“No one likes to be sold; everyone likes to buy.”
Professional sales people get a bad rap. Sales is an honorable profession, but it has been sullied by poor practitioners of the craft . . . sales people who are determined to make the sale regardless of the needs and wants of the customer. We’ve all run into pushy sales people who are clearly more interested in their commission than they are in helping us. So they lose our trust.
The fact is, good sales people are problem solvers. They ask questions, they listen intently to the answers, and they get a clear picture of the problem the customer is trying to solve. In some cases, the sales person may have to say, “I understand what you’re trying to do, but I don’t think our product (or service) is the right answer for you.” Of course, that loses the sale today, but it earns the respect and trust of the customer. Is that customer likely to bring you back the next time he has an appropriate need? You bet! Is s/he likely to feel comfortable referring you to others? Absolutely!
Contrast that with the poor sales person who is motivated by self-interest and will try to fit a square peg into a round hole to make the sale. S/he loses the trust of the customer, may very well lose future opportunities, and almost certainly will not get any referrals.
Hopefully, your sales people are not “selling” in the worst sense of the word. Instead they should be creating a trusting relationship, allowing the customer to buy with confidence and enthusiasm.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
If You Don't Plan, You Plan to Fail
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
I have talked about planning here before, but I continue to run into small business owners who seemingly just don’t get it. They don’t plan because they don’t see the value in it. So I continue to hammer away at it in hopes that the lights will come on and they will finally “get it.”
Think of a driving vacation. You can get in the car and start driving, hoping you end up someplace you’ll enjoy. Or, you can plan your trip, deciding where you want to be at the end of each day, what you want to see and do, and what your ultimate destination will be. If your goal is to have a fun vacation, which method is more likely get that result? Jump in the car and hope for the best, or plan it out?
Does a plan guarantee you’ll hit your goal? Of course not. But it does guarantee you’ll come a lot closer to your goal than you will if you try to just wing it.
We used to talk about 3-year and 5-year plans, but business conditions are changing so fast that it’s questionable how useful those longer term plans are. However, you should have some over-arching goal (i.e., we’re a $5 million company and we want to become a $20 million company). Then each annual plan should move you down that growth path at a pace that gets you there within an acceptable time frame.
Many companies refer to their annual plan as a budget. I suggest you lose that term in your corporate culture and substitute “profit plan.” “Budget” sounds confining, restrictive, and it’s there to restrain our spending. “Profit plan” is more positive, and it’s more descriptive of what we’re doing. It’s saying, “Here is the profit we expect to make this year, and here is how we intend to do it.”
If you’re not already doing it, start building annual profit plans that move you toward your long-term goal(s). If you embrace each year’s plan and really work it as a management tool, your company will move more sure-footedly and more profitably down the road you have chosen for it. Guaranteed.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
I have talked about planning here before, but I continue to run into small business owners who seemingly just don’t get it. They don’t plan because they don’t see the value in it. So I continue to hammer away at it in hopes that the lights will come on and they will finally “get it.”
Think of a driving vacation. You can get in the car and start driving, hoping you end up someplace you’ll enjoy. Or, you can plan your trip, deciding where you want to be at the end of each day, what you want to see and do, and what your ultimate destination will be. If your goal is to have a fun vacation, which method is more likely get that result? Jump in the car and hope for the best, or plan it out?
Does a plan guarantee you’ll hit your goal? Of course not. But it does guarantee you’ll come a lot closer to your goal than you will if you try to just wing it.
We used to talk about 3-year and 5-year plans, but business conditions are changing so fast that it’s questionable how useful those longer term plans are. However, you should have some over-arching goal (i.e., we’re a $5 million company and we want to become a $20 million company). Then each annual plan should move you down that growth path at a pace that gets you there within an acceptable time frame.
Many companies refer to their annual plan as a budget. I suggest you lose that term in your corporate culture and substitute “profit plan.” “Budget” sounds confining, restrictive, and it’s there to restrain our spending. “Profit plan” is more positive, and it’s more descriptive of what we’re doing. It’s saying, “Here is the profit we expect to make this year, and here is how we intend to do it.”
If you’re not already doing it, start building annual profit plans that move you toward your long-term goal(s). If you embrace each year’s plan and really work it as a management tool, your company will move more sure-footedly and more profitably down the road you have chosen for it. Guaranteed.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Failures Are Learning Experiences
“Success is not determined by the flawless execution of a plan. It is determined by how people react to failure.”
“I haven’t failed. I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
“The way to succeed is to double your failure rate.”
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
Lots of thoughts about failure, but it’s an important aspect of business life. It’s the consequence we must consider anytime we try something new. What if this new thing we’re trying doesn’t work out? What if the market doesn’t accept the new product we’re rolling out? What if we don’t reach the ambitious goals we set for ourselves next year? And sometimes, we do fail. We had what seemed like a good idea, we studied and researched it, we planned well, we executed well, but for some reason, it just didn’t work the way we thought it would.
We learn by our mistakes, don’t we? So then failures are a learning experience. They teach lessons about the business we are in and the markets we serve. Not that we should seek out failures or take them lightly when they happen, but nor should we jump out the nearest window. Successful organizations are places of learning. They get back up, brush themselves off, and say, “OK. Now what did we learn from that?” Unsuccessful organizations play the blame game and look for a scape goat.
So how do you treat failures in your organization? Not stupid mistakes or careless errors, but honest, good faith efforts that simply didn’t pan out. Is it OK to fail at your place? Do you punish those who show initiative and are willing to take a risk while rewarding those who keep their heads down and play it safe? Hopefully not.
In employee satisfaction surveys, “Being in a place where I can learn and grow” always ranks near the top of the list. So be a learning place. Treat failures, not as tragic events, but as teaching opportunities . . . lessons to be learned. You’ll attract and retain better people, and you’ll build a stronger, more dynamic organization.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
“I haven’t failed. I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
“The way to succeed is to double your failure rate.”
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
Lots of thoughts about failure, but it’s an important aspect of business life. It’s the consequence we must consider anytime we try something new. What if this new thing we’re trying doesn’t work out? What if the market doesn’t accept the new product we’re rolling out? What if we don’t reach the ambitious goals we set for ourselves next year? And sometimes, we do fail. We had what seemed like a good idea, we studied and researched it, we planned well, we executed well, but for some reason, it just didn’t work the way we thought it would.
We learn by our mistakes, don’t we? So then failures are a learning experience. They teach lessons about the business we are in and the markets we serve. Not that we should seek out failures or take them lightly when they happen, but nor should we jump out the nearest window. Successful organizations are places of learning. They get back up, brush themselves off, and say, “OK. Now what did we learn from that?” Unsuccessful organizations play the blame game and look for a scape goat.
So how do you treat failures in your organization? Not stupid mistakes or careless errors, but honest, good faith efforts that simply didn’t pan out. Is it OK to fail at your place? Do you punish those who show initiative and are willing to take a risk while rewarding those who keep their heads down and play it safe? Hopefully not.
In employee satisfaction surveys, “Being in a place where I can learn and grow” always ranks near the top of the list. So be a learning place. Treat failures, not as tragic events, but as teaching opportunities . . . lessons to be learned. You’ll attract and retain better people, and you’ll build a stronger, more dynamic organization.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, December 7, 2009
How Good Is Good Enough?
“Good enough is never good enough.”
- Jack Welch, General Electric
“When you’re better than ‘good enough,’ your price is too high.”
- Sam Bowers, business professor and lecturer
It’s hard to argue with a business legend like Jack Welch. And he’s right. We need to continuously tweek and refine our product or service to meet the changing needs of our customers or to better serve their existing needs.
