How to destroy your company's culture

My mother said one bad apple spoils the bunch. And, she was right.

Toxic People…

Have you ever noticed, how you can be having a great day and one person says or does something that gets under your skin and a whole day's goodness is overshadowed by that one thing?

That's toxicity at work.

Like a heat seeking missile, a toxic person will destroy a company’s culture and employee well-being faster than you can blink.  

People who say negative things have given themselves permission to sit in judgment.  No matter what happens, it is never their fault.

If you listen to their toxicity, you may not realize that your subconscious hears it too and you are being slowly poisoned by the toxic person’s words and behavior. 

To keep from being infected by their poison, remove yourself from the area (if you can) and if not, find a way to keep from engaging with that person.

If you want to combat negativity and toxicity, find gratitude every day.  In those moments, if you can’t think of anything else, be grateful you don’t live in their head.

A wise speaker named Jim Rohn once said,  “Stand guard at the doorway of your mind.” If you don’t who will?”

3 Things Great Leaders Know

Leaders lead.   It’s that simple.  When given the opportunity to lead or follow, they will always lead.  But what sets a good leader apart is their ability to watch and recognize pattern shifts.  Great leaders watch patterns and make adjustments based on those patterns. 

Here are three areas that every great leader patrols to insure their company’s success:

1.      Market: What is your market doing? What are your potential clients doing?  What are your competitors doing?  Are you on their email and mailing list? If not, why not? Shouldn't you know what your clients are being told? Are you getting a lot of repeat business or referrals? If not, why not?  Do you have a systematic market survey that you send to clients? Are you connecting with them when you’re not trying to sell them something?  You want to occupy prime real estate in their heads.  What about unhappy clients?  Unhappy clients are a gold mine because you have nothing to lose and a wealth of information to gain.

2.       Industry: What is your industry doing? What has it done in the past and what direction is it heading? If you’re in book publishing business and you’re not in eBook publishing perhaps you should study your industry’s patterns of growth and change.  Is your industry at the beginning of its life cycle or at the end?  If it’s at the end, how are you adapting to be relevant and innovative?  Look up Western Union’s rich history, 160+ years in business shows they know how to reinvent and reinvent and reinvent.

3.    Your Company:  Here’s the one I believe average leaders miss but great leaders almost never miss.  Has the team’s dynamic changed at all?  Sometimes leaders are so busy leading that they forget to look and see who’s following, who’s fallen behind, who’s no longer making the grade and who’s emerging as a leader of the pack. When was the last time you ran a “systems check”? Not the annual performance evaluation tune-up, the check the brakes and the oil and the air filter systems check.  What’s going on with the leaders you lead? Are they challenged enough? Is their work load to light or too heavy? I frequently ask our teams, does anyone have any cares, questions, concerns or complaints?  Remember, it’s never a problem until it’s a problem.

Seanlai M. Cochrane is the CEO of Divirsus™, a multi-million dollar national provider of professional construction services.   Ms. Cochrane's service to Divirsus™ led to the company being recognized by several trade groups as well as  in the illustrious Inc.500/5000 list ranking 884 overall, #27 in construction companies, and #5 in Oklahoma Companies. As a professional speaker Ms. Cochrane speaks to and consults with business leaders and entrepreneurs. @SeanlaiC

3 Things Every Small Business Owner Should Know

I am often asked what would you tell the small business person just starting out? What path would you guide them down?   According to Investor News, 85% of small businesses fail in the first year and of those that make it past the first 12 months 50% of them will close their doors by year 5 and 65% will shut down by year 10. Wow! With those kinds of statistics why on earth isn't everyone rushing out to open their own company?!  

We entrepreneurs are a different breed.  We have our own special kind of crazy.  We are fabulously optimistic, wildly delusional, often day dreamers and maybe less often workaholics.  We are the janitor and the CEO, and usually everything else in between. That first year, we are fearless and know-it-alls. 

