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May 12, 2015 by sereynolds

3 Ways to Re-write a Bad Work Relationship

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

See if this sounds familiar: you’re working with a business leader who you find to be quite difficult. He’s demanding, makes assumptions that are unfair, blames others. As a result you back off from any relationship with him at all.

There is an assessment called the “Influence Assessment” that we use at LRI to help individual managers and leaders understand where they’re having a positive impact and where they could have a positive influence. One of the items on that survey reads: “Has positive relations with others regardless of the differences we may have.” What I like about that item is that even though the relationships may be partly out of our control, and even though the differences we have with the other person is certainly out of our control, we have the potential to take control of how positive the relationship is. This means taking active ownership for being the one that makes sure that the relationship is positive.

I recently worked with a client who had the same situation I just described: a work relationship with a demanding, unfair, blaming colleague. When we did her influence assessment and she read the item about taking active responsibility for having positive relationships with others, she realized two things. First, she did not have positive relationship with this person. Second, she had the opportunity to change it by taking the lead in a relationship and change the dynamic. She also realized that this particular gentleman may actually have an influence over her career.

So what do you do to improve a relationship with someone when you think it is not as good as it could be?

Give yourself the opportunity to reach out. I know it takes some courage, and it may not be comfortable to be the one to reach out, but you can certainly do it. Most people respond very favourably to someone coming to them and extending a hand in rewriting a relationship. In some cases we may have to apologize for something, or may have to explicitly start a relationship off on a different foot.

For example, you might say something like this: “Jim, I want to get together with you today, as I understand we started off our last discussion on the wrong note. I would really like to start all over again.” Or, “Allan, I wanted to sit down with you because I know I was harsh with you today. I owe you an apology. I realized I reacted too quickly, I was unfair and I am sorry. I hope you will forgive me for that so we can start over.”

Swallowing your pride and being the first to reach out can be all it takes to erase mistakes in a relationship and start fresh.

Assume best intent. “Assume best intent” means making an effort to believe that the person opposite you is doing the things he or she does for a good reason. Most people have positive motives. They want to do good and be good, but something may get lost in the implementation. I had a client who couldn’t seem to click with her manager. She was a real optimist, her manager was a real pessimist. When my client recognized this dynamic, she was able to take control of her own perspective. She didn’t want to apologize for anything, and also didn’t want to start the relationship all over again. So she instead chose to assume best intent. That simple shift in perspective helped her see that what came across as criticism from her manager was intended to be helpful feedback, and it helped her to quiet her inner critic.

Channel their motivations. People are driven by different motivations. Sometimes you can change a relationship by identifying what the other person wants. One of my clients was constantly locking horns with her direct report. I suggested that she might study him to understand his motivation–or better yet, to ask him. She did. She opened a conversation and said, “You’re doing your job very well. I appreciate that, but I sense there are some things you would change if you could. If you could work in the way that was best for you, how would you like things to be different?” He said, “I want to have the freedom to do my job. Just let me do my job.” It became clear that this employee’s motivation was freedom; he needed more latitude than she was giving him. Having identified the importance of freedom to her direct report, this manager was able to shift her way of doing things so that he could perform better in his role and contribute to a more positive relationship.

If you want to have positive relationships or a positive career with an endorsement from the people who are important to you, identify those people that you want to have positive relationships with. Who are the people who are influential in my career and who are the people for whom I am influential in theirs? Those are the people to focus on.

Businessmen and businesswomen may find the most influential people to be their managers or key stakeholders in their careers; entrepreneurs may find the most influential people to be their business partners or even their clients. You may never know who in your life is going to have the most influence over your career. But you can be the one to take control of the relationship and create those positive relations with others regardless of the differences we may have.

May 1, 2015 by sereynolds

5 Signs of Burnout, and Tricks to Break Free

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

Feeling burned out? Think you may have hit a low point? You’re in good company. The pace of change these days is exhausting, and it’s not uncommon to hit a lull when the stress finally takes its toll.

Knowing the signs of burnout can help you get your groove back. With just a little proactive self-assessment, you can turn things around and get back to your happy place, where you’re more motivated and enthusiastic about your work.

Recently I spent several months coaching a leader at a highly ambitious company–one where expectations are high, and failure is not an option. The intensity, long hours, pressure, and accountability all make this hard-charging, highly visible company a challenging place to work. They’re doing exciting work and people want to be a part of it, but it’s hard to sustain the energy that such a culture demands.

This particular leader, whom we’ll call Evan Stevens, was a director in IT. Within 10 minutes of our very first coaching session, tears were springing to his eyes. Finally given the opportunity to speak about his working life, he opened up about his discouragement and fatigue. Evan was working 13-14 hours a day, as well as receiving phone calls from work at night. He was starting to worry about his family life. Evan was completely burned out. He was seen as a high performer, a high producer, well respected leader, well regarded contributor, and he got lots of positive feedback for his work. Yet he felt discouraged, defeated, unappreciated and undervalued from the company around him.

