Business Keys To Success: Priorities

John Maxwell in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership talks about the law of priorities. Priorities are easy to talk about. But, very often there is a disconnect between our priorities and what we do.

Whether you are a self-employed business owner, entrepreneur, solo professional, corporate manager or executive we naturally believe that when we are busy we are achieving.

Priorities Turn Your Activity into Achievement

But, being busy does not equal productivity. And activity is not necessarily accomplishment. In fact, it is easy to fake ourselves out and to confuse activity with achievement.

Priorities Enable You to Think Ahead

That`s where priorities come in. When you have priorities, especially as a leader it forces you to think ahead. It forces you to know what`s important, to know what`s next, to see how everything relates to the overall vision.

Priorities-How to Define Them

Maxwell has three points in defining priorities.

• First—you must know what is required. What must you do that nobody can or should do for you.
• Second—what gives you the greatest return? Maxwell encourages you to work in your areas of greatest strength. If there is something you`re doing that can be done 80 percent as well by someone else? If so, delegate it.
• Third—what brings the greatest reward? In my personal business coaching practice I find that this is very often missed. The self-employed business owner or corporate executive looks at the bottom line. Yet, there are two bottom lines. There is the business and the personal. You have to take care of both. Life is too short not to do some things you love. What energizes you and keeps you passionate?

Give your time only to things that pass the requirement, return and reward test. Know these answers and you will know your priorities and start having a business and life that focuses on what is important instead of what is urgent.

Business Keys To Success: Master The Art Of Quitting

I believe that quitting is a good thing. In fact, many of the best things in my business and life have come from quitting. In my personal businesscoaching practice I collaborate with and support successful people. Interestingly, the one thing that all of them are seeking is to quit what isn’t working or has outlived its usefulness in their businesses and lives. Only in this manner can they be committed to a path of growth. The art of quitting minimizes the clutter and obstacles to moving forward.

Quitting certainly carries a negative connotation in our culture. I remember the sign above the entrance to my high school locker room, “A winner never quits. And a quitter never wins.” When it comes to sports and other endeavors not quitting can make sense.

But, to be honest, there are many things in my business and life that would have impacted me positively if I had chosen to quit them sooner. I should have quit accounting and being a financial analyst sooner. I loved the study of accounting and finance in school but I felt totally unfulfilled in these areas in the business world. There are many more examples.

Quitting Means Letting Go

So, why didn’t I let go of being an accountant?  I knew it wasn’t working. For me there was fear in quitting. I had wrapped up my identity in being an accountant or financial analyst. It was what I had studied in graduate business school.

Furthermore, I was afraid of what people would think about my quitting. I hung on for a year. I refused to let go. But at some point I realized that by not quitting I was wasting time in my life and this time was characterized by unhappiness.

When I decided to quit I had decided to let go of an image and profession that wasn’t working for me. I understood that I was letting fear paralyze me and steal my joy.

Quitting Is A Necessary Step To Success

Think about it. When new and improved technology is available you will go ahead and embrace it and the processes it entails. You have no problem letting go of or quitting the old way to embrace something that is not only new but better.

For the self-employed businessowner, entrepreneur, solo professional, corporate manager, executive or individual there is a fear of embracing something new and letting go of what is old and familiar.

Yet, if we don’t let go and practice the art of quitting we can never grow or advance. May we face criticism and skepticism from others? Yes. But you are determined to achieve success and you have decided to move forward. You are no longer going to have your business or yourself be held hostage in exchange for avoiding the criticisms and opinions of others.

Quitting Creates New Pathways To Success

Just as when a road way is blocked we find an alternate route, the same is true in the formula for success. To build momentum and move forward we are always looking for better ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Only when we master the art of quitting the old can the new enter and improve our performance.

Business Keys To Success: Change Is Inevitable-Growth Is Optional

I know everyone reading this post has experienced change. Yet change doesn’t mean growth. I thought I was growing because I was experiencing change. Yet, I had truly faked myself out. My attitudes, thoughts and the methods I used for approaching things did not change.

Growth Is A Choice

One of the greatest incubators for growth is becoming a self-employed small business owner. First, the amount of change you go through to start a small business and bring it to success is incredible.

You have to grow when change comes to you. If you don’t very often you can become irrelevant in the market place. For many small business owners they don’t have a choice. They have to grow. Small business success is predicated on your ability to grow in terms of not just sales, but systems, hiring, marketing and other areas.

