CHANGE IS DIFFICULT BUT NECESSARY

Business leadership is like steering a large sea vessel, the Captain does not say “steady as you go” but in reality he is constantly reviewing data from his crew to make adjustment and compensate for wind speeds, landmarks and wind directions, fuel usage and more data . He is constantly checking navigational coordinates along the way to make adjustments to the course of the ship to ensure it arrives at its destination on time and under budget.

Businesses today must operate in a chaotic worldwide marketplace facing competition from abroad with consumers that are constantly changing their minds due to newer levels of desensitization, media coverage, advertising content and higher consumer features and quality expectations. Companies must continually change over time and reinvent themselves to stay relevant in today’s culture or risk crashing against the rocks and sinking away.

Change means to a leader, learning how to use the latest marketing tools to keep your company nimble and swift to market. Developing low cost mediums to meet the changing demands of the customers like Social media is connecting older brands with younger customers while marketing still maintains communications with existing customers. A good leader must stay current with the demands of a shifting marketplace and rely on their marketing and sales team to help them steer around obstacles like negative government regulations, change in buying trends, shifts in pricing, new or encroaching competitors. controls on pricing and margin fluctuation due to inconsistent costs of goods and labor scheduling. Leadership must consider the timing of when to jump into the market at just the right time where demand can exceed launch costs to be able to navigate the treacherous waters of the product life cycles which effect business life cycles.

You see strategic change in business is good when it is used to keep the company healthy. Often companies hire a consultant to evaluate their business and help the leadership see clearly the necessary changes they need to make so that the company can grow. This may mean a company may need to prune its branches like a bush, to remove dead weight so the rest of the tree can survive. Leadership is never easy but it will but rewarding for all of the crew that is willing to make the voyage.

Change just for the sake of changing things is bad and can be detrimental to the long term course of the company. Many leaders have reacted without thinking through the consequences first only later on to regret their decision to hesitate, reject a product and even let go of some very talented people. This is the lonely road some leaders travel.

Effort + Determination = Success, NO Work = Sure Failure

Many people will decide to start a business and work hard and struggle for many years never achieving their true financial freedom but they know what they are doing is right. Then one day, they are ready and in position for the right opportunity and the company just explodes with growth. Others who dream and talk about success, plan and strategize but never actually make a phone call wonder why they are still stuck at the first step.

The true measure of business success varies from person and desires. Yet they all have the same common factors when it comes to work, they just do it. They don’t try to find others to make their money, they are willing and determined to make it happen. This pushing eventually builds momentum that truly is one of the founding principles of business success. Because the pushing soon has enough repeat business to start carrying its own weight.

Don’t just think about a good idea, go make it happen.

Strategic Principle – Strength in Numbers

The old saying “Strength In Numbers” use to infer that one country’s military had superiority over other nations because they have a larger, trained and ready to fight army.   Today, this same adage can be used to describe the workings of Lean Enterprise.

Companies today operate smarter by utilizing technologies to integrity functions and even employees to process more information, products and services in a shorter period with higher quality throughput.    The secret is Unity in the numbers involved to make the results.   Just like an army, when our employees are properly trained to use the latest technology to understand the strategic battle plan and have clearly defined roles in the critical mission they can fight the battle with less effort than the competition.   When we can get 80% of employees on the same strategic plan as the management team, we can move tremendous amounts of materials and services to any place with ease.

No longer should we look at the size of a company and the number of employees to be the measuring stick of a great company.   A good company can use thousands of people to reach a million customers but a great company can employ hundreds of people to reach 10 million customers.  Thus increasing profits which in turned should be shared with the people who made it all happen, the customer’s through incentives and the employees (internal customers) through performance bonuses tied to the success of the business.

Are You Measuring The Right Results?

Often in the “financial models” used today to ascertain risk and predict success rates, we lose touch with valuable key indicators that are the hidden true ingredients for profitability.

Let me give you an example, a past client of mine operates multiple call centers in over 12 states along with outsourcing late night call volume to India.   During the daytime hours the tenure agent is someone who has been there longer than 90 days.   The call room is often referred to as the pits of hell by the employees who work hard at getting promoted off the phones and into supervisor roles.  Why?   Because the only way to measure the results of the employees and forecast manpower was to set measurement or baselines for the length of a technical support call, utilizing detailed scripts and enforcing quality control through micromanagement techniques.   Thus turning a quality employee into a drone who does not really care about the end result, helping the customer.   They just want to keep their job by staying under the desired production targets and getting off the phone quickly.  The company then reported their success rates to their customers based on how low their Average Time on the call was.

