My Interview in New York City last week just went live!

My interview in New York last week just went live! 🙂

Check it out here: https://youtu.be/m56tQY-JY6M

Dogs are Overrated

For too long people have said that dogs are man’s (or woman’s) best friend. Not true!

Don’t think I’m a dog hater because I’m not (cats maybe but not dogs! Actually I don’t hate cats either) but I think the best friend thing is overrated. At the end of the day, a dog is just another dependent that you have to feed, care for, watch out for, worry about, and bail out of trouble repeatedly. There are rewards for that for sure, but they are insufficient to call a dog your best friend.

Think about it. Many people remember a pet with fondness but who has really impacted your life? Usually it has been a teacher, coach, mentor, parent or other relative, boss, spiritual leader, co-worker, neighbor, or spouse, etc. Usually it was multiple people over time. They may have impacted you with their books, their words, their example, their coaching, their love, or just their humanness but somehow they influenced you so profoundly that it altered the course of your life and made it better than you had ever imagined was possible before they came along.

The common thread, of course, is leadership which always starts with self-leadership. At least during the time when that person was impacting you, they were behaving as a leader whether that reflects their normal operating mode or not. The best ones are those who are always working to improve themselves and their leadership because they can impact you repeatedly over long periods of time and in many circumstances.

While how they effect you is important and while timing is often critical, the “how” part of what they do is secondary. The primary element is their “why”. Why do they do what they do? Why are they willing to expend the effort to develop themselves? Why are they willing to make themselves available to help you?

If their “why” is self-serving, whether their focus is financial, being adored, or whatever, they may still have helped you in the short-term but a long-term, ongoing influence for good is unlikely. That’s where pets fall into the equation because it is a relationship based on need or desire. In other words, it is based upon dependency not friendship. While that is ok and healthy when dealing with an animal, it doesn’t work well with people.

Worse yet, if you want to be needed so badly that you gravitate to this sort of situation, that is co-dependency and will lead you nowhere good in the long-term. You see, you too must exhibit self-leadership in order to benefit fully from the skills of your coach, mentor, etc. You must be a true friend to both yourself and that person and call it like it really is, whether they like it or not, if their “why” is self-serving.

If, on the other hand, their “why” is to truly help, encourage, coach, mentor, and improve the lives of those they work with, that’s where true friendship happens. As you look back you will see that the people who most impacted you, especially if they continue to do so, are those with this type of “why”. While money or other value may have been exchanged (and usually should be because this type of thing works better when both parties have some “skin in the game”), that is not their “why”.

The best of these have truly helping you as their primary motive. These people are the ones I refer to as “Real” leaders and a real leader is actually a man’s (or woman’s) best friend. So do yourself a favor. Find and work with as many of those people as you possibly can. Your life will be better for doing so. Try it. It works!

Cevin Ormond, “The Master of Self-Leadership”, is a Speaker, Coach, Trainer, Expert, & Best-Selling Author of “Me, Inc. – Your Life IS YOUR Business!”. He can be reached at Cevin@CevinOrmond.com His website is: CevinOrmond.com

It Pays to be Silly!

While this seems to be a bit counter-intuitive, silliness is something every good leader needs to cultivate in themselves and their people. There are many reasons why this is true and many ways to develop this particular self-leadership skill. Here are 3 quick examples or “3 ‘Sillies’ for Leaders”:

1. It’s silly to invest in your people when they will just leave and go to your competition or become your new competitor! You’re just wasting resources running another organization’s training program for them.

Reality: Sometimes that is true. The problem is that you (and even your people themselves) don’t know when that sometime is. In the meantime, if you don’t invest in your people, the good ones will leave and the ones you wish would leave won’t because they aren’t as mobile.

Instead of retaining your best performers you are sending them off to become part of your best competition while your workforce becomes more “me too” and average. Plus you end up paying the other hidden costs of replacing them with the likelihood that the replacement will not be able to perform as well as the ones you lost.

2. Silliness is “Not Professional”.

Reality: This is another common myth based upon a poor definition of words. First of all, what does “Professional” mean? Dictionary.com defines it as “following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain”. That definition says nothing about HOW you do that. Anyone who plays the “Not Professional” card has one agenda and one agenda only – CONTROL! Pure and simple!

As long as the “Silly” behavior is not illegal, immoral, or unethical and is not disrupting operations to a significant degree, silliness is beneficial. It makes coming to work fun, staying at work fun, and gives you something to talk about in social situations (a real boon to engineers, accountants, lawyers, etc. As an engineer myself I must admit that the reputation for social dullness and ineptness is not entirely without some element of truth!

