Most top performers work for really average companies.

Your job is to find the amazing people that work somewhere else and get them to work for you.

Don’t make a habit of recruiting and hiring unemployed people.  Find the go-getters that have jobs right now!

On the day Intrawest Ski Resorts were acquired by Fortress, I was on the phone to all the top people at the company telling them I wanted to hire everyone good because it was going to implode.

I eventually hired five of their key people over the next three months because I knew that these people had already been working for a high performance organization. I just went out and got them. It was as easy as that.

Getting the right people can be easy if you’re willing to make it happen.  I often see entrepreneurs struggle because they don’t know how to seek out exceptional people or they don’t work hard enough searching for the gems.

My grandfather, Cam Shortts, who recently died at 96, taught me how to hire great people. He owned a hunting and fishing resort in Northern Ontario called Lift-The-Latch Lodge, and he’d take me duck hunting as a teenager.

Grandpa always knew exactly what kinds of ducks he wanted before we set out to hunt: blue-winged teals, mallards, wood ducks and canvas backs. He also knew what kind he didn’t want: fish ducks. Before we set out on any hunting expedition, he made it clear what his goals were, and that our reward was only as worthwhile as the ducks we’d selected.

Recruiting the right people is just like duck hunting: you must have a crystal clear picture in your mind of exactly what you’re looking for, and good aim.

You also need to be sure that all new hires will truly impress every person they interact with, whether it’s customers, strategic partners, vendors, the media, or the public at large.

So know exactly who you want to hire, go find them, and shoot them out of the sky.

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

A company’s leadership teams need a weekly meeting structure to update each other and stay on the same page. ‘Weekly Action Review,’ or a WAR meeting is a weekly ninety minute meeting that each department holds for their entire team. The format is based on a process called ‘Forum Meetings’ used by Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) and Young Presidents Organization (YPO).

For the first thirty minutes of WAR, each person give a quick three to five minute update that answers these questions:

► What went well last week?

► What didn’t go well last week?

► Where am I stuck?

► What are the TOP three things to work on this week?

Having each person follow this system keeps each team aligned with what their working on.

The second thirty minutes is when the team reviews the metrics on the dashboard for that business area, looking for areas of concern as well as bright spots. By reviewing the key numbers for their business area every week, people start holding each other accountable, and realizing their key metrics roll up to the leadership team, so they must figure out the answers before they are asked.

During the final thirty minutes the group tries to “un-stick” some of the areas that team members were stuck on earlier. The group works together to share experiences and ideas to help out their teammates.  This simple sharing process is really impactful in building a team versus allowing the creation of silos, which prevent unification.

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

While all of your competitors complain about the economy, and spend their time reading every article that confirms their fears, go in the opposite direction.

When companies start laying people off, the great employees fear for their jobs. If you’re hiring salespeople when everyone is laying them off, the positive buzz that you’re still hiring will start to spread – even to customers.

What’s even better? Imagine if you hired one of your competitor’s best salespeople–what would happen then? It would impact both of your companies in precisely the way you want to in a competitive world.

I know it seems odd that while in the middle of a recession you’d want to hire more people, but the people you are hiring are the rainmakers.  You’re hiring people to increase sales, add money to your gross margin, and increase buzz about your company and brands.

pic Search Engine Genie

The Love Guarantee

The members that constitute a business community drive the bus and create demand. Providing an innovative product is only half the battle. Sustained success lies in keeping customers happy and coming back for more. Any company can claim superior customer service, but can they walk the walk?

I Love Rewards has been wildly successful in this, and we have the raving fans to prove it. Here’s why every company should develop their own version of our Love Guarantee:

Clients don’t have power, end users do. Clients won’t keep buying a product the user isn’t happy with. Dedicate a team to manage member happiness, and not only will that keep members happy, but clients loyal.

Customers are brand ambassadors. Marketing dollars buy presence and are essential, but reputation and credibility in the business community trump when it comes down to closing a deal. Keep customers happy and they’ll go to bat for you when you call on them for prospect referrals.

Competitors offer a viable alternative (and are trying to do it better). Competitors are well versed in your strengths and weaknesses, so don’t grant them an opportunity to fill a gap in your customer service. Establish a guarantee that is open ended and maintain a stop-at-nothing attitude to take satisfaction to the ultimate level: loyalty.

An I Love Rewards member, Michael McNamara, recently redeemed points to surprise his wife with a night at the Horseshoe Resort for a birthday, wedding anniversary, and Mother’s Day celebration. Unfortunately the redemption certificate was slow to arrive and upon booking his stay the reservation was refused based on a new two-night minimum policy.

