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Work Life Balance Coaching for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
Work Life Balance – What is it?
Work life balance is the concept of achieving the right balance of work and personal activities during each day to bring you maximum enjoyment and satisfaction out of life. There isn’t a set formula for the ideal work life balance; instead the right balance ultimately depends on the person and what they want to get out of life. It can vary from day to day, and changes over time as your life changes. When someone has a good work life balance, they are happy and feel like they are achieving their goals. On the other side, those who are focusing too much of their lives on their work often begin to feel burnt out and start to lose their drive. This makes it difficult to focus on achieving your goals and pushing forward for success – which brings not only you down, but your employees and loved ones as well.
Achieving Work Life Balance
In today’s busy world, it can be challenging to maintain a healthy balance between work and play. Most business owners are working hard to stay competitive and as a result, they can easily miss out on having a personal life. Achieving work life balance and avoiding burnout involves taking some simple steps to improve your work life balance, such as building time to recharge into your schedule, reducing the amount of stressful activities in your week and increasing activities like exercise and relaxation. By setting realistic goals like taking a walk around the block every evening and taking time out to reconnect with your family, you’ll start to see small changes in how you feel. Relationships will deepen and you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment that is deeper than anything you will achieve at work. And as a result, you’ll be refreshed and energized about returning to work – it’s a win-win for both you and your company.
Work Life Balance Coaching
Work life balance coaching can help you identify areas of your life where you may be losing focus on your goals and are wasting your energy on overly stressful activities that aren’t getting you anywhere in life. Once these potential trouble spots in your life are identified, a work life balance coach can show you the proper path to take in order to achieve your goals and develop a healthy balance in your life. If you don’t know what your goals are, a work life balance coach will help you by offering an outsider’s perspective on your current situation and by offering solutions for some of your biggest complications. When you learn the keys for developing a sound work life balance, you’ll be able to achieve anything.
Building a winning team is the #1 goal of almost every coach and business owner. Who doesn’t want to win consistently?
I enjoy watching college and professional basketball games – especially the tournaments and playoffs – and was particularly drawn to watch the NBA finals this year because of the Dallas, Miami matchup. The buzz was all about how a team without the superstars (Dallas) would fare against the team with the superstars (Miami). We got our answer with the Dallas victory.
Building a winning team is more about culture than talent.
Talent is certainly important. You can’t build a great team or company without capable people, but as most of us have learned, more talent doesn’t always produce a win.
Superstars often don’t play well with others and they rarely act with the greater good of the team in mind. The prospects for personal advancement are just too alluring for most stars to stay focused on the advancement of the team. In contrast, capable people who passionately share a set of core values meld together to become something special – a winning team.
I’m not accusing any of the Miami players of being self-focused – that would be unfair – but 30+ years of building, leading and managing winning teams has taught me to favor the capable team with a strong team culture over the superstar team every time. Building a winning team is about building a great culture.
EOS Implementer puts focus on business growth
Livonia business coaching company will dissect a business, then refine its goals, values.
Karen Dybis
Special to The Detroit News
Gino Wickman is a businessman who thinks like a scientist. There is nothing this entrepreneur-turned-EOS Implementer enjoys more than dissecting a company to study its inner workings. It may be painful, but taking a business apart is sometimes the best way to revive and energize it, Wickman believes.
“I really love the world of business and entrepreneurs. I’ve been through that pain myself,” said Wickman, who helped facilitate the turnaround of his own family’s firm.
After that business’s successful sale, he thought about retiring. Instead, he created The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a Livonia-based group that helps companies refine their goals and values.
To share his principles with others, Wickman recently authored a book, “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business.” His goal is to promote the book while continuing to grow EOS through its business coaching and workshop services.
Besides owning his own firm, Wickman is one of the original 10 members of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (then known as the Young Entrepreneurs Organization.) When working with his fellow members, Wickman found himself examining the key components of a well-run firm. It was this analysis that became the foundation of EOS.
“I have an absolute passion for helping people get what they want out of their business,” Wickman said. “I decided to pursue my passion because I knew there was a need.”
One client is Zoup! Fresh Soup Company, the Southfield-based chain of eateries. Founder Eric Ersher said Wickman’s insights give his management team the focus they need to handle the chain’s steady growth.
