All day long, your business and your employees are managing work getting done. The more efficiently your organization executes commitments, the more money you make.
Powerful and effective execution starts with powerful management. Powerfully effective management starts with powerful speaking and listening. You will not have powerful actions without powerful speaking and management.

Speaking without power is a management style that is relying on the hope of circumstances to turn out and deliver the results, very likely accompanied by worry, fear, stress, and frustrations.

Powerful speaking as a management style wields requests for commitments in time, challenging the best execution possible. In short, more attention to work on the front end, pays big back end dividends.

Powerful Speaking and Profitable Business 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 2 – Commitment Management – Out of “the Box” and into “the Gap”

In the same way that Accountability brings focus to your business, Commitment Management brings speed of execution to your day-to-day operations. This is a tool you really want to sharpen and master, because if you do, the payoff is huge. Everyone wants work to move forward powerfully, but you can’t have powerful actions without powerful speaking. First, let’s define “the box” and “the gap.”

The Box: That place of emotional safety where you are very comfortable making commitments towards what you know you can accomplish with no risk at all. That’s “the box.”

The Gap: When you commit to actions that take you just beyond your comfort zone, (the box), into that area where most of us would rather not visit unless we have to. That’s putting yourself into the gap. Those are the promises you want to listen for, those are the promises that move action forward powerfully.

“Necessity is the Mother of Invention” can mean we won’t go there unless we have to…and when we do, we discover new skills and abilities to perform work that weren’t there before. We get more work done in less time.

Commitment management is best used to help people make promises to execute the more important day-to-day actions. The act of Committing can be described as the backbone, strength, and driving force of achievement. Think of some accomplishment that is so bold it inspires you, and you will find one or more individuals fiercely committed to that work.

Leadership Power Tools and Business Accelerators 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

You hire someone who, at that time, seems to be the best person for the position. Everyone is happy – for a while. Then, at some point there is a problem. Do you stop to ask the question – is it the new person, or is it the management style, or is it something about the business operations or culture that is driving that employee’s behavior?

It may or may not be, but if you don’t ask, you will never discover what could possibly be a blind spot. Then the common scenario runs its course. He/she stays for a few months or years, and then we start over with a new person.

When you’re at the top of your organization, it’s likely difficult to see the impact of your own personality and leadership – be brave, ask for feedback,

Classic Business Blind Spot! is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

Leadership doesn’t live in a title; you can have leaders at any level of your business. But, do you hear “I’ll do my best,” or do you hear “I will get it done.”

There is a big difference between someone who sets a limit on how far they will go to get something done, and someone who has their eye only on the results. It’s very reasonable to do your best – how can anyone complain about that?

Results focus is far less reasonable, and more productive and satisfying to everyone. It’s a “let’s see what will happen, vs. I will make it happen” attitude.

Employee mentality will do their best – then stop, and go home at 4:30 – hoping it all works out. Leaders do whatever it takes to get the job done. Leaders posses behaviors and habits that inspire a certain attitude containing a greater strength of purpose, and they draw to themselves the resources to do what must be done.

Employee and Leader Mentality is a post from: Gregory Neil Associates

It’s important to distinguish someone’s technical job skill abilities separate from their ability to work with others in a team environment. Often, I see companies that have hired someone who is very good at what they do, but throws everything and everyone around them into chaos. Is it really worth it?

Only you can decide for your own business. But, keep in mind that what’s been found in both corporate and military team making, the most successful teams do not always start out with the personnel possessing the necessary skills. They do have the passion and the drive to do what needs to be done, so hiring is critical for the right skills and behaviors. But, of the two choices, which is more important?

People can learn new skills – if they want to, and as fast as they want to. But learning new behaviors is a bit more challenging.

Identify those people who already practice the behaviors you are looking for. Then allowing employees to be themselves and make decisions about how to get the job done based on common sense and their natural inclinations, produces a far more productive environment.

Stacking the Deck in your Favor 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