This article is from Focus421, Inc. 

Every business has a similar principle; you could even call it a law that must be followed in order for it to be successful.  That principle is efficient capacity.

The interesting thing about a medical practice is that it is a lot similar to the airlines.  In the case of the airlines, they do not make money until every seat on the plane has someone sitting on it.  A well-run airline will always keep themselves at 100% capacity by having every sit filled on every plane flying through the air.

If you look at your own practice, you have the same need.  You need to keep your seats filled.  In your case it is your schedule that replaces the seat.  You need to manage your capacity so that it is efficient.

Poorly Managed Capacity

An airline looking to boost their profits quickly will introduce a fare sale to create capacity on a particular run or for a particular time of year.  The problem with that is they tend to have too many tickets for too few seats.  If you have ever flown in your life, you know the dread you have when you hear the gate agent start to request volunteers.  Yes, the bumping is about to begin.

Your practice is exactly the same way.  If you run a traditional office, your schedule is booked out during particular “sick seasons” like flu and pneumonia.  If you run a more elective based practice then you can create over capacity through incentives or specials.  Either way the result is the same: over crowded waiting rooms, patients waiting for what seems like hours to them, and over worked frustrated staff.  The only difference between you and the airlines is that you do not bump anyone.

Efficient Capacity Starts With Three Simple Steps

Your first step is to understand exactly how your practice/business operates.  The best way to know that is to look at your data.  If you are using an EMR/EHR system, then you have a database at your fingertips that can supply you with tons of information.  If you just have a scheduling software program, you are still good.  You are even doing great if you carry a calendar with you.  Either way, you have the data in your hands to start looking at the capacity of your practice.  As you review your data, you need to be looking for holes in your schedule that can be filled as well as which days are always over booked.

Your second step is to train your staff to fill the holes in your schedule and look at the days where they are overbooking and then stop it.  The key to efficient capacity is to fill every seat, not overbook every seat.  Once your staff understands this concept they then need to be trained on what patient is best fitted for a specific time slot.  Like the airlines, you have premium times and not so premium times, you want to maximize your revenues by putting the right patient in the right time slot.  The airlines call that first class seating and coach.  Does that mean you treat your patients differently? No it does not, you give them the same level of service that every patient deserves: excellent service.  Your practice is not an airline when it comes to service.

Your third and final step is to look at your physical assets.  Is your office big enough to handle the capacity?  Is it the reason you are overbooked, because you simply do not have enough room?  If you have done steps one and two and have arrived that this step is the cause for your inefficient management of capacity, then your business is in a great place!  It means you are now set to upgrade your plane and start building a larger, stronger practice!

If you do not efficiently manage your capacity, you run the risk of losing repeat business, and are most likely are quietly bleeding revenue.  Any healthcare professional knows that a silent bleed is a dangerous thing to have.

Finding Answers - Business Coaching tools, tips, and other information you can use today! Create Capacity To Build Your Business

Typically when a business begins to choke, or feel like it is being choked, it is normally around financial pressures. The inability to generate cash flow combined with increase desire of creditors/vendors to get paid can choke the life out of a company. That is not what I am talking about. In this case is one person, who holds all the vital knowledge your company needs to survive, choking your company to death?

Vital person? You ask yourself, does he mean the researcher, the CEO, or the intellectual resource behind the business? Nope. Not at all. This person typically does not have such lofty titles. In fact this person, who has a death grip on your company, holds a common title and/or is not seen as part of the decision making team. They are trusted and given numerous tasks to be completed on a daily basis. Without this person, your CEO and other leaders would be lost. This person of danger is known as the Executive Assistant, the Office Manager, or the Receptionist.

How did they get a grip on the throat of your company?

Easy, you gave it to them.

The Over Delegation Trap

In a small business it is easy to have one person who knows the passwords, how to collect money, reconcile the books, and provide other essential tasks that the business owner or executive does not have time for himself or herself. It is one of the reasons why you hired and created the position. There in lies the fatal mistake. By not having members of the leadership team trained to understand what this individual does you leave your company to their mercy.

You have essentially created one avenue of approach for information to be shared and key functions to be executed. Slowly over time other decisions become tied to this central hub – in essence the neck – of your company. This employee has the ability to cripple operations because they hold the key to vital information.

Avoid The Trap

First assess the membership of your team and ask yourself this important and serious question: What would happen if they suddenly no longer existed? How would the business survive?

If you cannot answer that question at all or you come with a Dooh! situation, then you know for sure that your company could seriously be choked to death.

