Six strategies to create a culture of accountability

April 22, 2013 by

This Monday Morning Wake-Up is for everyone – not just leaders. In its simplest form, accountability means taking ownership. You take ownership as a leader to grow your company, create opportunities for others, and ensure fiscal health. You take ownership of projects, situations, and outcomes. You take ownership in your behavior and the behavior of others. You take ownership when the wrong outcomes occur – even if not directly involved – because it happened on your watch. Accountability is about getting the right stuff done when it needs to get done. No blame. No excuses.

Take a moment to imagine what your company’s performance would be like if it was built on a culture of accountability. What would productivity look like? What would profitability look like? What would staff retention look like? Most important, what would client loyalty look like? Without a doubt, your company would be leaner, faster, and fiercely competitive. That’s the good news. The bad news is that too many companies give a lot of lip service to accountability but fall short of the level of commitment and execution needed to create a culture of ownership in their companies. As a result, creating distance between status quo and extraordinary performance is painfully and incrementally slow. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Builders, Leadership, Monday Morning Wake-Up, No-Compromise Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , ,

5 questions for salon and spa success in the New Year

December 7, 2012 by

The holiday season is in full swing. More than likely, this means that your salon or spa is busy, the appointment book is full (at least for the next few weeks) and clients are spending money. It’s a good feeling, isn’t it? Of course! Who doesn’t like to a full cash register? But in the back of your mind, there’s a small, quiet voice that’s calling out to you. And, if you’re a proactive salon or spa owner, you’ll know to listen carefully for the one simple question that little voice keeps asking:

What are you going to differently in your business next year?

It’s a simple — yet extremely sobering — question. Can your business, family and staff survive and thrive if you continue status quo? Or, are you ready to really drive the business forward?

Here are five critical questions to determine if you’re prepared for a prosperous New Year:

  1. What’s your plan for growth? Even if this year was wildly-successful for your salon or spa, if you don’t shake things up and fine-tune your thinking, systems and/or culture, there’s a strong chance you won’t see much additional growth in the year to come. Where will growth come from in your business? Is it waiting for you right now? Are there areas in your company where you see inefficiency and potential for improvement? Get your plan in place NOW to start producing revenues from these target areas.
  2. Does your team know how to get there? It’s a simple question. Does anyone besides you, the leader, know where you plan to take the company next year? And if so, do they know how? Do YOU know? Communication is the key to success. Plan your attack, get it down on paper, and then relentlessly communicate that mission to your team. Get them involved in drawing the roadmap. The more they are involved, the more motivated they will be to reach the desired destination.
  3. Who will lead the way? Great communication starts with a great leader. You own the vision of where you want to take your company. You stand at the helm of this exciting adventure. Great companies are built around great leaders. Hold yourself and your team accountable. Cheer their successes and guide them through their shortfalls. Be the leader your company needs you to be.
  4. Where will growth come from? We touched on this point earlier but it bears repeating: Where is the untapped revenue in your business? Is it hiding behind inefficiency and poor systems? Or will it come from new opportunities that are yet to be discovered? The growth is waiting for you, the hard part is finding where it’s hidden.
  5. Are you doing what you love? It’s a powerful question, isn’t it? Do you come to work everyday with a positive attitude, or does your heart sink when you step through the front door? If it’s the later, you need to find a way to turn things around. As the leader of your company, your attitude and happiness level is infectious. Are you trapped behind the chair when you’d prefer to be working on the business? If so, then start researching ways to transition out from behind the chair (Strategies can help). Do you enjoy leading meetings, tending to the books or doing color applications? If not, it’s time to start exploring how others in your company can start taking on these responsibilities. Perhaps it’s time to hire new staff. Just make sure you it makes sense for the business and the bottom line.

I hope this little reminder to listen to that little voice in the back of your head has gotten you thinking about the importance of planning ahead for the New Year. You can do it — all you need is a plan.

 

 

Filed Under: Information Flow, Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The six plagues of leadership

July 23, 2012 by

Just as leaders tend to fall into different leadership styles – like command and control, visionary, democratic, and of course whimpy – there are behavior patterns that tend to persistently plague leaders. When present, these behavior patterns can be anything from annoyances that chip away at a leader’s effectiveness, or they can be truly destructive to a leader’s authority, trust and honor.

