Leaders Start By Leading Themselves . . . First

Leaders Set Standards and Goals First For Themselves

The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.

Ray Kroc

We are all leaders - leaders of our businesses, leaders of our families and yes . . . even leaders of our own lives. And before its possible to lead anyone else, you must first learn how to lead your own life and follow your own guidelines and standards. Because if you don't believe in and follow the ideals that you espouse, then no one else will either.

I know that may sound funny - following yourself, but it is something that happens more than you think - or it doesn't.

Your subconscious mind will follow your conscious lead. It will believe and follow you to the ends of the earth, if you truly believe and act on your words - and not just say them. But this requires integrity - consistency of action and deed - "Walking your Talk".

You have to live with integrity, be consistent and focus on the standards (and goals) within your life or your subconscious will not follow. Because when it comes right down to it, you, of all people, know when you are telling the truth and when you aren't. And you can pretend to lie to yourself, but your subconscious doesn't always follow your words - it follows your deeds.

What are the standards you set for yourself?

Do you have daily expectations that you hold yourself accountable to?

Do you have weekly, monthly, or even yearly goals that you review and ensure that you are fulfilling - again doing so with accountability in your life?

Or do you simply go about life, living willy-nilly - just doing a cursory review every year on how things went on New Year's Eve and on your milestone Birthdays.

When you say you are going to do something, do you deliver on your promise to others? To yourself?

These are all tough questions . . . intended to challenge you and get you to look at yourself differently. Most people I talk to want to change their surroundings but don't, but rarely follow their own lead.

So if you want to lead "Change" in this world, start first by leading yourself . . . and following your own advice and words. Or you should expect that no one else will either.

Four Steps to Turning A Bad Situation Around

How's your business doing?

How is your financial situation?

If you are like most people in America (and around the world for that matter), things aren't as good as you would like them to be.

Sure, in your mind, you might be blaming the economy and things that are out of your control for your current condition - which is not the healthiest thing to do on its own. But I don't believe that's why you haven't done anything about it.

So the question is . . . Why aren't you doing anything about it?

Why haven't you made the changes that you knew you were going to need to make sooner?

Why haven't you change your spending habits? Why haven't you have a garage sale to clean the junk you have all over the place to generate a little more cash? Or why haven't you posted them on eBay or Craig's List? And why haven't you called the credit card company and asked for a lower interest rate?

Or, even harder, why haven't you asked your friends and family for help?

The answers to these questions for most people might surprise you to read . . . although I think you know it already - deep down in your heart, whether you are feeling it now or have felt it in the past. The answer is, you feel shameful.

Ironically, in spite of the causes, many people that find themselves in "tough times" aren't locked into those positions because they don't know what to do. Instead most get stuck in ruts and difficult situations because of Shame - because of the painful emotion caused by a conscious (or even unconscious) awareness of their guilt or personal shortcoming that caused them to be where they are. And taking the steps necessary to fix the situation requires them to admit both privately and publicly that they did have a hand in the situation. And we all struggle with forgive ourselves of our own shortcomings.

The First Step - Face the Truth

Before you can do much else in repairing your situation, you have to face the truth. I don't care who you are, and what your situation is, you have to believe that you control your destiny, if you want to change your life for the better. Now that doesn't mean that bad things don't happen to good people - there is no doubt about that. But no matter the situation, you get to choose your response and eventually how the situation will turn out for you.

Accept responsibility for your choices that led to the situation. And then look inside yourself and decide whether or not you are stuck because someone or something is holding you back . . . Or if you are stifled in your position because you are holding yourself back, and why?

The Second Step - Release the Guilt and the Shame

Now that you have faced the truth of your situation, if not publicly, at least privately, it's time to take what is often the most difficult step to take in any change effort. And that is forgive yourself for the choices you have made to this point . . . both the good and bad choices.

Forgive yourself and release the guilt and shame that is holding you back from becoming all that you can and truly want to be. Because if you don't release the guilt and the shame, you will self-sabotage your efforts.

Remember, you can't change the past. But you don't have to relive it every day for the rest of your life either.

Learn from it.

Put it behind you.

And move on to making the choices that will help you become the you that you truly want to be.

The Third Step - Build a Plan and Enlist Help

Now that you have faced the truth and released your negative feelings so that you can move forward, it's time to do the fun stuff - planning the way forward.

The third step in the process of turn around your business and personal struggles is building a plan - a way forward. Suffice it to say that I could write for hours on this subject, but let me KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) for you:

- Figure out the real truth of your current condition (where you are)
- Define your goals / vision (where you want to go)
- Break down all the steps along way that you will have to accomplish to achieve the goals (what you have to do - one step at a time)
- List the obstacles that are going to get in your way (including your own mindset, if applicable).
- Figure out who can help you and enlist their support (who do you need help from)
- Build into the plan, a method for staying on track - a form of accountability to keep you from falling backwards and / or help you recognize the hiccups that come up along the way. (what is your feedback loop to keep you moving in the right direction)

The Fourth and Final Step - Take One Step at a Time

If you have gotten this far, you are about 90% there. Now all you have to do is follow your plan.

