by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 47 seconds. 
TODAY’S IDEA: Leadership skills from Sam Walton
— From Building on Bedrock: What Sam Walton, Walt Disney, and Other Great Self-Made Entrepreneurs Can Teach Us About Building Valuable Companies by Derek Lidow
Derek Lidow, is one of my favorite entrepreneurs. He was the CEO of a USD $2-billion public company, and left because he saw a need in the market. In truly entrepreneurial fashion, he decided to fulfill that need, founded iSuppli (a leading market research firm), grew it successfully and sold it for $100 million. Today he gives back by teaching, mentoring and writing. In his latest book, Building on Bedrock, he shares his insights on what it takes to be an entrepreneur with detailed stories—warts and all—of well-known and not-so-well-known entrepreneurs to illustrate the who, what, when, where, how much and why of their successes and failures.
One of the known leaders that he focuses on throughout the book is Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. Lidow analyzes 5 core skills that Walton had—and that every leader must have—in order to accomplish their goals. We can all learn so much from this!
- Self-awareness. “Sam always listened and watched to see what could be improved… as soon as he realized he had a gap, he acquired and practiced the requisite skills. Self-awareness is itself a skill, not something you’re born with. You can learn it—learn how to identify your capabilities and your personal modes of learning and self-improvement.”
- Relationship building. “Sam was highly skilled at building relationships—creating strong, shared objectives with others. It’s a skill that you can learn and master, whether you are an extrovert or an introvert. […] Sam most likely mastered relationship building by deliberately practicing with people to whom he wanted to get closer. When he set a goal of getting to know somebody, he accomplished it and then figured out how he could do it better the next time.”
- Motivating others. As most leaders, Sam was charismatic. Contrary to popular belief that this is an inborn trait, Lidow says, “the ability to motivate other people is a skill that you can learn and practice. Sam’s technique is classic: he made people feel good about themselves in the context of doing something important [whether for Walmart, church, a sports team, etc.]… You can imagine him saying something like, ‘it’s amazing how well you penetrated the defense in last night’s game; what’s your new technique?’ People on the receiving end not only feel good about themselves, but also want to rise to the occasion again.”
- Leading change. Lidow states that most change is confusing because it’s usually poorly envisioned and poorly aligned, and I would add to that poorly communicated. However, in the case of Sam Walton, he was constantly changing things to improve them. “The associates and managers of Walmart expected change, embraced change and viewed change as positive… because Sam explicitly let them know why each change was important, what was expected, and how they could benefit from it. […] Not that there weren’t surprises or mistakes, or disappointments, but Sam’s weekly meetings meant that adjustments and mitigations were made quickly.” By having weekly meetings, outlining the changes to be made, and receiving feedback and suggestions on what went well, what didn’t, and what needed improvement, Sam was continually engaging in intentional and deliberate practice and, thus, honed in his change leadership skills that way.
- Enterprise basics. “This too,” says Lidow, “is a learned skill, not one you’re born with… [Sam] created simple routines (i.e., processes) that made repetitive tasks… as productive as possible, so he and the organization could focus on relentlessly implementing improvements (i.e., projects). He diligently created a culture of people who loved to undertake projects and use processes to make customers happy…” While this last skill may seem to apply solely to entrepreneurs, I would respectfully disagree: I think finding ways to operate effectively, productively and using our time wisely is the best that we can do for ourselves, our workplace and all our efforts.
ACTION
TODAY: Think about how you apply these 5 leadership skills from Sam Walton on a daily basis. Rate yourself and figure where you need help. Figure out how/where/what kind of help you will get.
FUTURE: One of the most important things as a leader is to develop your relationships: practice deliberately. Set up a goal to meet and get to know one or more people, and then go about doing so. I’m excited for you—let me know how it goes!
Know someone who could use some help to sharpen their leadership skills? Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Collaboration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 46 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Mastermind groups
— From The Power of Focus Tenth Anniversary Edition: How to Hit Your Business, Personal and Financial Targets with Absolute Confidence and Certainty by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Les Hewitt.
Mastermind groups are a wonderful thing! I have been in a few and I’m currently in one, and I’m so grateful for all the support and great ideas have come out of my masterminds. If you are not familiar with a mastermind group, it’s a very simple concept: a group where the minds meet, which means two or more people get together to talk about a particular thing that each one is working on, and the other(s) provide, support, help, ideas, contacts, resources, etc.
In The Power of Focus, the authors describe a mastermind group as, “ideally made up of five or six people who want to develop excellent long-term relationships. The primary purpose of the group is to establish support for each other emotionally, personally and professionally. It also provides a unique forum for sharing ideas and information, as well as discussing meaningful topics and everyday challenges.”
