In my latest quarterly meetings I’m sharing the concepts from a phenomenal book. “Now Discover Your Strengths,” by Marcus Buckingham. It changes how people look at their own growth and development. The book works from a couple of essential rules.

First, we tend to be obsessed with our weaknesses and try to improve on them. The reality is that in any area where we’re truly weak, we can climb from pathetic up to really bad. So if you’re not good at math, you’ll never be good at it, no matter how hard you try.

Second, there’s a big difference between a skill and a strength. Many people spend time using skills, but not achieving peak performance. Buckingham’s definition of a strength is something you’re pulled toward and want to do. When you’re doing it, you’re highly engaged. You’re curious about how you can do it better. When you’re finished, you feel energized and want to do it again. If you look at your workday through that filter, you’d probably put your focus in different areas.

For example, I’m a person who’s good with numbers and finance, statistics and so forth. Although this is a skill of mine, if I spent all my time crunching numbers for a company, it would drain me. However, if you give me a chance to work with a challenging CEO or leadership team of a company, I’ll be there in a second. And even though I’ve worked hard, when I’m done I’m energized and want to do more. That’s a strength.

In an ideal situation, you should spend 80 percent of your time playing to your strengths, and spend 20 percent polishing your skills so they’re reasonable. This can create a new environment for growth. According to Buckingham, less than 20 percent of us get to play to our strengths.

Coach Kevin’s Challenge

Are there areas that your company can focus its training to develop employee strengths? Where can you leverage the desire to improve strengths, so you come away with a net energy gain?

I’m working in Dubai this month to meet with clients. During my journey here I considered why I fly halfway around the world, every quarter, to meet with companies. The reason is simple. The meetings make sure that their planning and execution gets results.

After the first six to 12 months—while I get a company up to speed on the Rockefeller methods I use—the meetings ensure these methods get ingrained into a company’s DNA. I facilitate a quarterly meeting, sometimes an annual one, in the same way. We work to build habits they can continue on their own.

We review the past quarter: What worked, and what we’ll do better next time. We review the commitments the company was scheduled to deliver on during the quarter. Finally, we decide as a group what the top 3-5 things are to accomplish during the next quarter.

The key is having an outside facilitator at the meeting, someone to hold an executive team accountable to what they said they’d do. Without this, their efforts wouldn’t be as focused, tangible or accountable. I use two tools for this. Number one is counting the percentage of their commitments completed on time. I also measure those top 3-5 things, goals we call rocks. If either of those fall below 80 percent, then we’ve got a failure on our hands.

Acting as an outside facilitator is key. But I’ve got to say, it’s sometimes not fun to hold these CEOs accountable. There are times when the tension in the room is so thick you’d have to cut it with a chainsaw. But the fact is, they haven’t come close to delivering what they intended to deliver. So they let themselves down.

The interesting part? Most of the time when people really miss the mark, I don’t need to be tough on them. With such driven, successful people, during that powerful silence they reprimand themselves. Coaches often struggle with that, because they’re too worried about companies liking them or being best friends. After a meeting with a dedicated, outside coach, they step up their game.

Coach Kevin’s Challenge

What can you do to stay focused on your commitments? Is there any way to hold your team accountable to your top goals?

The Rockefeller Habits methodology is, quite simply THE BEST way to improve the performance, profits and growth of any business.  These Habits are clearly applicable to any industry, as proven by over 20,000 companies using it worldwide. 

After using it for the past few years with my own clients, I can certainly see why the book, Mastering The Rockefeller Habits, is consistently ranked in the Top 20 strategy books on Amazon.

I invite you to come spend 2 days with me  (January 28-29, 2009) for an executive development program for leaders of mid-sized firms with 30 to 2,000 employees. Come experience the power of this system and explore what it could do for your company.  

Scheduled over two days at the end of January, it’s the perfect opportunity to map out a strong, strategic course for 2009.

You can register online or call me at (604) 313-2229 to learn more.

Designed for TEAMS led by C-level executives and division heads, this event teaches the practical application of high-caliber business-building concepts. Participants walk away with a concise, one-page strategic plan – a customized framework for business development for the coming year.

This two-day event is designed to position you to:

▪         Recognize and act on high-payoff initiatives

▪         Keep everyone in your organization aligned and accountable

▪         Create customer loyalty that makes price irrelevant

▪         Fuel growth with smart cash-flow management

▪         Multiply cash flow and profits

▪         Drive your company to the next level

▪         Catapult ahead of competitors

▪         Know what’s working at today’s mega-growth businesses

If you haven’t read the book, which includes 10 illuminating case studies from client companies achieving stellar results, let me know and I’ll send you a copy.

Bring your executive team for this 2-day event and save on tuition. If you bring a team of 5 or more, we will give you and your team a complimentary half-day follow-up session.

If you know an entrepreneur, company or colleague that may benefit from the Rockefeller Habits, I want to send them a free copy of the book so they can see if this program is a fit for them. Send me their contact information and I’ll mail the book today.

For more information, including FAQ’s and takeaways for this event, please click here.

If you are not familiar with The Rockefeller Habits, one of the key practices is for the core executive team to meet every day for 7-12 minutes; then the executives meet with each of their teams for 7-12 minutes, and those people then meet with their team for 7-12 minutes so the whole company gets aligned and focused each morning. These meetings can either cascade down (like I just explained) or cascade up.  

For those of you who already do daily huddles/meetings (as recommended in The Rockefeller Habits methodology), you’ll enjoy this brief video of a Vancouver company that mastered the daily meeting format. Watch how incredibly powerful this technique is in getting the whole business aligned as a highly productive, laser focused team. You will be amazed that this meeting lasts only 7 minutes. If you haven’t introduced these meetings into your business, this video will show you why this is a highly recommended strategy for companies that are or want to be growing fast. (By the way, how would you feel if your competitors started doing these meetings on a daily basis?) 

If you want to know more about these meetings, please ask me or read about it in Verne Harnish’s book, The Rockefeller Habits. 

If you are at all familiar with the concept of doing a daily huddle, you know that the concept is very simple and makes sense, however, it may seem like a cumbersome or time consuming thing to do.  The daily huddle is a group meeting with every individual in your company.

In his book The Rockefeller Habits, Verne Harnish reinforces the power of the daily huddle.  The best teams on the planet need to meet every day to ensure that everyone is on the same track and no one is on the line.

1-800-GOT-JUNK is legendary for revolutionizing the junk business.  Here’s an example of how they use the daily huddle to drive their company ahead and ensure that things continue to move ahead every day.  Watch the video to see for yourself what a competitive edge it brings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go5-PEhyIl4