In business we often feel like we are juggling multiple
balls at the same time. And in order for
your business to be successful have to handle each ball as we toss it back into
the air. Lets take that analogy and make
some sense of it. If we were to have
balls what would the balls be? I look
at business as five individual parts that must be attended to by measurement
and management these five parts are, Creation, Promotion, Sales, Operations,
and Accountability. We can call this our
Five Balls each one as important as the other.
Balls of Attention
- Creation
- Promotion
- Sales
- Operations
- Accountability
The Juggler at all times is aware of and takes 100%
responsibility of every ball. Even
though they may not be handling the balls at all times they are still keenly
aware of the position and location of each ball. In business one person must always take 100%
responsibility for every ball. That
person is often the Owner, if you are the owner that may be you. If you are the CEO or Leader of your Division
of a business this may also be you. For the purpose of our analogy we will use
the term Juggler in place of the ultimate responsible person.
We must also recognize that a business will begin to take on
a life of its own and like a child move through stages of growth. The Stages of Growth are Creation, Honeymoon,
Chaos, Growth, and Irrelevance. As if juggling balls is not hard enough the Juggler
must continue to keep attending to the balls while guiding the business over and
around many obstacles as they traverse the Stages of Growth. The Stages of Growth are Creation, Honeymoon,
Chaos, Growth, and Irrelevance.
Stages of Growth
1.
Creation
2.
Honeymoon
3.
Chaos
4.
Growth
5.
Irrelevance
To make things more challenging the Juggler, him/herself, must
move through the personal develop-mental
Levels of Awareness. Developing mental awareness requires new “rules” or “beliefs” to move to the next level. A business can only grow to the extent of the
thinking of the one leading it. These four
levels are Idea, Action, Leadership, and Surrender. The Levels of Awareness are about personal
development by design it is individually experiential and cannot be handed
off. Furthermore, one must move through
each Level in order to reach the next you cannot skip one developmental Level
in order to reach the next. Fortunately, these developed beliefs are
transferrable from one experience to another; therefore they it is not required
that the beliefs are developed in a specific setting. Additionally, everyone comes into a new
experience at his or her own Level of Awareness.
Levels of Awareness
1.
Idea
2.
Action
3.
Leadership
4.
Surrender
The Juggler’s limitations of awareness will prevent a
business from achieving its full potential; further limiting the opportunities
for everyone within the organization. As
the Juggler’s awareness grows the entire organization will move to the next
Level. The Juggler must experience each
Level and the terrain and obstacles that each Level requires to reach the next. A business will experience whatever Level of
Awareness the Juggler is experiencing or will experience. This is why one businesses experience will be
completely different than another similar business. Like an inexperienced Juggler attempting to
juggle and walk up stairs while another more experienced Juggler has no trouble
managing both tasks.
The Leader’s Level of Awareness is creating a different
experience for the business and the people within the organization. Seemingly unknown Travis Kalinick is a
self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur. His
first attempt at business at the age of 22, ended with a bruised ego and a
bankruptcy. His second attempt he sold
the company for $19 Million at the age of 30.
Currently in his third re-invention, he is creating a legacy with his new
uber-successful company Uber. Each
attempt at business Travis is reaching new heights as his Levels of Awareness
grows.
Creation Stage
At first in a new or small business the Juggler spends the
majority of time on the Creation Ball of the business. The
Creation Stage requires only Idea Level within the your Level of
Awareness. The Idea Level is gifted to
all of us. We are born with the ability
to dream ideas; in some ways it is our God given gift. Even though it often feels once
the business is created you could put this ball down, but the truth is a
growing business always returns to the Creation stage. Otherwise the business will slowly lose relevance
in the customer’s eyes.
Honeymoon Stage
When the business gets up and running, to the Juggler, it seems
easy to handle each of the balls. We are
still having fun so the attention to each ball is high. You, as the Juggler, the spend the majority
of your time handling the Creation and Promotional balls and you are eager to
handle the Sales and Operations balls. Additionally
each ball is small and light so you can quickly handle each ball and nearly
effortlessly toss is back into the air.
