Taking action seems to intimidate a lot of people in business. Sure, we all know someone who seems to never procrastinate or doubt a decision. But for the rest of us…

There are loads of reasons why we avoid making  choices. In some cases, it is simply the phenomenon known as “choice overload.” Research is pointing to people faced with many choices and becoming unable to make a decision. Remind you of the menu at The Cheesecake Factory? If you haven’t been to that particular restaurant, they have a book for a menu.  A book?!

However, this could be very bad for your small business.It’s hard to take action when you have so much information to process but taking action is really about productivity. We tend to think productivity is great. We can enhance it with efficiency. We can measure it. And yet, if you change the word from productivity to action, some of us do the deer-in-the-headlights freeze.

Are there dangers in taking action? Of course there are! You could end up changing the world as you know it. It doesn’t even have to be on the end-world-hunger scale. Our individual worlds have value as well. There are people in our lives who depend on us. We may be in an enviromnent where rocking the boat is strongly discouraged.

It works something like this. You start off with a predictable circle of comfort. No risk. Vanilla.  And then, you come across a very good reason to expand this circle of comfort. Its not nice and tidy. Change can be awkward and uncertain. Do you want to to rethink who you are and what you can do? This is dangerous!

Then again, maybe there are very distinct advantages to taking action. Your small busines grows into what you meant it to be. You discover you are powerful and talented. People acclaim your actions. Your ability to cope with change is strengthened. The possibilities are endless since our actions bear all kinds of fruit. Our perception that something would be too painful to manage turns out to be a complete nonevent.

This is where you sing the chorus to REM’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”

                                                                    “It’s the end of the world as we know it

                                                                     And I feel fine.”

The thing with taking action is it triggers our fears, our hopes, and our beliefs about our efficacy and our self-worth. There may be inertia because we’ve tolerated some kind of discomfort for a long time. There may be very good reasons to choose inaction. If you avoid decisions, do you avoid life as proposed by Jeff Stibel?

In this week’s #kaizenblog chat, we’ll be exploring “The Dangers and Advantages of Taking Action” so join us on Friday, August 20, 2010 at 12 pm ET/9am PT/5pm BST. Come join in on this conversation!

What does taking action mean to you?

What dangers or advantage do you see in taking action?

What keeps you from acting on what you desire most?

 iStockphoto BookMama

Failure is such a loaded experience and usually very negative.  However, we all make mistakes and they have varying repercussions on our businesses. But could you ignore failure?

We had the pleasure of welcoming our guest host, Taylor Davidson (@tdavidson) to this week’s #kaizenblog Twitter chat,  “Ignore Failure At Your Own Peril”. My co-host, Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge) and I got curious about some of Taylor’s ideas about failure and how to learn from it. Taylor set the stage for this conversation with his framing post, “Ignore Failure At Your Own Peril” with the premise that the “seeds of success” lie in the experience of failure.

(Here is the Transcript for #kaizenblog – Failure)

So, we started in with the first question, What are the temptations of ignoring failure?

• Stephen Denny (@Note_To_CMO) answered, “Invidious comparison. Ego. We want to win, be perceived as winners by others.”
• Caroline Di Diego (@CASUDI) was succinct, “~FEAR OF PAIN”
• Jeff Gibbard )@jgibbard) observed, “I think we are conditioned to fear failure vs embrace it.”
• Meg Fowler (@megfowler) added, “If you ignore failure, you rob yourself of the refinement process essential to success.”

Following these answers about the temptations, everyone started to describe what accompanies failure in business. Laura Crum (@LauraLCrum) observed that, in business, failure is often not really examined due to a “competitive market and a less than nurturing environment.” On the other hand, Stephen Denny reminded us that “learning from failure requires detachment – separate failure from ego/person. Other inputs helpful, too.” This theme was picked up by others and yet, Marc Meyer (@Marc_Meyer) seemed to add a cautionary tone that “there is ‘failure’ and then there is ‘failure’ -To me, 2 entirely different things. But both should be motivators.” Could there be distinctions between one failure and another?

