Over the last two weeks, I’ve written extensively about this idea of ‘success’ and what achieving it looks like for you and your people.
My husband Rob and I are very passionate in ensuring every leader of business achieves the level of success they desire in 2021.
How am I ensuring that? By sharing with you the same processes and questions we implement alongside our clients which affords them levels of success they could previously only fantasise about.
First, we clarified exactly what ‘success’ means to you, as the leader. We stepped back from that final picture to work out who you are to BE and what you are to DO in order to achieve it.
Then, we examined your team and asked the most important question any business owner can ask themselves… Do you have the right people with the right skills doing the right job at the right time to help you? (link: xxx)
Now, let’s turn out attention to what are best practices for the business to further enhance our chances of achieving the level of success we desire in 2021.
As we approach the end of January 2021, it is fair to acknowledge the world is a far different place to what it was in January 2020.
This is exciting for you AND your business.
“Wherever there is change, and wherever there is uncertainty, there is opportunity!”
Mark Cuban
“Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity – not as a threat.”
Steve Jobs
The greatest business owners of our time all recognised change carries opportunity along with it and, importantly, it’s their BELIEF that this is fundamentally true which allowed them to SEE the opportunity.
These changes in the modern economy will provide opportunities for you and your business and potentially, one way you may find these new opportunities is by reassessing how you position your business in the market.
My invitation to you is to ask yourself the following questions:
Once you’ve answered those questions, it’s imperative you make a list of ALL THE ACTIVITY which comes out of your answers.
Then prioritise them from most important to least important. That simply means determine what activity is going to give you the biggest bang for your buck. Next, for each activity, allocate the right person to do that activity as well as giving them a time frame in which to complete it. Finally and most importantly, hold your people ACCOUNTABLE to the achievement of the RESULTS you are looking for.
The greatest asset your business has is the right people doing the right job at the right time.
My invitation to you is to be 100% certain about your team at the start of the year.
One of my mentors, Brian Tracey, taught me a crucial question which I have asked myself when facing the many challenges and situations in my life. The question to ask yourself about your team is this…
“Knowing what I know now would I still employ [Mary] as my [Business Development Manager]?”
If you cannot categorically look yourself directly in the mirror and say “yes”, then the answer is NO. If your answer is, ‘No’, Brian suggests you develop a plan to change it.
For you to achieve the success you desire in 2021, how you lead your people will determine to what extent you reach your goals. Great business owners recognise that if [Mary] is not the right person for the [Business Development Manager] role, then it’s time to develop a plan to replace Mary in that role.
Secondary to your people are the physical resources of your business. No matter how great a carpenter is, they’ll do a poor job without the correct tools. One of the reasons your team do not do their very best in their roles is because they don’t have the best resources or equipment to help them. Spending a little here can make the world of difference to productivity and efficiency.
Thirdly, ensure your processes and systems are documented and up to date. More often than not errors occur because your people do not have – or do not use – systems or process to guide their action. In other words, more often errors are system errors NOT people errors.
Best practice states, every member of your team has a properly documented description of their role and each role has documented processes for every task performed by that role.
The best person to document the processes, is the person doing the role currently. That gives you the opportunity to see how well they know what they are doing as well as gives them ownership of the task.
When your processes are sound, THEN source and implement the systems that will make those processes and activities more efficient and effective. I see too many business owners spend a lot of money on systems to discover they don’t fit to the process used by their people. I’ve seen a $60,000+ ERP completely unused because it couldn’t do what the team wanted it to do and so the team flat out refused to use it. Implementing systems before documenting processes is putting the cart before the horse in my opinion.
Finally, sure-up your external resources. Every successful individual surrounds themselves with the best team of support they can find. In business your external team can make or break you. Make sure you have a team which includes ALL of the following…
Ensure that not only are these critical support players are the very best you can find, but that they also have your back, and are proactive in their activity, relationship and the advice they provide to you.
In previous posts I’ve used the analogy of sport to discuss the importance of knowing your financial scores. At the end of every game all participants know what the final score is. They know who has won and who has lost and by how much.
In interviews however, the coach rarely, if ever, discusses the final score. The coach will discuss the reason why their team won or lost – the impactors on the final score. They’ll discuss their team’s
offense, their defense and activity on the field. The coach will go on to use that information in training during the following week to improve their team’s game.
Your final scores – your income, your profit, your cash in the bank etc – are imperative scores to know. However, you cannot change them by focussing on them. Your income, profit, etc are all the result of the ACTIVITY you have or have not done for that period of time.
Instead of worrying about the result, put your energy and focus on the things which impact those scores, such as leads, conversion rate, repeat business, average dollar sale, cost of sale and last and – least important – operating expenses. (Briefly, a lot of advisers suggest cutting costs to make more money. Whilst it’s important to be wise with your money, it’s foolish to think you can continuously cut expenses to make more money. You will have very, very slow success rate by doing this).
Track all the activity which impacts on your final score, report on them all (at least monthly) and then develop strategies to improve them all. When you put your energy and focus on improving the ‘impactors’, by default, you will improve your final score.
Your business is a direct reflection of you. Your team are a direct reflection of you. Everything you believe will be reflected in the results that you get. Don’t like the result? Change the belief. As E James Rohan says “work harder on yourself than you do your business”.
Have you decided 2021 is the year you decide to work smarter to achieve the results you want? Engaging skilled business mentors like Rob and myself ensure you and your team are focused on the making the improvements which give you and your business the biggest bang for your buck. The result? A business which finally gives you and your family the lifestyle you’ve always wanted.
Why put it off any longer? Reach out today for a confidential conversation about your business and what you want to achieve. We’re here to work alongside you and your team so you can give yourself and those you love the very best of what you deserve.
What does it take to actually remove yourself from the day-to-day grind of business? Learn from our panel of Business Owners who've Been There, Done That.