You may or may not be in a situation as extreme as Evan’s, but many people I have met over the years are very close.

How do you recognize the signs of burnout? How do know if you’re just going through a phase, or if it’s time for a more serious change?

For many people, the best case scenario is to find a way to stay at your current company, while finding a way back to meaning and fulfilment. It is possible–I’ve seen it many times. Even if you’re burned out now, you may find it possible to work happily at your company, giving your best, enjoying yourself, putting in extra hours if you need to, while also finding a way to be fulfilled, appreciated, valued and enjoying your work. Now that’s a good life.

So what are the signs of burnout? The following signs came out of my work with Evan:

You give up easily. Evan said, “I feel like I am giving up.” He noticed in himself a sense of defeat. That sense of defeat can show up even before tackling a project. You feel like giving up, because you don’t have the motivation to follow through with initiatives. They suddenly seem daunting.

You blame others. The blame could be in regards to the atmosphere of the work place, or the quality of work being done. If you catch yourself blaming others, ask yourself where the basis for the blame is really coming from. If it’s from a place of exhaustion or doubt, you might be facing burnout.

Time passes slowly, even when you have a lot to do. “I can tell that I am burning out when the day seems long and dragging and I can’t wait to get home,” Evan told me. Burnout feels slow and slogging.

Your confidence is down. You’ll know you may be burning out if you used to tackle projects with excitement and focus, but now you question your abilities to finish the task at hand and finish it well. You notice may hesitate to get involved even in projects or discussions where you have something to add.

It’s hard to define success. Burnout can make it hard to see hope. Evan told me: “I’ve stopped seeing my own successes. Other people are not seeing my successes, and I am not seeing my successes either.”

Compared to those signs of burnout, after Evan was able to break free from this phase, he told me: “I accomplish more, I see my successes, I am contributing, I know I am a valuable part of the organization. Even if I am not getting the recognition that I want from my managers or my senior management, I look other places for my own value. I look to my team and how am I responding for them. I care more about what my manager says, but it’s also true that her approval is not where I get my self-worth from. I find ways to cheer myself up.”

How do you get from the signs and symptoms of burnout to a better place as Evan did?

First, take a step back and refocus. Get away. That means getting away from work without the phone, without the email, without feeling guilty, and just having to trust that you won’t be letting coworkers down if you take a few hours (or days) to collect your thoughts. Then reflect on the situation with a fresh perspective. Ask yourself: What can I do to turn this around? What can I control, and what can I not control, and how do I move forward?

It may seem impossible to get away and clear your thoughts, especially if it’s overwork or overwhelm that’s causing the burnout. Do it anyway. A clear mind is essential to finding solutions. After you’ve had some think time, treat yourself to a little extra time to rest, recover, catch up with the home stuff, clear the space and come back to work refreshed.

Second, think about how to redesign your work life so you can sustain that sense of stability longer term. For example, Evan did take a two week rest-recover-and-reflect vacation, but he also made a commitment when he came back to reducing his schedule to reliable10-hour days. He made plans to get away with his family at least one evening or weekend day a week and left the phone behind.

Third, reinforce your commitments by booking activities that refresh you and you know you won’t skip. Evan made a promise to his daughters that he would read them a story every single night–a promise that meant he couldn’t hole up in his office late at night.

Life in business today can be extremely intense and busy, and burnout is an issue (if not an epidemic). You are far too valuable to be swept away by stress and overwhelm. Become aware of the signs and symptoms, and acknowledge when you’re starting to feel burnt out, so you can take control and make a positive change.

April 21, 2015 by sereynolds

5 Ways to Lead in Challenging Times

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

What do leaders do when their stock price has dropped 75 percent and it’s their job to get it back up? What should leaders think when the thrilling vision they had for the future has been clouded by economic uncertainty? How do leaders get inspired when their employees are dejected, worried, and distracted–and let’s face it, on some level so are they?

Wait–don’t answer that. You can’t.

Because no matter how much you know about leadership, regardless of what the research says or what best practice implies, there’s only one way to find the right answers to these questions. Leaders need to find them for themselves.

In a time of unprecedented challenge, leaders don’t just need to lead their companies. They also need to lead themselves. They need strategies for improving their effectiveness while sustaining a sense of professional well-being. Every one of us has an internal source of strength and stability. Without care and consideration these renewable resources are seriously at risk.

In order to survive and thrive, leaders can’t just go about business as usual. Business isn’t “usual” anymore. It’s undergoing a seismic shift. Leaders need to get their footing in a shaky reality and learn to embrace the possibilities ahead.

So how does a leader actually practice personal leadership? What do they need to do? It looks like this:

Take time to think. Leaders need to step out of the daily rush and think about what they’re doing and why. Doing so, they will find the clarity and focus they need to get back into the action in the most effective way.

