There are two TV ads in the U.S. that are driving me crazy. Subway and Hardee’s both have ads running where the voice-over talks about a great Samich.

There is no such word as Samich. It is SANDWICH. The basic description is for some food product between two pieces of bread.

Where did Samich come from? Lazy tongues, poor language development, general acceptance by people who don’t care and are not corrected. It makes me cry that big bucks are spent perpetrating bad grammar and fast fat food.

OH, JULIA - YOU SAY —
You’re just being an old fuddy-duddy. Nobody cares how people pronounce it - we know what it is.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH TRADE SHOWS?

Trade shows are noisy environments so I may not understand what you say because of noise pollution. I may not understand what you say because it is a new word to me, or you are using jargon not in my vocabulary.

I may not understand what you say for any number of reasons but NEVER ever let it be the fact that you mangled a word, mispronounced it and didn’t know the difference.

Prospects are picky people. Your great exhibit, wonderful give-aways and that nifty shirt you are wearing only gets them into your space. It’s the little things people remember - bad grammar, sloppy pronunciation and incoherent syntax are high on my list of no-nos.

MANAGERS - Check your staff for vocabulary and pronunciation before a show. This is particularly important when there are new products and technical terms. Don’t forget to check for the vernacular and correct your staff so they are proper representatives for your company.

Julia O’Connor - Speaker, Author, Consultant - writes about practical aspects of trade shows. As president of Trade Show Training, inc,, now celebrating its 11th year, she works with companies in a variety of industries to improve their bottom line and marketing opportunities at trade shows. Julia is founder of Camp Sho-M-Sel-M, a specialized sales training program being held August 22-23 in Las Vegas. The focus of this Camp is Trade Shows & The Unions, with a Behind-the-Scene tour of the Las Vegas Convention Center, led by union officials. Julia is an expert in the psychology of the trade show environment and uses this expertise in sales training and management seminars. Contact her at 804-355-7800 or check the site http://www.TradeShowTraining.com

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Although organizations have much in common with one another, they differ in many ways. Some organizations are large, and some are small. Some operate in one product area, while others operate in many diversified areas. Some operate in a small geographical area, whereas others do business in many countries of the world. That’s where the role of workforce management systems comes into the fore. To cope with these varied objectives, strategies and situations, managers adopt different workforce management systems.

Departmentation is the process of dividing the organization into manageable subunits. The subunits are often referred to as departments, divisions or sections. Functional departmentation is the process of dividing the organization into units on the basis of the firm’s major activities. It involves grouping employees according to the broad tasks they perform. Normally, separate departments are created in workforce management systems for all the key activities of the business.

If the organization or given department is large, or as the organization grows, major departments can be subdivided. These sub-divisions are called derivative departments. The essential idea is to take advantage of specialization. As organizations are not static, they grow in size either by broadening its product line or by expanding geographically.

Further, as the size of the organization increases, some of the disadvantages become more apparent. The organization is forced to look for other systems in tune with the requirements. In such situations, managements will opt for various other types of departments, in focusing on the product or market. One of the most common ways in which businesses grow is by increasing the number of products they make and sell. If the organization is successful, several product lines may attain such high sales that they require a separate division.

Workforce Management provides detailed information on Workforce Management, Workforce Management Software, Workforce Management Solutions, Workforce Management Systems and more. Workforce Management is affiliated with Workflow Management.

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MORE and more corporations in Malaysia have awoken to the necessity of training and developing their people these days. Hence, many local speakers have emerged in recent years just as many foreign ones have already been flocking to Malaysia as far back as two decades ago.
With so many speakers available in the market, the success of your event lies in selecting the right speaker who would make a big difference in your conference or seminar.

Here are some tips.

First, discard the “white is superior” mindset. Although there are some really good foreign speakers from the West, there are also many who are unable to deliver. To select a speaker to grace your conference or engage one to run an in-house seminar primarily on the basis of skin color alone could end in disappointment.

Selection of a speaker should be based on the desired content appropriate to your conference theme or meeting your training needs, and the competence of the speaker to deliver. If you care to look around our own backyard - Malaysia - you may find some local speakers who are really good in their respective specialization.

The next thing to consider is: Can you afford the really good ones?

There are many people representing cash-rich corporations and yet could become quite niggardly when it comes to paying for good speakers.

Just as luxury cars and branded time pieces don’t come cheap, don’t expect the top speakers to work for peanuts. And don’t try the “while we won’t pay you much but think of the exposure we can give you if you were to speak in our conference” approach. The really top speakers would just walk away even if they are too polite to laugh in your face.

