Are You Staying on Your Side of the Line?

Dan Sullivan

Founder and president of Strategic Coach

I love starting things, but not finishing them. Like a lot of entrepreneurs, I get excited about ideas, and once I have an idea, I just want it to become real as quickly as possible. The details of how that happens don't really interest me and aren't what I'm best at. Even highly detail-oriented entrepreneurs do better when they stick to their role in the organization: being a source of innovation and direction.

 

If you imagine all the activities that take place in your business, we could divide them into two piles: On one side are all the things you do best; on the other are the things your team members do best. Between these, there's a line -- and you can use this line to multiply your business's results while making it a more enjoyable and rewarding outlet for your abilities.

Satisfaction vs. stress.
One of the great freedoms of being an entrepreneur is having the opportunity to focus on your particular talents and wisdom -- and, not coincidentally, this is also how you contribute the most value to your business.

For me, this means coaching workshops, speaking to new groups of people, and developing products based on what I've learned. I find these activities tremendously satisfying and rewarding, whereas execution and implementation are frustrating and stressful for me. Those things are on the other side of the line, so I don't go there anymore.

Where's "the line"?
The first challenge for a lot of entrepreneurs is finding that line. They have no criteria for deciding what they should and shouldn't get involved in. They keep reaching back into things they've given away, and that makes it okay for the team to keep engaging them in their work.

Maybe you feel tempted to help them out, or you don't trust them to produce the result you want. So you keep stepping over the line onto their side, which burns up time you could be spending producing results and interferes with your team's growth.

The solution, of course, is to stay on your side of the line. But in order to do that, you'll need to feel confident about what's happening over on the other side. So here's how to achieve that confident capability:

1. Figure out where the line is. Where do you draw the line? The most workable, enjoyable boundary is around your Unique Ability -- your individual combination of talent, skill, and potential for growth. When you're operating in your Unique Ability, you achieve things with a joy and ease that others simply marvel at.

Even better, no two people's Unique Ability is the same, which means that someone out there -- maybe someone already on your team -- will be elated to take on the tasks that you're incompetent at and hate doing. Give them the opportunity to use and develop their talent, and you also eliminate the number-one cause of "messes" in a business: avoidance of obligations you dislike or aren't really committed to. (An accountant is one of the first hires many entrepreneurs in my workshops make; a personal assistant is a close second.)

2. Communicate your thinking. Be really clear about the result you want. This isn't a "drive-by delegation," but an opportunity to fully explain the purpose of this task and what it will look like when it's done -- and done well.

I have project managers for all my projects, and I meet with them at the start of every new job to share my vision, my intentions, and the criteria I'll be measuring the project's success by. Then, I listen to make sure they get it. When I feel confident that they do, I step back and let them assemble the plan, people, and resources to get it done.

How much communication do you need or want during the project? That's good to establish at the outset too. For some projects, I want to see work in progress to make sure it fits with what I had in mind. Yet, if we've done something similar before, I'm happy to let my team run with it, and we can make refinements when they come up with a first draft.

You can help if it means contributing part of your Unique Ability. But if you feel your team should be able to do the job by themselves, communicate that too.

3. Show them how, then get out of the way. My goal is to help my clients develop a fully Self-Managing Company. To achieve this, you need a team you trust -- people who are exceptionally good at what they do and can respond creatively and decisively to any situation. Your team members can only become those people if you give them the permission and authority to deal with things, and if you treat mistakes as opportunities to learn and refine the process.

At a certain point, for your team members to grow, you simply have to not be there. This, incidentally, also gives you back time to be productive on your side of the line and to enjoy a balanced, rewarding personal life.

A win for both sides.
It takes time to figure out where the line is, how to stay on your side of it, and how to communicate this idea to the people you work with. When you do, though, you gain an enormous sense of satisfaction and relief -- knowing you have the freedom to use your Unique Ability in your business to invent and capture new opportunities and that your team will follow through to maximize the value of what you're creating.

As you expand your ability to create the positive changes you want to see, you grow, your team members grow, your business grows, and your clientele grows. It's a win for everyone.

 

The Buyer Revolution: 4 Steps To Evolve Or Be Toppled

Knowledge will make you free (Photo credit: tellatic)

The rapid changes in technologies and business models continue at breakneck speeds.  Shifting the landscape of buyer behavior along the way.  Fermenting the once dormant ability of buyers to redefine the seller-buyer relationship .  Creating a buyer revolution marching on unabated.

B2B business, marketing, and sales leaders are faced with rethinking long-held strategies and redefining tactics.  Confronted with a new reality, which bears little resemblance to just a few short years ago.  One thing has become clear in the buyer uprising B2B businesses face today – they must evolve or they will be toppled.

Meeting Demands
The buyer revolution is resulting in new demands.  Buyer demands can be boiled down to two essential elements involved in all revolutions.  Information and knowledge.  Buyers are demanding more access to information and want more knowledge.  Just as the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenburg in 1440 changed the world forever, new digital technologies are changing the seller-buyer relationship forever.  Sellers can no longer hold back information and knowledge – or – there will be no relationship.

Information And Knowledge
To evolve today means staking out a leadership position in meeting the demands of buyers.  Specifically, meeting the demands for information and knowledge.  A mistake companies make in their attempts to evolve is focusing on the former versus the later.  Inundating buyers with so much information, it actually harms more than foster relationships.  Information is dumped without thought to knowledge, which the buyer desires to internalize.

Misguided attempts with information are becoming more evident.  The newest is the fad-crazed use of the word “insight” today.  Recasting information as insight.  Insight has no value unless it can be translated into knowledge.  Let these words from a recent interview illuminate:

“Recently, I did spend time on the phone with a rep from (Vendor A).  Not too long but was interested in hearing more.  He said he would send valuable insight on how my issues and such can be fixed.  Well, basically what I got was product information.  Nothing new so to speak.”   Vice President, Retail Banking Group

As you can see here in this simple statement, what actually happened is expectations were raised for knowledge to be gained, only to fall short significantly.  In the end, this does more harm than good.

