Archive for Attitude
Three Oscar Lessons for Your Annual Staff Celebration
Posted by: | CommentsFar too often, annual staff celebrations are left to the last minute or simply rehashes of the previous year’s shindig, when they should be something far more. Last evening’s Oscar awards show clearly points out three classy lessons for how to make your annual celebration something memorable.
1. Make it an Event – The Oscars Awards show isn’t just another awards show, it is THE event actors and actresses look forward to attending (as well as movie lovers everywhere from the comfort of their homes). Months of preparations go into the event. From set designs to scripts, from outfits to jewelry, from presenters to seating arrangements, and from the red carpet to the parties afterwards, the Oscars are an event.
Now, obviously, most small and medium-sized businesses can’t afford to put on an event like the Oscars, but you can create AN event that your people will look forward to every year. You can make it a formal affair so that everyone dresses their best. You can put together or hire some local talent for a small “production.” You can allocate enough of your budget to make your employees feel special. You can put together a team three to six months ahead of time to work on it so that they/you have time to make something remarkable happen.
Your annual celebration event doesn’t have to be a last minute affair that’s just thrown together. Make it an event–and your people will look forward to it–and they will feel far more valued!
2. Make Your Comments Heartfelt and Well-Prepared – One of the nice traditions from the past several years is towards the end of the evening when they’re getting ready to choose the best actor and actress recipients, they have one person who’s worked with the nominee get up and say something nice about them. Five nominees, five short “speeches.” Some of the people making these comments are clearly not very close to the nominee. Some of them try to say something funny. But the ones that are most memorable, like Michelle Pfeiffer’s comments last evening about Jeff Bridges, are heartfelt and well-prepared.
She didn’t try to be funny or glib or light. She spoke from her heart and spoke of how much she admired Jeff and his work–as well as his commitment to his family (believe it or not, he’s someone in Hollywood who has been married for 33 years). Jeff was moved to tears, And so were we. I’ve forgotten most of the funny comments (other than Tim Robbins’ comments about Morgan Freeman–which would only make sense if you heard them), but I haven’t forgotten her comments to Jeff–nor the level of emotion they evoked. I doubt Jeff will forget them either.
In other words, don’t just wing your comments about your employees. If you’re going to honor them, honor them. Take the time to say something that’ll move them, that let’s you know how much you appreciate them, and that will evoke an emotion in everyone hearing them. There are times for roasts and light humor. But when you want to honor someone and make them feel it, speak from your heart and let them feel it.
3. Get as Many People as Possible Involved – In far too many SMBs, too many leaders think, “If I want this to be something that my people appreciate, I need to just let them attend. I’ll take care of all the details.” But that’s wrong thinking. How many actors and actresses do you think think, “Boy, I hope they don’t ask me to be a presenter this year!” Buzz! They want to participate. Or how many actors or actresses think, “I hope they don’t send me a ballot or ask my opinion.” Etc.
When something is classy, people want to participate (it’s when it’s just thrown together that they don’t). Furthermore, as a leader, you should know, “What people help create, they own.”
Get as many of your people as possible involved in creating and delivering your annual celebration event. Make it special. Make it the highlight of the year. Make it something everyone looks forward to. And not only will your people want to play a part–they’ll also feel more valued and appreciated–and happier to be on your team–which sounds like a win-win to me!
To your accelerated success!
P.S. If you’ve ever been a part of a great annual celebration, write what happened (or what you did) in the comments section below. Share the wealth.
P.P.S. The three key questions are
1. What would make this year’s celebration an event that people will remember (and not just a rehash of last year)?
2. What can I (or others) say that will move our awards’ recipients emotionally?
3. How can we get as many people as possible involved in this event (starting at least three to six months out)?
Don’t Follow Verizon’s Lead!
Posted by: | CommentsI’m constantly amazed how a large company can be so terrible at customer service and have their systems so poorly designed and run. I’ve written about this multiple times, but there are two key lessons any business ought to take from my latest encounter with the mess called Verizon.
