8 Benefits of a Business Health Check

In EVERY business in EVERY industry in the world there are always more costs savings, more efficiencies, more profit, more market share, and more success obtainable than what is currently being achieved? 

Do you want more of any or all of those things? Are you happy with where your business is today or do you want it to be more?

Every year most of us go to our doctor to get and annual health checkup. It helps us see how things are doing and identify where problem areas are in our health.

So why not do a Business Health Check every year?

Let’s start by identifying what a business health check is.

A business health check is simply a full diagnostic of the state of a business.  

It starts with an evaluation of the current position of the business and provides an assessment of the critical elements affecting your business both internally and externally.

This assessment gives an external view of the business to highlight where things are going well, the areas that need change, and how to improve those areas to make a business even more successful.

Why does your business need a health check?

The main reason would be to see how we are doing as a business.

And a business health check is not just for struggling businesses. Healthy businesses can benefit from one as well.

It’s just like getting an annual health check – we may feel just fine but the doctor may discover something we weren’t even aware of so we can address it.

Here are 8 Benefits of getting a Business Health Check regularly!

1. Know the Current State of Your Business.

Probably the most obvious benefit of a business health check is getting an objective overview of where you stand.

This offers you with the basic knowledge of the overall business performance, where things are going well, where opportunities for improvements and growth are, customer experience, employee engagement, and more.

You should come away with a clear, objective view of your current overall business health.

2. Understand Your Business Maturity.

Businesses all go through three basic maturity stages:

A.  Infancy: Startup and initial growth

B.  Adolescence: Emergence and expansion

C.  Maturity: Stability and progress

At each stage there are a lot of competing demands upon the business owner. A health check will help pinpoint exactly where a business stands internally, and externally in relation to the market. Understanding your maturity is necessary for identifying improvements to get your business to the next stage of maturity

3. Identify Strengths & Weaknesses.

There are many business owners don’t think they need help. The truth is that some of them may be right.

But wouldn’t it be valuable to have an external expert an objective look into what you are doing, how you’re progressing toward your goals, and make further suggested improvements to help your business become stronger?

4. Spot New Growth Opportunities.

Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. Maybe you think you’re ready to expand but you’re not…or vice versa.

Look for new growth in your industry, other growth areas you may not have considered. Or, perhaps further growth in an area that you have already built upon.

A business health check can help you identify potential growth areas, and better prepare for this expansion?

5. Identify Business Threats.

Do you fully understand where the threats to your business success are coming from? Internally or externally?

Identifying these threats won’t necessarily make them go away, but knowing what they are will help you adapt your business to mitigate the damage as much as you can.

6. Re-calibrate Your Business Goals

Re-calibrate and refocus on the long-term goals you have for your business.

It’s easy to get caught up in the everyday problem solving, we lose sight of the reason and goals we had for the business, it’s time to get back on track again.

7. Get an Objective View

An opportunity to look at your business from a different perspective.

Getting another perspective from outside the industry with business experience can provide constructive ideas to really ensure future success.

8. Gain a Mentor

You get an expert to discuss your business with, much like a mentor.

Sometimes a business owner does not have anyone suitable to talk to about the business at a strategic level. Employees are usually not appropriate, friends and work colleagues may not understand or be experienced, but a business health expert, or consultant, is trained to quickly assess your business and help with problems and changes for improvement.

There are many more benefits of doing a Business Health Check, but the 8 above are great benefits for you and your business.

For more information about Business Health Checks and how The Cobalt Group can help you do business health assessment, or help you with any other business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

4 Things Ethics Is Not

A company’s ethics will determine its reputation.

Good business ethics are essential for the long-term success of an organization. Implementing an ethical program will foster a successful company culture and increase profitability.

A company's ethics will have an influence on all levels of business.

It will influence all who interact with the company including customers, employees, suppliers, competitors, etc.

All of these groups will have an effect on the way a company's ethics are developed.

It is a two way street, the influence goes both ways, which makes understanding ethics a very important part of doing business today.

Ethics is very important, as news can now spread faster and farther and quicker than ever before.

Simply stated - Ethics refers to standards of behavior that tell us how human beings ought to act in the many situations in which they find themselves. Whether as friends, parents, children, citizens, businesspeople, teachers, professionals, and so on.

I will cover Ethics more in future blogs but for now, I think it is helpful to identify 4 Things Ethics Is NOT:

-Ethics is not the same as feelings. Feelings provide important information for our ethical choices. Some people have highly developed habits that make them feel bad when they do something wrong. But many people feel good even though they are doing something wrong. And often, our feelings will tell us it is uncomfortable to do the right thing if it is hard.

-Ethics is not following the law. A good system of law does incorporate many ethical standards, but law can deviate from what is ethical. Law can become ethically corrupt, as some totalitarian regimes have made it. Law can also be a function of power alone and designed to serve the interests of narrow groups. It may have a difficult time enforcing standards in some important areas and may be slow to address new problems. 

-Ethics is not following culturally accepted norms. Some cultures are quite ethical, but others become corrupt or blind to certain ethical concerns. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" is not a satisfactory ethical standard.

-Ethics is not science. Social and natural science can provide important data to help us make better ethical choices, but science alone does not tell us what we ought to do. Science may provide an explanation for what humans are like, but ethics provides reasons for how humans ought to act.

The challenge is that there are two fundamental problems in identifying the ethical standards we are to follow:

- On what do we base our ethical standards? 

- And how do those standards get applied to specific situations we face?

Ethics is NOT an easy topic. But it IS a topic that needs to be addressed by our businesses and business leaders. I will dive more into this subject in future blogs.

For more information about Business Ethics, or to see how The Cobalt Group can help you do an ethics assessment, or help you with any other business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

10 Important Ways to Increase Employee Engagement

As I stated in a previous blog, employee engagement is the next level above employee satisfaction.

Basically stated, employee engagement is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values.

There are two components of engagement:

Rational Engagement

The involvement, understanding and motivation an employee has in his/her job.

Emotional Engagement

The attitudinal attachment an employee has to his/her company.

In essence, employee engagement is a barometer that determines the relationship of a person with the organization.

At the heart of the engagement model is Leadership. This is where it starts. Your organization’s leadership sets the tone for your employee engagement model. And the engagement strategy must be directed from the top down. 

The challenge facing the organization’s leadership is to move the employee beyond the way each feels about his/her job to the attitudinal attachment each employee has to his/her company.

So as you develop your employee engagement strategy, here are

10 Important Ways to Increase Employee Engagement

1. They Need to Know what’s Expected of Them

2. They Need to Have the Right Equipment to do the Job

3. Give Them the Opportunity to Do What They Do Best

4. Have a Formal Plan for Recognition & Praise

5. Care for Them as a Person

6. Let Them Know Their Opinion Counts

7. Build a Connection with Them and the Mission of Your 

Organization

8. Talk With Them About Their Progress – formally and informally

9. Provide Opportunities to Learn and Grow

10. Encourage Professional and Personal Development

As your organization develops your engagement plan remember, the KEY to successfully engaging employees is getting to know each employee – not engaging a “them”.

For more information about engaging and mobilizing employees, and to take our free self-assessment about how well you are engaging and mobilizing, or to see how The Cobalt Group can help you with this or any other business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

Why TEAMWORK Matters

You have a passion about something and decided to turn it into a career. You are building, or have already built, a business to bring your good or service to market. 

Or, you're part of a bigger company and are responsible for part of that organization.

Undoubtedly, you want your business or organization to be successful. But, with all of the moving parts to running them, what are the important things to be focusing on? 

While you are diligently creating and executing your business plans, go-to-market strategies, and all the other pieces of the pie, there is one important ingredient that is overlooked, or taken for granted too often:

TEAMWORK

Why does this matter? Because running a successful organization requires an effective team!

The simple truth is that effective TEAMWORK does, among other things,  the following:

- It enhances the sense of accomplishment and promotes camaraderie

- TEAMWORK helps build enthusiasm and creates a more supportive atmosphere

- It creates collaboration in the organization – the sum being greater than the parts

- When employees use their talents together they are better able to overcome roadblocks and accomplish the mission   

- Teamwork encourages interaction across organizational divides – and externally with partners and customers

There are many other benefits of effective TEAMWORK. The point here is, TEAMWORK must be an important ingredient for any successful organization.

So here’s the question... 

Does your organization demonstrate effective TEAMWORK and reap the benefits?

We'd be glad to discuss that with you. The Cobalt Group can facilitate over 150 different workshops for your organization, six of them listed below are entirely focused on teamwork and team building.

