Many of us spend our lives going through a loop which involves solving problems that life throws at us, time after time.  What we don’t appreciate is that the latest problem being solved, more often than not, is simply a variation on an old theme and the reason it reoccurs is frequently because we didn’t really deal with it properly in the past. Remember Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!  In other words, we rarely get twenty years’ worth of experience – instead, we get one year’s worth of experience twenty times over!

Problem solving thinking

The ability to solve problems is a obviously a very important part of our lives and is vital for our ultimate success.  In fact, problem solving requires a specific set of skills and tools and an ability to make sure that the “problem” being solved is actually the real problem, as opposed to the symptom.

However, a solution that what works once won’t always work for the same problem, because things have a habit of changing – our circumstances, our environment, and even ourselves!  This can mean that the old, “right” way of doing things will no longer work.  However, we may try to make them work regardless and we will work hard to do the “right” things the “right” way instead of the way that actually produces results in today’s new world.  As Marshall Goldsmith says in his book, “What got you here won’t get you there.”

Goal setting thinking

For most people, goal setting is simply another form of problem solving – the business profits are reducing, so we set ourselves a goal to increase them by 10%.  But the major problem with most goal setting is that, by setting the goal, we define our current position as being “wrong” and the goal “right.”  As human beings, we often need something to push away from or to push towards to actually get the motivation to make changes. 

Of course, we all know that dissatisfaction with where we are is a primary motivator in our lives. You will continue to sit in the exact same position until your body starts to feel uncomfortable, then you will move. The same is true with all aspects of our lives, even our relationships.
 
The problem with this type of thinking is we become more focused on the plan itself and the way that we are supposed to achieve our goal, than actually achieving the goal itself.  The result needs to happen in the “right” way for us – i.e. according to our plan.  Frequently, goal setting places too much emphasis on the process for achieving the goal and makes us blind to other possibilities for achieving the same results.
  
Think about where you are in your life today. The chances are that three things are true:

1. Where you are today is not at all what you expected compared to what you thought was possible when you were, say, 16 years old.
2. The route you took to get here today was totally unpredictable, from your point of view as a younger person, and
3. The path that got you here was anything but straight, in fact, it was probably the most circuitous, chaotic route imaginable.

Yet you arrived at this point in time, so how did this happen?  It certainly wasn’t due to enormous expertise in problem solving and goal setting, as crucial as those two things are.

Creation thinking

It was creation thinking that got you here – which is something that is rarely consciously done, as it requires a very different set of skills and mindset from traditional problem solving. Creation is about allowing the things that we want to come to us instead of striving to keep what we don’t want away. It is about seeing and seizing the opportunities which present themselves as opposed to goal setting, which is about trying to force or manufacture a desired and predictable outcome.
  
When you are in a creation mode, you will never know all the exact steps and procedures and path to get from where you are to where you want to go. Compare that mentality to your most recent set of plans and goals. Virtually every time we set a goal, we know (or attempt to know) every step we will take prior to beginning the journey and if we don’t know all the steps, we rarely will start the journey. This is like sitting in your car in the morning until you know for certain that all the lights between you and your destination will be green once you get under way. Sadly, most journeys never get started and therefore most dreams never achieved.
  
The key is that creation thinking is a companion to and not a replacement for goal setting. Both are necessary, you just need to set a goal then just start moving to it, having the confidence that you will overcome all obstacles and be open to spotting all opportunities that you create along the way.

So go on, take Action, set some big goals and trust in your creation thinking to find the way there!

You may take the subconscious mind for granted or perhaps you don’t really know what it does.  We all get insights when we have dreams but generally we think it is irrelevant for our day to day life.  But the fact is that the subconscious mind hugely influential on how we function, behave and react every day. 

The main role of our subconscious mind is to control our reflexive (automatic) behaviour and the actions that we perform without even being conscious of them, such as breathing, the heart beating and the eyes blinking. 

In addition, current theories suggest that the subconscious guides almost all of our thinking, behaviour and the way that we process information through its various functions:

·         Habits: The subconscious controls learned automatic functions, such as walking and driving a car.  Learned functions begin on the conscious level then, through repetition, are taken over by the subconscious mind and become habits.  It is said that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something – so that conscious action becomes unconscious and we just do what we need to achieve the outcome we want. Practice makes perfect!  .

·         Memory: The subconscious records and stores our interpretation of what goes on around us, much like a computer hard drive, and this forms our memory bank.  The human brain has an enormous capacity for storing information and this automatic recording process stores all our experiences, including what we think about and feel in response to those experiences, and this makes us who we are.

·         Personality: The subconscious makes us act as the person we believe ourselves to be, based on our interpretation of the world around us.  So, for example, if we believe that we are bad at giving presentations in public, our belief will influence how we approach the task, making us nervous or even resigned to failure.  This will obviously impact negatively on how we perform in the presentation. 

