Hard Thinking

I often wonder what, exactly, am I wanting to build. I have been thinking long and hard on that very topic over the last few weeks – the last month actually. I have made some minor cosmetic changes to this blog. I have refined my message. I have done some hard thinking.

It is now and always has been my contention that a good company can become a great company – that a decent business can be transformed into a great business. And that the transformation must and always begin with the leader. For it is only through great leadership can the mundane become the sublime, can benign mediocrity be raised to the level of true greatness.

This has always been true and it has been true in every field of endeavor. Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said that “greatness and goodness are not means but an end.” I find it quite interesting that he couples the idea of goodness with greatness – for goodness emanates from the heart. And I believe that real greatness flows from the heart as well. Thus, it is indeed a “heart thing” that we are talking about here. And why not? Should we not, as humans – not merely business owners – be compelled to transcend the merely functional, transaction-based nature of “doing business”? Is it so odd that we might want to create a legacy and have a lasting impact on the world we inhabit and work in? I think not.

Think hard about this. Think from the heart.

Excellence or Greatness?

Ex’cel-lent, adj. 1. Archaic. Excelling; superior. 2. Extremely good of its kind; first-class; hence, of great worth; eminently good.

Ex-cel’, v. To go beyond or surpass in good qualities or deeds; to outdo. – Syn. exceed.

This is not meant to be a scholarly or technical assessment of excellence and greatness. It is, however, an attempt to distinguish between the somewhat obsessive pursuit of excellence, so admirably addressed in Tom Peter’s 1982 book In Search of Excellence. Another book which serves as a type of counterbalance to to Peter’s work is Firms of Endearment. Instead of pursuing excellence, this book’s authors show how companies that strive to endear themselves to all their stakeholders can out-perform companies that are not stakeholder-focused in building shareholder wealth. Yet they both purport to explore avenues that businesses may take towards a goal of excellence. And their “definitions” of excellence differ markedly.

The thing about “excellence” is that is tied to a benchmark, a standard. It infers striving to outdo, to out-perform, to attain a higher status or class. While there is certainly nothing inherently wrong with excelling, it does tend to become an end in itself. There is, in the essence of it, a sense of constantly striving, of “doing”. It also tends to view the pursuit as a worthy strategy that may or may not lead to greater profitability, and does not necessarily attain to an enduring state of “greatness” – which brings us to that elusive quality…

Greatness, n. 1. The state, condition, or quality of being great; as, greatness of size, greatness of mind, power, etc. 2. the property possessed by something or someone of outstanding importance or eminence.

Great, adj. 1. Being much above the average in magnitude, intensity, importance, etc.; of person, their work, etc.; eminent; distinguished.

When it comes to businesses, it is a fair question to ask, as Bo Burlingham does in his book Small Giants, “What exactly is it that makes a company great?” His initial response to his own question was, “Of course, different individuals will come up with different answers, but I figured we could all benefit by considering the possibilities, by asking ourselves what we really want out of business, out of work, and out of life…”

So, while excellence can be seen as a critical ingredient in achieving greatness, there is far more involved in sustaining and fostering greatness for the long haul. And the exact nature of that greatness is contingent in large part on the vision and the mission, or purpose, of the company and the owners. Greatness, like excellence, is inherent throughout a great company. It is part of the fabric, the culture, the DNA of a business that would embody greatness. And it is something that involves, in my estimation, a spirit of great leadership from whence all things emanate; a spirit of caring that infuses the culture; and a spirit of service that marks every function, every transaction, every person.

You can choose to be excellent, but still not be great. Yet if you strive to be great, you must pursue excellence. This is not a contradiction – it is, however, a decision you must make.

Choose wisely.

Building Foundations

There are many things we can give our lives to: causes, crusades, loved ones, intellectual pursuits… many things that can consume our time, our energies, our passions. Some of these are noble and worthwhile. Others are trivial and insubstantial. But building a great enterprise, a business that can stand on its own and continue long after we are gone – this is the stuff of legacies.

The recent passing of Steve Jobs has triggered a great outpouring of philosophizing and punditry over the legacy he created and left in his wake. It was Jobs who made the statement at one time that he wanted to “make a dent in the Universe.” Now that’s a dream worth pursuing! So the question I pose here is what is the legacy you are creating? What is the impact you want to have on your world and those around you?

