Many people are heading back to work this week. Back on deck, the same issues will be on their desk as before Christmas.  In case that isn’t enough to keep you busy, the weekend papers added to the mix with speculation about what might lie ahead for the economy, together with warm up discussion ahead of the Federal Election.

No doubt we’ll soon read and hear people talking about how the election year means ”nobody is making decisions”. Don’t believe them. Perhaps some might allow distractions to rob them of momentum, but can you afford it?

The politicians are in election mode, but you’ve got a business to run, customers to serve and sales to make so you can pay bills. Business can’t afford to stay in a holding pattern. If it does, a price is likely to be paid in the months and years after the election has long since passed.

Of course, it’s wise to consider factors that might affect business and respond to them appropriately.  So, yes, take a look at what’s ahead and properly assess the risks. And then get on with moving towards your targets.

For yachts in the Sydney to Hobart race, there’s nothing the skippers can do about the weather. It is what it is. But they can set course, and trim sail according to the conditions. Likewise business must operate in the political and economic climate we have, and push on anyway.

Your challenge in the months ahead will be to focus on your destination, and the actions to move towards this, whatever happens in Canberra or the broader economy – and despite what you read in the papers.

P.S.I know there are plenty of people who have been hard at work during the holiday season; in service business, retail and health and emergency services. So a quick “Thank you” to you for keeping things going.

Your business needs you to grow as a leader, but perhaps this year you should read fewer articles on how to be a better leader? Reading them may not help as much as you think. It’s what you do that will make a difference, but are you so busy reading that you don’t have time to work out what matters most?

I’m continuing today with the theme from earlier this week: working out what not to do in 2013, so you have the capacity to create a remarkable year.

A look at the Twitterverse, snippets of advice on Linkedin and shared pictures on Facebook and Pinterest could yield a new “most important question to ask” every day. With many such questions, if you were to stop and give the question serious consideration you’d be caught up for a day reflecting on it.

That’s not to say there aren’t some good questions to ask. One of the characteristics of a good leader is they ask good questions. Questions are a key to insights that help us improve. Unless we ask questions, we face the risk of mindlessly repeating mistakes, failing to perceive the need for change and limiting our personal growth.

Reading just one more article might yield that perfect question. Might. Sometimes.

But with all you have to accomplish (you’ve got goals, right?), you’ll need disciplined to avoid getting distracted by too many shiny blue balls and to actually get things done.

Consider what might happen if you were to exercise some discipline about what management and leadership material you read and how you read it.

Here are three suggestions for a leadership reading diet:

• Rather than dive into every random leadership article or Tweet, choose one book a month, read it, reflect and discuss with others around you.
• Limit your casual browsing and reading to a specific day/time or source (use bookmarks or favourites as needed). Purge unread stuff regularly.
• Broaden your reading. History, biography and fiction can all yield leadership lessons.

This New Year, what will you stop doing?

To achieve great things we must work out what to stop doing, and then have the courage and commitment to follow through on that decision.

New Year is a good time to decide what to stop doing  to help you have achieve great things.  It could be the most important resolution you make!

Many of us lead busy lives. If we want to build momentum, we do more. It’s much less effective than we sometimes like to think!

Working through our ever expanding ‘to do’ list might appear to reflect our self-discipline, but inability to say ‘no’ can highlight the opposite: a lack of disciplined thought about how to allocate our time.

Here’s a personal illustration.

Earlier this year, I resolved to write a blog post every day. I believed this would be beneficial in a number of ways. With energy and discipline I could have fulfilled on my commitment. But after a couple of weeks it became clear this was not a good use of time or energy. They were better directed somewhere else.

This discovery wasn’t much of a surprise.  These things are part of a journey towards figuring out the best use of our skills and talents, and sometimes we end up down a track that doesn’t fit, either in life or in business.

Here’s the business side…

In “Good to Great”, Jim Collins identifies the notion of a Hedgehog Concept. It is an understanding of what a company can be best in the world at (and what they can’t). This understanding drives the allocation of resources to the areas where they could potentially be the best. It is a foundation for the transformation from a good company to a great one.

For example, one of the good to great CEOs, Darwin Smith of Kimberley Clark, made the bold decision to get out of a business which delivered the bulk of its revenues (paper), and focus on the consumer business (think Kleenex).

So, to move from good to great in life or business, we must decide where to focus and probably stop doing some stuff we have previously been consumed with.

Here are three suggestions to help you do remarkable things in the year ahead.

1.  Good starting advice is “Pause, draw breath before you work out how to fill your time”.  You can read some thoughts on this topic here.

