But at the same time while this regulatory debate regarding commodities is ongoing, most retail investors don’t even understand how to invest in commodities. Why? Well it’s because the typical retail saver and investor does not actively seek financial advice, and when they do, it’s from salespeople, not advisors (See Note 6: Six Rules). These salespeople usually don’t sell complicated investment strategies including commodities, and if they do, it’s part of a massive packaged fund that effectively takes the investor right out of the picture.

So what’s the solution? Well, more articles like the one above by Financial Expert would certainly help. But the average investor wouldn’t actually seek it out. The answer is therefore proactivity on behalf of institutions that actually have investor education at the heart of what they do. A good example is MoneyAdviceService (Used to be MoneyMadeClear), originally launched in the UK by the FSA, and now under the authority of a separate education body. This is a website that prides itself on doing no selling, and simply providing investors with the facts. A bit of impartiality will no doubt go a long way with retail investors used only to the loaded sales talk by branch staff or life insurance cold callers.

On reflection, commodities are probably an avenue that should only be explored once an investor has broken through that threshold of needing advice spoonfed to them. Once they begin to proactively seek for investment ideas and traditional principles, they’ll find the information about commodities that they need. It’s probably best not to rush such things.

It would seem that when applying change management, managers are following effective models when it comes to restructuring the business to generate cost savings, or to align the organisation with a new strategy, however they are neglecting the ‘softer’ aspects of change. And this ‘soft’ angle is often the decisive factor that leads to acceptance, and even better; support from employees.

Hopefully, this alliance between two established leadership bloggers will share a fair bit of knowledge in the change management arena! I eagerly await to see what will come!

First things first – Set your financial objectives

To succeed financially in 2011, you need to have a clear direction in your mind of where you want to be. To do this I would start by setting myself some financial aims and objectives. They way I like to think about it is your aims should be more minor points and your objective should be your main end point. For example, your first aim for month 1 could be to be to find a cheaper car insurance policy, and your overall objective for 2012 could be to wipe out £5000 worth of debt. These are just examples; your objectives should be based on your own circumstances.

Remember to keep your financial objectives SMART.

Specific, so you know exactly what you want to achieve
Measurable, so that you can see how you are performing against your targets
Achievable, so you are sure your objectives can be achieved with the resources available to you
Realistic, so that you are sure the objective can definitely be achieved based on your circumstances, and
Timed, so that you try and achieve your objective in a specific time scale, otherwise it could go on forever!

Second – Set up your financial budget

Setting up a financial budget can be extremely difficult; however, when done correctly a budget can be the most effective financial tool. To start your budget, first look back at your financial objective for the year and then base your budget on this. For example, if your financial objective is to wipe £5000 worth of debt in 2011, then your budget should be tailored for you to meet your objective.

I would set your budget up using a spreadsheet on your computer, as it’s so easy to perform calculations, but there’s no reason why you can’t just use the good old pen, paper and calculator! Try and set up your budget on a yearly basis, so write down all of your expenses, this might take you a while, but make sure you are honest and thorough.

Once you have worked out your expenditure, its then time to analyse your income, once you have both figures you can then work out how much you can afford to spend each month of the year in order to achieve your objective. Try to stick to your budget to the best of your ability, of course there may be things that pop up across the year, but set a small amount of money aside each month into an emergency budget to cater for these surprises.

Third – Be as frugal as you can in 2011

Many people think that to save money you have to abandon your social life and live as a recluse, but this simply isn’t true. To save some money in 2011, just focus on cutting costs wherever you can on regular payments, this keeps your focus away from the whole “I wont spend a penny” mindset.

You should look to save money on things like your phone bill, car insurance, gas and electric, and use price comparison sites like Money Supermarket. Price comparison sites will do the searching for you when you are looking to save, whether the search is for a phone contract or your electric bill, it doesn’t matter as the result will be the same, a list of results from the main providers in order of cheapest first.

