Here Are 6 Important Questions That Will Decide If Hiring a Coach Will Boost Your Performance or Drain Your Pocketbook

Whether you're a top executive or a recent grad, coaching could be a huge boost to your career. But it could also be a waste of money.

The professional coaching industry has exploded over the last decade. Today, I hear high-powered executives bragging at cocktail parties that they have not one but two or three coaches who help them with everything from leadership to public speaking to mindset.

As a leadership coach, I'm thrilled that so many people are hiring professional like me. However, like any trend, some people rush into hiring a coach who maybe shouldn't. Here are a few questions I ask people who approach me about coaching and questions I suggest you ask yourself before you hire a coach.

1. How self-aware are you?

While this is a difficult question to ask yourself, it's key to the coaching process. If you're not willing, or able, to objectively look at your own thinking, behavior, and actions, then coaching may have limited impact. Those who get a lot out of coaching are highly aware of how their behaviors impact others and situations.

Check the language in your thinking. When something bad happens, do you immediately start blaming other people and finding excuses of why the external world conspired against you and put you in a bad situation? If so, you might want to first work on seeing how you contributed to the outcomes, too.

2. Are you ambitious?

Coaches can help develop great strategies and paths to success, but they can't do the work for you. If you're not driven to make changes and not willing to put in the hard work to implement the action plans, you might not get much out of coaching. You need to want the outcomes enough to do the hard work. If not, you might be wasting your money.

3. Do you hold yourself accountable?

Many people come to me looking to be held accountable and for me to drive the process. I have to explain to them that I can't make them do anything. I can only help them get clarity on what they want, why they want it, and how they are going to get it. But they need to be in charge of doing the work.

If you're not willing or able to take personal accountability for your commitments, then even the best coach in the world will not be able to help you succeed. That doesn't mean you need to be perfect; failure is part of the process. But you need to "own it" and be willing to be self-critical. Don't blame your coach for not making you do your work.

4. Do you have a growth or fixed mindset?

A lot of research has been done in the last decade regarding how your thinking can impact your ability to create change. Carol Dweck's book Mindset presents this as the concept of fixed vs growth mindset. Which one you have will impact the effectiveness of your coaching considerably.

Put simply, a fixed mindset is one that believes your skills and abilities are innate and determined at birth. A growth mindset believes that while you have many natural gifts, you also have the ability to learn and grow through persistence and focused effort.

If you have a fixed mindset, you will not get much out of coaching. If you have a growth mindset, you will see change and improvement by working with a guide who can help you accelerate your learning process.

5. Are you curious to learn?

As a parent of four kids, I can say that one of the most difficult stages of parenting is going through the why phase. They want to know and understand everything. Ever answer is follow by the same question: ..."but why daddy?"

While exhausting to me as a parent, this attitude in the people and teams I coach is an augur of success. People who are willing to ask why, and then why again, and then why a few more times, are much more likely to find root causes and make fundamental changes to they way they behave and think.

6. Can you keep things in perspective?

A big part of the coaching and development process is getting feedback, often a lot of it. Some of it will certainly be critical, and at times it will be difficult to hear. Your ability to take things in stride will determine if you are able to gain insight or if you close up and get defensive.

While you don't need to answer all of the questions perfectly, know that you'll be challenged in many ways by a good coach and being prepared to do the hard work will help you get the most out of it.

Don’t Drop The Ball After You Make A New Hire. Here Are 10 Ways To Onboard Your Next Employee.

Most companies treat the signed offer letter as the end of the hiring process, but it's just the beginning for your new employee.

Companies spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours finding and recruiting the right talent. Yet, many of these same companies then throw new employees into the deep end of their business hoping they'll swim and not sink.

Here are ten ways to create an onboarding process that will make your employees more productive and more welcome.

1. Let your team know.

Too many times I've seen a new person show up for the first day of work and nobody knows who they are let alone that they are a new hire. Make sure you have a system in place to announce the new hire and the role they are filling. Include a photo and a short bio as well.

2. Send them the org chart.

Generally, I'm not a fan of publishing org charts, but for new employees, an org chart can be a great help. It gives them a map to understand who is in what role and which department. Include photos with the names so they can connect faces to names and recognize people then they meet them.

3. Have their space ready.

People need a sense of place and personal space to feel at home. Even if you know you'll be making changes to offices and seats, make sure they have a place to sit on day one. Make sure they have a computer, internet access, and logins to do basic tasks. Including personal items like a coffee mug, reusable water bottle, office key, and a box of tissues is a nice touch and shows you are thinking about their needs.

4. Don't swamp them with paperwork.

Spending your first day sitting at a desk, filling out paperwork is a rough way to start. Instead, I suggest making day one about meeting people and getting familiar with the layout and facilities. People need to feel oriented, welcomed, and connected to other people in order to feel settled. Give them a tour, take them to lunch, show them around. If they have paperwork, send them home early to fill it out there.

5. Give them a checklist.

Showing up for your first day and being dragged around and handed off from person to person with no clue what's going on, who you're meeting, and how long it's going to take is disorienting. Create an agenda and a checklist for what activities and tasks they will be completing over the first few days and weeks. You can even let them track their progress and manage their own onboarding.

6. Have them come in late.

If people trickle into your office at different times, have new people come in mid-morning. That way everyone has answered their urgent emails, has had a cup of coffee, and is ready to start the day. Having a new employee come in and then wait for people to get ready to greet them does not make a good first impression.

7. Send them home early.

Starting a new job and meeting lots of new people can be a little overwhelming and tiring. Sending a new employee home mid-afternoon gives them a chance to process and recover from the day. If they have lots of paperwork to complete or policies to review, they can take it home and bring it back completed for the next day.

8. Give them a map.

One of the key parts of onboarding is orientation and getting people familiar with their surroundings. Include a map of the office so that new employees can see who sits where, which department is on what floor, where the bathrooms are, and where they get food and water. But don't stop there, give them a map of the surrounding area highlighting the best places to get lunch, the local pharmacy, coffee shops, and where to park.

9. Assign them a buddy.

Assign them someone they can ask questions and check in with regularly. Ideally this is someone who joined the organization in the last 12 months and remembers what it's like to be new. Have them check in every day the first week and then weekly for a month or two.

10. Create an FAQ.

A new employee FAQ can be a simple and effective way to cover standard questions that come up. These are easy to start: just make a blank document and on your next new hire, record all of their questions and write down your answers. Have each new employee read this and then add new questions and answers as they come up.

People are the most valuable asset in most companies, yet we tend to assume they will take care of themselves. Taking the time and energy to plan an onboarding process will set people up for success and will create long-term loyalty, an investment well-worth making.

Not All Attrition Is Bad. Here’s How You Tell Who You Should Keep...And Who You Should Let Leave

Not every employee is an A-player, and the best companies have a clear criteria for knowing who they should keep and who they should let go.

Every company needs to find the right people and put them in the right seats if they want to be successful. And while it might sound easy, figuring out who your good people are and who your best people are is critical to success. A great employee can often be two to three times more productive than just a good employee, yet the difference can be subtle.

Here are eight factors that I use with my clients when doing talent reviews to see who we should be going to all lengths to keep and who we might be okay accepting a resignation letter from. A company who has the vast majority of their key roles filled with people who score very well on these parameters will be a force to reckon with in their industry.

1. They understand the role and expectations.

Your top people know what's expected of them in their role and what's outside their scope. Someone who is given a clear description but still has to ask questions or be reminded of work they need to accomplish is not in the right position. Similarly, someone who repeatedly extends themself beyond their role can create problems and is unlikely getting more important work done.

2. They demonstrate the ability to perform.

The best people can perform their role functions with a high level of skill. While they may have room for improvement in a few areas, they are highly capable and have mastered the majority of their tasks. If someone is struggling for an extended period of time on a core part of the job function, they are probably not a good fit for that role.

3. They are hungry to learn and continuously improve.

Top performers are always looking to improve and get better. They have a growth mindset and are continuously setting new targets and striving for higher levels of achievement. Once they have mastered their current job functions, they will naturally start working on the next higher role and training themselves.

4. They cooperate well with others.

While different roles require different levels of collaboration, all top performers can cooperate with others in a win-win outcome whenever needed. They don't keep score and don't hold out for a quid pro quo deal. They know that in the great game of business karma is more powerful than an IOU.