2.  Here’s a ‘Stop Doing’ exercise, which comes from an article by Jim Collins:

Suppose you woke up tomorrow and received two phone calls. The first phone call tells you that you have inherited $20 million, no strings attached. The second tells you that you have an incurable and terminal disease, and you have no more than 10 years to live. What would you do differently, and, in particular, what would you stop doing?

3.  Consider these questions, which also come from Collins’ work (and you can read more about them here):

• What are you deeply passionate about?
• What are you are genetically encoded for — what activities do you feel just “made to do”?
• What makes economic sense — what can you make a living at?

Past business success can stifle needed change. It can blind you to the need for change, or make it hard to push through the discomfort and disruption of new ways. Here are three things to watch out for as you consider changes needed to take your business to the next level.

Making change in business isn't as straightforward as moving house

Moving house, even moving countries is relatively straightforward. Things are put into a truck or container then you and they travel to a new place. It’s disruptive and adjustment is usually required, but you’re there making a fresh start.

When it comes to change in a business it’s not so easy! A new marketing campaign, or a new hire doesn’t transport the business instantly to a new world. A successful business can struggle to make or implement change even if it is critical for survival – even with those high profile new plans or people which promise so much.

Here are three ways past success can stifle your business by making change difficult to achieve.

1.  Complacency: you are comfortable where you are

Your hard work has paid off in revenue and profit. “Aaah! (you sigh contentedly), this is what we aimed for”, as you relax on holiday or buy a new car.

There might be a niggling concern about threats and risks. Or the business that once excited you has become a grind, you’re not spending as much time on it – and it shows.

Still, if finances are OK, and you’re not working too hard it’s easy to reinforce the idea you’re doing what’s needed — at least for now.

But it’s important to remember there’s no holding pattern in business. If you’re not moving forward, you face decline or extinction. Eventually, complacency or failure to innovate turns to decline.

The good news is that a business review and planning process can help you notice the issues and opportunities, and work out how to address them.

But beware….A plan is not enough. Here are a couple of other things that can stifle change:

2.  You’re already busy. Which means the new actions don’t get taken. Despite good intentions the day-to-day means we don’t implement the “To do’s” from a planning meeting. This can be a case of the urgent (or easy?) getting in the way of the important.

3.  Change isn’t instant, or easy. The new track may not be comfortable or easy, unforeseen challenges may occur or new skills acquired. The effort of change can be burdensome or frustrating, especially if results are patchy or slow, or you’re used to things ‘just working’.

These two things mean you’ll need support systems to carry you through change. This might include regular progress reports, team meetings, and coaching or mentoring from people with relevant experience.

Change isn’t always comfortable or easy. Established business practices can create forces that stifle change even if you have a plan! Remember, planning isn’t doing! Even deciding isn’t doing!

At some stage you and your team must do the necessary work and find ways to keep at it when the going is tough. But the rewards will be there with better results and greater satisfaction.

What roadblocks to change have you found? What helps navigate them?

As 2013 commences, you might be thinking about goals for the year. If you are, don’t just make goals – do the planning that will help you accomplish them.

Business planning helps a business be successful. Unfortunately, many small businesses underperform because their leaders either have no plan, or the one they have isn’t appropriate for their needs.

The results of lack of planning are reduced profits, missed opportunities and sometimes a struggle with balancing business and personal needs and priorities. It can lead to the owner merely coping day-to-day, or living pay cheque to pay cheque – essentially meaning they have a job rather than a business.

Perhaps you’re thinking “My business has done OK so far without a plan”. That’s great!  Some people do well enough in life and in business without a plan or goals, or at least they seem to, or say they do.

But even if things have been good so far, there’s no guarantee it will continue that way.

Or look at it another way, what could you achieve in business or your personal life if you had a sharper focus? What’s on your wish list?

Alternatively, things might not be so great at the moment. Perhaps you recognise some of these signs that planning is needed?

• Low or declining levels of profit
• Declining sales or lack of sales growth
• Lost customers
• Poor cashflow
• Difficulties aligning work and personal priorities
• You’re worried about how you’ll make enough to fund your retirement

Money can’t buy you love, and it can’t buy you happiness either. But we need it, so how can we get it in perspective? Here are some Sunday musings on money.

In his book “Authentic Happiness”, Martin Seligman suggests what many of us are pretty sure is true –  “money can’t buy your happiness”. We sometimes try to buy it, by purchasing things, or holidays or seeking accomplishments, but the more we have the more we want. The happiness doesn’t last.