Just remember, you wrote a plan for a reason . . . you can't do it all at one time. As the saying goes, "You can't eat an elephant in one bite".

Take things ONE STEP AT A TIME . . . Obstacle at a time . . . One day at a time . . . And before you know it, you will have reached your goal and put what ever was "in your past" in your past for good.

Control Is An Illusion

Micromanagers govern their kingdoms with rules, constant oversight, supervision and most often an iron fist. Their entire management model is build on "Control". And sadly, they typically spend so much time in the weeds, directing their subordinates, they struggle at the bigger picture of their own job - requiring their bosses to "micromanage" them as well.

The truth is, Control is an Illusion.

Whether you believe it or not, you really don't have control over anything but yourself and what YOU do. And the more Control and Authority you try to invoke over others, they less you actually have (just ask any parent with a teenager).

Your employees do what THEY want to do (nothing more and nothing less) - which is usually what they are rewarded to do. Thus, the concept of work in the first place.

You see, you and your company promise your employees a reward (pay) for coming to and engaging in the work you assign, and they gladly do just that . . . come to work and do what you "tell" them to do.

So the control you think you have, what little there actually is, comes from getting them to "want to do what you want them to do", not because you tell them to do it. Thus, the question that most managers have, but few are actually good at answering is "How do I get them to want to work?"

Hence the dilemma of the Manager, and the birth of the Micromanager.

But there are things you can do to change this. There are ideas you can implement and techniques you can follow to become a more effective manager. If you want to become a more effective manager / leader of your direct reports, you simply need to change your perspective and mindset, the behavior will follow. You need to see your employees as more than just things that do what they are told, when they are told, and how they are told to do it. You need to see them as thinking individuals, that think, act, behave, and are motivated much like you are.

You need to apply the following 5 ideas / steps to your management style:

- TEACH the methods and guidelines of the company,
- DEFINE the results,
- EMPOWER their employees,
- Establish an environment of ACCOUNTABILITY where employees are held accountable for results
- REWARD the behavior you want

Over the next five days, I will break down each of these 5 elements of Management (each day a different idea) to give you the tools you need to move from being a micromanager to an empowering leader and effective manager.

People join companies, but leave managers.

Marcus Buckingham & Curt W. Coffman

What, If Anything, Do You Have Control Over?

There are very few things you ACTUALLY have CONTROL over in your life or in your business. In fact the list of things you control is much shorter than the thousands that you don't.

- You don't have control over the economy.
- You don't have control over your customers - current or perspective.
- You don't have control over your employees.
- You don't have control over your suppliers / vendors.
- You don't have control over your competition.

I could go on for ever, but I think you get the point.

However, in spite of your lack of control over external forces, you do have complete control over you, your business, and how you respond to each change in any of the above listed factors. YOU can decide how much you will allow each of the complex forces effect you and your business.

So the only control you have in any situation actually stems from your response to the situation - not the ability to actually change the situation.

For example, you can't control whether a customer is happy with your services - that is their choice. But you can control how you handle it - how you treat that customer - how you go about deciding if you want to change your promise to the market so that you don't have that problem again.

And, you may not be able to "fix" or motivate your current employees, but you don't have to keep them either. And you can change the processes in your hiring so as to minimize the likelihood of having unmotivated employees.

As you start examining at your current situation, stop blaming your circumstances for your position, your sales, or your market share. Instead, accept that your status is what it is because of how you choose to respond to the circumstances in the past.

Rather than blaming, or lamenting your current market position, it's time to figure out how your decisions (or lack of decisions) have contributed to current situation. Ask yourself the following questions:

- What have I done or not done, given the changing economy?
- How have I changed my business to demonstrate to my customers how important they are?
- When was the last time I talked to my customers and asked them what they need from my business?
- Rather than blaming my employees for all my problems, how can I change my management style to produce the results I want?
- What is my competition doing that I'm not doing? What could I do or say differently that would give me a competitive advantage over my competition?

It is through the process of asking these questions that we find the answers to our business problems. It is through the process of querying your methods and motives that you will remove the illusion of control over your business and take control of the only element you do have control over - your response.

Face Your Past As It Was, Your Present As It Is, And Your Future As It Will Be

I often tell my clients that I am the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future all rolled into one person for them. I make them see their past as it was, face their present as it truly is, and given the current course of life, show them the brutal facts of where they are headed to in the future.

Although it's not Christmas time, I wanted to share this story because Spring is the season of change. And I thought "A Christmas Carol" has as much relevance today as it does in the middle of the Winter.

To me, the old story of Charles Dickens isn't about Christmas or the "Greed" of Ebenezer Scrooge, it is a story about "letting life" get in the way of what you want to be become - of who you really are.

