Team Building

When Should I Hire My First Sales Closer?

December 27, 2022 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Today, you’ll discover when you should hire your first salesperson, how to hire the right salesperson, and common mistakes to avoid.

How To Know Who You Should Hire First

There are a lot of conflicting opinions out there, and it depends on the type of business you run…

But you could hire a marketer, copywriter, accountant, admin clerk, and the list goes on, but…

As you’re a coach, consultant, knowledge expert, or trainer, it’s my belief that you should hire a salesperson first.

We’ll call them closers for the rest of the newsletter.

So why should you hire a closer first?

I recorded a quick podcast episode for you, where I explain this in its entirety.

Click here to find out why and how a closer will help you generate more revenue and get your time back >>

So you know why you should hire a closer as your first employee, your next challenge is to find the RIGHT person.

The Difference Between a Closer and a Salesperson

Before we go further, you may wonder why I call them closers, not salespeople.

Quick question…

What words come to mind when you hear the word salesperson?

Slimy, sleazy, snake oil, pushy, manipulative?

It’s likely you’re thinking of these words or others similar.

A salesperson is a good talker who pushes you into the sale and knows little about you.

A closer is a good listener who guides you to the sale and knows your pains, struggles, goals, aspirations, and motivations for wanting to solve your problem.

The ONLY Type Of Employee You Want In Your Business

Now, before I share with you how to find great closers, click here to watch this quick video about the 3 kinds of employees >>

This video will teach you the exact type of employee you want in your business and the ones you should avoid like the plague.

Now you know which employees you should avoid, here’s how to find the best closers >>

I’m willing to bet when you get to finding and hiring your closer, you may be tempted to hire someone who can “sell anything to anyone”.

In reality, you shouldn’t hire that kind of salesperson.

It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true.

What you want is a “true believer” in your product or service.

Does that sound much more advantageous?

Click here for a deeper dive into why a “true believer” is a huge asset to your business >>

How To Cut Your Losses When Your Closer Doesn’t Perform

You want to set your closer up for success, by giving them every opportunity to improve.

You must also give them a clear path to close more sales for you, thereby increasing their income in the shortest time possible.

You’ll want to give them achievable targets but you’ll also want to keep them challenged every month.

You want to know in advance if things won’t work out with your closer BEFORE they reach the end of their trial period, and here’s how you do it >>

The #1 Mistake Entrepreneurs Make When Hiring

Profit is the ONLY reason you hire employees.

Even in an admin role, that employee takes over tasks you do that keep you away from making money.

You’re always hiring to make more money in your business.

So, if your closer doesn’t perform, you’ve got to replace them, but if you make THIS common mistake when hiring, it makes replacing them near impossible >>

How To Screen Potential Closers

Some people are great at interviews but when it comes to performing in their job, they fall flat.

That’s why they’re so good at interviews after all… because they attend so many.

Here’s a secret strategy for screening and testing your candidates without them knowing >>

Your interview process is very important, so you’ll want to arm yourself with a great set of interview questions specifically for hiring closers.

You can get those here >>

The Psychology Behind Hiring Staff

Finally, I wanted to give you something to think about.

Would you rather have a company of giants or dwarfs?

Smart CEOs know if they hire people less capable than themselves, they’ll end up with a company of dwarfs.

If you want a deeper dive into why I adopt the “Russian Doll” principle when it comes to hiring, which allows me to create a company of giants, click here >>

After consuming all this content, you should be in a great position to hire your first closer, and set both of you up for success.

To your success,

Dan Lok

P.S. – If you’ve been able to grow your business well but you’re wondering how to get to the next level…

Click here to watch my Advanced Expert Masterclass, where you’ll discover the strategies and secrets I and my clients use to have consistent six-figure months >>

How To Hire Your Next Superstar

December 13, 2022 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

This is something every expert, coach, consultant, or business owner should do, as the more value you give the more comes back to you in time.

So, today you’ll discover how to hire the right people for your team and how to build a powerful team of A players.

How To Build A Powerful Team

Business is a team sport, and as you know, you can only do so much as the CEO of your company.

I truly believe in hiring people who have greater skills than you in their area of expertise.

Because if you’re the most productive, smartest, and best-skilled person on your team, you’ll ALWAYS be the bottleneck.

Before you even think about hiring anyone, you must get CRYSTAL CLEAR on these 3 things >>

One of the best ways I’ve found to build a powerful team is by finding out what your team members’ goals are.

What are they motivated by?

Figure this out and you’ll get the best out of your team.

How To Hire The Right People

Once you’re clear on your vision, mission, and culture, you’re ready to find the people who’ll fit that culture and help you achieve your vision and mission.

After all, your business will never reach its full potential if your team doesn’t believe in what you do or fit the business culture.

I adopt a very unorthodox way of hiring talent.

In fact, I NEVER look at resumes.

I don’t care about their past, I care about their future.

I also care about attitude and culture fit.

I don’t even hire for skills necessarily…

In fact, a lot of my team members didn’t start out in their current roles.

I like to promote from within, so a few years after someone joins my team, they could be working in a completely different role.

If you want to know exactly how to build a high-performance team then click here to check out this in-depth video >>

Why You Always Want To Hire People More Capable Than You

One thing I’ve noticed a lot is CEOs hire based on their insecurities.

Here’s what I mean.

If you’re always hiring people who aren’t as skilled as you because you think they’ll be easy to control, your company will find it hard to grow.

I mentioned earlier that you’d always be the bottleneck, but it’s far deeper than that.

Your job as the CEO isn’t to do each task better than your employees.

Your job is to be the captain of the ship…

The visionary…

The person who puts everything together and directs your employees to help you build the company’s vision.

That’s why you hire people who are experts in their field because it’s unlikely you have all the skills needed to build your vision.

Click here for a counter-intuitive insight into why you DON’T want to motivate your team, and what to do instead >>

How To Differentiate Between a Superstar and a Super-talker

When you’re looking for A players, here’s one thing I’ve learned.

There are people who talk a big game, and there are those who can deliver a big game.

Let’s pretend you’ve hired someone you believe will be a huge asset to your team.

Here’s how you find out which category they’re in.

You give them what I call a lame horse.

If they produce great results with the lame horse, only then do you upgrade their horse and watch them soar.

