Jim had an unstoppable zeal for finding new business. Whether in the office, at a networking event or over dinner with friends, he never missed an opportunity to sniff out business. What he lacked in education and expertise he made up for with enthusiasm. He believed in “nothing ventured, nothing gained” and he applied it fearlessly to his work and his life.

Tanya was an expert in her field. She was well known and respected and had a wall full of awards for accomplishments at work and in the community. A new consultant, Tanya was shy about promoting herself and her services. She believed that her talents, skills and reputation would sell themselves.

Who do you think was more successful? I’d put my money on Jim.

The rarest of talents is the willingness to take action. What separates the highly successful from the merely successful and the unsuccessful is often the bias toward action especially when the outcome is in doubt.

Few of us hesitate to take action on something positive. We can’t wait to call a customer with good news, to tell to the boss about landing a great order or to report good numbers to the shareholders. Yet when the outcome may be negative, the prospective customer says no, the numbers are bad or the customer’s order is late, we hesitate. If we act without hesitation in positive situations, what causes us to hesitate in negative situations?

The simple answer is fear. The difference between Jim and Tanya is fear. Jim is fearless, Tanya is fearful. The fearless will almost always conquer the fearful. Jim is more successful because he jumps at every opportunity while Tanya is less successful because she waits for opportunity to jump at her.

But fear is too simple an answer. Is Jim really fearless? Is Tanya really fearful? In any given situation each of them faces either positive or negative potential outcomes. Jim is driven to accomplish positive outcomes while Tanya is driven to avoid negative outcomes. Jim is not always fearless but he always acts despite any fear or misgivings. Tanya is not always fearful but she wants to act only when she is sure she can handle any negative outcomes.

The rarest of talents is the willingness to take action. What separates the highly successful from the merely successful and the unsuccessful is often the bias toward action especially when the outcome is in doubt.

Jim has gumption. He is bold enough to act no matter the risk of failure or embarrassment. The potential for negative outcomes does little to stop him from seizing opportunities. He knows he can handle whatever happens. Even if he is nervous he will walk up to a stranger at a party and strike up a conversation. Even if he thinks there is little chance of getting an appointment with a potentially lucrative account he won’t hesitate to try.

Some people are born with gumption. Most of us need to manufacture it. We develop gumption through trial and error as we grow and mature. The amount of gumption we develop depends on whether we are striving to accomplish positive outcomes or to avoid negative ones.

If you are lacking in gumption it is easily obtained through practice. At networking events make it a point to walk up to the most important person in the room and say hello. The next time someone gives you a lead, call the prospect immediately rather than mulling over how you will approach him. Chances are, he will be open and friendly. People don’t become the most important person in the room by snubbing others. When a customer leaves a voice mail, return the call immediately even if it is bad news. When being shown to a less desirable table in a restaurant, ask for the one you want. If the $30 steak is medium when you ordered medium rare, send it back. Gumption in the end is only a matter of speaking up and asking for what you want. You might just get it.

If you are avoiding negative outcomes, note that they are rarely painful. Negative outcomes just come with the territory. The very best hitters in baseball strike out 70 percent of the time (and earn multi-millions of dollars ever year). The National Sales Executives Association reports that only 2 percent of sales are made on the first call. 80 percent of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth call. In high tech industries, closing rates are as low as one in twenty presentations. The only way to make the one is to go through the other nineteen. Having gumption means learning how to let the negative outcomes bounce off. The more negatives you experience, the easier they are to handle so go out and get lots of negative experiences so that you no longer avoid them.

Do you have gumption? Are you quick to take action or do you need to contemplate the situation? Gumption is not a requirement for success but it makes success much more likely. Please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Deciding to terminate someone’s employment has always been my most difficult task. I believe sincerely that any employee who does not perform adequately is at least in part my failure to deliver the proper training and/or guidance to steer him right. Nonetheless, I also believe that if I don’t have the skills to turn around that employee then I am doing the right thing for both of us by letting him go.

Some believe that a poor performer isn’t worth the investment of time, attention and patience needed to turn her around. I believe in giving people chances to succeed and I take personal interest in helping them do so.

There are many considerations that go into deciding that the time has come to cut the cord. Here are the ones I use:

1. Has the employee’s performance changed? Was he a much better performer in the past? See if you can determine a cause for the change and if there is a solution within your control. For example, if the person is having marital problems it is not within your control to solve the situation. Depending on your level of compassion and the extent of the effect of the poor performance on your business, you may give this person more time to recover than someone who was never a good employee in the first place.

