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Dec 17 2013
Love0

The Holy Grail of Leadership

By Comments & Opinion, Leadership No Comments

Like most Canadian boys, I grew up playing hockey and like most of them, dreamed of one day playing in the NHL. Needless to say, I was never quite good enough to play professionally, but over the past few years after determining that I needed to de-stress and have some male bonding time, I decided to get back to playing in a beer league with some old friends. Besides working up a good sweat, I find it therapeutic at the end of a hectic work week to kick back and relax with the guys and have a few pops after the game. What I think I get most out of it though are the same things I took from the game growing up, which is how important discipline, teamwork, passion and fun are in life and in business. The early morning practices, trying your hardest, working together as a group and the camaraderie that comes with it is truly fulfilling, especially seeing the pride in my father’s eyes after I had a good game, not to mention the dollar he gave me for each goal!

Well now that I’m older, I still enjoy the game, in some ways even more than I used to as a kid, no pressure, it’s truly just fun now. However I’m blessed to be on a team called the Screaming Eagles and we are quite the passionate bunch of thirty and forty something’s. Although we aren’t playing for money, the Stanley Cup, or a Gold Medal for our country, you would never know it by our passion and our strong will to win. Something happened in a recent game that really made me reflect on things. It was after the first period and as our goalie George Benak was changing sides and came over to the bench for some water, out of the blue he yelled at me to move my feet out there and skate insinuating that I was standing around. Well, you can probably guess my reaction, probably no different than any of my employees who I’ve called out before, I was pissed! However, that being said, deep down, or not that deep down, I knew he was right. In fact I was just thinking to myself that my lack of intensity on the back check probably caused a goal, but what upset me was that Benak noticed! So my inner voice started off with the usual “who the heck does he think he is?” and “well he should worry about himself and stop letting in soft goals!”.

As we started the second period I had a decision to make, I could mail it in and chalk it up to a bad game and let my ego win, or I could prove Benak and myself wrong and turn things around. So I really dug deep and skated my butt off and it made a difference. Afterwards in the dressing room, as Benak walked in he yelled out in front of everyone, “Hey Frank, hell of a game out there!”. I couldn’t believe the feeling that came over me, I was beaming and smiling from ear to ear just like I was eight years old again and my father was walking into the dressing room and complimented me on my play. At first I couldn’t believe that I was reacting this way, I mean Benak’s a great guy but I’m the all-powerful CEO of many businesses, I’m the one who usually inspires and motivates people to action, how had I fallen for such a simple compliment? Well, it reminded me that holding people accountable is the right thing to do for them and the team, and it reminded me that praise ALWAYS works.

A few days later in our company wide sales meeting, I told this story, and what we all took from the story that I hadn’t thought about was the power of peer to peer accountability. Unlike professional or even organized youth hockey, there are no coaches on our team, we have to self govern in a way while we are in the play, we don’t have much perspective besides when we are on the bench in-between shifts.  Accountability is often lacking in most companies, it’s what separates good performing businesses from poor ones, and in most cases even when it’s present it comes from management. Don’t get me wrong it needs to be there from management, but in my experience, the exceptional companies always have peer to peer accountability in them. It’s when a colleague calls you out to do your best, or you want to excel in your job not only for yourself but because you don’t want to let the team down and you’re looking for their respect. This peer to peer accountability is what every team should be striving to achieve, and when as a leader you achieve this within your team, you’ve achieved what has been termed, the Holy Grail of Leadership.

Dec 09 2013
Love0

New Year’s Resolutions

By Comments & Opinion, Entrepreneurial, Business Insights, Planning for the future No Comments

With 2014 fast approaching, many of us are already starting to look back on the year that was. Was 2013 the year you had hoped it would be? Did you make the lasting changes you had wanted to this time last year?

