I've Been Thinking...

A commentary

About the reasons why businesses succeed and fail. Everyone has a theory – just go to Amazon.com where there are over 588,000 business books listed, 140,000 relate to management and leadership. With so much information it is difficult for today's manager or leader to sort through the volume to develop a success formula. So to help, in this issue of the newsletter, I have identified (from a significant amount of research) my top ten list of the things that will make your business fail – see the Take Action section below. Correct these and you have a formula for success. Allow them to continue uncorrected and they will negatively affect your performance and profits.

We work with managers who want to be more successful at activating and inspiring exceptional employee performance, to significantly drive customer loyalty and improve company profitability.

Time for Action

The Ten Reasons Your Business Will Fail

You have no choice but to be great; ordinary products, services, workplaces and employees insure you are forgotten. And if forgotten, you are out of business. Stay successful by knowing the reasons businesses fail. Your business will fail if:

Your business vision is not bold and audacious enough to attract great employees and loyal customers, or it is great but no one knows it.
You have the wrong employees working for you, or you have the right employees placed in the wrong roles.
You have not spent quality one-on-one time with your employees each week, helping them learn and grow to encourage their performance.
You have not created performance expectations for and with each employee so they know what is expected of them and they can own their performance.
You do not actively and openly support and encourage employees to be innovative, to take risks for greatness and to dream at work.
You do not have a regular discussion with your employees about their future that includes a look at their talents, values and interests and the things that are important to them.
Your workplace is bland, boring, and uninspiring for employees and they share this negative perspective with their friends and social networks.
Your employees do not know how or why they should create passionate or emotional connections with your customers.
Your products, employees, workplace and management do not STAND OUT enough to be remembered by customers.
Your management style is stuck in "command-and-control" instead of "inspire-and-engage"; you treat your employees like expenses instead of assets.

Start your plan to change with the times. Engaged employees with strong connections to their managers is the key to millennial performance. Build a plan to respond to each of these ten reasons why businesses fail and you will outlast, out-invent and outperform all others.

I bet you never knew... "people edition"

On average, people fear spiders and public speaking more than death.
It is physically impossible to lick your elbow.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth but your nose and ears never stop growing.
A recent study found the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon.
I bet you tried to lick your elbow.

What's Hot!

Attention Women – learn to navigate the obstacles to management.

Women earn approximately 80% of what men earn for the same roles (African-American women and Latinas earn even less). In 2007 Catalyst created the following pyramid about the presence of women in the workplace:

46.4% - the number of women in the workplace
50.6 % - the percentage of women in (some form of) management
16.4% - the number of Fortune 500 female corporate officers
14.7% - the number of Fortune 500 board seats held by women
9.4 % - the number of Fortune 500 women with highest titles
6.4% - the number of Fortune 500 women top earners
1.6% - the number of Fortune 500 female chief executives

Women are still underpaid, undervalued and under-represented in all levels of management. This is not a suggestion for a diversity initiative – that grossly understates the impact of this issue. Rather, women bring valuable business experience, cultural perspectives and practicality that must be included in today's leadership and management roles; they are key to performance at all levels.

We introduce our new program Cross the Testosterone Barrier created to help women maximize their great verbal, communication and nurturing talents to excel in today's management roles. The shift from the industrial to intellectual age economy now more favors the feminine brain of engaging and inspiring than the male brain of competition and domination. Women now have a managerial advantage; now is the time for women to move into greater management roles. Learn how to navigate the male-dominated business world and advance based on performance. Contact us to find out more.

The Humanetrics Mission

We offer practical, dynamic, innovative and customized education and consulting to significantly advance our clients' personal and professional performance.