The Summit Blog

Measuring learning and behavior change

2013-05-17T06:35:00.000-04:00

This post is an excerpt from Changing Results by Changing Behavior, a leadership field guide by Julie Poland:

You might think that measurement of results would be a foregone conclusion ─ everyone does it, right? That’s not been our experience. Sure, leaders take a look at certain numbers like gross revenue, gross profit, cash balances and the like, but far fewer have a grip on measurement beyond that.

When there are hard dollar reasons to pursue behavior change it’s natural that hard dollar measurements should result. If you engage someone to work with your sales staff you would expect to see movement in sales per rep, perhaps an increase in the number of presentations, or in their closing percentages. Where you set concrete financial benchmarks at the beginning of your process you’ve set the stage for measuring the downstream effectiveness of your change efforts.

When you define the most appropriate measurements, you can more readily define the interim goals or behaviors that should lead to them. Continuing with the sales example, what behavior changes would your reps need to make to close more sales? Do they need to redefine their “ideal prospects?” Do they need to learn more effective communication techniques to use during the sales process? When you define expectations in specific terms, you help whatever outside resource you’re using (we’ll call it your improvement partner) to tailor a process that directly addresses your situation. The resulting process is more likely to help your people produce the desired results.

Communicating Success Measures when You Start

It’s important, when measuring progress, to tell the participants what the targets are before they start. You (or the highest-ranking executive you can access) should personally participate in the project kickoff, setting the scene by laying out some performance goals. When you choose to do this:

Participants realize that this isn’t in addition to their job, or tangential to their job ─ it is their job.
You create an umbrella under which participants can set their individual goals as the process progresses.
Participants will be able to help you achieve the results you want by addressing the piece that they can impact from their corner of your organization.

Levels of Measurement

You might be interested in finding out your employees’ reactions to whatever development or project-focused process you have involved them in, but that really only gives you a superficial view. Reactions relate more to whether they liked the facilitator, the room and the snacks than whether the process was effective. Yes, it does help to have an engaging facilitator, an accommodating space, etc. But it takes more to evaluate the value of your investment.

You might also want to know about the amount of learning they acquired during training efforts. You can incorporate pre- and post-training exams if you want to increase the accountability for each person to participate fully in gaining the information they need to know. One potentially undesirable side effect of content exams is that they can create the misperception that the primary goal is to obtain knowledge. That’s not it ─ the change you seek may require a knowledge-download component, but ultimately application of knowledge is what creates the behavior change.

Your two most important categories of measurement will come from the behavior changes people make and the new results they achieve. You and your improvement partner will be double-teaming during the change process, with your facilitator providing the tools and processes and you providing the support, context, alignment and accountability for your employees. (You can see why it is advantageous to start with your senior leaders, so you can spread the responsibility around as you go through your company!)

It is possible to see positive ratings and good exam scores without seeing changed behavior and results. When that happens it can be because application isn’t built into the provider’s process, but more often it’s because there is little or no direct involvement from company leadership to help participants apply what they are learning to “the real world.” It happens when company leadership has an expectation that the facilitator is driving the change. While they can be an influence on your behalf, the facilitator does not control all of the other resources like organizational structure and rewards that will make or break the results you want to achieve. You do.

Measuring Behavior Change

The simplest method my colleagues and I use to measure behavior change is the implementation of behavior-related goals. In an earlier chapter I cited the example of the supervisor in saying “Good morning” every morning. Behavioral goals can be tricky in that people will try to commit themselves to a major “go forth and sin no more” expectation ─ an ad infinitum standard that is difficult to sustain. It’s preferable to keep the behavior narrow and specific and the early time frames short to create the opportunity for success. For example:

Each day this week I will plan the next day’s tasks before I leave the office.
For today I will ask questions so I better understand the other person’s point rather than dig in and argue my point of view.
I will distribute a written agenda no later than 48 hours prior to the Friday staff meeting.

There are few goals too small to start the process of behavior change, as long as they meet the SMART criteria (specific, measurable, achievable yet realistically high, and time-deadline stated). Each has just a small impact, but together they create a critical mass of positive momentum. In general terms, more difficult behavioral change goals should carry shorter time frames to keep them realistic. You can evaluate your success on each goal and renew it if you want to refine your approach or commit to an additional segment of time.

Five reasons why the phone weighs fifty pounds

2013-05-16T06:12:00.001-04:00

1949 Telephone, a photo by SmashBucketGallery on Flickr.

For readers who can't remember a time prior to smart phones, this is what phones looked like when your parents - or grandparents - were chatting with their high school friends. You don't know what real dialing is, or how long it takes for the 9 to return to its position so you can dial the next number. You could probably send ten texts in the time frame needed to dial one number the old fashioned way.

The old phone was certainly too heavy to carry in a pants pocket, even if you had a pocket the size of Bozo the clown's. But the heaviness we're talking about today is the weight of your reluctance to pick up your smart phone and dial a prospective client to set up a get-acquainted meeting.

The phone isn't your only tool for prospecting, and some would say that they will never, ever cold call. They will admit that it's too torturous for them with too few positive results. But networking (one of the preferred marketing modes right now) is relatively slow when done right. The object in networking is the relationship first, sometimes long before a prospective business relationship is on the agenda. The phone, on the other hand, is your direct line to the in-person meeting, and most sales don't happen without that critical mid-process step.

