Author Archives: Harry K. Jones

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

February = Leadership Opportunities

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Leaders of TomorrowWe’ve been very fortunate during the past few months to have received some great feedback from teachers, parents, and other youth leaders. In conjunction with that feedback, the month of February this year offers a rare occurrence: within this month’s 28 days, we’ll be celebrating:

  • National Youth Leadership Month
  • National Parent Leadership Month
  • Plant the Seed of Greatness Month and 
  • International Boost Self-Esteem Month

If you’re working with young people in a classroom situation, Big Brothers or Big Sisters, a church group, Boys or Girls Clubs, Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, Junior Achievement, Youth Leadership Councils, S.A.D.D., Brownies or Cub Scouts, YMCA or YWCA, a 4-H Youth Development Program, your own immediate family or any one of the many other youth organizations, we’d like to encourage you to share the wisdom of the ages as a strong leadership influence on the young people in your life.

Plant the Seed of Greatness, Boost the Self-Esteem of the young people in your life, demonstrate your Parental Leadership, and encourage Youth Leadership in your community—whew! That’s quite a tall order, but when you think about it, combing the potential of all four challenges may be a very powerful strategy indeed! This is a rare opportunity for us at a time when our young people aren’t seeing a lot of good examples in today’s chaotic environment. In addition, the media certainly isn’t contributing in any way.

Then why not utilize our illustrious past to share examples of how so many people and organizations, from every walk of life, have overcome negativity, barriers, and serious challenges to not only emerge successful but also make a very positive impact in so many ways?

Over the past several years we have shared dozens of short, motivational anecdotes that can and should be shared with today’s younger generation in hopes of offering inspiration and hope at a time when we certainly need it.

Listed below are the names of people and organizations you might want to discuss with the young people in your life. Each anecdote can be read in less than a minute or two. Simply click on the subject title link of your choice below, and you’ll find the three to eight narratives listed there. Download and reprint as many as you like and get them into the hands of as many young people and adults as you possibly can. Reprint them in your newsletters and bulletins. We need these stories today more than ever before.

We’ve already heard from several teachers, counselors, and parents who have used these anecdotes with great success to the delight of the young people with whom they shared.

Download, print, share, and discuss these many narratives to assist you in your quest of contributing to each of this month’s four opportunities – National Youth Leadership Month, National Parent Leadership Month, Plant the Seed of Greatness Month and International Boost Self-Esteem Month.

When the Going Gets Tough – 1

  • Lucille Ball
  • The Beatles
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Sir Isaac Newton
  • Babe Ruth
  • Chicken Soup for Soul Series

When the Going Gets Tough – 2

  • Beethoven
  • Katie Couric
  • Home Depot
  • Walt Disney
  • Helen Keller
  • John F. Kennedy
  • Grandma Moses

When the Going Gets Tough – 3

  • Garth Brooks
  • Carly Fiorina (HP)
  • The Gap
  • Kinko’s
  • Dr. Suess
  • Sam Walton

When the Going Gets Tough – 4

  • Peter Benchley (author)
  • Thomas Edison
  • Ulysses S. Grant
  • Thomas Monaghan (Dominos Pizza)
  • Edgar Allen Poe

When the Going Gets Tough – 5

  • Ray Kroc (McDonalds)
  • Jay Leno
  • Joe Louis (boxer)
  • Willie Nelson
  • Fred Smith (FedEx)

When the Going Gets Tough – 6

  • Alexander Graham Bell
  • Thomas Edison (2)
  • Lee Iacocca
  • Marilyn Monroe
  • H. Ross Perot
  • Elvis Presley
  • Xerox
  • Wilma Rudolph (athlete)

When the Going Gets Tough – 7

  • Johnny Cash
  • Sigmund Freud (psychiatrist)
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Supreme Court Justice)
  • Sylvester Stallone

Inspirational Individuals Who Overcame Obstacles

  • Charles Dickens (English novelist)
  • Hank Williams
  • J.K. Rowlings (Harry Potter author)

Key to Success? Ya Gotta Get Up!