A classic story about this is the time Herb Kelleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines, received a complaint letter from a woman passenger who thought the Southwest flight attendant’s typical jovial pre-flight safety briefing was “Not Professional” and that if he, as the CEO, did not do something to change it then she would no longer be flying on Southwest. His handwritten reply letter was 3 words, “We’ll Miss You!” – an absolutely perfect response! We all know how successful Southwest Airlines has been.

3. If I’m silly my employees, customers, vendors, etc. won’t respect me.

Reality: Whether they respect you or not is completely beyond your control. It’s their choice not yours and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. In other words, your opinion of me is none of my business! It’s your business!

That doesn’t mean I won’t treat you with respect, because I will (that’s my choice). That doesn’t mean I won’t provide the best products and services I can, because I will (that’s also my choice). That also doesn’t mean I won’t deal with you fairly and with integrity, because I will (my choice again).

Additionally, Norman Cousins discovered that silliness and laughter are good for your health, happiness, and general well-being when he used humor to improve his condition despite his “hopeless” diagnosis. And Herb Kelleher discovered that it is also good for business. So the real question you have to answer is, “Would you rather be healthy, happy, and successful or would you rather stay stuck?”

Truly it Pays to be Silly!

Cevin Ormond, “The Master of Self-Leadership”, is a Speaker, Expert, & Best-Selling Author of “Me, Inc. – Your Life IS YOUR Business!”.  He can be reached at Cevin@CevinOrmond.com His website is: CevinOrmond.com

What I’ve Learned

I’ve been having some Amazing things happening that have helped me Learn some Incredible things that I wanted to share. I think there are some Lessons in this that can Benefit You too.

First, Deadlines and Goals are Essential to Producing Results!

I think we’ve all heard that and most of us believe it (I Know I do) but… it’s so Easy to get busy and Forget to do it! That’s where Coaches, Mentors, and Accountability Partners come in. They can give us a “Gentle Push” when we are reluctant or just getting a little sloppy about things.

My Coach said, “Just set a Date for Launching Your Book, work toward it, and good things will Start to Happen. You know what? She was Right!

I took her Advice and set an aggressive Launch Date of January 27, 2015 about 2 months ago, started working, and Suddenly, Magical things started to happen!

The People, Tools, and Resources Started Showing Up – Just when I needed them most! I have 3 More Days to get ready and I’m Going to Make it! I wasn’t sure I would until just A Few Days Ago but NOW I can see in Reality what I only saw before in my mind!

Second, It’s SCARY to Broadcast Your Intent and Your Progress (or lack thereof!) to your friends, family, and the World!

But that’s EXACTLY what is Necessary even though others will then know if you fail. When you Broadcast Your Intent, Goals, Deadlines, etc. 2 things happen:

1. People now know what is going on and how they can Help You! Most people are good and generous and are willing to help if they know How.
2. The Universe Responds with Inspiration, Ideas, Resources, and Possibilities!

Finally, You WILL get Discouraged and You WILL want to Quit or, at least, ease off a bit But…

YOU MUST KEEP GOING and GOING and GOING — Just Like the Energizer Bunny UNTIL your Deadline comes! Then, whether You Succeed or not You Will Know You did all You could!

Now none of this is New but it is Revolutionary because a Revolution Changes Things and that’s what following these 3 Steps has done for me and what they WILL do for You if You do them too!

And NOW I Know even better than I did before that These Ideas and Practices Work!

I’m Living Proof!!

My Book Launch IS HAPPENING and it’s happening This Tuesday, January 27th!

I just Wanted to Share this Experience with You and Encourage You to Follow My Lead and try it for Yourself With Your Own Personal Goals! It Works in a Miraculous way!

Give it a Shot!

Warmest Regards,

Cevin Ormond
“The Master of Self-Leadership”
Speaker, Expert, & Author of
“Me, Inc. – Your Life IS YOUR Business!”
http://www.MeIncBook.com
http://www.CevinOrmond.com
My New Facebook Page – Help Me Reach 1,000 Likes!

Note: Just a quick update – My launch happened and the book hit #3 on Amazon! So now I am not only an author but I am a Best-Selling Author! Wahoo!! 🙂

P.S.: I’m hosting a Book Launch Online Party all day on Tuesday, January 27th so You can drop in or out at will and Check It Out! (There MAY even be some Surprises!) so Mark It on Your Calendar and Come Join The FUN! (Details to Follow)

Duplication

As I’ve stated before, one of the biggest problems in all businesses, but especially in small businesses, is the lack of leadership. Most small business owners do not even fully understand that leadership and management are not the same thing much less what constitutes good leadership.

That being said one of the most critical areas where this can hurt you as a small business owner is in the area of duplication because creating other leaders in your organization is one of the primary tasks of a good leader. Essentially you need to duplicate yourself.

