Randy Cantrell

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Back in the 1970’s a Dallas consultant, Bill Oncken, created a seminar entitled, “Managing Management Time.” In 1984 I bought the book.

Monkey, monkey…who’s got the monkey? is far deeper than a productivity question. It’s about priorities, emotions, time, urgency, importance and the work we get done. It’s also about the drivers behind the work, the why of the work. I’d urge you to find a copy of the book and dive into it, but today I’d like to give you a sample taste of a few of the ideas.

For every monkey there are two parties involved: one to work it and another to supervise it.

It’s about owning the work. Too many managers (and leaders) rob their people of taking the monkey. People want their own monkey. That is, they want to own their work. Sadly, managers can take from them the purpose and rewards of work by picking up monkeys not rightfully theirs. 

But I’m in charge, says the manager! Well, bully for you, Mr. Manager, but that doesn’t mean you should go around picking up every monkey you see. That includes the ones you think you could handle better. 

“I’m stuck doing everything,” says the manager. Yet, at every turn, he’s busy picking up monkeys that don’t rightfully belong to him. The more he picks up, the more people expect him to pick up. Eventually, his schedule is packed and his staff lacks work. They’ve got more time on their hands while he has no time at all. It’s his own fault. And the monkeys keep on coming. They don’t stop simply because the manager has no time left.

Managers are the problem. Quite often the manager (the boss) is the constraint on effective and efficient work. All because they’re busy working on the monkeys belonging to their people. 

Things not worth doing are not worth doing well.

I really wish I could have known Mr. Oncken. His humor is right up my alley. He’s spot on in so many things. And it’s not because I was exposed to this stuff when I was much younger because it holds up nicely. It’s because he was so brilliantly simple and straight-forward. Conveying the truth in often humorous, but effective ways. 

Oncken dashed off to the office one Saturday morning, as he had often done before in an attempt to catch up. Staring at the paperwork he needed to get done it dawned on him he was behind not in his own work, but in the work of his people. He wasn’t able to get behind in his work because he never got started on it. He was too busy doing the work for his people. The more he did their work, the more work they gave him to do. And it was completely his fault. He was a compulsive monkey-picker-upper. 

Every family picture excluded him because he wasn’t there. He was busy back at the office handling monkeys that didn’t even belong to him. The more he did things FOR people, the more they expected him to keep on doing things for them instead of doing them for themselves. 

Serve your people by insisting they do them for themselves. There are simply too many things that are not worth doing, much less agonizing over how to do them well. And too many of these things don’t belong to you to do in the first place. 

The more you get rid of your people’s monkeys, the more time you have for your people.

This is where leadership enters. And where it’s so vitally needed. 

You need time for your people. Not to do their work for them, but to serve them with vision, mission and finding out how they can achieve their goals in the context of what the company is trying to achieve. There’s no time for that important work if you’re busy doing their work for them.

Death to the micro-manager. If you take pride in being one, then you’re proud of being like that old-time street organ grinder with a monkey on a leash. It’s a trap and it won’t help your company grow. Or your people. Or yourself. 

Micro-managing is a surefire way to stunt all growth. Stop it. Get over yourself. You’re not that important. And if you think you are, then I pity the people who work inside your organization. They’ll never grow. 

People will act if you allow them. Or you can micro-manage and they’ll wait for you to act. Your choice.

The best way to develop responsible people is to give them responsibility. 

I’ll leave you with a summary of Mr. Onken’s four rules of monkey management:

Rule 1: Describe the monkey. Identify and specify what needs to be done. 

Rule 2: Assign the monkey. Every monkey should be owned and handled at the lowest level consistent with the monkey’s welfare. The monkey is the work. 

Rule 3: Insure the monkey. Every monkey that leaves your presence on the back of one of your team members must be insured by one of two policies: a) Recommend, then act or b) Act, then advise.

Rule 4: Check on the monkey. Proper follow up means healthier monkeys. You don’t just leave them alone. Every monkey needs a check up appointment.

If you always agree with your people, one of you isn’t necessary.

