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Archive for category Personal Development

Fixing People Problems

May 14

Posted by Steve Gray in Human Resource Management, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, Planning | No Comments

Ever noticed that things seem to go from good to bad, and then wondered if there is anything you could have done about it? Probably not something you can stop every time but perhaps limit its impact.

Let’s look at this in terms of staffing issues and how you might minimise ‘bad things’ happening.

So what sorts of ‘things’ am I talking about here?

Negative changes to:

  • Attitudes
  • Interest in the work
  • Interest in work mates
  • Interest in solving challenges (policies, procedures, politics, creative thinking to solve challenges).
  • Interest in themselves (self-esteem)
  • Enthusiasm to work
  • Quality of work
  • Interest in the company
  • Interest in the industry
  • Interest in customer services
  • Interest in their work space, facilities, equipment etc.

With this many things on this list (and probably a HEAP more) you can appreciate there are many variables which people can be affected by, some of these can be long term things The big question some of you will now be asking is what causes some of these things to happen, followed by what do I do about it?

Some Possible Causes:

  • Communication issues – Interpersonal – Intra-personal – Clarity of and or interpretation of the information
  • Leadership – Too much, too little, wrong sort (power and control)
  • Management – Too much, too little, wrong sort (micro managing – power and control)
  • Management fads – Things changing again, policies, procedures, values, beliefs… oh look we reinvented the wheel, lets go back to how things ere it was better… frustrating!
  • Too many chiefs – Who would you follow?
  • Wants to fly like an Eagle, but is hanging out with Turkeys
  • Frustrated by lack of – Progress – Systems – Planning – Politics – Idiots – Resources – Facilities
  • Work changes – Things got more techo but little or poor training was put in place – more things added to the list of things you are meant to be doing
  • You (the supervisor/leader) became a freak, time freak, detail freak, communication freak etc… all this simply FREAKS people out, stop doing that
  • Self-image – team image – High – low
  • Changes to personal tastes (e.g. once liked the industry and now not so much – liked the work environment and is now tired of it.)
  • Bullying etc…
  • No releif from constant work pressures
  • Made suggestions but nothing happens… or little if any recognition for suggestions or just being good at what they do
  • Politics in the business, got bad and never really recovered!
  • Departmental rivalry (more politics)
  • Travel too far to get to work
  • Personal situation has altered (break ups, divorces, family hassles) yours or theirs, yours can impact on them, their own is probably more direct
  • Drug issues (not enough – too much) you, them, others
  • Health issues

Clearly there are personal issues you as a boss or supervisor may not have much influence over, but the work issues should be able to be dealt with. Make a list of the items and check out to see if any of them can be tweaked to make things better. Over time you might find the range of things which would normally go from good to bad will reduce, a little prevention is better than a lot of fix ups.

Meditation in Business

May 1

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, People!, Personal Development, Risk Management | 1 Comment

I recently saw some information on Mediation being used in schools. Where it’s been trialled they suggest the outcomes are very favourable, lower anxiety, less stress and calmer students. They go on to say the students have become more respectful, communicate better and have ‘less issues’ in the playground. I then took a look on heh web, it seems there are a bunch of businesses doing it “in the boardroom”.

Anyone who has done some meditation and have experienced the benefits will soon tell you this is nothing new. For me what could be new is using its benefits to enhance your business, less stress, less anxiety, less hassles, that can only mean less staff absenteeism, and therefore greater productivity. Couple that with “less issues in the play ground” and you could be on to a big winner!

The challenges would be to cause your business culture to alter enough to accept it, followed by which method to use, when it would be used and if the whole team started the day with a meditative session or not.

Once the initial questions have been pondered you might start out by offering an in house learning session with a mediation teacher who would give some simple short sharp options people could practice readily. Add a few links to articles on the web and perhaps a handout as a reminder they can pin up at their desk could be useful.

For those who think there could be issues with certain religious types not taking to a ‘new form of prayer’, set them straight by letting them know that very little meditation is related to religion and more to do with the science of holistic relaxation and better health.

Do a quick search on the net and find some simple strategies on how to do this, then follow up with your team every few weeks and discuss the benefits, issues etc to see how it works for your business. You might just get a pleasant surprise!

I get a picture of whole office spaces filled with cubicles of staff starting the day with 10 mins of chill time, following some basic steps to ‘Breathe in, breathe out and repeat…” all to aid the health and well being of all concerned. Perhaps all of this might add to the teams sense of belonging, connectedness, sense of achievement, a feeling of having a unified purpose and a sense of organisational integrity, all due to one simple process repeated daily… nice.

Beyond the motivator, the ‘just do it’ theory.

Dec 23

Posted by Steve Gray in People!, Personal Development | No Comments

Just a theory but I like how it fits. It’s all to do with what causes us to do things.

On the one side we have Drivers (have to do a task) – on the other there are Motivators (want to do a task).

Clearly if someone is motivated to do something they want to do it and that probably means they will do the task with interest and enthusiasm. On the other hand if someone HAS to do a task, they could try to put it off to the last minute and have to be driven to do it (no choice, must be done not matter what).

All of that is okay, but I got stuck, in the middle part, where I could not decide if I wanted to do a task or if I was driven to do a task, it was a ‘no mans land’. And yes I was seriously STUCK, things that I should do but was neither motivated nor driven to do. I floated, wondering what will drive me to do the task, or motivate me.

For a long while I was perplexed and on the odd occasions people would suggest ‘Just do it’ but being a thinking person, I was too busy considering “how come I’m not motivated or driven?”

Finally I got to the “Just do it” stance, and then it hit me. Just do it is in the middle, and I see it as a pendulum moving a bit either side, perhaps there would be times when I would just do things and have moments of feeling motivated or driven. Nice distinction me thinks…

The main thing, if a task needs doing, ‘Just do it’. Who knows, the ‘just done thing’ may lead us to explore the task from a more motivated or driven position, the possibilities from there might be endless.

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Training to Win…

Aug 6

Posted by Steve Gray in People!, Personal Development | 1 Comment

Yes I figure business is like a game, there are winners and losers, so train to win, heck who wants to lose right? But before you jump in with “Oh but I don’t have time to train people and I don’t know how to… Don’t think you have to do it, or do it all, there are plenty of external organisations who can do it for you.

BUT you need to do some things, like setting up the system you want to follow to ensure you get the best results for the investment you make.

Here are a few points to consider:

  • Create levels – from apprentice to master, there are levels, you should do the same and create a a range of options, a progression if you like.
  • Points to cover – At each level there will be things you need to cover, so jot them down in point form so you can develop the details later.
  • Measure – Competency and then proficiency, just one on it’s own may not be enough, especially if it’s an essential skill.
  • Record – How you measure things is one thing, but how you record the details is another, so create a system to effectively track each persons progress at each level.
  • Acknowledge – How will you let people know they have attained a set level? a certificate? or… make sure it’s worth it!

All these will be useful starting points to developing a training outline for your business, so go and take action to make it happen.

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Successful Communication – 4 Key Categories

Jul 19

Posted by Jenny Stilwell in Human Resource Management, People!, Personal Development | 3 Comments

There are four key categories to remember when thinking about whether you are maximising your communication with your target market. Within these categories there are many variations on how a message can be conveyed, or a channel for dialogue opened. However, if you keep in mind the 4 groups, you will always maximise your opportunities for communicating your message.

1. Develop the Information/Message

If you have information you would like to convey to your customers and clients, in how many fundamental ways could this be presented?

  • Newsletters
  • PowerPoint presentations
  • Emails
  • Web site
  • Music or message on hold
  • Company profile documents
  • Products & services lists
  • Product specifications
  • Company stationery
  • Brochures
  • Direct mail pieces
  • Copies of press coverage/press releases
  • Articles
  • Invitations
  • Speeches

Presentation of your message is critical. Please keep some of these considerations in mind:

  • Always think in terms of your customers’ perspectives. What is interesting and useful to them? Be genuine. If you say you’re going to do something, then do it. If you’re not genuine it will be apparent.
  • Focus on consistency of presentation, of message, of image, of how you are being perceived by your customer.
  • Know who your customers are. Don’t use humour which would only appeal to a small group of people, don’t risk using any message which may offend, and always be mindful of different religious and cultural perspectives when appealing to a broader segment of the local or international market.

