The Foundation of Success is Confidence

Lance Armstrong is a winner, no doubting that. Warren Buffet is an investment success story without question. Steve Jobs has successfully created businesses that achieve greatness. Was it just luck these individuals perform at the highest levels of their chosen professions? Was it a special mental gift they possess no one else has?

There is no doubting these three successful men have special talents that helped them to succeed, but the one common trait I see in successful leaders, these three included, is confidence. I've heard people respond to this notion with, "Well if I had won 7 Tour de France races, was worth billions of dollars, or owned all of the music known to man I could sell for a dollar a song, I'd be confident too!"

Which do you think came first the confidence or the success?

To fully achieve success one must possess the confidence to first believe it can happen, and then have additional confidence to make it happen. Consider the general attitude in this country right now. If you believe the press this country is in doom and gloom with no end in sight. That is the easy mental option; just cave in to the pressure and roll over until it passes. Sadly, many businesses are responding in exactly that fashion. How are you responding?

Remember the leader is the one who sets the expectation the rest of the management team will follow. Are you leading from a position of strength?

Confidence means being able to look at the bad news, accept it as is, and devise a plan to overcome it. Confidence means the leader is commitment and convinced the organization he or she leads will emerge from this recession even better than when they entered the recession. Confidence is having the strength to make the necessary efforts to operate a business in spite of the negative news surrounding them. Leaders who are confident see the proper steps to take in order to be stronger, faster and more profitable.

There is a significant difference between the confidence to make the right decisions and the bravado to try and convince people the decisions made were right. Without any research to support this opinion other than personal observation over the last 25 years in business, I believe those who have the confidence to make proper business decisions frequently make the exact right decision. Conversely, it is also my observation that the manager who is insecure and lacks true confidence regardless of the amount of bluster and bravado they spew seems to possess the innate ability to most often select the wrong decision.

It isn't a curious coincidence that successful people are confident in what they do, it is essential they have that confidence to achieve that success.

Executives: Untaint yourself and really talk with your employees

Trust in corporate leaders is at an all time low. The legacy of the Madoff scandal, the bank failures and the Big Three auto CEOs stumbling over themselves begging for money, as well as this administrations bull's eye on executive off-site meetings, have caused the masses to be convinced corporate leadership is tainted and the enemy.
Those of us who are either in those executive positions or serve those executives knows the vast majority of business owners, CEOs and presidents are great people who truly are good leaders and can be totally trusted.

As a business leader how do you prevent being painted with the broad brush of cynicism? Transparency.

1. Regularly call a full staff meetings or if you organization is too large for that; create a video for them to watch on your website. In this meeting or video come clean with all information; the positive and the not so great. Make sure your presentation is low on BS spin control, (that is what created the distrust in the first place) and high on genuine content and commitment.

2. Focus your information on how you are working to grow the company and how you are creating the plans to make it happen. Sure things change and executives are used to plenty of wiggle room but not is the time for executives to be spot on with their actions because there isn't time nor room for too many wiggle mistakes. Step up and take the pressure -- that is how you should operate at your best anyhow.

3. Conclude the information session be answering employee questions. Give your employees the opportunity to submit questions to you. Sure you get to pick and choose and you can avoid the lunatic ones, such as, "Tell me why you can't give every employee bailout packages so we can be happy?" But don't avoid the hard questions. If you only answer the softball questions you will only fuel the cynicism. Take the tough questions and give tough answers. By doing this as frequently as you see necessary (minimum once a month) you build your credibility in the workforce, you continue the growth culture and you prove that you are not one of the bad guys.

Sure, this will take some time, but your consistency of honesty and sincerity along with important information will keep your employees listening, and if they are listening, they are giving you the benefit of the doubt. In these critical economic times you want to be able to be heard and trusted. This will be a great step in making that happen.

It's Good to Be Different -- In Fact, It's Essential

My parents used to try to get me to act just like every one else so I would fit in. Companies today are following the same philosophy. Whether you are talking as an individual or as a company, nothing could be further from what is best for you: Be unique.

Today price-driven economy has everyone falling into a commodity market where no one wins because price competition drives down all profits. To fly above the noise you have to create the unique difference that sets you apart from the competition and places your company in the first position in the minds of your customers. The brand most recognized in any industry outsells positions 2 and 3 combined. People will seek out the first company that comes to mind 99.2% of the time.

With those kinds of statistics you have to spend time thinking creatively to find the differentiators.

Ford Motor Company asked input from the creator of the concept of lateral thinking Edward de Bono. Lateral thinking is a type of structured brainstorming to find the creative ideas that are more on the mark than simple free-form brainstorming. Ford wanted him to suggest some ideas on how to differentiate themselves in the auto industry.