Onken said it in reverse. If you always agree with your boss, then one of you isn’t necessary. But since you’re the boss, let’s put that accurate twist on it. You may think being surrounded by YES people is the path to higher achievement. It’s not. 

No more than you taking over every detail of the work that happens inside your organization. Get over yourself. Lose your ego and pride. Give it to your people instead. Let them feel the sense of purpose and accomplishment in getting their own work done. Help them achieve more by focusing on them instead of the monkeys that rightfully belong on their back. 

More monkeys will be properly handled as you develop the skills to serve those handling the monkeys. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the path to hitting the 3rd leg of the business building trifecta of NOT GOING CRAZY IN THE PROCESS.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Yesterday we talked about how as the CEO or business owner you may want to hole up and do four quick passes through the budget with some hi-liters. RED is NO. GREEN is GO. YELLOW is I Don’t Know.

It’s a good idea to have your leadership team follow suit with whatever you do. In this case, I want my team to do the same thing so when we come together we can more easily discuss each line item. If you’re doing things one way, and each person on your leadership team is doing something different, it can make the conversation more difficult. Not impossible, just more difficult. But do whatever works best for you and your team. 

The major point I want you to consider is “putting everything on trial for its life.” Make each line item live and die on its own merit. Be relentless. 

I’m not terribly fond of cost containment. I more fond of cost squeezing. “Cost creep” can stop you in your tracks. It’ll derail momentum if you don’t incorporate the ongoing habit of the relentless pursuit of profits. 

Don’t be stingy. Be frugal. There’s a difference.

Budgeting demonstrates values. Specifically, the budget will display what YOU value. I can glance at a budget and determine if the owner cares about developing himself or herself. I can glance at it and see if the owner cares about developing employees. I can spot where the owner may have some paranoia or special concerns. I can spot where the owner has pet indulges, too. It all comes out in the wash. 

Well, let’s pick up now with your meeting with the leadership team. I’m not terribly fond of making this a marathon endeavor. That is, I don’t care to have meeting after meeting after meeting about budgets. Truth is, I don’t care about having meeting after meeting after meeting about much of anything. Meet as often as you need to, but don’t meet any more than you have to. The key is to prepare BEFORE you meet. 

If I’ve gone through the list 4 times and each member of the leadership has gone through it 4 times, then we’re ready to meet. I know my speed going through the list 4 times doesn’t likely look like theirs because they’ve each got things they’re willing to fight for, and perhaps other things they’d like to fight against. But hopefully they care about each other and we can enjoy a civil, even vigorous debate. I encourage it. Remember the goal is to put each line item on trial for its life. That won’t happen if everybody enters the room without the courage to fight a little bit. 

I don’t foster the fight, but I do work intentionally to build a safe environment where we all know we’re not there for any reason other than to make the company as great as it can be. Egos need to be left behind. Budgets aren’t about pushing forward somebody’s career agenda or anything else. They’re about utilizing resources to help the company grow. As the lion tamer in the room, my job (your job as the CEO and owner) is to make sure the lions behave. Serve them well. Keep everything safe so people can fully express themselves. And don’t shut down disagreement. Debate and disagreement can (and should) happen without thinking it’s detrimental. Disagree, but don’t be disagreeable. 

The Team Meeting

Everybody should be fully prepared for the discussion. Put a time limit on the meeting. Start on time. Stop on time. Set aside whatever time you think may be needed. It’s wise to ask the team how long they think they’ll need. Let everybody know in advance. Hint: this meeting may very well be a full-day meeting. It depends on the size and complexity of your business. I suggest you limit it to one full day, but make it shorter if you can.

You can begin anywhere you’d like. Just lead. Don’t take a vote or you’ll start the session debating about the least important things. Set the tone and pace. 

I just have everybody start with a clean, unmarked list along with their own marked list. I don’t make color copies of my 4-pass-results because I want the interaction and I want each person fully engaged. Staring at a list of what I’ve done is different than looking at a clean copy, listening to me go through each pass. They’re paying much closer attention by having to notice which color I assigned to a line item. 