5. They focus on system--not local--optimization.

Great performers know when they need to rise above their local situation and do something for the good of the team rather than what's just easiest for them. They seek to understand the bigger picture and they work to find improvements to the larger system, even if is means their job gets a little harder.

6. They are easy to manage and coach.

The best people know that feedback is critical to getting better. They welcome observations on their performance and suggestions for how they can improve. And they don't just 'yes' you, they ask clarifying questions and want details.

7. They have passion and desire for the role.

Beyond the ability to execute well, your best employees will bring a high level of energy, excitement, and drive to the role. They celebrate wins and dig deep when there's a problem. And not everyone needs to be an extrovert. Passion can be subtle and private, but you'll find it if you look for it.

8. They live the company's core values.

Last, but not least, you best people will be aligned with your company and your team's core values. They will naturally embody the way your organization works and chooses to make decisions. Someone who likes to be a lone wolf in a company that values teamwork will never be a top performer, regardless of how we'll they execute on their role.

Finding and keeping the best talent is not easy. While attracting and recruiting are key to creating a good pipeline, if you aren't continuously reviewing and topgrading your current team, you are either watering down your talent concentration or you won't have any where to put great people when you find them.

8 easy to learn ground rules that will make your next meeting more productive, and fun

Good meetings require structure and process. Here are 8 ground rules that will improve your productivity and focus.

Everyone loves to hate meetings. The fact is they are a core part of working within any organization. Gathering to discuss issues, develop options, and make decisions is often the most efficient way to get work done. Done well, meetings can help quickly clarify challenges, advance ideas, and lead to clear implementation plans.

Bad meetings are typically the result of a lack of a focus, agenda, or structure. And one of the best tools you can use to make sure you stay productive is agreeing on a set of meeting ground rules. Here are eight that I use on a regular basis.

1. Use Vegas rules

Like in Las Vegas, what happens in meetings should stay in the meeting. We don't keep this rule because we want to discuss people's dark secrets or talk ill of people who are not in the meeting, but because we want people to speak openly about what they think about the issues on the table. If people worry that something they say will come back to haunt them, they will be less likely to share. Keep things respectful, but agree that what is said will not leave the room without everyone's agreement.

2. Tackle issues, not people

Too often, when things get heated, people fall into the trap of ad hominem attacks. This only leads to people becoming defensive, taking intractable positions, and dragging in unrelated issues to counter attack. Instead, agree that the team should focus on finding solutions to the problem, not assigning blame and doling out punishment. I often use the phrase "don't make things personal, and don't take things personally" when setting the tone for the meeting.

3. Assume positive intent

I like everyone to agree to approach problems with the assumption that everyone involved is doing everything they can to help the organization. Even if their actions or decisions may look bone-headed in retrospect, assume everyone acted in good faith. It will help focus on finding future solutions rather than who's to blame.

4. Speak now, or forever hold your peace

Sometimes people are hesitant to speak up in meetings. As a facilitator, I do everything I can to remove barriers for people to be able to speak their minds, and I use techniques like silent brainstorming to accommodate different thinking styles. In return, I ask that people have the courage to say what they have to say during the meeting. I want to avoid situations where the group reaches a decision and the next day someone brings up a reservation they held onto, unwinding the hard work we put into reaching an agreement.

5. Own your own experience

You can lead a horse to water, but only they can drink. Same with meetings. Just bringing people together will not cause a meeting to happen. Each person needs to actively participate. This ground rule reminds people that if they want a great meeting, they need to engage and speak up.

6. Be present, or be elsewhere

When I come into companies with bad meeting habits, I'll often suggest they adopt a meeting optional policy to shake things up. It does two things. First, it forces the meeting organizer to run a good meeting with important topics so people actually come. Second, it means that anyone who shows up will be fully engaged, otherwise why bother attending.

7. Have one conversation

While I love heated debate and passionate discussion, chaos will ensue if people are having multiple conversations on top of each other. Insisting on one conversation at a time will allow everyone to fully participate and follow along. If you're dealing with a particularly unruly crowd, you can pull out the talking stick and pass it around to focus the conversation. 

8. Follow the 40 second rule

Mark Goulston, author of Just Listen, explains why some people tend to talk too much in meeting in this Harvard Business Review article How to Know If You Talk Too Much. He says that when someone talks more than 40 seconds, people begin to feel like they are hogging the floor. I encourage my teams to be aware of how long they've been speaking and find a way to hand it off to someone else after a half a minute or so.

While there are many other things that you need to run good meetings, these ground rules are an important place to start. To be most effective, don't foist them on your group. Discuss them and get full agreement on them before enforcing them. Agreement on the ground rules shifts the dynamic from you trying to control the meeting to you reminding others of the agreement they made.

Getting Ready for Annual Performance Reviews? Here’s How to Make Yours Work

For most companies the review process is confusing and unhelpful to both the manager and the direct. Here's how to change that.

The annual review season will soon be upon us. With that, comes much angst regarding how to evaluate your people. If bonuses are involved, it gets even more complex as you decide who should get how much of the pie.

As an advisor who works with dozens of companies on performance management strategies, I've seen a few things that work well, and I suggest these when leadership teams are looking to overhaul their review process. Here are a few big ones.

1. Review quarterly not annually.

One of the best changes you can make is to review more often. First, this offers employees more frequent feedback and multiple chances to set better milestones for their development.

Second, by reviewing more frequently, the organization gets better at doing it. Also, meeting more often means there is less to review which simplifies the meeting.

2. Use a role scorecard.

A role scorecard is used to define the scope and responsibilities of a position and how success is measured. Too often people are in roles without a clear sense of what they should be doing or how they will be measured.

Scorecards are as simple as index cards with the top priorities of a given role or as complicated as multiple-page spreadsheets. Personally, I use a one-page worksheet including title, name of reporting manager, key responsibilities, KPIs, targets for below/meets/exceeds expectations, and available resources.

3. Separate the performance and compensation reviews.

I suggest separating the performance and compensation reviews. While money can be motivating, it's typically restrictive and can skew behavior. It's better to keep the compensation review separate, or at least make a clean break in the agenda.

4. Collect multiple points of feedback

Rather than one manager putting their wet finger in the air, collect feedback from three to five people on specific behavior. Don't ask people if someone deserves a promotion or a bonus; that's the managers call.

Collecting input from different people gives managers perspective on their directs' behaviors. It also gives more credibility to results which will help managers during their conversations with their directs.

5. Provide specific examples

One of the best things to do when giving feedback is to provide specific examples of behavior and results. Bring copies of work products or descriptions of actions. Abstract ideas and generalizations can be easily misinterpreted.

6. Talk about what's going right

It's important to reinforce positive behavior. Often we assume people know what they are doing well, but that's not always the case. Call it out, be specific, and explain why it's good.

Avoid the feedback sandwich. People ignore the bread and usually only focus on the meat. Corrective feedback is something to be embraced and valued, not something to be ashamed of.

7. Set clear expectations for new behavior

When giving corrective feedback, it's important to be clear on what the new/different behavior or results look like. Simply telling someone that they are doing something wrong isn't enough. They are left with the 99 thousand other ways to try it. Giving clear examples of the right and/or desired way gives them a clear target.

8. Have them create a plan for change

Once feedback is given and the direct is clear on what needs to change, I suggest having them come up with their own plan of attack. There are two reasons this is helpful. First, the direct is going to own the plan and will be more committed to the process. Second, it means less work for the manager.

9. Ask what support they need

My management philosophy is hire good people who are self-motivated, point them in the right direction, and give them support. If you've given feedback and they created a good plan, let them run with it and simply ask them how you can help. You might be able to offer advice on a decision, an introduction to someone who can help, or a recommendation for materials or training, but let them ask for it first. Keep them in the driver's seat.

10. Establish a check in time frame

Any professional development plan requires milestones. Once you have a plan, establish what the next milestone is and when you'll meet to review their progress. Let them suggest the first plan. If you feel that's too far in the future, ask them to schedule a halfway meeting. If the pace seems slow, give them feedback that the plan doesn't seem to get them where they want to be in time. But let them replan; resist the urge to step in and take it over.

While assessing performance can be a little uncomfortable, it's the best way to drive organizational improvement. Keeping it objective, focused on the future, positive, and supportive will help minimize stress, while maximizing impact and driving real results.

