TipsForSuccess: Take Control, Part Five

Take Control, Part Five To Succeed, Let Others Control You "Control is so far from being bad that a person who is sane and in very good condition does not resent good, positive control and is himself able to administer* good, positive control to people and objects. "A person who is not in very good condition resents even the most casual directions and is actually not capable of controlling people or objects. The latter person is also inefficient and has many difficulties with work and with life. "When a person cannot control things, or when he resists things controlling him, he involves himself with difficulties not only with people, but with objects. It is also apparent that people with control difficulties more readily become ill and fail in other ways." -- L. Ron Hubbard (*administer: provide, dispense, give) How do you feel when people give you orders or directions? Hopefully, you don't mind! For example, if you are a busy business owner or executive, you must let your staff members control your time. For example, they may need to set your appointments or control where you go and who you see. If you don't let them control your time, you can become overwhelmed and inefficient. As another example, Joe asks his wife to handle the family finances. Yet when she tries to control Joe's irresponsible spending, he argues about it. He spends the money however he likes despite his wife's efforts to control spending. As a result, the couple's credit goes bad. They constantly fight. They blame money problems for their marriage problems, but the real problem is with Joe's inability to be controlled! You see examples of this every day. A guy leaves the Army because he hates being bossed around. He tries to work at a car dealership, but leaves because he hates being bossed around. He fails at several other jobs as he hates control. He can't even stand driving a truck as his shippers want to control him. He prefers the "freedom" of homelessness and lives in a tunnel. If you dislike being controlled, you probably feel a reactive irritation or anger when someone tries to control you. You may think being controlled is a sign of weakness or failure. You see no benefit to being controlled. Yet if you decide to let someone help you, you must also let them control you. For example, a dental patient needs help with her bad teeth and lets the dentist control her dental care. A failing basketball player needs help with his shooting and lets his coach control his practice routine. A business owner with low profit accepts help from a consultant and lets the consultant guide his actions. As a result, you receive genuine, valuable help. You move up! You become more successful! Receiving Good, Positive Control Positive control is not forced on you. You trust that the person wishes you success, not harm. You know his or her control is for your benefit. Positive control from others can improve all parts of your life. For example, a good accountant controls you to not violate tax laws. If you are a professional singer, your agent controls and helps you improve your income. If you are an employee, your boss controls you to improve your performance and value to the world. When you are a customer, you must let the store, restaurant or business control you so you get what you want. When you are a medical patient, your health depends on letting doctors and nurses control you. As a citizen, you can be part of an orderly society when you let government representatives take control. Husbands and wives must give and accept control from each other. Parents need to let their children control them at times. Even managers must let employees control them, when it is right for the group. Positive control moves you in a positive direction. You end up with more money, success and joy than if you try keeping control a one-way street. You happily accept control when you know it is for your benefit. We all need to give and receive control to get the most from life.    Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to you.     Copyright © 2013 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.   Sign up or learn more about TipsForSuccess at www.tipsforsuccess.org.

 

