Technical proficiency – doing the work you do in your business – tends to get most of our attention, followed by learning to run a good business. Personal performance is often neglected. Until quite recently, personal performance has been relegated to a nice to have, maybe. That is, if you happen to be into that soft stuff.

Challenging Times

However, we are living through very challenging times. It hasn’t been “business as usual” for 5 years now. Being really good at what you do and running an efficient business isn’t enough anymore. Each and every one of us needs to be able to handle high levels of stress and relentless, unplanned for change. We have to be able to perform under very trying conditions when the stakes are high and it really matters. In times like these, personal performance moves to the forefront, in terms of importance.

Improving Personal Performance

One of the easiest ways to improve personal performance is by improving our ability to keep focused, despite everything that’s going on around us. This ability to focus, or mindfulness, enables us to be keenly aware of what’s happening in the present moment without judging or reacting to it.

Practice Mindfulness

Research has identified all kinds of benefits of practising mindfulness from improved health and happiness to improved performance. The really good news is anyone can develop mindfulness. It just takes some time and commitment. All you need to do is spend 10 – 15 min. per day practicing. Here’s the short version to get you going. For full details and a really interesting read, have a look at this article in this month’s Scientific American Mind. The steps listed below come directly from that article:

• Find a place where you can sit up comfortably and relax.
• Pay attention to your breath, following it through your body.
• Notice the sensations around your belly as you breathe.
• Choose one place in your body that is affected by your breathing and focus your attention there.
• When your mind wanders, and it will, bring it back.
• After 10 minutes, open your eyes.

As with anything, developing mindfulness takes time but it’s definitely worth the 10 minute investment every day. Being mindful doesn’t prevent problems but it does cultivate personal resilience, a critical success factor for life and business.

How do you cultivate personal resilience?

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Start Climbing

I was able to connect the dots and found another source of learning. So far, I’ve read 2 of Kathi’s posts, one on Mark’s blog and one on hers. I am a digital immigrant and somewhat of a late-comer. Also, marketing isn’t my forte. You put those 2 elements together and you have a pretty steep learning curve.

Laser Focus

What I find particularly interesting and reassuring about what I’ve read from Kathi’s posts is that I’m exploring, connecting the dots and seeing themes emerge, themes that are universal. The first post I read focused on how to translate your business’ stellar real-life reputation to the online world. Rather than focusing on which online channels to use and how, Kathi brought it down to essentials:

• First look inward and make sure your real-life customer experience is exceptional
• Be relentless about delivering what you promise
• Be authentic and transparent
• Make sure your customers can get all of the information they need in all the places they need it

Content is King

The second post I read focused on how to develop a content strategy. While acknowledging that using the services of a content specialist with industry expertise is helpful, again, Kathi boiled the process down to essentials by telling readers to ask themselves these 2 questions:

1. Who is my ideal customer?
2. Are we using the correct voice? In other words, is the content relevant to our ideal customer?

The content in these posts is relevant but what I really took away from going to Kathi’s blog is the reminder to avoid developing tunnel vision. At first glance, there would be no reason for me to visit a site like Kruse Control.

Need for Speed?

I don’t work in the automotive sector and while I really appreciate my car (his name is Ramon), I’m not really a car person (much to the dismay of my colleagues who are just a little bit crazy when it comes to their cars lol). But Kathi speaks in a fresh voice, at least, fresh to me, because she works in a completely different sector.

Explore and Connect the Dots!

Through the power of the web, we really do have the world at our finger tips. So go out and explore! Challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone and explore blogs and web sites that are vastly different from your usual fare. Then work to connect the dots and incorporate your learning into your own business. You never know what you might find.

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Be Approachable

In this post, Craig talks about his sister-in-law, a very successful sales person. The secret to her success? She doesn’t sell. Instead, she is, in Craig’s words, approachable, trustworthy and genuine. With everyone. All the time. Whether they are prospective clients or not.

