Tapping into Team Bonus

In every conceivable way, business is a competitive endeavor. You compete against other companies for market share. You compete to beat last year’s numbers. You compete to hit monthly and quarterly goals. You compete to improve productivity, efficiency and to reduce costs. You compete twelve times a year to drive profit to the bottom line on your monthly Profit and Loss Statements. As a leader, you compete to maximize your strengths and overcome your weaknesses. And … you compete to keep your team engaged, motivated and inspired to deliver their best every day, because excuses, apathy and indifference relentlessly test the strength of your culture. Business is about teamwork and winning because, in every conceivable way … losing sucks.

In business, there are no trophies for winning. Winning simply means your company survived to fight another day. A track record of winning adds meaning to the term “sustainability” but by no means assures it. Winning is also tied directly to your company’s payroll. When you’re winning, you can reward employee performance with pay raises. Winning also gives you the funds to hire the right talent to strengthen your team. However, no matter how you pay your employees … their personal incomes are about the individual’s performance and contribution. Personal incomes are not about teamwork.

Rewarding your team for a winning performance is where team bonus can be a powerful tool in your leadership toolbox … if you understand the in’s and out’s of building a team bonus into your game plan for winning.

Here are some No-Compromise Leadership insights to help you make the most of a team bonus system:

• It’s the cause – not the cash: The instant the cash from a win takes precedent over the cause, meaning and purpose of the win, intent of team bonus is compromised and depowered. It is the leader’s responsibility to ensure that cause remains the driver and not the bonus. The cause is the motivator. The cause is what makes teams dig deep to create the shared sense of urgency to win. The win is simply about driving the cause across the finish line. The win is the trigger that releases the team bonus. Champion the cause. Push for the win. The team bonus is reward.
• Carrots, apples and oranges: Team bonus means different things to different people. To some, winning most certainly is about the cash. To others, the win is about the celebration and shared accomplishment of achieving goal. And to others, the win and team bonus has a very personal meaning that they are part of something special … that they belong. It is the leader’s responsibility to tap into all of the touch points of winning and team bonus. The worst thing a leader can do to take the meaning out of team bonus is to distribute bonus without any expression of the meaning of the win and showing gratitude for a job well done. Otherwise, team bonus can become an entitlement.
• The “But wait … there’s more” pitch: Too often, like selling ginsu knives on television, leaders make it all about the team bonus. It sounds like, “If we win – you’ll get team bonus.” As detailed in the first bullet point, the cause must always supersede the team bonus. Making it all about the team bonus and the money bypasses the emotional and motivational intent of winning. Leaders lead people. Pitchmen sell ginsu knives.
• The “But we were so close” trap: Only an authentic win can trigger team bonus. All a near win triggers is another chance to play for a win. The worst thing a leader can do to depower team bonus is to reward a full or partial team bonus for a near win. With all due respect, if the team came close enough for a near win … they played a good game, but not good enough to win. The learning experience is in analyzing and isolating what prevented a win and making the necessary adjustments. Acknowledge the near win – only reward a real win.
• When the carrots, apples and oranges go bad: There are times when things just go sideways and a win looks more like that dubious light at the end of the tunnel. Business is never about guaranteed wins. Business is about good times and having the tenacity to make it through the tough times. There are times when winning simply means surviving the tough times and regrouping. In these times, dangling an unattainable team bonus does more to demoralize a team than inspire it. The best course is to take team bonus off the table and suspend it until the company regains forward momentum. Focus on what matters most.
• It’s just about winning: Team bonus is nothing more than acknowledgement for the efforts and performance of your team. Team bonus is about appreciation. It’s a “thank you” from the company. It’s fine to have basic team bonus rules, but never contaminate it with consequences. People don’t willingly deliver their best efforts to avoid consequences. Team wins trigger team bonus. Teams help those that fall behind. Teams fight for what they believe in. That’s the magic that creates wins.

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2014: Home-stretch thoughts …

Today is the first day of the last month of 2014. So far, you have eleven months of business in the history book this year. You’ve eaten your Thanksgiving feast. The craziness of the Holiday season is officially underway. The time for implementing change and course corrections is behind you. Your company is either prepared to make the most of this final month, or it is not. All you can see ahead of you is the mad dash to New Year’s Eve and the welcoming of a fresh new year of opportunity called 2015.

This is a transitional time of year, good for both reflection and forward thinking. At this point, you’ve had your successes and failures. You’ve had initiatives that went sideways. You’ve said “good bye” to some old employees and welcomed in some new ones. You’ve hit your goals and missed your goals. You’ve loved your job … and there were times when you’ve hated your job. And on January 1, 2015, your Profit & Loss Statement revenues will revert back to zero and the endless process of leading your business will start all over again. The question to ponder now is … what do you want to change in 2015?

