The Most Difficult Challenge

Recently I have been involved in a lot of selling and buying of assets.  Once deals are agreed to the legal work begins and the intentions of the deals can get lost in the legal details and jargon.  Then the negotiating and frustrating conversations begin again.  Eventually all gets done but the frustrations and cost of professional fees remind me how important communications are and how costly the lack of communications can be.

I have been advising clients for many years that the source of most problems is the lack of clear, committed communications.   And what will fix most things is to have clear communications around what is wanted by everyone who is committed to achieving it.

Too often we send out memos via e-mails trying to make things clear, asking for questions and feedback, only to get little or no response.  What is the commitment there?  I guess it was only important to us.  Probably we really don’t know what the people receiving the memos are committed to or what they want.

Or, we have had tons of idea finding, vision creating sessions only to find out later that the participants really thought it was just an exercise or feel good buy-in session.  In other words, no one really expected people to mean what was being said and very little clear action followed.  It must be someone else’s responsibility to act.  Did we really get to the real wants?  Did we allow authentic conversations?

Or, you have been in situations where your gut was saying “this isn’t good”.  “I don’t like the trend here” and you didn’t speak up because you were busy and focused on something else, or afraid to hurt feelings, or being punished by management.  It is important to be aware of others feelings and what management wants. It is also important to know how to confront without destroying others and to match others wants with yours.  If you don’t it will comeback to bite you in the legal documents, or in the business plans not executed, or new directions you don’t agree with and in a frustrated behavior and attitude.  Then the complaining and frustrations continue. 

Or, we said we were going to do something for someone and quickly forget it in favor of a myriad of other things we want or need to do.  And we let people down.  Trust and respect is tarnished and people no longer pay attention to our memos or conversations.  They just expect we will let them down and consequently we never understand what is wrong with them.  They must be unmotivated or disengaged is what we might think.  We can quickly forget that commitment goes both ways.  It is amazing how employees will talk to other employees or friends before they will talk to the person to whom they actually made commitments to.  They just don’t trust management because they think they let people down.  And they don’t understand the power of committed conversations and never letting anyone down. 

Now I believe communications is the toughest thing in the world.  Plans and situations change and most can’t remember the last update and get confused by the overwhelming amount of information coming at them.  And we can’t get around to those required tough conversations to clear things up.  Nice excuse…business is complicated.  It is up to us to simplify things.

How?  Begin this week:

-                     To get out and listen for and clarify what it is our people and the company are committed to.  Also, listen for what is behind what people say and their actions.  You will find it.  Identify it and tell them of your support. 

-                     To make sure we remind others of our commitments (and maybe ourselves)

            Be clear to others, what we are doing and why.

-                     To always do what we say we are going to do.  If we can’t do it on time or we have to change the plan, then make sure it is clear in advance and seek the understanding of those involved.  When things go astray, talk to the people who are counting on you, not friends and neighbours.  Frustrations will always be around but don’t lose sight of the commitments you have made.  You will find people will be more eager to work and support you.

I have been in a lot of corporate meetings where people don’t speak up or just practice recreational complaining and you can sense how weak the commitment is in the team.  I realize listening to me today sounds easier said than done in many cultures.  Regardless, let me remind you that you are what you are committed to.  It shows in your language and actions.  So are others.  If you want alignment and action on important things and not costly problems, re-commit this week to communicating the level of commitment.  What freedom and clarity it will give you.

Sitting in the weeds, always staying open to options may work in some unfair environments but who the heck wants to big brag about being a full fledged member of an uncommitted team with no plans to go anywhere?  Always frustrated and unhappy.  And you helped to create it.  And you are one of them.  Keep reminding everyone of what is wanted, what we are committed to, so the details and frustrations don’t create costly errors in business and damaged relationships and team achievement.

Don’t let those unsaid, uncomfortable communications linger.  Have the fierce conversation and move on.  You can handle them.  Show your commitment to your boss and team and have conversations that matter.  If you don’t have them it tells a lot about you’re your ability to be committed.  Communications can cost or build.  It is up to you.

Have a great week tackling the biggest challenge in business.

