​I had an interesting conversation with a control freak last week.

He was telling me how he hates to delegate - doesn't trust his employees to do anything without some sort of supervision, because they cock things up, make mistakes, take longer to do the job than he would.

"I check EVERYTHING' he said, 'I don't want my customers to have anything but a perfect service'.

It's the perfect excuse for the control freak...I'm not doing it for me, I'm doing it for my customers.  Drives me nuts.

Here's the thing, for those of you who recognise that you may be borderline, if not full-blown freaks...you're keeping yourself stuck in that rut we talked about last week.

Just like the bind weed in your garden - you know the one with the pretty flower that pretends its trying to make your garden look lovely, while its tentacles set about destroying it...that one! - you're strangling the growth of your people and your business.

You've forgotten that someone let you make mistakes when you were learning, someone gave you room to grow and develop, someone recognised that mistakes are how we all learn.  You've forgotten that all of the successful people you look up to have built their success on a bucketload of failures, and much bigger failures and mistakes than any of your people might make if you gave them their head.

You want to limit mistakes?  Have systems.  Set standards. Give your people proper training in how to use your systems to achieve those standards.  Manage their performance.  Reward good performance and re-train when it's not so good.

People want to learn and develop, they want to grow - it's much more of a motivator than money.  Give them ownership of their job, help them to feel like they belong to something, that you're relying on them to help you build something that you can all be proud of.

I saw this quote on Facebook, and it is oh so true - 'A team is not a group of people who work together.  A team is a group of people who trust one another.'

Trust your people and build a high performing team, that runs your high performing business.
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Get control of your freak.  Pull out the bindweed that's killing your business.

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

When you're in a relationship, any relationship...whether it's with a friend, a partner, a customer...what's one of the things that you treasure most?

For most of us I'm guessing it's trust.

You want to know that you can rely on the other person; that when they say that they're going to do something, they do it; that they aren't moody-you always know where you stand with them. In other words, that they're consistent.

Consistency is a powerful relationship builder for a business. You only have to look as far as McDonald's to see that.

Your customers love it because they know what to expect from you...that any surprises are only going to be the nice kind. They know that they're going to get the same service no matter who they deal with or what time of day it is.  They know where they stand with you and that they can rely on you.

Your team love it because they know what's expected of them. They feel ownership because they understand what they're doing, and are left to get on with it.  They feel a responsibility to deliver for you and your customers.

And you love it, because it makes your life easier.  It frees up your time.  It allows you to grow your business...or develop it as a franchise...maybe run it from the beach.

A consistent business built around simple, logical systems, gives you freedom to do whatever rocks your boat.

Being a constant, dependable presence builds relationships in all areas of your life.

How consistent are you?
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…If you want more consistency in your business...if you get the What and want to know more about the How…then do pick up a copy of my book Process to Profit which shares a lot of info about setting up the systems you'll need…or, if you don't have time to read a book, please drop me a line, and I’d be happy to talk through some options with you.

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

Hands up if you've been an employee at some point in your life.

Chances are you have...whether you had a paper round, worked in the local supermarket or did jobs around the house for your mum for a bit of pocket money.

What was the experience like?

Do you remember it fondly, or was it a painful episode that you just put up with cos you needed the money?

What were you like as an employee?

A joy to work with...always on time and always cheerful? Or a pain in the backside...tardy, careless and moody?

What did you learn from it?

That there are good bosses and bad bosses, that you can like a boss without respecting them, and respect them without liking them, that it's all about relationships?

Way too often recently I've heard business owners talking about their employees as if they are adversaries in some gladiatorial contest.  Too much talk of HR, contracts, tribunals, and not enough about growth, fun and team spirit.  Too much focus on marketing the business brand, and none on developing a great brand as an employer.

For a lot of years I worked with McDonald's, a business renowned for giving young people their first job and then developing them to the point where they had real options in their life.  Were there people who didn't fit, didn't want to make the effort, didn't want to be part of a team...yes, of course.

But stay or go, there was never a drama, because there was always a system.

 - A system for hiring, for making a first day special, for structuring and measuring the success of a probationary period.

 - A system for training them how to follow the procedures and processes, and for developing the individual as an individual.

 - A system for measuring and managing performance, for keeping them on track.

 - A system for recognising and rewarding a job well done.

Systems make life easier for your employees and therefore for your customers.  Everyone knows where they stand. Everything is consistent and reliable.

Best of all, you are in control without always having to be there.  You're in control without having the drama that is too often associated with employing people. You are in control of a team of people who know what their role is, what standards are expected, and who get on and perform that role to the best of their ability.

If you want your business to run like clockwork, to grow without more effort on your part...sort out your people systems, and develop a great employer brand.

…And if this is still a dark art for you…if you get the What and want to know more about the How…either pick up a copy of my book ‘Process to Profit’ which shares a lot of info about setting up your people systems…or/and drop me a line, and I’d be happy to talk through some options with you.

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

Some of you will have seen the tv reality show, The Choir; it’s been going for a while now and I’ve always enjoyed it, as much for Gareth Malone’s enthusiasm and empathy, as the music...I find the whole programme uplifting.

