Aug 19, 2014 | Self
What! Take It Easy? I thought you were a business coach?
Yes its true, most of what I tell my clients does not sound like a recipe for taking it easy. However as I’m preparing to attend the ActionCoach global conference next week in the Bahamas, I’m reminded about the need to occasionally stop and take it easy.
So you’ve taken my advice, read all the books and attend all the presentations on how to get the most out of yourself and your team. You know hundreds of “Time Management” tips and tricks. You “eat the frog”, stick to your “default schedule”, et cetera. There are so many tidbits of advice that you are overwhelmed trying to apply them.
You have figured out that we all have a fixed number of hours during the day, so now you are managing your “self” rather than “time”. You have an energy-producing diet and exercise regime to support your regimented work hours. You even have hours dedicated to having “quality time” with your loved ones.
And then, periodically, the whole fine-tuned machine collapses in a belly-flop. “I’m tired of this,” you declare. Then it starts, you call yourself a slouch. Now it is time to list your faults and admit that you will never be that ideal self. By this point your determined plan to manage your time has gone from being a day-to-day program of excellence to the evidence of your weakness and failure that you cannot sweep under the carpet.
Now you sit there by the side of the track hanging upside down, held there by your seat belt in the crashed wreckage of your self-discipline, while all the other race cars zoom by.
Hold on there. What if your knowledge, planning, and execution were all fine…except for one missing ingredient? What if adding that one thing into the mix will get you across the finish line first, over and over?
The facts are that you have a great race car, the best crew, and you are a fantastic driver. You just forgot to change your oil every 3,000 miles. Then, when you revved your engine and hit your stride at high speed, all those metal parts got to grinding and shearing.
So what’s this human oil that we need?
Self-compassion, that’s what. We are notoriously harder on ourselves than on others. If we treated our staff like we treat ourselves they would walk. But where are we to go to flee the lash of our inner disciplinarian? Bad moods, long stretches of low productivity, substance abuse, you name it – none of these are places where you recharge in gratitude and contentment.
In “Go Easy on Yourself, a New Wave of Research Urges,“ Tara Parker-Pope explains that the “…biggest reason people aren’t more self-compassionate is that they are afraid they’ll become self-indulgent… They believe self-criticism is what keeps them in line…our culture says being hard on yourself is the way to be.”
Any coach will tell you that is good advice for a sprinter, but terrible advice for a long-distance runner and your business is a marathon, not a sprint. So don’t be too hard on yourself. While self-criticism is helpful in small doses and when administered with care, stay above the line with it. Take responsibility by learning from what happened, figuring out what to do better next time, what the next steps are, and take some time to truly thank and appreciate yourself for all the work you do so well. You’ll find yourself getting more and more done with better quality and a far better attitude.
Aug 11, 2014 | Sales
Profitable sales are the most important element in a business. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if no one buys it then what difference does it make (Beta Max anyone?).
Many people have challenges going into sales mode—they think that successful sales people are born that way. Not true.
There are three things that anyone can do to improve their ability to effectively sell their products and services. The key is that they have to want to improve. Without that, there’s little hope for success.
So here are the three things that you can work on to improve your sales performance:
1.) Knowledge — what are you doing to “study” sales? To get better at anything, you have to put in time. So a little less Dancing with the Stars and a little more investment in building your sales knowledge. Authors to consider include Gitomer, Cialdini, Hopkins, Ziglar and Sugars.
2.) Mindset — we conduct a study all over the world and come out with the same universal results. When we ask people what comes to mind when they think of the term “sales person” (and when they are honest), the terms are 95%+ negative. We need to retool the mindset around sales. Yes there are bad salespeople, but you don’t have to be one of them. Sales is nothing more than professionally helping people to buy. What do you do to get in a positive frame of mind before a sales call? Do you run through a list of “I AM” positive affirmation statements, listen to a certain song, read a testimonial, use a confidence anchor? Whatever it is, make sure that it pumps you up and gets you in sales mode.
3. Sales Process — Have a written or flow charted sales process. See below as this is a biggie for success.
ACTION TIP —SALES PROCESS
How do you sell your products or services? Every company should have a sales process, including tracking results, that they follow. Benefits of a process are:
- You’ll actually know your numbers. In your sales process, there is a step where many of your candidates fall out. Is that early or late in the process? What can you change at that point in the process to generate better results?
- You’ll actually be more flexible. By having a process, you can focus on the perspective client and not try to figure out what to say next. It will put the prospect at ease. For the most part, they’ve not bought your service before. A process will help them see and understand where the conversation is going.
Pick out one of these 3 keys to work on in the next week, and you will see improvements.
Aug 5, 2014 | Self
How can you use a mindset of excellence to grow your business?
Imagine two business owners in the same market, with basically the same product and same target market, but the two businesses produce very different results. One is doing well, the other isn’t. One business owner seems on top of their game, the other isn’t. One business is growing, the other business is barely scraping by and the owner of the second business wonders whether it is either time to sell, or just shut the doors.
