Want Business Growth? Challenge Your Assumptions!

By admin | Published: June 3, 2009

Assumptions make our lives easier. That’s both good news and bad. As creatures of habit, we seek efficiency through the use of assumptions in lieu of active thought to drive most of our behaviors. With few exceptions, what we do in any given 24-hour period demands little conscious thought because we’ve developed habits that help us accomplish all sorts of things.

For instance, while driving (even if you’re doing the speed limit), it’s quite common to pull your foot off the gas pedal when you see a police car ahead on the side of the road. In that instant, it seems like your foot has a mind of its own! What really happened is that you incorporated an assumption – that getting a ticket is a bad thing — to replace the thinking component of the “stimulus-thought-response” chain of events. In this example, no doubt, the assumption — or habit of thought — serves you well (this is the good news).

Unfortunately, however, that’s often not the case (this is the bad news). In a business, assumptions might include any of the following statements or beliefs:

  • “That won’t work here.”
  • “Change is risky.”
  • “I’ve seen this situation before.”
  • “We’re better than the competition.”

While some of our assumptions are useful in preventing us from having to consciously figure out the mechanics each time we confront a familiar situation, many habits of thought keep us from stretching our capabilities and trying new, and inventive, and possibly better ideas or techniques. Just like when you see a police car, these assumptions work silently, but powerfully to impact your behaviors and the behaviors of those around you.

Welcome to the “black box” of business and the enemy of business growth. Most business leaders don’t even know that it exists; yet it contains the keys to our own potential, our organizations’ potential, and our ability to get more of what we really want.  Assumptions drive thinking, thinking drives behavior, and behavior drives results.

In late 2005 FORTUNE Magazine published a cover story about Andy Grove, one of Intel’s founders and most accomplished leaders. In describing one of the key characteristics that made Grove so successful, author Richard S. Tedlow wrote “Forcibly adapting himself to a succession of new realities, [Grove] has left a trail of discarded assumptions in his wake.” Grove’s ability to challenge “conventional wisdom” (just a euphemism for assumptions) paved the way for a number of seminal decisions at Intel including their move in the mid 1980′s to exit the memory business and focus on processors, and their decision to spend millions on a ground-breaking branding campaign called “Intel Inside” to brand an internal component of a computer.

What made Grove different (and so successful at Intel) is that he actively sought ways to force himself to challenge his assumptions and beliefs – in effect continually pushing and expanding his comfort zone. It was the modus operandi of his personal growth and his ability to lead Intel so successfully for so long.

Can you identify the modus operandi for strategic growth in your organization? When is the last time you consciously pushed to expand your comfort zone – by definition making yourself and those surrounding you uncomfortable in the process? Can you find a way to regularly challenge your own assumptions and beliefs? If not, might it make sense to find someone who will?

For sure, assumptions make our lives easier and more comfortable. It’s up to you however, to decide what you’d like to do with them to drive growth, to make your organization more competitive, and to improve yourself personally.

Posted in Implementing Change, Leadership, Obstacles to Change | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Treat Employees Like You Treat Your Mother

By admin | Published: May 14, 2009

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, and it’s a great example of what I call a “recognition holiday.”  That is – since 1908, if you’re a mom, then you deserve to be recognized and thanked on Mother’s Day.  Period.  End of story.  No other qualification or accomplishment is required.

For some, Mother’s Day is a rare annual moment of recognition.  For other moms, the holiday is a slightly more formalized version of the recognition and thanks they receive on a week-to-week basis throughout the entire year.  In either case, the day itself exemplifies rear-view recognition because the moment of appreciation is so far removed from the actions or events being recognized.

Does your organization’s culture promote rear-view recognition – thanking staff periodically for example at performance reviews, holiday parties, and summer picnics?  Or do you provide more proactive continual reinforcement and recognition for your team?  The difference is easy to detect in organizations and shows up most noticeably through employee engagement, morale, and discretionary effort.

If – like me – you believe that improvements to employee engagement, morale, and discretionary effort have a direct impact on accountability, revenue, profit, and customer loyalty, then every day you wait to implement a system of proactive continual reinforcement and recognition is another day of lost opportunity.

When employees feel good about their efforts and are applying them in a unified direction to achieve the goals of your business, great results tend to happen.  A continual reinforcement and recognition system overwhelmingly stacks the deck in favor of these outcomes.  Period.  End of story.

The best news of all is that these systems are relatively simple to implement and cost virtually nothing – barely even any of your time (yes, really!).

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The "Second" Set of Ten Commandments

By admin | Published: May 1, 2009

Did you know there is a “second” set of Ten Commandments?

They offer very sound advice! The following is reprinted from Harvey Mackay, author and Chairman of Mackay Envelope Corporation.

We all know about the original Ten Commandments, but have you ever heard of the Second Ten Commandments? I don’t remember who sent them to me – these pearls of wisdom have been often attributed to one Elodie Armstrong – but I sure would like to thank him or her for sharing this wisdom.

Here they are with my spin on them:

1. Thou shall not worry, for worry is the most unproductive of all human activities. A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work. People get so busy worrying about yesterday or tomorrow, they forget about today. And today is what you have to work with.

2. Thou shall not be fearful, for most of the things we fear never come to pass. Every crisis we face is multiplied when we act out of fear. When we fear something, we empower it. If we refuse to concede to our fear, there is nothing to fear.

3. Thou shall not cross bridges before you come to them, for no one yet has succeeded in accomplishing this. Tomorrow’s problems may not even be problems when tomorrow comes.

4. Thou shall face each problem as it comes. You can only handle one at a time anyway. In one of my favorite “Peanuts” comic strips, Linus says to Charlie Brown, “There is no problem so big it cannot be run away from.” I chuckle every time I think about it, because it sounds like such a simple solution. Problem-solving is not easy, so don’t make it harder than it is.

5. Thou shall not take problems to bed with you, for they make very poor bedfellows. If I wake up thinking of a problem, I tell myself it will seem lighter in the morning, and it always is.

6. Thou shall not borrow other people’s problems. They can better care for them than you can. I confess that I have broken this commandment because I wanted to help someone, without being asked, or I thought I was more equipped to handle a situation. But I wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences, either.

7. Thou shall not try to relive yesterday. For good or ill, it is forever gone. Concentrate on what is happening in your life and be happy now. We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get a better job, make more money, get married, have a baby, buy a bigger house and so on. Yet the accomplishment of any of those events may not make any difference at all. The Declaration of Independence says we are endowed “with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” You are responsible for your own happiness.

8. Thou shall be a good listener, for only when you listen do you hear ideas different from your own. You can win more friends with your ears than with your mouth. Hearing is one of the body’s five senses, but listening is an art. Your success could hinge on whether you have mastered the skill of listening. Most people won’t listen to what you’re saying unless they already feel that you have listened to them. When we feel we are being listened to, it makes us feel as if we are being taken seriously and what we say really matters.

9. Thou shall not become bogged down by frustration, for 90 percent of it is rooted in self-pity and will only interfere with positive action. Seriously, has frustration ever improved a situation? Better to take a break, collect your thoughts, and redirect your attention to a positive first step. Then, go on from there.

10. Thou shall count thy blessings, never overlooking the small ones, for a lot of small blessings add up to a big one. We all have something to be grateful for, even on the worst days. Hey, you’re still on the green side of the grass, aren’t you?

Although Mackay’s “second” Ten Commandments aren’t chiseled in stone, try them! They’ll certainly make your life less rocky.

