Tonight’s blog post is dedicated to my friend Ernst Dannemann who died yesterday as he approached his 89th birthday.

I have been fully absorbed in writing Ernst’s memoir for the past year, and finished the text just a couple of weeks ago. A truly remarkable man I admire and respect, Ernst arrived –out from under Hitler– in NY Harbor at age 15 (with minimal English), graduated high school and signed into the Army in response to Pearl Harbor, became a decorated soldier and a U.S. Citizen, courted a Holocaust survivor for 60 days and ended up married to her for 60 years, started as a chicken farmer and built a highly successful 6-state retail fabric chain.

Ernst worked his way up to be trusted advisor to 6 governors, close friend to a U.S. President and contenders, and a U.S. Vice President and contenders, as well as many nationally prominent senators and congressional leaders.

For his volunteer work and his Brotherhood Award from The National Conference of Christians and Jews, Ernst won the highest honor given to a civilian in the State of Delaware. Many will miss him dearly. He was a true gentleman as well as a great father, grandfather and great grandfather in every sense of these words and titles. . . and, I believe, Ernst, though never a Scout, could have easily been the poster boy for the 12 principles embodied in the “Boy Scout Law”:

A Scout is trustworthy, 

loyal, helpful,

friendly, courteous, 

kind, obedient, 

cheerful, thrifty,

brave, clean, and

reverent. 

     Okay, so put aside everything you know for a minute and evaluate your business performance as it measures up against what we should have learned as Boy Scouts (or, sorry, Girl Scouts, but I don’t know their “Law”). Can you 1-10-rate yourself and your business performance against each of these twelve points and come away with a hundred points?

     Can you figure out your strengths and weaknesses in matching or not matching each of these qualities. Does your customer service mission sound anything like this? Do you have employee policies, written or simply understood, that come anywhere close to the elevated level of these twelve behavioral traits?

     Where are you short? How can you bolster that up? What steps can you take tomorrow morning to boost even one of these and make it a shining star for your business? What’s preventing that? Is it attitude? Is it what others think? Is it too hard or time-consuming? Is it just something you feel you’re stuck with? Are you remembering that behavior is a choice?

     Are you remembering that you can choose to make these values ring throughout your business everyday and that all you have to do is decide to do it and keep deciding to do it, over and over? Hmmm? Imagine. Imagine what else we can learn from our youth that can work for our business growth now? Maybe it’s worth visiting a local troop meeting to learn some leadership skills long forgotten? 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Ha@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God bless you. God bless America and our troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

R.I.P. PAUL HARP

November 2, 1950 – June 22, 2010

     I lost a good friend today, my friends.

     He was a man I cared about and joked with and shared some serious times with as well. We played year-round softball together, sometimes as friendly foes, and would often rib each other with post-game phone messages.

“Were those your regular glasses you were wearing when you dropped that ball today?”; “Did you know you missed touching first base on that double?”; “I heard you were using an illegal bat on that game-winning hit?”

     To be clear, lest you think we were both great sluggers and agile fielders, Paul’s on-field talents ranked him far beyond my humble skill set.

     The being-on-the-same-playing-field thing may not seem very significant to those who don’t indulge in team sports, and especially senior team sports where camaraderie is special, but it means simply that we clicked, Paul and I. For some odd reason, we took comfort in one another’s smiles, shared stories, cheer-leading, and back pats. 

     “Odd reason” because Paul was a retired Baltimore County Police Officer, and all we had in common in that regard was that I once taught a few years of college law enforcement classes in crisis intervention. Other than that, I’ve always believed in living a law-abiding life and in generally keeping a respectful distance from the worlds of lawyers, cops, and retired cops.

     I didn’t know ”Paul the lawman,” but I know others who did . . . and a couple who worked with him. A man of principle and determination are traits most agree he evidenced with every task he tackled. Paul took his contributions to and from life with intensity. He worked hard and played hard. 

     He was a truly exceptional athlete, but Paul was never healthy. In all of our friendship, and by all accounts from those who knew him better and longer –and most certainly from his loving and devoted wife Linda, his sister Rose, brother-in-law Joe, his children and step-children, and his lifelong best friend Fred– Paul was clearly in a permanent day-to-day state of  physical pain.