In his present life, Scrooge lost his way. He became obsessed with money and ignored everything else in his life - but more than that, he lost his "vision". He had become so focused on satisfying his immediate needs to forgot to focus on what he really wanted from life - he forgot what was most important to him - what he was about.

How many of us has a dream when we were younger - a dream of who we would become or how our life would end up? And how many of us are living that life right now? Or are even on the course to live it?

If you are, that is wonderful. But if not, why not? Why aren't you doing what you always wanted to do with you life?

Are you waiting for "some day"? I've got news for you. . . it never arrives.

Are you hoping that your "Fairy Godmother" is going to come in and change your life automatically for you into what you've always wanted it to be? Again, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Fairy Godmother was killed in Shrek 2.

Stop waiting for tomorrow, or the next day, or something magical to happen to give you a sign to start living your dream. It ain't coming. But, I do have some great news for you. The same news that the Ghost of Marley told Scrooge - it's not too late to change who you are and therefor change who you can become.

Think about it. What would the Ghost of Christmas Past show you? What did you dream about growing up? Where did you see yourself in the Spring of 2009? Where did you see yourself in Spring of 2019 for that matter?

Then look at where you are today - how does this compare to what you dreamed of? Did you give up, or did life just get in the way, as it did with Scrooge? Were you just too naive to think that dreams could come true when you were younger, or are you too hardened now to still believe?

Your life probably doesn't compare to that of Scrooge - forgetting everything that mattered to you, but how much is gone. When was the last time you listened to the voice of your inner child?

And then stop and think. If I don't change the way I think, where will I be in 10, 20, or even 30 years? Who will come to my funeral? Will I be alone at the end? Will I look back and smile at every dream that I fulfilled, or will I die with regret?

These are all hard questions, but ones that you should sit down and ask yourself regularly - even though you may not like the answers. The good news is that if Scrooge could turn around his life just from finding the answers to these questions, imagine what you can do.

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.

William Arthur Ward

Why Do I Need A Coach?

Last week, I wrote about questions you should ask a coach before hiring them, but what's more important is asking and looking at whether you even need one in the first place.

What is a coach?

A coach is someone who gets you to do what you

don't want to do,
don't know how to do,
or are just plain afraid to do,

so that you can BE who you want to BE.

So why do you need someone to do that for you? Why can't you do all that on your own?

I know for most of my life, I thought I didn't need one.

But the answer to the question "Why do I need a Coach" is as simple as it is obvious. You need a coach, because you are human - and your nature is to resist change, no matter how bad you may think you want it. Because in the face of rejection and failure (which is inevitable), nearly everyone of us will give-in to the "here and now" and / or will just give-up on our dreams. And, unfortunately, if you are like most of us, you like to avoid the things you don't want to do, are blind to the things that you don't know how to do, and all too often, don't have a support structure to encourage you to do the things that you are afraid of doing.

And that's only half of it. The other half of the statement above is about being who you want to be.

Sadly, most people don't even know what they want. In fact, less than 25% of the people that I know or have met, actually know who or what they want to BE. Sure they may have an inkling, but the truth is they usually only know they want more than they have RIGHT now - but don't know what the MORE is.

A coach, regardless of type (personal, life, executive, business, etc) will help you face your dreams, giving you the tools and encouragement to believe that you can create your life, and create what you have always dreamed it to be. Your coach will make you search for your passion, help you find your strengths, understand your weaknesses and help you understand that nearly anything is possible - given both the desire and commitment as well as the tools and path to reach it.

Your coach will:

- Through a Socratic Method, help you find your passion, your vision, and your dreams.
- Cheer you on in every thing you do. He will stand on the sideline of your life and make sure you feel the non-judgmental encouragement that you need and deserve for your efforts - regardless of the outcome.
- Be a trusted confidant and friend - someone who you know will listen to you and help you find the solutions to your questions - based on the principles that YOU (not the coach) value.
- Guide you through the learning process necessary for you to become who you want to be - sometimes being the teacher, while at other times steering you to where you need to go to find what you need.
- Keep you on track on the growth model of small day-to-day change that leads to a life changing experience.
- Hold you accountable to walk your talk - challenging you daily to begin "BEing" who you want to BE.
- Always be a source for objective analysis on your situation - giving you unbiased, unemotional feedback on what is happening to you - so that you can see the world less as you are, and more as it is.

So now you know "What A Coach Is" and "What A Coach Does".

So what, right?

What is in it for you, and why would I want to hire one? Frankly, it's not as easily defined as I wish, or as anyone else might tell you. The truth is the benefits of coaching are as unique as the individuals that are being coached. However there are some basic consistencies that nearly all individuals see as a result of being matched with the right coach:

- Greater clarity about and balance between life and career goals
- Ability to overcome the procrastination and avoidance issues
- Confidence to create the life you want
- More consistent behavior in stressful conditions
- Healthier lifestyle
- Stronger sense of self-awareness
- Greater sense of focus and an improved decision making ability
- Ability to better leverage personal strengths while managing weaknesses
- Improved time-management skills and ability to overcome an inherent desire to procrastinate.
- Over come a sense of isolation - always know that you have a supportive person and accountability partner.