Avoiding placing a grip around the neck of your company you need to do the following:

• Create a catastrophe plan for the business that has back-ups for all employees. These back-ups should be trained in the procedures of the business that the primary employees execute.
• Everyone in the management team on how to accomplish essential tasks like invoicing, collection, and the decision making process.
• Resist the urge to over delegate what you consider to be non-essential tasks. Every executive should be adults and know how to book their own travel.
• Encourage your assistant to educate you on how they perform their jobs.

Picking On A Position

Get Yourself Trained!

Now if you have gotten this far I am sure you are wondering how the Executive Assistant, Officer Manager, or the Receptionist can be such a danger to you. It has been my experience that these highly professional individuals tend to be the Achilles heel of a business through their desire to support their boss and/or team. In this desire, through no fault of their own, they are handed more responsibility and access to key parts of the business. It is simply the nature of their position.

They do not willfully hold the business by the neck. It just happens over time and then that day comes when they leave, get sick, or something worse. That is when your business suddenly discovers that it is being choked to death.

Finding Answers - Business Coaching tools, tips, and other information you can use today! Is your business about to be choked to death?

When you start your own business you are the go to person.  You have the vision, you have the drive, and you seek out vendors that can do for you what you cannot do for yourself.  You delegate through contracting.

When your business expands and grows you hire employees to fill key roles.  These roles are the delegation of decisions and roles that you cannot complete by yourself.  That is why you hired them, correct?

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom – Charles Peguy

Leader, Tyrant, or Both?

The breakdown for most business leaders and owners begins when they don’t give-up control when they delegate.  Sure they say that they are delegating and giving their employees a chance to be innovative, then in next breath the do the following:

• Overrule every decision by the person whom they delegated the task to.
• Constantly “hover over” the person and interrogating every action being taken.
• Create unrealistic expectations for the person they delegated the task to so they can jump in and “rescue” the project.

If you look at the past business leaders you have worked for I am sure you can find a few more examples where they cut the legs out from their employees.  The question you need to ask yourself is: Are you like them?

Delegate Or Roll The Dice

Are you the dreaded and often feared micromanager?

The first rule of management is delegation. Don’t try and do everything yourself because you can’t. – Anthea Turner

How Great Leaders Delegate

If you are like the dread micromanager, please stop right now! If you are not one, then by all means you can avoid becoming one by following the steps below.

Great leaders delegate with a premise that makes their employees rise to the challenges and take pride in their abilities.  It starts with treating each of the equally as individuals.  This means helping their employees play to their strengths.  When a  a business owner/great leader delegates a task they already have in their mind who is the best fit to carry it through.   Great leaders succeed in delegation by:

• Providing clear instructions to their employees.
• Describing clear expectations for the task.
• Allowing their employees to make decisions.
• Providing clear deadlines for task completion.
• Setting up their employees for success through playing to their strengths.

Great leaders/business owners follow-up their delegated tasks by inspecting what they expect and nothing more.

Now there are some that would argue that they are called micromanagers but that they are really just inspecting what they expect from their employees.  The difference is that great leaders are inspecting the expectations that they clearly described to their employees.  The micromanager inspects every step in the process because inherently they do not trust the employee to succeed.

Great leaders trust and believe that their employees are going to succeed until proven differently.  When failure does occur, great leaders look to themselves first to see if they did not provide clear expectations, direction, and the tools necessary for the delegated task to be completed successfully.  Great leaders know that the buck stops with them.  Micromanagers always assign blame.

Strive in becoming a great leader.  Delegate decisions as best you can to the lowest level so you can lead your business.  Set clear expectations and believe in your employees.  Inspect what you expect and nothing more.

What have you witnessed as the difference between great leaders and micromanagers?

Finding Answers - Business Coaching tools, tips, and other information you can use today! How To Be A Great Leader: Delegate And Inspect

We have all heard the maxim, “Dress to impress.”  In fact it is a given that how you dress speaks volumes about your character, your self-awareness, and your ability to deliver.  When you dress like a bum, people will treat you like one.  So when you stare out at your employees, or even yourself in the mirror, how do you look?  What message are you sending?

How You Look Determines Whom You Attract

No matter what type of economy you are in, it is hard to attract new leads and customers.  There is a lot of time and effort that goes into finding a lead, qualifying a lead, and helping them make the decision to choose your business.  All of that equals money.

How you present yourself, from your web presence to what you actually wear to meeting your potential lead, will determine whom you attract.

