What Is "Corporate Patriotism" And Why You Need It

By Patrick Mahan

What Can "Corporate Patriotism" Do For Your Company?

There is a lot of talk about Company Culture these days. A strong company culture seems to be the glue that holds a company together and also the fuel that drives it forward.

What is Company Culture? I believe it is a collective emotion similar to patriotism (the love and devotion one feels toward their country).

CEO's strive to create a similar emotion within their company, where employees feel a love and devotion to each other, their customers and the mission of the company.

Those who get it right reap huge benefits. The stronger a company's culture, the more magnetic it becomes... attracting and keeping the most talented employees, attracting and keeping the best customers, attracting and keeping bigger profits.

Companies with strong cultures are inspired. Their employees are inspired to do better work, and their customers are inspired to keep coming back for more.

And another benefit ... the stronger a company's culture, the less need there is to implement strict policies, rules, organizational charts, endless meetings, and procedures.

Now, a few questions for you...

Which would you rather have: Employees or Followers?

By Patrick Mahan

In his bestselling book, Tribes, author Seth Godin says: 

"Managers have employees. Leaders have followers."

Are you a Manager ... or a Leader?

Do you have employees ... or followers?

These are important distinctions. And your answer may be the single greatest predictor of the success - or failure - of your business.

Why? Because people don't want to follow orders. They want to follow a passionate leader. They want to be led, not pushed. They want to be inspired, not directed.

Do you want to get the most out of your team? Then stop giving orders and start becoming someone worth following. 

When you inspire people to rally around a common goal and encourage them to become part of something meaningful and bigger than themselves, then together you will create a synergy that is capable of producing extraordinary results!

I think this quote says it best ...

"If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

What are your thoughts?

Check Below the Surface

By Patrick Mahan

Last summer, I wanted to make the grass in my front yard look like a baseball field (or golf course). I tried all kinds of strategies. Aerate, overseed, water, fertilize... but the grass wasn't growing like I wanted it to.

I asked an expert and he told me the pH balance in the soil was off. It was too acidic. He said you can try all sorts of strategies and tactics, but if the underlying chemistry isn't right, then nothing will grow.

I think this is a good business analogy. If the chemistry isn't right, nothing can grow.

So dig below the surface and look at the chemistry of your team or company. Is it acidic?

You can try all sorts of "topical treatments"... bonuses, incentives, corporate restructuring, mergers, acquisitions, new marketing campaigns, strategic planning, etc. But the real roadblock to growth and sustainability often lies below the surface.

And the solution may be changing your chemistry rather than your strategy.

"Synergy comes before strategy." - John Calipari, head coach of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball National Champions

Put Customers Second?

By Patrick Mahan

Employees first, customers second. You can build the world's best wagon, but if the horses aren't motivated to pull it, it's useless.

Is it the Mousetrap or the Cheese?

By Patrick Mahan

Every business wants to build a better mousetrap, but what they really need may simply be a different kind of cheese.

Strategist vs. Chemist

Sports and business are a lot alike. Some of the best coaches in history were not the best strategist, but rather the best chemist. They knew team chemistry was more important to success than individual talent or even X's and O's. They knew how to get everyone pulling in the same direction toward a common goal.

Unfortunately, most business strategy often neglects team building and focuses more on profits. But profits are like wins, a by-product of great chemistry.

"Synergy comes before strategy." - John Calipari, head coach of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, 2012 NCAA Men's Basketball National Champions

5 Step Business Plan

Things don't have to be complicated to be effective.

I've been thinking a lot lately, trying to pinpoint the basic ingredients that make some businesses great. Here's what I came up with—a very basic five step business plan...

1. Employees come first. You can't pull the cart all by yourself. So treat your team members like gold and they'll pull harder for you.

2. Create something (a product or service or idea) that is truly remarkable and wrap it in a story that people can relate to and want to share.

3. Get it into as many hands as possible (give it away at first if you have to).

4. Reward the people who are telling your story. Treat them like royalty and they'll reward you with loyalty.

5. Profits start flowing when loyal customers begin evangelizing for you. Take a big chunk of those profits and re-invest it into improving the Customer Experience.

What do you think? What would you add (or change)?

How Employee Morale Affects Profits

By Patrick Mahan

Now is the time to THINK INSIDE THE BOX!

Most businesses spend the majority of their time, energy and money on two things (usually in this order):

1. Acquisition of new customers
2. Retention of current customers

But how many companies take the ZAPPOS approach, putting company culture and employee morale FIRST before everything else?

New research shows that putting employees first, even before customers, could pay huge dividends...

A company with highly engaged employees achieves a financial performance FOUR TIMES greater than companies with poor engagement.

What does that mean? 

Are Unproductive Meetings Killing Your Morale and Productivity?

By Patrick Mahan

If so, you are not alone.

More and more research is shedding light on the truth about meetings.
And that is... they are a colossal waste of time!

Stop re-hashing the hash that's already been hashed. Get out of the locker room and get into the game!

Don't get stuck in the "ready, aim... aim... aim" trap that meetings often create. If you really want to improve your business, then you have to get out of the boardroom and get in front of customers!

According to a Microsoft survey...

People across the world spend 5.6 hours per week in meetings. 69% of the people in those meetings feel they are unproductive.

How many hours per week do you spend in meetings?

Source: http://blog.socialcast.com/how-3-billion-meetings-per-year-waste-time-money-and-productivity-in-the-enterprise/

How to Hire the Right People

By Patrick Mahan

In business, no decision is harder—or more important—than hiring the right people.

Your people are without question your most valuable asset. And while hiring the right person is difficult, getting rid of the wrong person is even harder. For that reason, the hiring process can and must be exhaustive.

A lot of companies make the mistake of hiring employees based upon educational background and experience. However, by limiting your talent pool to only those with years of experience and Harvard MBA’s, you are missing out on a large population of highly motivated and talented people.

Rather than looking at resumes, consider instead looking at the person. Not just on the surface, but deep within their personality and character.

Where to Begin...

Something to Look Forward to...

By Patrick Mahan

Humans are goal-striving organisms. We were designed to set, pursue and achieve goals. And when we act in accordance to our design, good things happen!

In contrast, when a person becomes uninspired to set, pursue and achieve goals, something entirely different happens. Since they are not acting in accordance to their design, they begin to experience "problems", discomfort, unhappiness and even depression.

These issues are caused by a lack of goals. When you feel that you have nothing to look forward to, naturally, that's when depression sets in.

To overcome this, you must create a compelling future for yourself.

How?

By finding stuff to look forward to.

Like what?

Vacations, movies, the weekend, time with friends and families, holidays, special events ... It can be anything big or small. But ultimately, it's up to you to create moments to look forward to. That's the key to feeling young, happy and fulfilled.

"Life isn't measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away."

Have you ever noticed how often it seems that a person's health declines after retiring?

Why?

Because they have lost 4 important things:

1. a sense of purpose
2. something to look forward to
3. a routine
4. a regular sense of accomplishment

They no longer believe that they're growing. And when an organism is no longer growing, it's dying! The good news is, unlike other organisms, we have the ability to grow spiritually, mentally and emotionally long after our physical bodies have stopped growing. That means we can choose to keep growing our entire lives! But you have to make that chioce. It won't happen automatically.

Now, while goal setting is a key ingredient to success, be careful not to become overly obsessed with it. If we spend all of our time trying to get somewhere else, then we can never fully enjoy and appreciate where we are.

If you’re always driving forward at 100 mph, then it’s hard to appreciate the view!

Sometimes you just need to pull over, put the car in park and enjoy the scenery.