Columbus Day: The Perfect Day Off

columbus day

What Columbus Day Means to Me

The original meaning behind Columbus Day was to celebrate the European discovery of the Americas. Like many things, this has become divisive and offensive to certain people, especially Native Americans, whose lives and communities that have been impacted ever since. Today, I think other than the federal government, there are not many people celebrating Columbus Day, but as a defense contractor, it was one of my favorite holidays. How often do you get a day off for just you? A day where you don’t have to do or be anything except the things you want to do? Do you ever feel like you would love to go where you want to eat or do what you want to do for fun? 

My Perfect Day

Honestly, I prefer to be with my wife and family. But for one day a year, it has been awesome to be able to drop my kids at school and then get on with a day that I enjoy. Sidecar donuts for breakfast, on to the beach, as typically the weather and water are mild to warm, and often the waves are decent. After the beach, the next thing on my list is a great taco shop for a carne asada burrito and maybe some ice cream at Handel’s. At some point, it is back to real life, grabbing the kids from school, getting dinner ready, and back to family life. Typically that day is very refreshing as it is all about me and what I like to do. I do like other holidays, Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day for remembering important people, and Labor Day for picnics and barbeques with family and friends. But Columbus Day tends to be about me, and if it’s the only day a year, it’s great to make the most of it. 

Schedule Your Own “Me Days”  

I think it’s so important to schedule days like today because everyone deserves time away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It’s good to make sure you have some time to pursue your passions and get away from the day-to-day. On the seventh day, even God rested. So take the time to do some things that you like to do. Start with one work day a year. If you could plan your one perfect day, what would you do? 

Tackship Consulting Is Here To Help

Activate your passion, and optimize your performance with Tackship Consulting. If you’re ready to make a change, please set up a time to meet with me here.

Listening

listening

Listening

I am the type of person who has to get a thought out of my head and into a conversation before I lose it, because I think I am so smart and witty. My contributions to the conversation are critical and must be heard, or at least from my perspective. 

When I was living with my fiancé in Hawaii late last millennium, we used to go out to The Shack in Kailua for trivia night with a few other couples. My then fiancé (now wife) would get so mad at me, because I would talk over other people and not even bother or consider what they had to say. My own arrogance and self-importance trumped whatever contribution someone else might have had to say.

It didn’t start there, though. If I go back a bit earlier to my Naval Academy days, I studied a book for the Navy called “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in Naval Leadership.” I did not take too much away from this book at the time, but since I was almost 21, I thought I had it all figured out. The thing is, though, I didn’t. 

Habit 5 is “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood.” Based on my behavior later in life, it is apparent that I did not take this habit to heart because I think being respectful, kind, and having empathy for people is really what this is about.

Active Listening vs. Passive Listening in Business

When it comes to active listening, we are present, listening to understand rather than trying to get the next word in, and trying to see the viewpoint of the speaker. But if we’re listening in a passive way, we’re not truly present and only listening so share our own opinion.

In my coaching certificate program, we practiced the skill of active listening while understanding their feelings and the technical term is called “attunement.” It’s essential to try and put yourself into someone else’s shoes and experience their perspective and feelings for the situation they’re currently experiencing.  

Now, as an executive coach and consultant, it’s critical for me to listen to what people have to say, what they are feeling and try to understand what their needs and perspectives are. I was facilitating a “Vision Day” the other day for a client, and one of the values that we discussed was customer awareness. The client wanted to have a close relationship with customers, and have a deep understanding of their needs, where they are trying to go, to better provide solutions to these problems ahead of the competition.

But in my opinion, it even goes beyond that. I think for business development, we need to have the ability to listen to what potential customers are saying, ask clarifying questions, and provide intellectual capital that can help lead to solutions. Doing this goes a long way in building trust, a strong relationship, and possibly even a contract or business deal. 

Build Relationships First 

It’s hard to not be trying to build your business and sell a product or service to someone who you think needs it. But at the end of the day, I also don’t believe most people want to be “sold.” They may not even want to work with you, but if we can serve people, the right relationships will follow. 

When serving others, we need to listen to them. We need to listen with emphasis, and we need to listen with empathy. At the end of the day, we need to take time to listen at a deeper level than just listening to respond. 

Tackship Consulting

As an executive coach, I have the necessary training to help you and your company become better equipped to actively listen and build relationships with possible customers. If you’re ready to Activate your Passion and Optimize your Performance, fill out our contact form today! 

Visionary In The Workplace

Visionary

What is a Visionary?

In the EOS world, there is a concept called “the Visionary,” which is someone within your business with big ideas who can see potential opportunities and manage strategic relationships.

The visionary is not the person who holds other people accountable and is not the leader, decider, or the person in charge of conflict resolution. Instead, this individual is the keeper of the vision for where the company is going and communicates it to the organization. Often they are the entrepreneur who started the company in the first place.

