Bruce Eckfeldt 12/2/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 12/2/21

The Demand For Unique Talent Is Creating A Surge In New Types Of Team And New Ways Of Working Together

Teams that don't sit side-by-side every day have challenges, but they also have some advantages. Here are 5 ways to thrive as a distributed team.

Over the last two decades, I've seen outsourced development come and go. During the late 1990's and early 2000's, many companies looked to outsourcing technical services to drive down costs by finding highly-skilled talent at a fraction of the cost. As it turns out, people dramatically underestimated the complexities of managing distributed teams at that point in time, and these complexities led to inefficiencies, quality issues, and schedule delays.

Over the last decade, however, distributed teams have seen a resurgence. Not in hopes of financial savings, but rather to access unique and hard-to-find talent such as technology, design, and data analytics.

Having been a team coach during much of that time period, I've seen many of these distributed teams struggle, but I've also witnessed many of these teams excel, too. The best ones do not achieve this success by overcoming their challenges, rather, they turn their challenges into advantages. If you're on a distributed team or your company is building a distributed team, here are a few key considerations to keep in mind.

1. Create multi-channel meeting environments

Technology has evolved in so many ways. One of the most useful advances has been in the development of collaborative documents and video streams. I encourage my distributed teams to have two screens on during our meetings. One with the video feed and one for a collaborative document. Sharing a screen for these two functions limits interaction. Instead, fire up an online document and let everyone type at the same time while still being able to look everyone in the eye.

2. Formalize informal conversation

One of the biggest things distributed teams miss is the water cooler banter and chit-chat before a meeting starts. For my distributed teams, this is built into the meeting agenda. We spend 5-10 minutes at the start of each meeting with a conversational opener that has nothing to do with the meeting topic. Pick a question that gets people talking and learning about each other before you switch into work mode.

3. Leverage "always-on" technology

Technology and connections are so ubiquitous now that I suggest teams ditch the scheduled video call and move to always-on devices. Having a tablet next to you with a continuous video stream takes some getting used to. However, it's great (and worth it!) when you want to have a short conversation to ask a question. I've seen people spin their wheels for hours because they didn't pick up the phone to ask a simple question.

4. DJ rather than facilitate

Facilitation skills are key for distributed teams. I make sure everyone is trained as a facilitator. But I like to take it one step further. I suggest to whoever is running the meeting that he or she DJ the experience. This usually involves music and rituals at the start and stop of the meeting; this could even include cheers, chants, and call-and-repeats that create energy and focus. I've been in more than one meeting that has had a dance party at some point.

5. Master asynchrony thinking

The most advanced distributed teams I've worked with have mastered asynchronous thinking. Whereas co-located teams thrive on gathering in a meeting room to hash out ideas in heated, often quick-paced debate, well-distributed teams evolve ideas and build concepts over time using different communication channels. To use the Daniel Kahneman term, distributed teams are better at slow thinking, which is a much better mode to be in for finding solutions to complicated, multifaceted problems.

While co-located teams have many advantages, the fact is they are not always possible. Distributed teams are here to stay and will most likely become even more popular has technology continues to develop. And while it's no secret that distributed teams create some unique challenges, following these suggestions can help turn them from a liability into an asset.

Bruce Eckfeldt 11/30/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 11/30/21

Want To Improve Your Productivity? Make Sure You Avoid These 6 Time-Wasting Taste

If you're not working on your high-value activities, you're likely wasting time. Here are six areas where many executives spend time but shouldn't.

Every founder, CEO, and executive I coach complains that they don't have enough time. And I get it. Time is the one resource we can never get more of: We can't save for later, and it's the one thing everyone always wants from us. Yet most of them spend time on tasks that they really shouldn't. There are two main reasons why.

First, many professionals haven't figured out their high-value activities. These are the things you do that create disproportionately high results. Many executives that I coach haven't taken the time to identify their 3-5 highest-value activities, which means they simply don'tt know where to focus their time.

Second, they do low-value tasks because they get caught in the trap of thinking they can do it better. And here's why: They can do it better. But that doesn't mean they should.

Your time is your most precious resource and you should compare everything against your value/time ratio--not by task efficiency. If a task is not high-value for you, don't do it--even if it takes someone else ten times longer.

Here are six key areas where you can leverage support staff and outsourced services to free you up for higher value activities:

1. Scheduling meetings and calls

This can be a tough one to let go. Everyone likes to control their schedule.

However, you don't have to give up all control. Instead, create time blocks for different types of activities and then let someone else work out the details.

It's a strategy that I call the Defensible Calendar. Create an ideal week using daily time blocks and then funnel events accordingly. An executive assistant or an automatic booking system will free you up from the back and forth of trying to find a time that works for each party.

2. Sorting through email

It's amazing how much time we spend sorting messages. Instead, have an assistant triage your email several times a day and sort into now, later, and never.

Then, only address what you need to address. Whenever possible, send someone else instructions and have them write a response and handle it for you.

Master the art of what I can the Introgation, where you combine an introduction and delegation by cc'ing a third party and ask them to handle the request. That way you can stay in the loop but out of the driver's seat.

3. Editing and proofreading

The formality of writing has decreased dramatically with e-mail and messaging--but typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors will always hurt your professional image. Fortunately, these are easy things for other people to catch and fix.

Having someone who can peruse and correct your communications before they go out is an easy task to delegate. Even better, write out a rough draft or a set of notes and have someone write up a final draft for you to revise and send.

Once you've worked with someone for a while, they can pick up your style and mannerisms to make communications feel like they're coming from you.

4. Collecting and consolidating information

If you manage several teams and projects, there's a lot of information that needs to be gathered and organized. Project reports, status updates, and staff reviews all need to be collected and consolidated before they can be analyzed for insights.

A good assistant or project manager can do the heavy lifting and free you up to do the analysis and make the decisions. For those who are technically inclined, look at incorporating one of the report automation tools or dashboard integration platforms.

5. Research and data gathering

Good decisions require good data. However, that data can be hard to find and time consuming to gather.

Scouring through reams of paper, dozens of web pages, or tables of data takes time and persistence. Having someone do the heavy lifting can increase the data you have and ultimately improve the quality of your decision-making.

6. Travel reservations and confirmations

I've seen key executives spend hours trying to find a cheaper flight that, in the end, was only $100 less than the original.

While I'm all for managing costs and reducing hard expenses, this is not the best use of your time, especially when you have other tasks that can help generate top line growth. A well-trained assistant or one of the many good executive travel services can save you time, offer the best possible arrangements, reduce your costs, and maximize your reward programs.

Once you switch your perspective from task efficiency to value creation, choosing to delegate these and many other tasks becomes a much easier choice to make. And while you'll never find more time, you'll enjoy the time you do have more knowing you're making the most of it.

Bruce Eckfeldt 11/25/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 11/25/21

Two Question You Must Answer Before Designing Your Sales Compensation Plan

There's more than one way to pay sales people. Here are the two key questions you need to answer before you decide which model to choose.

If you ask ten CEOs how they compensate their sales people, you'll probably get eleven different answers. Everyone has a different plan and has changed it more than once. As a business and executive coach, it's a question I get all of the time. And it's not an easy one to answer.

There are two basic questions you need to address before deciding on a compensation plan for your salespeople.

First, you need to know what you can afford.

Start by figuring out the total value of a new sale and then back out your costs. Total value is the total lifetime revenue of a new account, less delivery costs and the related portion of overhead. I typically look at 6-24 months for most industries.

Secondly, you need to look at your sales process and decide who manages which risks.

I do this by determining the uncertainties in the sale and who is in the best position to impact these. For example, if pricing is variable and something the salesperson will decide, I want to design a compensation plan that make their compensation dependent on profit not revenue so they negotiate the highest price.

Once you have your budget and know the variables, you can look at any of these six strategies to create your compensation plan:

1. Fixed base salary

I've seen more than one company take this approach. Here there is a clear set of expectations and measures of success, but there is no variable compensation, just a base salary.

I find this works well when the sales team is tightly coupled and involved in delivery and overall company performance. It's also a cultural decision for your company. If you're a very collaborative culture, you might want to consider this type of model.

2. Commission on closed sales

The opposite of a fixed-base salary is an "you eat what you kill" approach. Here, compensation is totally dependent what you sell and you make a fixed, or possible graduated, percentage of the sale price. This works well in highly competitive environments where the sale is transactional in nature and the product is a commodity.

This typically does not work well when there is a lot of consulting, configuration, or customer services involved in the sale. Often salespeople on these types of plans will promise the world and leave the rest of the work up to the delivery team. Not a good formula.