Click here to discover how to give your next team member a lame horse so you can monitor their progress and upgrade the horse when the time is right >>

How CEOs Communicate Effectively To Their Team

Here’s something that trips up a lot of CEOs, including me, [Name].

You see, it doesn’t matter how clear you are on your vision and mission and how high-performance your team members are…

If you can’t communicate with them effectively, the tasks you give them won’t be executed with precision.

I’ve had moments in my business where I was absolutely crystal clear on what I wanted the project to look like…

But when I received the first version, it was nothing like I thought I’d explained it.

I realized that I was the issue.

I needed to get better at explaining how I wanted the project to look.

Communication is the message sent, message received, and message acted upon.

If you’d like to see a roleplay of how to communicate effectively with your team members, then watch this video here >>

How to Get Crystal Clear On Where Your Business Is Headed, So You Can Lead Your Team To Victory

Before we wrap this up, I wanted to share with you a powerful way to gain clarity on your vision, mission, and business so you and your team can operate at the highest levels possible.

I know it’s not related to hiring a team member, but as we’ve moved on to getting the best out of your team members, I think it’s relevant.

The secret lies in what I call “think time”.

Every day I set aside a certain amount of time to think about where my business is at.

I ask myself 3 simple yet powerful questions >>

These questions allow me to figure out the best next steps forward and much much more.

Every successful person I know allocates time to think time.

Because you’re busy every day, you don’t have time to sit down and think about things.

That’s why think time is so important.

In closing, the word “clarity” has come up a lot in this newsletter.

Getting crystal clear as often as possible will help you in every aspect of your business from making key decisions to hiring the right people and more.

Until next time, go high ticket,

Dan Lok

P.S. – If you want to hit 6 figure months you’re going to need complete clarity on your high ticket offer.

So, if you’d like an insight into how I create irresistible high ticket offers that allow me to have consistent 6 figure months, then click here to watch the Advanced Expert Masterclass >>

How To Manage Professionals In Ways That Unlock Their Full Potential

July 7, 2020 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

We hate to break it to you, but if your business is falling apart, it’s probably not your team’s fault. It’s probably yours. That’s why you need to be sure of one thing – how to manage professionals better.

As a leader, you’re responsible for the talent you bring in. They might have the skills, but they could still lack training when it comes to scaling the business.

Most professionals know how to do their job. They do what they’re supposed to and then call it a day.

Yet few of them are thinking about going the extra mile. When a team works hard together to help each other grow, everyone will get to reach their full potential.

You could scale your business faster, and your professionals will get recognized easier. That’s what a dream team is all about.

A lot of business owners are missing this big picture. They find ways to become less involved in team projects instead.

If you don’t put enough work into your team, your team isn’t going to do the same with your business.

Without further ado, here are some ways you can learn how to manage professionals:

It All Starts With You

Your business is a reflection of you. Click To Tweet

Before you think about hiring more people, you have to be transparent with yourself first.

Can you be a role model for them? Is there something you still need to develop so that you can share what you know?

The chances are you don’t know everything yet. Nothing can be more powerful than a leader who is always learning. With that, others are likely to look up to you for guidance.

What makes a good leader is someone who can give support to their team. For that to be possible, you’ll need confidence and skills. Once you’re able to motivate others to do the same, their performance will speak for itself.

A good question to always ask yourself is, “How can I make this better?”

It’s rare for businesses to have a perfect anything in place. To optimize your operations and systems, you have to keep in mind there is room for improvement. Don’t settle for anything less.

When you’re learning how to manage professionals, they need to think the same way. It will challenge them to become better versions of themselves. This will get them to invest time in maximizing efforts.

Understanding Their “Why”

You have a “why” and other people have their own “why.” Do you know everyone’s “why” though?

Why do they do what they do? Why do they want to work with you? Or, why do they make certain decisions?

When you understand everyone’s “why,” you will learn how to manage professionals better. You will know their goals and what they’re trying to achieve when working with you.

If they want to work with you because they look up to you, then you should lead them to the path of success. If they want to grow within their skills, then you should challenge them. Give them new opportunities to level up faster. Everybody will win.

All it takes is for you to listen to their personal goals. Then you guide them in the right direction while they help you. That’s the bridge you need to build for them to close the gap.

Some business owners don’t challenge their team enough. They leave them with repetitive tasks and don’t end up feeling fulfilled in their position. This is why it could take years for employees to receive a promotion.

People have asked Dan Lok many times how he was able to become successful at a young age. His answer? His “why” was big enough. What that means is that he had no choice to give up and was that hungry for his success.

When your “why” is big enough, you’ll go out of your way and do whatever you can to get what you want. That’s what Dan did, and it works for him.

It’s no different for anyone else. Most people have a strong “why” but haven’t discovered how to achieve it. That’s why it’s your role to understand them and lead the right way.

Mind & Body Over Everything Else

This is what the Global Wellness Institute found in a survey:

When workers feel mentally unwell, it affects their work performance.

62% of workers say it affects their ability to get work done
63% of workers say it affects their engagement in work
62% of workers say it affects their motivation to do the job well

This includes your team’s emotional well-being. When your mind and body aren’t in the right place, everything else won’t be either.

The main cause of this can be because of stress, pressure, or the work environment itself. It’s important to keep the energy high within your team.

You can relate this situation to batteries. Every new battery is packed with a lot of power until you start using it. Sometimes it can be overused for a short period of time. This will make the battery weak and not work anymore.

In your case, your team is your power source for your business. Their performance will determine the short and long-term impacts.

Once you get how to manage professionals at a high-level all the time, you’ll have a powerhouse team. The result of this will transform into a lot of accomplishments.

To get your team to operate with good mental wellbeing all the time, they need to have the right mindset first.

What differentiates entrepreneurs from each other is their mindset. A typical mindset is different from a millionaire mindset. If you or your team want to get to the next level faster, they need to be thinking at that level first.

One way to adapt the right mindset is by visualizing what you want to happen. Your team needs to do this too. You can remind everyone of their goals and what’s going to happen once they achieve it.

Be authentic, genuine, and interesting. It doesn’t have to always be about seriousness in the workplace. Also, encouragement is not a hard thing to do, and it will work in ways you can’t imagine.

Mindset can give anyone the motivation to succeed. Once you have it, not even a rainy day will bring you down.

The Training Never Stops

Once you learn something once, it doesn’t mean you’re done learning forever.

