How would you like your business to perform 259% better than your competitors?  What if there was one thing (albeit a major thing) that you, as a business owner, could do that would create this huge competitive advantage?  Would you do it?

Surprisingly, you probably wouldn’t.  Most business owners don’t view this approach as a real ‘competitive advantage’ – instead writing it off as touchy feely and not important.

The advantage I’m talking about is employee engagement…or being a great place to work and it’s illustrated by the performance of Fortune’s Top 100 Great Places to Work business versus their peers in the Russell 3000 stock index.  Granted small businesses don’t trade on a stock exchange, but it’s not a stretch to assume those results reflect the underlying performance of the companies.  Check out the performance comparisons below:

Equally impressive, Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For experience less than 50% of turnover compared to their peers…across all industries!

Of course it’s one thing to appreciate how engaged employees…and being a Great Place to Work could  make a difference in results, but the real challenge is figuring how to build that kind of environment for your own business.

One place to look might be what’s going on at Zappos – a hugely successful company built around a company culture of service and delivering ‘wow!’.  Zappos went from almost going under after the Dot-Com bust in 2001 / 2002 to generating over a $1 Billion in revenue less than 8 years later.  Since that time, they’ve been purchased by Amazon for $1.2 Billion – primarily as a model on how to really implement an amazing company culture.

According to Tony Hsieh – the CEO of Zappos and the author of the best selling Delivering Happiness, the essence of what it takes to be happy in general boils down to 4 things:

• Perceived Control (ability to make things happen)
• Perceived Progress (ability to get better)
• Connectedness (the number and depth of your relationships)
• Being part of something bigger than yourself

This ties in well with Daniel Pink’s Motivation 3.0 Model that he outlines in the book ‘Drive’.  The Motivation 3.0 model uses 3 key components as the drivers for motivation:

• Autonomy (ability to make things happen, decision making control)
• Mastery (ability to get better, develop skills that are important to me)
• Purpose (opportunity to work on something exciting that’s bigger than just me)

The underlying assumption here is that happy employees are motivated employees are engaged employees who have a great place to work.  In other words, all of these things tie together.

How do you apply this to your business?

For most business owners, adopting this new motivation model or building a strong company culture around things that will make employees happy seems almost impossible.  It’s definitely hard to make major changes, but the good news is that you don’t have to change everything at once, you can make incremental changes at your own pace.

Here are few things you should consider doing to get started:

Get to know your employees!

Do an employee survey that will help you learn more about what your employees think, what makes them tick, where they want to go and what kinds of things would motivate them.  In a smaller business you have the ability to really get to know everyone on a more personal basis – you still need to keep a professional distance, but the more you build a real relationship the more you will be able to engage them and find out what makes them go.

Delegate authority!

This is something you have to do anyway if you want to grow your business, but for the purposes of motivating your employees, you should brainstorm decisions that your employees should be making without you.  In a call center environment that might mean giving your call center representatives the ability to ‘make the customer happy’ with whatever means are necessary…up to a certain dollar amount. 

For other employees, identify ongoing decisions that have historically been escalated to management and ownership and figure out how to push those decisions down to the working level as much as possible.  Obviously you can’t just hope everything works out, so you’ll want controls and reporting in place, but your employees can and want to own more responsibility (and if they don’t you should get rid of them).

Involve employees in planning!

A big part of engagement is having everyone buy into where the company is going and how they’re going to get there.  As the owner you have the responsibility to lead the way, but that shouldn’t translate to a command and control approach, rather you should be leveraging your employees skills and experience to help you come up with great ideas.  Hold regular planning and status meetings with employees – done right these are very empowering and productive…and critical to keeping everyone engaged.

Consider flexible work arrangements!

If you’re like most business owners I know, you work a ton of hours but you would be very unlikely to go back to taking a job…even for good money.  Why?  A big part of the reason is the flexibility you have as the owner.  You work a lot of hours, but you (generally) have complete control over what hours you work.  Guess what – your employees would love that kind of flexibility as well!  Obviously different industries and different businesses will require different hours of operations, but there’s likely a lot more flexibility that’s possible than what you’re currently doing.  Brainstorm how you could pass along some of that to your employees.

