The glass that's half full AND half empty

When you choose to play this game called life, you are living in a world of duality. A soul incarnate on earth. We think ourselves clever when we choose to reframe our thoughts. I, too, have had the epiphany that thoughts become things, and when I’m on song choose to see the glass half full rather than half empty. My enthusiasm buoyed by positive psychology, self-help and liberation from years of indoctrination.

Might we ask ourselves a different question? If the quality of our lives is influenced by the quality of the questions we ask, then what better question might we pose?

Ask not, “Is the glass half full OR half empty?” but rather “Is the glass half full AND half empty?”

Well intentioned motivational gurus encourage us to set goals, chant affirmations, draw visualisations and take massive action. This is the recipe for success we are told. How is it that goal setting doesn’t work for many of us?

The answer lay in this dualistic perspective. Everything has a polar opposite - good and bad, right and wrong, light and dark.  In goal seeking terms it translates to attracting what you want and simultaneously attracting its shadow, what you don’t want. Neale Donald Walshe once said, “When you declare yourself as light, you will attract all manner of darkness such that you can see yourself as light.” I mean, if you were light and attracted more light then you simply wouldn’t see it would you?

What options have you got?

• Persist in the attempt to create half a reality
• Embrace both sides of this dualistic coin
• Raise the game (consciousness) to a level where UNITY and not duality governs creation

The old model of goal setting would have you create from your solar plexis chakra, the seat of the will. In this realm everything you create has an equal and opposite force. Yes, you can create from this place as man has been doing for many years. You also create what you don’t want. It’s a vicious circle of creation and destruction.

The alternative in the new age of heart consciousness is to create from your heart chakra. That is not to say, that action is not required. I love a double negative. Au contraire, the mistake many make with heart centered creation is to not take action and sit and wait passively. This is the part misconstrued by advocates of The Secret. The path to conscious creation, the path to unity, is in letting your heart guide your will and taking the appropriate decisive action when you feel guided to do so. It doesn’t mean you go without (in material or spiritual terms), it means you go within to what Abraham refers to as The Vortex.

See you on the inside. i have a seat waiting for you. 

The road to nowhere

There is a saying, “it’s about the journey, not the destination.” If, like many others, you have embarked upon your journey of self-discovery then consider that even your journey of self-discovery has an objective of well, self-discovery. So, even that road to nowhere actually goes somewhere.

The more I indulge in esoteric meanderings the more I sense that my path does have an end point for if it doesn’t then why begin a journey? Even if you experience that nomadic restlessly that beckons you into the night the destination is actually a point of self-discovery, heightened awareness, peace of mind, union with source or some variation on a theme.

The very notion of the word SEARCH implies that there is a FOUND.

The lyrics of this classic tune by Talking Heads commence with, “Well we know where going, but we don’t know where we’ve been.” David Byrne, I’m feeling ripped off. I want to go on a road to nowhere, like dude, the journey. I nearly wrote the journey till the end of time but that’s got a destination too.   

So, maybe the metaphoric journey isn’t a place in space or time. What about the journey of self-discovery? OK, it’s not a place and maybe I won’t even know what it looks like when I’m there, but THERE is a place, isn’t it? Can anyone else hear “an echo … an echo?” Oh look, there’s a rabbit hole. “Alice, is that you?” “Where’s your muchness?”

So, if we are searching for something, maybe that missing piece, then we still have a destination and the road DOES have a somewhere., maybe it’s over the rainbow?

Or, maybe the illusory search on the road to nowhere ends right where it begins - that place called home. Just as it did with Alice, and Dorothy, and others. Home is where the heart is, and when we come full circle (actually its more an upward spiral than a circle) only then we that restlessly subside. So, if you are on your path and feeling like you are going nowhere well relax my friend, your journey will come full circle and when you arrive you will not be you anymore. Perhaps it’s fitting that David Byrne wrote a song called “Home.” 

May you find that place in your heart called home and may I be at your doorstep to greet you.

You will give your best when you connect with your worst

You give the highest of you if you are open and willing to connect with the lowest of you.  By the lowest I mean the fear, doubt and depression, in brief, the darkness that is in your soul as a result of unresolved pain experiences.

Your highest self shall shine at the moment you welcome the darkest part of you. When you invite the lowest of you to enter your awareness, you let your light shine without judgment on those parts of your soul that have felt rejected and cast out. This is the part of you that has become angry, sad, bitter and lonely due to painful experiences. Please have compassion for this part of you that lives in the darkness and seeks solutions from the darkness, which often take you even farther away from the light.

In the darkness, you develop survival mechanisms which keep you from feeling what is really going on inside you: the fear, despair, depression and loneliness. You turn away from them. In fact, you are often taught to do so by the world around you. ‘Turn away from negative emotions. Be positive. Do your best. Be useful.’ This kind of warnings and invocations create fear inside you about your own darkness and they alienate you from your deepest feelings.

You all have a deep desire for light, for the freedom inherent in surrendering to who you truly are. Please realize that you ignite the greatest light inside if you are willing to reach out to the darkest and most neglected parts of you.

Jeshua

Your relationship with yourself

None of us can change everything. But we can all change something. A good place to start is with ourselves. Common sense would say that your relationship with yourself should be one of partnership. Unfortunately, it probably is not.

Many of us treat ourselves less as a partner than as someone to bully and manipulate. We push our bodies around whether they are tired or not. We get mad at ourselves. We criticize ourselves unmercifully. And most of the time we aren't even aware that this kind of treatment is something we learned and don’t have to put up with.

Do you find yourself going over things you did, focusing on what an inner voice says you’ve done wrong? Do you have a secret inner tyrant who keeps saying you’re not good enough? Do you carry a load of floating anxiety so that you shift from fear of one calamity to another, stifling your creative and spontaneous juices?

Adapted from The Power of Partnership: Seven Relationships That Will Change Your Life (2002), by Riane Eisler, New World Library

Maybe you don’t have these particular habits. But chances are you have some dominator habits that you aren’t even aware you use against yourself. Like many of us, you may carry resentments that leech energy you could channel into constructive actions. And like most of us, you were probably taught to suppress important aspects of yourself. Many of us are trapped in stereotyped gender roles that deny and distort our full humanity. If you take a moment to look, it becomes clear that we often let one part of ourselves dominate the other parts, instead of letting all parts function fully.

Sometimes people blame their parents for their problems. But our parents didn’t invent their habits.  They learnedthem from their parents, who in turn learned them from earlier generations, going way back in our cultural history to a time when there was a shift from an earlier partnership direction to one of domination and submission.

We can overcome these entrenched ways of thinking and relating -- the first step is awareness. For example:

• Observe the tension you carry, and bodily habits such as stiffening your shoulders or holding your breath. Just observe, without being critical. Then take three deep breaths, breathing out slowly, letting yourself feel thetension go out and the calm and well-being come in. (Thich Nhat Hahn recommends “breathe in calm, breathe out smile.”) 
• Become aware of the messages you carry in your head that limit or distort your full humanity. 
• Consider how deafeningly loud music, the constant flickering and frantic pace of television, noisy bars, violent action movies, and other forms of popular entertainment get you to “tune out” from your own experiences. 
• Consider how the rush of adrenalin that comes from violent action entertainment or horror films is a counterfeit substitute for the natural highs of partnership living and loving. 
• Observe the natural high you get from exploring new possibilities, from creating, and from helping those in need.

