How to Take a Stress-Free Vacation.

What would happen if you had to be away from your business for a month? This is a question that every business leader should ask themselves. As a business consultant, I use this question to help business owners understand the quality of processes, procedures, and infrastructure that they have in place. When there are gaps in their infrastructure, I work with them on

Establish redundancy in key tasks.

Ensure processes and procedures are written.

Delegate before your need to.

Reinforce a culture of accountability.

The importance of infrastructure

When an organization relies heavily on its leader to drive day-to-day activity, any interruption in the leader’s ability to work and provide direction has the potential to derail execution. I remember working with a business owner that resisted developing employees until he was in a car accident that left him unable to walk for 3 months.

Fortunately for the business owner, he was part of a franchise system. The Franchisor provided him with additional support to keep his business running until employees in the store could be trained sufficiently to run the store. I always remember thinking that this business owner would have likely lost everything had he not been part of a system that was able to support him in his time of need.

Most independent business owners do not have the luxury of having external business partners that can help them during times of need. For this reason, it is immensely important for small business owners to build enough infrastructure within their businesses to continue running, with or without them.

Establish redundancy in key tasks.

The first step to improving the infrastructure of your business is to ensure that each task within your organization has more than one person that can complete the task. By training more than one person to do tasks like payroll, ordering items, making deposits, and other mission-critical tasks, the business can continue to prosper if the manager or owner is on vacation.

Ensure processes and procedures are written.

The second step is to define the processes and procedures essential for your business's effective operation.

When employees are trained properly and understand why and when tasks need to be completed, they are more likely to complete tasks unprompted. The time you take to define how and when tasks are to be completed will help to establish habits and routines that will keep your organization moving like clockwork even when you are not present.

Delegate before your need to.

Step three is to develop the competency of your team through delegation and feedback. In anticipation of the need for your to have time off, it is imperative that you give your employees the opportunity to develop new skills. People learn best by doing, and you can build the competency of your team by allowing them to take on increasingly complex tasks and providing them with feedback to help them grow.

Reinforce a culture of accountability.

Step four requires you to invest time in ensuring you have the right people on the team and that they are bought into your mission. When your employees work inside your business as if they owned it, they are more likely to step up when needed. This starts with hiring people based on character and potential, investing in their development, making them feel valued, and holding them to high standards. When you can influence your employees to hold themselves accountable, it reduces the need for supervision and management.

Summary

You work hard so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. Prioritizing infrastructure development opens up the opportunity for your to take time off of work without having to worry if the important tasks are being completed. Investing time in

• Establishing task redundancy

• Ensuring processes are written

• Delegating before your need to

• Reinforcing a culture of accountability

allows you to take time off without having to stress about your business. It also provides an extra layer of protection against the uncertainty that life brings us all.

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Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Coach and Business Consultant with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry. He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals, and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and lack of direction. He does this by assisting clients to tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

Book a free discovery call to discuss your goals and how I can help you accelerate.

Talk with Dorian

Have Feedback Send me a note at

Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

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How to Improve Your Executive Presence During Meetings.

Demonstrating executive presence during business presentations can help you accelerate your career. Grabbing people's attention, communicating clearly, displaying confidence, and winning support for ideas can make a lasting impression on those you work with. The stakes are high, and you will increase your effectiveness by establishing a success routine that you can repeat. How you present yourself and package your ideas can influence the promotions you earn, the projects you are assigned, and the resources you are given. Building executive presence requires you to be confident in what you know, honest about what you don't, and courageous enough to communicate effectively. You can build these traits by implementing these best practices.

Executive presence starts with building confidence.

Being confident is a crucial aspect of demonstrating executive presence. When a person is confident, it impacts the way they stand, speak, and present themselves. Your confidence can significantly impact your body language, tone, speech speed, and volume during a presentation. When you believe in the logic and importance of your words, those who listen are likelier to hear and consider your message. Speakers who are calm, direct, purposeful, and concise in their communication put audiences at ease.

Build confidence through writing.

 Mastering information related to the topic you will be speaking on will help you confidently deliver your message. One way to improve your mastery of a subject is to write down what you currently know about a topic and reflect on what additional information you need to know before speaking. The process of writing allows you to organize your thoughts. It also provides you with material that you can later review to strengthen your recall of a topic and refine your thinking.

1. A great way to start this process is to get out a blank sheet of paper and write down everything you know about the topic you are speaking about. When you begin this process, don't focus on form or structure.

2.  Jot down whatever is on your mind. It can be helpful to use brainstorming tools like mindmaps to help you complete a brain dump. You will discover how much you know about the subject by putting your thoughts on paper while also allowing yourself to build new connections between data and your experiences.

3. Once you have gathered sufficient information, you can organize it into an outline, prioritize what is most important, and begin writing.

As you put your thoughts on paper, you will likely discover that you know more about the topic than you need to communicate. Having an abundance of information is beneficial. As you transition from writing to preparing your presentation, you can confidently know you have a reservoir of knowledge to tap into as questions on your subject arise.  

