A Mentor's Wisdom

Many people think a mentor is someone who you ask questions of. But you don’t know what questions to ask.

A great mentor doesn’t tell you what to think, just what to think about.

Who is helping you with “what to think about”?

Innovation is Necessary

In a free market, companies compete to be the choice of prospective customers. To compete, they get better at doing and delivering and operating.  

Your competitors are getting better at taking your business away.  

Innovation is not a strategy so much as a survival trait.

Keep up – at LEAST.

Knowledge in Action!

When we learn something, or get an idea, what do we do with it? If the answer is nothing, then it has no value.

While you can’t flit about telling your staff “the great idea of the day” all the time without following through with execution to make it stick, we do need to take action on what we learn.

The reason businesspeople learn is precisely TO do something different that will produce different (better) results.  

Are you implementing things you learn?

History is Written by the Winners

What will you write to tell others how you did it?

Inner Mission

You are the opponent. Take responsibility for that.  

Intermission

If what has happened in your business so far is the first act, and you took a bit of time to rise above it and learn from it, what will the second act be like?

One Thing at a Time

Switching from one task to another requires effort – especially when the task is difficult.

Leaders should work on important things all the time. This is why a leader needs to develop an ability to focus. If you are in a place with continuous distractions, and having to shift your focus and work to this, then that, then back, you are just burning energy, effort and time and not getting the results you could otherwise.

Set up your schedule and environment to focus on one important thing at a time.

Respond Fast!

MIT Study: people are 22 times more likely to do business with you if you respond to them in five minutes or less.

How fast do you return phone calls? How fast do you respond to internet inquiries or leads? Find out.

How can you get faster?

Removing Irritants

What irritates your customers? Ask them.

Removing these things can be a source of improved productivity, innovation, competitive advantage, and will certainly make for happy cutomers, more repeat business and more referrals.

In your next management meeting, ask your team – “What irritates our customers?”

When price matters most

Do you sell that same thing as your competitors?  Then your customers will shop on price.

If you don’t want your customers to shop you on price, then offer something different.  Get yourself out of the sea of sameness.  The more different it is, the better.

Right?