First, before I share the two lessons, here’s what happened. I received my latest bill yesterday and now, for the fourth month in a row it’s wrong. Each time I call and talk with a representative. Each time they make the change on their end and tell me what the correct figure is. Each time I ask, “Are you sure this is the correct amount?” Each time, they say “Yes!” So, I pay the amount they tell me to and then when I receive my next bill, guess what? Exactly, there’s a “balance forwarded” amount equal to what I was told not to pay.
But to make matters worse, when I called this time, I went through their voice mail system (which is frustrating in an of itself). However, when I finally got to the response, “Your wait time is …”, I was told, “Your wait time is 15 minutes. If you’d like us to call you back in 15 minutes, please press 1”. When I heard that, I was pleasantly surprised. “Hey, this is a nice change!” So, I left my name and number (which was interesting given that they already had both), and went and did something else rather than wait with a phone next to my hear.
Around fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. However, instead of a “live” person, it was an automated attendant. It confirmed I was on the line and then told me I would get the next available customer service agent. Why the system was designed so that I wasn’t directly connected to an attendant makes no sense. But that wasn’t the frustrating part. The frustrating part was that I had to wait on hold an additional 15 minutes before a “live” attendant came on line. 
So much for the customer service idea of leaving a number so I didn’t have to wait on a phone line for an attendant. In fact, I would have felt better had I just remained on the line in the first place.
Now that you know the situation, what are the two lessons that you and I need to take away from this experience–lessons even Verizon doesn’t get?
1. Make it easy for frustrated people to contact you and get the answers they want ASAP. When a customer decides to call customer service, they’re usually already frustrated. So when you’re frustrated, how excited are you to have to go through 52 questions to “get to the right person”? Not very. When someone’s frustrated, they want to talk to a real person who can answer their questions and solve their problems immediately. The last thing they want to do is to go through 20 or 50 questions just to get to the person they wanted to talk with when they originally called.
So, as you look at your business, where do you make it hard for customers to deal with you? When do you make it hard for them to get answers or solve a problem?
2. When you make a promise to a customer or prospect, you better deliver on that expectation–or don’t make the claim in the first place. Why? Because promises raise expectations. If Verizon hadn’t offered the 15 minute return call so I didn’t have to wait on the phone, I wouldn’t have been as ticked off. But because they made the offer (a systems choice), they raised my expectations–which made the 15 minute wait after they called me back even worse. I wasn’t ticked the first time, but the second time I was.
So, as you look at your business, where do you make promises that you aren’t fully living out? When do you raise expectations that you aren’t following through (or consistently following through) all the time?
If you want to grow the kind of business customers want to use over and over again, then you’ll want to apply these two lessons on a consistent basis to your business.
To your accelerated success!
What’s Holding You Back, Part II
Posted by: | CommentsIf you didn’t read part one, scroll below (if you’re on the blog right now) or click on the following link>> (if you’re reading this by RSS).
Note: If you didn’t answer the question from the last post, “What are the major constraints that are hindering me (and my business/organization) from achieving my (our) potential?”, then make sure you do so before proceeding any further.
Okay, so you’ve now identified your major constraints (and as I said last time, they could be external or internal, mental or physical, systemic of situational). They could be a person or a process, a self-limiting belief or a financial limitation (for example).
The next thing you want to do is order them. You want to take each constraint and ask the question, “Where does this constraint come in the priority list of which constraint needs to be solved first?” In other words, you want to play each constraint off the others as you seek to find the major constraint that needs to be solved first.
I liken this to a playoff system (brackets) you see in sports. For simplicity’s sake we’ll call constraints “C”. So you play C1 vs. C2. Let’s say C2 needs to be solved before C1. Then you play off C3 vs. C4. Let’s say C3 needs to be solved before C4. Then you playoff C2 vs. C3 and let’s say C3 needs to be solved before C2 (which means it has to come before C1). You now know what has to happen first. In other words, once you work through this process, you’ll quickly know what the major constraint is for you (or you and your business) this year.