So why is the phone so heavy? Here are five reasons shared with us - see whether any of them resonate with you:

I don't know who to call
I don't know what I'm going to say
I'm only going to get their voice mail anyway
They don't want me interrupting their day
The last guy I called was downright rude to me

Who do you call?

It's best if you disconnect the generation of your call list from your calling process. It's a great activity for non-peak hours. Make a list, include the phone numbers, and leave room for taking notes once the calling begins. The length of your list should be determined by the number of appointments you want to make. Use your prior success rate to work backwards; if you want your result to be eight scheduled appointments and about 50% of the people you talk to say yes you'll need 16 names on your list. If only a third of the people that you try to talk to are actually reachable you'll need to have three times that many - 48 - ready to go if you want to be uninterrupted in your calling process once you start.

What are you going to say?

You need to have an agenda for the call so you don't fall subject to a brain cramp. You can create a script, or a more outline-formed call guide with the key points in a few bullets. It's important to keep you on track, to enable you to stay focused on the other person rather than on your own thought formulation. When creating a script it's important to remember that while nothing works 100% of the time, the more consistency you use in your approach the better you are able to evaluate and improve your methods. Test and measure. This, of course, means that if you want to improve you need to track your phone activities (#attempts, #contacts #appointments, etc.) and analyze your results.

Voice mail hell

You need to incorporate a plan for voice mail into your calling. Do you want them to call you back? Think carefully about this, because if you are calling 150 people today and a Mr. Smith comes through on your line out of context later today it might take you a few minutes to figure out that it's the same Mr. Smith that you tried to reach this morning. And if you're not going to be in the office later anyway their return call will only be an exercise in frustration. Some people leave only their name - so it becomes familiar - on voice mail. Others leave a short commercial. Just beware of giving so much information that the prospect makes a buy or no-buy decision based upon your message. You aren't even close to that point in a valid sales process. If you're presenting over voice mail you're jumping the gun - by a long shot.

I'm an interruption and an annoyance

It's easier when you are not calling completely cold. This IS where it's beneficial to gather names of prospective clients through in-person contacts, provided that you're not irritating in person! When you have met someone recently and you follow up promptly you already have a shared experience through which you can develop rapport on the phone. Whether you already know this person or not, though, you want to ask whether you're calling at an OK time, you want to be brief and to the point, and you want to remember that you have only one goal for this call - to establish an appointment. If they don't want to meet, politely thank them and say "Next!" inside your head. On-the-phone arm-twisting or pleading places you at a strategic disadvantage, and it doesn't create the foundation for a client-centered meeting. When you pressure you're making it all about you and your need to have a meeting, and that's not the proper focus if you want to create the foundation for a long, mutually beneficial relationship with them.

The last guy I talked to was downright rude

When you call you ARE an interruption in the sense that you are an unplanned part of their day. Some people deal well with that and some people don't, so you are likely to run across somebody that's a bit testy. You can help yourself here through a few simple strategies:

Ask whether it's an OK time to talk
Keep it brief and to the point - your goal is to set an appointment, not to educate, sell, persuade, etc.
Be prepared with a list of potential objections and responses

An objection is not necessarily a stop sign - it is often a request for more information. When you are prepared to handle certain objections you improve your confidence for the call, meaning that the person on the other end is less likely to shake you. An objection might be a sincere misunderstanding about your company, what you do, and the purpose of your request for a meeting. Once you answer the objection(s) you may wind up with the desired appointment. But if they come in an unending stream, cut bait and say "Next!" inside your head. There's somebody else out there who is open to you, and your job is to find him or her.

The phone need not weigh fifty pounds. Preparation is huge in winning this internal battle. But so is building time for it into your daily or weekly routine. When you are trying to improve, higher frequency is better than lower frequency. When you call a lot you can more readily remember the mistakes you made the last time and avoid them. You can more easily repeat the strategies that worked on the last call until you make them second nature. And you won't allow enough time for the inner voices to psych you out.

Track your numbers. This helps you measure your success, identify your best practices, and improve. It also takes the process from an emotionally-charged one to a data-collection project. Once you know your numbers you can manage tomorrow's activities based upon results-based information. And that makes the phone a whole lot lighter.

Should your company have a blog?

2013-05-15T06:04:00.000-04:00

The first time I heard of the term blog (short for weblog,) was when a website designer recommended it about nine years ago as a way to keep the website for my coaching company fresh. She explained that when website content changes, search engine spiders find the site more easily. Even though most new clients find my business through personal contact and not through a web search, I was game to try it to see whether it would improve my visibility in a Google search. I finally wrote and posted my first blog entry in September of 2005, and by now blogging has become an integral part of my marketing mix.

Why a blog may be good for your business

Beyond boosting your search engine ranking, you can achieve a number of additional goals by writing a blog:

Expand your visibility in various social media.
Establish your expertise in your industry, differentiating yourself from your competition.
Share information about new developments in products and services, to attract new and repeat customers.
Provide a platform through which you can find out what customers are thinking about your business. The engagement with customers is perhaps the ultimate goal, but not for the fainthearted. Be sure that you really want to know what they are saying before you ask the questions!

Getting started with blogging

The simplest method to get a blog going is to use one of the online platforms. Blogger (a Google product) and Wordpress are two of the most commonly used blog platforms. You establish an account, name your blog and select a template for the appearance of your blog. Your blog will have its own URL (for example, thefriendlyplumber.blogspot.com) that you can link to your main company website so that every blog update you do will automatically show up there.

