250 Rules of Business

Secrets to Growing Your Career and Profits

Steven Schragis, Rick Frishman

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781614485162
• eBook ISBN: 9781614485179
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

There is no one rule for business success, no one principle that can help you meet every challenge. The realities of doing business are just too complex. However, there are lots of little rules that can guide and assist you along the way---and that's what 250 Rules of Business is all about. From Donald Trump to Harvey Weinstein, Learning Annex guru Steven Schragis works with---and learns from---hundreds of top-drawer businesspeople. Public relations executive Rick Frishman works with---and learns from---prominent business leaders, including Michael Eisner, Mario Cuomo, and Arnold Palmer. In this groundbreaking book, Schragis and Frishman have collected all they've learned from the movers and shakers of virtually every industry and boiled it down into smart, simple strategies. Master just one rule a day and in no time you'll manage everything---people, workloads, companies---with more skill, more confidence, and more success!

The
Rules

RULE ONE

DON’T MAKE RUSHED DECISIONS

If the issue is serious, never make a decision on the spot unless you absolutely have to. Think it over for a few minutes, an evening, or a weekend, and then go into the office with your answer. Give yourself the time you need to avoid the mistakes that often result from haste.

WHAT IT MEANS: Clearly, decisions can vary considerably in their urgency, importance, and complexity—and so no one rule of thumb fits all—but you should never be pressured into giving a quick yes or no before you’ve given yourself adequate time to think it through. At the end of the day, it’s much more about the quality of your decisions than the time it took to make them.

ACTION PLAN: Make it a point to never make an instant decision if there isn’t a compelling reason to do so. Make sure you have the facts. And then go grab a cup of coffee or take a walk around the block or resolve to sleep on it. More often than not, you have the right to give yourself a little time to breathe—and think it over.

EVEN BETTER: Write it down! List the pros and cons of making your decision one way or another. Listing and evaluating the relevant considerations and potential consequences can be a very useful tool for helping you to think things through. And the very process itself can be a healthy brake on the tendency to make snap decisions.

RULE TWO

UNDERPROMISE AND OVERDELIVER

This is the one thing you can always do to improve business relationships and reinforce your reputation for reliability: Deliver what you promise. In fact, you should even take it one step further. If at all possible, strive to deliver a little more than promised—or a day or two ahead of schedule. When it comes to being perceived as a reliable professional, there is no margin of error for keeping your word.

WHAT IT MEANS: It’s all about managing expectations. Whenever you make a promise, you have stated your commitment to perform something. As a result, you have created a certain level of expectation—and by scaling down this expectation, you can more easily create a positive outcome. Remember, when you provide more than what was expected by your customer, you enhance any good feelings they already have about you.

ACTION PLAN: Before you make any sort of promise, carefully think through everything you’ll need to do to deliver properly within the time frame you’ve created. Avoid the natural tendency to say yes to everything. If you make ten promises and fail to deliver just once, people are not going to remember your nine successes.

EVEN BETTER: When you think you’re done, and that you’ve kept your promise as well as you possibly can, don’t stop. Try and think of what you can do to do even better. Perhaps you’ll have some ideas that you hadn’t thought of earlier. Developing a reputation as someone who exceeds expectations is invaluable.

RULE THREE

RELEARN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

When you’re dealing with people in your industry or profession, there are certain buzzwords and jargon that everyone knows and understands, and there’s no problem in using them. This puts you on the same page as everyone else, and it even helps reinforce relationships between industry insiders. After a while, however, everyone gets tired of jargon and buzzwords. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an industry insider or not, there comes a point where you just get tired of it all and want to speak and be spoken to in plain, straightforward language.

WHAT IT MEANS: In business, you’ve always got to know whom you’re talking to, and then use the right level of industry jargon. Not too much … not too little. When speaking to industry outsiders, make sure you’re not talking over their heads. If you edit your written and spoken communications, you will have a better chance of establishing and maintaining a strong relationship.

ACTION PLAN: Use analogies or plain English translations. People often understand complex messages if they are wrapped in analogies; the more universal the analogy, the better. Relating a concept to a trip to the grocery store, the car dealership, or a lemonade stand may seem simplistic, but these are activities that everyone has experienced.

EVEN BETTER: Pay careful attention to nonverbal cues as they will give you clues on what’s difficult to grasp and requires more explanation. If your speech patterns are sprinkled with technical words without any corresponding explanation, chances are your listener’s eyes will eventually glaze over. Adjust the level of industry language that you are using, both to make it easier to understand and to prompt questions when necessary.

RULE FOUR

WHEN THE SEASON IS RIGHT, PLAY SANTA

Everyone likes getting gifts, even if they’re too polite to say otherwise. Business gift giving is its own kind of art, but it is an art that you would do well to master. But remember: the best business gifts don’t cost a lot, but they mean a lot.

Overly expensive and ostentatious gifts are never a good idea. Most companies have rules against that kind of thing—and even if they don’t, such a gift will probably result in more discomfort and embarrassment than any genuine sense of appreciation.

WHAT IT MEANS: Don’t give gifts too often—less is definitely more in this area—but the right gift, whether as a holiday-season thank-you or an unexpected little surprise is a great way to create more favorable impressions and more cordial relationships with clients and other key business contacts. So, give thoughtfully, appropriately, creatively, and personally.

ACTION PLAN: Whenever you read something that you think a business associate might benefit from, send a copy to that person with a short personal note. This may not be gift giving in the conventional sense at all, but it is certainly a thoughtful and effective token of appreciation.

