3 Tips To Being A Successful Entrepreneur

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Entrepreneurs and businesspeople are constantly on the go and one of the keys to our success often gets neglected- exercise.  Its important to invest in ourselves and exercise is not only good for our body it really helps our brain development too.  Even only 20 minutes of exercise a day makes a huge impact on our well being and outlook.  Here are some tips.

  • Get adequate sleep.  Sleep deprivation suppresses your brain’s ability to filter distractions and limits your focus.
  • Disconnect from our wired 24/7 world.  Unwinding in nature can dramatically improve your cognitive levels.  I really enjoy hiking or even walking in my neighborhood green spaces.
  • Look at your food intake and make a 2% change.  One of the presentations at my Vistage meeting was a nutritionist.  The one take away that has stuck with me was his mantra of saying find the one thing that you can do to change your diet.  I choose to make sure when I look at labels in the store to limit my sugar intake which converts to fatty carbs.  If I make a 2% change in my diet every year, then after 10 years I have may 20% change in my habits.  That’s much easier than the New Year’s resolution to change everything.

So take a break, get the sleep you deserve, and find a 2% change in your diet that can make a difference in the long run. Here’s to adopting the traits of a successful entreprenuer!

Mike

Are Your Goals SMART?

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I have had the privilege to be a part of a strong peer business group, Vistage, where part of the accountability is our goal setting.  What I have learned over the years is the more specific and measurable the goal the better.  My team forces me to put a timetable on each goal, otherwise, they tell me I have an aspiration, not a goal.  I encourage you to set your own SMART goals.

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Actionable
  • Realistic
  • Timely

When you implement these concepts with each of your goals, watch your accomplishments go to the next level!

Mike

Stress Management: 5 Practical Tactics

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We all live busy professional lives.  Stress can seem to come from any where these days.  It’s a 24/7 culture with nonstop ways to communicate…email, text, Instagram, snap chat, and more.  Here are some things to consider making life more enjoyable and maybe slow it down some too.

Exercise more.   A 7-minute workout might be just enough.  Recent articles have been written about how a 7-minute workout can be just as beneficial as an hour.  Whether you believe in the short burst workouts or not, a great stress reliever is exercise and the time you spend for yourself.

Sleep more.  This is underrated in our “go get’em” American bravado to getting it done.   Sleep helps the body recover and repair itself.  Sleep deprived people more often fail to recall pleasant memories and instead recall more gloomy ones.  Think happier thoughts…get more sleep.

Spend time with family and friends.  A study done recently indicated one of the top 5 regrets of those dying was not spending enough time with family and friends.  We are here for such a moment; enjoy with those you love.

Help others.  This can enrich our lives and our well being.  Studies seem to point that 100 hours a year helping others can give us the “feel good” deposit that can add happiness and fulfillment.

Practice gratitude.  Even for the small things crossing our paths like a good hot cup of tea and the sunset.  Gratitude can be practiced in many different ways such as journaling what you are grateful for or simply writing a note of thanks to a friend or colleague.  An “attitude of gratitude” can go a long way to increasing life satisfaction.

Here’s to implementing your tactics for better stress management!

Mike

Servant Leadership

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Servant leader- what is it?  In a business movement introduced in the early 70’s is the idea of servant leader.  These leaders put their company or organization before themselves.  They don’t view employees as the means to the end but rather the employee’s satisfaction is the end.  This can be a big shift in thinking for an entrepreneur.  Some points on leaders adopting this style.

  • Treat employees like customers, and where reasonable do their bidding
  • Ask the question “how can I help you?”
  • Fill in for an employee and do their job to lift a burden from the employee’s colleagues
  • Lead like you are leading a group of volunteers and ask, “what problems do you have?”  Volunteers don’t have to listen to autocratic leaders.

Servant leadership does not necessarily say you are a great boss, but rather its realizing that being a boss and leading are not the same.

Here’s to adopting servant leadership traits to build a better company!

Mike

Healthy Leaders Are Great Leaders

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A healthy business starts with a healthy entrepreneur.  To survive the demands of running a business or even part of a larger organization requires a physically strong person to stay in the game for the long run.  Here are some tips.

Just get started.  Make exercise a priority by setting realistic goals that a specific.  Start slowing to avoid injury and remember “slow and steady wins the race” says the turtle.