Content and blog frequency

Your selection of content will be one of the chief determiners of the frequency at which you post to your blog. If you are a news blogger, for instance, a once daily post will leave you in the dust behind bloggers who are online the moment after a story develops. Most likely, however, your posts will either be informational and educational or commentary and opinion. If there is not time sensitivity in your content you will determine your own posting frequency: daily, biweekly, weekly, etc. The goal is enough frequency to attract regular readers and search engines, but only enough that it is sustainable for you to do.

Knowing your audience

When you know the audience to whom you are targeting your posts it is much easier to select content, and to determine the tone of your writing. For instance, if you are addressing teenaged skateboarders in your blog you’ll choose different language than if you are blogging to middle-aged businesspersons. What does your target audience want to know, and what is it that you’d like to know from them?

Attracting readers

If you’re going to the effort of producing blog posts you want it to be read by more than you, your spouse and your mother. So how do you spread the reach of your blog?

Your content – When you write about valuable information people will share it and comment on it.
Make your blog available in multiple venues. One post can appear in several places – as a matter of fact you can even print a few and make them available in your business location, send them with invoices, or in other communication with customers. Always, always include the URL so people can look you up later if they want to see more posts.
Check out group blogging sites, where different pools of people can find you. Your local newspaper may have an online community blogging section where you can automatically submit your blog posts. There are sites organized by genre (like MomBloggers) where you can share your posts. And Alltop is a site where dozens of blogs can be found by category (you have to apply and be selected to be accepted there.)
Announce your blog updates by including a link to your newest post in your status updates on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.
Help readers become regulars. Feedburner can help your regular readers to receive your updates in their email. People can also read your posts on GoogleReader, one spot where they can obtain feeds from all of their favorite blog sites. Google Reader is going away as of July 1, 2013, but you and your readers can migrate smoothly to the “heir” to Google Reader – Feedly.com.1.
Interact with other bloggers in your industry. Bloggers form a community – they can guest post for one another, comment on posts, provide ideas for content and technical improvements, etc. This isn't a journey you have to take by yourself.

The Knowledge Paradox

2013-05-14T06:45:00.000-04:00

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." - Confucius

It's funny how the person in the room who is compelled to share the most unsolicited expertise is often the person with the least information....

One of the most challenging positions to be in is one where you don't even know the questions, much less the answers. This illustration shows that as your body of knowledge increases, the circumference of its border increases along with it. The border represents the information of which you are aware you are ignorant.

Real knowledge, therefore, is typically. accompanied by humility. You can study certain subjects for all of your life and never master more than a sliver of the content that you're studying. From the vantage point of every new mountain peak you reach you can see a vista of heretofore unconquered other peaks in front of you.

When you realize that you indeed don't know it all you become more open to adding to your body of knowledge - or you become willing to collaborate with individuals and resources that can help you to fill the gaps. One person can't know everything about everything.

In your desire to feel in control of your work and your life, sometimes it's easier to sit on top of your current knowledge and stay there. It can feel uncomfortable to admit that you don't know, because such an admission can feel like a loss of face. Could you be perceived as an imposter in your leadership role if you don't know everything about your area?

Your biggest risks are in the area beyond the green border - those things that you don't know you don't know. In this position, not only do you not know the answers, but you aren't aware that there are questions that need to be answered!

The remedies to the knowledge paradox can be found in

humility
confidence enough to ask questions
willingness to collaborate
ability to identify reliable knowledge resources

Unless you are in an academic setting where knowledge for the sake of knowledge is the goal, no matter your knowledge inventory, it's moot unless you apply it. You can build success by teaming up with external sources of knowledge to accomplish your goals. You can implement just-in-time learning so application follows close on the heels of the acquisition of the information.

But it's in your attitude about your knowledge - and your ignorance - that you will find peace, teamwork, and mastery. Confucius say.

The best salesperson not on your payroll

2013-05-13T04:36:00.001-04:00

WOMMA, a photo by Pronto Communication on Flickr.

Let's start with the ugly part of the story - if you disappoint or upset a customer, the potential impact goes far beyond the conventional wisdom that they will tell ten people. The pull of Facebook and other social media as a consumer platform is so strong that your dissatisfied customer can reach hundreds of their online friends, and their friends, and their friends until that one experience can engender thousands of repetitions in fallout to your reputation.

But what if you're doing well for your customers? Social media can be your friend as well as your adversary. Whereas pre-Facebook a satisfied customer would be likely to tell up to three other people about their experience with your company, today a customer might coo about your business to the same audience that they would rant in less positive circumstances. Given that the public's preconditioned attitudes are predominantly negative, the kudos probably won't have legs as sturdy as the criticisms would have, but the good word can spread.

So how do you boost your company's positive word of mouth?