“It has been transformational for our business,” Ersher said. “The Entrepreneurial Operating System has made us more focused and helped us work toward common goals. We’re less distracted.”
Wickman has worked with nearly 100 Michigan firms since he launched EOS eight years ago. His ultimate goal—the 20-year plan as he calls it—is to have helped 10,000 firms and have them run on the EOS platform.
To reach that goal, Wickman wrote “Traction” and now has seven implementers working across the nation and internationally to spread his ideas. “I wanted to put it all in a book so they can self-implement or work with his team to achieve renewed focus,” he said.
“Most entrepreneurs unfortunately are frustrated. You start a business with this great vision in mind, but you get away from it because it just gets so crazy,” Wickman said. “This gets you back to the reason why you wanted to do it in the first place. And it helps you surround yourself with all the great people you need.”
Wickman mostly centers his attention in the book and in his day-long sessions with the leadership team. Once they start to strengthen his key components—vision, people, data, issues, process and traction—they often regain their passion and excitement for the jobs they do.
EOS generally works with companies of 10 to 250 people and with revenues of $2 million to $50 million, Wickman said.
Karen Dybis is a Metro Detroit freelance writer
SMALL BUSINESS MONTHLY
Do research before hiring a consultant
By Nancy Kaffer
Veronica Lujic and Nicole Rafaill’s State of the Art, a custom framing shop and gallery in Ferndale, had been open about a year when the pair decided it was time to get help.
Both are artists, Lujic said, but needed business operations expertise. So they hired a consultant.
“A lot of businesses fail in the first two years, and we didn’t want to be one of those businesses,” she said.
That was three years ago, and Lujic and Rafaill are still in business.
While there’s a host of free advice available for business owners and would-be owners, free resources may not meet all a business owner’s needs. So when is it time to hire a business coach or consultant? And how do you find the right person?
“My very strong opinion is go free first — there’s a lot of great free information out there, and with the Internet, the world is our oyster,” said Gino Wickman, a business coach, creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System and author of the book Traction: Get a Grip On Your Business, a business strategy guide. “When it’s a good time to use a consultant is when you don’t have the answer and can’t find the answer.”
Finding the right consultant, said Ed King, director of small-business services in Wayne State University’s department of executive and professional development, is a matter of research, research, research.
Check with trade associations and on industry-specific Web sites to see who’s respected in the field, King said. Look for an adviser who’s served comparable businesses, and has delivered results.
Wickman advises business owners to be demanding when seeking a coach or consultant.
“Ask for their entire client list, not their best three, which is what they’ll want to give you,” he said. “And make sure they offer a guarantee — if I don’t deliver the value I promised, you don’t have to pay me.”
Don’t take a consultant’s claims of expertise at face value, King said.
“If you start talking to them and they don’t understand the buzzwords of the industry, that’s a bad sign,” he said.
Setting clear goals is important, Wickman said, for the consultant and the business owner.
Lujic and Rafaill met with a few consultants before they met someone who clicked.
The consultant led them though a retail planning process. They helped the owners identify business strengths and weaknesses, areas that were working and those that required improvement.
“A lot of that is numbers,” Lujic said. “You assess when people are coming in, what kind of people are coming in, all the statistics people usually talk about but you never really know “til you sit down and see it.”
Nancy Kaffer: (313) 446-0412, nkaffer@crain.com.
Does your organization have traction or are you just spinning your wheels?
My guest today will be Gino Wickman, author of the book Traction…Get A Grip on Your Business, an entrepreneur, and creator of EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), a practical method for helping companies achieve greatness. The economic situation is creating confusion, isolation and a feeling of powerlessness. People are locking up when they shouldn’t be – it is scary. Now is the time for leaders to step-up and provide their organizations leadership, create security, and implement a system to keep organizations going and growing. Gino Wickman’s Entrepreneurial Operating System is the system that leaders can use to clarify, simplify, and get their people through the scary times. Call in with your questions or comments.
