Maximizing the Human Potential

Business Impacts of Low Unemployment

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business impacts of low unemploymentAlmost every month, I hear someone talking about low unemployment, and more jobs available than people to fill those jobs. While that is great if you are in the market for a new job, it creates new problems for business owners. Previously, I wrote on this topic from an employee engagement standpoint. Today I am going to discuss some of the business impacts of low employment economy.

Business Impacts of Low Unemployment

The realities of low unemployment on a business can be a struggle. To stay in business, you have to continue to increase demand for your products or services. However, you may struggle with maintaining the proper staffing. Hiring is a challenge, because talented people already have a job. Productivity is another issue, because you must do more with less, or at least more with the same. So, you either invest in hiring someone and covering another salary, or your people are working overtime. Either way, employee costs are increasing. Let’s look at each of these troubles individually.

Recruiting

I am hearing ads on the radio saying that hiring companies must target individuals that already have jobs. The reality is the talent you need to drive your business forward is already working. If your recruiting, you probably need to woo talent from your competition. Well, this means your competitors are probably actively recruiting YOUR employees! Now your recruiting problem is compounded by a retention problem.

Do you have a strategy in place that focuses on employee attraction and retention? Why would your employees want to work for you if their competitor is offering them similar benefits but maybe more pay?

Productivity

The sad truth is you are probably looking at ways to do more with less. I can’t count how many times, when I was a project manager, I was asked if we could take on another project with the same amount of people. I really had no way of knowing. I’d do some analysis of how many hours my team was working each week, and forecasted the future workload to determine if I could do it. But I didn’t really have a way analyzing how to improve productivity and efficiency.

Obviously, employee retention impacts productivity. Losing an employee impacts the work that person was doing, but now others are required to “pick up the slack” until a replacement is found and trained. In the mean time people are not as effective as they could be with their primary responsibilities. Losing employees has a ripple effect on the team and organization through lost productivity, decrease in morale, and eventually profits.

Higher Labor Costs

Supply and demand dictates that when supply is less than demand that prices will increase. Talented, highly skilled people are in high demand, and the supply isn’t sufficient. There are some industries where this gap is even getting wider. So as your company grows, and you do have to hire, the cost of that talent is increasing. Salaries are going up! Your recruiting costs are increasing. Salaries are increasing, just so you don’t lose your top talent. Resulting in the cost of your services or products to increase.

As your costs increase, do you pass along the cost to your customers? Reduce profit?

This Week’s Challenge

This week, to address the business impacts of low employment economy, I recommend focusing on developing a strong employee retention strategy. Focus on employee development and engagement. When you create a company that develops and engages employees you will see improvements in productivity (do more with less), you’ll have a higher probability of retention, and will build a reputation as THE EMPLOYER OF CHOICE attracting desired candidates to your company. If your pay, benefits and culture is “competitive” in the market, how can you expect to dominate? Let them compete while you dominate!

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Use Culture to Gain a Competitive Edge

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Culture to Gain a Competitive Edge andrew shaffer consultingI had the privilege of sitting down with my friend Ben from Global Harvest Networks to share ideas on how to help companies grow. When I first met Ben, his story of growth in his company inspired me, and he hasn’t stopped growing. When Ben and I were talking, he shared that he is always amazed at how his team is willing to step up and take on new challenges. His company has developed a culture that gives him a competitive edge. In light of this conversation I thought I’d share with you how you can use culture to gain a competitive edge!

Use Culture to Gain a Competitive Edge

There are two things I know about your business. First, if you are not making money, you are going to go out of business. Second, your business cannot operate without people. Businesses either grow or die.

According to aei.org: only 12% of the Fortune 500 companies in 1955 were still a Fortune 500 company in 2015. It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is, or how your proprietary information gives you an edge. Without people to sell, develop, and produce the product or provide the service, nothing will get done.

The other little secret, your product or service can be the absolute best today, but if you don’t continuously improve, you’ll soon be left behind. Need proof? Remember the Motorola Razor phone? What happened to Motorola? When I was a kid, everyone in the neighborhood had an Atari 2600 game console. Atari isn’t even in business anymore. Not to mention the number of airlines, car companies, and electronics companies that no longer exist.

Last month we discussed the importance of developing proactive leadership. To take this discussion to the next level, your leaders should be creating a culture that gives you a competitive edge!

Challenge the Status Quo

When you find something that works stick with it. Right? I mean that sounds like good advice. My dad used to tell me, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This advice was probably sound, when my dad saw me taking a screw driver to the VCR because I wanted to “see how it works” but this mentality can be detrimental to a business.

