Chuck Kocher

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You’ve probably picked up that “being great” is a big theme for me. I like to highlight great companies and great leaders—and the things they do that make them great. I love passing on tools and resources that can help make individuals and companies great.

One of the best resources I’ve come across pertaining to this theme is Great by Choice by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen. In it, Collins maintains that companies become great by choice—not by accident or by luck.  He claims that, “It is the decisions, the choices, made by companies, led by leaders who are crystal clear about what they intend, that set some companies above the others.”

This flies in the face of an increasingly prevalent view of business that assumes greatness is due to circumstance or luck, rather than action and discipline and that what happens to us matters more than what we do.

Collins combats that kind of thinking by highlighting the practices and disciplines of companies he calls “10xers”: Companies that beat their industry averages by a margin of 10 times or more.

One of the most compelling concepts for me is The 20 Mile March—inspired by explorer Roald Admundsen who led his expedition on a trek to be the first to reach the South Pole. Rather than let circumstances (such as weather or other conditions beyond his control) dictate his progress, Amundsen disciplined himself—and his team—to achieve a specific, measureable, pre-determined goal every day. This discipline paid off, and despite good and bad luck, Amundsen’s team reach the pole before their competitors.

Here (in broad brush strokes) are a few of the lessons Collins passes on about companies who embrace The 20 Mile March approach to business:

1. The 20 Mile March creates two types of self-imposed discomfort: First is the discomfort of unwavering commitment to achieving high performance despite difficult conditions, and second is the discomfort of holding back when conditions are good.

2. Most “10X” companies embraced the 20 Mile March philosophy long before they became big companies.

3. A good 20 Mile March is designed and voluntarily put into action by the company itself—rather than being imposed from the outside or copied from some other successful company.

4. The 20 Mile March can impose order in the midst of disorder and consistency in the midst swirling inconsistency. However, it only works when a company actually achieves their “march” consistently. Companies that set a 20 Mile March and fail to achieve it (or abandon the fanatic discipline it requires altogether) can end up being crushed by events unfolding around them that are out of their control.

The bottom line is that great companies are great because they choose to be great—not because they were lucky. Is your company engaged in a regular 20 Mile March? What are the specific, measurable goals you have set that you hit day in and day out without excuse?

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Maybe you dream about having a great company. That’s a wonderful thing, but companies need more than dreams to become great successes. One of the things that separates great dreamers from great leaders is the ability to execute—and execute well. Without execution nothing happens. Dreams and ideas remain just dreams and ideas.

So how can you take your ability to execute to the next level? Here are six simple steps to help you achieve excellence in execution.

1. Set Clear Company Goals and Strategy

If you don’t have clear company goals, how will you know if you’ve succeeded? Your goals have to be specific and they have to be measurable. Once you know what your objective is you can develop a strategy for getting there. Without goals and strategy you’re just acting busy.

2. Schedule Consistent Annual and Quarterly Planning

Some leaders resist planning. They’d rather be “doing” than planning. But if you’re not planning and setting measurable goals and evaluating your progress, you won’t know if you’re making progress. And in today’s business climate, you need to be nimble and flexible. That means meeting regularly to evaluate if your goals (and your progress toward those goals) are still in line with what you want to do. These “big picture” meetings are critical to make sure you’re on track.

3. Follow Up With Daily/Weekly/Monthly Meetings

These meetings help ensure that daily, monthly, or quarterly activities are in line with the “big picture” plans. If you find you’ve gotten off track, it’s much better (and easier) to make a course correction after a few weeks rather than at the end of the year. Missing a weekly projection, for instance, may not be a big deal. But if you miss your projections for a month—or a quarter—it may indicate a bigger issue.

4. Make Sure Every Team Member Has Role Clarity, Understands His or Her Contribution, and Knows How Success Will Be Measured

While it’s true that not everyone in the company has the same level of responsibility, it’s critical that each member of your team understands how what he or she does enables the company to succeed. The measureable goals for manufacturing, for instance, are dramatically different than those for sales or marketing. As a leader, you need to clearly define what success looks like for each aspect of the business and clearly communicate that. You can’t evaluate performance fairly if people don’t understand how performance will be measured.