Core Values Are Not an Airy-Fairy Feel-Good Exercise. They Are a Powerful Decision Making Tool If You Do Them This Way

Many companies create aspirational core values, make posters, and check the box. Here is how to up your core value game and make better decisions.

Business is full of decisions. What products or services to offer, which people to hire, which clients to serve, and what geographies to focus on are all important questions. A successful business needs to make these decisions efficiently and effectively.

Leadership teams navigate these choices in many ways. Previous outcomes give them experience. Processes help them ensure they investigate options, tradeoffs, and risks. However, the most important decision-making tool is developing a strong set of core values.

Unfortunately, many companies fail to get these right. Some create a set of core values which are a list of generic platitudes. Words like honesty, integrity, and ethics are table stakes for being in business, not ways to define who you are.

Other companies create lists of idealized desires for what they wish to be rather than who they currently are. This leaves companies with aspirational goals rather than a tool for embracing their raison d'etre.

As a business coach, I've found several ways to ensure that your values are effective decision-making tools rather than lip service on poster board.

1. Discover, don't decide.

Many teams approach core values as a decision. They look at a list of words and decide which words describe who they are. They debate the pros and cons of different terms trying to determine which one is correct. Values, however, are not something you can rationalize.

Instead, think of your core values as something buried deep within you that require unearthing. Looking at past decisions and behaviors will reveal that which already exists.

2. Values are reality not the ideal.

Often times when I start working with a new team, we review their existing core values, and they describe wonderful ideas. However, when we start looking at recent decisions, policies, and incentive systems, we soon realize that none of these are alive in the company.

The mistake they've made is creating an idealized set of aspirational values that feel nice rather than a list of descriptors that illustrate reality. I like to joke that your values should be fifteen pounds overweight, have a receding hairline, and drink a little too much. If your values look perfect, then they are probably not right.

3. Your values should have a dark side.

One of my personal core values is self-reliance. Usually, this serves me well and by embracing it I'm aligned and in my flow state more often than not. However, sometimes it works against me. For example, I don't like someone taking my bags to my room at a hotel. I'll balance two suitcases on top of a roller just so that I don't have to rely on a bellhop. My method doesn't make sense, but it's the reality of who I am.

I know that a leadership team has nailed a core value when they can point to situations where the value has required them to do something that was difficult or seemingly unnecessary compared to other teams. You should feel compelled to live you values, even when it doesn't make complete sense.

4. Each value needs an anti-value.

Core values are tools for making difficult decisions. And in order to serve that purpose well, you need to know what you are choosing as well as what you're not choosing. A core value reflects a trade off between two equally valid choices. The harder the choice, the more powerful the core value becomes.

I like to call the things you don't choose "anti-values." They are things you're willing to give up in order to live your value. For example, if one of your core values is collaboration, then you might be willing to give up competition. In that case, you won't create individual incentive plans or promote head-to-head challenges and still be true to your values.

My test for anti-values is if you can switch the order and give them to another company and it still works, then you have a good pair. It means that you've given up something of value in your choice.

5. Identify moments in time that illustrate them

One of the most powerful parts of your core values is the stories you tell about them. For each core value, I have the team identify two to three cases when they had to use that core value to make a tough decision. It could have been to fire someone or to continue or discontinue a project. Sometimes the stories are how they didn't follow their core values and how it hurt them.

It's okay if your team prints up a poster of your core values or paints them on the walls of your office, but if that's all you do, then you've missed the point. Core values aren't window dressings; they should be used daily to guide actions and decisions.

Want to Motivate Your Team to Reach a Goal? Create a Winning Theme That Gives Purpose

Setting goals is key to business success, but teams often just focus on the numbers. Instead, create a theme that gives meaning to your achievement.

Many teams hire me because they want to grow faster. They are highly motivated, but they typically lack the experience, structure, and discipline to determine how to implement their strategy. As an outside set of experienced eyes, I can often see obstacles more easily than they can.

One common situation is that leadership teams have set many financial and performance goals, but the rest of the teams continually fail to meet these targets. The targets--revenues, gross margins, units shipped, conversation rates, and billable hours--are good, but they haven't wrapped these targets into a story that offers inspiration and meaning behind the success to the team.

What they've failed to do is provide a theme to the goals. A theme demonstrates how the targets tie into the organizational purpose and it helps them see how the success of their team can make a clear impact. A good theme has a few parts. Here is a process I use to elevate my objectives to be more than just a set of numbers.

1. Know your purpose.

Before you can create a theme, you need to know your purpose. Why are you in business? What differences do you want to make in your customers' lives? A good theme will connect to some aspect of your why and show that when you achieve your targets you will be closer to realizing that purpose.

2. Select your priorities.

It's important to build your theme around your priorities. The key here is focus. Select just a few things to prioritize and make it clear that everything else is a back burner item during this time. You can't be highly successful if you're doing too many things at once.

3. Choose your metric.

Once you have your priorities, choose one metric to focus on. This is a number that, if changed, will indicate that you're achieving your goals. I like to avoid revenue metrics and focus more on subtle aspects. For example, if a priority is sales, aim for a specific number of new ideal accounts, of new qualified leads, or a conversation target. Find a number which measures a process rather than a result.

4. Set your targets.

Now you're going to set your targets for success. Are you trying to get to 50 or 500? Maybe you want to reduce a specific defect from 6% to under 1%. I like stretching goals, so I typically have my teams set one number at the 70-80% confidence level and then a stretch number which defines hitting it out of the park. Make sure you do this as a team; have everyone participate and vote. This increases people's involvement and commitment to the final targets.

5. Craft a theme.

After creating the priority, metric, and target, you're ready to develop a theme. This is your chance to get a little creative. Come up with a concept, phrase, or story that ties your metric to your purpose. Now's the time to leverage the people in your organization who are good with copy and marketing. The snappier the theme, the more memorable it will be.

One company I worked with wanted to focus on their core value: "sharpen the axe." They tracked the number of process improvements made over the quarter. The goal was finding ways of working smarter, not harder.

6. Create a scoreboard.

A scoreboard helps you visualize your goal. Use your metric and your theme to drive the design. You get points for creativity. For the example above, the team made a big poster of a tree and then made little wedges they would write improvements on to paste on the tree like it was being chopped at. It became a conversation piece for visitors and everyone in the company could readily see the progress being made.

7. Create a reward and plan a celebration.

Many teams create bronze, silver, and gold-level rewards for the company based on hitting different levels of achievement. Afterwards, they have a party or social event around the theme to tie it all together.

For the "sharpen the axe" theme above, the team set a goal of 100 improvements over the quarter and the reward was a company outing. Where did they go? You guessed it, axe throwing!

8. Establish a rhythm.

Make sure you're reviewing progress at least once a week. Add it to your meeting agenda and take five minutes to discuss progress. Many teams I coach work it into their daily standup. The axe throwing team added the wedges each morning and then announced the new count during the morning stand up.

Every company needs to work hard if they want to achieve their goals, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun as well. Creating themes brings a powerful human element to the workplace and makes it easier to stay focused and be successful.

Nicer Managers Get Better Long-Term Results. Here’s How You Can Up Your Game and Your Reputation

Good managers deliver the results a company needs at the end of the day. A great leader knows how to deliver results year after year.

I frequently get calls from investors in early-stage companies asking me to meet their portfolio CEOs when things get rocky. Sometimes, the strategy isn't working and they need help with a pivot. Other times, they are having difficulty executing and their processes need refinement. More often than not, these challenges arise because the company has grown, the teams are getting bigger, and the founder is struggling to adapt.

As a company grows, leaders must shift from the directing style of an entrepreneur to a supportive and inspirational role as CEO. It's not an easy transformation, and it's normal to struggle.

In these situations, I've found that it's best to focus on developing long-term relationships with the team members. A big part of this is being nicer to your people. Here are six things I focus on.

1. Take the time to listen.

They say you have two ears and one mouth for a reason; you should use them proportionately. As a leader, try to listen more than you speak. Before you launch into your agenda, check in with your people. Find out where they are and what they are thinking; then adjust your message accordingly.

While it's important to take the time to understand someone, you also need to take the time to make sure the other person feels heard. Sometimes waiting until they're finished speaking takes a while, but trust that it's time well spent. If someone doesn't feel heard, they are usually not willing to listen.

2. Commitment not compliance.

It's easy to get someone to do something by yelling at them. Your threats don't need to be explicit. Issuing commands, raising your voice, rolling your eyes, and crossing your arms all imply that you're done discussing and you expect people to do exactly what you say.