TipsForSuccess: How to Take More Control, Part 4

How to Take More Control, Part Four If You Try to Control People or Things Outside Your Sphere of Operation, You Get Problems "However, control in itself is not an entire answer to everything, for if it were one would have to be able to control everything, not only in his own job, but in an office or on earth, before he could be happy." "When an individual attempts to extend control far beyond his active interest in a job or in life he encounters difficulty." "Thus there is obviously another factor involved than control. This factor is willingness not to control and is fully as important as control itself." -- L. Ron Hubbard For example, when the manager of Department A tries to control employees in Department B, problems come up. As long as he sticks to controlling his sphere of operation, which is Department A, all is well. Have you ever felt overwhelmed when you tried to control something that was not really your responsibility? If it is not your responsibility, why bother? For example, a business owner was overwhelmed and stressed out. His consultant, who knew this technology on control, had him list all the things he was concerned about. ● Business income was down ● The roof was leaking in the office building ● His son was having problems at college in another state ● His community club meetings were irregular ● His quarterly tax payments were late The business owner was trying to fix all of these problems without success. The consultant pointed out that the first problem was the ONLY ONE within in his sphere of operation. All the other problems were outside his zone. The landlord was in charge of the roof. The son was twenty years old and now on his own. He was not in charge of community club. He was the president last year, but no longer. He was just a member. His accountant was negotiating a deal with the Internal Revenue Service and didn't feel the client needed to pay the overdue tax. While it would be wonderful if the business owner could control all of these problems, he needed to change his mind and let others control them. As soon as he realized this, he relaxed. He focused on his first problem, the income, and soon solved it. Meanwhile, the landlord installed the new roof. His son realized he was responsible for his own success, good or bad, and started doing better in college. He decided to stop attending the community club meetings. His accountant solved the IRS problem. What to Do When Others Try to Give You Their Problems People may try to make you control things outside your zone of operation. You must refuse. Three examples: Someone asks you for a loan to pay his bills. You say, "I'm sorry you can't pay your bills, but I'm not going to pay them for you. You need to earn the money yourself." Your sister sees your grandson watching television and tells you, "Don't let him watch TV." You say, "I agree he shouldn't watch TV, but he's my daughter's son, not mine." Your boss asks you to go fix the sales problem with another department. You say, "Even though I'm the domestic sales manager, I'll be happy to fix the international sales department . . . if you promote me to Vice President of Worldwide Sales." Recommendations 1. Make a list of areas in your life that are difficult for you to control. 2. Add a list of things that bother you to the first list. 3. Circle all the items that are outside your sphere of operation. 4. Decide to stop trying to control these circled items. Let them go. 5. Work on the remaining items on your list as you can control them. For example, a coworker slurps his coffee each morning. It drives you crazy! You drop hints and make jokes, but he still slurps away. You realize the coworker's noise is outside your sphere of operation and so you stop all efforts to make him stop slurping. You focus on your job instead. You soon realize you don't care about the slurping noise any longer. No more stress! "How to Take More Control" parts 1, 2 and 3 can be found at www.tipsforsuccesscoaching.org.   Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to you.     Copyright © 2013 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.   Sign up or learn more about TipsForSuccess at www.tipsforsuccess.org.

 

 

