Knowing When To Turn Back (So You Can Move Forward) – Grow Great Daily Brief #96 – November 2, 2018

Knowing When To Turn Back (So You Can Move Forward) – Grow Great Daily Brief #96 – November 2, 2018

Knowing When To Turn Back (So You Can Move Forward) – Grow Great Daily Brief #96 – November 2, 2018

One step forward, two steps back. A better strategy is one step back, two steps forward. But that’s not how the cliché goes. I think we should change it.

Take a step back so you can move forward further, faster! 

I’m not talking about regressing. Not far from where I live there are two sweet tree-lined streets that are heavily traveled. But there’s a problem. When it rains a lot, the roads flood because they’re in very low lying areas. Yellow signal lights are activated by the city then gates are pulled together to keep cars from going any further. Those of us who live in the area know when it rains a lot we’d better figure out some other route. Sometimes I forget, only to get to the warning light and have to turn around and go back. It’s the only path forward.

What do you do when life doesn’t present you with a yellow flashing warning light though? How do you know it’s time to turn back?

Sometimes you don’t. That’s why we dig ourselves into a hole and we keep digging. We’re unaware that what we’re doing isn’t working, or likely to ever work. Before we can ever advance we have to stop hurting ourselves from moving forward. Rule one: stop moving backward. The paradox is that the path forward begins by seeing we’re already moving backward…but now we have to move back even further. That’s when resistance kicks in. Our brain and our desires compel us to not do it.

Seeing the reality of our current actions isn’t always easy. We feel like this digging (hustling, grinding – pick the term you love most) is moving forward. No, we’re not seeing signs of success, but how are we to know we’re mere days away from breaking through? We all think about it and talk about not quitting too soon. So we keep digging. Thinking it’s the wise option. 

What if we’re wrong? 

I was watching one of those HGTV flip shows late one night. You know the shows. Couples in various markets in the country buy homes, rehab them, update them and flip them for a profit. Every episode is pretty much the same. Buy the house as inexpensively as possible. Sink as little into as necessary, or as much as necessary, depending on the market and comparable prices in the area. Sometimes they encounter a problem though. Suddenly they need to sink in another $2,500. Then they encounter a problem that has to be fixed, like electrical or mold. There goes another $3,000. Suddenly, the flippers realize their math isn’t going to work if they don’t stop investing more money into the property. Sometimes they guess right. Sometimes not. Of course, on TV they always get it right. We don’t see the downsides of the flipping business. Those times you invest more than you make back. Watch just a few episodes and you quickly realize it’s a game of cost containment and market conditions. 

Look at your life in the same way. Cost containment versus market conditions. Can I invest more time and money and make a return on the investment? Well, I think I can. But even these seasoned flippers often get it wrong. They buy a house for $108,000, sink another $60,000 into it thinking they can sell it for $225,000. So they enter the game expecting to earn a gross profit of $57,000. Once the rehab begins they find problems they didn’t budget for. Electrical. Structural. Plumbing. Mold. Now they’ve sunk an additional $20,000 into their costs. That $57,000 expected return is now $37,000. And once they list it, expecting to sell it for $225,000 and quickly. But two weeks on the market the only offer they get is for $212,000. They don’t make $57,000. Instead, they make $24,000. Life doesn’t always go as expected. 

The lesson? We all have to adapt. Knowledge and speed are critical. 

The more flippers know about the project the better. Those hidden problems are the costly ones. And the speed with which they can do the work, and how quickly they can sell the property — those are major elements of their success. 

It’s the same with our lives. Personally and professionally. 

Knowledge. Speed. Key ingredients for our success, growth, improvement and transformation. 

The quicker we know we’re stuck, the better. It all begins with understanding things as they truly are so we don’t delude ourselves. Flippers can be delusional about how much return they’ll get on a specific investment. Will those hardwood floors warrant a significantly higher selling price? They may feel very strongly, “Yes.” But they may be wrong. It could be an expensive mistake. 

I live and have grown up in oil field country. My grandfather was a wildcatter. Guys who drilled oil wells on speculation, hoping to strike oil. The challenge for wildcatters is, “How deep do you drill before you give up?” All my life I’ve heard the saying, “Don’t keep drilling a dry hole.” Make sense, right? Don’t keep spending money and time to drill a hole that will never produce results. 

That’s great except it doesn’t address how you can know to stop drilling. It’s the same challenge we all have. We don’t start drilling or rehabing a house (if we’re a flipper) thinking failure. We’re fixated on the success we see in our mind. It can be hard to let go of that belief. Especially if we’re already heavily invested in money and time. Every seasoned negotiator knows the benefit. The more time you make the other person invest time in the process the more likely they’re going to want to make a deal. Nobody wants to walk away from a deal after we’ve spent so much time trying to make it happen. Is it reasonable? Who says we have to behave reasonably?

How can we protect ourselves? How can we see clearly that it’s time to stop and turn back…otherwise, we’ll never be able to move forward? 

Outside perspective. That’s how. The elimination of our blind spots and the reduction of our false assumptions can happen effectively when we surround ourselves with people who care enough about us, and our success, to help us figure it out. We don’t need – or want – people to take control of our lives. We still want to be in charge of our own destiny. We just need safe, caring people capable of asking us tough questions, challenging our assumptions, pushing us…all in a non-judgmental way. 

The answer is to surround yourself with people willing and able to serve you. People who have no vested interest in your outcome except to see you achieve the goals you’ve established for yourself. Now you can see THE PEER ADVANTAGE. The advantage of having people in your life who will do that for you. 

Convenience is speed. Online and virtual make it powerful.

The power of THE PEER ADVANTAGE is why I’m now building two groups of U.S. based entrepreneurs bold enough, hungry enough, hard-charging enough to do that for themselves. I want to invite you to take some time to check out the details at ThePeerAdvantage.com 0r you can jump start things by filling out the application form at BulaNetwork.com/apply. Your application doesn’t put any pressure on you or me, but it gives us a starting point for a phone call. Apply right now. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Knowing When To Turn Back (So You Can Move Forward) – Grow Great Daily Brief #96 – November 2, 2018 Read More »

Candor = Sincere Honesty – Grow Great Daily Brief #95 – November 1, 2018

Candor = Sincere Honesty – Grow Great Daily Brief #95 – November 1, 2018

Candor = Sincere Honesty – Grow Great Daily Brief #95 – November 1, 2018

Sincere honesty should come more easily, but I understand why it’s often tough. We live with masks mostly permanently affixed to our face. Showing the world what we want them to see. Saying things we know the world wants to hear. Fooling ourselves into claiming we’re being polite. Or positive. 

Candor is tough because of judgment. We fret about what people will think. Here’s where we get it wrong…we think people want polite lies more than they want sincere honesty. There are so many problems with that. Dishonesty being up near the top. How is dishonesty a good strategy for life?

I’m not talking about being rude or obnoxious. This isn’t about leaving tact behind. Quite the opposite, it’s about raising your emotional intelligence! Elevating your awareness and empathy. 

People too frequently define candor as being able to tell people bad things, or negative things. WRONG! It’s being able to tell people the truth. It’s letting go of insincerity, fluff and bull. It’s compassion, empathy and caring. 

Let me explain by talking about corrective employee discipline because this is where it often comes up in my conversations with CEOs and other top-level leaders. 

Question: Do you think it’s fair or honest to terminate an employee who doesn’t see it coming? 

Don’t be so fast to answer. Think about it. Then think about how you want to answer compared to the reality inside your company. Yes, every HR professional will push you to document, document, document. And to put employees on a PIP (performance improvement plan). Let’s assume you do all that as you should in order to protect yourself legally. 

But I’m not talking about your legal obligations. Those are a given. I’m talking about moral obligations, actions you take because it’s the right thing to do. I’m talking about CANDOR, sincere honesty. 

It’s too easy to be a coward. To avoid a confrontation, that’s the word I usually hear whenever I bring up the topic of “candor.” Curious, isn’t it? Did you think of “confrontation” when you heard me first say “candor”? 

Now we’re getting to the heart of why candor is so absent in companies. We’ve got it all twisted around. Are our lives so absent of sincere honesty that we think to deploy it would result in an immediate confrontation? That’s just plain sad!

But if it does, so what? You don’t want your sincere honesty to be questioned? Aren’t you prepared to explain it, or defend it – if you must? 

Let’s take the employee on a PIP. Does the employee realize the severity of their circumstance? You can convince yourself, “Well, they should see it.” Or, you can make sure with candor!

For me, this is not difficult stuff because of my view of leadership. SERVICE. 

As the owner, your job is to serve the people who work inside your company. Stick with the illustration of the employee on an improvement plan. They’re quickly headed toward being dismissed. Maybe that’s not been explicitly communicated. If you’re going to serve them well, you’ll have to make sure they know how serious things are. Like the late-night infomercial announcers say…but wait a minute, there’s more! Don’t they deserve to know what they must do to turn things around so they can maintain employment? Of course, they do.

Enter the need for CANDOR. 

Every leader I know is preoccupied with “employee engagement.” You know what drives employee engagement? One thing. And only one thing. Leaders who care. Leaders who care about the people they’re worried about being engaged. If leaders don’t care about people, people know it. They will not be engaged. I don’t care how many consulting companies you bring in to perform 360 reviews or any other tactics or tricks. Won’t work. Won’t stick. Save your money. And everybody’s time. You’ll garner more respect by continuing to not care about people and stop faking like you do. People would respect you more if you told them, “Listen, I don’t care about you people. I only care about our revenues and profits so I can afford a fancier lifestyle. If you wanna work for somebody who is going to care about you as a human being, then you’re at the wrong place!” You could at least be guilty of candor instead of hypocrisy. 

A better strategy for employee engagement and effective leadership is to genuinely care about your employees. But if you’re a miserable human being, that’s not going to happen…so deploy whatever tactic you want. Good people won’t stick around so I don’t worry about them. The bad people will stick around so you’ll both be getting what you deserve. It’s those marginal people who worry me…the people who could be better if you were a decent boss. A boss who cared enough to deploy candor. Who saw the value of sincere honesty as opposed to insincere dishonesty. 

But you’re better than that. You’re just likely afraid that candor won’t work because you’ve predetermined how it’s going to go. I’m not going to tell you to trust me. I’m going to tell you to trust candor. Trust honesty. Mostly, trust that if you care about people – your people doing the work you need done – then candor is your best friend. It will change your world for the better. And it will serve your people better than anything else you could do. 

We’re honest with people we love. Do you love your employees? If you do, then act like it. Tell them the truth. Share with them all that you can while still protecting them. Don’t lay on them anything beyond their ability to control, or to contribute toward. We love our children, but no matter how old they are we don’t want to burden them with things they can do nothing about. Yet, we want their support and we want to make sure we’re supporting them.

Mutual respect. Mutual concern. Mutual compassion. 

You want the truth. You need the truth. Who’s the leader? YOU. 

Then start delivering the truth. Don’t confuse candor with harshness or anger. Remember, candor is sincere honesty! SINCERE. That means it’s genuine. It’s free from deceit. It’s filled with honest intentions. It’s service. It’s the stuff of leadership.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Do For A Few What You're Unable To Do For Everybody – Grow Great Daily Brief #94 – October 31, 2018

Do For A Few What You’re Unable To Do For Everybody – Grow Great Daily Brief #94 – October 31, 2018

Do For A Few What You're Unable To Do For Everybody – Grow Great Daily Brief #94 – October 31, 2018

Funny how some things you learn when you’re young in business stick with you. This is one of those lessons I learned when I was still a teenager selling stereo gear. Sometimes you can really dazzle somebody by doing something extraordinary. Do it.

There’s no hard fast rule for knowing when to do this, but it’s powerful for many reasons. It creates a customer who is excited and happy. It fosters good news being spread about you and your business. It demonstrates how important customers truly are to your employees. It shows your heart of leadership and service.

The lady purchased a pair of stereo speakers. They were fairly large, floor-standing speakers. The company I worked for manufactured them in their own shop. The cabinets were thick wood with an oak finish veneer. She had them for less than 2 days. Somebody, presumably the man in her life (she was probably in her 20’s so she seemed old to me since I was still in high school) unboxed the speakers to help her place them in her living room. Well, the doofus evidently didn’t know to open the bottom of the box, flip it upside down onto the floor, then slide the box off the speaker. Instead, he attempted to slide the speaker out of the box while holding it and as you might imagine…it didn’t go well. For the speaker. Or him. The speaker landed on a corner and it boogered up the corner. She was sick about it. So she called. I told her to bring it in and let me look at it to see what we could do. (This was before digital photography so we didn’t’ ask customers to take a photograph, then take that film to the drug store to be processed, then hand deliver the hard photo.)

I was expecting it to be awful. Like the corner flattened completely. It was badly scratched and the finish was damaged. I asked the manager if somebody in our shop might be able to repair it. He was pretty confident they could. We stood there talking about it and I decided to plead her case. She had purchased a complete system and spent considerable money. Anticipating my request (I guess), he said, “Just take them back and give her a new pair. Make sure you show her how to unbox them.” 

Thankfully, I had asked her to bring in both speakers (they were in separate boxes). That day I was able to do for her what I knew I’d be unable to do for everybody. She was beyond thrilled. In fact, I’d guess she was more excited about that than when she first got the system, just 48 hours earlier. She was sure to tell everybody how terrific I was, and how awesome our store was. She was even thrilled seeing how to unbox them (another lesson I learned; don’t assume customers know what you know…show them). 

I’ve got tons of stories from my years running retail companies. So many times I’ve done extraordinary things for customers. Things I’d never be able to do for everybody, but I quickly learned you just do it when you know it’s the right thing to do. It’s a feel kinda of a thing. You know it when you feel it. Or see it. 

People are people. Yes, employees are people, too. 

I’ve hired a number of people in my life who were down and out in some way. People who struck me as good people, potentially good employees, but people who seem to need a break for some reason. Sometimes I’ve hired a person then taken them shopping and purchased them appropriate working attire. Sometimes I’ve advanced them pay so they could rent a place to live. Or make a down payment on a car. Above and beyond actions for an individual — something done for them that I clearly wasn’t going to do for everybody. Right is right. 

Enter judgment. Enter fear.

I’ve heard it all through the years. People have challenged me saying, “You’re just opening yourself up to have everybody expect that.” Or, “You can’t single out an employee or you’ll have big trouble from the other employees.”

I’ve behaved this way for decades! I’ve never, ever encountered a single problem. And if I had, I would have had no problems. Others may have had a problem, but I wouldn’t have taken ownership of it myself. Doing something good – something extraordinary – for a few doesn’t mean everybody gets a trophy.  Besides, I grew up in a Christian home and even as a teen I already knew a truth.

Proverbs 3:27 “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, When it is in the power of thy hand to do it.”

Okay, maybe it wasn’t always “due,” but it was needed. And as a leader (even as a teenage salesperson), I had the power to do it, or to influence it. So I did. 

Today is the last day of the month. I’m encouraging you to end the month on a high note. And to jump start November, too. It’s right and it makes more sense than ever before. 

I grew up in retail back in the days before the Internet, or cell phones, or fax machines. If one customer with a complaint could tell 9 people (I remember that stat being put forth as fact) back then, think of how many hundreds of people can be told today. And if one customer with an extraordinary experience could tell a few people back then, they can post it all over social media today and get the word to potentially thousands. Not to mention Google and Yelp reviews, and all the other places where people can extol how terrific we are at taking care of customers. The same goes for employees. Glassdoor and other employee review sites – plus social media – can also spread the word. 

Stories spread the news. People talk. They share. 

But…

That’s not why we do it. That’s just a big collateral advantage to doing the right thing. We do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. 

Is your heart and mind open to going the extra mile when you can? That’s another Biblical principle based on Matthew 5:41 “And whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two.” Some call it second-mile religion. Well, I’m here to tell you that second-mile religion inside your company works! At every level. 

Being nice is its own reward. Doing the right thing is, too. And we all know that what goes ’round comes around. So today, and tomorrow, do for a few what you can’t do for everybody. Don’t be afraid. 

Be well, Do good. Grow great!

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Do For A Few What You’re Unable To Do For Everybody – Grow Great Daily Brief #94 – October 31, 2018 Read More »

Rest Can Sometimes Be The Best Form Of Hustle – Grow Great Daily Brief #93 – October 30, 2018

Rest Can Sometimes Be The Best Form Of Hustle – Grow Great Daily Brief #93 – October 30, 2018

Rest Can Sometimes Be The Best Form Of Hustle – Grow Great Daily Brief #93 – October 30, 2018

Hustle. It’s the battle cry of the modern entrepreneur. It means work hard, work long…put in more hours, make more sacrifices than the next guy. Or than anybody else. 

The notion is that talent and skill are largely what they are. And that the big variable is the effort, which is quantified by what you do and how long you do it. 

My view of hard work is that yes, it’s hard. And often necessary. But I’m not going to make some sweeping generalization about it either. 

We love to hear stories of Larry Bird as a child shooting thousands of baskets daily out on the family farm. We lionize the effort, the dedication. For good reason. It’s noteworthy. 

There are countless stories that could be told of high achievers who found something they were quite talented at that didn’t require such levels of extreme dedication or practice. People very capable of greatness who didn’t necessarily have the obsession to do that thing at the expense of everything else. 

Where do you fall in all this? Where do I fall? I don’t know. I honestly don’t. I can truthfully say that I have confidence in myself about many things and a complete lack of confidence about many other things. There are things I enjoy that I think I’m pretty good at, and other things I enjoy that I’m less sure about. 

Working to exhaustion seems to be the mantra that most disturbs me because I have perspective. I’ve done it. Multiple times in my career. Often because I had to. Other times because I wanted to. Like most things in our lives, it ebbs and flows. Some days you eat the bear. Some days, the bear eats you. 

My biggest advances forward, my most positive moments of growth didn’t happen in the middle of the battle when I was putting in 80-hour work weeks. They came when I stepped back and took a deep breath. Either because circumstances gave me the opportunity, or because I felt myself simply needing a reprieve from the grind. 

Deep breathing time. Reflection time. Time to ponder. 

Frenetic movement doesn’t mean you’re hustling. Don’t mistake motion for action. 

There’s a reason you hear the cliché of getting our best ideas in the shower. Stepping away gives us a perspective that’s difficult to see when we’re dodging bullets in the battle. 

Our minds need time to process the work. To reflect on what we’re doing, and what we’re learning. To come up with alternative solutions, or to just come up with any solution. To spot opportunities unseen in the daily grind of it all. 

I have an iMac. It’s got a high-speed processor and plenty of RAM, meaning it’s got good horsepower. Most of the time it hums along quietly while multiple programs are going. I’m sure under the hood, it’s working hard, but it’s not hitting its full capabilities. 

But I can start processing an hour long video, have email open, have multiple Chrome tabs open, and start recording audio and all of a sudden I can hear the internal cooling mechanism kick into gear to cool down the engine. I can quit one or two of the less taxing efforts – like closing down Chrome – and the computer clearly stops pushing itself so hard. I’d imagine I could go the other way though and try to process a second video file and I’d quickly find out how much the computer could take. Would I be able to tax it enough to cause it to shut down to protect itself? Yes. The computer is designed, so I’m told (I’ve never tried it), to shut down if it begins to overheat. 

What a stupid feature, right? I mean, doesn’t this iMac know the value of hustle. Can you hustle too much? Can you work too hard? 

Work requires rest. 

Some people need more than others. I’ve lived my entire life not needing much sleep. I love to sleep, but I don’t get much of it. And the older I get, the less I get.

Additionally, my circadian rhythm has always involved about 90-minute sleep cycles. I can sleep for 90-minutes then be up for hours, and keep that cycle going until morning. It’s not terribly uncommon for me to squeeze in two 90-minute cycles in a night. And I can just about set a watch to the 90-minutes. When I say “about” 90-minutes, it’s within a minute or two. Weird. 

Even freaks like me need rest though. Some days I have to nap. Not often, but some days. My body just starts telling me, “You’re done!” 

It’s important to listen to yourself and not the entrepreneurial landscape that’s yelling for you to earn your HUSTLE merit badge.

Rest is rebuilding. Gaining energy for the work ahead. 

It’s also healing. Regenerating time. 

Rejuvenating time. Giving your brain – your processor – time to cool down to a more optimal temperature where it’s able to perform at a higher level. 

Permit me to make some suggestions. 

Devote a bit of time each day to do nothing. No meetings. No phone calls. No reading. Just something completely passive. Time where it’s not about accomplishing anything. Checking something off your to-do-list. 

For me? It’s slapping on headphones and listening to music. I may do it for a few minutes here and there, multiple times. I may do it for an hour. I do it until I’m ready to get back to it, whatever IT is. 

Schedule time to reflect. Reflection is looking back. What’s working? What’s not working? Reflection is meant to teach, not punish. This isn’t time set aside so you can berate yourself of your mistakes. Instead, it’s time to learn, like the athletes who watch film of their last game…you’re looking closely at what you did so you can do better in the future. 

Schedule time to consider tomorrow. For me, this is dreaming time. Not dreaming during sleep, but intentional dreaming about the future I most would like to create. It’s time when I ask myself what I most want and why. Sometimes it involves writing. Sometimes it involves talking to myself. Sometimes it involves fantasy, imagining what may seem like the impossible. It’s my time to permit my mind to go wherever I’d like to travel. Future time. Better time. 

I hope this helps you. Better yet, I hope you’ll more soberly consider it and give it a go. Let me know how it works out. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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It’s Not People. It’s The Person! – Grow Great Daily Brief #92 – October 29, 2018

It's Not People. It's The Person! – Grow Great Daily Brief #92 – October 29, 2018

Oh, the uproar is continuous. The collective yelling is deafening. People seem to enjoy being offended, always prowling the universe for something with which to disagree — and find offensive. Most recently headlines are filled with strong opinions about Megyn Kelly. Specifically, the outrage at her reportedly getting the full payout of her contract, $69M. I don’t much care one way or the other because I don’t watch the news (a personal choice). The headlines alone are enough to make me feel pretty ill. But I’m old school, remembering a time when honest journalism reported facts they uncovered and fostered the audience to think for themselves. But sentimentality is a problem. Falling in love with how things ought to be, or how we wish they were, or how they once were.

Last week small business owners engaged in conversations about social media and digital marketing efforts. “If Megyn Kelly who earns that kind of money can create such turmoil for NBC, what am I opening myself up to by putting a $35,000 a year person in charge of my marketing?”

It’s not a bad question. I get it. We’re operating companies that do a few million bucks a year, or a few hundred million bucks a year. A far cry from the deep pockets (and PR recovery capabilities) of an NBC. 

Then there’s the ever-present quest to find “good” people. Forget social media marketing, we sometimes just need good, honest, reliable workers to help us accomplish the company goals. How hard can it be? Go visit Main Street U.S.A. and you’ll quickly find out it’s harder than you might think. The talent squeeze is on and we’re scrambling to figure it out. To find and hire capable people. Then, to hang onto them. 

“We spend 90 days on pretty concentrated training,” said one CEO, “and some don’t even make their first year anniversary. They have a different clock than me. To them, 18 months on a job is a long time. After that, they’re ready for something new. Continuity is all but gone except among my leadership team, and I’m nervous about them.” He chuckled, but it was an anxiety-fueled chuckled. 

People. Whether it’s your small business or NBC, we need them. Talented people. People with integrity and no major skeletons in the closet. People good under pressure. People who won’t get us into hot water. 

People. We need them to help us build our business. To execute superior service to our customers. To be good teammates. To contribute to the culture we most want. 

Problems. We have enough of those already. We don’t need somebody – much less a whole bunch of somebodies – saying something stupid, doing something stupid that could melt down our company. 

Potential. We feel like we’ve got plenty of upside in our business, but we’re also painfully aware there’s a ton of potential downside, too. 

I’m not sure who started it, but I’ve heard it my entire career. And I’m sorta old. 😉 (I said, “Sorta!”)

Hire slow. Fire fast.

That’s great if you can. Great if you have time. If you’re not under the gun to get bodies in positions so the work can continue, and so you don’t burn out those left lifting more than their fair share while you work to get them some help. And it’s great if you’ve got folks poised, waiting in the wings, to step up and fill the gap. 

We’re not running football teams where we’ve got first, second and third string players on the roster. Most of us lack depth, the vital ingredient needed to execute “hire slow, fire fast.”

It’s our fault. We’ve only got ourselves to blame. 

People is a BIG topic, one I’m unable to distill in a 10-minute podcast episode. But it’s my job to give you as much value as possible. Not to tell you what to do, but to encourage you, provoke you and serve you. So let’s give it a go as we consider people, problems and potential (both the good kind and the bad).

Contingency plans count!

Most of us don’t have them when it comes to people. We’ve likely got them for other things. Business disruption strategies, including insurance that will help us get back on our feet in case of some disaster, like a fire. But how many of us sit down and consciously think about what we’ll do if that key employee walks into our office today and resigns? Or what if that front-line person who isn’t on our leadership team, but they’ve got talents we just take for granted…what if they suddenly quit?

Mostly, we employ the ostrich strategy. If we don’t think about it, it won’t happen. Ignore it, and it doesn’t exist. 

And we couple that with the arrogance that if it happens, we’ll deal with it then. Successfully. Even though history has shown us how wrong we are…our past is often littered with colossal hiring (and firing) errors. 

I’ve coached multi-million dollar organizations with skilled “HR” people who assemble hiring committees for key jobs. Big time vetting processes. Doing a pretty good job of hiring slowly. And seen them get it wrong, by their own admission, 50% of the time. That’s disheartening. To think you go to all that trouble only to achieve results you could likely replicate by flipping a coin!

It’s not people. It’s the person!

