Search Results for: strengths

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No, it’s not passion.

No, it’s not some willy-nilly dream.

No, it’s not some mythical north star.

It’s who and what you are. It’s the essence of YOU.

Lately one of the most common conversations I have is about what Donald O. Clifton, the father of the StrengthsFinder movement, called “soaring with your strengths.” Simply put, it’s about leveraging what you’re best at and not obsessing so much about what you’re not very good at.

In their 1992 book, SOAR WITH YOUR STRENGTHS, Donald O. Clifton and Paula Nelson begin with a parable entitled, “Let The Rabbits Run.” It’s the story of a rabbit attending a school where there are lots of classes in everything from running to climbing to swimming. As you can imagine the rabbit isn’t too good at swimming. So he’s instructed that it’d be best if he were to stop running (cause he’s already really good at that) and just take swimming courses (because he’s not very good at that). He vomits at the thought of giving up running. Thankfully, the rabbit encountered the wise old owl after he saw the school’s counselor. The wise old owl told him life didn’t have to be that way. He envisioned a place where the squirrels climbed and jumped through the trees. Where the fish did nothing but swim. And where the rabbits just ran. Just the thought of it made the rabbit happy.

So it goes when you find it – that thing that just comes easily and naturally to you. That thing that you excel at. That thing that defines who you are – in your most natural, comfortable state.

Get out of your comfort zone!

Everybody preaches that, but it’s moronic advice…at least as most people apply it. Should we push ourselves? Should we embrace those who will help push us? ABSOLUTELY. But the question is, “In what direction?”

The rabbit loved to run and he was good at it. His inability to swim as good as the fish wasn’t important. Slight improvements in his swimming skills weren’t going to make a lick of difference in his life, or in what he’d be able to achieve. Yes, he was uncomfortable swimming. It was stupid to think he should devote more time to this weakness in hopes he’d grow more comfortable in the water.

But push the rabbit to get out of his comfort zone in running and that’s an entirely different prospect. If the rabbit had a certain speed that was some mentally self-imposed limitations, don’t you imagine he’d be served with a running coach who pushed him and coached him in ways to run even faster? Of course. He’s be energized at the challenge.

Those are 2 drastically different comfort zones. One is counterproductive. The other? Very productive.

The battle is wanting to be something you’re not, or wishing you were great at something that’s beyond your greatness.

It’s about accepting who and what you are, but that doesn’t mean it’s about complacency. No matter your strong points, they can be improved. There’s still the ideal self that you’ve not reached. That you’ll NEVER reach. But you keep working to improve…like the rabbit could work on getting faster and quicker. Always working to be the best version of himself possible.

Too often we spend our time wishing we were different. When a better use of our time – and our time as leaders who are trying to help others excel – would be spent helping them lean more fully into who and what they are.

I’m a college football fan. Every season it’s interesting to me how some kid coming out of high school where he’s played a certain position for years, ends up in a college program where coaches spot something unique about him. Maybe he was a wide receiver all of his younger days, but now that he’s in college and maybe during year 2 of his college career where’s he’s barely seen the field…coaches ask him to move to cornerback or safety. Now he’s on the other side of the ball going from playing offense to defense. And it can be remarkable the difference. A kid unable to start at a position he’d played for years is now a stud because he’s been moved to a different position that demands much of the same skillsets he’s already learned. It doesn’t always work out, but it’s remarkable how often coaches – like the wise old owl – can spot the physical prowess of a player and help them leverage that in ways they never would have otherwise.

Don’t you wish somebody would do that for YOU?

Imagine if we each had people capable of doing that for us. People like the wise old owl courageous enough to encourage us to be who and what we are – just better! People capable of recognizing we may be misplaced…yet people able to encourage us to find our place.