Fourth – Be as motivated and as positive as possible

Like many things in life, if you become disheartened and disinterested in something that you are trying to do, you’ll simply just give up, that’s why I don’t believe in the whole, don’t spend a penny mindset. You can still have fun whilst saving money. Keep a running chart of how much money you’ve saved, and note down the positive things that you’ve done, it will help to keep you on the right track.

In this article I use the word ‘opponent’ a lot to talk about the other person, but this is in no way hinting that you are enemies with the person; it could be a friend, co-worker or even your parents.

SO DON”T…

Tell them they”re wrong. When you tell someone they’re wrong, you make them take a shot hit to their pride. I know torturers like to break in their subjects before attempting to change their mind, but I’d like to think the rest of us are a little more civil. Regardless of their intelligence, everyone likes to think that their beliefs are right, and most people are therefore resistant to changing their mind. Put simply; it isn”t nice to know you were wrong. With this in mind, don’t make it obvious that they’re going to have to change their beliefs; don”t spark up that automatic resistance. Instead present your idea as a ‘new’ idea, as an ‘extra’ idea, not as something that will have to replace their belief and hence embarrass your opponent.In other words, using the phrase ‘You”re wrong’ actually ensures your team mate, friend or partner becomes your opponent. They could have otherwise warmed to your idea quickly. Don”t underestimate how much people want their current beliefs to be right, and try to avoid contradicting their beliefs when you”re explaining your idea. If possible, highlight overlap and agreed areas between your ideas to enforce the idea that you aren”t opposing their idea.

Use words such as ‘clearly’, ‘obviously’, ‘of course’ and ‘it’s easy to see that…’. When we’re explaining our point of view, lets present it in a way that’s easy to digest. This includes not throwing in words that have the effect of be-littling your opponent. If your idea was truely ‘obvious’, then why hadn’t your opponent thought of it before? If it was so clear, then how come they cannot understand? Like the above no-no; using this style of language can be like throwing small insults while you’re trying to persuade. Don’t do it. I appreciate it can be like a habit when you’re trying to persuade, as it helps make your argument ‘look’ more believable & convincing, but generally it only does so from your point of view.If you imagine a science classroom full of 16 year olds trying to get their heads around a very difficult topic. The teacher may undoubtedly find it rather easy, but if he was to say so in front of the class, could you imagine the reaction? Would the teacher really get the desired reaction of: ‘Right, It’s supposed to be easy so hopefully I will be able to understand it if I put in more effort’? Unlikely. I think the reaction would be more like ‘He’s clearly much better than science than me and doesn”t understand how hard it is, it’s not easy at all for us, it’s probably impossible for someone of just my level. I give up.So you see, people look at the situation, and appreciate that you understand the merits of your idea while they don’t. The more you say it’s ‘obvious’ that your’s is the right answer, the more your opponent will start to question your judgement of how believable your idea is, because if it was really that clear, your opponent would understand. That judgement will start to loose you credibility in your opponents eyes, and leave them thinking; Well you’re ‘clearly & obviously’ missing something.

Go out of your way to disprove their belief

Admit it. Going out of your way to prove someone wrong is probably boosting your ego and pride more than it is genuinely letting your opponent see your point of view. In an ‘either-or’ dispute it can be easier to disprove your opponent’s idea than it is to prove your own, so it becomes tempting. Just remember that logically trouncing their argument is going to humiliate them, and cause resentment to build – Is this dispute really more valuable than your relationship with the other person? Furthermore the consistent use of this technique will create an unhelpful reputation for being harsh and tactless, and people will soon avoid disagreements with you just for the sake of it. This will never help you succeed at life in the long run.As Dale Carnegie says; If you determinedly prove someone wrong; You have have won the argument but you have lost their good will’

Hard-sell your idea

Less is more when it comes to selling your idea. A short powerful statement or dramatic action that gets your opponent thinking is better than ramming the facts down their throat and leaving them with no time to come to their own judgement. At the end of the day, your opponent is only going to believe and support you if they can understand and sympathise with the view themselves, so let them go over the facts in their head and come to the same conclusion. Present powerful facts or statements and then leave them be. If you don”t have success with that, you have to wonder whether your opinion is actually the most sensible!

