Maximizing the Human Potential

Changing Management

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andrew shaffer consulting flexibility and controlDid you enjoy the game yesterday? Last week I talked about Flexibility and Control. As I was watching the Superbowl yesterday, I realize we were witnessing the balance of flexibility and control firsthand. For each play, the quarterback has a few plays he’ll call in the huddle. This is the control. When he gets to the line, he surveys the defense, and then has the flexibility to call an audible (change the play) based on the conditions he sees. Additionally, coaches start the game with a specific game plan, but will often adjust based on what is working and what isn’t. The next thing you’ll see in the NFL is a bunch of coaching changes as some coaches are fired, others promoted. This week’s blog discusses changing management and what that means in your company.

Changing Management

I once worked with a group of mid-level professionals that were frustrated with what they perceived as rotating management. Every few years, they would have new managers and they felt the inconsistencies was hurting their career. I mean, I get it. Just when they thought they knew what was expected someone else comes in with new ideas, new direction, and a new focus. This is challenging. They wanted to know why managers in their company rotated every two to three years, and why is this a good thing (or is it)?

Different Skills

In my above example, as that company was evolving and maturing, there were different needs. Even if you take a long-term project, there are different skills needed when planning, executing, and closing out a project. One person might not be good at all three phases, therefore different people are needed to ensure continuing success.

As a company progresses, there are different leadership skills needed along the way. For example, when a company is in its infancy, leadership must be quick and responsive. Your processes and procedures (if you even have them) are not optimized. Everyone on your team probably wears several hats, from sales to manufacturing, to maybe even financing and cleaning the shop. When the company matures, and you start hiring more. Then with more people you have to set job descriptions, procedures and processes to maintain consistency and predictability.

Career Progression

Rotating management also helps with career progression. I once worked with a manager that had basically been doing the same job for about fifteen years. He was probably about fifteen years from retirement, so my projection is he was going to keep doing the same thing for the next fifteen years. Eventually he’d see his colleagues move up the ranks, become peers, and eventually get promoted up the ladder. Why?

Well, he found himself in a niche, something where he provided value, and where he was comfortable and secure. He never took on new challenges (just variations of the same challenge) and didn’t develop new skills. He had a very narrow focus and struggled to see the “big picture”. As a result, there was no career progression, no advancement, and he wasn’t providing greater value to the company. His pay eventually maxed out, and he was destined to spend most of his career doing the same job. Job rotations are essential to updating, honing and developing new skills and perspective to grow in your own career.

Fresh Perspective

One of the big reasons for rotating management (or hiring a consultant) is to get a fresh perspective on existing problems. Often, leaders get so stuck in their paradigms they just can’t see how to get out of their own way. One of my favorite assignments was taking over a department that was struggling to find the success they had seen for decades. I brought with me a different paradigm, new ideas and was able to help them start to regain the success they were accustomed to having.

Rotating management, or bringing in new management, who isn’t immersed in your culture, will bring in a different perspective on your problems. Often there could be a natural resistance to that change, but when you can overcome that resistance progress happens.

This Week’s Challenge

How does your company make sure your leadership has the skills for where your company is, and where it is going? If you need help identifying what skills are needed, please contact us to learn how we can help!

Flexibility and Control

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andrew shaffer consulting flexibility and controlIn almost every job I’ve ever had or project I’ve ever undertaken there always something that didn’t go as planned. We spend hundreds of man hours coming up with a plan, trying to think of every thing that has to happen along the way. We brainstorm risks and put together mitigation plans to minimize the chances or impact if it happens. As they say, a battle plan is only good until it sees battle. In order to be successful, you should have the right mix of flexibility and control within your company. Today’s discussion will help you understand some of the natural conflicts between flexibility and control in your business and why they are necessary.

Flexibility and Control

You probably wish you could control everything in your organization. I mean why not? The more control you have over processes and procedures the more predictable your results, right? I have worked with numerous companies that are very proud of their processes, and display banners with different process certifications. They brag about it on their websites and capability statements.

Processes give you confidence in repeatable and predictable results. Here is the thing, your process also can provide repeatable and predictable mistakes. I have seen this, and the response is always the same: “But, I followed the process.” So, the solution is to add a new process.  Sooner or later, there is only process and no flexibility. Like Henry Ford said about the Model T, “you can have it in any color you want, as long as it’s black.” All control and no flexibility. Let’s look at some ways this occurs in your company.