·         Problem solving:  The creative subconscious scans our memory banks for information in order to come up with possible solutions to problems, based on our past experiences.  It also looks out for external factors that we need in order to solve our problems or achieve our goals and brings them to our attention.  

·         Drive and energy: The subconscious is to provide drive and energy to resolve conflicts and accomplish goals.  This is where we can fall into the trap of procrastination, as the subconscious mind only reacts to activities that are dangerous, important, pleasurable or interesting.  This means that we may well avoid carrying out mundane tasks until the deadline approaches, at which time the importance of the task increases, and the subconscious releases more energy to enable its completion.   

·         Goal seeking: The final function of the subconscious is to ensure that human beings work towards achieving goals.  This is linked to the previous point, as goals make an activity remain important and therefore ensure that the subconscious releases the energy necessary to complete the activity and achieve the goal.

So you can see that it is the subconscious that drives almost all of our daily functions. This means that we essentially are our subconscious. As the subconscious is comprised of memory and habits, and memory and habits are basically types of thinking patterns (attitudes), it is therefore also true to say that we are our thinking patterns. Hence, an understanding of thinking patterns is crucial for effective leadership and business success.

The key is, what can we do as business owners to harness the power of these thinking patterns and thus the subconscious mind?  Well the answer is simple if not, to some, a little strange.

What we do as an individual must first start as a thought; if we cannot think it, we cannot do it.  Famous philosopher, writer and mathematician Rene Descartes famously stated:  “I think; therefore I am.”   British philosopher James Allen wrote in his book of 1902, “As a man thinketh, so he becomes” and best-selling American author, writer of “Think and Grow Rich,” put it best; “What the mind of a man can conceive and believe, it can achieve”. 

If this sound far-fetched, consider the example of a small child learning to walk. They must first see others walking and make a subconscious connection that they want to walk.  Then the conscious mind has something to work with and so the journey begins.

Applying this to us as business owners, if we do not know what we want to HAVE then we cannot start our journey.  The more clarity around what we want our business to look like in the future, the more chance we have of creating that vision.  This is why setting goals, making plans, forecasts and having strategy meetings are so important.  They are the way we programme the subconscious.

However, it is no good just thinking about something without doing something about it.  The old adage, “more is said than ever done” rings true to many business plans.  Positive thought without positive action leads to positively nothing.  A child learns to walk by taking the first step, and so must we when growing our business.

Then we need to turn initial conscious thoughts into subconscious habits through repetition.  If we don’t stick at something long enough then we do not allow it to become a habit.  Remember it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at anything.  So if we want to master business we need to learn how to run it properly and then put that learning into practice for approximately 5 years.

Improving your thinking patterns will make a huge difference to how quickly and how big you can grow your business. So take action to harness the power of your subconscious and take the first steps to business growth now!

Many of the world’s most successful businesses have had a clear and concise VISION - i.e. a succinct and inspiring way of explaning what the company is striving to achieve.  For example, the Ford Motor Company’s vision is ‘To become the world’s leading consumer company for automotive products and services’ – a clear statement of what the Company is all about.

When Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded the Microsoft Corporation in 1975, they had a simple but powerful vision for the new company: ‘A PC on every desk and in every home.’  In 1999, as the business had moved on, they redefined Microsoft’s vision as ‘Empowering people through great software - any time, any place and on any device.’

Okay, so it may work for giants like Ford and Microsoft, but is it relevant for smaller businesses?  What are the benefits of having a clear vision for your business?  Can something so simple really make a difference to your future success?

Well, firstly, articulating your vision for the future demands that that you are 100% clear on what you want the business to achieve and this in itself can be an enlightening and liberating experience.  Stephen R. Covey says in his book ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ - “To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination.  It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.”  The vision provides the guidelines that help you make your daily decisions and set the priorities in your business, so you are always moving towards your goals.

Secondly, clearly articulating your vision also acts to set the internal compass in the brain (called the Reticular Activating System), meaning that you are more likely to become aware of the things which will help you achieve your desired future state. This is sometimes known as the Law of Attraction, which you may well have experienced yourself – once you have identified what it is you need and have focused your mind on it, it often comes along.

Thirdly, a clear vision describes to your team, your customers and your suppliers what your business is all about and where it is going.  Being able to share this important information proactively rather than everyone having to second guess will help you build stronger relationships with the right people. For example, your team will be more motivated as they will be able to see how they can contribute to achieving the vision.

How do you create a vision for your business?

The vision for your business should be longer term, inspiring, challenging and believable.  You need to start with a vivid picture in your mind of what you want to create or what you want the end result to be. This should be something that excites and motivates you.