I can attest that change is possible. Once freed of the mental programming of gender stereotypes and self-deprecation, I was able to accept myself and progress in my personal development. And, as I became a better partner with myself, I found a wonderful life partner. ~ Riane Eisler

Emotions and Feelings

Emotions are essentially explosions of misunderstanding that you can clearly perceive in the body. Feelings, on the other hand, are of a different nature and are perceived differently as well. Feelings are more quiet than emotions. They are the whispers of the soul that reach you through gentle nudges, an inner knowingness or a sudden intuitive action that later appears to have been very wise.

Emotions always have something very intense and dramatic to them. Consider anxiety attacks, fear, rage or deep sadness. Emotions take hold of you completely and pull you away from your spiritual center. In the moment you are highly emotional, you are full of a kind of energy that pulls you away from your center, your inner clarity. In that sense, emotions are like clouds hovering before the sun.

Emotions should not be repressed; they are very valuable as a means to get to know yourself more intimately. But I do want to state what the nature of emotional energy is: it is an explosion of misunderstanding. Emotions essentially take you out of your center.

Feelings, on the other hand, bring you deeper into yourself, into your center. Feelings are closely associated with what you call intuition. Feelings express a higher understanding, a kind of understanding that transcends both the emotions and the mind.

Feelings originate in a non-physical realm, outside of the body. That is why they are not so clearly located within one spot of the physical body. Consider what happens when you sense something, an atmosphere or a mood, or when you have presentiments about a situation. There is a kind of knowingness within you then that seems to come from the outside and that is not a reaction from you to something external. It comes “out of nothing” (“out of the blue” as you so beautifully put it). In such a moment, you may feel something open up in your heart chakra.

Jeshua

Why ask why?

For quite some time in my coaching engagements I refrained from asking WHY? questions, especially the ones that triggered justification and judgement. For many us our basic emotional drive is to please others. In our pursuit of pleasing others, to win their favour, or our search to feel valued, accepted and even loved, we create a vacuous hole that we desperately seek to fill from the outside.

Often all it takes is a subtle inflection in your tone of voice to convert a sincere expression of interest into probing cross-examination. Why open yourself to justification and judgement?

These days I find wholesome value in asking the deeper question of WHY? Rather than being a Spanish inquisition triggering justification and judgement I use it to explore the deeper pool of meaning which is the gateway to a purposeful life. WHY? questions lead to an exploration of values, raison d’etre, purpose and meaning.

Whether it be an entrepreneur trying to convert a creative idea into steady cashflow, or a performing artist finding voice and an outlet for artistic self-expression, or a corporate employee searching for a job role to ignite their vocational passion. The WHY? question asked from a place of adventure, intrigue and wonderment engenders a very different response and, I hasten to add, a response that comes forth from the heart. The heart is the dominion of magic. Our search for purpose and meaning in our lives is answered by our connection to heart and spirit. The two realms being inextricably linked.

The more you FEEL your answer, or INTUIT your answer, the closer you are to source, your source. Often the path to discovering what you seek is triggered by posing a different, more compelling question – the exploration of WHY?

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“The Legacy of the Feminine”

In “The Rise of the Feminine,” we explored how the masculine and feminine polarities, Yin Yang, play out in business and leadership. For hundreds of years business has been dominated by fiercely competitive, command and control, patriarchal models of leadership. Never before have we faced such complexity, rapid change or global challenges. The old patriarchal models of leadership no longer serve.

“The Rise of the Feminine” has gathered widespread acceptance in personal and spiritual growth circles but has not been popularised in a business context – until now.

The Rise of the Feminine” has transformed the game of business. And not where you might think. Like a veritable tsunami you won’t see its waves breaking on the shoreline. It is an under-current, such is the way of the feminine. It is covert. Yet powerful beyond measure.

Whilst many look within the corridors of power in board rooms, executive teams of publicly listed companies, and political office, “The Rise of the Feminine” has transformed the micro business landscape right before our very eyes. The take-up rate of home based business, internet marketing, solo-preneurs and freelance work has been phenomenal. These micro enterprises do not rely upon the power and authority structures endemic in large corporations. This is where the economic landscape is being rewritten.

Economic theory was founded on the Law of Scarcity. It underpins everything we know and believe in economics and commerce. In short, competitive market forces of demand and supply determine the equilibrium price where the exchange of goods and services take place.

It is inaccurate to say the old masculine patriarchal energy has been replaced by “The Rise of the Feminine” in micro business for it never existed in this space. This is how “The Rise of the Feminine” has changed, and is changing, forever the way we do business. The micro business landscape and the world wide web is a portal to a new way of BEING in business.


The Old Boys Club lives on in another guise

Critics of the ‘old boys club’ approach to doing business may well consider that since Adam was a boy we have gathered together in tribes to pursue common goals. I am not an advocate of the Old Boys Club. It is isolationist. There is a better, more inclusive way. Business and leadership are not the sole preserve of men and particularly the old masculine energy based on power and authority structures.
Having said that I pose the question:

“Are women’s networks the modern version of The Old Boys Club?”

The key to long term sustainable change is in the integration of both masculine and feminine energy - “The Rise of the Feminine” coupled with The Rebirth of the Masculine. What we need is not a revolution from patriarch to matriarch but an evolution to new ways of business and leadership. A new model of heart based leadership which integrates BOTH masculine and feminine. This is the essence of Yin Yang – the masculine contains the feminine energy, and the feminine contains the masculine energy. They exist in unity not duality.

The biggest challenge facing women’s groups is how they engage, interact with, and emancipate the old masculine patriarchal energy. There is a wonderful opportunity to lead business into the new age from the heart.

This new age leadership, integrating both feminine and masculine, will come from outside the traditional power and authority structures and most likely will arise covertly from a minority voice. This is leadership. This is true celebration of diversity. The feminine influence on leadership in business will evolve. It will arise from evolution not revolution. This is the way of the feminine. It is not a power play. It is covert, subtle and unassuming.

The decree of quotas may serve to increase the representation of women in positions of power and influence. It’s a nice ideal and an incremental step towards parity. As effective as they might be, quotas aren’t transformative. There is an old adage in selling, “Power buys from power.

“The Rise of the Feminine” is far more than the pursuit of parity. It is far more than an incremental approach. It is of far more benefit than filling 10%-20% of executive positions. The real transformation of leadership is not a power game. There is a fundamental distinction between authority and leadership – everyone can lead and they don’t need to be in positions of power and authority to do so. Moreover, many people in positions of authority don’t lead. Leadership is a verb not a noun.


Micro business is leading the change

I wrote earlier that larger corporations need an authority structure to function. Micro business does not. Because of their small size they provide a perfect opportunity for a more feminine model of leadership.

Talk with any home based business owner and learn how innovative, flexible, collaborative, street smart they are to survive, let alone thrive.

Most micro businesses have a different raison d’etre. They are created more for lifestyle reasons rather than wealth creation. You won’t find them raising private equity, floating on the stock exchange and trading share parcels. These wealth creation strategies of the capital markets shift the game of business.

Micro business has a different agenda. They are more nimble, agile, quicker. If you look at how they operate, why they operate and for whom they operate – it is obvious why there are parallels with the feminine.


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BIO

Dennis Roberts is a leading strategist, executive coach and business mentor. He helps entrepreneurs and executives realise the full potential of their businesses and themselves, think outside the square and perform at their optimum. To learn how you can reach your true potential email me.

“The Rise of the Feminine in Business & Leadership”

“… spiritually the female will now have her turn to lead mankind into the New Light. And eventually, this female spiritual light will permeate the entire range of human experience from female leaders in business and religion to female leaders of state ... this female light will become so strong as to become obvious to all who live on this dear planet and will continue to grow for thousands of years.”