I have met business owners that have done a decent job of building themselves a profitable business. However, after several years, they find they can’t increase revenue or market share, and sometimes they are even losing revenue. They call in consultants (like me), and when I suggest making changes to the business model, I get immediate resistance. They built their business doing it a certain way and come hell or high water, that is the way it will be done. In the meantime, their competitors have found a way to solve the same problem cheaper, faster and smarter. Who is going to stay in business longer? Create a culture that is as proactive as your leaders.

Develop Friendly Competition

Anther struggle I see in businesses is a culture of cut-throat competition. I mean that culture where everyone is out for themselves and not for the company? Friendly competition is fine, fun, and productive. It is when the competition is mean, undermining, and counterproductive that it becomes toxic to a company.

Let’s use a manufacturing company as an example. This company runs three shifts a day to produce their product. Management decides to help motivate the production floor, that they’ll have a competition over the next month to see how may products each shift can make. In a culture of friendly competition, each shift would work hard and try to produce the greatest number of products. They would get creative to find more efficient and effective ways. Ideally, each subsequent shift will do this. Each team wins, because they learn how to be more effective and efficient. One team may win a prize (or bragging rights), and the company benefits from improved productivity and profitability.

Now, if you have a cut-throat type culture, the results will be extremely different. Here you may have one shift trying to sabotage the next shift. They could damage or “lose” material. They certainly wouldn’t be creative and find innovative ways to be more productive. In this type environment each shift would be out for themselves, and may even hinder production on the other shifts if they thought it would give them an edge.

This Week’s Challenge

This week I have given a couple examples how a culture can help your business gain a competitive edge. By developing a culture that challenges the status quo. What are you doing well today, and how can you make that better? Develop opportunities for friendly competition. This can be in sales, marketing, manufacturing, wherever. Create a culture that encourages innovative and creative thinking, and watch your competitive edge sharpen!

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Secrets to Becoming a Successful Leader

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secrets to becoming a successful leader andrew shaffer consultingOver the last few months I have met with a few CEOs that have told me that they have worked their way out of a job. They literally are so free of the day to day activities of running a company that they barely have enough stuff to occupy their time! Some might think that in this case the CEO isn’t necessary, or there is a duplication of efforts, and there is wasted money. Quite the contrary! In every case, when I hear this, I realize this CEO “get’s it” and that his business is growing and thriving. If you are a CEO that hasn’t reached, or is not striving, for this level of autonomy, let me explain why this is ultra-important for the longevity of your company (and your legacy!) Today, I’m sharing the secrets to becoming a successful leader.

Secrets to Becoming a Successful Leader

In my line of work, I meet with business owners and business leaders of all varieties. Some business leaders are buried in a mountain of work, and just need help to see over the horizon, others that are always looking at what is coming next, or somewhere in between. Although I learn a lot from all the conversations, the most enlightening are the conversations with leaders looking beyond the horizon.

These over the horizon leaders aren’t occupied solving the issues of today but are on the lookout for where the next generation troubles will be coming from, and how to solve their problems. They see a future for their company well beyond what they have created today. Don’t get me wrong, they are still aware of what is happening today, but the thrive in the creating a better future.

What is the major difference? Over the horizon leaders talk about leadership, culture and how they have been able to be a trusted resource for clients and customers. While the leaders stuck in the day to day, will talk about the struggles of meeting deadlines, hiring talented people, and “being busy.” What is the predominate thoughts that occupy your time while at work?

Time to Innovate

How much time do you dedicate to innovation, and identifying and solving the problems of tomorrow? A company that fails to innovate will fail to achieve or maintain any competitive edge for any significant period of time.

I’m sure I am preaching to the choir here, but we all know that the way technology is advancing, old and current ways of doing business will soon be obsolete. Can you believe I have run into companies that still don’t have a website? Seriously it is 2019! How long can a company like that stay in business? These businesses must rely on personal relationships and maintaining their current client base. While I am NOT suggesting that those aren’t important aspects of a business development strategy, they would be extremely limited in new prospects they can attract.

When it comes to business, if I can’t find you with a simple google search, I can’t take your business serious. That is an extreme example here, however with advances in machine learning, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) the way we do business is changing at an increasingly rapid pace.

Leaders who have freed themselves up from the day to day activities, or at least minimized their direct involvement, have time to understand industry trends and position themselves for future growth. This helps you set the standard for the industry helping you to solidify your position as a market leader.

Next Level Thinking

How do you prepare for taking your company to the next level? Do you have time for next level thinking, or are you focused on solving the issue of the day?

