Why the Right Attitude Builds Super Teams

Today we have a guest blog from Earl Bell:

Building a super team in the workplace (compared to a very average team) comes down to having (or not having): (1) talented employees with (2) the right attitude.  Both characteristics are important but I’ll take the right attitude over talent any day.  The right attitude builds super teams!

To use a metaphor that goes back to the day of coaching select players on super-teams in the world of youth baseball, we had the best team strengthening conversations after each practice and game.  They usually lasted less than 10 minutes but I believe them to be most important 10 minutes we could ever spend as a team.   By the way, these players and teams later competed in Cooperstown, NY and the Little League World Series.

Our format was always the same:  First, the players would take turns talking about what they saw another teammate do either during the practice or game that was exceptional or noteworthy.  No player was allowed to talk about themselves.  Second, each player was given opportunity to point out one thing they could have done better and will commit to, so that they can improve the next time…

So what were the outcomes of these meetings?  First, players offered personal observations about why their teammates and team were awesome.  This part of the meeting couldn’t help but pump up the team and reinforce positive behaviors.  Second, each player owned up to what they could control and do to become a better player and teammate.  This brought accountability and exposed each individual’s desire and commitment to help the team succeed at the next game or tournament competition.

The desire to compete and win, be part of a team and get better each day applies in both sports and business.  In the business world, sharing publicly when employees truly appreciate their co-workers achievements and success is extremely powerful.  Building a culture of trust where employees openly can talk about what they will do to get better creates a dynamic where the greatest fear for an employee is not letting themselves down, but instead letting their teammates down, is a powerful element of team building. 

You want employees that have the strength, persistence and desire to be a great teammate.  This job is not for everyone.  However, this is exactly what part of the job description should be for your employees, if you want to compete and win in the game of business.  What are you currently doing to create a super-team at your place of business?  What can you do in the future to improve upon what you are currently doing?  What is the value to your business in “getting it right?”  What is the cost to your business if you “get it wrong?” 

EARL BELL

EARL BELL is the author of, Winning in Baseball and Business, Transforming Little League Principles into Major League Profits for Your Company, which provides a roadmap to success for leaders that desire to build thriving companies in a very competitive 21^stcentury business environment.  Earl believes that “everything you need to know about business, leadership and team building can be learned from Little League baseball.”

Earl conducts workshops, coaches and consults with owners, business leaders and their teams, teaching them how to dramatically reduce the time it takes to improve profitability, customer experience, employee engagement and company value, while simultaneously increasing discretionary time and reducing both stress/employee burnout.  He believes the secret to winning in baseball, business and life can be summarized in a simple formula:  Winning = Service + Humility. His motto is that Winning in Business is a Team Sport!

Earl has served in the Chief Financial Officer role for numerous companies throughout North America. His personal passion is youth sports and he has coached 28 teams since 2002.  Earl is a CPA, graduated from SU (Seattle University) with a BA in Accounting and from the MILL (Mercer Island Little League) with a Master’s in Youth Baseball.

Earl Bell can be reached at  earl@earlbell.com and 206-420-5946

What’s so hard about getting people excited - Working on vision

I just finished a short book by Bob Rotella, Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, which may be the best business book I read in the last three years.  Dr. Rotella is a sports psychologist who has worked with some of the top professional golfers and some of the top sports figures too.  Every important point made in this short book is applicable to running a business and, I might add, improving your life. 

Today, let’s just take one of those points... working on vision.  Many of the Executives I work with have a hard time with vision.  It is too soft for them and I often hear them complain about working on vision as something that business professors think is important and its just not what real business is about. 

Rotella presents vision in a simple direct and accessible way.  Essentially, he is saying, you need to be specific about what you want to create (in business, vision is about creating something that does not yet exist).  The more specific you can get, the more likely you will hit your target.  His second point is that you must find a way to viscerally feel the steps that will accomplish the vision. 

Rotella urges golfers to see exactly where the ball is going to end up, be able to watch (in your head) the flight path of the ball.  He then provides a couple of anecdotes about how to bring in other senses to add to the concreteness of what you feel. 

