We want to run one of the best small businesses. When looking to define success in the world’s terms we got confused – is the best small business the one that makes the best work environment? Maybe it’s the one that impacts the community the most? Or perhaps, it’s the one who is in business the longest? We couldn’t find the rules that we could agree with; so we made up our own and we call it The Art of Business – A 6-pack strategy to running a company that rocks.

It’s made up of 6 Parts; A-Players, Best Product, Good Systems, Strong Numbers, Cares, and Living The Values. 

Over the next 14-weeks I will be digging in a bit deeper into each one of these and share what I think makes us a company that rocks.

A-Players

Every team, every business has team members, employees, players, whatever the title, an organization will have more people than just you. People, the work they do, and the attitude they have are all going to make up the type of organization you create. It’s people that build the culture – not the motivational sign you hang up.  Even losing teams, talk about the importance of the – WIN.

For me, I want to work with A Players.  But what is an A-Player? How can you define what an A-Player looks like? To define an A-Player, you must select traits that you specify for the people you want to work alongside. Every type of business will have a different perspective on this. An A-Player for a hospital might be very different than an A-Player in a law firm.

In our organization, we define an A – Player by someone who shows the following traits:

• Can Do the Work
• Intuitively Acts on Next Step
• Working Towards Mastery
• Love’s the Suck
• Courageous Communicator
• Resourceful
• Works on Farm Time

Sounds good, right? We all want that kind of traits in our organization. We want to be surrounded by that. But, how do we do it? The answer is you create it, and you set expectations. No organization is all A-Players. You need B-Players too, and you will inevitably have some C-Players. Although, C-Players need to be coached up to be a B-Player or move out of the organization.

The best way to get A-Players is to attract them. Having clearly defined ideas around the type of person you are looking for will help you navigate through interviews, hiring, coaching, and sometimes firing.

The best way to lose A-Players is to allow C-Player behavior in your organization. I heard a story once about stallions and donkeys. That you don’t want to mix them in your barn.  If you have a barn of stallions and you introduce a donkey, the donkey will realize it doesn’t belong and will find its way out of the barn, or start acting more in line with stallion behavior. The same is true for the reverse, if you have a barn of donkeys and you bring in a stallion, the stallion will start acting like a donkey, or it will leave the barn. The rule is: don’t be a donkey organization. It will only attract more donkeys, and keep stallions away.

For example, let’s look at two fast food restaurants Chick-Fil-A and a fast food burger joint ‘Burger Donald.’ When you walk into any Chick-Fil-A you will quickly notice several things; they are fully staffed, it’s a fast-paced environment, they do little extras like bring your food to you, give you a hand if you have children and use words like, “My pleasure.” The team is dressed well, and I have yet to see anything less than the most professional work environment from their teams.

Now imagine Burger Donald. You walk in, and no one is waiting to take your order. After you stand there someone from the back comes up and takes your order, and then they start joking with the person working the drive-through, and back in the kitchen. The wait is a bit longer because they are understaffed. Everyone also has they own idea of what the dress code standards are. Which one of these restaurants do you think is operating with more A-Players? Which organization has been built to attract A-Players?

If you are a competent young adult looking for some extra income and a way to learn about business which business would you be attracted to? What about if you are a young person who doesn’t want to work, but your parents keep nagging you that “You need to get a job.” You are more interested in goofing off and getting a smoke break every two hours. Which place would you apply too?

We can see from the outside of a business the type of environment that the company creates and what are standard expectations. Not every business has such customer insight as a fast food restaurant, but every organization does have a reputation from the people who work there, previous team members, or other customers. People are smart and will quickly learn what is expected of them.

What about if you wanted to go work at Google? Do you already have an idea of you would have what it takes to work there? They even made a movie about it. Only the best of the best get into Google. If you have any doubts about your abilities or your performance, you won’t even try to get a job there. You want the same reputation in your business for what you do. That you set the tone and pace of being an A-player, so you continue to attract and build the right people and culture in your company.

It starts with your behavior as well; If you expect it, you better live it.  That might be a quote “If you expect it, you better live it.”

Don’t act like a donkey.

HEARD. WATCHED. READ.  

• If you ask one of my boys about cold weather they will tell you, “If you control your mind, you control the cold.” For the past 2 winters, I have done cold treatment with the boys which involve running into the outside with no hats, no coats, sometimes no shoes, and cold showers. Now before you call protective services, we do this intermittently, and they choose this. It’s simply to counteract their natural body tendency reactions for cold weather, and for them to realize they have a choice in how their body reacts to things. It all started because of this guy, Wif Hof. Here’s a video about his techniques and thoughts. I’m not saying we all need to jump in ice baths or climb Everest with only a pair of shorts. The idea is – you are capable of more than your body tells you. If you never test this, you will never know what you can really control. And just to clarify, your mom gave you wrong information – You don’t catch a cold by going outside with wet hair, or no jacket. MOM – if you are reading this – I love you 🙂
• “Happiness a choice you make and a skill you develop.” – Naval Ravikant
• “The truth is that competition (with others) is the opposite of creativity. If I am working hard to beat the competition, it actually prevents me from thinking creatively to make all concepts of competition obsolete.” – Terry Crews
• Here is the video we watched during our most recent Friday Growth Meeting. Giving and Receiving Feedback Also, Life.Church, where Craig Groeschel is the lead pastor, has some vibrant and powerful weekend messages you can watch on their website.