Clearly an incident where a personal visit or video chat would have saved a neighborhood brawl..

Email and written notes are overused and can be destructive.

Whenever possible, have a face-to-face discussion with someone to communicate an idea, a feeling, whatever.

I loved keeping a list of items I’d normally email out to each person and at our weekly meeting, I’d go through each of the items on our list in person instead of wasting time sending the information via email.

I teach CEO’s to be careful of buying into the lie and deception that ‘email can save time communicating’.  I’ve seen executives become angry and quit from a misunderstood email, and companies fold because email became their main source of communicating, stripping them bare of culture, trust and human connection.

Skype Video or iChat
One of  tools that is becoming widely popular for obvious reasons is video chat.  It’s fantastic for building relationships with people who are both near and far away. I’ve found that if you can get a prospective client on a call using video chat it’s much easier to build a relationship and close the deal.

I use video chat daily in coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs, and if I had employees living and working remotely (or even 2 floors down!)  I would do all of our calls on video chat versus the phone.  The connection is just so much stronger and best of all, it’s free!

Tom Peters, in his book “ In Search of Excellence: Lessons from Americas Best Run Companies”, which was one of the first business books I ever read talked about management by walking around – MBWA.  It became the big buzz word 25 years ago and is still used today.

MBWA got into the fact that management tended to sit at their desks in private offices, or in board rooms with other managers who spent their time in private offices, and they made decisions about the business without having any real insights into the day-to-day or what the employees actually thought or did.

A mentor of mine Albert Koopman taught me about the South African way of leading teams.  And it’s very different from the American autocratic/paternalistic style where leaders decide, and leaders tell subordinates what to do, and then hold them accountable to do it.

As Albert explained to me, in South Africa the largest majority of the workforce are black.  According to Albert, “If you ‘tell them’ what to do they’ll fight back or simply won’t comply.  So what they do as managers in South Africa is tell the workforce what the goals are, show them the direction the company is going in, and then let the workers figure out what and how to do it.”

They essentially inspire a team to go where they want them to go. I mentor CEO’s this very significant and effective point in running a business. This is how EVERY company should be led.

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture.

Coaching and developing people is core to any leader’s role, and it requires communication.

Not sure where I heard this, but the phrase; “the ability to get people promoted is the best sign of a great leader” couldn’t be more accurate.  I know I heard it back in the 1980′s during my College Pro Painters days when we spent a lot of time coaching & mentoring franchisees.

Coaching done well is an art, and it helps build communication skills. You take in the information from a coach and turn it into real-world action. By developing the ability to take in that kind of information and turn it into results is a precious skill, and one that should be developed in each of your employees.

The best athletes in the world have coaches and still learn from them. Employees in a growing organization need the same skill development. Learning how to adapt our coaching styles to different situations and give constructive guidance and feedback are important every day because it helps us process information and that turn that into action.

We spend time coaching someone in a business setting because we need the learner to increase their results so we can hit our goals. At the end of the day, coaching will assist us in hitting the results leaders are supposed to hit, too, because we’re communicating our vision for our organization.

There is no question that preparation is one of the most important areas of coaching. If not done properly, the coach is merely flying by the seat of their pants and the learner knows this. This is what I do as I myself, coach and mentor CEO’s in running their businesses.

For information on this topic, check out: Leadership at 100MPH.

Before committing to complete a project or set something up as a goal, ensure you spend some time thinking about what the potential return on investment is. That is, what is the return on your investment of time, money or resources in doing this project going to be?  Is it really worth it?

It’s often not about picking which projects to do, but rather it’s about picking which projects NOT to do that will set you up for success.  Recently I had a debate with a woman on Twitter.  She was telling people to spend one hour a day on Twitter, and I said, “Really? Really? Do you really want people spending one out of eight hours every day Tweeting?  Why?” What’s the ROI they are looking for from it?  If you were going to spend 12.5% of your time on one activity such as using Twitter, then in my mind, you’d damn well better have a goal or ROI in mind before starting out.

Every year, about three to four months before the start of the New Year, I mentor CEOs on how to have an Annual Planning Retreat to come up with the top three to five goals for the company. They’ll decide on goals tied to revenue, profit, customer service, employee satisfaction and perhaps something on systems. These annual goals provide the framework for setting quarterly goals going forward.

Every quarter, each business area and each person in your company should be setting up the top three to five goals they will achieve during the quarter to drive the company’s yearly goals.  Imagine the focus your company would have if you knew what each of the top three to five goals each person in your company was achieving every quarter.  Imagine how focused and aligned everyone would become.

High-performing people set goals religiously, track them religiously, they obsess about whether they’re hitting or missing, and why.  Otherwise life just passes by.

When you’re hiring people, ensure you hire people who already set goals in their personal and business lives. Then it won’t be such a stretch to have them setting clear goals in the business each quarter, month and week.

Life isn’t just about goals for your business, though. My goals also include the amount of free time I want in my life.  I set goals for the amount of “Free Days” I’ll have.  A “Free Day” for me is a twenty-four hour period with no email, no business journals, business magazines, newspapers, not a single phone call–it’s just a twenty-four hour period of free time to spend time on the fun stuff in life with people I love.

