Approaching the end of the year, is a great time to have those chats with the team about their personal goals, suggestions they have, training they would like or equipment/software, and what they would like to do more of or less of.

I’ve just finished a round of interviews for a client and as always, they have delivered absolute gold in the way of suggestions, and truth about what needs fixing or improving in the business. Also what is causing some angst.

The example I’d like to share, and it is just one of many from this round of interviews, is one where the business owner was getting nervous and stressed about getting a second employee to do a very specific job. The employee was getting stressed because they wanted to retire (but hadn’t told the owner this yet) and felt they couldn’t reture until the owner had a replacement for them.

Now this is all quite simple and straight forward on paper, but it is a good example of how the business owner doesn’t always know EXACTLY what the team are thinking/feeling or planning. Everyone is head down getting through the day-weekly tasks. Making time to discuss ‘other’ things can be low on the priority list.

As a result, both sides can become stressed and worried about something they don’t need to worry about.

The outcome of my interview was that both parties now know the situation and there is massive relief on both sides.

The business owner no longer feeling hesitant about hiring a replacement and is running an ad this week for a new person to start training for this role, and the current employee has the relief knowing they can retire in one year. That was their goal, to retire in a year. So now we can plan around that, there is no mystery about the plan and everyone is happy and can move forward. Case solved.

Please, please, please…make sure you make time to get honest and open communication happening with your team. And remember, its not all about you and what you want them to do better. It’s about them too! Find out what they want, what they want to do more of, what they want to do less of, what suggestions they have.

And if you feel they won’t be honest with you or you don’t have the time, simply engage me to do it on your behalf. I summarise my findings for you and provide my recommendations. Easy. Saves you a lot of time and I find staff open up to me and tell me things they don’t tell the business owner/GM. I do the same for your clients that are good, bad or have left you if you ever want to know the truth about how you doing, what they think about you, what they would like improved in order to give you more work.

October 31, 2018

Videos

Video: Stop Doing This! :)

If you are looking to get better results in any aspect of your business, don’t overlook this simple issue. Are you doing the same thing and expecting different results? Be honest.

Personally I suffer from being a bit stubborn on some things and believe the way I think it should be done is THE best way. But sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes all we need to do to make big changes is let go and accept there might be a better way.

So…is there something in your business not working? Analyse how you (or your team) are approaching it or doing it, and write a list of other ways to do it and just give them a go. Try it for a day or a week. Action creates clarity. Take action and you will have the feedback you need to decide if it works better or not.

I’m here if you need to bounce some ideas around and get external opinion. It can save a lot of time.

Monday madness 🤓 doing same thing and expecting a different result ！

Posted by David Lennon Business Development Coach & Mentor on Sunday, 21 October 2018

September 20, 2018

Articles

6 Core Needs of Staff that We Need to Satisfy

Use these six core needs to help understand employee behaviour (good and bad) and how to create a motivated workplace. Based on the six core needs made popular by Tony Robbins. In a nutshell, we all strive to fulfil these core needs in either a resourceful way or unresourceful way (not good for us, not good for others). As a result, they are drivers of our actions and can help explain an employee’s actions. When one or more of the core needs aren’t met, negative effects can occur as listed in the table in addition to common problems such as increased sick days, decreased productivity, and increased contribution to a negative workplace culture.

How to use? When you are frustrated by a behaviour, think about whether there is a core need not being met in a resourceful way. Can be many small situations or one big one. You may not always figure it out until you talk to them and notice the wording they use.

CORE NEED	DESCRIPTION	EFFECT WHEN NOT SATISFIED	SOME WAYS TO SATISFY IT
1. Certainty	Certainty of what is expected of them, the tasks, their future in the company, where the company is going, how they can move up (if they want to), certainty of who to take direction from, certainty about safety, salary, entitlements.	– Unmotivated staff that don’t hit targets, don’t seem to be ‘on board’ – Staff looking for other work – No loyalty, leaves as soon as something better shows up – No desire to put in extra hours or effort, leave right on the dot – Bad mouthing the boss or company – Complaining	– Clear instructions – clearly articulated, written down, manuals, good training programs – Regular opportunity to ask questions or hear what is expected, e.g. Weekly or daily production meetings – Career plan mapped out – Explain the company vision and mission, have it on display, refer to it, live it – OH&S procedures clearly explained, documented and followed
2. Variety	Opportunity to do different tasks, break up monotony, take on a new challenge, mix things up a bit, work with different people, customers, locations, production, services.	– Reduced motivation for the job – Poor performance, mistakes, can’t stay focused and moves around (with or without permission) within the workplace to provide variety – May actually create problems to create some variety	– Discuss what they really enjoy doing and want to do more of and workout how this might be achieved – Mix up the workload. Recognise the signs when it is time to change – Change work location/division
3. Connection	Feeling connected to teammates, the company. Feeling part of the team. Connected to other divisions. Feeling loved.	– Reduced motivation for the job, coming to work – Increased chance of leaving, increased sick days – Withdrawn from the team and contributing	– Give them a role that requires them to connect with the team – Discuss this topic with them – Don’t force them if they are naturally suited to working independently – Include them in text, emails, newsletter, company social media, meetings
4. Significance	Feeling important, useful, capable, acknowledged, recognised	– Can result in unresourceful methods to achieve it such as criticising others, stealing the limelight, not giving credit where credit is due, sabotaging others	– Acknowledgement via mention in meetings, newsletters, position title, increased responsibility, certificate/award/gift
5. Growth	Desire to feel we are moving forward, learning, growing in some way. Considered a spiritual need.	– Reduced motivation – May start looking to jump ship – seek greener pastures	– Discuss and understand their career plan, their personal goals and then workout with them what might be done within the workplace to help them achieve these if possible
6. Contribution	Second spiritual need within all of us. Desire to contribute to something greater than us.	– Reduced motivation – Reduced willingness to be a team player or belief they can be a team player – May implement changes without discussion or permission to satisfy the need to contribute – May start looking to jump ship – seek greener pastures	– Discuss and understand their career plan, their personal goals and then workout with them what might be done within the workplace to help them achieve these if possible – Acknowledge their contributionDLennon Business Development Packages_2018 6 Core Needs of Staff_Tipsheet

June 5, 2018

The 4 Stages of Your Business

Sometimes it is helpful to hear that we are not alone and what we are experiencing in our business is actually the ‘norm’. It is also helpful to benchmark where we are at and what we need to do to go to the next stage.

