The other day, I was leaving the office and heading to a wonderful lunch with my wife. No business talk, no talk of teenagers and braces or obligations and plans. Frankly the weather was ugly – raining and 34 degrees. NOT the day to spend much time outside. Then it happened. As I was leaving our parking lot I noticed an older gentleman with a cane walking around his car ankle deep in water, mud and melting snow. His car? Stuck in the mud, having missed the turn due to rather poor visibility and driving conditions. The gentleman’s wife was in the car and she could not get out without the use of a walker.
Do I drive away and continue with my plans? I only have an hour for lunch. Did they notice me? Someone else will stop, right? We all fight this internal dialogue. Trying to get their car out of the mud and waiting an hour with them for AAA was easy. In fact, it started to feel great. What struck me was how good it felt to help someone who needed it. To walk by, take notice and do something about it.
As I was standing outside, I started to think about this story and think about our habits as leaders. As leaders we know how to plan our days and stack meetings on top of one another. We let the world know how self-important we are by the pace we push and the company we keep. However, who on your team is stuck in the mud and cannot get out? Who needs us to stop, take time out of our day and help? How many times as leaders do miss opportunities to serve by rushing right past someone who needs us?
Later that day, I stopped what I was doing and I went around and actually looked at each employee. I asked them how they were. Offered to help. I listened. Not sure how many “cars I got out of the mud”. However, it felt as good as my earlier community service!
As a leader who have you stopped to actually help today? Go take action now! It costs little, yet pays huge social dividends!
Popularity: 4% [?]
Every organization that I come across today – whether they are partners, vendors, clients or prospects – all rank driving new revenues and raising their top line as a top goal of their organization. Today’s organizations have lost more than 6 years. What do I mean? Most business are operating with top line revenue numbers in line with their 2004 reporting and staff levels on par with where we were in 2000. The toll of the recession has been six years of economic penalty and taken us back almost 10 years in terms of staff growth.
What do I do as a small business owner? Rethink sales? Make more commitments to marketing? Maybe add new services or kill non-performing offerings? All of us are in need of more and new customers.
Most simply increase their sales activity. We tell sales staff to make more calls. To see more customers. To send more emails. It is just a numbers game, right? The more you do the more you have in potential sales pipeline. Not!
I propose that we need to rethink the notion that more effort will get you more result, as there is a point of diminishing returns. Most importantly, is your sales process as customer friendly as the rest of your company; do you treat sales like you treat paying customers? Are you “earning the right” to build new relationships?
Earning the right involves building relationships. Earning the right means you must focus and shift to consultative sales. Earning the right is about learning about your new customer’s business. Earning the right is about being authentic. It is being credible by doing what you say.
Earning the right is NOT just about doing more.
If you are thinking about how you go to market and how you differentiate your business in the early stages of your companies relationships than perhaps you should do an “earning the right” audit.
Go sit next to your sales force. Are they earning the right or simply doing more of the same?
Popularity: 11% [?]
For some reason as leaders we have it in our heads that work must get done a certain way. Yes, we all embrace expense management tools that keep our costs flexible. We have been educated to use a contingent workforce. A blend of temporaries, contractors, outsourcing or co-sourcing to manage the ebbs and flows of work, and frankly workers, is a necessity today. Peaks and troughs get steeper and come with ever increasing frequency. Leaders need to do anything and everything to keep ahead of the curve.
Yet we have short memories. We have big egos. Leaders never forget the pain and challenge of reducing staff, right? It sticks with us for a long time. Have you ever gone to a funeral and been so moved that you spend days talking about living life to the fullest and that our “problems” of the day are not really problems at all? That lasts for few days… How about your News Years Resolutions? I just saw a statistic that less than 30% of folks are still sticking to their resolutions for the year and it is only 6 weeks into the year. I think you get my point. It is the human condition; we survive by moving on.
We follow a similar path with how we staff our organizations. Successful leaders are optimists. It is how we attract talent, investors, customers. We are successful because of this outlook and view of the world. As things get better we will hire more staff. We will get jazzed and intoxicated about business again. We will take our eye off the payroll and headcount figures we now review weekly.
Right now the US economy is in a recovery, albeit slowly. My words might even seem silly; however things will creep along and continue to improve. Some day you will forget. The time is now to plan to do it differently. Never has their been a better time to keep your business more flexible, adaptable and responsive. We are all testing new business models right? We are driving topline while we micromanage expenses. Your staff has never been more open and accepting of change. Oh, how survival brings people together against there common enemy.
And you know what the workforce expects it. People understand that they must fend for themselves & manage their own careers Clint Eastwood Style, but are you ready to embrace it? Or will traditional mindsets and mores about work and careers drive you to repeat the over-hiring mistakes of the past.
The leader than learns the lesson will win. Pure and simple.
Popularity: 22% [?]
Some lessons are hard to learn; others hard to remember. There are some definite “old/new” realities of the workforce and the workplace. Go back a few decades and imagine your favorite Clint Eastwood movie. Clint is riding into town on his trusty horse. What do you see? Blacksmiths, General Store Owners, Saloon Proprietors and, of course, the town Undertaker. There is a common thread to their careers; they had to manage them on their own. Even a hired gunslinger was 100% responsible for their career path. Clint made it work. These were the original entrepreneurs. As leaders and business owners today we have to help employees today embrace this “old, new” way to manage their careers. We do this by running our companies with flexible approach to getting work done. This is your competitive advantage today; you have one in place now right?