2. Open the Communication Channel: Events and Networking

This category of communication is ‘up close and personal’ between you and the customer or potential client. The message may be specific, or non-specific relationship building communication. Some options within this category are:

  • Client lunches
  • Launch events
  • Entertainment events
  • Industry events (exhibitions, conferences etc.)
  • Association or Institute gatherings
  • Organised sporting competitions between companies

Again, remember that your clients and customers are typically not all men, or all women, they are not all the same age, they do not all have the same interests, they may not all have families, and their idea of a great time may not be the same as yours.

The point is, learn about your customers as much as you can, so they join in these events willingly and enthusiastically, so everybody gains something from it. Finally, events and networking are about communication, but what will be remembered is what is different, amusing, and interesting. Add value and your message will be remembered.

3. Involvement from your Clients and Customers

Events and networking functions involve your customers at some emotional level and build the relationship you have with them. However, communication that elicits involvement and follow-through communication from your customers is different, in that there is some notion of commitment to do business with you.

Specific tools to communicate with involvement from customers and clients are:

  • Surveys and questionnaires
  • New product/service test programs
  • Writing up testimonials from your customers
  • Case studies on your customers’ businesses and their relationships with you and your business
  • Ask customers for feedback on new developments, such as your web site for example.

Inherent in this type of activity is ongoing involvement and relationships. This is the primary objective of successful communication.

4. Follow Through Communication

One-off communication is not enough. One-off communication does not build relationships. A message can be conveyed by communicating it only once, but will it be remembered? How many times have you seen yet another ad on television and not known who the advertiser was because it didn’t register? The message needs to be clear, repeated, and followed up. Ideally it should also be humorous, of interest or value, and have some differentiating factor.

Don’t stop communicating:

  • thank your clients
  • send notes of congratulations when appropriate
  • send information in which they may be interested
  • send them leads
  • follow up on your survey
  • follow up on the new product or service launch
  • send them a copy of your first newsletter, brochure, etc.
  • proactively call them once in a while to touch base and ask how they are, and how business is

The cycle must continue in order to be successful. “The little differences make all the difference”.

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Bitter, grumpy annoyed… get over it!

Jun 24

Posted by Steve Gray in Chill out!, Excellence!, People!, Personal Development, The Customer Service Dept | 2 Comments

I have been on about good customer service for years now, and while I recognise it can take a lot to make it happen, it’s a thing, which needs to happen.

In my more recent travels I have noticed bitter, grumpy and annoyed people operating businesses. It’s one thing to have grumpy staff, but quite another to see the operator of the business in this “state”. Seriously if you want to be in business and be a grouch stay out of site of the customers…

I guess it’s in part due to the Global Financial Crisis or at least compounded by it, to the point where people are wondering about where the next customer and cash is going to come from. Okay so you may not be able to do much about that, (especially if you have spent all your marketing budget already!) So you have to sit and wait… BUT if that can’t change, what about you?

To alter being a “grump” you may have to take a stance and force yourself to be happy. try a few of these.

  • Write a sign for yourself “Be Happy!” and put it where it can be seen by you and not the customer, make a bunch of them, put them up and act on them.
  • Make a list of things that make you happy and each day “do” something on that list somehow… and DON”T give me the line of “Oh I don’t have time…”
  • Get or make a CD of a bunch of funny things, jokes etc by comedians you really like and laugh at even though you have heard them a zillion times, play it on the way to the office, and LAUGH heartily!
  • Look up, yes it’s that simple, look up and try to not feel good, hard to do eh? Note how glum people tend to look down a lot, makes sense right…
  • Tell  your staff to tell you to smarten up… Go on I dare you to.
  • Make a list of the things getting you down, now write a bunch of ways to fix them, then act on it… go on do that now! Keep adding to the solutions list.
  • Take a five minute stroll, go out of the office or store, walk briskly and get the blood pumping.
  • De stress, mediate or do whatever thing helps you to de stress (without hurting others or things…)
  • Get an unreasonable friend, one who can hold you to your promises, and chat to them about ways to work around your challenges, share a few jokes etc.
  • Kick a footy, It won’t de stress everyone, but It might work for you, heck even going to a sports shop and buying one might break your routine enough, no cash? Borrow one off a kid in your street… hey imagine going door to do and asking “Does your kid have a footy I can borrow for an hour?” Heck that kid has probably been looking for a kick to kick friend for ages.
  • Go to an Art Gallery or five for a few minutes, I used to do this when driving around in a van all over the city, I would drop in to see contemporary art, (no cost!) and I knew where heaps of them where so I could get to one fast for a break in routine. Oh and turn your mobile off for the few minutes you are there. ;) Seeing other people’s “views” on and about the “human condition” can be useful.
  • Put a picture of yourself up on the fridge at home and yell at yourself… Did you like that? Now think about the last time you yelled at someone, did that feel good? Perhaps for you, how about them? Get the point, it’s not good.
So make yourself a “grump free zone” and get out amongst the customers with a happy disposition and see if that impacts well on sales or even just staff morale.

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Free Training YAY! ??

Apr 19

Posted by Steve Gray in People!, Personal Development, Planning, Starting out in business, The Board Room | No Comments

Local paper, classified training section, courses on offer with local accredited training org’s there are free courses in pre apprenticeship training, and various others to assist to up skill people… seems good, fairly non eventful stuff. It looks like the government and trying to boost things along with the freebies (have done for some time now…

However I looked down to see a small business start up course to explore new biz ideas, read through, looked okay but you have to pay… hmm at first I ranted and raved to the wife about “THIS SHOULD BE FREE!! dammit!” then got the raised eyebrow and a chat about “yeah, yeah… bla blahhhh… get over it..” and I stopped, then thought…

Hmm they should pay but then at the successful completion of the course get their money back… a money back redemption, perhaps a discount or a carry over to another course to take the idea further, or better still a chance to thrash the idea out that bit deeper with a mentor.

A nine week program, Perhaps I should go along and play devils advocate… thoughts?

Falling? Then get up…

Feb 23

Posted by Steve Gray in People!, Personal Development | No Comments

I’m always finding myself saying “Fall down 5 times then get up six times…” But I can’t say it as well as this guy!

In times of challenge you need to be in the right frame of mind to come out on top, check the video and let me know what you think…

Change Happens, Handle it…

Jan 23

Posted by Steve Gray in Growth, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management | No Comments

With lots of things happening in the world it makes sense to get a perspective on things, some change you are experiencing may be good, some the opposite. Here are a few things which you may find of value in changing times.

  1. Be positive and have a sense of optimism – So things are changing… You can say “Oh woe is me…” or you can say “Whoa! Things are changing WOO HOO!” the choice is yours, an optimistic approach generally works out for the better, it puts your “spirit” somehow into the right frame to handle and accept things.
  2. Change can be good – Ignore it and it can be bad too… – You need to decide fast what’s happening and what fits to your core values and beliefs, if it fits well then go for it, if it doesn’t consider taking another path.
  3. You have a range of skills to handle change already – You’re an adult right? You have fallen over and picked yourself up from an early age, some of us may seem to fall over more often, so some of us may have more skills to deal with the situation. Reflect and remember all those things you have overcome, were you stronger at the end of it? Chances are yes… Tally up the skills you have, now put them into action.
  4. Not letting excuses and negative emotions stop you – Feel the fear and do it anyway can be useful at times, and this may be one of them. Ask yourself what are my excuses and negative emotions around this issue and what would I prefer them to be? Go on write them down so you can tackle them HEAD ON.
  5. The more you resist change, the more things may not happen how you want – I am not saying this is always the case but often it seems this way, and have you ever met someone that said “I should have done this earlier?” uh huh… and where would you prefer to be, starting out early or late? And ask this was anything I resisted in a change way in the past ever really that bad?
  6. What stories are you telling yourself? – Your self-talk is the one thing, which might just be holding you back, check out No: 4 again… is it your self-talk trying to “protect you?” from what? The unknown? Is it really unknown? Or is your self-talk wanting to “set you free” and explore everything this new change may bring…
  7. Deeper meaning, is it part of that? – Some of you will have a faith, which may suggest you are part of a bigger plan, some of you may have figured it out for yourself… Some of you look at the chaos and challenges and say meaning is impossible, check out No:1 again and ask “Which do I want to be part of, a bigger plan or not, Chances are  your “gods” (or demons…) will make sure it happens for you the way you want.
  8. Get a support team – Ask who can help me, who will understand? Then take a leap of faith to get them on board, they might be an email contact, a person to call on the phone, a buddy you can catch up with live. Whoever and however, carefully consider getting a team, a rock solid positive team of people who can hold you to the standard you want to be held to.
  9. Create a plan and take action – If you have not started jotting down things from the above list already I would be surprised. I care not for what sort of plan it is, but write it down! Perhaps keep a plan journal, consider reading your key plan points daily, or a wall plan, gather photo’s and collage a new you lifestyle plan on a wall chart… Keep it simple, real and vibrant. It’s your life, live it the right way, the way that makes the most sense to you. Oh and yes, take action, all the best thoughts in the world are worthless without action.