Look inside. Instead of being driven by the demanding urgencies, leaders can discover their inner resources–their strengths, their values, and their aspirations. Take for example, the leadership practice of visioning. Visioning is so vital that it is practically the prerequisite Chapter One in any book on the subject of leadership. Leaders of all kinds must have a clear vision to succeed. They need to know where their organization is going and why, and they need to communicate that vision clearly at all levels inside the organization and out.

But on a more personal level, leaders must also have a vision for themselves. At the level of the leader, visioning becomes something different than that longstanding vision that has to stand the test of time. It becomes something more fluid, more intuitive, and more flexible. It is a vision that changes as they change, but with consistent themes over time. The goal is not for a leader to establish one clear and permanent vision but to learn the skill of getting clarity about their vision again and again. For example, take an operations executive in a global medical equipment firm who had gotten overwhelmed by the pace of change in his company, which was growing exponentially, and his personal life, in which he was supporting aging parents. He had begun to be plagued with the big existential questions, like, “What am I doing?” and “What’s it all for?” By using visioning techniques as a way of finding clarity, he was able to discern what he wanted for himself as a leader, a son, an aspirational executive, and a person. As his circumstances continued to change, he learned to reconnect with clarity about his own personal vision–one that helped him to both be a better leader and lead a better life.

Rethink time and teams. The efficiencies of personal leadership come from a paradigm of abundance. Leaders need to recognize the wealth of resources available to them when they maximize their time and use the supportive people in their lives to help them achieve.

Work with a coach or mentor. Personal leadership is supported by a partner who can pose thoughtful questions, make observations, and help leaders learn to see new possibilities.

Look for ways to align and integrate one’s life. We are who we are wherever we are. The closer leaders can tie their true selves to their leadership roles, and in turn their leadership roles and their lives, the happier and healthier they will be–on all fronts.

Is it easy? Not necessarily. Introspection can be hard work. Is it worth it? Ask yourself: What would change for leaders if they had an inner resource to help them maintain stability and security within themselves when the world outside seems so unsound?

Successful leaders know that answer. Here are a few words from leaders who value the personal side of leadership:

“Leadership is personal. Management is personal. There’s something very powerful about bringing your whole self to work.” -Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

“If you can get your talents and passions to align with the organizational need, you’re really in a position when you can maximize contribution to company and achieve your career best.” -David Kilby, Director of Intel University, Intel

“As leaders it’s time to dig deep personally. There are a lot of people out there that are frozen. It’s a time to create a new future, and we can’t do it if we can’t think clearly.” -Lisa Weber, President, Individual Business, MetLife

When you practice personal leadership, you can take the practices of leadership more generally and apply them to oneself. As a result, both you and your team will flourish, even in challenging times.

April 7, 2015 by sereynolds

Senior Vice President at MGM Resorts Gives 3 Life-changing Ways to use Feedback

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

We’ve all encountered organizations that are going through a lot of change. I recently worked with an organization going through a transitional phase – they had a new division and even that division had gone through a major overhaul so they could be higher functioning within the whole of the company. All of that change can be hard on a team. Fast-forward a year later, I talked to one of the senior leaders on the team and found out that things had dramatically improved. The team was functioning productively, communicating with each other, making positive changes, and they were really on the right track.

I interviewed the Senior Vice President at MGM Resorts, Kelly Litster, to find out the strategy they used to make the difference. She said one word that stood out to me: feedback.

These are the three things Litster’s team learned about feedback:

We learned how to give feedback. One important step this team took to improve its performance was to create a sort of social contract. They agreed to a number of behaviors they wanted to hold themselves accountable for. The team started practicing a “scoring” technique to track how well they practiced the behaviors individually, and learned how to give feedback to explain their scores for each other.

Teams like Litster’s often include a number of common elements in their “operating agreements.” Some items might include avoiding blame, looking for the root cause of a problem, communicating messages even when they’re hard to say, and receiving messages without defensiveness even when they’re hard to hear.

Litster’s team held themselves accountable to scoring each other on those behaviors – a technique that made it possible for each of them to see how they score numerically, quantifying their behavior. Each individual team member can see the items they need to work on, try to remedy it and watch their score go up. It allows them to keep track of how they’re doing and provides a vehicle for how to communicate those messages and transform their culture.

We learned how to take feedback. Litster observed that on her team, members grew in their ability to listen and open their minds to feedback, learning how to do things differently instead of being closed off.

“We had to build trust,” Litster said, “The contract (or promise to behave a certain way) started us off – we joked about it before we could live by it. Then we had some serious trust building to do. Once there was a tiny bit of trust and someone was vulnerable – the team started to come together.”

They say a breaking point either leads to a breakdown or a breakthrough. In Litster’s case, it led to a breakthrough. They made it safe to give feedback within their team culture, so important messages could be both delivered and received. Taking hard feedback may not always been easy for a team member. It may not be pleasant. But it is helpful, and essential to elevate the team.

