Key #3: Rules of the Game
One of the most important things you get to do as an owner is choose your Culture – Your Rules of the Game. This may seem fluffy, but it is critical to your company’s long-term success.
Just how critical? I was listening to an interview that Darren Hardy did with Tony Hseih, the late founder of Zappos. Zappos went from $250k to $1B in six short years. This is rocket growth for what is essentially a call center! Tony credited Zappo’s culture to being he secret ingredient to their success.
Tony learned an important lesson about culture from his prior company – Link Exchange. The lesson? Set your culture, or a culture will find its way in – and it probably won’t look anything like what you had envisioned.
Tony bailed on a sizeable earn out payment with Link Exchange by leaving the company early, because he “dreaded going to work every day. Sick to his stomach hated it.” The reason? He hadn’t intentionally set his culture – and a culture found its way in. He’d hired based on skills and experience, but not for the kind of company he wanted to build.
SO – think about the kind of company and people you want to have. How will you treat each other? Your clients or customers? Your suppliers? What are your core beliefs as a company?
My company has 14 Points of Culture, and we strive to live those every day. They guide our hiring, who we take on as clients, how we care for clients and team members, and what kind of company and people we strive to be. If you want to use our 14 Points of Culture as an example to follow, just email me at SusanThomson@ActionCOACH.com and put CULTURE POINTS in the title.
Key #4: Action Plan
Action Plans are the magic to making your strategic plans actually bear fruit. They tell your people what to do, when to do it, what the priorities are, and how they’ll know if they are being successful.
Where to focus first? The DGLPA Methodology (Dreams X Goals X Learn X Plan X Act) will show you where to focus first. Dream big – bigger than you think you’re capable of. Set your goals from there. What do you need to learn, or who do you need to become to achieve the goals? Then put your plan in place, with a Date and Deliverables Action Plan – who does what by when.
If all of this seems a little daunting, join us for our next GrowthCLUB Quarterly Planning Day – we’ll lead you through the whole thing with other entrepreneurs in the Community. Here’s a link to grab your spot
You get some free bonuses too!
Free Bonus #1: Virgil “Wolf” Schulenburg – owner of Harley Davidson in Madison, will be our keynote and will share his lessons learned over his last 37 years of owning a Harley dealership!
Free Bonus #2: As clients of The Benefit Works, you get $270.00 per person discount for the event! Use the coupon code: ACTION225Q4 to register!
Stay tuned for Keys #5 and #6 next month: Support Risk Taking, and 100% Involvement & Inclusion!
Visit Susan’s website is: MakeMoreWorkLessWI.com.
Susan Thomson
CEO, Licensed Coach
ActionCOACH Business & Executive Coaching
Direct: 608-441-5374
Cell: 847-687-4519
Email: susanthomson@actioncoach.com
MakeMoreWorkLessWI.com
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