Your business and the flurry of market meltdowns

Oct 4

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Innovation and Creativity, IT Dept, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management, The Marketing Dept, The Operations Dept | No Comments

An interesting article in the Melb Age newspaper on the flow on effect to smaller businesses.

In an interesting basic view, if the big banks can’t get money to lend, or they are pulling their heads in “Just in case” then your chances of getting credit of some kind may well be hampered, in the short term maybe not a big deal, but in the bigger picture the squeeze could be on!

The sprung leader…

Sep 12

Posted by Steve Gray in Chill out!, Excellence!, Growth, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, The Customer Service Dept | No Comments

Following on from the spring cleaning theme… is your leader leading the charge? did they “twig” to the change of season? did they come in the door with a renewed spring in their step? Well if the answer is no, maybe you should take the lead and remind them.

Get them focused – ask them to be flexible – give them support and watch them flourish (if not just run the show yourself and do your bit to make the Biz better.)

You see, often it’s the small stuff which happens that makes a difference, and people notice. In a retail setting, pull things off shelves and give the place a great wipe down. In the office, get in a tad earlier and clear out the “crusty” bits from around your area, in the lunch room, in the client areas… make a difference, do it for you and of course you are doing it for “them” the customers.

Reframing, renewing, refreshing it’s all good, so make the most of it.

It’s spring…

Sep 11

Posted by Steve Gray in Chill out!, Excellence!, Growth, Innovation and Creativity, Personal Development, Planning | 1 Comment

With spring just 11 days young, it’s time to clear out, clean out, seek out, innovate, create, get nasty with “stuff” and make way for fresh ideas, colours, thoughts and so on. Explore the ether, the space, the things I know little about (well to some degree).

It’s fine for me to feel this way but what about you? Does the onslaught of “Spring” give you that edge to want to do things, do more, be more, have more and so on? If so where do you start, is there a system you follow, or is it more of a I know the goal and to hell with how you get there?

Whatever way you decide to do things, make sure it’s going to work for you. Think big, explore and enjoy the results.

Wisdom comes in many forms…

Aug 28

Posted by Steve Gray in Chill out!, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership, Negotiation, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Board Room | No Comments

Fast thinking and wisdom can work wonders, I saw this today and thought it’s well worth reproducing here, enjoy!

A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles, along for the company.

One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that he’s lost. Wandering about, he notices a leopard heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.

The old poodle thinks, ‘Oh, oh! I’m in deep doo-doo now!’ Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap the old poodle exclaims loudly, ‘Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?’

Hearing this, the young leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. ‘Whew!’ says the leopard, ‘That was close! That old poodle nearly had me!’

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes, but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up. The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard.

The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, ‘Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what’s going to happen to that conniving canine!

Now, the old poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, ‘What am I going to do now?’, but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn’t seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old poodle says ‘Where’s that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!

The moral of this story….

Don’t mess with the old .. age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill! Knowledge and wisdom only come with age and experience.

I am in no way insinuating that any of you are old, perhaps some are just youthfully challenged!

Over time I have come to respect the wisdom of the more “mature” around us, and as I get older I hope I  can benefit more from my own wisdom and have the good sense to draw more on the wisdom of others.

In business it can seem like we know it all, (or we think we do) but the reality can be different. I guess the point being to know the difference and profit from it.

Things to do to avoid just the title of leader…

Aug 7

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership, People!, Personal Development | No Comments

Think in symbolic terms, if you were a warrior or a goddess, then the title of leader can become more, much more. If you imbue your role with this kind of title (perhaps even just internally) you can then develop a model to work with.

Lets go deeper. I have used the terms Goddess and Warrior, male and female counter rankings. Note I didn’t call the guy a god (that would be a bit much) yet it seems the title of “goddess” is one our culture is comfortable with.

Each of these would share traits in common, so lets put some key traits to the title of leader in here first and then we can start to build a deeper profile from there…

- Strong
- Ethical
- Wise
- Flexible
- Empowering
- Forthright
- Strategic
- Humble
- Hunter – Gatherer
- Spiritual – Inner knowing – Outer reflective
- Commitment
- Powerful
- Focus
- Patient
- Trusting
- Service
- Positive, beliefs and values

So there are “Some” traits a leader might have… and note they can be applied to either the Warrior or the Goddess… so then lets now split hairs and find the things that could shoe the differences between the Goddess and the Warrior.

The following are “loose lists” of possible traits that we can use as starting points for discovery (feel free to add your own to personalise the list for yourself).

Goddess
- Beauty
- Mystery
- Symoblic
- Imagination
- Radiance
- Healer
- Divine
- Evoke/invoke wisdom
- Inner glow

Warrior
- Awareness
- Discipline
- Athletic
- Bold
- Brave
- Openness
- Diplomacy
- Clarity
- Lead by example

Using these lists of “possible traits” our role as leader can now take on a fresh dimensionality. We can now explore what traits we want to build up and those we may like to regress. Some may want to use both the male and female traits and explore them as natural guideposts for the development of our leadership skills.

Think beyond basic leadership skills and open your hearts to the ideas of being a leader that can explore a higher state, a spiritual state if you will, so that the depth of integrity you exude as a leader can include heightened depths of excellence, both for you and for those you lead.

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Why do I need to lead?

Jul 29

Posted by Steve Gray in Leadership, Personal Development, Starting out in business | No Comments

“Leadership, why do I need leadership skills?” This is a question I get asked often. So  in quick response to that I often come out with… “Oh you need this for lots of reasons…” and then stumble through some of them… sometimes I even forget some of the gems.

Leadership why you need it.

If you are in business.

  • Who provides the direction for the team to follow?
  • You get asked to supervise or “manage” a team?
  • Who ensures the team have the resources they need to do their tasks well?
  • You want more from your current role and need to find a way forward.
  • Who gets and keeps the team focussed?
  • You can see things can be done more effectively but no one is “stepping up to the plate.”
  • Who keeps the red tape to a minimum for the team so they can do what they need to do?
  • An emergency situation arises and time is crucial, you either jump in and lead or sit back and wonder what might have happened.
  • Who goes into “bat” for a team member?
  • You are recognised as being great at what you do, and you are asked your opinion on issues, you can shy away or…
  • Who gets in and gives a hand?
  • You want to start a business and have the “skills” to do the tasks well, but you lack the drive to go the next step.
  • The boss is off sick with the flu, you could sit back and slack it out… or?
  • The value of businesses is shown to be higher when decent leadership is in place. (According to the Institute for Strategic Change, the “stock price of ‘well-led’ companies grew by over 900% over 10 years, compared with 74% for poorly led companies”.)
  • You deal with customers in a service capacity and not just as an order taker, and you want to deliver sterling results.
  • Who knows how to do all these things and more…

In general life

  • What if you get asked to be part of a committee for a club you are part of?
  • Who provides direction when you go out to dinner and decisions need to be made (which restaurant, which food style, which menu options…)
  • Who makes sure things happen in their right order for special events…
  • You want to get more out of the people you deal with on a daily basis and not end up repelling them with nagging in a bid to get results.
  • Who provides the direction for daily living to make it a great experience day in day out…
  • Who sits back and watches their children explore creative play options and steps in to provide direction when needed?
  • You want to boost your confidence and forge new ways forward in life.
  • You want to seek out fresh opportunities in the way you live your life.

Discovering you are living in a world loaded with challenges is sometimes difficult, and over time I have learnt there are some things you can do to make the challenges less of a hassle.  I hope the 7 Steps to Leadership Excellence program is able to give you the edge in this challenging world.

“In life there are opportunities to excel, or not… you get to choose.” Steve Gray

Motivated or driven?

Jul 7

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, Leadership, People!, Personal Development | 1 Comment

In business you deal with people and as such they are an important aspect to the business (in fact read that as VITAL to your business!) so vital that without them things don’t get purchased, sold, manufactured etc… So in the scheme of things you need them, and as such the big question is do you DRIVE them or MOTIVATE them

Firstly the difference as I see it.

DRIVE – Push, bully, manipulate, rush, yell at, demean…

MOTIVATE – Influence, encourage, coach, mentor, support, work with them, respect them…

This goes for internal and external customers, (the staff and the paying customers) if you want the paying customers to stay and buy more of what you have, treat them right, and if you want to keep staff turnover to a minimum, the same TREAT THEM RIGHT!