Get the blocking and tackling right - There are certain expectations of you no matter your industry. You'd better be reasonably convenient and easy to buy from, with current and adequate quantities of inventory. If you are delivering, it had better be in sync with the customer's preferred timing. Quality had better be in alignment with your price (perceived value), and the service experience had better meet expectations.
Up the ante - Your product may provide you with a built in gee-whiz factor that customers love and want to talk about to others. But if it isn't much different from anyone else's product, you need to select an aspect of the total offering and make it comment-worthy. Perhaps basic chocolate candies can rise to the level of comment if they are packaged in elegant or creative ways that make them excellent gifts. Or perhaps your premium hotel floor is hosted by a concierge who has connections for excellent show tickets, some coupons for freebies at local businesses, and even some trinkets for kids staying over with their parents. It's only comment-worthy if it's above and beyond expectations.
Engage with customers - Ask them. Find out what they like about your service (and what they don't) so you can focus your continuous improvement efforts on those aspects that are going to create repeat purchases and positive word of mouth. Do you currently ask for customer testimonials? If you don't, you are missing the opportunity to let the best salesperson not on your payroll tell your company's story. (Remember to obtained signed permission from them if you want to use their quote in your marketing materials.) You can ask them via periodic surveys, or by bringing a group of them together into a focus group. You can ask them questions on your company website, or on your corporate Facebook page.
Respond to them - Thank customers for their positive comments. Let them know that you appreciate their actions on your behalf, including keeping them posted on your progress if you know they have referred a particular prospective client to you. You might even reward them in some way, with a gift card or some other benefit. Beyond the most important step of asking for customers' opinions, the next most important is to use the information they communicate to you or others to improve your products and services.

The goal is to have promoters out there, customers who are actively telling other people that their own experience was so outstanding that everyone should deal with you. It might seem that promoters are rare birds, but you have the opportunity to activate them - if you make a point to do so.

Want to be better at thinking on your feet?

2013-05-10T06:06:00.000-04:00

Are you impressed by the guy (or gal) who can think

Google Images - ridingtherollercoaster.com

on his feet? No matter the situation, the challenging question, the unanticipated problem they have an answer, a solution, a way around - on the spot. They can do a McGyver, transforming a humble assortment of unrelated materials into a zip line, a storm shelter, or a makeshift boat.

It helps to be born with a quick processor, but for many people, though, ability is not the obstacle - fear of making a mistake, and habits are. Greater skill in on-your-feet thinking can be developed. First, here are some of the foundation elements:

Foundation information - if you are to improvise later, you will be more successful if you build a mental inventory of successful combinations, and the basic characteristics of potential ingredients. For instance, duct tape is very sticky, so it has oodles of uses where you need stickiness or to attach things. An egg has versatile properties, so it can be used to create foamy toppings, to hold ingredients together in a structure, to add protein, to make pastries shiny on top - even to decorate a house for Easter. The bigger your inventory of information, the more potential solutions you have at hand.
Filtering criteria - Are you looking for cheap, quick, simple - or are you looking for safe, proven, and popular? If you have a huge inventory of solutions, it helps to know that some are to be eaten and some not. So in the moment you can begin by ruling out or pulling in some of your options. Caution: over-filtering can interfere with thinking on your feet by prematurely dismissing perfectly usable ideas. They might be unconventional, but good.
Practice - Play games that call for imagination or information in a timed competition. Think on your feet in low-stakes situations so you can develop a mental shorthand, a process for arriving at answers quickly. Speed comes with conditioning, and if you have been in a habit of slowing down it can be especially important to build new pathways, shortcuts, etc.
Listen carefully - One of the characteristics of effective listeners is that they provide verbal feedback. When another person is asking a question, rephrasing the question and feeding it back helps the other person realize that you are listening, it makes sure that you are going to answer the question that was asked (rather than go on an unnecessary tangent), and it gives you a moment to gather your thoughts.
Know the overall goal - This is probably the pre-eminent filtering criterion - to know what you are trying to accomplish. Your idea might not have to be pretty if it protects an injury well enough and long enough to transport a victim to an ER. It might not have to be cheap if the goal is to make a dramatic and memorable statement quickly.
Rein in your emotions - A certain amount of stress can help you to focus your thinking, but too much can create paralysis. The attention here is on developing a solution, a response, an action step. If you are freaking out too much your focus is not on the situation at hand, but on yourself. It's not about you! If you know that you are wired to react emotionally, lay a foundation of positive self-talk (affirmations) to build the confidence you need to stay focused on the issue at hand.

The skill of thinking on your feet, taken too far, can create problems. There are certain situations in which taking time is important, gaining feedback from others is crucial to buy-in, etc. Thinking on your feet is not an effective default position - its appropriateness depends upon whether you need an absolutely correct answer, ANY reasonable answer, or an answer RIGHT NOW. Do your homework. Prepare. Time is not always so critical that you need an answer right now. As a matter of fact, there are situations in which you or a group are best served by slowing down. Slowing yourself and/or the group down might take at least as much courage as it does to stand and deliver on the spot.

Building the bridge to competence

2013-05-09T05:39:00.001-04:00

On the foot bridge, a photo by momentaryawe.com on Flickr.

Your parents have moved from your childhood home to a condo. You rearranged the furniture in the living room. Your company is converting to a new software system. You have been asked to add a new set of responsibilities to your job.

In all of these situations change of some sort has occurred. Only one of the four illustrations is a change that you have chosen yourself, versus one chosen by someone else for you to adapt to, but that doesn't matter to the topic at hand today.

