As a consultant to the ARM industry I see the lack of these things in almost every agency and law firm I visit. Most of the managers do not create a CLEAR structure for the staff to follow and when there is a breakdown in the process there is no CLEAR accountability. Very few collection shops are built on a profit business model. They instead have the same old model that provides whatever profits it provides which is why so many operators are complaining about their reduced profit margins.

Many firms have many people responsible for the same things so when something goes wrong there are no clear reasons as to why or who to train better. If you run a shop of accountability then the fault clearly lands on someone’s plate and then solutions are more clearly defined and enacted. When the entire office misses goal; who do you blame? But if you have several KPI’s and the entire team misses goals but 7 of the 10 KPI’s were hit the fault lies in the remaining KPI’s that were diminutive and there should be a person in charge if each KPI.

The truth is you can have whatever level of profit margins you desire if you build the right collection process and can locate business with those margins. OK you don’t believe me look at it this way if you say I need a 20% profit margin and have a collection process that is accountable and traceable all you need a placement that can provide that profit margin within your accountable process. Now you say this 20% business does not exist, well maybe not much these days can provide a 20% profit margins after all costs are accounted for but you see the point.

The problem with the old process of collections is it is not based on a profit quotient; it is a carried on tradition from days when profit margins were 40%.  We incented the collectors to collect more, as that is what drove profits now we have more costs buckets to consider than years past. The cost of consumer lawyers, skiptracing, technology, skip and asset location, licenses, dialers, marketing and more that has all changed over the years. Profits now come from controlling expenses!

If you want to focus your group on profits set them up as a small business within your business. Give the unit manager a budget for skip, letters and payroll and then determine the overall costs he faces with overhead. It’s a cost per seat equation;

Total costs divided by

Total number of FT revenue makers= Cost per seat

So if you have a group of 10 collectors and one manager and the cost per seat is $5000.00 monthly and you desire 20% profits the group must collect $55,000 in gross fees to cover expenses and another $11,000 for the 20% profits. Once the group has reached the $66K mark the owner has his profits of 20% and is in bonus mode. Now the owner has taught the manager how to use costs and profits to run the company. The owner can reward that staff for overachieving by sharing the overage at a high percentage maybe even 50/50.

This not only teaches the staff to work based on budgets and a fixed cost but encourages profits not just production. If you need help creating a culture of accountability, purpose and profits call Lighthouse Consulting LLC.

Remember a few years ago when all the paper was easy to collect and it just took a employee to be on the dialer to collect money? The paper seemed so good and the effort to collect was small. Do you want more of that paper to collect today?

Well that seems to be trend as more and more debt buyers and agencies are exploring the collection of OOS paper, the same paper form a few years ago that was soooo collectable. Now many of the debt buyers are sitting on large volumes of this paper and it is trading in the marketplace again also. A few years ago everyone was scared of the OOS and the possible consumer complaints associated with the paper but now since there is little fresh paper trading in the marketplace the OOS paper has been rising again to the surface.

There are many new techniques used on this paper as well some are quite interesting. Some debt buyers use the defense method and sue the OOS files claiming that statute is a defense to the suit but does not stop the suit from being filed. This strategy hopes for a default judgment and then an unsophisticated debtor.

Others are using strategies like sending the debtor a gift card to get them to activate it and give up contact info. Others are sending letters offering a free gift if you pay the bill, the bigger the payment the bigger the gift.

But many are using technology to work these files and control the costs associated with the files. They score the files a just expend money and time on the high scores.

Others score and then assign a definite cost value to each file and do not exceed the cost on each file but this takes a strong It department.

The real trick to collecting OOS debt is two fold the first is to get the debtor on the phone or a payment site the second is all based on the talk off and the ability of the collector to get the money. Some agencies are much better at this than others it takes strong procedures and training to make this program work at a high level. The talk off has to include lots of gathering of information from the debtor to find a money source or determine that payments are the solution. The talk offs will be much longer than normally tolerated by collection managers. The talk offs often include an escalation to a supervisor or manager to get the money.

So is OOS the new debt for buyers and agencies? Yes!