It is hard to shake off failure. And culture can play a part in this as well. A more interesting question was whether or not  to even use the word, failure. Some tweets suggesting finding other words with less intense nuances to describe failure. Taylor shared a link with us, “The Failure of Failure” Different types of failure seemed to bring different levels of avoidance. How did this experience get verboten in business (at least in the U.S.)? Inventors fail constantly. Scientists experience it on a regular basis when their researdch yields any result other than the one desired.  Maybe Eric Fulwiler (@EFulwiler) has something when he commented, “[e]xcept failure denotes a loss of some kind. You can mitigate losses and take away positives, but still loss…” Are we training ourselves to avoid feeling loss?

But whether we feel loss or fear of how others may view us, there are times when things just go badly. How do you know when a project is going bad and  is unsalvageable? While Stephen Denny reminded us that we use our judgement based on data to end a bad project, Sian Phillips (@whatswhat_sian) considered, “I don’t think that it can be universally answerable. Each project/job is different. But you should know when it is going bad.” Meg Fowler added, “A2: there are different failure metrics for different actions/projects –no one way to know when things have gone awry.” Eric Tsai (@designdamage) boiled it down to “when all indicators pointing to a lack of motivation/ROI, dots not connecting, people stop caring.”

Towards the end, a theme emerged about listening to your gut. Could this be an opening for self-doubt, as Taylor observed? While this is possible, we’ve talked about doubt being useful on #kaizenblog. It was fascinating that there wasn’t any specific consensus about how much gut or even if using your gut was a good practice.

• Laura Crum “I think gut is probably built from observations we lack the vocabulary to define.”
• Joe Crockett (@JoeCrockett) “You can’t just rely on your gut. Relying on your gut says that you’ve abdicated URself from objective data and reasoning.”
• Alfonso Guerra @Huperniketes) ” ‘Gut’ is the internalization of both metrics and the indicators of our environment.”

So maybe our gut reactions and instincts could be  biases in our thinking or acts of arrogance but they do also provide us with a consciousness that something is present. In failure, it could be an inkling of a solution or it could the beginnings of how understand not to repeat bad decisions.

Overall, it seemed that ignoring failure is perilous for businesses but that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen anyway. The experience of failure challenges us to examine our organizational and personal systems which could reveal us in a negative light. If we are surrounded by messages that failure is not allowed, we are likely to repeat previous misjudgements and mistakes. Is the cost worth it? Would acknowledging failure and keeping the review process focused on the actions rather than the character of the person make a difference? This chat seemed to leave us with more questions than answers so please add your comments.

 How dangerous is it to ignore failure?

 Is failure just too loaded for businesses to use it productively? 

As you may remember, I’m co-writing a book with Chris Vasiliadis (www.prioritywellness) about women business owners and how they handle personal crisis while running their businesses. I originally posted this project back in January in When Life Happens: How Women Business Owners Handle Personal Crisis 

Since then, Chris and I have been very busy interviewing over 5o women business owners. We’ve heard remarkable stories about women coping with cancer, domestic abuse, spouses and children experiencing illnesses, caring for aging, ill parents, suicides of loved ones, and so much more. Some of the stories have ended with the crisis resolving itself. Other women have to live with chronic conditions and other negative consequences that don’t go away even after the crisis part has ended. A few of the women have closed their busineses and yet, others have actually thrived and grown.

Chris and I are really looking forward to telling you the stories and all the things these women learned about themselves! Their experiences have really shifted their understanding of themselves and how they lead and manage their businesses.

We’re full bore in our next stage which is writing the book proposal. Our goal is to use this book proposal to work with a literary agent and a publishing house. We’re busy writing the sample chapter and all of the marketing bits!

Truly this is an amazing process with so many lessons to be learned! Periodically I’ll blog updates about what’s happening. When we can, we’ll share some of the content. I’m really looking forward to that!