RED is NO. GREEN is GO. YELLOW is I-Don’t-Know. And no color means I don’t think it needs any adjustment. 

All four areas get discussion if any member of the team wants. I’m not dictating the elimination of discussion. Every line item is on trial for its life. 

I go through all four passes with the team making their notes, marking their clean copy to match my own. By the time I’ve reviewed all four passes with them, I’ve now gone over it four times by myself and four times with the team. I’ve also now been able to articulate the four passes. There’s value in all that. For me and the team. 

I’m then going to start with RED for the discussion. Line by line we go through the RED hi-lighted items. 

Some team members will agree. Some won’t. Let the discussion move forward. Push every team member to listen carefully to the thoughts and ideas of others…with one goal – TO UNDERSTAND. We want to understand each other as fully as possible. Yes, this is easier said than done, but if you insist on it and handle moderating the conversation well, it can happen. 

There’s one trick I’d encourage you to deploy. Get a small hourglass that is a lot less than an hour. Three minutes. Five minutes. Whatever suits you. Once you launch the conversation about a specific line item turn over the glass so the clock is ticking. Here’s the rule: When the sand has completely run through the glass, we’re going to take a vote. Do we want to devote more time to this item right now? Do we want to move on with agreement on what should be done? Do we want to move on with agreement that nothing should be done? Do whatever the group decides. 

The goal is to make some conclusions on every line item, but some things are going to be more complex than others. I don’t put pressure on this meeting to be our final concluding meeting. I would put pressure on this meeting to distill the list down into there being just a few (very few) line items that may demand deeper conversation. Work to get most of the budget done in this meeting. Again, your business may require more discussion, but keep in mind —- the preparation of the budget should have been interactive, meaning the team had a big hand in the preparation of the line items. It’s not like everybody is seeing these numbers for the first time. If they are, you’re doing it wrong. 

I’m fond of pace. Yes, it’s partly speed, but it’s not thoughtless speed. Pace forces people to get to the point. It forces people to express themselves quickly and clearly.

After we’ve discussed an item for 3 or 5 minutes we work to consensus. If only one person wants to continue the conversation, we do it. I’m looking for a unanimous vote without pressure. Dissenters aren’t made to feel bad. 

You’ll find that some line items won’t take up the entire time on the “hourglass.” Others will take longer. That’s okay. 

Try to get through the RED, then take a break before moving to GREEN. 

Rinse and repeat. Do the same thing through GREEN, then take another break before going to YELLOW. 

Then do the final pass. The objective is to produce a budget that won’t be the final version, but one that will lead to the final version. Don’t rush through this pass because this is often the most important pass. 

All along the way people will have debated their cause, explained why they disagree, or agree. Some will have moved in their position. Others will have changed completely on a few things. Again, keep preaching the point…

To Put Every Line Item On Trial For Its Life

One other vital point – push the vision and mission of the company in the budget. Don’t allow anybody to spoil that. If developing people matters to you and somebody wants to cut or eliminate investments in programs that do that because they’re looking for money to support something else, you must remain true to what matters most. Explain it. Preach it. If necessary, impose your will. But hopefully your leadership team is completely on board with you and your vision (that’s how it should be), that you don’t have this problem. 

By the time you work through the 4th pass of the budget with your team everybody should be prepared to then go back to work out the final numbers. Encourage them to do this. I prefer to have them do it without my involvement. Mostly because I want them to own it and I feel I’ve now done my job of pushing the debate forward. From here on out, I’m going to trust them. You do whatever you need to do. 

Get the final numbers in place. Get complete agreement. It may mean somebody surrenders something, but that’s okay. You want every member of your leadership team to sign off on the final numbers. Not pressured to do it, but to honestly be agreeable that these final numbers are the best numbers for moving the company forward. 

