Work less, earn more

No comments Comments

I have started writing a series of articles in my newsletter on this topic of working less and earning more because I think this is ultimately the goal of every business owner and can become the ultimate dilemma as well.

Businesses go through growth stages like a human being and I am not necessarily talking about the sales growth or market share growth. You can be number one in an extremely small niche market and still work alone or with an assistant. And today you can have virtual assistants through websites such as www.elance.com or www.guru.com.

What I mean by growth stages is going from a solopreneur to an organization of hundreds or thousands of employees. The transition process can be very difficult and very few out of those who start out actually are able to survive. Most people end up just keeping things manageable by limiting the growth and having just enough people so managing does not get too difficult.

But growing a larger organization can be exciting and rewarding because it provides you with the opportunity to build an independent organization that you can sell or that can function without you. It also provides a great opportunity to grow as a person and leader. Through the process of organizational development you can see your vision being realized through the combined efforts of a lot of people. I think that this is really the biggest reward that one can have because building that kind of organization requires developing yourself and your people. In the end or along the journey you become something you were not before and so do the people you bring along for the ride.

So where are your journeying too and what do you want the ride to be like? How do you want people to get along on the journey? Should it be a competitive journey or a smooth and fun ride most of the time. The answers would depend on what most motivates you and what you want to experience. When this is clear you can attract those that share the same values or feelings about the kind of organizational climate they want to work in.

Multi-level marketing is another way to earn more and work less if one can become successful in building an autonomous organization with many solid functioning levels. Those that succeed in this type of business all express how they have grown through the process. The reason is because to stick it out and go through the hard stuff you need to work on yourself, your attitude, beliefs, weaknesses, etc. You need to dampen your fears and accentuate your strengths and qualities. Very few out of those start are able to succeed and last. Maybe they have a higher pain tolerance level than those who quit. It’s like the top athletes, who can stand the most pain to push yourself that extra little bit?

To summarize here are the main points an entrepreneur who wants to build an autonomous workforce needs to consider.

  1. Have a vision for what you want to create and accomplish.
  2. Understand yourself and the people you want to join you.
  3. Define how people will behave in their jobs and what kind of organizational climate this will create.
  4. Learn how to manage your state in order to ride the difficult periods and situations.
  5. Keep developing all aspects of yourself so you are better equipped to deal with bigger issues and challenges.
  6. Hire and train the best you can find and afford. Make managers out of employees and leaders out of everyone.
  7. Track what is important to measure.
  8. Encourage others to solve their own problems so you can concentrate on new ideas and strategies.
  9. Praise and recognize those that merit it.
  10. Celebrate your successes big and small.

If this makes sense to you, stick this list on a wall (I am doing it now) so you can see it everyday and remind yourself of what is really important and if you don’ do it, who will?

Stephen Goldberg, sgoldberg@optimusperformance.ca

Contact me, I can help

Chinese Innovation

No comments Comments

This morning I was watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games in Beijing and they were showing early Chinese innovations like paper, printing and the compass. I didn’t know these things originated in China. The artists were putting on a beautiful and spectacular demonstration that was artistic and highly technical and disciplined.

Yesterday I met a business owner near my office to talk about developing a high performance organization and to see if we could work together to improve his business, I had met Tim a few months ago when I was acting as a judge for the local Chamber of Commerce Accolades award for the most innovative company in the region. I remembered the visit I had made with the two other judges and how I was impressed with the small innovative and flexible firm he had built. They had managed to take standard everyday products and develop them into new designs and functions that addressed specific needs in niche markets.

I had bought along an article http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=3009ca9f-f412-4050-b64e-6a3e91049ffb that talked about how important innovation is to competing globally and gave an example of a firm in Ontario that was leading in their field because of their innovative approach to their product and market, as well as they way they functioned.

We talked about China and the challenge that manufacturers face because of the easier access to products from there and China’s great ability to manufacture at a much lower cost. He told me of his experience with trying to outsource some manufacturing to China and how it failed. He said that they are good for producing high volume low quality products. I felt differently because although I see that many low priced products produced there are generally lower quality, I have seen great improvements in the quality of many products from China over the years. Tim pointed out that larger firms are able to handle their own quality control in China or build factories in partnership with local owner/operators.

Learning this morning about China’s past and it’s remarkable innovations clashed in my mind with the observation made by Tim. We has also talked about what it takes to build a high performance autonomous workforce and the key point we agreed on was that it takes a continuous improvement attitude from all people in the organization to not only drive innovative thinking but to empower people to do so. This is scary for many small and medium size business owners because it means giving up power and control to a great degree to your people. At the same time not doing so hinders the potential growth of the organization as well stunts creative thinking and thus makes the organizationless inflexible and less able to compete.

In my mind, this is what happened in China. The great discoveries and innovations were made long before the restrictiveness of communistic rule began to act on the psyche of the Chinese population. Since then China has become a land of control and imitation. They seems to be great at replicating what others are creating and doing it fast and less costly.

For North American manufacturers to survive and grow, they must foster innovation and continuous improvement throughout the organization and the attitude for this begins with the president and his executive team. They must be willing to embrace a management style that promotes creativity and open sharing of ideas. They must also realize the importance and value in generating strong team spirit throughout the departments. To do this requires the top leaders to examine and improve their own leadership and teamwork behaviours and insists that those they manage do the same. This will then drift down throughout the organization and when reinforced will become the behaviour to emulate and thus mold the culture of the enterprise.

The Wooer telemarketer

No comments Comments

<

Just back from a week’s vacation in the beautiful Charlevoix and Saguenay regions of Quebec and so I was a bit slow in getting myself out the door this morning. This gave a chance for the telemarketer from Bell to catch me at home.