Choose a specific time frame, somewhere between 5-20 years out and form a vivid description of your envisioned future, then capture it in words. This should be:

• A clear picture of the desired future that you can actually visualise;
• Inspiring - not expressed solely in numbers;
• Describing your aspirations for the future, not the means used to achieve those desired ends.

 For example, the statement ‘To sell 100,000 units per year by 2020’ is not as inspiring as ‘By 2020, to be recognised as the leading distributor of quality units in the South, operating from 5 state-of-the-art showrooms, with the largest range and best customer service in the market.’ Be creative, and give yourself something great to aim for.

The process of creating a vision for your business shouldn’t be rushed and requires some quality time working on the business.  It is often coupled with exploring the real purpose or ‘being’ of your organisation and exploring the core values you uphold, so take time out with your team to and make sure you do it right, not just tick the boxes and move on.

Creating the vision is one thing but making it a reality is quite another.  Too many vision statements are left hanging in reception and are forgotten about, so to avoid this happening in your business, you need to ensure that:

·         Everyone in the business is involved with the creation of the vision statement  and therefore buys in to it;

·         Your vision is communicated to everyone who interacts internally or externally with the business – especially customers and suppliers;

·         You live the vision in your day- to-day operations.  You have to take action to make the vision a reality.  Behaving as if you are already part of the best business in the market will help you to achieve that vision.

Creating a compelling vision for your business will help you to understand the business you are really in and how you want your future to be – this can be very motivating for you as a business owner and for your team.  After all, we all want to be part of something great.  Having an impartial ‘outsider’ to facilitate the process for you can help you to ensure you end up with a vision which is truly inspiring and enduring, not solely about beating the competition. Why just be good, when you can be great?

So take action now and create the vision for your perfect future business!

There are many reasons that people decide to go into business for themselves - they may have a great idea for a new product or service that they want to develop, they may want the freedom to be their own boss and do things their own way, they may have been made redundant, or they may just be fed up with working for a Company that is badly run and know they can do much better.  But regardless of how people arrive at the start of their business, the journey from there on is the same. 

There are 4 distinct stages a business owner must go through before they complete the journey to the end game of having a “commercial profitable enterprise that works without them.”  The challenge is that each of these stages requires a completely new level of knowledge and skills from the business owner and each has hidden pitfalls that will trip up the unwary and prevent them from making it to the next level.

Stage 1: Self employed

The main challenge at this level is the fact that there are so many jobs to do and so little time to do them all.  Initially it is all about learning effective sales and marketing techniques to bring in the business, then it is doing the work, doing the accounts and managing the cash flow.  The biggest issue soon becomes that the more successful you are, the more out of control your business becomes.

The first and most important skill to enable a business owner to navigate stage 1 successfully is self-motivation. Without drive and energy, nothing is going to get done.  The good thing is that in the early days, everything is new and exciting because it is so much better to be in charge of your own destiny than working for somebody else.  But after a while this motivation can dwindle, so the ability to understand what your key motivators are is paramount.

The next skill is self discipline.  There is nobody there to make sure you turn up on time, organise your tasks or do all the mundane work for you, so the ability to prioritise and work on the important tasks will be key if you are going to continue growing your business and move on to stage 2.

Stage 2: Owner manager

As your business grows, you will be able to take on staff to help you run the business, freeing you up to focus on the things you are best at and allowing you to delegate the things that are not the best use of your time.  However, with employment comes a new set of challenges. 

Firstly, you need to recruit the right people with the right attitude and ensure that they buy into your vision and values.  Then you have to ensure your team do the right things by setting out the rules of the game; that includes defining their roles and responsibilities and putting in systems and processes for them to follow.  With these structures in place, you then need to become a trainer to pass on your skills to the team and ensure that they are working to your standards.

As you take on more people, you will have to manage team relationships, communication and start delegating responsibility.  There will also come a time when you have to bring certain team members to account and discipline them. Get these things wrong, and you will have a dysfunctional team that hinder the growth of the company.  Master them, and the team will be helping you drive the business forward and you should find you are becoming less involved in the day to day activities and ready to move to stage 3.

Stage 3: Owner leader

At this stage you will need to learn to let go, step back from day-to-day operations and focus most of your time working ON not IN the business.  Failure to do this will result in micro-management and a directionless business.

The other skill that you will need to develop at this stage is talent spotting.  The future growth and success of the business no longer rests with you but the people you employ, so you need to bring in people who are better than you.  Your contribution will be keeping the vision of the future alive, maintaining the culture, ensuring that the business stays true to its core purpose and keeping the team focused and motivated.

As you improve these skills, the time you need to spend in the business will reduce and eventually you will be ready to step out of the business and move on to stage 4.

