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Author: Jeffrey Hayzlett

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Best Practices Growth Leadership Personal Development

Don’t Ponder or Squander: You Have To Be In It To Win It

 

“I cannot believe you’re pushing drive and thrive. Now is not the time.”

 

A fellow “thought leader” said this to me. Their advice? The best thing we can do during this moment of crisis is to sit it out and wait for things to get better. My question is, when is the time then? My answer remains, the time is now!

 

When you ponder, you squander and I don’t think any of us has the time to wait for calmer waters. By then, your business has capsized and you’re left picking up the pieces.

 

I am a firm believer that the next few months will be critical for the survival of any business, especially during a potential economic downturn. I have been incredibly busy doing a multitude of webinars with partners, clients, and members and they have heard me mention my 5 keeps:

 

  1. Keep your customers engaged
  2. Keep your employees focused
  3. Keep the cash flowing
  4. Keep continuity
  5. Keep your spirit

 

How does one keep customers engaged? First and foremost, don’t panic! I know it’s easier said than done, but we must keep a cool head. We’re practicing what we’re preaching and we are holding regular events and “huddles” with C-Suite Network members and anyone who wants to come in to listen. We listen to the problems people are facing, we create connections with those than can help right now and even provide some with answers and resources that will take care of them for the foreseeable future.

 

Cash is king. Money makes the world go ‘round and without it, we can’t accomplish much. Changes have to be made. The Small Business Association recommends forecasting your cash flow to ensure monthly expenditures are aligned with your accounts receivable. Take stock of your expenses – if there’s something you can cut, start there. Whether it’s a more cost-effective software, tools, and other necessities, look to reduce those. Assess the situation at every turn. Some choices will be more difficult, but be transparent with everyone – employees, vendors, stakeholders, and customers. That is key!

 

The “drive and thrive” initiative is something I strongly believe we should continue pushing. I could not be more excited, motivated, and supportive of the work we are putting in place to help as many people as possible through the next sixty days. It’s essential that we, as business leaders, act as ‘business first responders.’ We have a responsibility to our community, our employees, and everyone around us to bring as much ‘normalcy’ as possible during a time that will test many of us.

 

There’s a fire blazing through the businesses of America that is challenging the very foundation of our corporations and demands the best response efforts from the country’s greatest business leaders. The COVID-19 crisis has crippled business and left many in a bad place. According to the NFIB Research Center, 76 percent of small businesses are negatively impacted by this global pandemic, while only 5 percent are positively impacted.

 

I speak from experience as action is in my nature and it is the same for most successful business leaders. That’s why I’m emphatic about the ‘Drive and Thrive’ initiative. Don’t get me wrong, that phrase doesn’t mean go out and prospect. You would have to be an insensitive jerk to be aggressively selling right now. However, experience tells me that we should be spending every waking moment moving our businesses forward, pivoting and getting creative in order to keep everyone engaged.

 

The hundreds of thousands of people we serve and the millions of people we reach with our articles, podcasts, and TV shows are grateful to have trusted advisors, valued thought leaders, and professionals to help provide information, resources, advice, leadership, and direction. They appreciate leaders with a “get to work” attitude. They lead and represent millions of people who are employed and count on paychecks or have suppliers and partners who have contracts and customers who need products and services. These people are part of the fabric that weaves in a semblance of business continuity and an economy that depends on them to keep it going.

 

‘Drive and thrive’ is for every business to get moving because if you snooze, you lose!  It’s that simple. Business First Responders motivate and inspire — they have vast domains of knowledge and experience to share.

 

We need to move, the country needs to move. There will be detractors that say, “oh, it’s just too soon.” NO! Exactly the opposite! Run as fast as you can to coach, advise, and support businesses – and not just current businesses either. Create a “wish list” of people who you always wanted to reach out and put yourself on their radar.

 

There are millions being laid off and more to come, organizations and communities that may be devastated. And worse, there will continue to be lives on the line. I’m not a healthcare professional, but I can do something about it – through business.