If you want high spending clients, then you better have a polished website grammar and all.  You better make sure you dress professionally and like you fit in.  Your social media presence must also be a reflection of what you want to present.  (That means the keg stand pictures have got to go!)

How you look and present yourself, determines whom you attract.

If you are not getting any leads, are you dressed to impress or not?

Looking Great Never Stops

Your presentation does not end after you have obtained the new client.  In fact in order for you to keep your client, you better perform and present better than when you were trying to attract them.  Failure to do so presents doubts in your client’s mind about where there are investing their money and spending their time.  That means opportunities for you to lose them to your competitors if you are not presenting your best.

Nice White T-Shirt Uniform

If you are nodding your head in agreement as you read this, then are you inspecting what you are expecting of your business?

If you are not nodding your head, you better start taking a good look around and clean things up!

Why It All Matters

It comes down to having pride in what you do and the products you deliver.  That pride transfers a feeling of quality and value in your customers.  That pride in your presentation will also determine how much you can charge your clients.

We have all been to Wal-Mart.  (I know you won’t admit it, but you have, I know you have.) That wondrous big box store of items you can buy cheaply.  If you have had the pleasure, and you have, to walk through the store you find the following:

• Crowded aisles
• Clothing falling off the racks
• Product damaged, misplaced, or on the floor
• The over all feeling of the store being dirty

Those atmospherics give you the impression that the items you are going to buy will be cheap and most likely of poor quality.  Does your business present itself the same way?

The next time you have the pleasure of going to your local post office, take a look at the postal clerks and their surroundings.  You will see lots of signs telling you, the customer, what you cannot do or most likely did wrong.  You will see your civil servant, whom is paid by your tax dollars, dressed in their uniform.  A postal uniform that is either too tight, dirty, covered with pins and stains, or maybe they will be in just a t-shirt.  What does that say about the quality of their product?

How you present yourself matters, because when given a choice, your client will always choose the option that makes them feel valued and that quality will be delivered.  For your business to be profitable, it has to have clients that want value and quality.  Otherwise you have just created a commodity mindset and you will always be beaten on price.

How does your business dress?

Finding Answers - Business Coaching tools, tips, and other information you can use today! Is Your Business Dressed For Success?

When you work on your business plan you are working on a map for your future.  You plan how you are going to make money.  You work out the expenses you expect to keep low.  You project the earnings you are going to get from selling your product/services.  You even plan out the structure of you business.  Your business plan is about a positive profitable future.  Yet, do you plan for the worst?

Just as it is important to plan for expenses, staffing, marketing, and how you will obtain business, it is just as important to plan how your business will react to a catastrophe.  This post is not talking about losing sales or not getting the expected margin of return.  While that would be a catastrophe to some, the real catastrophes result in the physical destruction of the business.

Business owners and executives should have a plan of what they will do and whom they will rely on when a business catastrophe occurs.  Do you have one?

In Case Of Emergency Break Glass

Where Does Your Business Turn To?

While you are pulling all the financial/marketing data together to build out your business plan for 2011, you should also be conducting a review of your emergency procedures.  Just like the airlines do prior to every airplane departure.  Where are your exits, how to use your life vests, and who is in charge?

Of course your business is not filled with cramped seats and bad food. (It isn’t right?)

What items you should look for in your review:

• What does your business insurance cover/not cover? The last thing you want to be discovering after a catastrophe is that your inventory is only covered at 50% or the vertical wind that threw the car into your business is not covered.  Talk to your agent about what their role is in helping you with a claim in case one happens.  Ask them about their experience working with your carrier if you need to file a claim.

• When, how, and where do you back up your computer data? If you think a back-up drive or external drive is enough… they are not.  Back-ups to remote locations are great, but what about their back-ups?  Before you settle on a remote back-up provider research what their policies and procedures are backing up your back-up.

• Where are your physical documents stored? At a minimum you better have a fire safe for your most important physical documents.  Copies should also be held in another safe at another location, like a bank safety deposit box.

• Who is your emergency team? Every business should have one.  Even if you are a one-person operation, you do have a team.  They are your lawyer, accountant, insurance agent, your landlord, and your family.  For businesses with a staff, they are identified members of your leadership team.

• What are your priorities for saving? It sounds a little silly but you should play this game with yourself and your emergency response team: The office is on fire you can save only one thing for the business, what is it?

The answers you receive should help you decide the most essential items you need for you business to survive.  Those items should be stored, backed-up, and distributed to the members of your emergency team.  That way your team can have the information they need to keep your business running.