The world keeps changing and people keep innovating. There’s no real stop to learning because you will fall behind in the market if you’re not up to date.

You have to expect the same from your team. If they are open to keep learning and honing in on their skill set, it’ll give them more motivation.

In fact, the training part of every new job is likely the most motivating. That’s because you’ll be eager to learn something new and get good at it. Once you gain a new skill, you’ll feel the job is worth it because you see improvement in yourself.

American Author Dr. Seuss said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

When you figure how to manage professionals and their attitudes, achievements are endless.

Training doesn’t have to come from you all the time. It can come from your top performers in your team. You can offer them a promotion when you feel they deserve it. Also, provide them with the necessary leadership skills to train someone else.

The goal is to always keep everyone learning. Then, celebrate the outcomes together.

Avoid The Lone Wolf Mentality

The way you build your team environment is going to determine how you will build your success.

With that said, it’s not always better when individuals are too independent. When they’re used to working alone, they can fall into a lone-wolf mentality.

Being a lone wolf will keep you from building strong connections. You can gain so much more valuable insights from other people. It makes a huge difference when everyone in the work environment is helping each other grow.

When you make time for the people you work with, they can inspire you to do better. You would be able to count on your team’s support when it comes to feedback.

Feedback is crucial for everyone’s performance. Without it, you wouldn’t know how to manage professionals and their weaknesses. It helps you understand where you and everyone else are at as well as what still needs improvement.

For example, there might be a skill you could improve on and learn from someone else on your team. If you’re a lone wolf, you might never have asked for feedback. You wouldn’t know whether you need to improve or not.

If you’re open about sharing your progress and ideas, you could receive value back. People on your team could provide you with better resources or teach you how to do things in a better way.

Even making simple conversations would still move the needle. So if you notice that someone hasn’t reached their full potential, first ask them if they tried to work in a team yet. Have they put the effort in collaborating to get the help they need from others?

Working together is always better than working alone. A team is when everyone combines all their unique talents together to make a strong outcome.

John J. Murphy, CEO of Venture Management Consultants, said: “When we bring them to the table and share them for a common purpose, it can give companies a real competitive advantage.”

If you want the best for your business, you can do so by making sure the environment is suitable for everyone. Make it as easy as possible for them to collaborate and connect with each other. When everyone is helping each other, there will be fewer mistakes in the long-run.

Every Person is Part of The Bigger Picture

Does every member of your team know what success looks and feels like?

If so, they should be able to act the part in their role. If not, you’ll have to create expectations for them to do what they need.

As a leader, it’s important for you to be clear on your expectations in everyone’s role. You might even need to show or to explain how they can become more successful. Once they know what it looks like, they’ll know how to deliver excellence.

When people can predict what the outcome is going to be, they’ll develop the will to achieve it. That’s also when they’ll unlock their self-motivation and build on the confidence to succeed.

For instance, Dan Lok has always envisioned his success when he was a teenager. Even though he hadn’t felt success at that point, he knew what it should look like because of the people he looked up to.

It was possible for Dan to follow the right path to success because he had mentors leading him the way. This isn’t an easy thing to do, but it sure is a faster way to get there when you can avoid mistakes.

What does success mean to you? What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing every day? Or what are you doing to work towards it?

When you create a vision for your company, your team can follow it. It’s a powerful thing when you all share a vision together.

Your vision will give everyone a sense of purpose and meaning in the role they’re in. As everyone’s role is as important, it’s fulfilling to know you’re responsible for the bigger picture.

No one should have to feel they’re less than someone else. Even if they’re in a lower position, they can still bring value to the table in other ways.

You can encourage your team to work smarter and challenge them to do better than the previous time. That’s how everyone will stay invested in a greater impact.

It’ll be your part to provide them with the right tools they need to execute. If they’re working with incompetent resources, then you can’t expect spectacular results.

You can think of it like this: the quality you put into your team will be the quality of work they put out. It’s worth any price you pay to have quality. The results could bring in the highest ROI for you.

Failure Equals Success

8 out of 10 businesses fail, and most of them don’t even know why they fail.

What some businesses don’t understand is that failure is all part of the learning process. The same goes for people too. No matter how smart or skillful someone is, failures will still happen.

That’s because we humans make mistakes and have higher expectations. Not every experience will be perfect.

It doesn’t mean you or your business are a complete failure. It means you’ll have to learn from the failures to find greater success. Those who accept more failures will succeed faster.

When you’re the leader, it’s crucial to not criticize your team for any of their mistakes. Great leaders will help build them back up as soon as possible.

Instead, you can leverage failures as more opportunities. To do this, you must see all failures as part of growth to strengthen innovation.

Without feeling like mistakes will set you back, you can think from a better mindset. In reality, mistakes will only hold you back if you allow it to. But if you decide to take it as a lesson, you’ll be less likely to ever make the same mistake again. You might even find greater opportunities along the way.

Like Dan Lok, he failed 13 businesses before he got to his first success. If he gave up the 13th time, do you think he’d get to where he’s at today? No.

You see, failure is necessary. If you don’t have enough of it, then you might not have reached your fullest potential yet. That’s why you have to stick with your vision.

When you keep your end goals in mind, you’ll find ways to get there. It might not work the first way, but you’ll perfect it more as you go. Even if you get things right the first time, there’s always room for optimization.

Discover How To Manage Professionals The Smarter Way

If you want your team to help you scale your business with fewer mistakes along the way, you’ll need to get this right.

Learning how to manage professionals is easy when you can show your support to them. Only then will they feel you care for their continuous success.

The best way to do this is to think of your team as your backbone. Each role in your business is critical for your success. You have to treat everyone as if they bring in the same value as others.

That way, nobody feels their role is too small. With your leadership skills, you can help your team achieve more for themselves.

When you invest your effort in giving them feedback, your team will start to see potential and growth. After all, every person wants to feel fulfilled in what they do and become part of a bigger mission.

At Dragon 100™, that’s what Dan Lok can teach you. In this exclusive advisory board, you’ll surround yourself with the world’s best leaders.

There’s no better place to be than a room full of successful A-level players. These industry leaders are on their way to scaling to an extra 6-7 figures in their business.

You too can be a part of this private group and connect with some business insiders. You will be able to manage your professionals the smarter way to reach high-level success. But don’t wait until you’re ready because Dragon 100™ only accepts 100 members.