Veteran vs. New Hire

How many times has a company, maybe even yours, hired someone from the outside to bring in a fresh perspective? This person comes in, with a bunch of ideas from his/her previous experience. After six months to a year, all those fresh perspectives are gone, and the person you hired to change things has fallen into the trap of “this is how it’s done here.”

I have worked with several companies, especially small to mid-size companies, where there is a distinct dichotomy in their employee base. Often you have an employee base that started with the company and has been there since the beginning. However, as they reach retirement age, new employees must be hired to fill the jobs. This isn’t always a generational thing, but it can be. You many have veterans at your company that have been there fifteen to twenty years, and another group maybe three to five years.

The veterans in your company typically lean to the control side of the spectrum. They have their ways of doing things, they follow their process and they get predictable results. That is why you have them working for you. However, when you bring in new people, they are generally lean more towards the flexible side of the spectrum. They are flexible because they don’t know your culture, your company habits, and they aren’t as set in their ways. They begin to question everything, and maybe even offer alternatives.

Solution

The fresh perspective that your new employees bring can help you add flexibility into your business. This does NOT mean that you change everything you have been doing. There has to be a balance. Your veteran employees helped you become the success you are right now. They understand the processes, and know how to get results.

I have been the new guy in this scenario. I worked with a team of veterans that had their process down pat. The trouble was, because they kept doing what they knew, they kept perpetuating the same mistakes. At first when I offered suggestions, I was dismissed because I was new and didn’t know enough about what they did. After all, they had decades of experience and I didn’t. Which is another way of saying they didn’t trust me. It wasn’t personal. They just didn’t trust that I had the background to make suggestions.

My solution, as the new guy was to understand the process, what they were doing, and why. I found that they had evolved (or devolved if you will) over the years cutting process to cut costs. Taking the time to understand their process and their history, added credibility to my suggestions. I was able to build trust because I wasn’t just telling them all the things they were doing wrong. As a result, I was able to offer a few suggestions to improve the process, without a complete overhaul, and the typical mistakes they had been experiencing became a thing of the past.

This Week’s Challenge

Do you have the right balance of flexibility and control? Do you have a culture that allows for new ideas from outsiders? If you need help creating this balance or culture, please contact us to learn how we can help!

Slowing Down to Speed Up

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Andrew Shaffer consulting slowing down to speed upI once had a mentor tell me that I needed to slow down to speed up. Now that sounds like an oxymoron, right? Something like hurry up and wait. He was right, I was trying to do too much all at once, and as a result I couldn’t do anything. I was just being pulled in too many directions to focus and concentrate on anything.  Over the years I have noticed a lot of people that could benefit from slowing down to speed up. Are you one?

Slowing Down to Speed Up

As a business leader you are not accustomed to going slow. By nature, you are a person that likes to take on a challenge and get things done. If anything, your success has made you take on even more and more risks, so you can grow your business. I have met many business owners like this, but the trouble is the end up taking on one too many things and it drags them down. Often, you try to expand your product line or enter a new market only to find that you can no longer sell like you used to and your profits are eroding. You might even find yourself in danger of losing your business. Why does this happen and what can YOU do about it?

Core Competencies

What are the core competencies of your business? I started my business to help companies transform cultures to improve employee performance, productivity and profits. Because I help with developing cultures and I work with business leaders, I am often asked if I do 1:1 coaching. I usually decline the 1:1 coaching, because that isn’t my core competency.

Business leaders, especially when they start seeing success, will often seek what else they can do to expand their company. When they get past their core competencies, they struggle, and the money and energy needed to expand their market place drains their resources and their core business begins to suffer.  I see this all the time on The Profit (which is one of my favorite shows). Stick with your core competency and expand from there. Taking on too much will spread your energy too thin and often lead to disaster.

Focus

What is even more dangerous than straying outside your core competency is changing direction once you’ve started an initiative. You sit down with your colleagues and decide that this year you are going to accomplish a certain goal. You had a great idea for a market expansion or new product line. However, before you finish your initial initiative, you find another good idea to pursue, so you shift focus. As a result, nothing gets done.

