THE 'YES' COACH BLOG

Sinking and swimming

The prophets of doom predict that 100,000± small to medium business operations will cease to exist in Australia this year. Whatever the bankruptcy count when we evolve from this global crash there will be survivors. If small business owners were to be realistic about constructing a Strategic Intent for their foreseeable future it would probably start and finish with the word SURVIVE.
At…

Oh what a feeling

I have a passion for Jaguars, in particular the XJ series. I was once leant one in England, a right dandy. I discovered two things on the M5. There are two gas tanks and no need to hitch hike for petrol, there being a switch on the dash. The other thing I got wised up to is that people who lend one a brand new Jag usually don’t actually own it. Anyway, in the thoroughly unlikely event that…

Not the end

I for one have been through a great deal on this business coaching journey. (Sorry about the emotional 1st meeting with LA). My station in life is much clearer now that the Switzer Graduation event is a couple of weeks ago. Coming home to business in the new era of not being coached is rather different. There is as much reason to read a book and spend time in the work zone as there is to gently…

3 months done & all ordinary

The staff have welcomed me back to the planet.

We pondered the Course Specific Evaluation of the Company, (where it was pre Switzer compared to where it is now), in the areas of Leadership, Management, Marketing, Finance, Attitude, Application & Business Thinking. The business evaluation sections are divided into five performance descriptions ranging from woeful to primo.

A very…

The innocent bystander

From the quiet cool shade of the ghost gums I rest & observe my coaching corroboree, dust settling in the big red LA sunset. Imaginings are now realities with runaways yarded. It has been a hard muster, I am knackered & parched.

So now it’s up to the company, and without labouring the point thanks all the same ….. at the company’s own pace. Jtagz has the full extractor…

I did not do it my way

Is it a considerable achievement or just that the boss thing is a dinosaur with the boss being the last to find out? LA & Peter have been onto me for quite some now to drop the choker lead. I’ve been waiting on some extra curricula coaching in the form of “Leadership” reading but wait-no-longer arrived in the form of taking the advice at hand. And let’s not forget some…

Navel gazing the 09 forecast

We’ve revised our spreadsheet forecasts running off the back of “don’t mention the D word” into the first quarter of ’09, like really. Staying with the ’99 Suburban thanks Kev, maybe wait a few moons for the new Trainee. Unambiguous hard yards projections; why wouldn’t we? Previously this would have been pin the tail on the filly by braille.

So now I have…

Alone again ... naturally

Hey you know when you give up cigarettes and everyone, like the entire world; kids, cab drivers, her indoors, grandmothers and TV hosts; all of a sudden become irritable, intolerant, negative and downright bitchy and it seems day after infuriating day that you are the only relaxed, warm, caring, together and positive person on Ramsay St. Like hellooooo, me too! I mean these last eight weeks or…

Shootin' the tube

When the big fella turned up yesterday he took us all by surprise. He had the Malibu’s racked up on the Combi and insisted we head up to the Corio Bar for a wave. The staff came along and Mel towed her Jet Ski up the long beach. Pete and I slipped into the full body lycra and got waxing up. The flock of budgie’s that roosts there on the spit in the silky oaks winged it for the rain…

Blog chutzpah ?!

Well guess who? Hoodspa, Bravura, call it what you like; chutzpah is alive and bucking. The robust vernacular is not so audacious in Australia, has great backing vocals, never offends, & is always complimented by great finger food & eye candy.

The fact of the matter is that you’re sucking wheat grass bits off your flash ivories telling me I’d say what I like about this…

OVER IT!