Click here to apply to become a member of Dragon 100™ today.

How Organizational Performance Can Drive Employees To Make Smarter Decisions

June 29, 2020 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Do you know what the biggest needle mover is for your organizational performance?

It’s the ability to make as many decisions as possible and to make them fast. This strategy doesn’t only apply to you but to all of your employees as well. In fact, employee involvement in decision making should be your company’s backbone and is key to improve work performance. Let’s face it – you can’t keep track of everything that goes on within your company.

It’s better to trust and have confidence in the people you work with. That way, you can focus on what matters most to you – without the extra stress.

As soon as you have the instinct to act on a goal, you need to take action immediately. If you don’t, your brain will kill that desire within seconds.

Sounds crazy, right?

TEDx speaker Mel Robbins wrote a book about this called The 5 Second Rule. She talks about how you can transform your work and life by being confident in the decisions you make every single day and as a result improve work performance.

All it takes is 5 seconds for you to make every decision. After 5 seconds, that’s when you’ll start to hesitate with your ideas. You wouldn’t want that, would you?

It might take time for you to practice making these decisions so quickly. But as soon as you get used to it, your business’s 1-year plan could come a lot sooner.

So if you’ve been asking yourself, “What will help us make smarter decisions?” Count 5-4-3-2-1-GO, and you’ll be happy you did.

How to improve organizational performance

1. Know Your Priorities

Before your company makes any decisions, you have to set your priorities straight.

Priorities can change all the time. What you have planned before might not work in the following months.

As a business owner, it’s your role to make sure everyone in your company understands your priorities. That also means being familiar with your vision and values too.

When everyone is on the same page, it makes optimal organizational performance possible. They will have a clear picture of what their responsibilities are to achieving goals.

One way that will help your employees make smarter decisions is by listening to them more. It’s never been more true when you hear that the art of communication is the language of leadership. If your focus is on employee involvement in decision making, you’ll get more done and this is an important way to improve work performance.

“How much time would you save if you didn’t have to make every decision? What would you do with all that extra time?”

As long as you set priorities for your company, then there would be a strategic plan to execute. Your employees will look for the right decisions to support your goals.

But if you’re unclear about what those goals are, it’s harder for them to decide what to do next. They’ll have to rely on you to make decisions for them since they want to avoid making mistakes.

If you want to see how your employees are making decisions, you can compare what they do with what you would do. If that doesn’t match, then that’s something you all still need to work on.

Even the managers in your team need to have the same thought process as yours when it comes to decision making. That way, they can reinforce their decisions to the rest of your employees.

Not everyone will make the right decisions for themselves at the beginning. It’ll take time for others to understand how to make your goals happen. So, you can always provide knowledge and resources for them to achieve faster.

2. Have a Game Plan to Improve Work Performance

Did you know that your employees can and should go beyond doing their job?

You’re not only hiring them to work for you, you’re hiring them to build on their strengths. You pay them to become the best version of themselves. That way, you can leverage their skills and talents for optimal growth.

When employees get to do what they’re skilled at, they’ll be comfortable with decisions.

Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision. Click To Tweet

Since all roles in your company are different, you’ll need to come up with a game plan for every role. A plan that works for the designer might not work for the writer for example.

Your team will make smarter decisions when you avoid the one-size-fits-all approach. That means you can’t assume that every business training will help each employee.

What you need to do is match your employees’ abilities with the correct skillful work. This will help sustain organizational performance when no one is under-performing.

Even if you’ve had an employee work for you since the start of your company, there’s still a lot they might not know.

For example, if their role is to work in the warehouse, then they won’t know how to function the storefront – and vice versa. Or someone in charge of writing ads might not be skillful enough to take on sales calls too.

It’s better for each employee to stick with that one thing they’re specialized in. This will help them grow in their role and become an expert that others will look up to.

After deciding who’s good at what, you can then pair employees in teams where you see them thriving the most. It could be for content creation, project management, etc.

You can carry out employee involvement in decision making by asking these questions:

What’s the decision?
What information do you need?
Are there any alternatives?
Can you weigh the evidence?
What actions will you need to take?

These questions will become secondhand nature to you every time you make decisions. It creates a process and less confusion when driving out actions fast. Your team will be able to track progress and make fewer mistakes and will lead to improvement in work performance.

3. Coach Employee Involvement In Decision Making

According to the International Coaching Federation, 86% of companies recouped their investment into coaching.

Employees who receive coaching could increase self-confidence, improve relationships, and develop communication skills. These are all necessary for personal development and organizational performance. It will enable your team to bring more results to the table.

Good coaches have these 5 characteristics:

Actively listen: You listen to and understand workplace concerns.
Answer questions: You ask and answer questions that will help your team understand and make better decisions.
Be non-authoritative: You take on a non-authoritative approach, recognizing the success of a team effort where you work on goals together.
Be transparent: You are transparent in all aspects with no hidden agenda or emotional attachment to situations between employees.
Provide direction: You give direction with the proper training and tasks to move employees towards success.

With the right coaching, your company will make fewer wrong decisions. Poor decision making can cost money and time. No business owner would want that to happen.

Instead, it’s a smart choice to invest efforts into successful coaching. After all, it’s the coach who helps a great team make smart decisions. When a leader is inexperienced, it can slow down the workflow.

The only decisions you should make are the ones that impact each department of your business. The managers can decide which tasks to delegate to your employees. As for your employees, it’s up to them and their skills to complete those tasks.

If your employees need help with bigger decisions, they should reach out to the managers. That’s why it’s important for teams to collaborate and communicate solutions. It’s also easier for everyone to give and receive feedback when you’re working closer together which will lead to improved performance at work.

To become more efficient, employees should always provide the best information possible. They should consider some supportive decisions that may work first. So both managers and yourself will have fewer problems deciding what’s best for the company.

4. Ensure Your Judgement Is Good

Judging isn’t always a negative.

In any business, judgment will help make complicated structures more simple. You will gain more wisdom and experience too.

Without good judgment, you won’t be able to make the best decisions. While making a judgment, you can ask yourself these questions:

Am I the decision-maker?
How much time do I have to make this decision?
Do I have all the facts?
Who’s opinion would I want to hear from?
How can I get better at making good judgments?