I have devoted the better part of my working life studying, training and coaching leaders and leadership. Much of what I learned and believe in I documented in my award-winning book, No-Compromise Leadership. The overriding theme of the book is quite simple; If it needs to be done – get it done. However, it’s this presence of the leadership plagues listed below that interfere, degrade or derail a leader’s ability to get things done. The plagues are pure compromise.

Although there are many, here are the six plagues of leadership and the no-compromise strategies to overcome them:

  1. Won’t look in the mirror: Leaders must master the ability to look in the mirror and own how their thinking and behavior is creating what they don’t like in their companies. Playing the blame game is destructive and does nothing but waste time, money, and create drama that degrades productivity. No-compromise leaders look in the mirror and own their contributions to the wrong outcomes.
  2. Master procrastinator: The no-compromise mantra IS NOT, “If it needs to be done – I’ll get to it later.” When I coach companies on new systems and initiatives, the most common response from employees is; “We’ve tried that before – we never finish what we start.” That’s compromise at the leadership level, not a problem with the system or initiative. The only cure for procrastination is to get stuff done. No-compromise leaders get stuff done.
  3. Talks a good game: Everyone talks about getting to the next level, but few back up that talk with authentic action. Authentic action is that potent blend of vision, sense of urgency, information flow, systems, teamwork, innovation and collective accountability. Leaders that talk a good game eventually are viewed by their employees as a salesman that never delivers the goods. Trust is compromised. Trust is a leader’s most precious asset. No-compromise leaders work hard to inspire and deliver the goods.
  4. Committed to compromise: My favorite Neilism is, “Do you do quarterly performance reviews at least once a year?” It always earns a chuckle, but the guilty know the brutal truth behind the question. In these economic times, every leader needs to be locked into their financials and be committed to following their cash-flow plan. Still, many leaders avoid the numbers. “I don’t like numbers” is a ‘committed to compromise’ excuse. And then there are leaders that push their team to win the game but never trust them with the score. Every company needs a scoreboard supported by an information flow system. No-compromise leaders are committed to achieving the right outcomes.
  5. Rules for everyone else: “Do as I say, not as I do” is pure compromise. Leaders that live by their own entitlement rules contaminate their company’s culture. Leaders set the tone for accountability and consistency in their cultures. If they fail to model the right thinking and behaviors they expect of others, the company is destined for mediocrity. No-compromise leaders adhere to the same rules they expect others to follow.
  6. Doesn’t know how to rock the boat: Change is about the controlled rocking of the boat. There are leaders that fear rocking the boat because it will upset people. But change always rocks the boat. It has to, because change means learning new skills and disciplines. Change means innovating new approaches to win the business game. If your company boat never rocks it is stagnant and unable to evolve in an everchanging world. And then there are leaders that allow stuff to pile up to the point where they rock the boat so violently they inflict even more damage. No-compromise leaders learn how to control the rocking of their boats. They gradually rock harder in times of big change and maintain a steady yet predictable rocking to keep everyone on their game. You must keep your boat rocking.
Filed Under: Leadership, Monday Morning Wake-Up Tagged With: , , , ,

How to run a great salon or spa and still “have a life”

April 5, 2012 by

Does this sound familiar? “I just work, work, work. It feels as though I can never get away from work. How can I make sure that things get done at my company and still manage to have a life?”

I hear this all the time. Owners feel consumed by their businesses. But finding balance between your business and your personal life is necessary to avoid burnout.

When you need to handle every aspect of your business, there will only be one outcome: exhaustion!

Here are five tips to run a great salon or spa and still “have a life”:

  • First, divide your company into departments. Think marketing, education, human resources, hair, spa, medspa, customer service, staff retention, budgets, etc.
  • Now, assign a person in each department to be the department head.
  • Work with your department heads to develop systems for every area of your business. Think about the most common services and situations. Ask department heads to solicit input from all staff, so there’s buy-in from the start and a sense of inclusion.
  • Have department heads write down the steps involved with each system. After reviewing them and making necessary changes, include the processes in one place, such as a binder.
  • Now you have a how-to manual for every area of your company. Work with your key staff to ensure team members are properly trained on each system. (You may want to develop skill certification for primary skill areas. Strategies can help you with this.) The end result? You can take time off knowing that your systems will guarantee impressive customer experiences and the business will operate efficiently.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m in business to maximize profits or if there’s a bigger purpose. Having a family and a business, I believe that the purpose is making the money and having time to spend it. There are times when I pursue a little less money and a bit more free time. Other times, I devote myself full-on to the company. The point is that I’m making a conscious choice.

