Small Business Blog

Innovation Extremism: Overcoming Resistance to BIG Change

James Cooper — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:03:00 GMT

In the past I have tended to not write a great deal about innovation. It has certainly not been a conscious avoidance strategy on my part. I just haven't continually promoted innovation as a topic with gusto. Why? Well, I think it is largely due to the content focus of the mimosaPLANET Small Business Blog. A focus of help with implementing strategies and tactics for improved business results (more help for the average small business owner than advice for the 1 in 100,000,000 entrepreneur who will change the world). But, innovation and change are important and today I want to talk about making innovative ideas and vision come to life. I want to talk about making BIG CHANGE happen in your small business and specifically how to overcome those resisting change. Because with BIG change you can yield BIG increases in customer satisfaction and with it, BIG improvements in your results.

[Today’s Image: The Museum of Sex, New York City, NY – May 2011] - "When the Museum of Sex first emerged on New York City’s Fifth Avenue on October 5, 2002, it was without precedent in the museum world." - museumofsex.com

The Resistance to Change

With BIG change often comes BIG resistance. You know what I mean, right? Perhaps you have a small team of five, ten or fifteen people. Now, naturally as a business owner and entrepreneur you have dreams and vision. But all it takes is one person in the team (just one, but if you have more than one that sucks even more!) to derail your efforts. One person with 'resistance to change' as their default mindset, and therefore outward behaviour, will make it a hard hard grid to innovating and breaking the current mold in your business.

So, we need to overcome the behaviour of these peeps! It’s not that these people are “bad” people, it’s just that their standard personality type is that of a “Stable” person that is likely to be risk adverse and just really not into change. They like the routine. Now, ‘stable’ people can be a great asset to the business, but just sometimes they can drive you insane! So, what can be done…

The Concept of Extremes

I have two innovators and business people I admire to thank for this solution to the resistance movement in your business. Maybe it works for you and maybe it doesn’t, but I think it’s an approach that just plain old makes sense to me! I think it is far better than a small business owner dwelling in self-pity and blame about the situation and 'the damn resistor' making their life a pain in the butt! Get over it, and change your approach to change their approach! That's all you can do, if they don't change then they'll get so uncomfortable in the environment you create they'll feel like the rotten apple and move on.

Absolutes

Gary Vaynerchuk has an approach to getting his message across (see his books Crush It and The Thank You Economy) he openly admits to dealing in extremes and absolutes to hammer the point home. Why? “If I give you an inch…” that kind of sums it up nicely for me.

A gentle discussion about the pros and cons of trying to do things in this new way, or about why the BIG change is needed, can be ineffective. They are all givens anyway, these conversions just happen (with and without you)…. But it is YOU, the Leader, it’s your ability (or not) to enroll and inspire the team behind your absolute believe and unwavering conviction behind the idea of big change and innovation in your business to drive your business to be the best [insert whatever you do] in [insert your target area/niche].

Parallel Universe

Tom Peters raises the idea of the “Parallel Universe” in his notes on Innovation in his book The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence. He basically states that if you what to cause change and innovation you have to give up a normal approach and create a ‘new-world’ with new people and a new attitude, etc…. basically a parallel universe! This is Cool!

This point is so in line with some part of my brain when I came up with the name of mimosaPLANET years ago. My thought pattern was; the company needed something to represent change and adaptability and that is where I came across the Mimosa tree which is highly adaptable to the environment. Touch it, or give it a slap, and it will change within seconds the shape of the leaves, it adapts to the conditions and environment instantly. That’s pretty cool, and a great representation of what small business owners that want to not only survive but thrive must do in today’s world. Be adaptable and willing to change or go out of business and die is what I thought!

I also added the world ‘planet’ to represent both; i) the size and scale of my vision (I don’t want to just convince 3 or 4 people that being adaptable and willing to change quickly is a smart business decision, I want all small business owners to subscribe to it), and ii) the oddity, weirdness and separation of what we will be building with people. We’re building a group of business people with a separate thought process, a damn separate planet of business owners that ‘get it’…. The more the merrier, population of “mimosaPLANET” day one…. Me! Population 2020…. well, who knows where we are going with the recent introduction of mimosaPLANET membership?

Are you in need of some Innovation Extremism?

Action Points

BE relentless in your pursuit of your beliefs and vision
CREATE a parallel universe
BE an Extremist

Delegating Tasks to Your Staff

James Cooper — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 10:07:00 GMT

When you start delegating tasks to your staff you can free up a heap of time to invest as you choose. However, often in small business, your team will require a lot of your attention. The more team you have, the more your time becomes that of ‘professional cat herder’. Often a business owner that has built a team of 5 to 15 people has swapped their tasks from, doing things IN the business, to a group of unproductive time consuming tasks. These include: putting out fires caused by the team, hiring new team members because people come and go, and being interrupted by the team all day long with questions.

So, this raises one of two questions for you:

How can we stop these issues form occurring (for those that are looking to bring on people in the future)? or
How can we solve these challenges (for those of you with existing staff)?

How to Delegate Tasks Effectively to Your Team

Having staff should be great. Having an issue or two around delegating tasks to them is not so cool. If you have a challenge with your team I’m just going to be blunt… the problem is all about YOU! Focus on your behaviour.

Remember your goal: increase time to focus on that which you want (growing the business or spending more time with family or your favourite hobby, whatever). Below is a list of 11 tips it get better results in the area of team delegation.

Eliminate the waste in your business behaviour. Paying someone else to do a rubbish and worthless task is no better than you doing it. If it’s not required, get rid of it from your business and life.
Automate routine tasks by flowcharting your entire business model. Use technology to your advantage, map out the routine tasks into flowcharted business processes then automate through technology and by documenting everything you do. They will know what to do when you have clear documented systems.
Describe the perfect person to complete the role/s and tasks you are going to delegate to your new hire. What is the perfect attitude they will have? What is the perfect skill set they will have?
Describe the perfect business, leader and environment for that perfect person. Put yourself in that perfect persons shoes… what will that person be looking for in a company and in a leader.
BE an attractive leader. If you want to attract the BEST people from the start, you must be an inspiring and enrolling leader. BE the person you NEED TO BE to drive your business forward and lead your team effectively. Start now, start today. I’m not talking about making sure you look like a famous actor or actress. I’m talking about you being someone that smart, talented, positive and ambitions people want to work for. More tips and keys to effective leadership.
BE an attractive business. Think that your 7 year old website design doesn’t matter? It does! What about the office environment? Hell yes! What about future business growth and leadership opportunities within your company? Yes again. People don’t want to work for crappy companies. They want to be proud of working for the best company, or for a cool company, or for an upcoming company. A tidy healthy business environment matters! Your Business Environment includes everything you can see, touch, hear and feel. What is the “team experience” like in your company?
Know you company culture. If you don’t have one yet, build one by creating company vision and values. Make your culture proactive, and give people permission to make decisions… don’t be the bottle neck in your business. Often the reason why staff members ask business owners so many questions (and seek confirmation about heaps of decisions) is simply down to trust, control & fear. As an employee why would I risk getting “in trouble” for screwing up, when I can take a few mins out and just ask the boss? Letting people know you trust them and that even if they get it wrong we’ll fix it and it’s ok, is much better than having 5 interruptions from 10 people every day.
Follow a de-selection recruitment process that focuses on attitude above skills. Skills can be learnt, having the right attitude from the start is priceless.
Have an induction process. Don’t just focus on teaching the new person how to do the tasks of their role. It is important to get the new person on board with the company culture, the positive and responsibility focused attitude of your business.
Implement a continuous training program. Make sure each person becomes better at the role than you.
Read the One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson: This book continues (after many years) to be gold. Buy it today and read it. It’s short, simple to understand and highly effective.