The authors suggest four action steps if you want to create or enhance your mastermind group:
- Select the right people. Limit your group to six people for maximum benefit and interaction. You don’t have to choose all participants at one (unless you want to, of course). The authors suggest starting with two and gradually build up. “Choose people who are likely to create synergy—ambitious, open-minded, goal-oriented individuals who have a positive outlook and bring a healthy, positive energy to each discussion.” Depending on your goals and the focus of the group, you may want to select similar participants (say, all salesmen under 40) or from varied backgrounds (men, women, regardless of age and industry) to add a broader focus and a deeper and richer perspective for discussion.
- Everyone must make a commitment. “The level of commitment determines how successful your mastermind group becomes. Commitment requires regular attendance, a willingness to participate each time you meet, and an agreement to keep confidential anything that is shared in the group. […] The real benefits occur only when there is a high level of trust within the entire group.”
- Decide when, where, how often, and for how long you want to meet. “Two to three hours every month is a good rule of thumb, or you can meet more frequently if you want.” In my case, my group meets virtually for an hour every Friday morning. The frequency, duration and (virtual) location of the meeting are up to you based on your goals.
- What will you talk about? Be focused and make the most out of your precious time together. Here’s a suggestion from the authors: “Elect a chairperson whose main role is to keep the conversation flowing, and to allow everyone equal time. Start each meeting with a brief comment from everyone about the best thing that happened since the last meeting… Then ask two questions: ‘What’s happening in your business life (or job)?’ and ‘What’s happening in your personal life?’ Go around the table one person at a time. […] Another good question is, ‘What’s your greatest challenge at this time?’ Also, discuss and support each other’s individual goals. Inspire everyone to achieve what they want. Encourage them to think big and introduce them to people who can accelerate their progress.” The main goal is to provide support, encouragement and help each other level up. Here’s a worksheet that we sometimes use in my own mastermind group in case this is helpful to you.
ACTION
TODAY: If you have a mastermind group, think of how you can enhance it with the four points offered above. If you’d like to start a group, give some thought to the persons you’d like to invite and the goals for the group.
FUTURE: Make a commitment to stay in the group for a reasonable amount of time, and ask the others to make the same commitment too. At the end of that time evaluate whether the group is still of value. If it is, congratulations! If not, examine why not, and tweak to improve it. The tweaks can be in all aspects, from the location, duration, topics discussed, format, etc., all the way to the participants. If there is someone who does not want to be there or who is not as engaged or committed, perhaps it means that their time has come to fly away.
Know someone who could benefit from creating, belonging or improving a mastermind group? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Tools
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 24 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Celebrate wins, big and small
— From: The Charge: Activating the 10 Human Drives That Make You Feel Alive by Brendon Burchard
EntreGurus is celebrating 100 posts today, wooooooo-hoooooooo!!
You’re invited! Details for the virtual party at the end of this post.
This lead me to pick the concept of celebration as a fitting topic for today’s idea.
In The Charge, high performance coach, speaker and author Brendon Burchard, talks about activating 10 drives of human emotion and happiness. As a bonus, he includes an 11th drive, which is that of celebration.
Celebration, Burchard says, “is a distinctly human desire that makes all our efforts and struggles and hard-fought gains… so worthwhile. It’s a drive that unites us when we see an athlete exert his or her best, when our teams at work meet the impossible deadline, when we witness a hero emerge from the inferno, when our children demonstrate character and aid others, when we, ourselves, having slogged through our own insecurities, doubts and dilemmas, suddenly emerge ahead and clean and pure, astounding those around us an even ourselves. [The drive to celebrate is] activated only in witness of our best efforts and character, and… when we’ve committed to and achieved something worthwhile, something meaningful, something in service to something larger than we.”
Most of us celebrate milestones and big wins, but what about small ones? How about our daily or weekly victories that, when compounded, lead to the big wins?
Burchard also has a video where he talks, precisely, about this. He provides 3 steps to help us take pride and joy in what we do and not take it for granted, or, even worse, diminish its importance for being small steps.
- Create a reflection schedule. It’s important to set a time in your calendar every week to think about the wins for that week. Ask, “What did I do well this week? What did I achieve this week? What went well this week? What good things happened that I didn’t even anticipate? How can I feel good about something that happened this week? What happened that brought me joy or fulfillment or a sense of accomplishment or even just made me feel more connected?” It’s important to build your sense of self-confidence so that you can be ok with larger wins down the line: “we have to integrate our accomplishments and achievements into our identity to feel stronger.”
- Allow yourself to feel the win. Get a better connection with your internal world. Think about your win: “you have to relive it, and feel it, and integrate it if it’s really going to generate confidence for you… When you’re doing your reflection schedule or even at the end of each day… just allow that heartfelt, deep connection of satisfaction or engagement that comes with recognizing yourself.”
