Secrets Of
Top Business
Builders
Exposed!
Dale Beaumont
With Simon Paterson & Foreword By Brad Sugars
Disclaimer
All the information, techniques, skills and concepts contained within this publication are of the nature of general comment only, and are not in any way recommended as individual advice. The intent is to offer a variety of information to provide a wider range of choices now and in the future, recognising that we all have widely diverse circumstances and viewpoints. Should any reader choose to make use of the information contained herein, this is their decision, and the contributors (and their companies), authors and publishers do not assume any responsibilities whatsoever under any conditions or circumstances. It is recommended that the reader obtain their own independent advice.
First Edition 2007
Copyright © 2007 Dream Express International Pty Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Beaumont, Dale.
Secrets of top business builders exposed!
1st ed.
ISBN 9780980308693 (pbk.).
1. Business planning. 2. Strategic planning - Anecdotes.
I. Title. (Series: Secrets exposed).
658.4012
Published by Dream Express Publishing
A division of Dream Express International Pty Ltd
PO Box 567, Crows Nest, NSW 1585 Australia
Email: info@SecretsExposed.com.au
Website: www.SecretsExposed.com.au
Distributed in Australia by Gary Allen
For further information about orders:
Phone: +61 2 9725 2933
Email: customerservice@garyallen.com.au
Editing by Simone Tregeagle [simone@inkcommunications.com.au]
Cover design by Jay Beaumont [www.thecreativehouse.com]
Illustrations by Grant Tulloch [www.tullytoons.com.au]
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
To everyone who has shared their wisdom and experiences in all of the ‘Secrets Exposed!’ books. I have learnt so much from each of you and you all inspire me to keep growing each and every day.
Dale Beaumont
To my amazing partner, Sammy, with whom I share both my personal and business lives, and inspires me to take both to new heights every day.
Simon Paterson
Acknowledgments
As with any major project, there are a number of very special people who contributed to making this book happen, so we’d like to take a short moment to say, ‘Thank You’.
To the 13 extraordinary business builders featured in this book, thank you for accepting our invitation to be a part of this exciting project. It has been wonderful to learn from each of you and discover how you help companies to grow, positively impacting the lives of thousands of people.
Next, a huge thanks to Emma Lyons, our very special project manager who worked tirelessly to pull together all the material for this book. You are a real star!
To the wonderful Simone Tregeagle and Kerrin Medenyak (from Ink Communications) and Neil Murphy, our great editors – thank you so much for your ongoing support. Sharon Witt your efforts are also greatly appreciated.
To Jay Beaumont (Dale’s brother) for designing the book covers, to Bookhouse in Sydney who continue to do such excellent typesetting and to Robert Stapelfeldt – thanks for everything you do to bring all of the ‘Secrets Exposed!’ books to life.
Next, to the team at Sure Fire Marketing. Thanks for all your efforts with the ongoing web development of the ‘Secrets Exposed!’ website. We really value your work and thank you for the many emails after midnight.
Thanks to all the staff at Gary Allen (our wonderful distributors) and each and every sales rep that has helped to get these books into the stores – we greatly appreciate the work you do.
And finally, to tens of thousands of readers who have supported the ‘Secrets Exposed!’ series – a very heartfelt thanks. May the words from our books continue to inspire and guide your way!
Praise from readers of the ‘Secrets Exposed!’ Series
“I believe that the path less trodden is the most rewarding, however it can be quite daunting especially in business. I found the ‘Secrets Exposed!’ series a breath a fresh air amongst the countless business books that fill the shelves. It’s great to find an easy read which makes small business owners not feel so alone and helps explain the end worth of having to build a business.”
Jason Ham – Uniforms.com.au
“I sat on a plane on the way to Seattle for a meeting to start my own business and I often get bored in the air with all that spare time. This time, we landed in LA and I wanted the flight to keep going so that I could read the book again!! From the very first page, I started to write down items for my business that were so relevant. The beginnings of my business were made inspirational by Dale’s book and I have not looked back.”
Sally Wheat – Hot Mama
“I really loved these books. They give relevant information written by people who are out there doing it for real. Unlike motivational speakers, who whilst engaging, can be accused of selling the new age form of ‘the miracle cure’, these contributors are actually successful entrepreneurs, who are running successful businesses and leading well-rounded, successful lives.”
Bradley Stribley – Oscar White Pty Ltd
“I read one of the ‘Secrets Exposed!’ books and could not put it down. It was great to have so many success stories put together in one book. It gives you the urge to move and do something. Halfway through reading one of Dale’s books I purchased another property and by following what I learnt I have accumulated five properties with a total value of $1.4 million. I would definitely recommend these books to anyone who is looking for some inspiration.”
Derek Edgar – Property Investor/Renovator/Developer
“As a business owner and investor, I’m always looking for ‘new’ information in order to set my goals, and improve my knowledge and financial position. I found that by reading your books I was able to gain some valuable information from mentors who have been there already, which I believe will assist me in achieving those goals in the future. Reading gives you the spark to create ideas, the knowledge to make plans and the impetus to take action.”
Perry Hartikainen – Multiple Business Owner
“As a budding entrepreneur I sometimes find it hard to focus on the forest, for the trees. The ‘Secrets Exposed!’ books help me by inspiring me in my big picture thinking and showing me how other entrepreneurs build their businesses!”
