Business Keys To Success-Building A Team

Building a team is one of the quickest paths to business success. Whether you are running a small business, starting your own business or in a corporate environment the value of having a good team is critical to any success.

Yet, very often in my business coaching practice, whether it is with self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs, solo professionals or corporate executives I have observed that their ability to move forward is dependent on the team and type of team they have put in place.

A Good Team Starts With Trust

Interestingly, almost any one can put a team together. Whether you are running a small business, starting your own business or employed in the corporate environment having or being part of a good team is a positive game changer.

But to put a team together where the members trust each other is critical to moving forward. If you can’t trust your team or teammates to get something done then everything bogs down.

A team in a way is like a convoy in time of war.  It only moves as fast as its slowest link. Having trust allows us to get the heart of challenges quickly, resolve them and move on.

A Good Team Will Disagree 

Once there is trust then there can be disagreement. When everyone is in agreement and supporting the mission then the tactics to accomplish the mission can be discussed openly. Also, the overall strategy in which the tactics are employed can be discussed and altered.

It is important for the team leader to allow this disagreement. When team members feel that they have truly been heard, then when the decision is made they are much more likely to support it. Disagreement is a means of giving your team ownership in the process.

 A Good Team Will Have Commitment and Accountability 

As team members take ownership they will have a greater commitment and a desire to be held accountable for results. Without commitment and accountability it is hard to have the good morale and positive momentum that teams need to move forward.

Team members who are truly committed also are willing to be held accountable. They want credit for helping the team achieve its goal.

A Good Team Will Pay Attention to Results

You may say that this would go without saying. Unfortunately if you don’t have trust, the ability to openly disagree, commitment and accountability then most teams don’t want to look at the results. And the reason is obvious. The results are not good.

Paying attention to results ties everyone on the team together. But without trust, the ability to voice opinions, commitment and accountability there is no sense of unity and no desire to focus on results.

Build your team to position yourself for the success you desire. When you move from “I” to “Let’s” you are building a team and opening up the possibility for great things to happen.

Business Keys To Success: Are You Able To Quit?

I am challenging you to quit. Do you have the skill or discipline to know when to quit? In my personal business coaching practice I have observed that very often the greatest success among the self-employed business owner, entrepreneur, solo professional or corporate manager or executive comes when they decide to quit.

In the previous post we looked at quitting as a necessary step on the stairway to success. As you are climbing that stairway, you have to let go of previous thoughts, processes and ways of thinking in order to climb to the next step.

Learn To Quit

In your personal life you must learn to quit. Sometimes this is much harder to do than in the business arena as we have to deal with extremely personal circumstances and their repercussions.

The type of quitting I`m talking about has nothing to do with what you actually want to achieve in your life. It has everything to do with what you want to become and what you want your life to be.

In short, we must identify what isn`t working and quit trying to make it work.

Quit–Get Rid Of What Is Standing In Your Way

What is standing in your way and keeping you from what you want and who you want to become? What are you carrying around in terms of thoughts, emotions, and ways of doing things and relationships that are weighing you down and keeping you from achieving your goals?

As someone once said, I have met the enemy and it is me. Take stock of all areas of your life and determine what is draining you of energy and focus. As you take stock of these things understand that they have made you stronger.

But also understand that stronger doesn`t mean that you are more efficient, more effective and happier.

Quit-Get Rid Of Your Tolerations

What is toleration? It is anything that drains you of energy and/or focus. Tolerations and dealing with them can make us stronger while at the same time bringing our progress on the stairway to success to a stop.

In my personal business coaching practice when I hear someone say that they are a survivor it almost always means that the joy and excitement has been drained from their businesses and lives. Would you rather survive or thrive?

Thriving comes when you quit the tolerations that are holding you back. Imagine how much more efficient, effective and happier you would be utilizing your strength that was developed from surviving to applying it to thriving. To thrive all you have to do is quit.