  • Dr. Seuss (2)
  • Michael Jordan
  • Henry Ford
  • Apple Computer
  • Coca-Cola
  • Walt Disney (2)
  • Beethoven (2)
  • Xerox (2)
  • Trivial Pursuit!
  • Helen Keller (2)
  • Gone with the Wind
  • The Wizard of Oz

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Search for Creativity

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In our “Get Back in the Box” creativity presentation, we constantly remind attendees to be on the look out for examples of creativity everywhere they go. They’re all around us. We pass many of them daily but seldom recognize or acknowledge them … kind of a “functional blindness.” The reason is simple. We don’t respond or appreciate these examples because they’ve become part of our daily environment and simply blend into our subconscious rather than inspiring us as examples of what can be achieved if we’ll simply re-frame on occasion.

Let’s narrow a category to demonstrate this point. Focus on your local mall or shopping center and the many stores you walk by every day. The majority will utilize a storefront sign in hope of enticing those passing by to enter, shop, remember and return … maybe even tell others about their discovery.

The signs themselves may be large, small, oddly-shaped, colorful, or maybe even flashing neon. It must communicate what the store offers as far as products or services and then lure you to explore further. An even more subtle way to capture our attention lies in the name chosen to represent the business. Many choose to use a play on words to sell everything from pet supplies to coffee to lawn care. Many are clever, others not so much. The key lies in whether we remember that name. If we laugh—fine. If we groan—not so bad either as long as we’re curious, interested and will remember that unique name.

During one of our recent seminars, participants decided to test this theory without leaving the building. Since we were in New York City, they found a great resource in the yellow pages section of an obviously large phone book. Their efforts generated a very interesting list, and I have added to that list during my visits to other cities of various population.

Take a look and appreciate the creative juices which flow across our country.

  • PIZZA MY HEART
  • THE LAWN RANGER (lawn care)
  • LOAD & LOCK (public storage)
  • UNBE-WEAVE-ABLE (wig & hair pieces shop)
  • TITLE WAVE (bookstore)
  • THE SPOKESMAN (bike shop)
  • LORD of the FRIES (hand cut fries)
  • DUKE of OIL (oil change shop)
  • SOFA SO GOOD (furniture store)
  • THE MERCHANT OF TENNIS SOLE- MAN (shoe store)
  • WILLIAM the CONCRETER TWICE-SOLD TALES (used book store)
  • WRAPSODY (professional gift wrapping service)
  • CARDIOLOGY (card shop)
  • PRINTS CHARMING (copy shop)
  • JAMAICAN ME TAN (tanning salon)
  • BIN THERE DUMP THAT (disposal system)
  • SPEX IN THE CITY (optometry store)
  • SPECS APPEAL (optometry)
  • BRIEF ENCOUNTERS (underwear)
  • NEW YORK STOCKING EXCHANGE (lingerie)
  • LUV2SHOOTU (photographer)
  • DEEPLY KNEADED (therapeutic massage)
  • THE JOINT (a chiropractic place)
  • LUMBAR YARD (chiropractor)
  • CANE & ABLE (mobility healthcare)
  • CARL’S PANE in the GLASS (window repair)
  • COUNTER REVOLUTIONS (cabinet maker)
  • FLORIST GUMP (florist)
  • MRS. SIPPY’s COFFEE LICKITY SPLIT (ice cream shop)
  • COMBING ATTRACTIONS (hair salon)
  • PETS AND THE CITY (pet store)
  • INDIANA BONES and the TEMPLE of GROOM (pet care salon)

We’re going to keep searching for additional creative business names and will post them when we get a good list. You do the same and send us anything you find interesting. This is an excellent creative exercise for your staff as well. Give it a shot.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Going, Going, Gone … Introduction of a New Feature

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This past year has revealed a growing number of client requests for seminars and keynotes dealing with the subject of change and the challenges involved with having to cope with what is considered to be an uncomfortable trend.

Major book stores report a marked increase in the sales of books and audio tapes based on this age-old subject of change.

A recent National Internet Poll identified change as one of the top five concerns to the average American today.

However,

  1.  I’m personally pleased to see organizations seeking tools and strategies to better equip themselves to deal with change.
  2. It’s encouraging to see people pursue more and better information (books and CDs) on the subject.
  3. It’s reassuring to observe that the average American has identified change as a major concern in the hopes that they will prepare themselves to deal with it.

What I find both interesting and ironic is the fact that most people speak of change as though it’s a new concept and therefore difficult to deal with. The harsh reality lies in the fact that we should be very well equipped and prepared to deal with change as it has been a constant companion to all of us for as long as we can remember.