3. Commission on lifetime value

This is a slight twist on the previous option. Instead of basing the commission on just the first transaction, the commission is paid out over time based on repeat sales by the same customer.

This works best when the true customer value is based on an ongoing relationship. This model will create incentive for sales people to close deals that will build a relationship, not just on the first transaction.

4. Commission on gross profit

This model pays a commission, but only on the gross profit and not on the total sale price. Use this model when your salesperson is involved in configuring the solution or the choice of customer has a strong impact on cost of delivery and service. The salesperson is compensated for choosing a good customer and selling them the right product or service that can be profitably delivered on.

5. Performance bonus

In this model, a salesperson has incentive to work more and harder for certain types and amounts of business based on specific sales targets and metrics. This could be anything from sales of a specific size, location, business type or target accounts.

I've seen this work well when a company has certain strategic goals and these goals do not easily tie back to revenue or profit calculations. I've seen companies, using this style of compensation, cap bonuses to diversify risk and clientele or to gain market share in emerging sectors.

6. Team bonus

This approach can use any of the above models, but the compensation is calculated based on aggregate team numbers, or overall company performance, rather than individual performance.

This works well when the company culture is much more collaborative and people work together to sell and close deals. It's also a good choice when there are different roles and services required for the sales process, such as technical engineers who help design and configure solutions for the potential client.

Often times companies start with one approach and evolve to others as they figure out what works best for them, their markets, and their people. In the end, the best approach is the one that delivers profitable clients, creates a happy sales team, and aligns with your company's core values.

Bruce Eckfeldt 11/23/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 11/23/21

Only 1 in 20 Businesses Surpass $1 Million In Annual Revenues. Here Are 5 Reasons Why

There are many reasons why business struggle to grow. However, many of them are internal and can be addressed with the right focus, strategy, and discipline.

Growing a business is hard. Fewer than five percent of all businesses in the US grow to be more than $1 million in annual revenues. And fewer than one percent make it to $10 million. There are many reasons why companies fail to scale: bad timing, a poor economy, ruthless competitors, or shifts in underlying political or cultural trends.

However as a business coach, having worked with dozens of companies ranging from early stage startups to successful businesses with hundreds of millions in revenue, I find that most companies fail to scale because of internal reasons not external ones.

Here are the most common problems I see. Addressing these, you'll have a much better chance of reaching your organization's true potential.

1. Dysfunctional, or non-existent, leadership team

Often, I find that the leadership team is not functioning well, if there is one at all. While a visionary Founder is needed to get the company off the ground and a great CEO is needed to lead the growth, without a solid team of key executives to head up the various functions, a company will quickly reach a growth ceiling.

One of the first things I do with new clients is to help the Founder/CEO envision the company at the next level--typically 3-5 times the current size--and have them design the ideal leadership team. By envisioning the departments, functions, and leadership qualities of their ideal teams, we set a clear goal to guide our talent acquisition and development.

2. People not aligned around a set of core values

Nothing kills a company's growth prospect more than if the people do not share a common set of core values. Your values define your priorities and the trade offs you're willing to make. If people are not aligned around a common set of values, they will pull in different directions and undermine each other's efforts.

I'm a strong believer that core values are emergent rather than chosen. I have teams choose values they feel are representative of their company and then we test them by finding examples of them at work in the choices they've made, especially the tough ones. Once we have a core set, we promote them in the hiring process to reinforce and propagate them within the company.

3. Poorly defined core customer, core product/service, and core channel

The irony of scaling is that the faster you want to scale, the more you need to narrow your focus and the less you need to offer. By choosing a core customer, product or service, and channel, you increase your chances of success because you make it easier to optimize, streamline, train, and communicate.

Many companies want to sell anything to anyone in hopes of getting more business. However, it's better to zero in on a core customer and target a core product or service so that you can streamline and optimize to increase our growth rate and profitability.

4. Too much drama in your critical processes

Every business has 5-8 critical processes that give it a competitive advantage in their market. If these are not running smoothly, it means you'll scale our problems when we scale the business.

Start by looking at the stream of value that is delivered to your customer and identify the key areas in which the business needs to be successful in order to win. Once we have the top 5-8 identified, we can then look at removing waste and inefficiencies without comprising value.

5. Failure to master your cashflow

Everyone knows the saying, "Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, and cash is king." When you're looking to scale, this catchphrase is twice as true. Many companies grow themselves in a cash crunch because they failed to determine how much additional cash would be consumed by marketing and sales costs, additional raw material and inventory, and hiring and training new staff.

Creating a detailed cash flow map, showing how cash moves into and out of your business is the first step to getting your hands around your finances. Then, you can start making changes to your standard practices in order to optimize your receivables and liabilities, improving your position and reducing the cash demands that will be put on you as you scale.

While getting these right won't guarantee success, they can greatly reduce the chances you'll get stuck. And usually, you don't need to address them all at once. Find the one that is currently constraining the business the most and start there. But keep an eye out for the next bottleneck, and be ready to refocus your efforts.

Bruce Eckfeldt 11/18/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 11/18/21

Finding A Good Salesperson Is Hard, But Managing Them Is Even Harder If You Haven’t Answered These 4 Questions

The only thing harder than finding good sales people is managing them. Make sure you answer these four questions before making your next offer.

Every CEO I've worked with has struggled with salespeople. I've heard stories from many top executives who have endured months and quarters of lackluster results and protracted performance improvement plans that end in finally letting someone go because they simply can't deliver. Unfortunately, this result usually occurs after they've invested tens of thousand of dollars.

In order to make sure you're hiring the right salespeople for the right sales positions, there are several questions you need to ask yourself. Answering these questions will help make sure you and your sales team are in sync regarding company goals and compensation plans that makes sense to both parties.

1. Do they need to generate their own leads or just close deals?

This is a common problem. Many times, salespeople are hired and then have no prospects to sell. If you expect your sales team to generate their own sales leads, then make sure this message is crystal clear up front. Most sales people expect to be given a list of warm prospects, which is usually done through an internal or external marketing team.

If you expect your salespeople to generate their own leads, they will need some time to process resources. Whether it's networking, cold calling, or trade shows, they will need training, collateral, content, and budgets. This time and energy should be figured into the sales budget and timeframe estimates.

2. How do I want to compensate my sales people?

Many CEOs struggle to decide if they should pay a fixed annual salary, a pure commission, or a blend: a base and a bonus. I find that the best arrangement for the compensation of your sales team is a question of culture, situation, and risk tolerance. I've seen all of these work well in different situations.

Regardless, if you decide to make some or all of a salesperson's compensation variable based on performance of some sort, you need to have a clear understanding of what counts and what doesn't. I've seen too many misunderstandings and disagreements about qualifying revenues and calculations that could have been avoided with more clarity upfront.

3. What can I measure and what do I manage?

All good sales teams and sale processes have good management. Making sales is a process and, like all good processes, it needs checkpoints, key performance indicators, targets, and measures of quality.

Find 5-8 stages in your sales process to track and measure progress and achievements. Knowing what's going into it, what's passing through it, and what's coming out of it will give you important data regarding what to expect and what to pay attention to.

4. What are my red, green, and wow numbers?

Regardless of whether it's your hiring commission or salaried salespeople, define your performance expectations upfront and certainly before you hire them. I suggest 8-10 key areas of performance that you define in clear, measurable terms.

I like to set three key numbers for each area of performance. My red number is my "Houston, we have a problem" number. Green is my minimum expectation. Anything between red and green is yellow. Finally my wow number is the figure I would really happy with but is a bit of a stretch.

By defining these up front and having my salespeople clearly agree to them before they start, I take the drama out of performance management. I'm no longer the bad guy. We're just sitting down and reviewing the numbers and the results. Everyone can see if it's working or if it's not.

Sales is hard. But hiring and managing sales people doesn't have to be. By asking yourself these questions and developing good, clear answers to them, you'll make your life easier and your sales team more successful.

Bruce Eckfeldt 11/16/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 11/16/21

3 Steps You Can Take To Make Your Services Business Scale Faster And Easier

Service-based businesses are notoriously hard to scale. These three steps will make it easier and accelerate the process.

Service-based businesses are tough to scale. Whether you're an architecture firm, consulting agency, technical service provider, or you're in the business of home health care, office staffing, or tutoring, figuring out how to take your business to the next level is a serious challenge.

Most services companies cap out at a few dozen people. At this size, it's still possible to have personal relationships with everyone and monitor performance and quality on a one-on-one basis. Processes in these companies are intuitive and everyone learns through hands-on experience gained by working with other staff over time. Often these models have a few expert, long-timers at the top and more junior people at the bottom.