- Share the win. Enjoy and be proud of what you’ve accomplished and share it with enthusiasm! When we do this “we feel better about life, we feel more engaged.” Sharing is not bragging, and you should not minimize what you’ve done: “you’re never going to get far in life by minimizing yourself.”
This last point reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Marianne Williamson from her book A Return to Love:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? …Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do… And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
ACTION
TODAY: Come to my virtual party to celebrate your wins! See time and details below.
FUTURE: Set aside time in your calendar for a weekly reflection schedule. Celebrate your weekly wins and give yourself credit for what you do. Share with someone who loves you, who will be proud of you, and who will cheer for your success. And share with me too, I’m cheering for you and would love to hear and celebrate your wins!
In light of the above, I am happy to share with much enthusiasm EntreGurus’ wins during its first 100 days of life:
VIRTUAL PARTY TO CELEBRATE WINS: Now that you’ve heard EntreGurus’ wins, I want to hear yours and connect with you! So that we can chat and celebrate together, I’m having a virtual party via video conference, today, April 27, 2018 from 12:00 – 2:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time (GMT-4: here’s a time converter). Come and go as your schedule allows, all you need to do is click on this zoom link to join. I’ll be there the whole time and would love to connect with as many of you as can make it to the party. There’s much to celebrate and be thankful for!
I am absolutely grateful and very honored that you let me share ideas with you on a daily basis. It’s been a most joyous ride so far and I look forward to many more hundreds of days together. Cheers! 🙂
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Productivity, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 55 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Running effective meetings
— From Common Sense Leadership: A Handbook for Success as a Leader by Roger Fulton
Today is the 114th day since the beginning of the New Year. Q1 has ended, which means this is about the time when we’re having tons of meetings to analyze, compare, strategize and move forward. But whether it’s for this reason or any other, do we really need to meet?
In Common Sense Leadership, Roger Fulton says, “too many otherwise productive hours are spent in long, boring, marginally productive meetings.” He suggests looking at the alternatives:
“Don’t conduct a meeting if a memo will do.
Don’t send a memo if a phone call [or an email] will do.
If there’s information to disseminate, maybe [the best way is indeed] face-to-face. Out where the action is! Among your people.
However, if you must have meetings, they should always:
- Start on time.
- Have a definite agenda.
- End as quickly as possible.
Get everyone back to what they do best: working!”
Think about meeting time in a different light: a 1-hour meeting where 5 people convene is really a 5-hour meeting if you look at the man-hours invested to make it happen. Is that the best use of everyone’s time? Is the “investment” on the outcome of the meeting worth 5 hours? Or are there other ways to communicate in order to free up that time and dedicate it to something more productive? And what if your meeting runs longer than anticipated?
Look at meetings as an investment and create a budget for them. For instance, if you have 3 meetings every week, assign a budget of 1.5 hours total. You can spend those 90 minutes in meetings, any way you want (e.g. 45 min in one meeting, 30 min in another and 15 minutes on the third one). Once you run out of meeting minutes, do not meet again until the following week. I will assure you that your meetings will quickly start running on time and will not go over your budget.
ACTION
TODAY: Do you have any meetings today? Take some time to think how can you achieve the same results while cutting down the time and making them more efficient? Is it possible to do a video chat instead of a meeting and save travel time for all involved? Is it possible to send an email instead? Is it possible to assign 1-2 min talking turns, so that attendees don’t ramble on forever? How about having the meeting standing up? How about taking turns on attending the meeting? Today you attend and share notes with a colleague, next week your colleague attends and shares notes with you. Test some of these ways today: even if no one else knows, test them on yourself, and once you know they work, then start sharing them with your meeting group. They will thank you! And please share those ideas with me, I’m always looking at ways to become more effective and productive!
FUTURE: Create a time budget for your meetings and stick to it. What is your return on the time you are investing (ROI)? Is it worth your time or do you need to cut down some more? Keep expanding on the many options from the action above. Do some brainwriting on how to make your meetings über-effective and achieve the results you want in less time. Test, test, and then test your ideas some more until you can find a way that suits you and your needs.
Know someone whose meetings run way too long? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 43 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: How do you spend your time?
— From 100 Blocks a Day (blog post) by Tim Urban, WaitButWhy.com
One of my favorite blogs is Tim Urban’s WaitButWhy.com, the ideas are brilliant and the stick figure illustrations make me laugh so much! A while back he wrote a blog that made me reconsider how I use my time and I want to share it with you here.