Using the four constraints listed above, it would be understandable to think that you need to solve the financial problem first. But that might not be true. It may be because you don’t have a systematic and methodical process in place to acquire new capital. However, it may be that the reason you don’t have a systematic and methodical process in place is because Sally is in charge of that area and she’s not very competent. She’s been at your company for ten years, she’s loved by every one, but she’s incompetent. You know you ought to let her go, but you haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Why?
Ah, it’s that self-limiting thought that keeps you from changing her out. It may be a belief that letting Sally go will demoralize your team. Or the belief that, “If I just give her some more time and training, she’ll succeed” (which could be true, but hasn’t been for the past five years). Or it could be the belief that, “She’s a single mom and she needs our help.” Or it could be the belief that, “Maybe in a year another position in our company will open up and I can move her over there.” Etc. We all have them. And those self-limiting beliefs do get in the way of making good business decisions.
The beauty of working through this process is that once you play this game, you’ll often find out that what you thought was the major constraint (in this case, “We don’t have enough access to capital”) may, in fact, not be the most important constraint to solve first.
So, before I give you the next step, why don’t we stop here for today. Take out your list of constraints and order them. Play them off against one another and see if you can reduce your constraints down to a handful of the most important constraints to solve first. And most importantly, make sure you identify what the first constraint is that you need to solve before any others!
To your accelerated success!
Do Your People Know What an “A” Looks Like?
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’re like most of my clients, chances are you regularly get frustrated by the performance of your people. Sometimes it’s because they’re not executing fast enough. Sometimes it’s because they’re not thinking clearly and anticipating issues and problems. Etc. But one of the more common frustrations is “They just don’t execute at a high enough standard,” (which, of course, is a nice translation of, “They dropped the ball”).
So, what can you do to quickly improve their performance while decreasing their mistakes?
One answer is to raise their standards by clearly defining what an “A” performance looks like. My guess is that if you were to do that right now with your team, you’d probably end up with a fairly divergent set of answers to the question, “What do you think an ”A“ (or ”A+“ or ”10“) looks like?”
If you think “everyone” on your team already knows the “right” answer, I challenge you to have them write their answers out WITHOUT any discussion. Then have them share and compare their written answers and, unless you’re an unusually gifted leader, you’ll probably find that everyone isn’t on the same page. Don’t be surprised by this. It’s normal. Everyone has expectations all the time about everything–and rarely are they ever the same–unless someone has repeatedly defined what those expectations should be (which, by the way, is your job :-).
It’s not a bad idea to have a team discussion about what an “A” should look like–but never ever surrender your responsibility as the leader to set the standards. Hopefully, as the primary leader, you can persuade your people to concur with what you think an “A” should look like. But if you get to an impasse, feel free to use your “leader card.”
Now, when you’re developing your standards, make sure you’re thinking about both negative and positive standards. For example, in a previous career, I used to pastor a large church. Now, if you’ve ever attended a religious service of any persuasion, you’ve undoubtedly encountered a few mistakes during their service (a Power Point slide has a typo or the person on the Power Point isn’t in the same place as the speaker or worship leader. The lighting person has lights off when they should be on. A microphone crackles or dies during the message, etc.).
Obviously most religious leaders don’t want that to happen during their services–but they do–and almost every week, at least in any religious service I’ve ever attended. So, to combat that, one of my standards for our services was, “No Dropped Balls!” Now, I could have chosen a positive standard, “Every cue right!” but the power of the phrase, “No Dropped Balls!” was so much better and clearer that I chose that one.
On the other hand, here’s a positive one. Have you ever been in a religious service and the music just didn’t “move” you? Why isn’t that? Forget the words and the quality of the musicians, there are songs (secular and religious), that either cause you to want to tap your foot or not. The ones that cause you to want to tap your foot (they can be slow or fast, the tempo is irrelevant) are songs that have an intrinsic beat. The words are a distant second to the rhythm when it comes to people feeling moved. Therefore, one of my standards was, “Every song chosen needs to cause someone to want to move physiologically.” So some of your standards might be worded positively, while others might be more powerful if worded negatively.
