Start with the recognition that your business culture is what shapes everyone’s behavior. And everyone’s habits and behaviors are what produce the results. So, if you’re not getting the results you need, you need to tune up the culture of your business.

Either you manage your culture, or it manages you!

Working to produce success in a business where the culture is working against you, is very hard work, stressful, and frustrating. There is one thing that you need to transfer to your key staff and managers. It’s the one thing that will give them the training and experiences they need to think and act like an owner. It’s the one thing that gives most employees a great deal of satisfaction and reward, and it’s the one thing that most owners and managers withhold.

It’s the opportunity to solve problems and breakdowns–if the opportunity is offered in the right context.

Counter Intuitive Management: The Fastest Way to A Successful Business is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Building leadership under you…
Are you effectively leveraging this for the highest productivity in your business?

• It gives your employees what they want most — the ability to solve problems for you, the doing of which on a daily weekly basis accomplishes several things.
• It gives them the experience needed to think like an owner, (this is critically important).
• It gives them the challenges they seek for personal job satisfaction.
• And it takes things off your plate, making your day-to-day less busy and stressful.

Many owners feel they don’t have time to invest in this, but the truth is, you really can’t afford not to.

The Most Powerful Management Tool You Have is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

It takes courage, almost always involves some risk, and there’s almost always something you have to give up. Like being comfortable, or waiting for someone else to get it done. Or the notion that you don’t have what it takes, or you’re not the right person.

Here is a good rule of thumb: If you can see something missing, if in your view there is something amiss, if you have the ability to see that there is a problem somewhere, then you have the opportunity to do something about it. Go for it. That rare commodity we call leadership actually lives in all of us.

Some quotes from a great woman…

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

“Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals.”

“We are continually faced with great opportunities which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.”

— Margaret Mead

You Make a Difference is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Most people are probably thinking about the landmark achievements they will accomplish this year, and while that’s a good and necessary thing, it’s not what I see making the biggest difference in successful companies.

It’s all the little things. How the owners and senior managers relate and interact with other employees a hundred times a day, and how those employees in turn interact with customers.

Small acts of kindness demonstrating respect, acknowledgement, appreciation, and a genuine concern only happen consistently when its backed up by owners and senior managers who walk their talk. Only then do more functional behaviors become embedded in the culture.

While the landmark goals and achievements are important, remember it’s the attitudes and behaviors of whatever is there in your business culture that’s driving execution.

While You’re Planning Your Year… is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Unless your business is perfectly run with no mistakes, there is some human error. Are you fully capitalizing on those mistakes? Are they new mistakes – or the same ones over and over again?

Unless you set up daily and weekly learning opportunities, your business will race along with a focus on getting the next job done, and become static. To remain aggressively profitable, you must use every opportunity for training and development.

Learning needs to be institutionalized into your daily and weekly meetings. Mistakes shift from a negative to a positive as they become viewed as an opportunity to become stronger faster.

Learning vs. Static Organizations is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Part 1 – Accountability

Think of these next 3 posts as business power tools, or even better, business accelerators. They combat against the drift of entropy towards business as usual and mediocrity that is common to every business.

1. Accountability – Brings focus to your operations, meaning, clarifying exactly what each person is accountable for, having every task in the business held within someone’s accountabilities. Assigning metrics for each accountability to drive and challenge production, and instituting a reporting structure that allows transparency of the work being done.

A very powerful tool if used well in a reporting structure. Empowers each individual with a sharp focus on the needed outcomes rather than the process, and lays a firm foundation for team support. Essential for a healthy functional business culture. The only other option is one of command and control – which at its best is nowhere near close in inspiring productivity and effectiveness, and at its worst, frustrating and exhausting.

Leadership Power Tools and Business Accelerators is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Over 15 years ago, Southwest recognized just over 2,000 point of contact opportunities customers have, from the first call to arrival at their destination, and went to work to make each of those as positive an experience as possible. The results are in: Southwest is the most successful airline in the USA.

Former Southwest CEO James Parker attributes success to their business culture, “The business culture drives success by creating great leaders at every level. In a study in 2001, the productivity of Southwest employees was 45% higher than American and United.” And in a 2011 survey of all the major airlines, Southwest was rated #1 in customer service. Intelligent and well-regarded CEO Ken Chenault says, “Great service starts with the people who deliver it.”

American Express, when recently desiring to improve customer service globally, decided to focus on making life better for its 26,000 call center employees. The theory: Happier employees means happier customers. So what did they do? American Express asked their employees for suggestions on improvements. The program was very successful in setting new standards, considerably higher than even senior managers thought possible – ask the adults who work for you how to improve their work environment! Great idea? This concept is so new and revolutionary that FORTUNE magazine devoted a full page to spread the news!

Customer Service and the Business Culture is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Here’s a risky, progressive idea: Take the money you would spend on marketing, and spend it on extraordinary customer service. Works for Lawrence Construction, a Bay Area remodeler, and Zappos, a leading online retailer.

It’s true that very few companies are willing to risk letting go of traditional models, no matter how badly they’re performing, but I think the only reason is the lack of information regarding any other viable option. There are always options.

(Next post: Southwest lean engineered their customer service and look what happened.)

Marketing or Customer Service: Where’s the Best Place to Put your Dollars? is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

(In case you don’t know, Zappos is an extremely successful online retailer that recently merged with Amazon)

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

You’re probably wondering – can you actually make money with values like that? How could you have a serious, productive, and profitable work environment when you’re focused on being weird and having fun?

To hear what Zappos CTO, Arun Rajan has to say about this, click here.

Today’s Study: Zappos Core Values is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Stage 1: It really is all about you at this stage.
You do everything, wear all the hats, cover all the bases, and if you have the strength to, you move on.

Stage 2: The beginning of Control or Freedom Based Management.
You learn how to create success, hire employees, and begin to delegate. How you delegate either sets you up for even bigger problems later, or considerably easier success.

Stage 3: The beginning of where the paths can diverge dramatically.
You start to have employees who excel when they are coached and experience being held to account as empowerment; who love to play the game of business, becoming self managing and self generating; or you don’t, and you are working extra hard and long hours to compensate.

Stage 4: Raising the bar up to Team Performance – From “Me” to “We”.
You train, coach, and mentor Team Performance to be the driving force of the business. Mutual Accountability shows up – your job becomes much easier. Or, if you took a different path at Stage 2, it’s likely that real teammanship is not a possibility and therefore, getting to Stage 5 is almost impossible.

Stage 5: You set up performance challenges, continue coaching and mentoring for best performance, and plan your succession or exit strategy.

5 Stages of Success or Control – Your Choice is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates