Quotes on “Winning Teamwork”

Posted on July 2, 2010 by David Shedd

As you may recall, I consider “Winning Teamwork” to be the second of the three keys for a Winning Business. Winning Teamwork is characterized by:

  1. Listening and Communication
  2. Accountability with Mutual Respect and Recognition
  3. Learning

 

General Quotes on Winning Teamwork

  1. “Leadership concerns the capacity to build and maintain a high performing team, and leadership should be evaluated in terms of the performance of the team.” David Dotlich
  2. “None of us is as smart as all of us.” Satchel Paige
  3. “Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.”

 

Listening and Communication

  1. “I remind myself every morning: nothing that I say this day will teach me anything. So, if I am going to learn, I must do it by listening.” Larry King
  2. “One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears.” Dean Rusk
  3. “Listen not to contradict and disprove, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.” Sir Francis Bacon
  4. “One of my roles as CEO is to be the chief listener. I don’t believe that the model is any longer that there are a few really smart people at the top of the pyramid that make all the strategic decisions. It is much more about being all around the enterprise, and looking for people with great ideas and passionate points of view that are anchored to the business and connected to things our customers care about.” Brian Dunn (CEO of Best Buy)
  5. “All leadership takes place through the communication of ideas to the minds of others.” Charles Cooley
  6. “The manager of the future will know how to ask rather than how to tell.” Peter Drucker
  7. “Communication is achieving a complete, mutual understanding (not necessarily agreement) between parties. Complete: all the facts (who, what, where, when, how, why) and relative priorities. Mutual: all parties have the same understanding.” Doug Black
  8. “Communication doesn’t take place until your people: Hear or see what you say. Understand it. Believe it. Believe you mean it. Remember it. Internalize it. And begin to use it themselves.” Vince Lombardi
  9. “About the time that you are writing a line you have written so often that you want to throw up, that is the time the American people will hear it.” Richard Nixon
  10. “There were times I talked about the company’s direction so much that I was completely sick of hearing it myself” Jack Welch
  11. “Give people a fact or an idea and you enlighten their minds; tell them a story and you touch their souls.” Hasidic proverb
  12. “The greatest problem with communication is the illusion that it is done” George Bernard Shaw

 

Accountability with Mutual Respect and Recognition

  1. “To succeed as a team is to hold all of the members accountable for their expertise.” Mitchell Caplan (CEO, E*Trade)
  2. “Stand up and be accountable. Sympathy is never wasted, except when given to yourself.”
  3. “As a leader, it is your job to reinforce a culture of excellent performance, continuous improvement and accountability.”
  4. “Excellent companies require and demand extraordinary performance from the average man.” Tom Peters.
  5. “The essence is for each one to do well one’s work.” Albert Camus
  6. “What can I contribute that will significantly affect the performance and the results of the institution I serve?” Peter Drucker
  7. “I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.” Lily Tomlin

  8. “Trust But Verify.” Ronald Reagan

  9. “No excuses. No explanations.” Tony Dungy
  10. “When someone does not produce and does not improve, it is not fair to them to keep them on. They cannot possibly enjoy not being successful, and it is arrogant on our part to believe that they could not be successful doing something else.” The Leadership Machine
  11. “Cooperation, synergy, teamwork are all great ideas. But, to win you have to build a team where people know and respect one another. People instinctively love to help other people. They do not love to help ideas.” Dan Nyce
  12. “You can never underestimate the power of simple recognition for a job well done.”
  13. “Appreciative words are the most powerful force for good on earth.” George W. Crane
  14. “To say ‘well done’ to any bit of good work is to take hold of the powers which have made the effort and strengthen them beyond our knowledge.” Phillip Brooks
  15. “I can live two months on one good compliment!” Mark Twain
  16. “The worst feedback I ever got was the feedback I never got.”