Here are some tips from the Lighthouse Consulting LLC training manual 

Greetings (Never Sound the Same)

• How may I direct your call
• This is (name) how may I help you
• Thank you for call this is (name)
• Hello this is (name) how can I help you
• Who am I speaking with
• Thank you for holding
• I appreciate your patience
• Good morning, afternoon, etc.

Negotiations (Always take the Sales Approach)

• Avoid this hitting your credit
• Correct the credit reporting
• Expunge the credit reporting
• Stop the phone calls (with a commitment)
• Reduce the interest
• Reduce the balance
• Stop the interest from accruing further
• Eliminate the interest entirely
• Waive the phone payment fee

Key Statements

• Do you get paid this Friday or next?  Do you get paid weekly or bi-Weekly?
• Where are you working? Where do you work?
• Are you still working with UPS?  (No I never worked there; I work at Suntrust)
• Reference the collect report and the financial/personal information on it
• Where do you bank?  Are you still with Bank of America?
• Do you currently have any liens or judgments against you?
• Do you own your home?
• I’ve just got to get through a couple items here before I move this onto someone else’s desk.
• We are trying to avoid moving forward, but you need to work with us
• Which family member or close friend would most likely help you out with this?
• Would you like to satisfy this voluntarily or involuntarily? Satisfy is a great term
• We need to get this satisfied
• How do you wish to satisfy your debt, obligation, etc.?
• We need to satisfy this obligation
• How much is in your 401k/retirement account? You can borrow from that.
•  “How much are you contributing to your retirement account? We can pause that” so that you can make this payment.
• A payment arrangement can stop or pause the interest.

Lets Make a Deal Statements (Make Them an Offer)

• Waive the phone payment fee
• Offer them a discount for phone payments when someone says they are mailing it in. –I can knock 5% off if you make the payment by phone
• Let me tell you what I can do for you or “I can” or “If I do this, can you do that?”
• I’ve got an offer for you -make an offer of expungement, arrangements, etc.
• Save money and time with a payment over the phone.
• It’s hard to trust the mail around the holidays, tax time, anytime; I can assure you that your credit report will be adjusted
• We have multiple options for you, is it better for you to pay with a credit card or check by phone?

 Collection Tips – Negative

Statements to Avoid (Never-ask Yes/No Questions)

• Can you pay?
• Alternate Statement – you need to pay.
• Will you pay?
• Alternate Statement – What date can you pay?
• Do you think that we could set up an arrangement?
• Alternate Statement – You need to commit to payment on this account
• I need you to make arrangements?
• Alternate Statement – You need to pay this debt.
• Do you think that you can pay this today?

Don’t Put the Debtor on the Defensive

• Do not call anyone a liar Alternate Statement – I think that there is a mistake or miscommunication.
• Do not call anyone childish
• Lets try and handle this professionally
• Good luck getting this off of your credit
• We are in a position to get this taken off of your credit
• You need to educate yourself
• Let me explain how the process works
• This isn’t compliant
• Your account has become delinquent

Don’t Give the Debtor an Out

• I will notate your file
• I will add that to your account
• I will mark it as a refusal to pay.
• Alternate Statement – Ok, I’m going to have to contact our client and let them know that you aren’t making arrangements and we will make the appropriate suggestions for alternative options to satisfy the account unless we can reach an acceptable arrangement.

Negative Statements/Words – Not to Use

• Like I said
• Obviously
• Actually

Do you have questions about the business you are running like; do I have the right number of staff? What am I missing? How can I increase profits in this economy? If you do you are normal but being normal does not answer the questions or provide you more opportunities. So how do you find out everything you always wanted to know about your ARM business?

Well first you can try and talk to some friends in the business but they might not tell you what you do not already know for fear you will get the opportunities they are getting now. So you can try to ask some people at an industry conference but the length of time anyone will devote to your cause at a conference is small and not sufficient to get the answers you need.

If you want to set yourself apart from the normal crowd who is just wondering you can hire a professional, a consultant. Think to yourself of the biggest and most profitable firm or agencies you know of; do you think they use consultants? Of course they do that’s how they grew so big so quickly is they hired the best employees they could find and then brought in consultants to make them even better.

So why don’t you hire a consultant to answer your questions? I know it is too expensive. Are you crazy? What you want is that big profitable shop that is highly respected and provides your family a grand lifestyle, right? First is no matter how expensive it is piece of mind and second it shines the path to success for your dream.

