Melvin Feller Business Group Illustrates How to Build a Culture of Change
Melvin Feller Business Group Illustrates How to Build a Culture of Change
Melvin Feller Business Group in Burkburnett Ministries and Dallas Texas and Lawton Oklahoma. Our mission is to call and equip a generation of Christian entrepreneurs to do business as ministry. We provide workshops and resources that help companies discover how to do business God’s way and provide a positive outreach as the director. When the heart of a business is service rather than self it can be transformed into a fruitful business ministry earning a profit and being of service to the community and their customers. Melvin Feller is currently pursuing another graduate degree in business organizations.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work for an organization and not have a boss breathing down your neck?
Sure, everyone even entrepreneurs and CEOs answer to someone. However, there are jobs that are so far down the deep end of the empowerment continuum that it feels like you are on your own with little or no supervision. In many organizations and occupations, “management by walking around” and micromanagement have fell by the wayside, either by design or out of necessity. Organizations are flatter, spans of control have increased, and hundreds of thousands of employees now work from home.
I am in one of those positions. I run my own company. That happened when I was working for someone else and they were looking for a self-starter that could work with a high degree of autonomy. They were not kidding. I worked so well for them, that I started to work for myself.
While it might sound like a great deal, working independently offers its own set of challenges. After all, the role of “manager” must have been invented for a reason. As much as we like to complain about our managers, some of them — the ones who can actually lead — can be inspiring, motivational, and help us do more than we could have on our own. In the absence of that kind of leadership, it is up to us to lead ourselves. Here are a few things I have learned about self-leadership from both my previous employer and running my own company that might work for
you:
Have a clear set of values or principles.
That is leadership 101, right? Well, it is just as important to have a clear set of values when leading yourself as it is when leading others. It is about making the right choice when no one is watching.
Have an “ownership” mindset.
You run that little piece of the world as if it is your own business. It is your balance sheet and income statement, and there is no one to point fingers at if you make a mistake. Accountability is necessary.
Develop a vision, set of 2–3 year goals, and actions plans.
Having goals is a habit I developed years ago and take it with me wherever I go. It is a lot more energizing too when you get to create them because you want to, not because someone’s making you do it.
Develop measures.
Without a boss, you have to monitor your own performance. Objective, measurable performance indicators help prevent bad or us from getting delusional about how good we think we are doing.
Develop an informal “Advisory Board”.
Identify a small group of stakeholders that can give you hard, honest feedback, will listen to your ideas, and offer great advice.
Cultivate strong relationships with your peers and other key stakeholders.
In the absence of direct supervision, peers can offer the support you need to get things done, collaborate on problems and opportunities, and offer encouragement. The strength of your peer relationships is also a strong indicator of your leadership potential; in the absence of direct observation, your manager will heavily weigh the observations of your peers and others.
Make sure there are “check and balances” in place.
When it comes to signing contracts, spending money, selecting vendors, hiring decisions, and anything where you could be exposed to allegations of favoritism, always review these decisions with someone else — even if you are not required to. In the absence of a “the buck stops here” manager, you need to find someone else to play that role. It could be a hard-nosed peer, the CFO, HR, the company attorney, whatever someone who is willing to call you out if needed.
Keep your boss informed.
Your boss may not require or want regular meetings or updates but do them anyways. If you can’t get the regular meetings, then at least provide regular updates on key decisions, achievements, metrics, and a head’s up on any problems that might end up finding their way to your or your manager’s desk.
Stick to a schedule.
Disciplined time management is essential when you are not punching the clock and no one is watching. You values should be your guide here.
Celebrate your achievements.
Give yourself a pat on the back now and then. Brag to your spouse or friends. Keeping yourself motivated though positive recognition is just as important as kicking yourself in the rear when things go bad. Go ahead take a bow.
Melvin Feller Business Consultants Ministries Group in Texas and Oklahoma. Melvin Feller founded Melvin Feller Business Consultants Group and Burkburnett Ministries in the 1970s to help individuals and organizations achieve their specific Victory. Victory as defined by the individual or organization are achieving strategic objectives, exceeding goals, getting results or desired outcomes and a positive outreach with grace and as a ministries. He has extensive experience assisting businesses achieve top and bottom line results. He has broad practical experience creating WINNERS in many organizations and industries. He has hands-on experience in executive leadership, operations, logistics, sales, program management, organizational development, training, and customer service. He has coached teams to achieve results in strategic planning, business development, organizational design, sales, and customer response and business process improvement. He has prepared and presented many workshops nationally and internationally.