It’s fine if the team wants to debate it amongst themselves some more. Leave them do whatever work they want to do. Put somebody, likely your CFO, in charge of leading the parade. Give them a deadline. Make it reasonable, but quick. Don’t let this drag out. Remember our title, FUN with budgets. We want this to be meaningful, profitable work – not sheer drudgery. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Yes, I’m being sarcastic. Sorta. Budgeting can be fun when our coffers are full. It sucks when they’re not. Challenging.

There are just a few principles that I’ve been devoted to throughout my career. Things that seem to serve as kind of “north star” for the operational challenges I’ve faced. One of them is to put something on trial for its life.

Put it on trial for its life.

Budget items live and die based on merit. That’s what it always meant for me. There’s likely going to be a serious and deliberate debate. At least on a few line items. But after considerable wrangling, line items either live or die after the necessary adjustments.

Let’s consider some things we can do to make budgeting great. I won’t promise to make it fun, but who knows?

Fast Scan For The Obvious Bad

Sports commentators talk about a team that passes the “eye test.” That is, the team looks good. No matter their record, they just look like a good team. You can apply that same logic to the first quick passes through the line items of the budget.

Look for the things that jump out without scrutiny. Some items will leap out and get your immediate attention. You may find yourself muttering, “What in the world is this?”

My preference was to do this alone, without a CFO or accounting person. Not because I didn’t want their knowledge, but I wanted to run through the numbers myself without letting myself get sidetracked. You may be able to control yourself better than me, but I knew if I began to question a line item I’d be tempted to stomp down and dive down that rabbit hole. I want to get into a rhythm of going through the whole list so I can do it a few times quickly. It’s not like speed reading for me, but I don’t want to linger too long on any one line item.

I like to use hi-liters as I go. Green is GO. Red is NO. Yellow is I DON’T KNOW. But rather than mark things up too badly and clutter things I tend to go through my first pass focusing only on RED or NO ITEMS. No doesn’t mean they’re completely gone, but it means these jump out at me as needing more serious consideration and probably deserving of a cut. I don’t use any other colors on my first pass. That makes it easy for me to discern the most obvious line items where I can make some likely reductions. No, I’m not going to get it 100% right. You aren’t either, but that’s not the point. The point is to give yourself a place from which to begin so meaningful progress can be made.

Fast Scan For The Obvious Good

Now I’ll do the same thing for the items that seem congruent with the goals of the new year or whatever planning period I’m using. It’s time to bust out the GREEN hi-liter.

I’m scanning for line items where the line item seems fitting or maybe it could even use some beefing up. I may put a small + (plus) sign if I think it could use some bolstering. I’ll put a small – (minus) sign if I think it could even suffer a closer shave. I began to do this years ago as I learned how the numbers add up and it’s good (no, it’s great) to have a cushion.

Fixed Expenses

Let me interject here something about fixed expenses and how we deal with these. Fixed may or not be really fixed. Many things – perhaps most things – are negotiable. Too often business owners don’t want to put in the work to see if they can lower their expenses and thereby free up some serious money in the budget.

I’ll work a budget over with a YELLOW hi-liter on such line items, but only if I’m really willing to put in the work, or feel the work would even be appropriate. For example, if I wrestled with a landlord over terms of a long-term lease last year, I’m not going to be a jerk and go to the well again. You can do as you please, but I want to be a good partner. And I want to be reasonable and fair.

So I’m scanning for the obvious good or things I mostly agree with. These are items I’m not going to spend much time challenging unless somebody on the team wants to. Keep in mind, your leadership team is going to fight for certain things. It’s why I do this exercise alone without their input. That debate will happen soon enough.

Fast Scan For The Obvious Question Marks

Now I’m going through the line items a third time in my fast scan process. Keep in mind, I’m obviously seeing the same line items each time, but I’m looking for different things each time. Here I am on my 3rd fast pass, now looking for the line items that raise an eyebrow of “I’m not sure about this one.”

Yes, sometimes in the second or third pass I find myself reaching for the opposite color marker because a line item that didn’t jump out before…now it does. So it’s possible during my run through RED I grab a GREEN hi-liter. Or vice-versa.