Overuse the appeal to popularity

It may be tempting but this method may not be getting you anywhere with the intellectual crowd. Appealing to Popularity is what the academics call a ‘Logical fallacy’ and is when you use the idea that many people support X, to conclude that your opponent should support X. Have you ever heard people saying excusing themselves with the phrase ”Well everyone else is doing it”? Have you seen a child scream at their parents; ”But all my friends say it’s great, you have to buy it me!”. You’ve probably used it yourself! The fact of the matter is that these arguments logically carry little weight, and so long as the bulk of your argument relies on appealing to popularity, you’re at risk of having your idea completely rejected. If your opponent replied “Yes but, those people are wrong” you could be left with little to fall back on.

Those points again, DON’T:

Tell them they’re wrong

Use words such as ”clearly”, ”obviously, ”of course” and ”It’s easy to see that”

Go out of your way to disprove their belief

Hard-sell your idea

Overuse The Appeal to Popularity

So there are 5 things to avoid when hoping to persuade. I hope I’ve managed to persuade you never to use them again. Have fun influencing!

Succeed at Life! Article written by Simon Oates. Copyright 2008.

Tip 1: Split the work evenly, clearly and minimise overlap. The major advantage of a team is the sheer workload that it can cope with yet this is wasted when the team is sat together around a laptop and a meeting table. It’s great to have a variety of input but this benefit is constantly overplayed at the expense of output. When I walk around my Universities” Business School, its a common sight to see 5 MBA students sitting round one computer. One student will be typing; another talking and 3 people sat there doing absolutely nothing.

Only by letting team members work on their own chunk of work will you truly be able to harness the productivity bonus of working in a team. Having sole responsibility over their section will also give a boost to their motivation (& ego). Slight imbalances in workload will be forgiven but vast differences can cause tensions so speak up as a team member if you feel you have been given too much work or someone else has. This may be difficult in a work situation so call attention to the difference in workload indirectly. One way of doing this is to ask another team member “Ok, so what are you doing again?” in an innocent and genuinely curious tone. After you’ve listened to their reply, get some paper and clarify with everyone else what you’ve got to do, clearly itemising each piece of your task. If there is a big enough imbalance then someone should notice, but the fact you hadn’t complained means you’re still seen as a team player.

Tip 2: Always meet at the same place at the same time. A regular nightmare of teaming is arranging constant meetings; a logistical impossibility that usually the Chair or team leader has to cope with. However one method distributes this issue among the team, and this is tip 2.

This technique is ideal if you’re at university where students have roughly the same timetables each week. It can be used to completely eradicate the issue of arranging to meet up; and yet I constantly see students fail to take advantage of this. As a result they spend a lot of their time texting and emailing team mates to arrange their next meeting time. Shame. You may need to arrange extra meetings when tight deadlines are involved but the consistent meetings could be seen as the backbone. As well as ensuring there’s regular communication between the group members; regular meetings totally shift the responsibility from the chairperson to the individual team members which makes your job (as leader) easier.

Tip 3: Make everyone feel important

You can read this crucial tip here: The Key To Getting What You Want: Making Others Feel Important

Tip 4: Never blatantly oppose someone’s ideas (Indirectly call attention to it by ‘stumbling’ upon a bad consequence). The joy of mixing lots of ideas together in a team is that from time to time you’ll disagree with a member’s contribution. Your instant reaction could be to challenge them; “Are you sure that’s right?” which may sound nicer than “You’re wrong” but has the same negative consequences.

