Maurilio Amorim

Month: March 2013

  • In Business, In Order to Grow You Must Give Up Control

    In business, you need to learn when and what you need to control. Figuring out this formula can be the difference between growth and stagnation. One day I came to the realization I was stifling the growth of my business because the very skill set that allowed me to get to a certain success level could not fuel the growth beyond that point. Even worse, I was having a difficult time attracting and keeping gifted and skilled professionals on my team. The wake up call came several years ago as I found myself in the ER with chest pains.

    business control freak

    I like control. My family refers to me as “Captain Schedule” when we go on vacation. However, being a control freak has its advantages. After all, if you control everything, you can never blame others for a failed project, a bad hire, or even a flat soufflé. As an entrepreneur, I benefited in the early days of my company from having a good grasp on everything that was going on…from cash flow projections, to hard drive storage capacity, to the details for every project of every client.

    While it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the reality that one person can deal with only  a limited number of moving parts, it’s extremely difficult for those of us who have a need to feel in control to step back and look at our own situation through an objective lens. Instead of changing the way we operate, the control freaks of the world try to figure out ways to be more productive, to sleep less, and to get more done than anyone else around us.

    I still like control. It’s part of how I’m wired.  But today I have built a team of incredibly competent professionals whom I’m proud to work alongside. I strive to make the contribution that only I can make and stay out of their way, for the most part. Letting go has been difficult and I’ve made several mistakes along the way, but here’s what I’ve learned:

    Hire slow. Fire fast. In order to give up control of anything that’s dear to you, including the very business that’s your livelihood, you must trust someone in three critical areas: competence, chemistry, and character. Never, ever compromise on these. I wrote more about the three “C”s as I call them here. But the moment you realize you made a mistake, take care of it quickly. Nothing erodes an organization’s morale and performance faster than a disgruntled or incompetent team member.

    Byte size ownership. One of my early mistakes was to dump too much too soon on a new hire. That’s not fair to them, nor to the entire organization. Start small, correct the mistakes, celebrate the victories, and move forward to bigger and better things. Building trust is a process, and one you cannot short change.

    Don’t abdicate your responsibility. Know what you must know. As a leader, I must not relinquish the responsibility for the organization’s well being, including financial, directional, as well as operational. While I might not be deep in the details, I must have a solid grasp of these essentials. “I did not know things were this bad,” is not an indictment on an organization, but on its leader.

    Motivate. Do not control. Control is an illusive drug. Controlling people is not only wrong. It’s downright impossible. I prefer to motivate people and find ways to resource them with tools that will make them want to do their best. Highly motivated, talented people don’t need to be micromanaged, or coerced into better performance. They have an inner drive that needs to be guided, nurtured, and deployed. If you are having to stay after someone for them to perform, you have hired poorly.

    Are you a control freak or do you just go with the flow?

  • Is Your Church Ready for the Sunday After Easter?

    Easter is often a wasted opportunity for churches. “Easter attendance looks good in the reports, but the extra people show up for that Sunday but they don’t come back until the next holiday” said the disappointed pastor on the other side of the table from me. Unfortunately, he was right. A lot of people come through the doors of churches during Easter who never return until next year, if they come back at all. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Over the years, I have seen churches of all sizes compel the “Easter Crowd” to return the following weekend and eventually become part of the congregation. With some pre-planning and strategic intent, you can improve your odds at getting back the people who, otherwise, you might not see again for another year.

    Easter churches ready

    Most of the churches I work with will start a new teaching series the weekend after Easter. It’s a strategic move because we know that most people like being a part of something new. A fresh teaching series will give your Easter guests a compelling reason to return during the next few weeks, where, we hope, they’ll enjoy it enough to stay. When planning for a new series, keep in mind that compelling titles and strong graphics are great tools but if you want to maximize your outreach potential, you should try to create an emotional tie between the series subject matter and your audience even before the series begins.

    Hollywood does this well. One of its most successful tactics to promote a new film is through a compelling movie trailer (which quite often is better than the movie itself). Your church could do the same. Create your own video trailer: a two-minute promo or “commercial” that will present the heart of your new teaching series. Show it during your Easter services and reinforce it with any other visuals you might have, such as posters, cards, or stage props.

    Don’t let the trailer idea intimidate you. You don’t need to have a big budget or expensive equipment to create a persuasive piece. If you have a small church and resources are limited, consider doing something simple but effective. I once worked with a start-up that produced a simple man-on-the-street video. It featured the pastor asking one question to random people in his community: “What’s the most hurtful thing anyone has said to you?” The video set up a new series that dealt with relationships. The outcome was powerful. Some of the answers were funny (a woman told him that a neighbor once called her a hemorrhoid!), while others were very poignant (a son recounted how his father told him that he would never amount to much). The video didn’t cost a lot to produce, but had a strong impact.

    What’s your church doing the Sunday after Easter? 