There are several reasons for this. First, in most small businesses the business owner – their skills, talents, time, contacts, etc. constitute the biggest and most important asset in the business. In other words, their business is built around them and what they personally do. This creates huge problems for the both the business and the business owner.
For the business owner it means they cannot easily take time away from the business so they are essentially stuck there working 60-80 hours a week or more since the business won’t run without their presence. It also means they are unable to take regular vacations and other things that can recharge their batteries which means they are often under stress from family issues as well since they don’t have the time or energy to properly deal with those issues. Also this can effect their health in negative ways.

This also creates problems when the time comes that the business owner wants to retire or sell the business. If no one else can run or handle it, how can they sell or retire? This leaves them with really only one option which is to close the business which is often not what they want and something they may not easily be able to do.
The business is also at risk if the owner gets sick or dies as there is really nothing there for the family and the employees since no one is able to step in and effectively run the operation.

This is why one of the most (if not the very most) important leadership tasks is to develop other leaders – leaders who can run the business while the owner is away on vacation or for an illness, and who can either take over and purchase the business from the owner or who will remain with the business after the owner sells it to maintain the continuity necessary for an ongoing successful enterprise.

The bottom line is – duplicate yourself and do it as quickly as you possibly can. If you have any questions about how to do this please contact us – we can help.

Why and What vs. How

I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between management and leadership lately. These differences are sometimes difficult to see and understand for those who don’t have a lot of experience in this arena. Let me see if I can help you clear that up.

One of the big differences between leadership and management is that management is about how. How do I do this? How do I do that? How do I best manage my time, for example? How do I manage my resources? How do I manage my cash flow? How do I get more sales? How do I attract the best employees? How do I best serve my customers? In other words, management is about how? How? How?!

Leadership, on the other hand, is not about how. It’s about what and why. What is the best direction for my company to follow? What is the vision that we have? What group of people do we want to serve? What’s the best way to serve them? What’s our next best step to move us toward our vision?

And then there’s why. Why are we doing this? Why are we expending our resources in this manner and will it take us toward the vision that we have? Our vision, in many ways, is our why. So having a strong vision produces that why for us. If our vision is to provide the best possible product at the lowest possible price to serve a particular group of people, for example, then that provides the why for us. In other words, why we exist and why we’re doing what we’re doing is to accomplish that vision.

The problem is that our human nature is to immediately jump to how and skip the most important steps of why and what. It’s like trying to climb a ladder and skipping the first rungs. Without first climbing those rungs of the ladder (what and why), we never really get to the proper how. Whatever how we are then using is not necessarily going to lead us where we want to go. Stephen R Covey talks about climbing the ladder of success and then discovering that the ladder is leaning on the wrong wall! That happens because why and what (the leadership questions) are not properly answered in the first place. Don’t fall victim to that mistake. Contact me if you need any help with that.

(BTW I’ve got a new book coming out soon. Contact me for details.)

Are you working on it or in it?

There’s a huge difference between working on your business and working in your business and it relates directly to the difference between leadership and management. As a business owner your most important job is doing the things that relate to working on your business. Most of the things relative to working in the business can and should be delegated to others where possible.

For example, determining the answers to questions like, “Where do I want my business to be this time next year, in five years, etc.? “, or, “Is our product mix the best to help us reach our long-term goals with this business? “, or, “Do I want to run this business myself for the next 20 years or sell it in five years and retire? “, etc., can only be answered by you as the business owner while questions like, “Should I send this shipment by air freight or ground?”, or, “Should I pay this bill now or wait a week when my cash flow is better? “, should be decided by other employees of the business.

Your primary job as the business owner is to work on your business. However, if your businesses small with only a very few employees it is necessary for you to wear many hats. The key here is to make certain you schedule regular time to work on the business and to work on those things that will help you reach your goals and not just on the busyness of day-to-day operations. This is critical not only for the long-term viability of the business, but also to help you, as the business owner, avoid personal burnout.

If you are having difficulty finding the time to work on your business or are unclear about exactly how to accomplish this, we can help. Please contact us at http://www.smallbusinessdoctors.com for coaching and other helpful services.

It’s All About Principles

Successful leadership in any organization of any size from a family to a national government (and certainly a business) requires an understanding of, and adherence to, principles. So it is useful to understand a little bit about what principles are (and are not) and what they do for us so that we can do the things necessary to increase our likelihood of success.

Principles are based upon natural laws so, like the law of gravity for example, they always are in operation and cannot be violated. If we try to do so, we will find ourselves falling over a cliff (so to speak) and wondering how it happened and what’s going on just before we go splat at the bottom. Sometimes the effects are not as immediate as they are when we step off a cliff but the results are just as certain and just as deadly to the success of our businesses. This is really important: Your opinion doesn’t matter! Natural laws don’t care about your belief or your opinion! They operate with or without your consent!