• ·        Building High Performance Teams Inside the Company
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• ·        Building High Performance Teams in a Remote Workforce
• 
  
• ·        Team Building for Managers
• 
  
• ·        Team Building Through Chemistry
• 
  
• ·        Teamwork and Team Building
• 
  
• ·        Virtual Team Building and Management

For more information about how to achieve better TEAMWORK, or to see how The Cobalt Group can help you with this, or any other business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

Please share this with your friends and colleagues.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s have a discussion. 

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

5 Characteristics of Engaged Employees

Employee engagement is the next level above employee satisfaction. The difference between the two is distinct.

Satisfied employees perform under a more transactional relationship. They are willing to give X amount of work and time because the company gives them Y in return. 

Engaged employees, in contrast, will go beyond a transactional relationship and are willing to give greater levels effort and time. They put more into their jobs because they are passionate about seeing the company and its customers succeed. Employee engagement is a barometer that determines the relationship of a person with the organization.

These are certain characteristics that are traits of more engaged employees. Among them are:

1.      They have a belief in the organization. Engaged employees feel connected to the mission and values of the organization. They want to contribute to its success.

2.      They have an understanding of the ‘bigger picture’. These employees know what is expected of them and they know how what they do fits into the overall strategy of the organization.

3.      They work to make things better. Engaged employees seek out ways to improve the organization and the products or services they sell.

4.      They are respectful and caring to colleagues. These employees appreciate that each has a role and that each bring certain strengths to the solution. They genuinely care for each other.

5.      They are willing to go ‘above and beyond’. Another characteristic of an engaged employee is their willingness to go the extra mile to achieve the goals of the organization. They do so out of commitment to the organization’s goals and values,

At the center of any organization’s engagement model is its leadership. The tone for employee engagement is set from the top to the bottom of the leadership chain. To succeed, it has to be an all hands effort. The organization’s leadership must move the employee beyond the way each feels about his/her job to developing the attitudinal attachment each employee has to his/her company. This is the difference between having satisfied employees to having engaged employees. And it's not that hard.

And remember from a previous blog, the KEY to successfully engaging employees is getting to know each employee – not engaging a “them”.

For more information about engaging and mobilizing employees, and to take our free self-assessment about how well you are engaging and mobilizing, or to see how The Cobalt Group can help you with this or any other business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2018 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

3 Questions You Must Answer to Know if You’re Setting Your Employees Up for Success

If you’ve ever had employees work for you then you’ve likely been in the situation where you have to decide whether or not to let them go for poor job performance. How did you get there? What led that employee to perform poorly? If you’re in a leadership role your job is to set your people up to succeed; to give them what they need to do what you hired them to do.

There are legitimate reasons to fire someone little to no notice. For me that would involve willful or gross negligence, or criminal activity. In those cases the answer is fairly simple – termination is warranted right then. There are other factors, as well, that would rightly lead to ending their employment with you.

But, if you have an employee that is struggling to do what you hired them to do and you are considering letting them go, there are three questions that you must answer before you make that decision:

1.      Did the employee know what was expected of him/her? It seems like a simple question but I have worked with a few clients that had let people go without knowing if the person knew what was expected of them. If your employee doesn’t have a clear understanding of what is expected of them, then how could they know what they were supposed to do?

2.      Was the employee properly trained to perform their duties? There have been many times when I have seen people thrown into a job or a task without adequate, or sometimes any, training to do the job. That seems incredulous in this day and age but it happens more often than you would think. If they haven’t been shown the proper way to do the job, how can you expect them to do it properly?

3.      Does the employee have the right tools to do the job? This is the last question I ask. If they know what is expected of them, and have been properly trained to do the job, were they given the appropriate tools? If the employee’s job is to drive nails into the wall, sending them out with a spoon is of little help. Why weren’t they given a hammer?

Our job as leaders is to set our employees up to succeed. The calculation is simple – our success is dependent upon their success. If you can’t honestly answer ‘YES’ to each of these questions, you have set them up to fail. And in that case, you have failed as a leader, too.

Make sure you can answer each of those questions with a resounding ‘YES’.

For more information about employee engagement, or to see how The Cobalt Group can help you with this or any other business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2018 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

People as a Primary Growth Area

In the course of my week I talk with a lot of businesses at various stages and sizes about where they want to grow. It’s not unusual to hear things like:

• I want to grow into a new market.
• I want to increase my offerings.
• I want to add a new location.