Simply put figure out what you do, and what other people in your organisation do and see if it is MOTIVATING, because if it’s driving them, it will be driving them away.

Go on, take a REAL look at what’s happening, and if changes need to happen, make them and make them NOW!

Do you want business success?

Jun 12

Posted by Steve Gray in Franchisees, People!, Personal Development, Starting out in business | 2 Comments

Getting started in business is one thing, gaining success is another. Many of us will have seen and heard of people who have failed in business even though they felt they had a great business idea and the finances to put behind it to get started… So what went so wrong that it failed?

Lets look firstly at one possible factor, it is said that about 10% of society is motivated to achieve, and of that about 3 % are probably the ones with enough active risk taking motivation or drive to actually get started and see the business through to fruition.

So if you take 100 people and only 3% have the drive or motivation to be able to pull it off, then what happens next?

Out of that possible 3% there may be those that blindly go forth and try being in business and will flog it like a dead horse to try and get a result, even when all the money is gone or vanishing fast.

I guess it’s a time when the emotion of going into business takes over from the logic of it, and before long if there is no “balancer” the person starting the business can run off the rails with ease. Indeed the balancer may well be a person that “holds the purse strings”, figures out the budgets and projects forward when money can be spent.

The “business achiever” on the other hand will still come up with ideas and use their energy and enthusiasm to forge forward, but now within some reasonable constraints.

I figure without the emotional side being constrained by the logical side, all hell can break loose.

So here’s to better business, know your limitations, and balance things out, your long term success might well count on it!

A little enthusiasm can go a long way….

May 30

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, The Customer Service Dept, The Sales Dept | No Comments

Here’s a short video from Tom Peters, if ever you wondered what comes first passion or skills, here’s Tom’s answer…

Thanks to Tom and the team at Skill Soft.

I’m thinking about going into business, should I?

May 29

Posted by Steve Gray in Finance, Franchisees, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business | No Comments

A friend and I were chatting, he is to be made redundant, and after many years in his role with a big multinational he stands to get a good pay out. He’s still got plenty of time as an able bodied worker and wants to work… But.

There have been a number of larger businesses fold up their operations locally and he’s not about to move out of the area. He could invest the money and watch it grow, his wife is still working a fair bit so that could be useful, but he would probably get bored (in fact I know he would…)

Doesn’t take long before his mind turns to business. “Hey Steve what do you recommend? One of those franchises or???” Well it’s like this it depends on what you want to do I thought.

It turns out someone had given him the hint that a franchise could be useful, I set him thinking by asking… “What do you currently earn per hour, and do you think you could earn that in a franchise, especially if there are people being put off work in the area…” It got him thinking.

But the temptation is there, to the untrained eye it could look okay, you get the system, you milk it and the planning side is partially done, the brand image is there? What more could you want? In all honesty a LOT more.

And here is where most people seem to go astray, they get emotionally wound up in the idea “Be my own boss? YEAH!” and the rest they say is history… It’s all very well for me to say “Go do your homework…” But what if you don’t know what to REALLY research?

So the short answer is to ask lots of questions, check out lots of options, and get savvy on the language, biz speak can be daunting for those not in the know.

In any business there are risks, so before you commit your funds find as many people as you can in that field then ask them lots of questions. In fact I suggest you get to more than 10 in any one group, and then more in other groups as well.

So do the due diligence, and make sure the full on emotional satisfaction you feel in the beginning is something that will last well into the future, just in case things go “belly up”.

How to be a great coach.

Apr 25

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Leadership, People!, Personal Development | No Comments

Firstly.. Why be a Coach?

You would not expect your favourite sports team to be effective without a coach… nor would you expect the people you lead to be effective without a leader.

To get high-level productivity from the team your role as a leader takes in a great deal of coaching and mentoring skills. Therefore your aim should be, to be the best coach you can be.

How to be a great Coach…

Here are some great points on what makes a great coach, take a look a them and decide which of these skills you already have and which ones you may need to work on.

  • Love people – Great coaches know they are leading people in a great cause of some kind and that the value of that is very high, to get the most out of the team and therefore the task at hand they know that people will be the device that makes the task happen. If the coach loves people they will then find ways to enhance their teams skills to be all they can be. To do so they have to love people after all it’s all they have to get the job done.
  • Motivate them – If you want the best out of people yo need to motivate them in ways that inspire them to do great things, to go the extra mile and see the results of their efforts and be pleased with them. Motivation is NOT driving them, yelling and screaming, pushing them hard, its more about finding ways to encourage them to find those things in themselves if they need to.
  • Be a coach – Being a coach might even entail you putting on a Coach’s hat, then working with your people. Consider this, what if you had a team meeting and you did just that, put on a hat that said Coach. It would probably lighten the mood and let the team know you are coaching them, providing support, motivation, guidance and the skills to encourage them.
  • Get their opinions and thoughts – Why should you be the one with all the ideas? Let the team use their collective intelligence to explore more effective ways of doing what they do. You might just get a lot more than you thought.
  • Explore mistakes– In learning to walk you stood up and fell down a few times until it all came together, after a while the bruises, scratches and scrapes healed and you explored walking some more, no one said you couldn’t do it did they?Mistakes therefore are just opportunities to learn and grow and you need to ensure that in the pursuit of better outcomes that the more mistakes the team makes should therefore mean they are pushing the boundaries further to discover better ways to get results.
  • Be a great communicator – Listen a lot and when you speak or write make it elegant and effective. You will also want to be asking great questions so you can get great answers and allow you people to be all they can be.
  • Know there are differences and work with them – We are all different. A great coach will be aware of this and find ways to connect effectively with all people despite their differences.
  • Empower people – You have a team, how do you want them to do things? To their full potential or less? The answer HAS to be full potential anything else is a cop out. Therefore it is your solemn duty to find out how to empower them, and keep looking for ways to take it further.
  • Solve challenges and problems together – As a coach you may ask questions, which are more about how to solve challenges and problems, than telling them how to do things.
  • Keep meetings effective – Get to the point and stay on track with the agenda, get very strict about the meeting structure, that way you can sort things out better. Any chace you get, train your team rather than merely meet with them.
  • Work on the positive and reward the behaviour you want – Who wants to push a “negative barrow” about? After all it’s hard and like an uphill trudge, the more you push the heavier the barrow gets and the steeper the incline. When it’s positive you might just find the barrow carries you for significant parts of the ride, with the team taking it in turn to push.
  • Be an advocate for your people – As much as your team “puts in” to get results, be sure and back them up if the need arises. If they need a reference do it. If they need support in dealing with other issues at work do it. Be there for them, after all they are there for you and the tasks at hand, the pay off will be a team of truly committed people wanting to readily go the extra mile.
  • Self edit – As a coach your commitment to being all you can be will mean you are leading by example. Before long you will be seeking out every opportunity to hone your skills in all aspects of being a coach and editing yourself to get better results.
  • Take full responsibility – If you want your team to perform at incredible levels then you need to take full responsibility for them and for the results. Just because you have a person above you who you think should put their 2 cents worth in every now and then so you don’t look like the bad guy, think again. He or she probably put you in control to get results, while they may like to throw their weight around to maintain an air of authority, perhaps if you were taking full responsibility they might actually get on with doing more important things.
Put just some of this into action and see positive results fast. Put all of into action and let me know!

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What’s important to you?

Apr 8

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, Innovation and Creativity, People!, Personal Development | No Comments

This might seem like the sort of question that might be more suited to a personal development blog or professional development series of some kind, but I felt the issue was of burning intrigue for me so here it is.

It’s of interest to me because I see so many businesses, and as I spend time analysing, pushing and pulling ideas, it becomes one of the key things I ask as a business support person “What’s important to you?”… Invariably I don’t get the responses I want from people as they hedge about on the issue and use all manner of creative avoidance to try and get around it… to no avail I come back to it time and time again.

So what is the question based on and why is this question so important (to me initially and then the client…)

I see people putting in LONG hours, building a business (often from scratch…) and getting to a point of exhaustion (mentally and or physically) and they ask, “Does everyone in business do this?” big question, small answer “no…” So the question is based on what are they getting out of the business (for the effort they put in). Then, is the output worth it in real terms… and so to the importance of what they are doing.

For me the question starts to give me a sense of what the people are doing and if it is really of value. To them and to the people they set out to serve (customers and their staff).