I have a couple of books in my library that talk about next level thinking (The Next Level and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There). These books are primarily focused in leaders moving up in the corporate ladder. The behaviors and strategies that make me successful as an individual contributor had to change when I got into leadership. As I moved up the leadership ranks, I needed to think and behave differently at all levels. If I didn’t adapt, or change, then I wouldn’t be successful or even be able to achieve the next level of performance.

There is no difference for your company. If you want your company to grow to and compete in, the next level of performance you have to be able to think at a higher level. This means being able to see above and beyond your current situation and change your thoughts and behaviors.

Again, as I meet with business owners, I can almost immediately tell how far their business will go within an hour of talking to them. There are business owners that have a small business mindset (and there is nothing wrong with that). They are focused primarily on staying in business, and maybe slight growth. They have no aspirations of growing beyond their current market share and are perfectly content. On the other hand, I have met a small operation with a handful of employees that thought and acted as if their leader was already running a massive nationwide organization. This successful leader was always looking over the horizon, and needed to be helped to stay in the present from time to time.  Freeing yourself from the day to day, allows you to look over the horizon and create that next level of thinking that will propel your success.

Longevity

What happens if you are not there for an extended period of time? How will your company function?

You can’t work forever, and you cannot always be in the office. Life happens. You need vacations. People get sick. There are a variety of other reasons you cannot be in the office 24/7. Is your company equipped to operate with out you? Being a successful leader means your business can continue to grow and prosper when you are not there.

Will your company (and legacy) survive after you retire?

This Week’s Challenge

Successful leaders that want to create a company that lasts a lifetime, and beyond, have to free themselves from the tethers of the day to day operations. By coaching, teaching, and developing the next generation of leaders, you will ensure that your company will grow and thrive in any and all circumstances. Equally important to you coaching, teaching and developing, your executives, managers and supervisors must be doing the same, on a continuous basis. When you can create a culture where everyone is elevating performance, you are free to continue to create and preserve the company that you’ve worked so hard for.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Improve Employee Engagement

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andrew shaffer consulting improving employee engagementThis month, I’ve been writing about different aspects of proactive leadership. Proactive leadership is all about keeping your head up while taking care of the day to day aspects of your job. Proactive leadership is anything from keeping ahead of industry trends, to actively looking to identify and develop the talent in your organization. By being a proactive leader, you create a highly engaged workforce. There is a plethora of surveys to help you measure your team’s engagement. There are also tons of stats showing how engaged employees help your business. Today I am going to write about three ways you can help improve employee engagement in your organization.

Improve Employee Engagement

What is employee engagement? When I ask many leaders, they think that engagement is somewhere between how “happy” employees or some sort of satisfaction survey. I’ll tell you first hand, that happy employees are not always engaged employees, but engaged employees are happy employees.

In my book Maximizing The Human Potential I describe employee engagement as an emotional attachment to your job. When someone is engaged, they are more productive and less distracted. Here are some things to focus on to improve employee engagement in your organization.

Elevate Performance

The best leaders I ever worked with helped me become better at what I was doing. This goes for athletic coaches, mentors, and supervisors. The best leaders always helped me become better. Proactive leadership is all about raising the performance of your team. Elevate the performance of each member of a team and the entire team performance is elevated.

To elevate performance, leaders should be having regular feedback and coaching sessions. It’s not enough simply to tell an employee what they can be doing better. That can lead to resentment, confusion or frustration. Leader not only tell someone how they can improve, but show them as well. Offer suggestions to improve productivity or customer service. If you don’t know, work with your team to find solutions that can show improvements.

Accountability

Believe it or not, your people like to be held accountable. Holding them accountable for doing their job is a sure-fire sign that their job is important. Accountability actually leads people to strive to do better. It isn’t necessarily the fear of being held accountable that motivates someone to succeeded. Success builds confidence and momentum. People genuinely like to be successful and it makes them feel good. We can all appreciate this, as we’ve all had days that were successful and others that just went down the drain. Which one makes you feel better at the end of the day?

Holding people accountable means, you, as the leader, need to hold yourself accountable. Hold regular meetings, or whatever form you use for accountability and stick to it. If you ask someone to finish a project by the end of the month, and wait until the end of the month to check for status, don’t be surprised when your team member lets you down. They let you down, because you didn’t tell them the project was important. Therefore, develop a schedule and a system for accountability, follow it, and watch your engagement sore.

Loyalty

Lastly, we all want our employees to be loyal. I’d be willing to bet that the majority of my readers will think that they have the most loyal employees. You’d be surprised. Loyalty is different than your team liking you, or liking the company. I read an article the other day saying that 80% of employees will start looking for a job after just ONE BAD DAY. So, unless you have the 20% of the workforce that will stay with you through a bad day (or month or quarter…) loyalty isn’t that easy to come by.

