Business Keys To Success: Lead By Giving Others Energy

Mark Twain once said, “If you want energy go out and give it to someone else.”  Over the years I have been fortunate to lead not only businesses but several volunteer organizations.  The ones where we had the greatest success is where all of us were creating energy.

Yet, many self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs, solo professionals, corporate managers and corporate executives are unknowingly sabotaging themselves by not bringing or giving energy in their business or workplace.

Leadership is defined many ways.  One of my favorites that I use in my personal business coaching practice is this:  “Leadership is creating in others today, a future willingness to follow you into something new for the sake of something great.”  Something new can run the spectrum from incremental refinements to wholesale change.

Energy Creates Interest

Without energy you can become less interesting to follow.  Energy can come from your steadfastness of purpose and your commitment to succeed.  It can come from bringing enthusiasm to what you do.  There are many ways to bring energy through your words and actions.

To have long-term success, whether you are a self-employed business owner running a small business or a corporate executive with hundreds or thousands of employees, you must bring energy.  Small business success, or corporate success for that matter depend on many things.  But there is one characteristic of any enterprise that is heading toward going out of business.  It has lost its positive energy and momentum.

Positive Energy Is Key

 Psychologist Henry H. Goddard conducted a study on energy levels in children using and instrument he called the “ergograph.”  His findings were fascinating.  He discovered that when tired children were given a word of praise or commendation, the ergograph showed an immediate upward surge of energy in the children.

When the children were criticized or discouraged, the ergograph showed that their physical energy took a sudden nosedive.  You may have already discovered this intuitively.

When someone praises you, doesn’t your energy go up?  And when you are criticized, doesn’t that comment drag you down?  Words have great power.

What Kind Of Environment Is Your Energy Creating?

Your words and actions create your environment.  Are your words and actions leading to small business growth?  Think of what things would be like and what you could create if your were affirming people not only when you first meet them but on an ongoing basis.  Not only would you be encouraging them but you would also become an energy carrier.

Being an energy carrier is a good thing for leadership.  Whenever you walk into a room, the people would light up!  You would help to create the kind of environment everyone loves.  Just your presence alone would brighten people’s days.

Bring energy to yourself and others.  It will improve your leadership, your business and your life.  As Mark Twain pointed out if we want energy we have to go out and give it to others.  Create a positive environment of affirmation.  Lead with energy.

The Law Of The Team

At this time in my life, virtually everything I do is a team effort.  In my personal business coaching, public speaking and career coaching I have a team to support me.  But, when I was younger, I used to try to do everything myself.  Or, as my businesses grew, I would try to know everything in detail about all aspects of the business even though I had turned over many aspects to my team members.

The truth is that this approach held back my growth as a self-employed business owner and the growth of my business. Smallbusiness growth and small business success are about developing a good team.  Any business that grows has a team or teams supporting that growth.

Team Means Letting Go

For most self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs or solo professionals there is a huge focus on control.  Yet as their businesses grow they still bring the mentality “I’m going to have to do it if it is to be done right.”  They hire people and build a team but they are disempowering them at the same time.

How?  They don’t trust them.  The number one cause of team dysfunction is lack of trust.  The little secret of growth is this.  You have to let go in order to grow.  To let go successfully, you must have systems and processes in place where all team members can be held accountable.

Team Means Amplification

In my personal business coaching practice, my team makes me better than I am.  When I recognize a situation with a client that needs to move forward very often I bring in an expert.  A good example is in the area of human resources.  As a small business grows it must have an employee handbook, performance reviews and policies and procedures.

When that is needed I bring in an expert in human resources to assist with the process.  She is part of my team.  And, at the same time, she amplifies the value I bring to my business coaching clients.

How does she do that?  She makes me better than I am.  As part of my team she multiplies my value to others.  And most importantly, she enables me to focus on what I do best, business coaching where I am focusing on creating and designing the pathways my clients want to have the future they desire.

Your Team Is Your Financial Nest Egg

for the future is just like developing a financial nest egg.  It may start slowly, but what you pout in brings a high return—similar to the way compound interest works with finances.

How does my team help me build that nest egg?  I have an organization that does my SEO work which helps my websites rank higher which in turn brings me business.  My accountant keeps track of and keeps me on track financially.

My team and the team you can develop will do many things.  Your team can give you more time.  Your team can represent you in things such as the example I gave in human resources.  Your team can provide a sense of community.  And most importantly your team can help you fulfill the desires you have for the future you want to create.