One point I’ve yet to make is that delegating tasks - as part of the 3 steps to greater time effectiveness process (Eliminate, Automate, Delegate) - don’t always need to be to your staff. You could delegate to another company or self-employed person that is not on your employee pay-roll. I’ll make this case in another article.

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In Short

When you delegate tasks to your team you can free your time to focus on other activities. Further business development or more time off, it’s your choice.

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Action Points

Implement one tip per week for the next 11 weeks.

Go for it!

Encouraging Employees

Craig Langdon — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:55:00 GMT

Following on from my previous article on setting goals for employees, you have told them what to do, they should just do it; Right?

So you have sat down with your employees and created plans for them to follow...

You now have a clear picture in your head of what should be done and when it should be completed. Unfortunately, it's time for a reality check. Have you made sure that during this process you have asked your employee to get their perspective on what they should be doing, how they should be doing it and when it is possible to have it done by?

Why do I need to do that?- communication

The simple fact is that during any communication process there is room for error. We have all played games as children where we pass messages to each other and somehow by the time it gets to the last person the message is definitely not the same message as it was at the beginning.

Why do I need to do that?- knowledge

This is an opportunity for you to tap into the knowledge of others and learn something new. We know that successful business owners are constantly looking to increase their knowledge and some of the greatest sources of untapped knowledge may be walking past you every day in your workplace (your employees!). Always have an open mind to accept new ideas and listen to the thoughts of others to find areas for improvement in your business.

Why do I need to do that?- reality

Everyone has a different perspective on reality and on what can be achieved within a specific timescale. During the planning phase it is critical that you are both on the same page on what can realistically be achieved within the provided time limit.

As you demonstrate this understanding of the situation your employee will become more and more comfortable with the fact that you trust them to complete the task or project and subsequently feel empowered in their role.

It´s so easy to be a critic

As an employee gets underway with the task or project there is a tendency for the business owner or manager to interrupt the process and undermine the confidence of their staff. We all know that if we are doing something and someone comes along and tells us that we aren't doing it properly we get frustrated, disheartened and unmotivated. Criticism is all around us every day and is one of the easiest ways for people to believe that they are "helping" the situation. In reality the effects can be catastrophic to the results of a business. Criticism is a disease that can eat away at the confidence and success of an enterprise and destroy team moral - I have witnessed this and it is painful to see.

The cold hard truth is that if an employee is not doing their job properly we should look at who was leading, training and educating that person in the workplace. In small to medium businesses this is often the business owner. If it wasn't you then take a moment to think to yourself "but am I really responsible for the training of this person?" The answer will always be a resounding - YES!!! So take it upon yourself to front up and do something about it.

Isn´t it nice when someone says something nice?

Instead of being critical (the easy path) why don't you step up to the next level and find something nice to say about someone. Saying something positive, makes people feel better, boosts moral and inspires people to keep up good behaviours and hopefully discard bad ones. It is this positive encouragement that can really lift up a team member and raise them to a level of energy and commitment that you may not have even thought possible.

You know yourself that if someone gives you a compliment you get a smile on your face and end up feeling better about yourself and the situation that you are in.

How to "Catch people doing something good"

As you observe going about their daily tasks or activities, this is the perfect opportunity to congratulate them on the great work they are doing. A simple "wow, that looks fantastic" or " you were excellent with that customer, and I really appreciate that" will be incredibly effective at providing motivation and keeping people focused on their goals.

Be spontaneous and random with your praise, there is no set program for this but I do encourage people to find at least two opportunities every day to praise their staff.

In summary...The end result of:

making sure that you and your employee are on the same wavelength
not being critical
ensuring that you provide leadership throughout the activities
providing positive reinforcement for good behavior will be higher productivity and happier employees.

Now get out there and make sure you put these steps into practice with your people.

Motivating Employees

Craig Langdon — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:57:00 GMT

It´s time to step it up a level.....

Last time I talked about how to motiviate employees and how your direction and behaviour affects your employees and more specifically their behaviour. People tend to reflect the attitudes and actions of both their leaders and their peers. Therefore what you do will be accepted as a way to operate within your business.

In this article I would like to cover how you and your employees can now "step up to the plate" and establish a way that you want to work together in the future.

But before we do this I would like to tell you a story that a man I once met told me about how he got his 15 year old son to do what he asked him time and time again without complaint. He achieved this amazing feat; not through threats or bribery but through the simple application of creating expectations.

Creating expectations

The example that he used when he told me this fantastic technique was about how he would get his son to mow the lawn by a specific time on a specific day. Quite an achievement when I think of some of the teenagers that I have me recently. The conversation went as follows:

Dad- Hey Jason can you mow the lawn this weekend?

Jason - Sure no problem. I´ll get on to it later.

Dad - We are having guests over late on Saturday afternoon do you think you could have it done by 5pm?

Jason - ah... yeah I guess.

Dad - What time do you think you need to start if you need to be finished by 5?

Jason - Well it takes about 2 hours so I suppose if I start at 3pm then it should be done on time.

Dad- Fantastic, what do you think you will need to make sure that the mowing goes smoothly?

Jason - I guess you could check there is fuel for the mower and that it starts.

Dad- Sure, no problem, I´ll do that for you, and hey Jason, thanks in advance, I know you are going to do a great job!

What happened here?

Within this story there are some very subtle but powerful, positive, motivating behaviours being demonstrated by the father. Initially he raises a challenge - mowing the lawn. He then creates a time frame without being forceful or too demanding - Saturday by 5pm. But perhaps the most important thing he then does is figures out if there are going to be any challenges to completion of the project. This is where he demonstrates real leadership, understanding the needs of his son and that there may be obstacles to getting this done on time. As the relationship develops, he may even pass the potential obstacles back to his son so that he becomes even more able to get things done successfully on his own.