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Outthink and Outperform Your Competitors: 5 Steps to Success

By admin | Published: April 20, 2009

(This is part two of a two part post on How to Outthink and Outperform Your Competitors)

Here are the 5 steps that are required to create a comprehensive and practical plan for your business:

1.Identify your vision and clarify your values

Research shows that vision-driven leaders and their companies significantly outperform their competitors.  Your vision has 2 functions. First, it serves as a source of information, involvement, and motivation.  Second, it both informs and guides your decisions and the choices of your staff.  For example, I have a client whose vision is to “Automate, innovate, integrate, and simplify.”  After the management team communicated the vision clearly to the organization, it began to impact the myriad of day-to-day decisions and choices they and their people were making – moving them toward their objectives.
If vision is the “what” you are trying to achieve, then your values are “how” you expect your organization to behave along the way. 

They serve as guide posts for the members of your staff who, through their individual efforts, will collectively achieve your goals.  Values are the principles by which you do business and, once established, should be non-negotiable.  As you think about your values, consider what you know to be right, as well as how you want to be perceived by others. Values are demonstrated through behavior, and behavior creates lasting perceptions. Examples of core values are: trustworthy, we do what we say, fun, customers first, and respect for individuals.

Your vision and your values cannot be over communicated to your staff! In addition, they should directly influence your thinking in the 4 remaining steps of the planning process.

2. Assess external market and competitive conditions and trends

The first area to explore in the external assessment is customer segmentation.  That is, who your customers are now and who you want to have as your customers in the future.  Thee are many dimensions to consider here depending upon the nature of your business, for example, industry, revenue, and location for B-to-B, and income, home value, and number of children for B-to-C – just to name a few.  With deliberate focus onsegmentation and the needs and expectations of each segment, you will see opportunities more clearly.
Once you’ve clearly identified your customer segments, it is time to focus on your competition.  In doing this, there is value to looking at comparative strengths and weaknesses – both yours and theirs!  The ultimate objective is to find ways to leverage your key strengths against their weaknesses.  Although this exercise can be painful, understanding how you measure-up in terms of products, service, response time, sales skills, convenience, and value-added knowledge exposes opportunities and potential liabilities that your plan should address.

The final component of the external assessment is trend analysis.  Here you’ll be striving to understand the trends that are taking place – in your industry, among your customers, in our nation, around the world – that could have an impact on your business.  What is changing around you and how can you adapt?  You’ll pick this up in your trend analysis and it will help you minimize the impact of external events and capitalize on favorable developments.

3. Assess internal structure and resources

 Your organization must be structured to respond rapidly to the needs of your customers.  Sounds great, but is it? In evaluating your organization you may want to ask yourself some of these questions: Are we easy to do business with? Do we really add value, or just talk about it? How do we react when we make a mistake? The structure of your organization and the clarity of roles, responsibilities, and processes within it have a direct impact on your ability to provide value and positive, differentiated customer experiences.
 When you consider your available resources, don’t just think about people.  The resources at your disposal might also include real estate, equipment, growth capacity, service, technology, capital, intellectual capital, and expertise.  How you utilize them in aggregate is critical to understand, since business results are directly linked to your choices of how you acquire and deploy resources.  Understanding your market segments is another important dimension in the evaluation of your resources. Think back to customer segmentation and ask yourself: Do I have the right resources in place to meet my customers’ needs?  Are my sales producers and service staff sufficiently experienced in the segments we serve?

 4. Document Your SLOT (strengths, limitations, opportunities, threats)

Your external and internal appraisals identified concerns to be addressed and strengths upon which you can build.  The thinking you did about your competition, trends, organization structure, and resources highlighted areas that will have an impact on your ability to succeed in your chosen market segments.  Your SLOT analysis will help you summarize these issues and begin to conceive actionable ideas to maximize your strengths and opportunities, while minimizing your limitations and threats.
Strengths are defined as areas where your organization excels.  Limitations are usually weak points.  Opportunities represent significant and favorable situations in your markets that can help you be more successful.  Threats are like ticking time bombs that must be defused before they explode and do their damage.  While you may be tempted to focus on eliminating limitations, be sure to place an equal – if not greater – emphasis on exploiting your strengths.  This is how competitive advantages are built!

 5. Identify critical success factors (CSFs) and tactical goals

CSFs are the categories of things that must happen or must be in place for you to achieve your desired results.  Ask yourself: What broad elements are necessary and sufficient to achieve my overall objectives?  Some examples of CSFs are: Customer Service, Book Growth, Technology, Staff Development, New Market Penetration, and Sales Effectiveness.  Ideally, your business should have 4-7 critical goal categories to support your plan.
Your goals should be recorded in a spreadsheet, within CSF, including due dates, and – for each individual goal – the name of the person who will be held accountable to complete it.  The results of steps 1-4 can now be converted into specific, measurable, and attainable goals for your agency, forming the tactical road map – perfectly aligned with your strategic thinking – that will lead you to the results you seek.
As Confucius said, “A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.”  Centuries later, his wisdom still holds true – particularly for many companies in today’s waffling economy.  Whether you employ 6 or 600, a right-sized, well thought, appropriately executed plan will dramatically improve your competitive positioning and your performance regardless of market conditions.

Find a way to remove the obstacles that are preventing you from investing an appropriate amount of time in a disciplined thinking and planning process for your business. Your ability to outthink and outperform your competitors depends on it.

Posted in Implementing Change, Leadership, Obstacles to Change, Strategic Planning | Leave a comment

How to Outthink (and Outperform) Your Competitors

By admin | Published: March 24, 2009

(Part 1 of a 2-Part Series)

As Aretha Franklin says: “Think!”

In today’s mile-a-minute, e-connected, global, frenetic, here-today-gone-tomorrow world of commerce, it is no surprise that many of us don’t take enough time to think – and I mean really think, in a deep and focused way – about our business.  We’ve become reactionary experts, essentially sucker-punched by our clients, by our competitors, by 24×7 connectedness, and by the pundits who espouse turn-on-a-dime flexibility as the panacea for 21st century business success.

Well, the pundits are at least partially right; flexibility is important.  But not at the expense of a well thought strategy and a logical plan of execution.  This is at once both the challenge and the opportunity with great potential to impact your performance and competitive position.

If you are thinking to yourself, “my business is too small to need a strategy” or “I’ve gotten this far without a plan,” you might want to consider whether you are thinking too small.  Acknowledging that what got you where you are today isn’t necessarily going to get you where you want to be in the future is the first step. Committing to some form of disciplined thinking and planning process is the next.  Sustained competitive advantage is linked to continually implementing change and, as both research-based and anecdotal evidence illustrate, the odds of doing that successfully plummet without a well-thought plan.

According to Theodore Levitt, professor and editor of the Harvard Business Review, the job of every manager is to “think rather than just to act, react, or administer.”  The question to consider is: How much time do you actually spend thinking versus acting and reacting?  If you are almost always acting and reacting, what are the potential risks associated with not taking the time to really think?

Although finding the time to think and plan is often posed as an obstacle by business leaders I’ve met, the time commitment for a structured process – similar to the one I will outline for you in this article – can be as little as 16-20 hours. That’s just 2 hours per week to spend working “on” your business instead of “in” your business, spread over 8-10 weeks.

There are 2 major components to understand: strategic planning and tactical planning.

Strategic planning is a thinking process that helps clarify and then merge your concept of what you want your business to achieve with the external realities of the marketplace and the internal realities of your organization.  The result is vastly improved precision regarding direction and focus, and a realistic assessment of your organization’s strengths, limitations, opportunities, and threats.  Tactical planning becomes much easier when a big picture has been defined – not just in terms of what must be accomplished, but importantly why it matters.

Business planning – the combination of strategic planning and then tactical planning -sets the stage for competitive advantage.  It also facilitates the integration of your plan, your people issues, and your processes into a single set of tasks specifically designed to get you where you want it to go.  An effective plan gathers no dust on the shelf.  Rather, it is a day-to-day communication, decision-making, monitoring, and tracking tool to hold yourself and your team accountable to accomplish your objectives.

