Tired of Meetings That Suck? Here Are 5 Things You Can Do to Make Sure Yours Don’t

You can't run a company without meetings. Unfortunately, most meetings are poorly run. Here are five things to make yours better.

As I grew my business from a team of three people to a five-time Inc. 5000 company, I became overwhelmed by the number of meetings I was in. Not a day went by that I didn't have at least one meeting, and not infrequently, I was in meetings all day. The only meetings worse than the ones I attended were the meetings I ran. I had no clue what I was doing and it showed.

At one point, I decided that if I was going to grow and scale my business, I needed to take the bull by the horns and learn how to run better meetings. After dozens of books, articles, videos, podcasts, and two workshops, I began to understand how to run better meetings that were both effective and efficient.

Here are my top five takeaways you can use to run great meetings with your teams:

1. Have an agenda.

Every meeting needs an agenda. This includes what the goal or purpose of the meeting is and the key points to be discussed. If you don't have an agenda at the start of the meeting, creating one is your first point of order.

Ideally you have an agenda that is published before the meeting. The agenda should state the goal, the key points, who's attending, start/stop times, and location. Additional information might include any background information that needs to be read before the meeting, notes from previous meetings, time frames for each topic, owners of each topic, and ground rules.

2. Use a facilitator.

Having a good facilitator is a game changer. A facilitator's sole job is to make sure that the meeting is run well by keeping the group focused on the topic, balancing the conversation so everyone's voice is heard, keeping the group on time, and capturing the key points and decisions that are made.

A facilitator is a neutral party and focuses on guiding the meeting. They can ask questions to stimulate group discussion, remind people of ground rules so debate stays healthy and productive, and keep people on point and on time.

3. Start on time, end on time.

Starting meetings on time is critical. My rule is that meetings start at the published time, regardless of who's there and who's not.

In severe cases, I might set a rule that if you're not there by the start time, you can't join. I encourage people to get to meetings five minutes early. A fish stinks from the head, so if you're the CEO or a key executive, set the example.

Finishing meetings is just as important. In many cases, people have back-to-back meetings, so I try to end five minutes early. People will love coming to your meetings when they know they start on time and end early.

4. Set good ground rules.

Ground rules define agreed upon behavior and processes that make the meeting more effective. These can be little rules like one conversation at a time or more significant rules like everything said in this meeting is confidential. Your ground rules set the stage for greater engagement, sharing, and productivity.

Start each meeting by quickly reviewing established ground rules and encouraging people to suggest new rules for the team to consider. Rules might cover how the team is engaging in conversation, topics which are on/off the table, how to deal with specific situations, and what happens before and after the meeting.

5. Keep a parking lot.

A parking lot is a place where you can "park" ideas or topics that come up during the meeting that are outside of the current agenda item(s). Flag anything that comes up which is off topic but important to address, and write it down in the parking lot and return to your original discussion. Then, later, come back to the parking lot and discuss how to resolve those items.

Here's the trick with the parking lot: You need to be sure to address the items by the end of the meeting. You don't need to resolve them, but you need to show that there is a plan in place to resolve them. Otherwise, people won't trust the parking lot and they will continue to interrupt and speak over others to make sure their points are addressed.

Better meetings mean better decisions will be made, faster, and with less drama. These five are the basics, but there are many more practices that you can, and should, adopt. Become a student of the topic and continuously review and refine your approach. It's an investment with exceptional returns.

Want to Improve Both Your Culture and Your Performance? Stop Looking for Problems and Look for This Instead

While it's completely natural to look for problems, it's not always the best approach if you want to improve your work environment and results.

Just about all of the leaders I work with are chronic problem solvers. They love to search for things that are broken, need improvement, and present risks, and then they love to try and fix them. Much of the time this does, in fact, deliver value to the organization. But not always. Like many tools, if overused, being overly-focused on problem hunting has some liability.

First, people who are overly-focused on finding problems are also typically tinkers. They like to go in and make changes to try to get improvements. However, they often make changes that have broader impacts that end up creating more problems than they solve. At best it's net neutral, but it often makes things worse.

Second, if you look hard enough at any situation, you'll always find lots of problems. Problems are never ending. And if you focus all of your time and energy on pointing out problems, you'll create a tough culture for your colleagues. Nobody wants to be surrounded by people who are pointing out everything that is wrong or not good enough.

So, how do you avoid creating a culture where people are creating more problems than they are solving and bringing everyone down in the process?

When working with teams and companies, I suggest they strike a healthy balance between focusing on things that are working as well as things that are not working. My rule is at least half the time should be spent identifying and acknowledging those things that are going well and talking about how they keep them going well.

Here are a few things you can do to increase the amount of time and focus you spend on the things that are going well.

1. Start every meeting with wins.

I start every meeting by having each person mention one win they had recently. The goal here is to find and focus on things that are going well for people. It sets a positive tone for the meeting. It also lets other people know what was successful, and it can inspire people with new ideas and models for solving other problems.

2. Do a Root Success Analysis.

Many people do Root Cause Analysis when they are dealing with a problem. The goal here is to dig underneath the problem to find the source problem and fix it so that it never happens again.

Root Success Analysis is similar but the opposite. Here we want to identify something that is working well and then ask the all important question of "Why?" Ideally we should ask the question four to five times until we get at the root source of the success. Then we want to make sure we keep doing it and find other ways of repeating that success.

3. Define your core capabilities.

Francis Frei, Harvard Business School professor and co-author of the book Uncommon Service, says the key to strategy is defining what you are willing to "suck" at in your business. The idea is that in order to compete, you need to select one or two attributes that you are going to be the absolute best at in your market. These are your core capabilities. However, since resources are limited, you need to be willing to suck at everything else.

Knowing your core capabilities becomes a very powerful tool when it comes to problems solving. Knowing them means that not all problems, are in fact problems you care about. You only care about the ones that directly impact your core capabilities because they impact your strategy.

4. Create a "keep" list.

In any meeting or review, it's easy to create a list of things you want to change and fix. Do this, but also create a list of things you need to "keep" as well. Too often, when you go into fix one thing you end up breaking something that's working well. Creating a "keep" list draws your attention to the things that are creating value and reduces the chance that you accidently make that changes something for the worse.

By bringing attention to the successful parts of the business, you are doing two things. First, you are decreasing the likelihood that someone will accidentally make a change to something that's working well. Second, you are creating a culture of positivity and optimism. Both of these initiatives will have significant impacts on your overall success.

Here Are 12 Ways to Make Emailing a More Effective Tool for Your Team

While many businesses are switching to collaboration tools, email hasn't gone away. Here are a dozen ways to make it more productive.

As a team coach, I'm focused on elevating the performance and results of the organizations I work with. And regardless of whether it's leadership, management, or project teams, communication is critical to their effectiveness. Unfortunately, email tends to be an area that generates a lot of problems and drama for these teams.

The problem with email is that it's easy to send a lot of information and create a lot of work for everyone else. Here are twelve rules I generally suggest teams adopt to reduce the number of emails, make them more effective tools for communications, and help people prioritize and manage their inboxes.

1. Don't email when a phone call will do.

If you can pick up the phone and have a conversation, do that. Anything that is not a simple yes/no will require some back and forth and it's better to that by phone than a long email thread. And if someone is just down the hall, a short walk is better than typing.

2. Stick to one topic or issue per email.

I generally suggest one issue or topic per email so that people can reply with just that answer or response. This way, you'll get faster responses since the person is not waiting to pull together all of the answers before they reply.

3. Only put people in the "TO" field who need to respond.

Only put the people who need to be directly addressed or need to reply in the top line. And think twice about who you put in there and if they can be excluded or just CC'd. I assume that if I'm in the "TO" I need to read and reply.

4. CC everyone else who just needs to know.

For anyone who just needs to know about the email or needs a copy of it for their records, put them in the CC field. By separating these out, you'll help people prioritize what they need to read and reply to.

5. Make reading CC emails optional.

Make reading CC emails optional or at least low priority. Create filters that put CC'd emails into a separate folder and skim once a week.

6. Don't hijack emails.

It drives me nuts when some replies to an email with an unrelated topic or issue. Even if it's related but a different thread, make an new subject line or start a fresh email.

7. If you have a lot to say, start with a summary.

If your email is going to have in-depth details, lists, and background, then start your email with a short summary that includes what actions need to be taken. Long emails will not be read right away, but a summary might.

