July 2018

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If Lt. Joe Kenda were my accountability partner, I’d likely either be too scared to do anything, or I’d get off my butt and get it all done! The police, our laws, and the government are one major form of accountability. Every society needs them. Otherwise, nobody is safe. It’s mayhem and chaos without them.

Your business and career may not be filled with mayhem and chaos (or maybe they are), but this much is sure. If you – the business owner – don’t have sufficient accountability, then you’re not performing at your highest. All higher human performance requires accountability. That includes yours. 

CEOs and business owners often comment about their craving for accountability. They don’t crave bosses, people telling them what to do. But they crave what every competitive, driven person craves. Somebody to hold them accountable to the things they most want to accomplish. 

The athlete devoted to becoming better – to winning – enjoys the accountability coaches bring. Is it always pleasant and fun? No. But it’s profitable. And infinitely more fun than losing, or failing to live up our potential. 

Accountability helps us close the gap between our current performance and our more optimum performance. There’s always room for improvement. 

It’s what you do for your employees. When you do it well, their performance is enhanced. They do better because of you. It’s how you best serve them.

Marc is a CEO of a $24M distribution business with 80 employees. The business rebounded nicely since the 2008/2009 dive. It was painful, but Marc was able to navigate it with minimal long-term damage. One price he paid was the departure of his right hand, Duncan. He was offered a new opportunity and Marc simply wasn’t able to retain him. It created a void that Marc still hasn’t filled. He confesses that the thing he misses most about losing Duncan is a degree of accountability he always felt with Duncan who had been with him for almost 10 years. It wasn’t pure accountability because Duncan worked for him, but it was the closest thing Marc had ever experienced. Today, Marc says, “I’m not better without it (accountability).” 

Accountability isn’t all created equally. Duncan provided Marc a level that was far better than nothing, but it was boss-employee accountability. Duncan would likely tell us he was made better because Marc held him accountable in a very different way…because Marc was the CEO and boss. Duncan had to tread much more carefully, but since Marc isn’t a leader prone to surround himself with YES men, Duncan found himself able to be a decent sounding board for the boss.

The purest accountability has a strong desire to serve the person seeking it. Marc admits that today he craves it. All high performers do. It’s the major stuff of executive coaching. Good executive coaches don’t barge into your place telling you how to do things. Or telling you what to do. Rather, their primary objective is to help leaders grow, improve and transform. Accountability is the most powerful ingredient necessary to facilitate those things. 

Other forms of accountability can also be useful. A board of advisors is somewhat common. These boards are most often populated with other business connections who have found favor with the owner. That doesn’t mean they can’t serve the role well. Or that they’re not able to ask great questions, which provoke the CEO or owner to perform up to the standards she’s established. The most effective boards are able to help the CEO achieve the objectives he wants. 

Accountability should always be determined by the person seeking it, or willing to accept it. The coach doesn’t play the sport. The athlete does. But the coach wants to help the athlete perform at her very best. It’s about the player. Always.

Business coaching, executive coaching in particular, is often misunderstood. Leaders may think some yahoo is going to come in, filled with ideas on how things ought to be done, and impose their ideas on the company. The role of the coach isn’t to play the game, but to help the player play the game more competitively. To help the player win. Period. 

There’s only one true measurement of an executive coach’s success. The elevated performance of the CEO. Nothing else matters!

Here’s how accountability helps you.

1. It helps you distill what matters most to you and your performance in leading the company. 
2. It helps you figure out how to best hit the targets you establish.
3. It helps you get on track and stay there as you pursue your stated goals.
4. It gives you encouragement and confidence when you need it most.
5. It pushes you further faster.
6. It helps you eliminate excuses, no matter what!
7. It helps you take your entire game to a whole new level, even reaching heights you may have thought were unreachable.

Nothing can replace it. Truth is, nothing even comes close.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:59 — 9.5MB)

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You’re chasing hard. Like everybody else, you wish you had more time. 

To be fair, you also wish you had more customers. More revenue. More profit. More great employees. Lower costs. More sanity in the work, and your schedule. 

Time the deal. It’s always the deal. 

