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Permanent Ink or Possibility
What if that great idea you have written off as IMPOSSIBLE in your head was written in Chalk?
Make a move today!
You’re just not qualified………
Throughout our life we all face moments when that voice in our head tells the lie “you cannot do”…fill in the blank. For some, it is a quite whisper, others a condescending yell, maybe a deep seeded feeling or just a calm voice that carefully states the lie ever so convincingly. Shortly thereafter, the subtle onset of fear begins to contaminate our thinking and not long thereafter, we cast out our ideas to a corner of our mind where we dare not tread. For me, the voice of defeat that I hear is “you’re just not qualified!” If you repeat that to yourself with some attitude with the voice of a smart aleck with a sprinkling of a snobbish tone you would hear what I hear on occasion. It is an absolute that the voice of defeat has crushed more dreams, business ideas, apologies, relationships, marriages, inventions, books, research papers, advanced degrees and millions of other opportunities because we listened to that LIE of defeat.
When you think about that new business idea, expansion plan, promotion, invention, service project, the book you thought about writing, the business to start, the next great idea for your boss, how many times has that lie entered your mind that “you do not know how to do that so stop before you fail and embarrass yourself” or as I have heard for myself “you’re just not qualified”
So I guess that begs the question “At what point do you become qualified”? As you can guess, I have been wrestling with this and I feel the need to explain what I mean by qualified. I do not want this topic to be confused with “I just received my certificate and now I am qualified”. Quite the opposite, the qualified description I am referring to are those men and women we come into contact with throughout our life where we know standing in their presence they possess great skill and wisdom and you want what they have. I have been fortunate in my life to cross paths with several men and women of great qualification and wisdom. In one such case, my advisor and I traveled to China, India and in the U.S. on various trips where I learned a lifetimes worth of skills from him. To this day he is listed in my cell phone as Yoda. No name necessary, just Yoda (as in the Star Wars character) A man of such great wisdom he changed my life path. I do not recall him ever telling me what to do, but he was full of questions, encouragement and ideas.
As I have thought about my life experiences and experiences with men and women of wisdom, I have concluded that the real truth is NONE of us are qualified until we do “it”, and do “it” so many times “it” becomes second nature and even then we may never be regarded as qualified or imparted with wisdom.
With that said, I hope you will realize that no two situations are the same although many are similar and you will stop deflating yourself and your ideas based on other peoples success in your area of interest. In fact, my hope is that you “struggle well” with the rest of us by daily carving out successful inches, yards and miles and deploying infrastructure to preserve your progress. When, (not if) the dry spells come, and the voice of defeat rises up like a bright sun in the sky, keep calm and carry on……..struggle well. When you here that negative voice tell you the lie, “you are not qualified and you will never be wise,” you should immediately and appropriately apply the following business prescription. “You can shut up, you’re not in charge, get back in your corner and be quite because I am not interested in listening to you”. You are the voice of authority YOU listen to.
Make your mess …
Make your mess become your message – Max Lucado
Anatomy of a Business Failure.
The Anatomy of a business failure and “What should I do?” When you begin to dissect businesses that are in a state of decline, I find that most management teams cannot point to the defining moment(s) that led them to their current crisis.
Looking at the illustration above it indicates that at a moment in time something went wrong and BAM…….the business is in decline. The CEO reports to the Board of Directors that he/she believes the downward trend is a temporary cycle. The CEO rallies the management team and tells them there the best the company has ever had and they need to stay on mission, be more efficient, closely monitor expenses, focus on sales and soon enough we will bend that arrow back to “sustain” and eventually “growth”. Unfortunately, for many companies the curve away from steady decline never comes and the entrance into a state of decline is almost never the result of a defining moment. Rather it is a slow fade, when what was black and white has turned to shades of grey.
Following are the four most common reasons companies fade into the danger zone of total business decline.