But Sam Bowers is also right. Price is always part of the equation. Marketing executives deal with this every day. Yes, we have the technology to make an improvement to our product, but it will add $10,000 to the price tag. If our customers are unwilling to pay an additional $10,000 for our product, then the message is clear. The old product was good enough.
I could put higher octane gasoline in my car but it would cost more, and you know what? My owner’s manual says the car is designed to run on the lower octane gasoline, so it’s definitely good enough.
I have a wrist watch that I bought for under $100 and it keeps amazingly precise time. It never gains or loses a second. I could have spent thousands of dollars for a fancy Rolex, but all I require is dependable time keeping. So my watch is good enough.
The message is simple. We must always strive to understand and meet customer needs. But before we “surpass our customer’s expectations” (as many companies claim to do), we better look at the cost/benefit relationship from the customer’s point of view. In many cases, dependably and professionally meeting our customer’s expectations is good enough . . . particularly when “surpassing” means eroding our profit margins or raising our prices.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
- Jack Welch, General Electric
“When you’re better than ‘good enough,’ your price is too high.”
- Sam Bowers, business professor and lecturer
It’s hard to argue with a business legend like Jack Welch. And he’s right. We need to continuously tweek and refine our product or service to meet the changing needs of our customers or to better serve their existing needs.
But Sam Bowers is also right. Price is always part of the equation. Marketing executives deal with this every day. Yes, we have the technology to make an improvement to our product, but it will add $10,000 to the price tag. If our customers are unwilling to pay an additional $10,000 for our product, then the message is clear. The old product was good enough.
I could put higher octane gasoline in my car but it would cost more, and you know what? My owner’s manual says the car is designed to run on the lower octane gasoline, so it’s definitely good enough.
I have a wrist watch that I bought for under $100 and it keeps amazingly precise time. It never gains or loses a second. I could have spent thousands of dollars for a fancy Rolex, but all I require is dependable time keeping. So my watch is good enough.
The message is simple. We must always strive to understand and meet customer needs. But before we “surpass our customer’s expectations” (as many companies claim to do), we better look at the cost/benefit relationship from the customer’s point of view. In many cases, dependably and professionally meeting our customer’s expectations is good enough . . . particularly when “surpassing” means eroding our profit margins or raising our prices.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Meeting Customer Needs
“The purpose of your organization is to meet customer needs. That’s the game. Profits are the score.”
That’s obvious, isn’t it? Well, it should be, but we often behave as though our customers must meet our needs. Think about it. Do you impose deadlines on your customers to make life easier for you? Are your pricing schemes aimed at getting customers to buy the way you want them to buy rather than the way they would prefer to buy? Do you try to sell your customers the products or services you want to move rather than the products or services they want to buy?
Clearly, we need to structure our organization to make it as efficient and effective as possible. But an efficient, effective organization is not at odds with meeting customer needs. The problem is change. We may have started out meeting customer needs dead on, but then their needs changed. The systems and procedures we put in place to serve the old customer needs don’t work so well with the new customer needs. But it’s expensive and time-consuming to change the way we do things, so we try to shoehorn the new customer needs into our old structure. We may get away with that for awhile, but pretty soon, someone else will figure out a better way to meet the customer needs, and then we’re out of the game.
Take an inventory of every rule and policy you have in place that affects customers. In each case, ask yourself if the rule or policy is there to serve customers or to serve you. If it’s there to serve you, it may be a red flag that we’re not serving customers as well as we might.
Better yet, have a frank discussion with your customers aimed at uncovering any unmet needs. And be open-minded with the feedback you get. Even though customers may want something that is seemingly outrageous, give serious thought to how it might be done. Remember, if you can’t figure out how to meet your customers’ needs, someone else will.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
That’s obvious, isn’t it? Well, it should be, but we often behave as though our customers must meet our needs. Think about it. Do you impose deadlines on your customers to make life easier for you? Are your pricing schemes aimed at getting customers to buy the way you want them to buy rather than the way they would prefer to buy? Do you try to sell your customers the products or services you want to move rather than the products or services they want to buy?
Clearly, we need to structure our organization to make it as efficient and effective as possible. But an efficient, effective organization is not at odds with meeting customer needs. The problem is change. We may have started out meeting customer needs dead on, but then their needs changed. The systems and procedures we put in place to serve the old customer needs don’t work so well with the new customer needs. But it’s expensive and time-consuming to change the way we do things, so we try to shoehorn the new customer needs into our old structure. We may get away with that for awhile, but pretty soon, someone else will figure out a better way to meet the customer needs, and then we’re out of the game.
Take an inventory of every rule and policy you have in place that affects customers. In each case, ask yourself if the rule or policy is there to serve customers or to serve you. If it’s there to serve you, it may be a red flag that we’re not serving customers as well as we might.
Better yet, have a frank discussion with your customers aimed at uncovering any unmet needs. And be open-minded with the feedback you get. Even though customers may want something that is seemingly outrageous, give serious thought to how it might be done. Remember, if you can’t figure out how to meet your customers’ needs, someone else will.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Get a Life!
“If your business keeps you so busy that you have no time for anything else, there must be something wrong, either with you or with your business.”
Do you have time to do things you want to do outside of your business? Or, said another way, do you feel you have good “balance” in your life? Obviously, there are times when business activity is high and things can get a little hectic, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Over the long term, are you so consumed by your business that you don’t have time for other things that are important to you?
If the answer is “yes,” you almost certainly have a problem delegating authority to others. Small business owners tend to keep all the important levers and buttons of the business under their own control. In most cases, they simply don’t trust anyone else to handle those critical functions. Yet if the owner continues to hoard all the important stuff for him or herself, there are usually some negative consequences.
One such consequence is a drain of talent from the business. People want to work where they can learn, grow, and get increasing amounts of responsibility, and if they believe they are not getting that at your company, they’ll go somewhere else.
Another consequence is owner frustration. The owner has rigged the game so that nothing of importance gets done without his or her fingerprints all over it. So s/he can never get away from work for any length of time without everything coming to a grinding halt.
The growth of the business is stifled. If the owner tries to do everything, the business stalls when it reaches his or her personal limit. There are only so many hours in a day and only so much one person can do, right?
But failing to delegate ultimately damages the value of the business. For most small business owners, the exit strategy at retirement time is to sell the business. Even though the business may be profitable, a would-be buyer will look very closely at how well the business will operate when the former owner is gone. If the buyer decides the old owner is the business . . . that he holds all the key relationships with customers and vendors, and that he is the “go to guy” for operational issues . . . the buyer will be unlikely to pay much for the business because, after all, with the old owner out of the equation, there really isn’t much of a business left. On the other hand, if the place runs like a top whether the old owner is there or not, the business will command a premium price.
So if you are in this predicament, the only way out is to begin grooming others to take on important roles of authority and leadership. If you don’t have them, find them. Bring them on board. You’ll be happier, your people will be happier, the business will operate more smoothly, and it will have greater value. What’s not to like about that?
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Do you have time to do things you want to do outside of your business? Or, said another way, do you feel you have good “balance” in your life? Obviously, there are times when business activity is high and things can get a little hectic, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Over the long term, are you so consumed by your business that you don’t have time for other things that are important to you?
If the answer is “yes,” you almost certainly have a problem delegating authority to others. Small business owners tend to keep all the important levers and buttons of the business under their own control. In most cases, they simply don’t trust anyone else to handle those critical functions. Yet if the owner continues to hoard all the important stuff for him or herself, there are usually some negative consequences.
One such consequence is a drain of talent from the business. People want to work where they can learn, grow, and get increasing amounts of responsibility, and if they believe they are not getting that at your company, they’ll go somewhere else.
Another consequence is owner frustration. The owner has rigged the game so that nothing of importance gets done without his or her fingerprints all over it. So s/he can never get away from work for any length of time without everything coming to a grinding halt.