My friend Ross Foca, founder of the Power 6 Group, consults clients on the Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS) and advises his clients to focus on just a few things each quarter. He calls them rocks. This extra focus helps his clients accomplish more than they had in the past and gives them the flexibility to shift focus after the quarter ends.  Remember, if your idea was a good idea, it’s worth following through.

This Week’s Challenge

By nature, entrepreneurs are always looking for the next thing. You see a need and you’re eager to solve it. After starting a successful business, it’s natural to think you can resolve anything.  Put a system in place for making these types of decisions. The system shouldn’t be dependent on one individual (usually the founder) but include a team with several functions represented.  Once a decision is made, it is also important to follow through. If you don’t you run the risk of nothing being done.

To learn more about how to improve the chances of successful decision making and implementation please contact us to learn how we can help!

Employer of Choice

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andrew shaffer consulting employer of choiceLast week I had the opportunity to sit in on a discussion about the 2020 economic forecast. While the information presented showed a relatively good forecast there were some statistics that I think business owners should be concerned about, there are just not enough available people to fill the demand for workers! What does this mean for your company? How do you become the employer of choice for the limited supply of employees?

Employer of Choice

Last week while I was listening to an economist talk about his 2020 projections, he said something that kind of caught me off guard. I had written about economic forecasts before, but he mentioned that business are actually CLOSING because they can’t find enough workers! Most business owners prefer the problem of too much work versus not enough work, but if it puts you out of business what is the difference? In a tight labor market (for both skilled an unskilled workers) your competition will eventually try to hire YOUR employees. What are you doing to keep your best employees, and maintain your competitive edge?

Productivity

I was recently contacted by the HR director of a local company. She was looking for some help with new employee training and was looking for some resources. The turnover rate at her company was so high that she was spending most of her time recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding that she had very little time to devote to training, let alone her other job responsibilities. This isn’t a unique situation either. I know many HR consultants that are expanding their practices because many in-house HR representatives are just overloaded. Every hour that your HR department is focused on hiring and replacing staff, is an hour they aren’t focused on their other job responsibilities. Are you spending energy on unnecessary turnover?

Costs

The costs of replacing staff can also be a silent killer. There isn’t generally an expense line item that highlights costs of hiring. I just wrote about how unnecessary hiring is a time drain for your HR department, but how does it impact cost. There are studies out there that say that to replace skilled workers it could cost about 150% of their salary. I speculate that cost can grow even higher, as it is going to take longer and longer to find talented people to replace those that leave. Aside from the costs, there are lost productivity, potential damage to your reputation and customer satisfaction. What is unnecessary turnover costing your company, and how do you actively prevent it?

Some Help

This may sound like common sense, but I can tell you that it isn’t common practice: Pay attention to your employees! Without employees, your business cannot survive. Without thriving employees, your business cannot thrive. I know that in the hectic, ever changing world we live in, that taking time from your busy day to talk to your team sounds like an overwhelming burden, but I can tell you that the time investment will pay off.

Would you rather spend an hour a month developing talent, ensuring your team is motivated and loyal, or hire anther HR person for recruiting and developing talent? Do you want to keep your best performers, and even your average performers, or see them work for your competition? Spend some time understanding WHO your employees are, and developing them around their capabilities and desires, and you will become the employer of choice!

This Week’s Challenge

Make a commitment to learn more about your employees, what motivates them and what challenges them. Spending a few minutes a week talking to them about their needs will pay huge dividends. Andrew Shaffer Consulting offers a low-cost assessment to help you understand your employees and can get you on the fast track to becoming the employer of choice! Ask us how!

Accelerate Your Growth

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andrew shaffer consulting accelerate your growthNow that the Holidays are behind us and we are facing the first full week of the new year, how do you feel about 2020? I know that is a trick question. Will it be better than 2019? This year my blogs and newsletters are going to be focused on addressing problems that you have. As I meet with business owners, and hear about common struggles, I will share what I learn with you. I want to help you make 2020 a breakout year for you and your business. Today, let’s talk about how to accelerate your growth.

Accelerate Your Growth

At the end of last year (2019) I talked to a surprising number of business owners that didn’t see their businesses improve from 2018. Revenue and profits were just about the same year to year. One of the reasons I found this surprising is because I met with a few business owners that said their business was booming with huge year to year returns. I found the contrast odd, and often it was within the same industries. So, what is the difference?

