This past week I had the opportunity to read Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book What The Dog Saw. Gladwell wrote the best sellers Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers.
 
What I like most about Gladwell’s books is that they are fueled by a curiosity about things that most of us don’t think twice about. In What The Dog Saw, Gladwell turns commonly held notions on their head including homelessness, panic vs. choking, what makes a good teacher and many other myths.
 
In organizations, curiosity fuels innovation and the solving of stubborn problems.  We’ll examine how to foster curiosity in yourself and others to get breakthrough results.
  
Culture of Curiosity
 
Curiosity is the root of innovation and creativity and being curious is a constructive leadership characteristic. Organizations and their leaders can snuff out curiosity by implementing rigid rules, having sacred cows and dismissing questions that could lead to new discoveries.
 
A leader who is curious will handle employee performance problems more effectively. Instead of punishing or berating an employee, the curious leader is interested in why the employee chose to behave the way he did and how it can be prevented.
 
Being curious in a conflict situation allows you to see the other person’s perspective so that you can propose mutually acceptable alternatives.
 
Being curious in negotiations allows you to understand the other party’s needs and wants so that you can achieve win/win outcomes.

Curiosity is what will create the next EBay or Google or Microsoft and curiosity will lead your organization to a breakthough opportunity.  
 
Reflection Questions
 
How curious a person are you? Is curiosity encouraged in your organization? How many things are taken at face value without being more open minded to seeing new opportunities?
 
Action Items

• Be curious about long standing problems in your workplace.
• Ask questions that inspire curiosity in others, “How could we serve our customers better and generate better results?”
• Avoid crushing other people’s curiosity when comments like, “We’ve always done it that way, ” or “That will never work.”

What do people really think of you? Do you even care? Do you care too much?
 
Many of the managers and executives I coach and train start off by being surprised and maybe even slightly insulted to think that they need to improve their leadership skills. After all, they wouldn’t have been promoted if they weren’t competent… or would they?
 
It kind of reminds me of the 1992 movie A Few Good Men when Jack Nicholson, playing the role of Colonel Jessep, defiantly states, “You can’t handle the truth!”
 
The term 360 degree feedback has become much maligned because most of the people who are subjected to this feedback are not open to receiving it in the first place. 360 feedback refers to getting feedback from your boss, your peers and your direct reports, a full circle of feedback.

Self-Deception
 
Let’s examine two patterns of thinking that get in the way of an executive or manager accepting and acting upon feedback from peers and direct reports:

1. The individual giving me feedback isn’t credible or qualified to evaluate me. (What do they know!) 
2. I’ve achieved success by being the way I am so why would I want to change?

Let’s tackle each of these.
 
First, any person who interacts with you is qualified and capable of giving you feedback about your people skills. The feedback might be related to how clearly you communicate, how responsive you are, whether you are approachable or not and if they feel encouraged and supported by you. If they work with you more closely they can also speak to your technical skills related to completing assignments both accurately and in a timely fashion.
 
And that brings us to the second point. High achievers can hit a plateau where the same skills and approaches they used to achieve their current level of success often work against them in getting to a higher level of responsibility.
 
The most common term for this is “The Peter Principle” where individuals are destined to be promoted to their level of incompetence. Once you reach that level, you are no longer promotable and in fact, your days may be numbered.
 
While the incompetence could be technical, most likely it has to do with your people skills. At higher levels in an organization your success has less to do with your own output and more to do with mobilizing a team to achieve the required results.

Unaware of Strengths
 
In addition to being unaware of our weaknesses, we can also be unaware of our strengths. Without an appreciation of what we do well, we might inadvertantly stop and lose the benefit of that strength. Feedback can reinforce what we are doing well.
 
Confronting Reality
 
When you get to a place where you recognize that no matter how successful you have been, there is always room for improvement, you can begin to make adjustments. In every single coaching situation I have encountered there are only 3 or 4 leadership behaviors that the individual needs to change in order to unlock greater success. The challenge is to discover what those behaviours are and get help to correct them.
 
Reflection Questions
 
Do you actively solicit feedback from the people around you as to how effectice a leader you are? If not can you become vulnerable enough to ask for that feedback and use it to grow as an individual?

Action Items

• Ask for specific feedback from the people you work with and those who work for you if you are in a leadership position.
• While you can use more sophisticated instruments to measure leadership style and management capability, you can start with these four simple questions:
• What do you think I do really well and would like me to continue doing?
• What do I not do as much as I should and you would like to see me do more of?
• What do I do that you think it best that I stop doing?
• What do I not do now that you think I should start doing?
• When you get the feedback, even if you find it difficult to swallow, be thankful because you are on your way to greater success.

Dear Santa,

I have been a good employee all year and wish that you could help my manager bring me the following gifts this season. They would help me become happier and more productive next year.