 

Learning

  1. “The emergent property of human civilization is collective learning. Human civilization first flourished when humans began to build on the knowledge of the past and learn from one another in the present.” David Christian
  2. “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while those that know it all find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Eric Hoffer
  3. “The Illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” Alvin Toffler
  4. “A major characteristic of successful people at any level and at any age is seeing oneself as a learner, actively making sense of work and personal experiences, and striving to get better.” The Leadership Machine
  5. “Learning is not automatic. It requires a systematic examination of our experience.”
  6. “Learning takes place incrementally. Small learning gains are usually enough to help people improve their performance towards even stretch goals.”
  7. “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” John Wooden
  8. “As times change, learning includes not only adding to what you know, but dropping what you used to know that is no longer true.”
  9. “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Ben Franklin
  10. “When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.”  Dalai Lama
  11. “Experience is not something one can pass to another. For this, you have to go through the fires.” George Bernard Shaw.
  12. “How should we view argument and disagreement? Are they opportunities to prove that we are right or ways to learn and find a better answer?”
  13. “Not only do you need to get better at doing what you do, you need to get better at getting better.”
  14. “He taught me to teach myself, which is the greatest thing that a teacher can do.” Isaac Stern (Violinist)
  15. “Learning causes your world to open up, so you can see things a little bit differently.” Patrick Cescau (CEO of Unilever).
  16. “Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” Winston Churchill
Posted in Leadership, Team / People | 1 Comment

Quotes on “Do the Right Thing”

Posted on July 2, 2010 by David Shedd

As you may recall, I consider “Do the Right Thing” to be the first of the three keys for a Winning Business. Do the Right Thing is defined as:

  1. Ethics, Integrity and Character
  2. Do the Right Thing to Ensure the Success of the Business
  3. Focus and Prioritize to Effectively Get the Right Thing Done

 

Ethics, Integrity and Character

  1. “When it comes to bringing values to life –  to doing the good, right, and appropriate thing…we’re always working at it, we’re never totally there, and the challenge starts all over again with each new tomorrow.” Eric Harvey and Steve Ventura
  2. “We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence. But, rather we have those because we have acted rightly.” Aristotle
  3. “To build trust, you must do two things. First, say what you mean. Second, do what you say.” Jack Welch
  4. “We will forget and forgive any judgment error that you make, but integrity mistakes are forever.”  David Cottrell
  5. “Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of — for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” Socrates
  6. “Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.”   Albert Einstein
  7. “We know not the future, and cannot plan for it much. But we can… determine and know what manner of men we will be whenever and wherever the hour strikes.” Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Defends Little Round Top in the Battle of Getttysburg
  8. “To conquer one’s spirit, abandon anger, and be modest in victory… whoever can do this I compare not to the greatest of men but to a god.” Cicero
  9. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle
  10. “Professionalism is not just about appearance, ethics and a code of conduct. Professionalism is about having a lifetime dedication and commitment to higher standards and ideals, honorable values, and continuous self-improvement. Professionalism is a built in guidance system for always doing the best that you can do, always doing the right thing, and always standing tall for what you believe in.” Jim Ball
  11. “Do first class business in a first class way.” JP Morgan

 

Do the Right Thing to Ensure the Success of the Business

  1. “Every day, in countless ways, the competitive position of each of our businesses grows either weaker or stronger. If we are delighting customers, eliminating unnecessary costs, and improving our products and services, we gain strength. But, if we treat customers with indifference or tolerate bloat, our businesses will wither. On a daily basis, the effects of our actions are imperceptible; cumulatively, though, their consequences are enormous. When our long-term competitive position improves as a result of these unnoticeable actions, we describe the phenomenon as “widening the moat.” And doing that is essential if we are to have the kind of business we want a decade or two from now. We always, of course, hope to earn more money in the short-term. But, when short-term and long-term conflict, widening the moat must take precedence. If a management makes bad decisions in order to hit short-term earnings targets, and consequently gets behind the eight ball in terms of costs, customer satisfaction or brand strength, no amount of subsequent brilliance will overcome the damage that has been inflicted. Take a look at the dilemmas of managers in the auto and airline industries today as they struggle with the huge problems handed them by their predecessors. Charlie Munger (Warren Buffett’s Number Two) is fond of quoting Ben Franklin’s “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” But sometimes no amount of cure will overcome the mistakes of the past.” Warren Buffett
  2. “It always surprises me that the government, unions, some employees and other stakeholders forget that a business has to be long-term profitable. Without long-term success, there is no business.  Hence, there are no jobs, there are no additional investments, there are no profits to pay shareholders, and there are no taxes.”
  3. “No one will thank the leader for taking care of the present if they have neglected the future.” Joel Barker
  4. “It is no use saying ‘We are Doing our Best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.” Winston Churchill
  5. “Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned….”   Thomas H. Huxley (English biologist)
  6. “There are risks and costs to a program of action.  But they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable action.” John F Kennedy. 
  7. “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they do not necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” Rosalyn Carter

 

Focus and Prioritize to Effectively Get the Right Thing Done

  1. “The Main Thing is to keep the Main Thing the Main Thing.” Crab Cooker Restaurant, Newport Beach, CA
  2. “Too many priorities mean no priorities.”