“The Serpent of Light” by Drunvalo Melchizedek

Is this uprising, women as a gender, or femininity as energy? If the former, then those women who have won positions of power by amplifying their masculine will continue the masculine archetypal game. If, on the other hand, the essence of this is the rise of the feminine energy then that has the potential to change how the game of business is played, and to change the very game itself. And that is what I am exploring.

The ancient Chinese viewed things in relationship with nature and the environment, everything studied formed part of a holistic perspective. No single element existed in isolation. There was perfect symmetry in the dualistic nature of night and day, water and fire, active and passive, masculine and feminine.

Taoist theory of yin and yang helped explain all things and their inter-relationships. All things had yin and yang properties. Yang is associated with outward movement, active, projection, brightness, excitement. Yin is associated with inward, rest, darkness, passive, nourishment.


How is business played under the masculine archetype of leadership?

Masculine (Yang) energy plays out in business as a bias for action, making things happen, setting goals, measuring results, hitting targets. Metaphors of war abound in both business and sport. Competition is fierce, targets are hit, takeovers are hostile, companies are taken over, market share is won/lost, customers are targeted, plans are executed, patches are carved up, products are launched, staff are boned, people are fired.

Sun Tzu’s classic, “The Art of War”, widely linked competitive theory with ancient Chinese military strategy. Some suggest such military, authoritarian styles of leadership have a time and a place, especially during times of crisis and war. Perhaps so.

The natural state of play is for masculine and feminine energies to co-exist in equilibrium. What Drunvalo was alluding to was the rising up of feminine energy to restore the equilibrium from hundreds of years of dominant masculine energy.

Leading business mind, Warren Bennis writes, “We are facing unprecedented times of growing complexity, globalisation and rapid change, the likes of which we have not seen before ... what is needed is not a map, but a compass for this is unchartered territory.”

Furthermore, Heifetz suggests that amid such flux and uncertainty one of the qualities needed in leadership is an ability to “live in the disequilibrium.” If masculine (Yang) energy is about DOing then feminine (Yin) energy is about BEing. Our leaders need to embrace more of this Yin energy, remaining present in the disequilibrium, and seeking out and listening intently to the diverse opinion in our ranks. The key is to resist trying to solve the problem and allow creative tension to bring resolution of its own accord. It may appear counter intuitive but as Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it” and most definitely we need different ways of operating to deal with these new challenges.


The Rise of the Feminine – what it means for business and leadership

If “The Art of War” was the masculine archetypal guide to strategy then “Blue Ocean Strategy” now illustrates how The Rise of the Feminine has permeated business schools. Rather than using metaphors of war, the discussion centres around charting fresh territory, creating uncluttered niche markets, inventing and reinventing brands, strategies and ideas, collaborating rather than competing, seeking synergies, delivering superior customer value, and engaging and empowering employees in meaningful work in which their creative minds find stimulation.

The liberation of creative right brain thinking is much needed, even in a legal and regulatory environment where compliance is more the order of the day than creativity. Compliance activities are prime fodder for automation and/or outsourcing. The real value add of a professional services firm is around creative thinking.

Technological advances and the increased globalisation it facilitates means that decisions need to be made in real time. Heifetz draws a distinction between authority and leadership stating that leadership is an improvisational art. It is a verb, not a noun. Warren Bennis chimes in to suggest “many CEO’s are bosses not leaders.” The act of leadership can and does occur at grass roots levels.

A major challenge in the professional services environment is how effectively you encourage risk taking and mistake making. Is it something you discourage, merely tolerate or actively encourage. Businesses are de-risked but employees must take calculated risks and have supporting organisational frameworks that encourage then to do so.

Traditional patriarchal models of leadership serve to reinforce the power base of the authority figures that created them. Leadership is not something that can be delegated. Authority is delegated but leadership is demonstrated by anyone with a heartfelt conviction in a cause. What the model needs is less authority and more people empowered to lead. It is not about delegation, it is about empowerment.


The game is changing, how to get with the program?

Here’s a quick snapshot of how you can change your firm to embrace The Rise of the Feminine:

• What got you here, won’t get you there – Marshall Goldsmith suggests that the higher up the corporate ladder you rise the more performance issues and developmental opportunities are behavioural. And for the ever busy professional it’s not simply a question of choosing what to do but moreso a question of what to STOP doing. The Rise of Feminine evokes a different more expansive way of thinking creatively. It is less about efficiency and more about effectiveness. It requires a different level of thinking to flourish in the new game. Stop, pause and reflect about behaviours such as winning too much, replaying past victories (over and over), not listening, seeing the glass half empty, finding the objection first, withholding information or opinion.
• Permission to fail – in a professional services environment we are not used to failure, and certainly not used to it being encouraged let alone condoned. Like them or not, issues around approval seeking are common within professionals services. There is no stigma, we are all human and we all feel pain. It is just that our business and leaders seldom acknowledge our humaness. Create little risk taking experiments where staff can take managed risks. It is common in the creative powerhouses of Apple and Google but rare in professional services. If you operate with a compliance mindset then technology and outsourcing will pass you by.
• Resistance to change – people don’t resist change per se, they resist loss. When change involves real or perceived loss, people will hold onto what they have and resist change. The key to leadership is to assess what kinds of loss are at stake from life and loved ones to jobs, wealth, status, relevance, community, loyalty, identity and competence. Assess, manage and provide a context for any loss and help move your people through the losses to a new place.

I have briefly touched on some of the ways The Rise of the Feminine affects business and leadership today. This feminine energy is pulling people together, being comfortable not having all the answers, not rushing to closure, listening empathetically to many and varied diverse opinions, generating creative ideas, and nurturing the capacity to take collective responsibility to solve problems and not operate in silos.

In this article we explored how The Rise of the Feminine has changed how business is being led. In our next instalment we take a quantum leap forward and explore how The Rise of the Feminine is changing the very game of business itself in The Legacy of the Feminine.

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BIO

Dennis Roberts is a leading strategist, executive coach and business mentor. He helps entrepreneurs and executives realise the full potential of their businesses and themselves, think outside the square and perform at their optimum. To learn how you can reach your true potential email me.

The myth of leading by example

A fully functioning work team doesn’t need an example. What they need is the freedom to be lead by their own example. And this is where leadership is more about empowerment than delegation. There are times when an individual may lack insight, skill or ability. Much of that can be learned, trained or developed but where people act autonomously in their job role is very different.

“It is desirable for you to be AN example but not THE example.”

As a principal, owner/ operator of an enterprise it is desirable for you to be AN example but not THE example. I understand that information flows upward and for major strategic decisions you may realistically be the only one with all of the facts and figures, strategic perspective and skin in the game. All of the factors empower you. What is worth exploring is how and when is it appropriate to share the leadership responsibility.

Strategic decision making can be shared with a Board, professional advisors and mentors. Some aspects of a small enterprise like cashflow management, exit strategies, downsizing are sensitive issues. There is a strong case for selectively choosing your confidente. One business owner I knew was in grave financial difficulty. In the absence of proper counsel she shared the business’ woes with her staff. All that achieved was to spread panic.

There is a case for the judicious sharing of sensitive information. Being transparent doesn’t mean showing your dirty underwear in all of its finery. What would have been appropriate in that circumstance would have been to acknowledge that the trading performance was down, cashflow was tight, budget cutbacks likely, and reaffirm the commitment to devise strategies to trade through the temporary setback. The key in this instance was not sharing the facts objectively but remaining calm and emotionally centred in doing so.

“Fear feeds off the unknown.”