This method gets you compliance, not true commitment. The moment your direct reports no longer feel the immediate threat, they will return to their previous behavior. If you continue the threats, they will promptly look for a new job. Unfortunately, the people who stay will be the ones who can't find a better job, and you'll be stuck with the bottom of the talent barrel.

Nice leaders include their people in the decision-making process. The more your people contribute, the more they will be committed to decisions. Even if it's not the way you would do it, let them do it their way. It will be much easier to have tough conversations about performance if the approach was theirs.

3. Set clear expectations.

Before you can hold someone accountable for results, you need to know what the measure of success is. Get clear about what you expect before you meet with anyone. Frequently, I see executives upset about results, but when asked, they can't even articulate what they want.

Nice leaders provide clarity. For projects, I suggest creating a success checklist. This should be an objective set of criteria which a third party could use to determine whether the project is done. The devil is in the details here: be specific and always test assumptions.

4. Give feedback.

Many managers see things that don't meet their expectations, but they don't say anything. They hold onto it until the annual review when they unload all of the criticisms at once.

Nice leaders provide regular feedback using neutral language. They nudge people politely if they want something different. They encourage people to make changes and to experiment with different approaches. They create a safety net by rewarding people who try to make positive changes, even if they come up short.

5. Coach don't manage.

Many managers swoop in and take things over when they see problems. These same managers often complain that people keep coming to them with their problems, expecting things to be fixed for them.

Nice leaders let people do the work. When a problem comes up, they start asking questions. What have you tried? What haven't you tried? What other approaches could we try? Who else could help? Where else could we find information to help us?

6. Be empathetic.

Generally, I suggest keeping personal stuff out of the office, but I see many managers expect that their employees keep the office strictly business. They have no tolerance for people's personal lives showing up at work.

The fact is we are humans with complicated lives; sometimes it's impossible to show up to work with a perfectly clean slate. Nice leaders know stuff happens. They give people the time and space to take care of personal needs, still insisting the job gets done and customers are happy.

Being a nice leader doesn't mean you're a pushover. It means that you treat people as people and work with compassion and respect and with the intent of creating trust over the long term.

Don’t Just Sweep This Year Under The Rug When You Go To Do Your Annual Strategy Planning. Take a Hard Look At What Happened, What You Need to Change

Annual strategic planning is not just setting forecasts. To really up your game, take a deeper and more honest dive into what's working and what's not.

It's that time of year. As 2018 winds down, businesses everywhere are doing their 2019 planning. The type A personalities probably already have it done, while the rest of us are either squeezing it in before the holidays or blocking off days in January. I don't think there is a best time to do annual planning, so long as you do it.

While I don't care when you do it, I do care how you do it. I see many companies setting aside time for annual strategic planning and all they do is map out quarterly sales targets or forecast their key metrics. I hate to break it to you, but that's not strategic planning. That's forecasting.

Strategic planning involves carefully considering where you are as a company, the current state and future of the market, and making hard choices about how and where you'll apply your limited time, energy, and resources. It's more about making decisions, and less about setting targets.

My annual planning agenda is a two-day process. Day one is reflective and focused on generating options and possibilities for the future based on insights and trends. Day two does the hard work of prioritizing and focusing the organization to select a limited number of moves to execute over the coming year.

Here are the key highlights from that agenda you can use to up your annual strategic planning game. Even if you don't have two days, running through these in just one is better than skipping them.

1. Take the time to reflect deeply

Start with a review of the previous year. I like to structure this as a retrospective with a twelve-month timeline and a generous data gathering process. Gather input from the entire organization about what they recall from the last year. Make sure to include the good, the bad, and the ugly. Try not to edit at this stage, just let things come up.

Once you have the data, begin to look for insight, patterns, correlations, alignment, and disagreements about what happened, and if it was good or bad. Look for areas that need focused improvement. Select areas that are critical to your business and will impact your success.

2. Dig into issues to find root problems

Once you've identified areas that need to be worked on, dig below the surface of the issue to find the root problems. This is a two-part process:

First, you need to repeatedly ask why. This helps identify the underlying cause to the surface-level issues. If you're struggling with your accounts receivable, you might need to look at your delivery process or how you structure your engagements, not just how many times you email your client hounding them for payment.

Second, you can't blame people, you need to look at the system. People are only as good as the system they operate in and you can only address errors by creating a system that prevents them from happening. Take blaming people off the table; focus on what underlying processes need to be fixed.

3. Review your strategy and positioning

Once you have identified the changes you need to make, review your strategy. This will help you decide which one you really need to focus on. You might find ten areas that need improvement and come up with ten more changes that need to be made to them. You won't have the time to energy to do all them.

Assuming you have a good strategy framework in place that clarifies where you see the market going, how you will respond, and the key moves you need to make, update the strategy with current information around the market and the competitors. Make the necessary adjustments to your plans and update your moves.

4. Choose a handful of priorities for the year

Using your updated strategy, focus on making changes to the the areas that are critical to your strategic positioning and core capabilities. While you might have found several areas that need improvement, prioritize those that impact your strategy most directly. Choose three to five to put in your annual plan.

5. Communicate your plan to your stakeholders

Most importantly, after you've analyzed and identified the key changes you're prioritizing for the year, communicate everything to each of your stakeholders. You internal employees are the most obvious, but don't forget contractors/freelancers, vendors, partners, current customers, suppliers, and investors. These groups need to know you plans (at varying levels of detail and specificity) for the year.

If you haven't put together your 2019 annual strategic plan, it's not too late. Just remember that it's more than setting numerical targets, it's about making tough but important choices that you'll stick with over the coming twelve months.

The Best Strategy Is Worthless If It’s Too Complicated. Here's Why

Your business strategy explains how you're going to compete in your market. But if it's too hard to explain, it won't work.

Once a year, I spend two days with my client companies developing their annual plan. While we continuously review strategy throughout the year, the annual plan is a chance to do a deeper dive into the internal and external factors that inform how to go to market.

Getting this strategy right, and keeping it right, is key to long-term growth and success. However, many teams get it wrong. They don't get it wrong because the strategy they develop won't work, but because it's impossible to explain it in simple terms. If it's not easy to explain, it will be impossible to execute.

Your employees, your partners, and your customers are the ones who will actually be implementing your strategy. If it's too complicated to understand, they won't understand it.

After you've decided on all of angles you're going to play and all of the moves you're going to make, set to work developing a simple, clear, and effective way to communicate it to everyone on the team. Here are three things every strategy must communicate easily and effectively to all stakeholders.

1. Set a clear (and limited) set of focused priorities.

In essence, strategy is about choice. And the first objective is to set a clear and decisive set of priorities for the organization. The fewer the better. These need to be above and beyond the day-to-day work and focused on long-term goals and key moves needed to get there.

Strategic moves include things like creating new products or services, developing new capabilities, entering new markets, scaling up capacity, or even researching technology. While all of these might help the organization, trying to do all of them at once won't. Pick three to five for the year, max.

Another trick I often employ is to list all of the strategy options that the team eliminated or de-prioritized. By publishing these strategies as well, you're making specifically clear what you're NOT doing in the coming year.

2. Set a clear definition of success and a timeline.

Beyond direction, a good strategy needs a clear desired outcome and definition of success. Too many strategies stop at big ideas without nailing down specifics. The devil lies in the details. Too often, I see a team of people agree to a high level strategic priority, only to discover they are on vastly different pages when the details are fleshed out.

For each strategic direction, create a set of specific goals that are both measurable and time bound. It should be clear to everyone what constitutes completion, and it ideally should include a handful of objective criteria. I generally suggest a simple checklist or short description of the outcome or product.

3. Create a compelling vision of future success.

Now that you have a clear set of priorities and a definition of success, it's time to paint a vivid picture of success. As humans we're wired to be compelled by stories and visual images. Turn the goals you've selected into a narrative explaining why you've chosen these objectives, why they are the most important ones, and how achieving these will lead to organizational success.

If someone on your team has a creative bent, try illustrating your desired future with photos and illustrations. If you're developing a new product or service, find images that reflect the impact you want to create on your customer. If you're expanding into a new geography, create a slideshow highlighting the city or region and explain why it's such an attractive market.