Executive Read: Weekly Book Reviews by Notable Twin Cities Leaders
Who: Matt Meents, CEO of Reside (Minneapolis, MN)
What: “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business” by Gino Wickman
Why: “Of all the great business books I’ve read, none has had a more lasting impact on me and my business than ‘Traction.’ I used to be a frustrated entrepreneur turning out 300 ideas a day that rarely took root in a way that helped our business. So I worked harder and longer until I was burned out and ready to quit. The simple concepts and practical tools in ‘Traction’ have given me my life back and brought a new level of energy and focus to our entire team.”
“Traction’ introduces readers to the six key components of a truly great business: vision, people, data, issues, process and traction. The book makes it easy to assess your own company in those areas. It provides a full set of real-world tools and a proven system, EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), that helps your team become its best by constantly working to strengthen each of those components.”
“All entrepreneurial businesses are fast moving. As a provider of Web services that help businesses grow, Reside is no exception. But my 300 ideas were a source of chaos that served to complicate our forward progress rather than accelerate it. Thanks to ‘Traction’ and EOS, we’re now focused on achieving our vision, delighting our clients and working together as a more cohesive team.”
“Based on my own experience, I think this book will be particularly beneficial to frustrated entrepreneurs who want to get their lives back and love their businesses again.”
According to Gino Wickman, a former founding member of EO Detroit, entrepreneurs cannot build a great organization on multiple operating systems. They must choose one.
An entrepreneur since the age of 21, Wickman, author of Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business, refined his real-world business experiences into The Entrepreneurial Operating System™ (EOS), a practical method for helping companies clarify, simplify and achieve their vision. The system is built around the idea that every issue goes back to one of the six fundamental components— People, Vision, Data, Issues, Process and Traction.
Throughout his experiences, Wickman has determined that the key to success is to organize all the moving parts of a business and focus all available energy and resources in one unified direction. As a result, chaos will be replaced by clarity and simplicity, producing valuable traction. With increased focus, day-to-day operations become more controlled, cash flow improves, nagging issues are finally resolved and the organization can move forward together as a cohesive team.
Since the business landscape has dramatically changed in recent months, there are several key questions Wickman advises his peers to consider when it comes to getting a strong “grip” on their business. These questions include :
- Is the company’s vision clear and shared by everyone in the organization?
- Does the leadership know how to determine if each person in the organization is the right person in the right seat?
- Does the owner have a pulse on the business and the ability to predict future results through a handful of numbers?
- Are all issues resolved quickly and correctly at all levels in the organization?
- Is the business systematized to easily handle growth and expansion?
- Is there a high level of accountability, discipline and execution at all levels in the organization?
Small Business Monthly
A conversation with: Gino Wickman
By Nancy Kaffer
Gino Wickman, a business coach, founder of the Livonia-based Entrepreneurial Operating System and author of strategy guide Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business, shared thoughts with Crain’s reporter Nancy Kaffer about how businesses can manage rapid growth without flaming out.
Let’s talk a little about entrepreneurial culture. There are two kinds of entrepreneurs. There’s the type that is looking for balance and puts the family first. The second type is the one that puts the business first and the balance is second. Neither is right or wrong, but it’s true.
So what advice would you give to each? There are four prescriptions I would offer. First, I would say, stay true to your core.
What does that mean? If they will just stay true to their core values, passions, niche and their number one biggest goal, if they let those things lead and guide them, it … keeps them focused on what’s important and eliminates distraction.
Number two? Number two is a remedy I call “delegate and elevate.”
In this case, the flameout comes from the entrepreneur doing things they don’t like and aren’t good at. They find themselves getting away from stuff they love to do.
They should list everything they love to do, everything they’re great at. That’s going to help create real clarity for them around where they should be spending time.
When entrepreneurs get overwhelmed, they lose creativity.
So what’s the third idea? As more and more is coming at an entrepreneur, what they tend to do is throw people at the situation. They’re overwhelmed, so they’ll find a family member or friend and plug a person in. The most important thing they could do is invest the time to get the right people.
What qualities should they be looking for? They need to find people that have two simple things: that possess their core values, and “GWC.” That’s people that get it, want it, and have the capacity to do it. If the person they’re looking to bring on has the “get it want it capacity,” then they’ve brought on the right person in the right seat.
Let’s hear number four. Take clarity breaks. Typically the entrepreneur is … getting buried in the day to day. Pre-schedule an appointment; spend either a half-hour a day or two hours a week for thinking time. It’s going to help them become more efficient and effective, with the clarity, energy and certainty that they need to continue to grow the business.
