Getting competent managers

In business, a great question for a leader to keep asking themselves is –

“What one problem can I solve that would solve 1000 other problems?”

If you have a business that has a couple of key departments (functions) and more than a few people, one great answer to this question is to get the right managers to run those departments and the rest of the employees in them.

When you have a great manager taking care of Marketing, or the Sales Team, Production, or Warehouse etc,. it can free you up to work on the next most important thing to make your business grow and be successful.

Do you have competent managers running those pieces of your business well?

"I will not let you fail here"

Some bosses are looking to see if their people doing something wrong.

Consequently, many employees are leery of the boss and don’t like that they are always being judged.

This is not a healthy boss/employee relationship and not one where you will get the best performance out of people and get them to stay a long long time.

Instead, leaders and managers would take the attitude that “I will not let you fail here.”

If the employee is struggling, talk to them.  Ask how you can help.  Ask if they have everything they need.  Set up the conditions for them to do well if you can.  Support them.

(Only if they give up, don’t want to be here, or are malicious do you give up on them.)

When the leader is on the employee’s side and not on the other side of the table, people will give and do their best.

The Power of a Scoreboard

“What gets measured gets improved.”

Imagine playing a game with no scoreboard.  Why would anyone try their best?

If you want your team to improve, put up a scoreboard measuring their individual performance, and put it in a public place.

People will immediately pay attention and significantly improve their behavior on that activity.

We believe this so much at my companies that we printed write on wipe-off scoreboards with grid lines ready to be deployed on any key metric!

We measure things for about two months and talk about it at weekly meetings.  Then we shift to a new thing to measure.  If you measure the same thing all the time people get immune to it.  

We celebrate the top performers of course!

What scoreboard are you going to put up today?

Zero-Based Thinking

Knowing what you now know, if you had to start over again, what would you do differently?  

What would go?

Who would you not hire again?

OK – so how do you fix it/get out of this situation, and how fast?

Who do you want to help?

You are not here to help everyone.  You can’t help everyone.

Who does your business help?

Digital Minimalism

Many people spend a LOT of time at the digital buffet.

If you are worried that if you don’t watch the news and keep up with current events….if you are worried that if you are not on social media much or if you are worried that if you turn off notifications you will miss out…I am living proof that this is not true.

Instead, I invest that time into learning and productivity (I like/love it) and do better than average.

There are lots of forces wanting our eyes and time.

But it’s always your choice.

Prices are information

As a businessperson you need to know and be mindful of prices.

What things cost tell you what to conserve, economize, avoid, what to replace things with, and what to charge for what you do.

Do you know what everything costs?

Purpose in the work

When you are in it for yourself and your own personal gain only, your employees know it.  

They simply won’t work harder so you can buy a bigger boat.  That won’t motivate them.

When you are dedicated to your team and your customers and their success, and act like it when trials come, they will know it too.  When you have a purpose greater than yourself, your people will know – and when they are part of that purpose, they will fight for it.

Why go for more?

When someone says to a business owner “you have enough.  Why struggle and go for more?”

Here are answers that I think are unhealthy – 

“The world will approve of me and like me more if I do better.”

“I will be happier with more money.”

“Because I am afraid of poverty or losing.”

Here are healthy answers – 

“Because I want to and I can.”

“Because I am up for the personal challenge of seeing what I can do.”

“Because I want to make an even greater impact.”

“Because it’s fun.  I love to learn and solve problems and ultimately win.”

“Because I have talents given to me that need to be put to use in service to the world.”

What is your answer?

Say No to be better at "YES!"

There is so much you COULD do in the world these days, you must choose. 

In choosing you are saying no to far more things than you say yes to.

If you say yes to every opportunity, every invitation, every meeting, and everything interesting, you will have little time to focus on your main objective.

Saying no involves 10 seconds of awkward conversation, that saves hours, days, and even years of time.

Saying “NO” allows you to be better at the things you say “YES” to.