Having a strategy with a clear set of priorities and objectives with actionable outcomes will increase your stakeholder alignment. By creating a rich vision for future success you'll drive engagement and motivation. When in doubt, keep it simple, clear, and compelling. A basic strategy, well-executed, will always beat a brilliant one whiffed.

The Faster You Want to Grow, the More Focused You Need to Be, Here’s Why

Most early stage companies chase anyone with money. However, if you truly want to scale you need to learn how to say 'no' to a lot more prospects.

People hire me to scale their businesses. And they're not just looking for 10 to 15 percent growth a year. My clients want to grow 50 to 100 percent a year or more. While this kind of growth is not easy, it's very doable for many businesses. The challenge is that if they want to grow at these rates, they need to change the way they do things. And that change can be tough.

One of the toughest changes they need to make is who they prospect and sell to. Typically, I find that most businesses with one to 10 million dollars in revenues use what I call chameleon selling. This is where they hunt for leads and then customize and adjust their products and services to the needs of whatever prospects they find. While you can build a good business this way, you won't build a scalable business.

In order to grow systematically, you need to focus on a small, limited set of products and services that serve the needs of a target set of customers. This is the only way you can hone your processes proficiently, find talent efficiently, and train your people effectively, and consistently deliver a quality product or service.

When working with companies who want to scale, I typically start by defining their ideal customer by looking at past customers and finding companies who have been profitable, easy to serve, and promoters for the business.

Once I have a good set of example ideal customers, we can ask a series of questions that define our ideal target customer. Any prospect who doesn't fit this profile should be de-prioritized in the funnel, regardless of how attractive they look.

1. How would you pick your ideal customer out of a crowd?

The first thing we look at is demographics. What does your ideal customer look like externally. What car do they drive, what school did they go to, how big is there business, in what industry are they, or in what geography are they located? These are things I find in industry reports or through some good Google searching.

This information helps us figure out where we can find these targets and what strategies might work best in terms of prospecting and finding leads. The better we do this and the more refined the demographic description, the easier it is to find a productive channel.

2. What's happening in your ideal customer's head?

The second thing we look at are the psychographic attributes of these core customers. These are their values, concerns, priorities, tendencies, and habits. It tells us how they think and what's going on in their heads. With a good psychographic profile, we can understand what will get their attention, what they are concerned about, and how they make decisions.

This tells us how to best sell to them and how to position our products and services to meet their needs. It will influence everything from types and style of imagery we use in our advertising to the tone and language of the copy we use in our communications.

3. When is the best time to approach your ideal customer and with what offer?

Finally, we want to ask ourselves what triggered the sale or beginning of the engagement. Using our example core customers, we look at what prompted them to start a conversation with us that led to a closed deal. This can be an internal event that occurred--having a baby, hiring an employee, or moving offices. It could also be external events such as a new regulation going into effect, the introduction of a new competitor, the change in industry technology, or a change in the economy.

These events tell you when you need to communicate with you prospect. Too early and you're jumping the gun. Too late and you've missed the boat. Getting this right will increase the impact of your message and greatly improve the efficiency of your selling.

It's also important to map and understand any lags or delays that happen between these events at the beginning of a sales conversation. Knowing that your core customer typically searches for your solutions six months before or three weeks after an event is important for the timing of your messaging.

By clearing defining your core customer in specific terms, you'll be able to be more strategic and efficient with your selling process. Even better is that you'll streamline your delivery and operations management since you'll be focusing on just a few products and services rather then customizing your solution for each customer.

Having Challenges with a Colleague? Trying to Change Them Is Not Your Only Option

We all run into drama at work. Before you try to change them, take a close look at yourself and develop the right approach.

People have friction with their colleagues. It happens at even the best companies.

Variations in personalities, working styles, cultural norms, and varying levels of emotional intelligence always exist. As a result, there will frequently be differences of opinions and conflicts. In fact, in order to create a healthy and functional team, we need diversity in all of these areas. Sometimes, however, these differences make it tough to work together.

As a leadership coach, I help CEOs and key executives navigate these challenges. There are always a few suggestions I usually give when interpersonal drama heats up.

1. Check your reaction.

The first thing I suggest is to check in with yourself; look at the reaction your having to the situation. Is it their behavior that's out of line? Or are you overly sensitive to what's happening?

Often, we have triggers around certain types of behaviors and situations. If someone is triggering one of these for you, it's really not about them, it's about you. Working on how you react to the situation is where the real work needs to be done.

2. Assess the likelihood of change.

If you're sure that you're being reasonable and the friction is really a function of the other person's behavior, then you need to take a step back and assess the likelihood of them changing. It's difficult to change, and most of people's behavior is driven by underlying psychology which takes time and work to first figure out and second to modify. If it's unlikely that someone will change, then you're probably better off finding a coping mechanism.

3. Calculate the cost of change.

Once you have decided that it's possible that the other person can change their actions, then look at what the cost of the change will be. More importantly, you need to think about the possible secondary impacts of the change. The resulting new behavior might be worse than the current one. Often these types of changes have unanticipated ripple effects on interpersonal dynamics.

4. Give them feedback.

Once you decide to take action, start by giving the other person some feedback. First, I always suggest you ask them for permission to give them feedback and wait for their okay. This enrolls them in the process and helps them accept the feedback.

Start with the specific behavior that is affecting you, and then explain the impact it has. Stay far away from implying their intentions or impact on other people. Finally, ask for the new behavior you would like to see.

5. Develop coping strategies.

Sometimes we either decide that it's not worth requesting a change, or we request it but it's just not happening. In these cases, developing an effective coping strategy is the best solution.

Try re-framing the behavior in your mind to adjust your reaction. For example, if someone is on their phone during the meeting, it's easy to think that they don't respect your time. Instead, tell yourself they have too much work and they can't manage their time well leaving them scrambling to meet a deadline. It's about them, not you. We often over personalize people's behavior as being about us, when it rarely is.

6. Make your own change

If you conclude that you really must take unilateral action, focus on making a change in structure, processes, and/or routines to shake things up. While you can't always get someone to change what they do, if you change the situation they will need to respond. In the phone example, putting in a ground rule of no phones in meetings and having everyone put their devices in a bowl outside the meeting room will cause a new, hopefully better, behavior to emerge.

I always remind my clients that changing other people is an arduous and often fruitless task. The flip side is that we have all the power in the world to change ourselves and our thinking. And while neither approach is easy, we do have options. Sometimes, simply knowing there are options will help us get out of victim mode and into forward momentum.

Scaling Companies Is Not for Everyone. These 6 Skills Will Determine If Your Ceo Is a Growth CEO

Companies have different needs while growing. Having a growth CEO with the right mindset can make all the difference.

To grow a company fast, you need to envision a bigger, better organization with new structures, innovative strategies, and an evolving culture. This process is not easy, and it's not in the wheelhouse of every CEO or founder.

As a business coach, I work with a lot of CEOs who are growing and scaling their business, often times 100 percent or more a year. And I've learned that the type of CEO who can quickly scale a company is usually not the same CEO as the one who founded it, or CEO who is going to optimize it once it reaches maturity.

Growth CEOs have a different mindset and mix of skills that help them drive expansion and navigate the challenges of rapid change. While CEOs don't need to be perfect in all of these areas, it usually hinders the process if the CEO is deficient in many of them.

1. Grow strategically.

Getting traction, early in a company, is everything. Finding the right customer segment, the right problem to address, and the right solutions to bring to market is critical. Any growth is good growth because it means you're solving a need that people are willing to pay you money for. It validates the business model.

However, once you have traction and are generating revenues, the key is to hone your focus and offering(s) so you can optimize the business. Smart growth CEOs know that even though they can solve a variety of problems, focusing on the one or two that they can do exceptionally well will allow the company to maximize margin and profits.

2. Have a deep understanding of their core customers and the market.

The best growth CEOs I know have a deep understanding of a specific customer segment. They've looked at the market and the competition, and they've zeroed in on a specific segment to strategically focus on. They work to understand not only how they buy and use their product/service, but they also understand what they are trying to accomplish and the broader needs of their customers. This allows these CEOs to drive customer insights and innovation.

3. Use effective and efficient decision making.

Decision making is always a challenge as companies scale. What needs to be decided by who and within what timeframe gets more and more complicated at the business expands. Effective growth CEOs figure out what to delegate and to whom. They balance speed with effectiveness of decision making and know how to calculate if taking another day to decide is worth the delay in the decision. They are masters of knowing "the last responsible moment" of making a decision and push the limit without going over.