Is this method completely fool proof, the answer is no. But is this father creating a person that is able to think on his own, create solutions and work to a deadline? The answer is a resounding yes! Any mistakes along the way will be part of the development process, but the end result will be more rounded, forward thinking individual.

So how can this be applied to you and motivating your employees? The answer lies in the creation of expectations with your staff. Take a moment now and think back to when you last sat down and created a specific series of goals and milestones for a project or behavioural change initiative.

Simple goal setting

This type of planning is best achieved in a one page document that quite simply outlines the goals, milestones, potential obstacles and an action list with specific target dates. You should be able to read this in less than a couple of minutes and will give you a great opportunity to discuss and resolve issues before they occur.

The end result will be employees that know exactly what is expected of them and how they can go about achieving the goals. If they have problems, then they will be able to talk with you about them specifically, and allow you to focus on what is important to make sure that the project goes ahead before any catastrophes occur.

I know myself, when I have specific goals with timeliness I am much more focused and able to concentrate on the most important tasks. I am very confidant that your employees will feel the same way too.

How To Motivate Employees

Craig Langdon — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:48:00 GMT

Are You Having Trouble With Unmotivated Employees?

The Problem - Unmotivated Employees

"The younger generation just don't want to work"

"I can't seem to get my employees interested in the business"

"I talk to them and tell them what to do, but they just don't do it"

Do you ever find yourself using any of the above lines when you are talking with your friends, colleagues or associates?

So many of the business owners and managers that I meet repeat comments like this to me. They continually struggle with unmotivated and disengaged employees.

The results of having a workforce that lacks motivation are generally a high level of staff turnover (which tends to be costly), poor employee moral and very critically; poor customer service.

So now we have identified the problem we can work to kick their butts and get some improvement, Right?

Wrong!! We need to start at the source of the problem, which unfortunately is more than likely YOU, the business owner or manager. Sorry to break this to you, but the way that the staff behave is actually a reflection of you as a leader and how you conduct yourself.

Be Critical about the Problem

It takes a big person to admit that they are at fault, but I want you to think critically about the two following issues that dramatically effect the motivation of your staff:

What vision and direction do you provide for the business on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis?
What kind of example are you setting for your staff and how your behaviour may be influencing them.

Firstly - One of the key issues we nearly always find when working within a business owner or manager is the lack of vision and direction within the organisation. A strong vision is what provides a general sense of direction and purpose for people, if this is lacking then where are they going? Have you ever watched a group of people that are lost? They stand around looking for someone to give them directions. In a business situation that person MUST BE YOU. You are the leader and must step up to the plate and take responsibility for the vision and direction that you want the organisation to take.

Secondly - How you behave will be copied, mimicked or reflected by your employees. If you are disorganised, untidy, aggressive, impatient, lazy, ineffective, verbose, absent, rude etc etc..... your actions will be picked up on by your employees and there will be repercussion (normally negative ones for your business).

The two issues identified above are integral to how your employees behave and perform within your organisation. It is therefore necessary for you to take action and do something about it before the problem gets out of control and your business starts to suffer.

So, What Steps Can You Take?

Sit down in a quiet place with no interruptions for 1 hour and think about the vision and direction for your company. Write down what you come up with and at your next weekly meeting communicate it to your employees, discuss it with them and listen to their comments and thoughts on what you have created. Once everyone is fully aware of what you are aiming to achieve, hang it up on the wall where everyone can see it.
Take a moment to contemplate your behaviours and actions. The process of changing how you behave will take time, so start by writing down 3-5 behaviours that you want to stop doing e.g. late for meetings, untidy, no time for staff etc. Then write down 3-5 behaviours that you are happy with and want to continue doing e.g. Only look at emails two times daily, follow my ideal diary etc. Keep the list with you and reflect on it at the start of every day to keep you heading in the right direction!

Next time I will be discussing how to set goals for your staff and make sure they understand your expectations.

Good Luck!

Leadership - 7 Leadership Keys That Will Have Your Team Running Your Business In No Time

James Cooper — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 05:41:00 GMT

...Or You Looking To Sell Up Tomorrow!

Having a great team is mostly... no TOTALLY... about being a great leader. Think about it, would you follow (work for and give your all) someone who you didn't respect, value and get inspired by? Arrh, probably not, in fact if you're a business owner, maybe this was part of your decision to start or buy your own business... you just weren't inspired working for other people.

If I walked into your business and asked all your team for an honest answer to "why do you work here?" ... and ... "what about the owner, tell me about her/him?" ... Would you be confident that what they all say about you and you business could be included in your eulogy?

Discover the Keys to KNOCKOUT Leadership that attract KNOCKOUT talented people to you and your business in the first place plus, get them fired up and inspired to produce KNOCKOUT results...

What century, were you programmed for Leadership in?

Are you leading the troops in the same old way, day after day?... you know... you're the boss, they should do what you say, you've got the answers, you're in command and control, you expect orders to be followed. After all, that's the way you were led; as a student, as a child, as an employee.

You see, before any of us were born around 1850 what was happening? ... The Industrial Revolution was in full swing, ‘employees' were being created where previously people had been self-reliant ... as a farmer, or barrel maker or carpenter. And as people poured off the land and out of the villages to the big cities to work for big textile companies or steel manufacturers the whole functionality of the enterprise was totally shambolic, chaotic and messy. So what happen? It got organised... hence the ‘organisation‘ was born. Key people through history played their role in sorting it out. Hey, great we needed this..... but... by the 1960s it was so ‘organised' that it drove nearly all independent thought out of people, so much so that people at work became a ROBOT, a COG IN THE MACHINE, a BRAINLESS INTERCHANGABLE PART!

Leadership became about Planning (don't even get me started on traditional business plans... wait, I will actually... next week I'll attack ‘the plan'), about Rules, about ‘The Best Way' and about Principles of Management. The earth keeps moving and evolving, we are now well past the Industrial Age, the World Wars, the Atomic Age, the Space Age, and well into the Information Age, perhaps now entering / already entered a new Age of ?????. So, stop using old methods to ‘manage employees' and start to ‘lead talented people'!

Wake up everybody, people have brains... your team are the people that will make or break you and you company (note: if you find that hard to believe and you find yourself saying "yeah but James, you haven't seen and experienced my staff" well... YOU HIRED THEM!!! "Yeah but It's just not that easy James, you can't find good people" ... totally, I agree, it's not easy, but the fact is... KNOCKOUT leaders attract KNOCKOUT talented people.... which produce KNOCKOUT results! So you must become a KNOCKOUT Leader!)

Here's 7 KNOCKOUT Leadership Keys to put in the ring, and box about with... in front of a mirror ...

1) What's the Big Idea?

