There’s nothing I like better for low cast examples of leadership development training than real world situations that illustrate the principles of leadership and human behavior. If you’re interested in learning more about leadership development principles here is an interesting video on how a movement gets started. This demonstrates how a single individual, once they get a follower, can generate a much, much larger following.

This is the essence of leadership.

Some interesting points to note:

1) The leader gets things started, but it’s the first follower who lends legitimacy to the movement.

2) There is a discernible tipping point where movement gains momentum. Watch for it in the video and think about times you’ve seen this at concerts, religious celebrations and political rallies.

For a more in-depth study here’s a great resource.

It gets harder and harder every year to determine what’s real and what’s a lie.  Check out this video for an example of how they can create magic…

This actually relates somewhat to body language, because we can use body language to see through the smoke and mirrors and misdirection put up by others. A knowledge of nonverbal communication can help us see and experience reality.

By the same token we can use a knowledge of body language to engineer an impression and and experience, just as the illusions in the video were created using green screen technology. Body Language is a tool, and an effective one, for both getting at and revealing the truth.

In today’s demanding and ever changing world it’s more important than ever to keep up with the new developments that affect your profession. For the sales professional this includes diverse fields of study such as psychology, human behavior, sales techniques and tactics, body language and nonverbal behavior, the science of influence, Neuro-linguistic Programming and others.

I know, it seems exhausting and it is. The truth of the matter is that very few professionals in any field, much less the sales field take the time, trouble and effort to stay current in their specialty.

In a recent study conducted at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden found that few professionals stay current in their professions and, while the study didn’t cover it, I would bet that none of the non-professionals made the attempt to improve themselves in their particular niche. You can read about the study here…Few Professionals stay current.

The fact remains that those who focus on developing, improving and adding to their skill set will tend to be more employable and to earn more money.

If you don’t have one, I recommend sketching out a quick plan focus on reading, research and constant practice.  You will be glad you did.

Yesterday Tiger Woods made the first formal apology since word of his infidelities leaked out and became public knowledge last year.  I was asked by CBS Affiliate Channel 3 in Philadelphia to provide some body language analysis of Woods performance…was he being sincere? Was his apology heartfelt?  Will he really change his ways?

Unfortunately I hadn’t had the chance to see much of his apology when they called so I couldn’t give an educated analysis at the time.  Since then I have viewed the apology many times, focusing down on what I consider to be critical components. Here is his apology:

I did not sense real contrition for his actions nor did I see a determination that he has learned his lesson and will not return to his old habits. The message I got, underneath the carefully rehearsed performance was, “Hey I’m Tiger Woods. What I do is my business and this is between me, my wife and my family. Stay out of my business.”

For a more in-depth analysis please check out my article…Tiger Woods apology, A Body Language Analysis.

If you are just starting out to learn to read and interpret body language you can find the wide array of gestures, postures and expressions bewildering and confusing.  There is simply so much to know and so much to look for to “read” another persons body language.

What we all need is a simple, fast and effective methodology we can use to quickly and effectively read the situation or size up another person.  Developing this type of system, or method will make body language interpretation fun and easy for you.

One of the things I check out immediately is the person’s feet, because the feet can tell you a lot about another person.  Here are a few basic things to look for:

• Shoes – A person’s shoes tell a lot about an individual’s income, social status and sense of self-worth.  Are the shoes expensive?  Loafers, flip-flops or tennis shoes?  Do the shoes match the rest of the person’s dress?  Are they stylish or mundane?

• Which way are the feet pointing?  We point our feet in the direction of our attention and intention.  If I’m talking to someone and their looking at me while their feet are pointing towards the door then I have a problem.  You not really invested in our conversation.

• In a group a person will point their feet at the individual they are directing their attention and communication to.  This is an excellent way to see who someone is really interested in.

• Dancing feet?  Are they bouncing their feet like their nervous or excited?  Are the feet motionless or still?  People bounce their feet when they’re happy and confident.

So there you go.  Three quick and easy things to look for when trying to assess a person’s intentions, actions, or hidden thoughts.  Use it to your advantage.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielagama_fotografando/ / CC BY 2.0

Two conversations I had over the last couple days illustrated the disconnect between what passes for a college education today and what is needed to succeed in the real world of work.

The first conversation took place on Friday, when a business owner and I were discussing how hard is it to find good employees today, with a good employee defined as one who would show up on time, work hard without complaining and strive to do the absolute best job they could do.  It was both our experience that it was increasingly hard to find this type of employee, especially one out of college.

College has the effect of giving people a sense of entitlement along with the false belief that they really know a subject.