8. Name people who you want to respond.

When you need specific people to respond with answers or decisions, make sure to call those people out by name with a clear description with what you need from them. Ideally list the call to actions on separate lines so they can reply inline.

9. Confirm receipts with reply timeframes.

If you get an email but can't reply to it right away, send a note saying you got it along with anything you can give or share at that moment as well as a timeframe for when you'll finish your reply. Don't leave emails hanging out there for more than 24 hours if you can avoid it.

10. Include documents as attachments (unless they are huge).

If you have documents, attach them rather than sending links. Many people have emails downloaded to their phones and tablets which don't have internet connections and they will be unable to see the information offline. If the documents are extremely large, consider attaching the key pages with links to the full documents.

11. Use numbered lists with more than three items.

When you're listing items or points, use numbers when it's greater than three. This allows people to refer to the points in replies or other conversations. It also helps you see how many things you're including which can help you to prioritize.

12. Set no-email hours for your team.

Emails can be very encroaching on personal lives. If people on your team have a habit of emailing at crazy hours, set up "no email" times where people agree to not send emails or cannot reply to emails. Create fun penalties for people who break the rules. Giving people time off email will prevent fatigue and burnout.

While there are many more rules you can, and should, consider, these are my top twelve recommendations that will help you and your team get your emails under control and your inbox to zero more often.

The 12 External Factors You Need To Consider To Create An Effective Business Strategy

Too many companies create their strategy in a vacuum. To be successful, you need to consider and react to these external factors.

If you want to grow quickly and successfully, you need a solid plan that positions you well in the market and gives you plenty of business opportunities. Strategy is fundamentally about how you are going to respond to what's happening in your market and what your competitors are doing. If you're only looking at what's happening inside your company, you'll miss the bigger picture and many of the great opportunities--and risks--that are out there.

Developing strategy is one of the main things I do with leadership teams as we plan for how they are going to scale and grow their businesses. When we conduct our strategy sessions, we start with a broad assessment of the external factors that we need to look at. From these, we can pull insights, predictions, patterns, and trends that are going to play key roles in the decisions we make about where we go.

1. Customers

Knowing what's happening in your customers' business and having insight into their market is critical. Ask them how things are going, what they are worried about, what their big plans are, and where they are investing their time and energy. Look at your best customers and worst customer and see what they are doing differently.

2. Prospects

Beyond your current customers, what are your prospects doing? Try to understand why they are the not buying, what else are they buying, and how it is different from your product or service. Look at what criteria they are using to make decisions and what channels they are buying through. See if you can develop insights into what's preventing them from buying.

3. Direct competitors

Knowing what your competitors are doing is critical. Have they launched or announced new products or services, made key hires, or opened new locations? One of the best sources of this information is the people who have recently left said companies. If you're connected to someone who just left, take them out to lunch and see what you can learn.

4. Indirect competitors

Too many teams only focus on direct competitors. Instead, you need to consider all of the options your customers and prospects have to solve their problems. Don't forget that coping with the situation is a viable option for some of your current and prospective customers. Knowing the options that these people are considering is key to positioning.

5. Markets

Knowing what's happening in your local market is critical. And if you're in multiple markets, this is even more important because it's easy to become blind to local conditions that might impact your business. Understand what's happening on the ground in the place you do business.

6. Industry

Stay aware of shifts in your industry that will impact you and your business. If everyone else is moving staff from 1099s to full time hires, this will impact access to talent and the expectations of your potential employees.

7. Technology

Staying current with the changes in the underlying technology and the infrastructure of your industry is critical. Many companies have gone belly up or been swooped up in acquisitions because they missed a key shift in technical trends. These tend to happen quickly, so suss them out early.

8. Labor

If you're a growing company, access to good talent is critical. Understand what's happening with salaries, benefits, and who else is competing for the same people you are. If labor is tight or expensive, it will hinder your growth and cut into your margins.

9. Economic

Macro issues like interest rates and general economic growth will impact the business environment. But you should also pay attention to how these impact your specific industry. For example, interest rates will impact real estate, which will hit construction, which means building supplies will be less in-demand.

10. Political

Politics define policy which can have a significant impact on business conditions. New regulations or changes to existing ones can make or break businesses. Make sure to look beyond national politics; pay attention to state and local issues because hese can often fly under the radar.

11. Cultural

Trends and movements can change customer expectations, behaviors, and priorities. And sometimes this happens more quickly than we anticipate. Companies that respond quickly can take advantage of the slower competitors and gain market share.

12. Social

While there are others you can, and should, consider that are unique to you business, these twelve factors are a good starting point. By collecting what you know about each of these you'll be better informed and will make better, more insightful choices about the strategic moves you plan to make. Good teams look at all of these on a regular basis to catch changes that can have a big impact on the business and help them take advantage of opportunities and avoid pitfalls.

The SEC Has Released a Letter Written by Jeff Bezos That Reveals the One Simple Secret to Amazon’s Success

Amazon has been ranked number one by the American Customer Satisfaction Index for eight straight years. Here is how they did it.

As a business advisor and leadership coach, one of my first tasks with any organization is to help the top team set the bar. Without a clear bar, we have no target and no way to measure progress. However, my real job isn't getting these teams to reach that bar; my real job is teaching them how to raise that bar when they reach it.

For companies like Amazon, the idea of continuously raising the bar is hardwired into their DNA. The only way a company can reach and maintain such high levels of success is by systematically resetting their sights on higher and higher goals as they continue to succeed on previous ones. They are never "done" and they never stop thinking about how to be bigger and better.

Recently, I came across a letter Jeff Bezos wrote to shareholders, a letter which the SEC posted on their website. In it Bezos writes about how the constant pursuit of customer satisfaction has instilled an ethos in Amazon.

"One thing I love about customers" he writes, "is that they are divinely discontent." And it is this natural tendency of the customer to constantly want more that has driven the company to be fanatics about continuous improvement.

Bezos identifies one simple thing that drives continuous improvement within Amazon. And any company can use this simple tool to fuel growth and innovation. It's simple, but not simplistic, and it's something that you can spend a lifetime pursing and still not be finished with.

What drives Amazon's success is their dedication to always setting high standards.

Setting high standards does not just apply to the executive team, but with every team and at every level of the organization. High standard are part of Amazon's culture and ethos. It's a core value and a continual pursuit.

But setting high standards is not easy, nor is it cheap.

First, standards are infectious. Once one person raises or lowers the standards, others tend follow. It's critical to set the standards high and then push people to achieve them. It's a virtuous cycle: success will continue to build more success.

However, the opposite it true as well. As soon as one person gets away with lower standards without comment or correction, then others will quickly follow suit. And once this momentum builds, it's difficult to arrest.

For companies like Amazon, where employees tend to be some of the smartest and brightest in their fields, another problem presents itself. People who are exceptionally smart in one area will tend to assume they are exceptionally smart in many others--even when they are not.

Bezos emphasizes the need for everyone to be open to the fact they have weaknesses and blind spots. The answer he gives is to get good feedback and insights from the people around you. Reflecting back on the early days of the company he says, "my colleagues were my tutors."

Having such high standards has cost Amazon a lot of time and money.

For example, instead of quick and easy slide presentations, teams at Amazon write six-page memos to lay out ideas in narratives which are read in silence at the start of a meeting. When well-written, these frame up concepts perfectly and kick off highly-productive discussions.

But these memos are very hard to write well and people often spend a week or more creating a memo. Many companies would baulk at that kind of time investment. For Amazon, it's just one more example of the bar they are willing to set and the work they are willing to put in.

What are the practical benefits of such high standards?

The positive outcomes show up in their products and services. High standards drive the breadth and depth of Amazon's offerings and the quality of their service. Bezos lists out all of the innovation and success initiatives they have recently launched. He lists everything from Prime Video, AWS, and Alexa to the internal accomplishments with programs such as Career Choice where they pay up to $12,000 towards the education of Amazon employees.

Beyond their products, high standards drive internal culture. And while it's a demanding place to work, it's also an engaging place to work. Good people are drawn to high standards and so they are drawn to Amazon. This creates a virtuous cycle so long as these standards are maintained.

Good companies learn how to set goals and achieve them. Great companies learn how to continually raise the bar on performance to reach ever higher levels of success.