KNOCKOUT Leaders... Create Opportunities for Talented People to Shine through a great Vision of the future. They then focus on Developing that Talent to create a Profit Machine.

a) Creating Opportunities: We hear a lot about Accountability and Responsibility together, but they are quite different. Give a member of your team total responsibility for an area of your business i.e. the opportunity for them to shine (or be dull as!), then YOU hold them Accountable with a Performance Review (weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly).

b) Great Vision: Think about great leaders of the world and you might think about people like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Ghandi... these people had huge Vision of how things could be different (and virtually no power relative to what we would call power within government). Yet each man changed the world.

c) Developing Talent: In the book; Jack: Straight From The Gut by Jack Welch (the CEO of GE from 1980-2001... he added more than US$450 Billion in Market Cap during his tenure. WOW!) he talks about developing talented people, so much so that when he retired his top three managers all became CEOs of huge companies, one GE, one 3M, one Home Depot.

d) Profit Machine: The Business is a Profit Machine (i.e. a vehicle for producing profit) and people create, run, develop and innovate the Machine. People are not part of the Machine. Long term the Machine will replace current roles, people will get new roles, hence why people are the innovators. Get interested to the edge of obsessed with the Profit Machine making more....PROFIT, know the numbers to get the Profit you want!

2) Ok, So... What do I Do?

KNOCKOUT Leaders... are always Doing things. Things that bring them closer to believing the future is possible and that take them further away from the present. The present just makes them angry.

a) Just Do It: Nike has got it! Do STUFF.... Not plan ... Leaders constantly are acting, they are trying new things, they are DOERS ... and then they simply Re-DO until it works better and better (think Bill Gates and Microsoft, they are constantly launching new products and product lines, are they perfect version 1, hell no!!!, but it's out there in the market place making sales and they can then improve for version 2 and eventually totally re-do with a new product launch. The point is, if they spent all the time planning to iron out the bugs they'd never get it to market in time and not be one of the top 5 companies in the world.)

b) Get Pissed Off: Get really angry about the way things are. What annoys you about....? Most of the great leaders of the world have basically done something about something that annoyed the heck out of them.

c) Get Optimistic: Positioning and branding expert Harry Beckwith (and author of the amazing book Selling The Invisible) once said to me "The Optimists have it in this world, pessimists only have the empty consolation of knowing that they were right".

3) Yeah, But In What Way?

KNOCKOUT Leaders... find others who are also different from the norm and will challenge the status quo. They also realise that because they are always doing and trying things they will make mistakes and that this is to be encouraged from everyone in the team.

a) Find Bizarre People: If you are looking for a cookie cutter business and a cookie cutter life get cookie cutter people. If you want a business that is bizarre compared to the rest (remember it would be bizarre to be in the top 5% of profitable businesses in your industry, or country, or world... the other 95% are the norm), you've got to find bizarre people that are different to the rest.

b) Make more mistakes than successes: Look, making mistakes is just part of progress, Thomas Edison failed so many times until he found the right formula for the light bulb (3000 in fact!!!). Kids fall down thousands of times to learn how to walk. We accept these as fine and normal, but business is different??!! I don't think so! Do stuff, it fails... try another method. I'd rather fail 99 times to have one huge massive success, that only have 5 ok successes.

c) Venture Culture: You must support an environment in which risk taking is cool and accepted and embraced... let's have a whole lot of ‘ventures' or projects or gambles or bets or bunts. And you know what? It's ok if 99% don't work, because one of them will change your business? Your industry? Your life?

4) What about People?

KNOCKOUT Leaders... Are activists for talented people and earn their trust through integrity. They are relationship stars who make an army of meaningful connections with talented people through relentless networking.

a) Talent Activist: Did Henry Ford (Founder of the Ford Motor Company) hire talented people? You bet... he hired talented experts that knew more than he did in key areas of the business. In fact so much so he was once famously taken to court for being ignorant!

b) Trust through Integrity: To be credible you must do what you say you will, this one gets me wild! People that don't return a phone call when they say they will or do such and such a task by the date stated. Hey look, nobody's perfect we all understand that, but repeated behaviour and how it matches your words will have someone form an opinion about you. Hold integrity as your number one value and you'll be building trust and cred all over the place.

c) Relationship Stars Connect: A connection is not on the surface, a connection is not just a business card, a connection is... dare I say it ... Bonding. Wow I did. Find the common and not so common ground, why is it not common? People with ‘charisma' the world over are liked by people... why? They make people feel smart, funny, interesting and important.... it's not the opposite that people often think it is (that charismatic people are interesting, funny, smart and better people).

d) Relentless Networking: The more people you met, the more you increase your chances of find talented people that can help you. Join a networking group or two, attend events, get out there.

5) Now, what about actual direction?

KNOCKOUT Leaders... Create whole new markets they don't follow others. They use all available resources. They are KNOCKOUT salespeople and KNOCKOUT storytellers.

a) Create New Markets: Think 34 year old Google founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page... Leaders in an industry where previously there just wasn't an industry (web advertising). If you follow you'll never create massive value, you must innovate either product or a service or a way of doing things or an experience.

b) New Resources: Read: [new stuff, new technology]... embrace it or forget it. You don't need to understand it, just appreciate it and utilise it. Seek it out, or people that know about it ... ask; how can I...? or even; who knows how to...? or; what the....?

c) Salespeople: This is a biggie! Love sales, we are all salespeople, get over it..... it is not a bad thing... forget the baggage... you must get passionate about selling.... about selling yourself, your company, your solutions, your ideas, your vision... to customers, to suppliers, to talented people (previously employees of the organisation), to anyone that will listen.

d) Storytellers: Nothing sells a message like a great story, nothing! What's your story, tell it, tell it and tell it again... let people know about it, your successes, your vision, your lessons, your products, your services, your solutions, moreover.... the experience that is you and your company.

6) What about me?

KNOCKOUT Leaders... Ooze Passion! They love what they are doing and express their passion. They own the brand and the change they want to see in the world. KNOCKOUT Leaders seek out new information and truths about themselves and focus on doing stuff that matters.

a) Express Your Passion: Anyone that I have ever known to be great at Leading People, loves to lead, and have the ability to express their passion and ignite passion within others. Don't be afraid to let the world know what you have a passion for... hint; if it's not leading.... ummmm find someone that does have passion for it to run your company!

b) Own the Brand: Richard Branson in his wildly entertaining book Losing My Virginity takes you through his life and tells of his journeys and adventures. His company values are how he lives, Richard Branson is Virgin. What are your company values and do they line up with your personal values?

c) Seek Out: Seek and you will find. KNOCKOUT Leaders realise that they don't know everything and that it's ok to keep learning, in fact they love it, just when they think they've got it, a new piece of information is for a deeper level of understanding. What are you currently... Reading, Watching, Listening to, Observing, Doing, Failing at, and Succeeding at?

d) Focus: Find your point of focus and nail it. I once asked Brad Sugars (Who has sold over 1000 franchises worldwide in Action International) what the key to success was, he came back with FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS. Where's your focus?

