The first is FEAR. Fear is internal; it’s in our head, however it is the great crippler of human potential. Fear can be divided into three basic categories:

• Fear of Failure – Not trying ensures failure.  A better perspective on failure is to equate it with learning.  When we stop failing, we stop learning.  No mistakes = no action.
• Fear of Criticism or Rejection – When you don’t get the sales order, it means you didn’t get the order, not that you or your product was rejected.  This can lead to feelings of “I’m not worthy.”  Your worth as an individual isn’t on the line – a business transaction is.
• Fear of Non-Conformity – This can rob you of your uniqueness.

Ask yourself: What are my fears and how might they be holding me back?

The second reason people resist change is because of EGO. The need to be right is a powerful human need. It’s a common problem with leaders, managers, and business owners who have had a taste of success.

Ask yourself: Is it possible that my need to be right is an obstacle?

The third reason why people resist change is to avoid CONFLICT. Because when you try to do something different and create change, you’ll create and get some conflict. And conflict isn’t fun, so many people just avoid it all together.

Ask yourself: How comfortable am I with conflict?

The fourth reason that people resist change is LACK OF PURPOSE. Without a sense of purpose, people become stagnant and complacent. They also tend to get burnt out.

Ask yourself: Have I created a compelling vision for my business?

The fifth reason people resist change is LACK OF INFORMATION or poor communication.  People deal better with change equipped with information, even if the information is negative.  You cannot lead unless you have a sense of purpose – for yourself and for your team. What’s your vision? Is it something that everyone understands and has a stake in?  How do you continually communicate and reinforce your vision?

Ask yourself: How would my team rate me as a communicator of my vision?

In today’s world, we face more change in a year then our grandparents may have faced in their lifetime.  It can be overwhelming; it can be scary; it can be frustrating, or it can be exhilarating. Regardless of how you view change, the fact remains that it is very real, it won’t go away, and your business’ growth depends on it.  In his book, The Renewal Factor, Robert Waterman says, our “willingness to understand and exploit change is a powerful competitive weapon.”

Ask yourself: How well do I actively seek and exploit change?

The first step is always the most painful. To get your employees to accept and embrace change, you must first lead by example. That means that you must demonstrate your willingness and ability to change before you can expect them to change!

A simple, yet powerful way to accomplish this is to do the following:

1. Ask your direct reports (and, if applicable, your boss) to list the top three things that you could change to make you a more effective leader. Don’t accept any fewer than three answers, because the third is usually the most important one.
2. Compile the list of suggestions and share it with your team, then pick 2 or 3 items from the list and make a commitment to change.
3. Share your progress with your team and ask them to help you hold yourself accountable.
4. As you progress, it’s time to ask your team to follow in your path and complete the same exercise for themselves.

The fundamental truth is this: As goes the leadership team goes the rest of the firm.  Whatever strengths or weaknesses exist within the organization can be traced right back to the executive team and their levels of cohesion, trust, competence, discipline, and willingness to change and adapt.

Ask yourself:  Am I modeling the thoughts and behaviors I expect from my team?

Your answer to that question might not be comfortable, but it will explain precisely why your organization either is or isn’t performing the way you want.

In other words, he’s worth your time!  Take just over 2 minutes (2:04) and get a dose of Tom Peters to spark your thinking.

I recently heard from my colleague Vern Harnish – author of “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” – that in his 27+ years of educating executives of growth firms the best predictors of success are a voracious thirst for learning and a bias for action – that is, “learn fast, act fast.” It’s why Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, has created a habit of shutting off his Blackberry over the weekend and reading a book or two.

Happy reading!

Stony was working in the New York area for 9 days replacing all of the hydraulic lines on the largest dredge on the planet, which was temporarily dry-docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  Its next assignment: hitch a tow to Central America and then deepen and widen the Panama Canal.

His employer is the largest hydraulic maintenance contractor in the US.  As we conversed during our flight, it became clear to me that Stony was highly experienced, well trained, motivated, and clearly proud of and very good at what he does.  For his organization, Stony represents the “tip of the spear,” or the front line – where the heavy lifting, blocking and tackling, and money of the business is made.

I asked if he had time during his stay to visit Manhattan.  He answered, “No – and it’s too bad, because I’ve never been in the city and I’d really like to see it.  We worked 12-15 hour days, so there wasn’t any time.”