Scaling up. Everybody is clamoring to do it. Or do it bigger. Or faster. “How can we scale this?” And THIS includes every facet of our enterprise. The problem is we’re attempting to do the details of PEOPLE sometimes at scale. That means, we prefer to paint with a roller instead of a fine, detail brush. Man alive. I can paint the whole room really fast with a roller. Wait a minute. Give me a spray gun and I’ll do it even quicker. A little detail brush? Are you out of your mind! 

But the illustration doesn’t hold up when we’re considering PEOPLE. 

Because people aren’t a process. Or a system. Or a thing. Program your point-of-sale computer and it’ll do what you program it to do. Ditto for that accounting software. Or the phone system. As well as all the systems and processes you employ. But these people have a mind of their own. They don’t always do things exactly the way we want, or exactly when we want. They’re this constant variable forcing us to adapt and adjust – and more times than we’d like, foiling any hope we have to hit the third leg of that business building trifecta I talk about: not going crazy in the process! (The trifecta is getting new customers, serving existing customers better and not going crazy in the process.)

Emotional intelligence. Pattern recognition. Learned wisdom. The power is in the individual.

Here’s my bias. Well, to be fair. It’s my philosophy. My truth. 

We lead people. We manage the work.

But too frequently we go wrong because we try to manage everything. Meaning, we try to control everything. Influence or manipulate everything. Enter people who won’t tolerate it. They once did allow it because “management” had tyrannical power. Study the industrial age. 

Start leading. Stop managing. People. Grow your leadership. Make it great. 

I’ll give you just a few points to consider.

One, make time to sit down with every employee. Most of you are operating companies with fewer than 100 employees. Some of you have hundreds of employees. Companies with 100-999 employees are considered medium-sized. That’s still a manageable number of people to make individual time for. Yes, it will take longer to get around to everybody the more people you have, but here’s my proposal.

Schedule time every week, multiple times a week if you’re able, to give each employee a few minutes with you, the CEO. Make the meeting about them, not you. Find out what they want in their career. Acknowledge that there’s no right or wrong answer. It’s largely driven by where they are in life. The single guy who just dropped out of college isn’t likely going to want the same things the single mother of two in her late 30’s wants. So it goes. It’s fine. 

Make them feel safe. And heard. Listen.

This is where you’ll be tempted to get it wrong. You’re going to want to tell them what they “should” do. Don’t. You’re the #1, the CEO. You don’t want people telling you what to do. Give your employees the same consideration. We’re not addressing the specifics of the systems involved in their work. Yes, your company has processes, procedures and systems. But this conversation is two people sitting down to get to know each other, with one of you — YOU — being the leader driven to serve the other person. 

Two, the sole purpose of the time with each employee is for you to figure out what you can do better to serve them. You’re not patronizing them. You’re going to have to really mean it. This is about the practical reality of scaling humanity – PEOPLE – in your organization. 

I know how you roll. You’re always looking for a competitive edge. That big differentiator. The thing that makes your company stand apart from the competition. But…

You haven’t been doing that when it comes to the people who perform the work inside your company. You’re too busy complaining that they don’t behave the way you did when you were their age. Or you complain about their obvious (to you) lack of skills. Meanwhile, nothing changes. Nothing improves. There is no growth. 

It’s been said that people quit bad bosses, not jobs. Maybe. Maybe not. But you can do a better job of being a better boss. I’m challenging you to get the people component more right than you ever have before. Be the leader people clamor to follow…the person anybody would love to work for. Because you care about the individual. And you demonstrate how hard you’ll work to make them successful. 

Yes, you’ll lose some. You’ll retain more. Some will let you down. Others will behave foolishly sometimes. Most won’t. Let them make mistakes so they keep learning. Show them how much you care by urging them to not make a mistake from which they can’t recover. 

Practice, practice, practice. You’ll get better at it. As you grow, so will all your employees. And you’ll develop a terrific culture with a high-achievement focus.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Listen to the podcast


It’s Not People. It’s The Person! – Grow Great Daily Brief #92 – October 29, 2018 Read More »

Everybody Needs A Helping Hand – Grow Great Daily Brief #91 – October 26, 2018

Everybody Needs A Helping Hand – Grow Great Daily Brief #91 – October 26, 2018

Everybody Needs A Helping Hand – Grow Great Daily Brief #91 – October 26, 2018

Are you an American entrepreneur operating a business that generates at least $3M annually AND you intuitively know how valuable other people can be your growth and success?

Are you optimistic and driven to put in the work to make your ambitions come true?