7) Does what you do matter?

Woah... big question huh? Didn't think you'd be asking yourself that question today did you? ... Why go by each day, just plugging on... "another day, another dollar", doing the same old stuff. And you're never too old or hard-done-by... Michael Hill at the age of 41, after the loss of his family home in a fire in 1979, revolutionised the jewellery industry in New Zealand and Australia to lead his company to be listed on the stock exchange just 8 years later. In 2007 MHJ has a Market Capitalisation of NZ$400M!

KNOCKOUT Leaders... Leave a Legacy!

This week's action points...

Tilt your world on its axis about 90 degrees and try to stay where you are today. Go on! Leave the old world of leadership behind and find your way in the new world, or sell up and do yourself a favour.

DISC Communication - Do You Understand The 4 Behavioural Styles Of People?

James Cooper — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 05:35:00 GMT

Help You And Your Team To Dramatically Improve Communication In Your Business...

Ever wondered why you and your team sometimes speak what seems like a different language to one another? We often hear that good communication is vital... But just what does that mean? If your staff are telling you that the communication between team members is rubbish or that management never tell us anything or if you can plainly see it's not good...maybe you feel your team just don't communicate well or even that "they just don't listen".... then just what can you do to improve it?

Learn the 4 different behavioural styles of people and how this affects how each of us learn, communicate and act. With this knowledge, you'll start to communicate in different ways and have a much happier team that begin to excel and operate more seamlessly making your life much much easier!

Here are some more benefits that come with this knowledge...

Gain Commitment and Cooperation of Others: People tend to trust and work well with those they see as most like themselves. The way to gain commitment and cooperation from others is to adjust to their style.

Build Effective Teams: Teams become more effective when team members understand the various styles importance and impact on the team. Teams are more productive as a result of a better understanding of each team member's behavioural needs.

Resolve and Prevent Conflict: Each of us faces the challenge of being able to communicate in a style that the listener can relate to and understand. Most times people are hired because they possess specific technical competence, but get fired for not getting along with others in their department or organization.

Job Compatibility: People perform at their best when doing work for which they are naturally suited. DISC gives you the ability to put people in the right jobs and assign work to the right people.

Have You Ever Wondered...

Why people do things the way they do?
How to get people to do what you would like them to do?
Why certain things are important to some people and not to others?
How to understand others for better relationships and improved productivity?

Here's how to get the answers...

The Work Of Dr. William Marston Provides Insight - Marston devoted his entire adult life as a teaching and consulting psychologist. He was/is well known for his contributions in the area of lie detection. His book, "The Emotions of Normal People" published in 1928 described the theory we use today. Marston's research found people generally display behaviour in these four dimensions.

DOMINANCE:
Your approach to problems and how you handle challenges.

INFLUENCE:
How you attempt to interact and influence other people.

STEADINESS:
Your response to change and the pace of activities.

COMPLIANCE:
How you attempt to respond to rules, procedures and regulations set by other people.

An individual's personality is displayed through the intensity of each of the 4 DISC factors.

Marston's DISC Model

Marston's DISC Model suggests people usually can be identified as one of 4 basic styles.

DOMINANCE:
This style is generally interested in areas and things that are different, new, unusual and challenging. People with this style are results driven and their goal is to make things happen. Challenging this style for results brings out the best in them. They like to solve problems and will put in long hours to get a problem solved.

INFLUENCE:
This style's goal is to be liked by others and likes others unconditionally. They are very verbal and are often seen as smooth talkers, who have something to say at anytime and take a long time saying it. This style wants to be involved in whatever is happening. They are seen as great motivators who work well with others while trying to inpsire you to their point of view.

STEADINESS:
This style is usually seen as being easy going and relaxed. They are very loyal, dependable and predictable in their day to day work and relationships. This style often builds close relationships with a small group of associates and friends. Being on the team is most times more important than leading the team and they strive to coordinate their efforts with others.

COMPLIANCE:
This style prefers a stable and organized life. They like to follow rules and procedures in their business and personal life. This style's goal is to do what is expected of them and do it to the best of their ability. They like to be systematic in thinking and working, while being precise and attending to details they view being important.

Above the ‘x' axis, we have D's & I's who are both extraverts, and below we have C's & S's as introverts. On the ‘y' axis to the left we have D's & C's both task orientated people, to the right I's & S's are both people people.

Identifying Yourself and Others...

High D's are Identified by These Easy to Read Traits

Communication Direct and to the point

Motivated by Competition

Orientation Project oriented, rather than people oriented

Main Priority Goals

Wants The job done efficiently, with positive results

Basic Weakness Being impatient

Key Strength Makes quick decisions

Turn Off Indecision

Work Pace Fast and determined

Emotion Anger

Wants others To be fast paced

When confronted Will attack

High I's are Identified by These Easy to Read Traits

Communication Fast, emotional, exciting and often entertaining

Motivated by Influencing others

Orientation People oriented, rather than project oriented

Main Priority People

Wants To work with and be with other people

Basic Weakness Not listening effectively

Key Strength Good verbally

Turn Off Can become too emotional

Work Pace Fast and often unorganized

Emotion Optimism

Wants others To be spontaneous and have fun

When confronted Attempt to sell others, then acquiesce

High S's are Identified by These Easy to Read Traits

Communication Slow and deliberate

Motivated by Safety and security

Orientation People oriented

Main Priority Pleasing others

Wants Others to be sincere

Basic Weakness Lack of assertiveness

Key Strength Patient and helpful

Turn Off Others pushing too hard

Work Pace Steady

Emotion non-emotional on the outside

Wants others To be sincere

When confronted Will give in

High C's are Identified by These Easy to Read Traits

Communication Direct, using facts, figures and data

Motivated by Looking for mistakes and errors

Orientation Organization and procedures

Main Priority Facts

Wants Getting it done right the first time

Basic Weakness Inflexibility

Key Strength Planning and organizing

Turn Off Avoiding errors, trouble or danger

Work Pace Methodical

Emotion Fear

Wants Others Do things right

When confronted Attempt to avoid conflict

Effort you place on understanding yourself and others will help you become more effective as a person, while improving your working relationships with others.

How to Motivate each of your team for high Performance

Each style is motivated in different ways. Highlighted on this page are Quick Keys to motivating each of the different behavioural styles. Using these Quick Keys can help empower yourself and others to achieve results and high performance; These Quick Keys can help.

