Lesson for the day...

Congruency is an interesting thing in business. As a leader or business owner we are always asking our employees to do things a certain way and expect them to do it. It may be that we want them to track their results and report them, or maybe there is a certain system you have set up in your department or business that you want them to follow.

The interesting thing is...how often do we as owners not follow that prescribed process. It is so easy to tell others what we want done but why is it so much harder for us to apply it to our own job or business?

I had a situation today on a conference call today where that message came through loud and clear. It was a great reminder that what is good for our employees to do is also good for us to do in order to make sure the business runs the way we want it to. I wonder how many times we catch ourselves not doing things the way they should be and let it go. Having the discipline to correct ourselves as well as our employees is really essential to becoming a great leader and building a great company!

A great book by Michael Jordan on excellence

I recently read a great book written by Michael Jordan titled, I Can't Accept Not Trying, Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence. If you have a chance, pick up a copy of this book and give it a read. It is only 36 short pages long but is packed full of insights from arguably the best basketball player ever to play the sport.

I had the opportunity to see Jordan play several times when I lived in Chicago and it was a treat every time. He just had a way of making everyone else on the floor look like they were a step behind. He understood what excellence was all about and pursued it with an absolute passion.

In his book he tells how his experience of getting cut from the varsity team as a sophomore in high school taught him a lesson about setting goals and creating a vision and then getting after it. He set a goal of becoming a starter the next year on the varsity team and then focused on it as he practiced all summer long. When he hit that goal he set another one and just kept going.

Jordan tells how he visualized where he wanted to be and what kind of player he wanted to become. He says, "I guess I approached it with the end in mind. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I focused on getting there. As I reached those goals, they built on one another. I gained a little confidence every time I came through." What a lesson there is in that for all of us.

We can say that Jordan was born with the ability to play basketball and who knows, maybe he was. But the reality is Jordan knew what he wanted and went after it. Think what we could all accomplish in our life and our business if we approached every day the same way he did! I think it's a great life lesson for all of us and one we can all learn a lot from.

There are a lot of great lessons in this book and it will only take you about 20 minutes to read. Pick up a copy and learn a little from Michael. He can teach all of us a lot about how to lead the life we want.

Let me know what you think about it when you're done!

Posted by Coach Dennis Kelley

The Value of Focusing on Solutions

Too often we focus on the problems we face and lose sight of the fact that most of us are paid to identify solutions (too bad our politicians don't understand that.)

A mentor of mine told me early on what I'm sure you've heard plenty of times: "Don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions." It wasn't that he couldn't solve the problem himself; he was a very smart man. However, I learned that he trusted me to come up with the solution because I was the one closest to it to begin with and he believed in his own ability to put the right people in place.

I ran across this great example of the value - in terms of real dollars and time - of focusing on solutions. I hope you like it too...

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink won't flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

And what did the Russians do...??

They used a pencil.

It's all about Perspective

Check out this interesting poem that was sent to me by a friend in Australia, hence some of the "mis-spellings." ;-)

Have you ever been in a position like this?

The Cookie Thief

--Valerie Cox

A woman was waiting at an airport one night,
With several long hours before her next flight,

She hunted for a book in the airport shop,
Bought a bag of cookies, and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book, but happened to see,
That the man beside her, as bold as could be,

Grabbed a cookie or two, from the bag in between,
Which she tried to ignore, to avoid a scene.

She munched cookies, and watched the clock,
As this gutsy cookie thief, diminished her stock.

She was getting more irritated, as the minutes ticked by,
Thinking, if I wasn’t so nice, I’d blacken his eye.

With each cookie she took, he took one too,
When only one was left, she wondered what he’d do.

And with a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh,
He took the last cookie, and broke it in half.

He offered her half, as he ate the other,
She snatched it from him, and thought, Oh brother.

This guy has some nerve, and he’s also so rude,
Why he didn’t even show any gratitude.

She had never known when she’d been so galled,
And sighed with relief when her flight was called.

She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate,
Refusing to look back at the thieving in-grate.

She boarded the plane and sank in her seat,
Then sought her book, which was almost complete,

As she reached in her baggage, she gasped in surprise,
There was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.

If mine are here, she moaned with despair,
Then the others were his, and he tried to share.

Too late to apologise, she realized with grief,
"I was the rude one, the in-grate, the thief."

Why Have a Coach?

I was contemplating a conversation I had the other day with a person who asked, "Why would a business owner need or want a coach? After all, they're the expert in their business..." An excellent question and one that I hear frequently.