Businesses that do make it beyond this level usually do so by creating fiefdoms lead by senior experts who manage their own teams and their own collection of clients. Often times these are organized by practice area or geography.

While this method will expand total revenues, it's technically not scaling the company. It's more of a loose confederation of business that share the same brand, infrastructure, and back office.

If you want to scale, then the goal for a service-based business is to look and operate more like a product company. The more you can package and define your services as products, the easier it will be to scale. There are three key steps you can take to begin this process and make it easier to build your business.

1. Define your core customer.

The first thing to do is to define your core customer. Start with your current customer base and look for those clients who meet three core criteria: they are profitable, they don't cause drama, and they refer other clients like them. If you can find a good collection of those, you have your starting point.

Once you have a collection to look at, figure out what is similar about them. What do you notice about who they are, how they think, and what they value? What situations were they in when they hired you? What rationale did they give? What channel did they come through? These will give you insights about where you can find more of them and how you can best sell to them.

2. Solve one critical problem really well.

Often times when I'm working with companies, I find they are selling everything to anyone in hopes of expanding their customer base. While this might seem like a good way to grow a business, it's not actually very effective. By doing too much for too many people, you become too general with mediocre skills rather than an expert on one thing and servicing a specific niche. In order to scale, you need to refine your service offering as well as your target customer.

In order to figure out which of your services you should zero in on, step back and look at the problems you are solving. Look for the most difficult problem that, when solved, generates the most value for your customer.

Often times, many of the problems you solve for a customer can be solved in other ways by other people as well. And sometimes other people solve the same problems for less money, time, or complexity. Weed those out until you're left with the problems that only you can solve well and ones where you can create significant value for your customer.

3. Package your service like a product.

Once you have your core service, you'll want to begin to package it like a product. Products are things that solve problems. I have a computer to get access to the internet. I drink coffee for a productivity boost. I read a book to be entertained by a good story. These products solve an important need I have. You want your service to do the same.

For a service to look like a product to your customer, you need a combination of three things. First, you need a unique process which defines your key inputs, stages of production, and roles of the people involved.

Second, you need a brand position that articulates the problem that you're solving for the customer (not the benefit of your service).

And finally, you need a tangible set of outcomes that the customer can touch and feel when done. Outcomes that give them evidence that their problem has been solved.

Getting these three steps right will greatly facilitate the process of scaling your services business. Knowing these and getting them right will make sales, pricing, hiring, training, and accounting much easier and will become touchstones for your future decision making and strategy development.

Bruce Eckfeldt 11/11/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 11/11/21

Most Business Retreats Are A Boondoggle, Here Are Five Ways To Make Yours Add Real Value

Many retreats are thinly veiled vacations. If you want to get the most out of your investment, follow these five recommendations.

There are many different types of retreats. Whether it's a project team offsite, a leadership team strategy workshop, or a forum or mastermind deep dive, these all have similar intentions and desired outcomes. The goal of a retreat is to get out of the day-to-day and outside of your regular environment so that you can focus on an issue or set of issues with greater purpose and intensity.

However, just getting out of regular routines won't ensure that you'll make progress or create value. You need to make decisions, clarify your focus, set your intentions, and do the work. Without these steps, you'll likely be wasting your money, and more importantly, your energy.

I've planned and facilitated dozens of these types of retreats for leadership teams, non-profit boards, Entrepreneurs' Organization and Young Presidents' Organization forums, and mastermind groups. I know first-hand what goes into designing, planning, and executing these types of programs.

I use five focuses to make sure everyone gets something of value out of the experience:

1. Have a goal.

Start by having a clear and well-defined goal. This can be solving a specific problem, advancing an issue, or building bonds within a team. Regardless, make sure that you have a clear set of objectives and a desired outcome before you start planning details.

Often times I will do a simple survey of each member. I ask what they want out of the experience, what they want to accomplish, and previous experiences they have had.

I then do one-on-one interviews to tease out any details and differences that might exist between the individual members. Based on this data, I can create goals and the objectives that create the most impact.

2. Create the right space.

One of the main reasons groups do retreats is to get out of the standard day-to-day environment. This allows everyone to see things in a new light and from a different vantage point.

Your surroundings will have a big impact on your conversation. Consider carefully what your physical environment should be and what resources with which you want to surround yourself.

Don't stop at the physical space. What psychological space do you want to create? Do you want comfortable and relaxing or high energy and creative?

Take some time to consider how you want to shake things up in order to shake up your thinking and your team dynamic. I've had retreats that have met in a hotel lounge, a hut at the top of a mountain, and while huddled around a campfire.

3. Come prepared.

Nothing makes your retreat time more valuable than when people come prepared and ready. Have everyone gather information or do some prep work. I make sure that people have done everything they need in order to be totally present and engaged.

Coming prepared includes getting important work done before the retreat so they are not working their regular jobs on night shift. I also make sure people have set their vacation responders on their phone and email so they are not preoccupied about taking calls and answering messages.

4. Do the work.

It's not enough just to show up at a retreat. You need to be ready and willing to do the work. Make sure everyone is contributing their best ideas and insights and staying fully engaged.

This is especially your responsibility if you're the retreat's planner and facilitator. Make sure you have a good agenda and stay on topic during the meetings.

Beyond the basic agenda, it's a good idea to set clear ground rules that will help everyone stay focused and on point. Give everyone a role so that they are participants, not just observers. Set clear expectations regarding technology use, breaks, conversation protocols, and processes.

5. Make commitments.

A great retreat can fail miserably without action items and commitments. At the end of each session, review decisions and agreements such as who will do what by when. I like to capture these using sticky notes on walls so we can build a visual artifact and remind everyone during the meeting what has already been completed.

At the end of the meeting, we review, photograph, and create documents of these items that are distributed to everyone. We also create calendar reminders to check in on progress and completion before we leave the meeting.

While the purpose of a retreat is to explore and discover new ideas and possibilities in a novel and stimulating environment, you don't want to leave everything to chance. Proper planning, focus, and goal setting will make sure you make the most of your time. And done right, the planning will make the experience even more fun than a vacation would have been.

Bruce Eckfeldt 11/9/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 11/9/21

The Difference Between Good And Bad Managers Comes Down To Four Key Assumptions

Managing people is difficult, but it doesn't have to be. Avoid these four assumptions to make you job--and your employees lives--easier.

If you're a CEO or key executive in a growing company, you face many challenges. Almost daily you're dealing with everything from developing a clear strategy and creating efficient processes to driving profitability and ensuring proper cash flow.

However, as a business and executive coach, the one I see my clients struggle the most with is people management. It requires you to develop a diverse set of tools for dealing with different situations, and successful leaders know that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to this job.

While there is no one simple solution, there are four common mistakes many managers make. These are assumptions that are easy to make and will lead to poor decisions, misunderstandings, and suboptimal results.

1. Perspective

Poor managers assume that their perspective is the only one that matters, sometimes the only one that exists. Great managers understand that there are many vantage points, they work hard to collect information, and they appreciate differences. They take the time to understand different points of view, even if they don't agree with them.

Take time to collect information and different points of view. When presenting ideas and making requests, consider the perspective of the other person and how he or she is going to perceive your request. The more you can take into account his situation, the more successful you'll be as a manager.

2. Communication

I've worked with many very senior managers who assume that when they say something, other people understand it. Communication is, in fact, a very complicated process involving ideas, sound creation, transmission, reception, interpretation, and comprehension. Each of these is fraught with the potential for errors.

Great managers know that any one of these steps can fail and cause confusion. First, they work hard to clarify their own thoughts and requests before they communicate. And once they clarify, they know they need to repeat communication multiple times in different ways to ensure that a message is delivered successfully. Finally, they have people relay back to them their understanding so as to ensure the precise message was delivered correctly.

3. Consistency

The only thing that frustrates employees more than when a manager changes their mind is when that same manager then claims that's what they always wanted. Managers are not infallible and employees don't expect them to be, but they do expect managers to be aware of their fallibility and to know that they are inconsistent and forgetful sometimes.

Great managers know themselves; they know they will change their minds and shift priorities from time to time. They establish processes and systems to capture their decisions and commitments because they know everyone forgets. And when they do change their minds, they are quick to acknowledge it and focus on the go-forward actions rather than debating what was previously agreed to.

4. Attribution

Unsuspecting managers easily fall into the trap of the fundamental attribution error. They quickly explain any and all of their shortcomings or failures as the result of external circumstance and factors. Yet when their employees fall short, they attribute it to character flaws and personal deficiencies.