We learned how to use feedback to make improvements. Litster noticed that her team learned to assert themselves, to be necessary for the service of the greater goal even if the feedback made them uncomfortable initially, and they learned how to help each other. They also learned how to ask for help. Then they tracked their results and watched as the whole team came together in a more effective way. They also became open about giving compliments and offering help. The whole atmosphere became more congenial and productive. Perhaps most importantly, they were able to start demonstrating that they genuinely cared about one another and helped each other succeed.

If you lead a team, consider how you can use these same strategies for transforming the culture in an equally positive way.

Is your team comfortable giving and receiving feedback?
Do you have a system for communicating what’s important and how people are performing?
Do you have an agreement about how to improve based on the feedback?

With these three practices on using feedback that were so successful on Litster’s team at MGM Resorts, you can tackle a changing corporate landscape productively, and you’ll learn a lot about yourself and your colleagues along the way.

March 31, 2015 by sereynolds

Separators, Integrators and Cyclers: 3 Ways to Balance Your Life

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

“I don’t believe in work-life balance.” Speaking with business leaders about how they think about their time, I’ve heard that same sentence three times in the last week.

At first I was tempted to debate with them. I do believe in work-life balance. Regardless of how you frame it–some people prefer to call it “work-life choices” or simply “life”–I believe you have the opportunity to live a life where you have plenty of time to do the things you need to do in the office or at home.

Apparently, that’s arguable. Questions I’ve seen in media headlines on the topic challenge the concept.

“Is work-life balance possible?”

“Does an expectation of balance put undue pressure on people?”

“Shouldn’t we all just learn to integrate our lives in this 24/7 world?”

A healthy debate like this can help us see different angles on this challenge we all face. Yet, sometimes the debate over how we “should” organize our time spirals into a more negative version–the “I’m right/you’re wrong” kind of confrontation that leaves everyone feeling attacked.

The real problem isn’t that we have different perspectives on work-life balance. The problem arises when we try to impose our views on others.

A client of mine recently complained when his boss overloaded him with extra projects that would stretch him past capacity. When my client dared to point out the obvious–that with so much work at once, he couldn’t possibly do a quality job–his boss snapped at him for “not pulling his weight.” For the record, this client was one of the highest-performing leaders in the division, and not one who could fairly be seen as a slacker. The underlying problem was that his boss thought working 24/7 was acceptable at any cost. My client did not.

In another interaction I witnessed, one manager berated another for “working so hard you never see your kids.” Again, this was an unfair judgment. I knew both managers to be extremely family oriented and perfectly healthy time managers. The problem arose because they simply worked differently–and judging each other only caused animosity.

Frustrated by the pattern I was witnessing, I wanted to find a way to help people out of the struggle and into a more productive point of view.

Then I met Ellen Kossek, who offered a solution.

Ellen Kossek is a Professor of Management at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management, Research Director of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence, and author of CEO of Me: Creating a Life that Works in the Flexible Job Age. She has a theory about approaches to work-life balance and, along with her colleagues, has developed a work-life assessment to help individuals understand their styles. She calls the three types of approaches separators, integrators and cyclers.

Rather than continue to wrestle with the issues of work-life balance (and whether it’s even possible) you might consider which of these approaches work best for you.

Separators. Separators compartmentalize. During the weekdays and the workday, separators focus on their work and the task at hand. When the weekend hits, the separators put the phone down, reclaim their freedom and enjoy their down time.

An example of a separator is a client of mine who is a CEO of a start up firm. She has several children, and between her family and her job, she could easily choose to work all day, everyday. Instead, she consciously chose specific hours for work and specific hours for home, and she made an agreement with both her firm and her family to adhere to the schedule. She made sure everyone was taken care of–including herself–and from them on, she felt free. Both her clients and her family knew what to expect, and everyone became accustomed to her schedule. She knew that separating was the way she worked best.

Integrators. Integrators blend the different parts of their lives all together.

An example of a great integrator I know is a small business owner. Dramatically successful and with a fast rise into seven figures, she loves to work. She also loves her life. This entrepreneur chooses to work wherever she is, whenever she wants to–or not. She has her phone, laptop and car at her disposal at all times. She does what she wants to do and goes where she has to go and gets it all handled along the way. She can be found taking a business call on the treadmill or sitting with her kids in the office conference room having coloring time. She might leave work at three in the afternoon to pick up her kids, but then after everyone is situated at home she’ll sit at the kitchen table with her laptop and join an evening conference call.

Integrators allow work and home life to blend together. As long as they make sure they have time for themselves and their work, and as long as everyone’s needs are met, it all seems to come together and everything gets accomplished.

Cyclers. Cyclers follow what might be seen as a more traditional model: work hard and play hard, each in their own time.

If you’re a cycler, you go through phases that are all about the work. Your hours might be long, and you work really hard, allowing yourself to stay focused and reach important milestones and outcomes.

Then you go on vacation. You completely unplug. You sleep and swim and play. You feel restored and happy, and when the vacation’s over, you put away your beach towel and head back to work.