The growth of the business is stifled. If the owner tries to do everything, the business stalls when it reaches his or her personal limit. There are only so many hours in a day and only so much one person can do, right?
But failing to delegate ultimately damages the value of the business. For most small business owners, the exit strategy at retirement time is to sell the business. Even though the business may be profitable, a would-be buyer will look very closely at how well the business will operate when the former owner is gone. If the buyer decides the old owner is the business . . . that he holds all the key relationships with customers and vendors, and that he is the “go to guy” for operational issues . . . the buyer will be unlikely to pay much for the business because, after all, with the old owner out of the equation, there really isn’t much of a business left. On the other hand, if the place runs like a top whether the old owner is there or not, the business will command a premium price.
So if you are in this predicament, the only way out is to begin grooming others to take on important roles of authority and leadership. If you don’t have them, find them. Bring them on board. You’ll be happier, your people will be happier, the business will operate more smoothly, and it will have greater value. What’s not to like about that?
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Making Compensation a Non-Issue
“Compensation is an equity issue. People want to know that they are being compensated fairly compared to others doing similar work within the company, and to others doing similar work in other companies. After that, it’s a non-issue.”
It really is that simple, yet we continually find ways to complicate the situation. For example, let’s say we’ve got two employees, Bob and John. Bob has been with the company for 20 years, John for only 18 months. They both do the same work and do it equally well. In many cases, Bob would be paid more (in some cases, much more) due to his long service to the company. But is that fair? Should John be punished for achieving in 18 months what it took Bob 20 years to achieve? In truth, John should probably get a bonus for getting up-to-speed so quickly.
Or how about this. Bob has a spouse and two kids to support while John is single and lives at home with his parents. Consciously or unconsciously we may pad Bob’s pay a bit because we know he has a family to feed. That may be a compassionate way to look at the situation, but is it fair? No, it’s not. If both Bob and John do the same work and do it equally well, they should be compensated equally. Their personal situations shouldn’t enter into it.
Equal pay for equal work is such a fair and equitable proposition that it’s beyond reproach. We get into trouble quickly when we try to explain why we’re not practicing equal pay for equal work . . . because frankly, there is no explanation that makes sense.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
It really is that simple, yet we continually find ways to complicate the situation. For example, let’s say we’ve got two employees, Bob and John. Bob has been with the company for 20 years, John for only 18 months. They both do the same work and do it equally well. In many cases, Bob would be paid more (in some cases, much more) due to his long service to the company. But is that fair? Should John be punished for achieving in 18 months what it took Bob 20 years to achieve? In truth, John should probably get a bonus for getting up-to-speed so quickly.
Or how about this. Bob has a spouse and two kids to support while John is single and lives at home with his parents. Consciously or unconsciously we may pad Bob’s pay a bit because we know he has a family to feed. That may be a compassionate way to look at the situation, but is it fair? No, it’s not. If both Bob and John do the same work and do it equally well, they should be compensated equally. Their personal situations shouldn’t enter into it.
Equal pay for equal work is such a fair and equitable proposition that it’s beyond reproach. We get into trouble quickly when we try to explain why we’re not practicing equal pay for equal work . . . because frankly, there is no explanation that makes sense.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Aim High, But Not Too High
“It’s not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it’s too low and we reach it.”
Michelangelo offered that advice about 500 years ago, but I think we have to be a little bit careful how we apply it in our businesses.
Clearly, setting goals that can be achieved at a walk is a bad idea. People don’t get much sense of accomplishment when the goal is too easily reached. On the other hand, setting goals too high causes another problem. People will quickly discern that goals are set absurdly high, they will become discouraged, and again they will be robbed of a sense of accomplishment.
In his excellent book, “CEO Tools,” Kriag Kramers offers an answer to this dilemma. He recommends a rigorous budget process whereby goals are demanding, but achievable. Then he suggests setting some big, over-the-top goals while clearly communicating that it’s OK if we don’t hit them. After all, we did hit our base budget goals, right? So everyone can take get a sense of accomplishment from that even if we go no further. But if we do go further, we can offer some really exciting incentives because we’re now playing with money we never expected to have in the first place.
So it’s really a perfect solution. We set tough but achievable goals so that everyone can take pride in accomplishment, but then we set some over-the-top goals, acknowledging that we probably won’t hit them, thereby eliminating any sense of fear or guilt or failure. And by the way, once you get into the over-the-top goals, have fun with them! Make it a game! Challenge one another! After all, at that stage, you truly are playing with found money.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Michelangelo offered that advice about 500 years ago, but I think we have to be a little bit careful how we apply it in our businesses.
Clearly, setting goals that can be achieved at a walk is a bad idea. People don’t get much sense of accomplishment when the goal is too easily reached. On the other hand, setting goals too high causes another problem. People will quickly discern that goals are set absurdly high, they will become discouraged, and again they will be robbed of a sense of accomplishment.
In his excellent book, “CEO Tools,” Kriag Kramers offers an answer to this dilemma. He recommends a rigorous budget process whereby goals are demanding, but achievable. Then he suggests setting some big, over-the-top goals while clearly communicating that it’s OK if we don’t hit them. After all, we did hit our base budget goals, right? So everyone can take get a sense of accomplishment from that even if we go no further. But if we do go further, we can offer some really exciting incentives because we’re now playing with money we never expected to have in the first place.
So it’s really a perfect solution. We set tough but achievable goals so that everyone can take pride in accomplishment, but then we set some over-the-top goals, acknowledging that we probably won’t hit them, thereby eliminating any sense of fear or guilt or failure. And by the way, once you get into the over-the-top goals, have fun with them! Make it a game! Challenge one another! After all, at that stage, you truly are playing with found money.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Poor Employee Performance Is a Management Issue
“People don’t come to work each morning to do a bad job.”
Mostly true. Sure, there’s the odd malcontent who’s mad at the world and wants to challenge authority, but as a rule, people really do want to do what’s expected of them. When they don’t perform as expected, there are generally two reasons, both of which are failures of management.
The first failure is we tried to put a round peg in a square hole. We placed someone in a role where s/he couldn’t be successful. Maybe the person didn’t have the right skills, talents, experience or personality for the job we put them in. And why would we do that? Sometimes because we’re desperate to fill a position and we think someone in that job is better than no one. Faulty logic. If the job is too important to be left vacant, then it’s too important to be done badly. Or we’ve got an opening, we like to promote from within, and we’ve got a loyal, veteran employee who we think deserves a shot at it. More faulty logic. Why reward an employee’s loyalty and hard work by putting him or her in a no-win situation?
The second failure is one of communication. Management has one picture of what a good job looks like, but unfortunately, the employee responsible for doing that job has a completely different picture. For instance, the employee knows that on-time delivery is very important to the company and spares no effort to get the product shipped as quickly as possible. S/he doesn’t understand that quality is an even higher priority with the company and that quality trumps on-time delivery. Seems like this sort of miscommunication shouldn’t happen, but it does. All the time.
The message here is this: when you have an under performing or poorly performing employee, don’t jump to the conclusion that you have a bad employee. Start with the notion that the employee wants to do a good job, but something is getting in the way. Then check to make sure s/he is fully qualified to do the job well and that s/he understands clearly what a good job looks like.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Mostly true. Sure, there’s the odd malcontent who’s mad at the world and wants to challenge authority, but as a rule, people really do want to do what’s expected of them. When they don’t perform as expected, there are generally two reasons, both of which are failures of management.
The first failure is we tried to put a round peg in a square hole. We placed someone in a role where s/he couldn’t be successful. Maybe the person didn’t have the right skills, talents, experience or personality for the job we put them in. And why would we do that? Sometimes because we’re desperate to fill a position and we think someone in that job is better than no one. Faulty logic. If the job is too important to be left vacant, then it’s too important to be done badly. Or we’ve got an opening, we like to promote from within, and we’ve got a loyal, veteran employee who we think deserves a shot at it. More faulty logic. Why reward an employee’s loyalty and hard work by putting him or her in a no-win situation?