5. Create a Culture of Ownership, Accountability, and Responsibility

In great companies, the employees feel that they “own” the business. This isn’t about who owns how much stock, or who gets the biggest payoff if the company is sold (although those can be important elements). This is about people feeling that their efforts make a difference. People want to be a part of something successful. If you’ve done a good job with #4 above you’ve made a great start. But then you need to recognize the contributions employees make. You need to remind people that the things they do matter to the overall success of the company. Business really is a team sport!

6. Make Sure Key Actions Always Have a Who, a What, and a When Attached

We’ve all been in meetings where great decisions were made and great plans were forged—and then nothing happens. When you have your planning meetings and decide on a course of action, make sure you carefully and clearly identify the exact actions to be taken. Then don’t let anyone out of the room until you record who is responsible for the action, and when the task needs to be completed.  Then send a memo after the meeting with these items clearly spelled out. That eliminates the “I thought you were going to do that?” syndrome.

Review these six items before your next planning meeting. You’ll notice a big difference in the results.

Is there anything you’d add to these six tips?

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Many an entrepreneur has launched a business with a great idea. And great ideas are really important. But great ideas by themselves don’t bring success. In order to succeed, it is critical for a company to have a strategy. They need to understand how they are going to bring their great idea to market.

If you’re a business leader, here are five questions you need to ask yourself in order to develop your business strategy.

1. What are my company’s core values and beliefs? Seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? And yet, you’d be surprised how many companies can’t clearly articulate their core values and beliefs. Here’s the real test: Can you explain your core values and beliefs to a total stranger in 30 seconds or less? If you can’t, you probably don’t have a grip on these things yourself. Forget flowery language. We’re talking no-nonsense basics here. If you can’t articulate your core values and beliefs, how will you keep your business on track?

2. What makes my company great? Another way to ask that is: “What are our top 3-5 core competencies?” You need to be able to define the things you do really well and make sure your activities are focused on those things. Those are the things that will differentiate you from your competition. Then you can look at the areas where you’re not so great and either develop those area yourself—or partner with someone who excels in those areas. But don’t sacrifice your core competency.

3. What is my company’s mission or purpose? Why do we exist? This is different from your values. This is about what you do.  Can you clearly and concisely state this without resorting to insider jargon? Can you explain this to someone from outside your industry in a way that they quickly understand it? You can’t engage in the right activities if you don’t know why you’re doing them. Remember, it’s not about being busy—it’s about being productive.

4. What is my company’s Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal? Is it measurable? If it’s not measureable how will you know if you’re making progress? Is your goal Big, Hairy, and Audacious? Employees aren’t inspired to greatness by wimpy goals. You don’t want to set goals that are impossible to attain—but they need to be big enough that they stretch your employees beyond what they think is possible.

5. Do people in my company know our company’s core strategies and can they state them clearly and concisely? Of course this assumes that you, as the leader, can do this. If you can’t do it, you can’t expect your employees to be able to do it.  But once you’ve got it down, what are you doing to pass this information on to your employees? Are you reviewing your strategies in regular meetings? What are you doing to encourage employees to internalize this? How can you reward employees who “get it”?

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You may not know (or remember) a little company named Cadabra that was incorporated in 1994. After founder Jeff Bezos changed the name to Amazon.com in 1995, however, the company went on to become a household name—not only in the United States, but also in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and China. It is currently the world’s largest retailer.

It’s not just size and name recognition, however, that make Amazon.com a great company. In fact, the things that make Amazon.com a great company are what also made it big and well known. So what are the things that made Amazon.com great? Here are a few things that I think pushed Amazon.com to the top of the mountain.

Vision: Back in 1994, Jeff Bezos was convinced that something was going to happen with this “Internet thing.” He saw that it opened up opportunities that conventional brick and mortar bookstores and catalogers couldn’t match. Conventional stores might be able to offer as many as 200,000 titles, but an online store could offer many times that amount. And Bezos successfully bet that people would jump at the chance to make purchases from the comfort of their homes—any time it was convenient for them—rather than fight the crowds at specified store hours.

