Messy Manager

Gerry Robert Bestselling Author of The Millionaire Mindset MESSY Manager demystifies why some companies and departments...

Author: Jean-Guy Francoeur

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Gerry Robert Bestselling Author of The Millionaire Mindset

MESSY Manager demystifies why some companies and departments are growing rapidly while others are destined for a life of struggle. If you want to learn about the root cause of success in business and in life, read this book! Jeff McLeod

Executive Vice-President of Premyth Systems Inc.

Steven Howard

Author, Corporate Image Management

I followed the exact step-by-step process in MESSY Manager to raise my department’s monthly revenue by 15%, my average ticket by 9.2% and my occupancy by 17%. Don’t wait another minute, get this book now! Kerri Holley

Author of Answers You’re Aching To Know & Spa Consultant

MESSY MANAGER TEMPLATE.indd 1

Managing is messy, leadership is simple...

but not easy! Michel Francoeur & Jean-Guy Francoeur Foreword by Gerry Robert Author of The Bestselling Book The Millionaire Mindset

11.75

I P LE S PRINCWERFUL O FOR PADER SHIP LE

Francoeur

Book Jacket Design by Steve Kadjan (web.me.com/stevekadjan)

Managing is Messy, Leadership is Simple… Just not Easy - 11.75 Principles for Powerful Leadership

Mike and Jean-Guy understand leadership like few do, and are able to break it down so anyone can understand and use its power to change their business forever. I highly recommend this book to anyone with the desire to grow their business, their department, or their people.

MESSY MANAGER

MESSY Manager has exposed the secrets of the most powerful leadership principles in the world. This book is a step-by-step guide to changing your company or your department for good and forever. This book makes success so simple and predictable that it may be the most dangerous book ever written if it ends up in the hands of the competition.

1/30/11 2:05:49 PM

Praise for MESSY Manager and its Authors

Praise for MESSY Manager and its Authors “MESSY Manager has exposed the secrets of the most powerful leadership principles in the world. This book is a step-by-step guide to changing your company or your department for good and forever. This book makes success so simple and predictable that it may be the most dangerous book every written if it ends up in the hands of the competition.” -Gerry Robert Bestselling Author of The Millionaire Mindset “MESSY Manager demystifies why some companies and departments are growing rapidly while others are destined for a life of struggle. If you want to learn about the root cause of success in business and in life, read this book!” -Jeff McLeod Executive Vice-President of Premyth Systems Inc. Mike and Jean-Guy understand leadership like few do, and are able to break it down so anyone can understand and use its power to change their business forever. I highly recommend this book to anyone with the desire to grow their business, their department, or their people. -Steven Howard Author, Corporate Image Management “I followed the exact step-by-step process in MESSY Manager to raise my departments monthly revenue by 15%,

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Get FREE templates, documents, videos and other great tools www.MESSYManager.com

my average ticket by 9.2% and my occupancy by 17%. Don’t wait another minute, get this book now!” -Kerri Holley Author of Answers You’re Aching To Know & Spa Consultant Jean-Guy’s commitment to action and genuine appetite to help people makes him a business powerhouse. Because of Jean-Guy I continually take away effective business solutions that are industry relevant. As a self-motivated individual, I leverage Jean-Guy’s ability to transition ideas into action! -Thomas O’Brien, Scotiabank, Ottawa, Canada Jean-Guy’s business insights are valuable and fresh. He isn’t limited to what has been done in the past. He is only focused on helping you reach your full potential going forward.” -Kyle Edginton, Real Estate Investor Winnipeg, Canada “I have ONLY one word to describe Jean-Guy, UNSTOPPABLE!! He’s ability to craft an idea into a concept and from there execute generating amazing results.” -Dan Leduc, Manager, BRINKS Canada “I’ve worked with Jean-Guy Francoeur on several projects. In all of our interactions he has been nothing but a pleasure to work with. I am able to contact him with any

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Praise for MESSY Manager and its Authors

question – big or small – and he has answers or gets back to me promptly. He’s a creative, out-of-the-box thinker. He is passionate about his work. He is a team player. His organizational skills are beyond reproach…he’s always on top of his projects. I would recommend Jean-Guy to anyone and know he would be an asset to your team and contribute to its success.” -Cherrie St Germain, CEO, My Tru Mind, San Diego CA “Jean-Guy is one of Canada’s leading young entrepreneurs and visionaries. He has managed to build several businesses and transform the industries that he has participated in. Now in his new business he is looking to have just as large an impact in the world of marketing. Jean-Guy can change your life.” -Geoff Doyle, CEO, Go Gecko Property Sales, Australia “Jean-Guy always treats his clients and colleagues with the utmost respect while showing being extremely passionate about his businesses and seeing others succeed. He has been a tremendous source of knowledge and advice for me as I endeavor to have more business transactions with him!” -Sam McNaull, Internal Auditor, Export Development Canada This is the most amazing conference I have ever attended. The speakers are knowledgeable and dynamic. Jean-Guy did a terrific job.

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-Steve Troutman, Author Jean-Guy spent a solid hour of his time focusing on my business asking the right questions and really drilling down into my business. His business knowledge and philosophies were very eye-opening and his ability to simplify complicated marketing concepts was awesome. Jean-Guy ’s attitude and caring nature made it a pleasure to work with him. He freely gave valuable information that will already assist my business to grow without any pressure. I will certainly be working with Jean-Guy in the future and will recommend him to anyone I know -John Edwards, CEO, HR Origin, Australia

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Copyright © 2010 Jean-Guy Francoeur, Michel Francoeur, Paznor Group Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without the expressed written, dated and signed permission from the author. ISBN # 978-0-9813022-1-8 Published by Paznor Group Inc. Visit www.MESSYManager.com LIMITS OF LIABILITY / DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The authors and publisher of this book have used their best efforts in preparing this material. The authors and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability or completeness of the contents of this program. They disclaim any warranties (expressed or implied), merchantability for any particular purpose. The authors and publisher shall in no event be held liable for any loss or other damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. The information presented in this publication is compiled from sourced believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes not responsibility for errors or omissions. The information in this publication is not intended to replace or substitute professional advice. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced without prior written consent from the publisher. This book is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information on the subject of leadership and business. As each individual situation is unique, questions relevant to a specific business should be address to an appropriate professional to ensure the situation has been evaluated carefully and appropriately. The author and publisher specifically disclaim any liability, loss, or risk which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this work. This manual contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

~Thomas Edison

Dedications I would like to dedicate this book to my sons Jean-Guy and Marc-Andre. They have taught and inspired me so much; a lot more than they will ever know or realize. I have had the pleasure and honor of participating in their development to see them blossom into fine outstanding young men. To their success! Michel Francoeur

This book is dedicated to the most important relationship in my life, my wife Kerri who has stood by me through thick and thin as I built companies, sold companies and experienced the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship. Jean-Guy Francoeur

Table of Contents Foreword by Gerry Robert

07

Principle #1: Mindset

12

Principle #2: Leading From The Top

23

Principle #3: The Now Economy

37

Principle #4: Personal Goal Setting

50

Principle #5: Developing Your People

74

Principle #6: Developing Your Workplace

90

Principle #7: Recognition and Rewards

105

Principle #8: Power of Persuasion

118

Principle #9: Organizational Health and Corporate Wellness Programs

133

Principle #10: Building and Sustaining Momentum 153 Principle #11: Is This the Right Place for Me?

159

Principle #11.75: This is Just the Beginning

163

Go to www.MESSYManager.com for FREE Tools!

Turn this great book into a leadership system for FREE by downloading templates, documents, videos and other great tools.

Foreword by Gerry Robert

Foreword By Gerry Robert Jean-Guy Francoeur and Mike Francoeur are two of the most high performing individuals I have known and have worked with. They spend countless hours improving themselves and developing their minds to go to the next level. You’ve heard the saying before that the hardest work in the world is thinking work. These guys are experts at going to the next level and they can take you with them. However, you have to be willing to work. When Mike Francoeur hires someone to work for him, he asks them for their soul. He asks them and quite clearly indicates that to “make it” you have to give it all you got. You have to fully engage in difficult tasks like thinking and the decision-making is not easy. If you’re not willing to do that, then this book is probably not for you. You should pick an “easy read.” Here’s a personal story: Jean-Guy’s wife Kerri is a friend of mine and was a department leader of a failing spa. This spa was very nice and had a lot of potential, but in its eight years in existence it really had not made any profit. Kerri was hired in a contract position that was to last only 12 months. The reason was that she was replacing another manager who was on maternity leave. Kerri had run a successful company for half a decade and had

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built it up from nothing. She took this company from an idea to five offices, three divisions and dozens of employees. Kerri is a great leader and with all this knowledge she decided she could make a difference and in the short 12 months she could turn her department around. Her department had never met their budget up until this point and the morale of the team was fleeting fast (sounds familiar?). Kerri used the principles in this book to turn the department around. The morale went through the roof, people were covering for each other, people were helping each other, the communication barriers came tumbling down, everyone was engaged and happy and asking to work longer hours so they can make a difference and then they started meeting budget requirements. Next thing you know Kerri’s department is 15 percent ahead of budget half way through the month and she’s planning to increase sales by 10 percent next year. The owner of the company is wondering “what the heck happened?” What is she doing that’s so special? Here comes the unfortunate part. On the eighth month of her 12 month contract there is a change

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in leadership. Kerri’s previous superior was also a leader and she understood that Kerri was more knowledgeable than she was and she had the willingness and maturity to clear the way for Kerri by stepping aside and letting Kerri “do her thing”. This new superior was more of a micro-manager and wanted to control everything. Simply by trying to control everything and pushing people rather than leading them, this new manager started undoing all the progress Kerri had made. In a matter of 8 weeks, this manager with her ineptitudes destroyed all the progress Kerri had made. The morale was back in the tank, employees started quitting and nobody wanted to go above-and-beyond and the engagement started dying off. It’s only a matter of time until the budget goes red again (losses instead of profits). And this is how the book’s title came about. This manager had just made a MESS! This book MESSY Manager delivers amazing insight into the differences between a manager and a leader. Visualize this, you have two pieces of spaghetti. One is being PUSHED by a manager and the other is being LEAD by a leader. Try this as an experiment. Take two pieces of spaghetti (cooked) and lay them horizontally on your kitchen table. For the first, take your two thumbs and try to PUSH the spaghetti across the table. It will be MESSY and

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oh it will get there alright but it will be messy. Now take the second piece of cooked spaghetti, take your index finger and your thumb, grab the tip of the spaghetti and pull it across the table. You’ll get that piece of spaghetti across the table with ease and predictability. That’s what this book can do for you! Instead of making a MESS (like Kerri’s superior) and pushing the spaghetti like a manager, this book will show you how you can pull the spaghetti by being a leader.

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“Hitch your wagon to a star.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

PRINCIPLE #1 - M I N D S E T

PRINCIPLE #1

MINDSET

T

hink back to some of the success you have had. What were the key factors contributing to these successes? Chances are they included having the right skills

and knowledge, being in the right place at the right time, seeing an opportunity, taking a calculated risk, and teaming with the right partners. Perhaps even a bit of fortuitous luck was involved. No matter what combination of factors was present on each occasion, there was also undoubtedly one common ingredient in the successes each of us has had – having the right mindset. Mindset is the critical difference, one might even say the missing link, between achieving success in any endeavor and doing “okay” or “getting by.” Or even “failing.” A winning mindset is having the right attitude, one which opens you to accept challenges and to perform at your very best. It has been said that success is 99% attitude. You may

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question this percentage, but not the fact that attitude does play a major role in any significant success. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” What is an attitude? Attitude is a powerful mixture of thoughts, feelings and actions that can be either motivating or de-motivating. Having a strong, uplifting and reinforcing attitude is vital to keep you going through good times and bad. As Albert Einstein said, “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.” The key is to develop and keep a positive attitude. This is done by controlling your thoughts so that you always remain positive. Thoughts lead to feelings, which lead to actions which will give you results. What you possess and are today is the result of your personal history of thoughts, over the years through the course of your life right up through yesterday. Taking control of your thoughts so that you are perpetually positive will lead you to feeling good, which in turn causes you to feel happy, confident, and more willing to take positive actions. Of course, you cannot simply just think about whatever you want and have your life suddenly become magically better. You have to take action. However, it is important to realize that thinking is the first action you must take.

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As best-selling author John Assaraf points out, “The conscious level is where you choose what you want, but you also have to impress that into the subconscious mind so that there is coherence. Some 96% to 98% of all our thoughts and our behaviors are done at the non-conscious level.” What you think clearly affects how you feel, which sends out vibrations to the world around you. From these vibrations come various actions and reactions which attract to you all you need to accomplish your goals. It is important to always remember that you get out of life what you put into it. If you put in a lot of energy and passion, you will reap unbelievable rewards. The important thing is not always what you do, but how you do it. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Ask yourself: will this matter when I reach my goal or will this matter in the big picture or a year from now? If not, let it go. This is why every task you face requires that you give it your best effort and that you do so with commitment and passion. Here are some tips for developing and maintaining a positive mindset: 1.

In all circumstances, look for the positive and accent it.

2.

Dwell on these positive attributes, talk about them, and praise them.

3.

Remember that every hurdle and barrier you face is nothing but a challenge you can overcome.

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4.

Do not let negative thoughts dissuade you from seeing the positive aspects of any situation.

5.

Remember, every cloud truly has a silver lining.

6.

Even the worst-case situation provides opportunity for learning or self development, another positive to reflect upon.

Here’s a personal story that illustrates how putting these tips into practice yields tremendous results.

