Innovative Ways to Groom Your Successor(s) (Copy)

You need to have peace of mind before you are going to turn over your business to someone else. Not every successor will be prepared for the job, and not every owner will do the work needed to prepare their successor.

Your successor needs to be able to successfully lead the implementation of your strategic plan and directly or indirectly fill the gaps that arise when you are no longer active in the business. This gap analysis is crucial for every owner to do, even if the ramp down is years away. It will give you good insight as to what
development planning your team will need. While your list may not be all encompassing, it will give any business and its successors a good start. Here are some ways to close the gaps.

Provide Powerful Experiences for Your C-Suite team

Experiences such as volunteer leadership positions, participating in roundtable discussions, and being a part of a strategic planning team will expose them to other ways of thinking, push them to step outside of their comfort zone, and expand their influence in the business community. A good friend of mine aspired
to be the president of my Rotary club. When she was installed, she confided in me that she was terrified of speaking in public. Week 1 was tough for her. Week 2 was a tiny bit easier. By week 40 she was unscripted and putting everyone at ease.

Provide Learning Opportunities like ‘Reverse’ Training 

We often think about getting trained in something we haven’t yet mastered, but instead, ask your leaders to train you, your leadership team, or a subset of your business  -- on something THEY need to learn and would be beneficial for others to learn too. When you have to train somebody else, you are forced to learn it better yourself. When I first was learning about P&L’s and balance sheets, I forced myself to do a small training event for a group of trusted advisors so I would learn more deeply. I had to be prepared not only to present the material, but I knew they would ask me challenging questions. I had to be ready for those too. 

Other Learning Opportunities include being part of a pilot or SWAT team to take on a special, time limited project. Special projects usually provide cross-functional experience, demand fresh ways of problem solving, require relationship building with new team members and force the engagement of different skills.

Be an Intentional Role Model

Employees often thrive when they have an excellent boss and role model who will show them how things should be run, and explain the why behind it. I remember years ago when I worked in the packing department for Procter & Gamble’s Sure/Secret antiperspirant, my boss pulled me aside when he saw that we were dropping an occasional cap on the floor. Each cap only cost a penny and we had to throw them away if they hit the floor. What’s a penny every twenty minutes? Well, he sat down with me, did the math and that penny became thousands of dollars on a 180 cap per minute machine running 24/7/365. What a great learning experience.

Formal Training and Mentoring

Giving the successor a chance to attend specific classes, seminars, workshops and self study programs will give them a sturdy foundation upon which to grow their leadership skills.  Encouraging them to find a mentor, will provide them with a guide for their development journey. There are many other examples of ways to groom your successor that are effective AND get move the business ahead. Most are fairly inexpensive, require little time away from ‘the job’ and deliver broader benefits as other employees learn too. If you want to explore more, click here for our Growth & Development Planning Tools List. It has additional recommendations.

Leaving a business in the hands of someone you are not confident in is difficult, so investing in your C-Suite and beyond gives you a stronger business today and more choices on potential successors for tomorrow.

How do you respectfully end a professional relationship? (Copy)

Whether you are a long time member who is ending your Rotary club membership, or you are ending your relationship with a service provider that you’ve been working with for years, the way you choose to exit sends a clear message.

So how do you leave graciously? How do you do your best to make it a respectful ending?  

If you are leaving because you are angry, frustrated, disappointed or resentful, it would be easy to imagine the satisfaction of storming out in a tirade, or preparing an elaborate speech of how you’ve been wronged, or just slinking away in the middle of the night. While it might feel good in the moment, it probably won’t ultimately reduce your negative feelings or resolve the issue that got you worked up in the first place, nor will it likely
reflect well on you.

Instead, you might take a moment to clarify the real issue. Was there a problem with the service you received? Did you feel disrespected by the staff/leader? If you can identify the real issue, you can then decide how to communicate your exit. Whether to politely express your dissatisfaction live -- or drop them a short note communicating why you are exiting. Simply disappearing is certainly an option. You don’t owe the provider an explanation, but I would argue that if it is a relationship you have invested in – getting closure is useful.

Often we don’t do any of those. We don’t state our dissatisfaction because we don’t think it resolves anything, and we don’t move on and let it go. But stating our dissatisfaction can resolve something – it can resolve your pent up emotions. Expressing your emotions in an appropriate and very professional way can allow you to release them. It may not change the outcome, but it can change how you feel about the outcome and sometimes that is the most important! 

It’s respectful to offer closure in the relationship. If you’re simply ready to move on, you might send a thank you note for the value you’ve received or for the importance of the relationship. If you found a better provider for your needs, why not thank them for the support they’ve given you in the past and let them know why you are leaving? Sharing your reasons does carry risk – we never know how it will be received, but if you are
respectful, professional and caring, it can offer them insight into what mattered most to you and maybe give them some valuable perspective on how they might adjust their service for others in the future. 