It’s not easy, but it’s worth it!

Clearly rolling out significant changes on how you operate your business is not an easy thing to do, but the upside is clearly there.  If you have a business where every employee is engaged, on the same page and helping to make things happen, you will routinely be blowing your competitors out of the water…which will translate directly to the bottom line!

What changes could you roll out in your business in the next few months?  Which of these ideas resonated with you and made you think ‘hmmm…’?  What ideas did I miss?  I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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How important is it to keep a positive perspective?  It’s a popular topic on the self-help and self development circuit as one of the keys to long term happiness (or at least contentment).  There have also been a lot of scientific studies – in this article on the benefits of positive thinking from the Mayo Clinic it’s pretty key, a positive outlook will help reduce stress, help you live longer and be healthier overall…all in all not a bad deal!

As a business owner, staying positive is even more important…especially considering the alternative.  You’ve got plenty of things to worry about – starting with finances, people, competition…overall it’s a long list.  Now picture the difference of approaching these issues with a positive perspective and outlook versus a negative outlook?  With a positive approach, anything is possible and problems can be solved.  With a negative approach, everything is an issue and soon it all feels very overwhelming – it would be much easier to throw in the towel if you’re approaching things negatively. 

It might sound a little touchy feely, but I can tell you that it impacts a lot of business owners that I talk to.  The idea is summarized nicely in one of my favorite songs from The Shins – Young Pilgrims:

“But I learned fast how to keep my head up ’cause I
Know there is this side of me that
Wants to grab the yoke from the pilot and just
Fly the whole mess into the sea.” – The Shins

I think we all fight our own demons from time to time, but there is a real upside to keeping your head up – when you can open up and look at the possibilities you’ll be surprised at the great ideas and solutions you can come up with.

So positive thinking can impact your results (as I’ve written before)…it’s a wonderful, important thing to do, but what if you’re just not wired that way?  It’s not like you can just flip a switch and start thinking positively.  How you think /  your approach to things is a habit and it will require some changes if you’re going to be able to make being positive stick. 

Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

Be aware of your thoughts

A good place to start would be to simply start raising your awareness of what your thoughts are…how often are you thinking and talking to yourself in a negative way?  This is especially important because it turns our your brain is physically wired to reinforce whatever you’re thinking on a regular basis – check out points #2 and #3 from this great list of 30 Amazing Facts About Your Brain from Tim Brownson.  You tend to get more of whatever you think, so if you’re being negative, it’s easier to be negative the next time around.

Question? When you talk to yourself (in your head) are you positive or negative?

Give some serious thought to who you spend time with

Jim Rohn has a famous quote:

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

If you’re hanging out with people who are inherently negative, you’re going to be negative as well.  Attitudes (along with success or failure) are contagious – it may be time to consider cleaning up your tribe (easier said than done, but it could have a huge impact on you).

Question?  Are the people you spend the most time with challenging you and helping you get better…or are they holding you back?

Start reframing when you notice potentially negative situations

Reframing is simply the conscious act of changing your perspective on something (an event, an outcome, a person, etc.).  Typically what ever we’re looking at or talking about isn’t inherently good or bad, it depends on how we frame our perception…and you can choose that frame.  Tim Brownson also has a good article on Reframing and how to use it.

Question?  Do you consciously look at a situation or an outcome and find a way to reframe it in a more positive light?  Could you?

There are a lot of other ways to impact your outlook – exercise can be a great way to lift your mood…a lot of people recommend some form of meditation…listen to positive music, read positive books or magazines, watch uplifting movies or shows.

How important is positive thinking to you?  When you’re trying to stay (or get) positive, what works best for you?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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One of the things we work on with our clients and business owners is developing systems for their business.  It’s critical to build a systematic approach, figuring out the best way to do something and making sure it’s done that same way consistently…regardless of who’s doing the work.  Often the easiest way to rollout that kind of systematic thinking is to develop a checklist.