Given all the triggers that cause procrastination, leaving your comfort zone has got to be at the top of the list! Danny Brown (@dannybrown) got me thinking about this when he replied to my comment on his blog post, Leaving Your Comfort Zone. In his post, he used Alex Wong (a ballet dancer competing on the television show, So You Think You Can Dance) who absolutely rules when he does a hiphop routine. I’d say hiphop is about as far from ballet as you can go! Definitely beyond the comfort zone!

I’ll admit that I oversimplified things when I left my comment.

Sure Alex Wong is a ballet dancer but he is a dancer. He knows how to move his body so it’s a stretch that becomes possible. The thing with getting out of our comfort zone is we make it seem so foreign. Many of our stretches simply take our current skills and apply them in a different environment or with different methods. As Alex Wong knows he can use his body to move to music, we can trust that we already know how to do what seems risky.

As a trained musician, I’ve certainly seen how other performers support or limit transferring their skills to something different because of perception. If I only play classical piano, then do I limit myself and say I’ll never play ragtime or rock because I think I can only play classical music?

So, what does this have to do with procrastination?

It’s about how we perceive what is outside of our comfort zone. We do make it seem so foreign. It doesn’t really matter if it’s a different kind of dance, music, or business strategy. When we reach a plateau with our small businesses and we don’t want to stay at that level, we know we must do something that is new to us. Consider this-just today, I was talking with a prospective client who is adding staff. She is completely daunted by the necessity of managing them so she has put off developing her system. The supervision and organization that comes with managing employees seems foreign to her even though she has had people working for her for a while now. She is already doing some of what she needs to do with her whole staff. Yet, she perceives that it is totally different than anything she has done before and there is a risk is she will do it wrong.

Procrastination is often tied to a lack of trust in ourselves. We don’t trust our skill set. We don’t trust that we can cope with the task. Leaving our comfort zone implies that there is risk involved and we won’t be the same afterwards. Maybe this is true, maybe not. It remains that we have the necessary abilities already waiting to be applied in a different way.

What are you avoiding in your small business?

What skills do you already have that are a bridge to beyond your comfort zone?

Which is more important-doing something perfectly or making the attempt?

There is a lot of talk about creativity and innovation. Everyone’s got to have these to build these amazing businesses! Be new! Be original! Be…what really? Is this truly necessary?

Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge, founder and co-host of #kaizenblog) and I decided to take on the idea of creativity in 21st century business for our #kaizenblog chat. In preparation for the chat, I did a little research and discovered 2 videos that talked about the importance of creativity in the 21st century. There are some who say that the “knowledge workers” are morphing into something else while others focus on how we will use the abilities of the right half of our brains more so than ever before. It’s worth checking out Dan Pink’s take on creativity here. Another person who has a lot to say about creativity is Ken Robinson who says the current education system kills creativity. If you are curious about how the conversation evolved, read this Transcript for #kaizenblog – Creativity.

It seemed to make sense to start at the beginning and ask, how do you describe creativity? More than just thinking up new ideas, it seemed important to find out what we all embed in our definitions of creativity. 

• Lizzie Pauker (@lizziepauker)- “Creativity to me is all about innovation, new perspectives & thinking ‘outside the box.’ “
• soumyapr (@soumyapr)- “Creativity is the ability to add disruptive change without losing the core value of an idea”
• John Reddish (@GetResults)- “Creativity is going beyond or within to find new/innovative ways to expand consciousness /work-and we always need that.”
• Andrew Fowler (@guhmshoo)- Remarkable content”
• Joey Strawn (@joey_strawn)- “Creativity is the ability to show old things in a new way and the desire to create something from nothing.”
• Caroline Di Diego (@CASUDI)- “Creativity is continuous innovating ~ looking for new and better ways 24/7 365.”
• Laura Crum (@LauraLCrum)- “I think creativity is the ability to not be so focused on the path ahead that you lose the scenery options.”

The descriptions at time seem to contradict each other  and that is what is intriguing about creativity in general. Perhaps it is one of those things we know it if we see it? Another aspect that almost everyone made a comment or retweeted another participant’s comment regarding how action is integral to the creative process. Linda Naiman (@alchemize) seemed to capture this when she tweeted, “If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.”