 

I will do it as big, as bad, and as best I can.

 

I have never worked harder and I will gladly continue to do so if it means I keep people employed and I’m helping the overall business community and the national economy.

So, no. I will not wait. I’ll rush in and take care of business. To the detractors I’ll say

go kick rocks. Talk to your friends about missed lunches or how you will not make your premium airline status, because while you wait, I and many others will do our part to make a difference.

 

‘Drive and thrive’ is not about selling or prospecting business. It’s all about helping, empowering, and motivating. As a leader, it’s about educating, engaging, exciting and inspiring others to succeed every day. It’s a choice I make every single day and encourage others to do the same.

 

In the face of this looming crisis and economic hardship, the world needs Business First Responders. Stand tall, center your mind, body and spirit, and prepare for battle. Businesses across the globe are looking for leaders; those who will run into the flames, those who will ‘drive and thrive.’

 

Remember, the future may seem bleak, but not everything is dark. Throughout history, some of the biggest companies emerged from the throes of a recession – from Airbnb, to Uber, to General Electric, General Motors, and even Disney.

 

Right now, business needs to push, not pause.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

What’s the Difference Between Leadership and Management? Learn the Difference from Former NFL QB, Tom Flick


Is being an NFL quarterback really that different from leading a business? Maybe. Former quarterback Tom Flick joined the C-Suite Network Digital Discussion to discuss the similarities and why many of us don’t understand the difference between leadership and management.

 

You’re about to read a portion of our conversation.

 

(Questions and answers have been edited for clarity)

 

Jeffrey Hayzlett: Change is hard for everyone. It’s tough. And we’ve been going through a lot of change here lately and I think his country is due for a lot more change when it comes to a lot of other issues. So, what are the dynamics of change that everyone should understand in order to evaluate their own leadership styles?

 

Tom Flick: Great question. Since, I (was) a young kid I’ve loved the topic of leadership.

I told my father…(when) I was like an eighth grader. “Dad, (in the huddle) 10 faces are looking at me and they want to know something, they want to be inspired, and they want to be led.”

 

I think with the ever-increasing rates of change that we have now in America, of how fast competition is, we’re globalized. It’s this leadership versus management distinction that I think is really critical to understand. People might think that’s not that big of a deal, but actually it is when you come to realize the research has found out that we’re over managed and under led by a factor of almost four to one in corporate America. It’s tough going 40 miles an hour when your competition’s going 80 and the reason why that is, is because of leadership.

 

I think the leadership and management distinction is because the default setting in our brains is essentially management, if you think about it. We manage just about everything. We manage our diet, our calendar, our workflow, our exercise. We manage, manage, manage. We really have developed managerial mindsets over the last century. The reason is because an entrepreneur or leader or inventor creates a product and they build that product to a point where they can start a business. There’s interest in that business. So, you need managers to go ahead and run the business.

 

If you look at the educational systems here and in Europe predominantly over the last century. It’s been management driven.

 

Management is an amazing set of actions and behaviors; it’s given us the modern-day corporation. It’s budgeting, staffing, controlling, planning, smart problem solving. Henry Ford did us an amazing favor by perfecting management, but there’s a there’s a rub. There’s a problem and that is it management doesn’t move us forward, simply because that’s not its job.

 

Management’s job is to take complexity and make it simple or make it repeatable. Where leadership is wholly different. Leadership is about speed and agility. Leadership is vision and strategy. It’s communicating vision and strategy. It’s motivating action. It’s creating by in. It’s inspiring people. Essentially leadership is taking complex systems in people and creating innovation opportunities and growth.

 

Where management is taking complex systems and people and making them run like they’re intended to run Hour after hour, day after day efficiently and effectively. And that works is what causes speed.

 

leadership creates agility and speed for management keeps things the same, it creates status quo, essentially. So, I think understanding that distinction because most senior leaders that I work with are stuck in management values management speak.

