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• Would you show this video to your people?
  
  
• Here’s your business growth strategy for this Fall - in 4 words
  
  
• Why solo consultants often struggle to scale their business
  
  
• The correlation of business growth to how you meet
  
  
• Why Mondays are so often unproductive
  
  

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Would you show this video to your people?

Microsoft (and maybe Dell) should be playing this video before every management meeting (although of course they won't).

Watch how at just 90 seconds in, she's got her first "I did it" moment already, and by 4 minutes in she's playing a virtual piano:





Which prompts the question:

What would be the content of a video about your perfect competitor? What would scare you to death if you saw it in action?

...and more importantly...would you play that video to your people? And how would they react?

Here's your business growth strategy for this Fall - in 4 words

The single most common question I get asked right now? A no-brainer: "How am I expected to grow my business in this economy?". Here's the answer in four words:

By increasing market share.

Here it is in 15 words, if you like detail:

Sell more of your existing products (or services) to existing (and new) customers or clients.

In other words - and most importantly - stop with the new stuff.

The media love to tell stories of new product and service launches (Apple, anyone...? Google...?) - unless the numbers are enormous, there's nothing very interesting in reporting that company X simply sold more of the same stuff this month as it did last month.

But - that is precisely your best path to business growth.



So unless you're reacting to obvious macro-changes in your customer's spending patterns, stop with the new product launches and the new service offerings. It's difficult enough to sell new products to new people in the best of times, and these aren't they.

Remember what you're really good at and do more of it. We can all get back to the froth in a couple of years from now.

Why solo and brand-name consultants often struggle to scale their business

Solo consultants - particularly those with a strong IP - often struggle to scale their practices. In this short (8 minute) video I explain why that is and what to do about it.

Note: If you're reading this in your RSS reader and cannot see or play the video below, click here to view it online.

Comments:

The correlation of business growth to how you meet

It's usually possible to tell how actively a business is growing just by watching the senior management team meet.

Management teams in businesses that are growing in a sustainable, structured manner tend to meet frequently, for shorter periods of time, with a small number of agreed outputs from each meeting, and those action points are typically focused on opportunistic issues.

The management teams of those businesses that are stagnant or not growing, tend to meet less frequently, for (much) longer periods of time, have many more action points from each meeting, and both the majority of the discussion and the action points tend to be focused on remedial issues.

What's your meeting-to-growth correlation like?

Why Mondays are so often unproductive

Ever wonder why Mondays are often so unproductive? Here's why:

All the Operators in the organization arrive back at work raring to go - they just want to get started - on the road, at their desk, on the production line - whatever they're paid to do, that's what they want (in fact, need) to do. And the sooner they get to do it, the better for all concerned.

Meanwhile, all the Processors are sharpening their 2b pencils and humming to themselves as they print out agendas for a great start to the week: meetings, of course. They want (in fact, need) to have those meetings to feel they've made a good start to the week. Little do they know that the Operators in the organization would rather stab themselves in the eye with a paper clip than start the week in a meeting.

Now watch all the Visionaries - they're arriving back after a restful weekend golfing, eating and drinking...and having read articles in books and magazines (or on their iPads) that have given them all sorts of great ideas about what the 'next big thing' is for the business. Like the Processors, our Visionaries are also excited at the prospect of having a meeting - but not in order to fix things and decide stuff, like the Processors...oh no...our Visionaries are looking forward to the meeting so they (and everyone else) can listen to the sound of their own voice, being brilliant, incisive...and, well... visionary!

So there you have it - every Monday morning (and more so after every major vacation) a little kabuki plays itself out - the Processors want to have meetings so they can get the week started well by managing stuff, the Visionaries want to hijack the meetings to look brilliant by sharing the next, imperative big thing, and all the Operators are tearing their fingernails out because they'd rather be anywhere than in a meeting.


The answer? This is where the Synergist has to step up to the mark and broker a solution. Instead of trying to meet these competing desires at the start of every week, instead have short, Processor-focussed meetings on Mondays, and let the Visionaries have their own brainstorm/blue-sky meetings on Fridays - or at least later in the week or month when the Processors and the Operators can relax because they've got some 'real work' (as they see it) done.

3 ways you can be a better leader by Monday

Here are three simple things you can do this weekend that will make you a better leader by Monday morning:

1. Reconnect with your leadership grounding. Whether it's a relative, a book, a teacher, a movie, an inspirational quote, a mentor, a memory or a set of beliefs, we all have somebody or something that is our touchstone for the purist fundamentals of why (and how) we lead.

You need to reach out and reconnect with that person or thing and put in place a process or system that ensures you remain connected in the future.


