Where Business Leaders Get Stuck & How to Progress Onward

There's an old adage that says, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This well-known phrase is poorly applied to business. What should a business owner do if the “it” is not broken per se, but merely status quo? 

Many small businesses can get stuck in old patterns that—at one point—were keys to success. While the initial game plan may have resulted in achieved goals, it may no longer lead to growth. Despite this, business owners struggle to embrace and implement new formulas. 

For example, I worked with a very efficient team at a small company. As the company personnel grew and the business scaled, productivity within the group did not grow at the same rate—clients were no longer interested in working with them. 

This was largely due to the fact that the manager (who was once a rock star) had turned into a bottleneck. When the team was small, she was able to be very hands-on—but that model was no longer viable once the business started to grow and volume increased. 

What is Holding You Back? 

I find that business owners often are hesitant to make a change due to their: 

(a) egos (“What do you mean I can’t do it all?”); and

(b) superstitions (“I don’t want to change the formula that made us successful in the first place”). 

Business leaders must take a moment to regularly evaluate the needs of the business. This starts with an honest conversation about issues that need to be addressed and problems that need to be solved. 

When working with any company, I almost always act as a feedback collector. By speaking with stakeholders or using anonymous surveys, I glean important information and can pinpoint trouble spots. If possible, I support the need for examination of these areas with objective data as well. 

With comprehensive information about the company’s needs and a collaborative approach, I team up with the business leader—linking the recommendations to his or her foundational goal of helping the company succeed. 

Business leaders are more receptive to adaptation and change when he or she feels ownership over the changes—and this is where I can help! 

Contact me today to talk about the needs of your business and which tasks I can take off your plate so you can focus on the big picture! 

What Business Leaders Need in Order to Focus on the Big Picture

Larger companies generally have a hierarchy of managerial staff who understand how to preserve the health of the business—involving the CEO in decisions only when necessary. These individuals are trusted resources that allow the CEO to focus on the big picture. 

Often, smaller companies do not have the luxury of a fully developed staff. As a result, the business leaders are much more involved in the details of their divisions (looking at project plans, etc.).

The question is, should they be? In today’s world, business leaders are looked upon as visionaries and influencers. To lead and scale effectively, they need to focus on the key growth activities, such as securing investment, building a public profile, creating relationships and driving strategy through marketing and technology rather than the day-to-day activities. 

In my practice, I’ve seen two common themes emerge within businesses large and small:

#1) There’s a comfort level with the familiar. Data, tactical plans, and balance sheets are far less scary than putting oneself out there in the ecosystem. Add some FOMO and fear of letting go in there, and you’ve got a CEO or small business owner who is fully entrenched in minutiae. Personally, if it were me, I’d much rather throw myself into a complex problem that needs to be solved rather than put myself in a situation where I’m not quite comfortable. 

#2) The bench is not deep. Many small businesses and startups are teaming with unseasoned employees who lack the experience and the know-how to make decisions and take measured risks. The bootstrapping/gig economy lends itself to businesses never building teams with in-depth knowledge, expertise, or longevity. 

If you find yourself struggling with the “in the business vs. on the business” dynamic, you can leverage an experienced consultant who will show you how to shift your focus to activities for strategic focus.

My strategic and tactical skills have been well developed from working for years in large companies. I can manage the details, projects, departments, etc. for the senior leader.

The business leader is then free to work in sales, PR, or marketing—the aspects of the business that will help it grow and advance. 

There have been many articles written on this topic such as this New York Times article from 2011 and this Forbes piece from 2013; I keep these two articles in my archives because they align fully with what I see every day in my business. 

There is a solution that will help smaller companies shift their focus to growth—me! 

Contact me today to talk about the needs of your business and which tasks I can take off your plate so you can focus on the big picture!

Simplicity is the Key to Business Productivity

Businesses can always benefit from simple ideas that result in increased productivity. This is particularly true in a startup environment where a vast amount of work needs to be accomplished in a very short time frame.

Usually, as a result of this scramble, there are a lot of people working in an unstructured way at an extremely fast pace. Yet without process, efficiency is lacking and their efforts can be futile—this is where I come in!

Most of my first-time clients are businesses who realize that there is a lack of coordination across a specific team. For example, I worked closely with a tech startup that was rapidly expanding its marketing efforts. Their way of executing had each team member working on a separate initiative, with no oversight and no correlated timeline. 