The second failure is one of communication. Management has one picture of what a good job looks like, but unfortunately, the employee responsible for doing that job has a completely different picture. For instance, the employee knows that on-time delivery is very important to the company and spares no effort to get the product shipped as quickly as possible. S/he doesn’t understand that quality is an even higher priority with the company and that quality trumps on-time delivery. Seems like this sort of miscommunication shouldn’t happen, but it does. All the time.
The message here is this: when you have an under performing or poorly performing employee, don’t jump to the conclusion that you have a bad employee. Start with the notion that the employee wants to do a good job, but something is getting in the way. Then check to make sure s/he is fully qualified to do the job well and that s/he understands clearly what a good job looks like.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, October 26, 2009
One of My Favorite Management Tools
No quote this week. I want to offer a tip you will find useful, but I didn’t have a quote that would complement it.
One of my favorite management tools is a trailing 12-month average. If you’re familiar with this tool, stop here. You already know what I want to tell you. But if not, please read on.
Have you ever seen a chart that looks like the scribble of a 2-year old? You can’t tell if the trend is up, down, or flat? A trailing 12-month average overcomes that problem with a smooth trend line that doesn’t lie. And it works for any data you want to track . . . sales, gross profit, expenses, net profit, or any other statistical information. Here’s how.
Let’s say you want to track sales. Imagine a chart where the vertical axis is dollars or units, and the horizontal axis is months of the year. We can start in any month we like, but for this example, we’ll start in January 2007. The first point of our graph will be the sales results for January 2007 plus the preceding eleven months, totaled and divided by 12. So the sum of sales, February 2006 – January 2007 divided by 12. The next point on our graph will be February 2007 plus the preceding eleven months . . . March 2006 – February 2007, divided by 12, and so on. Each point on the graph represents the current month plus the preceding eleven months, divided by 12. You don’t really have to divide by 12 . . . the trend line will be the same whether you chart the monthly average or the entire 12-month total. But dividing by 12 gives you a monthly average that you can then compare to your actual month’s result.
Since each point on the chart represents an entire year’s worth of activity, seasonal ups and downs get leveled out as do one-time sales spikes (as for instance, a large sale that you don’t expect to repeat). As a result, you get a nice, smooth trend line that tells you clearly and honestly whether the data you’re tracking is going up, down, or flat. It’s a terrific tool to quickly and accurately identify trends that need corrective action. It’s also a tool that can be used as a budgeting or forecasting aid.
For more on this and many other management tools, I recommend “CEO Tools” by Kraig Kramers . . . it’s crammed full of useful ideas to help you improve productivity, results, and profits.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
One of my favorite management tools is a trailing 12-month average. If you’re familiar with this tool, stop here. You already know what I want to tell you. But if not, please read on.
Have you ever seen a chart that looks like the scribble of a 2-year old? You can’t tell if the trend is up, down, or flat? A trailing 12-month average overcomes that problem with a smooth trend line that doesn’t lie. And it works for any data you want to track . . . sales, gross profit, expenses, net profit, or any other statistical information. Here’s how.
Let’s say you want to track sales. Imagine a chart where the vertical axis is dollars or units, and the horizontal axis is months of the year. We can start in any month we like, but for this example, we’ll start in January 2007. The first point of our graph will be the sales results for January 2007 plus the preceding eleven months, totaled and divided by 12. So the sum of sales, February 2006 – January 2007 divided by 12. The next point on our graph will be February 2007 plus the preceding eleven months . . . March 2006 – February 2007, divided by 12, and so on. Each point on the graph represents the current month plus the preceding eleven months, divided by 12. You don’t really have to divide by 12 . . . the trend line will be the same whether you chart the monthly average or the entire 12-month total. But dividing by 12 gives you a monthly average that you can then compare to your actual month’s result.
Since each point on the chart represents an entire year’s worth of activity, seasonal ups and downs get leveled out as do one-time sales spikes (as for instance, a large sale that you don’t expect to repeat). As a result, you get a nice, smooth trend line that tells you clearly and honestly whether the data you’re tracking is going up, down, or flat. It’s a terrific tool to quickly and accurately identify trends that need corrective action. It’s also a tool that can be used as a budgeting or forecasting aid.
For more on this and many other management tools, I recommend “CEO Tools” by Kraig Kramers . . . it’s crammed full of useful ideas to help you improve productivity, results, and profits.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, October 19, 2009
What Do You Tolerate?
“A company’s culture is defined by what it tolerates.”
All companies have a culture. In some cases, the culture is one that has been carefully constructed and nurtured, in others, the culture has evolved haphazardly over time, but either way, a culture is present, and it is defined by what it tolerates.
Think of IBM in the early days. They wanted a culture of professionalism. Employees were expected to show up for work well-groomed and in conservative business attire. Showing up for work with unkempt hair and wearing a Bud Lite tee shirt was not tolerated.
Ritz Hotels are legendary for customer service. Employees who don’t understand and practice world-class service are not tolerated.
At a manufacturing plant, employees on the assembly line are empowered to shut down the line if they spot something wrong. In that culture, high quality is expected and nothing short of that is tolerated.
Every culture is different. For IBM, conservative dress was an important part of the culture. For a general contractor, having carpenters, electricians, and plumbers trying to put up a building in 3-piece suits would be crazy. Nursing homes don’t tolerate violence. The Marine Corps teaches it.
The point is, your culture needs to be something put in place thoughtfully and deliberately, and it must answer the question, “How do we behave around here?” You need to consider all of your stakeholders . . . customers, employees, and vendors. What do you expect of them, and just as importantly, what do they expect of you? Your culture, what you tolerate and what you don’t tolerate, should reflect all of that.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
All companies have a culture. In some cases, the culture is one that has been carefully constructed and nurtured, in others, the culture has evolved haphazardly over time, but either way, a culture is present, and it is defined by what it tolerates.
Think of IBM in the early days. They wanted a culture of professionalism. Employees were expected to show up for work well-groomed and in conservative business attire. Showing up for work with unkempt hair and wearing a Bud Lite tee shirt was not tolerated.
Ritz Hotels are legendary for customer service. Employees who don’t understand and practice world-class service are not tolerated.
At a manufacturing plant, employees on the assembly line are empowered to shut down the line if they spot something wrong. In that culture, high quality is expected and nothing short of that is tolerated.
Every culture is different. For IBM, conservative dress was an important part of the culture. For a general contractor, having carpenters, electricians, and plumbers trying to put up a building in 3-piece suits would be crazy. Nursing homes don’t tolerate violence. The Marine Corps teaches it.
The point is, your culture needs to be something put in place thoughtfully and deliberately, and it must answer the question, “How do we behave around here?” You need to consider all of your stakeholders . . . customers, employees, and vendors. What do you expect of them, and just as importantly, what do they expect of you? Your culture, what you tolerate and what you don’t tolerate, should reflect all of that.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Stop Micro-Managing! It's Killing Your People
“Let people accomplish your objectives their way.”
Where systems or processes are concerned, it really is essential that everybody use them uniformly. Imagine an assembly line. Each station on the line must perform its function in a very precise way, each and every time, or stations further down the line won’t be able to do their work. But for the most part, management challenges don’t lend themselves to an assembly line approach. They tend to be unique situations that require specially crafted solutions. However, that’s not to say that there couldn’t be two or five or a hundred specially crafted solutions that would all work equally well.