I suppose we could have continued the discussion that described creativity as there were references to how target markets define the value of the creative idea, if passion plays a role, and if challenge does provide the spark for creativity to occur.

So we came back to the idea that the 21st century will demand we use the skills of the right brain. If you are not familiar with these skills, let us pause for a moment to review them. The left brain is responsible for analyzing, logic, sequencing, objectivity, and looking at parts. The right brain is responsible for noticing patterns, connections, intuition, and subjectivity. If right brain skills are truly more dominant now, how does that shape the use of creativity?

The responses seemed to reflect the tension that can polarize many into being in the right brain camp versus the left brain camp. While there doesn’t have to be an either/or answer, the tension is worth noting.

• Amber Cleveland (@ambercleveland)- “W/ more right brain dominance, creativity should increase, but you still need left brain skills to support.”
• Joey Strawn- “I agree! There needs to be marriage of the halves, while ideas need to come, there must be logical uses.”
• Richard Becker (@richbecker)- “Creativity is seeing from a unique perspective. The right brain stuff is the boundaries we do it in.”

There are boundaries to right brain thinking? It seemed natural to ask how is the application of creativity the same or different in the 21st century? This part of the discussion picked up on the earlier theme of challenge perhaps providing the spark needed for creativity to occur.

•  Amber Cleveland- “Creativity in 21st cent. is different b/c we have more tools, the same b/c we push our boundaries just like those b4.”
• Joshua Pearlstein (@jpearlstein)- “It is the same, you have to be creative faster.”
• “Richard Becker- “Creativity today isn’t all that different from Iron Chef. Limited ingredients often make for more interesting dishes.”
• Caroline Di Diego- “Failing is def an ingredient for creativity ~ too much fear of failure NO creativity.”
• Stanford Smith (@pushingsocial)- “In the Whole Mind World – Management=Knowing how to inspire creativity and how the heck to get out of the way.”

It doesn’t seem like we got any particular answers. It is clear from everyone’s responses that creativity is a necessity in  business, maybe even as we go forth as a society. It was also clear that we embed a lot of ideas into the concept of creativity.

What is your description of creativity?

What is the intersection between 21st century thinking and creativity?

Truth be told, Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge) and I were looking for a way to describe optimism that was tempered by linear logic. A couple of weeks ago there were several reports from around the globe about how optimistic business owners and leaders were feeling about the economic recovery and I got to thinking about how we use optimism for a competitive advantage in our businesses.

As we began to notify our #kaizenblog followers on Twitter about our topic, it came up that Matt Ridley had written a book titled, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. His thesis wasn’t really what we meant but it wasn’t completely off the mark either. Our questions had more to do with disciplined optimism which combines optimism with some kind linear or logical component.

Semantics aside, can you have rational or disciplined optimism?

When you have semantic issues, you have to start with definitions.

• Bill Lublin (@billlublin)-”BTW, I’m for cautious optimism-rational is a little subjective for me when discussing optimism”
• John Reddish (@GetResults)-”I think “rational” (as defined in lit) represents a positive cognitive choice, not totally free flowing.”
• Joe Sanchez (@sanchezjb)- “Rational optimism-one view: The future can be better but only if influenced. It won’t happen by itself.”

As a group, we decided to work with rational optimism and even incorporate parts of Matt Ridley’s description.

How is optimism the same as or different from hope?

To deepen the definition, we compared hope and optimism. This seemed to bring out a lot of reactions.

• Joe Sanchez- “Hope is not a method.”
• Rayna (@RaynaNyc)- “View hope as emotion & optimism relating more to thinking/reason–keep cool & access objectively reason to be optimist.”
• Sian Phillips (@whatswhat_sian)- “Personally I think Optimism sounds more confident than to hope for something.”

Most of the comments seemed to center on how hope is really more of an emotion while optimism is more of an attitude. Optimism seems to lead somewhere or to something.

When does it make sense to temper optimism?

This question seemed to lead to more discussion about judgment and action. There seemed to be a reluctance around adding judgment to optimism. Perhaps this is due to the prevalent belief that judgment is always a negative. On the other hand, it might be pessimism, realism, or cynicism that interrupts optimism.