TipsForSuccess: How to Take More Control, Part 3

How to Take More Control, Part Three Your Control Problems Are Caused by Your Weaknesses with Starting, Changing or Stopping "Franticness, helplessness, incompetence, inefficiency and other undesirable factors in a job are all traceable to inabilities to start, change and stop things." "No business can succeed unless it has been properly started, unless it is progressing through time or changing position in space and unless it is capable of stopping harmful practices and even competitors." "Thus the secret of doing a good job is the secret of control itself. One not only continues to create a job, day by day, week by week, month by month, he also continues the job by permitting it to progress, and he is also capable of stopping or ending any cycle of work and letting it remain finished." -- L. Ron Hubbard from The Problems of Work To improve your control, you strengthen the part of control that is most difficult for you. To do this, start by identifying your weakest part. Which is most difficult for you: starting, changing or stopping? Signs You Have Difficulties Starting Things You have many ideas that you never implement. You make notes and even write down plans, but you never start them. You may even obtain the material you need to do a job, but do not start it. For example, you buy the tools and materials to build a dog house, but never actually start to build the dog house. You might have big goals, great plans or incredible dreams, but you never take that first step. Signs You Have Difficulties Changing Things You may take the first step on a work project, but you never get much done. You might leave things incomplete. For example, you paint a wall with the first coat, but never get around to putting on the second coat. You might follow the same routine you learned in school or have had for years, even though you know a better way exists. You possibly make big resolutions every New Year and do well for a day or two. Yet you never really make the change. Signs You Have Difficulties Stopping Things You probably have bad habits that you cannot break. You might say, "I just can't stop myself." You may hate to throw things away, even if they are useless. Your closets are stuffed with worthless junk. If you force yourself to finish a project, you are likely to leave your tools lying around as you hate to clean up after yourself. If you are a boss, you take too long to fire employees, even though they deserve it. Stopping people, who are damaging your operation, may be difficult for you. You may also have a hard time ending bad relationships or forgiving people. When you give a job or object to someone, you have a hard time leaving him or her alone. You can't stop possessing the responsibility or the object. Signs You Are Fixated on Start, Change or Stop Control is also difficult if you are fixated or obsessed with starting, changing or stopping things. For example, you are constantly starting new programs or projects. Every week or so you start a new project or two. Unfortunately, they do you no good as you or your group cannot complete all the things you start. Or you are constantly changing things. You do not like the way things are. You are never satisfied. Unfortunately, you end up changing things that should be left alone. Or maybe you like to stop things a little too much. Your first reaction to any change is to stop it or end it. If you are a boss, you fire people too quickly. You throw things away you later need. Or maybe you feel like a police officer and constantly try to stop bad things from happening. Unfortunately, you end up stopping good things, as well. Recommendations 1. Determine your biggest problem: starting things, changing things or stopping things. 2. Write down how you can improve this weakness this week. 3. As you make these improvements, notice how your control improves. 4. Keep working on your weakest areas until you enjoy more success. When you can easily and effectively start, change and stop things when they need to be started, changed or stopped, you are in control To read Parts One and Two, go to www.tipsforsuccesscoaching.org.   Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to you.     Copyright © 2013 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.   Sign up or learn more about TipsForSuccess at www.tipsforsuccess.org.

 

