Biz Coach Steve

Tag: Leadership

  • Ready to Grow in 2019? Plan to tell a story, and tell it well!

    Have you ever considered that one of your primary roles as the owner of the business is lead storyteller? That beyond what you know and what you can do, there’s a more essential role that only you can fill? It’s time to stretch yourself in a different way and TELL YOUR STORY.

    Start by thinking back to this year-2018. If you had to choose a word or short phrase – something that captured the best of 2018 was about for your business, what would it be?  Was it a year of ‘growth,’ or ‘stabilizing our systems,’ or ‘innovation,’ or‘expansion?’  Even if you had a down year in terms of profits or revenues, can you find a positive thread, or a big decision you made and stood behind, that ran through it that you could build on this year?

    Finding a theme for 2018, and every year, can be very powerful. Just imagine if you knew what that word was in advance – on January 1 last year – and you talked with your team about what it meant, how it connected your long-term and short-term business goals, and could use it as a conversation starter to talk to everyone in the company about what the year was going to be like for them?

    Your people want to hear the truth. Sure, they’d prefer it was an optimistic truth, but it has to be the real truth…

    One of the most common errors business owners make is assuming that the only thing employees want to hear is that the company is growing rapidly. It’s just not true. Your people want to hear the truth. Sure,they’d prefer it was an optimistic truth, but it must be the real truth, because they already know what’s true on the front lines of the business, often times more clearly than you do.

    Take a few minutes to look at your organization from an outside point of view. Just sit and write down all the positives and negatives that occurred this year and wait until you can find that one word or phrase that captures what this year is all about. Maybe as you do, you’ll see that 2018 is a year of ‘stabilizing our finances’ and 2019 is really the year of ‘initial expansion?’ Whatever it is for you is fine, just make sure it’s the most true and real one you can find.

    Now, once you’ve got it, you’re going to make a really big deal of it. I mean a REALLY BIG DEAL. Schedule a company meeting, whether you have 100 employees or one. Tell them about the process you went through to figure out this next year’s theme. Tell them a (true) story about what you now realize 2018 was about. Show them how much you care about not just today’s results but the journey that your business is on – no matter how difficult or over whelming it might seem on any given day.

    “Team, this year was about                              , and here’s why:                              . Next year is about _______________ and here’s why: _______________”

    You’ll be amazed what happens when everyone – but especially your key managers – can feel how this year will lead to the next one. You aren’t selling anyone on anything, you’re just giving them an experience of what it will feel like when the business is that much healthier than it is today.And the pain – the gap – is what will motivate everyone to get there, including you. It’s what will inform and enliven all of your conversations about the specific strategies and tactics you’ve come up with and will keep coming back to throughout the year. And whenever you get stuck, all you’ll have to remember is that one word.

    So, what is that one word that describes your businesses 2018?

    What is that one word that will describe your business in 2019?

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    Steve Feld, MBA is a certified business coach that provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives.He has owned and operated 6 businesses and operated 3 large corporations with Fortune 500 Companies and assisted hundreds of business owners achieve their business goals. #bizcoachstevef

  • STRATEGIC LIFE PLAN

    So…
     
    Think about where you were 5 years ago.
     
    Seems like only yesterday,right?
     
    Are you where you’d thought you’d be 5 years later, when you looked forward back then?
     
    Are you leading the life you envisioned?
     
    Do you have the income,lifestyle, freedom, health, relationships, poise and skills you thought you would have by now?
     
    If you don’t like your answers to those questions, then guess what?  You now get another chance to look forward to the next 5 years.  What are you going to do differently?

    A Goal vs. A Promise
    It makes a big difference if you turn your goals into promises.  That’s because most of us have set goals and know of other people that have set goals and didn’t fulfill them.  Our mind tends to see goals as something to strive for, something to aim at…but if we don’t “hit the target”, it’s fine because “we’re not the first or the last that have set goals and didn’t achieve them.”
     
    On the other hand, when we promise someone that we’re going to do something,our mind goes to work for us and we do everything that’s in our power to fulfill that promise because we don’t like to feel the pain, shame or embarrassment of letting somebody down.  Our integrity is such that a promise means more to us than setting a goal.
     
    Therefore, instead of saying, “Honey, I know that we have not been spending enough quality time alone, lately… so, I’m going to try (or my goal is) to take you out on a romantic date twice a month”, tell her instead, “Honey, I promise that from now on, I’m going to take you out on a date twice a month.”
     
    The Power of Accountability Partners
    Commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do, long after the mood you said it in has left you.
     
    The pressures of life will not come to an end just because you have decided to begin setting real goals for yourself.  It has been my experience that those who have the most success with accomplishing their personal and business goals are those who had 2 or more Accountability Partners (not within the same household) that also have set goals and are also utilizing the power of an accountability partner.
     
    Some benefits of utilizing Accountability Partners include:

    • Assistance in organizing ideas, thoughts, and tasks into specific, measurable, attainable, and realistic goals
    • Assistance in prioritizing an effective and consistent plan
    • Ensuring accountability for task follow through
    • Mentoring through difficulties and indecisiveness
    • Sharing advice, personal knowledge and experience
    • Follow up on your success

    During your search for appropriate Accountability Partners, keep in mind that the right person should be someone who will challenge, engage and evoke a sense of accomplishment in you.  Confidence, creativity and strength are all traits that will be useful to you.  Also consider choosing an Accountability Partner who you trust to keep confidence as you may get into financial and personal discussions that are confidential in nature.
     
    Promise yourself and your Accountability Partners that you will become a better person by following all the ground rules you set between yourselves to achieve your ultimate vision of your life. 

    Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life
    Unlocking your full potential for Wealth, Success, and Achievement
     
    Your THOUGHTS, your WORDS, and your ACTIONS,  are building blocks to creating the life that you want!
     
    Doing the same things over and over expecting different results is insanity.  The only way to get different results is to change what we do.  The process of change begins in our minds.  Our thoughts help shape and create our circumstances in life.  “As A Man Thinketh, So Is He.”  When we change our thinking, we change our lives.
     
    What does it mean to change?  Change = to transform or convert.
     
    When we find ourselves stuck in a rut or not quite where we want to be in life,it is time for change.  Old habits, old thoughts, and old ways of thinking must go.  We literally must cleanse our minds of negativity, scars,conditioning, and mental blocks.
     
    Living Your Dream is a continuous process of training and transforming our minds to achieve optimal living.  There are many ways to begin the process of changing the way we think.
     
    What we feed our minds affect how and what we think.  When we bombard the mind with negative images, fears, bad news, violence, pain, and suffering etc…our mind responds by conjuring up matching thoughts.  When we feed our minds with positive images, good news, peace, happiness, and prosperity …our mind responds accordingly.
     
    Our mind will produce thoughts based on the information we provide it with.  The thoughts that our mind produces set a wheel of events in motion.  Thoughts are creative and whatever thoughts we find ourselves preoccupied with always manifest in our lives.
     
    What you do with your life is up to you.  Life is what you make it. You have everything you need to create life, destroy life, improve life, and touch the lives of others.  For every cause there is an effect. Every life represents a mission, a purpose, a cause.  What will be the effect of your LIFE?

    What does your next 5 years look like to you?

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    Steve Feld, MBA is a certified business coach that provides training and business performance coaching to business owners, professionals and executives. He has owned and operated 6 businesses and operated 3 large corporations with Fortune 500 Companies and assisted hundreds of business owners achieve their business goals. #bizcoachstevef