The Accelerated Growth Blog

Blog Change

If you have this page bookmarked, you'll want to change your bookmark to my new site. You can reach it in one of two different ways.

You can use the URL http://theagblog.com

OR

You can go to my main site, where my blog is not located.

http://www.acceleratedgrowth.org/blog

Either option points to the same place.

Thanks again for reading. See you in the new location!

Bruce

Robert Kiyosaki and Where Changes Begins

If 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.

“As a young Marine Corps office, the following mantra was drilled into my head: ‘There are no bad soldiers. There are only bad officers.’ Reminded of this mantra, I realized that if my company was to change, first, I had to change. So the melting down (his metaphor in the article) began with me.”

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.

1. What am I afraid of doing?
2. What am I not saying?
3. 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,

Phil Jackson and Your Business

Regardless of whether you’re a basketball fan or not, you have to admire what Phil Jackson accomplished yesterday, as well as over the past 18 seasons he’s served as a head coach (similar to your role as the senior executive of a SMB). With yesterday’s NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson probably cemented his place in NBA history as the best coach of all-time.

In 18 seasons, he’s won 10 NBA championships with two different teams (Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers). He’s won 1, 250 games with a winning percentage of .705 in the regular season and .670 in the post-season. And he’s done that with an interesting group of very different and diverse individuals/characters (Dennis Rodman immediately comes to mind :-). So what does Phil Jackson have to do with your business? Answer, a lot.

When you became the leader of your business, you moved from being the primary producer to being the coach of your team. When that occurred (and it did occur once you hired employee number one), everything changed. Like Phil, you aren’t judged on what you do but what your players do. If that’s true, and it is, then watching and learning from great coaches ought to be a regular part of your own personal development.

In the case of Jackson, what’s amazing about him is that he’s not only been able to attract great talent, but he’s been able to change how he leads and the strategies he chooses, based on the players he’s had to work with. From Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen to Shaq and Kobe, Jackson has consistently brought out the best in the players he’s had.

And if you were to summarize his coaching philosophy in a few statements it might look something like this.

• Expect the best from your players
• Treat them like talent
• Trust them to make the right decisions
• Let them play through difficult patches (i.e. don’t yank them out quickly)
• Teach them new ideas and concepts (and reinforce them over and over again)
• Treat different players differently (because they are)
• Focus on team success over personal success (i.e. players can be stars but only teams win championships)
• Push your players, but more importantly, teach them to push themselves harder
• Plays to their strengths (i.e. change your strategies to fit your players, not your players to fit your strategies).

Seeing that those ideas have lead to 10 championship seasons, they might be a list worth referring to regularly.

So, looking at that list, how are you doing as a coach? Remember, at the end of the day, your success as a coach isn’t dependent upon what you do, but what your players do. In light of that, maybe the better question is, “How’s your team doing?” If they’re not acting like a championship team, then you know where to start! Great teams are always built by great coaches!

To your accelerated success!

Fire Your "C" Players Now

As a strategy and growth guy, I'm always looking for those few key decisions or distinctions that a company can make that will result in significant growth gains--and this is one of them. I can't tell you how frequently I have to help business owners and senior executives do what they know they ought to do--let someone go. And when they do, they almost always say, "I can't believe I waited so long to do this. What a difference it makes having the right person in the right position!"

And of all the people who do a great job at helping companies hire great people, Brad Smart of Topgrading is one of the best.  And in a recent blog post he made the comment that you have in this title, "Fire Your 'C' Players Now." You can read it in it's entirety by following this link. But for those of you who won't here are a few highlights.

If you have a few people whom you're hesitant to move because sometimes they're good but at other times they're not and you keep wondering, "Should I keep them?" here are a few ideas.

1. Do your own self assessment. Rate each of your people as an A, B, of C player. If they're not an "A", ask, "Do they have 'A' potential (or 'A' potential in a different position in your company)?. If they're not an "A" or don't have "A" potential it's probably time to move them out.

2. Conduct a team assessment. Rather than you rating alone, you may want to take 3 or 4 of your top "A" players and have them rate the other team members' performance and potential. They may see things you don't. Plus, using 3 or 4 other people tends to add more objectivity to the process.

3. Use a Topgrading Team Audit. You can read the article for a more detailed description of this process, but the basic idea is to use the same tandem interviewing process you would utilize for a new potential hire, with your internal people. However, instead of doing external checks, you would do internal checks.

That said, regardless of what method you use, Brad Smart's comment, "Fire your 'C' players Now," is great advice. Why? Because once you've cleared out a "C" player, you've just created space for an "A" player. And "A" players by definition are people who make things happen--which is why doing this is such a strategic decision.

Remember, there's always an opportunity cost associated with poor performers. It's the cost between what an "A" player could be producing (along with a reduction in your time) and what your "C" player is actually producing. If you take the time to crunch the numbers, I think you'll end up agreeing with Brad. You really can't afford to keep that "C" player on the team.

So, what are you going to do with your "C" players?

To your accelerated success!

Give Away Your Best Ideas

If you want to succeed quickly, especially in the information/ professional services arena, you’ll want to practice this idea. However, you can also apply this principle to your leadership or parenting or networking, etc.