  • Is Your Critical Nature Holding You Back?

    In our pursuit of improvement, of becoming our very best, we can find ourselves always looking for the negative in every situation.  As a consultant, I’m paid to figure out how to improve communication, technology, and create new and better systems. Being critical is part of the skill set that forces me to see what could be and not just what it is. But recently I ran into a statement from Shawn Achor in his book “The Happiness Advantage” that has forced me to think deeper about my consulting skills. He writes,

    “Constantly scanning the world for the negative comes with a great cost. It undercuts our creativity, raises our stress levels, and lowers our motivation and ability to accomplish goals.”

    criticism critics

    Achor goes on to support this statement with case studies and illustrations. Even if he didn’t, the truth in it resonates with me. How can I be an effective critic without becoming a negative person? That’s tough. In the past few years, I have been conscious about how negativity can affect every area of my life and how easily I can find fault with everything around me. Here’s how I’m fighting it.

    Not a critic, but a servant. That’s perhaps the most difficult of all the shifts I have had to make over the years. I’m not hired to be a critic, even though some of my observations might come across as criticism. I’m ultimately hired to serve an organization, a cause, or a person. My contribution is not only to point out what’s wrong, but to help find a solution.

    First the positive. No matter the circumstance or dilemma I’m dealing with, there are always a lot of positives to recognize.  It’s easy to focus on the 20% that needs to change than on the 80% that’s working well.

    A kind heart. Difficult conversations are a lot less painful when they are encased in gracious language and attitude. I remember as a young professional watching a well-known consultant use condescending language as he reported his findings to a group of leaders. It didn’t make him look good or smart in my eyes. It made him come across like a big ugly jerk that I wouldn’t want to ever hire or emulate.

    Do you agree with Achor? How do you keep from being negative?

  • Success and the Perseverance Principle

    The difference between success and failure in any venture often cannot be attributed to a single incident or cause. It’s usually a culmination of factors including timing, execution, assumptions, economic factors, and more. While much has been written on the success of start ups, one factor usually sticks out in my mind. Recently a friend who is in the process of starting a business told me he was “overwhelmed and not sure of what he was doing.” I can relate to that feeling well. But my advice to him still rings true from the early days of my company, The A Group. My words of encouragement were simple: “Don’t quit. Success is 90% perseverance.”

    Perseverance

    I can’t quantify the percentage. But I know that the great majority of the successes I have seen in my professional career both in business as well as in ministry have been directly tied to my ability to keep going and not accept defeat. I have talked with others who have successful businesses and churches who share the same trait: perseverance. Since most entrepreneurs are usually “all in” and there is not a “Plan B” in place, we tend to keep going until something happens.

    None of us knows when our next break is going to be–the meeting with a profitable new client, the phone call with a large order, the exchange with a wealthy donor. But we all know that if we are not there, none of them will ever come to fruition. So we continue to push forward, to persevere even when there are no signs of spring. In business, as in life, perseverance pays dividends. Be aware, however, that perseverance is not glamorous and often not fun, but absolutely essential.

    Think about your life. Where do you need the most encouragement not to quit?

  • Thoughts from the Mobile World Congress 2013

    Last week I attended the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. It’s the industry’s biggest event, drawing over 72,000 attendees from over 200 different countries. The event was massive in both size and scope: booths, the size of city blocks, from the likes of Samsung and Sony to small software developers for mobile devices. Everything mobile was covered. After learning my way around Barcelona’s metro system and fighting through the crowded train stations, I got several days of exposure to what’s happening, and what’s about to happen in the mobile world. Here are some overarching observations:

    Wolrd Mobile congress

    The world is now mobile. While desktops might still have a place in business, the new day belongs to the untethered, highly portable world of mobile devices: phones, tablets, and phones the size of small tablets or small tablets with a phone built in.

    World Mobile Congress3

    Payment through mobile devices has become streamlined. There are several technologies currently in use that makes payment for goods and services through your mobile device possible. From proximity payment (via blue tooth) to QR code scanning, and even text-to-pay options, paying using your mobile device will continue to grow and become a way of life. Asia and Europe already have a jump on this, I’m sure the rest of the world will soon follow.

    With app and mobile development becoming ubiquitous, marketing becomes critical. With an estimated 1.4 million apps for both Apple and Android operating systems (and more to come from Windows phone and platforms like Ubuntu and Firefox), standing out in the crowd is nearly impossible. The if-we-build-it-they-will-download-it mindset no longer works. I’m not not sure it ever did. There were as many companies at the congress who market apps and mobile site as there were those who create them.

    The proliferation of mobile devices in developing countries means opportunities to reach an entire new wave of people. Cheaper phones and easier access to data mean more people can have access to smart phones than ever before. There are huge commerce, but even more so, ministry implications. It has never been easier and cheaper to reach a global, and yet very targeted audience.

    What mobile platform are you on? (Android, ios). What do you like/dislike about it?