Here’s an interesting and entertaining exercise for you. Sit down for ten minutes with family, friends, or fellow staff members and generate a list of things that have changed in just the past five years. Consider areas of technology, food, politics, transportation, communication, entertainment, etc. Within a matter of a few minutes you’ll quickly fill a legal pad. Note that we have weathered all of those changes, benefited from the majority of them, and quickly took them for granted as we moved on to other things.

That’s life— always has been—always will be. When it ceases, we’re in big trouble. And yet we struggle to accept this vivid reality and seek to embrace it for it’s many advantages and benefits.

We seem to be so focused on past and present changes that we leave little time and energy to recognize the obvious changes which lie ahead and prepare ourselves, our families, our cities, and our organizations.

Those individuals and organizations which will be most successful in dealing with change are those who can learn from previous transformations, put forth an effort to predict future changes and create plans to deal with them. History proves this to be true—again and again.

Therefore we’re going to take advantage of this new blog feature, Going, Going, Gone, to review the many past changes we’ve experienced, identify current changes we may be dealing with at the moment, and contemplate upcoming modifications and how they might affect you, your family and organization.

We’ll focus on people, products, organizations, and trends which:

  • have undergone major changes,
  • are currently in the midst of transformation,
  • are destined for future change, and
  • the inevitable results that will evolve.

Watch this page for an on-going list and feel free to share your own predictions as well.

  • Newspaper classified ads will be replaced by free online listings at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base.
  • Print Yellow Pages will continue to bleed dollars to their various digital counterparts, from Internet Yellow Pages to local search engines and combination search/listing services like ReachLocal and Yodle. They will soon disappear altogether. Think of trees we’ll be saving.
  • Video stores such as Blockbuster Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video, West Coast Video, MovieBeam, and others are closing their doors by the hundreds as Netflix revolutionizes the industry and in-home downloading becomes more readily available and user-friendly.
  • Dial-up Internet Access connections have fallen from 40% in 2001 to 10% in 2008. The combination of an infrastructure to accommodate affordable high-speed Internet connections and the disappearing home phone have all but pounded the final nail in the coffin of dial-up Internet.
  • Phone landlines are also readily being replaced by cell phones. Note how phone booth presence has diminished in airports, hospitals, shopping malls, etc. Expect much more of the same. It’s only natural to expect the number of answering machines to decline as we see landlines disappear.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Answer the Call – Today!

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A disturbing news article emerged today. You could find it in most every major newspaper in the country, many significant magazines, and all over the Internet. It was covered by every prominent television newscast, and debated all over the talk radio dial.

It revealed alarming data on a subject which everyone in the country should be seriously concerned about and involved with. Sooner or later, every citizen in this great country will be impacted, in one way or another, by this rapidly growing tragedy.

The headline alone didn’t appear to be that serious at first glance. It read: “One in seven U.S. adults unable to read this story.”

Then the more you think about it, the more shocking it becomes. It doesn’t take long to realize the many ways this trend can and will impact us negatively if not dealt with in the very near future.

The story details a long-awaited federal study that revealed that an estimated 32 million adults in the United States—about one in seven—are saddled with such low literacy skills that it would be tough for them to read anything more challenging than a children’s picture book or to understand drug side effects listed on a pill bottle.

The findings come from the U.S. Education Department’s National Assessment of Adult Literacy. In short, the study finds our nation hasn’t made a dent in our adult literacy problem. In fact, current literacy rates indicate that an alarming number of adults find it a real challenge to simply read a typical newspaper article or even figure out a basic telephone bill.

Sheida White, a researcher said, “They really cannot read … paragraphs (or) sentences that are connected.”

Not being able to read doesn’t just make it harder to navigate each day. Low literacy impairs people’s ability to obtain critical information about their health and can dramatically shorten their lives.

A new study from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine revealed that low health literacy was the top predictor of mortality after smoking, also surpassing income and years of education, the study showed.

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings agrees, saying adult literacy efforts are inefficient and “scattered” across government agencies. Sound familiar? Think FEMA, IRS, HOMELAND SECURITY, AMTRAK, SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION, IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT … need I go on?

This is an issue that’s going to require immediate involvement, dedication, and determination by schools, friends, families, communities, and employers from coast to coast. All indications seem to warn us that if we don’t overcome this challenge, it will certainly overcome us

YOU can read. Use that talent to research the many ways you can enlist in the battle against illiteracy. These comprehensive sites are a service of the National Institute for Literacy. They contain a wealth of useful information on all aspects of literacy.

www.readinga-z.com
Thousands of printable books, lesson plans, and worksheets to teach guided reading and key reading skills.

