Unplugged: The Secret To Maintaining Your Personal Rhythm

Unplugged: The Secret To Maintaining Your Personal Rhythm

by | Feb 17, 2015

Just as business follows the seasons it follows that team members who are part of the business also have a rhythm. This is called this your personal rhythm.  I’m sure each of you can identify certain times in the day when you are most productive.  If you’re like me you might be a morning person. I do my best work first thing in the morning – that is when I’m most creative.  My low point is usually around lunchtime and then I tend to get a burst of energy in the evening.

Joined Up Business Leaders appreciate that each team member has their own rhythm and so allow flexible working hours.  This means that if you are a morning person you can come in early and leave early or if you are more of an evening person you simply don’t come into work until lunchtime and then you work later into the evening.

Operating a flexible work schedule like this means that there must be trust between all parties that the work will get completed. Also, good communication is required by team members to ensure that there is always sufficient coverage within the team to meet the customers’ needs.  And, with business becoming more global than ever, there is a distinct business competitive advantage to having office coverage for more than just the traditional work hours, as you can then more easily service the demands of clients across borders.

In addition to the personal rhythm to your day, there is also a personal rhythm to the year.  Just like nature goes through the seasons, your own body passes through the seasons – having times when your energy level is high and times when you energy level is low.

Vacations are designed to help team members unplug and rest and recuperate. They are the equivalent of the winter season on the farm. They are required so that team members can come back with more energy and focus. Yet according to a March 2012 survey of 952 employees for the job and career site Glassdoor, some 15% of U.S. employees who are entitled to paid vacation time haven’t used any of it in the past year.

Ignoring vacations is a deadly short-term tactic, harming long-term business health.A division of Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) lost 80% of its revenue, and employees, as burn-out drove people away.  Unused vacation days is a simple metric of a company culture that values short-term benefits over long-term performance, and a culture that supports fear over results.

Recently, Richard Branson, founder and chairman of the Virgin Group, instigated a “non-policy” for paid time off. This decision means that all of Virgin’s team members in the company’s main offices in the U.S. and the U.K. now have open-ended access to vacation time. Branson got the idea from Netflix, another early adopter of the vacation non-policy, along with several other tech firms like Zynga, Groupon, Evernote, VMware, Eventbrite, and HubSpot.

Here are three reasons why team members actually get more done when they have open-ended access to vacation time:

  1. It makes team members less anxious if they have to take time off for family reasons
  2. It implies trust which breeds responsibility
  3. It makes people happier and want to work harder

I’d love to hear what policies there are in place at your workplace regarding vacation policy. As always feel free to email me or leave your comments on the facebook page.

 

Success Starts When You Leave Your Comfort Zone

Success Starts When You Leave Your Comfort Zone

by | Feb 4, 2015

This past week I’ve been working with several clients helping them to create their dream business and 90 day marketing plan. And one of themes that has continually come up of it is that when it comes to marketing our businesses we very often take the easy option.

I know so many of are telling me that you don’t have enough hours in the day to get everything done, and whilst I know that might feel true, the real reason is due to the fact that you are not focusing on income generating activities and being visible in your business.

Hey, I get it.  Often it is easier to think we are being productive by hiding our behind our computer and doing activities such as:

  • Updating your website
  • Posting a status update to social media
  • Writing a new article

However, your business is going to succeed and prosper if you grow by getting out of your comfort zone and doing something different. Remember the old Einstein saying:

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them“

So if you want to grow your business you’ll need to learn to step out of your comfort zone. Activities that might be out of  your comfort zone include:

  • Reaching out to a potential referral partner
  • Attending a networking event
  • Speaking either online or in-person

The technology we have available to us is making it easy for us to take the easy option; but yet make us feel like we’re marketing. Hence, the frustration with lack of results.

Whereas the most effective forms of marketing, especially for professional service providers, is all about personal connection and building relationships. Which means you have to take a step out of your comfort zone to do it.

So my challenge to you this week is how can you mix up your marketing so that you’re combining easy with the more challenging marketing activities?  Post your comments on facebook at let me know.

Are bottlenecks slowing your productivity?