Now, I know most of you aren’t leading a religious organization, you’re leading a business. But the principle I’m sharing with you is just as valid. Unless your people have a clear vision of what you want them to produce, chances are they won’t hit it. You’ll be frustrated with them continually and they’ll feel they can’t make you happy. So, eliminate that.
Clearly define what an “A” looks like in terms that everyone can understand. Hopefully, you noticed as you read this post that I came up with simple phrases like, “No Dropped Balls!” to describe what the standard was. Then, once you set the standards, you’ve got to cast vision for them every week (not once in awhile–every week). Then ensure that the systems, accountabilities, and resources are in place to ensure that week in and week out, your team is performing at an “A” level.
If you make this simple change, I’m confident you’ll see a massive difference in your people!
To your accelerated success!
P.S. Just as an aside. I left my church four and a half years ago and one of the common refrains I hear from people is, “It’s just not the same. Every week something happens where I think, ‘If Bruce was here, he wouldn’t have let that happen.’“ In other words, unless a leader casts vision for excellence (an ”A“) and holds people accountable to those standards, every organization and group of people will slowly move toward accepting something less. It is your job to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Originality and Commonality: A Powerful One-Two Punch!
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever noticed that most people like to live life in an either/or world? Either we buy a sports car or a minivan. Either we go to the beach or the mountains for vacation this year. Either we locate in a busy location or an isolated one. Either we focus on one product or a slew of products. Either we focus on one niche or on everyone.
The problem, of course, with an either/or world is that it rarely reflects reality because life is rarely that clean. Rather it’s full of contradictions and surprises. One of which is that originality and commonality go hand in hand together.
In an either/or world that doesn’t make sense. Either you’re original or your common. But, in the real world, being completely original isn’t an easy road to success. Just ask the creator of the first fax machine (Bain, 1843) or first cell phone or first anything. It’s not that easy to create an entirely new market.
When people read books like, “Blue Ocean Strategy,” they tend to think that the key to success is to come up with an entirely new idea (a new blue ocean). But if you take a look at the examples in the book you’ll notice they weren’t entirely new at all.
Cirque du Soleil wasn’t the first circus. Southwest wasn’t the first airplane company. Curves wasn’t the first health fitness facility. Etc.
All three of those examples are part of huge industries. The entertainment industry is huge. It’s common. But Cirque du Soleil’s genius was to do something original in a big market (i.e. a circus for adults with one ring vs. three and no live animals).
Southwest’s genius was to do point-to-point (i.e. non-hub), fun, no frills flights to tier two cities. Curves’ genius was to do a women’s only club with minimal equipment in a circle (a low-cost, quick, gender specific workout).
In other words, rather than look where there wasn’t a lot of competition, they looked for a very competitive market (the common part) and then looked for an uncommon way/original way to meet the needs of that market.
So, if you’re in a town full of pizza joints, that doesn’t mean you can’t start another pizza joint. Maybe you should start a gourmet one (if there isn’t one yet). Or maybe the people in you town just love fast food. If that’s the case, you might want to start a different kind of fast food restaurant (maybe BBQ wings). Or maybe your market simply loves Italian food. In that case, you could start a northern or southern Italian or even a sicilian restaurant. Etc.
Ultimately, it comes down to buyers. And what do they want? In general, they usually want something similar to what they already like/have–just a little different. This is not to downplay new and disruptive technologies. Just an observation about what fast growth companies do.
As a twenty-five year fan of Apple, I’ve drunk the kool-aid. But most of Apple’s successes haven’t come from being the first at something. 
The iPod wasn’t the first mp3 player. And the iPhone certainly wasn’t the first cell phone. But Apple, usually referred to as, “the most innovative company on the planet,” usually has winners when it looks at what people already want and then makes something original in that field.