I must admit, in general I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. I have never made any in my lifetime and it seems to me that people who do use the date as a chance to justify putting off much needed change, such as quitting smoking, going to the gym or eating healthier. The crowded health clubs from the first week of January simmer down to the usual traffic by February 1st, and most of the people who claim to quit smoking for the new year are still puffing away come February.  In fact, I highly recommend turning many of your resolutions into goals that you can focus on during the entire year. Goal setting is much more focused, deliberate and success-driven, and that’s why I find it more effective.

But, having said that, for some strange reason I find myself much more focused this time of year, and upon further reflection I feel that resolutions do have their place. While I consider goals to be measurable accomplishments that are frequently complex and made up of many different mini-goals, resolutions are simpler, behavior-driven activities that typically do not require advanced planning. Resolutions are almost mantra-like, in that they are meant to give you motivation and encouragement as you work at bettering yourself.

For example, a business goal may be to increase profit by 5%, and includes a number of actions from attending more networking events, asking for client referrals, and launching a new marketing campaign. A resolution may be something as simple as: I will respond to all client emails within 12 hours. See the difference?

So in that vein, here are some of the top business resolutions you can make for 2014.

  1. I will think and speak positively each and every day.
  2. I will stop procrastinating and hold myself accountable.
  3. I will do something each day that will force me to get out of my comfort zone.
  4. I will focus on what’s important as opposed to what’s urgent.
  5. I will work harder AND smarter.
  6. I will visit each one of my clients at least once this calendar year.
  7. I will remember why I love what I do.

While these resolutions are meant to give you focus and motivate you for the New Year, they are too simplified to include measures for your success. But you can create goals out of any of these resolutions that truly resonate with you. It’s simply about staying focused and excited about all you’re able to achieve.

Dec 02 2013
Love0

Short Term Gains = Long Term Damage

By Comments & Opinion, Entrepreneurial, Business Insights, Business Growth, Foundations of Success, Planning for the future No Comments

Building a successful business all starts with the relationships you establish with your customers. In a sense it is a lot like building a wall. First you lay a solid foundation of trust, and then you build upon it layer after layer after layer, ever higher up toward the sky. Some companies however, keep knocking their walls down and have to rebuild them all over again.

I am astounded sometimes by the short sighted approach of some businesses to put short term profits ahead of long term growth. You may remember the 2009 – 2011 Toyota recall disaster where corners were cut on the quality of manufacturing in order to increase their bottom line. Instead, it ended up putting the safety of their customers at risk, cost the company billions of dollars in sales, fines, and compensation; and severely damaged the reputation of their brand in the process. It was a PR nightmare, and one that I hope other businesses considering the same practices take note of.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated incidence, and one that will most likely rear its ugly head from time to time. But luckily, not all businesses are so shortsighted.

I am reminded of a story about an ad executive named Jorge Heymann, whose agency had been approached by a new client that had recently built a modern seven-block riverfront shopping development on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. The trouble was that the development was well off the beaten path and difficult to access, and as a result it needed a big advertising campaign to promote it. Heymann’s agency was given a clear objective: To create awareness and drive traffic to the complex. Budget: $4 million.

Now what most agencies would have done – and what the client was expecting – was to create a lavish multi-media advertising campaign. But what was unique about Heymann was that he understood exactly what he was being hired to do – to solve a problem – not to figure out a way to spend $4 million. He had gone out to inspect the site himself and found that given the inconvenient and remote location of the complex, an ad campaign wouldn’t be effective in driving the level of traffic needed.

So what did he do?

Instead of building an advertising campaign, Heymann proposed that the client instead use the budget to build a footbridge across the river making it more easily accessible to shoppers. As you might expect the client was stunned at this unexpected proposal, but nevertheless he saw the value in the bold idea and approved of it. The stunning footbridge was built and went on to become a Buenos Aires landmark, generating more publicity than any ad campaign ever could have and brought shoppers out by the thousands.

Heymann had displayed a keen understanding of his role in helping the client, he could have just taken the money, but knowing that his efforts wouldn’t really have been effective, what good would that have done him? Most likely the client would have been unhappy with the results and gone elsewhere. Instead, Heymann chose to build a long lasting relationship of trust with the client, a decision that cemented the reputation and fortunes of his agency for years to come.