 If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

It was these words of Henry David Thoreau first stirred me to dream large. And more importantly, to understand and believe that dreaming was acceptable and not the mark of a flighty and undependable mind. I came to realize that without the dream a vision could not be truly born. And without the vision their can be no great undertaking or enterprise, no driving passion to build and achieve, no lasting legacy to be had.

A dream alone is no guarantee of success. But a dream, a castle in the air, cannot become real if you do not work to build the foundation it needs to stand.

So go ahead and dream. Build your castle amongst the clouds. And in the morning begin laying the stones for the foundation.

And never look back.

Here We Go!

 I have always believed that the business of being a business owner is truly real serious stuff. The fact that small business owners make up the backbone of the American economy is staggering to consider. It is humbling to think of the millions of jobs you provide and, as a consequence, the millions of lives you support and directly impact for good – or not so good. The impact and influence of small business in this country is manifold and complex. Owning and running your business is no light thing. And it is not all about you.

I also believe there is a difference between what I call “shopkeepers” and what I refer to as “entrepreneurial business owners”. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a shopkeeper, the distinction lies in the vision and the intent. The shopkeeper prefers to run a business, to manage it and reap the rewards of a somewhat modest yet successful enterprise. Growth, expansion, risky innovation or diversification are not part of the plan for the shopkeeper. Stability, predictability and continued profitability are the keys. Fair enough.

The entreprenuerial business owner, on the other hand, thrives on change, growth, assessing and assuming risk, and pushing the envelope. The vision is large and the plan is audacious. There are no guarantees, but there is great potential. These are the individuals who strive to go from start-ups to substantial concerns, from merely good businesses to great, from being a dream to a thriving reality. This involves vision, passion, and the ability to inspire and motivate a great team for the business owner cannot do this alone. This involves leadership at its best, infused with an entrenched purpose and mission, that is continually imparted and communicated. Potential profitability – perhaps even great profitability – stands as the reward. But this is only part of the equation.

A great enterprise, no matter how small, is one that provides an environment and a culture that enervates and stretches the employees, the team. A great business thrives on change, challenges assumptions and traditions, and continually seeks to better itself and it’s product or service. A great company knows that being big is not necessarily the goal – but that achieving and sustaining greatness is. Leadership, great leadership, lies at the heart of the great business. It is from the influence and direction of this leadership that the culture is formed, fostered and maintained. The team that comprises a great business – for that’s all a business is really: a team of people – thrives on embodying the spirit of great service.

Thus we have the three building blocks of a great business: leadership, culture and service. Everything else follows.

Success is not a place at which one arrives but rather the spirit with which one undertakes and continues the journey.”  – Alex Noble

If you are an entrepreneurial business owner then you are on a journey. Yours may have just begun, or you may have started many years ago. Either way, it is a path that is unique to you and you must tread boldly, but with awareness and intent. There are no guarantees – you know that – but there are a multitude of rewards both tangible and intangible. And in the journey you are taking many others who depend on your leadership and your vision to carry them through.

This is real serious stuff, my friend.

Will Work For Food

It is no secret that the economy is still… uhm, not doing so well. Business is hard for many. Money is tight and the future is uncertain. Politics and party affiliations aside, it is also apparent that government hasn’t been too successful in turning things around. So we wait. We worry. And we still have to do business. Because what we do is real serious stuff.

Economic downturns are nothing new though they are always trying times. Whether it is conditions imposed from without – recession, rising costs, lowered credit lines, reluctant buyers – or from within – major capital expenditures, costly expansions, added overhead from new hires – that challenge remains the same: How to lead the organization while keeping the vision, the purpose and the passion alive. For it is these things that provide the fuel and the drive that is absolutely necessary during times like these.

So what is a Leader to do? Being a role model is crucial here. While your confidence and assurance may be shaken, you cannot communicate that to your employees. They will and do look to you to be a pillar of strength, a torch-bearer of vision, and a source of passion and purpose. Big words? Not really. Nothing flamboyant, no hyperbole – simple truth and a recognition of human nature. Be a role model and communicate ever more regularly, consistently and confidently while recognizing that your staff is no less attuned to what’s happening “out there” than you are. They, too, have fears and uncertainties and open communication is vital to assuage those fears.