  3. “Breakthrough leaders, as compared to most CEOs, see difficult times as opportunities for the organization to develop a crystal clear focus on its most important initiatives and even to tap into energies in people that tend to go dormant during the good times.” Keith McFarland, The Breakthrough Company

  4. “As a leader, every day you must ask yourself, ‘is what I’m doing right now helping me to move closer to my ultimate vision and helping me to meet my goal?'”

  5. “You can’t move so fast that you try to change [a situation] faster than people can accept it. That doesn’t mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority.”     Eleanor Roosevelt
  6. “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” Herbert Simon (Economist)
  7. “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.” Peter Drucker
  8. “Sometimes, it is not what you add to a situation or problem, but what you take away that makes a difference” Jim Schack
  9. “If you are doing anything that you think a customer would not be willing to pay a premium for – think twice before doing it.” Carlos Brito (CEO Anheuser-Busch In-Bev)
  10. “The wise do only what needs to be done”
  11. “In practice, a person should work on three things at once, not forty.” The Leadership Machine
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Quotes on Leadership

Posted on July 1, 2010 by David Shedd

For many years, I have been collecting quotes that apply to leadership and business. In a series of blogs, I will be sharing some of the quotes that I have collected. Please feel free to use them to pepper your speeches, conversations or presentations. If you have good quotes that I have not included, please share them. Also note that the sources of some quotes are not named, I have forgotten where I got the quotes from and must apologize. If you must have a source for a quote that you want to use, just credit it to either Winston Churchill or Mark Twain. They both said a whole bunch of clever quotes about nearly everything throughout their lives. In addition, quoting good old Winston or Mr. Twain always sounds impressive.

General Quotes on Leadership

  1. “A leader is an individual who can consistently cause others to win”
  2. “As a leader, it is important to do the right thing and to be seen doing the right thing.” Hank Paulson
  3. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” Warren Bennis
  4. “Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.” Stephen Covey
  5. “There is a real difference between managing and leading. Managing winds up being the allocation of resources against tasks. Leadership focuses on people. My definition of a leader is someone who helps people succeed.” Carol Bartz (CEO, Autodesk and Yahoo!)
  6. “Managers are people who do things right; leaders are people who do the right thing.” Warren Bennis
  7. “You lead and empower people. You manage and control things.” Stephen Covey
  8. “A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.”  Arnold H. Glasgow
  9. “The job of the leader is to do the job of leadership appropriate for the time and situation that you are in.” Jeff Immelt
  10. “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing. Example is leadership.” Albert Schweitzer
  11. “He that gives good advice builds with one hand. He that gives good counsel and example builds with both. But he that gives good thoughts and bad example builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.” Francis Bacon
  12. “We judge ourselves by our intentions; others judge us by our actions.”
  13. “As a leader, you get the people you deserve. Great people want to work for great leaders.” Brad Sugars
  14. “The key element of leadership is not just making decisions, but drawing out the strengths of your group.” Dan Nyce
  15. “If you are a leader, lives should be better because of the influence you have had.” Tony Dungy
  16. “As a leader, don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people.” Clayton Christensen
  17. “The lessons for leaders: Your job is to provide resources and support that build the confidence of players in themselves, each other, the team, and the excellence of the surrounding system. Ethics, fair play, mentoring, smooth transitions, continuity, and collaboration should not be luxuries or lip service; they create the margin of victory.” Rosabeth Moss Kanter
  18. “Being powerful is like being a lady; if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” Margaret Thatcher

 

 

 

