SURROUND YOURSELF WITH SMART PEOPLE

"We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything." - Thomas Edison

“Surround yourself with smart people” is advice you will hear many times over in the business world. It does not necessarily mean to find people with higher IQs than your own. It is much broader than that. Emotional intelligence also plays a huge factor. In addition, the advice refers to surrounding yourself with people who have different talents, skills, experiences and abilities from your own. Why? One of the most important lessons you will learn as a business owner, or manager of any team, is that you don’t know everything! That’s a hard pill for some to swallow. It doesn’t matter if you have the highest IQ of anyone in the country, you still will not have had all the experiences nor have all of the talents and skills to make the best decisions about every topic every time.

I can offer so many examples of this in my own business that it is hard to even know where to start. Let me just briefly describe three examples that have occurred just in the past week:

I was signing up to attend a training course to become certified in a certain personality/behavior profiling instrument. The certification training would have cost $2,500. I had researched many other profiling instruments and felt that I had made a good choice. However, before scheduling my travel arrangements I sent a quick email to a friend who is certified in many of these types of personality and behavior profiles. I asked his opinion about the certification I was about to attend. He sent back a message that completely changed my plans. His experiences with both marketing and delivering this particular profile far surpassed my own knowledge. Had I not sought his advice, I would have wasted $2,500.

I am developing the outline and content for a team building presentation. I brought my plan to my business partner who handles all the design for our presentations. Despite the fact that she handles design and I handle content, we always bounce ideas off one another. In this particular example, she made several comments about the flow of the presentation that improved it many times over. Together we produce a better presentation than one of us alone could do.

Last year we made a big investment on computer equipment, software, and software training. This week, after a two hour demonstration at the Apple store, we realized we made some bad choices in the equipment and training that we chose. In total this was about a $10,000 mistake, not including the time we could have saved by having the right equipment and software that would have significantly increased our productivity over the last year. If we had brought in the expertise last year that we sought this past week, we could have avoided this mistake.

REACH OUT! Talk to people, listen to people, and learn from other’s experiences and talents. The smartest people are “smart” because they take full advantage of the talents, knowledge and experiences that surround them

GOOD INTENTIONS ARE NOT ENOUGH?

In our last blog we told a story about a gourmet bakery that turned into a pizza shop.  Today we take a look at what went wrong.

To begin with, if your one and only goal is to make money however it can be made, then perhaps turning your dream bakery into a pizza shop is no big deal.  “Go with the flow” may be your philosophy.  There is nothing wrong with that if it works for you; but in the previous story, the owner ended up shutting down.  He had not intended to become a pizza shop!  It happened slowly with seemingly small daily decisions.  He was focused on solving the problem of the day rather than looking into the future. 

So what went wrong for this new business owner?  First, the owner noticed his sales from the bakery items dropping.  Instead of doing some research, talking to customers, and brainstorming with employees, he got busy making pizza.  He was so busy that he never found time to look beyond what had to be done today.

Secondly, the owner did not make his decisions based upon his vision or long range goals.  Instead, he made a decision based on what would help him out immediately.   This decision making method may relieve some stress for the day, but tends to create problems in the future.   His concern that sales were dropping made him jump at the first opportunity that arose.  It solved an immediate need, but destroyed future opportunity.   More importantly, the most successful business owners like what they do.  They have a vision for their lives and their work and they work towards this every day.  When an opportunity comes along that does not fit their vision, it doesn’t bother them to say “no.”  They are willing to be creative and adapt, but always with an eye towards their vision. 

What do you like to do and what is the vision for your company or department?  This vision or purpose is what will keep you motivated.  Consider whether today’s decision will keep you on course towards your vision or take you on a completely unchartered path you did not intend.

Just starting a business?  I highly recommend reading The E Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, by Michael E. Gerber.

Surviving or Thriving?

Surviving or Thriving?

Frank left his high power executive’s position to open a bakery.  It had always been his dream and finally he was prepared to make the leap.  After six months of hard work, his new bakery opened.  Breakfast pastries, desserts, and wedding cakes were his specialties.  Business was great for the first three months but then fell off significantly.  Frank quickly grew very concerned about his small and declining profit margin.  What was going wrong?

His bakery had been open for five months when a man came into his shop and asked if Frank made pizza.  Frank answered “no, we are a bakery.” 