These five steps are key to making sure your business survives a catastrophe.  Businesses, just like individuals, who are prepared for the worst – no matter how remote the possibility may be – are more likely to survive and even thrive.

So while you plan for the success of your business, is your business prepared to break the glass in case of an emergency?

Finding Answers - Business Coaching tools, tips, and other information you can use today! 5 Steps Your Business Must Take To Survive

I first want to start out by saying that this post is not paid for, nor any form of compensation received, by the Starwood Hotels Group, Aloft hotels, or the great city of Chesapeake, Virginia. Instead it is merely my observations on what transpired on a snowy day, 26 December to be exact, and how a remarkable individual made a dreary experience warm and bright.

By now, the latest storm of the century has passed by and while New York continues to be plagued by cars left on the streets – even hotdog stands were abandoned – the recent blizzard may have shattered dreams, but not mine. While I woe for the loss of excellent customer service at normal times, it is during extreme conditions where it is really needed. So I experienced being snowed in at the Aloft Hotel in Chesapeake, Virginia.

A Great Place To Stay

Snow, when a hint of it happens, brings everything in the Chesapeake Bay area to a stand still. Everything closes and everyone hunkers down. So when a blizzard combined with a Nor’ Easter dumps close to a foot of snow, well you can imagine that they area becomes a ghost town.

Even if I had driven a super duper four wheeled colossus SUV with the cool trim, there would be nothing open to drive to. Stuck as I was, I needed food. I needed to get out of the box of a room that I was in (which is still larger than the standard studio in New York) and move around. I made my way to the lobby of the Aloft Hotel, where the bar, food, and humanity awaited.

The bar was packed; a couple was eating their dinner while playing pool, a man waited at the front-desk, and the phone ringed incessantly. Chaos seemed imminent and my desire for thirst/food satisfaction my not happen at all. Here I found Joseph.

Joseph, the poor lad, was an army of one. He was the bartender, cook, front-desk, snow clearer, and bell hop. His comrades unable to make it in due to the snow, he was alone. I was not expecting much given the conditions I just wanted food.

Joseph greeted me with a smile and quickly summed up the situation. He kept eye contact with me an explained how he would take care of me needs as long as I understood that there would be some time involved. I nodded in agreement and took my seat by the fireplace while Joseph finished checking the man at the front-desk in.

Packed but with snow outside!

What I witnessed was beyond customer service. It was really leadership.

It started with how Joseph greeted me. Even though there were twenty plus others all needing his attention, he made me feel as if I was the only one that mattered. He addressed up front my concerns: will I be fed, will I be helped, and will I see him again if I need him. Joseph also set a level of expectation that most other people I don’t think would ever think to do. He rallied my spirits by thanking me for my patience before it was even called up.

Joseph did this with everyone he met, talked to on the phone, and helped.

What he did well was enlist the support of everyone else in the lobby/bar. So if Joseph were in the kitchen preparing someone else’s meal and a new person walked in, a customer at the bar would explain the situation. When he had the chance Joseph would introduce new people settling in at the bar to those already there. If there was a time to rest, Joseph did not take it. Instead he walked around the room and made sure everyone was well taken care of. Joseph behaved like a leader.

My worries were eased upon meeting him and the atmosphere was one of joy for everyone that was there.

Joseph did not just serve; he led as any leader would in crisis. He controlled what he could. He enlisted the support of those around him. He set expectations that he over delivered on. He made sure that everyone was taken care of.

So if you find yourself in Chesapeake, Virginia, and you need a place to stay. I suggest the Aloft Hotel. Ask for Joseph, he will take care of you.

Finding Answers - Business Coaching tools, tips, and other information you can use today! Leadership On A Cold Winter’s Night

I recently had the honor of being asked to write a few guest posts for Pharmaphorum.  This is a wonderful little online community that has brought together marketers, scientists, salespeople, and consultants to discuss some of the pressing issues in the pharmaceutical industry.  What is great about it (besides that they

publish some of my stuff) is that it brings together individuals who are mid-level with-in the various organizations.  These are the implementors, thinkers, dreamers, and soon to be leaders of the industry.

Here is a snippet from the article:

Twentieth Century Fox released a movie about a month ago titled “Love And Other Drugs.” The film is about a pharmaceutical salesman who meets the love of his life at a doctor’s office, a romantic-feel-good-comedy film for the 2010 holiday season. This article is not a review of the film. Instead it is a review of the current lack of value in present day pharmaceutical sales.