Quotes on the Characteristics Required of a Leader

  1. “See everything; overlook a great deal; correct a little.”   Pope John XXIII
  2. “The great leader speaks little. He never speaks carelessly. He works without self-interest and leaves no trace. When all is finished, the people say: ‘We did it ourselves.'” Lao-tzu
  3. “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” Helen Keller
  4. “A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
  5. “Like all great leaders, he was truly disciplined.” It’s Your Ship
  6. “Nothing great was every accomplished without enthusiasm.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
  7. “To possess self-confidence and humility at the same time is called maturity.” Jack Welch
  8. “Empowerment means freedom to do the right things rather than what someone feels like doing.”
  9. “He that questions much shall learn much.” Francis Bacon
  10. “You add value to people when you value them.” John Maxwell
  11. “Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.” Brian Adams – Author
  12. “Leaders need courage. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else [the success of the company] is more important than fear.” Ambrose Redmoon
  13. “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” Tim Ferriss
  14. “Managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance and personal renewal.” Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
  15. “If they hope to be CEOs or heads of strategic business units, the ability to take multiple perspectives on the same problem will be critical for their success.” Larry Stybel
  16. “The key to leadership is self-control: primarily, the mastery of pride, which is more difficult to subdue than a wild lion (“If you cannot swallow your pride, you cannot lead.”); secondarily, the mastery of anger, which is more difficult to defeat than the greatest wrestler.” Genghis Khan
  17. “Principled leaders make a difference in the world. To be a principled leader, a person must have many skills and qualities, including the highest standards of integrity, sound judgment, and a strong moral compass – an intuitive sense of what is right and wrong.” Kim Clark, HBS
  18. “To be a success, you need a reasonable degree of intelligence, a strong work ethic, the ability to get along with others, a desire to build something important, and the ability to keep one’s ego in check.” David Rubenstein
  19. “He that would govern others first should be master of himself.” Philip Massinger
  20. “The supreme quality of leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
  21. “To lead in the 21st century, you will be required to have both character and competence.” Norman Schwarzkopf
  22. “Leadership without the discipline of execution is incomplete and ineffective. Without the ability to execute, all other attributes of leadership become hollow.” Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy
     

 

…And Quotes on Characteristics a Leader Should Avoid

  1. “Whom the Gods want to destroy, they first make angry.” Ancient Greek Saying
  2. “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it stands than to anything on which it is poured.” Mahatma Ghandi
  3. “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” Richard Feynman, Physicist
  4. “A prince who is not himself wise cannot be well advised.” Machiavelli
  5. “Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you.” Lao Tzu
  6. “90% of all leadership failures are character failures.”
Posted in Leadership | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Good to Great (Jim Collins)

Posted on June 28, 2010 by David Shedd

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Other Don’t:  Jim Collins

  1. Good is the enemy of great
    1. Complacency creeps in
  2. Good to great transitions do not happen via the following:
    1. Larger than life, celebrity CEO arriving to save the day
    2. Technology change
    3. Mergers and acquisitions
  3. Level V Leadership Required
    1. Level I: Highly Capable Individual
      1. Makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills and good work habits
    2. Level II: Contributing Team Member
      1. Contributes individual capabilities to the achievements of group objectives
    3. Level III: Competent Manager
      1. Organize people and resources toward the effective pursuit of pre-determined objectives
    4. Level IV: Effective Leader
      1. Catalyzes commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards
    5. Level V: Level V Executive
      1. Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will
        1. Ambitious first and foremost for the institution not themselves
        2. Set up their successors for success
        3. Compelling modesty
        4. Unwavering resolve to do what must be done
        5. Blame themselves for failure; congratulate the team or good luck on success
  4. First Who… Then What
    1. First get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus – build a superior executive team
    2. Need to be rigorous in people decisions
    3. Make decisions based on ability and corporate fit / culture
    4. People are not your Number One Asset; the right people are your Number One Asset
    5. Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems
      1. Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith)
  5. Have the truth be heard
    1. Lead with questions, not answers
    2. Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion
    3. Conduct autopsies without blame
    4. Build “red flag” mechanism that turn information into information that cannot be ignored
  6. Unwavering faith amid the brutal facts
    1. Stockdale Paradox
      1. Optimists lose: “We’re going out to be out by Christmas.”
      2. The realists: “I know that we will get out, I just do not know when.”
    2. Be a hedgehog (focused) rather than a fox (scattered, diffused and inconsistent)
      1. What can you be the best in the world at?
      2. What drives your economic engine?
      3. What are you deeply passionate about?
      4. At the intersection of these three circles is where you should focus your efforts
  7. A culture of discipline: disciplined people, disciplined thought, disciplined action
    1. Build a culture around the idea of freedom and responsibility within a framework
    2. Fill that culture with self-disciplined people who are willing to go to extreme lengths to fulfill their responsibilities
    3. Don’t confuse a culture of discipline with a tyranny
  8. Stay focused on what you are doing; create a “stop doing” list and unplug extraneous activities
    1. Success comes not from what you add to the situation, rather by what you take away
  9. Budgeting is a discipline to decide which arenas should be fully funded and which should not funded at all
  10. Technology is an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it
    1. Technology does not solve the problem or create greatness in itself, but the proper use of technology is key
    2. Invest in technology to become excellent not for fear of being left behind
  11. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop
    1. Transitions look different from the outside than from the inside
      1. From the outside, they are dramatic, almost revolutionary breakthroughs
      2. From the inside, they feel like an organic development process
    2. With the flywheel, you build momentum and many problems fade away: commitment and alignment, motivation, etc.
      1. Follow a pattern of build-up leading to breakthrough
      2. Let results do most of the talking
      3. Maintain consistency over time
        1. Each generation builds on the work of the previous generation
        2. The flywheel continues to build momentum
  12. Good to Great to Built to Last
    1. Established company or start-up + Good to Great Concepts = Sustained Great Results + Built to Last Concepts = Enduring Great Company.
  13. Final Thoughts
    1. Do not add these thoughts and ideas to what we are already doing rather use them to organize your work around what is essential and ignore or stop doing everything else
    2. If so, your lives are simpler and your results are vastly improved