I’ve sat across from numerous executives who declared they wanted to be better leaders. After a while, it was obvious they weren’t that interested in leadership. They were far more interested in being the boss. Which is okay. They’re just not the same thing. Sometimes as we dig deeper into who and what they are I can help them see that whatever vision they’ve got of being a good leader – which is frequently a flawed vision anyway – would make them miserable. Many of these people are terrific operationally. They just need a solid number 2 who has what they lack. Somebody who is more naturally bent toward leadership than authority. I’ve encountered people willing and able to make that shift mentally and find themselves supremely happier. They’re like the rabbit. They can now just run without fretting about having to ever swim again.

What about you? Have you found it yet?

Put in the work. Talk to people who really know you. Ask them for feedback. What they see you being naturally great at? When they think of you what do they think?

What gives you energy? What robs you of energy?

Like the rabbit who threw up at the thought of just having to swim…what makes you want to vomit?

Lean away from the energy suckers in your life and lean toward the energy sources. Find it. Follow it.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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Back in episode 318 we talked about the first basic ingredient of leadership according to famed leadership expert Warren Bennis – GUIDING VISION. Let’s kick this week off with a brief discussion on the other ingredients Mr. Bennis found foundational to effective leadership.

1. Guiding Vision (see episode 318)
2. Passion – Bennis felt this was next because without it a leader may find it tough to get people on his side. All that engagement and empowerment stuff. He defined the areas of passion as passion for the promises of life, coupled with a specific passion for a vocation, a profession and a course of action. In other words, a leader needs to be passionate about those things associated with her leadership. In short, the leader loves what he does and what he’s doing. This passion helps leaders communicate hope and inspiration.
3. Integrity – Bennis felt there were 3 essential parts to integrity: self-knowledge, candor and maturity. Self-knowledge (self-awareness) is tough, but we all need to put in the work to truly know ourselves. Get in touch with your strengths and weaknesses, know what you want to do and why you want to do it. Your success hinges on it. Great leaders never lie to themselves. Especially about themselves. Candor is a key to self-knowledge. Candor is honesty in thought and action. It’s uncompromising. Maturity is necessary because leading isn’t merely showing people the way or telling people what to do. It’s the experience we gain as we learn to be dedicated, cooperative and collaborative. Bennis also mentions that integrity is the basis of trust. Trust isn’t an ingredient, according to him, but it’s a product of leadership. It has to be earned.
4. Curiosity and Daring – the last two ingredients of leadership according to Bennis fuel the leader. These ingredients help prevent leaders from fearing failure – at least to the point of paralysis. Leaders learn from adversity and going into the unknown. The strong desire to learn as much as possible and the willingness to take risks by experimenting – these are necessary for effective leadership.

Great leaders are built or made. They’re not born. Many of these ingredients aren’t natural, but they can all be acquired. Wrote Bennis:

Leaders invent themselves. They are not, by the way, made in a single weekend seminar, as many of the leadership-theory spokemen claim. I’ve come to think of that one as the microwave theory: pop in Mr. or Ms. Average and out pops McLeader in sixty seconds.

The balance between feeling and thought is important. Both are required if we’re going to improve our understanding.

Bennis thought the difference between leaders and managers were as the differences between those who master the context and those who surrender to it. But he pointed out other differences, too.

• The manager administers while the leader innovates.
• The manager is a copy while the leader is an original.
• The manager maintains while the leader develops.
• The manager focuses on systems and structure while the leader focuses on people.
• The manager relies on control, but the leader inspires trust.
• The manager has a short-range view, but the leader has a long-range perspective.
• The manager asks how and when, while the leader asks what and why.
• The manager has his eye always on the bottom line, but the leader is watching the horizon.
• The manager imitates, but the leader originates.
• The manager accepts the status quo while the leader challenges it.
• The manager is the classic good soldier, but the leader is his own person.
• The manager does things right while the leader does the right thing.

Wrote Bennis:

To reprise Wallace Stevens (a Pulitzer prize-winning poet who was also a businessman and attorney), managers wear square hats and learn through training. Leaders wear sombreros and opt for education.

Our schools are pretty good at training. They’re dreadful at educating. Training is great for dogs. Not so great for humans. Perhaps that explains why there is such a gap in leadership.