On average, you should expect to fork out anything between USD5,000 to USD15,000 for any of the internationally-acclaimed speakers, even for just an hour’s presentation as in a conference. Although some people had made some noises when I gave them the same quotation for an hour’s presentation just as I had quoted for a day’s work, they had overlooked that whether a professional speaker spoke for an hour or a day, that very day could no longer be offered to another client. This is especially so when some traveling is involved. For an example, to speak in another city, say Beijing, a day before the event and a day after the event would be spent in traveling.

In Malaysia, good local speakers are available for RM7,000 to RM10,000 for up to a day’s presentation although for RM3,000 to RM6,000, you may still be able to get some who are relatively quite good albeit they may not be in the “internationally-acclaimed” league.

Speaking of “internationally-acclaimed” speakers, don’t be fooled by those who claimed to be “internationally-acclaimed” speakers from having spoken abroad. Find out who they have spoken for. If they spoke for multinationals that are household names like Cisco Systems, Citibank, GE, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, etc., then you could take their word for it. Just be aware that there are many event organizers who pay peanuts to local speakers to speak at overseas events, and such speakers would subsequently pose themselves off as “internationally-acclaimed” ones.

As I have mentioned, getting a good speaker makes a big difference. An inexperienced or incompetent one would either send the delegates to sleep or fail to get the key learning points across.

Last but not least, you ought to keep up with the times. Make use of the Internet in your search for the right speaker. There are many websites, e.g. www.eventclicks.com, www.cityspeakersinternational.co.uk, www.malaysiahronline.com, etc., where you can browse through a panel of speakers and peruse their resumes.

And just as you are in keeping with the times, make sure your selected speaker is also technically-inclined. As a self-respecting speaker will ask for an LCD projector since he or she will bring along a personal computer loaded with presentations on PowerPoint, you should discard the one who still uses transparencies on overhead projector.

Khoo Kheng-Hor, a best-selling author of several books on the application of Sun Tzu’s Art of War in contemporary business management is a sought-after speaker in conferences and seminars throughout Asia. He can be reached at http://www.webpoint.com.sg/suntzu or suntzu333@yahoo.com

For more tips and tricks resources, log on to http://www.tips.com.my

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First of all, if all you ever do is an annual performance review for your employees, they are worthless. Put every last one of them in a big pile and burn them. The scenario of annual performance reviews often goes like this;

“I have nine reviews I have to get done by the end of the month. I feel more pressure about completing the review than I feel an obligation to the employees to let them know how they are really doing. How I can help them.”

Additionally, since you only do one review a year, chances are you base your judgment about the employee’s performance on the last two months or so. If the employee happened to have done something wrong during that two month period, they get a poor review. Conversely, if they did everything right in those two months, they get a good review. A good review even if they performed very poorly throughout most of the year. Is that really justice?

Some critics promote the theory that annual reviews are worthless and should be abolished altogether. However, that really isn’t an option. Performance reviews are and have been a corner stone for managing performance. It is about accountability, right? In reality, performance reviews don’t hold people accountable, managers do. However, employees must understand what the employers expectations are of them. This can not be accomplished in a once a year meeting.

The purpose of a performance review is not to build a case for termination. Nor is its purpose to write a hallmark moment about how wonderful the employee is. The purpose of a performance review is to let the employee know where they stand. How they are doing. To determine what the company can do to help them become the best at what they do. To recognize their contributions and also to help them recognize their weaknesses and where they may need additional training and development. You can not accomplish those objectives if you are forced to complete multiple reviews under pressure. You can not accomplish those objectives if you only think about the last several months of the employee’s performance.

As managers, as leaders, we owe it to our employees to help them develop their talents. It’s good for them, it’s good for us and it is good for the company. We need to make an individual commitment to every one of our direct reports that we will spend a minimum of thirty minutes per month discussing their performance. What they are doing well and what they need to work on. A simple three by five card noting our discussion thrown into their file provides tremendous insight when it comes time to do their annual review. (e-mail rick@ceostrategist.com for a sample card form) We now have twelve individual documented discussions to refer to when completing their review. It also will show their progress. How they follow direction. What kind of support, training, mentoring or coaching that has taken place over the course of a year?

Reviews will never be 100% accurate and 100 % honest. It’s a good idea to review the reviews especially if they only occur annually. This should be done by Human Resources. Another concept for making reviews more accurate is the utilization of 360 degree reviews. This includes having employees reviewed by their boss, their peers and subordinates if applicable. Keeping reviews as objective as possible with definitive key performance measurements also reduces the human factor. Yes, performance reviews will probably never go away. We must not lose sight of the fact that the more critical aspect of leadership, coaching and mentoring is the actual setting and understanding of expectations.