If you are looking for any of these benefits and any other growth, then coaching might be something for you should look into. But don't expect the coach to do the work for you - just like in sports, your coach will help you, but the work is exclusively yours. Good Luck.

Seven Essentials of Team Building

A Team is defined as an group organized to work together. And truth is that unless you are a hermit, at some level, you work with others to accomplish goals - both personal and business. The others in your group might be employees, friends, family, suppliers, or even customers. But no matter who they are, if you share a mission or vision then you are a Team. It doesn't matter if that team is formalized on paper, just a verbal agreement, or even a passing relationship, the success of the vision almost always depends on everyone working together - as a single entity.

Unfortunately, just because you put a group of people together in a tight confined space doesn't mean that they will in fact work together. Working together requires, at some level, Team Building.

Throughout my career in both the Military and as a Business Coach, I have found that there are Seven Essentials of Team Building that when present help the team work better and make the combined effort of each member more than just the sum of the individual team members. Unfortunately though, when any or all of those elements are absent, teams become little more than a group of individuals sometimes working together - sometimes not.

The Seven Essentials of Team Building are:

1. Write out the purpose of the Team - The purpose or shared vision of a team is why the team exists in the first place. It is the glue that binds the members of the team and motivates them from the outset. The more each member believes in the vision, the stronger the glue. And whether your team is new or years old, it is important to invite every member of the team to either participate in the development of the vision or agree to it.

2. Create a culture of Trust - Without a doubt, the most important element in any group of people working together is that they trust each other. I'm not talking trust that they will do their job - that's important. But what's really important is that everyone on the team must trust enough that they feel they can voice their opinions without retribution or embarrassment.

3. Set Team Goals - Ones that every one agrees with - Moving forward is about knowing what's important and not important, and getting everyone to agree. This is all about creating goals. It's about defining the rules of the game of your business - knowing how to keep score and what winning looks like. If you don't know the rules, it's not much fun.

4. Gain Commitment to Goals - Everyone's Commitment - Once you have goals - it's time to gain commitment to those goals. That sounds simple, but real commitment means the willingness to be held accountable. In order to increase the level of commitment from each team member towards the goals, make sure that they have an opportunity to share in the process of creating the goals. That doesn't mean they have to be involved in the process at every stage, but they should feel that their voice was heard in the developmental process.

5. Hold Each Other Accountable - Don't count on the Leader - Goals mean nothing if they aren't met. And the only way they are going to be met, is if there is accountability within the team. Too often, the only one that is holding anyone accountable on the team is the leader - but the most effective teams create a culture of accountability where everyone is responsible to the team - not the leader to fulfill their commitments and generate the desired results.

6. Build A Reward System - Don't be afraid to build into the team culture, a reward system that promotes the behaviors and social norms that are important to the team. In many ways, your Team Reward system is built-in accountability, that works independent of other forms of individual accountability.

7. Maintain Integrity within the Team - Integrity is defined as either a steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code, a state of being unimpaired; soundness, or a condition of being whole or undivided; completeness. All of these definitions tie directly to what matters here the most - making sure that every member of the team puts the team first, before their own needs - by not breaking the bounds of trust.

These 7 Essentials are designed to give you the beginning tools to take your team from just showing up and working together - to generating success. As you go about your day, look at the teams in your life (your family, your office, your friends, all the employees, or just the volleyball team at the YMCA) and ask yourself how well each of your teams actually works.

If you want to know more about how to implement any or all of these Essentials in your team,
feel free to contact me at coach.jj@impossiblefutures.com.

What's On Your To Do List?

I read an interesting Tweet this morning, "I've got a lot of things to get done this week, I better make a To Do List".

Have you ever noticed that when you really want to get things done - not just say you want to get them done - you create a To Do list? Why is that?

Because it WORKS!!!

Most of us, at one time or another, don't get things done that we had planned to get done. But it's rarely because we were blowing them off or ignoring them, it's usually because we simply forgot about them.

Hence, the invention of the "To Do List" and the little yellow sticky to put it on (boy I wished I would have invested in 3M back then).

You see, I am big on accountability. In fact, I believe, more than anything else "Accountability" is what a coach brings to his clients. But not everyone has, wants or thinks they can afford a coach - so we try to create methods or systems that will help us fulfill our need for accountability on our own. The "To Do List" is a silent piece of accountability that we create to help us face our successes and failures in accomplishing what it is we want to do.

So if they work so well, why don't we use "To Do Lists" for everything that we need or say we want to get done? The answer is as simple as it is obvious - because there are a lot of things that we say we want to do, but really don't want to do or don't know how to do. And we don't want to waste the magic of getting things done on these lower priority items.

