Managing Your State of Mind
Running a business is hectic and stressful, yes. But it’s also important to pay attention to your mental health, so you can help your company thrive over the long term. Because when you get burned out, the damage multiplies and EVERYONE will suffer.
I wrote a column in the Northern Colorado Business Report recently which addresses just this issue: How do you manage your own state of mind? You might want to check that out if you’d like some tips on staying calm, focused, and productive.
If you’re in the area, I’d recommend that you pick up a copy at a local newsstand and read the column on page 19A. It’s a great investment for just a buck. Otherwise, feel free to read the article online here.
I wish you a wonderful beginning to your summer!
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
Becoming Your Own Boss
In the current economy, many people are looking to buy or create a business. It can seem easier and more lucrative than finding a well-paying job. But how do you go about it?
You might want to check out our ever-expanding webinar series on this topic. So far, we’ve posted these videos:
1. Goals and motivations
2. Your range of alternatives
3. Matching goals to alternatives
4. Sources of funding
5. Debt funding
6. Equity funding
This step-by-step guide will help you through your decisions and actions in creating a new business venture. Watch for more modules coming soon!
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
The "Skunkworks" In Your Business
The term “skunkworks” was first used in World War II to describe a particularly innovative portion of Lockheed Martin, and has seen sporadic usage since then. I was lucky enough to participate in a couple of groups which had some of these attributes, so I thought I’d share the idea with you.
The basic concept, as I’ve seen it, describes an organization which is small, nimble, and focused. More importantly, this creates a strong culture of an underdog “us against the world” philosophy, which turns out to be incredibly powerful. We tend to like supporting underdog sports teams, but I’ve seen this in business as well.
When the personal computer first started, it very much had the aura of a democratized alternative to those “big iron” computers, and in fact sprung up out of a skunkworks operation inside IBM. You see a similar thing happening with the current boom in craft brewing – even when the major beer companies deliver something that tastes the same as craft brews, it’s impossible for them to copy the “underdog” aura around those smaller startups. Not that they haven’t been trying!
This concept can be particularly powerful for small business. You might be large enough where you’d like to encourage entrepreneurial groups within your company. But if you’re too small for that, you can always play your own “underdog” status against other established players in your industry. It can be a powerful marketing tool, and an incredibly motivating part of your internal company culture.
The skunkworks culture can be hard to sustain as you grow. I would argue that Starbucks used to be an underdog – introducing the US to the concept that independent coffee boutiques could deliver great coffee and a unique atmosphere. But more and more, I see people avoiding them, because they’re crowded, cookie-cutter, and, well, no longer the upstart. They’re the giant in the industry.
The essential elements of an underdog culture are:
• A strong belief that you’re doing something unique, special, perhaps even weird in the conventional way of thinking;
• Basing what you’re doing on an unshakable set of strong values;
• Significant risk of failure; and
• The sense of team identity.
I’ve seen cases where team productivity will zoom tenfold because a team is so impassioned about what it’s doing.
What’s the downside? Well, this is very hard to maintain for a significant length of time. It might last for a year or two or three, but the extra energy and focus becomes increasingly hard to maintain.
Plus, because there’s significant risk, the two likely outcomes are either wonderful success (because energy and productivity are high) or total failure (because you weren’t able to compete against the system). If you win, then you become the dominant player, so it’s hard to have a culture of being the underdog. If you fail, well, you have to move on to something else or just disband.
So think about the “skunk works” as a particular tool to be used when you’re encouraging innovation and want to beat the large incumbent. It’s powerful, and believe me, can be a heck of a lot of fun while you’re doing it.
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
Motivate People to Work For You
I was talking the other day about what companies can learn from charities, and this generated some interesting discussion. My premise was that people devote significant time and money to charities because they get a sense of deeper purpose. It helps them feel good about their contributions when they know that it’s important.
