6 Things You Need to Know About Leading a Meeting

If you don't know how to run effective meetings, your business, your organization, and your career are doomed.

There's nothing worse than a bad meeting. You sit there grinding your teeth wondering why in the world you have to waste your time sitting through something that never should have happened in the first place.

The fact that we've all been there, sometimes weekly or even daily, doesn't make it any less annoying. It doesn't even begin to take the edge off that nagging thought that you could be making so much better use of your time.

But here's the thing. Meetings aren't just an unfortunate fact of business life. They're a hugely important fact of business life. They're how strategies are debated, budgets are vetted, projects are reviewed, and plans are agreed upon. They're how deals are negotiated and how they ultimately get done.

Not only are meetings the most efficient ways to get certain things done, they're the most effective tools for managing teams--if they're done right, that is.

I once calculated that I sat in more than 30,000 meetings during my 30-year career. Every type of meeting you can think of, from executive staff and board meetings to project reviews and strategy sessions. From one-on-ones to all hands operations reviews. From press interviews to customer meetings.

And you know what? I learned a lot about how to make meetings more effective. Here are 7 tips that I guarantee will make a big difference for you and your organization.

Learn this equation.

No leader + no documentation + no follow up = waste of time. Every meeting has to have a leader, a stated purpose, a start and end time, and a valid reason for each and every person to be there. The leader documents conclusions, plans, action items, whatever, then follows up. 

Do you even know what you're doing?

 Every leader should know how to run effective meetings, like how to set ground rules for constructive engagement, how to use tools like Parking Lots to take issues offline, and how to bring people to consensus.

Have them in the afternoon. 

I once read in a Scott Adams Dilbert book (no, I'm not kidding) that people do their best work in the morning, so you should have meetings in the afternoon. I asked my staff and they agreed unanimously. Turned out to be a great move. Also most people are more relaxed after lunch. Don't ask me why.

Beware the hive mentality.

I've worked with companies where executives were double and triple booked in meetings most days and managers were required to have weekly one-on-ones with their boss and staff (and monthly with peers). How in the world do CEOs expects their management teams to get anything done that way?

Lose the hallway meetings. 

Founders and other start-up executives are often fond of ad-hoc hallway meetings. The problem is that decisions are made without input from key stakeholders. Sometimes that's a smokescreen for passive-aggressive behavior. Other times it results in strategy du jour. Either way, it destroys organizational effectiveness.

Challenge the status quo. 

If you run a periodic staff meeting, occasionally ask your team what you can do to improve it and help make them more effective. You'll usually get at least one good suggestion. Not only that, but your folks will appreciate it.

By: Steve Tobak

Source: Inc.

The Most Successful Leaders Do 15 Things Automatically, Every Day

Leadership is learned behavior that becomes unconscious and automatic over time.  For example, leaders can make several important decisions about an issue in the time it takes others to understand the question.   Many people wonder how leaders know how to make the best decisions, often under immense pressure.  The process of making these decisions comes from an accumulation of experiences and encounters with a multitude of difference circumstances, personality types and unforeseen failures.   More so, the decision making process is an acute understanding of being familiar with the cause and effect of behavioral and circumstantial patterns;  knowing the intelligence and interconnection points of the variables involved in these patterns allows a leader to confidently make decisions and project the probability of their desired outcomes.   The most successful leaders are instinctual decision makers.  Having done it so many times throughout their careers, they become immune to the pressure associated with decision making and extremely intuitive about the process of making the most strategic and best decisions. This is why most senior executives will tell you they depend strongly upon their “gut-feel” when making difficult decisions at a moment’s notice.

Beyond decision making, successful leadership across all areas becomes learned and instinctual over a period of time. Successful leaders have learned the mastery of anticipating business patterns, finding opportunities in pressure situations, serving the people they lead and overcoming hardships.   No wonder the best CEOs are paid so much money.   In 2011, salaries for the 200 top-paid CEOs rose 5 percent to a median $14.5 million per year, according to a study by compensation-data company Equilar forThe New York Times.