In my next blog entry – part 2 of this 2-part series, we’ll outline the 5 steps that are required to create a comprehensive and practical plan for your business.

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What are you doing to enhance your value drivers?

By admin | Published: March 9, 2009

In a recent article entitled “Economic Downturn Gives Owners Time to Work on Value Drivers,” my good friend Eric Donner, Managing Member of Regal Wealth Advisors reviews how important value drivers are to maximize a business’ selling price.

He goes on to point out that it is the work of the owner – not employees – to create and to nurture them. Value drivers include:

• A stable and motivated management team.
• Operating systems that improve sustainability of cash flows.
• A solid, diversified customer base.
• A realistic growth strategy.
• Effective financial controls.
• Stable and improving cash flow.

Due to the freeze in credit markets and a slowdown of M&A, today’s economic environment – for the foreseeable future – gives owners time to install and/ or improve value drivers in their companies. It also gives them time to demonstrate the sustainability of the value drivers they create. Buyers want to know that success or growth charted in one year can be maintained over several years. They bank on (and pay for) a company’s potential to grow, so they look very carefully at how long a company’s value drivers have yielded positive results.

Experienced owners know that change takes time. Really experienced owners know that positive results from those changes take even longer — likely longer than even they expect.

Regardless of when you might sell, it makes good sense for owners to concentrate on those elements of their businesses that create more cash flow, more sustainability, and more future value. After all, isn’t this why you’re in business?

A great place to start is to evaluate how you’re doing currently with respect to each value driver and then put a plan in place to improve each one – steadily and continually – over time. Then, when it finally is time to sell, you’ll be assured a handsome return for having built something of lasting value.

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Overcoming Resistance to Organizational Change

By admin | Published: March 3, 2009

To understand why we resist change, it is useful to acknowledge that humans are creatures of habit, and that habits are learned behaviors with predictable outcomes. By creating change, we force those involved – including ourselves – to confront the unknown and “unlearn” things that we previously accepted as producing desirable results. Even if the current results are sub par, they are predictable and at some level comfortable for us – so we resist changing.

There are 3 types of resistance that most frequently rear their unproductive heads in an organizational setting: emotional, political, and rational (EPR). Although each has the potential to derail organizational change and all 3 operate simultaneously within us, they are unique in how and when they are most likely to impact your business.

When people first learn about impending change, most – at an emotional level – actually become intrigued and even excited about it. We are naturally curious and relatively optimistic beings, so our emotional reaction to upcoming change is initially positive as you can see on the Emotional graph line in Chart A. It isn’t until the going gets tough that emotions swing to the negative and have the potential to create a crisis point. If you had the power to listen to what other people think, at the crisis point you might hear things like “I’m not so sure this is really going to work” and “This is much harder than I thought it would be.” As a leader, it is critical for you to anticipate this moment for yourself and for your people so that you can provide the boost necessary to help your team power through to firmer emotional ground.

Click Here to View Chart A

Political resistance to change is all about self-image and the perception of power. Unlike emotional resistance, political resistance kicks in at the exact moment people learn about change. The Political graph line in Chart A begins with a swing to the negative and then slowly trends back up into positive territory, tracing initial questions about the personal impact of change. People think things like “This could cost me my job” and “Why wasn’t I asked about this before the decision was made?” Over time, and as the change process unfolds, even the most seasoned political players learn to adapt, compensate, and otherwise protect their sense of importance, moving them back to positive ground. Warning: there is risk that political resistance will derail your project if it is left unchecked at the crisis point on the graph. To minimize the impact of political resistance, be sure to involve the right people up-front as you plan change and anticipate individual reactions – both of which will help you accelerate the path to acceptance.

Rational resistance to change is the easiest to both understand and overcome. As people try to understand change, they look for facts, relevant comparisons, and logic to help justify why it is necessary and what they should expect both during and after the process. Along the way, they look for measurable evidence of success and progress to correlate how their organization is doing compared to what they expected. The result of this is a straight-line Rational graph line on Chart A that begins at neutral and slowly trends toward positive acceptance. Thorough planning and open communications before and during change initiatives minimize the impact of rational resistance. As many of my clients learned the hard way, it is much better to deliver “bad” news or information about the imperative for change in an open and up-front manner than to shield it from employees to “protect” them for as long as possible. The same rings true for communicating successes, failures, and progress during the change process. Any news – even bad news – helps to minimize rational resistance to change.

How does EPR resistance to change impact your company? What did this cost you last year, and what would the benefits be if you could reduce their effects in the future?

Plans, People, Process

When I ask business owners to tell me where they want to drive their business, in most cases I get either a blank stare or a highly tactical response like the one I recently heard – “We are going to hire 3 new salespeople in 2009 and really push our [newest and most profitable service] business.” A statement like this is usually more of a reaction to events from the prior year than a forward-looking statement of what they really want to accomplish. It also oversimplifies the tasks at hand.

Running a business in this manner is akin to trying to drive a car to an unknown destination while looking in the rearview mirror; you don’t know where you are going and you could very well get yourself and others killed along the way!

The most significant root cause of EPR resistance to change – by far – is an underinvestment in strategic planning. To be clear, strategic planning is a thought process that helps business leaders clarify and then merge their concept of what they want their business to become with the external realities of the marketplace and the internal realities of their organization. The result is vastly improved precision regarding direction and focus, and a realistic assessment of the organization’s strengths, limitations, opportunities, and risks. Tactical planning and planning for change becomes much easier when a big picture has been defined – not just in terms of what must be accomplished, but also why it matters.

If you are reading this and thinking to yourself, “but my company is too small to need a strategic plan,” you might want to reconsider if indeed you are, or if you might be thinking too small not to have one!

Business planning – the combination of strategic planning (first) and tactical planning (second) – helps set the stage for change and will provide you with multiple opportunities to anticipate and overcome EPR resistance to change, in yourself and in your staff. It also facilitates the integration of your plan, your people issues (how to further develop yourself and your people), and your processes (which ones require examination for potential improvement) into a single set of tasks specifically designed to get you where you want it to go.

Change in your company starts with you, and it is never too late to plan for your future.

Ray Noorda, technology pioneer and former president and CEO of Novell Corporation, said: “Cause change and lead; accept change and survive; resist change and die.”

As a leader, it is important to acknowledge that you are also resistant to change. How do your own emotions, ego, and sense of strategic clarity impact your ability to drive change? Are you surrounding yourself with the right people to facilitate change or do those around you take too much comfort in the status quo?

Although there may never be a truly “good” time for change, it is always far better to plan for it proactively than to find yourself reacting to events that may not be fully in your control.

Posted in Leadership, Obstacles to Change, Performance Improvement | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Fallacy of the Status Quo

By admin | Published: February 24, 2009

Like death and taxes, change in business is at once inevitable and difficult to comprehend. It also happens to be necessary if your aim is to create a sustainable, competitive enterprise. Ignore this imperative at your own peril, as history has taught us over and over again. Once great firms like AT&T, Polaroid, and A&P exist as a shadow of their former selves while others including Bethlehem Steel disappeared altogether, in large part because they couldn’t change.

This is not just a large company phenomenon; when it comes to change, size doesn’t matter. Smaller firms fall victim to this slow demise with great frequency, it’s just that their stories are rarely the stuff of MBA case studies. Whether it’s hubris, a virtual monopoly, or flat out denial of external circumstances and events, the common denominator of these sad endings is a literal death grip on the status quo by otherwise competent leadership.

The concept of status quo is misleading, because in fact nothing ever stays the same. Just like a wad of cash buried in your back yard inevitably loses value over time, so it is with the status quo in business. Your markets, your clients, and your competitors will eventually outgrow and outpace you if you are unable to change and evolve. Although it may feel comfortable, the status quo is not a good thing at all; it is a slow motion business killer.

