How to take your business from chaos to control...

Being a business owner can sometimes be being likened to being a juggler. There are numerous functions to a business and you have to keep them all up and running systematically to enable everything to run smoothly. So as a business owner you can find yourself being:

• The Leader, setting the vision for the business and producing an action plan that moves you on a day-to-day basis towards your vision.
• The Manager, making sure the plan is implemented and holding each department within the business accountable for achieving their part in the plan.
• The Finance Director, keeping control of the numbers and ensuring that all money spent shows a good return on investment
• The Marketing Director, whose role is to ensure a constant flow or leads/enquiries into the business.
• The Sales Director, making sure the enquiries/leads are converted into customers.
• The Operations Director, seeing that the product is delivered in the right context, to the agreed quality, first time every time.
• The HR Director, looking after the day to day running of the Team.

Now, if you are new to business or have a small business you may be covering a number of these positions or possibly all of them.

So, for instance, if sales are down, you could put your marketing hat on and argue with the finance director within you that more money needs investing in marketing. At the same time, you could put your Sales Director hat on and argue with the Marketing department that the leads/enquiries that are being provided are not pre-qualified so are a waste of time. As the Operations director, you will probably be tearing your hair out trying to find the balance between too busy to keep the quality up and too quiet to justify the amount of people you have in the team, which of course leads to discussions with the HR Director. Is it any wonder you see a great many business owners talking to themselves!

As SME business owners, these conflicts are taking place in our heads so it’s no wonder that we sometimes drop a ball, so to speak, and end up in a cycle which goes something like sell. Sell, sell, do,do,do, oops no customers, sell,sell,sell, do,do,do etc

In businesses where there are a team of people, to avoid the conflict, we may have a lack of accountability which eventually leads to ineffective results or, in other words, a business that is going nowhere because it is constantly locked in the blame game.

Running a business this way normally results in either of 2 outcomes

1. Severely restricts the growth of the business
2. Tears the business owner apart! 

So how do you break the cycle?

It starts by changing your thinking.

The role of a business owner is to look after the team. You do that by providing the environment in which the team can thrive. This translates into the 4 T’s and the 3 R’s.

The 4 T’s are:

• Tools. Make sure they have the tools needed to do their job.
• Training. Constantly up-skilling your people so that they can do a better job.
• Trust. You have to be able to let go and allow people to take a risk whilst being prepared for the consequences of that because, they may get it wrong occasionally. The key is to unpack the experience and coach them through how they would do it differently next time so the same mistakes aren’t repeated.
• Targets. Everybody should have goals which are measurable. The role of the goals is to ensure the correct behaviours are carried out on a daily basis.

The 3 R’s are:

• Recognition. Catch people doing something right instead of something wrong and making sure you comment on it. Positive reinforcement will lead to more of the right things being done.
• Remuneration. A competitive rate of pay.
• Rewards. This could include a profit related bonus scheme, extra holidays. Some low cost ways could include: just saying thanks, a pat on the back (see last week’s blog for a lot more ideas)

With all the above in place, your team’s role is to take responsibility for looking after your customers, by providing consistent customer service that is so good it allows you to produce a USP and Guarantee that will niche you in your market place.

Great service means happy customers, who will show you their appreciation by paying on time and will also be prepared to pay a premium for the service they receive. They become advocates of your business; your secret sales force providing you with a steady flow of referrals.

Another, spin off from having happy customers is they will come back time and time again saving you the expense of going out looking for new customers all the time.

With the customer now paying a premium, on time and coming back, time after time, and providing referrals, the business can now look after you the business owner. It does this by providing the two outputs you want from your business: cash and time. Remember your business is a vehicle to provide you with the lifestyle you choose.

Once you have this cycle in place you now have choices:

• You can install a general manager. The business is now able to work without you.
• You can open other outlets.
• You can franchise.
• You can open other businesses that are not necessarily in your present industry. Business principles are the same in any business.

Simple, but not necessarily easy.  If you want to learn more about how you can achieve this in your business drop us a line and we can arrange to sit down and have a coffee and a chat.