Samantha Simpson-Morgan – Rarified
“Before I read Secrets of Female Entrepreneurs Exposed! I was feeling flat about my new business. I was scared about the future and my ability to grow my company. Reading this book reassured me that I was taking the right steps to get me to where I wanted to go. It returned my confidence and drive, and gave me lots of great recommendations for further information to continue my business and personal growth.”
Ilyia Davis – Spillandspan Fashion
“Through the ‘Secrets Exposed!’ series, Dale is able to share with us great in-depth experience of the real world of business or property investment, for example. With the knowledge gained, individuals can learn the trials and triumphs from the success stories without having to lift a finger. There’s no better way of learning than from each industry’s best.”
Alan La – Future Pioneer
Contents
Preface
If I were in your position right now I’d be wondering if I really needed to read this section. However, if this is the first ‘Secrets Exposed!’ book that you’ve read, could I ask you to please resist the temptation to skip ahead, as I’d like to briefly share with you why this book has been created and how you can best use it to impact your life.
When I was growing up I heard somewhere that there are two ways to live your life: the first is through ‘trial and error’ and the second is through ‘other people’s experience’. At the time I dismissed it as just another one of those sayings that sounds good, but doesn’t make much sense. Then, like most teenagers I finished school with stars in my eyes thinking, ‘This is great! My education is over – no more books, no more lectures, no more people telling me what to do’. How wrong I was. After a few months of bouncing around, not quite sure of what to do next, I stumbled across the idea of personal development and started to hear concepts such as:
• Formal education will earn you a living, but self-education will make you a fortune.
• Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.
• You will be the same person five years from now, except for the people you meet and the books you read.
• Don’t wish that your job were easier, wish that you were better.
• You are your own greatest asset, so you must invest in yourself.
Since November 2000, I have been totally committed to becoming my own most valuable asset. After attending hundreds of seminars, listening to thousands of hours of CDs and reading shelves of books, I have discovered that the people who truly succeed aren’t any smarter, better looking or harder working than anyone else – they just think differently and have learnt to incorporate different values into their lives.
I am now in the very fortunate position of being able to travel internationally to present personal development seminars to teenagers and I am often asked, ‘What is the one thing you need to know to be successful?’ My answer is always the same: ‘The one thing that you need to know is that there is not one thing that you need to know to be successful’. I’ve learnt that success is multifaceted and that mastering one principle of success or area of your life isn’t going to take you to the top – the more you master, the more successful you will become. But if I did have to identify one of the most important success strategies, it would be this: ‘Find out what successful people do and do the same thing until you get the same results’.
That’s what this book is all about. The only difference is, instead of you going out and finding successful people, we’ve brought them to you.
You see, whatever you want in life, whatever you are shooting for, chances are that someone else is already living it. They have already invested years of their life and probably hundreds of thousands of dollars, they’ve made lots of mistakes, learnt from them and eventually succeeded. So why would you want to waste your own time, money and effort through ‘trial and error’ when you can fast-track your success by learning from ‘someone else’s experience’? As Sir Isaac Newton said, ‘If I have seen further it is because I have been standing on the shoulders of giants’.
Every time you pick up a book, attend a seminar or interview a successful person, you are compressing years of life experience into a few hours. With any of the ‘Secrets Exposed’ books, you can multiply that by between twelve and seventeen people and you’re looking at around 250+ years of experience and wisdom ready and waiting for you. It won’t prevent you from making mistakes of your own, far from it, but it will help you to make more calculated and purposeful decisions, rather than big, misguided and ignorant ones.
There is no shortage of information about how to achieve proficiency or even greatness in any area of life these days. Go to any bookstore or library and you’ll find the shelves sagging with titles from experts, all with their own theories and ways of doing things. But what I have discovered is lacking in almost all of these books is INSPIRATION. What’s missing is role models and mentors – the stories of people we can all look up to. People who started out exactly like you – with a dream in their hearts and with all the same fears and insecurities. Given the choice between reading a textbook or a dozen success stories about people who have actually done something, I’d take the success stories any day of the week. I’m not saying that theoretical information isn’t important, of course it is, but having presented hundreds of talks to all different types of audiences, I can confidently say that it’s always the stories that move people. It’s the whole, “If he or she did it, then so can I” that gets inside people’s hearts. When we’re inspired we get motivated and then we take positive action which leads to results.
The ‘Secrets Exposed’ books are not intended to be a one-stop-shop. They are an introduction to the wealth of knowledge available to you and to some of the real success stories of people who have reached the top in their chosen field of endeavour. That’s why at the back of each book you will find most of the contributors’ contact details and some of their other products and services that are available to help you continue your journey.
So, how did the whole idea for the ‘Secrets Exposed’ books come about?
Well, in 1998, when I was around seventeen, my nan gave me a copy of a book titled Collective Wisdom, by Brett Kelly. In it were transcripts of face-to-face interviews with a whole lot of prominent Australian personalities. And it was a fantastic read. Since then I have seen a handful of random ‘success story’ books, but the challenge I find with most of them is that they are either transcripts of interviews, that never really make complete sense in the printed form, or they are written by writers who paraphrase someone else’s story. The result tends to be a diluted message that doesn’t really allow you to get a sense of the individual’s personality or character.