Are bottlenecks slowing your productivity?

by | Jan 27, 2015

How often have you twiddled your thumbs, waiting for someone to get you information or permission to proceed? I know that for me that can happen a lot and it can be super frustrating.

You could get so much done if it weren’t for other people, right?

I know it often feels that we can get more done on our own but quite simply that isn’t true.  Our team members have valuable skills that we don’t have and we need them to be successful.  However, when someone doesn’t deliver on time this creates roadblocks as there is work we can’t complete until someone else completes their work. You can’t paint a wall until someone builds it.

These dependencies can create bottlenecks in an otherwise seamless workflow. Unless you want to drown in frustration, you’ll want to actively clear any dependencies that slow the workflow — and you may discover that the bottleneck is as frustrated about the situation as you are.

For example, one of my client’s teams was responsible for producing several lengthy technical reports each month, but it had one overworked editor. The entire group’s productivity was limited until an assistant was hired to lift the purely administrative tasks from her plate.

So here are my best tips on how to get things rolling again when bottlenecks occur.

1. Keep lines of communication open

Make sure your team members know you depend on them. It won’t help to sit there and seethe, only to discover the other person had no idea you were waiting for them to get back to you.

2. Make your needs clear

Tell your team members precisely what you need and when. Don’t beat around the bush: Keep your communications crystal clear, with fair expectations and milestones, emphasizing accountability.

3. Get their buy-in

Once you’ve told team members what you need, get buy-in on the due date. Let them see you write it down or send an official task request. This commits them to action, making them less likely to lose track of it.

4. Offer help

Let your team members know you’re there to help if a problem arises. If someone seems stalled or repeatedly fails, point it out and ask about the pattern. There may be obstacles you’re unaware of that are preventing a timely response, or the person might need help with organization.

The above steps will force most team members into action—and some will be grateful for the help. If nothing else works, develop a workaround, put a corrective action plan in place, or hire a contractor for the task at a site like www.elance.com or www.fiverr.com. These aren’t ideal solutions, but you can’t let someone else hold you back.

Action step:

Keep track of dependencies as they arise during the course of your work. Face them head on, instead of avoiding them or falling into frustration. You can’t allow anyone to slow down the whole operation, so clear any bottlenecks as soon as they appear. In your next team meeting, discuss what slows them down.

The Foundation Of Creating a High Performance Team: Right People, Right Jobs

The Foundation Of Creating a High Performance Team: Right People, Right Jobs

by | Jan 27, 2015

Whether you are a business owner or an employee it is essential that you find the right person or job role that is a match for you. I know given the tough economic conditions we’ve been through recently that it is tempting for a candidate to apply for any job for and for recruiters who needs to find resource to accept a less and ideal candidate.

Stop. This is such a flawed strategy for both parties and ultimately ends up costing everyone valuable time, energy and money as:

  • The candidate ultimately won’t enjoy the job. Sure they might be able to do the role, but are they giving 110% to it. If the role is not aligned to their own passion and purpose they simply won’t be as productive or creative in the role as they could be.
  • For the business owner they are not utilizing the team members best strengths and so ultimately the productivity and engagement of the team member declines and the net result is less profitability for the business.

What both parties crave for is a situation where the team member is working to their strengths, and delivering massive value to the business . This occurs when the team member is in a state we call flow. Put simply, flow is the path of least resistance. When team members are in flow, productivity rises, results increase, occurrences line up, everyone has more fun and feels more connected to the organisation and it’s goals.

When a team member is in flow they feel energised, focused and fully engaged in the task at hand. Often there can be a distortion of time as their internal clock does not seem to match the external clock – perhaps you have experienced this when you have been doing something you love and time just literally seems to fly by. That’s a time that you were in flow.

So how do you know if you are in flow:

  • If you are feeling stressed, overwhelmed or anxious, then it’s a fairly good indicator you are out of Flow.
  • The opposite is true when you are in Flow, you feel joy and even rapture whilst performing the task. In the work place, this results in a harmonious environment.

The challenge I come across time and time again are team members that are in the wrong roles. They are not playing to their strengths and as a result the are sabotaging the success of the business. This is not usually intentional it is just that unless you are in flow you are unlikely to be able to access the hidden 90% of your potential that exists.

