9 Facts You Must Document And Why

Dealing with Difficult Employees:

Many managers and supervisors in my leadership training workshops come up to me privately regretting that they did not document a particular incident with an employee. A lot of times they report to me that as time went on, the difficult employee only got worse. Soon, they had to terminate the employee. Often they will say to me, “That lack of documentation came back to haunt me.” Many managers and supervisors today are overloaded, and let’s face it, documentation takes time. Unfortunately, too, for these people, they often feel they’re spending 80% of their time dealing with the difficult employees. I’m amazed at how many people in management positions really don’t know exactly what to document. So, here is a list of things to include if you’re dealing with a difficult employee.

1. Date, time and place of where you are doing the documentation in case you’d ever need to account for your whereabouts.

2. Date and time the incident occurred.

3. The difficult employee’s full name.

4. Location where the incident occurred. Was it in your office building or out in the work trenches?

5. Witnesses present. Include the names of those who saw the incident, and came to you to complain about the difficult employee and the situation. Even if you didn’t personally observe it, often when that many employees are all saying the same thing, there's usually a grain of truth to it.

6. Your action at the time. Did you say anything to the employee about this? If so, what? Be as specific as possible and stick to the facts. Remain objective not subjective.

7. The employee’s reaction. If you spoke to the employee, how did they react? Again, be as specific as possible. Stick to the facts in terms of how they acted and what they said.

8. Any other unusual things you notice about the difficult employee such as a radical change in their personality.

9. Your signature. (You don't need the employee's signature as this is simply to remind you of the facts.)

In dealing with a difficult employee, this documentation is not something you would show them. It is your observation documentation only. This is for your records and for your Human Resources department if you have one. Keep this information in a locked file and do whatever your organization’s policy requires you to do with it. Every organization is different.

When documenting stick to the facts. You want to remain objective as opposed to subjective. This way it’s less likely that the difficult employee can say, “Well, that’s just your perception. You’re just picking on me.” As long as you can remember facts and data it will be harder for them to argue with you.

There’s the chance that anything you write down, whether at work or at home, could be read in front of a jury. Take any "emotion" out of the equation. Focus on the facts and specific behaviors such as missed deadlines, or dates and times the difficult employee showed up late for work. And remember, the documentation is also to illustrate everything you tried t5B2o do to save them. For example, write down any training you provided. Because unfortunately when dealing with difficult employees, these people often fire themselves.

“As far as the courts are concerned, if it isn’t written down it’s as if it didn’t happen.” Colleen Kettenhofen

Copyright 2006 Colleen Kettenhofen

Colleen Kettenhofen is a speaker, workplace expert and co-author of The Masters of Success, as featured on The Today show, along with Ken Blanchard and Jack Canfield. Popular topics: difficult people, leadership, management, public speaking, success. Colleen is available for keynotes, breakout sessions and seminars. For free articles and newsletter, visit http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com (800)323-0683. You are free to reprint or repost this article provided Colleen's name and contact information are included.

Take Action And Set Yourself Free

Learn To Be Open To Opportunities,

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might!" has been a great motivator for me since 2002.

Let's have a look at the major points we as Christian business men should keep in mind based on this Bible verse.

1. Be open to all kinds of opportunities.

"WHATEVER your hand finds to do" tells us that we should be open to opportunities.

Even if we come across some opportunity and are not familiar with the area it covers, that should not keep us from considering it.

2. Be willing to put in a well measured effort.

"Do it with all your might" commands us to put in an effort.

That is the price we have to pay for success. And our God will bless our work.

But we must not deceive ourselves and put all of our efforts in our job or our business. Remember these words of our Lord Jesus:

"Do not worry about your life" (Luke 12:22)

"The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful." (Matthew 13:22)

3. Set yourself free to serve the Lord Jesus.

We should free ourselves as much as possible from earthly obligations so that we can serve the Lord Jesus.

The Bible says:

"Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you --although if you can gain your freedom, do so." (1 Corinthians 7:21)

Are you an employee? Or are you enslaved to your own business?

We must try to gain our freedom!

We should set mid- and long-term goals to free ourselves from all debt.

We should not let our business be the primary goal in our lives.

We should strive to free our time at a maximum to be able to serve our Lord Jesus.

4. Start to work with all your might!

"Do it with all your might" can be interpreted both as an advice and as a command. I think you should take this as a command.

Start to work with all your might!

