Rarely, if ever, have I heard someone speak these words. I think that’s mainly because we social creatures build rapport and relationships with our employees. When a company is growing and expanding, social relationships are the glue keeping the business together during day to day struggles/ adventures of expansion.  When you’re shoulder to shoulder with someone, building the business, it’s hard to imagine you’ll have to fire them.

Personal relationships for sure make a business strong. They also build blind spots for us as owners/entrepreneurs.

Jane has been working for us for 5 years, through all of the tough times, we’re sure to give her some slack when deadlines get missed. She just needs a vacation. It will pass.

Bob, heck, he’s a great guy with 3 kids and he “gets it”. He’s been with us from the start and is just having troubles at home right now which is why he’s grumpy to us and clients. It will pass.  

Will it really pass? Are you sure?

Just because you’re out of the first stage scramble and have consistent revenue rolling in doesn’t mean consistently poor execution is okay.  It’s not.

Firing is the best thing for everyone involved.

There are a lot of reasons to fire someone, most of which revolve around financial or legal. Rather than illuminate every reason, here are my favorite three balancing consequences. These are results from letting someone go which outweigh the emotional suck of firing someone.

Staff Morale Improves

When someone isn’t doing their job, others have to pick up the slack. When management* takes no corrective action, staff gets subconsciously cranky.  Cranky staff who feel taken advantage of are unproductive and inefficient. The great staff who get all the work done will eventually leave. The crappy and cranky staff will still be there.  Firing the crappy staff demonstrates to everyone you recognize there isn’t a fit and you’re willing to do the right thing for everyone making a change.  People get happier

Client Relationships Improve

Nothing worse than having a dissatisfied or grumpy employee interact with clients. Like a dog can smell fear, clients can smell grumpy.  Do you like doing business with grumpy people?  Yeah, me neither.  Even if the staff member is internal and doesn’t touch clients directly, grumpy seeps out like water finding a downhill path.  Clients will know there is a difference when you get the right people doing the right jobs.

New Input and New Experiences from New Staff

Where you were as a brand new, scrappy, all-hands-to-the-pump company, two or five or seven years ago is NOT where you are now as a company.  You hired the right people for where you were and what you were doing back then.  Over the course of time, trajectories change, your business evolves, and different types of experience is needed to keep you moving.  Even the most predictable of manufacturing businesses needs to have fresh perspectives to move and change with the ever shifting landscape of the business world.  Keeping a staff member who has plateaued does not serve you, your company, and especially that staff member.

Firing is a good transition – Just do it.

Releasing someone from a job they hate and are unsuccessful in is the best thing you can do for you and them.  How you let them go, and the style in which you do it, is entirely up to you. It may be emotional for you (or not), so plan for that eventuality. Write a script. Talk with your business attorney and HR representative who can make sure you have your ducks in a row. And finally, take action.  Keeping someone around, limping along, waiting for it to get better, is like slowly pulling a band-aid off a hairy body. Rip it off fast and it will hurt less.

*Yeah, put you’re big pants on. You are management if you founded the company or the one who ultimately signs the checks.

As much as close colleagues talk with me about the power of calendar management and living by Outlook, some days are just not as productive than others While many people schedule in break time, it doesn’t mean your brain cooperates with the calendar.  Today, as I stare at my to-do list, I find myself thinking about how to “capitalize” on the desperate need we all have at one point or another for a mental health day.

1) File Folder of Fluff (FFF)

What’s better than flipping through magazine articles you said you’d read when “you had time”. My FFF has articles in it which grabbed my attention and I saved for later.  Interestingly enough, one of those articles was just what I needed to hear today.  Reading the articles gives me a sense of “doing” something. Probably because I am.

2) List of Gonna Get To projects

At the back of my notebook, I have my “if I had a magic wand” list of projects full of  pure research.  Since surfing the web looking for stuff is not core to the daily work I do, these research projects take my mind out of my office and into creativity.  Typing into google gives me purpose and time for my mind to wander.  All the while I surf, I’m making progress on the big projects.  It’s a sneaky way to get back in the groove.