Stage 4: Entrepreneur/investor

Having successfully built your first business, you can now use your profits and skills to diversify, buy or build more businesses or even consider franchising your business.  You are now in the business of making money and the vehicle to achieve that does not matter.  You may stay with at least one business or you may be interested in learning how to invest in other assets, such as property and stocks/shares.

The ultimate aim at this level is to build up sufficient income generating assets so that you no longer have to work.  If you chose to continue working you do so because you love it.  Of course you could have been successful enough to have more money than you need for yourself and then you get the chance to give back to others by working with charities, being a non-exec director, trustee or business mentor/coach.

The other option you have is to sell up what you have built and start the journey again, because the thing to remember is that business is a game and if you play it right it will be fun, so why not take ACTION and play all over again?

While there are many areas of a business that I coach my clients on, the truth is that they only need a generalist knowledge of most areas.  That is because eventually, they will delegate these tasks (sales, marketing, finance etc.) to other team members.  However, there is one area of owning a business that cannot and should not be delegated and which the business owner has to master.  That area is, of course, leadership.

The first thing to understand is that leadership is not management.    Good management is needed in all organisations, but there are clear differences between a great manager and a great leader.

“Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing.”  In other words, managers do things by the book and follow company policy, systems and procedures, while leaders follow their own intuition and make up the rules as they go.  Managers tell people what to do, relying on their intellect (IQ) and knowledge of processes to make decisions.  A leader relies more on their emotional intelligence (EQ); they focus on stirring people’s heart and spirit, whereas managers focus on influencing their mind and body.

So with these clear differentiations between management and leadership, why are there so few truly great leaders in business today?  Well, management is in essence a systematic process, easily teachable using traditional education methods, whereas leadership is a far softer skill and there is no right or wrong.  It is thus inherently more difficult to teach and so therefore it is often ignored.  This means that there are fewer great leaders and thus even fewer great teachers of leadership.  Add to this the fact that most people who start a business leave their previous jobs because of their “idiot boss” – this means that these new business owners have never been truly led, only managed, and probably badly managed at that.

If you are one of the many business owners who do not see themselves as a great leader, or even feel that you didn’t get into business to be a leader, you now know that, like it or not, you have to be the leader of your business.  So what steps do you need to take in order to become the best leader you can be?

Well, you have already taken the first step, because that first step is self awareness.  Being aware of your own personal strengths and weaknesses and being prepared to seek help to do something about the weaknesses is one of the key attributes of a great leader.  The great Jim Rohn said, “Work harder on yourself that you do on your business.”   If you are self-aware enough to know you need help, e-mail me and refer to this article and I will send you a FREE leadership book that will help you get started on your journey.

The next step is to understand that the people you are going to be leading are not like you!  I know that this sounds obvious, but it is surprising how few people have more than one leadership style.  One style will work for a limited period, but the only constant in business is change so this style will not always be effective.  As Darwin said, “It is not ‘survival of the fittest,’ it is ‘survival of the most adaptable to change’”.

As mentioned earlier, great leaders have a great understanding of emotional intelligence, which means that they understand what makes themselves and other people tick and are able to change their communication style to match.  Now, this is an area that some people are genetically better at than others – for example, it is said that women can read people much better than men.  The reality is that we all have the genetic makeup to do this - it is just some people have a better developed skill than others.  This is no different to the fact that we can all kick a football, just that some have been practicing since they could walk!

So if we are not as good, how can we improve?  Well, the best tools I have come across for this are behavioural profiling and psychometrics , such as DISC, ECi, Meyers Briggs etc.  Although people are all unique, they do fall into a few relatively similar groups of behaviour and thus if we can master leading these few groups then we can master leading virtually anybody.  The key is that great leaders adapt their leadership style to the people they are leading, rather than force other people to do it their way. 

So now you are more self-aware and aware of other people, there is only one other thing that a great leader needs and it is the one thing that cannot be learnt from a book, taught at school or handed down from one person to another.  This one thing is the PASSION to achieve something big and without this, all the other skills of leadership are wasted. 

You cannot be a great leader with small goals or a little passion.  Branson did not become a great leader by opening one record store or buying one plane!  If you have a big enough dream and can get enough people to believe in your dream, then anything is possible.  This kind of leadership has lead to some truly remarkable events, such as Kennedy putting a man on the moon. The problem is that most business owners think too small, fearful of what they do not have, rather than accepting the one great thing that they do have, which is their passion for what they do.

So find your passion, set some big goals, work harder on yourself than you do on your business and take action to be the best leader you possibly can.  Just don’t be surprised that when you do, you will achieve great things!

In these days of global recession, everybody is tightening their belts and looking for a bargain so naturally it is very tempting for businesses to slash their prices to maintain their market share.  But that is a no-win situation, and as a coach I would always steer my clients away from competing on price.

