How to Be a Successful Business Leader Instead of a Turkey this Thanksgiving

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As our Canadian Thanksgiving is next week (I know our neighbors in the States don’t celebrate for some time yet), I thought it appropriate to give thanks to you – our dedicated and loyal followers with my top five leadership tips.

Don’t be a turkey this holiday season, be the leader your people want to impress and follow, by deploying these tidbits in your business.

1. Open Doors Create Open Communications

The biggest challenge in every office is getting everyone to simply talk to each other. Everyone from the janitor to the CEO gets so caught up in their own thing, they fail to take – no – make – time to talk to others.

Your door should always be open – except when you’re in a meeting or really can’t be disturbed – so that your teams feel comfortable approaching you when they want.

Leaders that sit behind closed and locked doors shut out their people, and remember, everyone follows your lead. If you are a closed mind, your teams will be closed minds too.

And you don’t want that – so always keep your door open.

2. Create an Open Dialogue with Your Teams

Building on the previous tip, having an open door is just part of the communications solution, as the leader, you have to set the example and the tone. TELL every single person you work with – whether they report to you or not – that your door is always open. Invite everyone you work with to come and see you for anything – no matter how silly or small.

Encourage your people to be just as approachable with each other. Reward those who follow through, and demonstrate their openness to other team members. Mentor those that aren't being open, they may be shy, or just need a little inspiration to get going.

3. Get Out of Your Office

Last one on communications – I promise! Having an open door policy and encouraging people to be approachable again is only part of the communications solution. You need to get out of your office and make cubicle visits.

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Throughout the week, randomly walk amongst your team members, asking them how they are. Ask them about their work. Tell them you are here to help – ask how you can help them – then do whatever you can to help.

Be it assigning another resource to a project, re-evaluating a project's budget, even rolling up your sleeves and taking on some of the work – that’ll really impress your team, because it’ll show them how helpful you are, and that you really are in their corner.

4. Reward Don’t Punish

To err is to be human, we all make mistakes. The best leaders reward those who do good, the poor leaders punish those who don’t.

When I worked for American Express, our leader would publicly humiliate, chastise, and ridicule anyone that screwed up during our project meetings. She was demeaning and cruel, and everyone feared and hated her.

No one gave her their best effort, and the projects – and ultimately the company – suffered because of it.

Don’t be a tyrant and a bully like my former vice-president at Amex

.

Even you make mistakes – yes you do.

How would you like it if someone yelled, cursed, hissed, and angrily stared you down publicly in a room of 50 or more of your co-workers?

Sometimes, I swear I saw gobs of spit spewing out of that horrid American Express leader. How she got to be in charge of anything bigger than a broom closet, for the third largest credit card company in the world, is beyond me . . .

Reward those who do amazing, wonderful things.

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Reward those that do good too – everyone should be made to feel successful and on the right track – no matter how big or small their contribution is to your team.

And when someone messes up, don’t get your up against the wall and punish them. The best leaders teach, instruct and inspire their staff to do good. Show them how they can do better, and guide them through it.

5. Share the Spotlight with Your Team

At a party full of people, there is always that one person that naturally attracts others to him or her. They are the ones making everyone laugh and smile. They are the ones telling the greatest stories, getting into the best conversations, having the biggest laughs, the most smiles. They own that room, even if they aren’t the host.

Ever wonder how that one person somehow manages to attract everyone?

Here’s the secret – although they appear to be the centre of attention, actually they aren’t. They are sharing the spotlight with everyone around them.

They laugh and smile invitingly to everyone that is in on the joke. They are extremely observant, and draw people in by noticing the little things about those around them, and then showing a genuine interest in those little things.

It’s like they bring their own spotlight, stand in the middle, and anyone that walks by, they engage on such a personal level, that passersby naturally wander into the spotlight, and share in its warm glow.

Share the spotlight with your team. Be the person that everyone wants to be around, by simply being engaging, inviting, interesting, and above all else – genuinely interested in everyone around you.