Performance

Employee performance underpins everything a company accomplishes. There is no doubt that the better your employees perform, the better the company performs. Absenteeism, turnover and a lack of wiliness to change all hurt performance. These problems are typically caused by low employee engagement, although the root cause of low engagement will different for everyone.

Typically, I see companies take a team approach to employee engagement, instead of making it about the employee. Companies will bring in experts in team building to conduct workshops or have social events so “everyone can get to know each other”. Teambuilding is not engagement. Engaged teams do perform better as a team, but teambuilding doesn’t build engagement.

To improve employee performance, I recommend that you:

  • Make sure you have the right people in the right jobs based on desire, capabilities and aptitude.
  • Find those employees that might be toxic to your culture and deal with them appropriately. It will show strong leadership on your part.
  • Improve communication with your employees. Understand what motivates them and discuss assignments in ways that get them excited.

Decisions

I once sat in a staff meeting where my boss was sharing a new initiative from our executive. He unilaterally decided he wasn’t going to implement the new initiative because he thought it was the “flavor of the month.” Although he set a poor example, (if he didn’t listen to his boss, why should I listen to him?) he was right. The initiative was never implemented, and there were no consequences. Now, how effective do you think that executive is going to be? Do you think there was going to be any positive impact? Probably not.

In most companies, things don’t happen just because the boss says go make it happen. Sure, something might happen, but people don’t generally respond favorably to a direct order. “Because I said so” is not a recommended management technique. If you want to make sure your decisions are implemented, you need to engage your employees. The most effective way to do this, is to have a system in place where your employees (the ones implementing your ideas) have some input into the decision and how it will be implemented. When decisions are made, explain why a certain decision was made. Keep in mind to use different communications styles so your message is received.

Development

Develop your employees. Help them build the skills necessary to perform at a high level. I have had a lot of discussion recently about how to do this, so I am going to share some guidelines.

Create development plans to help your employees develop skills for this job and the next. Development plans should be based on company objectives. For example, if you are implementing a new technology or going after a new product line. Create a training program that will have the most lasting impact. Consider using instructor lead, online, or on the job training. Consider how the person will be involved, a manager might not need the same type of training as a technician responsible for doing the work.

Employee development should be designed to develop new skills the company needs to take the organization into the future. If you cannot draw a straight line from the training to the business objective, you should consider if your training is necessary.

This Week’s Challenge

If your performance in 2019 was less than impressive, or if you want to make sure that 2020 is a breakout year, start with employee performance. Get your team motivated, engaged, and excited about what this year has to offer. Employee engagement isn’t about making people happy, it’s about driving business forward and ultimately, you will accelerate your growth.

If you need help, or would like to learn more about how to drive performance, productivity and profits, please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help!

Reward Performance

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As the end of the year is approaching, many of the business leaders I talk to are SUPER busy. They are in the final stages of closing out 2019, planning for 2020, employee reviews, compensation plans and merit increases. That’s a lot! Because often times merit and compensation are tied to performance and performance reviews, I thought I’d address some of the conversations I’ve been having to help you think through how you will reward performance.

Reward Performance

Over the last few weeks I have talked to many business leaders who were working through their bonus/merit increase plans. In most cases the business owner was struggling to make sure that the reward system actually rewarded the behaviors they wanted to see in their employees. This week let’s look at some of the intangibles that should be considered in your plan for rewarding performance.

Quantity or Quality

One of the most obvious paradoxes is the quantity or quality metrics. Many businesses, especially in a production atmosphere, have metrics on how many widgets get produced over a given period of time. One business leader was discussing the challenge he was facing. He had an individual that was a high performer. His production outpaced everyone in the factory. However, he also had the highest quality defects.

When there were quality issues, it often cost the company money, or at the very least their reputation took a hit. On the other hand, he had some “solid” performers. The solid performers didn’t perform as well, and maybe even struggled to meet quotas. However, their quality was superb. They might do 80% of the production but had almost zero defects.  Do you reward the high performer with the occasional defect or the sold performer that missed quotas but has an eye toward quality?

80/20 Rule

They say that 20% of your employees will take up 80% of your time. Another business leader was discussing her project managers. She had one project manager that she wasn’t sure how to reward. The manager had an excellent track record for completing projects on time and within budget. Who doesn’t want a project manager like that? However, the project manager was afraid of making mistakes and needed a lot of “hand holding” from her managers distracting them from their other responsibilities (and project managers).

