Success - Where Are You?

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 we are on that continuum. I believe there are 4 simple questions you can ask yourself. I have created a tool to chart your personal level of Success and Happiness based on those 4 questions.

Those 4 questions can be found here and a simple chart in which you can score yourself and a graphical continuum for each question to allow you will "see" where you are on your path to Success.

Simply 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 and your business are on the path to success. 

All the Events You Weren't There to Control

"Great coaches consistently get the most 

out of their people, because they consistently put the most 

in to their people."

- Brian Souza

 

 

From Seth Godin:

All the events you weren't there to control...

Yesterday, thousands of people got married. Just about every one of these weddings went beautifully. Amazingly, you weren't there, on-site, making sure everything was perfect.

Last week, a letter to investors went out from the CFO of a hot public company. It was well received. Yes, it's true, you didn't review it first, but it still worked.

And just the other day, someone was talking about the product you created, but she didn't ask you about it first. That's okay, because the conversation went fine.

When we're in the room, it's really difficult to sit back and let other people do their work, because we know we can make it better, we know the stakes are incredibly high, we know that we care more than anyone else. More often than not, we give in to temptation and wrest away control. And often, we make things better. In the short run.

Caring matters. Your contribution makes things better. But when the need for control starts to get in the way of your people doing their best work, caring about their craft and scaling their efforts, and when the need for control starts to make you crazy, it might be worth thinking about that wedding in Baton Rouge that went just fine without you.

 

My Solution
 

Hint: Begin having Weekly Coaching Conversations with your people (15 minutes) and use an individual Weekly Coaching Dashboard to ensure you get agreement on their "number", the one or two areas they are going to improve this quarter, the 2-3 Rocks (the projects we talk about above that you need to delegate) and your core values.

Want the template? I'm surveying the business world to find out more about what is on your mind so I'll trade you... take my 3 question survey and I'll send you the template. Fair?

Productivity Without Busyness

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

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.

So here are a few reflective questions to get you started on the road to less busyness and more productivity. By looking in the direction they're pointing, you're likely to get some insights for yourself into how you can get more done with less unnecessary effort and struggle:

1. Think about some times in your life where your effort was disproportionate to your results - either you put in a ton of work to no avail or you felt like you barely did anything and the results came pouring in. What do you make of that discrepancy? Were they random flukes or could there be a larger principle at work?
    
2. How is your experience of work different when you are fully engaged to when you are distracted? How could you cultivate the experience of full engagement? (It's sometimes easier to answer that question by first answering "How could I cultivate the experience of being more distracted while I work?")
    
3. If my productivity were the result of making higher quality decisions (i.e. "one good decision a day"), how might I design my day differently? What states of mind would be of higher value to me? How can I cultivate those higher quality states of mind?

Have fun, learn heaps, and happy exploring!

What are You Going to Do Today?

 "The only thing you are going to do today is: what you do today. Therefore, the only thing there is to do today is: what you do today. That's all there was to do when you started no matter what you thought or think."

- Werner Erhard

What you do today creates your future. 

With that in mind what you get done today is all you will do today. It is not all that needs to get done, it is only what will get done.

With just today in mind and what will get done today - what you do today will create your future. What, of all the things that need to get done, is the most important to ensure you are creating a better future? If you can only get done today what gets done today then what choices do you need to make and what time do you need to make (not find) to ensure those special things get done today?

If you understand this you should be feeling a little more relaxed, a little more confident, a little more decisive and focused. If you don't - you better go back and read it again.

Now get at it, block time, commit and focus on the special things that will create the future you want. What gets done today is all that you do today.

Watch this short video on how to get that done today:

8 Minutes - Double Your Productivity https://youtu.be/f1QIUbLWEXU

The Best Team Wins

"There's something rare, something finer far, something much more scarce than ability. It's the ability to recognize ability."

- Elbert Hubbard

A Players in every position. Great players on your team. Nothing is more uncomfortable for a business owner or leader than hiring and firing. But if you want a great company you have to take a couple of hours a week and always be recruiting. Building a great virtual bench, coaching your players and giving them every chance to step up. But when they don't, or can't, you have to manage them out of the business. Listen to Brian Tracy on the subject (4 minute video).

Think of your company as a professional football team. Scout and recruit the best, (they are probably working for someone else), coach the team you have to be the best they can be, and move quickly on those that are not performing. The other teammates know who that is and studies show good people quit companies because they see management is doing nothing about replacing the C Players. 

The Billionaire's Mantra

"Want to be more successful? Don't pretend to know it all."

- Tilman J. Fertitta, owner, chairman and CEO

Fertitta Entertainment 

Tilman Fertitta, the powerhouse behind restaurant giant Landry's and Golden Nugget Casinos, admits he doesn't have all the answers. "I think the successful people in the world are the ones who say, 'I don't know everything.' Because I can tell you, I learn something every single day," he said.

Instead, start making this phrase your mantra.

Billionaire : Make this word your Mantra  ( 2 minutes)

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000506868

The biggest mistake you can make is....... (2 minutes)

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000505064

How To Make Money

 "Nobody cares about you or your company, what you do or how long you have done it, whether you are a family business or what products and services you represent."

- Rick Wallace

I firmly believe that. Then why on earth does every website have a home page that says those things? Why is it every time you ask someone what they do they simply answer your question and tell you? Why is it that every marketing piece or postcard or ad states the same thing?

Because of the lies/beliefs we have about the way to do marketing.

Let's see what Seth says about this:

"It's fun to believe that people buy the goods and services we make merely because they are excited, delighted and eager to engage.

But often, particularly in b2b selling, the call to action is very different. "Get off the tracks! The train is coming..." combined with the rumble, the smoke and the visuals of the train arriving. That's what causes action.

Action means change and change means fear, so of course we shouldn't be surprised that people (and organizations) are often as motivated by the fear of loss (or PAIN) as they are by the desire for gain."

So change everything - lead with the pain or fear most prevalent in your Ideal Customer/Prospect. Change your marketing message (your Value Proposition), then tell them how you can solve that pain/fear in a unique way - why you are the best solution provider.

You have to get people's attention in this crazy media driven world - so you have to show them you know what their pain is - in a way that will grab them as they think "Hey - that's my problem I bet they know how to solve it."

"Making money is easy. Simply find someone with a problem and solve it for them."

- Steve Chandler

Which one of these would get you to raise your hand and take some action on if you were a person in charge of millions of dollars worth of capital equipment?:

1) "__________________ has been in business for over 40 years. We are a family business with over 95 years of experience on staff to serve you. We carry these brands of XXXXXX and believe in servicing what we sell. Many of our customers have been with us for 30 years. We know this industry and can help you in all aspects of cleaning.  Give us a call and we can set up a time to talk."

2) "You manage millions of dollars of capital equipment that must be operational to make you money. Downtime and the lost productivity that accompany it can kill your profits. The best solution is CLEAN. Yes Clean!  Everything starts with CLEAN, it affects operator pride, thus better operator care, PM's can be done faster, inspections done easier and faster. Click here for an easy 10 step Guide to Reduce Your Downtime and Increase Your Profits."

Lead with the pain/fear and then serve them - help them solve it.