When you learn how to quit you have learned to let go of what isn`t working. You have learned to say no to what isn`t going to work. You start living your life around honoring who you are. And the best part is this. When you learn to quit and stop being addicted to what doesn`t work you will definitely move from surviving to thriving.

How to Run a Business Effectively From the Start

With the challenging economic climate, many people long to become business entrepreneurs and start their own business. However, starting your own business can be challenging and many people are reluctant because they worry that they don’t know how to run a business. It is important to start your business in the right way and have it running effectively from the start. There are some business success tips which can help you to achieve this.

One of the most important keys to successful business practice is having a great business plan. It is important to take the time to research your potential market and develop a concise yet comprehensive plan. This is the first step to creating small business success and it will guide the business decisions you make. You will find yourself referring to it quite often and you may find it will need periodic revision. Your financial projections should be based on sound calculations rather than wishful thinking but they can be incorporated into your business goals.

Create a procedure manual for your new business. While this may seem a little superfluous before you even formally open your business, you should at least have a draft of how you want your business to operate on a daily basis. You can detail all the essential procedures and ones which you will be doing regularly. This can even provide you with a basis for revision as you discover effective ways to conduct your business and learn what does and does not work. This can provide consistency for your business approach while you are finding your feet and learning the intricacies of running a new business.

It is also important to create a strategy and stick to it. If you have found procedures which work, don’t be tempted to deviate from them to try the latest new fad. One of the most important things for a new business is to operate consistently. This will allow you to build a reputation and customer confidence. Of course, you may need to re-evaluate some of your procedures which are not working effectively.  The great thing about being a business entrepreneur is that you can continually assess the running of your business to see what is working and what could be done better. This is fantastically empowering since you are truly in control of guiding the success of your new business.

Seek professional help. It is a common myth that business entrepreneurs are experts in a number of fields. Usually this is not the case but they are not afraid to seek out the best professional advice to move their business forward. This could be a business lawyer to advice you on financial or tax issues or training courses to provide business success coaching or tips on starting business operations. The most effective and successful business owners seek out professional advice to ensure their business has the best guidance and advice.

There are many Business successes coaching, but don’t be afraid that you don’t know them all. You are planning to start a business because you believe you can run it effectively and successfully. Take the time to plan correctly, seek out professional help and have faith in your ideas.

Business Keys To Success: Master The Art Of Quitting

I believe that quitting is a good thing. In fact, many of the best things in my business and life have come from quitting. In my personal businesscoaching practice I collaborate with and support successful people. Interestingly, the one thing that all of them are seeking is to quit what isn’t working or has outlived its usefulness in their businesses and lives. Only in this manner can they be committed to a path of growth. The art of quitting minimizes the clutter and obstacles to moving forward.

Quitting certainly carries a negative connotation in our culture. I remember the sign above the entrance to my high school locker room, “A winner never quits. And a quitter never wins.” When it comes to sports and other endeavors not quitting can make sense.

But, to be honest, there are many things in my business and life that would have impacted me positively if I had chosen to quit them sooner. I should have quit accounting and being a financial analyst sooner. I loved the study of accounting and finance in school but I felt totally unfulfilled in these areas in the business world. There are many more examples.

Quitting Means Letting Go

So, why didn’t I let go of being an accountant?  I knew it wasn’t working. For me there was fear in quitting. I had wrapped up my identity in being an accountant or financial analyst. It was what I had studied in graduate business school.

Furthermore, I was afraid of what people would think about my quitting. I hung on for a year. I refused to let go. But at some point I realized that by not quitting I was wasting time in my life and this time was characterized by unhappiness.

When I decided to quit I had decided to let go of an image and profession that wasn’t working for me. I understood that I was letting fear paralyze me and steal my joy.

Quitting Is A Necessary Step To Success

Think about it. When new and improved technology is available you will go ahead and embrace it and the processes it entails. You have no problem letting go of or quitting the old way to embrace something that is not only new but better.

