PART 2: MICHAEL GERBER’S TOP 10 EXPECTATIONS FOR AN EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE LEADER
As stated in the last post, I’m through Michael Gerber’s newly published book… Awakening The Entrepreneur Within.
In that post, I shared Michael Gerber’s top 10 principles for recruiting new talent to his team. Today’s post shares his top 10 expectations for a COO, or any effective executive leader. Enjoy.
MICHAEL GERBER’S TOP 10 STANDARDS FOR LEADERSHIP:
1. Learn how to produce results with little or no capital.
2. Learn how to produce results with little or no information.
3. Learn how to produce results with little or no experience.
4. Learn how to produce results with little or no likelihood of success.
5. Learn how to do the impossible.
6. Learn how to inspire people without money, motivation or options.
7. Learn how to manage people without making them wrong.
8. Learn how to communicate your dream, vision purpose and mission so that 90% of the people you share it with, will buy into it. Do not spend any time with the 10% that don’t.
9. Learn how to replicate your successes and rise above your failures.
10. Learn how to become a world-class leader you can be proud of.
PART 1: MICHAEL GERBER’S TOP 10 PRINCIPLES FOR RECRUITING
I’m nearly finished with Michael Gerber’s newly published book… Awakening The Entrepreneur Within. While there are several inspirations to draw from as it relates to your business, I thought you’d benefit from the following nugget.
Michael Gerber; who’d recently recruited a COO that didn’t pan out well for one of his companies, expounds upon the importance of not repeating that moment in history. About to hire yet another COO, he shares his top 10 principles for recruiting new talent to his team. I thought I’d share them with you. Enjoy.
MICHAEL GERBER’S TOP 10 STANDARDS FOR RECRUITING:
1. Lead with purpose, commit yourself to your mission.
2. Once committed, never alter your commitment until it’s achieved.
3. Create clear operating standards and live by them.
4. Create clear operating results and commit to them.
5. Surround yourself with people who believe in your mission.
6. Surround yourself with people who are committed to your mission.
7. Surround yourself with people who believe in your standards.
8. Surround yourself with people who are committed to your standards.
9. Surround yourself with people who are committed to your results.
10. Surround yourself with people who are faithful to their commitments.
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM LOUD! CREATIVE
Tags: Branding, Brian Tracy, Business, Dale Carnegie, Harry Beckwith, Jerry Porras, Jim Collins, Keith Ferrazzi, LOUD! Creative, Malcom Gladwell, Marketing, Matthew Kelly, Michael Gerber, Patrick Lencioni, sales, Seth Godin, Zig Ziglar
First, I want to wish each and every client and reader a Happy New Year. I sincerely hope that 2008 proves to be the best and most prosperous year ever for you, your families and your businesses. I am grateful for your friendships.
For me, 2007 has been a journey filled with growing and learning. As you may already know… my intention for this blog is for it to be a
no-cost, value-add resource for you, and your business or organization. It’s here that I share from my experiences, my client’s experiences, and the various resources from which I study and read.
As you endeavor to grow and develop in 2008, I thought it seemed a thoughtful gesture to share with you some of the books I’ve discovered and studied personally… and from which I post to this blog quite frequently. I hope this is helpful. I recommend all of them.
Please feel free to leave your comments. Don’t be inhibited to call me at my office should there be anything I can do for you. Again, Happy New Year !!! Congratulations on all your successes, and may you have so many more.
Brian
BRIAN WEBB’S RECOMMENDED READING LIST
(not necessarily in this order)
ALL MARKETERS ARE LIARS Author: Seth Godin
SELLING THE INVISIBLE – A FIELD GUIDE TO MODERN MARKETING Author: Harry Beckwith
THE FOUR OBSESSIONS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY EXECUTIVE
Author: Patrick Lencioni
THE DREAM MANAGER Author: Matthew Kelly
THE DIP Author: Seth Godin
THE TIPPING POINT Author: Malcom Gladwell
E-MYTH REVISITED Author: Michael E. Gerber
E-MYTH MASTERY Author: Michael E. Gerber
DEATH BY MEETING Author: Patrick Lencioni
SECRETS OF CLOSING THE SALE Author: Zig Ziglar
THE INVISIBLE TOUCH, THE FOUR KEYS TO MODERN MARKETING Author: Harry Beckwith
WHAT CLIENTS LOVE, A FIELD GUIDE TO GROWING YOUR BUSINESS Author: Harry Beckwith
GETTING REAL Author: 37 Signals
HOW TO WIN FRIENDS & INFLUENCE PEOPLE Author: Dale Carnegie
ADVANCED SELLING STRATEGIES Author: Brian Tracy
THE FIVE TEMPTATIONS OF A CEO Author: Patrick Lencioni
NEVER EAT ALONE Author: Keith Ferrazzi
GOOD TO GREAT Author: Jim Collins
BUILT TO LAST Author: Jim Collins & Jerry Porras
WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS EXIT STRATEGY
As you know, I am a huge advocate of E-Myth Worldwide. In their recent newsletter article, they discuss the importance of an exit strategy for your business. I thought I’d share it with you.
Before I do, you should know that E-Myth Worldwide is conducting a Virtual Tele-Training Seminar on “Docmenting Systems” for your business. This seminar is to be held, December 6th, 2007, from 10am PST to 11am PST. The cost is only $179.00… a worthy investment into your business, and ultimately, your sanity and success. We are signing up, and I’d highly recommend that you consider doing the same. Without systems, your business will never be efficient, nor will it ever be franshisable. It’s all about systems!
WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS EXIT STRATEGY?
It was Benjamin Franklin who said “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.”