The man replied “Yes I do love your pastries.  However I need someone to make 125 pizzas for me every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  It’s for large groups of teens we regularly host for training programs.  Our training center is right across the street and I was just hoping you could help us out.  We may need orders on occasional Saturday’s as well.”

Well, Frank’s eyes lit up as he calculated the profit he could make on a regular basis.  He hated pizza, had no interest in making it, but after some discussion, he agreed.  At least it would bring in some profit while he figured out how to make his bakery work.

The pizzas were a big hit.  The teens loved them so much that they frequented Frank’s bakery asking for pizza!  Frank had to add them to his menu.  Pretty soon, 70% of his revenues were from pizza.  He and his staff were so busy making pizza that little time was left to focus on the bakery items.  Customers that did come in for bakery items were disappointed at the slim selection.  Frank was so busy keeping up with the pizza business that no time was left for the planning, creative problem solving, and marketing needed to get his bakery back on track. 

Six months later, Frank shut down his bakery turned pizza shop.  He hated making pizzas.  It was not his dream.  

What went wrong?  Actually Frank never took the time to determine what went wrong when his bakery sales dropped. 

Is your business a gourmet bakery turned pizza shop?   Is your business focused on surviving rather than thriving?  Our next blog postings will focus on what went wrong and how to avoid this all too common problem.

Workforce Echoes Changing

ECHOES OF OUR BUSINESS
This posting marks the official beginning to a totally new format and purpose for our blog. We’ll save the informative articles for our newsletter. As of today, this blog will focus on the challenges of opening and managing a business. Our blog will offer real experiences, practical advice, ideas, and stories of successes and failures. We’ll also provide links to great articles, recommendations for books, and links to resources that may be helpful for entrepreneurs, business owners, managers, or those of you who simply get bored easily and like to hear new ideas.

We will also keep you up-to-date on an important company goal. As a business, we value creativity and NOT doing something simply because it’s the way we’ve always done it. The world is changing too fast for that mindset. Plus, we get bored easily! We also value continual learning and our motto is “keep moving forward.” So, for Workforce Echoes we’ve challenged ourselves, as a business, to do at least 12 completely new things this calendar year. We’re looking at our annual goals, at new learning opportunities, new technology, new services, new certifications, new blog formats (!!) and all sorts of other potential NEW things to try. Some might be good, some might not work out as planned. We’ll live and learn and describe the experiences. Do you have any ideas for something new? Send them our way or let us know your own experiences.

Stay tuned!

Time Management

As the holidays approach, I find it more and more difficult to keep all the balls in the air and manage my time well. Time management skills are one of those skill sets we assume are innate to all of us; it isn’t taught in schools and is rarely taught in the workplace. You’re just supposed to know how to do it well. Unfortunately, many people do not and I think I know one of the reasons why this is so.

All too often, as employers or as parents, we expect the most important life skills to just develop by osmosis. We are willing to teach math, and grammar, and science and technical skill. But how much effort do we, as parents or as employers, put into teaching time management, conflict management, presentation skills, and communication? The skills we neglect to teach are the same skills that can make or break a person’s career in any field.

Consider how we teach children conflict management skills. How often do you hear both parents and teachers alike saying that kids need to learn how to work their problems out on their own? So, I guess this means we expect them to learn something from fighting, screaming, or withdrawing? How exactly does this teach them how to do it right?

Let’s just take a look at my youngest son. He is 11 years old. He is supposed to do his assigned homework 5 nights per week. He is also supposed to spend one hour per week, any time he wants, on a math website to practice math facts. He has to complete three pages in his spelling book each week and turn them in on Friday. He has at least 3 tests or quizzes to study for each week. He is also supposed to read 30 minutes per day, five times per week. That is just his school assignments. He also has daily chores in the house and he is supposed to practice his guitar 4 times per week for 30 minutes. Now, how is he being taught time management? He isn’t! I am on his case constantly, reminding him what he is supposed to do and making sure that he doesn’t forget anything. I am his time management brain. There is so much for him to do and remember that I just assume I need to watch over him hourly. But what exactly am I teaching him? Just as importantly, how many employers are STILL doing this for their employees?

So, what’s the answer? Well Workforce Echoes just happens to have courses available for many of these important but often neglected life skills. Taking time to learn these skills can go a long ways towards successfully keeping all those balls in the air and continuously moving forward. As a parent, well, I’ve decided to start teaching our courses at home as well!