Evolve You Must
To evolve today, B2B marketing and sales today must work in tandem to bridge the gap between information and knowledge.  What the buyer revolution is all about is buyers no longer want to feel like they have to pull teeth to get the knowledge they need.  The more sellers resist the freeing up of information and knowledge, the more the ramifications of the buyer revolution will persist.  What can B2B businesses do to evolve in the face of the buyer revolution?  Here are four suggested steps:

Identify Gaps Customers Have In Knowledge

This is a crucial step.  B2B companies today will need to engage in buyer insight research to identify the gaps customers and buyers have in knowledge.  Not easy for buyers often have difficulty in articulating and may not use standardized terminologies.  Yet, it must be done.

Evaluate Information

Once you know the knowledge gaps of your customers, it is important to evaluate your existing information.  If you have done your homework, be prepared to cringe.  This effort goes well beyond the content audit often recommended today.  It goes to the heart of what you are willing to give.

Redesign Information

What we may call content, buyers think of as information.  Not getting this could mean your content will be just plain bad.  You need to know what information means to buyers, design it, and deliver it.  One of the causes of content marketing ineffectiveness is related to this issue.  Too much inside-out thinking on content means no connection to the information buyers are seeking.  Frankly, they do not care how cool your content is if it says nothing.

Build A Bridge To Knowledge

Buyers are seeking knowledge.  We may be getting confused with insight being knowledge.  The true difference maker is helping customers to translate information they are receiving into to newfound knowledge they seek.  The role of insight is to be the bridge itself.

  

Companies who get this right will separate themselves from competitors dramatically.

Turn Insight into Knowledge

History serves us well.  Institutions who embraced Gutenberg’s invention and evolved the knowledge of societies flourished.  Those who resisted perished.  The buyer revolution today means flourishing by providing customers and buyers with knowledge they need to accomplish their goals.  Following these four steps helps you to evolve the capability of bridging information to knowledge.

Time is running out.  The pace of change is only quickening.  Evolve you must.

Article by Tony Zambito

The Only Woman in the Room

For most of my business career I’ve been the only woman in the room.  When I started selling mainframes back in the day – I was the only woman sales rep in my company.  When I moved into marketing, I was the only woman in the team. When I started my own consulting business in the late ‘80s, I was the only woman in the executive team meetings or the boardroom for my clients.  It was a man’s world and I learned how to live in it.

Fast forward to today. I’m still usually the only woman in the room.

Some folks say women are discriminated against in managerial and executive positions. Personally I’ve rarely felt that was true.  Sure, a few people have been less than respectful to me, but that’s true outside of business as well. In my 30+ year career, I’ve usually been treated with respect as my clients trust me to drive revenue growth for their businesses.

Some folks say women are discriminated against in managerial and executive positions. Personally I’ve rarely felt that was true.

Yep, I’m one of those rare women in the boardroom. I choose to be there as an executive consultant. To this day I enjoy working in those male dominated rooms. I suppose I’m somewhat of an exception.

Most women choose to simply move on.

Why Do Women Leave?
Some women leave the work force to have families. They choose to stay home and raise their kids. Then they find other ways to create business opportunities for themselves. Some of us, like me, leave to start our own businesses. I did just that when I was 27 years old.  I wanted the freedom of being my own boss.  But then I came back, on my own terms. Some women get frustrated with the corporate politics and leave.  Some don’t see an opportunity for advancement and so they leave.  Regardless of the reason we women leave, the majority of us do leave.

When we leave, it’s the corporations that suffer. Here’s why.

The Diversity of the Female and Male Brain
In her brilliant books, Dr Louann Brizendine* paints a detailed picture of the differences between the female and male brain. Here’s a summary of how those differences begin.

• Every brain is female in utero until 8 weeks. Female is nature’s default setting. At 8 weeks, if a burst of testosterone occurs, the brain will become male.  If it’s doesn’t happen, the brain remains female.

• That burst of testosterone dramatically changes the makeup of the now male brain.  That testosterone kills off cells in the communication and emotional centers and grows more cells in the sex and aggression centers.

• A female brain continues to grow a significantly larger communication and emotional center than the male brain, fueling empathy, intuition and more.

When we leave, it’s the corporations that suffer.

Because of our larger communication and emotional centers, females read facial expressions, hear vocal nuances, sense what’s happening in individuals and groups and create strong one-on-one social relationships.

Male brains are wired by their aggression and sexual brain centers to focus on making things happen, getting to the goal, defense of territory, physical strength and general domination of those around them.

That certainly explains a lot, now doesn’t it?

It’s the Business That Loses
I think we need both the male and the female brain’s wiring to create a balanced culture that drives business success. As women leave the corporate world for their own pursuits I have to ask:

Does communication play a key part in business success? Team success? Market success?

Is empathy important in creating customer loyalty? Employee loyalty? Team collaboration?

Is seeing the reality of a situation, sensing the unspoken truth, important in business?

I believe the answer is “YES!” to all of the above. Which is why I’ll keep on being the only woman in the room. And asking other women to join me there. Now more than ever, corporations, businesses and our modern world need the skills we bring with our oh-so female brains.

* I highly recommend you read both The Female Brain and The Male Brain. These books are amazing studies for ourselves, our kids, our teams and more.  Click here to learn more.