Whether you are conscious of it or not, odds are that you and your team embrace the status quo in a variety of areas. One client of mine – the president of a mid-sized Insurance agency – retained a problem manager for far longer than he should have – because of a misplaced sense of loyalty to her. Another delayed a much-needed technology upgrade because “things are working fine as is” (including, by the way, a number of labor intensive manual tasks). For over 6 months, a third client postponed a difficult conversation with a high-end producer who had become complacent in outside sales and spent virtually all of his time working his existing book.

During good times, we tend to give ourselves and our people credit for a job well done (think high-fives, healthy bonus checks, and lavish holiday parties). The result? “Let the good times roll, and let’s continue to do what we’ve been doing.”

When performance falters, our impulse is to identify and then blame external circumstances as the cause immediately followed by pushing harder to improve results (think it’s “the economy” and any underperforming employee you’ve recently counseled). The result? “We are underperforming because of the economy overall, so let’s buckle down and get more appointments to win our share.”

Ironically, both extremes reinforce the status quo; that is, you and your people generally continue to do what you’ve been doing. Your rationale is the only thing that actually changes!

What are your areas of status quo and why is it so difficult to move yourself and your organization beyond them? Where are your people stuck in the status quo?

The paradox of the status quo is that it makes us feel so comfortable. Only you can decide whether that’s good enough or if you’d like to plan for change to make your business more competitive over time.

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Office Politics: Survival of the Savvy (Part II)

By admin | Published: February 13, 2009

(Today’s post is part two of a two part series on Office Politics)

Three Phases of Political Competence

Political competence is a three-phase process. To bring people to your side, you must follow a systematic sequence. Otherwise, you may spend too much time talking with people who don’t need to be convinced of your idea’s merits. You may also fail to identify your chief opponents before they seize the opportunity to derail your efforts.

1. Map Your Political Terrain

First, identify all stakeholders—anyone who has an interest in, or who would be affected by, your idea—and how they will react. Some resistance is inevitable. You must anticipate others’ reactions, identify allies and resisters, analyze their goals and understand their agendas.

When you face objections, don’t go to individuals’ bosses or peers to undercut their arguments. Instead, ask them questions to determine their goals. A stakeholder may share your goal, but not your implementation approach; disagree with your goal, but share your approach to change; share neither; or share both. You can identify potential allies and resisters with direct questioning.

2. Get Others on Your Side

Build your coalition—a politically mobilized group committed to implementing your idea because doing so will generate valued benefits.

Creating coalitions is the most critical step in exercising your political competence. How do you win support? You need to be credible. You communicate credibility by letting potential allies and resisters know about your expertise, demonstrating personal integrity, and showing you have access to important people and information.

Through informal conversations, meetings and office drop-ins, you need to explain your position, keeping in mind four different motivational styles:

Rational: Use statistics and numbers to convince data-driven people how your proposal will save money, time or resources.

Mimicking: Cite successful companies that have benefited from similar ideas when dealing with people who are interested in best practices.

Regulation: For those concerned about rules and compliance, show how your idea will help in these areas.

Expectations: For those driven by a need to meet or exceed expectations, explain how your proposal will please customers, shareholders and the community.

3. Make Things Happen

You must win others’ buy-in by making it clear there’s a payoff for supporting your effort and drawbacks for not joining your coalition. Show how implementing your idea will ease their workload, increase their visibility within the organization or help them cut costs in their unit.

Once you’ve persuaded people to join your coalition, you’ve established a base that will legitimize your idea. Coalition members will then use their networks to evangelize for you.

As the coalition grows, don’t lose sight of the need for active leadership to keep members focused and sustain momentum. Watch for complacency and manage conflicts and disagreements over goals or processes. These are inevitable and must be resolved.

Mastering only certain parts of the three identified phases will not yield success. The following leadership archetypes sabotage themselves by failing to complete all three phases when attempting to generate and implement change.

The Political Analyst

Don’t be fooled into thinking that astute political analysts have high political competency. Analysts are skilled at anticipating others’ reactions and understanding their agendas, but they can’t get people to join their side. They’re incapable of sustaining the dialogue and interactions necessary to build coalitions. They may try to make things happen, but mapping the terrain is only the first step—and it’s never enough.

The Consensus Builder

Consensus builders do their political mapping, understand the terrain of allies and resisters, and spend time building coalitions—but they never seem to move beyond this point. They’re unable to mobilize supporters in a way that makes things happen.

Consensus builders have very strong process capabilities. The scale often tips in their favor because they can get people on board and they generally have a favorable reputation, which attracts resources and people.

They also have the ability to prolong meetings, insisting that conferences are the solution to every problem. An organization with too many consensus builders will spend an inordinate amount of time meeting, discussing, evaluating and never really accomplishing much.

Politically competent leaders map the terrain, get people on their side by building a coalition and lead the coalition to achieve results.

Reducing Risk through Politics

There are risks with any course of action you take. You sometimes have incomplete or inadequate information when making a decision. Building a coalition through dialogue with its members pushes valuable information to the surface.

You are open to criticism and politically vulnerable whenever you make a decision. Politically competent leaders reduce risk by getting as many people as possible on their side. Building a coalition is a search process for the best solution.

Building a coalition, bringing people together and solidifying/expanding your base will leave you less vulnerable to criticism. It’s more difficult to attack a leader who has built a large base of support throughout the organization.

Competent leaders accumulate political currency, making it easier for them to take on future projects. They capitalize on their successes to expand their coalition and prepare for further actions.

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Office Politics: Survival of the Savvy

By admin | Published: February 3, 2009

(This is part 1 of a 2 part post on Office Politics, please stay tuned for part 2 on the Three Phases of Political Competence)

Political savvy is a vital competence for any executive, but it’s not taught in leadership or grad school courses. In fact, the term “office politics” has received a bad rap. (Words like “Machiavellian,” “manipulative” and “conspiratorial” come to mind.)

Tales of political sabotage, power plays and turf wars are part of any organization’s history. Nonetheless, political competence is the one skill everyone wishes to have more of—but no one talks about it. When you ask people how they achieve results within their organizations, they cite market analysis, strategic planning and brainstorming. They never mention politics.

Until recently, few books explained how to use political competence to build one’s career, improve a team’s results or boost the company’s bottom line. Samuel B. Bacharach, director of Cornell University’s Institute for Workplace Studies, recently published Get Them on Your Side. Rick Brandon and Marty Seldman have written Survival of the Savvy: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success. Art Kleiner weighs in with Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success. These books shed light on this crucial competency, which every leader needs to master.

Political competence is the “ability to understand what you can and cannot control, when to take action, who is going to resist your agenda, and whom you need on your side. It’s about knowing how to map the political terrain and get others on your side, as well as lead coalitions,” according to Prof. Bacharach.

Many individuals have good ideas that, if implemented, could yield positive results for their companies. Sometimes, these ideas fall flat because the leaders who propose them cannot gain support from key people. They are unsuccessful in building a coalition to bring an idea into practical use.

A corporate version of survival of the fittest exists, especially in tough, competitive economic times. No one wants to admit that destructive politics and gamesmanship go on, but intense pressure to succeed drives some executives to use their political savvy to win by any means.

Defining Political Savvy

It’s naive to suggest that all office politics are destructive and unethical. If you define politics in such a narrow and negative way, you overlook the value of political awareness and skill. If political astuteness is combined with the right values, it can be an advantage for you, your team and your organization.

“Organizational politics are informal, unofficial, and sometimes behind-the-scenes efforts to sell ideas, influence an organization, increase power, or achieve other targeted objectives,” according to Brandon and Seldman in Survival of the Savvy.