Personal Story by Jean-Guy It was the early millennium when I graduated with my first college degree in Business Entrepreneurship. I felt I was ready to take on the business world, and anxious to do so. I had enjoyed a significant amount of success and recognition as I powered through my degree. I was involved in different committees. I had been awarded numerous scholarships, some extremely prestigious. I had served on the College’s Board of Directors. I had been offered several six-figure positions. Despite these successes and accolades, I was still determined to move to a new city to experience a new adventure and to continue my studies at a higher level. When I arrived in this new city, I immediately jumped into my second Business degree. For a full year I pounded the books and studied everything I could get my hands on.

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Surprisingly, by the end of the year I was fizzling out of energy and patience. For a guy who graduated with over a 96% grade point average on his previous degree, I had to wonder why I was losing patience and sputtering out of energy. I started asking… what’s the missing link? Fortunately, I remained positive in my attitude. Despite my upbeat mood, however, after 18 months into this second degree, I had grown bored with my educational pursuits and I needed something more challenging. So bored, in fact, that I started my first company – a health care company – even while continuing my studies. Starting with nothing and borrowing $1000 on a credit card to buy the necessary equipment, we offered “in-home services” because we could not afford our own office location. Applying all my business knowledge in a fragmented industry filled with people who knew the health care practice, but not very much about the business of health care, we quickly grew beyond the break-even point. As I was growing my business, I met many successful people who were willing to help and to work together so we could develop our respective businesses in tandem. One person in particular we really connected with immediately from the start, and today we are friends! This is when my life changed forever!! The friend introduced me to a book that came with two tickets to a seminar on “personal development.” Growing up in a

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small town I was very ignorant of any pathway to success except the traditional “go to school, get good grades, get a good job, etc.” I considered not attending the seminar. But I had read the seminar leader’s book and enjoyed it so much that I realized I needed to force myself to attend. I did this by creating a mindset where failure (defined as not attending) was not an option. So I invited other people to join me at the seminar so that I would not decide to jump ship at the last minute or depart early if the seminar became uncomfortable. From this single action, two of the best results I’ve ever experienced occurred! First, the seminar changed my life forever. Second, I had invited my father to attend with me and he accepted. The change that resulted in my father from that day forward has been instrumental in my success, not only from his support, but in my own happiness in seeing him succeed to new heights neither of us thought possible.

The change mindset Change is inevitable, development is a choice. You need to take the first step before change happens, and you do so by having a change mindset. Change can happen so fast and, as the common quote goes, “nobody likes change.” In the last few years, that quote has been replaced with “people don’t resist change, they resist

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being changed.” Well that changes the game! The fact remains that change does happen and it usually happens quickly. In fact, change can happen so quickly that many people are unaware of it and keep using their old ways of doing things that are no longer relevant. If your business is running the same way it did five years ago, most likely you are going out of business (even if you do not know it yet). There are many ways to fight change. But why fight change since change is good? As this book will show, not only is change inevitable, you cannot stop it. Time goes by. Today is a new day, yesterday is gone. Every change of season is a new beginning. The key is learning how to leverage change for your benefit and the good of your business. Development, however, is a choice! Development focuses on the good aspects of change and really emphasizes planning for success. By developing and organizing the changes to your advantage, you will reach your goals. At this very moment, you and your team are capable of achieving results that you have not yet achieved. Your results to date are directly correlated to your actions taken in the past. Therefore, different results can be easy to achieve, all you need to do is take different action. If you continue to take the same action, you will, without a doubt, achieve similar results or results with only small incremental changes.

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Planning turns random change into personal and team development. Now planning is a frightening exercise to most people. I encourage you not to worry too much right now as most people spend more time planning a family vacation than they do planning the development of a team. The point is that planning does not have to be difficult or tedious. You just need a good system that can facilitate the planning process. This book will provide you with actual tools and personal action steps0. that will ensure success.

Personal Story by Michel Let me tell you about my experiences in terms of self development. After leaving school, there were none. NONE. And there wasn’t much while I was in school either, because quite frankly the education system never taught me much about what truly interested me. I had skimmed a few books while in school, but only actually read my first book, cover to cover, about two years after I left high school. I read a great book back in 1976, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and it completely changed the direction of my life. Then in 2005 I went to a seminar by Harv Eker and he really brought home a significant, utterly revealing point for me. He made me realize that in the last 30 years I had done a lot of good things for my wife, my children, and my friends – but I had done nothing for me in terms of intentionally and purposely developing myself. He made me understand why I felt guilty about developing

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myself and he also explained, in a way I understood, why I should put 10% of whatever I earned back into developing myself so that I become an expert in my field. I decided then and there to do so and I have been doing it ever since. You know, the funny part is that I now invest all that I need to develop myself and the company I work for pays for it. In the end all I needed was the resolve. I didn’t even need the cash. Yet this held me back for 30 years. It was through this experience that I learned that change is inevitable – development is a choice.

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“All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them.”

~Walt Disney




PRINCIPLE #2

LEADING FROM THE TOP

W

inston Churchill once gave a very famous speech that consisted of nine words. He walked up to the podium and started his address: “Never give up.”

After a pause he repeated NEVER GIVE UP. And after another long pause he again proclaimed, “NEVER GIVE UP.” He turned around and walked away. Churchill clearly understood one of the key principles of leading by example: never give up!

Persistence Leading change and developing an environment of growth and wellness are challenging undertakings. Undoubtedly, there will certainly be times when you will want to quit or give up. But you cannot quit – no matter what!

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PRINCIPLE #2 - LEADING FROM THE TOP

Leaders know that it is an absolute truth that when times get tough, and you are near the breaking point of quitting, you are almost always perched on what is called “the razor’s edge” and very near success. There will be many small steps of success, which will lead you to your final and ultimate goal, thus you must be committed to the outcome and never give up. Often when you read about successful people you learn that they faced times and situations where they wanted to give up, chuck it all in, and move on to something else. Yet something kept them going – a persistence driven by either an internal flame of commitment or an external source of motivation. Those who accomplish their goals understand that, in the words of William Arthur Ward, “Impossibilities crumble in the crucible of persistence; difficulties disappear under the power of persistence.” Persistence is what frequently separates the successful from those who are not. According to Dale Carnegie, “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

Respect When leading change, respect from your team is essential. There are two ways of having your team’s respect. You can either earn it, or demand it.

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Demanding it, if you have some type of formal authority, has long been used in the past. For example, a manager will demand that his staff respect him or her. This method of demanding respect is not a good long term solution, nor does it usually work effectively in today’s world. Leaders today know that you must earn the respect of your team and the only way to earn their respect is to follow the principle of Leading From The Top. Leading from the top basically means “walking your talk” and “doing what you say.” Good leaders today earn respect from their employees by being consistent in both words and actions. They also earn respect by focusing on the things that leaders should be doing, and allowing their managers to do the things that they should be doing (we will talk more about this later). Here is a quick summary of the distinct differences between being a manager and being a leader: Managers do things right. Managers accept the status

Leaders do the right things. Leaders challenge the status

quo. Managers ensure processes

quo. Leaders create and

are in place and operating

articulate a vision.

properly. Manager’s focus on the

Leaders focus on the

tactical and the short term.

strategic and longer term.

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Managers tell subordinates

Leaders set a direction,

what to do and how to do it.

obtain buy-in from others, and allow the “how to” to be developed by those handling the implementation.

In short, managers are planners and controllers, who produce a degree of predictability and order. Leaders, on the other hand, establish direction, align people, motivate, inspire, and empower. The result is that leaders earn the respect of their staff through these actions and, simultaneously, produce change. Good leaders are not dictatorial and standoffish, but rather are seen to be a part of the team. As Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu described it centuries ago, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists. Not so good when people obey him and acclaim him. Worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say we did it ourselves.”

Personal Story by Michel I remember a boss I had a very long time ago… let’s say his name was John. Now John was a negative kind of guy, very self centered, and full of himself. Whenever you spoke to John it always came down to one question, “what’s in it for me?” Years later, when I took over

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a department in another company, I remembered John and how he had little respect from the staff. As a result, I went out of my way to be positive with the workers in my new department and to always encourage them and show them how they would benefit from any changes being implemented. In less than six months, they were all quite proud of having a great track record of 97% uptime and the dynamics of the department had totally changed. All of this resulted for the sake of being positive and continually encouraging and complimenting each of them on their efforts and not just their results.

Plan and communicate your vision The second step to leading your change development plan is to plan your vision and communicate that vision. This step is not necessarily complicated, but is of the utmost importance. Planning your vision is as simple as outlining your vision in a few sentences. Communicating your vision can be a little more complex but let’s start with planning your vision. Go

to

www.MESSYManager.com

to

download

this

worksheet or use the 10 lines below and complete each one with a word or phrase that explains what you are trying to accomplish. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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_______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Examples of words / phrases you might select include: ideal clients growth environments open communication personal development upgrade skills system of efficiency

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consistent product delivery best educational products consulting services wellness solutions Now use a combination of your 10 words and phrases to create your vision in a sentence. Do not feel obligated to use all 10, but starting with 10 is essential in order to give you more options as you create and refine your sentence. My vision is ____________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Example: My vision is to provide my ideal clients with amazing consulting services and the best educational products that provide consistent results for creating environments of growth and wellness. The vision Michel Francoeur established as the Canadian Operations Manager of one of the world’s largest mining company is one of the most succinct and clear I have seen: Our Vision: To deliver the most consistent talc, on time, every time to every customer at a competitive price.

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This vision has completely revolutionized his business and his team. One simple vision has made the biggest difference the company has seen in over 30 years. Congratulations! You have just completed the first step of your personal and professional development plan and you are moving fast to creating your own environment of growth and wellness. By doing parts one and two of this development plan exercise, you have outdone 80% of leaders, as typically only 20% of leaders commence the planning process. Do not stop now, keep going and remember to keep taking action. Say what you do and do what you say! When using the principle of Leading From The Top, it is possible that your team members may not like what you have to say or what you feel must be done. But they will respect you for it – as long as you say what you do and do what you say! It is absolutely necessary for you to say what you do (communicate your vision/plan) and do what you say (follow your own plan). Write this on a sticky not and put it on your computer monitor on somewhere on your desk where you will see every day. “Say what you do and do what you say!”

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Anyone in a leadership position that does not have the respect of their team is most likely not communicating their vision/ plan, or not following their own plan. You have no doubt seen leaders that communicate a plan and ask things of people – but do not ask the same thing of themselves. And I am sure you know quite well how reluctant staff are to follow these kinds of leaders. For example, if your plan requires determination and consistent effort every day of the week, but the leader leaves every Wednesday and Friday at noon with no good reason, there will be a conflict. This is a simple principle but do not let its simplicity throw you off. You must exhibit this principle, for it is the only way to gain and maintain the respect of your team. Always remember that your employees and staff are constantly watching your every action. Your actions and body language mean a lot more than your words.

Personal Story by Michel Vision and mission are critical. Let me give you an example of how important vision is. In one of my former positions, my predecessor had not aligned his purpose, vision and goal. This led him to be totally unhappy and disillusioned in his situation and to blame his circumstances for his unhappiness. The first thing I did after I took over his position was to align my personal vision with the goal and the vision of the company. I worked with my management team to come up

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with a strong vision and mission, and to develop goals to move us in the right direction. I met with every management personnel and asked if they were in agreement with this vision and the answer came back positive every time. It was amazing to see the rest of the management team step up to the plate and do what was needed to get started moving in the right direction. I remember discussing with my predecessor and telling him of my amazement with the level of cooperation from the rest of the team. I came to the conclusion that the change in attitude was brought about by putting a clear vision and mission up front and that would be the controlling factor when making our decisions as a group. This is one lesson I will never forget. Leadership today is critical for success of both large and small organizations in today’s economy. We will talk more about the forces shaping today’s new economy in the next chapter, but first please do the following exercises in order to maximize your results from this chapter.

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Evaluation Leading From The Top Questions: 1. Why should you have a purpose and vision and goals?

___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 2. Why write them down?

___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 3. Why is persistence important?

___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________

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As a result of what you have learned in this chapter, what changes are you going to make to ensure that you now do things in a different way? Remember the formula: Thoughts → Feelings → Action = Results 1. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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“Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts.” ~Winston Churchill




PRINCIPLE #3

THE NOW ECONOMY

E

veryone is always referring to the “new economy” to the point where it discredits most uses of the term. The fact is that you will always be in a new

economy. You are always living in the present, the now; because yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not arrived yet, and you do not know exactly what it will be like either. With this in mind, today IS yesterday’s tomorrow … today is a new economy and if you are doing business the same way you did it three years ago, you are most likely going out of business because the world is evolving and moving along (and you are not) As our economy has expanded and evolved through the years we have seen major shifts from male dominated workplaces to equal rights and equal pay for women. From a not so distant time when people where paid a few pennies per hour to the recent exorbitant salaries on Wall Street, things have certainly changed! The simple truth is that we are seeing another shift in what powers our economy. The Baby Boomer Generation saw the

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PRINCIPLE #3 - THE NOW ECONOMY

shift from the industrial age to the information age. Today, we are entering a new economy, as yet untitled, built on synergies leading to performance. What will come of this new economy nobody knows, except for one fact. People will be paid for what they do (performance) and for who they know (networking), not just for what they know (education). Over the last 20 years or more, formal education has been overly emphasized in the workplace. As a result, millions of people have flocked to obtain letters after their names in order to be automatically categorized into particular pay grades. These practices will soon be foreign and those with high degrees of formal education will still need to prove themselves and perform for their pay. Also, those with little formal education, but who can prove they can perform above and beyond expectations, will be given unprecedented opportunities. Leadership in this new economy will require imagination combined with the ability to perform. As the futurist and business writer Joel Barker states: “Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with vision is making a positive difference.” In the Now Economy there are new rules – for the game has changed. Those who take action and are able to generate measurable results will be disproportionately rewarded compared to those with letters as a suffix who cannot deliver as required.