Change disrupts your groove, your series of habits that create the comfortable structure for your day. There is discomfort, even a bit of a mourning process, that accompanies that disruption. The intensity and duration of the discomfort are a function of:

How long you've worked with the prior conditions, expectations, etc.
How different the new is from the old
How attached you were to the prior habits
How competent you feel about doing it in a different way
Your history with changes and integrating them
Your confidence in yourself and your ability to learn
Whether you're doing it alone or in concert with a larger group
And a slew of other variables

On the day after you move the ottoman in the living room you have to notice that it is in a different location so you don't trip over it. You have to see it first, then adapt your actions to accommodate the new conditions. If you aren't mindful when you walk through the rearranged living room you are likely to bump into something. After you have walked through a few times, perhaps sat in the room to watch television or to entertain guests, you become familiar with the new arrangement and you build new habits for navigating through the space.

When your parents move and you're talking or listening to the radio you might find yourself in their old driveway. Because you haven't paid attention to the route - driving on autopilot - you wound up in the place where they don't live any more.

At work, you're used to allocating your time in a certain way considering certain going expectations. Unless you make a point to make room for your expanded responsibilities or new behaviors you'll find yourself saying in a meeting, "I didn't have time..."

When you set goals and create plans for implementing them you are engaging in a process of increasing your mindfulness, your moment-to-moment awareness. You build in action steps to integrate the smaller pieces of the larger thing into your calendar. You set progress evaluation dates that help to keep the desired behaviors in the front of your mind.

Behavioral goals are different from project goals in that you might be tempted to word them in "From here forward..." terms. A single moment of decision rarely results in completely consistent conformance, especially right after the decision is made. So when you set a "Go forth and sin no more" evergreen goal for yourself you are likely to be setting yourself up for disappointment. If you are trying to achieve greater mindfulness toward a particular change:

Get specific about what behavior you are going to do. "Swim for one hour at the club 3 times per week during the month of May 2013" is a goal that leaves no question about what you are expecting of yourself.
Put it in view. If you have committed to go to the gym, take your bag of exercise gear to work and place it in full sight in your office. The visual reminder will help you remember that you committed to go. Sticky notes, posters, index cards in the pocket where you keep your car keys - all of these can serve to keep information in the front of your awareness.
Do it several times right now, right in a row to establish a brain/body connection. When you are learning something for the first time, you are likely to forget a significant part of the information unless you engage in repetition. Repetition helps to build habits, so doing the new behavior several times helps to send you forward.
Talk about it. Visual cues work for some people, and so do auditory cues for others. In addition, when you talk about it with others you build an accountability and/or support structure for the implementation of the new habit.
Align your affirmations with it. The way in which you talk to yourself about the change can have a huge impact on your willingness to implement and sustain new behavior. Talk about it in the present tense as though your are doing it already: "I am the sort of person who exercises faithfully at least 3 times per week."
Give yourself the opportunity to learn. Certain changes require a process of being incompetent until you become accustomed to the new process, the new keystrokes, the new language, the new routines. Hold yourself accountable to make efforts in the direction you want to go, but be kind to yourself if you fail a few times along the way. If you persist, and make a point of learning from your mistakes, you WILL prevail.

Can't avoid doing your push-ups

2013-05-08T06:31:00.000-04:00

In every business, in every job role, there are certain tasks that are

Google Images - asimiente.org

indisputably essential to success. In sales it's prospecting, in management it's analyzing financial results and doing performance reviews.

These tasks are like push ups - they aren't always fun or popular, yet there is no other proven method for obtaining the same results. And if you're avoiding doing them you are probably not showing the strength and development that you want and need for success.

What are your push ups at work?

If you don't know what constitutes your push ups you'd better find out what they are. Not all companies are effective at articulating what the essentials for success are. But if you want to know, benchmark off of people who are getting the results that you want to produce. Benchmark off of a few of them, because there may be aspects to each of their methods that, combined or tweaked in some way, may fit you to a T.

Are you prioritizing your push ups? Are you, for instance, putting activities that are directly related to generating revenue ahead of your volunteer obligations or more popular activities? If push ups are uncomfortable it's easy to create "reason" after "reason" why there is no time. Push ups should come first.

Are you doing your push ups at your peak energy time of day? Sometimes even unappealing tasks can be easier to tolerate when you are at your most alert and most energetic. You might be able to do some of them before anybody else is in the office in the morning, or while most people at lunch. This isn't to say that push ups are to be done at the expense of having a life. The idea is that you might need to be strategic in how you arrange your various responsibilities so you can match energy with task effectively.

Can you delegate your push ups? Sometimes yes, but if it's that critical to your success you will likely be better off delegating something else to make room in your own schedule to do them. You can build capacity by replicating yourself, and then several people will be responsible to do push ups too. Ultimately, though, every one's push ups are for them alone to do.

You'll feel better once you do them, because you will recognize that you are building your future. The speed of the results might vary depending upon the length of your industry's sales cycle, or the adaptability of your workforce. Committing to the push ups is a commitment to success, and commitment builds credibility and leadership.

There's no ducking it. You want strong shoulders? You want growth in revenue? You want financial security? You want longevity and good health? Then drop and give yourself twenty.