And be authentic. Real. If the news is bad and the prospects are worse, don’t pretend that they’re not and put on a front. But don’t reduce yourself to hand-wringing and a “We’re all going to die!” approach either. Nobody’s going to die. Some decisions may have to be made and some of them may be painful. But your employees deserve to know the truth and that you and they are in this together. And don’t forget to balance the picture with the good news, the positive aspects, and the ever-present possibility that things will assuredly get better. They always do. And when they do your team will be that much closer, your vision, your purpose, and your passion will be that much deeper and burn that much brighter.

This truly is real serious stuff. And it’s what you do.

Movie Trailers

I was thinking about the power and appeal of movie previews after coming across some of the latest on my Yahoo! home page. Why is it that we seem to so enjoy watching previews? What is it about seeing glimpses of a story that captivate us so much? (And why is it that so many previews seem to have all the best scenes in an otherwise mediocre film?) Anyway, I was thinking about this in between an absurdly long stretch of watching numerous previews.

There is a similar power in a well-crafted vision statement.

Looking at your business and what you envision it to be like in, say, five years from now – what are the highlights? What are the stirring aspects and exceptionally captivating points of differentiation? How would you pitch it if it were indeed a movie-in-the-making? This is what a vision statement should provide for it’s audience: a powerful, heartening, inspiring thumbnail of a grand epic! A riveting description of your future business will provide the impetus, the inspiration and the illumination your employees need to embrace and share your vision. And that is why not only drafting your vision is absolutely essential, but sharing it with your staff and integrating it into the fabric of your company culture and mindset.

A vision statement can be called any number of things – in fact, the typical “vision statement” is often nothing more than an exercise in corporate cliches which is why calling yours something else might be a good idea. And your “vision” should not be confused with your “mission”. Your vision is your future, what you striving to build. Your mission, or purpose, is what your organization strives to accomplish each day. Both are necessary and both must emanate from the business leader. Your business? Your vision. Your company? Your purpose.

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. – Jack Welch

Take Time to Think

 I have been re-reading What Clients Love by Harry Beckwith. It was and is a valuable and insightful book. I highly recommend it. As I do all of his books actually. I do not agree with everything he says or advocates, but probably do with about 95%. And isn’t that how it often is – we find that the more we learn, the more we do, and the more we know, the less we agree on things with others.

Because we have been thinking for a while.

The problem is that the complexity of life, of business, of merely getting through the day has increased so much that it has become difficult to take time to think well. There is a bumper sticker that reads “Have you ever stopped to think… and forgot to start again?” Sometimes it seems that we have to make so many decisions on the slimmest of grounds and with questionable understanding of the consequences. We are bombarded with contradictory advice from a plethora of “gurus” who tell us how to market, how to grow, how to keep customers… so who do we believe? And why?

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking. – George S. Patton

What I think is missing for many of us is simply the time and space to simply think! Time to think deeply and to think well. It is a learned skill and one that far too many have abdicated to others. The problem with the “others” is that they have an agenda. And their agenda does not necesarrily fit ours. The seeming irony – or disingeniousness – in me making these statements is that I think for others and I have an agenda. If it can be considered a saving grace or a mea culpa it is this: I still want you to think for yourself, for your business, for you own vision and purpose.

What I or anyone else suggests, proclaims, advocates or promotes as a truism should rightfully be subjected to thoughtful scrutiny. I don’t have all the answers. No one does. Some of my answers may be way off the mark. Many people’s are. So listen, thoughtfully consider, and give regular time to thought – deep thought. Hard, deliberate, and analytical thinking.

So go grab a cup of coffee…

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.  - Henry Ford

What is Your Mission?

Every business exists to serve a purpose. Provide clean carpets. Deliver building materials. Serve up fresh ice cream. Innumerable things. But beyond the obvious every business ought to exist to serve a higher purpose – to impart some intrinsic and intangible benefit or impact on the customers, the employees, the vendors… anyone who comes into contact with that business.