If you are looking to advance your career into a leadership capacity and / or already assume leadership responsibilities – here are 15 things you must do automatically, every day, to be a successful leader in the workplace:

1.  Make Others Feel Safe to Speak-Up

Many times leaders intimidate their colleagues with their title and power when they walk into a room.   Successful leaders deflect attention away from themselves and encourage others to voice their opinions.  They are experts at makingothers feel safe to speak-up and confidently share their perspectives and points of view.   They use their executive presence to create an approachable environment.

2.  Make Decisions

Successful leaders are expert decision makers.    They either facilitate the dialogue to empower their colleagues to reach a strategic conclusion or they do it themselves.  They focus on “making things happen” at all times – decision making activities that sustain progress.   Successful leaders have mastered the art of politicking and thus don’t waste their time on issues that disrupt momentum.  They know how to make 30 decisions in 30 minutes.

3.  Communicate Expectations

Successful leaders are great communicators, and this is especially true when it comes to “performance expectations.”   In doing so, they remind their colleagues of the organization’s core values and mission statement – ensuring that their vision is properly translated and actionable objectives are properly executed.

I had a boss that managed the team by reminding us of the expectations that she had of the group.   She made it easy for the team to stay focused and on track.  The protocol she implemented – by clearly communicating expectations – increased performance and helped to identify those on the team that could not keep up with the standards she expected from us.

4.  Challenge People to Think

The most successful leaders understand their colleagues’ mindsets, capabilities and areas for improvement.  They use this knowledge/insight to challenge their teams to think and stretch them to reach for more.   These types of leaders excel in keeping their people on their toes, never allowing them to get comfortable and enabling them with the tools to grow.

If you are not thinking, you’re not learning new things.  If you’re not learning, you’re not growing – and over time becoming irrelevant in your work.

5.  Be Accountable to Others

Successful leaders allow their colleagues to manage them.  This doesn’t mean they are allowing others to control them – but rather becoming accountable to assure they are being proactive to their colleagues needs.

Beyond just mentoring and sponsoring selected employees, being accountable to others is a sign that your leader is focused more on your success than just their own.

 6.  Lead by Example

Leading by example sounds easy, but few leaders are consistent with this one.   Successful leaders practice what they preach and are mindful of their actions. They know everyone is watching them and therefore are incredibly intuitive about detecting those who are observing their every move, waiting to detect a performance shortfall.

7.  Measure & Reward Performance

Great leaders always have a strong “pulse” on business performance and those people who are the performance champions. Not only do they review the numbers and measure performance ROI, they are active in acknowledging hard work and efforts (no matter the result).    Successful leaders never take consistent performers for granted and are mindful of rewarding them.  

8.  Provide Continuous Feedback

Employees want their leaders to know that they are paying attention to them and they appreciate any insights along the way.  Successful leaders always provide feedback and they welcome reciprocal feedback by creating trustworthyrelationships with their colleagues..   They understand the power of perspective and have learned the importance of feedback early on in their career as it has served them to enable workplace advancement.

9.  Properly Allocate and Deploy Talent

Successful leaders know their talent pool and how to use it.  They are experts at activating the capabilities of their colleagues and knowing when to deploy their unique skill sets given the circumstances at hand. 

10.  Ask Questions, Seek Counsel

Successful leaders ask questions and seek counsel all the time.  From the outside, they appear to know-it-all – yet on the inside, they have a deep thirst for knowledge and constantly are on the look-out to learn new things because of their commitment to making themselves better through the wisdom of others.

11.  Problem Solve; Avoid Procrastination

Successful leaders tackle issues head-on and know how to discover the heart of the matter at hand.    They don’t procrastinateand thus become incredibly proficient at problem solving; they learn from and don’t avoid uncomfortable circumstances (they welcome them).

Getting ahead in life is about doing the things that most people don’t like doing.

12.  Positive Energy & Attitude

Successful leaders create a positive and inspiring workplace culture.  They know how to set the tone and bring an attitudethat motivates their colleagues to take action.   As such, they are likeable, respected and strong willed.  They don’t allow failures to disrupt momentum.