D's WANT:

Power and authority to achieve results
Independence from control, supervision and details
To be in control and be the leader
To be involved in new and different programs, projects and ideas

I's WANT:

Popularity and social recognition
Freedom of speech and people to associate with
To be creative and try different things
To deal with little or no details

S's WANT:

Security
Time to adjust to change
Close and genuine relationships
Tradition and status quo

C's WANT:

To know they are doing a good job and doing it right
Rules and procedures they can follow
Personal attention
To have the right information

What to do or say to different styles ... Communication Builders and Barriers

Here we give clear methods to improve your communication with different styles. Can you see how you prefer others to communicate with you and the communication techniques others may often use that can be frustrating for you? A person may communicate very well with one who has a similar style, but find they have great difficulty communicating with someone who has a style that is different from their own. Communicating with the 4 styles;

When communicating with a DOMINANT style:

Be clear, specific, brief and to the point.
Stick to the business at hand.
Have your support material in a well organized "package."

Factors that tend to create tension or dissatisfaction:

Not sticking to the problem or issues at hand.
Leaving gray areas, not making a decision.
Appearing to be unorganized.

When communicating with an INFLUENCING style:

Let them do most of the talking.
Be certain to ask how they "feel" about issues.
Help them focus on being objective.

Factors that tend to create tension or dissatisfaction:

Others dominating the conversation.
Using too many details.
Not being warm or fuzzy enough.

When communicating with a STEADINESS style:

Take time to break the ice.
Ask lots of questions to get them involved in the conversation.
Be non‑aggressive and non‑threatening.

Factors that tend to create tension or dissatisfaction:

Push them for a quick decision.
Being non‑cooperative.
Not taking time to build a personal relationship with them.

When communicating with a COMPLIANT style:

Bring plenty of supporting material.
Have it organized and be logical.
Let them ask a lot of questions.

Factors that tend to create tension or dissatisfaction:

Being informal, loud and unorganized.
Not having enough information to prove your points.
Losing your temper and challenging their accuracy.

Understanding the differences and similarities of the styles can be the initial step in creating and maintaining effective communication. This same understanding is invaluable in preventing and/or resolving conflict. When you know the styles you do not blend well with, you can adjust your personal style closer to theirs for more compatibility and be better prepared mentally to cope with the stress that may be part of the interaction.

This week's action points...

Print this out, read through it again. Decide what profile you are, hint it's ok to have parts of one and parts from another, then list down each member of your team and decide what profile they are. Look to see how you may need to adapt your communication to suit that person... Then decide to be proactive in your approach to getting better communication by adapting your style. When you start to see results, I'd recommend a team training exercise to educate everyone about this so all can benefit!

Team Coaching - Coach Your Team and Remove Staff Interruptions

James Cooper — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:29:00 GMT

Here's How You Can Personally Coach Your Team To Take On More Responsibility. Leaving You More Time To Focus On Whatever You Like ...

Do you want more freedom? Freedom to focus on growing your business, freedom to maximise the value of the asset you have worked so hard for all these years to create, or freedom to start enjoying life's simple pleasures like golf on Wednesday Morning, or 3 weeks holiday to Europe, socialising with friends, or spending more time with family. Whatever you want to do more of it really means you'll need to be needed less and less at your business. Wake Up! What are you doing every day to ensure you are not needed in your business?

Learn what I believe is one of the simplest methods I have come across to be needed less by your business. In fact, I'd go as far as saying this method is more important and supersedes "systems" in its effectiveness to get results for business owners (Big Call... Heck Yes!)

Big Call...Systems suck if you have to run them, or worse you have a team and they don't use them!

I remember meeting a business owner a few years ago now who was obsessed with systems, and the fact that they were the answer to all his problems. His problems were similar to many business owners, working 60+ hours a week for, well... nothing really. At the heart of his issue was not systems, (sure they desperately needed improvement) but he was the core issue and his relationship with his team.

Each time he would try to sit down to gather his thoughts to work on improving the business process, he would get interrupted.

You see, from working with hundreds of business owners over the years one thing has become perfectly clear to me, business owners get interrupted so much that sometimes it almost becomes their role! So... business owners have 2 areas they mainly deal in...

1)Doing actual work, whether it's operational or sales focused or whatever... actual work that if they were ultimately not needed in the business someone else will have to do.
2)Interruptions... and interruptions are in the following four areas... i) Team, ii) Customers, iii) Suppliers, iv) Personal.

So if you could have a tool to start to reduce the number of interruptions you'd automatically reduce the hours you work and be needed less and less in the business right?

Wait, the tool I've got is more than just that, it starts to get the team to think for themselves, to become proactive, to take responsibility, to use their own brain and initiative, which ultimately leads to more and more "Actual Work" that you as the business owner do being done by the team until; your definition and required level of freedom is achieved...i.e.

a)Reduce number of hours you work each week from 60hrs to 40hrs. (Or)...
b)Start working 3 ½ days not 5. (Or)...
c)Able to go on holiday for 3 weeks without talking to the team. (Or)...
d)Turn your star employee into a General Manager and sell the business as a ‘fully managed investment", giving you a greater sale price and more money for your ‘rejuvenation' period (note: rejuvenation not retirement. Retirement is dead for all you baby boomers, think rejuvenation, think the greater the value of your business the more fun you can have!).

You too can learn how to COACH your team...

Coaching is simply the encouragement and helping of others figure out the answer for themselves. In a nut shell all you need to do is ask questions!

What....? Where...? How...? When...? Why...? Who...?

These are not Yes or No questions, but thought provoking questions that require people to do what?..... THINK! So the next time, Jack comes to you and asks you how to do such and such, or Mary asks where to find blah, or Bob wants to know what to do next, or Sam needs to know what's happening with that order... you ask them a question to let them figure it out! Warning, this requires more patience than you have previously shown, after all I understand it's is just a heck of a lot quicker to ‘tell' them the answer, right?

If you always tell, they'll always ask. If you always ask them questions until they figure the answer out, what do you think might start to happen? Well, they'll likely now know where to find that information, or how to deal with that situation, or ultimately they'll begin to understand that you trust them to make the decision themselves.

Here are some examples:

So Jack, tell me, how would you do such and such? Really, why is that? What are the impacts to (the business/other team members) if we do it like that? Ok, so why is that important?

So Mary, where would you look for blah? Ok, but if you did know, where would you start to look?

So Bob, what is your role? What is the purpose of that role? What other activities would indicate that you are doing that role well? Which one of those activities do you think is the most important? Really, why is that? What are the impacts... Etc...

"Ok James, so above we deal with interruptions, what about reducing the actual work I do?"

The answer... Well just think for a second, what is it that I do with my clients that are enrolled in one of my advisory programmes? ....... How often do I talk to them do you think?...... How often do I communicate with you via this newsletter?....... Weekly, right? So I propose you have weekly 15 - 60min one-on-one "Coaching Sessions" with your team. Think I'm kidding, heck no! How do I get my clients to get great results? With a 15-60min weekly session of course! How do I provide you with value the mimosaWEEKLY TIP^TM? With easy to consume weekly information. Provide an environment that improves on a regular basis.