There’s a range of reasons why your employees should be excited to work for you. Sure, you give them a paycheck. Less than you’d like, perhaps, but enough to help them live their lives. And you’ve tried to create a work environment where everybody is clear on what they’re doing and is guided in the right direction.
But that’s just the price of entry. Without that, you won’t be able to attract or keep employees at all.
You’re looking for more than just the bare-bones contributions, right? What’s going to help people to pull that out of themselves? It’s the sense of deeper purpose, mission, and values. If your employees can see that their contributions make a difference in the world, they’re going to be inspired to do more.
And it’s not like that “difference” needs to be earth-shattering. Sure, some organizations are out to change the world. More power to ‘em. But even having a sense of contribution in the local community can be powerful, because it’s immediate and easier to see.
I was talking with a gentleman recently who is building a company which will give 10% of its proceeds to a particular kind of charity. He’s not even planning to make a big deal out of it in his marketing, it’s just based on the values that he holds dearly. Don’t you think that employees will notice and think more deeply about how their work has more value than just making money? Absolutely.
And I totally endorse the idea of NOT using it as a tool to manipulate customers or workers. That makes it more credible, because there’s a lot of cynical people around these days.
If you want to figure out how to find and articulate your vision and purpose in a way which will build a more powerful company, give your business coach a call!
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
The difference that motivates people
I was talking the other day about what companies can learn from charities, and this generated some interesting discussion. My premise was that people devote significant time and money to charities because they get a sense of deeper purpose. It helps them feel good about their contributions when they know that it’s important.
There’s a range of reasons why your employees should be excited to work for you. Sure, you give them a paycheck. Less than you’d like, perhaps, but enough to help them live their lives. And you’ve tried to create a work environment where everybody is clear on what they’re doing and is guided in the right direction.
But that’s just the price of entry. Without that, you won’t be able to attract or keep employees at all.
You’re looking for more than just the bare-bones contributions, right? What’s going to help people to pull that out of themselves? It’s the sense of deeper purpose, mission, and values. If your employees can see that their contributions make a difference in the world, they’re going to be inspired to do more.
And it’s not like that “difference” needs to be earth-shattering. Sure, some organizations are out to change the world. More power to ‘em. But even having a sense of contribution in the local community can be powerful, because it’s immediate and easier to see.
I was talking with a gentleman recently who is building a company which will give 10% of its proceeds to a particular kind of charity. He’s not even planning to make a big deal out of it in his marketing, it’s just based on the values that he holds dearly. Don’t you think that employees will notice and think more deeply about how their work has more value than just making money? Absolutely.
And I totally endorse the idea of NOT using it as a tool to manipulate customers or workers. That makes it more credible, because there’s a lot of cynical people around these days.
If you want to figure out how to find and articulate your vision and purpose in a way which will build a more powerful company, give your business coach a call!
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
Being your own boss: courageous or crazy?
I had a chance to deliver a workshop last November with Leslie Lautzenhiser of FranChoice. We were helping people who struggle with the decisions around starting or buying a company, or entering into some other kind of “be your own boss” scenario.
This was so popular that we decided to record it as a webinar series, and just published the second installment of the package as a YouTube video. We’d love for you to go check it out and join the conversation!
Being your own boss: Courageous or crazy?
Module 1: Goals and motivations
Module 2: Your range of alternatives
This is just an example of the business support that you can expect from our coaches! So go check out my information and book a free session!
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching
www.smallfish.us
Supportive vs Critical Feedback
As a business leader, are you struggling to help each employee be motivated and productive? It can be a real challenge, because you have a wide array of backgrounds, expertise, and attitudes.
I recently wrote a column on this subject in the Northern Colorado Business Report. Based on some research, I offer suggestions for how to help each individual grow and develop.
If you’re in the area, you can pick up a copy of the NCBR at local news stands and read the column on page 13A. It’s a good paper and well worth the dollar. Otherwise, you can read the column online here.
I wish you all the best in developing great employees!