Here are my ten No-Compromise home-stretch thoughts:

1. Managing your batteries: Running a company can drain your physical and emotional batteries to the point where you feel leadership fatigue … or even worse – total burnout. You’re not a superhero with superpowers; you’re a human being with real life limitations. Stress is a part of leadership, and comes in the form of making tough decisions, doing work that pushes you outside of your comfort zones, dealing with employee stuff, and feeling the weight of ever-present financial pressures. THOUGHTS: What do you need to change in your leadership work and workload? If you had to focus your attention on only high value work, what work would you have to let go?
2. Evict the elephant: Every company has an elephant or two hanging around and getting in the way. Making friends with your elephant is a compromise and only gives you a bigger, tougher elephant that you will eventually be forced to evict. It’s gotta go. THOUGHTS: What is it costing you to feed the elephant in terms of drama, culture contamination and lost revenue? What’s the worst that could happen if you evicted the elephant? What opportunities would an elephant eviction create? When are you going to serve the eviction notice?
3. Deal with debt: Debt is 100% super-concentrated business drag. A company simply cannot gain speed or progress to a goal when it’s dragging a load of debt. Credit card debt is the worst. THOUGHTS: If your debt load is too heavy (meaning your monthly payments are draining your cash reserves), what’s your plan to get your debt to a manageable level? If your payroll costs are too high, what’s your plan to fix them? If spending is out of control and inventory purchases are not within budget, what’s the plan to reign it all in? If you’re not sure how to get your expenses and your debt under control, ask for help.
4. Get your “balance”: If you’re all work and no play, you really need to rethink how you manage your time. Personal time management is a discipline. I’ve coached many leaders that work 60 to 100 hours a week being grossly inefficient and wasting time at the expense of both their family and personal wellbeing. THOUGHTS: Leaders should be working on high value items – not low-level stuff that could be delegated. What’s your plan to work more efficiently and effectively to recapture time for you? What’s your plan to prevent others from putting their “monkeys” on your back?
5. Tune-up your “voice”: When employees start saying, “All you care about are the numbers,” or, “Whatever we do is never good enough,” your leadership voice needs a tune-up. As a leader, your voice is the voice of the company. How you communicate, both verbally and through body language, speaks volumes about your state of mind, sense of urgency and stress level. In your effort to make sales, cut expenses, boost productivity and improve quality, your “leadership voice” could actually be wrecking morale and fragmenting your culture. THOUGHTS: What disciplines are you practicing to ensure your intent is clear? What disciplines are you practicing to ensure that the best leader in you is showing up every day … and not someone that resembles Darth Vader, leader of the Dark Side?
6. Passion’s spark: If there is one thing I hope I never lose, it is my passion for the work I do. I love what I do, and yes, there are times when frustration tries to get the best of me … but my passion quickly regains the upper hand. The day “work becomes work”, I will retire. All entrepreneurial leaders have a little spark of passion in their eyes that keeps them going when others quit. Passion’s spark is precious and you must always protect it from being extinguished. THOUGHTS: If your spark is threatened and your passion is hanging on by a thread, what’s your plan to get back on track? What exactly is snuffing out your spark and sapping your enthusiasm? What are you going to do today, tomorrow, this month … and next year … to fuel your passion?
7. Clarity takes work: The first tenet of No-Compromise Leadership is to have absolute clarity on where you are taking your company. No one fights for a vision that sounds like, “Do more,” or, “We’re heading in that general direction.” People fight for and bring their best game to achieve an objective that is worthy and specific. If you can’t describe your vision, goals, objectives and change initiatives in high-definition detail … then you haven’t put the effort in to achieving absolute clarity. THOUGHTS: Can you describe where you’re taking your company in a way that inspires others to go on that journey with you? If not, you’ve got work to do.
8. Live your hype: It is dangerous for any company to buy so heavily into its own hype that it can no longer see its flaws, inconsistencies and compromises. Think of it as your company’s “promise to the customer” in terms of attention to detail, excellence and consistency. You either deliver on your promise or you don’t. Hype is like whiffle dust – it has little substance and disappears with a puff of air. THOUGHTS: What are you doing to reconnect with your values and commitment to excellence? When was the last time you and your team defined … with absolute clarity … your company’s promise to the customer?
9. Everyone wants to win: When a leader becomes cynical, the company’s culture begins its slide into mediocrity. THOUGHTS: What makes you think your employees don’t want to win as badly as you? What makes you think they don’t care? As the leader, what do you own in this toxic mess?
10. Twelve months from now: 2015 will arrive in 31 days. It will only contain 12 months … 52 weeks … 365 days. It can be a year of extraordinary growth, seized opportunities and the euphoria that comes with success … or, you can drag everything you don’t like from 2014 into the New Year and squander your opportunities. THOUGHTS: Where do you want your company to be on December 31, 2015?

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Leaders are always a work in progress

Over twenty-one years ago, I founded Strategies to coach and train business owners in the disciplines of leadership, performance and growth. I am proud beyond words of my company. In 2008, I wrote a book called No-Compromise Leadership. It won the 2010 IPPY Award for business and leadership. I am also proud beyond words of that book. Guess what? After 40+ years of doing classes, keynotes, countless articles, three books, and coaching leaders … not to mention writing 354 Monday Morning Wake-Ups … I am proud to say that as a leader, I am still a work in progress. I still have much to learn and many disciplines to master.

