Why Some Employers Are Bringing Back the Time Clock And Getting People Back In The Office

Companies who are trying to build a strong company culture and team morale are turning away from work-from-home policies.

Ever since Marissa Mayer nixed Yahoo's work from home policy in 2013, executives and managers have been grappling with the balance between accommodating employees' personal schedules and lifestyle demands with organizational management and productivity concerns.

Working from home is still seen as a big perk for many employees: commuting to work in your slippers and bathrobe and having lunch at home definitely have some perks. However, many employees are seeing real and significant downsides. First of all, the lack of separation between work and home creates challenges. Many work-from-home employees say they work later in the day and more hours overall. They also find that work time at home is less focused and home time is often interrupted by work. The lack of separation means that each world bleeds into the other which causes problems.

Some employers are bringing back office hours and work-from-work policies. And many employees are glad. Here are some of the reasons why.

1. Greater separation between work and home life

While some employees can create good routines and structures to keep work and home separated, the majority cannot. While few people would suggest they like their commute, it does create a physical and psychological separation between the two worlds and allows people to transition mentally, effectively keeping a healthy space between home and work.

2. More focused work environment

Creating a focused environment is difficult and working from home can present distractions. The recent viral video of Prof Robert Kelly doing a newscast with the BBC when his two toddlers inadvertently come into the room behind him shows the awkward situations that can occur. While the office has it's own set of distractions, it can be more easily optimized for work activities.

3. Better tools and resources

For folks that love tinkering and troubleshooting wireless printers, work-from-home can be fun. But for those who don't want to be their own tech support team, working from home can be a challenge. Taking computers to be fixed, waiting for technicians to arrive and install equipment, sitting on hold for hours trying to troubleshoot modems can be a nightmare. Having a professional staff to maintain infrastructure keeps employees focused on value-add work.

4.More face-to-face communication with coworkers

Even though most people are aware that the majority of communication is nonverbal and typing can be slow and difficult, work-from-home employees do most of their communication via email, text, and messenger. This means that not only is the communication quality poor but it's also slow. Working together in the office means you have a much better chance of meeting face-to-face with your colleagues and avoiding miscommunications and delays.

5. Higher levels of team collaboration

A recent HBR study showed that the nature of work has been changing over the last two decades and that more and more employees are engaged in highly collaborative tasks. While video conferencing services and collaborative documents have improved tremendously, they still don't compare to being in the same room with stickies and a whiteboard. Collocated teams can get more done, faster.

6. Strong sense of culture and community

Many work-from-home employees find that while the flexibility and avoidance of a commute is great, they begin to go stir crazy after a while. Especially for extroverts, working from home can be a prison sentence, but even introverts are social creatures, and we all need interpersonal interaction to keep us engaged and stimulated. Phone and video calls don't make up for in-person, face-to-face time. Furthermore, many people end up getting out of the house to work at coffee shops or co-working spaces, but, at some level, this defeats the point of working from home in the first place.

Companies who are trying to build a strong company culture and team morale have learned that having regular office hours and being collated is core to their objectives. Often, the desire to work from home stemmed from toxic work environments, so rather than creating work-from-home policies, companies should focus on developing productive, engaging work environments and cultures.

While some time working outside of the office is needed to give people flexibility to live their lives, making work-from-home your core policy comes at a high price for both the company and the employee.

Here Is The Meeting To Use To Learn From Your Mistakes

Reviewing your past results to make future improvements is key to getting better. Here's how you do it.

At its core, innovation is the ability to adjust quickly to new conditions and situations in novel and useful ways. As Stephen Hawking, world-renowned physicist, famously said "intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." It's just as true in businesses as in biology.

Toyota has been one of the best companies to leverage this idea over the last decade. They have built a culture centered around the idea of continuous improvement and have used that to dominate the automotive market since the late 1990s. By systematically looking at what's working and what's not -- a process Toyota calls Kaizen -- they find root causes to waste and then build systemic solutions that foolproof procedures and bake in quality.

Another organization to leverage the art of continuous improvement is the US Military. Teams like the Navy Seals use After Action Reviews -- AARs as they are known -- to systematically review recent performance and critically examine what went right, what went wrong, and what needs to improve.

The rate that an organization can learn from its own successes and failures defines how quickly it can evolve its own business. Just like in biology, the organization which can learn and adapt the fastest will rise to the top.

While building a learning-centered organization is not easy, continuous improvement starts with a simple process that any team, in any company, can easily adopt. It's called a Retrospective. Here are the core steps to creating a successful retrospective and how you can introduce it into your organization or business.

1. Create a safe environment

Before engaging in any type of critical review you need to create a place where people feel safe to discuss failures and shortcomings. If not, you'll never get the right information on the table. And it's not just the things that might make the person offering the feedback look bad. People may be willing to risk themselves, but without assurances of safety they won't say anything that will jeopardize someone else's reputation.

