By Joe Evans

Christine Comaford, Contributor @forbes

Bob’s business was growing by a consistent 30% per year.

Then it stopped.

Two of his key sales people had left, followed by his VP of Marketing. A handful of his most promising emerging leaders were moving toward the door too. Bob’s revenue had flatlined. I was called in to stop the exodus and turn things around.

Sue’s business was growing by 100% per year. The speed at which the company was expanding was barely manageable. At any given time her company had 20+ job searches under way.

And there was no sign of a slowdown.

Until her people’s performance started to falter. Accountability became wobbly. At 5pm the office was a ghost town. The previous palpable energy in the office now was dull and dreary. Everyone looked burned out and tired.

Both Bob and Sue had the same problem: no People Plan.

What Inflection Point Are You Headed Toward?

In my 30 years of helping CEOs build highly profitable businesses, I’ve consistently correlated company challenges to what I call Inflection Points. At each Inflection Point your business is reinvented–there are profound people, money and business model changes. The people ones are the hardest. Without mastering them, the money and business model become irrelevant, because your business isn’t going to make it.

The business world is moving too fast to tolerate CEOs who don’t prepare for their next Inflection Point. Let’s look at the Inflection Points then we’ll lay out your People Plan.

Image Credit: Copyright Christine Comaford Assoc 2012

How’s Your People Plan?  13 Questions To Ask Now

Rate yourself on the following questions. Answer each with Yes or No, then total them up at the end.

1-Is your revenue growing as quickly as you want it to?

2-Is your profit growing as quickly as you want it to?

3-Do you have the right people in the right roles doing the right things?

4-Are you retaining or losing your superstars?

5-Are you using specific proven techniques to help your executive team lead better by seeing into their blind spots, overcoming challenging behaviors, expanding their vision and ability to elevate others?

6-Have you identified your next generation of leaders?

7-If so, are you following a specific proven process to cultivate them?

8-Would you like to get more accountability, communication, execution from your team?

9-Are you navigating rapid growth or turnaround where internal priorities are frequently shifting and the team is challenged to quickly adapt and stretch?

10-Are you frequently resolving conflict between key executives or team members?

11-Does your culture have a prevalent victim mentality where problems are focused on versus outcomes?

12-Do you know how to scale and allocate your human resources to get more done with fewer people?

13-Are you keeping your finger on the pulse of the culture and implementing programs to increase emotional equity?

If you have five or more “No” answers you likely have no People Plan. Keep reading to remedy this.

4 Key Components of Your People Plan

People Plans evolve over time. The reason most CEOs want one is three-fold: greater profit, greater revenue, greater retention and development of their key team members. With an effective People Plan you’ll get:

• 35% more productivity from your team members
• Close sales 50% faster
• Double revenue or net income annually

For version 1 of your People Plan you’ll need the following:

1-Individual Development Plans: Each team member across your company should know their next two possible evolutions (promotions imply a raise/title change, which may not occur)—whether they are up, across or within. The “within” evolutions are when their current role takes on significant new responsibility or acquires a new skill set. Think of a customer service rep who has now been trained in up-selling, down-selling, cross-selling and thus can now receive performance bonuses when their new skills are demonstrated. Plan out 1 year at a time.

2- Leadership Development Programs:  Every team member in your company should have the opportunity to apply for a Leadership Development Program. This program is a six month training and coaching intensive where the person develops significant new skills and changes previously limiting behaviors. Your next generation of leadership will come from the people who graduate from this program, and everyone who participates needs to “pay it forward” by mentoring a person in your company on enhancing their own leadership.

3-Lean Training: See my blog on Crushed Culture to learn the four short and sweet trainings (2.5 hours each or less) every staff member on your team must receive. Don’t assume since Joe works in the warehouse that he doesn’t need training on smart skills (aka management skills). Au contraire. One of our clients had a warehouse worker named Marv. He took our Neuroscience of Leadership training and one month later had optimized  warehouse efficiency and reduced costs by over $300,000 per month. Needless to say Marv has been promoted.