Again, just like yesterday, I want to acknowledge Eben Pagan for sharing this concept. The metaphor he uses to explain it is perfect. Let’s say you decide to cut a CD and you want to release a song to radio stations across the US to drive sales of your album. Which conversation are you going to have with your team.

1. “Which of these twelve tracks is the worst song?” OR

2. “Which of these twelve tracks is our best?”

Obviously the second. You always release the song (or in our case, idea), which you think has the greatest likelihood of becoming a hit. Your goal is that they’ll love the song so much that they’ll want to buy the CD. It’s not the worst song that you want to release for free but the best.

Now, if you’re like most people, you’re probably thinking, “But if I give them my best ideas for free, why would they want to buy my product/service?” Answer, the same reason why you buy the CD. The song entices you/teases you to buy the whole. And when you buy your CD, are you ticked off that the musician includes the song you hear for free on the radio? Of course not. You’d be disappointed if they didn’t!

The reality is that most people don't get what we say the first time we say it. They may think they do, but they don’t. And even if they do, they forget. I may tell a leader,

“As a leader, you need to cast vision every day in every communication you send out--that means every conversation, every letter, every memo, every message. You need to constantly tell your people, ‘This is who we are. This is where we’re going. This is what we’re becoming. This is why we do what we do. Etc’ As a leader, one of your primary responsibilities is to cast vision and you virtually can’t overdo it. So just cast vision every day in every way and your leadership capacity will rise.”

That is a rock solid idea. Most leaders will acknowledge it. Some will actually do it . . . for a couple of days. But virtually every leader I’ve ever worked with needs to be reminded of that idea over and over again.

In other words, if you’re afraid of giving away your best ideas for free, don’t be. Give them away. Demonstrate your value. Allow people to see your expertise. And you’ll start attracting more and more
people to you.

So, what are your best ideas? Take your area of expertise and make a list of your best ideas for doing something or solving something? Think through the most pressing needs of the people you’re trying to
help. Then take your best idea for solving their most pressing problem and bingo--you’ve got a hit!!!

Don’t wait until tomorrow to do this. Take out a piece of paper right now and make two columns. On the left side, list your best ideas. On the right, list your prospects and/or customers’ most pressing needs/ problems. Then link the best ideas with their most pressing problems and start giving those best ideas away!

To your accelerated success!

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How to Connect and Motivate More People to Listen

Do you ever feel, when writing a letter or giving a speech, that you’re just not connecting well to most of the people in your audience? Or ever feel stuck when trying to write copy for a sales letter? If you have, I’ve got some great advice that will make any of those situations infinitely better.

I was listening to a free audio segment by Eben Pagan as he was promoting his new product launch. During that interview, another internet marketer, Frank Kern, asked him to share one of the best ideas from his new product. To which Eben said something like, “Sure, it’s the idea of using frameworks when structuring a letter or having a conversation.”

He then went on to say that he got this first framework from David Kolb of Harvard and it’s related to the four different learning styles people have. However, before he shared the four styles, he made two comments that I think are incredibly valuable and worth remembering.

1. Most people tend to teach (or write or communicate) based on their primary style (i.e. they make the cardinal mistake of believing that how they learn is how everyone else likes to learn)

2. Which means that most people aren’t effectively communicating with the majority of people when they teach (or write or communicate) since they’re not using all four styles.

Both of those insights are dead on! He then went on to share the four different learning styles

1. The Why learning style - This kind of person needs to be motivated to learn

2. The What learning style - This kind of person likes to hear content, theories, systems, history, etc.

3. The How learning style - This kind of person wants to hear the practical steps of how to actually do the thing.

4. The What If learning style - This kind of person needs to know how to make this happen RICHT NOW and what the implications of that will be.

That’s brilliant! It’s such a simple outline and easy framework to use. For example, using this very subject, you’ve already seen the “WHY”. The intro asked you a couple of questions, plus the two points about communicating in your own style means that you’re not connecting with most people if you don’t use these four styles.

The WHAT, was the content related to David Kolb and the four learning styles. I’m a WHAT learner and you can see that clearly, for example, after relating the four styles I said, “That’s brilliant.”

However, we haven’t gotten to the HOW yet so some of you aren’t happy yet :-) The solution is to offer some practical how to’s. For example, I could say, “If you want to increase your ability to connect with all four styles, before you write a single word of your letter, speech or sales copy, write out these four words at the top of your paper, ‘Why? What? How? and What if?’ Then, answer them. Never ever communicate with a group of people without answering all four questions.”

Finally, for the WHAT IF people, I might say, “What I want you to do RIGHT NOW, before you move on to the next thing on your to do list is to make a list of the people you work with and what you think their primary learning style is. Then, the next time you talk with them today, communicate in that style and see what happens. Don’t wait until you have to write a letter or give a speech. Do it right now! And watch the difference.”

In other words, by covering all four styles, you’ll automatically increase the percentage of people who will actually hear what you’re saying in the way that they want to hear it. What a radical idea! So go do it NOW!

To your accelerated growth!

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Interested in Three Distinctions That Can Radically Improve Your Delegation?