Leaders work on themselves. Bennis felt the paradox of promotion was that leaders rise in spite of their weaknesses, but managers rise because of theirs.

We are our own raw material. We have to know what we’re made of and what we want to make of ourselves. It’s foundational to becoming a better leader.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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True confession: I’m not a baseball fan. I only watch it when the league championship finals begin. But I recently heard a radio interview with the manager of the Texas Rangers, Chris “Woody” Woodward. While answering a question about what being a first-year major league manager he uttered that quote.

You have to understand why you’re winning and why you’re losing.

He went on to reiterate the importance of a major league baseball team to know why what they’re doing is providing whatever result they happen to be experiencing at the moment. Baseball, because of the sheer number of games played,  can throw teams into slumps and winning streaks. Woody wants his team to understand why it’s happening.

The interviewers didn’t do what I had hoped. They neglected to probe further. I was curious to know more. Maybe it’s because I’m not a baseball guy. Perhaps baseball fans just understand things I don’t. But it didn’t make me think about our world of business.

Business, like baseball, is a long season (well, we sure hope it is). We’ve all experienced slumps. Hopefully, we’ve also experienced some winning streaks to offset those. I’m not sure we always understand why. Maybe business is so dramatically different from baseball – I suspect that’s the case.

Take advertising. A company can create an ad campaign that spikes sales. It seems to be working as expected. But in time, it stops working. Why?

Advertising seems to be THE big variable that’s awfully hard to understand. It’s why that old quote from John Wanamaker is so true.

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.

I’ve never managed a baseball team, but I’ve managed businesses for decades. Understanding is difficult. Sometimes it’s tough to know why you’re winning. Harder still to know why you’re losing.

There are days when we’re like Nelson. It feels like we’re staring at Makes No Sense, Inc. and have no clues.

What can we do? I can’t promise that you’ll always figure it out and understand, but you ought to try. It’s learning and it’s necessary for growth.

Step 1 – Don’t ignore trying to understand success.

In our quest to understand why we’re winning or why we’re losing it’s easy to focus on the losing, not the winning. That’s why it’s more commonplace for companies to devote time to blaming people, but they neglect celebrations. It’s like the parent who ignores A’s on the kid’s report card but pitches a wild-eyed fit when a C comes home.

Donald O. Clifton is the father of Strengthsfinder. He wrote a book many years ago – the precursor to the Strengthsfinder work – entitled, “Soar With Your Strengths.” I devoured the book when it was first published. It made total sense to me, especially as a parent and a leader. Why try to make yourself or others something they’re not. Instead, lead with your strengths. Improve what you’re already good at. In a similar fashion, don’t ignore dissecting success. Figure out why things are working well so you can do more of it.

Step 2 – Ask others.

I’m still trying to figure out why this is so difficult. Especially when it comes to learning and understanding. People slightly older to much older than me have always been the chief folks I’ve looked to for understanding. I want to know what they may be able to teach me. I’ve never found it difficult to learn from older people – especially men (since I’m a man) with whom I’ve invested time to forge a trusting relationship. A small circle of men has helped me navigate the choppiest waters of my life. I can’t imagine going it alone. I’m encouraging you not to.

Others have helped me eliminate blind spots I didn’t even know I had. They’ve prevented me from being stagnant in my understanding of a variety of things. Others can do the same thing for you.

No matter how smart you are, you’re not THAT smart. Nobody is. You’re not smart enough to consider or see everything. And you’re not smart enough to always understand why something is working well or why something else isn’t working at all. You need the perspective of others. If you don’t seek it out and listen, you’re the bigger fool.

Step 3 – Look for patterns.

Life is patterns. Success and failure both have their own patterns. As you’d imagine, they’re not the same. Patterns of success don’t look like the patterns of failure.

When you’re looking to understand why something is working you’re going to see – if you look long enough and closely enough – patterns emerge. One thing leads to something else, which leads to a thing that seems to make a positive difference. The same thing happens with failure…a chain of events will lead to something that seems to throw the wheels off wrecking success.