Growth Must Be a 360 Degree Endeavor

But for many small business owners the growth process starts and stops with their business. As a personal business coach I have many types of clients from corporate executives to doctors to small business owners and all of them are successful financially.

They have embraced change and growth in their businesses. Yet, in their personal lives they may be stuck where they were 20 years ago. And when successful people are stuck it takes the joy and enthusiasm out of their lives.

It may have a negative impact on their business but in many cases it doesn’t. But, in their personal lives they have not embraced growth. I had one business owner and as we collaborated together one of his assignments was to take a vacation.

He had completed all the other assignments on business as we had developed our coaching relationship. Yet, on this one he came back to me and told me that he couldn’t figure it out.

Growth Is About Personal Growth

He couldn’t figure it out because his business was his life and his life was his business. The last time I checked business was just a part of life. He was stuck because he had not grown himself in his personal life.

He had not taken a real vacation in 20 years. He didn’t need to be at his business. If we stop to think about this for a moment what I am about to say is true for all of us. Our world and growth gets no bigger than the thinking between our ears.

Growth is about seeing yourself and a better future. As Napoleon Hill said, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” But the only way to take the steps to growth is to “let go” of the thinking that is holding us back.

Growth Is About Letting Go

Until we let go of old thinking, old ways of spending our private time and old ways of doing things it will not be possible to have the personal development to enjoy life to the fullest.

After all, work is supposed to make life sweet, purposeful and fruitful. But you have to construct a vision of a personal life to where you can experience the rewards of your good work.

Growth is a choice. Growth is optional. Choose growth as you have in business. When you choose growth in your personal life you will start experiencing life instead of existing through it. Choose growth and you will experience significance in your life.

Leaders Cannot Rise Above The Limitations Of Their Character

Character counts.  Character matters. We have heard these phrases over and over. John Maxwell in “The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader” asks the following question: “Have you ever seen highly talented people suddenly fall apart when they achieved a certain level of success?

I know in my personal business coaching practice that collaborates with self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs, solo professionals and corporate management that yes, I have seen highly talented people fall apart when they rise to a certain level.

As leaders it is not only devastating to them but it can be highly damaging to their organization.

Leaders: It’s About Character

Maxwell cites Steven Burgles, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School and author of The Success Syndrome. In summary, Burgles says that people who achieve great heights but lack the bedrock character to sustain them through the stress are headed for disaster. He believes they are destined for one of more of the four A’s: arrogance, painful feelings of aloneness, destructive adventure-seeking, or adultery. Each is a terrible price to pay for weak character.

Leaders: Character Check: They Must Step Away To Step Up

If you have found yourself being sucked in by one of the four A’s that Burgles identifies, Maxwell encourages you to do what you must to step away from some of the stress of your success, and seek professional help.

Here’s the challenge. When you have more success, money, increased prestige and all that goes with it coming in you start to think of yourself as bullet proof. After all in starting your own business or running a small business you have taken great risks. And, now your hard work is paying off. Maybe you are bullet proof for the moment in the business realm.

But that doesn’t mean that you are immune to adverse risks in the personal realm. Too often as a business coach I have seen business owners and executives fill their need for risk taking outside of the business. The results are almost always bad.

In fact, I have seen more leaders lose their positions in companies or their own businesses due to lack of character in the personal realm. Unaddressed cracks in character only get deeper and more destructive with time. Step away from poor character traits and correct them. Only then you can step back up to being the leader you want to be.

Leaders Know That Business Character And Personal Character Are Connected

Even if you are not struggling with the four A’s you should still examine the condition of your character. Do your words match your action all the time? Do you follow through as promised at work and at home? If you tell your children that you are going to be at one of their events, are you there?

All of the above can apply to both your business and personal worlds. Interestingly, what I have observed is that whatever is a negative character trait in one area ends up manifesting itself in the other either indirectly or with the same trait being manifested. Very often business can cover up character flaws in leaders because of good processes and accountability in the systems which ends up keeping things on track.

Yet, leaders and all human beings can find ways to sabotage the best of systems. In the end leaders have two areas they must observe with character. One is the business. The other is personal. And, leaders always need to be aware that what is negative character in the business will leak into their personal life. And, what is negative in their character will leak into the business life.

Do a character check. Is there something you can improve? If so, tackle it now. Tackling it tomorrow or some day means procrastination and probably never getting around to improving. As Maxwell and Burgles point out, leaders cannot rise above the limitations of their character.

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. Small business 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.

Business Keys To Success: Enlarging Others

Enlarging others is an important key to success. As a young employee and ultimately business owner I was striving for success and somehow it was always painful. It turned out that I had the wrong attitude. Instead of enlarging others I was always trying to beat them in an effort to win.

I had played team and individual sports in high school and college and understood the value of team. When I started working after college, initially for large companies and eventually on my own, all that sports training had no impact.

Step 1: Enlarging Yourself

I just kept getting it wrong. In sports I always valued my teammates. Somehow at work I looked at my co-workers as competitors. They were competition for me to overcome in order to rise in the company.

With this totally self-centered attitude I was miserable. Finally I realized that as long as I was trying to beat others or hold them down, that a part of me was down there with them.

At the time, I was working for a large metropolitan newspaper, The Denver Post. I realized that if I was to rise in the company that I had to believe in my teammates, not try to keep them down. This turned out to be a critical step in enlarging myself.

Some people enlarge themselves through more online training, corporate training, business training or business courses. These are all good but there is one thing that is critical to being an enlarger. Learning without application is nothing. And the first person that the learning has to be applied to is you.

So the first step to enlarging others is that I had to enlarge myself.

Enlarging Adds Value To The Team

As I enlarged myself and became more focused on the team and what we supposed to accomplish some great things started to happen.

I was able to have truly meaningful connections with my team members. Instead of viewing them as adversaries or impediments to progress I saw them as human beings trying to do their best. I offered encouragement. I started to receive encouragement in return.

Along with the encouragement I began to know what they liked, disliked and was able to connect with them even better. As I became an enlarger an amazing thing happened. I got promoted. Six months before I thought I was at a dead end.

Enlarging Makes You More Valuable

As I went through this transformation from a team member that detracted from the team to an enlarger I started a process where I became more valuable. I wasn’t doing this just for me personally, but also because it helped others.

Not only was I connecting better which allowed me to communicate and integrate at an improved level, I was making myself better which was making me more valuable.

In my personal business coaching practice I look for opportunities to enlarge not only my clients but how my clients can become enlargers in their companies. I firmly believe that a great deal of small business success in based on the business owner’s ability to be an enlarger.

As a self-employedbusiness owner, entrepreneur, solo professional, corporate executive or individual how are others seeing you? Do they see you as an enlarger? Do you make them better than they are alone through your inspiration and contribution? Do you know what your teammates value?

There are many more pluses to being an enlarger. I learned an important lesson that has stayed with me to this day. Be an enlarger of others. When you are enlarging others the odds are in your favor that they will promote and enlarge you.

Business Keys To Success: You Are Responsible For Your Attitudes

Life is full of surprises, and the adjustment of our attitudes is a lifelong project.  Think about your destiny in business and life.  It will never be determined by our complaining spirits or high expectations.  In my business coaching practice and in my own life I had to come face to face with my attitudes.

For myself, self-employed business owners, entrepreneurs, solo professionals, corporate managers and all individuals our attitudes are what will determine in large part our destiny.

We Choose The Attitudes We Have Now

And it is an ongoing choice.  And it surprises me, the large number of adults who fail to take responsibility for their attitudes.  If they are unhappy they may something like, “I got up on the wrong side of the bed.”

If failure begins to repeat itself in their lives they often say, “I was born on the wrong side of the tracks.”

When their lives aren’t progressing while others and their family are still on the rise they may say, “Things would be different if only the birth order was different in my family.”

Whether you are running a small business or starting your own business it is a continual challenge to adjust your attitudes.

Attitudes 

In all of the above examples there was one common thread.  There is blame for everyone else or circumstances for their problems.

When a marriage fails they believe they married the wrong person.  When someone else gets a promotion they wanted, it’s because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Yes, in the words of Rose Ann, Rose Anna Danna, “It’s always something.”  It’s always something except for them and their attitude.

Attitudes-A Summary 

When John Maxwell talks about attitudes he has a great summary.

The pessimist complains about the wind.

The optimist expects it to change.

The leader adjusts the sails.

To be the leader in your life you must adjust your attitudes.  The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes.  That is the day we truly grow up.  When you grow up you choose to be responsible for your attitudes and how you view your circumstances.

To have small business and personal success be the leader in your life.  Adjust the sails.  With the right attitudes you will create the circumstances to have the business and life you desire.