In fair weather and good markets, sometimes just drifting through the marketplace produces good results like new opportunities, revenue growth and profits. You don't need me to tell you that in these times if you are not navigating your business through rigorous strategic planning - you are likely to crash on the rocks. Here are key elements of leading your business, organization or career through these rough waters:
1. Develop and communicate your vision. As a leader, your destination is your vision- your direction and focus. It must be grounded in what you are trying to achieve and the most important concerns you need to take care of both personally and from a business perspective. You must communicate your vision and keep it very visible in front of you and your team, or in busy, trying, crazy times we live in...you will lose sight of it. Vision is what motivates us and mobilizes us into effective action. Navigating is making your everyday decisions with your vision in mind. Can you describe your vision in 2 minutes in a clear and compelling way? if not, this is where you need to start.
2. Identify the key internal and external factors that have an important affect on reaching your destination. You must make assessments about your situation to make good decisions about which course to take. SWOT is an easy framework to use to capture and consider key internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (opportunities and threats.) Of all the strategic planning practices, SWOT requires the most outside perspective. As a business leader, it is impossible to see and interpret everything that is going on, and our psychology can get in the way of making well grounded assessments. Use employees, colleagues, customers, peers and coaches to thoroughly lay out your SWOT. Think of it as the chart for your navigation- a clear document which starts to point out the possible routes you could take given your situation and the hazards to be avoided. A thorough SWOT demands a rich understanding of employee competencies, your market, economics, technology, legislation and competition. By evaluating your SWOT you determine how to best utilize your assets, avoid threats, and identify the areas where you can build unique competitive advantage for the future.
3. Make a Plan, AND a Plan B! We all know how to plan, I think this just comes down to how much rigor we are willing to put into the practice. One of my TAB colleagues often notes that many of us put more time into planning our vacations than planning for our businesses:) Yes, planning takes time and energy on the front end. Having worked with hundreds of different business leaders in different situations, I know that it also pays off in the end with well coordinated, successful and effective action. A plan includes the who, what, where, why and how of navigating to your destination. Most importantly, it requires insights into the interim situations that are critical to achieving any goal. Business is complex and multi-faceted. Executing the strategies that gain us competitive advantage requires more than simple action. Navigating our course requires a bit of reverse engineering - determining the goals along the way that serve as a launching point for the next goal.
Over the past year it has also become clear that one plan is not enough. Business leaders must have a plan for the most likely scenario, and a backup plan as well. Your "Plan B" must also be well thought out and include a path to another satisfactory destination (even if it's not preferred.)
These three steps will get you on your way. I find once I help a business leader become a navigator using these steps, a new sense of control, peace, resolve and optimism follows. There is still work to do to make it happen...but I'll leave that for a future blog!
Seize Tomorrow!
Business owners and leaders must recognize that this recession has brought on a new dynamic to our markets - long term frugal customers. When it comes to selling your product or solution today, you must develop new strategies.
1. Rethink Marketing: Because most customers go to the net first, you need to get savvy with search engine marketing, blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter and so on. They will not only engage potential customers but also build a growing digital footprint.
2. Value Message: You need to reflect on and re-craft your message. There's an ROI in every decision making process these days so make sure you demonstrate your value proposition from the start.
3. Customer Feedback: During tough times, your customers may be looking for alternatives. This means you need to communicate more and perhaps even provide enhanced offerings. In fact, this may help increase "word of mouth," which could result in getting more customers. Ask your customers some questions, such as: What do you value the most? What else would you want? This can be extremely valuable in terms of targeting new customers, as well as fine-tuning your marketing.
4. Be Upbeat: In light of the negative media, it's not easy to be positive. But as a leader, you need to set a mood mood of resolve and optimism. It's critical for mobilizing your employees and building confidence with vendors and potential customers. Plus, its infectious and just plain old feels great!!!
If you would like more information about creating new marketing messages, mobilizing employees, or redesigning your sales process in light of the new situation -Request a Free Consultation. We help business leaders achieve success through all of these strategies and more.
Related posts:
Do-You-Own-the-Mood?
Here are some of my favorite resources of the week:
I posted links to two great resources on the Good Stuff section of my website:
If you like them, please take a moment to hit the vote button, so your favorites as a group rise to the top of the resource list. Also, I would love to hear your insights, so consider leaving comments.
One of my favorite books of the year is now out in executive summary: Who's Got Your Back by Keith Ferrazzi. Keith makes the case for business-owner-advisory-boards like TAB that create strong networks of people that enable you to "build deep, trusting relationships that create success - and won't let you fail.." He emphasizes some of the best practices we have at TAB of sharing goals and strategies and clearly establishing group commitments for ongoing success.
