Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time. But his road to success has come a long way since he was cut from his high school basketball team. He once shared his secret to greatness:

Heart is what separates the good from the great.

Natural ability will make you good. Big budgets will make you good. Fantastic marketing will make you good. But it takes heart to be great. Greatness lies in diligence, perseverance, and drive. Greatness lies in the intangibles.

Heart is never content but always pushes you to a greater level. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, explains:

Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.

Just because you experience a sales success or management success or any success, don’t trade your heart for contentment. Greatness does not come in the leap of one sole success, but it comes from the inching forward of one success after another.

Heart is not about comparing yourself to others but about comparing yourself to your past. It is about constant self-improvement. There will always be someone smarter than you, stronger than you, and faster than you. But your heart will determine how you measure up in the long run. Your heart is your key to greatness.

Lifehack recently compiled a list of 50 methods to get things done faster, better, and more easily. Here are my favorite fifteen:

• Most Important Tasks (MITs)
  At the start of each day (or the night before) highlight the three or four most important things you have to do in the coming day. Do them first. If you get nothing else accomplished aside from your MITs, you’ve still had a pretty productive day.
• Inbox Zero
  Decide what to do with every email you get, the moment you read it. If there’s something you need to do, either do it or add it to your to-do list and delete or file the email. If it’s something you need for reference, file it. Empty your email inbox every day.
• Wake Up Earlier
  Add a productive hour to your day by getting up an hour earlier — before everyone else starts imposing on your time.
• Eat the Frog
  Do your most unpleasant task first. Based on the saying that if the first thing you do in the morning is eat a frog, the day can only get better from then on.
• 80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle)
  Generally speaking, the 80/20 Principle says that most of our results come from a small portion of our actual work, and conversely, that we spend most of our energy doing things that aren’t ultimately all that important. Figure out which part of your work has the greatest results and focus as much of your energy as you can on that part.
• Time Boxing
  Assign a set amount of time per day to work on a task or project. Focus entirely on that one thing during that time. Don’t worry about finishing it, just worry about giving that amount of undivided attention to the project. (Variation: fixed goals. For example, you don’t get up until you’ve written 1,000 words, or processed 10 orders, or whatever.)
• Batch Process
  Do all your similar tasks together. For example, don’t deal with emails sporadically throughout the day; instead, set aside an hour to go through your email inbox and respond to emails. Do the same with voice mail, phone calls, responding to letters, filing, and so on — any routine, repetitive tasks.
• Time Log
  Lawyers have to track everything they do in the day and how long they do it so they can bill their clients and remain accountable. You need to be accountable to yourself, so keep track of how much time you really spend on the things that are important to you by tracking your time.
• Write It Down
  Don’t rely on your memory as your system. Write down the things you need to do, your schedule, anything you might need to refer to, and every passing thought so you can relax, knowing you won’t forget. Use your brain for thinking, use paper or your computer for keeping track of stuff.
• Monotasking
  We like to think of ourselves as great multitaskers, but we aren’t. What we do when we multitask is devote tiny slices of time to several tasks in rapid succession. Since it takes more than a few minutes (research suggests as long as 20) to really get into a task, we end up working worse and more slowly than if we devoted longer blocks of time to each task, worked until it was done, and moved on to the next one.
• Unclutter
  Clutter is anything that’s out of place and in the way. It’s not necessarily neatness — someone can have a rigorously neat workspace and not be able to get anything done. It’s being able to access what you need, when you need it, without breaking the flow of your work to find it. Figure out what is “clutter” in your working and living spaces, and fix that.
• To-Don’t List
  A list of things not to do — useful for keeping track of habits that lead you to be unproductive, like playing online flash games.
• No
  Learning to say “no” — to new commitments, to interruptions, to anything — is one of the most valuable skills you can develop to keep you focused on your own commitments and give you time to work on them.
• Purge
  Regularly go through your existing commitments and get rid of anything that is either not helping you advance your own goals or is a regular “sink” of time or energy.
• Timer
  Tell yourself you will work on a project or task, and only that project or task, for a set amount of time. Set a timer (use a kitchen timer, or use a countdown timer on your computer), and plug away at your work. When the timer goes off, you’re done — move on to the next project or task.

Currently, I use a combination of “Timer” and “Time Log.” I use SlimTimer to track how much time I spend in seven different areas of my work day. And each area has a minimum goal of time for me to invest.

So how do you get things done? What methods have you found that actually work?