In around 2001 I read my first Chicken Soup for the Soul book and realised that there were dozens and dozens of related titles designed to meet the needs of different people’s areas of interest. I thought that was pretty neat.
It wasn’t until January 2004 that the ‘Secrets Exposed’ idea boiled over. I was in my hotel room in Singapore relaxing after six straight days of presenting to hundreds of teenagers. I was reflecting on the ideas that had been shared with them. One of the most important was to seek out those who have already achieved what you want and ask them lots of questions. I was plagued by the thought that only a small percentage would act on that very valuable advice and that most would never take the step due to a lack of confidence, fear of rejection or an inability to contact the people they needed.
That’s when it hit me...’What if I could find the people and put together a number of books covering a range of different areas?’ I knew it would take a lot of effort, so for the next three days, I sat in my hotel room and developed the basis of an entire system to make it happen.
Based on my experience with other books, I decided that these books had to be non-time specific and be written (not spoken) by the people themselves. This way the answers would be planned and well thought-out, providing richer content and more interesting reading. I also wanted to make sure that there was an even balance between practical ‘how to’ information and inspirational stories that gave an insight into the highs and lows of people’s real journeys. I also wanted to ensure that a percentage of every book sold was donated to a charity relating to the nature of that particular book.
When I arrived home I got into action. However, between working out of a tiny one-bedroom flat and trying to manage two other demanding businesses, my plans were a little slow in the beginning and I had to be resourceful. So I bought a plastic tub and turned the boot of my car into a mobile office! Anytime I could find a spare hour or two, I’d park myself at the gym or a nearby coffee shop and make calls from my mobile phone.
Putting these books together has been both time-consuming and demanding, but it has also been a real privilege for me to have the opportunity to work with each of the people involved in the various books. Thank you, to each of you, for making it possible!
Well, I think you’ve heard enough from me. Now it’s time for you to discover for yourself the wonderful wisdom contained in these pages. I hope that you enjoy the read as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together. And who knows, maybe one day we will be reading your story?
Dream Big!
Dale Beaumont
Creator of the ‘Secrets Exposed’ Series
Sydney, Australia
***
Download Your Free Audio Gift
Exclusive to readers of the ‘Secrets Exposed’ series...
In this 1 hour 43 minute recorded interview, author Dale Beaumont intimately shares the inner workings of the ‘Secrets Exposed’ series. Discover in greater details how he came up with the idea, how he managed to secure personal interviews with over 200 of the countries most successful people and what he believes are some of the most important business and life principles from each of the books in the series.
Simply visit the web page below and follow the directions to listen to or download the entire interview direct to your Notebook or PC.
Foreword
Building a business is one of the most exciting and rewarding career paths you can choose. I have personally built many of them, and educated literally hundreds of thousands of business builders across 26 countries.
With my team at ActionCOACH, I have seen thousands of business owners who had great products, great ideas, and worked really hard, but still couldn’t achieve the success they dreamed of. That’s how I know the most important thing a business builder can do is learn new ways of keeping ahead of the market, new ways of getting business, new ways of building the best team, and new ways of making an even bigger profit.
Business today is all about change and how fast you can move with the market, with your customers’ needs and wants and, most importantly, how fast you can take advantage of new ideas and new technologies.
It’s this rate of change that causes a real need for every business builder to learn.
Throughout this book you’ll get a great variety of valuable advice from people who are in the game. It’s not just theory, these are real-time, real life and really powerful stories and ideas for you to get to the bottom of what will get you to the top.
I remember when I was 16, I asked Jim Rohn what would guarantee that I would be successful when I grew up. His words were simple, ‘Read a book every week for the rest of your life’. So far I am just ahead of one a week, and still learning.
Be sure that these stories and the advice in them are going to be a great investment; you only need to take one idea from this book that could change the course of your business and your life.
Enjoy the read.
Brad Sugars
Chairman and CEO ActionCOACH – The World’s #1 Business Coaching Firm Author of The Business Coach and 13 other business titles
Introduction
Up until now much of the business-related material in the ‘Secrets Exposed!’ series has been geared toward aspiring entrepreneurs, small to medium-sized enterprises and owner-operators.
We have been inundated with requests from people to delve into some new and uncharted territory. When it comes to business, people have asked if we can create a book that deals with issues facing larger and more established companies; a book with content that would greatly assist business owners, managers and executives within the corporate arena.
The result of these requests is the book you hold in your hands.
We approached a range of professional people who build businesses for a living. Thirteen people, all experts in their respective fields, answered the call, eager to share their wisdom and pass on what they’ve learnt.
Many have either owned or operated multimillion-dollar businesses throughout their career and would be considered seasoned entrepreneurs, having experienced the highs and lows of business. Today, they spend their time helping other established businesses to grow.
Each individual’s approach and area of expertise differs greatly – that is what makes this book so unique. Throughout the following pages you will be able to absorb the knowledge and approach of a range of people who are in the game and dealing with business on a daily basis.
So, you won’t find a whole lot of MBA theory or jargon designed to confuse you. Just practical knowledge and experience from people who are in the know, and who can command thousands of dollars per day for their time.