Then I’m going to invite you to apply for membership into The Peer Advantage by Bula Network. The Peer Advantage by Bula Network is a peer-to-peer group of 7 American entrepreneurs willing to come together via an online video conferencing platform twice a month (every other week) to help each other grow, seize opportunities, effectively handle issues and overcome adversity. I’m personally going to facilitate the meetings, but our group will belong to all of us. The purpose is for every member to benefit by our collective wisdom, know-how and sharing. The group won’t make your decisions for you, but instead will help you think through your options so you can make better decisions for yourself.

The group will meet for 2 hours every other week. Membership is intended to be long-term because relationships like these become more valuable over time. The ROI increases as we all get to know one another better, and as we grow to trust each other. In fact, the group is going to become a priceless resource for every member as we surround ourselves with other entrepreneurs willing to share their experiences and perspectives. That will provide each member of The Peer Advantage by Bula Network to consider other perspectives. 

No judgment. Nobody telling you what you “should” do. Nobody who is beholden to you for their job, or for any reason other than the desire to help you succeed, knowing that you’re going to do the same thing for them. It’s about our mutual pursuit to grow our leadership, our businesses, and our lives. 

You can find all the details at ThePeerAdvantage.com, but I want to encourage you to go visit  BulaNetwork.com/apply – that’ll take you directly to a Google form that won’t take more than a few minutes to complete. Fill out that form and we’ll arrange a time to get on the phone together to discuss this opportunity. 

Everybody needs a helping hand. 

Sometimes we need help to climb to a higher altitude. Other times we need somebody to help us get back on our feet. Entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs is not about networking, or showing off. It’s about us helping each other take our careers, our businesses and our lives to a future of our own choosing. So permit me to dispell some myths people often have – people who have never experienced the extraordinary benefit of joining forces with other business owners. 

Networking is great, but that’s not what this is.

We network to meet other people. To expand our sphere of connections. There’s great benefit to expanding our contacts. Even more value when we get to know our contacts well enough to vouch for them and their work. And where they know us enough to vouch for us and our work. Most of us could improve our ability to do this. I know I could. 

But The Peer Advantage by Bula Network isn’t about networking. 

Advice givers can be great when we want it, but that’s not the focal point of this.

You bring up a problem or an opportunity to a friend or family member. As soon as you finish describing the problem they quickly have an opinion. One they’re willing to share. In fact, they may lack the restraint to share how they feel about it. Along with pointed suggestions on what you should do. 

One of my pet peeves is the salesperson – or in this example, the friend or family member – who has all the answers, but no questions. Some sales rep would get an appointment with me, sit down across from me and proceed to pitch me with what I need. Many would even tell me what I needed. I’m a polite guy and I’m fond of sales. I don’t happen to think selling is a dirty profession. I think it’s honorable, but there are dishonorable ways to go about it. Like sitting down in front of somebody – or getting them on the phone – and proceeding to tell them what they need, or what they ought to do, when you have no clue about them, or their business. 

The Peer Advantage by Bula Network isn’t about a bunch of people sitting around judging each other, second-guessing each other and telling each other what they should do. 

Answers are more powerful than questions. The BIG myth.

Questions are where the power is. They help us gain clarity. They help us distill what we’re thinking and feeling. Simply put, questions help us become better thinkers. And by becoming better thinkers we can become better doers!

Everybody needs a helping hand from people courageous enough, and humble enough, to ask us questions to help us understand what we want to accomplish. 

There are too many myths to address in a short podcast. But I hope you can clearly see this isn’t some sit-around-and-complain group, or some you-do-business-with-me, and-I’ll-do-business-with-you group. It’s not about people throwing rocks are what you want to do because our power as entrepreneurs is to do things our own way. Our ambitions change. Twenty years ago I wanted very different things than I want today. There wasn’t anything wrong with what I wanted 20 years ago. There’s nothing wrong with what I want today. They’re just different because my life – just like your life – has changed. Our lives, our entrepreneurship and our businesses are constantly changing. We need people willing and able to help us through those changes. 

I’m currently interviewing prospective members. I’d be honored to include YOU. Just go to BulaNetwork.com/apply and take a few minutes to complete that survey. I’ll reach out to you and we’ll book a phone call where together we can decide if this is the right opportunity for you. 

Have a great weekend!

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Listen to the podcast


Everybody Needs A Helping Hand – Grow Great Daily Brief #91 – October 26, 2018 Read More »

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