13.  Be a Great Teacher

Many employees in the workplace will tell you that their leaders have stopped being teachers.   Successful leaders never stop teaching because they are so self-motivated to learn themselves.  They use teaching to keep their colleagues well-informed and knowledgeable through statistics, trends, and other newsworthy items.

Successful leaders take the time to mentor their colleagues and make the investment to sponsor those who have proven they are able and eager to advance.

14.  Invest in Relationships

Successful leaders don’t focus on protecting their domain – instead they expand it by investing in mutually beneficial relationships. Successful leaders associate themselves with “lifters and other leaders” – the types of people that can broaden their sphere of influence.  Not only for their own advancement, but that of others.

Leaders share the harvest of their success to help build momentum for those around them.

15.  Genuinely Enjoy Responsibilities

Successful leaders love being leaders – not for the sake of power but for the meaningful and purposeful impact they can create.   When you have reached a senior level of leadership – it’s about your ability to serve others and this can’t be accomplished unless you genuinely enjoy what you do.

In the end, successful leaders are able to sustain their success because these 15 things ultimately allow them to increase the value of their organization’s brand – while at the same time minimize the operating risk profile.   They serve as the enablers of talent, culture and results.

By: Glenn llopis

Source: Forbes

Great Employees Are Not Replaceable

One of the most important lessons I learned during my years as a CEO was that great employees are not replaceable. It isn’t the technology or the product that make a company great, it’s the people. And companies who see their good employees as “replaceable” are wrong. Good employees are not replaceable. Let me clarify what I mean by “replaceable.” Can a company hire someone to fill a position to replace someone else? Of course they can. In today’s market, the world is ripe with candidates who are eager and willing to take the job. But putting a behind in a seat doesn’t replace a great employee. It simply puts a new behind in a seat.

Business leaders who adopt the attitude that anyone is replaceable, thinking they can simply hire someone with a greater skillset or someone with a more prestigious pedigree, are fooling themselves. When a company has a truly great employee, that employee carries value that simply cannot be replaced. They carry deep institutional knowledge of the organization. They have extensive product, systems, and process knowledge. They hold client relationships that have been built over many years. They carry tremendous experience on what has worked and what hasn’t worked for the company in the past. And great employees have camaraderie and influence with their coworkers, which when lost, has an impact on the corporate culture.

When a company loses a great employee it causes the other employees to have reason for pause, thinking, “Why would that person leave the organization, and why would the organization let them get away? Is there something wrong with this company that I should be worried about? Perhaps I should start looking elsewhere myself.” Not only will other employees question it, but clients often question it as well. When clients trust an employee and that employee leaves, the clients begin to ask themselves the very same questions that other employees have, “Is there something wrong that I am unaware of? What would have caused that employee to leave? Should we be out looking for a new vendor?” The ripple effect of losing a great employee is tremendous and it goes well beyond what is easily quantified.

Companies need to be very thoughtful when making decisions around compensation for their employees. To deny a reasonable increase to a top performer in the organization can be a very costly mistake. To try and hire a replacement for a great employee will inevitably cost the organization significantly more money when they take into account the starting wage required in their attempt to “hire up,” not including the cost in time and money to train a replacement and get them up to full production, as well as the opportunity cost of having created a gap in the institutional knowledge of the business.

Obviously, there will be some life events that take great employees away from a company, which cannot be stopped. But when companies have the option to retain great employees, they should do everything in their power to do so. Companies who want to retain their top talent need to be willing to show them appreciation, compensate them well, and treat them with the respect they deserve. At the end of the day, it won’t be a great product or service or technology that makes a company succeed – it is great people that make a great company. Appreciate those men and women who dedicate their time and talents each day to make your company a success, because those are the people who cannot be replaced.

By: Amy Rees Anderson

Source:  Forbes

3 Reasons to Treat Employees Like Family

3 Reasons to Treat Employees Like Family

Applying some basic family principles to your employees can go a long way to improving loyalty and retention- especially during tough times.