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Formal education will simply be the entry point. As noted author Bob Proctor points out, in the new economy, “Earning money has nothing to do with age, formal education, gender or geography. It has nothing to do with past experience or your formal years of education or your level of intellect.” Proctor explains: “Our school system has been designed as an environment to enlighten young minds, to replace ignorance with understanding and thereby improve the quality of life. Our educational system has obviously been successful in many areas. However, it has woefully neglected one important subject, how to earn money.”

Your people need the leadership you can provide In the Now Economy there will no doubt be some frightened people and your leadership is exactly what they will need to push forward. Leadership, of course, is required in any time of crisis. Unfortunately, you will find as a business leader that, no matter the state of the economy or your particular business, some of your people will feel as though they are always in a state of crisis. This is the perfect time to be a leader because the team needs it. It is at this precise moment that you must be bold and continue to pursue your vision as aggressively as ever. Keep in mind, as stated by the great George Bernard Shaw, “2% of the people think, 3% think they think, and 95%

39


would rather die than think.” Or, as Henry Ford once said, “Thinking is the hardest form of work and is why so few people engage in it.” This is why leaders must think while managers react and do! The problem you will face as a leader is that people are basically driven by habits and they react based on TV, newspaper, Internet, blogs, etc. They are basically told how to think, and often what to think, and they just go along with it. This paragraph is short but this concept is huge. Read it over a few times and let every word sink in. Doing so will help you understand that a key component of being a leader is helping your team members develop the capacity to think (for themselves and for the team). This is where a strong performance evaluation system will come in to help. You must be fair and consistent in how you evaluate your staff. Plus, in the new economy we will see more and more companies share some of the profits with their employees. In fact, in the new economy you are likely to find yourself in a partnership relation with your employees. Also, money and other monetary rewards that comprise the compensation package are only part, often a small part, of each person’s reason for working for you. Job satisfaction, chances for advancement, flexible work hours, and having a healthy, satisfying workplace environment are often ranked as more

40


important than money. It is a new economy, indeed!

Think cooperation not competition In the words of Muhammad Ali, “A man who has no imagination, has no wings.” One of your goals as a leader is to find ways to make the pie bigger and to share the fruits of this enlarged pie with your team. You can do this by finding synergies and ways of cooperating with others to create something where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It will take some imagination, but that’s the only way to fly! Recent scientific discoveries are showing that evolution is more about collaboration between organisms and species than it ever was about competition. The element of competition was introduced for a variety of reasons, none of which will ever trump cooperation. It is absolutely necessary to foster an environment of cooperation in your team. Interestingly, as we have previously discussed earlier in this chapter, to succeed in the new economy will require new thinking. Old thinking and old ways of action will provide similar results, and that is certainly not progress! Famed scientist Albert Einstein has been quoted as saying, “The significant problems we face can never be solved at the

41


level of thinking of the problem.” Einstein understood that we must elevate our thinking above the problems we are facing, and we can only do that by thinking cooperation. The same holds true for the expression “two heads are better than one.” All the goods we desire come from an infinite reserve. Keeping that in mind, it is foolish to think that we need to compete for customers, or money, or anything else. Once we understand that if we want more, we just have to make the pie bigger and we will never again have to compete. To think competition is to impose limits on yourself. Think about it for a minute, if you limit the size of the pie then you impose limits. Do not do that. Think cooperation not competition. In giving you get, so give more value and you will get more income. Let other people compete while you create new services or ways of serving people. Let’s discuss a few ideas that are relevant to your development and growth plan. Ask yourself, “How can I insist on cooperation?” A principle of leadership that we reviewed previously was “say what you do and do what you say.” Therefore, include cooperation as part of your vision and make sure you communicate why you emphasize cooperation rather than competition. The second element of effective leadership is to “do what you say,” therefore you should look for synergies between

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your team and another department or someone else in your industry. Exploring synergies is a great way to send a message to everyone that you are doing your part for cooperation. Also, synergies often are a great way to propel you closer and faster to your objective. For example, co-marketing or jointventure marketing initiatives are a great way to access new markets that can benefit both parties. The principle of cooperation instead of competition should be applied throughout your team and organization.

Personal Story by Jean Guy The time I partnered with my competitor. Many people only think about competition and hence do not focus on cooperation. I find this to be ineffective and inefficient. Cooperation and creating cooperative agreements has worked out very well for me many times in the past. In one instance, I remember starting a new product division for our health care company. I felt creating a product division would allow us to scale our business and improve sales and profits. After investigating the market, I quickly realized there were two dominant players that had a stranglehold on the market, and if I was to penetrate the market cost-effectively it would have to be by cooperating with at least one of them. I had a very unique business model that I had built after

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reading a book on corporate strategy. If you have not read Blue Ocean Strategy, you absolutely must go buy it and read it after you read this book. It is especially applicable to entrepreneurs and business owners. I approached one of the companies with my concept and asked them to cooperate with me. I showed them how they would make more money and expand their market if they did business with me versus against me. After a few meetings, and clearly articulating my plan with transparency, we came together with a strategic agreement. Over the course of three years, I purchased more products from that company than what they could have sold direct. It was a win-win for both of us. In the end it was such a good idea that, when I got out of that business, they continued with the concept and the business model because it was beneficial to them. Cooperation is key and making it a win-win scenario for all parties is necessary! In this chapter we outlined some of the rules for success in the Now Economy. Your people will be looking to you for leadership as this new economy unfolds and they face new challenges and opportunities. Remember, as a leader you are part of the top 5% who can

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think and act on that thinking. As such, you will be breaking new ground every day. Setting and achieving goals (the topic of the next chapter) will be your key and reward. There will be no stopping you. But first, do these few exercises to help cement your learning from this chapter.

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Evaluation The Now Economy Questions: 1. What is your role as a leader in the Now Economy?

___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 2. How can you partner with your employees?

___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 3. Why should you make the pie bigger?

___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ As a result of what you have learned in this chapter, what

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changes are you going to make to ensure that you now do things in a different way?

1. ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 2. ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 3. ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________

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“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

~Eleanor Roosevelt



PRINCIPLE #4 - PERSONAL GOAL SETTING

PRINCIPLE #4

PERSONAL GOAL SETTING

T

he best definition of success I have ever read came from Earl Nightingale when he wrote “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.”

This “progressive realization” is a four-step process: •

Purpose

•

Vision

•

Mission

•

Goals

Purpose – what is purpose? Purpose is the reason you are here. Have you ever wondered why you are here? Why you exist? Why you were born? Ask yourself a series of questions like: why do I exist? What makes me feel good? What is my purpose in life? Look at the

50


big picture. Once you answer these questions, write down the answers. How does it make you feel? Does it scare you? Yes? Well then you are on the right track. A key reason many people are not happy is because they are not living on purpose. Even when the economy is bubbling along, we find people in all areas, careers or professions not being happy in their present situation. When the economy falters, these numbers escalate. Hence, it is not surprising that research studies show that people of all ages have changed jobs, professions, or careers, in many cases at reduced wages, and have reported being much, much happier. Why is this? Why are these people not happy? Even more importantly, why are you not completely happy? The answer is really simple. They, or you, are not living on purpose. Once a person discovers their purpose and starts living on purpose, most of the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place. You will be happy. Remember the key learning from the earlier chapter on mindset – thoughts cause feelings that cause action that cause re-actions (results). The way for you to be happier is to do different things (in line with your personal purpose) that will cause all kinds of good things to happen to you. The way to develop your personal purpose, and to live on purpose, is by having a vision, mission, and goals.

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Vision Before we get into setting some goals we need to start with the big picture in mind. Some people call this their vision, or dream life. We have also heard it called one’s worthy ideal or lifestyle goal. We prefer the term heart’s desire. Your heart’s desire includes your family life, finances, relationship with society, spirituality, mind and body. It is inclusive to all the aspects of your life that are important to you. Look at your life on a shorter term, say the next five to ten years. Where do you want to be? Be specific and contemplate this for all areas you your life – health, wealth, financial, family, social, spiritual, etc. Write it out. Build a straw man. What would it look like, say, smell, taste, and feel? Take the time to write all this out, no short cuts. Now take some time to think about what your heart’s desire is. What would make your heart gleam with excitement and beam with happiness? What do you really want in this life? What do you want for your business (whether it is your business or if you are an employee)? Do not allow any limiting thoughts to hold you back. Let your true desires come out. Allow yourself to feel it all. Do the same for your all aspects of your personal, nonworking life. What hobbies enthrall you? What new things or skills would you like to learn? How would you spend your leisure time in an ideal world?

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Now put it to paper. Do not feel ashamed or feel that these desires are greedy or not possible. Just write down everything your heart desires: My heart’s desire is _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Having a vision is important. It is your lighthouse, your

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guidepost. This is what will help guide you through the turbulent times – and rest assured there will be plenty of turbulent times. Otherwise how would you grow? As Confucius said, “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trial.” We grow through challenges and your lighthouse shows you where you need to get to, in good times and bad.

Mission What are some of the ways you can think of achieving your vision? You need to be brutally honest here. We are not suggesting that you beat yourself up or being overly critical and judgmental. However, being forthright and brutally honest with yourself is necessary. Take a hard look at where you are. Do a “where am I exercise?” on a scale of 1 to 10 for your family life, social life, income, health, physical fitness, personal growth, and professional development. One would be the lowest level of awareness in that area and 10 would be at the mastery stage. For a great template and instructions, visit www. MESSYManager.com. You can change, add, or substitute categories as best suits your vision and your desires. Write it out – make sure you commit this to paper. Writing causes thinking → causes feelings → causes actions → causes

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results. Action is key… get going now! Take a break from ready and go now! Make a list of different tools and ways you will use each to reach your vision. This will become your mission. Think about the key lesson from the last chapter: how can you find ways to cooperate with others to make your vision a reality? Jot down your notes and thoughts now on the lines below. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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_______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Your mission is important because it clearly states some of the tools and ways you will use to reach your vision. It also establishes boundaries.

Goals Goals are your shorter term targets, things you want to accomplish over the next one to two years. Be specific when writing your goals. Make them big and scary, be very specific, and put timeframes, deadlines, or due dates on them. If you do not achieve them on time, give yourself an extension. Change the course of action if need be, but never the goal. Do not let outside circumstances decide what you can and cannot do. Goal exercise: make a list of your wants. Do not set any limits, none whatsoever. Do not think about how these are to be achieved; just let your heart open up and feel all the things you want. Try to add 50 to your list. Then make five columns, A to E, and prioritize your goals by putting 10 goals into each column. Those in Column A should be more important than the ones in Column B, which should be more important than

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the ones now found in Column C. It might be more difficult than you think, but you can do it. Stick with it until all your goals have been sorted accordingly. Then prioritize the goals within each column, numbering them 1 to 10 with 1 being the most important goal in that column. You now have your A1 goal and this is the one you concentrate on the most. It must be worthy of you and not the reverse, you worthy of it. You are a great human being and your A1 goal must be worthy of you. Write each goal out in as much detail as you can. Rewrite often and add details as new thoughts crop up. Review all of your A-column goals every morning and every night. Keep adding details with each review. Here’s a challenge: Write and re-write your goals on a daily basis. Do this for six months and we guarantee you will be a different human being! Taking Action Does your A1 goal scare you? If yes, that’s good, you know you are definitely on the right track. Your A1 goal must be big and scary. It must be driven by passion. Now make a plan. Remember that initially you only need to know how to achieve the first few steps. Make a list of all the ideas that can bring you to closer to achieving your goal; then

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only keep the positive ones. Do not wait until you have all the possible steps written down before taking action. As soon as you are certain of a first step, take it. The Quakers have a good saying, “Pray and move your feet.” Nothing will happen unless you take action! Action, ACTion, ACTION. Action is the only thing that matters. You can have all the plans and knowledge in the world, but without action they are wasted. You have probably even experienced this yourself; one day, as if you’d walked into a clear glass sliding door, an idea hit you. A million dollar idea. But you never did anything about it. Well here is your second million dollar idea, but this time you are going to do something about it. We have each had countless ideas over the years and have seen other people or businesses prosper from those ideas, not because they stole our ideas but because they had similar ideas and they acted on them. Other people simply acted on their ideas whereas we did not.

Personal story by Michel Here’s a quick example that you will be able to relate to. A little while after I moved to the city that I presently live in, I was thinking about starting a business. I had many ideas

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and thought about them long and hard. I analyzed and over analyzed them all. One of the ideas that I thought about was a photo copy / printing store. This was a new concept and nonexistent in this city. I analyzed it long enough that one day someone else started a business with the same concept and twenty five years later they have a thriving business with some 50 employees. In fact, it is a very lucrative venture indeed. This is just one of the many examples that I have lived through over my lifetime where too much analysis as caused paralysis of action. Now the important thing is not to beat yourself up over these events but learn and move on. After many years of practice, when I now have an idea, I analyze it quickly and move on it… Action is key. ACTION is key. Do not wait for the perfect moment, for the perfect moment will never arrive. Just take the first step. Begin now, this very instant, wherever you are in the world. Remember: thoughts cause feelings which cause actions which cause results. Action is the key and the catalyst to making things happen. Changes cause feelings that cause actions that cause results. Do not get bogged down with why you cannot do it or why it is too difficult. When you get those ideas say “next” and move on. Concentrate only on how to get there, on what you can do. The truth about goal setting is that goals have been the

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starting point to every major success any person has ever accomplished. In their rawest form they are desires. And without the desire to do or achieve something nothing noteworthy would have ever been accomplished. Remember, if you can dream it, you can do it. If you have the idea it is because you have the potential to do it; otherwise you would not have come up with the idea in the first place. Sometimes we speak about our desires to close friends or family and they become plans. “You know, someday I am going to have a car like that,” or “one of these days I will be able to just take off to Europe.” At this point, these desires are just pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams. But the moment we attach a time limit, it totally changes our approach to these desires: “This time next year we are going to be in Hawaii!”