On the other hand, there were other project managers, that would struggle on a project from time to time. When this happened, the manager would learn from the mistake and perform better next time. Who gets rewarded, the manager that had a good track record, but consumed her managers time, or the project manager that required less support but made the occasional mistake?

Attitude

Lastly, there is the manager that had some “brilliant” people on their team. They had some specialized skills that few in the company had, and because of that gave them a competitive advantage. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? They are brilliant and give a competitive advantage, they deserve to be compensated! However, they thought they were irreplaceable and therefore were arrogant. They refused to take direction or follow process and difficult to work with. They completed work because of their “brilliance” but it was often over budget because of the lack of process and taking direction.

There were other employees that didn’t necessarily have the “brilliance” but were coachable, easy to work with and took direction. They produced consistent results and their performance improved year over year because of their coachability.  Who do you reward, the arrogant team that is difficult to work but give you a competitive edge, or the solid performers that are coachable and constantly improving?

This Week’s Challenge

When you are developing a compensation or reward system, make sure it is rewarding the behaviors you think are important. I always went out of my way to reward those that took time to coach and mentor others, creating the next generation high performers. If you need help developing a system that properly incentivizes and rewards your employees contact us, we can help!

If you need help, or would like to learn more about how to retain your top performers, please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help!

Decision Making

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andrew shaffer consulting decision makingMany business leaders I speak to express frustrations with their team’s inability to change behaviors. The executive team will make decisions or create a new strategy only to have the employees resist. This can be extremely frustrating at best, and kill your business at worse. There are many things that go into good decision making, and ensuring that decisions are actually followed through. Today I am going to challenge you to review your decision making process. Could your process be impeding your ability to get things done?

Decision Making

One of the fundamental duties of leaders and managers in any organization is decision-making. Leaders and managers make decisions every day from prioritizing and assigning tasks to how to implement a new strategy. The decision-making process in every company is different and unique to its own culture. Decisions could be made by the owner/CEO, or by a board or committee.

It doesn’t matter how decisions are made in your company there are real consequences to your employees with each decision, although some decisions have a bigger impact than others. In my experience your decision making process can have the greatest impact on employee retention and productivity. Here are some things you can do to make sure your decisions don’t have a negative effect on your company.

Communicate

I was in a meeting with a dozen or so employees at a company as they were learning about a new corporate policy regarding their benefits. The Human Resources department put together a detailed Power Point presentation to clearly explain the changes and the impacts to the employees. Human Resources representatives were at each presentation to answer any questions that the employees might have. They were well versed on the details of the new program, however they never adequately communicated why the decision to change the benefits was made. What was the rationale behind the decision? As a result, the employees assumed that it was made to appease shareholders at the extent of the employees. Was that the case? I don’t know. Does it matter? No, that was the perception and perception rules. I can tell you that the employees did not feel VALUED after that meeting.

Seek Input

In today’s social media driven world of comments and likes people express their opinions on almost everything. This culture of sharing opinions flows over into the workplace as well. Employees like to have some say in the decision-making process. They like to have their voices heard. In large organizations it is challenging or unreasonable to expect that everyone has their opinions heard.

However, their voices usually can and should be represented in the decision making process. Employees and management alike could have a “seat at the table” for decision making. This does NOT mean that you have to implement every decision from all stakeholders. It does mean that all viewpoints are considered in the process. Then when decisions are made the concerns expressed by all decision makers should be addressed when communicating the decision. Letting people know that they were heard and part of the process increases engagement, and helps improve retention and productivity among your teams.

Executing

I have observed meetings where senior executives (or even front-line managers) have made decisions, but never executed the decision. What a waste of time and energy! Why were they not executed? It could be a wide variety of things from feeling excluded the process, not understanding why or how to implement the decision or just thinking the decision was stupid (managers don’t understand how work gets done). Whenever a decision is made, someone has to implement or execute the decision. Allowing everyone to be represented in the process, communicating the why behind the decision, and adding accountability helps ensure that your decisions are executed and you get the results you are looking for.

This Week’s Challenge

How are decisions made in your company? Are your decisions having the impact you want them to have?  Do you need help setting up a decision-making process that is inclusive, and achieves the desired outcomes?  We can help.

