The biggest disease this day and age is that of people feeling unloved.–Author Unknown

 The software engineer put on Nirvana’s “In Utero” as he did every evening when he got home from work, took his gun out, loaded it, and tried to garner enough courage to put it in his mouth and squeeze the trigger.  This was a ritual he had played out every night or the past year.  While successful at work, he was miserable.  He felt no one cared about him as a person- he was just another programmer, doing what programmers did, living a solitary life with no friends.  Then one day, out of the blue, his boss sent him a personal e-mail- not related to code revisions, interface changes, or other work related items.  But one that expressed his thanks and sincere appreciation for the work he had accomplished in the time he had worked there, and how he was valuable to the team not as just a programmer, but as a person.  He told this employee that he was glad he knew him as a human being, not just as someone who typed away at his computer all day.  That night the software engineer went through his daily ritual of putting on Nirvana, loading his gun, and for the first time- he was scared that he might actually go through with it.  He sold the gun, and with the proceeds bought his boss a gift- and told him the story of how that simple gesture had saved his life. This story was related to Mark Deo and I on the small business hour this week by Tim Sanders, author of Love is the Killer App.  He is at the forefront of a new wave of business thinking- not one focused on numbers, but one focused on people.  His philosophy is that one must share three things in order to have a successful business relationship: knowledge, networks and compassion.   By doing so you can not only help your business, but you can help others as human beings, much as in the story above. How does one share their knowledge?  By staying informed reading about the latest trends in business reading about things that interest other people and then sharing that knowledge with people who are interested in it.  How do you know what you should be reading?  A great place to start is the list of books on our website www.smallbusinesshour.com.  Tim Sanders also maintains a reading list on his web site at www.timsanders.com.  Some publications that are excellent are business magazines such as Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Business Week, and Business 2.0.  By reading these books and publications you’re making yourself valuable as a walking library to people that you speak with.  This allows you to become a personal resource to others- someone who they can trust and count on for information.  This in turn makes you as a person more valuable. What do we mean by sharing your networks?  This is not some reference to computers and internet access- To share your networks you must take your personal contacts and instead of protecting them and hiding them in secrecy open them up to the world.  Share your contacts with others who might find them to be of use.  This can be a simple matter such as simply passing a phone number on to someone, or giving a referral.  Better still is personally introducing two people who can both gain some value from establishing a new relationship.  By doing so you become a business “matchmaker” of sorts- someone who helps others to achieve their goals through communication with people to which you introduce them.  How does someone show compassion in business?  It comes back to one of Dale Carnegie’s principles, “Become genuinely interested in other people.” Only by being interested in someone and showing that interest can you demonstrate that you care about them as people and not just as tangible resources.  People respond to being cared for- you never know how making a small gesture can profoundly impact someone’s life.  I encourage you to think of someone in your business life who you can show your love to this week.  Become genuinely interested in them as a person- not to try and gain something from them, but to find common ground you share.  Then discover what it is that interests them, and find some information about that topic that you can share with them.  Find someone in your network of contacts who also has interest in the same topics, and introduce the two.  You will be amazed at how that will endear you to both contacts, turning them from business relationships into personal friends.  I’d love to hear your success stories at mwalker@sbanetwork.org.  Have a great week! This Business Update was written by SBA Network Business Advisor Matthew Walker- for more information, please contact him at 310-320-8190 or mwalker@sbanetwork.org.

Small business represents more than 99 percent of all American employers, employs more than half of the American workforce, provides just a little less than half of this country’s sales, and represents 96 percent of all U.S. exporters. Yet fewer than 5% of all small businesses survive to see their fifth birthday.

Why?

Some say its due to a lack of knowledge, a missing skill-set or hyper-specialization. I agree that skills and knowledge are critical but sometimes I think this huge failure rate has a bit to do with overconfidence.