First, back to the film. If you have seen the trailer or even the movie then you will know that it portrays a pharmaceutical representative as vain, flirtatious, and all about delivering food, gifts, flowers, etc. to the staff of physicians and the doctors themselves. All the stops are pulled out in pitching the marketing message to get the doctors to write more brand x. In the case of the movie it is Viagra™.

You might say that this is a stereotype. It is. As with all stereotypes there is a hint of truth to them that cannot be denied.

In the case of the pharmaceutical representative the stereotype is clear about one thing: they no longer really provide value in conversations with physicians.

“The most common industry payments to physicians have taken the form of gifts, such as meals… pens, mugs, and other tchotchkes that prominently feature the names of companies or their products.” – Robert Steinbrook, M.D.

Please click here to read the post in full.

Do Not Trust The Drug Rep!

Finding Answers - Business Coaching tools, tips, and other information you can use today! The Value of Pharmaceutical Sales Conversation

Steps To Success

This time of year – beyond the holiday shopping and slow down in business – is when most business leaders, executives, and owners start to plan.  They reach into the filing cabinet or search their computers and dust off last year’s business plan.  It is that annual ritual of reading what they thought they would do this year (and didn’t) and write out what they will do for next year (and most likely forget about.)

“The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.” — Sun Tzu

So if you are going through that torture or exercise, how do you measure your progress?  Do you tie the momentum of your plan to milestones?  Or is there a better way?

What Is The Difference?

Milestones are really measurements along a particular path.  Think about the name for a second.  It really means a stone that measures the length of a mile.

Discussing Decision Points In The Plan

A decision point is a place in your plan where you have to make a decision.  Duh!

You might say that the milestone is a measurement for a decision.  It can be.  Usually the decision is either one of two possibilities: Continue on the current path or kick some butt for missing the milestone.

A decision point is reached from actually war gaming or testing your business plan.  As you write out the marvelous achievements you plan to make in 2011, making you a household name, you need to test them against reality or possibilities.

An example would be making certain sales goals or marketing conversion goals.  If using milestones to measure your plan’s progress, you would most likely say that you are going to do x by y time and have that = the milestone.  A decision point would be to look at factors before, during, and after the milestone.  A decision point is a series of what if’s:

• What if you reach x sales before y time?
• What if you fail to reach x sale before y time?
• What if you exceed x sales at z time?
• What if the market collapses before y time?
• What if a new competitor enters after y time?

You get the drift.  You can ask almost an infinity of different what if scenarios.  The key is exploring what your alternatives will be and therefore create decision points.

The decision points make you act!

“Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.” — Sun Tzu

A Combination Helps

The use of milestones to measure progress combined with decision points is that it breathes life into your business plan.  It makes it a living part of your business and not some annual exercise.  When you combine decision points with your milestones for your business plan you create the ability to be nimble, take advantage of opportunities, and are ready for any setbacks that might occur.  It is you best attempt to see all sides of problem/opportunity.

How do you go about testing your business plan?

Finding Answers - Business Coaching tools, tips, and other information you can use today! Milestones Or Decision Points? What Do You Measure?

The year is winding down and it could be said that 2010 is (was) the year of Facebook and social media.  The number of subscribers to Facebook has gone north of 500 million.  The number of big brands claiming their Fan Pages has grown dramatically as well.  Small businesses are flocking to social media, Facebook in particular, seeking a new means to engage potential customers.  Social Media has even captured the cover of the Harvard Business Review.

Which begs one to question: is social media only about marketing and therefore only for marketers?

“A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling, ‘Stop!’” – William F. Buckley, Jr.

All the case studies about engagement and conversation have revolved around big brands with large marketing budgets.  Think of Old Spice as one example.  Where is the successful Mom & Pop Small Business story?  The one where they pulled it off by themselves without using a marketing or social media guru?

Take a look at the backgrounds of who writes some of the most influential blogs about social media.   They are mostly marketers.

Review all of the posts and articles you’ve saved on social media tips.  Most of them approach social media on how to attract, engage, and convert into customers your “followers.”  An approach that is typical for a marketing person.

Therefore is social media really is not an engagement platform for ideas, building communities, and strengthening bonds.  Instead it is a new means to advertise business.

“Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have for something they don’t need.” – Will Rogers

Social Media Tips In 3 Easy Steps

Any post or insights into social media can really be broken down into three easy steps.  (Hint it is the same to print, tv, radio, and mailer advertising.)

1)   Create great content that draws attention!

2)   Entertain and educate the audience!

3)   Ask the audience to do something!