Where is the line between being inclusive and transparent whilst averting misinterpretation and panic. Fear feeds off the unknown. I recall a time where I worked in a financial institution, subsidiary of one of the large four Australian banks. All manner of rumour and innuendo surrounded the firms’ future. I took consolation from the fact that the parent company had invested $6m on system upgrades. At the time I figured a parent company would not invest such money if it intended to close the firm down. Four weeks later the firm was closed. Go figure! And you wonder why I now write about business leadership.

Here are three practical strategies to tryout today:

• Answer a question with a question – the next time one of your staff come to you with a problem and asks, “What should I do?” refrain from giving them a solution, your solution. Ask them a reply question, “What do you think you should do?” It may take some practice and you may need to set in the context of encouraging them to think for themselves.

• Table the facts, explore the feelings – the role our emotions play in everyday business life is grossly understated. Emotions form the basis of many of our decisions and drive much of our behaviour. They are rarely discussed in a strategic or problem solving context and that limits the creative solutions available for consideration.

• Form your opinion on the best available facts at hand – the fields of management accounting and decision support environments serve the primary purpose of providing “timely and accurate information.” Speed of fact gathering is very important. Make your decisions, as best you can, with due consideration of the relevant facts. You will get better at this with practice. Cut yourself some slack with this one. You will get some things wrong and when you do have risk mitigation strategies in place to cover yourself.


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When they Zig, you Zag

In Melbourne we celebrate the March Labour Day long weekend. The locals call it Moomba (Aboriginal for “let’s get together and have fun”). Two legends of the Moomba tradition were clowns Zig and Zag. Still, to this day, they are considered a Melbourne institution.

In business and finance a popular investment strategy is a contrarian strategy. It involves going against the tide, hence the parallel with Zig and Zag. One of the measures of success in financial markets is to outperform the market index. A conservative strategy is to invest your money with a fund manager and hope for average returns. Contrarians, on the other hand, enjoy taking a risk, backing their own judgement in the promise of higher returns. The thrill of the chase is quite compelling.

True entrepreneurs will happily take greater risks not purely because they are risk takers but because they seek the higher returns that come with higher risks. Contrarian investment strategies and, indeed, any strategies to outperform market are a challenge and opportunity.

An enterprise leader constantly looks for new and innovative growth strategies, thinks outside the square, and challenges conventional wisdom. This often entails going against the tide, or zig when they zag. Enterprise leaders are pioneers. Timing is key. The timing of product launches, company acquisitions, staff recruitment, capital raisings, debt factoring, capital investments, office expansion are all major strategic decisions with long term implications – both cost and benefit.

It is essential for an enterprise leader to have the best available information on hand when making such decisions. You must have a vision of the future, your future, and that includes having a view of when market cycles may turn. If you are a significant player in your market you may be a market maker in which case when you move you create the reverberations that smaller players feel.

How might you incorporate contrarian strategies in the running of your business? Here’s some practical tips for you to try:

• Ask direct questions – Don’t try to second guess what you customers want, ask them directly. “Would you prefer to have your professional adviser available on call, 24/7, on a monthly retainer, or fee-for-service basis?” “If I could help you outsource all non-core activities so you could concentrate on higher yielding activities would you be interested?”
• Improve the quality of your questions – Einstein said it, “You cannot solve problems with the same level of thinking that created them,” so contrarian thinking is necessary to find creative solutions to problems.
• Build a quick feedback loop – Some things will work, and some will not. Traders in financial markets know that a key to their success lay in their ability to take losses. Create an environment where you practice making decisions, measuring their success, and running with them or cutting your losses. Running marketing campaigns and managing projects are two great ways to practice this skill.

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Necessity is the mother of reinvention

Your ability to reinvent yourself, products/ services, brand and even your category is a key to enjoying sustained business success. Sadly most business owners don’t look at reinvention or innovation until it is too late. Why? 80% of the population adopt reactive behaviour. They wait for the external environment to create such discord or circumstance that change is demanded.

When you run an enterprise the best advice I can afford you is to reinvent yourself and your business on an ongoing, if not scheduled, basis. You may well ask, “Why take action when it’s not broken?” Well, the business environment moves so fast and with such volatility that if you are standing still or operating from yesterdays assumptions and beliefs you will be dead in the water.

In the education sector curriculums which are set at the beginning of the year are outdated before they have run their term! Fortunately, you are an enterprise and a small(er) one at that and this affords you the flexibility and ability to alter course more quickly than larger institutions. Herein is a major competitive advantage for you. If you program annual reinvention of yourself and your business you not only take out the reactivity, you create a decisive advantage over your competitors, big and small.

Quite simply, if there was one new thing you did in your business all year, let it be this – reinvent yourself and your business. Question the very assumptions upon which you started the business. everything is fair game.

Here’s some things for you do:

• Make reinvention an annual event – Given that reactivity is so widespread take the spontaneity out of the equation by programming an annual review, or time to reinvent yourself. This applies equally to your as an individual as it does for your products, services, brand and category.
• Go offsite – The process of reinvention, innovation or lateral thinking is best explored when you are free from the constraints of your day-to-day activities. Get out of the office, commune with nature, or find some avenue where you disrupt the limits of your current thinking. Creatives adopt techniques like writing ideas with your non-preferred hand, engaging in musical or theatrical stimulation, or any right brain activity.
• Innovation is play – Business is too serious. If managing a business is science then innovating is art. Give you and your team permission to explore the unexplored. The creative power houses like Google and Apple have made art an art form. Huh? Give yourself permission to play and reap rewards unimagined by your logical, linear, conservative left brain.

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The success addiction

An addiction is compulsive behaviour. If free will is part of our human nature then when we exhibit compulsive behaviour we give up our free will, our power to choose, and our automatic response system kicks in. Now my interest here is not your typical addiction to substances or dysfunctional behaviour that may invite a twelve step remedial program. My topic of interest is our addiction to success.

Have you ever played a social sporting match? Remember the scene in “Meet The Fockers” where they are playing pool volleyball and Ben Stiller gets wound up by his father-in-law and smashes a spike into his mother-in-laws face. Classic!

I’ve played in my share of social sporting matches and the white line fever that elite sportsmen talk about is prevalent in social matches under the influence of a few beers as well. Is it healthy? Well just ask Gaylord Focker’s in-laws.

Sometimes you have just got to let go. If you possess this compelling instinct to win, if it is part of your conditioning then your ability to judge when to hold them and when to fold them is critical to your effectiveness a leader. Your perfectionism, competitiveness and control of situations may stifle the creative input and engagement of your people. It certainly isn’t conducive to having them step out of their comfort zone, take a risk and back their own judgement. If they do, it may put them at odds with you, and if you hold the position of power then that’s an unwinnable war. A war on terror of a different kind.

Beyond success there is a bigger game. A game that the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and many others have discovered in later life – the game of philanthropy. It is the evolution from success to significance. Right now you may be building your business, as many of us are, and giving away all that you have created might be out of comprehension for you right now. Maybe not.

Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem with the level of thinking that created it.” If you conceive a time in your life when you have acquired all of the material riches your heart desires, maybe there a tipping point awaiting you where the game changes. A game worth playing. You don’t have to smash a volleyball into your mother-in-laws face to win the respect of your peers (although it would be funny).

Learn to let go. Elite sportsmen will tell you when you are driving a high performance vehicle, riding a fast galloping thoroughbred or catching a cricket ball in the deep, it is your ability to retain soft hands that will allow you to grasp success without effort. Create an inspiring vision for what you may create beyond the limits of your current thinking and watch as life’s synchronistic events unfold before your eyes. This magic is truly within your grasp if you only retain soft hands.

