Posts

Practices for Professionals – Meetings: The Purpose of Holding Meetings

/in , /by

StrategyDriven Professional Meeting PrincipleBusiness professionals commonly attend multiple meetings each day. While consuming a significant portion of the individual’s time, these meetings seldom provide an adequate return on investment for the participant or meeting sponsor.

Hi there! This article is available to StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Remote Access and Dedicated Advisor clients and those who subscribe to one of the article's related categories. If you're already a Remote Access or Dedicated Advisor client or a related category subscriber, please log in to read this article. Not a client? We'd love to have you on board. Check out our StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor service options.

Training vs. Learning: Do you want to train? Or have someone learn?

/in , /by

Training successfully educates only those who are predisposed to the new material. Others may endeavor to learn during class but may not permanently adopt it. The problem isn’t the value of information or the eagerness of the learner: It’s a problem with both the training model itself and the way learners learn. It’s a systems/change problem.

How We Learn

We all operate out of unique, internal systems comprised of mental models (rules, beliefs, history etc.) that form the foundation of who we are and determine our choices, behaviors and habits. Our behaviors are the vehicles that represent these internal systems – our beliefs in action, if you will. So as a Buddhist I wouldn’t learn to shoot a gun, but if someone were to try to kill my family I’d shift the hierarchy of my beliefs to put ‘family’ above ‘Buddhist’ and ‘shooting a gun’ might be within the realm of possibility.

Because anything new is a threat to our habitual and carefully (unconsciously) organized internal system (part of our limbic brain), we instinctively defend ourselves against anything ‘foreign’ that might seek to enter. For real change (like learning something new) to occur, our system must buy-in to the new or it will be automatically resisted. It similarly effects selling/buying, coaching/clients, doctors/patients, leaders/followers.

A training program potentially generates obstacles, such as when

  • learners are happy with their habitual behaviors and don’t seek anything new,
  • fear they might lose their historic competency,
  • the new material unconsciously opposes long-held beliefs.

We are programmed to maintain our status quo and resist anything new unless our beliefs/mental models recognize that the new material will align with our status quo regardless of the efficacy of the required change.

How We Train

The training model assumes that if new material

  • is recognized as important, rational, and useful,
  • is offered in a logical, informative, interesting way,
  • allows time for experience and practice,

it will become accepted and habituated. But these assumptions are faulty. At an unconscious level, this model attempts to push something foreign into a closed system (our status quo): it might be adopted briefly, but if it opposes our habituated norm, it will show up as a threat and be resisted. This is the same problem faced when sellers attempt to place a new solution, or doctors attempt to change the habits of ill patients. It has little to do with the new, and everything to do with change management.

Truly experiential learning has a higher probability of being adopted because it uses the experience – like walking on coals, doing trust-falls with team members – to shift the underlying beliefs where the change takes place. Until or unless there is a belief change, and the underlying system is ready, willing, and able to adopt the new material into the accepted status quo, the change will not be permanent.

One of the unfortunate assumptions of the training field is that the teach/experience/practice model is effective and if learning doesn’t take place it’s the fault of the learner (much like sellers think the buyer is the problem, coaches thinks clients are the problem, and Listeners think Speakers are the problem). Effective training must change beliefs first.

Learning Facilitation

To avoid resistance and support adoption, training must enable

  1. buy-in from the belief/system status;
  2. the system to discover its own areas of lack and create an acceptable opening for change

before the new material is offered.

I had a problem to resolve when designing my first Buying Facilitation® training program in 1983. Because my content ran counter to an industry norm (sales), I had to help learners overcome a set of standardized beliefs and accepted processes endemic to the field. Learners would have to first recognize that their habitual skills were insufficient and higher success ratios were possible by adding (not necessarily subtracting) new ones. I called my training design Learning Facilitation and have used this model successfully for decades. (See my paper in The 2003 Annual: Volume 1 Training [Jossey-Bass/Pfieffer]: “Designing Curricula for Learning Environments Using a Facilitative Teaching Approach to Empower Learners” pp 263-272).

Briefly: Day 1 helps learners recognize the components of their unconscious status quo while identifying skills necessary for greater excellence: specifically, what they do that works and what they do that doesn’t work, and how their current skills match up with their unique definition of excellence within the course parameters. Day 2 enables learners to identify skills that would supplement their current skills to choose excellence at will, and tests for, and manages, acceptance and resistance. Only then do new behaviors get introduced and practiced.