The Bugaboo

When I read things like this, I really wonder why sales is such a bugaboo for me, and so many of us. But since it is, I am so grateful that people like Craig and Jim Connolly and Kelley Robertson share their perspective, advice and knowledge so freely. Who knows? Someday, I may be as comfortable with my sales function as I am when I’m working with clients. One can always hope.

If you have an uneasy relationship with sales, I strongly recommend you hop on over to Craig’s blog and read this post. Craig connects being genuine in the sales process to blogging and says it much better than I could.

Techniques

How do you bring yourself to become more comfortable with sales or blogging? Is it easy or challenging for you? I am happy to share my experiences with you but I am more interested in learning how you work through your struggles associated with sales. Reframing the sales process to be one that is more focused on being approachable and providing people with information has really helped me. However, what techniques have you adopted and what resources have you leveraged?

Thanks in advance for sharing!

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6. Actively Plan Incremental Transformation Steps

Many times exponential business growth is the result of an unanticipated opportunity presenting itself but you can plan for it – sort of. You can actively look for potential opportunities and you can position your business to take advantage of them when they appear. Here’s how you do it:

A) What Do You Want to be Famous For?

When you created your visionary plan, you set goals for what you wanted your business to become. Think of those goals as describing what you want to be famous for.

B) Assess your Current Reality

Right now, what are you famous for? Those products/services that are generating the most profit with your best clients are what you should be famous for right now.

Use all of the communication vehicles available to you to start getting the message out about the problems you solve and the solutions you provide when your “A” employees deliver your most profitable products/services to your “A” clients.

C) Find a Niche

Now look at the gap between where you are now and where you want to be in the future. Look for niche opportunities that you can move into and own. The best example I can give of this, I learned from Troy Claus in one of our ongoing educating-Sharon-about-strategic-marketing conversations. Everyone wants to be ranked on the first page of Google because that’s how you get found.

Troy’s motto is don’t waste time going head to head with the giants. Instead of wasting resources trying to be ranked number 1 for the most common search terms, find niches you can own and put your efforts there. The giants will rank number 1 for the most common search terms. You likely don’t have the resources or breadth to compete against them. Find a niche that moves you forward and own that.

D) Repeat

Repeat this strategy over and over and over again until one day down the road, you’re where you want to be. Or, way beyond it.

7. Embrace Challenges and Chaotic Situations

Look for, expect, and lever unexpected opportunities and challenges. No plan ever rolls out exactly as we expect; not even the very best thought-out plans in the most predictable and stable environments. Real life, and therefore implementation is messy!

Instead of pulling your hair out trying to force everything to go to your plan, expect to go off course. Pay very close attention to surprises, the ones you like and the ones you don’t like. When they show up, and they will, look for ways that you can harness their energy and slide up a ladder to exponential business growth.

You have to assess whether you want to go up that ladder, or not. Ask yourself this; If we go in this direction, will we be aligned with our business foundation and is it moving us towards our big, long-term goals? If the answer is, ‘Yes”, then hop on and steer.

Exponential growth can kill a business faster than a slow decline. However, exponential growth is one of the fastest ways to achieve and exceed your goals. Having a solid foundation and a plan you’re willing to depart from positions you so you can catapult up the ladders and perhaps avoid sliding down the snakes. What’s your experience with exponential or rapid growth? Any tips to share? As always, thanks for your time!

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Last day, we spoke about the importance of mindset and understanding where you’re generating the greatest return. Today I want to discuss three equally important factors when managing exponential business growth.

3. Solidify your Business Foundation

Exponential business growth is difficult to manage without establishing and clarifying your behavioural foundation. Believe it or not, your business rests on a foundation made up of who you are, why you’re in business (beyond the obvious) and what you’re building. This foundation supports and influences every decision you make. Your foundation is most useful when it’s available for people to use, rather than just something everyone knows.

