Habits are powerful because they literally have an ‘unconscious’ mind of their own.  Habits are created in the basal ganglia part of the brain, the “primitive” low-level part that is also responsible for emotions and pattern recognition.  Habits are created by routines…. things we do every day, over and over, until we no longer need to think about what we are doing while we are doing it.  Habits get hard-wired into the brain and then deploy even without conscious thought.  Habits allow us to perform tiny, repeated tasks daily without having to mentally engage at all. 

Most people battle bad habits.  This is not a guess or supposition.   A survey of 9,400 Americans found that a large percentage had had the following bad habits that they wanted to change at some point in their lives:

With the start of the 2023 calendar year, everyone is busy making new years resolutions, formulating plans and setting goals.  The question on everyone’s mind is, “what do I have to do to be successful this year?”  People set actionable goals for themselves.  Get a raise in salary.  Boost sales.  Land a promotion.  Launch a business.  Earn a certification.  Change jobs.   Add new products or territories to a business.   Whatever the goal, the thought is that achieving that goal will result in success and that will make you happy. 

After all, from a very early age, we are taught that that success leads to happiness.  From grade school on, we are told that success is the key to achieving what one desires and the path to happiness.  It seems logical that being successful would make a person happy.  But others argue that it’s the other way around:  happiness leads to success.  So which is it?  Does success lead to happiness or happiness to success? Or is it a virtuous cycle where success leads to happiness which leads to more success which leads to more happiness…. and so forth?  It’s important to know if the goal is to be successful and that will make you happy or the goal is to be happy and that will lead to being successful. 

There are thousands of companies in the U.S. that specialize in sourcing top talent.  Retained recruitment firms. Contingency search firms.  Staffing agencies.  Recruitment Process Outsourcing companies.  And most companies have internal recruiters who are part of a company’s HR department.  There are also tools to help businesses recruit talent.  Job Directories.  Job Alerts.  Career Centers.  Temp Agencies.  Career Fairs.  Finding talent is big business in the U.S.  IbisWorld estimates that the Employment & Recruiting Agencies Market generated $28.5 Billion in revenue in 2022.  There are tens of thousands of articles, blogs, podcasts and books dedicated to helping companies improve in their hunt for qualified candidates. 

Cutting through the noise to connect with and convert a prospect to a customer is one of the biggest challenges facing sales and marketing teams today.  The noise is everywhere.  Visual.  Auditory.  Olfactory.  Textile.  Intellectual.  Social.  Emotional.  Prospective customers are being targeted and solicited at every turn. 

Billboards.  Bus benches.  Newspapers.  Magazines.  Radio programs.  Street signs.  Social media ads and advertorials.  Online retargeting ads.  Jingles.  Search engine ads.  Packaging.  Emails.  Directories.  Fence banners.  Flags.  Wrapped vehicles.  Digital signs.  Scents in retail locations.  Podcasts.   Commercials.  Coupons.  Skywriting.  Junk mail.  That’s just the tip of the selling iceberg. 

Salespeople will do just about anything to close a sale.  They will brave cold calls to hardened gatekeepers.  They will send email after email after email to prospects hoping to elicit a response.  They’ll attend networking events and social functions trolling for clients.  They’ll schlep displays, banners and premiums to trade shows to engage attendees.  They’ll offer gifts and enticements hoping to cut through the noise.  And, they will schedule Zoom meetings, teach seminars and deliver webinars to provide value and build rapport.  It can be a daunting task to do all that work just to receive 99 “No, thank you” in the hopes of getting one “Yes.”

The worst part is that those prospects are often being solicited when they are busy or distracted, and just don’t have the bandwidth to give their full attention.  And the shelf life of those time-consuming sales efforts is short.  Staying top-of-mind with prospects long-term beyond the call, conference or class is very challenging.  Those warm leads turn cold again quickly.

Overcoming Price’s Square Root Law

Productivity is defined as “the measure of economic performance that compares the amount of goods and services produced (the output) against the inputs used to produce those goods and services.” So if a company with 100 employees generated $20M in profits that year, that means each employee’s output generates an average of $200K in profits per year.

But Price’s Law (a theory put forth by Dr. Derek J. de Solla Price, a Yale professor) says output is not generated equally. Price’s Law postulates that “in any productive community, 50% of the output will be achieved by the square root of the total group.” This applies to a host of settings and situations. So, in a company of four employees, two employees (the square root of four) produce half the work and the other two produce the other half. In that scenario, everyone is generating an equal amount of work. But, in a company with 25 employees, it means that 5 employees (square root of 25) are responsible for 50% of the company’s output and the other 20 employees generate the other 50%. That’s not great. But it gets worse the bigger the organization. In a business with 100 employees, 10 employees (square root of 100) are responsible for 50% of the company’s output and the other 90 employees generate the other 50%. If the company were generating $20M in revenue, 10 people were responsible for generating $10M and the other 90 generated the other $10M.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the amount of goods and services produced (the output) against the inputs used to produce those goods and services.”  That is important because productivity is the driving force of all organizations, whether for profit, non-profit or government.  Productivity is king.  So, understanding what impacts productivity is vital to anyone running a department, division, company or other concern looking to harness resources in order to achieve results.  For a business owner trying to generate a better bottom line by increasing efficiency and effectiveness, it is vital to have a keen understanding of forces impacting productivity.

What’s a person to do when there is uncertainty ahead? The economy is always in flux.  Right now, inflation is high and interest rates are rising. Big tech and social media companies are laying off employees by the thousands.  But there is always a reason for employers and employees alike to be a little nervous about business. 

When there is uncertainty, some would advise people and companies to scale back and lay low. Hunker down like a turtle.  Downsize payroll. Tighten up expenditures. Reduce risks.  Hide and wait for the economic turbulence to pass. That’s a common reaction to fear.  But fear hinders innovation, kills dreams, and hurts productivity. Fear decimates focus. Fear urges flight, not fight.  It pushes people into knee-jerk responses.  

Ask 50 people what is the single most important task or behavior a person can do that is required to be successful and you will likely get 50 different answers.   Last week, we looked at one skill that many highly-successful people agree is key to success.  That skill was communication.  And then we considered what behaviors are essential to achieve success.  Top on the list was consistency.  Consistency is an essential building block for any kind of achievement.   But those two are not enough.  There are at least two additional ingredients needed to do well and get ahead.  Third on the list is focus.