Interestingly enough, only approximately 50% of companies have someone filing a visionary role. But now, that begs the question: how do you create a vision if you do not have a Visionary? How do you create a personal vision if you are not a visionary person? The simple answer is you can, but it takes a lot of discipline and work and may suck the energy out of the people involved, because they may be more energized in accomplishing the execution of the plan or the company. If you want to build your company purposefully, you need someone who is a visionary. 

And if you are a visionary, ensuring that you are delegating the actual running of your company to an “Integrator” role is essential. Integrators are good at execution, good at holding people accountable, and good at resolving issues. 

Everyone needs a Vision

As I have been working with companies and individuals, there is a consistent topic throughout all my clients that we spend a lot of time discussing, and that is vision. It is essential for people to have a vision of where they want to go, both professionally, personally, and even corporately for a company.

Vision begets a purpose for why you or your company exists. It sets a larger objective or goal and can help you know if you are on the right path. If your vision gets created, it makes your decision-making almost evident, as that is where you want to get to, like putting it into your map app or GPS. Even if you make a wrong decision that might distract you from your vision/purpose, the ways to get back on course tend to be evident. 

EOS Worldwide resource

I think the book Traction by Gino Wickman is a helpful resource. It is the foundation of EOS, and provides a good framework for companies looking to figure out how to simplify, delegate, predict, systemize, and structure their organizations. Part of this is going through the exercises to cast a vision, which can be done with the leadership team and a facilitator to help tease it out.

EOS is the desire to get the leadership working ON the company instead of working IN the company. I know that when there are so many deadlines and things to work on, it can be hard to pull out of the day-to-day tasks to actually take the time to look around and see where you are.  Scheduling time to be strategic, whether you are a visionary or not, it is essential.

EOS Worldwide has also recently implemented EOS1 as an online software tool and can help execute EOS within your company. I am still playing with this software, which is free in beta right now, but will cost from $5-$12 a seat/month, depending on the size of the business. If you are interested in learning more about a facilitated implementation, please reach out, and let’s discuss.  

Visionary resource 

Another resource is a book called Vision Driven Leader by Michael Hyatt. Hyatt found himself at the head of the worst-performing publishing division in a publishing house. He took a weekend to create a vision plan for what he wanted to see out of his division and then set the intermediate goals to achieve the vision. The company was so impressed that they decided to do it for all the divisions and the company.

Activate your passion & optimize your performance with Tackship Consulting

Sometimes talking to someone about your ideas, your gut, and looking at where you are at can help you break through to a different level. In our next blog, we will discuss the focus and how maybe doing less can make you more effective. Tackship Consulting is here to help! Schedule a free consultation today. 

Core Values And Finding The Right Employees

Core Values And Finding The Right Employees

Who’s the right fit for your organization? 

A tenet of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) is making sure that you have the right people in the right seat within your organization that follow your core values.

While ideally, one would identify the critical functions of the company, often companies grow with limited human resources and many people are filling many hats trying to keep the cash moving and flowing, as the company grows. Eventually, understanding the core functions of your team, and assigning accountability for these functions will allow for better use of people, within your organization.  

What are your core values?

Your company’s core values really are your company’s “lived values.” That is, the values on the wall that one or two people came up with, may not be the same values that are lived out every day within the company.  A couple of ways to identify your true core values include identifying the core capabilities of highly respected people in the organization, as well as aspirational values that your want all of your employees to strive for.  Either way, the ability to recognize and celebrate your values within your organization will ensure that they are lived.

In an interview with the CEO of Titus Talent Strategies, Jonathan Reynolds shared the importance of lived values and how his company is committed to creating a culture that truly sets them apart from the competition and allows them to continue to evolve alongside their partners.

From our conversation, I learned that creating core values is essential, but you need to make sure that they’re being lived out through the actions of everyone in the organization. 

Ask yourself this question: are my values “lived” or are they just words on a wall? Then think about this: if you asked an employee what your company’s core values are would they be able to tell you? If they can’t, then you don’t have lived values. 

Keep in mind that values should be specific to your organization and clearly defined, communicated to be truly lived by everyone within the company. If they aren’t, this could lead to you not filling your organization with the right people.

People Analyzer

One of the ways you can ensure that employees are living out your values as a company is by using the people analyzer tool from EOS.

This tool allows leaders to evaluate employees against their core values, something many companies don’t do but is essential for creating a successful culture built on these values.

An example of utilizing this method could be by putting your company-specific values, and the names of each employee, into a people analyzer sheet, then rating each person with a +, -, or +/-.

The ultimate goal is to find people who get a “+” in each section because if they have the same values, that gives you a better idea of whether they’d be a good fit for the organization.