The truth is it is not that expensive to learn everything about your business it can be as little as $5000. And the improvements that can be made by that small investment can pay off for years to come. The first step is to talk to a consultant and see if he fits your needs and then you can begin to see the light that shines over your goal. I know your thinking well maybe next year maybe when we have a good month. Why wait for the piece of mind and improvements that will push you forward, all you are doing now is waiting and waiting and waiting.

Consider these staggering statistics: In March 2009, the Gallup organization found that only 30 percent of employees were engaged at work, 52 percent were not engaged, and 18 percent were so disengaged they regularly work against their organization’s goals.

In addition, research conducted by Brand Identity, Inc., shows that “Nearly 80 percent of leaders don’t feel that employees consistently demonstrate drive, energy and a focus on results.” This is also supported by 70 percent who don’t believe that employees are as committed as they should be to the growth of the business and increasing sales.

The message is clear—employees are unhappy at work, and companies are paying for it.

“We are at a time when company employees need to care more than ever about the success of their enterprise. Much more focus on results is necessary to help companies make it through these difficult times,” Lederman says.

Though the ever-looming bottom line is a concern for many small business owners, culture and hiring can impact your return on investment more than you may realize.

“The greatest companies in the world, big or small, don’t worry about the bottom line because it is so epically good that there is nothing to say about it,” says Dave Logan, cofounder and senior partner of the management consulting firm CultureSync, and author of Tribal Leadership. “If you are really building a great company around values and vision that is going to make a serious impact in the world, you’re not going to have to worry about your revenue or your growth. Your challenge will be how to keep up with it.”

You should think it’s important for people as a whole to be bold and daring (but not reckless). You should want everyone to not be afraid to take risks and to not be afraid to make mistakes, because if people aren’t making mistakes then that means they’re not taking enough risks. Over time, you need everyone to develop his/her gut about business decisions. You must encourage people to develop and improve their decision-making skills. Encourage your people to make mistakes as long as they learn from them.

Do not ever become complacent and accept the status quo just because that’s the way things have always been done. We should always be seeking adventure and having fun exploring new possibilities.

By having the freedom to be creative in our solutions, we end up making our own luck. Always approach situations and challenges with an open mind.

Sometimes our sense of adventure and creativity causes us to be unconventional in our solutions (because we have the freedom to think outside the box), but that’s what allows you to rise above and stay ahead of the competition.

You must believe that inside every employee is more potential than even the employee himself/herself realizes. Your charge is to help employees unlock that potential. But it has to be a joint effort; you have to want to challenge and stretch yourself in order for it to happen.

We grow as a business because we take on new challenges, and we face even more new challenges because we’re growing. It’s an endless cycle, and it’s a good thing; it’s the only way for a company to survive. But it can also at times feel risky, stressful, and confusing.

Sometimes it may seem that new problems crop up as fast as we solve the old ones (sometimes faster!), but that just means that we’re moving; that we’re getting better and stronger. Anyone who wants to compete with us has to learn the same things, so problems are just mile markers. Each one we pass means we’ve gotten better. Yet no matter how much better we get, we’ll always have hard work to do, we’ll never be done, and we’ll never “get it right.”

That may seem negative, but it’s not; you must do our best to “get it right,” and then do it again when you find out that things have changed. That is the cycle of growth, and like it or not, that cycle won’t stop. It’s hard. But if you are not doing something hard, then you would have no business. The only reason we aren’t swamped by our competition is because what you do is hard, and you must do it better than anyone else. If it ever gets too easy, start looking for a tidal wave of competition to wash you away. It may seem sometimes like you don’t know what your doing. And it’s true!. What I have learned over the years is that the devil is in the details.

Strong and positive relationships that are open and honest are a big part of what differentiates your company from other companies. Strong relationships allow you to accomplish much more than you would be able to otherwise.

A key ingredient in strong relationships is to develop emotional connections. It’s important to always act with integrity in your relationships, to be compassionate, friendly, loyal; to make sure that you do the right thing and treat your relationships well. The hardest thing to do is to build trust, but if the trust exists, you can accomplish so much more.

