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Avoid these 3 business failures

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by Patty Azzarello

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Awhile back I wrote a post about Debate Phase vs. Go Phase.

These labels help timid people raise issues when it’s helpful (Debate Phase) and then keep everyone focused on execution vs. talking more, when it is time to go. (Go Phase).

I got some questions about what to do when people undermine Go Phase with passive aggressive behaviors, when they continue to debate behind the scenes, expecting or trying to get the Debate Phase to re-open.

Let people know you are serious

The basic remedy here is that you need to let people know you are serious about the new work in GO phase.

The natural habit of an organization is not to change. People will always go back to what they were doing before if you are not explicit about making the change stick.

Behaviors don’t change for 2 key reasons

1. Dissenters. Passive aggressive people really don’t agree, and they are trying to do something different on purpose.

2. Reality strikes back. People with the right intentions cave when the reactive pressures of the day re-assert themselves, and they get nervous about doing something different or strategic.

As soon as the first person jumps ship and goes back to the old way of doing things, then others will think, “oh I guess we are not doing this new thing any more and I better get back to reacting to the emergencies like before, because that is what is valued. I believe this to be true because I can see people acting the old way, and I haven’t heard about the new thing in awhile”.

I recommend these strategies to my clients to avoid 3 common failures to predictable, on-time execution and to make change stick.

1. Track Progress Better

Have someone help you track progress.

Do you find yourself communicating strategy, assigning work and owners, and then absolutely hating doing the follow-up to keep checking in with everyone to see if things are on track? Or just being too busy with customers and other things to do a good job at this. When I was a CEO and GM, I know I struggled.

I was lucky early in my career to have someone on my team who was great at this. I assigned the work. He wrote it all down, he made sure I didn’t fail to assign specific owners or dates. Then he relentlessly followed up with everyone involved, and created tracking reports for how we were doing on finishing the things we committed to.

If you are not doing a good job tracking progress you will fail to execute.

If you are not good at this yourself, get someone on your staff to do this for you, or you will never get the important things done. I had a person on my staff to do this for me for the next 15 years of my career once I learned this lesson. I would have failed without it.

2. Communicate More

Have someone help you communicate.

Once you make your decisions and you are in GO phase, communicate a lot. Communicate more than you ever thought you could. Get bored to death with your message.

Talk about key initiatives in every communication, in every meeting, in every 1-1 discussion. Make sure that when people see you coming, they know you are going to want to hear about the key initiatives that are in GO phase.

If you are not communicating regularly, you will fail to execute.

If you are not in the habit of communicating regularly, or other things keep you too busy to focus on it, get someone to help you do this.
Have them put you on a schedule for email and group meetings.

Have them write up a straw-man of the communication. Have it include milestones and great examples of how people supported the new strategy, and questions for you to answer about what people are confused or concerned about.

Don’t ever go more than 1-month without revisiting and communicating your progress on key initiatives with everyone involved.

3. Set a good example

Don’t let sloppy behaviors get in the way

I have seen leaders who say they are serious about execution, that it’s the most important thing to them, but then they are late to their own staff meetings. Or they let missed deadlines come an go and never mention it or deal with it.

If you want your organization to be good at executing, you to set a good example for the quality of execution you expect with your own behaviors. And you need to hold people accountable when things don’t get done.

If you have people helping you track and communicate, it’s just a matter of your following through. (but you still have to be on time for meetings!)
What do you think?

What has delayed execution in your organization and what have you done about it?
Share your thoughts by leaving a comment!

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Patty Azzarello is an executive, author, speaker and CEO-advior. She works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. Patty has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello. Also, check out her new book Rise…

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You Want Me To Write About What?!

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 By Jael Strong

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With today’s economy, it isn’t uncommon to hear people say, “I’ll take whatever job I can get!”  Let me say right from the start, that is not my attitude.  But still, the logic is sound.  We need money.  We provide a service.  We don’t have to like it, we just have to write about it.  In the end though, when you will write anything for a buck, it can start to feel a bit like literary prostitution.

There are many reasons why a person might not feel inclined to write about a certain topic.  A certain theme may clash with an individuals world view or moral code.  The topic may completely fall out of a writer’s realm of expertise.  Then there are those subjects that we find plain boring. 

If you are blogging strictly for yourself, even if money is an issue, the solution is simple:  Don’t write about anything that you do not feel inclined to write about.  If you are fairly good with public relations though you might get the drift that your readers want you to address a particular subject.  In that case you have a choice:  Please the readers or please yourself.  In the instance of blogging for an outside entity the choice is very similar, but there are the added strings of increased visibility and possible financial remuneration at stake.