It's A Cultural Thing

A few years I was in the office of the #2 person in a very large firm and those were the words he said to me.  We were discussing how he wanted people in his organization to act with customers and internally.  He was implying they can’t change anything because the culture had taken over. I wondered who is that culture?  What is it?  It’s as if someone (maybe Hector) is sitting in the basement waiting to pull the strings that stop the business from adapting to what the market wants, making customers happy and wanting to return.  Who is it that stops building people to improve performance and productivity?  If we identify that individual and go down to that basement, we should then line up like in the old “Airplane” movie, and each slap him with a wet noodle from today’s lunch at Thai Express.  It might beat some sense into him!!!  Seriously, two things hit me that day.  First, the culture at my client’s organization was made up of ‘conversations’ that permeate the organization.  They described how it is here, what matters, what the main desires are, and how people get rewarded.  They take place in every corner, at the water cooler, in the lunch room…. Everywhere.  Conversations do create. Secondly, what is the path of least resistance here? For example, it is maddening to business people to experience bureaucracy with vendors, suppliers, government and customers.  “We have a system here and it must be followed” a government official said to me years ago when I was trying to rush an order for a customer.  I thought the desire to serve customers was more important than goofy forms no one really cared about and gave no value.  And I was wrong.  In a bureaucracy, the system/protocols/rules are the most important thing.  They are the master.  They are the path of least resistance for government or a bureaucratic organization. So, what is a culture?  It’s the desires of the managers manifested in systems that pull everyone and everything to a behavior and action and, unknowingly, may not necessarily be about the outcomes or results they want.  It is manifested and spread through conversations.  If you have things in place that pulls everyone along a certain path then, yes, you will continually get what you are continually getting.  Change the path. Business isn’t about culture and managing culture isn’t really that important.  What the business is trying to do in the market is important.  What the organization is doing everyday to support that is.  In a nutshell: A)        Ensure the most important desires of the organization are clear.  Where are you going; what are the priorities?  You can have competing desires that neutralize each other and departments fighting over resources and by doing this, fracture the path you really want.  Set priorities and make them crystal clear. B)        Put in place simple, clear systems that support those priorities and cause the actions and behaviors you want every day.  Begin simply.  Don’t just try the latest idea of the month or benchmark other businesses.  You will be doomed if you first don’t make clear what you want, what your priorities are and have things in place that support them. C)        If you constantly have conversations around the desired state of the business and put things in place to support it, then the culture won’t matter that much.  You will create the business, organization and career you want. This week, think through your priorities.  What systems should or do support them?  What conversations could you have to support them? Life has a way of twisting and turning in many directions but, overall, you can create the business and life you want. Have a great week!

It Only Takes A Year

Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to do the things you know you should do on a consistent basis to increase your performance and why a few others seem to just do it so naturally? 

Many years ago as a young lad running our small business in South Western Ontario I almost chucked it all in because I couldn’t perform like I needed to.  A big company called and asked me to join their team.  I wrote to my friend, Bob Miles and asked his opinion of what I should do.  I remember while on the road, writing that note with a red pen because it was the only one I could find in my motel room.  I received a registered letter back from him right away and it was in green ink because Bob was sending a message.

“Business people are allergic to red ink”, Bob said.  He went on to say “You have everything it takes to put it all together.  You are enthusiastic about your product.  You are optimistic about your business.  You just have to show up like a winner for one year. Every day, do the things you need to do and one day you will realize you can out perform anybody.  Give it one year.  Structure your year, months, weeks and days with all the activities winners do.  Leave it ‘on the court’ every day.  After one year, if you feel you have to quit, then quit.”

Well, I turned down that big Toronto company and focused on those most important activities every day as Bob advised.  For one year I did everything it took, no excuses, no lackadaisical efforts, and no perceived old lacks of anything like time or money.  To my surprise, my business began to flourish.  I was forming habits.  My confidence began to match my enthusiasm.  That is why, to this day, I am obsessed with action.  Doing the right things within an organized structure that causes the behavior and results we want.

All it takes is one year of focus.  Heck, many can’t focus for one week and would rather blame, justify and deny to themselves and others around them as to why things are not happening like they should.  Too many listen to others with their resistance to change concepts and then, buy-in to those ridiculous concepts that don’t matter to producers focused on the key things.  Whether you are a young man or woman or close to retirement, struggling or successful, how do you want play the game - to win or not?

My suggestion is:

• Give it your all this year, no more stories.  You can’t control everything but you can focus on those key result areas that your business needs from you.
  
• Few people can focus let alone follow an organized structure to succeed so you’ll be surprised how you beat back your competition.  Achieve customer results and your scoreboard will show it.

My choice at the time was to give it all for one year – or quit.  Little did I know at the time that it had little to do with the business and more to do with organization, focus and habits.  It still does!

How about you?  What are your four or five key result areas you should put your time and attention to?  What do you want to accomplish this year for each area?

Describe what is going on quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily that tell you that you are doing a good job in those areas?  A green pen may still work today, but regardless, if you focus your time and attention on those things you write down for one year, you will wind up being a leader in your office, your business, possibly in your industry and best yet, you will improve your performance, confidence and habits.  Don’t kid yourself.  The game of business is tough, but so are you.  You have it all.  Nothing is missing.  And it helps to have a good, outside friend and mentor like R.S. (Bob) Miles.