His call to Member Support brought a happy ending. Within minutes one of our representatives found the problem, and an above and beyond solution. The bad news was that the vendor had failed to communicate the resort’s policy change. The good news was that they offered to cover the cost of the second night. We took an extra step to have flowers delivered to the room. In response, we received these words of praise from Michael:

“As a manager for front line Call Center employees I can be very hard to impress as my expectations are extremely high. I am very happy to say you not only met but exceeded every expectation I had”

The Love Guarantee Lesson: The Love Guarantee is our secret ingredient, ensuring that clients and their members love everything about their interaction with our company. Our promise to customers is, “We’ll stop at nothing to make sure your program members love everything about their experience”. We convert system hiccups and member concerns into opportunities to exercise the outstanding service and make continuous improvements. We welcome and challenge you to borrow our idea to do the same.

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

Over the years, I’ve kept an updated list of tips I’ve read about to stay focused.

Every six months, I’ll come across it and re-read it, and it always gives me a little boost of focus to get more done.

Hopefully some of these ideas will help you and your team focus more, too.

· Breathe – I saw a great speaker, Victoria Labalme, and during her talk she was quoting the famous mime Marcel Marceaux, under whom she had studied.  Marcel used to say, “breathe, breathe.”  And it’s amazing how just slowing down to breathe like they do in yoga really helps the brain focus.

· Compress Time - Pretend you only have two hours a day to work.  What three to five things would you do during those two hours a day? Once you know what those are, delegate or stop doing everything else that you currently do. And start doing only those three to five things all day, every day.

· Eat – Something! It’s hard to concentrate when your tummy is rumbling, so have a light snack before you settle in to work on your top priorities. Not only will you avoid the “When is lunch?” thoughts, a healthy snack will give you more energy and help you to think better, too. Cathy Stucker gave me this advice, and it’s one I always remember.

· Get out of email – Email has got to be one of the worst time-wasters ever.  Start your day working on one of your TOP 5 projects for the day.  Check email at 4pm and no earlier. It really can wait.  As soon as you start checking email, the temptation will be to get sucked into it, draining your productivity.

Years ago, at 9am, I sent all eight of my direct reports the same email: “Don’t tell anyone, but come find me in the boardroom right away.”  I then walked calmly to the boardroom.  Within three minutes, six of my eight reports were in the boardroom.  The other two were there by the five minute mark.  It quickly showed me and them how little they were focused on the critical projects and how distracted they could be with emails. I’ve even tried this with CEOs whom I mentor and coach.  Most of them fail terribly, calling me instantly.  A few are awesome, and don’t call until the following day, saying, “Sorry I didn’t get to you sooner, I’m doing what you told me and not checking email’.  AWESOME.

· Let Fear Guide You – Nothing helps you focus quite like it. Harness it.

· Minimize Distractions – I think there is actually a Latin phrase for this, but I have no idea what it is.  Essentially it means, “a messy desk is a messy mind.”  The more clutter you have on the desk, workstation and walls around you, the more distracted you are. Keeping a clean work area will help you focus.

· Put Your Headphones On – Put ‘em on, put on some great tunes, and crank out your work. I actually can be hyper-productive listening to a genre of music called “Psy-Trance.”  It’s gets every ounce of me pumped up and focused.

· Reward Yourself - Break your projects into small achievable parts and upon completion of each part give yourself a reward, like a night out.  I don’t allow myself a glass of wine with dinner unless I have the next day’s TOP 5 in writing.

· Set Timers – It may seem crazy, but you can use a simple timer. Set it for thirty minutes and then focus on ONE THING until the thirty minutes is up.

· Slay the Dragon – Figure out what the big ugly task is that you have to do today.  Then, start with it first. Once you have the thing you are dreading out of the way, the rest looks easy.

· Tell Two Others – Tell two to three people that you are going to do something and by when. Be very specific about the date and what the outcome will be.  Get them to tell you the key projects they will get done today, too.

· Turn Off The Damn “DING” – Turn off the notification on all software on your devices.  The last thing you want if you’re trying to focus is something telling you your attention is required elsewhere. Remember the old AOL,“You’ve got mail!” announcement? Evil. But it’s been replaced with a million other “dings,” “pings,” and “pop-ups.” You don’t need any of this when you’re trying to be productive.

· Write ‘Em Down – Know that saying, “out of sight, out of mind?” It applies to the items on your daily to-do list, so put your weekly and daily lists on a white board, flip chart, or even a Post-It note on your monitor.  I used an app called “Stickies” on my Mac.  Seeing your key projects in front of you all day will force you to focus.