Surfing The Tsunami Waves of Profitable Business Acquisition

You don’t need to be in an ocean to know a Tsunami is coming. You don’t need a weather app to tell you the atmosphere around you is changing. And, in the words of Bob Dylan’s song, “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

If you’re paying attention to today’s business climate, then you know a silver tsunami has been in the making and building in strength.

The term “silver tsunami” refers to business professionals leaving their workforces to acquire smaller private businesses, improve them, sell them, and then move on to surfing other profitable waves. Those riding this silver tsunami are today’s version of Silver Surfers.

Comic book fans know the superhero Silver Surfer. The stylized metallic figure glides effortlessly across cartoon pages and through the waves of time and space on a slick, sleek, shiny, silver, surfboard toward outcome destinations that serve their purposes.

Today, real-time Silver Surfers are agile entrepreneurs who sail, soar, and leverage the waves of business acquisition for profit. Their efforts are powered by fast-moving currents of change. They thrive on the thrilling ride of being responsible for their destiny.

Silver Surfers are finding out, though, that the thrill of riding across the breakers of small business ownership is different from the corporate ocean swells, skills, and responsibilities they’ve mastered over the years, become used to, and then bored by.

You’d think seasoned surfers would get it, that changing beachheads and oceans creates unexpected differences and problems, but many entrepreneurs don’t get it until they’re gasping for air underwater.

If you’re a Silver Surfer at any stage of the ride, from a hopeful wannabe to already surfing, below are four sets or areas of focus to pay attention to: Mind, People, Skills, and Actions. Try applying a few of these tips. See what works, and see how it changes your ride.

Mind Sets

This is the slipperiest and trickiest part of the wave. Think you got your mindset waxed up just right for your new ride? Think again. Here are five success tips for keeping your balance while surfing in new waters. The point here: Assume less. Learn more.

1. The workforce you’re inheriting has the mindset they think they need. Not the one you think they need. Ignore that. They’ll ignore you.

2. Buying into your new business doesn’t mean your workers will buy into you.

3. That you’ve invested in the company doesn’t mean they want to invest in you.

4. Don’t let what you think you know get in the way of what you need to know.

5. Ask, listen, and learn before assuming, telling, directing, and commanding.

People Sets

Recognize that you need your people way more than they need you. Lose your people and you lose your wave. Surfing in flat water isn’t surfing — it’s floating. Here are five success tips for staying on your board, not underwater.

1. Uncover how each person defines their role, skills, confidence, and commitment levels.

2. Assess 1:1 what quality contribution looks like and acts like.

3. Close the gaps between thinking between you and each person on your team.

4. Step back intelligently and delegate responsibly so they can do the same.

5. Don’t micro-manage your highly skilled people. Let them do what they know how to do.

Skill Sets

Understanding your people isn’t just about knowing your individual contributors. It’s also about observing how well (or not) they can work together as a team.

1. Ask your people to define what quality performance and teaming look like.

2. Define your view of quality, close all existing gaps, and create a buy-in agreement.

3. Ask your people to assess their skill levels and required behaviors.

4. Assess their development levels and required behaviors for role success.

5. Work co-actively with your people to align and close the gaps in development.

Action Sets

Create a culture that executes actionably on growth strategy, decisions, and directions. Understanding what to do and how to do it effectively are two different things.

1. Establish a culture of performing useful actions rather than personally desired actions.

2. Show your people how to set S.M.A.R.T. goals; what, across whom, and by when.

3. Set short 10-minute, on-point, weekly 1:1 leader-led progress meetings.

4. Create accountability measures, and establish what controls are needed to support success.

5. Ask your people for honest feedback on how effective your direction is.

Final Thoughts

To conclude, watch your assumptions. Don’t presuppose that the successful surfing skills that got you where you are today will get you where you need to go tomorrow in the waters you’re surfing now.

Assume less. Learn more. Remember that quality learning, integration, and motivation improve when feedback is directed more toward what is working and what you’d like to see more of than what’s not working.