Imagine the benefits if all your team members were operating at or above their peak performance level. Imagine what an impact that would have both on the motivation of the employee but also on the organizational results. Customers would feel more cared for, projects would get delivered on time and the harmony in the workplace would be infectious. This is the type of workplace where trust pervades as everyone is doing their role to their very best.

One tool that I use to help my clients and their business get into flow is something called Talent Dynamics. Based on an ancient Chinese philosophy, the I Ching, it allows each person in a team or organisation to understand the quickest and easiest way for them to get into and stay in Flow by working with their strengths. It also helps them understand where they are most able to add value to the organisation. Simply, by understanding the value you contribute to a team, then you can immediately help identify potential Business Development opportunities.

If you manage a team then by profiling your whole team you can create mutual understanding and get the whole team into flow. Understanding the strengths of team mates and how they contribute and add value to the business allows you to better communicate and it is easier to gain trust and respect with each other and so deliver results in performance and profitability.

So whether you’re a business owner or a candidate make sure that you find the perfect role for you – one that speaks to your strengths and where you can add real value.

The first step to finding out your strengths is to identify where you are most trusted in business. You can take the quick 30 second assessment at http://bit.ly/trusttest.

My Best Productivity Secret….

My Best Productivity Secret….

by | Jan 22, 2015

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about productivity.  You see it just frustrates me at the amount of time, energy and resources we waste simply because we are not effective and productive and don’t have Joined Up Business practices in place.

For me it has been one of those weeks.  It has seemed like I have not been in control of my schedule. I fell victim to reacting to everyone else’s agenda rather than pro-actively leading my business, and the result is that I’ve been left feeling frustrated that I have not achieved all the things that I wanted to do.

Being a proactive leader of your business and grabbing the reins is so important to ensure success and yet there are times when life seems to take over.  For me this week it has been the ongoing saga with my website that my hosting company took down for nearly 30 hours, just when I was in the middle of a launch!!!  Exasperated does not described how I felt.  Now they acted in good faith because my site was being hacked by bots that were impacting the performance of other website on the server, but still that didn’t help me.

So faced with having wasted loads of time sorting out this issue I found myself up against a few tight deadlines to get work completed. It is then that I remember that old trick that really successful and productive people engage in everyday.  They practice R&D!  No not Research and Development (although I bet they do some of that) but rather Replicate and Duplicate.

When you replicate and duplicate you become super productive as you leverage all the work that you have done before.  By simply re-purposing old content you can instantly create new products and services.

For example:

  • If you have a talk you deliver frequently turn it into a book
  • Convert a book into a workshop
  • Take a workshop and develop a coaching programme around it

In this way one piece of effort leads to at least three new offerings.

And of course you can take content from two or three sources and then combine them to create something completely new.  That’s what I’ve done this week to enable me to create a article for a magazine by their deadline.  I’ve re-purposed and re-packaged some of my earlier work. And I have to say the end result is pretty remarkable.

So how can you maximize your efforts by building new products and services on what you are already doing?

I’m betting you already have a deliverable core to your business and your customers’ needs.  Now let’s turn it into a variety of new offerings by plagiarizing…re-purposing … sections from your original work.

Less work.  More money.  Take this action this month and reap the benefits…income…all year.

If you’d like to more about how to be more productive and effective in your business mark your calendar for Weds 4th Feb when I will be hosting a complimentary training call and sharing some of my best productivity strategies.

The Road Ahead: What Will You Do Differently This Year?

The Road Ahead: What Will You Do Differently This Year?

by | Jan 7, 2015

As we kick start the New Year a great question to ask yourself is what will you do differently this year?  This is something I have been asking myself over the Christmas holidays and I already have some cool plans in place to make some changes.

Changing the way things are done can bring opportunities for great success. But reaction to change may be fearful and irrational, which can result in failures, a decrease in quality and a loss of production? When it comes to work and business, it can be tempting to give in to those anxieties by doing what’s always been done. But priming the pump to have a better year always involves some form of adjustment to free up the time, money and energy to tackle new opportunities.