Here are the common four stages of business…which one do you relate to? As a mentor and coach my role is to help you efficiently move from one stage to the next with minimal fuss and pain. Contact me to discuss how this can happen – it’s usually a lot easier than you think!

Start Up

□ It’s all about survival – doing whatever it takes to make it

□ You’re in “do it yourself” and “it’s all up to me” mode

□ You enjoy the freedom this gives you

□ You get to make decisions on the go and change your mind at a drop of a hat, and it’s okay to do this, it’s all down to you anyway

□ You put out bushfires all day

□ You can cope though, because it’s mainly just you and you know what needs to be done

□ You know everything that’s going on, and you’re the go-to person for whatever is needed

Start Up to Initial Growth

Keep in mind, most businesses don’t ever get out of start-up phase, because the business owner never adapts their style of doing things to allow the business to move forward.

□ Seat-of-the-pants leadership and decision making isn’t going to cut it anymore. (I should know.)

□ You need to become more strategic, and you need to start thinking ahead and planning how it’s all going to happen. People can’t sit around waiting to see which way you want them to jump today.

□ Change your role from doing to decision maker and delegate effectively

□ Learn the difference between delegation and abdication – you don’t give it to someone in the hope they’ll sort it out for you

□ You need to decide which way the business is heading, delegate what needs to get done that isn’t core to your business (sales and marketing) and monitor the progress made on the projects with key performance indicators and regular feedback and reviews so everyone knows where they stand and how they’re progressing

□ You will be the bottleneck if you keep making all the decisions yourself

□ You need to shift from bush fire management to anticipation, planning, design of systems and procedures

Initial growth is often difficult to manage because every step means growing pains and systemising and doing things so that others can as well.

It’s a time in the business where everything is more complex, and you have to rely on others to get things done and to make decisions. Unless you’re across everything in detail all the time, you would only get in the way.

It will actually become physically impossible to do everything you need to do. You will find people will want your time but you don’t have time for them. Bushfires seems to be lighting up everywhere – you put one out and five more appear.

Initial Growth to Rapid Growth

You need to become more of a team builder and planner. Your focus is on getting a management team in place and building a steady and strong infrastructure.

You’re going to become even more proactive in recognising what your business needs and do so before you get to crisis stage.

You need to be thinking in one year horizons and acting in 90 day cycles with weekly and daily focus. You want to hire people who are better at their roles than you could ever be. They are specialists who focus solely on that function or area.

You’re now moving more towards having to make sure your team come together and that there is team cohesiveness.

Rapid growth

Your product, service or program is ready, proven and sells. The market is growing and your sales are going up.

Survival is not on your mind – you’re trying to ride the wave, make the most of what’s going on and keep the momentum going.

This is what’s interesting – infrastructure at this stage will be lower than the next stage – maturity. Make the most of this phase, save as much money as you can, maximise profits and pay off your house or any other big bills. When you get to maturity infrastructure will have caught up with turnover and it won’t be as much fun in terms of cashflow!

May 23, 2018

Brain Hack – Seeing Opportunity in Competitive Markets

SITUATION: you are seeing nothing but competition out there and feeling your industry is so saturated it is the major block to your success.

Use this brain hack to improve your business

Firstly…I would like to say, ‘yes, your industry and location may well be saturated and competitive’.

BUT…I’d like to share a brain hack to help you in this situation and point out a MASSIVE danger in believing competition is high

Our brains receive millions of bits of info every minute and to survive and not overload, they are designed to filter out information that is considered unimportant. Think of your computer…if you open heaps of programs and have lots running in the background it starts bogging down. Our brains are the same. Our brains focus on what they believe is ‘important’.

Why is this important to this business situation? This is the awesome brain hack! If we have the belief our industry is saturated…our BRAINS WILL FILTER OUT and DELIVER TO US INFORMATION THAT SUPPORTS THAT BELIEF!

You have told your brain what is ‘important’. It then discards info that doesn’t match what you believe is important.

This is why when you buy a certain car, get a certain dog, start a certain hobby etc you suddenly notice them everywhere.

Your brain will notice all the inputs it receives that back up your belief that the market is saturated/competitive, and as a result, you don’t see the opportunities!

BRAIN HACK: If you switch your thinking and tell yourself that there is loads of opportunity in the saturated market and an absolute gold mine to be tapped into, your brain will start to deliver information that supports this.

I see competitive markets as opportunity because I know everyone is pretty much doing the same as everyone else in terms of service and product. And this means there is opportunity to do something different and better and stand out amongst the majority.

The brain hack that will help you see opportunity, is to simply start thinking it. And it doesn’t take long. Our brains are amazing computers that work extremely fast. Just try it for 30 mins and notice the difference in your thinking and the ideas that come.

As always, here if you’d like help or want to discuss in further detail or run a brainstorming session in your business. 🙂