The more opportunities you provide for employees to practice, the smarter the decisions. There will be enough feedback to know how to navigate through any difficult decision.

A perfect example of this would be employees receiving feedback, guidance, and practice.

If leaders fail to guide employees, they won’t be able to improve their behaviors. They would never reflect on the mistakes they’ve made or been capable of refining solutions.

Your employees need to see what decisions will and will not align with your company’s goals and promises. This will become a big driver in the workplace.

Former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson said, “One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils. The thing is to supply light and not heat.”

When you can adjust to better choices quickly, you’ll improve future judgment by a lot. Imagine how your team’s progress would look without any second guesses? Organizational behavior is essential for improving performance and commitment at work.

5. Track Ways To Make Smarter Decisions

The easiest way to make a decision is to see what’s tracked.

That means you’ll need to record what happens before and after the results. This tracking progress will increase the effectiveness of employee involvement in decision making.

If you want to improve organizational performance, you’ll need repetitive winning outcomes.

Making decisions can cause employees to procrastinate, lose self-control, and lack quality. That’s why when you take advantage of your business data, it can help you decide what to do next.

Even if some data can’t make decisions for you, it will still narrow down your choices to find the right one. You’ll feel more confident when you’re not guessing what you should do.

To measure your efforts, you can track your company’s KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

You’ll need to find out which metrics are important to you to help you measure the improvement in work performance.

For example, you could measure:

Average conversion time
Blog subscribers
Click-through rate
Cost per production
Engagement rate
Sales revenue
Social media traffic
Training costs
Website visitors
And so much more

What KPIs are important for your business?

These metrics are a huge resource for you and your team. Once you have the data laid out, it’ll be easier to make reasonable decisions for the company.

This is something Dan Lok does when he wants to run ads on his programs.

Since there are so many platforms to choose from when advertising, it’s best to focus on only a few or even one. For Dan, he tested out ads on Google, YouTube, Facebook, and more.

It seems like most of his students are finding him through Facebook. So, it would make sense to focus more on your ad spend on the platform that helps you create the most results.

Makes sense, right? Keep in mind, the fastest way to improve is to test and see what works.

6. Optimize Your Progress

After you track your progress, you need to optimize them for better organizational performance.

Every great decision-maker wants to make smarter decisions all the time. To achieve that, you’ll need to keep finding ways to do things better.

It could be as simple as redesigning your logo or as complex as developing a new website. Either way, these changes can generate more revenue for your business and improve work performance.

How?

Well, technologies and the internet world are always changing. More people are online now and new apps are available. This means you’ll have to keep up to date on what’s trending.

If you’re behind in the game, your competition might have the advantage. That’s why it’s crucial for you to keep updating your company’s processes.

There’s an innovation for almost anything. If you feel that your workflow could speed up, there’s most likely a tool that can help you.

When you can leverage the right resources, you’ll come across fewer problems in your business. And who wouldn’t want to be hands-off as much as possible?

Your team’s productivity and growth will speed up while performing at a high level. That’s what optimization can do for you when you put your focus towards it.

The ultimate goal should be for you to optimize everything – including your employees.

85% of search marketing professionals will focus more on conversion rate optimization. That means their marketing focus increases by 85%. Can you imagine what the results would be like?

It’s true that companies will have a higher chance of success by testing and optimizing more. You could add a few more zeros in your bank account.

Before you even think about running a new business, you need to optimize what you have first. Otherwise, you’re going to get side-tracked and never fix existing issues. Then, you’ll be able to carry out good habits in all aspects of the business.

7. Take Your Organizational Performance To The Next Level

Having employee involvement in decision making will take your hands off from a lot of things.

You don’t have time to hold your employees by the hand and make decisions for them.

When there are hundreds of decisions to make every day, you’ll have no choice but to trust your team. You’ll need to rely on them to help make smarter decisions for you.

Sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want and can cause long-term mistakes. This also includes the loss of time, money, and resources.

So, how can you ensure that mistakes like this won’t happen?

It’s important for you to build confidence in every employee that works with you. You’ll need to track and optimize everything in your business for better results.

The best way to go about this is to give your team the attention they need.

Once they receive the proper training and feedback, they’ll be able to help you run your business. They can make bigger decisions on the spot. Or, they’ll know to reach out to other team members for guidance. Organizational behavior is essential for improving performance and commitment in the workplace.

As long as you’re transparent and supportive, your team looks forward to honing their skills. When you help them win, they will help you win too.

If you would like to find out how to lead a team to make smarter decisions and improve work performance, Dragon 100™ might be for you.

Dragon 100™ is an advisory board designed for only 100 qualified entrepreneurs. This isn’t for everyone. It’s especially not for every business.

But, if you have what it takes to scale your business to the next level then this is the right place. Inside of Dragon 100™ you’ll surround yourself with the world’s great decision-makers.

You’ll even get to discover how to add an extra 6 or 7 figures to your business in a short period of time. With Dan Lok’s guidance, you’ll save years from figuring it all out on your own.

Click here to apply and become a Dragon 100™ member today.

Creating A Positive Work Environment: How Your Corporate Culture Can Be Supportive, Harmonious and Flexible

June 21, 2020 by Dan Lok

As a business owner, how do you create a positive work environment? Do you load up the kitchen with snacks? Give your employees a raise? Or give them more vacation than the competitors? These are all good methods to increase team morale. But when it comes to creating a positive work environment, they are not the best long-term solutions.

Successful business leaders know that creating this company culture at its core is important. In fact, having a positive work environment is the most important factor when it comes to building a good company. Business strategy, systems, and management all come secondary.

Reasons To Create a Positive Work Environment

When your employees are happy, they are more likely to perform at their best. Instead of cutting corners when the boss isn’t around, they take ownership of their work. This builds trust, which benefits all parties involved.
Trust gives you peace of mind. You can do other things knowing your team will produce results.
A poor work environment benefits no one. It means that your team members are conflicted with one another. As Abraham Lincoln said: “A house divided against itself, cannot stand.” If your team members are not on the same page, nothing will get done. And if nothing gets done, your business will fail.

How to Create A Positive Work Environment

1. Make company culture at your core

Company culture boils down to how employees perform, react, and respond to things when you are not there. Do they have the skills to handle things by themselves? Or do they panic and call you up when something goes wrong? These are indicators that show you what kind of culture you have.

