Recently, I refereed a soccer game that had some of the best youth soccer players in Massachusetts. Quite interestingly, both teams had eleven players which meant there was no substitutes and the total playing time was 90 minutes. The energy of the game stayed at a consistently good level, but what made the difference was the high level amount of communication between all of the players in each team. All players were effectively coaching each other throughout the whole game and managed carrying out their role in a strategic manner. What made the game notable is the clear successes of each team displaying a high amount of teamwork that made the game reasonably competitive. 

What does this show? No matter what is trying to be accomplished, we need to put the best foot forward by effectively building and managing a team. At the end of the day, we don't have the time to learn everything to do what we need to do let alone enough time to accmoplish everything that needs to get done. 

How does one build an effective team?

1) Embrace everyone's strengths and weaknesses. We all have our own special talent that we can bring to the table in any team. Some of us can build relationships better than others, while others are more detail-oriented, and so forth. 

2) Know the domains in which you need expertise in and seek people from those respective areas. Mapping out all of the needed expertise for a given project will allow you to be more successful as you will understand the limiting steps of your team in the process of what is trying to be achieved. Even if you need someone in a particular area of expertise for a few hours, understand that and hire someone to work as a contractor basis.

3) Build trust throughout your team. Trust is one of the most intangible assets you can have in a team as it improves communication. In many respects, teams will fall apart if everyone doesn't trust one another. 

Now, how do you build trust in your team? First of all, being reliable is key. To state the obvious, one can not forget that showing up early and professional to any event although people can easily forget how important this is. Secondly, take time to listen to to your team as you will gain respect from people that work for you. If possible, appreciate your team. Small things such as a going out to lunch or dinner with your team can bring members together to improve the overall performance of a team.

2012 was certainly a year of ups and downs for me, but I am looking forward and I am determined to make 2013 my best year yet. Although 2013 may present some challenges for us all especially to due to the fiscal cliff, there is always an opportunity for those who are focused, work smart, and continue to build relationships.

I think it is effective to reflect upon what we have accomplished in the past year to find out what we could do better going forward. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, whether it would be personal or work life. As for myself, I am looking at making a New Years resolution to be more outgoing and have a more confident approach in whatever I do in the new year.

Here are some considerations to make 2013 better than 2012: 

We should also look forward in how we will manage business strategy. We saw that end consumers are starting to get concerned with what is down the pike with lower than expected retail sales this past holiday season. Therefore, we need to focus on answering the following question in an effective manner: why would I do business with you versus all of my competitors? Sure, any business can compete on price, but price is not everything even though you need to ensure that you compete effectively in your marketplace. You need to evaluate changes in the environment of your marketplace to ensure that your overall value offering is still relevant in the marketplace. 

Finally, we should refocus ourselves to work together with all those who are around us. We should embrace the strengths and weaknesses of those around us and not "write off" those who are introverts. If you give introverts a chance at a job requiring a lot of analytical and reasoning skills, it will pay off in the long run as they will be more likely to have a good amount of personal growth and they will be quite loyal. After all these are people that will help you think deeply, strategize, solve complex problems, and spot "canaries" in your coal mine. Remember that having a proactive workforce may be better led by an introverted leader than an extroverted one. After all, they would be more likely able to strategize in how their subordinates can work better together. It would be a much better world if we had a better balance between people who act and people who contemplate.

In the spirit of the holidays, I have been asking myself and others, what do you really want most for Christmas? It is quite interesting that many people do actually really want something intangible. 

Yes, that is right, many of us want to be happier in some respect (including myself). As for myself, I would not deny that I would like to increase my happiness by having stronger relationships, whether it would be of business or personal nature. Many other people I have asked want a better job (or any full time job if they do not have one). Others want a closer relationship with a "special someone".

What is the message? I think we should strive to keep the "Holiday Spirit" in ourselves year round in terms of more effectively networking and reaching out to each other to help each other grow. In another words, we should each "Pay it Forward" by using our knowledge or making an introduction in a way that may be of benefit to someone else. In turn, we build a great cycle that allows us to improve our credibility in other people's minds. Remember, people do business with people they like, know, and trust.

It is always exciting to see the hoard of people who flock to the stores on the weekend of Black Friday, but it may not be a sign that the economy is back to where it should be.

Why?