So, how can you make a less than savory writing assignment more palatable?  If you feel less than qualified to write on a certain subject, but you don’t want to pass on a blogging opportunity, do some research.  Of course, most of us are not in the position to spend countless hours researching for a relatively small writing assignment. So, set the timer and do some digging for a set period of time.  In the end, you may discover that you know more than you did on the topic.  You may also discover that with a bit more effort, you could speak with a degree of authority on the topic.

This technique can also help you if you are simply not interested in the topic at issue.  It may be that you know just enough about the subject to hate it.  After a bit of research, you may actually find it intriguing.  

In the end, you may choose to pass on the assignment, but if your aching for visibility or  a little extra cash, don’t casually pass over potential.  If you love writing, you can put your added panache to any subject and make it come alive for yourself and for your readers.  

 
Jael Strong writes for TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility.  She has written both fiction and non-fiction pieces for print and online publications.  She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas .

Thanks, Jael

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Get Your Leadership ON … Before You Get Folks “on the Bus”

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10-Point Plan: Building a Team

Bringing Irresistible High Performers Into Your Brand

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Whether you’re a solopreneur in Ladd, Illinois or a C-suite executive at a Fortune 100 corporation, leadership — building a business — means you aren’t doing what you’re doing alone. It’s tried, true, and almost tired wisdom that getting the right folks on the bus is the first step in the process of building a great business. Every advocate of Jim Collins knows that you need the right team to take a business from good to great.

Seems simple. Enlist a great team and win.

Yet when the time comes to get other folks to board the bus, we can so get busy filling seats, much that we could consider about who joins us is left back on the curb long after the bus has already taken off.

In a strange way, we sometimes don’t let our leadership kick in fully until we see a team in front of us and at best that’s a little late. You see at the moment we need someone to help with our business, our brand, or our quest, we often get focused on the task we need with and lose sight of the person who will be doing the task.

Here’s how the process often works.

  • We have a job that needs doing. Someone has left the team or the business is growing and it’s time to add another someone to the group.
  • We determine the nature and scope of the tasks, the level of work, and the skills and time required to fill that gap.
  • We find an old job description. We edit that to construct a new one.
  • We share that new job notice with people who know great people and in places where appropriate candidates will see it and respond. Then we review submissions for experience and expertise.
  • We invite people to interview for the position and select the candidate we feel most likely to be qualified, committed to the work, and a good fit for the team.

Yet, a few months later we often find that we have a whiner, slacker, complainer, an under-performer, or a person who’s personality doesn’t fit the work or the people with whom that person regularly interacts. .

Somewhere between process and performance we’ve left a leadership gap.

Get Your Leadership On … Before You Build the Team

When I worked in publishing, I watched and worried over the variation in performance in freelancers and employees and from employee to employee. With some serious thinking and calculated tweaking, I found the process by which a person was enlisted could get the right people to stay with it to “get on the bus” and the bad fits to decide to pass on that opportunity. What it took was a willingness to go a little deeper – and to leave the “driver’s seat.”

It starts by shifting priorities from those of a boss or a manager to those of a leader building a team.

  • A great boss hires great employees who can get the work done.
  • A manager enlists great people who have the individual expertise and team skills to execute collaborative projects to successful outcome.
  • A leader attracts and chooses other great leaders who have the abilities, motivation, and complementary skills to become a team that can build something outstanding and lasting that no single member could build alone.

A leader spends more reflection on what’s missing and what’s needed to fill out the team — focusing strategically on a longer view and stronger growth rather than on the tactical response to a present need. A leader sets the standards higher. Leaders expand the thinking from not just what we need — someone to do a job — to what will attract true leaders who will grow with the company and even more than that fill in the gaps of the team.

With our leadership ON our priority becomes “all good people” to build the strongest team possible. And we apply that standard to every role that interacts with our team — employee, volunteer, vendor, partner, customer, friend. The key to “all good people” is to develop a process that attracts the kind of people we want and is such that the people who don’t want to be outstanding employees and volunteers just don’t come.

As I describe this leadership matrix, you’ll see how the process can do just that for you.

The Leadership Matrix for Choosing Outstanding Employees and Volunteers

Strauss Leadership Matriix for Choosing Winning Employees and Volunteers
Strauss Leadership Matriix for Choosing Winning Employees and Volunteers

Here’s how the process changes when we have our leadership on before we build the team:

  • We have a job that needs doing. Someone has left the team or the business is growing and it’s time to add another someone to the group.
  • Not just the job. We analyze the situation, conditions, and opportunities. We look first at the people currently doing those tasks. We ask those people what they could be doing more of and should be doing less of in order to be bringing their best game to the business.
  • Not just the expertise. We look for the expertise to that’s missing from the team. Some of what the current team could be doing less of to perform higher are tasks that they’ve outgrown. Some of what they could be doing less of are skills that aren’t their strengths. If we build a job description to the team, rather to the immediate set of tasks, we’ll gain new skill sets that aren’t currently available. For example, if the team is great at people skills, but weak on data skills, we can look for someone who also brings that.
  • We share that new job notice with people who know great people and in places where appropriate candidates will see it and respond.
  • Not just the desire or potential. We build a short-answer values and potential survey rather than a submission form. Each question might allow only 100 words. The questions might be …
    • What led you to apply for this position?
    • How do your values align with the values of our business?
    • How do you see your contribution in helping the business grow?
    • What in your life or work experience proves to you that we’d be successful working together?
    • How would you describe the optimal working relationship we might have now and moving forward?
  • We invite people to interview for the position and select the candidate we feel most likely to be qualified, committed to the work, and a good fit for the team.
  • During the interview, we introduce the candidate to the business, to members of the team, and to the employee or volunteer who last joined the business.
  • Not just a fit. We ask the newest employee or volunteer to assign the candidate a small task. The task might be writing a blog post or a proposal for a new idea. The task is chosen to fit the skills needed by the team. The newest team member is asked to give the candidate this slightly ambiguous guidance.
    • This is not a test. It’s so that we have something of a project nature to talk about.
    • It’s not expected that it will be a final, executable idea.
    • When you (the candidate) are ready, please call to set up a meeting to discuss what you bring.
  • Not just leadership. The candidates who set up meetings show up with a project and ready to share their thinking. . The meetings allow you and the team to discuss how the candidate makes decisions and what he or she valued in developing the meeting project.

The task sorts the candidates with leadership qualities, initiative, and motivation. Those who set up a return date are the ones can deal with ambiguity and have the ego strength to bring their ideas with clients and colleagues with confidence. The people who don’t want to invest or risk in that way sort themselves out of the process.

The meeting itself allows everyone — candidate and the team — to try on the fit and by discussing “real work.” The team can see the candidate’s ability to trust in him- or herself, the work, and the group comes out. The candidate can experience how the team discusses ideas and relates to each other as a group.

I used this process for 18+ years and only once did a candidate make who set up the meeting turn out to be one who didn’t belong on the bus. All of the others were high-performers who fit the team.

How do you get your leadership ON before you build a team?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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What Do You Get from the Pizza Party at My Dad’s Saloon?

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At What Price?

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Near the end of my freshman year in college, we found out that my boyfriend’s fraternity brother — a guy I knew — was getting married. What was amazing, interesting, exciting was that he was getting married in the town of about 20,000 people where I grew up. The wedding would take place on a Saturday that summer. They college kids I knew would be staying for the weekend to party and enjoy each other’s company right now the street from my dad’s saloon.

My dad was a quiet and generous man who had the wonderful idea that the sun rose and set on my head. He was for almost anything that could bring a smile to me. So when I asked if some of the college folks could come to his saloon that Sunday afternoon for pizza and conversation, his answer was a smile of we can’t have them leaving town hungry. His words were “how many and what time?”

And as it turned out that my estimate of 10-20 and 2 hours for a pizza reunion became something more like 40-60 and 5 hours of talking. Pizza and fried chicken, beer and soda and other beverages were non-stop for the entire time. The whole while, I got to introduce college friends to my dad as sort of held court and sort of worked the bar.

Near the end of the afternoon, I noticed one friend looking a little nervous.
I asked, “How might I help?”
He said, “I’d like to talk with your dad.”
“Easy!”

I introduced my friend to my dad. They shook hands.
Then my friend said, “I’d like to pay the bill. Could you tell me what we owe for all of this?”

My dad smiled and nodded. He washed a glass or two and set them on the bar. before he reached out for a small white pad of paper and a tiny orange pencil with no eraser. He began writing, figuring on the pad that was enveloped in his huge hands. He looked up and surveyed the room, then wrote something down. I bet he did that survey five or six times without saying a word, without even a question in his eyes or looking at me.

My nervous friend waited patiently with his wallet out.
I could tell he was wondering whether their would be room on his credit card.

About then, my dad stepped back held the white pad out about arm’s length as if he were doing the math in his head — which could well be. Then he stepped forward again, tore off the slip on paper on which he’d been figuring, and set it in front of my nervous friend.

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My dad said, “I’ve been over this twice, and as far as I can figure this is what you owe — no tipping on Sunday.”

The piece of paper read ” $1.50″ — 40-60 people and 5 hours of beer and beverages — one dollar and 50 cents.

“Hope you don’t mind if I rounded it up. We don’t keep pennies in the register.”

I learned a lot watching that sale.

What do you take from this story? Do you see something worth remembering that I might not see?