Yes, this tool is useful when hiring people. But it can also determine where current employees need help living out your values.  Assessing how people live core values can be utilized in annual performance reviews to ensure that they are moving in the right direction.

Finding the right person

Just because someone shares the core values, does not mean that they can do any job in the company. Ensuring the strengths, personality, abilities of your employees match their tasking, is also critical to ensuring your people are in the right seats.  

If your people are not working in areas where they can thrive, their personal growth, as well as the success of the company, might be hindered. Taking the time to ensure a good fit with people and positions, roles and responsibilities ensure a place within your organization where they can shine and where they can fully use their skills because, in the long-term, it will benefit both of you. 

Conversely, qualified people who don’t measure up to your core values may look good on paper but will tend to create headaches, division, have other adverse effects on company culture.  “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” is often attributed to Peter Druker.  Interestingly your core values are also the core of your culture, and a strategically talented hire can go sideways pretty quickly if they do not mesh with your core values.

Accountability Chart

Another way to ensure that your company is functioning to its full ability is through the Accountability Chart. This idea focuses on keeping track of responsibilities throughout the organization because everyone has their span of influence that they’re accountable for working on; there won’t be multiple people in charge of the same task. For example, HR takes on hiring, firing, training, employee benefits and helps to resolve problems within the workspace.

When you utilize an Accountability Chart, you can keep track of the different roles and functions within the organization while keeping track of the performance of your employees.

If you don’t know where to start, that’s okay. We recommend beginning with the sales/marketing, administration, and financial department because these are often the core functions within any organization.

From there, clearly state the job functions for the positions within those different departments. By doing this, you’ll be able to figure out the roles and responsibilities for both your current and future employees.

The Accountability Chart also provides specific individuals who are accountable for these functions.  They may not be the people who handle every little aspect, but each person in the organization should have some sort of accountability for something that they do for the company.  This helps to establish ownership with the employee base.   

Get Professional Help

Trying to find the right fit for your company doesn’t have to feel impossible. Tackship Consulting can help you examine the difference between your written and lived values, how to incorporate them into your organization, find the right people while helping you activate your passion, and optimize your performance.

Schedule your free consultation today to learn more. 

How To Create SMART Goals

SMART Goals

How To Create SMART Goals

In our last article, I shared information about creating a Vision for corporate and personal use, and now I want to share how you can work to obtain these through SMART goals.

SMART is an acronym, and when you break it down, you’ll get: 

Specific: Specificity in your goals helps you know and qualify what success will look like because it is hard to say you achieved your goal if you don’t know how to define it.   

Measurable: My first college degree was in science. Understanding data gives you an objective way to evaluate your progress. If you can define your goal with a metric, you can see how close you are to achieving it.

Achievable: Make sure that these goals are action-oriented, which means having the ability to control the outcome. In life, there are only two things you can control–your attitude and effort. If your goal will require too much effort, it may become unachievable.

Relevant: Keep the big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAGs) as something to work towards in the longer term. Break it down as weekly, quarterly, 1-year plan, and even a 3-year picture to help create more realism. As one client said the other day, “Meeting a goal makes you feel great. Failing to meet a goal makes you feel like sh…” uh, well, not the best.

Timebound: Working with companies, we have a specific time frame that we set goals for, namely 10-year target, 3-year picture, 1-year plan, and quarterly rocks. Breaking down the days, weeks, and months into actionable steps allows us to accomplish our goals while measuring the progress towards completion and celebrating once we finish. 

SMART Goal Example

Let’s say you’re a business owner and want to increase your monthly sales. Rather than just saying, “I want to triple my revenue,” break it down into the SMART goal steps.

Specific: Triple my monthly revenue by selling my business services.

Measurable: I will go from bringing in $5,000 a month in sales to $15,000.

Achievable: I know the metrics of my digital marketing efforts result in 30 new leads per month, and of those 30, 10 become customers. If I can ramp up my digital marketing efforts, I can triple my new leads through new connections, networking, targeted advertising, or training courses. 

Relevant: I want to increase my revenue from $5,000 to $15,000, so I will set aside 30 minutes a day to focus on sending out 20 connection requests based on the geographic, demographic, and psychographic characteristics of my ideal customer.

Timebound: It will take me three months to ramp up to 120 new leads a month, so I think a realistic timeframe is by August 31st, 2022.

Now, when we put everything together, your new goal will be: Increase my monthly revenue through business services from $5,000 to $15,000 by August 31st, 2022. To achieve this goal, I will send 20 LinkedIn connections per day to my ideal customer, double my budget for digital marketing, and attend one trade show and one training session.

Get Professional Help

Tackship Consulting can help you activate your passion and optimize your performance by helping you create SMART goals and implement them into your business and even your personal goals. Check out our website, or schedule a free consultation to learn more! 

