You probably have heard it said that managers do
things right and leaders do the right things. The first
statement speaks to efficiency, and the latter refers
to effectiveness. It is easy to be busy but hard to
work on the right things.
You as a leader should focus on doing the right
things — those things that matter most to the
success of your department, organization and/or
company. In short, to be effective you must drive
the focus of the organization. You must channel your
time, talent, energy and resources into making an
earnest effort to focus on the key priorities and goals
of your organization. Keep your focus by constantly
asking yourself, “What’s Important Now (WIN)?”
In today’s dynamic, technology-connected world, it’s
easy for us to lose track of what is most important
to our business. We too often get caught up in the
day-to-day minutia and distractions (e-mail, voice-
mail, cell phones, PDAs, etc.) that must be re-
directed, re-focused and re-oriented continually.
Our employees are no exception. As an owner/leader,
you need to share your focus and vision for your
business or organization with your employees. If you
ignore this critical focus, the possibility of wasted
energy, time, talent and resources on trivial matters
will keep them from attaining the company’s vision
and its mission-critical priorities.
Why not consider focusing the team’s attention and
concentration on these six primary areas:
- Satisfying your customers/clients
- Becoming outcome driven; expecting results, not
excuses
- Learning and continuous improvement
- Maintaining and driving profits
- Letting them know you are in it for the long run
- Having fun
Let’s look at each area:
Focusing on Quality Customer Care (QCC) and
satisfying your customers
Your team should know clearly that you expect a
culture whereby your team falls in love with your
customers and their needs/wants and not your own
company’s products or services. You are in business
to attract, delight and retain customers in a
profitable manner-period. The real value of your
business is tied directly to the future, predictable
cash flow from your highly satisfied and loyal
customer base. Without customers, you do not have
a business. The same factors should be applied to
internal customer care as well.
As you teach your employees to value your
customers, serve them well and sniff out any
customer problems or complaints. Keep both of your
customers delighted — one will come back for more
and employee turnover will be reduced!
As CEO, set the tone by visiting regularly the top 20
percent of your customers and keeping them
satisfied. Find out what is on their minds. Aside from
creating clarity of direction for your business, there
is no better use of your time and talents.
Be outcome driven ... expect results, not
excuses
Be an organization that is results-driven. Develop a
corporate climate that expects achievement and not
just activity. Be a leader who admires thinking and
planning. Be a leader who demands effectiveness
(doing the right things) and rewards it more than
efficiency (doing things right). Make it clear you
insist on intelligent, meaningful action. Be just as
clear that you won’t tolerate procrastination and
excuses. It is critical you consider one of the most
important jobs you have establishing a performance
and goal-oriented environment.
Learning and continuous improvement
A dedicated focus to becoming a learning
organization will ensure the continuous improvement
of your products, services, systems and people. You
must champion an investment and dedication to
employee and organizational learning. If your people
and systems aren’t improving, your company won’t
improve — it will decline. If you aren’t getting better
and brighter, rest assured your competitors may well
be. Do not let your employees fear failure. Allow
them to make mistakes. Create a climate where you
all learn from them. Doing this will eliminate repeated
mistakes. Failure is not fatal, but failing to learn from
it and change wisely and appropriately is fatal.
Drive fear away from your organization. If your
company is not failing occasionally, either your goals
are too low or your rate of innovation is too slow.
Employees must believe failure is not painful or
shameful but merely valuable feedback to position
you for success the next time, a kind of “fertilizer”
for future success. Failure is an incredible gift if
properly viewed and used. The quicker we fail and
modify ourapproach, the quicker we get to our
desired outcome. Commit to your employees that you
want them to continually learn and improve what
they do and how they do it. Ask them to think about
how to improve their roles, responsibilities and
contribution to the company. Ask for their input on
systems and processes. Remind them, “Good enough
never is.” Most important, let them know you are
committed to supporting and investing in their growth
as well as yours.
Encourage employees to experiment, experiment,
experiment! Insist “We can always do better — let’s
find the way!” Take small steps to test ideas and
learn more in the process. If something works better,
keep it. If it doesn’t, lose it. Know when to cut your
losses. Admit mistakes and let go of failed ideas fast.
Fail fast, fail cheap. Keep your ego in check.
Consider a twice-a-month, one-hour business
improvement workshop. For every good idea surfaced,
assign a champion, due date and key action steps to
take. Remember, a good idea not fully implemented is
worthless. Reward employees for successfully
implementing ideas that increase revenues, cut costs,
improve operations or morale, or improve customer
satisfaction.
Don’t forget to encourage healthy debate within your
team. Allow everyone, in a constructive manner, to
challenge ideas, policies and strategies. Even allow
for productive and constructive conflict. When ideas
are put to the test, they improve.
Maintaining and driving profits
Don’t forget profits! Remember both top line and
bottom line growth. Focusing only on revenue growth
is ego-driven and not smart. Cash flow and profits
are your lifeblood. Keep your gross margins
strong.
Remember too, while cost containment is important
to the health of your company, do not over-
emphasize slashing costs. Lead an offensive, not
defensive strategy for success. Revenue growth is
nearly endless, while cost cutting is limited — you
can only cut so much before you do real damage.
Some costs are really strategic investments in the
future of your business (new equipment, advertising,
training & development, etc.)
Hire the best CPA you can afford and one who not
only understands numbers well but also the issues
outlined in this article. Finding an entrepreneurial-
oriented CPA who understands the needs of a
growing business is invaluable — worth the premium!
Let them know you are in it for the long
run
Make sure everyone knows without a doubt you are
in business for the long haul. Do not be short-term
oriented. To be successful in business, be a
marathoner, not a sprinter. Commit to the highest
Integrity and ethics, and do what is right, always.
Because business is about sustaining lifelong
relationships, remember your reputation is
everything. No matter if they are customers,
employees, investors, suppliers or advisers, they are
the conduit to repeat business and absolutely critical
to the life force of your company. What percentage
of your customers renew your services each year? Is
this an indicator you measure? Successful companies
and organizations succeed at obtaining, satisfying
and securing repeat business from loyal
customers.
If you are doubting or wondering about this, consider
the Lifetime Value of your customers. On average,
how much profit does a typical customer provide
you over the average service life? Think about this
example:
If company X buys from you several times a year,
yielding you a total annual profit of $1,000, and you
generally retain such a customer for five years, the
Lifetime Value for a Mr. X is $5,000. Look at it an
other way: If you attract a new customer and serve
them well, odds are that, over time, the customer
will be worth $5,000.
If this makes sense, you and your employees should
think twice about upsetting and/or losing a customer.
Perhaps you should consider spending money to
attract new customers and maintain the ones you
have. Invest a little to make a lot! That’s
leverage.
Focus on having fun
Finally, focus on making your business fun. Celebrate
progress toward your goals and successes often and
reward your employees for superior performance.
Think of ideas and excuses to praise your team and
recognize success. Make coming to work a
meaningful and fulfilling event. Consider appointing a
CFO (Chief Fun Officer). Give them the job of coming
up with clever ideas, based on employee feedback,
that will put some excitement into the work
environment.
Furthermore, whenever possible, invite your external
customers to celebrate with you. Success is
contagious, and being associated with a winner is a
good thing, especially if it is fun.
