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Results are all that matter – or do they?
The more you manage people, the more you realize that many people work to produce results that will have little impact. This is simply wasted time, effort, and resources.
A simple solution
The most direct solution is to insist that every month all managers define results for their position. This may seem like over kill, but it is a very low-cost, high payoff practice. Asking these four questions about any job can triple your chances of making a solid contribution.
The four questions:
• If I could make a significant difference, where would that be (open inquiry, no limits)?
• What is the current situation and what would success require (today’s reality – not last month’s)?
• What strengths, actions, effort and attitude would I need to achieve this?
• Would others be able to see results from my effort? List them.
This process can be done alone, with the boss, or as a team. It does not matter how you do it. What matters is knowing that you will always make a greater contribution when you know what you are doing.
Try it for your own performance and see what you discover.
Richard L Reardon
Stop Solving Problems:
Whenever you have a problem that seems insurmountable, do not attempt to solve it. That approach never works. It is really a waste of time and actually makes the problem expand. Energy invested expands whatever it is focused on.
It is true that you cannot solve a problem at the same level that it exists. You must come at it from a fresh angle and adopt a new view. Assume all problems are there to teach you what you need to do to adapt and to learn.
Action item:
Learn to use every problem situation as a signal for asking yourself:
· How do I want to interpret this in light of what I was trying to achieve?
· What is the hidden benefit to me in this situation?
· How can I tap into my creative higher self and look at this situation differently?
· What can I learn from this that will help me keep moving or get moving in the right direction?
Expectations will guide you forward:
When you do learn to ask these types of questions, you will become more interested in possibilities and solutions and less interested in problems. Let your highest positive expectations guide you. Expectations are your goals, aspirations, vision, wants and needs. Keep them in the forefront as the guide.
· Expectations force you to know what you want, and knowing what you want will always put problems into their proper context.
· Expectations are always just “a bit ahead” of where you are currently. They serve as a magnet and preview of what’s next for you.
· Having expectations as a guide places the fundamental responsibility for choosing what you want where it needs to be.
Give yourself some time to increase your own self trust that you know the best possible solution.
To your success,
Richard R
If you have a choice between working with your salespeople or with your sales manager/supervisor, choose the sales manager. You will get better, longer lasting and more focused performance improvement.
Three reasons:
- The sales manager needs to provide on-going, one-on-one support and coaching to their sales people. It is the number one, most important element in developing performance.
- The Sales Manager is able to link the company’s strategies and plans to the individual’s effort and plans. Keeping the company and personal strategies aligned and visible prevents drift.
- The Sales Manager is the best source for focus, purpose, and direction. The very thing salespeople seek and need for improvement.
Bottom line:
Individual feedback and relating is a key to performance improvement and continuous learning. Unfortunately, most managers do not have a systematic method to provide on-going, growth-oriented feedback.
Action Idea:
Develop a method that is driven by the sales manager. Let them decide what areas they would like to review and develop with their salespeople. Choose areas from the sales process, personal strengths and goals. Design the process so that the sales manager and the salesperson sets the targets and knows how to monitor results. Suggest that the sales manager conduct the 1×1 meetings with the salesperson every 13 weeks (quarterly)
Summary:
If you spend quality time with your sales manager, you will soon see dramatic improvement.
Many of us have a terrible time making decisions. The usual blocks are fear of making a mistake, followed by laziness. In tough times, people tend toward in-decision, which leads to learned laziness.
If you suspect you need more decisiveness from others (or from yourself), develop a process that will allow you to practice decision making. If you practice making quicker decisions, it will soon be one of your strengths.
With business speeding along as it is, we all need to become faster at making decisions.
I have used this simple 4-step process as a starting point with people. It works!
1. Write down what you need to decide. Separate the symptom from the core issue and get to the feeling behind. This will also help you go beneath the mind chatter to the core of the problem.
2. Decide why you need to make a decsion in the first place. This may sound obvious, but it is not. Ask this only after you have completed step one.
3. Set a deadline for making the decision.
4. Gather what you need to research the problem, develop your options and make the decision by your deadline. Reduce you usual analyze time by 50%. Go faster.
Why?
If you devote 7 to 10 days following this process, you will improve the quality and speed of your decisions. Practice on any topic you can find. This is the best way to break out of being a victim of the subtle effects of in-decision.
You will free yourself for more interesting challenges. You will see more opportunity. You already have all the insight and skills necessary to make any decision that confronts you.
( I won’t say “make the decision” to try this. I hope that you will.)
Richard R
When you take a look at your current reality around business (or the lack of business) what do you see?
For most, it is a sinking feeling because the outside condition seems to be firmly in control. Few of us can generate much creativity when we feel we have little control over our direction or choices.
The opposite is closer to the truth about your options. No matter what current reality you encounter, it is always to your advantage to see with both eyes wide open, look for what you may not have seen, and change your interpretation of its meaning.
You can not change the facts of a situation, but when you change your perception, you change what those facts mean to you. It may sound trite, but try to ask what you can learn from this X. There has to be a lesson there for you.
This is a skill and must be developed. While it is not an easy skill to develop, the alternative - being conditioned driven- will always lead to an unfavorable outcome.
The idea of being open to new and different perceptions forces you to stay fresh, open to learning and far away from the rut that you don’t want to fall in.
It is all going to be better:
When you take the position that there is a better future ahead and that this situation is to help you develop as a person, it will be easier to adapt, learn and advance. It is your best option because you are here to advance.
I hope you will try this in one area of your current situation.
Cheers,
Richard
There are many things that you can do to improve the productivity of a group. The problem is not knowing how to approach the task. Each company, team or individual is unique, and there is no universal answer for boosting productivity.