4-Accountability Structures and Rewards/Consequences: I covered super effective accountability structures in my Accountability Blog, so I won’t repeat it here. The main point is everyone must know their key “Needle Movers” for the year, quarter, month and be delivering results consistently. They get rewards for results and consequences when they miss them.

Don’t let your growth grind to a halt. And don’t tolerate a Crushed Culture like United Airlines and Hilton Hotels–two brands that I used to love–now have. (Hint: surly employees and inconsistent quality are huge signs).

Both Bob and Sue now have a People plan. Their cultural chaos is a distant memory. Bob’s growth is now at 42% annually, Sue had another year at 100% growth then we moved our focus to cranking up her profit and operational efficiency.

Christine Comaford has created and implemented People Plans at many of America’s most successful companies for the past 30 years. She’s also the author of the NY Times bestseller “Rules for Renegades.” Follow Christine on Twitter: @comaford

I shared this list with my Vistage group members... it is a collection of some of the best business books I have come across.    Below I have listed the book, a description of the value and a link to Amazon:

Leadership is an Art - Best book I have read on high level leadership - Amazon

The Marketing Playbook - Outstanding book on marketing strategy.  How to compete, new products and services.  Well written - Amazon

Top Grading - Discussed in our last meeting.  How to get the right people on the bus - Amazon

The Alchemist - Not your normal business book... this book is about life and work balance as well as priorities.  Thought provoking - Amazon

How to Become a Rainmaker - Excellent book for sales and BD, both practical and inspirational - Amazon

Fierce Conversations - A Vistage endorsed book on having the tough conversations and communicating with clarity - Amazon

Death By Meeting - A must read for executives.  This is a fable about meetings and very practical ways to make the far more effective - Amazon

I have many more listed on my LinkedIn Reading List.

via @inc by Eliza Browning

The word may sound stodgy. But courtesy and manners are still essential--particularly in business.

But the concept of etiquette is still essential, especially now—and particularly in business. New communication platforms, like Facebook and Linked In, have blurred the lines of appropriateness and we're all left wondering how to navigate unchartered social territory.

At Crane & Co., we have been advising people on etiquette for two centuries. We have even published books on the subject—covering social occasions, wedding etiquette and more.

Boil it down and etiquette is really all about making people feel good. It's not about rules or telling people what to do, or not to do, it's about ensuring some basic social comforts.

So here are a few business etiquette rules that matter now—whatever you want to call them.

1. Send a Thank You Note

I work at a paper company that manufactures stationery and I'm shocked at how infrequently people send thank you notes after interviewing with me. If you're not sending a follow-up thank you note to Crane, you're not sending it anywhere.

But the art of the thank you note should never die. If you have a job interview, or if you're visiting clients or meeting new business partners—especially if you want the job, or the contract or deal—take the time to write a note. You'll differentiate yourself by doing so and it will reflect well on your company too.

2. Know the Names

It's just as important to know your peers or employees as it is to develop relationships with clients, vendors or management. Reach out to people in your company, regardless of their roles, and acknowledge what they do.

My great-grandfather ran a large manufacturing plant. He would take his daughter (my grandmother) through the plant; she recalled that he knew everyone's name—his deputy, his workers, and the man who took out the trash.

We spend too much of our time these days looking up – impressing senior management. But it's worth stepping back and acknowledging and getting to know all of the integral people who work hard to make your business run.

3. Observe the 'Elevator Rule'

When meeting with clients or potential business partners off-site, don't discuss your impressions of the meeting with your colleagues until the elevator has reached the bottom floor and you're walking out of the building. That's true even if you're the only ones in the elevator.

Call it superstitious or call it polite—but either way, don't risk damaging your reputation by rehashing the conversation as soon as you walk away.

4. Focus on the Face, Not the Screen

It's hard not to be distracted these days. We have a plethora of devices to keep us occupied; emails and phone calls come through at all hours; and we all think we have to multitask to feel efficient and productive.

But that's not true: When you're in a meeting or listening to someone speak, turn off the phone. Don't check your email. Pay attention and be present.

