by edensunshine | Sep 11, 2014 | Leadership, Principle of Creating Replication, Principle of Defining Results
I’ve had something on my mind lately. Actually walking through some of my own personal growth challenges and I have come face to face with something I haven’t paid much attention to in the past. Not that the problem or challenge didn’t exist, I guess I just wasn’t conscious of it.
Oh…but I am now.
I believe for some, you might be able to relate and learn from my own challenges and what I am going through.
I’ve made some important decisions regarding my business lately. Expansion and growth kind of stuff. You know…the kind of stuff you probably think about all the time as a business owner. (By the way, some of the things I am doing WILL be of interest to some of my wonderful followers. Perhaps YOU! So be on the lookout. If you can’t wait to hear about it, shoot me an email or give me a call).
The trouble all started when I stopped thinking about moving forward and started taking action.
The fact is I was experiencing the problem before I took action but it went to a whole new level once I started moving.
The problem was tension. Now I know you know what tension is.
It’s the feeling you get when you are standing still but KNOW you should be moving. It’s that uncomfortable feeling of knowing where you are is not where you would like to be.
It’s also the feeling you get when you start moving and you are experiencing uncharted waters. You know. Pressing beyond what feels comfortable. Taking chances.
So I had tension before I started moving. Then I experienced a whole new level of tension once I started moving.
Reality #1 – Unless you’ve achieved a level of complacency or ambivalence to your business and life, you are going to experience some tension when you aren’t taking action. Something inside will be prompting you. Always! Accepting and acknowledging this truth is the first step in managing it.
Now once I started moving, in addition to the tension, I encountered a whole new problem.
Resistance.
It was almost as if the forces of the universe, an enemy, had decided to come against me and my pursuits and oppose me.
I was clearly being challenged. Every time I took a step forward, I was getting knocked back two steps.
I was suddenly faced with a choice. Retreat or advance.
I knew if I retreated, I wouldn’t be feeling the resistance anymore. Just the tension and knowing that I didn’t want to go back to where I was.
If I continue to advance, I knew I was going to have to do something different. I was going to have to apply a level of effort, intelligence or approach things in a new way.
Choice made. Advance!
Doing things differently; adopting a new approach includes one or more of these three points.
1- Get you mind right and in the game.
It really comes down to commitment. A choice. A resolve.
Successful people – business owners – set a goal, establish a vision and decide that they won’t quit or give up.
Over the years of working with business owners, quite frankly, this is the primary reason why I see so many fail to accomplish the things they set out to accomplish. They run into resistance and their personal resolve and commitment isn’t strong enough to deal with the resistance.
They will blame outside circumstances and others. But the problem is between their ears.
Lesson 1: Learn to stick with “it” no matter what. But you have to know what “it” is first. Set a goal you are firmly committed to achieving. Then decide there are no other options other than to make it happen.
It also helps to rally people around you who will encourage, support and fight with you…even when you encounter extreme resistance.
2 – Engage in the right work.
In order to accomplish your goal you have to know what the right work and actions to take. I’ve discovered that in order to break through barriers, I can’t do the same things the same way.
In business, the right work is strategic work. It means asking the right questions. Asking and answering the questions IS THE WORK.
The book Art of War by Sun Tsu, which according to some people is the greatest military strategy book of all time, offers great examples of the responses that come from asking the right questions first.
“Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril” – Sun Tzu
In business it’s like saying, study yourself and your competition before engaging in advertising activities. The appropriate strategic questions might be:
What strengths do we have over our competition? What can we do better than anyone else? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How can we position ourselves to capture the market we can serve best.
Asking and answering these things IS strategic work.
If you are not engaging in asking the right question, you might not be doing the right work in the business.
Here are some other pretty cool business related strategies from Art of War. Click here to read them.
Lesson 2: Have the guts to do the right work, to change your approach, to stop doing the same things you have done every day. You might lose a battle or two along the way but you will win the war in the end.
3- Do work the right way.
This is tricky because there are so many different approaches that could achieve the results you want. One of the ways to maximize your odds to find the best approach is to understand this very important philosophy:
The key to success of any business is dependent on the quality of its systems. Improve your systems improve your business.
With that in mind, doing the work the right way means that you are always looking to create and innovate the best system.
There are four elements that will help you develop great systems.
