Mastering business growth
October 1, 2009 by janet · Leave a Comment
Trying to grow your business? In his seminal work, The E-Myth*, Michael Gerber observes that growth requires you to play multiple roles at once – the entrepreneur, the manager and the technician. But, it’s hard to be strong in all three areas at the same time without losing focus on the big picture or the attention to detail.
The technician is usually the one who gets you into business in the first place – you take the stuff you love and turn it into what you do. But, the business also requires an entrepreneur…a visionary who will dream and scheme to create new things and a manager who will create order.
In larger businesses, these roles are done by 3 separate people and there is a natural tension that exists between them that pushes the business forward. But businesses that are small in size and young in age often do not have the luxury of 3 different people to fill these roles. This means that you tend to gravitate to your favourite role, which can lead to stagnation, or active inertia (lots of activity without change), which can lead to burnout.
What’s the solution to all of this? Gerber says that if you are going to make your business your life, then make sure it’s the one you want. Here is what you need to do:
- Understand your goals and motivations: what specifically do you want to achieve and what would it mean to achieve it?
- Define your organisational strategy: what will this organisation look like when it grows?
- Define your management strategy: By what metrics will I measure the organisation? (cash flow, sales pipeline, etc)
- Define your people strategy: How will I select and motivate them?
- Define your market strategy: Who are your customers and why will they choose to do business with you over the alternatives?
- Define your systems strategy: How will the work get done? Don’t manage the business in your head. Document how things get done so that others can step into roles as you grow. Pretend it is a business that will be franchised, even if it isn’t. That will make what you do repeatable and predictable.
Sound hard? Well it is and it isn’t. The hardest part is finding the time and head space to work on the business instead of in the business. And if you want to reach your goals faster, try using some outside assistance. Read about Two Heads Business Advisory Board services here.
*Gerber, M. E., (1995). The E-Myth Revisited: why most small business don’t work and what to do about it. Harper Collins, New York, NY.
Leadership 2.0
September 9, 2009 by janet · 1 Comment
Are you ready to lead in a self-organising world? If you are responsible for leading – leading anything – things are about to change. That change will likely require you to share some of your control… just like the leaders in the stories below…
- The coach of a soccer team whose 30,000 members now decide the team line-up for games
- The bank whose only role in lending money is to match subscribing investors to borrowers
- The organiser of a conference where the attendees create the conference agenda – on the fly
- The elected official who lets the citizens vote on how stimulus funds will be shared in the community
- The US president who is attempting to change the health care system by asking the citizens
In all of these examples, it’s not the leader who has control, it’s the individuals.
So what’s causing this change? Researchers believe that it’s society moving from industrialisation to information. Command and control models of leadership were better suited to predictable, orderly structures, like machines and factories. But it’s not the machines doing the work anymore, it’s people. And, it’s not a product we are producing, it’s knowledge. And once your society relies on people to produce innovation, things get considerably more complex. Leadership 2.0 is about conversation, not control. In a world where social trust trumps power and transparency trumps regulation, Leadership 2.0 has the upper hand. And, if you are going to succeed in this new world, you may need to make some changes…
Leadership 1.0 was about planning, power, and delegation. Leadership 2.0 is about unpredictability, trust, and participation. If you and your fellow managers are not discussing how to build skills for leading like this, you may find that your customers, employees and voters are no longer following. Here is what you need to do to keep them:*
- Be clear on the vision
- Accept that you don’t control the outcome, you only control the boundaries
- Stop the blame game – spend your energy on empowerment
- Allow communication to include tension…quality of communication drives quality of result
Can you do this? Can your team? What would the marketing department say? How about the IT department? Depending on the culture of your organisation and the styles of your leaders, this can be a difficult shift to make. The leaders who are able to make the shift are those who learn to let go, who don’t feel threatened, and who are willing to accept the consequences. If you are ready to start exploring this type of change, here are some great resources to get you started:
- http://www.usnowfilm.com/ – to see film and discussion about how our online culture will change the way we lead
- www.paulmcleaymp.com to see how the MP for Heathcote is letting the community decide how to spend its stimulus dollars (due to go live 1 October).
