We all go through changes. Jobs come and go, positions come and go, age creeps up on us as years go by, and the list goes on. What is so ironic to me is that change is occurring all around us, but for the most part people don't embrace change. Status quo seems to be fine for most folks. Go to your pantry and check the food items - do you have the same type of cereal today that you have been eating for the last year, or two, or three? Me too - you are not alone.
The idea of embracing change, rather than coping with it, seems to be a farfetched idea for some people. Over the years I have watched hundreds, if not thousands, of employees at all levels deal with change, and they were all different. The ones I watched grow, become educated, promote, create a following, and deliver the best cutting edge results were the ones that embraced change, and actually worked at making change happen.
I have always said "you are in one of two places in life: you are either making decisions for others to live by, or you are living by decisions other people make... I want to be in the first group"... That has been my mantra for years. I like to be in control and driving change. I embrace moving from the status quo into the unknown. Don't get me wrong, I still live by decisions other people make, I am not atonomous in my life, but I work hard at creating change for others.
Think about your work life for a moment. Each time a change comes around (a new system comes out, you are moved to a new team, your job goes away and you have to change, your leader lets you know your job description has changed, etc.)how do you handle it? Do you jump in the middle of it and work at helping others see a clear vision of what the future looks like and a path to get there, or do you automatically put up the walls of resistance and skepticism, dig in your heels, and act like a pack mule being pulled from the corral?
Embracing change is a mindset. It is a way of life. Today I am taking my daughter to ASU to start her first year of college. Her vision is wrapped around classes, books, financial aide, what will her dorm look like, who will she be rooming with, and the list goes on. For me, I am thinking about the foundation she is laying for her future. The lifelong friends she is going to make, the education that will pave the way for her career, the cutting edge concepts she will learn about her field, how she will use this as a catalyst for driving change for others to live by.
Being a leader is a tough role. You get the glory, but you also get the challenge of (as Warren Bennis put it - "herding cats"). If you accept a role as a leader then don't be a resister to change. Embrace it. Ask yourself how you can constantly change your business, what will help you become more profitable, what will help you be more efficient, where can you bring new concepts to the table, how can you get better at delivering the idea of change to your team/organization and how can you make change easier for people to swallow.
Getting stuck in the same ol' day to day routine, and thinking your job/life are secure will only bring one thing, a huge wake-up call at some point. You live amass changes all the time (i.e. you are reading my thoughts on this page and I may not even know you - 5 years ago this wasn't even possible) - technology, lifestyles, businesses, neighborhoods, relationships, careers, etc. The sands are ever shifting and while you don't have full control in life, you do have the ability to accept change, and to create little waves here and there that will make a difference in your own life and the lives of those around you.
Final thought for the day - when was the last time you read a book that caused you to think differently about the work you do, prompted you to change how you interact with others, and helped you make a difference in your workplace. If you can't remember the last time this happened then you are probably living status quo, and if you can remember the last time it happened you are probably one of those people who is on the edge of, or fully involved in, being a change leader.
Don't wait for changes and then adapt. Get out there and make things happen - shake it up a little - make your workplace a breeding ground for new ideas, concepts, technologies, and spend more time making decisions that affect other people, rather than just living by the decisions other people make.
See you on the left...
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
What did you mean by that...
I have an important presentation coming up soon. Don't get me wrong, it is not about solving our healthcare system issues, I'm not introducing a cure for breast cancer (wish I could have, Mom), or even figuring out how to ensure Social Security will be funded so those little slips of paper I get from the government on how much I will earn when I retire at 75 are worth more than the litter box liner I use them for today.
Nope, my presentation is simply another in a string of thousands I have done in which I have a finite amount of time, a couple of ideas I need to get across to some important folks in our company, and an audience who I am sure are sitting at home right now, or in the office, thinking to themselves "oh god, I can't believe in a week I am going to hear John speak"... Geez, only if I was E.F. Hutton in real life ;o)
I have no dilusions of grandeur that when I speak people lock in on my words like a fighter pilot on his target, just waiting for the right moment to be epiphenized (I made that word up, so don't even go to dictionary.com and try to find it...). However, it is quite different. I do care about my audience and the value of their time, and my goal is always to provide something that will resonate with them and either put them at ease that "things" are covered, or inspire them to action beyond what they were doing when they entered the room. So, how do you bring the right balance of style, content, passion, and inspiration to your presentation.
