In 1945 when Sam Walton got out of the service, with the backing of his powerful father-in-law he bought his first department store, which was part of the Ben Franklin chain. Sam had wanted to locate in St Louis but his wife who controlled the purse strings demanded they buy a store in a small town which is what Newport Arkansas was. Even though it was a small town this move turned out to be positive. Due to the development of a highway system new- found customers bypassed other smaller towns and flocked to Sam’s location. In the first year sales jumped 45%. In five years his sales went from $72,000 to $250,000. They were leading Pleasantville lives, parenting their first three children, living in a grand home on the hill and Sam was chairmen of the chamber of commerce. Then in 1950 their perfect life came crashing down. Sam lost the lease on the building where his store was located. There was no place else in town to lease and building was out of the question. He was forced to either get out of the department store business if he wanted to remain in Newport or look in another town. He finally found a space in Bentonville Arkansas at the western edge of the Ozarks. Because of Bentonville’s central location near the borders of Mississippi, Kansas and Oklahoma, business boomed. Shortly thereafter he opened stores in eight surrounding towns and the largest retail giant in the history of the world was born.

Would Sam Walton still have been successful if he had stayed in Newport and lived his Pleasantville life? Did having his world turn upside down force him to dig deep and get his creative juices flowing to try something different? We will never know but sometimes when we are forced out of our comfortable spot an opportunity appears that we would have never seen had it not been for an unfortunate incident. Many times good gets in the way of great. When life does not go the way you planned, don’t dwell on what it could have been; look to what it can become. It may prove to be the best move you ever made. Is your Bentonville sitting in front of you but you can’t see it?

The best way I recommend is to put a methodology in place by which you quantify the process. First, decide on four factors that you feel the candidate must have. Said differently, what are the four things that would differentiate a good employee form a great employee? These would be those areas that are not trainable. Maybe it is attitude, or the ability to receive coaching, or maybe it’s being a team player or customer care skills. These are those attributes that are great qualities to have but are not easily trained. Each business is unique and may have different factors.

Secondly, develop a scale from one to ten, ten being the ultimate and one being unacceptable. Now rate each candidate on the four factors. You can even go as far as to weight the different factors on importance to you.

Thirdly, and maybe the most importantly, have others interview the candidates based upon these four factors. Many times when we have others interview applicants they focus on the skills and experience. Hopefully you have already done that which has lead to your short list. When others are interviewing they should be looking for the candidates strengths in the four main areas you identified.

After you and the others have interviewed all the potential candidates, tally the scores. You now have quantified results to make a final decision with.

But what if the scores are still close? This is when the years of expertise and judgment come in when hiring people. You still need to trust your gut! Remember, the more years of experience you have the better you should be able to trust your instincts.

Hiring people is never easy and you should take as much time as you need to make sure that you make the right decision. Use this process to help you get the right person to come on your team.

One of the traits of a good leader is positive communication skills. Many times we have a water hose effect on those around us and don’t even realize it. How often do you tell someone outright when they have made a statement or comment that they don’t know what they are talking about? How often after someone makes a point do you say “You are wrong”. After some self reflection you may be surprised how often you say these words. After someone speaks and you say “yes, but” or “no” or “ however” what we are saying to the other person is “ you are wrong”. When we say these words we are not telling them that we might be looking at the issue differently, but rather we are telling them I am right and you are wrong. We tell them emphatically that what they are saying is wrong and what you are saying is correct. After you have made this comment the person either retreats and goes away with hurt feelings or the pointless battle begins and you’re no longer communicating, you are squaring off for the “who is right” war.

Many times ostensibly we are saying “ I am not sure I totally agree with that” but what comes out is “No” “however” and when we say “but” what we have said is that although they may have made a worthy point they are still wrong and you’re going to prove it to them.

For example;

A person makes a point and we say” That’s correct, however…..” What that means is you may have some of it right but I still know what the right complete answer is.

A person comments and we reply “Yes, but……” What we are saying is, I am trying to be nice but I am going to contradict you.

Over the next week be aware of how many people as well as yourself use these words in a conversation. Take notice on how those around you will use these words on others to demonstrate power. Be aware of others’ reactions when these words are used to reply to statements.

Think about another way to say to the other person that you might have another point of view. Maybe you have some facts that would prove that the other person is incorrect but find a different way to say it.

“That’s an interesting thought; I see it a bit differently”

We all have more to do than time allows but when setting goals and objectives we must be careful not to overload. When everything is a priority for you and your employees don’t be surprised if nothing ever gets accomplished.

During the numerous company planning sessions in which I have been involved, one consistent problem exists–trying to accomplish too much in too little time. We all think in the planning session that we can get more done then actual time will allow. You have heard that when planning a home remodel you need to estimate the amount of time it will take and then double it for the 25 trips to the hardware store. Business planning is very similar. We underestimate the effort and time it will take to complete new initiatives as well as to take care of all the surprises that come our way. When we set too many goals, objectives, success drivers and initiatives, all of a sudden we begin to feel that nothing can get accomplished.