1- Define the goal of the system. You must know the purpose of the system and how it is performing. If I place an ad in a publication, my goal might be to maximize the number of qualified prospects that call my company to set an appointment.
2- Then create the system itself. In the example above, create a great ad. If you don’t have a system to create an ad that will produce the result, find someone that has a track record for creating ads that convert.
3- Engage the system and track. You have to make sure the system is working. In the case of the advertisement, I would then need to track how many calls I get from the ad I placed.
4- Innovate as needed. Based on the performance of the system, you may need to make a strategic decision to improve the system. Sometimes the best decision is to leave it alone and work on a system or area of the business that isn’t performing as well.
I started this whole conversation around the subject of tension and resistance.
I’ve concluded that we are going to experience tension and resistance when we advance towards any goal or endeavor. I also know that we can minimize the tension and resistance by managing our mindset, engaging in the right work and developing the best systems.
The key, like most things, is to do it.
Here I go.
How about you?
by edensunshine | Sep 2, 2014 | Principle of Conveying Information, Principle of Creating Replication
Business owners have trust issues. It’s true! If you feel trapped in someway by your business or don’t believe your business can work without you – you have trust issues.
What exactly do we need to trust in order to establish freedom? What do we need to trust so we can feel confident in our business and our people?
In a typical people dependent business model, answering those questions can be quite difficult. Most of the time a business owner in that environment has to trust their people on many different levels. They have to trust their knowledge and ability to perform specific tasks and functions in the business.
They have to trust their people’s judgment and decision making ability. They have to be able to count on their people. They have to trust in their own ability to innovate and create a model for business that will work. Just to name a few.
In a Level 7 Business, the business owner only has to trust 2 things.
- They have to trust that they have systems, procedures and processes for doing business that will produce the optimal or desired results. In The Level 7 System we call this The Principle of Creating Replication.
- They also have to trust their people to follow the systems. In The Level 7 System we call this The Principle of Facilitating Compliance.
You can’t have one without the other.
Want to get over your trust issues, build an amazing business and establish freedom? Focus on building a business based on creating the best possible systems that produce results and establishing an environment of accountability with your people.
It’s really that simple.
by Eden Sunshine | Jun 15, 2011 | Business, Level Seven Principles, Principle of Creating Replication, Principle of Facilitating Compliance
I've concluded that the single most important thing a business can do to improve itself is to become a systems driven organization. This simply means that the key to successful execution of every activity, and subsequent result, is a system, process or procedure.
It doesn't matter what a business is or what it does. It doesn't even matter what the activity is. Every action has an underlying system or procedure behind it. The better the system, the better the result. If you don't believe me than either you haven't tried it in your business or you tried it but didn't execute correctly or effectively.
Within the
Level 7 System we have a principle called Creating Replication. The Principle of Creating Replication suggests that a business must have a system or process in place to get their systems, processes and procedures developed and installed into the business. In other words, we have a system for successfully developing systems.
Well, Jennifer Maggoire and Heather Long and the team at
MCM took me up on a challenge the other day to see how fast they could get all the systems in their business documented, tested and implemented. "The faster, the better," I suggested. (They are using the Level 7 System for Creating Replication as their system for getting the job done, fast.)
"Not only will it be good for employee morale to get a project like this completed as fast as possible but the improvements you will see in your business will blow your mind," I told them. "Your revenues will increase, profits should soar, customer's will be happier and you will have a lot less frustrations and challenges in the business. Just watch what happens!"
They took me up on the challenge and agreed they would get this phase of the Level 7 Implementation Process completed in 90 days. I believe that Jenn offered then team a night out on the town including margaritas once they complete the process. So for fun, we will call this 'The Great MCM Margarita Race'. I will be giving you regular updates on their progress and their results along the way too.
OK
MCM. Ready…on your marks, get set, go…!
by Eden Sunshine | May 26, 2011 | Business, Level Seven Principles, Principle of Creating Replication, Principle of Facilitating Compliance
Business owners have trust issues. It's true! If you feel trapped in someway by your business or don't believe your business can work without you – you have trust issues.
What exactly do we need to trust in order to establish freedom? What do we need to trust so we can feel confident in our business and our people?