The idea is simple but very insightful: if we are awake for about 16 or 17 hours a day, that means that our days are made up of an average of 1,000 minutes. Urban says, “let’s think about those 1,000 minutes as 100 10-minute blocks. That’s what you wake up with every day. Throughout the day, you spend 10 minutes of your life on each block, until you eventually run out of blocks and it’s time to go to sleep.”
How are you using those 100 blocks on a daily basis? How much of that time is spent on working towards your goals? How much of it is spent in doing not-so-important tasks? How much is devoted to entertainment? Family? Friends? Exercise? Food? And how do one-day’s blocks differ from another? Are there any similarities?
The most important thing to keep in mind here is to “think about everything you might spend your time doing in the context of its worth in blocks.”
Imagine they’re laid out in a grid such as this one below that Urban created (click on the image to print it directly from WaitButWhy.com) and that you are going to label them with a purpose.
“Cooking dinner requires three blocks, while ordering in requires zero—is cooking dinner worth three blocks to you? Is 10 minutes of meditation a day important enough to dedicate a block to it? Reading 20 minutes a night allows you to read 15 additional books a year—is that worth two blocks? If your favorite recreation is playing video games, you’d have to consider the value you place on fun before deciding how many blocks it warrants. Getting a drink with a friend after work takes up about 10 blocks. How often do you want to use 10 blocks for that purpose, and on which friends? Which blocks should be treated as non-negotiable in their labeled purpose and which should be more flexible? Which blocks should be left blank, with no assigned purpose at all?”
Interesting concept as to how to see and use time, don’t you think?
ACTION
TODAY: Think of your day in 10-minute blocks. How are you going to use them? What would be the best use of your 100 blocks?
FUTURE: Go through the exercise of labeling the blocks, especially the daily, non-negotiable ones. What is most important to you? Devote at least one block daily to an activity that moves you closer to your goals. Analyze how you are spending your time and determine whether that is the best use of it. If not, find help, delegate tasks, automate them, or, if you can, eliminate those activities that are not getting you closer to your goals. And since you are reading this blog, a big, wholehearted THANK YOU for devoting half a block to it! 🙂
Know someone who needs to organize his/her blocks better? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 53 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Leadership lessons from nature
— From 10 Leadership Lessons from Nature (post on LinkedIn) by Brigette Hyacinth
Happy Earth Day!! To celebrate today, here are a few leadership lessons from Mother Nature from this great post by Brigette Hyacinth. After each lesson there’s an inspiring quote as food for thought.
Patience and persistence. “When it is time for the baby eagles to fly, they are patiently and persistently encouraged… Good leaders patiently coach and support their team until they are ready to fly on their own. They also provide an environment that empowers and enables others to take on greater responsibility so that they, too, can develop into full-grown leaders.” All good things take time to build and grow, especially solid businesses. Hyacinth refers to a quote from Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart in Jim Collins’ book Good to Great: “Somehow over the years people have gotten the impression that Wal-Mart was…just this great idea that turned into an overnight success. But…it was an outgrowth of everything we’d been doing since (1945)…And like most overnight successes, it was about twenty years in the making.”
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu
Teamwork. A good team creates powerful synergy and brings about great results. “Ants focus more on the needs of the colony than their own individual needs. Working for a benefit of self can be detrimental to the overall performance of the team or the entire organization. If any of the ants are not working with the team, it will be noticed. The cohesion and teamwork determines whether the team lives or dies.”
“Snowflakes are one of nature s most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together.” Vista M. Kelly.
Change and flexibility. Nature is dynamic and in a constant state of flux. “There is a season (winter, spring, summer, autumn) and time for everything… Organizations go through different cycles, so always plan and be prepared. It’s imperative to embrace change and take risks. […] You can’t just have a system built on bureaucracy. Be flexible so you don’t break when the harsh wind blows.”
“Dreams are the seeds of change. Nothing ever grows without a seed, and nothing ever changes without a dream.” – Debby Boone
Strong and healthy roots. “Trees have extensive root systems. Roots are the foundation of a healthy plant. While plants can tolerate a fair amount of damage to their upper parts, they are not nearly so forgiving of damage to their roots. It’s important to have a culture that is solidly embedded in ethical and other principles if the organization is to survive. Leadership needs to be grounded in deep values that provide valuable guidance especially when there is a dilemma faced in the decision making process.”
“When solving problems, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves.”― Anthony J. D’Angelo
ACTION
TODAY: Go out and enjoy nature. While you’re at it, think about your life and/or business. Where can you apply some of these lessons of leadership to make it even better?
FUTURE: Everywhere you look, there are lessons to learn from nature itself as well as from the animals that surround us. Look. Listen. Learn. I know I have learned many lessons from my beloved dog, Aragon, such as forgiveness, being present in the moment, and enjoying the small things in life, among many others.
Know someone who would like to read these leadership lessons from nature? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