 

They’ll talk about controlling instead of aligning they’ll talk about planning instead of visioning and that’s a huge distinction and it makes it a real big difference on where your company’s going and how fast you can get there.

Jeffrey Hayzlett: Tom, I’m sitting here listening to you. You don’t sound like a football player.

 

And I don’t mean that to be derogatory. I mean, that to be very enlightening. I mean, you sound like a real deep thinker. I mean, did you always have that or is this a critical skill or something you’ve kind of learned as you as you gotten older and more experienced?

 

Tom Flick: You know, Jeffrey, when I when I was a kid and playing quarterback…I think what I liked is the job of a quarterback, if you broke it down, was to energize people. You get inside of a huddle…just play a hypothetical with me.

 

A guy left tackle it gets out of a stance late and the defensive end sacks the quarterback. The running back misses the read and gets stuffed. (The) receiver drops to pass, QB sails the ball over someone’s head. And to get into a huddle of 10 men who are black, white, different socioeconomic backgrounds, belief systems, experiences, and yet we’re bonded together by the color of the uniform and the mascot name that we play for.

 

The job of a quarterback has to step into a huddle and, I gotta tell you, these 10 guys are waiting for it. They’re expecting it. They’re expecting you to focus their energy. That’s the job of a quarterback for one simple purpose. It’s to win the next play. Not to win three plays down the road. It’s just to win one play at a time because great leaders and great teams stack one winning play on top of another winning play.

 

So, I’ve always had this desire to learn. I just been a voracious lifelong learner and book reader.

 

These are only a few insights that he shared with our audience. For the full discussion, listen to the episode of “All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett” here.

The C-Suite Network always looks to provide members with quality, relevant content in order to elevate the success of their businesses. Not a member yet? Click here to learn more.

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Leading in Times of Stress: The Worst Parts of Our Personality Come Out

Recently I sat down with Beth Weissenberger, co-founder and president of the Handel Group Corp & Sports, one of the most successful coaching companies with clients from professional athletes to major brands helping companies and executives going through major transitions.

We had a candid conversation about changes in business, personal relationships, and more. In her role as President of the Handel Group, Beth helps companies triple their business by teaching them the “Handel Method,” which she described as “raising the bar of integrity in your organization.”

 

We’ve all experienced stress during this pandemic. We are all worried about our businesses, personal lives, family, friends, jobs, and the current state of the world. It’s very easy to feel overwhelmed and pessimistic about all that we’ve gone through and what’s yet to come.

 

No matter how you look at it, we have all felt scared. It is during times like these that Beth says the worst parts of our personality come out.

 

“What sucks about you comes out,” Beth commented. “What we do as an organization is we have people deal with their own humanity, their dark side. We have what’s great about us and what sucks about us. In this time, everything that sucks just gets magnified. As a leader for your people, you have to know everyone is in different places. The best way to support that is to be in communication with them.”

 

She argues that while it may be difficult at times, it is also fun to own your dark side – using her own life as an example. We all experienced her vulnerability and were able to identify with each situation she presented.

 

“Part of my dark side is I was divorced twice, and my third relationship cheated on me,” Beth revealed. “Now, I’m with the love of my life. I’m good, but it took me ‘till I was friggin’ 59 years old. I suck at relationships.”

 

The quicker you address and own your faults, you can open the lines of communication and grow stronger personally and professionally. You have to make a promise and find somebody to hold you accountable to ensure those promises are kept.

 

Another pillar of the Handel Method is: design your day. Beth said not to think of this as your usual to-do list. You have to ask yourself how you want your day to look like?

 

“Every single morning, before the day hits, you sit down and design your day, preferably with an accountability partner. Then, at the end of the day, with your buddy, you account for it…Design your day from the principle that we teach called authoring versus being a victim.”

 

Dreaming is a big part of the Handel Method as well. As children, we are uninhibited in how we dream about the future. As adults, we forget how to dream. Beth suggests that we dream in about 12 specific areas of our lives that cover both personal and professional goals.