One of the most challenging aspects of coaching leaders is getting them to lower their “shields” and objectively assess their leadership abilities. Most often, a leadership coach is hired to “fix” problems, which typically means that the leader wants us to fix people (the culture), financial challenges and performance issues. But all business challenges occur on the leader’s watch. The leader is always the common denominator – the one constant in every situation. That’s what I try to explain to a potential client when he or she says, “I’ve hired coaches before and nothing ever changes.” My response is always, “You are correct. Nothing will change until you, the leader, change first.”

It’s revitalizing to be a work in progress because it opens up a world of opportunities that cannot exist when a leader’s shields are up and closed. Every leader has a unique collection of beliefs and behaviors. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for upgrading who you are as a leader to No-Compromise status. Some leaders are open to new ideas, systems and concepts. There are leaders who recognize that their skills and abilities need improvement, and these leaders seek out the best education, mentors or coaches to help achieve that end. In contrast, there are leaders who are extremely closed off to new ideas and reject any attempts to change their thinking. Their minds are locked and inaccessible … and they prefer to keep it that way.

For leaders, few challenges eclipse the need to objectively examine one’s basic beliefs about leading people. Leaders must do this in order to harness and organize collective efforts and achieve the right outcomes. Beliefs act like an internal guidance system. It doesn’t matter if you’re headed in the right or wrong direction; your beliefs are what keep you on course. For a leader to change his or her beliefs requires an extremely high level of openness and contemplation. But, I caution you – no matter how open you perceive yourself to be, your beliefs will continue to filter and reject conflicting input and data unless you truly allow your mental shields to come down.

To become a No-Compromise Leader (and stay a work in progress), you must unlearn many of your past practices.

• You must find innovative ways of challenging your beliefs, so you can be open to new ideas and opportunities.
• You must create your own compelling value proposition for change. Begin by answering two simple questions.
  1. If you continue your current leadership thinking and behavior, will you ever achieve the results you seek?
  2. If you change and adopt new leadership thinking and behavior, what would the possibilities look like?
• You must avoid resisting new ideas, concepts and points of view that differ from those that supported your past successes. What got you here could be obsolete tomorrow.
• You must adopt a mindset that helps foster more fulfilling relationships in your organization. Lead to serve. Lead to win.
• You must believe that it’s not only possible to find a more enlightened path as a No-Compromise Leader – it’s your responsibility to your company, your employees, your customers and yourself.

Knowledge can be defined as information organized in a framework that renders that information useful. Simply put, it might be that your context for viewing information about leadership is significantly reducing, or even preventing, its effective use. Very often, your mindset stands as an invisible shield to innovation and learning. Your mindset can make you informed, but not knowledgeable. To become more knowledgeable, you will have to accelerate a process of self-examination and resist the temptation to seek simple answers. To accomplish that, the No-Compromise Leader must keep his or her ego in check. Otherwise, any attempt at self-examination will be pointless.

CONCLUSION: “Open” leaders are receptive to the perspectives and points of view of those they lead. Not everything you hear may fit in with what you want for your company, but there are always new insights to be gained by listening. “Closed” leaders are just that – closed to the opinions, perspectives and points of view of those they lead. Closed leaders are more “command and control” … and therefore are inflexible and resistant to change.

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Reigniting your leadership passion

Last July I completed the 77-mile Prouty Ride in New Hampshire. There were hills-a-plenty and I turned in an average speed that was so slow I don’t even want to share it. I have a top-of-the-line Specialized S-Works road bike, so it wasn’t my equipment that was lacking. What was lacking was the ability of the bike’s engine – me. My growing frustration with my slow performance finally got to me. I may be 64 years old, but I know I’m physically capable of developing more power and speed – and reigniting my passion for cycling. So I hired Tracey Drews, a Carmichael Training Systems (CTS) coach, to kick my butt into shape. In two months, I increased my average speed almost two miles per hour and lost 10 pounds in the process. I feel great. I’m proud of my improvements. I got my passion for cycling back.

In recent weeks, I’ve talked to a number of owners/leaders who admitted to having lost the passion to push their companies forward. The most common statement sounded like, “I’m just going through the motions.” That’s what I was doing on my bike … just pedaling away miles and not doing the type of training that produces gains and breakthroughs. And just for the record, you can’t achieve gains and breakthroughs in business and life without pushing and challenging your abilities – without taking decisive action to snap out of your funk.