Dedicated to your success

Susan

Business Performance Coach

Would like to explore the possibility of working with Kevin or Susan as your Business/Executive Coach or would like some training for your team?

Simply drop us an email at info@mpcforprofit.com or call the office on 0151 348 1202 and we can pop a date in the diary for a coffee and a chat that just might Grow your profit, Transform your business and Change your life. 

How to Build a Superstar Team

I would like to start with a question, “Which is better a team of superstars or a superstar team?”

Easy really, a superstar team will outperform a team of superstars, week in week out. Just imagine what difference having a superstar team would mean to your business results and to you personally. 

Here are five questions you need to ask yourself and more importantly act upon, to build a superstar team in your business.

1. Have you got the right people?

There are times in business that we sometimes make a mistake with our recruitment process. The urgent needs of the moment tend to overtake us.

The person sat across the table, although they wouldn’t be your first choice if you had more people to choose from,  you make do!

If you had the opportunity (and with hindsight) to sack all your team today, how many would you re-employ tomorrow? Having asked that question of hundreds of business owners, I am yet to meet one that would re-employ everybody, which begs the questions “why are you prepared to put up with that?”  Have you ever asked someone to leave, go and be successful somewhere else and then think to yourself, “I wish I had done that earlier!”

A lesson I was given by my Dad very early in my business career was ‘Hire slow, fire fast.’ When I applied that lesson in my businesses, I had far greater success than in the occasional instance when where I allowed urgency to cloud my judgement. In our workshop next week, one concept we will be covering is the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. The foundational dysfunction is a lack of trust and without trust you will never build a superstar team. Ask yourself, “What effect does hiring the wrong person have on the wider team in terms of trust?”

In order for you to hire the right people for your team and your business, you really need to be clear on just what does that person look like? What traits, characteristics and skills does the person require? In most recruitment processes, the number one goal is to get someone with the right skills, a superstar; the challenge is that if they are not the right fit for your team in terms of attitude, it will NEVER work. I have emphasised NEVER because, time and time again, I have heard numerous business owners say, “We are going to give them the opportunity to change…” I have never yet seen that one have a successful outcome and to compound matters, due to the lack of trust, there is the possibility that whilst you wait for your superstar to change, you could lose people who are a good fit!

      2.   What motivates your team members?

For most business owners the belief is that their team are motivated by just one thing: Money! It just isn’t true. It is a factor, that’s for sure and, yet, up and down the country, you will find unhappy well-paid employees. How much more productive are people when they are happy, find their work interesting, are given recognition, have a career path, gain fulfilment?

How do you know what motivates your people? Ask them! What are they looking for in their job? Why do they come to work? What would they change if they could?

 3.  Are your team clear on their roles and responsibilities?

Ever turned up for your first day in a new job and been pointed in the direction of your desk, shown your computer or workstation, given some tasks to get on with and told any problems you can find me in that room over there. How well does that work?

A better way for this to be done is to have a clear induction process within your business. A great induction system may include:

• An introductory meeting with the MD explaining the vision, goals, values/culture of the business.
• Set clear commitments. What you will expect from them and what can they expect from you.
• Have a clear description of their roles and responsibilities and assign a buddy to whom they will be accountable during their induction period (Accountability is the fourth layer in the 5 Dysfunctions model).
• It is really strange how we celebrate when someone leaves our team to go and work for somebody else. How about we flip that one and celebrate when someone joins the team by having a welcoming party.
• Constantly check in with them and how they are progressing, what else do they need to make their induction run smoothly?

  

4.  Do you have an ongoing training system in place?

What if I train my people and they leave?

What if you fail to train them and they stay?

Ouch!!

One of the main differentiators in business is knowledge, ‘the more you know the further you go.’ Yet, one of the first things that tends to be put to one side because of urgent other stuff (for instance, costs) is training.

