Competencies

“Everyone knows programming isn’t a core competency at Microsoft. Marketing is the only core competency here. By next year, the marketers just might have this whole place to themselves.”
-Anonymous Microsoft Engineer

This engineer may sound a bit snide, but the truth is that once you identify your Core Competency you have your hand on the driving wheel of your company. Do you know what your company does and does well, time after time, irregardless of your product or service?

Understanding why it is important and developing the competency to the point of making it core, takes time, experience and can be harder than it looks.

Once you separate your core competencies from other competencies, you can then move your company from good to great by: Creating value for your customers.

• 1. Creating differentiation from your competitors.
  2. Entering new markets.
  3. Building your brand.

Critical Success Factors

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice gets to a fork in the road and she asks the cat. “Which way do I go?” “Where are you going?,” asks the cat. “I don’t know.” “Then it really doesn’t make any difference,” replies the cat.

Critical Success Factors are those elements that your business uses to measure its success. They may be unique to you, common to your industry or an interchangable but small list of important focus areas.

Some examples are:

What are your margins?

Do you operate at full capacity?
What is your debt to income ratio?
Have you increased sales to offset overhead?

What do you need to focus on and measure in order to create value in your business?

Competitive Advantage

“If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.”
-Jack Welsh

What makes you better? What makes you unique? Why chose you from the millions of businesses that your customers can buy from? In what way can you develop your unique expertise?

If you don’t know the answer, how can you expect your customer to know?

Look here for more information on Strategic Business Leadership, Business Assessments or One on One Coaching.

I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s new bestseller “Outliers: The Story of Success along with the rest of the planet. Like all of his books, I love the way that Malcolm can take long scholarly texts and present their meanings in language that I understand.

What did I learn: Getting good at stuff is about practice. practice, practice. It is the same ol’ message with more data. If you were looking for a shortcut, it isn’t here.

Personal take away: 1) When my husband claims that we should have started our February birthday boy in school earlier, I can show him how that is not so. 2) I am involved in a homework debate on my local school board. Homework, schmomework. This is nothing! Let them practice, practice, practice. 3) Now I know why I don’t finish crossword puzzles, suduku and jigsaws: Its my heritage! I should have been a lawyer like my granddad.

I want to try to apply this data to Gen Why and Gen M.

ps: I read in Entertainment Weekly about Kutcher tweeting about this book. Ho hum.

I am a voracious reader who is making an enormous life switch from fiction to nonfiction which makes up this list. If you haven’t read any of these, check them out. They are great.

If you are a business coaching client or TAB member, these books are available directly from me for loan.   If you don’t want to wait, you can link directly to Amazon.  Bon Apetit.

Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell

Along with the rest of the planet, I like all of his books. I love the way that Malcolm can take long scholarly texts and present their meanings in language that I understand. What did I learn? Getting good at stuff is about practice. practice, practice. It is the same ol’ message with more data. If you were looking for a shortcut, it isn’t here.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Timothy Ferriss

One thing I loved: Outsource,baby! This book inspired me to hire assistants and researchers where ever they may be and let them help me create and sell my product better and faster.

Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition

Guy Kawasaki

One thing I loved: The 10/20 Rule. Ten slides in 20 minutes. If you can’t demo your product in that time…. you lose. I have taken this to heart.

A Stake in the Outcome: Building a Culture of Ownership for the Long-Term Success of Your Business – Jack Stack

The Great Game of Business – Jack Stack

The Open-book Experience: Lessons From Over 100 Companies Who Successfully Transformed Themselves – John Case

Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution: Solving the One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier – Gary Harpst

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful – Marshall Goldsmith

One thing I loved: Marshall is a poet who’s theme is “Don’t be an Asshole.” He wins my vote.

Long Tail, The, Revised and Updated Edition: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More – Chris Anderson

One thing I loved: This was my life as a distributor in the music business. I could have written this book if only I’d had the insight. Thanks, Chris.

QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability in Work and in Life – John G Milller

One thing I loved: This actually helped me be a better salesperson. Sure it is about accountability but simply put, it is about listening.

The Contrarian Effect: Why It Pays (Big) to Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite – Micheal Port

One thing I loved: Contrariness!  This is a smack on the head that times have changed and we are all information overloaded. It takes some thought about how to develop expertise?  This made me want more than ever to step up my social networking even though I love cold calling and will fight in its favor.

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us – Seth Godin

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die – Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Employing Generation Why – Eric Chester

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable – Patrick Lencioni

Taming Your Gremlin (Revised Edition): A Surprisingly Simple Method for Getting Out of Your Own Way – Rick Carson