So why wouldn’t you take these steps? Because they’re hard! They’re uncomfortable. We don’t want to take a risk that we’ll hurt someone’s feelings or anger them. And that worry is warranted. You probably will
hurt their feelings or anger them, but if you do it with good intent, to respect or value the relationship, and you do it with respect and care, it can build the relationship too. At the very least, you can look yourself in the eye and say ‘I did what was right.’

Abby

Overwhelmed? Rebalancing Your Work and Life (Copy)

Work/life balance. It seems to be a hot topic these days as technology invades more of our waking hours and allows us to connect to work 24/7/365 from anywhere in the world. When I started researching balance for this article, I was convinced that we were not striving for true ‘balance’ -- some sort of equilibrium between work and life, we were more concerned with how work has permeated every aspect of our waking hours. After researching the definition of ‘balance’, I concluded balance and work’s permeation are both issues we need to address and they are different.    

Balance, according to www.dictionary.com is  “A state of equilibrium or equal distribution of weight, amount,’ or time, energy, etc.” While this definition of balance is about equilibrium, I don’t believe the goal of work/life balance is to have an equal distribution of time between work and life.

I think we just want to reduce the stress and overwhelm in our work and in our lives!  We describe this as balance, but it’s not really about achieving 8 hours of work and 8 hours of life, it’s about achieving a quality of life that provides time and capacity to truly live, day in and day out, whether at work or at play.

When we put the emphasis on equal distribution of hours, we live for our weekends, holidays, and vacations, but with a full time job, it’s nearly impossible to catch up the life hours. We will never fix work/life balance this way.

There’s no magic wand

I’d love to give you a magic wand to wave the stress and overwhelm out of your life because living a life out of balance is toxic, but if all we do to address this toxicity is to take vacation or live for the weekends, all we’ll get is a band aid covering a festering wound.   

Instead, we need to dive into the factors that cause us overwhelm and stress and begin to address them. Most people describe overwhelm as having too many things to do and too little time to do them in. Stress is created from this constant state of overwhelm.   

I often hear owners talking about the constant struggle to achieve efficient operations, to provide excellent customer service, to make strategic decisions that deliver profit and growth, to constantly manage expenses, and the emotional and mental investment demanded by staffing and personnel issues.

In Brigid Schulte’s book, Overwhelmed: How to Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, she highlights that our lives are full of multi-tasking moments. We have a zillion things on our ‘To Do’ list that will never all be done, and we add to that a zillion other things that show up unexpectedly, like a sick child or car trouble.

It’s no wonder we feel overwhelmed.

Our Busy-ness as a Badge of Honor

But we also wear overwhelm and busy-ness like a ‘badge of honor’. If we’re busy, we must be important and successful. If we’re not busy, we and/or our business must be at risk.

I’ve started tested this ‘badge of honor’ by responding to the popular question, ‘So, how are things going for you? Busy?’ by saying, ‘Very well thank you, and no, I’m not that busy’. Most people look at me with either shock or worse -- sad droopy eyes -- convinced that something is wrong, I am heading toward doom and gloom, and my company is on the brink of bankruptcy! Then they try to cheer me up by saying, ‘Well, I’m sure you’ll be busy soon.’ 

I am not interested in living in ‘busy’ or ‘overwhelm’! It’s not sustainable, it’s not enjoyable and frankly, it benefits no one. Clients don’t get better service from an overwhelmed customer service team; productivity and profitability don’t result from frenetic busyness; and the statistics are clear that our health is not better under the stress of constant overwhelm. In fact it’s the opposite. Many of our health issues are caused or exacerbated by the stress of overwhelm. 

You Have More Control Than You Think

So how do you deal with this in your life? The first step is to recognize you have more control than you think. Start a time log and see where your time is going and where your energy is in each block of time. Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr, in The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is The Key To High Performance and Personal Renewal, noted that it’s not lack of time that sucks the life out of you, it’s lack of energy. Log your time and evaluate your energy throughout your day. Then start to put some boundaries around how much time you spend, when you spend it, and what you are doing that depletes your energy. Evaluate the expectations you are holding for yourself – and those you think others have of you -- and assess areas where you can shift from ‘exceptional work’ to ‘good enough work’.

Leaders with work/life balance are more efficient, more effective and happier – and that contributes to better workplaces and often more financial reward for all. Don’t brush this aside and promise to look at it next year.

Just tackling one time/energy boundary and one expectation per month can recharge your work/life. It’s worth it!