BIZBUZZ: D. Sanders – Built To Serve

This is episode 6 of BIZBUZZ.

I stimulate conversations that challenge business owners to consider new possibilities and to Act Boldly.  The following video highlights some of the comments from Dan Sanders’ book Built To Serve that resonated with me.

Hi, I’m Gary Brown a FocalPoint business coach.

Welcome to BIZBUZZ.

I’ve chosen to comment on Built To Serve, a book written by Dan Sanders that deals essentially with the subject of leadership.

I’d like to highlight three observations from the book that interest me.

The first deals with vision.  Sanders contends that vision is about an organization’s purpose.  It’s the heart of an entity.  It has more to do with significance than success.  I couldn’t agree more.  Too often vision statements get used to paper over cracks in the lobby wall.

My next observation deals with mission statements.  I’ve found that people sometimes treat vision and mission as synonyms, when in fact Sanders identifies mission as ‘what you do to achieve the vision’.  How does your organization view these two statements?

My final comment deals with Sander’s contention that leaders interested in long term success should regularly ask themselves these three questions:

1. what have we done for our customers?
2. What have we done for our employees?
3. What have we done for our community?

If we are built to serve, these three questions seem very logical.  They might be logical but do we do anything with them?  Do we see them as central to our role as leaders?

That’s it for Built To Serve.

Stay tuned for more BIZBUZZ

Your comments are always welcome.

BIZ BUZZ Introduction

I am a FocalPoint business coach and I’d like to welcome you to the introduction of BIZ BUZZ.

BIZ what?  Let me explain.

A long time ago, my father used to carry me on his shoulders as he took me to the local barber shop for a hair cut.  Apparently, I would pepper him with questions, as he walked (remember, I rode).  So, I’m a “question asker”.  I’m also aware that as I practice a habit of life long learning, I ask better questions.  So, as part of my coaching journey, I augment my experience with on-going learning and add to my question bank.

So, back to BIZ BUZZ.  I decided to produce a series of videos that will allow me to share the key insights that I’ve gained from the books that I’ve read or the workshops that I’ve attended.  My interest is to stimulate conversations with business owners that challenge them to consider new possibilities.  I’m calling these presentations – wait for it – BIZ BUZZ.

BIZ BUZZ is intended to pique your curiosity.  BIZ BUZZ is intended to provide you with a small jolt that might just indicate that you and your business would benefit from a change.  They might even generate some BUZZ in your workplace.

Since I’m a business coach, the subject matter of BIZ BUZZ will always relate to business.  That is not to say that other areas of your life can’t or won’t benefit.  It is just that my primary area of interest is on the business side of things.

The videos will be quick and as I get more comfortable in front of the camera, perhaps my sense of humour will occasionally appear.

Stay tuned.

Juxtaposition: Music versus Business

Divine Brown had just finished performing Saturday night at the Waterloo Jazz Festival.  My wife and I both stood to stretch as the Matt Dusk band was coming on stage to warm up.  This is when the stranger seated behind us said hello.

This is one of those strangely coincidental conversations.

After exchanging several generalized pleasantries, we learned that Mr Friendly is an executive business coach.  Small world!

As the wind instruments gathered strength on the stage, we were discussing the word reflection and sharing our mutual thoughts about the amount of reflection that takes place in a business world where the mantra seems to be “go, go, go”.

Crowd listening to Matt Dusk (courtesy M. Dusk)

This led to my new found friend asking the question “what single skill yields the greatest benefit for the small to medium sized business owner?”  I widened the question by adding knowledge and attitude to the mix and then responded by saying that an overall attitude towards striving for differentiation was key.  His answer was communication, to which I agreed that it was hard to argue against effective communication.

What do you think?  What single skill, knowledge or attitude would you say yields the biggest return?

I invite your comments to the above.