Today, thanks to the internet, it is easy for people to become professional buyers of just about anything, with all the information and opinions that are available if you just Google for them.  You can even spec and price a new car without going anywhere near a car showroom!  And through some simple online comparisons, you can probably buy products cheaper than if you went to the usual retail suppliers.

But here’s the thing – sales is not all about the price.  If it were, Waitrose would have to close its supermarkets, Harrods would be converted to a pound shop and unwanted BMWs would be stacking up at the docks.

The truth is that people don’t buy purely on logic - it’s more complicated than that and is all down to human psychology.  In very broad terms, the human brain has two separate parts, the right and left hemispheres.  We all know that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa.  However, the right side also deals with emotions while the left side deals with logic.  If you think about it this makes sense, because when people make an emotional decision it is often cited as a decision of the heart, which is on the left side of the body.

All decisions are therefore made using both sides of the brain, a combination of both logic and emotion.  Years of study have shown that emotion always takes precedence when people make a buying decision.  A great source of information on the topic is Robert Cialdini’s book, “Influence: the Art of Persuasion”.

So, how does this help us when we are trying to sell to customers in a price-competitive market?  Well, if price is our primary focus, we end up with giving the client nothing more to base their buying decision on – we are not satisfying their emotional side - and therefore we should not be surprised if they go price hunting.  If we are to compete and yet keep prices up, we have to focus on the emotion of why people buy what we are selling.  In order to do this we must cover five key areas:

1.       Find your niche

You can’t be everything to everyone, so focus on the segment of the market that you are ideally suited to serve. Be clear about the specific customers that you are looking for and focus on being the leader in that market.  Find out all you can about that target market – where they are, why they buy your products and what emotions they base their buying decisions on. Then ensure that your marketing is focused on your target market and their specific needs. Let them know that you understand and can solve their particular problems.

2.       Define your uniqueness

If I didn’t know anything about your business and lined you up with two of your closest competitors, what would make me choose to buy from you?  If all three of you were telling me the same thing, my only point of differentiation would be price; the very thing you are trying to avoid competing on!   If there is really no difference in the end product or service then you must focus on the way you deliver it, the people you hire, your location or something else that sets you apart. 

3.       Sell for the relationship

People buy from people they like.  So make your customers like you!  Show them that you are interested in them, ask them questions and be helpful by making suggestions, without putting them under pressure to buy.  Remember, people love to buy but they hate being sold to.  Pay a visit to some of the top performing businesses in the country and you will see that their customer service stands out a mile. Businesses such as Richer Sounds, Harrods and John Lewis invest heavily in their staff training, so that they have the best customer relationships on the high street.

4.       Add value, don’t discount

If you have no option but to come closer to a competitor’s pricing, then add value to the purchase rather than discount the price. If you think about it, you can give a 10% discount which on £100 will be £10 out of your back pocket.  Or you can give away extra goods/service which will have a cost to you of far less.  I had a client who gave away a £10 scarf with every sale over £50 (20% of the value).  It cost her £1.00 (2% of the value) and the customers loved the thought.

5.       Create the WOW factor

If you really want to stand out from the crowd and get your customers to come back again and again you have to go the extra mile.  Do something that makes your customers think, “WOW, I was not expecting that!”  The ultra-successful online shoe retailer Zappos’s moto is, “Delivering happiness” and their customer service team are trained to do whatever it takes to make their customers happy, proving that this can be done, even in an online business.

So now you know how to get over price competition, there is no excuse to use the excuse that you can’t increase your prices or the customer won’t pay.  If you tap into their emotions strongly enough you can charge whatever you like.  So go on, take ACTION and see your sales race ahead!

As your business grows, it will be the people you employ that are the key to its success.  There is no successful business on this planet that has achieved that level of success based on the efforts of one person alone.  Even though it might seem that entrepreneurs like Richard Branson are the only reason that their business grows to such a large and profitable state, the reality is that they could not achieve a tiny percentage of this success if they were not able to build great teams around them.

So why is it that some people can build great teams to support them and others struggle to even get a handful of people to work together coherently?  Well, in fact there can be many reasons for this, but in my opinion, the people who succeed in building great teams tend to be great communicators.  It is amazing what can happen when there is clear, direct communication to a group of people with a common goal.  So how has communication evolved in your organisation?  In all my years of working with businesses, I have found that, unfortunately, in many cases it goes like this:

Start-up phase – the business owner is keen and the team is small, so everybody talks to everybody every day.  If there is something to be said it is said and there is total clarity about where the business is going and what needs to be done, by whom and by when.