While the vast majority of companies are a fraction of the size of Amazon, they can adopt the same approach to set high standards and achieve the same benefits of this continuous pursuit of improvement. It's certainly not easy, but it's worth it.

Hate Going to Networking Events? Here’s How To Make Them Productive, If Not Enjoyable

While being an introvert can make networking events more business than pleasure, it doesn't need to be difficult.

I've been a consultant and entrepreneur for over two decades and networking has undoubtedly been the key to my success. Ironically, I test off the charts as an introvert. And while I have approached networking differently than a natural extrovert, I've found ways to be extremely effective in these social situations.

Networking is critical to most professional careers. If you're in a sales or business development role, networking is central to your ability to develop relationships and leads. But even if your primary responsibility is not lead generation, networking will have a significant impact on your success.

Networks give you access to information, resources, knowledge, and most importantly, talent. One of the best ways to find candidates for open positions is your professional network. And when you need freelancers or service providers, your network can provide you with names and recommendations.

There are many ways to network, but the most common and often most productive is the tried and true networking event. This could be a one off event some evening after work or a cocktail hour at a longer conference or industry gathering. Either way, these types of situations provide a good opportunity to meet many people in a short amount of time, if you approach it correctly.

Here are the strategies I've developed over the years and the ones I coach my clients on when they want to make the most of an event.

1. Set a specific goal to achieve.

As an introvert, I don't naturally work a room. I'd rather find someone interesting and sit in the corner and talk. To motivate me, I set a reasonable goal to kick start me into meeting people. It could be as simple collecting 20 business cards or meeting three of the speakers. The goal gives me purpose and helps me make decisions and take actions.

2. Prepare yourself mentally and physically.

I suggest that introverted people prepare both mentally and physically for the event. If I've been at work or conference proceeding all day and then head straight to a happy hour, I run out of steam quickly. Instead, I'll sneak in a workout, go for a long walk, or just find a quiet corner and grab some down time. By "pre-charging" for big social events, I give myself the energy I need to be successful at them.

3. Have a few opening lines ready.

Starting a conversation can be difficult in many social situations. Fortunately, events come with some context that make openings a little easier to develop. I like to have 3-5 general open-ended questions in my back pocket that are specific to the situation. "What did you think of so-and-so's talk?" or "Did you come to last year's event?" are great examples of openers that can kick-start the conversation.

4. Work the room to meet new people.

Too many times I see people meeting someone early in the event and then speaking with him or her the entire time. Networking events are great opportunities to meet lots of new people. Focus on moving through three steps: building rapport, making a connection, and setting a reason to follow up (my go to is to send them an article). I generally spend between 3-5 minutes per person to get these. Once I set a reason to follow up with them after the event, I move on to meet someone new.

5. Give yourself a break.

If you're an introvert, you'll need some downtime. If an event is more than two hours, I often plan a 10-15 minute break about half way. I might call and check in with my kids or just find a place to relax for bit. Be sure to set a specific time for when you'll jump back in so you don't convince yourself to call it a day.

6. Follow up on your commitments.

After the event, be sure to follow up with everyone and mention the items you agreed to. I try to do this by the end of the day or first thing the next day. You don't need to do the follow up itself, but definitely touch base with them and set expectations for the follow up you mentioned in the conversation. If I promised to send them an article, my email would just tell them I'll send it to them by the end of the week or by some date. Many times this is a better approach since it allows me to email them again which, in turn, builds more connection.

Just because you're not a natural extrovert doesn't mean you can't handle a social event like a networking pro. In fact, by using these techniques, you can often get more accomplished in less time than someone who can close the bar. You'll also feel much better the next morning.

Struggling to Set Effective Quarterly Objectives? Make Sure You’re Using These 5 Types

Many team struggle with setting effective quarterly objectives. Here are five types that will create better alignment and simplify implementation.

The core of my role as a leadership team coach is to help my clients set strong objectives each quarter that advance the companies growth strategy and critical capabilities. Without these, they only focus their time and energy on the day-to-day demands of the business. Powerful objectives align the team and create urgency and progress on long-term goals.

However, when I walk into many teams, the objectives they've set are often vague, lack key details, and don't serve to focus and align the team. Generally this results in lackluster performance and frustration with progress. With a few revisions and an understanding of what makes good objectives, these pitfalls can often be avoided.

Here are five types of objectives, and examples of each, that I find work best for driving results. If you're having difficulty with your objectives, use these examples to fix them.

1. Completion

When you have an initiative or project to finish, use a completion objective. The key with completion objectives is to define what your "definition of done" is and to set a clear date. Here are three examples,

Allow new affiliate partners to sign up via the website by October 1st

Route all new customer service calls into the new CRM system by August 15th

Complete and deliver all senior executive 360 feedback reports by June 1st

2. Proficiency

Use this objective strategy for when you want to raise the bar on performance for a specific capability in the company and keep it there. For proficiency goals, select a specific performance indicator (how to measure) and a target (the number you want to achieve).

Increase the customer service NPS above 0.25

Get inventory level under 90 day inventory turn

Finish weekly leadership team meeting in under 55 minutes

3. Reduction or elimination

If you're trying to reduce or eliminate something in the business, use this approach. This one is similar to proficiency but opposite since there is a lower limit your trying to get to.

Eliminate all returns due to missing shipping address information

Have zero accidents on the shop floor due to liquid spills

Get same-day employee call-outs to zero

4. Run rate

With run rate objectives we're focused on an absolute number or volume, rather than a proficiency standard or ratio. We want to set a target rate and keep it there going forward. By focusing on rates rather than one total number, we focus on the system that needs to be put in place, not just creating a one-time win.

Increase our inbound lead rate to 25 qualified leads per week

Improve sales in the northeast to $750,000/month

Publish three new white papers per week

5. Composition

Sometimes you want to change a ratio in the business. With these goals, there is usually a range you're targeting with a high and a low. You want to achieve a specific balance, not set a bar to overcome and exceed. Numbers that are too high or too low are both undesirable.

Have 20-25 percent of new clients be small businesses

Spend two to four hours a week on learning and development activities

Keep two to three days of inventory on the top 20 best selling products

Don't over complicate your quarterly planning process. Pick three to five things to focus for the coming ninety days and leave everything else for later. It's far more productive to complete a handful of goals in a quarter than to get halfway on twice as many initiatives. And by focusing on these five types of objectives, you'll simplify your planning even more and accelerate your grow even faster.

Here’s Why Your Executive Team Struggles to Solve Problems and What You Need to Change

Many executive teams struggle with addressing issues quickly and effectively. Here's how the best ones avoid drama and get better results.

As a leadership team coach, developing a good decision-making process is one of my main areas of focus. And while many teams are good at simple decisions that come up frequently, these same teams can be challenged by new and complicated decisions that come up when the company starts to grow quickly.

The key to getting good at decision-making is to have a process that everyone knows and has had experience using. While it's true that every decision is different, the process you use should be the same. Here is the one I coach my teams to use.

1. Define

First, I have teams start every decision-making process by clarifying the problem in front of them.

In this step, it's fairly common to discover that the decision on the table is simply the presenting problem and there is, in fact, a deeper, more important problem hiding underneath the surface layer. By getting to the core problem, we will not only address the surface issue we're having but we will also be able to address other issues on a more systematic basis.

For example, one team I was working with recently had a problem with low sales numbers during the previous two months. Their first reaction was to spend more on marketing. However, it became apparent that one of the sales people was on maternity leave for three months and hadn't been replaced. The real issue was not having a good process for covering people while they were on planned leaves, a problem that would not have been solved with more marketing dollars.

2. Debate

Once the team has defined the problem well, I have them develop criteria for the options they want to consider. The goal here is to get clear on the definition of solved and all the possible ways they could address the problem.

For the criteria, I'm looking for objective tests we can apply to all of the options to evaluate and sort them. For simple problems, this might be things like cost, speed of implementation, and/or measure of impact on the problem. For more complex problems, you might have criteria that address risks, organizational change, or undesirable collateral impact.

Creating as many options as possible is critical to a good problem-solving process. If there's only two or three options to choose from, a team can easily become stuck with a less than ideal outcome. Create time and space to brainstorm ideas. Suspend judgement and generate as many ideas as possible. Often times the winning idea comes late in the game and starts out as an off-handed comment.

