There is an email that goes around roughly once a month about a CEO who decides it is time to pick a successor. Â He calls together all his top talent and gives them each a seed. He says, “I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. Â I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO.” So the executives take home the seed and one guy can’t make it grow. He keeps doing the same thing and gets no result. He goes to the meeting at the end of one year, everyone else has a beautiful plant and he explains he couldn’t grow anything. The CEO picks him to be his successor because he’s the […] Continue reading
Find the Signals
On 7/30 Fritz, my dog, graced us with his Top 10 Management Tips. Fritz and I spend a lot of time together and I am routinely amazed at what he knows and does. I have always (foolishly) considered myself to be the provider and Fritz to be the customer but I realized this morning, I have that backwards. Fritz is a classic small business executive!
This morning, as usual, I started to close a phone call and Fritz was sitting up, ready to go play / walk / do something. Since we have only worked together for nine months, I was surprised at how quickly I came to expect this behavior. But from Fritz’s perspective, how did he learn what the end of a phone call sounded like? He can’t understand the words and he certainly doesn’t understand what that black thing that is constantly near mom’s head is, so how did he learn? HE OBSERVED. He knew what he wanted (my attention) and he observed what happens right before he could get it. Now he also did experiments – climbing up my chair at various intervals – but he quickly learned that the black thing took precedence. But he also learned over time that there was a certain cadence to my voice as I wrap up a call. “Great! Talk to you soon! Bye” translates to “now I can pay attention Fritz” in his mind.
Okay – that’s all nice Kath, but so what? Well, if you are a small business owner, it is a good bet you don’t have a magic mirror that lets you see into your customer’s operations. You don’t know what they are doing when they finally pay attention to you. So what can you observe? What can you take from Fritz and use yourself to learn how to be ready just at that moment the customer has to choose to make another phone call or pay attention to you? How can you be sitting up ready to play?
The advantage you hold is your ability to communicate. Fritz can’t ask me “what is that black thing and why do you care?” but you can. Talk to your customers about how they made the decision to come to you. How did they remember you were the solution to their problem? What trigger led them to notice you were ready to play?
Think about it, call your customers, try some experiments. For me, well, it is time to go throw the toy in the yard.
10 Secrets of Running Your Business From Fritz
My dog, Fritz
This is Fritz, my dog, at 12 weeks. He is still adorable and very smart and since I work alone, I spend a lot of time with him. He knows A LOT about The Pedestal Group. We go for a walk every morning around 7:30 (and if you see me, don’t look too closely – I generally don’t do my hair for these walks so it is very flat) and I get to watch Fritz manage his business and for the record, in his business I am strictly support staff. Today, I realized his approach to management is a great one so here goes Fritz’s 10 recommendations to manage your business:
1. If you find something interesting, stick your whole face in to really investigate it. Sometimes you will be unhappy with what gets on your nose, but more often it is something facinating!
2. Dream big – some day you really might catch the bunny if you just stick to it and believe you can.
3. Leave your mark in many places (I know, this is gross but go with me) – the more people who know you were there the better!
4. Move quickly and decisively. Don’t dilly dally around.
5. If you come to a decision point, consult those you need to and make a quick decision. Even if you don’t get to go the way you want, moving forward is better than standing still.
6. Following the same course on a regular basis is fine but perioically, change it up! Going out of your comfort zone may yield new things to experience (see #1).
7. If there is something new on your route, it is important to notice, investigate (again, see #1) and know what it is about. Knowing your market is key.
8. If someone new comes along, greet them as a friend first. Offer to play, be nice, show you are a good guy. You never know what they have to offer.
9. If someone else is walking as well, be sure you keep up. Getting left behind isn’t fun – and you may have to drag your cohorts with you to do it.
10. Always clean up your messes. It isn’t right to leave them and they may end up in someone else’s space which is not being a good neighbor.
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