When starting a business, your main objective usually involves turning a profit. As the business grows, your focus often expands to another key issue: your people.

Deciding to expand beyond your core start-up team reflects good times for the business, but don't underestimate the pressure that comes with a larger workforce. Much like a parent who provides for her children, a founder of a growing business often feels the pressure to provide for her employees, overseeing internal disputes, ensuring promised benefits and providing advice (both professionally and personally).

Here are three basic family principles that you can use to lead your team through the inevitable peaks and valleys of business:

1. Open Communication

Employees who believe they are "in the know" are more likely to believe they are a valued member of the team. Therefore, it's important to host a regular cadence of staff meetings or other communication forums to share both the good and the bad news. During tough times, make sure there are plenty of opportunities to answer questions and alleviate concerns. During good times, openly share new client wins, or pop the bubbly when revenue targets are reached. Find reasons to celebrate as a team and ensure all members are included in the festivities.

2. "Family Time"

Every now and then it's smart to take breaks, recharge, and reconnect as a team. Spending some quality R&R can boost moral or even mend some fractured relationships. There are many ways to provide "family time" to your staff, including occasional happy hours, off-site meetings, or other team-building events. For example, we volunteered over the holidays with a local non-profit organization to assist with weatherizing elderly homes. We all felt good about it afterwards, and had fun in the process.

3. Care

This seems like a no-brainer, but showing that you genuinely care about your people can boost performance when everyone is running at full speed. Empathy can go a long way with employees. Managers who take time to listen to their employees, understand their career objectives, and show that they care enough to help are likely to see better employee engagement and retention rates. And engaged employees can increase the chances of success and innovation for the organization

By: Herding Gazelles

Source: Inc.

Rules of the Game: 5 Truths Every Entrepreneur Need to Know

If I told you there were a handful of rules that guaranteed entrepreneurial success, you know I’d be lying-since no one can teach an entrepreneur what can only be learned by doing. While theory is no substitute for experience, there are principles that will keep you focused on your journey.

Here are the 5 that have served me best:

1. Don't think big. Think BIGGER.

You became an entrepreneur because you had a vision, a driving force that demanded and keeps demanding everything from you. Don’t chain that passion to reason- embrace it, use it and continually push the extent and reach of the vision that drives you. Remember, being timid never works in the epic journey towards building your own business.

2. Hire people smarter than you

As the founder and driving vision of your business venture you are expected to know everything but the simple reality is that you can’t. That’s not to say you should stop learning and improving your skill set every spare moment you get. The wisdom of real delegation comes from the simple understanding that there are others around you better equipped to handle what you are struggling to deal with alone, and by hiring the right people for the right job, it will make it easier for you to get to the next level.

3. Realize that perfect means ‘Good Enough’

Entrepreneurs know that ‘perfect’ is just a nice way of saying ‘a process’. Whatever you are driven to create, you have to realize it will never be perfect or even complete. Bringing a product or service to market successfully is dependent on a multitude of factors, many of them outside of your control and each one of them unwilling to wait for you to get it ‘perfect’. Get your idea good enough to launch-THEN spend your time perfecting it!

4. Get used to hearing ‘No’

You’re going to face rejection, derision and even laughter on your entrepreneurial journey. Your concept’s survivability comes down to how hard you believe it’s worth fighting for. If you are absolutely certain you are right no matter what, the one person who will always back you up is yourself. Being an entrepreneur means not only hearing no, it means saying no to yourself when things go sideways and your fear tells you to back down. No matter the setbacks, always remember that getting things wrong now clears up the space to get it right later.

5. Simplicity is the key

As an entrepreneur gets closer to the fulfillment of their dreams, they quickly discover that everything has become complex, from the business model to the message of the product or service itself. As I've said before, every good entrepreneur needs a great story. Unnecessary complexity all too often is the deal breaker when running that final stretch. It’s easy to be complex, but it’s hard to keep things simple. Taking the time to reduce everything to basic principles can make all the difference between success and failure.

