WHAT Is the Power of Too?
All too often, business owners bring in consultants who tell them what they need to do to grow their business, or to turn it around, or to prepare to divest it. For the most part, the consultants bring value with their counsel.
New or improved processes, better use of technology, and well-trained managers can all make a difference. But the consulting focus tends to be on what you - and those who work for you - are doing. As a result, the changes, while they may seem significant, frequently yield only incremental returns.
How Do You Measure Success As A Leader?
Less often, business owners hire executive coaches to focus on how they, as leaders, are showing up. As with good consultants, professional coaches can deliver value as they focus on everything from leadership presence, to communication, to delegation, to strategic thinking. For coaches, the focus is on who you are, and perhaps who those in your organization are. While these changes, again, may seem significant, they do not address any needed changes in operations, systems, processes, etc., limiting the value that they deliver.
Integration Between Business Improvement Consulting & Executive Coaching
How will it feel when you lead your business to a whole new level of success?
What will it take for your business to provide the life that you want?
The Do-Be Approach integrates business improvement consulting with executive coaching. It is The Power of Too: both what you do and who you are. Working in tandem, we are able to hear and see things through both coaching and consulting perspectives. Working with you, we are able to ensure that your business is working for you…and help you position it to deliver the life you want to be leading.
Contact: [email protected]
Gain the Support of Other Business Owners
What is the next big step in growing your business?
How do you remain competitive in a market that is increasingly commoditized?
As a member of TAB (The Alternative Board), you have your own Board of Directors-non-competing business owners wholly committed to supporting your success. Each month, bring a challenge or opportunity to the Board, explore it fully, and develop a plan for moving forward. During the month, receive coaching to help you ensure that you are making progress on your plan.
Contact: [email protected]
Who Do You Need to Be to Achieve Your Professional and Personal Vision?
Why did you go into business in the first place?
When you have more free time outside of your business, what will you do with it?
You began your business with big dreams; you were in charge of your future. If you are like most business owners, somewhere along the way this was turned inside out. Your dreams seem further away than when you started, and you are working for your business more than your business is working for you. Executive coaching can be the answer to becoming the leader your business needs in order to bring your professional and personal ambitions to fruition.
Contact: [email protected]
It’s the natural human emotion of not wanting to seek help, thinking that you can do it on your own without the assistance of someone else…Going through the coaching calls brought to light a lot of things I knew about myself but was being stubborn about recognizing…There were also items that I had never really thought about that were brought to light in our sessions that were as eye-opening…I was surprised that every coaching call that we had was in the moment; it wasn’t preset. The benefit of having a coach is having that buddy, that person you can depend on….The journey has been eye-opening, wonderful–Carl A. Ekroth, Associate Real Estate Broker, New York City
What Should You Be Better At?
As a business owner or executive, chances are good that you are doing things—or avoiding doing things—you never were taught how to do, and never planned on doing. They just came with the job. Things like strategic planning, marketing, delegation, leadership, management, overseeing a multi-generational workforce, having tough conversations, running your business by the numbers, or working in a multi-generational family business. You might have surprised yourself at how good you are at some of these things. Perhaps you are getting by with others. And it is likely that there are areas where there would be a significant return to your business if you were to strengthen your performance.
The Do-Be Associates offer a broad curriculum of webinars and workshops for business owners and leadership teams. Each one is designed to be highly interactive, and to provide immediate value to participants. Tony and Brian, the Do-Be’s, bring a combined 8 decades of business experience to each session, offering you the wisdom of their successes and their failures along with lessons learned from their clients. Workshops can also be delivered in-house, or online.
You can download a catalogue of Do-Be Associates workshops here. To find out more, write [email protected].
The 4-Day Work Week ™: You Can Do It!
Talk of “work/life balance” and of a four-day work week has been around for decades, yet most businesses continue to operate on a five, or even five-and-a-half, day model. Typically, those that have shifted to a four-day week maintain a forty-hour week with employees working ten hours a day. While the additional day off might contribute to employee satisfaction, the longer days can negatively affect innovative thinking, quality, and productivity in the workplace. In reality the work week of many employees from the front lines to the C-suite is even longer than forty hours. Smart phones and other “anywhere, anytime” technologies keep them connected to work, and working, at all hours of the day and night, seven days a week.
Recently, Microsoft announced an experiment they conducted in Japan (https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/04/tech/microsoft-japan-workweek-productivity/index.html). In August 2019 they closed their offices every Friday; more than 90% of their 2,280 employees were affected. While work time was reduced by 20%, productivity soared 40%! Other than suggesting that meetings be limited to thirty minutes (or be replaced by the use of messaging apps), Microsoft did not report any significant efforts to focus on increased productivity. Yet the results speak for themselves. Microsoft’s was only one in many experiments focused on shortening the number of hours that today’s workers spend at work; consistently these studies have found business benefits to a shorter work week.
What is a 4-day work week?
While the tendency is to take this label literally, our recommendation is that you do not do so; it makes it too easy to dismiss the idea without giving it the consideration that it deserves. For some, it may mean cutting back from five and a half, or even six, days of work per week to five. For others, it may mean reducing the work week to four or even three days per week. For some business owners it may be a personal goal; others may want to bring their entire business along with them on this journey. There are businesses that are, by definition, 24/7, or that must at a minimum be available to their clients throughout the traditional 40-hour work week. For these businesses, it is a shift in the schedule for employees but not for the organization itself.
Life/Work Balance
The bottom line is, to what degree is there a misalignment between the time spent at work and the time invested in other areas of your life? What are those important things—time with family, travel, leisure activities, etc.—that are sacrificed for the sake of your job? In order to create the alignment that you want for yourself and/or for your employees, what adjustment needs to be made in the hours being worked? That is your definition of a 4-day work week.
Do-Be 4-Day Work Week Services
The Do-Be Associates offer the following services to support you and your 4-day work week.
4-Day Work Week Diagnostic
However you approach the 4-day work week journey, there are two questions that you need to answer at the outset.
- What is my definition of a “4-day work week?”
- Am I taking this journey myself, or am I bringing some—or all—of my company with me?
Reaching your 4-day work week will take more than just changing work schedules. We will work with you to find your answers to the first two questions as we begin the diagnostic. We will conduct an assessment based on your answers that looks at your business through a number of different lenses (e.g. priority management, culture). Based on that assessment, we will provide you with a summary report of our findings and our recommendations for moving forward.
Personalized 4-Day Work Week Plan
The Personalized 4-Day-Work Week Plan builds on the diagnostic. It lays out a more detailed roadmap for achieving your 4-day work week goals. While it builds on a set of common 4-Day Work Week factors that we have identified, it tailors our recommendations to the assessment findings. The plan is designed to guide you as the business owner as you take the 4-day work week journey.
4-Day Work Week On-Site Support
While the idea of the 4-day work week may be appealing, taking on the full burden of leading and guiding your organization on the journey may not be. Making this shift in a way that achieves the goals you are setting out in a sustainable way is going to take a lot of work; there is no doubt about that. With on-site support by the Do-Be Associates some of that burden is lifted. We bring our decades of experience to bear as we guide you and those who work for you on this journey.
To find out more, write [email protected].