Photo Credit from Flickr
Rebel Brown (4 Posts)A masterful agent of change, for over 25 years Rebel has inspired, coached and empowered over 250 global organizations to ultimate performance and profitable market advantage. Rebel blends the power of neurosciences with her deep business expertise to guide executive and corporate clients to unleash their ultimate performance potential. She has been featured in First Business TV, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider and Business Week. Her best selling business book, Defy Gravity, is any leaders’ guide to breakout growth. Rebel’s Rebelations blog is read by thousands weekly. She is a an NSA and a Vistage International speaker, acting as a keynote speaker and leading workshops globally. She also was named one of the Top 100 Women in Computing. Besides speaking and writing, Rebel has vast consulting experience in shifting corporate perspectives to create breakout strategy, positioning for advantage and profitable growth. She works with US and European venture firms to successfully fund and launch companies. She also ran a consulting practice in Paris for two years, bringing European firms to the United States. Rebel is also the founder and director of the Unstoppable U Foundation, a non-profit program committed to guiding kids to know that they are born to be Unstoppable.

Leadership Lessons from Tug-of-War

 

“What am I creating?” is a critical leadership question you must ask yourself every day. Personally, it aligns your choices and actions. Organizationally, it orients your team’s choices—it creates alignment. The reason for organizations is to harness the collective power of the group.

WE can accomplish more than I, and our collective efforts are most impressive when they surge forward in unison. Alignment produces a multiplier effect that demonstrates that the whole IS greater than the sum of the parts. Teamwork, however, can also be challenging and frustrating as we subjugate our needs and impulses and emphasize consideration of others and emotional intelligence. On the downside, teamwork can rob us of our spontaneous expression and blur our coveted individuality. On the upside, teamwork can provide a platform from which we can accomplish meaningful and breathtaking achievements.

Teams generate power when everyone is focused on the same horizon.

When each member answers, “What am I creating?” in the same way, amplification occurs. By collectively focusing on the same objective, they harness the power of alignment.

Tug-of-war is a practical example of the power of alignment. I grew up playing this game a lot. The game cost nothing, was easy to set up, and was intensely competitive. With a heeled shoe we’d scratch a line in the dirt, then we’d split our group in two. Each group took hold of opposing ends of a strong rope, and on command we’d begin to pull. I remember the effort that we expended as we pulled the rope in order to draw the opposing team toward us and over the midway line. The biggest and heaviest team member was typically the “anchor” planted at the end of the rope. As the resident “big boy” I spent my tug-of-war career as the anchor. From here I had a clear view of my team as well as the opposing team. What I learned watching both teams is that the size, weight, and strength of the team were not the most important predictors of who would win the game.

By collectively focusing on the same objective, they harness the power of alignment.

Alignment was the winning factor. Teams whose members pulled together at the same achieved cumulative force. When our backs, feet, and waists were lined up and pointing in the same direction, we became unified. The combined force of an aligned team magnified our individual contributions exponentially. I remember many sunny days anchored at the end of the line, and hoping the opposing team would look disjointed, that their guys would be out of sync, pulling the rope at different angles. When even one person pulled at a different angle, the entire team lost their cumulative force and, rather than win, they struggled.

Organizations, too, are pulling against competition in an ongoing contest for market share, resources, and talent. This constant tension is a tug-of-war with consumers and competitors. Each organizational function is a hand on the collective rope. Aligning the functions is not a mere philosophical abstraction; it is a dictate of mechanics and physics. Team members pull the rope at the operational level. When R&D, for example, pulls the rope North and production pulls the rope West, the organization falters.

Leaders are engaged in a constant tug-of-war, with not just one, but multiple ropes being pulled by multiple teams in multiple directions. As so many factors push and pull leaders’ attention and energy, it is focus—”What am I creating?”—that shapes the most effective decisions. Clarity of choice and decisions arise when you can definitively answer, “What am I creating?” as a person, as a leader, and as a team. This focus is your vision and your commitment to the future, and it illuminates a path of decisions, relationships, and behaviors that pave your unique path to success.

Image credit- berkut2011 / 123RF Stock Photo

Eric Kaufmann (1 Posts)Eric Kaufmann brings a unique mix of professional and personal experience to his work of developing executive wisdom and guiding leaders to better decisions and achievement of superior results. Kaufmann, who was born in Israel and lived and worked in South Africa for three years, has two decades of experience in sales and management at Lanier/3M and Corning Clinical Laboratories. In 1999, he began a new chapter of his professional life, launching a consulting business in which he works with individuals and teams in senior management of Fortune 1,000 companies, primarily in the life science and technology sectors. Along with his real-world business experience, Kaufmann brings a range of other skills and perspectives to his roles as executive coach, keynote speaker and management consultant. Kaufmann’s first book, “Leadership as a Hero’s Journey,” explores the four traits shared by successful, passionate and creative business leaders. The book describes how they navigate through uncertainty and anxiety in order to improve the lives and livelihoods of those around them, and is due out in early 2013. When working with CEOs and senior managers, Kaufmann assists them in clarifying their corporate goals and vision; assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their management team; and identifying and eliminating obstacles to collaboration, trust, and productivity. Ultimately, his contribution leads to better decision-making and greater team engagement, resulting in faster and stronger market penetration, improved profitability and employee retention.

How to Spot a Great Leader in Four Easy Steps

Leadership can be an incredibly hard concept to define and an even harder quality to learn. There are some who argue that great leaders are born but I have always believed that you can learn and develop the necessary skills through hard work and experience.

Not all of us can be leaders, and there are plenty of people who are happy not to be, but it would be foolish to think that leadership is an easy skill to master. The really top people in any field, whether it be business, politics or sport, are constantly examining their performance and most important of all looking at ways to improve and keep standards high.

Here are four signs of what truly marks out the great leaders from the rest of the field.

Confidence
First and foremost a good leader has to have confidence in themselves and their ability. As a decision maker or chief executive you should never forget that all the people you manage are constantly looking to you for inspiration and guidance and setting an example is a major part of the job description. There is of course a very big difference between confidence and arrogance, and it is important not to cross that line. But you have to ask yourself the question: if you do not have confidence in yourself then how can you ever expect others to place their trust in you?