Let’s face it, making the transition from “employee” to “employer” is not as easy as it looks. As an employee we had it pretty good. The owners took all the risk. True, when business was good they bought themselves a new Mercedes but if business was bad, they took the hit and I still got my salary. I didn”t have to worry about workers comp, insurance, OSHA, labor laws, lawsuits, competition, soft-sales, rising expenses and a plethora of other issues.

As employees we were “dependent” on the owner to absorb the risk and compensate for any losses or downside. Some owners may feel this “dependence” translates to a form of employee entitlement. Yet the owner takes the risk and the owner enjoys the reward.

Many employees on the other hand have come to believe that they are owed more money, more health care, more retirement benefits-more of everything that is costly to the owner of a business. Business owners often feel as though they deserve to take as much out of their companies as they wish sometimes not fully funding initiatives which can create a difficult working environment for employees. How can this dichotomy be reconciled?

I think it is deeper than simply saying we all need to take responsibility. I think we need to change our mindset about independence and entitlement. And I think we need to teach our employees to think like owners. Some have gone so far as to actually make their employees owners.ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plans)

In 1994 United Airlines became the largest employee majority-owned enterprise in the United States, with various groups of employees mostly represented by unions – having purchased 55% of its stock in exchange for various concessions. The employees accepted pay cuts and made other concessions, but were also granted representation on the company’s board of directors. The case represents the potential of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), but not the full realization of that potential. It shows that an ESOP may be a necessary condition but certainly is not a sufficient condition for substantial changes in labor-management relations leading to improvements in company performance.

Rule #11 from my Rules of Attraction: Who we are is more important that what we do.

Last week we looked some of the intangible traits that define “who we are” or “who our company is.” We said the most critical are: Integrity, Vision, Enthusiasm, Selflessness and Identity. We spent some time examining the importance of genuine “Enthusiasm” and how it affects how we are perceived. Another trait that exemplifies who we are is “integrity.”

It has been said that our “character” is displayed by what we do when no one is looking. I believe that character is; “who we are – defined.” It is the values that we adhere to. Similarly the concept of “character” extends beyond a trait that defines a person’s temperament or disposition. What does character have to do with marketing, you may ask? I believe in this new era, character or “who we are” is more important than ever before in the marketing arena. In fact I would submit that character is far more important than what we actually do or say about our company, product or service. It is the evidence of our most persuasive claims. Who can deny that all types of products and services are becoming more homogeneous? Differentiating oneself is getting more and more difficult. Competition in every industry and profession is accelerating daily. Therefore “character” in many cases may be the deciding factor in attracting better clients, more committed team members and healthier relationships.

Integrity is at the core of our character or who we are. When we think of someone as having “integrity” we tend to think of them as being honest, loyal, fair-minded, trustworthy and respectful. Having integrity means that you do what you say you’re going to do, you try to do the RIGHT thing and you do it consistently.

When we think of the greatest military leaders of all time, we think of Patton, Eisenhower, and MacArthur. The name George C. Marshall has faded into the mist. Marshall, however, was the leader that made it possible for these men to dominate the history books. The fact is that Marshall was their boss! He was the Chief of Staff of the United States Armed Forces during World War II. He forfeited his chance to go down in history as the hero of the war and ultimately position himself as an almost certain a shoe-in for the White House top job. 

In late 1943, at the height of World War II, Marshall had convinced both President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill that the best way to turn the tide of the war was to plan a cross-channel attack on Germany via France. The only question was… Who would lead the operation? Roosevelt knew that Marshall wanted to be the commander of the D-Day invasion. It would virtually guarantee Marshall’s place in history. Yet just as Roosevelt knew that Marshall deserved this honor, he also was aware that the man was so humble he would never ask for the job. The President’s problem was that he felt that Marshall was more greatly needed as the high commander of the entire war effort than he was as leader of the D-Day invasion.

So what did the President do? Like any good politician he hedged his bet. He sent a message to Marshall telling him that if the general wanted the position then he just needed to ask for it. What was Marshall’s reply? He sent a one line message back to Roosevelt saying:

“I will serve wherever you order me, Mr. President.”