4. Invest in people and talent.

Most companies are limited in how quickly they grow by how quickly they can find and onboard the right talent. Growing a company requires expanding resources, putting in place good management, and building an effective management team. A CEO who tries to grow the company through brute force will quickly falter or burn out. Growth CEOs know they are only as effective as the team of leaders they surround themselves with.

5. Focus on continuous improvement.

It's easy to look at a company and see dozens of problems that can be fixed. The challenge is knowing which problems should be fixed first. Good growth CEOs know how to analyze the business and find the problems that are holding the business back from reaching the next level.

6. Establish rhythms.

Early stage companies are a scramble. Rooting out opportunities and quickly taking advantage of them are part of the scrappy early stages of getting a company off the ground. But once you have traction, a business needs a consistent routine for reviewing progress, identifying priorities, and determining actions and accountability for implementation. Growth CEOs know how to build these habits within the leadership team and management structure to create a repeatable, improvable way of working.

All CEOs need good leadership, communication, and critical thinking skills. But when it comes to taking a business from a few million in revenues to hundreds of millions requires a set of skills unique to that stage of a business's growth. And the fact is that not all CEOs have those skills.

Putting a CEO who is great at starting a company from nothing, or one who's great at optimizing a large company, into a growth situation will lead to lackluster results. Getting the right growth CEO into the business just as it has figured out its niche and is ready to scale ignites the thrusters on the rocket ship.

The Weekly Routine That Clears Your Mind And Helps You Work Smarter

Having a million things on your mind is no excuse for not doing your best work. A weekly mind sweep might be just what you need.

Before you engage in any focused or creative work, you need to prepare yourself both physically and mentally. Trying to think big and think well is nearly impossible if you're exhausted or distracted.

One of the leading sources of distraction is the act of trying to remember all the little tasks and commitments in your life, which can lead to cognitive overload. By getting these tasks and assignments out of your head and onto paper, you can free up space in your mind to focus and think more clearly.

This technique comes from David Allen and the Getting Things Done system I learned years ago, and still use today. It's called a mind sweep, and it improves your ability to engage in critical thinking and decision making by freeing up your mind from the burden of trying to remember.

Here is the process I use.

I start by getting myself into a calm and quiet space, breathing deeply for a minute or two. Once I'm relaxed, I use the following list of topics as prompts to ask myself what tasks or commitments are on my mind. I reflect for a minute or two after going through each category to allow things to bubble to the surface.

Then I simply write my thoughts on a sheet a paper as they come up. I don't process anything then, but rather set them aside to review later. By getting them out of my head and onto the sheet, my mind is free from the work of trying to remember and is now ready to engage in new tasks with better focus.

The goal of a mind sweep is to get things that are burdening your thinking out of your head and onto paper. You don't need to come up with new ideas and you may not have thoughts for every category. And it's OK if you miss things. Clearing up even a little space will make you more productive for your next task.

Category 1: Core needs and personal wellness

Stress -- sleep, rest, meditation, relaxation, mental focus Diet -- eating, drinking, nutrition, hydration Fitness -- exercise, strength, stretching, aches and pains, personal care Health -- medical, dental, eyes, hearing, skin, mental health, exams, tests Fun -- travel, hobbies, sports, learning, personal development, reading, entertainment, socializing

Category 2: Family and friends

Significant Other -- anniversaries, birthdays, gratitude and appreciation, open items, planning, family events Kids -- education/school, quality time, birthdays, events, activities, appointments, friends Relatives -- parents, grandparents, grandkids, extended family, in-laws, upcoming events Friends -- events, activities, support, planning Social -- organizations, religion, community, events Calendar -- birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, school breaks, religious events, reunions, festivals

Category 3: Personal environment and belongings

Home -- cleaning, organizing, improvements, maintenance, protection, supplies Personal -- clothing, electronics, personal belongings, sentimental items Property -- real estate, cars, boats, sports equipment, tools, storage spaces/units

Category 4: Career and professional development

Education -- training, certifications, conferences, workshops, online courses Planning -- goals, mentoring, coaching, resume, bio, online profile Networking -- targets, follow-ups, events, social, lunches/coffees, social media

Category 5: Work projects and commitments

Management -- status reports, risk management, open decisions, systems, communications, budgets/forecasts People -- meetings, performance reviews, coaching, compensation, hiring HR -- compensation, payroll, benefits, enrollments, reimbursements, reviews

Category 6: Finances and long-term planning

Payables -- mortgage, rent, maintenance, insurance, credit cards, loans, utilities, subscriptions, services, taxes Assets -- real estate, bank accounts, commodities, safety deposit boxes, loans Investments -- IRA, 401(k), diversification/allocations, tax planning, inheritance, charitable giving Long-Term Planning -- college/education, retirement, insurance, health care directive, will, documentation

Category 7: Community and social responsibility

Local Community -- neighbors, civic groups, schools, community groups Elections/Politics -- local, state, federal, school board, judges, law enforcement Organizations -- religion, social services, food banks, volunteering, charities, education, alma mater

These prompts are based on my life and the world I live in. I'm sure you'll have others you'll need to add and some you'll want to delete. I revise my list as things change and I find items to add or delete. I put this list in a repeating calendar event, which I set up to get emailed to me once a week, so I can remember to go through the process again and stay fresh and focused.

Having this list handy will make your mind sweep easier, faster, and more effective. And once you get into the habit of doing this regularly, you'll find you're more productive and less stressed knowing that you have things organized and under control. This will free you up to think bigger and more clearly.

6 Ways to Revamp Your Weekly Routine

The key to being productive throughout your week is the plan you make at the beginning. Here are six ways you can up your planning game.

As a leadership coach, one of the main things I work on with leaders is their productivity. This is a common problem in many organizations, especially with high-growth companies. The rapid growth of the business and pace of change leave many executives struggling to stay organized and focused, which results in lackluster personal results.

The key to any productivity system is to focus on value, not effort. Executives who focus on checking as many things off their to-do lists as they can each day without thinking about what they put on those lists will get a lot done, but often fail to deliver significant results. Executives who consider what the most important, highest-impact actions are will create long-term value and be exceptionally successful.

One of the best habits that will help you in this pursuit is to develop a personal weekly planning process. By taking the time to plan your week, you can identify the best use of your time and energy and organize yourself for success. Here's how I plan my week on Sunday night so that I can hit the ground running Monday morning with confidence.

1. Do a mind sweep.

The first thing I do anytime I'm thinking about the bigger picture and trying to plan is I do a mind sweep to clear my thoughts. This process walks through a list of prompts in different categories, looking for things I'm trying to remember and commitments I've made (what scientists call cognitive load), and gets them out onto paper. This gets the distractions out of my head so I can focus better on the work at hand. 

2. Review the week to come.

My next step is to review the coming week's schedule. I recommend using a Defensible Calendar strategy, which improves your productivity by organizing your schedule into large chunks of time with tasks grouped by importance and urgency. This will make it easier to organize and manage your work.

If my plan is not well organized, I request changes to free up continuous time in my calendar to create focused time and to optimize travel and logistics. This is also the time to identify any prep work or reviews I need to do for the week.

3. Look forward to three to five weeks out.

Once I have this week under control, I look ahead three to five more weeks for anything that requires me to take any kind of action in the next seven days. I look for things like travel arrangements, larger project work, and creative development. Doing this prevents surprises that create fire drills for me or my team.

4. Reflect on the last week.

Once I have a good grasp on the future, I look back at the last week or two and see if there are any open items or actions from previous events that I may have missed. I look for opportunities to write quick thank-you notes and to confirm any actions or plans coming out of previous meetings. I'll also take this time to reflect on what went well and what didn't, and how I can improve my schedule and planning going forward.

5. Check your longer-term goals.

Next I check my quarterly objectives and key results. Based on where I want to be at the end of the quarter, I check to see where I need to make progress and set tasks for the coming week. I'll also reach out to people with whom I need to coordinate or collaborate to schedule time or set up meetings.

6. Sort by urgency and impact.

Once I have my tasks and reminders written down, I begin to sort and organize. I'll make notes on complexity and size and then sort them by two major criteria. First is urgency, which is how critical the task is to this week. Basically, if I push it off to next week, will it cause problems for me or others? The second criteria is impact, which is how much value this task creates for me in the short and long term.