Otherwise known as a hook, a benefit, and a call to action.   It is the same thing that you see in advertising; the domain of marketers.  Is social media really that different?

The Backlash Is Coming

In my dealings with small businesses about social media the conclusion to the conversation is always the same: it is just another marketing tool.  The business owners I work with see it as such and just want to use it to drive traffic.  While I try to preach about building communities, engaging fans, and creating great content the end goal is always the same: make a sale.

The horror... the horror...

The alluring siren song of social media is that it is free.  It does not cost a company anything to set up a number of accounts and download a tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck and begin posting.  The only cost is time.  Time to learn, plan, create content and use the social media platforms to build a following.

The result is the same for most businesses (even large ones) who use social media: the posting of sales, gift certificates, events, and specials.  The noise level increases and it becomes harder for the message to get through.  Social media is becoming like email newsletters – another form of junk mail and telemarketing.

As with junk mail and telemarketing that led to opt-out lists, so too is social media heading in that direction.   Already businesses are seeing paltry openings of their email blasts, their fans choosing to hide updates in their feeds, and the failure to gain a large number of conversions.

What was once special and Pollyannaish about social media – creating communities of conversation and knowledge – has been boiled down to another advertising platform.  More noise to an already marketing saturated business environment.  It is only going to get worse.

“I’ve never found a client’s business problem that could be solved solely through advertising.” – Lee Clow

Your Call

So I ask you, what is your take on social media?  Is it only for the professional marketers?  Or is there really a success story out there about a small business that built a strong vibrant community?

Finding Answers - Business Coaching tools, tips, and other information you can use today! Debate: Is Social Media Only For Marketers?

During a presentation on building talented business teams and better morale that I gave, a question was raised about who is ultimately responsible for morale.  One audience member had taken the position that it is the responsibility of the leader or leadership to set the tone.  Another audience member felt it was incumbent upon the employees to be responsible for their own morale.   The lines were quickly drawn and debate ensued!

Is it not – like most things in life – a little bit of both or is the responsibility for morale that clearly defined?

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Being the presenter (and not wanting to be subjected to a good old fashioned tarred-&-feathering) I moderated the debate as opposed to taking a side.  Yet, this being my article, I think it is best to take a side.

Morale is the responsibility of the leader and leadership.

As humans – no matter what your ethnic, political, or religious background may be – we build ourselves into hierarchical structures.  From governments to corporations, the role of a leader is defined by title, position, and power.  Since we set ourselves up in such structures, those that are not the leaders tend to look to them for inspiration, guidance, and direction.

Morale is faith in the person at the top. — Anonymous

A Team Whose Morale Was Tested Frequently

Take a professional sports team – any league will do – that is hugely successful in the only area that counts: championships.  These teams, which could be described as being a collection of hired guns, have to function as a unit to achieve success.  No bankroll large enough can buy a championship.  These successful teams have coaches, captains, and unelected/unrecognized peer leaders amongst them.  It is that leadership council that rallies the rest of the team to perform, overcome obstacles, and claim victory on the field.  Without a leader who inspires and motivates then self-interest takes over and the teams fail to achieve.

If your business or team struggles with morale, as a leader it is your duty to look at yourself first.  Are you putting your self-interests, desires, worries, complaints, and problems before the team’s desires?  Do you wear your emotions so readily on your sleeve that the slightest setback can be seen miles away?  Does your team walk on eggshells around you?  Or will they rally to you no matter what?  Be honest.  You, as the leader, set the tone.

You know that to be true, for we can all intricately describe a bad leader.  We all know one when we see them.  Not only can they not strategize, plan, or execute, but also they have an impact on our emotions as followers.  We fear to be around them.  We dread their mood swings.  We seek shelter from their bad behavior.  All of which has a negative impact on morale.  Therefore, the leader is directly responsible for the morale of team.

Follow Me!

As an owner, leader, or manager it is you duty to do the following:

1.)  Realize that your decisions – even minor ones – can impact the morale of your team.

2.)  Seek to build a team that rallies to you and each other.  Build a culture of high standards.

3.)  The buck always stops with you.

These three simple steps, executed on a daily basis, will help you build a strong and high morale team.  Granted there is more to than just these three steps, but they are the beginning.  To achieve them, you must realize that morale starts and ends with you: the leader.

I am interested in knowing where you stand on this debate.  I have laid out a case and look forward to defending it.  Who do you believe is responsible for morale?

Finding Answers - Business Coaching tools, tips, and other information you can use today! A Debate: Who Is Responsible For Morale?