While these are the 5 that have kept me focused (and sane!) on my journey, what are yours? What rules or principles do you keep in mind to stay focused and stay strong? I’d love to know.

By: Micha Kaufman

Source: Forbes

13 Tips for Starting Up in a New Industry

Don't be afraid to explore foreign territory. We asked successful young entrepreneurs for their most poignant pieces of advice for founders starting up in an unfamiliar industry.

The Young Entrepreneur Council asked 13 successful young entrepreneurs for their best tips for starting a new business in an unfamiliar industry. Here are their best answers.

1. Don't Be Afraid to Ask Questions

If you're new to an industry, don't cower at networking events or do the "smile-and-nod" when you're speaking to someone with deep industry expertise. Instead, use every interaction as an opportunity to learn. People will be excited to answer your questions--while you may worry that your queries will come off as ignorant, most likely, the other person will interpret them as engaged interest! --Doreen Bloch, Poshly

2. Study Top Direct Response Advertisers

Find the top direct response advertisers--the companies spending money every month--in your industry and study their ad copy. Respond to the ads and document their entire sales process. The top advertisers have already figured out the best method(s) to generate leads and sales and maximize lifetime value, so start with what's working for them. 

--Phil Frost, Main Street ROI

3. Find a Mentor

A mentor is pretty much your most powerful asset in any new industry. By finding a mentor willing to work with you, you can learn from their mistakes, accelerate your growth using their knowledge, insight and strategies, and get pre-qualified introductions to big players in your space. 

--Travis Steffen, WorkoutBOX

4. Leverage your Fresh Perspective

Get rid of all preconceived notions and fully immerse yourself in every aspect of the industry to gain a true understanding of the market and opportunities. Take advantage of the fact that you're not biased and that you bring a fresh perspective and viewpoint, potentially providing you with a strong competitive advantage. --John Berkowitz, Yodle

5. Talk to Customers and Partners Every day

In any start-up, you don't know what you don't know. This is especially true when you're entering an unfamiliar industry. Get started through research, studying the compeition and talking to mentors. But in order to refine your business and make sure that you are providing great value, you must chat with your customers every day. Figure out their greatest pain points and deliver against them. --Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

6. Presume Ignorance

If you're starting up in an unfamiliar industry, do not presume that you know the answers. In fact, assume the opposite and open yourself up to learning. Talk to as many people in the industry as possible, ask lots of questions, get to know key players and connectors, and marinate in this new knowledge. 

--David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services

7. Reconsider Whether It's the Right Industry

There are pros to tackling an industry you're unfamiliar with (fresh perspective, for example), but mostly, it's cons. Without an understanding of how an industry works, who matters in the space, and what competition already exists, succeeding in entrepreneurship just becomes more impossible (though, hey, don't let that stop you!). --Derek Flanzraich, Greatist

8. Attend a Trade Show...

There is usually a national or international trade show or conference in every industry, where the "who's who" all gather in one place. This is an event that you should be at. You'll have the chance to learn the lay of the land, meet hundreds of people in person and learn about what's new in your industry. It's also a great place to form new partnerships. Bring lots of business cards! --Luke Burgis, ActivPrayer

9...And Meet Your Match There!

Go to a trade show or networking event of the industry and notice who seems to have a strong presence, who knows everyone, and who is everyone talking about. Become friendly and close with that person, if they will let you. You can cut off a lot of trial and error time with the expert guidance! 

--Andrew Bachman, Scambook.com

10. Hire a Trustworthy Lawyer

A few years ago I started my first business after over 10 years of working for non-profits. I found myself so lost. I was signing documents and agreeing to things left and right. Because I didn't have my own personal lawyer or legal team advising me, I agreed to some of the dumbest terms in the history of the world and it eventually came back to bite me in the ass. I'll never do that again. --Shaun King, HopeMob

11. The Devil Is in the Details

Make sure that you try and plan as much as you can, but don't let it get you so bogged down that you don't actually do something. Know that there will be something you miss, accept that, and move forward. 

