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It's Never Too Late (Or Too Soon) To Focus - HIGHER HUMAN PERFORMANCE Episode 247

247 It’s Never Too Late (Or Too Soon) To Focus

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It's Never Too Late (Or Too Soon) To Focus - HIGHER HUMAN PERFORMANCE Episode 247
Focus is a constant activity necessary for clarity.

Skilled photographers prefer manual focus over auto-focus. It’s because they trust their eyes more than they trust a microchip. It’s also because they have better control over the quality of the picture, or the outcome.

The thing about focus is that it changes with even the slightest movement. Move one inch in any direction and the focus needs to be adjusted. You’ve got to be constantly monitoring things with your eyes. It demands careful attention.

Focus isn’t merely an art for photographers. Or creatives. Or business people. We all need it.

Back in July 2014 Greg McKeown published an article over at Linkedin entitled, “The One-Word Answer to Why Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Have Been So Successful.” Greg posted this four quadrant chart…

focus chart

McKeown wrote the book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. Here’s what the jacket cover on the book says about the subject of essentialism:

The Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done. It is not a time management strategy, or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.

pile of screws
Notice the ones getting most of the focus

It’s about focusing on the things that really matter. It’s like this photograph of a pile of screws. The focus is primarily on just a few screws in the pile. They’re in clear focus. The others are out of focus. Some are more out of focus than others. That’s the price paid for focusing on just a few.

I’m sitting with an executive the other day and repeating advice that I distilled years ago when I found myself with an organization confused about the priorities. If employees had been asked, “What’s important?” they’d have answered, “Everything.” We think that may be the correct answer, but it’s not. It’s terribly wrong. And impossible.

If Everything Is Important, Then Nothing Is Important

If there are two pieces of wisdom I have sought to pass onto others this is right at the top. The other one is, “The quality of our questions determines the quality of our work.” Admittedly, that last one presupposes that we’re not just asking the questions, but we’re answering them. And with equal or superior quality. But today it’s about focus and figuring out what really matters. That second piece of wisdom enters into it because I don’t know how we can do that without asking questions. Tough questions.

When I consult or coach an executive or business owner I often find myself asking them, “Which of the 5 W’s and 1 H best describe your organization?”

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

I’ll ask them to just pick one. Usually, they quickly make their selection. I’m prone to only ask this question once I feel I’ve gained enough insight to think I know the answer.

The answer is important. If the leader sees things for how they really are, then the answer in my head usually matches the one they give. If the leader is trying to give the “right” answer and not being fully honest, then it shows. Either way, I gain some insight that may be useful in our work moving forward. I’d say mostly I hear the truth. Most leaders that I work with are honest, truthful and not deluded. It’s why they’ve engaged me. I don’t find deluded leaders often reaching out for any assistance. So I doubt my sampling is very scientific, but even so it’s helpful when we’re working on focus issues.

Organizations tend to concentrate more on one of these one word questions than the others. Top leadership determines which is most important. And they can change over time, but mostly I think a culture gravitates to whatever the CEO or top leader pushes hardest. In spite of all the talk about “anybody can be a leader” I’ve not found it to be the case in a practical matter when it comes to an organization’s culture. Not all leaders are created equally. The person at the top has far more to do with organizational focus than anybody else.

However, there is a practical daily routine that each of us can lead. To a point. It’s answered by the question, “What are going to work on today? Right now?”

The senior vice-president may answer with some things the CEO has mandated. The COO may answer with some things the board has mandated. The shift supervisor may answer with some things the plant manager has ordained. So it goes. We all answer to somebody. Even the CEO/founder of a privately held company must answer to financial partners, suppliers and others. None of us are in full command of our agenda or focus.

But let’s drive this down to where we all live and see if we can’t learn some things, or at the very least, get the wheels turning so we can elevate our own performance (and hopefully the people around us).

The One-Word Question That Trumps All The Others

I confess that I’m naturally wired to ask one question more than all the rest, “Why?” The reason or outcome of a thing has always been my natural focus. Not everybody sees the world that way and I’ve learned to appreciate that. It wasn’t easy, but I worked at it.

In my mind the “Why?” connects quite easily to helping answer the others. For example, I enter a company steeped in paperwork forms. As I assemble the stack of these I’m asking, “Why?” all along the way. An explanation is given on some. For others, nobody remembers why that form was created in the beginning, but it’s been in use for so long everybody assumed somebody needed it. Turns out there’s a lot of crossover work being done, meaning there’s a ridiculous amount of redundancy in the work. Rather than capturing information once, in some centralized location, the company is making multiple people gather the same information at multiple points along the way. The why answers the who, what, when, where and how. Who is gathering this information? Who benefits from this information? What are we doing with this information? When is this information being gathered and when is it being put to use? Where in the process are we gathering this and where does this information end up? How is this useful?

So while I admit my own inclination toward, “Why?” that’s not why I suggest it trumps all others when we’re talking about focus…I think it trumps the others because more than any of the others, it direct connects all of the others. It’s the reason for things. And isn’t that what focus is about. Isn’t that the reason for the lens being focused on just a few screws in that photograph instead of being focused on all of them? The photographer seemed to be focusing on the rusty screw and the head of the top screw. By doing that, a couple of other screws got some focus, too. But the others just didn’t matter as much. We see them. We know they’re screws. They’re just not as important as the ones getting most of the focus. Just a few screws were the reason for the focus.

What’s your reason? Simon Sinek wrote the book, Start With Why. Simon is a lot smarter than me so I’m happy to know somebody who confirms what I’ve long practiced.

Why is focus so hard? I guess there are millions of reasons but today I’m focused (see what I did there?) on one, distraction. Distraction isn’t merely the kind you think about when you consider texting while driving (watch this video and urge your kids to watch it, too). Distraction happens when we try to do too many things at one time because they’re all important. Again, if everything is important then nothing is important. That is, if we’re focused on everything and everything is vying for equal attention, then we’re going to end up disjointed and focused on nothing.

Career Application

No matter what your career path, focus is important, if not urgent. We all need to be able to answer the one-word question about our own career. What one-word question best describes your career and your approach to your career?

Much of my work involves helping executives learn who they serve. Particularly lower level executives who wear titles like “deputy” or “vice” or “assistant.” Often these people are in the trenches, albeit at a higher level. They’re more involved in the daily grind than their bosses. As a result they can tend to view things from a much lower altitude, and they must. But as they’re flying close to the ground they’re often unable to appreciate the higher view held by their boss and sometimes they can resent things they don’t clearly see. It’s just one reason some lower level executives struggle with second guessing their bosses instructions, or why they may find it difficult to salute the mandates they get from their boss.

It’s all about knowing who your number one customer is. Answer: It’s always your boss.

Sometimes the biggest career benefit I can give somebody is helping them better understand the value proposition of their career. Provide value for your boss and you’ll benefit. Provide higher value for your boss and you’ll greatly benefit. I see it everywhere I go. The person who can properly read and correctly anticipate the needs of their boss is the superstar. The person who can’t or won’t do those things is a burden and will soon be displaced. I can’t offer many guarantees, but I’ve seen this one play out many time through the years. I guarantee it.

It’s hard to focus on the needs or wants of your boss when you don’t agree though. That’s where you have to decide what you want to do, and what you can do. If you can’t do it where you are, then my best advice is to get somewhere working for somebody where you can. Because things will eventually disintegrate if you keep resenting the mandates from above.

Focus on yourself by focusing on your number one customer, your boss. It’s a concentration will demand you avoid the distractions of the office gossip parties and all the other noise that happens as organizations second guess the boss.