     It sometimes got hard to watch him living with ice packs and heat pads, forever trooping from one doctor to another.

     At least that suffering has ended, but it doesn’t make his loss any easier. I guess I should have seen it coming. Probably many of his friends and family feel that way. Blindsided.

     We get blindsided with sudden losses all through life and then, with time to heal and God’s help, we somehow raise ourselves and spirits back up from the ground we’ve been knocked to, and reconnect with all the hidden joys of living — the babies and puppies and flowers and trees and hugs and smiles and sunshine and great meals with great company and the sense of accomplishment that elevates our efforts to reap rewards.

     Paul knew all this. He’d been through it with others — good and bad, easy and hard. He rarely let it show. He kept most of it so much inside and some small bits for all to see worn on every sleeve.

     One important exchange of quiet resolve that all who cared about him may want to know as fact: Paul believed deeply in God. He told me so. He told me in a time and place that made me know he meant it.    

     We are blindsided by Paul’s loss, but comforted by his belief, and by knowing that once and for all, he is finally pain-free and at peace.

     I’ll miss you, good buddy, as I know others will. But Kathy and I have gained by your passage through our lives. You made a difference to us, and I thank you for being the kind of friend who was always there when a friend was needed.

     God Bless you, Paul. God Bless Linda and Rose and the rest of your family. You will not be forgotten.                                                                      _____________________________________________

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless:  You, America, and Our Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

Business Wisdom Stuff

My Father (“Harry”)

Told Me 

Whether or not these “words of wisdom” actually made a difference is anybody’s guess, but I believe some of it did. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a gem, you’ll have to sort through it all yourself. Just because something did or didn’t work for me doesn’t mean it will or won’t for you. So — take it with a grain of salt? Perhaps, but know for sure that some of this old world advice from an arguably savvy father amounts to the kind of input that can make a difference for almost any entrepreneur and/or business owner.

 HE WHO HESITATES IS LOST!

(This message was delivered repeatedly to my right ear while Dad was teaching me how to “merge” into traffic, then again years later as a new app, when I vacillated between two job offers. “Lost” wasn’t something I wanted to be, so I found this prompt to action useful a few times over.)

You always want things to be copacetic, and the best way to get there is to have a sense of urgency about all that you do.

(Dad often supplemented this advice with reminders to “be quick like a bunny” and to do what you need to do “in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.” I recall as well Harry’s contradictory “Haste Makes Waste” warnings, but eventually figured out a compromise behavior which was something like: think stuff out slowly and carefully then act like lightning to get the job done. Hey, it worked for me. And as it turns out, part of it wasn’t far from the motto for carpenters and heart surgeons: “Measure twice. Cut once.”)

NEVER CUT CORNERS WITH FOOD OR SHOES!

(You need, he would lecture, to take priority care of your appetite and your feet because you only get one of one and two of the other!)

When meeting others for the first time, always dress a notch higher than you think they will.

(Because “clothes make the man” and “you only get one first impression.”)

To be the best you can be, you have to practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, and practice some more.

KEEP YOUR HANDS CLEAN (Physically and financially!)

When all else fails to cheer you up, sing and whistle!

Go with the wind, but

always be ready

to turn into it!

If you can’t say something nice about someone, say nothing.

ALWAYS give people more effort and more attention than you think they ever imagined getting from you!

CHARITY STARTS AT HOME . . .

Don’t give up to others what you don’t have for yourself, no matter how needy they are because you can do more to help others when you do it from a position of strength . . . and be more generous than you think you should be when you get to the point where you can afford it!

And, arriving home as a kid, with a bloody nose, Harry said:

If you didn’t give the other guy a black eye, I’m gonna give you a sore butt!  

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! 

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless:  You, America, and Our Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

     The best business consultants, advisors, coaches, trainers, and counselors base their fees on what they’re able to accomplish, not on how great they tell you it’s going to be.

 YOU’RE PAYING TOO MUCH IF:  

1)  You’re paying ongoing fees and can’t see any ongoing results.

2)  You’re paying any kind of “retainer” fee, and you’re not sure of what it is that you’re “retaining.” 