When I worked in news, everyone was attached to a BlackBerry, constantly checking the influx of alerts. But my executive producer rarely used hers—and for this reason, she stood out. She was present and was never distracted in editorial meetings or discussions with the staff. And it didn't make her any less of a success.

5. Don't Judge

We all have our vices—and we all have room for improvement. One of the most important parts of modern-day etiquette is not to criticize others.

You may disagree with how another person handles a specific situation, but rise above and recognize that everyone is trying their best. It's not your duty to judge others based on what you feel is right. You are only responsible for yourself.

We live in a world where both people and businesses are concerned about brand awareness. Individuals want to stand out and be liked and accepted by their peers--both socially and professionally.

The digital landscape has made it even more difficult to know whether or not you're crossing a line, but I think it's simple. Etiquette is positive. It's a way of being—not a set of rules or dos and don'ts.

So before you create that hashtag, post on someone's Facebook page or text someone mid-meeting, remember the fundamentals: Will this make someone feel good?

And remember the elemental act of putting pen to paper and writing a note. You'll make a lasting impression that a shout-out on Twitter or a Facebook wall mention can't even touch.

via @inc

Like the Broncos signing Peyton Manning, getting the right person in the right role at the right time is key to the success of any organization.

Getty Image

Peyton Manning during a game against the Tennessee Titans at Lucas Oil Stadium

For football fans everywhere, but especially in Denver, the last two weeks have been a suspenseful ones. With Peyton Manning jetting around the country to be courted by general managers, coaches and potential teammates, all those in Broncos Country were keeping up with every article, post and tweet about what the future might hold for their team. Would the Broncos land the Super Bowl-winning yet injured star quarterback? And if so, what would happen to the celebrated young player that brought so much excitement to last season?

Those questions are answered now. I’ll reserve judgment, because for the Broncos management this was not an easy decision to make. In many ways, NFL teams are a good mirror of the corporate world. Sports metaphors in business might be cliché, but they are at times the best and simplest way to communicate fundamental truths. In this case, just as every team needs the right player for each position, so does your company.

That choice might be a difficult one to make. An ambitious, well-liked player with the right attitude and drive might not be able to take you to the Super Bowl or even the playoffs, for that matter. A veteran player that has led the team through many seasons may no longer be a good starting match-up against the opposing team. In business, just like in football, having the right person in the right role at the right time is critical.

Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great,” captured this business fundamental well. In order to be a great company, you must have the right people on the bus, sitting in the right seats. Conversely, the wrong people need to get off of the bus. In a company that is constantly evolving, which all companies should be doing, the right person for the bus is likely to change over time. Sometimes a person must switch seats and other times it’s best for that person to get off the bus–and in the finest cases they end up driving their own shiny, new bus that they will eventually fill with the right people too.

Keeping the wrong people on the bus or the wrong players on your team isn’t fair to anyone–the employee, coworkers and company or the player, fans and teammates will all suffer. It’s usually never an easy decision, but it’s the right one.

For the Broncos organization, signing Manning maybe wasn’t a hard decision. For the fans, there is a bit of excitement mixed with fear or confusion. Will Manning be ready and injury-free by the season opener? Who will be back-up, as Tim Tebow leaves the Broncos’ bus and jumps on a new one–a jet actually? Fans will have to trust that John Elway and crew are making the best decision for the team, just as employees will have to trust that decisions made by management, executives and owners will be best for all parties in the long run.

For many in the entrepreneurship game, long hours are a badge of honor. Starting a business is tough, so all those late nights show how determined, hard working and serious about making your business work you are, right?

Wrong. According to a handful of studies, consistently clocking over 40 hours a week just makes you unproductive (and very, very tired).

That's bad news for most workers, who typically put in at least 55 hours a week,recently wrote Sara Robinson at Salon. Robinson's lengthy, but fascinating, article traces the origins of the idea of the 40-hour week and it's downfall and is well worth a read in full. But the essential nugget of wisdom from her article is that working long hours for long periods is not only useless – it's actually harmful. She wrote:

The most essential thing to know about the 40-hour work-week is that, while it was the unions that pushed it, business leaders ultimately went along with it because their own data convinced them this was a solid, hard-nosed business decision….

