I will admit that I have often had the same feelings.  There are times when I am writing a blog or article and thinking, ‘this is common sense stuff, no person will care about reading it.’  My experience  and those with whom I collaborate confirm a different scenario entirely.  There are a number of points I would like you to consider if you feel your writing and content will not be read or dismissed.

• Your ideas, observations and comments are as valid and worthy as any other persons.
• If you really look at what is included in the avalanche of online information, there is rarely anything truly new or ground breaking.
• People read online content for a number of purposes.  These may include learning, confirming, questioning, innovating, and sharing.  You do not need to write the ‘theory of everything’ to make an impact in the online world.
• Once you begin it is important to get in the ‘flow’ of content creation.  You will make an impact on others when they know you are a producer and the time spent reading your material is worthwhile for whatever purpose they are after.
• Write from personal experience and you will instantly have people interested.  There is nothing better than something written in first person to capture attention.  We are all interested in other people’s experiences as opposed to general information or theory.
• My clients are in business.  If you read business blogs can you count on more that one hand the numbers of time you read something truly new or earth shattering.  It is the same  with business books.  The ideas and information are re-purposed for the audience and you can make even the most commonly understood business ideas more interesting by telling a story.

If you are stuck and you need some help getting those fingers tapping on the keyboard, you are welcome to contact me and I can give you some ideas to help you get started.

Being a business judge has been responsible for some of the most powerful insights and learning in how to improve my own business.  As a judge I also know how difficult it is to detach yourself from your business to gain a clear view of what is looks like to others, be they judges or customers.  Despite the difficulty, detachment is absolutely necessary to gain a fresh perspective to inspire new ideas and the motivation to change.  Without detachment you can often be defensive and prone to rationalize your status quo.

There are a few ways to make this process effective.  If you are a sole operator you probably have the toughest challenge but you can do your research and analysis yourself or get help from a consultant, business coach or fellow business owner.

• Establish your judging parameters.  It is hard to benchmark your financial performance against competitors but can base your judging on the health of your finances and rate of growth.
• Do your research on competitors and similar organizations.  You can do this online and in person by visiting their premises.  In my judging we look at the office layout, cleanliness, ease of access, and other elements.  You can visit websites, visit forums, look through social media (Linked In, Facebook, Twitter) for insights into the profiles of your competitors and feedback from customers.
• Set up a scoring scale and use it.  For each judging parameter use a scale and score each company you research as well as your own.  I suggest you score your own business first and last.
• Judge the business and not the product or service.  There is an inclination to rate businesses that are engaged in exciting and/or interesting products and services higher.  I remember an instance of this with a comparison between and event management firm and a robotics firm.  Many judges could not comprehend how the event management firm scored higher.  The robotics firm was not as well managed, had immature processes, could demonstrate no focus on people development among other factors that were attributes of a model business.

When you have performed your research and filled in your score cards, it is time to go and spend some time thinking and planning.  You do this part of the process away from your business and distractions.   I cannot help but give  a tip that describes all the contestants in the contest that I judge, ‘focus on the basics and the detail.’

In our next blog we will explain how to convert your business judging to creating better results in your business.

Michael Feuer is the author of this new book that is published by Wiley.

Michael founded and grew OfficeMax in 1988 and grew the business in a highly competitive environment before selling the business in 2003.  OfficeMax grew to have over 50,000 employees and stores in all States except Vermont and operations in China, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico.

Michael’s entrepreneurial odyssey is described in this book as almost a case study and the book is a learning experience that every business person, entrepreneur and those aspiring to be such, will find incredibly useful and practical.  If you are getting tired of the same old material being peddled in the relentless flood of business books, you will find The Benevolent Dictator a welcome and useful investment for your time and money.

The Benevolent Dictator delivers sound business advice that is elegantly interwoven with excellent story based narrative to illustrate Michael’s opinions and business philosophies. I found the story about the
founding of Office Works intriguing for its stark contradictions to so many widely held assumptions about s founding a capital intensive business like retail.  In an era when so many people are fixated on a kid in a dorm room with a laptop, The Benevolent Dictator describes the founding of a real brick and mortar business.

Michael does not skimp on being transparent with his personal strategies and tactics.  There
is a story about Michael’s planned acquisition of Big Mart by OfficeMax.  The tactics employed by Michael to gain
information about the Big Mart business makes for very interesting reading.  His decision to abandon the acquisition when outbid by another company should be mandatory reading for its illustration of discipline and adherence to values.