I just finished reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. It’s a great read and a lot more entertaining that I thought it would be.  Gawande is a medical doctor who decided to investigate the effectiveness of Checklists and how if they could be applied to the medical profession.

My experience with doctors is that they traditionally aren’t great writers or story tellers (although to be fair, I would much rather they be great doctors first…).  Having said that, Dr. Gawande writes in a way that makes it very easy to read, telling several stories to help illustrate his points.

He begins by clarifying the difference between errors of ignorance (when we don’t know enough) and errors of ineptitude (when we don’t use what we know properly) Then he leads you through the findings of his research he accumulated while writing the book.

He started with the aviation industry and Boeing…where they have championed the idea of effective checklists for over 75 years.  It’s not by accident the chance of dying in a plane crash is 1 in 25 Million. If there is the potential for something to happen in the air, chances are pretty good there is a checklist nearby the pilots will be able to refer to.

What his book points out is that it isn’t that people don’t know what to do. It is that it’s almost impossible to be prepared on your own…to know what to do under any circumstance without a framework to refer to. He isn’t discounting anyone’s knowledge; it is having a guideline that keeps you from missing the obvious.

If you are a fan of Van Halen, you will learn the real reason that David Lee Roth requested all the brown M & M’s be removed from their candy dishes back stage. It had nothing to do with his ego. Another great story is Walmart’s ability to respond after Katrina flooded New Orleans.  Both stories driven by the power of using checklists in creative ways.

Building a checklist doesn’t have to be overly complex – here are the 3 high level steps:

Development => Drafting => Validation

A couple of the take-a-ways on building a checklist is to keep it simple and talk in the language of the people who will be reading it. He even provides a Checklist for Checklists to help guide you through the process.  Obviously he’s a pretty methodical thinker…but he’s also an interesting guy – check out this interview he did with Stephen Colbert to get a better feel for why he’s so interested in this topic (and why it makes sense for you as well).

Could you implement some checklists?

The challenge with implementing Checklist with professionals in any industry is that you risk insulting their intelligence because they feel they already know all “the stuff”. Why do they need a list? I guess, that may be a question to ask the 155 people of Flight 1549 who landed safely on the Hudson River on Jan. 14^th, 2009.

As you start the New Year are there areas in your business where using a simple Checklist could reduce the chance for errors?  If you need some help, don’t be afraid to ask. If you already use Checklists in your business, I would love to hear some success stories – share them below.

Happy New Year!

Chris Steinlage, Kansas City Business Coach.

Photo by The U.S. Army

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We live in Interesting Times…a breeding ground for stress – especially for small business owners.  Indecision in the marketplace.  Indecision in the political arena.  Will you make payroll?  Getting your pricing right.  Keeping the pipeline full.  Catching up on a huge list of critical stuff to do.

All very stressful…and that stress has a lot of serious impacts.  Making it even more complicated, the U.S. business culture views stress as a badge of honor…the view is that if you’re not stressed, then you’re not doing it right!  Even to the extent that admitting to stress is a sign of weakness!  But the reality is that staying in a stressed out state may be killing your business.

Let’s start with how stress physically works.  Physiologically we are wired to react to perceived danger.  So when we sense danger, we get pushed into Flight or Fight mode – which is great if you need to run away from a bear!  It’s not so great if the problem is a missed deadline or an irate customer.

In a business setting neither Fight or Flight is a good option when it comes to dealing with your crisis.  Unfortunately your body doesn’t know that and it keys up the same way it would for a bear.  The results?  Increased blood flow (heart rate, blood pressure), a narrowing of focus and a shutdown of your higher level thinking.  It’s the cliché ‘Deer in the headlights’ effect of not being able to think when you’re in a panicked state…except it’s not just a cliché.

Obviously that’s an extreme reaction…but did you know sustained lower level stress has many of the same effects?  Your body is tense and you lose creativity and the ability to see the big picture even with lower levels of stress.

What are the impacts to your business when you’re stressed?