You get to choose too. Remember the goal is to make sure that the company grows and for you to grow with it. By developing great systems, you ensure that you’re offering exceptional customer experiences, while creating opportunities for you and your staff. Now, that’s a win-win-win situation!

Filed Under: Information Flow, No-Compromise Leadership, Productivity Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Leadership and creating great sculptures

November 16, 2009 by

sculpting-1bImagine taking a massive block of granite and turning it into a magnificent sculpture for all to admire. For hours you stand and stare at that granite and the possibilities of what it can become. Finally, a vision of your sculpture crystallizes in your mind. You pick up your hammer and chisel and begin to chip away. What you’re actually doing is chipping away all of the granite that doesn’t belong until all that remains is your work of art. The sculpture existed in the granite, but only you knew what needed to be meticulously removed to reveal it.

As a leader, you are a sculptor of great company culture. Like the massive granite block, you take individuals with diverse backgrounds, personalities, ambitions and levels of determination and shape them into a highly functional company culture. You know that not all individuals will fit into your culture. In essence, you need to chip them away. If you don’t, you compromise your culture. It will never become the “work of art” culture you envisioned at the start. It’s hard and painstaking work. [Read more...]

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Present a "State of Your Company" address

August 10, 2009 by
Every January, the president of the United States does a State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation, but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and national priorities to the United States Congress. Given the economic turmoil that began in earnest last year, and the now early indications that the economy is showing signs of recovery, this may be the opportune time for you to present a “State of Your Company” address.
If your initial response is, “Huh?” consider this: Every business and employee has been affected in some way by the recession. As a leader, it is likely that you made some tough decisions to ensure the wellbeing of your company. Expenses were cut, certain projects were put on hold – and employees may have been laid off. Even on a limited scale, such decisions send unsettling vibrations throughout a company culture as employees contemplate that most fundamental question: How will the recession affect me?
Strategically, presenting a State of Your Company address has the potential to reinvigorate your company’s performance by sharing with all employees exactly what the state of the company is and how making tough decisions allowed it to weather this economic storm. Most of all, it provides you with the perfect platform to share your vision and leadership agenda for growing the company. This is all about information flow and allowing your team to have absolute clarity on where the company is going. A Neilism: Absolute clarity is like business GPS. It sets the where and the how.
Here are some no-compromise strategies to present a State of Your Company address:
* Find the right setting for the address: Do not hold the address where you normally hold meetings. The president has the distinguished podium in the House of Representatives. You need to select a site that communicates the importance of this address. Is there a meeting hall at City Hall that you can rent. Does your local college or high school have an auditorium you can use? Is there a company in your area that has a training facility available? If all else fails and you have to use your facility, hang red, white and blue banners around the space. Don’t forget to get a podium.
* The announcement to employees: Send or hand every employee an invitation to attend your State of Your Company address. Design and print a folded invitation that looks official. You can even put one of those gold foil stickers imprinted with your corporate seal on it. (You rarely get to use that seal so now’s your chance.)
* Prepare your speech: The president has speechwriters and edits it until the address is perfect. If you’re not good at writing speeches, ask for help. You will find accomplished speechwriters at colleges and acting schools. Work on your speech and keep refining it. If it doesn’t go through at least six revisions – it’s not done. Rehearse and rehearse some more.
* Dress “presidential”: You want to look like a leader. Put a lot of thought into how you want to appear to your employees for what could be the most important address to all of your employees.
* Keep the entire event “official”: This isn’t a party. No food. No music. No fan fare. Keep the entire evening official. Don’t forget to have someone introduce you.
* Have some fun: This is all about nurturing and reinforcing your company culture.
Pass this email on to your business colleagues, managers and friends.
Neil Ducoff, Strategies founder & CEO

podium-2Every January, the president of the United States does a State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation, but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and national priorities to the United States Congress. Given the economic turmoil that began in earnest last year, and the now early indications that the economy is showing signs of recovery, this may be the opportune time for you to present a “State of Your Company” address.