I have worked with companies where there is an us versus them mentality. Typically, it is employees versus management, but not always. Other examples would be one department versus another department or even worse, one click versus another click.

I have found that the best way to foster loyalty in the workplace is to show loyalty to your employees. Leaders become part of the team and are not positioned above it. Each case is different, but here are some ways you can build loyalty in your organizations:

  • When overtime is required, stay as late or come in on Saturday with them (and buy lunch)
  • Offer help, guidance and solution when a problem arises
  • Trust their expertise. It doesn’t have to be your way, they can be right too.
  • Get to know them on a personal level. People are more loyal to a friend than a colleague.

This Week’s Challenge

In conclusion, enhance your proactive management skills by focusing on these three areas – performance, accountability and loyalty. Even if you already have a loyal staff, and are doing these actions, give them a little extra effort. There is always room to improve employee engagement.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Leadership Lessons from Coaching My Kids

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leadership lessons coaching andrew shaffer consultingOne of my favorite parts of being a dad is coaching my boys in sports. I have fond memories of my dad coaching me, and I am hopeful that I am building the same fond memories for my kids. Coaching also gives me an opportunity to spend time with my kids doing something we both enjoy. My objective is to teach kids the sport and how to be winners on and off the court. The side benefit of coaching is sports always provides business lessons, especially leadership lessons. Today I thought I’d share leadership lessons I learned from coaching 5th grade basketball.

Leadership Lessons from Coaching My Kids

Almost every one of the boys on the team will look down at the ball when they dribble. We do drills in practice to help them become more comfortable with the ball, but ball handling hasn’t become second nature yet. Because of this tendency, we miss A LOT of opportunities for easy scores because the player dribbling the ball doesn’t see his open teammate, or worse yet turns the ball over, takes a less than optimal shot, because he didn’t see the defense closing in on him.

Unless your business is playing basketball, most of us don’t walk around the office or job site looking down as we dribble a basketball. However, too many leaders do keep their heads down, being productive, and never look up to and see opportunities or challenges getting near. As a result, leaders and managers are reactive to problems and rarely recognize and take advantage of opportunities. Proactive leadership is all about keeping your head up, and recognizing opportunities and addressing challenges before they become problems.

Time Management

I only have two hours a week to coach my team. We practice two times a week for an hour, and that is all. There is so much the team needs to learn, so I really must structure the time I have to maximize effectiveness. This means at each practice, we focus on the important things that will put us in a position to win. So, some weeks, I choose only one skill to practice and put off teaching other skills. I want my team to be good at everything, so this is a challenge.

As with sports, it is important to set priorities in the work place. Your time is valuable and you cannot do everything. Sorry to tell you, but multi-tasking is a myth. Proactive leadership is all about deciding the focus and eliminating distractions.

A client of mine realized this when trying to make his team more successful. He brought his team members into a room to find ways to be more productive. He learned that they were spending valuable time creating reports that nobody used! Take a moment to evaluate the tasks that fill your day/week/month and eliminate any that are not necessary.

Assistant Coaches

My coaching staff is a critical part of any team I coach. Without exception my assistant coaches bring skills, knowledge and experience that I don’t have. During games we all have different roles. My assistants help me with game management and player coaching. If I had to coach the boys on the bench, manage the game, and watch everything that is going on, there is no way we could have any success. My coaches help me be more effective, I trust them, and they trust me.

Proactive leaders make it a priority to hire and surround themselves with competent, dependable staff. It is also important to trust your employees. I had a leader share a story with me once about a boss that constantly undermined every decision he made. His boss would go around him to manage employees, which was often in conflict with the direction he would give. This sent a clear message to the manager and his direct reports that he wasn’t trusted by higher manager. My question to the boss would be, if you don’t trust me, why did you give me this job?

Build Leaders

Almost every team needs a leader on the field or court – a leader among peers. We develop players to be leaders. Players that can help others understand their assignments, and coach them when we miss something. Peer leaders are important because it can just be a different, non-authoritative, voice offering guidance. Having leaders on the field and court make it easier and more effective for me to coach my teams. I can’t be on the court, but the player can.

Proactive leaders will build the next generation of leaders. Proactive leaders will identify and develop talent. This benefits the leader (as opposed to the closed-minded thinking of threatens the leader) by allowing them to be in more places at once.

If you have people on your team that can and will step up when you are away, then you have the flexibility to pursue new opportunities. Imagine you were a leader and didn’t train the next generation leader. What would happen when you took a vacation? Would things go as smoothly as if you were there, or would production come to a halt?