• Communication suffers – you don’t listen well or empathize
• Poor Customer Service – a tendency to over-react and be angry
• No creativity  – it’s really difficult to be creative when you’re tense
• Limited planning – stress tends to narrowly focus you on the most urgent issue
• Poor health – continued stress can have a dramatic negative impact on your health
• Poor productivity – you’ll work long hours, but it’s not likely to be productive
• Lose the little things – you won’t have time for the details, which can be critical

Bottom line – if you operate under continued stress, you’re not going to perform well and you will cause a lot of serious problems to your business.

How do you address your stress?

Admit the problem

The first step in solving a problem is admitting you have one…stress is not a badge of honor, there’s no need to be the hero in your business.  Acknowledge that you’re stressed out and that you would like to fix the issue.

Focus on your Sphere of Influence

It’s critical that you’re spending your efforts on things you can actually change.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference.”

Alternatively Stephen Covey suggests focusing on your Sphere of Influence rather than your Sphere of Concern.  Either way – you will get a lot of relief by not wasting time and energy worrying about things outside of your control (like the economy, your competitors, etc.).

Slow Down and Breathe…

Easier said than done, but something that will make a real difference in your stress level is to give yourself some time.  When was the last time you took 20 minutes…even 5 minutes and just sat still and didn’t think about anything?  How about taking 10 minutes a day to write down your thoughts.  You don’t have to be an expert in tai chi or meditation (but if you’re interested – here’s a great article on how to get started with meditation), you just have to find enough time and a quiet place to breathe.

Start Saying No!

Related to slowing down, in order to find the time in your schedule you need to start doing less, you need to start saying no!  What’s currently on your schedule or to-do list that you could gracefully bow out of or delegate to others?  Know what your highest impact activities are (the things that you do that make the most positive impact to your business and your life) and say no to things that aren’t on that impact list!

Give yourself permission to say no and I guarantee you will start feeling less stress as you cut out things you didn’t need to be doing anyway.

Get some help!

There are professionals out there who can help you.  If stress is negatively impacting your life and you’re ready to do something about it, check out Dr. Ladd Carlston’s service at Mind In Motion here in Kansas City.  Dr. Carlston has been working on a unique approach for dealing with stress for the last 17 years.  I’ve had an opportunity to get a behind the scenes look at his work and I’m impressed with what he’s doing.

His approach combines acupressure, chiropractic, deep massage, and breathing techniques together in a 45 minute treatment that clears mental and physical stress by shifting your physiology and brain function. The process isn’t for everyone, and it may not be a fit for you, but it’s worth learning more if you’re dealing with overwhelm or anxiety.  The recommended program covers 6 months with a session every week or two.  You can learn more at Mind in Motion.

What about you?

What stress relief techniques have worked for you?  Is stress negatively impacting your business?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – if you have a minute, share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business CoachSimilar Posts:

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Everyone starts their business with the intent to win…unfortunately many a well intentioned business owner gets derailed along the way and it all comes crashing down.  Sometimes the best way to succeed in the long run is to identify the issues…what’s driving you towards a potential train wreck and then focus on fixing those issues first. 

To that end, I spent some quality time with my clients and Peer Group Advisory Board members and asked them what qualities or traits were required for long term success as a business owner…and inversely what qualities would guarantee a business train wreck in the long run. 

That led to the following list.  It’s a pretty powerful collection and odds are you’re dealing with at least a couple of these issues to some degree…but as they say, the first step in solving a problem is admitting that you have one!

Check out the list below and see if you might be headed for a train wreck…!

1. Don’t ever change

You’re old school and proud of it – that’s the way we’ve always done things!  Change is hard.

2. Make it up as you go

You don’t have the time or the patience to document things or develop repeatable processes (waste of time) so you and your employees just  play it by ear.  Of course bringing on a new employee takes forever…but at least you’re not wasting time.

3. Blend in

You make sure that you look and sound as much like your competitors as possible.  You copy their ads, you mimic their products and pricing and you make sure you don’t stand out in any positive way.

4. Keep your head down

You make sure to focus all of your time on fighting fires and being a hero in your business.  Why waste time on long range planning, looking at things strategically or mapping out what’s most important for your growth.

5. Be strong and silent

Knowledge is power and you certainly don’t want to let your employees or partners in on what’s going on.  Your leadership style is command and control and minimal communication – you don’t have time for telling everyone what’s going on, if they’re any good they’ll figure it out on their own.

6. Wait for the economy to bail you out

This downturn is totally out of your control and there’s no point in working too hard.  Your best bet is to just wait for things to turn around and play the victim in the meantime.

7. Exit plans are for losers

Why would you need an exit plan?  You’re not planning on going anywhere and besides you could totally sell your business for several million dollars anytime you wanted to (even if you’ve never done a valuation on it).

8. Quick to hire, slow to fire

People are people, anyone on the bus will do – you’re just looking for warm bodies to fill a seat and they all perform the same way.  If you do have a problem employee, it’s clearly better to just leave them alone and hope they go away on their own.  It’s painful to get rid of someone and you don’t want to look like the bad guy!

9. Be a world class juggler

A master at multi tasking.  If you and your team don’t have at least 20 critical priorities to work on all the time, there’s something wrong…and you definitely aren’t going to waste any time writing things down or prioritizing – where’s the challenge in that?

10. Live on the edge…

No money in the bank and payroll due in 3 days?  No problem, you’ll pull a rabbit out of your hat just like you have the last 6 times this has happened this year.  Can you believe some people think you should have 6 months of emergency reserves in cash?

11. Aren’t rollercoasters cool?

You enjoy the thrill of the hunt, landing that big client or opportunity.  Then you have to do the work.  Then you realize the works over and you don’t have any money left and you go off to hunt the next one. Not for you that boring steady recurring and predictable stream of cash.

12. Your customers are lucky to have you

Your customers don’t have any idea how much trouble they put you and your employees through.  They interrupt you, they ask for things, they expect help and support – that’s crazy!

13. Your employees like money

Your employees don’t really buy into what the company is doing and they don’t really like to work very hard…and they don’t seem to care about anything (except maybe money), but they do like to hang out and complain, but that’s how all companies are right?

14. Average is good enough

It takes a lot of time and effort to create a high quality product or service…besides you can just tell people it’s great (even though it’s average).  They’ll probably buy at least once, which is good enough to keep things going in the short term.

15. You’re really busy

People call you all the time, but they clearly don’t realize how busy you are. They send emails, they try to give you referrals or try to partner with you…you even have potential customers contacting you with questions, but you’re so busy you can’t get back to them. 

16. Work has to come first…always

This owning your own business thing is really hard and if you’re going to be great, you need to throw yourself 110% into what it takes to succeed.  Your family and friends will understand you not being around and you don’t really need any time off.

17. The ends totally justify the means

Sometimes it’s a challenge to keep all of the stories straight, but that’s far better than the alternative of just being honest with people.  A few people might notice that you’re not completely above board, but who could they possibly tell?  It’s not like it’s easy to share complaints or stories with the world these days?

18. It’s all about the money

Can you believe people buy your stuff?  If you ever win the lottery, you’re never going to do this kind of work again, but until then as long as someone will pay you for it, you’re in.  You don’t have to love what you’re doing…do  you?

19. You are an island

You know what you’re doing, you never have any doubts or questions and you certainly wouldn’t benefit from someone or a group looking over your shoulder, keeping you in line and helping you.

20. You already know that

People actually waste their time on books, training, workshops and that kind of bunk!  You’ve been doing this business thing a long time and clearly know all there is to know – which is why you’ve got plenty of time for reality television!

Take an honest look at the list – do any of these remotely sound like your situation?  If more than a couple of these make you feel even the slightest bit uncomfortable, then you’re going to have a hard succeeding in the long run.

What train wrecking traits did I miss? Do you disagree with any?  How do you stack up?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade Kansas City Business Coach

Photo is from Paris in 1895 and is public domain – you can learn more here

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