Archive for the ‘Learning’ Category

The success of every leader or manager relies heavily on his or her ability to sell…but not as you might assume. Obviously, every business requires sales of products or services to remain operational, and a president or executive doesn’t need to conduct actual product sales if they have a sales force to do so. But I’m not referring to the types of sales that are marketing related; I’m talking about one’s ability to sell their ideas, initiatives, track record, or organization’s potential to others. My experiences with decision makers indicate that most people who hold top-level positions have never taken even a single sales course or recognize the critical impact that their lack of selling skills plays in their lives…both personally and professionally.

In order to get what you want—acquire a new building for expansion, secure a major client, advance your personal career, lock in on competitively-priced goods, and so on—leaders and managers need to pitch their sale to vastly different prospects using a variety of different angles. That doesn’t mean you need to be a super salesperson, just that you need to sell to bankers, employees, managers, officials, vendors, and other people in different ways and on terms that work for all parties. And that requires an awareness to offer something of value to others as well as to possess certain skills of persuasion.

If you’ve been lucky enough to carve a successful career for yourself and to build a strong organization, you can still improve your results by honing your selling skills. I find that when decision makers simply become aware of the strides they can make by upping their ability to sell, they seek out opportunities to grow and develop. They pick up a book on sales, they search out sales courses, and they spend more time observing the techniques used by their sales personnel to name a few. What can you do today to pitch yourself, your ideas, and your organization to create more certain and rewarding wins?

“Companies in the rich world are confronted with a rapidly aging workforce. Nearly one in three American workers will be over 50 by 2012, and America is a young country compared with Japan and Germany. China is also aging rapidly, thanks to its one-child policy. This means that companies will have to learn how to manage older workers better. It also means that they will be confronted with a wave of retirements as the baby-boomers leave work in droves.” (Source The Economist)

So what does this mean for decision makers like you? Two issues. First, in terms of rising up the management ladder, great opportunities are available for innovative thinkers who continually self-educate and build upon their leadership strengths. Are you armed with the right and best mental tools, processes, education, skills, etc. to be able to go beyond the basics of leading and managing others? The winners of tomorrow are building their management ‘tools kits’ today, because they know that in tomorrow’s world even more so than in today’s, they’ll be forced to CREATE opportunities, not just capitalize on existing ones.

Second, in terms of succession planning and building current leadership teams within today’s organizations, the aging workforce means that you’ll have fewer qualified candidates from which to fill open leadership positions, so you need to start  building the leaders of tomorrow now rather than expect to pull these candidates from the currently fast-evaporating pool.  What systems and processes do you have in place to hire the highest-potential candidates, empower others to work independently, achieve results through others, and most importantly, to attract prospective leaders who THINK in ways that capitalize on and create new opportunities?

This issue of the aging workforce–and specifically, the aging leadership force–doesn’t have to be a negative challenge. In fact, taking steps now can give you great advantages over two kinds of competitors: individuals who are vying for the same job positions as you are, and organizations that your organization competes with in the marketplace. In a nutshell, begin with acquiring mental management tools for yourself and then teaching them to others. Here are three examples to get you started:

1. CPM and Ghantt charts that help leaders organize projects, inform and direct the activities within projects on a time line and according to budget, and keep projects on target for completion as planned.

2. New product and service development tools which help you in the selection of best product/service ideas and pull together cross-functional groups to provide input and support throughout the development of the product and service to outpace competitors.

3. Strategic planning processes that structure the ways in which you and your leadership team(s) strategize to move your organization forward not only today, but into the future.

Of course, you probably already have some ideas floating around in your head about other options, too. The key is to formulate a plan and act on it now. Don’t wait, the opportunities arising from the aging-workforce issue are here for the taking.

Trust is the foundation of any good business relationship or alliance. Typically, parties enter into these relationships with high hopes and with a level of trust and respect for the other party. However, trust can easily be lost if you don’t hold up your end of the bargain or if you become difficult to work with.

I realize that I’m mentioning an obvious point, here. After all, of course you build better relationships when there’s trust. But just because something is obvious doesn’t mean that it is a standard. Take this case in point.