It can be – and often has been – argued that businesses must serve a mission, or purpose, that goes beyond mere commercial transactions. It may as simple as making people’s life a bit simpler, or as profound as providing a device that makes people’s life last longer. Perhaps it’s little more than easing a burden, providing a solution, or enhancing an experience. Whatever your company’s “higher purpose” it cannot be clearly expressed and served if it is not clearly communicated and understood.

Employees will give themselves to something beyond a regular paycheck and medical benefits. People do want to be a part of something bigger than themselves, and something more influential than facilitating an exchange of goods or services. Although it may a stretch to expect a small business to provide the means and opportunity for individual employees to achieve complete self-actualization, it is not at all a stretch to expect these same firms to be a place where people can find deep affirmation and fulfilling gratification. And the result of this experience, this culture, this atmosphere, is a loyalty that far exceeds that of a typical employee.

So your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to determine what the “mission”, or purpose, of your business truly is. Stretch. Go beyond the apparent, the obvious. Reach into your own heart and think on what you truly enjoy most about what your business does. What is it that inspires you, motivates you, brings you the deepest satisfaction? I suspect it isn’t simply more revenue…

The More Things Change…

Okay, so things have progressed a bit. But, really, the underlying premise is still the same: I think I got something to say that’s worth sharing and I want to utilize an effective medium that transcends the transitory nature of the spoken word. So I write it. Or text it. Or blog it. Or put into 140 characters or less…

And I suppose I could carve it into the side of a rock.

My point is that the primal urge remains the same: we have something to say and we often want to share it in a more permanent fashion using a more permanent medium. And the truly ironic things is this – we often really don’t care all that much if no one reads it! Case in point: as of today there are over 156 MILLION public blogs, the vast majority of which are hardly if ever read by the public. And the count continues to rise…

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. – George Bernard Shaw

So the challenge for the Leader is to find the most suitable medium or channel for effectively communicating his or her message. Additionally, the challenge is to resist the temptation to utilize the latest high-tech medium simply because “that’s what everybody is doing”. There is still great (and sometimes more) effectiveness to be had using hand-written notes. Or cards. Or letters. Even whiteboards. A truly novel medium today would be a carving on the side of a rock… Whatever your choice be sure that it cannot be a one-off effort – repetition is the key to ensuring that the message is effectively communicated.

Beware the illusion of communication masquerading behind the latest medium du jour.

Heart. Does Your Business Have It?

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Great quote. Great principle. Too bad more businesses don’t take it to heart. One does not have to be a Christian, or even particularly religious or spiritual, to appreciate the sublime power of that statement. If only we lived our lives consistently by this rule – the Golden Rule – how much nicer life on this planet would be…

As business owners we have the privilege and the opportunity to turn customer expectations on its head by implementing processes that work to guarantee that our customers are always treated as we would want to be treated. Is this unrealistic? I think not. Two books, three actually, quickly come to mind as I ponder this prospect: Peak, by Chip Conley, Secret Service, by John DiJulius, and Firms of Endearment, by Rajendra Sisodia, Jag Sheth, and David B. Wolfe. All of them make direct references to, or indirect inferences, to the Golden Rule. They profile dozens upon dozens of highly successful businesses that appear to have leveraged the power of “doing business with heart”. I call it “business from the heart.”

There was never a person who did anything worth doing that did not receive more than he gave. – Henry Ward Beecher

It doesn’t begin and end with your customers either. No, in fact, it actually begins with your employees. Yes, them. There is an old saying that is probably not very PC, but it fits here: “When mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.” In an analogous way this holds true for our businesses – if your staff isn’t happy, nobody’s happy. And if your customers aren’t happy because the employees weren’t happy then… well, you get the idea. There are also the vendors and suppliers to consider. And, for some, investors and shareholders. And for all of us, there is our community, whether it is the local neighborhood that has so faithfully supported our business, or the community of Planet Earth. Having a business with heart does not stop at the cash register.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to perform a diagnostic evaluation of your company’s heart. First you might want to check for a pulse. But definitely make it a strategic endeavor to determine the extent to which you, your employees, and anyone else attached to your business, truly operate from a stance and a spirit of heartful service. Heart will trump technical excellence every time. Heart will outbid low prices every time. Heart will carry your business farther than any strategic business plan ever will. Don’t simply be a “business owner” – have a heart!