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Do you need more cash for your business? Read on!

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Scott Fay tells the story about the first troubled company he bought.  Things were running along for a bit until the fateful Friday when his office manager said “Hey boss.  I think you’re going to want to sit down.” (Words an entrepreneur never wants to hear!)

The cash position was bad.  Really bad.  They were overdrawn in the checking account.  The gas cards were being shut off.  They had no cash.  They were upside down 2:1 in payables to receivables.  Oh – and it was Friday, so they needed to make payroll.  Today.  This was devastating news.

Scott decided the only thing to do was to go borrow the money.  He visited his confidant and mentor.  His friend was retired, and had available cash.  As he told his tale of woe, his mentor listened patiently, and asked a few questions.

When Scott was through, his friend said:

“Scott, I have the cash you think you need, but I’m not going to loan it to you.  You don’t need the cash.  You need this experience.  99% of leaders in your position will give up and go bankrupt.  You won’t.  Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Decide that you will win.  Period.
  2. Create a plan to get out of this spot, then
  3. Drive a stake in the ground and resolve never to get to this place again.”
Scott says “I was mad, crushed, disappointed.  He didn’t loan me a nickel.”
Thankfully Scott heeded the advice of his mentor.  He created a plan, executed it, and has never returned to that place financially again.
His mentor loved him too much to let him take the shortcut of borrowing cash – Scott had a powerful opportunity to grow through this season, and did exactly that.  He learned and applied what John Maxwell calls “the Law of Victory.”  One of John’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
Let me ask you – do you need to “borrow cash”, or do you need to grow?  
  • Will you use this opportunity to grow in your leadership?  
  • Will you do the work to become the person who can lead your organization through this season?
  • Who is your mentor?  
  • Will you listen when they give you sound advice that will be hard to hear?
Deciding to win.  Period.  is a part of “Raising Your Game.”

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"Experience is the best teacher" Wait. No – it's not. What is?

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We’ve all heard that old saw “Experience is the best teacher.”

If that was true, then the most successful person in the world would be the one who had made the most mistakes, right?  Hmm.  That doesn’t seem to line up with what I’ve seen in life.

So, if that’s not it, what is the best teacher?  Evaluated experience is the best teacher.  In life, it’s necessary to make mistakes but those only become powerful weapons in your arsenal when you take the time to evaluate what happened, how you responded and how you might respond differently the next time you’re in a similar situation.

Mrs. Frizzle says “Take chances.  Make mistakes.  Get messy.”

When that has happened and you find yourself all messy:

  • Take time to look around to assess the situation, 
  • pick something up while you’re down there, and 
  • consider how you got there.  What can you learn from this?

Do that, and you’ll be far ahead of most others.

Evaluating your positive and negative experiences is a key part of “Raising Your Game.”

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4 essential questions to ask to achieve your 2011 goals

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All of a sudden the weather is warming, the days are getting longer, and it’s getting harder to convince me to come back in to the office after enjoying the weather.  This can mean only one thing.  Q1 is OVER! 

This is an excellent time to take stock of how you’re doing with your goals for the year. 

You *do* have documented, measurable goals for the year, right?  If not, check out this post on how to set them.

So here are 4 essential questions to keep you on track:

1. What is working?  –  Why?  Have you celebrated your successes?  This is critical to your momentum.  Click here to learn why. Whatever is going well, you want to celebrate it so that you’ll get more of it!

2. What is not working? –  Why?  Were the goals you set unreachable?  Did you assume you’d clear hurdles easily and find out that they were higher than you thought?  What do you need to change about the goals?  Do you need to add resources?  Add time? Change assumptions?  Remove a goal?

3. What is missing? –  What have you learned this quarter that changes your perspective?  What do you know now that would have changed your goals?  What do you need to add to your 2011 plan?

4. What is next?  –   It’s time to get started on Q2 – what do you need to tackle next? 

Using this simple formula will help you stay on track.

Les McKeown has a nice resource on this topic, too.

Keeping the big picture in mind is a key part of raising your game.
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6 key leadership lessons from acceptance speeches

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This week I had the opportunity to attend the Tech Council of Maryland’s Frederick County Tech Awards Celebration.  The awards recognize local companies and people for their contributions to the community and the economy.

One of the benefits of attending this event was the opportunity to pick up some leadership tips from the leaders who accepted the awards.

I heard the common thread of relationships, teamwork, and shared credit from each of them.

Dr. Larry Arthur, CEO of SAIC-Frederick won “CEO of the Year.”
Dr. Arthur talked about his personal relationships with other Frederick leaders, and how interdependent Frederick’s business community is.  He also praised Frederick as a great place to live.