If you’ll devote time to looking for and at patterns, you’ll see them. It takes practice. That’s why you need to practice it.

The problem is connecting dots that may not be connected. That makes pattern recognition difficult. It’s another reason why step 2 is so important – asking others. You may see a pattern that isn’t a pattern at all. Others can help you see whether it’s a pattern or not.

Step 4 – Question what you connect. Put it on trial and find out what changed.

Again, others can help you best do this. Am I seeing a pattern? Am I connecting dots that truly are connected?

A big part of this step is to figure out what has changed. This is especially helpful when we’re just finding success or when success is beginning to fail. What changed?

As we examine what patterns we’re likely going to spot something that is now different. Maybe it’s big. Maybe it’s subtle.

A business begins to experience a drop in profit margins. They dive into to figure out why. Nothing leaps out at them at first because the top line numbers seem appropriate. It’s not like there’s been some sudden rash of discounts offered. Something changed? What?

Turns out two big accounts slowed down. Just slightly. But that prompted something that wasn’t looked at too carefully at first. The travel and entertainment budgets for these two accounts shot up dramatically driving costs higher. Fearful that the downturn might keep going south sales management pushed more chips into the middle of the table to woo these two big accounts. It wasn’t working. At least, not yet. But it ruined the margins companywide.

Something indeed had changed. You need to find out what changed. For good. Or bad.

Step 5 – Keep asking questions and keep seeking insights from others.

Don’t make this a one-off exercise. Keep it going.

Become a professional business autopsy expert inside your own business. Develop, maintain and grow your curiosity about what causes success and failure. It provides the answers you most seek. It provides guidance so you know what to do. Otherwise, you’re just taking a blind stab in the dark. Much better to see what you’re aiming at. So be thoughtful, mindful, intentional and purposeful. That’ll help you shorten the losing streaks and lengthen the winning ones.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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NFL pundits claim this year’s Dallas Cowboys’ roster is Super Bowl quality. Time will tell. They’ve got to play the games. They’re certainly throwing big dollars around. Time will tell.

I can’t remember the last time I passed an entire week without talking with a business owner or CEO about constructing a better team. The people problem persists. Recruiting, training and retaining people who can help take the enterprise to new heights has always been a challenge. But too often we make it harder than it needs to be. Mostly because we neglect to give it the attention it deserves.

Over 25 years ago I went to hear Tom Peters. He used to come to the DFW area every few years. I’d go see him every time he came. I’ve always found him thought-provoking and my fondness likely stems from being a young man when In Search Of Excellence was published (1982). He resonated with me.

Well, during this presentation – which wasn’t a speech as much as a presentation because people were seated around tables and Tom would walk amongst us while talking with a comprehensive slide deck serving to illustrate his points – he talked about how much effort the NFL puts into assembling a team. General Managers have teams of scouts and other people dedicated to studying film of college players. Countless man hours are applied to the team every season. Makes sense because that’s their business, a team sport. It requires building the strongest team possible so you can compete. Tom made the analogy that our businesses aren’t much different. People make the difference.

I instantly thought, “Yeah, I agree, but NFL teams have game film to watch, previous coaches to interview about the player, and a lot more data to consider than I ever have with prospective hires.” But I didn’t want to be completely dismissive of Tom’s analogy. I knew I could give it greater effort. And I knew there had to be some strategies I could deploy so I could act with greater efficiency. I needed to be more intentional about it all.

Since then I’ve found almost every CEO or SMB owner suffers the same challenge. And I know why. We too often hire out of desperation. We have a pressing need, then we seek to fill it. That’s the extent of the strategy. Immediate need.

I started to think about being more proactive because there were times early in my career when I’d done that instinctively. But along the way something happened. I didn’t get smarter. I got stupider. I started chasing my tail. By the time I got to the mid-1980’s I was figuring out how to stop chasing my tail so much. Fire fighting is part of the task and I rather enjoyed that part of it. What I hated was feeling forced to act out of desperation. So I began to think more strategic. To give greater effort to being prepared. To think ahead.