Without that, there will be no success for you!

You must overcome your fears and start taking action.

For business motivational thoughts please visit http://www.do-it-with-all-your-might.com

Be Spiritual

Wrist Watch – The Portable Timepiece That Can Remind Us Of Our Spiritual Nature

I love words. They are tiny windows from which our Soul shines through. Even the most un-educated among us has choices in words. So how do we choose our words?

It is my belief that our true identity, Soul, directs our mind and tongue to use one word and not the other, when both words would convey the same meaning. In these tiny preferences lie glimpses into our heart, our beliefs, our fears and our hopes.

When we say, winding down instead of relaxing, or wound up instead of tense, our fascination with time shows and perhaps our fear of mortality. We choose these words as reminders to ourselves to be watchful.

“What does all this have to do with wrist watches?” you ask.

In my view, everything.

Wrist watch is a portable timepiece designed to be worn. Its history goes back to shortly after 1500, when Peter Henlein, a locksmith in Nürnberg, Ger., introduced the mainspring as a replacement for weights in driving clocks.

Looking back over the last forty years, I can see how things have sped up and I can imagine how laid back events were over 500 hundred years ago. There weren’t any soccer moms who had to rush from game to game in their SUVs. No 7 AM meetings across town through a hellish traffic that seems to get worse by the minute. No rushed five minute snack breaks to give us the energy boost we need to keep our zone diet. No Hollywood to show the latest Cartier watch or Baume Mercier watch on the shapely wrists of the most beautiful people in the world.

Why then the need for a portable timepiece called watch?

On the surface, we can say Peter Henlein introduced the mainspring as a replacement for weights in driving clocks. According to Britannica, “A mainspring consists of a flat spring steel band stressed in bending or coiling; when the watch, or other spring-driven mechanism, is wound, the curvature of the spring is increased, and energy is thus stored.

In a watch, this energy is transmitted to the oscillating section of the watch (called the balance) by the wheel train and escapement, the motion of the balance itself controlling the release of the escapement and consequently the timing of the maintaining impulse. A friction drive to the hands is provided from a wheel that rotates at a convenient rate, generally one time per hour. The friction drive permits the hands to be set.”

Fascinating enough to put me to sleep, I don’t know about you. The short version is that Peter Henlein found a way to move the clock handles so that they don’t take so much room. He was on the way to help us all watch time fly on our wrist, twenty four hours a day.

This ability to know the exact time brings with it a curse and a blessing.

A curse if we think about all the lost opportunities and all the missed goodbyes. A blessing if we consider that we live and we still hope and dream and with a little self discipline and a lot of help from the Divine, we can use our wrist watch to measure all the hellos we say, all the I love yous and all the contributions we make by just being who we are.

I love the idea that we exist because God loves us. Not particularly because we do wonderful things with every minute of every day, but simply because we are who we are.

Next time you check what time it is, I hope you look beyond the small handle and big handle and the wonderfully expensive watch makers and the rushed pace of life that carries us from one meeting to the next. I hope you can remind yourself that maybe it is time to say thank you to some one for just being there, smile at another because life is precious or pick up the phone and call your mate to just say, “I love you.”

If I ever feel pride in wearing a wrist watch and use its chime, it is for these reasons. How about you? Why are you wearing your watch?

* DISCLAIMER: Vishy Dadsetan, http://www.wristwatchsite.com/ or My Favorite Shop, Inc. do not endorse any purchase or sale of any products. Although Vishy Dadsetan has made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this site, it assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, inaccuracies, or inconsistencies.

About the Author

Vishy Dadsetan writes articles that can actually help your clients. Articles that entertain. Articles just like this one. Additional information is available at:

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People Building With NLP

NLP Practitioner Training- An Insight Into The Course Contents
By: Gemma Bailey




People Building is an NLP and Hypnotherapy Training company based in South East England specialising in courses in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire at NLP Practitioner, NLP Master Practitioner and Hypnotherapy Diploma level. All of our trainings are accredited by appropriate awarding bodies.

In this article, I am going to discuss some of the course content and explanation of the NLP Practitioner course.

An understanding of the Mind- Body connection – In short, when you think about something, chemicals are released in your body. The chemicals that are released will affect your mood and therefore how your body is feeling, for example, if you think about something that makes you really nervous, you could end up giving yourself an upset stomach. Likewise, the body is connected to your mind, so if you exercise your body, happy chemicals are released and your head feels a happier place to be.