Course material is designed with ‘learning’ in mind (rather than content sharing/behavior change), and looks quite different from conventional training. For example Day 1 uses no desks, no notes, and no lectures. I teach learners how to enlist their unconscious to facilitate buy-in for new material.

Whether it’s my training model or your own, just ask yourself: Do you want to train? Or have someone learn? They are two different activities.

About the Author

Sharon Drew Morgen is a visionary, original thinker, and thought leader in change management and decision facilitation. She works as a coach, trainer, speaker, and consultant, and has authored 9 books including the NYTimes Business BestsellerSelling with Integrity. Morgen developed the Buying Facilitation® method (www.sharondrewmorgen.com) in 1985 to facilitate change decisions, notably to help buyers buy and help leaders and coaches affect permanent change. Her newest book What? www.didihearyou.com explains how to close the gap between what’s said and what’s heard. She can be reached at [email protected]

What Is Beyond Control? New Ways For Benevolent Leaders To Innovate.

/in , /by

StrategyDriven Management and Leadership ArticleMillennials and younger generations don’t respond to control and a non-stop focus on productivity. To get the best out of them you need to be a benevolent leader. What is different about being a benevolent leader? You are always in the question of what you are creating and how it can contribute to everyone, not just your bottom line. Benevolent leadership is innovation on steroids. By its very nature, innovation goes beyond control.

If innovation is a core strategy for your business, you need to lead from the space of asking questions that create new possibilities and new choices. You can’t control the outcomes. You can control the questions you ask. Traditional management schools teach you to ask the questions you know the answers to. Benevolent leaders know this won’t create innovation and expansion. To be continually thriving rather than just surviving you have to ask the questions that don’t have an obvious ‘right’ answer!

What do these questions look like? Let’s start with what they don’t look like! If you are hearing things like this come out of your mouth or your meetings, you are limiting what you can create in your business:

  • “How do we make people work harder?”
  • “How can we control our projects more closely?”
  • “Why isn’t this working?”

Let’s consider some different possibilities.

Instead of asking how you can make people work harder, ask, “What can our people contribute that we have not yet considered?” and then ask them what they would like to contribute. Have you ever noticed how much more people will do when it is their choice?

Instead of asking how to control your projects better, ask, “What possibilities are available here that we have not yet considered?” Most projects are created in a linear and logical way. What if there is a faster, easier, more joyful way? Would you be willing to have that instead? If you ask your team, “What strategies can create the greatest results for the least effort?” you invite the elegance of creation, rather than the insanity of complicated solutions and non-stop stress. Deadlines can be met in half the time if you ask the questions that will create new possibilities!

Instead of asking why something isn’t working, ask, “What else can we create or generate that would out-create this situation?” Out-creation invites new possibilities and choices. Fixing problems invites more problems. This is the question to ask if you find you have a new problem to solve every time you turn around. What if your value as a benevolent leader is in what you create, rather than what you fix or control?

Are you willing to be the leader that people turn to, not because you have the right answers, but because the questions you ask always create greater possibilities?

What if you could be rewarded for your awareness of possibilities, rather than your ability to limit what is possible? That is the choice that you make as a benevolent leader. Are you willing to invite more possibilities than other people and businesses do? You have the choice. Ask the questions that take you out of the limitations of control and into the non-stop creation of innovation. That is how you create a sustainable future – for you, your organization and the world.

About the Author
Gary DouglasBusiness innovator, investor, author, antique storeowner and breeder of Costa Rican horses, Gary Douglas lives life to the fullest. He is the founder of Access Consciousness®, a personal development modality that has helped thousands worldwide by giving them tools to create change in all aspects of life – from addiction, recovery, weight loss, business, money, health, relationships and creativity. The Access tools are now offered in 173 countries. In 2010 his book The Place became a Barnes and Nobles #1 Bestseller. Gary is regularly featured in the international media as a thought leader in business. Find Gary at GaryMDouglas.com and Access Consciousness at AccessConsciousness.com.

Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy – Prioritization: Knowing that you can’t do it all

/in , /by

StrategyDriven Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy ArticleUnited States Naval Academy midshipmen are under never ending pressure to learn and develop, to become the finest military officers in the world. Each midshipman is assigned a full undergraduate workload to be completed in no more than four years.

Hi there! This article is available to StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Remote Access and Dedicated Advisor clients and those who subscribe to one of the article's related categories.