3. Decide

Once you have your criteria and your options, the team can start the final decision-making process. Use the criteria you've developed to evaluate and rank the options you've generated. For some criteria, the budget for example, might be easy to calculate and apply.

On the other hand, it might be harder to quantify things like risk and undesirable collateral impact, but taking some time to discuss is important. In the end, I like to see absolute numbers, scales of one to five, or high/medium/low for each criteria and for each option.

However, all of this only works if people are free to speak their mind and share what they know and see without fear of judgment or shame. If people hold back, you'll miss key insights.

Most of the time, one of your options will float to the top as the most desirable choice. On occasion however, you might find that two or more options seem good for different reasons and it's not obvious which one to choose. In these cases, try to develop a trade off value between the criteria.

For example, if one solution costs more but is faster to implement, decide how much a week or day of schedule is worth in dollars and then discount/add it to one option to compare them head-to-head. You can do this for many types of criteria and effectively normalize options to reduce the complexity.

While you won't always need to create complicated matrices to compare and score you options, when the stakes are high and the issues complicated, it's a good approach to have in your toolbox.

Good decision making is a core skill for every leadership team. It takes training, practice, and experience to build that muscle. But once you have achieve that capability and honed it, your work will become much faster and easier, and you'll have better outcomes to celebrate.

Just Because You’re a Nonprofit Organization Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Act like a For-Profit Company

Being a nonprofit organization doesn't mean you can ignore good business practices.

Any business that doesn't follow good business practices will struggle. A lack of attention to costs and profits will lead to financial troubles, a loss in customers, and an exodus of good talent.

Nonprofits don't have that same Darwinian force at play. A poorly run nonprofit can limp along for years based on the good intentions of its managers and the hopeful support of its funders. However, while nonprofits don't have the same money motive and financial goals, they can still benefit from adopting many for-profit best practices.

As a business coach who works with both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, there are several good for-profit business practices that I employ to help mission-driven organizations dramatically increase their impact and reach.

1. Clarify your organizational focus and desired outcome.

At the core of strategy is choosing a clear focus for the business. Focusing creates alignment for the team and eases the daily decision-making process. Having a clear focus allows you to concentrate your energy and resources and move the needle. A business without a focus will chase too many priorities and produce lackluster results.

The same is true for nonprofit organizations. While there are many noble pursuits, if you want to truly make an impact, choose one you can advance the most and define the specific outcome you desire. Once you've made a choice, explicitly clarify all of the things you are not going to do. This will help you avoid distraction which water down your efforts.

2. Paint a vivid picture of the future you are striving for.

Stalin has been quoted to say, "single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." It's sad, but true. Because of the way our brains work, we emotionally attach to stories not numbers. If we want to create a compelling vision of the future, it's better to describe it as a narrative rather than with numbers.

For businesses, we create vivid visions of the future by describing accomplishments in rich detail and writing them in the present tense as if we've already achieved them. For nonprofits, we take a similar approach: we focus on the core beneficiary and desired impact for them; we describe the good we want to achieve in a rich language of success.

3. Create measurable outcomes and objective definitions of success.

In business we say, "what gets measured gets managed." By finding ways to benchmark our efforts and outcomes, we can begin to keep track of our progress and success. Only then can we know if we're getting closer to our goals and desired outcomes.

The same can be done in nonprofit organizations. Once we have a clear focus and defined outcomes, we can create a set of objectives and criteria we can measure as we proceed. Without these, we don't know if our action and efforts are moving us closer to or farther from our goals.

4. Measure and track program costs and impact.

Beyond just a way of measuring financial value, money gives us a way of directly comparing otherwise disparate outcomes. It allows us to compare the value of two different types of customers or compare to the return on investment of different initiatives.

While money is not our end goal in nonprofit organizations, it can still be used to compare costs and measure value of different programs and initiatives. A program which generates more value while using less resources is better than one who consumes more and delivers less. By tracking the direct and indirect program costs and monetizing program value, you can see which programs you should double down on and which you should scuddle.

5. Balance core programs and investing in future innovation.

In business, you need to generate results now and in the future. If you only focus on driving short-term results, you'll soon find yourself with employees who are stunted and products and services that can't keep up with the competition. But if you only focus on long-term training and innovation, you'll run out of cash by the end of the month.

The same is true with your nonprofit organization. You need to invest in your staff and create new programs and services for your beneficiaries. But you can't do so in a vacuum and ignore the short-term reality of budgets and delivery. Set aside a reasonable portion of your money and resources for each.

While running a nonprofit is not the same as running a for-profit business, there are many best practices you can borrow to be successful. Many nonprofits shun running themselves like a business thinking that purpose trumps profit. Unfortunately, even though nonprofits are not driven by money, failing to adopt good for-profit business practices will often leave these well-intended nonprofits struggling to create the impact they were designed to make.

6 Key Skills That Will Improve Your Goal Setting and Success in Business and in Life

Setting and achieving powerful goals requires more than one skill. Here are the six skills that great goal achievers have mastered.

As an executive and team coach, I help individuals and teams set goals every day.

And while all teams are very different and have very different goals, the ones who are most successful share six key skills--skills which you can use to accelerate your success, too.

1. Polish your crystal ball.

The first thing to develop is your ability to see the future. Having a powerful imagination that gives you a clear vision of yourself in your future success will drive motivation and inspiration. Great goal setters spend time carefully envisioning themselves in the future having already achieved this success.

Visualizing future success sets up a cognitive dissonance in your mind. And since the mind doesn't like it when thinking doesn't match reality, it begins to take action to change reality, driving our unconscious thinking towards reaching your goals sooner.

2. Get good at planning.

Great goal setters know how to think through the steps needed to reach their objectives. They see the tasks that need to be performed and the order they need to be performed in. Good plans create a path to success by connecting the dots between where you are now and where you want to be.

But don't get attached the plan itself. As Eisenhower once said, "plans are worthless, but planning is everything." Great planners know that the value comes from the process of thinking through your options, developing a good strategy, and assessing risks. Highly successful people take action, get feedback, develop insights, and then re-plan quickly.

3. Just do it.

If you want to achieve your goals, you can't spend all day looking at your navel. Yes, you need to think and plan, but even more importantly, you need to take action. Action not only moves you forward, but it also gives you feedback.

I often use the analogy of when you first turn on your phone's GPS and it's confused about which direction you're facing. While you could wait there and let it think, the quickest solution is to just take a few steps forward and it will quickly adjust your position on the map.

The same goes for working on your goals. Sometimes, you just need to do a few things and then see if you're making progress, or if you need to turn around and go in the opposite direction.

4. Master the juke.

Great running backs learn how to juke to avoid tackles by dogging, weaving, and spinning to avoid defenders. They know that trying to square up and bash through them will not usually be successful and will almost always hurt.

The same is true for those who are highly productive. When faced with an obstacle, these high achievers don't put their head down and drive into it with brute force. They find a way to avoid it and move around it. Even if the obstacle adds a little time or wasn't the path they originally planned, they know that maintaining forward progress is more important than sticking to a plan that isn't working.

5. Discover your inner zen.

In the late 1970s while researching why artists get so absorbed in their work to the point of not eating for days, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that these people entered a physical-mental state of hyper performance which he named flow.

He discovered that anyone can get into this highly productive state. And when they do, they can achieve up to ten-times their normal level of performance. Not only that, but people report having a euphoric experience of blissful satisfaction where time passes without notice.

Finding your flow state is critical to being productive. Choose the right day of the week, time of day, environment, and frame of mind to make yourself hyper productive. For some it's a nature retreat, and for others it's a noisy coffee shop. Experiment to discover what works for you.

6. You can do anything you want, just not everything you want.

The fact is, we all have real limits on time and energy. We can't work on everything at once. Great achievers know that it is better to focus on one priority at a time and drive it to completion before changing course.

It's good to have a few different projects going so you can switch gears when you're stuck or frustrated, but keep this variation to a limited few. And don't try to multitask between them. Bigger blocks of dedicated time will allow you to get deeper and tackle bigger, more complex challenges.

While there are other skills that will improve your ability to set and achieve great things, these six are your core building blocks for success. And like most skills, there is always room for improvement. Getting better at goal setting is a lifelong pursuit.

Most Companies Struggle to Develop a Good Business Strategy. Here Are 6 Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.

Many companies struggle with creating an effective business strategy. Here are six ways to get yours right.