In saying this, we don’t want you to think that this book contains some magical ideas that will instantly launch a business into a near-vertical trajectory. Hmmm, wouldn’t it be nice if business was that easy?!
(Okay, enough dreaming!)
What you will find are many principles you’ll already know. But the million-dollar question is always, ‘Are you doing what you know?’ Success only comes as a result of application and most importantly, the discipline and determination to stick to strategies until they bear fruit. Remember, ‘Simple changes done consistently and compounded over time have an effect in a positive (or negative) way’.
To further assist you in your own endeavours, a number of contributors have also very generously offered valuable gifts to all of our readers. To receive them, all you need to do is visit the website address provided and follow the steps to download the bonus gifts – absolutely free.
At the back of the book we have included the contact websites of every contributor. You’ll discover that many have their own books or educational materials, which we strongly endorse and encourage you to investigate further.
Finally, as we say at the end of every ‘Secrets Exposed!’ introduction... remember it’s what you do after you read this book that is going to determine its real value to you. So, go out there, apply what you’ve learnt and when you reach a goal – no matter how big or small – let us know so we can share your success story.
Enjoy!
Dale Beaumont and Simon Paterson
Email: info@SecretsExposed.com.au
Time To Question
John Vamos
“In our experience with over 4,000 workgroups in more than 1,500 organisations, we have found that the answers to the vast majority of business challenges are within the business”
***
Profile
John Vamos
John Vamos was born in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1960. His parents are Hungarian immigrants and John and his three siblings grew up in a learning-focused environment where there was a high importance placed on having the best education and realising professional and personal potential.
For many, success comes from adversity, but for John nothing could be further from the truth. His father’s long and successful career with IBM provided the family with a lifestyle and security that John aspires to emulate for his family.
John completed an arts/law degree at Macquarie University and further tertiary qualifications in financial services at Deakin University.
Since starting Business Coaching Systems (BCS), the only dedicated organisational coaching business in Australia, John has become recognised as the pioneer of organisational coaching. Using his successful business ‘Thinking Systems™’ methodology, he now has operations spanning Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
He recently founded the Institute of Organisational Coaching, a professional development business designed to promote and teach the successful methodologies he uses with his clients today.
John holds directorships in the financial services, management services and hospitality industries. He is also a leading commentator on business and social issues in the commercial press and has authored a book called You Don’t Think As Smart As You Are. His aspiration in life is to be instrumental in defining and developing the thinking and practice of organisational coaching.
Today, John lives in Sydney with his family and music collection. When he isn’t coaching or spending time with family, you can find him watching rugby league and American football or listening to his favourite rock group, KISS.
***
When did you first discover your passion for business?
I honestly do not remember not thinking about being in business or engaged in some form of enterprise. I started my first business when I was eight years old. My brother, Steve, and I decided to do odd jobs to earn some extra pocket money.
To do this we had to establish job descriptions (today, Steve would refer to this as ‘getting alignment’). Steve took responsibility for this and informed me that he would have three key performance indicators (KPIs) which were:
1. selecting good houses
2. ensuring he was polite when introducing himself to the client
3. making sure I left the house safely with the money.
My three KPIs would be:
1. finding out what the task was
2. completing the task
3. collecting the money and returning safely with the cash.
He would patiently wait at the end of the client’s driveway for me to complete the task. I think Steve has been a leader ever since!
As a business coach, I have dedicated my life to working out how to get the right people doing the right things, in the right order, with the right resources!
After my first business venture with Steve, I applied my learnings to my next business, Lightning Pool Services, at age 13. Along with a schoolmate, I made leaflets for pool cleaning and garden clean-ups in the local area. In the late 1970s the recession hit, so I was 14 when I had to do my first round of retrenchments.
***
“I have dedicated my life to working out how to get the right people doing the right things.”
***
I discovered early that my natural inclination was to organise whatever I was doing – even if it was not my idea, somehow I would end up directing traffic. To avoid conflict with the ‘leader’ I would use questions as a means of securing commitment and managing the team. This would lead to people looking to me for the next best step. I discovered early in my career that asking questions has a profound, almost hypnotic, effect. People presume that if you are asking good questions then you must have good answers. This has led me to rule number one of business – knowing what you do not know is absolutely critical. If you kid yourself it will cost you money every time. The secret to being a success in business is to be brutally honest about what your weaknesses are. If you are not, you will pay for every single one of them.
What was your very first significant job and what did you learn from it?
My first career was in financial services. I answered a call to action for a sales role in the life insurance industry, which has now morphed into the financial services/risk protection industry. Life insurance selling was an industry built upon motivation, courage and front. Although I know now how this profession was perceived, at the time I joined I did not see it to be anything other than an absolutely critical service. I believed in the concept and was passionate in promoting it.
I consider myself extremely fortunate that the first three to five years of my working career taught me some valuable lessons that I have applied ever since. I learnt how to do the hardest things in business and I learnt them well. The hardest things in business are attracting attention, securing time with a customer, describing an offer, securing interest, converting interest into action and getting commitment (money). Back then I was completely oblivious to both the reputation of the industry I had chosen and the degree of difficulty in cold calling and selling. In my bulletproof state of mind I decided that I could find people who liked and wanted what I was selling.
