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How the 14 Marine Corps Leadership Traits Apply to Your Business – Part 2

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This is part two of a 2-part post on the 14 leadership traits of the Marine Corps, and how they can apply to your business.  You can find Part 1 here.

I was born with bearing.  God just knitted this one into my personality.  When I was a PFC (private first class), I had duty for the first time.  This meant that I stayed up all night manning a post in the barracks.  I was part of a 3-man team.  This was my first time “on-duty,” and I made a mistake.
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I let a female Marine into her boyfriend’s room allowing her to catch him with another woman.  Chaos ensued, and first thing Monday morning, I was in front of the Company Gunny at the POA (position of attention).  I would classify that butt-chewing in the epic category.  Yet I stood there unflinching.
That Gunny loved me from there on out.  For the next year, he would pull me in his office, shut the door, and have me take a seat.  He would then give me a tongue lashing while smiling at me.  He believed this tactic struck fear into the other students at that school.
Here are the final 7 leadership traits of which one is bearing.

The 14 Leadership Traits of the Marine Corps – Part 2

8.  Endurance – I love this quote from Marine.com regarding endurance.  “It is impossible to lead from the front when you are falling behind.”  Endurance is seeing things through to the end.  In the context of battle, endurance refers to a mental and physical willingness to press on – beyond what is believed possible.  In your business and mine, endurance is not only going the extra mile, but convincing your team to do the same.  Does your company typify going the extra mile?
9.  Bearing – Bearing is the ability to keep your cool – and professionalism – in the face of extreme stress.  Bearing in business is the ability to take a tongue lashing from a client, say thank you, and continue to work towards the client’s best interest.  That is true professionalism, and I hope it describes you!
10.  Unselfishness – The trait of unselfishness describes the team-first ethos of the Corps.  It is a part of the DNA of Marines to put the warrior to the right and left above himself.  In business, this looks like servant leadership and client-first decision-making.  Servant leadership is the idea the leader serves the team trying to make them successful.  In so doing, the leader succeeds.  Client-first decision-making is when the client’s interests always win out.  This is a huge problem due to the opaque nature of Commercial Real Estate.  Brokers often serve their own interests over their clients.  What about your company?
11.  Courage – When you think of courage, you often think of Maximus in the movie Gladiator or William Wallace in Braveheart.  These characters showed courage on the battlefield.  Courage is much more that this, however.  Courage is having the fortitude to do the right thing when there will be adverse consequences.  The easy path rarely has a sign that says, “The Right Thing for the Right Reasons.”  Only the person with moral courage will travel that path.  Will you?
12.  Knowledge – Knowledge is about personal growth – consistent daily growth.  Know more than you did yesterday.  Have a better grasp on your market.  Know who owns that building – and that one.  “Without knowledge, judgment is reduced to intuition; decision-making becomes nothing more than a guess.”  Are you guessing?
13.  Loyalty – Loyalty is an unyielding commitment to others.  In the Corps, this is mostly felt towards the Marines in your fire-team, squad, or platoon.  In the eight years I’ve been back in the civilian world, this is the trait I see lacking the most.  Companies are not loyal to their employees.  Employees will take a better offer without batting an eye.  Fathers bail on their families.  The world needs more loyalty.  Why don’t you let it start with you?
14.  Enthusiasm – Passion!  I believe that God created us all with a unique skill set and purpose.  I do not believe that we can do anything that we put our minds to.  I believe that we can truly excel when we find our sweet spot.  That is where passion explodes.  I remember in boot camp being able to pick out the recruits that I thought would be career Marines.  They had found their sweet-spot, and they knew it.
So there are the 14 leadership traits of the Marine Corps.  I challenge you to evaluate your business in light of these time-tested principles.
What other leadership traits would you add to this list?
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How the 14 Marine Corps Leadership Traits Apply to Your Business – Part 1

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Last week marked the eight year anniversary of my honorable discharge from the Marine Corps.  It also marked the eight year anniversary of the start of my career in Commercial Real Estate.

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My family also moved into a new home last week.  It has been a while since we last moved.  I feel like a bomb exploded in my new home.  The important thing, however, is that my wife and I are both parking in the garage!

Today, I was organizing my closet.  Hanging there next to my ties and dress shirts were my old Marine Corps uniforms.  They caused me to think back 8+ years to my former life.  So much of my life now is influenced by my enlisted years.  Just as the old meets the new in my closet, so much of the USMC leadership traits apply to running a business.