From this baseline, I was able to take all of the individual pieces and roll it into a comprehensive roadmap—a higher level framework—for the team to execute in a cohesive way. 

In my practice, I add value to businesses by addressing process issues (and more!) with practical, useful, and implementable strategies such as:  

• Checkpoint Meetings

Unlike large corporations which can be meeting-heavy, startups are generally not. It’s important to find a good balance—we add structure, but not so much it becomes oppressive. 

With startups, I leverage 15 minutes “stand up style” weekly conversations to highlight where there might be roadblocks, dependencies, and room for improvement. At the end of the week, we’ll hold a more comprehensive 30-minute meeting to determine if the week’s goals have been met. By giving up a lean 45 minutes a week for checkpoint meetings we can easily establish goals and gauge progress toward achieving them.

• Meeting Notes

When working closely with a company, I seek out ways to increase productivity. Unique to each company, I teach tips and tricks that are easily applicable and infused in day-to-day work life. I’m often asked what tools I use to stay organized. I leverage a mix of technology and good old pen and paper to track what’s happening in meetings. There have been numerous times throughout my career where my notes have saved the day by capturing pertinent details or commitments that are integral to progress. In an age where everything is texted or slacked, I still find value in being a little old school.

My perspective as a company outsider with a fresh view allows me to craft custom strategies for each of my clients. 

Do you want to increase efficiency and productivity? If so, contact me today! 

How Tragedy Made Me Work Harder

As a lifelong New Yorker, I have always had a great love for my city and its iconic skyline. Growing up on Staten Island I had the best of both worlds – a safe, quiet suburban environment juxtaposed with the excitement of the big city. It was a satisfying blend of chaos and calm. As a teenager I would take the Staten Island Ferry into Manhattan and bop around Greenwich Village going to the record and vintage clothing shops. The Ferry was the best tour, a free trip past the Statue of Liberty and a dramatic approach to the buildings that made up downtown Manhattan. No building was more awe inspiring to me than the World Trade Center. Even as a young girl, making that approach by boat, I knew then that I would make Manhattan my home and that I would someday “make it there”.

After earning my MBA, I moved into Manhattan and began to build my adult life. A life that included a significant other who was a stereotypical Wall Street Warrior. Working hard and playing hard was an understatement. We had a lot of highs and lows during our relationship. We led a life that was very pretty looking from the outside but from the inside it could be very dark. While my personal life was fraught with chaos, I had my rock – my job. My one companion that was stable and true. I was again living a life of contrasts – one part was very secure and the other was the opposite.

Work for me had always been a great escape because it was a place that was, for the most part, emotion free. Throwing myself into work brought good things. I gained recognition and was rewarded for my hard work. The more I put into it the more I got out of it. Personal unrest led to greater professional achievement. My chaos and calm paradigm came to the forefront in September 2001. That time in my life is one about which I speak very little. I had a full view of the events from three blocks away and my significant other worked and died on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center. The details of that day are burned in my memory from the time he left our apartment to his final goodbye on my work phone to walking home through rubble, dust and despair. Like for so many that day, my world had been turned upside down. The events of 9/11 and their aftermath shaped my career in significant and meaningful ways that still resonate with me today.

Post-9/11 I had to regroup and learn to live in my new reality. In the months that followed I learned three powerful lessons:

When in Doubt, Go With What You Know – I dove more deeply into my safe space, which was at this stage my job. Around the office my colleagues treated me as if nothing had happened. Being in that environment helped me heal. It helped me get back to being me, not the me who lost someone in 9/11. Me, the competent woman who could lead teams and get stuff done. It was no one’s job to baby me or feel sorry for me. It was a place where everything was “normal”. There was a job to do and there were expectations on me that needed to be met. I had no choice but to step up.

Moving Forward is the Only Option – With a traumatic event getting caught up in the “what ifs” and the “what could have beens” is inevitable. I rewrote the scenarios of 9/11 in my mind over and over. In a way, I felt that I had to because it was my way of never forgetting. I had to do a lot of work to accept that letting go didn’t mean I didn’t love or didn’t hurt or didn’t care. It simply meant that I had to live. Part of living for me was accomplishing things. What better place to accomplish than on the job? Simply driving toward finishing job tasks pulled me back to a place where I could look ahead to what was next rather than staying stuck in what could no longer be.