So, if you want to build a wildly successful company, you might want to look where there’s a lot of competition (the common part) and then come up with a unique solution to that market’s wants and needs (the original part). It’s not an either/or, but rather a both/and that usually wins in the real world. So do your best to eliminate either/or thinking in your company. Both/and thinking is a much better route to go! Originality and commonality are a powerful one-two punch when used correctly.
To your accelerated success!
Don’t Think About It, Do It!
Posted by: | CommentsHow many times have you thought about doing something that you know would be helpful or good or beneficial–and then not done it? I know, probably somewhere north of ten thousand times (at least that’s my running total).
Well, this week, I’m on vacation at one of my favorite places on planet earth, Sea Pines Plantation in Hilton Head, NC. 
And as is my custom, I get up each morning, get on a rental bike, and go for about an hour long bike ride along the bike paths inside this beautiful resort–filled with wildlife (including gators), gorgeous golf courses, and multi-million dollar homes.
Yesterday morning (Sunday), as I was on my ride, I noticed a number of other people who were running (which is clearly more exercise than I was getting on my pleasure bike ride). And as I saw them, many who were in great shape, I silently thought to myself, “Boy, I wish I were in that great a shape.” Or, “I used to be one of them (like 30 years ago when I was a multi-sport athlete).”
But as I thought those thoughts, my negative thought patterns sprung into action.
- “But I’m not one of them any more.”
- “My knees are in such bad shape from soccer, I can’t run anymore.”
- “It’s been so long since I’ve run, it’ll be an embarrassment if I even start.”
- “I’m too out of shape to run right now, I’ll need to work up to it.” Etc.
You know those kinds of thoughts don’t you?
But something magical happened when I arrived back at our vacation home. I got off my bike and said to myself, “Forget about all the reasons why this won’t work. Just try it. Just run to the fire hydrant. You always talk about speed of implementation. Back it up Jack.”
So I did. Now, it wasn’t pretty. I’d pick a spot. Run to it. Walk the same distance. Run to another spot. Walk the same distance. Run to another spot. Etc. I felt like I sucked all the oxygen out of Hilton Head Island. Hyperventilation would be a polite way of saying what I was experiencing. But I did it!
And this morning, after another hour long bike ride, I ran again. This time, I went about four times farther and sucked a little less oxygen. And so I find myself, on this second day of vacation thinking about how often you and I allow our excuses to get in the way of making progress (not just in our personal lives, but also in our businesses and organizations).
So, how about you? What have you been thinking about doing, but haven’t done, because you’ve allowed your head to get in the way of doing it?
- Calling a prospect (it’s not the right time)
- Hiring a new sales person (I don’t have all the details worked out)
- Creating a new strategic plan (We’re too busy to take the time to work on that)
- Providing critical feedback to an employee (I don’t think they’ll respond well)
- Delegating several tasks (I can get them done faster if I just do them)
- Calling on a prospective joint venture partner (I don’t know if they’ll say, “Yes!” so I better wait)
We all do this. It’s nothing new. But it is reality. What holds you and me back has far more to do with what we tell ourselves than it does with finding some new idea or technique.
So rather than thinking about it today, why don’t you just do it. As long as it’s legal, beneficial, profitable, good, etc. go for it. You’ll be glad you did.
To your accelerated success!
How Do You Respond to Critique and Feedback?
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s more important than you think! When I work with senior executives, and we’re one-on-one, they tend to be defensive around critique and accountability in general. But when I’m with them, and they need to be critiqued in front of their executive teams (Note: in a session designed for critique and evaluation. I normally provide feedback one-on-one after a meeting, not in public), their response is almost always defensive–and that’s not good news.
Why? Because what signal does that send to employees?
Senior executives like to critique and evaluate employee performance. And when I’m with them, they’re almost always critical of the performance of any number of their people (which is fine). But then they wonder why their people don’t listen or make changes in response to the feedback that they (the senior exec) have given them (the employee). Hello!