Development phase – owner is still working IN the business but the team is bigger.  Everybody thinks they know what the goals are, but they tend not to talk about them too much as they are all busy working IN the business.  Time is short and meetings do not happen regularly, if at all.  It is often easier to communicate by e-mail than face to face.  The owner is becoming frustrated that the team are not performing as they used to and the team starting to think, why do I bother?

Mature phase – the entire team turn up to work and do what they are paid to do.  If they could get a better job they would, morale is at rock bottom, there is bitching and moaning from certain segments.  New people join but many don’t last long, results are adequate at best.  The business owner is thinking of selling the business or downsizing because finding the right people is too difficult and they would rather walk on hot coals than actually speak with the team as they depress him/her.

 It’s a sad story, but what is it that makes things go so wrong?  Well, the simple answer is that people stop communicating.  The same is true for marriage break downs, business deal failures and any group of people who fall out.  They fail to communicate and thus cannot agree on the way forward.  The key to overcoming this problem or, better still, to prevent it from happening in the first place, is simple, but like most things, the execution takes skill, discipline and determination.

The answer can be found in the reason why the start up phase of a business works so well.  Communication at that level was happening on a daily, if not hourly, basis.  So many things were going on that it had to be that way.  I like to think of the regularity of communication as being the heart beat of the business. 

In this phase, the business is running like hell to get going, so its heartbeat is racing like that of an athlete.  Then, in the development phase, the communication starts to become less regular and so the heartbeat slows, until the mature phase when you effectively get cardiac arrest!

So how do we “defibrillate” an organisation’s communication system?  The answer is the good old fashioned team meeting.  Meetings held on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis are the key to having a healthy team and therefore a healthy business.  When I say this to clients, the normal response I get is that they used to have meetings but they never really achieved anything, they went on too long, people did not value them and they were more trouble than they were worth.  Of course they were, because most people have ever taken the time to learn how to hold effective, dynamic and purposeful team meetings.

So you have no excuse, let me show you my 4 simple steps to holding successful meetings:

1              Book them in the diary – make them regular and make them happen, remember it takes 21 times to create a good habit so you will have to keep at it.

2              Only invite the relevant people – meetings with more than 8 people are not effective.  Keep it to only those that matter, it’s better to have more meetings with fewer people than fewer meetings with more people.

3              Have an agenda  – ensure that every meeting has a clear purpose and you stick to it.  Have a chairperson to keep things to time and ensure you do not drift onto other areas.

4              End with clear action points – at the end of every meeting you should be left with who does what by when, to ensure there is ownership, responsibility and accountability.

Doctors will tell you that most heart attacks could have been avoided if the patient were disciplined enough to do a couple of simple things regularly.  I would say the same about most team failures.  So go on, take ACTION by committing to holding regular team meetings and you will have a better team, a better business and a better life.

One of the biggest challenges I come across in growing companies is the business owner’s ability to attract, retain and develop a successful team.  In fact, for some smaller businesses this prevents any growth at all. I regularly hear comments like “I employed people once but it was a nightmare, what with all the regulations and tax implications and the need to supervise and train them, so I got rid of them and am happier on my own.”

The fact is, you will not grow your business without a team to support you, so let’s start by getting those limiting beliefs out of the way.  Yes there are regulations and tax implications, but so there are for driving a car and that does not stop us from doing that.  And yes, you have to train and supervise your staff initially, but if you make a good job of it, your staff can take on the training and supervision of new staff in time. 

Business people that use these issues as an excuse not to recruit people are doing so purely because the only other option they have is to say that they are bad at building a team and have no desire to learn how to do it properly.

If you look at it from another angle, if your desire is to build a commercial, profitable, business that works without YOU is strong enough, then no amount of regulation or inconvenience will stop you.  If however you are stuck in your comfort zone of doing OK and have no real passion to grow, then just stop blaming outside factors and admit to yourself and others that this is the case and make the most of where you are.  For the rest of you who want to grow and don’t live in Blame, Excuses and Denial, the steps to grow a successful team are very simple, if not exactly easy.

Human behaviour has been studied for many years and in essence has hardly changed in thousands of years.  Humans are social animals and we get on best with people like ourselves.  Over time, different cultures emerge that are formed when the core beliefs of groups of people become aligned.  The power of these cultures can lead to great or bad things, depending on the morals and values of the leader.

The fact is that humans seek this form of belonging all the time, in fact it is one of the biological drives for us to nuture our children, rather than leaving them to their own devices as many other animals do.  If you want final proof of this fact, just look at one of the most serious punishments for a human-being - solitary confinement.  Being on your own for a prolonged period of time can lead to mental health issues and is the most common cause for suicide – the feeling that “nobody cares”.