For most of us, the joy of work is in figuring stuff out . . . doing or trying things that haven’t been done or tried before. When we’re told, “Here we are at A, and you need to get us to D,” that’s a great assignment. Right away we’re thinking, “I wonder if there’s a way to get directly to D without going through B or C. Or maybe it would work better if we went from A to C, then back to B and finally to D.” On the other hand, if we’re told, “Here we are at A, you need to get us first to B, then to C, and then to D,” all the joy, excitement, and creativity just went out of the assignment.
Micro-managing can tear the heart right out of an organization. Leaders set a broad direction and then get out of the way. Tell your people what to do, but let them figure out how to do it. Are you a leader or a micro-manager?
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Where systems or processes are concerned, it really is essential that everybody use them uniformly. Imagine an assembly line. Each station on the line must perform its function in a very precise way, each and every time, or stations further down the line won’t be able to do their work. But for the most part, management challenges don’t lend themselves to an assembly line approach. They tend to be unique situations that require specially crafted solutions. However, that’s not to say that there couldn’t be two or five or a hundred specially crafted solutions that would all work equally well.
For most of us, the joy of work is in figuring stuff out . . . doing or trying things that haven’t been done or tried before. When we’re told, “Here we are at A, and you need to get us to D,” that’s a great assignment. Right away we’re thinking, “I wonder if there’s a way to get directly to D without going through B or C. Or maybe it would work better if we went from A to C, then back to B and finally to D.” On the other hand, if we’re told, “Here we are at A, you need to get us first to B, then to C, and then to D,” all the joy, excitement, and creativity just went out of the assignment.
Micro-managing can tear the heart right out of an organization. Leaders set a broad direction and then get out of the way. Tell your people what to do, but let them figure out how to do it. Are you a leader or a micro-manager?
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Make Better Hiring Decisions
“We hire for skills and fire for behaviors.”
That’s true isn’t it? We were excited about our new hire. He had worked at some great places, been trained in the exact systems and processes we need, and impressed us as someone who is diligent and efficient. This was going to be a marriage made in heaven. Unfortunately, we were so impressed with his skills, we neglected to learn that he is rude, self-absorbed, imperious, and nobody can stand to work with him. So the marriage we thought was made in heaven ends in an ugly divorce.
There are no guarantees when it comes to hiring people. Try as we might to hire only the people who are a “good fit” for our company, we sometimes make a mistake and take in someone who is a bad fit. But there are ways to stack the odds in your favor.
First, in an interview, focus on behaviors that will be necessary success factors for the job you’re trying to fill, and ask for actual events in the candidate’s past that demonstrate those behaviors. For instance, you might say, “You will need to work with a team of people to do your job successfully. Give us some examples from your prior work experience to show how you worked with others to accomplish a particular goal.” Or you could say, “Tell us about a really tough customer service issue you’ve had. How did you handle it?” The point is, ask questions that illustrate the behaviors you want and ask for actual situations from the candidate’s past, not hypothetical ones (“What would you do if . . . “).
Second, when you do reference checks, verify the interview answers you got. “I understand John had a tough situation with the XYZ Company but was able to defuse it by doing thus and such. Is that the way you recall it?”
Behaviors are tough to predict, but if you spend some time thinking carefully about the behaviors you need and then thoughtfully constructing questions to highlight those behaviors, you’ll be surprised how much you can learn about a candidate before s/he becomes an employee.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
That’s true isn’t it? We were excited about our new hire. He had worked at some great places, been trained in the exact systems and processes we need, and impressed us as someone who is diligent and efficient. This was going to be a marriage made in heaven. Unfortunately, we were so impressed with his skills, we neglected to learn that he is rude, self-absorbed, imperious, and nobody can stand to work with him. So the marriage we thought was made in heaven ends in an ugly divorce.
There are no guarantees when it comes to hiring people. Try as we might to hire only the people who are a “good fit” for our company, we sometimes make a mistake and take in someone who is a bad fit. But there are ways to stack the odds in your favor.
First, in an interview, focus on behaviors that will be necessary success factors for the job you’re trying to fill, and ask for actual events in the candidate’s past that demonstrate those behaviors. For instance, you might say, “You will need to work with a team of people to do your job successfully. Give us some examples from your prior work experience to show how you worked with others to accomplish a particular goal.” Or you could say, “Tell us about a really tough customer service issue you’ve had. How did you handle it?” The point is, ask questions that illustrate the behaviors you want and ask for actual situations from the candidate’s past, not hypothetical ones (“What would you do if . . . “).
Second, when you do reference checks, verify the interview answers you got. “I understand John had a tough situation with the XYZ Company but was able to defuse it by doing thus and such. Is that the way you recall it?”
Behaviors are tough to predict, but if you spend some time thinking carefully about the behaviors you need and then thoughtfully constructing questions to highlight those behaviors, you’ll be surprised how much you can learn about a candidate before s/he becomes an employee.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Coming to Grips With Change
“Progress always involves risk, but you can’t steal second base and keep a foot on first.”
“Change with the world – or it will change without you.”
There is always risk with change, and in general, the greater the change, the greater the risk. But you know what? There’s also risk in not changing . . . arguably even greater risk.
Changes in the business world are coming at us faster than ever before, and the rate of change will continue to accelerate. So we need to prepare our organizations to not only accept change, but to embrace it. Yes, change brings risk, but it also brings new opportunities. If you’re unwilling to take the risk, you will be shut out of the opportunity.
People aren’t afraid of change. They’re afraid of the unknown. So the best way to introduce change is through good communication. Tell your people what change is coming, why the change is necessary, and what you need from them to affect the change smoothly. If you communicate the change clearly and completely and you answer all questions about it honestly, the fear is largely gone because the change is no longer unknown.
If your culture is risk averse and resistant to change . . . you’d better change it.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
“Change with the world – or it will change without you.”
There is always risk with change, and in general, the greater the change, the greater the risk. But you know what? There’s also risk in not changing . . . arguably even greater risk.
Changes in the business world are coming at us faster than ever before, and the rate of change will continue to accelerate. So we need to prepare our organizations to not only accept change, but to embrace it. Yes, change brings risk, but it also brings new opportunities. If you’re unwilling to take the risk, you will be shut out of the opportunity.
People aren’t afraid of change. They’re afraid of the unknown. So the best way to introduce change is through good communication. Tell your people what change is coming, why the change is necessary, and what you need from them to affect the change smoothly. If you communicate the change clearly and completely and you answer all questions about it honestly, the fear is largely gone because the change is no longer unknown.
If your culture is risk averse and resistant to change . . . you’d better change it.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Want to Find Waste? Ask Your People
“The best ideas for improving a job come from those who do it every day.”
Absolutely true. If you want to know where there is waste in your organization, ask your people. They know where it is, but they won’t tell you unless you ask.
At a medical practice that has a number of offices, we asked the staff for “time wasters” . . . activities that take up a lot of time without an obvious benefit. In this practice, patient records are kept centrally, so when a doctor is seeing a patient at one of the outlying offices, the patient’s record (which can be voluminous) must be faxed there. The staff reported that they spent a lot of time standing at the fax machine. We checked with the doctors who told us they don’t need the entire record, only two or three pages of it. So it was an easy fix that saved a lot of staff time with no adverse impact on doctor or patient. But we wouldn’t have found this “time waster” if we hadn’t asked.
Go through your entire organization from the executive offices to the loading dock and ask everyone where they see waste . . . wasted time, materials, or space. You’ll be surprised by what you learn. In some cases, an employee will believe something is wasteful because s/he doesn’t understand its value. This becomes an opportunity to help that employee learn more about how your business actually works. But in many cases, the employee will point out something that really is wasteful and can be corrected. You just have to ask.
A retiring GM worker once said, “For 25 years you’ve paid only for my hands when you could have had my brain for free.” Don’t make that mistake.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Absolutely true. If you want to know where there is waste in your organization, ask your people. They know where it is, but they won’t tell you unless you ask.