While I enjoy all parts of growing and scaling a business, creating an effective scaling strategy is one of my favorites. I love running sessions and helping a leadership team collect information, develop insights about their market, and decide on their unique course of action.

However, many teams get strategy wrong. Here are the most common mistakes I see and suggestions on how to avoid them. Get these right and you'll not only improve your success, you might just have more fun.

1. Don't compete to win, compete to be unique.

Many people frame business strategy as one company pitted against another in a battle of force and will to decide who will dominate a market. And while that might make for a good movie, it's not a good approach to business.

The reality is that most markets are multifaceted; there are plenty of customers for you all to have a reasonable slice of the pie. The trick is to create an approach and niche that will be reasonably profitable and that will allow you to efficiently sell to your target customers.

Instead of seeing strategy as a race to win, see it as a race to be different. An effective strategy is one which clearly defines your niche in the market based on your unique strengths and weaknesses as a company.

2. It's not about motivation, it's about making choices.

Another common mistake people make is to see strategy as rallying the team to put in extra effort and long hours. They string together inspirational quotes to excite people about the future and the wonderful things that will come with success.

Instead, I find that a good, effective strategy should make things easier. A good strategy clarifies who will be targeted with what product/service. This clarity helps you make decisions and allows a company to simplify their processes to do just those few things really well.

3. Know what you're not doing.

Strategy is fundamentally about choice. It's about reducing the areas of focus to a carefully chosen few. Unfortunately, I see many companies that define their strategy in such a way that still leaves them trying to sell everything to everyone, everywhere.

One technique I use is to have a company list all of the prospects they are not targeting, products they are not offering, and locations they are not servicing. If this is a long and clear list, I know that company has a clear strategy which focuses on doing a few things well. If it's short and vague, I send them back to the drawing board.

4. Don't chase the puck, get out ahead of it.

Another thing I often see is a company developing a strategy in reaction to a specific market event, competitor move, or industry situation. While companies need to respond to events and changing markets, that is not the core of business strategy. Your strategy should guide you on how to respond, but it's not the response itself.

A strategy defines a set of choices and a series of policies on how you are going to make decisions and what you are going to prioritize. By design, strategies are long-term plays based on a logical analysis of the trends in the market and where future opportunities are likely to exist.

5. Strategy is worthless, if it's not communicated.

Often times, companies spend weeks developing a sophisticated and smart strategy, but then they put it in a binder and leave it on the shelf. At best, a few people on the leadership team can recall the content months later, but the vast majority of the company has forgotten or is oblivious of the work.

Strategy needs to be simple to understand and easy to communicate. The fact is that everyone in the company needs to know the strategy as they are the ones implementing it. Your front line workers make more decisions on strategy each and everyday than any executive. It needs to be simple and it needs to be communicated frequently.

6. Strategy is a regular process, not a document.

Too often I see teams create a great strategy and then frame the final document on the wall. They check the box and get back to day-to-day business. The power in strategy is the discussion and application not the document. Great teams talk about strategy weekly and grapple with strategic decisions on a daily basis.

Strategy is not easy, but it doesn't need to be hard. The trick is to make it a regular process and routine inside your leadership discussions. And while strategies should be simple to be effectively communicated, they need not be simplistic in approach. Much like writing a good letter, the more concise a strategy is, the longer and harder a team most likely worked on it.

Confused About the Difference Between a Priority and a Goal? Here’s a Framework to Keep You on Track

If you're involved in any goal-setting effort, you're bound to run into a host of terms that all seem to mean the same thing. Here's how to keep them straight.

When working with leadership teams and executives on strategy planning, we often throw around a lot of terms. Some of these terms can seem to mean the same thing, and they often end up meaning different things to different people. Here are some definitions I've coalesced and use in my work to keep things clear.

Purpose

I use this to describe what an individual or organization is meant to do in their heart of hearts. It's something they can spend their entire lives pursuing and has infinite room for success. Some examples are: to rid the world of hunger or improve our lives through technological innovation.

Mission

I like to think of the purpose as the why, and the mission as the what. A mission defines what we want to achieve at the highest level. Some examples are: give every child three square meals a day or make tomorrow's technology available today.

Vision

A vision describes a future state in rich detail. We use a vision to create a compelling view for what our success will look like once we've achieved our goals. Generally, this is written in prose over several paragraphs and provides key details and taps into core emotions.

BHAG

Coined by Jim Collins in his book Built To Last, BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. I look 10 years in the future, but some people go as far as 30. There are different types of BHAGs, but they are always compelling and time-bound. Good BHAGs will move you into a new league of play and should invoke the slightest bit of fear.

Priority

Priority defines the one thing you are dedicating the majority of your time to. Your priority is the thing you do prior to working on other tasks. It is often helpful to have a list of things that you are deprioritizing in return. Priorities are generally set for a year or quarter and can involve multiple tasks or projects.

Focus

Your focus is similar to a priority, but slightly more general. I think of a focus as a topic of interest or concern for a group or individual. A focus might be customer service, whereas a priority would be reducing the wait time for priority customers.

Initiative

I generally use initiative to describe a group of projects, often across departments, that achieves one or more key results in an organization. Some examples might include: improve safety to reduce shop floor accidents. This one initiative includes human resources, operations, facilities, and logistics.

Objective

Objective is defined as an area of focus that is clearly aligned with the long term strategy, reasonably narrow in scope, and compelling to the team. For example, a quarterly objective might be improve project management skills for all delivery staff.

Goal

A goal is similar to an objective but smaller and more specific; it also has a clear deadline and timeline. If the objective is improve project management skills for all of our delivery staff, then a goal might be have all delivery staff score over 90 percent on the PMI project management skills assessment.

Target

Used in conjunction with a key performance metric (KPI), a target is a specific number or measurement you're looking to achieve. If your KPI is number of orders per day, your target might be over 200 orders a day for five consecutive days.

Key Result

If you're using OKRs, then these are the specific, measurable, actionable things you are doing to move forward on your objective. Each key result is an independent task that adds value, not a series of steps in a project plan.

If your objective is improve project management skills for all delivery staff then your a key results might be 1) run three project planning workshops in March, 2) have two people go to the PMI certification class, and 3) hold a project retrospective on our last three projects.

Action Item

An action item is a commitment to do something. It has a 'who', a 'what', and a 'by when'. With any action item, I want to know what I will have in my hands or see with my eyes that will tell me it's complete. When running my weekly team meetings, I'm focusing on what actions people are committing to for the next meeting so that I can hold people accountable to what they've signed up to deliver.

I'm sure there are other terms that get thrown around in these types of sessions, but the ones above are the core terms that are good to know. While I like mine, they are not gospel. What's most important is that everyone on your team agree to each word's meaning so everyone has the right expectations.

Does Your Team Have More Drama Than You’d Like? Look for This Plot and These 3 Characters.

Team drama takes on many forms, but it's rarely effective. Look for these patterns and use these techniques to flip the script.

As a team coach, I often get brought into situations with a lot of drama and dysfunction. Sometimes drama is too ingrained and systemized to resolve and the team needs to be disbanded and rebuilt.

In many cases, however, we can turn the ship around by recognizing patterns and the roles people are stuck in. The most common pattern I see is the Victim-Villain-Hero triangle.

In the late 1970s, psychologist Stephen Karpman identified this common Victim-Villain-Hero pattern in many dysfunctional families and relationships. These roles caused the members involved to get stuck in a downward spiral. As it turns out, we can apply this same analysis to professional team situations.

Team members might switch roles at various times, but these three roles are key to the pattern. The resulting drama triangle between these roles causes the individuals to stay stuck.

The Victim

Feels powerless and feels that everything is happening to them. They act stuck and unable to make decisions or have control over the situation. Generally they are unhappy and ashamed of the situation they are in.

The Villain

Feels they are logically correct and morally justified in their actions. They are generally blaming, critical, and demanding in their behavior. They are generally focused on doing what they feel is right and fair to the larger group or community.

The Hero

Feels the need to rescue the victim from the villain. They will often act in a caring, supportive, and self-sacrificing manner to support the victim. However, the hero is often not addressing their own obstacles or bigger issues and instead diving in to save the victim so they, the hero, can avoid harder conversations and/or avoid addressing the villain.

When I start working with dysfunctional teams, I often see this drama triangle playing out. In complex situations, and workplaces there are often multiple triangles between multiple people and situations where a person can be a victim in one triangle and a villain in another.