- www.handspring.com.au/book-review-immunity-to-change/ book review for ‘Immunity to Change…a great resource for helping people and organisations move to more complex ways of thinking and dealing with the world
Thanks to the Hon Penny Sharpe MLC and the coordinators of NSWsphere (4 September, NSW Parliament House)…a 1-day conference intended to start a conversation on what these changes mean for government and how government can meet new citizen expectations. They set a great example of leadership 2.0.
*List adapted from Crawford, D., & Brungardt, D. (2000). Building the corporate revolution: real empowerment through risk leadership. College Park, MD: Academy of Leadership Press
Death by Meeting*
August 21, 2009 by janet · Leave a Comment
If your management team suffers from boring, tedious, and unproductive meetings, here is a solution. Patrick Lencioni’s book, Death by Meeting proposes a better structure and context for meetings: Stop throwing every topic needing discussion into 1 meeting (meeting stew) and instead, create 4 different meetings – each with its own important purpose and function.
- Quarterly comprehensive strategy – the opportunity to step away from the daily and weekly issues that tend to occupy most of our attention and take a holistic view of the business
- Monthly strategic – the time to review ‘parking lot’ items that have come up in weekly tactical meetings and wrestle with and decide on the critical issues.
- Weekly tactical – resolve issues, remove obstacles, and ensure everyone is on the same page
- Daily check in – wait…don’t panic! This is only 5 minutes per day and it will save you heaps on time in the rest of your day because you will coordinate schedules and cut down on email chains
I actually had the opportunity to implement this in my own organisation once, and I can say…it really worked. Some people will object with ‘it’s too many meetings’. But, as Lencioni points out, if you add up the hours your management team spends leaving voice mail, roaming the halls to clarify issues, and the lag time of staff waiting for clarity, the methodology suddenly doesn’t seem quite as overwhelming. Doing meetings right is about getting it right the first time so everyone can get on with the business at hand.
Tips for success:
- Daily: don’t sit down, keep it administrative, hold it daily, regardless of travel schedules
- Weekly: don’t set an agenda. Start with a lightning round where each manager gives an update and shares key metrics for 60 seconds. Let the group set the agenda after the lightning round, based on what is most important. Postpone strategic discussions until the monthly meeting
- Monthly strategic: Discuss, deal with and decide critical issues impacting long term success. Do research prior and engage in ‘good conflict’
- Quarterly off-site: Don’t overstructure, but don’t turn it into a boondoogle either. Consider using an outside facilitator
The book is written as a management fable, which sometimes feels a bit insulting to the intelligence. But, it’s worth persevering. We all know how frustrating and time-consuming un-productive meetings can be. I can speak from personal experience – this is a powerful tool that can make a huge difference to productivity and job satisfaction. Need help? Give me a call.
*Lencioni, P. (2004). Death by meeting. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Good people provide value regardless of the state of the economy"
October 15, 2008 by janet · Leave a Comment
That is what my friend and former colleague, Dave Antila, said when I asked him what he thought of the state of the markets. Dave is no economist. He is a computer programmer (now consultant) and, I suppose, part time philosopher.
Are you worried about the impact the economy will have on your business or your life? What are you doing about it? Reflective thinking is an important trait for anyone time to think about where you are and where you want to be and plan for things so they dont sneak up when you least expect them. But, coaching research has proven that reflection that doesnt lead to insight and action is actually counter-productive and can increase anxiety and depression. In other words, dont confuse reflection with rumination. Change your focus.
If you had more time to focus on your business or your career, what would you be doing? New products? New markets? New skills? New ways to connect to people and customers? Maybe now is the time to think about the strategic stuff.
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