Count on Yourself – I can’t say this enough. Unfortunately, it’s a concept that many women discount. No spouse, company or family member will take as good care of you as you will of yourself. Financial dependence is not something to aspire to. Be capable, do the work, make a difference and you’ll reap the greatest benefit – independence.

Life is a series of tests, both personal and professional. We truly don’t know what we’re capable of until we’re pushed to our limits. For me, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross sums it up best…“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of those depths.”

This blog appeared on The Huffington Post August 5, 2016. http://huff.to/2bsPa2Y

The Utility Player Advantange

Any sports fan can define a utility player. What they probably can’t do is name one. Utility players are generally not given the All-Star nod, they’re not seen shaving in a Gillette ad or featured in magazines escorting models to events. Ask someone to name a great shortstop; quarterback or center and the conversation could likely go on for days.  Ask them to name a utility player and out comes their device for a Google search

If the specialists get the glory, the bank and the arm candy, why bother with being good at a multitude of things?

In my big corporate days and now in my consulting career, I’ve always considered myself to be a utility player. The key to playing that part is being able to perform several functions effectively and competently. Effectiveness and competence in the wake of change, growth or shifting economies are things I want on my team all day, every day. While being great at one thing has its advantages so does being able to succeed in multiple roles.

For example, excelling across multiple disciplines will help you:

• Prepare for bigger roles with wider reach – Quick, name a CEO who’s only good at 1 thing! I can’t either.

• Raise your profile throughout the organization – The more you do, the more people know you, the bigger your network and fan base.

• Be invaluable during tough times – As companies are tasked with doing more with less, the jack-of-all-trades becomes the go-to staffer.

Remember effectiveness and competence are critical. It’s not enough to be able to do a variety of things or to be willing to try something different. You have to crush all things equally whether you’re playing first base or playing shortstop.

Who's your favorite utility player? Leave your answer in the comments. Be creative! There are plenty of utility players outside of sports.

Three Strategies for Rapid Problem Solving

Consultants are often brought in to create a strategic assessment of a process or to solve a business problem. By the time the consultant is hired you can be assured that the team has been operating with sub-optimal processes in place and has learned to work around or work within its limits. No consultant ever hears the words, “Take your time figuring it out.” So how do you get to the heart of the problem quickly? I’ve found the following three strategies to be integral to swift problem solving:

Talk it Out: Stakeholder interviews are fundamental to information gathering. Talk to the people involved in the process, consumers of the process and observers of the process. These groups can provide a well-rounded view of what’s happening day-to-day, where the pain points are and how their own jobs are affected by the process issues. You’ll be amazed how in sync opposing groups can be when they’re offering feedback about what’s not working well.

Draw a Map: Whether you use the coolest flowchart tool or a pencil and the back of a napkin, laying out information visually will help highlight disconnects, redundancies and gaps in a way that talking through something never will. It will also help convey a problem to time-strapped execs in a succinct way. I once had a senior technology executive ask me to consolidate a 15-page analysis into three bullets. From that point forward, I’ve made sure I could articulate problems and solutions with pictures.

Find the Facts: Gather as much data as you can up front. Numbers don’t lie. Having solid data in your pocket will give you power to draw irrefutable conclusions and support your recommendations. In a data driven business ecosystem a gut feeling no longer carries the weight needed to secure buy-in for your recommendations.

When time and money are of the essence, the faster you can draw fact-based conclusions the better you position yourself as an efficient problem solver and invaluable resource to your clients.

Using Process to Accelerate Growth

If I’ve learned anything from my big company experience it’s that documentation is key. Very little gets done without an approval or a tick on a spreadsheet that says the VP of XYZ approves this. And with good reason, many industries are regulated and these decision archives become necessities in doing and staying in business.

But what about in smaller, ever-changing organizations like startups? In the nimble start up, often decisions are made on the fly or in the kitchen area over the free snacks and artisanal brew. Documenting decisions or process feels like overhead, when in reality it can be the jumping off point for next-level growth.

Earlier this year I met with a startup CEO with his sights set on scaling the organization. The team had grown exponentially and the reach of its product set was expanding. The company’s growth was outpacing its day-to-day operating model. He asked me how I could help them manage change within the organization. My answer, I’d write stuff down. After a month of working for this CEO, we had a plethora of project plans, process flows and accountability matrices. Laying this information out visually helped the team identify opportunities for improvement that would align standard operating procedures with the current size and scale of the organization. In addition, these newly defined processes were extensible enough to support future growth.