What's on your "To Do List" says a lot about YOU. It reveals "what" and "who" are important to you. You can see whether you are focused on changing your circumstances or maintaining the status quo. And at a very basic level, when viewed over a stretch of time, your "To Do List" reflects your Mission, your Vision, and your Commitments in both business and life - because it reflects what you find "most important" in your life.

So as you look at YOUR "To Do List", what do you see? What is most important to you? And does it reflect what you want it to reflect? Are there things that you say are important to you, but aren't quite making it on your list. Why is that?

So, let me re-phrase my initial Title question. Maybe you shouldn't just be looking at what's on your "To Do List" - maybe you should be looking at what's not on your "To Do List".

And WHY!

Seven Steps to Small Business Success

According to the Small Business Administration, given the current rate of failure, nearly 85% of all small businesses started this year will fail by the end of 2014. That means that more than 8 out of every 10 entrepreneurs will have their hopes and dreams crushed and their financial accounts drained. But it doesn't have to be that way.

There are steps that every small business owner can follow that will help them reach their goals and do so, relatively easy. The following Seven Steps to Small Business Success are a cursory look at the simple steps that are often overlooked, but are so critical to survival.

1. Build A Solid Foundation. Every business (like your home) needs to be built on a strong foundation. Whether you are just starting out or you are struggling with the growth of your company, start by building or shoring up the foundation first. In business, your foundation is clearly defining "what you do", "where you are going" and "what is most important to you on that journey" - the answers to these three questions make up your Mission, your Vision and your Commitments, respectively.

2. Define How You Measure Success and Make Decisions Based on Those Metrics. Now that you built your foundation, its time to start figuring out how we are going to go from a foundation to the beautiful dream that is the vision. It's time to begin focusing on how we define, more concretely, what we will measure to decide if we are on the path to our dream. Its time to focus on your Metrics and Goals.

3. Create a Cohesive Team - Built on the Foundation of Your Dream. No one person has all the answers and can do it all - not in any industry. Build a team and define the culture of your organization.

Your team may include your family, your friends, your employees, a Business Coach, a CPA, an attorney, or anyone else that commits to help you reach your goals. Each member of your team, including you, needs to clearly know what they do, what they don't do and what is expected of them and that they will be held accountable - not to you, but to the team.

4. Write Guidelines, Build Systems, Share Everything and Empower Your Team. Don't keep everything in your head and try to do things "off the cuff". Clearly define jobs descriptions, expectations and processes within your business - the principals, boundaries and guidelines that represent the company, its employees and its practices. Without these explicit words, a company can be easily taken advantage of, be distracted from its goals or simply get caught chasing its own tail all day.

Additionally, the real competitive edge in the next decade is knowledge and learning. Your team can only help when they know and understand what the problems are - so share. . . everything. You'd be surprised where some of the best ideas come from.

5. Make the Sale. When it comes right down to it, you have to generate sales. If you are lucky, you will have a product that sells itself - but in the long term, that too shall pass. So you ask, how do I sell my product / service? Like every other stage of business - Start with a plan and then move to action. You need other people selling for you - employees help, but you want "raving fans" of your product and cheerleaders of your services. Get out and talk to as many people as you can - potential clients, business owners, friends and family. Join groups and organizations that are have potential clients or relationships with potential clients. Become a visible part of your market. Start with people that you know and that know you. It's not only okay, but highly encouraged, to start with friends and family as your first customers, and then broaden from there. People buy from those that they know and / or trust. So sales is about creating relationships and helping others see value in what you have to offer. And relationships take time. Most people don't want to be sold, but they love to buy - so listen and learn what they want, what they need, and what they value. But don't forget in the end to Ask for the Sale!

6. Take Advantage of Opportunities and Maintain Discipline. The most successful businesses maintain focus on their core mission and how it serves clients. Your core business should be a combination of what you do best, what you are most passionate about and what is what pays the bills. When opportunity comes knocking, and it will, you must have the discipline to make sure that it is aligned with your core mission and your strategic, vision before you jump on it - always think carefully before you commit your company resources to what may turn out to be a costly endeavor that takes you time, money and assets from what you do best.

7. Find an Accountability Partner. The "great" people and companies in the world find a way to do what the need to do, but don't want to do, to become who they want to be. Nearly every one of those that truly become great have an accountability partner to help them focus on the goal - the future they are trying to achieve. In sports, we call them coaches. In school, we call them teachers. Some of us have family (parents or maybe a spouse) and friends that hold us accountable to become who we want to be without becoming subjectively attached to the outcome. In recent years, the advent of the personal, executive, and business coaching industry has given us even more options. Whatever it takes - find someone who will stand in your future and believe in you even when you lose faith in yourself - someone who can make you do the things you know you should do, but don't want to do, don't know how to do or are afraid to do, so you can become the person who you dream of becoming.

For more about any or all of these steps, please contact email coach.jj@impossiblefutures.com for more information.

