Right People, Doing the Right Things, Right

Step #6 in the 20 Steps to Build a Great Business

Right People, Doing the Right Things, Right

---

"Don't send your ducks to eagle school."

- Jim Rohn

The 6^th key to building a great business that works for you vs. relying on you ...to work comes from Jim Collins in his book Good to Great. Great companies can answer yes to the following questions:

Do you have the Right People, Doing the Right things, Right?

We will take the first one this week, who are the right people, how do I know, can I afford them, etc.

Please take 5 minutes and watch this interview with the founder of the Container Store. He explains quite simply the key to 37 years of compounded 24% growth. The Right People. He knows A Players may cost 50% more but produce up to 3 times the average player. Then read how you can evaluate your team, coach and Topgrade your team so that over time you have all A Players, but less employees.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppYh28BMUe8

 

What is a duck? What is a 'C' Player? What's an 'A' Player? How do I know? Well, I just finished a great book by Peter Roe called "The People Puzzle". I took the liberty and pulled the following concepts from his book, while adding a few thoughts of my own to the mix. I highly recommend the book. Read on to answer the questions above and more.

Survey after survey consistently shows that US employees fall into one of these 3 categories:

1. 20% are Engaged Employees - They are committed to doing the right things, right. They are engaged with the purpose, values and goals of the leader and the team. They want to work for the common good of the enterprise, they enjoy coming to work and the work they do.
   
2. 20% are Actively Disengaged - These people are committed to doing the right things only when it furthers their own goals. When it comes to working for the common good they are totally uncommitted. They usually reject any attempt to engage in group purpose, values and goals and are quite prepared to do things against the common good if that gets them what they want.
   
3. 60% are Turning Up and Going Through the Motions - They have a lower level of competence and are not motivated to become highly competent. They also have lower levels of commitment due to lower levels of energy, self-confidence or ambition; don't or won't identify with group purpose or values.

A Players are competent, committed and engaged. Those are the 3 main characteristics you can evaluate your team by.

How does your team sort out?

Here are the 3 main components we recommend accessing when sorting out your team:

1. Competence - (skill) having the ability to perform the tasks, actions and functions to achieve the desired results.
   
2. Commitment- (will) having the willingness to learn and improve and meet their own standards as well as the team's. It is a product of an individual belief system and values.
   
3. Engagement - (thrill) is the response to an invitation to care about someone else's goals, values and purpose. It is seeking an experience and making a contribution beyond oneself. It is a matter of thrill of being part of the team.

The first two are inherent in the person. The latter is your responsibility as a leader to create the circumstances for Engagement.

Some can be coached, some can't and some are already there. Let's look at the combinations.

The following are your 'C' Players:

1) Incompetent, Uncommitted, Disengaged

Why bother? Well, we can invite them to engage with our Purpose, Values and Goals and, if they accept that invitation, then we can determine if they have the commitment to learn and become more competent. But let's face it - do you have the time, patience and resources to take this route? All the while they are actively poisoning your team and many of them resent the fact you keep them around. 

2) Competent, Uncommitted, Disengaged

If competent and uncommitted (to personal development) they can probably "do the job" but can be a grind to work with. They will be far less productive than their counterparts but we keep them around because we hate recruiting and don't know if we can find better. They believe they are great employees because they "do their job". They are hard to coach because they are not committed to their own improvement. They follow a routine and do what they want to do in a manner they like to do it. Any change you suggest will get pushback. They learned their job through routine and don't learn from mistakes. They can't stand being seen as incompetent their ego is too big. They don't care about what you are trying to achieve they only care about their own comfort.

These people are also dangerous to have around, and you're 'A' Players resent the fact you walk by this problem and don't do something about it.

3) Incompetent, Committed, Disengaged

This group will commit to only their own agenda. Maybe they have not been sold your purpose, values and goals so give it a try. If they engage then you have to decide if they are coachable and trainable. If not, you know what to do.  They are committed to improving their competence but will they once challenged?

4) Incompetent, Uncommitted, Engaged

Beware - these people are more damaging than their disengaged peers above! They are enthusiastically bringing down the team and when you don't act on it the 'A' Players will resent it and be ripe to leave.  You must cut this cancer out of the company as soon as possible.

The following are your 'B' Players:

1) Incompetent, Committed, Engaged

These people are engaged with your purpose, values and goals and to developing their skills/competence.

If they are trainable and coachable - great! If they seem to not have the competence for the job, you may be able to find them another position in the company where they can perform competently and add value. 

2) Competent, Uncommitted and Engaged

This is an unusual characteristic, but they exist. These individuals may not have the confidence, energy and/or personal issues that drain them. They are engaged. Working with them one-on-one, setting goals, and helping them achieve them can unlock that commitment they are lacking to improving themselves. You may have to help them to establish a healthy balance in their personal/professional lives.

 

3) Competent, Committed, Disengaged

 

Here you have someone who can do the job, and is committed to personal and professional growth that will drive them to do things well. Engagement is the lacking ingredient. This one is squarely on you. The problem is that they need to be engaged with the company's Core Purpose, Core Values and Goals. You first have to have defined, documented and communicated these items on a weekly basis.

 

 

The following are you're 'A' Players:

 

1) Competent, Committed, Engaged

Finally the 'A' Players. These are the people that are competent, committed to learn and improve and are engaged to the point they care about the business, it's employees, customers and families as much as you do. They will go the extra mile, enjoy their work and get satisfaction from a job well done.

 

These people deserve, and will expect, an excellent leader. If you fall short they may leave. If you tolerate others on the team that are less competent, less committed and/or disengaged they will feel insulted. If they feel you are using them to shore up and take up the slack for others who are not committed and engaged, then they will resent that and may leave. At the very least, they will become disenchanted and less engaged.

Being Your Best More of The Time

Step #5 in the 20 Steps to Build a Great Business

Essentialism/Deep Work - being your best more of the time.

---

Every time I call a client and ask "how are you" or "what is happening", I get the same response -  "Man I'm Busy". We have a good laugh because they realize what they just said and they know I'm going to ask good busy or bad busy? In other words, are you Doing the Right Work?

 Remember what we said in Step #2 - You don't have to change who you are to be successful, you just need to be your best more of the time. That means focusing some part of each day on Deep Work, your purpose, Essential things, the Rocks that will ensure you meet your goals.

This is a post by Michael Neill that caught my eye. It incorporates Deep Work, Essentialism, Rocks, Focus and Results into one blog post. Good stuff. Take special note of Simon Cowell's mantra - make one good decision a day!

by Michael Neill | May 2, 2016

Last year, I was chatting with the uber-author Jack Canfield in preparation for the Hay House World Summit and I asked him if he was busy at the moment. He took a few moments to consider his reply. "I've got a lot on," he said, "but I'm not particularly busy."

That conversation came to mind this week while preparing the launch for my newest book, The Space Within. Whereas past launches have obsessed my thinking and monopolized both my time and that of the team of willfully invisible elves who cobble the shoe leather of my writing into beautifully presented blogs and books, this year the whole process has been remarkably low key.

I've already read a chapter of Cal Newport's Deep Work (more on that in a moment), and before my fingers are done for the day they'll have written this blog, a newsletter, several new pages for my website, half a dozen emails, and copy for the book launch that will go out tomorrow.

But even though I've got a lot on, I'm not feeling particularly busy - just productive. And this points to one of the key points in Cal Newport's book - busyness is a proxy for productivity. In other words, according to Professor Newport, one of the reason we spend so much time on email, social media, and "available" to interruption is because it creates the experience that we're continually engaged in activity, leading us to the false conclusion that if we're always busy, we must be being productive.

Yet a more practical definition of "personal productivity" is this:

Your ability to produce results

Notice this has nothing to do with our level of activity, busyness, efficiency, effort, or stress. If we consistently produce quality results over time, we are productive; if we don't, no matter how much time and effort we are putting into the job, we aren't.

One of the most interesting examples of this I have come across is the music executive and television producer Simon Cowell. In an interview where Simon was asked to share the secret of his success, he didn't point to his clearly well-developed work ethic, network, PR team, or any kind of personal genius. He simply said that he tried to make one really good decision each day. If he pulled it off even 100 days of the year, he knew that his career and companies would grow exponentially over time.

In order to cultivate his decision making ability, he tries to stay seriously underemployed when not actively engaged in the necessary activities of running multiple companies and appearing on television hundreds of times a year. So while it may appear that his productivity has led to his ability to "live the good life", living the good life is one of the keys to his astounding productivity.

Now on the off chance that chartering yachts in the South of France or taking a week off each year to think about stuff a la Bill Gates is outside of your current financial capacity, how can we mere mortals take advantage of this lower key approach to higher productivity?

In business, this translates to keeping your eye on the results you and your team are producing, not all the things you think you have to do (or even all the things you're doing) to produce them. This runs counter to the management approach that tracks activity instead of results, counting sales calls vs. sales and hours worked vs. results produced. The difficulty in tracking the intangibles that lead to high level results mean that work ethic often gets elevated above productivity. Which is kind of like rewarding the hare for running three times as many miles as the tortoise in the process of losing the race.

The simple rule of thumb for higher productivity is this:

You get more of what you focus on.

Focus on your to-do list and watch it grow; focus on results and watch them happen.

One caveat:

None of this is to say that if you want to be productive at a high level, you won't have to put in the hours. I don't know anyone who consistently produces quality results over time who doesn't. But whether those hours are experienced as hard work or even busyness is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.

The same teenager who struggles to focus on school work for more than ten minutes at a time can lose themselves for hours in online gaming, making music, doodling in a notebook or traveling through time and space in the pages of an epic novel. The problem is almost never in their brain but rather in the way they're using their mind.

