Ironically, becoming the least important person to your daily routine is the most important thing you can achieve. This doesn’t mean you’ve got no role to play. This means that when you’ve put systems and people in place to manage your daily operations, you can turn your attention to future opportunities, growing your business instead of responding to sales and customers you’ve already acquired. And that’s where you also increase the value of your enterprise because you’ve shifted its emphasis from you as the chief, cook and bottle washer to the business itself. And this will show up for you in smoother operations, consistent experiences for your customers, faster training of new team members, less risk of losing company wisdom if someone leaves, and best of all, fewer people interrupting you when you’re deep in the entrepreneurial zone of creativity.

The way to achieve this is by applying a 2nd concept, that of servant leadership. In this role, you’ve made sure that all who assist in keeping things moving forward for you – suppliers, virtual assistants, designers, marketers, partners or other employees – have everything they need to make it happen. That would include training, tools, written procedures, goals, encouragement, communications and the incentives to do tasks with the degree of excellence justifying your choice to delegate the daily routine.

See how nicely this all works together? So now, when you say with pride “I own the place” it will be because you set your ego aside for the bigger rewards – time, money and well deserved pride – gained by your choice to become the least important person in your business. Sounds pretty important to me.

Make sense?  You can’t get to that next ‘there‘ without being ‘here‘ first, now. And this ‘now’ moment may have something to say that will add to the next moment and so on.

Every moment, every encounter, every thought, every loss, disappointment, person and situation – they are all perfect in what you can gain from them now and nowhere else again. Despite what may be difficult, even tragic, somewhere is the opportunity for growth.

As we move into the last 6 weeks of 2011, don’t neglect to celebrate all you’ve achieved, attempted and added to the lives of those who work with you and count on you. You’ve provided many perfect moments for others; you have many to leverage for yourself. You deserve to feel great about changes you’ve made and continue to make to achieve the business – and life – of your dreams!

As I give thanks for the perfect opportunities you’ve contributed through feedback and participation, and my own birthday celebration last Tuesday, I’m offering a gift, either for you or a friend who would benefit, through December 15th, 2011: 60% off all e-programs (Win with Your Hidden Assets, The KEY to Your Success, 30 Day Challenge to More Free Time, 8.5 Ways to Out-Compete Your Competition) and free shipping on my book, Time Junkie. You can find them all by clicking on their names, above.

Enjoy an abundant Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends and many more perfect moments.

Want to know how to write compelling copy that’s easy for your prospects and customers to read?

Every other kind of relationship we seem able to develop with a natural rhythm. But when it comes to business, somehow an owner or supervisor seems to think they can just pluck the necessary skills, experience and productive behaviors from the heads of new or seasoned recruits and avoid the rest.  Not only is this impossible, it’s also a great loss for the employer who could otherwise garner loyalty, creativity, expanded points of view and the opportunity for faster growth and efficiencies (plus a smarter grasp of reality).

I take a different perspective here.  Since your employee is actually a whole human being, try to select the whole person (thinking process, behavioral style, experience, personal preferences, communication skills and values are all part of their success factors) with the greatest match to both the job and company environment.  Therefore, in order to find the best fit, first be clear about what the job needs to be done well. Be up-front about the general environment or company attitude. Once on board, it’s up to the visionaries and managers to ensure the reality matches the promise. There’s no point recruiting for heaven and then delivering hell (there’s a great joke here and if you want to hear it, and learn how to maximize a hugely under used business asset, attend the breakfast workshop “Stop Doing and Start Delegating”, 11/2; details here).

I think there’s a simple distinction employers need to make in order to get this right: you’re not hiring a bundle of skills, you’re hiring a whole human being when you engage an employee. Once that reality is accepted, there are 3 primary ways to leverage the opportunity represented by your team:

• Include in your sought characteristics more than skills, training and experience; include behavioral type and values that will fit with your company environment, presumably one that appreciates its PEOPLE and not just their SKILLS or CREDENTIALS – big difference.
• Nurture an environment in which employees come to see that success on the job will lead to advancement in their PERSONAL goals; more than almost any other company improvement, this encourages process improvements, innovative suggestions, enhanced productivity and the beginnings of a team environment. Obviously, there are lots of ways this can be done through the physical environment, access to resources, training opportunities, public acknowledgement and rewards, benefits or policies that affect your team’s families, etc.
• Use well-crafted PERFORMANCE REVIEWS to establish pay and reward through co-created goals. Abolish holiday bonuses that are connected to nothing except a calendar. (Am I  being clear? This is money down the drain and requires nothing from your employee in exchange.)

Wouldn’t this be nice? In my dreams! In yours, too?  If you’re local and want me to provide your breakfast (yes – and networking), take me up on this invitation. Not able to attend? Well, you can always call me for the right help; coffee’s up to you…

We all work and live in an environment of some kind – light, temperature, furnishings and equipment may create a sense of our physical environment. In your workplace, you create a culture with every decision and policy that’s created; these convey what it might be like to do business with you, to work for you, to partner with you.  Here are just two ways culture affects your business success.