My granddaughter will start second grade in the fall. She plays softball. She’s been on a handful of teams since she started playing and with each team I’ve watched her get better. She’s been forced to because the game grows increasingly faster as the kids grow up. I was watching some college girls play on ESPN a month or so ago and the speed factor between high school girls softball and college is noticeable. So it goes with our businesses. The market and our industry (it doesn’t matter what your industry is) are evolving and moving faster and faster. We have to be like my granddaughter. We have to keep up. 

Speed is key. And yet we can sometimes feel like a sign my grandmother had in her kitchen, 

“The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”

It’s from Alice In Wonderland. And as business owners, we know how true it is. The more we pursue our dream and building our company, the more demands we have on our time. 

We’re pressed. All of us. Which is why where and how we spend our time is important. Yes, I know we can spend it or invest it. No matter, once we take the time to do anything…that time is gone. Whether it was a wise or foolish use of our time, well, that’s for us to determine for ourselves. 

You’re an SMB owner. Maybe you’re running at full throttle and doing $5 million a year in revenue. Maybe you feel like you’ve got a lot of throttle left and you’re doing $200 million a year. It doesn’t matter. It’s your world and it’s hectic, filled with daily hurdles and opportunities. Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you. 

We’ve all heard the old Jim Rohn statement, 

You’re The Average Of The Five People You Spend The Most Time With

The problem isn’t a judgment problem. Meaning, it’s not that we find some people intrinsically invaluable. People are people and we respect them all. That doesn’t mean surrounding ourselves with just anybody is a wise thing. Some folks are toxic. Others filled with complaints. Still, others just suck the life out of us. 

Business owners face a unique challenge of being around other people who get it. We go home to family and they’ve not living our life. We love them, but they can’t understand it. And they’re often no more interested in hearing all the details than we are in sharing them. So we don’t. It’s much the same way with our friends. Sure, some of them own their own business, but we hate imposing business talk in social situations. Mostly, we want to avoid fostering that so we don’t have to be whipped with them telling us all about their business. We’ve got our own fish to fry!

You’re part of the fraternity of business owners. It’s a unique group of people populated by folks from all over the world. People who get each other simply because they all own and operate businesses. 

Let me tell you about a group that you do not want to qualify to be in…but if you do qualify, it’s a group you’re going to want to join. The National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children. Their 32nd annual conference is in Virginia next month. The tagline for the conference is, “Find strength in unity, love in fond memories and hope in the future.” 

How powerful do you suppose that group is in helping members grow, improve and transform? I doubt there’s any place those members could go for better support and service. And I know why. Because simply by walking into that room for the first time they’re surrounded by people just like them. People who get it. Without any explanation or verbiage. Instant connection. Instant drive to share, support and serve. Instant drive to be supported and be served, too. No agenda other than to help each other through their struggles. 

The sad reality is that I’m sure there are parents of murdered children who refuse to participate. They just don’t want to interact with others. Even people just like them. I get it. I’m empathetic to that. Sad, but empathetic. Sad because they might find just the help they need, but they can’t see it through whatever obstacles stand in their way. 

SMB owners have our own hurdles. We’ve all got preconceived ideas, assumptions, and views. We see what we see and we’re unable to see what we can’t. But here’s what I know is true about you and me, and all other SMB owners. Our individual progress and the progress of our businesses hinge on our willingness to improve the people who surround us. We don’t need forced friendships or family. But we do need intentional connections that serve a professional and personal purpose. 

You likely devote a portion of your budget to training, professional development and other things to help your people grow. What about you? What investment do you make in YOU?

Let me introduce you to a rock that will kill both birds with one toss. You can surround yourself with people who instantly get you (and people you instantly get), and simultaneously you can invest in your professional and personal development. And all of it is focused on hitting the trifecta of successful business building…

• Getting New Customers
• Serving Existing Customers Better
• Not Going Crazy In The Process

The Peer Advantage by Bula Network is now in the enrollment period forming a new professional peer advisory group of SMB owners from around the nation. Every SMB owner needs to be intentionally surrounded by people who have no bias toward self-preservation, and no ties to hinder candid sharing. It doesn’t happen in the wild. That’s why professional groups garner such a high return on the investment made – both in dollars, but mostly in time!