Hiring a ringer to improve results might not be your best option

2013-05-07T06:32:00.000-04:00

Today's post is developed from an excerpt from Changing Results by Changing Behavior, a field book for organizational change by Julie Poland:

You have a few choices if you know only the desired outcome but have not yet developed the road map to get you there:

Hire someone who knows how to get there and bring them onto your team, either temporarily or permanently. You've seen ringers in community softball and pickup basketball - the guy or gal who comes in off the street and sets the court on fire. They are strategically selected, but often the value in their presence is the surprise that their sudden appearance and unanticipated skill creates in the other team. It sets them off-balance until they learn to compensate. You might be considering hiring a ringer of your own - an expert to transform the game for your company and increase the odds of winning. Not so fast, though. One potential pitfall of this approach is that they might not really know what's best for your business because they don't understand the context of your business. Another is that you might not believe them even when they do make worthwhile recommendations. My colleagues and I have seen it happen - it's like hiring a highly experienced New York Cab Driver to take you on a guided tour of Washington, D.C.! And the internal obstacles of your informal power structure? The outsider coming in might have a difficult time wading through all of the politics.
Do your own research. Read, go to conferences, surf the Internet, network with people who are succeeding in the same places or ways you want to succeed. Find out what they are doing and then adapt it to your business. If don't know where to start, or if you don't have at least a few ideas, it might mean that you have been neglecting your responsibility to be on top of your business and the developments in your industry and markets. Do your homework.
Experiment. Try something different, something new. and see how it works. This method might be slow - after all, Thomas Edison found a thousand or more ways NOT to make a light bulb. But you might be able to discover something that nobody has done yet, and that transforms the way in which you do business. Today's experiment might be tomorrow's competitive edge. One caveat - know the results you want before you just try things willy-nilly. You don't want to waste any more time than you have to, so you have to define what it means to say "it works."
Turn it over to your people. This next qualifier should go without saying, but I'm saying it anyway: In particular, hand it off to the ones who are in the high range of both competence and commitment. Sometimes the method used to get to your results is important. Certain procedures - such as food preparation or health care - require complete consistency in process in order to be considered high quality. In those cases the process itself is an indicator of quality. But not every situation requires traveling only one mandated route. It's possible, if not probable, that there is a lot of untapped productivity and talent in your organization that can be unleashed if you will only say, "Get in there however you think would work the best - of course, without violating company values and principles."

In summary, you can't wave a magic wand, say abracadabra, and have your improved results suddenly appear. You also can't try an arbitrary theory and trust that it's somehow making a difference.

What you can do, however, is to define, manage and support the behavior that will get you there.

No need for that much honesty

2013-05-06T05:56:00.001-04:00

Case in Point for Monday, August 15th, “Full Disclosure”, a photo by CaseCentral on Flickr.

Many, many company core values statements include the word Honesty as central to the manner in which they operate. Our stated and unstated expectations of other people include that they be honest with us. But are you certain that you know what you are saying when you ask for it? And are you sure you know what the other person is truly expecting when they ask it of you?

Full disclosure unwanted, unneeded?

Being honest about yourself when interacting with others is not necessarily the same thing as telling everyone everything. Yes, there is a such thing as a sin of omission, but who really needs to know that you wear dentures? Your dentist, of course, would need to know (although he or she would figure that out fairly quickly without you telling), or perhaps a person that you plan to be kissing on a regular basis might want to know. But your casual acquaintances probably need not know unless you have some problem with them that's relevant to the situation (like they are offering you an apple). Even then you may just politely decline without launching into a big explanation. When faced with the decision of disclosure or non-disclosure, consider these criteria:

Do I perceive that this information is important to the other person?
Do I expect that it could change some future action or decision?
Is it legally required (as in a real estate transaction, where there may be property defects)?

When your honesty is about them

In some lines of work candor is not only desirable, it's the centerpiece of the job. When you are an attorney, your client absolutely needs to know the risks that are involved with various courses of action. That's why they are paying you. When you are a business coach and you only tell people what they want to hear you are not giving them their money's worth, because you are robbing them of their opportunity to improve. In other types interpersonal interaction, however, you can get into trouble being too candid with others when:

Your own evaluation is part of the communication. Another person can absorb a behavioral description much more easily than they can accept your opinion about whether the behavior is good, bad, etc. In certain relationships (boss, spouse, good friend) you earn the right to evaluate, because there is give and take expected in the relationship that involves them pleasing you and you pleasing them. Even in these situations, though, a perception that you are judging (being critical) can create relational walls.
They can't do anything about the thing you're being "honest" about. Why even tell someone that they are short, or that apparently they weren't standing in the line when good looks were being handed out? What are they going to do - stretch themselves? Get a face transplant? When there is no action to be taken, no decision to be made, no remedy available, your comment will likely be interpreted as an insult.
You provide so much, such frequent positive feedback that they start to question your credibility - or your motives. You have probably heard that it's hard to over-appreciate, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that most people find it easier to notice problems than they do to notice things going right. But positive judgments are judgments all the same. When a man tells a woman that she looks beautiful, and that she smells good, and that she is a fabulous cook, and that her home is lovely and well-maintained - she just might go on guard. He's laying it on a bit too thickly. All of this sounds like a big setup, and she expects that a request for a "payoff" might be coming next.

It's great to know where another person stands, even if you don't necessarily like what they have to say. Better to know so you can deal with it instead of having to look for shadows. The litmus test for honesty in its various forms is whether you're doing it for the good of the other person, the relationship you have with them - or whether you're doing it only for yourself. This is not to say that you have no ethical code, but only to say that if you are the only person to benefit from whatever it is you are getting ready to say, you might be better to think twice about saying it.

Finding yourself online

2013-05-03T06:05:00.001-04:00

365.14 (Blogging), a photo by kpwerker on Flickr.