1. Have you been clear about your performance expectations? It’s surprising how often poor performance is really about poor communication. Are you sure the employee understands what you expect? For example, have you provided a clear and detailed job description? Do you provide regular feedback so the employee knows good from not so good?

1. Have you provided the training and guidance necessary for the employee to succeed? Some employees will take to a job with minimal effort on your part. Others won’t get it until you spend time showing them how to do it. We all learned how to tie our shoes at different ages and with different amounts of practice, but we all learned.

1. Have you made it clear that termination is likely if performance does not improve? Sometimes people need a fire lit under them before they will change. Some people always need a fire lit. The former usually deserve a decent chance at getting better. The latter probably need to find another line of work, one where they will light their own fire.

If you’ve done all these things and you still have a problem employee, then it is time to let them go. Some employees are in the wrong job. Some employees are in a temporary down period. And some employees are lazy or of bad character. Terminating the latter is relatively easy. The others deserve our thoughtful consideration.

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”– Albert Einstein

When Steve Jobs, founder of a small company that produced (what was generously described as) a personal computer, announced his vision of a computer on every desk, IBM executives thought he was daft. He went on to build Apple Computer into the leader among innovative and successful technology companies and today there is indeed a computer on every desk.

When Philip Knight wrote an essay in college about his plans to take on Adidas, the dominant athletic shoe supplier in the world, it is reasonable to think that few took him seriously. He went on to found Blue Ribbon Sports, renamed Nike in 1978.

Fred Smith, founder of FedEx, also wrote a paper in college. While it did not specify a particular business model, he saw then the need for an entirely new type of logistics company that could respond to an automated, fast paced world. Upon returning from his stint in the US Marine Corps he put together Federal Express by selling investors on the need for speed and the need for the company to have its own planes and trucks rather than using airlines and local delivery services.

Before these companies succeeded, the dreams of their founders were extraordinary, some would say fantasy, but we know in hindsight that they were the right ideas at the right time. So how do we know when our vision is something special and not just a pipedream?

Unfortunately, we can’t know. There is no formula that calculates whether our vision is realistic; we need to decide for ourselves. Nevertheless, there are some clues as to the likelihood of success:

1. Think about twenty years down the road. Imagine that your vision has come true. Can you imagine what it looks like? Can you see yourself at the helm? Can you taste it, smell it, feel it? William Ward is the author of the famous quote, “If you can imagine it you can create it. If you can dream it, you can become it.” If you can’t, chances are you will not make it happen.
2. Can you map it? Can you sit down now and develop a business plan that takes you from today right to the achievement of the vision? The map may change as you go along but if you can see a route to the top your vision is likely plausible.
3. Can you sell it? Can you attract others who buy into your vision? Steve Jobs created such a powerful vision that to this day there is an army of MacHeads, fans who are almost dogmatic in their loyalty to Apple products.
4. Can you commit to it? Are you willing to risk all to transform the vision into reality?
5. Do you have the skills? Be realistic. If you dream to sail solo around the world, you better know something about sailing beyond going for a day cruise in local waters.

Of course, if you really believe in your vision and if you have what it takes, you will ignore these clues and go for it even if none of them apply. I encourage you to do so. Willingness to take action is a much better indicator of success than any plan or analysis.

What do you think? Must a vision be practical or can it be over the top?

Change management is often treated like a project with a beginning and an end. It is frequently seen by senior management as a tool for driving up productivity and profitability. It is commonly interpreted by the troops as “being made to do something that doesn’t really need to be done.”

Managing change is not a project; it is an ongoing, never ending process of successfully adapting to changes within and outside our control.

Let’s look at change management in a new way. Managing change is not a project; it is an ongoing, never ending process of successfully adapting to changes within and outside our control. Nothing stays the same for long. What worked yesterday won’t necessarily work today. Customers change, suppliers change, key employees leave, the economy stumbles, it rains in California. Change is an everyday part of life.

Some people hide from change; they see it as disruptive and painful. Such folks need to work on their attitudes and beliefs about change before they can manage it.