Throughout this process, I’m working to keep things as black and white as possible. If I have to stop and deliberate in my mind about it, then I don’t mark it RED or GREEN. I keep moving on because I know I’ll likely mark it with YELLOW when the time comes.

There are line items we just aren’t sure about. Maybe they’re fine. Maybe we have specific questions. Maybe we need more clarification or information. These are items we know we want to address with our CFO and leadership team.

One Final Pass-Through

I’ve gone through it three times so I figure now that I’ve got it with all 3 colors completed I may as well review it a final time. Again, it’s a rather quick pass and I’m looking for obvious omissions or edits I’d like to make. It also gives me a 4th time to go over it.

I’m confident at this point with the work I’ve done. It doesn’t mean I’m right, but it means I’m ready to go to the next stage of budgeting fun. 😉

Lord willing, we’ll pick up on the budgeting frivolity tomorrow.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Entrepreneurs, business owners – Bula Network is proud to be launching THE PEER ADVANTAGE, a professional peer advisory group exclusively for U.S.-based business owners. We’re now just 23 days away from 2019, a year I’m dubbing, “The year of intentional and purposeful connections.”

Bula Network began almost 10 years ago as mostly a consulting company helping clients with a variety of different business challenges. I leveraged my decades of business building experience to help business owners and CEOs with everything from marketing, to succession planning, to sales force compensation programs and just about everything in between.

Eventually, the work took a turn – mostly because I wanted to stop doing the work for people and instead I wanted to help them figure out ways to do the work themselves. I went from fishing for clients to teaching clients how to fish for themselves. It was much more rewarding work. Some call it coaching.

Three years ago another shift occurred, one that was very congruent with coaching. I became aware of the professional peer advisory group for CEOs and entrepreneurs. Fascinating stuff. By the Spring of 2016 a book was released, THE POWER OF PEERS. It was written by Vistage CEO Leon Shapiro and Vistage VP Leo Bottary. Vistage is a company that specializes in building 16 member in-person groups for CEOs and top leaders. The book captured both my attention and imagination.

By the early fall of 2016 Leo had left Vistage to do his own thing. He was the VP of Peer Advantage at Vistage and clearly one of the chief experts in the world on the topic. As a longtime podcaster I had an idea. I wondered if Leo would like to have his own podcast. Me? I wanted to learn more. I’d be willing to do the heavy lifting to make a podcast possible if Leo was interested in using such a platform to spread the message.

I contacted Leo even though I’d never met him and he had no clue who I was. After a few back and forth conversations Leo agreed to launch the podcast, YEAR OF THE PEER (2017). I was merely the behind-the-scenes guy doing the voiceover work and serving as producer. There were many world-class interviews with fascinating people. At some point in the midst of it all, Leo knew there was a book brewing, based in part on what we were learning on the podcast. Leo began to work on a book.

By August 2017 Leo asked me to co-host the podcast with him beginning this year. We based the podcast on the book he was writing and used the same title he intended to use for the book – WHAT ANYONE CAN DO. In January we launched the new podcast.

What Anyone Can Do (the book) was published this fall (2018). More importantly for me, Leo and I had become friends and co-workers on the podcast. I had been learning as much as possible about the peer advantage, especially the advantage to small business owners who would intentionally and purposefully surround themselves with other entrepreneurs interested in hitting the trifecta of business building: getting new customers, serving existing customers better and not going crazy in the process!

I wanted to enter the space. Leo encouraged me. He had worked with me for quite a while now and knew my skillset. He felt I was ideally suited for the work because I’m driven to help people without telling them what to do, because empathy is one of my few superpowers and because I thrive on deep connections.

In February this year (2018) I told Leo I wanted to launch a small group of just 7 business owners (the people who are the closest people to my heart). I laid out the details that I intended to launch a virtual group where we’d meet online using a video conferencing platform like Zoom where members could join using their mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop. We’d meet every other week for 2 hours and hit the ground running with a hard start time and a hard stop time. In between meetings we could communicate using some other technologies. Additionally, I wanted to invite friends and acquaintances with specialty knowledge to conduct live and recorded webinars for the group (content they could consume at their leisure).