That being said it is important to also realize that you cannot change them by company policy changes, legislative or court decree, or any other means. They are not relative or situational. They always apply in every situation. In fact, that’s one of the tests to help you determine which things are principles, based upon natural law, and which things are not.

Another important point is, while they are always in operation, sometimes they effects don’t show up immediately. It may take some time but they always show up eventually. A widely cited example of this is Enron. They were cooking the books for a long time before the thing started to unravel but the point is that eventually it all fell apart. This is always the case, sooner or later, when principles are violated – without exception.

So where does that leave us? It’s very simple. Our job as business leaders is to learn and then act upon principles consistently. We must understand them and use them as our guide in all we do. While no one is perfect and consistency is sometimes difficult, the closer we can come to it the better things will work for us and for our business. Simple things like “people like to be treated with respect” which applies to our interactions with employees, customers, suppliers, and everyone else we work with and “honestly is the best policy” pay great dividends that will make us much more successful in the long term.

It is critical that we take the time to learn more about principles so we can incorporate them in our businesses and our daily lives. A good place to start is to study a book like “Principle-Centered Leadership” by Stephen R. Covey then put the principles you learn there into action in your business.

The Secret Life

I recently saw the new movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” which is based on the short story originally published in 1939 by James Thurber. It reminded me of some very important leadership principles.

First, every person has dreams and good leaders pay attention to their dreams and the dreams of their people. One of the most important jobs of a leader is to set the direction and the vision (dream) for the organization. Then the leader must enroll and get buy in to that dream from the other people involved in the company by helping them clarify why and how helping the company achieve that dream will help them achieve their own personal dreams.

Second, the business owner/leader must find regular, consistent, scheduled time to visualize, crystallize, and understand that dream and how it applies in changing circumstances that may require it to evolve over time. I’m not suggesting spending all your time daydreaming like Walter Mitty did in the movie but regular time needs to be spent carefully nurturing and clearly defining the company’s vision. In other words, the company vision (or dream) is a living thing that can change and grow as needed without becoming a moving target that can never be reached (that’s the danger with poorly defined dreams).

Third, sometimes realities and situations arise that change everything and lead in new directions, to new experiences, new ideas, and new opportunities that could never have been anticipated beforehand so the leader must respond and act quickly to adjust and to take advantage of the newly found or created opportunities. That’s the biggest advantage small businesses have over large ones since they are much more flexible and agile. A leader always should remember and play to that strength.

Finally, notice the “ripple effects”. Simply working to define, clarify, and attain a dream is a transformational experience for both the company and the people working in the company. After his amazing experiences and a series of unexpected events, Walter Mitty was a different, better, more confident, and more interesting person. He was truly a changed man with a broader perspective, more capability, and greater options and possibilities than he had ever imagined. The same is also possible for you and the organization you lead if you understand clearly your visions and dreams and act correctly to achieve them. Let us help you through that process. Act today by scheduling your Free Consultation at http://www.smallbusinessdoctors.com

A New Calendar

Have you ever noticed how similar December 31st and January 1st are? I mean what’s the difference really? Of course the answer is not much. The sun rises and sets at about the same time or at least within a minute or two of the same time. The temperature and weather are generally not that different. You usually don’t feel that different and you look about the same. So what is the difference? Actually and factually not much at all. Basically the difference is imperceptible.

And yet we traditionally make a big deal of January 1st as if it were actually very different from December 31st. We treat it as if the world had suddenly become a new and different place, as if it were more than just another mark on the calendar, as if there were new beginnings, new goals, new aspirations, new possibilities, new hopes, and new dreams.

And that is a good even a great thing to do. We feel refreshed, excited, hopeful, and enthusiastic. The world and our lives seem to be a little brighter and have more direction and purpose. We are a little more forgiving of ourselves and others. We are less likely to view past mistakes as “end of the world” or “doomsday” events, more likely to learn the lessons contained in those mistakes, then use those lessons to make a better and brighter future.

The only problem is that January 2nd is about the same as January 1st, January 3rd is about like January 2nd, and so on. Memory fades, excitement and enthusiasm dwindle, and very quickly we find ourselves back in the “same old, same old” rut of day to day existence which causes productivity to fall, goals to be missed, etc.

What we need is a new calendar. One where every day is January 1st and every yesterday is December 31st. One that will remind us that each and every day is a new beginning, a new chance to reach goals and dreams, a new year that will be better than the year just finished.

Finally we need the mental discipline to view and treat every day as the New Year’s Day it is, then take the time and expend the effort to form the daily habit of renewing our goals, our efforts, our attitudes, enthusiasm, and dreams — Happy New Year!!