The list goes on, and every one of them are good goals and good growth areas. Most of these business leaders have a good strategy to reach those goals, too. But as I talk with them about those strategies there is one common denominator that I don’t hear them talk about growing – their people!

So I want you to change your approach to business growth and think of your People as a Primary Growth Area! While this is true for all of your people, it is especially true for your leadership team. After all, if you’ve read my blog on the 3 Ds of GoodLeadership, then you know that these are the people to whom you will entrust to one of the Ds – Delegate.

Your people are the most important asset you have in your business. Even if you are self-employed, taking care of yourself will benefit your business.

It’s the people that take your vision and direction and help you achieve your goals. They are the ones that make things happen. You have those people because your business grew enough that you could not do it all yourself.

Don’t overlook your Primary Growth Area. Invest in your people. Make sure they know what to do, and have the tools and training to do it. Sure, better benefits help when they are affordable but what I am saying is to make sure they understand what the mission and vision are, and what their role in it is. Seek their input into your plans and they’ll feel like they have ownership, and with that they will want to succeed even more. And when you’ve achieved results in that Growth Area, you’ll be better positioned to grow your business in other areas, and be able to do so with your people as part of that strategy.

The Cobalt Group can help you with this. Ask us how.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2018 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

Your Value To Your Customer

Most companies have a value proposition. They have some product(s) or service(s) that they believe will benefit their customers. While this value proposition is a great thing to be able to articulate, it isn’t what your real value to your customer is or should be. The customer, on the other hand, wants to believe that they will see value from those products or services. But is that what they really want? My experience is that the value that they see comes more from how you do business with them rather than the actual product or service you’re providing.

The key is to go beyond a value proposition statement and do what you can to help the customer solve their problems. So how do you do that? To begin with, your value begins by getting to know your customer. Get to know them deeply. Know what they do, why they do it, and how they do it. Know what their strategic plan is; learn what their problems are. Many of the problems you can help solve are based in them getting from where they are to achieving their goals. Knowing those goals and why they are important is key here, and will differentiate you from the competition that doesn’t try to understand them.

To do this you have be in there talking with them. Find out what they are trying to do and why. Be an Excellent Listener. Try to get to know their problems before they become a business opportunity. Help shape the way they want the solution to look. For this to happen it will require an investment of your time so that you can understand what they are trying to solve.

The truth is that what customers really want are partners that can help them solve problems. They have plenty of vendors trying to sell them something. So what this really means is that you must move beyond the transactional sale of a product or service and become a business partner and a trusted agent. If you are able to do that then you will increase Your Value To Your Customer.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2015 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Hot Wash

Almost every evolution that occurred in my Navy career was hot washed. That is a military term for reviewing the lessons learned. We debriefed every flight, every exercise, and almost every evolution. We looked at what we did right and what we did wrong. It never made us perfect at what we were doing but when those lessons learned were incorporated into the next event, it made for fewer and fewer mistakes. This especially helped in the planning phases.

Since joining the corporate world I have not seen that done very often. In my first job as a sales rep I went to my boss after the first win to see if she wanted a debrief. She asked me if we won and I said yes. Then she asked what there was to debrief. Being new to the corporate world, I guessed that winning meant not needing to review things. I was used to hot washing everything so I figured it was how things were done. After my first loss I went back with the same thing and the response was about the same with the exception of her asking what I would do differently the next time. That was the extent of the hot wash.

In successive jobs I have had much the same experience. Most of these were not small companies but big multi-billion dollar corporations. Even the company that had a process for what I call a hot wash did not enforce it, nor did it ever really even ask for one. I offered to do one and while they did agree to it, I would have thought that they would have been more interested to know why we lost a $30M+ opportunity. So I put the presentation together and gave it. They were grateful and said all the right things, but nothing really changed.

So why should you do a hot wash? That could be a rhetorical question, but worth addressing nonetheless. All of our lives we should learn from our mistakes. We all make them and nothing is perfect. But, if we don’t take a look at what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong we will set ourselves up to possibly repeating the same mistakes again. And in business, those mistakes make us look bad, at best, and can cost a lot of money, at the worst.

Hot washes shouldn’t be finger pointing exercises either. Establish a formal process to review every bid you make. Look at what you did right. Reinforce those actions. Give praise to those responsible for it. Next, look at what you did wrong. Don’t adopt the zero defect mentality over these errors. Figure out what you need to do to keep from doing it again the next time. No phase of any business venture goes perfectly. Some mistakes may not have had any impact this time, but it doesn’t mean that they may not hurt you the next time.

