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Dr. Freud Says, “You’re Distracted!”

Life is distracting. I know it, and you know it. Hey, it’s life, and we have to relish the distractions. Life isn’t business, after all. Business is a part of life.

When the distractions include the marriages of our children, moving to new homes, graduations, holidays and everything else that comes with life, that’s great – and we probably shouldn’t call those distractions. We should call them life.

But in my line of work I don’t find that it’s this part of life that either results in or compounds the troubles of a turnaround.

I Give Up

I got a call the other day from a client who said, “Lee, I think I’m just going to file for bankruptcy tomorrow. I can’t keep up with this, and I don’t know what to do. It’s too overwhelming, and I’m done.”

It was at that point that I lit my  cigar (not really, I don’t smoke) and asked my client to lay down on his couch (we were, after all, on the phone, and I couldn’t very well have him laying on my couch).

I’ve learned over the years that my job is – in large part – the job of a psychoanalyst. I have to break through what a client is telling me is bothering him and get down to what the real problems are.

Let’s Go Deeper

As I asked my client to tell me what was really going on and what was really overwhelming him, he said that the business was the problem: payroll wasn’t going to get paid, creditors were barking at the door and everyone seemed despondent. Those are pretty standard problems in a turnaround – after all, it’s what I was doing there in the first place.

But why all of a sudden could he not handle the pressure and the issues? Why did he want to give up and file for bankruptcy when I’d told him that we would get through this turnaround without the need?

As it turns out, the issues weren’t really about the business. I pushed a little more and learned that this client’s father’s health had just taken a bad turn and that he was having other problems at home.

He was prepared to handle the issues the business was facing because he knew I was there at his side to take care of them, but what he wasn’t prepared for was handling the business and the rest of life’s more challenging distractions at the same time.

He didn’t realize that I was there to support him through those issues, too.

Have Someone to Turn to

No – I didn’t become his drinking buddy or commiseration pal, but I did use my Dr. Freud skills to listen to his issues and show him that whatever else was happening, he could place the burden of his business on me. It would be my problem to bear in the meantime because that’s what I do best.

When you find that work has become too overwhelming – especially when things are going wrong – consider the fact that you may be distracted by a lot of life’s other challenges. Maybe you should talk to someone and maybe you should lean on some of the key people in your life to take the burden off of you.

How do you deal with distractions and focus when you really need to?

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Turnaround Your Time Management with New Email Skills, a Guest Post by Leslie Walden

Leslie Walden and Barbara Skutch Mays, creators of It’s Time to Get Organized, help individuals and businesses increase their efficiency and effectiveness. As they say, more productive, better organized people feel less stressed and gain a new sense of empowerment. It’s my pleasure to share their guest post with you about making more time for your business by becoming more efficient with your email.

We all know that being efficient saves time, but when considering changing your life to become more efficient, we have to ask ourselves two questions:

  1. How much time is really saved?
  2. Is it worth the effort to become a little more efficient?

We say, Yes!

But then again, we’re efficiency devotees.

Let’s take the #1 problem virtually every person in business contends with on a daily basis: managing email. Unless you have a timer in front of you, it’s easy to forget that time is always ticking by. Before you know it, you’ve spent far more time on your smart phone or computer than you’d intended while the day’s tasks go untouched.

What if you could reduce the time you spend on email by ten minutes a day? It doesn’t sound like much, so does it matter?

Perhaps not but, over a week’s time, 10 minutes a day adds up. By the end of the week, you’ve lost nearly an hour not reducing email by ten minutes a day.

A four week period is well over 3 hours that could have been spent performing meaningful activities that could help you reach your goals. That’s the equivalent of a morning’s worth of valuable time. Imagine getting an extra morning to be productive every month?

In one year, the opportunities are even more impressive. Altogether, a person gains an extra day and a half just by taking advantage of daily ten minute increments. If your marketing plan includes contacting new prospects, that’s a lot of new prospects that you might not have otherwise called.

With rewards this great, I hope you’re already wondering how to knock ten minutes from your daily email routine and use the “newly found” time to bring you closer to your goals.

There is no shortage of ways to learn to hone your email skills. Try any of these:

  • Sign up for an online class: Microsoft offers many free classes at different levels for various versions of Outlook. Each class provides an overview of what you will learn, the number of lessons and practice sessions, the estimated time the class will take, and specifically what you will know when you complete the class. Just go here.
  • Investigate sites such as About.com to answer questions and provide valuable information on using email more efficiently. Examples of topics: message priorities, scheduling time, handling tasks, tips for communicating effectively and staying on top of email. Where do you need guidance?
  • Find tutorials and webinars on YouTube. They’re short, and video makes it easy to follow the instructions. For example, watch this 5 minute video on taking your inbox to zero for Outlook 2010.

You’ll be amazed at the benefits of spending a few minutes every day upgrading your email skills.