 

“Start with a big ass dream,” she exclaims. “You need to author a big dream and work back from that…but still dream based on the reality of what we have…pivot quickly and reinvent.”

 

As we strive to dream big, we all fall victim to the voices in our heads – which I refer to as the “Captains of No.” Beth teases the analogy out a little further, breaking them down into the “three board members running your life”: the chicken, the brat, and the weather reporter.

 

The Chicken:

The chicken avoids everything, procrastinates, and has an excuse for why things don’t get done.

 

The Brat:

Beth says to think of the brat like a teenage girl. This voice is defiant and wants to rebel.

 

The Weather Reporter:

Finally, there’s the weather reporter which happens to be the subtlest of all three voices, but just as deadly. It makes things that are only real in your mind reality, sabotaging your plans.

 

 

Once you address the negative voices in your head. You can move on to address the culture in your team. While it may seem like a business cliché by now, but we can all agree that culture eats strategy for lunch. Beth agrees too, but she has some simple, concrete ideas to help your company build a better team culture.

 

“The most important thing in building an honest culture is you got to take gossip out. Gossip is criminal. Everyone is gossiping, including the bosses. That’s where (employees) learn it from,” Beth said.

 

During times of transition the key to fostering great team cultures and communications is being able to address the personal negativity and team gossip. Minimize negative attitudes and encourage open lines of communication.

 

There were some great insights from Beth and I was refreshing to have frank conversation with someone who is able to put complex situations in perspective. This post barely scratches the surface of our discussion. If you’d like to hear it all, including the insightful questions from our C-Suite Network members, we’ve got it all for you on an episode of All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett. Listen to it through the player below or find it wherever you get your business podcasts.

Categories
Growth Personal Development

How Does an NFL Player Lead on the Field and in the Boardroom?

Last month, the C-Suite Network hosted a special Digital Discussion on leadership featuring former NFL safety, Bret Lockett. Here’s just a sample of our conversation.

If you’d like to listen to the complete interview, listen here.

(Questions and answers edited for clarity)

 

Jeffrey Hayzlett: What did it take for you to make the transition from football to business. And what was the process? What was that like? Which was harder?

 

Bret Lockett: It’s a lot easier to do something that you’ve been doing your entire life, right? For me, I’ve been playing sports my whole life. It was just one progression step after another. Once I finished playing, I finished with the Jets in 2013. I had to figure out the next steps. I thought I was, this football player, a top NFL athlete. I had to really dig into who I was and what my identity was and where I wanted to go. That process in itself was a game-changer. I started to intrinsically figure out what motivates me. When you think about business, one of the things that people say is fail fast. I like to say win fast. We’re always going to fail. There’s no doubt about it.

 

Jeffrey Hayzlett: We fail many times throughout business, but the key is to get to the win. In football, you have more time to dwell on a loss than a baseball player. How were you able to deal with adversity on the field? How did it help you deal with adversity in business?

 

Bret Lockett: When you look at adversity on the field, there’s no difference than being in business. When I played on the Patriots, I was on injured reserve three years in a row. I tore my groin my first year. Second year I come back, first two-a-day we had I tore my peck, out for the season.

Third year, came back, in the first preseason game, running down against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and tear my groin and lower ab at the same time.

So, you have to ask yourself, “Hey, why do I keep getting back up? Why keep doing this?”

 

I wanted to become the best NFL safety that I could possibly be. I had my mind made up that I was going to continue, regardless of what circumstances came about. The basis is, what standards do you have in your life? What standards do you have in your business?

 

Jeffrey Hayzlett: What’s the most valuable lesson that football taught you? Applying it to being an entrepreneur and being in business. What was that one lesson that was probably the biggest for you?