Literacy.org
The International Literacy Institute (ILI) and the National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education jointly sponsor this innovative site. You can search their extensive collection by region, topic, or perspective.

The International Reading Association
The International Reading Association is dedicated to promoting high levels of literacy for all by improving the quality of reading instruction, disseminating research and information about reading, and encouraging the lifetime reading habit. Members include classroom teachers, reading specialists, consultants, administrators, supervisors, university faculty, researchers, psychologists, librarians, media specialists, and parents. With members and affiliates in 99 countries, its network extends to more than 350,000 people worldwide.

National Adult Literacy Database
The NALD provides a comprehensive and readily accessible database of adult literacy programs, resources, services and activities across Canada. Readers of all nationalities, and tutors of all ages will be impressed by its exhaustive collection of educational resources.

LiteracyNet
The Western/Pacific Literacy Network is a leading Web-based resource for the literacy community.

Preparing for the AMERICA READS Challenge
The Bank Street College of Education presents effective and user-friendly tips for volunteer tutors. Sample lessons are included.

National Center for Family Literacy
You’ll find a wealth of user-friendly tips in its pages for the Head Start Family Literacy Program.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Super Bowl Prices Force Creative Thinking

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It’s once again time for the biggest and most exciting event in football, Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Florida, on February 1, 2009. Tickets for this game are being sold for anywhere between $3,000 and $4,000 each at a time when few in this country can afford anything at all. It should be noted that it’s not just admission tickets that are costly this year. A 30-second commercial during this year’s game will cost advertisers $3 million dollars … that’s $6 million a minute or $100,000 per second!

Those out-of-this-world-prices have forced some pretty creative out-of-the-box thinking. Remember back in 1962 when the Avis Car Rental Company gained fame with its “We Try Harder” campaign? This claim was the result of the fact that Avis was currently number #2 in the industry behind Hertz and therefore must try harder to achieve success. When it launched that campaign, Avis was an unprofitable company with 11% of the car rental business in the USA. Within a year Avis was making a profit, and within two years Avis had tripled its market share to 35%.

Is History Repeating Itself?

Anheuser-Busch, the game’s king of advertising and the country’s largest brewing company, will air 4 ½ minutes of ad time this year at a cost of $27 million! However, Miller Brewing Company, #2 in the industry, is going to “Try Harder” and may very well get more publicity by spending only a fraction of that cost.

Talk about creativity!

Talk about thinking “out-of-the-box”!

Talk about overcoming adversity in tough times!

Miller Brewing will air a one-second commercial for the champagne of beers, Miller High Life, on affiliates across the nation. That’s right, a ONE-SECOND COMMERCIAL! Talk about shorter attention spans! Viewers will have to watch closely for these ads. This game-day stunt ad—known as a “blink”—will air on 25 local NBC stations reaching about 60% of the TV audience. The ads will feature the Miller High Life brand and will put the highly popular delivery man from its original ads in the one-second commercials.

Here’s the beauty of this unique approach to a very competitive advertising industry tradition. Miller Brewing, #2 in the industry, will spend millions less than #1 Anheuser-Bush.

Miller Brewing is receiving millions of dollars worth of free advertising as a result of media coverage explaining its unconventional approach to advertising. Radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet are all sharing the story.

As a result of this ongoing coverage prior to the big game, viewers will be looking for these ads in anticipation of something that appears to be impossible.

Viewers can visit the Miller website, http://1secondad.com/, in advance of the game to view the many creative ad spots.

Miller is demonstrating that anyone can use creativity and innovation to deal with adversity in challenging times.

Not only has it discovered a way to compete at a high level, save money when it’s most needed, entertain its audience and demonstrate its uniqueness … Miller may even have found a way to produce the most successful ads of the day at an event where commercials have been known to upstage the actual football game.

Share this report with your staff, watch the game to see if this gamble pays off, and then discuss how this kind of out-of-the-box thinking might very well benefit your organization in this trying times.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Zig Ziglar

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Looking back over the previous authors whose bios we’ve shared with our readers, I realized that many of them would be much more familiar to Baby Boomers as opposed to those in Generations X, Y or Z (New Silent Generation). However, even though the more recent generations may not recognize these authors by name, they are, indeed, familiar with their narratives, strategies, philosophies, and anecdotes. The work of these early authors (Napoleon Hill, Denis Waitley, Og Mandino, Ken Blanchard, and Zig Ziglar) have been shared, repackaged, reframed, and updated by more recent authors for later generations.