So, I spent half a decade of my early working career doing the hardest things in business. If you have succeeded in selling an intangible product or service then, when it comes to business, you have climbed Mount Everest. Selling something that cannot be seen is hard. Surprisingly enough, it is still something that I absolutely love doing.
In the beginning, what were some of the skills you lacked and what did you do about it?
When I first started out in the financial services industry I thought that I knew nothing but I could do anything. So in my early days I was desperate to learn and was totally confident that whatever I learnt I could apply. Then I noticed that there was a massive disparity among people, with respect to their ability to convert knowing into doing. Knowing (even intimately) still does not mean being able to do. Converting knowledge into action is a skill. Some have it, but many do not. Coaches level out the playing field when it comes to this core business competency.
Good business is about execution. You need to differentiate and manage your product or service. Growing up I always had a reputation for having an entrepreneurial flair, but not for following through. So I then developed a thinking method to solve that problem. When I began to promote that methodology to my clients and colleagues, my method became the foundation for their growth. As a result, my clients all think that I am just brilliant with detail. They do not know that in fact, it is my greatest weakness. In endeavouring to find a solution to it I discovered something that has tied me to implementation and detail for the last 25 years!
Who are the mentors that have inspired you? What important lessons have you learnt from them?
The only people I admire holistically in terms of a mentor are my parents and siblings. What I feel has served me well is that I actually do not look for mentors as such. I look for the good things in the people who I admire and I do not get confused by the strengths and weaknesses in everyone.
I look at the people I work with today and I see them achieve mastery in some aspect and that is the focus I choose to take. I ask myself, how can I get as creative as Ian Elliot (former CEO and chairman of George Patterson Bates)? How can I be as focused as Terry Lawler (founder of Lawler Partners)? How can I be as balanced as John Szangolies (CEO of the Bavarian Hospitality Group)? I admire what their strong qualities are.
The point is not to look for the whole package in a mentor. Look for skills that match your weaknesses. Once you know your weaknesses, find people who do not have them and include them in your terms of reference. Traditional mentors have a relatively short ‘shelf life’. Commerce is about learning, acquiring, growing and being versatile in your thinking, and not getting hung up on ideas or people.
What was the inspiration behind starting Business Coaching Systems (BCS)?
BCS was the metamorphosis of a hobby into a profession. In my early career in financial services, an observation that had a profound impact on me was that it is a profession where there is a massive generosity of spirit – everybody shares their great ideas rather than patent them and make them a secret. My colleagues would share knowledge with each other. For example, if they stumbled on an approach that worked, they would tell everybody. But all of this knowledge floating around did not mean that performance and success were being accelerated.
I became obsessed with this notion that humans do not take their tacit, innate knowledge and turn it into action. In response to these observations I designed models (which I later named ‘thinking systems’), which, if applied to a challenge, created a thinking ‘road-map’ allowing my friends and colleagues to turn their knowledge into action. It worked.
With BCS, what were you offering to the market that was different to what was already available?
When we started BCS we found that businesses thought there were only two ways to solve a problem if you couldn’t fix it yourself, you could:
1. hire somebody to fix it
2. buy some training or professional development.
At BCS, we promoted a new option to coach you through the thinking in a way that helped you spell it out, solve it and implement the solution. In the past, this ‘option’ was left to chance and personality. We turned this third alternative into a science and made it transferable.
Most people know the answers to most challenges in their business. If you ask the right questions, at the right time, in the right order you can help them create a pathway that allows them to apply their knowledge. In our experience with over 4,000 workgroups in more than 1,500 organisations, we have found that the answers to the vast majority of business challenges are within the business.
***
“Most people know the answers to most challenges in their business.”
***
The brain that got you into a situation can typically get you out – but to do that you need at least a little help. The brain is prone to playing tricks.
Consider this common conversation:
Coach: Do you have a business plan?
Client: Yes we do.
Coach: Are you implementing it?
Client: No we are not.
Coach: Why aren’t you?
Client: Well, we ran into a hitch with one of our strategies so we put the business plan to the side until we sorted the problem out.
How can something so fundamentally wrong sound so logical? It is a clear demonstration of one of the brain’s tricks. It will ignore business solutions A to Y because it feels it needs to focus on problem Z. A leader’s job is to ensure they consider all actions related to business strategy and success, regardless of what the current distraction is. There will always be distractions.
What are the essential elements of a great business plan?
I would describe a great business plan as having:
• a clear statement of intent or purpose for the business
• an understanding of the core components of the business necessary to deliver that promise
• an expression of the deliverables for each of those core components over the life of the plan
• establishment of who in the organisation will be responsible for each deliverable
• an assessment of the priority that should be attached to each
• an action plan that supports its delivery.
If this is all you ever read about business planning, then you have read all you need to.
How can you ensure that people will put a business plan into action?
It is important to share what the priorities are with your team so they understand that getting it done, in that order, is critical. Stay with them until they have thought through the action to the end. That means they have thought about what they need to do, what they need in order to do it, how long they require to do it and when the best time to do it is. Consider this – if you ask one of your team to do something and they say, ‘Yeah, sure’, they may or may not do it. However, if you ask them these questions: ‘Will you do this?’, ‘How long will you need?’, ‘Do you need anything else to get it done?’, and ‘When are you likely to do it?, then you know they will do their best to get it done.