Here are my no-compromise, “kick your own butt” strategies to reignite your passion for leadership and push your company forward:

• Clean your plate: A leader’s plate is where projects and problems tend to land – yours and everyone else’s. If you don’t pay attention and manage what’s taking up residence on your plate, you can find yourself stressed and overextended. Take control of your plate by cleaning off all of the non-essentials and time-sappers. Most importantly, redirect all those projects and problems back to the people that originally owned them. Leadership team members will never learn and grow if you keep finishing or fixing their stuff.
• Find your BHAG: A “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” is the kind of worthy and lofty challenge that wakes up both leaders and their companies. BHAGs are bold. BHAGs are grand visions that inspire and motivate. BHAGs are worth fighting for. More than anything, finding and chasing a BHAG always reignites a leader’s passion and energy for the work of leadership.
• Put a pin on the map: The first thing my cycling coach asked me to do was define my goals and timelines so we could make a training plan. The training plan was a guideline that would take me to my goals. A goal without a deadline is a “maybe,” but putting a pin on the map sets the destination. Define your BHAG, take a deep breath, and put the pin on the map.
• Blow up the blockage: A leadership blockage is nothing more than a fear of the unknown. Guess what? The worst that could happen seldom, if ever, happens. And guess what? Not everyone is going to be happy with change. But … guess what? Giving in to your fear of confrontation by remaining stuck is the fast track to everything you don’t want to happen. No one follows a leader that is stuck, or too timid and afraid to tackle a worthy challenge.
• Read No-Compromise Leadership: My book is a game plan for achieving a higher standard of leadership thinking and behavior. So far, every leader that has read the book thinks I wrote it just for them. Learn about the Four Business Outcomes. Learn how to use and balance the BIG Eight Drivers. Learn what it really takes to successfully navigate a company-wide culture shift to the “No Compromise” zone. It’s a damn powerful book that will get you back into the leadership game.
• Get a coach: The right leadership and business coach can take you farther and faster than if you go it alone. The most important component is to have someone that will hold you accountable and not buy into excuses. And it really helps to have a coach to talk to when your leadership flame needs an extra spark.

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How to control your time bandits

You worked hard all day on a bunch of stuff. There were emails, phone calls, tasks, interruptions … and some fires that would have burned out of control had you not stepped up to play fireman. You’ve had a busy day, but what meaningful work did you truly accomplish? How much progress did you make on those gotta-do projects scattered all over your plate? Fact: being “busy” does not translate into being productive and making forward progress. Being busy can mean you’re procrastinating on work you should be doing. Being busy can mean that you’re doing work that others can and should be doing. Lastly, being busy can mean that you’ve set yourself up to be an easy target for time bandits.

There are all sorts of time bandits just waiting to rob you of your precious time. And they don’t even need to pick a lock to rob tiny morsels or big chunks of your time. Leaders make it easy by leaving their time fully exposed and unprotected. The only way to protect your time is to manage and defend it. But managing your time is like going on a diet or strict workout program. It requires a system and the discipline to be steadfastly accountable to it. Only then will the time bandits be held at bay.

If you’re tired of being robbed by time bandits, lock on to the following No-Compromise Leadership time management disciplines:

• It’s you against the time bandits: Managing and defending your time is a deeply personal commitment to get your work done while fulfilling your responsibilities as a leader to those you lead. Controlling your time and how you use it is a solo act that is 100% dependent on your thinking and behavior. You can hire someone that is highly organized to help you manage your time … but you’ll drive that organized person crazy if you continue to free-float through time by doing what you want, when you want. Time bandits will rob you blind while you bounce around your busy day accomplishing little to nothing.
• Build a “Time-Flow Plan”: At Strategies, we are relentless when it comes to coaching owners and leaders on how to build and live a cash-flow plan. There’s little difference between planning expense allocations and planning how to allocate your time. You begin by determining how much time you have to allocate in a month, week and day. Begin with the gotta-do’s like meetings and high-value events that you must attend. Next, schedule time, even if it’s an hour or two every other day, to work on high-value projects. Essentially, you are booking time for yourself to work on new systems, innovations and growth projects. Just make sure the time you’re booking for yourself is the time of day that’s most productive for you. I like early morning for writing and projects. Live your time-flow plan. No compromise.
• Deadlines and milestones: If a project or initiative lacks a deadline, it rarely crosses the finish line. If it does, it’s often over budget and a little too late for the party. Deadlines create urgency. Milestones are mini-deadlines that break up a project into manageable pieces. If you’re not using a project management system to structure and drive your projects through to completion, you’re leaving the door wide open for the time bandits. There are many powerful, affordable and easy to use web-based systems available – but they only work if you and your team are disciplined to stick with it. (Hint: Strategies is building a web-based system for you.)
• Filter interruptions: Interruptions are part of leadership simply because you are a decision maker. People want and need you for advice, guidance and solutions. But in that flow of interruptions coming at you, some are essential and urgent. Likewise, there are interruptions that are non-essential and nothing more than cleverly disguised time bandits. Filtering interruptions can be as simple as asking how urgent the issue is. If it’s urgent, deal with it. If it’s not urgent and non-essential, you can either schedule a date and time to address it, or direct the person to someone that can. The rule in filtering interruptions is to be respectful without compromising your time commitments. And yes, there will be times when an issue or crisis can, and should, blow up your schedule.
• Protect your plate by keeping other people’s stuff on theirs: Leaders are problem solvers. But a leader’s true role is to develop those they lead to achieve their full potential. If your open-door policy has a bright flashing “Problem Solver” sign over it, you are giving an open invitation to any and all time bandits to enter. Simply put, if you’re the self-proclaimed problem solver, you are enabling others to easily move problems from their plate to yours – problems that in most cases, can and should be solved on their own. The moment you say, “OK, I’ll take care of it,” the transfer to your already overflowing plate is complete. The best response is, “I understand, so what do you think your best options are?” Coach, guide and encourage the employee to find the solution on their own. That’s how you develop talent and innovative thinking … and keep other people’s stuff on their plates and off yours.
• Never be your own time bandit: I keep using the terms discipline and commitment because that’s what it takes to control, manage and defend your time from the time bandits. But the worst time bandit of all can be you. As leader, it’s easy to fall into that entitlement thinking that you can do what you want. Quite the contrary, your boss is the company. Your job is to drive The Four Business Outcomes: productivity, profitability, staff retention and customer loyalty. Your job is to keep the company’s vision shining bright and it’s culture pure. Your job is to take the company and it’s people to a better place. There is little time left on your schedule for wasting time and goofing off. No compromise.