Business Application

In a recent episode of CNBC’s The Profit, Marcus Lemonis walked into a beauty salon and found all manner of merchandise. There were hair care products, knick knacks, jewelry and even apparel for sale in the first few feet of the store. He told the owner of his confusion when he first walked in. As is often the case on that show, Marcus hones in on the focus of the business. Turns out this salon owner had her own line of hair care products. The margins on those were in excess of 70% while all that other stuff had a margin, at best, of about 30%. From a business perspective it was a no-brainer. Devote more space to your own products, which are congruent with the salon business, and get rid of the rest. That speaks to how many people are distracted though. And the phrase leaps to my mind, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” So does texting while we’re driving, but it’s dangerous.

Once again, I’m drawn to ask, “Why?” Marcus asks the salon owner that question. She didn’t have a good answer. It’s likely that somebody suggested, or came by selling their wares, and she made an emotional decision without thinking it through. Now here’s Marcus walking into her struggling business and it’s apparent to the most novice business among us. But she can’t see it because like all those forms I talked about, it’s been this way for so long she long ago forget why she did it.

Lack of focus in business – or any organization – happens when we get up today and repeat what we did yesterday. And we know tomorrow won’t be much different. We’re just pushing to keep our feet moving. But in what direction? Movement doesn’t equal meaningful, or positive action. Hamsters move quickly on a wheel, but they’re going nowhere. That’s exactly where some of our businesses and organizations are going, too.

Right Now Is The Time

Whether it’s your personal life, your career or your business…now is the time to focus. Or re-focus. When the slightest movement can put a camera out of focus what makes us think that all the movement happening in our lives won’t do the same for us? This isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it kind of a thing. And our lives don’t have an autofocus setting. We’ve got to keep our hand on the focus ring of our own lives and make sure we’re concentrating on the things that matter most.

Like that picture of the screws, we don’t have to focus on just one, but we can’t focus on everything either. Focus on your family. Focus on your career. Focus on your friends. There’s 3…and maybe your three look very differently. Mine are pretty simple to state, but crazy hard to remain true to with the intensity they deserve: faith, family and career. Like my favorite one-word question, “Why?” it’s likely because for me all 3 are so closely intertwined. I find that a loss of focus on one can quickly lead to a loss of focus on the others, too.

Randy

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245 Doing The Wrong Work, Doing The Work Wrong

245 Doing The Wrong Work, Doing The Work Wrong

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245 Doing The Wrong Work, Doing The Work Wrong

See that blur? You may be that blur. Scurrying around frantically trying to get things done.

When somebody shouts, “Hey, what are you workin’ on?” You stop momentarily. You think about it and realize you don’t know what you’re working on. You just know you’re going as fast as you can.

Today’s show is a composite story. A true story…mostly. It may be your story. It may be the story of somebody you love. It’s a story that happens daily around the world as business owners struggle to gain footing toward success. Some find it. Others slip below the water line and drown under the pressures. The goal is to learn, apply these things to our own situation and try to make the coming days more productive and profitable. It’s fundamentally about two things that may seem almost the same, but yet they’re very different: doing the wrong work and doing the work wrong.

Your little boy hands you a battery operated toy. The battery compartment is secured with a small screw that requires a flat-head screwdriver. A small flat-head screwdriver. You scrounge around for one that will fit. Most are too big. Others are too fat. You try a small Phillips-head screwdriver by awkwardly using just one little side of it. A dime won’t work either. Frustrated that you don’t have the right tool for the job, you begin to look around at anything that might work. Like a knife. Or a letter opener.

I’ve encountered too many people who approach running their business just like that. Doing the wrong work and doing the work wrong.

Let’s consider a solopreneur, a person in one of the many professional services industries. You can easily apply this to your situation because the problems we face in business are mostly common. We need customers who will pay us an amount that affords us the ability to sustain our business. We need customers who are happy with doing business with us so they don’t ask for their money back, and so they’ll tell others good things about us. We need our business to be predictably successful so we don’t lose our minds and our lives along the way. We need our business to fuel our life, not drain it. That’s true whether you’re a dentist or a dressmaker.

We’re going to call our case study business owner, Ted. Ted is a capable and competent presenter in the education space. He speaks to school faculties mostly. Ted was once a principal of an elementary school. He wrote a book about classroom management, was asked to give a presentation a few years ago and really enjoyed it. He accepted a job as a middle school assistant principal because he wanted to see if he could make speaking and training a full-time career. So Ted is in transition.

This all began about five years ago when Ted was sitting in a professional development meeting one day listening to a man speak. One of the topics the speaker covered was classroom management, but Ted thought he had some better ideas. He found the speaker compelling, but he didn’t think the tactics were very real world, not based on his experiences. Ted had been a 4th grade teacher for four years before becoming an assistant principal. Within 2 years the district had given him his own school, promoting him to principal. He’d been tasked with helping find suitable people to address the faculty on professional development days for a few years now. He found himself struggling at times to find people with a message he felt could really help his staff. Listening to this man speak on classroom management just seemed to flip some switch inside Ted’s head causing him to think, “I should write a book. I could do what he’s doing.”

That was five years ago. Since that time, Ted did write the book. He self-published it using Amazon’s CreateSpace publish-on-demand services. He got some English teachers at the nearby high school to help him edit it. He paid a college kid some money to design a jacket for the book. He even registered the domain name for the book’s title. So far, so good. He hadn’t spent any significant money really. So far, his biggest investment was the time he had to spend not doing the typical weekend family stuff he would have done. But it was okay, his wife and small children seemed to handle it well. And Ted made sure he didn’t string together too many busy nights or weekends in a row.

Ted is known around the educational circles where he works. He’s even made some friends in other parts of the state. So it wasn’t surprising he got calls to present even before he finished the book. The money wasn’t big, but he was grateful to be in front of people teaching the things he had learned about managing elementary classrooms. He had the perspective of a teacher and an administrator. And now, he also had the perspective of a parent.

Once the book was written – and it took much longer than he expected – he and his wife decided they’d invest a little bit of money into printing some hard copies to have so Ted could take them with him to his presentations. He knew he needed to package a bundle of them with every presentation and sell them to the schools in advance of his presentation. He came up with a package price for local schools where he could easily drive and make a morning or afternoon presentation. The price would include a copy of the book for every faculty member and his speaking fee. He started out asking for a nominal amount because he knew he was inexperienced and that administrators had other choices. Being local, having a book and not charging big money were all competitive advantages in Ted’s mind.

At first, Ted found very favorable response to his book and presentation. By the time he had delivered the presentation a half dozen times he felt he was hitting his stride. He had refined things, eliminated unnecessary slides and worked hard to get the presentation crisp. He was using vacation days, scheduled in advance, to deliver these sessions. The district didn’t have any problems with Ted’s endeavors. In fact, district folks were rather proud to have “one of their own” becoming a leader in the field. But the grind was taking a toll and Ted was struggling to approach the work with the same zeal he had. Now the calls to come present were slowing. He felt he needed to write a new book, maybe even update the current one. But he was tired. And he hadn’t made much money. Truth was, he had made enough money to build a nice website, pay for the help he hired to create the first book, and take his family out to eat at nicer restaurants every now and again. But he hadn’t made the kind of money he had hoped, or the kind of money he knew he could make. He was stuck.

This isn’t so unusual. People ramp up for take off. Like a rocket that needs massive fuel to escape gravity, Ted has spent an awful lot of time and energy, along with some bucks, to get this far. The problem was, he still wasn’t beyond the reach of gravity. Running out of fuel with gravity still tugging at you is a very uncomfortable place to be. And Ted is fortunate because he’s not relying solely on the fuel from this speaking endeavor to feed his family. Many days he thinks conflicting thoughts. On one hand he’s so thankful he didn’t leave his full-time job because he knows it would be a financial disaster. But on the other hand, he wonders if he was fully committed to the speaking, would it help him reach the level of success he yearns for? It’s a quandary that everybody who embarks on a side project feels. Should I go all in, or not?

