business mentors Archives - Excellerate Associates

How Your Leadership Must Change As Your Business Grows

April 6, 2023 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

The skills necessary for leadership in a start-up phase versus a growth phase differs significantly. If you’re in the growth stage and wonder why you have more turnover than you did in the start up phase, you may be primarily apply a visionary entrepreneur leadership style that is no longer working.

In the start-up phase, the primary goal is to establish a strong foundation and create a viable business model. This often looks like lofty goals, long hours, and the go-to person for decision making. Employees also work along side the founder.

In contrast, the growth phase is focused on expanding operations and scaling the business. The new skill is working with and through others, engaging and enrolling others, and putting in accountability systems. It’s important as a growth-stage leader that you don’t insert yourself into something you delegated (only to mess it up) leaving your team feeling that they can’t be trusted. On the flip side, delegating so much and never checking in that they don’t feel supported or have a place to go for coaching.

Here are some of the key competencies that are necessary for leadership in each phase. I invite you to consider which of these competencies might be missing in the phase that you’re in:

Leadership competencies for start-up phase:

Visionary thinking: The ability to envision the future of the company and create a clear roadmap for achieving long-term goals.

Adaptability: The capacity to quickly pivot and adjust the business model.

Risk-taking: The willingness to take calculated risks to drive growth and seize new opportunities.

Flexibility: The ability to wear multiple hats and adapt to the evolving needs of the organization.

Resourcefulness: The skill to effectively leverage limited resources and build a sustainable business with limited capital.

In the start-up phase, you’re also doing double duty by working in the business. As your company expands, you will hire a team but are still the go-to person.

As your team becomes experts in their roles, it is necessary for you, as the leader, to learn new competencies and level up your personal development for the growth phase. If you continually insert yourself into the business because you’re concerned about what you’ll do with your time now that your team is handling the operations, it’s time to level up.

Leadership competencies for the growth and scaling phase include:

Strategic thinking: As your team handles the daily operations, you keep your eye on the market indicators, look for trends that may impact your business, and identify ways to expand using the existing resources.

Operational excellence: The skill to optimize processes, systems, and resources to maximize efficiency and profitability. This includes making sure your team has the training they need to level up. This is where Goal setting, Meeting Mastery, Performance

Management Systems, and having an Existence Systems in place are critical. Your team handles the details and you no longer know how to do each and every position in the company, that’s why you hire others.

Talent management: The ability to attract, retain, and develop top talent to support the company’s growth. The skills of engagement and enrollment are more critical than ever in the growth phase. As a leader, it’s critical to not only communicate the strategic direction, but connect the ways each position impacts the company goals. You create a culture where your talent thrives.

Communication: The capacity to effectively communicate the vision, mission, and goals of the company to all stakeholders. As your company expands, your communication should be reinforcing and re-enrolling the team in the company’s greater Contribution in the World. Quarterly State of the Company Address, regular performance feedback, and celebrating successes are critical at this stage.

Leadership development: The skill to build a strong leadership team and foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. Developing leaders should not only be focused at the senior leadership team, but building bench strength in the company. Leaders should also be increasing their personal awareness, which is crucial to leadership effectiveness.

In summary, the competencies necessary for leadership in a start-up versus a growth phase differ depending on the priorities of the organization. Successful leaders in both phases must be adaptable, flexible, and able to effectively manage resources, but those in the growth phase must also possess strategic thinking, talent management, personal awareness, and communication skills to take their organization to the next level.

Invitation to Level Up Your Leadership and Scale Your Business

If you are inspired to scale your business and expand your capacity as a leader, I invite you to our Wake Up Profitable Boot Camp on April 25-26, 2023.

The first step is mastering your inner entrepreneur. You will experience a fundamental shift in your thinking about how to scale. You will walk through our Entrepreneurial Edge System, a systems approach to building a profitable and resilient business model.

You will start connecting areas of your business, expand opportunities to generate revenue, systematize your business for greater freedom, and tap into resources you already have but haven’t used. A systems approach has you create possibilities and design a pathway to achieving them.

As soon as you register, we’ll schedule a Private one-on-one session so that you’re walking into the boot camp already making progress. Register today, take your human wiring assessment, and start the road to scaling with greater leadership and ease at https://www.excellerateassociates.com/wake-up-profitable-boot-camp.

Using Leverage for Next-Level Business Growth

December 1, 2022 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

Have you ever asked yourself, “How can I get my business to the next level?”

To answer that question, many people believe that they need a big budget or should purchase expensive equipment. This may not necessarily be the case.