The best way to do this is to have the senior team members model this behavior. They should talk about mistakes they've made and mistakes other senior folks have made and how discussing them honestly leads to critical improvements.

2. Collect relevant data

Start with the facts. What data do you have about what happened and what was achieved? Keep it neutral and without judgment. I like timelines where people can post notes on what occurred in time sequence. Have people use calendars, emails, etc. to get the details correct and accurate.

More is better than less in this stage and I generally make sure we allocate plenty of time collecting this important data. Often critical details come to people after they've sat in silence for a while thinking. Don't rush this stage.

3. Develop insights and inferences

Once you have the data on the table, you can begin to process it into insights and inferences. This is second-order thinking. The goal here is to make connections between the data; look for relationships, patterns, gaps/omissions, and correlations.

Key to this step is digging into what you see to find root causes. Toyota developed a process called The Five Whys, whereby they look at something that went wrong and ask 'why?' five times to get to the source of the problem. Other approaches include Fish Bone Diagrams and Mindmapping.

4. Brainstorm possible changes to make

At this point you can begin to develop ideas for possible actions to take. It's important here to not jump to commitments too quickly. Stay in brainstorming mode and encourage any idea, regardless of how crazy it sounds. Consider any option that comes up, and build on ideas to create new possibilities.

5. Focus and commit to specific actions

Once you have several ideas and options on the table, sort by impact and complexity. Get quick commitments on the easy-to-implement/high-impact ideas and then move to the harder-to-implement/high-impact ideas. Make sure your commitments include who will do what by when. Capture these and distribute them to the entire team.

6. Track and measure impact

Finally, track the impact and outcomes of your changes. Put a reminder in the calendar or add a step to your next retrospective to review changes that have been implemented to ensure they are achieving the intended results. If not, retrospect those and find new approaches to take. If you're still getting the same results, you're most likely not effectively addressing the root cause of the issue.

While the art of continuous improvement takes a long time to truly master, these steps will get you off on the right foot with the right structure. And of course, what's the best way to improve your retrospective process? Run a retrospective on your retrospective of course.

Five Secrets Of Great Teams From Coach Jimmy Johnson

Valuable insights on what makes great teams successful from legendary football coach Jimmy Johnson.

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of listening to the venerable football coach Jimmy Johnson while at a conference in Miami with the Entrepreneurs' Organization. He shared some insightful and valuable lessons regarding creating great teams illustrated with colorful stories from his career.

My impression of Johnson up to that point was that of a hard-nosed, short-tempered athletic coach who liked to blow up at players when they made mistakes. I learned that while he is a demanding and often dramatic coach, I gained a deeper appreciation for his compassion and behavior on and off the field.

Johnson's mission is to win. And he achieves that by getting the most out of his people and his teams. He accepts nothing less than an athlete's best performance on and off the field. Here are five key takeaways that every team leader and business executive should consider.

1. You get the level of performance you tolerate.

It's human nature to find the easiest path. If you accept subpar results than you shouldn't be surprised to get more performance at that same level. If you want to raise the bar, then you need to make it very clear that underperforming is unacceptable. In order to motivate you need to make the current situation uncomfortable in some way to spur change.

2. Put the team interests before your personal interests.

Johnson told the story of a previous super bowl champion staying out late to party before a key playoff game. He went around the room and asked all of the new players how badly they wanted to win, and they all responded that they've always dreamed of a Super Bowl win.

Then, he turned to the seasoned player, who was suffering from his night out, and asked him, "was your night out good enough to risk your teammates dreams?" It was a sobering story that illustrated why members of great teams put the team's interest before their own.

3. Skill will not compensate for poor conditioning.

Football, like most sports, is physically demanding. And without the right conditioning you won't be able to last a full game. At the beginning of each season, Johnson would test the players to see who had done their conditioning work and who hadn't.

Regardless of skill, he made sure that all of his players started with a strong base before working on developing their skills and plays. Without a solid base, all of the skill in the world would fade by game's end.

This is just as true in business. If you don't get the blocking and tackling right, it doesn't matter how brilliant you are, your team will suffer.

4. Compete with yourselves, not other teams.

While Johnson was very focused on winning, he made a point to have the team focus on competing against themselves rather than competing with other teams. If they lost, they acknowledged that they had been out-played and focused on finding ways to improve. Bemoaning and fixating on a loss was not helpful.

Likewise, after a win, they would review the game and find areas they didn't perform their best, even though they won. They focused on how to improve for the next game. This passion and dedication allowed the team to keep a positive attitude and work on getting better rather than moping or getting soft while celebrating.