How often are you setting goals with your team (or if you have a large team, your key team members only, eventually the key team members will coach those they lead) in a one-on-one basis? What are you doing to have a process of improvement and growth in each of your team members so that between them they can ultimately do all of your "actual work"?

In the Weekly Coaching Sessions; get the individual to set their own goals and action points by asking questions so you facilitate and lead the session until they come up with the goals. They write them down, then next week they report back on what they achieved on their goal list, you ask more questions and they set new goals... and so on...

You'll be amazed at the progress, at the new speed your team can operate, at all the things that are starting to be achieved. And you'll be relieved to feel that you are not the only one that comes in to do battle every day, you'll start to see that yes you can have a self-managed team, you simply need to provide the right environment.... a coaching environment.

This week's action points...

Take this seriously. Don't just give it a go, then slip back to your old habits in a month, make a commitment, a commitment to yourself... define the ‘freedom' you are after and commit to becoming a coach and a leader to develop your team to get there.

Team Training (Brainstorming Technique) - Are You Training Your Team In Business Development?

James Cooper — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 05:26:00 GMT

... Or, Do You Shy Away From This Activity And Miss Out On Having All Of Your Team Thinking About How To Improve Your Business ...

Learn a quick and simple method you can use to get problems and challenges solved using all of your team to come up with the solution. Hey, this means they'll actually do the actions required to get improvements and breakthroughs in your business fast!

Training your team should not be restricted to keeping them up to date with the latest product or service / skill information. Wouldn't life be a whole lot easier if every member of your team thought like you... like a business owner?

Don't be a SAP!

Shy away from this at your own peril! This is not new age, tree hugging, or flowery crap... is that clear? I fully understand how this might be a little different to what you are used to or how you have acted in front of your team before. I totally get how this will be outside many people's comfort zones. Good... an excellent leader should do just that... get out of your comfort zone and start leading your team, they will love it and your business will thrive!

If your team, well... just don't do what you want them to, or they need you and your input all the time, or they don't take responsibility or you just want to get improvements but everything you try doesn't seem to get implemented fully. Well, boy to I have the tool for you. I've used this tool to help teams from hair dresser to builders, from electricians to finance companies, from plumbers to designers. For developing company values and vision, for brainstorming the next steps to growth, for sorting out frustrations, for defining job expectations. If you want to really get ahead and dramatically get results quickly, get your whole team involved in the improvement process and here's the tool to do it...

The Sticky Note Brainstorming Technique (aka "Affinity Grouping/Affinity Diagram")

Looking for a different technique to brainstorm or gather ideas from a group? Affinity Grouping (also known as an Affinity Diagram) is a creative process used with or by a group to gather and organize ideas, opinions, issues, etc. It's fun and a bit different because it uses coloured sticky notes or cards. The technique is used for:

Adding structure to a large or complicated issue (eg: What are the major issues in the development of new product ABC? What are the benefits of implementing a new accounting system?)
Breaking down a complicated issue into broad categories (eg: What are the major steps in implementing this new project? How could we improve communication around here?)
Gaining agreement on an issue or situation (eg: How should new product ABC be marketed? Which direction should we take to grow this company?)

Benefits of the technique

As well as being an interesting and fun alternative to the standard "a scribe writes the ideas on a flipchart" technique, Affinity Grouping has some particular benefits:

It allows equal input by all participants, regardless of how outgoing or reserved each person is.
It is useful for sensitive or ‘political' topics, providing a safe environment where people do not have to verbalise their thoughts or feelings out loud.
It's great for team communication issues and conflicts - the most likely outcome will be clear evidence that there is an underlying commonality of thoughts among the team!

Materials Required

Plenty of different-coloured sticky notes (you can buy packs of multicoloured ones). Or for larger groups where visibility will be more of an issue, use coloured cards (say 20 x 8 cm), which you can get from most stationery supply outlets, and 3M Repositionable Adhesive spray.
Several sheets of flipchart paper or a large piece of brown paper stuck on a wall or whiteboard. If you're using cards and adhesive spray, spray the paper 15-30 minutes before the session, to allow the adhesive to ‘set' (and the fumes to disperse as bit!)
A dark-coloured felt-tip pen for each participant
Marker pens for the facilitator (for writing on paper)
Plus some notes or cards prepared with the following written on as examples (in large, clear letters in dark felt-pen!):

- One idea per note
- Write clearly with large letters
- Maximum 6 words per note

Process

1. Before you start, clarify the issue or problem to be explored. Develop a clear statement of the problem or goal - this is best framed as a question. Don't rush this part - the better the question, the better the outcome of the session. An example of a great question that I've used very successfully is something like:

"What would be the top 5 benefits of a new integrated accounting system to:

Our company
Your department
You personally?"

This example worked because it created a clear scope for the session and directed the thoughts of the participants.

2. Provide a time limit for the session. Usually 45-60 minutes is sufficient.
3. Distribute the notes/cards and felt-tip pens around the tables. Make sure that each person has access to 2 or 3 different colour notes or cards - you don't want one colour to be identified with one participant.
4. Explain the process to the group:
This is a brainstorming technique designed to gather ideas from everyone.
The group will have 5 minutes to individually come up with their ideas in response to the question you're about to ask.
They should write each idea on a sticky note or card and put it in front of them to be collected.
The last step is to group the notes/cards into common themes.
5. Ask your prepared question. Have it written up on a flipchart or whiteboard so it's visible throughout the process.
6. Give the group 5 minutes to individually brainstorm ideas and write them on the sticky notes.
7. Collect the cards or sticky notes as they are completed, mix them up and stick them randomly on the flipchart paper or (sticky) brown paper. Tell the group to look at the completed ones if they run out of ideas... these may trigger new thoughts.
8. When the 5 minutes are up or the group has run out of ideas, make sure all the notes/cards are displayed visibly.
9. Ask the group if they can see any duplicates. Ask permission to remove any that are worded identically or almost identically.
10. Now ask the group if they can see any common themes. Focus on one theme to start with and ask the group to call out each related note, eg. "'Regular team meetings' on the orange note at the top left," "Blue note, middle, says ‘More communication among the team'" and so on.
11. Move all the notes/cards related to that theme into a separate area on the paper. Leave a space at the top of the group of notes.
12. Ask the participants to give this group of notes a heading or title that best describes the central theme. Keep it short (5-6 words) but clear, eg. "Better use of time" (not just "Time"). Write the heading on another note/card - it's a good idea to use a different pen colour or circle it so it's clear which notes/cards are headings.
13. Place the heading at the top of the group.
14. Move onto the next theme until all the notes/cards have been grouped.
15. If you see a note/card that you think goes into a particular group, don't just move it yourself - ask the group if it fits there. (You are the facilitator, and should not get mixed up in the content of the session!)
16. If the participants cannot agree over which of 2 groups to put a note into, ask someone to copy the words onto another note and put one in each group.
17. When you've finished, use one of two methods for safely transporting the workshop output so it can be documented formally:
Put Sellotape across each group to stick them to the backing paper.
Remove the notes from the backing paper and staple each group together with the heading note on the top.