- Lack of timely and accurate financial information
- Lack of effective measurements of performance
- Lack of effective plans
- A management team that believes they are doing a good job
With these bullet points let’s re-read the CEO’s mantra “The CEO rallies the management team and tells them there the best the company has ever had4 and they need to stay focused on doing the right thing2, be more efficient3, closely monitor expenses2, focus on sales3 and soon enough2 we will bend that arrow back to “sustain” and eventually “growth3”. You can see every element of the most common reasons companies fade into business decline.
During the course of meeting with clients and prospective clients, some will tell me “I am so tired of getting the same result over and over, just tell me what to do and I will do it”. In other cases, it is out of pure fear of bankruptcy they get focused on the solutions. In fewer instances it does not matter what you do for the client they are dead set that the financial cliff does not exist and they will never go over something that does not exist. I will always tell them “you don’t know where you’re going…….. but you are going to get there really fast!”
What am I supposed to do?
Know this about your business. It does not matter how small or big the company, you can move from any phase listed above straight into “decline”. Take the time to evaluate your business in the framework of the four most common reasons company’s fail. Establish written plans and measure your company’s performance. If you’re not getting the results – modify plans, execute your revisions and monitor the results and repeat as necessary. Equally important, a positive attitude is great, I have one, but don’t tell yourself that you’re better than you really are. Unbridled pride can lead to a humbling and dangerous slide down the mountain of decline.
What can you do this weekend that keep your company from the slow fade into decline?
Copyright 2013 Meridian Performance Group, LLC
Anatomy of a Business Failure
Look for the Post tomorrow – It will give you something to think about over the weekend.
Is your business headed for the cliff? Tomorrow we will talk about the “why” and answer the question “What am I supposed to do?”
How to lose a potential $137,500 in less than 30 days.
How many consultants actually share with you how bad they screwed up versus always pretending to have the right answers at the right time all of the time? If your answer is “never”………..then read on and I will gladly share a war story. In addition, I hope that this cautionary tale will put over $100,000 in your bank account versus keeping it out.
Let’s start at the beginning. I met with a potential client and we both quickly recognize that we can accomplish some meaningful financial objectives together. The two face to face meetings establish we like each other, can work together, I am qualified and we have similar business beliefs. The potential client wants me to give them a proposal to specifically accomplish three specific goals over four to six months. After a week’s worth of work, a draft proposal is prepared. Thereafter, two telephone calls discussing details and an email was sent for additional clarification. Notably, in the last telephone conversation, the potential client says that they would like to get moving on Step 1 right away. After some fine tuning of the proposal, the final email was sent with enthusiasm.
There are two words you never want to hear someone yell in the Army “booby trap”! (For the non-military, a booby trap is basically a device like a landmine, intended to harm when unknowingly triggered by the presence or actions of a person) In other words, you think you’re on safe ground and as you apply weight to your next step, you hear a “click” sound and your instincts kick in and say, “ohhhh that did not sound good.” My click came a week after the proposal was sent on a follow up telephone call when the voice on the other end of the call says “we have been really busy, people are traveling and we have not had a chance to really dig into the proposal.”
To fast forward and get to the point, the client had no idea what their requested grand plan was going to cost, so they ran with the consultant all the way to the finish line. The consultant generally knew how much it was going to cost and thought that the quality conversations and the company size surely meant that the potential client generally knew how much this would reasonably cost. Wrong……..”Booby Trap!”
I stepped on a business land mine. The potential client had NO IDEA. They were only mentally prepared to spend around $30,000 and went into cardiac arrest at $137,500. Yes, yes yes……I hear what some of you are saying right now, because I have said it to myself. As a business person, we must always remember assumptions and generalized conversation will likely lead to troublesome waters with our fellow employees and potential clients. In the aforementioned example, the client would have spent $30,000 without a second thought and that would have reasonably likely led to the completion of the entire project worth around $137,500. The math is simple, anything between $30,000 and $137,500 is always better than $0.
I know some of my readers are thinking there has to be more to it than that, and unfortunately the brevity of my newsletters has left out additional details that would confirm, it is just that simple. Sticker shock, a generalization and poor cost qualification can destroy any proposal and potential for future business.