In this definition, there is nothing either positive or negative about politics. The term is value-free. Whether organizational politics are destructive or constructive is determined by two criteria:

1. Whether the targeted objectives reflect the company’s interests or merely one’s self-interest

2. Whether the influence efforts used to achieve these objectives have integrity

Political savvy and skill can help ethical, competent leaders sell their ideas and influence others to benefit the organization.

Ignore at Your Own Risk

There are several important reasons to acquire political savvy:

1. Ignoring its existence is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. When political astuteness is combined with ethics and integrity, it can produce positive results for you, your team and your organization.

2. By avoiding or denying its existence, you underestimate how political behavior can destroy careers, a company’s reputation and overall performance.

3. If you define politics in only negative terms, you are naively under-political, which leaves you vulnerable to overly political, self-serving individuals.

You must develop political skills to survive and thrive in any organization. Overly political people can—and do—earn positions of power, and they can damage competent, loyal individuals who don’t play their game. You need high-integrity political tactics to play a better game.

When people get burned by overly political agendas, they may quit their jobs, only to find even more political game-playing at the next company they join. Worse, if they choose to stay in a politically charged workplace, they may allow their intimidation or resentment to drain their energy and compromise their performance. When this happens, they become disengaged.

It’s far better to recognize that organizational politics exist in both constructive and destructive forms. There’s simply no escaping it. That’s why it’s essential to learn how to use one’s political savvy with integrity. Nonmanipulative tactics can help you harness the power of politics in a way that brings results. Political astuteness can be a character virtue and a company asset—if you learn to use it ethically.

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A Leadership Checklist: 7 Questions to Ask Yourself (Part II)

By admin | Published: January 27, 2009

(This is part two of a two-part post on Leadership. Please see last week’s post for part one)

Ask yourself how you’re doing and what you should be doing differently—and be sure to answer truthfully. As simple as this may sound, many people are shocked by their answers to basic management and leadership questions.

Last week’s blog covered the first three checkpoints of leadership questions to ask yourself:
1. Vision and Priorities
2. Managing Time
3. Feedback

This post will cover the last four leadership checkpoints:
4. Succession Planning
5. Evaluation and Alignment
6. Leading Under Pressure
7. Staying True to Yourself

Succession Planning

Have you picked one or more potential successors?

If you aren’t identifying potential successors and developing their leadership abilities, then you are contributing to business and personal stagnation. There won’t be enough leaders to grow the business.

When challenging and testing people, you must frequently delegate more to them. This frees you to focus on critical strategic matters facing the business. When people are not being challenged, they may leave to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Planning for succession means your people will improve their performance, you’ll be more successful through them, and you will pave the way for your own promotion. Failure to actively plan for succession means you do not delegate sufficiently and become a decision-making bottleneck.

Ask yourself:

• Have I, at least in my own mind, picked one or more potential successors?
• Am I coaching them and giving them challenging assignments?
• Am I delegating sufficiently?
• Have I become a decision-making bottleneck?

Evaluation and Alignment

Your business is constantly changing. So are your customers. Depending on your industry, this may be rapid—or extremely rapid. If you don’t change along with the business environment, you may become seriously out of alignment. What got you here today won’t necessarily get you there tomorrow. The people you hire, the way you organize them, the economic incentives you offer them and even the tasks you delegate may no longer create the culture and outcomes that are critical to success.

Have you checked to see if the design of your organization still aligns with key success factors for your business? Effective executives regularly seek advice and fresh perspectives from people who are less emotionally invested in their business. This allows them to determine whether historically relevant aspects of the business remain critical to tomorrow’s success.

Ask yourself:

• Does the design of my company still align with key success factors?
• If I had to design my business from scratch, how would I create it? How would it differ from the current design?
• Should I create a task force to answer these questions and make recommendations?

Leading Under Pressure

A leader’s actions during stressful times have a profound impact on the firm’s culture and employees’ behaviors. Successful leaders must be aware of their personal stress triggers and reactions. Behaviors should be consistent with beliefs and core values, no matter how severe the stress.

Pressure is a normal part of doing business, but it affects people differently. What may evoke anxiety for one individual may not bother someone else. As a leader, you are watched closely. Emotions are contagious—even more so when they come from the leader.

You must be sufficiently self-aware to recognize the situations that create anxiety for you and manage your behavior to avoid sending counterproductive messages to your people.

Ask yourself:

• Which events create pressure for me?
• How do I behave under pressure?
• What signals do I send to subordinates?
• Are these signals helpful, or do they undermine the success of my business?

Staying True to Yourself

Successful executives develop leadership styles that fit their business needs, as well as their personal beliefs and personality. While many leaders ask themselves about the former, few analyze the latter.

Companies require leaders who can express strongly held views, rather than mimic the party line. Do you hold back for political reasons? Do you encourage your people to express their opinions and make waves, if appropriate?

Don’t tiptoe around significant issues or foster an atmosphere that encourages employees to do so.

Ask yourself:

• Is my leadership style comfortable? Does it reflect who I truly am?
• Do I assert myself sufficiently, or have I become tentative?
• Am I too politically correct?

• Does anxiety about my next promotion or bonus cause me to hesitate when I want to express my views?

In the early stages of your career, you may have received plenty of guidance and support from superiors and mentors. As you’ve been promoted, however, you’ve probably encountered fewer sources of honest and useful feedback. By the time mistakes have come to light, it may have been too late to fix them.

Successful leaders continually ask themselves hard questions to stay on track in a world of rapid change. Remember to step back and gain fresh perspectives so you’re prepared with a new game plan when change occurs. If you’re standing too close to the blackboard, you won’t see mistakes until it’s too late.

These questions are designed to ignite serious introspection. They can be even more productive when discussed with a trusted advisor, coach or mentor.

When is the last time you had a leadership checkup?

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A Leadership Checklist: 7 Questions to Ask Yourself (Part I)

By admin | Published: January 22, 2009

(This is part one of a two-part Leadership Checklist post…please stay tuned for next weeks post)

No matter how successful and talented you are, you’ve made mistakes and have acquired some bad habits. Some are old; others have seemingly popped up overnight. Behaviors that may have worked well for you in the past can render you ineffective in the present.

Perhaps you’re dissatisfied with your performance review. Maybe you’re bothered by a nagging feeling that you’re not at your peak. It’s time to wake up. Even outstanding leaders invariably struggle through career stretches during which they feel off track.

It can be hard to spot the specific problem when you’re in the middle of it. Changes in the environment, competitors or even personal circumstances can cause you to veer off course. Successful leaders are not always on track, but they have developed techniques for recognizing their vulnerabilities and making adjustments as quickly as possible.

As Charles Darwin said, “It is not the most intelligent of the species that survive the longest, it is the most adaptable.”

The best way to make swift adjustments is to periodically step back, observe and ask yourself several key questions. Some experts advise doing this every three to six months; much depends on the nature of your business.

How Are You Doing?

Ask yourself how you’re doing and what you should be doing differently—and be sure to answer truthfully. As simple as this may sound, many people are shocked by their answers to basic management and leadership questions.

Leaders should regularly ask themselves questions that target seven areas, according to Robert S. Kaplan, coauthor of The Balanced Scorecard. There are no “right” answers, of course. Some of these questions will resonate more than others.

Kaplan assures us that successful executives can consistently improve their performance and preempt serious business problems by stepping back and taking the time to interview themselves (“What to Ask the Person in the Mirror,” Harvard Business Review, December 2006).

Seven Leadership Checkpoints

The seven areas leaders should examine are:

1. Vision and Priorities
2. Managing Time
3. Feedback
4. Succession Planning
5. Evaluation and Alignment
6. Leading Under Pressure
7. Staying True to Yourself

Coming up with good answers is far less important than taking the time to ask yourself hard questions and honestly examine your strengths and weaknesses. The questions suggested in each of these leadership areas are intended to spark your thinking. If only a subset of them resonates with you, you may find it more interesting to come up with your own list of questions.

