Catfights and firewalks: the risk-taker’s guide to success

Performance News

The fact is there is always an excuse not to do things. Such as:

• Everyone is on vacation
• It’s hot
• The economy is down
• The oil spill
• Etc.

Even if it seems like there isn’t as much going on this time of year (I know that’s not true for a lot of us) these “down” times can be used to get otherwise postponed projects done. Use this time for:

• Setting new strategy
• Investing in self development
• Finding and beginning new ways of improving your business
• Organization areas of your business that get neglected during the “high season”
• Investing in new strategic relationships

Take action now. The habit of avoidance will not go away when things get busy. The excuses just change.

After visiting some companies with cool culture I decided to write an article on the subject. Cashing in on Culture is an article about why companies should make culture a priority and how to improve it. Here is a list of companies with great (cool) company culture:

• Zappos
• The Lampo Group
• Emma
• Method
• Apple

What company do you know of that has great culture? Does yours? What needs to change?

I know the hare gets a bad rap for not pacing himself while the wise ol’ tortoise plods along to win in the end. But here’s the thing, when a 5000 pound SUV is bearing down on you who do you want to be? I’m voting to be a bunny.

Change, competition, economic chaos, regulations and more are bearing down on businesses every day. These are all 5000 pounds of threat to be responded to. How do businesses choose the way of the wabbit (sorry, I couldn’t resist)? Through agility. But how do these attributes manifest themselves? Here are a few indicators of an agile business.

Process oriented
Customer focused
Externally aware
Culturally progressive
Organizationaly flexible

None of these come for free or are easy to foster but when change is looming you’ll be glad you invested the time and effort to become agile.

Today I flew with another airline. I made a funny (trust me, I’m funny) comment about the heat to the flight attendant. Her response was about as enthusiastic as one of those stone heads on Easter island. The rest of the flight was the same way. She was boring, the flight was boring. We all sweated through the boredom. Guess what airline? Yep, Delta.

Two questions came to mind.

1. How hard is it to smile?
2. What are these two companies doing with their employees to get them to act so differently?

Do you have a job where you work face to face with customers? If you do, try to smile at them and act like a human. Maybe even laugh at their jokes.

Do you run an outfit that has people that interact with customers? If so, figure out how to treat your employees so they like serving your customers.

I’ve never seen a company that had grumpy workers AND happy customers. Need an example? Go to the post office Friday at lunch time and count the smiles.

As you come to grips with what drives your business maybe you don’t like what you see in the mirror. Or maybe you realize you have assets that are being underutilized. Whatever the case may be, if you decide you want to make a strategic shift you need to be very deliberate about defining what kind of company you want to be and where you plan to take the company in the future. You need to have good answers for questions like:

• Why is the change advantageous?
• Where will this position us in the marketplace?
• Where is our competition in this space?

Focus on and tireless pursuit of the critical success factors will carry the day.

Once you know  where you want to go, issues will emerge that must be dealt with.  These issues must be identified for what they are and dealt with. This list of critical success factors will become the agenda for any transformation you attempt to make. Issues such as the following should arise:

• Do we have the right people?
• What assets do we have in this new area?
• How will we bridge this strategy back to the overall corporate strategy (if you’re a brand or division of a larger company).

The clarity with which you understand these issues and their priority will determine in large part how well you make the transformation. How focused you stay on them and how much effort you put into them will determine who fast you make the transformation.

A firm grip on what drives your company is vital.

Company culture, values and vision are all areas of a business that should be developed but above all the driving force (what makes the company go forward day after day) must be understood. Here is are a few typical driving forces:

• Market Served
• Method of Distribution
• Method of Sale
• Technology

For practice take a look around at the business world and make an assessment of what drives certain companies. Once you begin to see companies within this frame work ask yourself, “What drives my business?” Better yet ask those around you. Your vendors, customers and employees will offer great insight into a subject that must be rock solid for you to propel your business to a new level.

• Projections
• Forecasting
• Budgeting
• Lots of spreadsheets!

Strategy is something totally different. Below are some typical components of setting a strategic direction for your business.

• Corporate Driving Force
• Positioning
• Outward focus

As you consider your annual planning sessions don’t be deceived into thinking you are setting strategy. Without direction your efforts might take you a great distance the wrong way. Take the time to set a strategy that will become a map for your journey. This way, when put your head down and starting working  to hit your goals you’ll know they were the right ones.

Only a fraction of our time is available to produce the results that justify our paycheck. The rest of our time is spent responding or reacting to others. Within that reality we must savagely guard our time. This can even mean guard our time from our own bad habits. To stop asking the question: Where did my day go attack the problem from two angles. Yes it’s a pincer movement!

Angle #1 Stop wasting time Angle #2 Start making better use of time

Here’s how.

The Dirty Dozen Time wasters (in no particular order):

1. Stop using auto notifiers. Email and voicemail were created for you not the reverse.
2. Stop starting your day by checking email. It allows others to set your priorities for you.
3. Stop answering calls from unknown numbers. They can leave a message.
4. Stop answering calls from blocked numbers. See #3
5. Stop attempting to multitask. It’s a myth. Context switching kills productivity.
6. Stop going into your day with no plan. If you don’t plan your day someone else will.
7. Stop procrastinating. You’re delaying because you’re scared. Figure out why and deal with it.
8. Stop wasting time on social media. Get your message out (even if it is personal) and get off.
9. Stop going to meetings unprepared. Demand to know the objective of a meeting and prep for it.
10. Stop meeting without a prescribed and worthwhile outcome.
11. Stop nattering. Get to the point ASAP.
12. Stop wasting time on productivity systems. Get organized but don’t be anal.

The twelve step time “recovery program”

1. Start tracking your time. Your memory will fail you. Write it down, for one month
2. Start your day with goals to achieve.
3. Start the day by killing the snakes. The sooner you do the stuff you don’t like the better.
4. Start your day by working for two hours on your stuff. Then check email and voicemail.
5. Start batching wrought actions. Once you start responding to emails get them all done.
6. Starting using macros and templates. You can write the templates, talk to IT about the macros.
7. Start using email for what it’s good at. Spreading useful information (not a fwd of a fwd).
8. Start meeting only when you have stated objectives for the meeting
9. Start sending out agendas before you meet. Let people know what’s coming.
10. Start requiring pre-work. Research done before meeting will optimize your time together.
11. Start summarizing your interaction immediately after you have them you’ll remember more.
12. Start unplugging one day a week. They call it a “Crack-berry” for a reason.

This is akin to a business leader being good at fighting fires in his daily frantic oversight of a company but not investing in developing a solid strategy that will act as a guiding light for the organization.  It takes either a lot of courage or a sharp blow to the head for a leader to stop the frenetic pace of daily management and develop a sound strategy. Once the effort is made a strategy should have the following attributes:

• Specificity: there should be no ambiguity to a strategy statement
• Prescience: strategy should be forward facing and not just projections based on historical data
• Genericness: the strategy should apply to everyone and not be narrow (this is a balancing act with the first point)
• Actionable: employees should be able to use the strategy to inform their actions
• Flexible: leaders should balance keeping a strategy current with not letting a strategy work long enough to succeed

Good strategies are all different but they all have some similar traits. The most common is that they fail in implementation. That said, if there is no strategy you’ve failed before you’ve even started. What is the strategy that acts as a guiding light in your business?