Merry Christmas!!

December is rolling on fast! The holiday festivities are in full swing and many of us are trying to plan for next year. First I want to take a moment and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and blessings for the new year. Second I want to give some quick tips for the planning process.

In reviewing 2010, did you meet your goals? Did you come close or were you totally sidelined? If you were sidelined, was it something out of your control, like a family member getting sick, or was it the "bright and shiny object syndrome" or some other form of distraction? Once you review the past year, you can see what you may need to STOP doing before you START planning to do something else. For example, you may need to stop checking e-mail first thing in the morning because it sidetracks you for the next two hours, and you instead may need to start checking it after lunch, using the more productive morning hours on money making tasks.

Three quick tips in setting new goals for 2011:
1) Start where you are now, and not where you think you should be... sometimes a reality check is needed.
2) Make sure your goals are measurable. This can be in time saved, or financial income or savings, or people or products serviced.
3) Build a team - you don't have to do it all! Surround yourself with professionals to whom you can outsource.

Hope that helps, if you have any other good tips feel free to reply to this blog and share them. Take some time and enjoy your family and friends as we remember Christ's birth.
Merry Christmas!

Attitude of Gratitude

As Thanksgiving day approaches, I want to take a moment to focus on how thankfulness or gratitude effects business growth.

The first question I want to ask is, what drives you? What is your "Why" in business? Is this your family, your hobby, or something else? Is this "Why" something you are thankful for? The next question I have for you is have you expressed your thankfulness recently? Are you thankful for your clients? They are the life blood of any business, and everyone enjoys being told that they are special. One kind, encouraging word can change the world for someone. It can also help promote loyalty to your product or service.

So I want to take a moment and thank all those who read this and those who have purchased any services from me. Thank you all for trusting me and sharing your vision with me, allowing me to both grow and develop vision and applications for your business. If you think we (me or my team) did a great job, let us know and please refer us on to others who may benefit from any of our services.

As a thanksgiving gift mention this blog for 10% off any of our services!

Gwen Smith
Vision Interface
V-interface.com

Joyful Productivity...

I just listened to a call hosted by Choice Magazine, featuring George Kao. His main theme was you need "joyful productivity" to be successful in whatever you do. No matter if you are an entrepreneur or an employee. His presentation included replacing negative mindsets with positive ones and knowing your why's. But what stood out to me was planning your business or activities around events, be it blog postings, physical events or coaching calls.

So on that note, we here at Vision Interface are planning to do a Strategic planning workshop in October, focusing on planning for the next year. This call is what prompted this blog. I also listened to Eric Ries "The lean start-up" and his main premiss was "quite wasting peoples time" so give me a quick shout back if you would be interested in tools to help start the planning process for next year.

One last thing, if you are on facebook, jump on to our page and become a fan! Join in or start a discussion and use it as a tool. I'll add more stuff as I see more people jumping on.

Until next time... be joyful!

Powerful Listening

It takes work to listen! Some people are gifted with more of a people oriented bend. They tend to value what others say and some actually take the time to ask questions to get one to expound. Others act like every conversation is a challenge; they are busy defining their next argument before the other person ever finishes his/her first sentence. Have you ever worked with such people? It’s hard to get anything through to them, because they are not listening. The other type of person is so task oriented that they focus on other things as they are “listening”. This is not a good practice either, for one, it’s not listening to the other person fully, as other things are processing through the brain. And when people don’t feel like they are getting heard, they tend to shut down. They don’t express ideas, they don’t share their feelings… it basically limits their productivity. We all have had experiences with each of the above scenarios. These examples are just based on various behavior styles.

So how do we focus on becoming better listeners? First it helps to recognize your own behavior style. Are you fast and driving, and the task at hand is most important? Or are you social and love to talk and interact with people, but you tend to dominate the conversation and not let them participate much. Others run at a slower pace and tend to be either people focused or task focused. These people focused people tend to be better listeners, they go slower and ask questions and often can not focus on multiple tasks while communicating. People with the other slower style are more task and detail oriented and mainly communicate when they need to, to get the task complete.

So what is your dominate style? Are you aware of other styles, and how they function? This is not intended to be a full description of behavior styles, but just enough to alert you to different styles. To help you understand that as you work on listening to others you may have to do some self talk, to modify your dominate behavior style to listen and empower others effectively.

Vision Interface, is working with SBLO Co, and TTI to offer behavior analysis studies that focus on the key points of communication, team building, hiring, and business growth. Feel free to contact us to find out more information.

How do we communicate?

There are numerous studies out about communication, verbal and non-verbal. Books are written on both topics. Typically, in a face-to- face meeting we receive input as follows:

· 7% Words/Pace

· 38% Tone of Voice

· 55% Body Language (TTI LTD 2007)

There is a whole language out there that studies the different behaviors and how they communicate. Behavior studies have been around since 444 BC, but have evolved into DISC through some key persons:

• William M. Marston described theory used today

• Walter Clark developed first instrument

• Bill J. Bonnstetter validated communication styles and has developed a detail study or language of DISC.

Unfortunately, so many people have learned the basic DISC profile and look at someone's domineering trait and labels that person. It then becomes an excuse for behavior and it does not help anyone in how-to communication.

In Bonnstetter’s work and development of Target Training International Ltd. he and his associates have developed multiple assessments to help train people in the use of DISC and how to communicate better.

I am currently coaching with John Oaks, SBL co. on the use of these assessments and teaching others how to communicate better to each behavior style. If you want more information about TTI or coaching with us, feel free to contact us at: v-interface.com.

What’s the biggest problem businesses face, large or small?

I would say the biggest problem businesses face is the breakdown of communication.

Be it between owners, employees, customers, to potential customers. There are many ways we communicate, and many things that inhibit our communications, be it verbal, body language, or the written word.

It also depends on our behavior style, and how we process our surroundings. Some are people focused, some are task oriented. Some process really fast, other process at a much slower rate (but usually more thoroughly thought out). Once we discover how we communicate and why we function the way we do, it allow us to be aware and be able to modify our style to communicate with others in a way that they can relate. For more one this topic contact me at gwen@v-interface.com.