This Week’s Challenge

Learn to dribble with your head up so you can see opportunities. Mastering time management by focusing on a limited number of priorities, hiring talented help, and developing the next generation leaders will help you become a proactive leader.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

 

Setting a Priority

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andrew shaffer consulting setting a priority for your businessI have a client that is hell bent on building a successful business. She is a relatively new business owner and is learning as much as she can to be successful. I have to admire her enthusiasm. But there is ONE problem. Actually, the problem is actually a lack of ONE problem. Because she is learning so much, she is trying to find ways to implement everything all at ONCE and ends up being overwhelmed. This situation can occur with large companies too, and if there are several layers of management, it can be worse. This week I am going to talk about the importance of setting a priority for your business and focusing on it until completion.

Setting a Priority

You are a great leader. You’re ambitious and pride yourself on getting things done. I mean that is how you’ve been successful throughout your career. Besides, you can do anything if you make it your #1 priority, right? The truth is how many #1 priorities can you have? Answer: 1.

I’ve fallen into this trap before. I’ve sat in staff meetings, telling my team that solving this problem has to be our #1 priority. Then, I am reminded that last week we had a different #1 priority. It wasn’t that my team didn’t want to work both, or both problems weren’t important. My team knew that they only had so much energy and wanted to get the most productivity out of their time.

Proactive leadership is about looking to the future and creating a responsive vs reactive culture. Here are some common barriers to proactive leadership.

Symptoms

When working with large companies, I have noticed that every time there was a change in leadership a new initiative was introduced. This makes sense, the new executive wants to solve a problem and have an impact. So, the logical thing to do is to create a new initiative for improvement. But, what happens when two or three new initiatives are introduced by different executives? Or even worse, what happens when an aspiring manager is positioning themselves for an executive leadership. It can be overwhelming the number of new initiatives or priorities that can come down in a large organization.

Too many initiatives, or priorities will turn proactive leadership into reactive leadership. Your employees are busy enough with their “day jobs” and now they have to focus on half dozen new ideas? I have been in a meeting where my boss actually said, “Let’s wait and see if this sticks before taking action.” My boss decided to be reactive. He decided to wait until his lack of effort caused a problem, then he’d react to it at that point. Not only did it kill this initiative, but it killed every initiative that came afterword.

Solution

The solution is simple: Don’t overload your employees. There will always be another great idea, another market to capture, service to provide, or way to be successful. But what will kill any initiative is a start and stop momentum. When people are asked to focus on too many things, they don’t do any of them well. Choose one initiative or priority and focus until it is complete. I mean your people have enough to work on just doing their jobs. How much more can they handle?

Benefit

So, the benefit of setting a priority and completing it is that you get things accomplished. You create a culture of success. Your employees know what is important today will still be important tomorrow. They, and you, will develop a habit of completing projects. There is nothing more frustrating than focusing on a project and not seeing it through to completion. Or even worse, by the time you finish something it is obsolete because it took too long because of your other priorities.

Managers and leaders in your organization can be proactive when focusing on fewer things. They know what is important and they can concentrate on completion.

This Week’s Challenge

Limit your initiatives and priorities to one or two at the most, and clearly understand which is number one and number two. Make them your focus for your weekly meetings. Avoid the temptation of chasing the next good idea. I promise when you’re done with this idea another will be waiting for you to execute.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

How to Avoid Having Dissatisfied Employees

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how to avoid hearing i quit andrew shaffer consultingI’ve had some serious writers block today, so I scrolled through some social media to see what inspiring things people are posting, or articles that are being shared. I thought I’d write about something that seems to be on the minds of other people. I found it quite surprising, that there were a lot of articles and statistics about people quitting their jobs to find new work. One article went so far as to state 60% of all employees have quit or are considering quitting right now! Do you have dissatisfied employees? Are your employees looking for a new job? How would you know?

How to Avoid Hearing “I Quit!”

As a business owner or a team leader you know how costly turnover can be to your bottom line. Retention is especially important when you have highly skilled workers that are in demand. I recently wrote a blog on the key to retention. In today’s economy there are more jobs available than people to fill them, and highly skilled workers are in high demand.

To be completely honest, I have quit more than one job and it took my boss by surprise. When I give an honest assessment of my performance leading up to deciding it was time to move on, the signs were obvious. If your employees are displaying any of the following traits, it’s a good idea to talk with them about their future.