In the end, the Normandy invasion, a virtual guarantee of glory, slipped from the hands of Marshall into those of Eisenhower who used it to make his successful play for the Presidency. Marshall demonstrated his integrity by having the courage and conviction to make the “right decision” for the country. Marshall knew that in fact he WAS more greatly needed in the role of overseer for the entire war effort than he was as D-Day invasion commander. Later when asked why he made such a decision, he told the media, “The issue was just too great for personal feelings to be considered.”

This is the kind of integrity that creates attraction. While many of today’s business leaders are shifting blame, slamming competitors and whining about fair treatment, those with integrity are willing to tell the truth, make sacrifices, do the right thing and do it consistently. Imagine the reputation your company can build in a marketplace hungry for products, services, companies and people with integrity.

One of the rules of Attraction is: “Who we are is more important than what we do.”

There are a number of intangible traits that define “who we are” or “who our company is.” Some of the most critical are: Enthusiasm, Integrity, Vision, Selflessness and Identity. When the perception of these intangible’s are regarded highly in the minds of others, we automatically become more attractive regardless of the quality or value of our product or service. Of course it goes without saying that our product has to have some value and perform with a reasonable degree of performance. However far more important are these intangible traits. In this Business Update I want to address one of those intangibles… Enthusiasm.

People are drawn to a person or a company with genuine enthusiasm. It allows us the luxury of NOT needing to chase clients or forcefully pursue relationships. Those displaying authentic enthusiasm seem to be able to magnetically draw to themselves the right circumstances, relationships and resources.

Today there’s a lot of discussion about vision, mission and goals. In fact I see many companies investing loads of time, money and effort in coming up with their “mission statement.” Usually this is a few inspiring sentences that are placed on plaques to hang on the wall or printed on the back of business cards or put on the company web site. Yet I’ve got to say with few exceptions this often amounts to a big waste of time!

