5 Ways to Heat Up Your Motivation.

This time of the year, most businesses tend to power down a bit (not all mind you) and it give us time to plan for 2018. Unfortunately, many of us also power down and procrastinate until we're in the middle of January. Our motivation for growth dissipates. Instead of cooling down, I want you to heat up your motivation for your business and show your clients/customers what you really can do for them.

Talk To Your Best Clients/Customers

It's that time of the year — bring them a present to show them how much you value their business. Don't send it to them — hand deliver it and tell them what they mean to your success. While you're there, run some new ideas/strategies by them to get their input.

Talk To Your Feeders

You know who they are — those wonderful people who deliver your best clients/customers to you. They are usually natural marketers, who promote services they believe in. Make sure you take them out for lunch and get their input on new ideas you might have.

Talk To Your Competition

You might think I'm crazy — but talking to your competitors is a powerful thing to do for your business. Not only does it test your confidence in your own business, it allows you to see what the other half is doing. In addition, you both might come up with an agreement to share clients when it benefits both parties.

Talk To Your Vendors

Reach out to the people who help you make your company what it is today. They have a major stake in your success and they probably have a few ideas on how to make it even better.

Talk To Your People

You are not an all-knowing, omniscient deity. You're just a human being with faults just like the rest of us. Reach out to your team and see what ideas they might have to grow or change your services. Many of my clients do this on a regular basis and they get gold from their employees. In addition, the employees feel appreciated and part of the process.

Have any other ideas to heat up your motivation? I tried to keep it to five, but there are many more out there. Let me know!

Is Your Competition Waving As They Pass You?

On with one of my oldest clients this morning and came up with a spot-on analogy about a lot of organizational management today: Your company is a ship on the open sea and your mission is to navigate and guide it into port.

Your captain (management) wants you to take it in slow and steady, so they hit their schedule perfectly. They don't want to expend any more fuel, any more people, or take a chance by accelerating the ship to get to the port faster. It's the way they've done things for years and they are not changing.

Unfortunately, you're guiding the ship and you're seeing all of the competing ships (and some speedboats) passing you by in the night because they are going faster and using innovative techniques and strategies to beat you.

But the captain doesn't see this, because they're sleeping. But you do — and you tell them everyday that the ship needs to go faster and to develop innovative techniques and strategies like your competition.

The captain disagrees. "Slow and steady will get us into port on-time and on-schedule" (and the captain will be rewarded by management with a healthy bonus if this happens).

But you know the competing ships (and speedboats) will hit port way before you do, unload their cargo, sell their wares quickly, and be off before you realize it.

In addition, when they pass, they are making bigger waves that affect your ship's progress. But the captain maintains a slow and steady approach.

They are NOT LISTENING.

And you're seeing the future of your industry happen RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES.

And you're not part of it. You're a spectator. And the competition is EATING YOUR LUNCH.

Sometimes, the captain doesn't notice until it's too late — and then — and only then — they want you to accelerate. But it's too little, too late. And when you tell them, they get mad.

WHAT DO YOU DO? My ADVICE:

Don't open up the throttle — but you should subtly 'click' it forward just enough where management doesn't notice (at first), but where you begin to catch up, pace, and sometimes pass the competition. Add a resource, accelerate the deadline, increase the scope a bit, start a small skunkworks in the basement — but do something.

Also — EVANGELIZE your perspective and strategy all the time. You might be ridiculed at first — but after the competition beats you — you can stand there with a huge 'I told you so' face. They might listen to you next time.

You might get into trouble if management ultimately uncovers what you're doing — but no one was ever fired for doing the right thing and taking a small chance to advance the company forward.

And if you are reprimanded or fired, it makes a great story to tell when interviewing with the competition!

P.S. This happens ALL THE TIME. Think of Kodak, Blockbuster, and Nokia to name a few. What others can you think of?

Our Competitive Spirit.

The other day, I was listened to a podcast and heard the incredible progress (and inventions) which emerged from the space race to the moon in the 1960's. It was amazing how many advances in aeronautics, science, technology and even velcro — came out of our billion-dollar endeavor. It got me thinking. It seems significant jumps in progress happen when intense competition is involved. Let me break it down:

MILITARY Competition - When two (or more) countries are ferociously attacking one another, their entire reason for living is to outdo the enemy. They will do whatever it takes, open up the financial coffers, and apply as many people to develop new ways to kill the opposition. A good example is the Manhattan Project, where the U.S. spent billions ($2 billion or $25.8 billion in 2012 dollars) to develop a weapon which ended WWII.

GLOBAL Competition - It's an us vs. them scenario - where global standing, influence and stature is involved. The Space Race is a powerful example of what two countries can and will do to come out on top. In 1961, the Russians shot a man into space . . . eight years later, we had a man on the moon.

BUSINESS Competition - Although not as cut-throat as Military or Global competition, Business competition can still decimate industries and quickly put the competition out of business. In 2004, Apple gathered a team of 1000 employees who ultimately developed and released the iPhone in 2007. At the same time, throughout 2005-6, Google was in the process of procuring companies and resources to also do the same thing. Some people still say that Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, learned of Apple's intentions while still on the board of Apple. He then directed Google to mimic many of the deliverables of the iPhone in the follow-up Google handset.