Even if you refrain from verbally responding its likely your face will screw up or you’ll give some other indication that you disagree, so simply go along with whatever they say; be enthusiastic about it. You need to see how to change their opinion from their point of view, so for the time being; adopt their point of view. If their suggestion was bad enough then it would rehsult in a negative consequence. What you must do is talk through the idea enthusiastically until you ‘hit’ upon this negative consequence, seem disappointed at this bad point that seemed to come out of nowhere, and then instead of denouncing your opponents idea, you can then talk as if YOUR opinion was wrong, and then it’d be far easier for them to just admit their mistake and continue, so have let them save face. They are more likely to concede to someone on their side who they think wants to support their idea, rather than someone who is opposed to them.

Imagine a group is discussing an annual fair and are deciding the date:

John: I think we should do June 22nd; it worked well last year and it means we can hire the bouncy castle at an off-peak rate.

Paul: Nah, I don’t think that’s going to work as there is a big football match on that day and it’ll be the weekend after the primary school fair, it’d be overkill.

John would at this point naturally try to defend his point of view as this has become a debate.

Now imagine if Paul used the 4th principle:

John: I think we should do June 22nd; it worked well last year and it means we can hire the bouncy castle at an off-peak rate.

Paul: Yeah! Good idea! Why fix something which isn’t broke! I’ll have to call the football team to get them more involved this year, they were so popular last time. Oh no. June 22nd is the football final; if we choose then, they won’t be able to make it, *sigh, and we’ll loose half our attendance. Damn, I’ll try and think of a different date.

John: Argh crap, I didn’t think of that either. Thanks.

The example above displayed a heavy handed but successful use of this technique – it’s best applied so that the other person spots the mistake before you ‘do’. In the above case; Paul could’ve just talked about the football team and the final until John himself remembered it was on the 22nd. Remember John isn’t stupid, he’d realise that Paul was right; but people don’t like to be wrong andwill defend themselves automatically if challenged, and so over time this can lead to problems you don’ need. In apposing someone”s ideas, there”s also the chance they may get aggressive. Side step around pride; use tip 4.

Tip 5: Learn names. You may laugh at this point; “Well of course I know everyone”s name in the teams I work with”. Consider yourself the exception. The rest of us have all been in a situation where we”ve felt there”s too many people to learn, or where one member has a heavy accent and a foreign name. From now on, I never want you to have to use that last excuse.

We’ve all been there: You ask for their name once; and have no idea what you hear in return. You say ”Pardon?” and can barely make out more than the first time; and at which which point you feel too embarassed to continue, and just pretend as though you understood. Shameful isn’t it? If you”re an important member of the team; you’ve just effectively cut off one of your great resources. You’ll now casually avoid starting conversation with this person, and indirectly push them out of the group as they become less involved with decision making. As soon as you learn someones name; they’ll be suddenly ”opened up” as a source of help and you will feel as though you’ve gained an extra team member. On the other hand as long as you don’t know the name, you’re restricting your team’s performance. Not to mention making the poor soul feel left out.

So from now on when you’re in that situation. Don’t stop at the second attempt; say “I’m sorry I haven”t heard that name before, can you spell it?”. Afterwards, look at what you’ve written again and make sure you remember it.

Here”s a short story from Potential Within that further explains the importance of learning names:

“During my second year of nursing school our professor gave us a quiz. I breezed through the questions until I read the last one: ‘What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?’ Surely this was a joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our grade. ‘Absolutely,’ the professor said. ‘In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello.’ I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy. ~ Joann C. Jones”

Tip 6: Praise like a teacher would (whenever you can). A key concept in management that is recognised nationwide is that a dog will behave well for treats, but would simply resent the whip. Do you give treats or use the whip? Or both?

Let me define what I mean by using the whip. I”m talking about embarassing, critisising (even if it’s quite ‘constructive’), humiliating, condemning and undermining someone. It reads like a terrible list of words yet you’ll find you do a couple of them in some minor shape or form. This is acceptable, but you do you want to be just acceptable? Wouldn”t you prefer to be brilliant and inspire brilliant work from your team mates and earn some respect from them?

