Spending vs Investing

Spending is the distribution of value to cover expenses.

Investing is the distribution of value to build wealth.

Spending empties you.

Investing fills you.

WILL and CAN!

These are your best people!  They want to be here, and they can do the job very well and get results.

Don’t take these people for granted.  Appreciate them and show it.  Let them be leaders as appropriate to teach others how and create the culture in their departments.

Find more of WILL and CAN wherever you can.

WILL and CAN'T

Some people want to, they just can’t yet.  Often they don’t have the skills or experience yet.  But if they really want to, with enough training and practice they will be able to do the job soon enough.  They want to be here.  They want to learn.  They have the right attitude.

Train these people.  Show them.  Believe in them and tell them so.  Be patient as they are learning.

Get them there.  They will be some of your best people.

Of course, once in a while, it’s just not happening.  They want to but don’t have the natural ability to do the job.  You’ll have to reassign some of them.  They wanted to, they just didn’t know themselves well enough to understand their inherent strengths and weaknesses.

CAN and WILL NOT

Some people can do the job, they just don’t want to.  They have the talent and can show it when you are watching, but they just don’t want it and don’t care.  Maybe they are distracted.  Maybe they want to be somewhere else.  They CAN, they just won’t.

Your job is to get them off your team.

Will not and can't

Imagine a square with four quadrants.

On the top is “WILL” and the bottom is “WILL NOT”.

On the left is “CAN” and on the right is “CAN’T”

Assess your team, putting them in one of the boxes relative to the job you are asking them to do.

When you’re hiring, your job is to keep the “WILL NOT and CAN’T” people off your team in the first place.

More tomorrow….

Culture wins over strategy

A company with a bad culture cannot execute a great strategy.

A company with a great culture in its team can work through a lot and keep pushing forward.

Your culture = what you want and celebrate – what you don’t want and tolerate.

The Hawthorne Effect

The Hawthorne Effect says that people modify their behaviors when they know they are being watched.

This is why Scoreboards showing people’s performance that are displayed in public work to elevate results.

What KPIs or performances are you trying to improve?

Put a scoreboard up with each team member’s name on it, measure accurately, and post it for all to see and to review in regular meetings.  Be a cheerleader, not a punisher to what the public results reveal.  Help them do better.  Celebrate the top performers.

People want to know they matter.  Competition brings out the best in us.

Let the Hawthorne Effect and competition work for your team.

Do the "impossible" in a possible way

I own or partially own dozens of businesses.  I want to leverage my teams’ expertise and abilities to have the biggest positive impact we can on as many people as we can.  People say to me “How do you get it all done?”  They are amazed.

But they are thinking about it from the perspective of how THEY do their business.  They are involved in their business to a certain level of detail in day-to-day activities.  Doing it the way they do it, there is no way they could have two businesses like theirs because they are already working as much as a human can work and they don’t have 2X the time.

So there is the lesson.  Build the leadership job so it works for you.  Cut chunks of your job off and have other managers and other leaders do them to free you up so you can do the most important things and be home by 6pm. 

Nobody said you had to do what you do each day.  You just have to make sure certain things are being done in a certain way.   That doesn’t mean they need to be done BY YOU.

This is the most important distinction you need to make if you are a leader who wants to grow your organization without going insane.  

Attract and identify other leaders, train everyone, communicate, and empower them. 

(PS- I am not suggesting that everyone should be like me, that having multiple businesses is a sign of success or even a good idea for everyone.)

PPS – In fact, for me, all my businesses are closely related so you might think of it as one business with multiple dimensions.)

PPPS – (If you do more than one thing, they both must be successful.  Why try something else when the old thing will fail to be profitable without you or the new thing will never be?)

If you don't like problems, stay out of leadership

A leader’s job is to solve problems.  

A leader can cut across departmental and functional boundaries to solve problems like nobody else can. 

A leader has the power and responsibility to solve problems. 

A leader will get problems nobody else is empowered or able to solve.

A leader is “Problem-solver-in-chief”.

A leader should expect problems and love solving them, not get stressed out or surprised by them.

If you want things around your world (desk) to be perfect, stay out of leadership.

A Sales Call is a Job Interview

How do you (would you) prepare, dress and act on a job interview?  Most people who really want the job will do all they can to put their best foot forward in every way.  

A sales call is a job interview.  You are saying “Please hire me”.  

Do all you can to put your best foot forward.  How you prepare, present yourself, talk, what you show, how you demonstrate how you can help….

Get the job! – Earn it!