Ask yourself, would you rather hire a new college graduate with a degree in Management or an experienced manager?

Good employees are increasingly hard to find, especially amongst the youth of today who have expectations of sitting behind a desk and collecting large sums of money because they deserve it.  This explains why, aside from being willing to work cheap, illegal labor is so popular. Most of the time these people are happy simply to have a job.

The second conversation took place today on a social media site. I went back and forth with a young woman about the efficacy of college.  For most people and for most occupations, I believe a college degree to be a waste of time. Being enrolled in college and especially proud of the fact, she of course went on and on about how important getting a degree was and how the mere possession of a degree was “proof” that she knew her stuff.

I did find the assertion laughable and sad at the same time.  Laughable because of her ignorance and sad because I’m sure that in her heart of hearts she believes it to be true.  After all, most professor’s probably tell their students how important and useful the degree they are earning is to their success in a career, and in some instances, like engineering, the hard sciences and Medicine it certainly is. But the statistics show the awful truth of college…that for most people it is a waste of time and money, as illustrated below,
Source: Online Colleges and Universities

For more proof on here’s an article in Forbes…Is College Worth it?

Most people would be much better off skipping college, especially the standard four year institution and go straight into the business world.  Is education important, absolutely, but it should be a targeted education and largely one of self-education based on the student’s own choosing.   Even more importantly, nobody should spend more than a few thousand dollars a year on their degree.

How can this be done?  I highly recommend checking out the information here…A four year degree for less than $15,000.

Tomorrow is the Superbowl Sunday. This is the day the NFL puts on their biggest extravaganza of the year. Over-hyped and occasionally disappointing, the Superbowl always seems to some of the best and most creative ads on television.

These ads need to be creative. Even though the cost of the ad’s is lower this year than in times past, Superbowl ad’s are the most expensive on television…$100,000 per second. If you’re going to spend that kind of cash on a commercial you want to get some bang for your buck. The ad’s have to be good.

Which is why taking the time to watch and to pay attention to the ad’s can be so rewarding for those of us who are students of advertising and marketing. Are these expensive ad’s worth the money being spent on them if we judge them on the one thing that really matters…selling the product.

These ad’s are always creative. In fact, the ad for Tabasco sauce featured below is one of my favorites and was so effective that I still remember it several years later. (I also put Tabasco on my pizza, something I did not do before seeing the ad.) But aside from creativity we need to ask the question, “Was this a good and effective ad?” Well, you be the judge.

Here is my suggestion. Use your DVR (TIVO) to record the Superbowl and then analysis the ad’s using these criteria:

• What is the ad promoting?
• Is there an offer?
• When is the offer mentioned?
• Is the offer compelling?
• Is the ad confusing? (Confusion doesn’t sell.)
• Is the ad memorable?
• Who is the ad targeting?
• Would the ad cause you to go out and buy the product?
• Is this a new ad or one you’ve seen before?

This is like a fast, easy and fun refresher, or introductory course on advertising. So go ahead and enjoy the game, have fun and take advantage of the opportunity to learn something that can benefit you long after the game is forgotten.
Here’s a compilation of Superbowl ads from 2008.  For more ad’s see the links below.

Superbowl Ads

Top 10 Superbowl Tech Ads

Funny Superbowl Ads

Today is New Years Eve.  Tomorrow will be the start of a new year and a new decade. Everyone reading this, no matter what their age or circumstance wants this decade to be the best ever. The single one thing you can do to improve the odds of having a fantastic 2010 is to start with a set of goals you an work to achieve throughout the new year.

Notive I said goals, not resolutions.  To me a resolution has a negative connotation to it since resoultions are usually framed in terms of things we want to avoid.  Goals on the other hand are things you want to accomplish that are framed in a positive manner.  It does make a difference.  Studies have shown that goals framed in a positive manner are more likely to be acheived then ones framed in a negative way.  Since it makes sense to get on the side of research we should put a positive spin on all our goals.

I’m not going to bore you with a long drawn out post on the importace of setting goals because you should pretty much know how important goals are.  I’ve found that most people know they should set goals but tend to procrastinate in doing so.  Goals are something they intend to do in the future or that they bounce around in their heads. Both of these are bad ideas.  Make it a priority ot set a some goals today.  And don’t make it a long, drawn out painful affair, should only take a few minutes…really. My wife and I set our goals for 2010 in about ten minutes while driving in the car.  Setting goals is the esy part.