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Success is a science

Much of success in business is formulaic. Crack the code, follow the formula and guarantee your success. Franchising is a very popular and proven business model largely because someone has had the creative idea, proven the concept and then copied and cloned the formula.

Sure there is a role for both artist and scientist. The art is in the creative idea, the concept phase and some elements of executing the strategy. For the most part business is a science. So, let’s explore where these well trodden paths lay so that you can make life easier for yourself.

Business Cycles – daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly. Knowing economic or business cycles, riding them and planning forward for them can make your journey as a business owner/ operator much easier than it otherwise might be. Keep your cycles short, financials self-funding, generate quick payback periods, and plan a quick break even point. Long cycle time is a redundant concept for small business. The world changes too quick for commitments beyond a three year window. There may be exceptions for major lease commitments, plant acquisition or capital works but tread carefully with any long term commitment. If it has a tangible asset backing then it may merit consideration on a stand alone investment basis.

Performance Benchmarking – internal or external. If it’s your own business then your benchmarking measures must pay cursory attention to what returns you might get from investing your money elsewhere. You may play two distinct roles – Owner and Operator. Benchmark them separately, reward them separately. The easiest place to start with benchmarking is you versus you, eg this year versus last year, one product versus another product, one salesperson versus another salesperson. Find the balance between camaraderie and challenge.

Sales Pipeline – the process is the same. Find a successful strategy and repeat it. This is not about reinventing the wheel it is find what works and do it again and again. And if you’re clever automate it. There are two fatal mistakes in small business:

1. Turning off your pipeline when your capacity is full.

2. Not investing time or money in your marketing effort. Marketing precedes selling. Remember that the number one objective of marketing is to generate qualified leads for your sales people.

Decision Making & Review – the more decisions you make the quicker and better you will make them, unless of course you don’t learn your lessons. Engage fresh eyes. An astute coach/mentor will quicken help you identify patterns – of both success and failure. Don’t be the mouse on the wheel. Eat the cheese.

Financials – I’ve written previously that variance reporting or management by exception empowers you to track your performance and take prompt, decisive corrective action. Shift your focus from backwards to forwards. Reconcile past financial results and decisions and plan, forecast and budget forward decisions. Don’t worry if you get it wrong or do it on the back of an envelope for the key is to shift your thinking from past (reactive) to future (proactive). It’s not about getting it right. It’s the orientation and therefore the personal empowerment that you create for yourself when you look forward. If you need to escape your busy day-to-day environment then do so.

I’ve outlined a few basic ideas here to improve your chances of business success. There are many more. If this is a theme that you’d like to explore further then leave a blog post or flag an issue and I’ll do my best to address it for you.

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The success formula

Much of success in business is formulaic. Crack the code, follow the formula and guarantee your success. Franchising is a very popular and proven business model largely because someone has had the creative idea, proven the concept and then copied and cloned the formula.

Sure there is a role for both artist and scientist. The art is in the creative idea, the concept phase and some elements of executing the strategy. For the most part business is a science. So, let’s explore where these well trodden paths lay so that you can make life easier for yourself.

Business Cycles – daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly. Knowing economic or business cycles, riding them and planning forward for them can make your journey as a business owner/ operator much easier than it otherwise might be. Keep your cycles short, financials self-funding, generate quick payback periods, and plan a quick break even point. Long cycle time is a redundant concept for small business. The world changes too quick for commitments beyond a three year window. There may be exceptions for major lease commitments, plant acquisition or capital works but tread carefully with any long term commitment. If it has a tangible asset backing then it may merit consideration on a stand alone investment basis.

Performance Benchmarking – internal or external. If it’s your own business then your benchmarking measures must pay cursory attention to what returns you might get from investing your money elsewhere. You may play two distinct roles – Owner and Operator. Benchmark them separately, reward them separately. The easiest place to start with benchmarking is you versus you, eg this year versus last year, one product versus another product, one salesperson versus another salesperson. Find the balance between camaraderie and challenge.

Sales Pipeline – the process is the same. Find a successful strategy and repeat it. This is not about reinventing the wheel it is find what works and do it again and again. And if you’re clever automate it. There are two fatal mistakes in small business:

1. Turning off your pipeline when your capacity is full.

2. Not investing time or money in your marketing effort. Marketing precedes selling. Remember that the number one objective of marketing is to generate qualified leads for your sales people.

Decision Making & Review – the more decisions you make the quicker and better you will make them, unless of course you don’t learn your lessons. Engage fresh eyes. An astute coach/mentor will quicken help you identify patterns – of both success and failure. Don’t be the mouse on the wheel. Eat the cheese.

Financials – I’ve written previously that variance reporting or management by exception empowers you to track your performance and take prompt, decisive corrective action. Shift your focus from backwards to forwards. Reconcile past financial results and decisions and plan, forecast and budget forward decisions. Don’t worry if you get it wrong or do it on the back of an envelope for the key is to shift your thinking from past (reactive) to future (proactive). It’s not about getting it right. It’s the orientation and therefore the personal empowerment that you create for yourself when you look forward. If you need to escape your busy day-to-day environment then do so.

I’ve outlined a few basic ideas here to improve your chances of business success. There are many more. If this is a theme that you’d like to explore further then leave a blog post or flag an issue and I’ll do my best to address it for you.

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Are you the biggest loser?

I must admit the promotional angle taken by reality television show The Biggest Loser has puzzled me for some time. Mainstream media exploits tragedy, drama and crisis. It sells. Biggest loser is not a clever play on words and twisting language to convey a motivational message is nothing short of a cheap gimmick to get people in.

In any context to win a contest to be a loser is a nonsense. Our world is peppered with mainstream messages selling negativity. The media circus has a vested interest in promulgating drama. It feeds the shadow within us. Yet it does nothing to enrich our lives and help fulfil our latent potential and that includes The Biggest Loser.

Messages of optimism and hope are so few and far between that positive psychology has become a stream of leadership development. Viewing the glass as half full/ half empty has become so skewed to the negative that we have a school of philosophical thought to restore the balance.

Ken Blanchard, author of “One Minute Manager”, popularised the phrase “catch people doing things right.” Positive behavioural reinforcement was, and still is, sadly missing. Practical parenting classes also offer positive behavioural reinforcement. It is so easy to criticise failure and, more is the worry, so acceptable.

Executive coaching programs train us to give employees feedback. Many of these programs erroneously cite methods to give positive feedback. The essence of feedback is neutral. It is objective. It is neither positive nor negative. It should simply be constructive.

The participants in programs like The Biggest Loser come with baggage – physical and mental. To their eternal credit they achieve substantial changes in their lifestyle. I commend the outcome of taking personal responsibility for changing their lives.

A common question in leadership development circles is, “Are you playing to win, or are you playing not to lose?” The latter is motivated by avoidance. It is a ‘moving away from’ strategy as distinct from a ‘moving towards’ strategy. Playing a game motivated by not losing is a catch 22. The best outcome is that you return to neutral. The transformative shift in your motivational strategy is to play to win.

How does a loser win?

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My kingdom for a horse

Talent management – lessons from the thoroughbred world. Racehorse trainers & sporting coaches aim to maximise the potential of the athlete (human or equine) under their care. Critical to the success of a racehorse trainer is their ability to choose the right races for their horses to run. Placement is nearly as important as the trainer’s own ability to get the horse to perform. Why run a lowly class maiden with little ability in a highly prestigious and ultra-competitive weight-for-age race? It is little consolation to run last in a big race when you could be winning lesser races and earning respectable prize money.