1. Give me the gift of clear expectations – help my manager become more clear in what he or she expects of me. I am tired of guessing the expectations and getting limited direction.
2. Give me the gift of regular feedback – rather than wait until my performance review, I wish my manager would give me feedback regularly – daily, weekly and monthly. If he or she gave me regular feedback on what I was doing well or needed to improve, I would do my best to improve.
3. Give me the gift of feeling part of the team – like everyone else I have the need to belong and feel part of the team. Help my manager build a stronger team by treating people fairly, not playing favorites and not talking about people behind their backs.
4. Give me the gift of better communication – help my manager keep me better informed about what is going on. If communication is so important, why does my manager do so little of it? Sure they are busy – typically doing things that we the employees could do if only they would delegate and stop trying to make every decision themselves.
5. Give me the gift of praise and recognition – it’s natural to find faults but please help my manager notice all the good things we are doing and tell us about them more often. We will be more likely to repeat the good things if they are mentioned to us more often. On the other hand when our manager focuses on the negative, we tend to give him more of that. Human behavior is funny, eh Santa?
6. Give me the gift of a challenge to grow my talent – My manager finds it easier to keep giving the same assignments to the same people. He thinks it makes his job easier but it really hurts our flexibility and we want something new to do every once in a while. One of the reasons I will stay in my job is because I can learn something new.
7. Give me the gift of training (and train my boss too!) – Show me I am important by investing in me to do my job better. My manager could benefit from some training too – making my wishes come true. I think even my manager’s manager needs some training because my boss behaves the way his boss expects. In fact most of the behaviors my boss wants to change come all the way from the top!

I will remember to leave out the milk and cookies!

I had the pleasure of attending a social event connected to a convention I was attending in Calgary. The organizers had planned an entertainment-packed evening at a “cowboy ranch” with gun slinging cowboys, a comedian, a live auction, and for those who were brave enough, a mechanical bull. All the proceeds were to go to the organization’s foundation.
 
Unfortunately, many members of the audience were happy just to sit and socialize and then get back to the hotel for some rest before the next day’s program. So when the host announced that the first bus had arrived, half the group left, making the auction a dud.
 
The organizers were ticked. They spent all this time and energy to plan a great outing and the attendees had the gall to leave early!
 
They fell into the trap of “blaming the customer” and I hear variations of it in many of the organizations I work with. I’ve done it myself – blame the customer for not buying, blame the participants for a mediocre session (this happens rarely!).
 
Don’t Blame the Customer
 
You have heard the expression, “the customer is always right.” Now we know that the customer isn’t always right, however it could be said that, “the customer is always right in his/her own mind.”
 
This distinction is important because right or wrong, when the customer decides to vote with her feet and money, the impact is felt on your organization. Similarly in a “discussion” with my wife Robin I can choose between being “right” and spending quality time on the couch or allowing her to be “right” which makes for a cosier bed time.
 
No amount of “marketing” can push a bad product or service onto a customer and expect to last in the long term. Many organizations think they know better what the customer wants, when in reality the customer isn’t buying it.
 
Be Thankful for “Challenging” Customers
 
Customers with high expectations help challenge your organization to achieve more.  One group of customer service reps was complaining about how disorganized their customers were. I pointed out that those disorganized customers were placing even greater value on the service provided by their company. If the customers were better organized they would place less value on the service provided and profits would decrease.
 
There will be customers who you are better off without. The ones that cost you more than you make. Before writing them off, consider how to provide the level of service they expect at a profit.
 
Reflection Questions
 
Does your organization blame the customer for it’s challenges? Are you an accomplice to this act? How could your organization be more customer-focused and earn record profits?
 
Action Items

• Listen for signs that your organization is blaming the customer for its woes.
• Ask questions that move your organization forward, “How can we win the business and maintain profitability?”
• Stop complaining about customers and start finding ways to make them happy at a profit.
• Remember that the ultimate antidote to having difficult customers is having no customers at all…

It’s official, the recession is over! Or is it? While politicians and economists debate when the recession officially ends, those of us in sales still face the daunting task of hitting year end targets with less than 11 weeks to go before we close the books on 2009.

What can you are your team do to impact the balance of the year and build a strong momentum heading into 2010?