As I have said before, people want to do business with people they trust. Ask yourself, how can I ensure my customers are still my customers in 10 years? Will my relationship with them lead to referrals and help build my business and its reputation?

The next time your business is faced with a short term gain at the expense of a customer, I strongly encourage you to put their needs ahead of your own. As the saying goes, it takes years to build a reputation and only seconds to destroy it.

Nov 25 2013
Love0

Check Your Ego at the Door

By Comments & Opinion, Success & Inspiration, Entrepreneurial, Business Insights, Business Growth, Foundations of Success No Comments

“If you always hire people who are smaller than you are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. If, on the other hand, you always hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants.” –  David Ogilvy

I have had the pleasure of working with many businesses over the years, helping entrepreneurs to build up their businesses and watching them flourish as leaders in the process. Many of them went on to become successful business leaders, others… not so much. Though many people talk about the passion and “never say die” attitude required to succeed in business, a quality that I have observed in successful leaders, and one that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it deserves, is ego.

Successful business leaders are not afraid to admit their weaknesses, they know that there is always something more they can learn and an area that can always be improved. They understand that the growth and success of their business is not entirely a product of their own making, but is a collaborative effort of talented and dedicated individuals all working together towards a common goal – no matter how great a sports coach is, he isn’t going to win a championship with lousy players. Successful business leaders surround themselves with the best and brightest, freeing themselves to do what they as leaders do best – planning and developing the future growth of their business. They know exactly where they want to go, and put together the best team possible to help them get there – in a sense, they work on their business, not in their business.

On the other side of the coin is the mediocre business leader. They think they know everything and everyone else knows nothing. They are always right no matter what  because they view themselves as the single reason why their business is growing. Because of this attitude, they cannot foresee hiring anyone who is better at something than they are, and end up surrounding themselves with mediocrity which only tends to reinforce their ego. A harsh lesson that many of these mediocre business leaders learnt from the economic collapse of 2008 was that it was a hell of a lot easier to succeed in a booming economy. They had let their “success” blind them to the true realities of their situation. It was evident in the wake of the recession that the businesses that continued to survive — and even thrive — did so because of the planning of their leaders and the investment they had made in their people.

Are you prepared to become a successful business leader? You’ll need to ask yourself some tough questions and answer honestly about yourself and your own abilities. Maybe you won’t like what you hear. The real question is this: What will you learn from this exercise? And will your ego be able to handle it? Consider checking yours at the door, and maybe you’ll start down the path of building a company of giants.

Nov 18 2013
Love0

Pruning the Tree

By Comments & Opinion, Business Insights, Business Growth, Business Health No Comments

With the calendar now midway through November, winter is definitely in the air. One of my routines for this time of year is to prepare the gardens around my property for the coming winter by pruning the shrubs and trees. As you might know, pruning trees is helpful for a variety of reasons:

  • to remove dead or diseased branches
  • to thin the crown to permit new growth and better air circulation
  • to remove obstructing lower branches
  • to shape a tree for design purposes

Okay, so I confess that I’m not actually the one out in the backyard with snips trimming branches but I do know the critical importance to the health, safety and aesthetics of my trees and shrubs that the annual pruning exercise means.

So what is your point Frank, I’ll bet your wondering. Quite simply, I find that there is an astonishing parallel between maintaining a garden and ensuring you have a healthy and growing company. Let me break it down a bit.

Trimming the dead branches

First, I’ll describe the practice of trimming away dead branches. There are three main benefits of cutting off dead or diseased branches from trees and shrubs:  it makes way for new growth to sprout and flourish, it mitigates the spread of disease and it improves the beauty of the tree.

Every company has the same issue of “dead branches” – unproductive and poor performing employees – and reaps the same benefits by doing some “pruning” – that is, letting those employees go. No matter how successful an organization is, it is inevitable that some employees will always fall into this category and business leaders need to be vigilant with their trimming. By removing these underperforming employees, the company’s up-and-comers have a better chance to stand out and be recognized for their achievements, and grow and prosper as the rest of the company grows.

Furthermore, like a diseased branch the employees that fall into this deadwood category often have a poor attitude that can infect the rest of the company. Pruning will help prevent the spread of morale and culturing-impacting negativism and pessimism.

Pruning also serves to enhance the attraction of the company to potential high-performing candidates, what I call the rock stars… hopefully they will see that this is an organization that doesn’t countenance low or poor performance, enhancing their attraction to the company.

Culling living branches

While it is of critical importance to cut off dead branches, pruning live branches is equally important. Sometimes this mean removing branches that are lower down on the trunk, or thinning out the crown of the shrub or tree. The art and act of trimming living branches is a bit more complex and strategic than removing dead branches. The desired outcome is to selectively remove those branches that are impeding (or will impede) others from growing properly, or are growing in a different direction than you want the tree to grow.

Again, the analogy to a company is striking. Oftentimes you may have a strong and productive employee, but that person’s behaviours or mindset are such that – while maybe acceptable at one point in time – she is now impeding others in the organization from performing to the maximum of their ability. As hard as it may seem, that person needs to go. Similarly, an employee that has a set of skills and capabilities that were extremely valuable to the organization at one point in time – say, during the start-up phase – but now that the company has grown and matured the value of that employee’s capabilities has greatly diminished. He, too, must go for the greater good of the organization.

I know that some of you are thinking, “But what if I make a mistake?  What if I cut the wrong person, or too many for that matter?”.  Read on and I’ll explain my view on that.

A Living Organism

The last point I will make on this topic is perhaps stating the obvious – much like a tree or a shrub, a company is a living organism. A tree or shrub that is not properly maintained and pruned will over time grow in ways that leave it less strong, vibrant and attractive compared to ones that have been consistently and properly pruned. While a case can be made that it’s never too late to prune a tree, if you let it go too long the amount of effort to get it back into the shape you want it will be high and it in fact may take years to get it going in the direction you want it to.

And so too it goes with a company: let it go untended too long, deferring those tough decisions on cutting out those seemingly healthy and productive “branches” or making excuses for keeping the deadwood around, means some really tough work ahead.

And to address your concern about cutting the wrong employee, or maybe removing too many (perhaps because you’ve left it too long), do not fear. Companies like trees are resilient and naturally rejuvenate – if you snip off the wrong branch while unfortunate another one will grow to take its place; similarly, if you lop off a few too many undeniably it will have a short term impact, but the reality is that it won’t take too long before ample new ones sprout in their place.

My message here is quite simple:  at least once a year – and fall is one of the best times – get your organizational “trimmers” out and do your company and employees a favour by cutting back selectively and with determination. I can assure you that if you do so, your company will be stronger, healthier and more prosperous as a result. Why?  I practice what I preach and I hold up the success of my companies past and present as the proof in the pudding. Oh, and you should see the trees in my backyard.

Nov 04 2013
Love0

Thrive Instead of Survive

By Comments & Opinion, Success & Inspiration No Comments

Thriving isn’t something we can luck our way into. Thriving is something we must cultivate, first within ourselves and then around us. Thriving first starts as a mental shift. Then it becomes an emotional shift and then a physical shift.

Our world is a direct reflection of our thoughts, actions and emotions. For the outside to shift, the inside has to shift, too. How we do this is since we can’t luck our way into abundance, the first thing that we want to do is focus on what we already have – and what we’re grateful for. Gratitude is the attitude of the blessed.

So, what are you grateful for? I would say, “I’m grateful for this breath, for my heart that works and I’m grateful that there are people in my life who I love and who love me.. ”

After a while, I was so aware of what I did have, that I started to appreciate it and associate it to a place of gratitude rather than fear. Shifting our focus from fear to gratitude is the first step. Then what we want to do is take our focus off of money as our supply. Money is just energy in physical form. The highest form of energy in the Universe is love. So if we put our focus on what we love, who we love and what we love to do, money will follow in the perfect time. Money will eventually chase people who are doing what they love.

