Productivity | The Barefoot Spirit

Are You Giving Your People Permission to be Brilliant?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 17:00:31 +0000

These days there are tons of companies that say they want their people to be more engaged, but are they giving them permission to do so? Yes, permission! It’s subtle, but powerful.

Permission is a powerful idea in determining company culture. Are you giving your people permission to be creative, make decisions, solve problems, and take responsibility? Or, in the name of efficiency, structure, or compliance, are you preventing the very type of support you need?

Here are some ways to give your people permission:

Compensation. Some part of employees’ compensation should be based on sales, growth, and productivity. It will take some time to identify and agree upon metrics used to measure those key indicators, but get started now and tweak it every year until it’s right. If you offer a bonus, make it quarterly. A year is too long for them to remember, or if after a poor first half of the year, they may just give up. Quarterly is short enough to remember, and if they have a bad quarter, well, there’s a new opportunity next quarter.

Knowledge. Your staff can’t help you if you don’t tell them what you need. Many businesses believe in the “need-to-know” policy which keeps employees in the dark. We believe in the “know-the-need” policy which includes them in the company’s challenges, opportunities and triumphs. They already have your corporate knowledge and a stake in solving your problems, especially if they share in your success. We suggest quarterly meetings with sales and sales support staff (i.e., everybody not in sales) to brainstorm solutions. They will surprise you with their great ideas!

Access. Clear the channels of communication. Don’t force interdepartmental messages go through a complex pyramid structure, and back to the department right next door. Don’t lock down creativity by allowing compliance to use fear to demand that everything goes through them. Their extensive turnaround time itself can discourage many good ideas from ever surfacing. Give your people ways to access top management directly to prevent middle managers from stopping good ideas.

Acknowledgement. Thank each of your people publically for all the good ideas they’ve produced to improve your company. This validation will make them want to do more. Their teammates will see your acknowledgement, and want some for themselves. We recommend once a year, on their anniversary, send the entire staff a memo that summarizes what that staff member did during the past year that improved the company, resulting in bigger bonuses for the whole staff. This will give everyone more respect for their teammate’s contribution and improve overall teamwork.

Mistakes. Give your people permission to experiment and make mistakes – as long as they make mistakes in a productive manner. This means that they come to you with the mistake they made and a list of documents that need to be created, altered or improved, so the mistake is less likely to reoccur. Companies that frown on mistakes force their people to hide them and the opportunity to improve the company’s policies and procedures is lost. Encourage your people to aim not blame. Aim at what they can do to prevent a reoccurrence, and don’t disempower themselves by blaming others.

Your people are looking for the limits you will allow. Some are very obvious and necessary like dependability, production and civil behavior. Beyond that, show your “personal settings” by giving them the permissions we have discussed here. The message will soon become crystal clear and they will operate within those limits. Don’t let your structure and procedures deny your people the permission they need to help you!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Training Magazine – Teach Employees to think like Owners by Scaling Down to Two Divisions

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 19:10:48 +0000

As a leader, you’re hyper-focused on your company’s productivity, profits, and growth. Wouldn’t it be nice if your employees were as focused on those factors as you and the company’s other executives? Sure, they do what you tell them. They come in every day and perform every task within their job descriptions. But often that’s where the buck stops. If a problem lands in their laps that isn’t what they consider to be “their responsibility,” they pass it on to the next guy or they bring it to you expecting a solution.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can teach your employees to think and act outside of their job descriptions—to think, in point of fact, like owners! At Barefoot Cellars, we found that the key to turning worker bees into solutions-oriented entrepreneurs was simplifying our structure into just two divisions: sales and sales support.

To read the complete article, please visit Training Magazine

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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3 Ways Time Off Increases Productivity

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 01:00:29 +0000

Passion, drive, compensation, status, recognition, affirmation and security. This is the list of what motivates people. What many employers don’t realize is that near the top of this list is also time off.

As folks plan ahead for their vacation time, they especially search for three-day holiday weekends. This is their opportunity to strategically plan time off with friends and family. They want to give their friends and family a heads-up so they can schedule time off from their respective jobs to join them on vacations.

When we built the Barefoot wine brand, we discovered something amazing and almost counter-intuitive. Our office people would plan their workloads so that their projects would be completed right before these 3-day bank holidays. They knew that it’s not the mess you leave, it’s the mess you come back to. Because they wanted to come back to a relatively clean and organized desk, they would schedule their workload so they would not have to take it along on their vacation, and not have to return to a pile of work.

Then, we noticed something else. A disproportionate number of our office people were taking a single isolated vacation day off during three particular months: March or April (depending on when Easter fell), June, and August. Why those months? Those were the only three months during the year without a national or bank holiday which created a 3-day weekend.

So we decided to create three new paid holidays per year, which we dubbed “Barefoot Days.” Barefoot Days were announced for the upcoming year before Christmas. This gave our people a chance to make plans around them, and notify friends and family. It also gave us a chance to schedule the new bonus holidays so they had the least impact on our business and the most strategic value to our people.

Mondays were generally busy days, so all Barefoot Days were on Fridays. But which Fridays? We decided to place them in the middle of established 3-day weekends. This would break up the relatively long holiday drought with a refreshing oasis, and the year into more evenly-spaced work periods. This way they could look forward to and plan for a 3-day weekend every month.

But as we said, it wasn’t just time off folks planned for, it was their work as well! Those extra Barefoot Days gave them and our company three big advantages:

1. Increased Production. Most people will plan to complete their work before the 3-day weekends. Our folks regularly put in extra hours to achieve these time-off deadlines. They really didn’t want to take their unfinished projects with them or worse, worry about them while they were on holiday. When they returned, they are recharged, refreshed, and ready to get back to work.