If you need help, or would like to learn more about how to retain your top performers,  please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help!

Employee All-Stars

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andrew shaffer consulting employee all-starsHappy Veterans day to all veterans.  Thank you for your service. Last week I had the opportunity to speak at a lunch sponsored by What’s Up Media and the Crofton Chamber of Commerce. I talked about elevating performance and how building a team of high performers can help your company beat 80% of the competition. The challenge for many small businesses is that they often can’t pay the highest salaries or provide the best benefits.  So how do you attract and retain employees that give you a competitive advantage?

Employee All-Stars

When it comes to working with employees, business leaders KNOW that about 20% of their team takes most of their time. Typically, what happens is the highest performers get ignored. Why? Well, because are doing a good job, and really don’t require much attention. They work hard, get the job done and are always dependable. Karie Willyerd points out in her article “What High Performers Want at Work”, that “A high performer can deliver 400% more productivity than the average performer”. (Karie Willyerd – NOVEMBER 18, 2014).  So, the questions aren’t about being able to afford your All-Stars, but can you afford to lose your All-Stars?

Provide a challenge

All-Stars don’t become all-stars on accident. They challenge themselves to improve, and do things better, faster, and cheaper than others. They enjoy the challenge of performing at a high level. Without that challenge, high performers will get bored, and look to fill that need elsewhere (like your competition). There are always new challenges and problems you are facing as a business owner. Ask your All-Stars to help you find new and challenging problems to solve. Include them on strategic initiatives, new projects, or process improvements. Your business will be able to separate from the competition, and your star employees will remain challenged and engaged.

Create a game

Creating games in your business is always fun. It brings out the competitive nature in people, and boosts morale (if the game is fair). I’m not talking about going bowling or having a bocce tournament in the lawn at work. I am talking about a game that affects business outcomes.

Ideas would be to challenge each shift in a manufacturing facility to see who can produce more on a single shift or have the fewest quality defects. You could challenge salespeople to see who can land the biggest contract. Create a game that promotes desired business outcomes, make it challenging and achievable, and again you’ll see morale improve. Not only will your all-stars benefit, but you may create some more all-star employees!

Performance based pay

As I stated earlier that “A high performer can deliver 400% more productivity than the average performer”. If you truly have a high performer, and they are that productive, you will get a competitive advantage.  Share in some of the reward with the employee.  Pay could be based on commission, based on overall company performance, or even equity. This gives the employee a feeling that he/she had skin in the game. They are recognized and rewarded for their hard work and incentivized to continue to improve. This is another win-win for you and the employee.

This Week’s Challenge

Don’t forget your employee All-Stars. If you take them for granted, your competition may not. Find ways to incentivize and recognize your all-stars to make sure they continue to give you the competitive advantage you need!

If you need help, or would like to learn more about how to retain your top performers,  please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help!

Corporate Growing Pains

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andrew shaffer consulting corporate growing painsI once heard someone explain life as a series of challenges.  Life tends to throw a problem your way and continue to throw that problem at you until you figure out how to solve it. Once you solve the problem you never have to solve it again, BUT you will be presented with a new problem. For example, at one point in my kids’ lives, they wanted to learn to ride a bike. When they were learning they would often fall or run into a tree. I don’t know why they’d run into the tree it didn’t move, but they did. Eventually they learned to ride a bike – problem solved. The next problem was learning to do a wheelie or jump off a ramp. Then the falling started all over again.  As you can see life is never without problems.  Just like in life, your business has a series of problems to solve, like corporate growing pains. Today I am going to share some of these problems so you can look forward to what comes next!

Corporate Growing Pains

Most of what I am going to talk about today is my takeaways from the book Managing Corporate Lifecycles by Ichak Adizes. This book is eye opening and I highly recommend it.  In this book, Adizes highlights the fact that at each growth stage of a company there are normal and abnormal problems. Understanding and overcoming the normal problems helps you advance to the next stage of development. When you don’t solve the problems of any given stage as you advance, the problem then becomes abnormal and can and will threaten the survival of the business. On your way to becoming a prime company, here are some of the stages you must survive.