Sure, many sources are reporting record turnouts for "doorbuster" sales, despite some stores opening 2-3 hours earlier than they were during the previous year. Though, there are many unanswered questions behind the huge turnout. People can very well be shifting the timing of their purchases because of the perception they would get the bargain. However, please think if the bargains are really bargains. It isn't a bargain if you are not going to use the item (unless you are getting paid to buy the item which is possible and is another story). It also isn't necessarily a bargain if you are buying an old item, which can happen in the midst of electronics sales. Many items typically sell at their standard sale price, so it is not a bargain if you are standing in line for an hour to just purchase an item that you could have purchased anytime you wanted to do so when it is put on sale. Though, don't get me wrong, there are some true bargains out there during Thanksgiving weekend, but it represents a small amount of the items available to buy.

Speaking from the perception of getting a bargain, a survey by the Spectrum Group showed 83% of millionaires do not plan to shop on Black Friday. Millionaires are not as sensitive to price and they will shop closer to the time when they will want an item.

The economy may be helped by holiday spending, but we are still far from normal. Credit card debt is at an all time high. Labor force participation rates are at an all time low. We have a fiscal cliff ahead of us. Despite what politicians have said, we are at least positioned to have payroll taxes increased, which will effectively reduce paychecks by at least 2%. It can very well lead to much tax increases, but we shall see what it will lead to in the coming weeks. If people have less money to spend, they will certainly spend less on discretionary items. After a holiday rally over the next coming weeks, all this would lead to a good probability that the stock market will drop by 30%.

Researching a New Business Idea

Conducting research on a business idea you may have can make you more successful while you continue forward in the process of starting your own business. Remember that ideas are commodities until they start to be developed since value is created based upon how well it is executed. Completing research also provides valuable insight into which idea is the most worthwhile to pursue if you have more than one of them.

Knowing the market in which you are targeting will enable you to include features in your offering that your potential customers want the most. Consider who will be the end consumer of your offering as well as the effects of other stakeholders. The externalized choices that customers may make will shape the demand and the method of utilization of your offering. Research the size of the market for what you are creating. Asking 100 people what they think about your idea. You would want to talk about how you would provide greater value than what is currently out in the marketplace. You may get helpful advice on what your customers will want to see incorporated into what you are developing.

Knowing your competition will help you effectively market your product. An analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your product’s or service’s marketplace will provide valuable information that will shape how you will develop and market your offering.

Some research should be conducted to figure out the appropriate price to offer the product or service in question. If you price your offering too high, you may not be able to attract the amount of customers that you need to scale your business to the next level and succeed in the long term. Likewise, pricing your offering too low, especially for an extended period of time, may create a perception that your product is inferior and customers may not be willing to pay the right price if they become used to purchasing your offering at a low price. A helpful exercise would be to figure out the positioning of your offering compared to your competitors. To keep a long story short, you would compare the features of the products of your offering to your competitors’ offerings. You would then determine the appropriate price to charge for your new product or service from this information by establishing what would be the perceived value of the different features you are offering.

In our personal and business lives, we evaluate risk quite frequently. Some of us may not understand that we may be taking on risk that may not be prudent as we might not understand just what risk we are experiencing. 

Though, the object is to evaluate the rewards for the given risks that we take. In a basic sense, we all know that crossing a street involves the minor risk of getting hit by a car. We this activity to get to experience the reward of getting to the other side of the street so we can get to where we are going. However, we try to minimize that risk by looking for oncoming cars as we go through this activity. 

In a similar fashion, the process of evaluating risk (and the possible rewards) of something can be scaled up to be much more than crossing the street. We may compare the risk of buying something now that is a great deal as we may not be immediately using the item to waiting to buying until we need it as we may very well be paying more. Many of us may evaluate the particular risks and rewards of holding a particular investment in order to buy or sell it. We may also evaluate the rewards and risks of accepting a particular job offer as we evaluate the possible advancement opportunities, the distance it is away from where we live, how much it pays, etc. In business, analysts are always evaluating the risk of projects by calculating how long they expect the company to pay back their investment as well as the return that investment makes. Additionally, they may compare that return to the return of other projects. If the investment causes the company to issue bonds, it may evaluate the risk of putting additional debt onto the balance sheet.

Another interesting thought is there may be risk in activities we may perceive to be safe. In particular, we may think that money is safe and sound at a bank, but the reality is that money held at a bank still carries inflation risk. This has definitely hit home recently as inflation has spiraled upward, while most banks pay interest these days no greater than 0.85%. True, we all need to have liquid cash available for daily living expenses and this may be an appropriate place for some people to put money for people that may not want to take risks of investment vehicles that carry a higher potential return.


The idea is to take a moment and think about certain risks you are taking and see if the reward is good enough to you for the risk you may accept.