For the self-employed businessowner, entrepreneur, solo professional, corporate manager, executive or individual there is a fear of embracing something new and letting go of what is old and familiar.

Yet, if we don’t let go and practice the art of quitting we can never grow or advance. May we face criticism and skepticism from others? Yes. But you are determined to achieve success and you have decided to move forward. You are no longer going to have your business or yourself be held hostage in exchange for avoiding the criticisms and opinions of others.

Quitting Creates New Pathways To Success

Just as when a road way is blocked we find an alternate route, the same is true in the formula for success. To build momentum and move forward we are always looking for better ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Only when we master the art of quitting the old can the new enter and improve our performance.

Business Keys To Success: Change Is Inevitable-Growth Is Optional

I know everyone reading this post has experienced change. Yet change doesn’t mean growth. I thought I was growing because I was experiencing change. Yet, I had truly faked myself out. My attitudes, thoughts and the methods I used for approaching things did not change.

Growth Is A Choice

One of the greatest incubators for growth is becoming a self-employed small business owner. First, the amount of change you go through to start a small business and bring it to success is incredible.

You have to grow when change comes to you. If you don’t very often you can become irrelevant in the market place. For many small business owners they don’t have a choice. They have to grow. Small business success is predicated on your ability to grow in terms of not just sales, but systems, hiring, marketing and other areas.

Growth Must Be a 360 Degree Endeavor

But for many small business owners the growth process starts and stops with their business. As a personal business coach I have many types of clients from corporate executives to doctors to small business owners and all of them are successful financially.

They have embraced change and growth in their businesses. Yet, in their personal lives they may be stuck where they were 20 years ago. And when successful people are stuck it takes the joy and enthusiasm out of their lives.

It may have a negative impact on their business but in many cases it doesn’t. But, in their personal lives they have not embraced growth. I had one business owner and as we collaborated together one of his assignments was to take a vacation.

He had completed all the other assignments on business as we had developed our coaching relationship. Yet, on this one he came back to me and told me that he couldn’t figure it out.

Growth Is About Personal Growth

He couldn’t figure it out because his business was his life and his life was his business. The last time I checked business was just a part of life. He was stuck because he had not grown himself in his personal life.

He had not taken a real vacation in 20 years. He didn’t need to be at his business. If we stop to think about this for a moment what I am about to say is true for all of us. Our world and growth gets no bigger than the thinking between our ears.

Growth is about seeing yourself and a better future. As Napoleon Hill said, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” But the only way to take the steps to growth is to “let go” of the thinking that is holding us back.

Growth Is About Letting Go

Until we let go of old thinking, old ways of spending our private time and old ways of doing things it will not be possible to have the personal development to enjoy life to the fullest.

After all, work is supposed to make life sweet, purposeful and fruitful. But you have to construct a vision of a personal life to where you can experience the rewards of your good work.

Growth is a choice. Growth is optional. Choose growth as you have in business. When you choose growth in your personal life you will start experiencing life instead of existing through it. Choose growth and you will experience significance in your life.

Leaders Cannot Rise Above The Limitations Of Their Character

Character counts.  Character matters. We have heard these phrases over and over. John Maxwell in “The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader” asks the following question: “Have you ever seen highly talented people suddenly fall apart when they achieved a certain level of success?

I know in my personal business coaching practice that collaborates with self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs, solo professionals and corporate management that yes, I have seen highly talented people fall apart when they rise to a certain level.

As leaders it is not only devastating to them but it can be highly damaging to their organization.

Leaders: It’s About Character

Maxwell cites Steven Burgles, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School and author of The Success Syndrome. In summary, Burgles says that people who achieve great heights but lack the bedrock character to sustain them through the stress are headed for disaster. He believes they are destined for one of more of the four A’s: arrogance, painful feelings of aloneness, destructive adventure-seeking, or adultery. Each is a terrible price to pay for weak character.

Leaders: Character Check: They Must Step Away To Step Up

If you have found yourself being sucked in by one of the four A’s that Burgles identifies, Maxwell encourages you to do what you must to step away from some of the stress of your success, and seek professional help.