I’m currently conducting interviews on the phone with SMB owners. I’m especially interested in speaking with more female owners. Don’t worry, I’m not discriminating against the guys. Fifteen (15) minutes is all it’ll take for us to talk about your business and how The Peer Advantage by Bula Network may be an ideal fit for you. Or not. If it’s not, we’ll both know. But you need to find out. It’s an opportunity worthy of this brief vetting process. I’m only enrolling 7 SMB owners from around the country. This is a virtual group that will assemble via an online video conferencing platform. You won’t have to leave your home or office. It’s all about speed, convenience and effectiveness. 

Growth, improvement and transformation are the objectives. And the deliverables. 

Visit ThePeerAdvantage.com for all the details. And to arrange for our brief phone conversation. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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I know, I know. It sounds idiotic. Until you stop long enough to think about the truth of it. 

Got any young single adults in your life? Maybe your kids? We were kids once. On the dating scene. Like most young people we were focused on what we wanted. Or what we hoped for. An attractive person who would date us. Now here we are as SMB owners and we want the same thing – customers willing to hire us, buy our stuff, invest in our services. We’re looking for people to say, “Yes.”

It’s a noble pursuit. I’m not throwing rocks at it. Let’s just flip it on its head though so we can accomplish something. Namely, we want to hit the first leg of the business building trifecta – getting new customers. Let’s think more about how we can be attractive enough so somebody will say YES to us. And let’s think less about how badly we want what we want. 

I remember telling my kids when they were dating (and I’ve since told just about every young person who has entered my life the same thing), “If you want to find a good person, then be the person a good person would find attractive.” 

The same could be said for our businesses. I know prospects aren’t all the same. Some are superficial looking for the cheapest solution. Maybe that’s exactly who you’re aiming to attract and serve. WalMart is. Some are hard to please, but they’re willing to pay a premium because they want to feel special, and part of an exclusive club. Aston Martin attracts them. Some are desperate for a solution right now. Uber fits the bill. Prospects come in all shapes, sizes, and preferences. Your prospects are looking for certain things. It’s up to you to know what those are. Then it’s up to you to offer those. 

Growth happens in only a few simply stated ways. We sell more people. We sell more stuff to the same people. We sell more stuff to more people. Sure, there are pricing strategies employed. We can sell the same amount to the same people, but at a higher price. There are offering strategies. We can sell the same stuff, plus some new stuff to our existing clients. But no matter all these (and many other) details — we all need to be attracting new customers. If we don’t, our business will die. Either slowly or quickly. 

Like any legacy, our business depends on new people to replace or be added to the existing customer base. And customer base is everything! Without it, our business will fall. 

Too many small to medium-sized businesses go on auto-pilot when it comes to attracting customers. Even if we’ve achieved some sustainable success in getting new customers…we can get stuck. And our being stuck will cost us. Plumbers once relied on The Yellow Pages. Whenever people had an emergency – which is mostly when we call plumbers – they looked at the advertising in The Yellow Pages under plumbers. Numerous plumbers who found success with that strategy got smashed by refusing to figure out how to remain attractive to prospects. Those of us who grew up in the 70’s once thought bell bottom jeans were attractive. Fortunately, some of us gave them up sooner than others because we saw how ridiculous and unattractive they eventually began to look. Being attractive is an ongoing process. 

Sometimes maintaining attractiveness is tougher than being attractive when we begin. Time goes on and with it, our zest for the quest. If your business is more than 5 years old things have changed drastically. Mostly because our behaviors and expectations as people continue to change. Speed is key. We want what we want and we want it now. And we expect it to be 100% as we want it. It’s up to us to figure these out and to keep them figured out. That means you’ve got to open yourself up to the truth that your attractiveness isn’t – can’t be – stagnant!

This means we’ve got to stop focusing on what we want and instead concentrate on what our customers want. Which means a big priority for all of us is to keep in touch with the ever-changing desires and needs of our customers. We either meet them and stay relevant, or we ignore them and enter obscurity. 

The last few weeks have been busy weeks in the NBA and NHL. Both leagues are in free agency season. General managers have been prowling for the talent they feel they need to give their teams the best chances for winning. Some are in rebuilding mode, knowing they’re a few years away from really being relevant. They’re battling to fend off obscurity. But they know they need more time. Others are already in obscurity and have little clue how to escape it. Then the top tier teams know they’re competitive and relevant, but they realize they have to pursue it even harder because their competitors are pushing hard, too. 