SMAP-TFU In fact there are a series of things we can do to a goal or objective to make it more realistic and more likely to be achieved. These can be summed up in the acronym SMAPTFU, which is a good method for beginning goal setters to start: •

Specific – A goal needs to be very clear and unambiguous. Running a “better practice” or having “a lot more clients” is near useless as a goal statement. By better do you mean more profitable, more organized, having a higher

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cash flow? How many is a lot more clients? •

Measurable – Whatever your goal is, it must be countable, so that you can, in very definite terms, identify how far along you are or when it is actually achieved. For instance, “My goal is to run a practice that has a net profit of 18%.”

•

Attainable – Any goal is within the realm of possibility. From time to time we come across people who like to set outlandish goals, sometimes just because they like the way they sound, such as: “I want to be the next Dr Phil.” It is more important that your goals are reachable and something you can believe yourself accomplishing. As Napoleon Hill said, “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Don’t be afraid to set big goals – and be prepared to take big actions – as long as you believe. Don’t let your environment control you.

•

Passion – you need to have passion in your goals. It must be something you really want with a deep-down desire. Do not let your present circumstances dictate your goals. You might not have the skills, money or abilities today to do what needs to be done to achieve your goals, but things can and will change. Once committed to paper and dated you will soon see opportunities come your way. You need to be ready to see and take full advantage of those opportunities. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Things might not be congenial but they will not remain so for very long.”

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•

Time oriented – Parkinson’s Law states “work expands to fill the time allotted to it.” Every goal must have a definite deadline, or who knows when (or if) it will ever happen. If by chance you do not achieve it in the allotted time, ask yourself if you gave your ultimate best shot – the very best you can do. If not, give yourself an extension and revisit your action plan and adjust it accordingly. Do not change the goal, adjust the action plan.

•

Follow-Up – This is being held accountable to the goal you have set for yourself. Most of us require someone else to hold us accountable to our goals. As we create habits of achieving goals we eventually learn to continuously hold ourselves accountable for assessing our own progress.

Personal Story by Jean-Guy Our Vice President, Jeff McLeod, is a close friend with Andrew Britnell, the President of Student Works Painting in Western Canada. This company franchises students to run small paint contracting businesses. For most college students owning a business, managing crews, serving customers, planning and executing marketing strategies, performing direct sales calls, and turning a healthy profit is unimaginable. Andrew runs his business very tightly, and strongly believes in the power of goal setting. Over the last 18 years of working intimately with a couple thousand young entrepreneurs, Andrew has a highly evolved method for helping otherwise

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inexperienced students become goal achievers. In his experience, the Follow-Up is the most important part of effective goal setting. In his words, “This is what makes goal setting effective.”

Pulling It All Together It is said that “knowledge is power” and we believe that this is the furthest thing from the truth. If knowledge was power, every librarian would be a multi-gazillionaire because they are surrounded with knowledge. As stated by Napoleon Hill “Organized and applied knowledge is power; knowledge is only potential power.” The SMAP-TFU tool enables you to take the knowledge you have – about your goals and how to attain these – and turn this into applied knowledge. Let’s get started. It is now time to put theory into practice and for you to start actually writing SMAP-TFU goals for yourself and for your business and team members. In the spaces below, or on a separate piece of paper, draft five SMAP-TFU goal statements for your most important personal goals (these would be the A1 to A5 goals you created earlier). Be sure to indicate how you are going to measure your progress towards obtaining each goal.

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Personal Goals 1. ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 2. ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 3. ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 4. ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 5. ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Now go to work writing SMAP-TFU goal statements for your

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business and team members. In the spaces below, or on a separate piece of paper, draft five SMAP-TFU goals for your business. These could include goals about the number of new clients you want to acquire, the average transaction per client, the average rate of frequency a client visits, monthly cash flow, net profit, time off per year, number of employees or partners, or a million other things. Remember to assign a definite deadline date as part of each SMAP-TFU goal.

Business Goals 1. ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 2. ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 3. ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 4. ____________________________________________________

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______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 5. ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ If any of your draft SMAP-TFU goals makes you feel uncomfortable, GOOD!! That means you are growing. Also, it is most important that you write your goals in the present tense, as if you have already achieved them. And as you do so, be grateful for having achieved them. This will help ensure they are truly meaningful goals for you and your personal vision. As you review your SMAP-TFU goals, if you have a sense that you will feel “I am so happy and grateful now that I have accomplished this” when your objectives are actually achieved, then you will know you are on the right track. You may have noted that we are calling these draft SMAPTFU goals. This is because you will want to review, edit, adjust, and re-write your SMAP-TFU goals in the coming days as you give more thought to your vision, mission, and goals. For now, though, it is important that you get your initial thoughts written down on paper. Thus, if you have continued reading and skipped over this exercise, please stop reading now, get out pencil and paper, and spend

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the next few hours drafting your SMAP-TFU goals. This is really, really important.

Maintaining Momentum Continuous action creates momentum. We don’t think we need to argue the value of momentum, especially when doing something that is new and difficult. If you are truly committed to realizing your heart’s desire, meeting your goals, and earning a healthy monthly income, then continuous action is the fastest path to building and sustaining momentum. How often should you do these things? EVERY WORK DAY at minimum. If you want to create a fast track to your heart’s desire, then be sure you are taking action every single day, even better twice a day! We want to stress again the importance of taking action every day. This “chip, chip, chip away” approach stops you from ever taking too many steps backward. Be true to yourself, and be true to your goals. You will face adversity. You will face hardships. However, take one step at a time, and you will surmount the obstacles and hurdles that get in your way. Here are three simple steps to help you maintain momentum: •

Review your heart’s desire and business goals. Every person should have the opportunity to live their

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dreams. For this to happen you have to define, evolve, refine, and internalize them. Reviewing and, if necessary, re-writing your goals on a monthly basis is critical. •

Re-write your monthly action steps. Every month take a hard look at what actions are working and which ones need refining in order to continually progress towards your goals. Not everything will work out as planned. That is fine, as long as you are learning from each action. Now, put together your list of actions for the coming month and prioritize these actions in line with your A1 to A10 goals.

•

Take action. There is no question the most important part of achieving the results you are after is taking action. Whether it be two minutes or two hours, you must dedicate time to progressively realizing your goals. This way you will be successful. Remember: “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” Make every day a success and, in turn, this will make the year a success, which will lead to a lifetime of success.

A 30-day self-driven success pact Now write below a statement of commitment to TAKE ACTION every day for the next 30 days on each of your top five personal and business SMAP-TFU goals: _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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_______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

Signature:________________

Date: ___________

Note: Read this statement every single day as soon as you get up and place it in areas where you will see it often during the day. Read it and act on it as often as you can during the day.

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Evaluation Personal Goal Setting Questions: 1. What would your life be like if you were “living on purpose?” _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ 2. What steps do you need to take in order to commit to taking action on a daily basis towards your goals?

_________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ 3. What is critical for you to maintain momentum?

_________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ As a result of what you have learned in this chapter, what changes 70


are you going to make to ensure that you now do things in a different way?

1.

_________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________

2.

_________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________

3.

_________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________

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“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

~Goethe



PRINCIPLE #5 - DEVELOPING YOUR PEOPLE

PRINCIPLE #5

DEVELOPING YOUR PEOPLE

P

eople and Why They Matter As a leader, one of your most important tasks is developing the people who work with you. Your

people

are

your

only

unique

advantage; they will drive your business or project to success. And it is up to you, as their leader, to develop them and prepare them to be superior performers and contributors in the Now Economy. Here are two questions that we like to ask corporate leaders: a)

how much of your job is focused on getting results?

b)

how much of your job is focused on getting things done?

Ask yourself these same two questions and then tally the total. What is your total? 75%? 85%? 90%? 95%? Higher? In most cases we find the responses to be at a minimum 85% and usually closer to 95+%. Now here’s the kicker: the

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remaining time is all you have left to develop your people! When you consider that your #1 job as a leader is to be a mentor and a developer of your people, are you really investing enough time in this role if you are spending less than15% of your time at it? Small businesses and large corporations alike are in continuous search for a “competitive advantage.” Everybody wants to find that edge that will bring instant success. Surely you have heard that your employees or your people are your biggest asset. It is not necessary to be looking elsewhere for competitive advantages when all you need to do is look within and observe your people. Jack Welch, when he was CEO of General Electric, was quoted in a BusinessWeek article espousing this same sort of thinking: “We have found what we believe to be the distilled essence of competitiveness. It is the reservoir of talent and creativity that can be found in each of our people. That essence is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important – and then get out of their way while they do it.” Nothing is as unique as a person. A person is formed from his or her set of beliefs, attitudes, and habits and there are

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no two persons alike. Everyone is unique like a fingerprint. There are billions of different DNA patterns and everyone has genius built up inside them if the right environment presents itself. This being true, then all you need to do is extract everyone’s unique abilities and find a way to combine them together for a competitive advantage. The right people on your team are your biggest assets – but not all people are an asset. Later in this chapter we will show you how to pick the best people to be on your team. In order to extract the genius within your people, you must re-position the concept “competitive advantage” and employ a new strategy we call “people matrix.” People matrix is the process of extracting the genius within your people to create an environment that will serve those people in growing themselves and winning.

Leaders Will Lead: Either with You or Against You There are two types of leaders: those who are born and grow as natural leaders and those who have developed their leadership skills. Additionally, every person has the capacity to become a leader, though some will shun this role because of their personal demeanor (e.g. shyness) or because they do not want the responsibilities associated with leadership. Neither type of leader is better than the other, but there is one simple truth that you must know. Leaders will lead either with you or against you. Thus, it is best that you discover

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early which people on your team have natural or developed leadership skills and inclinations, so you can get them to help you lead the team in the direction that is beneficial to your vision. Most “trouble employees,” as they are often referred to, are natural leaders that are simply leading your team in a direction that does not match your vision. If you took that very “troubled employee” aside and extracted their inherent genius and personal skills, you could then place them in a leadership position that matches your vision of the team’s goals. In doing so, you would see that very troubled employee quickly become a great leader and a great employee. How do you identify a leader? There are several tactics that people use to identify leaders, but essentially all you need to do is pay attention to their actions. You will see those who naturally pull people to them. Also, people will naturally move toward that person and in the direction that person goes. For example, if you have a crisis situation, notice who takes charge and jumps in to help. If there is a fire drill at the office, who takes over and helps coordinate the exit? Some people, when asked to lead, will do so accordingly. But if there is a crisis situation and nobody is assigned to lead, someone will naturally rise to the surface and assume leadership. This is the person (or persons) who you want to call on as your assistant leaders.

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You want to make sure you have your assistant leaders sold on your vision, mission and goals because they will pull the rest of the workforce in line just like a magnet. Another fantastic tool to use we refer to as 4E’s and 1P and will be outlined a few pages from now in the section on evaluating your employees.

Passion Doors Along with identifying leaders, working with people’s passion is extremely important. We call this “finding and knocking on their passion door.” Essentially everyone has a passion door, something that really makes them tick. People will work 8 hours a day for a leader they respect, 10 to 12 hours a day for someone they like, but they will work relentlessly for something about which they are passionate. That being said, here is a success principle: No matter what type of team you are building or what project you are working on, everyone on your team could be and should be in line with their passion. As a leader, your absolute focus must be to find your team members’ passion doors and knock on these. If you can find a way to incorporate their passion into your vision, you will without a doubt greatly increase your chances of success. Below is a process to find and discover a passion door, but it

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is up to you to find a way to incorporate each team member’s passion into your vision. This is a unique process that successful leaders learn to do effectively. In order to elicit the passion door of each team member, ask these questions in the following order and take copious notes: 1.

What are you passionate about?

2.

What would you trade your life for?

3.

If you had to choose something to do for the rest of your life with no pay – what would it be?

4.

If I asked your best friend to describe what you are passionate for or about, how do you think he or she would answer?

(For a complete question worksheet on Finding Passion Doors, visit www.MESSYManager.com). By asking these four questions, you will without a doubt find out what each person’s passion door is. Now the challenge for you is to find a way to incorporate their passion into your vision. Often times, incorporating a person’s passion into your vision is not difficult. All you need to do is put them in a position where they are operating with that passion. For example, if you know Sam’s passion is writing and his current position is data entry, you must find a way to get Sam into a creative role

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where he can write. One way to do this would be to ask him to write your team’s newsletter. Or, Sam might be interested in report writing, which would be ideal if your team needs to prepare regular activity reports. Now this process of identifying each person’s Passion Door may take some time. But it is well worth the time and effort. You cannot expect to move everyone on the team to a new task, but with continuous effort you can reposition people to positions that leverage their passions. Most importantly, by utilizing this process you will see your team’s efficiency, effectiveness and demeanor at work skyrocket through the roof. Something to keep in mind is that good leaders do not attempt to control the work efforts of their team members. For example, now that you know Sam likes to write and he is doing your newsletter, do not tell him how to write the newsletter or how to format the project. Let him use his own creativity and imagination, because this is his passion. Most likely, since he is utilizing his passion, he will be much more creative than you for the newsletter. Just supply him with tools and some training if/when needed and let him go. Furthermore, this will allow you to focus on your own passion, since your passion is unlikely to be newsletters. Let Sam take hold of that project and empower him to lead the newsletter design and writing. He may decide he wants to go with an entirely new format and new theme, and as long as that new theme and new format is in line with your vision,

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let it happen! Also, always remember to compliment the people around you for their efforts, not just results. This will keep their Passion Doors open to you and the other members of the team!