There are 14 Marine Corps Leadership Traits.  You can remember them by the acronym JJ DID TIE BUCKLE:  justice, judgment, decisiveness, integrity, dependability, tact, initiative, endurance, bearing, unselfishness, courage, knowledge, loyalty, and enthusiasm.

How the 14 Marine Corps Leadership Traits Apply to You – and Me

  1. Justice – Think firm but fair.  Everyone in your organization needs to know that the rules apply across the board.  Massey-Knakal, the number one CRE firm in New York City, is a great example of this.  Everyone has the same split.  Remember Barry Bonds as a San Francisco Giant?  He had a special recliner – a special trainer.  The rules did not apply to him.  The rules and expectations must apply justly to everyone.  The alternative is a crumbling organization.  How do you rate your organization?
  2. Judgment – Judgment is the ability to quickly make good decisions under duress.  Everything in our experience is speeding up.  You must have the ability to make good decisions with available and incomplete information.  You will make the wrong call, but can you own it and lead through it?
  3. Decisiveness – The Marine Corps operates on the 70% rule.  This states that decisive action based on 70% information is better than a slow decision based on complete information.  Complete information, in my opinion, is a fallacy.  It never happens.  Speed kills.  Your ability to out outmaneuver and out-flank your competition is dependent upon you being decisive and fast.  I just hired a landscaper for the sole reason that he got back to me much quicker than his competition.  Can this be said of your business?
  4. Integrity – My mentor was lamenting recently that integrity has come to mean that people do what they say.  Is that not sad?  Integrity is so much more than doing what you say.  Integrity is absolute consistency – whether all eyes are on you or not.  Integrity is the bedrock of a person’s character.  It is what earns the respect of your team members and peers.  Does this describe you?
  5. Dependability – I read somewhere that, “Marines develop solutions – not excuses!”  This perfectly defines dependability.  Can your clients depend on you to do what you were hired to do?  Can your team members depend on you to be prepared and ready to exceed expectations on a task?  I hear Dave Ramsey say all the time that a contractor who shows up on-time, every time, will never lack for work.  How dependable would your clients say you are?
  6. Tact – Marines are misunderstood when it comes to tact.  Tact is delivering a message in an appropriate way.  In other words, how a message is communicated is as important as the message itself.  My father-in-law was an outstanding coach.  He had tremendous tact and the ability to read his players.  He had players who responded to positive encouragement.  He also had players who responded to a boot up the rear-end.  He communicated with them accordingly.  What about your clients?  Do you pay enough attention to do the same?
  7. Initiative – Someone with initiative never needs to be told what to do.  Initiative is always looking for ways to improve – customer-service, internal systems, etc.  In my opinion, initiative is the single most effective way to get promoted – or get hired.  Couple initiative with the practice of giving value upfront for free – unstoppable combination!  Is initiative a core part of your company’s DNA?

Let me hear from you.  Of these first 7 traits, which one describes your leadership the best?  Which one could use the most improvement?

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Top Posts for October

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In case you missed them, here are the top posts from October.

How to Shave 30 Minutes A Day Managing Email – If you are like me, you have learned to hate email.  I remember when email was the “new thing.”  Getting email gave you that warm and fuzzy feeling.  It made you feel important.  Remember the movie You’ve Got Mail?  Read More…

The 5 Steps to a Paperless Office – All my data is in the cloud.  All my data is accessible to me anywhere my iPhone has a signal.  I can access it on the fly.  It means I can jump on opportunities with lightning speed.  And speed kills.  In today’s post, I am going to share with you what you need to achieve the paperless office, and the steps to take to get there.  Read More…

12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster!  Part 1 – The Commercial Real Estate industry – or any industry really – is often so different from the Marine Corps.  I’m specifically thinking about advancement – growth – achievement.  In the Marines, there was a formula for promotion – at least at the lower enlisted ranks.  I knew exactly how to earn a promotion.  Read More…

12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster!  Part 2 – The path to success is not clearly marked.  It is muddled.  It is foggy.  You realize you have gone off the path as you get up from the ditch.  In this 2-part post, I want to help shed light on the path to success by sharing the 12 keys to becoming a top producer – faster!  In this post…  Read More…