He mentions a renowned player who tells Rotella about the player’s method for staying loose and focused: First, choose the club you want, shrug your shoulders to loosen your muscles and then imagine/feel the time when you hit that club the best you ever hit it (all of us who golf know that time when we hit an effortless, smooth and magical shot with a certain club). 

So, working on your business vision, can you see, feel, taste and hear the vision you want to create?  Are you able to make it specific, the more specific the better? 

Now here is something that Rotella does not address (after all, golf is a one person game, rather than a team effort):  Are you able to communicate that vision to a variety of people in a way that communicates the feelings and magic about your vision? Are others around you excited by what you want to create?  If not, why not? How do you create this kind of excitement?

The earlier you are in your company’s development, the more likely you have people around you who believe in you and/or your vision.  Ask them to answer a few questions:  First, is it you or your vision that creates excitement?  If its not your vision, ask them how big the vision is?  What would make it bigger?  What would make it more specific?  How would their life be different if the vision came to pass?  What would they need to see/feel/hear/taste/smell for the vision to be really visceral/specific?  Now you can begin to work on your vision and get further feedback as you go. Have fun.  

Your Role as Chief Communication Officer: How do you rate yourself?

Today we have a guest blog from Lauren Owen:

External Communication

If you are like most leaders, you probably have a high standard for all of your company’s external client communications. Your standards might look like these:

• We respond ASAP to a client email or phone call.
• We regularly update our clients and customers with company news.
• The customer is always right! Or, at least deserving of very patient listening to his or her point of view, followed by a thoughtful response.
• We take their suggestions seriously, acknowledge them and let them know how and when they will be incorporated, or if not, why.

Internal Communication

But what about your internal communication?  If you are completely honest, you will admit that most likely there is a discrepancy between how you communicate with your clients and how you communicate with your co-workers. For example,

• Do you have the same response standards for internal emails and phone calls?
• Do you inform them of company news? Ask them for feedback? Let them know if and how you used their suggestions?
• How often is communicating with employees pushed off to the bottom of our lists, especially when you get busy or stressed?

Jim Hessler, author of Land on Your Feet, Not On Your Face: Building Your Leadership Platform, titles this leadership role: Chief Communication Officer, or CCO. Jim notes that as a leader, you set the tone and quality standards for the rest of our company. While it’s hard to measure the costs resulting from this disparity between internal and external communication standards, here’s an example of some compelling positive ramifications when one leader decided to take his role of Chief Communication Officer seriously.

One Leader’s Story

Richard Brown, General Manager of The Box Maker, headquartered in Kent, Washington, was frustrated about his inability to effectively reach his employees, who are scattered throughout two states in seven different locations.  Working with producer Lucas Mack at 4^th Ave Media, he launched a weekly internal video newsletter, Inside the Box, to spread news and information, share coworker success stories, and keep his people up-to-date on the latest happenings at the company. The results?  After just two months and twelve episodes, he notes that:

• Productivity and innovative ideas coming from employees are up significantly
• Turnover and absenteeism are both down throughout the organization; and to his immense delight,
• “For the first time I can walk through one of my plants and people actually come up to talk to me instead of avoiding me.”

Click here to view a sample of Richard’s Inside the Box video newsletter.

Call to Action:

So, how are you doing as your company’s Chief Communication Officer?

How would your employees rate you as CCO?

What’s the one thing you could put into place in the next 30 days that would have the biggest impact on your communication effectiveness?

What is the impact of doing nothing?

LAUREN OWEN:

Lauren Owen, Redpoint Succession and Leadership Coaching

Lauren works with businesses leaders who want to develop and execute succession plans, sharpen their business practices, strengthen their leadership, and create long-lasting value in their businesses. She is a certified Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Leadership Coach. She is also a leader of the Excell Puget Sound Southend Group.

