Many of you will know the story.

You put a frog in a pot of boiling water and it will jump out. Put it in a pot of cold water and then gradually turn up the heat the frog will eventually boil to death.

This is how I relate to most of us  with regard to having regular health check ups. We go along putting up with the minor creaks and pains and before we know it - Bingo , a heart attack. The same applies to bowel cancer, without regular checkups we wake up one day in pain, go the specialists, have a colonoscopy and find we have bowel cancer.

This is so for those over forty. You would'nt let your car go without servicing for a couple of years yet this is the way you treat your inner health, you never get it serviced.

As someone who believes in acting the minute something sounds or feels wrong, I would have had open heart surgery by now if I had not noticed a minor change in my efforts at the gym  a year ago. One of my sisters would still be with us today if she had gone to the sepcialist when she first had pain. No, she was a nurse and knew better. She chose to ignore it, thought it would go away and she died too early. Again, I would have had the same issue had I not had regular tests.

You are no use to your family and your business if you are out of action due to your own stubborn atttude and do have regular check ups. I don't mean just going to your GP, go and have an echo stress test on your heart, have a colonoscopy, get you skin checked by a specialist, have your eyes checked, get your hearing checked and measure your various blood levels for potential early warning signs.

If you don't then your are not only a dill, but also selfish. Just make sure your life insurance is paid up.

I keep coming across business situations where business owners or the CEO are trying to make changes to their business to bring about a higher level of performnace only to hear the words It's not happening they just will not learn or change from what they have been doing for years.

To take a hard nosed attitude, sometimes you just have to ignore them and focus on those who will embrace change as highlighted  at Toyota, Principle 10. Train exceptional individuals and teams to work within the business philosophy to achieve exceptional results. work very hard to reinforce the culture you want.

How can you expect people to change if you don't train them ?

Implement a program of continuous improvement that includes upgrading skills. For example, in Victoria, the State Government has a free program called Skills for Growth where a specilaist will visit you, develop a traing plan and find suitable programs for your staff. Your investment is paying for the courses they attend and, if they are upgrading skills that can be subsidised. ( Contact me if you require any information )

It is important to sell the dream or the vision and let them see that without a change of attitude and being flexible and/or able to do more than one thing competently the end goal will never be achieved.

Use training to show them how. I recommend that you make training a key KPI in their job description and a key part of any performance review.

Beware the dream stealers and the ludites

How often have we heard of someone dying unexpectantly ?

As a business owner/leader you should be setting an example when it comes to regular check up on your health. I bet that  you would not let your scheduled car service go too far beyond the recommended next service date.

So why don't you take the same attitude when it comes to your health.

I recently requested a series of checks as a prevention measure  and the end result was four stents inserted in the arteries leading to my heart. I had no previous symptions.

It pays to have  apreventative health plan of heart stess tests etc.

The story about the frog in a pot is that if you put a frog in boiling water it will jump out. If you put a frog in cold water and gradually turn up the heat it will eventually die in the boiling water as it becomes accustomed to the gradual heat increase over time.

 The same applies to your own health. If you do nothing to check your ongoing health, one day you will wake up and find you have some serious health problems and could lead to death. What would this mean to your business?

You would not let your car go without a service at a regular planned interval. Then why don't people take the same strategy for their personal health. What health problems are creaping up on you an you are unaware?

Do the right thing by yourself, your family, your business, your employees and your friends and have a regular full health check. 

There is an old Chinese proverb that says:

If you want one year of prosperity, grow seeds
If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees
If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people

What are you doing to grow your people ? And I don't mean just your senior staff, but everyone right through your whole business.

More importantly, as a leader in your business, what are you doing to ensure you apply a stratgey of continious learning to yourself. I often come across managers who, once thay have completed formal studies, think they don't need to do anything else. Or CEOs who send people on development programs but will not do anything to update their own skills. One recently told me his life skills was all he needed and formal training is a load of BS. Big ego ?

Do a learning 'sanity check' in your business now.

The one damaging behavioural trait that I have seen and experienced first hand by senior managment in both large and small companies is that of being a control freak and not delegating effectively.

Experience tells me that any manager can only be effective if he/she is able to delegate and have their direct support staff take on responsibility and be held accountable. Some time ago I remember reading some research from Harvard that confirmed that staff only really believe what their immediate supervisor tells them. Any pontificating from the top usually falls on death ears.

I am not surpised the see this control freak trait in private business owners etc. However I was always concerned even in the biggest companies I have been involved with when leading management would not delegate . The overall business performance was alway well below the true potential.

Another observation is that these managers also are usually workplace bullies. The effect on staff is that they lose interest and, slow down and, sometimes will deliberately work against the good of the business.

Recent research from Stanford Graduate School of Business by Heidrick and Struggles and Rock Center states that more than half of companies today cannot immediately name a successor to the CEO should the need arise. This survey crossed both public and private companies.

Only half have a plan or a written document detailing the skills required for a replacement and on average boards spend only two hours a year on CEO succession planning. They spend more time planning their holidays.

In my experience this is true of the private companies I have been involved with in Australia.

Its typical of most boards that they spend their time looking at issues that are lag indicators. That is what most board papers do, they are reports of what has already happened. Its time boards spent more time looking into the future and the potential material business risk and /or opportunities for future growth.

CEO succession should be part of any future strategy planning.

You can add to the title where there is a will there is also a solicitor.

If you own a private or family business and have not sought assistance from an expert in how to pass on your business in an effective way, then please think again.

An article in Saturday's Australian newspaper magazine should worry you. The title of the article was " Wishful Thinking - Even the best wills in the  world cannot prevent a bitter legal challenge from determined relatives"

The article points out that Judges are now more willing to step in and order changes in spite of what you may have written. Even non-relatives have the ability to challenge a will if they can prove a legitimate interest.

I suggest you revist your will in relation to the possible effects it could have on the future ownership and viability of your business if you die.

According to a recent survey by Chandler Macleod of 10,000 candidates ( 6,000 currently employed ) , 50% are actively looking to move jobs in 3 months, and 71% in 6 months. The reasons vary from limited career opportunities, feeling undervalued, loss of faith in the organisation, diminishing and negative culture, lack of leadership, direction and/or communication.

Their overall comments are relevant to anyone employing staff.

" The greatest challenges facing organisations today and into 2010 is retaining talent within your current workforce - keep in mind the loss of productivity and the cost of replacing personnel can easily exceed 200% of teh role's salary and 10% of yoru business revenue"

How do you think your staff are feeling at the moment and what are you doing to 1. find out what they think and 2. what are your strategies for maintaining employee work place satisfaction ?

360 degree feedback is a process whereby an individual is rated on their performance by people around them who know something about their work behaviour. It  is confidential and, more importantly, it is always extremely accurate.

The resulting information from the online questionaire that the nominated persons have filled out is presented to the individual with the aim of helping them to gain a better understanding of their skills and development areas
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I have found this tool very useful with family businesses. It takes the emotion out of assessment of family members when reviewing their work performance. It tells each member the true feelings of other of their work ability and behaviour. You cannot deny the facts once the feedback is given.

Sometimes you may not like what you hear. In fact I have facilitated fedback sessions and have seen some people get really upset and go into denial only to get over it and come to the realisation that the truth hurts. The successful individual then is able to use that feedback and set about making adjustments for the good of the business, themselves and staff they manager or lead.

I have been through the same emotions when I first participated in a 360 degree review in the past

Pointnorth Consulting is now a "feedback 360Authorised practitioner"

Without feedback nothing changes.