1. Target your top ten accounts and look at how you can help them buy more from you. Your best customers are your best source of sales growth. Get creative with your ideas. Chances are your customer also wants to boost sales so you are really working towards the same goal. “How can we both work together to increase your sales and what you buy from us?”
2. Take advantage of the fact that your competitors are scrambling. Let’s face it competitors don’t act rationally. In fact many times they mess up the marketplace for the rest of us. The good news is that your competitors’ shortcomings are your opportunity to take business away from them. Target accounts that you know your competitors are likely screwing up. These days companies don’t have the time and money to mess around. They need a supplier who has their best interest at heart. Be that kind of supplier and take business away from your competitor.
3. Maintain a positive attitude. Some companies seem to have “customer prevention strategies”. Pay attention to how people answer the phone, how they deal with customer requests, questions and concerns. Are you treating your customers like they are important or a nuisance? If you treat them like they are a nuisance, the good news is that you will have less of them to complain about. Confront employees who share misery instead of happiness and tell them their job depends on being positive. Keep a positive, achievement oriented tone in all communications.

This kind of practical, real world advice is what you will enjoy during our upcoming e-Learn series Sales Strategies for a Challenging Marketplace. In three, action packed 45 minute sessions you and your team will get the information you need to make more sales happen now and boost your numbers heading into 2010.

There has never been a more crucial time to sharpen your sales skills and these sessions give you a cost-effective and time-sensitive way to achieve results.

Download the PDF registration form and register today. Or call Ana Sierra at COPA or email her at asierra@copa.ca

A new business season is upon us and with it comes some old challenges and some new ones. Here are three action steps to achieve a strong finish in 2009 and set your organization up for a great year in 2010.

1. Get a Recovery and Growth Mindset

Now is the time for you and your team to shift thinking from defense to offense. As the recession begins to fade there are tremendous opportunities to grow your business. The challenge is to recognize the opportunities and then take action to exploit the potential.

2. Upgrade Your Mental Software

When was the last time you invested in growing the knowledge, skills and capabilities of yourself and the team around you? Is your team trying to achieve success in 2010 with a 2004 mindset? If your organization isn’t changing as rapidly as the environment around it then you might want to upgrade capabilities with training, coaching or consulting aimed at the areas of greatest need.

3. Lead

The root cause of both success and failure is leadership. If your team isn’t up to the challenge it may be them or it may be the leader. Develop a clear idea in your mind on what you want to achieve and then ask the team how they can make it happen. Challenge is a top motivator so get your team reenergized by focusing on a big goal that they can sink their teeth into.

If we can help your organization reenergize and refocus, please connect with us for a complimentary consultation.

Given the recent awful business environment, companies hunkered down into survival mode, cutting expenses and waiting for business conditions to improve. Expectations were reduced to match reality. Now with the economy stabilizing and beginning to expand again business leaders will need to awaken their organization to its true potential in order to achieve maximum performance.

As the recovery takes hold your organization will start to do better simply because customers will start buying again. While this provides a much needed break from the angst of recession, it will hardly provide the motivation to excel. Instead challenge your organization to achieve its true potential and watch performance soar.

Think in terms of watching runners about to compete at a track meet. Is your organization in the starting blocks, ready to launch when the starter’s pistol fires? Or will you be a spectator in the stands watching your competitors win the race?

Setting Your Organization’s Thermostat

Your organization has a thermostat. The thermostat defines the performance expectations of the business and everyone who works in it. If performance drops below the threshold, heads will roll, bonuses will be reduced or eliminated and generally everyone will work harder to get performance back on track. On the other hand, if performance exceeds expectations, the organization will tend to slack off and take it easy which will prevent the business unit from achieving its full potential. Who sets the thermostat? The CEO/president/business owner, and in turn, the senior management team defines what is possible and drives the expectations of the rest of the organization.

Stop Being Satisfied with Incrementalism

Most organizations need to rethink the incremental way they manage expectations year over year. Managers are often satisfied with a 5-10% improvement because that might be the threshold that triggers bonuses and yet leaves a little something in the tank for next year. If a target is set too high, the manager might be punished for not achieving the target even though performance improved. The result? The organization leaves money on the table because it was capable of achieving more but did not do so.

Achieving What Seems Impossible is a Powerful Motivator

A sense of challenge and growth is the most powerful motivator for employees. When goals are set too low complacency sets in. Top performers leave the organization and you are left with mediocre performers who are primarily interested in maintaining the status quo. By raising expectations employees will be more engaged and results will improve; a true win/win situation.

Enabling Questions to Help Achieve True Potential

Enabling questions are those that help you achieve greater performance and get you closer to your true potential.

How can we dominate the market?
How can we turn customers into fans who rave about us?
What other needs do our customers have and how can we meet those needs?
How can we maximize profit and cash flow in good times and bad?
How can we have employees who love working here?

Raise the performance of your organization, your department and for yourself personally by defining your true potential, resetting your thermostat to increase results and challenging yourself and others to grow.

Accountability becomes mission-critical in challenging times. We need everyone in our organization to take ownership of results and make things happen. Creating an environment of accountability rests with management. Based on our 22 years of experience in organizational development and leadership training, we have discovered that managers systematically remove accountability. As a result the manager themselves ends up shouldering all the responsibility and stress.