In choosing Ziglar, I pondered my decision to include him among our author bios. I say that because Zig is much more than an author. He’s a tremendous salesman, leading sales trainer, a legendary motivational speaker, a beloved religious leader, and, of course, a very successful author. He’s done it all and yearns to share it with others.

I’ve personally lost count of the number of times I’ve been in the audience to hear this gifted orator share his down-home wisdom over the decades. However, I do remember the first time I ever saw him on a stage. Until that day, I had never seen nor heard of Zig so I had no idea as to what to expect. From the minute he walked on the stage, I was mesmerized … riveted to his every word and movement in an effort to determine if he was a motivational speaker or a very talented comedian successfully emulating an orator. I make that statement with the greatest respect, but I mean it sincerely.

He made his entrance with gigantic strides, appearing to be at least seven feet tall. I’m sure he’s shorter, but his impeccable black pin-stripped suit, long, confident stride, ear-to-ear smile, and direct eye contact transforms him into a gentle giant you immediately trust.

Zig made Fred Astaire look clumsy as he glided from side to side across that enormous stage as though he owned it—which he did during the extent of his presentation. He made certain he connected with every person in the audience.

I mentioned the possibility of his being a comedian because of his style. He jumped, glided, twirled, and kneeled on one knee—whatever it took to emphasize his point and convince you of his sincerity. Blend that incomparable choreography with a southern drawl, which immediately convinced you that he was raised in the small Mississippi berg of Yazoo City, and you were hooked for the duration. Add his many captivating props, and you were in for an exciting experience.

Very few of his boundless fan base were aware of the fact that Zig was born Hilary Hinton Ziglar as the tenth of twelve children in 1926. He lost both his sister and father in 1932 and suffered much hardship as his mother struggled to raise 11 children alone.

After a stint in the Navy, he tried his hand at college at the University of South Carolina but soon chose to pursue a career in sales. Although struggling early on, Zig soon fine tuned his craft. He sold sandwiches to college classmates for a while and then moved on to selling pots and pans where he became a true sales champion. He placed second in one national firm of more than 7,000 and first in another company with a 3,000-plus sales staff. He went on to set sales records selling a variety of products for various companies.

He soon began receiving requests to share his secrets with many sales organizations and gained such notoriety that he walked away from a record-setting sales career to focus on helping others to become more successful. The rest is history.

Zig soon became one of the world’s foremost sales trainers. His name was synonymous with confidence, motivation and success. His success with sales training led him to focus on personal development as well. In 1970, he launched his full-time speaking career and built a multi-million dollar corporation on the same philosophy he expounds to his audiences—hard work, common sense, fairness, integrity, commitment, and an infectious sense of humor.

Since 1970, an extensive array of Ziglar audio, video, books, and training manuals have been utilized by small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, U.S. government agencies, churches, school districts, prisons, and non-profit associations, affecting lives in a profound way.

Over the last 30-plus years presenting himself and his motivational ideas, he has developed a world-wide following. He has grown from a one-man show to chairman of the Zig Ziglar Corporation, headquartered in Dallas, with a staff of more than 60 employees—an organization which is committed to helping people more fully utilize their physical, mental, and spiritual resources. Zig has traveled more than 5 million miles throughout the world as a speaker.

A well-known authority on the science of human potential, Zig Ziglar has been recognized three times in the Congressional Record of the United States for his work with youth in the drug war and for his dedication to America and the free enterprise system.

Titans of business, politics and sports consider Zig Ziglar to be the single greatest influence in their lives. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Sales and Marketing, and the National Speakers Association honored Zig Ziglar with its highest award, “The Cavett.”

Individuals and institutions worldwide have utilized an extensive collection of Ziglar audios, videos, books and training curriculum. The client list of Ziglar Training Systems reads like a who’s who in American and global business. Nine of his books have been on the best-seller lists, and his titles have been translated into more than 38 languages and dialects.

Over the decades, Zig has personified his long-time motto of: “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

Last year Zig fell down a set of stairs and hit his head, resulting in a serious concussion. Suddenly, life was very different as this vibrant motivator no longer moved with the energy of a 65-year-old man as he had for so long. Almost overnight he aged 15-plus years and began the struggle to overcome and live with a brain injury.