At a medical practice that has a number of offices, we asked the staff for “time wasters” . . . activities that take up a lot of time without an obvious benefit. In this practice, patient records are kept centrally, so when a doctor is seeing a patient at one of the outlying offices, the patient’s record (which can be voluminous) must be faxed there. The staff reported that they spent a lot of time standing at the fax machine. We checked with the doctors who told us they don’t need the entire record, only two or three pages of it. So it was an easy fix that saved a lot of staff time with no adverse impact on doctor or patient. But we wouldn’t have found this “time waster” if we hadn’t asked.
Go through your entire organization from the executive offices to the loading dock and ask everyone where they see waste . . . wasted time, materials, or space. You’ll be surprised by what you learn. In some cases, an employee will believe something is wasteful because s/he doesn’t understand its value. This becomes an opportunity to help that employee learn more about how your business actually works. But in many cases, the employee will point out something that really is wasteful and can be corrected. You just have to ask.
A retiring GM worker once said, “For 25 years you’ve paid only for my hands when you could have had my brain for free.” Don’t make that mistake.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Put Down Your Fire-Fighting Gear
“Never let the urgent crowd out the important.”
As small business people, we spend a lot of our time putting out brush fires. When we arrive at work in the morning, we probably have in mind the things we hope to get done during the day. But five minutes later, our best customer calls with a problem or a key piece of machinery breaks down, and in a flash, whatever plan we had for the day is gone.
Most business consultants are familiar with a two-by-two grid where one axis says “Important” and “Not Important” while the other says “Urgent” and “Not Urgent.” Unfortunately, many of us spend far too much time in the part of the grid where “Urgent” and “Not Important” intersect. Is it urgent to get a key piece of equipment back in operation quickly? Of course. But will that be important to the long-term health and growth of the business? Probably not.
Each of us needs to carve out some protected time to work on the business, not in the business. We need to commit to some time each week . . . maybe a day, maybe half a day, maybe just a few hours . . . for activities that will move the business forward in a measurable, strategic way. If you can accomplish that by closing your office door and unplugging the phone, fine. If not, go to the library or to a coffee shop, or maybe work from home. However you do it, find a way each week to put aside your fire-fighting gear for awhile and focus on the longer term problems and opportunites for your business. Can’t do that? You can’t be out-of-touch with the business for even a little while? Then your first “important” task is figuring out how to change your organization so that it runs just fine whether you happen to be on the premises or not.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
As small business people, we spend a lot of our time putting out brush fires. When we arrive at work in the morning, we probably have in mind the things we hope to get done during the day. But five minutes later, our best customer calls with a problem or a key piece of machinery breaks down, and in a flash, whatever plan we had for the day is gone.
Most business consultants are familiar with a two-by-two grid where one axis says “Important” and “Not Important” while the other says “Urgent” and “Not Urgent.” Unfortunately, many of us spend far too much time in the part of the grid where “Urgent” and “Not Important” intersect. Is it urgent to get a key piece of equipment back in operation quickly? Of course. But will that be important to the long-term health and growth of the business? Probably not.
Each of us needs to carve out some protected time to work on the business, not in the business. We need to commit to some time each week . . . maybe a day, maybe half a day, maybe just a few hours . . . for activities that will move the business forward in a measurable, strategic way. If you can accomplish that by closing your office door and unplugging the phone, fine. If not, go to the library or to a coffee shop, or maybe work from home. However you do it, find a way each week to put aside your fire-fighting gear for awhile and focus on the longer term problems and opportunites for your business. Can’t do that? You can’t be out-of-touch with the business for even a little while? Then your first “important” task is figuring out how to change your organization so that it runs just fine whether you happen to be on the premises or not.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
“Permitting colleagues to participate in decision-making is not so much a favor to the participants as it is to the executive.”
The days of the boss hurling down lightning bolts while his employees scurry to do his bidding are long gone. Employees today are better educated, better trained, and have access to more information than ever before. They have insights as to what’s working well and what’s not. In short, they are smart people who expect a seat at the decision-making table. If they are denied that seat, a number of things are likely to happen, all of them bad.
First, the best employees will leave in favor of businesses that value their input. Then the remaining employees will not enthusiastically support decisions in which they had no part. Or worse, they may actively subvert such decisions. On the other hand, an inclusive decision-making process carries a number of positive outcomes.
The most important outcome is that the executive gets the brain power of some really smart people who will express views, opinions, and ideas that may s/he may not have considered. Job satisfaction goes up because people want to know that their views have been heard and valued. And implementation is more robust when employees are part of the process and take ownership of the decisions.
The one drawback is that decisions made with input from lots of people may not be as elegant and precise as a decision formulated by one person. Still, it’s far better to have an imperfect decision perfectly implemented than it is to have a perfect decision poorly implemented.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
The days of the boss hurling down lightning bolts while his employees scurry to do his bidding are long gone. Employees today are better educated, better trained, and have access to more information than ever before. They have insights as to what’s working well and what’s not. In short, they are smart people who expect a seat at the decision-making table. If they are denied that seat, a number of things are likely to happen, all of them bad.
First, the best employees will leave in favor of businesses that value their input. Then the remaining employees will not enthusiastically support decisions in which they had no part. Or worse, they may actively subvert such decisions. On the other hand, an inclusive decision-making process carries a number of positive outcomes.
The most important outcome is that the executive gets the brain power of some really smart people who will express views, opinions, and ideas that may s/he may not have considered. Job satisfaction goes up because people want to know that their views have been heard and valued. And implementation is more robust when employees are part of the process and take ownership of the decisions.
The one drawback is that decisions made with input from lots of people may not be as elegant and precise as a decision formulated by one person. Still, it’s far better to have an imperfect decision perfectly implemented than it is to have a perfect decision poorly implemented.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Beginner's Mind
“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke or worried to death by a frown on the right person’s brow.”
Bruce Lund is the owner/founder of Lund and Company Innovation, a toy design and product invention company (inventors of Tickle Me Elmo). His company is dedicated to the proposition that toys are profoundly important. Great toys teach, entertain, surprise, inspire and invite inquiry.
Mr. Lund wrote this blog and I thought it was so good, I wanted to share it with you. Normally, I post a brief quote and then comment on it, but in this case, I’m passing on his blog in its entirety without comment . . . there’s nothing I could say that would improve or clarify what he has written. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Bruce Lund on The Beginner’s Mind
In our work, we have to have the ‘Beginner's Mind’, that innocent state of mind - a way of thinking and believing that all things are possible. I had forgotten that term. The Beginner's Mind does not know what cannot be done, and thus all things become possible.
Typically, as we age and learn, we develop this acute sense of what can’t be done, what is impossible. We become clever, logical, and incisive in our thinking and we begin to start demonstrating to others how smart we are at perceiving what won’t work. Most all of the designers I have worked with over these last 25 years have been keen to explain to me why ideas I suggest will not or cannot work. I am always entertained by their explanations and often frustrated, I will admit. But of course, they are on the threshold of discovering the processes of invention. These processes make the unlikely possible, and on occasion, the impossible possible. But only if you can approach the work with the Beginner’s Mind.
When we take on a project that we do not believe can work, we will always be right - and it won’t work. It is a tribute to the designers, inventors, and tinkerers who have been successful contributors to our team that they have been able set aside their inborn, natural critic to undertake projects without pre-judgment of the likely outcome. In doing so, they are often surprised at what they accomplish.
There is a special joy in making something that one didn’t think could be made, in doing something one didn’t believe could be done. We do that time and again because we are willing to believe all things are possible with the innocence of thought, the absence of doubt, the suspension of disbelief . . . the Beginner's Mind.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Bruce Lund is the owner/founder of Lund and Company Innovation, a toy design and product invention company (inventors of Tickle Me Elmo). His company is dedicated to the proposition that toys are profoundly important. Great toys teach, entertain, surprise, inspire and invite inquiry.