Its so easy to criticise and you may not realise how often to do it. But you can count on one thing, the target of the criticism will remember. Fortunately the same applies to compliments. One small compliment has the opportunity for a real turn-around in someone behaviour, yet you may not even realise you’ve given it. Learn to pay effective compliments, compliment everything someone does well, even if just subtley.

All teachers; from Nursery right the way through to College are all trained in the art of giving praise at every opportunity. This is an ability you will have to learn on your own, but those who master it are rewarded with optimistic team mates with a ‘can do’ attitude. And remember; “If you think you can, you can“.

The Practise of Leadership blog highlights an important article in Business Week magazine that agrees that praise can encourage potential. There’s no excuse for neglecting it.

The Tips so far:

Tip 1: Split the work evenly and clearly and minimise overlap.

Tip 2: Meet consistently at the same place at the same time.

Tip 3: Make everyone feel important.

Tip 4: Never blatantly oppose someone’s ideas

Tip 5: Learn names

Tip 6: Praise like a teacher would (whenever you can)

Now finally: the most important advice you could receive about how to work well in teams:

Tip 7: Lead the team – ANYONE CAN DO IT! This is such an big principle that it has been given it”s own post: Learn To Lead: How to make others do what you say

Succeed at Life! Article written by Simon Oates. Copyright 2008-2010

One problem I come across often, is how people tend to write to-do lists as a ”things I”d like to get done” list instead. This is throwing away 60% of the usefulness of a to-do list without realising it. A to-do list that genuinely motivates, is not just a place to write tasks so you do not forget. It is where you can schedule when and how you will do each task. It is closer to a day-planner than a simple list for the forgetful. When you write your to-do list for the day, only include the tasks you genuinely think you could complete if you were focused throughout. Jotting down ”Write 2,000 word essay” alongside a mountain of other tasks will not help get the job done. As soon as your wish list because possible to complete, it suddenly gains an ounce of authority. Now the list displays what you wish you could achieve if only you could stayed focused for an entire day. If you were to complete the list you would feel productive, efficient and of course you”d have shifted a big pile of jobs from your mind. The to-do list has now become something that offers that feeling – if only you could keep the drive. In other words, once a to-do list is feasible, it motivates you because you know the work you put in will pay back soon in the form of that feeling of satisfaction and success.

Slot it all in

The next key feature of the ultimate to-do list is a structured time element. An effective to-do list reads like a schedule for the day. The timings should be realistic and again; very possible to keep to if you had an undistracted and driven day. The idea of cutting your day up into time and slotting tasks in accordingly has the same affect as splitting milestones into tasks when you”re setting long term goals successfully. Allowing yourself to focus on one segment at the time makes the tasks far less intimidating, and the better you allocate the timings, the more faith you have that as long as you keep to the list, you will succeed at completing the day’s tasks. Again, the more attention you pay to the feasibility of the list, the more authority and motivational power it gains. With every layer of detail, the schedule makes the decision as to whether to slack off or not even simpler, ‘if I want to achieve something today then I just follow the to-do list’. This transforms the grey and vague area of productivity into clear cut decision. You either follow the to-do list timings and succeed, or you don’t and fail. The longer you’ve been working with a to-do list, the more firmly this will be ingrained into your behaviour, because experience will tell you that when you slack for just a moment and drag your heels, the day ends dismally. Your to-do list is becoming a powerful tool.

Ordering yourself around

The final killer technique for to-do lists is the order in which you place the tasks. This is a strategic decision that will have a large effect on how your mood changes throughout the next day as you follow the plan, so it’s terribly important. Due to the variety of tasks you may want to accomplish, it’s hard to offer a comprehensive guide as to how to arrange tasks. But if they’re standard ones then you can stick to the rules below

Put your most intellectually challenging task or most hated chore first, or just after a generous lunch break.

Justification – If you put the task at a point when you are likely to be hungry or tired, you may not be able to meet the demands of the job. Also if you put it near the end, you are likely to just give up. If its the last task, then not following the plan won”t mess around any schedule you had that day, so the to-do won”t work as effectively in enforcing your behaviour. This is the reason for my next rule.