The goal here is to gain valuable insights into how you can stay on track as the business environment constantly changes. You can use this leadership checklist every few months for self-assessment.

Vision and Priorities

Many business leaders fail to ask themselves two important questions:

1. How frequently do I communicate a vision and the priorities for my business?
2. Would my employees, if asked, be able to articulate the vision and priorities?

It is difficult to lead people if they lack a firm grasp of where they’re heading and what’s expected of them. Unfortunately, in the rush of day-to-day activities, otherwise talented leaders fail to communicate sufficiently about the “why” of their companies. They neglect to explain their vision in an easily understood manner, not to mention the steps required of the people who are responsible for driving business.

Employees want to know where a business is heading and the areas on which they need to focus. Many managers either unintentionally under-communicate or fail to articulate specific priorities that would give meaning to their vision. However often you think you discuss vision and strategy, you’re probably not doing it enough or in sufficient detail for your people.

There is a disconnect between you and your team members if they cannot identify how the priorities of the big picture translate to specific, actionable steps.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• How often do I communicate a vision for my business?
• Have I identified and communicated three to five key priorities for achieving this vision?
• If asked, could my employees articulate my vision and priorities?

Managing Time

How are you spending your time?

This question is painfully simple, yet it plays a major role in the execution of your vision and priorities. Time is your most precious asset. Sadly, many leaders cannot accurately answer this question. It’s vital for them to track their time so they can gain a realistic, honest assessment of how their time is allocated. You may be surprised to find a disconnect between your top priorities and how you actually spend your time.

People take their cues from the leader when it comes to time management. Actions, business priorities and your team’s activities must match.

Time allocation may vary, depending on time of year, personnel changes and external factors. Nonetheless, time management must become a conscious decision that fits your vision and priorities. A periodic review of how you invest your time is vital, similar to your approach to reviewing your financial investments.

Ask yourself:

• How am I spending my time? Does this match my key priorities?
• How are my subordinates spending their time? Does this match my business’ key priorities?

Feedback

Feedback is a two-way street. You must assess how well you give and receive it. Many well-intentioned leaders fail to provide blunt, direct and timely feedback to their subordinates.

This problem occurs for several reasons. Commonly, managers are afraid that criticism will demoralize employees, discussions will become confrontational, or frank conversations will result in their not being liked. This prompts many managers to postpone giving feedback until it’s time for annual performance reviews.

This is a big mistake. People are more receptive to learning about themselves when feedback is offered throughout the year, as situations arise. Employees are more likely to stay at your company if they understand the issues they need to address. This is best done in a straightforward and prompt fashion.

It is much more challenging to get honest feedback from subordinates. You must cultivate a network of junior professionals who are willing to be direct with you. Equally important is what you do with the feedback. If you act on what others tell you, you will improve your own performance, boost trust and keep the feedback loop open.

Ask yourself:

• Do I give people timely and direct feedback to act upon?
• Do I have five or six junior subordinates who will tell me things I may not want to hear—but need to hear?

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How to Stack the Deck in Favor of Making the Right Tough Decisions

By admin | Published: January 15, 2009

 

Leaders are remembered for their best and worst judgment calls, especially when the stakes are high, information is limited and the correct call is far from obvious. In the face of ambiguity, uncertainty and conflicting demands, the quality of a leader’s judgment and decision making determines the entire organization’s fate.

 

That’s why leadership experts Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis claim judgment is the essence of leadership. In their popular book, Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls (Portfolio, 2007), they write: “With good judgment, little else matters.  Without it, nothing else matters.”

 

But there’s no one-size-fits-all way to make a judgment call, the authors emphasize. Every organization has distinct problems, people and solutions.

 

A Framework for Judgment

 

A judgment call should not be viewed as a single-point-in-time event.

 

The process begins when leaders recognize the need for change and for a decision. They consequently frame and name the issue, set clear goals and objectives, align people and continue through successful execution.

 

Three Critical Judgment Domains

 

People: Leaders cannot set sound direction and strategy for their enterprises or deal with crises without smart judgment calls about the people on their teams. This is definitely the most complex domain. Sound judgments about people require leaders to:

  1. Anticipate the need for key personnel changes
  2. Specify leadership requirements with an eye toward the future – not the rearview mirror
  3. Mobilize and align the social network to support the right call
  4. Make the process transparent so it can be deemed fair
  5. Make it happen
  6. Provide continuous support to achieve success

 

Strategy: When the current strategic road fails to lead to success, the leader must find a new path. The quality and viability of a strategic judgment call is a function of:

 

1.      The leader’s ability to look over the horizon and frame the right question

2.      The people – both internal and external to the organization – with whom he/she chooses to interact

 

Crisis: During a crisis, leaders must have clear values and know their ultimate goals. A poorly handled crisis can lead to business failure.

 

The Process of Making Judgment Calls

 

In all three domains, good decision making always involves a process that starts with recognizing the need for the call, with steps that facilitate effective execution.

 

  1. The Preparation Phase: This phase includes sensing and identifying the need for a judgment call, framing and naming the judgment call, and mobilizing and aligning the right people. While these steps may seem obvious, many factors can contribute to faulty framing and naming, which can result in a bad judgment call. For example, what is your process to separate symptoms from underlying causes? It’s important to allow “redo moments” and continually adjust to get it right.
  2. The Call Phase (Making the Judgment Call): There’s a moment when leaders make the call, based on their views of the time horizon and the sufficiency of people’s input and involvement.
  3. The Execution/Action Phase: Once a clear call is made, execution is a critical part of the process. Resources, people, capital, information and technology must be mobilized to make it happen. During this phase, feedback loops allow for adjustments.

 

Your Storyline and Why it Matters

 

Winning leaders are teachers, and they teach by telling stories. They develop a teachable point of view: valuable knowledge and experiences that convey ideas and values to energize others.

 

This teachable point of view is most valuable when it is woven into a storyline for the organization’s future success. As a living story, it helps the leader make the judgment call and makes the story become reality because it enlists and energizes others.

 

Winning story lines address three areas:

 

  1. Where are we now?
  2. Where are we going? (The inspirational storyline boosts the motivation for change and defines the goal)
  3. How are we going to get there?

 

If judgment calls are difficult for you, or if you have difficulty creating the storyline for your organizational vision, it’s probably time to revisit these 3 key, strategic questions.

 

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Who is Minding the Back Door for Your Business?

By admin | Published: January 5, 2009

 

Most companies I know spend a large portion of their budgets on driving new business through the front door.  Far fewer spend even a fraction as much in a directed effort to avoid having those precious customers walk out the back door.  The prevailing assumption is that by providing pretty good service and having largely satisfied customers, the back door is covered as well as it can be, and everything else is controlled by external market forces.

 

In fact, retaining and developing profitable customers is the result of having a solid and aligned organizational culture focused on building relationships that generate loyalty.  According to Fred Reichheld, researcher, consultant, and author of The Ultimate Question, a loyal customer always returns, brags about your organization and provides (free!) word of mouth advertising.  They are willing to pay more to work with you and, when there is a mistake, they are more forgiving.  The ability to cultivate loyal customers is a profitable and powerful competitive advantage.

 

Satisfaction vs. Loyalty

 

There are 2 measurements that can help you understand and manage your customer relationships: customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Many organizations assume that high levels of satisfaction translate into customer loyalty when, in fact, customer satisfaction ratings are more closely linked to your customers’ perception of product and service attributes rather than to the value they gain by doing business with you.

 

Satisfaction is a measurement of, “I expected it and I got it; therefore, I’m satisfied.”  If this were translated into a grading system, satisfaction translates into a grade of “C” on a traditional report card. This is precisely why your “satisfied” customers routinely shop around when it comes time to buy again. The desired score is obviously an “A,” an “A” always equates to loyal customers. An “A” implies that customers got more than they expected and their expectations were exceeded in some way.