2. Be vulnerable with your friends and family. As leaders in business we accrete over time a carapace of 'rightness'; our western business culture equates leadership with 'winning', with not making mistakes. True leadership isn't about that - it's about inspiring and engaging others to pursue courageous paths that we ourselves are taking. It's about treating other people as real human beings, and being real in turn, with them.

Start reversing the process - begin removing that hard skin - with the people you feel safest with. This weekend, relax - truly relax - with your friends and family. Be vulnerable.

3. Take the day off. You're at your best when you're fresh. You know it; everyone else knows it. So why are you 'on' 24/7? Rest, my friend. Your followers need it.

Comments:

Where do truly loyal customers come from?

Where do truly loyal customers come from? Right here:


Truly loyal customers are built from actions that are consistently congruent with your core values. How close are your espoused values with the real values your people express to each other, to customers, clients and suppliers day in, day out?

Managing on one leg

Go on, admit it. You're managing while hopping on one leg.

I've worked with around 1,500 management teams, and I can't recall one that wasn't in some way consciously hobbling it's ability to make high quality decisions.

This isn't a criticism or a moral judgment, just a statement of fact. We all do it, but over time we rationalize or compensate for the 'hobble factor', until eventually we become inured to it, and accept it.

Frankly, it makes my job as an external growth consultant easy, because to a fresh pair of eyes the hobble factor is usually startlingly obvious - and painful to watch. Calling it, and working to remove it brings a quick and almost always financially impactful win.

Here are the five most common ways in which management teams hobble their ability to perform at a consistently high level:

1. Putting up with someone on the team who clearly shouldn't be there (can be for any one of a number of reasons: not enough skills, battlefield promotion, legacy shareholder, the business has outgrown them, they're the CEO's favorite - whatever);

2. Poor communications (again, can be for a variety of reasons: meetings not run well, personal agendas at work, too insular, "don't bring me bad news" culture, are just a few);

3. 'Sunk cost' mentality: The management team are clinging to a practice or process not because it's the best for the business, but because they're so heavily invested in it (this could be a specific product line, a pricing structure, distribution channel, a hiring practice, a commitment to a geographic or demographic market - again, YMMV).

4. Out of their depth / too lightweight a team (the business has grown, but the management team haven't grown with it);

5. There's an elephant in the room (usually a 'sacred cow' that no-one is allowed to challenge, or an individual or group dysfunction that must never be mentioned, or simply a fact about the business or the marketplace of such glaring, damning, negative import that no-one is brave enough to mention it).

So do yourself a favor (and save a chunk of consultant's fees) - call out your 'hobble factor', untie that strapped leg and after massaging the blood flow, enjoy the delight of managing on two legs.

How to achieve alignment in your organization, in 80 words or less

People don't rally round vision statements (or mission statements, or values statements - whatever you want to call them). They rally round leaders who embody those statements.

You won't achieve alignment or a sense of ownership in your organization by refurbishing your mission statement and lobbing it over the transom at your folks. You will rekindle self-ownership, loyalty and yes, alignment, by first achieving constructive, supportive, mission-congruent cohesion amongst your top team. Once they're in alignment, the rest will follow.

Why niche-hopping (aka The Dilettante Syndrome) will derail your business growth

Every business that gets into Fun eventually falls prey to the Dilettante Syndrome.

Cigar manufacturers decide that because we love their cigars, we will also buy their perfume. Perfume companies put their label on men's shirts. Luggage companies start issuing travel guides.

And it's not just large companies that fall into the Dilettante Syndrome: smaller, service-based businesses do it too. Successful lawyers think they should get into ship chandlering. Realtors start restaurants. Successful travel gurus start a new web site to share their social media tips. Social media gurus share their travel tips, and just about everybody thinks - gawd help us - that they must share their inane productivity tips with us all.

By itself here's nothing in itself terribly wrong with this - it's a natural part of growing up for every organization of whatever size, whether it's a three-man band or major corporation - and left to itself, it will usually run its course as the business moves from late Fun into Whitewater, where the business needs to refocus around its original core competency in order to stabilize and return to growth.

The problems only start - weirdly and counter-intuitively enough - if the business actually achieves a modicum of success with one or more of these new niche-hopping sidelines. When this happens, the lure of the now successful-looking pretty new thing begins to cause a real loss of focus and a drain of resources. Success in this new field feeds the Dilettante Syndrome, leading to more niche-hopping, more (and more adventurous) sidelines, a bigger drain on time and resources, and less focus on the core business.


The point? Enjoy your niche-hopping detour, but see it for what it is - muscle-flexing at the beach. Set clear limits on the time, money and resources you will devote to it, and if you're lucky enough to see a little success with it, be prepared to either drop it or hand it off.

Your real business will thank you.