As business leaders we have one job, and that’s to make decisions. But how do we make decisions? What process do we use? Do we “go with our gut”? Or look at all the angles and reason it out? The best business decisions are those that are made purposefully, without wasting a lot of time — but that also minimize risk and get our team moving together toward a new outcome. About “gut” decisions I know very successful business owners who swear to me that they “always go with their gut” when making decisions. When I slow them down and ask them what “going with their gut” means they talk about not deliberating too long. They look at the facts, and if the answer isn’t obvious they trust … [Read more...]
The one way to have “ready” talent
In our last conversation, we talked about how there’s no shortcut to good hiring. If you want to find rare talent, you have to develop a robust pool of candidates and screen for the best people. But there is one way to do some of that work before you have a need so that you aren’t so panicked when you are short-handed. I call it continuous recruiting. When you are short-handed you are in your worst mental state for evaluating talent. You are doing 3 jobs: your job, the job that the open position is supposed to do, and the job of recruiting — so you are desperate for help. It’s all hands on deck and any port in a storm! But if you have a position that you are always short-handed in, or … [Read more...]
How lucky do you feel? 🍀
When you need to add a critical member to your team, whether because you've grown, or because you had a team member quit, the situation can feel desperate. Everyone feels overworked, especially you, the business owner. You are not just doing your job, but at least part of the job you need to hire for, and you have to do the job of hiring! It’s overwhelming. So it’s no wonder that I see business owners reach for hiring shortcuts. But the reason that people like me recommend following a more involved hiring process is that it regularly produces high quality hires -- anything less might produce a high-quality hire -- but we don't know. As anyone who has hired too quickly and … [Read more...]
5 things to think about when a key employee quits
In our last email, I asked you what you'd do if one of our best employees quits. The most common reply that I got was to try to win Nadir back, for example: “What can we do to keep you on the team?” ~ Frank McClung “Nadir, are you absolutely sure about this? Is there anything I can do to get you to change your mind?” ~ Alastair McDermott It's natural to try to engage Nadir in a discussion and see if you can work things out but in my experience... Counteroffers rarely work. Just like many of the replies I got, my first instinct is to counter offer. They are leaving because of money, right? Why wouldn’t they stay if you offered them more? Unfortunately, I've tried making a … [Read more...]
What would you do if your best employee quit?
Driving to work, you reflect on your business – and it makes you smile. “I’m working with a terrific team that delivers excellent work and the clients are asking for more. It feels so good to have a strong team behind me,” you’re thinking. “When I don’t have to fight fires all the time, I can focus on new business and I’m killing it! Bringing in these great new clients is fun.” As you walk into the office Nadir walks up to greet you, “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Nadir is one of your best team members. When he came to you he was raw, but you’ve put a lot of work into him and now his clients love working with him. “Sure, let me get a cup of coffee first,” you reply. He follows … [Read more...]
Recruiting creative people isn’t easy
Recruiting great creative talent is hard. The best, most talented creatives are always in demand and have their choice of where to go work. Good creatives have high standards! They aren’t going to work just anywhere. If you need top creative talent, you need to build a culture that allows them to do great work. Preparation Start by bringing in fresh client challenges. These are challenges that don’t have easy, “textbook” solutions and will require the best out of your current team to succeed. Make sure that these clients need great solutions—that they won’t settle for “pretty good” —because the challenges that they face are huge! This has a side benefit. Clients with enormous … [Read more...]
How do you know you are using your time profitably?
So a few weeks ago I talked about three bad ways to measure your daily progress (that we all fall for) and as I was looking for some better ways to track progress I came across this post by @macsparky about a method he’s been using, it’s simple, effective and I kind of like it (with a twist). David has a lot of ways that he makes money, he's a lawyer, he writes books, he podcasts - he's a busy guy! But, he wanted to stay focused on the things that were driving dollars into his pocket. So he developed a system where he made a little hash mark for every 15-minute interval that he worked on something directly tied to revenue. You can read all about it here. What I like about this system … [Read more...]
What are you doing today that will make you money for a long time?
I was sitting in a cafe last week when I noticed Every Breath You Take come on the background music. I’m not a big Sting fan, but it got me thinking. Sting wrote this song in 1982, and he’s still making money on it today! From Wikipedia: The song is considered to be both the Police's and Sting's signature song, and in 2010 was estimated to generate between a quarter and a third of Sting's music publishing income. In May 2019, “Every Breath You Take” was recognized by BMI as being the most played song in radio history with nearly 15 million radio plays. All of a sudden, my mind is blown. As an “expertise business,” I work hard every day to make my client’s businesses better. I write a … [Read more...]
How is your self-awareness impacting your team?
Bosses don't get the same feedback as other people because it’s costly for people to call you out. When you embarrass someone, or get angry for no reason, or say something inappropriate, there may be an awkward silence, but there’s rarely someone getting up in your grill about it. So if you’ve been a “boss” for a while, and especially if you’ve always worked for yourself, you may have poor self-awareness. What does it look like to have poor self-awareness? Do people feel safe walking in your office with bad news, or do they hide it until the last possible moment? Does your team invite you to their brainstorm meetings looking forward to the energy and ideas you'll bring, or do they … [Read more...]
Being with what is — your leadership superpower
A week or so ago, I wrote about The vulnerability of the business owner, and that post generated a lot of responses! There are a couple that I’d like to lean into over the next few emails. One business owner replied to that email by saying: Thank you for acknowledging that feeling vulnerable is inherent to entrepreneurship. It’s risky, and risk means you’re vulnerable. It feels more powerful to start from that point and figure out how to manage that experience than to avoid it. This response struck me because it highlights one of the critical emotional intelligence skills that I see in successful business owners. The ability to be with what is. When we face risk, … [Read more...]
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