5 Steps to Crafting a Powerful Elevator Speech – In a previous post – 12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster! – I shared that one of those keys is reading.  I mentioned in that section that I had wanted to improve the impact of my elevator speech so I read Small Message, Big Impact by Terri Sjodin.  Great book.  This is a must read for anyone in sales.  By the way, we are all in sales…  Read More…

4 Reasons Why Debriefing Should be a Staple of Your Business – Admittedly, I was the Marine Corps geek.  Every Marine is a rifleman – I get that.  But I was an intel weenie.  I remember a particular exercise where my company went on a 5 mile hump.  A hump is basically a forced march.  You wear “Boots and Utes” and carry a pack of some amount of weight.  On this particular exercise, I believe I was carrying 50 lbs – pretty light…  Read More…

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4 Reasons Why Debriefing Should Be a Staple of Your Business

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Admittedly, I was the Marine Corps geek.  Every Marine is a rifleman – I get that.  But I was an intel weenie.  I remember a particular exercise where my company went on a 5 mile hump.  A hump is basically a forced march.  You wear “Boots and Utes” and carry a pack of some amount of weight.  On this particular exercise, I believe I was carrying 50 lbs – pretty light for USMC norms.

I had bought new boots the day before.  Do you remember getting new shoes before the first day of school?  How excited you were?  That was me as a 24-year-old Sergeant Idiot.  I wore those new boots on this hump.  When we made the turn at the half-way point, I knew I was in trouble.  By the time we were done, my feet looked like hamburger.  My feet were so jacked up that I had to wear civilian clothes for a week before I could get my boots back on.

After this particular exercise, we did what Marines always do – debrief.  On that day, my CO (commanding officer) looked at me and said, “Barron, bad move with the new boots.  Smack yourself.”

Debriefing is a staple of the Marine Corps, and it should be for your business as well.  Formal debriefs allow for your team to pause.  It is a forced and scheduled pause, really.  Too often we jump from one task to the next without slowing down or taking a breath.  Valuable lessons that could be learned fall through the cracks.  We don’t learn from our mistakes.  We miss opportunities to improve.  We stop growing.

This post is not about how to debrief – it is about why.  However, I have four rules to guide a debrief.

  1. There is no rank in a debrief.  Everyone on the team must have the freedom to express themselves.  They must be able to articulate their experiences and opinions without fear.  The boss/manager may facilitate the debrief, but there should be no rank.
  2. There must be truth.  If your team is not going to tell the truth, don’t bother.  You are wasting your time.
  3. There must be emotion.  I’ve heard people talk about how this needs to be an emotionless process.  I don’t buy that.  Frankly, I don’t think it is possible.  If you are passionate about what you do, it is always personal.  Embrace your emotions and communicate them – though professionally.
  4. Everyone must participate.  The leader of the debrief must require that everyone engages, period.  The quiet guy in the corner has something to say.  If he doesn’t say it during the debrief, he will at the water cooler.  Not good.

The Four Reasons to Debrief

  1. Growth – I’m currently reading John Maxwell’s new book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth (highly recommend, affiliate link).  He points out that teams that don’t stop and evaluate don’t grow.  Do you stop to debrief after a presentation?  What went well?  What didn’t?  What can I learn to improve next time?  What about after a closing, or an expired listing?  All of these are opportunities to stop and grow.
  2. Unity – Unity is a function of many things, but being on the same page is a huge part of it.  When your team members know they have an opportunity to contribute and be heard, unity is bred.  Unity is not the same thing as unanimity.  Everyone does not have to agree.  But if everyone has their say, dissenters can get both shoulders behind a decision because they were heard.
  3. Feedback – Feedback is hugely valuable to the leader.  During the pause of a debrief, the leader will get great feedback that would have been lost otherwise.  For instance, I’ve learned that I speak painfully slowly when I am thinking.  When I prepare, this is not an issue.  I never realized this until I was told during a debrief.
  4. Vision – Vision is clarity regarding direction.  It is the leader’s responsibility to have that clarity and then cast it.  Debriefs are perfect times to reinforce the vision of the company.  I solve my client’s problems and help them capitalize on their opportunities.  How did my marketing efforts the last 6 months accomplish that vision?  How could I do it better?

Now let me hear from you.  Is the debrief a staple of your business?  Share a story of a lesson learned during the pause of a debrief.