Two allies are working together on a 2-year project that is already 1 year past due. The reason for the blown deadline is that one party won’t listen to the other and works independently without consulting with their ally. As a result, pieces of the project are completed incorrectly, and the work has to be undone, redone, and resubmitted.

The party that is responsible for the delays sends an email to the other ally, stating that they need the other ally to trust them. Huh? How is it that one would expect to be trusted just simply by asking for it. They lost the trust over the course of the project by not fulfilling their obligation to do the job they agreed to from the start.

Seriously, trust isn’t something you can ask for; it’s something you have to earn. Good effort and rationalizing mistakes won’t gain trust, either. You have to hold up your end of a deal, fulfill your commitments, meet deadlines, pay up as you promise and so forth in order to earn, gain, or keep trust.

Dick Snyder  just emailed me about the new Goog-411 service….I’ve already stored the number in my phone. Watch the video and check out their website Goog-411

Here’s an example of how it works: You’re driving along in your car and need to call a client but don’t know the number or can’t take your eyes off the road to look it up. Hit the speed dial you have programmed for “Information”. In a few seconds, a voice says, “Google. State Business Name, City & State.” You say, “ABC Construction, Syracuse, New York.” The voice replies with the name and street address of ABC Construction then says it will connect you and gives options to get more information. If you want the number dialed for you, just remain silent and it rings through to ABC Construction. This is nationwide and it is absolutely free! It may work in some parts of Canada, also.

While I personally don’t agree with many of the tactics used by credit card companies, I do give the leadership credit for being creative in finding new opportunities to make money.

Their new tactic, used to combat The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009  (see below), is to bring back annual fees that may be as much as $100 per year depending on the individuals previous payment record.

And the current administration thought they had the bankers beat at their own game.

The bankers approach is to targeting all customers.  Those with high risk, low risk or carry no balances. The rational is that a bank makes no money on customers that don’t carry a balance or pay in full.

Brilliant thinking.

The bankers know pay-in-full consumers won’t cancel their accounts because they fear being labeled a possible credit risk .  They understand that during the recession over 90% of small businesses use their credit cards to finance their business operations to purchase inventory, travel, and to pay bills.  They too won’t cancel. High risk candidates need the card or risk losing credit all together.

Ironically, terminating a card for generating fees might also negatively impact your credit score.

If you want to read more on the story, check out. Newtelegram.com This is not the complete story.  I could not find any site carrying the entire story I read in my local paper.

The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 which is intended to halt abusive practices by credit-card issuers that keep consumers mired in debt. When it goes into effect in February, it will:
restrict interest-rate increases during the first year;
restrict rate increases on existing balances;
increase notice for rate increases on future purchases;
preserve the ability to pay off on the old terms;
place limits on fees and penalty interest;
require fair application of payments;
provide sensible due dates and time to pay;
protect young consumers;
restrict issuance fees on fee harvester cards
require enhanced disclosures.
SOURCE: Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports

When you think you’re pushed the limits when it comes to empowerment and motivation, think again.  Human behavior is easily swayed if the surroundings help them achieve their own personal desires.  In the case of these videos, to be entertained, to be challenged, to explore, to learn be surprised. Can you think of one change you could make this week in your own workspace that could create such remarkable shifts?

• Turning a meeting into an experience.
• Converting a customer facing time into a fun situation.
• Making a routine job interesting
• Modifying a traditional product or packaging into an additional benefit
• You get the point….

Think about it.  Some great videos at www.thefuntheory.com
www.davidgoldsmith.com

Did you notice the videos were all supported by…

volkswagon

volkswagon

volkswagon

volkswagon

United Breaks Guitar video goes viral on YouTube with 3.5 million hits.

The issue with this video is more complex than just damaged guitars; it’s that the industry is still in the Stone Age when it comes to operating everything but the planes.

First, the airline industry could easily borrow technologies from other industries to cut the handing of baggage in half by employees. The problem is very much tied to baggage handlers being unionized. There is very little incentive to replace people with equipment and yet if UPS and FedEx worked in the same manner as the airlines do, you’d get your packages a week later.