Leo is responsible for immediately telling me to launch two groups – one for the morning and one for late afternoon. Because (as he reasoned), “Some people are morning people and some aren’t.” That’s the power of surrounding yourself with people who will challenge you and push you.

I spent the rest of the year trying hard to get things lined up so I could go “all in” on launching The Peer Advantage by Bula Network. Somewhere along the way I was even able to snag the url, ThePeerAdvantage.com.

So I’m inviting you to check it out and apply. I’m going to launch it after the first of the year. You can apply by going to BulaNetwork.com/apply. It’s a Google form that will only take you a few minutes to share enough information with me so we can have a meaningful conversation. Complete the form and then we’ll schedule a quick phone call so I can find out more about you, and answer any questions you may have.

The Unique Power Of Intentional & Purposeful Connection

Before I go today, let me tell you a quick story to help you better understand the power of joining a professional peer group if you’re a business owner.

You’ve got people who love you and care about you. They’re interested in you and your life. But that doesn’t mean they can relate to every area of your life, especially your business life. It’s why husband business owners struggle to help their wives understand and why wife business owners struggle to help their husbands understand. People with no vested interest, other than to help us, often struggle to fully understand what we’re going through because they can’t really understand the context of owning a business.

There are plenty of other people who surround us. Smart, bright people. Some are employees. We certainly can’t let our hair down in front of them. Since we’re the last line of defense and the first line of offense in our business, we know people are beholden to us. And that impacts our relationship with them. So it goes with people outside our company, too. People like professional service providers such as accountants or attorneys. Or vendors and suppliers.

Employees rely on us for their jobs. The others rely on us as clients or prospective clients. That makes it all hard to find a safe environment where we can really shell things down, say what we’re feeling or thinking and have people who get it, people who won’t judge us and people who will help us figure it out.

Did you know there is a group called Parents of Murdered Children? It’s a national organization for a very select group of people.

You don’t want to qualify to become a member, but if you do happen to qualify — is there any better group you could join? I can’t imagine that there would be.

You walk in the door, introduce yourself and instantly you’re connected to the group because everybody there gets it. The details of each family’s experiences may differ, but that doesn’t matter. The overwhelming context necessary for intentional and purposeful connection is present. Everybody in the group shares ONE BIG THING that binds them. Because of that ONE BIG THING every member of the group can feel safe, vulnerable and served in the group.

Our One Big Thing Is Business Ownership

This is the tie that binds. We can instantly relate. It makes communication instantly easier because we all get it.

I hope you get it – namely, I hope you understand the potential power of being part of such a group. Please go complete that short survey right now by visiting BulaNetwork.com/apply. Then we’ll talk on the phone briefly. By the way, this is as hard a sell as you’re going to get from me. If it’s right for you, we’ll know. If not, that’s okay, too. I hope you’ll keep listening to the podcast and finding value here at Grow Great.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Benchmarking began to be popular business jargon back in the 80’s. At least that’s when I first began to hear about it. Wikipedia has some interesting history on the term.

The term benchmark, originates from the history of guns and ammunition, and with the same aim as for the business term; comparison and improved performance. The introduction of gunpowder arms replaced the bow and arrow from the archer, the soldier who used the bow. The archer now had to adapt to the new situation, and learn to handle the gun. The new weapon left only a mark on the target, where the arrow used to be visible, and with the bow gone, the soldiers title changed to marksman, the man who put the mark. The gun was improved already in the early beginning, with rifling of the barrel, and the rifle was born. With the industrialization of the weapon-industry in the mid-1800’s, The mass production of ammunition as a cartridge replaced the manual loading of black-powder and bullet into the gun. Now, with standardized production of both the high-precision rifle, as well as the cartridge, the marksman was now the uncertain variable, and with different qualities and specifications on both rifle as well as ammunition, there was a need for a method of finding the best combination. The rifled weapon was fixed in a bench, making it possible to fire several identical shots at a target to measure the spread. This is benchmarking, as it is still done today, both at the gun-factory, the ammunition-factory, as well as for a lot of sportsmen who look for the best ammunition to bring to competition.