How do you decide what changes are the most important ones to make?
Ask yourself these questions:

  1. What personal and business tolerations interfered with personal and work progress? Tolerations are a good indication of issues in need of resolution?
  2. Were last year’s goals reached? Why or why not? How will those obstacles be addressed? Setting new goals without having evaluated the previous year’s goals can result in a cycle of substandard results?
  3. What fiscally responsible goal (making more money, collaborating, creating new products/services, improved marketing strategy, etc.) will also be fun? All work and no play makes Jack a dull (and bored) boy, as the saying goes.

What do you need to change to have a better year?

Choose passion over profit. Connect to your bigger purpose in life, work and business and the rewards will flow effortlessly. Passionate people attract success?

Higher learning. Technology changes fast. Staying on top of what’s working now is only half the battle. Discovering what’s up and coming and leveraging that knowledge is the key to an exceptional year?

Celebrate success. Acknowledging and rewarding success keeps everyone motivated. Mark those mini-milestones with celebration and recognition!

Add, don’t subtract. When repeat clients stop buying your products or services, something needs to change. Instead of cutting prices, add value instead–bundle existing services/products, add bonuses or create new offerings.

What are your blind spots?

Every driver has blind spots. That’s what rear-view mirrors are for. Blind spots in the work and business environment can be harder to identify. How does a person avert disaster in a work environment without the benefit of mirrors?

Ask around. Getting honest feedback from clients, customers and service providers can be as uncomfortable as it is invaluable. Do it anyway?

Seek professional help. Getting an objective outsiders opinion can help you see what is going well or not?

Coffee time. Chat up a colleague and encourage them to share their observations about what you are doing well and what needs improvement. Sometimes what needs to change is missed because it is so “obvious.”

Moving into a New Year doesn’t have to be a scary proposition. Having a clear sense of what’s ahead can circumvent failure and create a successful year.  And if you want some help identifying your blind spots just apply for one of the limited, complimentary Accelerate Your Success sessions that I offer every month. You’ll be glad that you did.

Are You Putting The Cart Before The Horse?

Are You Putting The Cart Before The Horse?

by | Jan 5, 2015

One of the many challenges in business today is the rapidity of change. With so many conflicting demands the difficulty for many business leaders today is that they simply don’t know what to focus on.

For example should you:

  • focus on improving your website to get leads?
  • spend time on improving customer satisfaction?
  • give attention you need to give to securing new clients?
  • focus your time on better training your team?

Without any idea about how to prioritize your time you are effectively driving your business blind with no visibility as to what is happening around the corner.

Business leaders are running around like headless chickens re-actively responding to the demands of business rather than leading their businesses to profitable growth. And when this happens business priorities get confused and often result in business leaders putting the cart before the horse.

No where is this more prevalent than in the area of Big Data where time and time again I come across business leaders who are putting the technological demands of the business ahead of the business goals of the organization.

The first thing that all business owners must understand is that any data collected and analyzed MUST align with the business goals of the organization. For far too long IT has driven the decisions on how to deal with Big Data. And yes there are significant IT decisions to consider. But designing business intelligence systems that meet solely technology needs is a huge waste of time and money. Instead I would encourage all business owners to focus on the business needs and then find IT solutions to support this.

However, the data and the business goals are not two separate entities, rather they must be Joined Up so they both integrate and align with the needs of the business. When this happens technology becomes a powerful business ENABLER and not the DRIVER of the business.

If you’d like to learn more about How To Leverage the Power of Big Data in 2015 so that it can support rather than hinder your business, then I invite you to watch this free online training video that I’ve created for you. It’s available at www.businesshorsepower.com/big-data-paradox.

Are You Driving Your Business Blind?

Are You Driving Your Business Blind?

by | Dec 23, 2014

Numbers are your best friend in business and yet time and time again I come across business owners who are running blind. They simply don’t know the numbers in their business. And since they don’t know their numbers they don’t know if they are on track to achieve their goals or not.

One of the reasons many business owners are not looking at their numbers are that they are afraid of what they might see. But trust me, taking the ostrich approach and sticking your head in the sand is never a great option. Sure, it might work in the short term but in the long term if your business is losing money each and every month you will soon go bankrupt.