People know it is wrong to judge a book by its cover, but they still do. People know it is wrong to categorize by stereotypes, but they still do that too. By human nature, we are wired to judge things by their appearance.

That is why it is vital to have great design because those who know nothing about you will judge you by your appearance. Aesthetics are a powerful thing. Whether graphic design or product design, your appearance shapes how others perceive you.

Amateur design is not credible. It can come across as cheap or inexperienced or even as a scam. But great design gives its viewers a taste of what to expect. Great design communicates your brand. It is relevant to your target audience. It’s believable. It’s professional. And its style is appropriate. Not only does great design increase the credibility of first impressions, but it also adds value to your existing customers’ perceptions.

Your design is your credibility. You can’t stop people from making assumptions, but you can create an image that produces the right assumptions.

Last fall, Harris Interactive discovered that people are growing more and more skeptical of the statements that companies make. In fact, 44% of poll respondents think all 17 industries included in the study are generally not honest and trustworthy. They normally don’t believe company statements. From 2003-2007, such distrust grew from 37% to 44% of respondents.

Because people are growing less trusting of advertising and direct messages from companies, it is important to try to create relationships with your target audience. Relationships build trust. They tear down misconceptions, doubts, and stereotypes. And they do so because they make the unfamiliar familiar.

Of course, not just any relationship will do. You must be authentic. Be transparent. Accentuate your desire to meet their needs with your product or service. If money is your priority, it will likely show and compromise the relationship’s authenticity. But if the customer is your priority, customers will notice and begin giving you the priceless gift of their trust.

People are most loyal to companies they trust. When trust becomes increasingly scarce, it makes earning it all the more valuable.

[via The Experience Economist & The Consumerist]

Sometimes the key to marketing success is just getting lucky. Fifteen minutes of fame from the right place at the right time does wonders.

Take for example the movie Juno, which features a retro hamburger phone. One month after the movie’s release, eBay sales of the hamburger phone rose 759%.

Or consider the Tickle Me Elmo doll. Appearances on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” and “Today” in the fall of 1996 launched Tickle Me Elmo into toy superstardom.

Finding such success can be elusive. Thousands of videos designed to be viral never spread. And most new products fail. There is one thing in common with these lucky breaks – the product is noteworthy. There is something unique, notable, and remarkable about hamburger phones and Tickle Me Elmo dolls. Although there is no guaranteed formula to achieve such success, there are three principles to keep in mind if you want your product to “get lucky.”

1. Average products rarely, if ever, get lucky. Even with publicity, people just don’t care about average.
2. Not all noteworthy products get exposure. There is no fairness to the limelight.
3. A noteworthy product and a good dose of exposure are your best chance at getting lucky. Even then, phenomenal results are not guaranteed.

[via Trend Hunter Magazine]

What will you do if and when technology fails you?

When you depend on technology, and it’s no longer there, do you have a backup plan?

If AT&T’s network fails and leaves your wireless phone and laptop without email and Internet capabilities, can you still be productive? This Thursday, customers in the Midwest and Southeast found out.

Also this Thursday, two telecom cables were cut on the ocean floor near Alexandria, Egypt, which left North Africa, the Middle East, and large portions of Asia without Internet access.

So how would you and your business cope without Internet access? Could your business survive if an Internet outage lasted for months due to a natural disaster or EMP attack? The more that a business becomes digital, the less likely it is that a backup plan will suffice.

I spend a good portion of my work day on the Internet. So when an ice storm hit Oklahoma this past December and left 600,000 homes without power, we were able to mobilize our offices until the Internet was restored a week and a half later. It was a backup plan, and it helped. But we still experienced a significant set back as a company. With that said, it is always good to have a plan just in case technology fails you.

When it comes to marketing, promotion is typically the center of attention. Out of the 4 P’s of the marketing mix, promotion is usually in the limelight while product, price, and place are at times neglected.

Although advertising and public relations are important, it is vital that organizations never put promotion ahead of what is most important – the product. Making a product more marketable through product enhancement or brand development is one of the best investments an organization can make.

Great products sell themselves. They create word of mouth. And essentially, they turn your customers into promoters. If you put marketability first, then promotion will only amplify the success already being generated from having a great product.

But if you do not have a great product – if it is not marketable – then promoting it will likely make things worse in the long run. After all, the quickest way to kill a bad product is with great advertising.

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What’s this blog about?

I enjoy helping organizations become more effective and successful. There is no niche that holds all the answers, but I will be focusing most of my posts on the areas of design, leadership, management, marketing, technology, and culture.