Every Result Has A Perfect Process

Step #4 in the 20 Steps to Build a Great Business

Every result we get has a process that is perfect for achieving it.

---

"Every result (good or bad, big or small) we get has a perfect process

for producing it.  So if you want to change the results 

you have to change the process."

- Steve Chandler

 

I, as many of you know, have a lot of favorite sayings, but this one is in the Top 10 for sure. 

Here you are as a business owner or leader of a group of people and you have, like we all have, results you are not happy with. You seem, at times, to be beating your head against the wall and working faster and harder to get the results you want and achieve success in your business.

If you are interested in building that business, the one that is growing, profitable, sustainable and that in the end has true value you will continue to do what is convenient - same processes only faster and more of it. Fooled you huh?You will stay in your comfort zone, hold on to long held beliefs that are not true and have a business that relies on you..... to work.

However, if you are committed to building that business, the one that is growing, profitable, sustainable and that in the end has true value you will do what it takes - learn and execute new processes and best practices. You will question your beliefs, get out of your comfort zone and build a business that works for you.

Here is the 9 step process I have developed, improved, used and proven in over 8 years of coaching that works for those that are committed to learning and taking Action on the learning.

The Leadership Matrix:

	Right People	Right Things	Done Right
Clarity	Vision/Goals/Purpose	Actions	Core Values
Focus	Alignment	Accountability	2 Second LEAN/ Process
Execution	Rhythm/Weekly Huddles	Dashboards	Training/Weekly Coaching Conversation

When you decide you are committed to success, I would invite you to check out my Online Coaching Program where I teach, provide the tools and the actions to execute this process and the processes necessary to build that business you once dreamed it could be. 

  

Sign up for My Online Coaching Course

You Don't Have to Change Who You Are To Succeed

Step #3 in the 20 Steps to Build a Great Business

You don't have to change who you are to be successful and lead and build a great company.

---

"To become successful you don't have to change who you are you just have to become more of who you are at your best."

 - Sally Hogshead

 

This quote stopped me in my tracks. There is a whole industry revolving around self-development and the focus on transforming you and I into this new person.

 

I know one thing - it scares me and it scares most people. "You mean I have to change who I am to be successful?" "That is a tall order, a big mountain to climb and I'm not so sure I am willing to do all that work and become someone I'm not." I don't think I have the commitment to do that.

 

I think Sally is on to something here. I think back and look at the people I have helped take their business to the next level and move down the Continuum of Success, and they did not transform who they were, they simply developed a new skill. They blocked their week to ensure they were spending more time working at their best. Working on the Right Things, Essential Things, Deep Work, Rocks...there I used all the acronyms except working more on their business not always just in it.

 

So once again it seems there is a process that is perfect for the results we are currently getting. If we don't like the results and want them to improve then we must change the process. Not who we are, but how we plan our week and what we focus on doing. That is much easier and is a proven way to be at your best more of the time.

 

I read the top half of this post to 3 clients today to get their thoughts on this topic. All said it was right on point. These 3 clients have gone from bouncing off the walls, putting out fires all day to embracing and committing to the concept of Deep Work, Rocks, Essentialism and blocking time to focus on these "Right Things". Once they committed to this, the little things, the pebbles, the nonessential, shallow work that used to stress them out and wear them out lost their importance.

 

Each of these clients have transformed their companies and their work lives without changing who they are.

 

Want to know how to do it yourself?

 

The following is the introduction to the first Lesson in my Online Coaching Course:

 

"Do The Right Work. You are about to change the way the you lead your business, being your best more of the time. This will require developing and executing a new process. To succeed you must develop the skills to provide yourself with the time to focus on first, learning these new processes and then executing them. You can't fit this stuff in each week. You must learn and then implement a process of blocking time each week to focus on the Essential, the Deep Work, the Rocks, working "on" your business, not "in" it all the time. 

You must learn to work differently, on the right things -- this is being your best more of the time."

P.S. - If you want learn how to focus on the right things (new processes and best practices) to build a successful business that works for you, check out:  

Questions You are sure to Have.

---

Sign up for My Online Coaching Course

 

Success - Where Are You?

Step #2 in the 20 Steps to Build a Great Business

Success - how can we define it and where are you on the continuum?

---

Success:

• Doing what you want to do (Purpose)
• When you want to do it (Time)
• With whom you want to do it with (People)
• In a manner you want to do it (Money)

 

How do we/you define success? It is definitely a personal thing, but I believe there is a continuum of success that we can chart and zero in on where each of us falls on that continuum. I believe these 4 simple questions you can ask yourself, will help you answer the question, "How successful am I?".

I have created a tool to chart your personal level of Success and Happiness based on those 4 questions.

Here is a 3 minute video to guide you through completing the tool.

https://youtu.be/KYvkiSz23l8

 

Now click here and score yourself from a business point of view. 

You can then think about it in your personal life, it works equally well there too.

It takes 2 minutes and it is just for you - I'm not capturing your answers.

Be honest with yourself and find out where you are on the path to success.