5 Crucial Leadership Failures To Avoid

5 Crucial Leadership Failures To Avoid

Thomas J. Watson, the founder and first president of IBM said:Ā  “Failure is a teacher ā€“ a harsh one, perhaps, but the bestā€¦Ā  Thatā€™s what I have to do when an idea backfires or a sales program fails.Ā  Youā€™ve got to put failure to work for you ā€¦ you can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it.Ā  So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can.Ā  Because thatā€™s where you will find success.Ā  On the far side of failure.”

I know when I was starting out in business I used to dread getting things wrong and having projects fail. I used to think that failure was something bad, to be avoided, but along the way I have begun to realise that my best lessons are learnt when I try something and it doesn’t turn out as planned.Ā  In effect I’ve failed but the feedback I get is priceless and it helps me calibrate my offering and do something different.

Recently I read an article about the African impala.Ā  They can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet and yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3 foot wall.Ā  The reason is that these animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will land.

This is a lot like humans.Ā  Many of us will not live up to our full potential and achieve all we want to as we are afraid to take a risk. We are afraid to fail as society has conditioned us that failure is bad.Ā  That was certainly the messaging that I got as a chlld, however failure can be one more step on your road to success ā€“ you just have to turn it around in a positive direction.Ā  Failure can push you harder to succeed.Ā  Failure can strengthen your determination to overcome obstacles.Ā  Failure can make you braver in the face of opposition.Ā  Failure can help you learn what you need to do in order to succeed.Ā  Failure can teach you what your limitations are ā€“ and your strengths.Ā  Failure can encourage you to change your strategy.

“Failure is not an option” became a popular catchphrase after the release of the movie Apollo 13.Ā  Failure happens, but when youā€™re responsible for the people working for you, you have to do everything you can to guard against it.

As a leader, devote yourself to avoiding these crucial failures in leadership.

  1. Disconnecting from people.Ā  Donā€™t get so caught up in strategy and planning that you forget to talk to the people who work for you.Ā  Most of the time, they know more than you about how things work from the ground level, and their insights can be invaluable.
  2. Doing too much.Ā  Delegate appropriately so you donā€™t get overwhelmed and lose sight of the big picture.Ā  When you hire, look for people who can perform aspects of your job as well as or better than you can.Ā  Your role is complicated enough without adding tasks that your team should be able to handle.
  3. Avoiding risk.Ā  Play it safe, and your organization will never grow.Ā  That doesnā€™t mean being foolhardy with your organizationā€™s assets.Ā  Seek opportunities everywhere, and be willing to commit resources wherever youā€™ve got a reasonable chance of success.
  4. Exhaustion.Ā  Take care of yourself, physically and mentally.Ā  Eat well, exercise, and take time off so you can stay fresh as you confront the dayā€™s challenges.Ā  Pushing yourself to the brink will only increase everyoneā€™s anxiety.
  5. Falling in love with authority.Ā  Youā€™re the boss, not a monarch ruling by birthright.Ā  Donā€™t rely on your title, and the volume of your voice, to get employees to do what you want.Ā  Base your decisions on your experience and judgment, and be willing to listen to other points of view instead of assuming that only you know whatā€™s right.

When J. K. Rowling, author of the phenomenally successful Harry Potter series, had been out of college for seven years, she found herself at a dark juncture in her life.Ā  At that time, she says, she had failed in life on an epic scale.Ā  “An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded.Ā  I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless.”

In short, Rowling says she was the biggest failure she knew.Ā  And while she says there is nothing ennobling about being poor, she believes she reaped benefits from her failures.Ā  Failure, she says, stripped away all the inessential aspects of her life.Ā  She stopped pretending to be anything other than herself, and it was then that she began to earnestly pursue the only work that mattered to her.Ā  It was not, she says, the fairy-tale transformation to success so often written about her in the media.

And one thing I have learnt is that becoming successful – whatever that means for you – is never something that happens overnight. Despite all the media hype success takes hard work because it takes 10,000 hours to perfect your craft. So imagine the opportunity for failure along the way and embrace this and learn from the experience because this will help accelerate your success.

