Business Keys To Success: The Power of Focus

As a young boy growing up in Chappaqua, New York I learned about the power of focus. Unfortunately, I was learning how to use the power of focus this bright fall day but I didn’t have the wisdom to use it properly.

I was always intrigued by my Dad’s magnifying glass. My Dad wasn’t home this day and I decided to have some fun. For those of you from upstate New York you know that with the fall comes a great deal of leaf raking. I was supposed to rake the leaves. I detested leaf raking. Why?

Focus—Know What You Want To Accomplish

As soon as you cleared up the area you raked there were leaves all over it the next day. I had read in one of my science books in intermediate school that if you held a magnifying glass over a piece of paper or something that would burn that it would focus the power of the sun’s rays to be strong enough to start a fire and burn the object.

My focus was on getting rid of the leaves. And, in a stroke of brilliance I decided to see if I could use my magnifying glass to burn the leaves after I had raked them into a pile. Raking was bad enough. But then having to cart them out into the woods was more than I wanted to handle.

Focus—Know The Consequences

I took the magnifying glass and placed it over a leaf on the pile and let the sun’s rays do their work. But for some reason nothing was happening. Then I remembered that I had to hold the magnifying glass still in order for the sun’s rays to focus.

Once I did that the magic began. One leaf started to burn and as it was burning I grabbed the part that was not burned and stuck it next to a new leaf. After a few minutes I had a fire going.

Then it dawned on me that once the pile burned down that I would be burning the lawn beneath it. That was not good. As I was contemplating that problem the wind which I had not even thought about gave my fire new energy and started spreading it across the yard.

Frantically, I tried to control the leaves by stomping on them and after about 10 minutes the fire was out. Fortunately, the ground and lawn were wet and did not burn.

I sat down and breathed a huge sigh of relief. I had averted disaster. I looked up at the sun and then at the magnifying glass. Yes, the power of focus is an awesome power.

Focus-It Works

In my personal business coaching practice I have to bring the power of focus as do my clients to create pathways to accelerate the process of their successful performance.

Whether you are a self-employed business owner, entrepreneur, solo professional or corporate executive the power of focus is necessary for exceptional performance. No amount of online training, corporate training, business training, business courses or business skills training will work without utilizing the power of focus.

To use the power of focus wisely, unlike my childhood experience, keep the following in mind:

1. Know your priorities. Make sure you are putting your focus on the right thing.
2. Be committed to achieving your goal. Focus without continuous commitment is like holding the magnifying glass for a few seconds over a leaf and expecting it to burn.
3. Pay attention to the details. As in the leaf story where I didn’t pay attention to the details, you must look ahead and see where your focus is taking you.
4. Follow up. Always assess the results of your focus and where it is taking you. Success in business and life is about resetting your focus.

Utilize the power of focus. As you do you can adjust your focus to take you to the business and life you desire?

Business Keys To Success: Leadership Is Empowerment

Over the years my best leaders whether it be in business, sports or volunteer organizations are the ones who practice empowerment. Leaders come in all shapes and sizes.

And, even with all the online training, corporate training, business courses and business skills training developing great leadership that leads to the empowerment of others is not that easy to find.

What Is Empowerment?

In my personal business coaching practice and in my businesses I have learned that there are several ways to look at empowerment. The definition of empowerment has a couple of different angles. The one that I like best and which I have found works best for my personal business coaching clients who are self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs, solo professionals and corporate executives is this:

Empowerment is: “To equip or supply with an ability; enable. More specifically, empowerment is the giving of an ability, enablement or permission.

Empowerment And Leadership

A leader is great not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others. Success without anybody to take over once you move on is not success, but failure.

Empowering others allows you to build a team for future small business success and growth. In the corporate world empowerment has the same benefits.

Loyalty to the leader reaches its highest peak when the follower has personally grown through the mentorship of the leader. Why? You may have won people’s minds but with empowerment you will also win their hearts.

Empowerment Makes You A People Person

Since leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less it is important to amplify your leadership skills by being a people person. The last time I checked, leadership and its effectiveness is all about building relationships.

When you lead and empower others it builds a bond of loyalty. It also enables you to more easily introduce and implement positive change.

To have the greatest influence as a leader practice the art of empowerment.

From The Business Coaching Chronicles Process The Elephant

Process is critical to small and large business success.  In my personal business coaching practice I find that initially the self-employed business owner, executive or manager puts almost their entire focus on results.  Results are the critical measurement of any progress.  Yet, the most important focus, and the one that is most overlooked, is process.

Process Determines Outcome

Process determines results.  First you must have the right process in place to receive the results you desire.  I have had many examples in my business coaching practice of the importance of process, especially in small business.

There was a small, growing company that just seemed to have the magic touch.  I am sure you are familiar with the story.  Things just fell into place.  They hired employees.  The business continued to grow and become more profitable.

Then, in a period of 3 months things started to go in the wrong direction.  What was the problem?  More specifically, what was the process that was bringing these undesired results?

Process Will Help You Talk About The Elephant Under The Carpet

My observation is that when things are going well human nature tends to ignore the signs of trouble.  This is especially true in small business where very often people and resources are stretched to the maximum.  The self-employed business owner, entrepreneur or executive doesn’t want a pause or to stop on what they see as the inevitable road to success.

The problem is this.  Without the right process there is no inevitable road to success.  In this particular company, as we investigated the process I saw right away that there were no specific job descriptions.  The key word is specific.

It is impossible to have a good job description, set expectations and measure results without specificity.  We started with job descriptions and the process each person was going through.

Process Will Uncover Your Keys To Success

As this company went through creating the job descriptions and work flow charts most of the employees were very supportive.  There was one who wasn’t.  She had become the hub around which the wheel of this business turned.

In fact, it came out in my conversations with the owners that they were afraid to confront her.  There response to the refusal to confront her was this.  “If we lose her I don’t know how we could make it.”

If your business is dependent on people who you feel can’t be replaced then you are not in a good business.  And, it almost always means that you do not have a good process when it comes to job descriptions or accountability or that you have a process and are not using it.

Solutions Come Through Process

 

As we talked about this employee it became apparent that this had to change.  Once we got the process in place for evaluating everyone the owners became more willing to look at, and more importantly because the process made it clear, able to see what this person was doing and how it was affecting the business.

The conclusions were jarring.  This employee was stealing time, causing dissension with the others, slowing things down to suit her schedule and belittling the owners to prospects and customers.  Why would she do that?  She eventually wanted to have her own business and steal some of her employers clients.

Once again, this is not an unfamiliar story.  But with the process in place for evaluation of job performance and results, this person quit of her own accord within a couple of weeks.  The game was up and she knew it.  As for the results, company profitability took a short term dive but within three months they were back on track to new records in sales and profitability.

The even better news was that the owners, now armed with specific job descriptions had no fear of hiring because they had a well-defined position to offer.  Very often, what holds small business owners back from making personnel changes is that they really don’t know what it is that their employees are doing.  They have a general idea but that is not good enough when you are hiring.

When you have a process that is specific you are much more likely to hire the right person.  You won’t feel as if you are being held hostage by your employees.  Best of all with the right process you will feel that you are running your small business instead of feeling that your small business is running you.  Have a good process and you will be able to deal with the elephants you see as well as the elephants under the carpet.

Yes, process does determine outcome!