Patience: One of the stiffest challenges any business faces is profitability. It’s great to have vision and passion, but somebody has to pay the bills. And early on, there were plenty of business experts wondering if Amazon.com would ever turn a profit. This didn’t surprise the folks at Amazon. Their business plan didn’t expect a profit for four to five years. They were breaking the mold and they knew it would take time to get things rolling. They had the right plan and they stuck to it—despite pressure and expectations from others.

No Resting on Laurels: Even though Amazon.com began as a “bookstore” they didn’t let that designation limit their growth. They quickly branched out to see DVDs, MP3s, CDs, electronic devices, toys, furniture, apparel, and more. They were even innovative when it came to the thing that got them started. They correctly assumed that consumers wouldn’t just be willing to get books in an unconventional way (ordering online), but that they would embrace receiving these books in an entirely new format (digitally). Amazon’s Kindle® is now a dominant force in the exploding e-reader market.

It all comes back to that vision—something that’s even reflected in their corporate logo: Everything from A to Z, with a big smile signifying customer satisfaction. What’s your vision? Do you have the plan, the patience, and the perseverance to see it through? And what are the new opportunities that are open to you?

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There’s no unwritten (or written) business law that says that something has to be complicated in order to work. Sometimes it’s the simple (but tough) things that really get us where we want to go.

If you’re looking for strategies to grow your business, try these six simple steps. What’s really great about these strategies is that they work in any size business and they work in any economy.

1. Evaluate Your Client Base: Not all clients are created equal, and smart, successful business leaders don’t treat every client the same. You’ll develop your own criteria by which you rank or organize clients, but here is a way to get started.

• A-Level Clients are the ones you love to work with. They love working with you, too. And while it’s not a given, there’s a good chance they are more profitable as well.
• B-Level Clients are also people or businesses that you like, that haven’t quite made it to the top level yet—but they have the potential.
• C-Level Clients are kind of “average.” They kind of go through the motions, but they don’t show signs of growing. They’re not particularly interested in suggestions you make to help them grow. You don’t want any more of these.
• D-Level Clients are a nightmare. They may take up a disproportionate amount of your time and you probably don’t make much money with them. They aren’t interested in growth and they keep you from spending more time with your more promising clients. You need to work on eliminating these clients.

2. Spend More Time with You’re A-Level Clients: These are the people that are excited about their business and are willing to do what it takes to succeed. You get energized being around them. They look at you as a partner (even if it’s not “official”) rather than a vendor. Speak with them. Find out what they really want and need from you. Figure out how to deliver it. Make notes about what makes them A-Level clients, and then go find more like them.

3. Target Niches Rather Than Large Markets: We live in an increasingly specialized world. Businesses are looking for help from people who understand their unique niche rather than a generalized area. Tighten your focus (and your expertise) on specific niches and out-perform your competitors. Build your marketing and branding around this.

4. Focus on Selling What Actually Makes Money: You’re not in business to stay busy—you’re in business to make money. Evaluate each sale from an ROI perspective (both long and short-term). Look at both the cost to acquire new business and at the lifetime value of new business.

5. Get Everyone in the Company Productive: Ensure that every employee and provider understands what they personally contribute—and how it will be measured. Real accountability is only scary to people who aren’t productive. Make sure they understand you will help them to be more productive.

6. Look at Your Whole Team—From Top to Bottom: This is a little bit like evaluating your clients. Identify the A-Level players (high productivity/high culture). Figure out how to attract more of those people. Which employees have no desire to improve, drag down others, and need to go? Continually train your good employees to improve their performance.

Just because these steps are simple doesn’t mean they are easy—or automatic. If you’d like more information about how to flesh these steps out for your specific business situation—or if you’d like to have someone help to keep you accountable—give me a call, or shoot me an email. This is what I live for!

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As a business coach, one of the questions I’m asked most frequently (in one form or another) is: “How can I be a more effective leader?”

In my experience, the answer to that important question is found in the answers to several other critical questions. There are a lot of good questions leaders need to answer in order to be successful. Here are what I consider to be the top five key questions for any leader who wants to be more effective and successful.