Intuition
Some may call this intelligence or even good luck, but I prefer the term intuition. Knowing what course of action to take in any given situation is a great skill to be able to draw on. The ability to react in the right way to changing circumstances is something that usually comes with many years of experience. But those who are just setting out on the journey to becoming leaders can learn very quickly by following the example of people around them who have proven track records.

Decisiveness
Speaking from personal experience, it is when times get tough that the best leaders are able to show their true qualities and mettle. It is easy to lead when things are going well and a business is running smoothly. However, the true test of leadership is when an unexpected crisis rears its head. When my first business Alexander Mann started feeling the effects of the recession back in the early 90’s, it came as a real shock. However I knew that in situations like that, staff are looking for reassurance and someone who looks unsure and indecisive is also going to come across as weak. I came in one morning, called everyone together and explained the situation in very stark terms. I then told them the actions we were going to take to try and rectify things. I am not suggesting making reckless decisions without thinking – but every step you take should have an decisive air about it.

Empathy
The so-called soft skills of management are sometimes overlooked in business and management manuals but I have always seen them as a crucial part of the job. You can have the best product or service and can spend thousand of pounds on things like marketing, but businesses are built on the quality and motivation of the people within. Any good manager needs to be able to understand what makes their people tick and what motivates them. This also helps to build staff loyalty which is a crucial element of running a business. The best leaders are usually the ones who have a good grasp of human nature and behaviour.


Posted by:James Caan

Get the Most Out of Executive Coaching

 

Remember “light bulb” jokes? My favorite was, “How many shrinks does it take to change a light bulb? One, but the light bulb must want to change.” It’s true: Unless or until a person decides to commit to change wholeheartedly, no coach can help move him or her one-millimeter off the dime.

 

Worse yet is the fact that, unlike light bulbs that lack the capacity for self-deception, humans bamboozle themselves all the time. Whether it’s a smoking cessation program or working with a coach to improve management skills, people claim they want to change or drop dysfunctional behaviors from their lives, but then fight like Ninja warriors to defend them. Worst of all, irrespective of how intelligent or professionally powerful a person is, it is a virtual certainty that after embarking on a change process, they will be partially or fully derailed by the feeling, “Better the devil I know than the devil I don’t know.”

The reason why backsliding on our ostensible commitments to change is so common is because most change is the result of compliance to a demand, incentive, or threat. “Lose weight or you’ll suffer a heart attack” coming from an M.D. is a directive most folks won’t ignore. Unfortunately, when incentivized to change in this manner falling off the wagon is common because our motivation wasn’t to change, it was to avoid a premature death.

Psychologists who have studied intrinsic and extrinsic motivation since the 1970s — most notably, Professor Edward L. Deci — demonstrate that when a person acts in response to extrinsic motivators — the promise of money; the threat of punishment — commitment to a behavior is short-lived. This is why when the cat’s away, mice will play. Mice don’t want to change their behavior, i.e. playing games, but they do when cats are present. However, since change (the cessation of play) was instigated by an extrinsic force — Tabby — if Tabby isn’t monitoring the mice, thse rodents instantly revert to form.

What, then, should you do if you think you want to change and, like so many of your peers, put your faith (and a huge financial commitment) in a coach? Is it possible to develop an authentic commitment to executive coaching through sheer willpower alone? No. But what you can do is develop a mindset — i.e. new “automatic” cognitive messages — that will help you counter your own resistance to change. 

What follows are the exercises I use most often to help new clients initiate coaching with the best mindset possible. If, prior to the onset of coaching you experience the attitude adjustments they are designed to foster, the change process should be profoundly less anxiety- and resistance-provoking for you than it is for those who dive in unprepared. 

1. Ask yourself, “Cui bono?”
Recall a golf lesson or the clumsiness you suffered during an introductory yoga class. Now recall how you responded when the club pro or yogacharya gave you critical feedback. No big deal, right? Well if you’ve never been to an executive coach, I guarantee that the first critique you receive will not be a NBD experience. Why? Golf or yoga are peripheral to an executive’s definition of self. Being a stellar manager is central, so when someone pokes that realm of your self-concept the usual reaction is “ouch!”

The best way to reduce the possibility of being stung by an executive coach’s constructive critical feedback is to remind yourself that it is (a) not ad hominem and as such, (b) comparable to the club pro’s efforts to correct your slice. To do this with ease, learn to employ the Latin phrase “Cui bono?” — literally, “as a benefit to whom?” — after each critique you receive. The rational portion of your brain knows that no competent coach would gratuitously put you down. Now you need to train the more primitive, more reactionary parts of your brain to think that way too. By making “Cui bono?” the mantra you bring to assessment sessions with your coach, you can learn to accept that any and all feedback from him or her is intended to be helpful, not hurtful.

2. Be sure you wouldn’t rather hire a cheerleader than a coach.
Many consultants and coaches know that they can build lucrative client bases by treating protégés the way Little League coaches deal with their pre-teen charges: Everything the kid does evokes a “good job” or “atta boy!” 

The problem with an automatic “good job” reaction is that it is useless and often — even by pre-teens — seen for what it is: Balm for under-developed egos. An 11-year-old with burgeoning self-esteem would much rather hear “keep your eye on the ball” after striking out than “good job,” but if you want to hear cheering regardless of how you perform, caveat emptor. An ethical coach doesn’t bring pom-poms to meetings with clients, so hire to your needs.

3. Learn the difference between participation and commitment.
Having spent 30 years as a psychotherapist and coach, I can assure you that acting the role of a “participant in a change process” is not nearly the same as being committed to actually changing yourself. Many people claim to be involved in a change process when, in fact, they are holding their true selves in abeyance. Years ago, many gay men married women because they held the deluded belief that the process of being part of an intimate heterosexual dyad would change who they were. In time, virtually all discovered that suppression doesn’t work and that role-playing without conviction has no chance of effecting change.

