Time to Get Serious About Business Results Again

Tonight I am preparing for my annual Holiday Weekend (Labor Day in the United States) excursion to New York City for a full weekend of tennis action at the US Open Tennis Championships.  This is the fifth consecutive year my wife and I have spent the entire weekend in Manhattan with two full days, Saturday and Monday, watching the best tennis players in the world compete for a Grand Slam Title.

As I get set to shut down business operations for this weekend I am looking forward to helping my business coaching clients finish the year strong.  Today marks the end of the second one-third of the year and starting next Tuesday the focus will be back on making things happen again.

So many business people check out for one to two months or more once the nice weather comes, especially those who fool themselves into thinking there is no business to be closed during the summer months. For me, the summer of 2007 has been one of my best ever, so I know there can be significant business written during the summer.

For those that checked out, and for those like me who maintained focus, Tuesday, September 4th is a time to reconnect to the business goals we set for the year and to recommit to effort to ensure their achievement.

Take some time this weekend to evaluate the first two-thirds of the year and decide what you need to do to finish the year strong. If you’d like some help e-mail me at Info@WeismanSuccessResources.com and we’ll work on it next week when I get back from my tennis weekend.

Focus is Fleeting - So Create Rituals to Stay on Track

This post is from the ‘be careful what you wish for” file. Over the weekend I received this response to the Weekly Focus Log members of the Breakthrough F.O.C.U.S. Coaching Program complete at the end of each coaching week:

Question: What would you most like coaching on this week? How can I best help you?
Answer: In the face of much activity, I need to make sure that I am consistent in my FOCUS efforts.

After 60 days in the Breakthrough F.O.C.U.S. Coaching Program this client, John, has so significantly increased his business activity that he now needs to adjust how he applies the focus strategies.

Business and life is a continuing evolution. As the law of physics explains “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,” and we must remain flexible to adjust accordingly.

Many times my coaching prospects feel a fear of success by knowing their new found activity will create this reaction in their business to which they must be ready to adjust. Sometimes that can be scary for those that are ill-prepared.

Peak performers know this is a by-product of the focus they will create and plan and or adjust accordingly. As you move forward in your business activity be sure you are continually looking ahead anticipating and adjusting.I’ll be addressing this issue with John in our coaching session this week and will report on how he will be creating new and improved rituals in his daily practice to respond to this new found and profitable business activity.

Who Moved My Litter Box? Change Seems Easier for Cats than Humans

A few years ago there was book written about change in the workplace called, “Who Moved My Cheese?” In the book mice were used as metaphorical workers in an office setting to illustrate the different ways humans react to change.

After six months of being in a new environment, our new home, we decided to move Sage’s litter box from the upstairs bathroom to the basement. A pretty big change in the life of a cat.  Sage now had to adjust to having her bathroom facilities two floors below its original location and on a floor in the home that is not regularly inhabited.

We made the move in a just a couple of days by closing the upstairs bathroom door and showing Sage the litter box in the basement.  After going away for a long weekend, keeping the upstairs bathroom door closed, Sage had fully made the transition by time we returned.

I got to thinking about it and realized Sage made the adjustment much easier than most adults make when faced with less significant changes in their workplace.  I think this is because few business leaders effectively manage the change.

From the perspective of my wife and I the change for Sage was simple but it could have been traumatic for a cat, as far as we know.  And, from what I’ve experienced in business, most business leaders invest as much time in incorporating change initiatives as we did in changing Sage’s litter box location.

Therein lies the problem. Humans are not cats and as such need a little more details and explanation as to the reasons for the changes and must be shown how the changes will positively impact their work experience. Employees don’t necessarilly need to have the change positively impact their experience on the job but they must understand the change process, what will be expected of them in the process and what the anticipated results from the change will do for the company they work for and how it will impact them.

Business leaders contemplating a change initiative must keep one thing in mind which is that one of the most dis-empowering and stressful emotions in the human psyche is ‘uncertainty.’ By investing time, energy and resources to limit the uncertainty employees when faced with change in their work environment, the smoother the change will be for all concerned.

For Sage it just took a couple of experiences seeing the litter box in the new area to know the option was available and once the primary option was no longer available she was able to adjust.  With a little communication at the beginning, and on-going updates change initiatives in the business world can go just as smoothly.

A FOCUS Workshop Participant Said My Program Made Her Depressed…Good!

I delivered my first Breakthrough F.O.C.U.S. Workshop at a business conference in Newburgh, N.Y. yesterday. I fulfilled my purpose by making more than one person feel uncomfortable, which is what it takes to begin to get breakthrough results.

About mid-way through the hour long program I asked the participants to list their top three objectives for the next six months and then identify how much actual time they’ve put in to focusing on those objectives over the last week. 

I then asked the audience for feedback as to what they noticed by doing that exercise and a woman shouted out, “it’s depressing!”

When I asked for clarification she said the exercise made her realize that she was spending virutally no time on her key objectives for the next six months. She realized that they way she was functioning was dysfucntional and it needed to change.

I told the audience after the exercise that most participants in my workshops have similar experiences because I make them think differently and make them aware of how they focus is directed in their present situation. Many times it is not a warm and fuzzy realization.

What about you? How much what are your top three priorities for the next six months and what percentage of your time have you focused on them this week?

Don’t get depressed about it, just begin applying my 5-Step F.O.C.U.S. Formula to begin moving in the right direction.

Approaching Your Business As a Sport

“Life’s a competition, everything is a competition.” And so it is in business.

The quote above is from one of my favorite movies, “City Slickers.” In the scene Billy Crystal’s character “Mitch” is having a conversation with his best friend “Ed” (played by the late Bruno Kirby) about Mitch’s inability to rope a cow as they prepare for their cattle drive vacation.

If we believe that quote to be true, as I do, then we must learn to manage how we approach that daily competition so that we can be at our best while maintaining our sanity.

I believe a powerful way to do that is to follow the strategies I’ve created for the Breakthrough F.O.C.U.S. Coaching Program. That belief was reinforced this weekend when I participated in a workshop called “The Dance of Tennis.”

Having played tennis since junior high school the sport always provided me with an outlet for my competitive juices.  Every time I stepped on the court I competed hard with an intent to win.  At this weekend workshop I learned to improve my game, while letting go of the outcome by changing my focus towards the person on the other side of the net from one of an adversary to one of a partner.

This approach allowed me to relax and enjoy my efforts on the court regardless of the on-court outcome.  By shifting my focus in that manner I was able to improve the control over my shots, and see the tennis ball more clearly than ever before by better anticipating the play of my partner.

Business owners can and should do the same as they plan strategy for maneuvering in a competitive business climate.  Business leaders can learn to have focused and relaxed control over their business when they follow my 5-Step F.O.C.U.S. Formula.

Quote from Dan Gilbert

Daniel “Dan” Gilbert is the Chairman and founder of Rock Finanical and Quicken Loans. He is also the owner of the National Basketball Association’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

A client of mine recently attended a program he delivered for his company and shared this quote from him with me:

 “Numbers and money do not lead, they follow. They follow Vision, Passion & Purpose. When the Vision, Passion & Purpose lead, the numbers and money will follow.”

That is a very powerful statement and is a similar philosophy I tried to instill in my staff during my final years in baseball. Unfortunately because the owner of our team was so numbers and money focused our staff had significant trouble making that transition in its focus. That’s when I knew it was time for me to move on!

Where is your focus? On the numbers or on your passion and purpose?