Understand and read body language – In NLP we read body language using calibration. This means that we first get an understanding of what a particular gesture, posture of expression mean, then when we later see the same person making that gesture, posture or expression, we know that they are probably feeling the same way as when we saw them do it last. Calibration is important because it stops us from generalising about what a person is feeling. For example, we may generalise that when a person crosses their arms, that they are being defensive, but they may just be feeling chilly!

NLP Presuppositions which positively influence your world – These are a list of convenient beliefs that encourage you to consider the impact your communication has on others, and how to treat every result and behaviour as positive, as far as is humanly possible.

Enter someone else’s world for greater understanding of others – Often we are so trapped in our own idea of life, that we forget that others are constantly having a completely different experience of life to the one we are having. NLP teaches us how to understand and respect another person’s perspective.

Communicate effectively – Everyone is experiencing the world in a different way, and part of the reason why this happens is because people use their senses in different ways. Some people rely more on their vision, others on their hearing. When a person has a sensory preference this impacts upon the way they understand information and the way they communicate. Using NLP techniques we are able to get onto another person’s wavelength and communicate more elegantly.

Have better rapport and quickly gain a connection with others – People like people like themselves, and when you have good rapport with someone, you unconsciously mirror each other’s physiology. By understanding how to use this skill, we are able to quickly gain rapport, and break it when we no longer wish to have it.



About The Author

Gemma Bailey

People Building is a self development and improvement company specialising in NLP Practitioner, NLP Master Practitioner and Hypnotherapy Diploma training Courses. They are based in South East England, UK and run their trainings throughout Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. All of their trainings are accredited by appropriate NLP and Hypnotherapy awarding bodies. http://www.peoplebuilding.co.uk

Your Magic Sales Goals

Setting and Exceeding Sales Goals through Key Performance Indicators (KPI) by: Jeff Hardesty
What's your Magic Number? The most successful businesses — and certainly, sales departments — have identified their Key Performance Indicators (KPI); individual gateways that directly effect the outcome of a particular process. Then they measure the competency ratios in line with them. Have you identified the KPIs in your sales process? A good KPI example in the sales process might be how many times you advance the first sales appointment to the next phase, whether that’s a demonstration, a site visit, a survey or a proposal. Another KPI is how many times you gain a new customer once the first gateway is passed. And when you do gain a new customer, what’s the average revenue you achieve? That’s certainly an important KPI. Because if your average revenue per sale is 40% less than the average peer KPI, you might want to find out why and take focused action to improve it, as you’re leaving money on the table. And what about the length of a sales cycle in days? Is that conditional or do you have a degree of control over it? If you have a team member that has an average sales cycle 30% shorter than the peer group, uncover and assimilate those best practices out to the rest of the sales team. Less time, more results. That makes ‘Sales Cycle’ a valuable KPI. On a practical level, KPIs can provide management prospect reactions to their service offering for feedback to marketing and product development, detect problem areas in sales performance and signal the need for strategic or tactical modifications — even an all-out intervention through pinpoint sales performance training. Perhaps the most overlooked KPI is the individual ‘Magic number’; how many new weekly sales opportunities must be generated based on neighboring KPI’s. Think of the magic number as the fuel in your gas tank needed to get from point A to point B. It’s directly proportional to how far a distance, how fast you drive and your average miles per gallon. Your sales process ‘Magic number’ is a derivative of your average revenue per sale, 1st appointment to poroposal ratio, closing ratio and revenue goal. It’s your ‘Activity barometer’ and it should be at 100%. The following are some tips for improving several sales process KPI’s. If your current 1st Appointment to Proposal ratio is below 65%: 1. Internally define what your ‘Next step’ objective of the 1st appointment is; a demo, a site visit, a survey or a proposal. Then train to a process and measure the outcome. 2. Decide to start at the ‘Top’ with the fiscal authority that can ‘Call the shots’. 3. Avoid ‘Selling’ your product on the 1st appointment. Instead, outline your diagnostic steps to evaluate the fit between your solutions parallel to their business objectives. If your current Closing ratio is below 65%: 1. Ask pertinent questions to what the Prospect Company’s decision-making process is, what the internal criteria for change is and what players need to be involved for evaluation. 2. Communicate a timeline and set a specific date for the 2nd appointment before leaving the 1st appointment. Encourage that all management players be present at the next appointment. 3. Catalog risk factors for each management player and develop strategies, tactics, and tools for direct communication to them. 4. Have relevant industry and title reference letters available for ‘Real-time’ credibility. If your current ‘Activity barometer’ is below 100%: 1. Announce the Competency of converting conversations to appointments as a Key performance Indicator for sales success. 2. Define an appointment setting training objective and set a realistic goal. 3. Develop a training process in line with prospecting scenarios and best practice communications. 4. Don’t sell your ‘Widget’; sell the Business reason to meet. 5. Partner with technology to transfer best prospecting practices into ‘Intellectual capital’ promotion throughout your sales society. Ultimately, sales trainers and management should work in concert to create a new culture by replacing random sales routines with specific KPI competency training. Targeted and timely KPI training can make a critical difference to your monthly revenue scorecard. In today’s high sales performance culture migrate away from monthly and quarterly ‘Quota’ focus to daily routines and weekly goals. The opportunity rests squarely on switching paradigms from the required ‘End result’ to the necessary steps (KPIs) to get there routinely. Then build supporting tools for learning and application. And don’t forget your ‘Magic Number’.
About The Author
Jeff Hardesty is a National sales speaker, Sales performance improvement consultant and the Developer of the X2 Sales System®, a blended sales prospecting training system that teaches sales professionals the competency of setting targeted C-level business appointments. Jeff can be reached at jeff@convertmoresales.com.