At the top of the “melting pot of concepts” here, is the notion of values (what’s important) followed by the notion of their beliefs. Beliefs seem to underpin values and are therefore vital for us to discover more about what makes this person tick and how I might best serve them to get more effective outcomes.

For you as the business person wanting to develop more ways to add value, create excellent service, be faster to market, be more profitable and so on, I suggest the values you seek are vital, as are the beliefs that support them and without some understanding of them you can not expect much to happen in your business other than marking time and hoping for the best. make a list of the things you value and then check out what you believe about them so you can chart a more effective path on the road to making your business all  you want it to be.

Leadership is it… PERIOD!

Mar 19

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Starting out in business | No Comments

Leadership is it… If you have ever wondered about what makes a solidly compelling and successful company, well check the list and see what you think…

A leader leads by example… If it’s a brilliant business the leader is brilliant and that excellence is passed down with ease. They follow excellently because they were led excellently, and when they get to lead they do the same.

A leader plans… For the future, for the next five minutes, for the next five years to ensure success.

A leader is creative… It’s the only way to have an edge in business, call it innovation or any other term it’s creative approaches that work in a changing world. Anything else is a cop out.

Leaders go for positive results… That’s what they do because it’s good for business, good for staff great for customers and in the long run it can be fantastic for the environment.

Leaders love people… They know that to get the wheels turning it takes people, people to buy, people to sell, people to create, people to manage and people to lead.

Ever had a doubt about what it is that makes a winning business? Well not now, I have just told you… leadership of the highest order makes the difference…

Carnival of Australia – February 27, 2008

Feb 27

Posted by Bren Ryan in Chill out!, Excellence!, Human Resource Management, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, Starting out in business, The Board Room, The Customer Service Dept, The Marketing Dept, The Operations Dept, The Sales Dept, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

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Welcome to the February 27, 2008 edition of Carnival of Australia.

 Thanks to all the contributors, some great stuff there, enjoy your reading! 

Elias presents The day we said “sorry”! posted at Ramblings of an Australian teacher, saying, “I hope I can still squeeze in the current carnival.” – Yes and No Elias! I think you wanted to be in last fornight’s carnival, but you are welcome in ours :-)

John Crenshaw presents The Biggest Scam Your Bank Gets Away With Everyday posted at Truthful Lending dot Com, saying, “This little known scam accounts for a huge portion of fees paid to banks every year and is going on right under your nose. The worst part is, it’s completely legal.”

Micellaneous Mum presents Project book – introducing my Illustrator! posted at Miscellaneous Adventures of an Aussie Mum, saying, “The next installment in the series on how I’m going to publish my book this year.”

Business

D Robinson presents Diana Williams and Fernwood Women’s Health Clubs | Australian Women Online posted at Australian Women Online, saying, “This interview with Diana Williams is just one in a series of articles on successful women in business featured on Australian Women Online.”

Kathie Thomas presents Being Ready To Receive posted at soho-life.com, saying, “Helping clients to receive information.”

Leela Cosgrove presents How to Write a Professional Bio posted at Leela Cosgrove.

Leela Cosgrove presents The Seven Step Book Leveraging Program posted at Leela Cosgrove.

Michael Crooks presents Promotional Marketing Articles posted at Crooks Advertising Alliance, saying, “This article explains how salespeople can prevent children from sabotoging a sale.”

Martin Russell presents 5 Keys To Word of Mouth Marketing posted at Word of Mouth Marketing.

Dr. Gavin R. Putland presents Can you stop paying the mortgage and keep the house? posted at /etc/cron.whenever/, saying, “In America, thanks to reselling and repackaging of mortgage loans, the answer is often “Yes” because nobody can prove to whom you owe the money.”

Culture

bryce presents Tropfest Tumblings posted at a strangled duck, saying, “Tropfest was a great night with some great movies.”

Suzie Cheel presents There is a Fork In The Road: Which Path Will I Take? posted at The Abundance Highway, saying, “One morning walking on the beach I was fascinated how a tree branch thrown up by the tide was so beautifully positioned on the beach. For me, it was a fabulous image for a fork in the road. I knew then that one day I would find a saying or the words that would be just perfect to go with the picture.”

Michelle Sweeney presents My How Times Have Changes posted at Tonic Gifts.

Current Affairs

Dr. Gavin R. Putland presents Rationalizing stamp duty posted at Putland Uncensored.

Environment

Carole Fogarty presents Your Wealth Location for 2008: posted at THE HEALTHY LIVING LOUNGE, saying, “Locate your prosperity and wealth energy for 2008 and then elementally enhance and energetically uplift to bring new opportunities into your life. This is a potent energy that given the right conditions will surprise you.”

jen presents Semantically driven: blogging about blogging, parenting and living in Australia. » True blue posted at Semantically driven, saying, “This is a bit about what I do to save and reuse water.”

Family

Carole Fogarty presents The ultimate guide for a calmer driving experience: posted at THE HEALTHY LIVING LOUNGE, saying, “Ten practical and simple ways to ensure your car is not a metal container full of adult and children stress. Turn the calm dial up in your car now.”

Megan Bayliss presents Alleged sex predator masquerades as parent blogger posted at Imaginif…, saying, “What’s the time Mr Wolf? Time to take care because I have seen the avatar of an alleged child sexual abuser on many of your sites. Posing as a family blogger and all round decent human being is an easy thing to do…particularly when you want something. Be aware of who you are letting in the front door of your virtual home. Child protection is serious business. An investment in it nets returns beyond any current financial investment.”

PlanningQueen presents Ten things we should never say to kids. posted at Planning with Kids, saying, “A reminder to me as a parent about how I can impact my child through what I say to them.”

Food

Lightening presents Zucchini Lovefest posted at Lightening Online, saying, “Need some help using up those zucchini’s. Here’s a recipe or two for you to try.”

Gillian Polack presents Food History at the Royal Canberra Show – #1 posted at Gillian Polack, saying, “There’s a second article on bush foods, too. http://www.foodpast.com/food-history-at-the-royal-canberra-show-1-2/”

History

Romeo Vitelli presents Constance Kent posted at Providentia, saying, “Either a tragic victim or a brutal murderer (and maybe even Jack the Ripper). You make the call.”

Music

Duncan Macleod presents The Presets produce My People posted at Duncan’s Music Videos, saying, “Music video for My People, by Sydney electro pop duo The Presets, directed by Kris Moyes, younger brother of Kim Moyes. “I’m here with all of my people, locked up with all of my people. So let me hear you scream if you’re with me”"

Travel

Raymond presents Airline Credit Cards That Offer Free Miles posted at Money Blue Book.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of australia using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Lets say sorry and move on…

Feb 13

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Growth, Human Resource Management, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management | No Comments

In an historic address to the nation today Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said “Sorry” to the stolen generation. He said sorry for the pain, sorry for the ongoing indignation, sorry for previous governments not apologising, for taking indigenous children from their families many years ago.

In essence he is saying we are sorry for the human rights abuse that took place in less enlightened times.

In analogy, is this any different from a business which, may treat its people poorly, that may provide only scant regard for safety, that may let its policies of profit grabbing rather than capacity building be the norm, that may let or indeed support bullying and harassment.

In these enlightened times, lets say sorry for these indiscretions, and actively seek out ways to make our workplaces, places where people can be engaged without hostility, or fear, for our safety, security, esteem and lifelong education.

Let’s find more ways to truly engage with the people we do business with, and those we employ. Together we can ensure the future of contemporary business is one where the “vanguard avant-garde”, is a beacon of hope and inspiration. In doing so we can only hope these champions of business embrace the ideals of sharing to allow others the opportunity to follow in their mighty footsteps.

Lets say sorry for past indiscretions, lets forgive those that perpetrated those acts, lets then take steps to embrace the future by taking positive action to fully engage all levels of business to ensure we can stay clear of the problems and utilise the precedent which has been set to full advantage.

Disinterestedness

Feb 8

Posted by Steve Gray in People!, Personal Development, Risk Management | No Comments

I know it’s a big word, but its an interesting one (anything that big has got to have some merit.)

The thing is it’s all about being (or becoming) dis-interested and for this forum dis-interested in business.

I know what it’s like being in small business, lots of challenges, lots of ways to run astray, simply because I am a small business operator.

The challenge for most of us is in trying to figure out ways to over come the “monkey on your back”, the “black dog” of depression so to speak. Sure there are those out there who are perennially positive, up there and happening, they get knocked down 5 times and get up 6… so they weather any storm and keep on going and that’s great, in fact often they started with nothing and inspire us as a successful business person that made it big from nothing… but for the rest of us the reailty could not be further from the truth.