In short, benchmarking and best practices have been considered interchangeable terms denoting the standards that have been established by industry leaders. Think of it as the current established level of high achievement. It’s not an ideal, but a realized actuality of somebody or some company in a particular area of endeavor.

Best practices on one industry may not quite mirror those in another. Typically, we look within our industry to see what the top performers are doing. They set the standard, the benchmark or best practices.

I’ve always been interested in the benchmarks or best practices, but I’ve also always found them very limiting. Probably for the same reason I find today’s social media quotes so empty. Quotable quotes are nice and all, but your business success and your leadership success aren’t likely going to be impacted by some notable (perhaps completely untrue) quote. For starters, the quotes usually have no context. Additionally, they tend to be stated in absolutes because that gives them perceived authority and power. Words like “always” and “never” are dead giveaways. But we can blitzed with such things and they enter our individual and collective consciousness – and over time, we begin to believe them. So they do have an effect on us. No denying it.

Just this morning I saw one that said, “The problem isn’t the problem. It’s your reaction to the problem.” Really? I’m not so sure. And what does that even mean? If your building roof leaks, you have a problem. I don’t see how your reaction to that problem – getting it fixed, either temporarily or permanently – is the problem. No, the roof leaks. That’s my problem. I’m doing what I must to fix it. No problem. 😀

Well, back to best practices or benchmarking. I have a few basic problems with it.

One, it presupposes that somebody has figured out how to best do it – whatever IT is. But have they? Sure, we can measure various elements of performance to determine what success looks like. We know high achievement versus lower achievement. But because another business has established, or helped establish benchmarks or best practices doesn’t mean it can be replicated. Or even that it should be.

Two, it doesn’t mean it’s literally the best, it just means for them, at this moment in time, it’s better than anything from the past. Like all performance, it’s a moment in time. Consistently good performance over time is how most of us view success. Yes, there are outliers. Those founders of some tech company who started in their college dorm room 10 months ago and now they’re blessed with a multi-million dollar exit. It happens. But it’s rarer than anything you can compare it to. It gets a ton of press and fools us into thinking we’ve been laboring for years and there’s no multi-million exit in sight.

Three, it’s limiting. The realized potential is…well, real. It’s how things are. But too often benchmarking and best practices don’t give enough license to how great things could be. It’s 4-minute-mile stuff. Barrier-breaking doesn’t happen because somebody is following a benchmark or best practice. It happens because they refuse to.

Best for you may be similar to best practices in your industry, but maybe not. You may be able to blow best practices out of the water in your own way.

I’m not telling to avoid reading about and learning whatever benchmarks exist in your space. I’m telling you to take them with a grain of salt, knowing they may have no bearing on how you should roll.

Context Matters

More than 20 years I embraced a fascination with home delivery of big-ticket items, namely major home appliances and big, flat panel TVs. That was my space. Best practices nationally were next day delivery. We offered same-day delivery as a premium service. And it was popular, for obvious reasons. If your refrigerator is out today is way better than tomorrow.

I challenged my team to find a way to up the game with a 4-hour delivery. I knew of no other retailer in any market of size doing such a thing. That was part of the fun. To go where no man had ever gone before and all that. Within 30 days our team figured out a way to get it done. And you know what? It wasn’t nearly as tough as you might imagine. It became second nature. It wasn’t an exception to the rule, it was pretty much an established rule because we found our own best practices. And what fit us was vastly superior, in my opinion, and the opinions of our shoppers, than the existing benchmarks in our space.

This is among the chief reasons I constantly am pushing you to FIGURE IT OUT. Figuring it out is fun and profitable. It’s also beneficial as you stop trying to copycat behaviors and practices that may be less than what you’re capable of. I could have said, we’re way ahead of the industry best practices. No need to push harder. But for us, that wasn’t fun. And we wanted to improve. To grow. To get better!

What about you?