In 2009, my goal was to have one hundred twenty Free Days.  I had more than one hundred fifty Free Days in the end, however, I got a bit sloppy and checked email randomly from my darn iPhone. I took close to ninety Saturdays and Sundays off, not working at all.  I also took twenty-one perfect Free Days at our cottage in the summer and physically left my iPhone and laptop in Vancouver.  I’m doing it again this summer for sure.

Simply working hard isn’t what it’s all about. As a business coach and mentor, I believe that having the discipline to even take Free Days is the kind of focus you need to give yourself real work life balance, too.   What goals are you setting?

Put family time in your calendar first and schedule everything else around it.

I’ve always wanted to walk my kids to school. So I do. Every day I have a standing appointment from 8:45am – 9:15am when I can walk them to school. I book breakfasts, meetings and calls around that time.

Sometimes I need to use that spot, but I bet I walk my kids to school more often than you do. And I’ll remember that more than the meeting I could have had.

Ask for your kid’s school calendar from September through June like I do.  Book off time on all the dates your kids are available.  Those ‘professional development days’ that teachers get off are so random, but they make great days to play with the kids. This is way better bonding time than some school play we watch them in once and try so hard to attend.

I just got the school calendar today for the 2010/2011 school year.  I’ll be blocking off ALL the dates they are off school in this week so I’m off work on those days to play with them and make more memories.  I’m already looking forward to September.  What do you do to have more balance & time with your kids?

pic Chris Lopez

This video of Daniel Pink’s is one of the most important ones that business people will watch. 10 minutes. Watch it. Comments ?

World Cup Soccer Balls

What’s a Goal?

Seriously.

I coach and mentor CEOs to help them grow their revenues, profits, customer satisfaction & employee engagement.

In my coaching role I look at the goals the CEOs set every two weeks.  And often I’m astounded at what I see.  For starters, it’s no wonder that so many companies set hazy goals.  The CEOs are pretty much setting hazy goals too.  And to be fair they also set some awesome ones too.

What’s a SMART Goal though?

In my world of business which started with College Pro Painters back in 1986, we had our own version of SMART Goals.

• Shared – Sharing them with a team member, spouse, coach, boss etc. all make goals stick.
• Measurable – There has to be a number.  We need to know if you Hit or Missed.  Numbers tell us that.
• Attainable – Make them a stretch.  But make sure you can hit them.
• Relevant – Why are you even doing it? Will it drive your Monthly or Quarterly Goals?
• Time Based – When in your calendar will you do it? Not when will it be done by. When will you do it?

Recently, I’ve uncovered one test that really takes Measurable to the perfect level.  The goal MUST have either a # sign, $ sign, or % sign.

So, what are the TOP 5 Goals you’re committing to this week.  Share them with us in the comments.  Let’s see if they are SMART.

Ray Kroc grew McDonalds from a few locations to the enormously powerful brand we all know and secretly crave.

He had a particularly cut-throat saying about business: “When the competition is drowning, stick a hose in their mouths.”

While that sounds brutal, Kroc understood that in a recession competitors leave themselves vulnerable. He knew that the best time to eliminate your competition is when they’re at their weakest–during an economic downturn.

I once saw a Nike t-shirt that said, “Somewhere, right now, someone is practicing.  When they meet you head to head in competition, they’ll beat you.”

As a CEO coach, I see that this seizing on vulnerability is where business is most like sports.  Your competition is naturally your opponent, and when you come to the game unprepared for the challenge, someone will be waiting for you to choke, and when you do, they’ll happily leave you on the sidelines while they advance toward their goal.

Hiring competitors’ salespeople, proactively targeting your competitors’ clients and even re-pricing your products or services to attract those clients will help you and hurt your competitor.  Worry more about yourself, but when the competition is drowning, stick a hose in their mouth.  This is one area I mentor CEOs on when I’m coaching them.

‘Survival of the fittest’ isn’t just for the Serengeti – it is alive and well in your industry too.  Who’ll win?

pic Poliza

Eighty percent of your results come from twenty percent of your clients – as a business coach, I always advise CEO’s to at least fire the bottom twenty percent of your clients (they’re sucking up eighty percent of your time).

Feels odd to be thinking about getting rid of some of your revenues at any time, let alone during an economic downturn, but these clients likely generate very little revenue, and perhaps even cost you money.  So get rid of them.

Your bottom 20% also take up more of your time and energy too.

When cutting these bottom twenty percent clients, you can also eliminate some of the waste or overhead you have in supporting them.  You’ll free up time in all areas of your business especially shipping, customer service and accounting.  You’ll save time in your sales meetings by not talking about these clients.

Fire the bottom twenty percent: clients who take up time, suck up energy or don’t pay their bills. You’ll free up more time for your profitable clients and get more business from new, better ones.

Who would you rather spend time with?  Your Top 5% or your Bottom 20%?  Where are you spending it now?