The Only Thing Missing to Access More of the Market

Let’s say you own a bike store and you are trying to generate more sales from those individuals who have already bought from you.  Your typical thought pattern would be to take care of and market to the best customers with products and services that are of value to them with messaging that resonates with them.  Let’s look at three customer categories:

The first category is those that have spent the most money over the years, perhaps $4300.00 on all kinds of different things.  This would usually be categorized as your number one customer.

The second category is the person who just bought a $2000.00 bike… the big sale.

Category three just came in for apparel and spent a couple of hundred dollars.

All three types of customers are categorized and collected through your CRM.  Good for you….. seriously.  Now someone on your staff researched LinkedIn, found out that the category three customer leads a bike club, does a biking blog, has tons of fans and social media followers and is part of an association that tracks needs, wants and trends of bikers. 

WOW!  Wouldn’t you want to develop a more personal relationship with that person?  Wouldn’t they really be your #1 target customer?  This person can impact your business.

Does this cause a shift in your thinking?

We heard this example from by Eric Gales, CEO of Microsoft, at a Microsoft workshop last week in Toronto that my son Kevin Robert was involved in.  In their efforts to deal with the realities of today’s marketplace, deliver results quickly, and keep up with the latest cutting edge technologies, too many businesses create expensive, bloated plans to access the market that miss the big picture.  And, they don’t see what is missing.  Reaching their target audiences and constantly selling to them for the least amount of money and for the greatest return is the big picture.

Business people can get caught up with technical solutions to people problems. (customers are people too)  We should not get caught up with social media or CRM solutions unless they actually work for our business.

There is an old saying, “If you want to run with the big dogs, you have got to learn to ‘do your business in the tall grass.”  Any size company can access the market well, large or small.  Any size company can be ridiculous and impractical with their plans.

So, what is practical?  What works?  What’s missing?  If you have CRM and social media tools but you or your team haven’t fundamentally shifted away from trying to get people interested in you to deciding out how to get your team more interested in your target customers, you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

We learned from Eric Gale’s example that you can in a practical way, use your CRM and social media tools from a sales and marketing point of view.  The BIG idea that’s missing is the time tested Dale Carnegie principle “Become genuinely interested in other people”.  Carnegie pointed out in his writings that you can build more relationships in two weeks by becoming interested in others than you can in two years trying to get people interested in you.

LinkedIn for example provides you the connections you need.  In ten minutes, someone in your bike store could find out all you need to know to begin a personal, one to one relationship with your potential targets.  Now messaging is important.  Using another Dale Carnegie principle, “Talk in terms of the other person’s interest”.

Now you have everything you need.  The goal is to leverage every piece of data and everything you have.  Paul Kearley, our Business Unit Manager for the Maritimes, recently pulled 30 companies and individuals together for a business and personal development program using LinkedIn.  It works.

Believe me, from my forty five years experience in impacting behaviors, especially those concerning relationships, very few business practices or behaviors originate from being genuinely interested in others.  We’ve coached Warren Buffet, Lee Iacocca and millions of business people throughout the world.  Everyone needs coaching and practice on the habits that build relationships.  Everyone thinks they are good at it until they see better results from shifting their thinking, listening and the actions they take.

Develop a repeatable process and efforts that can be multiplied through a step and repeat process.  You can do it with 10, 100, 10,000 or 100,000 targets.  It’s just adding zeros!

Put getting to know your targets into everyone’s Position Results Description or job description.  Ensure your job descriptions are about outcomes and standards rather than just lists of things to do.

• Get everyone doing it – this week – now!
  
• Re-read How to Win Friends and Influence People.
  
• Better yet, take some coaching.

Thanks Eric for your example.

Have a great week!

In business, there is no “Field of Dreams”

Remember the line in this movie, “If you build it, they will come”?  No they won’t!! 

Waiting for your prey to come to you doesn’t work in the jungle.  I just watched a couple of hours of “Earth, The Documentary”.  Lions, birds, whatever, operate in a proactive fashion in order to survive, just as we do. 

How do you grow sales in a business environment that strips even the most venerable companies of their business models and their very reason for being?  How do you grow with economies so global that local stores are harmed by events that take place half a world away?  How do you speak to a country where groups we used to call minorities now often make up majorities with distinct interests and cultures?  (see the young millennials)  Businesses crumble because they cling to business as usual approaches and they don’t wake up in time to adapt.  Why?