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People respond when you show a genuine interest in them and their well-being.

Combine that interest, affection and sense of fun with the other tips above, and whether the people on your team stay with you forever, or move on in their career, they’ll always fondly think of you as the best boss they ever had.

As a leader, you want that. You want that bad.

Is Every Business Idea Gold? Maybe You Have Entrepreneurial ESP.

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Some people have the gift of the gab. They can talk about anything on the spur of the moment.

Others are walking calculators – quick – what’s the square root of 87? (It’s +/- 9.32739 for us mathematically challenged types).

Then there are those that have the amazing ability to take an idea out of thin air, and somehow turn it into a successful business.

Steve Jobs not only did this for Apple, but also helped create the magic of Pixar – their initial blockbuster film “Toy Story” was largely his doing.

Steve Jobs’ legacy continues to this day – Apple is building a mega-huge facility that looks like a round spaceship – which was designed by the late Apple founder. This spaceship campus eliminates internal barriers, supposedly to house a more creative space where software and hardware engineers can freely walk over to each other’s desk, to inspire innovative technologies.

Elon Musk shook up the automotive world, by launching the first high-performance electric car – the Tesla Roadster – which looked like a supercar, but was powered exclusively by electricity. That formed the basis for the Tesla Model S, which became the first luxury all electric car. And, despite tackling the very tight automotive sector, his company recently released the Tesla Model X, the first all electric cross-over vehicle.

You don’t have to be a big name entrepreneur to have “the gift.”

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If every business idea you’ve ever had turns to gold, maybe you have entrepreneurial ESP?

ESP – extrasensory perception – has never been something that I’ve really believed in.

The ability to read another person’s mind has no basis in science. Nor has any of the other claims from those who say they have a form of ESP, such as moving objects with their mind, or predicting the future.

However, perhaps ESP isn’t so much a mysterious mental ability and really is just a heightened sense of cognitive awareness.

Case in point, those of us with the gift of the gab are probably just more linguistically and socially aware, those of us who are walking calculators are more numerically and logically aware, and those of us that can turn an idea into a profitable business are more entrepreneurial aware.

This heightened awareness isn’t some special power, it’s based on our own experiences drawn from life.

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Perhaps those who have the ability to turn an idea into a successful business have Entrepreneurial ESP – but it’s no mystery where they get their mental abilities from.

They learn how to tell which ideas would make good business ventures, and which ones would not, from doing.

Because ultimately, the most successful entrepreneurs take action on their ideas.

Entrepreneurial ESP is like all skills, it is something developed over time, from learning from one’s mistakes, and successes.

Which means, those who appear to have Entrepreneurial ESP probably made some mistakes along the way – not all their ideas turned into successful ventures.

It is a learned response, just like riding a bicycle or eating with chop sticks – which I still occasionally need a bib for to catch the bits that slip through.

So, if you want to develop your Entrepreneurial ESP – or any special skill – get out there and do it.

Practice makes perfect – or at least – creates the perception of perfection.

And isn’t that what ESP really is?

Never Toss Anyone Under The Bus

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Years ago, when I worked in the corporate world, I remember sitting in on a project meeting that still to this day sends a cold chill down my spine.

My team was designing a new learning platform for one of the big automakers, and this was just one of our regular project meetings to update the client on our progress.

As we showed off our latest developments, one of the team leads for the client scoffed at one of the images used in the application.

Immediately – and probably without thinking – one of my team’s project leads said: “Oh, that’s what happens when designers use clip art, sometimes they just toss any ol’ thing in there – we’ll change that right away!”

The problem, that wasn’t clip art, it was a painstakingly hand-drawn graphic, by one of our top designers – who happened to be sitting in on this meeting -- and it was specifically requested and approved by the client months ago.

I saw the poor designer turn ghostly pale and sink into her chair.

She didn’t want to be in that room.

And after her silent tears turned into audible sobbing, neither did anyone else.

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I suggested we take a five-minute break, and you could almost see the vapour trails as most raced out of that room, leaving just me and the sobbing designer.