 The fact is few of these mission statements accomplish what they were intended to do. That is: “motivate employees to perform at a higher level.” Ironically, however, after a month or so not even the CEO, let alone the employees can even remember one word of the mission statement. So does this mean establishing a mission for your company is a useless task? Not necessarily. Yet in order to understand how to make mission planning a valuable tool we must first understand WHAT a “mission” is. In short a mission is a course of action that a company decides to pursue. It is the road they will travel in order to ensure they arrive at their ultimate destination. It is their plan for achieving their vision. A mission is not something we say, it is something we do. Leaders of companies often make the mistake of developing their mission in the wrong way. They try to figure out what their mission is before they decide WHERE it is they want to go. Imagine trying to do this when going on a trip. Can you really plan HOW you’re going to get somewhere if you don’t know WHERE it is you want to end up? Remember the Cheshire cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland? Alice came to a fork in the road and asked the cat for his help. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. Isn’t the same true for us? As leaders we see our employees going in different directions or we’re just not able to maintain that consistent level of performance that others are achieving. Could it be because we are just a little unsure of precisely WHERE it is we want to get? Developing a mission is quite impossible until we establish a vision. A destination. We must be able to see it, feel it, smell it and taste it. This can NOT be accomplished by the employees or a consulting firm. While the vision should be shared by many, it MUST be totally owned by and burning in the heart of the leader of the company. Unless the CEO or UBC as I call them (Ultimate Big Cheese) is totally driven by their vision it will be meaningless in the arms of their employees. On the positive side however, I have noticed one thing that all great leaders seem to have in common. That is the ability to dream big dreams and create a powerful vision of the future. They seem to have the ability to imagine an ideal future well in advance of creating it. Your vision is an imaginary creation of the ideal life you would like to live, in every respect. You create it as an expression of the values you hold most dear. Brian Tracy says, “From the very day that you develop a clear vision for whom you are and where you are going in life, you begin to become a superior person, and soon you begin to accomplish superior results.” Here’s some advice on how you can develop vision for your company that will help to drive a sense of mission, improve performance and 1. Let your mind float freely – One of the great secrets of success is to “dream big dreams.” It is to let your mind float freely into the future and imagine that you have no limitations on what you can be, have or do. Imagine for the moment that you have all of the resources that you would ever need to achieve the highest goals to which you could ever aspire. Imagine you have all the time, money, people, contacts and intelligence that you could ask for to become everything that you could ever become. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “I have a dream,” and what followed was a vision that changed a nation. That famous speech is a dramatic example of the power that can be generated by a person who communicates a compelling vision of the future. 2. Create your ideal future – Make a dream list. Let yourself fantasize. What would you like to do? Where would you like to go? What would you like to accomplish? And most of all, what kind of a person would you like to become? Since you attract into your life people and situations that are in harmony with the person you really are, what kind of attributes and qualities would you like to develop in yourself so that you can life the very best life you can imagine, surrounded by the kind of people you would most enjoy? John F. Kennedy did not live to see the achievement of his vision for NASA, but he set it in motion when he said, “By the end of the decade, we will put a man on the moon.” That night, when the moon came out, we could all look out the window and imagine. And when it came time to appropriate the enormous funds necessary to accomplish this vision, Congress did not hesitate. Why? Because this vision spoke powerfully to values Americans held dear: America as a pioneer and America as world leader. 3. Create a “shared vision” – “ I like to recommend a practical exercise to develop your organizational vision. By following this plan you may be better assured that the vision statement that is developed is a shared vision. Plan an uninterrupted time to work on the vision with your most key team members. At this meeting, take an hour to explore your vision. Agree on a rough time frame, say five to ten years. Ask people to think about the following questions: How do you want your community to be different? What role do you want your organization to play in your community? What will success look like? Then ask each group to come up with a metaphor for your organization, and to draw a picture of success: “Our organization is like a mariachi band – all playing the same music together, or like a train – pulling important cargo and laying the track as we go,” The value of metaphors is that people get to stretch their minds and experiment with different ways of thinking about what success means to them. Finally, have everyone share their pictures of success with each other. One person should facilitate the discussion and help the group discuss what they mean and what they hope for. Look for areas of agreement, as well as different ideas that emerge. The goal is to find language and imagery that your organization’s members can relate to as their vision for success. 4. Caution: Do not try to write a vision statement with a group. (Groups are great for many things, but writing is not one of them!). Ask one or two people to try drafting a vision statement based on the group’s discussion, bring it back to the group, and revise it until you have something that your members can agree on and that your leaders share with enthusiasm. Only when you have a clear vision of the future that everyone is excited about can you begin working on the mission or path that you will take. Following this will be the goals or steps along the way. A clear vision will allow you as a leader to propel your company forward. It will make daily decision making far easier for every member of the organization. It will allow the organization to move initiatives forward with greater speed and agility. It will motivate a higher level of performance and commitment among your team. So don’t be afraid to DREAM BIG because no big thing was ever accomplished without some small person dreaming it first!

Do you worry about the future? Have trouble falling asleep? Do you have too many things to do and not enough time to do them?