They say things like, "I was late to the meeting because traffic was bad. You were late to the meeting because you didn't leave enough time." It happens to everyone. It's just the way our minds are wired. But when managing people, the fundamental attribution error is a huge liability.

Good managers know and understand that everyone has internal and external challenges they need to overcome. Good managers don't overgeneralize meanings in any specific situation and they work to focus on improvements rather than blame because they understand that the vast majority of issues are the results of defective systems, not people.

And nearly all solutions can be found by putting better processes and procedures in place. While you need to be careful of bureaucracy, focus on putting structure and routine in place rather than punishments to improve results.

No manager is perfect and every manager will fall victim to one or more of these assumptions at times. Great managers are on the lookout for these pitfalls and will consequently avoid them more often. And when great managers do find themselves in one of these traps, they are quick to realize it and get themselves out before irreparable damage is done.

Bruce Eckfeldt 11/4/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 11/4/21

Having Trouble Finishing Your Daily Huddle On Time? Avoid These Three Common Problems And Try This One Simple Trick

Getting the daily huddle right is tough for many teams. Here are three common problems and one simple trick that will improve your success.

One of the keys to any successful team is developing the right meeting rhythms. For leadership teams looking to scale the business, this rhythm is even more critical. Meeting too frequently will leave people frustrated and disengaged, but meeting to infrequently will result in a lack of alignment and coordination. Getting the timing and agendas right will create the momentum you need to accelerate your growth and improve your performance.

There are several key meetings that every leadership team needs to get right. They all done well, but there is one that proves time and again to be the most difficult for many teams. Having coached dozens of leadership teams, the daily huddle--also known as the standup--proves most challenging. The huddle demands a high degree of focus and discipline to get right.

One of the best ways I've found to make huddles run quickly and efficiently is a trick using one simple tool: the 3 x 5 inch index card.

Here's how it works.

I'll put a cup of pens and a stack of index cards where the team is going to do the huddle. At the beginning of the huddle, I have everyone take a pen and a card and I give them three minutes to write down three things for each of following three categories below.

During the huddle there are two important rules: they can only talk about things that are on the card, and the card can only have three items under each of the three categories, nine points total.

What did you accomplish yesterday?

At the top of the card, team members write down the three most important things they accomplished yesterday. Only three. I don't want a list of everything they did, the meetings they had, what they forgot to do, and what they had for lunch. Item listed need to be important and they need to be completed. This keeps people from rambling on about things that other people don't need to know about.

What are your commitments for today?

In the middle of the card, they note their top three commitments for the upcoming day. (Technically, the time between this huddle and the next one.) I don't want to see their to-do lists, just their top three items. And I don't want to see things that might get done today. I want items that will get done today. This focuses coordination on things that are highly likely to happen in the next 24 hours.

What are your three biggest obstacles?

Finally, on the bottom of the card, they write the three biggest obstacles that are currently, or will likely be, in their way. This could be resources, information, distractions, other commitments, etc. These obstacles are anything that could get in the way but only the three biggest and most likely. I do this for two reasons: one, I want to see where others can help support, and two, I want them to start thinking of mitigation strategies right away.

Why does this strategy work?

Because it avoids the three main reasons huddles typically fail. If you can avoid these, you'll have a much greater chance of success.

1. The huddle takes too long.

Huddles need to be short. No more than fifteen minutes and ideally under ten. If you run longer than that, you're taking up too much of your people's time. You're likely going too deep on issues, too. Keep it short and focused. The huddle is about coordinating and identifying issues, not resolving them.

2. People talk about issues too far in the past or future.

Huddles need to be focused on the short term: yesterday and today only. Don't let the conversation drift any farther back or forward. My rule is if it happened since the last huddle or will happen before the next huddle, it's fair game. Otherwise, it's out.

3. Too many items are brought up.

Huddles need to focus on the top priorities. If it's not a key priority, don't bring it up. There are lots of details people don't need to know. The purpose of the huddle it to coordinate and communicate the main things, not to rattle off a laundry list of minor issues and random tasks.

Using the 3 x 5 index card strategy creates a physical device that limits the scope and focuses the conversation. Some teams drop the index cards after a while, but many keep it.

Regardless of the technique you choose, implement your huddles with discipline. Keep them short, focused on the immediate time frame, and limited to the most important items. Doing so will increase their value and likelihood your team will keep up the habit.

Bruce Eckfeldt 11/2/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 11/2/21

Thinking About Getting Into The Cannabis Business? Make Sure You Follow This Advice From The Experts First

As legal cannabis continues to spread, entrepreneurs are stepping up and taking notice. The winners will heed these four key pieces of advice.

While cannabis's future has dimmed ever so slightly over the last year as the regulatory environment has become slightly less certain and economic legislation has feathered the breaks, cannabis still remains one of the most attractive industries for entrepreneurs looking to start businesses in promising markets.

However, for anyone looking to get into this growing industry, there are several questions to ask and considerations to weigh before jumping in with both feet. Like any dynamic market, there are opportunities for big wins, but also big losses. Knowledge, foresight, and careful planning can increase your odds.

As a business coach who helps companies scale, I've worked with several cannabis-based businesses with interesting and exciting business models. And along the way, I've met several entrepreneurs, consultants, investors, and advisors who are bullish on the sector, but also advise caution.

1. Pay for good advice, and follow it.

The laws around production, distribution, and sale of cannabis-based products vary greatly from state-to-state and they are constantly changing and being interpreted differently. Invest in a good lawyer, or two, who knows the laws and has experience working with them in the state and county you're planning on doing business in.

David Feldman, Partner at the law firm Duane Morris, stresses that it's critical for any entrepreneur entering the cannabis space to have lawyers with real experience in the area. He explains that the legal complexity of the cannabis business is significant and there are a morass of state regulations that differ dramatically from state to state, and the federal government's attitude toward enforcement continues to shift.

2. Get a good banker, or four.

The fact remains that cannabis is still illegal at the federal level and many banks and financial institutions will not do business with companies that deal in weed. Make sure your banking partner is comfortable with your involvement in the industry before you become overly reliant on them.

Rick Martinez, a cannabis entrepreneur and investor out of San Antonio, Texas, says the biggest thing to pay attention to early on is your merchant processing. He suggests you have a backup, a backup to the backup, and then one more backup. While most people agree that the banking industry will create more stable solutions in the coming years, it's still extremely volatile and is a significant risk for companies in the business.

3. Have a firm grasp of the fundamentals.

Many entrepreneurs get into the cannabis business thinking they just need to grow and the money will magically follow. While it remains one of the most profitable crops, you still need a solid business model and the right management skills to turn your product into profits.

Vinay Tolia, founder and managing partner at Bengal Capital, says if you strip away the hype around the cannabis industry it's really no different from other existing business models: in order to be successful, you must produce a quality product at a competitive price and sell/distribute as efficiently as possible.

Defining a clear core customer, core product/service, and core channel will help you accelerate growth. And getting a tight control over your cost of goods sold and overhead will ensure you are making a healthy profit that can use to fuel your growth.

4. Think outside the bud.

Many people get into cannabis thinking they will be either growing, distributing, or selling plant products themselves. While this is the core of the market and a huge part of the revenues in the business, there are a myriad of opportunities in the cannabis industry that have little to do with the plant itself.

Jenny Argie, founder of Baked at Home in Brooklyn, New York, is becoming the Betty Crocker of pot with her set of dry mixes that allow you to add your own canna-butter or canna-oil to make homemade treats. Argie is just one of hundreds of entrepreneurs carving out their own segment of the cannabis industry without running amok with federal law.

Serious and significant businesses are being built around technology, training, packaging, standardization, real estate, wellness, and many other ancillary products and services to support the market. There are literally hundreds of niches for willing players and serious money to be made.

Cannabis is a huge market with immense potential, but it's not without its complexities and risks. While some will get lucky and strike it rich despite themselves, the majority of winners in the industry will be sharp business minds with savvy entrepreneurial skills.

Bruce Eckfeldt 10/28/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 10/28/21

You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure, Here Are 10 Ways To Measure Anything In Your Business

To properly manage a business you need to know what's happening. These 11 types of metrics that will give you the insight and awareness you need.

They say you can't manage what you can't measure. Quantifying your business allows you to see patterns, set targets, and measure progress. However, many things that are important to business success can be difficult to assign a number to at first.

Measurement can happen in many ways and can take many forms. By trying different ways of measuring, you can often find helpful data that is both easy to capture and meaningful to the business. Here are eleven different ways to measure just about anything in your business.