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How to get unstuck

Today’s MMWU is for all the leaders that keep wondering what opportunities exist over the horizon but never move toward it. It’s for all the leaders that choose to tread water and are realizing that their arms are getting tired. It’s for all the companies that are waiting for their leader to snap out of it and lead the way.

Being and feeling stuck sucks. You want to move forward, but you’re unsure where forward is. Moving backward isn’t a great option either. The only thing remotely appealing about moving backward is that you know what’s there and what to expect. But moving backward means retreating and giving up – and that’s not who you are. So you remain stuck in the middle of a crossroad, and the longer you remain stuck, the more frustrated, bored and confused you become.

Yes, being stuck sucks…but being stuck is a choice. Rather than moving forward (no matter where forward leads) you actively choose to be stuck over some very viable options open to you. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of change and “what if-ing” things to death are the imaginary walls that keep people feeling stuck. The key to getting unstuck is recognizing that those walls aren’t real and can be vaporized by you at any time. Simply put, the first step to getting unstuck is choosing to be unstuck.

Here are some no-compromise leadership thoughts to get and keep you unstuck:

• It’s OK to take a break: Superhero leaders eventually burn out simply because running all out all of the time is unsustainable. Leading and growing a company is no different than exercising. When you push your body and muscles to new limits, they need rest and time to recuperate before you push them again. But if too much time passes, it’s like starting all over again. Challenge yourself and your company to gain ground and reach that next level, but do it at a pace you can sustain and allow time to settle into new behaviors before pushing forward again. The key is preventing rest stops from becoming complacent comfort zones.
• Fallacy of being ready: It’s easy to get stuck while waiting for all the planets in the universe to perfectly align, but the truth is that you may never have the resources and finances you think you need in order to move forward. Most often, you need to move forward with what you have and pick up what you need along the way. I’m not suggesting throwing caution to the wind. What I am suggesting is that you must recognize when it’s time to move forward. Waiting for additional resources will do little to improve your margin for success. In business, you seize opportunities when you can. Hesitate and you lose.
• Pick one that fits: One interesting fact about being stuck is that you’re stuck because you won’t pick one of the options and/or opportunities that are already before you. When you chose to be unstuck, your field of vision expands. You are not only open to new opportunities; you’re seeking them out. Your best strategy here is to pick one, study it’s potential, expand on it…and make it happen. Remember, it’s that first 20 percent of the work you put into an opportunity that lays the foundation to allow the remaining 80 percent to happen.
• No plan is perfect: Just like GPS guides us to a destination, it can’t predict traffic, accidents or road closures – but it can and does quickly reprogram an alternate route. The best and most detailed plans are never perfect. The unexpected will always happen. A plan defines the vision and/or outcome. It gets you out of the starting gate, and once you’re out, your plan will be tweaked and modified so it can adapt to what reality throws at it. Too often, leaders get so stuck in creating the perfect plan that it never gets executed. Don’t obsess over creating the perfect plan. There is no such thing.
• Success requires risk: Business is about taking risks. You cannot become a market leader doing the same things as your competition. All you’re doing is trading customers and dollars. There’s something inspiring about innovating new approaches to business and doing things your competitors cannot or will not do. I’m not talking about taking crazy risks; I’m talking about taking well-conceived risks that challenge you, your team and your company to get better. If you’re not willing to take risks – you’re stuck. Get over it.
• Coaching Accountability: Congratulations on your decision to get unstuck. So what’s your plan? Where will you start? What skills and guidance will you require? What are deadlines and milestones? And the BIGGIE … how will you hold yourself accountable to completing your unsticking projects? This is where a business and leadership coach, in addition to providing expertise, can really help you stay focused, on track and accountable. Give a Strategies Coach a test run and see how it works.

Time’s influence on change

Monday Morning Wake-Up

May 26, 2014

Time’s influence on change

When I started Strategies in September 1993, there was no Internet, email or Facebook. We marketed Strategies magazine and our business courses almost entirely by direct mail. It worked then…but that type of marketing doesn’t work in today’s digital marketplace. In fact, after publishing Strategies magazine for fourteen years, I had to come to terms with the fact that the magazine was not part of Strategies future. I made the tough (but right) decision for the December 2007 issue to be our last. Although I miss my magazine, Strategies is a better company today without it because we can focus our resources on our core business of training and coaching.