For the past 2 years Ted has been grinding it out. Frantically rushing to meet one deadline, then another one. All the while, he’s also had to migrate from elementary school to middle school. No easy transition. It’s not as though he’s been able to devote himself fully to this writing/speaking gig. He’s had a full plate. Then there’s family. His wife has been supportive, but she’s not been terribly happy with the workload. Or Ted’s inability to help her with the kids as much as she’d like. In the trifecta of business building that I preach, Ted is struggling in all 3 phases: getting new customers, serving existing customers better and not going crazy in the process! Ted is absolutely going crazy. So is his wife. It’s just not going as planned.

The question Ted has to answer now, “What did you plan?” If it’s not going according to plan, then let’s hear the plan.

Well, Ted will tell you the plan was to write the book, be overcome with speaking engagements, price the work based on the demand, get to a 6-figure net income sooner than later and step away from his day job. Together with his wife, they figured she could help him with administration and accounting stuff. They also thought there’d be some opportunities where the whole family could travel with Ted if the out-of-town gig was somewhere pleasant.

Sounds like a plan, right?

Nope. It’s not a plan at all. It’s a daydream. Ted has dreamed up a vision of what could be. Ted isn’t basing his notion on fiction though. He’s talked with plenty of people who do just what he hopes to do. They’ve told him how many times they present. He’s quizzed them down about their work. Around their answers Ted has formulated a notion – a general idea – of how he’d like life to be. The problem is, Ted has no plan. And no idea how to craft one. Ted is doing all he knows to do. He’s working hard. But like so many of us – myself included – sometimes we’re doing the wrong work, and sometimes we’re doing the work all wrong.

Let’s Help Fix What Ails Us

First, Ted has to see it. That’s not easy. Usually. In fact, this is usually among the most difficult parts of the process. Ted has a Master’s Degree. He’s been in the field of education for years, both in the classroom and as an administrator. He’s a husband and a dad. He’s not a rookie. He didn’t just roll into town on the proverbial turnip truck. (I feel sorry for farmers who roll into the market with their turnip truck, don’t you? I only hope they don’t fall off of it.)

Ted knows what he knows. And what he knows, he’s pretty confident about. After all, look at all that he’s accomplished. He went from a 4th grade classroom to assistant principal to principal. Then he morphed into an assistant principal of a middle school because he wanted the experience and the opportunity to pursue his side project. He’s done some things right. There’s no denying it. Ted knows that.

So telling Ted that he may not have it all right is a tricky thing. Until you find his pain. And for a guy like me, that ain’t hard. I know pain. I’ve experienced pain. I can spot pain a million miles away in a galaxy far, far away. That’s how well I know pain.

Ted has lots of pain. When talk turns from what’s working to what’s not working…his whole demeanor changes. It’s not the most pleasant feeling for him and I know that. Realizations demand a lot of us. Humility demands even more. But that’s how breakthroughs happen. It’s the only way they happen. Nobody breaks through while running through a field of daisies. We break through by crawling on our belly underneath a barbed wire fence. Through the muck and mud. When we come out of the other side, we know we’ve been through something terribly uncomfortable, but we know we’re better where we are than where we were.

Fixing first demands we know what ails us. A doctor can blindly prescribe medicine to you, but unless he knows what’s wrong…it’s not likely going to work. It’s hit and miss. Ted’s been living in a hit and miss world for too long. He’s exhausted. Shoot, we’re exhausted as we listen to the story and we’ve got our own exhausting story, right?

Time For Triage

Taking an assessment of where we are and how we got to be here…well, it’s not easy work, but it’s profitable work. The trick is to avoid laying blame, but discovering the responsibility or reason. Who did it is only important so we can fix it, not so we can dog pile. Because ultimately the question we want to answer – the question we need to answer – is, “Why did this happen?” In addition, “What did we do, or fail to do, that brought us this result?”

The purpose of a triage is to set priorities. What needs fixing first? Rarely can we jump on a hoard of problems all at once. It’s tempting to be overcome with frustration as we look at all the things that may be broken, but not everything is fatal. The person in the emergency room with a broken nose thinks he’s dying. And he may be. But it’s not his broken nose that’s the real problem. It’s his heart attack. That can kill him.

So it is with careers and businesses. Some things are killers. Ted has a few things that are killers. And for different reasons. Sure, he needs more paying customers. Yes, he needs to do a better job of delivering his service to existing customers. But he’s got a bigger problem, one that may not appear to be business, but it is. Ted’s family is in major pain. Ted needs a plan that will allow him to pursue this side project while fueling his ability to be a better husband and father, not an absent one. Ted has to make that choice. Thankfully, he makes the right choice. In my opinion.

As we examine the problems facing Ted it’s clear that this whole side project has wrecked him. He confesses that he doesn’t feel he’s as good an administrator as he once was. His wife acknowledges that the tension at home is elevated since this all began. In fact, now she’s wishing he’d just forget the whole thing. She doesn’t care about the little bit of extra money they’ve made along the way. She’ll give that up in a heartbeat to have things better at home. Or as she puts it, to “get our life back.”

A dream has turned into a nightmare. A nightmare neither Ted nor his wife quite know how to escape. Do they dump the whole thing? Do they press on through this, not knowing what’s on the other side? What do they do?

The triage focuses on the killers. Killers of what? Killers of things we don’t want to die. In Ted’s case, his family is first. Ted doesn’t want to kill his family, but that’s precisely what’s happening. So first things first, we’ve got to stop harming the family with this enterprise.

Does that mean the side project dream dies? No, not necessarily. Many of us tend to swing from one end of the spectrum to the opposite end when facing problems. Ted’s no different. He’s in a black and white state of mind right now. Understandable given all he’s been through. But he’s not seeing clearly at the moment. That’s where outside help can benefit.

Keep in mind there wasn’t a plan going in. Just a dream that took legs and began to walk. Lumber really. Ted took his family along for the ride. Unsure where they were going, or how they were going to get there. No wonder it’s taken a heavy toll. Who wants to go for a ride to no place in particular with no purpose in mind, even if it is with somebody you love?

“What’s the goal for this enterprise, Ted? What do you want this business to accomplish?”

Ted looks at the ceiling. He’s thinking of what the answer should be. “Ted, why did you act on the idea you had a few years ago? Why did you take any action when you thought you could write a book and do this work as well as the next guy? What prompted that?”

Ted begins to unravel the mystery of why he felt he could do something he was seeing these other people – the people the school would call in to become the expert of the day. He confesses that he felt he was as much an expert as they were. He was rather certain of it. Turns out being an expert was important to Ted, but he hadn’t admitted that to anybody until now. Truth is, he hadn’t really thought of it in those terms until now. But there it was, the driving reason behind it all. The desire to be somebody, an expert.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, Ted. Experts help the rest of us who aren’t so expert at a thing. What else did you want?”

“I wanted a different life, I guess. I wanted to go into a school, pass on what I learned. I wanted something more exciting.”

Again, nothing wrong with any of this. Many of us want something more exciting. Of course, I quickly realize and often remind people that compared to Jason Bourne, James Bond’s life seems dull. Be careful what you wish for I guess.

Through the conversation Ted experienced some insight. Whether it was suppressed or never before realized, I don’t know. But it was helpful. He realized he wanted to be in front of people. He wanted to be not only the expert, but he wanted to be up in front of people. Not just young students, but up in front of teachers. He wanted to be an authority recognized for his contribution to the space of education. It all seemed so arrogant to him. But there it was, the reality of what Ted really wanted.

It’s not arrogant at all. It’s the truth. It’s honest. And real.

Sure, there was talk about how much Ted knew his career would pay. And with three little girls, one already in school, Ted knew the financial strain at home would only grow as the girls did. Besides, he had a tough time seeing himself as a principal or assistant principal for 20 more years, or longer. His wife was a stay-at-home mom because together, they decided it was what they both wanted. That hadn’t changed. So through the fog of the conversation it was clear Ted was feeling some pressure to figure out another way to serve his family financially, but it wasn’t just about the money. For Ted is went much deeper. I suspect it goes much deeper for most of us.