TipsForSuccess: How to Take More Control, Part 1

How to Take More Control, Part One Like money or nuclear power, control can be used for good or evil. You can use it to harm, suppress or destroy lives. Or you can use it to help people, increase your income and improve the world around you. Negative, destructive control gives control a bad name. Yet positive, constructive control is essential to successful living. No control over your job, family or life leads to failure. When you are not in control of your sphere of operation, you feel stress, fear and frustration. When you are in control, you make progress, enjoy your work and achieve success. Taking better control of yourself, your time, career, business, equipment, computers, marriage, family, personal property, bad habits and so on, is much easier when you understand and apply these five facts about control. 1. Control is the biggest difference between success and failure. 2. Control consists of three parts: Start, Change and Stop. 3. Your control problems are based on your weaknesses with starting or changing or stopping. 4. If you try to control people or things outside your sphere of operation, you fail. 5. To succeed, you must let others control you. In this first of five articles, we cover the first fact. 1. Control Is the Difference Between Success and Failure "What is control? "Whether one handles a machine of the size of a car or as small as a typewriter or even an accounting pen, one is faced with the problems of control. An object is of no use to anyone if it cannot be controlled. Just as a dancer must be able to control his body, so must a worker in an office or a factory be able to control his body, the machines of his work and, to some degree, the environment around him. "The primary difference between 'the worker' in an office or a factory and an executive is that the executive controls minds, bodies and the placement of communications, raw materials and products, the worker controls, in the main, his immediate tools." -- L. Ron Hubbard (The Problems of Work) Consider two different restaurant owners. Steve owns an Italian restaurant and Kate owns a French restaurant. Steve loves to chat with customers while Kate loves to improve her operations. Steve hires an accountant to handle his bookkeeping while Kate stays late to figure out how to do her own books. Steve hires an attorney to write the employee policies and keep him out of legal trouble. Kate goes to a labor law seminar, writes her own employee policies and has a lawyer check it over. Steve believes his personality will keep people coming back while Kate decides good food and well-trained servers will keep people coming back. Steve has no idea how to cook, clean the kitchen or balance the books. He can only hire experienced people to do these jobs. He must bend over backwards to keep them on the job, despite their bad attitudes. Kate and her cooks invent their own recipes and keep them in a book. Kate establishes checklists for the staff for setting up tables, cleaning and so on. She also enjoys training inexperienced cooks, servers and other staff. Who is in better control? Who is making a better profit? If Steve's top people quit working for him, what will happen to his restaurant? If Kate's top people quit, what will happen to her restaurant? Another Example Two medical transcribers, Jill and Sue, are hired by a large hospital on the same day. They are expected to type medical reports explaining the patients' treatment so the hospital can collect its fee from insurance companies. Jill decides to be a robot and simply type whatever is in front of her. One day, her computer goes down. She calls the technician and paints her fingernails until the computer is fixed. She has no idea what she is typing as she cannot understand the medical terms. She decides to just pretend it is a foreign language. She types every word placed in front of her without using the computer shortcuts. She produces 20 reports per day. Sue wants more control of her position. As well as typing the reports, she learns about the computer. She reads the help screens to learn shortcuts in the program. She learns to copy and paste large sections of text and other time-saving actions. She produces 30 reports per day. When the computer goes down, Sue carefully watches the technician and asks questions so she knows what to do next time. Sue finds a medical dictionary in the storage room and starts to look up the terms in her reports. She buys lunch for a nurse so she can ask about medical procedures. She even listens to tapes about insurance code rules. Who is in better control of her job? Of her career? One day, Jill types a report about a one-year-old receiving treatment for Alzheimer's disease. She types it exactly and sends it to the insurance company. That same day, Sue is typing a report for a eighty-year-old man's immunization shot for chicken pox. She knows this is a mistake and sends it back to the nurse. The nurse realizes the patient names were switched. Another day, Jill's computer goes down. She learns the computer technician is unavailable and asks to go home. Sue overhears the request and offers to fix the computer, which she does. Who is the more valuable employee? Who should get the next promotion? If business slows down, who will keep her job? Certain symptoms show how well you control your job. 10 Signs You Are Not in Control of Your Work Easily fatigued or exhausted Work area is messy and disorganized Job is not interesting Easily stressed Need constant help See no way to improve performance Easily confused by others while on the job Frequently think of quitting Frantically react to emergencies You cannot conceive of greater productivity 10 Signs You Are in Control of Your Work Energized, motivated Work area is neat and organized Work is interesting and enjoyable Feel challenged, not stressed Effectively supervise self Constantly looking for ways to improve Rarely confused while on the job Frequently thinking of more responsibility Rationally respond to emergencies You have good ideas for increasing productivity On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being in full control, how well do you control of your job? Your home life? Your possessions? Your personal habits? Your success? Recommendations 1. Make a list of all your duties, responsibilities and areas of your life. 2. Rate your control of each on a scale of 1 to 10. 3. Work out a plan to take a little more control of each. For more assistance with your control skills, go to www.tipsforsuccesscoaching.org.   Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to you.     Copyright © 2013 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.   Sign up or learn more about TipsForSuccess at www.tipsforsuccess.org.

 

 