Creating Wealth in a Home Based Business

by: Nicole Matoushek MPH, PT

Reasons Why to Work Out of the Home

The benefits of home business are many; more family time, freedom of time, no commute and endless opportunities to take charge of your destination. Once you make the decision to move from a traditional work setting to operate a home based business, such as network marketing, you need to improve or guarantee the likelihood that you will succeed. Success, in anything requires focus, this means learning, studying and practicing proven ways in order to make the success of your business a predictable outcome. There are ways to ensure your success, read on to learn how.

Network Marketing is Booming

The employment landscape in the United States is changing. Gone are the retirement and pension plans. Gone is the paradigm of job security. Did you know that companies everywhere are downsizing? They are either going virtual or moving work offshore, eliminating jobs in all industries. Despite this trend in employment conditions and change in workforce paradigm, the annual income for Americans has increased from $13 trillion in 1991 to $40 trillion in 2001. Many experts attribute this growth due to the increase in home based business, primarily network marketing. In home based business and network marketing, the opportunities come with many benefits. Many people are moving into home based businesses, either to supplement income, allow for more time at home with family or to create a new career. Often times these ventures do not require specialized degrees or skills, anyone can learn how to do network marketing, and these businesses are opportunities for those from all walks of life. Anyone can take advantage of these opportunities. One of the biggest advantages of home based business is the fact that one can create multiple streams of income and thus the earning potential can become limitless. In traditional work settings, where an employee merely trades his or her time for money, the employee's earning potential is capped based on how many hours they have in one day. You cannot create more time. On the other hand, with network marketing and home based businesses, one has the ability to multiply their time and their profits by creating multiple streams of income or affiliate program relationships. This is in part how to create great success and wealth. Home based businesses and network marketing ventures are redefining how business is conducted across the country and the globe.

Want more proof that network marketing is here to stay and a growing home based business solution for many who are seeking more wealth and freedom? Fortune magazine describes network marketing as “An industry with steady annual growth, healthy cash flows, high returns on invested capital and long term prospects for global expansion.” Network marketing has grown more than 91 percent since 1997 and provides over $30 billion in income for Americans and $100 billion in income for individuals all over the globe. Each week nearly 300,000 individuals from all over the world enter into the home based, network marketing business arena. Many experts recognize the potential for improved quality of life, an opportunity to follow life’s passions and in many cases to accrue tremendous wealth.

So how does one learn how to get into home based work or network marketing? And how does one improve the likelihood of success and the creation of not only wealth, but of all of one’s dreams? The answer is easy. Learn, study and practice the Secret Science to Getting Rich.