Personal Story by Jean-Guy Leaders will lead either with you or against you. I learned this story running my first company. We had a great employee who was doing very well for us. She was generating good sales, had consistent compliments from her customers, and was relatively positive. She was not an outstanding employee, but definitely better than the average and very good for the company. After a year of working with her, I noticed that many of our employees were migrating to her and asking for advice or requesting training. She seemed to always be in the middle between the management and the employees, which seemed to be good at the time but it was concerning to me that all the employees were going to her instead of management. I felt vulnerable and did not understand. In talking with my mastermind group one day, someone said something that stuck with me forever; “Leaders will lead either for you or against you.” I realized at that very moment what she was doing. She was a “natural leader” and, although she was on a leave of absence so she could travel the world, she was leading our employees.

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I knew when she got back that I had to make a move. I either had to make her a manager, so she could lead the employees in the direction we wanted, or get rid of her so the employees could be lead by someone else in management. There was no two ways about it, something had to happen or management was going to lose control of the employees. We decided to promote her to management and that turned out very well for all of us.

The REAL Cost of Underperformance Most leaders and managers understand and agree they spend a lot of time (usually TOO much time) “putting out fires,” or “being the fixer,” or correcting mistakes. When you consider that Inc. Magazine reported that 23% of workers feel their colleagues are “DE-MOTIVATING,” you have a ripple effect that can cripple productivity. Inc. Magazine also reported that one hour per day is spent by leaders managing underperformance. Many corporate leaders have told us this claim is actually an understatement. When considered with the ripple effect of de-motivation, the hours spent correcting mistakes, the recruiting costs, and training costs, along with the costs of other people not performing, your business is spending a huge part of its annual budget tackling underperformance. For example, a business with five managers spends up to $62,500 just managing underperformance and if you consider that 23% of workers feel de-motivated, the time spent

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correcting mistakes, the hiring, recruiting and training costs, the business is most likely spending in excess of $300,000 on underperformance! Below is a table of the estimated cost of underperformance that takes into consideration underperformance, managing underperformance, recruiting, hiring and training based on the number of employees in an organization. Employees

10

20

50

100

200

500

Total:

$68,875

$133,375

$326,875

$645,000

$1,263,75

$3,093,750

(*Estimates) Go to www.MESSYManager.com for a worksheet to help you estimate the cost of underperformance in your own workplace.

How to Pick the Best People Selecting staff, whether it is a new employee or a transfer from another department, is often a tough decision for you have to find two kinds of correct matches – matching the skills of the potential hire to the skills required for the job function and matching their personality, drive, motivation and interpersonal skills with the other members of your team. Here are tools to help make this process easier for you. First, establish exactly the type of person you want and need, and the kind of behavior that will best mesh with your team. Commit this to paper so that you have a definite perspective on what you are seeking, not some kind of vague idea. Writing these key points down will help to clarify your thoughts.

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Secondly, look into your future growth and development needs, do not just hire to fill today’s gap. Always hire with tomorrow in mind. What would you expect from this employee in five years, ten years or even 20 years? Contrary to popular beliefs, people are creatures of habit and want to be gainfully employed for the rest of their lives with you. Hiring with this in mind will allow you to have the right people on your team as you grow. Thirdly, probe into each candidate’s Passion Doors. How will you be able to tap into their passion and leverage this for the accomplishment of your mission? Use the interview process to explain your vision (in broad strokes) to each candidate and ask probing questions to determine how well they fit, and whether your vision excites them. Lastly, revisit your vision and mission. Where and how does this person fit in? Never, ever just hire a warm body or an available pair of hands. Match the person to your written description. We have some helpful interview questionnaires available for your FREE use at www.MESSYManager.com.

Evaluating Your Employees After the hiring process has been completed, and your new employee has accepted your offer to join your team, you need to have a structured performance review process in place. For the first 90 days, evaluate the employee’s performance every week or two as suggested in the template at www. MESSYManager.com. You can modify this template to suit your needs and situation.

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This is a two-way document and an interactive process. Does the employee fit in with your vision and with the other team members as anticipated? Does the company fit in with the employee’s purpose and passion as expected? Remember, if this employee is not on purpose, he or she will not be happy and will turn out to be a problem or, at the very least, an unhappy employee. As with all other areas, you need to be sensitive but also brutally honest. Since the employee is on probation, if the employee does not fit for any reason, cut your ties immediately. If the employee does not meet your expectations or does not fit in with the team within the first 90 days, they will most likely fit even less in 180 or 360 days. You have to make the courageous decision for both you and your team, as well as for the employee, and cut your ties. Do them and your team a favor and make the hard decision. Once you have established after 90 days that this person is a keeper, then it is time to start using semi-annual performance evaluations. A very good way to do this is to use an evaluation system based on the 4 E’s, wrapped up, of course, in Passion. The 4 E’s stand for Energy, Energize, Edge, and Execute, and must be wrapped up in Passion. This method can also be used to score potential candidates during the interview process. Ask probing questions and use the 4 E’s template at www.MESSYManager.com. The performance evaluation process can be time consuming, but it is a leader’s job and you are not an effective leader if you are not doing this. This is your opportunity to give feedback to your direct reports and listen to what they have to say about your leadership. Review their performance against goals, what they have delivered, and how they delivered it.

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Evaluation Developing Your People Questions: 1. Why should you write a description of your ideal employee for a vacant position with the future in mind? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. Why should you make certain that the organization is right for the employee? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. Why should you evaluate and discuss the performance of your employees? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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_______________________________________________________ As a result of what you have learned in this chapter, what changes are you going to make to ensure that you now do things in a different way? 1. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

~Oliver Wendell Holmes



PRINCIPLE #6 - DEVELOPING YOUR ENVIRONMENT

PRINCIPLE #6

DEVELOPING YOUR ENVIRONMENT

P

ut your stamp on your team Your unique abilities are derived from your beliefs, thoughts and habits. You have been preparing for this moment for a long time, and it

is now time to leverage your unique abilities and take action. Your beliefs, attitudes and habits are exactly what have propelled you to read this book and make a decision to build a phenomenal work environment that focuses on promoting growth and wellness. At this very moment, those beliefs, thoughts and habits, whether you realize it or not, are exactly what your staff and team members are looking for. You are in this leadership position and you are a natural leader looking for change. Your personal stamp is what your environment needs. What do we mean by personal stamp? We mean, do not try to do what others have done in the past. You need something different to create a new kind of environment that will accomplish new stunning results. Therefore, feel free and

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grant yourself permission to think differently and implement the ideas that come to mind as you develop your plan. Of course, to be an effective leader you must be authentic. Most importantly, you must be yourself. You cannot imitate others, particularly any team leaders who have come before you, no matter how loved and respected they may have been. Surely you have heard the saying “we are all creatures of habit” before. It turns out to be more than just a saying. The truth is we really are creatures of habit. Studies have shown that 96% to 98% of our daily behavior is controlled by habits deeply ingrained in our subconscious minds. For example, do you remember that time when you drove to work and when you arrived, you asked yourself “how did I get here?” That was your subconscious mind doing the work for you. Your subconscious mind drives 96% to 98% of your daily habits and behavior. And that is just as true for your staff and team members as it is for you! You will need to break or modify habits – your own as well as those of your team members – to implement change. Additionally, it is critical to understand that the way people think – the way they process new information – is also habitual and is based on six intellectual faculties. Before we explain these six intellectual faculties, let us share a story with you on an important lesson learned about being one’s self.

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Personal Story by Michel I can clearly remember when I first took over a manager’s position. I was quite naturally unsure of myself and wanted to test the waters. I took slow baby steps and was even unusually tentative at times. At other times I was really nervous inside, even though I always exhibited a great deal of confidence and a totally positive attitude in interactions with my staff. I came to realize shortly after taking over this position that, in fact, I had been in leadership positions of one sort or another for most of my life. I also realized that I had been successful because I had always remained true to myself and to who I really was. From that moment on it seemed like a light came on and I made sure to be myself. In my end-of-year evaluation my manager openly admitted that he could see where I was quite clearly going. Even when I took those timid baby steps he had agreed with it. He realized that I was taking the organization in a very different direction than my predecessor, and he was very agreeable to it because it was in line with the corporate vision. The valuable lesson I learned from this is that I need to be myself. I also learned I do not need to worry about what other people might or might not think, as long as I continued moving in the direction of my vision I would be doing good. The bottom line: I need to stay true to myself. And in doing so I learned one of the best ways to develop your

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workplace is to simply be yourself.

Building Around Intellectual Faculties There are six intellectual faculties that you work with on a regular basis. In each of us some faculties are more developed than others. We encourage you to take a good look at which of the six you predominately use. The six intellectual faculties are: •

Reasoning ─ your way of thinking, analyzing, applying logic

•

Will ─ your determination, will power, spirit, strength of character

•

Memory ─ what and how you recall, your recollection (which can be “selective” and different from others)

•

Perception ─ your insight and acuity, your ability to observe, discern the “big picture” and/or the “finer details”

•

Imagination ─ your unique thoughts and your ability to conjure new perspectives or combine varying thoughts, facts, details into something new

•

Intuition ─ sometimes referred to as your “sixth sense” it is that gut feeling or internal instinct that tells you whether something is right, wrong, incongruous, or

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holistic You can find a basic definition of each in any dictionary and we give you ours on the following page. The important thing is that you must pay close attention to which faculties you tend use most. For example, someone who has a great memory will want to use that to his or her advantage to remember team member names in order to build better relationships. On the other hand, someone who is very intuitive can make decisions quicker than someone who has a very good reasoning factor. Of course, the flip side of this is that the person who is intuitive may have difficulty using reasoning to evaluate the rational reasons for a decision. Likewise, someone with a great reasoning faculty can easily explain how and why they made a decision. Also, someone with strong will just does not know the meaning of “give up” or how to compromise, and as a result they can tend to be relentless. When building a team, it is important to have people with different intellectual tendencies so that collectively you cover all six intellectual faculties. If your team comprises individuals all of whom are all intuitive, it will be more difficult to craft definite plans. Such a team composition would benefit with the inclusion of someone with a good reasoning factor to add significant value to the planning process. The first step in your own development plan is to ensure you understand what intellectual faculties you use most often. Then you need to get a feeling for how each person on your

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team fares in this regard. Go to www.MESSYManager.com to download this valuable tool. Score yourself, as well as each individual member of your team, on a scale from 0 to 5, with 0 meaning that intellectual faculty is not used at all and 5 indicating that it is a keenly developed and honed skill. You should also have each team member do their own self assessment, so that you can compare your perception with theirs. Name: ________________________ Date: _________________________ Reasoning: the process of drawing conclusions from facts. (____) Will: the power of the mind to keep focused on one idea above all else. Someone who is strong willed does not give up, they are relentless. (____) Memory: the ability to remember or keep in the mind (____) Perception: the ability to see different sides to a situation. Someone with good perception can often take themselves out of a situation and see another person’s point of view. (____) Imagination: the action of imagining; power

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of forming pictures in the mind of things not present to the senses. (____) Intuition:

the

immediate

perception

or

understanding of truths, facts, or events, without reasoning. (____) Once all members of the team have evaluated themselves, it is now time to graph the results and see how your team is built. The idea is that you are looking for diversity and to build a team that can represent all aspects of the six intellectual faculties. It can be a frustrating experience to work in a team that is predominately run by just one or two faculties. All six intellectual faculties are absolutely necessary to a great team and to building an environment that promotes growth and wellness. If your team does not have all six of the faculties, you have a decision to make. You can either have certain team members develop new faculties or you can recruit new members to your team in order to fill the void. If you have the ability to recruit new members, perhaps by replacing a current team member, this is often the best solution, especially if the current composition is dominated by only one or two intellectual faculties. For example, if you have three members with strong will and one person voluntarily wants to move onto another team (department or workplace), you should accept their decision and immediately look to recruit a new team member that

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will integrate and bring a different intellectual faculty to your team’s composition. On the other hand, if recruiting and replacing team members is not an option, you can always see who wants to develop new intellectual faculties and help that person develop that new faculty. Every person on the team should work to develop all six intellectual faculties, but most will always predominately use only one or two. Developing intellectual faculties is simply a process of becoming aware and challenging yourself to work with that faculty. For example, if you are not an intuitive person but want to develop that faculty, all you must do is act on your intuition on a consistent basis. By eventually acting on your intuition it will become a habit and you will then consider yourself an intuitive person. The same process applies for all six intellectual faculties

Systems that Support Your Vision and Mission As you grow and your business leadership influence grows, you will want to implement systems that will drive towards your vision. Your operational systems must mesh with your goals and mission to reach your vision. You must make sure that your systems, symbols and behaviors all line up to drive your vision to reality. For example, how you use your daily activity planner can

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give your personal productivity a boost. You have probably never thought of your daily planner as a “system” before. Now you will. Here is one simple way you can use your day planner to help ensure you remain focused on your A1 goal – write your goal down every day at the top of the next day’s planner page, and then make sure you write six things you will do tomorrow in pursuit of that goal. Rank these six action items in order of importance so that, the next morning when you get up, you are ready and prepared to hit the ground running. If you start each day with the #1 action task, and do not go to number two until the first one is done, you will make an important step towards your goal. Keep on working through your priority action items throughout the course of the day. If time does not permit you to accomplish all six, then most likely these become the priority items for the following day. At the end of every day, rate your day so that you will know which areas to improve upon. You will be amazed how much greater your productivity will improve on a daily basis through the use of this tool. Your day and your activities will become focused and you will move more rapidly nearer to the achievement of your goal.

Productivity Template We just mentioned doing a daily review your activities. This is a new activity that you want to develop into a daily habit.