• Stephen Denny (@Note_To_CMO)- “Judgment. The J word. We temper our optimism with command of facts, experience, openmindedness.”
• Caroline Di Diego (@CASUDI)- “~ Appropriate judgment ~ to make optimistic end results a reality.”
• Tom Asacker (@tomasacker)- “Action creates optimism, not the other way around.”
• Mary H. Ruth (@maryhruth)- “I think business at the hard core also has no use for hope. It is science. Optimism is de riguer.”
• Joe Sanchez- “Rational optimism means knowing how 2 influence (via rational actions) what needs 2b influenced 2 achieve goals.”
• William R. Younce (@WilliamRYounce)- “Rational optimism=Positive thinking which always puts you ahead of the pack. Makes you more aggressive, better risk takers.”
• Sian Phillips- “Rational optimism better than overly optimistic in business. Results need to be quantified so don’t imagine out of scale.”

How much of a competitive edge does rational optimism provide for business?

This question drew fewer responses as the chat ended but here are some food for thought:

• Stephen Denny- “Competitive adv angle is important focus. If optimism is based on forethought + planning, then it’s rational (and a C/E).
• John Reddish- “Rat Opt gives shape, input, to Comp Adv – in helping to identify logical customers, price advantage calcs & cost savings”
• Amber Cleveland (@ambercleveland)- “Rational optimism creates large competitive adv. for biz it’s contagious & can create generate support that can lead to success.”

Perhaps the hour was too short to really identify if what place rational or even disciplined optimism has in our businesses. On the face of it, it seems so. It is probable that we have an attitude that things will work out for the best and we can help this along by anticipating and planning for different outcomes. Optimism is a key trait of entrepreneurs.

What do you think about rational optimism?

How do you rate the competitive edge you get from rational optimism?

This past Sunday, my family and I were out for ice cream. In a span of 15 minutes, I saw three t-shirts that just made me stop in my tracks!

The first one said, “No pain, no profit.

The second one said, “I’m all out of money.”

The third one said, “No time.”

What the bleep did I just see? Was this an omen or a wakeup call? Or just plain weirdness? Since Sunday, confidence and optimism has come up in over and over in business news reports from Ireland, Germany, and China. In U.S. national news, there was a report about a recent    Gallup poll

which identified that, although the consumer confidence index was up, most people are pessimistic that the economic recovery is sustainable. One of the rhetorical questions in the television report asked if the legendary American optimism has been replaced by pessimism. That question may not be far from the mark if you take those t-shirts into consideration.

If the general public is anxious and pessimistic, what do small business owners feel? 

The National Federation of Independent Business does

monthly surveys

of small business owners and they got some interesting findings. One finding was that hiring is going to be limited and another finding was that small business owners are expecting things to improve.

In Europe, it seems to depend on where you are. Anecdotally, entrepreneurial SME’s are expecting  slow growth but growth nonetheless. On the other hand, the general public seems pessimistic. For example, in Ireland, there is talk about a huge uptick in emigration and the return to hard times. In the U.K., entrepreneurs expect things to improve according to The Independent.

One could argue that entrepreneurs are optimistic by nature. But the more interesting question is what do other small businesses expect will happen over the next year? In a recent conversation with an American small business owner, he expressed how difficult it is to manage everyday while setting the stage for the future with less people and less resources. Despite these challenges, he does expect things to get better and he believes in his ability to lead his company.

What is this intersection of optimism and confidence? It is a crucial part of how your small business functions. I’m not talking about the Law of Attraction per se but I know practitioners of this who swear that your thoughts have energy and bring back what you send out. My inner cognitive behavioralist says that if you perceive the world as hard then the world is nothing but hard.