We all know that eventually Clint’s world changed. Cities grew around the Industrial Revolution. People moved to the cities in droves to improve their lot in life. They gave up career control and gained good wages. Over time career path, quality of life, benefits and retirement became perks for this new way to work. And for many, many decades it worked famously – 30 years and the gold watch. It became the American dream. Ask the workforce today and they know they must manage their own careers! The workforce knows that loyalty is a promise that business can no longer live up to. Why? Because people are outliving companies.
What happened to the parental company? The speed of change in business used to be manageable. The world was small. Competition somewhat limited. Then it all changed; the world got smaller, technology makes us faster all of the time. Communication is now instant. Competition? We all know; it is everywhere. We should study history in order to make sense of the present.
As competitive as finding work is today with 6 people for every job there is a real opportunity to think differently about your career;
- Do you have a career agent to help guide you through this new world?
-Are you taking steps to improve your skills?
-Are you thinking like an entrepreneur?
When Clint road through town, each small business owner saw the opportunity in starting their saloon or store. They were in control of their career. Are you?
Popularity: 18% [?]
Poker is considered by many to be a game of chance. Chance implies an outcome without an observable cause. Perhaps poker is really about knowing the odds and statistics. Less about luck and more about having experience and knowing what plays to make. Experience helps you do things on autopilot and anticipate what cards the other players probably have and whether your hand is better than your competition. The truth is, it takes a lot of repetition to get good at Poker. Bluffing your opponents could be considered an art form all to itself. You may have heard that we all have a “tell” when we have a good hand. You might smile or touch your ear. Great Players work hard at knowing the “tell” of their competition. See where this might be heading?
I propose that running a business these days might be compared to a high stakes game of poker. The other players are your competition. Business should not be a game of chance. Rather, it should be played by knowing the rules, having the right information, and surrounding yourself with talent that can help you make the right moves in the game. Our current economy? Imagine that it is like a poker game that has gone on a little too long. The players are tired. They are beat up. They may have needed to be really conservative with their chips to not fall out of the game. As a business leader or small business owner it is entirely possible that you feel might feel like that poker player at the end of a 12 hour game!
So like the game when do you know you have a good hand? Is this the time that things are going to improve? Do you push all in because you sense the market is ripening? Do you continue to play the game conservatively and wait for the straight flush? Or do you play the hand you are dealt? All of this in the business world equates to making decisions about when the recession is over for you. Do you have the desire to grow again? Maybe you prefer the conservative style that you developed, out of necessity, over the last few quarters?
As a leader and coach I know this issue is on the mind of my customers and my network. When is it over? Do we make major investments now? Or small pilots to test the market? What are the other players in the game doing? Are they being conservative or aggressive?
So you are back at the card table and you are staring at your opponents – are you all in or waiting for the next hand? Or have you already tipped your hand?
As always your emails and comments are terrific – keep them coming. Poker anyone?
Popularity: 37% [?]
So did you find your water cooler? I hope so. As the economy gets marginally better, we need to make sure we are all there to take advantage of the opportunities that will come. Remember, the water cooler is symbolic of running your business well.
Speaking of running your business — leaders often ask me about how they can be a better leader tomorrow. What can they do right now to have impact on their business. I find the key is to know how to plan and approach leadership actions creatively. Still not sure what I mean? Leaders do stuff — they are in meetings, they make and take phone calls, they solve problems, etc… As a leader you could spend all day reacting to the world around you, in fact it never stops coming. All day long the smartphone rings, and the inbox fills up. Yet this is not leadership and certainly not planned, thoughtful leadership. Leadership planning is a way to have real impact. To be proactive and creative in improving the lives of your employees and the productivity they can achieve.
No matter what industry you are in, you will inevitably have customers, employees, vendors and prospects in your day. The best way to plan? Think about any employee. What do they need right now? A compliment? Recognition? A tough talk? Someone to listen? Training? Your job is to eliminate barriers for your employees while holding them accountable, to remind people that they have something to learn, let them know you’re there to help and that you care.
Still not so sure what to do? Think about your customers. Who can use a proactive call from you. Have you pulled the team together just to talk about a customer when there is not a problem? This is where the real opportunity lies.
Leadership planning is scheduled time.
Leadership planning involves critical thinking.
Leadership planning can be exciting and creative if you know how.
Leadership planning is a basic skill that can change your world. And your employees.
Do this homework assignment on a Sunday night.
1. Take out a note pad. Right out your top to do’s for the week/Monday.
2. Analyze the list. How much is recurring or just work to do?
3. Make a list for an employee or special project.
4. Think about them. What do they need from you to be more successful?
5. Make plans.
Remember we all can get better, all of the time. And we will if our leaders can impact us in a meaningful way.
Need help to have real impact or want to share your ideas with others? Love to hear more from you; we all have something to learn!
Popularity: 28% [?]