If you want to grow a successful company, you need a good culture. When you have a large organization, you can’t always be there for your team. You have to let them do their job, and they have to let you do the same. You need to trust that they will do their best when you are not there. And trust is about knowing their values.

Values are the beliefs someone has. Someone with strong values will not take shortcuts even though they can. They will be honest in everything they do. Other terms for values are integrity, ethics, or morals.

Creating a positive work environment requires people with the right values. Oftentimes, the people you hire will not have the same values you are looking for. As a result, you need to let them know what values are important to you.

A good culture will help people develop the right values. When they see everyone else acting in a certain way, it will influence them to do the same.

2. Reinforce the values of the company daily

Successful CEO’s know the importance of a positive work environment. In fact, the most successful companies today make work culture a priority. These are the companies that are at and beyond the billion dollar mark.

When you have the right culture, things will take care of itself. Your people will automatically perform and produce results. They will come up with the right strategies.

Here’s an example: if you’ve ever attended a networking event, you may have participated in an icebreaker. This is where people get divided into teams to solve a complex problem.

Oftentimes, the team with the best culture produces the best results. They are able to come up with the answer before anyone else. Or produce a solution that trumps all the other teams. This is because they have good culture. Everyone is on the same page, working towards the same goal. They work together instead of figuring things out by themselves. That allows them to produce results much faster than if they were alone.

This example shows why company culture is number one. Even though these people do not know each other, they can produce results. They don’t need systems, management, or team leaders. They can figure things out by themselves.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Click To Tweet

3. Educate and Be Transparent

Creating a positive work environment is not easy. It requires a lot of patience and time. This is because people cannot instantly adapt to new changes. They need time to get used to how things are done.

New people that join your team do not understand your culture or values. Oftentimes, they come from a different background with different values and beliefs. As a result, it will take time for them to shift their mindset.

How can you create a positive work environment? Educate the team and be transparent, show them the values of the company and how it affects them. Once the team understands the culture, you don’t have to check up on them anymore. In fact, it becomes a benefit. Now, these people can breed the next generation of new team members. You can put them in charge of drilling the company’s values into the new hires.

So what about people that refuse to conform? What if your employees are aware of your company values but don’t do what you want them to? The only advice we have is to remove them from the team. One bad apple will ruin the whole lot. If even one member of your organization goes Rambo, it affects the entire company.

Understand that there is a difference between someone struggling to conform and someone who refuses to. If it has only been a few weeks, chances are they are still learning. But if it has been going on for months, you are better off finding people who understand your values.

4. Apply The 3 Values To Create A Positive Work Environment

There are 3 values you need to create good culture: loyalty, harmony, and results.

1. Loyalty

Loyalty is important for creating a positive work environment. Let’s say you have an A-player in your company. If they are not loyal to you, they are not useful. They may use their skills to mess up your organization or to stab you in the back.

A loyal team member is a trustworthy one. These are people who are happy to grow alongside you instead of leaving you behind. These are people you want in your company. They understand that everyone prospers when they add value.

2. Harmony

Another value that’s important for creating a positive work environment is harmony.
Let’s say you had a superstar in your company but this person cannot work with others. They are a lone wolf who no one can get along with.
This is an example of someone who is arrogant. They believe their way of doing things is the right way. They are straying from the pack. To them, results are all that matters. They don’t have to buy into culture.
You will need people who can harmonize with others if you want to create a good team environment.

3. Results

A team that cannot get along cannot produce great results. Imagine your team members as an army. An army must work together to win. If they cannot work together, they will fight with one another and end up straying from the group.
Now, you have different groups trying to conquer different things. This is inefficient because most likely they do not have enough strength on their own. But if they focused their efforts as one to conquer a similar goal, their chance of success increases.
Creating a positive work environment allows team members to work in harmony. The efforts of many people get multiplied many times when focused.

5. Enforce Your Standards For Creating A Positive Work Environment

How can you create a great company culture? What if you have conflict? You must be very strict about enforcing company harmony. This means not allowing conflicts or politics in the team. If anyone tries to create drama, they must be removed. Their negativity may create problems that affect other members. This results in a disruption of operations in the business.

Not enforcing company harmony is the same as watching your business burn. This will result in workers getting lazy. Or finding ways to exploit the business. When morale is low, so are the results produced. Internal problems will negatively affect your business.

To avoid this, find people who associate with your company values. People who are loyal, can get along with others, and produce results are the people you want to look for. They will create a great team environment where everyone is happy. And the happier they are, the more efficiently they’ll perform.

6. Everyone Needs To Be On The Same Page

During 480 BC, the Greek city-state known as Sparta went to war against Persia. The Greek army had 7,000 men at it’s disposal; the Persian army had over a million. To delay the Persian army’s advance, the Greeks blocked off a small road known as Thermopylae.

The plan was to have the Persian’s fight in this narrow passageway. From the results of their first day’s battle, the plan seemed to be successful. The Greeks were able to hold off the Persian army with little casualties.

On the second day of battle, disaster struck. The Greeks were betrayed, and the Persians learned of another road they could take. As a result, the Greeks found themselves fighting a battle on two fronts – from the front and from behind. Their focus divided, they could not hold the enemy off, and after three days, they lost the fight.

This example shows how important teamwork is. On the first day of battle, the Greeks had no trouble fighting off the Persians. This is because everyone had the same goal in mind: to hold off the front.

When their focus was divided, suddenly they found themselves struggling. Half their force was occupied with the front. And half of the force was occupied with the rear. They no longer had the same goal in mind. Instead of being united as one, they were now split up.

Some soldiers followed orders and stuck together. Others broke rank and charged ahead by themselves. They were outnumbered and killed. Over the course of three days, these small mistakes added up costing the lives of 7,000 soldiers.

When their focus was one, they were successful. When it was divided, their defenses crumbled. The Greeks represent your business. You want everyone focused if you want to be successful.

Your Company Culture Determines Your Success

Team members who do not know company values need to learn them fast. If even one member strays from the goal, the entire formation becomes broken. This results in the whole team failing.

Like the Greeks, your team members are an army. If they move together as one, they will succeed. Their efforts become multiplied when they work together. They can look out for one another and cover each other’s weaknesses.

But what happens if one of them doesn’t work with the others? What if they go Rambo and do their own thing?

Here’s what happens: your team members start doing the wrong things. Let’s say your company culture values three things: open communication, following the group, and taking ownership for your actions.