Guarantee your Success

Did you know that according to Robert Kiyosaki, the author of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” that 90% of all new businesses fail within the first five years? Additionally, statistics show that 90% of that 10% that survived the first five years fail before they reach ten? So how do you guarantee yourself that you are part of that 1% of all businesses that succeed after 10 years? You can do it. Anyone can, success and becoming wealthy comes down to a science, a science with a predictable outcome. Those who succeed and become wealthy know something. They understand something. They know the Secret Science to Getting Rich. You can learn it too and guarantee that you are in the elite 1% group, http://www.inspirednhopeful.theSGRprogram.com

Secret Science to Getting Rich

Secret Science to Getting Rich Have you heard of the DVD called "the Secret"? The Secret uses transformational learning so that the audience actually internalizes the concepts and adopts that way of thinking as their way of being. The movie has a central theme called "the Law of Attraction". The law of attraction states that what we think about, we bring about, our thoughts manifest into our life experience. In fact, the movie itself was inspired by this very same law when the producer read a book called "the Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D. Wattles. This book was written in 1910. Little did Wallace know how he would transform the thinking of the world, 100 years later! The law of attraction states that we create our reality, both good and bad! Have you created a reality of wealth?

Following on the success of the Secret, the core teachers - namely Bob Proctor and Jack Canfield have collaborated to produce a wealth building program called "the Secret Science of Getting Rich Seminar". This program is based on the book that inspired the movie and is set to make history as the fastest selling personal development program in history. The Secret Science to Getting Rich allows people to learn, with predictable results, how to create wealth, and doing so from a home based business!

What is the Science of Getting Rich about? Well in the words of Wallace D. Wattles, "The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way. Those who do things in this certain way, whether on purpose or accidentally, get rich. Those who do not do things in this certain way, no matter how hard they work or how able they are, remain poor. It is a natural law, like gravity or polarity, that like causes always produce like effects. There are predictable outcomes. Therefore, any man or woman who studies and practices this science will infallibly get rich." The Science of Getting Rich is all about teaching how to do things in this "certain" way to create wealth.

Learn, study and master the Secret Science to Getting Rich, http://www.inspirednhopeful.theSGRprogram.com and you will get rich. Learn how to apply this science, to build your business and guarantee that you attract success and wealth. When you do this, you will find your self in the top 1% of all businesses, you will have a 10 year anniversary party!


About The Author

Nicole Matoushek, MPH, PT has 15 years of experience in clinical managed care and disability management. She is founder of http://ErgoRehabinc.com. She has authored two books "Acquired Hope: A Journey of Advanced Recovery and Empowerment" and "365 Days of Abundant Hope" both available on http://www.acquiredhope.com . She is inspired by http://www.inspirednhopeful.theSGRprogram.com. Nicole is passionately dedicated to helping others succeed in obtaining abundant health, wealth and a fuller life!

Successful Coaches Are Full of Wit

If you are a successful coach be it an executive coach, business coach or corporate coach, do you demonstrate your wit when coaching your clients? Have you learned how to leverage that wit to increase your client's results?

Wit is defined by Webster as "powers of thinking and reasoning; good sense, wisdom; to make clever remarks." In thinking about this word and its meaning, I realize that this simple word - wit - is defined by each of its letters. And more importantly as a professional coach, I could truly leverage each of these letters during every interaction with my clients. Please let me explain.

Webster said that one of the definitions of wit is wisdom. The first letter of this word is W. As a coach you share potentially sharing your wisdom with your clients when necessary. According to my coach, David Herdlinger, "Wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others." What a great definition and how appropriate within a successful coaching practice.

Another word in the definition of wit is good. This implies that the value of integrity is present. Successful coaches must have integrity. Without integrity, these coaches would not receive the referrals necessary to build their practices.

Finally, when looking at the phrase "powers of thinking and reasoning," this suggests that tenacity must be also present. Many times, successful coaches must think and rethink to help their clients especially when using a developmental approach to coaching. Also, these coaches are also leveraging the powers of thinking and reasoning within their clients. To take these actions does require tenacity - the ability to continue, to keep moving forward, to overcome past inertia and obstacles.

If you are a coach and want to increase your success, then consider using your W.I.T. to achieve that goal. Let Wisdom, Integrity and Tenacity become your key values and let them drive your every day behaviors in all interactions.

Are you where you want to be? To find out where you are, then M.A.P. for Success, a FREE email course may help you begin to chart a course of business, professional or personal success. Visit http://www.processspecialist.com/action-plan.htm.

If you enjoyed this article, you may find the Leadership Audit of interest at http://www.processspecialist.com/od.htm

Please feel free to contact me, Leanne Hoagland-Smith, Your Chief People Officer and Business Coach, who works with individuals and organizations that are tired of not being where they want to be and truly want more for their businesses and their selves. 219.759.5601