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Next Step Mentality

Written by Len G. Merson

Topic: Communication Skills and TrainingPublished November 6, 2007
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NEXT STEP MENTALITYnnI contend that the biggest disputes taking place in relationships, both in our business and our personal lives, emanate from the failure to convey important information. The most commonly used mea culpa of “I forgot” does not lend itself to forgiveness very often. One of the world’s greatest pool players of all time is Willie Mosconi. What made Mosconi so adept at the game was not simply that he could shoot a ball into any pocket on the pool table, but his uncanny ability, as a result of shooting his last shot, to have that little white cue ball in the perfect position for his next shot. In other words, Mosconi was a master of what I call ‘Next Step Mentality’. How often do we find ourselves driving up to the home of a friend and suddenly realizing that we forgot to bring that special bottle of wine? Or being invited, with weeks of notice, to your boss’s home for a Sunday barbecue and failing to tell your spouse until the morning of the party. Imagine the salesperson for a large and reputable hotel chain closing the biggest convention contract in the history of the hotel. As a result of this contract the hotel will be completely sold out for five days, eighteen months from today. Imagine further that in the exuberance and celebration in the sales department he neglected to inform the reservation department of the new contract. The consequence…a catastrophe just waiting to happen and “I’m sorry, I forgot” just isn’t going to cut it. Here’s how ‘Next Step Mentality’ comes to your rescue: At the moment you’re logging the dinner at your friend’s home onto your electronic or paper calendar, for let’s say, 7:00 P.M., directly prior to that time, log the reminder “Bring that 2004 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir”. At the very second that your boss is inviting you and your spouse to that Sunday barbecue, log on the evening section of today’s calendar “Talk to Mary regarding our availability for barbecue at Bob’s on the 24th”.nnnnnnThe hotel convention contract pending disaster could have been easily averted by the salesperson. As the client was signing the contract, the salesperson needed only to log on today’s calendar “notify reservations of Acme Freight convention”. Just another example of ‘Next Step Mentality’. The rule of thumb is in asking yourself the following questions:n• Who would need to know what I have just learned?n• Who could benefit from this information?n• Who could be of help to me with this information?n• Who will appreciate the respect by my providing them with this communication? You will come to find that this Next Step Mentality will soon become habitual. You will see yourself thinking in such a way that your cue ball will always be in the perfect position for your next shot.nn Len Merson, n Founder, C.E.O.n Chaos Over, Inc.n www.chaosover.com n n 1-88-VERY CALM (Toll Free line)n 619.980.7372 (Direct line)n 619.291.1709 (Facsimile line)n Lmerson@chaosover.comnnn

Article author

About the Author

LEN MERSON

Len Merson is the Founder and C.E.O. of Chaos Over, Inc. His career began in sales and marketing consulting. Invariably, the companies that contracted for his services were so disorganized that it was hard to see how they attained, and maintained, the success they had achieved. This mismanagement of information was, for the most part, under the surface. Merson taught them methods to become far more organized. Carefully following a paradigm that he had formulated, each company's sales, revenue, productivity and profit "shot up like a rocket!" Merson also began to see how powerful the correlation was between organization and the companies’ profits and self-esteem of those involved. It was from this actualization that The CHAOSOVER Program (formerly the CareerTech program), was born in July of 1973 in none other tha
Honolulu, Hawaii where Len resided from 1972 until 1993. He now resides in San Diego, CA.

Over the past thirty-three years, Len has trained over 75,000 people in companies around the world in mastering their careers and recapturing their lives. An international trainer and consultant, as well as being regarded as an expert in the field of turning chaos into productivity. Merson’s programs have been successfully provided to companies such as the Whirlpool Corporation, Sun Microsystems. Oracle, Sybase, Quantum, Applied Materials, Altera, American Express Travel Division, Electronic Arts/EA Sports. Len currently transforms more than twenty-five corporate environments and enthralls over thirty general audiences yearly and has won speaking awards from The National Speakers Association.

Len is a published author. His book, THE INSTANT PRODUCTIVITY TOOLKIT, 21 Simple Ways to Get More Out of Your Job, Yourself and Your Life, IMMEDIATELY is now available for purchase through Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnes&Noble.com.

Len is acutely concerned with assisting children in need. He conducts self-esteem workshops in public, private and parochial schools as well as juvenile homes and teenage abuse shelters, all across the country. To date, over 23,000 young people have participated in his pro-bono sessions. In this manner, he believes that he contributes back into the community. His satisfaction is greatly derived from working with our young people as well as being a devoted dad to Jessica, dad-in-law to Paul and beloved grandfather to his beloved and wonderful grandsons, Jordan Paul and Caleb Alika. n nn n nn

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