Going Off-Line

Last Monday I arrived at work and as usual pulled out my laptop, set it up on my desk, and went to grab the AC adapter out of the laptop case and much to my surprise - it wasn't there. I realized that I had forgotten it at home as I was doing work in the Living Room of my house the night before - and left it behind the couch. At first I thought - oh oh - what am I going to do for 2-3 hours - in the office with a "dead" computer.

It turned out to be a great 3 hours. I shut my door and completed a number of tasks:

1. Planned my week out
2. Rehearsed a presentation that I was doing the next day
3. Made some changes to a brochure that I had in the "creation" phase
4. Came up with 3 new ideas regarding an upcoming product launch

I actually felt invigorated by being unplugged - so to speak. I wasn't distracted by email, news, browsers, and electronic documents.

I think we sometimes become over connected and lose sight of our overall objectives. Try it sometime - leave your laptop in the case - it will still work when you plug it in after lunch.

In the meantime, let the creative juices flow and use a pen and paper - or sketch out some ideas you've been thinking about on your White Board.

Go Off-Line and discover.

New Years Resolutions - Quota

It's vital to meet with your sales team or managers to discuss the objectives for the New Year the first week of January. I'm always amazed at companies that delay the assignment of the annual quota to their sales team - in some cases towards the end of the first quarter. Many years ago while working for a very large computer company (software division) - the North American quota was not fully assigned until May. We were only told that the quota would increase over the year before. However, most of the sales team ended up talking about it all the time and it turned out to be a major distraction. As it turns out the SVP of Sales subsequently was terminated in mid July.

Sales Managers and Account Executives need to start focusing on the new number immediately - sooner the better. Sales productivity and momentum are very important and 2-3 weeks of extra focus can make a difference in making the revenue number for the year.

Start the focus.