This model seems to work well for a lot of people. Parents, especially, seem to benefit from aligning their work schedule to their kids’ school calendars, which tend to operate with this “cycling” approach. They can work while the kids are in school and then take off the breaks that their children get, whether it’s two weeks at the holidays, a long weekend here and there, or even those long summer vacations. Entrepreneurs, executives, and inventors I’ve known have all appreciated the ability to immerse themselves in their work for awhile, and then reward themselves with some good, quality time off.

Let’s revisit the scenarios I posed earlier in this article. The manager who wanted my client to work 24/7 was a cycler; his style bumped up against the values of his direct report, who was a separator. The manager who scoffed another manager’s workaholic-seeming style was a separator also; but she misread and misinterpreted her colleagues’ integrator way of life. With Kossek’s lens on work-life balance, none of these people were “wrong” in their way to managing their time. But they were wrong to judge other people for managing their time differently. Many different styles can accomplish the same goal. The real way to judge the effectiveness is to gauge whether the work gets done in a way that supports a healthy quality of life–however you define it.

As you consider these three models, ask yourself a few questions.

What model appeals to you most?
What model are you living with now?
Is there any way to bring the two closer together?

Once you choose your way of making your life work, you can more easily accept other’s choices and go about focusing on your own.

March 24, 2015 by sereynolds

The Puzzle Method of Scheduling Your Day

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

I was sitting at my desk the other day and felt completely overwhelmed. Like many of you, as a business owner I had many things to do at once: three calls to make, an article due, meetings to attend, and random appointments scattered throughout the day. I was completely paralyzed in the moment. Every task seemed equally important and unimportant at the same time.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you have many things to keep track of: Marketing, communication, client work, providing services, leadership–that’s five without even stopping for a breath.

How do you keep all of that in mind without feeling like you’re it’s all going to fall apart? Well, one way is instead to think of putting it all together instead. Like a puzzle.

If you’ve ever done a puzzle, even as a kid, you know how it goes. It’s somewhat random and can seem overwhelming at first, but there are steps you can take to make it easier on yourself. You take a good long look at the picture on the cover of the box, so you have a sense of the ultimate result. You can find the four corners and put them into place. You can build the edges around the perimeter of the puzzle. You can sort the pieces out on the table so you can see them all, then choose one at a time to pick up and put into place.

If you are patient and do one piece at a time, puzzle-making can be a surprisingly relaxing activity. As you finish little sections, you get a tiny thrill of satisfaction, and of course, there’s that big feeling of achievement at the end when, at last, the puzzle is complete.

Now that you’re remembering what the spirit of puzzle building is, let’s also remember what it isn’t. Putting together a puzzle isn’t usually stressful. There’s never a timeline or a deadline. You don’t have to finish it. You can just drop in, do a few pieces, change your mind and work on a different section for awhile, and put it down to return to some other time.

Imagine if managing a busy day could so light and (dare I say) fun? It can be, if you apply the same kind of thinking.

Let’s go back to the scenario we started with. You’re at your desk feeling overwhelmed, somewhat scattered and sure you’ll never finish anything, much less everything, on your list. So you decide instead to think of it as a puzzle. You take those first few steps to make life easier on yourself.

Write down everything you have to do. This is the picture on the cover of the box.
Schedule the ones that can be scheduled. These are your “corners.”
Put the rest of the tasks on a To Do list. These are your “edges.”
Organize your desk so you can see everything easily. This is the sorting process that will help you be efficient.

Now you can pick up one task at a time, just like the individual pieces of a puzzle.

The shift in thinking that makes the biggest difference is to remember that even though you may feel an internal sense of urgency, most of the time you can be patient and take your time–trusting that when you do, you actually move more efficiently through your tasks than when you race through them in a rush of urgency and stress.

There may be a lot of pieces to your business, but they’re all part of one cohesive whole. Focusing on one area at a time, and working on a few different areas a day, will help you put the whole thing together.

Now, so far we’ve been talking about using the puzzle idea to schedule your day. Whatif you applied this logic to your whole business? It’s a strategy I teach entrepreneurs for being able to manage a complex, multi-faceted endeavor of building a business.

Study the “cover on the box.” How do I want your whole business to come together? What will success for your company look like? Now you remember what you’re doing this all for.

Look for the cornerstones. Puzzleshave corners; businesses have cornerstones. What’s the vision? What’s the mission? What’s the strategy? What are the goals? With those four pieces in place, your business is anchored into place.

Form the edges. One of my favorite new books is Essentialism by George McKeown. In it he asks a life-changing question: what’s essential? You can even ask yourself that question in the moment: What’s essential today? Staying aligned to what’s essential will help you prioritize, in the big picture of your business and in the day to day implementation.

Look for themes. It’s the rare puzzle builder who can randomly pick up any piece and put it neatly into place. Why do we expect this of ourselves in our business? Give yourself permission to work on themes. Maybe today’s the day you work on a new article you’ve been wanting to submit. That’s one “part of the puzzle.” Maybe tomorrow you’ll spend some time with clients–another part of the puzzle. In this way, nothing has to be started and finished in one sitting–you can work on things as they come naturally, while trusting that eventually, it will all come together. It always does.

