Small Business Revitalization Blog

The recent global financial crisis has seen an increase in advice to employees to ‘make yourself indispensable’.  A useful strategy for the employee maybe, but not always ideal for a smart small businesses! 

Those same high performers have the capacity to hold your business hostage to their demands!  So how do you have high performing team members without making them indispensable?

1. Create a culture of high performance so that the ‘average’ level of performance is higher than expected in most businesses.
2. Create an environment and a culture that offers your people incentive to stay and to perform at their best, without them feeling like they need to instigate the ‘power crazy’ aspects of being indispensable.
3. Work with your team’s strengths – the person being ‘everything to everybody’ needs direction and support in working towards specific targets that benefit the business.  Just because someone can, doesn’t mean they should!!
4. Have awareness of people who are implementing the ‘indispensable strategy’ – they may not always be the ones you want to keep should the going get tough…  (look for strong performance in their core job role, or move them to a more suitable role if you start to see previously undiscovered talents!!)
5. Don’t be tempted to rely on the people making themselves indispensable – you are compounding the problem and teaching them to become a bottleneck.  Encourage good delegation practices (starting with you!!) and ensure that those not performing at the higher levels know they need to step up – allow the bar to be raised!!

What do you think?  Have you ever been held hostage by an employee who thought they were indispensable?  What did you do to alleviate the risk to your business?  How did you harness their enthusiasm and commitment to the business without creating other problems?  Share your ideas here!

Stefan Sagmeister offers an inspirational perspective on the creative benefits of sabbaticals...


Personally, anytime I'm too tired, stuck or can't think, the best thing I can do is go and do or be something completely different to what I've been doing.

Half an hour in the hammock, taking the dog for a walk or cooking something delicious will reboot my brain and allow what I require to flow with ease. A whole weekend of being creative in all sorts of ways ensures that I can work at lightspeed during the week.

Whenever we have too much to do the solution is often in doing nothing or doing something different! What are the infinite possibilities of seeing your challenge differently?

What do you think? Please share your comments then go enjoy yourself!!

This morning I put in a new set of contact lenses and oddly found myself still with blurry eyesight.  After some rearranging of lenses and vision checking, I discovered that I had put the same prescription into both eyes – given the difference in vision between each eye, the ‘blindness’ was considerable.  Not so bad, except that in working out how this had come to pass, I realized I’d been walking around like this for the past two weeks as well!

Which brings me to today’s business coaching question…how often are we one-eyed without noticing it?  Here’s three things you can do to stop being one-eyed in your business and your life…

1. When you are doing something habitual, stop and ask yourself why you do it… is there a good reason or is it just a habit?
2. Take a couple of your systems that everyone ‘knows’ and actually write down the steps – are you really following the system or are there loose approximations of it throughout your business which aren't really working?
3. When someone throws a wedgie into your universe, do you dismiss it instantly or actually explore the possibilities?

What could you change if you stopped to ask these questions?  Would you be and do more of what’s invaluable and less of what’s valueless?

There must be something in the air at the moment – I’ve received at least 4 calls in the past week from people in various stages of distress, overwhelm and anxiety about what they are doing with their life, what their real purpose is and why their job or business isn’t working as they imagined.  The last question in each case was…‘can you help me feel better?’

In every case, I made a few simple suggestions that we can all employ when the need arises… we all have these moments, it’s what you do with them that counts!!

1. Remember that ‘this too shall pass’ – but only if you do or be something different to what you have been doing or being! 
2. Get really clear about what you most truly desire… write down everything that’s important to you and what you want to do before you die.  Look for the patterns and the things that make you go ‘zing’… then you can start to live your life meaningfully, rather than just getting through your days!
3. Take a few deep breaths, sit quietly and ask whether this anxiety and overwhelm is really yours?  How often do we ‘buy’ the second-hand opinions of those well-meaning friends and family we know and love, and accept these ideas as real when we may actually want to do something completely different?  What if you returned all these ideas to these people, in kindness, and then started to ask questions about what you really would prefer to choose… would your life look different?

If you'd like some more strategies for getting yourself and your business on track, would the February Revive Playshop contribute more than you can imagine?  If you want more prosperity and productivity then it's for you.  Book today - it's on in Brisbane on Feb 15th...  Who knows, investing 3 hours to set yourself up for 2010 could be the most productive action you take all year!!

Getting through your to-do list can be challenging for many reasons, not least of which is your clients ‘getting in the way’.  Don’t hear me wrongly here – clients are the priority… but how do you successfully balance your client requirements with your business requirements?  Here’s three quick tips which can help!