Embedded in this intersection of optimism and confidence is:

• Mindset
• Ability to tolerate stress
• Willingness to measure and/or evaluate your performance
• Willingness to measure and/or evaluate the performance of the business
• Believe in one’s autonomy
• Connecting with a community who believes on and supports you
• Curiosity combined with continuous learning

Everything is not going to go back to some sort of normal. Blind optimism is just as bad as fatalism. It seems that hope is a piece of this. I don’t mean the kind of hope that has that flavor of desperation as in “I just hope this works.” More the kind of hope that holds the paradox that things are never going to be the same as pre-2008 and there are still opportunities. Not an easy kind of hope but quite possibly the kind of hope we need most as we create an economic recovery together.

Does hope spread or is it more like a trickle that turns into stream?

How would your rate your optimism?

What other qualities would you add to the intersection of optimism and confidence?

iStockphoto by hidesy

It is a given that Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge) and I set up a dichotomy that doesn’t even begin to ask the real question. To give the conversation more context, I wrote a framing post,

Sexy/Boring and Building Your Business

So we asked everyone, “Do You Need to Be Sexy/Boring For Business Success?” We  bounced around ways to describe what “sexy” or “boring” mean. If you are interested in reading the whole transcript (there was so much material in the chat, I couldn’t fit it all into this recap without going on for pages and pages), you can find it here Transcript for #kaizenblog -SexyBoring and Business Success.  So for the sake of having the same definitions, we’ll use these:

Sexy-The message is viral, the business owner/idea generator is considered a “rockstar” and the marketing techniques are designed for big splashes all over social media sites. Ms. Maltoni described it as “sticky”. This way of defining sexy seemed to resonate with participants

Boring-Organic growth which tends to be slower and thatit  may or may not have an identified business owner/idea generator. Ideas may or may not go viral and the marketing techniques are designed to center on the value of the idea/product/service to promote buzz. Joe Sanchez (@sanchezjb) explained it like this, “There r customers who prefer “boring” value delivery. No need to b too dynamic or creative as long as substance is there.” Another side of this definition was that the word, boring, may be a misnomer.

Throughout the conversation, there were reminders that sexy and boring are in the eyes of the beholder. Mr. Sanchez also tweeted, “How value is delivered via “sexy” or “boring” may b a differentiator based on customer segment preferences.” In other words, your clients and customers find you sexy or boring based on what you product or service delivers for them. For an example, think Volvo. Volvo’s brand is all about safety which is “sexy” to someone who wants to protect loved ones (e. g. parents and children). If you are a service-based business, say a personal organizer, you might be “sexy” because you are so accessible to your clients or your delivery (less clutter, better time management) makes such a huge difference.

With those definitions in place, we batted around the first discussion question…

Do you need to be loud to break through the noise?

There was a resounding “no” to this!

• Caroline Di Diego (@CASUDI)- “Loud is not as important as different or innovative ~ IMO ~ too lound can be OFF putting.”
• Jeff (@jeffthesensei)- “loud gets you ignored. Relevant gets you heard and rememberd [sic]“
• Tom Asacker (@tomasacker)-”I don’t see distinction as sexy vs. boring. I see the need for both theater and substance.”
• Stephen Denny (@Note_To_CMO) said it isn’t loud as much as “vivid”
• This got echoed by Oliver Blanchard (@thebrandbuilder)- “Vivid + valid = all win though. I’d try to combine the two. Vivid without valid will only run so far.”

These tweets led people to start to fine tune what exactly is “sexy” and “boring” in marketing. This led to a discussion about tactics and strategy and where they fit in.

• Karima Catherine (@karimacatherine) explained that “sexy” and “boring” are based on the value in your content/product/service, “To determine value, you have to know who you want to talk to, who your audience is, what they would like from  you.”
• To move the conversation to more clarity, Ms. Maltoni asked, “how do you organize stickiness while you’re working and sweating the small stuff that builds value?”
• On the side of tactics, Mr. Denny remarked, “Stories beat lessons. Stickiness/sexiness is a function of connecting with wants.”
• Cathy Larkin (@CathyWebSavvyPR) tweeted, “I think for best biz focus on the customer. But in the days of #SocialMedia the  boss as news can work or backfire.”
• Mr. Asacker stated, “Strategy and tactics both about theater and substance; aka the experience of the customer.”
• Keith Bossey (@keithboss) noted, “many times audience doesn’t know what they want, it’s up to you to explore and put the pieces together for them.”