Now What?

The triage didn’t just reveal what was killing Ted (and his family), but it revealed why Ted took action to begin with. It showed the real reasons behind Ted’s enterprise. Now, armed with a clear goal – things Ted and his family wanted to accomplish – it was time to devise a solid strategy to navigate underneath all that barbed wire so Ted could emerge a victor over this obstacle course of entrepreneurship.

What do you love? What do you like? Why?

What do you hate? What can you tolerate? Why?

It’s not merely philosophy, it’s real stuff. I talked in episode 243 about how I hate beets. But I can tell you why I hate beets. I hate their texture. I hate their color. I hate their taste. I hate their smell. Other than that, beets are fine. Sometimes we think we hate things and we don’t know why. Or we love things and we don’t know why. I’m not sure that’s exactly true. I love chocolate, but I mostly love the chocolate that’s not good for you, milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is okay, but it’s not sweet enough. I love the texture of dark and milk chocolate, but I love the taste of milk chocolate better because it’s sweeter. I like sweeter! Okay, let’s get off of food cause I’m craving a Twix bar right now.

Ted likes being up in front of people. Why? Because it makes him feel important, like he’s the expert. Ted enjoys that feeling. It fuels him. Others might be terrified, but not Ted. It is what it is. Thankfully Ted isn’t shying away from it thinking it’s stupid, or pompous. Again, it’s just Ted being honest about things. If you deny yourself the honesty of a thing, you’re doomed. Don’t even start something if you’re going to lie to yourself.

Ted wants to earn more money than his chosen professional will allow. He talked with enough people doing what he wanted to do to know they can earn significantly more money.

Ted enjoys his day job. Mostly. He doesn’t want to quit being an assistant principal. He enjoys the camaraderie and the security. He also enjoys the work and the people he works with. Ted never did want to start an enterprise that would force him to quit his day job tomorrow. He didn’t even want to quit his day job in the foreseeable future. Honestly, he wanted to start it and see where it took him, hoping it would afford him some new opportunities.

Ted and his wife didn’t have a 1-year plan, or a 5-year plan. The most complex it ever got was to start it and see where it takes us. Now they know. And they’re unhappy with the destination so it’s time to grab the steering wheel and take command.

There’s dreaming, then there’s planning. Lots of enterprises and endeavors begin with a dream. Dreams are great, but they’re just a step. And not necessarily the most important step either. Without dreaming about it Ted would have never taken any action. Without a dream we wouldn’t have all the cool stuff in the world today, or even the things we think are vital…like cars, houses, and dishwashers. But somebody drew up the architectural plans of where you live. Somebody put the dream or vision into motion by crafting a detailed document that mapped out how that dream could be realized. Ted never did that. Many people never do that.

Plans Often Demand Modification

Watch any home renovation show and you’ll see it. Plans are put into motion to build the kitchen just so. But once the demolition happens some unexpected problems hit. Now the plans need to be modified and changed. Maybe they revised plans are even better than the original. But they’re certainly different than the first because we’ve got new information that has to be dealt with. We can’t ignore the need for the plans to change.

Ted carefully constructs a plan on what he wants to accomplish in the next 12 months. With his wife they examine the vacation time Ted has during the school year and the time he’ll have off during the summer. With calendars in hand, they carefully look at the school calendar for their oldest daughter, now a 2nd grader, and they look at the activities for the two younger girls, too. They start with their family because Ted acknowledges that even though he enjoys being in front of people, it was his family’s future that drove him to this idea. He’s putting first things first. So should we.

They decide that Ted can easily do 10 to 12 presentations a year in this first planned year. But only if they’re within driving distance with no overnight stays. He figures he can do at least 8 if they require overnight travel, but with his wife they agree that they’ll limit any overnight presentations to no more than 6 this first planned year.

They already have a box of 100 books in the garage. The book is now a couple of years old, but Ted is convinced it’s got legs. Besides, the information isn’t dated and the strategies still work. He admits he needs to spruce up the presentation, but he’s now got some renewed energy because he can see where’s headed. He’s got plenty of books on hand for the next presentations so they won’t need to invest any money there.

The energy increase is palatable. Ted and his wife are racing with idea and things they know they need to do. It’s better to harness a race horse than to whip a plow horse. This is idea time and a good time to let things flow, making sure you capture all the things that pop to mind.

The website is up and running. Ted agrees he needs to spend more time updating the content there. He doesn’t have much up on his YouTube channel and knows that’s a great vehicle for anybody in his space. He got a GoPro camera last year to use with his family. It never dawned on him to use that for work, but he agrees it’s a great idea to take the GoPro to every presentation so he can put it on a tripod and capture portions of his presentation for his YouTube channel and website. He maps out an editorial calendar to help him manage putting content on his website on a regular, consistent basis.

Last year he met a fellow who travels all over the country speaking to school administrator and students. This guy’s message is more inspirational than Ted’s. He’s not doing what Ted’s doing. Ted thinks he might try to connect with this guy and see if they can help each other somehow. After all, Ted only wants up to 6 out of town gigs anyway. Besides, it may be an association that will help Ted from feeling so alone.

Ted hasn’t done any professional media kits before. He doesn’t even have a professional speaker kit. Schools just knew him, or knew about him. All of his jobs have come from people who knew him. It’s time to be more proactive. That means Ted needs a professional kit, with photos, video snippets and testimonials. He maps out a strategy to solicit written and video testimonials from people he’s already served.

It’s a frenzied pace, but it’s got purpose. It’s brainstorming with an end in mind.

When the dust settles and Ted is spent with all the new ideas, it’s time to put it down on paper. Time to craft the plan, with a schedule and deadlines. For the next week Ted and his wife spend an hour each night and most of one Saturday writing down what needs to happen, and when. They purposefully put the most important things at the front or top. They focus on the trifecta of building a business and work hard to answer the questions:

1. How will Ted get new clients?

2. How will Ted serve existing clients better?

3. How will Ted avoid going crazy in the process?

They agree that everything they plan will answer the first one. The better Ted performs, the more referral business he can get. And they agree that the second one will also fuel the others. Ted is going to polish the presentation and even craft a few different presentations delivering the same message. He figures that way he won’t be just going through the motions. He worries about being bored with the presentation and thinks this can help him keep it fresh. Besides, the schools are always giving him new ideas during the question and answer session he has at the end of each session. As for that third one, Ted and his wife agree that everything has to be focused on that. They translated that last one to fit their situation, “How will this work make our family stronger?”

Ted reviews his pricing strategy, too. It’s time to earn what you’re worth. Some financial goals are established and Ted restructures the pricing strategy, making it uniform for the first time ever. Before, he’d sorta wing it, asking a school to pay what he thought they could afford, or would afford. Now, he realizes that he’s got to say no to something so he can yes to other, more profitable things. He more than doubles his price, which sounds worse than it really is (for his buyers anyway) because he was practically giving it away before. Ted figured if he could sell each book for $10, then he wasn’t too concerned about being paid to present. Now, he’s looking at it more like an expert would…’cause that’s what he is (and what he wants to be). His packaging idea was good. It was just too cheap. He’s not top tier yet in his pricing, but he knows he’s not top tier quite yet in this endeavor. But now he’s more in line with where he needs to be. Plus, he and his wife have a 5-year plan to move into a bigger house. If year one goes anything according to plan, they’ll be able to easily afford that move and have both cars paid off, too.

Conclusion

This is where I’m supposed to tell you what you can take away from this story. But I’m not going to do that and I’m going to tell you why. We’ve all grown too lazy in wanting people to tell us what to do, how to do it and when to do it. “Just tell me what to do,” is a refrain that typifies too many of us. “Just tell me how to do it,” is another one.