PERSONAL Competition - Where's your competitive spirit? What drives you? Are you willing to go the distance to produce real change in you department, division, company or industry? What can you do right now to start the process? Who are the drivers, the leaders, the shake-up-the industry personalities? Why don't you know them?

Stay tuned shortly for a follow-up post on what Apple does to motivate their new hires!

You Can Be A CEO.

That's right. I'm not kidding. Today . . . this minute . . . this second . . . you can be a CEO. In fact, you always have been a CEO and always will be a CEO.

You never realized it.

You are the CEO of YOU, Inc.

And if you don't start regarding yourself that way, you'll never attain the success you deserve.

Here's the skinny — Even if you work in corporate or own your own business, you need to shift your thinking towards a more centric state of mind when it comes to work. If you are the CEO of YOU, Inc.:

• How's your stock doing? Up, down, flat? What are you doing to get it to rise?
• Who knows about your company? Do you frequently market YOU internally and externally to key movers and shakers?
• What's your message? How is it being interpreted? Is there any misinformation out there?
• Who are your competitors? How are you mitigating their threats? What are they saying about you?
• Who are your customers? What are they saying about you?
• Who are your partners? Are you educating them regularly on how they can help your company?
• How is the marketplace for YOU, Inc.? Is there a high demand for your services? Is it waning? Is it dying?
• How can you clone YOU? Delegate non-essential duties to subordinates?

The minute you make a mental shift from dutiful employee/entrepreneur to CEO status, you'll find you will focus on different areas left fallow for months/years beforehand.

And you'll start to see your new company do better and better and better. Try it. I promise you, you'll like it.

This has been another installment in my ongoing series, “Are You A Catalyst?” — today’s focus is how to “Be A CEO”.

Why You Never See It Coming — Deadly Blind Spots In Business.

There are things you know (e.g., how to run a meeting) and there are things you know you don’t know (e.g., open heart surgery techniques). Then there are things that you don’t know that you really know (how to stay focused and calm during an emergency).

Today, let’s talk about the unknown unknowns. The times where things jump out of nowhere in our business life and bite us right on the butt (and hold on!).

But how do we uncover those unknowns that we don’t know? How do we find something that we don’t know is lost? Perplexing isn’t it?

You fail because you didn’t:

• Read market signals in a certain way.
• See that your most trusted ally is moving to the competition.
• Know about the ‘hidden’ competition eating your lunch.

In the 90's, U.S. sales of Mercedes Benz plunged 24% due to Lexus/Acura/Infiniti imports. Up until that time, their senior management refused to acknowledge the existence of competition.

Up until 1980, internal correspondence at Sears never even mentioned Walmart.

Sometimes, reality is staring you right in the face . . . and you don’t see it.

So how do you uncover YOUR blind spots? Three ways:

1. Stop being so insular and bubbled-up. Open your peripheral vision to what’s happening in the world outside.
2. Encourage your team, your divisions, your entire company to keep their eyes peeled for products and competition that could slowly (or quickly) eat away at your market share.
3. Think outside of the box. Did you actually think we'd be carrying a GPS, Walkman, DVD Player, Menu Guide, Weather Station, etc. IN OUR PHONE?

Ask everyone for their opinion and LISTEN.

You don’t need to act on everything, but if you’re a faithful reader of Michael Porter’s Competitive Strategy, track it, measure it, and address it when the time is right.

What blind spots have bitten you in the past?

How To Solve Your Problems With Bananas.

Do you find yourself replicating a process and each time you do it, 50-75% it doesn't work? Not that it fails entirely, but when attempted, it's either fraught with additional challenges, clients may be disrupted, or it becomes such a big mess, it throws your team into a tizzy?

But you still keep doing it because it's the only way you know how to do it — the only way you've been taught?

Do you like bananas? Watch this short video at the end.

Simple. Fast. Clean. I've been opening bananas the wrong way for 40+ years. Suddenly, a buddy of mine sent me this video, I watched it, and my world is forever changed. I was trying to open the banana the exact opposite way a banana should be opened. It blew my mind.

Now apply this example to your job or business. What areas, people, processes, or clients do you continuously run into where it gets messy or doesn't work?

Try the banana method — or what it's officially called, Benchmarking. Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance to best practices from OTHER industries. Improvements from learning mean doing things better, faster, and cheaper.

The key word here is OTHER. You might be opening bananas like me for the past 40+ years and your entire company might be opening them the same way.Why?

"That's just the way it's done." "That's the way we've always done it around here." "There's no better way to do it, because we would be doing it."

Sound familiar? How long have you been opening bananas the same way? It's easier, more comfortable, and less scary than doing something else.

How about looking at your competition? Look at other industries and see how they manage their similar issues. Look at other countries, cultures, or customers to see what they do and how they react.

Step out of your comfort zone and open a banana the right way.

How do you benchmark? Where can you begin to look for new ideas, concepts, and strategies?