So what leaps of faith will you take today to move your business to the next level?

 

10 Traits of Innovative Leaders

10 Traits of Innovative Leaders

In a recent article the Harvard Business Review cited the following as traits of innovative leaders. I’m curious what you think about these traits and are there any you would add.

Many organisations would like their leaders to create more innovative teams. But how exactly should they do this? Most highly innovative leaders can often find it difficult to pinpoint what accounts for their skill. Research carried out by US ā€“based leadership development consultants Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman identified 10 distinctive behaviours that set innovative leaders apart.

These leaders:

  1. Display excellent strategic vision. The most effective innovation leaders could vividly describe their vision of the future
  2. Have a strong customer focus. They networked with clients and asked incessant questions about their needs and wants.
  3. Create a climate of reciprocal trust. They initiated warm, collaborative relationships with the innovators who worked for them.
  4. Display fearless loyalty to doing whatā€™s right for the organisation and customer. Pleasing the boss took a back seat to doing the right thing for the project.
  5. Put their faith in a culture that magnifies upward communication. These leaders were often described as projecting optimism, full of energy, and always receptive to new ideas.
  6. Are persuasive.Ā They presented ideas with enthusiasm and conviction, and the team willingly followed.
  7. Excel at setting stretch goals.Ā They set goals that required people to go far beyond just working harder but required that they find new ways to achieve a high goal.
  8. Emphasize speed. These leaders believed that experiments and rapid prototypes were preferred to lengthy studies by large committees.
  9. Are candid in their communication.Ā These leaders were described as providing honest, and at times blunt, feedback.
  10. Inspire and motivate through action.Ā  This comes from a clear sense of purpose and meaning in the work.

So do you have the skills and mindset as a leader to create innovative teams?Ā  I’d love to hear if you’d focus on anything different.

Unplugged: The Secret To Maintaining Your Personal Rhythm

Unplugged: The Secret To Maintaining Your Personal Rhythm

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.Ā  Iā€™m sure each of you can identify certain times in the day when you are most productive.Ā  If youā€™re like me you might be a morning person. I do my best work first thing in the morning ā€“ that is when Iā€™m most creative.Ā  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.Ā  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 donā€™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 customersā€™ needs.Ā  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.Ā  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.Ā  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 Virginā€™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-endedĀ 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 toĀ 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

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.Ā  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 ofĀ  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?Ā  Post your comments on facebook at let me know.

Are bottlenecks slowing your productivity?

Are bottlenecks slowing your productivity?

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.Ā  Our team members have valuable skills that we don’t have and we need them to be successful.Ā  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 ā€” 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 actionā€”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

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 weā€™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 wonā€™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 wonā€™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 itā€™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 ā€“ perhaps you have experienced this when you have been doing something you love and time just literally seems to fly by. Thatā€™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 itā€™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 toĀ add valueĀ to the organisation. Simply, by understanding the value you contribute to a team, then you can immediately helpĀ 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 youā€™re a business owner or a candidate make sure that you find the perfect role for you ā€“ 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….

This week Iā€™ve been thinking a lot about productivity.Ā  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.Ā  It has seemed like I have not been in control of my schedule. I fell victim to reacting to everyone elseā€™s agenda rather than pro-actively leading my business, and the result is that Iā€™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.Ā  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!!!Ā  Exasperated does not described how I felt.Ā  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 didnā€™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.Ā  They practice R&D!Ā  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.Ā  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.Ā  Thatā€™s what Iā€™ve done this week to enable me to create a article for a magazine by their deadline.Ā  Iā€™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?

Iā€™m betting you already have a deliverable core to your business and your customersā€™ needs.Ā  Now letā€™s turn it into a variety of new offerings by plagiarizingā€¦re-purposing ā€¦ sections from your original work.

Less work.Ā  More money.Ā  Take this action this month and reap the benefitsā€¦incomeā€¦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?

As we kick start the New Year a great question to ask yourself is what will you do differently this year?Ā  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.Ā  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?

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 donā€™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?

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 Ā£10,000 in sales this month and three quarters of the way through the month you realise that you have only banked Ā£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

 

 

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