Product Details

Posted in Business Acumen, Improve / Turnaround | 1 Comment

Winning Business

Posted on June 27, 2010 by David Shedd
  1. Why Winning Business?
    1. As the leader of your company, you win personally when your business wins. Success in business is about winning. The money is important, but true long-term business are built and improved because the business leader has the vision to succeed and to win.

     

  2. What Defines a Winning Business?
    1. Be the investment of choice
      1. The business is ethical and respectful of all stakeholders
      2. The business makes a strong return on investment, both in profit and cash flow
      3. The business continues to grow in sales, profits and cash flow
    2. Be the employer of choice
      1. “A” players throughout the business
      2. “A” players want to come work for the business
    3. Be the supplier of choice
      1. Your customers think of your business when they are making their buying decision
      2. Your reputation and brand has a value that customers are willing to pay a premium for and that differentiates you from others in the market.

     

  3. Leadership in a Winning Business
    1. Building and Improving a Winning Business is all about your leadership.
      1. If the business succeeds, then you and your team have won. Congratulations!!! Celebrate and give your team the credit!!!
      2. If the business is failing, then the only useful answer is that it is your fault.
        1. It is not the fault of the weather, the terrible economy, your employees, or your customers. It is your fault.
        2. By accepting that it is your fault, you set a positive example of accountability in the organization, and you take responsibility to take the actions that will make it better

     

  4. How to Build and Improve a Winning Business
    1. Focus on three core principles that match up to the definition of a winning business
      1. Do the Right Thing
      2. Winning Teamwork
      3. Customer Service
    2. These three principles should guide how everyone, and especially the leaders, make decisions and act
      1. Is what I am about to do the right thing to do?
      2. Does it support the team?
      3. Does it help us in providing better customer service?
    3. Having only these three principles is critical
      1. Three principles can be communicated, referred to, and kept front in mind
        1. We have all read or seen those corporate guidelines that consist of 10 – 15 themes, principles, or ideas. Do you think that anyone in the company, even the leader, can recite the full list? I do not think so.
      2. These principles are short, simple and easily understood throughout the organization
        1. Short and simple – do the right thing, winning teamwork, customer service. I can remember, I can keep front of mind, and I can use to guide my decisions and actions.

           

  5. What is “Do The Right Thing”
    1. Goal
      1. Create a business that is efficient, effective, and that you can be proud of every day
    2. Details
      1. Ethics, Integrity, and Character
        1. Everything that we do should pass the newspaper front page test
      2. Do the right thing to ensure the success of the business
        1. Make the tough decisions to build and improve the business and its profitability in both the short and the long term
        2. If the business does not succeed, none of us do.
      3. Focus and prioritize to get the right thing done
        1. Focus on our contribution. Not, our activity or doing what we like to do
        2. Prioritize on the constraint in the business – that which is important, not on what is most urgent
        3. Prioritizing means consciously deciding what not to do

     

  6. What is “Winning Teamwork”
    1. Goal
      1. Having the right people on your team fully engaged, respected, and appreciated, and focused on doing the right things energizes any business.
      2. For winning teams in business as in sport, the whole is always greater than the sum of the individuals.
    2. Details
      1. Listening and Communication
      2. Accountability with Mutual Respect and Recognition
      3. Learning

     

  7. What is “Customer Service”
    1. Goal
      1. The customer pays the bills and salaries of everyone in the company. The customer provides the profit.
      2. Success and value comes from providing the right products and services to the right customers in the right niche in the right industries.
    2. Details
      1. Value your customers and exceed their expectations
      2. Expand your business outward on the shoulders of satisfied customers
      3. Focus on a few profitable niches where you have a competitive advantage
Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution | Leave a comment

Things to Start Doing Today to Re-Charge Growth

Posted on June 22, 2010 by David Shedd

Summary: 

 There are three things that you, as the leader of your business, can start to do today to re-charge your company’s growth.