If I've done things correctly, my schedule will be well-structured and I will have a plan for how the week will unfold. I will have several time blocks for focused work, grouping similar tasks so that I can stay in the same mindset and minimize task-switching.

Of course, life happens, and on Monday morning something unexpected could come up and I'll need to replan everything. And that's fine.

The value of planning is not that a plan will execute perfectly. It's that when it doesn't, you'll understand what's on your plate, what your priorities are, and how you want to re-organize things to stay on plan.

Highly successful people excel in all 6 of these key aspects of their lives, not just one or two

Many people excel in one or two area of their lives, but neglect the others. Here's how to tell if you're taking a balanced or lopsided approach.

I get called into to many coaching engagements because one of the leaders of a company is struggling. Often it's because they have taken on a new role or have moved up in the organization, and the new dynamics and context are challenging their skills in some way. As a coach, I work with them to develop better approaches and to help them create a new mindset that will better serve them in their new environment.

However, sometimes I'm brought in, not because a leader is struggling at work, but because they are struggling with another area of their lives and it's beginning to threaten their professional success. It could be a colleague, an investor, a board member, or even a friend who makes the introduction.

The first step in these situations is to pull back and assess what's really happening in that person's life. This allows us to see what they are doing well and where they are struggling. Then we can see where we need to set targets for change and begin to work on goals. This doesn't mean that we need to work on the most troubling area; instead we want to understand what's impacting overall performance and where the root causes of the problems are.

Here are the six key areas that I look at when I'm coaching. These are the major facets in your life which are interconnected and will impact each other in different ways. And if one is out of whack, others will be impacted. By assessing yourself in these areas, you will be more likely to find the core challenges that when overcome will lead to better professional performance.

1. Personal

This includes both body and mind. Someone who is taking care of themself physically and mentally will be able to perform better in every other area. If you're not staying in good health and not practicing good self-care, you're risking everything. Everyone needs exercise, good eating, and activities that feed the soul. Taking time off and spending time recharging and reflecting allow you to sharpen the axe for future work.

2. Family

This includes significant others, children, and immediate and extended family. Unfortunately, this is often an area of neglect for many high-powered executives. And while time can be extremely limited if you're a busy professional, not having an effective strategy for spending quality time with others and maintaining intimate bonds with close family will ultimately have a detrimental effect on your work.

3. Friends

Even the most introverted executive needs a social life. Making sure you have a group of people outside of work, who you connect with and who can provide perspective and support is critical to having a well-balanced life. You don't need a girls or guys weekend every month, but getting away from work and family every once and a while can make you a better leader, spouse, and parent.

4. Professional

At the core of life satisfaction is the feeling and knowledge that you are mastering a domain and making a difference in the world. This doesn't mean that you need to be a CEO or a titan of industry. It could be excelling at a craft or making a social impact. Whatever your chosen focus, spend time setting goals and dedicating time and money to improving yourself.

5. Financial

While you can't take it with you, you also can't live without it. Making sure that your fiscally sound and responsible will allow you to have the resources to achieve your biggest goals. This doesn't mean toiling away at a job you hate so that you can retire and finally have some fun. Just decide what your longer term objectives are and do what you need to invest in your future.

6. Community

Nobody lives in a vacuum. We all depend and benefit from the communities we live in and greater society. Making sure you're being a responsible citizen and giving back to the groups that have supported and enabled you to be successful is a responsibility we must all take seriously. Think beyond money. Volunteering your time and skills can be both more valuable and more rewarding.

As a business coach, I focus on business performance. However, I strongly believe that people are multifaceted and business performance suffers when we neglect other areas of our life. The best long-term business performance comes from executives who are well-rounded and perform well in all areas of their lives.

6 Ways of Organizing Your Leadership to Help Your Growing Company Succeed

Scaling your company involves many careful steps. And choosing how to organize your top teams is no exception.

As a company grows, the top levels of the organization must change. Going from a founder with a few early employees to a billion-dollar company with multiple divisions and operating units involves many intermediate steps in the leadership structure.

As a leadership coach, I work with many different types of companies and different types of teams to help them through these transitions. Below are the some of the main strategies that we use to organize and group the leaders of a growing company, and what each of them focuses on, and how they operate.

1. Leadership team

The leadership team is a general term for the group of the highest leaders in each department or domain of the business. This is also called the C-suite as it contains all of the C-level people in the company: the CEO, COO, CFO, and CMO. Not every company want to give these leaders "Chief" titles, so I tend to just use leadership team to represent this group, rather than C-suit or C-team.

The main focus of the leadership team is to develop company strategy and set the high-level execution targets. They also coordinate the high-level activities of each functional unit (finance, marketing, operations, etc.) and set the parameters for company operations and high-level policies.

In the early stages of a company, the leadership team might only be the founder and one or two key players in the business. As a company grows and the separation of the business functions become more formal and leaders are appointed, the leadership team will expand and grow.

2. Management Team

The management team consists of the leadership team plus any other executives who are directly involved in the implementation of the business strategy. These are the people who are responsible for implementing the strategy, high-level quarterly development priorities, and action items that will drive business initiatives.

The another key role of the management team is to gather data and perspective on issues that need broader input. This group is required when the leadership team doesn't have enough on-the-ground knowledge to handle everything because the company has become bigger and more complex

3. Strategy Team

When the leadership team is large and the strategy work is more complex and nuanced, I will often create a smaller strategy team, using a subset of the leadership team, who can dig deeper into the issues, topics, data, and research.

I generally keep this team limited to three to five key people, selected from the leadership team, including the CEO and COO and often the CFO and CMO. This team could also include the top leaders in sales, product design, legal, and technology. In some cases we've included one or two experts from other parts of the company who are not C-suite such as technical or subject matter experts.

4. Leadership Subcommittees

When topics come up on the leadership team or management team around specific policies and operational parameters, a leadership subcommittee can be a great approach. Keep them to three to five people and give them a clear scope. They should collect data, do analysis, and make recommendations.

5. Board of Advisors

Not to be confused with a board of directors, a board of advisors doesn't have any decision making powers or fiduciary responsibilities. They are purely an advisory group that helps with strategy development and setting priorities. The key to a good board of advisors is to balance and extend the leadership team and to cover gaps and blind spots.

6. Ownership Team

In the case of a privately held company, I will often create a separate ownership team. These are the people who have real equity in the business. The scope of the team can be just advisory, or they can participate in strategy and management discussions. At a minimum they need to handle the governance issues required under the articles of organization including membership meetings and voting on key matters. For family-owned companies, this is also where we tackle issues of multiparty voting rights and succession planning.

Few companies need all of the these teams, and no companies needs all of them at the beginning. It's about iterating and adapting to your changing needs and finding a solution that gets the work done effectively, and efficiently.

Building a business doesn’t mean sacrificing your family life. Here are 11 techniques to master

Entrepreneurs are often also spouses, moms, and dads. Here are 11 ways to help integrate work and family time.

Some entrepreneurs sacrifice everything to build their business. They eschew relationships, forego friends, and spend all of their time focusing on getting the bigger deal, raising the next round, and securing the next partnership. However, that model is quickly becoming outdated.

Here are 11 techniques that my clients have used to find creative ways to work hard on their business while staying connected and committed to their spouses and kids and also true to their core values and personal priorities.

1. Take a break from work, then go back.

Being home for dinner is important for many people. While you might not be able to wrap up the day by 5pm, you can push pause for a few hours and spend some time with your spouse and kids. The key to this strategy is to truly pause and be present.

2. Leave post-it notes on the mirror.

If you leave the house before everyone wakes up, take 5 minutes and leave a few messages on sticky notes on the bathroom mirror. Don't over think these. You don't need to write a ton to make an impact. If you want to cheat and save some time, once a week write a bunch of notes and just dole them out over the next several days. You'll still get full points.

3. Send random text messages.

Sometimes the most meaningful message is the random and unexpected one. Take a break between meetings to send quick thoughts to your loved ones. Don't over think them, just say what's on your mind and that you're thinking of them. The cheat here is to set an irregular calendar reminder to prompt you to send something. Again, full points.

4. Do a video hangout.

You don't always need a reason to call. And you don't always need to say something. If you're just working at the office or hanging out in your hotel room, do a video call and leave it running. I've done this with my kids while I'm traveling and they are doing homework. This unstructured time can lead to interesting insights and random conversation.