Ford had approached the problem of competing for customers by asking the question, "How can we make our cars more attractive to consumers?" De Bono offered a concept from a completely different direction. He asked the question, "How can we make the whole driving experience better for Ford customers?" He offered the suggestion that Ford should buy up parking lots and garages in all the major city centers and make them available for Ford cars only. What a great unique idea! However, his remarkable idea was too radical for Ford because they saw themselves as a vehicle manufacturer not a car lot owner.

"In times of rapid change, experience can be your worst enemy." J. Paul Getty

How can you take a view of your organization from different angles? What are the ways to position your organization at the top of your customers mind? The more you learn to think ahead of the rest of the industry the more your organization will be the industry leader.

Offer New Benefits for the Information Age

To keep up with employee shifts and changing needs, employers have looked for ways to offer new and different benefits. Some of them became government mandated and some of them corporately created. Today, as fast as the world is changing so must employee benefits.

One of the greatest complaints of employers is the cost of benefits now that medical has become the monster in the benefit room. What can organizations do to serve employees without breaking the bank? Join the information age.

Next Gen employees are information junkies and they have many information needs a corporation can meet with minimal cost.

Companies need to make available free podcasts or online self-study seminars for employees on among other things finances, wellness, marriage, and family. These are not those black and white movies from the 50's on how to be a happy homemaker. This is raw information where employees can learn how to better manage finances especially in these economic times.

Wellness programs start with the mental side of dealing with stress, dealing with family issues and dealing with the scary times for those just beginning their work careers in today's economy. Bosses are not the experts on these topics and sending employees to a one day, one size fits all seminar holds little value. Informational downloads can be appreciated at the employees leisure.

Not only will this offer new benefits to meet employee needs but it creates a culture of personal growth which is a great work culture that will foster organizational growth because the growth mindset has been established. Help the employees with their educational and informational needs and help your company create a culture of growth in the process.

Establish a manager growth program -- build the knowledge base

I am hearing from some executives that growth in this economy just isn't going to happen in their industry so what can they do to maintain the growth mentality in the organization? If you are in one of those industries that are significantly stagnant you must maintain the growth culture in other ways, such as knowledge growth, specifically in your managers.

The managers are going to always set the tone for the rest of the employees, whether it is a positive outlook, a negative outlook or a growth outlook. In order to keep your managers fresh, keep them growing and keep them in the right frame of mind, provide a book study that will improve their skills.

I've had a number of clients in the finance industry this year order my Russell's Rules book for their managers to study and discuss in their weekly meetings. The rules are short, simple, to the point and have implementation action steps that are easy to do. By using practical application leadership books, you keep the knowledge base growing, the positive discussion active and the workforce happy with better leadership approaches being used with them.

Some basic steps for knowledge growth:

1. Make sure the book is something your managers will actually read.

I consider Peter Drucker one of the best leadership authors of all time, but unless your manager team is deep into the science of leadership and business, they will not finish a Drucker tome. Short, to the point and immediately applicable books might not make the best seller list, but your managers will make it to the back cover.

2. Have meaningful conversations about what was to be covered for the week and how these tools are going to actually be put into practice.

The discussions will allow people to offer their spin on the information and how they plan to use it. If the group truly is interested in growing on a personal level the conversation will truly be beneficial to the organization. As the executive you will also see who is making the effort to make a difference and who is going through the motions just to follow along. This information becomes your growth as you better learn who cares and who doesn't and who may be dragging down your team and who may be the best selection for your succession plan.

Reading leadership information without putting it into practice is not going to give you the return on your time investment; therefore, be sure to build in accountability to putting these things into practice.

3. Make it fun.

If this becomes a chore for your managers or an addendum to your weekly manager meetings, it will take on an air of unimportance and a necessary evil. Have fun with it, get people involved. Use the book you've selected as a way to talk about the parts of your organization you want to grow. Even when the economy isn't facilitating market growth, the growth inside the organization should always continue.

4 More Ways Business Can Benefit From the Recession

Yesterday I wrote on how business can benefit in these economic times and today I have more to add to the list. Get focused on the opportunities not the negative chit chat and take advantage of some great ways to make your company great.

Businesses will make the extras effort to please customers

Your vendors are going to go the extra mile to appreciate the business you are still sending them and they are more willing than ever to work with you on special needs. Not only is this good for you as the customer of that vendor, but it gives you the chance to tighten that working relationship even more.