After 32 years as the heart and soul of a business, Zig Ziglar has decided it would be best if he gave up his day-to-day operational role of his company. He has decided to hand over his company to his son, Tom Ziglar, president, and son-in-law Richard K. Oates, chief operating officer, as he concentrates on what he does best: produce best-selling books and energize crowds.

If you ever get an opportunity to see Zig in person, do yourself a favor and do so. You’ll never regret it. I’ve heard many colleagues say they make it a point to see Zig in person as often as possible. Does that mean that previous motivation didn’t last? I think not. Zig, himself, says “that people often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing—that’s why I recommend it daily!”

Here are just some of the many books Zig Ziglar has written:


















About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

New Hire Turnover Increases

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Headquartered in Washington, DC with regional offices in Atlanta, GA and Westport, CT. Leadership IQ, a global leadership training and research company, provides best practices research and executive education to the world’s leading companies and their leaders.

Their work has appeared in Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, the Harvard Management Update, CBS News, and many more. They’ve trained tens of thousands of leaders from across the Fortune 500, non-for-profit, small-and-midsize companies, and government organizations.

They direct one of the largest leadership studies ever conducted, and currently focus their work on management and executive performance, workforce issues, negotiations, strategic planning and customer service.

In a three-year study, they examined 5,247 hiring managers from 312 public, private, business and healthcare organizations. Collectively these managers hired more than 20,000 employees during the study period.

The study focused on why new hires fail at such alarming rates which is certainly a growing trend. For instance:

  • 46% of newly-hired employees will fail within 18 months.
  • Only 19% will achieve unequivocal success.
  • Contrary to popular belief, technical skills are not the primary reason why new hires fail.
  • Instead, poor interpersonal skills dominate the list.

The study also discovered that:

  • 26% of new hires fail because they can’t accept feedback.
  • 23% of new hires fail because they’re unable to understand and manage emotions.
  • 17% of new hires fail because they lack the necessary motivation to excel.
  • 15% of new hires fail because they have the wrong temperament for the job.
  • and only 11% of new hires fail because they lack the necessary technical skills.

The above data is certainly not rocket science. However, while the failure rate for new hires is distressing, it should not be surprising:

Eighty-two percent of managers reported that in reflection, the interview process could have been handled more effectively. Warning sign may have been noticed had the managers:

  • been more focused on the interview itself;
  • listened more and talked less;
  • spent more time on the actual interview; and
  • had stronger interviewing abilities and experience.

Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ, explained that “The typical interview process fixates on ensuring that new hires are technically competent. But coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament are much more predictive of a new hires’ success or failure. Do technical skills really matter if the employee isn’t open to improving, alienates their coworkers, lacks drive and has the wrong personality for the job?”

The study tracked the success and failure of new hires and interviewed managers about their hiring tactics and new hires’ performance, personality and potential. Upon completing the 5,247 interviews, Leadership IQ compiled, categorized and distilled the top five reasons why new hires failed (i.e., were terminated, left under pressure, received disciplinary action or significantly negative performance reviews). The following are the top areas of failure, matched with the percentage of respondents.

  • Coachability (26%): The ability to accept and implement feedback from bosses, colleagues, customers and others.
  • Emotional Intelligence (23%): The ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions, and accurately assess others’ emotions.
  • Motivation (17%): Sufficient drive to achieve one’s full potential and excel in the job.
  • Temperament (15%): Attitude and personality suited to the particular job and work environment.
  • Technical Competence (11%): Functional or technical skills required to do the job.

Eight hundred and twelve managers experienced significantly more hiring success than their peers. What differentiated their interviewing approach was their emphasis on interpersonal and motivational issues.

Hiring failures can be very costly, impacting not only your organization but other employees as well. However, these failures can be prevented if managers focus more of their interviewing energy on candidates’ coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament. Doing so will provide vast improvements in the hiring success. Technical competence is actually a very poor predictor of whether a newly hired employee will succeed or fail.

“The financial cost of hiring failures, coupled with the opportunity cost of not hiring high performers, can be millions of dollars, even for small companies,” adds Murphy. “And the human cost can be even worse. If a hospital hires a nurse that won’t accept feedback and alienates pharmacists and physicians, the result could be a medical error. This one bad hiring decision could cost a patient their life.”

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Advice from a Dedicated High School Teacher

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Whether you’re a valued subscriber or a casual visitor to our blog, we certainly appreciate your continued support and feedback. It helps us a great deal in deciding upon future content. We receive a fair number of comments via the feedback link at the end of each of our blog articles, and we look forward to each comment as they’re both interesting and informative.