  1. Commit to get personally involved in sales, marketing and customer service on a daily basis
  2. Go out today and talk with your customers
  3. Go out today and talk with the “headlights of your organization”, your sales team

 

Blog Post:

“I know that I need to grow sales and develop my market presence.  But, we have tried everything.  The market stinks, and I just do not know where the growth is going to come from.”

 How many of you have heard or are experiencing this same issue?  Many?  Most?  All?

 O.K.   It is Quiz Time.  I have two quizzes for you.

First, Quiz One.

Quiz One: Please answer the following one question.

Do you personally like being involved in sales and dealing with sales and marketing people and customers?

Being absolutely honest, the answer for many of you may be… NO!

Ouch!!!

But, that is all right.  You see I am a recovering customerophobe.  At the beginning of my time as a company President, I thought of customers as a necessary evil that distracts from all the other fun stuff in business (acquisitions, business turn-arounds, operational improvement, start-ups, etc.).  Of course, that all changed for me during the telecommunications bust when our customers literally disappeared overnight and through the positive influence of my two Sales and Marketing VP’s. 

So, if I can change you can change as well.

Doing the right thing in business is not just about doing what you like to do; it is about doing what needs to be done.  And today in this economy, in your market space, with your company, the right thing is to “do” customer service, sales and marketing.  Full Stop.

If your answer to the question above was “No”, great job in realizing it and acknowledging it (“Hi, my name is David and I am a customerophobe…”).  Now that you have acknowledged it, you must figure out how to force yourself to do what needs to be done with regard to customer service and sales.  As leaders, I am sure that you have lectured, taught, or screamed at somebody to change the way they do their job… or else!!  Swallow your own medicine and figure out how you are going to change the way you do your job and spend the needed time on sales, customers, and growth.

For me, the easiest way to do this is to commit to some small amount of time each day, say 2 hours.  Make this public to others in your organization to give you the extra incentive to do what you say to avoid losing face.  Then, track your time.  Follow through on your commitment and track your time every day.

If you are not willing to commit your time and effort to sales, customers and growth, save yourself some time now and Stop Reading this Blog Post because nothing will happen and nothing will change.

For those of you who are still with me, let’s go on to Quiz Two.

Quiz Two:  Please answer the following three questions.

  1. How many customer service problems / poor quality products / missed customer deadlines has your company had in the past month?  How were they resolved?
  2. How many times have you personally been in front of a customer in the past month?
    1. To resolve a customer service issue and personally apologize?
    2. To be on a sales call (with mouth shut) listening and learning how your best salesperson sells your products and services?
    3. To visit with a good and satisfied customer

             i.     To thank them for their business?

             ii.     To ask how easy it is to do business with your company?

             iii.     To ask how you can serve them better?

             iv.     To ask if they would recommend your company to others?

             v.     To ask about problems that they are having in their business

             vi.     To ask if there are any related products and services that they might need that you could provide?

3.   How many times have you attended a sales meeting in the past month?

       A.  To go through your sales teams’ activity reports asking about who is buying and why and about new and different customers that they are seeing in the market?

      B.  To find out who are the high margin customers and who are the low margin customers and why?

      C.  To find out from the sales team about unsatisfied customers?

      D.  To find out how the sales team is being successful / unsuccessful in selling your products in the market and against the competition?

I would daresay that many of you have incomplete answers to these three questions.  If so, then you know where to begin to re-charge growth.

The Chinese say that a long journey begins with the first step.  So, the beginning of re-charging growth is to spend the next several weeks immersing yourself in customer service issues, customer visits, and time and attention with your sales team.  That is what you can start doing today to re-charge growth.

WAIT!! STOP!! HOLD THE PRESSES!!!  David, you stupid @*$&#*, you have not even talked about marketing and the brand!!!

That would be correct, I have not talked about marketing and brand on purpose.  The goal of your branding and your marketing effort is to tell customers and potential customers what your company is about, what makes it unique and better, and why they should do business with you.