Mr. Lund wrote this blog and I thought it was so good, I wanted to share it with you. Normally, I post a brief quote and then comment on it, but in this case, I’m passing on his blog in its entirety without comment . . . there’s nothing I could say that would improve or clarify what he has written. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Bruce Lund on The Beginner’s Mind
In our work, we have to have the ‘Beginner's Mind’, that innocent state of mind - a way of thinking and believing that all things are possible. I had forgotten that term. The Beginner's Mind does not know what cannot be done, and thus all things become possible.
Typically, as we age and learn, we develop this acute sense of what can’t be done, what is impossible. We become clever, logical, and incisive in our thinking and we begin to start demonstrating to others how smart we are at perceiving what won’t work. Most all of the designers I have worked with over these last 25 years have been keen to explain to me why ideas I suggest will not or cannot work. I am always entertained by their explanations and often frustrated, I will admit. But of course, they are on the threshold of discovering the processes of invention. These processes make the unlikely possible, and on occasion, the impossible possible. But only if you can approach the work with the Beginner’s Mind.
When we take on a project that we do not believe can work, we will always be right - and it won’t work. It is a tribute to the designers, inventors, and tinkerers who have been successful contributors to our team that they have been able set aside their inborn, natural critic to undertake projects without pre-judgment of the likely outcome. In doing so, they are often surprised at what they accomplish.
There is a special joy in making something that one didn’t think could be made, in doing something one didn’t believe could be done. We do that time and again because we are willing to believe all things are possible with the innocence of thought, the absence of doubt, the suspension of disbelief . . . the Beginner's Mind.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Don't Waste Time Trying to Change Behavior
“As managers, we have to get out of the behavior modification business.”
We can help people with skills . . . to improve old ones or learn new ones. But it’s just about impossible to change their behaviors in any meaningful way. Yet we continue to waste time trying.
Take the example of Bill, ace IT guy. He’s an electronics genius. There isn’t anything with a circuit board that he doesn’t know or can’t figure out. Unfortunately, he’s perpetually crabby, ill-tempered, and believes everybody in the building is an idiot except for him. He’s been counseled, numerous times, about his hostile behavior. He always acknowledges the criticism and pledges to do better, but within about an hour and a half, he’s back to his old crabby, ill-tempered self. He’s 35 years old. It’s very unlikely that a few counseling sessions are going to undo the behaviors it took Bill 35 years to learn.
The best solution, of course, is to hire people whose behaviors are a good fit with your company’s culture. But nobody bats 1000 when it comes to hiring the right people. Sometimes we get it wrong and end up with Bill. When we do, we have to recognize that he is what he is and wasting time trying to modify his behavior would be a fool’s errand. Our only real options are to show him the door or find ways to put up with him.
“Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have of trying to change others.”
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
We can help people with skills . . . to improve old ones or learn new ones. But it’s just about impossible to change their behaviors in any meaningful way. Yet we continue to waste time trying.
Take the example of Bill, ace IT guy. He’s an electronics genius. There isn’t anything with a circuit board that he doesn’t know or can’t figure out. Unfortunately, he’s perpetually crabby, ill-tempered, and believes everybody in the building is an idiot except for him. He’s been counseled, numerous times, about his hostile behavior. He always acknowledges the criticism and pledges to do better, but within about an hour and a half, he’s back to his old crabby, ill-tempered self. He’s 35 years old. It’s very unlikely that a few counseling sessions are going to undo the behaviors it took Bill 35 years to learn.
The best solution, of course, is to hire people whose behaviors are a good fit with your company’s culture. But nobody bats 1000 when it comes to hiring the right people. Sometimes we get it wrong and end up with Bill. When we do, we have to recognize that he is what he is and wasting time trying to modify his behavior would be a fool’s errand. Our only real options are to show him the door or find ways to put up with him.
“Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have of trying to change others.”
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Delegating Effectively
“One of the greatest challenges as a manager is how to delegate so effectively that once you have gotten the monkey off your back, your employees don’t return it to you . . . with instructions for its care and feeding.”
An important part of leadership, delegation, is growing the people who are under the leader’s care. It takes time and it takes effort, but it’s the only way to develop a strong, effective team.
Picture this. You’ve just given one of your direct reports an important assignment. Soon the direct report returns with questions, lots of questions. In the back of your mind you’re thinking, “I could do this myself in just a fraction of the time it’s going to take me to explain everything.” If you give in to that thought, two bad things happen: the monkey climbs on your back again, and you miss a growth opportunity for your direct report.
So how do you move the assignment forward and still keep the monkey where it belongs?
First, you need to invest the time in your direct report. And that’s what it is. It’s not a waste of your time, it’s an investment in growing one of your people. Second, to make this a learning and growing opportunity, don’t spoon feed your direct report with all the answers. Make him/her come up with his/her own answers. For instance, when your charge says, “I’m not sure if we should do X or Y.” Don’t say, “Let’s go with X.” Instead say,
“What do you think?”
“Why do you think that would be a better choice than the other?”
“Have you asked any of your colleagues for their opinions?”
“Have you talked with others in the organization who will be affected by your decision?”
“Have you talked with stakeholders outside the organization who may be impacted.?”
The point is, don’t be the answer person. Be the question person who helps draw out of your direct report the excitement of creativity and discovery. Yes it will take some time, but you’ll end up with a more effective, self-confident employee. And the monkeys will stay where they belong.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
An important part of leadership, delegation, is growing the people who are under the leader’s care. It takes time and it takes effort, but it’s the only way to develop a strong, effective team.
Picture this. You’ve just given one of your direct reports an important assignment. Soon the direct report returns with questions, lots of questions. In the back of your mind you’re thinking, “I could do this myself in just a fraction of the time it’s going to take me to explain everything.” If you give in to that thought, two bad things happen: the monkey climbs on your back again, and you miss a growth opportunity for your direct report.
So how do you move the assignment forward and still keep the monkey where it belongs?
First, you need to invest the time in your direct report. And that’s what it is. It’s not a waste of your time, it’s an investment in growing one of your people. Second, to make this a learning and growing opportunity, don’t spoon feed your direct report with all the answers. Make him/her come up with his/her own answers. For instance, when your charge says, “I’m not sure if we should do X or Y.” Don’t say, “Let’s go with X.” Instead say,
“What do you think?”
“Why do you think that would be a better choice than the other?”
“Have you asked any of your colleagues for their opinions?”
“Have you talked with others in the organization who will be affected by your decision?”
“Have you talked with stakeholders outside the organization who may be impacted.?”
The point is, don’t be the answer person. Be the question person who helps draw out of your direct report the excitement of creativity and discovery. Yes it will take some time, but you’ll end up with a more effective, self-confident employee. And the monkeys will stay where they belong.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Let Your Customers Explain It to You
“If you listen closely enough, your customers will explain your business to you.”
Your customers don’t have to do business with you. They have many suppliers from which to choose, but they have chosen you. Why? What is it about the product or service you offer that brings you customers and keeps them? You think you know why your customers have chosen to do business with you, but do you really know?
Sadly, too many business people aren’t in touch with what their customers are buying. We think we’re selling price but our customers are buying on-time delivery. We think we’re selling world class service but our customers are buying long-term durability.
The answer is to stop telling your customers what you want to sell them and start listening to what they want to buy. Take a customer to lunch, leave your pre-conceived notions at home, and he or she really will explain your business to you. You might just learn that you’re not in the business you thought you were in.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Your customers don’t have to do business with you. They have many suppliers from which to choose, but they have chosen you. Why? What is it about the product or service you offer that brings you customers and keeps them? You think you know why your customers have chosen to do business with you, but do you really know?