Plan your presentation to be brief and brilliant.

Now that you have written down what you know, it's time to plan how to communicate the information effectively. As you develop your plan, it is good to remember that less is more. The more slides, words, props, and time you use, the more complexities you create. Complexity creates risk when you are presenting. When communicating, you want to keep things as simple as possible. Ask yourself, what is the minimum amount of information and production that I need to influence my listeners?

Practice delivering your message.

Practice is the best way to ensure you can deliver a clear and confident message. Much like stage performers rehearse their lines so they can say them without notes, you want to practice your talking points so you can speak naturally without using many written aids and communicate without needing notes. Speaking without notes signals to listeners that you are knowledgeable about the subject.

One of the best ways to practice your presentation is to video record  yourself. You can observe your posture, pace of speech, and tone by recording yourself on video. After watching the video, you can focus on addressing the observed opportunities. Then, you can practice different rates and tones of speech and gestures to see how your verbal and nonverbal communication can impact the way you deliver your message.

After practicing your message on your own, solicit friends, family, or coworkers to listen to your presentation and provide feedback. The more the person mirrors the audience you will be speaking to, the better. If you are presenting to high-level senior executives, it is best to seek out a mentor or sponsor with a similar role or responsibility to practice with. Practicing with someone who knows or understands your audience will ensure that you get appropriate feedback.

Visualize how you want the presentation to go.

Most anxiety around speaking in front of others is rooted in fear of the unknown. As you prepare for your presentation, it is helpful to picture how you envision it going.

• How do you want to be perceived?

• What questions do you anticipate?

• How will you respond to those questions?

• What will you do if your anxiety is getting the best of you?

Visualizing how you want to present and what you will do if things go wrong will help you prepare for the moment. Knowing how you will handle anxiety or unanticipated questions will help you stay calm.

Develop a successful routine.

 In the moments building up to your presentation, develop a successful routine.

1. Wear clothing that makes you comfortable and gives you confidence.

2. Check on your grooming to ensure you present the best version of yourself.

3. Listen to motivational music that can give you positive energy.

4. Practice your posture to maintain a mindful sitting or standing position with an open stance.

5. Warm up your voice to project with clarity.

Taking these steps before you enter the room can help you feel confident and prepared.

 Once you are in the room, there are a few things you should be mindful of.

• First, it is always best to have a glass of water nearby when speaking in front of an audience. Drinking water can give you a moment to compose yourself if you are anxious or have difficulty formulating an answer to a question. It is also helpful to keep your mouth moist when speaking.

• Second, having a pen and a piece of paper is helpful. While you are waiting to speak, new ideas will likely occur to you. Writing them down will allow you to process the thought. If they can help your presentation, use them. If not, writing them down should help you refocus. During your presentation, having a piece of paper will allow you to take notes on questions you cannot answer. Taking good notes will allow you to follow up with the questions asked later.

•  It can also be helpful to have some techniques for grounding yourself. Practicing grounding techniques helps the brain focus on the present moment and avoid dwelling on the future.

  • One technique Shirzad Chamine, executive coach and founder of the Positive Intelligence program, encourages clients to practice is rubbing their fingers together with so much attention that they can feel the ridges of their fingers. This practice can divert your focus from worrying about what could go wrong to the sensations of your fingers.

  • Focusing on your breathing is another effective way to ground yourself. The key is to help your mind decrease negative thoughts. Negative thoughts create anxiety that can lower your confidence.

Summary

Building your executive presence will help you advance your career. Everyone has great ideas, but most people struggle to convert those ideas into action. By executing the best practice above, you will be more confident and better prepared for high-stakes meetings. Executive presence is a skill that you will build over time. The more you put yourself in a position to interact with Senior Leaders of your organization, the easier it will get. Having an executive presence is all about being your authentic self while respecting the communication norms of the organizational or group culture that you are working with.

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Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Business Coach with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry. He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and a lack of direction. He does this by helping clients tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

Book a free discovery call where we can discuss your goals and how I can help you accelerate.

Talk with Dorian

Have Feedback? Send me a note at

Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

For daily tips on leadership and professional development, follow me:

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Improve Your Team Culture with this 15-minute routine.

Improving team culture is a challenge that is universal to all leaders. At their roots, teams work best with a shared purpose, good communication, and collaboration. Like a rowing team, everyone must have a cadence for working together and rowing in the same direction. One of the primary roles of a leader is to bring talented people together, create an operational cadence, provide guidance, and help them to achieve more together than they could apart. Adding Recognition, Obstacle, and Win (ROW) to meetings can help leaders achieve these goals. ROW segments in meetings improve communication, encourage recognition, and bring visibility to obstacles in a time-efficient and effective way.