Luckily, I was able to turn things around, and I even managed to get her laughing and joking with me about the silliness of the situation.

However, my discussion later with the person who threw her under the bus was not so jovial.

He didn’t have anything personally against the graphic designer, he just did what unfortunately a lot of people still do in business – kiss the client’s butt.

My problem with people that think butt-kissing is the best way to build and foster client relations, is that they won’t hesitate for a second to blame themselves, or a member of the team to satisfy a client’s complaint – no matter how ridiculous – as in this situation, where the offending art was actually requested and already approved by the client.

Never throw anyone on your team under the bus.

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Blame doesn’t get you any further in business – or anything else in life.

All blame does is create unnecessary frustration and anger with those the blame is directed at. Hardly an efficient or effective way to solve a problem.

That’s what the team lead should have done – suggest a solution to the problem.

As a team lead, he should have known that the artwork in question was already signed-off by the client.

He should have NEVER blamed anyone on any team.

I’m just glad he didn’t blame our client for approving artwork they didn’t like – that would have been a bigger fire to put out.

Never throw anyone on your team, or anyone’s team, under the bus.

I have never seen a personal or professional problem resolved by blame.

Blame is just a way to pass the buck. It shifts the attention away from working towards a solution, by pointing a finger at someone, and saying: “this is your fault!”

Blame is a huge problem in offices around the world. It creates hostile workplaces, where no one wants to be, because you never know if one day, you’ll be the one taking the blame.

Don’t blame people on your team, in your office, or in your company for anything ever.

Blame is bad for those you blame.

Blame is bad for those who blame you.

Blame is bad for the entire corporate culture, as it creates an environment of fear and angst.

Blame is bad – period.

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Next time you feel the urge to blame someone, go punch a pillow, to relieve the stress, and then work out a solution that does not assign blame.

Because any solution that blames someone else isn’t a solution, it’s just another way of saying: “not my problem.”

As part of the team, every problem is yours – that’s the whole point of being on a team.

But that’s another rant, for another day.

Having Trouble Keeping Customers? Maybe You’re Not Giving Them What You’re Selling Them

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Computer programmers know all too well what “vapourware” is.

Vapourware, is when the sales guys get so caught up in the sale, they tell a potential customer that your software product does “X” – when in fact, it doesn’t.

“X” is something that particular customer has always wanted done.

So, naturally, they buy.

Next day, the head programmer is freaking out, because he’s been told to make the software product do “X” within an unreasonably short amount of time.

Because software development usually takes more time than less, the sales guys keep stalling the new customer, to buy time for the developers to create the feature which never existed in the first place.

Hence the term, “vapourware” because the software to do “X” never existed before – but was sold as if it was.

Vapourware occurs in all industries and sectors, not just ones based on software.

Anytime a company makes a claim about their products or services which is NOT true – that’s a form of vapourware.

For the company, it’s a seemingly great way to steal customers from the competition.

Internet Service Providers are a great example of this – each one promises faster, more reliable service than their competition.

The second they have a disruption in their service, which causes a massive slowdown or shutdown, all those customers that were falsely promised faster, more reliable service, call to complain.

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It’s why so many of us have jumped back and forth from one Internet Service Provider to another, and even back again.

Why?

There is a misconception in business, that constantly bringing in new customers sustains a business. This misconception starts at the top, and flows down throughout all levels of a business.

When this misconception reaches the marketing and sales teams, they figure they can say or do anything to convince a potential customer to become a new customer, because it's the new customers which sustain the business.

Why is that a misconception?

Here are the latest stats from some of the business world’s best sources:

1.     A customer is four times more likely to defect to a competitor if the problem is service-related than price- or product-related – Bain & Company.

2.     The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60% to 70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5% to 20% -- Marketing Metrics.

3.     For every customer complaint there are 26 other unhappy customers who have remained silent – Lee Resource.

4.     96% of unhappy customers don’t complain, however 91% of those will simply leave and never come back – 1Financial Training services.