Why Do I Need An Accountability Partner

The "great" people and companies in the world find a way to do what the need to do, but don't want to do, to become who they want to be. Nearly every one of those that truly become great have an accountability partner to help them focus on the goal - the future they are trying to achieve. In sports, we call them coaches. In school, we call them teachers. Some of us have family (parents or maybe a spouse) and friends that hold us accountable to become who we want to be without becoming subjectively attached to the outcome. In recent years, the advent of the personal, executive, and business coaching industry has given us even more options. Whatever it takes - find someone who will stand in your future and believe in you even when you lose faith in yourself - someone who can make you do the things you know you should do, but don't want to do, so you can become the person who you dream of becoming.

Probably not a surprise here (coming from a Business Coach), but in my opinion, of all the things that you can do for your own personal success or the success of your company or organization, the most important thing you can do is to get an accountability partner.

So you are probably asking, "Why do I need an accountability partner to be successful?"

Well to be honest with you, you need one because you are human. Because when push comes to shove, you, like me, and like the other six billion people on this earth will usually find reasons (excuses) for not doing the things we know we should do, in order to reach the heights that we aspire to reach and to be the person we know we could be.

We are creatures that like to see immediate, visual results for our actions. And we get frustrated when results are not tied directly in space and time to our actions - meaning that we don't see immediate results for what we are doing.

Unfortunately, great results, like our long-term goals, our worthy dreams and aspirations, are not immediately, clearly visible from our day-to-day actions. They take time - they take long-term commitment to do them, even when you don't see results, so that some day you will.

Creating a vision, having goals, building plans, and being disciplined in our focus is all good stuff - but if we never actually do the work we need to do to accomplish what we want to accomplish, it's all for naught. The plans, the vision, the goals, are all just an exercise in futility.

So stop and think about it, what great things have you ever accomplished without some form of accountability embedded in the process?

Growing up, your teachers, your coaches, and your parents held you accountable to learn. Your music teacher / conductor held you accountable to practice so that you would be ready for your recital. In school, you read many stories that you weren't interested in, and had to do more addition, subtraction, multiplication and long division problems than you ever thought was necessary. And in sports, your coaches made you run laps and conduct drills again and again - even to the point that it felt pointless - just so you could win the big game.

And you did it all - because someone you believed in, you looked up to, and someone who believed in your goals held you accountable to do the things you needed to do, to become the person you wanted to become. That's not to say that there isn't an internal drive that many individuals have to achieve their goals. But in life, any goal that is going to require real internal, lasting changes is going to require someone standing beside you (and often carrying you) when you simply don't feel like doing it any more or don't see purpose to it anymore.

So let's be serious, would YOU have done any of those things without your accountability partners? Some of you may have - I know I wouldn't have. Every chance I had growing up, I managed to do what I needed to be "good" enough to get by - no more - no less. If I was good, I was happy. The truth be known, I wanted to be great, but never had any one push me hard enough to become great. I guess the statement, "Good" was the enemy of "Great" rang true for me.

We all need someone who won't let us be lazy - won't let us trick the system and just do enough to get by if we want to reach the next level. Whether it is a personal trainer, a life coach, a business coach, or just a great friend you trust, get yourself an accountability partner today and see what new heights they can help you reach.

If you are interested in learning more about having an accountability partner,
please feel free to contact me at coach.jj@impossiblefutures.com.

Immediate Gratification or Long Term Goals - Which Do You Choose?

We are a society built on immediate gratification. We want everything right now - and we want it the way we want it. Instant gratification is good, but it often gets in the way of what we want in the long term. So if you are one of those out there that is making decisions only with immediate (or short term gratification) in mind, and you are not happy with either your life or the way you business is working for you, then there is a simple solution - start focusing on what you want to create, not only what you want right now.

Up until 3 months ago, I had a goal to lose weight. I had gotten a bit of a belly and wanted to make it go away. I had the goal of losing the weight, but for some reason, I wasn't changing my actions. It was then that I realized, I was making decisions for short term gratification, instead of thinking about what I wanted in the long term.

I would wake up in the morning, tell (ok, lie to) myself, "Today is going to be the day that I start to change my life." Unfortunately, as the day would go on, life would get in the way. Meetings would run late. I would be in a hurry. And my stomach would growl. So before I knew it, I would go back to my old habits - my old eating patterns of fast food and pop.

Somehow, I had to break this pattern - I had to build accountability into my life to make the changes that I did really want. And since that day in mid November, there have been a couple of things that I've done to change my life. They first included hiring a personal trainer (who holds me accountable week to week for my eating). But the biggest change I made was to realize that I was letting my short term gratification over ride my long term goals.

So now, as I go throughout my day, making decisions - even the smallest decisions - I stop and think, "What is the best decision for both my immediate gratification and long term goals?" And I do my best to stay focused on my long term goals of losing weight and my belly.

I won't lie to you, there are still times when the immediate gratification wins. But now I know that it was my choice to let it win, not anything I can blame on anything or anyone else.