Dr. Uplaksh Kumar, Site Leader and Director of Operations for Life Technologies Frederick Maryland facility, won “Executive of the Year.”
I appreciated the way that Dr. Kumar was quick to thank his wife for her support, allowing him to be able to excel, and recognized her contribution to their family as critical.   I respect a man who praises his wife publicly.  He also praised his team, saying “I’m getting this award for them.”

Steve and Arleen Chafitz, President and CEO respectively of E-End, accepted the award for E-End which won “Service Provider of the year.”
Steve was quick to share the praise with his team, and spoke of service as a key part of E-End.  I loved the way that he made sure to include everyone on the team in the picture.  That spirit of shared credit and inclusion is a powerful message about the value he places on his team members.

Sheila Buscemi, First Grade Teacher at Valley Elementary School won “STEM Educator of the Year.”
She thanked everyone for letting her do a job she loved.  It’s obvious that she is passionate about her kids and the work she does.

Jim Racheff, Chairman and CEO of Data Management Services, Inc, accepted the award for “Firm of the Year”
Jim started out telling us that they were shocked at the untimely loss of their founder this year, but he would have been proud to see them there.  He talked about how DMS is a tight-knit team that takes care of each other like a family.

Community, family, shared credit, value for others, passion for work, and teamwork. 

All important parts of Raising Your Game.

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Networking: Is it selfish?

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I recently saw a blog entry entitled “Networking means you’re looking to use people to achieve selfish goals, or opportunistically ask people for help”

Does that ruffle your feathers?  It does mine.  Networking can be selfish, but it’s very short sighted to see it that way.  It also doesn’t “work” for long.  People soon figure out you’re all about you, and they’re not too inclined to help the next time you need something.

Let me tell you a quick story about networking. 

The other day I was chatting with a friend about business.  He and I are in different fields.   There’s little chance that his needs and my services are likely to overlap – or vice versa.  Just two friends chatting about current happenings in our lives and business.  This is the model that Rabbi Lapin talks about in his excellent book Thou Shall Prosper.

During our conversation I casually mentioned some help I received.  I said “I have this friend who used to own an office supply company and he’s been connecting me with some terrific business people in my area.”  My friend suddenly was very focused on my end of the conversation – he said “Wait.  Does that guy still have any contacts in office supplies?”

It turned out that he was looking for 1,000 dry erase markers for a project in his business and had been having difficulty finding a source for them.  There was no reasonable way that I might have either anticipated that he needed that, or that I should make a connection between my friends and their needs. 

I believe that business is about serving others.  If you serve others well it significantly increases the chances that you’ll profit over the long haul.

The story has a happy ending – I was able to connect my friends and they worked out a win-win deal.

You never know what connections you can make – adding value to each of your contacts  – unless you talk about what you’re working on.

Simple, but profound.

Was that selfish?  What did I gain from that?  The pleasure of having served two others.  Was that selfish?  You make the call.

What did they gain?  New business contacts and one got resources he needed and the other got an easy sale.

Making connections and adding value to others is a part of Raising Your Game.

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How can you create a great corporate culture? Have you heard the one…

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What does it take to build a great culture in your company?

First you need to know where you’re going – and we covered that in How to Define Your Achievable Strategy in the next 15 Minutes,

Part of it is knowing why you’re doing it – the mission behind your company –  “The first thing you do is teach the person to feel that the vision is very important and nearly impossible.  That draws out the drive in the winner.”
– Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid
Corporate culture is all about answering the question:
“How will we treat each other on this road together?”

What stories do you tell?  What do you celebrate?  This is something that I saw done very well at Marriott International.

They intentionally told the story of the 9 seat root beer stand that Mr. Marriott and his wife started in downtown DC, and how the company grew.

More than only being about the past, they actually built a database of stories where employees were celebrated for demonstrating the values that Marriott says they want to see.

The stories they told were about times when team members were selfless and thought of others, because Marriott is in the hospitality business – the business of caring for the needs of others.  They knew it was important, and taught leaders in the company to be sure that they TOLD those stories to their teams, even teams that didn’t directly work with guests.

What stories do you tell?  Are they stories of a hero who pulled an all-nighter to deliver at the last minute?  Are they about the time that a team member let you down?
Or…
Are they the stories about how someone served a customer in a surprising and meaningful way?
How a team sacrificed for another team to do something important?

You choose the culture where you work – what do you want to see happen?  What stories will you tell today?  What stories will you write down today? What stories will you hear, will resonate with you, and then purpose to tell tomorrow?

The culture will happen with or without you.  Unless you’re intentional about it, the stories will be about the mundane and negative.  You can make them be about what is special, meaningful, and rich.  And you can have fun telling them, too.

Telling good stories to shape your culture is an important part of Raising Your Game.

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