What is the most important thing you have learnt about growing a successful business?
It is critical to establish your own definition of success. Every client I have worked with has a different scorecard on how to measure success. Your first step is to define what success means to you. In my view, if you love what you do and your business is sustainable, then your business is a success. In other words, picking something you enjoy doing and being good enough at it to make a living and achieve whatever your financial aspirations are is fine. I have met many people in business that I have chosen not to help, because they simply do not need it. They do not want more money or a bigger business. They have what they need.
As far as success formulas are concerned, the clients I work with who are financially successful usually have one thing in common. They did the same thing over and over and over again. The key to wealth in business is to get close to the right formula and be patient. Stick to it! If you have a compelling offer, a robust business and patience, then time is on your side. As time goes on, find out how to automate it and prevent yourself from indulging in the natural human inclination to mess around with it.
***
“All thinking should be treated as community property.”
***
You say you use ‘thinking systems’ in your work. What are they and how do they work?
Thinking systems are pre-designed question sets that will deliver the solution to a business challenge. Imagine the last time you were lost and trying to find a friend’s house. You ring them from your mobile phone and say, ‘I can’t find your house’. There is only one best question for them to ask (and they will ask it), ‘Where are you?’ This question was not invented because you got lost! And it would not matter if you were lost in Sydney, New York or China – the only best question to ask is, ‘Where are you?’ In the same way as having the best first question, we discovered that for every problem in business, there is a best second question and a best third question and fourth and fifth and sixth and so on.
Our company designs thinking systems that are purpose-built question sets that solve known and predictable business problems – and all business problems are both known and predictable.
Why do you believe that asking questions is the best way to communicate to a team of people?
The day that I discovered the full power of the question was a day that my fortunes changed as a business coach and a businessperson. The wonderful thing about the question is that it takes a piece of communication and makes it a piece of community property instead of an individual’s opinion. All thinking should be treated as community property; knowledge needs to be treated as community property. People who covet knowledge, try to own it, try to protect it selfishly, try to secure it only for themselves, are poison for a business. A good leader doesn’t always give instructions, they nearly always ask questions.
It is important to remember that while a leader is entitled to a certain percentage of communication with their team that is not negotiable, this type of instruction should be limited to exactly that – things that are not negotiable. For example, one of my clients has promoted the idea of the Ten Commandments. We identified that he is happy with everything, provided that each solution satisfies the Ten Commandments. We published the commandments, we taught people why the commandments work historically, and we also let them know that within the framework of those ten principles they can solve a problem however they like.
How and where would you use this questioning formula in a practical sense?
A leader should know when something is critical, when something is important, or when something is simply preferred. Good leaders spell out the thinking behind the critical, invite design on the things that are important and do not even bother with the things that are preferred; leave the preferred items entirely to your team. So, if it is critical, use instructions, but use instructions that share the thinking behind them; if it is important, use questions to invite design; and if it is preferred, stay out of it.
Why do you say that the brain works in the same way as a cooking show?
This example highlights and explains the gap between our business potential and our business performance. We all have the potential to deliver and perform far above what we deliver every day. What prevents us from performing perfectly is within the structure of the mind rather than our personality or motivation.
The brain responds to massive volumes of transactions that we are confronted with on a day-to-day basis. The conscious mind cannot possibly absorb all information all of the time. So I describe it as the brain pre-preparing solutions, questions and responses to save time. These pre-prepared responses are useful – but often dangerous.
It is similar to a cooking show where they show you the preparation and ingredients, but often do not have time to cook it from scratch, so they present (from underneath the counter) a version of the solution they have prepared earlier.
Our minds pre-prepare conclusions, decisions, attitudes and so on; many of which even the person who holds them would begin to question if challenged. A leader’s job is to make sure that an organisation is thinking completely and not ‘defaulting’ to answers. We call prepared answers ‘default settings’. Clients will sometimes say to us, ‘We can’t do that... we have tried it before’. Beware of your business’s default conclusions.
When working with someone, how do you overcome the ‘I already know’ syndrome?
I do not work with people who genuinely hold that view. I think for a lot of my clients, their default response is: ‘I know’ or ‘I ought to know’. When I begin to challenge them, they are generally positive about being challenged because the debate will either support their view or they will discover that they were wrong. Both realisations are useful.
If I discover somebody who resists my challenge or is immovable I generally move on. I’m a coach – not a magician.
Do you believe that it is possible to fundamentally change someone’s character and behaviour?
Leaders can promote preferred behaviours through leading by example. Changing a person’s character is what might happen if you change something else – behaviour. If you can encourage and support someone to behave in a different way they can learn backwards. If you wish to change a team member’s behaviour for a positive business outcome then you need to start with questions. Ask them what the outcomes they wish to achieve are. Then ask them to describe the behaviours necessary to deliver that outcome. Help them describe that behaviour. Even if they do not understand it or it seems unnatural to them, if they are able to mimic the behaviour then they will get the benefit of it, see the connection and change follows. As the saying goes, ‘I had to learn the hard way’ or ‘We all learn the hard way’ and unfortunately, that is the adult learning model.
What are your top tips for a company trying to implement change in a resistant corporate structure?