Easy - plan it out. I am amazed at the number of speakers I have heard who think they have something to say, yet put on the spot they have much to speak about, but they are only taking up other tax payers oxygen and I am sure strip-mining the mental landscape of those around them. I like to think that preparation is not about being "canned" in how you present your info, whether in an elevator, on the car lot with a potential customer, in the meeting room, or any other venue of choice in which your mental garble gets woven into the fabric of getting your point across in a meaningul fashion.
So, learn to "frame it up" (normally I would use the term "f it up" to shorten the phrase, and allow for creative licsensing in how you present, but for now I will keep this once cleaned up a little). Framing is just what you think it is - a framework that, when shared with others, allows them to follow a natural progression of logic and understand your point in a way that is not like putting together a 1000 piece puzzle of similar colored kittens with your grandma (even though I used to love that...). Framing for success is as simple as thinking at the right altitude for your audience at 3 levels: What is important, How are we doing, and What is our priority to improve. Now, listen close men, your wife already does this with you, but you really need to know how to do this with her if you ever want to be successful in staying out of a therapists office because you are simply "misunderstood"...
What is important is where most people get stuck. Human nature likes to jump down to the priorities to improve, and hope everyone listening understands what is important, and how we are doing today... but, that assumption has led to many leaders getting the mental crap kicked out of them with a barrage of questions that could have been answered by framing it right the first time. I have never seen a house where they installed the carpet first, then the plumbing, then the carpenters started the roof, then the frame and drywall... HALT! - you get my point. There is a natural progression to building a house that if not handled correctly and coordinated effectively will lead to overuse of the warranty within the first 3 months.
I know, I know... get to the point, John... The point is, What is important requires thinking, pontificating, mental tennis on the courts of reason, etc., etc., etc. If you know what is important and you can portray that to your audience they are going to feel more comfortable that everything that follows is geared towards that pinnacle idea. To do this, find out what is important (hint - it usually relates to one or more stakeholders - Employees/Customers/Shareholders, and it also usually relates to one of the three parts of your business - Financial/Operational/Relational). Once you frame up a few points of "what's important" you can move on to answering the question of "how are we doing" because now you have the framework so you can put on the siding of performance to expectation.
Framing up how you are doing is not that hard. It can be qualitative or quantitative - even though most quantitative data requires a qualitative discussion (outputs are only measurements of the result of inputs, and numbers are ultimately an output of behaviors of people, the org, the market, etc. - don't over complicate the issue here)... The real test of a good framing incident is when the "how we are doing" does not include anything about what we are going to do next. It is the yellow brick road that leads to the Emerald City of "so what are we going to do about it"...
Priorities to improve. Ahhhhh, finally, we got to where I wanted to start - (this is how most people think - I knew I was going to say this, why waste my time doing the other stuff?). Well, it's pretty simple Skippy, people are smart, they have questions, they think using logic, data, and they need to see the pieces of the puzzle as it goes together so the picture has more meaning. PTI, as I will call it, should always relate back to what's important, and should always be a natural response to how we are doing. Let me share an example before I close this blog out...
It is important that when you read a blog you get some meaning from it that will allow you to either feel good, go take action in life, laugh out loud, or cause you to think in a way you didn't before.
Today I am writing about things I love, that are dear to me, and have some meaningful application to life. I also include content that makes you chuckle, think, and sometimes motivates you to watch mindless You Tube garble just to clean out your mental closet.
My priority to improve is to keep writing, keep sharing, and keep taking feedback to ensure I include meaningful, fun and actionable content for those so daring to read my writing.
That's important, that's how I am doing today, and that is what drives me to be different (and hopefully better tomorrow).