Do it right.  Know your limits and what exercises are the right fit for you.  Consult your physician to get onto a program.  Engage in the aerobic activity that will raise the heart rate.  Even 20 minutes can have a long-term effect.

Stick with it.  After setting your goals, tell it to as many people as possible.  They will help be your accountability team.   Visualize success- it might look like climbing to the top of a mountain to see a view stretching for miles.  Most of all make it fun!

Here’s to your health!

Mike

Want the Secrets to Building a Great Company?

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I enjoy reading books of all types, both fiction and nonfiction.  Lately, several books captured my attention more than others, one of which is The Traveler’s Gifts, by Andy Andrews.  Its written as a story about principles that to me seem timeless.

Here are the gifts (tips) that I came away with.

  • The buck stops here.  We are responsible for the past, present, and future
  • I will seek wisdom and be a servant to others.  My experiences become the collective body of wisdom that can be shared
  • I am a person of action.  Seize the moment and choose now
  • My destiny comes from a decided heart.  Have a clear vision
  • It’s a choice to be happy and possess the spirit of gratefulness
  • Greet the day with a forgiving spirit, which most of all means to forgive yourself
  • I will persist without exception, great leaders like Churchill persist through adversity.

These are a few gifts that can provide the foundation to building a great business from your passion.

Here’s to all the gifts that you will share to aid in the health of your business!

Mike

What Drives Innovation?

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We hear a lot about how companies need to innovate to stay relevant in their market.  Innovation can have a different meaning for each of us, however, it is helpful to understand what is the characteristics that can cause a leader to have the “innovation gene”.  Researchers at the Harvard Business School (Gregersen and Christensen) surveyed over 3,000 executives who had not started a business vs. responses from over 500 people who had created thriving companies.

What are the characteristics of an innovator?

  • They ask a lot of questions and challenge the status quo
  • Spend at least 15 minutes writing down what questions would challenge the current state of the company
  • Study other people and cultures.  Live in another country for a period.
  • Be an observer.  Watching how people do their activities, however mundane can inspire ideas to improve the activity.
  • They network well to connect themselves to resources that will test their ideas and get feedback.

What’s your innovation DNA?  While some of it is hard wired in people and others must work at it intentionally.  However, knowing what concepts could help you down this road can be half the battle to win the war of innovation for your company.

Here’s to innovating!

Mike

10 Signs of Owner Burnout

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As busy leaders and owners of a business time is a precious commodity that is not renewable.  I sometimes hear owners and leaders say phrases like “I have to stay on top of everyone to make sure it gets done”, “it’s crazy busy around here and I can’t seem to come up for air.”

These are phrases that tend to point toward a business owner and leader headed for burn out.  Are you headed that way?  Here are some signs.

  • Feeling exhausted and overwhelmed.  Each time you look at a “to do” list a mountain of dread flows over you.
  • You don’t think clearly.  You find yourself not able to focus on one thing for long before the next “fire” erupts from someone else.
  • You are frustrated and don’t feel things will get better any time soon.
  • Your performance is waning so you make it up by working longer hours after everyone has gone home and it often spills over to the weekend too.
  • You are always “at work” even when you are away from it.  You can’t seem to disconnect from it and your mind is always racing through issues that you want to solve at work.
  • Are people avoiding you?
  • Nothings seems to be going right.  You head towards the negative instead of the positive, and can’t seem to find the good in most situations.
  • You don’t socialize outside of work in part because you don’t disconnect from it.
  • You are experiencing health issues and fail to exercise or eat right, and you know it.
  • You are finding sleep harder to come by.  Studies have shown a lack of sleep over a period reduces your cognitive ability.

If you see any or a number of these symptoms, you could be headed for burnout.  Make sure to avoid it by:

  • Eating healthy
  • Get adequate sleep…7 to 8 hours each night
  • Delegate
  • Implement operating systems that are simple and proven that help with accountability and drive results

Here is to make sure we understand what burnout looks like and making the changes necessary to avoid it.

