Minute With Mallon: The Secret to Independent Thinking: Boost Revenue with These Tips

Aug 27

Welcome to Minute with Mallon

Something I Taught:

On a recent board meeting for a medical company that I work with, we were talking about ways to increase revenue. This is a subject that ought to be discussed often as revenue is the lifeblood of a business.

In short, revenue does three things:

It funds operations and growth
It indicates market demand and performance
It enhances financial stability

And you could add a fourth:

4. It helps owners, leaders, and employees sleep much better! 🤣

During our discussion, one of the board members came up with a great idea. The company has all-employee meetings every month or so. The idea was to devote one of these meetings to asking the employees their ideas about how to raise revenue!

In essence, the next all-employee meeting would begin with a discussion on revenues and how increasing them helps everyone in the company.

Each employee would then have a few minutes to write down 3 ideas on how they would raise revenues. And then they'd go around the room so that each person could explain one of their ideas at a time. So if there were 20 employees, you'd have 20 ideas after the first rotation. Then keep going!

In an ideal world, by the end of the meeting you'd have 60 new ideas from the 20 participants, although I'm sure there would be some duplication.

Why have them write their ideas down first?

There are three reasons…

Over the years, I've done literally thousands of meetings with groups of people. Having them write down their answers prior to any discussion is smart because:

● It encourages independent thinking. It ensures that employees think through their own perspectives and ideas without being influenced by others' opinions.

● It prevents group think. By documenting their thoughts first, employees are less likely to conform to dominant voices in the group or go along with popular opinions.

● It ensures equal participation. Writing answers down gives everyone, including quieter or less assertive employees, a chance to share their thoughts.

So as a leader, take this information and USE IT! Not only the revenue generation part, but the strategy promotes independent thinking and ensure equal participation within your groups! This will make you a better leader.

Hope that helps!

Something to Ponder:

If it’s a matter of style, swim with the current. If it’s a matter of principle, stand like a rock.

Thomas Jefferson

Something I Learned:

Just a little fun fact for you…

I just finished a book called Life’s Too Short, by Darius Rucker. Very interesting biography of his childhood, the ascent of Hootie & The Blowfish, and his move to country music. The book was full of interesting stories.

In one part of the book, Darius shared how they named the band.

He was a student at the University of South Carolina. They had booked their first gig at a place called Pappy's and knew that they needed a name. He was part of a student choir that was staying in a hotel after doing a holiday concert in Myrtle Beach. Here's Darius:

"Two guys in the show choir¾Ervin and Donald, walk into the hotel room together. Ervin has big round eyes and wears thick glasses. He reminds me of an owl. I've begun calling him Hootie the Owl and the name has caught on. His buddy Donald, has big cheeks and looks like Dizzy Gillespie.

'Hey look. It's Hootie and the Blowfish.'

Time doesn't stop when I say that.

The people in the hotel room don't go silent and whisper, 'That's it!'

But something happens. I kind of know¾right then¾that Hootie & The Blowfish is it! Our name… I say it aloud and the people sitting next to me say they like it."

And Hootie and the Blowfish was born.

Love that story!