business growth expert - Activate Group Inc

Three Things To Expect From A Business Coach

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Albert Noa

As a leader and entrepreneur, I always knew I had more to learn. I always seek ways to accelerate and raise the bar to achieve success. A key to getting maximum results from your advisors is to have a vivid picture of the outcomes you want to change. This allows you to understand the type of advisor required. When it comes to coaching, there are so many different types of coaches: behavioral, accountability, productivity, business, career, life, and other specialty coaching (e.g., communication, sales, speaking, leadership, etiquette, and so on).

Please beware of the term executive coach because it is broad and can mean too many things. To get maximum results, you need to hire a coach that is an expert in the area required. The best coaches focus on one or two types of coaching, and none excel in helping you in all areas. I have focused primarily on behavioral and business coaching, the two areas in which I excel.

I am often approached by people that want to achieve better results and are uncertain whether business coaching is right for them. A business coach brings three things to you and your organization:

1. REPEATABLE GROWTH SYSTEM

Your coach must bring a structured and repeatable growth system. This is not a system for every facet of your business. It is a proven leadership system that facilitates working “on” the business rather than in it. It is not a system for every function. Your functions (e.g., sales, marketing, operations) require knowledge from an expert in those functions and how to address those issues in your industry.

Don’t assume all systems are the same. Our Business Acceleration System^® is a repeatable framework designed to simplify the ease, speed, and confidence you have in growing your business. Driven by the CEO and delivered by your team, we help the team learn how to master and integrate six areas: cash, team cohesion, culture, execution, human capital management, and strategy. Most systems are deep in one or two of these areas.

2. SYSTEM EXPERT

You need a coach who is an expert in the repeatable process and ensures the team has clarity of role and position while keeping it highly cohesive and focused on the team result. Often you presume someone is expert because they have received a certification. Don’t allow certification to fool you. Certification indicates you have learned and shown proficiency in understanding the methodology. This does not mean they have put in 10,000 hours to master implementing the methods. Reading about and applying methods are both essential to mastery.

It is best if your coach has proven successful in many industries and companies. Otherwise, your company is a test bunny. It takes most coaches three years (or longer) to master a methodology. After being a coach for approximately 20 years, I can tell you my work is far better when compared with my first three years.

3. A PLATFORM FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

A software platform that creates daily behavioral habits leading to more clarity and alignment and a higher level of accountability. This is separate and distinct from your accounting, operating, and marketing software. As we have learned, no one software addresses all our needs. You must have the right platform that keeps the leadership focused “on” the business.

In addition to evaluating your coach’s ability to deliver the system and platform, I recommend that you evaluate a coach for culture fit, business acumen, and style. A great coach in a wrong culture leads to problems. As for business acumen, there are a lot of people that make good executive coaches but lack business acumen. Don’t confuse business acumen with industry experience. And it would help if you had a coach whose behavior compliments the team. Too often, leaders hire a coach that is most like them. While this may feel comfortable, it may not be what you need.

Howard M. Shore, Founder and CEO of Activate Group Inc. is a bestselling author, serial entrepreneur and business coach specializing in liberating leadership teams from the barriers holding them back personally and professionally. Howard has helped create over $1 Billion of value and authored two best-selling books, The Leader Launchpad and Your Business is a Leaky Bucket.

What Are Your Leadership Training Plans in 2012?

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Howard Shore

I don’t necessarily mean what classes HR is going to mandate for your employees. What are you working towards? How will you improve in 2012?

In my experience, successful leaders are always antsy. They are always looking forward, constantly working towards something, training to become better, more advanced. As a leader, your training is just as important as anyone else’s. So what training could help you become a better leader?

One of my CEO clients used to be deathly afraid of public speaking. As you can imagine, this is not good for the CEO of a public company. Speaking engagements abound when you’re CEO. He decided that if he wanted to be a better leader he needed to become a better speaker. So he took acting lessons. I assure you, standing in front of a group of your peers and doing silly improve exercises really does help you get over the fear of standing—and speaking—on a stage.

What type of training would help you overcome your fears, shortcomings or weaknesses?

