Good Decision or Good Reaction

I have always wanted the people around me to be the type of people I can trust to make good decisions. I’m changing my mind. I now want to put my trust in people who can best deal with the aftermath of bad situations. Why the change? Well, let me explain.

Decisions Decisions...

First, everyone likes a winner. Everyone likes supporting winners. People, who make good decisions all the time, will be winners. So we like to support people who make good decisions. However, no one makes good decisions all the time. So if you are supporting someone who makes a bad decision, how do they react? How do you react?

Don't Freak out, Figure it out

It is possible to overreact, or become paralyzed, when someone who normally makes good decisions, makes a bad one. When things aren’t going your team’s way after a bad decision, it is possible to start playing the blame game. If members of your team do this, why, and what does it mean? To me, it shows that you are not a team, you are a group following a strong leader. When the leader stumbles, the group falls apart.

Stick together, but don't Sink together...

A team sticks together. But to be fair, so did the crew of the Titanic. So you have to do more than not blame each other when a bad decision puts you in a bad spot. You have to have someone in charge that can make the most happen out of that situation.

It isn’t if a bad decision is made, it is when. It isn’t if you have to scramble to make the most of a situation, it is when. So while I want to support someone who makes great decisions, I really want to support someone who doesn’t fall apart when it hits the fan.

I Don’t Think of Myself as a Writer

I said these words to a couple of friend of mine who are writers. Richard Tubb and Karl Palachuk. You can follow the links to their blogs. Richard looked at me and said, “But you are, and you need to feel that way”. I know what he is saying, I write, people read my stuff, I’m a writer. So how does my attitude affect my writing? Does it make me less serious or professional about it?

Karl, Richard and Steve.
I don't know what we were laughing about!

                                                    

I need to do some thinking on this, but I think that I view my writing as just something I do, I don’t work on it. I don’t practice my craft. So I might be limiting how good I can get.

Well Richards comments made me think about all of the people who read my blog and wonder what things they are that they don’t think they are? What things aren’t they getting better at?

Many of my readers are in the IT Service industry, an industry that is dominated by technical people. In order to grow their business they have to sell stuff. Themselves, services, software and hardware. But do they think they are salespeople? No, anything but, and I’m sure this effects their sales.

• You are what you eat.
• It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.
• Birds of a feather flock together.

We have all heard these types of comments, most likely from our Mom, and she wasn’t wrong. We may be more than the sum of what we do, but we are at least that. I recommend you make a list of all the things you do in your business. Now next to each one, write down what you do to learn more about, or get better at that function. Do you have some gaps? Me too.

So now, where ever you have a gap, let’s fill it in. Sales training, a tax or accounting course, technical training, whatever you need, because if you do it, you should understand you are it, and should do it well…

Business Dog Training

Most of you who read my blog know I have a 3 month old puppy, Ben. His blog is here. Both my wife Janet and I have had dogs, and I have taken dogs through group obedience classes before. I watch Cesar. I knew the basics, I thought. I may have been able to take Ben to 50% of what he could be, but I doubt he would have been that responsive to everyone, even me all the time. Ben deserves better than 50%. Don’t all dogs? I mean we brought them into our homes out of their natural order, we should at least make their lives with their human pack as “natural” as possible. That means we need to be strong leaders and 50% isn’t good enough. The same is true of your business.

Not everyone is a strong business pack leader. So if you find yourself in this position, what can you do? One, you can get training, and there are lots of good trainers out there. Two, you can hire a strong pack leader. Most small business people opt to do nothing. Thereby relegating their business to less than it could be. Some will bring on a partner to help run the business, but very few and generally only if they are against the wall. Let’s talk about getting a coach to help train you and your staff.

So once you find a trainer, however you find them, and that is another blog for another day. Once you have a trainer, they will need to train different people. Your staff, yourself, and maybe your investors. Much like training a dog, your trainer can teach your staff new tricks, but if you don’t support and reinforce their training, they will start jumping on people and messing in the house.

Almost without exception, if you show me a dog misbehaving, I’ll show you an owner who didn’t follow through with their training. As a dog owner, I have some bad habits I have “picked up” over the years. The worse is inconsistency. So our dog trainer not only has to train the dog, he has to break my bad habits as well so we are training the dog in a consistent manor. As a business owner, I’m sure you also have some “bad habits”. If you don’t correct them, it doesn't matter what else the trainer does.

If you are not committed to learning new tricks that YOU have you do, save your money and don’t pay for a trainer. Both the dog and owner need training, and the same is true for businesses. Staff and Owner.