1. Absolute number

This is the simplest of metrics. Use it when you only want to know the count. Some examples include number of widgets produced, total headcount, and total revenue.

2. Equivalence number

The best example of this is Full Time Equivalent or FTE. This number is helpful when you have lots of fractional or partial units and you want to know what they all add up to. Use this when you want to see the net impact or total effect.

3. Relative number

Often times, it's better to see things as a ratio or a proportion. For example, if you're growing quickly, I like using Accounts Receivable (AR) as a percentage of recent revenue to check to see if our AR is growing faster or slower than the overall business. Many times I've seen AR grow but the ratio decrease, which means that we're actually doing a better job of collecting.

4. Number per unit of time

If you want to track a rate or pace, you need to introduce a unit of time. Calls per day or visitors per hour will give you insight into changes in activity and rates are better and more meaningful than simply looking at cumulative numbers.

5. Percent of target

If you have a clear number that you're trying to reach, try measuring results as a percentage. For example, if you're trying to hit $24,500 a day in website orders, showing $22,345 as 91.2 percent is easier to compare and interpret.

6. Percent of forecast

If your target is changing over time, set your percentage relative to the changing forecast. This is critical if your business has any seasonality or business cycles. If you're in retail and you use straight line monthly sales targets you'll be grossly misled. Instead, set monthly or weekly targets based on known peaks and valleys and report actual sales as a percent of those forecasts.

7. Rate of change

When a company is growing, we expect numbers to increase or decrease. So instead of looking at a straight percentage, also show the change in the percentage as a percentage. For example, while page views might be going up, seeing that this week's increase was 34 percent lower than last week's increase will catch your eye.

8. Rolling average

If your data is highly variable, it can be difficult to see trends. In this case, take the average of the most recent few days or weeks to get a rolling average to smooth out the ups and downs so you can see the bigger picture. If you want, you can also measure the sigma on this data to see if things are more or less active than usual.

9. Within limits

This comes up a lot when there is an acceptable tolerance in industries such as manufacturing and product distribution. Here you want set a target and then report on the absolute difference between the actual and the target.

10. Step functions

If things are a little more complicated, you might need to use a step function. This helps when you have measurements that require different levels. For example, if different resources are paid different amounts, if different processes have different costs, you'll need ranges.

11. Multivariate functions

If you have multiple variables that feed into a calculation, you need to create a function. Sophisticated sales forecasts take into account the size of the deal, the type of client, how long it's been in play, and the service being proposed in order to come up with a total pipeline value.

Regardless of the metrics you use, be sure to balance the complexity and cost of collecting and analyzing the data with the benefits you get once these metrics become management tools for your company. While I typically see overly simplistic dashboards, I sometimes find convoluted ones that take hours to update. Like many parts of business, it's a balance you must get right to be successful.

Bruce Eckfeldt 10/26/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 10/26/21

There Is More Than One Way to Make A Decision. Here Are 9 Techniques Great Teams Use

Great teams use different decision-making strategies in different situations. Here are 11 things you should consider when starting the process.

Having worked with dozens of teams at all organizational levels, I've found one of the critical skills that all high-performance teams have mastered is their ability to make a good decision. These teams strike the right balance between quality of the decision and the time involved in making it.

There are all sorts of ways to make decisions. Here are eleven methods that I most commonly see in the teams I coach. Choosing the right method is based on the type of decision, the time frames involved, and the potential impact of the outcomes.

1. Unanimous

If it's really important that everyone be 100 percent behind the decision, then I suggest getting a unanimous agreement. To get there, everyone needs to be in full support of the decision without reservation or coercion.

2. Consensus

Unlike a unanimous decision, consensus doesn't require the same level of commitment. Some team members may have reservations or concerns that are not completely resolved. These team members just need to be at the point where they are willing to agree to an option being selected for the sake of moving forward.

3. Objectionless

Sometimes one or more team member just can't get the point of agreeing to an option, but they don't want to block the vote. In this case, you can have them abstain from the decision and get an objectionless decision. I usually use this option when the team has spent a fair amount of time trying to get to a consensus, but one or more of the members does not seem to be budging.

4. Supermajority

This requires two-thirds, or 66%, of the members to agree on a decision. I suggest supermajority when you need to make sure you have solid support, but know that the team will never completely agree or that it would take too much time to develop an option that might satisfy everyone.

5. Majority

A simple majority requires one more vote than half of the members of the voting group. However, I find that simple majority vote isn't that useful for most business situations. For decisions with three or more options, I tend to suggest high vote (see below) instead. For a vote between two options, I find that a simple majority can and tends to divide a group. In these cases, I usually recommend using supermajority or introduce other options.

6. Minimum Vote

In some cases, you may want to set another threshold that is below one-half of the voting members to get a clear winner. If there are five options on the table, you might want to set a minimum of one-third or one-quarter. Decisions among a large number of options where one wins by a fraction of the vote can create weak decisions.

7. High vote

When you have three or more options in the situation, the decision is not critical, and time is important, it's often easiest to move to a high vote model. Whichever decision gets the most votes wins, regardless of how many options and voting members.

8. Authority with input

For the authority decision with input method, there is no voting. Everyone has the right to give input and then whoever has the most authority in a situation makes the decision for the team. The vast majority of business decisions are made in this way. While it may appear that teams are voting, they are really just giving input to the leader who is ultimately making the decision.

9. Delegate

In this case, the team delegates the decision to someone else on, or off, the team. I suggest this method when there is someone else who is in a better position, because of information or expertise, to make a good decision.

10. Defer

Sometimes a team can defer a decision. And while it's not conclusive, a deferral is a valid and sometimes import strategic move. I make sure to advise teams that they should identify a "last responsible moment" to make the decision and that they shouldn't surpass it, but often waiting will give the team more information, better perspective, and time to gather thoughts.

11. Abdicate

In this case, a team consciously decides not to decide. Abdicating is not the same as the team failing to reach a decision. Abdication means that the team actively decided not to engage in the decision making process. This is rare, but it can happen as the result of political or external issues where the team doesn't want to get involved or is willing to let another team or process run its course.

Choosing the right approach is not always easy, but it is important. Teams that don't make decisions well will only end up having to redo them later when the decisions don't stick, or worse yet, having to live with the outcome after it's too late to change their minds.

Bruce Eckfeldt 10/21/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 10/21/21

5 Lessons Learned From Rowing Which Will Help You Be A Better Leader

Business is about planning, coordination, and discipline. Which is why rowing is such a great sport for forging corporate leaders.

While in high school, I had the fortune of being a part of a competitive rowing program. I went on to race in college and club teams over the years. Later, as CEO of the tech company I founded, I realized that I had been applying many of the lessons learned on those boats to my leadership team.

Many great business leaders have backgrounds in competitive sports. However, there are some unique aspects of rowing that transfer well to the business world. As a business and executive coach, I use these examples regularly with great success, and you can too.

1. Every action is a balancing act.

During the majority of my rowing career, I was in an eight-person shell. That's eight rowers, each with one oar (not two!), four on port and four on starboard. Because each person controlled only one oar, it was vital that we were in sync and in balance with one another. If I pulled harder or softer than my fellow rowers, the boat would veer to the left or to the right. To keep the boat going straight, everyone had to pull with equal pressure.

In business, everyone's actions need to be balanced. If the sales team brings in 100 deals one week and zero the next, delivery will be outnumbered one week and twiddling their thumbs the following. Even, regular, and consistent results are what win the race in the corporate world.

2. Coordination and timing is everything.

When you get to the end of a stroke, everyone lifts their oars to return to the catch for the next stroke. However, with all of the oars in the air, the boat becomes completely unstable and precariously tippy. If I lifted my oar too late or dropped it back in too early, I dragged the boat down to that side.

I've seen business teams create chaos by not coordinating projects, delivering on agreed upon dates, or sticking to operational procedures. Defining key milestones and interface details and then trusting everyone will hit them is what successful business delivery is all about.

3. Trust the people who have a better view.

One of the most unnerving aspects of rowing is that you have eight people pulling as hard as they can to make a difficult-to-maneuver, paper-thin, rowing shell move as fast as it can down a narrow course... backwards.

The only person who is actually looking forward is the coxswain and they only have a little, six-inch rudder to nudge the boat left or right. But as rowers, we learn to trust the cox when the call hard strokes on port or starboard to help steer the boat.

Business leaders actually have it worse. There is no course and there is no rudder. Leaders must do their best to understand the market landscape and what competitors are planning to do and then they must create a successful plan. Managers must trust that they have read the tea leaves correctly and have plotted a course free of obstacles.