For the “rest of us” there are those times when the smallest thing can throw us off, a few things then become a real issue and before we know it the whole spectre of business falls in a heap. We then have to struggle to contain the emotional roller coaster as we come to terms with a business that fails and looming large is so many negative options the biggest of which is probably the loss of the thousands of dollars we have invested.

Of course there are the things that people told you that will haunt you…. “It’s risky… it requires long hours… it will eat your money in no time…” and the list really does go on, becoming a veritable “I told you so…” or perhaps worse still the look that says “I told you so…”

I will finish this  article by saying it happens, we become disinterested in things business, and for some it will be a short term lapse of reason while for others it’s the beginning of the “spiral of doom.”

The big thing is being aware that it can and will happen, noting if it is short or longer term and perhaps most importantly what we can or want to do about it.

For ideas on what to do, consider reading books by successful people, finding a mentor that can lead you carefully through the challenging times, or a coach to guide you on what to do next. Either way it’s about getting support to ensure you do not run out of energy to keep things going.

Are you a point scorer?

Jan 30

Posted by Steve Gray in Chill out!, Finance, Personal Development, Risk Management | 2 Comments

I learn things from many sources (hey don’t we all?) but today I was listening to a business owner talking on an issue that reminded me of a useful story that fitted to the situation, here it is…

Pete had been investing in shares for many years, and had weathered many ‘storms’ and made and lost lots of $$ along the way. One thing he said that made the difference for him in building a successful share portfolio was using points instead of $$…

“What I realised was I was having an issue about money, if I lost some I would say oh $#*%! then when I made $$ I would say the same but with a positive inflection and think I had made a fortune… On average I maintained a healthy bank balance and it certainly grew well, on average… but the roller coaster highs and lows took their toll on me emotionally… until.. Until I decided to think of the $$ as points. Basically I would say ok, I made x No: of points or lost X No: of points… It meant I was not adding the pressure my mind had created about $$, Simple really and it made the world of difference, it was as if I was using monopoly money in a sense.”

Back to the initial chat I was having… it involved $$ he was stressing out about the amount of $$ he had to earn to break even on a daily basis… no work meant no $$, or low work meant low $$… when the $$ were above his set level he was okay, but the stress the low level caused him could probably become unhealthy quite fast. If your stress is negative you may not perform as well and make a mistake that could cost you dearly.

The real lesson here is changing things that cause our ‘thresholds’ of understanding (in this case $$) so that we can reframe them so they take the pressure off.

Note if you had to earn $1,000 per day to break even in our business and that caused you grief, then altering your mindset to 1,000 points a day might just be the way to reset how you handle your threshold thoughts on amounts to be earned.

In short re framing how we look at and experience things can make a huge difference to your results.

How to train to Win/Win

Jan 11

Posted by Steve Gray in Franchisees, Franchising, Growth, Human Resource Management, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership, Negotiation, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Board Room, The Customer Service Dept | No Comments

From an original article on various business success pointers, here are the individual “how to” possible options for you to explore.

Training to win/win
You and your staff should be trained to make the whole show win, then the customers can win too. A great position to get to and stay in.  For some the idea of training staff means showing them the bare basics of their job, but go a bit deeper and encourage thinking around the idea of Win/Win, when they get the idea the concept will probably become infectious.

  • Find out more about win/win and how you might create some examples you can discuss with your team.
  • Look for examples of win/win already at play in your business.
  • Use the concept to develop a team get together every so often to ask about and pass on ideas in business development.

Getting all this together is a great way to cause the team to work effectively together and can build the business to a strong position where people feel valued. This will then pass on to the customers and cause them to feel valued as well, in the end that’s what we all want.

How to create a business with great values

Jan 10

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Franchisees, Franchising, Growth, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Starting out in business, The Board Room | No Comments

From an original article on various business success pointers, here are the individual “how to” possible options for you to explore.

Upholding great values
People love it when you are on a positive footing and in the values area it’s a great place to start (integrity – honesty, truthfulness etc.).

Start the business with a strong stance on the rights and wrongs, if you get caught by a staff member or a customer ripping people off, word will spread fast, not a good thing to have happen. Make your act squeaky clean and others will follow.

Make a list of the sorts of values you want the business to uphold, google them on your computer and find out more about what other businesses have as values, then find ways to integrate them into what you do, yes even if you have a one person business.

You may find you already have these values, they are automatic and things that inherently are of interest to you. But there may be areas you want to tweak so you can be better at those ones as well.

Over time the staff and customers will be certain to know your business has high integrity, honesty etc.. In a highly competitive market place these things can set you apart.

How to create a business that is enjoyable to run

Jan 8

Posted by Steve Gray in Franchisees, Franchising, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Starting out in business, The Board Room | No Comments

From an original article on various business success pointers, here are the individual “how to” possible options for you to explore.

Enjoyable to run
Who wants a business, which is a hassle to run? Who wants to work in a tough field? No one… Make it a joy to be part of for you and staff and the low hassle enjoyable nature of the business will probably rub off onto the customers over time.

  • Make the systems simple effective and clearly understood, no one wants to run a system they have little idea of why it is being done, especially in larger organisations.
  • Ask the staff for suggestions on ways to make the work more enjoyable, perhaps multi tasking could be a useful starting point.
  • Figure out the culture or if it’s a new business create a suitable culture one that is inclusive, cooperative and has fun some times, this way you will be encouraging the best from everyone involved.
  • Make a Profit! This is an obvious point but without it the stress you suffer might soon spill over into the business. Take it easy that bad stress can wipe you out! So make sure you “juggle” things properly to ensure you have a profit and not just cover the overheads and wages.
  • Smile, show you love it, show you love being there, show you love the staff, (yes love them!) let the positivity rub off.
  • Ask lots of questions from all angles, the customer, the staff member, the senior staff and you… if there are common areas to be tackled then focus on those first.

If your business is enjoyable to run now, what would it be like if you went through and made it MORE enjoyable to run!

Retain and engage staff, or else…

Dec 23

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management | No Comments

In the race to maintain and or grow their business many business operators find another hurdle that pops up far to easily, and that’s staff turnover. Some call it churn, but whatever you call it it costs the business $$.

Some businesses try to keep their wages above the award rates in the hope it will keep people in the business and not move on. Some use other tactics to retain the employees and even engage them further than the usual 9 – 5 arrangement.

In reality a lot has been written on this subject over many years and the fact that it is still a major issue is testament to the fact that not a lot has been done, or not a lot of understanding about the issue has filtered it’s way through.

Whatever the situation and the outcome, the effective engagement and retention of staff requires innovative approaches to ensure they are mentally stimulated enough to want to hang around and give positive input rather than just being driven by the $$.

Over time people can fade in their energy and interest levels, and this can have wide ranging effects on productivity, leadership, communication and probably a whole raft of other things in the business. So to ensure ongoing engagement, a variety of techniques should be employed, not just one.

Giving cash is one thing, but it’s often a short term fix, giving training is a good option, but should not be the only option as not all people want to be taken away from their work to attend leadership training for example. The astute business needs to find ways to adapt to the person and become more flexible in the delivery of retention devices.

Issues around working hours, family friendly work practices, and now health schemes are becoming more obvious as options for the team. Again innovative approaches need to be used to implement and develop these practices so the staff member can not grow or feel complacent, but rather feel more valued as the various options get rolled out.

Imagine a workplace where a range of options were put to staff, where they could elect some of the options to retain them, then there are more options they do not get to choose but are put in place as well (formal and informal training for example.) The upshot of all this is that an employee feels valued, to the point where they don’t want to go elsewhere, they want to simply contribute at 110%.

In an age where quality workers are lured by better players in the market any employer needs to consider the best ways to get and keep the best players, otherwise their business could find itself on the scrap heap faster than it might care to know about.

Jerry Seinfeld’s 3 rules of life

Dec 10

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Franchisees, Franchising, Growth, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Starting out in business | 2 Comments

Here’s Jerry’s 3 rules of life, pretty simple… so lets add some business thinking points to it.

Print it, use it, tick things off as you do them, make notes, add to the list, include some of these points in your staff training and see what happens.