In a typical people dependent business model, answering those questions can be quite difficult. Most of the time a business owner in that environment has to trust their people on many different levels. They have to trust their knowledge and ability to perform specific tasks and functions in the business. They have to trust their people's judgment and decision making ability. They have to be able to count on their people. They have to trust in their own ability to innovate and create a model for business that will work. Just to name a few.
In a Level 7 Business, the business owner only has to trust 2 things.
They have to trust that they have systems, procedures and processes for doing business that will produce the optimal or desired resulst. In The Level 7 System we call this The Principle of Creating Replication.
They also have to trust their people to follow the systems. In The Level 7 System we call this The Principle of Facilitating Compliance.
You can't have one without the other.
Want to get over your trust issues, build an amazing business and establish freedom? Focus on building a business based on creating the best possible systems that produce results and establishing an environment of accountability with your people.
It's really that simple.
by Eden Sunshine | Mar 22, 2011 | Business, Level Seven Principles, Principle of Creating Replication, Principle of Defining Results
My 14 year old daughter Maddison has been dancing since she was 4 or 5. She is quite good, I think. At very least I enjoy watching her. I enjoy watching her mature in her technique and abilities.
Last weekend she participated in a dance competition with her team. It's not unusual at these events to have workshops in the morning and afternoons before the evening event. These workshops are often taught by the guest judges that are brought in for the performances.
One of the judges that was there had a very impressive resume having choreographed and worked with long list of celebrities. She has worked with Jennifer Lopez, Gloria Esteffan and Madonna to name a few.
The morning after the competition, Maddison was talking to my wife about the workshops, demonstrating some of the techniques that she had learned the previous day. Here is what fascinated me. The language of dance is universal. Now I don't know dance at all but, not surprisingly, they have universal terms to describe the various moves and positions.
When the judge was working with Maddison and the other girls, she was using the exact same language or terms that they had learned in their studio here in Arizona. It made communication and understanding very easy. As a result, they were able to learn and accomplish a lot in a very short period of time.
In order for you to be effective in your business, you need to have a common language; one that the people in your business can easily understand without having to struggle to interpret. Most businesses don't have a common language. Even when we say something like "marketing" it could have different meanings. When speaking of core values often people will say we value integrity in our organization. What exactly does than mean? I could ask 10 people to define integrity and I might get 10 different interpretations and answers.
Common language begins with your vision and your goals. I recommend coming up with terms in your organization that are unique to your business. Come up with terms that people can really understand.
One of the powerful attributes of Level 7 is our use of unique and yet a common language that people that are engaged in the implementation of it understand and can embrace. Over time, the people in your organization begin to understand the language of Level 7 and ultimately begin operating according to its principles and actions.
When someone says something like, "What is the result we are looking to achieve" or "let's focus on the system," we know they are learning the language of a productive and effective business.
And what that amounts to is a beautiful dance. (You know I had to tie it back to the analogy)
by Eden Sunshine | Sep 14, 2010 | Business, Level Seven Principles, Principle of Creating Replication
In a hospital, an emergency room is equipped and poised to handle the unexpected. They never know what is going to happen next. The circumstances that occur outside the emergency room are beyond their influence or control. They simply can't change or fix it. They are open 24/7. Sometimes they are slammed and other times people are sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
Business owners, in many cases, have poised and positioned their businesses to act like an emergency room. They believe the business is in the business of constantly resolving issues that seem to be beyond their control or influence. In most cases it simply isn't true. They have become experts at waiting for a problem to come up and then solving it.
Despite their beliefs, they have a lot more control over the circumstances that drive the activities within their organization. It is much more difficult to grow and build a business that serves lives if we think and act like the business is an emergency room.
There are several keys to making a shift to get out of the emergency room mode.
1- Recognize that your business is in reactive mode most the time and that a change needs to happen.
2- Resolve to make a change in the culture of the business by considering how the business can become more proactive in its thinking and action.
3- Introduce a systems resolution approach to the reoccurring problems that come up in your business. When you have a problem or challenge in your business it is because you have a systems problem. If you don't have systems, then you have a REAL BIG PROBLEM.
Click here to learn more about developing a systems driven approach to your business?
I’ve had something on my mind lately. Actually walking through some of my own personal growth challenges and I have come face to face with something I haven’t paid much attention to in the past. Not that the problem or challenge didn’t exist, I guess I just wasn’t conscious of it.