Coaching cannot change you one iota unless or until you’re really committed — until you have skin in the game. Before I work with a client who needs to make major changes, I share the aphorism my baseball coach once told me to drive home the distinction between authentic commitment vs. going through the motions: “There’s a huge difference between participating in baseball and being committed to it; it’s like a bacon and egg breakfast. The chicken participates in the breakfast. The pig, on the other hand, was fully committed.”

Since you won’t change unless you really want to, and nothing — not the highest-priced coach or public declarations about your intention to change (which, presumably, will humiliate you if you fail) — will help you to succeed, it behooves you to learn how to thwart your worst tendencies in advance of tackling change. This is what cartoonist/philosopher Walt Kelly, in his possum persona, Pogo, was referring to when he said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” If you accept this fact of life, coaching — and every other change process you initiate — will become surprisingly simple.

Steven Berglas

A faculty member of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry and staff member of McLean Hospital for 25 years, Dr. Steven Berglas is now an executive coach and corporate consultant based in Los Angeles, CA.

Female Entrepreneurs Go Beyond “Cookies and Crafts”

 

In the 1990′s, if you asked most women business owners what their dreams were, they’d say they just want to be able to support themselves and their families. The times have changed. Today, women have bigger dreams and seek to grow their businesses to the maximum level. However, many are still saddled with an outdated perception about their roles in business and contributions to the economy, despite tremendous growth over the past decade.

 

The old perception is that women-led and -owned businesses are micro-enterprises; companies run out of the home with fewer than five employees. But most women outgrew the “cookies and crafts” stereotype a long time ago, and have their sights set on bigger goals. Many have found success in industries like technology, mining, and construction.

Progressive thinking is being pushed forward by new data that showcases the undeniable impact of women-led and -owned businesses on the economy. Consider these datapoints:

• American Express OPEN’s latest Growing Under the Radar report details just how strong these businesses have been over the past decade. Perhaps the most surprising data is that women-led and -owned businesses experienced 57% growth in revenue of $10 million or above. That is actually a growth rate of 47% more than their male counterparts. This data is even more impressive in the context of a down economy: women-led and -owned businesses continued to grow throughout the recession, as companies around the world had to tighten their belts to weather the storm. The same report indicates that health care, social assistance, and education are industries in which the growth of women’s ownership has been the strongest.
• The membership of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), a nonprofit peer-advisory group for women with $2MM-plus gross revenue, itself accounts for $19BN in aggregate revenue and over 142,000 jobs, stemming directly from its 1,700+ female business leaders. In the WPO, the largest number of businesses are in manufacturing and distribution and 25% of members generate over $10 million annually.
• Forbes called 2013 the “Year of the Female Founder.” As female entrepreneurship gains steam, interest from venture capitalists will grow as well. There are now a number of investment groups, like Golden Seeds, that specialize in funding and empowering women-led businesses.

It makes sense that we’re seeing such a tremendous growth rate for women-led and -owned businesses at this particular time in history. In 1977, only 4.5% of privately held businesses were owned by women. Those businesses were mainly in fashion, fitness and beauty. Today, the greatest number of multimillion-dollar women-owned businesses are in wholesale trade (20%), finance/insurance (12%), and transportation/warehousing (11%).

Over the last decade, women-led and owned businesses generating more than $1 million have grown 31%. That number would be even greater if businesses owned 50/50 by male and female partners and businesses with financial investors were included in census data.

With so many women-led and -owned businesses reaching such lofty benchmarks in the last decade, the stereotypes about female business leaders are thankfully beginning to wear thin. As more women ascend the corporate ladder or build their own businesses from the ground up, they’ll bring even visibility to the success of women throughout business.

Dr. Marsha Firestone

Dr. Marsha Firestone is Founder and President of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), started in 1997 as a peer advisory organization connecting women who own multi-million dollar companies. She is also the Founder and President of the Women Presidents’ Educational Organization, dedicated to creating increased access to business opportunities for Women’s Business Enterprises (WBEs).

The Basics of Crowdfunding

What it is: Crowdfunding is about persuading individuals to each give you a small donation -- $10, $50, $100, maybe more. Once you get thousands of donors, you have some serious cash on hand.

This has all become possible in recent years thanks to a proliferation of websites that allow nonprofits, artists, musicians -- and yes, businesses -- to raise money. This is the social media version of fundraising.

There are more than 600 crowdfunding platforms around the world, with fundraising reaching billions of dollars annually, according to the research firm Massolution.

How it works: The most common type of crowdfunding fundraising is using sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo variety, where donations are sought in return for special rewards. That could mean free product or even a chance to be involved in designing the product or service.

It is also possible to use crowdfunding to assemble loans and royalty financing. The site LendingClub, for example, allows members to directly invest in and borrow from each other, with the claim that eliminating the banking middleman means "both sides can win" in the transactions. Royalty financing sites appear to be more rare, but the idea is to link business owners with investors who lend money for a guaranteed percentage of revenues for whatever the business is selling.

The holy grail is to sell company shares or ownership stakes in the company on crowdfunding sites, because it could be like a mini-IPO without the traditional hurdles. In the past, this has only been legal with accredited investors, people who each have more than $1 million in net worth or more than $200,000 in annual income.

The good news is that the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 allows stock to be sold to the general public over crowdfunding sites, but as of mid-2013, the SEC was still hammering out the rules.

Upside: Crowdfunding provides another strategy for startups or early stage companies ready to take it to the next level -- such as rolling out a product or service. Before, a business owner was subject to the caprices of individual angel investors or bank loan officers. Now it is possible to pitch a business plan to the masses.

A successful crowdfunding round not only provides your business with needed cash, but creates a base of customers who feel as though they have a stake in the business' success.