When engaging potential employees, too often employers neglect to look at the soft skills (behavioral style, attitude, values, interests) in favor of the hard skills (training, experience, education, references).  Of course, the repercussions can be felt when 6 months along the line, it becomes obvious that the employee is not fitting in. What they’re not fitting into is the company culture.  Interestingly,  the ‘culture’ itself is an element worth acknowledging. Yet too many take it for granted as simply ‘the way we do things around here’ and don’t recognize that what’s intuitive to an ‘old timer’ is not at all to a new recruit. This is even harder if your team is virtual and has even fewer cues about the norms you assume everyone working for you should understand.

A new employee may have done ‘things’ very differently in the past or may prefer a different style of environment in which to thrive and be productive.  For example, some companies are rigid and formal, maintaining strict protocols, complete ‘paper trails’, chain of command to keep things moving (or not); all who work there have to do so within this structure.  If an employee is accustomed or more responsive to a flexible, free wheeling, creative, brain storming environment, it’s very likely that person will either fail completely or, at best, diminish her/his ability to be productive, innovative and collaborative. They may feel left out and you may think they’re odd.

Another way in which culture presents itself is with you – the owner. As an example: you may have developed a pattern of being completely responsible to your business’ needs and have sacrificed other life arenas: family, health,  social responsibility, personal growth, fun, travel, spiritual community, etc.  Since employees will naturally take their cues on appropriate behavior from the leader, they’ll assume similar behavior is what’s sought if they want to succeed on the job.  In fact, this may cause resentment, diminished productivity and absenteeism among employees who would otherwise thrive in an environment that respects them as whole people and not just a bundle of skills that sits at a desk 8 hours a day.

Understanding the impact of culture at your company and nurturing one that meets your business goals will ensure that employees expectations with ‘the way we do it around here’ will be consistent with what will make them effective members of your company. These are just 2 ways company culture is critical.  It pervades the general reputation of your business and becomes part of the experience expected by vendors, customers and partners.  It can be part of your marketing campaign or crafted to be consistent with the reputation and qualities of your products.  Regardless of how it’s used, as in all things, awareness is the first step to success; no less than superior products and policies, an environment is an asset you can cultivate to help achieve your goals for success in business.

The same is true of a developing business, especially for the entrepreneur who’s made the shift from employment.  The bigger picture is a gorgeous thing to see.  As your products, service, policies and relationships develop, you’ll see a dynamic change in the role you play in your developing business.

At first, it’s all about the product or service you’re bringing into the world. There’s a focus on ensuring quality, timeliness of delivery and ability to please your clients are all meeting your high standards for excellence. Eventually,  you develop a rhythm and routine; your policies and norms are in place.

Then things change; your concern jumps to the totality of the business – its reputation, alliances, processes, people, relationships. In fact, your only product is the business. However there are business owners who simply can’t make the leap from birthing a product to birthing a business. They’ve spent so much of their working life focused on the details of the small picture – in their previous role as part of an employer’s company or in the role that required daily, tangible proof that they were productive – it’s hard to accept that it’s o.k. to move away from the details and into the bigger picture.

Well, not only is it ‘o.k.’, it’s absolutely imperative that your attention moves beyond the routine of today and on to your next big opportunity for tomorrow because a business can’t survive and thrive with only a product – no matter how cutting edge, unique or splendid. The whole context in which that product is developed and sold is critical. If you’re not able to get beyond the product details and into the business’ development, you’ll never grow into the full power of business ownership; it’s there you’ll find the rewards of personal expression, freedom and real abundance – the things for which you risked so much when you made the leap to business owner.

Think New York City is amazing? Wait ’til you see the 3,000,000 acres of trees across the Adirondacks in – yup! – New York State.

Now, with that expanded view of what – and who – you’re engaging, there are 3 primary ways to leverage the opportunity represented by your people (virtual or sitting at the next desk):

1. When you write a job description, include in your list of desired characteristics more than skills, training and experience; consider behavioral type and values that will fit with your company environment. And I’m assuming you’re crafting an environment that appreciates its PEOPLE and not just SKILLS or CREDENTIALS – big difference.
2. Nurture an environment in which employees come to see that success on the job will lead to advancement in their PERSONAL goals as well as your business goals; this encourages process improvements, suggestions, enhanced productivity and the beginnings of a team. There are lots of ways this can be done through physical plant, access to resources, communication openness, training or advancement opportunities.
3. Use the performance review process to establish pay (or reward) for performance through co-created goals and abolish holiday bonuses that are connected to nothing except a calendar.

Now I know everybody hates performance reviews, whether employer or employee. But that’s only because they haven’t met mine.  No, I don’t serve pina coladas but do recommend these big changes:

• Ask your team to suggest their own goals within the context of upcoming company-wide goals.
• Get their feedback on your or the company’s performance, especially within the context of the employees’ role or division.

Doesn’t it sound scary? Well, you’re a business owner- it’s all scary,  every day. Yet, to my mind, that’s a much more interesting, and results producing, conversation than the standard review. And, it’s through the commitments made during that meeting that a potential bonus or other reward is identified and you throw out the year-end holiday bonus.