When was the last time you Googled (or Binged or Yahooed) your name (or your company's name) online? Did you show up high on the first page of the list? How many times are you listed?

If you're reading this post you are already aware of blog sites, or you're a user of Facebook or Twitter, or even Tout. And of course if you're under 35 or 40 years old you're a digital native and you're at least as comfortable online as you are in person.

For a small business owner, being able to be found online can make the difference between sales growth and sales stagnation. Even the digital immigrants nowadays look online when they are in search of a product or service with which they have no prior experience. They go to their computers to find out business operating hours rather than waste gas driving to a retail site only to find it closed.

If you're high on the search engine list - first page, preferably - searchers are more likely to click your listing. That's why sponsored links are so important to some companies. They are willing to pay for the opportunity to be at the very top of the list, the first result you see when you search.

Search engine optimization - getting your name on the search results early and often - is complex, so much so that some business owners invest tens of thousands of dollars in it. With all due respect to SEO consultants, business owners have seen mixed results and sometimes a low return on investment.

Perhaps you are not willing - or able - to invest the dollars to entrust your SEO to a specialist. There are ways to bootstrap your visibility, but as in all things you will make an investment - of your time and energy - to get the job done if you're choosing not to part with cash to do it. Here are some ideas:

Incorporate a blog into your website. Search engines notice changing content, and if you are blogging with any regularity your site will be noticeable to them.
Go onto LinkedIn. This is where professionals talk about work, and where they connect with colleagues, industry gurus, community leaders and prospective clients. If you want to derive value you need to interact and not just maintain a profile page. Understand, though, that if you enter discussions on LinkedIn or join groups and you kick in your high-intensity sales pitch you'll raise hackles, even get booted out. Connect, don't sell, on LinkedIn.
Host a page on Facebook, particularly if you are selling to consumers. Once you have a page, the critical task is to attract likes. The more likes you have, the broader the reach for your page will be. Use contests, giveaways, etc. to attract likes. But remember that social means that the communication goes more than one direction. Answer questions, ask questions, interact. And by all means incorporate pictures.
Get Tweeting and Touting. You might not choose to hang out for hours watching streams of 140-character opinions feeding into your Twitter stream. But these two tools can help you leverage the content that is already online. Use a Tweet to announce and promote a new blog post, or incorporate a link to information about your industry or a particular product. Just like on Facebook, the power of these social media tools is greatly in the number of followers you can attract. Follow other people and they are likely to follow you back.
YouTube, anyone? How-to videos are extremely popular on YouTube. Is there something that you can demonstrate? You can perform, you can lecture, you can tell jokes - the options are limitless. Just remember that on YouTube the contributions range from the sublime to the ridiculous to the inappropriate for people under age 18. Your YouTube image should be managed to be consistent with your overall branding to complement your other efforts.
Review a book. You can be found on a search engine from book reviews you submit to Amazon.com. If you want to be seen as a reader, thinker, and thought leader, what better way to establish your credibility than to weigh in on some relevant written material?

Remember that there's a difference between searching for your name online and searching for a service online. When you search for your name, your name will come up - it's just a question of whether it's you or somebody else with your same moniker. When you search under a category the most relevant names will come up. That's a function of key words that are appearing in websites, whether the search included a geographic qualifier (business coaches in York PA) on it, etc.

People will Google you (yes you, in addition to your company) if you have set a business appointment or even a job interview. One of the questions you need to answer for yourself is whether the company brand is most important to developing your business or whether the predominant brand is YOU. Your online visibility strategy changes depending upon your answer to that question.

Jumping the gun in sales

2013-05-02T06:38:00.000-04:00

Timing is a key element in your success, whether you're trying to be more effective in your overall

Google images - asiancorrespondent.com

interpersonal interactions or whether you have a specific situational focus like selling. Today's focus is on the sales situation, when you think you may be talking with a potential buyer.

One of the worst things you can do is to be out in front of your prospect, rushing the process. You might be feeling a high sense of urgency, because you really need this one. You might simply be excited about your product or service. Or you might be scheduled so tightly that you don't have time to dilly-dally in this guy's office. But if you're out in front of him you might as well leave right now. You aren't going to make the sale because you aren't giving him time to buy.

Jumping the gun before the appointment
You might be jumping the gun even before you are in person with your prospect. If you are:

Giving product details
Estimating pricing
Discussing specifics about ordering and delivery

in your pre-approach letter or appointment-setting phone call you are asking the person to make a buy or no-buy decision before you (and maybe even they) know what their needs and wants are. If you aren't converting phone contacts into appointments it's possible that you have built this premature decision into your script.

Jumping the gun during the appointment

Until you have an in-person conversation you may not know whether this person in front of you

Is the person who can make a yes decision (there are a lot more who can only say no)
Has a need or want
Has the money to buy from you

So if you're showing up and raining your glossy brochures and trade lingo over your this person's head you may be wasting your time - and getting way ahead of the process.

You have to earn the right to present, even after you have enough information to ascertain that questions 1-3 above can be answered "yes." They are only starting criteria to make sure that you're in the right race, on the right track. In order to earn the right to present solutions you have to

Introduce yourself and your company
Develop rapport - make a friend
Make sure this is a good time to talk - no immediate business crises drawing the other person's attention away from the conversation at hand
Most important - find out what the customer is trying to accomplish.