I’ve found it useful to divide your life into separate areas for the purpose of setting goals and recommend you do the same.  Here are the areas I use:

1. Money or Financial Goals - This includes job, career and investments
2. Physical – This is health and fitness.
3. Relationships – Friends, family and associates
4. Emotional – This are the things that will make me happy.  Things like travel, personal development and achievements

That’s it, four areas with maybe one or two goals per area.  Why not more?  Well, basically because I want to keep it simple and make it easy to achieve.  Reaching these goals will markedly improve my life and I know that getting one or two things done in these areas will make anyone’s life better.

Everybody involved in business, whether it be sales, customer service or operations knows the old adage, “A satisfied customer will tell one person while a dissatisfied customer will tell ten.”  It’s an old adage that needs updating.  Today, with the internet and inexpensive video technology a dissatisfied customer can tell literally millions.

Here’s a great example of how one dissatisfied customer, with good reason, has passed on his bad customer service experience to millions of viewers over the Internet.  Here’s the back-story:

His Taylor guitar (estimated value = $3500) was damaged by United Airlines during a flight.  After several frustrating months dealing with United’s customer service department and trying to get them to pay for the damages he decided to make a video describing his experience and to post it on Youtube. They supposedly told him, “Good Luck with that.”  Here’s the video.  It’s a good one.  Enjoy!

No business wants something like this on Youtube, much less have it seen by millions of people. To prevent this every business needs to ensure their customer service functions are top notch. Here’s a start:

Most people can’t sell, including most salespeople.  About 60% – 70% of people involved in the sales process are what is know as order- takers, people who merely show up (or stand around or pick up the phone) and fill out the order sheet.

Really selling something is hard work and we all know that most people do not want to work very hard, especially for an extended period. This is why true sales professionals, those people who know how to generate and close business, are such valuable commodities.  But there also exist people who are not only ineffective and poor salespeople, they are caustic to any business.  These are the anti-salespeople.

Anti-salespeople are hurting your organization.

I’ve spend the last few weeks struggling with a situation within my sales territory that has the potential to negatively affect both my total gross sales numbers and my commission far into the future.  Skipping the details of the situation, I found it amazing that the circumstances and logic that led to the situation were allowed to proceed, because to the rational and logical mind none of this makes sense.  Since everyone involved in the sales process within my territory are, at least in title, salespeople, you would think that any measures taken would be those consistent with growing the sales pie.

Then it hit me.

We have an anti-salesperson involved in the process!

Definition of an anti-salesperson?

“Organizations are perfectly designed to achieve the results they are getting.”

Oftentimes businesses and organizations involved with selling a product have sales prevention teams…unofficial (obviously) teams and individuals who impede sales and interfere with the sales process.  Most of the the this is accomplished by making it too hard or complex to buy from you.  Having a product or service is wonderful, but when it’s too much of a hassle to deal with your company people will go somewhere else, even if the competitive offering is inferior.

Anti-salespeople work in a similar manner to the Sales prevention team, although they are rarely members.  They are more like double-agents embedded in your organization in that they appear to be accomplishing one task – selling things, while in actuality they are harming both present and future sales.

Just as there are “natural-born” salespeople there exist “natural-born” anti-salespeople.  These are people whose natural mental makeup and predisposition cause them to impede and interfere with the sales process.  I believe however, that the number of natural anti-salespeople is small.  Most anti-salespeople are created by their organizations through misguided incentive plans, poor management, insufficient supervision and inadequate leadership.

Some environments are better than others.

Most anti-salespeople can be found in corporate sales organizations.  Why?  Because corporate sales forces tend to be large and the pay and incentives are often not tied directly to actual sales results.  Corporate Salespeople can often survive and even be promoted not because of their sales results, but for political reasons…who they know and how well they can “bullshit” their way into and out of assignments.

In large organizations, like the government, you can easily hide your lack of talent and ability by playing corporate politics, avoiding accountability and responsibility.

Sales managers and business owners need to constantly be on the lookout for anti-salespeople because by their very nature they make themselves difficult to find by hiding in the cracks and backwaters of an organization, laying low so that they can collect their paychecks for as long as possible.  It’s especially important to identify and remove anti-salespeople when times are tough, as they are today.  This means managers and supervisors need to constantly be on the lookout for people who are out there destroying business.

The best way to determine who is an effective salespeople is to base their evaluations on their results, and it has to be direct results.  Oftentimes in corporations people can get credit for other people’s efforts.  Through various departmental and divisional agreements salespeople get compensated for the results other achieve, which allows them to claim success when there isn’t any.  Peel back the surface and look underneath and you’ll see who is really producing and who is coasting along on the efforts of others.

When you find them you need to fire them, or at least remove them from the front lines and get them away from customers.  Having nobody in a territory is better than having a salesperson tarnishing your reputation and driving people away.