In any relationship, it’s important to be a good listener as well as a good communicator. Open and honest communication is the best foundation for any relationship including with your clients. But remember, at the end of the day, it’s not what you say or what you do, it’s how you make people feel that matters the most. In order for someone to feel good about a relationship, he/she must know that the other person truly cares about them, both personally and professionally.

Embrace diversity in thoughts, opinions, and backgrounds. The more widespread and diverse your relationships are, the bigger the positive impact you can make on your company, and the more valuable you will be to your company. It is critical for relationship-building to have effective, open, and honest communication.

As your company(s) grow, communication becomes more and more important. Everyone needs to understand how his/her team connects to the big picture of what you are trying to accomplish. No matter how good the communication is, it’s still one of the weakest spots in any organization, You need everyone to always try to go the extra mile in encouraging thorough, complete, and effective communication.

The best leaders are those that lead by example and are both team followers as well as team leaders. I believe that, in general, the best ideas and decisions are made from the bottom up; they’re influenced by those on the front lines who are closest to the issues and/process. The role of a manager is to remove obstacles and enable his/her direct reports to succeed. This means the best leaders are servant- leaders; they serve those they lead.

The best team members take initiative when they notice issues so the team and the company can succeed. The best team members take ownership of issues and collaborate with other team members whenever challenges arise.

The best team members have a positive influence on one another and everyone they encounter, they strive to eliminate any kind of doubt and negative interactions; they focus, instead, on creating harmony with each other and whoever else they interact with.

I believe that the best teams are those that not only work with each other, but also interact with each other outside the office environment. Many of the best ideas I have seen were the direct result of informal interactions outside of the office, playing golf or having a drink together after work.

You need to be more than just a team though; you need to be a family. You must watch out for each other, care for each other, and go above and beyond for each other because you believe in each other and trust each other. To create this, we must work together and also play together. Your bonds must go far beyond the typical “co-worker” relationships found at other companies.

Believe in hard work and putting in the extra effort to get things done. Believe in operational excellence, and realize that there is always room for improvement in everything you do. This means that your work is never done. In order to stay ahead of the competition, you must continuously innovate as well as make incremental improvements to your operations: always striving to make yourself more efficient, and figuring out how to do anything and everything better. You must understand mistakes are learning opportunities.

You must never lose your sense of urgency in making improvements. You must never settle for “good enough,” because good is the enemy of great. You should set and exceed your own high standards, constantly raising the bar for competitors and for yourself.

Passion and determination are contagious. You should believe in having a positive and optimistic (but realistic) attitude about everything you do, because you realize that this inspires others to have the same attitude.

There is excitement in knowing that everyone you work with has a tremendous impact on a larger dream and vision, and you can see that impact day in and day out.

While you celebrate your individual and team successes, do not be arrogant or treat others differently from how you would want to be treated. Instead, carry yourself with a quiet confidence, because you believe that in the long run your character will speak for itself.

Stand up comedy is a lot like consulting in the ARM industry. Both are very difficult jobs that require precise implementation a high regard not only for the message but the delivery of the message. As a consultant I have learned that the message is easily determined but how to deliver the message is difficult, and getting the message heard is what it is all about.

Understand your audience and ignore their advice.

When it comes to consulting the customer is usually only pointing to the surface of the problem. The true issues are much deeper and usually rooted in the management style of the operator.

A comedian does not ask the audience what the subject of the next is to be about he has the skill to know. Great consultants are astute observers of people and can direct the customers attention in a particular direction like a comedian leads you to the punch line.

Data does not replace insight.

Insight whether crude, sweet or startling is the responsibility of the consultant. Data must be used to prove the insight but like a comedian insight is at the root of good design.

Why did it take so long for the catsup bottle to inverted? We all know the design made it hard to get the ketchup out of the bottle so the data was there it took insight to turn the bottle upside down.

Consultants can see the obvious that you are likely missing in your business

Change it up.

Routines change for the comedians often or the routine gets stale and the jokes no longer work. The same can be said for successful businesses the change is what keeps it fresh.

If a comedian told the same joke for 20 years he would not be successful and therefore you need to look for changes to your routine business.

Put a spin on it.

Create your own spin on the information to define who you are. The late night hosts all have a little different personality some are crass, some are cerebral, juvenile or absurd. You need to have your own style. Remember people buy more about why you do something and what you do so have a persona.

Don’t expect everyone to get it.