The reality is, no matter how much guidance Ted and his wife get and no matter how helpful it is…they have to do the work. But they’ve been doing the work all along. Like so many others they’ve just been doing the wrong work and sometimes doing the work all wrong. Nobody is standing over them now telling them which tools to use, or how to use them. They’re not following some formula or secret, but they are following a plan. A plan they crafted themselves with a bit of help.

Ted and his wife are on the road to figuring it out ’cause that’s what we all have to do. With a bit of guidance and a lot of conversation Ted was able to gain some clarity that he simply couldn’t find alone. Partly because he wasn’t looking. At least not until the pain got so bad he knew he’d better do something. And partly because we don’t know what we don’t know. Ted was smart enough to figure that out. He feared what he didn’t know.

What about YOU? What haven’t you figured out yet? How intense is your pain?

None of us are out here crawling through the mud under a barbed wire fence because we enjoy it. We’re doing it because it’s the only way to get to where we’re going. Where are you going? Do you want some help to get here?

I’m not plan B. I’m option C.

I work every day to help people figure out where they’re going and devise a plan to get there faster.

Randy

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244 The Boss Determines What’s Important

Personal Development, Podcast / By

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The Boss Determines What's Important

 

NOTE: I’m intentionally going to bring you some shorter episodes designed to address topics that I think might be more impactful if they’re kept short. Today’s show is a perfect example. I hope you find it helpful.     – Randy

………………………………………………………………….

Sit down with any group of people working for a boss and you’ll hear all about it. And not just from the lieutenants, but from people way down the chain.

The boss makes a decision. Or twenty. Or two hundred. Not everybody agrees. Maybe you don’t agree. It happens. Bosses make lots of decisions. Not all of them find favor among the troops.

The cumulative effect is the problem.

Second guessing.

Passive disagreement.

Active disagreement.

“This is stupid,” he says. He’s talking about another directive from above. One he doesn’t agree with.

Then there’s this dilemma…

“My boss complains that I’m not proactive enough, but when I decide my own work she’ll assign me to something she says is more urgent. I can’t win!”

That is a dilemma. It also may be a different problem. Today’s show isn’t about crazy, micro-managing, can’t-be-pleased bosses. That a subject for…well, not another day, but another show. 😉

The problem I’d like to address is the problem of disagreeing with what the boss thinks is important.

1. The boss has access to information you don’t.

It could be the boss does actually know something you don’t. That could be driving the decision with which you disagree. Or not. But you have to consider it and you also have to acknowledge it.

2. The boss has his own pressures.

Don’t assume the boss is simply being a contrarian to what you think. Maybe she is, maybe not.

You’re better off assuming the boss is also experiencing some pressure of his own. His boss may be driving the bus more than you realize. The frustrating thing is you may never know. That’s okay. Just assume it’s true and you’ll avoid going crazy.

3. The boss has to answer for it.

Being the boss isn’t just about authority. It’s also about responsibility. The boss ideally has more than you. I say ideally because that’s where the component of politics enters the picture. If the boss is pursuing a course that you believe is illegal, immoral or unethical then I’m not encouraging you to blindly salute it. However, I would urge you to make sure and find a suitable way to express your concerns. Don’t compromise yourself.

4. You could be wrong.

I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s possible. Given the above factors, it’s certainly possible…maybe even probable. Now that’s hard to say with certainty because your boss could be a moron. Or a genius. Maybe you’re the moron. These are difficult questions to answer. It’s hard to know what’s true. Most of us think we’re right. That’s why we hold the opinions we do, and why we feel like we do. I’m pushing you to simply consider that you could be wrong. Don’t automatically think you know what’s best. That’s a bad trait even if you are right…this time.

5. Communicate concerns and make suggestions in the proper context, at the proper time.

Sometimes the boss provides a forum for people to collaborate, or discuss a matter before the final decision is made. Use those forums to communicate your concerns. Be open, be respectful and express yourself in a way that will give your ideas the best chance to be heard, and possibly adopted. Don’t be confrontational. Don’t be overly charged with emotions. Avoid putting words or thoughts into the mouths or minds of co-workers (or your boss).

If there is no formal opportunity  for this, create one. Just be careful and tread very lightly. Look for small opportunities to talk with your boss alone. In that context, be less forceful in your approach. Don’t confront your boss. Instead, ask questions that help you bring out your concerns or alternative suggestions. Ask your boss the questions, listen carefully to the answers. Then follow it up by asking your boss to help you learn. These can turn into wonderful opportunities for professional mentoring that too few workers seize. This may be an ideal time for the boss to share with you the reasons why your concerns aren’t valid, or why your suggestions aren’t as spectacular as you think they are. That feedback can really serve you down the line.

6. Commit yourself to the final decision. 

Too many people sabotage a decision and along with it, their career. The whining and complaining that goes on after the boss has made a decision will destroy your career. Do not work subversively. Avoid lunch time discussions where you tell your co-workers how you disagree with the current course. Do not second guess your boss out loud. If you MUST complain, save it for family or close friends outside of work. I’d nudge you to avoid the behavior all together if you can. Nothing profitable will come of it.

Conclusion

You want to be a person with helpful ideas. You want to use your brainpower to solve problems and make things better. Don’t neglect using the best tool you have.

Just don’t use it so much that you over do it. You could end up using your brain to overthink it. Have you ever turned a screw too much, or torqued a nut on a bolt so tight that you stripped the threads? Well, you can do the same thing if you overthink decisions that aren’t your own.

Now, go on over to iTunes and give the podcast a 5-star review. That way more people can find out about us and benefit from the podcast.

Thanks for listening.

Randy

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Introducing Higher Human Performance Monthly Short Courses

243 I May Not Be The Best Fork In The Drawer, But I’m Your Favorite Fork

Content Marketing, Podcast, Randy Cantrell / By

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I’ve been helping small business owners with content marketing for over 5 years now. I’ve written “thousands, consequently millions” (thanks Deion Sanders) of words on behalf of clients. Video, podcasting, using Google Hangouts On Air, blogging, email marketing, social media marketing – it’s all that and more. I’ve yet to meet a small business owner that doesn’t want “everything” and “right now.” The conversations are pretty funny actually.

I need everything.”

Yes, they say that. Repeatedly. Regularly.

It’s like a buddy of mine who once asked me to send him everything I had on leadership. He texted me, “Send me everything you’ve got on leadership.” I replied, “Just everything. Could you be more vague?” Then he called me laughing and repeated his request, jokingly. But that’s how it is for almost all of us. When we want something, not quite knowing what we want, we make these declarations that we want everything!

These Short Courses Won’t Be Everything, But They’ll Be Something (Else)

The world is full of paradoxes. We have short attention spans the experts tell us. To be fair, non-experts tell us that, too. Yet some bloggers will tell you their most popular posts are ones where they dive deeply into a subject using thousands (consequently millions) of words and illustrations. Three minute inane videos on YouTube give way to 20 minute killer TED talks. Five minute podcasts may not fair nearly as well as the hour-long episode. Who’da thunk it?

There’s a place for long-form content. And there’s a place for the quick tip.

I enjoy all of it if it resonates with me enough to be interesting.

People want easy, not short. Some things are easy. Others things…not so much.

I think most of us operating in an advice-giving capacity hate it when people aren’t willing to put in the effort or work. They want to ride on our back of knowledge and experience…asking us to hand them everything in a neat little package that’s easily consumed. And executed.

They’re the same people who rushed to buy Cliff Notes the night before the reading assignment is due. Refusing to read the book, spending more time looking for short-cuts instead of doing the work. It’s not about fast-tracking. It’s about being lazy. At least for quite a few.