5. You coach the whole person for success.

One of the more poignant stories was how Johnson would host a late dinner once a week for all of his college players on the one night of the week that most kids would go out and party. He would have dinner and just talk about anything except football.

He asked them about their family, post college plans, and life goals and he would coach them and push them to make big plans outside sports. Taking an honest interest in their wellbeing and helping them with real issues made them come back again and again. Of course his real strategy was to keep them busy and not out parting so they were more successful as athletes and as young men.

Like most ex-coaches, Johnson has a larger than life personality with an ego and stage presence to match. He also has a big heart and has big dreams for not just himself, but also for the players and the other coaches he works with.

Before Tying the Business Knot With Your Co-Founder, Here Are Six Important Things to Remember

They say choosing a co-founder is like a marriage -- here's how to make sure yours doesn't end in divorce.

Selecting a co-founder is one of the most important decisions you can make in your business. You'll be tied to this person for many years and go through the best and worst times attached at the hip. Some say it's like a marriage. I say it's like a marriage, but you spend a lot more time together, and you make much harder decisions, and rather than a few kids you end up with dozens of employees.

Depending on your startup's focus and your professional background, you might struggle to find anyone willing to go into business with you or you may be flush with options. Either way, here are the key considerations before tying the business knot with someone.

1. Define your core values.

Whether it's hiring an employee, selecting a vendor, or choosing a co-founder, using a solid and well-defined set of core values is a great place to start. Your core values determine your priorities, goals and the decisions you're willing to make.

Are you super competitive or more of a collaborative person? Do you want work-life balance or are you thinking business 24/7? Avoid values like honesty, integrity, and quality as these are table stakes. Focus on the values that make you truly different from others. They should be who you are, not who you hope to be.

2. Decide on which tradeoffs you're willing to make.

Once you have your values, I like identifying "anti-values." These are things you're willing to forgo to get your values. For example, if transparency is really important to you, are you willing to give up privacy, or security? Or if meeting deadlines is important, are you willing to work late hours and change your personal plans? Making these choices upfront will communicate to your potential partner what your priorities are and what you're willing to sacrifice.

3. Assess your own strengths and weaknesses.

We all have strengths and weaknesses, it's a fact of life. The key is becoming aware of them developing good strategies for leveraging strengths and mitigating weaknesses. Highly successful people have dialed this in and figured out where they excel and where they struggle; then they surround themselves with the right environment and right people. While it might be tempting to find a co-founder who is just like you, it's better to find someone who compliments you in the right way to benefit the future of your company.

4. Decide what type of personal relationship you want to have.

Are you working side-by-side every day or checking in once a week? Are you grabbing drinks at the end of each day or having a partner lunch once a month? Either is fine so long as you're on the same page and fulfilling each other's needs.

5. Make sure the other person can check their ego at the door.

One of the key tests for a potential co-founder is making sure they can put aside being right in order to do what's best for the partnership. This can be tough when you're looking for someone very technical and knowledgeable. This type of person can be brilliant, but if they have little EQ, they'll be difficult to work with over the long haul. Being humble, open to new ideas, and willing to collaborate on decisions is key to making a successful co-founder.

6. Ensure you both have the same level of drive and motivation.

You don't need to agree to work 80-hour weeks or be in the office until 2am every day, but you want to ensure that both of you have similar commitment levels. If you both have families and want to be home by 5:30 each night, that's fine, just make that known and agreed upon upfront.

7. Discuss how you will deal with adverse circumstances.

Every business and every partnership will go through tough times. Fundraising difficulties, cash flow shortfalls, employees leaving, and clients terminating contracts will all happen and they will put strains on the partnership. Making sure you and your co-founder have a strategy for dealing with tough times and be able to weather the storm.

Discussing these topics upfront is a great investment of time. The best business partnerships are successful not because of the heights they achieve, but because of the lows they survive. While you'll never find the perfect co-founder, taking some time to ponder these questions will ensure that you find the best one in the time you have.

Don't Write Off Every Bad Outcome As A Bad Decision, Here's Why

Skilled entrepreneurs learn how to separate decisions from outcomes and learn when they make a smart decision or just got lucky.

One of the hardest challenges entrepreneurs face is making decisions in the face of highly uncertain and risky situations. Often, these decisions can make or break a product or even an entire business. Lucky founders get it right and make it big once. Successful, serial entrepreneurs know how make calculated bets and are smart about learning from their mistakes.

One of the tools used by great business minds is a simple two-by-two matrix which compares decisions and outcomes. This four box tool helps them learn from both successes and failures and make better choices in the future. Using this matrix prevents them from falling into the trap of thinking that all good outcomes are the product of good decisions and bad outcomes the product of bad decisions.