What would you do if THE key employee you most rely on suddenly resigned?

I often ask leaders this question and most have no answer other than, “I hope it doesn’t happen.” I’ll press them. “But what if it does?”

Panic! That’s what would happen.

I’m not saying that we’re all prepared for such events, but we’d do well to think about it more. To pre-think it and prepare. To develop a plan.

So how would you build your ideal team?

Let’s start by defining “ideal.” I’m not talking about a perfect team. I’m talking about the team that would be ideally suited to achieve what you want. The team of people capable (and willing) to help you grow your enterprise.

Step 1 – Shore up the weakness that’s killing you.

You likely have chronic weak areas. If you’re like most of us, these areas have been problematic for too long.

Figure out why.

Don’t accept shallow answers. Dig deep enough to really discover, maybe for the first time ever, why this area is THE ongoing problem. Don’t be fast to blame external forces. Look in the mirror and figure out what you and your company may be doing poorly to contribute to this. Training, compensation, culture – test them all to find out why you’re consistently weak in this area.

Soar with your strengths is a great way to roll, but I wonder – can you turn your weakness into a strength? What if you could?

I’ll wager that this area of weakness for you may also be an area of weakness for your competitors. If you can turn this around it solves a major problem for you while providing you a competitive advantage in the market. Win-win.

By starting with your weakest area you can stop the bleeding in multiple areas. Inefficiency in getting the work done and lower performing culture. That’s why I first focus on this area even though my natural tendency is to lean into areas of strength and make them even stronger.

When it comes to team construction weak areas have a devasting impact. Think of it like triage. Doctors in the ER examine patients according to how dire their circumstance. A person with a severe head wound trumps a broken arm. A heart attack trumps a badly sprained ankle. So it goes with your company. Go where the need is greatest to build your ideal team.

Note: This likely will mean you need to eliminate people who should have been removed long ago. Don’t beat yourself up for living with them. Be fair. Be legal. Get busy doing what you must to correct poor performance. That may include eventually getting rid of people incapable or unwilling to help your company win.

Step 2 – Make your strength even stronger.

This begins with not taking it for granted. Go back to that question about the sudden resignation of a key employee. It’s not always the result of taking them for granted, but it often is. Stop it. Embrace gratitude.

Don’t assume making your strength stronger involves adding people. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. It most certainly involves you not taking it for granted – not assuming it’ll always be this way.

Protect your strength. Keep investing in it. Pay attention to it.

Add to it if you want. But whatever you do, grow it even stronger.

Step 3 – Create a high-performing culture. Nothing will attract talent more, and keep it longer. 

Don’t tolerate mediocrity. Ever.

The name of the game is victory. You’re in business to win. In the market. In the mind (and wallet) of the customer.

Everybody is putting in hours.

An NFL game consists of four 15-minute quarters. Sixty minutes. Both teams will invest the same 60 minutes into the game (or more if it goes into overtime). At the end of the game, one locker room celebrates while the other bemoans the loss. Which locker room do you want to be in? As the CEO or owner it’s your job to establish the expectation, focus and effort required to create a winning locker room.

Top-performers want to play with other top-performers. It transcends roles. High achieving salespeople want to interact with and associate with high-performing accounting people. Don’t be narrow-minded in thinking that only some areas of your business need “A” players. Work hard to put as many “A” players into every role within your organization.

Birds of a feather and all that. It matters. Talent attracts talent.

You can’t have a high-performing organization if there’s a place for everybody in your company. The culture must be selective IF you’re going to have a top-notch culture. You have to be intolerant of mediocrity. Poor effort, poor habits, and poor performance are culture killers. Don’t accept them.

Here’s a key. You must work on all three steps simultaneously. Always. You’ll never be done. The work is never finished. Constant, ongoing attention is required. Make up your mind. Commit to it. You’ll reap the rewards.

I’ll leave you with what Jack Welch taught the world. At least he was the first to articulate it where it made sense for me. Welch was always in the process of dumping the bottom of his rosters. He was always searching for ways to improve the roster.

Make room for good people. No matter what. If somebody must go, you likely have plenty of candidates who should be moved along to make room. That strategy continues to improve the roster and help you achieve your ideal team.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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“In a minute,” maybe a teenager’s favorite phrase when asked to do something by their parents. As parents, we understand that if we don’t continue to insist, the proverbial minute will never arrive. Our kids will never get around to taking out the trash, or whatever other chores we’re asking them to do.

Yet is a different sentiment. It’s not the equivalent of “in a minute.”

“In a minute” is about procrastination.

“Yet” is about the process of achievement.

Yet is powerful. It denotes that achievement and accomplishment just haven’t happened YET. But it also expresses confidence that it will come to pass. We simply have to continue pressing toward the goal.

It can also be a crutch when it’s merely an excuse for failure.

Lately, I’ve been thinking quite a lot about this word because I hear it often used in both contexts. As an excuse and as a statement that a person is still working hard toward a target.

The optimistic part of me – the bigger part of me – focuses on the progress made. Or the progress attempting to be made. I’m happy to give folks the benefit of the doubt that when they use the word – YET – they’re putting forth solid effort to reach whatever goal they’ve set.

“Have you reached your sales goals this week?”

“Not yet.”

The power of yet is measured in whatever effort is being put forth to reach the goal. That’s the power of yet. It’s the declaration that in time we’ll reach it.

Only the pompous are able to judge the timing of success and achievement. It happens when it happens, and mostly only after great effort.

The real power of YET is in what follows. A sentiment sometimes expressed. Sometimes just implied.

“…but I will.”

Affirming our commitment. Hearing ourselves reinforce our determination.

Important matters of the mind.

As a business leader, you have a responsibility to your team to make sure that every single member embraces the optimistic idea of YET while refusing to embrace it as an excuse for failure.

How?

Step 1: Review what actions have been taken and measure the results.

Keep in mind that wishes don’t have actions, but hopes do. If members of your team are hoping to achieve something specific, then it necessarily means they’re doing something to move toward that achievement. What things are they doing? How are those things working out?

Step 2: Are they taking enough of the right actions? Help them figure that out.

Be a profitable sounding board so your team members can individually and collectively figure out if they’re taking the appropriate actions. And then figure out if they’re doing enough of them. Sometimes we take action, but we fail to do it enough. A salesperson may make sales calls consistently, but failure results because she’s not making enough calls every single day.

Step 3: Figure out what’s working and what isn’t.

Not all actions are created equally. You owe it to your team to help them figure out what actions work best. Don’t issue commands, but instead help them arrive at the conclusions that will drive higher chances of success.

Step 4: Ask them what commitment they’d like to make in order to adjust to a more effective course of action. 

“What would you like to do to accelerate toward the goal?”

This is where the team member must commit to their own plan. Steps 1, 2 and 3 likely produce multiple answers and give the person a variety of choices they could take. Help them reason through the strengths and weaknesses of each option. Let them decide the option they think will help best reach the goal.

This step answers the question, “Now what will I do?” These should be specific action items the person is willing to undertake.

Step 5: Agree on a timeframe. 

When would they like to reach the next milestone toward the goal? Again, let them commit to a specific time-frame. These actions should be intentionally fairly short-term toward a longer-term objective. Think days or weeks here, not months.

Review the commitment made by the team member. “Beginning tomorrow you’re going to make a minimum of 20 calls and be at 90% of your monthly sales goal by the 22nd of the month.”

Again, specifics matter.

Step 6: Be their accountability partner.

Simple easy tactics are required. This isn’t a police action, but it’s a service your team members deserve. Reiterate that you have just one objective – to help them achieve their goal.

“At the end of every day text me the number of calls you made along with the number of actual sales conversations you had as a result. Text it with the number being the calls and the second number the actual phone presentations made.”

Step 7: Make real-time adjustments together.