What do you want? Because you’re willing to listen a podcast with the title GROW GREAT, I’m guessing you’re not quite satisfied with how things are. Maybe they’re good. Maybe they’re very good. Maybe they’re not good at all. Maybe you’re struggling. Whatever your condition, you’re dissatisfied. You think (or you believe, or you want to believe) things can be better. And you likely think you have some capacity to help make it so.

I agree with you.

You do have the power to influence an improved outcome.

You also have the power to figure out what best practices look like inside your own company. Yes, it helps to have people contributing to that effort. Yes, who you surround yourself matters. But at the end of the day – at the end of each day – you must decide what you want to do. And how you want to go about making it happen.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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“Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it.”   -John Naisbitt

You may not know who John is. In 1982 he wrote a phenomenally successful book, Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives. He’s 89 years old now. The book sold over 14 million copies. He was among the first futurists I followed. We weren’t quite sure what such people did, or who they were, but I was fascinated by their work. Especially his work.

Here’s the full quote:

“Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it; what is happening in America is that those parades are getting smaller and smaller – and there are many more of them.”

Lots of people are critical of that quote, but I’ve always been fond of it. That doesn’t make it accurate. It’s pithy. Maybe a bit snarky, which is likely why I like it. 😉 But sometimes I think leaders have to create their own parade, not just go find one.

I’m a Naisbitt fan though, so I openly confess my bias in his favor. Besides, the same man produced this quote…

The most important skill to acquire now is learning how to learn.

How can you argue with that?

Leadership. It’s an awfully big topic. I’ve read more books on that topic than probably any other subject, but I still can’t tell you I’ve been able to distill it clearly in my own mind. And until a person does that I’m not sure they’re able to convey any meaningful knowledge to others.

There are some practical things I know about leadership. Things I’ve learned through my own study, research and experience.

I know great leaders are out front because they’re willing to show others the way. 

The parade comparison is probably off-putting to some because it smacks of glory seeking. I’m not sure people understand the context or intent of the quote though. I certainly don’t claim full knowledge or context, but I’ve read enough Naisbitt to surmise he doesn’t think leaders jump in front of an existing parade. That would presuppose the parade was moving without a leader. So you may as well select yourself and jump out there in front of it. No matter, it’s not why I used to the quote – to get a debate going. I did use it to provoke us to think more soberly about leadership. Particularly our own leadership!

Great leaders see the future first, which is why they’re willing to step out front. 

Those who follow tend to be those who learn to see and believe what the leader does. They “buy in” to the leader’s vision. Those who don’t, fall out of the parade, likely looking to join to a new parade. Or start their own.

Here’s another Naisbitt quote. “The new leader is a facilitator, not an order giver.” It’s another wise quote. And one I believe in. Makes you want to read his books, huh?

If you have to be right, you put yourself in a hedged lane, but once you experience the power of not having to be right, you will feel like you are walking across open fields, the perspective wide and your feet free to take any turn.

Great leaders understand the power of the room, not being the smartest person in the room.

Google did an extensive study a couple of years ago of why high performing teams happen, or how we can create them. I’ll likely have more to say about it in the days to come, but for now, let me link it up for you so you can dive into it a bit.

Here’s a summary of the five key characteristics of enhanced teams.

1. Dependability. Team members get things done on time and meet expectations.

2. Structure and clarity. High-performing teams have clear goals and well-defined roles within the group.

3. Meaning. The work has personal significance to each member.

4. Impact. The group believes their work is purposeful and positively impacts the greater good.

5. Psychological Safety. Where everyone is safe to take risks, voice their opinions, and ask judgment-free questions. A culture where leaders create safety so employees can let down their guard.

The power is in the parade. The room. The group. The team. The collective.

Let’s take our leadership seriously knowing that we’re having an impact on others. Some we realize. Others, we have no idea. People are watching us. They’re paying attention to us.

How you enter the building every morning. How you greet or fail to greet people. How polite or impolite you are. It all matters because it’s your parade. Lead it wisely. And smartly.

Invest in learning how to do it better. Learning is the asset. Leverage your learning for your own improvement and growth in leadership.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!