Be honest and creative…and have some fun with it.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential. To learn more about how an executive coach, management consultant, leadership training, or business coach can help your team, please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

How to Set SMART Goals

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Howard Shore

The first step in successfully executing a goal is to state it properly. A well-stated goal clearly explains what you are trying to achieve and in what time frame. A well-stated goal is the foundation of an effective business action plan. An acronym that is commonly used to define a properly stated goal is SMART:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistically High
Time-based

While these criteria seem simple, they can be difficult to perfect. Allow me to summarize briefly what each of these criteria means:

Specific. Fuzzy goals are destined for failure. For example, “We are going to establish a new training program for our supervisors by 10/1/XX.” You are not defining what you want your supervisors to learn.

Measurable. How do you know when the goal has been achieved? State the goal in a way where this is clearly described. For example, “We are going to increase the frequency of meetings with our hourly staff.” How often will you meet and what will be discussed?

Realistically High. Goals must be lofty enough so you challenge yourself but still realistically attainable. In other words, you don’t want to trip over them. If the goal is too low/easy it will not motivate extra effort, but if it is too high no one will take it seriously because it seems out of reach.

Time-Based. What is the time frame for completing this goal? Set a deadline so the goals aren’t just floating out there for years.

Here is an example of a SMART goal:

Get 10 appointments with decision-makers in the hospitality industry that employ more than 250 people and are located within 50 miles of Miami area by the end of the quarter.

Take a few minutes a write a SMART goal for yourself—personal or professional. Work to refine it until it encompasses all the above criteria.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or email him.

3 Lessons Learned from the Penn State Scandal

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Howard Shore

The Penn State scandal has been all over the news these past few weeks and it got me thinking. I wondered how such a respected and seemingly professional establishment could have allowed this situation to go so far. How did these secrets stay buried for so long and how could an organization with such moral conviction let these decades-long accusations fester in the dark without follow-up?

Looking from the outside in, I can only assume that the internal communications and processes for handling crises are severely flawed on many levels. Here’s what I think we as business leaders can all learn and apply to our own organizations after watching the Penn State scandal unfold.

1. The truth will always come out.

It’s the golden rule of public relations: attempting to hide a negative, potentially damaging situation within the company only makes it worse. By trying to bury the accusations against Sandusky, Penn State made the entire situation far worse by being exposed after it festered beneath the surface for years. I’ve seen it happen in many organizations. If someone in your organization—I don’t care who it is—is involved with something unethical or illegal, it must be dealt with immediately. Damage control processes need to be activated with your corporate communications folks and a crisis plan needs to be created. Because the truth will always come out, even if after many years in hiding.

2. The open-door policy must be lived, not just talked about.

Most companies have an open-door communication policy but many don’t live up to it. In the Penn State situation it was clear that Sandusky’s improprieties were witnessed and reported to superiors. Nothing was done about it. But something made the whistleblower stop there. Was he told to let it go? Was he made to feel like a detractor for blowing his whistle? Whatever the case may be, we can all learn that when an employee comes forward with something it must be taken seriously and there must be absolutely no element of discouragement or retribution for being the one that came forward. An open-door policy that is lived is one that instills a sense of comfort and safety for employees that need to bring bad things to light.

3. No one is immune from responsibility.

Joe Paterno is probably the most loved college coach of all time, and clearly a pillar of the Penn State organization—not just the football team. Yet even he is not immune from doing the right thing when faced with a difficult situation with one of his employees. All leaders should take this to heart. As a leader, you are responsible for the wellbeing of your company first. Personal relationships must take a back seat to the law.

Have you ever faced a difficult legal or ethical situation in your professional life? How did you choose to deal with it?

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please visit his website at activategroupinc.com or contact Howard Shore at (305) 722-7216 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Commitment to Change

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Howard Shore

Just like the people who work for them, CEOs and leaders come in all different sizes, shapes, styles, and backgrounds. As you can imagine, those variations influence how their people behave, who they hire, the systems and processes they use, and the strength of the team they have around them, etc. Dave Kurlan of Objective Management Group put together a list of 10 ways some CEOs react to recommendations he makes about their sales force. They are exactly the typical answers we’ve heard from the CEOs and seniors regarding unsuccessful projects of all types:

#1 – “Thank you for your advice. I’m not comfortable with that.” Who says that you have to be COMFORTABLE? You have to do the right thing for your company!

#2 – “I’m not quite ready for that. How about if we do that in six months?” This is a less honest version of #1 – at least be straight with me!

#3 – “Whatever you say. You’re the expert.” This tends to work out a lot like #1. Yes, they agree with whatever I say but are no stronger with management than with me and can’t drive change.

