Tag Archives: management skills

Respect Multiplier

I want to talk to you about a subject today that is not talked about a lot in business anymore, but back in the day, say 30, 40, 50 years ago, it was a big part of leadership management. The topic is what we call the respect multiplier.

One of the things that we do to help leaders with their employees is to talk about the three levels of management. We all know the first level of management which is managing people – their tasks, their productivity, helping them become more efficient, reporting, and doing all that kind of thing. So that’s all book learning and school learning, and that’s pretty fundamentally out there for anybody to get to and look at.

Then the next level of leadership which has become so popular in the last 10 years is this whole idea of the next level of “being” leadership – this idea of leading your people. You know if you want them to go somewhere, you have to lead. You have to set the example. You have to be what you want them to be. You have to cast the vision. All of this is vitally important. Every successful company has a foundation of management and they have a foundation of leadership – somebody out front with courage, confidence and commitment to go to the next level.

But the next level is here and now and, in our culture in the Western world, this is critically important — and that’s the idea of respect.

How do you develop and create a respect culture between all of your teammates whether you have a thousand or a hundred thousand employees? How do you create a culture of respect? And why is respect so critical in this day and age in the time that we’re living in?

Here ere are a couple of things about respect that I want you to think about and take away.

1. You can’t give away something you don’t have.

If you don’t have your own self-respect, then you can’t really give respect to somebody else. And, if you’re operating in a culture that does not show respect for each person, who they are and their innate value of who they are, and their abilities and talents and contribution, and that can’t be mutually respected, then you’ve got all kinds of problems. You have retention and turnover problems. You have low productivity. You have incredible time wasting. You have people just going through the motions. What you have is a cycle that eight out of ten businesses suffer from right now, and that is you’re just barely holding level.

To go past management and leadership, and to really get into the new world of collaborating in unity, joint venture, and really getting people in the sense that they’re on a winning team and everybody’s valued as a player, you have to implement, be a role model, live out and institute this whole idea of respecting people. It can be as simple as listening well. As simple as saying please and thank you. It can be as simple as saying,”You know that is something that you do really well! I respect your talent and ability in that area.”

2. Respect is also the way you operate at work.

Do you clean up after yourself after you use an office or a meeting room? Do you show up on time for meetings? Do you ask other people in the company about themselves? Are you somebody that is presenting themselves in a respectful way? Do you end your meetings on time respecting other people’s time in the business and in the company? Are you somebody that is taking care of yourself, meaning respecting yourself from that standpoint?

We have created a whole list of respect indicators that we’d love to send out to you (all you have to do is ask for it). It’s a list of things or a checklist to see where you’re at on the whole idea of respect and whether that’s a big part of your culture or not.

Think about this as a closing thought. Who are the people that have had the greatest influence in your life? Maybe it was a coach, a teacher, a manager, a CEO, or somebody that was a mentor in your life. Then think about the correlation of their influence and impact on your life and then how much respect you had for them. Then think about the influence you can have in a positive way on all of your team members if you started to institute and live out by example, respecting every person — whether that’s the janitor or the vice president of sales or whoever that is.

This is a huge thing that you can implement, talk about and everybody benefits. Everybody gets it and everybody wins in a company full of people respecting one another. Reach out if you want a copy of the respect indicators.

by Scott Ballard , March 18, 2018

Stopwatch Management

Here’s the challenge for this week: First, buy a stopwatch. Bring it to work. Turn the stopwatch on, and complete your first task. Check the watch — how long did that take you? Write it down. Then ask yourself: Is there a more efficient, faster, better way to do that task?

This is all about capturing the investment of time.

Next, give yourself a task that normally takes you fifteen minutes. Set the stopwatch for only ten, and see what happens. My bet is you can complete the task in ten minutes. This is stopwatch management. Now just think with me for a minute: What if you did that with all fifty of your employees? What if, Monday morning, you gave each one of them a stopwatch and told them to keep time all day on the different tasks? And then asked them one simple question: Could this task be done more efficiently? You’re not monitoring their exact answers, mind you — this isn’t micromanagement. You’re giving them a challenge. Challenge them the next day, the next week, the next month, to check their times. How much time can they save? Five minutes? Ten? Even if it’s only sixty seconds, the point is you’re creating a way of thinking about time, which is your greatest asset. Time has the biggest return on your investment that you’ll ever find. Go buy a stopwatch today. And contact us if you’re interested in our free, 3-step plan to getting more time from your business.

by Scott Ballard , September 10, 2017

Chasing What Doesn’t Change

In the world of business, everything seems to be changing all the time. Tech, innovation, marketing, production — everything’s getting faster and faster, and every business of every size is trying to beat the competition to the next change. Everyone wants to be ahead of everybody. And sure, that’s an important piece of the puzzle — but it seems to be the only piece most people are pursuing. It’s the only question people are asking! But if you want to develop real business leadership, well then, I have a bigger question, for you today:

What ISN’T going to change?