After reading this, I hope that your sales team members are not running aimlessly through the minefield of outside sales yelling “hey boss, I’m about to land the big one” only to find out it’s a booby trap. A few of those and your company will be with the sales team trapped in a financial minefield. If you feel that way or want an evaluation of your sales team, Meridian Performance Group can quickly help. We know what NOT to do. Equally important, as the President of Meridian Performance Group, I hope you take the transparent and candid message above to heart. Our imperfection and willingness to share is strength to you. Others who profess perfection are actually the most dangerous. Call on a company you can rely to be your trusted advisor in all matters. Meridian Performance Group, LLC – www.Meridian-Consultants.com (Copyright 2013)
4 % to get 3 Degrees
Just before I began my workout, I stood in front of the dry board staring at list of exercises to be completed over the next hour. Most of us who attend this mid-week workout often refer to it as “Hurricane Wednesday”. I know it as “this is going to be a long hour” and “I am going to feel this tomorrow”. Nonetheless, as I stood there, I noticed a sentence at the top of the board written in cursive with a red dry erase marker. It said “The next hour is only 4% of your day”. As I have reflected on this, I am reminded of how many times people in leadership positions attempt to launch big and bold causes, ideas and changes in a company. As the unfolding occurs, we find so many times that we destroyed more than we helped. Employees and peers are murmuring……… “Here we go again”.
There is no question that there are appropriate times for wide and sweeping change, program implementations and the like. My commentary is directed at what can become the endless new idea regime in many companies who just read the latest best seller and have mentally planned a military beach landing as they plan to vanquish (fill in the blank at your company). Rather, I have found that lasting value and improvement with the winning of hearts and minds for change, comes when we commit to a specific daily investment of our time, leading to a small change in direction based on our actions. Investing 4% of your day (1 hour) modernizing your company brand, sales training and customer retention as examples will create 3 Degrees of change and move your company to reach your vision. When you think about 3 Degrees, it does not sound like much but in a short period of time and distance you can change your success trajectory. In my opinion, it’s the leaders who help others make a 3 Degree change that leads to improving lives, work performance, return on investment, increased sales, better customer relationships, higher employee morale, happier families and the list goes on and on. When you look at the picture above, you can see how nature is the master of incremental change in the transition example from fall to winter.
At Meridian Performance Group, our focus on building long term relationships is well above 4% and we help our clients move more than 3 Degrees. However, if 4% of our day to get 3 Degrees of change, is just what it took to help our clients achieve greater success, we love that too! We hope that you give us a call to set up an appointment for a free consultation. Take 4% of your day and let us find out together if we can drive 3 Degrees or more change to help you reach your business objectives faster. Call today for a free consultation (731) 300-1304
Committed to your success!
Travel With A Pilgrim
Recently I was invited to participate in a training program at my Church regarding how to help and properly respond to someone who asks or reveals that they need help. A section within the training discussed “The response of a pilgrim versus the response of an expert.” The premise being a Pilgrim by definition will journey with you to help whereas an expert is quick to tell you what you need to do and move on. While there are appropriate places for an expert opinion, I find that in life and business, quick expert advice is often shallow and impractical. Not because the provider lacked intelligence, rather the problems of life and business require far more insight into their depth and breadth to truly bring about sustainable and desired change. Let’s look at this a little further.
During a recent client meeting and just after the “Hello!” and “How have you been?”, I listened to a long list of “you will not believe what happened”, “we had these series of recurring problems”, “the employee challenges seem to never stop” and this list of topics continued. Without interruption, I listened in curiosity as to how this would end. After about 10 minutes, I think my client began to realize that I had not said anything. The stories abruptly came to a stop in the middle of my client’s description of another perceived issue with the statement “sorry to ramble about all of this, where should we start today?”