Now let’s take these values and implement them into a battle scenario. 6,999 of your soldiers understand these values. 1 of them does not. If this army clashes with the enemy, guess what will happen? The one soldier will not communicate, follow the group, or take ownership for his or her actions.

They may abandon the fight and run off. Charge ahead by themselves. Or in the worst case scenario, do all of the above and influence others to do the same.

If one team member strays from the pack, it influences others to do the same, which then influences more people. And so on and so on. Now, instead of one cohesive unit, you have everyone doing their own thing. Chaos breaks out, and no one knows what to do. As a result, they all get slaughtered.

Business is war. One soldier who does not understand orders will jeopardize the entire group. Make sure your team members understand what they should do, or your company will fail.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all. - George Washington Click To Tweet

A Checklist Successful Organizations Use To Build A Thriving Company Culture

Creating a positive work environment is necessary for business success, how you create this positivity within the company is down to you as the CEO or Managing Director.

To achieve great things, you need a team of people. These people need to understand company culture if they want to succeed. When everyone is on the same page, they are able to work faster. They’ll be able to use their creativity to solve problems. And create results in your company.

This is why things like business strategy or management come second. When you have good company culture, you don’t need to spend time on those things. Your team members will be able to come up with their own solutions. They will create the strategies, take ownership, and manage themselves.

You want to create an organization that is independent. They should be able to work without your supervision. If you always need to supervise them, you are not a business owner. You are a babysitter. And a babysitter does not get paid as well.

The most successful organizations in the world all have two things in common. They have a great culture, and they are super successful. If you are looking to achieve the same results, you need to create a positive work environment.

The Dragon 100™checklist is a summation of these things and more. If you want one you can use in your business, get your copy now.

Managing Remote Employees: Challenges, Tools and Best Practices For Productivity

June 12, 2020 by Dan Lok 1 Comment

Are you facing challenges with managing remote employees?

Whether you’ve had a remote workforce for years or you had to adjust to COVID-19 lockdowns – managing remote employees comes with challenges.

If you were forced to switch your company structure fast and have people work from home, you are facing unforeseen challenges. But, a remote team also comes with great possibilities and potential.

Experts argue that remote work is an inevitable future. As more and more businesses go online, remote jobs become more attainable.

From 2003 to 2018, remote work has grown by 140% – nearly 10x faster than the rest of the workforce. And this is before current trends are taken into consideration. After the lockdowns, even more people will keep working remotely.

Since the demand for remote employees is already on the rise, why not look into the possibilities right away? Boarding the trend early gives you an edge.

What’s more, a remote team is pandemic-proof. Dan Lok runs his business almost exclusively online. Because of that, his business was able to run smoothly when the states initiated lockdowns.

While other businesses were struggling, Dan Lok’s team was able to go on. Learn from his example and start managing remote employees today, to ensure safety in case something like this should ever happen again.

Find our top tips on managing remote employees below.

Common Challenges Of Managing Remote Employees

Two most common challenges for managing remote workers are communication and false expectations.

Communication with remote workers is a balancing act. You want them to be able to communicate with you and the team, despite the absence of physical proximity.

In an office, it’s easy to bump into each other or have a watercooler chat moment. Remote workers, however, are on their own. So, feeling connected to the whole team can be a challenge.

At the same time, you also don’t want to overburden them with emails and daily huddles. Too much emphasis on communication can actually lower the productivity of your remote employees. Emails easily take precedence over tasks, and video chats break the workflow.

That’s the difficulty of balancing communication while managing a remote team: you don’t want them to feel closed off, but you also don’t want to endanger their productivity.

Wrong Expectations Towards Remote Employees

The second challenge you might face are misplaced expectations. Expecting too much or the wrong thing can lower the productivity of your employees.

For one part, you don’t want to expect your remote team to work the same way a physical team would. Don’t expect them to strictly work from 9 to 5.

Remote work is so great because it lets your employees work at their desired time. If they know they are most productive at night, let them work at night. As long as they meet due dates and criteria you agreed on, there is no problem with that.

The second challenging expectation many remote workers face is maintaining availability. Flexible hours are easy to mistake for constant availability. But remote employees need rest, just like the regular staff.

Stay away from micromanaging your remote teams. Micromanaging makes employees feel watched, and can lower their productivity.

This is especially true for employees required to log into systems that track their work time. Time spent working is not the best indicator of productivity.

If you can, stay away from tracking time at all. Trust your team that they put in the necessary work. Instead, create KPIs which allow you to track their performance. KPIs can be independent of the time they put in.

In fact, most remote employees are trustworthy and work an average of four hours more per week when compared to the regular workforce.

Key Performance Indicators

Key performance indicators (KPIs) allow you and your employees to track success. The KPIs are either set by you or by the team together. Either way, they make sure everybody knows what they have to do.

KPIs should be measurable and enable your employees to see if they are on track with their work. It makes the work performance of your employees more trackable.

If a person repeatedly can’t fulfill their KPIs, it might be worth talking with them. If a person often succeeds in terms of KPIs, think about promoting them.

Hiring Process And Payment Procedures

You can avoid potential challenges if you have an effective hiring process in place. When you hire employees, it’s a good idea to check if they qualify for remote work.

This aptitude depends on their natural talents and strengths. Great remote workers are usually a bit more introverted. They are also detail-oriented and able to take action independently.

Of course, extroverts can work remotely too, but you need to ensure their social wellbeing. If they need people around them to be happy, remote work might leave them unsatisfied.

So, when you are hiring, make sure to consider these factors. Sometimes, it’s a good idea to hire for a part-time position first, and put employees on a testing phase. That way you both can test if your work relationship is fruitful.

Another factor that can remove many challenges early is pay. Many business owners would think that remote employees are cheaper, and they are usually right.

What you want to do, however, is pay them more than the industry standard. If you do that, they will be more productive because their motivation and satisfaction increase. Happy employees work harder.

Distractions At Home

One final obstacle when it comes to managing remote employees can be a distracting environment. This is especially important to think about if this person is working from home for the first time.

Your employees should have a designated office space. That way they keep their productivity up while working from home. This space should be free of distractions (for example no TV in the room).

If they have other people in their household, that should also be considered. Do their housemates understand that work from home is still work? Do they tend to interrupt your employee?

