Co-authored by Nita Black and Paula Milner

Why do we get angry when someone makes an irritating comment? Why does being in a certain place or situation upset us? The Enneagram assists us by helping find the answers to these types of questions.  As business owners, it is often very difficult to hold things together, particularly during a pandemic.  Knowing how to stay calm can be hard for anyone.    

What is an Enneagram anyway? Milton Stewart, the Founder of Kaizen Careers, shares that an Enneagram is like taking a personality test, rather than vaguely listing your likes and dislikes.  It also explains your reactions and how you relate to events. The Enneagram is a 3×3 configuration of nine personality types in three Centers. There are three types in the Instinctive Center, three in the Feeling Center and three in the Thinking Center.  Every Center consists of three personality types that have the assets and liabilities of that Center in common.  

You might wonder why Enneagram should be important to a business owner and really anyone else who takes the test. Milton explains that the Enneagram gives you a deep analysis of your actions and “allows you to acknowledge them and make any necessary changes to react better to the circumstances.”

As parents and teachers, learning about Enneagram is a good idea to use in the classroom or as a home activity. As a school-teacher and passionate advocate for inner city kids, Milton agrees that it is advantageous to offer the Enneagram test as part of the school curriculum. The perfect add-ons to an Enneagram program for children include having them invest in ways of self- and personal-growth, offering them something positive to put in their ears daily, and providing advice on how to think about what they want to be when they grow up (not just for kids, for parents too!)

Over the next 12 months Kaizen Careers foresees making a positive impact on families and classrooms by offering three different online courses. An online coaching program is now being offered to parents who may be experiencing “cabin fever” while practicing the Covid-19 social distancing guidelines while staying home from work with their kids. Also, the company plans to launch a new book on the Enneagram which will be used in conjunction with Enneagram services offered. 

If you want to explore the use of the Enneagram both during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, please reach out to Milton Stewart with Kaizen Careers, so he can share his extensive knowledge of how to use the Enneagram to stay calm during a Pandemic in your home and your business. If you love your business and have a passion for doing what you love to do, but need help with the business side of things, please contact us.  We hope you enjoyed this blog – co-written by Nita Black with NitaBlack.com and Paula Milner with Kelem VA

Empowering Business Owners to Reach Their Full Potential!

“Can you imagine a football game where they don’t keep score? That’s what most businesses are,” Chuck Richards, CEO of CoreValue Software says.  Running a business can be like playing a game with no scoreboard.

Marcus DiNitto, the Contributing Writer for an article published by The Business Journals in June 2017, interviewed Richards who identified three smart ways that increase value by fixing operational elements of an organization. Click on this link to read the full article and download a free assessment tool.

The Market, The Processes, The Metrics

According to CoreValue, nine out of 10 business owners who complete the assessment program (see free assessment tool) do a poor job documenting their market.  Why is this important?  It enables the business with internal communications so every employee is on the same page.  If borrowing funds or selling the business, the information shared externally is key to the outsider(s)’ financing or purchase decisions.

When goods and services are sold, the business promises to deliver to the customer what they purchased.  There should be documented processes in place to ensure this delivery of goods and services.  Every business should have a back-up plan so that operations are not reliant on any one individual, particularly solely reliant on the owner.

“A business owner has an obligation to make sure employees understand the company’s goals and objectives and how they are helping the company reach those goals and objectives. Rarely do companies have effective metrics of performance,” Richards said.  “…employees almost never know if they are winning or they’re losing at work, so they tend to keep busy. But it’s not very productive; it’s not very targeted.”

Knowing the company’s goals and metrics for success makes the work more fun, not only for the owner but also for the staff.

Big Hairy Goals

Remembering when I first started working at a large national bank, we had lots of meetings – meetings about new loans in the pipeline, new employees and organizational changes, and the bank’s financial benchmarks.  At the time the bank’s Return on Equity (ROE) was roughly 6%.  Return on Equity is calculated as Net Income divided by Net Worth.  I distinctly remember one meeting when a new CEO and Board Chairman had been chosen.  He came right out of the chute and said our five-year target for ROE was 21%.  Yowsa!  (We thought he was crazy.)

Five years later we were right at 22% ROE, having exceeded our goal.  What an exhilarating feeling it was to work as a team and make good things happen.

Think about your business as if you were playing football.  What are the plays to make the next first down?  Does your staff know what the plays are and how to score?  For more information on how to fix operations and set metrics, contact Nita Black at (901)413-1315 or go to her website at www.NitaBlack.com.  You can also find Nita on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Plan for success!