You are in the honeymoon stage.
The honeymoon stage is fun and exciting possibilities are endless. The Levels of Awareness of the stage are the
Level of Idea and the Level of Action.
In the Level of Action you take on the responsibility of each and every
detail. “If it’s meant to be it’s up to
me” is the mantra of this Level.
The challenge is as your business grows each ball also grows
and not at equal rates either. The more
sales you have the larger the Operations ball needs to get to handle the sales
you just made. Of course more sales also
equates to more profit. The desire for
more and more income take control, so you decide to increase the size of the
Creation and Promotion balls in hopes to increases the size of Sales ball. As each ball increases in size they also
increase in weight and shape thus increasing the time effort and attention to
handle each ball and toss it back into the air.
Beginning to look like a circus juggler, tossing odd shaped objects like
a chain saw, beach ball, and an egg, you are officially entering the Chaos
Stage.
Chaos Stage
In the Chaos stage things become difficult. Energy fades and your attentions are being
pulled in many directions. At the same
time managing the business becomes more difficult. You begin to lose sight of key points, things
get missed and customer service begins to unravel. The balls have become too difficult to manage
individually end you begin to drop the seemingly less important ones. You even make a conscious choice to put one
or two balls down in order to manage the other “more important” ones. The largest and most misleadingly important
balls are the Sales and Operations Balls because they both contain the customer
experience. Since, nobody wants to let
the customer down you tend to these balls first and allow the other three,
Creation, Promotion, and Accountability, to fall simply or place them on a
shelf while you tend to the customers.
Unaware, but by not attending to each ball our business has
ceased to function properly. Placing the
creations ball on a shelf stiffens our ability to continue to grow our business
and will eventually cause our business to become inefficient or irrelevant.
Dropping the Promotions ball equates to a fire with no more
wood to be added, it will continue to burn until the remainder of the burning
wood goes out. We will continue to
service the customers we have but over a short period of time our business will
begin to fail due to not having new customers for our products or
services.
Lastly and most common is the tendency to completely ignore
the Accountability Ball. Like flying a
plane in the clouds blind with no instruments everything will operate fine
until you hit an unexpected mountain.
When not measuring and holding the business processes accountable,
people tend to overspend to try to compensate for the lack or attention to the
Promotions Ball, trying to keep the business growing by buying the next best
thing for generating new customers.
Meanwhile they are blindly running out of money, badly needed to
continue to operate the business, and profits have dwindled to little or nothing.
To shift from the Chaos stage we must make a choice about
the direction of our business. We have
to decide; do we wish to continue to grow the business or do slow the process
and agree to keep the business at a sustained manageable size. Another way to ask this question is; “Am I
generating enough profit at this stage to the business and satisfy my goals and
dreams?” There are no right or wrong answers here simply a decision.
Move back to Honeymoon by Limiting or Slowing Growth
There are many small and midsized businesses across America
that have made to decision not to continue to grow or to slow growth typically
to manage quality control or customer service. (Not growing is different than
not creating or re-creating, creation is necessary for all businesses in order
to avoid irrelevancy.) As successful
example of limited or slow growth is the privately owned In and Out Burger over
the past 65 years In and Out Burger has had the opportunity to expand
nationally as well as globally. They
made the decision decades ago to not expand to manage quality control or the
product as well as the brand and exclusivity by limiting the opportunities for
the experience it becomes a treat for the customer. More recently In and Out Burger has made an
effort to begin expanding into new markets likely to stay relevant and increase
profit.
Growth Stage
Making the decision to continue growth is not for the faint
of heart. The commitment to grow
requires a set of new rules, beliefs, skills, and behaviors. The shift to the Growth Stage requires the Juggler
to develop a new Level of Awareness, the Level of Leadership. The most
challenging belief for most to overcome in the Level of Leadership is the
belief that “I must do it all” or that
“I do it better than anyone else”.