Sadly, too many business people aren’t in touch with what their customers are buying. We think we’re selling price but our customers are buying on-time delivery. We think we’re selling world class service but our customers are buying long-term durability.
The answer is to stop telling your customers what you want to sell them and start listening to what they want to buy. Take a customer to lunch, leave your pre-conceived notions at home, and he or she really will explain your business to you. You might just learn that you’re not in the business you thought you were in.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Don't Put Off Decisions
“A decision is an action an executive must take when he has information so incomplete that the answer does not suggest itself.”
The message here is clear. Don’t wait until you have all the information you need to make a perfect decision, because you’ll never have it. So leaders need to discipline themselves to recognize when they have assembled as much information and as many opinions as they reasonably can, and that further delay will not produce a better decision.
Decision-making is more art form than science. It mixes data with experience, good thinking with instinct. So don’t allow its imperfect nature cause a thoughtful and deliberate decision-making process slip into procrastination and unnecessary delay. As the folks at Nike would say, “Just do it!”
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
The message here is clear. Don’t wait until you have all the information you need to make a perfect decision, because you’ll never have it. So leaders need to discipline themselves to recognize when they have assembled as much information and as many opinions as they reasonably can, and that further delay will not produce a better decision.
Decision-making is more art form than science. It mixes data with experience, good thinking with instinct. So don’t allow its imperfect nature cause a thoughtful and deliberate decision-making process slip into procrastination and unnecessary delay. As the folks at Nike would say, “Just do it!”
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Cut Your Losses and Move On
“If your horse dies, get off.”
Inertia can be a terrible thing. It can keep us rooted in decisions and activities that may no longer be productive. It can keep us astride ol’ Trigger long after it has become obvious that Trig isn’t going anywhere.
For example, let’s say we launch a new product or service, but the new offering isn’t getting the acceptance in the marketplace that we had planned. We try different pricing models and different promotional efforts, but nothing seems to help. What should we do? After all, “We’ve invested a lot of time, effort, and resources in this thing. How can we quit now?” A more practical course might be to concede that the horse is deceased, give the animal a decent burial, cut our losses, and move on.
We often see the same behavior in personnel decisions. We don’t want to face a hiring mistake because it took a lot of time, effort and money to find this person and to get him or her trained. We tell ourselves, “We can work with this person. We can get this person turned around,” because we don’t want to lose our investment and have to start the whole hiring process over again. In many cases, this causes us to waste even more time, money and effort before we finally have to face the inevitable. Again, a better solution is to concede the problem, deal with it, and move on.
Can we avoid these situations? No, we can’t. As business people, we all make decisions that do not create the results we expect. But we can defeat inertia. Before we make an investment decision . . . whether it’s an investment in people, equipment, or new products . . . we should lay out clear, measurable results we expect from this investment, and a deadline for achieving those results. And we need to determine, in advance, what action we’ll take if the expected results are not achieved by the deadline we have set. This approach takes a lot of the emotion and trauma out of the situation because we’ve mapped it all out in advance. At this point, we’re simply executing a plan designed to prevent inertia and to avoid investing more than we intended. We’re saying, “We’re prepared to invest this much in resources over this period of time. If at the end of that time, we’re not achieving the results we expected, then we will intervene and take this corrective action.”
Let’s be honest. We’ve all been there, probably multiple times . . . the magnificent stallion we thought we were riding turns out to be a broken down old nag. That’s not the issue. The issue is how we dismount in a timely, disciplined, and orderly way. The better we are at doing that, the quicker we can climb aboard our next steed, and this one may actually be the stallion we want.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Inertia can be a terrible thing. It can keep us rooted in decisions and activities that may no longer be productive. It can keep us astride ol’ Trigger long after it has become obvious that Trig isn’t going anywhere.
For example, let’s say we launch a new product or service, but the new offering isn’t getting the acceptance in the marketplace that we had planned. We try different pricing models and different promotional efforts, but nothing seems to help. What should we do? After all, “We’ve invested a lot of time, effort, and resources in this thing. How can we quit now?” A more practical course might be to concede that the horse is deceased, give the animal a decent burial, cut our losses, and move on.
We often see the same behavior in personnel decisions. We don’t want to face a hiring mistake because it took a lot of time, effort and money to find this person and to get him or her trained. We tell ourselves, “We can work with this person. We can get this person turned around,” because we don’t want to lose our investment and have to start the whole hiring process over again. In many cases, this causes us to waste even more time, money and effort before we finally have to face the inevitable. Again, a better solution is to concede the problem, deal with it, and move on.
Can we avoid these situations? No, we can’t. As business people, we all make decisions that do not create the results we expect. But we can defeat inertia. Before we make an investment decision . . . whether it’s an investment in people, equipment, or new products . . . we should lay out clear, measurable results we expect from this investment, and a deadline for achieving those results. And we need to determine, in advance, what action we’ll take if the expected results are not achieved by the deadline we have set. This approach takes a lot of the emotion and trauma out of the situation because we’ve mapped it all out in advance. At this point, we’re simply executing a plan designed to prevent inertia and to avoid investing more than we intended. We’re saying, “We’re prepared to invest this much in resources over this period of time. If at the end of that time, we’re not achieving the results we expected, then we will intervene and take this corrective action.”
Let’s be honest. We’ve all been there, probably multiple times . . . the magnificent stallion we thought we were riding turns out to be a broken down old nag. That’s not the issue. The issue is how we dismount in a timely, disciplined, and orderly way. The better we are at doing that, the quicker we can climb aboard our next steed, and this one may actually be the stallion we want.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Planning Isn't Optional
“The nicest thing about not planning is that failure always comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by a period of worry and desperation.”
Many small business owners do not engage in any real, substantive planning activities, even though planning will do more to move the business forward than anything else they can do. This is often because:
a) they are so busy putting out the fires of today that they don’t have time to worry about tomorrow, or
b) they believe it is a waste of time to produce a plan document that will sit on a shelf collecting dust and never play a meaningful role in the management of the business.
The most successful business people find time for planning despite the daily fires that need to be put out, and these leaders insist that the results of the planning regimen become an essential tool for making decisions and managing the business. It’s not an either/or proposition. It’s both. We’re going to put out today’s fires and execute a plan for tomorrow.
The planning process need not, should not, be a complex, onerous task. It’s a simple activity that defines where we want to go as a company, where we are now, the steps needed to get us where we want to go, and a timeline for accomplishing those steps. That’s it.
If your company does not do any serious planning, start now. If you need help with your planning process, go get it. Your business will travel down a path of some kind. The only question is, will your business travel down a path toward the destination you have chosen for it? Or will it go down a path random circumstances have imposed upon it and lead to . . . where? The answer should be obvious.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Many small business owners do not engage in any real, substantive planning activities, even though planning will do more to move the business forward than anything else they can do. This is often because:
a) they are so busy putting out the fires of today that they don’t have time to worry about tomorrow, or
b) they believe it is a waste of time to produce a plan document that will sit on a shelf collecting dust and never play a meaningful role in the management of the business.
The most successful business people find time for planning despite the daily fires that need to be put out, and these leaders insist that the results of the planning regimen become an essential tool for making decisions and managing the business. It’s not an either/or proposition. It’s both. We’re going to put out today’s fires and execute a plan for tomorrow.
The planning process need not, should not, be a complex, onerous task. It’s a simple activity that defines where we want to go as a company, where we are now, the steps needed to get us where we want to go, and a timeline for accomplishing those steps. That’s it.
If your company does not do any serious planning, start now. If you need help with your planning process, go get it. Your business will travel down a path of some kind. The only question is, will your business travel down a path toward the destination you have chosen for it? Or will it go down a path random circumstances have imposed upon it and lead to . . . where? The answer should be obvious.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
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