Yesterday’s success does not assure success today or tomorrow. Yesterday’s success enhances your stature and reputation, but not indefinitely. A company must evolve and change as the reality that surrounds it evolves and changes. There is an inherent danger to holding on to yesterday’s successes for too long. It dials back a company’s sense of urgency to innovate and discover new opportunities. It makes a leader lazy and a company lethargic.

Time not only forces change…it demands change. Time dares you to keep up, and it never accommodates. If you’re comfortable, it will leave you behind. If you fear change and hesitate, it makes the change you fear more urgent and complex. Likewise, if you sync your change efforts to keep pace with time, it will take you and your company to extraordinary places.

Here are some no-compromise strategies to keep pace with time:

• Your company’s natural rhythm: Every company has a natural rhythm. Some are fast, some are slow, and some are comatose. Aggressive and dynamic companies have a fast rhythm. They view and implement change as a matter of course. Sure, they hit a speed bump every now and then, but they quickly recover and get back up to speed. Companies with slow rhythms crawl from one comfort zone to the next and are highly resistant to even the most basic change initiatives. Comatose companies die a slow death because they can’t change. Leaders set the natural rhythm and pace of a company. What is your company’s natural rhythm, and what are you doing to keep it fast?
• Gotta have a map: To keep pace with time, you need a map. The map is your vision and strategic plan set to predetermined timelines. The map details the steps, deadlines and progress points to be achieved. The first 12 to 18 months need high levels of detail and clarity. Every six months, the detail and clarity are extended out so that every 12 to 18 are sufficiently mapped. Without a map, it’s easy to find yourself speeding in the wrong direction as you fall out of sync with time. What’s your 12- to 18-month map look like? If you can’t find it, that may explain why your company is far behind where it should and can be.
• Embrace it first: Change is a strange beast with which too many leaders and companies wrestle. Why? Because change is uncomfortable and forces leaders, teams and companies to stretch. Most importantly, change is about communication, information flow, systems, critical numbers and accountability. As I always say, “Change rocks the boat.” Change cannot occur when the leader is afraid to rock the boat, and change always begins with the leader. Change that begins in the employee ranks is called a “mutiny.” When was the last time you gave change a big hug?
• Time is the throttle: Everything in business is time based. Your financial reports are a numeric readout of your company’s performance over time. Goals are time based. Scoreboards are time based. Critical numbers and growth indicators are time based. Time most definitely is the throttle that sets the speed and pace of business performance. If performance is not attached to time, the throttle is not engaged and the company free-floats aimlessly. Is your time throttle engaged?
• Fear is the brake pedal: Fear is debilitating. Fear of change keeps the leader’s foot locked on the brake pedal when it needs to be on the throttle. Fear is a powerful emotion consumed with worst-case scenarios. The best question to keep fear in perspective is, “What’s the worst that could happen?” In most cases, the worst is actually not that bad. In reality, worst-case scenarios almost always happen when fear prevents essential change. Is your foot on the brake pedal or on the throttle?
• Take a few giant steps: If time has gotten too far ahead of you and your company, how about taking a few giant steps to catch up? What needs to change in your company; what needs a little positive boat rocking? I bet you have a list of high value issues, change initiatives and stuff that you’ve been procrastinating and obsessing over. Maybe it’s getting control of your finances and fixing your cash-flow issues. Maybe it’s that funky culture that needs a shift. Maybe it’s that rebranding effort that’s long overdue. Maybe it’s that toxic employee that needs to go. It’s time to cast off the dock lines and start the voyage to new and exciting places. Take a few giant steps by leaping into action and getting back in sync with time. That’s what no-compromise leaders do.

Shields Up, Thinking Closed

You can study, train and be coached to become a better leader. But that’s just the beginning. Here’s a non-negotiable Neilism:“Without a personal mandate to change your thinking and behavior, no-compromise leadership will elude you.” All of that newfound knowledge might allow you to impress others with your ability to recite the latest buzzwords and concepts, but if you fail to change your thinking and behavior at a core level, you’re merely cloaking compromise. Leaders are measured by deed and performance.

Many leaders selectively decide to lower their shields or not, based on how willing they are to understand their own thinking.It’s no different than an obese person lowering his shields to see that he must change the thinking that governs his eating behaviors. Take my father, for example – obese for his entire life (I’m talking a cruising weight of 350 pounds), his name was Harry but everyone called him “Duke” because it just seemed to fit better. Being obese, and the eating behaviors that drive that lifestyle, can be humiliating and embarrassing. When my father would buy a new car, he had to have the seat tracks moved back just so he could fit behind the wheel. At one point he was so heavy, the doctor’s scale didn’t go high enough to weigh him. The only scale the doctor could find to weigh him was at the meat market. Humiliated, Duke hung on the meat scale like a side of beef.

My mother and father owned a dry cleaning and tuxedo rental business. I remember my mother going ballistic when she found my dad’s secret stash of Mars candy bars under the bow ties in the file cabinet. (To this day, I believe there were many more secret stashes never discovered.)