The solution is baggage that is tagged at the gate and then transferred via RFID (or some other technology) to the plane and then in some situations directly into the hull. This would require sophisticated technologies and cooperation between manufacturers and firms that manufacture robotics and conveyor systems.

The benefits would be huge. FOD (foreign object debris) would be drastically reduced for airlines. Payroll would decrease and so would Workers Comp expenses from bag-related injuries. Passengers would get their baggage to the plane without damage, as well as receive the baggage at the other end. Tracking and total weight can be accessed at any time for CG, the weighting of a plane. The list is endless.

One may argue that the airlines are not doing well, and I’d argue that the airlines are in this position due to poor investment in technology, poor contracts with unions, and poor orientation to the future. Some of this tied to, in the US, the government’s handing of the industry including air traffic control systems that should have been updated long ago.

The good news is that if innovation curves are any indication of the future, the airline industry will be forced over the course of the next 50 years, to either make significant technological changes to keep pace or find itself prey to industries that will,  such as improvements in holographic and digital meetings that eliminate the need for business travel. In other words, business travel, which provides a huge source of income for airlines, will be reduced and/or other modes of transportation will gain traction.

A bullet train from Boston to Washington DC or from San Francisco to San Diego and many other traffic lanes could reduce air passengers.

It’s a shame, because I love to fly.

Several years ago I read The End of Work by Jeremy Rifkin.  In his book, Rifkin outlined a future filled with too many people and too little work to be done. The premise was that we’d be so technologically advanced that there would be little work left for people to do, resulting in a shift in how we spend our daily lives.

In as much as we’re still very far off from this prediction, there still lies the truth that in the United States we are going to be facing a different challenge along the same line of thinking. It’s not that were going to run out of work but given the transformational change of “hands-on business functions,” there will be a type of End of Work. This will be a type of work that fulfills the needs of those who want to work with their hands and don’t have the same inclination to spend time being schooled.

An example is the farmer who no longer uses horses  to plow his fields but who uses a GPS-guided machine in which he can actually watch TV while the equipment does the work. Even the painter will work differently due to increased efficiency of painting tools and/or paints that last 5 years longer due to nanotechnology. The machinist will be replaced by a robotic system.

It’s these people, with this propensity to lean towards truly hands-on jobs that I started thinking about while working with Mike, my painter, a couple of years ago. We met somewhat by chance while I touched up the paint on my home and Mike and his son were in a car driving down our street looking for some work. We spoke for a few minutes and they ended up quoting a price to paint the entire exterior of our home.

As you might have guessed the price was right and from what I heard it appeared they had worked with some pretty reputable firms. After about 20 minutes, I agreed to the terms and they promised they would start the very next morning.

Yes, I did have the thought they might not show, and they might do a poor job since they were traveling around handing out fliers.
I was happy with my decision. Mike Sr. and Mike Jr. showed up the very next morning at 9 AM as promised ready to work.  They were professional in their demeanor and in the quality of their work.

What I witnessed were two guys who loved working with their hands. Mike Sr. had been painting most of his life and possessed a sort of pride I wished many office employees and managers would have. Mike Jr. was the apple that didn’t fall far from the tree. Often I’d see him step back from his work, look at what he’d done from two or three different angles and then proceed. Even his business card defines his philosophy. It says, “Picture Perfect,” and his interpretation is that when he’s done with a job, you’d want to take a picture of it.

The truth is, Mike and Mike love working with their hands.

I thought about the pair along with all the other craftsman, mechanics, and stone workers I know, and I realized we will have a challenge different than the one discussed in public. The challenge is one that is not about further educating our population so that people can have jobs. It’s about giving people choices so they can make a living at a reasonable pay scale and still be who they want to be. It’s not about jobs being shipped off shore given that many of those jobs are at low paying wages that most likely will be eliminated in their future as automation envelopes the economies that have chosen to be the next outsourcing country.

It’s about people.