If you're already a Remote Access or Dedicated Advisor client or a related category subscriber, please log in to read this article.

Not a client? We'd love to have you on board. Check out our StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor service options.

Out of touch or out of their minds? Maybe both!

/in , /by

In a survey conducted by a BIG benefits management company (a management and human resource consulting firm), they asked 365 CEO’s and sales management executives, “What are the three key factors that separate high performing sales professionals from moderate to low performing sales professionals?”

Both CEO’s and C-level sales executives (all people who don’t sell, but rely on their salespeople to produce sales so that they can get paid), ranked “self discipline/motivation” as the most important.

Next in line were, “customer knowledge,” “innate talent/personality,” “product knowledge,” and further down the list were “experience” and “teamwork skills.”

Totally bogus.

These are qualities of corporate greed. Value, service, and help are the REAL three things that customers require to give their business and maintain their loyalty.

MAJOR DUH: When “survey” companies ask questions of people, why don’t they ask the people actually doing the work?

I’m a writer, but I’m also a salesman. I make sales calls and sales every day. If you’re interested in the most important factors of a high performing salesperson, let me give you a realistic list of success characteristics.

1. Perpetual, consistent, positive attitude and enthusiasm. This is the first rule of facing the customer, facing the obstacles, facing the competition, facing the economy, and facing yourself. Especially the people that answer the phone.

2. Quadruple self-belief. Unwavering belief in your company; unwavering belief in your product; AND Unwavering belief in yourself are the first three rules. But fourth is the most critical of the self-beliefs. You MUST believe that the customer is better off having purchased from you.

3. Use of creativity. Creativity to present ideas in favor of the customer, and creativity to differentiate you from the competition.

4. Ability to give and prove value. To prove the value of your product or service, and your ability to give value beyond the sale to the PROSPECT so you can earn the order, the reorder, and the loyalty.

5. Ability to promote and position. Personal use of the internet to blog, demonstrate credibility on the web, offer a weekly ezine, utilize social media, and achieve google top ranking, so your customers and prospects will perceive you as a value provider and a leader in your field.

6. Exciting, compelling presentation skills. Not just solid communication skills, but superior questioning skills, listening skills, and a sense of humor. The innate ability to engage and capture the imagination (and the wallet) of customers and prospects.

7. The ability to “click” face-to-face. Finding common ground in order to relax the conversation and use rapport to get to truth.

8. Ability to prove your value and claims through the testimony of others. Testimonials sell where salespeople can’t. The BEST salespeople use video testimonials on YouTube to support, affirm, and prove their claims. BUT, the reality is – you don’t get testimonials, you EARN them. (Same with referrals.)

NOTE WELL: If you’re looking for proof that you are “top-performing,” testimonials and referrals are a report card.

9. Ability to create an atmosphere where people want to BUY (because they hate being SOLD). This is done by engaging, and asking. Not presenting and telling.

10. Ability to build a relationship, not hunt or farm. I wonder if the “executives” talking about the factors of great salespeople are the same morons dividing their salespeople into “hunters” and “farmers.” PLEASE HELP ME. Great salespeople are relationship builders who provide value and help their customers win. These are the same head-in-the-sand executives that can’t open their laptops, and forbid Facebook at work, individual websites, and blogs from their people. ADVICE: If this is your situation, find your way to the competition.

11. A PERSONAL social media platform that promotes your social selling and builds your reputation. The minimums are: 1,000 business Facebook likes, 501 LinkedIn connections, 500 Twitter followers, 25 YouTube videos, and a blog where you post weekly.

12. Unyielding personal values and ethics. Great people have great values and great ethics. Interesting that 365 CEO’s and executives don’t deem them in the top ten.

12.5 The personal desire to excel and be their best. This is a desired quality of every salesperson, BUT the best salespeople have mastered the other ten elements. They must be mastered in order for this quality to manifest itself.

There is no prize in sales for second place. It’s win or nothing. The masters know this, and strive for, fight for, that slight edge.

And as for the next poll taken, here’s a great idea for CEO’s and sales executives. There’s an easy way to find out the most important factors and qualities of great salespeople: make some sales calls yourself.

And if you really want to have some fun, bring your marketing people along.

If you want to build great salespeople, go to www.jeffreygitomer.com/gold, and subscribe to Gitomer Gold – The Year of the Sale.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].