Enter the trusted advisor….the Pilgrim who will come alongside you and walk or run if necessary to help you find or stay on safe passage. The Pilgrim is easy to spot because they frequently use “we” versus “you” as they climb into the foxhole with you. This is a question we ask ourselves in the military, who can I trust to be in the foxhole with me if all hell breaks loose? Contrast this with the expert, they are easy to hear. They are quick to provide all types of solutions and opinions as to how and why this is happening to you as they look down on you in your foxhole. You are also likely to hear all about what is going to happen if you do not fix the problem immediately as they perceive the enemy advancing on your position. Once an expert has taught you everything THEY think you need to know………. exit stage right.
Think of your business and challenges you are facing. Who do you seek outside wise counsel from? Are you surrounded my Pilgrims or Experts? The answer to this question can radically improve your business and life’s relationships.
At Meridian, our mission is “To serve as the trusted advisor, business turnaround executive, business coach and trainer.” We focus on businesses in distress while coming alongside their stakeholders by providing a comprehensive business assessment, recommendations, implementation support and on-going advisory services that will equip stakeholders, leadership and employees to measurably, effectively and intentionally accomplish the business objectives. Call today for a free consultation (731) 300-1304. There is wisdom when traveling with a Pilgrim.
Are you setting yourself up for a tragic failure?
During my active duty service in the United States Army, I learned one of the most valuable leadership lessons of life and business. The lesson came while serving with the First Infantry Division (Big Red 1) located at Fort Riley, Kansas, during Basic Non-Commissioned Officer Class (BNOC).
The third week of training was a week spent in the field. During that week I was selected to be the Battalion Commander over several hundred soldiers. Our first day began around 4:00 a.m. and we did not reach our objective until approximately midnight. The day of walking in combat gear was exhausting as we crossed all types of terrain and dealt with probing attacks from the enemy along our route. Upon arrival at our objective, the company platoon leaders began to set up a perimeter for guard duty. I was meeting with the company commanders at the edge of tree line to discuss guard duty locations, shifts and the next day’s mission. We were all absolutely exhausted as we entered our third week of training. During our planning conversation, I felt the overwhelming need to lead by example and share the burden of the night, so I told my company commanders that I would take the first shift of guard duty for them so they could get some rest. No one objected.
As we departed, a training officer (the training officer followed us everywhere evaluating our performance) pulled me aside and quietly asked me “why are you willing to kill everyone to make yourself feel better?” Wow! Now I was exhausted AND shocked, and felt the weight of what my gut told me I was about to learn. The training officer explained to me that I should never be on guard duty or perform any other like duties. I needed to make sure that I received as much rest as battlefield circumstances would allow because the decisions I make as a leader will either 1) save lives or 2) get everyone killed. An exhausted and distracted leader is a very dangerous leader.
Replay this scenario in your business or family life and you will find that it directly applies. Are you working on tasks that should be delegated to other employees or left alone completely? Are you avoiding or neglecting the duties of your position because your feelings about delegating are getting in the way? Are there traces of guilt in your thoughts when you know the task you are assigning will be extremely difficult or negatively impact the person receiving it? If any of these are true, you are on, or near, a very dangerous path. Depending on your leadership position, you are duty bound to fulfill your responsibilities while delegating to others and holding everyone accountable. Failures in this area of leadership can take profitable companies with great products and people straight into a ditch that you may not make it out of without great financial loss and employee pain.
Take time today to think about what you’re working on, and ask the question, “Will this project or task meaningfully impact the profitability of the company or reduce expenses?” If the answer is “no”, do not be afraid when your mind starts saying “What if I don’t do it?” You have already answered that question by identifying the task is not meaningful. Many companies I visit could rapidly improve if they would stop playing around with meaningless tasks. All too often men and women in leadership positions are mindlessly completing day to day tasks that make them feel like they had a productive day. In reality, they leave from work after a sprint on the meaningless treadmill of tasks, leaving exhausted, and not advancing the company agenda even one inch. Learn how to say “no” to places you should not be and “yes” to meaningful work, then watch the results come in and see others’ respect for you soar.
Copyright 2013 Meridian Performance Group, LLC
Meridian Performance Group 