So, the important thing to recognize is that this is NOT just a weight loss thing - its applicable in every aspect of your life - especially in business. Every decision you make in your daily business activities, from when to open and close, how much to charge, to how you are going to spend your time today has both short term and long term repercussions. When you don't stop and think about those repercussions, you tend to make decisions that are only about immediate gratification.

Why does this have such applicability in business? Simple. Most businesses are good at Operations and Sales, but struggle with Marketing. And when you think about it, Operations and Sales are immediate gratification actions, while time spent on Marketing is a long term investment.

Needless to say, I suggest that as you go about your day, stop and think about what you are doing. Evaluate whether you are satisfying your immediate gratification needs or longer term goals. As you shift your thought in this way, you will begin (slowly at first) to shift your actions to account for both your immediate needs as well as what you want to create - your goals. And believe it or not, you will be amazed at how quickly you will start to see a change in what you are doing, and how you look at your day.

**In case you are curious, I have lost over 20 lbs since I started - and have gotten rid of nearly all of my little belly that had cropped up on me. It works!

What is Accountability?

Every where you turn, people are talking about accountability. But to be honest with you, I don't think most people using the word really even know what it means.

Before we go rambling any further about accountability, let's first agree on what the word means. According to Mirriam-Webster Online Dictionary, accountability means an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's action.

The truth is, accountability doesn't mean creating new laws and /or new regulations. It simply means recognizing and accepting that everything we do (or have done) in our lives has gotten us in the position and condition we are in RIGHT now. It means not making excuses for anything! And it means accepting that where ever we are right now has come about due to our choices.

Additionally, "holding someone accountable" means making sure THEY accept full responsibility for their choices and their actions - whatever those choices and actions may be (or have been). It also means that although they didn't create the stimulus that they had in their lives, they did choose how they responded.

That's it. It's that simple.

So, stop telling me that the new administration is all about accountability. It's time for the Government to stand up and be held accountable for the situation we are in. It's not just Bush's fault. We are a Government "Of the People, by the people, for the people."

The Bailout Bill was passed (overwhelmingly by both the House and the Senate - both parties) and signed into Law by President Bush last September because it "had to happen". 75% of America disagreed with it. And Congress passed it anyway. Did we hold them accountable? ABSOLUTELY not. Who's fault is that? Yeah, we voted out the President and some Congressmen, but nearly everyone who voted for the bill was re-elected.

That's not Accountability - that's tacit approval. Approving behavior, by ignoring it. In fact we rewarded most of them for ignoring our voices. That just get's us more of the same behavior.

Accountability in the market place means failing (bankruptcy) when you can't produce profit. It's automatically built into the system. It doesn't mean bailouts just because it will be too painful to allow a "big" business to fail.

We are getting rid of accountability - imposing it.

Accountability means NOT passing the burden of our gluttonous behavior of the past 15 plus years in the market place (between the dot com bubble and the real estate bubble) on to our children and our children's children through a Trillion Dollar Spending Bill.

Unfortunately, every time the government imposes more rules and regulations, they don't boost accountability, they actually tear it down. Because no matter what the situation is, no one person (or group) can hold another person (or group) accountable for the results they produce (the choices they make) when the methods and processes are predetermined. In order to hold someone accountable, they must be given the freedom to choice their own path.

If you believe in free choice and a free market, then stand up and be heard. Hold those who are failing to do what you believe they should be doing accountable for their actions. And you don't have to wait until November 2010 to do it. Do it now!

If you are interested in finding ways to hold people accountable, please contact me at coach.jj@ImpossibleFutures.com or just leave a comment. We will work together to hold each other and those who lead us accountable.

Supply-Side or Demand-Side Economics

Everyone wants the recession to end - but I doubt that many want it to end more than the hundreds of small business owners in America who are struggling and blaming the economic conditions for their current problem.

Unfortunately, success of a business has little to do with economic conditions. What it does have to do with is sound business practices and producing a product that consumers want and that you can produce with sufficient profit to continue staying in business.

I bring this up, because I've had a few discussions with people recently on whether the solutions to our economic woes would be better off coming through "supply-side" or "demand-side" economic practices.

Well, to be honest with you. I'm not a big fan of the government fixing the problem - because they tend to focus only on the symptoms not the disease - and NO bureaucratic agency can react fast enough to compensate for rapidly changing market conditions. I, my estimation, it would be like trying to see and capture a single electron traveling on the internet: one, you can't track it, and two, you couldn't catch it if you wanted to.

But, since our current government determined to do something, in my estimation, the only real solution has to come from "supply-side" economics.

Demand-side economics (aka Keynesian Economics) is the concept where Government should stimulate economic growth through interest rate control, taxes and public projects - basically flood the market with money and let the demand generate new growth in industry.

Conversely, Supply-side economics is the concept where economic growth should be stimulated through providing incentives for those who produce goods and services (for example income tax adjustments and capital gains tax cuts).

