I have run a company for years without a mentor, Advisory Board or Board of Directors, and we plugged along just fine. I had been completely comfortable in my role. The company was growing, I was making the company better and challenged myself to continuously improve what we did. I felt great about this. Then along came Mark.
Mark is a successful person and businessman that mentors me. First thing he did was push for greater accountability of me. I had always viewed myself as an accountable learner that worked continuously to improve my skill set and prepare the company to be better, but he recognized that I although I was improving myself and the company in different areas, all of these improvements lived inside my comfort zone. I was refining skills rather than learning new ones. He was right.
Through Mark's perspective, I was able to clearly see my shortcomings. There were things I was doing that broke down the vision of the company. I created a fragmented company by not saying things that needed to be said and not pushing for things I needed to push for. I was not leading well. I needed to demonstrate a willingness to face difficult situations and lead the company.
Once I started to assert leadership, everything started to fall into place for me. The company unified around an inspiring vision and silos were torn down. I was executing Mark's statement, "Do the hard things first".
I am now in the process of building an Advisory Board, thanks to Mark's suggestion This will create an ongoing process of accountability for me. This will lead to even more scrutiny, but I welcome it. Scrutinize me as much as possible. I want to be great, and by acknowledging my shortcomings, I am better equipped to fix them.
I am grateful to Mark for pushing me to be great. I hope this inspires you to push yourself to be great.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Company Updates
Company meetings are a great way to get information regarding strategy and goals. Many times they do not happen enough. I like quarterly meetings that are a little bit more formal coupled with regular feedback.
In this environment, there are a lot of questions floating around, job losses are sweeping through the country, and most everyone is nervous. With the economy in the cycle it is in, I have chosen to take more steps to keep everyone in the company current on the state of the company. I circulated a message that ensured my team knows the current status of things so they can properly prepare and know what to focus on.
Send out the information. Make them aware. Give them the opportunity to be a difference maker. If you lead them well, they will follow you wherever you go, so make sure you know where you are going. I sent mine out early Saturday morning and received positive responses from multiple people within 20 minutes. Your team will appreciate your candor and feel more comfortable knowing you have a plan.
In this environment, there are a lot of questions floating around, job losses are sweeping through the country, and most everyone is nervous. With the economy in the cycle it is in, I have chosen to take more steps to keep everyone in the company current on the state of the company. I circulated a message that ensured my team knows the current status of things so they can properly prepare and know what to focus on.
Send out the information. Make them aware. Give them the opportunity to be a difference maker. If you lead them well, they will follow you wherever you go, so make sure you know where you are going. I sent mine out early Saturday morning and received positive responses from multiple people within 20 minutes. Your team will appreciate your candor and feel more comfortable knowing you have a plan.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Background Checks
I have been getting requests to write a post about hiring. Why do we hire? Is it to support our desired lifestyle of more time off or is it to make more money? At the core, it is usually to support one or both of these objectives.
Hiring is one of the riskiest things we can do in our business, yet many entrepreneurs spend an hour or less bringing someone into their business. They base it on a "gut" feeling. So much effort is put on driving down exposure within the company, such as safety training, purchasing new equipment, etc. but without someone properly guarding the front door to the business, all of those efforts can become wasted. Why take the chance on a gut feeling when there are so many readily available, low cost background and credit checks. It is incomprehensible.
Here is a blog that I read that has great tips on this topic as well as hiring in general. It was written by Adam Robinson of Illuma, Inc. He is in the business of hiring and has absolute command of his craft. His blog drills down on many topics and provides many best practices and gives a different perspective on hiring.
It is a must read for anyone looking to add to their team.
Hiring is one of the riskiest things we can do in our business, yet many entrepreneurs spend an hour or less bringing someone into their business. They base it on a "gut" feeling. So much effort is put on driving down exposure within the company, such as safety training, purchasing new equipment, etc. but without someone properly guarding the front door to the business, all of those efforts can become wasted. Why take the chance on a gut feeling when there are so many readily available, low cost background and credit checks. It is incomprehensible.
Here is a blog that I read that has great tips on this topic as well as hiring in general. It was written by Adam Robinson of Illuma, Inc. He is in the business of hiring and has absolute command of his craft. His blog drills down on many topics and provides many best practices and gives a different perspective on hiring.
It is a must read for anyone looking to add to their team.
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