3) Get the Hell Out

Ultimately, after all is said and done, if I really cannot focus on the task at hand, it’s time to leave the office. In our world, we are no longer tethered to a location (thank you magical laptop and cel phones!). Getting out of my office and into the sunshine/park/coffee shop for a change of venue always shifts my mindset.  Inevitably, magic happens when I’m not staring at a wall.

Yes, I also have a ritual built around reading because I’ve got some pretty big projects going on. It’s easier to get sucked into the unimportant and urgent (reading emails) than stick with the important and un-urgent. Know what I mean? No?  Here’s an example:

My Bucket o’ Brain Juice

I’ve got a big gnarly project. It involves a lot of focus and a whole bucket full of brain juice. Because I’m the one creating, and it’s something really new I haven’t yet done, it is easy to find other distractions which absorb my time: checking email, making lists, and every other little type of “polishing the cannonball”.  To stop me from getting caught up in the rabbit hole of self indulgence and frustration, I found tools to make it easier for me to  strategically give attention to activities and then I added some of my own “rules” along with the tools.

This is where Feedly comes in.

I loved the Google Reader. It was a place where I could dip into blog posts, articles, creative stuff, and news at my own discretion.  Of course we all now know that Google Reader is being retired. And while I lament the loss of this awesome RSS feed tool, I see it’s retirement has opened my eyes to a replacement. And Feedly was that replacement.

(FYI: Feedly manages RSS feeds from websites. See the icon at the left? These are indicators of feeds to which you can subscribe. This means an almost instant  clean up of my email inbox!  I’ve got dozens of different feeds from different topic sources in my Feedly. I categorized them. Now, I read them when I want, not when they ping my email inbox.  I’ve got Feedly on my laptop, my phone and my ipod. Yes, it’s that good.

Now I have this tool, my rules around when I read are vital (otherwise I experience the aforementioned sucking in to the rabbit hole.)  I read stuff in Feedly when:

1) I’m waiting for someone at a meeting. If someone is running late, I fill my time reading.

2) I’m traveling. If there is wifi on a train/plane/airport/station, I’m reading while I wait/travel.

3) When my brain needs a break from work. I set a timer for 15 minutes because reading is a slippery slope to avoidance.

4) When I first get in the office and about 15 minutes before I head home. I like bookending the day with cool stuff going on.

There you have it. My next favorite thing to help me see the important and not urgent come through in my email inbox.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a big ass pile (BAP) of articles about of cool stuff you want to do.  This BAP used to be in my email inbox and in my filing cabinet. But no more! I tell you!

I’d keep emails in my inbox as if it was my “hey this is cool, remember this” location. And, I’d have my many email subscriptions to news and events websites arriving there too. Why is that a problem?  Too much in there!  I was deleting subscriptions without reading them AND I missed a couple of really important client emails.  That’s never good. In fact, it really stinks.

These people and things I thought were so cool were now interrupting my ability to serve my clients, generate revenue, and do the stuff I love to do.  Emails would show up and I was skimming at best. I need my email to be my communication tool like my phone, not my information purgatory.

Finally, I started to use two tools, which I’ve had in my toolbox deck for a while, more effectively

Evernote, oh how I love thee…

Super easy to use and organize notes into notebooks, Evernote is my go to tool for remembering cool stuff.

• A wine I had at dinner? Yup – take a pic of the label and stick it in my Wine Notebook.
• A marketing idea from a coffee conversation? Yup – quick type it into a note in my Marketing notebook via my smart phone application.
• A cool webpage about a conference I want to go to next year? Yup – “webclip” the page from the Evernote browser extension into my notebook on conferences.

Oh, and before you think this is only a tech tool…

As I’m whipping through paper files of crap I haven’t touched in ages on my “Friday Crap Clean Out Day” , the stuff I shove in this folder in the first place that is still relevant to me, I’m whipping quick note/clip/photo right there into Evernote.  Ahh, I can feel my filing cabinet breathe again!

There is more to tell about this Master of my Email with regard to email subscriptions and news…. You’ll see that in Part Deux…

BeeTeeDubs – I’m not getting compensated by Evernote.  I just love them.

When I read, I frequently send an author a note telling them how much I enjoyed their article or book. It’s my service to the greater warm fuzzy in the world. So many of us only get bills in the mail, how nice, then, to get a note saying you’re appreciated.