It’s always been true. People do what people see.
If you want your people to be open to critique, then you need to be the most open to critique of anyone in your organization. If you want your people to make changes in response to critique, then you need to be the fastest change agent in your organization. And if you don’t want your people to be excuse makers, then you need to avoid excuse making like the plague.
One of my favorite professors used to say, “If you want your people to bleed, then you need to hemorrhage.”
In other words, one of the costs of leadership is that we not only have to go first, we have to go farther. Why? Because people do what people see.
Forget what you say. Your people are watching you every day and they’re watching your non-verbals first.
- Do you get defensive with your physical posture?
- Do you look disengaged or angry?
- Do you lean in like you’re going to attack them?
- Do you have that, “Don’t mess with me!” vibe?
- Or do you have an open, pleasant and receptive look?
Then they look at your verbals.
- Do you respond harshly?
- Do you go on the attack?
- Do you make excuses?
- Or, do you ask questions, “Can you help me understand that?” and then say, “Thank you!”
Bottom line, if you want your people to be more open to critique and make changes, then you’ll want to make sure you’re the most open to critique person on your team. It really does matter more than you think!
To your accelerated success!
Is Perfection Getting in Your Way?
Posted by: | CommentsI was at a conference this past week when one of the speakers, a copywriter by the name of Ray Edwards, nailed me–in a positive way.
The way he got to me was by asking two simple questions. Showing a picture of a MacDonald’s hamburger, he asked,
1. How would you describe the quality of a MacDonald’s hamburger?
2. Who sells the most hamburgers in the world?
Point made. Point received.
I don’t know about you, but I often get stuck by trying to make something “perfect.” I have three books, several new talks, and a couple of projects all stuck in varying states of completion–not because I can’t get them done–but because I want to make them PERFECT!
In the literary world, it’s the equivalent of wanting to write, “The Next Great American Novel.” It’s the desire to want to write something that “no one else has written.” Or to say something so compelling that newswires will want to pick it up, blogs will want to make it viral, TV reporters will want to call for interviews, and schools of business will want to make it required reading (of course, by this point, you’ve already figured out–this guy lacks reality–exactly!).
It’s this longing to do something perfect, to do something that causes people to take notice, that tends to hinder so many of us. When, in reality, we ought to set our sights a little lower. While I may want to write the “ultimate” guide to growing a business, there is no such ultimate book to be written.
In the mean time, while I’m waiting to create the perfect/ultimate book, others are publishing their books and making money–and the people I could be helping out are missing out.
Likewise, in your world, chances are (if you’ve been infected with the disease of perfectionism), you’re doing something similar. You have projects on hold, products that haven’t been launched, services that haven’t gone public, talks and letters that haven’t been written, and presentations that haven’t seen the light of day, etc. Not because you can’t get them done, but because you’re waiting until the thing you’re working on is … well, perfect.
But in a business environment, perfection is not the goal–it’s an impediment. In fact, when Ray was speaking I wrote in my notes, “Perfection > leads to procrastination > which leads to poverty.”
While you or I may want to create the perfect burger (metaphorically), the reality is that someone else (MacDonalds, in this case), is making a ton of money while we’re still in the design phase.
So, if your goal is making money, or influencing others, or meeting a critical need or want for your target market, then you’ll want to revisit this MacDonald’s hamburger metaphor again and again. Make sure you beat down the perfection monster. And whatever you do, make sure you get what you’re working on out in the world. As I’ve said for years,
“Excellence is not perfection. Excellence is doing the best you can with what you’ve got in the amount of time you’ve got to get it done.”
So what projects have you been holding off on or delaying because of perfectionism? And how much more money (or whatever metric your project works with) could you be making if you stopped waiting for perfection and just got that thing out in the marketplace?
To your accelerated success!
It’s the Soft Stuff That Usually Gets Us
Posted by: | CommentsI remember hearing Dan Kennedy (a marketing expert) say, years ago, 
“What’s interesting about entrepreneurs is that they won’t pay for the soft stuff (like dealing with their fears or lack of confidence), but they will pay for the hard stuff (like how to use some new technique on the internet to attract more customers), even though what they really need is the soft stuff.”