A lack of accountability in your organization causes the following problems:

• reduced profitability
• poor customer service
• silos and lack of cooperation between departments
• projects that fail to create intended results
• lack of personal growth for employees
• added stress and frustration for the manager

Cascading accountability

The manager is always accountable. The key leadership skill is to transfer portions of this accountability to individuals in the workgroup. If accountability is not transferred, then employees will potentially put the manager in jeopardy by not keeping their commitments. The manager then has to continually chase people to get things done, or take care of it themselves. Either way, the productivity and value created by the department will be below potential.

We crave accountability and we are afraid of it at the same time

Employees crave accountability because it creates a sense of accomplishment. They can take pride in owning the success that comes with the achievement. At the same time, employees are afraid that the punishment for not meeting objectives will be more severe than the possible praise that comes with a job well done. Managers can counteract this by shifting emphasis from catching mistakes to celebrating achievement. Once employees let go of the fear, they can step forward and create better results.

Micromanaging does not create accountability

Accountability comes when the manager makes it clear what the expected outcomes are and the boundaries and then lets the employees take ownership over how they achieve the outcomes. A manager may think that assigning job tasks is enough to create accountability. If the manager assigns a task and dictates how it must be done, then the accountability remains with the manager. If instead the manager describes the desired outcome and then gives employees the freedom to achieve the outcome using their own talents, the employee can be held accountable for results.

Accountability requires measurement, follow-up and consequences

Scorekeeping is a powerful way to have employees show one another and their manager whether they are achieving objectives. The scoreboard must be simple enough and visual enough that everyone can tell at a glance whether they are winning or losing. Public scorekeeping also taps into peer pressure. Most people do not want to let others down. Having peers able to see the performance of others gives each person the motivation to succeed and be part of the team.

Steps to Creating Greater Accountability

1. Be clear about the end results – customer satisfaction, elimination of wasted effort, safety, housekeeping and expense control.
2. Ask each employee on your team what they can do to help improve and positively impact the end results.
3. Avoid diluting the accountability – do not take back ownership of the task when the employee finds it difficult. Let them grow through the experience.
4. Track progress and allow the team to take credit for achieving the results.
5. Identify, correct and potentially weed out the team members who are not capable or motivated to achieve results.

Do you or the leaders in your organization need help creating a positive, accountable work climate? Check out the solutions at www.UniqueDevelopment.com

Is your company experiencing revenue decreases because of the current business environment? You’re in good company and so we’ll look at some straighforward strategies for leaders to improve sales in the short run and set up opportunities for the long term.

What business owners, general managers and sales managers are noticing is a dramatic shift in their sales funnel. If you are unfamiliar with the term sales funnel, picture a funnel; wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. In good times, your sales funnel looks like a champagne flute – opportunities at the top drop to the bottom and become sales. In tough times your sales funnel tends to look like a martini glass – wide at the top and skinny at the bottom. You need more opportunities at the top to get the same amount of sales out the bottom.

Implications of a Martini-Glass Sales Funnel

1. Prospecting and Account Targeting: Your sales group will need to expend more effort into new business development and identifying opportunities. This can be a shock to a sales group that was used to taking orders in good times. The ratio between opportunities and sales is called the conversion ratio. In good times you either had a higher conversion ratio or the sheer number of opportunities allowed you to grow sales. Consider a session for your sales team on how to prospect for business and target high probability prospects.
2. Time and Territory Management: It is shocking how inefficient external sales professionals can be. If you took the total time available (working hours) and examined how much time is actually spent communicating with customers and advancing the sale, you might discover that efficiency is as low as 2% to perhaps 30% if you are lucky. A session on how to manage territories and opportunities can pay dividends. An alternative is to implement or expand the role of inside sales. An inside sales team can make more frequent contact with a larger group of customers, allowing your company to profitably service smaller sales. When inside sales identifies a large opportunity it can be handed over to an external sales rep.
3. Negotiation and Closing Skills: Because customers are in a stronger bargaining position, your sales team will need to sharpen their negotiating skills to hammer out a deal and get a go ahead from the customer. Without tenacity and good negotiation skills, the time it takes to close a sale will extend and the margin will disappear with concessions demanded by the customer. Conside a workshop to emphasize how to negotiate a sale and then get a commitment from the customer.

We can help leaders take the necessary actions to improve sales and margins. Give us a call or send an email to discuss the possibilties. If travel budgets are tight, consider a webinar instead of a live meeting. Join us for our NEW Seminar or Webinar “Leadership Strategies to Grow Sales in a Recession” – Click Here

No matter what format of training makes sense for your company, require each person to make at least one concrete commitment on what they will do to improve sales. Then track the success and celebrate, ideally on a weekly basis.