Downside: If you don’t have an engaging story to tell, then your crowdfunding bid could be a flop. Sites such as Kickstarter don’t collect money until a fundraising goal is reached, so that’s still a lot of wasted time that could have been spent doing other things to grow the business.

It could be even worse if you meet your goal but then realize you underestimated how much money you needed. A business risks getting sued if it promises customers products or perks in return for donations, and then fails to deliver.

There is also an argument to be made that angel investors and even bank officers provide more than just money. They provide entrepreneurs with needed advice. Business owners miss out on such mentorship when they ignore traditional investors and turn to the crowd.

Here are more factors that can better ensure a successful crowdfunding campaign:
● Have at least a small network of enthusiastic friends and family willing to help get the ball rolling by giving and urging others to give.
● If you’re giving out perks in return for money, make sure the perks are cool.
● Present a serious business plan and an explanation of why the money will take your enterprise to the next level.
● Demonstrate that you have your own skin in the game because of the personal funds you have already poured into the business.
● Include a video pitch and keep it short and concise, with a call to action.
● PBS includes different rewards for different levels of giving; so should you.
● Be prepared to essentially live online, staying active on social media sites, until the crowdfunding campaign is complete.

It Takes Purpose to Become a Billionaire

What do billionaires have in common? What is it that they do better than anyone else? Why do we admire them, or their companies’ products and services, so much?

I’ve spent some time trying to identify common traits in the Forbes list of billionaires and other similar lists of the world’s wealthiest. I’m particularly interested in finding patterns in the types of people whom I respect. It’s less about all that dough they’ve accumulated than about better understanding how and why they made their fortunes.

It turns out there are many ways to make a billion dollars: real estate, investing, gaming and entertainment, retail, technology, and good old-fashioned inheritance. But the most interesting (and most respected) businesses and personalities are also the ones with the strongest and most authentic purposes behind them. My business partner, Mats Lederhausen, was one of the first advocates I knew of purpose-driven business and entrepreneurship. I credit Mats with helping me understand that purpose is neither something soft nor something overly lofty. Instead, purpose is the bigger why of a business. All of us understand the what of any successful business, but what about the why?

While billionaires and their companies are bucket companies by industry (i.e. the what of the company), I believe that there are three categories of purpose that are interesting to observe, and consider which one dominates your company’s mission. Here they are:
1. Making the world more beautiful.
2. Making the world more fun.
3. Making the world more efficient and smart.

1. Making the world more beautiful. These are the people who make us look, eat, and live more beautifully. It is a broad definition of outer and inner beauty. The best are able to make us look and feel good. The beauty category of billionaires includes the larger-than-life fashion figures of Ralph Lauren, Bernard Arnault (of LVMH), and recently minted billionaire Tory Burch. It is actually quite amazing to see how many of the world’s richest come from the fashion, retail, and design worlds. And then there are those who aren’t explicitly in the design, style, or beauty business but nonetheless identify strongly with these themes. Apple, of course, is the poster child for this ethos, as it puts design first for everything from its software to the industrial engineering of products. For Apple, it is not just design that matters — what’s paramount is using design to connect to the user.

Beyond beauty sensed with our sight and touch, there are the founders in this category who have focused on our inner beauty and health. Indeed, there are people like Hamdi Ulukaya (the Turkish founder of Chobani Greek Yogurt) or the founders of a variety of biotech and pharmaceutical firms who have achieved this through focusing on the purpose of healthier ways for us to eat and live.

2. Making the world more fun. One name that springs immediately to mind is Richard Branson. His mission and purpose center around fun and play. Disney is another icon that has redefined the entertainment experience. But perhaps my personal favorite of a billionaire founder who has spread his creative fun around the world is Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté. Making the world more fun is noble and creates greater happiness for us all. The billionaire founders who get this and who have succeeded in doing so help to put more smiles, more laughter and yes, more fun into a world that is too often dull and mundane. Fun is a good business model — and it does not need to be a billion-dollar enterprise. It is perhaps because it is relatively easy to think of small ways to create fun that it is even more impressive when people such as these are able to scale fun on a massive level.

3. Making the world smarter, more efficient, and more relevant. There are more “knowledge workers” today than ever before. In this world, we have all become familiar with the technology and Internet moguls (e.g. Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page) who have helped to make us smarter, faster and more efficient in our daily lives. Doing work via shared Google Docs versus a word processor versus a typewriter — yes, we’ve come a long way. The connected social economy and its companies like Facebook and LinkedIn are all about how we can try to do more, faster. That is, these companies allow us to have more communication moments in ever-shorter time segments. And there are also information and media moguls, like Mike Bloomberg or the Thomson family behind Thomson Reuters, who dominate financial and legal information, respectively, and are viewed as being mission critical to professionals in those fields.

 As these firms enable more, faster, and smarter throughput of information, a challenge will be to maintain relevancy. As more and more information is thrown at us, we are now ironically often seeking less and less of it. And this is perhaps what the next great wave of tech and info billionaires will address — as curators whose purpose will be to find greater meaning, context, and relevancy in this mass information world.

So, while there are many ways to make money, there tend to be some common patterns of higher purpose. The three purposes illustrated here help explain why and how some of the world’s wealthiest have have gotten so rich, and made our lives richer as well. These three purpose categories likely blur at times, and certainly co-exist in terms of the culture and value propositions of the truly great companies. But the take-home lesson is to ask yourself which of these purposes you are willing to strive to become the absolute best at. Companies and founders that make a singular and unwavering commitment to excel along any of these three purpose dimensions not only have the chance to make our lives better, but also to leave an imprint on our culture, on how we view and experience this world. That, and they might just end up as billionaires.

Anthony K. Tjan

Anthony Tjan is CEO, Managing Partner and Founder of the venture capital firm Cue Ball, vice chairman of the advisory firm Parthenon, and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck (HBR Press, 2012).