--Jordan Guernsey, Molding Box

  

12. Learn Why Others Have Failed

People naturally want to emulate success by analyzing successful business models, but I think it's more important to learn from companies that failed. There can be thousands of factors that contribute to business success, but when a business fails, it's often easy to pinpoint the the reasons...and avoid making the same mistakes yourself. 

--Nick Reese, Elite Health Blends

13. Accept Help from the Experienced

Reach out to your advisors. They want to help you in your new adventure, and it is your responsibility to let them. 

--Caroline Ghosn, The Levo League

By: Young Entrepreneur Council

Source: Inc.

Advice From the 23-Year-Old Who Said No to Mark Cuban

Advice From the 23-Year-Old Who Said No to Mark Cuban

Want to scale quickly? Meet the young entrepreneur who did it after he turned down a $200,000 check on "Shark Tank."

 What would you do if you were chosen to appear on the ABC reality show "Shark Tank," and then Mark Cuban offered to invest $200,000 in your company?

If you were Derek Pacque, the 23-year-old founder of CoatChex, you'd turn him down.

The Idea

CoatChex was born when Pacque, an entrepreneurship student at Indiana University, was told to come up with 10 pet peeves. "One was wearing my coat to the bar and not having anything to do with it," he says. His aggravation level peaked one night when he hid his coat in an out-of-the-way place only to find it had been stolen when he returned. When he asked bar owners why they didn't offer coat checks, they told him it was too messy, and too much of a hassle with patrons often losing tickets or leaving without their checked items.

"So I said, do you mind if I set something up?" Pacque recalls. "I'll deal with the customers and the hassles, I'll get out when you don't need me, and I'll give you a percentage of whatever we make." Three nightclubs signed on right away and the company earned $50,000 within its first few months.

Pacque and his team devised a free-standing kiosk where they could take in garments, and portable coat racks that could be assembled and disassembled quickly. They soon learned that tickets are indeed a hassle--drinking patrons are prone to lose them--so they designed a ticketless mobile system in which coat check attendants get a phone number and/or other information (such as social media handles) from patrons and take a quick picture of the patron's garment and a QR code. Patrons then retrieve their items with their phone number or other identifying information, eliminating the need for tickets and making it much easier to scale.

The Offer

Pacque saw Cuban's call for entrepreneurs to audition for "Shark Tank" and he sent in a description of his company. Last summer he appeared on the show, and Cuban wound up offering him $200,000 for a one-third stake. It was too little, Pacque believed. Though Cuban's people had put the value of CoatChex at $600,000, he could see the potential for fast growth and a much higher valuation.

Life After "Shark Tank"

That potential came true quickly, as Pacque's appearance on the show brought unexpected opportunities, such as providing "survivor" stations for the 7,000 participants at Life in Color, a concert and dancing event in which paint is thrown on the audience. Without CoatChex, Pacque explains, "There's nowhere for them to clean up afterward. This way they can check some extra clothes and we can provide towels for them to wipe the paint off. It's fun during the event, but you don't want to get it on your car seat on the way home."

In addition, CoatChex's ability to collect contact and social media information has created a new business model in which brands sponsor the coat check stations, making them free to patrons, and use the gathered information for market research and promotional purposes during and after the event. That's led to CoatChex being hired for some truly huge events, such as New York's Fashion Week 2013, which Pacque was preparing when we spoke.

What's Pacque's advice for other tiny companies that need to scale quickly? "The biggest thing for us was improving the team," he says. "I was trying to do a lot of things myself that other people can do better. We brought in an operations guy and a technical guy because that isn't really my expertise. I'm more of a sales guy." With these additions, CoatChex has eight full-time staff members, four seasonal managers, and anywhere from 15 to 75 part-time staff manning its coat check stations on event nights.

He also says CoatChex was able to grow more quickly when he stopped being constrained by his original vision for the company. "It was hard for me at first to go outside of what I knew--servicing coat checks for nightclubs," he says. "But there was a whole new level of opportunity that I hadn't seen before when I started looking outside that box."

By: Minda Zetlin 

Source:Inc.