{"id":28953,"date":"2017-09-13T10:06:54","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T14:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=28953"},"modified":"2017-09-13T10:06:54","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T14:06:54","slug":"business-report-words-kill-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/business-report-words-kill-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Report: Words That Kill Your Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_28954\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28954\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-28954\" src=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2017\/09\/michael-cruz-c-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2017\/09\/michael-cruz-c-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2017\/09\/michael-cruz-c.jpg 369w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-28954\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Cruz, president of Lighthouse Advisors LLC, Queensbury.<br \/>Courtesy Lighthouse Advisors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">by Michael Cruz<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The worst words we ever hear in business are \u2013 \u201cThat\u2019s the way we have always done it.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Hearing it makes my skin crawl.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>That unflinching, unapologetic sentence covers up a very serious problem in your business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">It shows that you have a culture of complacency.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Your people are not thinking.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>They are not looking for better ways to accomplish tasks.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>For businesses to grow, we need to find new and better ways to do things.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This is called efficiency.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It is how we generate profits to pay better, hire more people and produce more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">More often than not, the issue lies with management.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>First, we don\u2019t hire well. We need to hire people that look for ways to improve their job.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>During the hiring process, you should look for people who have innovated in the past.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The simple question you should ask is, \u201cCan you give me an example when you improved the process at your last job?\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The second way management fails is by creating a culture of \u2018no mistakes are tolerated\u2019.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Think about the last time an employee confessed to a mistake.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Was your initial response \u2018Why did you do that\u2019?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Often, I see companies driving toward a mistake-free workplace.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Innovation requires us to fail occasionally.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Of course, we don\u2019t want to make mistakes.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>But trying new ways will inevitably lead to trying some things that do not work.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>If we punish people for trying new things, they simply will not try to improve.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><!--more--><\/span>The last large mistake we make is when management attempts to fix known process problems.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Leaders of organizations are not always the best people to construct solutions.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The people who do the work often can see ways to fix problems.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Their perception is that they are not respected or listened to.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>So, they quietly tolerate the (bad) status quo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Fixing complacency requires you to hire better, tolerate mistakes and engage our employees to help us solve process problems.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Trust your people and your company will grow more quickly.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>And more profitably.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Cruz is president of Lighthouse Advisors LLC in Queensbury.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Michael Cruz The worst words we ever hear in business are \u2013 \u201cThat\u2019s the way we have always done it.\u201d\u00a0 Hearing it makes my skin crawl.\u00a0 That unflinching, unapologetic sentence covers up a very serious problem in your business. It shows that you have a culture of complacency.\u00a0 Your people are not thinking.\u00a0 They [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Business Report: Words That Kill Your Business - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/business-report-words-kill-business\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Business Report: Words That Kill Your Business - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Michael Cruz The worst words we ever hear in business are \u2013 \u201cThat\u2019s the way we have always done it.\u201d\u00a0 Hearing it makes my skin crawl.\u00a0 That unflinching, unapologetic sentence covers up a very serious problem in your business. It shows that you have a culture of complacency.\u00a0 Your people are not thinking.\u00a0 They [&hellip;]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/business-report-words-kill-business\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-13T14:06:54+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2017\/09\/michael-cruz-c-200x300.jpg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/business-report-words-kill-business\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/business-report-words-kill-business\/\",\"name\":\"Business Report: Words That Kill Your Business - Glens Falls Business Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-13T14:06:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-13T14:06:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/business-report-words-kill-business\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/business-report-words-kill-business\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/business-report-words-kill-business\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Business Report: Words That Kill Your Business\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/\",\"name\":\"Glens Falls Business Journal\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/a11ec438b5f0e57f1156754ba3931b86\",\"name\":\"Jake Van Ness\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8083519989e12032abdd06a668982ef4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jake Van Ness\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/author\/jakev\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Business Report: Words That Kill Your Business - Glens Falls Business Journal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2017\/09\/business-report-words-kill-business\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Business Report: Words That Kill Your Business - Glens Falls Business Journal","og_description":"by Michael Cruz The worst words we ever hear in business are \u2013 \u201cThat\u2019s the way we have always done it.\u201d\u00a0 Hearing it makes my skin crawl.\u00a0 That unflinching, unapologetic sentence covers up a very serious problem in your business. 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