Knowledge From Sought After Business Coach
Advice From A Business Coach
Business Coach Fun Facts:
Example: George Foreman was very successful as the face of the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine. In addition, Cîroc [a brand of vodka made in France and distributed by the multi-national alcoholic beverage maker, Diageo] elected to team up with the famous rapper and producer, Sean “Diddy” Combs and since that time, the company has soared in value.
Diageo agreed to split any profits with Sean “Diddy” Combs and if the company ever sold Ciroc, he’d be entitled to a share of the proceeds. The rationale: Why not? The brand wasn’t selling, and Diddy was always known for having a flair for marketing.
In 2007, sleepy Ciroc was moving cases at a rate of 60,000 per six months, or 120,000 per year. In 2009, Diddy’s second year with the brand, Ciroc moved 400,000 cases. This year Ciroc is on pace to sell more than one million cases. The boom was fueled in large part by Diddy’s diligent shilling—on billboards, in lyrics, on Twitter and even through a self-proclaimed nickname, “Ciroc Obama.”
Systems – If you did not have an emotional tie to the way you are currently doing things, how would you do things differently?
Human Resources – Which member of your team needs to go? Human Resources – What position in your company needs a key hire right now? What core competencies, skills and capabilities will your company need to have one year from now?
Competition – What competitor is coming to kill us and take our business? What competitor has taken or is beginning to take your market share? What competitor should you have a team spying on, investigating, mystery shopping and using every legal method possible to study what they are doing and what is working for them before they come and destroy your business?
“I think most of– the only problem– guys I have trouble with are the Google guys. Larry specifically. He makes the decisions over there. He runs that company. No one else runs that company. And they decided — let me be very clear. They — when you program — when you write a program for the Android phone, you write it. You — you use the Oracle tool — Oracle Java tools for everything. And at the very end, you press a button and say, “Convert this to Android format.” We don’t compete with Google. We don’t do anything Google does. We — we just think they took our stuff and — and that was — and that was wrong. That’s a completely separate issue. I think what they did was — was — absolutely evil … this really bothers me. I don’t — I don’t see how he thinks you can just copy someone else’s stuff. It really– it really bothers me.” – Larry Ellison (Billionaire founder of Oracle, speaking about the co-founder of Google, Larry Page, in an article for the International Business Times written by Dave Smith entitled, “5 Quotes About Apple, Steve Jobs, Google And The NSA”)
“Every time you make the hard, correct decision you become a bit more courageous, and every time you make the easy, wrong decision you become a bit more cowardly. If you are CEO, these choices will lead to a courageous or cowardly company.” -Ben Horowitz (Self-made billionaire and co-founder of both Opsware and Hewlett Packard)
Business Coach Provides Marshall Marination Moment: Strategically Think About the Capabilities
It’s important that you not spend hours thinking about the capabilities of your team and which employee currently has the most potential. That is not an example of effectively managing your time. However, it is important that you evaluate the capabilities of your team on an ongoing basis. The commitment to learning must become part of the culture of your company. Your company’s ability to learn will determine whether or not you are able to adjust to the ever-changing landscape of the market over time. Likewise, your company’s capability as a whole is dictated by the skills that your employees possess. What “black hole” of skills exists within your company (meaning what skills are in short supply or missing entirely)? Begin planning to shore up those areas. This may be an excellent opportunity for you to evaluate the growth of individual employees who have proven themselves and may be ready for more responsibility.
Business Coach Teaches How Getting Stuff Done with Quarterly Execution Plans
Alright, I know we’ve discussed a lot up to this point. I hope that your brain has not yet exploded as we’ve defined who our ideal and likely buyers are, what niche we are focused on, the importance of systems, and the importance of working on your business and not just in your business. Now we need to actually start executing your big vision to turn your plans into reality.
“Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.” -Steve Jobs (The guy who co-founded Apple and the former CEO of Pixar who helped launch the first completely computer animated box office hit, Toy Story)
Business Coach Teaches Let’s Get Simple
My friend, your ability to turn your dreams and ideas into reality is going to come down to your ability to direct your daily calendar and your team’s calendar towards the achievement of your quarterly goals while continuing to deal with the daily challenges involved in running a business. Having a quarterly focus is ideal, as it breaks down your big-vision action items and stretch goals into manageable pieces. A quarterly outlook provides a long enough period of time for you to get large quantities of work done, bringing you closer to the achievement of your big, hairy, audacious goals.
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.” -Martin Luther King, Jr. (An American Baptist Minister best known for his role in leading the civil rights movement in the United States based on his non-violent Christian beliefs)
Business Coach Teaches How To Break Down Your Big Goals into Rolling Daily Actionable Items (To-Do Lists) for Your Team
This step is where the magic really begins to happen. If nothing gets scheduled, nothing will get done. If massive goals are not broken up into specific step-by-step action items, then nothing will get done, either. You and your leadership team must become proficient at breaking down big goals into small daily action steps. So that this business coach doesn’t leave you with only a vague understanding of this HUGELY IMPORTANT CONCEPT, I am going to give you a little peek into the behind-the-scenes work that happened when my team and I opened up Elephant in the Room Store #2 at 91st and Yale in Tulsa, Oklahoma.