Here’s what Seligman writes:

How important money is to you, more than money itself, influences your happiness. Materialism seems to be counterproductive: at all levels of real income, people who value money more than other goals are less satisfied with their lives as a whole, although precisely why is a mystery.

In short, it’s not money that’s the problem. It’s how we think about it, and the place it occupies in our lives.

It’s tricky to think about money in a helpful way, as we face pressures which often seem to pull us to place money, and the pursuit of it, front and centre. For example:

I work with business people, especially in smaller business, which means money, profit and managing the financial part of business is central to conversations. Money isn’t everything, but it is very important – especially now, when times are a bit tougher for many.

At a personal level, we need to generate an income so we can meet our needs today and in the future. We must pay off debt and put aside savings to pay for raising a family, caring for our elders, and to support us as we get older. Yes, we want to enjoy life, and we need to be financially responsible.

What’s your attitude to money?

Billy Graham said, “If a person gets his attitude to money straight, it will straighten out almost every other area in his life.”.

Since money can’t buy happiness, yet we need it, and it can be downright problematic when the money part of life doesn’t work,  we might be well advised to reflect on our relationship to money.

I’m just starting to explore this topic, and perhaps these questions can be a good start.

• What does financial responsibility look like? Consider in terms of being able to generate an income now and into the future, and also putting aside savings
• What can I do that will give me a sense of control over the money side of life?
• What are my non-financial goals? What am I doing to progress towards them and get a sense of accomplishment. Do this for business and personal life.

Have you got thoughts on this? Please leave a comment below.

What if you’re facing financial stress?

Many people are facing tough times and financial stress at the moment. I know looking at these money questions isn’t especially easy when that happens. When we are concerned about money, it tends to become much more high profile in our lives.

If that’s you, here are some tips

• I’d definitely recommend reading Seligman’s book for some helpful insights. One excellent suggestion is to take 5 minutes each day (just before you brush your teeth before bed), and write down up to 5 things you are grateful or thankful for. Do it for 14 days and see how you feel.
• If you’re in business and feeling financial stress. Here are some tips we created over at Smart Franchise.
• At an personal level, check out the tips at www.moneysmart.gov.au. You might also consider popping by my pal, Nancy Zimmerman’s blog. Nancy is a money coach, and she posts cool stuff to get people thinking about money and priorities.

For counselling, help and advice, related to mental health and depression, consider the following resources:

Black Dog Institute  - www.blackdoginstitute.org.au

Beyond Blue – www.beyondblue.org.au

Lifeline - www.lifeline.org.au 

I’ve been thinking about conference return on investment after attending the FCA National Franchise Conference earlier this week. We’re all looking after the dollars these days, and conference budgets are a prime one for the accountants to put under the microscope. A conference can be a fantastic business and learning opportunity, but it won’t happen without effort.

Here are seven tips to help you demonstrate a solid return on investment from time and money spent at conferences.

1. Have a positive attitude. If you’re there, be there with a mindset to make it worthwhile. Think ahead about what you want to achieve that will help you business.
2. Plan ahead. Go through the delegate list and tick off the people you want to meet. Follow tip number 4 and you’ve a decent chance of meeting many of them. Review the agenda and decide which sessions will be of the greatest benefit. Try to attend at least one which is outside your usual area of interest as this helps broaden your idea pool. For example, if you are a finance person, go to a marketing session.
3. Go to the conference sessions. If you don’t attend the conference sessions, it will be very hard to get value. Here’s the thing, if there are 6 sessions a day, and 3 breaks, and you only attend the breaks, you’ll miss learning opportunities and miss out on meeting 12 people (one on each side in each session).
4. Speak to people you don’t know. Introduce yourself to the people you are sitting next to (that means don’t leave an empty seat), move around at networking functions. It’s easy to start a conversation, simply ask the person what they are enjoying about the conference, or show an interest in their business.
5. Seek value. If you’re not getting value from an event the problem starts with you. There’s always at least one thing you can learn from listening to the speakers and sessions.
6. Provide feedback. Let the organizer know what worked and what they can do better. If you especially enjoyed something, let the speaker or panel member know directly.
7. Take action. Implement at least one good idea from the conference and connect with the people you’ve met.

Sunday is a good day for reflecting and thinking through priorities for the week ahead. Here are some questions to consider:

• What are the important things for me to achieve in my my work, my personal life, and for my health and wellbeing?
• What will I choose to do with this hour, this day,  this week?
• What will I do about the “other things”, which aren’t important? (remembering some of them might still need attention)
• What do I need to do differently in the week ahead?