Ever feel frustrated when trying to delegate to your team? Or feel like you've become a nag, always checking up on them? Or that you might as well, "Just do it yourself," because it's faster and easier that way?

Every leader I've ever known has felt that way. But questions like these do raise a critical issue for us, "If one of the keys to growing a business (or organization) is to multiply our efforts through leveraging the time, talents and energies of other people, then why are we having such a difficult time with delegating?"

If we're not giving people authority and responsibility, if we're not multiplying our efforts, and/or if we're not creating massive leverage, then we've got a major problem that strikes right at the heart of effective leadership. So, what's the way out?

I've found that there are three critical distinctions that I've been repeating with clients recently. The first is obvious (but not practiced), whereas the other two are less common. So if you no longer want to "do it all by yourself," then you'll want to employ all three of these distinctions.

1. Remember that Delegation and Dumping are not the same thing. Most executives dump, they don't delegate--and there is a difference. A dumper finds something they don't like doing or don't have time for and "assigns" the task to someone lower on the "food chain" than them.

A delegator, on the other hand, is someone who wants to build and develop another person. They don't just "assign" (I mean, dump) a task, they delegate out both the authority and responsibility for the task, convey their expectations, offer any required resources, and provide on-going coaching. The difference is night and day. So if you've been frustrated with your delegating attempts lately, you might want to ask yourself, "Have I been dumping or delegating?" Be honest!

2. Make the Delegatee the one responsible for follow up. Not doing this is one of the major mistakes that a lot of leader/executives make, which is why they often feel like they've become a "nag." The way they've set up the relationship ("I dump, you do"), creates a setting where the exec is still the one responsible. A better option is to engage the delegatee in the process of designing the accountability system.

For example, after you've successfully delegated (not dumped) a task/project, you might ask, "So, what kind of accountability system do you want to set up? When will this be done? You set the date. And then, how will you let me know when certain milestones are reached? Again, you set up the timeline and the structure. I just need to know."

Did you notice the difference? It's huge! They create the system and they have to report to you (not vice versa). Now, if the timeline they create is too long or if the frequency or means of communication isn't acceptable to you, then negotiate. But at the end of the day, you want them to self-police and report to you (not the reverse).

3. Change Your Expectations. You and I get what we expect, not what we want. So, what do you expect from your employees? If you're like most of the execs I know, and you're honest, you'll probably say something like, "I expect them to not get [what I assigned to them] done on time (or not to my standards or I expect them to be lazy, etc.). And then we wonder, "Why do my people fail me?" 

The amazing thing about expectations is that they do influence our behaviors, whether we clearly say so or not.

For example, a few weeks ago I asked my teenage daughter to work on a presentation I had to do. I asked her a week out. She said, "Yes." I asked her several days ahead, "Now, you're still planning to get those slides done on Wednesday, right?" "Yes, dad!" Then the day of, "So, you'll get those slides done tonight, right?" "Yes, Dad." Then later that evening, "So, are you going to get those slides started? I need them tomorrow." "Got it covered Dad." Well, at 11:30 p.m. I finally said, "Why don't you go to bed. I'll take care of getting them done (which I did at 1:30 a.m. :-(.

Where was my fatal flaw? In my expectations. I never actually said, "I don't think you'll get them done on time." However, by my incessant asking I just as well might have.

So, do you want to take your delegating to the next level? If you do, use all three of these distinctions for a triple play and I'm confident you'll experience a whole new level of productivity.

To your accelerated success!

Malcolm Gladwell and Your Chance of Success

If you haven’t read Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book on Outliers, you may want to soon. While I don’t agree with all his conclusions (the difficult part of using case studies and statistics is that conclusions are subjective), I do think his commentary is fascinating and worth reading.

One of the dominant themes is that what we often attribute to success— the self-made, hard-working, talented individual who rises from the ashes--isn’t entirely correct. There are often other forces in place. For example,

1. If you want to play hockey in Canada, it helps immeasurably if you’re born in January, February or March of any given year.

2. If you wanted to make it big in the computer world, it sure would have helped if you were born in the mid 1950’s so that you’d come of age when computers were just breaking out of the punch card, one at a time, processing system (Bill Gates, 1955; Steve Jobs, 1955; Scott McNealy, 1954; Eric Schmidt, 1955; Steve Ballmer, 1956).

3. If you wanted to be a wealthy lawyer in NYC, it helped if you were Jewish and “banned” from the big white protestant firms so that when litigation and M &A work, especially hostile takeovers became the real deal, you were in position to take over.

4. If you want to be wealthy, it sure would have helped if you were born between 1831-1840. Of the top 75 wealthiest people the world has ever known (in current dollars, which make Bill Gates #37, Cleopatra #21 and John D. Rockefeller #1), 20% of them were born within ten years of one another.

Now, clearly, there were lots of people born between 1831-1840 who did not become incredibly wealthy. However, there have been hard-working, talented, entrepreneurial leaders in every decade. Yet, despite that, still 20% came from one decade.

So, what’s the takeaway? Well one is the takeaway of choosing to be on the forefront of whatever change is taking place in your time period. Clearly we can’t control the decade we’re born into, but we can take advantage of the change that is happening--and choose to be on the forefront of whatever is happening. My observation is that too many people choose to cling to what they’ve done or focus on what sells now.