They look out over the list of available players. Some of those players are attractive because they’ve got specific skills and experience to fit the bill. Compensation, experience, ages, skills…they’re all in play as teams decide which players to add or subtract from their roster. Until a player is unable to compete at a level high enough to stay in the league, there’ll be a team who will find them attractive. In their business model, the athlete has to remain attractive. If they fail, they’ll find no takers and that ends their professional athletic career. 

We have the same burden they do. Our job is to keep on our toes so our business becomes and remains attractive to the market. The market wants what it wants. It rewards what it feels is worthy of support. It can be your business. Or not. It’s up to you. 

So don’t be arrogant. Don’t sit idle thinking you once had it figured out and it’ll return. It won’t. Bell bottoms aren’t coming back (well, let’s pray they don’t). It’s time to move on and keep up with what our prospects and customers want. Let’s focus more on giving it to them in the most remarkable fashion possible. If we’re outstanding in our execution, then we’ll have an outstanding business.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Thank you!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:31 — 9.0MB)

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You’re blessed. Here’s the thing about blessings. They’re real and they exist even if you don’t recognize them. But I hope you do – recognize them. 

Yesterday was Independence Day here in America. It’s one of those holidays where Americans celebrate with fireworks, cookouts and family get-togethers. Some of us take time to be thankful for the people in our lives. Pictured in that graphic to illustrate today’s show are my 5 grandkids. The little people in my life are an enormous part of my gratitude. These kids illustrate better than anything how blessed I am. I hope you’ve got little kids somewhere in your life. If not, then I hope you’ve got younger people. Older people. Just people who make all the difference to your world. 

I’m using the verb “embrace” because we all need to be devoted to clutching and holding tightly onto both gratitude and optimism. These are two things that none of us can get enough of. 

Gratitude is the recipe for negative pride, conceit and entitlement. It’s also the recipe for what many of us do – we focus on what we don’t have that we want. That concentration on the negative has to be overcome if we’re going to increase our optimism. 

If I’m constantly thinking about how bad things are, how I don’t have the things I want, or the performance I want, or the revenues or anything else…then I’m going to lean toward complaining. It’s the natural progression of where our minds take us. What we focus on becomes a growing obsession. Lack and want leap out because that’s what we’re looking at. We’re compelled to talk about it and articulate it. To anybody who will listen. Intentional or unintentional. It’s why business owners sometimes find themselves having said things they don’t even remember. “I didn’t say that, did I?” is an all too common refrain. We’ve all been guilty. 

“Did I say that out loud?”

Yep. And the reason is simple. We were thinking about it. Constantly. 

Which is why what we think is so important. And why gratitude has to be an intentional act for us. 

Try a short, simple exercise. Carve out 15 minutes. Shut everything off and out. Go dark for 15 minutes to the world. Book an appointment on your calendar with yourself. Log it so others who have access to your calendar to see it’s an important meeting that isn’t to be interrupted. Keep the appointment. 

I don’t know what’s important to you and I’m not going to presuppose to know because it’s not my place to judge. It’s your life. What I will do is share with you what works for me in hopes you can morph some ideas that work for you. 

I start thinking about the people in my life who matter. The ones who are still with me. It begins with my wife of over 40 years. My single greatest fear is losing her. But I have a choice. To focus on that possibility or to embrace the truth of my present circumstance — I’m blessed with her presence and partnership right now. And have been for all these years. A whole lot to be thankful for. 

From there, there are names and faces of family members, including those 5 grandkids. My family is my tribe. My most important tribe. Okay, they’re my only tribe. 😀 

This may be dark – too dark for some of you – but during the initial moments of my effort to increase my gratitude, I imagine losing them. I don’t dwell on any morbid details. I just imagine that they’re no longer here and that spot they now occupy is empty. In mere seconds I’m super thankful to have them. It’s just a launching point for me, but everything else flows easily once I take my mind there. 

