War For Talent

"The standard you walk past is the standard you accept."

 -Australian Army Chief  

The truth about the war for talent.  

It's more of a skirmish, actually.

Plenty of recruiters and those in HR like to talk about engaging in a war for talent, but to be truthful, most of it is about finding good enough people at an acceptable rate of pay. Filling slots.

More relevant and urgent, though, is that it's not really a search for talent. It's a search for attitude.

There are a few jobs where straight up skills are all we ask for. Perhaps in the first violinist in a string quartet. But in fact, even there, what actually separates winners from losers isn't talent, it's attitude.

And yes, we ought to be having a war for attitude.

An organization filled with accountable, honest, motivated, connected, eager, learning, experimenting, ethical and driven people will always defeat the one that merely has talent. Every time.

The best news is that attitude is a choice, and it's available to all. You can probably win the war for attitude with the people you've already got. And if you're looking for a gig, you'll discover that honing and sharing your attitude goes a lot farther than practicing that "woe is me" violin song all day.

Seth Godin

All the best, 

Rick Wallace

Why Bigger Isn't Good Enough

"The only way to predict the future is to create it."

 -Peter Drucker

 

Over the past few weeks, I have had some interesting conversations with clients about the perks of success.

One told me, only half-jokingly, he felt guilty when the monthly personal income from his business started to push past $6,000 a month. Another told me that she felt guilty she wanted a really nice car (and then went out and bought one).

The first client's business does about 4 million in annual revenues and employs about 30 people. The second does just under 1 million and employs about 35 people. Both owners work 70 - 80 hour weeks, and have gone through periods of staggering stress. Like most of my clients.

So should they feel guilty?  

My response to the first client sums up my take on the real issue at hand:

"The personal income is only a part of the hesitation. The bigger part is simply conceiving of what a 'big' or 'successful' business looks like so you can shoot for it. Most people don't grow because they are afraid of growing. They refuse to consider it in realistic terms. So they stay stuck for years."

Let's get over that.

The first pre-condition for being successful in a small business is not customers or employees or anything else. It is your imagination. If you can't wrap your head around what 'big' could look like, it is highly unlikely you are going to get there.

Here is what big is really all about.

Measuring what matters. We have enough stuff. The money and the cars and the holidays are nice, but they are not why we work so hard to grow.

What matters most is your ROI: the return on the investment of your life. As time goes by you should be having more fun, not less; spending more time with friends and family, not less; pursuing your passions i.e. doing things that you love to do, that add the most value, your core purpose, your WHY, not doing the day to day firefighting. You should be leading, not having to manage everything.

You can't get "BIG" until you come to grips with the fact you can't get bigger without building a Team that is accountable for results and one that you trust to do the right things, right.

Where are you at in this continuum?

Does the business still rely on you to work or does the business work for you? Do you have a job or do you own a business that has some real value?

My coach Steve Chandler says "Every result (bad or good) in our life and/or your business is created by a system that is perfect for creating that result. If you want to change the result you have to change the system."

 
What systems do you need to change?

12 Frustrations of A Business Owner

"The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little."

 -Thomas Merton

 

Do these sound familiar?

1.    The business just depends too much on me

2.    I'm just too busy to really work on the things that will help the company succeed

3.    I'm worried about cash flow, but don't know what to do to improve it

4.    We are not as profitable as we need to be, but I don't know what to do to improve it

5.    No one seems to be accountable for results, but everyone is BUSY

6.    I'm always reacting, no time to be proactive or think

7.    My marketing isn't working

8.    I'm unsure whether I have the right/best people in place

9.    I know what to do in many cases but we can't seem to follow through and execute the good ideas we do have

10. I don't seem to have any focus, jumping around/ putting out fires

11. I know I need to set goals and measure them but I seem to just settle for accepting the results we get each month.

12. I feel like I need to be a better leader but what does that mean

Do you feel like a victim of all these frustrations?  

Do you, like most people, just settle with what you have? Settle for being frustrated, working 45+ hour weeks and then spending the rest of your waking hours worrying and thinking about the business.

You don't have to settle for the status quo.

Learn how The Leadership Matrix, a process that tackles these frustrations head on, can provide you with a process you can use to take you and your company to the next level.

Simply go to this link to learn how this proven process can turn you into a world class leader and your team into accountable individuals who follow through and get results.

Watch and learn.

Run It Like A Professional Sports Team

"Whatever you are willing to put up with is exactly what you will have."