Evan Robinson, a software engineer with a long interest in programmer productivity (full disclosure: our shared last name is not a coincidence) summarized this history in a white paper he wrote for the International Game Developers’ Association in 2005. The original paper contains a wealth of links to studies conducted by businesses, universities, industry associations and the military that supported early-20th-century leaders as they embraced the short week. 'Throughout the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, these studies were apparently conducted by the hundreds,' writes Robinson; 'and by the 1960s, the benefits of the 40-hour week were accepted almost beyond question in corporate America. In 1962, the Chamber of Commerce even published a pamphlet extolling the productivity gains of reduced hours.'

What these studies showed, over and over, was that industrial workers have eight good, reliable hours a day in them. On average, you get no more widgets out of a 10-hour day than you do out of an eight-hour day.

Robinson does acknowledge that working overtime isn't always a bad idea. "Research by the Business Roundtable in the 1980s found that you could get short-term gains by going to 60- or 70-hour weeks very briefly — for example, pushing extra hard for a few weeks to meet a critical production deadline," she wrote. But Robinson stressed that "increasing a team’s hours in the office by 50 percent (from 40 to 60 hours) does not result in 50 percent more output...In fact, the numbers may typically be something closer to 25-30 percent more work in 50 percent more time."

The clear takeaway here is to stop staying at the office so late, but getting yourself to actually go home on time may be more difficult psychologically than you imagine.

As author Laura Vanderkam has pointed out, for many of us, there's actually a pretty strong correlation between how busy we are and how important we feel. "We live in a competitive society, and so by lamenting our overwork and sleep deprivation — even if that requires workweek inflation and claiming our worst nights are typical — we show that we are dedicated to our jobs and our families," she wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal.

Long hours, in other, words are often more about proving something to ourselves than actually getting stuff done.

Are your 55+ hour weeks really productive and sustainable?

Jessica Stillman is a freelance writer based in London with interests in unconventional career paths, generational differences, and the future of work. She has blogged for CBS MoneyWatch, GigaOM, and Brazen Careerist. @EntryLevelRebel

By Dwight Frindt

Culturally, we are in a hurry, particularly in business. There is a huge driving force for results, for achievements, for action. Often just being busy looks like success. It’s gotten to the point that, as researcher Brene Brown says, “exhaustion has become a status symbol.”

The problem is new research is emerging and it looks like all this multi-tasking, fragmented attention and “busy, busy, busy” isn’t actually healthy or the recipe for success. Being in a constant state of reacting to “incoming” and jumping to respond to everything that comes your way is not leadership and constantly driving people and yourself relentlessly forward is not necessarily great leadership either.

We want to remind you of “the power of the pause.” This is a step that can be made anytime, anywhere and requires no special tools or equipment. Being able to stop yourself, gather your energy and breathe is actually an incredibly powerful and masterful leadership move that is deceptively simple.

We aren’t talking about shutting down, withdrawing, hiding or freezing. We are talking about returning to your center and a place of balance. We are talking about allowing yourself to exhale fully, (since at the pace most of us go we are halfway holding our breath), and just being thoughtful and reflective for a minute or two.

If you doubt the power of this consider the recent interview Oprah Winfrey did with Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook. (Click here to view.) Apparently she has a policy at her company for twice per day mandatory meditation time. As she says in the interview, many people are overwhelmed by the idea of meditation so she asks that they at least unplug, and take quiet time for reflection. Whether or not you are an Oprah fan or consumer of her programs and magazines is not really important here. She is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the US and has been so for many years. It is of note that someone who has built such an empire puts so much value on reflection and quiet time that she has made it a mandatory workplace policy.

We know of one coaching client that was so overwhelmed at the idea of any stillness, quiet or reflection that he wanted to flee the building just considering it. He finally agreed to set the alarm on his watch for 1 minute each hour to stop, breathe and just slow down. After committing to this practice he absolutely loved it and was able to create specific segments of time to gather his energy and pause.

