S7 E37-40 Be sure your business will make money before you launch. Planning ahead leads to success with Jeremy Gray

Jeremy Gray – Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems
IBGR. Network. The World of Business at Your Fingertips

Be sure your business will make money before you launch. Planning ahead leads to success.

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Episode 37 Launching your business?  How to play to your team’s strengths? 5 best practices

Play to your strengths – they are your greatest asset
Wendy Anderson

Nothing happens without people and unless you are a solo practitioner you will be working with others as you launch your business. Your partners, employees, backers are not perfect, and it is your role as the leader of your business to keep the team together and provide an environment where they can perform at their best.
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1. An article in HBR published in 2016 cited some remarkable results when companies focused on their employee’s strengths:
   1. 10%-19% increase in sales
   2. 14%-29% increase in profit
   3. 3%-7% increase in customer engagement
   4. 9%-15% increase in engaged employees
   5. 6- to 16-point decrease in turnover (in low-turnover organizations)
   6. 26- to 72-point decrease in turnover (in high-turnover organizations)
   7. 22%-59% decrease in safety incidents
2. A Gallup survey found that the more hours in a day that an employee used their strengths the more likely they were to report feeling energized, happy, learning and being treated with respect.
3. Further people who used their strengths everyday were 3X more likely to report having an excellent quality of life and 6X more likely to be engaged at work.
4. How can you have happy team members and deliver impressive business results?
   1. First, of course you need to identify your employees’ strengths.
      1. Look for broad areas of talent. You probably already have a good idea of their areas of expertise. This can be refined, look to where they naturally gravitate. What do they do quickly and efficiently? When do they procrastinate? Talk to them about where they see their skill set.
5.  Leadership As the leader of your organization you need to set the tone were focusing on employee strengths is part of the culture. 
   1. All senior managers must embrace this concept if it is to be effective. Employees should believe in the statement: My manager focuses on my strengths
6. Generate awareness and enthusiasm for a strengths-based leadership style.
   1. One company displayed the employee’s top five strengths in their office or cubicle. 
   2. Identify and publicize when employees use their strengths to be successful
7. Keep strengths in mind when developing project teams.
   1. Assemble teams where team members can play to their strengths and support each other
8. As your company grows build a network of strengths advocates who support all employees using what they are good at to their best advantage.

Now, let’s be honest: employees can’t completely avoid their weaknesses. That just isn’t possible in the real world. But instead of having people waste too much time trying to improve in areas where they’re unlikely to succeed, managers can form strategic partnerships and thoughtful processes that help them work around their weaknesses. Data suggest that focusing energy on improving in areas that come most naturally to people reaps high returns, as employees and organizations that incorporate strengths as a strategy tend to realize significantly positive business results.

Tags: How to start a business, achieve start up success, employee strengths, profit improvement, engagement business growth, market penetration, the successful entrepreneur, business common mistakes small business start-up; avoid these common mistakes of business, mistakes in business, IBGR.network, Jeremy Gray, Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems

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Episode 38 Executing flawlessly – You set the tone, stay calm!
I may walk slowly but I never walk backwards
Abraham Lincoln

As the old saying goes – when the going gets tough, the tough get going. There will be times when executing your business plans seems an insurmountable challenge. It’s not but it can seem that way sometimes. Remember setbacks are inevitable, defeat is not.

You need to be proactive, keep the mood positive, calm your team when needed, remained poised to do not panic. Easier to say than to do when your dream is at stake. But by setting the right tone you can improve your chances of success. Let’s consider some ideas for success.

1. Stay focused – execute the plan.
   1. Focus on moving forward. Do not allow noise or distractions to disrupt the cadence of execution
   2. Remain flexible in the face of change or unforeseen circumstances
   3. Allow team members to focus on what they love to do. When they execute with passion, they will have the endurance to overcome setbacks.
2. Make accountability a culture
   1. Top performers and support players are equally important
   2. Make the accountable to themselves and each other. The expectations of peers is a powerful motivator
   3. Ensure they know their roles and responsibilities
   4. Ensure the work is fairly distributed. Team members who feel they are taking on too much of the burden can become isolated. Show that the team is greater than the individual players
3. Develop trust – like a family
   1. An atmosphere where teams trust and value the contributions of each other. They have each other’s backs. Form strong bonds
   2. Identify and eliminate hidden agendas
   3. Encourage a sense of humility -this in not all about the top performers.
4. Encourage diversity of thought
   1. Diversity of thought is underestimated in the development of teams.
   2. Diversity of thought broadens perspectives – deepens the pool of knowledge.
   3. Identifies new opportunities, expands creativity, improves dialogue and problem solving
5. Align the team’s expectations
   1. Know what to expect from each other
   2. Align to people’s strengths, correcting continually
   3. Do not become complacent. Find ways to improve and sharpen the ability to execute
6. The leader’s role
   1. Live the culture and identity of what you want the team to believe in and how they should behave. Your values and vision.
   2. 100% focused on the team (The servant leader)

Your team will take their cues from you. And this is much more about the way you act rather than the words you say. Avoid the “do as I say not what I do “syndrome. By staying calm and aligning the team to their strengths, making responsibilities clear you will improve your team execution.
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Tags: How to start a business, achieve start up success, employee strengths, Task execution, profit improvement, engagement business growth, market penetration, the successful entrepreneur, business common mistakes small business start-up; avoid these common mistakes of business, mistakes in business, IBGR.network, Jeremy Gray, Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems

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Episode 39 Execution is a critical skill – Four ways to improve your skills without working longer hours.