-Anonymous

 

The other day I was facilitating a strategic planning session with a new client. He had recently purchased the business. It generates about $2 million in sales and he has about 8 employees and is fairly profitable, but there is a great deal of room for improvement.  

When we began talking about the core values and culture he said,  "I want this to be like a family here."

I could not help but smile and I said why? He was taken aback and proceeded to defend his comment with a lot of warm and fuzzy things that make families seem perfect.  

Think about it. Most families are very dysfunctional. Some members don't talk to each other or avoid each other as much as possible. They rarely work as a team. You can't kick members out if they don't share the values of the others. They tend to fight more than most groups, because "we are family", etc.

So here is my take - you don't want to build a business like a family. To be successful you need to run a business like a sports team. No, I take that back, run it like a Professional Sports team.

The team must perform the best in every position. The team plays the game and success depends on the team playing well and playing together for a common purpose. The team is only as strong as its weakest link. The players want to only have the best team members in each position and they understand and want management to continue to strengthen the team because it will strengthen them.

So as you build this team you have to coach it, not manage it. Coaching means a focus on making each team member the best they can be. It means not playing the game yourself. Your success depends on the team and its players performing each Sunday at their best. It means everyone (team, fans and coaches) want the best players in every position. It means drafting, cutting, free agency are all part of the game. I suggest you think of your company as a Professional Sports Team and begin leading it like a great Coach.

If you to learn more about the distinction between managing and coaching, read this.

Hiring Great People

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

- Elbert Hubbard

From Seth Godin:
Most successful (and honest) real estate agents will tell you that their business is about the listings, and that sales ability comes second. All other things being equal, the agent with a better home to sell will make a better sale.  

The same thing is true for baseball managers - if you have a better lineup you're more likely to win the game. And of course that's true for the sushi restaurant with fresher fish. And the tech company with better programmers, and the college with better professors...

If this is all so obvious, why do we spend all our time trying to find cheap average inputs and then make them special through our magnificent sales and management skills? Why do we industrialize the hiring process, spend very little time on scouting, and seek out the replicable instead of the special exception? Our ego demands that we spend all day polishing the average instead of seeking out the exceptional.

Better to invest the time and money on special people and raw materials instead.

My added input:

Look at The Container Store for example. They have proven, paying great people 50% more = 100% productivity improvement over the average employee. They conduct 30 interviews to hire one great person. Every performance indicator from store sales to profitability to market share rank #1 in their industry. They understand Seth's point above.

Voice Mail Tips

"Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet

 What to do when voice mail answers the phone instead of your prospect:

• Do not give your sales pitch because that needs live contact.
• Do leave your number and first name only because calls are returned in inverse proportion to the amount of data left by the caller.
• Be fun but be clean; remind the person where you met; leave a half-message such as "Your name came up in a conversation with Jane "and you can be sure the prospect will return your call to see what Jane said. 
• "I have a question and you are the only person I know that can answer it" - be sure you have a good question when they call back.  

What to do when you can't get through to your prospect:  

• Email your datebook with open dates and time circled.
• Email a certificate for a free lunch with you.
• Email a referral letter from a satisfied customer.
• Send a text message for a request to repair the prospect's voice mail, saying you've been trying to get through and can't, so it must be the voice mail at fault.  

Be different and remarkable and you will get those calls returned. 

Remarkable - Do People Remark About Your Business?

"You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want."

- Zig Ziglar 

 

For the last 50 years businesses could thrive with an average product or service. Why? Because the demand was such that we needed many businesses just to take care of all the people that wanted to buy something. People were affluent and not as concerned about every dollar they spent.

This is no longer the case. If you look at highly successful companies today they have one thing in common:

They have great products and/or services.

Not ok, not good, not acceptable but, remarkable products and/or services.

A recent study showed 84% of purchases in the US involved "word of mouth".

Look at the word "remarkable". It means people are so happy they are remarking about something.

If your product/service is not great or remarkable, your future is suspect. How do you know?

If you are having to resort to lowering your prices, your repeat business is low and people are not referring you - you are in trouble.

What do you do? Start today asking people as they buy from you to rate your product/service on a scale of 1-10. If you don't get a 9-10 then ask "what could we do to make this a 9-10 for you"? Listen and keep improving on the things you hear frequently from them. Surprise people. Don't satisfy them - that is not remarkable. 

Conduct an NPS survey. Two questions. "On scale of 1-10 how likely would you be to refer us to friends and associates?" and "What experiences have you had with us that influenced how you answered question #1"? 

It all starts and ends here.  

Is your business Remarkable?