From the desk of Mel;

I was SO OVER this Business Coaching filming day that I casually walked the dogs in the forest and cruised back up the driveway to be confronted with lights, camera, action. Whoops; made a mad dash to the shower, pulled the hair up, slapped on my mascara and lippy which both then dribbled down my sweating face. I am SO OVER this …. (screaming in my head) …. I…

No more Mrs Nice Guy

So between the 20th and months end Mel does the haka. Cathy has chimed in of late, a raucous duet in the accounts receivable dept. There was a flash went through us all yesterday, somebody sucked the top of their mouth once too often. And then it was on. We had fire in the hole dating back months. Mel & Cathy were booked to take legal action for debt recovery today and they were sharpening…

Pinocchio & the Water Bomb

The Hawkeye is a mongrel blended beast half octopus & half night vision telescopic sight. It’s arrival sees the construction of our Business Chart forecast for positions into the 2-year plan together with a Job List. This permits us a grand view through the pea & ham of the coming 24 months of where we’ll be, who has which career options, where responsibilities lie & where…

2,000 miles I've roamed

Friday arvo was not our usual wind down, we had a machine failure requiring urgent mend, and a truck arrived with plenty to unload. We’re working some interesting reactions now we’re Switzer tooled. The Directors that is.
Saturday the sun cracked over Great Keppel, quiet except for soft waves lustily frothing my white legs, good rhythm for my Otis Redding earworm. I was flicking a…

System this, System that!

Well we have created our first formal system. LA has been saying how it’s not all about systems. Our staff are perusing the system with a similar opinion, saying things like, “Boy I’ll bet you’ll be glad when this is over”. Ophelia has news for them. This first system points at and surrounds “stock inwards”. Although it sounds trivial my mind feels like the…

The Ophelia Syndrome

Well it came as little surprise to me Saturday night, as Cameron Smith laughed Boohoo Bennett farewell, to get a call from Bwana Poit who told me that there was a surprise in the Switzer Tool Box and to go fill my boots. Everybody was snoring in the big Queenslander so I got down on the box and flicked the lid. Out she came, Peter Switzers mistress, Ophelia. She’d never really been in…

Full moon objective 1

At the point of being one-third the way into our strenuous Peter Switzer Business Coaching prize we are now able to offer an objective view. This point of view is drawn from the Company itself, not easily done; it’s a report card.

Presently the coaching is operating on a number of fronts at varying levels of intensity. These components do not necessarily overlap or join presently but it…

Small money, big effort.

In the years previous to Jtagz expansion into the heavy industrial and mining sector our clients were predominantly Local Govt. Such institutions operate in staunch grim humour mindsets varying in origin from the 60’s to just a few seconds ago. It matters little the size of the Council, they’re always dead right, rules is rules and they use our freecall# with the firm belief that…

How do you put up with him?

Being a small business owner is to be a unique self intoxicated orphan. Communications are vibrant but nobody really knows us. And business never just holds up for a while, so we can organise the ten year plan and perhaps sell out or something. It has it’s own spirit, the perfect storm. So we need help. Staff arrive from a myriad of circumstance but always bring duplicate behaviour. The…

I'm a believer

Coming out the viagra end of the sausage machine this week my brain is feeling curly and tied at both ends. OK OK Poiter, it’s a hammer, I know, thud thud. I don’t know how the others are doing but I am buried vertically in sand up to the chin and Poiter’s pet tool has done the job on my melon. The combinations of processes dumping us at the door of complete “Business…

On the Pot

Friday evening and our son Charlie has a pressure weekend so I deal him the Switzer Rock story, except we’re in the kitchen so I use the pots. He has a new computer game, Midway, he has prep for Army Cadet camp, a big homework project plus other homework, uniforms to iron, gardening to do with me, a friend to sleepover, rugby on the teev, dogs to feed, washing to bring in etc. Oh &…

More Tool

A Switzer tool jumped out by itself this last week, nobody saw it. We now know it as Ferret Slime. It hunts down Time Rats, the little vermin that chew at your ankles all day nibbling bits off your productive. They are everywhere, in the phone, the emails, the moaning “he said, she said” family dramas and they’re only here because we let them in. Ferret Slime lines the Time Rats…