TipsForSuccess: How to Strengthen Your Power Base

How to Strengthen Your Power Base To succeed you need a power base. What is your power base? It includes the money and property you control. The number of people who you influence. The groups or businesses you control. The size of your game. How you work with people determines the amount of power you get. For example, Mr. Green is the CEO of a successful book publishing company in New York City. He is retiring and needs to recommend a new CEO to the Board of Directors. Mr. Green's two best managers are Steve, who runs the printing division, and Melissa, who runs the editing division. Steve has wanted to be the CEO for years. He tells his staff, "Someday, I'll be running things and we'll come out of the dark ages. Mr. Green's a nice guy and all that, but he's old." Melissa is also interested in the CEO job. She tells her staff, "Mr. Green is an outstanding leader. He's taught me a great deal. If I run things, I'll try to be like Mr. Green." Steve likes to disagree with Mr. Green. "You don't want me to be a yes-man do you Mr. Green? We can't always do things your way. I have better ideas." Melissa prefers to support Mr. Green. "Tell me what you want done and I'll take care of it for you." Steve is shocked when Mr. Green recommends Melissa for the CEO position. Your Powers Who are your "powers"? Who do you depend on for your success? Certainly your boss, but also your customers, colleagues, partners, leaders of your groups, influential friends and others. Everyone depends on others for their power. Bosses depend on their staff. Fathers depend on mothers. Young politicians depend on senior politicians as well as voters and financial contributors. Who do you depend on? Who are the people who can help you? These are your "powers." Now examine how you treat these powers. Do you build them up or drag them down? Do you make them more powerful or less powerful. Do you give them ease or give them stress? How you treat these people may have more to do with your success than you realize. Pushing Power "Always push power in the direction of anyone on whose power you depend. It may be more money for the power or more ease or a snarling defense of the power to a critic." "If you work like that and the power you are near or depend upon is a power that has at least some inkling* about how to be one and if you make others work like that, then the power-factor expands and expands and expands and you too acquire a sphere of power bigger than you would have if you worked alone." -- L. Ron Hubbard (*inkling: a slight idea) Some movie actors find it hard to share the spotlight. They think they will get ahead if they criticize others. When talking about a movie director, they say things like, "He was the toughest director I've ever worked for" or "She and I had artistic differences." These actors are often out of work. When John Travolta was promoting his movie Pulp Fiction, he constantly complimented and thanked writer/director, Quentin Tarantino. Who was John flowing power to? What happened to John's career? It exploded! He became one of the busiest, best-paid actors in history. Have you heard about assistants, secretaries and clerks who became millionaires? These workers flowed power to their bosses. When these bosses hit it big, they took care of their staffs. Since most bosses have an "inkling" of how to be a power, they love to share their success with those who help them succeed. Employees who bite the hand that feeds them are soon looking for work. Staff who do not defend their bosses, when their bosses are attacked, see their workplace become stressful and unpleasant. On the other hand, if you flow power to your powers, you make them happier and more successful. These powers then have the means and desire to help you. They can give you promotions, raises, freedoms, responsibilities and opportunities you would not otherwise receive. They can help you succeed in more ways than anyone else you know. Ten Suggestions for Flowing Power to Your Powers As long as your power has an inkling of how to be a power, these ten tips will make your own power base increase and increase. 1. Do a better job for your power than he or she expects. Surprise him or her with fast completions, incredible production and amazing results. 2. Support the power's ideas and requests, whenever possible. 3. When the power offers you more responsibility, grab it. Do not hesitate or worry about the pay. 4. If you need to tell the power about a problem, include a solution as well. Better yet, solve the problem so you can relay the problem and the fact that it is now solved. 5. If you see your power is making a mistake, do not let him or her fail, but try to help your power. Provide the information he or she may be missing. Offer suggestions and solutions. 6. Never miss a chance to make a gesture of support. For example, insist on paying for the meal you share with a power, even if he or she is wealthier than you. Never forget the power's birthday. Be as generous as you can be. 7. If you hear criticism about one of your powers, jump in and defend him or her. Change negative attitudes that others have about your power. Encourage them to support your power. 8. If your power is under stress, do what you can to reduce that stress. Help him or her become cheerful and optimistic. If the power is happy, everyone is happy! 9. If one of your powers is being attacked, take some of the heat. Get in front of your power and fight back. Do not let your power go down, or you too, will go down. 10. Help your power make more money. Yes, even if your power is wealthy, find ways to make him or her even wealthier. If your power's income goes up, your income will go up. Three Action Steps Make a list of your powers. Who do you depend on for your success? Who can help you the most? Write down three ways you can flow power to each of your powers. If you then do these three things with each, and flow even more power after that, you will see your own power and success take a leap!   Provided by TipsForSuccess.org as a public service to introduce the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to you.     Copyright © 2013 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.   Sign up or learn more about TipsForSuccess at www.tipsforsuccess.org.