I’m often amazed at how frequently a series of events intersect. A couple of days ago I was presenting a webinar in which I talked about how important it is to empower your team members by creating an environment of trust …. a mantra we hear every day. As always, I mentioned the work of Pat Lencioni author of The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team and Dan Pink’s thought-provoking book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Continue reading “How to make $3.5 billion in 12 years”
A Business Plan Template
I’m not a huge fan of traditional business plan construction but I do acknowledge that the process gives business people a framework for thinking through the various elements of planning for success. Having said that I’m writing this post for another reason. The template that was attached was sent to me by a relationship manager at my Australian bank. I have had virtually nothing to do with him in the past and this came as somewhat as a surprise. He has no idea what my business is about and I’m certain that he sent this template to all his “business” customers. Continue reading “A Business Plan Template”
What are CPAs talking about
Bill Sheridan always has interesting insights about our profession with an equally interesting angle that he posts on the MACPA blog. One that jumped of the page for me recently was one he called The Best Business Advice Ever: Be Willing to Change. As usual, Bill is right on the money so take a moment to read his thoughts. Continue reading “What are CPAs talking about”
Do you have a purpose?
Ask this question to anyone and you’ll get many different answers ranging from: that’s my business, I don’t really have one, I want to be happy, to be content, to make a difference, to make lots of money, to have fun ….. etc. etc. The point is, it’s a personal thing, it quite like changes over time it may be inward looking or it may be outward or it may be both. Continue reading “Do you have a purpose?”
Autonomy and Team Member Performance
Since I have been presenting the Q&A web conferences this year slightly less than 50% of the questions asked have related directly or indirectly to team member issues such as how to delegate, how to get them to embrace your culture, how to motivate and get engagement, how to improve productivity, how to get people to think logically etc. Continue reading “Autonomy and Team Member Performance”
Urinals, Flies and System Design
A couple of years ago I was at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam on my way to a meeting in Eindhoven. As often happens when travelling I needed to use the restroom. For the most part it was like any other restroom around the world but when I addressed the urinal I noticed there was, what appeared to me (sans glasses) to be, a black image of a spider or something etched on the bowl. You probably don’t want to hear this level of detail but I need to tell you that I aimed for that image, hit it and then left the restroom after washing my hands without giving it another thought. Continue reading “Urinals, Flies and System Design”
Brewing excellence, one cup at a time
That’s the marketing slogan of Keurig the company (among others) that has created coffee pods they call K-Cups that allow consumers to enjoy a really good quality coffee beverage without having the skill expected from a trained Barista and, most importantly, it makes all this possible to quickly and conveniently do in their home or office. Continue reading “Brewing excellence, one cup at a time”
The Disruptive Power Of Collaboration
In a recent blog post Bill Sheridan (click here to read) lamented the fact that one of his daughter’s teachers had set the students an assignment and advised them that they would incur serious penalties of they collaborated. Continue reading “The Disruptive Power Of Collaboration”
Brilliance comes in short bursts
In his absolutely fascinating book Linchpin, Seth Godin, writes “brilliance comes in short bursts, ordinary is a continuum.” At least that the quote according to my journal and since I was making some notes on his work at the time I assume it was him. He was talking about the fact that most of the things Richard Branson does in a day are mundane and most people could do them just as well as him. Continue reading “Brilliance comes in short bursts”
The Law of Attraction meets the Law of Common Sense
No so long ago I waxed lyrical about the importance of pricing your services at what you’re worth. I used as an example an orthopedic surgeon I had needed a couple of years ago to fix a rotator cuff tear that resulted from a skiing accident.
I said how his fee was not an issue and when you need the help of a professional you look for the best in town not the cheapest. I also said:
The surgeon was Dr. Kyle Swanson and he’s at Lake Tahoe Orthopedics & Sports Medicine — I mention that to make another big point: when you get great work done (irrespective of cost) by a skilled professional you are very happy to refer him/her. I have referred Kyle dozens of times to my ski buddies because we bust and tear body parts quite regularly – birds of a feather flock together which is exactly what relationship marketing recognizes. But referrals rarely happen in relation to low level work (because there are so many obvious solutions) and when they do all you get is lower level, low price work. I raise this point in the context of your post because when you focus on, and engage in, value creation you get talked about and you get referrals to value-seeking clients.
This is where the law of attraction seems to have come into the play because on Christmas Eve, just a couple of weeks after my original post I experienced another incident.
The result is nicely summarized by the following extract from Kyle’s Operative Report which is shown below.
POSTOPERATIVE DIAGNOSES
- Right knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear
- Right knee medial collateral ligament tear (MCL) tear
- Right knee posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) avulsion
PROCEDURES
- Right knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction using bone-tendon-bone autograft
- Repair right medial collateral ligament (MCL) avulsion off the medial femoral condyle
And there you have it!
Lesson learned …… don’t invoke the law of attraction with the possibility of negative outcomes.