by Brian Epstein | Articles
Tackling business including how to achieve goals, set priorities and improve skills is often helped by a great cup of coffee (or tea or juice). As a business/career coach, I sometimes treat clients and colleagues, as I advise them on many career and management issues. And one place I used to go was a local coffee-deli-restaurant-bakery I’ll call BCW (now closed and replaced by a new business). What happened to BCW – and could a business coach have helped? Keep reading to find out.
Redundancy
Though it was a social venue, it often was, like many cafes, a meeting place for business meetings. Its very location was a kind of ‘how to succeed’ geographically. BCW was located on a main street, near a busy intersection with a streetcar and bus stop. It was spacious, yet intimate, with a summer patio. Yet, sites like Reddit and Yelp had no shortage of opinions as to why it’s good riddance.
Amidst the raves for certain menu items, there were dozens of comments and complaints about the service, the food, the size of the place and dealing with difficult people including the owner. Maybe she was overwhelmed at work. Many ‘posters’ recommended the nearby Starbucks as the better place to go. As I read the complaints, I began to get a picture of what *might* have caused this angst. ‘What not to do’ morphed into ‘how to manage well, reduce stress at work, meet and exceed goals with great service’, and overall ‘how to succeed’ in a business.
New Perspective from a Business Coach
Good decisions, bad decisions – sometimes it helps to have an outside-inside professional, like a Career Management and Business Coach to help you manage the myriad of issues in your working day. I generally work with corporate executives, but doing business day-to-day involves people from all disciplines. There are some things big corporations can learn from small business and vice versa.
As for what you can do when you’re at the mercy of review sites, and people dumping on you just because they can? Not much, because the web is all about democracy. The owner of BCW is still seeing these reviews, even though her business has shut down.
Exposure?
When (and if) you should defend your reputation online is something I’ll address in another post. For now, try envisioning your business as a main-street café. Where everything you do/don’t do contributes towards success or failure of that business. Where the world has a front row on how you prep and implement throughout the day. Your workplace ambiance has to be pretty darn good for people. That it’s the kind of meeting-place that succeeds with customers and clients.
Would you like to talk about your business issues over coffee? Consider the initial meetings as the appetizer before the ‘entree’ into complete career and business coaching! Book an appointment today.
by Brian Epstein | Articles
As featured on Dragons’ Den
I was recently interviewed by Dragons’ Den for my expertise on working with friends. Here is the article they published.
Working with a friend seems like a logical and fun proposition. A friendship at work (a “workship,” if you will) can come in many forms — hiring a friend, working for a friend or becoming partners. Having someone in the workplace that you already trust and like can give you a morale boost and an impetus to get some good work done. However, for all its benefits, turning a friendship into a workship can have its risks. Any business association can get complicated or strained, but when it’s with someone you’re already friends with, it can quickly test both ends of the relationship. That’s why it’s crucial to know what qualities to look for in a potential friend-turned-colleague, how to set boundaries and the best ways to manage any conflicts so the partnership can thrive. Here’s how.
SETTING UP FOR SUCCESS: WHAT TO ASK EACH OTHER BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Likability is key for a friendship, but it’s merely the tip of the iceberg when working with friends. Whether you’re a friend/boss or a friend/employee, it’s important that you both share core values. Career management and leadership coach Brian Epstein believes the most crucial values in a business relationship between friends (and any business relationship) are integrity, commitment, emotional intelligence, passion, trust and reliability. Beyond this, you should both be able to roll with the punches. A word of warning; if you seriously doubt some of these key values in your friend, it may be best not to work with them.
Is your sibling also your best friend? Epstein also warns that it’s perhaps “a good idea not to bring family members into the business fold,” since familial relationships often have less flexibility than normal friendships.
GETTING STARTED: WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR
Establishing clear responsibilities and expectations from the start can prevent a lot of the more common conflicts that arise from working with friends. Epstein even suggests putting together a sort of “prenuptial agreement,” with a “complete understanding of the skills, experience and strengths that each person brings.” This agreement should detail the workload both topically (what each person is responsible for) and time-wise (monthly, weekly, daily), as well as preferred working styles (eg. your friend/boss prefers to have scheduled meetings rather than an open door policy). Be as transparent as possible by outlining your weaknesses, concerns and future ambitions (e.g., determine whether the friend you hired is planning on making this a temporary stepping stone or a long-term position). Remember, this is not an exact science and this agreement can always be subject to review and revision. If possible, you may even want to begin your new partnership with a trial period where you both get to test drive the arrangement and establish clear guidelines from there.
And as your new workplace relationship takes off, you should anticipate a change in your old dynamic. You can’t always be buddy/buddy in a boardroom and you may pull back on the social time you spend together outside of the office because the work time has increased — and that’s okay. Being flexible while adapting to this new relationship will do a lot to ease growing pains.
MANAGING CONFLICT: WHAT TO DO WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
Any workplace friendship is bound to have its rough patches, and that’s where your guidelines come in handy. For example, if you’re being overworked by your friend/boss or if you feel like your friend/employee is not pulling their weight, referring to the terms in your initial agreement can keep the discussion from becoming too personal, and that is key.
