The 'A' Team - Change Your Thinking

"If you want something to change, you have to change the way you think about it."

- Lynette Ladd, President of Chemworks

I saw a recent study that found only 29% of employees are engaged and that engaged employees produce 202% of the average employee. Here is proof of those findings:  

Below there is a link to a 6 or so minute recording of a client of mine. Lynnette Ladd is the owner of a Chemical Manufacturing company in Dallas, Texas - Chemworks. She is a Chemist by training and started this company about 5 years ago.

I met her in September 2011. The team (herself and 3 employees) had revenues that year of $560,000 and Revenue per FTE (employee) of $140,000. The company barely broke even.

In 2014 she had revenues of $2.2 million with a 12% net profit. Her Revenue Per FTE (employee) last year was $311,000.

 This last year she grew the topline 53%, with what she calls 6 "A Team Players" and a coach (her) vs. 12-18 months ago when she says she had 7 employees and a "manager" (her).

Yes she changed the way she thought about leading and managing and started doing the things that made her a coach.

She got the results above and at the same time reduced the chaos, stress and drama from a loud roar to a whisper. People are seeking her out asking her for a job. Employees are recommending friends join them there. Wow!

Listen for 6 minutes as she explains her change in thinking and doing (actions) that created these results. I sprung this on her, so please stay with it until the end - some real learning happens then. 

Regards,

Rick 

Do You Have A Great Team?

"If I want something I have never had...

 I have to do something I've never done."

- Joe Sabah

Do you have a great team? If you, with conviction, say "absolutely", then no need to read any further.

But if you answer the question "yeah, no, or kind of"  - you are responsible for it. Yes you created this team you manage (or hopefully coach) and you have to take ownership for it.

You cannot solve any problem until you take ownership of it.

We all "say" we want a great team , a team of A Players, because deep down inside we know that a great team will build a better, more profitable company and at the same time do it with less stress, chaos and drama. But knowing is not enough - it takes doing.

Leaders of Great Teams create and then retain them by doing the following:

• They are always recruiting, building a virtual bench.
   
• They are coaching (focused on helping the employee), not trying to manage (focused on results and dragging everyone else along).
   
• They are having Weekly Coaching Conversations - 10 to 15 minutes with each direct report, each week focused on the employee, what their goals are, and how to help them get better at what they do.
   
• They don't answer questions - they have an open door but the employee explains the situation and shares "what I intend to do" rather than you simply telling them what to do.
   
• They are having Weekly Huddles each week sharing goals and values and following up on projects.
   
• They create an environment where there is:
• Consistency
• Autonomy
• The Pursuit of Mastery
• A Core Purpose shared by all
• Trust
• Truly Listening
• Appreciation
• Goal setting
• Accountability
• Peer respect (All A Players)

Here is a 54 minute MP3 audio from Steve Chandler (I promise you will think he is talking about you) on what most of us do today (what I did as a leader) and then what to do to create the Great Teams above. Listen in the car or grab a sandwich and do it over lunch. You cannot outperform your knowledge so pick some up here.

But remember knowing is not enough - you have to do (take action).

Regards,

Rick 

Another Take on The Future

"Fear is most often experienced when I am inactive and thinking about the future."

- Steve Chandler

When I am fully engaged, putting my heart and soul into something, fear is replaced by the RUSH of pure excitement.

A recent WIRED magazine article sent to me by TV producer John Jones said this: "Surfer Garrett McNamara felt many things as the monster wave approached. Excitement. Awe. Joy. The one thing he did not feel, however, is fear."

That might seem unusual, given that he was about to ride what is believed to have been a 100-foot wave on Monday. But there was no place in his heart, or mind, for such things. He was focused utterly on the moment.

"If you have fear then it means that you are not living in the moment", McNamara told Wired by e-mail from Nazaré, Portugal. "You are either stuck in the past or worrying about the future. It is important to not think and just do! Follow your heart and fear does not exist."

McNamara is believed to have set a new record for the biggest wave ever ridden by a surfer.

Regards,

Rick

The Future and My Dog

"If you want to be truly miserable get yourself a future."

- Byron Katie

 

Byron Katie is an author and international life coach. What the heck does she mean? I am a huge believer in setting goals and visions and building plans around them. My last few blog posts have been about planning. All of this is in your future.

She never made sense to me until the other day. I facilitate a mastermind group of women business owners. It has been a great experience for me and each of the women in the group. Recently we were reviewing their Destination Postcards for last year, the results they had achieved and what they want to happen in 2015. One member of the group was reviewing her 2014, was grading herself on her Rocks/Projects and goals, and she did pretty well, in fact really well. When she finished one of the other members said, "great job! ..... but you don't sound happy." She wasn't.

They discussed this and one of the ladies said, "I discovered a couple of years ago that the real happiness is inside me. I just had to get out of the way. Thinking about the future, and thinking that happiness was out there in the future when I achieved certain goals or got certain things... that was a lie. When we dwell on thoughts about future events and things that could happen, it is reality to us and when those thoughts are about failures or bad things, it blocks our happiness that is right now and always inside of us."

But nothing made of thought is real, or for that matter true.

We live in the feeling of our thinking, not the feeling of our circumstances.

Thoughts are our reality even though they are not always true. No one can predict the future, thus our thoughts about the future are never exactly true. We cannot predict the future but we can sure think about it and those thoughts are our reality. The more we let those thoughts hang around and mull over them, try to control them, repress the bad ones and think positive ones the more unhappy we feel right now.

The other day I was working with the person above and we explored why she wasn't happy. She explained that she constantly was thinking about serving her clients. She was always thinking about how they would be let down if she didn't get things done for them on time, penalties, loss of money, etc.

So I went back to Byron Katie and said "if you want to be miserable get yourself a future." I then suggested she stop for a moment and ask herself, "Are those thoughts true? Will any of that really happen? Will you let that happen?" Of course she won't. Why? Because she will do the things right now in the moment that will ensure they won't. She will be creating the future by doing the things that will serve her clients.

In other words, let those bad thoughts about the future flow on through your mind and get to doing the things right now that will create the future you want. The state of happiness is inside you - you and every living animal were born with it. Happiness does not come from the outside, it comes from the inside.

Bad thoughts simply take over and create unhappy feelings.

I cannot explain this concept - that thoughts are our reality and thus can block us from being happy -- in a short blog post, but I can explain what Byron Katie meant by the future.

Happiness, success and joy are in the present, right now, in this moment. They are not in the future. It is the project or action you are focusing on right now that will create your future. Be in the moment. How many times have we heard that in our lives? Let the thoughts of the future simply flow through your mind, catch yourself when you let one get stuck in there and ask yourself, "is it true"? Then let it move on and get back in the present. Doing, taking action, creating the future you want.

Only in the present can you be happy.

So true happiness is always inside you and you can only be happy in the journey, never in the destination.

"If you want to be miserable find yourself a future". If you want to experience happiness, focus on the present and on the actions/projects that will create the future you want to have.

Oh yeah, my dog!

Quick example: The other night I was sitting on the coach watching TV and petting my dog. Now that is happiness huh? I begin to think about how old he is and how he probably only has a few years more to live. I started "feeling sad" and my thoughts began to run on about this dog's death, how it would happen and what I would do, etc. Then I caught myself - hey you have no idea when or how he will die or what you will do when he does - enjoy right now with him there beside you. Happy again. Because just like the dog, I was not thinking about the future I was enjoying the moment.  

Regards,
Rick