 

Bret Lockett: That’s a great question. In football, we all like to say that defense wins championships. That doesn’t necessarily go towards business. We can’t play defense in business because that means we’re competing with our competitors or we’re a step behind our competitors, or we’re doing an acquisition, because we’re getting blocked from maybe going into an emerging space. Playing defense in business is timid. You’re not dictating your own strategy, and you’re not really allocating your resources appropriately. We really look at strategy and business. It’s one of the main components that we have to stay ahead of. Being on offense is the best because it’s very difficult to change your strategy in business. On the football field, we can do that in a in a series. Go out on offense. (It) doesn’t work. We come back. We make adjustments. In business, it’s like an airplane we’re flying. We can turn that thing around. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort. That’s money right there in business. We have to be able to play offense, and that’s playing on our own time-tables, leading and fighting our own opportunities.

 

Jeffrey Hayzlett: You talk a lot about tough mentality, and I think right now with everything that’s going on, it’s put people in some tough situations. How do we train our minds to get tougher in order to be better business leaders?

Bret Lockett: The number one struggle that we all have when it comes to mindset is grit. (What) differentiates the elite performers from everybody else is how much we’re willing to take and how much can we take before we give up. If we want to increase our wherewithal, if we want to increase what we’re able to endure, then we have to lean in. When we lean into the unknown, it’s typically fear. Right? From a psychological perspective, we see fear when we come up against something that we don’t know we can overcome. The human brain does three things: it either runs the other way, it freezes, or we leap into the unknown. If you’re an entrepreneur, whether you have your own business or you’re running a large corporation, the more you lean in, the more your team leans in. The more you create a culture of individuals that accept that unknown, its a lot easier to start building that mindset.

 

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Hero Leadership — Going From Ordinary to Extraordinary

What makes an effective leader? Is there a perfect leadership strategy? The short answer is no — there is no perfect strategy. It varies from business to business. Leadership encompasses a slew of characteristics that can garner success across the board, and how someone leads has a tangible effect on the entire company and all its employees.

A study by Bloom Leadership found that 79 percent of employees quit their job due to lack of appreciation. This is something that can sometimes be lost in the day-to-day grind of making sure the business is making enough money and the needle moves forward. The disconnect is even wider at the top with bosses thinking employees leave because they want more money.

 

With Baby Boomers retiring at incremental rates, the younger generation should begin stepping up into a leadership role. Yet, 63 percent of millennials feel a lack of leadership development.

 

How can current leaders help bridge the gap? How can future leaders elevate their skills?

 

My latest book, The Hero Factor, discusses the traits that every leader should have (or acquire) in order to lead effectively, develop more appreciation for their employees, and cultivate successful leadership development.

 

When employees feel a sense of purpose and are part of a thriving culture, they feel like they’re contributing to the bottom line and see how they are having an impact, they care more inclined to stay on board and shift their perception.

 

Here are some traits that every great leader should already be praticing.

 

Spread the wealth

 

No one got to where they are alone. Give credit where credit is due. A few words of encouragement go a long way to foster good will and a vibrant office culture. Letting your team know they’re appreciated must be a priority.

 

A leader who shares the credit attracts more followers and loyalty than someone constantly bragging about “their” accomplishments. A Forbes article shows that recognition is the number one reason employees say inspires them to produce great work. What’s not a great leader? Throwing someone under the bus or berating them. Hero leaders turn mistakes into teachable moments. People will never forget how you treated them or made them feel. Guaranteed they won’t make the same mistake again.

 

Have a servant mentality

 

The main reason for leadership is for the benefit of the people. A hero leader’s success is rooted on the values to their community, stakeholders, and the common good. Recognizing strengths, weaknesses, and striving for continual improvements are cornerstones of a servant leader. Good leaders are secure in their abilities and don’t hesitate to share their success. Hero servant leaders realize they can’t please everyone all the time. They are practical in their decision making, stay strong in their convictions, and accept criticism. This is what sets a true leader apart. This mentality is noticed and mimicked by employees – for the right reasons, too.

Asking ‘how can I help you?’ ‘What can I help you with?” and “What can I do?” is something a hero leader should always do. They don’t let time, ego, or excuses get in the way.