 

High perceived value, as defined by your customers, creates loyal customer relationships, and research has demonstrated that customer loyalty is the best predictor of your future strength and growth potential. Perceived value occurs at the intersection of what customers want and what they get from you versus what they could get from your competition.

 

In order to create and sustain loyal customers, it is necessary to consider every contact with each customer as an opportunity for you to provide value—every time. Every service point is critical and every service point has a level of expectation from the customer that must be understood and managed. We call these contact points, Points of Connection (POC).

 

Points of Connection

 

Employee impact starts from the way they treat and relate to each customer at a given POC and their treatment of customers stems from the employees’ attitude. Attitude drives behavior, and behavior determines outcomes.  If the employees’ attitudes are positive, their behavior will be positive and supportive of the customer, which will generate results consistent with the expectations of the customer.

 

To effectively manage POCs they must first be identified. Once identified, you must clearly understand what value your customers’ desire from each POC. If there is a disconnect between what your customers expect and what currently exists then it imperative to ensure that proper employee development and process improvements are put into place to correct it.

 

Case Study

 

My friend, Jennifer Cassels, owner of Park Avenue Title Agency in Green Brook, NJ, exemplifies the cultivation of customer loyalty.  In the mortgage industry, the ability to overcome obstacles and close loans within tight timeframes can literally mean the difference between success and failure.  Jennifer works very closely with her clients – many of whom are real estate attorneys and mortgage lenders – to help them however she can to facilitate timely closings.  I’ve heard stories from her clients regarding her willingness to go “above and beyond” the call of duty to get transactions done – all the while providing accurate title services with a smile.  Additionally, she manages the POCs very well.  For example, you’ll always get a live person on the phone during business hours and she has a widely acclaimed closing cost estimate calculator on her website.  By managing POCs effectively and by going out of her way to solve her clients’ most pressing challenges (i.e. “how am I ever going to get this loan closed by Friday?”), Jennifer has created a loyal and growing client base.

 

Conclusion

 

Making the strategic decision to create a loyal customer base is one of the most important commitments you can make to the success of your business.  As Janelle Barlow and Paul Stewart say in their book, Branded Customer Service: The New Competitive Edge, “The customer service experience must be aligned with organizational promises.”  When your customer’s experience is not reflective of what has been advertised, promised, or expected, their trust in your business is undermined, which results in more traffic out the back door and lost revenue opportunities.

 

To build loyalty, your team must learn how to create strong relationships through frequent points of connection and deliver unique service experiences as expected and promised by your marketing and sales activities.  The immediate impact of delivering an exceptional experience based on what you’ve promised is a winning combination and a powerful weapon against the competition.  It will also help to ensure that the customers you work so hard to bring in the front door never even consider looking for the rear exit.

 

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Are You Walking the Walk of Accountability?

By admin | Published: August 14, 2008

“Our deeds follow us, and what we have been makes us what we are.”  – John Dykes

Although accountability has various definitions, it is typically used to describe personal responsibility for getting something done. Accountability is an essential element of focused accomplishment and, therefore, of the business world.  Successful organizations build systems that encourage accountability in alignment with their strategic plan. Strategic planning provides guidelines to define accountability – “who” will get “what” done by “when” – and accountability drives results in the direction of the plan.

A sound plan without a process for accountability is like a brand new sports car without any fuel.  It may look great, but it’s not going to get you anywhere.

The subject of accountability evokes different responses from different people. We routinely experience both positive and negative reactions, because accountability is closely related to responsibility, ethics, and (quite often) both blame and guilt. Resistance to being held accountable is common – not necessarily because we don’t want to do a good job, but because it pushes the limits of our personal comfort zone.

What does this mean for your company? Do you struggle with holding yourself and others accountable? Although this can certainly be a challenge, you can learn how to create more accountability more often – and have better results to show for it.

To get your staff to be more accountable, begin with open, straight-forward communication.  Communicate your vision (you do have a vision for your business, right?), communicate the elements of your strategic plan (you do have a strategic plan, right?), and help you team understand how they fit and why matters.  We often assume our way out of communicating (and, for that matter, planning) because we think that things should be obvious to others.  It may be obvious to you, but you just can’t make that assumption about others.  In addition, last time I checked, it’s impossible to communicate something you haven’t yet figured out yourself, so if you don’t have a vision and a clearly focused plan, that might be a more appropriate place to start.

It sounds trite, but perennially rings true: you must lead by example. As a manager, it is virtually impossible to hold others accountable for their actions if you don’t hold yourself accountable for your own. Walk the walk, and let everyone see you do it.

Dwight Eisenhower once said: “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” In other words, the pattern of your own behaviors and the environment you create influences the behaviors of others.  Leadership lies in helping them become invested, generally by asking them to be accountable for some action or set of actions. When someone makes a commitment to doing something concrete they’re much more likely to do it and ultimately take pride in their accomplishment.

How do you hold yourself accountable? This is a common concern for my clients who own small and mid-sized businesses. You may have high expectations for yourself and for those around you, but how well do you really live up to your own standards? How often do you let yourself off the hook? Who is there to push you when your resolve is flagging?

One solution for this common business owner dilemma is to form an accountability partnership. Enlist the help of a close friend or business colleague, or you may even want to hire a personal coach or consultant who will help you stay focused and engaged. The most important thing is to identify someone who you can count on to support your goals, and who will take you to task when you need it.

Accountability sews the seeds of accomplishment. Accountability to your staff, accountability to your work, accountability to yourself – it all matters.  Your business and your reputation depend on it.

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What if It Could Be Summer All Year Long?

By admin | Published: July 25, 2008

(How to Get Your Organization to Run Smoothly Without You)

Ahh, Summer. Summer means barbecues, swimming, baseball games, camping, road trips, and lazy days in the sun. That’s what summer is all about, isn’t it?

Well, for some, that’s just wishful thinking. Many business owners are so tied to their companies that they can’t step away, and a truly relaxing summer vacation is nothing more than wishful thinking. Who are these people? They are the micro-managers, the “do-it-all-ers,” the “wearers-of-many-hats.” They can’t let go. They think that if they take a step back, their business will falter and all their hard work will be for nothing.

In the words of Walt Kelly’s well-known comic strip character Pogo “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Does this describe you? Are you a business owner who can (and does) comfortably take time off, or do you function as an employee — a slave to the daily grind?

Chances are, you’re the latter, and you’re certainly not alone. As a business owner, it’s difficult to relinquish control and place your trust (and your livelihood) in someone else’s hands. Although it isn’t easy, it’s crucial – crucial to your well being, and crucial to the future of your company. And it’s not going to happen unless you make it happen. You need to change how you think and then structure your organization so it can run without you.

How? The answer is to take these 5 concrete steps toward your freedom:

  • Plan – As Confucius said, “A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.” Centuries later, his wisdom still holds true. Whether you employ 3 or 300, a right-sized, well thought plan will dramatically improve your competitive positioning and performance regardless of market conditions. A solid plan drives day-to-day thinking and behaviors, which in turn lead to desired results.
  • Delegate – Yes, this is hard, but if you’re still involved in every little thing that goes on over the course of a day, you’re too involved. You hired your staff to do a job. You carefully selected people based on their skills, experience, and drive. Let them do what your plan calls for them to do. They can do it!
  • Take a long, hard, look at your staff – First, select one person who can be in charge in your absence. Provide the training, mentoring, and authority that they need to succeed. Then let them do their job. Second, remove marginal players from your team. If you don’t do this, you’re cheating yourself, and them. Give the remaining staff your blessing and your confidence.
  • Trust – You won’t be able to let go unless you put your complete trust in your people, your plan, and your systems. If a system or process is broken, identify the problem and fix it. It may not always be easy, but it can – and must – be done.
  • Test the system – When you’re ready, take two days off. Don’t call, don’t check in – disconnect completely and see what happens. Be sure that your staff knows they can reach you in case of an emergency – but chances are that they won’t need to. Sure, you’ll be tempted to call, check email, etc., but don’t do it. Step forward, don’t slide back!