Others? They honestly don’t know where to being or what to ask. So they ask for everything. They don’t really mean that. It simply means they’re clueless. Some even say so. I’ve got a lot of tolerance for them than I do the person unwilling to do the work.

Are you an advice giver? Do you show people how to do something?

Then you’ve likely done what I’ve done and told people that they have two terrific online friends, Google and YouTube. Yes, even that takes some work. And time.

I’d love to tell you that I alone can be your end-all, be-all. I’d even be satisfied to tell you that there is somebody out there who could be your end-all, be-all. But I can’t. Because it depends on what you’re wanting to do. It depends on where you are. It depends on your present constraints and challenges. It also depends on your current level of knowledge and expertise.

Maybe one of the toughest challenges any of us have is finding somebody in the area of expertise we need most…somebody who is really good. But the world is full of self-proclaimed gurus and it can be tough to find the right one for us. This is especially true in crowded spaces filled with many so-called experts. Search engine optimization (SEO) is such a space. I confess I’ve invested too much money in a variety of SEO experts and mostly found little or no reward in it. For starters, I’m about as interested in Major League Baseball as I am SEO. That’s my problem, not the fault the experts. The other issue for me is it seems a bit like gaming the system and years ago I figured Google’s entire future hinged on making sure people couldn’t game the system. That sort of takes the motivation out of it, don’t you think? Now, I’m smart enough to know that SEO is worthwhile. I’m also smart enough to know there are a few people in the space who I actually do pay attention to. But mostly, I’m smart enough to know that I really don’t much care (which many will tell me is stupid).

But there are other spaces where there seems to be a clearer leader in the field. My friend who asked me for “everything you’ve got on leadership” is a big fan of John Maxwell. He’s in good company, including me. John Maxwell is a clear leader in the field of leadership (ironic, huh?). There are tons of others, but for many, John Maxwell is THE man.

The other day I was consulting with a solopreneur who was in the professional services space. Increasingly that’s a space I find myself serving more and more. These are people who have tremendous skills and “know-how.” They often struggle with incorporating the building blocks necessary to create consistently good workflows and processes that result in predictable success. Additionally, too many of them aren’t fond of marketing…understandable because they’ve got so much time and money invested in learning their craft. They mostly want to do what they do rather than sell what they do.

As I’m visiting with this solopreneur I find myself for the umpteenth time encouraging him to loosen up a bit and let himself relax, especially in his online persona. We talk about why that’s difficult for him and like so many other service professionals he says, “People want professional and qualified.” He rambles on about credentials and association memberships and other things that I’m sure have value. But he’s missing the point.

Personality. Attractiveness.

I take our conversation beyond the mere qualifications of people because in his space people make some strong (and mostly correct) assumptions about being qualified. So I ask, “So you’re telling me that people do business with you solely and only based on the fact that you’re the most qualified ____________ they can find?”

“No, but it’s important,” he says.

“Okay, how important?” I ask. If that’s not the sole or only reason why people select you, then what else factors into their decision?”

“I don’t know. Recommendations I guess.” He’s clearly shadow boxing with no idea who the opponent may be.

“And what’s the basis of the recommendation?” I ask.

“I did a good job for whoever recommended me,” he responds…thinking he’s finally got an answer correct. It’s not a test. But it sorta is.

“Do any of us recommend people who do poor work?”

“Of course not.”

“So good work, or competent work is a bare minimum for what we require as customers and clients, right?”

“Right.”

“Do you have some place change the oil in your car?” I ask.

“Of course,” he says.

“Have you ever recommended them to your friends?” I wonder.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Well, they’re right by my office and I just don’t think about it.”

“Bingo. You don’t think about it. You don’t think about them. You take their competence for granted. You assume they know what they’re doing because they’re in that business. What would they have to do for you to recommend them?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it.”

“What if you got to know the manager or the owner? What if the manager or the owner knew you by name? What if every now and again they asked you if you had time for a  free wash and vacuuming…on the house? Would any of those things make them stand out?”

“Of course. Any of those would make them stand out.”

“And if they did all 3 would that just blow you away?”

“Yes,” he said. “Honestly, I’d be blown away if they were just a bit more polite.”

“And yet you go still take your car there because they’re competent and close by your office. But you don’t think to recommend them.”

Knowing the manager or the owner hasn’t got anything to do with changing oil. Neither does washing or vacuuming a car. But if we stake on a few subtle, but personal things…suddenly they’re worth talking about.

I May Not Be The Best Fork In The Drawer, But I’m Your Favorite Fork

Some years ago when our son was still single and living at home, he was preparing to move out of town for an excursion we had hoped he wouldn’t take. It’s a long story with details that aren’t important except for the fact that my wife packed up some silverware to give him to take with him. It was an everyday set of eating ware that contained my favorite variety of forks. Yes, I’m a fork snob. The tines on these forks was just right for my liking. I had no idea she had given them to him. Until one day after he was gone I went looking for a fork.

I found one. Just one. “What happened to all the forks?” I asked. “I gave Ryan that set of silverware,” she said.

“So I’m left with this one fork that somehow got left behind?”

“I guess he forgot one.”

Well, I can’t tell you how pleased I was to have at least ONE. I still have it. It’s in the drawer with the other forks, but my wife knows me well enough to know that if that fork is clean…I want that one.

It’s a fork. How important is a fork’s style, you’re wondering? VERY IMPORTANT, to me.

We’re attracted to what we’re attracted to. I don’t know why necessarily. My first girlfriend in 1st grade was blonde. And in spite of their reputation to be ditzy, I’ve been a lifelong fan of smart blondes. My first girlfriend was the smartest girl in the class who happened to be blonde. Ditto for my wife (okay, she’s reddish blonde…but I kinda like redheads, too). 😉

The point is, I don’t know why my first girlfriend was blonde. I do know why she was smart. I’m no fool. But some guys like girls who aren’t so smart.

From music, to films, to TV shows, to food, to colors — we like what we like.

I hate sushi. I’m not a fan of fried chicken. Or beets. We hate what we hate.

Find something I love and I’ll find somebody who hates it. Find something I hate and I’ll find somebody who loves it. My view isn’t likely to change their opinion any more than they’re likely to change mine. As the sign in my office says, “It Is What It Is.” My daughter bought me that sign ’cause I say it so much.

You’re either attracted to my style and substance or you’re not. More substance isn’t likely to alter your view. That doesn’t mean I’m not learning stuff and getting better at what I do all the time. I am. I take my work to help people seriously. I just don’t take myself all that seriously. If you don’t like that, there’s the door. Wait a minute. There’s the button somewhere up at the top to close this page and forget me forever. I won’t be offended. Because you may feel toward me like I feel toward beets. There’s nothing possible to make me like them. Everything about them offends me. The color. The smell. The taste. The texture. The name.

The FREE Higher Human Performance Monthly Short Course

For years listeners, readers and casual observers have noticed something about me. I wasn’t selling anything. Well, I was…but not to them. My work historically has been face-to-face. Selling has been direct and physical. Not virtual.

I know. I know. Makes no sense for a guy who’s been producing online content since about 1999, but that’s the truth. And I’m about to change all that. Very soon if I can.

But first, I’m ready to step up my game in the freemium arena. Email newsletters. Ebooks. Reports. Videos. All those ethical bribes people use to get you onto their list…I’ve never worked at any of them. I’ve always felt like asking you to listen or read the content was pretty awesome enough. It seemed rude to ask you for more, even though I’ve had optin boxes at the site for some time. Honestly, until now I never cared if you opted in or not. As a result, most people didn’t. And that makes sense. Why should you care if I don’t?

Today, I do care. I care because I’m preparing some short email courses – and I’m talking 20 minutes max (audio) and a single email. No, they’re not designed to go in depth and teach you EVERYTHING. They’re mostly designed to make you use the greatest tool you’ve got, your brain. I want to help you think. More clearly. With greater hope. And belief.