If you haven’t done so, take some time to get your values (who you are), purpose (why you’re in business) and your vision (what you’re building over the very long-term) into writing. If you have employees, talk with your team about how to use these tools when making decisions. Work with your team, or on your own, to align how you do business with your foundation.

4. Create a Visionary and an Incremental Plan

One of the hardest things in managing exponential business growth is not understanding exactly where you and your business is going.

Do you know what you’re working towards? Do all of the people who work with you? Take some time to flesh out a vision for where you want your business to be 3 or 5 years from now. Ask yourself questions like:

• How much gross revenue at what profit margin do you want to be generating?
• Where do you want to be doing business?
• How many locations?
• How important is eCommerce?
• How many people will you need to have working for you?
• What will be new?

Once you’ve got that picture in mind, flesh out a 12 month plan. In order to achieve your 3 – 5 year goals, what do you need to accomplish this year?

Share this with your team. Discuss how you’re going to measure progress. How are you going to hold yourselves accountable? How are you going to celebrate the successes and how will you learn from the failures? If you don’t have a team, I strongly recommend you pull together some trusted advisors to help you plan and most importantly, support you, through implementation.

5. Right-Size your Clients, Employees and Suppliers

Make a list of your clients, your employees and your suppliers. Score each one against your core values, purpose and vision. How aligned are they? Do they come from the same place as you?

In terms of your customers, do a further check to see how profitable they are. Do you make money, break even or lose money dealing with each customer? Rank each A, B, C, or D. Create plans to “fire” your D’s and C’s so you can focus more time and attention on your B’s and A’s.

As you move forward, be proactive as you hire and find new customers and suppliers and look for right-fit. Be aware that this is an evolving process. As you experience exponential business growth, many things will change and the concept of right-fit will evolve.

Thanks for joining me! Next day we will discuss creating incremental steps for implementation and the importance of leveraging challenges. Please feel free to share any experiences you have had with this and post comments below!

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Snakes and Ladders

Sometimes growing a business can be a lot like playing a game of Snakes and Ladders. Out of the blue, a major customer declares bankruptcy and you’re sliding down the snake. Out of the blue, a major customer hands you a huge amount of new work and you’re catapulted up the ladder of exponential business growth.

While exponential business growth is way more fun than losing a significant chunk of work, managing it can be tricky. Oddly enough, it can be more challenging than managing decline.

7 Steps to Managing Exponential Business Growth

Here are the first two steps to help you prepare for and manage exponential business growth:

1. Mindset is Everything

Lots of business owners say they want exponential growth. The concept is a no-brainer – make way more money, way faster, achieve your goals way sooner. The reality can feel brutal. Exponential growth can feel like an onslaught. You have no time to do anything “properly”. You just have to keep moving. The mental image I keep getting is the Tasmanian Devil from the Bugs Bunny cartoons. For me, he personifies “exponential growth”.

It’s exhausting and it can scare the heck out of your employees because the way it feels can easily be interpreted as chaos and total out-of-controledness (not a word I know but just go with it). I think part of the reason it can feel so brutal is because we think we can manage it. If by “manage” we mean that we can control it and make it roll out in a nice organised fashion, we’re in deep trouble.

When you find yourself catapulted up that ladder, you really just have to go with it. Exponential growth sets the tempo. You steer. In order to be able to do that more comfortably, it helps to prepare for exponential growth long before it’s on the horizon. Steps 2 – 7 will help you do just that.

2. Show Me The Money!

Find out where you’re making money and where you’re not – you have assumptions about which products/services are profitable. Every now and then you need to test your assumptions. Frequently, where we think we’re making money, we’re not. Generally it’s because over time, things change. Profit margins shrink through increased competition, increased costs etc.

Ok everyone, deep breath. I’m about to reference accounting. Get your Profit and Loss Statement (aka Income Statement) and analyse the numbers for each product and/or service you sell. Which are most profitable?