Thus, the Juggler shifts from managing all the balls to trusting others
to handle each ball. You the Juggler are now responsible mainly for the overseeing
the attendance to balls verses attending to the balls yourself.
During the Growth Stage the balls get much larger than we
can handle ourselves in fact that is the new goal. Allow them to grow as large as they can in
proportion to their counterparts. The
job of the Juggler now becomes watching and measuring each ball to insure one
is not outpacing the others and that none are being overlooked or mishandled,
while others are caring them for. Leading and developing others becomes the
attention of the Juggler.
The growth phase continues as long as Creation and
Promotions Balls are attended to. All
businesses will reach a limitation caused by the Level of Awareness. Because we are all share one limitation. We are all human. And as humans we have
periods of time that our energy is high, and that our attention/interest to something
is also high. We also have periods of
our life that our energy, attention, and passion to something wains. Remember, the business will grow to the
extent that the Leader grows. If the Juggler loses passion and we all do at times,
so will the business. This leads to the Irrelevance
Stage.
Irrelevance Stage
The business begins to lose steam, despite of solid efforts
make by promotions and sales. The
product or service no longer is grabbing the attention of the customer. The
two forces that cause Irrelevancy;
Customers Change of
Preference: Not too long ago we saw colorful closed foam shoes on nearly every
foot in America? I cannot remember the
last time I saw someone wearing a pair of Crocs. Crocs did noting wrong the customers simply
changed their preference for shoes. Croc
is now attending to creation and promotions of new products fighting to stay
relevant.
New Competition: Some
of us can remember a time that if you wanted a special cup of coffee you went
to Dunkin Donuts. At that time Dunkin
Donuts had decent coffee that they nearly gave away. New competition entered the market and today
it would be nearly absurd to say “I am going to get coffee at Dunkin
Donuts.” Dunkin Donuts nearly became
extinct by underestimating a new competitor, Starbucks.
The key to moving
out of the Irrelevance Stage is to move the business’ focus back to the
Creation Stage. This is where the
Juggler’s human limitation will determine the future of the business. Here the Juggler has two options at this
stage, the first to shift him/herself back to personal development within the
Level of Idea and to be open-minded, willing to learn, and be open to fresh new
ideas. By shifting the businesses focus
to the Creation Stage and focus all energies and attention back to creating new
and relevant products or services.
Otherwise, if the Juggler is not willing or able due to passion, energy,
or attention, to move back to the Level of Awareness of Idea the business will
be doomed to failing due to irrelevance.
To prevent the
business from failing from the attention of the Juggler, the Juggler must have
the Level of Awareness to Surrender. To Surrender is to acknowledge that your
human limitations are holding the business and the people within the
organization from their full potential.
This may be the most difficult yet freeing experience. Gary Keller the founder of Keller Williams
Realty said his coach told him that he had to replace himself because he was
holding his business back. Since
surrendering his company, to another “Juggler,” Keller Williams Realty has
grown 1000%, with Gary still remaining the majority owner. As difficult as this is to hear it is often
the main reason a formerly successful business will fail. The Leaders unwillingness to hand over the
Juggler position to someone with new ideas, greater passion, and more energy
will allow the business to suffocate from irrelevance.
With all the
different aspects to achieve success in business it is no wonder why so many
fail. After years of doing research on
entrepreneurs and successful business there is one common theme. In every case of success I have ever read the
successful Juggler was either taught or guided these fundamental truths I share
with you today. I have never heard or
read a story of someone that achieved massive success in life or business that
simply said, “I got here all by myself.”
I heard a story
about a boy who asked a professional golfer at the top of his game, “You are so
good at golf, why do you need a coach?”
The golfer replied, “Because I cannot see myself swing.” Learning to keep the 5 balls of Attention in
the air, while managing the 5 Stages of Business, and being conscious of your
limitations within your 4 Levels of Awareness may take a lifetime to master by yourself. If you choose to experience having a business,
in this lifetime, that will truly reach its full potential coaching and
awareness is the secret to getting there. Interested in professional Coaching? Click Here
Sean Moudry