After I run through a quick catalog of very important things that exist in my life gratitude sweeps over me. I try to get there as quickly as I can so I can linger there as long as possible. For me, that’s the key. To get to gratitude quickly and to stay there as long as possible. 

It’s not about hitting the 15-minute mark and then going back to whatever level of ingratitude we may have had. It’s about intentionally taking our mind to the place where we can quickly revisit it throughout every single day. 

Whatever tactic you employ, figure one out. Keep working on it. You have an enormous list of things to be thankful for. 

Those things then serve to fuel your optimism. Partly because they fuel your reason for doing whatever you’re doing. They help you clarify your purpose. It’s like a guidance system for your life and career. 

Optimism is the belief that the future you see will happen. It’s largely steeped into the belief that it’s already happened. That’s our magic as humans. We can play all these “what if” games in our head. For us, in our minds, they’re real. Not just imagined. The more we’re able to hold that, the more our mind engages to alter our actions and behaviors. In short, we begin to behave in ways that are congruent with our beliefs. Even about things that have yet to be realized. 

That’s why your optimism matters. It impacts your actions, which determine your results. There is no way to grow great without gratitude and optimism.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Subscribe to the podcast

To subscribe, please use the links below:

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:09 — 6.9MB)

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Whenever I’d sass my mom, I’d likely hear, “I don’t care for that tone!” Or, “Don’t take that tone with me, young man!” 

Tone matters.

But tone can be a lot more than how we sound when we speak. As business owners and leaders, it’s everything. It’s our demeanor when we walk into the office. It’s the look on our face as we greet employees in the morning. It’s how we answer our phone. And how we communicate with staff. It’s the thousand micro behaviors that define us every day.

You don’t have to watch those things, but everybody else is…so I’d urge you to give it sober consideration. Better yet, I strongly encourage you to be mindful of how you look, sound and behave. Pressure, right? Yep, that’s the price you pay for leadership. People are watching and taking their cues from YOU. 

Every week, during a live streaming show on Facebook focused on European-based scaleups (companies working hard to achieve rapid, sustainable growth), the topic of culture and communication comes up. It doesn’t matter if the topic is scaling up talent, engineering, product, marketing or any other specific area. And when culture and communication come up, who do you think gets mentioned first? The founder, the co-founders and the CEO. The people at the top are named first because they set the tone for the enterprise. 

It doesn’t matter if the company was founded in Berlin and now has offices in London and San Francisco. Or if the company is in Lisbon, Portugal with no other offices. 

It doesn’t matter if the native tongue is German, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Chinese or English. Or all of them. 

It doesn’t matter if the leadership team is fairly new on the timeline of their career, or if they’re long-time veterans with vast experience. Or a mixture of both. 

Education doesn’t matter. Backgrounds don’t matter. Political leanings don’t matter. None of it matters. 

Everyone shares a commonality. We’re all people. And we’re all influenced by the people who nurture us (or fail to). Those who lead us (or claim to). The people at the top set the tone of the culture. And for the communication. 

Here’s what happens when you don’t watch the tone you’re setting…it sets itself. Entropy takes over just like it does your lawn, or your car. Don’t set the tone, don’t maintain it and it’ll take on a life (or death) of its own. You’ll lose. It’ll be ugly. Worst of all, it’s completely avoidable. It justs you to be more watchful, careful and diligent to understand the influence you weld. 

Don’t abdicate this to somebody else. Don’t hide from it. Embrace it. Own it. Make it happen. 

Stop thinking it’s unimportant. That it’s frou-frou and nothing that will make a difference. It can make all the difference in the world. It can – and will – change everything! For the better if you pay close attention and do your very best. 

The good news is that you learned all this when you were in first grade. You’ve just forgotten some of it (or much of it). 

Be kind to people. Be polite. Be considerate. 

Be grateful and humble. Don’t think too highly of yourself. Yes, you’re the boss. Yes, your every word is a command. All the more reason for you to really watch your tone. 

Be fair. Well, try. 

Fundamentally, you can improve the tone you set by exercising yourself to be compassionate and caring. Err on the side of kindness. It’s where the rewards are. It’s what others find most attractive. And it’s largely what will engage your employees, keep them engaged and prevent them from running out the door. Sure, some will walk out the door, hopefully to better opportunities that will improve their lives. Be the business owner who wants that for them. That tone will ring loud and clear throughout the company. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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If you have a chance, please leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking Review on iTunes. It’ll help the show rank better in iTunes.