But it was more than just stashes of candy bars and extra meals. There was a suicide attempt. We found him passed out in the car with the engine running and garage door shut. How bad does it need to get for someone to change his operating system? My father certainly knew he needed to change his thinking and behavior, he just couldn’t lower his shields long enough to let the new thinking in.

Throughout his life, my father tried every diet imaginable. He was a patient of the famous Dr. Atkins, creator of the Atkin’s Diet. He even tried hypnotism. A couple of heart attacks, worsening diabetes, regular hospitalizations, and a diagnosis of inoperable heart disease finally got him to lower his shields so he could change his thinking and self-destructive eating behavior. In that last year, my father got down to a trim 240 pounds. He died of a heart attack a month before his 60th birthday. Duke’s willingness to change his thinking and behavior came too late to repair a lifetime of self-inflicted damage.

Make no mistake; business leaders routinely do the same destructive damage to their companies as my father did to his body. The change begins by allowing your shields to lower. That’s the willingness part. Keeping your shields down and your mind objectively open to new ideas is the commitment part. Going the distance to change your thinking is the accountability part. Lowering your shields is the easy part and merely creates opportunities to learn and grow.

To truly become a no-compromise leader, you must turn those precious opportunities into a higher level of life-long leadership thinking and behavior.

Thirteen No-Compromise Leadership Beliefs

We have all seen leaders with diverse leadership styles who are successful at inspiring and creating dynamic team cultures. Some have charisma; some do not. Some seek consensus; some do not. Some have quick tempers, while others have great patience. However, what they all have in common are similar beliefs about people and what they can achieve given the right environment and culture. They recognize that the difference between ordinary people doing ordinary work and ordinary people doing extraordinary work is contingent on their leadership. They have a genuine commitment to the success and wellbeing of those they lead. Most important of all, people trust that the behavior they see in their leader is truly authentic because everything he does is consistent with his beliefs.

So how do you go about choosing a different set of beliefs or recognizing if some of your beliefs need upgrading? To get you pointed in the right direction, I offer you a set of 13 No-Compromise beliefs. Study them one by one and benchmark them against your own current belief system. Which ones do you agree with and why? Which ones challenge your current beliefs and why? And now the most difficult question, which ones do you agree with but your current thinking and behavior indicate otherwise?

Here are my thirteen No-Compromise Leadership beliefs:

1. Trust is given, not earned: People don’t trust those who do not trust them. If we want people to trust us, we must trust them first. If we can’t trust them, why should they trust us? Why do we expect others to earn our trust when they are supposed to trust us based solely on our position? When people truly trust each other, team dynamics flow more easily and openly.
2. People want to do the right thing: People want to live values that are consistent with their aspirations. Values are a common ground by which dialogue flows and around which decisions are made. People have an implicit understanding of lines not to be crossed.
3. Freedom is the essence of motivation: The freedom to choose is a fundamental human need. The more that need is restricted unnecessarily, the more frustrated a person will become. Only when we create environments based on self-direction and mutual accountability will we capture the full potential of people.
4. People are naturally driven to make things better and seek meaning in their work: Just challenge a group to make a contribution and watch the level of energy they exert. There is a yearning for meaning, both in life and in work. People will do things for a cause that they will not do for money. Watch how people work when they are proud of their jobs and how they contribute.
5. People have great capacity and a need to learn and grow: The need to learn and grow is as natural as the need to eat. Work must be designed so that every person, regardless of pay level, can learn, grow and make a substantial contribution. Higher expectations will lead to higher performance in the right environment, but not if the leader’s expectations of a group communicates a vision of mediocrity.
6. People prefer responsibility to dependency: In the right conditions, work is as natural as play. We need to be engaged and responsible, and too many management practices rob people of this ability. Empowerment often means, “I have the power and if I trust you, I’ll share power with you.” It is not about getting people to change in order to conform. It’s about getting people to take responsibility for creating a different future. People want to be engaged. People want to be passionate. It is the leader’s responsibility to create that environment and that opportunity.
7. People seek to be led, not managed: People don’t want to be managed. No one wants to be planned, organized or controlled. People want to be part of a team. They want to participate. They want to be a partner in the process of business growth.
8. Teamwork is not a tactic: It is the way people work best. However, there is power in a leader who drives with passion and integrity while having the courage to make decisions and provide direction as needed. As much as people can be frustrated by micromanagement, they can be equally as frustrated when there does not appear to be any leadership or direction.
9. People want to work cooperatively toward a shared goal: People have a need to be part of a group and to help others. That natural tendency is often lost when people are given incentives to compete against other members of their team. That can do more to degrade teamwork than inspire it. We need to overcome our belief that internal competition leads to better performance. The moment a company consists of two or more people, it must be a team-based organization.
10. Clarify expectations as much as possible — to as many people as possible: Can you remember the last time you were asked to do something and had no idea why you were doing it? Can you remember how excited you were? We simply cannot commit to what we don’t understand. Widely distributed information and a shared understanding of that information should be the right of every employee. As Jack Stack told me in an interview, “The more information you give people, the better decisions and forecasts they can make.”
11. People want to belong and feel a sense of pride in their work and the company they work for: People come to work hoping they will be allowed to make a maximum contribution to the company. Initial experiences are compelling and people need to see that the company is worthy of their commitment. At times people will turn down promotions, transfers or new jobs based on a desire to stay a part of something they are proud of or to avoid moving to a place where the opposite is true.
12. People desire to be treated as unique individuals in the workplace: People crave to be recognized and appreciated for the individual strengths and talents that they bring to the team. Too often, companies look at people to see who most closely fits the “company mold.” Harnessing the energy that comes from individual strengths can make a formidable team more capable of delivering results at a phenomenal level.
13. People seek fulfillment in the workplace: They want to feel important, needed, useful, confident, successful, proud and respected, rather than unimportant, useless, anonymous or expendable.