Puzzle making at first seem random and chaotic, but puzzle-building can be methodical and relaxing. One by one, the pieces of your busy day will go into place–just like the pieces of a puzzle.

March 20, 2015 by sereynolds

The Formula for Success, and How to Actually Use It

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

We’ve all been there: you’re sitting at your desk reflecting, finding yourself frustrated with the lack of results you’re getting in your business. You reach the conclusion that you’re either working too hard and not getting enough results (sales, clients, income), or you’re just not sure if you’re doing the right thing.

Whether you’re doing the right thing with no result, or you’re doing the wrong thing with no result, the end result is the same: nothing.

So often success in business depends on the right formula. The right clients and customers; the right team; the right business model; the right branding and marketing; the right timing; the right action; and so on. It can be scary if you’re not getting results, because you don’t know which part of the formula is off.

Here’s a solution that can clear the confusion and get you back on the path to success. The formula is this:

Strategy + Execution (with Consistency) = Results.

I learned this model from a fellow consultant, but I never really understood it until I used it in my personal life.

Like most people, I was trying to lose those last insufferable “stubborn five pounds.” Despite being healthy and fit (enough) most of my life, somehow I had lost track of what I should be doing. I didn’t have a great workout plan to follow. I had forgotten what I should be eating to stay trim. As a result, I was much less consistent about my health routine, and that made it hard for me to get motivated. Finally it became clear to me I needed a strategy. I found a trainerto build that strategy for me, and once I got on the program, it was much easier for me to follow direction and get back on track. I knew what to do in my workout. I knew what to eat. I just had to do it–to execute the plan. Once I started doing that consistently, lo and behold those five pounds came off.

Business owners often fall into a similar pattern. They somehow, over the course of time, fall out of their marketing routine or forget what they should be doing about business development. As a result, they too become less consistent and less motivated. They too are missing the strategy. Whereas my trainer could create a diet and fitness plan for her clients, I often find myself helping entrepreneurs write Personal Strategic Plans they can execute–and when they do so, consistently, they also get the results they want in the form of clients, customers, and profit.

The formula for results is as follows:

Strategy. Ask yourself: On a scale from 1-10, do you believe you have the right strategy for your business?

What’s your ideal business model?

What should you be doing in the areas of marketing, business development and customer satisfaction?

What systems do you want for your team, your time, and your service delivery?

Making decisions in areas like these is key. Taking yourself on a good strategic planning offsite–even if you’re a solopreneur–is necessary to set the vision, mission, strategy, goals and activities that make up the business you want. Once those decisions are made, you can stop worrying and get back to work making it happen.

Execution. Ask yourself: On a scale from 1-10, are you executing the strategy well enough for it to pay off?

If your strategy dictates that you need to attend three networking events a month,, have you scheduled them in your calendar? Have you arranged childcare so that you can attend? Have you cleared your business schedule to attend the events? Have you made travel arrangements?

If your strategy tells you you need to take every Friday off to follow up on sales calls and tidy up your contact management system, are you actually focusing on those activities at that time?

Is there anything you’re supposed to be doing but really aren’t doing at all?

Even though a strategy is essential in building a profitable business, it isn’t enough. You have to commit to following the strategy with perfect execution.

So be honest: How well are you executing on your strategy? Are you really doing the things you’re supposed to do?

Consistency. Ask yourself: On a scale 1-10, how consistent are you in following through with executing the strategies for your business that get results?

The first time I heard the success formula it was explained to me as “Strategy plus Execution Equals Results.” I followed that equation and got nowhere, and that’s because I was missing consistency. So I added it to the formula: “Strategy plus Execution with Consistency Equals Results.”

Once my trainer had given me the diet and exercise plan she knew was right for me, and even after I had the system underway, she pointed out to me that I wasn’t being consistent. If I put in a great workout–but only once or twice a week–it simply wasn’t enough to get results. Business people often fail in a similar way. They have systems in place for working with clients, like networking and engaging in social media, but they’re inconsistent and not doing it enough. At best, they’re leaving money on the table. At worst, they’re giving up on the whole enterprise because they think the strategy “wasn’t working.”

One final tip: One of the things I learned from my trainer was the necessity of tracking. In fitness: Track your diet, track your calories, and track your mileage. In business, track your activities, track your successes, and track your results. That way you’ll be much more certain as to whether you have the strategy that’s working; you’ll be able to execute it more effectively; you’ll be motivated to stay consistent, and you’ll get the outcomes you want. That creates momentum and can help you build a business that lasts a lifetime.

March 10, 2015 by sereynolds

The One Sentence You Need To Tell Your Boss, And Yourself

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

Often when I work with executives and business owners, they complain that they feel underappreciated for the hard work that they do. They may have received feedback that they’re valued in the past, and they may feel accomplished. But they don’t always feel like others recognize their worth to the company.