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The first step is to make a list of all the activities you do by logging every 15 minutes throughout the day what you have been doing. At the end of the week, or over the weekend, spend half an hour going through your five lists of daily activities. Compile and categorize the activities as you see best. Note which activities have produced the results you wanted, which were merely administrative tasks, and which ones sucked up time that you wish had been better spent on something else. Most likely, when you have completed your analysis, you will find the Pareto rule in play – meaning that 80% of your results are probably generated by 20% of your activities. Highlight these result producing activities. They should now become your new list of the activities you should be doing either more of or more often. Post this list somewhere where you can constantly see it. Now, of the 80% that only produce 20% of your results, choose three that you will stop doing, either by assigning them to someone else to do or by eliminating the need for them. It is very easy to go back to your old habits, so review your activity log list every day for 30 days to make sure you have truly stopped doing these three activities. Through this process, you will eliminate 12 or so activities every month that are taking your time away from the 20% of activities that are producing the results you desire. Another key to productivity is not to just stop time

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consuming habits, but to replace them with better habits. Otherwise, the stopped activity will simply be replaced with another time consuming one. The best way to take control over productivity wasting activities is to start a new, good habit. Doing so not only forces out your bad habit, but helps to make sure there is no room for another bad habit to creep into your daily activity pattern. For additional information and templates, please visit www. MESSYManager.com.

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Evaluation Developing Your Workplace Questions: 1. Why should you always be yourself? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. Why are you exactly what your team needs? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. How can you put your own personal stamp on your team? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ As a result of what you have learned in this chapter, what

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changes are you going to make to ensure that you will now do things in a different way? 1. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ ____________________________________________ 3. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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“Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.”

~Eddie Rickenbacker




PRINCIPLE #7

RECOGNITION AND REWARDS

N

ow that you have developed your team and instituted new systems and procedures in your workplace, you need to think about how you will recognize and reward both the efforts of your staff and the results that are produced. There are four major types of employee and staff recognition available to you. These are: •

day-to-day

•

above-and-beyond

•

career recognition

•

celebration events

All four are detailed below.

Day-to-Day Recognition Day-to-day recognition is used to communicate to an

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PRINCIPLE #7 - RECOGNITION AND REWARDS

employee that they are doing their job well and they should keep up their good work. There are two different types of day-to-day recognitions used. Day-to-Day Type 1: The first type of day-to-day recognition is either free or low cost, and is typically given out in a non-formal setting. Every employee must receive this type of recognition at least every seven business days. These types of recognition include, but are not limited to, emails, thank you notes, handwritten notes or letters of appreciation, thank you cards, a handshake, a pat on the back or any type of verbal praise. Day-to-Day Type 2: The second type of day-to-day recognition is used four to six times per year within your department. Type 2 day-to-day recognition typically comprises low cost, tangible items. This can include coffee, donuts, lunch, gift certificate for dinner, a basket of food, flowers, movie tickets, hockey tickets, a gas card, or any other tangible items which have an approximate value of $25 to $50.

Above-and-Beyond (Bronze, Silver, Gold) Recognition Every two years, every employee needs to receive an aboveand-beyond performance award. For this type of award there are three different categories: bronze, silver and gold.

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Bronze

awards

recognize

one-time

above-and-beyond

behavior that is in-line with the company’s mission and vision. This might include someone saving the day, taking care of an angry customer, taking on additional duties, staying late or starting early to complete an important project, finding a way to improve a process, or coming up with a creative solution to a problem. Most importantly, the above-and-beyond award should always be specific to the recipient (get to know your colleagues!). This award could be presented in a semi-formal environment like the lunchroom or shop floor. However you do it, make sure the employee is publicly recognized, appreciated, thanked, and rewarded. Silver awards recognize on-going above-and-beyond behavior that is in-line with the company’s mission and vision. Staff become eligible candidates for these awards by constantly taking on challenges, implementing creative solutions to a range of problems, or improving processes and procedures. These awards range from $100 to $500 and are publicly presented. Gold awards recognize behaviors that produce bottom-line results for the company. These may be one-time or ongoing achievements and are the highest level of above-and-beyond awards. An example of this level award would be developing a new system that saves money, improves productivity, or boosts profits. Other worthy gold award actions might include winning an industry award, breaking a performance record,

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landing a major new customer, or achieving a top production goal. These awards recognize that the actions of a specific employee, or group of employees (Gold above-and-beyond awards are very suitable for team performance), have influenced your financial statements and your bottom-line performance. The level of award will depend on the impact and the sky is the limit but most often these awards are $500 or more. It is absolutely critical and essential that this award be presented publicly in front of the entire company or as many staff as possible. To make this even more memorable for the winning staff, you might even surprise them by having their family members attend the presentation ceremony without them knowing. News of the award should also be widely disseminated throughout

the

organization,

through

your

internal

newsletters, bulletin boards, emails, and any other ways you normally communicate with staff.

Career Service Recognition The first welcome career service award is presented at 90 days after employment started. This welcome award is an item, such as a plaque or a memento, which has the company’s logo and symbol and is presented publicly. When presenting the award, be sure you communicate gratitude that they are part of your team, such as: “Every time you look at this welcome award, I hope you will be

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reminded of the importance of the work you do and how your growing role is making us a better company today than we were 90 days ago when you first joined us.” Before the award is presented, we recommend you take the new employee into your office and ask the following questions so you have a chance to learn first-hand how their initial probationary period has gone: 1.

You have been here for three months now, have we lived up to our promises to you?

2.

What do you think we do best here? I would like to get your fresh perspective.

3.

At your other jobs, I am sure you have seen things that worked really well. Is there anything you have seen elsewhere that you think we might be able to use and make our company better?

4.

Have we done anything in the last 90 days that would cause you to leave us?

You should present a career service award at each of the following milestones: 90 days, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years, 10 years, and then every five years thereafter. You can make use of a theme, like at the Emmy Awards or Grammy Awards… a theme that would match your industry or your product sector.

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Presentation Guidelines The presentation of any award is a critical component of how the award is perceived by the recipient and all other staff. The presentation must be taken very seriously and a best practice presentation formula should be followed. There are eight components to an effective award presentation, which we will outline here. Please use this presentation template to ensure all eight components are properly prepared. 1.

Be specific: When presenting an award, it is crucial that you are specific (who, when, where, why, and how) on why the employee is getting that award. Do not simply say things like “to reward your hard work.” You have to be specific, such as: “Joe, your performance on that last project was exceptional. I appreciate how you started early and stayed late most nights and also you gave phenomenal customer service which brought the project home for us.” Also, make your comments as personal as you feel comfortable with, as this recognition and reward should be seen as coming from you personally in addition to coming from the organization.

2.

Be timely: One of the most essential components of presenting an award is timeliness. An award must be presented when the behavior is observed or shortly thereafter. For example, if you are presenting a 90-day service award, you must take the time to present the

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award on the actual day or the closest business day if it happens to fall on a weekend or public holiday. Waiting an additional month is unacceptable and the award will lose its value as a result of lacking timeliness. Another example would be if you observe above-and-beyond performance, you must recognize the performance immediately or within a few days, so the behavior is fresh in the employee’s mind. Waiting a few weeks or a month is simply not acceptable and detracts from the intended benefits of the award. 3.

Be frequent: Do not hesitate to provide awards as frequently as possible. If you are concerned about your employees becoming “dependent” on awards, don’t be! Will employees expect more recognition? Yes they will! Employees eat up recognition. When recognition is provided regularly, people stick around for seconds and thirds, all the while turning out increasingly better results. And this is a problem?

4.

Be sincere: You are building a culture of recognition and doing something for someone just to get something in return is not the objective. When you provide recognition be sincere and concentrate only the employee and their positive contributions (not “BUT” or negative statements). Never say things like, “You did a great job on the last project by staying late, but we have to talk about some problems that need correcting.” Never, ever say anything negative in an award presentation. Only positive recognition is allowed and you must be sincere

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in your words of praise. 5.

Hand them the award personally: It is very important not to be nonchalant with the award. Do not disrespect the award by sliding it across the table or just tossing it at the person receiving the award. Treat the award with respect and hand it to the recipient with a proper handshake, which will give the award additional value and more meaning to the recipient.

6.

Do not make any jokes and certainly do not make it a roast: A roast is when you poke fun at someone in a public setting. Many people resort to roasting or joking because they are uncomfortable with speaking in front of people. The only cure for fear of speaking is practice, practice, practice! At all costs, do not make it a roast of the person; otherwise it will completely discredit everything you have worked so hard to build and you will most likely have to rebuild all that trust and credibility.

7.

Alignment: Tie it back to the company vision, mission and values. In all of your presentations, it is paramount that you relate the award and the recipient’s actions back to the company’s mission and vision. This must happen every time without fail. Let’s build on the last example. “Joe, your performance on that last project was exceptional. I appreciate how you started early and stayed late most nights, and also you gave phenomenal

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customer service which brought the project home for us. Joe, by staying late and starting early you have really contributed to our company’s mission of commitment to completion and commitment to excellence, and for that Joe I will be forever grateful. Thank you!” 8.

Give peers a chance to acknowledge: Do not be afraid to ask some other staff or peers of the recipient to comment. The simple question to be used is to ask: “Does anyone else have anything to say about Joe’s great performance?” Another option is to speak with a colleague or two before the presentation and ask them if you can call on them at the end of the presentation for additional feedback. This will give them a few minutes to prepare for your question and usually results in a better answer.

The most valuable resource we have found on reward and recognition programs is a book written by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton titled The Carrot Principle. we highly recommend this book to you.

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Evaluation Recognition and Rewards Questions: 1. Why should you reward effort as well as results? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. What types of day-to-day recognition would your staff prefer? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. How quickly could you implement a new recognition and rewards program? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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As a result of what you have learned in this chapter, what changes are you going to make to ensure that you will now do things in a different way? 1. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

~Albert Einstein



PRINCIPLE #8 - POWER OF PERSUASION

PRINCIPLE #8

POWER OF PERSUASION

E

veryone is afraid of sales but the fact is that those who can sell get through life having more of what they want compared to those who cannot sell.

That’s a bold statement! Why would we say such a thing? Great question! The truth is that life is one big sales pitch. All you are doing from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed is trying to influence people. Influencing people, of course, is a primary part of sales. Let’s take a look at a typical daily example. You wake up and one of the first things you do if you have children is feed them. When feeding them, you are continually influencing their decisions. What they eat (oatmeal or cookies), when they eat (not too soon or they will be hungry before noon, but not too late because then you will be late), whether they pick up after themselves (please pick up your dishes), so on and so forth. You are looking at three sales pitches before 8am at this point.

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Then you get in the car with your spouse and the sales pitch continues. You want to grab a coffee but your spouse is scared to be late for work, so you “sell them” into forgoing their fear for just a few minutes while you pick up a coffee. This goes on all day, every day, for the rest of your life. Now let’s focus on your work. That too is one big sales fest. You walk through the door and you have to start selling your ideas, your plans, your products, and your services. And not just to customers. You have to sell to your staff and to your bosses as well. Now let’s talk about selling your products and service. Selling is a phenomenal job and always the higher paid people are sales people. Understand that the lowest paid people are also sales people. Five percent of sales people earn 95 percent of all the commissions because they have learned to sell. We are huge believers in Jeffrey Gitomer’s mantra “People do not like to be sold, but they love to buy.” That is more than just a mantra, it’s a philosophy! This simple statement is an absolute truth and the faster you recognize its inherent truth, the faster you can begin to reap its rewards. We will get into this in just a little bit. Just as important, great leaders know that this same mantra applies equally to staff, for those on your team do not want to be sold new ideas but would rather buy into them. Hence, the sales model we will introduce to you in a moment can (and

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should) be used with your staff and colleagues as well as in more typical sales scenarios with prospects and customers. Why would I want you to learn sales? First of all, it is important because all successful leaders have the ability to influence others (i.e. sell them on their ideas, plans, products, and services). Secondly, to be at the top of an organization, whether it is yours or not, you need to be able to sell the company’s product and services. When you start out in sales, you may start by selling individual products and services. But as you climb the organizational ladder, selling remains the same process, albeit just on a bigger scale. Instead of selling a single product and service, you may be selling in bulk. Then you keep climbing and start selling oneto-many (i.e. selling from the stage). As you continue climbing up in the organization, you begin selling to prospective partners and creating joint-venture deals. But, no matter how big the deal, the same selling process always applies! So let’s get right into it. Let’s reconsider the philosophy, “People do not like to be sold, but they love to buy.” The only task is NOT to learn how to sell, but rather learn how to create a “buying environment.” If you can put yourself in front of people who can say yes (the right decision maker) and create a buying environment (with this sales model), you will be wildly successful in sales.

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The following model works exceptionally well to sell your ideas, products and services. I outlined above that life is one big sales pitch to show you that it is not just about selling your product and service; it is really all about the power of persuasion.

The PQ Sales Model The PQ Sales Model is based on questions, particularly Power Questions. Questions are the most important component of any sales process. Yet 95 percent of sales people do not know how important questions are, let alone which questions to ask and how to ask them. Another belief you need to adopt is “ask the wrong question, get the wrong answers.” If you get a “no,” that would certainly be the wrong answer if you are trying to sell! But the only reason why you would get a “no” response as an answer would be because you asked the wrong question (assuming you are in front of the right person). Look at this process as taking a customer down a path. You are the guide and you are guiding the customer down the path of success with your questions. The first part of any sales process is to build trust and rapport with the customer. You do this by doing your research (check out their website the night before) and establishing points of common interest. If you notice your customer is in Toastmasters and you are also in Toastmasters, you can open the discussion by asking

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an open-ended question like: I noticed Mr. Jones that you are a member of Toastmasters International. I am also a member. What do you like best about the experience? Once you get the customer’s answer, you would continue to probe with a few follow-up questions to try and obtain a clue on his Dominant Buying Motive (more on this later). These follow-up questions might include: How did you get involved? This will tell you if he was referred by another person. If so, you know he trusts the opinions of others. Therefore you should be ready with your past customer references. Did you go as a guest before joining? If so, how often did you go? This will tell you how he makes decisions. Is he slow and methodical or emotional and a quick decision maker? This information will help you complete the sale later. After some of this back and forth, you will sense a level of comfort starting to be established, and the prospective customer will feel more at ease to speak with you about himself and his business. As you will see, power questions can be personal, so you

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need to establish a sense of trust and rapport. Our rule is to make friends by building trust and rapport before you start selling, or do not start at all! A question we get all the time is, “What if the customer starts with how much is it?” There is a very simple answer to this question: “Mr. Jones, I could not even answer that if I tried, because I do not know enough about you or your business yet.” Then follow up with this response: “Mr. Jones, I was on your website yesterday and I have a few questions about how you service your customers. My first question is… (now go into your power question).” There are five components to the PQ Sales Model: 1. Ask a Power Question 2. Ask a Follow Up Question 3. Offer a solution and an answer 4. Ask a Commitment Question 5. Get a commitment The PQ Sales Model allows you to create a buying environment where the customer feels comfortable saying yes to you and

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to your product and/or service. Keep going through the PQ Sales Model until you have built enough trust and commitment so the customer feels safe saying yes! As you ask your questions, always, and I mean always, take notes. It builds trust and also allows you a point of reference. Your first task: Be clear about your primary objective. Your Primary Objective is to Establish Dominant Buying Motives! Some examples of Dominant Buying Motives: •

Make more money

•

Get more leads

•

Increase profits

•

Reduce stress

•

Live a better lifestyle

•

Live a healthier lifestyle

Once you establish the customer’s Dominant Buying Motive you can use that to move the customer into action. If they do not say yes, do not fret. There are probably a few objections to work through. You will notice in using the PQ Sales Model that you will get fewer objections than when using a

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traditional sales process where you are essentially bullying your customer into a “yes.” There are a million buying motives and it is your job to find the dominant buying motive with your customer. You will notice that with your product and service there are typically three to five dominant buying motives that keep coming up. Knowing this is a good thing, so now you do not have to test and sort through a million, but rather just three to five. Coincidentally you will also notice that when you use the PQ Sales Model you get fewer after sales complaints because the decision making process the customer just experienced was very natural and they trust you. Therefore they are happy with their buying decision.

The PQ Sales Model in Action Let’s walk through an example of the PQ Sale Model together. 1.

What would you do Mr. Prospect if you lost your two top customers? (wait for answer)

2.

What are you doing to keep that from happening? What steps do you take to keep your customers loyal? (wait for answer)

3.

I have had countless clients use the power of Infusionsoft and Follow Up Sequences to automate client follow up and client services. This would allow you to keep the majority of your customers on auto pilot and focus more

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individual attention on your top customers. 4.

The value of Follow Up Sequence has been instrumental in several of my clients building sustainable businesses practices that allows time to retain their top and most profitable customers. Can you see that being useful in your business?

5.

YES!! (you always want to get a Yes and a commitment of some type)

Here are a series of questions we developed for a client who was selling a marketing service: •

What is your current income goal?

•

Are you on track to hit your goal?

•

What is a major cause for you possibly not hitting your goal?

•

What kinds of things are you doing to make sure you hit your goal?

•

One quick idea I have is: write your goals down every day before starting on anything. Here’s my productivity template.

•

Will this be helpful? (YES!!)

•

How often in the last five years have you hit your income goal? On average let’s say?

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•

That productivity template is really going to help I think – what do you think? (YES!!)

•

What type of personal development plan do you have in place for yourself?

•

Do you think a personal development plan is important?

•

Do you have an “education fund” for your own self development?

•

I put aside 5% of my income to reinvest in myself. Over the years, I have invested well over $50,000 on my own development.

•

Can you see any value in establishing an education fund? (YES!!)

•

What are the main components of your marketing strategy?

•

How is that working for you?

•

How do you measure your marketing strategy’s effectiveness?

•

Do you measure cost per prospect? Meaning how much you are spending to get a prospect and also cost per customer.

•

Our clients have found that to be very useful. Here is how it works. First total up your marketing budget

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(yours is about $x) and divide that by your number of new customers per annum (do you track that?). •

So you are looking at $4000/100 = $40 per client. This way you can put it on a spreadsheet and track it over the long term.

•

Where do your leads come from? How do you generate new sales leads?

•

How is that working for you?

•

Based on the number of leads you are generating, is that enough to get you to your income goal?

•

How many leads would you need to generate? Let’s figure that out.

•

If I can help you get those leads, would be interested? OF COURSE!! YES!!

To reinforce this example, we have prepared an audio file that walks you through an actual example where we are asking questions to a prospective customer and as they answer we analyze their answers. You can get that audio file at www. MESSYManager.com.

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Evaluation Power of Persuasion Questions: 1. Why is it important to develop rapport before you start selling? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. How comfortable are you with selling? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. Why is asking the right questions so important in selling? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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As a result of what you have learned in this chapter, what changes are you going to make to ensure that you will now do things in a different way? 1. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

~Thomas Edison




PRINCIPLE #9

ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH AND CORPORATE WELLNESS PROGRAMS Viral Effect

W

hat affects you affects your entire organization. When the leader loses drive and energy, the organization goes into neutral. If this last long enough, the organization will eventually start to slide backward. As you must take care of your own health, you must also take care of the health of the organization. Your body is the house you rent while on this earth. You need to treat it well and with respect because it is the only one you have or that you can get. You can repair it, modernize it, and customize it, but do not abuse it too long because it has to last you a lifetime! Take good care of it and treat it with respect. As the saying goes, “A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.” U.S. President John F. Kennedy may have said it best,

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PRINCIPLE #9 - ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH AND CORPORATE WELLNESS PROGRAMS

“Physical fitness is not only one of the most dynamic keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.” As we have said many times throughout this book: thinking leads to feelings, feelings lead to action, and action leads to results. This is one of the most basic of laws and applies equally to your physical health as it does to your mental health.

Personal Story by Michel Let me tell you a quick story that you will be able to relate to. As the years went by, I added more and more weight to my already overloaded body. Unknowingly my health started going down more and more and I ended up in intensive care unit with congenital heart failure. After three days in the intensive care, I realized that I had not smoked a single cigarette, a terrible habit I had since the age of 12. As I had 40 years of nicotine in my body, I had been unable to stop before. After three days I decided that I could last one more day… and one more…. and one more … and I have never smoked since. Naturally I had lost a lot of weight in my two week stay in the hospital, but I eventually gained it all back and some more. About a year and a half later… the doctor told me that it was now time to tackle the weight issue.

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Through the same theories in this book, I was able to change my eating habits, my exercise paradigms and habits and two years later I had lost 100 pounds and I was still smoke free. The beautiful thing is that through all of this I participated in a variety of programs at work, some of which I introduced. Happily, around 95% of our workforce also participated in the program. There was a total mind shift for the whole work force and some of the employees were commenting that a year earlier the employees were talking of hunting and drinking beer around the lunchroom table; and a year later they were talking nutrition and exercise… totally amazing. Throughout the year we even had 100 % participation in some of the events we conducted. After two years, our annual insurance assessment report gave us an astounding review; our prescription costs were down by 15%; stress related absences and sickness were down by 50 percent and profits were up 50%. Without a doubt, the results were quite astounding. Try it. You will be amazed. When you do try it, give it your best shot… put your best foot forward. A healthy workforce is one of the keys to better productivity in the work place. A healthy workforce may also be one of the keys to better bottom line profits. As reported in FORTUNE magazine in mid 2010, “Over the past two decades, medical insurance costs have continued to

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spiral upward, taking a huge bite out of corporate budgets ─ and workers’ paychecks ─ as companies have shifted more of the financial burden to employees.” In that same article, Tom Parry, president of Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI), a nonprofit supplier of health and productivity research based in San Francisco, is quoted as saying companies cannot “wait for healthcare reform to come down from the government. They are reforming their own healthcare costs by recognizing that healthy workers cost less, are more productive, and are better for the company as a whole.” Leaders of many successful companies understand the longterm benefits of investing corporate resources in workplace health and wellness programs. The programs being rolled out typically help employees stop smoking, lose weight, or increase fitness and stamina. More innovative programs are now helping employees manage health risks such as stress and chronic conditions such as diabetes and asthma. The truly big opportunity for business leaders today is to build and sustain a culture of health within their organizations. With this in hand, look at the list of symptoms below. These easily noticeable symptoms will lead to the feelings listed under “employee reaction” and will spread virally throughout your organization. In turn, this will lead to a series of impacts on both the organization and you.

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Developing Organizational Wellness Programs When summarizing your business goals you will find that almost all your goals link back to two primary desires. That is, you want to either increase revenues or decrease costs. Your reaction to this might be, “what about profits?” Well, profits are a result from a combination of raising revenues and decreasing costs.

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Any corporate wellness program should do just that – increase revenues and decrease costs. Jean-Guy has had extensive experience with corporate wellness programs for the past 20 years, and can attest to the fact that these programs, when properly developed and executed, excel at helping to decrease workplace stress, lower absenteeism, increase employee morale, and boost productivity. When considering organizational wellness programs, there are four broad categories for investigation and evaluation: •

On-site wellness programs

•

Off-site wellness programs

•

Employee benefits packages

•

Organized programs

All four have the same objective – helping to ensure the wellness and health of your staff, and thereby increasing the overall health of your organization. Let’s take a look at each alternative in detail.

On-site Wellness Programs On-site wellness options include such services as building and offering gym or health club services (physical fitness, working out) at your place of work.

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Another popular on-site option is to introduce and implement an at-work Registered Massage Therapy service. Many individual massage therapists will provide on-site services on a regularly scheduled basis. Other on-site options include chiropractic, physiotherapy, yoga, fitness classes, aerobics, or Pilates (a system of physical conditioning involving low-impact exercises and stretches performed on special equipment). With on-site wellness programs, you must look for a company to come on premise and administer the services, which in some cases is easier than finding a trusted supplier and creating a strategic program with that supplier. Another point to consider is that the success ratio for on-site programs is considerably higher than off-site programs. Choose an on-site partner that has been in business for some time (minimum five years) and has the infrastructure to support you. Be sure to interview them intensely to confirm that their philosophy is in harmony with yours. We have a set of clear guidelines to help you chose an onsite message therapist or other service providers at www. MESSYManager.com.

Off-site Wellness Programs Off-site wellness options are the same as on-site options except the execution of the program is different. Basically, every on-site option has a matching off-site alternative. For

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instance, the off-site alternative to building a gym or health club on site would be to create a strategic alliance with a nearby and convenient gym or health club and send your employees to this establishment. Your team members will undoubtedly respond more favorably to an on-site program than to an off-site program. Check out your insurance company’s website or other insurance sites. They also can provide you with phenomenal FREE tools to build a work environment of growth and wellness. One of their must have tools is a Stress Survey, which is simple to use and provides incredibly valuable information for a manager.

Employee Benefits Packages One common mistake we have seen from managers is they are not wholly aware of what is included in their organization’s employee benefits program. Many of your employees are most likely confused and frustrated when it comes to their benefits program. If they fully knew what was included in their benefits package, they would be more likely to take action and get involved in different wellness options. For example, at one company where we consulted, many of the employees were living with numerous aches and pains they did not know how to deal with. Unfortunately, almost all of them were unaware that most employee benefits plans cover the basics of wellness such as Massage Therapy, Physiotherapy or Chiropractic treatments. What

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we recommended in this particular instance was use of our Benefits Summary Worksheet, which is available at www. MESSYManager.com. In your situation, only one person, typically a committee leader or perhaps even yourself, will read the employee benefits documentation in detail and complete the summary worksheet. From there, you can forward this summary worksheet to all employees. The summary worksheet is designed to simplify the detailed employee benefits documentation and essentially summarizes all the documentation into a simple to understand matrix that instantly shows employees where they can seek help and what is covered by their benefits plan. Clear communication and clarity of your employee benefits plan are important steps in creating a useful corporate wellness program. Go to www.MESSYManager.com and work with your employee benefits provider to populate this easy-to-use matrix.

Organized Programs Organized corporate wellness programs are typically custom designed by industry experts or those who have had experience with human resource management. Organized program are a vital part of any wellness option, as they include the entire workforce in a gentle, subtle manner that motivates even the most lethargic and least fit staff to participate. Because organized programs are customized for each workplace, it is difficult to discuss here the wide range

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of different types. However, as we have seen many organized programs first hand, we have compiled a “passport program” which we feel is truly indicative of most workplaces. You can access this at www.MESSYManager.com. The objective of an organized program is to have the entire workforce participate, which ultimately should increase motivation and team dynamics. This increases revenues and helps to decrease the costs associated with underperformance, absenteeism and staff turnover.

Starting a Corporate Wellness Program After years of experience, and having worked with hundreds of clients, we recommend you tackle all four of the above corporate wellness options to a certain degree. Each option has significant benefits and can really transform your workplace. The first step to discovering which wellness option to start with is a Stress Survey. If you find that you or your staff have elevated levels of stress, you must follow with a program to address this issue. Keep in mind that, as the health and wellness of you and your employees improves, productivity, loyalty and passion will increase exponentially. The application and implementation of any corporate wellness program should be a continuous effort and not a one-time idea. Many companies make the mistake of trying one of the four wellness options, but only doing a test run and never fully implementing the program.

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For example, we have seen companies which have organized an on-site massage therapy program, but provided this only once per year. There are certainly some benefits to such a program (after all something is always better than nothing), but the benefits are limited and extremely short lasting. This once-a-year approach can be effectively used as a good recognition and reward for a team’s efforts, but this will not make a significant change in your workplace environment in terms of employee and organizational health. In order for a significant change in your workplace environment to take place, you must implement all four types of wellness options. The reason to implement all four is because when you implement only one option you can easily miss the participation of 50% or more of your team/staff. This is because some people do not like to go to a gym and some will not want to take part in an on-site massage program. Even when your corporate wellness program is 100% paid for by the company, and does not cost the employee anything, some staff still may not participate if only limited options are available. However, with a four-prong approach that includes an onsite program, off-site options, better usage of employee benefits packages, and a tailored organized program that meets the specific needs of your staff, you are more likely to garner 80+% participation across all business units. And, if you commit to working with these four wellness options on a continuous basis, you will see significant changes in your workplace environment that will quickly become permanent!