ROW meetings are about developing a cadence for communicating the good and bad things happening in a business. These meeting segments are typically 15 to 20 minutes long. Each participant comes to the meeting prepared with a 2-minute recap of their week. The summary should include recognizing one person for doing a great job, identifying one obstacle they needed help with, and stating one team win they wanted to celebrate. Since each participant only has 2 minutes, it forces them to be brief and only focus on the highlights. These recaps should mirror the trailer for a movie. The goal is to provide enough information for people to know what is happening, but not so much that people lose interest. If anyone attending the meeting is interested in learning more, they can follow up after the meeting with questions or suggestions.

Employee Recognition

One of the hallmarks of a good culture is recognition. Adam Grant and Francesca Gino's research has shown that expressions of gratitude can help build employees' self-efficacy and social worth, motivating them to engage in prosocial behavior. Thanking employees for a job well done is one of the best ways to improve a team's culture. Employees go to work every day, doing their job, and many never hear a thank you from their peers or boss. Organizational culture improves when leaders maintain a process for slowing down, considering the contributions made by those around them, and expressing gratitude.

A supplemental benefit of this routine is how it helps people get to know each other. During group meetings, there is a tendency for some extroverts to dominate conversations and for everyone else to listen. The communication imbalance can create group thinking and blind spots within a team. The two-minute communication requirement for each participant ensures that everyone has an equal opportunity to communicate. More value is generated during the meeting because there is a greater diversity of thought and inclusion of everyone's ideas.

Sharing of Obstacles

Each participant will share one obstacle they needed help solving. Initially, leaders might be uncomfortable voicing obstacles because of a fear of looking weak or unqualified. It is common for employees to be private about the barriers preventing their success until they have done everything possible to solve the issue independently. The hesitation to share challenges creates unneeded pressure within organizations and can slow down the removal of obstacles. By individuals being vulnerable in the group setting, other participants who have prior experience with similar obstacles can assist the person in need. In addition, when there is a commonality in challenges, participants can partner together to find solutions.

Obstacles are like weeds that prevent organizations from reaching their full potential. Employees within organizations do their best to pull weeds. Often, the process is long and complex because employees need more tools, resources, and power to address complex issues. Managers are essential in getting employees the tools they need to overcome barriers. The ROW meeting segments provided a cadence for managers to check in with employees and surface problems they may need assistance with. As they inquire about challenges, they can provide tips and guidance for addressing opportunities. If they cannot solve the problem at their level, the manager can bring it to the meeting and seek advice and support from the team.

Celebrating Wins

The final segment of the recap is a review of wins for the week. Celebrating successes is essential for locking in learning. In Whitney Johnson's book Smart Growth, she evangelizes the role of celebrations in cementing learning and strengthening relationships. Leaders work hard to drive results. Time must be allocated for them to feel the joy of their team's accomplishment. Sharing of wins provides examples of excellence for the broader group. It also creates opportunities for individuals to be more aware of success outside their direct business, which can both motivate and inspire others to greatness.

Talking about team wins during group meetings helps the team focus on the big picture. Most organizations operate in silos. For information to be shared, it has to flow up one silo to the leader and then back down another silo. The multiple communication points can be slow and weaken the benefit of the message. Often this results in team members focusing too much on their silo and not dedicating time or energy to thinking cross-functionally. Great leaders encourage 360-degree communication because they know removing bottlenecks accelerates organizational performance.

Monitoring Team Fitness

Weekly meetings can be an excellent way for a leader to monitor a team's fitness. Meetings will be super positive, high energy, and upbeat when things are going well. The meeting will feel completely different when obstacles grow or stress rises. There will be more negativity. People will struggle more with finding and discussing wins, and the group will spend more time discussing obstacles. When this occurs, it is a sign of illness within your team. Just as you try to diagnose a problem when you are not feeling well and take steps to heal, when your team is not fit, you must take action to improve team dynamics. Implementing ROW meeting segments and paying attention to how your employees communicate during meetings will help you catch potential illness before it spreads and begins negatively impacting team culture.

Putting it into Action

The ROW meeting approach can effectively establish a culture of recognition, positivity, and accountability within the team. In addition, it will ensure that every team member speaks during each meeting. It encouraged them to spend 66% of their time talking about positive events in the last week and only 33% of the time on obstacles. It challenges them to prioritize, summarize, and communicate directly. Speakers must practice bottom-lining and creating space for others during meetings.

Adding ROW segments to meetings improves engagement because multiple voices will be heard, and the conversation will focus on the remarkable things happening in the business. Team members will find it refreshing to get obstacles brought to the table, and the group will feel a greater sense of cohesion as they discuss ways to solve problems after the calls. Implementing this 15-minute-a-week routine can do a lot to improve the culture of an organization. The practices leaders establish say a lot about who they are and what is essential. Leaders who build routines around recognizing team members, capturing obstacles, and celebrating wins build a strong foundation of trust within their organization. Trust is needed to create a strong team culture.

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Dorian Cunion is an Executive Business Coach with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He specializes in coaching services for managers, executives, and small business owners.

For tips on leadership and professional development, follow me:

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If you are interested in working with me as a coach, contact me at

• Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

• Phone: 804-220-5771

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