If you are still hungry for more...there are a few new blog posts too: Seize Tomorrow Blog
One of the most important responsibilities for business leaders is giving employees the feedback they need so that they can develop, and having a practice of continuously making well grounded assessments of your employees so that you are leveraging your most precious resource: your employees and their potential.
I was asked to speak on giving feedback to a TAB peer advisory board in Union tomorrow. While preparing, I came upon some favorite resources that I have collected over the years. Here they are for your benefit.
It all starts with well developed and communicated expectations for the role - click here for our worksheet Key Accountabilities.doc
Need help with approaching the conversation - check out these guidelines: Initiating Feedback Conversations or this article: Learn to Be Constructively Critical
Here is an example of a appraisal form your organization can adopt to ensure all employees are getting relevant feedback on an ongoing basis: Performance Appraisal Form
Don't shy away from this responsibility! In addition to the growth and alignment of the great employees you have, this is an opportunity to evaluate where you are settling for mediocrity and take the required steps to move employees who are not performing up to standards out of your organization.
What do you find are some of the best practices? As a leader are you making the time to invest in your people on a routine basis?
To be successful in today's market and build competitive advantage for the future, business leaders need to leverage every asset they have. This means business leaders must be aware of their own strengths, capabilities and passions, as well as the strengths and capabilities of their employees. Once you are aware of these assets, successful business leaders arrange the roles and responsibilities of the organization to make the most of them.
A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis is an important tool in this process. SWOTs can be completed on many levels: you can do a SWOT on your business, your team, yourself, or your employees. A personal SWOT includes reflection on these questions:
- What activities do you do well/excel at?
- What relevant knowledge, experience or natural capability do you bring to your role?
- What are your personality strengths?
- What activities do you have a passion for?
- What do others see as your strengths?
- Which strengths are req'd for success in your role?
All leaders should complete a Personal SWOT and design their own role to play off those strengths and passions. Of course this means, that you then have to find people who possess strengths and capacities you don't have and surround yourself with them!
When we work with business leaders, completing a personal SWOT is one of the first things we collaborate on. Click here to download our template: Personal SWOT. Our Leadership Style report serves as great input for the SWOT as it provides a 23 page comprehensive report of your natural behaviors, values and attributes. You can learn more and request your report by clicking: -Free Leadership Style Report
Remember: Leaders are learners! We all need to be self aware, continuously improving and modeling the way for our teams to do the same.
Related content:
Developing Key Accountabilities
Jim Collins - Hedghog Concept
Smart, effective leaders share a common trait: the desire and ability to learn new things. To be successful in the future, and build organizations that are able to respond to continuous change, learning is a performance essential.
Business leaders need to be able to quickly learn new concepts, adopt them, and put them into practice within their organization. They also must ensure their employees are always learning.
Learning is a team sport, and winning means using the knowledge you and your team accumulate to gain competitive advantage, build a sustainable organization and achieve your vision. Here are three reasons why:
1. Effective learning requires reciprocity - interaction with others.
Every so often I meet a business owner who tells me that they don't need a peer advisory board because they read books. Now don't get me wrong... I love books, and blogs and all sorts of other content that I can get my hands on. But reading books on your own, pales in comparison to the effectiveness of reading something and then having an interactive conversation with peers to delve more deeply into the subject, how it might be relevant to your situation, and what action you can take. The act of interacting with others is called reciprocity and is a fundamental of learning. It is part of our biology since we are inherently social beings.
I am a big fan of online universities. One of the reasons they are effective is because interaction is built into the design of the course. Meetings with study groups, 1-1 conversations with peers and other similar techniques are very effective for learning. Even though the interaction is virtual, it can be more effective than the stale semi-comatose interaction we have all experienced of sitting in a room with a talking head, and not participating at all.
Online learning can be economical and effective. Just make sure your team has an opportunity to interact and continue conversations about what they've learned after watching the information. I work with teams who have unbelievable access to online content, but no one takes advantage of the courses. Make it a team event: set a time, buy pizza, watch it together, and stimulate some conversation afterward. The rewards will be tenfold.
2. Effective learning requires commitment, discipline and a game plan.
Learning is not a casual pursuit. There is a cost for learning, even if the content is free. Effective learning requires a conscious commitment to use time and resources to gain new capacities. Much like the need to practice before a game, you need to learn before you need to use the knowledge. That means you always need to be thinking ahead about the new practices and capacities you will need in the future. Then you need the discipline to devote time to the learning, even when a dozen urgent things are pulling at you.
