Find the reason to smile in every lesson and opportunity that you encounter in 2012 and you will have a more successful and joyful year. 

"There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult."

Warren Buffett

Skill, knowledge, insight, brains, experience - these are all important, however:

"He or she wins who gets more done, and he or she gets more done who passionately wants to get to the next level of accomplishment."

- David H. Maister from Strategy and the Fat Smoker

If you are interrupted too often, figure out why. Are you:

• Too slow to close your door, forward your phone, and turn off email?
• Withholding information from others?
• Failing to develop and empower others?
• Inserting yourself into too many processes?
• Insisting on perfection?
• Discouraging the decisions and initiative of others?
• Unclear in establishing objectives and priorities?
• Sloppy in delegation?
• Letting others interrupt repeatedly without thinking first?
• Unsure of your own priorities?
• Biting off more than you can chew?
• Afraid you may be extraneous?

You are not indispensable. So why are others acting as if you are? What are you doing to cause your own interruptions?

We had a Japanese student staying with us during her Thanksgiving school break. She was endlessly curious, but unsure how we might react to some of her questions. Rather than refrain from asking, she has developed the incredibly effective practice of prefacing her questions with:

"I don't know if I can ask this question."

This line accomplished four things:

• It gave us permission not to answer.
• It expressed her sincere desire to learn.
• It warned us that we may be in for a startling question.
• It made us eager to help her understand and learn.

We can all learn a lesson from Midori. She is not the only one who can benefit from understanding others or a situation better. Too often we shy away from asking important questions. Personally, I would rather others asked my thoughts than have them try to guess. When we guess, we usually guess wrong.

Asking permission shows interest and respect. Don't just "let it drop" next time. Try these variations of Midori's approach to learn what you need to learn:

"It may be none of my business, but I'd really like to know ..."

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

If you are told it is none of your business, at least you've learned something!

Do you value best practices as a means of attracting and retaining customers while also improving the bottom line?

If yes, you are not alone. Many companies devote tremendous time, effort, and money in search of the holy grail of best practices.

However, most organizations have employees who are already producing great results. Whether selling, managing customers, or delivering the goods, you likely have pockets of excellence scattered throughout your organization. These employees have figured out how to:

• Excel in your environment, 
• Deal with your products, 
• Manage your customers, and 
• Put up with your management short-comings

They are the keepers of your internal best practices. Their secrets are worth sharing!

• Who are they?
• What are they doing that others aren't?
• What are you doing to capture and teach these internal best practices?

Seek that which is working and spread it around!

Need help identifying, capturing, and disseminating internal best practices? Give us a call: 800-527-0087.

If 2012 is approaching faster than you ever thought possible, now is a good time to look around and see if your plane is still soaring, stalled on the runway, or out of sight in a hangar. Ask yourself these three questions:

We have a weird bathroom. When we first moved in, we couldn't imagine why the previous owner had not installed any towel racks. It took one trip to the local plumbing fixture store to learn why. None of the standard rods are the right length for any of the spaces in our bathroom. 

I am tickled pink by the incredibly green mileage of my new blue Prius, but red with anger over the yellow highlighted "Excellent" ratings on the sample customer satisfaction survey handed to me by the salesman as I drove off. "If I get less then 90%, Toyota will throw me under the bus," he said. 

Toyota wants feedback that the salesman fears and, as a result, the customer suffers. If the salesman does a lousy job, you have three choices: 

1. Tell the truth and constantly wonder about the bus
2. Avoid email and phone calls asking for feedback
3. Lie 

That is an ugly choice. Furthermore, it invalidates all the data they are collecting. And I do mean all. I heard the same line when I last bought a Toyota ten years ago. The sickening memory came back to me as soon as I heard it again.

How do you prevent such lunacy?

• When determining any course of action, think about what could go wrong so you can avoid bad decisions and take preventive action.
• Follow up, especially on any action as important as this, to see if it is really working.
• Talk to your customers in multiple ways so you are sure to get the whole story.
• Shop your own shop - anonymously, of course - to get a first hand look at the customer experience.