Think carefully about the kinds of resources you have to invest in order to deliver each product/service. Don’t just divide your total overhead equally. If something takes more time or more people or requires specific equipment or bigger space, make sure you factor in those costs. Revenue growth is critically important but in the end, it needs to be profitable, or why bother?

If you have no idea how to do this, get your accountant to help you. If you don’t have a Profit & Loss Statement, hire a bookkeeper. You need one.

Well that’s all we have for today. Please feel free to include any comments below and join me next day for steps 3-5. Thanks again!

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What Does Engagement Mean To You?

Part of the challenge with “engagement” is that it means different things to different people. At Jump-Point and Clarity for the Boss, engagement is the key driver of sustainable business results.

Engaged people take personal responsibility for getting the results they need. Engaged employees engage your customers and your prospective customers. This fills your sales funnel, pulls opportunities toward you, gives you access to the creative genius within the people around you and enables you to deliver the kinds of results that bring in profitable revenue.

Engagement is Critical

Engagement is not a nice to have. Engagement is an absolutely critical element of success in today’s world. And to build a culture of engagement, first and foremost, you have to decide that you want to. Our thinking drives our results. So what do you think?

Is engagement a critical element of a successful business or fluff and nonsense? If you think it’s fluff, I strongly suggest you don’t go down the road of trying to use engagement. It won’t work for you, which will of course, prove you were right. I’m being very literal here. Take some time to explore what YOU believe about the value of engagement as a driver of business success.

Focus on Strengths

Begin building a culture of engagement by focusing on strengths. When we work from our strengths, we’re automatically more engaged. We like what we’re doing, we feel competent, confident and we can accomplish more in less time. Find ways to align people’s work so at least a part of the day they’re being fed while they’re feeding the business.

If you want to learn more taking a strength-based approach, visit Marcus Buckingham’s site. He’s been studying engagement for over 15 years.

The Power of Accountability

Accountability is a critical part of creating a culture of engagement. As a rule, we don’t do accountability well. We tend to hammer people with blame and shame. That is just never helpful or productive. Change your thinking about accountability. Think of it as a fan that feeds the flame of success. When people know their work matters, when they know they have to show up and deliver or they’ll be missed, they feel valued.

If you want to learn more about using accountability as a fan rather than a hammer, visit Partners in Leadership. They are a wealth of useful, practical information and resources.

Engagement Leads to Passion

Engaged people are passionate. Passionate people really care. Far from being soft, fuzzy and dripping in sunshine, truly engaged cultures are raw and can be loud. You need to be able to have open dialogue and healthy debate.

Productive friction among passionate, engaged people is the spark that flames creative solutions and outstanding results. Yes, sometimes those conversations can be difficult. If you decide to build a culture of engagement, be prepared to get really comfortable with being uncomfortable.

There’s a lot of fear and uncertainty in the world right now. A culture of engagement helps people feel safe and grounded despite choppy water. If you embrace it as an integrated approach to driving sustained profitable revenue, you will create a business that is adaptable, flexible and storm proof. To listen to real life stories about engagement driving business results, visit The Power of Engagement.

Feel free to share your thoughts here. Engagement: a critical element of successful business or fluff and nonsense? Thanks for sharing!

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Conference Networking

I love conferences for all kinds of reasons. Generally the level of speaker or presenter ranges from very good to exceptional, I love the interaction with peers from other places, especially other countries and I am deeply committed to lifelong learning and learn best through dialogue and interaction with others.

As a consultant, I’ve recommended attending conferences for all kinds of reasons. Early in my business career, I was shocked the first time a client said that attending conferences was a waste of time. It honestly never occurred to me that anyone could see it that way. However, I can see their point. So you go to a conference, you listen to a bunch of people, sit in on sessions, meet folks and now what?