1. Do you attract and retain talented people? Most successful businesses are not one-man-shows. What is it that attracts high caliber individuals? Would you work for yourself? Great leaders inspire followers, and really great leaders continue to inspire—they keep their people with new challenges and new opportunities.

2. Do you challenge people to think, to grow and to change? Great leaders aren’t content with the status quo. They continually work to improve themselves, their business, and their people. “Business as usual” is not part of their vocabulary.

3. Do you push people beyond their talents/skills/abilities? Many people settle for less than their full capability because they don’t really know what they’re capable of. A great leader helps those around him find that “something extra” hidden inside. Think of the individuals who have “pushed” you in that way: parents, teachers, coaches, and mentors. They knew you had it in you and they helped you bring it out.

4. Do you ask tough, focused and specific questions that encourage spirited and rigorous debate amongst your team? Too many businesses leave too many unanswered questions on the table because they’re tough to answer. The key here is not to prove who is right or wrong—it’s to solve a problem. As a leader, your goal is not to browbeat team members until they agree with you—it’s to find the best possible solution.

5. Do you empower people to take personal ownership, personal accountability and personal responsibility to do their very best? As a leader you may have the right ideas, the right solutions, and the right methods. But unless your team takes personal ownership, responsibility, and accountability for those things it will always be your show—and you won’t be effective. What can you do to help team members own the business themselves?

Are there more questions leaders should be asking? Sure. But these are my top five. What would you add to this list?

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You may be the head honcho in your business, but does that make you a leader? There’s a big difference between running your company and leading your company. And not all leaders are created equal. In fact, there are different levels of leadership. John Maxwell does a fantastic job of identifying and explaining this in his outstanding book, The Five Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential. Here’s a quick overview of those five levels, as Maxwell sees them.

Level 1—Position: At this level, leadership is all about rights. People follow you because they have to. Because of your position or title you have the right to a certain amount of authority.

Level 2—Permission: This second level of leadership is all about relationships. This is where people follow you because they want to. You basically earn peoples’ permission to lead them. But if you don’t like people, you’ll never lead at this level.

Level 3—Production: This kind of leadership is focused on results. This is the point at which people follow you because of what you have done for the organization.  Making things happen is what separates real leaders from the wannabes.

Level 4—People Development: At this level, leadership is about reproduction. People are following you—not just because of what you do for the company, but because of what you have done for them personally. When you help others grow in their leadership skills you extend your influence and impact.

Level 5—Pinnacle: This ultimate level of leadership is all about respect. At this level people follow you because of who you are and what you represent.

John Maxwell is a proven leader—and a leader of leaders. If you’re serious about developing as a leader, I highly recommend that you pick up this book.  And if you really want to get down to brass tacks and hone your leadership skills, give me a call or shoot me an email. I’m a certified, founding member Maxwell coach. I’d be delighted to help you take your leadership to the next level.

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If you are like most of the business leaders I coach, you’re looking for ways to improve your business. You’re looking for ways to improve your leadership skills. You’re looking for answers.

Getting the right answers is important. A lot of business leaders, however, tend to get the cart before the horse. They’re focused on answers when they really need to begin by focusing on the questions. If you don’t ask the right questions to begin with, it really doesn’t matter what answers you get.

If you have an entrepreneurial spirit and approach to business, here are five questions you should be asking yourself—about yourself and about your business.

1. Am I the right person to own and run this business? Be specific when answering this. What skills, traits, and intangibles do you possess that make you the perfect candidate for this position? Another way to ask this is: “Would you follow you?” If your not confident in your own ability, who else will follow you?
2. Am I genuinely jazzed about this business? Are you doing what you’re doing because it captivates you and inspires you? Does the business energize you—or does it drain you?
3. Is my enthusiasm for the business contagious? When you talk about your business ideas and goals with others do they capture you vision? Are you able to pass on your passion in such a way that others “get it”? If not, either your business idea is lacking or your leadership skills aren’t where they need to be.
4. Are there weaknesses that will inhibit my ability to be successful? The obvious answer is yes. We all have weaknesses. Can you identify and articulate yours—and can you take steps to overcome them? You may need to tackle these with training, knowledge, or hiring the right people to compensate for your deficiencies.
5. Do I have the support I need to see this through? This is about more than have financial reserves. This is about having a core group of people that know you and believe in you. You need people that will challenge you and provide you with insight. You need coaches, mentors, and like-minded colleagues to help keep you on track when things get tough.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of questions, but it’s a good start for any business leader. And if you’d like to explore some additional key questions that you should be asking yourself, I know an award winning business coach who would love to talk to you!

