How to Solve Problems in Your Business

Here's a simple framework I use to look at every problem in my business.

THE MENTAL SIDE

First of all, the most important principle is to?Take Extreme Ownership.?If you haven't read that book by Jocko Willinck, buy it now.

Every problem in your business is a problem of leadership.?Every failure is a failure of leadership. Take total responsibility for everything that goes wrong. When your team sees you doing this, and doing it sincerely, they will adopt the same mentality. That's how you create winners.

When something goes wrong at Clients on Demand, everyone takes responsibility and everyone goes to work fixing it. We don't waste time playing blame games. We just fix it.

So always, always, always assume that if there's a problem, that YOU are responsible in some way. That sucks, because it might make you feel bad. But by taking responsibility, you access your own power. After all, if you created the problem, you can create a solution. Make sense?

So start by taking responsibility right away. Then you can use the steps I'm about to share with you to identify where the problem is, and how to fix it.

One more thing before we dive into the process.

After doing this for 10 years, I can tell you that?there's really no such thing as problems or challenges. There's only opportunities.?Every problem you run into is a golden opportunity to make your business better and stronger.

Ray Dalio says that every problem in your business is a potential improvement that's screaming for attention. I love that, and it's absolutely true.

We've had so many "oh shit" moments at Clients on Demand. Someone quits. Someone breaks something they shouldn't have. A client is being unreasonable. Whatever. But I can tell you from experience that every single one of those was a necessary stepping stone that brought us huge wins in the long run.

So you're going to run into problems. It's inevitable. Especially if you're setting big goals and doing big things. The key is that when you run into a problem, extract the lesson and fix what's broken as fast as you can.

What makes problems so tough isn't figuring out what's broken. It's that you're usually at war with yourself while you do it. You're blaming yourself. You're beating yourself up. You're feeling like a failure, and then you're trying to create a solution from within those horrible feelings.

That's a recipe for making really bad decisions. If you're trying to solve problems from an energy of fear, desperation, neediness, or anger, you're already sunk.

The key is to change your perspective and see problems as a gift. They're an opportunity. Without them, you wouldn't know what you need to fix to hit your goals. Once you realize that, you realize that the problem is a good thing. All you need to do is find the lesson. All that suffering and emotional turmoil is optional, so just let it go.

SOLVING THE PROBLEM

When you're working to solve a problem, the first thing to consider is whether this is a problem of?People,?Process, or?Product.

A?Product?problem is when the product itself is sub-standard, or not delivering for customers. In the coaching world, this is the #1 issue, and it’s also seems to be the last thing coaches look at to fix.

Most coaching programs don’t get results for 98% of the people who go through them. That’s a sad fact.

Imagine a coach we’ll call Dan.

For every 100 clients Dan puts through his program, around 1-2% will usually be superstars. These are people with the guts, tenacity, and brainpower to make it with or without his help. These are people who were destined for success.

Let’s say Dan runs his program for a year and enrolls 400 clients. Given the math above, about 4-8 of them will be superstars, and will have extraordinary success.

What does Dan do? Those 4-8 clients become the case studies, testimonials, and stories that Dan tells over and over.

But the truth? The truth is that those guys succeeded?in spite?of the coaching, not because of it.

So you have to be honest with yourself - does your coaching program deliver real results? If not, you need to fix that right away. Check in with your clients - are they following your system? If not, maybe it’s the price…are you charging $197 when you could be charging $5,000?

Do you have too many clients? Are you giving them the support they need to truly get the results?

Many problems in your business can be solved by just fixing the Product itself.

If the?Product?is solid, then you need to consider whether this is a?People?problem, or a?Process?problem.

Process?problems are simple. There’s just a few questions you have to ask:

#1) What’s the outcome that was supposed to happen but didn’t?

If you don’t know what the outcome was, then it’s no wonder you didn’t hit it. For everything that happens in your business, there should be a measurable outcome that you’re aiming at.

“Sell more stuff,” is not a good outcome. “Enroll 20 new clients per month at $5,000 each,” is a good outcome because it’s measurable and you can hit it.

#2) Do you have a mapped out process for achieving this outcome?

If you know the outcome you’re after, what is your plan for achieving it? Have you mapped it out, like a flowchart?

#3) Has this process been shared with everyone on your team?

Have you communicated it to your team so everyone knows what they’re responsible for, and how their success or failure will be measured?

You can have the most brilliant process in the world, but if you haven’t trained your team on it, it’s not going to work.

#4) Was the process followed?

So - your outcome is clear. You have a process mapped out for getting there. Everyone is on the same page with what they’re supposed to do. Did they do it? If not, you may have a?People?problem (more on this in a minute).

#5) Is this process broken?

If everyone did their job well and followed the process, and you still didn’t get the outcome, then you need to look at the process itself - which part of it needs to change? Where did the breakdown happen? Work with your team to design a new process.

Lastly,?People?problems…and I can tell you that emotionally, these are by far the toughest to deal with.

Most of these can be avoided by simply hiring well. If you hire great people, they’ll usually deliver for you. I’m going to do a whole separate video on just how to hire, but for right now, just remember that if you’re having consistent People problems come up again and again, you’re either hiring wrong, or your leading wrong.

But let’s say that by and large you have a great team, you’re hiring well, and you’re leading well. But there’s one person on your team who’s not hitting their outcomes, and you know it’s not a problem with Product or Process. What do you do?

The first question to ask is - is this?People?Problem one of?Training, or?Temperament?

A?Training?problem means that you haven’t given this person the training, the coaching, or the clarity to succeed. First off, have you trained this person well? Do they know exactly how you want things done? Do they know how you’ll be measuring their success and what your expectations are?

You also want to ask yourself: does this person understand the importance of their job? How it connects to the overall mission? Do they even know what the mission of the company is in the first place?

As the owner and CEO, it’s your job to communicate all of these things to your entire team, over and over. If you haven’t, then you can’t be shocked when they don’t deliver for you. You must have CLARITY throughout your entire organization. Before you fire anyone, be ruthless with yourself - have you created that clarity?

Now, if you’ve done all that - then it’s probably not a?Training?issue. It’s a?Temperament?issue.

Temperament?means that someone’s personality makes them unsuited the role you need them to play. For example, this is Marc, our Sales Director. And this is Simon, our Chief Technology Officer. They’re both brilliant at what they do, but if I asked Simon to take over sales, or Marc to take over the Tech stuff, it would be an absolute disaster. Simon’s thoughtful, introverted, and detail-oriented. Hates talking to people. Marc’s a big-picture thinker who’s bad with technology.

No amount of training is going to fix that. It’s about WHO THEY ARE. So if someone’s temperament makes them unsuited to the job, then they need to be removed from that job right away.

Ask yourself, “Is there another seat on the bus that would be a better fit for this person?” If you’ve hired well, then it’s possible you have someone who colud be a huge asset to your company, just not in the job they were originally hired for. Explore whether there’s another job in your company where they could thrive.

If there isn’t, you need to let that person go immediately. You’re not doing them any favors by keeping them in a job they are Temperamentally unsuited for. They know it. You know it. Release them and let them find something they ARE better suited for. They will be happier in the long run, and so will you.

What's the biggest challenge you're facing in your business right now? Drop a comment and let me know.

And if you need our help to fix it, book a call:?clientsondemand.com/talk. Whatever your challenge is, I can promise you that we've seen it (and crushed it) a thousand times already. Let us help.