Recently, I shared why I chose to leave facebook. One of the unfortunate consequences of my choice is I am now unable to submit comments on articles online because the website is exclusively using a facebook social plug-in. Here’s an example of a really cool article in case you don’t know what I’m talking about.

This got me thinking about how I engage online and if my engagement is meaningful and contributing to a higher good.

Really, what is my purpose for writing these notes to authors? Is it a business purpose? Is it personal? Now that many of my online connections are cut short because of the facebook-non-starter, should I still connect with authors? How? Where? Will it matter?

These pretty deep questions are directing me back to my personal mission statement and my business mission statement.  To decide where I’m going, and the activities I’ll participate in, I’m looking at these two touchstone statements.  I know, I know. You thought a mission statement was a piece of fluff you did for your coach and then threw in a drawer. Well, dust it off people, this is how you use it.

Taking a look at my mission statements, I saw meaningful engagement is what is important to me. Not quantity of blog posts commented on. Not quick little quips in the article comment section.  

Meaningful engagement. My definition of “meaningful”; not someone else’s definition.  In this application, meaningful engagement is a note/comment which contributes to and creates further conversation between myself and the author. If other people see, that’s secondary.

What’s been kind-of hampered here is the ease in which I connect with the author. I may need to take a couple more steps to get in touch with them to share input. It’s an opportunity for me to rank the level of engagement I want to have, and measure the importance level of the contact with this specific person. All of this adds to my original focus – Meaningful.  I can do meaningful in a direct message in twitter just like I can do meaningful in a personal email and a personal notecard.

How to do measure your meaningful engagement? What does meaningful mean to you? How does it measure out in your business?

What is your company’s purpose for existing?

Go on. Write the answer to it down now. Some helpful tips:

The fewer the words, the better.

The more clear and concise, the better.

The easier your staff can grasp it and own it as “their own”, the better.

Got fluffy words that are extra and provide no direction, that people don’t understand? Take them out.

Ever seen the movie Crazy People with Dudley Moore?

Volvos are Boxy but Good. Safe instead of Sexy.

Pretty easy to remember. Gets the point across. All of the staff can understand it. Staff understand that safety is the priority so when little daily decisions come on the scene, they look at the statement and think “how will this make sure my customers are safe.”  Customers understand they are getting safe. Just as powerful could be “We make safe cars that save the world.”

Now imagine if the mission statement said something like this:

By creating value for our customers, we create value for our shareholders. We use our expertise to create transport-related products and services of superior quality, safety and environmental care for demanding customers in selected segments. We work with energy, passion and respect for the individual. ”

What the h-e-double-hockey-sticks does this say to you? Go on… Pick it apart. If you’re an employee at this company, would you be able to use this as a touch stone statement that helps you with your decisions? Is it easy to remember? Seems like the primary mission and purpose of the company is to make money;  I mean, that’s the first sentence there? How does that make you feel if you’re a consumer or employee, not a shareholder?  Would you want to work there?

So what is your business mission statement? What is your business purpose? Can you say it in 20 words or less?

Facebook is a magnificent company.  They’ve grown faster than many others, are responsible for connecting millions of long lost friends, family members, and, heck, they have even supported more romance than the Love Boat itself. They have also changed the way may people interact with each other on a daily basis.  Facebook is a game changer just like Wal-Mart.  (Think about that for a minute…. they really are similar.)

I am in awe of the company. To have that type of effect is astounding. Before Facebook, we picked up the phone to talk about the latest gossip, sent out birth announcements in the mail, and used email to invite people places. We focused more on our own business instead of everyone else’s. We didn’t post a disclaimer telling people our private stuff was our private stuff.  We knew if we wanted something, it cost money. We’ve changed from trading cash for a place to connect with others to trading our demographic information for advertisers so we can use a “free” platform.

After several months of emotional “Should I stay or Should I go?” I finally decided it was time deactivate my Facebook account. My round robin of decision making came down to my personal commitment to reach out actively to folks, rather than the passive “social” platform of Facebook. The few major reasons that pushed me over the edge were:

• My goals I set for myself  in my life are more important to me than lurking, reading other people’s food choices, drama, television posts.
• Email, phone, and, dare I say, the hand written note, work great for staying in touch. Everyone loves getting “real” mail.
• People know where to find me when they need me. Google takes care of that.
• My ideal clients spend their time building their businesses and hire out someone to “do” Facebook for them. So do I.