3)  You’re paying for dead-end training, coaching, or counseling support that assures you of new and improved leadership/team-work . . . or communications, or customer relations, or sales . . . but that doesn’t produce noticeable change in 21 days, and that doesn’t then keep it going with meaningful, targeted, personal follow-up long after scheduled sessions are completed.

4)  You’re paying for outside services that continuously blame your inside services for stalling/blocking/obstructing/interfering or foot-dragging and/or lack of commitment.

5)  You’re paying for professional expertise exclusively because of long-term relationships and because that individual or group has maintained all your records for a long time. Would you not go to a medical or legal or financial expert you know has the ability to heal you just because your present advisor was hired by your father (or grandfather) and has your complete history in his files?  

6)  You get billed for every breath taken on your behalf. Outside experts unwilling to invest a little extra time and effort on your behalf as an expression of their customer / client relationship management are not worth the invoice postage or email review time. They are easily (and happily) replaced.

     There are a gazillion qualified groups and individuals out there who will deliver ongoing attention and ongoing results. In case you think you haven’t enough time to go shopping for the kinds of outside experts who breed authenticity, consider how much money you’ve been (or are presently) wasting  by not finding more honorable replacements.

     Even hiring someone else to shop for you – with your criteria of course – will probably still end up being a financially-smarter and more performance-rewarding move than avoiding the issue.

     The hardest thing any of us have to do in life – and consequently the hardest thing any business owner or manager has also to do – is to let go.

     Letting go of anything that we own, command, raise, invent, enhance, fix, inherit, create, design, develop, build, or even just think about, is like giving up a piece of our existence. How big of a piece determines the amount of anguish and reluctance and hesitation and whining and complaining that is sure to surface.

     And you’ve already been around long enough to realize that the total of all the upset added together multiplies according to how much time, money, and effort has been invested. So, the time to act is now. Clean house. Find experts who are willing to roll up their sleeves and work with you, who will act like partners, not leeches.   

 Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless Our Troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

You’re out of customers. You’re out of money. But you’re not out of guts. So go get your glove and get back in the game. There’s been a lot of moaning and groaning lately from business owners who sound like they’re looking for reasons to throw in the towel. There is no reason to throw in anything unless you choose to quit! It’s a choice! 

Take it on the chin and move on if that’s what you really want. Better yet, show some of the gumption you had when you started your business. Remember that day? week? year? Were you a tiger or what? You wouldn’t even listen to people who told you to forget it, right? Why? Because you believed in yourself and your ideas. Because you knew in your heart you could make things work. 

Where did that go? POOF! You somehow chose to let it go. Your conscious or unconscious mind made a decision that the challenge was greater than you wanted to handle. Is it? Do you really want to chuck it all or have you just been looking for an excuse to pack it in and stop living on the edge. Maybe get a fastfood or convenience store job? (or worse, work for the government!)  

That doesn’t sound like the you that brought your life to this point. You were never a quitter. Why now? Because the economy sucks? Because the competition is too cutthroat? Because your neighbor seems happier working 9-5 for a big company and having weekends off?  

So things didn’t turn out the way you had hoped. Do they ever? For ANYbody? Maybe you’ve been pretending the grass is greener on the other side of the fence because you don’t know what your neighbor’s life is really like, and you’ve just been building up this big make-believe image of it and trying to measure your own life against it? 

Can we measure our lives against others? Really? Maybe what’s needed is to measure our lives against ourselves and realize that nothing is too great for us to accomplish when we put our minds to it. Maybe we need simply to remind ourselves that, hey, we really DO have what it takes to turn things around, and start using all that whining energy to get things done. 

Whadda you think? Is this just imagining? Are you ready to decide about the rest of your life in favor of you! Are you rolling up your sleeves as you read this? Good. Go for it! You can do it. You can make a difference with your life in this world. Do it now.     

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless Our Troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

Sounding Important

Counts For Nothing!

     Yes, even in this “knee-deep-in-muck” economy, when smart people are being more innovative and more customer conscious, there are still pompous idiots floating around the business world with no backs to pat except their own. One would think that at least a sliver of reality might have set in, but there they go, parading by in all their ornamental pomp and ceremonial circumstance: The EGOpreneurs.

     Know any?

     Maybe I’m just imagining things when I check out an online business profile and read about how many years of great experience will come to play when a needy (and the suggestion is, incompetent) business owner is smart enough to engage this person’s consulting services instead of (the only suggested alternative) floundering around on her or his own.

     The consultant of course chooses to completely disregard that Mr. or Ms. Business Owner just happened to have succeeded at bringing his or her business this far to start with. But that’s not important if you’re smart enough to hire this guy because Mr. Egopreneur Consultant here has worked with some of the biggest name companies in existence. Aren’t you impressed?

     Hey, “20+ years” of being a “revenue generation strategist”  is nothing to sneeze at. (He figures out ways to make money; it’s not likely he knows anything about how to implement the strategies but, well, he figures that’s what you’re good for.) Besides, you might want to give Wonder Boy some slack because he’s so highly trained to fit your needs.

     The example I cite boasts of degrees in religion and political science (oh, and a minor in anthropology). Hard to imagine anyone not succeeding with that combination. I mean first you can rip people off, and then pray for them when you dig up their bones in a few years. C’mon, relevance and track-record are what count. As the old sports agent movie made famous: “Show me the money!”

     Yes, I have preached long and hard to business owners and sales professionals that you only get one chance at a first impression. The point though is that the best impression anyone can make is the one that doesn’t TRY to make an impression. Proven performance speaks louder than words.

     AUTHENTICITY is the word that comes to mind . . . along with: GENUINENESS (skipping the BS). TRANSPARENCY (no hidden agendas; you see what you get). EMPATHY (putting oneself in another’s shoes). REALITY (not living in or talking incessantly about past or future fantasylands). FLEXIBILITY (being ready and able to avoid expectations and go with the flow).

     These six important qualities are the intangibles that define the difference between success and failure, and that point up the separation between people you choose to do business with over people you choose not to do business with. Use all six to weigh the conviction of your involvement with others.

     If you want to make a difference with your business, in other’s lives and your own, steer clear of EGOpreneurs. They give entrepreneurs a bad name, and all their talking counts for nothing.

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless our troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

You just wanted

to work in your

underwear,

that’s all.  

     Remember the reason you decided to start, and run or manage your own business? Odds are it had more to do with what you wanted for a lifestyle than you probably recall. And I’ll bet your decision was accelerated by the lifestyle conflict you were having with the person you reported to or the organization you served . . . likely it was both!

     Just the fact that you reported to anyone was probably grounds enough for you to want to set sail into uncharted seas. How do I know that? I’ve spent most of my life being an entrepreneur, coaching entrepreneurs, and teaching entrepreneurship. We share common distaste for indulging in organizational details and for respecting authority.

     Sometimes the lifestyle issues involved in choosing to work for yourself are as innocuous as wanting to wake up late and work late, or wear sweatpants and shorts and t-shirts to work (or, wear nothing . . . “WRITE NAKED” urges an old promotional poster I saw from Writer’s Digest magazine). 

     The point is that whatever the reasons you decided to pack in corporate or government America and set out on your own, the flip-side of those reasons is what you used, to cornerstone your startup venture. Is it still a cornerstone? If you’ve let this one get away, you may be missing out on enjoying the very reason you elected to be your enterprising self.

     You may even be sliding (slithering?) back into the hole from whence your business owner career was born. There’s nothing wrong (and probably everything right) with becoming more conservative in your fiscal and political choices as you get older and wise up as to what makes genuine realistic sense in America’s society, but dragging conservative thinking into how you run your business puts you on the road to premature business death . . . not a happy place to be.

     You started with innovative ideas and energetic drive and a pioneering spirit.

     If you’ve been successful, you may well be at a point where those traits, qualities, values, instincts, characteristics –whatever you want to call them — have started to dry up, and you’ve either got itchy feet to again get on with something else, or you’ve slowly absorbed the “corporatitis” investment in status quo.

     If you’ve not been successful, you may be wondering why you chose this path when you could be working 9 to 5 and collecting big benefits and enjoying weekends. Ever feel like that or am I imagining things? Perhaps you’ve just been busting your butt and success is simply not happening, but you’re not willing to give up what you started.