Be irresistible … like my dad.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Too Forgiving? You Aren’t Doing Your Staff or Yourself a Favor

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A Guest Post by
Rahil Muzafar

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Clarity Can Be Kind

Not very long ago, I used to work in an advertising agency, as the supervisor of a team of content and copywriters. We were a small advertising firm that catered to even smaller businesses. My department was responsible for writing copy for both online and offline ads, churning out blog posts for our corporate blog, and occasionally writing press releases. The overall workload was quite manageable and the procedure fairly simple … products and clients’ requirements were allocated to different writers, they’d write a copy and forward it to me. I’d take a look, make necessary changes and send the work to the concerned department. Being the supervisor, I was in charge of proofreading before the content was finalized and processed.

Now, some writers I had were quite a misfit (and I am trying to be polite when I say “misfit”). Some of them were not even recruited as the writers; instead they had been drafted from other departments because they had demonstrated a good comprehension of English grammar. That wasn’t my decision of course, because for me, English comprehension comes at the very end of the list of requisites for the job of copywriting. Common sense and creativity is what I’d like to see in a writer by default, since neither common sense nor the creativity can be taught, oh and good research skills are a plus.

Anyway, going back to our story …

the copy these writers produced mostly ended up as some desperate attempts to be creative, and the worse part is, these attempts fell flat nine times out of ten. The copy hardly made any sense and most were far off the mark.

I never told them in clear words that what they should be looking for another career because creative writing is beyond their ken. But because I didn’t have much to do (and also because I couldn’t think of a polite way to show them the door) I would rewrite their entire work in the name of reviewing. Note that I m not trying to brag about my instant copywriting skills, the thing is that most of our clients were small sized businesses operating in the local market, so they were not looking for the extraordinary, therefore it was pretty easy for me to transform the wayward into something of quality.

Occasionally, I’d call one of the writers to say he or she had failed to write anything sensible, following the information with a motivational speech encouraging the writer to pull out all stops to improve. I wanted to give them some time to learn (even though my acumen kept telling me that they didn’t have the “thing” needed for this job).

Months went by, and it turned out that I was right, none showed any considerable improvement, the nonsense-ness in their written pieces was as obvious as the first day, and there was hardly an instance when I didn’t follow reading their copies with a frown.

Then, it got a little ugly. Owing to the worsening business conditions; the company (and its staff) was pushed out of its comfort zone. After an aggressive marketing campaign, and a stream of new clients, we found ourselves in the middle of a hell lot more work, and tougher deadlines. It didn’t take long before my customary frowns turned into ferocious hair-pullings. More clients and more work meant that I didn’t have the kind of time for working on their substandard copy to meet requirements. Occasional call-ups turned into frequent warnings. Fast forward a few months, and one by one, most of them had been drafted back to their old departments or discharged from their duties.

Only a couple of them survived and even then, they seemed totally out of place whenever we were brainstorming new ideas to work on.

That was my first challenge as a manager, and I learned one very important lesson, which has helped me later on my entrepreneurial ventures, and that’s … being too lenient or too forgiving to your staff/workers/employees is actually a disfavor to your company, to you, to other workers, and to them.

That doesn’t mean you should go on a sacking spree as soon as you feel some of your staff is not up to the scratch, but being too lenient will eventually have following consequences.

The company suffers:

Being the owner (or the manager) you must make sure that the organization or your department is performing at the optimum level, and that the business is utilizing the available resources in the most efficient manner. Therefore, even when the business is doing exceedingly well, doesn’t mean that you should start accommodating some incompetent workers, if you are keen to help out some needy persons, there are other ways of doing that.

Generally speaking, an incompetent person’s gain is a competent person’s loss. If you are feeling remorse when sacking an incompetent worker because the job market is saturated, remember that out there, in the market, there might be a qualified person sitting jobless and waiting desperately for an opportunity.

You suffer:

Being an entrepreneur, all your efforts, plans, and strategies will miss the target if you’ve got weak links working at any position. Besides, it will create enormous pressure when you have to watch over each and everything because you cannot trust your workers.

Other employees suffer:

When a department or a team consists of some inept members, the entire department has to put up with their lack of ability and clumsiness. And that’s not all, slowly but surely, it will start transmitting a demoralizing effect on the entire workforce.

Even they are going to suffer:

It’s far better to be honest with your employees as compared to being unnecessarily nice. If some of your workers are going amiss, let them know that they are not good enough. Otherwise, the sudden sacking will be even more devastating.

Give up being too forgiving and get better at matching people to what they do well instead.

Rahil Muzafar

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This post was contributed by Rahil, but these tips are not the only thing that he can offer. You may find coupon for norton and go daddy voucher at his website.

Thanks! Rahil!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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