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Lesson of the “extraordinary” oil change

Graham Kenny of Edmonton, Alberta, brought his car to the local Lexus dealer for an oil change. There is nothing exciting about getting an oil change. Your car needs it … you sit and wait in a plastic chair … you get it over with. But little did Graham know his mundane oil change would turn into a truly remarkable VIP experience. The waiting room at this Lexus dealer offered complimentary wine, a selection of Keurig coffee, sodas, bottled water, and snacks, and even one of those massage chair recliners with a built-in iPad. Graham was so impressed that he posted pictures and described his VIP oil change experience on Facebook.

The last thing Graham wanted to hear was, “Mr. Kenny, your car is ready.” He wanted his VIP experience to last. But wait a minute … we’re talking about an oil change here, not a fine dining experience! Lexus of Edmonton simply transformed the process of waiting for your car to be serviced into a VIP experience by giving attention to the otherwise boring waiting room. All it took was a little wine, a beverage selection, some snacks … and that wonderful massage chair with an iPad for surfing the web (conveniently set to lexus.com). Graham now looks forward to an oil change.

The lesson of Graham’s VIP oil change is that delivering an extraordinary experience requires a little ingenuity, attention to detail, caring and some effort.

Here are some no-compromise strategies to create extraordinary VIP experiences for your customers:

• Ordinary is easy: Ordinary is also boring, indifferent and sadly, expected. Ordinary is just enough to earn a passing grade … and nothing more. Delivering extraordinary begins with the passion and desire to excel. In business, it begins with a leader capable of inspiring others to deliver their best by banishing mediocrity. Delivering extraordinary does not emerge from timid leadership or consequences. It is the result of creative thinking, instituted systems, hands-on coaching and shared accountability. Simply put, it takes work to break through status quo thinking, behavior and performance.
• Rethink little things: In the case of Graham’s extraordinary oil change, it was simply channeling creative thinking at ordinary things and situations. Simple enhancements transformed a service department’s waiting room into a memorable experience. Southwest Airlines employees bring “first class” caring and friendliness to all passengers in a similar manner as Graham’s Lexus dealer. Imagine how simple it would be for doctors to transform their waiting rooms, greetings and customer service from “medicinal” to friendly, caring and nurturing? Just removing that sliding glass window and wall would eliminate a customer service barrier. Look around your business and you’ll see plenty of opportunities to transform ordinary into extraordinary.
• Give it a name: We live in a world of marketing and advertising impressions. Graham’s extraordinary oil change was called the VIP Service Experience – and that’s what he described when sharing his story. Giving your “extraordinary” a name makes it more personal and identifiable. It gives life to an experience by making it real. A name accelerates the process of recognizing and remembering an experience that was designed to be extraordinary as just that – extraordinary.
• A little over the top: My son Eric bought a Nest learning thermostat for his home. The Nest is a high priced, “over-the-top,” thermostat that is beyond building a better mousetrap. The packaging is memorable. The fact that it includes a special screwdriver is memorable. And when looking at where to connect the different colored wires causes some confused head scratching, the instructions tell you send a photo of the wires to an email address. It was Sunday and Eric’s first thought was, “This isn’t getting installed today.” An instant email reply with a case number instructed Eric to call a customer support number. He called, gave his case number … and the rep said, “OK, connect that one here and this one there and you’re in business.” That was over-the-top extraordinary. Perhaps that’s why Google paid $3.2 billion to acquire Nest last January.
• Fun is memorable: When extraordinary is fun, like Graham’s VIP Service Experience, it becomes memorable – and memorable is the outcome you’re looking for. A smile, a willingness to sincerely serve others, an unexpected treat or amenity – these are simple and fun ways to create extraordinary experiences. I’ll never forget the spin bike and weights in my room at the Westin Hotel in Memphis. I’ll never forget the graffiti covered side of a bus in the hallway of the Alexis Hotel (a Kimpton Hotel) in Seattle. I’ll never forget the Southwest flight attendant dressed as a clown hiding in the overhead luggage compartment (that almost killed the elderly gentleman who opened it). I’d rather coach a client through difficult and stressful challenges by making them smile and giving them hope. Ordinary is one big yawn.

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Please share your thoughts with me about today’s Monday Morning Wake-Up. Click above to comment.

Pass this e-mail on to your business colleagues, managers and friends. They’ll appreciate it.