(206) 427-2856, (253) 245.3518

lauren@redpointcoaching.com

www.redpointcoaching.com

Take Advantage of the Dog Days of Summer (& Beat Your Competitors in the Fall)

Today we have a guest blog from Elizabeth Andreini:

August is generally a quiet time for business; many people’s thoughts turn to vacation and it might seem that half the people you want to contact are either getting ready to go on vacation, or already on vacation (even if they haven’t yet left the office). Several companies I’ve talked with recently have been thinking about making changes in the markets they serve. My advice, which I share with you, is this can be an ideal time to reach out and have a different type of conversation with customers and prospects to gather information to make strategic decisions on markets and products.

Maybe your business feels less focused than you would like it to be because there are so many possibilities that you aren’t sure you are focusing enough? Or have you felt that your market traction may not be as strong as it should be and wonder about the size of the market? Are there are other markets you could be expanding into, but aren’t sure where to expand for maximum results?

No matter the question, this is the ideal time when everyone’s pace is a little slower to have some deeper, more meaningful conversations.  Take a few minutes and create a list of questions you would like to research. Ask customers and key prospects for a few minutes of time over the phone, or if they are nearby offer to meet for an (iced) coffee. Interview customers and recent prospects or others who are thought leaders, listen to them talk about their problems and needs as well as wants. Analyze market segments to pursue (including the one you are currently in) and validate that problems are urgent and pervasive to know that target segments will support both current and future business.

You might be surprised at the insights you gather and the connections you make during this research process. Taking this time during the summer doldrums and you will be ready to create a plan that will help you as you come into the more active fall and winter periods – and help prepare you for an even stronger and more profitable 2015!

Consider these questions when doing your research:

1. What are some of your biggest challenges?
2. What are the biggest advantages you gain when you use our products and services?
3.  What products or services do you wish we had that we don’t?
4. If we were considering offering “test product/service” what advice would you offer us on which markets to pursue?
5. What trends are you seeing that our company should be aware of?

ELIZABETH ANDREINI

As the President of Accelerate Marketing, LLC, Elizabeth Andreini, is the “secret

weapon” CEOs turn to at key growth points when they need to transform marketing and

product management to grow their customer base, increase revenue & scale their

business. In addition to providing experienced executive insight and guidance, Elizabeth

often works as an interim CMO or VP to provide the hands-on leadership needed to

rearchitect marketing and product management and improve execution from the inside.

Elizabeth Andreini, founder & president of Accelerate Marketing, LLC 

206-769-3420 or elizabeth@accelerate-marketing.com

www.accelerate-marketing.com

Twitter: @acceler8mkting

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethandreini

Adding Value to Your Company

Too often, business owners and executives with whom I work, are focused solely on increasing their sales.  To do so puts your company and its value in jeopardy.  Not every customer is a good customer.  

I often turn our conversations from sales to how they can add value to their company.  Adding value to your company should be a part of your “think time”.  So, first make sure you are creating and using blocks of time to figure out strategically where you are going and then make sure you look at how you will:

• Drive Performance
• Protect yourself
• Make yourself obsolete

If you are already driving performance with Key Performance Indicators and other non-financial leading measurement tools, terrific!  Now figure our how you will perfect yourself.  Insurance is the tip of this iceberg.  Be sure to focus on getting the right structure and figure out your continuity plan.  Then, make sure that you look at your own strengths. 

Are you the only one in your company who can provide the value that you provide?  If so, what will you do if you are suddenly unable to perform, like you are taken away in a red truck! 

At the end of this month, Excell, along with other key players in the business community, are hosting over 60 CEO’s and their partners…. business partners and life partners.  We will all go to a resort, take a weekend to tackle these questions, share best practices and have some fun. 

Each year we sponsor a weekend like this because we believe it is important to have think time.  We think it is important to mix think time with executing on skills.  We think that sharing and networking, in the right environment, produces real value.  Not least and not last, we think fun should be involved.

How do you get your think time?  What is it you do to make sure this time is productive?  How disciplined are you in making this happen regularly and making it work for you?  