Like we all prefer a particular late night host we do not all have the same taste and therefore your audience will not always get the material.

Win over the audience.

I always look at my audience and decide how to gain their respect. When I am doing collector training I get on their level and talk about my days as a collector in the 80’s and joke with them about rotary dial phones and ledger cards things they never heard of. When speaking at a convention to a group of lawyers I will relate stories about corporate America.

Good comedy is like good branding is gives up a little something.

A good story always wins.

When you can relate a fact or data and do it with a story it will be better received and retained. We all do this that is why conversations take so long because the message, which is simple, is delivered with lots of other information to make the short message memorable.

Make sure your consultant has these qualities and he will be able to communicate with all your staff and get the message across.

• Honesty
• A positive attitude
• Good listener
• Asks great questions
• Seeks referrals
• Strong self-esteem and a big ego
• Disciplined and focused
• Effective time manager / self-manager
• Organized
• Knows how to overcome objections
• Has written goals
• Monitors metrics, results and outcomes
• Persuasive communicator: spoken and written word
• Works well with internal and external customers
• Is constantly learning; i.e., reading, listening to CDs, etc.
• Maximizes relationships
• Networks within the industry
• Technology competent
• Knows how to identify and strategize opportunities
• Persistency
• Open to new ideas
• Willingness to change / upgrade
• Effective at follow-up
• Honors commitments and deliverables
• A strong values base
• A positive reflection of (or ambassador of) their company
• Not easily discouraged
• Knows how to deal with business rejection
• Knowledgeable, yet has easy access to resources for other stuff, etc

I got this list from an article by Jeff Blackman and posted by Vistage. There are several of these factors that I feel need to be strengthened in the ARM industry.

Collectors turned into managers in the collection industry often are not good listeners. Debt collection tends to close ones ears in my experience.

Debt collectors seem to have strong self-esteem and egos but usually too big egos. Many managers in the ARM space or not well organized or spend their time reading. Most collection managers do not read at all much less read self-improvement books.

Few CM,s network except in their local community but this changing some with groups on LinkedIn. Collectors are often not open to new ideas and often do not have the strongest values.

Any lastly few CM’s have a mentor to call on from the industry.

How are these and other factors affecting the industry?  I see the lack of some of these important qualities as a big part of the issues facing the industry. The solutions are apparent but the agencies and law firms affected cannot see the forest for the trees. The ARM companies that will spend their profits on training and development of the entire staff will be the ones to come out on top in a couple of years.

The problem is the agencies and law firms who take on this mentality will have fewer profits while they develop the staff, as development takes both time and money. This is what is stopping most agencies and law firms from hiring a consultant or high paid training manager but this also the demise of the agencies that do not INVEST in staff development.

When I entered the collections workforce in 1979 even though computers were not being used the industry yet my employer was devoted to improving the company through staff development and training. I entered GC Services and was put into the MT (management training) program, which was designed to make you a manager of a unit in 3 years or less, then to be an assistant manager of the site and then a manager of a site in 5-7 years.

As a manager it was your responsibility to have two trained and ready replacements for your position at all times if you wanted to have any chance of promotion because if there was an opportunity to move up the ladder and no replacement was available in your group there would be no promotion.

This meant at all times at all levels there were trained and ready replacements for the corporate ladder. Maybe you can remember back to the ‘One Minute Manager” and how this ladder is supposed to work. We need this mentality in the ARM industry today, as it will provide us with collection professionals not debt collectors from off the street.

This a call to the industry to embrace staff development no matter the cost in order to save the industry.

As a consultant to the ARM industry, I have been asked to do many different things. Lately that’s been the need to help clients find a qualified General manager, GM or Collection Manager, CM. This may seem strange to many of you since there are more than one recruiting companies servicing the ARM industry. We have a shortage of qualified candidates for these positions in the current job marketplace. But the problem is much deeper than just a shortage of applicants.

When first asked to help my clients locate better staff, I believed it would be an easy project and easy money. I was wrong, very wrong. I had many applicants for the job but none were qualified, most were not even close and many were from other industries. I assumed I would just have to look deeper and the job would not be so easy. I was wrong, very wrong.

I continued the search for my client for several weeks with no real qualified candidates showing up.  Therefore, we hired an unqualified CM and hoped if we kept looking we would find someone better. I was wrong, very wrong again.