They both will fix the symptom of economic sluggishness. And the truth be know, demand-side economics will actually treat the symptoms faster than supply-side. Unfortunately, only one will actually solve the disease of the market - excessive government interference and poor business practices.

The problem is simply that we have become a society that is more worried about today than tomorrow. We are more focused on quick fixes than creating long term solutions to the underlying problem. So, it's no surprise that our current Administration is going to fix the problem with a supply-side injection of capital of proportion never seen in the history of our Nation (or any other for that matter).

This may sound cold, but we all have the world that we have chosen to have. Plain and simply, the businesses that are struggling today should be struggling, because the decisions they have made in the past have resulted in their current economic conditions. Should we be rewarding them for bad business practice? As a coach, I can think of absolutely nothing worse that you can do - to fix the real problem.

Some may say that this blog entry may not seem to fit into the concept of helping businesses grow. But I would have to disagree with them. What I want individuals and small business owners everywhere to know is this:

The Government giving you or anyone else money is going to fix your problems. It might make you feel a bit better, but the problems will still be there. If your cost of labor was too high before a bail-out, then it will be that way after the bailout - you will be just numb to it. If you had a horrible marketing strategy before suddenly customers walked into your store, just because they government gave them $2000, then your marketing strategy will suck just as bad after the economic boost's effects are long over. You will have just survived a couple more months.

Bottom line - the symptoms make it feel like the problem is so big that only the Federal Government can fix them, but the truth of the matter is the actual disease is so simple that it can only be fixed by the individual.

The Real Cause of Nearly All Employee Problems

From what I hear when I talk to my clients (or talk to business owners in general), one of the biggest struggles they face is leading / managing employees. And it's a problem that never seems to go away, regardless of the employee. In fact, besides marketing / sales, from what I hear in my discussions, it is the most troubling problem of most small businesses. Unfortunately, from my experience in military / government, as well as talking to many who are in medium / large corporations, the problem isn't just a small business problem. It a global problem.

The ultimate question is,

"Is it the employees fault or is the leader's / manager's fault?

My response lies in something an old Navy buddy used to say. He'd say "JJ, if you walk into a room and everybody else in the room is *screwed up - maybe it isn't everyone else."

Ok, so what's the moral of that quote?

Well, I guess it's that if you continually have problems with employees, then maybe the problems with employees is just a symptom of a bigger problem. Because they are most likely just reflecting your leadership - or a lack thereof.

So, you have two choices before you. Either you can continue to blame your employees because most of them never seem to get "it". Or you can look in the mirror and make the real commitment to the only change that is within your power in this situation - a commitment to become a better leader.

So, if this is something that is keeping you up at night, do something about it. Before it's too late, look at the mirror and commit to becoming a better leader - make it a goal, make a plan on how you are going to do it and build in a method of accountability so that you won't give up.


* Ok, my buddy didn't really use the word "screwed", but you didn't come to this blog to read a bunch of "Sailor-trash" language.

It's More Than Just Making Goals

As I start this effort of creating a blog, I'm already finding myself searching the "Blogosphere" trying to find a hot topic to bring to you. And no surprise here, since it's January, everyone is talking about goals.

They are talking about goal development coaching sessions, what is a goal and what isn't, when you should create goals, and why you should have goals. And some bloggers are even going as far as walking through the process of building a plan to reach the goals you create.

But, as important as the list of goals are (carefully made up on a neat piece of paper) and as important as is the up-front planning to the process, it's all for naught, if you don't understand one simple concept.

Real commitment to a goal is about being willing to do whatever
it takes to achieve that goal - within the bounds of your moral code.

To achieve your goals, you need more than a list and a plan. You need a mechanism (system) that will hold you to your commitment - you need an accountability system. That system must be objective. And it must be consistent enough for you to be able to count on it - even when you lose your commitment and drive.

So, you are probably saying to yourself, all well and good but can't I do this on my own? Is it all really necessary? Can you achieve great things by not writing down your goals, not building a plan to achieve them with a built in accountability system? Absolutely, but then you are relying more on luck than by process or by choice.

And when you put your future in the hands of fate, a funny thing happens. Everyday, life will find a way to get in the way of your goals.

It always has and it always will. And to think it won't borders on insanity.

If your goal is to eat less than 2000 calories per day (average over a week), then you will (right as you are struggling to stay on track) get invited to 2 evening dinner parties this weekend and someone will have a birthday cake at work. If it didn't happen, Murphy's Law would have never been written.

If your goal is to save money $500 this month, you will be offered a chance to see the Eagles in the Super Bowl on the 50 yard line, five rows off the field - you just need to get yourself there. Heaven knows you can't pass this up, they may finally win a Super Bowl. That is unless they play the Steelers.

These may be exaggerations, but if you don't believe me, look back at why you didn't achieve your goals last year. Was it because the goals were too difficult to achieve, or was it because things came up - things you didn't foresee? Were your goals unrealistic, or did fate jump up and bite you in the butt.

Stop doing the same thing again and again, and ending up with the same result!

Think about it.