The truth is for many businesses you don’t need a bigger budget. You may not even need to purchase expensive equipment or hire more employees to expand your company.

What you do need is to explore how a profitable business is leveraged. It’s one of the key areas I cover in my proprietary system and why many of my clients achieve such fast results.

It may surprise you to learn that one of the easiest ways to leverage has to do with a mindset shift. One of the early mindsets I had to get over was, “If I want something done, I have to do it myself.” You might have even said something like this to yourself.

If you want to move your business to the next level, your business cannot be dependent on any one person, including you. In fact, it is more expensive in the long run to hold on to tasks that you can delegate to someone else for a fraction of what you would bill if you were working with a client.

There are also layers to the mindset of leverage. As you grow your team, you may think you have delegation mastered simply because you have a team. The next question to ask is, “Where else can leverage be found?”

When you are mindful about leverage, you will create specific strategies that allow you to work efficiently, serve more people, and bring in more revenue. This is why leverage separates a mediocre business from a highly profitable one.

Consider these four questions to start leveraging your business today:

1. What can be given up or eliminated that no longer serves the main goals of the company?

It’s easy to get comfortable in your job and perform tasks each day, but do those tasks continue to contribute to the main goals of the organization? If not, stop doing them. When you do, you just made room for relevant work.

When one work team identified tasks that could be eliminated, they realized that there were numerous reports being distributed but not read. This one elimination resulted in a $6,000 savings.

2. What could be added?

When the owner of a yoga studio looked around her space, she realized that she only used the space in the evening and weekends. She worked it out with her landlord to rent out her studio to other instructors during the day, providing another revenue stream. This solution worked for the other instructors, the landlord, and her, giving her financial stability generated through others.

3. What can be automated?

Automation is a high form of leverage. Consider exploring how manual processes could be automated. Remember to check out open source software or apps that just may be the ticket to a cost-effective solution.

4. What can be systematized?

If you have a regular meeting, it may be easier to systematize it. One of my clients realized that she could easily save approximately three hours combined team time each month simply by systematizing one of the employee meetings to the first Thursday of each month. Now they don’t need to waste time finding a common date for the next meeting, they already have it scheduled.

There are many exciting forms of leverage, including refining your work processes, managing your time more efficiently, and utilizing the latest technologies. Leverage is an essential tool to move your business from mediocre to highly prosperous.

Do you have an example to share on how you leveraged your business? Share it with us!

Meeting Your Competing Commitments With Grace and Ease

April 21, 2022 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

Meeting your competing commitments with grace and ease, can occur impossible. Ask anyone how they are doing. What is the typical answer?

I’m so busy. Followed by I got a lot going on.

We all have full lives that can, at times, collide:

⋙ Leading Your Business or Career
⋙ Managing Your To Do List
⋙ Attending Family Events
⋙ Working Out Consistently

So, how do you meet competing commitments without losing your mind?

Systems thinking. Systems thinking is a holistic approach that focuses on the way parts interrelate within the context of larger systems. When using systems thinking, you consider how each area of life interrelates.

One of my clients couldn’t seem to get traction on both her business goals and personal goals. She was naturally wired to perform functions in sequence. She would work on one thing, get it done, and move on to the next.

She saw each commitment as a separate entity. Yet, she was not meeting the very things she was committed to and put her personal goals second.

Using systems thinking, we explored options by looking at how seemingly separate commitments could be integrated. How could she get her self-care routine accomplished, be on time for that morning appointment, and forward what she was up to in her business?

There were a number of options we discussed including asking for assistance, bringing her walking shoes to work to walk during her lunch, exercising for 10 minutes, and delegating to her team.

Systems thinking expands the range of options to accomplish goals. Can you see how integrating small steps can have you take giant leaps in multiple areas having it all work?

When you have multiple commitments, you may first want to ask if you’re really committed or just interested in that goal. When you are merely interested, you will do what’s convenient. When you’re committed, you’ll do whatever it takes.

Then ask:

➥ Where in your business or life could you integrate competing commitments and have it all work?
➥ Where could you ask for assistance or delegate?
➥ Where could you calendarize or cluster appointments so you’re on time or highly efficient with your time?

Then, take action consistent with your commitment not the circumstance.

Surrender: A Meaningful Way to Scale

April 7, 2022 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

In a conversation with a fellow business owner who leads a recruiting agency, she mentioned that many of her clients are running around in many directions and that if they took time out to focus on their business rather in their business, they would often see the solutions to their most pressing problems.

It reminded me of one of my quotes, “When you stop to take a break, watch as you attract new things into your life. The new thing was just waiting for you to stop long enough to notice.”