What lessons on potential and performance might you take from the highly competitive world of horse racing?

Racehorse trainers place their horses in restricted races that they are capable of winning. They program their charges to win their way through the classes rather than throwing them in the deep end. This allows them to gain confidence and get an appetite for winning.

The training of racehorses seldom starts with an opening gambit that the horse has untapped potential. Races are graded and horses work (win) their way through their grades. The trainer must quickly assess the horses’ ability and place it to advantage.

Hong Kong is a great example where the entire thoroughbred population is imported. Horses are handicapped meticulously so that the racing is highly competitive amongst a small pool of bloodstock. The ability and performance threshold of each horse is known to the hundredth of a second.

Any stark performance improvement or failure on the racetrack is met with a rigorous stewards investigation. The integrity of the sport is paramount.

Do you know the capabilities of your staff? Is there a threshold on human performance, or should you subscribe to the theory that potential has no ceiling.

Things for you to do:

• Personal and professional development – encourage your staff to take ongoing responsibility for their own personal and professional development. Some activities will directly relate to their job function for which you may invest in whereas others may be personal which they fund themselves. This ongoing learning and development is crucial to staying ahead of the game.
• Set performance benchmarks – make an assessment of the ability and upside potential of all of your resources, not just your staff. Your resources include time, ideas, people, energy and money. The benchmarks may be internal or external. Start with comparing the same item period on period, eg monthly/ quarterly. Keep it short. Annual cycles are too slow.
• Energy levels – much of the focus has traditionally been time management whereas today the focus is on energy levels. Burnout, fatigue, working 24/7 mean that sustaining levels of high performance over long periods is dangerous and not advisable. People will burnout. When staff are on vacation it is critically important for them to recharge their batteries. Turn off the mobile and email at these crucial downtimes and you will prolong the lifespan of your people.

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Coach v Mentor – how to choose?

I don’t know about you but I’ve been associated with over a dozen coaching and mentoring groups over the past ten years and they all have a different perspective and self-interest about the two modalities. What gets even more confusing is the fusion of different modalities from what I view as peripheral fields as they attempt to cash in on the hype that is coaching.

So, if I’m confused then I’m guessing it is not only confusing to you, the user, but also that this confusion may serve as a deterrent to you choosing the right coach or mentor for you.

Coaching, mentoring and consulting

Here is a quick distinction. A mentor is someone you learn FROM. A coach is someone you learn WITH, and a consultant well, for the most part a consultant’s gig is to deliver you the results that you might otherwise learn from either coach or mentor. The consultant is engaged to “do the do.”

“A mentor is someone you learn FROM. A coach is someone you learn WITH.”

The mentor is often described as someone who has “been there, done that” whereas a coach’s main mission is to facilitate your own self-discovery. A coach will ask more than they answer.

The key to effective mentoring is the mentor’s ability to transfer his knowledge, wisdom and insight such that his lessons benefit the mentee. “I’ve been there, done that” is only useful to the extent that it relates to the mentee’s lesson of the day.

I’ll illustrate the differences in coaching, mentoring and consulting with a brief conversation/ case study.

Client asks “My sales are down, I’ve just lost a key account and the leads from my pipeline have slowed. What should I do?”

COACH answers: “What do you think you should do? What have you done previously in a similar situation?”

MENTOR answers: “Well, once my business took a hit when our industry was deregulated. What worked for me is that we compiled a database of past clients and began a campaign designed to reconnect with them offering an inducement to re-engage with us. Would something like that work for you?”

CONSULTANT answers: “Let’s do a quick diagnostic check of your current situation, identify where the gaps are and come up with a proposal to address your issues. If our proposal meets with your approval and your budget then we could start work within four weeks.”

There are basic three paths to implementing change:

• Do It Yourself (DIY),

• Done With You (DWY) like a coach or mentor, or

• Done For You (DFY) by a consultant.

There is a fourth option, of course, and that is the Do Nothing option. Don’t ring me for that one!

At the outset of any engagement be sure to ask, “Who will do the work?”

When should I choose a coach v mentor?

There are some urban myths about mentoring that need to be dispelled. The major one is “You need to have grey hair to be a mentor.” Bollocks! The key to being a successful mentor is your ability to impart your knowledge, wisdom and experience to the mentee. My lesson is not your lesson. My story is just a metaphor, and as the mentee, you will find your own truth in my story. This is more an art than science.

“My lesson is not your lesson.”

Here are five situations where I recommend you seek a MENTOR rather than a coach.

1. Starting a Business – are you searching for a map of territory trodden previously by another (Mentor) or is your journey into completely uncharted territory where a compass would serve you (Coach).

If your business/ leadership skills are lacking then by engaging a Mentor you can fast track your learning providing there are close parallels between your lesson and your Mentor’s knowledge, skills or experience.

80% of businesses fail in the first year. This is science. This is fact. There is a map of this territory and your Mentor may have it.

2. Economic recession – this is an economic cycle, and cycles do what cycles do, ie they repeat. A Mentor with past experience of economic cycles and how to ride them out, take corrective action, cut costs, lay off staff, down size, eliminate non-core activities, refinance your business, etc is invaluable.

There are two big caveats to these comments and they are China and the internet. These two powerhouse influences may mean that we need a compass not a map. Keep that in mind. If you experienced difficulties during the tech wreck, global financial crisis (GFC), or the stock market crash of the 1980’s, there are wise heads who have navigated their way out of similar cycles. Until recently many young Australian entrepreneurs had not seen heavy rain let alone an economic recession.

3. Crisis recovery – is the mantra “been there, done that” likely to give you comfort and afford you a solution to your challenge. If someone else’s lesson has parallels for you, and your lesson, then choose a Mentor. You may need to draw a long bow to find the parallels but it’s not the facts that are relevant but more the mental attitude, resilience, temperament or even simply an objective opinion. I used to love listening to my Grandfather’s stories of a bygone era. It tapped my creative mind, let lose my imagination and opened my heart to empathy.

4. Merger & Acquisition – there are two ways to grow a business, either organically or by acquisition. M&A is such a highly technical field that calling upon specialist help is highly desirable. There is a fair chance you will have a team of professional advisors working on the deal but a Mentor can offer you comfort in ways that professional advisors may not.

5. The After Life – when you exit a long term business, career or relationship your whole world gets turned upside down. Some of life events are best shared with someone that doesn’t just have empathy but shares that special bond, that kinship, you won’t find in other relationships. A Mentor is not a hard arse but will, where occasion warrants, both support and challenge you. The art is finding the delicate balance between the two roles and reading what you need at any given moment.


Here are five situations where I recommend you seek a COACH rather than a mentor.

1. Greenfields territory – The analogy of the map and the compass I used earlier is a great distinction. When you are entering completely unchartered territory the questions you ask may be more inductive than deductive. A Coach can facilitate your self-discovery, this exploration of the brave new world.

2. The deeper question of WHY? – Many people get stuck with HOW TO questions. Yet if you explore your raison d‘etre much of the detail becomes evident. A Coach may draw you into a deeper dialogue with self. Once you answer the question, “WHY do you do what you do?” you have a context to answer all other questions. You are no longer operating in a vacuum but in a larger hologram where everything is inter-connected. It is an extremely powerful to place from which to play life.

3. Use of diagnostic tools – Coaches have access to a wide range of diagnostic tools from personality profiles, leadership inventory, behavioural type indicators, entrepreneurial profiles, communication style and many Business Coaches have access to a wide array of business diagnostic tools and indicators also. Make sure you know the scope of your coach. Many coaches are trained from schools of psychology with little or no business acumen.