Develop your team and watch the law of the team work for you.

From The Business Coaching Chronicles Success Comes In Creating Your Crowd

Success for Maximus, the Roman general who was forced to become a gladiator in the movie The Gladiator, came when he won the crowd.  Too often self-employed business owners are looking for that one big client that is going to push them over the top and on the road to great success.

Very often what they miss is that success is many small, positive steps accumulated over a period of time.

Success Comes One Challenge At A Time

In The Gladiator, Maximum, portrayed by Russell Crowe, had been banished fromRomeand had become part of a traveling gladiator group in what is today Spain.  In a way, the gladiator circuit was the forerunner of what is today the Ultimate Fighting Championships.

Maximus hated being a gladiator.  One day, he was talking to the leader of the gladiator group who was very high on Maximus’s feats as a gladiator.  But Maximus was despondent.  As he said in reference to being a gladiator it was “either kill or be killed.”

The leader pointed out that Maximus had succeeded in overcoming every challenge and that his presence enhanced his gladiator group.

Success—Win The Crowd

Still Maximus was depressed.  He had no exciting vision of the future.  Every day was going to look the same as yesterday and today.  As a personal business coach one of the big challenges of being a self-employed business owner, entrepreneur or solo professional is to continually have a vision of the future and future success that excites you.

Without that vision your business and your life becomes a slog through the mud.

As a despondent Maximus sat there the leader started to tell his own story.  He too had been a gladiator.  He had done well.  And, he had done well enough that he and his troop were invited toRometo perform in the Colisseum in front of the Emperor.

If a gladiator survived the Emperor would turn to the crowd and give a thumbs up sign and the crowd would cheer.  If most of the crowd was cheering then the Emperor would grant the gladiator his freedom.  The leader then told Maximus that his gladiator group was going toRometo perform before the Emperor in the Coliseum.

Maximus got excited.  He now had a vision of future success.  He knew his abilities and that he could perform well in the Coliseum and win his freedom by winning the crowd.

Success Is Not Overnight

As in the case of Maximus, small business success is not overnight.  Running a small business or starting up your own business is not like making instant coffee.  You have to do more than add hot water and stir.  You must keep the water hot, keep stirring and of course, add coffee as needed.

To have the small business success and small business growth you desire you must have many small successes.  But without a vision of what a successful future will look like it is hard to stay motivated and focused.

Once Maximus got his vision of success for the future his focus, motivation and energy all ramped up.  Do the same for yourself.  Get your vision of success.  When you do every day will have meaning.  The excitement will return because every day is moving you closer to your dream.

And with each new success and each new customer or client you are working toward winning your freedom.  When you have enough individual successes, then those turn into a crowd.  You will win your freedom to have the business and life you want when you win the crowd.  Now that is success.

From The Business Coaching Chronicles - Attitude About Money

Money was not a problem for my client and his company.  For the purposes of this event I will call him ‘Bob’.  Ten years ago he had started his oil industry affiliated business.  Year after year sales grew and profits increased.  He drew a lower mid-level six figure salary.

You may ask as I did, what would cause someone who has a successful business to engage a personal business coach?  Initially, he told me he was bored with his business.  It wasn’t exciting any more.  The money was great but he wasn’t happy.

Money—It’s A Tool–Does It Work For You Or Against You?

During our first couple of months of business coaching I was confused as to what the real problem was.  But, little tell tale signs started to emerge.  I had noticed that he had an old style printer in his office.  One day we needed to make copies.  Instead of having his assistant make them he suggested we go down the hall to the break room which was next to the copy room.

When I saw the copier I was shocked.  It looked like a museum piece.  It took about a minute to warm up and then it took another 30 seconds to make the copy.  I asked him about the machine.  He told me it was 15 years old but that he wasn’t going to spend the money on a new one as long as this one worked.

Money—How Are You Using It To Treat Others?

The copier turned out to be the tip of the iceberg.  As I got to know his office operation better I found out that in 2005 he was using computers from the mid-90’s and that the software had not been updated.

His employees liked him as a person but despised his cheapness.  They could not do their work as efficiently or as smoothly as they would like.  Their performance suffered.  Yet Bob still expected more out of them.  They were still on dial up internet and their office was equipped for high speed.

As a result, morale was low.  He refused to spend money on new equipment, new processes and as it turned out, on his people.

The Money Malaise

A malaise had set in with Bob’s employees.  Bob was tight and proud of it.  Bob was fanatical about saving money.  One day I was in his office and his purchasing agent came in to give him a purchase order to sign for purchasing some paper clips from Office Depot.

He looked at the purchase order and asked her if she had checked around lately on the price of paper clips.  When she said she hadn’t he asked her to see if she could find a better price.

Raises for the employees averaged 1% to 2% if at all.

Consumed By Money And You Will Lose Your Most Important Assets

I made some headway with Bob in upgrading his equipment.  When it came to paying his people on a scale with the rest of the industry he would not budge.

But, when you least expect a breakthrough one came.  One day I arrived and I could tell that Bob was very upset.  He was wound tight.  He emanated fear, anger and being lost.  Much as I wanted to know what was going on I waited for him to speak.

When he spoke it was clear why things were bad.  He started, “Steve, I am going to lose my daughter and my wife.”  Silence.  And he continued, “They no longer want to be around me.”

Money—Are You Focusing On What You Believe Is Truly Important At The Expense of What Truly Matters?

Bob’s daughter, a strait A high school student, who worked a part time job liked certain rock groups.  She was the ideal teenager.  Bob would give her a $20 a week allowance which in their very upper middle class to wealthy area was nothing compared to the other kids.  It infuriated Bob that she would spend a large part of her allowance on CD’s and other items related to these groups.

He would always criticize his daughter for how she spent her money.  The previous night she had told Bob that she wasn’t going to take his criticism any more and that she didn’t want him in her life.  And, his wife sided with his daughter.

As I sat there and listened Bob’s voice got lower and lower.  Then he fell silent and started to cry.  When he collected himself he asked, “What am I to do?”

I asked him what thought was the right thing to do.  If he was his daughter how would he feel.  He looked at me, turned his palms up and said, “What’s the use?  My attitude about money is destroying my family.”

That was the opening.  The truth was that his attitude about money was destroying everything.  At this point we started talking and decided that immediate action was required.

It was now 2 in the afternoon and he would be home eating dinner at 7.  Much as he had no idea how to start repairing his family relationships he knew he had to act.  He said he would come up with a plan.  To hold him accountable I asked him to call me that evening and let me know what he had come up with.

Around 8 that night my phone rang.  It was a giddy and happy Bob on the line.  The man who had been so thoroughly defeated 6 hours before was in a great place.

After I left that afternoon, he thought for about an hour and then decided to go online to see if any of the rock groups his daughter liked were going to be coming to town.  It turned out that one of them was coming in a month.

Money When Used Correctly Can Be Your Ticket To A Better Life

Bob purchased two tickets to the concert.  He told me he hadn’t felt this good in years.  When he arrived home that night he was in such a great mood.  His daughter asked what was wrong with him.  His wife wanted to know if they were getting a divorce.  He assured them that all was good, in fact, great.

At dinner he apologized to his daughter for his attitude about her money and presented the two tickets.  At first she thought that he was going with her.  But he told her that the tickets were for her and a friend.  He also gave her another $20 for food and drinks.  She got up from the table ran over and hugged him.  They were both crying.

Then Bob turned to his wife and apologized to her for his poor behavior with money.  It turned out that they hadn’t been out to dinner in over a year. Why?  Bob would always fret about the tip.  Should it be 11% or 14% or 17%?  His wife had told him that she never wanted to go out to eat with him again.

He invited her out for the following night and told her she could take care of the bill and the tip and that he would say nothing about the money then or in the future.

Money With The Right Attitude Leads To Great Things

With this breakthrough I could now reach Bob on issues of money in his business.  He was ready and willing to improve the equipment, to invest in updated processes and he even brought in a human resources consultant and all the employees got substantial raises.

Bob was excited.  He was back in the game.  Morale improved.  Production improved.  And so did sales and profits.  I remember Bob looking at me and saying, “It really is true that you have to spend money to make money.”

But here’s the best part.  Bob’s relationship with his wife and daughter went to a new level of love and respect.  Bob’s relationships with his employees improved dramatically.  There was laughter and happiness at work.  Bob started to put others first and money second.

All successful self-employed business owners, managers or executives can get stuck.  Bob got stuck on money.  It consumed him and overwhelmed him.  It took his daughter and wife to make him give up what he thought was truly important for the things in life that really matters.

Money is a great tool.  But as with any tool, we must learn how to use it effectively for ourselves, others and the greater good.  Your legacy won’t be the amount of money you have.  Your legacy will be about what you did and how you benefitted others with your money.