EVEN BETTER: The very best gifts are generally gestures that acknowledge your appreciation of someone and your awareness of his or her interests. For example, a baseball souvenir for a true-blue Red Sox fan, or maybe some fine wool for an avid knitter. In a small but memorable way, these gifts say, “I was thinking about you, and I know you well enough to know that you would like this.”

RULE FIVE

THEY CALL IT MURPHY’S LAW FOR A REASON

If something can go wrong, it will. There’s a reason this axiom is called Murphy’s Law, not Murphy’s Reminder. So plan for the unexpected. Failing to plan realistically—overestimating sales; underestimating costs and time to market; and then failing to plan for the inevitable twists, bumps, and craters along the way—is the primary reason why most business start-ups fail. But even established companies tend to be far too rosy in their plans and forecasts and don’t leave themselves a margin of error. If you’re not willing to ground your plans in reality to make things appear to be better than they are, you’re asking for trouble.

WHAT IT MEANS: In the real world, projects take longer and cost more than expected for all sorts of reasons. People get sick or quit. Shipments of critical components arrive late due to a natural disaster. A key supplier goes out of business. A last-minute technical glitch—one you or your team never anticipated—stops development dead in its tracks.

ACTION PLAN: Add some wiggle room to your budgets and project timelines. Chances are, you’re going to need it. And if not, you will have pulled off a minor managerial miracle—a project that did even better than planned!

EVEN BETTER: Set up regular meetings to evaluate all aspects of major projects you’re working on, and focus on what new developments have occurred. If you can use these meetings to forecast potential problems and keep them under control, you might be able to break Murphy’s Law more than you’d expect.

RULE SIX

MONEY BUYS EVERYTHING, EXCEPT RESPECT

World famous management guru Tom Peters says it well: “Farmer, senator, salesperson, engineer, janitor, CEO, you, me, and the kid who mows your lawn—everybody loves being recognized, in any way, large or small.”

Conversely, when you discount the value of your coworkers or employees by ignoring them, taking them for granted, or giving the impression that they are expendable and readily replaceable, they begin to act accordingly and become less valuable. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. People start to unplug.

WHAT IT MEANS: Appreciation, applause, approval, respect—the fact is, people do not work for money alone. We appreciate being appreciated. And although a paycheck certainly is a tangible form of reward and recognition, the fact that it comes regularly often diminishes its motivational impact. Compared to the warmth of personal praise, paychecks are impersonal—and besides, everyone else is getting one! If you’re criticizing or admonishing more than you’re complimenting, you are heading down the wrong path.

ACTION PLAN: Smart managers know that the right words of praise or recognition at the right time can be worth their weight in gold. Actions that get rewarded, get repeated.

Try to catch people in the act of doing something right. And when you do, right then and there, tell them what you’re thinking. Make every person feel like he or she really matters.

EVEN BETTER: Whenever you know you’ll be with a group of your business associates, make it a point to think about and prepare some positive thoughts about others in the group—and then share them out loud. If there’s anything people like more than praise, it’s praise in front of others. You don’t have to “get” everybody … that’s a bit too obvious. But over a period of time, no one should be left out.

RULE SEVEN

HIRE PEOPLE WHO DISAGREE WITH YOU

It’s only human nature to be firmly attached to your own opinions, but that’s not always the best way to manage. In fact, it almost never is. The opinions and perspectives of your coworkers and others may be an invaluable resource—yet it is often one that is undervalued and overlooked.

Diversity of thought won’t always make it easier for you to make decisions. In fact, by pointing out possible pitfalls and gray areas, others may complicate certain decisions that initially seemed like no-brainers. But this practice will absolutely have a real positive impact on morale because everyone appreciates it when their opinions are sought, listened to, and valued.

WHAT IT MEANS: As a manager, you can gain the benefit of soliciting multiple viewpoints only if you actively and regularly send the signals that you welcome such feedback. Otherwise, people will be understandably reluctant to disagree. Ask people directly what they think of a particular strategy or proposal—and be sensitive to the fact that your feedback is more likely to be frank and uninhibited if it’s sought in a one-on-one setting.

ACTION PLAN: Always make it a point to thank people who share their insights. And make it clear to everyone that they should always feel free to “weigh in” on a pending project or business decision if they have something to add to the discussion.

EVEN BETTER: Seeking input from people outside your immediate workgroup will help you to make smarter decisions, so be especially aggressive in seeking it out. Contact people you don’t deal with on a regular basis and get their thoughts—great advice often comes from the most surprising places.

RULE EIGHT

IF TECHNOLOGY’S THE HARE, THEN EMPLOYEES ARE THE TORTOISE

Regardless of any new technology that you might be considering, keep in mind that the most important part of a successful business is a persuaded and prepared employee. There is always a human component to the adaptation of any new technology—a component that many organizations do not consider as carefully as they should.

WHAT IT MEANS: New technology will do wonders for any organization—but you do need to give it time, and a little sensitivity and “hand holding” can make the transition easier and more effective. It’s not just a question of learning which buttons to push—it’s being aware of which “people buttons” not to push. Because we are all creatures of habit, there will always be resistance to new technologies, procedures, and processes—and even some fear and resentment.

ACTION PLAN: Breaking up training into more digestible chunks (instead of the typical and daunting marathon workshop) can help minimize the fear factor. Allow for practice, follow-up sessions, and individual instruction when needed. Accept the fact that there’s a learning curve between being introduced to a new technology and becoming completely proficient.

EVEN BETTER: Don’t be in a hurry to get a new system up and running ASAP. Make sure to give people enough time to fool around with it and get their feet wet. Allow a “new users group” to meet regularly to share their concerns and tips. Make the training more of an extended group experience, with mutual support and practice...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Rules