IT'S THE CULTURE, SUPERSTAR

Bill Clinton galvanized his 1992 election team against George H. Bush to focus on the economy rather than other issues with the statement, "It's the economy, stupid."

Slow yourself down so you can think deeply about this challenge even if you scan my comments.

S l o w d o w n . . .

When Tony Hsieh joined Zappos in 2000 was he passionate about shoes? Marketing shoes online?

No. He did not even primarily wear shoes at the time. He wore sandals. He decided to build a superior company culture so his people would take more responsibility for the success of the organization.

Ten years later he sold the company to Amazon for $1.2 BILLION.

You and I have just invested 10 years in our career. Did you build a $1.2 billion company? Neither did I, but I did learn how to build a $100 million company (maybe more) and can teach you.

I RARELY meet a company owner or executive who demonstrates the habit of building a superior company culture. Instead they are scrambling to complete tasks themselves while employees are less than fully productive.

I asked someone the other day, "So how much more time would you have if _______ (one of their direct reports) was fully productive?" The response: This one unproductive employee costs this owner 5 hours a day. So the plan was to hire more people. I told the client we need to fix this situation first.

Even if the answer had been a loss of "only" 15-60 minutes a day per employee the time you waste on unproductive people adds-up quickly. PLEASE NOTE: The time loss due to less than stellar employee productivity is probably more than you estimate.

What's the difference between an effective leader versus an ineffective leader?

Effective leaders commit to habits that ineffective leaders never get around to.

I coach people to develop the habits of an effective leader. Contact me if you want to learn more.

MEETING IDEAS

IT'S THE CULTURE, SUPERSTAR

is a challenge. How much longer will you work without investing in yourself and your people? I am not talking about spending money on technical certifications because you want to charge more for people's time.

You need to invest in developing the soft skills of yourself, and your people. (The comma is in the prior sentence to emphasize the focus on YOU.) Take the challenge. Consider these questions alone or with your team:

1. What is a habit of someone on your team that is unproductive? What could they do to develop a more productive habit? (It is typically easier to consider how someone else can improve rather than yourself.) Are you making the same mistake?

2. Albert Einstein once said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Name three habits you have that are not productive, yet you keep doing them because you consider yourself too busy to develop a better habit.

3. It takes at least three months of repetition and accountability to develop a new habit. Consider the three poor habits you identified in #2. Rank them in order of priority, with the easiest to change listed first.

- How much does that bad habit cost you? (Contact me if you want to walk through this one together...)

- What is the habit you need to develop so this bad one stops damaging your productivity?

- What are the steps you need to take to develop this new habit?

- How will you hold yourself accountable?

4. Repeat #3 with the second and third bad habit on your list AFTER you successfully develop a new habit for the first bad habit on your list. Start with the easiest.