What is the difference between the two businesses? There are a number of possible factors, including the owners’ knowledge and ability to run the business, the systems that are in place and the team that drives the business forward. Pricing, marketing and sales all play a part as well. Many factors play into the successful, growing business. Yet, there is one characteristic that creates the largest differentiator between the two business environments. That is the mindset of the business owner. How do they look at each situation or economic obstacle, every customer, every challenge and life in general?
If your attitude is similar to Eeyore’s- the “woe is me” donkey that hangs with Winnie the Pooh—life is hard, this is what happened, I don’t get the same opportunities as others, the economy is really hurting, your results will reflect your attitude. Not taking responsibility is a “below the line” mindset of blame, excuses and denial. By blaming others, making excuses as to why things don’t get accomplished, and not taking accountability for your results, you remain a powerless victim to the world around you, and you become the main source of the issues plaguing the business.
Or is your attitude “above the line”? Do you as a business owner take ownership, accountability and responsibility for everything that happens in your business? You have the power to control everything that happens in 3 ways:
1) You control what you do
2) You control what you don’t do
3) You control how you respond to everything else
How your day goes is totally up to you, how you react to situations and what opportunities are ahead even through disasters. Steve Jobs got fired from Apple – not what he called the best day of his life, yet without being fired from Apple he would not have created Pixar and NeXT which are part of the foundation of the Apple products people love today. Above the line thinking creates empowerment, and empowerment creates results.
You can see the critical impact of attitude every day in the business world. What one business owner may see as a disaster, another business owner may see as an opportunity. People who have spent their lives in below the line thinking often don’t even realize the impact it has on them personally and in their families, businesses, customers and potential.
If you are below the line, so is your team, then the effects multiply exponentially. As a business owner, you set the tone for the business. An owner who is below the line will hire staff that will follow that lead and turn to blame, excuses and denial. It is someone else’s fault that the project is late, someone else’s fault that the customer is upset. To change, they will need someone to hold them accountable to point out where they are below the line.
As I work with clients on this concept, the tendency is to swing to a point where issues in the business are not discussed with an excuse. This doesn’t mean the business may white wash any issues it faces. It means empowerment to take ownership and responsibility for changing the issue. If projects are late, that is a fact. The question is what must change in the business to ensure projects are not delivered late. You have to take responsibility in order to improve the business.
If you want to reach your full potential, try taking responsibility for every single thing for one week. Everything will fit into one of the 3 categories above. Just do it for a week. How does it feel? What doors does it open for you when you have a responsibility mindset? What opportunities do you now consider that you might not have before? What impact could that have on your business? How much time and energy do team members waste just assigning blame? Where does that lead? How is the energy level in the business changing? What productivity improvements can you see potential for with an “above the line” attitude?
When I ask my clients if they want to be average, the resounding answer is NO. They want to be the best. To make that happen, your mindset must change to one of excellence or responsibility — above the line thinking — your results will be amazing.
Jul 29, 2014 | Planning & Goal Setting
What does it take to exit a business?
Being an entrepreneur is, to say the least, challenging. While being an entrepreneur gives us opportunities beyond our wildest dreams, those dreams can also become a nightmare.
Working with business owners, I find most of them have challenges with the day-to-day detail and operations of the business. The daily detail of dealing with cash flow, hiring, firing, marketing, selling and servicing customers is a consuming job, unless you know how to start running your company and stop having your company run you. If your company runs you, you will burn out, it’s just a matter of time. What happens next is you want OUT. You want out of the business and have no idea how to make that happen or where to start.
The truth is, we will all exit our business at some point. For some it is a well planned and executed event, for others it is a reaction to a set of circumstances that is either personal or economic. What really matters in each situation is the ability to have control over the end result.
You may have heard the phrase “Begin with the End in Mind.” The concept is to start and then run your business with the mental attitude that you will exit your business at some point, and know the result that you want in the end. Go back and read that sentence again, its critical to your success.
In this situation, your CPA, attorney, business brokers and business coach will all tell you that you need to prepare, plan and have your business perform as well without you as it does with you. This doesn’t happen overnight, or even in the first few years of running the business. But you still have to spend the time building an operation that has the right systems, a great team, financial checks and balances so you can get the desired value out of the business when you leave it.
Here are 2 examples: First, say you own a company that has the training and documented (yes that means in writing not in someone’s head) systems in place for all aspects of how the business operates. You track all critical Key Performance Indicators (leads, conversion rates, average dollar sales, revenue trends, profitability etc.) You have a team that knows what to do and how to do it, that carries what I call an above the line attitude (ownership, accountability and responsibility). The business is profitable month after month, quarter after quarter. The executive team knows the vision and mission of the organization and executes to it – even in your absence.
Now let’s look at another hypothetical company, one built around your strengths. Customers want to deal only with you. You are often turning over team members. The team doesn’t perform the way you want them to and is constantly blaming others. They have excuses and most deny that any issues are their fault. Cash flow is unpredictable and profitability is a word not often in your vocabulary.