Never has there been a better time to be an entrepreneur. You may or may not agree with that statement, but it’s true.
When you think about where you want to take your organization, do certain obstacles and barriers come to mind? After 18 years of working with hundreds of business owners and leaders from a broad variety of industries, I have discovered something about entrepreneurs. Most are frustrated by one or more of the following five ailments:
- Lack of control. You don’t feel you have enough control over your time, the market, or your company. Instead of controlling the business, the business is controlling you.
- People. You are frustrated with your employees, customers, vendors, or partners. They don’t seem to listen, understand you, or follow through with their commitments. You just can’t seem to get everyone on the same page.
- Profit. Simply put, there’s not enough of it.
- You’ve hit the ceiling. Growth has stopped. No matter what you do, you can’t seem to break through and get to the next level. You feel stuck, overwhelmed, and unsure of what to do next.
- The magic pills didn’t work. You’ve tried various strategies and quick-fix remedies. None have worked for long. As a result, your people have become numb to new initiatives. You’re spinning your wheels, and you need traction to move again.
It’s hard to be excited about being an entrepreneur when you aren’t succeeding at it, but it doesn’t have to be this way. You can get a total grip on your business, gain better traction, and eliminate all of your frustrations. It starts with you taking responsibility. You must recognize that all of your problems stem from you. It’s not the market; it’s not your people; it’s not your customers; it’s you. When you achieve that shift in your thinking, you can then move forward to solve your problems and experience success. You are stepping onto the path to positive change and growth for your business.
The next step is to start seeing your business differently. Assuming you have the right, valuable product or service to offer the world, you must organize all of the many moving parts of your business into one complete system that consistently delivers that product or service with excellence. To help you do that, I suggest that you see your business as being made up of Six Key Components. As you focus on strengthening these Six Key Components, your business operating system will become complete, everything will start to work harmoniously, and all your obstacles, problems, and frustrations will be removed. The goal then is to become strong in all six: Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, and Traction.
The Vision Component gets everyone in your organization 100 percent on the same page with where the organization is going and how it is going to get there. To strengthen your Vision Component, get your vision out of your head and onto paper by having your leadership team meet to answer these eight questions:
1. What are your core values?
2. What is your core focus?
3. What is your 10-year target?
4. What is your marketing strategy?
5. What is your three-year picture?
6. What is your one-year plan?
7. What are your quarterly Rocks?
8. What is your Issues List?
With your leadership team now completely on the same page, share your vision with the rest of your organization to get everyone moving together in the same direction.
The People Component assures that you are structured properly with only the seats necessary to deliver your product or service consistently with excellence. This component also assures that every person possesses your core values and is sitting in the right seat with the right skill set. To help strengthen your People Component, first determine what your core values are (Vision Component Question #1). These are the three to seven values, characteristics, or behavioral attributes that define your culture. These should be non-negotiable. Stay true to them. Hire, fire, review, reward, and recognize your people consistently around these core values. Then, build your Accountability Chart, making sure your company’s structure and all individual positions are clearly defined and understood by everyone. Once this is clear, make sure that everyone “gets” or understands his or her position, wants it, and has the capacity to do his or her job well.
The Data Component enables you to objectively manage your business through a small set of numbers, letting you have an accurate pulse of the business. To make the Data Component stronger, pick five numbers right now that you need to look at on a weekly basis to assure yourself that everything is on track in your business. If you can’t come up with a list, here are five metrics to start with: number of sales contacts, number of sales appointments, closed business, customer satisfaction, and gross margin. Set a weekly goal and assign someone to manage and be accountable for each number, and then start tracking them in a weekly spreadsheet. When a number is off-track, the accountable party must take appropriate action to get that number back on track. Keep 13 weeks for reference at a glance. Continue to refine this Scorecard as you move forward.
The Issues Component helps you to compartmentalize all issues in your organization and solve them effectively in order of priority at all levels. Unresolved issues drain your energy and are barriers to your moving forward. To strengthen the Issues Component, list all issues as they arise. Get them on paper. When you meet with your leadership team, rank the issues in order of declining priority and then follow the Issues Solving Track to resolve them in order of priority. Identify the underlying root cause of the issue. Discuss the best possible ways to resolve the issue. Solve the issue by selecting the best action steps to take to make the issue go away forever.