5.     A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Around 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people. – White House Office of Consumer Affairs.

6.     70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated – McKinsey.

7.     55% of customers would pay extra to guarantee a better service – Defaqto research.

8.     It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative experience –“Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner.

9.     A 5% reduction in the customer defection rate can increase profits by 5% to 95% – Bain & Company.

10.  It costs 6 to 7 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one – Bain & Company.

So what can we learn from this?

Constantly bringing in new customers is important to any business, however, it is far more important to take care of your current customers, because keeping them happy is what drives your business.

What’s all this have to do with “vapourware” and selling products and services that don’t exist?

It’s the broken promises we make to our customers which cause the biggest headaches, and lead to the highest customer turn-over.

Sell your customers on the Sun, the Moon and everything in between, but if you can’t deliver that, then when they find out – and they always find out – that customer will drop you like a hot potato.

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Leaving you with one less customer – or a hundred, or a thousand, or even a million fewer customers – because the more you promise but don’t deliver, the quicker your customers will come and go.

Like a revolving door of customers.

Consider this, there is a high end coffee shop in one of the poorest parts of Toronto. They sell exceptional coffees, lattes, teas, fancy drinks and gourmet baked goods, at high-end prices. They provide up-scale service too – if you get anything from them that’s not just right, they’ll immediately take it back and replace it free, without any questions. Your satisfaction is their top priority.

Yet, this high end coffee shop, is in one of the poorest areas Toronto.

How do they stay in business?

The people in the area can’t afford a $5 cup of coffee every day.

The answer – they have regular, repeat customers. The coffee shop has been in business over twenty years, and over that time, has built a large following of people that will come from all over the city, to munch on a $4 cookie, while sipping a $5 hot caffeinated beverage.

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Years ago, the area was more prosperous, and those living there were well to do. As the neighborhood changed, the wealthy customers left the neighborhood.

Had this coffee shop relied on attracting new customers to sustain itself, it would have gone out of business a long time ago. However, they've constantly delivered what they promised – exceptional foods, drinks and service.

So their customers keep coming back. Despite no longer living or working in the area.

Do you tell your customers one thing, but deliver another?

Do you have issues retaining customers?

Perhaps you should look at your products and services, to make sure they deliver what you are telling your customers they deliver.

Because it’s easier to keep current customers, rather than replace them with new ones.

Why You Don’t Know What You Need to Know Right Now and Ways to Fix That in a Hurry

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“I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was supposed to do that. . . “

“What do you mean I overstepped my authority? You told me to do what I thought best.”

“You did WHAT?!?!”

Funny, sad, ironic – we live in an era where we can reach out to anyone, at anytime, anywhere across the globe – yet we don’t talk to those working for us, with us, or among us, be it around the corner, down the hall, or even standing next to each other in the same room.

It’s why you don’t know what you need to know right now.

Communication.

Or, rather – lack of communication – is why we’re constantly apologizing to our staff, our colleagues, our business partners, even our better halves.

It’s why arguments, disagreements, anger, and frustration with each other happens.

It can turn a positive, fun, and enjoyable corporate culture into a living hell.

And it’s dangerous.

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I met with a young person recently, that began as an intern, and was now charged with the task of building the business by his bosses – the owners of the business.

He told me he doesn’t use contracts, but if I wanted one, that I should just “send me anything, and I’ll sign it.”

That kind of attitude could easily cost not only this person his job, but his bosses their company.

Luckily, I’m a nice guy, and just walked away from the company.

I don’t do business on a hand-shake alone.

Though, it’s an example – a blatantly serious example – of how dangerous lack of communications in business is.

The former intern, now business developer, should have been given clear expectations of what is expected in his new role. And, you’d hope that he’d be bright enough to communicate with his boss anything that wasn’t covered, BEFORE taking action.

Because, if I wasn’t such a nice guy, I could have easily given him a lengthy contract, filled with page after page of legal mumble jumble, which he’d sign, giving me some outrageous thing that could easily bankrupt the business.

