Who else wants to create a High-Performance Culture?

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I was having a conversation with a gentleman a couple of days before and he said, “Coach, you have been doing this for a while.” Indeed, I have been around for over 16 to 17 years now. He asked me, “What drives you?” I said, “For me to answer that, I will tell you what I am about right now.” My beliefs right now about business and about the world is that;

Through entrepreneurship and brave leadership, we can change the world and make a difference in this world. Great leaders can turn the world around. The world is built on great entrepreneurs coming up with great services, opening organizations, employing people and making things happen. So, I am a total believer in that.

How do you do what you do? I said, “After doing this for quite a while, you begin to pick up what works.” And we created the Rapid Influence System after going through so many culture change programs, sales trainings and leadership. We used to do everything until I realized and asked myself, what are those things that make a difference?

Today, I want to share with you the five business drivers. I have great admiration for great leaders and entrepreneurs, and I believe if, you look at these 5 things consistently, it doesn’t matter which part of your business you are in. If you are looking at them consistently you will make more money, you will make a bigger difference and you will have a bigger impact.

Customer Strategy.

How is the company strategically placing themselves in terms of customer strategy? What is their strategy for the market, acquiring, retaining and wowing their customers? In looking at that, you begin to understand what the foundations of this industry is. What do they think?

If you look at some of the greatest people out there who have made a difference in the industry, they have always had a fantastic customer strategy. They have always found a way to engage their customers and to acquire their customers. Everyone is about, how do we do it quick, quicker and better. How do you do it with connection and with love that your customers become your greatest assets and biggest marketers.

When you go to the mall, look around. How are these guys doing in terms of customer service? How do they attract their customers? What is their advertising? Does it have a story? Do they tell a great story? We always say, culture will always eat strategy for breakfast. The culture of an organization will have in there an element of customer strategy and customer retention.

How they deal with their customers? What they do that is different? What they do that makes their customers excited? You as a businessperson, ask yourself; what am I doing from a customer strategic point of view? How am I going about getting my customers? You could have the greatest product but, if there are no customers, the product isn’t going to do nothing for you.

 Employee engagement and development.

The quality of this particular attribute of business is important and sometimes small businesspeople, miss it. And this is very clear, especially to places where there is cheap labor, and people don’t care so much about the people. People don’t understand the power of engaging. It doesn’t matter which part of the world you go to, this particular quote cuts across. “People don’t care how much you know until, they know how you care.”

You can never build an empire and leave a legacy if you never looked after the people who helped you. It is impossible. If you create an organization where you’re not engaging your people, you’re not going beyond the norm, you’re not doing something about their personal development.

I had a conversation. Somebody, sometime called me and they had a challenge with the fact that, they could not develop leaders. I said, tell me how many people you have employed in the last 1 year. He said, we can’t count. I asked, why? He said, these guys just come and go because they have no purpose. I asked, what do you do to engage them? Nothing he said. What do you do to give them a reason to stay? Nothing he said. 

Guess what? This company will always just be there, just sailing. It can never take off. It can never create a market shift, why? It doesn’t have a strategy to deal with their people. It doesn’t have a strategy to develop their people.

Tony Robbins says, your people are either growing or dying. It is a psychological need. If you don’t have a strategy and you haven’t taken time to think about it. I ask my guys every beginning of the year; what do you want, where do you want to go and what do you want to do. It is important because then, they are growing. They can be in a position where they know I am getting better. That alone helps people to stay longer and give a little bit more. There are people who are not motivated by money necessary, but this all comes from your employee development and engagement strategy. It is beyond just an HR policy. It is a real business driver.

Quality process improvement and culture change.

What processes do you have in place to ensure that your processes are continuously getting better for improvement? It is in relation to the Japanese way of doing things. It is about constant improvement, constantly making sure you are doing something to get consistently better from a process point of view.

As a business leader, if you’re not thinking about that consistently, you’ve got a problem. There will be no growth most importantly, you will have people who are just status Co. You go to some of these government offices same thing. Every time they come in, they do and they go. There is no development, there is nobody doing things that create that difference.

So, what you need to be asking yourself as an entrepreneur is; what is my quality improvement process? How can we do this better? How can we improve this? Where is the new way of doing something? There has got to be a situation where you are consistently asking the question; how can we do this better?

Financial analysis, control and capital management.

It is not just how much money you make; it is how much money you keep. From a business point of view, it is not about making money, it is about creating wealth. I have been there, I have made a lot of money, but never created wealth at a certain stage. It was you make it; it goes. You’re not growing, you’re not making a difference. You are just hand to mouth.

As an entrepreneur, you must begin to think, what do I need to invest in to make sure that there is development. That the company stays long term and is contributing to the people. The company is creating a foundation that even if you are gone, it is still going to be here. That comes from you having a robust capital management system. 

As business owners, sometimes it is hard and sometimes the money is not there. But you’ve got to develop the discipline to say, I am going to start looking at this a little bit more to make sure that, there is a going concern 5, 10, 15, 20 years from today.

Innovation and market dominance.

If you are not doing things that take you to another level. If you are not doing things that ensure that you are the to go to person. And if you are not asking consistently what the customer wants. See how the hotel industry is scrambling to see that, they can compete even more.

Look at what has happened. Now they are looking at self-driving trucks. It doesn’t matter which business you are in, doesn’t matter how small, ask yourself a question. How can I serve better? How can I give my customers better? How can I do what I have to do to ensure that am remaining relevant in my industry?

And with those, I guarantee that by focusing on them and doing what you ought to do, together we can make a difference. We can be the entrepreneurs who make the world move in a better direction.