DOING THINGS FOR THE FIRST TIME, LIKE YOUR BUSINESS PLAN

Today, let’s talk about doing something for the first time.  Whether it is a sport, or doing a business plan, the first few times most of us do something, we are cautious... too cautious.  Why, because we have to think too much while we are doing the sport or business plan.  Thinking is a slow and often over-rated process. 

So, let’s take doing that business plan for the first time.  There are over achievers out there who want to produce a fifty page plan, after ultimate research.  What usually happens? It is studied to death.  No one steps up and owns it.  It sits on the shelf. 

The ExcellPugetSound lesson here is the first time you do something, like a business plan, start small and learn from doing.  Then go do it again. 

The secret about business plans and much of what we learn is that the learning is from trying it and seeing what you can improve upon the next time.  With business owners who have never done a plan (this includes one business at over $200M in sales), it is important to put a stake in the ground and then communicate around it.  Have a plan for collecting feedback and then do it again... only the second time, think about expanding who gets involved.  After years of planning, you will end up like one company I have worked with (probably the best annual planners I know) saying that you are still learning and improving. 

There is a second reason why the first time you do something it is about caution.  I remember being on our high school’s gymnastic team (perhaps mascot would have been a better position).  We had some really outstanding athletes and had been state champs two years running.  At the state meet that year, one of our teammates was introduced over the loudspeaker system as attempting a dismount that had never been done in a high school meet.  I still remember the words, “... for the first time in....”  My teammate pulled it off flawlessly. 

Why? Because it was not the first time he had ever done the dismount.  I watched him hundreds of times as he broke down the maneuver and did very small parts, perfecting them, and then put those together. 

What the audience at the state meet did not see is first time caution because the move had been practiced and repeated.  What many of my teammates had not experienced was all the planning that this guy did.  On the way home from school (nine months before the state meet) he talked (I was the audience) about what it would take to learn and then be ready to do this move at the state meet. 

By the time he made it to state, he had muscle memory and nine months of steadily improving results.  Now go out there and plan for how you will take advantage of the economic recovery. 

How’s Your GPS?

Today we have a guest blog from Dan Weedin:

A few weeks ago, I was driving home with my daughter on the last leg of a week-long, cross-country trip that took us 3,004 miles from her doorstep in Steubenville, OH to our doorstep in Poulsbo, WA. She was coming back home after a 7-year “tour” that resulted in a Masters degree and a job back home. We had used her GPS throughout the trip to guide us to our next destination. I turned it on this last leg home, even though I knew the way because I always like to feel this is my final “destination.”

I was getting frustrated with the GPS as she kept telling me to take an alternate route home. I couldn’t understand it.  After all, I knew where I was going. Heck, I’d driven this stretch of highway a gazillion times.  Why would this electronic device try to take me off my own course?  In jest, I kept telling her that I was simply going to ignore her and go my own way. She had the last laugh.

Turns out the GPS had a built-in sensor for traffic. She was trying to help me avoid a huge traffic jam being caused by the start of a 3-day Independence Day weekend on the Interstate. By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late and I was stuck.

How often does that happen to us?

We think our way is the right way because we’ve done it before; we can do it best by ourselves; we don’t need any help…we’re smart. Just like I laughed off the good advice from the GPS, we also often disregard opportunities to really rapidly advance our careers and improve our lives when we don’t seek help.

Do yourself a huge favor. Find some smart GPS to guide you “home.” Executive coaches and mentors often sense those “traffic jams” that lay in wait ahead of you and can divert you to roads that lead to faster and more effective destinations. You ignore them at your own peril. I wish I had been more humble with that GPS…I would have been home faster.

Are you humble and smart enough to take the right road for your success?

Dan Weedin

Dan Weedin helps turn his clients business risk into rewards. He is able to take the abstract concepts of risk and crisis management to help business owners prepare and respond more effectively and with less time and cost to crisis. Since he doesn’t work for an insurance company or agency, he is able to act as an unbiased advocate for his clients. You can lear ore about Dan and how he can help your business on his web site at www.DanWeedin.com.