The company executive management team wanted to know why their customer satisfaction surveys show a 97% or higher  satisfaction, three years in a row  yet their own internal internet feedback indicates a large number of disgruntled customers.   Upon diving into their vast sums of data it became obvious that the company had built a tremendous mechanism to keep internal costs down.  These efforts where driving down the quality of the service to the end customer and causing them to lose their own contracted clients.

What happens so often is we deliver a great marketing and sales package to the buyer.  Companies miss the opportunity to excel by sending substandard service and terrible after sales support.  We measure baselines and benchmarks that support the department or team reporting their budgets and financial controls to a CEO, CFO or COO all who have a background in finance and work the numbers.    Often these matrix for productivity turn desired results into a cost reduction or continuous improvement effort with corrective actions and such that only deal with certain issues.   What they don’t fix is what they don’t see in their data acquisition is the customer.

So how do you measure customer experience and gain a reputation for being a company that appreciates its customers?    Learn to measure the right numbers.   Don’t focus on manpower, if it costs you more in payroll to maintain a lifetime customer under contract, then do so.   Work your numbers to uncover the truth in your operations without fear of failure or dismissal.  When department heads and Supervisors are not afraid to stand up for the customer and have no fear of losing their jobs, they will become the customer’s internal advocates and help you gain business not lose it.

Hearing Is Not Understanding

Too often when dealing with Customer Service issues we have found that people often hear what the client is saying but in their own mind they have already determined what their goal is and how to direct the conversation to reach that goal. Excellence in customer service is to listen to what the client is saying, think about the effects versus what the root cause (or source) of their irritation and then work together to develop a satisfactory resolution.

Example, I just bought a new riding mower from Mr. Dealer, i get it home and it did not have a seat in the box. I call the company and Mr. Dealer proceeds to tells me that every mower is 100% quality tested, that the packaging is triple checked and signed off on and that we have a 99.99% approval rating from our customers. You know what, that is all fine and dandy but I still do not have a seat with my new riding mower. All I wanted was a seat and I would even take my time and gas to come back to the dealership to pick it up, on my dime. So tell me, why do you think I need to hear all the fluff about your company when all I needed was Mr. Dealer to ask me, do you want me to bring that seat by your place today? That would have exceeded my expectations if the dealer would have brought the seat to me personally.

To hear a customer complain and determine your course of action without listening for the root cause of their problem is just wrong. You cannot fix what you do not understand. Remember, words without the proper follow up actions is not a good response. A customer wants what they paid for and to be treated with respect, kindness and boundaries on what they can and cannot receive. Properly setting up expectations on what is included in the deal will also translate back into what is demanded during a call back customer service inquiry.

Today, take time to listen to what the customer is saying before you determine your responses. Show them you genuinely care about their well being and they will appreciate your business more and perhaps make a loyal customer for life.

Empowering employees is a freedom to excel

Giving your people the freedom to make mistakes and encouraging them when they fall will create future leaders. The worst thing a leader can do is to stifle the creativity and ambitions of their team that is entrusted to them. A great leader is continually looking for their replacement and helps empower employees to grow Let’s stop managing and leasing out of fear of losing our position. Instead lets place the faith and confidence in our team members. As a leader lets. Provide vision resources and remove roadblocks to give our team the freedom to exceed expectations. Lead by encouraging mistakes to learn from the and not to be a tool to punish.

Leadership Choice Follows A Well Blazed Trail Or Cut Your Own

Astute leaders learn to recognize the road previously traveled and instead of paving a new trail through the forest of business, they jump on the freeway.  This follow the leader mentality helps reduce risk, improve efficiencies and produce manageable results.  This concept is used frequently in Governmental agencies, financial institutions, and large Fortune 100 companies.  It is a safe conservative approach that will get you to your destination on time and on budget consistently.  The leadership mentality is to let someone else be the one to work out the bugs in new ideas and to stick to the tried and true.  These types of organizations tend to use older version software from the largest companies like Microsoft, Java and others.  They go to conferences on training and retraining to help stay abreast of the latest methodologies and then look for ways to slowly implement into their large culture.  Remember, one minor change in these organizations costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and mistakes can impact the organization 10 fold to the deployment costs.   There is good reason for these managers to be more cautious, they answer to shareholders and stakeholders alike.