The more knowledge your people have the better job they are able to do and the more productive they will be. So what kind of ongoing training programme have you got in place? More importantly what processes have you got in place to make sure the training is applied? Again, we are looking at accountability

5.  What kind of environment do you provide?

Whilst it is important to make sure the environment you provide is aesthetically pleasing, furniture, equipment, IT etc., other factors you might want to provide are:

• Team building events
• Flexible hours
• A chill out room
• A process in place to celebrate wins
• Education support
• Suggestion box with rewards
• Bonus scheme
• A pat on the back
• Quality drinks facilities
• A process for getting the team involved in the numbers. Do your people understand the effect they have on these?
• A clear accountability system.
• Open and honest communication
• A system in place for equipment repairs

This list is by no means exhaustive and if you have more great ideas to share, drop me a line.

If you want a superstar business, you need a superstar team applying the above ideas will make sure you build one.

If you'd like to know more about building your superstar team join us on Friday 20th February for a half day workshop 

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-build-a-team-culture-that-inspires-motivates-thrives-tickets-15300934507?aff=ehomesaved

Dedicated to your success

Kevin
Business Performance Coach



If you would like to explore the possibility of working with Kevin or Susan as your Business/Executive Coach or would like some training for team simply drop us an email at info@mpcforprofit.com or call the office on 0151 348 1202 and we can pop a date in the diary for a coffee and a chat that just might Grow your profit, Transform your business and Change your life.

Let Go to Grow

One of the biggest barriers to growth in any business is the owner’s inability to let go. If you speak to one of these people you will normally hear something along the lines of, “If you want it done right, then you have to do it yourself.”

It is so easy to fall into the trap of believing that you must do everything yourself, but the simple fact is that one person cannot do everything. Attempting to micromanage a business will lead to burnout, stress or become the major blockage to growth.

The job of a business owner is to manage and lead others, not do the work for them and the truth is that, by insisting that you do the work for them, you actually make your team less effective.

The key to overcoming this barrier is to learn the gentle art of delegation and here are some compelling reasons to learn this art:

·        Give yourself more personal time

·        Free up time for planning and organising

·        It encourages open and honest communication

·        Grow your business more effectively

·        To improve productivity and efficiency for both yourself and your team

·        To teach your team to accept more responsibility

·        It motivates and builds morale

So what are the steps to successful delegation?

1.   Ask “What is the worst that could happen and can I live with that?” If you feel that you could live with it then it’s time to delegate.

2.   Consider the cost of not delegating. By comparing the cost of your time per hour compared to the cost per hour of a team member or the cost to outsource the task.

3.     Have a process for delegation for instance:

a.   Have a clearly defined set of policies in place, so that team members can refer for guidance. A word of warning here; you must be willing to stand behind your team members decisions based on those policies.

b.   Have a training process to upskill your team to do the task.

c.    Give people the responsibility to take the action required.

d.   Allow the authority  to be able to take whatever action is required.

e.   Have a timeline for completion of the task.

f.     Make sure you have a crystal clear picture of the outcome that is required.

g.     Provide the necessary feedback or feedforward so that your team know they are producing what you want. Delegation is not abdication.

4.     Maintain control after you have delegated. There are two levels of delegation:

Level 1. Team members are asked to look for all the options before making a decision and reporting back to you before any action is taken.

Level 2. Same as level 1 expect the team member completes the action and then reports back the results for review by you.

Delegation is not just a way of offloading the tasks you prefer not to do, it is absolutely necessary if you want to grow your business. Is it time for you to bite the bullet and share the load?

Looking to Let Go to Grow? Check out our next event, come along meet the team and be inspired - Leasowe Castle Friday 20th February LINK Just 4 places remaining!

Thoughts:

“Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority and don’t interfere”… Ronald Reagan

“As all entrepreneurs know, you live and die by your ability to prioritise. You must focus on the most important, mission-critical tasks each day and night, and then share, delegate, delay or skip the rest”… Jessica Jackley

“I trust the people who are working with me. I delegate…” Mario Draghi

“The great leaders are like the best conductors – the reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players”…Blaine Lee

“An empowered organisation is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organisational success”…Stephen Covey

Dedicated to your success

Susan

Business Performance Coach

Would like to explore the possibility of working with Kevin or Susan as your Business/Executive Coach or would like some training for your team?

Simply drop us an email at info@mpcforprofit.com or call the office on 0151 348 1202 and we can pop a date in the diary for a coffee and a chat that just might Grow your profit, Transform your business and Change your life.