Most of the time, the best solutions, strategies and ideas will come from the people within your business. It is a leader’s job to extract that information from the team. Change management is a sociological challenge, not a commercial one. The strategies to apply to bring about change include:
Knowing what is not negotiable – think about what you need the organisation to be and communicate clearly to your team what is not negotiable.
Design equals motivation – if it is negotiable then open it up to your people and make sure that your team have their fingerprints on the outcome. Remember that the second best solution designed by the team is better than the best solution imposed by the boss.
***
“Your team will deliver at their best when they understand what it is supposed to look like at the end.”
***
Start with the end in mind – the journey will always be determined by the end. Your team will deliver at their best when they understand what it is supposed to look like at the end. For example, when we buy a piece of furniture from IKEA we will refer to the image on the box or cover several times while assembling the contents. While we read the instructions, it is common practice to still refer to the picture on the box to satisfy ourselves that we are doing the right thing.
Constant communication – there needs to be a degree of high-level communication and it must be as constant as a dripping tap. Leaders should share what they are thinking, feeling, foreseeing and imagining. If you arrive home and there is an ambulance in your driveway, you generally do not think, ‘Oh, they must be collecting money for St John Ambulance’. On the contrary, you wonder if something terrible has happened. In other words, without information, the first thought is always the worst thought. This is a natural human behaviour. It is not being pessimistic; it is a survival tactic that is in our synapses. Therefore if you don’t explain yourself clearly then your staff will make up the answer themselves.
The law of emotions in business – they will happen! And they are fuelled by what we suspect – not what we know. The degree of emotion you face in change management is inversely proportional to the amount of information you provide in support of the changed initiative.
What advice do you have on how to effectively deal with the emotional aspects of staff behaviour?
There is one ideal way. When somebody is being emotional it means that one side of the brain has taken over from the other. What you will notice is that people stop thinking rationally when they become emotional. If an emotional behaviour occurs, then one of the following has happened:
• a misunderstanding
• a lack of information or poor communication
• bad behaviour
• an unhappy event.
If someone is being emotional then a leader can conclude one of the following:
• something bad has actually happened
• something bad is perceived to have happened or
• nothing happened at all.
Respond by determining if the individual has all the information they need to know to feel the way they feel about the situation.
Getting amongst emotional issues in the workplace is critical if you see it affecting the overall business outcome. The way in which you get amongst the emotion is by slowing down the thinking so that the emotional nature of it is exposed.
Remember, there is nothing in business worth getting emotional about. There are a lot of things in business worth getting passionate about, but not angry or upset because business is a series of obstacles to overcome. So ask, ‘Do we know everything that we need to know to feel the way we feel right now?’ This fantastic question will diffuse most of these emotional situations.
What were some of the challenges you had to overcome on the journey to achieving your career goals and how did you overcome them
It disturbs me that people in business often perceive that things ought to be good, and it is all about ‘getting things right’.
If something happens to a member of your family then that is a tragedy, a challenge. By comparison, anything that happens at work is not a challenge. You do not go to jail for bankruptcy anymore, it is not a criminal offence to fail. We have long recognised that in the pursuit of a commercial endeavour, some will succeed and some will fail. Many who have succeeded have failed once or twice before. We should forget this notion that there are challenges. The journey is set up with obstacles periodically in your path. You should look forward to them, anticipate them, predict them, enjoy them, get over them and move on to the next inevitable obstacle.
***
“In business it is not about winning or losing, it is about doing the next thing well.”
***
A leader has been elected or appointed to the job to continually overcome obstacles. In business it is not about winning or losing, it is about doing the next thing well. In doing the next thing well, there will be forces working against you. Leaders need to predict them and deal with them. There is nothing that can or will happen to your business that cannot be predicted or known today.
How much work you do to protect yourself from those predictable challenges is then a function of how likely it is to occur. If the chances of a problem occurring are one in a million – then don’t sweat it; if they are ten to one – prepare for it; but if they are three to one – act as if it has already happened!
Can you provide a practical example that demonstrates your belief that all challenges can be overcome?
Recently, the registered club industry in New South Wales underwent a lot of stress as the state government decided to increase their taxes. All clubs were going to face a 400 per cent tax increase on gaming machine revenue. We had worked with one of the clubs that was facing this challenge. Clearly, their reliance on the revenue from gaming machines was critical.
Two years before this government initiative we conducted a coaching exercise. We gave them a dummy press release, which said, ‘Poker machines are to be progressively outlawed over the next six years’. We then made them develop a strategy around what they would do with the business if this were the case. They came up with ideas that could be implemented to generate revenue if there were no more poker machines.
When they completed the exercise we asked, ‘Even if poker machines were not going to be outlawed, out of all of these great ideas you just developed, which should you implement?’ It turned out that out of the 12 initiatives, eight of them should have been done anyway. At this point the club adopted the brainstormed strategies and by the time the tax arrived, they maintained their profitability. Every obstacle is known now; it existed before you were born. All challenges can be overcome. The point is that all business challenges can be matched to a solution. The solution can often unlock an even greater benefit that would not have been realised if the challenge had not occurred.
Is there a significant quote or saying which you live your life by?