So for those mighty souls out there:

Know what business you are in and your unique value.  

That means that if you are in the residential roofing business, you're probably not in the roofing business. You're in the business of providing peace of mind, security, and expert consulting services. There are lots of roofers out there that can shingle a house, but what value are you providing that the other people aren't? If you're going to be in the business where you deal with the people (and isn't everyone?) then you need to know exactly what extra value you are bringing to the table and why they are hiring you.

Watch the money. 

I don't just mean the cigar box method of accounting, where you put money in the cigar box when you get paid and take money out when it's time to pay bills.  Invest in and learn a user friendly small business accounting program such as QuickBooks or Peachtree that is designed to help you track accounts receivables and expenses.  Don't depend on anyone else to watch your money the way you watch your money. The information those programs will provide you will prove invaluable as your company grows.  

Don't hire help too quickly.  

As an overwhelmed small business owner you may feel that you need to hire help to get all the things done that need to be done in a day.  There are a lot of virtual assistants out there that can assist you in the day to day administrative tasks without the headache and expense of a full time administrative assistant.   Subcontractors are a double edged sword.  They don't only work for you and may in fact work for your competitor as well but they are responsible for their own taxes and insurance and they are paid on a per project basis so if there's no work,  you don't pay them.  

I don't know of any business that starts out with the intent to close in the first 5 or 10 years.  Mitigating that risk starts with seeing what other companies have done well and what they haven't.  You don't have to learn all the lessons yourself, success and failure both leave clues along the path.  Watch for them. 

Launching a new career? It really is sink or swim

I'm a virgin.  A blogging virgin that is and there's something unexpectedly daunting about sitting down with a blank screen inviting you to fill it.  You wonder if what you have to say is interesting enough, if anyone is going to find the tips and tricks that you will share of value.  You think you have not only a blog inside you, but speeches, articles and books too.  And yet, you still wonder.  

Remember when you were a kid and you watched all the kids jump off the super high board at the pool? The one where you had to climb a ladder for what seemed like forever and then when you got up there you could feel the bumps of the board under your feet and the space around you very vast and scary? You realize that this might not have been your smartest idea, you felt somewhat small and fairly alone.   Then, you walked slowly to the end of the board and made the fatal mistake of looking down.  It was so far! And you were so high! And your friends were down there watching you, encouraging you and razzing you.  You knew you couldn't turn around yet you knew there was no way you were going to jump either.  So, you stood there, for what seemed like forever.  The kids behind you were shouting because they had jumped before and were much braver than you were; so they rushed past you and soared.   "I can do this!" you said to yourself.  "Are you crazy?!" another voice in your head answered.  But Pride wouldn't let you climb back down that ladder, not with all the kids watching you. 

So, you walked to the end of that board, your toes clinging to the edge and you just fall. You didn't jump, you just stepped off and let gravity take you because you knew you were going to die.  Then with a mighty splash you feel the too cold water surround you and you open your eyes and realize you didn't die! You did it!  When you came out of the water you looked around and there were your peers looking at you with new found respect when only moments before they were calling you chicken.   And you were proud and eager to do it again so you clambered up the ladder and with only slightly less trepidation you do it again, only this time, you didn't just fall, you walked.  

Launching a new career is like jumping off a high board.  You believe you can not only do it, but you'll be a Rock-Star at it and yet what if you're wrong?  That's my life today.  I'm on the high board, I'm watching speakers rush past me and dive off fearlessly.  I'm standing on the edge, my toes are curled around the end of the board and I've got the speakers behind me nudging and the ones who've gone before me encouraging.  I'm falling off the high board, I'm fairly certain I won't die.  

This journey is one that I am confident will bring me more joy and satisfaction than any other professional endeavor.  In today's economy, profound reinvention is the order of the day.  What is it that you must do today so that tomorrow it'll be you rushing past the person on the board, not falling but jumping?