The first step in changing the situation is making the team aware of the pattern they are in. I give them feedback on their behavior based on specific interactions, and I help them see how they are playing out a certain role. Sometimes, just this awareness is enough to change the dynamic.

Once we expose the pattern, I can start coaching them on how to react to these situations differently. For each role there is a different, and more empowering approach they can take to improve the situation.

The Victim can help solve the problem. 

When someone feels themselves slip into victim mode, I suggest they shift to problem solving mode. Rather than wallow in their situation, they should brainstorm options. This might include resources they have and people who can help. I also suggest they shift from seeing the other person as the villain to instead seeing them as someone trying hard to live up to a high standard.

The Villain can focus on clear results.

When someone sees themselves becoming the villain, I encourage them to focus on the results they want to achieve and shift the blame and criticism. They should become a champion of higher expectations and desire and assert what they want rather than attacking the other person. I want them to ask for the other person's help and commitment to reach their shared goal. A good champion will make the other person part of the solution.

The Hero can clarify their goals and expectations.

Being a hero can feel great. You get to put on your cape and pull the victim to safety. However, this is a not a sustainable approach. Instead, I encourage the hero to think more like a coach and to help the victim generate options he or she can implement themselves. I also encourage the hero to work with the villain to help them clarify their goals and expectations.

While not all drama is the result of the victim-villain-hero triangle, and not all triangles can be successfully turned around, knowing the patterns and trying these approaches can change the dynamic when you see a team in trouble. More importantly, being aware of the tendency can help you realize when you're stuck in one yourself.

Does Your Team Set Great Goals but Then Fail to Successfully Deliver? Here Is the One Meeting You Need and How to Get It Right

Teams can set a solid strategy and create great goals but then miserably fail on the delivery. Here is the one meeting that will make a difference.

Nothing is more frustrating than having a great planning session and coming up with a breakthrough plan for the quarter, only to have the team fall short on their targets. This shortcoming not only means lost time and increased risks, it's hard on team morale, too.

Left unaddressed, this accountability problem slows down the team considerably until people leave or management steps in and shakes things up. To break out of this cycle, there is one aspect I focus on that helps rebuild the team's planning and execution capability and morale.

That one thing is the weekly planning meeting.

The weekly planning meeting is when the team looks at its goals and their individual commitments to the team and figure out what they are going to focus on and accomplish over the next seven days. Seven days is the core work cycle of the team and all it takes to rebuild a team's momentum.

The agenda for the weekly meeting is simply five questions:

1. What did you commit to for this week?

2. What did you accomplish?

3. What did you learn?

4. What do you commit to for next week?

5. What is your action plan?

For the first two or three weeks, I just ask the questions. I don't probe too deeply, I just make sure I'm clear on what they are committing to, what they are learning, and what actions they are planning. My goal is to understand the situation and the dynamic. There are a several common patterns I find within these meetings; all of which have simple fixes.

1. Focusing on too many priorities in a week.

This happens when people feel pressure and are desperate for results. They hope that committing to lots of work will offset the lack of delivery. Instead, I try to take the pressure off and just have them focus on a few simple, but highly important, tasks. Once they have success and confidence, we can rebuild to a reasonable volume.

2. Focusing on something other than a key priority.

This can happen because there is an obvious obstacle they don't know how to address or a fear of tackling something highly important and then failing. By refocusing on the main thing, breaking it down to simple set of tasks, and focusing on learning something, rather than finishing something by the end of the week, we can begin to make progress in the right direction.

3. Not having a clear sense of the goal.

Too often people make commitments that are vague and fluffy. Which means that they don't really know what they are going to do or work on which in return means they can't deliver at the end of the week. One of my favorite terms is definition of done. What am I going to see with my eyes or hold in my hands at the end of the week? Only after answering this question can we ask if that work product really helps us advance towards our goal.

4. Not planning time to do the work

This happens when someone hopes to find the time during the week to do the work they committed to, but then gets overwhelmed with day-to-day tasks. In simple cases, I help them set aside time to dedicate to the work. In severe cases, we focus on rebuilding their daily schedule and delegation plan to free them up to make time to work on weekly priority commitments.

5. Starting too late in the week.

This is a common case of procrastination. They push off the work until day five or six and then get caught waiting for someone else to reply or get back to them before they can finish. Here, I suggest the "eat the frog" approach to task management, whereby you start each day tackling the hardest, least fun task each morning so that you can get it off your plate and move on to something easier and more fun.

6. Spinning wheels on an obstacle.

Sometimes people report that they hit an obstacle quickly and then struggled with it for the remainder of the week or just shut down and stopped working. My best advice in these cases is that when you get stuck, raise your hand. One of the main reasons most businesses work in teams is so that you have multiple brains on a problem. By suffering in silence, you're undermining your team. Instead, talk to someone and get some help.

While other situations do come up, these are by far the most common, and the most addressable. Usually after a few weeks of course correction and rebuilding, the team gets back into a productive grove. And, over time, by focusing on good, realistic habits and continuously improving on process, a team can overcome and makeup for lost ground.

The Best Companies Do These Things to Attract the Best Talent, Even in a Tight Job Market

Talent can be tough to find in a tight labor market, but it shouldn't lower your standards.

While a strong economy is great for sales and market expansion, it makes for a particularly tight labor market. If you're like most companies, finding good candidates for your open positions is getting harder and harder.

You might be tempted to lower the bar and take on people you might not otherwise, but be careful. While you can lower the bar on skills and supplement with training and development, lowering the bar on cultural fit will only hurt you in the long run.

Here are the techniques I've seen the best companies use to find the best people even when there are fewer candidates looking for jobs.

1. Define the role behaviors, not experience requirements

Most companies start a job post with a long list of professional experiences, skill requirements, educational degrees, and technical certifications. These are all proxies for the actual work to be done and not always the best indicators. Plus, research shows that women, specifically, tend to not apply to a job if they don't meet all of the stated requirements, which cuts out up to half of potential candidates.

Instead, focus on listing the key job responsibilities and requirements and how these will be measured. Let people make their own call regarding whether they can successfully perform these tasks.

If you need people with licenses, required certifications, advanced degrees, or accredited education, then list those and make it clear that regardless of performance, you cannot consider candidates without these items. Only list requirements that are true deal breakers.

2. Don't try to solve process problems with role definitions

I often see job descriptions that are odd combinations of responsibilities and skills. Typically this happens because the company hasn't designed a clear operational process. They end up with a pile of operational "leftovers" and throw all of these responsibilities into a catch-all role to solve the problem.

Instead, take the time to refine your process to use skills and capabilities that you know your labor market can provide. Make investments in technology to help standardize the work.

3. Look outside your immediate industry

If you're struggling to find talent in your immediate industry, consider related industries you can pull from. You may need to do more training, but if you can find the right core skills, you can often find access to new talent quickly.

Shake off your preconceptions; focus on the core skills and attitudes of the people you need. One company I know who needed people to make marketing cold calls used out-of-work actors who not only loved having the work but also enjoyed the normal business hours.

4. Boost your internal training programs

Most companies now know that hiring for cultural fit is more important than hiring for the technical skills. Making sure everyone you bring on shares a similar set of core values and is passionate about the vision for the company creates long-term value and alignment.

However, many companies are stuck hiring for skills because they have no internal training strategy. If a company doesn't have training processes in place for new hires to utilize, it forces hiring managers to prioritize skills instead of culture fit.

Invest in a good program for teaching role-specific skills as part of the on-boarding process so that hiring managers can recruit people who will be good long-term investments. Then invest in ongoing development so you can retain those people over time.

5. Leverage the power of coaches

A thirst for learning is one of the best attributes you can have in any hire. Feeding that desire will not only allow you to boost their productivity and impact, it will also allow you to attract them in the first place. Ambitious people want to work in an environment that will fuel their growth.

Internal or external coaching can be great at getting the right talent in the door and keeping them there. Coaches not only train important leadership and management skills, but they also build a personal relationships with employees that increase their loyalty to the organization.

6. Focus on culture development

The best way to attract and retain people is to build a powerful organizational culture: figure out how you're different from every other company and what your unique attributes can offer the market.

Being different allows you to compete for talent because you offer something an employee can't get anywhere else. This focus lowers your recruiting costs and avoids increasing compensation in an effort to retain your people.

The best companies are always looking for the best talent regardless of the economic situation. They keep their standards high and trust their processes, even when the competition for talent is fierce. While they could compromise to ease the short-term pain, they know that the long-term costs aren't worth it.

If You Don’t Have a Clear Cannabis Use Policy in Your Company, Create One Now. Here’s Why

With many states legalizing cannabis, every business needs to be prepared with a clear use policy.

Today, all but four states in the US, allow for cannabis use at some level. Nine states have legalized recreational use, while others have authorized limited use of cannabis products at varying THC levels for specific medical conditions and situations. And the maps are changing quickly as state legislators introduce new bills on a monthly basis.

As the use of legal cannabis spreads, employers need to carefully consider how this will impact their workplace and the working expectations of their employees. Court cases are already starting to appear around the issue, and, it's clear, that the vast majority of businesses will be caught flat-footed if they don't get ahead of the issue.

Complicating matters is the fact that cannabis is still illegal at the federal level, which means that employers need to know what's happening federally and state-by-state if they want the full picture. Employers also need to consider the states their employees reside in not only where their business is located to fully consider the possible situations.

Topping it off is the effects of cannabis are not well understood, and drug tests are not well developed. This leaves a lot of room for uncertainty that can create sticky situations for employers. While there is a lot to be ironed out by regulators and the court system regarding legal guidelines and processes, smart companies are taking action now rather than avoiding the issue.

As a business coach, I strive to create healthy and highly productive work cultures. Here are five things I suggest to my clients, and what I see progressive companies doing to be proactive about cannabis use.

1. Get out ahead of the conversation

First, companies need to make the issue a priority in their discussions with employees. Hiding from cannabis will only lead to problems in the future. Talk about how cannabis use can impact your people and your business and openly engage in the conversation early. Work to clarify your expectations before issues arise.

2. Have a clear, written policy

Every company needs a clear, written policy on cannabis use. With the legalization of medical and recreational cannabis, the use of cannabis will only increase in the coming years. Your people will be using cannabis if they are not already, and you need to deal with it.

Clearly state what you expect around the usage and effects of cannabis. If someone has a medical use permit, can they use cannabis while in the office? Can they use the night before or the morning before they come to work? Do you have a zero-tolerance policy or are actions taken based on the circumstances? Define your guidelines and processes now.

3. Discuss the policy with all employees

Creating a policy is not enough. You need to make sure people know about the policy and understand what's in it. Burying your policy in the back of your employee binder won't pass muster. You can't enforce a policy or process that wasn't properly communicated.

Hold regular sessions to review all new employee policies and changes; include cannabis in these meetings. As the laws change and more people start to use cannabis, you'll need to update, revise, and reconsider these regularly. Start the conversation now.

4. Apply the policy fairly and evenly

Like all expectations and policies, you need to apply them in a fair and balanced manner. Make sure your policies and enforcement processes don't create bias by role or employee. Unfortunately, the enforcement of marijuana law has been significantly racially biased by the law enforcement and the justice system. You need to make sure your approach doesn't perpetuate this problem.

5. Stay up-to-date on changes in local laws

There is new cannabis legislation on a weekly basis as laws are developed and passed. Courts are continuing to sort through cases to establish precedent and applications of these laws. Subscribe to a good news service such as the Marijuana Policy Project to stay abreast of new and upcoming legislation and update your policy as needed.

Many employers are taking a 'wait and see,' or even a 'hide and hope,' approach to cannabis. And while they are avoiding the work of having to deal with the issue now, they are only creating bigger issues in the future. Employers who get out ahead of the topic will not only avoid difficult situations, but they will also attract employees who appreciate working for a company who is proactive and allows them to use cannabis safely.

When Pricing Your Product or Service, Forget About Your Costs and Focus on Delivered Value. Here’s How.

Don't leave money on the table. Here's how to get your pricing right and put more money in your pocket.

While it's not hard to price a product or service to sell, it's much harder to find the one that maximizes profits. Many companies play it safe, leaving too much money on the table as they try to maximize their close rate rather than the amount of cash that goes to the bottom line.

Here are some of the key pricing factors to consider. While there is no magic formula, experimenting with these strategies will increase your success and the amount of money that falls into your pocket at the end of the day.

1. Think about its value, not its cost.

Many people start the process of figuring out how to price their products or services by the costs that go into producing and delivering them. While you need to know your costs, that's not how you should determine your price.

Instead, start by calculating the value you create for your clients. How much more revenue do they make? How much more profit? Do you increase sales or lower costs or remove risks? Answer all of these questions and then use this data to calculate your optimal pricing.

2. Calculate the cost of inaction.

One thing many people fail to do is calculate the prospect's cost of inaction. It's easy to see the cost of your product or service, but often times the client's real cost comes from doing nothing. Be sure to consider the factor of time on these costs as well. When a buyer has less time, they have fewer choices and face increased risk and pressure. You should increase your prices accordingly.

3. Remove the buying risk.

Sometimes clients are hesitant to buy because they are not sure you can deliver on it even though they can see the benefit. While testimonials work well to convince people, sometimes you need to use a stronger strategy. If buyers remain skeptical but interested, offer them a satisfaction guarantee (we keep working until you're happy) or a money-back guarantee (you get all or part of your fee back if you're not happy).

If you've done a good job prospecting, these will be rare. Work into your fees a small percentage of clients that don't work out or result in extra work. It's often easier to do this than what you would spend on sales and marketing

4. Deliver a 10x return.

A good rule of thumb is that you want your clients to get getting a ten times return on your fees. So if you charge $50K for your services, then they should be seeing $500K or more in value. This could be top line growth, reduction of expenses, or a removal of high-impact risk. Ten times leaves the buyer with a solid business case for the sale.

5. Sell on emotions, but justify with logic.

The research shows that people make decisions using emotions and then justify them using logic. People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. Yet we often forget that and try to push a sale through based on business rationale.

By demonstrating that buying your product or service is easy, that working with you is a pleasure, and that you can be counted on to deliver the results you promise, you will be able to demand a premium price in the market. While other reasons might make business sense, people would rather pay more for knowing they will enjoy the process.

6. Have a rock solid positioning stratey.

Your best pricing strategy is to have a great positioning strategy. Seth Godin's book Purple Cow explains how the challenge in business is standing out. One of the best ways to do that is to focus on a specific type of customer and to offer a unique and interesting set of qualities and attributes based on their needs.

Doing so will make you stand out and make it hard for prospects to choose your competitors. When you're the only option that truly meets the needs of your target customer, they will happily pay more because you solve their problem well without the fluff and complexity of other options.

7. Don't set your pricing in stone.

Since customer situations and the value of your product or service are continuously changing, consider changing your price as well. We pay a lot more for next-day delivery (far more than it costs the company) and we pay many times more for a soda in a movie theater than we do at the supermarket. Why not charge different prices for different situations?

While pricing is both an art and a science, getting it right is critical to business success. There are many factors to consider and variables to estimate. Just keep in mind that just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the price that works best is the one that your customer are willing to pay.

The Most Important Part of Taking a New Job Is How You Handle Leaving Your Current One

Getting ready to jump ship? Even if you can't wait to leave, don't burn your bridges on the way out.

While company loyalty is important and many companies will reward people for long tenures, switching jobs is part of the normal course of business. However, the fact that there is an expectation that you will leave, doesn't mean you should take leaving lightly.

How you make your exit will have a large impact on your professional reputation, and you want to get it right. Have a plan and make sure you're taking the high road regardless of what other people do or say along the way. Here's what to keep in mind.

1. Don't play games.

For example, going out and getting job offers in order to pressure your current employer for a promotion or more money is a dicey game to play. While it might be warranted when you have clearly been passed over or are well below market rates, you can only play this card once, and you need to play it carefully.

Be completely committed to the process and only stay at your current employer if they give you a big bump. Using this technique to nickel and dime your way to higher compensation will wear your employer thin. Plus, you'll most likely not receive an offer from the new company again, so you'll be burning that bridge, too. f you work in a small industry and people talk, you might be burning others too.

2. Keep doing your job.

It's to your benefit to stay focused on your current job while you're still employed. It's also the right thing to do. They are paying your salary and have every right to expect you to perform well. Until the end of your last day, keep your head in the game.