 

Communicate a clear vision and goals

 

What are your goals? How do you communicate them or do they live only in your head? If you’re assuming everyone knows, that’s your first mistake. Communication involves more than just talking. It’s about connecting with people, too.

Communicating your values begins with outlining your conditions of satisfaction. Mine are: making money, learning something new, and having fun. These may vary from business to business, too. Keeping sight of your values leads to having a clearer path for your short and long-term goals. While those might change over time, the communication lines should always remain open. It increases employee engagement, mitigates conflict, and creates better relationships. Everyone in the organization – from the CEO to the mailman, should be aligned with the goals and the vision being communicated. Every employee needs to see your vision as clear as you do.

 

Pro tip: Write them down and make the values and goals visible to all. That tangible reminder will keep everyone aligned

 

Being a hero leader, or a hero company, is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. Are you up for the challenge?

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Leadership Lessons from Battle-Tested Executives

 

Since launching my fourth book, “The Hero Factor: How Great Leaders Transform Organizations and Create Winning Cultures,” I’ve been examining how leaders lead and how they execute in order to scale for growth faster and more effectively. I find it fascinating to see how others operate their businesses and what best practices they put in place in other to make their businesses thrive.

 

As someone who has been in business for a long time and has bought and sold over 250 business, I love hearing some insights from C-Suite Network members and everyone in my circle about what leadership means to them and what principles guide them in order to become better, more effective leaders.

 

Some time has passed since our C-Suite Network Conference in New York City, but the lessons learned there will have a lingering effect in how we operate our businesses and collaborate with one another. Here are few of my favorite quotes from the conference:

 

“The bigger your vision, the more you will sacrifice to achieve it.” – Chris Rabalais, Political Director, The Sports Vote & Managing Director, The New Sports Economy Institute

 

“Brands have moved from words and pictures to experiences.” – Margaret Molloy, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Siegel+Gale

 

“You can’t give birth to an adult.” – Brian Smith, Founder of UGG (talking about birthing a brand)

 

“Figure out what you can do better than anybody else and then do it.” – Brian Smith (when talking about how does one become successful)

 

“Engage micro influencers, even if adversaries, learn from them, show them what you do.” – Mitzi Perdue, Founder & President, Win This Fight! Stop Human Trafficking

 

“Advertise the feeling and emotion you want your customers to feel and get from the product not the benefits itself.” – Brian Smith, Founder of UGG

 

“Be sure everyone in the organization knows what you’re doing.” – Shenan Smith, President, pGSK- PublicisMedia

 

“Success isn’t a future event. Success is w whole series of events that you do successfully.” – Brian Smith, Founder of UGG

 

“People are moved by honesty and being genuine.” – Bob Guccione, Jr., Founder, SPIN magazine and Founder & CEO, WONDERLUST

 

“Entrepreneurs see over the horizon.” – Bob Guccione, Jr.

 

“Get customers to love your brand.” – Helena Verellen, SVP Global Strategic Partnerships & Business Development, Audible

 

 

Business is fast-paced and can be cutthroat. The way we work has changed dramatically and anyone not keeping up better find another line of work because they won’t be in business for long. One adage that I constantly fall back on is “adapt, change, or die.” It couldn’t be more apt for these times of break-neck speed and constant evolution and innovation.

 

In that same vein, the way we lead is also changing. Leadership is not just one person at the top making decisions for everyone. Leadership has become decentralized and this has allowed other employees to feel empowered to make decision to propel the business forward.

 

Ask yourself, what is the definition of leadership? What makes for an effective leader? There’s no right or wrong answer because we all run different operations. While we can agree there are certain traits that make for good leadership, there’s no silver bullet to being a great leader.

 

A great leader motivates, communicates, engages, educates, and evangelizes. For me, a great leader has a charismatic personality, can persuade an audience full of different backgrounds and ideologies, gives credit when credit is due and aligns people and profits.

 

What makes a great leader for you?

 

What were your favorite quotes from the conference?