1. Success distracts them.

2. They don’t have a ‘change or die’ mentality and sense of urgency.

3. They aren’t constantly anticipating their customer's current and
future needs.

We can all fool ourselves thinking we have the best offering; competition is weak; things will come back; we can sell to a shrinking market and make quality strides and be beaten by the advent of some new, innovative approach.

Markets move on fast.  At a meeting in Chicago last week, I noticed that there were about 3 I-PADS at every table and the person with the IPAD2 was attracting a lot of visitors.  Who would have ‘thunk’ it!  No clunky PC’s… I-PADS.  What did Apple do…I-POD (70% share) to I-Phone to I-PAD.  A complete desire to change and innovate.

At that same meeting a large group were working on how to refresh their business, their ‘offering’, story, sense of urgency in their sales process, their sense of what their targeted customers want, their sales skills.  They have a chance at being adaptive.

You and I must heighten our awareness everyday.  What do we see?  What are the main desires in our business – now?  Even after we do an analysis of what is going on in our industry, competition and customers, there is a good chance we won’t change.  Well, unless your desires are prioritized and re-stated, and you adjust all your systems to match up with those priorities.  No transition will be possible unless you examine your present systems and eliminate those that won’t pull you to where you need to go and create the ones who will.  You can’t believe your own press releases.  Cause the tension between what your analysis tells you (your new stated desires) and your actual reality.

Cause the tension but don’t change who you are….just how you see things

But adapting is not just about new technologies or change for the sake of change.  That can be more perilous for business than not adapting at all.  It can make you forget who you are, what you stand for and destroy your value proposition.  It could cause you to ignore all the tools you already have to sell your product or make your existing customers special.

In summary, we have to  reach our customers on the most personal level and create plans to build a bigger, more refreshed business, or we will be waiting for our prey and they won’t be showing up.  And our businesses will be drying up.

Take a few minutes and stand up and be willing to admit that there are things you do not know, that others may know and you need to know.

And answer the question, Are you still relevant today?  What might be changing?  What can you do to confront the realities of reaching today’s customers?  Are there other ways to solve the customer’s problems, to provide the value you deliver?  Are you adapting and bringing new products and/or services to market faster?

Have a meeting with some associates who share your commitment to adapt and answer these questions… and get adapting!

Have a great week!

Boosting Performance at no cost

What is the best investment you have made in your business over the years?  You might immediately think of a financial deal or some technical tool.  Few would say, “The best investment I ever made when was when I hired and developed a certain person.”  If you are in a service business or any business, your best asset for real may be your best hire, the people you mentored, coached and trained.  These are people who can do what you can do, are as concerned about the business as you are, and compliment your strengths.

 

Just last week I was talking to a businessman who was analyzing a deal as if the spreadsheet was going to serve customers, provide vision and adaptability to market changes.  No spreadsheet can bring out the best talents of others.  All those people who are the biggest part of your overhead. I told him deal is good or bad depending on whether you have the horses to make it work for you.

In many of my business dealings I have learned that bringing out the best in others, developing those horses, is not thought through enough by financial or technically savvy owners and executives.  They seem more comfortable with numbers and technology than with ‘building people’.  It is amazing how many think they are experts at it.  They give quick opinions on how people/employees operate yet spend little time mentoring and coaching people, other than in meetings in the middle of a business day.

Coaching is about helping employees see what is required from them to help the business  grow.  Coaching shows people how to increase their own performance.  It is getting the coachee to accept responsibility for the goals, the decisions made, and ultimately, to guide them through actions that produce desired results.  Coaching builds confidence which allows people to develop a successful habit.

Many years ago when I was tennis obsessed, I studied “The Inner Game of Tennis”, Tim Gollways methods for improving performance.  His theory was that to achieve winning success in competitions each athlete must first get rid of the opponent within.   It was amazing to see the difference in my game when I stopped worrying about how I looked (my ego) and controlled my emotions and fear of failure and just watched the ball, the spin, the angles, the speed, etc.

I realized when taking Gollway’s coaching that I often prevented myself from being the tennis player I wanted to become.   An effective coach helps you see and realize that some of it is an inner game.  They keep you seeing reality and help you respond appropriately.  We hear from many athletes that it is 80% mental (Jack Nicklaus) and often don’t know what they mean by that.  They are not saying it is just positive thinking. 

If we want to bring out the best in our most important assets, our best investments, we need to learn how to be an effective coach.

1.            Remind yourself of the expectations and possibilities you have for your people.  Express it – tell them.  (Our experience tells us than when you lose your expectations of people, you lose your commitment to coach)

2.            Ask people open-ended questions about  a) what is needed for the business b)how they see their role in it  c) what is their vision of how they will succeed.