So how does knowing this help us build a great team?  Well, like most things in life, once we know the cause and effect we can use it to our advantage.  We know that people who come together form a cultural purpose that binds them together and influences what they do and achieve.  So in our business all we need to do is to create a culture that will do the same. 

The first step is to realise that every human culture generally starts with one person or a small group of people and a leader, someone who has the vision of what could be, like Martin Luther King who famously said “I have a dream…”   

Whether you like it or not, you are the leader of your business and everybody who currently or will in the future work for you will look to you to be that leader.  There is no magic formula, but we all have it in us to be a great leader.  Once you step up to become the leader of the business, you need to set the direction of where you are going as a business – your vision of the future. 

The final step is to define what your culture is going to be.  Think of this as your “rules of the game”.  They will stem from your own personal values (core beliefs) and we generally find that they can be condensed into a dozen or so statements.  Once you have defined the culture you then need to make sure that everybody understands it and lives by it. 

This is where the work is needed.  Changing culture does not happen overnight.  Everything and everyone in the organisation needs to be aligned with the culture and anybody who isn’t needs to be reminded that they have agreed to it and ultimately be asked to leave if they do not wish to join in.

The big thing to remember is that even if you do not set your own culture, it will set itself.  Groups of people will default to the most dominant set of beliefs and if they are not yours, then you are in for trouble.  Tony Hsieh in his book “Delivering Happiness” wrote about how he fell out of love with his first business because it had formed a culture of its own, which he despised.  In the end he could not bear to go into work and he had to sell the business to get away from it.   

So now you can see that building a great team starts with you the leader.  As the old saying goes, “you get the people you deserve.”   If you want a better team, start with the person at the top, and if you want to see ActionCOACH’s 14 points of culture for some inspiration, then go to http://www.actioncoach.com/14-points-culture.  You never know - you might be inspired enough to take ACTION!

There is a saying, “the only thing that stays the same is change.”   In today’s world we are subject to change more than ever, because we now have much more choice than ever before.  Through the internet, we now have access to unlimited amounts of information – we Google something and we get thousands of opinions, options and choices.  All this choice is both a good thing and a bad thing for us.

On the plus side, we like to have options for what we do and freedom of choice is something we continue to fight for.  On the negative side, too much choice and constant change can be very stressful and overwhelming.  So what is best?  The simple answer is we need both, and how much of each really depends on the individual.  Some people like constant change and risk taking, whilst others prefer the status quo.

So how is this relevant to business?  Well, we need to recognise that our customers have unlimited access to buy products and services from anybody else and in some cases from anywhere in the world.  No longer can we rely on the fact that as long as our customers are satisfied with what we do, they will stay with us.  They will be constantly bombarded with new choices and even if they have the most anti-change personality, can we really afford to just sit back and hope that they don’t go and try our competitors?

In his book “Customer satisfaction is worthless, customer loyalty is priceless,”  Jeffery Gitomer identified that we have to work as hard on keeping our existing clients as we do getting new ones.  This is a really important issue.  

I had a client who was spending tens of thousands of pounds on generating new leads for their business, but the customer base was not increasing, year on year.  When we looked in detail at what was happening, we found that they were losing as many clients as they were bringing on.  So we took some of the marketing budget away from lead generation and put it towards looking after our existing customers and this helped the business to start growing again through improved customer retention.

So the key question is, WHY should your customers stay with you?  The first answer is of course the product or service you supply.  This must be first class and give great value for money.   In ACTION we call this Delivery Mastery and it is this that stops your customers going elsewhere.  However, it is  not sufficient to make your customers WANT to stay – the real key to building customer loyalty is going the extra mile for them and creating the “WOW factor”. 

So what is the “WOW factor?”  Think of it the little extras that you do for your customers over and above the normal product or service you provide.  It is the things that you do that tap into the emotions of your customers and leave a lasting impression. 

A classic example is of a top hotel in New York that ensured its top guests’ rooms had their favourite flowers, wine and chocolates waiting for them when they arrived.  It also trained its staff to remember the little details that would make their guests’ stay so much more memorable and ensure that they would never even think of staying anywhere else.

Paddi Lund, the most successful dentist in Australia, built his entire business on referrals and loyal customers. He called these extras “critical non-essentials” (CNE’s).  The key to their success is that they are not directly related to the product or service you are offering.  Just giving more or better service is not enough; your customers expect the best, so when you deliver it, they are just getting what they have paid for.

The WOW factor comes when you surprise the client with something different and unique to them, so much so that they not only say WOW to themselves, but they also go and tell everybody they know about it.  An example of this recently happened to me playing golf at Celtic Manor.  Being taken to the locker room and shown to my own personal locker with my name on it, two lockers away from Tiger Woods’ locker, was such a memorable moment that I tell people about it whenever I get the opportunity!