5. Hide notes in random places.

Similar to the post-it notes on the mirror, hide little notes in bags and random place around the house. Let them know that you miss them and are thinking of them even if you're not there. If you want to kick this up a notch, make it a hunt with clues.

6. Have breakfast together.

Many executives I work with find it difficult to get out of work in time for dinner and kids bedtimes. If having a meal together is important to you, try switching it to breakfast. Even sitting down for ten minutes while you have your coffee can be quality time if you're focus on them.

7. Set aside no-device time.

Devices are the killer of quality time. If you really want to be focused and present, turn off your device or put it in another room. Taking a few minutes or even a few hours in the evening and on the weekend will allow you to truly connect with your loved ones.

8. Work side-by-side.

Sometimes you still just need to work. Getting out of the home office and sitting at the kitchen table with your spouse or your kids as they read or do homework still provides a chance to connect.

9. Bring the family on a business trip.

Just because you need to travel for work, doesn't mean that the family can't join you. While you might need to forego the fancy dinners with clients, working during the day and spending time with family at night can be a great trade off between your business goals with your family commitments.

10. Leave video messages.

Today's modern technology makes staying connected easier than ever. Instead of simple voice mail, leave a video message or send them a quick video text. Most of our communication is nonverbal, so seeing your smile is better than just hearing your voice.

11. Ask interesting questions.

Forgo the standard questions such as "how was your day" and ask questions that spur real thinking. Try "what's one thing that surprised you today?" or "who was the most interesting person you met today?" instead.

Life is full of trade offs. And if you want to excel at business you need to work hard and put in quality hours. But that doesn't mean you need to sacrifice everything else. In fact, the most successful executives I know excel in both business and family. And they do that by knowing what matters and making the right tradeoffs to maximize impact.

6 Ways of Measuring Success That Will Help Your Team Thrive

Measuring effectiveness is an important aspect of growth. Here are 6 key definitions that will help your team get on the same page.

There are many terms around measuring the effectiveness of management and execution that can be confusing. Without a clear, shared definition, leaders can often get stuck in muddy discussions that result in misalignment. While there are no absolute definitions for many of these terms, these are the ones I suggest for the leadership teams and executives I work with.

1. Key Performance Indicator

Let's start with the infamous key performance indicator, aka KPI. These are often confused and conflated with many of the other terms on this list. Put simply, a KPI is a way of measuring something. It's an evaluation unit regarding some aspect of business performance.

It's important to note that while there are many ways to set KPI's, these settings are simply units of measure, not the actual results your seeking. I like to say that the KPI is the tape measure, not the measurement itself.

2. Critical Number

I often use the concept of a critical number with leadership teams to elevate one or more KPI's. A business has dozens of KPI's across many aspects of the business that give leadership insights into how the business is performing. By elevating one or more KPI's to the status of critical number, it provides focus and priority to areas of the business that need senior-level attention.

A critical number is generally tied to a strategic priority or organizational objective and drives alignment. If larger orders is a key goal, then a critical number might percent of orders over $50,000 each week. Often this is tied to a theme which can further drive motivation and cohesion.

3. Balancing KPI

Sometimes, when we set a goal and only focus on one aspect of the business, we skew our action to meet the goal, while inadvertently hurting other parts of the business. For example, it's easy to increase the close rate on a sales funnel by lowering the profit margin and selling contracts at a loss. However, that doesn't help the business overall.

A balancing KPI adds a second unit of measure to the strategic focus that prevents people from gaming the system to hit one goal by trading off another goal and hurting the business overall. Think of it as the check and balance to the main goal.

4. Metric

The vast majority of things you can measure in a business are not 'key' to the business but are needed to track or monitor performance. These are simply metrics. They describe how parts of the business are doing without becoming things that require senior leadership attention. A metric is simply a performance indicator, but it is not a key indicator.

5. Target

If you're a long jumper, the goal is to get as much distance as possible between the line and the back of your heel where you land. Therefore, the KPI is the distance cleared and the units are in feet and inches. The target is what you are striving to achieve. It is specific to an individual and may change over time. If you're a state high school competitor you might start the season with 20 feet and and work your way up to the state record of 25 feet 3 inches. Targets are set based on your strategy and goals.

6. Forecast

Forecasts are similar to targets in that they are specific results or measures related to a KPI. The difference is a target is something that you're trying to achieve based on a strategy and a goal, whereas a forecast is a prediction on future results. The key to any good forecast is not just the number, but also the confidence level of that number from the person/group issuing that forecast.

A forecast without a confidence level is not very useful and can lead to confusion and failures. For example, say the sales team says they are forecasting Q4 revenues to be $1.2 million and the company budgets their expenses based on that number. But then late everyone realizes that the $1.2 million is a stretch goal and the team is only 20 percent confident they will hit that number which puts the company at risk of overspending.

While the difference between all of these terms might seem academic and too subtle to spend time discussing, I've found that executives, who invest the effort, reap the benefits of clarity and alignment when it comes to successfully executing on strategy and management. If you're in a dynamic, high-growth situation, this can often mean the difference between predictable success and a company spiraling out of control.

Six (Free) Ways to Develop Better Leadership in Your Company

Leadership is critical, yet most companies fail to invest in their people. Here are six ways to develop talent that won't break the bank.

Leadership is critical to a company's success. This is twice as true for high-growth businesses. Without enough leaders, scaling a business is next to impossible. It's easy to find people who want to work, but without people to organize, inspire, and manage people, you're setting yourself up for lots of drama with little productivity.

Many companies try to hire for leadership. This has two big downsides: first, it's expensive. Direct and indirect recruiting and hiring costs will quickly add up. Second, it's risky because a cultural 'mis-hire' can do real damage to an organization.

Instead, the best way to increase your company's leadership is to grow it from within. Developing your current people as the next generation of leaders is your best bet. Investing in them will be cheaper than paying for recruiting costs and higher salaries. And your current team members are much more likely to already be a good cultural fit.

As a business coach, one of my favorite programs to work on is a company's leadership development program, commonly known as an LDP. While each program's content should be tailored to the companies industry and needs, here are six strategies you can use to create an effective program without needing to spend much, if any, budget dollars.

1. Have your senior team mentor.

Your senior folks have a vast amount of knowledge and insight into the business. Tap this resource by having them spend one hour a week with a rising star to help them understand the business and what the leader does to be successful. This could be in one-on-one or small group formats. Keep it mentoring, not training.

Let the junior person drive the conversation around what they want and/or need to know. The best part of the these types of programs is that the senior people often learn just as much, if not more.

2. Offer extra time off for learning events.

For those who are keen to get ahead and are willing to drive their own learning, offer a few extra days off each year to attend a conference or workshop to sharpen their skills. There are many free and inexpensive learning opportunities out there and often employees are paying to go to these events already, just give them the time. To help justify the investment, have them come back and host a morning seminar or lunch-and-learn to share with others what they learned and how to apply it to the business.

3. Hold weekly lightning talks.

Pick one lunch each week where a different person in the company does a 15-minute presentation on any topic they want (within reason). Give 15 minutes for Q&A and then have people score and give constructive feedback on the presentation as well as takeaways. This will not only distribute knowledge, it will help develop presentation and feedback skills. And it's fun too.

4. Invite in outside speakers.

If you do a little searching, it's not hard to find people who would be willing to come in and speak for little or no cost. Look for consultants who would jump at the chance to build a relationship. Another great strategy is to invite your customers and partners to come in and present their expertise and business. You can also reach out to authors and professional speakers who might be willing to do a discounted presentation if they're already in the area.

5. Start a book club.

Many of the leadership teams I coach use this strategy to help them develop new skills as a group. Pick a book a month to reach and then spend 30-45 minutes discussing a few takeaways at your monthly meeting. If a full book is too daunting, find a summary to have everyone read. You can also find articles to read as a group. Many authors (like me) will provide discussion guides with their content for team discussions.

6. Recognize effort and accomplishments.

One of the best things you can do is make sure the people and teams, who are dedicating themselves to learning and showing measured progress, are recognized. This could be privately and/or publicly within the company. Recognizing success will both reward those who are already advancing as well as inspire those who may need a little nudge.

Like many initiatives, the most important thing about a learning program is to try something quickly, learn and get feedback, and then pivot quickly. The best companies succeed because they learn how they learn best and then fuel what works for them.