The reality is that we have all had coaches around us through most of our lives - we just used different names. For instance, teacher, personal trainer, pastor, professor, mentor. We're just used to having coaches in certain settings but not in others - like having a sports coach or guitar teacher or university professor but not a business coach.

But there's more to it than just not being used to having a business coach. Many owners we talk to question why a successful business owner would need a coach - but guess what? Successful business owners are doing well because they have a coach! The successful owners are those who realize that in order to get better they need someone outside their normal circle of influence to make them better.

The reality of this phenomena struck me yesterday. Being a recovering golf addict I had to get more insight into the U.S. Open golf tournament that starts tomorrow (Thursday) at Oakmont near Pittsburgh. So I checked out some articles on ESPN's Golf page to get my fix.

I was intrigued by an article about two golf coaches - Butch Harmon and Hank Haney - who work with the best golfers in the world and who will leave a significant imprint on this Championship. Midway through the article the author questioned why Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson would need a coach. He wrote:

"It may seem odd that the top two players in the world would need the help of someone else. Then again, their pursuit of greatness might very well be tied to their ability to seek answers and keep improving."

Isn't that interesting? Seems the author answered his own question...

For another take on coaching in a business setting, check out this article on coaching for financial planners.

I've said it before and I'm saying it again: If the best golfers, musicians and CEO's have a coach - then why don't you...?

Some thoughts on the Cavs and Team...

Tonight is Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Cavs and San Antonio - and I would say that this is a "must win" game for Cleveland. They're already down 2 games to none so another loss would seem to make victory in the series to be insurmountable.

This series has been frustrating to me - not from the perspective of the game on the court - but from the point of view of all the experts who have said that Cleveland is the worst team to ever make it to the NBA Finals. They may not be the Celtics of Larry Bird & Co. but they did beat the team that all those experts said they couldn't beat (Detroit) so they've certainly earned their way into the Finals.

But the Cavs won't be successful unless they truly work as a team. They have the best player on the planet in LeBron James but obviously he can't do it alone. He is arguably the most team-oriented superstar in the NBA and at times tries to force his teammates to participate with him in games. But that hasn't worked; LeBron's teammates need to trust themselves, the coaches and LeBron and get out of their own way so that they can perform at the level they're capable of.

So how do our business teams react to new, possibly stressful "championship" series? Do they stand around and let the 'superstar' do everything? Has the Coach (the business owner) given them the gameplan they need to be successful? Are they trained well enough to get out of their own way and let their talents produce the results called for in the gameplan?

There is a lot we can learn from sports teams and then apply it to our businesses. Learn from what the Cavs are doing right now and do the same with your business. Your challenge is to continually update and revise the gameplan to beat the competition and raise your team's perfomance to championship level.

Let's hope that the Cavs' coaches create a great gameplan and the players trust the plan and themselves enough to turn this series around.

Welcome!

Well it's been a while since we first thought about getting our blog going, but thanks to Ron McDaniel of Buzzoodle Marketing - who spoke for a recent 90 Day Planning Event for business owners - we've taken the initiative and gotten started. So thanks for stopping by!

Up there at the top is the description of what ActionCOACH of Akron/Canton is all about - but to save you the trip up there I'll fill you in down here...

ActionCOACH of Akron/Canton is a business coaching firm owned by me (Bob Roberts) and my partner Dennis Kelley. We have more years of business experience than I guess either one of us care to admit - but that's not what makes us different. The difference is twofold:

1) We are business COACHES. That means that we don't simply consult with you and leave you when our engagement is finished; instead we work side-by-side with you as your coach, teacher, mentor, drill sergeant, marketing director and team builder to gain back your time, build a great team and understand your money situation so that you can build a great business;

2) We care deeply about the role of business in shaping, growing and developing our society, especially when business is approached as the vehicle that supports life and not the other way around. Too often business becomes the purpose for our lives when in fact the business should be there to support our lives.

It's not that the business isn't important; it is critical. But with the implementation of universal business principles that work in the real world the business owners we work with realize the goals of a successful business that enables them to pursue other interests, support important causes and charities and develop great relationships with their families. Business is serious business -but it had better be enjoyable and provide a great return on investment or you'd better go find another line of work.

Enough with the heavy stuff - let's have some fun and learn a little bit while we're at it...

Drop in frequently and let us know what's on your mind about whatever is running around in your brain at the time - business, entertainment, sports, interesting people. The one thing to know before you get started: we WILL be diligent about language, personal attacks and other shady posts so let's make sure that we are staying above board and work to build each other up instead of knocking somebody else down.

Have an awesome day!

Bob