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My Next Week at CRE B.O.S.S

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I need to confess.  I am a huge University of Kentucky basketball fan.  Huge.  I have managed to successfully brainwash my children as well.  My parents met while attending UK.  I have been going to games my entire life.  If you don’t know already, after Louisville, Duke is the most hated rival that we have.  Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley….makes me feel icky.

My son and I with National Champion John Calipari and the John Calipari Father-Son Camp

So at this point you are wondering why am I talking college basketball?  Because I am excited about going to Duke University next week.  I never thought I would say that.

Next week is the Commercial Real Estate Broker Owner Success Summit (CRE BOSS) put on by the Massimo-Group at Duke University.  I will be there facilitating the Summit in my capacity as a coach for the Massimo-Group.

I’m excited because CRE BOSS is something new – fresh – different.  This isn’t the same old conference with the same speakers.  BOSS is something else.  This summit is an exclusive first-class event for Broker/Owners and has two goals:

  1. Maximize the Production of Your Individual Brokers – How do you give your brokers and advisors every competitive advantage to be successful?  How can you train and mentor them into becoming top producers?  How do you create self-motivated high achievers?
  2. Maximize the Value of Your Brokerage Firm – How do you control costs while enhancing the client experience?  How can you grow your firm?  Mergers and Acquisitions?  What kind of exit strategy or succession plan do you have?  Is your firm being built to be sold?

Not only is the focus of the Summit to benefit the broker/owner, but the speakers are world-class achievers themselves.  We will get to hear and learn from the likes of:

  • Bob Knakal, Chairman of New York City’s top firm Massey-Knakal
  • Finn Johnson, President and Founder of RunMyBusiness and 25 year veteran at all levels of the Commercial Real Estate Industry
  • Warren Greshes, Hall of Fame speaker, top-selling author and expert in sales, motivation and employee motivation
  • Lee Rust, Florida Corporate Finance, M&A and succession planning expert
  • Rod Santomassimo, CCIM – President and Founder of the Massimo-Group and author of the best-selling CRE book, Brokers Who Dominate

Be on the lookout for some post from CRE BOSS next week!

So answer this question for me.  What are you willing to do in 2013 to ensure that you are investing in yourself by attending events like this one?
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5 Steps to Crafting a Powerful Elevator Speech

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In a previous post – 12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster! – I shared that one of those keys is reading.  I mentioned in that section that I had wanted to improve the impact of my elevator speech so I read Small Message, Big Impact by Terri Sjodin.  Great book.  This is a must read for anyone in sales.  By the way, we are all in sales in some way.

Cory Spanko commented on that post asking if I would share that elevator speech.  So this is my response to his request.  (Thanks Cory for giving me the idea for this post!  DM me your address on twitter – I’d like to send you this book.)

About a year ago, I was in Chicago for the Sperry Van Ness National Convention. It is always a great event.  I leave with dozens of actionable ideas from the first-class advisors that attend.  This convention had a competition called SVN Idol.  The premise of the competition was 4 advisors would compete in giving “The Presentation.”  The winner won $1000.  I was one of the four.  I was going to win that prize.

We were told in advance that we would compete in giving the canned SVN listing presentation.  (I don’t like canned presentations, but that is a topic for another post.)  We were not told that there would be round two.  In round two, we had to give an elevator speech.  I was not prepared.  Transparently, I tend to be good when I’m prepared.  I’m not awesome on the fly.  I did well in round 1.  I bombed round 2.  My good friend Henry Hanna left victorious.  I left knowing that I had a few books to read.

The key to a powerful elevator speech is that it gets you a meeting.  That is all it needs to do.  If I’m in line at Starbucks and have an opportunity, can I get a meeting with a prospect in 90 seconds?  Not only must it be powerful, but it needs to be adaptable.  Too many people look for the magic bullet – if I say these 3 things, I’ll get that meeting.  No.  You need a powerful framework that can be custom fit to the prospect.

That framework is Monroe’s Motivational Sequence (MMS).  Thank you @terrisjodin for writing a fantastic book!  MMS is a logical and sequential 5 step process to motivate someone to take action.  This method does not have to be an elevator speech.  It could be much longer.  It works brilliantly for a super short speech, however.