4. Business Acumen – if you are looking for a Business Coach then know this - the quality of your/their questions will determine the quality of your (business) life. Assess the level of business acumen your coach/ mentor possesses regardless of whether they have “been there, done that.” Business is a game. It has its rules, language, success measures, strategies, formulas, structures and whether Coach or Mentor your guide must know the game, how it is played and how you can win.

5. Accountability – in a world of procrastinators the principal benefit of a Coach is accountability. You can have the best laid plans, greatest intent, all of the wisdom of Solomon but if you don’t implement then it amounts to nought.

There you have it. This is one man’s opinion and I am sure you will find many others. When you do get divergent opinion, do yourself a favour, and ask does the critic have a vested opinion, and if so, what is it?

I hope you enjoyed the article. Please check out other blogs/ articles I have written and feel free to post your comments and queries and if there is something I can help you with drop me a line.


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Boom and Bust – don’t let it happen to you

It is an urban myth that you can create sustainable growth in your business. Just as life is followed, or preceded, by death, all growth is followed, or preceded, by periods of stagnation or decline. We have much to learn from the seasons of nature.

It is folly to assume that we can create sustainable growth rates, however we can create a sustainable business that recognises, plans for and adapts to these seasonal ebbs and flows.

Growth will take one of three forms - linear, step function or boom and bust. You may experience any or all over the life of your business. To understand growth is to understand life (and death). It’s all part of the life cycle.

At some point your business may die, or at the very least, experience mini-death (le petit morte) just as the branches of a tree die. You can expedite what occurs naturally just as you can prune the branches of a tree. When you know the cycles of your business you can pre-empt nature by pruning where appropriate.

Let’s explore this growth phenomenon a little further.

Linear (or incremental) growth
This is the basis upon which most business plans and revenue forecasts are created. It seldom reflects reality or seasonality. So what, you may ask? Well, if your revenue forecasts assume steady growth then your resourcing levels will also. This impacts hiring and firing decisions, capital and plant acquisition and expansion, service delivery and all business processes that support revenue growth, client retention and acquisition. Put simply, if you grow faster or slower than expected you are left without contingency strategies to upsize or downsize or take remedial action. It seldom works this way.

Step function growth
Your revenue growth may rise exponentially and flat line for a time. This is often due to seasonal factors, marketing campaigns, product launches and environmental factors. The biggest issue you face is when your organic growth exceeds your capacity to deliver triggering capacity issues. This will require capital investment, labour hiring, outsourcing, business process re-engineering, multi-site expansion and a range of commercial decisions that take you into unchartered territory. When you grow from a one man band with no management infrastructure to having to lead and delegate responsibility the personal challenges rise. It may also trigger a need for debt or equity raisings and greater personal financial exposure. Directors guarantee anyone?

Boom and Bust
This is volatility at its best. Rapid growth followed by either a plateau or downward spike. It is often triggered by turning your marketing pipeline on and off, or your infrastructure not keeping pace. It is easy to invest in the front end of your business, eg sales and marketing because the measures of success are tangible. If you are reluctant to invest in business systems, processes and service delivery capability then you are asking for trouble.

I once worked in the wholesale telco space and witnessed one of our retail customers grow from virtually nothing to $100m in eighteen months by acquisitions and promptly collapsed. The model was not sustainable. The tragedy was that you could see it unfolding before your eyes.

I have been a judge of small business awards and have also worked with small businesses on the brink of collapse. The sweet smell of success or bitter taste of failure is quite intuitive.

How can you better manage your growth?

1. Manage your risk tolerance – most people have a risk tolerance of +/- 10% and entrepreneurs significantly more. What is important here is not your personal risk tolerance but the robustness of your business systems. If you have a high risk threshold and it is not reflected around you, something will break … and it may be you! It is highly desirable to surround yourself with balancing influences not yes men. Engage a coach/ mentor, seek wise counsel from your accountant/ CFO and appoint an Advisory Board.

2. Know when to slow the flow – create your marketing and sales pipelines to be independent of you. As an Owner/ Operator you have the primary role of overseeing business development even if you have sales and marketing people. the buck stops with you as the CEO. If, by good management or good fortune, your lead generation and conversion exceed your capacity to deliver then slow the flow. Don’t turn it off but slow the acquisition.

3. Build robust business systems – you are not your business. Appoint a project team or external consultant to build business systems. This is about working smarter not harder. Build the foundation for your future success. If your marketing budget should be 10% of your revenue then equally a percentage should be allocated to building your backend. How much varies in each case.

4. Build a buffer – expect cost over runs and time delays by as much as 50%. It doesn’t mean blindly tolerate 50% inefficiency in your business but understand that as human beings are estimates are based on best case and life is seldom best case.

5. Keep a tight rein - on your money and your time. At a minimum conduct monthly reviews. Ideally conduct real time reviews. So in order of preference - real time, daily, weekly, monthly. If you don’t have a handle on your monthly performance by the 10th day of the following month you are setting yourself up for a fall. Remember 80% of businesses fail. It doesn’t have to be you.

6. Retain faith in your vision - and back it with the facts. Faith is one thing, blind faith is another. Solicit independent professional opinion, eg coach, mentor, advisory board, accountant. Build a mastermind team around you.

7. Plan you work - it’s actually much more than planning your work. Planning your work suggests time and task management. To succeed in business you really need to think strategically. So whether your plan is one page or fifty pages, it must be strategic. A good strategic plan consists of three core elements in this order – vision, strategic objectives, strategies. Your principle responsibility as the CEO is to formulate this plan and execute it. Do this well and you won’t know yourself as an enterprise leader. Day-to-day challenges will still arise but now you will have a context within which to lead, and not just respond. When Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it” he was talking about your strategic thinking, your strategic plan and your enterprise leadership. I’ve been around the block a few times and this strategic planning and execution element is THE difference between mediocre business and elite performing business.

I hope you have found this article/ blog useful. If you have any questions or issues that I can help you with post a comment or contact me directly.



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Tips for Improving your Performance

Many business owners, small and large, provide performance incentives for their staff, eg annual bonuses, gift vouchers, time in lieu, equity schemes and the like. But what exactly are you rewarding? Incentive programs don’t typically reward performance, rather they reward results. Business success demands results. Fair enough, too. But, let’s go back a step.

“Most incentive programs don’t reward performance, they reward results.”

Results are outcomes, eg sales targets, profit, market share, growth, customer satisfaction. They are all business outcomes. In a cause and effect relationship, they are the effect. What then drives results? Performance drives results and is the cause in the relationship. So, what then constitutes performance and how do you measure it?

End Goals v Performance Goals

There are two types of goals. End Goals and Performance Goals:

• End Goals are the outcomes or results you achieve from having done something, eg sales, turnover, profit, customer satisfaction. They are measured ex post facto (after the fact) or what are commonly referred to by management consultants as lag indicators.

• Performance Goals are the drivers that get you the results, eg sales calls, customer visits, prospects, outbound calls, customer response times. These can be measured in real time and are referred to as lead indicators.

There can be considerable and costly time delays between when a lag indicator is first brought to the attention of a business owner for corrective action. Time means money. Do your performance measures include lead indicators?

Lead indicators are predictive measures of future success. And success is the cumulative effect of doing the little things day-by-day.

Lead indicators are predictive measures of future success.”

Lead and Lag indicators form an integral part of what Harvard academics, Kaplan and Norton, call a Balanced Scorecard. Many large corporations use Balanced Scorecard measures and increasingly franchisers are too. They are equally applicable to small firms and truly are essential to driving performance to higher levels.

What drives Performance?