However the real winners are those who are willing to part with the past and embrace what’s coming--before everyone else does. Hard-work, talent, discipline, risk, etc. are all critical ingredients to success, but they also need to be tied to time in which we live--and what’s next.

So, in your line of work, what’s the next new thing? Once you decide that, how can you position yourself and your company to be there before everyone else is?

Remember, being number nine in a line of ten lemonade stands is rarely a great place to be. However being number one is!

To your accelerated success!

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Ready for Accelerated Growth Driver #1?

If you could pick one idea or concept that drives accelerated growth companies more than any other, what would you pick?

Would you pick, “Great leadership?” Or, “A new or better technology?” Maybe, “Massive cash flow?” Or, “Viral marketing?” Or would you pick, “Great systems?” Or maybe even, “Great people?”

Well, while all of those are worthy choices, I would pick something else. Because, while all of the those choices above are essential to building a great company, especially an accelerated growth company, they aren’t what really drives the behavior of fast growth companies.

No, if I had to pick one driver above every other driver of accelerated growth companies, that one driver would be . . . Speed of Implementation.

Show me a fast growth company and I can almost guarantee that they operate by, “Ready, fire, aim.  In other words, “the time lag between the generation of an idea and the implementation of an idea is almost always very short.

Bottom line, accelerated growth companies aren’t hung up with perfection.

In fact, Google could easily be the poster child for this. They regularly come up with ideas and put them out in ”imperfect“ forms to test their ideas quickly--in the real world. That stands in stark 
contrast to most companies which come up with an idea or two and then tweak those ideas endlessly in their quest for perfection, which of course means they end up missing the timing of the market--and massive cash flow.

Over the past few months as I’ve been speaking on accelerated growth issues, I found myself frequently saying, ”There are some of you who will go home tonight and execute on several ideas you’ve come up with as a result of what you’ve heard here today. Some of you will go home and over the next few days, implement an idea or two. A few of you will take a week or two and then implement an idea. And then there are the rest of you who will leave here and probably implement nothing. I can almost guarantee you that those who leave this room and implement the ideas they received this morning, tonight, are leading the fastest growth companies in this room.“

Why? Because speed of implementation matters. As Dr. Edward Kramer says so well,

”Eliminate the time between the idea and the act, and your dreams will become realities.“

If you have the right strategy, but don’t implement quickly, you’re toast. What good is an idea, even a great idea, if it’s not implemented quickly?

So, take a look at your business (or organization). How fast are you at executing? How short is the time span between the moment an idea is hatched and the moment its implemented? Are you burdened by perfection? Or fear of failure? Or fear of rejection? Or ego? Or are you burdened by systems of ”checks and balances“ (which rarely are)? Or committees? Or controlling people? Or procedures and policies?

If you or your company rate anything lower than a 10 on the speed of implementation scale, my encouragement would be to deal with it--and fast!

Finally, if you’d like a quick practical application of this principle, here’s an idea for you. Pick a project or idea that’s been sitting on the shelf waiting for its turn. Estimate how long you think it’ll take to implement it. Cut that time in half. Then get started. Ready! Fire! Aim! What are you waiting for?

Toward your accelerated success!

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Are You Sizzling Hot?

When your prospects and customers think about you, do they think, “I have to have that!” Or, “I need to go there!” Or “I need to use them!” Or is it more of a more of a, “Let me think about it.” Or a “I’ll get back to you.” Or, “I’m doing my due diligence,” kind of thing?“

It’s an important question if you want to grow an accelerated growth company.

If you’re not sure, then just think back over the past few years. Think Twitter. Facebook. Myspace. Apple.  Starbucks. Google. Netflix. And Dancing with the Stars (Note: I don’t watch :-), however it is consistently in the top ten shows, according to Nielson--though I’m much more of a 24 kind of guy).

Each of those companies (and shows) has grown significantly because they were sizzling hot and word of mouth took off.

So when was the last time you (and your team) asked, “Is what we’re doing sizzling hot?”

Or similar questions like, “Are we addressing a big pain or problem that needs to be solved?” “Are our customers raving about us?” “Are the media and our target market beating down our doors to get to us?”

If not, then maybe those are the kinds of questions you need to ask—and then answer. I’ve found very few businesses that ask (and answer) those kinds of questions, even though they’re vital to a company’s success.

And don’t think your business is different. A few week’s ago I met Seth Goldman,  the CEO of Honest Tea (which is President Obama’s favorite drink). If Seth and his team can make colored water sizzling hot, you can make what you do, sizzling hot as well. Your category and niche are irrelevant.

So, how can you make what you do sizzling hot over the next three months?

To your accelerated success!

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Don't Make an Omni Mistake!

Have you ever set out to create a system in your business that deliberately irritated or disappointed your customers? Probably not. But if I asked, “Have you ever done so?” The answer would probably be, “Yes!”

I had one of those experiences the other week. I was speaking at a convention in Orlando that was held at the beautiful Omni Hotel Resort at Champions Gate. It was around 9:00 a.m., on the morning of my presentation on “The Four Keys of Accelerated Growth,” when it dawned on me that my talk went from 10:15 a.m. until noon, which was also check out time.