Why are performance reviews important?

Performance reviews are important because employees want to be held accountable. Employees want to know how they are doing. Employees can not strive for excellence if they do not know where they stand. Performance reviews can guide an employee’s progress. They can identify the employee’s career path and they can identify area’s of performance that need improvement and create a plan with input from the employee to correct the problems. In order for employees to improve and maintain their job performance and skills, it is necessary to periodically review their performance and provide appropriate feedback, coaching and mentoring..

The starting point of any coaching process is setting goals and expectations and then observing behavior and providing specific performance feedback. That is what a performance review is all about. When you are reviewing performance, there is a process that you should follow.

When reviewing performance it is necessary to observe your employee’s behaviors throughout the year. A monthly coaching discussion will keep the employee informed and will allow you to make an objective assessment of the employees performance and progress.

Here are a few tips to observing performance:

Performance observance can happen in numerous different ways depending upon the employees job function. Outside sales is easy. A Ride Along by the Sales Manager creates a great opportunity to observe performance. Other observation techniques include:

• Spending a day a month actually working in the warehouse

• In Basket e-mail training (The employee is asked to handle every e-mail you receive in a day and make a decision as to what action should be taken)

• Reviewing specific metric KPI’s (key performance indicators)

• Working side by side with the employee by assigning a special project

Evaluate——–Tips on Performance Reviews

• Be fair and objective by assessing job performance against pre-determined job-related performance standards.

• Involve the employee in the development of the action plan.

• Include specific and measurable goals with action plans on how to reach them. Set time frames to review accomplished goals, identify possible obstacles and identify ways to overcome them.

• Encourage feedback from your employee.

• Review a summary of your feedback by beginning with the employee’s strengths and then tactfully move into the weaknesses.

• End the review by summarizing the action plan for improvements, so your employee clearly understands what’s expected of him or her. End on a positive note and set a date for the next review.

The outcome of this review should come as no surprise to the employee, if you are continually reviewing, evaluating, and providing feedback.

Conducting the Review:

Create a self review. Have your EMPLOYEE rate themselves by filling out a Performance Evaluation prior to their review. Tell them to provide specific examples to back up their ratings. Review their evaluation before you meet. This will provide for a more interactive meeting. Always focus on a positive before you discuss a negative. Keep the review as objective as possible utilizing facts and data. Follow your company review form precisely. It is organized in the fashion it is in for a reason. Do not speculate; make assumptions or offer opinions as to cause. Do ask a lot of questions. Focus on the differences between the self review and your review of the employee. Create a continuous follow up schedule.

Remember, employees are your most precious asset. Respect them, train them, coach and mentor them, trust them and they will create competitive advantage for your company.

http://www.ceostrategist.com Dr. Rick Johnson (rick@ceostrategist.com) is the founder of CEO Strategist LLC. an experienced based firm specializing in leadership and the creation of competitive advantage. CEO Strategist LLC. works in an advisory capacity with distributor executives in board representation, executive coaching, team coaching and education and training to make the changes necessary to create or maintain competitive advantage. You can contact them by calling 352-750-0868, or visit http://www.ceostrategist.com for more information. CEO Strategist - experts in Strategic Leadership in Wholesale Distribution.

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Now we’ve heard that self-discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. Studies show that willpower is actually like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the more you use it, the stronger you get it.

They’ve also found in unique studies that when you use it back to back, just like an exercise, once you work out your muscles become weaker for a little while, your willpower used to back to back actually becomes weaker. Let me give you a study. This study was done with college students. They put them in front of a table with a bowl of radishes and a bowl of chocolate. Half the students were told to restrain from eating the chocolate and to eat the radishes and the other half were able to eat the chocolates. Then they are asked to complete a puzzle. Now this puzzle was impossible to solve but they wanted to see how long they would work at it before they gave up. Now the ones that used their self-control and their willpower and their self-disciple not to eat the chocolate and eat the radishes, gave up much sooner. Those that were able to each the chocolate and not exercise their will power, worked at it much longer.

What have we learned from this? Well, as I mentioned before, will power is like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets. But if you are faced with two or three situations in a row where you need your willpower and your self-discipline, you need to be aware that your self-control, your will power could be low and avoid those situations. Because one of the aspects of exponential success of course is delayed gratification, which is an aspect of will power. It is important to understand that just because you are disciplined or have will power in one aspect of your life; it affects every aspect of your life. If you are weak in one area, it will start creeping in the other areas. So the bottom line is either you are going to be disciplined or you’ll have disappointment. You can increase your willpower through practice, through inspiration doing a little bit at a time.