Before & After

FROM THE DESK OF MEL

Life before LA

Up at 6am, two coffees, start yelling at the kids, make breakfast, school lunches. No you can’t watch TV, clean your teeth. Come on guys get dressed. Stop fighting; OK it’s time to go get in the car. Home, tidy up the kitchen, a load of washing on. Thinking about walking the dogs. …. No time!! Shower, “Mel can you make me…

Secret sacred men's business

Let’s look at Steve and Joan. Steve’s pretty innovative; he’s set up his surfshop at the Alice, SpringSurf. Nearly 40 he is the dude. Business has really taken off since he got the ute, kitted it out and hit the road for house call board repairs. He’s killing the pig from Katherine to Cooper Peddy to Uluru and he loves it, he’s a real people bloke. Profits are up, the…

Introducing our goals

So Jtagz is a small (to medium) business, SMB. We operate from under our Queenslander in the Qld rainforest. We export to 24 countries. Directors are Mel and I. We have a Manager Dave and two almost fulltime production & despatch professionals, Alison & Cathy. One new staff member shortly. Our 28 month goal is to duplicate Jtagz into Europe stand alone, all plant, stock and equipment…

Tooling up

The first item lifted from the Switzer Toolbox is the holy snapping batfish axe. This is a sharp and accurate tool. It’s purpose is to homogenise existing company management ego and leave the path forward clear of historic debris and disabled behaviours. It is relentless and thorough. Immediately it begins to thrash and flail the CEO consciousness we realise there is no turning back. It…

Coaching V Consultancy

The first question on this course was “Do you know the difference between a Coach and a Consultant?” Well who wouldn’t hey?

Anyway what happens next is the Peter Switzer toolbox arrives on the office floor and we all dance around it merrily slapping each other and throwing lotus petals on the Kahuna. We open the Switzer toolbox and stare inside. The box interior seems to be…

Talking amongst my selves.

There are two halves to the small business brain, the numb side and the other side that always has something else to do. Then there’s this head cold event and medications. After a few days of pretending to study Strategic Intent, our first assignment, I have found myself in space and yearning the horizontal. People pay good money to get this whacked. The inner self is totally negative to…

Getting out of my own way ...

Oh I’m so clever, I come at this Business Coaching like I’m running it and now I have to rebuild my Strategic Intent, entirely. I got most of the basics correct but dropped my bundle when it came to the big picture, square hole round peg. Or it could be that Lesley Ann just wants to listen to me more.

We view LA in our first vid giving me the evil eye with a sweet smile. Take no…

Strategic Intent

It’s not a good idea to give a bloke an instruction manual. Blokes can stare with all their rustic focus into the sock drawer then go ask … “where’s my snakeskin G string Flo?” and her indoors will open the smalls drawer. Same with instruction manuals; we stare that deep karmic aged blank and then by magic the handbook lifts off never to be seen again. Given that the…

Strategic Intent Slogan

Developing a company slogan for Strategic Intent is optional, can be in house or part of a greater marketing vision. Initial response felt the concept nambi-pambi sort of like the full body cozzie compared to the ones sunning at Byron. Not being a leg man myself I became inspired. To begin with this entire Business Coaching event is all about me, my formation of systems which will eventually…

The other half hits the saddle

From the desk of Mel

I spent Sunday morning reading all the information of The Full Spectrum Business Development Program; my head became heavy followed by an overwhelming excitement. We can achieve our goals, a matter of delegating, trusting and taking this business from the casual attitude to a serious, confident and reliable Company. Absolutely amazing that a few hours of reading can…

... off & running

Well hello, a very special G’day to Sarah & Anthony, congratulations us three.
We heard the news that we were in the medals lunchtime Friday. No head spin! Boning up when I could on the weekend, checking out the BizThinkTank site and profiles of Peter and Lesley Ann we were more than grinning into the fire Sunday night, the odd clink of laughter. What an honour. Monday I awoke at…