Business Concern

What feeling do you have when you see something different in the workplace? What about encountering a new experience? What if someone suggests something that is "off the wall?" Is someone laughing when you do not know what is funny making you feel left out? Do you have an impulse to make fun of something that is new or different? Is your response to deride someone or something new or different? Re...

A traditional business plan determines action to be taken to accomplish the plan goals and monitors the effect of those actions in reaching the plan goals. If the goals are not reached, the plan is revised and the process repeated. The launch of the business plan is much like the launch of a missile, a rocket that is launched by aiming it and then launching. Of course, a higher level of performanc...

I advocate group decision-making, but am often asked: "what exactly is the role of the leader where there is a group involved?" Not understanding that leadership role can lead to humiliation and lack of credibility – not to mention bad results. By understanding the leadership role in group decision-making and waiting for the fork, you can elevate your practice of leadership from rote activity to a...

Most businesses are founded on assumptions. Founders with a common purpose initiate the business, and, upon its profitability, assume that all owners share the same goals and interests. What do you know about your co-owner's plans for the business? Have you simply assumed that all of the other owners have the same interests and desires? What if this assumption is incorrect? When the assumption tha...

Often the primary long-term goal of business ownership is to increase personal wealth to achieve financial independence. Wealth can consist of non-financial assets valued to show a high net worth. But financial independence requires liquidity. Liquidity is achieved when readily available liquid assets are held at a low risk of loss. Non-financial assets such as home equity and business equity are...

Governance of businesses generally consists of two structures: hierarchical (pyramid) or nonhierachical (flat). Can it be determined that one structure is more conducive to effective decision-making than the other? The hierarchical structure is the traditional legal governance structure of the corporation. That structure creates an overall executive officer (president or chief executive officer),...

Most would immediately doubt the wisdom of a plan to place a building on the top of an active volcano. Yet, a majority of businesses consisting of more than one owner are built on a base that will erupt like a volcano. As with the volcano, the exact time of eruption or how much lava will flow cannot be predicted, but a major disagreement among business owners is probable and can erupt to destroy a...

The owner agreement – that understanding between multiple owners of a business – is the fabric of the business and is the basis of how the business may be sustained. This owner agreement fabric has many threads consisting of the communications between the owners. These communications, including oral, written, and experiential, are woven together to support the decision-making to operate and sustai...

The time-change continuum at once motivates a business to plan and prevents the planning from being effective. In a competitive marketplace, where change may be exploited for economic advantage, to sustain profitable performance over time a business must change. For the purposes of this discussion we simply recognize as axiomatic that as time continues, change at some variable pace will also conti...

It is not what you say, but what you do. Many founders of businesses who are now owner-managers of the business they founded, will tell you they want to make their businesses more valuable. But is that reflected in the actions they take? There are established actions business owners can take to make a business more valuable. What do these actions tell you about whether you really care about making...

Many who analyze and comment upon management leadership (myself included) praise the humility of a leader as a desirable trait. But in viewing and discussing employee behavior, the trait is less covered. We see frequently the arrogant business owner who looks in a mirror to plan and ignores the opinions of others. If arrogance is harmful to business prospects in management, can it also be harmful...

In the early morning hours, right after dawn, the motorist looks through the windshield to see nothing in clear focus with a gauzy, puffy whiteness allowing forms and shapes but little else until the car comes closer. The trip must be made, so the motorist sets a speed that allows room to brake for the unexpected but also is adequate for the required time of arrival. There is some tension in that...

Let's say you can do anything better than anyone else, how does it help? Because you cannot do everything needed to operate a business, many of those things at which you excel will still have to be done by someone else. In fact, if you want to maximize the value you can get for your business, all of those things will have to be done by someone else.

Sometimes things go the wrong way. It seems like everything you try is wrong. There is a malaise, even a downturn. You are too slow. You are looking at a dimming screen. The pressure is on, and you are feeling it. All of a sudden someone on the team does something – a thing you have never thought of – and the picture brightens. A source of energy is created and others on the team turn it into mome...

I suppose there are some who naturally enjoy and seek out confrontation with other people. But this is not true for most of us, where confrontation presents very uncomfortable defensive emotions even to the point of invoking concern about physical danger. When confronted, my reaction would be one of anxiety and anger. As I began to gain experience in business consulting, especially as I grew furth...

" As the founder and owner of this business, it was my courage and persistence that got the business started. I was the one that made the right decisions and made things work. When something needed to be done, I did it. There were some tough decisions to make, but making them and being right got the business to where it is today. Now I look around and do not see anyone who can do what I can do. No...

How often have you wanted to have a conversation – a difficult conversation on a tough topic – and the answer you get from the person you need to have the conversation with is: "I will talk to you about that for five minutes tomorrow" or something equivalent. From this response you know the conversation is unlikely to occur, and, if it does, it will not be given the attention it deserves. A critic...

Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often have hierarchical structures which emphasize decision-making as a product of a small group consisting of the owners of the business who make the decisions without documentation. Much of what I do as a consultant is facilitating group decision-making and implementing dynamic planning (planning on a format that communicates planning decisions to all stak...

How do you make consistently good decisions? There are many who say: "trust your gut." Maybe this saying is another way of advising you to pay attention to your feelings and emotions or experience when making a decision. But what about those who trust their gut and avoid part or all of the decision-making process? When in the decision-making process should you "trust your gut"?

As with other human endeavors, managing a business consists of having critical conversations. The essence of effective group decision-making is having these conversations with those who have knowledge, expertise, and experience.   A critical conversation is one where a meaningful exchange of information and opinion occurs; that critical conversation is also likely to be an emotional and therefore...

Does the fact that one has power also indicate that one is wise? Usually, it takes wisdom and perhaps luck to accomplish business success. Correct decisions are made to enable business success. A founder of a successful business acquires power. If that power indicates wisdom, what will limit continued business success? We know from many failed businesses that when power is conflated with wisdom, t...

The correct setting of a goal is of utmost importance and often overlooked in the planning process. Usually, a goal is set by the policy-making group, often dominated by owners in a small to medium-sized business (SMB). There is nothing more demoralizing to all business groups than a bad goal. The group that would execute the actions to reach the goal will immediately recognize the reality gap and...

We can get full agreement about the difficulty of predicting the future. So for our purposes it would be correct to refer to the future as the unknown.   There is one thing we know about this unknown future: for the long term it will not turn out well. The future of living beings is death. According to the Small Business Administration, the average duration of a small to medium-sized businesses (S...

Productivity through team performance is improved when the team is cohesive. When the team is stressed with interpersonal conflict, remote work, and missed goals, team performance will suffer. Concentrating on how goals are set and continually revised will improve team cohesion.

he bad news is that a goal for your business has not been met. What is the best way to approach the failure to meet a goal?   In my experience, the good news is that there was a goal set in the first place. We have a place to start. The setting of a goal indicates a presence of a decision-making process that determined the goal and implemented a plan to accomplish the goal. That activity enables a...