4. Respect everyone's time as if it were your own.

Rowers are known for getting on the water at ungodly hours of the morning. And without this expectation, getting everyone up and to the boathouse on time could be a challenge. However, because everyone has to wait for all of the team members to arrive before the boat can get in the water, showing up late once is usually all it takes to avoid tardiness in the future. Punishments were swift and painful.

I know a business culture is in trouble when people are showing up late to meetings and team members are on their cell phones while other people are presenting and discussing. Tardiness is a slippery slope. Executives in great companies are the first to meetings and come prepared and ready to engage in work that has to be done.

5. Make many small corrections to stay the course.

Eight-person rowing shells are over 62 feet long and just 21 inches wide which make them impossible to turn. Fortunately, races are generally a fairly straight line, however, corrections frequently need to be made for wind, current, and uneven pressure. The trick is to act early and make lots of little adjustments with the rudder and the oar pressure. If you wait to long and then oversteer, the boat will lurch to one side and ruin the set.

Business is about having good metrics and foresight to see what's coming down the pike so.you can take measures to capitalize on opportunities and avoid pitfalls. Frequent reviews and minor adjustment make this process easier and more successful.

Hitting home runs and scoring touchdowns are great metaphors for company wins, but the discipline, focus, and precision of rowing captures the day-to-day demands of business in a way other sports cannot.

Bruce Eckfeldt 10/19/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 10/19/21

Struggling to Build a Great Internal Software Engineering Team? Here Are 5 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Tech Talent

If you're an early stage company, building a technology team can be a real challenge. Here are five things you can do to make it easier.

Most businesses rely on technology. But for some companies, technology is the lifeblood of the organization. If you're building a software product or using data analytics or data science to create value for your customers, you don't just rely on these skills, you completely depend on them.

In these cases, creating a top quality engineering team is critical to success. But if you're an early stage or even mid-market company, attracting and retaining the engineering skills you need to be successful can be extremely difficult. Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Google are offering unmatched compensation, benefits, and opportunities, leaving the remaining market extremely tight.

However, not all is lost. With some smart strategies and a clear set of priorities, you can attract the right talent you need. Here are five things you can do to increase your chances of getting the best people for a price you can afford.

1. Represent technology on your leadership team.

Before you starting hiring technical staff, make sure you have someone on your leadership team with credibility and reputation in the industry. Most technologist want to be surrounded by other smart technologists. They want to learn and share ideas and improve on their skills.

This doesn't need to be a CTO who is a coding guru or a Chief Scientist with a double Ph.D. Find a COO with significant technical experience, or a CFO who has run a technology business previously, or one or two members on your advisory board who have strong technical backgrounds.

2. Build a culture of quality.

Every engineer I know wants to build a quality product they are proud of. Nothing frustrates a developer more than not having the time or resources to create something that is well constructed. Technology is as much a craft as a science and pride is a key reason people go above and beyond to create superior results.

Make sure your internal culture embraces the pursuit of quality, even under the pressure of deadlines and budget restrictions. Quality doesn't' mean you need to gold-plate everything. Instead, make sure you have a process for investing in the organization and maintainability of your systems; don't just pump out new features.

3. Select innovative and appealing technologies.

You won't attract the best talent if you're using technology that's ten years old. Most top technologist want to be working with the newest and best tools and systems available. Further, expect that systems and frameworks will need to be replaced on a regular basis as new and better tools are developed and adopted by the industry. Allocate a reasonable amount of time and budget to investigating and upgrading your platforms and infrastructure as you go.

4. Provide high-quality, focused time.

More technical work is extremely complex and requires highly focused time. Nothing bothers a technology team more than when it's frequently interrupted by questions or changes when they are deep in thought. While it can appear that technologist are aloof and don't care about the immediate business needs, this observation is not actually the case. My suggestion is to appreciate the work they do and the problems they need to solve are complex. These teams need large chunks of uninterrupted time to really wrap their heads around the challenge.

Commit to a process for planning and estimating the work based on defined iterations and a daily work cycle. Then make sure everyone in the business knows not to tamper with the plan or interrupt the daily flow between these sessions. Companies who offer a structure that has large blocks of focused time carved out for their engineers will be highly desirable to the best people who want to work on the hardest problems.

5. Foster a sense of community.

One of the biggest challenges for smaller companies is that they can't offer an internal culture fueled by dozens of technologists. Instead, focus on providing time and resources for your people to connect with, or even build, their local communities.

This could be as simple as providing time and budget for people to go to conferences or meetups. You could actively promote and support industry groups through partnerships and affiliations, or even better would be to organize and host a regular event in your local community to promote ideas, share information, and build social connections.

While the war for talent is not an easy one to win, following these suggestions will greatly increase the odds that you'll attract and keep the best talent you need to be successful.

If you're an early stage company, building a technology team can be a real challenge. Here are five things you can do to make it easier.

1. Represent technology on your leadership team.

2. Build a culture of quality.

3. Select innovative and appealing technologies.

4. Provide high-quality, focused time.

5. Foster a sense of community.

While the war for talent is not an easy one to win, following these suggestions will greatly increase the odds that you'll attract and keep the best talent you need to be successful.

Bruce Eckfeldt 10/14/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 10/14/21

Here Are 6 Ways to Turn Your Board of Advisors from a Chummy Dinner into a Powerful Tool for Growth

Many early and mid-market companies have advisory boards, but most don't take full advantage of them. Here six ways to make sure yours serves you well.

As a company grows and the business becomes more complex, one of the best moves a leader can make is creating a board of advisors. Unlike a board of directors, a good set of advisors can give the top executives honest and direct feedback on strategy and planning without bias or reservation.

Unfortunately, many of the CEOs and leadership teams I meet have failed to create a powerful advisory team. Many make it a social event over a boozy lunch or dinner. Others use it as a perk for their friends and colleagues and plan boondoggles to exotic locations.

In order to create a highly effective board of advisors, you first need to assess the strengths and weakness of the current leadership team. With that insight, you can build an advisory team using the following factors; these factors will diversify and expand the capabilities of the CEO and their key executives.

1. Gain knowledge and insight into your business domain.

The first--and easiest--area to consider seeking advice for is the specific domain knowledge your team lacks. This can be general business domains such as sales, market, reach, and development, or it could be more specific technical knowledge like solid state computing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, or perishable food distribution networks. Your board of advisors is a great chance to bring in the expertise you need to get to the next level of your business.

2. Bring functional skills and expertise.

Another way to leverage your board is to bring in the specific functional knowledge you don't have internally. This expertise includes sales, marketing, finance, operations, production, distributions, risk analysis, and human resources. Early stage companies can't often afford senior experts in all of these functions. Your advisory board is a great way to bring in these skills without having to hire full-time staff.

3. Include experience in key areas of business.

Some businesses need special experience to execute their plan. If your strategy includes a roll-up of smaller companies, franchising your business model, or building out a software-as-a-service business, having senior executives on your board who have been through the process you are going through now can be invaluable to your team.

4. Diversify your thinking styles and perspectives.

Many teams overlook this factor. Some people are highly analytical and others are very intuitive. Some are process oriented and others are big-picture thinkers. Seeking advice from others with differing perspectives is important and it helps you cover all your bases. For example, if your leadership team is analytical technologists, your advisory board should have more intuitive sales and marketing experts to give you a balanced perspective. Find people who think differently than you.

5. Limit your sensitivity and tolerance for risk.

Many entrepreneurs are naturally risk tolerant, some might even consider themselves risk-seeking. This is critical in the early stages of a business when great odds need to be overcome despite the risks and uncertainty involved. However, as the company grows, a more balanced approach should be implemented.

If your leadership team is made up of all high-stakes poker-type players, you'd best balance this tendency with an advisory board which can point out the risks and potential consequences that need to be fully realized and considered

6. Access the right networks and people.

Finally, your board of advisors is a great opportunity to extend your network and access the right people to grow your business. If you're planning a round of financing, a board member with a deep money network is critical. If you're building out a technical team, someone with great connections to developers is key. And if you're planning on manufacturing product overseas, then someone with contacts in foreign factories is extremely valuable.

You probably won't be able to address and balance all of these factors at one time. Start by discovering where the greatest needs are relative to the current leadership team and future strategy. Then, see where you can find the right people willing to be members on your board and select the best overall team.

Make sure your board is treated well and make sure they enjoy the experience of working with you and your leadership team. Good dinners, nice venues, and fun trips all help. But don't forget the main purpose of the advisory board is to engage in open debate and constructive conflict to advance ideas and perspectives. My suggestion for your advisory board--as with leadership teams--is work hard, then play hard.

