Formula(s) for Success

I’m a prolific snail-mail-handwritten-note-sender. I blame this on my mother! Growing up in the Carr home, it was a rule that when anyone did something for you ... give you a present, have you over for dinner, etc ... you hand wrote a thank you note within seven days. Needless to say, New Year’s Eve day was crunch time to write thank you notes for Christmas presents or you did not go out New Year’s Eve!

Note writing continued on when I got into sales after college. I’d write notes to customer’s not only thanking them for orders, but when I’d see articles about them in the newspaper, saw something that I thought might be of interest to them or just re-establish our connections. Many customers who told me they not only appreciated my notes and sometimes my mailing was more effective than my sales call! It was one of my unique differences from my competition.

Chapter 9, (Four-Mula for Success) in Ray Considine’s book The Great Brain Robbery, further justified my handwritten notes to clients and customers! Considine’s formula for sales success was do four things in four different areas everyday including write four orders, make four sales calls, make four phone calls and create four mailings. On the days when you didn’t make enough sales calls or write enough orders, you created more mailings and make more phone calls. Sixteen events took place everyday. It truly was a sales formula for success.

I have learned anything scarce is valuable like diamonds, gold and handwritten snail mail notes! Scarce things touch hearts and impact relationships. Successful, life-changing formulas are scare as well.

Awesome formulas are important recipes for life. Formulas build relationships not only among things, but among people. Formulas help us to communicate better. Formulas help solve problems. They stabilize and celebrate success. Formulas can be the secret to executing a successful strategic plan. Successful formulas impact an organization’s ROI. What get’s celebrated get repeated!

Some formulas for success I have discovered...

Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner’s, The Leadership Challenge, is a formula for successful leadership.

Six Thinking Hats, by Edward DeBono, is a formula using six conversations of importance for clear thinking and discussions.

Harrison Owen, Open Space Technology, is a very natural formula for people to come together and quickly find workable solutions to complex problems.

Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Business Creativity written by Michael Michalko, has formulas to stimulate innovation.

Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of Team has a formula for building a team.

Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging contains a formula for creating community.

Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges, has a formula for dealing with change.

Finally, the Bible has all kinds of formulas for successful living including teaching us to love kindness, to seek justice and to be humble. It has a formula for being grateful for all circumstances and perhaps has the greatest formula for living with others, The Golden Rule.

What formula(s) are you usuing to creating a better life for yourself and those you serve?