Women need to redefine today’s workplace because ‘it’s not working’

It’s time for women to radically change the way they work and to make it more realistic for people to climb the corporate ladder while still caring for themselves and those they love, says Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.

Women have been through two revolutions: the right to vote and the drive toward workplace equality, she said earlier this week at the Deloitte Women of Influence luncheon series in Toronto.

“The third women’s revolution is about changing the workplace and it is going to be led by women. It’s going to be led by women because you guys designed it and it’s not working,” she said, getting a few laughs from the overwhelmingly female audience.

“When we redefine the workplace, men are going to be unbelievably grateful,” she quipped. “Because right now we equate sleep deprivation with virility.”

After a recent dinner with a man who bragged about getting a mere four hours of sleep the night before, Ms. Huffington wanted to say: “You know what? If you had gotten five [hours] this dinner would have been a lot more interesting.”

“We now operate workplaces that are fuelled by burnout, sleep deprivation, exhaustion – and we’re paying a heavy price,” she said, resulting in anxiety, stress, burnout, destroyed friendships, marriages and families.

Ms. Huffington said we need to redefine how we judge success – beyond just money and power – to include what she calls the third metric, which is our own personal well-being.

When women do that “we will find it easier to break through the glass ceiling,” she said. 

We also need to change our mindset because taking care of ourselves “is not a tradeoff,” she said, and it doesn’t mean that “we’re not as committed to our work, we’re not working as hard.”

Ms. Huffington recounted her own “rude awakening” in 2007, two years after launching The Huffington Post, when she fainted from exhaustion, smacked her head on her desk, broke her cheekbone and needed stitches.

“That started me on this journey of re-evaluating success, our working lives and led to the third metric,” she said. “I’ve never been more effective or productive than when I’ve gotten seven or eight hours of sleep,” or after she meditates or does yoga.

“I’ve found that if I’m in a place of strength and wisdom inside myself, no matter what happens, I can deal with it much more effectively,” she said. “If I’m exhausted, run down, burned out, I’m reactive and that’s when the worst mistakes happen.”

Companies are losing billions each year due to employee stress and absenteeism, and most of that can be prevented, she said. People need to learn how to take care of themselves, reduce their stress, improve their outlook, prioritize their goals and try to enjoy the moment they are in, she said.

“As I get older I realize that, ultimately, you want to enjoy your life – this is not a dress rehearsal,” she said.

The Huffington Post has taken steps to help workers manage stress with yoga classes and two nap rooms in its head office. At first, no one would use the rooms, “nobody would be [caught] dead going into one,” she said, but now they are always full.

“The other day I was walking by one and I saw two people coming out of the nap room,” she said with a chuckle. “And I thought to myself ‘whatever it takes to recharge you. Just don’t tell HR.’”

As women progress in their career, they need to stop being perfectionists and prioritize, she said.

“‘No’ is a complete sentence, did you know that? Not ‘No, because.’ Just ‘No.’ Did you know you can complete a project by dropping it?” she asked, to laughs from the audience.

Ms. Huffington said she always wanted to learn German, but in her forties she realized that it was not a priority, so she struck it off her to-do list. “Any project that you’ve started in your mind drains energy,” she said, and by cutting out things that don’t really matter you “have the energy for the things that you really want to commit yourself to.”

But in order for this revolution to happen, women need to “remake the world in your own image and your own definition of success, so that all of us, women and men, can live our lives with more grace, more joy, more empathy, more gratitude, and yes, more sleep.”

8 Things You Should Not Do Every Day

It's for your own good. Cut these things out of your day and you'll see gains in productivity--not to mention happiness.

If you get decent value from making to-do lists, you'll get huge returns--in productivity, in improved relationships, and in your personal well-being--from adding these items to your not to-do list:

Every day, make the commitment not to:

1. Check my phone while I'm talking to someone.
You've done it. You've played the, "Is that your phone? Oh, it must be mine," game. You've tried the you-think-sly-but-actually-really-obvious downwards glance. You've done the, "Wait, let me answer this text..." thing.

Maybe you didn't even say, "Wait." You just stopped talking, stopped paying attention, and did it.
Want to stand out? Want to be that person everyone loves because they make you feel, when they're talking to you, like you're the most important person in the world?

Stop checking your phone. It doesn't notice when you aren't paying attention.

Other people? They notice.

And they care.

2. Multitask during a meeting.
The easiest way to be the smartest person in the room is to be the person who pays the most attention to the room.

You'll be amazed by what you can learn, both about the topic of the meeting and about the people in the meeting if you stop multitasking and start paying close attention. You'll flush out and understand hidden agendas, you'll spot opportunities to build bridges, and you'll find ways to make yourself indispensable to the people who matter.

It's easy, because you'll be the only one trying.

And you'll be the only one succeeding on multiple levels.

3. Think about people who don't make any difference in my life.
Trust me: The inhabitants of planet Kardashian are okay without you.

But your family, your friends, your employees--all the people that really matter to you--are not. Give them your time and attention.

They're the ones who deserve it.

4. Use multiple notifications.
You don't need to know the instant you get an email. Or a text. Or a tweet. Or anything else that pops up on your phone or computer.

If something is important enough for you to do, it's important enough for you to do without interruptions. Focus totally on what you're doing. Then, on a schedule you set--instead of a schedule you let everyone else set--play prairie dog and pop your head up to see what's happening.

And then get right back to work. Focusing on what you are doing is a lot more important than focusing on other people might be doing.

They can wait. You, and what is truly important to you, cannot.

5. Let the past dictate the future.
Mistakes are valuable. Learn from them.
Then let them go.

Easier said than done? It all depends on your perspective. When something goes wrong, turn it into an opportunity to learn something you didn't know--especially about yourself.

