How The Mighty Fall

"No matter how much you've achieved, no matter how far you've gone, no matter how much power you've garnered, you are vulnerable to decline." 

- From Jim Collins' (Good to be Great and Great By Choice) 

Years after Jim Collins wrote the classic book, "Good to Be Great" several of the companies featured in the book went down - like Kodak. So he began a study of these businesses and found some common threads and wrote the book

"How the Mighty Fall".  

Here are Jim Collins' 5 Stages of Decline as he outlined in "How the Mighty Fall", along with some questions to consider whether you are showing any of the signs.

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success

·        Do you think that luck or chance had no role in your successes?

·        Do you think there is no need to stay vigilant and plan for the unexpected because you are making the right decisions and doing the right things to remain successful?

·        Do you take full credit for your successes and assume the attitude that your company is so great, you can take on anything?

Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More

·        Have you branched out to new areas (products, geographical regions, ventures) that may be outside of your expertise or your ability to execute well?

·        Have you grown so much so fast that you are no longer able to take the time to fill the key seats in your organization with the right people?

·        Are you growing so fast that you are not able to scale or achieve the same level of excellence that once made your company great?

Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril

·        Do you find yourself putting a positive spin on ambiguous data or overly emphasizing positive data while downplaying negative data?

·        Have your people stopped coming to you with their concerns or voicing disagreement with your decisions?

·        Do you feel that external factors are largely responsible for problems in your company?

·        Are you unconcerned about the mounting evidence that your company is beginning to fall because you can "explain away" this evidence?

Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation

·        Are you looking for a "silver bullet" to get your company back on the right track?  

·        Do you believe that your company will recover if you can just find a new charismatic, visionary leader? A new product or a bold new strategy? An exciting new company culture?

·        Have you abandoned your disciplined 20 mile march that made you great in the first place in search of a quick fix?

Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

·        Have your repeated attempts to find salvation for your company left you financially depleted and emotionally demoralized?

·        Have you given up hope of building a company with a great future? 

If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions, you may be showing some signs of decline.  

Luckily, this does not mean that your company is doomed! Collins is very clear that his research indicates that the stages of decline are reversible. He states, "Most companies eventually fall, and we cannot deny this fact. Yet our research indicates that organizational decline is largely self-inflicted, and recovery largely within our own control." 

Maybe it is time you took a step back and answered the questions above.  Catch yourself and your company now and begin the road back to success. 

What is Your Score?

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

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

-Joe Sabah

We all like to keep score regardless of what it is we are doing. Recently I was taking stock of my coaching practice, "opening the box" so to speak, and thinking about every client I am engaged with today. Many of them have been clients for several years and I was taking stock or mentally scoring where they are against the perfect implementation of The Leadership Matrix (a proven 9 step process that I keep refining that has proven time and again to build a great company). A great company to me is a place where the business is working for the owner - executing - and not relying on the owner to work. That provides the owner More Time, More Money and a Better TEAM (my promise).

I thought "how can I communicate this mental snapshot of their current position on the path toward a great business that executes on all levels?"

The answer:  have them score themselves. I created a 20 question scorecard and then in coaching sessions we completed the survey together. It quickly showed the key areas where they had executed the processes and areas where they needed to focus and get better. It turned out to be a great tool to identify priorities, getting agreement and commitment on following up and executing them.

I was thinking today why not put one together for every business owner out there? If you are curious about what your score would be then take 5 minutes and take this survey. The perfect score is only 40. 

Put the number "1" as your mark in the square you think best reflects you and your company. See what your score is. If you have a company that works for you (doesn't rely on you to work), that executes with little chaos and stress, is made up of people that are accountable for results not for being busy, makes 10% or more on the bottom line and you never worry about cash flow, then your score should be close to 40.

Here is the Scorecard

What's your score? Email me your score so I can build a database and, if you like, I will be happy to discuss the criteria I used and why you scored what you did.

People - Coaching For Profits

"Great coaches consistently get the most out of the their people, because they consistently put the most in to their people."

- Brian Souza

After 40 years in various leadership roles I finally got it. I promise clients More Time, More Money and a Better Team and I now know the secret to making that happen. Become a coach vs. a manager.

The differences:

Managers	Coaches
Focused on getting the results - drag them along if I have to	Focused on the individual people and helping them get better - thus the company gets better
Recruit only when they need someone - settle with what they have	Recruit all the time, like they market, build a Virtual Bench
Hold annual or quarterly reviews	Weekly Coaching Conversations - 10-15 minutes with a score card dashboard
Open door for all questions	Open Door- But no questions - come to me with what your Intend to do....
Staff meeting - hour or two long	Weekly huddles, Dashboards, Goal tracking, Value communications
No Purpose, Value or culture or if they have it is on a sign somewhere	Communicating and engaging all employees with the Purpose, Values all the time

I put together this 40 minute presentation to cover all of this, provide you with proof it works and the tools to use to make it work. Please watch and then I hope you see the logic in setting aside time every week to begin coaching.

Labor is the biggest expense on your P&L and is the biggest lever to profit. Invest time and focus on coaching and you will get a great return on that investment - the secret is that you cannot find a better investment in any business than in following the processes described here and focusing on your people, your team.

More Time, More Money and a Better Team.

Watch now:

http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/1378757/People---coaching-for-profits

Tools:

Weekly Coaching Dashboard Video - 4 Minutes

Weekly Coaching Dashboard Template

Deep Work

"The key is not to prioritize what is on the schedule,
but to schedule your priorities."

- Stephen Covey, Author and Speaker

I have been yelling from the rooftops about the fact we cannot manage time, but can only manage actions (what we do with our time).

Rocks and Pebbles - Steven Covey made this concept famous with his fishbowl and putting the Rocks in the bowl first and then putting all the pebbles in. If you do it the opposite way you cannot get the rocks in the bowl.

Rocks are the priority actions (projects, etc.) that have a huge impact on your career, your job or your business.  Rocks you must do proactively. Pebbles are the little things you do all day in a reactive mode.

Here are the other concepts that separate the high achievers from the rest of us:

• Focusing 
• Blocking appointments with yourself to focus on Rocks

Now Cal Newport has written a book called "Deep Work". This book is all about the above as he contrasts Deep work vs Shallow work. (Rocks/Pebbles)

This 20 minute video is a book report and has been the light bulb for many of my clients as to how to get the most out of the time we have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX_2a_jsGYw