There are so many great lessons in this book.  Instead of having a boring list of subject headers with explanatory text chapter by chapter, The Benevolent Dictator delivers a more interesting and impactful learning experience as a true
story.  These are some of the areas that have made me really consider my work in my business:

• Raising capital and leveraging
  ‘other people’s money.’
• Managing yourself, your
  ideas, and your effectiveness.
• Planning and setting
  goals.
• Managing people
  effectively to support performance.
• Creating competitive
  advantage.

I read this book on a five hour flight from Brisbane to Perth.  As I read I took notes and thankfully the cramped conditions in the 737 were out of mind.  I wish I had another book of this quality for the trip home, maybe I will read it again.

• Create competencies that are aligned with the objectives of the coaching program.  These need not be competencies in the formal sense but rather skills, behaviours, activities that are the focus of the coaching program.
• Set up a Course as a Coaching program.  There are numerous course settings but the one I use consistently permits the learner (coachee) to set up their own sessions.  You can also permit the coach to set up sessions as well.  You do not need to use this feature but I like it as a means of tracking the sessions and ensuring they are included in the Calendar so a manager may view the progress of the coaching.
• Link to Development Plans.  I always use the Development Plans so I have the most flexibility for the different actions and learning assignments included in the coaching program.  You can add anything to a Development Plan and the person being coached can record time spent and outcomes of the different actions.
• I use the 360 Profile tool to create and deliver self – assessments at various stages of the coaching program.
• I support my coaching with a specific Library for each person being coached.  This permits both parties to add materials and information in a central repository for collaboration and reference.
• The Assessment Builder in DOTS is great to get feedback from the persons being coached as well as providing a means to test new ideas and get feedback on tasks undertaken.
• The competencies are added to the persons profile as we progress in the coaching program.  This keeps an ongoing real time record of progress as well as great information for the Performance Reviews.  DOTS will include the competencies in the Performance Review dashboard so they can be discussed.
• Learning content is included in many coaching programs.  I create learning content that is both specific to the person being coached but also have a range of general courses that are applicable more widely.  For instance a recent addition to the courseware is a short course on creating ‘vision boards’ for strategic business and personal planning.
• I have recently been using the Course and Enrolment system in DOTS to canvass interest in coaching and permitting those with an interest to register.  The registration usually has an approval process so a manager or other interested person is aware of the interest and can approve or not approve the coaching program.

An increasing number our clients are using contractors as key (and sometimes numerically  dominant) workforce members.  Our clients are still required to deliver induction, cultural assimilation and ensure contractors are included in the risk and compliance systems.  DOTS enables our client organizations to engage the contractor workforce prior to their arrival at a work site or work place.

The DOTS LMS supports as many learning environments within the one installation as required.  Each learning environment operates independently from the other environments with access and viewing permissions.  Each learning environment can be uniquely branded and accommodate language differences.   Some of our clients have co-branded learning environments with their suppliers of contractor personnel.

The contractors  are provided a unique login credential and are welcomed on a home page that contains courses and other tools to execute what is required by the employing organization.   In most cases there are online courses with assessments.  The contractor who successfully completes the courses and assessments is considered job ready and can be automatically provided this feedback.

In some cases DOTS is used to manage blended and instructor led induction and compliance programs.  The DOTS interface permits the instructor to check and confirm attendance as well as deliver online assessments or enter results from paper based  assessments.   The instructor or site administrator can also verify licenses and certificates and upload copies of these into DOTS as necessary.

Reports on course completions and assessment results are available in real time and enable verification both at the work site as well as the data linked to site access systems.   Contractors may remain in DOTS and their access accounts can be activated or de-activated as needed.  The contractor information is retained in perpetuity and can be included in reports for audit and compliance purposes.

There is so much information and buzz about social media and online marketing strategies. It is a fascinating and rapidly evolving area that is leveling the playing field or small business to compete with larger ones. Our team at Sales Ecosystem has been working with clients to create a real game changing strategy to establish leadership in their markets. The fulcrum of the strategy is learning. Yes that is right L*E*A*R*N*I*N*G. This strategy is pushing our clients to the top of the pack in thought leadership and innovation. We are have established a regime of developing interesting interactive courses using a simple production tool that works in Powerpoint. We have created a unique branded learning portal using this Australian LMS and it can be accessed 24×7 and our clients can see who visited and what courses they viewed. There are also Libraries and Discussion Groups as well. The feedback our clients have received is incredible. In one case we developed courses to teach sales skills to the reseller network of one client and this has led not only to increased sales but also higher price points. Supporting our courseware strategy is a coaching service to add the personal contact to the online portal.  We have extended our coaching ‘through’ our clients and engaged directly with their clients.  This learning alignment has been a fountain of new thinking and ideas extending in one case to a two day off-site strategy session with the executive management team of both a vendor and select resellers.  This is a low cost high impact strategy that leverages your companies intellectual property to drive sales.