Knowing your numbers helps gives you visibility in your business to know what is ahead and based with this knowledge you can make changes. So for example, if your budgeted to make £10,000 in sales this month and three quarters of the way through the month you realise that you have only banked £5,000 then you can take corrective action. For example you could have a sale of your products to generate some additional revenue or could launch a new product or service.

You see knowledge gives you choices about what to do. It helps put you back in the driving seat of your business – fully leading it- rather than the business running you.

Still not convinced. Here are five ways that tracking your numbers will benefit your business:

1. Know how far you are from reaching your goals.
Scores of research prove that individuals and organizations who set goals are much more likely to achieve them. However, to achieve a goal, you must be able to properly measure your progress. By understanding how your business is doing in both revenues and profits daily, you can tell if you’re on track to achieving your goals and adjust your plans as needed if you’re not.

2. Pinpoint and manage key underlying issues.
There are a handful of smaller activities that effect larger results. For example, the following are often key underlying issues for sales:

  • Number of outbound sales calls
  • Number of live connections
  • Number of proposals given
  • Proposal close rate
  • Average price per sale

When sales are low, most entrepreneurs don’t know what to fix to see improvement. By tracking each of these numbers, you can instantly know what to fix.

3. Discover problems before it’s too late.
Most entrepreneurs have a bad sales month, then look back to determine what caused it. Had the entrepreneur tracked his numbers on the underlying issues, he could have fixed the problem early on. For example, he might have learned that the number of proposals issued in the first week of the month was low, and made sure more proposals went out the door.

4. Quantify success and failure.
By understanding and tracking your numbers, you can measure whether your business is performing well. For example, if your sales team made 500 outbound calls already, your number of customer complaints is less than 10, and your average delivery time is less than seven days, you can rest assured that your business is running smoothly.

5. Offer team members more constructive feedback.
Tracking and publishing your numbers tells team members what’s important. For example, if you track customer satisfaction, number of refunds, and average customer hold times, your customer service manager knows precisely how he is being judged and what to improve.

One final thought. Don’t just look at your numbers to determine what needs fixing. Use them to pinpoint what’s working well in your business and do more of that. A great tool is to create a business intelligence dashboard that contains all the key metrics that you need to run your business in one place.

Remember: what you measure you treasure. So if you really want to start making more money in your business start paying more attention to the numbers on a daily basis. You’ll be so glad that you did.

And if you’d like help to Accelerate Your Business Profits then please request a complimentary strategy session. I offer a limited number of these each month so apply for one here

 

 

Please, Don’t Plan To Fail in 2015

Please, Don’t Plan To Fail in 2015

by | Nov 26, 2014

Most business owners and entrepreneurs I know don’t plan to fail in their businesses – let’s face it who wants to fail – and yet with 1 in 3 business failing in their first year this is the position many people find themselves in.

And if you have survived the first year, congratulations, but beware because only 50% of those of you who survive the first year will make it through the next four years.

Scary isn’t it.

So what is the the number one cause of this failure? According to Dun & Bradstreet, the primary cause is lack of business planning.

Yes, entrepreneurs and business owners don’t plan to fail. Rather, they fail to plan (which causes them to fail).

To my mind, there are two types of business plans. The first is the business plan you must create when you start your company. The purpose of this plan is to ensure you have fully thought through your venture.

Among other things, this plan includes significant market research. It assesses your market size to ensure the opportunity is big enough. It analyzes customer segments to confirm that customer needs match your company’s proposed product and/or service offerings. And it analyzes the competition to determine how your company will position itself and how you will most effectively compete.

From a strategic standpoint, the business plan must document your marketing plan (how you will secure customers), your human resources plan (who you will hire) and your operations plan (what key milestones you will accomplish and when).

When you’re done, your business plan will confirm your market opportunity and give you a roadmap to follow. It will also be required should you wish to gain funding from investors and lenders.

Now, once your business is up-and-running, you still need a business plan in order to succeed. I refer to this type of business plan as a “strategic plan.” I term it as such because this type of plan requires much less research (since you already know who your customers are, the market fundamentals, and lots of information about your competitors). Rather, the focus of this plan is strategy.