If that sounds familiar, you may be tempted to blame the people around you. Why can’t they see how hard you work? Why don’t they appreciate how much you contribute to the organization? Well, the answer may be that you haven’t taken the step to tell them.

If you want to be viewed as a valuable, contributing member of your organization, you need have the words to articulate your value. If you can’t explain your value to others, they may have a hard time identifying the value themselves.

An easy way to do that is with a simple strategy I call your Concrete Measurable Result. Knowing your Concrete Measurable Result helps you quantify what they bring to the table.

Your Concrete Measurable Result is a single-sentence statement of value that illustrates the results of your efforts.

For example, one might say: “This year, as a result of my marketing efforts, I added $50,000 in new sales of products to our bottom line.”

Or: “As a result of my business developments and networking efforts, I added three big new clients to our clientele this year, who are collectively worth $300,000.”

Or: “As a result of my efforts to improve efficiency, I minimized time-wasting activities across my team and department, and we calculated that we saved 20 percent of our time, which we reallocated to strategic activities, including one project that was worth $3 million to a client.”

All of these are examples of Concrete Measurable Results in which individuals have quantified their efforts to show their value.

There are three main parts to creating a statement of Concrete Measurable Results:

Part One: Describe your effort. Put your finger on what exactly your effort was to create the result. Did you hire a new team and get them on board? Did you put in extra hours to polish a piece of work? Did you come up with a brilliant new idea that’s now paying off? This piece is critical, because it helps you to understand where your efforts are making a difference, and thus helps others to see it, too.

Part Two: Describe the result. Say: “As a result of my efforts, I accomplished ‘x.'” Look for something that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. For example, if you hadn’t personally studied the map of the production floor, the company wouldn’t have generated a productive re-design. Or if you hadn’t improved your qualifiying technique for customers, your company would have wasted a lot of time and money on ineffective advertising. This is the part where you list the result, showing the meaning for someone else and the company as a whole.

Part Three: Quantifying the result. If you really want to drive home your value–for your company and for yourself–try putting some hard numbers to the results. Here you’re looking for dollar figures, or a percentage increase or decrease. This is where the results become concrete and measurable.

Now that you have this information you can use it in the following three ways:

You can write the statement ahead of time, identifying the concrete result you hope to achieve at the beginning of the year to set a goal.
Another way is to use the statement as a reflection, evaluating at the end of a project whether it was worth it, or where your time is best spent going forward.
Last, your Concrete Measurable Result tells you what you need to be communicating to others. Don’t make people guess at your impact; let them know about it. If you feel like you’re working very hard but you’re not sure you’re getting the result, it might be because you’re not making yourself aware of how valuable you really are–being able to identify your worth in just a sentence or two helps you know that and communicate that to others.

Now, we should note that Concrete Measurable Results are not about bragging or puffing yourself up. They’re certainly not about taking credit where it’s not due or overshadowing others. Rather, your Concrete Measurable Results are simply a measure you can take to see where you’re having the biggest impact on your company–and to help others see it, too.

Related: 6 Signs You Need a Coach

March 3, 2015 by sereynolds

3 Common Events That Can Make Or Break Your Career Growth

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

We have many coaches in our lives. Teachers, sports coaches, mentors, and even our friends and families can become coaches to us in certain ways. In an article earlier this month I talked about the six signs to look out for that indicate that you could benefit from an executive coach, someone from outside of your organization who can guide you through career twists and turns.

But when is it time to pull the trigger? How do you know which twists or turns might become insurmountable and require outside help?

The following three scenarios are situations we inevitably run into at one point or another in our careers, sometimes multiple times. They’re situations in which a coach can step in and help you make the choices that are right for you.

You have an aspiration. The question I like to ask people is, what opportunities are you excited to take advantage of over the next year? Some possibilities:

New responsibilities. Is there a new project you’d like to take on, a team you’d like to lead, or an expanded role you’d like to take?
New business ventures. Do you have a new product to create–or to launch? Do you have some new potential partners?
Higher revenue goals. Is this the year you finally clear six figures? Or maybe seven? Does your team have the opportunity to be the best-in-class?

It’s so exciting to be able to see the very real possibilities ahead of you. But don’t let those ideas merely stir you creativity–make sure they light a fire under you so you actually get going and achieve the vision.

So many people don’t. They lose track of their goals, lose steam, or give up in defeat. That’s when to call a coach. Your coach will be sure the vision and goals stay first and foremost in your mind, so even when you’re busy, stress, overwhelmed, distracted, or not making progress, someone is there not only rooting for you but urging you to keep moving forward. A coach can help accelerate your advancement to get you over the finish line.

You’re looking for a career change. Whether you’re getting a promotion into a new role or looking to move companies altogether, coaching can help you shape your vision and get some clarity about what the next steps would be.