So, go forth and start framing. Frame up your emails, your presentations, your conversations with your kids or spouse or friends or family pet, and see if you get the result of less meaningless questions, and start getting more meaning out of your interaction (or more face licks from the pooch).
See you on the left...
Nope, my presentation is simply another in a string of thousands I have done in which I have a finite amount of time, a couple of ideas I need to get across to some important folks in our company, and an audience who I am sure are sitting at home right now, or in the office, thinking to themselves "oh god, I can't believe in a week I am going to hear John speak"... Geez, only if I was E.F. Hutton in real life ;o)
I have no dilusions of grandeur that when I speak people lock in on my words like a fighter pilot on his target, just waiting for the right moment to be epiphenized (I made that word up, so don't even go to dictionary.com and try to find it...). However, it is quite different. I do care about my audience and the value of their time, and my goal is always to provide something that will resonate with them and either put them at ease that "things" are covered, or inspire them to action beyond what they were doing when they entered the room. So, how do you bring the right balance of style, content, passion, and inspiration to your presentation.
Easy - plan it out. I am amazed at the number of speakers I have heard who think they have something to say, yet put on the spot they have much to speak about, but they are only taking up other tax payers oxygen and I am sure strip-mining the mental landscape of those around them. I like to think that preparation is not about being "canned" in how you present your info, whether in an elevator, on the car lot with a potential customer, in the meeting room, or any other venue of choice in which your mental garble gets woven into the fabric of getting your point across in a meaningul fashion.
So, learn to "frame it up" (normally I would use the term "f it up" to shorten the phrase, and allow for creative licsensing in how you present, but for now I will keep this once cleaned up a little). Framing is just what you think it is - a framework that, when shared with others, allows them to follow a natural progression of logic and understand your point in a way that is not like putting together a 1000 piece puzzle of similar colored kittens with your grandma (even though I used to love that...). Framing for success is as simple as thinking at the right altitude for your audience at 3 levels: What is important, How are we doing, and What is our priority to improve. Now, listen close men, your wife already does this with you, but you really need to know how to do this with her if you ever want to be successful in staying out of a therapists office because you are simply "misunderstood"...
What is important is where most people get stuck. Human nature likes to jump down to the priorities to improve, and hope everyone listening understands what is important, and how we are doing today... but, that assumption has led to many leaders getting the mental crap kicked out of them with a barrage of questions that could have been answered by framing it right the first time. I have never seen a house where they installed the carpet first, then the plumbing, then the carpenters started the roof, then the frame and drywall... HALT! - you get my point. There is a natural progression to building a house that if not handled correctly and coordinated effectively will lead to overuse of the warranty within the first 3 months.
I know, I know... get to the point, John... The point is, What is important requires thinking, pontificating, mental tennis on the courts of reason, etc., etc., etc. If you know what is important and you can portray that to your audience they are going to feel more comfortable that everything that follows is geared towards that pinnacle idea. To do this, find out what is important (hint - it usually relates to one or more stakeholders - Employees/Customers/Shareholders, and it also usually relates to one of the three parts of your business - Financial/Operational/Relational). Once you frame up a few points of "what's important" you can move on to answering the question of "how are we doing" because now you have the framework so you can put on the siding of performance to expectation.
Framing up how you are doing is not that hard. It can be qualitative or quantitative - even though most quantitative data requires a qualitative discussion (outputs are only measurements of the result of inputs, and numbers are ultimately an output of behaviors of people, the org, the market, etc. - don't over complicate the issue here)... The real test of a good framing incident is when the "how we are doing" does not include anything about what we are going to do next. It is the yellow brick road that leads to the Emerald City of "so what are we going to do about it"...
Priorities to improve. Ahhhhh, finally, we got to where I wanted to start - (this is how most people think - I knew I was going to say this, why waste my time doing the other stuff?). Well, it's pretty simple Skippy, people are smart, they have questions, they think using logic, data, and they need to see the pieces of the puzzle as it goes together so the picture has more meaning. PTI, as I will call it, should always relate back to what's important, and should always be a natural response to how we are doing. Let me share an example before I close this blog out...