Which question is the toughest for you to answer? What additional questions do you think are critical to ask?

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Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, which consists of more than 400 companies at last count, always looked at things a bit differently than everybody else. And he knows a thing or two about success. While he has had his share of business failures, those failures haven’t kept him from becoming the fourth richest citizen of the United Kingdom with a net worth estimated at more than $4 billion.

That’s not too shabby for someone with a learning disability (dyslexia) who performed rather poorly as a student in his younger years

Branson sought success outside of academics at a fairly early age and began his first business venture (a magazine entitled Student) at the age of 16. In 1972 he had opened a chain of record stores called Virgin Records (later, Virgin Megastores). Even then, Branson saw things differently. One of the things that made him successful was that he flew in the face of convention and offered records for considerably less than his competition—methods that later led to wide-scaled discounting of recorded music.

His penchant for challenging convention also extended into other business ventures and Branson never seemed to shy away from a challenge—even in areas that seemed unrelated to his areas of expertise. In his autobiography he wrote about his decision to launch an airline: “My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them . . .”

Branson has always seen things a little differently than most people. And he’s never settled for “business as usual.” If you don’t believe me, take a gander at his newest book, Screw Business As Usual. Here’s what he has to say:

Over the last few decades as I’ve started up one exciting business after another, I thought that life and work could not get any better. In writing this book, I’ve realised that we’ve really been on a practise run, getting ready for the greatest challenge and opportunity of our lifetime. We’ve got a shot at really pulling together to turn upside down the way we approach the challenges we are facing in the world and look at them in a brand new entrepreneurial way. Never has there been a more exciting time for all of us to explore this great next frontier where the boundaries between work and purpose are merging into one, where doing good, really is good for business.

It’s no wonder that people are willing to follow Richard Branson—even into space! And that’s one of the best ways to tell if someone is really a leader: if people are following them?

Do you have the kind of unique way of looking at the world that makes people want to follow you?

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Few things have a bigger impact on the success of a company than the quality of its employees. There’s really no way around it: if you want to have a great company you have to have great employees. But what makes an employee “great?”

Not long ago, Inc.com ran an article by Jeff Haden called 8 Qualities of Remarkable Employees. You can read the whole insightful article here, but let me highlight for you the eight qualities Jeff claims characterize remarkable employees:

1. They ignore job descriptions.

2. They’re eccentric

3. But they know when to dial it back

4. They publicly praise

6. They speak when others won’t

7. They like to prove others wrong

8. They’re always fiddling

Jeff does a nice job of unpacking what those qualities mean—and why they are important for a company. Here’s a kicker, though. That list probably isn’t the list that most companies come up with when they think of the qualities they’re looking for in an ideal employee. Most companies come up with character traits like: dependable, experienced, well-educated, steady, consistent performer, and boring. OK, most companies aren’t really looking for boring employees, but you have to admit that a lot of what companies tend to look for is not exactly exciting.

If you want to have a company like every other company, you can probably settle for the same kind of employees that every other company has. If you want a great company, you’re going to need great employees.

Guess what? It works the other way as well. Great companies attract great employees. Companies that want to find new ways to do things and break new ground tend to attract people that are wired that way.

Here are two important questions for you as a leader:

1. What kind of employees are you looking for? Write out your own list of qualities that you think are important.

2. What are you doing that will make your company attractive to those kinds of individuals? Write out a second list of why quality people would be attracted to your company.

What is the #1 quality you’re looking for in a potential employee?

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