Put your easiest or most enjoyable task last

Justification – Unlike a sprint, you”re unlikely to be working the hardest at the end, and will probably have more things distracting you, such as plans for the evening or maybe what you”ll be eating later. Give yourself the easiest choice as to whether to fully complete your list. For the reason above, skipping the last task could become a common occurrence. Doing so is wasteful and frustrating, so make it as easy as possible for you to cross the finish line.

Make sure there”s a time and place for everything. The next key feature of the ultimate to-do list is a structured time element. An effective to-do list reads like a schedule for the day. The timings should be realistic and again; very possible to keep to if you had an undistracted and driven day. The idea of cutting your day up into time and slotting tasks in accordingly has the same affect as splitting milestones into tasks when you”re setting long term goals successfully. Allowing yourself to focus on one segment at the time makes the tasks far less intimidating, and the better you allocate the timings, the more faith you have that as long as you keep to the list, you will succeed at completing the day”s tasks. Again, the more attention you pay to the feasibility of the list, the more authority and motivational power it gains. With every layer of detail, the schedule makes the decision as to whether to slack off or not even simpler, ‘if I want to achieve something today then I just follow the to-do list’. This transforms the grey and vague area of productivity into clear cut decision. You either follow the to-do list timings and succeed, or you don’t and fail. The longer you”ve been working with a to-do list, the more firmly this will be ingrained into your behaviour, because experience will tell you that when you slack for just a moment and drag your heels, the day ends dismally. Your to-do list is becoming a powerful tool.

Order all the tasks properly. The final killer technique for to-do lists is the order in which you place the tasks. This is a strategic decision that will have a large effect on how your mood changes throughout the next day, so it’s terribly important. Due to the variety of tasks you may want to accomplish, it’s hard to offer a comprehensive guide as to how to arrange tasks. But if they’re standard ones then you can stick to the rules below: Put your most intellectually challenging task/ most hated chore first, or just after a generous lunch break. Justification – If you put the task at a point when you are likely to be hungry or tired, you may not be able to meet the demands of the job. Also if you put it near the end, you may just give up because you feel like you’ve already achieved so much already. If your ‘chore’ is the last task, then not following the plan won”t mess around any schedule you had that day, so the to-do won’t work as effectively in enforcing your behaviour. This is the reason for my next rule. Put your easiest or most enjoyable task last, justification – Unlike a sprint, you’re unlikely to be working the hardest at the end, and will probably have more things distracting you, such as plans for the evening or maybe what you’ll be eating later. Give yourself the easiest choice as to whether to fully complete your list. For the reason mentioned above, skipping the last task on your list could become a common occurrence. Doing so is wasteful and frustrating, so make it as easy as possible for you to cross the finish line.

Don’t toggle between easy, hard, easy, hard or interesting, boring, interesting, boring

Mistakenly people think that this will keep their morale up, but in reality giving yourself short runs of rewarding work followed by plunges back into unrewarding work means you’re giving yourself too many opportunities to just momentarily say no to the boring work. Its like if you imagine that someone was ordered to get out of bed then back in then back out again. After a while, the person may envitably just curl themselves up and not emerge from the bed. Instead of giving yourelf tastes of the easy life, commit to long and solid skints of work. Research has shown that switching between two equally unrewarding tasks increases ones attitude towards both. This is because the mind starts to intrinsically recognise the benefits in each that may not be so apparant when compared against something fun. Try it out yourself. You’ve read the tips now and should know everything you need to write a killer to-do list that won’t just simply keep track of chores, but will motivate you and its power as a productivity tool will only increase the more you use it and have faith in it. Perfect during exam periods & busy periods but I’ll warn you: This may be a brilliant way of living, but whatever you do, don’t discuss it’s merits to a potential date.

Succeed at Life! Article written by Simon Oates. Copyright 2008.