If you’ve read E-Myth Revisited and E-Myth Mastery… you’d know that it’s important to be planning for the ultimate sale of your business. You need to have the end in mind… or else there will be no “end.” The sale of your business is supposed to be the final chapter of your business.
E-Myth Worldwide recommends that you design an exit strategy before the market is awash with businesses for sale. Perusal of the popular press turns up numerous articles on this coming tide, as do web searches on terms like “boomers selling their business.” The approaching events are clearly on the radar of mergers and acquisitions firms and financial advisors.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers found that half of US business owners plan to sell in the next decade. Another source expects 40% of family-owned US businesses to sell within five years.
Whether it’s this year, or 5, 10, 15 years from now… Do you have a plan? Do you have any strategies and tactics in place as it regards the sale of your business? Do you know what’s necessary to sell you business. If not, start thinking about it now.
GOT SYSTEMS?
This post is directed to all of you entrepreneurial business owners out there. Do you “EVER” want to take weekends off… leave the office at 5pm… coach your son’s little league team… or leave for vacation without stressing over what will crash and burn in your absence?
Well, it’s all about systems. You will be enslaved to your business forever unless you choose to systematize your business. “A little hard work and some common sense is enough to get me where I want to go.” That’s a myth.
I’ve posted about it before… but I vehemently and emphatically implore you… I insist… I beg you to read 2 books that are critical to your business and personal freedom… by Michael Gerber… E-Myth Revisited and E-Myth Mastery. If you’re not a reader… then checkout the E-Myth Revisited and E-Myth Mastery audio books from iTunes. Study these resources with a microscope… examine them… implement them… master them! They are the cure for most forms of your business cancer.
Click Here to watch a newly posted video that highlights some business leaders that have experienced EMyth success.
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS FROM MICHAEL GERBER’S MONTHLY
E-NEWSLETTER, THE E-MYTH INSIDER:
Documenting the processes that control business operations is where the rubber meets the road in systematizing a company. System documentation requires a business owner to analyze and define all regular business processes. In E-Myth terminology, standard operating procedures are documented using “Action Plans.”
An “Action Plan” is a form that defines the desired result, required materials, sequential steps, quality standards, due dates and staff responsibilities for individual business processes.
Once processes are formalized, the “Action Plans” become key elements in the “Operations Manual” of your business. Producing your “Operations Manual” will help your business run more efficiently, and should allow you to step back from the day-to-day tactics to do real strategic planning.
WHY CREATE ACTION PLANS?
1. Action Plans can be used as templates for defining systems
2. Action Plans capture input from those involved in the process
3. Action Plans become lessons for staff training
4. Action Plans become the contents of your business’ Operations Manual
Click Here to see an “Action Plan” sample for “making coffee.”
THE ENTREPRENEUR, THE MANGER & THE TECHNICIAN
It’s not secret that I am an enormous fan of Michael Gerber and his literary resources on how to successfully build a business. While Michael Gerber has written numerous best-selling books on building a world-class business, it’s my belief that E-Myth Revisited, and E-Myth Mastery should both be legally mandated prerequisites for anybody applying for a DBA, S-Corp or LLC. I believe the resources in these 2 books are just that crucial to the success of any business.
Listed below, Michael Gerber summarizes the differences between the entrepreneur, the manager and the technician. He highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each, while pointing out the danger that erupts anytime the wrong person is at the helm of a business.
You can read this “CEO Report” article in its entirety by simply clicking here. I hope you enjoy, and share this with your colleagues.
THE ENTREPRENEUR
The entrepreneurial personality turns the most trivial condition into an exceptional opportunity. The Entrepreneur is the visionary in us. The dreamer. He lives in the future, never in the past, rarely in the present. He’s happiest when left free to construct images of “what if” and “if when“. He is our own creative personality; always at its best dealing with the unknown, prodding the future, creating probabilities out of possibilities. Every strong entrepreneurial personality has an extraordinary need for control. Living as he does in the world to concentrate on his dreams. Given his need for change, he creates a great deal of havoc around himself, which is predictably unsettling for those he enlists in his many projects. This then becomes his world-view: a world made up of both an over-abundance of opportunities and dragging feet.
THE MANAGER
The managerial personality is pragmatic. Without The Manager there would be no planning, no order, no predictability. He lives in the past. He craves order. He compulsively clings to the status quo. He sees problems. He creates neat, orderly rows. Without The Manager, there would be no business.
THE TECHNICIAN
The Technician is the doer. “If you want it done right, do it yourself” is the Technician’s credo. He loves to tinker. Things aren’t supposed to be dreamed about, they’re supposed to be done. He lives in the present. He loves the feel of things and the fact that things can get done. He’s happy when he’s working. To him thinking is unproductive unless it’s thinking about work that needs to be done. He’s not interested in ideas; he’s interested in how-to-doit. All ideas need to be reduced to the methodology if they are to be of any value.
PUT ANOTHER WAY
The Entrepreneur dreams, The Manager frets, and The Technician ruminates. To The Manager, then, The Technician becomes a problem to be managed. To The Technician, The Manager becomes a meddler to be avoided. To both of them, The Entrepreneur is the one who got them into trouble in the first place.
SUMMARY
The fact of the matter is that we all have an Entrepreneur, Manager, and Technician inside us. And if they were equally balanced, we’d be describing an incredibly competent individual. The Entrepreneur would be free to forge ahead into new areas of interest; The Manager would be solidifying the base of the operations; The Technician would be doing the technical work. Unfortunately, the typical small business owner is only 10% Entrepreneur, 20% Manager and 70% Technician.
The Entrepreneur wakes up with a vision. The Manager screams “Oh, no!” And while the two are battling it out, The Technician seizes the opportunity to go into business for himself! To The technician it’s a dream come true. But to the business it’s a disaster, because the wrong person is at the helm.