A client of mine was in a job at a company that went through a reorganization process, and the tasks he ended up being responsible for after the shift were tasks he wasn’t happy with and didn’t challenge him. As a coach I helped him by stepping in and providing clarity on what he does want and the steps he can take to get there, and we came up with action items that re-aligned him with his goals and interests. He was able to articulate a new plan for his career–one that had him developing a new niche in his old company. He found a renewed sense of purpose and meaning, and others saw him as confident, capable, and succeeding during a time of challenge and change

You’ve reached a plateau and want feedback. If you can feel yourself starting to lose motivation, if you’re frustrated with your boss and are losing respect for your company’s leadership, or if you are feeling that the feedback you’ve gotten from your boss isn’t aligned with you, then a coach can step in and provide the feedback you’re looking for to help you progress and grow.

The most successful businessmen and women I know are voracious about getting feedback. They crave the truth; they want to know where they can improve. They want to know their strengths and weaknesses. Without that kind of feedback loop, it’s hard for them to know how they’re doing. The sense of “plateauing” can be demotivating, because you don’t know how to move onward and upward. If your boss isn’t helping you improve, or if don’t respect or agree with the feedback you do get, you can find yourself stuck in “park.”

The good news about feedback is it’s always available, and you can access it yourself with the help of your coach. Your coach can choose self-assessments that will get you good information about your personality, strengths, and tendencies. He or she can help design a 360 for you, so you can get lots of feedback from all around. Your coach can even help you process the feedback you do have, differently. Seen from another angle, there might be some real hidden gems–messages that you do need to hear, and may be able to view in a different light with the perspective of your coach to add new insight.

Because your coach is someone in your court–without ulterior motives- he or she can give you a clearer picture of the next steps you should make to achieve the goal or position you want.

The Leadership Research Institute released a statistic that said the number one predictor of leadership effectiveness is a commitment to self-improvement. What that means is that what makes people see you as a more effective leader, and what makes you a better leader, is being open to learning. If you find yourself in any of the above situations, then learning is one of the best things you can do for yourself and your professional growth.

Related: 6 Signs You Need a Coach

February 17, 2015 by sereynolds

How To Save Your Struggling Business With Personal Leadership Practices

The following article appeared on Inc.com today as a part of my column, “Behind The Desk.” Look out for new columns every week!

The mark of a company able to adapt to a changing environment and to seize opportunities are leaders that lead the business, lead others, and most importantly lead themselves. Leaders perform best when aligned to a vision that inspires and motivates them to act.

Successful companies that maximize the talents of their leaders build personal leadership into their cultures, focusing intently on developing and communicating a meaningful vision and strategy; aligning the motivations of individual leaders to the direction of the firm; and effectively strengthening leaders’ skills and abilities to prioritize and make decisions that deliver the intended results–both for themselves and those they lead.

Entrepreneurs can build a culture of personal leadership by emphasizing the vision and strategy of the firm, and helping leaders to identify their personal goals and objectives.

Ask yourself:

What counts as success for your firm? How, and how consistently, is that message conveyed?
What do individual leaders care about that will motivate them to achieve success for your firm, for clients, and for themselves?
What do leaders need in terms of support for effectively prioritizing activities, developing action plans and managing their time?

Questions like these can help leaders align their efforts both to the firm and to their personal motivations, leading to a greater ability to leverage existing talent and sustain performance over time.

If the firm has decided to place its bets on its talent and make that its competitive advantage, then it’s got to do better. How do you do that? You get very clear about the vision, make sure everyone is aligned to it, clarify the strategy for the firm, and teach individual leaders to make their own personal and uniquely-motivating visions and goals for themselves. Then empower them to deliver on those visions and goals with skills related to action planning, prioritization, time management, and so on. The idea is that the individual leaders are so excited and energized by what’s in it for them personally that they align all their efforts to that achievement, and that achievement rolls up into the vision of the firm.

The image is one of, let’s say, a subway station. People are milling about, on their cell phones, individually getting things done but in no particular direction. One could stand on the balcony and say, “Look at all those busy people! So focused on their work… Everybody getting stuff done in their conversations and on their laptops even as they wait for the train…”

But compare that to a pack of marathon runners–all lined up and running the same direction at the same time toward the same finish line. They need to put their efforts into making sure everyone was running the same direction, for the same reason, and doing their best to stay focused on the same finish line. Then they could focus on minimizing the distractions that come from a lack of focus (such as poor decision making skills, poor prioritization, poor time management) and building up the leaders to do even more, better, faster (through coaching and mentoring).

Personal leadership assumes that leaders perform best when they are at their best, personally as well as professionally. So in addition to getting organized around vision, strategy and goals, it’s important to foster a strong appreciation for what it means to be a high performer and what it takes to sustain that level of success.

If your firm wants to capitalize on the investment its making in its leaders, it would recognize that to get the best results out of these kind of talented individuals, it needs to help them not just achieve but find a sense of personal motivation and fulfillment that will inspire and motivate them to over deliver not just for the firm, but also for themselves. That way, everyone wins.