Shaping the Path – Building a Business That Reinforces Success (Part 1)
In a recent post I talked about Driving Corporate Change – Made Easier and how we can take the lessons from a book and apply them to what we are doing in the real world. I did the same for Business Retrospective – Finding The Bright Spots, digging deeper into one chapter and integrating it into my thoughts on reflection. This was fitting as we were also wrapping up 2010.
Today I want to talk about creating an environment for success.
Whether we call it working on the business, building a business architecture, franchising a business, or shaping the path […]
Business Retrospective – Finding The Bright Spots
As humans we tend to focus on negative things more than positive. After projects that don’t go well we have post-mortems to discover all the things that went poorly and try to fix them for next time. After submitting a sales proposal and not winning the business, we have a review to look at why we didn’t win.
As business owners we need to step beyond this tendency and look more at what is working.
This mean looking at projects that went well and looking at the things that you did right; so you can do more of it and have more successful […]
Driving Corporate Change – Made Easier
If you’ve been reading my blog posts over the last few years, it should come as no surprise that I have been putting a lot of focus into what makes companies and people succeed. I’ve been reading books, attending seminars, reading blogs, etc.
Our mission is
“Help people achieve their full potential; including living a fulfilling life.”
We are building a software product to do just that for entrepreneurs and business coaches.
We are at an amazing point in history; so much of the knowledge that people have amassed is readily available and openly shared for our taking. This blog is […]
Measuring Awesome
If you want to deliver awesome (services and products) to your clients, how do you measure awesome?
Ask your clients.
(They are the ones who need to feel you deliver awesome.)
Our Mission – Defining Our Purpose and Direction
After reading, researching, thinking, brainstorming, agonizing and writing numerous blog posts on the subject… I am finally ready to share our very own mission. Theory is great but time to show a real example, one that is close to home.
Our (Sunwapta Solution’s) Mission
“Help people achieve their full potential; including living a fulfilling life.”
Breaking It Down
The first part is somewhat straight-forward.
Help people achieve their full potential. Maximizing the potential of people.
Without the second part we felt that there was a danger that we could help people achieve their full potential but that their lives might not be in […]
Why? Why? Why?
“Why? Why? Why?” said with your best Jack Nicholson impersonation (think the Witches of Eastwich movie where Jack plays “gasp” the devil).
Why should you have a mission? Why should you have a vision? Why should your goals and business strategy be tied to these things?
Many (most?) people strive to find a higher purpose or meaning in life; especially once they become aware of their mortality.
Some people, including many business owners strive to create a legacy… to live beyond the grave through their business or some other mechanism.
As someone recently said in a seminar […]
Living Your Mission
In a prior post I defined the mission as being the Tweet sized statement of your service to humanity without reference to your current products or services. The mission is long-term and should be able to survive changes in your business offerings. In fact this is essential, as what exactly your business does, must change over time to address the changing world in which we live.
But your mission is not just for your customers.
You must live it internally in your company. Your shareholders, partners, vendors, and employees must see the consistency.
Before the Internet and social media you could […]
Aligning People and Strategy
Some people or companies think you can buy loyalty and productivity. As Daniel Pink says in "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" this is motivation 2.0 at work. The carrot and stick approach to management that derives from the factory mentally of the previous century. It works, to a degree, for repetitive work where the problem to be solved is linear and repeatable.
But much of today's work is knowledge and creative work. The outcome is not a linear, repeating process but rather requires a unique solution each time. Software development is generally like this. Sure each […]
Setting Goals You Won’t “Want” to Miss
Game Recap
Earlier I defined what I thought make a great mission and vision.
A mission is the Tweet of strategy and describes your overall purpose or service to humanity. Your mission should not reference your current product or service.
Your vision is the story (or blog) of where you intend on going. A good story has a beginning, a middle, and a strong ending. It also should touch on why; this will fuel your emotional commitment.
Introduction to Goals
Goals are where things get a little tricky. Not because goals are inherently difficult to understand, but because setting good goals is tricky. There is a big difference between what […]
When The Student Becomes the Master
The Manager
A funny thing often happens when you first become a manager (leader). You think that you became a manager because you had all of the answers or that being a manager requires knowing all.
After you settle into the role and if you have the right mindset, you realize that your job as a manager/leader is to find people who are smarter than you and help them produce at peak levels; essentially you are there to coach and remove roadblocks. You cannot truly be a great manager until you put your ego aside and realize that you become worth more […]