3.            In day to day coaching conversations around tasks, ask what and how they are going to do things.  Help them think through their decisions.  Ask more pertinent questions, for example “how do you see that action is impacting your customers?” (coaching is not telling people what to do)

4.            Listen intently.  Keep your opinions out of your listening and don’t put in what isn’t there.  To be an effective coach, continually rid yourself of your inner opponent.  Get yourself out of the way, your ego, your emotions, your opinions, your fears.  Listening is where it all shows up.  All your knowledge, opinions and savvy may have helped you become successful but it won’t necessarily help when coaching others. 

5.            Give feedback.  This could be about asking targeted questions that encourage employees to be aware of what is really happening and take ownership of the required action OR to give appreciation and allow employee’s to feel good about what they have done.   Avoid giving blunt, personal comments that steal away a person’s respect.  As Dale Carnegie said “Instead, genuinely praise every improvement and any improvement.”  Notice the word ‘genuinely’-flattery is demeaning, even destructive.

While employees want to succeed in life, most of their motivations are simple.  They want to provide their basic needs by having a job.  Most of the work they do does not create a lot of self belief and confidence.  Young people today want valuable work, more purpose.  They want a voice.  Coaching is your tool to give people reward from their work.  It definitely brings out their best and creates productivity and success for everyone.

     This Week's Actions

What will you do this week to begin to build people through effective coaching?  Here is a summary:

1.            Look at your expectations of them.

2.            Tell them.

3.            Ask questions instead of giving orders, help them with their
   choices and decisions.

4.            Get yourself out of your listening.  Really hear them

5.            Give feedback that builds awareness and responsibility. 
   Give genuine praise.

Have a great week   …. ‘coach’.

Don't Just Manage Your Customers....Engage Them

Monday March 21 2011

What is your company's business strategy?   How you plan to create wealth and deliver on your promises with an offering that turns on your market. Not only could very few employees tell you what the offering or business strategy is for their company, too few business executives can either.  But once you think through what is going on in the market, what you want to do to turn on the market and, at the very least, adequately match  why customers will give you the money you want, then you need to make sure all your sales, operations systems, and marketing systems are connected to the strategy and are working. It is our experience that a lot of systems are only supporting what they were originally set up for.  And, like any system they feed off the protocols, rules, policies, methods of the day.  The intent hasn't be updated or thought through and not many realize it.  All those involved are well-meaning but the system controls the people, not the other way around.  As a result, even when the strategic intent and/or plan is implemented, the present systems will reject them like the human body can reject transplants.  It is often subtle and what is worse, it is often a mindless game of everyone trying to protect and defend old systems, and, without knowing it, are competing with the business strategy. Companies wind up with silos and everyone competing for resources, power and recognition and the company inadvertently is not designed to succeed in the present market.  The offering becomes tired.  Revenues are flat.  Margins suffer.  Tinkering with improvements in the systems won't change the business much and customers are the ones who don't get the benefit of the good thinking and planning.  Execution is weak. For example, you can buy and implement any CRM but if it doesn't support your marketing process (finding and keeping customers), your sales process, and your business strategy... what good is it?   Marketing and sales must be organized to support your business strategy and the CRM is just a tool to help.   Unfortunately, very few CRM's are used this way.  They tend to be sales manager's measurement tools or data management tools and, although important, may not help you take your business where you really want it to go. When you add Facebook, LinkedIn and other networking/customer engagement tools like so many companies do, it is important for these tools to be integrated into current processes (not replace them) supporting the systems that make your business strategy work. If you do not do this they will become a system with a life of it's own that does not contribute much to growing the business. That is why Kevin Robert, my son, as one of the leaders in our business, is presenting an exclusive event sponsored by Microsoft.  We have partnered with Microsoft to create a full solution for years.  Microsoft is bringing together speakers to show you how they integrated their systems to support engaging more customers.  They will show how CRM is quickly evolving from simple customer management to collaboration and customer engagement and how customers expect more control over their interactions with companies, fueling what we now call social CRM. Is your business ready to make the most of your business strategy, especially how to engage customers?  Are you connected to how to do this so you are more important to your business and career possibilities? Because you are a Monday Morning Mentor reader, you can join Kevin at the "Power of Productivity" exclusive event for Microsoft Dynamics - CRM 2011 where you will learn to be responsive, transparent, and personal in your dealing with customers to support your business strategy. Reserve your spot here. Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 12:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Get there early and you will get a free copy of "Engage" by Brian Solis.  You will hear the Managing Director of Facebook, LinkedIn and three authors/experts.   Moving on - Moving Up Have a great week!