Decide on what the main thing is, make the main thing the main thing, and focus your team’s efforts on those few priorities that will have the greatest chances of making your business successful.

It is a fair questions because there is a great deal of misunderstanding of what business coaching is or is not.

Here are some fact about the industry of business coaching. Many of the facts are courtesy of survey results provided by the International Coaching Federation. Others are the finding of separate studies.

There are over 25, 000 business coaches in the U.S. alone. Many of them coach both online and offline businesses. While business coaching may seem like a new fad, the truth is the foundation is well established.

Over 40% of Fortune 500 companies use business coaching. Business coaching is not just for inexperienced entrepreneurs. Even large corporations and people with MBA’s utilize business coaching.

Coaching is about learning not teaching. Coaches are not teachers. They can teach you a lot but they are not there to teach you how to run your business.

They may not know how to do things better than the client. But a coach can observe patterns and set the stage for new actions and then work with the individual to put these new, more successful actions into place. They are not there to do the work for you.

Most clients do not turn to coaches simply for monetary advice. They turn to their coach for help on time management as well as career guidance and business advice. To a lesser but still significant extent, they seek coaching on relationships, family, wellness even spirituality.

98.5% of coaching clients said their investment in a coach was well worth the money.

Coaching is a process not an event. The true process of coaching requires getting at the ‘root cause’ of the deficiency. If your company is lagging there is a reason. Changes won’t happen overnight.

Business coaching is needed to help get to the root cause. You have to be willing to accept the cause, overcome it and then begin changing the effect it has on you and your business. All of this is a process.

Coaching is not the same as consulting or counseling. Coaching is about creating a win-win alliance. Coaching looks at businesses holistically.

61% of clients report having greater job satisfaction due to coaching.

Coaching can produce a substantial return on investment and significant subtle benefits to the business.

The number one role of a coach, according to most clients, is to be a sounding board. They want a coach who will provide honest feedback and really listen to them. They also use them as motivators, friends, mentors and spiritual guides.

More than two thirds of clients attributed to their coaching a higher level of self awareness, smarter goal setting and a more balanced life.

Just like a golf coach can critique your golf swing a business coach helps improve your business performance by giving you an outside perspective on what you are or are not doing correctly. A business coach does not lift the weights for you, but rather helps identify the right things to do, helps you build the plan, and then holds you accountable to get the plan completed.

In these uncertain times when we are unsure of where the economy is heading and we are all wondering what the future holds for our businesses everyone is looking for some insight into how we can increase our sales, find more customers, or hold onto the customers that we have. Being the excellent problem solvers that we are, we seldom look outside to get opinions on how we might better run our business or what we could be doing differently to improve our organizations. Just like a mother thinks that all of her kids are beautiful, we seldom can be objective enough about our own business to make substantial recommendations. No one has more of an emotional attachment to your business than you do. You are the one who has invested all the blood sweat and tears. No one is as closely attached or has as much on the line as you do. All this emotional investment can lead to a very blind approach to decision making. We tend to sort through all the problems alone and that in itself can lead to the problem of letting too much emotion enter into our decision making. No one is less objective about your business than you are.

So what can we do to get more objectivity into how we see our business?

• Join an organization that you can use for benchmarking and sharing of best practices. How do you know if you are winning or losing if you can’t compare yourself to someone else?

• Look for Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) from businesses like yours so that you can compare your business to theirs.

• Form an accountability group with peer business people and ask for input into your business and ways that they can hold you accountable.

• Form an advisory group made up of customers that will give it to you straight on how you are doing. Try not to get just those that love you.

• Hire an outside consultant or accountability coach to keep you on track. (Hint)

Trying to be an outside consultant to your own business can be dangerous. Don’t try doing it all on your own. The truth on how outsiders see us, which can be painful at time, can also be very helpful in helping us identify wholes and gaps. Making the necessary corrections and positive changes can mean the difference of success or failure in these uncertain times.

There is no doubt that the pressures for higher profit margins, bigger market share, and a thirst for power has resulted in pushing ethics and values into the backseat. We first saw it with the Enron mess, now you don’t have to look far to see news lines about Madoff, Blagojevich, or all those involved in the housing crisis and financial markets. Could this whole financial crisis been avoided had ethics and true guiding principles taken first seat in all the decisions that were made? Ethics and values have lost out as profits and greed have been pushed to the top. Our society is suffering from a famine of personal ethics. There is no substitute for personal character, and there never will be. How deeply our culture’s “win-at-all-costs” attitude has eroded our belief in the primary importance of integrity and personal character.

Maybe it is time to take a self inventory of ourselves and our guiding principles.

• Are you choosing the harder right over the easier wrong?
• Are you leading by example?
• Would your actions in business be worthy enough for your children to see?
• Do you conduct every transaction as if it were for your family or friends?
• Are your actions the same when you are alone as when someone is watching?
• Do you refuse to compromise your principles, even if it affects your bottom line?

Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” Ethics is a matter of personal character; of what kind of person you are inside. The time is upon us in this country to return ethics and values to the front seat of all our actions. There is never a wrong time to do the right thing.

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