Another client hired me to build a pitch deck for a prospective ad agency. My assignment was to tell a cohesive story about the product, the brand and the market. I asked my client to send me whatever documents she had that I could turn into a presentation. She sent me roughly 20 multi-page emails containing discussion threads amongst the leadership team with cogent ideas, random thoughts, decisions made, decisions overturned, decisions remade. Email was this team’s only way of keeping track of what they were doing. From that stream of information I was able to build an easy to follow presentation that was used as the baseline for investor presentations and business plans.

When done right, taking time to document and archive ideas, processes and plans is an accelerator to growth. After all, you have to know where you are in order to see where you can go.

Why Hire a Consultant?

Many employers struggle with the idea of hiring a consultant. Especially when a business is in cost cutting mode or looking secure assets to fund growth. Why pay an outside consultant when you are already paying your employees to meet the company’s goals?

As a former corporate employee, I understand the team angst brought on by the arrival of a consultant. “Why does so and so get $200 an hour when I only get $100 for the same job?” “Why does he get to make his own hours and I don’t?” “Oh, THEY’RE the expert? I thought I was the expert?” Those are the collective thoughts that can crop up when a consultant is brought into the mix. Once the consultant – employee relationship is forged, however, it’s hard not to admire the consultant’s fluidity, his or her ability to not care about politics, and what appears to be the genuine enjoyment of the work. A lot of us doing the same kind of work each day or those trying to find a way up the corporate ladder don’t have the luxury of that experience.

I see two main advantages of hiring a consultant:

Efficiency: a consultant is there to do a job, not to schmooze, not to climb. Get in, get out, collect a fee, move on. It’s pure and simple. When an employer is looking to get results quickly a consultant can take them there without the distractions of performance reviews, career development, or training that is required of and expected by full-time employees.

Objectivity: a consultant can take more risk in telling it like it is. Consultants are paid for their expertise. We’re obligated to speak up, make recommendations and find the problems that a full-time employee might be too close to see. We get to do all this without worrying that we’ll commit the dreaded CLM if we say the wrong thing to the wrong person. You hired us to analyze, assess and fix. We’re not afraid to do it.

Putting key initiatives into the hands of someone who is outside your work family can be daunting. There is a degree of letting go and trust that has to be present when hiring consultants. More often than not however, consultants can give you a perspective you can't get on your own. In today's business environment, why not have that advantage?

Valiant Mind

Many people have asked me about the origin of the Valiant Mind name. Rather than leave the mystery out there, I thought I’d take to my blog to explain. I grew up in Staten Island, NY. Anyone who’s familiar with the 5 Boroughs of New York City knows that Staten Island has a small-town feel in a quasi-urban environment. To this day, Staten Island remains the only borough without a subway and the only without an inter-borough rail system. The only ways off the island are the Staten Island Ferry, buses or cars.

And speaking of cars, my first car memory is of a brown Plymouth Valiant that my parents owned. As a young girl, I thought it was really exciting that the car and I had the same first 3 letters of our names. Valiant and Valerie, it was serendipitous to a 7 year old! When it was time to scrap the car,  my father took the logo off the side for me. I’m sure that classic, silver Valiant logo is tucked away in a box somewhere only to be uncovered when it’s time for an attic overhaul.

It wasn’t until I was in the early stages of forming my business that the Valiant name popped into my head. I was trying iteration after iteration of my first and last name with the word “consulting” attached. Nothing felt right. After a day or two of naming struggles, a trusted mentor and marketing expert suggested I forgo something literal and use a word that had special meaning. I started playing word games with myself. Still nothing felt right. One night while trying to get to sleep an image of the Valiant popped into my head. That was it! Valiant! The next morning, I scrambled to look up the meaning of the word Valiant. It’s defined as possessing or showing courage or determination. Valiant felt right. It was in the few moments after where Valiant Mind came to life. What resonates most to me is the tie-in to my company name and my brand promise: dependability, authenticity and empathy. Giving my clients the peace of mind to know that when something is in my hands the job will get done. Just like that trusty brown Valiant got us wherever we needed to go.