The Power of Implementation

That is a very good question. Here are a few tips to help you answer it and get the most out of your investment of time and money:

• Before you register for any conference, even a local lunch-and-learn, understand why you’re going. Stop and ask yourself why this is a good idea. Even if the conference is free, it’s taking up your time. Make sure you know why that’s a good idea.
• Before you decide which conference to attend, do your homework. Spend time on the conference web site. Is the conference aligned with your business or personal development goals and objectives?
• Before choosing which sessions you’ll attend, take time to research the presenters. How credible are they? Do they appear to be aligned with your goals and objectives? Can you view any clips of them presenting or video blogging? Spend some time finding out if they are indeed good presenters. By “good”, I mean presentation styles you value.
• If networking is one of the reasons you’re going, set your performance focus before you leave. How many people do you want to connect with? What type of people? Prospective clients? Prospective suppliers? People who can open new doors? People you can partner with? Why do you want to meet these particular people?
• Take notes while you’re there in both the plenary and break-out sessions. Even half day conferences provide such a huge amount of information, you’ll never be able to retain it.
• Upon return, create an implementation plan. That sounds like it might be a big and onerous task but all I mean is this; how are you going to implement what you learned and how can you leverage your new contacts?

Implement Today!

Think about all of the times you’ve read a book, participated in a webinar, gone to a workshop, networking event or conference and then done nothing with the new information. A few days (or even hours) after the event, you can barely even remember going.

I don’t mean to imply that just experiencing the conference itself isn’t valuable or worthwhile. It absolutely is and if that’s the reason you’re going – to experience it – then make sure you’re really present while you’re there. Turn off your smart phone. Don’t check messages in every break. Take some time to integrate and reflect. Let it fill you up.

So what are your thoughts? First of all, do you think conferences are worthwhile? Do you feel you need to implement something in your business to make it a worthwhile experience? If you’re a conference lover, which conferences do you recommend? I need to plan my travel itinerary for 2014!

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The Value of Anger

For those of you who didn’t happen to see this post, Dan’s perspective is that anger is a valuable asset. “You aren’t tough enough to win until you’re angry enough to do what’s extraordinary.” He concludes his post by saying, “So maybe it’s time to get angry. And stay that way.”

The discussion that followed this post was varied and interesting. As always, Mark’s responses to each comment furthered the conversation. In his response to my comment, he suggested I mull on the value – or not – of anger and write a post. So, voila, Mark, I hope this gets you thinking even deeper!

It’s An AND!

Are emotions good or bad? Do they help or hinder? Are some positive and some negative? I think the answer to all these questions is “Yes” because I think fundamentally, this is not an “either/or” topic. I think it’s an “and” topic.

Dan makes a great point in saying that brushing off our emotional responses and developing a thick skin that numbs us to how we actually feel, absolutely hinders our ability to deliver our best and contribute to our world.

Mark also makes a good point when he says being angry feels crappy, makes his blood boil, hardens his arteries and can cause some people to become violent. All of which also hinders our ability to deliver our best and contribute to our world.

Information + Energy

Being angry is both constructive and destructive. It depends entirely on what we do with the anger and how we choose to respond to our feelings.

When you break them down, emotions are really just information and whole pile of energy. The information part is the content – that person doesn’t like me, they said I wasn’t smart, that my content is crap, the way they’re acting is wrong and unfair, etc.

The energy part is the charge that comes with it, it’s the feeling part. The information triggers the energy so we experience them both at the same time.

Constructive Anger

I think the key to using anger constructively lies in this sentence, “Masking failure with excuses, deflection, or baggage from your past just stops you from harnessing the bitter rage that would otherwise move you past your obstacle.”

The bitterness is attached to the information, the content. The rage is attached to the energy. Find a constructive way to deal with the information and then use the energy to move forward. It takes practice and discipline but it’s powerful. And I think that’s what both Dan and Mark (and others who commented) are doing, each in their own way.

Pay Attention!

Ignoring our emotions means we’re missing out on significant information we can use to help us craft lives that have meaning for us. It also means we’re sitting on a whole pile of energy that we could be using more constructively. When we use the information and the energy, our arteries don’t harden, our blood stops boiling AND we move through obstacles.