Here’s the challenge. When you have more success, money, increased prestige and all that goes with it coming in you start to think of yourself as bullet proof. After all in starting your own business or running a small business you have taken great risks. And, now your hard work is paying off. Maybe you are bullet proof for the moment in the business realm.

But that doesn’t mean that you are immune to adverse risks in the personal realm. Too often as a business coach I have seen business owners and executives fill their need for risk taking outside of the business. The results are almost always bad.

In fact, I have seen more leaders lose their positions in companies or their own businesses due to lack of character in the personal realm. Unaddressed cracks in character only get deeper and more destructive with time. Step away from poor character traits and correct them. Only then you can step back up to being the leader you want to be.

Leaders Know That Business Character And Personal Character Are Connected

Even if you are not struggling with the four A’s you should still examine the condition of your character. Do your words match your action all the time? Do you follow through as promised at work and at home? If you tell your children that you are going to be at one of their events, are you there?

All of the above can apply to both your business and personal worlds. Interestingly, what I have observed is that whatever is a negative character trait in one area ends up manifesting itself in the other either indirectly or with the same trait being manifested. Very often business can cover up character flaws in leaders because of good processes and accountability in the systems which ends up keeping things on track.

Yet, leaders and all human beings can find ways to sabotage the best of systems. In the end leaders have two areas they must observe with character. One is the business. The other is personal. And, leaders always need to be aware that what is negative character in the business will leak into their personal life. And, what is negative in their character will leak into the business life.

Do a character check. Is there something you can improve? If so, tackle it now. Tackling it tomorrow or some day means procrastination and probably never getting around to improving. As Maxwell and Burgles point out, leaders cannot rise above the limitations of their character.

The Law Of The Team

At this time in my life, virtually everything I do is a team effort.  In my personal business coaching, public speaking and career coaching I have a team to support me.  But, when I was younger, I used to try to do everything myself.  Or, as my businesses grew, I would try to know everything in detail about all aspects of the business even though I had turned over many aspects to my team members.

The truth is that this approach held back my growth as a self-employed business owner and the growth of my business. Small business growth and small business success are about developing a good team.  Any business that grows has a team or teams supporting that growth.

Team Means Letting Go

For most self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs or solo professionals there is a huge focus on control.  Yet as their businesses grow they still bring the mentality “I’m going to have to do it if it is to be done right.”  They hire people and build a team but they are disempowering them at the same time.

How?  They don’t trust them.  The number one cause of team dysfunction is lack of trust.  The little secret of growth is this.  You have to let go in order to grow.  To let go successfully, you must have systems and processes in place where all team members can be held accountable.

Team Means Amplification

In my personal business coaching practice, my team makes me better than I am.  When I recognize a situation with a client that needs to move forward very often I bring in an expert.  A good example is in the area of human resources.  As a small business grows it must have an employee handbook, performance reviews and policies and procedures.

When that is needed I bring in an expert in human resources to assist with the process.  She is part of my team.  And, at the same time, she amplifies the value I bring to my business coaching clients.

How does she do that?  She makes me better than I am.  As part of my team she multiplies my value to others.  And most importantly, she enables me to focus on what I do best, business coaching where I am focusing on creating and designing the pathways my clients want to have the future they desire.

Your Team Is Your Financial Nest Egg

for the future is just like developing a financial nest egg.  It may start slowly, but what you pout in brings a high return—similar to the way compound interest works with finances.

How does my team help me build that nest egg?  I have an organization that does my SEO work which helps my websites rank higher which in turn brings me business.  My accountant keeps track of and keeps me on track financially.

My team and the team you can develop will do many things.  Your team can give you more time.  Your team can represent you in things such as the example I gave in human resources.  Your team can provide a sense of community.  And most importantly your team can help you fulfill the desires you have for the future you want to create.

Develop your team and watch the law of the team work for you.