Bruce Eckfeldt 10/12/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 10/12/21

One of the most powerful meetings you can run for your team has no agenda. Here’s why

While most productive meetings need an agenda, an Open Space meeting intentionally doesn't use one.

Many years ago, when I was CEO of the first technology company I founded, we started having all-day quarterly meetings with our staff. Because many of our people worked remotely and on client sites, we rarely all saw each other at the same time, so these meetings became important for maintaining our cultural cohesion.

The first quarterly meeting we held was full of presentations and breakout sessions centered on different topics we knew. While the meetings were successful, we also got a lot of feedback reminding us that we missed several topics and that some of the topics could have used more or less time.

It's important to mention here that our company was one of the first Lean/Agile consulting firms. We were steeped in new ways of building teams and processes. So, when one of our developers came back from a conference where they used a crazy meeting format called Open Space Technology which has no predefined agenda and let's attendees choose the topics. We tried it. And ever since then, it's become one of the most powerful meeting formats I know.

Open Space meetings don't work for every meeting, so you can't do away with agendas forever. However, Open Space meetings are great when you are bringing together a group of people who have many different potential topics to discuss and the priorities are not immediately clear.

I use this format for summits and retrospectives where we need to uncover the topics as a group and prioritize them as we go. Open Space meetings are also great when you suspect new topics will come up during the process and you'll need to re-prioritize them in real time.

Here are a few simple guidelines for running your own Open Space meeting.

1. Choose a theme or a focus

While I keep the agenda open, I do create a general area of focus for the meeting. I've used "sharpen the axe" to focus on process improvement or "stronger bonds" to think more about team engagement and culture. Choose something that identifies a know concern but still leaves the topics open.

2. Set good ground rules

A meeting with no agenda needs good ground rules to stay focused and work well. Here are the three that I use.

"Vote with your feet": If you're not learning or contributing, move to a different topic.

"Yes, and": (No "buts" rule.) Don't tear down ideas; find a way to build on it.

"Tackle issues, not people": Focus on the underlying issue, and don't make personal attacks.

3. Start with a brainstorm

Every Open Space meeting starts with a discussion of the theme and a brainstorming of topics. Make sure you're not being critical at this stage; be open to any potential discussion topic. Don't rush this step; often the best topics come up late in this process and after a long moment of silence.

I have team members write ideas on index cards (one per card) so that we can organize as we go. I keep extra index cards around so we can add new ones as they come up during the session.

4. Select discussion facilitators

The power of an Open Space meeting is that you are empowering people to talk about what they want to talk about. Choose, don't assign, facilitators who are most passionate about the topics.

5. Work in self-organizing teams

I generally set up multiple rounds of meetings in time slots of 30-45 minutes with 15-minute periods for regrouping. For each round, I get volunteers for 3-5 topics and then have people self-organize into meeting groups.

After the round ends, we regroup and each facilitator presents a short summary of the discussion, key insights, and any recommendations for the larger group.

6. Document notes and action items

Make sure to have each team submit a one-page summary of the discussion including the topic, the facilitator's name, names of those who attended, key discussion points, takeaways, and any other recommendations.

This summary can be handwritten on paper and taped to a wall so people can see the results. If you have good connectivity, you can also collect information on an online document as you go.

7. Reflect on the process and learning

At the end of the meeting, take some time to reflect on the process. At the end of the meeting, I like to have each person share their biggest takeaway along with one personal action item. You can also have people rate the meeting and suggest changes for future formats.

Open Space meetings are not a lazy-person's substitute for properly planned meetings. Instead, they are a tool you can use when the situation calls for deeper dives into emergent topics. And remember: like all powerful tools, you need practice to use Open Space meetings. You also need to know when, and when not, to apply them.

Bruce Eckfeldt 10/7/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 10/7/21

5 Key Financial Metrics You Need to Know to Manage Your Business And How To Calculate Them

Many CEOs struggle with choosing which financial metrics to pay attention to. While every company has unique numbers based on their own business model, here at five that every leader should watch.

Every business has its own set of critical numbers and metrics. If you're a software-as-a-service business, you'll need to know cohorts and total lifetime value. If you're a manufacturing company, you'll be tracking production lead times, quality variances, and raw material costs.

However, regardless of your business model, there is a core set of financial metrics every company should measure and monitor. I use these numbers when I coach leadership teams of high-growth companies. These numbers are based on having worked with dozens of businesses and the common challenges I have seen when they scale quickly.

1. Cost of Sales (percent sales cost per dollar of revenue)

The first question I ask when I see revenues is how much did it cost to create those sales. Why? I want to know what it will likely cost to increase those sales and if it's actually worth it based on the remaining revenue available. This number includes all of your marketing and sales costs. Don't forget to calculate the loaded costs of any staff salaries or contractor expenses.

For example, consider a million dollars in sales that cost $250,000 to produce (25 percent) versus $300,000 in sales that cost $20,000 to produce (6.7 percent). The latter is exciting. The former gives me pause.

2. Gross Profit Margin (gross profit after direct cost of delivery)

Gross profit shows how much revenue is available after you pay for the production and delivery of a product or service. For businesses such as software-as-a-service, this number can be quite large since the incremental costs are minimal. For businesses such as manufacturing, it can be quite small.

Once we calculate the gross profit and track it over time, we can see if the business is getting more (or less) efficient and how it compares to others in the industry and other geographies.

3. Labor Efficiency Ratio (gross profit divided by total direct labor costs)

The labor efficiency ratio (LER) shows us how hot or cold the organization is running and how much production capacity we have remaining from a "people" point of view. You calculate this number by dividing the gross profit (revenue less cost of goods sold) for a given period by the total labor cost (loaded staff and contractors) during that same period.

Over time, you'll see that when that ratio is high, the organization feels busy and maybe even a little frenetic. This tells us we need to hire staff before we increase sales. When the number is low, things are relaxed and people may even have time on their hands. This tells us we have free capacity and we can sell without having to add staff.

4. Accounts Receivable to Revenue Ratio

Most executives pay attention to accounts receivable (AR). However, for a growing company, this can be a dynamic target so I suggest looking at it as a percentage of revenues instead of a total amount. It's much easier to spot trends and future cash concerns when you see the percentages changing rather than trying to interpret the total AR which will naturally grow as the company scales.

5. Cash Reserve to Committed Expenses Ratio

In order to survive the ups and downs in business, you need a cash reserve. Furthermore, this reserve needs to increase as the company gets bigger. If you don't increase this reserve, you're unwittingly increasing financial risk. Generally, I suggest a company keep three months of committed expenses in reserves. This includes expenses that you cannot easily and quickly cut/reduce in a downturn.

Less than three months means that you'll be under the gun if your sales dip and will be forced to cut deeper than you'd like and make it harder to bounce back easily. If you're stowing away more than this, you're probably keeping too much cash at risk in the company.

Every company will have additional financial metrics based on the industry and stage of business, but these five are the core set that every company needs to know and watch. Having and knowing them well will give the leadership team better data and insight in order to make better decisions more quickly.

Bruce Eckfeldt 10/5/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 10/5/21

If You Do Any of These 3 Things, You’re Likely a Micromanager. Here’s How To Stop and Why You Should

If you have any of these three tendencies, you're likely micromanaging your people. If you want them (and you) to grow, here's what to do.

As an executive and leadership coach, micromanaging is one of the most common challenges I see. It's a common problem for many leaders, new and old alike. Left unaddressed, micromanaging can severely limit your people's success and advancement and can often result in the burnout and churn of their direct reports and colleagues, too.

Ironically, it's the habits that have helped micromanagers be so successful earlier in their careers--focus on details, drive for results, demanding high quality, get-it-done attitudes--that make them micromanage when they move into leadership positions. Making the transition from "doer" to "manager" is often a difficult process.

Like all professional and transformational work, the solution is a combination of changing one's thinking and actions. Both need to happen to create sustainable results.

Here are the three key suggestions that I give to leaders who are coming across as

1. Telling people what to do, rather than asking for commitments.

When your primary focus is getting the task done, you see your people as tools for completion. You'll tend to issue instructions, and sometimes orders, for specific actions to be taken in specific ways. When you're captain of a boat heading towards a rocky shore, getting compliance critical.

However, when your goal is to create a high-performance team who is growing and increasing their capabilities, compliance is not a sustainable approach. Instead, you want commitment. Commitment results only when people take on a task with their own free will and also when they had an honest option to decline.