There is more interesting discussion about the tension between those who are in charge of strategy and those who are in charge of tactics which you find in the transcript.

How do you reach the tipping point? With a big bang or a steady/organic build?

This second question brought another flurry of discussion as people had so much to say in terms of relationships with customers and

• Mary Ann Halford (@MaryAnnHalford)-”Tipping point is usually result of organic build…”
• Craig Wiggins (@CraigWiggins)-”Can get there either way but think slow+steady sustains better-better foundation.”
• Steve Massi (@stevemassi)-”Tipping points r usually culmination of multiple events not big bang, but it may seem as if 1 event did the tipping.”
• Mr. Sanchez-”Theater (with substance) likely matters more when attracting new customers. May need 2be [sic] toned down customer engages.”
• Jeff – “big bang is achieved with right solution at right time in right place with right influencers. Hard work to get there is organic.”

It seemed the chat group were in agreement that an organization had to develop something of substance that could excite your target market.

How do you get people to care about your business?

In the end, being perceived as “sexy” or “boring” has everything to do with people caring about your business. Does it make a difference for them? Your value is measured in revenues and reputation.

• Ms. Cleveland- “It is that people care about something that is important to them & how your biz can do something for them.”

This perspective was echoed by Stephen Denny, Rayna (@RaynaNyc), and Amber Cleveland and retweeted by others.

However, we had a couple of other perspectives which were rather intriguing.

• Alfonso Guerra (@Huperniketes) posited, “People don’t care about the biz, but its values and the people they meet in the biz.”
• MarketWire (Nick is usual tweeter, @marketwire) “People will care when you create a solution to the customer’s problems, then follow up with great service.”
• This was echoed by Danny Brown (@dannybrown) “You can’t “get” ppl to care about your biz. You can only hope they do by the actions you take and service you give.”

This topic turned out to be very fertile and full of gems from everyone! At the end of the chat, we had 456 tweets and 45 contributors. A few commonalities came up with every discussion question-careful thought and planning, engaging with your customers, and develop a substantive product or service to deliver.

What’s your take on “sexy” or “boring” when you think about building your successful business?

If it’s really based on perception, can you shape how your organization is perceived?

In your imagination, are you a rockstar or a cornerstone as you build business success?

One of my clients started his coaching session this week declaring he had a personnel issue. (For the sake of confidentiality, I’m leaving out some of the details.) Basically it was that awkward dynamic that can arise when you shed your old role of “Senior Technician of (your expertise)” and start the transition into new role of CEO of a small business. (Even when you don’t have the title of CEO, you may be acting like a CEO as your business grows and becomes more sophisticated.)

She said no…

It turns out that the conflict has been brewing for some time and came to a head last week. In a nutshell, the employee flatly told my client who is founder/owner/budding CEO that she was not going to do something he told her to do. He asked her to review a presentation with him as she hadn’t shown him the final version and they would co-presenting the following day. That’ s when she said no. She has a long history with this business both as a contractor and an employee so this was not what my client expected.

 What gives?

Yes, it’s possible that he asked in a way that sounded rude or arrogant. But what if he didn’t? (And for the purpose of this post, let’s suppose he was professional in his manner.) Many people in startups understand you all pitch in together to make a go of the business. There are titles but things have to be done. And then the business stabilizes and starts growing. Roles change and people have more defined job descriptions.

These changes can be deeply unsettling. Relationships are different. When the owner/founder steps into a role that demands more leadership and management skills, the interpersonal dynamics are different. There can be a disconnect between longtime staff and new hires. There can be a disconnect between the transitioning CEO and longtime staff and, frankly, sometimes new CEO’s don’t handle the interpersonal stuff with tact or sensitivity.

Can this mess be cleaned up?

Truth is, not always. Things are sometime said that can’t be unsaid. I’ve heard horror stories of people screaming at each other, lawsuits being threatened, filed, or acted upon, and new CEO’s getting forced out when the board gets fed up with the drama and lack of positive growth.

