Is it possible to have a hostage situation in business. Probably. It might be a big really important customer that makes you feel that way or the government or your own business.

The hostage situation I’m talking about is when you as the owner feel hostage to a member of your team. This is the situation where you have an employee that brings a lot of value to the business (usually through skill set or tenure) but has a hidden agenda, or does not fit in with the rest of the team. Or perhaps whose behavior makes your skin crawl. Yet you don’t feel you can do anything about them because they would leave a gaping hole in your business. There is always the fear around loss of revenue or profitability if you ‘rock the boat’.

How do you fix it?

Step one is to realize that the only person that can make you feel like a hostage is you. This situation is all about perspective. As soon as you feel like anyone has power of you they do. You always have options in every situation and this one is no different. The truth is, when this situation is rectified you will see your business grow in both efficiency and profitability

Have you ever tried to change someone’s attitude? After trying this several times myself I’ve decided eating sand is more fun. Changing someone’s attitude is one of the toughest things to do because it is outside of your control. Simply said, if they don’t want it to change then guess what … it won’t change. Trying to do so is also a huge drain on your energy … energy that could be more valuable used elsewhere.

OK, so you’ve got this employee whose attitude sucks and it’s affecting the rest of your team, so what do you do? There are 2 options:

1. Give them a good reason for it to change or

2. Help them to realize your business and them are not a good fit

While those 2 options might seem logical, they can be quite challenging to execute on. There are emotions and fears involved that prevent most owners from taking the necessary steps. I’d say this situation can be one of the bigger leadership challenges for small business owners.

Here’s the way I coach my clients through it:

1. Firstly you have to have a clear idea of the desired behavior. I coach my clients to document the ‘Rules of the Game’ (ROTG). What are the core values that you as a team choose to uphold and are willing to be held accountable to. If the expectations are not clear then it is very hard for someone to know if they are on track or not. It is a good idea to get your key players involved in this process to create buy in.

2. There must be agreement for accountability on the ROTG. So the ‘trouble person’ needs to agree this is the standard. If they don’t want to agree to that then it is time to take some more drastic action. Before making any rush moves here make sure you are aware on the labour laws in your country and always act within them. Long and the short is this person needs to go.

3. When the individual’s behavior is outside the ROTG, it must be addressed immediately. The conversation must be assertive and delivered from a point of respect. Your mindset needs to be “I’m helping this person to be a good fit for our company and their role. If they can come into line then they will excel in their position”

4. Keep this kind of pressure on. The driving force of the conversations is alignment with the culture of the business. The conversations may start to take the tone of “I’m not willing to compromise on the ROTG. You need to make a choice if this place is for you”.

5. The outcome of the process will be either a behavior shift or they will leave. The key is to keep the pressure on. And this process should not be a drawn out one. The degree of non compliant behavior will dictate the degree of pressure asserted.

Human behavior will only change when there is pressure. If the person receiving the pressure does not want to change they will find an environment that does not have pressure.

This process is not the most enjoyable part of leadership but can be the most rewarding. A huge part of leadership is to expect more from your people and continually be ‘raising the bar’, keeping positive pressure on them to improve. The process described above is simply an intense version of that positive pressure.

When you have a team of people who all share in the same core values and work to uphold them, you’ll start to see that small problems disappear and are replaced by pro-activity. Profitability will improve, sick days go down, customer satisfaction goes up, turnover is reduced and numerous other measures will improve.

At the end of the day your business is your people. If you don’t have the people you want then you don’t have the business you want. And your customers are not getting the experience they deserve which drives down the value of your business.

So take control and have some fun!

To get what you want in business, the process is relatively simple. Certainly not easy, but it is simple. The formula goes like this.

BE x DO = HAVE.

Let me explain:

The HAVE is your results. You could view this as the results you have today or the results you’re looking to achieve in the future. Also known as your goals.

The DO is the actions you take. Both the choice and quantity those actions.

