November 2024

When I meet business leaders for the first time, I am genuinely interested in their business. But, I also care about how coachable they are. Have they allowed wise people to speak into their business situations and have they been receptive to that input? If a business leader thinks he already has all the answers or that people outside the business couldn’t possibly know enough to provide worthwhile advice, then my hopes for the business fade pretty quickly. They may enjoy short term success, but I don’t expect it to last — at least not under that leadership.

Willingness to allow others to walk alongside you, helping you see your unachieved potential, guiding you in how to improve, and encouraging you through the hard work necessary to perform your best isn’t just smart from a business perspective, it’s also biblical. And coachability is essential not only to the health of your business, but also to your personal health. Bearing all the weight of running a business alone can easily lead to major health problems. 

Bottom line, inviting a wise advisor in to help you see your weaknesses and mistakes, and to help guide you in how to overcome them, can increase your business success, your personal happiness, and your health. What’s not to like about that!

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Coachability starts with the humility of recognizing our own weaknesses and faults and desiring to improve. It works through relationship with others, specifically being open to feedback and correction, and being thankful for those who care enough to help.

In the article linked below I discuss how to overcome some of the challenges many of us have opening up to others and asking for their help.

Read the full article here.

Triple Fit Strategy by Christoph Senn and Mehak Gandhi introduces a different way of engaging with your most strategic customers. Instead of selling product-centric solutions, suppliers work with their customers to co-create mutually-aligned growth. While “strategic selling” has been around for decades, the authors provide a framework, processes, and a collection of tools for collaboration between partners to align their strategies, execution, and resources, almost as if they were operating as one company. While the approach isn’t for every company, and certainly not every customer relationship, I strongly recommend the book for those involved in managing and growing truly strategic accounts.

The book introduces the Triple Fit framework which is made up of 9 building blocks across three levels of “fit” between supplier and customer: planning, execution, and resources. The book teaches how to use this framework to diagnose the strength of a supplier-customer relationship, address weaknesses in order to co-create growth, and build the overall strength of the vendor organization in serving business customers.

I like structure and so one of the things I particularly appreciate about Triple Fit Strategy is the collection of various lists that clarify the challenges, opportunities, and methods related to implementing the Triple Fit approach. I also enjoy learning new tools and frameworks and the book introduces (by my count) 9 new tools or frameworks.

Read my full review here.

I’ve recently finished reading Triple Fit Strategy by Christoph Senn and Mehak Gandhi. Parts of the book reminded me of the brilliance of Nextel’s SmartGrowth strategy. I thought it worth writing a quick article to generalize the overlapping principles from both models. Click the link below to read the details.

Read the full article here.

One of my favorite podcasts uses the tagline “Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. But it doesn’t have to be.” Business owners need to nurture healthy relationships or else the burdens they bear are likely to overwhelm them. Without a support system, both your business and your health are likely to suffer.

God knows that it’s not good for us to be alone and that we are prone to being tossed to and fro by the world around us. He knits us together into a church family to give us stability in our faith, to provide us an environment where we can grow in His grace, and to provide a community that we can love and that can love and serve us. You may wonder how the student, the airline pilot, the machinist, the homemaker, the web developer, the nurse, or the retiree in the pews with you could possibly help you run your business better, but each of them has gifts and insights that are different from yours and they may very well surprise you with the wisdom they are able to speak into your business situation. If nothing else, they can take your needs to the One whose wisdom and ability are beyond measure.

Read my full article here to learn more about what it means to be a good “churchman” and why it matters.