My client is still limping along with this partially qualified CM while we look for a superstar. Meanwhile, another client in the same part of the Northeast came to me looking for the same superstar, however this shop was bigger and could afford a bigger salary. This was the thing the other client did not have, a big budget and relocation package.  I believed this would be the game changer that allowed me to find that superstar. I was wrong again.

As I begin to look deeper into the issue, I began to realize that these same issues existed in many of my client’s organizations. This has lead me to ponder why there are currently so few qualified managers in the industry.  The answer seems simple to me after some reflection and research. We as an industry have quit developing the staff. In the years when times were good and collections were easy, we cruised by and still had good profit margins. There was no real need or burning desire to spend time developing the staff when all seemed to be moving along so well. Then came the recession, consumer lawyers, increased volumes, decreased liquidation, falling housing values and unobtainable loans, leaving everyone scrambling.

As the economy tanked, there were two types of attitudes among owners of law firms and collection agencies.  First,  there was the, “it will get better soon attitude” and secondly the ” we better reduce costs attitude”.  Neither included staff development in their program.  They downsized in 2010 and 2011 and now they are just hanging on hoping for something to change, like hoping for a new political leader to make changes in the economy, hoping for the consumer attorneys to disappear or hoping for the time machine to take us back to 2007.

But few are spending this time trying to develop better staff members or spending time improving processes. Therefore, there has been a reduction of collection managers who have strong skills, leaving the organizations to feel understaffed in an economy that empowers the employer. So my research clearly shows that there are few of these linchpins out there to help the struggling agencies and firms to get better.

I suggest that you build a strong foundation for your organization and invest in training and development for every staff member in your company, including yourself. If you want to succeed in this current collections environment, you will need to make the best you can from your staff and technology.

Spend time and money to develop that next CM or GM and if you need help creating that development plan, call me.

Consider these staggering statistics: In March 2009, the Gallup organization found that only 30 percent of employees were engaged at work, 52 percent were not engaged, and 18 percent were so disengaged they regularly work against their organization’s goals.

In addition, research conducted by Brand Identity, Inc., shows that “Nearly 80 percent of leaders don’t feel that employees consistently demonstrate drive, energy and a focus on results.” This is also supported by 70 percent who don’t believe that employees are as committed as they should be to the growth of the business and increasing sales.

The message is clear—employees are unhappy at work, and companies are paying for it.

“We are at a time when company employees need to care more than ever about the success of their enterprise. Much more focus on results is necessary to help companies make it through these difficult times,” Lederman says.

Though the ever-looming bottom line is a concern for many small business owners,

culture and hiring can impact your return on investment more than you may realize.

“The greatest companies in the world, big or small, don’t worry about the bottom line because it is so epically good that there is nothing to say about it,” says Dave Logan, cofounder and senior partner of the management consulting firm CultureSync, and author of Tribal Leadership. “If you are really building a great company around values and vision that is going to make a serious impact in the world, you’re not going to have to worry about your revenue or your growth. Your challenge will be how to keep up with it.”

You should think it’s important for people as a whole to be bold and daring (but not reckless). You should want everyone to not be afraid to take risks and to not be afraid to make mistakes, because if people aren’t making mistakes then that means they’re not taking enough risks. Over time, you need everyone to develop his/her gut about business decisions. You must encourage people to develop and improve their decision-making skills. Encourage your people to make mistakes as long as they learn from them.

Do not ever become complacent and accept the status quo just because that’s the way things have always been done. We should always be seeking adventure and having fun exploring new possibilities.

By having the freedom to be creative in our solutions, we end up making our own luck. Always approach situations and challenges with an open mind.

Sometimes our sense of adventure and creativity causes us to be unconventional in our solutions (because we have the freedom to think outside the box), but that’s what allows you to rise above and stay ahead of the competition.

You must believe that inside every employee is more potential than even the employee himself/herself realizes. Your charge is to help employees unlock that potential. But it has to be a joint effort; you have to want to challenge and stretch yourself in order for it to happen.

We grow as a business because we take on new challenges, and we face even more new challenges because we’re growing. It’s an endless cycle, and it’s a good thing; it’s the only way for a company to survive. But it can also at times feel risky, stressful, and confusing.