The BE is you. Or another way of looking at it is ‘your effectiveness’.

OK so how do you use this? Before we look at that, let’s look a little deeper on the BE part because there is more to it than just saying ‘this is you’.

What are the factors that determine your effectiveness? There are 3 and they are:

1. Your Skill Set

2. Your Mind Set

3. Your Emotional State.

Your skill set and mind set really equal your level of potential. This is relative to the role you are playing and the goals you are looking to create. For my clients who are business owners, the skills revolve around finance, people, communication, sales, marketing, operations etc.

Your mindset could be summarized as your values, beliefs and how you see yourself. It is how you think. This is crucial part of the equation. Skill set and mind set form the foundation of the BE and usually change progressively over time.

The 3^rd component of the BE is your emotional state. This is the here and now. You could have a magnificent level of potential in terms of your skill set and mindset but if you’re in a foul mood because of what someone said to you, you’re not going to produce your best results. Conversely if you just had a massive win in your business and are on cloud nine, you are going to have a different level of energy and subsequently will get different results from your actions.

The long and the short of this success principle is there are only 4 areas we can affect to guide our results.

1. Skill set

2. Mindset

3. Emotional State

4. Choice of actions and level of activity

To apply this practically, take a look at the goals you have and then take inventory of yourself. What skills might you need to achieve this goal? What is your action plan? What beliefs might you have to challenge? This can be a tough thing to do on your own so once you’ve had a go at it, share it with someone you trust who knows what it takes to achieve the goal you are after. They will be able to point out things to consider that you can’t see. It’s tough to see where you have not been before.

Have fun with it!

Making it easy for your prospects to understand what is in it for them to buy from you versus your competitor is a key fundamental for increasing conversion rate.

In this 3 minute clip I’ll walk you through 4 steps to follow to get a Unique Selling Proposition in place.

To increase your conversion rate one of the most important strategies is to have a standardized sales process in place. In this video blog I guide you through a 9 step process to get your sales process in place. Enjoy …

The Power of a Common Goal

If you lead a team, one of the most powerful ways to unite people is to have everyone working towards a common goal.

If people just turn up to work each day and are expected to do their best, it is not too inspiring aside from knowing that “I did a good job today”. When people are faced with a challenge whether it be one of adversity or not, you are tapping into a sense of belonging. At the core people want to feel they are a part of something significant and that they are seen by others as an important part of that something.

When a team has a common goal that is meaningful, it creates that significance. The key is the goal must be inspiring for the leader so when it is communicated, that inspiration and enthusiasm is carried. When a goal is communicated in such a way, the feelings of the leader are transferred to the team and the effect will be people acting with a sense of purpose.

I conducted a team day recently that was a follow up to one we had done 12 months ago. At the first team day, the owners had some rough goals they were looking for and at the second they had crystal clear goals they were excited about. The difference was astounding. By the end of the day you could see the team uniting at a new level and no one wanted to leave the event. Of course they eventually did but considering this was being held on a Saturday, the result was awesome to see.

So on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the power of your goals for your team? And on the same scale, how would you rate how well you have communicated them?

You can spend your time reading business books, attending seminars and asking colleagues “what is the best way to market my business” and you can get a thousand different answers. For the energetic business owner that can often result in loss of focus and momentum; a recipe for disaster.

If you are looking to have a great year in 2011 and want to keep it simple then answer this one question.

As a company, what would we have to do to make our customers say to others “you’d have to be crazy not to do business with [insert your company name here]”?

The simple truth is that assuming there is a market for your product or service, if you go over and beyond for your customers, exceed their expectation and get them talking then you are going to have a great year.

Sure there are many other things you can do and I’m certainly not saying don’t do anything else, but be sure to answer the above question before you look into other creative or advanced marketing strategies.

Business is not that complicated. Have a product or service that people want or need and be bloody good and delivering it to your customers. Be better than anyone else.

Have a great year.