It is important that when you read a blog you get some meaning from it that will allow you to either feel good, go take action in life, laugh out loud, or cause you to think in a way you didn't before.
Today I am writing about things I love, that are dear to me, and have some meaningful application to life. I also include content that makes you chuckle, think, and sometimes motivates you to watch mindless You Tube garble just to clean out your mental closet.
My priority to improve is to keep writing, keep sharing, and keep taking feedback to ensure I include meaningful, fun and actionable content for those so daring to read my writing.
That's important, that's how I am doing today, and that is what drives me to be different (and hopefully better tomorrow).
So, go forth and start framing. Frame up your emails, your presentations, your conversations with your kids or spouse or friends or family pet, and see if you get the result of less meaningless questions, and start getting more meaning out of your interaction (or more face licks from the pooch).
See you on the left...
Friday, August 7, 2009
What did I come here for again?
I was in a meeting with a team of "newbies" to the company yesterday. It was my chance to introduce myself, tell them about the company, let them know about our culture, and impress them with some of my whitty humor (I am still convinced more people in this case laugh from nervousness rather than my quippy humor... but my ego tells me I am the Jay Leno of the conference room)... After all was said and done I did the normal question and answer session [dead silence - as usual]. Then from the back of the table came a rather profound question that I hadn't been asked in this situation in a long time - "how do you motivate your people?".
Now you have to understand something about what I hold as my values and opinions about employees (at any level). I believe people want to get three things out of the work they do. 1) they want to do something they are passionate about (this is a tough one), 2) they want to feel their daily contribution of the work they do is part of a bigger cause, and 3) they want to make money to support their lifestyle.
Most leaders asked about how they motivate people will give you the same age old answers: "I make it fun to work here", "I joke with my people (love the term "my people" - I call it the Moses syndrome - so, if that is how you refer to the people you work with - let your people go)", and my all time favorite "I try to be their friend as well as their boss" - there are thousands more ways people try to answer that question, some good, some not so good; in any case my goal is to answer that question here. How do I motivate people?
People, for the most part, want to be inspired. Why do you think Barnes and Noble has done so well over the years? It is an inspiration hub. People are inspired by other people, places, things, etc. Some people are inspired by music, some by their favorite authors, some by great speakers, some by their own reflection in the mirror, some by nature, some by giving to others, some by teaching, some by being taught, and the list goes on. We live our lives to be inspired, we seek the next adventure of having our hearts and minds enlightened by an event, a spoken word, something that causes our emotional meters to go haywire and drives us to return to that form of euphoric energy that compels us to feel, assess, act, and want to be more than the sum of our parts. Inspiration moves us to action...
So, when asked how I motivate people, the answer is simple - I find out what inspires them (either in the moment, or in their lives) and then I empower them to release their passion while doing their day to day job. Sounds complicated, but it really is not. For some of the people I work with music is important to them. They know their favorite genre, the bands/singers/musicians, that really get to them, and listening to music while at work allows them to engage inspiration while working (thank goodness for the iPod and personal MP3s - used to everyone had radios and that sparked a whole new set of issues with one persons inspiration being another person irritant). Some people like to read their favorite authors, some enjoy surfing the web, some love gadgets, computers, geeky things like stats (oh, that's me - I just raised my hand)... whatever the case I create an environment ripe for inspiration.
Then I provide vision. What is to come - how we are part of a bigger cause. My goal this year is to bring in customers we have the priviledge of serving and let them meet with the folks that are responsible for interacting with them every day. I have done this several times over the years in different situations and what I find is that empathy for the customers situation, mixed with the reality of their experience from their own words, inspires people to act differently with the other customers they deal with.