What do we do with Mike Sr. and Mike Jr.? What does the individual who has no interest in working in an office do? What is their future?

Quite honestly, I’m not sure that manual labor or manufacturing will change not because of “evil” executives but because technology will replace manual tasks as it’s the nature of automation to remove people to drive down costs, increase efficiency, and improve products and service experiences. There’s no stopping it.

Just imagine having no computers in your accounting department, and you get a sense of what I mean. No computers? You may have 74 people to do the work of just a dozen. No computers may mean that JIT and inventory replenishment grind to a halt.

Here’s my long shot.

What’s on my mind.

Mike and Mike will continue to exist; it’s just that we need to:

1. Channel other activities that can create the same stimulation in our culture. Mike needs to swing a hammer at home.

2. Give opportunities to those that can work with their hands to do the same, utilizing tools such as virtual reality systems. I know the heavy equipment operator loves the power of the machine even though he or she is using levers and not their hands to accomplish the same task.

3. Leverage the feeling of accomplishment in other areas such as taking the creative hands-on feel and translating it to outdoor activities on a global scale where these individuals find themselves working in South America, Central America, or other parts of the world where technology and hands on co-exist for now.

4. We need to balance life work so that those that would prefer the other can do it on their own time.

Nothing brilliant in the above. I’d just like you to be thinking about the ramifications of losing our hands-on worker who’s not interested in the corporate life style to be productive. Yes, they will learn to use the current technologies to do their work. More importantly, we need to insure that they don’t get lost. This is a challenge that can be overcome if we not only address the need for continuous learning but address the issue of choice. Otherwise, our oversight is going to run over the US workforce like a steam roller.

Our problem is not our problem.

So often human nature takes the stance that in order to improve, one’s abilities must be 10 times better or a hundred times better to make a difference. It’s just not the case.

My journeys, both in business and life, have taught me that often the little changes make the most significant impact, while big growth spurts are a rarity.

Take the experience I had at the David Leadbetter Golf Clinic in Florida. While working at a convention, I had the opportunity to sign up for some extra activities, if my plans permitted. I could not create the time to take the 140 MPH NASCAR drive with an experienced driver, so I opted for the David Leadbetter golf lessons that were right outside the Omni Hotel in Orlando.

Having only about 1 hour to spare, I left the conference “war room” and walked up the hill to the facilities were by now over 100 people were getting lessons. These people were intent on improving their game.

I, on the other hand, am an infrequent player. To me, I can easily play 9 holes of golf at a resort while traveling, however, when you take me on the back nine, I start to feel like I should be playing POLO IN MY GOLF CART versus continuing on. I just get bored.

So to me, one hour was good enough, and it also forced the school to give me the best type of lesson I would need as they had 3 groups. The putt, the short ball, and the drive. They put me in the drive section, exactly where I wanted to be.

I picked up a club, pulled a pile of balls off the perfectly-stacked pyramid of about 72 balls stacked for this space, and started to hit.

My first ball slid right pretty far into the next groups area, so I unbuttoned my business shirt, removed my tie, and rolled up my sleeves. This would make all the difference. I no longer sliced to my far right. An improvement.

My next swing was similar, but my slight change of grip pulled it on target a little more. I assumed that my shoes and pants were causing my inability to “grab the ground.”

For the next 20 minutes, I hit ball after ball trying to control its direction by taking back the club slower. By twisting my grip. By keeping my head down. Things started to become consistent. I even tried to listen in to the other lessons hoping that I would pick up a tip or two before it was my turn.

My turn. The instructor asked, “Tell me about your game.” I replied, “I don’t have one. I play about once or twice a year.” I almost felt as if he was disgusted with my response, like I’d punched him in the stomach.

Maybe that’s because The David Leadbetter Schools are some of the best in the world. Experts fly in by helicopter just to take lessons with these instructors and many are coached to become top in the field.  Two are the Greg Norman designed courses and ChampionsGate; both have been listed as Golf Magazine’s “10 Most Distinctive Places to Play.” This is real golf country.