So, I thought, “Why don’t I just call and request a late check out time so I don’t have to pack up right now.” At that moment I went over to the phone next to the bed and saw the following button entitled, “Prompt Response.” Note: It’s the first button on the second row from the bottom (you can click on the image for a larger image)

When I saw that, I thought, “What a great name for a button to  call down to the front desk or operator,” and promptly pushed the button. Unfortunately, what happened next was anything but prompt.

It took 15, yes 15 rings before the operator picked up the call. She asked, “How may I help you?” I said, “I’d like to get a late check out for my room.” She said, “Let me transfer you to the front desk.” After which I then waited, catch this, for 60 rings BEFORE I hung up (i.e. no one at the front desk ever picked up the call).

Forget how terrible that was (systems mistakes at every level) and instead think back to the expectation that was set by the button, “Prompt response.” When you hear the phrase, “Prompt response”, how many rings do you expect before someone picks up the line? I’m guessing that while your normal assumption is probably three or four rings, when you hear the word, “Prompt,” it probably means, “On the first or second ring.”

In other words, when the Omni Hotel made a decision to change the normal first button on a hotel phone from “Front Desk” to “Prompt Response,” they created a whole new set of expectations. This wasn’t just a cute marketing phrase, it was a whole new level of expectations they created that needed a whole new level of systems to ensure that it would always be executed perfectly--24 hours a day.

It’s irrelevant if they pick up on the first or second ring 80 percent of the time. For the 20 percent of us who don’t get the standard level of service, it’s even worse than if they hadn’t used the phrase, “Prompt response.” And I’m pretty sure than in anyone’s book, 75 rings doesn’t meet the standard expectation that Omni management set with their cool new first button.

So, as you look at your business, what are the standard expectations that your customers and potential customers have of you? What expectations have you set with your marketing and materials? How often do you meet those expectations? If the answer is anything less than 100%, I’d encourage you to start there.

Why? Because the first step to creating WOW, is to eliminate all unWOW. And the place to start eliminating unWOW is wherever you’re not meeting the standard expectations your customers have of you (like getting a prompt response).

Toward accelerating your success!

Note: This is a great exercise to do with your staff or with a customer advisory board.

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A Great Business Leader's Book List

If you’re an entrepreneur or senior executive of a small or medium-sized business, hopefully you’re regularly reading Inc. Magazine. If not, you should be. I rarely find an issue where I’m not tearing out a few articles to file. And that holds true for this month’s edition, which marks their 30th anniversary.

However, my favorite part of this month’s edition was their article entitled, “The Business Owner’s Book Shelf,” subtitled, “30 books you should read and use.” Of all the book lists I’ve read over the past few years, this may be my favorite. It's not perfect, but if you’re looking for a list of books to read, you'll want to click here and read the article (which also gives a short paragraph about each book).

Perusing the list, my baker’s dozen of favorites would be:

1. Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, by Peter Bernstein (1996)

2. The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, by Guy Kawasaki (2004)

3. The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, by Marc Levinson (2006)

6. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It, by Michael Gerber (1995)

7. The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, by Peter Drucker (1967)

8. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, by Peter Senge (1990)

9. First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman (1999)

15. The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, by Clayton Christensen (1997)

17. The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up, by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham (2008)

21. Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, by Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg (1996)

22. Ogilvy on Advertising, by David Ogilvy (1983)

23. On Competition, by Michael Porter (2008)

30. The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, by James Surowiecki (2004)

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One Word That Can Change Everything

What if there was one word that could change everything for your business or organization? One word that could rally your team together  and inspire them? One word that could unleash their full potential? One word that could take your business (or organization) from the “also rans” to the winners circle?

If there was such a word, wouldn’t you want to know it?

There is. But before I tell you that one word, let me say I’m confident you’ll be underwhelmed by it. You may even miss out on how important this one word is. After all, most leaders do. Even worse,
it’s a common two letter word. You learned it as a child. And had to memorize it in a table in English class. So what is this one word that changes it all?

It’s a small two letter word that all great leaders and motivators use. It’s a personal pronoun that moves from the singular to the plural in the first person. It’s the one word, “We”

Don’t believe how powerful this one word is, then look at how our nation got started. Does not our founding document start with the words, “We, the people.”

Over the past few weeks, I’ve spent time with quite a few leaders, and almost all of them are either struggling with vision casting or aren’t taking advantage of it. And in every case, the simplest, easiest and fastest way to cast vision and inspire a group of people to go somewhere is to insert this simple two letter word into their communications.

• “This is who we’re becoming.”
• “This is who we are.“
• ”Here’s where we’re going.“
• ”When we get to.“
• ”When we’re known for.“
• ”This is how we’re going to get through this.“ etc.

That simple two letter word is powerful. Most leaders talk in terms of ”I“ or ”You.“ ”This is what I’m going to do,“ or ”This is what you need to do.“ But great leaders are masterful in their use of the first
person plural, ”This is what we’re going to do.“ And that one little word makes all the difference.

So, why don’t you try it this week. In every communication to your team (letter, email, speech, one-on-one, etc.), why don’t you try inserting the word, ”We“ and see the difference it makes.

