Ask Roxanne!

Dear Roxanne,
The minute you walk in the door of our clothing store, you can feel what I call the "can't-do attitude." It affects everything from customer service to employee morale. The moment I suggest an idea for improving things, everyone has ten excuses, ten reasons it won't work, so nothing gets tried. I need a miracle to get this company saying YES again. Once it's this bad, is there really any hope?

- Walter F.

Dear Walter,
I've seen it a hundred times. And you're right—it affects everything, and that includes profits and growth. But there's good news—what you need is a great deal simpler than a miracle. You need a DECISION. Let me tell you about a company I worked with recently that was in even worse shape. By getting them to simply make the decision to succeed…well, I'll let the story tell the story. Good luck!

– Roxanne

Do you have a question about how to handle a situation or a relationship in the workplace? Drop me a line!

Results Rule

"I didn’t have enough time." "Nobody told me." "The competition undercut our pricing." "I had a hang nail." "The power went out and I got trapped on the escalator."

You've heard them all before - the stories and excuses people use when they don't get results. Some think an excuse justifies everything, and they always find one to suit them.

Successful people don't make excuses, and successful leaders don't allow them. People will make mistakes and miss deadlines. Humans aren't perfect. But when you blow it, there is only one acceptable response: "I blew it and I'm taking corrective action so it will never happen again!"

This means avoiding the most common excuse, which is (drum-roll, please):

"It’s not my fault."

One high-tech company I worked with recently did excuses so well they could have written the book.

Preparing a presentation, I always ask each leadership team what’s working and what’s not. Usually I get straight answers. Not this time. It was obvious on the morning of the speech that something big was going down.

A man in a red shirt sat smoldering in the last row, where the disengaged always sit.

The CEO stood behind the podium, droning to his PowerPoint slides like Al Gore on Demerol. Five minutes in, without the slightest inflection of voice, he said, "And last year, we had half the sales of the previous year."

SALES DROPPED IN HALF?! YIKES! To me, this would signal a problem. Yet not a single eyebrow was raised.

The CEO seemed oblivious to the reaction or lack thereof. He continued with a miserable attempt at humor. "Last year we lost half of our sales force. Must be mad cow disease."

No chuckles. No smirks. Dead silence.

They needed to fix this downward spiraling mess—and fast!

The CEO finished and segued into my introduction. I knew I had to do something dramatic. I had to tell them the truth.

"Suppose I divided this room into two groups," I said. "On my left, those of you who would do whatever it takes to turn this business around, and on the right, those with résumés flying through the fax machine on a regular basis. I have a funny feeling we’d be a little—lopsided." I paused, listening for the cocking of triggers. Nothing.

I continued.

"But the reality of life is that we face the same lessons over and over again until we learn from them. So you can leave, but you must own the fact that each of you created this result. If you go someplace else, you’ll get the same result if you haven’t learned this lesson."

They looked at me like a dog staring at a ceiling fan.

"So please—give me two hours of playing as if. Let’s act as if we could fix this. You can go back to normal after that if you choose, but let’s see what's possible."

A few heads nodded.

"Write down the things that are wrong with this company." All heads turned downward. Pencils were smoking.

"Now, please tell someone near you what needs to change." Jaws became tight. Conversations were punctuated with passionate hand gestures.

"Good. We have that out. Now NEVER complain about what isn’t working again. Successful people talk about what they will CREATE instead of complaining about what IS. Their language advances the situation instead of stalling it. Now what do you want to change?"

One by one, they stood to say what needed to change.

"I'm hearing repeats. Is there anything new?"

Nothing.

"Hearing nothing new, let's get busy. Ground rule number one: from this point on, only state things in the positive. Every comment must be about a solution—not about what isn't working. Companies that allow people to whine about what isn’t working get stuck in what isn't working."

I took them through a 15-minute exercise to develop their vision. The second they hit on their vision they KNEW they loved it and KNEW they could do it.

In that moment, EVERYTHING changed. The responsibility fell onto the shoulders of EVERY person in the room. It was electrifying.

One guy interjected, "These ideas are great, but we have to have some concrete goals."

"Okay, let’s create them. Who wants to start?" I asked, wandering out onto the plank.

"We should aim for 20 percent growth," one guy volunteered.

"Twenty percent, are you kidding me? We should try to grow at least 50 percent," the guy next to him said.

The room filled with noise and a newly-found emotion: Caring. They now remembered how to give a rip.

Thud!

All eyes turned to the back table. It was the scary guy in the back, now on his feet. His fist pounded on the table in front of him. Veins in his neck bulged.

"Herb," someone in front muttered nervously.

"I run marathons," said Herb. "And when I say I’m running to the finish line, I don’t quit until I’m through the finish line. You guys say you wanna TRY, but you haven’t decided. I say we DECIDE to grow this company 100 percent and just do it! No excuses."

Dead silence filled the room.

Finally, from the front of the room, someone said, "Okay, then." And everyone agreed. It was really that simple.

Nine months later, the company’s sales results came in for the six-month period. Sales were up 109 percent!

Why? Because they had DECIDED.

You are your word! If you say you’re going to do something, do it. If you hit a roadblock, find your way over, under or around it. Or maybe even ram right through it.

When you stop accepting excuses from yourself, you’ll be far less tolerant of people around you making those same lame excuses. The abundance of living a life of power will happen when you stop buying excuses and stories from yourself and from others.

Two Ways to Shut Off the Excuse Faucet

• For one week, immediately stop yourself whenever you hear an excuse spurting out. Say, "That doesn't matter. I just want you to know it's not okay that I missed that, and here's what I'm doing so it doesn't happen again."
• When people around you starting tossing excuses at you, release the little kid inside of you. How? Put your fingers in your ears and repeat out loud: "I'm-not-listening-I'm-not-listening. La-la-la-la-la." They'll get the point.