The first is about what you can and can’t control. At my local Chinese restaurant I was once given a fortune cookie that read: ‘We can’t control the wind, but we have the power to adjust the sails’. Good strategy is not about deciding where you want your business. Good strategy is about asking how the future will look. Once you have a clear picture about how the future will look then ask, ‘If that’s how the future will look, what must my business look like to fit in that future?’ This puts my favourite saying into context, ‘The right answer to the wrong question is still the wrong answer’.
In your opinion, what do you believe are the greatest opportunities for businesses today?
Unlocking the potential of the next generation of talent. To that end, any behaviour or engagement (whether through questions, workshopping or brainstorming) designed to encourage a person or workgroup to support a mutually shared objective, will propel a business forward.
Apply these three techniques:
1. Talk forward – a leader’s job is to ensure that thinking is articulated and that the facts serve the conclusion. So share not only your thoughts, but also your thinking. When you talk forward (i.e. you talk in the same way as you think) you will bring people along with you on the journey and they will support you.
2. Take an interest in your people – as a leader it is critical to have interest in your team and to know what the next major milestone in their lives might be. Taking an interest allows your team to be open to new ideas, instructions and ambitions. It will also allow your team to know that you appreciate them and that you have their best interests in mind.
3. Empowerment – when setting up the questions to manage the context of a situation, the minute you have the confidence to invite your team to fill in the blanks (that is, the answers), it is the beginning and end of empowerment. The minute your team feels they have ownership over a situation they will feel empowered to see it through to a successful conclusion.
Can you tell us about your partnership with the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS)?
As pioneers of the business coaching industry in Australia we were always confident that the profession would not only emerge, but also gain acceptance within the business community. Unfortunately, as with many professions, the evolution of business coaching has been unstructured. Many people are claiming the space and holding themselves out to be business coaches, without having credentials or a proven track record to do so. We have always wanted to understand not only what business coaching is, but where it fits in the professional framework and what qualifications and competences ought to be imposed on those who are practising.
Professor Stewart Clegg at UTS shared that interest and so together we formed a research partnership supported by a federal government (Australian Research Council) grant. The purpose of the research is to identify the progress of the business coaching industry, what drives it, who the players are and to ultimately draw attention to it in a way that promotes the development of a competency framework. The most significant finding for us has been the establishment of ‘organisational coaching’ as an identifiable subset of business coaching. The interests of most business coaches lie in coaching people. BCS is more interested in leveraging the people in order to deliver outcomes for the organisation. Essentially, borrowing your people to make the business better, not borrowing the business to make the people better.
As a coach with an extraordinary track record of helping businesses grow, what do you believe are the key fundamentals of growing a successful business?
Discovery is motivation – people are motivated by their own ideas. If you have a problem in a business that you want solved, you have to involve the people in the business – make them feel as though they own the solution.
Know every other player’s position – a business is well served if everybody in the business has an understanding of what they do not do. This means, the better I understand my colleague’s job and how they go about it, the smarter I can be about how I do my job in a way that helps them.
Everybody has a right to know the score – whatever the KPIs of the business are – financial, performance or sales driven – publish them, promote them, monitor them and translate and relate them back to each individual in your team.
Business is ultimately a short cut to an outcome – people engage you to do things that they will not do themselves because you can do it faster. For example, if you need an accountant, it is quicker to hire an accountant than to become one! Leaders should always encourage their team to come up with quicker, smarter and more efficient ways of doing things. It keeps them innovative and constantly thinking about the outcome at hand.
In time, right becomes wrong – there is nothing in your business today that will endure forever. Every good idea, process and procedure is on its way to becoming redundant. The question is, will you find out before your clients and customers find out? Foster a culture within your organisation that allows any common practice to be questioned and challenged constantly.
Only do what ‘only you’ should do – it makes me laugh when a CEO says to me, ‘Everybody comes to me with their problems – it’s so annoying’. My response is usually, ‘That’s your job’. The leaders should not be doing human resource, marketing, production and so on – they should be coaching the person who is doing it. When you are appointed as a leader, that is the workgroup saying, ‘We will come to you with our problems’. So go ahead – lead!
Energy With Alignment
Helen Macdonald
“My time in the corporate world led to my passion, which is to rid the world of what I call the ‘grey-faced army’ – people who drag themselves to work and leave all their best bits at home!”
***
Profile
Helen Macdonald
Helen Macdonald was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1961. Within a couple of years her father’s career in telecommunications meant that her family, including her newly-arrived younger brother, had to relocate to Melbourne.
After finishing high school, Helen started a science degree at university but dropped out in her first year having majored in ‘amateur theatre and boys’. She spent the next 12 months as a sales assistant in a city bookshop, reinforcing a growing addiction to books and helping her recognise a desire for further study.
Helen returned to university to complete a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Italian before entering the corporate world in the areas of recruitment and personnel management. After nearly a decade in a variety of corporate positions, Helen was made redundant from her role with a petrochemical company. She describes her redundancy as a gift and one that led to her current work as an employee performance expert.
As director of her own business development consultancy and co-director of national training company, The Learning Difference, Helen is committed to helping her clients create positive workplaces, in which employees are encouraged to do their very best. Her messages are delivered through conference presentations, training programs and executive coaching. As a past national president of the National Speakers Association of Australia and a Certified Speaking Professional, she travels all over the Asia Pacific region, energising and aligning individuals and teams to create better results.