Ask about their environment early on and see if you avoid similar obstacles.

Some employees might enjoy working from a coffee shop or outside. That is okay, but they should have a place to work without distractions.

Communication Tools

Now that you are aware of some of the most common obstacles for managing remote employees, let’s consider communication tools. These include apps and management systems that allow you to manage remote teams more efficiently.

Communication tools help with streamlining communication or optimizing workflows. Here are some you should know.

For video communication, the most popular tools are Zoom or Skype. Skype is completely free. If you have some budget to invest you might prefer Zoom, as it’s a more complete solution for businesses.

Zoom allows you to record meetings, share your screen, and much more. It’s the perfect tool to bring some face-to-face communication into your team.

For text messages, Slack is extremely popular with businesses. Slack allows you to create a channel for your company, as well as several sub-channels.

If your team is large, you can create these sub-channels for each subteam. Avoid the whole team getting spammed with unnecessary messages.

Text messages are usually faster than email; email communication alone might slow the whole workflow down.

Project Management Tools

While most business owners are aware of communication tools, project management software and extras often get overlooked.

Without the tools that support the workflow, the productivity decreases. People don’t know what they are supposed to do, or where the project stands.

Let’s assume, for example, you’d run a video and filmmaking business. You need people who specialize in film, graphic design, copywriting, and much more.

If there is no workflow or process in place, the editor doesn’t know when to edit the next video; the person who films might have no idea where to upload the video and what should happen next.

Tools like Asana, Basecamp, ClickUp, or Float help you maintain a clear and streamlined process. Everything is happening in one place and your employees know where to check for their next tasks.

One simple tool like that can have an immense impact on the productivity of your workforce.

Tools For Collaboration

Finally, you want to make sure that the tools you use allow your employees to collaborate. Creating team collaboration can be challenging when managing remote employees. They might all end up working independently of one another.

But, when employees cooperate, it can lead to new creative ideas. For a remote team, tools like google documents that allow several people to work on one document or sheet can be helpful.

Whatever you choose, make sure it’s a tool that allows live editing, so that actual teamwork can take place.

Best Practices

Now you’ve gained insight into common challenges and useful tools for managing remote employees. But what are some of the best practices that you and your remote team can learn from?

Follow these practices to naturally avoid challenges and setbacks, while also ensuring the productive wellbeing of your employees.

Unhappy remote teams burn out fast, work unproductively, and cost money. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a look at systems and ideas proven to work.

Business Culture And Vision

The root of a successful remote team is your business culture. Every company or business has a certain culture. But culture doesn’t happen by accident: it is shaped by you, as the leader, and each team member.

To manage remote employees successfully, you want a culture of ownership and accountability. If every team member is aware of their responsibility and holds themselves accountable, there is no need for you to micromanage.

This is what creates trust. When the management is too controlling, employees feel discouraged and less creative.

Successful businesses treat their employees with trust and care, and not like a commodity.

As we mentioned before, give your remote workers the chance to work on their terms. Don’t enforce a certain time frame when they can’t be productive during those times.

Great business culture is clear and based on integrity. The leader holds others accountable but is also accountable themselves. Click To Tweet

Creating a positive and nourishing culture with remote workers is usually easy. That’s because remote teams are often happier, more satisfied, and tend to love what they do.

What’s more, you also want to communicate your business vision clearly. Your employees should know why they are doing what they are asked to do. Best case scenario – their personal goals are aligned with your overall goal for the company.

Recurring And Structured Meetings

We already touched on the challenges of remote communication. A great way to streamline communication is to have recurring video meetings.

Some businesses choose to meet weekly or bi-weekly; some even choose daily meetings. If you decide to have daily meetings, however, keep them short to protect your employees’ time.

Weekly or bi-weekly meetings usually work best. Some companies also go for monthly calls, but that period might be too extended and negatively affect productivity.

You also want your video meetings to follow a structure. Chaotic meetings lower productivity. If you can’t come up with a structure yourself, use proven formulas: Level 10 meeting, for example.

Besides team meeting, it’s a good idea to have quarterly one-on-one meetings. These meetings are great as they deepen communication with each employee and allow you and to review if they are performing well.

Are they meeting your expectations as well as their own goals? If any issues occur, these can also be discussed in the quarterly meetings.

Communication Timeframes

We said it makes sense to let your employees design their own work schedule. What you want to have, however, are certain touchpoints that everyone has to meet.

For example, everyone has to attend a weekly meeting. Or, everyone is required to respond to text messages within 24 hours.

Communicate what makes sense for you and your business to your remote employees, and make your expectations clear.

It’s also a good idea to instruct them on which communication channel to use for what. In what cases do you expect them to use text messages? For what instances should they use email? Are they allowed to send you a private message?

There are no formal rules; just make sure to tell your employees upfront about how you want things to run.

Goals And Career Chances

It’s a common trap to treat remote workers like freelancers. If they are part of your team, treat them like employees. Give them chances to further their careers and pursue their personal goals.

Don’t make them feel like they are stuck with their position forever. Have one-on-one calls every year or half a year and discuss how they are doing. What are their goals for their next year and how can the team help.

Treat your employees with respect and make them happy. That way you have a loyal team. Loyal employees are invaluable because fluctuations in your team cost you a lot of money.

You lose time and money when you have to hire new employees and train them. You still want to hire new people when needed; new employees also bring in fresh ideas. But, avoid a culture that pushes people to leave frequently.

Teambuilding

Creating a strong team is especially hard for businesses that run remotely. As we mentioned before, in a physical office space, people naturally bump into each other and communicate.

That’s why some workplaces like to offer their remote employees an open chat. In that chat, they can talk about anything they want, aside from work. It’s a great way to replace the usual small talk which would take place in an office.

If you plan to have a remote team long-term, consider yearly team meetings. Just two or three days together a year can be beneficial for the whole team.

Align Your Workflow With The Dragon 100 Habits Checklist

Now, there is a lot to keep in mind when it comes to managing remote employees. But what if we told you there is a way to make managing your team clearer and more transparent?

Through his advisory board Dragon 100, Dan Lok is coaching other business owners on how to scale up. Even if you aren’t a part of Dragon 100, you can access the Dragon 100 Habits Checklist.

The checklist allows you to have clarity from all employees. Align your team from senior executives to junior members. Get Access To Your Guide Today.