Without execution, 'vision' is just another word for hallucination.
Mark Hurd

Working longer hours in not a practical solution for most of us. Here are four sustainable ways to improve your execution skills.
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1. Be clear and methodical
   1. Avoid the temptation to jump into activities and get started before you get organized, create a plan, or make sure what you are doing is aligned with the company strategy
   2. Instead organize people, assemble your resources, then generate a plan.
   3. The plan should be one that people can commit to, without there will be poor or no execution
   4. Make it clear who is doing what. When people are collectively responsible no one is responsible
   5. Understand how your plan aligns with company’s strategy
2. Set goals and deadlines
   1. Goals help a team achieve their objectives and encourages engagements – milestones help to measure progress and celebrate wins.
   2. Pair goals with deadlines – our behavior changes when faced with deadlines.
   3. Goals and objectives give you a head start on meeting our objectives
      1. Ask what it would take to complete this project two weeks earlier.
      2. But too not push too hard – this can erode trust
3. Provide feedback – especially positive feedback
   1. Positive feedback provides motivation and motivation improves execution. 
   2. Become skilled at giving feedback
      1. Concentrate on the behavior not the person – describe the behavior, how you feel about it and what you want to have happen
      2. Use the sandwich approach – comment on positives, before the negatives and end with a positive
      3. Be specific – use examples to illustrate your point
      4. Be realistic – focus on what can be changed
      5. Own the feedback – use I rather than they or one. Feedback is your opinion
      6. Be timely. Be prepared
      7. Offer support
   3. Give recognition
4. Resolve conflict and build team unity
   1. Identify and resolve conflicts within the team Problems arise from differences of opinion.
   2. Eliminate where possible conflicting objectives, if these cannot be eliminated then ensure they are recognized.
   3. Encourage positive conflict not destructive and personal conflict
5. More ways to improve execution:
   1. Focus on what is most important. When it comes to execution complexity kills
      Clearly state the priorities – Avoid vague terms such as best in the industry. Avoid buzz words – sustainable, agile etc.
   2. Describe the steppingstones to success
   3. Identify your critical vulnerable – elements that must be implemented to achieve success yet are the most likely to fail
      1. If I was a competitor, how would I attack my company?
6. Tie the project to a vision of the futures 3 to 5 years from now.

Tags: How to start a business, achieve start up success, employee strengths, Task execution, profit improvement, engagement business growth, market penetration, the successful entrepreneur, business common mistakes small business start-up; avoid these common mistakes of business, mistakes in business, IBGR.network, Jeremy Gray, Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems

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Episode 40 Execution – Why do we struggle to get it right?
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work
Thomas A. Edison

We know that most initiatives fail, and that failure is commonly a failure of execution. The steps needed to execute are well known, yet companies, individuals, charitable institutions, governments often fail at the execution stage. Why should that be? Some ideas:

1. We fail to face up the subject of prioritization. 
   1. Prioritization leads to winners and losers
   2. Leaders tend to avoid these discussions
2. Clear decision-making responsibility is not spelled out and is not appropriately delegated.
3. Information does not flow freely throughout an organization and particularly to the top.
4. Good execution requires a systematic way of exposing reality and act upon it. Most companies do not face up to reality well.
5. There is no culture of execution.
   1. Presentations are too long
   2. Meetings focus on successes not examining failures
   3. There is a reluctance to challenge others conclusions and statements
   4. Goals are vague and timelines flexible
   5. There is a lack of accountability
   6. Managers fail to create the right atmosphere.
6. Insufficient resources are allocated to a project.
   1. In an article in Sloan Management review published in 2017 that surveyed 300 organizations – only 10% of respondents felt that all their company’s initiatives had the funds, people and management support needed to achieve success.
   2. Why should capable managers launch initiatives without providing the resources needed?
   3. This must go beyond just a failure to face up to the need to fund projects correctly.
7. An article published this month in HBR may provide an insight.
   1. Researchers surveyed 4 Fortune 500 companies and found:
      1. On average managers either did not know or remember 60% of the work their teams did
      2. One manager could only recall 4% of his teams’ activities
      3. Managers were shocked when they learned of the gaps in their knowledge
      4. This underestimates an employee’s productivity and how busy they are. And therefore, their capability to take on more.

Tags: How to start a business, inflation, supply chain, procurement, cost control, contract negotiations, achieve start up success The successful entrepreneur; business common mistakes; small business startup; avoid these common mistakes of business; mistakes in business; IBGR.network; Jeremy Gray; Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems


I am committed to helping entrepreneurs succeed. I can bring the experience of 30+ years of experience at the C-Suite level in an MNC from Europe, North America, and Asia. Combine this with seven years of helping a diverse range of businesses and I can provide you with practical solutions to any difficult problems you may be facing. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me for chat via the following links:

mailto:jeremy@business-in-asia.org

Or schedule time via Calendly:
https://calendly.com/3-continents-consulting

My websites include:
https://business-in-asia.org/
https://thedentistscfo.com/

​My LinkedIn URL
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-gray1

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