To illustrate, let's use the example of a simple wager on a single roll of one die. Assuming a six-sided die, the chance of any one number is one-in-six or about 16.6%. Let's look at the outcomes.

Good decision, good outcome

Say someone gave you the following bet: you have to pay $10 to play, and you get $20 if you roll a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, but you get nothing if you roll a 6. That leaves you a 5-in-6 chance of winning $10 and a 1-in-6 chance of losing $10. The total expected value is $6.67. It's a bet worth taking.

You roll a 3. Congratulations! You've won $10. You've made a good decision and had a good outcome. The decision was not very hard and the outcome fairly expected.

Bad decision, bad outcome

Now, let's take that same scenario and change the numbers. Say it costs $10 to play and you get $20 if you roll a 1 and lose if you roll anything else. The expected value is $-6.67. It's not a good bet, but you decide to play anyway.

You roll a 3 again and lose. It was neither a good decision nor a good outcome, and it was also not surprising.

Here is where is gets tricky...

Good decision, bad outcome

Let's go back to the first scenario: $10 to play, you win $20 if you roll a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. However this time, you roll a 6. You lose.

Was it a bad decision? No, it was the right decision; the odds were in your favor. You just had a bad outcome. If that same exact situation came up again, you should take the bet and roll again. And you would probably win.

Bad decision, good outcome

Now, let's look at the second scenario: you take the bet at $10 to play and you win $20 if you roll a 1, but you lose if you roll anything else. Not a good bet, but you decide to play anyway.

You roll a 1. Winner! But was that a good decision? I would say no because the odds were against you. However, you had a good outcome. And therein lies the rub. The positive outcome would seem to suggest you made the right decision. Not so, you were lucky not smart.

Many times in business we end up with bad outcomes on good decisions and good outcomes on bad decisions. However if we fail to realize these types of situations, we risk taking away the wrong conclusions and making similar mistakes in the future. Skilled entrepreneurs learn how to reflect on decisions and outcomes and learn from those situations to decide if they made skilled decisions or just got lucky (or unlucky).

One of the best tools for developing this skill is a decision journal where you lay out your decisions, the options, your assessment of risk and probability, and then record the outcomes and reflect on your results. This allows you to see your bias, develop new skills for assessment, and clarify your goals for future decisions.

While real business decisions are much more complex than rolling dice, they often boil down to the estimated probability of two or more outcomes. Looking at possible options and likelihood of possible outcomes allows you to develop better strategies and make better decisions in the future.

Business people are always looking for advice. While advice can be helpful, it's a big miss of a growth opportunity. Everyone will learn more by shari

While giving advice might feel good, stepping back and sharing experiences can often be more helpful.

Business owners are often looking for advice on strategies, tactics, and key decisions. However, while offering straight up advice might seem like an obvious solution, in the big picture, advice-giving is not the best approach.

Groups like the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) have discovered the downsides to advice giving and have actually worked it into their values and ground rules. They follow gestalt protocol which prohibits members from giving each other advice. Instead, gestalt protocol encourages experience-sharing to help each other with personal and business challenges.

While withholding advice might seem counterintuitive when people are asking for it, there are several reasons why it's a bad idea and why experience sharing is more powerful in the long run.

1. You'll never know all of the details.

To give advice is to make conclusions about the data presented and to give a suggested course of action. The problem is that you can never really know all of the details. There are subtleties, backgrounds, and nuances that would take days to dig into. Which means that any conclusion you draw on someone else's situation will be missing some amount of information. It takes too much time to be able to gather everything you need in order to make a solid recommendation.

2. You assume your goals, values, and priorities.

Assuming you have all of the details, every decision also assumes a set of personal goals, values, and priorities. And even if you know the other person well, your values and priorities are ultimately different, so you'll bias your suggestions based on your own answers to these questions, not theirs.

You may value winning more than relationships or you might care more about experiences than money. These philosophies turn into choices and they have a considerable impact on the path you take.

3. You give them an out.

When you give someone advice on a decision or path and she takes it, she tends to own it if it goes well, but she will also tend to blame you when it doesn't. By taking your advice, he or she can make you at least partially responsible for the outcome. If your goal is to truly help the other person, this advice can get in the way.

4. You deny them the chance to learn and grow.

Often our greatest learnings come in the crucible of our hardest and most important decisions. In these moments we are forced to define our goals, articulate our values, and determine our priorities. When we rely on external advice we skirt the hard work and just go with what's presented as a short cut.

When you resist giving advice and share experience instead, you create new opportunities for others to learn and grow.

5. You give them new information.

Discussing past experiences focuses on sharing valuable information. It could be options you created, resources you developed, or relationships you leveraged. Often the best experiences are the ones that didn't work out so well. Explaining what led to a bad outcome can highlight something that the other person is missing.