Take the time to establish a process for reviewing your business successes and losses. Be objective and be honest in your critiques. Leave your egos out of it too. That is the only way to get better. And in the long run, doing a hot wash will pay big dividends.

Happy New Year to you all and our wish is for much success for you in 2015!

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2015 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Roadblocks to Results

What keeps you or your business from being successful? What keeps you from achieving the results you set out to achieve? This is a topic that books have been written about but I will try to address at a high level view in this post. My list here will not be all inclusive. There are too many independent variables in each situation we face to list them all here. The ones I will discuss below are ones that seem to be more prevalent in my experience and observations. So what are some of the Roadblocks to Results?

·         Having no goal. If we don’t start with the end in mind then it is more likely that we will not get there. As simple as that seems it is not too uncommon that I run across situations where there is no real goal.

·         No long range planning. Too often we worry about the near term requirements to the neglect of the long term goal(s). We then make decisions based on what are more immediate needs vice the longer term needs we have. That doesn’t mean that near term needs aren’t important. But don’t make all of your decisions based on the more immediate issues to the neglect or impact on your long term goals.

·         Lack of adaptability. Another roadblock is being unable to adapt to changes in the business environment. Things change and unless we either predict the change or adapt quickly we run the risk of getting left behind.

·         Getting sidetracked. Seems obvious but letting other distractions interfere can keep you from achieving your goals. If you pursuing a certain goal and another shiny object appears it takes good business discipline to stay focused. There may be times when you want to change direction and go for the new opportunity but it needs to be weighed heavily and it needs to align with the long term goals.

·         Relying on technology to solve problems. We all love technology and the way it is supposed to make our lives ‘simpler’. But there are problems out there that technology doesn’t solve. A look at your goals and the objectives you laid out to reach them should indicate whether your problem is a technological problem or business problem. One example is…will that new CRM database help you achieve your goals? Or will it create unintended consequences across the company? Often, it’s the basic blocking and tackling that leads to victory.

·         Looking for other examples to emulate vice solutions for you. Don’t look to the example of others to simply cut and paste a solution into your environment. They may have had a very similar problem but the cause of the problem may be different. Make sure it is an exact fit before just copying a solution used elsewhere.

As I said, this topic has had many books devoted to it. My aim is not to write a book about it but to get you to take a hard look at what Roadblocks to Results are keeping you from achieving your goals.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2014 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

If I Become King

We all do this. We sit around with friends and colleagues and complain about the way things are being done where we work, and about the people in charge. And we always have a better way to do it.

Back before the earth cooled I was a young junior officer at my first actual job in the Navy (at the ripe old age of 25) after receiving my wings.  I was the branch officer responsible for the care and feeding of 27 aviation electricians. It wasn’t my first leadership role. I’d already held a couple of those before I entered the Navy. And like a lot of young (and sometimes even old) guys I sat around with my pals and we often complained about how screwed up things were and how we would do things differently if we were the King. So I decided to keep a log of things I liked and disliked about the way things were being done, and what I liked and disliked about the leadership styles of the senior officers with whom I served. Most of the comments were bullet points about this and that, and over time it filled about 15 or so pages. I was determined that If I Become King I would do things differently. I would do things right!

About ten years later, when I was put in my first department head job, I recalled that book and pulled it out. I was no longer a junior officer. So as I read through it I was amazed at some of the things that I had written. I was amazed that some of what I had written was still valid. I was even more amazed that about 75% of what I thought needed changing was due to utter naiveté. Of course, when I was younger I thought I had all the answers. But I now had more life and work experience and, while some of what I felt needed to be changed or incorporated into what I wanted my leadership style to be was still pertinent, a lot of what I thought needed changing was due more to my lack of knowledge and experience than a process or leadership style that was erroneous.

On the surface, it would appear that if about 75% of what I wrote down to change was wrong then it was a failed exercise. I don’t think so. I did learn some things from that exercise that have stuck with me since:

·         It’s easy to complain about something when we don’t have the whole picture.

·         Not everything that we think is being done wrong is actually being done wrong.

·         Many things we don’t like have nothing to do with the efficiency or effectiveness of what’s being done, it’s more about our personal preference.

·         Just because we become leaders doesn’t mean we’re done learning. On the contrary. I’ve learned more about leadership while being a leader than I ever learned in a water cooler conversation or in a leadership training class.