Agree together that if adjustments are necessary, then they’ll make those adjustments. For instance, if 20 daily calls aren’t resulting in increases that will likely reach the goal…then agree to increase them to 25 daily calls.

Remember, the goal is to help them hit their target. You’re making a full commitment to them to help them do what must be done so they can achieve success. Their failure will be your failure.

But together you’re both going to commit to the power of YET. It’s not over until it’s over. So until then, the work continues with the die-hard belief that success just hasn’t happened…YET. But it will.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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Everything good is sales. 

Everything bad is lack of sales.

Go ahead. Argue against it. Push back.

But I know what I’m talking about. I’ve experienced dreadful lease negotiations. I’ve participated in tense and uncomfortable vendor negotiations.
I’ve experienced fires and break-ins.
I know what it is to lose a good key employee.

I know what bad looks like and how it feels.

A business consists of daily problems that have to be solved. A business also consists of daily opportunities that have to be spotted and seized.

There’s a good reason why the first leg of my business-building trifecta is “getting new customers.” Nothing comes before that. Not really.

The other night my wife and I were watching the History channel series on “The Food That Made America.” Part of that history involved Milton Hershey, creator of The Hershey Company, a chocolate maker.

Hershey had sold an earlier company for $1M. He poured that money into a remote area of Pennsylvania where he designed a town and a factory. All before he even had a recipe for milk chocolate, an idea he had discovered from European chocolatiers who used powdered condensed milk. He was determined to use fresh milk from the many dairies around the site of his new city and factory.

Construction went on for over 2 years and was almost complete before a Hershey employee finally stumbled on a recipe. And, as they say, the rest of history.

My wife and I were observing how backwards it all seemed. No recipe for milk chocolate…just a die-hard determination that it had to be milk chocolate and it had to use fresh milk. No customers. But he built a city and an enormous factory.

Okay, it can work. Clearly. But that doesn’t mean it’s how you should go about it. It’s not advisable. Unless you’ve got a brilliant idea, a lot of money and a do-or-die spirit. Hershey had all of that. Most of us don’t.

“We didn’t hit our numbers last month.”

“It’s a slow month so far.”

“Things are slow.”

Owners and leaders universally understand the pressures of poor or lackluster sales. “We need to make something happen,” we sometimes say. What we mean is that we need to make something good happen. We need to get more business!

We need to get new customers!

Making something good happen is what drives us. It’s what separates us from others. Confidence and belief that we can affect change. The desire to control our destiny rather than let others impose on us. And if we are going to fail, we’ll do it on our own terms by doing things based on our deep beliefs that they’ll work.

Success stories are those where it worked out.

Stories of failure demonstrate instances where it didn’t work out.

How are you gonna know until or unless you try though? You won’t. You can’t.

Let’s think about what we can do as business owners and leaders to make something good happen. 

Step 1 – You have to believe you can.

This should go without saying, but I’ve learned through the years that nothing really should go without saying because basic, foundational truths are the ones that most often escape us.

A person calls tech support for a manufacturer of a surge protector. You’ve likely seen this social media meme. I chuckle every time I see it…probably because I spent many years in consumer electronics and it resonates with me.

Starting with something as fundamental as, “Is it plugged in?” eliminates the most obvious problems. Well, unless the customer is a complete moron as the meme depicts. 😀

The point? Basics and fundamentals often provide solutions.

That’s why I begin with you – and your belief that you can do something that will affect positive change. Until or unless you truly think you have the capacity as an owner or leader to influence the outcome, then you’re sunk. What purpose do you serve as a leader if you lack that ability or influence?

Leaders must deeply believe, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” Not in some self-centered, I’m-going-to-do-it-all sort of way. But in a way where you know that somebody – namely, YOU – must step up and get the ball rolling toward pushing back against bad things happening.

I’ve intentionally used sales – specifically a sales slump – as the metaphor for today’s show. And I’ve done so because slow or low sales create more tension than anything I know.