If your initial response is, “Huh?” consider this: Every business and employee has been affected in some way by the recession. As a leader, it is likely that you made some tough decisions to ensure the wellbeing of your company. Expenses were cut, certain projects were put on hold – and employees may have been laid off. Even on a limited scale, such decisions send unsettling vibrations throughout a company culture as employees contemplate that most fundamental question: How will the recession affect me? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Monday Morning Wake-Up Tagged With: , , , , ,

Can you really implement change?

July 27, 2009 by
change-exit-signCompanies are like people; they develop habits and patterns of behavior that impede productivity, slow growth and create useless drama. And just like people, replacing bad habits and behaviors in a business with new and more efficient ones can be a daunting task. Leaders routinely discover that their best intentions to change behaviors create new challenges. So much so, leaders run smack dab into their culture’s natural resistance to change. It’s tough enough to change one’s own habits and behaviors – changing the deeply embedded habits and behaviors of teams of people is an entirely different undertaking. They’re called “culture shifts,” and successfully completing one is hallmark of the no-compromise leader.
Culture shifts are much like the Venus Flytrap. They entice you in with the promise better times, growth and profits until you’re so engaged – it then slams shut and devours you. I’m sure that any leader that attempted a full-blown culture shift will agree with this analogy.
Don’t despair. You can successfully navigate a culture shift – if you’re prepared and understand the dynamics that are involved.
Here are some no-compromise strategies to help you successfully complete a culture shift:
* Culture shifts take time – a lot of time: The amount of time your culture shift will take is based on on three factors:
1. You: Your ability to relentlessly communicate, stay focused and stay the course.
2. The size and complexity of your company: This includes layers of management, departments, divisions and the geographical nature of your company, such as multiple locations or multinational operations.
3. The current state of your company and its culture: Specifically, the more out of balance your business is with respect to The Four Business Outcomes, the more energy and time it will take to move it through a culture shift to no compromise.
* You must be committed to go the distance: It could take 12 to 24 months to completely shift a culture. Repeat: 12 to 24 months. If you’re looking for a quick-fix culture shift strategy, forget it – it doesn’t exist. You must be committed 100% to see this through. A 99% commitment is enough wiggle room to cause it to fail.
* Not everyone is going to survive the shift: Change resisters will get on board, quit or be relieved of their obligation to work for your company. If you allow them to stay, you’re compromising and compromise at the leadership level kills culture shifts.
* Small wins add up: Lots of small wins build momentum and unity in a culture. Celebrate even the smallest of wins. The more you celebrate, the faster the shift.
* Sense of urgency: You can’t shift a culture without it. Find it. Fuel it. Relentlessly drive it.
Caution: I’ve seen companies make wonderful culture-shift strides in a matter of months. However, too many leaders misinterpret these rapid and positive “strides” as being farther along in the culture shift than they actually are. Such misinterpretations can cause you to ease up on the urgency factor far too soon, causing the culture shift to stall. Once stalled, it’s extremely difficult to get a culture shift moving again. It’s simply human nature for old, comfortable behaviors to snap back in a heartbeat when discipline and focus are compromised.
Recommendation: In my book, No-Compromise Leadership, I devote an entire section to “navigating the culture shift to no compromise.” It even includes an 18-month timeline of “must do’s” and “what you should see.” Read it before you hit the launch button.
Pass this email on to your business colleagues, managers and friends.
Neil Ducoff, Strategies founder & CEO

change-exit-signCompanies are like people; they develop habits and patterns of behavior that impede productivity, slow growth and create useless drama. And just like people, replacing bad habits and behaviors in a business with new and more efficient ones can be a daunting task. Leaders routinely discover that their best intentions to change behaviors create new challenges. So much so, leaders run smack dab into their culture’s natural resistance to change. It’s tough enough to change one’s own habits and behaviors – changing the deeply embedded habits and behaviors of teams of people is an entirely different undertaking. They’re called “culture shifts,” and successfully completing one is hallmark of the no-compromise leader.

Culture shifts are much like the Venus Flytrap. They entice you in with the promise better times, growth and profits until you’re so engaged – it then slams shut and devours you. I’m sure that any leader that attempted a full-blown culture shift will agree with this analogy.

Don’t despair. You can successfully navigate a culture shift – if you’re prepared and understand the dynamics that are involved. [Read more...]

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