When something goes wrong for someone else, turn it into an opportunity to be gracious, forgiving, and understanding.

The past is just training. The past should definitely inform but in no way define you--unless you let it.

6. Wait until I'm sure I will succeed.
You can never feel sure you will succeed at something new, but you can always feel sure you are committed to giving something your best.

And you can always feel sure you will try again if you fail.

Stop waiting. You have a lot less to lose than you think, and everything to gain.

7. Talk behind someone's back.
If only because being the focus of gossip sucks. (And so do the people who gossip.)

If you've talked to more than one person about something Joe is doing, wouldn't everyone be better off if you stepped up and actually talked to Joe about it? And if it's "not your place" to talk to Joe, it's probably not your place to talk about Joe.

Spend your time on productive conversations. You'll get a lot more done--and you'll gain a lot more respect.

8. Say "yes" when I really mean "no."
Refusing a request from colleagues, customers, or even friends is really hard. But rarely does saying no go as badly as you expect. Most people will understand, and if they don't, should you care too much about what they think?

When you say no, at least you'll only feel bad for a few moments. When you say yes to something you really don't want to do you might feel bad for a long time--or at least as long as it takes you to do what you didn't want to do in the first place.

 

JEFF HADEN learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry. Everything else he picks up from ghostwriting books for some of the smartest leaders he knows in business.

Should A University Directly Invest in Student Start-ups?

Stanford recently announced that it will be directly investing in start-ups founded by students. If a company is accepted into a campus incubator and if it raises at least half a million dollars from outside investors, the university will also put money in through its endowments. The investments aren't going to be huge sums, either for the start-ups or for Stanford, whose endowment exceeds the GDP of Jamaica.

I've written extensively about these questions before, and have a long post up on newyorker.com describing Stanford's new policies and the questions surrounding them. The great virtue of the investments is that it will help train students in important life skills: raising money, running companies, creating, building. Stanford students have given the world important companies, like, for example, LinkedIn. (As a disclosure, I'm an alum with a small start-up I helped found called The Atavist.) But here are some of the questions raised:

* Stanford professors often invest in student companies. This creates potential conflicts of interest: could it, for example, affect a student's grades? Coercive power, which professors have, is not a good thing to pair with financial opportunity. Fortunately, this new fund is designed to limit such issues. But it's an issue other schools should examine if they start similar programs.

* Could such a fund encourage students to drop-out? Successful start-up C.E.O.s work all the time at their companies. Could the university promotion of start-ups lead to fewer students graduating, and could that be a bad thing?

* How does intensive university promotion of start-ups change the culture on a campus that has always prided itself on its intellectual diversity?

Silicon Valley has provided the world with extraordinary innovation, and Stanford has always had intensely close relations with Silicon Valley. But these are all important questions and reasons why we should watch this experiment.

Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Posted by:Nicholas Thompson

Generational Astrology - loyalty and job life expectancy

See if the following story is consistent with so much that has been written about Generation X, Y, and Z in the recent past by countless “generational consultants”:

They get restless after a little while in one place,” said an employer. “For the last few years I haven’t counted on keeping the ordinary fellows more than six months. I just let them go and take the next one who is always dropping in.

“Madam, I assure you I could just cross the street tomorrow and be paid as much as you give me.” Selfish, satisfied, and capricious, these young people newly emancipated into economic freedom are seldom idle; they work, but they are marking time on the spot they have reached, for the do not perceive any options desirable enough to lead them beyond those they are now enjoying.”

An enormous amount of ink has been spilled on this topic, usually along with the different characteristics of the Baby Boomers and Generation X, Y, Z, ad nauseam. One reason for this increased attention is there are simply more generations interacting in the workforce today than in the past.

One reason is life expectancy. The average knowledge worker today will outlive their employer, with an average active work life of approximately fifty years compared to the average organizational life of thirty. This translates into the average worker today having many more jobs—and even careers—than those of their ancestors a century ago.

It may be an interesting academic and historical exercise to create lists of the differences between the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Y, and Z, but knowing the personality traits between the generations does not necessarily assist a company in attracting or inspiring its knowledge workers. All of this “generational astrology” has all the explanatory power of asking people their signs—it is an incredibly weak theory.

A more robust explanation for today’s workers—no matter when they were born—is the fact that they are knowledge workers, who are far wealthier than their parents—they grew up in what economist Brink Lindsey calls “The Age of Abundance.”

Wealth provides more options, from extending education, traveling the world, living with parents longer, or simply delaying gainful employment. John Adams, America’s second president wrote:

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy and they in turn must study those subjects so that their children can study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”

In an intellectual capital economy there is a far greater range of talents that can be rewarded. America’s best-paid chef, Wolf gang Puck, earned $16 million in 2005 while Takeru “Tsunami” Kobayashi earned more than $200,000 a year for holding the title of the world’s hot-dog eating champion (from The Economist, October 7, 2006: 23-24).

Another crucial difference in today’s workers is they own more of the means of production in their heads than ever before, which gives them enormous market power in the economy. They also understand this fundamental fact better than their predecessors. When I entered the CPA profession, I believed I was a service worker; today’s students understand they are knowledge workers.

Organizations can lament the fact that Generation X, Y, and Z are not as loyal as their parents, but the fact of the matter is loyalty is a two-way street; it must be earned. No business deserves any loyalty, either from its customers or its associates, until it does something to earn it.

Loyalty is not dead in the business world, but a reason to be loyal may be dying in some industries. The real question is, does the organization deserve the loyalty of its workers.

In tribute to Mark Twain’s quip that history may not repeat itself but it does rhyme, the opening story above is from the 1907 book The New Basis of Civilization, by Simon Nelson Patten.

I suppose one generation has always had issues with the next, but it is hardly any reason to treat human beings different. To believe otherwise is to take astrology seriously.Posted by:

 Ron Baker