My first inclination when I heard the word Bell was to say I was in a rush and to call back, but after a few sounds of the sweet voice of Pascale, I was had. I have been experiencing difficulty with their services at home and work over the last few months and so I am not a great fan of theirs at this time.

And so it goes to show you that no matter how bad you may have performed yesterday (I refer to Bell as a collective You), an engaging, wooer type of employee can turn things around in a few moments and even sell more services. Which is amazing because just 2 weeks ago I wanted to get rid of them as a supplier.

A wooer employee or person is one who is so nice and empathetic you cannot resist their kind charm and words. And the ones that know and understand their own qualities and how to use them are really effective, case in point being Pascale the Bell girl.

The thing is in sales these wooer types are often weak because they are not at all aggressive. So don’t put them into aggressive type sales roles or situations where they need to use high pressure closing techniques. They are often attracted to and do well in social work type occupations including nursing and human resources. But they can be really effective in sales roles where they can use a gently approach to selling.

Pascale did a really good job of attempting to close me on a sale. She didn’t ask me to buy, she just assumed by my reaction and interest in her offer that I was ready to buy and was taking me down the lane of getting a final agreement. I did hold out saying I wanted to compare her offer with my current supplier and to call me back tomorrow. She agreed and said she would call at 9:30. Let’s see if she does.

So it is important for both the employer and employee to understand the type of person they are and how to best utilize the qualities of their type and the talents and skills they have developedthough learning and training. This person’s style was in great contrast to another Bell telemarketer who called me last month to sell me Internet hosting and design services. The guy was so aggressive and obnoxious I hung up on him They obviously work for 2 very different bosses and cultures within the Bell organization. I am even thinking the Internet guy may work for a third party.

I have been working with Frtiz Glaus and learning and teaching his typology approach to better understand people. The wooer type comes from his types of people system and is the Supporter type. I can tell this just by her behaviour on the phone, which I think is pretty darn good.

Fritz and I are working on a new website and on-line learning system to teach the types to business leaders and coaches. You can start by reading his book CrazyZoo available at http://www.lulu.com/content/394116. I was reading it again on vacation and it amazed me how much you can learn about yourself and others and how to improve relationships using this system.

Let’s see if the Bell girl does call back and succeeds in closing the sale.

Stephen

Does training and development really improve productivity and performance?

No comments Comments

We often do not give enough credit and attention to learning and training and development. Actually is their a difference between those two sets of words? I think that training and development implies putting into action what we have learned whilst learning may only mean acquiring the necessary knowledge to do something. For example my son learns a lot from watching TV and has an expert opinion on just about everything but does not do to much with it. In other words he does not walk his talk because although he thinks he knows something, he does not show that he can do those things.

I am writing this because this morning I was watching a part of a training video I purchased for learning how to use my new HD video camera so I can make high quality videos for my work. This requires getting professional results from this awesome little prosumer camera (the Sony HRDC1) http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/sony-hc1.shtml

As I was watching the video I recalled a conversation I had with my friend Peter who graciously video taped me giving a seminar last month. He has the same camera and convinced to buy it after explaining the features and how great the video turns out. When we were setting up for the shoot that day I asked Peter what settings he was using on the camera and he replied none. He was completely relying on the automatic settings of the camera, and replied saying that the camera does such a great job itself, why bother changing anything? After watching the video this morning I realized he was saying this because he did not know any better. He does not realize the tremendous potential one has to control the camera through it’s manual settings and get far superior results. The video explains why one should opt for the user controls in order to get truly professional results.

As I was watching the video and learning how I could control the various options to improve the quality of the video I was thinking back to some of the things I had taped recently and how this information would have greatly benefited me at that time. In fact just 3 days ago I was taping a speaker and could have used more appropriate settings to assure the best results.

Of course watching the video is not enough. I need to pick up the camera and actually practice applying the settings that is recommended. In fact this reminds me of the steps to training that assures skill development and not just knowing something. These steps are:

  1. Explain the purpose or objectives of the training and why it is important
  2. Explain each task or skill that you want the person to learn
  3. Demonstrate the task or skill
  4. Have the person perform the task or skill while you the trainer observe
  5. Provide feedback on the person’s performance. Reinforce what they are doing well and redirect on what needs improvement
  6. Repeat the above steps if needed
  7. Provide follow-up. Agree on the level and frequency of follow-up required

Following these steps always delivers greater results. Just ask yourself how many things have you learned that actually stuck and were put into practice? The cause for this is probably reflected in the above list.

I was very impressed with the quality of the video I watched as steps 1-3 were done extremely well. Of course they could not do steps 4-7 without being there with me, so it is up to me to practice. This is where training often fails to produce the desired results. Those doing the training do not always consciously follow the above steps and easily forget about the follow-up. This is why in organizations managers are the ones who should do as much of the training themselves as they can or develop a follow-up plan with the trianing provider in order to make sure the skills learned will be practiced.

I can safely say that I will put these new camera techniques into practice. In fact I brought my camera to work with me and plan to do some video taping tonight to practice immediately. I will soon be bragging to Peter about how knowledgeable I have become about my camera and I know he will be begging to borrow the video so he can learn to.

So you see training can help us to claim our right to brag and thus increase our self-confidence and esteem. This is a good thing as long as we don’t go overboard. I also feel that my investment in my camera, which costs quite a bit more than the average models was well worth it as I feel I now know how to use the tool to get the superior results I had originally envisioned.

What are your thoughts on training and it’s importance to results and goal achievement? Please provide your comments.