A variation on this technique is for the participants to group the notes themselves. Ask everyone to come up to the board and, working silently, move the notes into groups. If someone doesn't like where a note has been placed by a team member, they can move it. If there is a disagreement over which of 2 groups to put a note, as before, copy the words onto a second note and put one in each group.

Hints and tips

Treat the notes/cards with respect. These are the embodiment of people's ideas and the participants will feel ownership of the ones they have written! To that end:
- Make sure that each note/card is visible - aim not to overlap them.
- If one falls onto the floor, pick it up straightaway and put it back.
- If you remove a duplicate note (only where two are worded identically or almost identically), always ask permission before doing so.
If you are unsure of the meaning of a particular note, ask if the writer is willing to explain what they meant. If there's no response, don't push it - this may be a sensitive issue for that person.
If you have no useable wall-space or large whiteboard, you can use a flat surface, such as a large table, or even the floor. Of course, participants will need to stand up and group round the surface so they can see, or bring their chairs round the paper on the floor.
If space on the backing paper is tight, you can also draw a line around each group of notes/cards to denote the group.

This week's action points...

Set up a regular training session with your team... and have FUN with this!

Recruitment System - How To Find The Right People Fast

James Cooper — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:20:00 GMT

Introducing The "Express Format" Recruitment System

This may be a new way of hiring for your company. Remember this: if you don't change the system or process of hiring that you've been using thus far, then you'll simply get more of what you've already got. Here's a proven recruiting and induction system based on the following principles:

Attract a large pool of applicants and you're more likely to get the right person.
Implement multiple levels of screening and you'll waste less time in lengthy interviews with under-qualified candidates.
Observe a short list of applicants perform the essentials of the position in real time and you're less likely to be surprised on their first day.
Assess your short list of applicants to make sure that you're making an appropriate match.

Here's the Express Format in detail:

Phase #1: Generate leads for position

Develop job description and/or ad to include:
1. Roles, responsibilities, tasks, duties
2. Skills required
3. Hours expected
4. Pay range
Identify lead sources
1. Look within organization first
2. Post sign in your door/window
3. Post ad in local and daily papers
4. Post ad in trade/industry publications
5. Post ad in high schools, colleges, and vo-tech schools
6. Post ad in local houses of worship
7. Email/mail/fax ad to customer database, vendors, personal/business colleague database
8. Include recruiting incentive plan in team member paychecks (check with team members re. the "power of the offer" you're using)
9. Utilize a recruiter/headhunter
10. Fax job description to employment/temp agencies
  - Identify (10 to 20) agencies
  - Complete their contract if required
  - Call back the day after JD is faxed to ask for resumes
11. Networking - "every conversation is an interview"
12. Publish ad in your company newsletter
13. Retrieve web resumes from web sites
14. Search web for local resume postings: city+resumes
15. Directly Searching Social Networking Platforms
  - LinkedIn

Phase #2: Qualify leads

1. Set up a dedicated voice mail box for phone screening. Options:
  - http://www.skype.com/
  - http://www.ureach.com/
  - http://www.onebox.com/
  - http://www.tnz.co.nz/
  - Complete voice mail script for voice mail box and record
  - Complete Job description and ad to send leads to dedicated voice mail box message
  - Listen to responses and call request resumes from good candidates
  - Qualify candidates by comparing resumes to job description
    - A - has necessities plus some
    - B - has the necessities
    - C - missing some necessities
    - D - not even close
  - Develop a short list of candidates
  - Have the short list of candidates fill out application forms (optional)
1. Arrange group or individual on-site screening
2. Design on-site screening (test drive)
3. Identify 3 most important responsibilities/task of position
4. "What 3 things are absolutely essential for this person to do well?"
5. Have test drive candidates complete 2 to 4 hour trial of top 3 responsibilities/tasks of positions
6. De-brief on-site screening (test drive) with candidates
7. Develop short list of candidates (2 to 4)
1. Interview short list
2. Open-ended vs. close ended: "what have you... how have you..."
3. Develop questions to uncover actual past experience pertaining to skill set and tasks required for position
4. Use same set of questions for all interviewees
5. Rate the response of interviewee on each question as 1 through 5, record comments
6. Rank short list according to preference
7. Check references on top choice
8. Complete an HR assessment on top choice.
9. Negotiate salary and make offer
10. Complete hiring agreement/contract
1. Orient to company
  1. Company vision, values
  2. Rules of the game
  3. Organizational chart
  4. Disciplinary process
2. Present and get sign off on position description
3. Review operations manual relevant to position
4. Identify team member development process
5. Coach team member through process
- HIGH ENERGY
- RESULTS ORIENTED
- SELF STARTER
- TRUSTWORTHY
- PEOPLE ORIENTED

Phase #3: On-site screening of leads (test drive)

Phase #4: Final interview and hire

Induction:

Example Advert Template:

[Name of position] WANTED
[Name of your company] in [your town],
is looking for you if you are:

If you possess these qualifications, call us
today on

[phone]

This Weeks Action Points...

If you are hiring people currently, review your process and focus. If you're not currently hiring, file this info for when you do!

Small Business Blog

Innovation Extremism: Overcoming Resistance to BIG Change

The Resistance to Change

The Concept of Extremes

Absolutes

Parallel Universe

Action Points

Delegating Tasks to Your Staff

How to Delegate Tasks Effectively to Your Team

_____________________________________________________________________________________ In Short

Action Points

Encouraging Employees

So you have sat down with your employees and created plans for them to follow...

Why do I need to do that?- communication

Why do I need to do that?- knowledge

Why do I need to do that?- reality

It´s so easy to be a critic

Isn´t it nice when someone says something nice?

How to "Catch people doing something good"

In summary...The end result of:

Motivating Employees

How To Motivate Employees

Are You Having Trouble With Unmotivated Employees?

Leadership - 7 Leadership Keys That Will Have Your Team Running Your Business In No Time

1) What's the Big Idea?

2) Ok, So... What do I Do?

3) Yeah, But In What Way?

4) What about People?

5) Now, what about actual direction?

6) What about me?

7) Does what you do matter?

This week's action points...

DISC Communication - Do You Understand The 4 Behavioural Styles Of People?

Team Coaching - Coach Your Team and Remove Staff Interruptions

Team Training (Brainstorming Technique) - Are You Training Your Team In Business Development?

Recruitment System - How To Find The Right People Fast

_____________________________________________________________________________________
In Short