I recently returned from vacation with my wife. We traveled to the Mayan Riviera to celebrate 15 years of marriage. We decided to check out one of the many Mayan ruins near our hotel, called Tulum. An older gentleman by the name of Rod (short for Rodriguez) accompanied us as our tour guide. Rod explained to us that “Tulum” was translated, “the uprising”. The ancient Mayan’s believed that the Sun and the Moon are in constant struggle with each other. The Mayans also believed in the concept of “balance”. This is why they performed human sacrifices. They thought that this brought balance back to the universe. This really spoke to me. The older I get, the Read more [...]

It’s no mystery that I’ve been touting the use of metrics as a key principle for any business. Why is this SO important? Does it even matter? Is it just BUSY work? If done incorrectly (i.e. you’re measuring the wrong things), it can be a waste of time. If you’re measure the RIGHT things, what many call KPI’s or key performance indicators, you should be gaining valuable insight into what’s really happening in your business. Let me give you a REAL WORLD example. At Astonish Results, one of our KPIs is the number of “open bugs”. We track which bugs are reoccurring. If we see a spike in bugs we can be proactive instead of reactive. We don't just wait Read more [...]

I’m reading another great book called, “Ordering Your Private World” by Gordon McDonald. In it McDonald details the necessity of making sure your inner world lines up with your outer world. This quote that really struck me “…one can go a long way, impress a lot of people, simply with the facility of words. So it becomes easy to make promises, verbalize intentions, express one’s convictions with seeming passion.” This reminded me of the fact that you can SAY anything, but it all boils to what you DO - implementation. Does what you SAY match up with what you DO? If not, slow down and make sure it does. Your personal integrity depends on it. Read more [...]

I’m sure you’ve seen the commercials for 5 Hour Energy. It’s a concoction of "who know’s what" that is supposed to give you the energy you need to function for 5 hours. This reminds me of the concept of “time tellers” vs. “clock builders”. I’ve taken these terms from Jim Collin’s book, “Built to Last”. If you’re the type of leader that is not engaged in the daily details of your business, but constantly live at the 50K foot level trying to pump up your staff, you’re a “time teller”. You’re a “five hour energy drink”. He're the problem, people can’t live on five hour energy drinks. They need to see the connection between the vision you’re casting and boots Read more [...]

It been a little while since my last post, but I’m back. I’m continuing to read Verne Harnish’s book, Mastering the Rockefeller habits. Check out my post on the Astonish Results blog for some more insights from his book. One quote from his book really struck me. It focused on the concept of making sure you have the right people on your team. Sports teams know how important this is. They have a whole staff dedicated to recruiting the RIGHT team members. Once on the team, the coaching staff ruthlessly MEASURES each team member. If the player doesn't produce or measure up they’re gone. Here’s the quote from Harnish’s book, “The first question you Read more [...]