Engagement

For the weeks, and months prior to ever leaving a job, there was almost always a lack of engagement in my work. I was doing my work, but I’d have a tendency to procrastinate, or let a task take longer than was necessary. During this time, I would participate less in meetings, and was reluctant to volunteer for any “extra” assignments. I didn’t necessarily do this on purpose, but most of the time, my mind was elsewhere. Sometimes, I was thinking about where I wanted to work next, or other things I’d rather be doing. I would easily be distracted by non-work-related things which resulted in a lack of concentrated focus on my current job.

High performers generally have a high level of engagement. They bring excitement and enthusiasm to their work which drives them to be top performers. As a leader, it is important to monitor and observe changes in behavior in your employees. Changes in behavior, and engagement, are symptoms of an underlying issue. When you observe these symptoms, it is in your best interest to identify issues quickly and resolve them if you can.

Absenteeism

Employees looking for new work tend to miss work more often. If they are less engaged and can be doing something else, they are more likely to do so. Also, if your employees are looking for work, they are likely to take time off to attend job fairs, networking events, or even interview for another job. Unplanned or one day time off can be an indicator that someone is looking for another job.

Absenteeism isn’t always manifested in unplanned time off or time off with short notice. Often times, it is strolling in just a few minutes later than normal. Nothing completely unusual, but a sign that getting to the office wasn’t a priority. Leaving promptly and taking longer than usual lunch breaks are also signs of absenteeism. If you notice a high performer taking more time off than usual, or longer breaks than they are accustomed to, this could be a sign someone is looking for another job.

Productivity

Your high performers are high performers because they are productive. I mean these are the people you count on when things absolutely have to get done, right? Productivity decreases as engagement decreases. This can sometimes be difficult to spot, but the signs are there. High performers, engaged or not, will still be productive. They are wired that way, and really don’t know how to not be productive. However, there will be signs of slowed productivity. Maybe they are completing tasks on time, instead of beating deadlines. Another symptom could be turning acceptable work quality instead of the exceptional work they typically provide.

This Week’s Challenge

Dissatisfied employees always leave signals of their dissatisfaction. Attentive leaders are tuned into changes in behavior and are willing to take action. In an economy where the employer is at a disadvantage, and qualified highly skilled employees are in demand, ensure your leaders are watching for signs that your best talent is looking for another job. Being proactive with your employees can help you retain your best performers and keep your competitive edge.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Accountability

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andrew shaffer consulting accountabilityOver the last week, many people have discussed with me the need for accountability. This might be because the year is still fresh and people know that accountability is necessary to be successful. Whatever the reason, people seem to be looking for guidance on how to hold themselves accountable and how to hold others accountable. This week, I thought I’d share some thoughts on accountability to help you become more successful in business and in life for 2019!

Accountability

We all know that accountability is an important factor to success. Accountability is typically introduced through school. We were held accountable for doing our homework, and if we didn’t do it there was typically some form of consequence. As we move into adulthood, we enter the workforce and there is some accountability there to perform to a certain standard, or lose our job.

I have also found that as people enter adulthood, some people struggle with accountability. Either with holding themselves accountable, or even holding others accountable. Being accountable requires discipline, which can be a struggle for some people. This article is going to explore three aspects of accountability and how YOU can become more successful.

To Yourself

The first person you have to be accountable to is yourself. Now this is probably the hardest of the three categories. I know, from my own experience, once I was on my own certain aspects of accountability went out the window. I no longer had anyone telling me when to come home, when to get up or what to eat. Over time, I had to develop a system of holding myself accountable because the consequences were catching up to me.

Holding yourself accountable requires self-discipline and integrity. You have to be able to do the right thing, even if nobody is watching. This is the most important aspect of accountability and makes it possible to hold others accountable. This is leading by example. You will struggle to hold others accountable, if they see that you cannot hold yourself accountable. To be successful create a system of holding yourself accountable. Maybe an accountability partner, or support group can be beneficial. No matter what you choose to do to hold yourself accountable, DO NOT LET YOURSELF OFF THE HOOK when you slip.

To Your Company

Make a habit of accountability at your company. This applies to supervisors, peers and direct reports. You’d be surprised how much people actually appreciate being held accountable, and how much more you’ll be respected. In the workplace, this can be as simple as a follow up. When you assign tasks to direct reports, follow up to make sure they are done, and done to the level you expect.

When working with peers, follow the same advice. If you need support from your marketing department, or the leader of another team, be sure to follow up. When your boss promises she’ll get you the help you need, follow up with her. I realize holding your boss accountable might take a little political consideration, but if she is honest, she’ll appreciate the accountability. Afterall she expects it from you, right?

By holding people accountable for what they say, you not only help improve productivity, you also prove that what you asked for is important. Another way to look at it. If you asked someone that worked for you to provide a report on Monday, and you don’t read it, why did you ask for it? Sooner or later, it’ll give the impression to your team that the work isn’t important. If you offer support to someone and don’t follow through their trust in you will begin to erode.