Instead of issuing orders and commands, ask people if they are willing to take on the work. If they decline, ask why and what you need to do to get them to willingly accept. Do they need training, resources, or time? Together, figure out how you can mold the task into something that is agreeable. These discussions can lead to learning and powerful coaching opportunities.

2. Explaining the process and details, rather than the desired outcome.

Micromanagers tend to jump right into the detailed steps required for completion of the task. The problem here is that explaining the precise steps leaves no room for the direct report doing the work to take ownership or adjust the process to their way of thinking or doing things. He or she can't "own" the process if you dictate it to them. Ultimately, the problem is that without ownership, the direct report has the excuse "I did what you told me to do and it didn't work" and then it becomes your problem, not theirs.

Instead, focus on defining the end results you want and the criteria for success. I like to use a football analogy here: tell them where the end zone is, where the sidelines are, how many people they can have on the field, and the rules for handling the ball, but let them decide if they want to run or pass and if they want to get the first down or do a Hail Mary for the win. You might also give some progress milestones and set some check-in points, but they need the freedom to make decisions and to provide the best end result possible.

3. Taking over tasks, rather than coaching through challenges.

Imagine you're learning to drive and every time you ask a question, your instructor keeps jumping into your lap to drive the car for you. For direct reports of micromanagers, this is a familiar feeling. The problem is that rather than asking for help, they avoid speaking with their manager all together. And by avoiding their manager, it means they are spinning their wheels more often and making bigger mistakes.

If you want to avoid being a micromanager, resist the urge to just do the task yourself. Instead, think like a coach and ask them questions. What have they tried? What did they learn? What haven't they tried yet? What might they try next? When you approach the situation like a coach, you're helping them find options and teaching them how to find the solution themselves.

Before giving advice, ask them if they want it. Ask, "do you want me to give you some ideas?" before you launch into all the things you think they should do. Getting permission opens them up to really listening and keeps them in control. Unsolicited advice can become another reason it was your fault, not theirs, and perhaps another reason something didn't work.

Successfully making these changes can be transformational for the leader and his or her colleagues. The shift from 'manager as task master' to 'manager as coach' creates an enormous possibility for professional growth. Done well, it opens up potential they didn't have before and will undoubtedly accelerate a leader's career. Done poorly, it will unfortunately result in continued struggle, employee churn, and lackluster results.

Bruce Eckfeldt 9/29/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 9/29/21

Don’t let your air travel get in the way of your productivity by using these 5 tips

Even if you only take a few flights a year, here are five tips to help you get more done.

In my hay day as a road warrior consultant, I would spend a lot of time in the air. It wasn't uncommon for me to have two flights in a week, traveling nationally and internationally to see clients. Making the most of my time in the air was critical to maintaining in my productivity.

Today, as a business coach working with leadership teams on growth and development strategy, while I don't travel nearly as much, I still use the following techniques to get work done on each and every flight.

1. Plan your work.

Like any productivity system, planning is key. Make a list of the most important things you need to do. Then, mark those which you can do on the plane. Prioritize these and set goals for the flight. I like to give myself a list of 15-30 minute tasks to work on while I travel. I know other people who prefer to work on one bigger task for the entire ride. Experiment to find out what works best for you.

2. Have a back up plan.

I always have contingency plans for common challenges. I make sure I download all of the files I need for my key tasks so I don't need the internet. I also keep in mind that I can do work on my phone if I can't comfortably use my laptop. (In fact, I'm in the air right now, writing this article on my phone.) Don't let challenges such as no internet or uncomfortable conditions be an excuse; have a plan and a backup strategy and push through.

3. Use the right technology.

I travel with a small laptop, an iPad, and a phone with me at my seat. I also carry an external battery and multi-connector cable which can charge all of these devices. I carry wireless earbuds and corded earbuds in case the former go dead. (I know some people love over-the-ear noise-cancelling headphones, but I find them too bulky and not super effective.) Create a tech setup that works well for you and keep it up to date.

I put all of these items in a separate pocket of my carry on bag so that I can quickly grab everything I need at my seat and put my bag overhead. This ensures that I'm not "that guy" who's holding up everyone trying to board the plane. It ensures that I don't forget anything for my seat in case I can't get out of my seat during the flight.

4. Get started quickly and find your flow.

As soon as I sit down, I start working. I review the to do list on my phone and choose the first task I can begin with before we take off (and one that doesn't require my computer). Make it super easy for you to start working because once you start, it's easier to keep going. If you don't have a system to help you start quickly, you're more likely to throw in the towel and start watching a movie instead.

I also immediately put in my earbuds and start playing some good productivity music. I have a pre-set series of playlists so that I don't have to spend time choosing songs. Each playlist has a different mood and keeps me focused. For me, I choose songs without words and nothing too jarring. Play around with different styles and combinations, and select a few for different moods and keep them handy on your device.

5. Eat and drink to stay focused.

My first and number one rule is no alcohol. The only time I drink is on a longer flight, in the evening, and after I've done a lot of good work. Only then will I relax and watch a movie or read while enjoying an adult beverage. Drinking not only makes it harder to stay focused, it dehydrates you. Instead, I drink lots of water and maybe a black coffee while I work.

For food, I always make sure I have a few protein bars and snacks for the flight. Generally, I find airline food not very appealing and often heavy on carbs which kills my focus for flights. Nuts, jerky, or even a sandwich grabbed from the terminal are better options. Again, always have a plan.

While I try to avoid airline travel whenever I can, it's still required to reach my clients and attended conferences and speaking events. Making the most of my time in the air is the best way I stay productive and focused. Even if you only fly a few times a year, the strategies above can help make the most of the flights and help them go by quickly.

Bruce Eckfeldt 9/28/21 Bruce Eckfeldt 9/28/21

Most Entrepreneurs Pitch To Investors’ Pocketbooks, They Should Pitch To Their Hearts Instead

Most entrepreneurs focus on pitching just the nuts and bolts of their business model. Research suggests that is not the best strategy.

As a business coach who has worked with dozens of successful leadership teams, not a week goes by when I don't get a request to discuss a business plan or review a pitch deck. People want me to tell them if their strategy is right, whether their technology plan is doable, or if their leadership team has the right experience. I tell them all the same thing.

The first thing to address in your pitch is not your return on their investment. Instead, you should focus on the impact their investment will make. Don't get me wrong, you need to show a return, but that's not enough to get them to write a check. You need to show them their money will have impact.

Impact can take many forms. It could be anything from how you're going to change the way people shop for clothes or how you're going to provide construction loans to people who don't have access to credit to how you're going to bring new treatments to people who are suffering. The impact doesn't need to be grand or noble, but it needs to be personal.

Research shows that while people do need factual, rational data--things like financial forecasts, returns on investments, and risk profiles--to make decisions, they only use them to justify decisions they have already made using their emotional gut.

In other words, investors will first decide if they want to invest in your business based on personal and emotional factors. Then they consider the rational factors to decide if they should invest.

This means you need connect investors to the impact you will make with your business if you're going to effectively sell them on your business and get your funding. To do that, you need to do these things.

Explain the problem you are solving.

Start by explaining the problem. Whose problem is it? When do they have it? When did it start? What options do they have? What does it feel like to have the problem?

For example, if you're selling a new type of mouse trap, talk about how current mouse traps and poisons don't work very well, are difficult to use, and can injure people. Focus on the feelings related to the problems: frustrations, danger, and fear.

Explain why the problem is a problem.

Once you've detailed the primary problem, dig deeper and show the impact of the secondary problem that the first problem created. Ideally, this next level is not initially obvious and will be a surprise to the investor. Show them the impact they will have with their investment, and try to show something he or she didn't initially see.

In the mousetrap case, you could talk about how not catching the mice leads to increased chances of the spread of disease or the damage to homes that can lead to significant and costly repairs. Show how the problem is actually bigger than one might initially think.

Explain the better future that results once the problem is solved.

Once you've detailed the primary problem and the deeper impact, describe a better and highly desirable future. Paint a vivid picture for your investor to become emotionally attached to. Get them to want to see your vision for the future realized.

In the mousetrap example, describe how great it will be to have mice-free homes where healthy children can play freely, without parents worrying they will be hurt by traditional traps and toxins.

Organizationally, the visualization can happen at different points of the investment conversation. I like to flood the investor with the rational data prior to making the emotional pitch. I might also focus my pitch differently depending on what I know about the investor's values and what I know about him or her as a person.

In the end, a successful pitch will need both rational and emotional content. The ways the human mind works and the ways each individual makes decisions are multifaceted. Our investment pitches should reflect that.