Two Types - Internal & External

My client rescheduled our time twice in a row due to emergencies. It got me thinking that there are two types of emergencies. To over simplify (a little) one type is internal. A machine breaks down. Or you run out of cash.

The other type is external - things happen outside your company that you need to deal with. Often these are unforeseen problems that customers call on you to fix. In either case, don't stop by fixing the problem. Work to prevent it from happening again.

For Internal Problems

Prevention starts with the 5-Whys. Ask why it happened. Then ask why that happened, & why THAT happened. There's no magic about the number 5. Ask till you get to the root cause.

Usually the root cause is a person problem. That’s good news because it’s fixable. Someone wasn't trained properly, didn't communicate, didn't have the tools or the ability. Something like that.

Then develop better procedures to make sure that root cause is corrected. Schedule maintenance on the equipment and have backups if necessary. Check your cash on a time table and know what to do before it becomes a crisis.

For External Problems

You're like a fire department or emergency room. An emergency is not an interruption – it’s what you do.  Fixing problems is part of the value you provide even though you can't schedule them. You need three things.

Thing 1 The resources to handle the expected load even when you can't predict the details. That means sometimes those resources will be sitting around. That's not waste. You have to strike the balance between just in time and just in case inventory levels.

Thing 2 Good procedures and training. An emergency room can't function if things aren't stored in the right place so everyone knows where to find what they need. Or people haven't practiced how to deal with certain situations.

Thing 3 Make sure you're charging for the value you provide when solving customers' problems. You can build this into your original price, charge for ongoing support, or charge on a case by case basis. Your value doesn't end when your product is delivered.

Just because you can't predict the details of an emergency doesn't mean you can't prepare. Make a list of recent emergencies and note which are internal & which external. You’ll know what to do next.

One of the biggest frustrations for any business owner is when an employee doesn't perform to your expectations. The higher level the employee, the worse it gets. The root cause it often a mismatch between our expectations and their performance. I found the "LADDER OF LEADERSHIP" is a great tool to help codify our expectations and improve their performance.

 Delegate Don't Abdicate

I see too many business owners who just want to set it and forget it as Ron Popeil would say. But your employees are not a Rotisserie BBQ. Your job as CEO is to coordinate the output from everybody else like the conductor of the orchestra.

 The Ladder of Leadership

	Employee says	Manager says
7	I've been DOING …	What have you been DOING …
6	I Just DID ...	What did you DO …
5	I INTEND ...	What do you INTEND …
4	I would LIKE to …	What would you LIKE …
3	Here's what I THINK ...	What do you THINK …
2	Here's what I SEE …	What do you SEE …
1	Tell me what to DO …	I'll tell you what to DO …

Listen Here

A mission is the reason that a company exists. It doesn’t have to be worthy of a nobel prize. “We make the best damn pizza in town!” is an acceptable mission. The problem comes when companies try to encapsulate their mission into a statement. And the problem gets compounded when they hire consultants to help them do it. I say this as a consultant.

I was recently in a grocery store in California — using the bathroom actually. The bathrooms were located upstairs in the employee area so I got to photograph a poster with their mission statement on it. I’ve blocked out their name because I didn’t ask for permission to use it. I took the picture because it represents the worst example of a mission statement: something everyone can agree on but has no defining characteristics. It says nothing about the company, what it does, or really why it exists. The only worse ones maybe HERE.

The funny part was, as soon as I got downstairs there was another poster right by a table of stuff for sale. The poster did a much better job of defining this company’s mission.

See what I mean? Now you know a whole lot more about the company and why it exists.

Two More Things about Mission

Thing One

As CEO, you probably know why your company exists. You have a vision for where the company can go and what it can do. The definition of leadership is to inspire people to follow you. The thing that all leaders have in common is they do this by telling people where they’re going. Share your vision. Explain your mission. Over and over and over again. Explain how it informs your decisions. Spotlight others who do a good job of working to achieve the mission. Just don’t stick it on the wall next to the bathroom.