I want to be your favorite fork. I know there are plenty of forks out there fully capable of being a fork just like me. Maybe even better than me technically. But not better than me at having you feel the way you feel when I’m the one serving you. I don’t feel the same about a meal that I have to eat with my least favorite fork. I enjoy the same food much more with my favorite fork in hand. That’s how I want to be for you.

If that’s the case – if I am your favorite fork – I want you to join the email list so I can send you the monthly short courses. For now, that’s all I want in return for this dazzling content I’ve been giving you free of charge! If you sign up you’ll get some other cool stuff that I’ve been giving folks for awhile. Once the honeymoon is over and you’ve been sent the free video and audio that I’m still sorta proud of, then each month I’m going to do my best to send you something pertaining to HIGHER HUMAN PERFORMANCE that I hope will help you. I’ll be leaning on your feedback to improve these as we move forward. And I’ll expect you to tell me if what I give you sucks. My mandate is going to always be to suck less! 😀

Be well. Thank you for listening!

Randy

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Q&A Friday - November 28, 2014 - HIGHER HUMAN PERFORMANCE Podcast

242 Q&A Friday – October 3, 2014

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242 Q&A Friday - October 3, 2014

Every Friday I’ll be answering 2 questions. Do you have a question? Use the CONTACT form or send me a voicemail to ask your question. Give me as many details as you care to share.

1. Can you teach executive behavior? We’ve got a very capable woman on our team who is proficient technically. However, she’s not able to read situations properly and is always sticking her foot in her mouth…but she doesn’t realize it. Even after the fact. What can we do to help her?

2. I have a technical manager who is terrific at one aspect of our programming, but he’s pretty intimated with some newer technologies. As a result, he’s always lobbying for more resources in the area where he’s most comfortable. Unfortunately, I think our future is in the areas he’s least comfortable with. He’s been part of my team for a long time. Do you have any suggestions?

Randy

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241 Why Plus-Minus Works In Business (Maybe Better Than It Does In Hockey)

Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Podcast / By

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Plus-MinusHockey folks argue like any other sports fanatics. They second guess coaches and general managers. They fuss about who deserves to be called “the best” at any position. Even though they’re not as stat driven as baseball people, they do enjoy a good conversation about how some stats are determined. Plus-minus is one of the most hotly debated stats in professional hockey circles. Even though today’s show isn’t about hockey, I should help you better understand what plus-minus is and give you some sense of the debate.

Here’s how the NHL looks at it…

A player is awarded a “plus” each time he is on the ice when his Club scores an even-strength or shorthanded goal. He receives a “minus” if he is on the ice for an even-strength or shorthanded goal scored by the opposing Club. The difference in these numbers is considered the player’s “plus-minus” statistic.

Here’s the simple way to view it. If you’re on the ice when the other team scores, you’re minus 1. If you’re on the ice when your team scores, you’re plus 1. There are some other details, but they’re unimportant for our discussion.

Ice hockey players who have a poor plus-minus rating hate the stat. Understandably. At best it makes them look unimpressive. At worst, it makes them look detrimental. Is it fair? I suppose it depends on how much weight you give it. It’s just one barometer among many.

Players and even general managers in the NHL argue that line mates (the team mates you play with) have an enormous impact on that stat. A weak player surrounded by better players can have a higher plus-minus than a great player surrounded by lesser talent. North of the border (and I’m not talking about Oklahoma), the debate can grow quite intense. Stat freaks point out the problem with it and some have even suggested better alternatives.

Tyler_Seguin_-_Dallas_StarsWhy I Like It In Business

Ice hockey isn’t played in a vacuum argue the opponents of the plus-minus stat. Neither is business, but it may be a better stat in business than hockey.

Hockey makes the assumption that if a player is on the ice when his team scores then he’s doing better than if he’s on the ice when the opponent scores. So far so good. But hockey isn’t an individual sport. A hockey player has teammates playing along side him. And a crucial element of the game resides on the shoulders of a single player, the goaltender. If my goalie is a stud and your goalie can’t stop a beach ball…I’m gonna beat you in plus-minus every time.

Business is a team sport, too. But different.

Like hockey players you have individual responsibilities. Your performance may be affected – positively or negatively – by teammates. Tell that to your boss. Just make sure you’ve got a written resignation in your hand when you do. 😉

Almost 20 years ago I began thinking about how sales performance is measured for individual salespeople. It began with commission-based retail sales.

Since the late 70’s and early 80’s I had been accustomed to using a variety of meaningful measurements to lead sales teams. In retail there have long existed some telling stats.

Closing ratios may be among the most looked at stat among salespeople. It simply mean, how many prospects out of 10 did you sell? If you talked with 10 people and sold 3, then you’re closing ratio is 30%. Today you mostly hear people call it conversion. How many prospects did you convert into paying customers? In web terms, how many visitors to a website did you convert to take whatever action you wanted them to take?

Eyeballs on a web page matter, but not if we’re unable to convert them into something more meaningful – subscribers, email opt-in’s, buyers, or whatever else you’re trying to get them to do. In the television world, producers want to attract as many eyeballs as possible so they can sell advertising. The more eyeballs on a TV show, the higher premium they can charge for 30 second spots. The advertisers want more eyeballs on their ads so they can drive business. Maybe they want more diners to their restaurant, or more drinkers of their beverage, or more shoppers into their showrooms. Whatever it is, you can bet it being measured 8 ways to Sunday.

Conversion is king. We all need to convert shoppers into buyers. When we focus merely on attracting more prospects and we neglect looking closely at conversion, it’s like working to catch more fish when our holding tank as a hole in it causing us to lose the fish we’ve already caught. Conversion is a middle-of-the-funnel problem, not a top-of-funnel one.

Average ticket is another common retail stat. If we sell to 10 people and total their invoices, then divide by 10…we’ve got our average ticket amount. The higher the better. Sorta.

A higher average ticket assumes customers are buying more, or buying higher end stuff. It also assumes that profits will go up as ticket prices do. Of course, some assumptions can prove wrong. For example, I’ve seen some salespeople who had a high average tickets, but they weren’t making as many sales as their teammates because they were cherry picking shoppers. If a shopper was interested in something that wasn’t high end, they’d abandon them. Pathetic customer service resulted in a higher average ticket. All that glitters ain’t gold. Things aren’t always as they appear.

I like plus-minus in some situations because it assumes an equal opportunity for everybody. Leaders should do everything to make sure people have the best opportunity for success. They don’t always do that because they let their preference for some people override their sensibilities.

Since I started out using sales as the example, let’s stick with that. In selling not all opportunities are equal. Talk to any outside sales force and you’ll quickly hear about Joe and his luck in having the best territory in the company. “He wins every year. I would too if I had his territory,” cry all his co-workers. And they may be right. But maybe Joe built the territory. Or maybe Bill retired 3 years ago after creating the number 1 territory in the company and Joe inherited it. Would plus-minus help in looking at Joe versus his co-workers? Not likely.

But there are lots of sales situations where it might work wonderfully. Ten guys are working in a car dealership’s new car sales department. They’re all working 6 days a week. They all put in about 50 hours a week. They’re all selling the same inventory. They’re all at the same location. But they have different experience, different skills and different client bases.

Plus-minus helps us examine and put the attention on contributions. That’s why I like it. On the downside (for the salesperson), it can also focus attention on deficiencies.

We can judge all 10 car salespeople equally with a plus-minus measurement. You can argue about whether we should judge them all equally if you’d like. I don’t like it because then we start getting into all that subjective nonsense. “I think you can do better,” a sales manager may say. If I’m the salesperson, I’m saying to myself, “You THINK…based on what?”

On the flip side, a less experienced car salesperson may argue, “Man, I’ve only been selling cars for 8 months. The top guy has been selling them for over a decade. I shouldn’t be measured by his standard.” My response would be, “Then how should you be judged?”