When I followed up and inquired where he stayed while working in Brooklyn, he told me that his team stayed in a hotel in New Jersey approximately 50-60 minutes from the work site.

“Wow,” I said. “You were working 12-15 hour days and had to commute an hour each way? I’m sure there are plenty of reasonable accommodations much closer to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.”

Upon hearing this, Stony paused, thought for a moment, and then through a frustrated smile said: “Well, you know how Corporate works.”

The truth of Stony’s situation is his belief that “Corporate” doesn’t care.  Unfortunately, there is ample evidence to support him.  After all, who in their right mind would put a work crew in a hotel an hour away from a 12-15 hour per day job when there are plenty of closer (and affordable) alternatives?  To his credit, he never complained to me about it; he just shrugged it off as if resigned to his fate.

As our flight touched down smoothly in Houston, I knew that there had to be much more to the story.  I wondered what else Stony knew that none of the people at “Corporate” cared to ask him about – and I wondered what that lack of open communication was costing all of them.

Who are the “Stonys” – the most experienced, most valuable, most dedicated front line employees – in your organization or department?  What can you learn from them?  Do you have mechanisms in place to regularly solicit their input and feedback or does communication in your organization tend to flow only 1-way – from top to bottom?

High performing organizations have deliberate 2-way communication and feedback mechanisms in place to tap the collective wisdom of their front line staff.  Find the Stonys!  Then start asking the right questions to further engage them and learn from them.

A significant part of the history comes to us courtesy of a couple of bicycle builders from Dayton, Ohio named Wilbur and Orville Wright.  In fact, there’s a National Park – The Wright Brothers National Memorial – in Kill Devil Hills that commemorates their incredible achievement of controlled, powered flight.  It is an amazing place to visit and learn.

Although one can argue that the events that occurred at Kill Devil Hills on December 17, 1903 changed the course of history, I believe that the events leading up to that day were much more important. As I learned the details of their story on that overcast, windy day this past August, I realized that Wilbur and Orville were teaching me about how to systematize innovation.

You can learn from them too.  Straight from the history books, here are the Wright Brothers’ 5 steps to innovation:

1. Solicit outside help and become a voracious reader.
2. Create customized tools specific to your needs.
3. Plan meticulously and maintain a sharp focus on your goals.
4. Challenge both assumptions and conventional wisdom.
5. Find inspiration in ordinary things.

These 5 simple things can work in your business too.  An easy way to get started is to turn each of them into questions that you can then answer.  For example, your questions might be:

1. Who do I know that could potentially help us?
2. Which of our processes (tools) require redesign?
3. How can we improve at planning and at executing?
4. What assumptions do I have that could be holding us back?
5. Where can I find a fresh perspective on our situation?

The questions and their answers are just a start. What you actually do with them can make all the difference in the world – in fact, it could even change the course of history!

How much profit and productivity do you leave on the table in your organization due to misalignment and hazy focus? By implementing these 3 tools, you’ll be well on your way to more productivity and profit from your existing investments and resources.

3 Tools to Create Focus & Improve Performance

In my first ever video blog, you’ll hear about my friend Val who was well prepared for the unexpected. There are valuable lessons to be learned from her story.

When the Expected Goes Out the Window

For instance, while driving (even if you’re doing the speed limit), it’s quite common to pull your foot off the gas pedal when you see a police car ahead on the side of the road. In that instant, it seems like your foot has a mind of its own! What really happened is that you incorporated an assumption – that getting a ticket is a bad thing — to replace the thinking component of the “stimulus-thought-response” chain of events. In this example, no doubt, the assumption — or habit of thought — serves you well (this is the good news).

Unfortunately, however, that’s often not the case (this is the bad news). In a business, assumptions might include any of the following statements or beliefs:

• “That won’t work here.”

• “Change is risky.”

• “I’ve seen this situation before.”

• “We’re better than the competition.”

While some of our assumptions are useful in preventing us from having to consciously figure out the mechanics each time we confront a familiar situation, many habits of thought keep us from stretching our capabilities and trying new, and inventive, and possibly better ideas or techniques. Just like when you see a police car, these assumptions work silently, but powerfully to impact your behaviors and the behaviors of those around you.