As I frequently say, ”You can never cast vision too much.“ People leak vision every day. So keep casting it and rallying your team around it. And soon you’ll be telling others that there really is one word that
can change everything.

To your accelerated success!

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What are Your Needle Movers?

Ever wonder what you ought to focus your time and attention on? With so many things on your plate, don’t you often wonder, “Where should I start?” But more importantly, as the point person for your company, it’s even more critical that you focus your attention on those activities that have the highest probability of moving your company forward. So how do you decide what those are?

Well, one way is to use, “Needle Movers,” (a phrase I love) from Christine Comaford. Christine defines a needle mover as a tangible result that if accomplished would change everything for your business. In other words, a needle mover is a game changer. It’s not a simple task. And it’s not necessarily a strategic initiative.

I think of strategic initiatives as key initiatives that the majority of executives (or business units) in a business can be involved in. For example, “To raise the level of excellence,” or “To develop the next generation of leaders.” The idea of a strategic initiative is to get as many people as possible involved in helping move a company or organization forward. If an initiative is something that only one small part of a company might be involved in, the ownership and excitement over that initiative will be minimal.

However, a needle mover could be something that is very specific to a specific area. For example, a needle mover could be, “To land two major accounts with Fortune 500 companies in the next 90 days.” HR and Finance (et. al.) probably won’t be involved in landing those accounts, but landing those two accounts could be a game changer.

Other examples of needle movers might be

    •    To generate 1,000 new leads this month
    •    To hire three new pay-for-performance sales reps
    •    To ink five new joint venture projects over the next quarter
    •    To create one new product over the next 30 days.
    •    To outsource all of xyz (so you can focus more time on profitable activities)
    •    To generate an additional $________ of revenue in the next 30 days
    •    To add two new sales channels

You get the idea. Based on your size and your market, what would be a game changer for you? What needle movers will radically change everything for you and your business?

Narrow those ideas down to the top three (no more than five) needle moving results you want for the next month (or quarter, or year). Then create a plan for how you plan to accomplish those needle movers. And then finally focus your attention, every day, for the next 30 (or 60 or 90) days on those three (to five) needle movers.

Every morning you need to ask, “What progress will I (or we) make on our needle movers today?" And then, at the end of every day, you need to ask, ”What progress did I (or we) make on our needle movers today?“

If you want to make progress fast, make sure you focus on your needle movers . . . every day!

To your accelerated success!

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Want to Increase Your Productivity?

Do you often feel frustrated at the end of the day--like you’ve worked hard, long and fast--and yet it still doesn’t feel like you’ve done enough?

Believe it or not, one of the main culprits of that feeling is probably your ability to multi-task! In other words, one of the skills that you acquired as you’ve built and led companies over the years has now becoming one of your Achilles’ heels. For years, you’ve probably prided yourself, like I have, on your ability to do a lot of things very fast and often at the same time. And chances are, the people around you have probably been in awe of that ability (which only made you feel better, didn’t it?).

However, you’re now the senior executive of a thriving business and what was once an asset, has now become a liability. The studies are clear, multi-tasking actually slows you down--it doesn’t speed you up. A classic example would be writing an important proposal (or letter or ad or ..., you pick). You write paragraph one. Your Blackberry goes off (or your email program beeps). You look at it. Read it. Respond to it. Then back to the proposal. “Now, where was I?” So you go back and re-read the first paragraph. As you’re doing that, in walks your admin (or staff member, etc.). And so on. And so on. Right?

The proposal (or letter or ad or ...) which should have taken a half hour to an hour to compose and get out the door, has now taken three hours--or even worse, didn’t get done because the only time you had available to do it was “eaten” up by other people and activities. You’ve been busy, but you haven’t been effective.

The number one quote that haunts me every day is from Alec McKenzie. “Nothing is easier than being busy, nothing more difficult than being effective.”

So, what’s the solution? The simple solution, which you probably already know, is to work in uninterrupted blocks of time. That may mean working at home or closing the door of your office (yes, it is okay to close your office door and not be accessible all the time) or, as I frequently have done, work at a restaurant like Panera Bread.

However, since I assume you already know that, I’d like to give you another idea that can help you actually do what you know you ought to do. At the end of every day, take five minutes (no more than seven) to answer three simple questions (and do this every day).

    1.    What did I do today?
    2.    What results did I achieve?
    3.    What progress did I make today on my needle movers for this month?

If you prefer, you can change the last phrase to “my top three (or, if you prefer, five) goals” or, “my strategic initiatives,” etc. But, personally, I love the phrase, “Needle movers,” from Christine Comaford. She defines a needle mover as a result that if you achieved it would radically change everything. For example, “Generate a 1,000 new leads this month.”

You determine the wording, but don’t you think that if you asked and answered those three questions every day for the next 30 days, that you would be infinitely more focused and productive? Absolutely! You’d be more focused on results than activity. And more importantly, you’d become incredibly focused on the three (to five) most important things that can move your business forward this month.

So, if you want to increase your productivity, why don’t you commit to asking these three questions at the end of each day. Then make sure you send me an email, 30 days from now, to share the results of what’s happened in your life and business because you asked these three questions.