3. Until you can put what you learned into action, you have not learned it sufficiently.
Effective learning is defined by gaining a new capacity to do something. In business, the new capacity must be relevant. Just understanding something doesn't cut it....reading about golf or Tiger Woods does not mean you can golf. Understanding is an important but preliminary step on the path to gaining new capacity. Practicing the new behavior, process or practice is essential for learning. Again, this requires others: colleagues, customers, coaches, mentors etc.
"Anything that we have to learn to do, we learn by the actual doing of it" Aristotle
If you are a business owner or business leader, make a commitment to your own learning. Find colleagues, peers advisory groups like TAB, teachers, mentors or coaches to work with. Then commit to building an organization that is always learning. Call us if you want someone to reciprocate with, we'll be glad to have a conversation with you about building effective and always learning organizations!
CARPE MANANA...
Seize Tomorrow!
On my Sunday bike ride along the boardwalk this morning, I ran into an exceptional array of religious diversity. Some Jewish people out for a stroll in Bradley Beach, an open air Methodist service on the boardwalk in Ocean Grove, some people wearing all white returning from the sea where one of them had just been baptized. In Asbury Park I came across an older gentleman wearing an "I Love Jesus" baseball cap and a Mennonite family on the playground. I have had that experience before on Sunday mornings on the boardwalk stretch from Belmar to Asbury Park, and it always makes me appreciate the diverse area I live in. The ocean calls people of all faiths to the boardwalk for reflection, celebration and community.
I kept thinking about diversity as I pedaled home. Building a strong team requires diversity. As a leader, if you assemble a group of people with similar cultural backgrounds, similar talents and similar communication styles your organization will be shallow, and unable to compete in a rapidly changing and global marketplace. Smart leaders embrace diversity because it makes their organizations stronger, more capable and more effective. Innovation comes from the ability to look at problems from diverse perspectives.
To build the capacity to act effectively, leaders must design and build the following types of diversity into their teams and organizations:
Diverse cultural backgrounds so that your organization understands and can coordinate, cooperate and transact with a wide array of suppliers, customers and employees.
Diverse talents so that individual strengths overlap and make weaknesses irrelevant (props to Pete Drucker for that thought - it is one of my favorites, although not an exact quote:)
Diverse working styles that complement each other: assertive people, patient people, people that lead, people more comfortable following, steady people, people who love change, analytical people, people who honor the rules and traditions, people who say "break the rules" when they no longer make sense, and so on...
If you are a corporate leader, you may have more diversity training than you can handle, and the real meaning and purpose of why diversity is important may sometimes get lost.
If you are a small business owner, you may not have the benefit of human resource professionals that can help you build strategies for diversity.
In either case, take some time to reflect on the organization you lead. Where can you benefit from more diversity? Where are you lacking? What action steps can you take to increase the strength of your organization today?
Contact us if you are interested in learning more about building strong diverse teams for the future, or want to see how diverse your current team is in terms of talents and style preferences.
J. Jantsch Free Twitter GuideI have been using Twitter for several months now. I continue to find it valuable in building and sustaining relationships with peers, customers, friends and experts in my chosen fields. Here are some of the tools that I have found useful as I incorporate tweeting into my ongoing practices. There are a plethera of tools out there, and more surfacing every day. I am not an expert in twitter, but I am known for adopting new technology so that I can improve my business and enjoy life!
Twellow http://www.twello.com - online directory of all twitter users. It is a good place to manage who you are following and who is following you. It will create a streamlined list with profiles so you can immediately see relevance without hunting or pecking through your follower list. Great search tool for finding the people that you would get value out of following. I also like the "non" mutual feature. I check it once a week: catch up on my new followers and follow back as appropriate.
Hoot Suite www.hootsuite.com- Overall management, I like best being able to rapid fire in a bunch of ideas I have for tweets and schedule them in the future. Also the shorten URL feature is very useful, as well as search. I actually do my tweeting from here...much easier to manage the RT, repiles, DMs, etc.
Tweetdeck http://tweetdeck.com/beta/ - Has lots of features, I like it most for FILTERING my listening through categories. I have all my customers in one category so that I can easily see what they have been upto without the noise of the people twittering all day long.
Virtual Assistant (VA) - a virtual assistant is invaluable in managing the logistics of social media and all sorts of other activities. If you don't have one yet, this is a great time to start. Click here to learn more: http://yourextrahand.com/what-is-a-virtual-assistant/
For more see free mini guide from John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing: twitter for business