Then finally, we must raise our standards. Surround yourself with people who believe in your dream, who life you up and inspire you. Who you surround yourself with is who you become! So it’s important to have a supportive and loving peer group.

If we focus on what we’re grateful for, if we realize that love is our supply and not money, if we focus on serving others and if we associate with people who lift us up, we are on the path to alignment with our soul, with our purpose and not just survival, but thriving!

Oct 15 2013
Love0

Gimme Five!

By Comments & Opinion, Success & Inspiration No Comments

What story are you telling yourself that is holding you back in life? What if the truth was that you could be, do, or have anything you dreamed of? What if it were true that we all tell ourselves stories about what’s not possible in life because it seems our need for love, connection and certainty is being met by staying small?

Most people are happy for you at first if you shine, but if you shine too brightly, they start to not like you. Not because you have done anything wrong, but because they get jealous of your success – because it is a reflection of their own failure. We tend to get jealous of others when they have something we wish we had – so when we become successful, we become a target for jealously from others.

How far you will go in life is usually based on the 5 people we spend the most amount of time with. If success is what we are after the goal is to make those declarations and shine our light loudly and proudly. It’s important to understand that people will love and bond over our empowerment. It just may mean we have to redefine our current relationships, it also may mean that we have to let go of some, too. Being around toxic people brings us down, loving and being loved brings us up.

Many times we get our thoughts and opinions about Life, not from ourselves, but from others, from advertisements or the media. So what thoughts do you have about what’s possible in your life? The thoughts and story you tell about your life will come true because when we believe something, we act on it and that action produces a result.

If you want to live your dreams, if you want to grow, love and experience life to the fullest, then it’s vital to begin telling a new and empowering story. Think your own thoughts and consciously surround yourself with people who support and approve of your empowerment. Then do the same thing to the people in your life and celebrate each other’s successes and choose to be in partnerships and relationships that build us up instead of keeping us down.

Sep 23 2013
Love0

The Most Valuable Trait for Success

By Comments & Opinion, Success & Inspiration, Entrepreneurial, Business Insights No Comments

Whether as friends, parents, associates or leaders we want to have a positive impact on all of those we come in contact with on a daily basis. In my 12 years as an entrepreneur I’ve made many observations about the thousands of people I’ve interviewed and hired over that period.  I could make a list of several dozen attributes of people who seem to have success from both a professional and personal perspective as opposed to those who seem to struggle often at both.  But if you were to ask me if there were only one key criteria or common trait that I’ve observed of people who seem to live a powerful, happy successful life it would unquestionably be integrity.

Each moment of each day is an opportunity to live with a value of integrity. But what is integrity and why does it matter?  There are several definitions or examples of how to demonstrate integrity but in its simplest form, Integrity is doing what you said you were going to do or honoring your word.  There is a difference between honoring your word and keeping your word, it’s not always possible to keep your word whereas it’s possible to always honor your word.  For example, if you tell a friend you will meet up with them for lunch at 12pm and your car got a flat tire on the way to the restaurant and therefore cannot be there for 12pm you simply didn’t keep your word and the circumstances were out of your control.  However, you could have honored your word by being in communication with your friend as soon as the incident occurred and thus honoring your word.  The challenge or bad habit that a lot of us develop is we begin to believe that not honoring your word + having a good excuse = Integrity.  It simply doesn’t.

Many people live their lives this way because you can get by, no different than your car could physically drive with 3 regular tires and one of those donut spares that are meant to be temporary replacements to get you to a service station until a full replacement tire can be installed.  Most of us live our lives with that donut tire yet the challenge is we can never truly live up to our full potential as you simply can’t travel at 100 miles an hour on that donut and worst yet, if you hit a pothole or when life throws you a curve, the tire will fall off or your life seems to fall of the rails so to speak.  So if you want to live a powerful life, one that you love and attract quality people into it and live up to your full potential professionally, financially, as a friend, partner or parent, you must learn to live with integrity at all times.

Integrity is treating others the way you want to be treated, even sometimes better.