Confutatis

When the accused are confounded,
and doomed to flames of woe,
call me among the blessed.
I kneel with submissive heart,
my contrition is like ashes,
help me in my final condition.

Lacrimosa

That day of tears and mourning,
when from the ashes shall arise,
all humanity to be judged.
Spare us by your mercy, Lord,
gentle Lord Jesus,
grant them eternal rest. Amen.

Persevering, whatever the weather!

Today is Day 14 of my Project 365 and it would probably be a good idea to give up on it and even so I am committed to continuing. This post is a bit reflective, as I take a breather and think about the next bit of the journey.

I had an idea my writing project would be a voyage of discovery, and it’s certainly turned out that way.

So far, I have hit my target of producing the posts, which is very satisfying and a good start, but it turns out it’s harder than I anticipated to pop out a blog post a day. It would be a good idea to give up, because to continue means making some changes, and change isn’t easy. Giving up (by which I mean not completing today’s post), would be easy. Were it not for my public commitment I might have done so.

The need for change has become clear as I’ve noticed the objections that showed up as I began to consider what would be needed in order to keep up the practice for the remaining 351 days. I was particularly caught up in the excuse that skipping one day wouldn’t matter that much.

It wasn’t too hard to justify missing a day: the week has been very full, I couldn’t come up with anything to write about (?!), other priorities for the day, I deserve a ‘day off’. On top of that was questioning whether I am actually adding any value. Is this simply a vanity? Is it really helping my business? You get the idea!

What’s interesting is most of these reasons to stop and justifications for procrastination arise from being challenged to write and the size of the commitment. Seeing them in black and white, they  now seem to be things to think through and address as part of the journey and as a way to get better. It makes them seem less scary!

Looking ahead, there are three things to do which I think will help with the next stage:

1. Create a structure for what I am writing. Yes, I know this is what the experts say, but in my case getting started is the best first step, and adjust from there. Having seen something of the road ahead, now is the time for more planning so the journey can continue.
2. Create time for reflection and personal development. The aim here is to improve what I do, rather than simply churn out stuff. As a general life thing, I do better when I have a bit more breathing space.
3. Adjust my focus. This is about responding to the importance of putting writing time into Smart Franchise and other work I’m with Peter. As Steve Jobs said:

You’ve got to find what you love … as with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it.

…have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

What this means in practice is allocating posts between here and other places. I’m excited about the focus this will bring and the opportunity to use posts here at Starfish to explore what happens on the journey to achieve a goal.

One of the lessons from this exercise is there’s nothing wrong with discovering an obstacle on the way to a destination. What matters is what you do when you recognise it.

Today’s challenges mean this post is late (it should be a Saturday post, but it’s now 12.30am on Sunday). I’m happy it got done. Taking things one step at a time I believe I’ll reach the destination, and enjoy the journey.

Over the last two weeks I’ve written a couple of times about the importance of looking for better, smarter ways to do business. So it was interesting last night to attend a discussion, hosted by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, about Corporate Innovation.

No surprise to see panel members from the academic world, and Aussie Tech success Atlassian, but I was curious about Nick Aronson, from CommBank.

Innovation wasn’t a word that came into my mind when thinking about banks. So it was fascinating to hear how that bank has chosen to make innovation and technology its point of difference (example here). It does make sense, given the way we are using technology for payments and the opportunity that presents for bank customers to be more efficient with financial management. Plus, if you’re a bank, finding truly innovative ways to operate could dramatically improve efficiency, reduce costs and improve service.

One of the panel members defined innovation as “The collision of ideas that creates value for a business”. Defined this way, innovation doesn’t stop with the idea, something is done with it that benefits the business.

So, innovation isn’t just creating cool new products, it can be about process, and using old ideas in new ways. The key is it brings ideas together and creates value for customers and the business.

On this basis, any business might choose innovation as a platform to help it stand out and create value. According to one of the panellists, innovation happens in every business, it’s just that not all shine a light on that. What if you did?

Business faces a plethora of challenges in this economic climate: to grow, bring new products and solutions to customers, contain costs, improve productivity of people, money and infrastructure, increase financial efficiency and so on.

As Einstein said:

The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

The ability to innovate both in product and process is looking more and more like it’s something we need to take on board to help stay ahead of the pack.

Some questions to consider:

• Where is innovation occurring in our business at the moment?
• Are we creating value from the collision of ideas (or are they just ideas)? Specifically, how?
• What could we do to create more value for customers and the business?
• What difference could it make if our business was known for its innovative approach?