A Note From The President

Avil Beckford, President

Happy New Year! What do you resolve to do this year? What key strategies do you have in place to set yourself up for success? In the survey section of this month's Ambeck Edge is a University of Washington study on New Year's Resolution, which includes strategies to help you succeed. Persistence and commitment are integral to doing what you resolve to do. You may make missteps on your journey to accomplishing your resolutions, but it's important to recognize that it's a process, so keep on trying. And, remember to always celebrate your successes.

Tim Sander, former Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo!, the author of Love Is The Killer App and The Likeability Factor, and this month's interviewee, shares his technique for integrating his personal and professional life? "Admit it, you have one life - partly at work and at home. Treat it as the same. Have the same values for both. Turn off work when you are home, but be available to home while at work. Only do things you are excited about, throughout your life."

Make 2007 your best year yet. Until next time! Avil

P.S. Like this newsletter? Will customize for medium-sized firms that want to distribute it to their staff. Contact me at avil.beckford@ambeck.com and let's talk!

Book Review

Your Best Year Yet: Ten Questions For Making The Next Twelve Months Your Most Successful Ever, Jinny S. Ditzler

Most people do their plans for the year at the start of a new year so I decided to review Your Best Year Yet by Jinny Ditzler. According to Ditzler, Best Year Yet is "About starting to believe in yourself again and becoming much tougher in the face of life's biggest challenges. The approach helps you to use your commonsense and intelligence in new ways to create a happier life for yourself." To create your plan, you are asked to answer the following 10 questions.

1. What did I accomplish over the past 12 months?
2. What were my biggest disappointments?
3. What did I learn?
4. How do I limit myself, and how can I stop?
5. What are my personal values?
6. What roles do I play in my life? (Father, wife, teacher, student, writer, consultant and so on)
7. Which role is my major focus for the next 12 months?
8. What are my goals for the next year?
9. What are my top 10 goals for the next year?
10. How can I make sure that I achieve them?
    

It took me about three hours to answer the questions, and starting off with acknowledging your accomplishments for the previous 12 months was very important for me because it made me realize that I accomplished far more than I had given myself credit for, and that made me feel really good.

I liked this book because it gives you simple tools to use, and when you're done, you have a one-page plan. It's also packed with many examples and you feel as if Ditzler is right there guiding you. I recommend Your Best Year Yet.

Avil's note: Make sure that your top 10 goals include goals for all areas of your life to achieve better balance. And, also make sure that every week you take steps to achieving your 10 goals, no matter how small. If you decide to follow this process, and you'd like a template, which breaks your goals into the various areas of your life, please email me and I will send you one.

January's Book List

Your Best Year Yet, Jinny S. Ditzler

Survey Results

New Year's Resolutions

According to a study based on 264 responses on New Year's resolutions by the University of Washington:

• While the study focused on primary resolutions, most people made several resolutions, with 67 percent making three or more
• Increasing the amount of exercise was the most common primary resolution, being made by 37 percent, followed by increasing the time devoted to study or work, 23 percent; increasing the consumption of healthy food or decreasing the amount of unhealthy food, 13 percent
• People made significantly more resolutions to start or increase a behavior --222-- than to stop or decrease something -- 42
• Of the people who successfully achieved their top resolution, only 40 percent of them did so on the first attempt. The rest made multiple tries, with 17 percent finally succeeding after more than six attempts

Key strategies to increase your success include:

• Have a strong initial commitment to make a change.
• Have coping strategies to deal with problems that will come up.
• Keep track of your progress. The more monitoring you do and feedback you get, the better you will do

What to Avoid:

• Not thinking about making resolutions until the last minute.
• Reacting on New Year's Eve and making your resolutions based on what's bothering you or is on your mind at that time.
• Framing your resolutions as absolutes by saying, "I will never do X again."
  

Source: How to keep up with those New Year's resolutions, researchers find commitment is the secret of success, December 23, 1997
http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/1997archive/12-97archive/k122397.html

How Did They Do That?

Tim Sanders, Author of Love Is The Killer App & Likeability Factor

www.sanderssays.com

Challenge: Get sales staff to stop broadcasting power point sales presentations and start having needs-discovery conversations. When I was Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo, I discovered that advertising clients were getting frustrated with endless power point presentations and programs that did not work. Getting back to basics means talking to them and then building workable programs based on client insight.

Solution: Ban power point presentations, except when requested and restructure sales meetings to focus the first 50 percent on fact finding and answering questions (about materials sent in advance). Result? The cut and paste sales culture morphed into a consultative one. When the market required a quick Return On Investment on advertising in 2001, we were ready with programs based on needs that converted -- and got renewed!

What Can Ambeck Do For You:

Ambeck Enterprise provides diverse business research and analysis services to senior executives, through the relevant distillation of diverse facts and data.

Formula for Success

Tim Sanders

Get smart about change in your business life. Make yourself emotionally attractive to do business with. Find your success by promoting growth in every colleague you come in contact with every week. Measure yourself with weekly metrics with an eye on an annual goal.

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