1.    Use Parkinson’s Law
Ever noticed that whatever you have to do expands to fill the time available? Parkinson was the genius who discovered that! So, if you only have 30 minutes between client sessions and it’s hard to get into the flow of your tasks in a short amount of time, what can you do?

a)    Chunk bigger  tasks into small ‘doable’ bites and put a short time-frame against each.
b)    Keep a list of small ‘to do’ jobs that only take a few minutes each.
c)    Set yourself at least 5 tasks to be completed within your 30 minute window – go hard and fast!

2.    Use Your Power Hour
Most people have a time of day when they are really productive.  Set aside a Power Hour each day where you can focus on what’s most important in your business.  It is the small things that make the biggest difference!

This is your project and planning time.  It’s the time when you do the things that are essential for your business to be successful.  Know each week what you need to accomplish in your daily ‘power hour’ to make your business really work for you… it may be building your profile, calling prospects, developing new programs, fixing your website… whatever will bring the money in the door is what you need to focus on!

3.    Never Underestimate the Power of Delegating
So many business owners are unwilling to delegate – if you haven’t got time or you aren’t getting to what’s important, consider whether someone else can do these tasks more efficiently.  Outsourcing can be extremely effective when you find the right people to share your workload with.  A little bit of time invested in developing a good system upfront means maximum productivity down the track!

Want more phenomenal ideas on getting productive for 2010?  You need the Revive Business Coaching February Playshop - If you can make it to Brisbane on February 15th book here!

A few years ago Singapore introduced a tradition where you can go down to Marina Bay and write your new year resolutions onto a big white plastic ball which is floated on the water along with the desires of thousands of other people.  We were there just before NYE 2010 and got amongst it with the locals… the energy was vibrant and expansive but I did wonder how many people would take action... So here’s some ideas on having BALLS and getting productive!

B is for BRAVE (and big!)… I saw people write the most extraordinary things – both positive and negative.  How much ballast do you give your positive and negative ideas?  This year, would you be brave enough to focus your energy and efforts on big, bold ideas that can change the world, or at least your life?

A is for ASKING…  One of the most phenomenal truths in this world is the simplicity of ‘Ask and you will receive’.  When you want to be more productive and you want to achieve more, try asking for help and then being willing to receive it!  Does it really matter if it’s not perfect and you don’t do it all yourself? What are you really asking for? Get a big white ball and write on it…float it in your bathtub… you may discover new solutions by changing your point of view!

L is for LUSCIOUSNESS…  Do your ideas inspire you, make others desire them and draw you into making them real?  If you want instant productivity then lusciousness is like the moth to the flame… Thousands of people play with Singapore’s white balls because it inspires them…  What projects can you create  that inspire lusciousness… in yourself and others?  

L is for LIVING… How often is your life wasted because you are living someone else’s life or dream?  What would it take for you to really live your own precious life?  When you start living your life and stop living for everyone else, you achieve infinitely more and maybe you’ll receive more fabulous surprises!  Are these BALLS yours or someone else’s?  It’s up to you to choose!

S is for SURPRISES…  When you use your balls, you’re going to receive magnificent surprises from unexpected quarters. Doors will open, people will appear, and possibilities will arrive. Instead of ‘I can’t’… start asking “What if I could…..?”  Who knows where your balls will end up!!  As long your balls are in the air, you are productive… what would it take to float some new balls in 2010?

So, 2010 is the time to get your BALLS out and play… playing is much more productive than working smarter – just ask any child!  Well… what did you think I meant?

If you want more fun-filled ideas on how to be more productive, book into the REVIVE Business Coaching February Playshop –

I was talking with a business coaching client recently about what they had learned during the GFC.  One of the key things they are changing in their business is the way they look at debt – instead of pulling every cent out of the business and investing it personally, they are now considering ways to reinvest their profits into the business so that they need never worry about another financial crisis again.

This conversation reminded me of some uncommon but simple rules for business prosperity that I learned from Access Consciousness… what would change in your business and your life if you did these three simple things?

1.    Save 10%
If you put 10% of every dollar that comes into your life away and never touch it. Within a year, your whole financial situation will change. When you save the 10%, you finally realize that you have money!

2.    Ask Questions:
With everything you buy, ask: “If I buy you, will you make me money?” If you ask that, every molecule in the universe will support you in making money.

3.    Willingness to Receive
Many business owners are very independent and not in the habit of being willing to receive…  What would it take for you to be aware of where you cut off the energy of receiving because of your point of view, your judgments or your unawareness of the possibilities that could occur if you are willing to ask more questions?

If money weren’t the issue, what would you choose?