To Your Customers

It doesn’t matter if you are in retail or provide a service, you have to be accountable to your customers and clients. This doesn’t mean the customer is always right, although you shouldn’t let them know that. This doesn’t mean you give the client everything they want. It DOES mean that you do what you say and say what you do. Last week I talked about the importance of your companies image and reputation. Being accountable to your clients means saying what you do and doing what you say.

Your customers come to you to fill a specific need or want. They also come with a certain level of expectations.  Being accountable to your customers means meeting (or exceeding) those expectations each and every time you do business. Mistakes cannot always be avoided, it happens, but when mistakes do happen you take every reasonable (and sometimes unreasonable) action necessary to regain that trust. Just like with being accountable to your company, once you lose the trust you may never have an opportunity to regain that trust

This Week’s Challenge

Develop a plan to focus on these three areas of accountability. Even if you already think you are focusing on accountability, take time to identify ways you can become even more effective. Adding accountability to your relationships with yourself, your company, and your customers will help your and your business grow.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Triangle of Success

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andrew shaffer triangle of successBecause we are still in January, I have decided to help you focus on getting 2019 started on the right track. My blogs this month aren’t going to be a rah-rah pep-talk (although, I hope they are somewhat inspiring), but offer practical ways to help you focus on your goals and achieve the success you desire in 2019. My goal is to help you and your business grow and reach its maximum potential. Today, let’s talk about the triangle of success.

Triangle of Success

Early in my career, I was taking a career development class the company offered. The course offered many of the strategies that you might expect, like determining what type of work you enjoy, like management or a technical career. We did exercises to help us find some of our strengths and personality preferences. The discussion was of course directed to help us find a career path within the company by helping us decide which career path (and steps to take) to be successful. If you’re curious, the results of the exercises did align with my interests and future career choices.

Aside from all that information, the HR Business Partner presenting the material suggested that there were three pillars to success. She referred to it as our PIE. PIE is Performance, Image, and Exposure. All three pieces of PIE are equally important to your success, and unless you focus on all three, you will not be able to reach your full potential.

Performance

Performance means exactly what you think it means: how well you do your job. Ironically performance isn’t related to how hard you work or even how well you think you do your job. Sometimes performance isn’t even how well your boss thinks you do your job.

Your performance is a measurement of how well you execute against a set of corporate or industry standards. Basically, your performance is an objective measurement of your production measured against a set of established standards. Standards might be: revenue generated, customer satisfaction scores, units produced, projects completed on time, projects completed in budget. Each of these things can be measured and evaluated against specific standards.

When you start measuring your performance, you can then compare your performance against:

  • Peer
  • Competition
  • Industry

With this data you will know if you are within the top 10% in each category. If you find you are not within the top 10%, you can develop and execute a plan to get there.

Top performance demands top pay. Which means you can charge a premium for your goods or services. If there is any doubt, you can buy a Chevy and get to work, but if you want the “Best or Nothing” you buy a Mercedes. If you want “The Ultimate Driving Machine” you buy a BMW. There is a reason Mercedes and BMW cost so much.

Image

Your image is basically your reputation. Before I’ll buy anything from YOU, I have to buy you. I have to believe what you are saying. I have to trust you and I have to like you. Otherwise, I am buying on price or desperation and if that is the case you probably won’t get repeat business.

Before any business meeting, I’ll research the person I am meeting and the company. I will view Facebook and LinkedIn pages. I’ll Google you and I’ll Google your company. Also, I’ll look on Glassdoor and Indeed to see what current and former employees are saying about your company.

I do this so I know who I am doing business with and their reputation. Think about it, if we’re doing business together, I want to be able to refer you to others. I want to be associated with companies that demonstrate integrity, honesty, and strong ethics. Anything else will be a poor reflection on me.

When I research you and your company, what will I find? Most people tend to ignore the Glassdoor and Indeed reviews because they think they don’t matter, but they do. They tell a clear story of how employees (current and former) feel about your company. If everyone seems disgruntled, what can your clients expect in terms of customer serve? If there is high turnover, what can you customers expect from your relationship? And, if your LinkedIn resume shows you change jobs every 6 months, can they expect to build a relationship with you?

Image is the hardest of the three to control, but you can influence it. Make sure when someone looks you up, they see integrity, honesty, and strong ethics. When you meet someone, show the same qualities.

Exposure

Exposure boils down to who knows you and what you do. A few weeks ago, I was talking to a potential client about a service I offer. I was asked who was using the service and what types of results were they having. He was asking about exposure. This is why business book authors have CEOs write and endorsement, and why companies list their high profile business clients on their website.