What this style of leadership does not do is foster innovation and technology gains.   That is why entrepreneurship is often mavericks of industry and can develop new technology by blazing new research, new customers, new designs in fit, form or functions.   Many young leaders try traditional on ramps to the freeway blocked to the progression of their company so they change course and build a new ramp.  These are usually more agile companies with the ability to change quickly without impacting overhead and processes.

Today many companies are streamlining departments with two different types of philosophies within the same company.  More maverick thinking in research and development, marketing and sales, while using traditional thinking in administration, operations and manufacturing.
The real question is which style of leadership best suits you?

Quality Is A Myth

Why do we set a quality standard? because without a baseline to measure against, quality can be whatever we say it is and that my friends is a myth or fable.

ISO9000 and many other disciplines base quality on a philosophy of say what you do and then do what you say. At least then your repeatable and reliable. So the next time you hear “World Class quality” ask them to define how they came up with that term. If they don’t know, perhaps you should run, fast and far from that supplier.

A little white lie is ok? Unfulfilled promises have a considerable impact on workplace attitudes, commitment, & find a new job. TRUTH WORKS!

Leaders surround themselves with wise counsel for advice. Marketing uses focus groupS churches use deacons & elders. Who do you listen to?

Strategic planning involves knowing yourself, your business environment, you capabilities and your competition. Research, Plan, Launch. KNOW!

Wise leaders know that after every battle the war wages on. After every high or low, u have to pickup and push on. GET UP!

Manipulation by doing things to get a desired result or “angle” as a form of control. Why not accept people for who they are and be happy.

Honesty is not speaking the truth but living it in principles, intentions, and actions to be upright and fair to one another. BE HONORABLE!

Leaders play many roles but none as important as the cheerleader for your team. Encourage empower motivate to achieve. INSPIRATION!

Patience is a virtue except in a disposable society. Fixing things take time and effort. Good things come to those who wait. BE STILL

Peaceful resolution begins from first believing that it is achievable and then working together in trust and efforts

Attitude creates altitude. A positive can do joyful attitude will AttrCt others to you that want you to succeed. JOYFUL

No one wants to talk about it

Leaders who walk with integrity have learned to exercise self control over their thoughts and emotions. However too many men, businesses and ministries have fallen because of sexual related sins. These fleshly lust range from a case of sexual harassment at work to an adulterous affair with an other woman, swinger orgies or a same sex fling. Watching porn on their work computer to the unthinkable sex crimes like rape, exposing oneself in public, and even sex with underage children.

This type of behavior is deeply rooted in man’s desire to spawn offspring that has been altered from God’s original intention when he joined Adam and Eve to populate the earth. Mankind has turned this sacred union of marriage into a free for all fulfillment of our darkest sexual desires. This behavior by men has hurt so many good women who got caught in the deceit and betrayals and destroyed families, companies and even kingdoms.

Orgies, adultery and same sex relationships are nothing new and have been taking place long before the foundation of such empires as Babylon, Greece and the Romans.

What is new is the easy access to images, videos and escort services through the Internet directly into the privacy of closed doors at home. Today more than ever, men need each other to hold one another accountable to stay clear of these temptations and unhealthy sexual relationships.  Older men who have learned to control these urges should help to mentor the younger men into control of their flesh.

God tells us to avoid sexual sins and to keep out bodies clean as a living sacrifice. Jesus says that the old testimony tells us not to commit adultery but Jesus said if we look on a woman and lust in our hearts we have committed adultery. The fruits of the Holy Spirit includes goodness, meekness (strength under control) and self control because God knows we are weak.  God made a way when there seemed to be no way through the grace and cleansing found in Jesus and the soft voice of the indwelling holy spirit so that we can overcome the war in the flesh.

Men I urge you to join me in a renewed walk of purity before God in Christ join us as Partners for Integrity.

Communication is key that all teammembers are on the same page and marching toward the same destination. Share with confidence. SPEAK IT!