Thank you!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:27 — 7.1MB)

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What you think.

How you feel.

Thoughts, emotions, beliefs. They belong to you. 

I’ve got my own. Mine don’t matter to you. But they could. Just not as much as yours.

It’s up to you to protect yours. It’s also up to you to expand yours. Grow yours. Maybe even correct yours. If you’re wrong. 

But how will you know? How can any of us know we’re deluded? Or wrong?

Outside ourself perspectives. That’s how. Alternative perspectives help us consider our own. It’s why I’m such a fan of questions and operated businesses with a stated philosophy:

The quality of our questions determines the quality of our business.”

Problems arise when we’re unwilling to ask questions. Especially when we’re unwilling to ask questions of ourselves. Or to allow others to ask us. 

I get that it’s not comfortable, but this isn’t about comfort. Or discomfort. No, it’s about growth, improvement, and transformation. You won’t experience any of those things for yourself, your leadership or your company unless you tolerate, even encourage questions. 

Our growth, our improvement and our transformation will propel the same things in the businesses we lead. That’s just another reason why this is urgent and important work.

But it’s challenging…

Because our perspective – what we think and how we feel – drives everything. It drives our communication, our decision-making, our reactions and responses. 

Listen, this isn’t about making sure our perspectives are perfect. There’s no such thing when it comes to how we see things and how we allow things to make us feel. They just are what they are. But that’s too simple. And too cowardly. It presupposes that we can’t do anything about them, which is colossally wrong. We can and must sometimes change our minds. 

Think of a time you had an idea you were convinced would work. You tried it. Only to find out you were wrong. Maybe you made another run at trying it. And it still failed. So you changed your mind. Over time you saw more clearly how it wasn’t your best idea ever. When it first failed maybe you felt angry. Frustrated. Sad. Maybe the second and final failure provoked you to feel embarrassed, or stupid. Six months later you likely felt different. Maybe you didn’t think about it ever. And those feelings attached disappeared. 

Welcome to the human race. Our brains are magnificent things. Capable of greatness, if we’ll work to harness them more. 

Your perspective is based on life, experience, history, relationships and the sum total of you. Here’s where there’s value and your opportunity to grow. All the things have formed my perspective are different from yours. And we could talk with half a dozen additional business owners and quickly discover each of them has yet a different perspective. 

I’m fairly certain we’d all find perspectives we share. The human experience can be different, but relatable. It’s why songs are written around common themes like love and loss. These are universal. The details are different though. Which is why the more we connect with others, the more we share our experiences with each other…the wiser we can become. It expands our viewpoint. Gives us a perspective we may not otherwise have. In short, it gets us out of our head and our view so we can grow great. 

You need additional perspectives. Even if yours are great, wonderful and spot on. And they won’t always be. Which is why they need constant testing. 

Do you use all your rearview mirrors when you drive? I do. And have ever since I was a kid. I don’t just look at the one attached to the windshield. I’m constantly glancing at the ones on the side of the car. Both sides. I do it to make sure I can see all four directions: ahead, behind, right side and left side. When you drive around a big city like Dallas/Ft. Worth, traffic can be daunting. One of my pet peeves are people willing to drive directly in your blind spot for miles. I’ve got those little round side mirrors to help avoid blind spots. They won’t do me a lick of good if I don’t look at them though.

Outside perspectives for you and your business are like my little round side mirrors. They just help you see things more clearly.  

Do you want to surround yourself with other business owners willing to share their perspectives without judging yours? Can you see the value of sharing your perspective with other business owners who may not view things quite like you? 

Then I invite you to check out The Peer Advantage by Bula Network. It’s a professional peer advisory group of just 7 small to medium-sized business owners who come together a couple of times each month online to help each other grow, improve and transform. There’s only one goal, to hit the trifecta of business building: to get new customers, to serve existing customers better and to avoid going crazy in the process. I want to help you grow great. I want your business to grow great. We can do this. Together.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Subscribe to the podcast

To subscribe, please use the links below:

• Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes
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