What I’m noticing in this series, much more than I did in the first though, are the workplace relationships within the organisations featured.  Almost all of them are fractured to some extent, with workplace hierarchies appearing to have a very real impact on the self worth issues of those at the bottom of the pecking order.

Even in the fire service, which for me was the most united by a common cause, we had a ‘them and us’...the fire fighters and the support staff...with the latter clearly feeling in some way ‘less important’ than their more heroic colleagues.  Interestingly it showed up in the power of their singing too.

The programme featuring Sainsburys was the most fascinating, so diverse was the workforce, and so disjointed...and Gareth really struggled to unite those from the ‘Ivory Tower’ of head office, with the shop floor workers and the warehouse guys. The hierarchy...or was it the culture...appeared so firmly entrenched that the 3 groups didn’t appear to think they should talk to one another, let alone know how to.

Of course these are all big organisations, and it’s easy to see how these fractures develop.  It can often be because those on their feet all day, doing what they consider to be the ‘hard work’, and the unsociable hours, can grow resentful of those who they perceive to be sitting on their backsides all day in the office, drinking coffee...and taking home more money. 
That’s an over-simplification, but you get my drift.

So what about our much smaller businesses?  Are our teams fractured in the same way?

If the culture of any organisation is built around the beliefs and behaviours of the leader, which is my view...what are we doing day to day to ensure that all of our team is united around ‘our cause’?  How are we promoting the value to our business of everyone who works for us; making sure that each individual knows that their contribution is key to the whole team succeeding; that no one is more or less important than anyone else?
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What would Gareth Malone find if he came to our business to build a choir?

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

I’ve had a couple of interesting conversations this week.  The first with my mastermind group, concerned the fact that a few of us enjoy what we do so much that we forget that there’s meant to be a commercial aspect to it.  So busy being busy, doing what we love, that we just never get round to the ‘making money’ bit.

The other was with an old hockey mate of mine, Lara Morgan, as hard-hitting in business as she always was on the hockey field - the sale of her first business for £20 million bears testament to that.  Lara was sharing her frustration with me about the fact that so many of us shy away from selling...”you guys just don’t want to sell’’ she was saying, which to someone who built her business on the back of hard-core selling, was clearly exasperating.  I needed to do a “disproportionate amount of selling” she told me, if I wanted to have real success with my business.

Reflecting on these two conversations, it strikes me that they are two sides of the same coin...whatever the reasons...most of us just aren’t out there selling enough.   Some of us might hate it with a passion; some of us are terrified by it; and some of us just bury our head in the sand, telling ourselves that our product isn’t quite ready yet...our pitch not quite perfect.
The truth about selling is that it’s all about building relationships...but with a punchline!

If we do our jobs right...if we know WHY we are in business, what we believe, and what our cause is; if we start a conversation with like-minded people, give them heaps of valuable free content, show them that we have the solution to their pain; and if we understand our own value, what our skills, expertise and experience are worth...then the punchline is easy.

People buy into us.  Whether they are employees or customers, they will choose to buy what we’re selling based on whether they like us, and how much they trust us to give them what they need.  Build the trust, have what the customer needs...and they will often deliver the punchline for us.

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

A facebook friend of mine posted this yesterday... ‘You get what you give.... Give everything you got!’. Quite an inspiring challenge, and it really made me think.
The recent publication of my book (sorry, I had to mention it) revealed the very generous nature of both people I haven’t spoken to in years, and people I really don’t yet even know on Social Media.
People genuinely want you to do well, and I got a real sense from the messages of congratulation and support I received, that some were also recognising the possibility for themselves. Here was somebody, just like them, who had done something, not extraordinary, but not everyday...and maybe a little unexpected; had put themselves out there to be shot down; had collected their thoughts and ideas, and got them down on paper. And while some will have thought, ‘not me...not in a million years’, I could tell others were thinking, ‘I could do that...I have something to say...let’s go!’
Giving is a powerful business ‘tool’ and can often be inspiring.
I am fortunate to be part of a broad small business community, full of business owners who are united by their willingness to give. Every day on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, in Linked In and Facebook Groups, they give...generously; their reports, how to videos, tips and tricks, lessons they’ve learned. Many of you reading this are amongst their number. And you don’t just give rubbish either...it’s often the very best of your intellectual property.
Yes of course, ultimately it’s all about making money. But the people who post their good stuff, who contribute to discussions and helpfully answer questions, are building relationships...they’re helping people to know, like and trust them. These people recognise that the most valuable gift they have to offer is themselves.
And because their motivation is to build strong trusted relationships...to give, to serve, to make things better for people and solve their problems...their business will be successful.
One of my favourite books ‘The Go Giver’ puts it like this...’what makes people attractive, magnetic even, is that they love to give. Givers attract, and have an army of personal ambassadors, who then want to see them succeed.’
The most valuable gift you have to give is you...your passion, your beliefs, your ideas and opinions...the unique, warts n all, genuine YOU.
You get what you give...how much have you given today?
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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