Thanks Jerry lets see what happens now…

Bust your ass…

  • Work hard, work smart, if it’s not fun, do something else.
  • Following your passion, you will then want to do the work, in fact the work will be so enjoyable it won’t seem like work, you will be early and rarely late….
  • On something that will make a difference for more people than just you, you win they win.
  • On being exceptional, who wants to be mediocre? Ok so lots of people do, but why do you have to be…
  • Getting the next goal, and then the next, the journey of a thousand miles begins with that first step. The sense of achievement is a powerful drug.
  • Providing what the market place wants, you will soon be happy with the sales, they will be happy you provided what they want and those that work with you will be happy you thought of it.
  • Getting people to know about your business in the start up phase and then to come back for more of what you have, often.
  • To influence others in your circle of influence to be exceptional at all they do.
  • To surround yourself with great people who want to pass on great information you can all utilise.
  • Living life to the full, when the show is over it’s over folks…

Pay attention…

  • To the details so that you can understand the bigger picture from within. No point in having a business that no one knows what’s going on, especially you…
  • To planning. No plan no house, it should be the same in business.
  • To how you present what you have to the market place… Get great at marketing and sales, then do it with the rest of your team.
  • To the way you learn, then you will be able to pay attention more effectively.
  • To how others liearn, your role as a business leaer means you will probably do a fair bit of instructing on how things are done, so teach others in ways they prefer to be taught.
  • To the way you communicate, so get very specific about what you communicate.
  • To the way you listen… Be an attentive listener, that’s why you have two ears and one mouth.

Fall in love

  • With what you do, how you do it how your team does it…
  • With causing others to fall in love… with the job, the business, the customers, the service the products, their life, their significant others.
  • With life. Life is what we do day to day so we should get great at loving it.
  • With how others see the world. This level of fascination is from the old American Indian idea of “walking in another mans moccasins” it hlps to give us perspective.
  • With the people you surround yourself with. Are they all lovable? Are they all worth fighting for?
  • With the glory and beauty of nature. If the view is lousy, I wonder what you are looking at?

Running on autopilot

Dec 7

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Franchisees, Franchising, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business | No Comments

This is the seventh in a set of posts designed as a series to complement the initial post… Strengths in your business The aim being to provide a simple “How to” guide for people daunted by the prospect of “how to” as it can be too easy to read and say “Oh yeah that’s it, I need to do that”, and then forget it and let it go.

Automatic functioning (the skills are already known)

After a while of doing a task you can become competent at it, then at the next level become proficient, at this level, things can seem automatic. Do that with the basics of what you do in business and a solid foundation can be built for your enterprise. Teach others to do the same and the base structure can become much stronger again.

  • Recognise the things that are BASIC skills for your business and then train (often its informal) you and your team to do them well, (effective beats efficiency hands down.) Then find a person in your team that picked it up fast and see if they have the skill to put the process in writing so anyone can learn it.
  • Chunk the skills into groups so as you and your team learn higher level skills, the previous skills have become proficient and form a solid foundation.
  • Review the skills you and your team have at all levels and work to understand areas to be developed further. (Leadership and communication skills are often good examples.)
  • Work to make your business a lifelong learning exercise so your organisation can be highly flexible in what they do.

Getting an organisation to run on automatic may seem like an easy thing to do, and that’s often the challenge to be able to figure out what skills are simply hidden due to them being automatic and therefore hidden.

Hello?! Are You LISTENING?

Dec 7

Posted by Michael Crooks in Excellence!, Growth, People!, Personal Development, Starting out in business, The Customer Service Dept, The Marketing Dept, The Sales Dept | 1 Comment

I’m on the phone with a salesman from one of my suppliers. He asks me, “So, do you sell to any medical practices?”

“Yeah I do”, I replied. “I have some dentists and a periodontist.”

“Great!” he exclaimed. “You’ll be interested in our new stethoscope covers!”

Really, I think to myself. Let’s see, when was the last time I saw a dentist with a stethoscope. Oh yeah … NEVER!
He drones on. “So can I send you a couple samples. They’re really great and they can imprint their practice logo on them, and they keep dirt off of them, and … I cut him off.

“Sounds great”, I said. “You send them to me and I’ll see where it takes me. I look forward to getting them, I’m so excited. Wow! Stethoscope covers.”

What a moron. Sure, maybe he doesn’t know that a periodontist treats gum disease. But then again, he’s the one selling medical equipment supplies. And furthermore, why would a doctor want an imprinted stethoscope cover? The people who would see the imprint are already in his office. A better tactic would be for me to take the stethoscope cover to a business such as a pharmacy or health club that wants to get their name in front of those the doctor has access to. They’d imprint their logo and distribute them to doctor’s offices.

But here’s my real point.

How often are you so focused on selling what you have to sell … that you aren’t even listening to the answers people give you?

Get uncomfortable and see the results…

Dec 6

Posted by Steve Gray in Franchisees, Franchising, Growth, Innovation and Creativity, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business | No Comments

This is the sixth in a set of posts designed as a series to complement the initial post… Strengths in your business The aim being to provide a simple “How to” guide for people daunted by the prospect of “how to” as it can be too easy to read and say “Oh yeah that’s it, I need to do that”, and then forget it and let it go.

Comfort zone stretching (An elastic band is only working when it’s stretched.)

Have you noticed yourself only doing things within a set range? It might be mingling with only a select group of friends at a party… or only looking to set ways of solving problems all the time. Stretching what you are comfortable with can be a great way to develop your resilience, problem solving skills, and ability to become more flexible. In business thee skills can be very useful to the ongoing success of your enterprise.

  • Travel the road less traveled and enjoy the view – Literally take different roads while out driving, yo may have gone to the same destination day after day and have never thought about a different route. Now you can start to explore things by simply changing your view of the common things you do.
  • Ask others for ideas and input – You may never do this normally, but give it a go and see what happens, be sure to pat people on the back if you use the ideas, the recognition can be very useful for their esteem.
  • Explore creative options – There is more than one way to do most things, so start to look at things from different perspectives. It might be as simple as thinking about wearing a different “hat” if you usually see things from a bosses perspective try a marketing “hat” on.. how does that change things for you?
  • Do some internet research on creative options to explore.

It may take some time, but having the chance to find others ways of doing things might just be the break you need in your organisation.

Have you decided what to do yet?

Dec 5

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Franchisees, Franchising, Growth, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business | No Comments

This is the fifth in a set of posts designed as a series to complement the initial post… Strengths in your business The aim being to provide a simple “How to” guide for people daunted by the prospect of “how to” as it can be too easy to read and say “Oh yeah that’s it, I need to do that”, and then forget it and let it go.

Decisiveness (Either a thing will happen or it won’t, often the decision is the only thing that stands in its way.)

I was once told that the best way to become better at making decisions is to make the, right or wrong stand your ground and see what happens, before long you can become very decisive and develop the skills and confidence to live with the outcome/s.

  • Make lots of them even on little things, and see what happens, avoid the procrastination cycle of saying you will do it soon.
  • Check out the idea of “Whats the worse thing that can happen if I make the wrong decision?” then check to see if it really is that big a deal.
  • Ask others to make the decision for you (delegate) and check the results, you can be surprised just how well this one can work for you.
  • What is the difference between a person that is decisive and one that is not? Check out those qualities and ask if you can readily develop the skill/s or if you will need assistance, then do it!

Keep on going with the concepts laid out and put together a personal list of achievements made by being more decisive.

The journey begins and ends with you and your goals…

Dec 4

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Franchisees, Franchising, Growth, People!, Personal Development, Planning, Risk Management, Starting out in business | No Comments

 This is the forth in a set of articles designed as a series to complement the initial post… Strengths in your business The aim being to provide a simple “How to” guide for people daunted by the prospect of “how to” as it can be too easy to read and say “Oh yeah that’s it, I need to do that”, and then forget it and let it go.

Goals (If you know where you are going it makes it easier to get there.)

In the story of Alice in Wonderland the Cheshire cat sat in the tree smiling widely as Alice asked which road to take at a fork in the road, the cat replied “It depends on where you want to get to” The goals we set will assist us in finding the right roads to take and in business the wrong road can cost us dearly.

Setting goals is easy, making them a reality is a different matter again…

  • Get smart about your goals -  specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and tangible. If these can not be thought out readily you will find the achievement of the goal nearly impossible. Write out the details in DETAIL… leave nothing to chance.
  • Work on small goals first and build up from there. – Often these are the basis for a “to do list” and chipping away at the small bits will make the big bits come to fruition.
  • Take action, avoid talking about what you are “going to do” and get on and do it. The world loves people who take action.
  • Consider how well you have done with goals in the past… Easily achieved them or… make sure you build up these skills if they are a challenge, then you can get more automatic in setting and achieving them.
  • Use your calendar – set time lines for the achievement of the goals, then tick them off as they are achieved, the sense of achievement is often a cause for some small celebration.
  • Use a project plan – These help you to break up a big goal into smaller ones and fit the details to a time frame. There is specific software for this or  you can create a table in a word-processing that can give you the basics to work with manually.