On the other end of the spectrum is the change fanatic. Such a person is always changing things, applying the latest management theories or tips picked up at a recent seminar. This person can’t stop tinkering. David Mahoney said, “There comes a moment when you have to stop revving up the car and shove it into gear.” The change fanatic needs to learn when that moment has arrived.

The remainder of us have varying levels of acceptance about change. Some avoid it where possible but face it when they must. Others embrace it with enthusiasm. We can be convinced that change is a good thing provided it is planned and implemented wisely.

Once we see that change can be a good thing, most of us want to do more than respond to it; we want to lead change. Effectively leading change means getting in front of it and finding ways to use it to our advantage.

A strategic plan is an organized process for changing the business from what it is now to what it will be in future.

The most useful tool for leading change is strategic planning. A strategic plan is an organized process for changing the business from what it is now to what it will be in future. It anticipates and plans responses to changes thrust upon us by external forces and it creates plans for internal and external changes within our control. It is the steering wheel of our business.

A common excuse for not planning is that things change so fast in a particular industry that a plan is outdated as quickly as it is written. Ironically, fast changing environments need planning more than slow changing environments. At minimum, planning creates structure for those working in a chaotic environment. Without planning we surrender completely to the chaos. With planning we may find a way to harness the chaos and use it to our competitive advantage.

I think resistance to planning is most often brought on by misunderstanding or misapplying the process. It is seen as a time dump rather than a time investment that will pay off down the road. It is seen by some as an annual event where everyone gets together to sing Kumbaya and put forward fantastic plans and ideas that have nothing to do with the day to day burden of getting the job done. Hopefully, this new way of looking at planning as managing change will win some converts.

Leading change means venturing into the unknown. Using planning to avoid action until we turn over every conceivable rock is as dangerous as not planning at all. The plan is the roadmap, not the road. It is by venturing down the road hat we get somewhere useful.

What do you think? How do you manage change? Please leave a comment.

Your vision may not be so grandiose but the power of your vision to inspire and lead your organization – and you – is the difference between a coffee shop and Starbucks or a local hardware store and Home Depot.

Vision is not about dreaming. It’s all about deciding where you want to go with your business (and your life). JFK didn’t just dream about sending a man to the moon. He ordered it. He said it will be done. And then he charged America with figuring out how to make it happen. Thus was born perhaps the greatest era of American innovation.

The world we live in today didn’t just happen. Somebody had a vision for a computer on every desk. Someone else had a vision for an online bookstore. Someone had a vision for a wireless telephone that could be used anywhere. There is power in vision. What’s yours?

I can guarantee that anyone who is there got there with formal goals, strategies and hard work. Seat-of-the-pants success is a myth. With a plan we get to where we want to be; without a plan we get to a random place that may or may not be desirable. The seat-of-the-pants myth is powerful because some people end up in wonderful random places. We’d rather see that as the rule even though the adage “fail to plan; plan to fail” is proven over and over again.

Here’s why we need to plan: We make decisions and take actions every day. The accumulation of daily decisions and actions over months and years determines where we will be at a future point in time. Without a plan, our daily decisions are guided by the demands of the moment. With a plan our decisions and actions are guided by our goals. It’s that simple.

We all know about the importance of long term and short term goals (well-defined steps leading to our dreams), business plans (roadmaps for reaching our goals efficiently) and strategies (how we will move our business along the road, avoid potholes, avoid bad drivers, and compete with other drivers going to the same place). So why do so many fail to plan?

As entrepreneurs, we have the freedom to do what we think is right. We are free from bureaucracy, able to follow our instincts and implement our ideas at will. Having a plan can feel bureaucratic. Worse, it can feel like putting on a straightjacket. Many of us left the corporate world to get out of a straightjacket so why on earth would we willingly put one on again?

If a plan feels that way it is a bad plan. A plan is merely the formal, organized expression of our instincts and ideas. Plans communicate our instincts and ideas to employees and other stakeholders. Plans verify to stakeholders that we know what we are doing.

Plans do not bind us to an irrevocable course. They show us the course we are on and give us the ability to change course wisely as needed. Plans can change at any time. Large organizations are like ocean liners that take great distances to change direction or stop. They need long planning horizons. Entrepreneurial organizations are like cruisers that can change direction on a dime. Whereas the liner is committed to a port and can change it only with considerable planning and effort, a cruiser can change ports easily. A cruiser can venture even into uncharted waters provided it has the skill to navigate through them.