The Process Component aids you in identifying the six to 10 core processes that make up your business model and teaches you to document them in a simplified fashion, which must then followed by every single person in the company. To strengthen your Process Component, take a big step back and think about what your business model is and what its core processes are (e.g., HR, marketing, sales, operations, accounting, customer care). Document each of the core processes without too much detail, focusing on the major, essential steps within each process. Everyone can then be trained to follow the same procedures. This will reduce complexity, establish consistency, and allow you to scale your business.
The Traction Component assists you in creating a 90-Day World in your organization where everyone works to complete a small set of priorities. To do this, everyone needs to be on the same Meeting Pulse, with meetings that occur on the same day, at the same time, with the same agenda, always starting on time and ending on time. To improve your Traction Component, start by meeting with your leadership team to establish the three to seven most important priorities that must be accomplished over the next 90 days. Then meet weekly to stay on track with those priorities, solving any issues that arise. Repeat these steps every quarter, always learning from your performance in the previous quarter.
If you work to strengthen these Six Key Components, all of the obstacles and frustrations you have been facing can be overcome. If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed right now, simply pick one key component to focus on and strengthen it. Before you know it, you’ll build a solid, well-oiled machine and have a stronger business than you ever thought possible. Why not start now?
When you think of where you want to take your business 5-10 years from now, is the picture clear? Or are there challenges, obstacles and hardships that blur the image?
In 20 years of working with hundreds of business owners, I’ve met only a few who have a clear, unobstructed view of where they’re going AND how they’re going to get there. Most have trouble seeing that picture clearly because they’re focused on one (or more) of the following ailments:
- Lack of control – over time, the market, or the company
- People – employees, customers, vendors, and partners just don’t seem to listen, understand or follow through
- Profit – simply put, there’s not enough of it
- Growth – the company just can’t seem to break through and get to the next level.
- Magic Pills – that don’t work. Dozens of remedies and quick fixes have come and gone; the wheels are still spinning
It doesn’t have to be this way. Doing a few things differently will help you get a grip on your business, gain better traction, and eliminate all of your frustrations. To make the picture clearer, however, you must realize that the only thing you can really change is yourself.
Start by accepting responsibility for the world you’ve created. It’s not the market; it’s not your people; it’s not your customers; it’s you. When you achieve that shift in your thinking, you can then move forward to solve your problems and experience success. You can let go of your frustrations with things you can’t control to focus 100% of your energy on creating the organization you imagine.
Once you accept responsibility, give yourself a three question test. Grade the company in these critical areas:
- Vision – Everyone in the company knows where we’re going and exactly how we’re going to get there
- Traction – Everyone is disciplined and accountable for making progress towards achieving the vision
- Healthy – the leadership team is open, honest, cohesive and functional
If you have to grade on the curve to earn a “B” average, it may be time to get some help. Unless your vision is crystal clear, your team is 100% on the same page – happy, healthy and working together towards achieving your vision – long-term success is probably just a mirage. Thankfully, bringing that picture into focus isn’t very difficult.
The key is organizing the many moving parts of your business into a single, complete system – followed faithfully by everyone in the company – that efficiently delivers your product or service and delights your customers. You won’t make that happen with silver bullets or magic pills designed to fix a small part of the larger problem.
The answer isn’t easy, but it IS simple. Working with your team to become strong in the Six Key Components™ of a well-run business will clarify your vision, simplify the mission, and get everyone working together to achieve your vision. Look for more information about those components – Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, and Traction – in future issues. For now, you can rest easier knowing that you’ve begun the process of developing a single, effective operating system for your business. A new way of life for you and your leadership team that will remove obstacles and frustrations, make everything start to work harmoniously, and bring that blurry picture of your ideal future into clear focus.
About the Author Mike Paton has been helping entrepreneurs get more of what they want from their companies for more than 20 years. He works with owners and leadership teams to implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®), a proven process for clarifying, simplifying and achieving success in growth-oriented organizations. Learn more at www.eosworldwide.com or contact Mike directly.