In Marketing 101, marketing and brand is defined as being all about the customer’s…

  1. Experiences when they deal with your company
  2. Perceptions when they think of your company
  3. Expectations of what will happen when they deal with your company

 

To be blunt, unless you had some really good answers on the second quiz, you do not yet know the experiences, perceptions, and expectations of your current customers.  Thus, there is no point in building a branding and marketing campaign yet because it may not match the reality of what you are delivering and what you can deliver.

As a personal anecdote, I went through this exercise with one of my companies several years ago.  The General Manager, the VP of Sales, and I all spent time reviewing customer service issues, speaking with customers, and meeting with the sales team.  In our initial analysis, it became obvious that we had a lot of work to do before we could begin to market and brand ourselves.  We agreed that if we were to market and brand ourselves right then and there, the only truthful branding tag line would have been:

“Buy from us, because we suck less than everybody else.”

Until next time.

Posted in Growth and Strategy, Sales and Marketing | 1 Comment

Prioritize on the Most Important

Posted on June 20, 2010 by David Shedd

In the last downturn in the early 2000’s, re-engineering was all the rage.  One of the books that defined re-engineering was Michael Hammer’s The Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade.   It is actually quite a good book (contact me if you would like a Cliff Notes version of the book).  Nevertheless, two years later in 2003 – 2004 as the economy began to pick up speed, the book and re-engineering in general came in for criticism as corporations were ill-prepared for growth and changing customer expectations.  Companies had focused too much on re-engineering in the previous few years.

As Mark Twain said: “History never repeats itself, it only rhymes.”

Today, there is a disturbing rhyme with companies focused on internal cost-cutting and efficiency initiatives.  A recent survey of businesses ranked business priorities in 2010 as follows:

Business Priorities 2010

1. Improving business processes

2. Cutting costs

3. Increasing the use of analytics

4. Improving enterprise effectiveness

5. Attracting new customers

6. Managing change initiatives

7. Innovation in products and services creation

8. More effective targeting

9. Consolidating business operations

10. Growing customer relationships

As you know, only the top few priorities will get the attention and energy that is needed to succeed.   Please note that I do not believe that improving business processes and cutting costs are unimportant; each and every initiative and/or program related to these priorities has merit.  However, the energy spent pursuing these programs crowds out and exhausts people and companies without solving the most important issue facing the company.

Focus and Prioritize on the Most Important

What is the most important issue facing most businesses today?  Please raise your hand if your business is on relatively stable footing and finding more customers and getting more customers is not the most important single issue that you are facing.  Hands?  Hands?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Yes, in today’s “New Normal”, for most financially stable companies, the single biggest issue they are facing is to increase sales, find new customers, and re-ignite growth. 

Why then, are companies focused internally?  I immediately can think of three reasons:

  1. The company just recovered from a near – death experience and is not going to let that happen again
  2. The leadership of the company comes from the operations and/or finance and that is what they know – cut costs and improve efficiency.  “To a hammer, everything looks like a …”
  3. The company has multiple initiatives (read: 10 – 20) and some include sales and they are sure that they can get them all done.

 

What To Do?

A recent contact of mine reminded me of a quote from Winston Churchill.  “It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what is required.”

Today, it is required to focus the time and effort of your company on the single most important issue – re-charging growth by servicing your current customers and developing new customers, products, and markets.  All other initiatives and priorities need to be subservient to that most important issue. 

“No!!! You cannot do it all!!!”  Doing it all means too many priorities which means no priorities which leads to initiative over-kill, bureaucracy, waste and slow corporate death.

So, kill kill kill all the useful, important and reasonable initiatives that have nothing to do with re-charging growth.  Instead, focus the company on the 1 – 3 initiatives that will help you win with current and new customers.

Next Week:  Things to Start Doing Today to Re-Charge Growth

Posted in Leadership, Perform / Execution | 1 Comment

Hello world!

Posted on June 20, 2010 by David Shedd

This website and blog is all about business success and what companies need to do in order to perform, improve, and grow.  The website is targeted to the business leaders and executives (Owners, CEO’s, Presidents, COO’s, Vice Presidents, and General Managers) of small to middle –market companies or operating divisions with revenues from $10M to $200M.  The focus is to give these executives and leaders straightforward insight, ideas, and tools that will enable them to move their companies forward.

Posted in Business Acumen | Leave a comment