Having a plan for our business simply means we are focusing our skills, knowledge, wisdom and instincts on the steps necessary to achieve our dreams. A plan is not a straightjacket, it’s a framework from which we can unleash our instincts and ideas for maximum benefit.

Imagine the life of early settlers. Survival required the completion of daily chores like chopping wood for the fire and carrying water to the kitchen. In winter there was no forgiveness of these chores. They couldn’t be put off until the next day or next week. People couldn’t call in sick or take a mental health day. Nobody had the option of finding a better job. Do and live or don’t and die.

Goals were clear. Chop enough wood to stay warm and cook meals. Carry enough water to quench thirst, cook and bathe. There was no question about whether they liked chopping wood. They just chopped.

Today most of us still need to chop wood. We call it working. There are innumerable types of jobs that we do. They are all the equivalent of chopping wood and carrying water. Few of us have a choice about whether to work or not. Some of us have no choice about the type of work we do. We all have a choice about our attitude towards work.

The choices we have nowadays complicate our thinking. If we don’t like a job we can find another one. Some fall victim to the grass is always greener syndrome and trudge unhappily from job to job. Others think the job is making them unhappy when really it is about working. They try other jobs but work is still there. None of us can escape chopping wood of one sort or another.

Back when there were no options, we could chop wood with a smile, we could be content with having wood to chop, or we could chop wood angrily. We can easily conclude by looking at such a situation that one might as well choose to be happy or content.

In today’s context, we choose to be happy from where we are at. If we don’t like our job we can change our attitude by admitting that we must chop wood whether we like it or not and that, for better or worse, that’s the wood we have to chop for now. We can be content with what we have rather than craving what we don’t have. We can accept our lives as they are now rather than living in the future when our lives might be something else. We can make our own grass greener by tending to it rather than wishing for our neighbor’s grass.

Choosing to be happy with our work as I’ve described it is not the same as choosing to settle. Instead, happiness will increase our drive to improve our lives and the lives of those around us and it will increase our ability to do so successfully.

What is your situation? Are you unhappy because of your job? Happy because of your job? Happy despite your job? Please leave a comment.

Like many people, I fell into my career. All my plans and dreams were pushed aside in favour of a paycheque and a company car.

My seduction by a good job wasn’t a bad thing; indeed, it was the mature thing to do. It only became a problem when I realized I didn’t like the job itself but continued on because I liked the money and the prestige. Despite external success, I spent thirty years feeling terribly unhappy about my life.

It took me all those years to figure out that the source of my unhappiness was my failure to adhere to my core values. My external success came from the misguided value I placed on money and appearances. I figured if I had monetary success everything else would follow. In fact I had it exactly backward. When I finally figured out in my fifties what was really important to me I was able to change my life. Now I have external success and internal happiness and the sense of accomplishment that escaped me for so long.

When I look at the wealthiest, self-made people in the world I don’t see people obsessed with money; I see people obsessed with doing things they love or that are important to them. They may be miserly or lavish with their money but they thrive on the work they do. The Forbes list of the world’s billionaires is filled with such people.

Money isn’t the only thing we get wrong. Children take up the family business rather than pursue their own dreams. Both parents work not because they must or want to but because they’ve bought into a double income lifestyle for their kids. Doctors, lawyers and other professionals struggle on even when they find out that they don’t like the job. They won’t walk away from the monetary investment in their education and the psychological investment in their career choice.

I recognize that we can’t all do what we want. We sometimes don’t have a choice. For those that do, please don’t waste another moment. Figure out what is really important to you and start doing it.

So, with that background, let’s move on to the final post in the Values series.

Core Values Part IV

This final post in my series on Core Values is written at a time when Tiger Woods is under intense scrutiny for his personal failings. Tiger Woods Inc. generates tens of millions of dollars of revenues each year. (The figure I heard most recently was $95 million annually.) The brand has been carefully nurtured and developed from the time Tiger was a two year old appearing on the Mike Douglas Show (video). For his whole life Tiger has been presented by his father and others as someone special, a man with a destiny not only on the golf course but beyond.

At this time, Tiger’s public image and his brand are in shambles. His confessed infidelities are so far removed from the persona he portrays that the world was first in shock and disbelief, then in disgust and now in confusion. He is still the best golfer in the world and his philanthropy is legendary but he is not the man his brand presents. His lack of authenticity is causing the damage to his brand. Simply put, we loathe a fake.