6. You give them new perspectives.

Sometimes you don't need to add anything to the situation to be helpful; you just need to give it a different spin. We can often feel stuck because we assume things are a certain way or we have to approach from a specific angle.

Some of the best experience shares that I've been a part of have done nothing more than re-frame a situation in a more positive or neutral light. This can make all of the difference to someone who is feeling stuck.

7. You help create new options.

Choosing a path can be tough if you only see a limited set of options. Experience shares can open up ways of moving forward that you hadn't seen previously. Sometimes it is as simple as making simple tweaks to current ideas based on new perspectives. 

8. You allow others to build on your sharing.

If you're sharing experiences as a group, you create opportunities for others to build on your experience share by sharing their own, similar situations. Advice tends to incite debate and argument; experience fosters reflection and ideas.

9. You allow others to learn at the same time.

Many times I've been in situations where people are sharing to help one person with their challenge and they end up helping each other, sometimes in completely unforeseen ways. Hearing someone talk about a time when they grappled with a problem and discovered a solution allows everyone to learn from that lesson. If the person had just given advice, the rest of us would miss out on that opportunity.

It's easy to fall into the advice-giving trap. We love to help people and we want to fix problems. However, taking a step back and thinking about what experiences lead you to want to give that advice creates a moment of deeper reflection which can enlighten you, the person you want to help, and everyone listening in.

Top Teams Avoid These Common Problems That Can Lead To Failure

Creating a successful team is not easy. Here are 5 of the top reasons they fail and what you can do to avoid them.

Recent research by Deloitte Consulting shows that organizations are moving from rigid hierarchies of individuals to ones based on teams of teams models. This change in structure has been a function of the change in the nature of work itself. As we've moved from simple routine tasks to to solving complicated problems in creative ways, teams have allowed us to combine the experience, skills, insights, and capacities of several individuals. However, teams come with many challenges.

Certainly, this is what I've seen in my work as a coach. Over the last decade, I've worked with dozens of different kinds of teams: software teams, marketing teams, operational teams, and, most recently, management and leadership teams. And while every team is unique and face different challenges, there are a handful of reasons that teams struggle and then potentially fail. By knowing these typical fault lines and staying vigilant to avoid these pitfalls, you can increase your odds of success and scope of your impact.

1. Lack of purpose

First and foremost, teams without a clear and well communicated definition of purpose will typically not align themselves for success. Not knowing why you're all working together or not having a clear definition of success results in most people pulling in different directions. Everyone one makes different assumptions and works off piecemeal information, drawing erratic conclusions on what needs to be done.

A great team clarifies its core customer, the product/service it provides to them, and how its customers use the product or service once it is delivered. This allows each member of the team to focus on making sure each and every part of their individual processes and effort contributes to creating value for the team's customer.

2. Unclear roles

The only thing worse than not knowing what someone else is doing is not knowing what you're doing. When roles are unclear, it leaves people struggling to decide what to do and what to do next. Team members typically get stuck focusing on some small, locally-optimized task so they can feel productive, only to find out later they are wasting their time or duplicating their efforts.

Productive teams have clear role definitions and regular discussion regarding who's responsible for what and making sure there are no big overlaps or gaps between each person on the team. They develop role scorecards with key responsibilities, key performance indicators, and specific performance targets. Then they merge their individual scorecards to create a role matrix which ensures that there are no holes or duplicates and that handoffs are tightly coordinated.

3. Fixed mindset

I've seen many teams fail because they assumed they couldn't improve, change, or re-frame their situation. Often times, the smartest and most technical of teams are the ones that get stuck in this way. These teams' intelligence and prior success lull them into thinking that if they can't solve it quickly using their standard approach, then there is no solution.

The best teams I've worked with have a growth mindset. They are willing to try things that seem impossible at first and are willing to risk failure. They tend to learn more quickly, discover new information and approaches, and pick up new skills and techniques along the way.

4. Poor decision-making

Teams that haven't figured out a good approach to decision-making fail in two modes. First, they over-think decisions and waste a lot of time in the decision-making process. Sometimes they get so stuck that they can't even make a decision. The second mode is when they don't spend enough time making decisions and they get into implementation and thrash mode until they either give up or make it through but badly bruised and wounded.

Smart teams decide how they are going to decide in different cases. They understand the decision-making stages--input, consult, make, approve, inform--and have clearly decided who's involved in which stage. They put as few people in the middle phases as possible in order to streamline the process. Once in implementation mode, they can move quickly because the right people have been included in the right way.

5. Lack of resources

The one thing that will kill a team faster than anything is the lack of resources. Sometimes this is the team's fault, but more often it is the organization who chartered the team in the first place. Team morale and commitment wanes quickly when team members don't have the right tools, equipment, and authority to do their job. In most situations, companies are penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to creating the right environment and workspace the teams need to be successful.