To your accelerated success,

P.S. If you need help clarifying your needle movers and strategic initiatives, click here >>

How Often Do You Communicate Your Marketing Messages?

I was working out at the gym this afternoon, watching “Pirates of the Caribbean,” on USA (yes, it is difficult to workout on the elliptical these days :-) when I noticed, down at the bottom left hand corner of the screen, the following words,

In Plain Sight 
All New Season
Sunday, April 19th 10/9C

As I saw that I thought, “Isn’t that amazing. I’ve been watching ads for this show on USA for the past several weeks. Now, they’re even promoting the show during the main content part of other shows--and we’re still SIX WEEKS AWAY!”

Think about that. When was the last time you promoted anything like that?

Most of us send out one or two messages--and when no one or a couple of people respond, we think, “I guess this doesn’t work!” But maybe it’s not what we’re saying. Maybe it’s that we simply haven’t communicated it often enough.

The old adage is that it you have to communicate a marketing message seven times before a prospect will buy.

However, what the marketing rule-makers don’t tell is that your prospects don’t hear your message, two out of every three times you send it out. In other words, the Rule of 7 is really the Rule of 21.

So as you look at the marketing messages that your firm or business is sending out, how frequently do you communicate your messages? Are you sending them out at least 21 times? If not, you may want to take a lead from USA--who at least knows that if you want to create a hit, you’ve got to send out a whole lot of marketing messages--even if you’re two months out from your launch date.

To your accelerated success!

Three Questions to Ask Your Employees Regularly

Most of us entrepreneurial leaders find the whole issue of managing employees to be an Achilles heel. It’s just not part of our wiring because we’re usually self-motivated and driven people and, more to the point, most of us have always been our own bosses.

However, whether or not something is natural to us or not, when we have employees, we have to learn to be great managers. And part of that process, is to always be engaged in learning from others. I had one of those teachable moments the other day.

I was listening to a DVD presentation by Eben Pagan (from his Altitude course) when he mentioned one of the things he does with new team members (he hates the word, “employees.”) is that he asks them to do one thing for him every day. At the end of every day, he asks them to take five minutes (no more than seven), to answer three questions.

My rewording of those questions would be.

1. What did you work on today?
2. What results did you achieve?
3. Do you need anything from me or is there anything you think I need to know?

He asks them to do that every day for the first month of their employment--and he doesn’t ask them again. At the end of the month, if he’s only received one or two summaries, he knows he probably doesn’t have an A player.

However, if he gets twenty or more, he knows he’s probably got a winner. I love that! But let’s expand on that idea. Who among us wouldn’t benefit from this simple exercise? What if every day you took five minutes to just answer those three questions? Note: In our case the third would be, “Do I need anything from someone on my team or is there anything I need to make sure I communicate to them?”

Or what about your direct reports? Wouldn’t they benefit from asking those questions every day? And don’t you think you’d have a better idea of what they’re doing?

One of the great tragedies of our age is that we’ve lost the art of evaluation and reflection. Why do I say tragedy? Because probably the greatest tool for learning and change is past experience. But since so few people ever evaluate and then make changes, we keep repeating yesterday.

So if you’d like to change that, why don’t you consider implementing a process of continual evaluation? And if you don’t like the three questions above, come up with your own three. But whatever you do, make sure you come up with a simple system that will allow you to lead and manage your team better.

To your accelerated success!

P.S. The classic three questions of evaluation aren’t bad to use either. Applied to someone’s day, you might ask.

1. What worked for you today?
2. What didn’t?
3. What are you going to change to get a better result tomorrow?

Jack Welch on Flip-Flopping

When did “flip-flopping” become a sign of weakness?

If you don’t regularly read Business Week, you ought to at least peruse the back page when you’re near a copy--if for no other reason than to read what Jack Welch has to say. This week’s edition (3/9/09) was one of those weeks that every leader should read.

In fact, I thought his subtitle, “Leaders are actually supposed to change their minds when the winds shift,” was perfect.

What set the stage for his comment was a discussion about President Obama’s decision to add 17,000 troops into Afghanistan, which is a guerrilla style war. Putting politics aside for a moment, Jack’s comment was that he hoped our President would reconsider his position. And then he brilliantly said,

“We hope, that he doesn’t fall prey to the dynamic that affects virtually every leader who has ever stood up to make a bold and defining strategy pronouncement, as he did with Afghanistan on the campaign trail: Call it fear of flip-flopping.”

Brilliantly stated. He then goes on to say

“It is the essence of leadership to have the self-confidence to admit that a strategy has gone off-course or a position has become outdated. And it is the responsibility of all leaders in such a ”predicament“ to revise their direction swiftly, widely communicate it, and move on without undue pandering or emotionality.”

Absolutely! Leadership is not about perfection. It’s about making a bold choice, taking action, evaluating the results and then making mid-course corrections until the desired result or outcome is achieved.

In the military, the old adage is, “No plan survives first encounter with the enemy.” This doesn’t mean a leader shouldn’t plan because the power of planning is not in the plan itself, but in the thinking that has to be done in order to create the plan.

There is a time and place for sticking with a strategy, even when the short-term prospects aren’t looking favorable. But there’s also a time and a place for changing a strategy mid-course when it’s clear that the winds have shifted“ (to use Jack’s phraseology).

