My ‘don’t do’ list policy - part 2
Here’s the second half of my ‘Don’t Do’ List policy to follow on from my last post:
#6 DON’T BUILD THE BUSINESS AROUND YOURSELF
In the early days it’s great to see those emails and texts for you – you are important and wanted. However, this excitement soon turns into an addiction. Your definition of success starts to depend on how much you are needed. Wrong! (unless you want to be the bottleneck in your business).
Try to design the entire business model with the sole intention of getting it to operate without you. Or do you enjoy working 24/7?
‘Start with the end in mind’ is what Steven Covey says. If you intend to get out of your business at some point then you need to design the whole thing with that endpoint in mind. Otherwise you end up as the tiredest person in the graveyard!
#7 DON’T CARRY A BLACKBERRY 24/7
The world will not grind to a halt if you are not there to take every call. In fact customers might treat you with a bit more deference if you ration your available time with a bit more respect for what is really important.
#8 DON’T PLAY IT TOO SAFE
The riskiest thing is to be safe… Very good is bad… because no-one notices it.
#9 DON’T BE REASONABLE
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.”
- GB Shaw
Are you being reasonable?
“Most people are reasonable; that’s why they only do reasonably well.”
- Paul Arden
#10 DON’T TAKE IT ALL TOO SERIOUSLY
No-one enjoys working with a bore… and while we are at it,
#11 DON’T FORGET WHY YOU ARE DOING THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE
When you are on your deathbed you will not say “I wish I‘d spent more time at this office”. Get real, have fun, laugh and lighten up!
#12 DON’T GET THE NEGATIVE FEEDBACK HABIT
We spend 95% of the time focusing on the 5% of things in our businesses that don’t work… and only 5% of the time focusing on the 95% of things that really do work.
The old 80/20 rule tells us that we can get a pretty approximate/good solution in the first 20% of time spent on a problem. The solution doesn’t get twice as good if we spend twice the time on it. If we do screw up we already know about it so let’s recognise the mess and get on.
In his ‘Winning’ book, Clive Woodward describes just such a situation. In summary, he says that if the team lost there was no point dragging the team into the boardroom to dissect and analyse every action made that (may have) contributed to the poor result… It was only when the team won that he would take them into the boardroom to dissect and analyse every action made that (may have) contributed to the good result, ie he got the team to focus on what they were doing right.
If you get/see what you focus on then it seems mad to focus on what’s gone wrong and it seems obvious to spend more time looking at what really works.
Each Friday…
“Each Friday ask all your reports to tell you on a single page what important things happened during the week and what they mean for the business” says Jack Trout.
Too right!