     The truth is that it doesn’t really matter what’s going on with you right now EXCEPT that if you’ve somewhere lost your enthusiasm and business ownership has become a full-time struggle, you must do whatever it takes to get back your startup energy, and that means you need to put more fun in every day.

     ONLY by having fun with your business will you have a more sunny disposition and will your business achieve the results you seek. Fun means something different to everyone. Make a short list of what’s fun to you. And yet another of what’s fun to those around you. Then start to make some of those attitudes and events take place. Have fun! 

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless our troops because “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

Yes, “quirky” works.

Save that tablecloth!

     In between rocket-blasting stints with Madison Avenue’s two biggest and most successful ad agencies in history, I once worked as new business director and assistant to the chairman of a rather inconsequential yet highly profitable New York advertising firm. My boss was the number one guy out of three partners. The other two hung out and acted important. My boss was the one who made the sales and brought in the money.

     I never learned much from him except that it really is possible to be successful even when you have no obvious success traits or qualities, as long as you are a stupendous listener, and can be totally quirky. The old man had no redeeming characteristics to speak of but he was both quirky — accentuated by a cartoony voice and over-the-top animation that seemed to ooze incongruously out of his 3-piece suit — plus he was an outstanding listener.

     Three or four days a week, I found myself in the arguably envious position of getting fat by being his sidekick at exorbitantly expensive lunches he hosted at the best restaurants in Manhattan. He invited clients and prospective clients as guests. I was his Boy Friday but he actually encouraged me to talk up agency credentials and experience, setting the stage for his “pitch” at dessert time.

     What he had to say was always on target, but it came only after intensive listening, interspersed with squinty-eyed questions from over the tops of his reading glasses, and requests for examples and diagrams. He made copious notes with marker pens . . . on the tablecloth! 

     In between courses’, he would engage the help of a waiter or two to turn the table covering, drip spots and all, clockwise so he’d have clear writing space for each part of the meal. When lunch ended, he would tuck a $20 bill into the Maitre D’s hand and neatly fold the tablecloth up, tuck it under his arm as he did all the handshake/smile stuff and head for a cab that I would have waiting at the curb.

     When we got back to the office, his secretary would unfold the tablecloth, tack it on the wall over her workspace and type out everything he had written, rising periodically to turn the cloth and re-tack it (lots of pinholes in the wall!). She would enlist one of the designers to recreate any diagrams. The Boss would prioritize items on her draft and identify them as Objectives or Strategies or Tactics the have a final version typed up.

     The typed copy was distributed to all who had any experience with or interest in the business being courted, followed by a meeting, and a summary returned to the lunch guest reiterating the key points, tying them of course to sales points. Often this document became the “working bible” for developing the advertising for an existing client for a full year or more, and often it won new clients.      

     Should we all run out and start writing on tablecloths? Maybe, but the point is that whatever you do to be better at running your business doesn’t have to be something that’s considered “normal” by others, and you need not worry or care about what others say if the system works for you. Someone else I worked for routinely cell phone called his desk from the golf course to leave himself message reminders of sales prospect conversations he would follow up on the next day.

“Quirky” Works.  

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! 

The Cyberspace

World Bank 

is saving our

beat old posts

for just the

right occasion! 

     Maybe it’s too late to count ourselves out of the award-running for the World Cup of Stupid Internet Comments, considering how dumb that snippy-snappy email or website post was that we angrily tossed off a couple of years back when we were more irate and quick trigger-fingered . . . but we don’t have to have it start an avalanche.

     Remember that comment we posted on some website way back when? You know the one. It went something like:  

“If you knew even the first thing about business, you dumb geek, you’d get out of that garage of yours and get a real job while you return to the college you dropped out of, and furthermore, Billy Gates, if you think I would ever consider hiring you to even sweep my floors you’re sadly mistaken. You’ll never succeed unless you can stop dreaming and finish your education!”

     Like an elephant, Cyberspace never forgets. The comments we make today on mover and shaker sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, BizBrag, Salesblogcast, iSALESMAN, Google, PoorIrishman, TBDConsulting and InterlakenInn are being watched and talked about. But so are the posts we put on downscale, disreputable sites like those commandeered by network media, incompetent government agencies, and porn purveyors — where what we have to say is given no more credibility than what’s said by the hosts.

