Aussie Rules

Yeehah, summer is on the way and the air is heating up.

Talking of warmth,  I’ll be extremely hot a little later thanks to my fitness trainer getting me to do all sorts of ludicrously energetic things.

I’ve been following a fitness regime twice a week for the past five years and besides helping me maintain a reasonable level of fitness, it’s a constant reminder of two key things:

1. You do much more when someone’s watching
2. A regular action creates a habit

Now as a business coach, neither of the above should be a revelation to me, but of course it’s one thing to deliver a service and quite another to receive it.

Left to my own devices, my commitment to fitness would be sporadic at best. If I felt low on energy I’d probably choose to rest; if it were pouring with rain, I’d wait until tomorrow (and then be too busy).

I’ve always enjoyed exercise, but until I recruited someone to watch over me, I’d never truly committed to it.

As business people, we need to do more than simply pay lip-service to excellence and advancement, we need to commit to it and allow ourselves to be held accountable.

So who’s stalking you?

I’d love to hear how you keep focussed and motivated. Do you use a coach? Do you have a buddy? What works for you and how?

Share your experiences and post a comment.

Now, before you start reciting the blurb on your homepage about benefits, deliverables and all that customer-focused stuff, I suggest you take a different approach.

Imagine an ABC researcher is talking to people around you, because you’re being considered as the subject for a profile on Australian Story (Channel 2, Monday nights, check your local guide for details).

Bear in mind that such documentaries are interested in what you do over and above what is expected of you.

It’s less about measurable results and more about experiential impact.

For our businesses to grow we need to create a genuine reason for others to talk about us.

The good feeling created by a small, sincere action can do much more than a set of Hollywood teeth and a firm handshake.

Your assignment for next week is to appoint yourself as an inner-researcher, and keep a note of your observations.

Maybe see you on telly soon?

For many years I wrongly assumed this problem was confined to the creative community — designers, writers, architects and the like. I figured it was only they who were given dumb requests from their clients.

Years later I realised that of course this situation impacts on all service providers, it’s merely the word “brief” that makes it sound more tailored to certain groups.

I’d summarise a brief as any request for work that is supported by background information to justify and set into context the desired end result.

In some businesses the brief can be very simple and straightforward, in others it’s necessarily verbose and complex.

One thing is certain: the quality of the brief determines the quality of the response.

Many clients are woefully poor at providing good briefs and it must be said, many business owners are bad, bad, bad at doing much about it.

If we accept a poor brief without challenging it, we do ourselves a major disservice and risk ending up with egg all over our desktops and a gaping hole in our bank account.

Look closely at the client relationships of anyone who works with the finest, most competent clients and I guarantee you’ll witness high levels of mutual respect and understanding. Each viewing the other as an absolute professional.

If we get given a brief that’s missing detail or missing the point, we must challenge it; question it and demand better.

The moment we start taking anything that comes along, we dilute our professionalism, lower the quality of our work and will quite rapidly surround ourselves with twits.

Look around your business. How good are the clients you attract?

One unfortunate little memory that lingers from my years as an employee was when I spent a big chunk of time researching and developing an idea that totally bombed.

In normal circumstances I would have been upset. But in truth I considered my boss to be a total jerk and so reveled privately in the project’s demise.

Clearly I’m a much nicer person these days, but can’t speak for him.

The truth is, no amount of effort or positive thinking is going to transform a lousy idea. The question is though, how do you determine when to keep shoveling in the resources, versus when to call it a day and drag the idea into the trash?

The answer is, I feel, at the very core of small business and helps explain why it’s such a damn fine way of working. It has to do with how we are uniquely placed to be fully in touch with our intuition, or gut feeling, and in a position to respond to it fully.

In a larger organisation, an individual’s intuitive feeling invariably becomes suppressed (or at the very least diluted), because speaking up can result in criticisms of being wrong; not getting it; not being up to speed and so on.

Not so the life of an independent. Our intuition tells us if an idea stinks and we can act on this feeling without fear of redress. It may not tell us immediately and it may not tell us directly, but tell us it most certainly does.

If something doesn’t feel quite right, it probably isn’t.

I like to think of my intuition as a ‘caution indicator’ more than a decision-maker. I may not biff a new idea completely, it’s more likely I’ll quarantine it for a while and go back to it later.

Do some seemingly bad ideas make it to market? Of course they do, but the chances are intuition has stalled the idea long enough for it (or the world) to evolve favourably.

What are your experiences, do you listen to your intuition? Post a comment and let’s hear it.

It’s interesting how people have a tendency to take their own privileges away if they feel they’re under-performing. I’ve certainly been guilty of this myself.

In the past if I have had an unproductive few hours — time where I’ve allowed myself to get distracted and effectively, mess about — I’ve ended up feeling less than happy with my performance. No surprises there.

In such circumstances it was not unusual for me to respond by doing something dumb like forgoing a lunch break. As if this petty self-punishment would have any effect. Well actually it did, it made matters worse.

It’s inevitable we lose our focus from time to time, but punishing ourselves by removing privileges is not the answer. What we need to do is get to the bottom of why we’re doing what we’re doing and plan a new course.

In most cases, taking our eye off the ball and falling foul of distraction is the direct consequence of a fear of something that confronts us.

It could be a change we need to make, a large project that needs starting (or finishing), or a difficult conversation we’re avoiding.

In other words, we busy ourselves with less important things as a way to put something off — it’s an unconscious form of procrastination.

The best way I know to snap out of such situations, without removing privileges, is to take yourself out of solitary confinement and talk it over with someone.

Book a session with a coach; talk to a business buddy; collar a friend who’ll listen.

Chances are you’ll be able to identify a specific issue blocking your progress.