So we ask you to consider incorporating “the pause” into your repertoire. Even just a couple of minutes per day has value. You might be surprised how changing your pace creates new avenues for creativity, intelligence and other positives to emerge.

by Leo Bottary

A reinforcing loop that is.  One of the most powerful dynamics of the peer advisory group is the momentum created when peers engage in a cycle of learning, sharing, applying, and achieving.  Whether they 

are executives with different skills sets from the same organization or CEOs collaborating with fellow CEOs from entirely different industries and backgrounds, they participate in a process that by its nature fuels continuous improvement.  For larger companies, even those with robust formal training programs, internal peer advisory groups can play a major role in maximizing a company’s Return On Development.  For small businesses, it’s often a brilliantly effective stand-alone solution for developing people and growing the enterprise.

The prevailing model in many large companies today is what I’ve described in earlier posts as Trickle-Down Leadernomics:Traditional episodic training designed to stimulate positive behavioral changes, aimed to build better leaders who inspire commitment rather than mere compliance, in an effort to create a healthier culture, a more productive workplace, and happier employees whom you hope will one day perform like a well-oiled machine and drive double-digit growth and profitability for years to come. (Notice the amount of “trickle-down” it takes to achieve the desired result).

The two big problems with Trickle-Down Leadernomics are 1)  If you believe the axiom that “practice makes perfect,” then you would probably agree that what you learn in training, while inviting and practical, is not likely to find its way into your daily routine unless you have the discipline and support system to assure its application.  And even then, short term behavioral changes tend to give way to old habits.  2) Since most companies don’t have a formal mechanism for helping individuals share and apply what they’ve learned, the organization by definition gets shortchanged.   It’s a bit like planting a garden and not giving it water or sunlight.

Believe it or not, I’m a HUGE fan of formal executive development, which is the reason I can’t stand to see so much of it go to waste.  That’s why I believe the reinforcing loop inherent in a highly functioning peer advisory group is worth some thoughtful consideration:

Learning – It’s the first stage of the process and, for too many organizations, it’s often the last.  In Peter Senge’sbook, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, he describes learning organizations this way: “…where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, are where people are learning how to learn together.”  Senge goes on to say that we wouldn’t suggest we learned how to ride a bicycle if we only actually rode the bike once.  It’s about demonstrating the capacity to produce quality results repeatedly.  It’s the difference between riding a bike and being a bicycle rider. Peer advisory groups create bicycle riders by fostering deep learning.

Sharing – Whether it’s knowledge gained from reading a book or attending an offsite training program, sharing delivers value to our peers and colleagues and, in our role as teacher or conveyor, helps us embed what we’ve learned.  Peer groups not only engage in rich dialogue about cutting-edge concepts, but the group members tend to ask hard questions and challenge each other to tackle complex issues using their newfound knowledge.  Peers reinforce and essentially give each other permission to try new ways of working.  As I wrote last week, peer to peer influence is incredibly powerful.

Applying – It’s hard to stress the importance of applying what you’ve learned.  Can you imagine a football team showing up for a game without having practiced?  It’s unconscionable.   The best of the best don’t rely on talent alone to excel or win championships.  They take what they learn and apply it until it becomes second nature.   Peer groups hold us accountable for practicing our craft and fine-tuning news ways of working.

Achieving – Good behaviors will replace bad ones, but only over time and after repeated success.  Achieving inspires believing.  And once you believe in yourself and grow to trust a newfound way of working, it fuels the hunger to learn more and the cycle continues.  Achieving also inspires others to emulate your behavior.  Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner call it modeling the way!  As a CEO you can model the way for your peers and your employees and, as leaders in larger companies, you can do the same.   It’s about walking the talk and others following your lead.  There’s nothing more powerful.

If you don’t mind getting thrown for a loop, then you’re an excellent candidate for either joining an external peer advisory group or starting one in your organization.   If you’re planting the garden anyway, why not help it grow?