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
Acting Optimistic
A number of years ago, I got an unexpected challenge from a person while we were riding the elevator together. He asked the standard question, “how’s it going?”, and I responded in the normal way, “fine.”
This is a totally normal interaction for people in the US. It really doesn’t convey anything other than acknowledging the other person in a polite way.
But he went on to challenge me: “What would it take to make it fantastic?”
To be honest, I found this annoying. But it got me thinking about how little interactions change our perception of what’s going on. So I decided to start an experiment, which still continues over ten years later. When someone asks me this question, I’ll answer with “great!” or “fantastic!” or “wonderful!” The primary purpose of this was to see how it changed the other person’s reaction. Yes, I get expressions of surprise, and a generally more positive interaction. It also increases the likelihood of having an ACTUAL conversation after that, because we potentially have something interesting to talk about.
But here’s the fascinating thing to me: By ACTING more optimistic, I BECAME more optimistic. This one little change has actually changed my outlook on life, for the better. I suppose part of that is a little voice in my head which says: “If you’re going to declare that the day is fantastic, you might want to have some evidence for that, because this person might just ask you why you feel that way.” But it’s also more subtle than that, a change in attitude to LOOK for the positive in my daily activities.
Other people have noticed this too. It came out recently in a conversation where someone told me that they appreciate the way I talk about them positively in front of others. I believe that this is connected to that conscious decision I made back in 2001.
Would you like to be more optimistic about the state of your life and your business? What would happen if you started by ACTING as if you were? Yes, it’ll feel weird to start off with, but then it becomes a part of who you are.
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
Building A New Team
If you want your teams to work better together, I have an incredibly simple tool which will quickly create great relationships: Have them succeed at working on something together.
Maybe a little more explanation will be helpful.
I’ve had many occasions to pull together disparate teams, often people who’ve never even met each other. Or they’re in partner organizations, but haven’t had to create relationships. Now all of a sudden, they’re supposed to put aside their personal points of view and start trusting the others they’ve been thrown together with.
Trust takes time. But you can help accelerate it.
So you pull the new team together, even if it’s just two people, and talk with them about their new shared goal. Next, you do an exercise which might last 30 minutes or 3 days. This exercise has meaning, but isn’t high risk. Not trivial, not zero risk, because that will reduce its significance. But something where people actually have to work together to achieve the common result, and will feel good about having achieved it together.
In some sense, it almost doesn’t matter what the exercise is, because the important outcome is that people feel good about having worked together. But part of feeling good is that the task has some meaning and importance. Just figuring out where to go for coffee may not carry that weight.
Back in my school days, the teacher sometimes assigned group projects. It wasn’t uncommon for this to drive the kids apart, because some would end up doing all the work, and resenting those they saw as the “slackers”. Not a well-designed exercise.
What does a great exercise look like in the work environment? Here are some examples:
• Create a high-level plan of action which is reasonably complete but not rigorous
• Pull together a presentation which incorporates all the points of view
• Capture and articulate some surprising things that people learned about each other
The idea is that everybody should make a contribution, the task should encourage people learning about and supporting each other, and there should be a shared result that people can feel good about.
Then the team can get down to the real work!
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
A Values Based Business
I’ve been working with clients who are struggling with a tough issue: How to create a business which is both successful AND based on some deep personal values. Sometimes these are religious or moral values, but sometimes they are a particular outlook about the environment or contribution to society. When I’ve searched for resources to help me with my own challenges in this area, I’ve found a lack of good discussion which combines both business and deep values.
To address that, I’ve started up a new blog at www.valuesbasedbusiness.wordpress.com both to help me and others who are thinking through these issues. If this sounds like something that might interest you, feel free to visit the site and comment. You can subscribe either on e-mail or via RSS, so you’ll be notified when something new comes out. I’m hoping to have 1-2 postings a week.
Please come join the conversation, and build a business which does important things!
Carl Dierschow
Small Fish Business Coaching Fort Collins
www.smallfish.us