You can read any and all of these comments by simply clicking on the link at the end of each article. However, we recently received a request from a high school teacher who apparently reads our blog regularly and now shares it with her students. She requested that we print her comment as part of a column in hopes of reaching a larger audience than she would if we posted her advice under comments.

She wanted to offer advice to other teachers and anyone who has an opportunity to work with students. We thank her for her kinds words of advice and share them with you below.

I’d like to share some advice with a certain segment of your readers but I’m not confident that the comment area of your blog is the place to do that in order to attain the greatest exposure. If you could possibly pass this message on in one of your columns, I feel a great many people would benefit.

I teach a business class for juniors and seniors in hopes of exposing them to the realities awaiting them after graduation. This class is only two years old and was established with the assistance of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. We have made great progress in that short time and the students really seem to enjoy the process.

A parent of one of our students contacted me with a suggestion that I check out your web site and blog. He felt that both contained a great deal of information that would assist us in reaching our goals while, at the same time, would entertain and educate our students. I, and two other teachers, searched your blog and web site thoroughly and quickly agreed that we wanted our students to do the same. We did not direct them to any particular segment as we wanted them to explore and discover what was important to them. We requested that they search, find something of interest, and report to their classmates what they found.

They came back with information from almost every segment of your blog and a number of areas of your web site. They found the following to be not only very helpful to them but enjoyable as well.

Your many, many book reviews (180)
Generational Gems for Future Leaders. (great stories)
Meet the Authors
Out-of-the-Box Thinking (exciting)
Little Known Facts About Leaders and Organizations (very informative)
A Site for Sore Eyes (great resources)
Fact-A-Day (fun and educational)
Need A Lift? (encouraging)
When the Going Gets Tough (motivational)

Many other areas were mentioned as well but the above seemed to get the most attention. The message I wanted to share with others in your readership numbers, who work with students in any way, is this: Your approach to writing captures their attention and explains very crucial issues in a way which is easily understood and truly enjoyed by students of high school age. If you’re working with students in a classroom situation, an organization, a project or any organized vehicle of learning, I would highly recommend that you expose your wards to this blog and web site as it will quickly become a favored resource. I might also point out that we have many staff members and parents visiting these sites on a regular basis and have reprinted many of your blog articles in our school paper. Do yourself a favor and visit both the web site and blog and make the discovery for yourself.

Thank you for letting me share and please continue doing what you do so well.

Ms. Julie Darbon

And thank you Ms. Darbon for your kind words and obvious support. It’s rewarding indeed to know your students are enjoying and learning from our efforts. I look forward to hearing from some of them in the future. Thanks too for exposing them to the realities of a challenging world they’ll soon be part of. You’re providing them a great service and I’m sure they’ll appreciate it greatly in the future.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Make the Move to Make a Difference! Be a Mentor

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January is National Mentoring Month … an annual campaign created in 2002 to promote youth mentoring across the U.S. This organization is the brain-child of the Harvard School of Public Health, the Corporation for National and Community Service and MENTOR.

Each year since 2002, President George W. Bush has endorsed the campaign by proclaiming January as National Mentoring Month. The declaration has been endorsed by both chambers of the Congress. Sponsors include The MCJ Foundation, MetLife Foundation, and The Curtis L. Carlson Family Foundation. Media partners include: Time Warner, Viacom, ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC; Comcast; and the National Association of Broadcasters.

Designated nonprofit and governmental agencies are responsible for coordinating local campaign activities in communities across the country, including media outreach and volunteer recruitment. Local lead partners include state and local affiliates of MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, Corporation for National and Community Service, Points of Light Foundation and Volunteer Center National Network, America’s Promise Alliance, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Communities in Schools, and United Way of America.

General Colin L. Powell has been chosen to headline the 7th Annual National Mentoring Month campaign for 2009. The campaign’s goal is to recruit volunteer mentors to help young people achieve their full potential. The campaign’s theme is “Share What You Know. Mentor a Child.”

General Powell is currently appearing in public service announcements (PSAs) on television and radio to promote the recruitment of volunteer mentors. His message focuses on the importance of mentoring, and the benefits to the mentor as well as the child. Ten years ago, prior to his term as U.S. Secretary of State, General Powell founded the America’s Promise Alliance, the nation’s largest multi-sector collaborative dedicated to the well-being of children and youth; his wife, Alma Powell, is the organization’s current Chair.