Another reason to finish strong is you want your current employer to know that you cared enough to give it your all. Sometimes, after you make the move, things go sideways or you realized it was the wrong decision. Leaving on a good note increases the chance they would welcome you back if you were to change your mind.

3. Communicate once you've decided.

Once you've made the final decision to take a new position, be sure to communicate clearly to the right people in a timely manner. You don't want people to find out in the wrong way or from the wrong person. This misstep can lead to hurt feelings and people questioning your intentions.

Generally, I suggest that once you have a final offer letter from the new employer and you've made the decision to accept the offer, let your immediate manager or supervisor know that you are leaving. You're departure will impact them the most and they will appreciate being the first to know.

Depending on the situation, assume a two-weeks' notice, but I might offer an additional two weeks if your current employer asks for it and your new employer doesn't mind. From there, let your current employer's HR department know and then your colleagues and friends.

4. Be appreciative.

Throughout the leaving process and with everyone you speak to, be sure to thank them for the opportunities they've given you and for what you've learned. Venting your frustrations as you head out the door might feel good in the moment, but it won't help your future prospects and you'll likely regret it.

If you want to kick it up a notch, write personal thank you notes or even leave small tokens of appreciations behind for the people who you really connected with and the people who impacted your career. You never know if they will be in a position to hire you in the future or show up in your new company as your new boss.

5. Don't gossip.

It's tempting to show up at a new company and start sharing all of the internal drama and dysfunction from your old company with your new colleagues. It feels powerful and gives you a lot of attention while you're trying to fit in. Resist that urge.

Not only does it lack integrity, it might be in violation of your previous employment agreement. It will also paint you as a gossip and people might reasonable think that you'll spill their beans in your next job.

Interviewing and taking a new position is never easy: it's a mix of emotions and opportunities. Nobody expects you to get everything right, but handling yourself with poise and having a plan to make the transition smooth for everyone will serve you well now and in the future.

5 Ways to Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills as a Business Leader

Highly successful leaders are exceptional critical thinkers. Here are five ways to improve your approach to strategic problem-solving and decision-making.

As a strategic business coach, one of my core responsibilities is leveling up leadership skills on the senior team. I like to say, if you want to grow and scale a business, you have to grow and scale its leadership. And one of the key skills I focus on is critical thinking.

As a business grows in size, so does the complexity and scope of its problems and challenges. Without good critical-thinking skills, leaders will make poor decisions and fail to take advantage of strategic opportunities. Very often, what holds the business back from reaching its true potential is a lack in the leadership of foresight and effective problem-solving skills.

Here are five key things I focus on when working with leaders to improve their ability to identify, analyze, solve, and implement effective problem-solving strategies.

1. Gather more and better data

The first thing I emphasize is that most teams try to make decisions with limited and poor-quality data. Good critical thinkers start by collecting as much high-quality data as possible. They don't take things at face value. They question summaries and dig to make sure that they really understand what's happening on the ground and maximize the raw information they have to work with.

This includes both structured and unstructured data as well as quantitative and qualitative information. It's also important to look at history and trends and to compare the data you're looking at with other benchmarks and norms. Good thinkers don't rely upon summaries and averages; they go back to the source and get the raw information.

2. Learn how to separate fact from inference

Once you've collected information, it's key to understand the difference between facts and inferences. Too often leaders will make an assumption about what's really true and treat it as a fact when what they are really dealing with is an inference. This creates a shaky foundation for any future thinking and decision-making.

A fact is objectively observable by other people. An inference is something that includes an assumption or an opinion that may or may not be true. If you literally drive from New York to L.A. and it takes 58 hours, that's a fact. If you use a map to calculate the distance and estimate an average speed to get to 58 hours, that is an inference. Don't confuse the two.

3. Break things down to first principles

I encourage leaders and teams to think in first principles. These are the fundamental building blocks in thinking and decision-making. They are the core elements that are true regardless of situation and context.

They generally are found by asking clarifying questions, considering alternatives, and testing assumptions. Once you have a good set of first principles, you then have the elements you need to start creating new options and new solutions that you can be confident in.

For example, the first principle in tennis is that a ball hit with topspin will fall faster than one hit with backspin. A good tennis player knows how to use this in different scenarios to create strategic effects. By combining this with other principles, an expert player can make plays that leverage their strengths and exploit their opponent's weaknesses.

4. Develop effective models

Another tool that can be very effective for teams and leaders is thinking in terms of models or analogies. While these are an abstraction and reduction of reality, and therefore wrong at some level, they can be useful for simplifying a situation and quickly finding alternatives and strategies. 

For example, economies of scale is a model for how price changes with volume. While a specific situation may not follow the model perfectly, it can help a business figure out how to gain efficiencies by increasing the volume while holding costs the same.

The trick with models is to know where and why they work and how they can fall short. Models can help you quickly generate insights and strategies, but you need to be aware of their limits and not get lulled into a false sense of security about reality.

5. Continuously challenge your assumptions

Maybe the most important thing I focus on with leaders and teams is to create ways of testing and validating their assumptions quickly. If left unchecked, an assumption can lead to poor thinking and bad decision-making. This can be avoided by quickly going out into the real world and seeing if what you're assuming holds up in the field.

By developing your critical-thinking skills, you'll improve your decision-making and ultimately get better outcomes and long-term results. And while some of these steps may take some time and energy, they are good investments and will yield strong returns. 

Want to Scale Your Business Faster and Easier? Get Clear on These Two Things

Growing your business quickly requires you to focus your strategy. Here are five steps that'll get you there.

As a strategic coach, I work with companies to figure out how to go from a couple million to a couple hundred million in revenue, which is a very challenging phase of growth. The key to getting to that next level is zeroing in on a strategy that is both effective and highly scalable.

The irony is, the faster you want to scale a business, the more you need to focus your strategy. This includes choosing a specific product or service that you are uniquely good at as well as identifying a specific customer whom you serve particularly well.

That said, here are five key steps you can follow to identify a strategy that will allow you to scale more quickly and with less drama.

1. Identify your core customer

The first thing to do is figure out exactly who your best customer is. Clearly identifying the segment where you are most successful will allow you to focus your sales and marketing efforts and optimize your spending.

The fact is, most companies try to sell to too many types of customers and water down their efforts. Find the one that works best and double down.

The best way to identify your core customer is to look at your current customer base and ask three key questions: Who are your most profitable customers? Which customers are easy to serve? Which customers will promote you in the industry or have a reputation that allows you to sell more effectively?

By asking these three questions and seeing which customers rise to the top, you'll begin to identify what types of customers you should go out and find more of.

2. Shed any and all bad fits

The next step is difficult for most companies but critical for scaling a business. Once you identify your customer you need to stop doing business with everyone else. This doesn't mean you need to fire all your non-ideal clients tomorrow, but you do need to potentially raise rates, stop offering discounts, not provide extra services, and limit the time and energy you spend on them.

It also means you need to set up filters and qualifications in your sales and marketing funnel to remove prospects who do not fit your core customer profile. While it can be hard to say no, it will free up space for you to search for, find, and close better leads.

3. Hone your products and services

Once you've identified your core customer, you begin to see which of your current products and services create the most value for their business. By slimming down your portfolio and focusing on just those offerings that are the highest value, you can simplify your operations.

While there are many products and services you could provide, the fact is that you have limited time, energy, and resources. You should only focus on those that create the most benefit and that allow you to charge the highest prices to make the highest profit. Doing otherwise is just leaving money on the table.

4. Standardize your processes and procedures

The other benefit of limiting the products and services that you offer is that you can simplify your business. With a limited set of offerings, you reduce the complexity of your processes and procedures as well as the breadth of skills and experiences that you need on your teams. Focusing allows you to simplify and streamline many aspects of your operations.

5. Create a brand promise and guarantee

Now that you've identified whom specifically you sell to, what product or service you offer them, and what value you create, you can hone your marketing message. By creating a brand promise that clearly communicates to your target customer what it is you do and what benefit they will gain, you will make it much easier to generate leads and close deals.

A brand promise guarantee shows your prospect that you're willing to put skin in the game and back your product or service with a meaningful and significant commitment. For example, Domino's knew that delivering on time was so important that they would give you your pizza for free if it wasn't there in 30 minutes. The rest is history.

Like many aspects of a business, identifying your core customer and core offering is not complicated, but it's not easy. It takes focus and willingness to make tough decisions and not get distracted by shiny objects.