How do you know which to do? That’s what leadership is all about. And the only way to learn how to make the right call is to make the wrong call a couple of times.

Being ”pigheaded“ and determined are essential qualities of entrepreneurial leaders, like you and me. However, changing your position (”flip-flopping“) isn’t necessarily a sign of weakness. In many cases, it’s a sign of strength--and quite often, the right thing to do.

So as you look at the strategic decisions your business needs to make this year, which ones do you need to stick with? And which ones do you need to change direction on? Whatever you decide, make sure you base your decisions on the what’s really happening--and not on some fear of being labeled a flip-flopper. As Jack says,

“Leaders are actually supposed to change their minds when the winds shift.”

To your accelerated success!

"Entrepreneurs Stink at Optimizing!"

Over the past weekend I was listening to a conversation between Scott Hallman (from the Small Business Growth Club)  and Eben Pagan (from Altitude) when Scott made the comment I listed above, “Entrepreneurs stink at optimizing!”

When you hear that, how do you feel? Do you nod your head and say, “Yup! He’s on to something there.” Or do you tighten your shoulders and think, “Hey, wait a second! That’s not fair. I’m good at optimizing!”

Well, regardless of how you feel or think about Scott’s statement, I think he’s right. By and large, most of us entrepreneurs stink at optimizing. Why? For two main reasons.

1. Most of us spend most of our time focused on attracting more new clients--far more than we do on optimizing the revenue we could get from our existing clients.

2. Most of us don’t document and create systems, which means we have no measurements in place--and therefore no steps we can test to optimize.

In light of this, whenever Scott works with a client, the first thing he does is focus on #1, how can he help that company/business to optimize the amount of revenue they could get from their existing clients--rather than how he can help them attract more new clients. Interesting, isn’t it?

Note: Scott is a two-time Inc. 500 entrepreneur, which means his ideas are at least worth listening to/considering.

Reflecting back on your own business or company, how are you doing at optimizing the amount of revenue you’re getting from your existing customers/clients?

For example, Do you have systems in place that you execute every time to optimize revenue from customers? For example, do you ask each and every customer, at the point of purchase, if they’d like your upsell product and/or service? Do you know that your staff are asking every time? For example, if they’re only asking 40% of the time, you’re losing 60% of your potential upsell revenue. And are you testing the upsell offers and language? Etc.

So if you’re like most entrepreneurs, you may want to consider Scott’s encouragement to focus more time on optimizing the revenue you could be getting from your current customer base. In fact, this would make a great staff team discussion. Instead of asking this week, “How can we attract more new customers?” why don’t you brainstorm, “How can we better optimize the revenue we’re getting from our current customers?” You may be pleasantly surprised by what comes out of that conversation.

To your accelerated success!

Google Lessons for Growth

If you thought like Google, how differently would you run your business?

In essence, that’s the idea behind Jeff Jarvis’s new book, “What Would Google Do?” (not to be confused with WWJD, though some do confuse the two :-) In a Businessweek (2/9/09) article, Jeff took and applied some of the core lessons from his book to the auto industry (you can read the article by clicking here>>).

However, since most of us aren’t running car companies, I thought I’d just share a few of the core ideas from the article and then let you play with them to apply to your own business. For example,

1. Give up Control. Don’t try to manage everything. Google doesn’t tell us how to do our searches or what to search for. It allows us to play with its technology and find happy accidents. Unfortunately, I watch too many executives and owners trying to control every part of the experience from their staff to technology to customers.

2. Low Prices are Good (Free is Better). Google doesn’t charge for us to use its search engine, nor for some of its most powerful tools, like the Google Optimizer or Google Analytics. It gives away a lot to drive the economic engine in another arena (Adwords). Though I’m absolutely committed to charging for value, there’s nothing wrong at all about figuring out what you can give away for free. The give to get strategy is alive and well--and in Googles case worth billions.

3. Release Experiments in Beta. Unlike some of us (me included) who prefer to release in full functioning perfect form, Google is willing to release new ideas in beta and then let’s users determine what to keep or change--or even if it should exist at all. Again, my observation is that too many of take too long to release ideas because we’re continually tweaking them (i.e. trying to perfect them), when we ought to be getting them out there and then letting our customers help us make them better.

4. Create Feedback Loops. Following on the heels of the point three, the only way to continually improve is to continually receive feedback (which too few of us do). Google excels at this by making it easy to make comments and by aggressively seeking out customer feedback. Even more impressive, they actually want it :-).

5. Manage Abundance, not Scarcity. Google doesn’t try to limit its exposure. The more content it can organize and the more places it can put ads, the better. Unfortunately, too many of us believe there’s a limited amount of opportunity out there and therefore spend way too much time trying to protect what we’ve got. Instead, we ought to think abundance and see opportunity everywhere.

6. Open Up Your Design Process. Google is all about collaboration, not secrecy. So why not open up your design process and allow your customers to help you design what you sell, so they can then buy the very thing they helped you design? What a novel idea!

So, as you look at your context, in your business, which of these Google lessons do you need to apply in order to help you grow your business faster?