     Almost all of what we have to say today that has any substance to it, carries with it the promise of coming back to haunt us (if not bite us in our respective butts) ten or twenty years down the road.

     Never before in history have we the people subjected our innermost thoughts and most volatile expressions to such states of accessible public permanence. Today’s passing thought will not land in a ribbon-tied bundle of letters socked away in a shoebox on some closet shelf or in some attic trunk waiting for discovery by distant generations.

     When we hit that email “Send” click, or website “Post” button, we are literally donating our private thoughts and feelings to eternal public scrutiny. It’s taking some time for this to sink in, but the reality of it is striking. Where else in history did people set themselves up to make scathing, heat-of-the-moment remarks only to have them be dissected and subjected to overkill, out-of-context evaluation 24 hours a day, every day for lifetimes beyond their own?

     The trick here is to:  

A) Think before we click  

B) Realize that anything we say, can and will be used against us in a court of public opinion (and having the right to an attorney won’t make a hill of beans difference!) 

C) Trash our computers and never look back! 

D) Overwhelm all of our friends and followers with a tsunami of upbeat messages that even our severest critics can’t help but cry tears of joy at our transformations. (“Kill ‘em with kindness!” me mother usedta say.)

So, uh, before you comment below . . .                                                                             

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! 

When you add

a splash of red

to a sea of blue,

people stop

noticing the blue…

     My wife Kathy (God Bless Her!) has been my business partner for 23 years. It takes an extraordinarily special relationship to survive and thrive in the same workspace AND the same homespace. 

     Oh, but don’t thinkI have a limited perspective on this. I’ve worked with every kind of FAMILY business imaginable … from restaurants, HVAC, farms, clothing, sewage, chiropractic services, heart surgery, landscaping, mattresses, trucking, dentistry, lumber, accounting, candy and travel, to manufacturing of computer and rocket-ship parts that fit under your fingernail. And that’s just my tip- of-the-iceberg list.

     Yeah, you might say, but just doing their brochures and websites doesn’t put you in the thick of things. How do you know what it’s really like? As a management consultant, trainer, coach, and counselor, believe me I’ve seen it all. I’ve managed succession planning, rookie coaching, crisis intervention, family foundations, partnership formations, partnership separations, and one fist fight.  

     The biggest problem with family business is family. Family relation-ships are a hotbed of emotions. Consider the statistics that claim every one comes from a dysfunctional family, which means there are an awful lot of weirdos out there. When the dysfunctional types become part of the family business, people see the business as dysfunctional. When you add a splash of red to a sea of blue, people stop noticing the blue.

Only a handful of really smart family business leaders have the good sense to realize a proven professional can help grow the business AND save the family.”

     When high emotions reign in a family business, you can be sure the business will not be a recommended long-term investment. Business ventures can be immensely emotional and supercharged, but keeping control of all that energy requires great leadership finesse, objectivity, and balance.

     Imagine a ship in a stormy sea, with an angry, blood-vessel-on-the-cusp-of-bursting, near-incoherent, screaming captain at the controls. You’d want to be figuring out the quickest route to the lifeboats. Some family businesses keep these stormy sea antics below deck, but they still take their toll.

You’d want to be figuring out the

quickest route to the lifeboats.”

     Here’s the good news: None of it is necessary. Here’s the bad news: Only a handful of family business leaders have the good sense to realize a proven professional can help grow the business AND save the family. The basic principles of anger management, stress management, time management, communication skills (especially effective listening), goal-setting, and leadership transparency are the ingredients of family business transformation and success. Someone who knows how and when to use these tools can help you get the red splash out of your sea of blue, and steady the controls.  

     The more generations involved, the greater the need. The more family members involved, the greater the need. The solution direction is simple. It takes a commitment to want to succeed, a willingness to share ”dirty laundry” with an “outsider” (and a sense of partnership and perseverance with that outsider) to combine forces to make a difference.

     Family business growth and development is directly tied to the 4 R’s: Receptivity, Responsiveness, Responsibility and Respect. If those are present, an experienced coach can help them all work for the good of the business, and the good of the family.  

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day!