#4 – “This is B*ll S*it. They’re just going to have to do what you say, right now, or they’re gone.” That’s the spirit, but it isn’t driving change. You can’t pound people with a sledgehammer to drive change; you have to inspire them to change.

#5 – “Let me see if I can get some consensus for this.” Oh-oh, this isn’t going to work. You never get consensus from people who don’t want change in the first place!

#6 – “OK. Let’s talk about how we’re going to accomplish that, given our challenges.” Much better! At least we’re going to talk about how we can implement…

#7 – “Great – can YOU deliver that message for me?” This is even worse than #5!

#8 – “I’m not going to drive this. One of my senior managers will have to drive this.” OK, how many years are you willing to wait to find a genius who finds value in this AND isn’t threatened by it or me?

#9 – “Why aren’t my people doing what they’re supposed to do?” Because you have to be strong enough to tell them that it’s a condition of continued employment rather than quietly sitting there, not saying a thing, and expecting something to change!

#10 – I don’t want to do it your way. I think it should be done my way instead.” Ah, excuse me, but isn’t that the same way you were doing it for the last 10 years – and it didn’t work then either?

Remember, your people won’t be committed to change if leadership isn’t.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com.

Is Your Business Model in Danger?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Howard Shore

If a company is not meeting its growth potential, is growing slower than the competition, or worse, not growing, it is likely that it has a strategy problem.

Too often companies misdiagnose their strategy challenges as problems with sales staff or some other operational issue. It is critical to know what the real issue is. Strategy issues are serious, and the longer it takes to recognize them, the more money you burn on taking the wrong initiatives.

A great example is Blockbuster. For a long time, every company in the movie rental industry was trying to catch up with Blockbuster. Suddenly, though, their profits began to stagnate. They spent years making various changes inside their stores and small moves to play in the online space without realizing that the industry was moving in a different direction. Instead of using their financial strength and size to make a strong move in the online space, they allowed an upstart, Netflix, to take the lead position. Eventually Netflix and others transformed and restructured the industry, and now Blockbuster is in bankruptcy. By not having a good strategy.

This article was inspired by a company that came to Activate recently because they wanted help with their sales force. The president was concerned that the old sales force structure was not working well. He wanted us to evaluate his sales structure and people. He thought he might need a different type of salesperson and did not know whether they should be contemplating an inside or outside person. However, as I spoke with him further it was clear that the company failed to have a strategic plan. Their strategy was “to grow faster”. That was it. The president could not explain to me in a compelling way why a prospect should buy from his company versus another. If he could not verbalize why his company was a better choice, how could his sales force do it?

Based on our discussion, his core customers were middlemen in an industry and either were going out of business or consolidating. Pricing for his product had been steadily dropping for several years. Customers had been moderating the use of his product during the recession or forgoing it altogether. The structure of his industry had been changing dramatically, and his primary competitors now had a much broader range of products to offer. These new products were higher-ticket items and more of a necessity than what his company had to offer. Clearly his company’s business model is in danger, yet this company was failing to recognize it.

I recently read an article in the January-February 2011 edition of Harvard Business Review – “An Interview with Columbia Business School professor Rita Gunther McGrath,” by Sarah Cliffe. One of the key questions asked in the article was, “What are the signs that a business model is running out of gas?” The following were the key signs:

Your people have trouble thinking of new ways to enhance your company’s offering.
Customers are saying that new alternatives are increasingly acceptable to them.
Problems start to show up in your financial numbers or other performance indicators.

Often companies ignore or dismiss these issues. It is easy to do since so many in their industry are facing similar problems. The smart competitors and upstarts like Netflix identify what is next for their industry and figure out how to make the next move to tip the scales in their favor. Companies are most vulnerable when they are on top or when their profit levels are considered acceptable. Leaders get complacent, arrogant and blinded by success. Reasons for change are not compelling enough, as there is no burning platform from which to get people to see outside the current paradigm.

Even when a company acknowledges a need to change, it is difficult to decide how to go about it. The challenge becomes at what pace do you make the shift in your business model. How long should you stay in your old business model to fund the new one? There is no precise answer. In addition, the new model may be radical and could require significant investment in time, new people, knowledge, and money. The existing management is likely not the team for the new journey.

Howard Shore is a business growth expert who works with companies that want to maximize their growth potential by improving strategy, enhancing their knowledge, and improving motivation. To learn more about him or his firm, please contact Howard Shore at 305.722.7213 or shoreh@activategroupinc.com .