Q: Dear Tristan, I’m CEO of a fast growing business and I’ve heard that you work from home, is that true? If so, why do you do it? How do you do it? And what impact do you think it has on your team? I’d love to work from home but I’ve no idea how to do it. Please fill me in - EK
A: Dear EK,
Yep, I sure do work from home 3-4 days every week and have been for the past 18 months. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Here’s how I’ve made it happen..
This is part of the weekly ‘Ask Tristan’ series. If you have a question, please email me: asktristan@thephysioco.com.au
Q: Dear Tristan, I’ve been following the Culture is Everything blog for a few months and I’d really love to know what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? – SC
How to get more things done.
Culture is Everything TV – Episode 5.
Want to get more done in your day? Click here to watch this 2-minute episode & learn the one change you can make today to get more done at work and at home.
Building a strong workplace culture should result in more fun & more engagement from everyone. If you’ve got the right people on your team, throwing meaningful parties is one way to grow a strong culture.
At The Physio Co, our core values guide us to “take the time to celebrate milestones and successes”. So we celebrate! As long as it means something to someone, we will have a party. Every year we celebrate our own birthday, Christmas, our MVP award winners, people getting married, people achieving personal goals, when we win awards and plenty of other occasions.
Last Saturday The Physio Co had a party to celebrate it’s 8th birthday. We decided on a magic theme (why not?!), invited everyone, hired a magician, blew up some balloons, sang happy birthday, ate some cake and had some fun to celebrate a milestone. It was short and sharp (from 1.30-4.30pm on Saturday afternoon) but well worth it.
Parties and celebrations don’t have to be expensive, but they do need to mean something. For example, The Physio Co’s very first Christmas Party was just four people going out for a meal at a local pub. It wasn’t fancy, but it was very important to acknowledge, thank and celebrate with our early team members (the four people at that first party are all still full time members of The Physio Co family today).
If you want a stronger culture, start finding things to celebrate. Then throw some regular parties!
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In short, here’s my week. I’m..
Excited - about The Physio Co family’s 8th birthday party coming up on Saturday. (It’s a ‘Magic’ Theme!)
Sharing - The Physio Co’s 2012 Culture Book with the TPC team at our birthday party. (There MIGHT be some copies available for members of the Culture is Everything community, please let me know if you’d like a sneaky peek inside The Physio Co family)
Pleased – to officially welcome KW back to The Physio Co team (for just a few days!)
Attending – the monthly committee meeting of Prom Country Aged Care
Finishing - a few books that have been hanging around including Fascinate & Reality Marketing Revolution.
Planning – the Culture is Everything Book Club. Interested in joining and reading/discussing a book with me regularly?
Reviewing - a few posts I missed from the archives of Verne’s Insights
Training - 3 hours in the pool, 7.5 on the bike & 5.5 hours on foot this week. Only 11 weeks until Ironman Australia!
An obsession with learning is one of the most common traits of successful leaders, sportspeople & entrepreneurs. This week I’ve heard how two global entrepreneurs have leveraged other people’s experience to grow their businesses through an obsession with reading.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos is an avid reader. Tony strongly encouraged all of the early Zappos employees to read key books from the Zappos library. These days Tony continues to read and Zappos now holds classes on those important books for it’s staff. ‘Pursue growth and learning’ is one of the core values that Zappos’ famous culture is based on and they sure seem to be living it.
The quote ‘learn before you earn’ is a catch cry of Brad Sugars (he’s got a lot of sayings!). Brad, founder of ActionCOACH who reads one non-fiction book every week, reckons that unless you first learn how to play a bigger game, you’ll never pull it off. Over 15 years, Sugars claims to have read more than 1200 books.
I too have a goal to read a book a week, but I haven’t been hitting it. I definitely need to lift my reading consistency. How about you?
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**This post is from the 2012 series ‘What I’ve learnt this week’. If you’d like to receive these and other Culture is Everything posts in your email, subscribe here.
This is part of the weekly ‘Ask Tristan’ series. If you have a question, please email me: asktristan@thephysioco.com.au
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Q: Dear Tristan, I am the owner of a small business that has grown considerably in the last 18 months. Since starting the business 5 years ago I’ve had a mentor who has been with me every step of the way. But, I think she might now be holding me back. When I’ve got great new ideas, she always asks questions that stop me in my tracks. I’m not sure we are aligned to the same future any more. What should I do? – WK
A: Dear WK,
Firstly, congrats on starting a business and growing it over 5 years, that’s a fantastic achievement!
Now, regarding this mentor, they’re supposed to ask the hard questions! Some of the best mentors I’ve had have both supported and challenged me. As entrepreneurs, we think of ideas that could create huge value everyday. However, only a few of these ideas are any good! It’s the less entrepreneurial people that we need to stress-test these ideas, ask questions and potentially poke holes in them. The best ideas survive this testing and are the ones we should pursue (most of the time, sometimes it’s worth some risk on a crazy idea!).
By the same token, I’ve found that most mentor-mentee relationships often have a use-by date. You’ve been with your mentor for 5 years, in that time you and your business will have both grown and changed a lot. Has your mentor grown too? If not, perhaps you need to consider someone new that has been where you are going?
My advice: have an honest conversation with your mentor about how she sees the future of your business. If you are not on the same page anymore, it’s best you both realise this and respectfully part company. Perhaps she actually wants to leave and will be relieved when you suggest different directions?
Whatever the outcome, make sure your mentor knows how grateful you are for all of their help and support. If you couldn’t have done it without her help, make sure she knows it!
Good luck,
TW
This is the first of my monthly posts for Dynamic Business magazine…
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A strong culture creates time in your day.
Lack of time is the biggest problem facing most small business owners. Why? Because their entire business resolves around them. I was exactly the same, but I found a solution. Creating a strong family culture has changed my life.
As the founder of a small business, I have a huge amount of ambition, drive and curiosity to create something special. In the early days, my ambition caused some big problems. Fortunately my curiosity and drive also saved me.
From 2004 to 2008, I grew a business from start-up to a small team of 20 people that was profitable, sustainable and even won a few awards. But I was stuck. I had built myself a job and the entire business relied on me. I needed a way out.
Read the rest of this post HERE at Dynamic Business…
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NB – Culture is Everything TV will return next Tuesday
In short, here’s my week. I’m..
Energised - by finishing my first Olympic distance triathlon yesterday!
Pleased – to be sharing To The Point with Steven (a member of the Culture is Everything community) tomorrow morning
Excited - about The Physio Co family’s first 2012 Learning Event, ‘Helping oldies with Delirium, Dementia & Depression’ on Tuesday. (Join us if you’d like..!)
Attending - a free ‘Business is Booming’ event by Brad Sugars. (Interested? Sign up here)
Improving - the way we make Culture is Everything TV. (No episode this week, it’ll back with a couple of changes next Tuesday).
Focussed - on improving my presentation skills in session 2 of The Physio Co’s program with Communicators Melbourne
Learning – from a master! I’m attending a Business Chicks workshop with Tony Hsieh of Zappos on Thursday. (Awesome!)
Training – 3 hours in the pool, 7 on the bike & 5 hours on foot this week. Only 12 weeks until Ironman Australia!
Helping – to organise a long lunch for my good mate Mike before his big wedding day!
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