Everyone has their own definition of the word respect. When talking about a person, you might admire them. When it’s a company, you may like the way they run their business or love the quality of their products. When it comes to a religion, you may be tolerant of other’s ideas. But as a business owner, how can you “Respect” your employees?

Don’t Think Negatively - You have hired a person to do their job, don’t think they aren’t just because they take a vacation day, a long lunch or an unexpected sick day. Respect that the person you pay is making good decisions for you.

Meetings – Everyone has them and nobody likes them. Respect your staff’s time. Just because it’s urgent to you doesn’t mean it can’t wait an hour or a day. Plan your meetings in advance and don’t just assume that if your employee is sitting at their desk they can be interrupted without creating some sort of havoc.

In Trouble – Sometimes you have to sit down and correct an employee’s attitude or behavior. As business owners, we almost all hate confrontation, but sometimes you cannot avoid it. Respect the fact that the person you are talking to is a grown up and makes mistakes, too. Talk factually and to the point. Don’t get caught up “in the weeds” and keep your tone level.

Firing – In the book Double Double, Cameron Herold talks about firing with dignity and respect. Don’t disgrace the person you have to let go. Don’t take the years of service they gave your company and make them meaningless with an off hand remark. Furthermore, don’t let others talk despairingly of the employee who was just let go.

In the last month, I have had to keep all four items above fresh in my mind, as I have been through each. Looking back over the last month, it has been hard, but I know whatever the outcome going forward, my employees will respect the decisions I had to make.

It is so easy to confuse urgent with important.  Things that need done quickly usually fill our day, while things that are important tend to just slip by undone.  It is hard, but surviving in business requires learning to prioritize important OVER urgent.  Important has its own way of becoming urgent, usually when you are about to go broke.

Urgent things are client demands, project deadlines, emails, voicemails, etc.  Important things are infrastructure, process improvement, R&D, and employee development.  The important things make you competitive, grow your business, and make you profitable.  The urgent things manage your cash flow, which is why they tend to get priority.  The irony is that you can cash flow yourself to death.

There are times when you just have to get the bills paid, but the danger is paying the bills while your business shrinks and becomes irrelevant.  So how do you pick between urgent and important?  I think it is a struggle every business owner has, and I don’t think there is one answer.  In my opinion, the key is to just not let the important go by the wayside when the urgent is “out of critical.”  When your business can live a few days without you, you should consider it urgent to use that time to start looking into the important.  Is your business just paying the bills, or is it really maturing and growing into a money making machine?!?!

This world is full of jaded, discouraged, and broke people who thought they had a great idea for a product or businesses. It all seems so perfect in their heads, and then when the time comes to get out and implement it, they fall flat on their faces. What people need to learn, and experienced investors already know, is that ideas are almost worthless. The ability to execute an idea, to lead, to propel it into the market, to maintain quality, to manage a sustainable business… these are the skills that pay the bills. All of which we can sum up as “competency”.

The Absurdity of Conceptual Patents

When someone discovers a new substance that can cure a disease, a new form of combustion, or other very tangible discoveries, patents are very useful and deserved. However, business and innovation today are tied in knots with absurd patents and lawsuits around loose concepts. Everyone and their uncle tried to sue Apple over the iPod. Just as asinine, Apple seems to sue everyone who uses icons on a smartphone. People can copy ideas all day long and still not produce a comparable product to a competent competitor.

Who cares if someone copies a feature or element of your software or process? Are they capable of supporting it? Do they have the expertise to use it like you do? Can they keep it updated? The reality is that copycats have to imitate good businesses because they are incompetent. Ultimately, consumers and clients can tell the difference.

Avoiding Entitlement Mentality

A lot of people crash and burn in a new business because they feel like “it was their idea” and they have contributed their full measure. The “idea guy” will often feel underpaid, undervalued, and yet do almost no work. Everyone else is riding the wake of their brilliance and should feel honored they even have a small piece of the pie. The reality is that the idea doesn’t sell itself; the selling is a lot of hard work. So is the building, the distribution, the fulfillment, etc. If you have a great idea, find great people to work with and be generous!

Learning to Let Ideas Go

As habitual entrepreneurs, Todd and I have had a lot of ideas over the years. We used to froth at the mouth over each one. We have probably started/stopped over a dozen businesses. Over time, as the one we stuck with took off, we realized that ideas aren’t special. The character and discipline we have learned in growing our main business are much more valuable than any ideas we can hope to think of. The best part is, there are always ideas out there, but competency is rare.

In the mist of another hectic week, I found a little time to do that one thing I believe we all should do more of…read. While surfing my RSS feeds, I came across a short article written by Jeff Haden. Jeff is a ghostwriter for some of the smartest business leaders in the country, and he wrote a great top ten list that expresses the thoughts I have accumulated since opening my first business in 1999. After reading his list, I sat in awe, reflecting that other business owners might have the same thoughts I do…I’m not alone! Below is my personal take on his list…to see Jeff’s article in its entirety, click here – http://bit.ly/zF8rtg

10 Things I Wish My Employees Knew

I care about whether you like me. It’s hard for me to be “one of the guys,” but I really want to. I’m sure most people don’t want to “hang out” with their boss after hours, but I would like to…I count you as my friends.

I don’t think I know everything. Far from it. As a matter of fact, I love hiring smart people. Not only does it make my job as a business owner easier, I really like to be around people who are “thinkers” and can talk about more than news.

I think it’s great when you’re having fun. Don’t stop on my account. I love to see people laughing, goofing off and having a fun time at work. It makes me feel that I have employees who are more than robots and feel comfortable being themselves.

I want to pay you more. I know you work hard and I want to reward you for it. As the business grows, please understand that I will pay you more….in benefits and salary. My goal isn’t to be rich and I want to have all my employees share in the success of the business…I’m not greedy.