With 2012 just around the corner, now is the perfect time to give it a try!

What kinds of organizational skills would benefit you and your business? Do you have any email tips to share with us?

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Thanks for Getting it Right, G.K. Chesterton

“It isn’t that they can’t see the solution; it’s that they can’t see the problem.”

– G.K. Chesterton

Boy did ol’ Ches hit the nail on the head with this one.

No one’s ever called me and said, “Lee, I’m going to have a problem three weeks from Thursday.”

It’s not that people don’t know three weeks prior to a crisis that they’re going to have an issue, but they don’t perceive the problem as substantial enough to call me in soon enough. Sure, their issue seems like a problem, but if people thought that the problem would turn into the crisis it would, I think they’d dig my card out of the Roll-A-Dex earlier (continuing to use a Roll-A-Dex may be indicative of another problem in your business…).

At that point, knowing the solution isn’t the issue – I can figure out the solution. What I need people to see is the problem they have, and more specifically, its magnitude.

You can’t resolve anything if you haven’t clearly identified the problem.

Have you ever waited too long to resolve a problem? What was it and what did you do?

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A Technique for Clearing the Mind and Gaining Larger Perspective

When was the last time you really relaxed and cleared your mind?

They say a long-weekend isn’t really a vacation because it takes at least 3 days to actually relax. That doesn’t mean it takes three days to clear your mind. People do that every day through deep breathing techniques, meditation and the like.

It is to say, however, that even with mind clearing that comes in the day to day, it’s challenging to get that truly big picture perspective all the time – or even often enough.

And I’m a big picture guy! That’s my job: to look at tons of pieces at once and see the bigger trajectory in order to turn a company around.

Yet even so, I am sometimes challenged with seeing the big picture above the pieces – or the forest through the trees, as it were.

That’s why I make efforts to take time off from my central focus of work and grind and work and grind to free my mind – relax – and get some big picture perspective.

One of my favorite retreats is Hilton Head Island, where I can sit for hours on the beach, relaxing my mind. I go very often, and this relaxation brings me to a place of much greater awareness, allowing me to see the bigger picture.

Armed with that clarity, I can then take action towards resolving each of the pieces I saw before, but with the oversight and direction of larger guidance.

Why bring this up now?

Well, after a week abroad relaxation is finally sinking in, and I am enjoying the clarity of mind that only comes with the extended removal of life’s general daily groove and grind.

And it’s marvelous.

What do you do to clear your mind and get that big picture perspective?

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The Old Dog May Not Learn New Tricks, But He Can Always Learn New Lessons

As I vacation in Italy, I find myself learning an important lesson – not one that I didn’t tacitly understand before, but one that became more pronounced in my mind over the last few days.

I’ve always said that in the business of turnaround you want to go with the gray-hair or no-hair guy. That means that you want the guy with the experience. People don’t just enter turnaround fresh out of business school. They get experience by being involved in tons of other businesses, transactions, organizations and the like – especially ones that have faced crises and big problems.

But two people (or groups) have taught me a valuable corollary lesson: you’re never too old to learn something new.

The first person who helped me see this was my wife. In preparation for our trip to Italy – a place we try to go often and that we plan on returning to in the future – my wife started studying Italian with a new language program. Though she didn’t have much time before we came, she loved learning it and has already put many of the phrases and much of her vocabulary to good use. And she’s learning tons more every day we’re here.

I was so impressed that in her mid-fifties she started learning a new language. It’s enriching her life, it’s helping ours, and she’s found that the act of learning a new language and subsequently thinking in that language is letting her look at the world – and especially Italy – in different ways.

Now, my lesson of “never too old to learn something new” does not come from her learning Italian at her age – she’s not old at all! It’s me learning that at my age I can still learn new things and gain valuable experiences.

The other place I’ve learned this lesson is from my partners. They’re a great group, but they’re not gray-hair/old-hair people. They’re experienced but far more youthful than I am. That makes me think twice about my favorite saying, since I learn a ton from them and value the incredible work they do. As excellent turnaround professionals, my partners have taught me that there’s always something new to be learned, and you don’t have to be bald or gray to teach the lesson.

So, as I explore Italy, I have a renewed sense of the value of new experiences and new knowledge and the ways those experiences can enrich my life and the lives and businesses of my clients. I may have seen darn near everything under the sun as it relates to turnaround and business, but every star out there is a sun so I suppose there’s a lot left to learn.

What new lessons have you learned?

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If the Shoe Doesn’t Fit, We’ll Make It Fit

We’ve all heard the phrase, “If the shoe fits…” meaning, if you’re accused of something (good or bad) and that deed fits your m.o. then it was probably you, because, well, the shoe fits.

In turnaround, the shoe rarely fits. I’ve either got a size 12 company with a size 8 shoe or a flat-bottomed foot with a big-arched shoe. Either way, the shoe doesn’t fit.