A highlight of the campaign is “Thank Your Mentor Day” in which Americans thank and honor their mentors. People are encouraged to contact their mentors directly to express appreciation, become a mentor in their own community, make a financial contribution to a local mentoring program, or post a tribute on WhoMentoredYou.org.

If you’re interested in learning more about this very rewarding movement check out the following links …

http://www.mentoring.org/
This site will provide you with a connection to the Mentoring Partnership in your home state; latest mentoring articles in the news; mentoring stories; and much more.

http://www.mentoringcanada.ca/resources/aboutus.html
This site contains all of the same information as the site above for Canadian residents. Get involved today and make a real difference at a time when it is so crucial for everyone involved. You’ll be glad you did!

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Have We Become Too Complacent?

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I am far from being a radical person. However, I can’t help but wonder if we, as a society, have grown too complacent for our own good. At what point do we simply say “Enough, already!” Again, this is not a political concern. This is definitely a leadership issue.

TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet have done a pretty good job of allowing us to get some insight into how our “leaders” in Washington, D.C. are dealing with what very well may be the greatest financial crisis in the history of our country. To be honest, it scares me!

Remember our initial exposure to the financial sector bailout? All focus was on the figure of $750 BILLION … yes, $750 BILLION! Say that figure out loud slowly. Isn’t it amazing how mundane it sounds? It’s almost as though that was the amount we spent at the mall over the weekend. And yet, that’s quite a bit of money.

How much is it? Consider this:

  • A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
  • A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
  • A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
  • A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
  • A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

As I said, a BILLION is a large number. Now consider the fact that Bloomberg TV analyst Mark Faber, author of the “Gloom Boom Doom” report, recently declared that the initial proposal of $750 BILLION for the financial sector bailout will actually cost closer to $5 TRILLION!

How much is a TRILLION?

Short and sweet, a TRILLION ($1,000,000,000,000) is 1,000 billions!

If you counted to a TRILLION out loud, one number per second, it would take you 31,688 years to complete the task! A stack of $100 bills totaling $1 TRILLION would be 789 miles high OR 144 Mt. Everests stacked on top of one another!

Now consider the fact that our political leaders in Washington, D.C., from both parties, are so effortlessly tossing around both terms while never mentioning the fact that this bailout money will come out of OUR pockets. This is complacency.

What really concerns me is the fact that WE have accepted this rhetoric with very little, if any, rebuttal or concern. This too is complacency!

Dictionaries define complacency as: “the feeling you have when you are satisfied, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble.” Does this not describe our current status in light of the financial sector bailout and the auto industry rescue? $5 TRILLION plus!

This entire scenario reminds me of an age-old Generational Gem involving a complacent frog and a kettle of boiling water.

The story’s origins are rooted in nineteenth-century physiological literature. An article co-written by G. Stanley Hall from 1887 indicates that many experiments were performed on frogs in the 1870s and 1880s for the purposes of determining how reactive their nervous systems were to various types of stimuli. Another source lists an experiment done in 1882 at Johns Hopkins which produced similar findings.

The theory was simple. They say that if you put a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will leap out right away to escape the danger.

However, if you put a frog in a kettle that is filled with water that is cool and pleasant, and then you gradually heat the kettle until it starts boiling, the frog will not become aware of the threat until it is too late. The frog will soon pass out and eventually die … unaware of any threat. The frog’s survival instincts are geared towards detecting sudden changes.

This parable is often used to illustrate how humans have to be careful to watch slowly changing trends in the environment, not just the sudden changes. It’s a warning to keep us paying attention not just to obvious threats but to more slowly developing ones.

Remember a tough little Texan businessman, Ross Perot, who ran for President in 1992? He appeared on network television with charts and graphs to warn us of the very financial industry threat we now face. His illustrations were ridiculed by seasoned politicians insuring his defeat.

Threats of the U.S. auto industry demise have been evident since the 60s. However, at the time, the water in our kettle was obviously room temperature. Are you starting to feel the heat?

This same complacency has led to the extinction of tens of thousands of U.S. businesses in the past year. It’s all a matter of leadership.

The next time you hear a politician use the words “billion” or “trillion” in a casual manner, remember our friend the frog. Inform your “leaders” in Washington, D.C. that the water in our kettle is reaching the boiling point!

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.