Welcome to the “black box” of business and the enemy of business growth. Most business leaders don’t even know that it exists; yet it contains the keys to our own potential, our organizations’ potential, and our ability to get more of what we really want.  Assumptions drive thinking, thinking drives behavior, and behavior drives results.

In late 2005 FORTUNE Magazine published a cover story about Andy Grove, one of Intel’s founders and most accomplished leaders. In describing one of the key characteristics that made Grove so successful, author Richard S. Tedlow wrote “Forcibly adapting himself to a succession of new realities, [Grove] has left a trail of discarded assumptions in his wake.” Grove’s ability to challenge “conventional wisdom” (just a euphemism for assumptions) paved the way for a number of seminal decisions at Intel including their move in the mid 1980’s to exit the memory business and focus on processors, and their decision to spend millions on a ground-breaking branding campaign called “Intel Inside” to brand an internal component of a computer.

What made Grove different (and so successful at Intel) is that he actively sought ways to force himself to challenge his assumptions and beliefs – in effect continually pushing and expanding his comfort zone. It was the modus operandi of his personal growth and his ability to lead Intel so successfully for so long.

Can you identify the modus operandi for strategic growth in your organization? When is the last time you consciously pushed to expand your comfort zone – by definition making yourself and those surrounding you uncomfortable in the process? Can you find a way to regularly challenge your own assumptions and beliefs? If not, might it make sense to find someone who will?

For sure, assumptions make our lives easier and more comfortable. It’s up to you however, to decide what you’d like to do with them to drive growth, to make your organization more competitive, and to improve yourself personally.

Here are the 5 steps that are required to create a comprehensive and practical plan for your business:

1.Identify your vision and clarify your values

Research shows that vision-driven leaders and their companies significantly outperform their competitors.  Your vision has 2 functions. First, it serves as a source of information, involvement, and motivation.  Second, it both informs and guides your decisions and the choices of your staff.  For example, I have a client whose vision is to “Automate, innovate, integrate, and simplify.”  After the management team communicated the vision clearly to the organization, it began to impact the myriad of day-to-day decisions and choices they and their people were making – moving them toward their objectives.
If vision is the “what” you are trying to achieve, then your values are “how” you expect your organization to behave along the way. 

They serve as guide posts for the members of your staff who, through their individual efforts, will collectively achieve your goals.  Values are the principles by which you do business and, once established, should be non-negotiable.  As you think about your values, consider what you know to be right, as well as how you want to be perceived by others. Values are demonstrated through behavior, and behavior creates lasting perceptions. Examples of core values are: trustworthy, we do what we say, fun, customers first, and respect for individuals.

Your vision and your values cannot be over communicated to your staff! In addition, they should directly influence your thinking in the 4 remaining steps of the planning process.

2. Assess external market and competitive conditions and trends

The first area to explore in the external assessment is customer segmentation.  That is, who your customers are now and who you want to have as your customers in the future.  Thee are many dimensions to consider here depending upon the nature of your business, for example, industry, revenue, and location for B-to-B, and income, home value, and number of children for B-to-C – just to name a few.  With deliberate focus onsegmentation and the needs and expectations of each segment, you will see opportunities more clearly.
Once you’ve clearly identified your customer segments, it is time to focus on your competition.  In doing this, there is value to looking at comparative strengths and weaknesses – both yours and theirs!  The ultimate objective is to find ways to leverage your key strengths against their weaknesses.  Although this exercise can be painful, understanding how you measure-up in terms of products, service, response time, sales skills, convenience, and value-added knowledge exposes opportunities and potential liabilities that your plan should address.

The final component of the external assessment is trend analysis.  Here you’ll be striving to understand the trends that are taking place – in your industry, among your customers, in our nation, around the world – that could have an impact on your business.  What is changing around you and how can you adapt?  You’ll pick this up in your trend analysis and it will help you minimize the impact of external events and capitalize on favorable developments.

3. Assess internal structure and resources

 Your organization must be structured to respond rapidly to the needs of your customers.  Sounds great, but is it? In evaluating your organization you may want to ask yourself some of these questions: Are we easy to do business with? Do we really add value, or just talk about it? How do we react when we make a mistake? The structure of your organization and the clarity of roles, responsibilities, and processes within it have a direct impact on your ability to provide value and positive, differentiated customer experiences.
 When you consider your available resources, don’t just think about people.  The resources at your disposal might also include real estate, equipment, growth capacity, service, technology, capital, intellectual capital, and expertise.  How you utilize them in aggregate is critical to understand, since business results are directly linked to your choices of how you acquire and deploy resources.  Understanding your market segments is another important dimension in the evaluation of your resources. Think back to customer segmentation and ask yourself: Do I have the right resources in place to meet my customers’ needs?  Are my sales producers and service staff sufficiently experienced in the segments we serve?