Communication Timing

Timing is everything; even when it comes to communication. I was having a really bad day yesterday and it seemed to coincide with the day that EVERYONE wanted to talk to me. My Blackberry was not working properly, my internet was down, my computer froze, and I had someone who owed ME money telling me that I owed THEM money. I had twice as much work to finish as I could possibly complete. It was just one of those generally irritating days. In the midst of this, my phone rang off the hook with problems. People I haven’t talked to in months decided that yesterday was the day to call. My husband, mother, son and daughter all called within 30 minutes of each other. They all had problems I needed to resolve. During several of these calls I was sitting in a lengthy traffic jam. As the problems piled on, my patience grew shorter. It was not a good day to get my undivided and positive attention.
This all reminded me of the importance of timing when it comes to effective communication. Don’t you hate walking into the office in the morning and have someone hit you with a problem before you even make it to your desk? That’s bad timing. How about if you want a raise; would you ask your boss when she is clearly in a terrible mood? Would you decide to interrupt and begin explaining some detailed assignment to your colleague when he is fully engaged in another project? Here’s a favorite; how about waiting until you are fighting mad to resolve an important conflict with your co-worker? We all know that anger makes us stupid, yet we choose to battle our most important battles when we are angry.
If you ignore timing, you may present a fantastic idea, with all the right facts and emotion, yet still have it shot down. If you had waited a day, the same idea might have been approved. People do not make purely logical decisions. That would be too easy! Our emotions often take over our reactions. So if you present an idea to me when I’m having a bad day, I am likely to find all the potential problems and holes with your plan. On a good day I might view your idea as interesting and inspiring.
Good communication involves some logical thought and curbing impulsiveness. Consider the other person’s current state of mind, time schedule, and emotions. It is in YOUR own best interests to wait till the timing is right. Don’t let a bad day spoil a great idea.

Too Busy To Be Innovative and Creative!

Years ago we began to see the words “creativity” and “innovation” appearing throughout business research, articles, and books. We have witnessed how fast that even a huge corporation can go out of business without creative strategic planning. Look at Blockbuster. Consider Tower Records. Think about the future fate of bookstores as more and more people are into downloading their books. On-line education is becoming ever more popular which may soon even impact our K-12 schools. Cell phones, computers, and cars are continuously being improved upon. The list goes on and on. Companies must not only HAVE great ideas these days, but must be faster than everyone else in implementing the ideas. Yet all too many businesses are struggling to get on this creative and innovative bandwagon.
Our economic problems have made creativity and innovation all the more challenging. Businesses are cutting back everywhere and employees are over-worked. Perks have been taken away. Incentives have been put on hold. There is little or no time for training or conferences or extra time off.
The problem here is that we are now too busy to think. A hectic environment, with “to do” lists several pages long is counterproductive to creativity and innovation. Stress also zaps creative energy. Creativity doesn’t just happen. It requires time, freedom, a break from routine, and a continuous exchanging of ideas.
I recently attended a conference for which I had to travel away from my office for a week. As usual, I came back from the conference filled with great ideas. I actually had time to think while I was away. Everyone I talked to at this conference felt the same way; that is, they always leave conferences or training programs ready to implement something new. But then the inevitable begins to happen. No time to think. There is so much work to be done that those new ideas begin to take a back burner, and, if you aren’t careful, will be forgotten. Keeping those new ideas moving forward takes concerted but worthwhile effort.
What’s the answer here? Simple. Setting aside time for creative thought should be viewed as a method to improve business rather than as a couple of hours wherein work is not being done. Brainstorming sessions are NOT a waste of time. I like to take every idea that is tossed out and, rather than thinking why it can’t be done, think through how it COULD be done. Set aside negative thinking and let imaginations prevail. Put together cross-functional teams, from all levels of the organization, and have them come up with a solution to a problem and a workable implementation plan. Monitor and encourage progress. Set up systems that foster the exchange of ideas.
You might think that you and the rest of your team just don’t have the luxury of extra time to be creative. But think again. It may actually be that you don’t have the luxury of NOT taking time to think. The economy will eventually begin to bounce back. If your business is going to be one that participates in the expansion, now might be a good time to allow creativity and innovation to become a normal part of your organizational culture. Put together an innovation team and let the ideas flow.