Integrity is being able to look into the mirror and say, “I like myself”.

Integrity is making decisions for the long term, not just for today.

Integrity is putting the truth on the table.

Integrity is standing up for yourself.

Integrity matters because at the end of the day and at the end of our life we answer to ourselves and nothing is more important than being able to say, “I lived a life of integrity and I would be proud to be my own friend.”

Aug 26 2013
Love0

The Future can be Bright

By Comments & Opinion, Entrepreneurial No Comments

It often seems like our past experience is calling the shots. Here’s how it works: When we’ve had a bad day, or a bad experience, we put that past experience into our “future,” as something we’re afraid might happen again, and something we want to make sure doesn’t happen again. Or if we’ve had a great day and something we did worked well, we store that past experience in the future, too. So essentially, we take our experiences and circumstances, which are behind us, and put our decisions about them—how we feel and think about them—in front of us. In doing so, we lock ourselves into relating to the past (or some facsimile thereof) as if it were going to happen again in the future. That’s the wiring.

Trying to resist or avoid the enormous influence of the past keeps us foolishly focused on it. Yet we’re reluctant to leave it behind, reluctant to transform the hold it has on our present-time lives. Not doing so, however, results in a “now” that’s shaped by and littered with the stuff of the past.

If we take out of our future everything from the past that we inadvertently placed there, then what’s in the future is nothing—nothing like a “clearing,” one in which we can be fully ourselves. It is from nothing that a “created future” can come into the picture. If we’re going to create a future—in our relationships, in our work, in our lives—it’s a matter of saying so. It doesn’t rest on anything—it rests on nothing and that’s the foundation for possibility. In creating possibility, we get to know what’s possible in being human.

Aug 19 2013
Love0

Let the storm pass, it will be alright!

By Comments & Opinion, Success & Inspiration No Comments

It seems that floods are the new norm in North America these days, after the hurricane that hit the East Coast of the U.S. last year, the devastating flooding in Alberta, and the now famous Toronto flood of July 2013. I’ll never forget the drive home that night, the rain seemed to get stronger and stronger and within no time the water levels had caused mass flooding, citywide blackouts, and Internet and cellular service to go down. I remember that evening at home being so eerie, with no working cell phone or power to watch television I had no connection with the outside world until well into the next day. 

When I finally got access to a television I was shocked at the impact of the storm. Subway stations completely flooded and inoperable, trains stranded with thousands of passengers aboard for several hours, not to mention hundreds of flooded basements leaving residents with quite the mess to clean up, lost mementos, and insurers with a financial disaster.

What was so interesting to see in moments like this is how people responded.  Some people loved the power being out. Some people loved the loud crackle of the thunderstorms. Some people loved the lightening. Others – not so much.

We witnessed people coming to the assistance of their neighbors, officers and fireman working through the night in small inflatable rafts in order to rescue people in need. It was fascinating to me to see how people respond in moments of uncertainty. I have come to believe that it is our response to the uncertainty of life that greatly determines the outcome of our lives. When you get uncertain – do you run or do you press on? Do you run to alcohol, drugs, sugar, sex or food? Or do you drop down on your yoga mat or meditation pillow and do some inner work?

Are you afraid of the storms of life (because we all have them) – or do you welcome them all as teachers?  I’m not generally afraid of storms; my uncertainty trigger is not having enough money to get by. When that gets triggered for me, it’s very hard to see it as a lesson, because I’m fearful that my survival will be challenged. What works for me is to go within and surrender to my higher power, all my fears, all my doubts and all my worries. And then with a little help from my friends and amazing partners in business I begin to take action. Action towards my dreams, action towards serving others and action towards fixing the problem.

I have learned to not let my response to uncertainty run my life, but instead choose my response to uncertainty and welcome it as a natural part of life.

So – what do you do when you face uncertainty?  Is there a healthier way for you to deal with what’s going on in your life right now? By finding the strength within ourselves and from those around us, we can overcome obstacles and create better habits to weather life’s storms.

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