Think that never happens in business?

Years ago, investigative journalism television show “60 Minutes” did a piece about various male executives in the auto sector, taking clients to strip clubs on the day the “big deal” was to be signed. They did this, because the other male executives would be so caught up with the naked chicks, they wouldn’t notice the last minute changes made to the contracts they just signed.

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Granted, this is a form of distraction – not a lack of communications. However, it paints a nasty picture of how low corporate ethics and values may be at some companies.

So low, that a lack of communications could be a fatal blow to a business’s bottom-line.

Which brings us back to why you don’t know what you need to know right now.

Because you’ve been doing what most people do at work these days – NOT talking to your staff, your teams, your colleagues or even your boss.

Here’s how you fix that – right now.

Get to Know Your Colleagues Communication Styles

Think about who you’re communicating with and how they communicate with you. Introverts think through things on their own – so email with a follow-up call after they’ve had chance to absorb and think about it works best. 

Extroverts like to talk through a solution, so a face-to-face meeting, where you mention the issue, and let them talk, probably is the best course of action. They may also enjoy using a whiteboard, to work out their problems in a mind map.

Meet More Often, But For Less Time

Finding time when everyone can get together is tough enough, but don’t waste precious time. Shorter meetings provide a definitive end time to the meeting, making everyone focus on what needs to be done. Having more frequent short meetings – say a 10-minute checkup the next day – sets the expectation as to what everyone should be accomplishing by the next meeting, and this pattern connects people, while improving the overall workflow process.

Get Out of the Office

I’ve been known as a coffee shop fiend, for constantly taking people out to grab a coffee to discuss important and even mundane tasks. It’s a great way to break the ice, get to know your colleagues, and to establish an open communications dialogue between you and those you work with. Going out for drinks after work, grabbing lunch together, even walking to the parking lot or subway are also great ways to connect with colleagues, and open the doors of communications.

Be Mindful of How You Respond

Quick – your colleague is yelling and screaming at you. Do you:

1.  Yell and scream back
2. Try to talk loudly over their yelling to drown them out
3. Talk softly, slowly, and deliberately in between their outbursts
4. Walk away, ignore them – how dare they yell at you!

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The correct answer is 3 – talk softly, slowly and deliberately in between their outbursts. By lowering your speaking voice, you take the passive stand, and force them to listen to you. By slowing your speaking style, you send out a wave of calm, over their angered storm. And by waiting for them to stop talking, before you talk, you are showing you are listening to them – instead of just brushing them off.

If the yeller is relatively normal, they’ll calm down, so you can both work through the problem, rather than getting into a yelling match, or worse, a fistfight.

Be aware of how your responses can improve the situation, or make matters worse. Try to aim for a calm collaboration, rather than heated debates. Think about what your body language is saying, your tone of voice, your level of volume – all can be just as important as what is actually said.

The main thing from all of this is to get you to communicate with each other. Because not knowing what you need to know right now, is killing your business.

Entrepreneur or Employee? Survey Says Employees Earn at Least 50% Less

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Most of us were taught go to school, get a job, work hard, you’ll be rewarded.

The mere thought about doing anything else is so foreign to us, that we often shun those that have chosen another path, despite their success.

However, that latest statistics are in, and if you stay with the same employer for over two-years, you’ll earn an whopping fifty percent less in your lifetime than you would if you had job-hopped to bigger bucks, every year – which isn’t always possible – or – gulp – had you made your own wealth as an entrepreneur.

That figure – fifty percent less in your employment lifetime – is a conservative number, based on average annual three percent wage increases employers give their full-time employees.

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However, looking at current rates of inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), that average annual raise is actually less than one percent.

That’s an alarming wake-up call to anyone sitting in their corporate cubicle, thinking that their employer actually values their work.

Put another way, it’s like renting versus owning your home.

If you rent, you don’t own the land and anything built on the land, so you don’t have any equity. And you are at the mercy of the landlord, in terms of what is and is not acceptable use of that land and anything built on it.