In the next five, ten, twenty-five years from now, what are your customers and clients still going to want or need? What problem will they want solved? We know from human history that there are some needs which have been the same for thousands of years; they’re not changing anytime soon. Is that built in to your business today? Can you identify that thing people will still need down the road? As much as things change in the world, there’s plenty that isn’t changing anytime soon. Are you building on that? Are you thinking on that as you move forward?

The Chinese proverb tells us that “A man who chases two rabbits catches neither.” What is not going to change in your world of business and what you’re doing?

Not sure? Let’s talk about it. Schedule a free coaching session with me today.

by Scott Ballard , August 13, 2017

Designing Your Perfect Day

Last week we talked about understanding the purpose of each day, and scheduling it accordingly. This week, I have a follow-up coaching question for you: When was the last time you started a day with a written plan, with a result in mind, and you actually executed it by the end of the day? Does that happen a lot for you? Does it happen ever for you?

Why is this important? Because in this day and age, people have access to us. This can be good, of course, but it can also be distracting. If we don’t explicitly design our days, if we don’t protect them for our important work, if we don’t actually manage and budget our time, what happens? We get interrupted.

That’s when our days become hurried, frantic, and without any tangible results by the time we go to bed. Everything is left half-finished; nothing is completed. That’s a recipe for burnout and stress, because we’ll never feel like we’re moving forward. We’ll never feel that sense of accomplishment that can be so satisfying and healthy.

Design your perfect day, every day. And if you need some support, schedule a free life or executive coaching session with me right now.

by Scott Ballard , July 16, 2017

Your Business’s Greatest Asset

For every business owner, down to a man, the greatest scarcity in their life is time. Every day ends with a longer to do list then the day before! This becomes a spiraling source of stress event that gets worse and worse — every day, every week, every month, every year. Once the business grows and becomes more successful, this problem actually accelerates!

So how can we get back control of time in our business?

The first thing to do is to recognize that time is our single most valuable asset. It’s more important than money, than product or service, than our customers and even our employees — because, the truth is, we can always get more of all that other stuff. But no one can ever get more time. So the question becomes: Are we really looking at time as an investment, like everything else in our business? Or are we ignoring it?

For 99% of CEOs, leaders, business owners, and entrepreneurs, they’ve never given this much thought. Which means it becomes a bigger and bigger stress and problem. Very few leaders think of time the way you’d think of an annual budget, or consider it the way you’d consider how you’re going to scale employees, or discuss it the way you’d discuss improving your product or service. Which means in our Portland business coaching programs, we see time and time again the same thing: the entrepreneur who might have a successful business, but who also has a mounting feeling of time stress — there’s burnout, there’s frustration, it shows up in poor relationship with employees, it even follows you home at night to your family and children! Whether you realize it or not, in your heart and soul there’s a clock ticking — and this clock stops for no business.

SO: What we love to talk about in our coaching is this: look at time as a tool. Actually think about it, plan for it, and ask the right questions. Start seeing time as the greatest asset in your business, instead of the biggest problem.

How you invest your time will decide the success or failure of your business five years from today. I’m giving some away for free right now — so click here if you want some support.

by Scott Ballard , June 4, 2017

Working With Millennials

Last week we talked about supporting your employees’ dreams outside of work. One of the biggest demographics driving this trend is millennials; here in Portland, where we do our business coaching, millennials make up a huge percentage of the workforce. Companies often complain about this group, about how they care more about their own life purpose than their loyalty to the company. That might be true, but I can’t help thinking that it’s incredibly narrow-minded and foolish to complain about this. It’s is a good thing! I WANT my employees to be driven! I want to find out what they want to do, and I want to make sure they feel connected to that dream! When my employees are driven by a purpose, that’s when they’re doing their best work. When they’re driven by a purpose, I don’t have to try and motivate or threaten or micromanage them, which I never want to do. I’m busy; I have a company to run. They should want to be there, which they only ever will be if it’s connected to their purpose.

Companies complain that millennials are transient, but that trend’s not going away anytime soon. Why not leverage it, instead of whine about it? When your employees leave your company, remember: they’re either going to be a raving fan or a block to your sales. I want to build that tribe of raving fans. Is this employee going to be sending you customers for years to come, proudly proclaiming how much they loved working for you? Or are they going to tell everyone and their mom to avoid your product at all costs? Your relationship doesn’t stop the day they get their last paycheck.

The lifetime value of an employee after they leave is an unknown factor to most business owners, but it should be something you put in your ROI equation. Before you even hire anyone, you should be asking: When this person leaves, can I make them a raving fan? If you can’t make them a raving fan, don’t even hire them. Have a game plan in place before their first day of work. Trust me, if you don’t have a plan, it will end negatively — with hurt feelings and bad reviews. How many people will they tell that story to?! But if you’ve intentionally set up a game plan, you’ll be stoked that they’re leaving. You’ll be thrilled to have a transient disciple headed out into the world.

If you want to learn more about how to build a tribe of raving fans, click here.

by Scott Ballard , May 28, 2017