I found myself resonating with every comment on this particular post. I’ve been hurt and shut myself down as a result of that hurt. I’ve just let it go and moved along after accepting that not everyone is going to agree with or like me and really, it has nothing to do with me anyway, and I’ve taken things very personally and used that passion, to quote Amber-Lee from Pioneer Outfitters, “TO. MAKE. A. DIFFERENCE.”

So what do you think? Is anger good or bad? Positive or negative? Both? What do you do with your anger?

Great Information

If you aren’t familiar with either Mark or Dan’s work, I suggest you head over to their blogs right now and have a read. They are a great sources of valuable insight and plenty of food for thought. I also strongly recommend you take time to visit the blogs of the people who commented. Every single one of these people shares valuable, meaningful content, consistently:

Jens P. Berget – http://slymarketing.com/

Amber-Lee Dibble – http://pioneeroutfitters.com/blog/

Jayme Soulati – http://soulati.com/blog/

Rogier Noort – http://www.rogiernoort.com/

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Being an Effective Leader

I was going to start this post with a really great quote on leadership. So I Goggled, “leadership quotes” and found this Forbes article listing the author’s top 100 leadership quotes of all time. I was sure I’d find a quote that would illuminate my main point, which is that being an effective leader is clearly one of the main goals of leadership.

With that, I decided to include 10 of my favourite quotes from the Forbes article. Nine of which are listed at the end of this post.

I feel that quote is the best way to make my point, so I’ll start with this one by Ralph Nader:

“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”

This notion of leader as someone who empowers has been around for centuries. It shows up in the modern work place in concepts such as the inverted organizational chart (placing leadership at the bottom supporting and empowering everyone else).

At Jump-Point we talk about how important it is to cultivate Big L, or formal leadership and Small l, or informal leadership among everyone, whether they have a formal leadership function or not.

Employee Engagement

There is absolutely no question that organisations with a high level of employee engagement, a high level of morale and a strong culture of personal responsibility and accountability are profitable and more sustainable over the long-term. In practice though, it’s not the norm. So, why the gap?

Being an effective leader is not easy. By that I mean, it’s difficult personal work. You can be pretty much guaranteed that at some point or other, your personal hot buttons are going to be pushed. Balls will get dropped, especially as you first embark on transferring responsibility and power throughout your business and not controlling everything yourself. People will do things differently from you even though you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your way is THE right way, right?

Empower Your Team

Empowering people, sharing leadership across everyone in your business isn’t the norm because it demands that you become self-reflective enough to know what your hot buttons are, recognize they’re being pushed AND have developed the skills so you don’t react in the moment, shut someone down and lose their trust. It also requires that you actually let people experience the natural consequences of their choices. You have to embrace accountability as a fan to fuel the greatness in the other person.

I learned all of these lessons in my previous professional life, when I taught environmental education and leadership. When I first started teaching people to teach, I was quite frankly,
brutal. I micro-managed and controlled and basically squashed any original thought and all enthusiasm. And then I learned literally, to sit down, cover my mouth and shut up. I watched as people got tremendous results coming at a lesson in a completely different way than I would have.

An Uphill Climb

It’s true; my way was THE right way. For me. Not everyone. When I let go and let my students experience the natural consequences of a successful or awful lesson, they learned and more often than not, they delivered magic.

Effective leadership is more work and it is absolutely worth the effort and moments of stress. Much sooner than you think, your right fit team members will deliver results that will amaze you. It will transform your business. It will transform you in the process.

How do you share effective leadership across everyone in your business?

Leadership Quotes

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. —Lao Tzu

To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less. —Andre Malraux

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. —Theodore Roosevelt

When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out. —Napoleon Bonaparte

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish. —Sam Walton

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. —Bill Gates

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. —John Quincy Adams

Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better. —Bill Bradley

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. —Harvey Firestone

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