Greetings!   

The first quarter is nearly behind us. My guess is that if you're a faithful reader of this newsletter you've taken some POSITIVE ACTION towards your 2016 goals and that's something to be proud of. Kudos to you! Remember the acronym for ACT is Action Changes Things. If you don't like the state of something, take action to change it.

I hope the items in this latest newsletter are useful to you as you look forward to a super spring of 2016. 
The Best Handshake

How's your handshake? Do you think it's the best it can be? Well, after reading and applying this process, it will be. According to body language expert, Carol Goman, there are 9 ways to ensure you have the best handshake.
  1. Always stand up
  2. Be standing squarely in front of the other person
  3. Put your hand out with the palm facing sideways
  4. Make eye contact as you shake
  5. Smile. The other person will naturally smile back and feel happier.
  6. Start speaking while your hands are still connected
  7. Make sure your handshake is firm - especially if you are a woman
  8. Be sure you have palm to palm contact and your hands are web to web. 
  9. Keep your eyes up as you break contact. It maintains a positive impression.
Follow these tips to improve your handshake. By the way, it's important to shake hands with people you meet since people are 2x more likely to remember you if you shake hands with them. Also, people are usually friendlier and more open with those with whom they've shaken hands. Carol is the bomb when it comes to body language instruction. You can learn more from her on her website.
Could Google Build the Perfect Team Through Data Collection?

Why teams thrive is a perennially interesting topic to me. So, a recent article written by Charles Duhigg for the New York Times Magazine caught my attention. It's entitled "What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team".

The article highlights the efforts of Google's Project Aristotle that started in 2012. The project looked at hundreds of teams within Google to try to determine what traits characterized the perfect team. This way they could conceivably replicate those characteristics in other teams. Right? Well, it wasn't so easy. Just when they thought they'd found a pattern in a successful team, they'd discover a team with opposing traits that was similarly successful. In the end they did figure out a few things, which you may instinctively already know: "In the best teams, members listen to one another and show sensitivity to feelings and needs." That is, great teams have members that display emotional intelligence. They take an interest in other members of the team beyond the projects they're working on. Transparency was also valued. When one team leader shared that he had a grave physical condition it touched his team and brought forth other intimate disclosures that seemed to actually put everyone at greater ease with one another. You can find the full article here. Incidentally the team training I offer called The 5 Behaviors of a Cohesive Team will focus on developing such traits (surprise!). Let me know if you'd like more information on that program.
2 Great Events Coming Up


SET Symposium
In Silicon Valley on March 31st there's going to be a special event entitled the Sports Entertainment and Technology Symposium. Being produced by WITI in partnership with Jabil Blue Sky, this should be a very interesting event for people involved in these industries that are seeing big changes due to the influence of technology. Learn more about this event here. 

Bizwomen Mentoring Monday
This is an event that will happen on April 4th simultaneously across the country. A host of successful women across industries will provide rapid coaching sessions for the women in attendance. You could be coached by the CMO of Salesforce, the Chief of Staff for the San Francisco Superbowl, or the Head of Product Marketing for Pinterest! There will be networking with these top achievers, too. You can learn more about this San Francisco Business Times event here. 
Book Recommendation

This issue's suggested book is for anyone who'd like to do a better job of selling. Jeffrey Gitomer takes the guesswork out of the equation with his really useful book, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers. Here's one tip from the book that's sure to give you some great information from your prospect: Ask them, "What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of "insert your product, profession, service"? Another tip is to write down the list of objections you get over and over. Create your best responses to those objections and bring each one of them up in your initial presentation of your offering. This way they're all out on the table and your prospect is mostly disarmed and able to move forward faster if what you offer is right for them. This book has many little gems within its pages. It seems to be out of print, but you can get like new used copies for as little as $8.00 on Amazon. 
Business Growth Series is Coming Back!

There are people who wanted to attend the Business Growth Series a few months back but just couldn't make it. If that's you, then you'll be happy to know it's coming back in May. Packed with ideas to grow your business in 2016, it's guaranteed to provide ideas and instruction you can use or request a 100% refund. Learn more and register here. Seats are limited to 8 to allow for frequent interaction throughout the day.
A Pair of Uplifting Stats

The unemployment rate for veterans was 4.6% last year. That's the lowest it's been since 2008. Drawn from this WSJ article.

The number of women-owned businesses grew to 40,135 in 2012 from 31,639 in 2007, which represents a 26% increase over that 5-year period. This was drawn from US Census data. San Francisco came in 5th out of 25 cities examined for number of women-owned businesses per capita.
Are You Interested in an Inbox Zero Class?

For the past 2 years I've been running my business with an email inbox that gets as low as 4 or 5 emails in there. Virtually zero. I find this to be an essential tool for being productive and on top of things. I've been asked by a few people to create a class around my email philosophy and tactics.

Would you be interested in such a class? And, if so, what would you pay for it? 

Please hit Reply and let me know. I may put together such a class in the late spring if enough people are interested.
A Thought from Peter Drucker

At the beginning of the newsletter I encouraged you to take action to change a situation you're not happy with. After you've done that, heed this advice from Peter Drucker. 

"Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action." - Peter Drucker
That's a Wrap!
That's it for this issue. I hope some part of it was helpful to you. I'll be back with you in the first half of May. Until then, make it your best year ever. 

Michael Neuendorff | The Growth Coach | 650.373.2022 

The Growth Coach | 533 Airport Blvd. | Suite 400 | Burlingame | CA | 94010