Again, it is a muscle, exercise it everyday and you will see great strength and success in your future. Sure you can spend time procrastinating and putting things off, but the time to do it is now. Successful people make decisions and act now. They don’t wait. Sometimes we procrastinate because we are tired or we don’t have the energy, our target or goals aren’t big enough, or overwhelmed, so learn to act now. Procrastination is an excuse not to perform. You can’t procrastinate when you decide to take decisive action with a vision of the future and an action plan with smart persistence. There is no reason to postpone an important activity. As President Theodore Roosevelt said, “In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

Many times when you feel indecision and procrastination, it comes from our need as human beings to categorize things into right and wrong categories, black and white, big and tall, whatever it is we want to categorize. Every decision you make is not right or wrong. There could be three or four or five right things you can do right now. Our school systems teach that there is only a right or wrong answer for everything, not true; there are many ways to do different things. So get it out of your mind that there is black and white and that there is only one way to do things, that there is only one right answer. That will help explode your action plan. When you are faced with a decision and you feel like procrastinating the first thing to do is realize that you are doing it. Ask yourself, why you are doing it.

So when you are ready to make a choice there are three “R’s” that you need to think about. Reflect about the issue, obstacle or challenge that you are having. Research your options, ask other people, and then React. Go out there and do it, change your life and reach exponential success. Because as you look as procrastination and the things you are avoiding and the habits in your life, you have to realize that your life right now is an accumulation of the choices, habits and decisions that you’ve made. Your habits will determine your future and your success. Many times when we look at our eating habits, our exercise habits, or failure to save money, the challenge is many times we don’t see the results or the consequences of those actions until twenty thirty years down the road.

So it is time to take a look at your habit, acknowledge any bad habit you have and understand that most of our behavior, over 90 percent of our behavior is based on our habits. The routines we get stuck in, we’ve talk about becoming a creature of habit. Where do you learn them? From society, from yourself, from your parents, or from osmosis. Many of you have heard this story about the lady that was cooking the ham for thanksgiving and she cut off both ends, but it in the pan and then put it in the oven. Her husband says why do you do that, why do you waste so much ham. She says, I don’t know, my mother did it. She calls her mother and her mother says, I don’t know, my mother did it and she called her mother and she says, the only reason I did it was because the only pan we had was too small. Many of your habits are the exact same way. You’ve just picked them up and and you’re not even sure why you do them. But realize that your success is directly determined by your habits. So constantly refine your habits.

Here is the key; you can’t change your habits you need to replace your habits. If you have a bad habit of watching too much TV, replace it with reading and listening to motivation tapes. If you have a bad habit of eating, you can replace it with exercise or something more productive. So take a look at your habits and create an action plan to replace those habits with more productive habits. I’m excited for you as you go down this path of exponential success. What I want you to do is give yourself permission to win. You can with this game, you can become what you want to become but give yourself permission, program your mind, look at your habits and find your purpose in life. Many of you already know your passion, your purpose in life. What you need to do change yourself and to change the world. If you don’t know don’t panic. It is like sculpting, a little bit at a time. You’ll get there. Find your purpose and align that with your natural ability. Another question you can ask yourself is “What do you want it to say in your Eulogy?” Or you can write a statement of purpose, but figure it out. Live your life with purpose. When you find that purpose it will increase your confidence.

Conclusion
Persuasion is the missing puzzle piece that will crack the code to dramatically increase your income, improve your relationships, and help you get what you want, when you want, and win friends for life. Ask yourself how much money and income you have lost because of your inability to persuade and influence. Think about it. Sure you’ve seen some success, but think of the times you couldn’t get it done. Has there ever been a time when you did not get your point across? Were you unable to convince someone to do something? Have you reached your full potential? Are you able to motivate yourself and others to achieve more and accomplish their goals? What about your relationships? Imagine being able to overcome objections before they happen, know what your prospect is thinking and feeling, feel more confident in your ability to persuade. Professional success, personal happiness, leadership potential, and income depend on the ability to persuade, influence, and motivate others.

Kurt Mortensen’s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! If you are ready to claim your success and learn what only the ultra-prosperous know, begin by going to http://www.PreWealth.com and getting my free report “10 Mistakes That Continue Costing You Thousands.” After reading my free report, go to http://www.PreWealth.com/IQ and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale!

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