(One must wonder about Tiger’s recent performance on the golf course and how his hidden transgressions may have been affecting him. For the first time in his career he lost a major tournament after being tied or in the lead going into the final round (The 2009 PGA Championship in August). Also, 2009 is the first year since 2004 that Tiger did not win a major. Was he already feeling the heat from his wife, Elin?)

Tiger’s woes are an extreme example of the importance of espousing our true values. Don’t say one thing and do another. And we can only espouse our true values if we know what they are, thus my emphasis on uncovering them.

Once you’ve uncovered your values, write up a second list that identifies values important to the success of businesses in your industry. Do both lists line up? If you value excellence but you are in an industry that requires compromises on quality or service, you may struggle. If customer service is not important to you but it is for the success of your business, you will struggle. Better to identify any incongruities now than thirty years from now like I did.

If all your values line up and provided they confirm that you are in the right business, ask these key questions:

• Have you hired people who have similar values (or values that fit well)?

• Do you have the kind of customers who will respond positively to your values?

• Are your vendors compatible with your values?

• Look at your competition through the lens of your values and the list of values that are important for success in your industry. Do they have any weaknesses? Do you have any advantages?

• Do your strategies align with and build on your values?

The answers to these and other questions provide the foundation for developing strategies, goals and objectives for your business. Without going through the work to identify your true values, your strategic plan will be less sound.

The next post will be first in a series on strategy development that builds on vision and values.

Only one of those pillars is damaged. Tiger remains perhaps the greatest golfer ever. His many charities and the Tiger Woods Foundation remain standing. Infidelity has made a lie of his life as an upstanding citizen. His image as a good husband has been rightly trashed. However, lest we forget, there is much more to Tiger than the headlines. The roof is tilting at Tiger Inc. but it isn’t falling down despite what the media would have us believe.

The timeline for his bad behavior starts (so far) after his father, Earl died. I suspect that he is holed up because he is overwhelmed with the shame of disappointing Earl. Without his father he lost his moral compass.

I hope that he is equally ashamed of how he has let down his wife, Elin. Tiger has always accepted responsibility for his performance on the golf course and learned from his mistakes. This gives us reason to hope that he will accept responsibility for cleaning up his act and making things right with Elin (if it’s not too late). The good news is Tiger has always ended up better from his struggles.

Through it all, Tiger is maintaining his right to privacy. I think he has that right. The idea that a public figure is required to spill his guts is one dreamed up by the media. I hope he holds fast.

Tiger has been found out as a dirtbag but let’s not throw him under the bus. Let’s wait and see if he can get his bearings and change himself as well as he changes his golf swing. Even Tiger deserves a chance.

“I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family. Those feelings should be shared by us alone.”

Tiger Woods is a very smart man. He is surrounded by very smart advisors. He knows that the best thing he could do in his situation is to make a full confession and plead for forgiveness. Instead, he is risking even greater damage to his reputation by saying nothing. Something is wrong with this picture.

Tiger is the most dominant golfer of all time. He is the first billionaire athlete. His riches exceed imagination. Those facts cannot be taken away. However, his carefully crafted, squeaky clean persona was proved false last week. Ends up he has a sleazy side.

As the details emerge, I’m impressed will how well he was able to keep his secret life secret. How does one of the most visible men in the world manage to sneak around with women who are not his wife without getting caught?

“I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves”*

Tiger says he has not been true to his values. Horse feathers. He hasn’t been true to the values he knows are important but he has been true to his own values. If Tiger valued fidelity more than he valued secret sexual encounters he would have kept his putter in his pants.

We’ve learned of three women rumored to have slept with Tiger while he was married to his wife. This is not a case of a man becoming so smitten with a woman that he lost his senses. This is a case of wilful, serial unfaithfulness. So are there other women still under wraps? Is that the real reason Tiger is not talking?

“I will strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves. For all of those who have supported me over the years, I offer my profound apology.”*

No matter how this turns out, I will remain a big time fan of Tiger the golfer. His talent transcends his transgressions. It may be difficult for me to remain a fan of Tiger the great sportsman. What do you think?

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*From Tiger Woods comments on his web page Dec 2, 2009 http://bit.ly/7Gxboa