Welcome to my video blog series I’ll be doing on growing profitability. Over the next while I’ll be recording and uploading a series of video clips (maximum 5 minutes in length).

The intention is to keep them short and sweet and packed with value. If I can just say one thing, in keeping with our philosophy of action; if you see something that resonates …  ACT!

When you ask the ‘average baby boomer’ what their thoughts are on the ‘Y generation’ you will usually here something along the lines of “They just want everything handed to them … where is their work ethic!” And when you compare the difference between Gen Y and Baby Boomers (BB) and even Gen Y and Gen X, it is easy to see there is a clear difference.

So, I’m sitting here at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and our morning speaker is Dr Linda Duxbury. She teaches MBA’s and PhD’s on change management and this morning she put the Generation issue in pretty clear perspective.

When we look at demographic trends in most developed countries, during the past 30 odd years there has been an excess of supply when it comes to skilled labour. This has allowed employers to be relatively lazy and selective when it comes to choosing their labour. Meaning the employee has had to work harder to protect their position.  Fast forward through that era and what we end up with is a generation of workaholics who now preach life balance but really that just means you’ve got a blackberry so you don’t have to be at the office all the time.

Now lets look at Gen Y. They have come into the market at a time when there is actually a shortage (and we ain’t seen nothing yet) of skilled labour which puts them in the power seat. Now they look at the workaholics with the supposed great work ethic and say …. “you’ve got to be kidding me!”.

Dr Duxbury put it really simply with the boiled frog analogy. As the BB’s and Gen X have worked harder and harder to keep their status …. they now think it is normal to work that hard (slowly boiled). The Gen Y’s and dipping their toes into the boiling water and saying … “you’ve got to be kidding me! Why would I jump into that boiling water?”.

So ask yourself … who is right? While there may not be a clear answer to that, I think it does pay you as an employer to start to get in touch with what drives Gen Y. If you think it is money … think again. #1 on their list is FUN and meaning.

If you want to grow the bottom line of your company over the next 20 years, then your people strategy may need an overhaul.

Happy leading

It’s an interesting question. I’m guessing if I asked you how much you think you are worth you’d probably look at how much you made, divide it by the number of hours you worked and whalla … there’s your answer.

If we use this method then this is only a measure of the value of the choices you made, not the value of you as an individual.

Let me give you an example. I recently chose to paint the ceiling in my kitchen which is an activity that is probably worth about $50/hr for someone who is experienced in the field of painting. Now compare that to how much I can earn when I’m doing my highest value activity, which is coaching or leading a group workshop. That activity can be worth between $500 – $1000/hr. So if I make poor choices and do more lower value activities compared to where I can be then subsequently my end result is going to mean ‘I am worth less’ because I will actually be earning less.

Now let me be clear when I say ‘I’m worth less’, I’m talking in an economic sense. Please don’t think I’m sitting on the edge of the cliff wondering what I’ve done with my life.

So the question to ask yourself is … “If I spent 80% of my working hours doing the activities that have the highest $/hr value, what would I be worth (economically of course)”. And how far are you off that today?

The truth is most of us fall into patterns of behavior that become very predictable and unless we question them, they don’t change. If it is easier for us to do something ourselves vs having to think of alternatives that can get that item off our plate, inevitably we end up doing it ourselves. Usually to our detriment.

OK so what do you do about it.

#1 – get crystal clear on what you really want. What results are really really a MUST for you?

#2 - get clear on the most important activities that will lead to those results. Then look at these activities and decide which you are good at and you can provide the most value doing.

#3 – get everything else off your plate. Delegate, systematize, outsource or possibly eliminate if appropriate. If you can’t do this immediately then start with a few things and work toward the full list over time.

Once you are clear on what you want and know the steps to get there, it becomes A LOT easier to say no to things you would have previously spent your valuable time doing.

I know how to paint my kitchen ceiling, I know how to cut my grass, I know how to design spreadsheets, heck I can even analyze a database like a madman. That does not mean I should do it.

Get clear on what’s important and execute.