I was in my local supermarket the other day and large queues were forming at the tills.

A manager was patrolling and had called on a couple of people to help out, but the queues remained, and it seemed there was no one else to call on...bet you can't guess what he did?!

Yup, he kept on patrolling…. eyes down, while we all waited, patiently and otherwise, wondering why he didn’t take off his jacket and man another till, or support the people serving in some other way.

The benefits to the Customer were obvious; they would have been served quicker and he would have demonstrated that he was doing everything he could to get them served quickly. It would have brought him into closer contact with his Customers and given him a taste of life at the coal face which, you’d like to think, would have enhanced his empathy both with Customers and his team members.

From his team’s point of view they would have seen him getting stuck in when they needed him, and appreciated him sharing their burden.

From a business point of view, he might have unearthed a block in the system that slowed down service and caused the queues.

Wins all round I would have thought.

By not recognising that this was a time to roll his sleeves up, he lost an opportunity that was good for the business, his team members and the Customer.

Imagine at a team member's performance review when he could have nodded with understanding borne of first hand experience, about dealing with disgruntled customers at the till, or turning a frown into a smile.

Imagine how much more credibility he would have had, when discussing their performance.

Don't get me wrong, I’m not suggesting for a minute that as leaders or managers, we help out all the time. I’ve known people become an extra team member to try and improve performance, rather than looking from a less involved position, at how processes and systems could be tweaked and improved.

I do believe though, that there’s a time to show willing and muck in, and when it can add direct and indirect benefits as described above, then why not do it.

Anyone joining McDonalds as a management trainee, goes straight onto the restaurant floor to learn first hand the role of the people they will be managing - what it's like to work in the kitchen, on the front counter, in the dining area - understanding through learning and experience, every job in the store.

‘You’ve no idea what it's like,’ isn’t something you’ll hear during (or after) a performance review there.

As business owners we can’t be expert at everything, (and shouldn't try to be) but it's important that we understand what our people do, that we work with them to map out their role, to look for efficiencies, and examine together how we might streamline what they do, for their benefit, and the customer's.

Your aim should be to make 'the way we do things around here' (aka your processes & systems) simple, logical and repeatable.  That's how you make your operation consistent and reliable.  That's how you free up your time.  That's how you lower your costs and increase your profits.

We all want to free up our time, we all want to work on our business not in it, but, despite the obvious benefits, we don't all want to invest time first in getting our team working efficiently and consistently.

Why is that?
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For more information on how MPL can help you visit www.mariannepage.co.uk or contact me on hello@mariannepage.co.uk
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It’s that time of year when my ancient boiler gets its annual health check. For about fifteen years now I’ve had a series of engineers visit my house, make that ‘sucking through the teeth’, noise, and shake their head, as they discover the age of the patient.

Yet on it chugs - incredibly reliable despite the regular pronouncements of its imminent demise.

Thanks to that annual service.  Thanks to that bit of TLC which keeps it working safely and efficiently. 

Many would say that paying for an annual service is a waste of money, but for me, if you want to keep anything working consistently over time, you need to invest in it - to maintain it, fine tune it, update any parts that aren’t working.  With my boiler, that investment has extended its life, prevented breakdowns and the need for expensive callouts and parts, and stopped it from blowing up - and that’s worth the investment to me.

In business, we also need that regular health check, that examination of what’s working and what isn’t, beyond our end of year accounts. Yet how many of us are willing to make that investment?

The beginning of a new year, whether that’s calendar or financial, is an ideal time for retrospection and planning.  Many of us will be working to sparkly new year plans that we developed for 2016, but what are those plans based on? How deep did we dig into what’s been working in our business and what hasn’t? Are they just based on ‘more of the same’, because we had a good year last year so everything must be working well, right?

Like my boiler service, the pre-work for planning requires investment of the one thing most precious to us all…time. And stepping off the treadmill; making time to review, re-energise and re-focus; actually seems like a waste of it, especially when you’ve got a busy business to run.

But, sometimes you have to slow down to go faster.

Just like when you want to lose weight, you get on the scales, you think about what you’re eating, you look at how much you’ve been exercising, or not.  You work out your starting point and you get clear about your target - it’s essential to getting where you want to be.

Invest time in your boiler.

Take time to:

• Remind yourself what problem your business was set up to solve
• Re-define what you’re trying to achieve - what you’re aiming for, and why
• Review your four foundation systems 
  - your Planning system
  - your operating Processes and Customer Journey
  - your People systems (who you’re hiring, and how you’re training)
  - your Performance Management (for your people and your business)
• Check the health of your relationships with family and friends

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Have a firm handle on where you are now, where you want to get to, and what success will look like to you. Understand the blocks that are in your way, and how you’re going to overcome them. Be clear about what your customers, your team and your family want for you, and from you.

Don't wait for another year to do it.  Do it now.

Your business needs that health check - and you may just save it’s life!

[If you want to ‘service your business’  but don’t know where to start, or simply want an objective view…why not join us for a personal Big Cheese Day!  A day where we put you and your business front and centre, get all the worms out of the can, and help you to review, re-energise and re-focus. And have fun doing it too!  Find out more, HERE]

For more information on how MPL can help you visit www.mariannepage.co.uk or contact me on hello@mariannepage.co.uk
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And so we begin again.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and that you enjoyed a refreshing and re-energising break!

So now we enter a brave new year, determined to be a brave new us. Will we be more streamlined, healthier, happier, richer?

What challenges have you set yourself for 2016? What resolutions? 

I wonder how many of those challenges and resolutions you phrased in the negative? I will stop smoking. I will stop drinking on weekdays. I will stop working until 8 or 9 pm. I will stop having a choco moco caramel concoction every morning!

I don’t know about you but I find all this deprivation a wee bit depressing.

I’m a 'towards' sort of girl - I find it much harder to stop doing something, than to do something - to deprive myself than to drive towards a positive outcome.  So stopping eating and drinking so much after Christmas is much harder for me than starting to exercise more, for example.

I wonder if that’s why so many people struggle to quit stuff. Maybe they are ‘towards’ people too.  Maybe they need a positive ‘why’ to drive towards.

So, why do I want to stop eating chocolate?’

A: Because I want to lose weight?
Why?

A: Because I want to be healthier
Why?

A: Because I want to live a long and active life
Why?

A: Because it will give me a foundation for happiness and I’ll be able to enjoy my children  growing up.

By thinking about why you want to do something you’ve gone from depriving yourself of chocolate (or a bottle of wine, or a cigarette) to feeling good about yourself and being around for your kids!’ Isn’t that just a teency bit more inspiring?
How many of your negative ‘stops’ can you turn into positive starts?  Could this be the year you ‘Do’ more and ’stop doing’ less?
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Here’s to 2016 - your most successful and inspiring year yet!

For more information on how MPL can help you visit www.mariannepage.co.uk or contact me on hello@mariannepage.co.uk
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