The 5 Steps of Monroe’s Motivational Sequence

  1. Attention – I always think about Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross here.  But you don’t have to be a complete jerk to get someone’s attention.  You do have to be interesting.  You do have to understand what is important to your prospect.  Example: “There is only one way to maximize the value of your property, and my company is the only one that can do it.”
  2. Problem – This could also be an opportunity.  I’ve heard John McDermott say 100 times that people sell property because they have a problem or an opportunity.  That’s it.  I think the same is true of anyone buying or selling anything.  They have a problem or an opportunity.  You need to know what it is, and hone in on it here.
  3. Solution – Share with them the solution to their problem or opportunity.  Ideally, how you can solve their problem or help them capitalize on their opportunity.
  4. Visualize – This step hooks them.  Here you want to encourage them to visualize the glorious future destiny that awaits them if your solution becomes a reality for them.  Use the word “imagine.”  “Imagine how much fun it will be, Mr. Prospect, when multiple capable buyers are competing for your property and driving up the price!”
  5. Action – Now you share with them what you would like them to do.  In the context of an elevator speech, you want them to agree to have the next meeting.  If you are a politician, you want their vote.  Be specific.  Ask them to sign on the line that is dotted!

As a parting example, watch this video of my dad making his announcement speech to run for office.  It is short and sweet.  See if you can pick out the steps above.  [Skip to the 4 minute mark]

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.  Share a story of an elevator speech opportunity that went well.  Or that bombed.  What other elevator speech methods have you used with success?

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12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster! Part 2

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The path to success is not clearly marked.  It is muddled.  It is foggy.  You realize you have gone off the path as you get up from the ditch.  In this 2-part post, I want to help shed light on the path to success by sharing the 12 keys to becoming a top producer – faster!  In this post, I cover the second 6 keys.  (You can find Part 1 here.)

In my last post, I introduced the first 6 keys to becoming a top producer – faster!  Before I share 7 – 12, let me briefly review the first 6:

  1. Obtain Knowledge
  2. Become a Student of Top Producers
  3. Hire a coach!
  4. Go to Conferences
  5. Read!
  6. Systematize Your Business

12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster!

7.  Use Technology for its Time Management & Efficiency Benefits – I am not the tech geek that can explain to you how things actually work.  I just love using technology to squeeze more productivity out of a day.  Top producers are fanatical about time management and efficiency.  I have written posts that go into more depth about this:

8.  Build a Team – Top producers are team oriented.  Top Producers are not loners.  They don’t try to do everything.  They understand the value of a team.  And not only just having a team, but maximizing the production of that team.  Rod Santomassimo discusses this in his best-selling CRE book – Brokers Who Dominate.  Beyond the fact that I am profiled – along with about 22 others – this is must reading for any CRE practitioner.

Top producing brokerage teams are generally made up of a Senior Producer (Rainmaker), and Junior/New to the Business advisor, and an administrative assistant.  The key to the best teams is hiring/recruiting well and assigning tasks according to the strengths of the team.  The best teams run like a well-oiled machine (or the Colts offense in the 2nd half of Sunday’s game!).  They do so because everyone knows the plays.  They know their roles.  Systems and communication are vital.  Read more about systems here.

9.  Treat Your Business Like a Business – The alternative is treating it like a hobby.  You’d be shocked at how many brokers treat their businesses like a hobby.  I can look at your books and tell you in 30 seconds whether you have a hobby or a business.  The difference?  Brokers that treat their business like a business invest in it.  They spend money hiring a coach.  They advertise.  They go to conferences (see key #4 above).  They hire talented team members.  Brokers that have a hobby tend to whine about not having money to put in their business.  It is really that simple.  Top producers invest in their business.

10.  Focused and Positive – Top producers work while they are at work.  This seems so simple, but it is not.  Top producers don’t spend much time chatting with others in the office.  They are not found at the water cooler.  They never take an hour “off” for lunch.  They may have a lunch meeting, but they never shut it down for an hour in the middle of the day.

They also have unwavering positive attitudes.  PMA – positive mental attitude.  They choose to be positive – optimistic.  They understand the message of Dead Poet’s Society because they live it.

11.  Specialization – In retrospect, specialization should be #2 on the list.  Top producers are not generalists.  They specialize in an asset vertical or at least a geography.  (I have to throw the geography part in here because I am a small town geographical specialist – at least in part.)  This allows them to create presence as an expert – to be the go-to guy.  If you are the broker who will work on anything – stop it.  Pick a lane and become the subject matter expert in that lane.