Barriers are there:
When asked “What can we do to get better results?”, managers will rarely look at their own ineffective, worn out processes. Nor are they willing to look at their way of thinking. When thinking and process are left unexamined, barriers to growth and positive change are severley limited.
The simple fact is that how you think about your possibilities (current reality) has the biggest impact on those possibilities. The second element - process has an enormous impact on what you actually accomplish.
New thinking - new process
These two are where you need to start any productivity improvement effort. Thinking helps you expand what you see as possible. Process helps you to improve how you approach your work. It is important to accept that how you do things is driving much of your accomplishment.
Conduct a simple diagnostic on these two items. If you do, you and or the group will be drawn intuitively to what you need to change to get the new results you seek.
I hope that you will use this
Richard Reardon
310 394 0200 West Coast, USA
One common reason for not getting new business is not providing full answers to the more important questions every prospect has.
If you don’t take the time to anticipate what those question may be, you run the risk of being non responsive and out of touch with that prospect.
The simple rule is never to make a sales call until you know the questions they will want answered.
There is a way for you to develop this skill, and we have provided a worksheet for you to get focused on this aspect of preparing for a sales call. See below for the link to the worksheet.
The concept:
Your goal is to figure out the five most important questions you believe a valid prospect would want to discuss with you about your offering.
Here is a simple, yet effective, process that will help hone in on what is really important to any prospect.
Step one:
- Reflect on the service you provide. Think in terms of what it does, how it works, why it is effective, how it was designed, etc.
- Decide why you believe your service / product is the best option to solve the problems it was designed to solve.
- Describe the client who qualifies for the service and who will benefit the most.
- Develop a renewed sense of passion about the service.
You get the idea. You are building a fresh image of your world class service/product and at the same time a fresh image of your ideal prospect.
You may have other elements than the above to help you focus. That is fine. Do what ever you can to get some passion and enthusiasm back into the idea behind the service.
Step two:
- Imagine yourself as the prospect. What would you be most concerned about when considering this service? Identify at least five concerns.
- Write each concern as a question. Example. “How will I know our people can implement this quickly?”
- Carefully develop your response and discussion points for each question. Make it through and customer centered. See everything through the prospect’s eyes and ears.
- Be proud and audacious. Know that you do good work.
Worksheet:
I hope that you will use this and let me know the results or the insights you gain.
This economic climate may not be in line with what you are hoping for. It also may be generating a large concern about the future, maybe even fear.
With so much uncertainty about our future, the mind quickly thinks about what might go wrong. Creativity, optimism and new ideas go out the window. Not a good strategy if you expect to create new and better options.
A better approach:
This economic transition is great opportunity for those who seek to go forward and not allow conditions to dictate choices. Here is a list of actions that will help anyone stay on the right side and build a better company.
Actions:
- Recognize the current reality for what it is and what it means to you personally.
- Review your highest goals and note the difference between where you are and where you must be by year end.
- List the next three opportunities created by the downturn.
- Decide how you will change your offering to increase actual value delivered.
- Understand that all fear energy reduces what you see to what you fear, limits your
options and will make you feel drained all day long.
- Decide if you are able to trust your own creativity and energy to grow more than you trust the worry.
- Commit to a six month turnaround plan.
- Manage your expectations more from what you want than from what you know. Don’t allow fear expectations to slip in.
Giving yourself at least six months is very important. You need to allow sufficient time to really absorb the changes and to adapt your thinking. You can’t rush through this as if you are running away. You are, in fact, running toward what really matters to your company’s long term success.
I hope that you will use this and let me know your results.
Lots of challenges and opportunities too:
I have had the pleasure to see entrepreneurs work and am always impressed with their ability to focus on the most important tasks – tasks that will bring the organization to the next level of performance. Here is what they do:
- Do not hesitate to assess and then eliminate all wasteful tasks or activities
- Look at every challenge as just part of doing business and use the challenge as a catalyst for change
- See the short term future, 30 to 180 days, as the incubator for pulling the plug on select activities, people or products
- Use the short term future, 30 to 180, days to launch the fresh ideas that will produce positive change in the face of reality
Develop your own “See Opportunity” process:
Many entrepreneurs do this as part of their usual style. It is a part of their nature. On the other hand, most managers need a more formal process to see new opportunity.
Take one hour to discuss (with one trusted peer) the changes taking place in your market and your company. Do not conclude the discussion until you have pinpointed the biggest challenge and the opportunity that challenge presents. Once done, you will know what to do. Plan on setting new goals for managing change better and developing people. You will need both, and, in a way, they go together.
I hope that you will use this.
Richard R
It is common for businesses to focus on day-to-day problems, new accounts, new opportunities, and growth. Everyone gets excited and the focus on “are we making money?” is lost.
In our work with business owners, there is an awareness of the bottom line, but the attention is usually on building the business, i.e. sales, new products, account development, etc. All are necessary, but when the company loses awareness of making and saving money, profitability is at risk
Here are two areas that can make a lot of difference to your long term. Profitability and Sales. If you can zero in on profitability first, and sales second you will see positive results.
Try these seven ways to refocus on both profits and building the business:
- Let go of the sacred cows, processes, people, and products that are more about the past than the future.
- Focus on profitability in every meeting – especially with the salespeople.
- Have a strong COO and CFO (one or both) and give them plenty of authority.
- Establish tight budgets and “no mistake” consequences for exceeding them.
- Watch expenses like a hawk and act like you have no money – (do this with a smile, too).
- Let everyone know what the company is planning to do with the profits (new equipment, expansions, pensions, new products).
- Measure and report on profitability monthly.
This may seem like an obvious thing to pay attention to (profitability), but in most companies, it gets little attention until after the fact.
Develop your own approach to include item 2 from the above list in your meetings. You will be surprised with the positive outcome.
Let me know how you do?
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