Specifically, this plan needs to identify precisely:

  • Where you want your company to be in five years
  • What you need to accomplish within the next year to progress you to that point, and
  • What your strategy is to complete your key milestones in the next 12 months

It is also useful to undertake a SWOT analysis so that you are clear on your company’s strengths, and opportunities and how best leverage them.And so you are not blind sided you also need to be consciously aware of your company’s weaknesses and where the potential threats might lurk.

I like to keep this strategic plan short (often just one page) and the Growth Accelerator Orbit Plan is a great tool to use. It helps detail on one page your 3-5 year plan in all the key areas of your business. Seeing everything on one page enables you to easily understand how all the different parts integrate in order to create a Joined Up Business.  Many of my clients find that armed with this information their original plan does not compute. For example they have not planned for sufficient resource to deliver the revenue targets.  Clearly seeing this means that corrective action can be made now before it is too late.

If you don’t take time to do this, you become too tactical. That is, you continue to use the same tactics that have gotten you to the point you are at. And oftentimes, the strategy and tactics that got you where you are today are NOT the strategy and tactics that will get you to the next level.

Creating a business plan when you start your company, and annually creating strategic plans to grow your company is absolutely essential to your success. Research proves it. So, if you want to avoid failure, and achieve maximum success, make sure you are continuously creating, updating and following your business and strategic plans.

Currently there is funding available through Growth Accelerator to help businesses develop both their business and strategic plans, so if you are interested in finding out how I can help you access this funding and create these plans for you then please get in touch – julia@businesshorsepower.com.

Ensure your business success in 2015 by planning for it.

To Get the Most Out of Your Team, Ask Better Questions

To Get the Most Out of Your Team, Ask Better Questions

by | Nov 19, 2014

“There’s no such thing as a self-made
 millionaire. Only TEAM-made millionaires”

Teamwork is to my mind the most effective way in business to create success.  Being in business is tough and there is simply no way that you can do everything by yourself. Each of us has own our brilliance and working with team members enables you to focus on your brilliance whilst letting others do theirs.  The net effect is that everyone is in a state called flow, which is the state of least resistance.  Then business becomes easy and fun.

But how do you get the best out of team members and inspire them to give of their best to help your business grow and be successful.?  The answer is to ask better questions. So  are you a teller or a questioner?

In other words, when you’re working with your team members (or outsourcers) do you tend to tell them what to do or do you engage them in a conversation by asking questions?

If you’re like most entrepreneurial leaders, chances are you’re the former. If that’s true, then my question to you is “How’s that working for ya?”

My guess is it’s not working out as great as you’d like it to. In fact, I find that most entrepreneurial leaders are pretty frustrated with the people they’re “leading.” See if any of the following statements ring true for you

  • “They never do what I tell them to do!”
  • “It always takes her ten times longer to do what I asked her to do. If she’d just listen to me, she could get it done in one tenth of the time it’s currently taking!”
  • “I can’t understand why it’s taking him so long to do what I asked him to do.”
  • “I can’t figure out why she just can’t follow my directions.”
  • “I didn’t hire him to think. I hired him to do what I tell him to do.”

Ouch! And I fully understand those sentiments. As an entrepreneurial leader myself I understand why you want people to do what you want them to do in the way you want them to do it (after all, you are the BOSS, right? And it is YOUR company. And you do pay THE BILLS. And they do work for YOU, right?).

Furthermore, I get the whole driven part of the entrepreneurial personality. According to Talent Dynamics I have lots of dynamo energy so, by personality, I like being a teller. I like saying, as chances are you do, “Here’s what I want you to do. Now, just go do it. No questions. No debate. Just get it done EXACTLY how I told you to do it.”

But, as you well know, that approach doesn’t produce the best results

The Problem With Being a Teller

What I learned, and hopefully you are as well, is that being a teller is a counterproductive leadership approach. Why? For a number of reasons. I’ll give you three.

1. Telling doesn’t create buy in. As you know, people own what they help create, which, by definition means they don’t own what they don’t help create. So, if you or I say, “Billy, I want you to do X in Y way,” how much does he own that? Virtually nil. And if someone doesn’t own a task or project or process/procedure or event or strategy or tactic, the chances of them producing the best result will always be lower than if Billy is involved in creating the solution. Telling doesn’t work because it doesn’t create buy in or ownership.