Not a tough concept, but execution of the idea is key. Being part of a bigger picture is an age old concept. The idea that my action/thoughts shared/ideas/etc are input to a larger more powerful machine that can accomplish what I believe to be bigger than life itself is important. People serve God (yes - I did use that term in the singular) because it satisfies a personal need to be driven/forgiven/loved by a being that is the ultimate in power and universal control. Any work they do because they are inspired by the power of their experience means they are contributing to a cause that is eternal, much larger than they are, more complex than they will ever be... but to be a part of that is spiritual, moving, and satisfying. It is the same in the workplace. "People don't leave companies, they leave Managers"... I have heard this line oh so many times in my career and each time I do my BS meter goes off...
People leave companies because they lack good insight to a bigger vision, a connection to a larger cause through the work they do (and usally a low-life, non-caring, micro-managing, egotistical manager is not good at sharing vision - but I won't pick on them at this point). A relationship with the person you work "for" is good, but the people we are drawn to are the ones who make us feel special, like we matter, and they follow those who lead with vision. You don't even really need charisma, but you do have to posess the ability to instill visions of serving a larger cause to move people to action.
For years, I put in 10-14 hours a day without blinking (mind you, it did catch up with me after awhile and I cut back to 10-13 hours a day), but during that time I was inspired by my leaders - those people who showed me "line of site" into why the work I was doing was chaning the face of business. People in the business world were counting on my ideas, my inspiration of a staff of people... I belonged to a cause that was much greater than the sum of it's part. I was motivated by that, I was inspired by the customers, business leaders, speakers, employees (even the gal behind the coffee counter that was working to make her way in the world by supplying the java habit of other inspired laborious hacks like me...), and that inspiration fueled my fire... What I was doing "mattered" and that is what counts...
So, find your inspiration, seek out the fuel that drives your very reason for being, and if you are not in a job that is satisfying you, helping you reach your dreams, making you feel you are part of something special and great, well, get out. Find a new place to rest your laurals so you can be inspired and inspire others.
I have found that it isn't love that makes the world go round (it actually has to do with some force in the universe that allows us to spin at a high rate of speed and through gravitational pull we stay put, but that wouldn't be a quippy close), it is the act of inspiring and being inspired. So, take notes, find out what inspires you, and go forth, be inspired, and find a way to inspire others....
See you on the left...
Now you have to understand something about what I hold as my values and opinions about employees (at any level). I believe people want to get three things out of the work they do. 1) they want to do something they are passionate about (this is a tough one), 2) they want to feel their daily contribution of the work they do is part of a bigger cause, and 3) they want to make money to support their lifestyle.
Most leaders asked about how they motivate people will give you the same age old answers: "I make it fun to work here", "I joke with my people (love the term "my people" - I call it the Moses syndrome - so, if that is how you refer to the people you work with - let your people go)", and my all time favorite "I try to be their friend as well as their boss" - there are thousands more ways people try to answer that question, some good, some not so good; in any case my goal is to answer that question here. How do I motivate people?
People, for the most part, want to be inspired. Why do you think Barnes and Noble has done so well over the years? It is an inspiration hub. People are inspired by other people, places, things, etc. Some people are inspired by music, some by their favorite authors, some by great speakers, some by their own reflection in the mirror, some by nature, some by giving to others, some by teaching, some by being taught, and the list goes on. We live our lives to be inspired, we seek the next adventure of having our hearts and minds enlightened by an event, a spoken word, something that causes our emotional meters to go haywire and drives us to return to that form of euphoric energy that compels us to feel, assess, act, and want to be more than the sum of our parts. Inspiration moves us to action...
So, when asked how I motivate people, the answer is simple - I find out what inspires them (either in the moment, or in their lives) and then I empower them to release their passion while doing their day to day job. Sounds complicated, but it really is not. For some of the people I work with music is important to them. They know their favorite genre, the bands/singers/musicians, that really get to them, and listening to music while at work allows them to engage inspiration while working (thank goodness for the iPod and personal MP3s - used to everyone had radios and that sparked a whole new set of issues with one persons inspiration being another person irritant). Some people like to read their favorite authors, some enjoy surfing the web, some love gadgets, computers, geeky things like stats (oh, that's me - I just raised my hand)... whatever the case I create an environment ripe for inspiration.