But if you can anticipate the mess, perhaps you can clean up the mess before it goes nuclear:

• Know your limits. Not every founder is CEO material. You may know your story, your Big Idea, and not have the management or leadership skills to pull it off. Be honest with yourself about whether you are really the right one to be leading the organization as it moves into the next stage.
• Notice what you resist. It is common for founders/CEO’s to resist setting up systems and policies as well as delegate responsibilities. There is a belief that one can still fly by the seat of one’s pants. You’ve worked too hard to grow a solid business with a bright future. Sure you can form a culture that you see as beneficial to productivity but the organization has grown larger than you. It needs a thoughtful, strategic, mature leader.
• Talk to the longtime staff. These people may be your executive team or employees. Long-standing relationships need a different kind of attention and nurturing. Let them know clearly that you are learning to inhabit a different role, your behaviors will be different, and your communication style will change. If they feel resentful because they perceive you as egotistical or arbitrary, they could undermine your authority and relationships with new hires and affect productivity. Your small business is too small to absorb a lot of dysfunction. You will not be their pal or peer like you were during the startup phase. It is important that they know what to expect.

How do you handle the awkward dynamics of becoming a CEO of a small business?

 What tips would you give to a budding CEO transitioning out of startup phase?

Just this month, I joined Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge) on Twitter as a co-host for the weekly hashtag chat #Kaizenblog. The focus of the conversation is the big picture of your business and how you strategize and think about it in a more global manner. We meet every Friday at 12pm ET/5pm GMT to discuss topics ranging from designing business plans to evaluating ideas that you want to take to market.

The word, kaizen, is Japanese and is a process in which one seeks continuous improvement in all aspects of one’s life.  Check out this post by Valeria which explains it quite well here.

Which leads us to this week’s topic:

Is the difference between tribes or fans important to your business?

To be honest, I don’t have an answer so here are some thoughts to begin the conversation for this week’s chat on #Kaizenblog.

Seth Godin put this idea into play for most of us. Mainly marketing professionals were talking about this first but Seth Godin expanded the  idea of tribes into a larger conversation with his book, Tribes. He defines a tribe as “a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.” He goes on to challenge all of us to be a leader of some kind. We can lead our tribes alone or as co-leaders. He is really calling us all out to lead a movement.

But I run a business, I’m not an activist!  Oh really?! If you are an entrepreneur, you are more activist than you could imagine! Entrepreneurs are all about changing the world. Take a moment and think what you wrote in your executive summary. I’ve worked with business owners who are on fire about keeping your electronic data secure, teaching young children to love learning, and to support you communicating with others on the Internet. As I write this, I think of current and past clients who are game changers for their industries. Everything they do, everything they create has to be tied back to their value system and executive summary because it is going to change how we know the world.

But are you creating a tribe or a group of fans? Valeria Maltoni at Conversation Agent has a great post of how Ducati has created a tribe that centers around its motorbikes. It made a huge difference when the company was struggling for survival. But what is your story? Who are your evangelists?

If you are a chieftain, what does your tribe look like? Maybe it’s really about being part bard as well. You tell and sing the story of your Big Idea and inspire others to make it part of their lifestyle. You engage in conversation with these aficionados and discover you are inspired as well. The story deepens and has less and less to do with you. It is more about the glue your business is providing with your products and services. The people in the conversation talk with you and, just as importantly, with each other.

What if you are a celebrity? Perhaps this is about personality (not necessarily your personality, remember your business is its own entity) and less about connecting people to one another. There is still immense value in your products or services but it’s handled differently. People become fans because they love what you provide. Inspiration can still happen but it seems more by example than by mutual discovery.

Does it really matter to your business if you have a tribe or fans?

Do you believe there is a difference?

Join us for this conversation on Friday, April 23rd at 12pm ET/5 pm GMT on Twitter by using the hashtag #Kaizenblog. It might be easier to sign into the conversation by using Tweetchat or Tweetgrid. Add your thoughts to the conversation!