What are you doing special for your customers? I'm not talking discounting (actually, that is a dangerous slope to avoid if possible.) I'm talking about what customer service evaluations are you making to target areas for improvement? Where are your opportunities to create remarkable service to give your customers that "wow" experience? In the past maybe you didn't feel the need to go that extra step, but now is the perfect time to amp it up, and give customers a solid experience they will want to tell others about.

Leaders are forced to actually lead

When the economy is in good times companies can actually make money in spite of themselves. I know, I’ve had some as clients and it amazed me they were able to stay in business with all they were doing wrong. The glory economic days of the 90's elevated many companies and executives to levels they had not earned, but the wave of high consumer spending and rising markets lifted all these executives to leadership status.

Now that the economy is in a steep decline the real leaders get to show their skills and unfortunately, those who are in positions of leadership also get exposed. The recession is a great time for leaders to rise to the occasion and demonstrate the real skills that separate them from the wannabes who hold the position but not the talent. Leaders will thrive in this economy, managers will merely survive. How are you doing with your organization?

Weak competitors are weeded out from an industry

In 2001, the speaking industry was full of many people who had enjoyed a prosperous decade of the 90's and many of us wondered how some of them actually were getting paid for the quality of the work they were providing. On that fateful day in September of that year, the industry changed and hundreds of people previously known as speakers would leave the business to rejoin what I call the "check of the month club."

This economy will also remove the weaker players in all industries. Like it or not GM, Ford and Chrysler have been exposed as the weaker organizations in the global auto industry. The same is playing out in your industry. If you are one of the good companies, one of the strong companies, this recession should be welcomed news for you. Although you may be going through a bit of hardship and a pain, your weaker competition is going through shutting their doors and soon the industry will be thinned out and you will be ready to take on new customers and grab more market share.

Rally around a common cause

It has been said previously that Americans are at their best when times are at their worst. Immediately after 9/11/2001 patriotism was at a high. We rallied as a people against terrorism and made sure the terrorists didn't mentally beat down our country, especially during our darkest days.

Although, I have to say we do not seem to be as resilient as we were eight years ago, now is the time for leaders to create that same type of rally call within their organizations to band together and fight these economic times by not getting down, by not splintering into separate factions and by not getting sucked into the blame game pundits and newscaster relish.

Great leaders show their best abilities when times are the toughest. Rise to the occasion. Create more face time with your employees, talk about the good things that are going on and rally your people to call on their abilities to win in these economic times. There are going to be plenty of great business stories as we reemerge on the other side of this -- make your organization one of those great stories.

3 Ways Business Can Benefit From the Recession

I am tired of hearing from the News Terrorists in the newspapers and on the airwaves about the constant flow of negative information.

A recession is a necessary economic event to correct bad behaviors. The reason this recession seems so harsh is because we had a tremendous amount of bad behavior going on that needed corrected. Fortunately, the good news is the bad behavior was confined to a few companies. The bad news is that those few companies are large and many are tired directly to the financial structure of this country which impacts all businesses.

If you are one of those impacted businesses who didn't cause this but are being affected by this recession you have an opportunity to capitalize on it. The following three opportunities are the steps good organizations are using during these recessionary times to actually benefit from the recession.

1. Resources have never been cheaper

So many companies are going into spending hibernation trying to survive this year. Smart business owners realize resources will never be as inexpensive as they are now and are using this opportunity to capitalize on this opportunity to retool, upgrade and properly position themselves for outrunning the competition.

2. Businesses are improving processes

In fast money times production is at full speed ahead and the money machine is printing profits.T he attitude is no time to slow down and tweak and implement major improvements, just keep the profit makers up and running. This is why a slowdown is the perfect time to make process improvements, cross train and retrain employees, and increase your organization knowledge about the business so better informed employees will be ready to serve more demanding customers.

3. Encourages innovation and creativity

As sad as it is, the cliche "If it ain't broke don't fix it" really is the way many businesses run in this country. Well my friends, it's pretty obvious the economy is broken. The way many organizations have been conducting their businesses has been broken and the results are self evident. When times are good, executives are not prone to adding more change to the organization and some laziness sets in to just ride the wave. In this economy the innovator, the organization driven for creativity, is the organization finding new and better methods of conducting all aspects of their businesses and they are the organizations who are gaining market share and growing.

Instead of going through meetings with all of the bad number reporting, instead of beating salespeople over the head to drum up sales, instead of counting the days you can hopefully make payroll, shift the attitude within your organization. The doom and gloom on the lips of too many people will not energize anyone. Talk about how this is a great opportunity to try new things, and refocus and retool. Build the excitement of the opportunity. Put those improved attitudes to work on innovation and creativity and watch your organization migrate from negative to energized as you put these ideas into action.