Note: We’re not talking about following systems here. We’re talking about solving problems or creating something new.

2. Telling doesn’t produce the kind of people you want/need. In other words, if you’re a teller, you’re NOT developing your people to be their best (whether that’s to be a better leader or problem solver or innovator or coach or process person, etc.). Or to put it another way, if you or I are always in the telling position, then we’re not creating independent thinkers. And if we’re not creating independent thinkers, then we’ll have to keep doing all the thinking—which leads to the third reason why you don’t want to be a teller.

3. Telling doesn’t create leverage. If you or I still have to do all the thinking, then we’re not creating leverage. We’re simply creating more work for ourselves. We become the bottleneck to growth. If our people don’t own the task, then we have to invest more time in managing and leading the task. If our people aren’t really excited about a task or project, then more conflict will occur, which means we’ll have to invest more time. Or, if the only people we’re happy with are people who will just do what they’re told, then we’ll always put a lid on the quality of the kind of employee we can hire (which, again, kills leverage).

Any way you add it up, being a teller, just isn’t the smartest leadership choice you or I can make if we want to grow a fast growing business or organization.

The Better Option

The better option, if you want to get the best from your team is to learn to connect, engage and communicate with them. Even if this isn’t your natural bent, you can learn to do this. In fact, the reason I’m writing this post today is because one of my clients said to me this week—when we were discussing an employee situation and I was role-playing out the conversation for him, “Julia, one of the things I appreciate about you is that you’re so good at asking questions. I’m not. That’s just not how I’m wired.”

To which I responded, “Thanks for the compliment, but I’m not wired that way either.” Learning to use questions to lead isn’t a natural ability for most of us, it’s an acquired skill. And it’s not that hard to do on a skill level, it’s only hard on an implementation level. So, here are a few ideas to help you get started on unleashing your inner questioner.

1. Learn to see yourself as a developer of talent, not a boss. At the end of the day, most of us like to be tellers because we see ourselves as “the boss.” When we own the boss hat, most of us like to be in the teller role (I hired you. I pay you. Do what I tell you to do). And as long as we own that mindset, we’ll struggle with asking questions. However, if you can make the mental shift from boss to talent developer, you’ll begin to see your role completely differently (which is key because talent developers create leverage, whereas bosses don’t).

2. Make questioning your first response. I know this may feel pedantic, but when someone asks you a question, ask them a question back. Refuse to just give the answer (something that most of us who are male will always struggle with :-). Instead, when someone asks, “So, what do you think I should do?” throw it back to them, “First, tell me what you think you should do?” If they say, “I asked you first.” Just respond, “Well, how do you think I’d respond?” Return question for question. As hard as this is, don’t give the first answer.

3. Open your team conversations with questions. Instead of saying, “Taraji, we have a problem here. And here’s what I want you to do.” Open the conversation with a wide open question. “Tariji, as you know, we have a problem here. What do you think is creating it?” Or, “What’s your best thinking about how to solve this?” Or, “Do you have any ideas about how we can eliminate this in the next 30 days?”

Yes, there is an art to asking good questions (for example, wide open questions are better for creating independent thinkers), but what’s more important is that you embrace the principle that being a questioner is a better leadership choice than being a teller. Once you do that, you’ll acquire the skill set over time through trial and error. But you’ll never get there if you don’t embrace this concept as a core leadership practice.

So do you? Do you really believe that being a leader who leads through questioning is better than being a leader who leads by telling? I hope so because the choice you make will have profound consequences for you and your company for years to come. So, choose wisely! Remember,

“If you want to get the most from your people, then you need to draw the best that is in them—out of them.”

By the way, if you’re thinking, “But asking questions sure takes a lot more time than telling,” then you probably don’t own the idea that a leader isn’t a boss, a leader is a talent developer who leverages the time, talent, treasures, resources, intellectual property and connections of their people to produce a result.

Oh, and one last thought. This practice is irrelevant to size. It doesn’t matter if you’re leading a two person team or a two thousand person team, the same principle holds.

Go forth and ask better questions.

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