With all the time I now have because I’m not “just quickly checking what’s happening” I plan to focus on the other projects that have gone by the wayside:  writing, blogging, teaching, and building a stronger, more efficient, consulting practice.

Thank you Facebook, for serving me in so many ways. I appreciate you for what you have been to me. I’m sure you’ll keep doing great without me.

Not too long ago, I sat in a meeting where we were talking about goals. It was one of your typical, run of the mill, monthly board meetings, where most of the people in the room read out-loud the report they had just emailed everyone 45 minutes earlier. (Aside: as if 45 minutes was enough time for me to read all 10 reports from these managers.)

I’m all for hearing the sound of my own voice, but how many meetings have we already sat in where we are ALL thinking this same thought, 

“I could be doing something more productive right now.”

It’s easy to do the same old crap. It’s easy to have the same old meeting where people read their TPS reports in a dry monotone voice.  Guess what? No one cares. These “read the report” meetings are lame posturing at it’s best. They don’t really serve the company.  

Time IS money. Why are we willing to waste our time and money in these lame meetings? Change means work. If the CEO, or hell anyone in the room, isn’t willing to speak up and say,

“Hey, this is lame. We could be doing a whole bunch of other stuff that makes us money right now. Can we talk about ways to save costs and increase revenues instead?“

then companies are doomed to their continued lameness and stunted, limping along growth.

There are already plenty of great business management meetings out there in the world. Let’s get some of our CEOs and Presidents trained in effective meeting management.

Let’s start a revolution.  It’s time for crappy, time wasting, meetings to stop. I promise to set a meeting with you when I have a decision on which I need your input or when I need help brainstorming a big topic.  

I’ll leave the “hearing the sound of my own voice” here in the blog.

–

Jessica Clark is the founder of Room to Breathe™ where she helps busy entrepreneurs set up clear workflow systems so they, and their staff, can spend their time making more money.  

Step 1: get bankers box

Step 2: place box and end of desk

Step 3: pull arm back, parallel to desktop

Step 4: swipe arm along desktop, pushing papers, knick-knacks, and assorted crap along desk so they fall into the box.

Step 5: put lid on box.

Step 6: June 1, 2013 – open box, go through it. Shred/Toss it all if you haven’t touched it.

Seriously, why let the crap on your desk stop you from getting your work done. Just get it out of the way and move forward. If you need it, open the box and go get it.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Yeah, yeah, later you can read all the organizing system books.  For now, just get the crap out of your way and rock into the new year. 

Happy New Year!

Jessica from Room To Breathe

Warning: sweeping generalizations in this post!

I pull out magazine articles. Mainly because I like to take a file of reading with me on the go.  

Yesterday, I pulled from my To Read file this article about women in business and how so many of them never get past the million dollar mark.

Everyone has a story around it. Women: 

• Don’t set high goals for growth.
• Not inherent risk takers.
• Not hunters and gatherers.
• Bred to be moms, not business owners.
• Don’t have business relationships built because they were busy caring for kids.
• Crappy with money.
• Intermingle money.
• Don’t know numbers, or care about numbers.
• Not interested in Strategic Planning.

Coincidentally, I’m reading Bounce by Matthew Syed who poses the theory that the way people get to be good at what they are good at is not genetics, but practice. Lots and lots of practice. at least 10,000 hours of practice.

Both book and article got me thinking and leads me to pose this theory:

If a girl and a boy had the same amount of 10,000 hours of experience, immersion, passion and training, I’d bet both of them would be making the same amount of money in business.

To the exclusion of everything else, if a million dollar revenue generating business is something you REALLY want to make happen, and you’re immersed in the training, education, and practices of running a million dollar business, sure as sh*t you’re going to make it happen.

And now this question: 

Why does it matter if more women are not running million dollar revenue generating companies if that’s not what they really want to do?  

Then this brings on another theory: Women, in general, in the US, are not as interested in attaining a million dollar revenue business. There are other activities which are more important than running a business with that type of revenue.

What do you think?