 Tired of reading already? Listen to the audio file on this topic by clicking here. There isn’t a person alive who does not suffer from stress. Some people don’t even know they are suffering from stress because they don’t take the time to notice how they are feeling. Such people often feel overwhelmed, burned out, or stressed out much of the time, no matter whether they are at work or at home. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Only you can control how you feel, but you can’t do that unless you are aware of how you feel. Before I talk about what we can do to reduce stress it males some sense to look a little closer at what is and what isn’t stress. There are all kinds’ misconceptions about stress. Often people become so accustomed to stress that they become unaware of it. Many of us suffer the debilitating effects of stress even though we don’t feel tense. Stress can change the way you treat others or damage your body even in the absence of feelings of frustration or anxiety. Some people believe that stress is something which affects only those who have high-pressure lives. Many ordinary individuals experience the constant stress of worry, leading unfulfilled lives or of not being what they would like to be. Others believe that the only way to lower stress is to change your surroundings or to take medication. Changing your outlook on life is the most reliable and effective way of reducing stress. Stress comes from the way we perceive the world, not from the way the world really is. Stress is not really caused by events that happen to us. It is not events in themselves that cause our distress, but rather the views we take of events. Emotions have a will of their own and cannot be controlled. We can change our feelings by first changing our behavior or by changing our thinking. For example, getting some work done can keep us from worrying about it. Creating a new understanding of a situation can make it less threatening or stressful. Here are a few things we can do to lessen the stress in our lives and ultimately improve the performance of our business: 1. Learn to plan. Disorganization can breed stress. Having too many projects going simultaneously often leads to confusion, forgetfulness, and the sense that uncompleted projects are hanging over your head. When possible, take on projects one at a time and work on them until completed. 2.  Recognize and accept limits. Most of us set unreasonable and perfectionistic goals for ourselves. We can never be perfect, so we often have a sense of failure or inadequacy no matter how well we perform. Set achievable goals for yourself. 3.  Be a positive person. Avoid criticizing others. Learn to praise the things you like in others. Focus upon the good qualities those around you possess. Be sure to give yourself credit and appreciate your own good qualities, as well. 4. Learn to tolerate and forgive. Intolerance of others leads to frustration and anger. An attempt to really understand the way other people feel can make you more accepting of them. Accept and forgive yourself also. 5.  Get regular physical exercise. Check with your physician before beginning any exercise program. You will be more likely to stay with an exercise program if you choose one that you really enjoy rather than one that feels like pure hard work and drudgery. 6.  Talk out your troubles. Find a friend, member of the clergy, faculty member, counselor, or psycho-therapist you can be open with. Expressing your “bottled up” tension to a sympathetic ear can be incredibly helpful. Stress can negatively impact our personal performance as well as the performance of our business. But you don’t have to be a victim if you make a conscious choice to focus on your feelings and choose what to do with those feelings. You don’t have to react to stress; you can choose how to respond to it. For more information on this topic listen to the audio file “De-Stress” by clicking here. 
I hope that this “Business Update” has been helpful in assisting you to improve the performance of your organization. For more information on how the Small Business Advisory Network assists companies in improving their performance, please feel free to contact us at 310-320-8190 or email mark@markdeo.com 

Mark Deo

This business update I want to respond to a few questions submitted on our blog. Both questions have to do with corporate culture. The questions posed were:

1. Why is the corporate culture so important?2. Can the culture be changed or does it simply evolve of its own volition?While there are some slight differences in definitions of corporate culture, most experts agree that it is the shared “taken-for-granted” assumptions, beliefs, values, expectations and rules that members of a work team or organization hold. This is essentially the guiding light for team interaction, expectations and decision making. The culture is revealed by studying the relationships of the members.Changing the corporate culture must emanate from the top. The leadership of an organization such as the CEO and the senior management team is the single most critical success factor in a culture change effort. Today corporate leaders have to invest significant amounts of time and energy into a culture change effort and they must personally live, and model the new cultural ethos. Members of the team CAN NOT change without the leadership first changing. Let me say that again: members of the team CAN NOT change without the leadership first changing. This is absolutely essential. In fact when leaders DO choose to “trade-up” their values and belief systems, change often magically occurs.But in order for the cultural change to take hold within the organization, the members must be re-educated on what is important to the future of the company and how to make decisions that are consistent with that purpose. Therefore the change effort must be accompanied by clear vision, mission and value statements in providing direction and behavioral guidelines for the new culture. Again these must go beyond words cast into a plaque that is hung on a wall. It must be evidenced by daily actions which fall in line with the values espoused.While working with companies to assist them in creating market growth we often find that the core issues of the company’s value systems must be addressed. In these cases we will often bring in our associates from Fifth Wave Leadership. They have worked with organizations large and small to affect cultural change quickly and effectively. In fact the CEO of this organization, Morrie Shechtman is someone who often works with the leadership of our clients assisting them in evaluating and implementing change from the top. Morrie has graciously allowed us to offer to those in our network a greatly reduced rate in working with CEOs and their team. If this is something that interests you please contact me and I will arrange to get you in touch with Morrie directly.Again, the corporate culture is critical to the growth and continued health of your organization. I urge you to invest your time and resources in discovering how you might create change and ensure growth and leadership in your industry.

You’ve heard of the book, “Death of a Salesman.” This article is about the death of a family. What does that have to do with running a small business, you ask? I’ll get there in a moment. First, let me ask you a question: Is your business like a family?

I hear this all the time. “You know Mark our business is different, its just like a family.” I know business owners and managers say this to communicate something positive about their company’s culture. I think this is great! But I always smile when I hear this. I often want to ask, “Oh yea, what kind of family is it like?” But I don’t, because I’m practicing my Dale Carnegie principal of “letting the other person save face.” I smile because the relationships within a company CAN be just as screwed-up as the relationships within a family.For example, consider how favoritism can cripple the relationships within a family. It happens, you know. Its happening right now. The results are far reaching and dramatic when one sibling is treated differently from another. The favored sibling feels that they are not as obligated to perform at a specific level in order to gain a specific reward. Since they are favored they know from experience that they will not be held as accountable as the next sibling. The rules can be flexed for them. Everyone in the family knows this. Consequently there is resentment, anger, hostility and conflict. The unfavored sibling is no longer motivated to perform. No matter what they do, they can not live up to the admiration of the parent. This causes frustration and embarrassment. It can even result in vengeance and criminal activity in order to “get even.” The “I’ll show them” attitude.What makes favoritism so insidious is that it can be exercised in a very subtle manner. It may manifest itself in the WAY things are communicated. For example, imagine a circumstance where two siblings alternate weeks taking out the trash. When the unfavored sibling fails to take out the trash, the consequence may be for the parent to say, “I can’t even depend on you to take out the trash.” When the favored sibling fails to take out the trash, the consequence may be for the parent to say, “just make sure you get it done next week.” The favored sibling gets another chance, while the unfavored sibling’s wholesale capabilities have been diminished. This is rarely done in a purposeful way or even through subterfuge. It happens on a subconscious level. Before we know it the words are out and the damage is done.This works precisely the same way for a business organization. As owners and managers our goal is to induce greater teamwork, a more harmonious workplace and improved productivity. One of the most important factors in building teamwork is the leaders ability to implement what I call “equitable response.” Equitable response is the leaders ability to react to every team member in the same manner in any specified circumstance. In other words, their ability to treat people relatively the same under any given set of circumstances. For example, don’t allow one employee to arrive at work late because she lives further away or because she has to pick up the kids at school. Credibility is lost when owners and managers are inconsistent in rewards and punishments.Here’s what I counsel my clients to do:

1. Consistently reward positive behavior and punish negative behavior. CONSISTENTLY!
2. Don’t allow yourself to be manipulated by employees.
3. Don’t allow your personal opinions to influence the way you respond to team members. The fact that you may like or dislike them should NOT play a role in the reward/punishment process.
4. Let the time you spend with team members become part of the reward. Conversely you should limit the time spent with those team members that fail to maintain performance. Tell them what is expected in no uncertain terms. No idle chit-chat.
5. Model competent behavior. They will do as you do, NOT as you say.
6. Provide consistent feedback and predictable consequences.
7. Set realistic and clear expectations.

In my consulting practice, I rarely see these things consistently being done in small companies. Often times owners and managers have a whole set of rules which apply to different people in the organization at different times. This causes confusion, stifles communication, hinders teamwork and creates fear. It usually ends up with excessive turnover and even anarchy. Sadly the result is the death of a company family.Does this mean we shouldn’t attempt to replicate the family atmosphere in our companies? Certainly not! We should replicate the model of the healthy family where everyone knows what is expected of them and everyone is rewarded and punished with equanimity.I hope this helps you to learn some new ways to create a healthy corporate culture in your organization. If you are wondering what else you can do to implement a revolutionary change in your business, check out our web site at www.marketingquestions.com.