And there’s today’s vision for a perfect small business world.  In my dreams, populated with people, not skill sets.

• Do you have a team to support you in your business?
• If ‘no’ please tell me why.
• If ‘yes’ what are your biggest headaches with your team?

While 97% told me they use virtual, local, full-time, or part-time help, 100% of respondents had complaints – real or imagined! See if your own experience is here:

-       too hard to find the right fit (most frequent reply!)

-       takes too long to train them

-       they show no initiative

-       no one will do as good a job as I

This is pretty sad because it’s my firm belief that having a well-selected, well-trained and empowered team is a business owner’s golden ticket to freedom in business. Experiencing or believing these typical complaints will stand in your way of having the business and life of freedom you want! These complaints mean you end up doing all the operations and drudge work yourself, keeping you away from the bigger opportunities no one else can nurture. You can’t grow when you limit your capacity. You can’t develop a world-class team when you’re unwilling to believe you can ever have one. You can’t plan for future opportunities or against future dangers. You diminish the value of your business if you don’t have an effective support team in place. You miss out on ideas from others’ points of view. You slow everything down because you’ve become a bottleneck through which all must pass.

Am I getting to you? This is NOT the way to the dream life you want.  And all because, as a business owner you might have, at some time, failed in one of these critical tasks when it comes to adding to your team: select based on the right criteria (and it’s not just about their training & experience); train someone to think and take action as well as master a task; empower someone to take responsibility for the good, the bad and the ugly and then learn how to make it all better.

On August 3rd, 1 p.m. Eastern, I’m hosting a tele-seminar to address and blast away these objections. Please save the date if you’d like to learn how to maximize the contributions of the right team so your business runs like a well-oiled machine while you enjoy your dream life.

In fact, performance reviews are ideal forums to measure performance against co-created goals – goals that stretch the employee and improve the overall growth of the business through the job the employee is charged with improving. I say ‘co-created’ because when the goals are jointly defined, the employee is more likely to take ownership of their success – after all, they had a hand in committing to them AND they’ll be rewarded for their achievement. And the supervisor or owner is able to guide the goals in terms of what makes sense for the larger company plan.

Another invaluable feature of performance reviews is their ability to tell an employee what will generate a bonus or reward.  I see so many business owners miss the boat by giving away rewards just because a gift-giving holiday is on the calendar.  Why not give a reward for an achievement that pushes your own goals forward as well as stretches your team member? Clearly identifying how the reward can be acquired is the role of goals, jointly set at a review meeting. And, if you show your team member the formula for how the bonus is figured – 10% for X, 25% for Y and 65% for Z – it becomes obvious just what your own priorities are and the employee will help execute them for you.

Finally, a performance review is your chance to get an employee’s feedback on your performance as well. This way you get a different perspective on how your actions and policies are perceived by the team responsible for implementing and defending them. And who better than your staff than to have ‘from the trenches’ ideas on how to improve those policies? Do you want to serve customers better? Improve deliverability of product? Speed product development? Reduce costs? Expand your market share?  That’s up to you and the value you attach to each goal, in percentage of bonus available, will tell the employee very clearly: not only is this what’s most important to the Boss, it’s what’s most important for my next bonus!

So, is it time to change your view on performance reviews? Like any teenager, they can’t get away with ‘you just don’t understand me’ forever…

I know how to do both simultaneously: stop wasting time on administrivia or operations. If I delegate these routine functions to well-trained, lower cost employees or outsourced partners I save the difference between their rate of pay and my own.  At the same time, the window of time and attention that opens up for me means I can start attending to daily, revenue-producing opportunities that previously would have passed me by.

A leader uses time effectively when she’s advancing her big picture priorities and using her resources – team, funds, relationships, energy or tools – to help with everything else.  When a leader feels stressed because he believes he’s got too much to pack into a limited time frame, he’s not serving his business, he’s serving ego which believes controlling the details is a measure of power.

From my perspective, that’s nuts. Unless you’re Clark Kent with a red/white/blue unitard under your daily clothes, it’s impossible to give a fair measure of your attention to any one project when you’re trying to wrangle so many.  They’re all bound to be ill-served as a result, getting by on your distracted ability to think, reflect and take decisive action.  And who suffers??? Uh – that would be you and your business.

But wait – there’s more! You also spent more money on these mediocre results because not only did you apply your executive time handling them, you didn’t spend any time attending to the money-making or relationship-building activities you could have leveraged. What a strategy!

Look, I’m not being mean (it’s my anniversary today, no way am I being mean); I want you to see the bigger picture impact of your choices and how closely they match your priorities.  And I’ll bet not once did you dream of handling administrative details and sweating over scheduling conflicts when you chose to be a business owner.  If I’m right, please consider an alternative path to business glory: learn how to delegate smartly. And if you’re saying “to who? It’s just me here” shoot me an email.  I’ll tell you at least 5 ways you can start to solve this non-problem today. Or send me a note that says “Happy Anniversary” and I’ll send you the same 5 resources – my gift to you so you can start saving AND making money!