Infancy

Infancy is that stage when the business is born. As an entrepreneur, you decided to take a risk and start a business. You are full of optimism, hope and the future is looking good through your rose-colored glasses. In this stage of development, cash is king.  It is all about making sales and brining in cash. Cash is the life blood of your business and without it the business will go under. There are investors to pay back, there is likely bank loans and the entrepreneur needs cash to feed his/her family as well. During infancy the business owner’s commitment will be challenged. Negative cash flow is the norm, and the investors are always asking questions to protect their interests.  In this stage the business owner is focused on product development and brining in revenue!

Toddler

Once you as the business owner finally makes it past the infancy stage and is generating cash, you enter the toddler stage, or “Go-Go”, as the author puts it.  In this stage you want to try everything they can get your hands on.  Expand into this market or buy this other business. You are chasing just about every shiny object that catches your eye. And why not? After all you have survived infancy and have proven your business can generate cash.

This creates a problem where the company can become spread too thin. Perhaps you lose focus a little on what the company’s core competencies are. Your energy is too widely dispersed, and you lack appropriate controls to aid in decision making and process improvement. Often you are reluctant to instill the discipline necessary to manage all the new aspects of the business and resist any attempts by anyone to exert those controls.

Adolescence

Those owners that finally do recognize that they need to have controls, discipline and processes in place are ready to move into adolescence. Just like your teenage years, adolescence is a turbulent time. This is when your business moves from the wild, “let’s try everything” to “now I have to create structure so I can execute effectively.”  This is frequently when you, or your business’ board begins to hire professional managers. And, if you’ve ever read the book The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber you’ll know that a manager and an entrepreneur are at odds with each other.  The manager likes to create order and the entrepreneur is always looking for the next thing to go do.

In this stage there will be conflict throughout the organization. The founders will resist the manager, and the manager will resist the founder. The workforce will be divided with some people wanting and needing the structure that the administrator needs, while others will desire the freedom they had before “there were all these rules.” However, whenever a company can successfully pass through each of these stages, they will enter their prime, where there is the right mix of entrepreneurship, administration, controls, and processes for the company to reach its full potential.

This Week’s Challenge

I must caution you that I just summarized about 400 pages if information into less than 900 words. My intention was to highlight some of the normal problems have on their way to prime.  This week’s challenge is to understand the problems your company has, and if they are normal or abnormal for whatever phase your business is in.  Identify and solve those problems and your company can begin to thrive!

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.

Creating Innovation

By

andrew shaffer consulting creating innovationAre you continually frustrated by repeatedly dealing with the same problems? Are you tired of running into the same problems on every project? Does the inability to see new solutions to existing problems frustrated you? Are you fed up with “This is the way we’ve always done it?” If your employees are not as innovative as your competition, your destined to mediocrity or worse! You might go out of business! So, how do you go about creating innovation in your business?

Creating Innovation

Your business is will either grow or die.  I’ve said that several times in my writing, and it is true. In order to grow, your company must innovate. I have worked with companies that were stuck in the “This is the way we’ve always done it?” mentality. Because of that the competition was growing in market share, and customer satisfaction was plummeting. When this started having severe impacts on the business, we were able to turn it around by focusing on leadership and engagement. Here are some simple things you can do to help improve your company’s innovation and market domination.

Proactive Leadership

Proactive leadership means looking forward and not backwards. Leaders cannot spend their time dealing with fires all day and never take time to prevent fires. A proactive leader anticipates future struggles and is prepared when they come.

Performance Management

Performance management is one of the fundamental responsibilities of a leader. Teach leaders how to do this on a continuous basis. And, show leaders how that actually benefits the employee, the company, and customers.

Talent Development

When your team isn’t growing, your company isn’t growing. When your company isn’t growing, the gap between you and your competition closes. Investing in developing the talent already on your team will sharpen your competitive edge.

Employee Engagement

A 360° approach to employee development creates positive and meaningful interactions between leadership and employees drives employee engagement. Engaged employees are more loyal, productive, and provide a better customer experience. In short, engaged employees help you stand out from your competition.

Accountability

Accountability means having people do what they say they will do. People have to be accountable to themselves, to their leaders, to their direct reports and to their peers. Leaders cannot tolerate a culture without accountability. It is a morale killer. An employee development system has to incorporate aspects of accountability for it to work. ASC brings metrics for accountability that ensures your success.

This Week’s Challenge

How does your company foster innovation and creativity? Are your employees fully engaged? Or, are they just checking boxes? Do you have a culture to help you succeed?

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.