Then I provide vision. What is to come - how we are part of a bigger cause. My goal this year is to bring in customers we have the priviledge of serving and let them meet with the folks that are responsible for interacting with them every day. I have done this several times over the years in different situations and what I find is that empathy for the customers situation, mixed with the reality of their experience from their own words, inspires people to act differently with the other customers they deal with.
Not a tough concept, but execution of the idea is key. Being part of a bigger picture is an age old concept. The idea that my action/thoughts shared/ideas/etc are input to a larger more powerful machine that can accomplish what I believe to be bigger than life itself is important. People serve God (yes - I did use that term in the singular) because it satisfies a personal need to be driven/forgiven/loved by a being that is the ultimate in power and universal control. Any work they do because they are inspired by the power of their experience means they are contributing to a cause that is eternal, much larger than they are, more complex than they will ever be... but to be a part of that is spiritual, moving, and satisfying. It is the same in the workplace. "People don't leave companies, they leave Managers"... I have heard this line oh so many times in my career and each time I do my BS meter goes off...
People leave companies because they lack good insight to a bigger vision, a connection to a larger cause through the work they do (and usally a low-life, non-caring, micro-managing, egotistical manager is not good at sharing vision - but I won't pick on them at this point). A relationship with the person you work "for" is good, but the people we are drawn to are the ones who make us feel special, like we matter, and they follow those who lead with vision. You don't even really need charisma, but you do have to posess the ability to instill visions of serving a larger cause to move people to action.
For years, I put in 10-14 hours a day without blinking (mind you, it did catch up with me after awhile and I cut back to 10-13 hours a day), but during that time I was inspired by my leaders - those people who showed me "line of site" into why the work I was doing was chaning the face of business. People in the business world were counting on my ideas, my inspiration of a staff of people... I belonged to a cause that was much greater than the sum of it's part. I was motivated by that, I was inspired by the customers, business leaders, speakers, employees (even the gal behind the coffee counter that was working to make her way in the world by supplying the java habit of other inspired laborious hacks like me...), and that inspiration fueled my fire... What I was doing "mattered" and that is what counts...
So, find your inspiration, seek out the fuel that drives your very reason for being, and if you are not in a job that is satisfying you, helping you reach your dreams, making you feel you are part of something special and great, well, get out. Find a new place to rest your laurals so you can be inspired and inspire others.
I have found that it isn't love that makes the world go round (it actually has to do with some force in the universe that allows us to spin at a high rate of speed and through gravitational pull we stay put, but that wouldn't be a quippy close), it is the act of inspiring and being inspired. So, take notes, find out what inspires you, and go forth, be inspired, and find a way to inspire others....
See you on the left...
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Pushing the noodle uphill...
As I look back on my career (as early as last week) and think about the number of times I believed I had the power to alter someone's behaviors/character through my actions I have to laugh. I started 20+ years ago in Leadership and honestly I had the belief I could change people. I was wrong, but it took me years to realize that. (So let me bring the 800 lb. gorilla into the room so we don't have to go outside to see it...) Coaching, while the intent is good, is useless when your aim is at quantum growth. There, I said it - and now everyone can take a deep breath and start thinking of how egotistical I must be.
Okay, I am introspectively narcissistic (it's kind of like being a narcoleptic insomniac - talk to your doctor if you need more info). I really value my own opinion, but I value the fact it is right above just the fact I have one (I like myself - and it took me thousands of dollars and years on a counselor's couch to finally admit that - so don't take that away from me...). Enough about me, let's get back to coaching for ineffectiveness...
Just like Sesame Street's version of "one of these things doesn't belong here..." when it comes to making quantum change in an organization and sticking with the old form of "coaching for results" your quantum leap can quickly become trivial drudgery. Don’t get me wrong – there is a place in the workforce at all levels for identifying behaviors, telling someone what behaviors you see them exemplify, telling them the behavior they need to exemplify and then pulling a Professor Cluso (standing back and watching them through your legitimate power magnifying glass – otherwise known in some circles as micro-management). Based on the 1920’s idea of the “Hawthorne Effect” (Google it…) people will tend to do better when you pay attention to them.