Maybe I should have said that I don’t get enough time to play or something a little less harsh.

He then asked me to take a swing without the ball followed by another. Then again, with a ball. I tried with all my powers to make this one go exactly straight down the fairway. It didn’t exactly go as planned.

He asked for one more. Again, the same.

He then gave me my first piece of advice. Take my right thumb on my grip and move it counter clockwise so that the thumb pointed to my shoulder. Realize we are talking a half an inch. What I learned that in doing so, the head of my club rotates so that the head comes around flat after the swing.

The first ball went much straighter than the first two. We practiced this for about 10 balls.

Then the second piece of advice. After I hit continue on so that my right knee twists inward almost touching my left knee without lifting up the heal. Again we practiced with a few balls and as you might have guessed, it worked.

It worked not because he gave me this life-changing sermon or that he altered my entire way of playing golf. It worked because of minute changes. Simple things that make huge differences.

Granted, the guy’s an expert, and if you saw him drive a ball, you’d know it. His expert advice opened up a new perspective and approach to my golf game.

The same holds true in the work environment. Taking the time to work with your employees is one thing. Taking the time to “improve their swing” is another. It means:

1. You’ve got to be an expert in the first place. Too often, managers feel as if they are experts and teach the wrong people the wrong skills or they do what they do intuitively and don’t really know how to transfer these skills.

You’ve met the incredible sales person that can’t manage.

2. Taking the time to make small changes first if possible. Don’t always look for the Big Bertha. Sometime it’s the smaller changes that have largest and most remembered impact.

3. Understand the need for time. Once a skill is taught, it must be practiced. Seeing someone do something is one thing; doing it themselves is another.

4. Reserve massive overhauls for when you truly have the time to make sure the lessons are done right. The failure to take this time insures two things. One, that you will be frustrated later on, and two, your employee will also.

In the end, my one hour of instruction will change the way I play golf. Will I spend the day doing it? That’s going to need the massive overhaul of my personality.

Keep giving those pointers.

I know someone who spent a good deal of his summer lounging by a pool, vacationing with friends, and overall just kicking back and enjoying life.  Oh yeah, he was a manager, too.  How did he have time to manage his employees and amass so much leisure time, too, you may ask.  He didn’t.  He chose hanging out over working hard, but he had a good reason.

As he explained to his superior, a regional manager for the firm, the “economy” was bad in the area.  He was even generous enough with his time to take the regional manager, who was unfamiliar with the ins and outs of this particular city, on a joy ride through its worst slum…boarded up windows and gang-sign graffiti offered “proof” that the man with a tan couldn’t be blamed for his office’s poor sales.

The vast majority of the beautiful city was running quite smoothly, but the regional manager didn’t get that tour.  He was shuffled straight to the airport before he got a sniff of the truth that his local subordinate opted to darken his tan rather than increase his office’s sales.

Yes, I realize the economy has hit most of us in one way or another.  Some of us have gotten pummeled worse than others, too.  And while sales have taken a hit in many industries, I hope that you’re able to separate reality from perception.

Be careful not to discount your ability to perform on the job because the economy is suffering. There have always been and will always be those who bend with the times and create opportunity.

Also, be fair with yourself. The same assets you brought to your job are those that can help you now.  Don’t forget that you have those strengths and you might just need to change your perception of reality to begin to utilize those strengths today.

Companies like ebay and Amazon.com have to adjust to the economy and the current market conditions to continue to realize healthy profits; and adjust is what they do.  So where are you adjusting what you do to continue to thrive in today’s business environment?

It’s not just about persistence it’s about changing tactics to bring in new business.

On the program Hell’s Kitchen, the restaurant undergoing a business makeover gave away food as a way to announce the reopening of the restaurant. Their marketing tactic was successful, and the next day the restaurant was full.

If you suspect that the economy has become your crutch, toss it aside and take responsibility to walk on your own two feet again.  Adjust strategy and tactics, get creative with marketing and sales, and find ways to revive assets that have been nearly dormant since the downturn started.

Someone’s always doing well…it might as well be you.