Sometimes it may seem that new problems crop up as fast as we solve the old ones (sometimes faster!), but that just means that we’re moving; that we’re getting better and stronger. Anyone who wants to compete with us has to learn the same things, so problems are just mile markers. Each one we pass means we’ve gotten better. Yet no matter how much better we get, we’ll always have hard work to do, we’ll never be done, and we’ll never “get it right.”

That may seem negative, but it’s not; you must do our best to “get it right,” and then do it again when you find out that things have changed. That is the cycle of growth, and like it or not, that cycle won’t stop. It’s hard. But if you are not doing something hard, then you would have no business. The only reason we aren’t swamped by our competition is because what you do is hard, and you must do it better than anyone else. If it ever gets too easy, start looking for a tidal wave of competition to wash you away. It may seem sometimes like you don’t know what your doing. And it’s true!. What I have learned over the years is that the devil is in the details.

Strong and positive relationships that are open and honest are a big part of what differentiates your company from other companies. Strong relationships allow you to accomplish much more than you would be able to otherwise.

A key ingredient in strong relationships is to develop emotional connections. It’s important to always act with integrity in your relationships, to be compassionate, friendly, loyal; to make sure that you do the right thing and treat your relationships well. The hardest thing to do is to build trust, but if the trust exists, you can accomplish so much more.

In any relationship, it’s important to be a good listener as well as a good communicator. Open and honest communication is the best foundation for any relationship including with your clients. But remember, at the end of the day, it’s not what you say or what you do, it’s how you make people feel that matters the most. In order for someone to feel good about a relationship, he/she must know that the other person truly cares about them, both personally and professionally.

Embrace diversity in thoughts, opinions, and backgrounds. The more widespread and diverse your relationships are, the bigger the positive impact you can make on your company, and the more valuable you will be to your company. It is critical for relationship-building to have effective, open, and honest communication.

As your company(s) grow, communication becomes more and more important. Everyone needs to understand how his/her team connects to the big picture of what you are trying to accomplish. No matter how good the communication is, it’s still one of the weakest spots in any organization, You need everyone to always try to go the extra mile in encouraging thorough, complete, and effective communication.

The best leaders are those that lead by example and are both team followers as well as team leaders. I believe that, in general, the best ideas and decisions are made from the bottom up; they’re influenced by those on the front lines who are closest to the issues and/process. The role of a manager is to remove obstacles and enable his/her direct reports to succeed. This means the best leaders are servant- leaders; they serve those they lead.

The best team members take initiative when they notice issues so the team and the company can succeed. The best team members take ownership of issues and collaborate with other team members whenever challenges arise.

The best team members have a positive influence on one another and everyone they encounter, they strive to eliminate any kind of doubt and negative interactions; they focus, instead, on creating harmony with each other and whoever else they interact with.

I believe that the best teams are those that not only work with each other, but also interact with each other outside the office environment. Many of the best ideas I have seen were the direct result of informal interactions outside of the office, playing golf or having a drink together after work.

You need to be more than just a team though; you need to be a family. You must watch out for each other, care for each other, and go above and beyond for each other because you believe in each other and trust each other. To create this, we must work together and also play together. Your bonds must go far beyond the typical “co-worker” relationships found at other companies.

Believe in hard work and putting in the extra effort to get things done. Believe in operational excellence, and realize that there is always room for improvement in everything you do. This means that your work is never done. In order to stay ahead of the competition, you must continuously innovate as well as make incremental improvements to your operations: always striving to make yourself more efficient, and figuring out how to do anything and everything better. You must understand mistakes are learning opportunities.

You must never lose your sense of urgency in making improvements. You must never settle for “good enough,” because good is the enemy of great. You should set and exceed your own high standards, constantly raising the bar for competitors and for yourself.

Passion and determination are contagious. You should believe in having a positive and optimistic (but realistic) attitude about everything you do, because you realize that this inspires others to have the same attitude.

There is excitement in knowing that everyone you work with has a tremendous impact on a larger dream and vision, and you can see that impact day in and day out.

While you celebrate your individual and team successes, do not be arrogant or treat others differently from how you would want to be treated. Instead, carry yourself with a quiet confidence, because you believe that in the long run your character will speak for itself.