12.  Passion – Top producers bleed passion.  It oozes out of their pores.  They can’t wait to get to work in the morning and absolutely love what they do.  Everyone has tough days, but passion is what top producers rely on to persevere.  Passion is the ingredient that brings the other 11 keys together into a sum that is much great than its parts.  Passion sells – it is obvious to your clients whether you possess it – or you don’t!

So those are my 12 keys.  Which one speaks to you as most important?  What did I leave off the list?  I encourage you to share your thoughts below!
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12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster! Part 1

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This post is the first in a two-part series on Top Producers.  You can find the second part here.

The Commercial Real Estate industry – or any industry really – is often so different from the Marine Corps.  I’m specifically thinking about advancement – growth – achievement.  In the Marines, there was a formula for promotion – at least at the lower enlisted ranks.  I knew exactly how to earn promotion.

Time in Grade – Time in Service – Physical Fitness Test (PFT) score – Education.  Add it all up, and you were ranked against all your peers.  You always knew where you stood.

Not so in CRE – or any other industry I’ve seen.  The path to success is not clearly marked.  It is muddled.  It is foggy.  You realize you have gone off the path as you get up from the ditch.

In this 2-part post, I want to help shed light on the path to success by sharing the 12 keys to becoming a top producer – faster!

12 Keys to Becoming a Top Producer – Faster!

  1. Obtain Knowledge – In the Commercial Real Estate industry, the best place to start is the CCIM Curriculum.  It is the best I’ve seen.  Additionally, regularly meet with and befriend commercial lenders, property owners, appraisers, and other agents.  They can give you key insights into your market.  Purpose to be the absolute market expert in your geography and niche.  You can do this quickly, but it is hard work.  Knowledge is what makes you valuable to those you wish to serve.  The following keys are meaningless without it.
  2. Become a Student of Top Producers – Find the top producers in your office or market.  Study them.  Ask them to meet with you.  Learn when they get to the office.  Dress like they dress.  Do what they do.  Read what they read.  How many calls do they make in a week?  How many meetings do they have?  Go and do likewise.  You do not need to recreate the wheel.
  3. Hire a coach – Nothing will speed your progress and personal growth faster than hiring the best coach you can afford.  All the best athletes in the world have coaches.  I have paid for a personal coach for 3 years now.  It is an investment in myself and my company and worth every penny.  It is like strapping a jet-pack on my back in my flight to success.  Here are 6 reasons why:
    • A coach allows you to learn from someone that has successfully walked the road that is ahead of you.
    • A coach prevents you from making crippling mistakes.
    • A coach gives you a fresh and objective set of eyes on your business.
    • A coach provides accountability for what you have committed to do.
    • A coach facilitates clarity.  This is huge and often so hard to grasp while inside your own business.
    • A coach evaluates honestly.  From an independent and objective place, a coach can critically critique or encourage according to the need of the moment.
  4. Go to Conferences – Go to your company’s conference.  Go to industry conferences like the CCIM/IREM National Conference or the ICSC.  These events can completely broaden your thinking.  You can expand your network and learn from the best.  I always leave a conference with new connections that I’m thankful to have met as well as great actionable ideas to move my business forward.  Here are some conferences I plan to attend in the coming months and years:
  5. Read – I’ve read and been told that once you’ve read 3 books on a subject, you are an expert in that subject.  Just 3 books.  Top Performers are constantly sharpening their skills by reading.  When I wanted to learn the sales process, I read the classic Tom Hopkins book How to Master the Art of Selling.  When I wanted to learn more about building a platform and blogging, I read the new best-seller Platform by Michael Hyatt.  When I wanted to improve my impact with an elevator speech, I read a great book Small Message, Big Impact: The Elevator Speech Effect by Terri Sjodin.  And this can be so cheap!  Go check 3 books (or audio-books) out from your local library and be an expert in a month!
  6. Systematize Your Business – Systems allow you to break a process or procedure down into its smallest parts.  You then delegate those tasks to your team.  This allows them to operate in their giftedness (if you hired well).  You then do only the tasks that only you can do – HDAs!  High Dollar Activities.  I’ve written an entire post on this topic that you can read here.
Be on the lookout for the second post detailing the other 6 keys to become a top performer – faster!  In the meantime, what would you add to the list?
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