Maybe there are no perfect measurements or stats. In anything. But some clearly are more meaningful than others.

Sales organizations are notorious for establishing indiscriminate quotas based on feelings or thoughts. I’ve sat in too many meetings where leaders wanted to give one guy a higher quota because of his experience or skills. At the same meeting they want to give a lower quota to a person they feel is less capable, but may have been on the job just as long. Is that fair?

I don’t think so. I think it over burdens the more skillful and under burdens the less skilled.

Remember the old curve grading in school?

If you were on the bottom of the curve, you hated it. If you were on the top, you loved it. Of course, some brainiac would get a 100 and the rest of us suffered. If only we’d been assigned to a class of morons we could have had higher grades. It didn’t have anything to do with our lack of study or preparation. We were simply outmatched by geniuses. Story of my life!

Here’s what I think matters in our companies when it comes to measuring performance…who is performing above average and who is performing below average?

I’m not suggesting we focus solely on averages, however, we have to have some way of examining “typical.”

Suppose we’ve got 15 salespeople. Our total monthly sales are $2.43 million. If our sales team is performing identically, then each salesperson will have produced $162,000 in gross sales for the month. But no sales team is identical. Including ours.

We take a closer look at our 15 people and discover that 4 of them have brought in just under $2 million, leaving the other 11 to bring in only $440,000. It’s a disparity that blows our mind, but these things happen all the time in the world of selling.

The average (the total sales divided by the total number of salespeople) may not tell us the whole story, but the story it does tell is compelling…because 4 of our people are blowing the average away while the bulk of our team are performing dreadfully below the average. If $162,000 is the average, we’ve got 11 players who appear to be averaging only $40,000 ($440,000 total brought in by 11 of our 15 salespeople). They’re performing only at 25% of the average.

Four people on our team are producing $1,990,000. They’re averaging almost $500,000 each. That’s over 3 times the average. That’s about 210% over the average or over 8 times the productivity of the other 11.

Lots of costs associated with those 11. We’re probably not supporting the 4 superstars as well as we should because we’re carrying too much cost with those 11. But we’re not finished.

We really have to examine each player. Of the 11 we’ve got 1 who is performing better than the rest. Mary’s still not hitting the average, but she’s far and away doing better than her 10 other bottom feeder peers. She’s still a minus player, but she’s not as minus as most. On top of that, she’s the person with the least amount of experience or seniority. We think with a bit of help she could climb out of that pit so we invest in her. We pair her up with a mentor from among the top 4. We challenge her to learn all she can.

Another of the 11 was historically an above average performer, but recently he’s slipped. Luke was never top tier, but he was more consistently above the average line. We sense that he’s got it in him to do better, but we don’t know what’s happened to him over the last 60 days or so. We set out to find out.

Turns out he’s had some personal issues with aging parents. He’s had to devote more time to caring for a father whose health is failing. He and his wife took in his parents three months ago. Since then, life has drastically changed for him. It shows in his work.

Over time it becomes clear to us that we need to support the people with higher performance more. We decide it’s time to divide territory responsibility and get a better grasp of our own commitment to our customers.

The company decides to restructure responsibilities and assign accounts. And to design a new way of working. Luke is promoted to a new position inside the company. He’ll be off the road now and he’s going to spearhead over 80% of the accounts previously handled by all 11 of the poorer performers. These are accounts that range from small to potentially large. There’s no arguing the history though and the company feels Luke may be able to provide better service and support virtually than a larger team wasting time and resources in travel. Besides, he’ll have 2 assistants and together this team of 3 will be able to really concentrate on helping develop these accounts (in some cases on getting these accounts built back up to a prior status). The two assistants are among some of the 11. They happily accept their new roles because their bonuses are going to be team based and they too are no longer on the road. Four of the 11 are now situated. Seven are on the block to be cut from the team or reassigned.

Now 5 superstars (4 really, plus 1 in training) are on the road responsible for the bulk of the monthly revenues. The accounts that have historically been bringing in the bulk of the revenue are divided among this team.

Three others are going to be at HQ handling the rest of the accounts.

We check in 6 months later and here’s what we see…

The 5 road warriors have found a new level of success. The company has poured resources into them fostering a greater degree of unparalleled service and support. Customers are responding very positively. Sales are up over 30%. This group of 5 are now responsible for monthly sales exceeding $2.7 million. The differences between the 5 fluctuates month to month as one person gets top honors one month, then somebody else the next. There’s no more than 15% difference among them, from top to bottom.

The inside team of 3, led by Luke, are doing exceptionally well. Luke has even hired a 4th person to join the team due to the success. Part of the 30% increase of the road warriors is due to Luke’s hard work to develop 2 critical accounts that had slipped in recent months. Luke nursed them back to a state where they were assigned to the road warrior team. His team was compensated for their success, not penalized. The company paid the entire team a nice quarterly bonus when it moved those 2 accounts. That fuels Luke and his team to see if they can do more of that in the future.

Last month the company gathered all the people in sales – Luke with his 3 employees and the five road warriors. Nine now in total. Nine doing more than 15 were doing before. The company is working out a plan to fairly compensate the entire team for the sales success. Luke drafted a plan to not just serve the accounts not being handled by the road team, but to support all the accounts. It’s in the 3rd stage of revisions, but everybody is excited about the prospect of more growth (and higher paychecks all the way around).

No, it doesn’t always go this way. And I’ve not talked about the bad news of 7 people whose jobs were at risk because they were performing woefully below average. But the truth is, people are either contributing to the success of an enterprise or they’re a negative influence, detracting from the enterprise’s ability to succeed. I’d argue that anybody who is neutral – they’re not draining nor contributing – is a drain. I’m not arguing that we should terminate all the players who are below average, but we’d better we figuring out why they’re not even average.

Soar with your strengths. It’s a philosophy I have led by for decades because it works. And I believe in it.

Give me those top tier performers. Let me pour resources to help them achieve 5% more per person and I’ll conquer the market.

Plus minus let’s us determine who is helping and who is costing us. But better than that it gives us a measurement we can use to manage the performance of our work. People want to contribute. People want to excel. Too often sales management is about arbitrary quotas that frustrate salespeople.

“You’re not supposed to hit it,” he said to me. I was a young road warrior busting my tail to hit quotas that seemed impossible because they were. The company had made sure of it. When the VP told me that I wasn’t supposed to hit them, you’d have thought relief would have come over me. It didn’t. Instead, I felt lost. Stupid and lost. Here I had been working feverishly to accomplish a goal I thought somebody smarter than me had devised. Surely they know something I don’t. So I went for it. And failed.

Now, I no longer trusted my employer. I found it difficult to work so hard for them any more. I had been betrayed by  a company playing a game they never let me in on. They lied to me.

Had I been allowed to see where I stood relative something measurable and fair, I’d have continued to bust my backside. But the truth was, in my circumstance there was only one way to know if you were doing a good job – contributing – or not. That was whether or not the VP told you you were. It was all far too subjective for me.

Plus Minus May Look Different For You. That’s Okay.

Don’t get too hung up in the details of all this. Rather, I’d encourage you to find ways to analyze the performance of your sales team so you can be certain about the contributions. My main point years ago in coming up with this and other tools, was so I could move away from the “I think you’re doing a good job” kind of leadership, which is really NO leadership at all. My innate belief that people want to contribute led me to devise tools and plans that would foster people to perform at higher levels than they might otherwise. We all need feedback. We all need positive reinforcement that what we’re doing is working, or is the right thing.

Leaders and managers who neglect to come up with or embrace anything available to accomplish that are letting their people down. Your people deserve to know if they’re making a positive difference. And they deserve to be supported so they can make an even bigger positive difference in the future.

Randy

241 Why Plus-Minus Works In Business (Maybe Better Than It Does In Hockey) Read More »

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