If you’ve been on the go-go-go or pushing to force and outcome, I invite you to surrender. I don’t mean give up. An interesting definition of surrender is cease resistance.

Consider that pushing is resisting. Consider if you reflect and surrender, you might just open up a flood gate of opportunities. Others might just step in to assist you. A solution you’ve been asking for shows up.

How to Surrender to Work ON Your Business

Every year in November, I set aside several days to work on my business for the next year. I intentionally identify a word that gives a positive context from which to create. This year the word didn’t come so easily to me. One day, as I sat quiet, the word came to me: strategic. As a result, strategic relationships are showing up.

Ask yourself what might open up for you if you surrendered? (Surrendered to another way your business could look. Surrendered expectations. Surrendered judgment. Surrendered unrealistic expectations.)

Invitation

If inspired to explore a fresh way to look at your company, I invite you to surrender into allowing two days to get a new perspective on your business and life at the Wake Up Profitable Boot Camp for Business Owners on April 21-22, 2022.

There’s nothing better than:

Discovering your unique mix of human wiring and how to fully express it
Aligning with your company’s Contribution in the World (this is really motivating when you get in touch with it); and
Developing new ways to open up opportunities so you create a sustainable business.

Leaders who take this journey and holistic approach are committed to authentically connecting, brainstorming with their brilliance, and expanding their leadership.

Give yourself this cohort experience by registering by Friday, April 15, 2022 at:
https://www.excellerateassociates.com/wake-up-profitable-boot-camp/

6 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Company’s Culture

December 16, 2021 by Lisa Mininni Leave a Comment

Imagine you walk up to a hostess stand at a restaurant, she looks at you, and you notice that she’s on the phone. You wait. She gets off the phone and continues to look down at the computer. You stand there looking around waiting patiently for her to look up again to let her know you have a reservation.

She gives you no motion to let you know she will be with you in a minute and no eye contact after her call was concluded. You stand there waiting for her or someone else to acknowledge your presence.

What is your first impression? What does this experience tell you about the culture of the organization? What might this tell you about their training?

At this point, I’m sure you’re thinking about your own experiences where a visit to a restaurant left a bad taste in your mouth. If the company espoused that they were a customer-centric organization, there was clearly a breakdown from what they say and how it is demonstrated in every day interactions.

As your business grows, expands, or merges, it’s more important than ever to actively and intentionally focus on the company’s culture particularly if you want outcomes to align with your Contribution, Vision, Mission, and Values.

Below are thought-provoking questions to explore how well your company’s culture is demonstrated in every day operations:

1. What is your company’s Contribution in the World?

You might have a vision, mission, or values, but do you know your company’s Contribution in the World? Today’s consumer is looking to do business with brands that have a broader impact. What are the outcomes of your products and services? Do you communicate the Contribution in every process of your organization, like interviewing, onboarding, and team meetings to give a meaningful context from which you create ideas, products and/or services?

2. Is team training at all levels in the organization a priority?

Training is not a “set it and forget it” task. Remember that you have both internal and external customers. Everyone needs to know how their role impacts the customer inside and outside of an organization. Integrating training might be easier than you think. Set a time on your monthly team meeting agenda to review a company standard and the specific behaviors the employees are expected to deliver that’s consistent with your vision and culture.

This would have been helpful training in the scenario described above. A small gesture immediately acknowledging the customer or a simple “I’ll be with you in one moment” would have gone a long way in the customer experience.

3. Are you intentionally celebrating wins?

Are you going on to the next thing without stopping to smell the roses? When you notice a team member performing well, acknowledge and recognize it. If one of your values is Excellence, you can use this time to reinforce what Excellence looks like while acknowledging best practices.

4. Are you modeling your standards?

Treat your team the way you want them to treat the customer. Ask yourself if you’re modeling the very behavior you want to see.

5. What’s your customer feedback process?

The most valuable feedback comes from your both your internal customers (employees) and external customers. While it’s important to solicit feedback it’s equally important to take consistent action on that feedback. There’s nothing more draining than to ask your employees for their opinion and do nothing to address it. Establish accountability processes to ensure that action is taken consistently to address their feedback.

6. Have you empowered your team?

If so, what does empowerment look like? What are the possible options that are available to your team when working with the customer? When they know what options or parameters to satisfy a customer, they can help the customer on the spot. It’s also important to roleplay with them while being trained so they recognize the scenarios when they happen.

As your business grows, so is your need to get things done with and through your team. Continuous process improvement and training that supports the Created Culture is key to continued and sustainable growth.

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