The key to successful CNE’s is to overcome the 3 reasons NOT to do them:

1                 Lack of ideas – give yourself time to think.  Talk to your customers find out more about them and what interests and excites them.  And speak to friends and colleagues too - it is always easier to come up with ideas for other people’s businesses than it is for your own.

2                 Lack of money – if you remember that your CNE’s are marketing, then you should be allocating some of your general marketing budget to them.  Also be creative -  some of the best CNE’s don’t cost a penny.

3                 Lack of time – always make sure that any CNE you start you can continue to do however busy you become.  You can do this by systemising the process, training and delegating responsibility to your team.

 So now you know how to create the WOW factor, you just need to put it into ACTION, because if you don’t your competition might beat you to it!

Many people start their own businesses to get a better lifestyle and for some, that involves working with member of their immediate family, husband and wife, father and son mother and daughter etc.  And why not?  After all, owning your own business can be a lonely affair, so what better antidote than having the people that otherwise you would not see because of work with you everyday.

The upsides of having a close family business are normally well defined: working with people you know and trust, spending more time with the ones you love, even using complimentary skills that you know and understand. 

However, with all family businesses, there are as many if not more inherent dangers than in a regular business that has no family members working in it.

Lets start with the bare statistics: 80% of start up businesses fail in the first 5 years.  As far as I am aware, there are no statistics showing that family businesses are any less or more successful than this.  However, in my experience, family run businesses do seem to have a knack for lasting longer than other similar businesses.  I put this down to two distinct factors:

1) There is strength in numbers; it can be lonely running a business and if there is only you it is easier to give up than if there are two or more of you.

2) There is no alternative; if the business does not survive then it is like saying the relationship is over!

I have come across some very sad cases of this latter circumstance.  One couple had been in business together for 10 years and made an average of £10,000 between them each of those years.  They had survived by consistently remortgaging their house and borrowing in the hope that they could turn the business around.  If they had not been in the business together, I am sure the spouse who was not involved in the business would have put a stop to it long ago. 

The key to avoiding this is to have an open and honest discussion before starting the business to decide where the business is going, and what should happen if the plans do not come to fruition.  Ensure you have somebody outside of the relationship with who will give you a reality check from time to time.

The next problem that all family businesses run into at some time is recruiting people because they are family, not because they are best suited for the job.  The key to building a great team is to recruit based on attitude and train for skills.  Nobody is 100% perfect for a role in any company and one of the biggest issues for many businesses is getting the right fit of people into the organisation.  Family members seem a very attractive option at first, because you know them and the cultural fit should be spot on.  However, most people see their family through “rose tinted glasses” and think that because they are family, they will fit right in.  This is especially true when employing your offspring.  Most parents see their kids as a “chip off the old block” and believe that they will think and act the same as the parents, when the reality is often the opposite. 

To overcome this issue, don’t assume that you know your family members as well as you think you do!  For each role you are recruiting for, have a clear job specification and person profile, carry out an interview and behavioural profile as you would normally do.  It can often be useful to have somebody external to help you with the recruitment process to help to keep it impartial, or to do it on your behalf.  Ensure that you are both clear where there is fit with the role requirements and what areas will require development over time.

Once the family have had a bit of time working together and the business is out of its start-up phase, the next area that causes issues is the lines of communication.  The biggest misconception in business is that because people work together and see each other every day, that they successfully communicate with each other.  Now add in the factor that families tend to spend time with each other outside of the business as well and the misconception is doubled.

Husband and wife teams are the worst at this.  They always assume that the other knows what is going on because they are around when these items are talked about, when in fact “real communication is the response you get”.  And remember that to assume is to “make an ass out of you and me”.

The best way to ensure that you have real communication is to have regular and purposeful meetings.  These need to be booked into the diary, have a clear agenda and notes taken of the resulting agreed actions taken and these need to be followed up.  If the meetings have to take place in personal time, then make sure you keep business short and sweet and that all parties agree.

The final area that family businesses struggle with is roles and responsibilities and ultimately succession planning.   This will normally be more of a problem where one of the family (normally Dad) is either overtly dominating or passive.  Remember the old adage that the first generation starts it, the second builds it and the third destroys it.

The worse case I have encountered of this was a dominant father who ruled with a fist of iron and his son, now 50, was a shy timid character.  Dad was frustrated that his son was never going to step up to run the company as he wanted it run and therefore blamed the son for not allowing him to retire. 

To overcome this, all parties need alignment for their business and personal goals.  Remember that a business is purely there to give you what you want in life personally; it is the vehicle not the destination.  There should then be a clear organisation chart and roles and responsibilities with a obvious progression path for all members, including the founder.

So now you know how to avoid the family business pitfalls, get into ACTION and start building the legacy!