What say you? Post a comment and let’s hear it.

One of the distinguishing behaviours of a successful entrepreneur is that they are always at the ready when it comes to fulfilling their work and accepting new business.

“Being at the ready” can mean different things to different people, but in general it indicates the following pattern:

1. You have all you need at your fingertips

This may be as simple as holding stocks of paper, staples and printer ink; or more industry-specific readiness covering technical manuals, documentation and the like.

In other words, you have what you need to do what you do and you have it right here, right now.

2. You have immediate access to support 

Many of us use sub-contractors or work alongside fellow specialists when accomplishing our work.

Waiting until the work comes in before you build such relationships is a potential recipe for disaster.

Successful entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for their ideal team members and know whom to call when the need arises.

3. Your office is “new business ready”

Let’s assume you’re on the lookout for four new clients.

Not only do you need to make sure you have your intake paperwork ready, but specifically have four files to one side.

Clear a space in your filing cabinet and don’t be afraid to tell the world what you’re up to.

“Build it and they will come” is never more apt than when applied to readiness.

So how ready are you?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, clutter destroys our focus and reduces our energy.

Key offenders can often be linked to incomplete projects (like tax returns) or unfinished business (closure on a business or personal relationship perhaps).

Similarly clutter can come from the gnawing frustration caused by a build-up of unattended emails, paperwork that remains unfiled, bills unpaid … and so the list goes on.

One thing is for sure, unless we attend to the main offender(s) we’re never going to move forwards with the kind of gusto, focus and drive that we’d like.

Here’s a little trick that I was reminded of recently. A trick that is as effective as it is simple. It works like this:

Firstly, get really clear on what key element of clutter needs attention.That shouldn’t be too difficult.

Next, get a friend or colleague to tie a small brightly coloured strip of ribbon around your wrist — tight enough to not come off without scissors; loose enough to maintain blood flow!

Thirdly, make a commitment to that friend or colleague to not remove the ribbon until you have completed and removed the offending clutter.

Try it. It works.

Let’s pretend you’ve just moved to a new town where you know no one and no one knows you. No friends, no acquaintances. You’re all alone.

So what are you going to do?

Well once you’ve stopped sobbing and composed yourself, the chances are you’ll venture out in pursuit of new friendships.

You smile at people, start conversations, get involved with local happenings, that sort of stuff. Before long you’ll make a couple of connections and little by little begin to feel like a valued member of the community.

In business, growing relationships that may ultimately result in new clients (whether directly or through referral) is a very similar process. However, where many businesses behave very differently — and dangerously — is the moment they become busy.

For too many of us, busy means little or no time is put aside to undertake the most basic staying in touch actions. This has the effect of bringing marketing to a total halt.

It’s the equivalent of cultivating a small circle of friends in your new town only to shun them when you’re preoccupied.

Furthermore, by becoming complacent with your small circle, you’ll appear unfriendly and uncommunicative in the eyes of others.

Staying in touch through genuine, personal dialogue and making an effort to strengthen and broaden your circle is essential to any business that wants to avoid the peaks and troughs.

We all need to make time to nurture existing and new relationships, even when we’re really busy.

So who needs to be hearing from you? Who’s slipped off your radar?

Can you think of five people you should make contact with this week? Thought so.

I was speaking to a friend this week who was on the brink of sending out a few hundred marketing letters to his database of contacts.

“Are you personalising the letters?” I asked,  “Of course!” came the response “my software does all that at a touch of a button.”

Er, sticking someone’s name at the top of the letter and repeating it a few times in the final paragraphs is not my idea of personalising.

Certainly there will be times when one size really does fit all, but in many cases using this approach risks ignoring the real value of whatever relationship you have with your contacts.

Before we bombard those around us with any message, we should pause and consider the person who’ll be receiving it — the real, live human with whom we have at some time interacted.

When we put each recipient in mind it invariably changes what we want to say. True personalisation gives our message greater meaning, more relevance and more impact.

When we pause and consider each person in turn, we may realise that what we’re saying is largely irrelevant to some individuals.

In such cases all we would achieve by sending the message is a dilution of the relationship and even risk a reaction like “Why’s he sending me this?”

In the past I have referred to this kind of behaviour as “binge marketing” and it rarely generates anything of great value. Worse still it can be counterproductive.

Far better to have our messages connect with a few, than be ignored by hundreds.

Let me know what you think.

No-one really likes a confrontation, least of all us chirpy independent types.

However, it’s inevitable that now and again something happens that makes us mad. How we handle these confrontations, particularly when they involve our clients and customers, is what I’d like to explore.

Over the generations we’ve been told that the customer is always right. Sure, and that bloke in Nigeria really has $17m ready to transfer straight into your bank account.

It’s not right to fail to pay invoices; to shift the goalposts on projects; to forget a meeting; to ignore phone calls and messages. No. No. No. That’s not right at all.

And it bugs us doesn’t it?

It’s tricky, though, because complaining or criticising our clients is something we must do with great caution. Tearing a strip off a member of the Finance Department may give us a momentary buzz and may accelerate payment of our invoice, but what does it do for our future prosperity when the CEO and CFO have a little chat about our outburst in their weekly meeting?

Speaking up about failings and mistakes is one thing; jeopardising income is another.

We must pick our fights very carefully and be prepared to bite our lip now and again.

On the assumption the potential fight involves a client we want to retain, keep a detailed note of the event(s) and when the time is right — maybe at contract renewal time for example — discuss ways the relationship can be improved.

Our feedback could help our clients become better clients and in the process we may just find some areas where our own procedures need a tweak.

What are your thoughts, have you been a little heavy handed recently?

Spill the beans and post a comment.