Go get ‘em tiger should be your catch phrase at this point and with the basics of goal setting up your sleeve the results should follow on soon after that.

Conviction, have you got the all important edge?

Dec 3

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Franchisees, Franchising, People!, Personal Development, Risk Management, Starting out in business, The Board Room | No Comments

This is the third in a set of posts designed as a series to complement the initial post… Strengths in your business The aim being to provide a simple “How to” guide for people daunted by the prospect of how to as it can be too easy to read and say “Oh yeah that’s it, I need to do that, and then forget it and let it go.

Conviction (You are sure it’s a great product and or service, otherwise you would not be doing it… RIGHT?)

This is an important area of new business and project start ups. It’s the strength of conviction you have that will probably appeal to people when you are selling your concept/s. the question is what is it and how will you develop it?

If you are starting out the product and or service should be convincing, to you and your target market, if they don’t want it and you are not sure about it, then how will you have the internal fortitude to make it work? I guess the obvious thing is checking out what you have from all angles to ensure it has a fit in the right product and or service niche and also in the buying niche of the intended audience.

So how to build in it?

  • Test the idea with people who might understand, family and close friends may not… so go for independent advice (accountant, other entrepreneurs and so on) see if it does have a place in this world. Sure there may be confidentiality issues, but just remember if an idea is any good you will probably have to RAM IT DOWN PEOPLE’S Throats to get them to be interested. (at least in the initial phase). Also telling family and friends about it can set you up for failure if they think you have a “hair brained idea” and want to put it down to help you “save face.”
  • You have done the research so you might need to know find ways to present the concept. A business plan is one way to do it, but before you get in too deep, consider the basics. then jot them down in point form. What it is, how it will be done, what it might cost, who will do it, how much time will it take, where will this happen, why it fits to the niche you have sought out, how it is different from other concepts and so on… This will assist you to assess the idea first.
  • Look at others who have done this type of thing before, how did they get started? were they confident from day one, or… If they were not confident, how did they build that confidence? If need be try different short courses that may assist you to stand tall and tell the world about what you have, This might be public speaking and or personal development courses of some kind. Whatever you do make sure you are sure about the conviction you have to make things work well.

I am sure there are more points that this start up list puts forward, but really give it some thought so you can formulate things clearly in your head and then articulate them on paper.

Building stamina and resilience

Dec 3

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Franchisees, Franchising, People!, Personal Development, Risk Management, Starting out in business | No Comments

This is the second in a set of posts designed as a series to complement the initial post… Strengths in your business The aim being to provide a simple “How to” guide for people daunted by the prospect of “how to” as it can be too easy to read and say “Oh yeah that’s it, I need to do that”, and then forget it and let it go.

Resilience – stamina (The ability to keep on keeping on and to bounce back)

I have put these two together as I felt there was a natural attraction to both, they cross more borders for me than they stand alone.

Have you ever noticed that some people give something a go once and give up trying… or they say “it’s not for me” often without really giving it a go so they can develop the basic skills to a reasonable level to fully assess if they “have it or not”. have you also noticed some people can go “hard” at the start and then fade out too quickly. If that’s the case then the following points may assist you to understand the issues a bit more and possibly even be able to assist you in overcoming the issues in yourself.

  • Do some soul searching, if you have given up on things easily in the past, is starting a business really right for you? And is the ability to start out strongly and then fade fast an issue? It’s better to face this now than later when the stakes might be much higher.
  • Can you build your resilience? Falling down and getting up again is one thing, but doing it repeatedly might take it out of you. What qualities do resilient people have? and are they the sort of qualities you can learn… and how long can that take if it is possible for you?
  • Having the energy to run a race is one thing, but if you trip during the race that often saps some energy you might need for later. If a sports person can build their staying power by more exercise in a carefully worked out training plan, can you do the same? and how will the plan differ for your business prowess as opposed to a sporting scenario…
  • Check out the biography of business people, and look for examples of how they built their ability in these areas, then ask are these things you can implement? If not keep searching and asking for answers that “fit right” for you.
  • Know your limitations, then push them a little each time to build your capacity to go a little further next time.
  • Having support from others can help to build your resilience and stamina, its that cheer on as the chips are down, or a welcome “You do this really well” when you may be in doubt. this can come from, family, friends and associates and can make a big difference to the way you ‘handle things’ being aware of this, ask yourself, can I foster this so I can get more support? The short answer, yes…

Enjoy building your stamina and resilience, hopefully the “workouts” to get you there will be well worth it.

Do you have this kind of strength for your business?

Dec 1

Posted by Steve Gray in Excellence!, Franchisees, People!, Personal Development, Starting out in business | No Comments

I watched this afternoon as a bunch of people stood up, stepped forward and got the living daylights pummeled out of them. They stood tall and after a grueling 3+ hours of warm up exercises it was an incredible feat.

I am talking about Karate not a street fight… (thank goodness!)

What I witnessed was people from youngsters to mature age, male and female do battle. As I watched it occurred to me that these people had not just put a up their hand to say “Yeah I’ll do it” but firstly they had to put in the effort to attain the skills required, then went on to train to develop those skills and sparring techniques… Wow it was intense at the end to watch the sparring, seeing people let down their guard and get hit, some fell down and got up again even though there was “some pain!!!”

Watching this I was thinking of the parallels to business. (how could I not!)

  • Preparation (No plans no direction)
  • Resilience – stamina (The ability to keep on keeping on)
  • Conviction (You are sure it’s a great product and or service, otherwise you would not be doing it… RIGHT?)
  • Goals (If you know where you are going it makes it easier to get there.)
  • Decisiveness (Either a thing will happen or it won’t, often the decision is the only thing that stands in its way.)
  • Comfort zone stretching (An elastic band is only working when it’s stretched.)
  • Automatic functioning (the skills are already known)
  • Risk taking (all business is this, the further you go the more risks seem to ‘pop up’)

All of these personal qualities relate to business, it’s probably this list and a few other points that cause sustainable and profitable businesses to make the grade.

Why is it then that there are businesses that fail, despite people knowing these guidelines? and why is it that even people that have put in the effort only get so far and stop?

Firstly it’s one thing to know the guidelines, and another thing entirely to putting them into action. Secondly some people achieve a goal and stop right there, not sure what to do next.

All of these great points take commitment, and often it’s as easy as turning up each day and learning something new, putting in the effort to plod on and look for ways to make improvements at each step.

If you want an exceptional business, then these guidelines should give you the start to a great business.

Bad Acting Is Bad For Your Business

Nov 27

Posted by Michael Crooks in Excellence!, Human Resource Management, People!, Personal Development, Starting out in business, The Customer Service Dept, The Marketing Dept, The Sales Dept | 2 Comments

I called my stockbroker a couple weeks a go. I had a question. I wasn’t sure who to ask for because it’s been about a year or so since I actually talked to anyone there. Anyway, I finally get “my guy” on the phone. What a phoney!

This guy doesn’t know me from a fence post but acts like he just saw me yesterday. He ACTS like he cares about me, but his act is so bad no matter what he’s saying it sounds like this:

“Haaaaayyyyyyy, how ya do’in? Boy It’s nice to hear from you! I haven’t a clue who you are — but as long as you called — I’ve gotsome really great ideas for you to consider that will suit you perfectly, what-ever-your-name is. We should sit down and talk. I’ll pop some information in the mail to you. You look it over and give me a call. Cause, hey! I don’t remember your name, so there’s no way I know your phone number … as evidenced by the fact that you never, EVER hear from me.”

I got the info in the mail and I’m like, “Whatever!” I didn’t call him. Course, he didn’t call me. Until three days ago … I called him.

“My guy” wasn’t in. Someone took my name and number and said “my guy” would call me back. He hasn’t.

I’m moving my account.

Sure, maybe he wants my account and the fees that go with it, but it’s obvious he doesn’t care about my account or me. And no, sending me a birthday card every year doesn’t make up for treating me like I don’t matter the other 364 days a year.

Here’s My Points:

If the only communication I get from you is a birthday card, then the card simply calls attention to the fact that I never hear from you.

If you make me feel like the small account I am … I will never become a bigger account … at least not your account.

If you really don’t want my business … fine. But if you really do want my business … then genuinely treat me like I matter.

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