Thing Two

Your company’s mission (or reason to exist) needs to be adapted and adopted for each department so everyone knows how their job fits into the big picture. In the second poster, it’s easy to see how the buyers or even the stockers fit into this store’s mission. But what about the janitors, the IT department, or the people who do payroll? As a leader, be sure everyone knows how important their work is to supporting the over-all mission. That’s critical.

[This post also appeared on Medium.  Thanks to Sebastiaan Shepers of Bannerconnect for reminding me about adapting the mission to every department.]

More often than you think, different mentors will give you conflicting advice about what to do. Who’s right? They could all be right. Mentors generally speak from their experience and what they tell you actually worked for them. So their advice is right — in the context that they were in when they did (or didn’t do) something similar.

And that’s the rub. Your context is likely different from theirs — maybe a little, maybe a lot. Mentors are human beings who come with fully formed biases and unexamined assumptions. Like the fish that is the last to discover water, most mentors are not even aware of their own context.

Suppose you had a rash that wouldn’t go away. You could ask someone else who’s had a rash what to do about it. If you had poison ivy and so did they, their advice would probably be useful. But if they had hives, or an allergy, doing what worked for them might cause problems for you.

Here are some suggestions I’ve come up with from my years of being a mentor, training mentors, and researching mentor best practices.

Take Advice — Don’t Follow it

What that means is don’t blindly do what someone tells you; no matter how successful they’ve been. Consider their advice, the context it came from, and think about the ramifications of following it, ignoring it, or adapting it. Try to get some data about your own context then make a decision.

It helps to write down the decision you made, and especially the reason you made it (along with the date). That way when you’re wrong you can learn quicker. Don’t worry about being wrong. You will be. But if you learn fast enough, business is like baseball. As Robert Townsend said in “Up the Organization” You can strike out 7 times out of 10 and still be batting 300.

Toto, We’re not in School Anymore

In school, your job was to please the professor and give the right answers on the test. But in business, the professors are your customers (not your mentors) and they don’t even know what the right answer is. They just know if they want to buy your stuff or not. It’s not multiple choice — it’s heads or tails. So they’re a hard lot to suck up to before the final exam. And certainly you don’t want to suck up to your mentors. Mentors are great for emotional support, and insight, and even a kick in the butt when you need it. But don’t expect that if you do what they say to the letter you’ll automatically be a success.

The Best Mentors Ask a lot of Questions

They help you learn how to make a decision — they aren’t there to tell you which decision is the right one to make. And when they’re not asking questions; you should. Ask why their advice worked. Ask what else they considered. Ask what they tried that didn’t work. Try to learn their context and see how yours compares. Think about why they would say what they say and how your situation is the same or different.

Opinions are like Assholes

Everybody has one and they all stink. You want something different from a mentor than his or her opinion. Why?

One word: SLANKET. 

If I was your mentor and you had told me you were planning on putting sleeves on a blanket and selling them in all colors — including camouflage! — my opinion would have been that you were doomed to failure.

And I would have been wrong. Between Slankets, Snuggies, Freedom Blankets, and Blankoats they sold millions!

Hopefully, if I had been your mentor, I would not have given you my opinion, or at least would have tempered it with the caveat mentioned above. Then we could have discussed ways for you to test whether customers had the same opinion as I did, and how you could learn what it would cost to do a test, make a product, launch a brand etc.

So What Are Mentors Good For? Many things. It’s good to know you’re not alone. Seriously. That’s some of the emotional support I mentioned before. And sometimes they do know the answers you need. Especially when it comes to technical knowledge, industry experience, or the psychology of company dynamics. They’re good at connections and helping you expand your network. And the best mentors help you become a better entrepreneur.

So by all means, take advantage of the access you have to mentors. But don’t worry if multiple mentors give you conflicting advice. You can take their advice without following it.

[Thanks to Tim Coates and Kit Needham for comments on drafts of this article which also posted on Medium.com]