Teams that perform well are supported by the right sponsors and executives and these teams are given everything they need to work quickly and with purpose. Experienced managers know that on-the-ground needs and decisions are best left to the people doing the work and these managers should instead focus on removing obstacles, procuring right resources, and getting the information the team needs to do its job.

While avoiding all of these won't guarantee a stellar team, failing to avoid them will certainly mean your team will deliver subpar results.

Want To Improve Your Leadership? Become An Agile Leader Using These Seven Approaches

Great executives know how to adapt their style to the people and the situation. Here are 7 approaches that will expand your leadership toolkit.

When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The same is true for leadership. If you're great at driving your team by calling the shots, then you'll seek out situations--and even create ones--where making tough calls quickly is critical. However, like any highly developed skill, overusing one kind of leadership mode quickly becomes a liability.

The fact is that business throws us all sorts of challenges, and we need different approaches. As your business and your team grows, you'll need to develop a more robust and multifaceted set of leadership skills. Here are seven modalities that successful leaders use in the different situations where they are most effective.

1. Directive

For driven entrepreneurs, this is the most natural and the easiest approach to use. In this mode, you're giving direction and expecting action. It doesn't mean that you're barking orders to underlinings. Rather, the message you're sending out is clearly focused on what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and by when it needs to be done. This approach is critical when time is limited, indecision comes at a high cost, and weighing the options is a luxury that you just can't afford. However, this is often an overused approach and can become a crutch for those who become overly reliant on it.

2. Supportive

Here you're letting others take the lead and serving as a supporting force who's providing resources, information, and authority to your team members. Servant leaders lean heavily on this approach to support their teams and allow them do what they feel is best. My word of caution here is to make sure you're supporting a team who has a clear direction and is highly motivated rather than falling back on this mode because you're just not sure what to do.

3. Inquisitive

Your role here is to ask questions that get the team members thinking in new or different ways. In this mode you're helping them to consider new options or criteria. By asking the right questions you can allow them to see an opportunity they haven't considered or a big risk they may need to avoid. However, don't use this as a cover for the directive mode. If you really want the team to turn right, just say so. Don't try to lead them down the garden path.

4. Encouraging

Sometimes a team has the right information, great organization, and a plan that will win, but they lack the mental willpower and confidence to take the summit. In this case, give your team words of encouragement, remind them of past successes, and keep them focused on pressing forward. This can be very hard if you're a driving leader who gets frustrated, so be careful of grabbing the wheel too quickly.

5. Empowering

Here you're expanding the team's authority and purview. This could be giving team members greater ability to make decisions or the ability to execute without getting prior approvals. When a team has proven their ability to make effective decisions and you've found that reducing bureaucracy and paperwork will increase implementation speed and motivation, this a powerful approach. Be careful however, a team who has been given greater control can be very reluctant to give it back.

6. Reflective

This can feel similar to the inquisitive mode but it includes one subtle difference: the focus here is look at past events, actions, and results to spur the team to self reflect and to generate new awareness. From this awareness comes insight and creates different--hopefully better--options and approaches. This mode is a powerful leadership mode, but it's also the most difficult because it requires you to put aside your views and motivations and let the team discover its own path forward.

7. Visionary

While somewhat cliché, the visionary mode is a very important. For some people, this approach comes naturally and for some it takes focused effort. When you're the visionary, your job is to paint a vivid and detailed picture of the future desired state. Think of Kennedy and his We Choose To Go To The Moon speech. Use this approach sparingly; its power comes in its infrequent and strategic use.

To be a great leader learn to leverage your natural skills and develop your weaknesses. But most importantly, learn which approach is best in which situation and avoid overusing one just because you're good at it.

This One Radical Idea Will Improve All Of Your Meetings Immediately

Many companies have too many meetings. This change will force people to rethink how often they are meeting and for what purpose.

As an executive coach, I hear a lot of reasons why senior people can't get more done: everything from direct reports who don't take initiative, bosses who have unrealistic expectations, vendors who fail to deliver, and customers who want the world but don't want to pay for it. However, the number one reason that every single executive gives me--from the associate vice president to the CEO--is too many meetings.

Usually, these executives show me their screen with a calendar jammed with back-to-back commitments. And it's true, the fact is that the vast majority of companies have been overrun with meetings. Ever since Outlook invented the automatic invite, executives have been in a battle to control of their schedule and, unfortunately, most have been thoroughly defeated.

On an individual level, my advice is to take control by creating a "defensible calendar." By getting ahead of the game, creating a system for managing your day, and funneling requests and commitments into a schedule that works best for you, you can protect your time and create a schedule to fit your needs.

However, for companies who have developed a particularly dysfunctional culture of creating meetings at the drop of a hat, I have adopted a somewhat radical approach to addressing the problem. I like it because it focuses on creating a culture of developing systems that pull based on demand rather than trying to push. And while it's a bit different--even controversial--it's proven to dramatically shift meeting-making habits within every organization who has tried it.

The idea is simple. If people feel like meetings are overtaking their schedules, it means they are going to meetings when they don't really want to. The approach I propose gives that control back to them.

Here's the change I make: Every meeting is now optional.

If you don't want to go, don't go! If you have something better to do, go do that. Forget the meeting. You don't even need to let the person know you're not going to show up. Delete it from your calendar. Delete it from your schedule. Delete it from your mind. Done and done.

Why? Well, if meetings have become rampant, it's because the power has shifted from the meeting attendee to the meeting maker. This approach shifts it back. Rather than assuming that if I make a meeting, other's have to go, I now set the default to decline and I have to convince the meeting attendees to accept my invite.

What happens when you adopt this policy? Four important things:

Meetings with little to no value get canceled.

The first thing that happens is meetings that don't provide value get canceled. For one of two reasons: either the meeting maker realizes nobody will come once the meetings are optional, or nobody shows up and renders it moot. If a meeting doesn't provide value for the attendees then good riddance.

Meeting makers think twice before creating a meeting.

New meetings are less likely. Everyone becomes more careful about creating meetings and people find other ways to resolve issues and to make decisions. Too often, people default to creating a meeting when something needs to be discussed rather than just meeting one-on-one with the right people to get to a conclusion quickly.

Meeting agendas focus on creating value.

When someone creates a meeting, they think hard about the agenda. When meetings are optional, meeting makers need to create value and convince people to come.

By making sure they've crafted an efficient and well-designed agenda and have clearly communicated that agenda to invited attendees, they improve the meeting for everyone. People know why they are meeting, what will be covered, what will be decided, and how long it will last.

Meeting times shorten.

The fact is many meetings deliver value, but they simply take too long and waste too much time. Making meetings optional forces people to condense and streamline meetings to focus on the value-added content and trim everything else.

I've seen hour-long meetings shortened to half hour meetings and half-hour meetings shortened to ten-minute stand ups. Saving ten people a half hour is over a day of found time for the company. That's not chump change.

While implementing a meeting optional policy is not easy, it can have a huge impact on culture and behaviors. For most organizations it means fewer meetings, shorter meetings, and more efficient meetings. For a few, it means the same or even more meetings, but with dramatically improved value and focus.

Either way, this meeting optional philosophy changes the culture and gets people out of the dreaded meeting rut.

What Extreme Athletes Can Teach You About Focus And How To Create Hyper-Productivity

Flow states allow you to engage your senses and create intense focus. Know how to enter flow and multiply your productivity on critical tasks.

I've done my share of extreme activities and sports: hiking Kilimanjaro, diving the Coral Sea off Australia, skiing a 55 km ski marathon in Wisconsin, running several marathons, and an Ironman triathlon are all on my resume. Each of these experiences taught me different lessons in life--how to plan, how to train, how to recover, how to overcome challenges, how to stay present, and how to push through--which have served me well.

However, one lesson has given me great advantages throughout my business career as an entrepreneur, CEO, and leadership coach. It has allowed me to tap into my best talents and capabilities and create value and progress with ease and comfort. The lesson I learned is the power of finding and staying in my flow state.

Your flow state--or as some call it, the zone in sports--allows you to push past physical and mental boundaries that would otherwise be impossible to cross in a normal state of mind.

When running the last five miles of an ironman while your legs are cramping so badly that you can see the muscles knotting in your legs between each step, or diving a 3,000-foot shelf, at night and in the dark, while someone accidentally kicks off your mask leaving you temporarily blind, getting into and staying in your flow state is not just helpful, it can be lifesaving.

But finding your flow state doesn't need to be death-defying. You can find this same flow state at work. When you do, it allows you to hyper focus on the tasks at hand and bring to bear all of your talents and skills to do amazing work.

Everyone has a different flow state. Getting into yours might take a little experimentation, so here are some variables you can play with to discover how you can find, and stay in, your zone.

1. Create a conducive environment.

Your surroundings will have a large impact on your ability to get into and stay in your flow. This doesn't mean a sensory deprivation tank. One of my best flow environments is a busy coffee shop. And I know executives who love long-haul flights for finding their zone. It just needs to be a place where you're not interrupted or distracted. Experiment with background noise/music, temperature, lighting, seating, work surface, etc.

2. Choose the right time.

Everyone has a natural energy cycle during the day that effects focus. I'm a morning person, but other people I know are night owls. Some people have weekly cycles as well. Mondays are bad for me while other people loathe Friday afternoons. Track your energy level over the day for a week and see when you're most dialed in.