But, and this is a big but, one to one development will never get the quantum change you can get by taking a one to many approach. People are smart, and so often, the front line of the organization is viewed as expendable labor. What’s funny is “expendable labor” comes right after revenue on the top line of your favorite financial report. So, sometimes we look at the frontline as this hunk of labor cheese and when it is time to cut cost the best way is to “cut the cheese” (had to throw that in for my daughter Madison) and push the other parts of the team to do more work. Seems logical, and for most sweatshops, and outsourcers, it seems to work just fine; again, no quantum leaps here, just playing trivial hop-scotch in your organization again.
So, how do you accomplish one to many developments? Simple, it comes from tapping into the very essence of what is happening in every moment of truth with your customers. You have to define what is important, define how you are doing against those things today, and put priorities in place to improve. If customer experience is most important to you and creating a better experience that yields higher satisfaction levels, or sales you need to go to the source – go where the action is… TPS calls this genchi genbutsu – or go to where the work is being done (another blog all together).
If you define your needs by thinking “customer:back” and tap into the teaching and learning power of your frontline by engaging their knowledge and expertise and helping them become teachers of knowledge you will win.
Here is what that looks like. I had the opportunity to change a decent sales force into a much better sales force while with a company I worked for. When I started I could read the back of the box we sent to the customer and get the same conversation on the phone (“our product will… it is great because… you can save time by…) and the ABC (always be closing) concept was grating my nerves like nails on a chalk board. So, I took a "one to many" training approach to alter the overall thinking of my organization. Long story short, I built bridges and relationships with all of my internal and external suppliers and customers that were aimed at developing my sales force.
I certified them in the product so they knew it inside out (how it worked, what it did, how to install it, why it did it) and then I married my sales force to the marketing team (I mean, who better understands the customer than those folks using demo/psychographics to divide customers into yummy little segments that are willing to improve our wallet share with the right messaging…). We created a partnership that actually allowed those people interacting with the customer thousands of times per year (frontline) to produce their own marketing materials to target customers. Marketing spruced up the winner and sent it out to 250K customers (not a huge segment, but the right segment), and my sales force started to understand branding, messaging, engaging, segmenting, and all the other fantastic tools to identify and reach customers. They became hungry for more info coming from marketing that would help them target better identification of their customers and improved sales.
Now that we understood the customer better from a marketing perspective, and the tools were second nature to use, I tackled the idea of “easy to install and use”. This was our mantra and wow did it get used like a pair of Michelins on a teenager’s car. I spent days during the week taking sales people away from their normal day and placing them in the customer’s process (at their place of business). We would install product (threw out the idea of easy to install), brought existing data into the product or put new info in (killed the thought of ease of use) and then we would use the systems to interact with customers. Long story short – quantum change in sales because of how we positioned our product when we talked to customers. We now knew everything a customer went through and we could honestly answer the "what's important" questions for customers.
Finally – we married ourselves to the support team. At one point we were very siloed. We sold it, someone shipped it, and then all the promises we made in saes were handled by the support team (some promises true, others were pie in the sky). By having sales folks interact “in the moment” with customers they started seeing the downstream effect their sales process. Conversations changed, realism set in, and customers started feeling cohesion in their shop/buy/use process.
Overall, we were able to make quantum leaps into double digit sales above budget. All it took was stepping away from the ol’ one on one coaching (even though that is still helpful – I will admit) and took a holistic approach to teaching an organization (a one: many approach) and from there the quantum leap happened.
See you on the left…
Okay, I am introspectively narcissistic (it's kind of like being a narcoleptic insomniac - talk to your doctor if you need more info). I really value my own opinion, but I value the fact it is right above just the fact I have one (I like myself - and it took me thousands of dollars and years on a counselor's couch to finally admit that - so don't take that away from me...). Enough about me, let's get back to coaching for ineffectiveness...
