* Make sure every employee at every level understands state of business. Be sure they know how their performance contributes to business results. Tell them what business needs from them to be more successful.

* Help them be prepared by offering resources and encouragement to keep resumes up to date.

If you were thinking this is a little radical and you would be crazy to take this advice...THINK AGAIN!

* People who think like free agents act as if their future depends on every thing they do, or don't do. They have a sense of personal responsibility and personal power.

* Free agent thinkers understand that every person they encounter is a potential customer, or can lead to a customer...so they treat everyone like a valued customer.

* Free agent thinkers anticipate change and understand that competition is tough. They learn to take good with bad, but they rarely consider themselves victims of circumstance.

Do your employees a favor. Encourage free agent thinking. As a company, yes, you'll have to work harder to keep talent you want to keep. And yes, you'll probably lose some. Which is better for your business...people who are actively engaged and appreciate opportunity, or people who are just waiting for their next paycheck? You decide!

Talk is cheating. At my gym, there are members who spend most of their time swapping war stories and giving updates on current sport matches. Instead of working out, they talk. And then, they'll ALSO talk about how hard they worked out. I call that cheating. Stick to task at hand. Action ALWAYS is louder than words

Get a trainer. We can't see our postures with free weights. We don't know what different exercise might improve a specific problem area. And we don't always stick to a regimen unless we're accountable to someone besides ourselves. Call it a coach, an advisor, a mentor-whatever. But all of us can benefit from advise and new eyes of someone outside of ourselves.

Celebrate your success. I admit: I despised exercise when I started. But I KNEW that I had to begin. I set a goal of 3 exercise times per week-30 minutes to start. Every time I exercised, I put a sticker in my appointment book. Yes-a fun sticker: animal, cartoon face, flower, you name it. Amazing but my appointment book began to blossom with crazy kid stickers. I could literally see progress every week. When beginning any new behavior, we all know that rewards are important. Stickers are cheap and visual. Whatever reward, it's consistency of giving that matters.

Workplace workouts, in context of learning, can promise growth, stamina, productivity, AND ultimately profitable performance.

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