Don't Forget Think Time

I had a conversation today with my "favorite AVP"--can't tell you who he/she is or what he/she and I discussed, except to say that it was about think time. That's right--set aside appointments with yourself in your "Starbucks Chair" to simply think about, over, and through your business, your market, your team, even your life.

Think time is a discipline that many of the most effective executives are religiously committed to. I recently read of Vikram Pandit (the new head of CitiGroup) who, even while traveling the world trying to learn about and turn around that financial behemoth, insists on putting reflection time in his busy schedule.

Don't be fooled. It won't happen by accident and it isn't effective when combined with your daily commute. It works when you get out a scratch pad by yourself for an hour or so at a time and really apply your intellect to your situation.

I know we are all busy and under the gun and this probably seems like a low priority. But, I would tell you that what we DON"T need right now is a high level of thoughtless activities or just revving up the engine of the way we've always done it. What we need is for leaders at all levels of the organization to think and think well and think often; then, based on good thought, we can DO what we thought. That will make a difference.

Protecting Accounts

In tough times, your competition is going to get their business anywhere they can--usually by attacking your best account. They have a special advantage--you've already solved the major problems so they can take it over at a lower price to maintain your solution. They also have a disadvantage--you are the incumbent with an existing relationship and it's painful for accounts to change. The question is which outweighs the other? If the latter is the heaviest then you win; if the former, then you lose!

What can you do?

1. Stay very close to your best clients--the ones who you think you can never lose.
2. Explore new ways to bring new value, to solve new problems, at your best clients.
3. Consider a preemptive price reduction before they ask you for one.
4. Expand your network of sponsors and champions inside your best accounts.
5. Start selling their replacement today (just in case).

Enjoying Work

Peter Drucker--not the guy you normally think of when it comes to fun at work--had this to say (quoted recently in a Priority Management Newsletter):

Those who perform love what they are doing. I'm not saying they like everything they do.
That's something quite different. Everybody has to do a lot of the routine; there's an enormous amount of the routine. Every great pianist has to do three hours of playing scales each day. And nobody will tell you they love it. You have to do it. It's not fun, but you enjoy it because even after forty years you still feel the fingers improving. Pianists have a wonderful expression I heard many years ago: "I practice until I have life in my fingers." And, sure, it's a dull routine, but you enjoy it.

The same is true of people I've seen in business who enjoy the work. Their routine is: It's got to be done, and I enjoy it because I enjoy the work. And that is the difference, I believe, not between mediocrity and performing, but between what you call a "learning organization" one where the whole organization grows and then the process changes – and an organization that maybe does very well but nobody misses it after five o'clock.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Entrepreneurs

After 25 years of advising entrepreneurs in a dozen countries and having been a serial entrepreneur myself for most of that period, I have compiled a list of the 7 most common "sins" that an entrepreneur can commit.
1. Believing we can do it all. We started the business and no one can do it better than we can..so we do it..all of it.
2. Lack of clear focus. It was being creative that launched our business, so why not keep on creating. I never met an opportunity I didn't like. The result, however, is diminished focus on the few things that are vital to success.
3. Not saying "No." Entrepreneurs are "yes-men." Saying no seems like missing an opportunity so we go everywhere, accept every challenge, speak at every podium, etc. I have a VP of No. You might need one.
4. Hiring what we can afford. If you pay peanuts, don't be surprised if you end up with monkeys.
5. Being too trusting. I don't want to be naive but I don't want to be cheated either. I've been both.
6. Keeping a friend too long. It's easy for entrepreneurs to become "buds" with the few who were there in the beginning and not notice that they can't keep up anymore.
7. Leaving too early. Because we like starting things, it's sometimes hard to hang around long enough to reap the lasting rewards of our creativity.
I said "7." I bet there are "70."

What is Performance Management?

There have been volumes written about Performance Management yet at its core it's really quite simple. It means that a company has embraced a culture of setting agreed goals, holding people accountable to those goals, and rewarding those who achieve them. This can happen on the macro-level at which strategic planning is more than an academic exercise; a plan is meant to be executed and people actually commit to do so. This can happen at the micro-level in which individuals are expected to set and achieve results, are measured and coached to those results, and are rewarded (or not!) for what they actually contribute to the company. This can happen at all points in between.

Here are three components to Performance Management that apply at all levels. They are a simple guide and a useful test.

1. Clear and agreed EXPECTATIONS. Does everyone know and understand what the desired outcome looks like? Does an employee truly know in specifics what is actually required of the job? Is a clear set of business objectives created and articulated? Are clear metrics in place to determine progress to plan? Success? Failure?
2. Regular and honest FEEDBACK. Accountability means "the ability to tell the story." Is every employee, team, business unit head asked on a regular basis how they are doing and what they are doing? Are the metrics applied to them? Is management giving true and timely appraisals of work done (or not done)?
3. Appropriate REWARD AND CONSEQUENCES. It has to matter. Paying those who achieve goals and who do well more than those who don't is the purest form of capitalism and is NOT favoritism. Not everyone gets a trophy. There are winners and losers. Performers and non-performers. The simple truth is that some contribute more than others and therefore should receive the greater reward. Let the under-performing, closet socialists complain. Life is not meant to be fair!

I Coulda Had a V8!

As I finished a kaizen event this afternoon and the team did the obligatory management report-out, I couldn't help but laugh when the executive sponsor said over the speakerphone that he had experienced a few "I coulda had a V8" moments. In other words, DUH! It was the obvious, little things that made the difference--and the difference was in the millions of dollars.

On the two hour ride from Knoxville to my home in North Carolina, I kept thinking about this and here's the burning question I kept kicking around: HOW MANY OF THE THINGS WE STRUGGLE WITH ARE THE RESULT OF OH-SO-PAINFULLY-OBVIOUS CAUSES. We have been conditioned to look for the exotic, brilliant, breakthrough answer and the mindbending AHA! As a result we miss the clear, in-your-face simple things that, if seen and addressed, could make a lot of difference. Some of you get this. For those of you who don't, well...you've just proved my point.

It's All About Focus

A client of mine recently inaugurated a set of 2008 initiatives wrapped around 3 high impact areas. Knowing the leadership of that company very well I find myself worried that somehow this will get turned into working harder and longer hours--they already work exceedingly hard and incredibly long hours because of how much they (and I, for that matter) care about the company. In this case, importance becomes urgency becomes working harder.

This got me to thinking about the fact that it's not about working harder--in very few cased do I see reasonably successful people who don't already work very hard. And I'm not going to say it's about working smarter (which generally means cramming more into a day through false efficiencies--essentially another form of working harder); this makes me want to hurl!

The real issue at hand is focus--doing a few, highly impactful things really well rather than doing a bunch of things tolerably. Most of us are deathly afraid of saying "No" or of taking something off our list. We don't unsubscribe to email newsletters. We don't tell people we can't be there. We don't eliminate--we expand our commitments on a regular basis. The result is diffusion, confusion, and overall frustration.

Strategy is not coming up with a list of initiatives (the more the better) and then trying to do them all. Strategy is considering all the things that you could do and then reducing that list to the fewest possible things that you must do. It's all about focus. At a company level and at a personal level, stop and ask yourself about your sense of focus.