You started with two days. Next time make it four, then a week, then two weeks. It will get easier. Before you know it, you’ll feel even more in control of your business and will be able to take a stress-free extended vacation, knowing that you have built a successful and competent team to execute your plan.

Just think about next summer when you’ll be able to relax and enjoy your life to the fullest!

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Got Alignment? Broken Promises Won't Pay the Rent

By admin | Published: February 29, 2008

People build relationships and decide who to buy from based upon trust.  Patricia Aburdene, author of Megatrends 2010 said: “Transcendent values like trust and integrity literally translate into revenue, profits and prosperity.”

If you are searching for a surefire way to anger and alienate your prospects and customers, simply violate their trust and you have just found it!  Think about one of your own recent experiences as a customer where what was delivered to you didn’t live up to what was promised.  How likely you are to do business with that company again? Even worse (for the business), how many people have you spoken to about your negative experience? 

I had a fun and illuminating breakfast meeting about a week ago with Larry Bailin.  Larry is an internet marketing guru, a published author, a sought-after speaker, and (as I concluded during our breakfast) an all-around nice guy.

The initial part of our conversation focused on Larry’s primary business, Single Throw Internet Marketing.  As a speaker and a consultant myself, I have a natural curiosity to learn about businesses, their customers, the people who run them, and the obstacles and opportunities they face.  So in a conversational manner, I was running Larry through a series of questions to help me get a grip on both “the man” and his enterprise.

One of the things Larry shared with me that periodically frustrates him is that some of his clients struggle to implement the internal processes, systems, and behaviors to support their online presence.  As we dug into this issue, it became clear to me that these clients struggled to deliver on the promise of their marketing.  In my own terminology: their internal reality (what they did) wasn’t aligned with their external reality (what they promised) and they weren’t creating trust.

How does your business’ internal reality align with its external reality?  If you’re not sure, I suggest that you take steps to find out, and pronto.  Your prospects and customers will be able to tell you, as will your own staff (believe me, they know).  An organizational assessment tool I use with my clients is a handy way to get at this critical information quickly, economically, and in a manner that preserves the anonymity of individual responses (in other words, you get the truth).

Data in hand – good, bad, and even ugly – you can then more objectively evaluate your internal reality in terms of your organization’s:

  • Structure – including roles, responsibilities, and lines of communication
  • Processes – both formally defined processes and informal ones
  • Rewards & Recognition – both formally and informally, what behaviors are you reinforcing?
  • People – do you, your mangement team, and your staff each have the right knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be successful in your role?

In my experience, if you’re not actively working to align the internal and external realities of your business, they are probably moving on their own inertia in a divergent path.  This is exactly the pattern that gives my new friend Larry Bailin heartburn as he helps his clients market more effectively online; it’s also the pattern that can stagnate growth, or even worse, put a business out of business altogether.

Posted in Customer Loyalty, Obstacles to Change, Performance Improvement | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Time Management in Wonderland

By admin | Published: February 19, 2008

“Warning!  Dates in calendar are closer than they appear.” 

Now wouldn’t that be a handy reminder on the welcome screen of your PDA or in your date book? Time is not given to us; rather, it is only made available to us.  As a non-renewable resource, time is – quite literally – here today and gone tomorrow. How you choose to utilize it, however, is entirely up to you.   

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” Alice asked. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.  As the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland points out, a lack of clear direction can result in sub-optimal decisions and wasted time.  Did you know that the #1 factor contributing to time inefficiencies in an organization is the absence of clear goals and priorities? This makes decision-making a chore and generally causes confusion about what should be accomplished, why, and by when. Not exactly the stuff of precision time management! 

Think about a situation in your life where you exhibited exceptional time management.  Maybe it was the day or two before you departed on vacation when you had a number of things to accomplish in a tight timeframe.  If you’re like most people, you probably made yourself a list of things that you needed to get done before you left town.  And wasn’t it miraculous?  In that situation, you seemed to “find” the time to get everything accomplished so you could go on your merry way. 

What happened here is – gulp! – you set clear, time-bound goals for yourself.  More importantly, you got them done.  Yes, sometimes something as simple as a “to do” list can go a long way to improve time effectiveness in an organization.  Seeing the items on the list (your goals), knowing when they must get accomplished (the timeframe), and understanding what’s at stake for yourself (vacation!) work together to create an invisible motivational force that impels you to act and to become very time efficient. 

Just imagine if you could create that environment throughout your organization – clear goals, timeframes, and a gut awareness of the rewards for success – each and every day!  Well – you can, so why not give it a try?   

The clock is ticking… 

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Hope Isn't a Plan

By admin | Published: February 19, 2008

As a private pilot and an aviation enthusiast, I have the opportunity to attend all sorts of seminars related to improving my skills and staying safe in the skies.  Several weeks ago, I attended a session sponsored by the Air Safety Foundation (ASF – an organization with a very worthy mission) that was entitled “The Last Five Miles.”

It turns out that the overwhelming majority of general aviation accidents occur within five miles of the destination airport.  As a safety-conscious pilot, this is good to know – along with the reasons why these accidents occur.  By understanding the risk factors, I can become more aware, make better decisions, and fly more safely.

I have found that we can apply these same concepts in business.  For example: 

  • Can you identify the “Last Five Miles” of activities for each of the critical job functions in your organization?  
     
  • What are the most likely points of failure - 
    • in your sales process?
    • in delivering your products and/or services?
    • in completely satisfying your customers?
    • in other areas? 

Once you’ve identified these critical activities and most likely points of business risk, you have some good information to use in planning and decision-making.  Even better, you can predict that these things are likely to happen unless you put processes in place to work around or completely avoid them.   

This is, in essence, a very simple risk management process that you can use to rationally plan for unexpected, but not totally unanticipated events. 

In his closing remarks at the aviation safety seminar, the speaker said it best: “Hoping that nothing will go wrong isn’t a plan.”  If you take the time to understand the risk areas in your business, you can move from “hoping“ to knowing how your business will behave – with better outcomes – in the “Last Five Miles.” 

I wish you safe, predictable, and happy flying! 

Posted in Strategic Planning | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

How's Your Focus Working for You?

By admin | Published: February 19, 2008

Focus. 

It’s one of the things we need to be more successful in business – right?  Although I agree in general terms, it is also instructive to consider what you are focused on. Let me cut right to the chase: I believe that most business leaders and sales professionals tend to focus on the wrong thing more often than they should.

Allow me to illustrate this with a few questions for you to answer (and, yes, brutal self-honesty counts):  

  •  At the split second in time when you recently met someone new, what (or who) were you actually thinking about?
  • When you negotiated the final points of your last business deal, what (or who) were you actually thinking about?
  • When you last worked with a dissatisfied customer, what (or who) were you actually thinking about?

For most people who are ok with the brutal self-honesty thing, the answer to all three questions is usually “myself.” 

If this is the case for you, do you think that at those three moments you were really focused in a way that moved you closer to the long-term results you want?  What about all of the other moments in your typical day – is it a stretch to believe that you are focused too much on yourself there too?  And how about others in your organization (hint: if they’re human beings, they’re susceptible too) – where are they focused?

One way to find out what you might be missing is to consciously change your focus during important meetings and interactions away from yourself to the other person.  Then see what happens.  Your thoughts drive your behavior, which in turn drives your results.

Give it a try to see if what you’re focused on needs to change.

Posted in Sales and Relationships | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment
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