Imagine that your sales are 15% lower than projected. You’ve hit a dip you didn’t expect to hit. And you’re without evidence as to why. If you dive in to sort it out without deeply being convicted of you – and your team’s ability – to remedy this problem, then you’ll be grabbing at straws and likely drown. Confidence and belief are key. It starts with your own so you can then relay that to your team. A major part of your role as a leader is to provide encouragement so your team will have the confidence you have.

Do not underestimate the value of belief.

Step 2 – Find the truth. Face the truth.

Whenever bad things happen the first reaction is to finger point and find somebody or something to blame. Eliminate that. Don’t even let it get started. It can be tough to stop once it starts.

Instead, insist on evidence and make people prove their theories. Theories and assumptions aren’t bad. You just need to insist that people effectively argue their positions.

Key: Have your team focus on themselves and the organization. Rather than look to things as nebulous as the economy, or the weather – hold them accountable for keeping their search on how the company is reacting or managing all the external forces.

It’s vanity to think external forces don’t influence our businesses. But it’s NOT vanity to focus on how our business is dealing with those forces. That’s where we’re going to discover some ways we can improve.

Don’t spend time crafting fairy tales to make everybody feel better about their effort. Nobody cares about your effort. Lots of folks are out here working hard and going broke. Besides, when you impose a culture of truth-finding and truth-facing you’ll build a culture of high performance.

Don’t let anything or anybody – including yourself – off the hook. That doesn’t mean when you find the truth that you rail against it. Or that you find somebody to barbeque. It means together – you and your team – stare it in the eye, acknowledge what you think you did wrong (collectively), and you then focus on the final step.

Step 3 – Work out a plan to answer the question, “What should we do next?”

It’s great to know the future years from now, but none of us have that ability. We sometimes think we do. We’re wrong.

How provides that confidence that is so important to you and your team. Belief kicks in when we can best see how we’re going to get out of this mess. This is the business strategy part of the solution.

Let’s assume that our 15% sales decline (we missed our budget by that amount) appears to be due a few things. One, we based it on our historical seasonality. The month before we blew the lid off our projections. That month was also based on historical seasonality. But some of our key vendors had special financing for our customers this year that didn’t happen last year. When we look at the financing data it’s clear that our financing business is off the charts. Those inducements drove business and shook up our seasonality. Two, the competitors to our key suppliers responded and a month later they offered their own financing. Our team concludes that we were both ill-prepared to take full advantage of the promotions offered by our suppliers and we were equally unprepared to combat the competitor’s offers a month later.

Deeper investigation shows that almost 80% of our sales with the promotional financing involved bundling – that is, customers purchased more because of the financing. Our average ticket was significantly higher.

The team decides a good strategy would be to incorporate in-house financing coupled with aggressive bundle pricing. They discuss concerns about how that may adversely impact margins and future business, but they’re more concerned about losing momentum during these months that are historically their strongest.

When people are buying, help them buy more. When people aren’t buying, you’re not likely able to compel them to buy. It’s a classic mistake businesses make, especially businesses without deep pockets to drive promotion and advertising.

The team leans into making the most of the seasonality that has persisted for more than a decade with very little variation.

Bonus Step – Keep moving forward and keep asking and answering the question, “Now what?”

Business success is about making wise adjustments. Will the team’s strategy work? They don’t know, but they believe it will.

Now it’s time to keep your eyes on it and see how it goes. Adjust as needed. Course correction may be necessary. Don’t be afraid to learn from failure. Find greater success. Make something good happen, then make something even better happen.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

P.S. Yes, I’ve gone back to Grow Great as the name of the podcast. It just feels better. Right. And it’s in keeping with what I do best according to trusted advisors. I leveraged the power of others – other people with whom I feel safe – who urged me to lean into my natural state of being a counselor. It’s congruent with my character strengths, my talent strengths and my personality. It’s also evidence of working live without a net and letting you behind the curtain to see how things work around here. Next time I’ll share more details so you can learn from my process. It’s all part of the plan of us helping each other figure things out for ourselves, but without having to do it alone!