3. Establish a pre-routine

Getting into your flow is a process and the right pre-routine can set you up for success. Working out and eating a light and healthy meal is key for me. For others, it might be meditation or journaling. Think about what gets you ready to focus and create a ritual that clues your mind into preparing to focus.

4. De-clutter your mind.

Clearing the thoughts bouncing around in your head is key. Take a minute and right down all of the things in your head: ideas, tasks, reminders, etc. Put them on a list and promise yourself you'll get back to them after you finish your work at hand.

5. Set a time box.

It's good to create a little positive time pressure. Knowing you have a limited amount of time will not only create some urgency, but also let your mind know when you'll get back to other tasks. Generally, I try to do 90-180 minutes. It can also be helpful to work in time chunks such as pomodoros--25 minutes on, 5 minutes off--to create a rhythm.

6. Don't wait, just start.

Getting into a flow isn't like falling asleep; you don't wait for it to happen. You need to push start it to create the momentum. For tasks like writing, pushing through the first paragraph gets me going, then I'm in the zone and the momentum carries me forward. Don't just sit there. Start doing it and flow will come.

Finding your flow in your day-to-day work isn't like the adrenaline rush of dropping into a chute on a double diamond. However, done well and with careful intention your zone can be used to consistently create great periods of extremely high productivity to help you go farther, faster.

The Best Teams Build Up Accountability With Each Other (But Not in the Way You Think)

Accountability is critical on all teams--especially leadership teams--however, it's easy to get wrong. Here's why and what you can do to avoid mistakes.

Practicing accountability while working on teams is critical to any team's success. Team experts like Patrick Lencioni, Thomas Kayser, and John Maxwell all list accountability as one of the top traits of high-performance teams. Making sure that people are delivering on their commitments is essential to making sure a team is effective. Members who make commitments but then don't deliver will quickly bring a team to its knees.

Having worked with and coached dozens teams of all different types over the last two decades, I've learned that building a culture of accountability is one of the single most important interventions I can make. However, I've noticed there are different approaches to accountability and that some are more successful than others. As I've honed my approach to team development, I've found a few key steps to the accountability conversation that work well. The trick is to shift the mindset from one of punishment to one of support.

Many teams start raising the accountability level by calling people out publicly when they fall short. While this raises the awareness about commitments and gets people to think twice before signing up--and once they do, can get them to double down on effort--it ultimately undermines a team's success. Focusing on punishment motivates people to engage in two counterproductive tendencies.

First, when faced with possible punishment, people tend to play it safe. They hesitate to stretch themselves to try new things. This shuts down learning and development since most growth occurs outside of a person's comfort zone, when they are stretching themselves. If someone is afraid of punishment, they have little incentive to learn.

Second, people will stick with the tried and true rather than experimenting with new, possibly better, approaches to their work. If people are afraid that they'll be called out if they fail, they won't experiment. Unfortunately, this shuts down innovation and creativity; creativity is ultimately how a team, and a company, makes future improvements.

To avoid creating a culture of accountability based on blame and punishment, focus on creating one of support and accomplishment instead. Here are five simple steps to structuring these conversations--what I call the five R's--so that accountability becomes a positive aspect of your culture and productive outcome for your team.

1. Reinforce the relationship.

Always start by reinforcing the importance and commitment to the personal relationship. Our worst psychological fear is that we'll be exiled by our tribe and naturally we want to avoid this result. The goal here to create a psychological safety net by assuring your people that they are not being singled out or punished.

2. Restate the team and individual commitment.

Great teams attack issues, not people. Instead of focusing the person's actions, or lack thereof, focus on the commitments that were made. I suggest starting with the team commitment and then moving onto the individual commitment. More often than not, this is where the issue lies; people often don't realize that a formal commitment and deadline were made and set. Once you start recording your commitments, many of your accountability issues will improve.

3. Reflect on the situation.

Be open to new information and learning by getting curious. Ask open-ended questions to pull the key information out that is needed to fix the situation. Avoid blaming or critical questions. Keep it neutral and stay open-minded to new insights and possibilities. Sometimes not meeting a commitment is not a bad thing if it would have risked a higher-level goal.

4. Redouble your support.

Strong teams know they all succeed or fail to

gether. And even if someone has to put in extra time or effort to help someone else get his or her task done, she does so without a second thought. Team members know that everyone is working hard and pushing themselves.

5. Resolve to take action.

Make sure you conclude with specific actions and new commitments. Just because something was missed doesn't mean it can be put aside. Either re-commit to it with new deadlines and actions, or agree that it's no longer a task and strike it from the list.

By shifting your culture from one of blame and punishment to one of support and accomplishment, your team will be more successful and improve more quickly. It will also be a lot more enjoyable.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.