Mike

Leadership and Sleep

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In this age of instant access via phone, text message, LinkedIn, twitter, and other social media platforms, we find ourselves in a 24/7 inundation of information and time constraints.  It leaves less time for ourselves.  How we sometimes get around it is by sleeping less.  A Harvard Business Review study showed that 43% of business leaders indicated that they don’t get enough sleep.  A lack of sleep has shown decreases on executive function capabilities.  This is the area where we process problem solving, reasoning and organizing.

Sleep deprivation has been proven to impair our ability to focus attentively on issues or problems that we want to solve.  A study showed that a person who only slept 4 to 5 hours a night had the same performance as someone with a blood alcohol level of 0.1% which is the definition of drunk in the U.S.

Some of our brightest and best minds of the past century (Churchill, Da Vinci, Franklin…) maintained how it important it was for them to get adequate sleep.  In fact, some had a routine of taking a nap in the afternoon from anywhere between 20 minutes to 45 minutes.

Getting adequate sleep each night, some say between 7 to 8 hours, can be the difference between effective leadership and your cognitive ability to make the right decisions for your organization.

To your health!

Mike

Leadership Through Journaling

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It was suggested to me that I begin a practice of journaling daily.  At first I thought what for?  What would I write about?  How would it help me?  My colleague kept up the pressure for me to start so I thought, okay I will humor them and do it just to say I tried it.

Well over a year later, I am still doing it.  Why?  Because I have found it to be very helpful to write down ideas, situations, or feelings that later I can work on or at least have on paper and not forget.  It also allowed me to start a practice of gratitude that has helped keep me on the positive side of the coin and driving my business and relationships forward.

I was skeptical at first, but as I progressed I became more of a believer in the power of the written word even when it comes directly from me.  I could look back at some of the writing which included goals or plans that I wanted to happen.  And guess what, a lot of if did happen.

It has helped me stay focused on my vision and goals for both business and family.  My moods are boosted by the simple act of writing why I am grateful.  Give it a try.  You have nothing to lose.  At the end of each day take your journal write down anything that comes to mind and finish it up with three things that you are grateful for.  Then you can count your blessings.

Mike

Planning

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Have you heard the quote “work on the business vs working in the business?”  As leaders in our businesses and communities, some self-reflection is important if we are to gain wisdom from our experiences.  A research study done by Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano, and Bradley Staats, indicated that employees who spent 15 minutes at the end of each day reflecting about their lessons learned experiences did 23% better than those who didn’t do this self-reflection exercise.

Many leaders at driven individuals who are focused on accomplishment and making results happen.  Taking time out of their day to do self-reflection seems too much given their busy schedule.  Other excuses include they don’t see the return on their time invested or they don’t want to slow down.

I recommend self-reflection because it causes you to pause and think about what was good and what could be improved during your day.  I use a journal to help me document not just my daily gratitude but also what went well and what did not go well.  Here are some questions to ask that could help you in your journey on self-reflection.

  • What are you avoiding?
  • Are you helping someone achieve their objectives?
  • Are you a hindrance or a help with someone you are working with or for?
  • How could you be more effective in meetings?

Asking these or other questions will help you move forward in a more positive path on your leadership journey.

Mike

Time: The Ultimate Finite Resource

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I remember reading a book titled “Death by Meeting” by Patrick Lencioni.  The focus was on silos, politics, and turf wars in a business.  I recently ran across an article suggesting that meetings should not last any longer than 30 minutes.  I am sure some who are reading this can relate to being in a meeting that went on and on and on with no clear action and nothing done after the meeting.

Maybe implement compressed time for business meetings will remove this poor habit.  As Parkinson’s law indicates work expands to fill the time available, so if you don’t set a limit to the meeting, it can drone on way too long.

Why 30 minutes?  There is no scientific study, however, for me personally I see a higher level of intensity by participants because they know 30 minutes is the limit.  Its seems people listen more intently when things move faster keeping us engaged.  People tend to come prepared and ready to go.  And if not, they will the next time.

Give it a try.  Implement these three tactics to make the 30-minute meeting more powerful.

  1. Tell everyone to read any materials before the meeting.  Ask an important question: “what outcome do we want?”
  2. Decide on the one thing to focus on in the meeting that will make a difference and stay on it for the 30 minutes.
  3. It’s what happens after the meeting that will tell you if the meeting was good or not.  Act with a summary and clarity on the action steps and accountability.

How are your meetings?

Here’s to having better meetings!

Mike