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Obtaining CEO Approval If you work in a large organization, it is unlikely you can start a corporate wellness program just for your department or division. Hence, you need to sell this idea to the senior executive team for organization-wide implementation. And that, of course, means selling to your CEO (time to re-hone your sales and persuasion skills and refer back to the PQ sales model under Principle #8)! There is only ONE reason why a CEO would reject a corporate wellness proposal – not enough resources! The CEO’s position is to manage resources and there are four main resources he or she has to manage: activities, money, people and technology. If the corporate wellness proposal is not presented properly, the CEO will see this wellness program as a drain on one of these limited resources and immediately reject the proposal. Any good corporate wellness proposal must line up with the business goals of the organization and clearly demonstrate how it will not be a drain on resources (time, money, people or technology). If the wellness proposal can do these two things, the likelihood of it being accepted increases significantly. Having said this, keep in mind that the return to the organization from your corporate wellness program is based on the energy and resources put into the program; therefore, do not cut corners in the design of the program simply to cut costs. That recipe will simply not work.

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Additionally, a workplace wellness proposal must be organized in such a way that it provides enough information to establish the key benefits, but not too much detail that the CEO cannot digest the pertinent essentials. The CEO is very busy and any proposal should be kept to a minimum length. Furthermore, there needs to be a clear connection between your workplace wellness proposal and the strategic objectives of the business. Many CEOs agree corporate wellness is important, but immediately jump to a conclusion that it will drain resources. After the proposal has established credibility by being in line with the strategic objectives of the business, the proposal must demonstrate how it will not drain the resources but enhance them! We have designed a handy proposal template which you can obtain at www.MESSYManager.com. This template is organized in such a way that it readily facilitates your task and all you need to do is replace certain sections with your specific company information. Remember earlier we discussed that a key success principle is persistence. The CEO may make a hasty decision immediately, but you must be persistent because this idea is too revolutionary to simply give up. You must probe for details as to why it did not get approved and work with the CEO to ensure you meet his needs to get eventual approval. The proposal provided at www.MESSYManager.com comes with a list of common mistakes to avoid. Good luck!

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Return on Investment Return on investment is important to most CEOs and business leaders. Studies have shown that any organizational wellness initiative implemented will return $3.40 for every $1.00 invested. We believe the return on investment (ROI) can be much greater when you consider the ripple effect of a wellness program. Evaluating ROI is not an easy task because only some benefits are quantifiable, such as decrease in staff turnover and decrease in absenteeism. The other clear benefits should be an increase in revenue as a result of the leap in employee motivation. The fact of the matter is that if your team or organization is looking to grow faster than the competition, or make gains in workplace productivity, a workplace wellness program is the basis of all initiatives. Absenteeism is often focused upon because there is a high cost to absenteeism. Businesses in Canada spend in excess of $3 billion per year on absenteeism. A workplace program demonstrates to your employees that you care. It also demonstrates that the organization understands the challenges of a career. Most organizations demand that employees respect the organization, but the organization does very little to respect the employee. A workplace wellness program is about respecting the employees and understanding their needs as human beings. ROI can be difficult to measure, but without a doubt if you

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put into operation a workplace wellness program that is thoroughly implemented, you will see the following benefits: •

Increased motivation, which most often leads to increased revenue and lower expenses

•

Decreased absenteeism

•

Decreased employee turnover

•

Positive contribution to business objectives

•

Respectful environment

•

Positive atmosphere

This new workplace environment will match the needs of the workforce to the demands of the business.

Wellness Programs are Contagious! When you get a corporate wellness program started, it is essential to work with your new leadership principles and get your key players involved. Those natural leaders you discovered in Principle #5 must “buy-in” to your corporate wellness program and demonstrate passion. If you clearly communicate your vision and take ownership of the wellness program, your key players should not have difficulty buying into the program. If you feel they are not committed to the program, you must take immediate action and explain to them why a workplace wellness program is so important and

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why they should actively participate. We recommend you give them a copy of this book! If you implement a four-prong wellness program that is applied consistently (weekly, bi-weekly or monthly) and you have the active participation of your key players, you will without a doubt see a ripple effect throughout the organization and people will flock to participate in the wellness program. Of course not everybody will participate in all four options, but you can expect that 80% or more should participate in at least one of the four options provided. With this type of participation, you will see significant change in workplace morale, increased motivation, positive atmosphere (people will be happier, complaints will dissipate), and better employee performance evaluations. All of this should lead to decreased expenses and increased revenues, as well as a happier, more efficient, and more effective workplace.

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Evaluation Organizational Health and Corporate Wellness Programs Questions: 1. What are the benefits of a corporate wellness program? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. What can you expect from a workplace wellness program? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. Why should you start a corporate wellness program? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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_______________________________________________________ As a result of what you have learned in this chapter, what changes are you going to make to ensure that you now do things in a different way? 1. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________

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“Most people don’t recognize opportunity when it comes, because it’s usually dressed in overalls and looks a lot like work.”

~Thomas Edison




PRINCIPLE #10

BUILDING AND SUSTAINING MOMENTUM

D

eveloping your department, organization, or even your own business is not for the faint of heart and will not happen overnight. It

will

require

great

dedication

and

perseverance. How do you know you are on the right track? How do you know if you are on the wrong track? Let’s answer one question at a time. First, how do you know you are on the right track? Your first indication will be that you are out of your comfort zone and moving toward your goal and your vision. As long as you have your goal established and communicated, and you are moving consistently and continuously towards it, then you are on the right track. To quote Napoleon Hill, “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” In the beginning things will appear difficult, but once you start moving, and the people around you see that you are progressing, then more and more people are going to get on

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PRINCIPLE #10 - BUILDING AND SUSTAINING MOMENTUM

your train. The next thing you know, you will have a freight train moving down the tracks in the direction of your goal, your dream, and your heart’s desire. At first you will possibly have to take baby steps, but soon enough the steps will get bigger and longer until you reach the point where your train is heading down the tracks at full speed toward your goal. There are plenty of examples of success models that one can study, starting with Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford. The list goes on and on until we get, in more recent times, Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Sam Walton, etc. All these great achievers had many things in common, but the one thing we want to point out in this chapter is that they all persevered. They each started moving in the direction of their dreams slowly. They put their freight trains on the tracks and kept them going as each one slowly picked up more and more speed. They kept going until they had a loaded freight train going down the track at full speed. If you have ever seen a loaded freight train, or ship for that matter, you realize that once these huge machines are going at top speed they are very hard to stop. When you reach this point you will no longer have to push much to keep the train moving; your energy will be needed to steer this powerful machine moving in the direction of your dream. Keep feeding it ideas to get to your goal. Ideas, acknowledgements, and gratitude are the fuel to motivate

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and keep this train moving. Appreciate your people, celebrate your milestones and successes, and you will fuel the fire that keeps this train speeding up. There are some big hills that will need to be climbed. It is important to hit the bottom of those hills at top speed so that as your momentum slows down you will not come to a complete stop. This is where your milestones and celebrations will become so important to fuel your train. To recap: you have a vision, you have a goal, and you have a plan. You are taking actions and moving towards your goal. As you do so, you celebrate your interim successes and milestones. You should always be grateful for these interim successes and the progress being made. When this is happening, you know you are on the right track. Let’s now look at the second question: “When do you know if you are not on the right track?” You will know this when you start looking for the magic wand, or the one big killer idea. Or if you start bouncing from one idea to another, trying to find the big one! Or if you find yourself changing your train from one track to another. When you do any of these things, you lose all your momentum and you confuse your employees and dissipate your energy. The more you concentrate your energy, the more your train speeds up and pretty soon roars toward its goal. The opposite is also true. The more you take your train off one track and place it on to another track, the more you dissipate the energy

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PRINCIPLE #10 - BUILDING AND SUSTAINING MOMENTUM

and the harder it is to get your freight train started again. Do not worry about taking a wrong turn, because undoubtedly you will (at times). You might even slow down a bit going around a turn or you might pick up increased speed. It will depend on your hand on the throttle. There will be times you will lose a bit of momentum and this is okay because you will learn from these situations and come out stronger and faster. The big problem will happen if you start changing tracks, jumping from one program to another looking for the great idea. This will be your clear sign or signal to revisit your vision and mission and refocus on where you are going. If this happens to you, simply kick start your train one step at a time until it regains the momentum and direction you want. There are plenty of examples out there of companies exhibiting good and bad behaviors and you can see the results they get. There is no need to reinvent the wheel completely; just look at what works for others and adapt that for your situation where it makes the most sense. Having said that, please remember that this book is not about following the crowd because that will not bring you where you want to go. Following this book definitely places you in the top five percent of your peers and the expression “it’s lonely at the top” is very true; you will find that out.

Personal Story by Michel Let me tell you a quick short story to illustrate this point.

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When I started working full time at the age of 19 after completing secondary school, I ended up in a pulp and paper mill. I worked hard to get in and found myself working in the bleaching department with some very nasty chemicals. There were some really good people working there and as things were in a small paper mill town, if you could get in to the mill you were set for life. As Murphy would have it the people I worked with were downright miserable… good people, excellent people, always willing to help but they had worked for the man for 30 and 40 years and they were not on purpose. They were just putting in time until they retired.. simple. One foot in front of the other until retirement. Well in my case I had 40+ years to go before retirement so I politely told them that if I was going to work my whole life to look like them, I might as well go jump off the bridge right now… and that was it, I left and put my train on a different track and moved on. Best thing I ever did. I used their knowledge and their experiences to determine my future. I did not repeat their mistakes or try to reinvent the wheel. I simply absorbed and took advantage of what was offered to me.

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“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

~Albert Einstein


PRINCIPLE #11

IS THIS THE RIGHT PLACE FOR ME?

B

y now you have established your purpose, vision, mission and goals. You know where you want to go and you know how to get started.

You might not, and actually should not know, exactly how to get there (yet). And that is okay. For the moment you only need to know the first step or two. As you take action and step into your vision, the road to your success will appear. Remember: thoughts lead to feelings which lead to actions which lead to results. Your actions can be small steps. They do not have to be huge. Combined they will lead to quantum leaps and major results. Monitor and control your thoughts. Whether you are an employer or an employee, have a very honest look at your workplace environment. Start thinking what changes would make you feel good. What actions must you take to start

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PRINCIPLE #11 - IS THIS THE RIGHT PLACE FOR ME?

moving in the direction of your vision? If you are an employee, your vision must mesh with your employer’s vision. People are not happy when they are not living on purpose. Your primary work must be on purpose and in line with your own passion doors. Remember, your work has nothing to do with earning money. We work because we love it. We earn money by trading services. The more valuable the service you provide, the more money you make. Reread this paragraph slowly and think about this. Really think about this! Practice Earl Nightingale’s formula QQS=I. The formula states the quantity of service times the quality of service times the spirit it is rendered in equals the income. If you are not making much money it is likely because you are not rendering much service. This might be hard for you to accept, but take the time to think about it and you will realize that it is true. Since this book is about leadership, we shall not delve into this subject any further. If you are an employee and your purpose does not fit with your employer’s purpose and vision, take a long, hard and honest look at employers whose purpose matches yours. Chose carefully, but make the decision and execute the quantum leap. You will be rewarded handsomely for doing it.

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“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

~Winston Churchill




PRINCIPLE 11.75

THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

N

ow that you have reached the end of the program, you have reached the beginning of your new happier, healthier life. The vision you have established, and the goals

that you have set out to achieve, are the start of a complete and detailed roadmap to your heart’s desire. Take action now… remember thinking causes feelings which cause actions which cause a reaction (results). Action is the key… action, action, action. Enjoy the inevitable changes that come your way, knowing that development is a choice! Good luck on your development journey and your choice to develop your leadership attributes. And always remember that luck is when preparedness meets

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PRINCIPLE #11.75 - THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

opportunity. Lastly, please visit our website www.MESSYManager.com often and check out all the resources we have placed at your disposal.

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“Never, never, never give up.”

~Winston Churchill



Gerry Robert Bestselling Author of The Millionaire Mindset

MESSY Manager demystifies why some companies and departments are growing rapidly while others are destined for a life of struggle. If you want to learn about the root cause of success in business and in life, read this book! Jeff McLeod

Executive Vice-President of Premyth Systems Inc.

Steven Howard

Author, Corporate Image Management

I followed the exact step-by-step process in MESSY Manager to raise my department’s monthly revenue by 15%, my average ticket by 9.2% and my occupancy by 17%. Don’t wait another minute, get this book now! Kerri Holley

Author of Answers You’re Aching To Know & Spa Consultant

MESSY MANAGER TEMPLATE.indd 1

Managing is messy, leadership is simple...

but not easy! Michel Francoeur & Jean-Guy Francoeur Foreword by Gerry Robert Author of The Bestselling Book The Millionaire Mindset

11.75

I P LE S PRINCWERFUL O FOR PADER SHIP LE

Francoeur

Book Jacket Design by Steve Kadjan (web.me.com/stevekadjan)

Managing is Messy, Leadership is Simple… Just not Easy - 11.75 Principles for Powerful Leadership

Mike and Jean-Guy understand leadership like few do, and are able to break it down so anyone can understand and use its power to change their business forever. I highly recommend this book to anyone with the desire to grow their business, their department, or their people.

MESSY MANAGER

MESSY Manager has exposed the secrets of the most powerful leadership principles in the world. This book is a step-by-step guide to changing your company or your department for good and forever. This book makes success so simple and predictable that it may be the most dangerous book ever written if it ends up in the hands of the competition.

1/30/11 2:05:49 PM

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