But in turnaround, we do what we can to make it fit.

We get creative with shoes. Perhaps we lop off some toes to make the shoe fit, or maybe we cut the end of the shoe off.

Whatever the case, it’s not the job of a turnaround professional to complain that what they’ve been given doesn’t fit right or work the way it should. If you like things to be neat when you arrive, don’t get into the turnaround business.

It’s our job to make the creative deals and think constructively about how to make things work that don’t appear to work. If you want to start thinking like a turnaround professional to get more working at your business than is already, remember that if the shoe doesn’t fit, you’ll have to make it fit.

Do your shoes fit?

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Hey, America! Keep It Simple, Stupid

I’ve talked about it before, and here’s another reason that America should be run like a business.

Each and every bill that goes through Congress has many pieces yet most of those pieces don’t pertain to a bill’s raison d’être.

Why?

Self interest and politics.

It’s for those same reasons that bills we need don’t get passed and the country continues to suffer as a result. Self interest and politics are also the reasons that the Democrats and the Republicans are fighting.

If America were run like a business – especially a business in crisis being run by a turnaround manager, with every issue being vetted as it affects the bottom line – then self interest and politics would be swept aside to make room for survival and positive cash flow.

Going forward, I recommend we take it one issue at a time. In business – especially turnaround – we take everything one issue at a time. It’s how we focus, make progress, and ensure that we’re not muddling our priorities or success.

Consider the President’s job bill as an example. I am not judging the merit of any of those elements tacked onto the bill, but I am saying that the very act of tacking them on was foolish. The tax increases in the bill and other elements included were purely a function of self interest – not public interest and certainly not a jobs bill. A jobs bill is likely the result of an unusually high unemployment rate, and a bill about unemployment and jobs is not a bill about taxes. Had the Buffett tax been excluded, the jobs bill may have had the ability to pass on its own, but when Congress makes singular bills about more than their primary subject, the country cannot move forward.

Focus, America! Keep it simple.

I guarantee that if Congress addressed only one issue in each bill, it would make more progress. If we could get a bill making every bill about one thing, we’d dramatically reduce partisan fighting because all bills would be based on the merit of the individual issue at hand.

For us to move forward and survive we need to Keep it Simple Stupid.

Have you ever been overwhelmed by too many issues and been crippled to affect even one?

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Embrace the Change that Life Brings

Change can be a good thing. Indeed, it often is. Sure, change to an oppressive political regime isn’t the kind of change people want to see, but progress is built on change, however resistent we might be to it happening in the first place.

I’ve been going through some interesting changes in my life recently.

At first, I was not pleased by the idea of these changes. They challenged what I thought I wanted to be doing with myself, the way my life was structured and what I thought the right thing was. The changes were practically an affront and I felt like the alligators were snapping.

But I’m a turnaround guy, and I pride myself on my ability to assess a seemingly negative situation and changing conditions, understand them from everyone’s point of view, and seek amicable and advantageous solutions for me and my side and whomever else I can.

When I stopped being bothered by the challenge of change that I didn’t want, I started to make peace with the notion, really evaluating why it was that this change was confronting me at this point.

And the more I thought about it, the more comfortable I got – indeed, the more I wanted it. I realized that I just wanted the change to happen in a different way. Ultimately, the change would be there, but I needed to see why it was good and make it so.

In the last few days, I’ve actually come to realize that if the change doesn’t happen, I’ll be downright disappointed. And I want it to happen fast. But that’s the nature of a turnaround guy. When we want something to materialize, we roll up our sleeves and make it happen.

So, change, I await you with open arms.

What changes are going on in your life or business? Are you excited or wary? Why?

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Pick the Right Receiver

One thing I’ve noticed recently about receiverships is the number of receivers getting appointed for the wrong reasons. That is not to say that many receivers are not qualified business people – I actually believe that a good many, if not most of them, are.

However, the key to a good receivership is finding the right receiver for the right business, and not just a receiver with business experience.

This may seem obvious, but frequently a less-than-appropriate receiver is selected because of the nuance of my point. Allow me to elaborate.

For an operating business you need a crisis manager who knows how to hold the operations together and to create value.

On income producing property you need a receiver who understands property management and who has experience with the particular type of property e.g. strip center, apartments, vacant land, office complex.

When there is an inadequate match between the receiver and the business it diminishes the results and the return on the bank’s investment.

Because the lender will typically fund a receivership and the associated fees, it’s particularly important that the receiver chosen be the right – and most qualified – one. Though a chosen receiver may have been successful elsewhere s/he needs to be the perfect match in order to optimize the chances of success and the bank getting a proper return.

When the alligators are biting, there isn’t time to give the receivership to just anybody. A receiver needs to know what he’s doing in the environment of the business in order to successfully complete the receivership, whether by selling the property or turning the business around.

What are your experiences with the wrong people in the right jobs?