Just like Sesame Street's version of "one of these things doesn't belong here..." when it comes to making quantum change in an organization and sticking with the old form of "coaching for results" your quantum leap can quickly become trivial drudgery. Don’t get me wrong – there is a place in the workforce at all levels for identifying behaviors, telling someone what behaviors you see them exemplify, telling them the behavior they need to exemplify and then pulling a Professor Cluso (standing back and watching them through your legitimate power magnifying glass – otherwise known in some circles as micro-management). Based on the 1920’s idea of the “Hawthorne Effect” (Google it…) people will tend to do better when you pay attention to them.
But, and this is a big but, one to one development will never get the quantum change you can get by taking a one to many approach. People are smart, and so often, the front line of the organization is viewed as expendable labor. What’s funny is “expendable labor” comes right after revenue on the top line of your favorite financial report. So, sometimes we look at the frontline as this hunk of labor cheese and when it is time to cut cost the best way is to “cut the cheese” (had to throw that in for my daughter Madison) and push the other parts of the team to do more work. Seems logical, and for most sweatshops, and outsourcers, it seems to work just fine; again, no quantum leaps here, just playing trivial hop-scotch in your organization again.
So, how do you accomplish one to many developments? Simple, it comes from tapping into the very essence of what is happening in every moment of truth with your customers. You have to define what is important, define how you are doing against those things today, and put priorities in place to improve. If customer experience is most important to you and creating a better experience that yields higher satisfaction levels, or sales you need to go to the source – go where the action is… TPS calls this genchi genbutsu – or go to where the work is being done (another blog all together).
If you define your needs by thinking “customer:back” and tap into the teaching and learning power of your frontline by engaging their knowledge and expertise and helping them become teachers of knowledge you will win.
Here is what that looks like. I had the opportunity to change a decent sales force into a much better sales force while with a company I worked for. When I started I could read the back of the box we sent to the customer and get the same conversation on the phone (“our product will… it is great because… you can save time by…) and the ABC (always be closing) concept was grating my nerves like nails on a chalk board. So, I took a "one to many" training approach to alter the overall thinking of my organization. Long story short, I built bridges and relationships with all of my internal and external suppliers and customers that were aimed at developing my sales force.
I certified them in the product so they knew it inside out (how it worked, what it did, how to install it, why it did it) and then I married my sales force to the marketing team (I mean, who better understands the customer than those folks using demo/psychographics to divide customers into yummy little segments that are willing to improve our wallet share with the right messaging…). We created a partnership that actually allowed those people interacting with the customer thousands of times per year (frontline) to produce their own marketing materials to target customers. Marketing spruced up the winner and sent it out to 250K customers (not a huge segment, but the right segment), and my sales force started to understand branding, messaging, engaging, segmenting, and all the other fantastic tools to identify and reach customers. They became hungry for more info coming from marketing that would help them target better identification of their customers and improved sales.
Now that we understood the customer better from a marketing perspective, and the tools were second nature to use, I tackled the idea of “easy to install and use”. This was our mantra and wow did it get used like a pair of Michelins on a teenager’s car. I spent days during the week taking sales people away from their normal day and placing them in the customer’s process (at their place of business). We would install product (threw out the idea of easy to install), brought existing data into the product or put new info in (killed the thought of ease of use) and then we would use the systems to interact with customers. Long story short – quantum change in sales because of how we positioned our product when we talked to customers. We now knew everything a customer went through and we could honestly answer the "what's important" questions for customers.
Finally – we married ourselves to the support team. At one point we were very siloed. We sold it, someone shipped it, and then all the promises we made in saes were handled by the support team (some promises true, others were pie in the sky). By having sales folks interact “in the moment” with customers they started seeing the downstream effect their sales process. Conversations changed, realism set in, and customers started feeling cohesion in their shop/buy/use process.
Overall, we were able to make quantum leaps into double digit sales above budget. All it took was stepping away from the ol’ one on one coaching (even though that is still helpful – I will admit) and took a holistic approach to teaching an organization (a one: many approach) and from there the quantum leap happened.
See you on the left…
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