I want you to work here forever. It’s unrealistic I know, but I do. When people leave, it hurts me. I have tried to create a “family” and when a person leaves I take it personally…even though I might not show it.

Selling isn’t easy. When I sell a client, we don’t always know what we are getting into. Sometimes our clients suck….please understand that I know that. Other times we land clients that I know are going to be bad; I don’t say it aloud, but I’m taking them on to make payroll and keep the lights on. Thanks for doing your best with the good and the bad ones.

I love it when you take control. I have better things to do than your job and to worry about if you are doing a good job. I hire people to do the job they can do for the company, not to fulfill a job description written on a piece of paper. I want you to own your position and make it better.

I notice when others don’t pull their weight. I’m not blind; I can see when members of the team are not doing their jobs. And it’s not that I am not doing anything about it…I’m just not broadcasting it to everyone. I believe in giving everyone many chances to do their best…Someday you may need that same empathy.

There are some things I just can’t tell you. I hate the old fatherly adage, “because I said so,” but sometimes I either can’t or don’t have time to explain all my actions. When that happens, don’t think it is because I don’t trust you, just know that I believe I am doing what I think is best for you and the business.

I worry all the time. I love the fact that my employees can leave work and forget about it…but I can’t and don’t. I want everyone on staff outside of work time to forget about deadlines, meetings and their to do list….use non work time to recharge your battery and have a life…and leave the worrying to me.

I always say there are three sides to every story: what he said, what she said and then the truth, which lies somewhere in between. As a business owner you have highs and lows, sometimes daily. The trick to sanity, and a full head of hair, is to learn to be somewhere in between the two opposing emotions.

I love talking to people about my business; this process is called selling. I get a little high when I make a sale, but I get wild when we close a large contract…almost euphoric. Accompany a sale with clients paying on time, and I would be having an awesome month.

Conversely, I get down when things turn south. Losing a proposal to the competition, slow paying clients and even the dreaded loss of a client…I could be put on suicide watch. The lows hurt…a lot, and I hate to be there long.

But what about the middle? I don’t think the middle comes easily or naturally, you have to work at it, at least I know I have. The middle takes control, temperament and a long term vision. Get a big contract…good. Have to take 10K from the line of credit to make payroll…it’s ok. Employee decides to put in their 2 week notice…no problem. An existing client has a new project for you…thank you.

Put the middle into action. First, know your triggers for the highs and lows. Second, when either one hits, think of the long term vision you have for your business. And third, don’t overreact. Take time to contemplate the action that caused the high or low and learn from it.

Lastly, people are watching. Your employees are watching. Your spouse and children are watching. Be a leader and take the highs and lows in stride. It’s not easy, but when you can, it will make you a better business owner.

When people take a mechanical view of business, or life for that matter, problems are always seen as a sign of failure.  When we view business from this perspective, we are constantly frustrated because there are always problems.  If we take a more mature and organic perspective, we start to see that problems are more often a sign of growth than failure.  When we grow and evolve our processes, we will constantly be finding new problems and issues we just plain didn’t notice before.

The Illusion of Perfection

From old-farts who sit around talking about the “good ‘ol days” to lizard brain finger pointers, humans seem to be obsessed with the idea that everything was fine until YOU broke it.  Of course solutions and alternatives seldom follow the accusations, just a declaration to “fit it!”  The reality is that nothing is perfect, but seldom is it broken.  Most of the problems we have don’t exist because something broke, they just exist because we haven’t solved them yet.

The Soul of Business

My dad said it best, “My goal isn’t to be perfect, it’s to make less mistakes than the other guy.”  Businesses are about fixing problems and creating systems to fix problems.  Problems are our opportunities to fill a need.  As we continue to fix our own problems and perfect our systems, we become better businesses.  Often, on the road to fixing our own problems, we come up with new business ideas.

Maybe you aren’t “having” problems, maybe you are “discovering” problems.  Those are two very different things.  Sadly the only way to tell the difference between the two is to ask if these are new problems or the same problems over and over.  If they are new problems, then relax, you are on the right track!

Whether you know it or not, whenever you call a plumber, dine out at a restaurant, or go out to movie you are looking for leadership.  We all have a little time in our short lives to become experts in something, but we can’t be experts in everything.  The quality of life we experience today is that we have learned to rely on the expertise of others to show us what we need, how to fix something, or how to have a good time.  When it comes down to it, everyone is looking for leadership.  Your business will live or die on your ability to lead.

The Customer Isn’t Right, They Don’t Even Know What They Want

If you really think about it, we don’t even dress ourselves.  We rely on clothing stores and fashion media to tell us how to dress.  Sure, we pick out which of the available styles we will associate ourselves with, but we are still being led.  Imagine if clothing stores were just stocked fabric and then asked us, “What clothes would you like?”

When referring to clothing, this need seems obvious, but in more service oriented businesses this understanding starts to fall apart.  Consultants and contractors hang themselves by asking clients, “What do you want?”  The point is, clients don’t know what they want, that is why they need you!

Learning to Listen and Lead

The Consultant’s Haiku:
Tell me what you want
Tell me what you can afford
Here is what you need

When you are starting with a clean slate, the imagination is limitless… and expensive.  Customers don’t know what things cost in your area of expertise, and they don’t know what is hard and what is easy.  All they know is that if they “just had _____” life would be better.  While it may seem like people are demanding and unrealistic, usually the problem is that they simply aren’t experts in your field.  The key to listening is t0 hear the core necessities behind all their wants and wishes.

A good consulting relationship starts with, “I can’t give you X, Y, and Z within your budget.  However, I am hearing that you really need Y.  Also, you are really going to need A in order for Y to work.”  Now you are meeting the need, being the expert, and leading the relationship.