“Conflicts should be about the business,” says Epstein, “no personal attacks should ever happen.” When working toward a solution, Epstein hopes each individual will be willing to talk and listen to the other person’s perspective in a diplomatic manner while using “I” statements to express their concerns. He believes other colleagues can also play a helpful role in tough situations like this, so it may be best to “invite outside opinions and judgements where possible to keep work scenarios unbiased.”
But a friendship-turned-workship is not all doom and gloom because, even in conflict, working with a friend can have its advantages. Don’t overlook the fact that since you started out as friends, you’re already comfortable with each other and you know how to communicate, even when it means tackling tricky situations.
It’s elements like this that can make a workship worth it — but only if the aforementioned values, clarity and adaptability are firmly in place.
Originally published on the CBC’s Dragons’ Den
by Brian Epstein | Articles
Developing your leadership skills has to do with many things – including Emotional Intelligence (E.I.). It’s no mystery. E.I. is a powerful tool and behaviour that will help you achieve business goals and improve your leadership skills.
Forbes Magazine calls E.I. ‘the ultimate soft skill’ in this article
As a business coach, I like to keep up with meaningful, relevant content. I also like to show clients how understanding and controlling your emotions can help you become an effective leader. In a high-pressure environment, leading and elevating involves managing people. This can sometimes involve emotions.
I like the Forbes piece. It confirms that companies seek out managers and leaders who have high levels of empathy and emotional control. Who are adept at building trust, motivated and able to inspire employee loyalty. Loyalty is essential for good productivity and results. Emotional intelligence inspires loyalty. This is one very important attribute that a good business coach can help you with. The ability to recognize, understand and control your emotions will help you manage your employees and enhance your leadership skills.
By relating better to other people’s feelings and behaviours, you can develop empathy and meet them where they are. That’s essential to great leadership, says the Forbes article. How do you actually measure the ROI on empathy, people skills and how we handle social relationships, as the EQ factor?
An article from workforce.com included the following:
“According to a research paper entitled EQ and the Bottom Line, ‘restaurants managed by managers with high emotional intelligence showed an annual profit growth of 22 percent versus an annual average growth of 15 percent for the same period.’
That’s not all. People with high EQ scores make $29,000 more on average each year than their counterparts with a lower EQ. One of the things that I like to do as a business coach is inspire clients with studies like these. They reflect potential, productivity and results. All the things a good business coach can help you with.
Ready to explore your Emotional Intelligence factor? Book a consultation with me today.
by Brian Epstein | Articles
As a business coach, one of the many that things I discuss with clients is how to achieve your goals within the framework of your company name and identity. I often have to get one fact out of the way first – that, yes, my given name is the same as the famous manager of The Beatles. But I don’t work in music. This is where brand identity can be confusing.
My business definition as ‘Success Coach’ should make it clear. I’m here to help companies succeed. As a business coach, I can help guide you towards success in many ways. For example, your corporate identity, brand image and name can stand tall or fall based on your company’s actions and reputation.
Consider Wells Fargo, longtime multinational financial-services company. It’s now also known for the scandal of creating over 2 million fake bank accounts by their own employees. The firm had an uphill battle to fix their reputation. This is definitely getting into damage control, and we’ll talk more about that in another blog post.
General advice about naming a company includes: Watch synonyms and mashups. It shouldn’t need a mini-manual. People should get it right away. And most of all, the name should *stand for something*.
Apple is a ‘rule-breaker’ because the name doesn’t actually tell you what the company does. It’s all about brand positioning. People get it right away. It’s as famous as The Beatles ever were, and most people use their products, everyday. A name that big has to be very accountable, and maintain a position of excellence.
Whatever industry you’re in, your name and brand identity are part of what determines how successful you are. In order to achieve your goals, you should be able to answer:
- What do you and your company represent?
- What are the most important goals you’re working to achieve?
- How does the general public perceive your brand?
A strong identity built on a strong foundation can be very powerful. And a business coach who works regularly with CEOs and managers of medium – and large-sized companies, can bring you the outside-inside perspective. Contact me for:
- Help with corporate and business goals.
- Help in brand identity and best practices
by Brian Epstein | Articles
As stores pile up with costumes and masks for Halloween, I think about how we often go through life not knowing what’s under a disguise. It’s more than having our hands in the no-sugar-added candy pail, and thinking, “Gee, if I knew for sure that was Jim’s kid, I’d give doubles.” We don’t necessarily all have those insights and advantages. Sometimes we have to do some work to find them.
Did you know October is also Gain the Inside Advantage Month? In the corporate world, we spend a lot of time trying to reach and define the key to business success. We often have to peel back layers of disguise, denial assumption, or simply corporate red tape to get to the crux of the matter. The advantage that’s concealed. It is up to leaders to help reveal those layers, but some do not know where to start.
This is where the insight advantage comes in. Often, the advantage is so buried that it can benefit from an outside professional to help bring it out. That pro can give you the insight you need. They can also help you recognize what you already have. Most businesses have a real competitive advantage. It may just take an outsider to help you identify yours.
The book, The Inside Advantage, by Robert H Bloom with Dave Conti highlights the strategy that unlocks hidden growth. It will help you capture that magic moment when customers select your product or service over your competitors. Bloom shares his 45-years of experience with the reader, and a success coach can do the same for you.
If you have a colleague, coach or mentor who give you the insights you need if you don’t have time to read this great book, you’ve already got an advantage. Contact me today, and I can help you get inside of those insights.