2. Improved Attitude. On Barefoot Days, everybody in the office was going to be gone so there was no peer pressure to be working back at the office while they were out water-skiing. The cadence that the new holidays gave to the year also relieved much of the long-haul tension that builds between the official holidays. Now the work periods were never more than 6 weeks without a break.

3. Improved Loyalty. Barefoot days were always in the top three reasons why our people loved working at Barefoot.

So as the summer is upon us, consider giving your people some bonus holiday days so they can enjoy the great weather with friends and family. You may find it doesn’t cost–it pays to give Bonus Days!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Improving Your Productivity can be as Simple as a Walk in the Park

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:17:58 +0000

We often take walks in natural environments for more reasons than just the exercise. We’ve found that putting ourselves in nature provides many subtle benefits beyond physical fitness.

Even if you get out for just 45 minutes in the middle of a hectic day, amazing things can happen. For one thing, it’s natural, like we all are. Our bodies were meant to be in a natural environment. We are perfectly designed to walk, rather than sit all day.

Changing our venue from the abstract, man-made world to the natural world can recharge our batteries on many levels and make us more effective when we get back to work. Rather than losing the time it takes to go for a walk, we actually make up time by making better and quicker decisions.

We enjoy increased productivity the rest of the day. Our attitude and the quality of our decisions also improve.

Just a short walk in nature uses all of our senses. Walking inadvertently requires the use of many human faculties not required in the office. Here are some benefits we have found to taking a walk in the park:

1. Refocus Your Eyes. Take note of the natural surroundings. Looking at flowers, trees, lakes and landscapes takes our vision from the myopic 18-inch focus we need to see our screens, to the depth of field needed just to stay on the path. Changing our focus mentally and physically gives our eyes a chance to do what they were designed to do and helps them relax. When we get back to work, we “see” the difference.

2. Refocus Your Attention. We try to forget the office for the duration of the walk and take note of our natural surroundings. We think about our breathing, balance and posture. We are out of the chair, on our feet and moving. The natural world unfolds before us and passes by as we propel our consciousness down the trail on our own two feet. Giving our attention to our natal relationship with the earth unclutters our minds. We know our concerns will still be there when we get back, but by then we will be better prepared to think clearly.

3. Listen to the Sounds of Nature. Water flowing, birds singing, and wind whispering through the trees are music to ears that have heard only voices, beeping, phones ringing, and road noise all day. Natural sounds are soothing. They help us relax, like we are home, and we are. It’s peaceful and calming. Instead of deliberately shutting out all unwanted sounds to concentrate, we try to make out as many different natural sounds as we can.

4. Clear the Mind. Sometimes we actually prevent solutions and insights from getting through to us because we are focused on our own hypotheses and preconceived ideas. The brain is a marvelous faculty. It is working on our problems even when we apparently are not. Often synergies, elegant solutions and insights pop into our brains suddenly during and right after a nature walk.

Reboot your brain, find solutions, and nurture your health. It’s a simple walk in the park!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Vacations Increase Creativity and Productivity

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:19:23 +0000

Some people have to be forced to take vacation. Some even feel guilty or “irresponsible.” Others rack up unused vacation time for its monetary value. Still others see honor in putting their job ahead of a timely break.

Whatever your reason for not taking regular vacations, it can’t measure up to the benefits you and your job receive when you put business aside and give yourself a rest.

Regular vacations not only give you and your people a healthy recharge, they actually help your business. A good policy is to make vacation mandatory and start with yourself.

Here are some suggestions we’ve discovered to get the most out of your vacation:

1. Take two weeks in a row. Long weekends are great, and they certainly break up the year, but an extended vacation is required to really wind down. After a week, you’re finally relaxed enough to start to really enjoy yourself. So do!

2. Put a buck on it. Plan the trip. Buy a ticket. Make reservations. The minute you do, you’ll know your vacation is going to happen. Even if its 6 months away, you are no longer working “indefinitely!”

3. Count down and prioritize your work. You only have so much time to get your work done before you leave. Decide what needs to be completed before you go and what can wait until you get back.

4. Make an announcement to your coworkers, customers and vendors. You will notice a new sense of urgency on the part of all who depend on you. People will be more willing to make accommodations to help you make your vacation date.

5. Spend a day or two at home. Decompress. Take a breath and realize that you are now going to do something different. It’s not what you leave; it’s what you return to. So straighten out your home office as well. The comfort of knowing you will return to a well-organized home front will be well worth it!

6. Go somewhere and stay put. Many folks like to see how many places they can see in a week or two. You may need a vacation just to recuperate from the wild, whirl wind tour. It not necessarily how much you see, it’s how much you relax.

7. Unplug – literally. Take at least a period of time to be unconnected. Get your eyes off the screen and your mind off work for several consecutive days. Focus on your new surroundings.

8. Watch your diet. Be careful not to over do it with food and drink. Why wake up with a headache and indigestion on your vacation? Give your body a break, too.

9. Get some exercise. Make it a point to walk or even hike if you are in shape. Get around on your feet as much as possible. Remember you are probably sitting most of the time at your job.

10. Read something positive. Try not to keep up with the world. It will go on just fine without you staying up on the latest crisis. You will hear about the really important things anyway.

11. Make a soft landing. Spend your last full day at home. Take some time to unpack and enjoy your pictures. Get caught up at your own pace before you go back to work.

You will increase your objectivity, focus, creativity, and production with a timely break. If you still have a hard time justifying your vacation, do it to benefit your job and your business. You’ll thank yourself for doing it!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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