What’s interesting, is that over the past few years that I’ve been coaching senior executives and entrepreneurs, I’ve come to the same conclusion. What holds most business leaders back isn’t a lack of know how (though they often lack know how). What holds most business leaders back is something emotional or psychological in nature. And, in my experience, the two top issues are fear and lack of confidence.
The most obvious fears are the fear of failure or rejection, which keep them from taking risks. Why don’t they pick up the phone and call a potential client? Well, because the person they’re calling might say, “No!” (i.e. I might fail. But as long as I don’t call, I haven’t failed … yet). Or why don’t they take the risk of hiring a new sales person? Well, what if it doesn’t work out? In other words, it’s not the strategy of adding an additional sales person that’s the problem, it’s their fear that it might not work out that holds them back. Sound familiar?
The other fear that I keep seeing in executives and entrepreneurs is the fear of success. What if I succeed, what then? Will I become one of those people I said I’d never become? Or will people find me out and realize I’m not all that good? Or maybe they grew up in poverty or in the middle class (or in a church that made success and money evil) and mentally and emotionally they can’t go there. Being wealthy and having money are simply beyond them or possibly evil–so they limit their activity (usually subconsciously) so that they won’t experience phenomenal success.
The other soft issue I see a lot of is lack of confidence. They don’t believe in themselves and their abilities. When they enter a room of successful people they think, “I’m not one of them.” When someone asks them, “Why should we hire you?” they wonder why, as well. When they need to step out and take a risk, they often don’t because they’re not confident that can see it through. Or they don’t act fast enough because they’re waiting on data to back them up or for others to agree with them so they’re not “all alone” on a risky decision.
In other words, what holds most of us back isn’t some new technique or idea that we’re unaware of. What holds most of us back is found between our two ears.
In light of that, here are a few questions worth wrestling with?
- What emotional issues are holding me, and through me, my business back?
- What am I afraid of?
- Why am I afraid of that?
- On a scale of 1-10 (high), how confident am I?
- What affects my confidence or lack of confidence?
Once you have some answers, you may want to take one of them and start working on it. Remember, fear is just a negative expectation about a future event. It is not reality. So, change the expectation, change the fear.
To your accelerated success!
P.S. This also means that when you do your planning each quarter, you should be asking yourself, “What about me is hindering this business?” Because when it’s all said and done, the biggest limitations are usually found in the soft stuff, not the hard stuff.
Robert Kiyosaki and Where Change Begins
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time you know that my first premise for growth is, “No organization can consistently perform at a level beyond the capacity of the senior leader. Therefore, if you want to grow an organization, you need to start by growing the senior leader first.” In essence, “Grow the leader, grow the organization.”
In light of that, you’ll quickly guess why I was so pleasantly pleased this morning when I read an article in Entrepreneur Magazine by Robert Kiyosaki on “You Can Rebuild It.” (July, 2009, p. 28).
Midway through the article, Kiyosaki, using his own company as an example of change (literally reworking the entire fabric of what they do and how they carry out their business–which is good strategic work), makes the following statement.
You’ve got to love that! Kiyosaki gets it. He was using an old model that worked for a while, but in order to remain competitive and grow his organization–especially in this economic climate, he knew something needed to change. And if something was going to change, he knew that “something“ needed to begin with him.
In fact, in the article, he shared three questions he knew he needed to ask himself regularly throughout this change process.
- What am I afraid of doing?
- What am I not saying?
- What can I do better to serve my customers?
Three great questions. Over the course of time, he found a series of answers to those questions that then began to impact his actions. “And once I began to change,” he writes, “the company changed.” Exactly!
Game, set, match!
So, how about you? Where do you need to begin changing so that your company or organization can begin a new growth curve? Remember, “Grow the leader, grow the organization.”
To your accelerated success,