Which business would you want to purchase? Which business will be easier to get a higher valuation and sell? What makes the difference between the two business owners and the results they receive?
After having run businesses, and now coaching business owners, for over 25 years, I’ve learned there are four key factors that make the difference.
1. Practice the concept that “Today Matters”. What do you do each day in building your business makes a difference in the long run. Each day do at least one thing that isn’t working IN your business, but “ON” your business. Have written specific goals that steer the business in the right direction. Read the book by John Maxwell – “Today Matters” for very practical tips
2. Learn the power of leverage. Document what you do, how you do it and train others. Hire differently than your competitors. Use a systematic recruiting process to hire on attitude first, skills second.
3. Know your Key Performance Indicators for financials, team, customers and overall business. KPI’s will help you see trends both good and bad and allow you to plan accordingly without reacting.
4. Have a team of outside advisers who hold you accountable to results. Whether you have run a business for 2 or 20 years you need someone from the outside challenging you to look at things differently and push you outside your comfort zone. Eleanor Roosevelt stated: “Do something every day that is outside your comfort zone.” That keeps making that zone larger and larger.
Jul 20, 2014 | Team
What is Visual Management? Management by looking around? Like the old MBWA (management by walking around) of the 80’s? Well not really, but how often do you see in the workplace various signs and compliance notices put up by owners and managers that nobody ever pays attention to? How many of them do people read and what purpose do they really serve?
Taking lessons from the Japanese specialists in Kaizen, continuous improvement, I learned the true power of visual management. Putting KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in a place where all the team can see them, results in significant performance improvements, without making any other changes. In Kaizen it’s called ‘Visual Management’ and it’s a key part of the success of the famous Toyota ‘Just in Time’ Production System.
At Toyota they post at notice board at each workstation in the factory. The board is regularly updated with the team’s performance targets, their current performance against these measures, and other critical team KPIs including customer satisfaction metrics. Updated daily – sometimes even hourly – the team can see exactly how their work is contributing to the overall production efficiency and the part they play in helping the company and its customers. They even display progress towards personal bonuses.
I’ve applied these same principles to many different types of businesses and it’s amazing to see how people respond once they know what the target goals are, and how they’re doing against those goals. For instance, in sales offices when we displayed the number and names of customers each salesperson was currently working with, and when they should be contacted next, it dramatically improved the sales team’s performance. Just knowing that they were going to be asked about their activities, and the visibility of their activity to everyone else caused them to up their game.
Similarly in a mechanical workshop, showing the technicians on a daily basis the hours sold, hours worked, and parts sales against the team’s target and bonus, had a massive effect on the team achieving its monthly goals. We also tracked the number of jobs coming back into the shop for re-work, which focused everyone on driving that number down.
In ActionCOACH we work with business owners to track their key numbers, Average Dollar Sale, Conversion Rate, Number of Leads, Transactions and Margins. What can you measure in your business? Coming up with your own set of metrics to drive your team’s performance, and making those numbers highly visual, makes an amazing impact on performance.
Jul 15, 2014 | Planning & Goal Setting, Self
Have you ever seen – or experienced – a business partnership ending badly?
I’ve seen it often. My experience is that out of every ten business partnerships, eight don’t work, one works very well, and one is just okay.
Often, the ones that don’t work have run into problems with each partner’s expectations of the business. In other words, the partners have key differences in their vision, in their targets and what they are trying to achieve in the business and in their risk tolerance. There is conflict in the partnership when one partner wants to go faster than the other, one partner wants to take it easy, or one partner has a higher appetite for risk than the other.
That can mean that a couple of years down the track, one partner is working a bit harder than the other and resentment is starting to build. Or, the business needs a cash injection and one partner has the money and the other doesn’t. One wants to invest time and money in going after a new contract or market share, while the other is happy with a steady, reliable business. That’s when problems start to show up.
The trouble is that there is so much emotion and excitement in starting a new business that the partners often just didn’t talk about these kinds of issues before they got started. A successful partnership needs – clear communication, a lot of what-if planning, and a written set of goals and overarching strategies.
- What if one of the partners wants to leave the business? How will you manage a buy out?
- What if you need a lot of capital suddenly? Whose personal assets will and will not be available?
- How do each of you define “success” in the business? Is there a particular milestone you each want to reach?
- How will you know when the business is “finished”? Do you intended to sell it? Run it forever and keep it in the family?
- How many hours a week are you really comfortable working? What about after the first few years of intense work are over?
- How much of a financial return are you each expecting? Now, and ultimately? If you each have different skills, do you value your time equally?
- How much personal or business debt can you each cope with, before you begin losing sleep over it?
These are the kinds of questions you need to discuss, and put down in writing, to form the basis of a successful partnership. When you’re working together, you need to know what to expect from one another. If you can see from this exercise that your expectations are not aligning on a lot of points, then you may need to consider other options rather than going into partnership.
To find out more about how to become aligned with your partner or team, get in touch with me.