Rules of Engagement For A Difficult Conversation

How to have a difficult conversation

How To Have A Difficult Conversation

Having a difficult conversation is never easy, especially in the workplace. If the conflict doesn’t get solved, it can lead to employees feeling invaluable, having emotional confrontations, and being insecure about their ability to handle the workload.

Company Values Are Important

Values are ideas that are core to who you are and who your business is, and any violation of these values is not compatible with how you want your business run. Therefore, ensuring your employees and staff share in and respect these values will reduce friction and ensure that everyone aligns with the work that they’re doing.

For example, if transparent communication is one of your core values, you want to find employees that aren’t afraid to share information and aren’t afraid to speak frankly. Similarly, managers and supervisors need to be able to hear and process news that may not be what they expect, be capable of dealing with bad news, and not take things personally nor negatively treat bearers of bad news.

By setting the ground rules upfront, you can find like-minded employees, and your business will only be more successful because your team will have the same values you have created for the company.

How To Have A Difficult Conversation At Work

One of the reasons why difficult conversations are nerve-racking is because many grew up in a world where their parents told them, “if you have nothing nice to say, then don’t say it at all.”

Before you take this as me saying to go ahead and criticize people, don’t. That’s not what I mean at all. Rather, what I want you to do is start with two positives. Then, in the next step, identify the issue at hand while owning your own mistakes.

Maybe you forgot to update the other person about a deadline change or didn’t clearly communicate your standards for the project at hand. Whatever it might be, taking ownership of your own mistakes can help the conversation go smoother and show others what you’re trying to do to prevent a similar issue from happening in the future.

Since this is a conversation, remember to let the other person have an opportunity to respond to what you said. Rather than listening just to respond, remember to try and listen to understand the other’s point of view. Try putting yourself in their shoes. It can help give you a new perspective on the matter at hand and help you make more progress.

Next, ask who you are talking with to make the needed changes and clearly state the standards again, all while letting them know of any consequences of not meeting these expectations. It can range from not receiving the promotion they wanted to even losing a job.

The last rule of engagement is to leave the conversation on a positive note. Talk about the strengths that you see and what you love that they’re doing. By ending the meeting on a high note, you can motivate them to fix the problem.

Follow Up Is Key

The next day, follow up with the person to see if they have any questions, how they’re doing, and if you can help with anything.

Let them know you care and want to see them succeed in this position. When you take this time to check in, it helps to reinforce the idea that you’re a safe person to talk with if they need help.

Get Professional Help

Tackship Consulting is here to help you and your business navigate through the issues at hand while helping you learn to deal with any future problems that come up and overcome those obstacles to optimize your overall performance.

Contact us to learn more about the services we offer! 

What Makes Executive Coaching Unique

The Different Coaching Professions

I often get asked what’s executive coaching, and how is it different from other coaching professions. That’s a great question because, more often than not, there will be confusion about what makes an executive coach unique.

Before we get into what makes executive coaching stand out from other types of coaches, I want to explore the differences between life, business, team, and career coaching.

Life Coaching

In a sense, a life coach helps clients live their life better.

They seek to encourage and offer support to their clientele for both personal and professional issues in their lives. These topics can range from personal goals, life transitions, or even projects that they’re currently doing.

Business Coaching

An entrepreneur would benefit from having a business coach because they help assist and guide business owners with decisions regarding their company.

For example, “how would adding a new team member fit within your business goals?” Or “how can you continue to achieve your personal goals while running the company?”

These are just a few example questions that have a possibility of being asked during a business coaching session. In general, during these meetings, it’s a goal to help the business owner hone his or her strengths while mitigating their weaknesses. 

Team Coaching

Teamwork is a crucial part of many companies to be successful, but when there’s miscommunication between the team, it can lead to problems for the entire company.

Team coaching helps to facilitate the performance development of the team as a whole and helps them meet their objectives.

For this to work, though, the coach needs to understand the team dynamic because the focus isn’t solely on an individual. 

Career Coaching

Looking for a new career but don’t know where to start?

Then a career coach is a beneficial tool because they focus on job searches, negotiating salaries and promotions while providing clients accountability.

Executive Coaching

An executive coach acts as a sounding board that helps clients improve professional and organizational performances.

Even though executive coaching is similar to the other examples, it does have a unique aspect.

Executive coaches focus not only on challenges in the current moment of a client’s life but their life as a whole. This allows an executive coach to help facilitate a client’s desire to move towards improved performance. 

Work With Tackship Consulting

As an executive coach, I’ve been trained and certified to help clients explore their goals and the steps they need to reach their goals and make their dreams a reality.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can activate your passions and optimize your performance, fill out the contact form today.