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If you own your home, you OWN it – you can spruce it up to add value to it. Use it as you please. Even sell it when it’s worth more than you purchased it, and have more money in your pocket.

You can start with a small home. Fix it up, add some landscaping, maybe a deck, even a fresh coat of paint. That increases it’s value, so you can sell it for more than you originally paid.

Then, you can “flip” it – sell it at the new, higher value price – and purchase a bigger, and better home. Fix that up, maybe add an addition, widen the driveway, whatever – it increases it’s value.

Then you flip that house, and get another one, this one even bigger and better than the previous two.

Being an employee is like renting – you don’t have a say in the business, and you certainly don’t have any equity in the business.

Being an entrepreneur is like owning your home. You have a say in every aspect of the business – from the initial vision, to how you treat your customers, your staff, and your suppliers.

 

You can build up a great business, until it’s at the right “sweet spot” where it’s earning substantial revenues, or starting to actually catch the eyes of your competitors. So, you sell it, at a higher valuation than what it was worth when you started it.

In a way, you can flip businesses just like you flip houses.

So, you take all the money you made from selling your business, and build another one.

You take that business to the right sweet spot, and eventually sell that too.

Or, you can keep growing the same business – so long as it is a growing business.

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Either way, being an entrepreneur is so much more rewarding than being an employee.

Entrepreneurs shape their companies, much like home owners personalize their homes. Entrepreneurs add value to their businesses, much as home owners do by renovations.

Employees are just renting their jobs from their entrepreneurial employers – and losing fifty percent – or more – of their wages as a result.

Don’t rent your career, make it your own.

Be an entrepreneur.

Fear That Someone Will Steal Your Business Idea Actually Leading Cause to Start-Up Failure

I enjoy helping entrepreneurs of all stripes.

It's something I really excel at, and I learn so much from the experience.

However, it's really hard -- if not impossible -- to help someone fearful that their next big thing will be copied or stolen before they get it off the ground.

Rookie entrepreneurs stumble upon their one great, awesome, Earth-shattering business idea, and spend so much time cloaking it under a veil of secrecy I sometimes wonder if they have spent any time actually building their business.

Because it's hard to work under a veil of secrecy, constantly looking over your shoulder, worrying you are being followed, or worse, that your phones are 'bugged' and Big Brother is watching.

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating just a tad.

But if you can't tell me what you're working on, I can't help you.

And if you can't tell me what you are working on, you probably won't tell potential customers either -- so you'll never get the feedback you need from them to validate your business idea, and prove it to be a viable and sustainable business.

Validation of a business idea is really important, without it, you'll never know if all the sweat, blood and tears you're putting into your business will actually pay off.

And there's lots of ways to validate a business, the quickest and easiest is just to talk to potential customers. Find out if they are willing to pay for your product or service, and if they are, how much they are willing to spend.

Validation also comes from fellow entrepreneurs, that help each other.

Not just in winning us over with your idea, but in learning how to overcome your challenges as you grow your business.

Real entrepreneurs help each other. They reach out to each other, offer guidance, advice, even a shoulder to cry on in some cases.

It's sort of the unwritten rule of entrepreneurship -- to help your fellow business pioneers. 

When I meetup with rookie entrepreneurs, that tell me they are struggling with a problem, and I offer to help, their eyes light up like the Sun breaking through the storm clouds.

As they explain their challenge, they stumble to explain their problem, using vague language, or simply leaving out important parts of the problem, as they fear I'm "fishing" for my next big thing.

Relax newbie.

No one is going to steal your idea.

Why would I even attempt to do something when you've already put in the initial legwork? I'd have to start from scratch, and that's just too time consuming -- not too mention I'd be well behind you, that already has a lot more work in the game.

Fear that someone will steal your business idea is one of the leading causes of start-up failure, because no one can help you, if you can't explain to someone what it is you are doing.

So put your fear behind you. You'll have a better chance of communicating your problems to those that can really help you, and you're business will have a far better chance of success because of it.