There are times when I wish I had kept a similar journal when I started my corporate career. It would be interesting to see if the results would be the same. I still see things being done that I don’t agree with but now I am more able to discern whether it is an actual problem that needs to be addressed, or just something that I would personally do differently If I Become King.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2014 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Are We Going to Abilene?

We've all been there. We are in a discussion about something and we sense that the path we’re taking is the wrong direction. Either through what we believe the evidence to be or by instinct, we know that the decision being made is going to be a bad decision. But then, we just sit there and say nothing.

Right after I received my Wings of Gold in the Navy I was sent to their Leadership, Management, Education, and Training (LMET) course. This was the first course on leadership and management that I received in the Navy and it was a good course. I was a young Ensign and had already been a supervisor before joining the Navy. In one of the sessions we were discussing what I mentioned in the first paragraph and they had us watch a short movie called ‘The Road to Abilene’. As I recall, it was about a group of people that were sitting around, bored, on a hot Friday or Saturday afternoon trying to decide what to do when someone suggests that they take a trip to Abilene (about an hour away) for dinner. No one really protests but no one really wants to spend the hour on a hot and dusty car trip. When they get to the cafe, the food is just as bad as the drive. Then they drive back home and are exhausted.

One of them says, "It was a great trip, wasn't it?" The others now said they would rather have stayed home but went along with it since the everyone else seemed so eager. Then they all sit around and try to figure out why it was that they together decided to take a trip which none of them wanted. They each would have preferred to stay at home, but did not admit to it when they had the chance to say so.

I have experienced this in the Navy and in my corporate career. Someone comes up with what they think is a good idea and the rest of us aren't really sure, or know we shouldn't, but we all just go with it. No one wants to speak up and be the voice of reason or dissent, and challenge the group think or momentum that the idea is beginning to build. There have been times when I was in decision meetings on what tactic to use to destroy a target, or what opportunities to pursue, and I knew inherently that the decisions being made were bad but I didn’t speak up. In the Navy some of those could have life or death consequences, while the corporate consequence was usually fiduciary. Regardless, I should have spoken up. Why didn’t I?

It is hard for a lot of us to say no in these circumstances. Perhaps we aren’t sure of our reasoning. Perhaps we fear the group pressure that would follow. Maybe we fear not being seen as a team player. The reality is most people want to be liked and perceived as part of the team so at times we seem to agree to things even if we think the decision is bad. Whatever the psychology or the reason is, the fact is that by agreeing to going down a path that is undoubtedly wrong is detrimental to you, your team and your organization. And they deserve better from you.

It is not always easy but if something isn't right about the direction being taken, or if it doesn’t seem right, speak up. There are ways to do it tactfully that won’t make you seem like a counterproductive member of the team. You just might be surprised at how many others feet the same way but chose, for whatever reason, not to rock the boat. And the last thing you want to do is waste time and resources on a venture that is likely doomed to fail.

So if you have a doubt, be the one to speak up and ask, “Are we going to Abilene?”

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2014 The Cobalt Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Looking Within to Look Without

In a recent post I discussed building long term client relationships. I started thinking about the people I really liked working with and what their qualities were. I’m a social person. Not everyone else is so I have learned to adapt to the social styles of colleagues and clients alike. The one thing we all have in common is that we are human. And all humans have needs. Often, I will try to put myself in my customer’s shoes and ask myself what are the characteristics of the person(s) with whom I prefer doing business. It boiled down to a few basic traits.

Is there chemistry? Some people we just like and don’t know why. We just sort of click with them. Others, not so easy. I can work with people I don't click with but it's easier there is a good chemistry.

Are they professional? I want them to behave like a business person. I also want them to treat me like a professional too.

Do they seem to care about my needs and concerns? When someone at least acts like they care I am more willing to do business with them. I know they are trying to make a sale but I don’t want to feel like all I am is their next sale. That will sour me instantly.

Are they reliable? The people I do business with must earn my trust. I want know I can count on them to be there if I need them. I also want a good deal for whatever I buy but I am willing to pay a little more if I believe the customer service from one person will be better than another.

It’s kind of like looking in a mirror and seeing what is reflected. Am I being to others what I want them to be to me? Am I giving them a reason, beyond the product or service I’m offering, to want to do business with me?

Ask yourself that question. And be honest with your answer.

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