Your company and personal social media sites are prime examples of exposure. Use these to promote your business in a positive light. When you and your employees are recognized in the community, share it on your social media sites. If you are invited to speak at conferences or for an organization promote it. If you do charity work, promote that as well. I’m not saying do charity for the publicity, but if you are sponsoring a 5K run, let people know.

To improve your exposure, do great things, and be seen doing it. Represent your company in charity or community events. These things get positive publicity, and get people talking. As Jeffrey Gitomer says “It’s not who YOU know it’s who knows YOU!” Get out there so people know you and your business!

This Week’s Challenge

What ways can you improve your performance? What is your image and reputation? Does it reflect who you really are? What are you doing to improve your exposure to help your business or career grow? Set a plan in place to improve your PIE and execute your triangle of success!

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Playoff Mentality and YOUR Business

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andrew shaffer playoff mentalityHere we go again! No, not with New Year Resolutions and a fresh start, but PLAYOFFS! The NFL playoffs started over the weekend and the College Championship is being played tonight. As I watched the end of the NFL season, and some of the College Bowl games over the holiday weekend, I saw a wide range of emotions on display. I saw joy and anger, optimism and disappointment. This emotional roller coaster was not just experienced by the teams on the field, but by the fans in the stadium (or in my family room). It highlighted how invested fans are in their teams.  This week I am going to share how harnessing the playoff mentality and this type of excitement can benefit your business.

Playoff Mentality and YOUR Business

There are a lot of parallels between sports and business. In fact, in many business meetings I’ve attended there have been sport metaphors used to express urgency, a level of performance.

  • “She hit a home run on that one.”
  • “He struck out with that client.”
  • “We need a game plan for that project.”

You don’t have to be a sports fan to see the parallels. Business is competitive, and you have to play to win. Just like the playoffs, it’s win or go home in business. However, the similarities are much deeper. Here are a few things I witnessed this weekend watching sports and how you can apply them to your business and create YOUR winning team.

Play to Win

You have to play to win. If you aren’t winning, you are losing and when you continuously lose, you go out of business. Playoffs bring an intensity and a sense of urgency with a win or go home scenario. You, and your employees, should bring that same intensity to your business, EVERYDAY!

Sports fans are cheering for their team to win every game. As a fan I’m receive no physical benefit from my team winning. The players, coaches and team organization benefit, but not the fans. So many times, in business though, employees don’t really care if the business wins. I have worked with employees that were almost cheering against their company because they didn’t see any benefit from winning.

Imagine if everyone in your company was doing everything they could to help the business win? How would that benefit your company? Now imagine if you had up to 70% of your employees indifferent to winning or even a handful actively working against you. Everyone from the CEO to the new hire walking in the door today need to be playing to win, and more importantly, needs to know what winning looks like!

Loyalty

This is something that just impresses me. Every weekend from September through January I see people out wearing something that represents their favorite team. It might be a jersey, t-shirt, gloves, jacket, hat, but it’s everywhere. Honestly, it continues all year round. Every week, fans are reminding me of their favorite brand (team), and nobody is paying them for the advertising!

People talk about their favorite teams waiting in line for coffee, on social media and at holiday parties. Sure, sports provide entertainment, but let me ask you this. Imagine if your customers had half the emotional connection to your products or services as they do to their sports team? People are loyal to their team, in good times and bad (unless they are consistently bad). Do your customers have that kind of loyalty to your brand? Do your employees have that type of loyalty?  Why not?

Eternal Optimism

Even the best teams don’t win the championship every year. Although there are always some that seem to be in contention every year. Consistently top performing teams take loss or a setback, or even a bad season, and build upon it. The next game, or the next season is always an opportunity to redeem yourself. Great teams don’t quit, they don’t give up, and they don’t accept defeat. They study setbacks, and build upon it to prevent them from happening again. Eternal optimism, and a sense of hope for the next challenge keeps them engaged, improving and loyal.

I have worked with individuals and teams that had become accustomed to losing the same problems on every project that they eventually accepted defeat as a way of life. This prevented growth, innovation, and eventually competitiveness. Do you struggle with the same challenges year after year? How are you working to resolve these problems, or have you accepted them? How could your business thrive if your team had eternal optimism?

This Week’s Challenge

How could having a playoff mentality in your business help you thrive? Find steps that you can incorporate into your business that will give your employees the same sense of loyalty and emotional attachment they have to their favorite sports team. When your employees begin to work with a playoff mentality, your company production, profits and customer loyalty will increase!

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.