If performance drives results then what drives performance? Well, there are two things that drive performance:

1. Skills

2. Behaviour

What is the difference? A skill is learned knowledge of how to do a task whereas behaviour is a conscious/ subconscious response or choice. Ask yourself; does this person know how to complete the task? Have they ever completed the task beforehand? Have they received skills training? Have they demonstrated competency in the skill? If not, then you may have a skill deficiency that needs addressing through skills training.

On the other hand, if your employee is competent or has the necessary skills but for some reason doesn’t apply them, then you may have a behavioural issue. In which case as the manager/employer it is incumbent upon you to call them on it. Behaviours tend to run in patterns so it is likely that the employee will repeat the behaviour (at work and at home). So, you are really doing them an enormous favour long term.

In essence you bring to their conscious awareness the subconscious (or conscious) choice they have made. It now becomes their conscious choice whether to amend the behaviour or not. Either way hold them responsible for their choice and the resulting consequences.

Try these exercises:

• Create a Performance based incentive program. Offer staff gift vouchers or lifestyle rewards based on performance not results. Reward behaviours such as proactivity, attention to detail, customer focus, team work.

• Ask your staff to benchmark themselves. Empower them to take responsibility for their own performance. Nurture the talent you have within your reach. If you are self-employed benchmark your sub-contractors/ suppliers.

• Include a lead indicator in each functional area – Sales & Marketing (customer visits, qualified prospects, customer complaints); Finance (reminder notices, daily cash position); Operations (capacity, occupancy rates); Service Delivery (response times, compliance with packing slips); People (absenteeism, timeliness, overtime).

• Call an employee/ sub-contractor on a behavioural issue, eg coming late to work, failure to meet a deadline, failure to keep a promise. Give regular and informal praise for good behaviours.

• Practice asking open questions. What? When? How? Engage your employee’s creative genius. Encourage them to come with solutions and not problems. You’ve got enough on your plate.

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Creating the space for change

When you are the boss of an enterprise it is easy to assume responsibility for making the decisions. It doesn’t make the decisions any easier but the buck stops with you. This is how most owner/ operators work. The position demands that you take responsibility and be accountable. It’s your money so who better to manage it than you?

Well, if you had your money invested in financial securities there is a fair chance you would engage a fund manager, whether it be superannuation or managed investments. You place your reliance upon the professionals.

When you employ staff in a small business environment you are buying the knowledge, skills, talent and aptitude of your staff. Often they are closer to the action than you are. And if you are managing your business wisely that should hold true.

Many years ago I worked in a retail department store. It was a vacation job during university. At first I served customers in our stationery department. It was simply order taking. I later migrated to selling menswear where there was more finesse, and salesmanship.

Have you got your staff simply taking orders and performing assigned tasks? Every job function requires some degree of creative problem solving. People will create work arounds and adapt either their talents and skills to fit the demands of the job or vice versa, they will adapt task to skill.

The real opportunity to step into your leadership potential is to cease playing boss and making the decisions and create a space for your people to make their own decisions. This is art not science. I’d love a dollar for every time I’ve heard, “It is quicker if I do it myself.” It reminds me of the native American Indian proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with others.”

What practical steps can you take to create this space for change such that your people assume personal responsibility and autonomy?

• Conduct weekly meetings – set a simple agenda wherein you ask everyone on your team to give updates. Everyone gets to talk. Your role as Chair is to listen more. Agenda items may include: Highlights from last week, wins/ losses, roadblocks to success, priorities for the coming week, acknowledge staff contribution.
  
• Keep the tone positive, constructive and supportive – everyone is doing the best they can. Ask how can you support them to perform at their best?
  
• Lead the way – if the room goes quiet when you pose a question, then lead by example. If your staff aren’t used to public acknowledgements then show them how. If all this is new then set the context for your new methods by stating upfront, “I’m going to change the format of our meetings so that I talk less and encourage you to share more.”

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Know thyself

True leaders know how to express themselves fully. They know what they want and effectively communicate same. They have the dexterity to be flexible in their communication so that the messages lands as intended.

Authentic communication demands that you not sugar coat your messages so as to tell people what they want to hear. It doesn’t mean that you have to be right or always know the answer, quite the contrary. The legend of Henry Ford has it that under ruthless enquiry before a Senate investigative committee, where his intelligence was brought into question, he responded that why would he need to know all the answers to complex commercial matters when he had surrounded himself with the best minds in the country.

On the other hand, Donald Rumsfeld’s infamous attempt to explain the need for a war on terror with his “known knowns and unknowns unknowns” did little to shed light on the call to arms. I suspect that was a case of a mastermind group gone wrong.

Have you surrounded yourself with a mastermind group? Can you access astute professional advisers as and when you need them?

In your zest for making fast decisions and living your busy life set aside time for others to share the load. If you make all the decisions then you may stifle the effective decision making, and creative problem solving of your people. And when it comes to professional advisers that is what you are paying them for.

If you don’t know the answer the best policy might be to simply declare, “I don’t know. What do you think?” Faced with complex problems there are three ways to resolve them. First, use logic and rationale to analyse problems and propose solutions. Second, follow your intuition and imagination to create solutions from broad ranging scenarios thus giving yourself options, and third hold the unresolved tension and allow an answer to come. You may pose a question of yourself and your team. Tap into their mental genius.

In the world of problem-solution it may be counter intuitive to deliberately hold a situation unresolved for a time. It doesn’t have to be a long time. State the problem, ask a question and let it go. Allow an answer to come. It may appear as idea, suggestion, spark of inspiration, intuitive flash or from a chance encounter. When you free your mind you allow the greater intelligence within you to be activated. Trust in yourself.

Make the freeing of your mind a daily ritual. Creative ideas spring from the recesses of your mind. What are you doing when you get your most creative ideas?

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How do you learn?

Every waking moment is a learning opportunity. It is a mindset and philosophy as much as practical skill set. We all learn at a different pace and in different ways. The challenge as a leader is to acknowledge the diversity in the learning opportunity.

Learning is a form of growth and growing pains and discomfort come with the territory. Positive reinforcement is essential to creating an effective learning environment. Aside from formal education through our schools and tertiary institutions the workplace is an ideal learning environment.

Learning results from stimulation of the senses and the field of neuro-linguistic programming suggests we may have sensory preferences where one is more prevalent than another.

There are four critical elements of learning that must be addressed to ensure effectiveness:

1. Motivation – it is a critical pre-condition that the learner has an appetite for acquiring new knowledge or skills. The environment must be conducive to learning and growth. Mistakes will be made and they form an integral part of the learning experience. Reward the leaner’s participation and find the right level of stretch in creating the learning experience.
2. Reinforcement – be generous in giving constructive feedback, both formal and informal. Positive reinforcement is essential to creating the desired behavioural change. Note: constructive feedback is neither positive nor negative, it is constructive.
3. Retention – give context to the learning. Retention of new information is easier to digest, understand and integrate when it is understood in context with the business goals, desired outcomes of the learning, practical application of new skills, etc.
4. When learners can see the meaning and purpose of new information they more readily embrace it. If the learner does not learn the original material well then they will not retain it well either. Give practical, on the job, opportunities to demonstrate retention and application.

Transference – there are two types of transference - positive (where the learner uses the new behaviour) and negative (where the learner does not use the new behaviour) and results in a desired outcome. Transference is the ability to transfer what is being learned to a new setting.

Personal coaching is based on these adult learning principles. You can play a major role in the development of your people. When you lead an organisation make sure you devote time and energy to the performance of your staff and their ongoing personal and professional development.

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