The perils of the “flagship” consulting client

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All of us like to have a favorite client–one that trusts and relies on us. They’re often the most lucrative as well, seemingly willing to engage with you without reservation. If their need is great they can dominate your calendar and provide consistent revenue along the way. Be careful, though, because a single (or even two) dominant clients can leave you and your business highly vulnerable to their fortunes. If they stop ringing the cash register you can find yourself suddenly cash poor and stress rich. Do whatever it takes to balance your revenue streams as early as you can, because you just never know when a great relationship will go south, especially through no fault of your own. I know this from personal experience so trust me on this one.

The Four Types of Training That Should Never Be Cut | workforce.com

Terrific article about investments in critical compliance training!

via The Four Types of Training That Should Never Be Cut | workforce.com.

Reality Checks

Small business owners are a stout hearted group of people. There aren’t many risk takers out there who can look directly into the abyss of insufficient cash flow, uncertain sales performance and aggressive supplier payment terms and still keep going. Some of you may think that such behavior is ill-advised (or even worse, nuts). After all, what sane person would ignore the fact that a train is roaring down the tracks toward them and instead just keep on following the tracks in front of them? The past 18 months have been ugly for small businesses and it isn’t over yet. Many firms-often those downstream of project funding cycles-are only now beginning to feel the wind in their face, with slowing orders and rising costs. Some of these will look at the numbers and decide to call it quits. Many more will stay in the game by doing whatever it takes. It is the latter I speak of now. The fearless entrepreneurs who are unafraid of the storm (or too pig-headed to come in out of the rain) are those I admire. Innovation, vision, dedication, commitment—all of these remain fundamental components of small business success. Fearlessness, however, is becoming the DNA.

Where do you count yourself among these folks? Are you willing to face the storm without fear?

Manager Education — The Employment Lifecycle

Introducing our newest professional education workshop:

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via Manager Education — The Employment Lifecycle.

Agreeing To Be Dissatisfied

The results of a Conference Board poll shows that more than half of Americans are dissatisfied with their job.  That means that if you have 12 employees around a conference room table to discuss confidential plans for next quarter, it is entirely possible (even probable) that 6 of them are looking for a job.  At the very least they are less productive than they might otherwise be.  That is a staggering thought, isn’t it?  How can you, as a manager, hope to be successful if you can only count on half of your workforce to contribute to reaching the goals of your organization? A manager must be held accountable for the output & products of their team.  Is it fair to expect a manager to be accountable for the dissatisfaction of better than half of the employees?

You better believe it is. If such a large proportion of your team are unhappy the odds are pretty good it isn’t just some disgruntled “dead-weight” stirring things up.  There is a systemic problem that has been missed (or ignored).  While it is certainly true that each employee must be accountable for their individual happiness, that fact does not relieve managers of accountability for their productivity.  Their satisfaction impacts your career, like it or not.

Take a step back and help your team to understand their own core competencies and those things which they truly care about.  Help them to find a path that aligns with their passions.  It will make a difference in your organization.  The alternative is to simply endorse their dissatisfaction and that’s not what your role as a manager is all about.

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• American Grow Less and Less Satisfied at Work (blogs.wsj.com)

Accountability Without Consequence? Don’t Bother

Management accountability efforts that don’t carry with them very real and clearly defined (and communicated) consequences is really nothing more than poetry. But carrying a “big stick” isn’t always the most effective means of developing accountable behavior. Consequence doesn’t have to be extreme in every case. Meter the consequences for performance failures in proportion to the criticality of the function. Most importantly, apply it consistently every time.

Survey Results

Here are the results of a one question survey about startegic planning in small businesses.  Interestingly, the only respondents were fellow consultants (business owners in their own right, of course).

Small Business Strategic Planning Poll

New Training Preferences Poll

I posted a new 1 question poll pertaining to scheduling options for sending key managers to professional training. Click here to answer: http://polls.linkedin.com/p/70259/jdita. Thanks!

Reality of the Soul

Once again some of us have been given an unexpected (but not altogether unwelcome) reminder of the fragility of this earthly life. The passing of Dr. Joanne Sujansky, one of our professional colleagues, has centered us in a way few other events can.

I did not have the privilege of knowing her personally, as so many here in Pittsburgh and around the country (more likely the world) did. I was fortunate enough to have heard her speak at a National Speakers Association event last year. She was effervescent. In that brief experience I came to understand the ardor with which her friends and colleagues regularly spoke of her.

What is uncanny to me is the degree to which I have been effected by her death. I would not dare lay claim to the type of personal grief currently felt by her close friends and colleagues. Yet I won’t deny that I feel as though I have lost an opportunity to get to know someone special. My sadness, like most, is selfish.

Despite this, I am reminded that what matters most in life is not what we accomplish nor what we end up possessing. What really makes for a “wonderful life” is that we make a positive difference in the lives of others. In the end it seems to me to be the only true reality of the soul. From what I can see Dr. Joanne Sujansky understood that concept and dedicated herself to exemplify it everyday.

Quite a legacy. Quite a soul. At long last peace.

Strategic Planning in Small Businesses

I’m working with a client now on the development of their first full-scale strategic plan. What is special about this client is that they have the self-awareness to know what they don’t know. The firm is very successful while still relatively small—about a dozen FTEs—yet the principals recognize that they need the benefit of an outsider’s perspective if they are going to come up with a plan for growing (profitably) beyond their current size.

There aren’t many small businesses that are able to look beyond the senior managers’ self-confidence (that borders on egotism) to know that it is always more important for the organization to get the right answer than it is for the individual to be “right”. Despite this fact, there are hundreds of thousands of successful small-to-midsized businesses in the US—indeed, the world. Is it because of good planning or just dumb luck?