 4. Document Your SLOT (strengths, limitations, opportunities, threats)

Your external and internal appraisals identified concerns to be addressed and strengths upon which you can build.  The thinking you did about your competition, trends, organization structure, and resources highlighted areas that will have an impact on your ability to succeed in your chosen market segments.  Your SLOT analysis will help you summarize these issues and begin to conceive actionable ideas to maximize your strengths and opportunities, while minimizing your limitations and threats.
Strengths are defined as areas where your organization excels.  Limitations are usually weak points.  Opportunities represent significant and favorable situations in your markets that can help you be more successful.  Threats are like ticking time bombs that must be defused before they explode and do their damage.  While you may be tempted to focus on eliminating limitations, be sure to place an equal – if not greater – emphasis on exploiting your strengths.  This is how competitive advantages are built!

 5. Identify critical success factors (CSFs) and tactical goals

CSFs are the categories of things that must happen or must be in place for you to achieve your desired results.  Ask yourself: What broad elements are necessary and sufficient to achieve my overall objectives?  Some examples of CSFs are: Customer Service, Book Growth, Technology, Staff Development, New Market Penetration, and Sales Effectiveness.  Ideally, your business should have 4-7 critical goal categories to support your plan.
Your goals should be recorded in a spreadsheet, within CSF, including due dates, and – for each individual goal – the name of the person who will be held accountable to complete it.  The results of steps 1-4 can now be converted into specific, measurable, and attainable goals for your agency, forming the tactical road map – perfectly aligned with your strategic thinking – that will lead you to the results you seek.
As Confucius said, “A man who does not think and plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.”  Centuries later, his wisdom still holds true – particularly for many companies in today’s waffling economy.  Whether you employ 6 or 600, a right-sized, well thought, appropriately executed plan will dramatically improve your competitive positioning and your performance regardless of market conditions.

Find a way to remove the obstacles that are preventing you from investing an appropriate amount of time in a disciplined thinking and planning process for your business. Your ability to outthink and outperform your competitors depends on it.

This is not just a large company phenomenon; when it comes to change, size doesn’t matter. Smaller firms fall victim to this slow demise with great frequency, it’s just that their stories are rarely the stuff of MBA case studies. Whether it’s hubris, a virtual monopoly, or flat out denial of external circumstances and events, the common denominator of these sad endings is a literal death grip on the status quo by otherwise competent leadership.

The concept of status quo is misleading, because in fact nothing ever stays the same. Just like a wad of cash buried in your back yard inevitably loses value over time, so it is with the status quo in business. Your markets, your clients, and your competitors will eventually outgrow and outpace you if you are unable to change and evolve. Although it may feel comfortable, the status quo is not a good thing at all; it is a slow motion business killer.

Whether you are conscious of it or not, odds are that you and your team embrace the status quo in a variety of areas. One client of mine – the president of a mid-sized Insurance agency – retained a problem manager for far longer than he should have – because of a misplaced sense of loyalty to her. Another delayed a much-needed technology upgrade because “things are working fine as is” (including, by the way, a number of labor intensive manual tasks). For over 6 months, a third client postponed a difficult conversation with a high-end producer who had become complacent in outside sales and spent virtually all of his time working his existing book.

During good times, we tend to give ourselves and our people credit for a job well done (think high-fives, healthy bonus checks, and lavish holiday parties). The result? “Let the good times roll, and let’s continue to do what we’ve been doing.”

When performance falters, our impulse is to identify and then blame external circumstances as the cause immediately followed by pushing harder to improve results (think it’s “the economy” and any underperforming employee you’ve recently counseled). The result? “We are underperforming because of the economy overall, so let’s buckle down and get more appointments to win our share.”

Ironically, both extremes reinforce the status quo; that is, you and your people generally continue to do what you’ve been doing. Your rationale is the only thing that actually changes!

What are your areas of status quo and why is it so difficult to move yourself and your organization beyond them? Where are your people stuck in the status quo?

The paradox of the status quo is that it makes us feel so comfortable. Only you can decide whether that’s good enough or if you’d like to plan for change to make your business more competitive over time.

Ask yourself how you’re doing and what you should be doing differently—and be sure to answer truthfully. As simple as this may sound, many people are shocked by their answers to basic management and leadership questions.

Last week’s blog covered the first three checkpoints of leadership questions to ask yourself:
1. Vision and Priorities
2. Managing Time
3. Feedback

This post will cover the last four leadership checkpoints:
4. Succession Planning
5. Evaluation and Alignment
6. Leading Under Pressure
7. Staying True to Yourself

Succession Planning

Have you picked one or more potential successors?

If you aren’t identifying potential successors and developing their leadership abilities, then you are contributing to business and personal stagnation. There won’t be enough leaders to grow the business.

When challenging and testing people, you must frequently delegate more to them. This frees you to focus on critical strategic matters facing the business. When people are not being challenged, they may leave to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Planning for succession means your people will improve their performance, you’ll be more successful through them, and you will pave the way for your own promotion. Failure to actively plan for succession means you do not delegate sufficiently and become a decision-making bottleneck.

Ask yourself:

• Have I, at least in my own mind, picked one or more potential successors?
• Am I coaching them and giving them challenging assignments?
• Am I delegating sufficiently?
• Have I become a decision-making bottleneck?

Evaluation and Alignment

Your business is constantly changing. So are your customers. Depending on your industry, this may be rapid—or extremely rapid. If you don’t change along with the business environment, you may become seriously out of alignment. What got you here today won’t necessarily get you there tomorrow. The people you hire, the way you organize them, the economic incentives you offer them and even the tasks you delegate may no longer create the culture and outcomes that are critical to success.

Have you checked to see if the design of your organization still aligns with key success factors for your business? Effective executives regularly seek advice and fresh perspectives from people who are less emotionally invested in their business. This allows them to determine whether historically relevant aspects of the business remain critical to tomorrow’s success.

Ask yourself:

• Does the design of my company still align with key success factors?
• If I had to design my business from scratch, how would I create it? How would it differ from the current design?
• Should I create a task force to answer these questions and make recommendations?

Leading Under Pressure

A leader’s actions during stressful times have a profound impact on the firm’s culture and employees’ behaviors. Successful leaders must be aware of their personal stress triggers and reactions. Behaviors should be consistent with beliefs and core values, no matter how severe the stress.

Pressure is a normal part of doing business, but it affects people differently. What may evoke anxiety for one individual may not bother someone else. As a leader, you are watched closely. Emotions are contagious—even more so when they come from the leader.

You must be sufficiently self-aware to recognize the situations that create anxiety for you and manage your behavior to avoid sending counterproductive messages to your people.

Ask yourself:

• Which events create pressure for me?
• How do I behave under pressure?
• What signals do I send to subordinates?
• Are these signals helpful, or do they undermine the success of my business?

Staying True to Yourself

Successful executives develop leadership styles that fit their business needs, as well as their personal beliefs and personality. While many leaders ask themselves about the former, few analyze the latter.

Companies require leaders who can express strongly held views, rather than mimic the party line. Do you hold back for political reasons? Do you encourage your people to express their opinions and make waves, if appropriate?

Don’t tiptoe around significant issues or foster an atmosphere that encourages employees to do so.

Ask yourself:

• Is my leadership style comfortable? Does it reflect who I truly am?
• Do I assert myself sufficiently, or have I become tentative?
• Am I too politically correct?

• Does anxiety about my next promotion or bonus cause me to hesitate when I want to express my views?

In the early stages of your career, you may have received plenty of guidance and support from superiors and mentors. As you’ve been promoted, however, you’ve probably encountered fewer sources of honest and useful feedback. By the time mistakes have come to light, it may have been too late to fix them.

Successful leaders continually ask themselves hard questions to stay on track in a world of rapid change. Remember to step back and gain fresh perspectives so you’re prepared with a new game plan when change occurs. If you’re standing too close to the blackboard, you won’t see mistakes until it’s too late.

These questions are designed to ignite serious introspection. They can be even more productive when discussed with a trusted advisor, coach or mentor.

When is the last time you had a leadership checkup?