Needs Discovery - the missing step that causes gun-jumping in the appointment

Perhaps you don't want to look stupid or inexperienced by asking questions. Doesn't that reveal how much you don't know?? How could you really know what this person's company is like if you aren't sitting in his seat on a daily basis? If you don't ask questions you are making your presentation based upon assumptions about what the person on the other side of the desk wants and needs. And you know what it means to ass-u-m-e.

Your product or service might include a dozen or more features and benefits. Eleven of those twelve might not matter a whit to the person to whom you are trying to make a sale. If you enumerate all of them he is likely to have eyeballs rolling up into his head or growing impatient. By not taking time to ask questions first you are wasting time now by making your presentation too long with too much irrelevant information.

Pacing with your prospect

Different people need different amounts of information, and process at different speeds. If this person has a thousand questions about your product - provided that you've laid the groundwork before presenting - it may be that he or she is gathering the necessary data to make a yes decision. An objection is not necessarily a stop to the process. It is a slowing down.

Once your prospect is ready to say yes, STOP selling. Agree on next steps and move on. For an executive with a fast-paced behavioral style any extra time you spend is a liability to you. You can wind up un-selling the prospect by talking too long. They will think that every interaction with you will be excruciating.

In summary, timing is a big component in communication skill. You improve your effectiveness by focusing on the prospect, rather than on yourself and your presentation. Engage your eyes and ears so you can perceive cues that say "more info", "less info", "speed up", "slow down", or - best of all - "where do I sign?"

Just your toes, or in all the way

2013-05-01T06:06:00.001-04:00

Rachael dips her toes into the water,
a photo by bmann on Flickr.

Here's your question for the day: When you agree to become involved in something, do you only dip your toes in, or are you in all the way? Your answer to this question is important, because it impacts your motivation, your results, and your level of influence.

There are understandable reasons why you might want to test the waters first:

It might be chilly outside and you don't want to get any colder.
You might not have packed acceptable swim clothing.
You're not certain that the water is conducive for swimming, and you want to scout for temperature, floating plants, snakes, or any number of other items you want to avoid.
Your day is busy, and you don't have time to get all wet, dry off and change clothing.
You think that you look awful in a bathing suit, and your swimming experience would be marred by your self-consciousness and your certainty that others were pointing and snickering.

When you are presented with an opportunity it might make sense to gather more information to make sure that it is something that you truly become involved in, that it is aligned with your goals and values, and that the expectations are reasonable for you to fulfill. Sticking your toe in the water helps you to make sure that the opportunity is a good fit for you, and that you are a good fit for the opportunity.

Wading rather than swimming, however, can become a habit. After a while you stop packing a swimsuit and sunscreen, and you start making up reasons why you are hanging out on the shoreline. The problem with this as a standard approach is that the real action is happening in the water, and when you're only in up to the ankles you are missing the real fun, and the opportunity for mastery. Some of the obstacles keeping you out of the water may be real, but some of the others might be fear-based (with false evidence ruling the day).

It is reasonable to take time to consider before making a commitment. It is, however, through your commitments that you develop the capacity to develop, to influence, to create, and to lead. Neither you nor anyone else benefits when you grow too accustomed to life on the shoreline.

Thank you for saying no

2013-04-30T06:21:00.000-04:00

When you're in sales - or when you aren't IN sales but have to

Google Images - agbeat.com

DO sales in order to have the opportunity to do whatever you do for customers, no can be one of the best words you hear. If you're a peak performer in sales, this person right in front of you is not going to make or break your results - there are other opportunities that you are pursuing right now.

When you're the prospective customer and you say no you're helping the salesperson far more than you do when you leave them hanging without an answer. While your transaction is still in "potential" status the salesperson is compelled to follow up with you from time to time. He or she has to try to figure out the obstacles that are preventing you from saying yes. That means that the salesperson will ask you a lot more questions, and maybe even wind up trying your patience because of their tenacity.

Were you aware that the bulk of "yes" answers occur after five "No" answers? The salesperson isn't persistent because they are slow to learn, or because they enjoy being a pain in your derriere. They are persistent because they know that factors like timing, budget, current other concerns and a variety of elements can pull a yes from a potential no.

When you say no - and mean it - directly, you help the process in several ways:

You help him or her move on to other, higher-potential prospects
You help to maintain a positive relationship with them by not leading them on.
You gain credibility by communicating clearly.
You save yourself time by not having the person come back to you over and over to see whether you have made a decision.

You might not always want to be completely candid with a salesperson. They have to earn the right to complete and accurate information by establishing their credibility with you, creating trust, and by demonstrating their authentic desire to listen to your wants and needs. In addition, it might be difficult to tell this person who you know is only doing his or her job that you already have something else that you like better. It might make you feel uncomfortable to know that you really want what they have but can't afford it.

No worries - a salesperson worth his salt will have already heard all of the reasons why not. You will not be making headlines. A truly professional salesperson will not be blabbing your confidential information around - not if he or she wants another shot later when the circumstances are more conducive.

Thank you for being willing to say no, no thank you, no - I have a great relationship with my current supplier, etc. You might just make that salesperson's day.

Watch out - they'll call The Commission

2013-04-29T05:54:00.001-04:00

Soccer Coach, a photo by Spike's Shoes on Flickr.

Team sports are a great training ground for kids to learn about cooperation, leadership, and accountability. They build skills, increase fitness, and create new friendships. Kids' team sports also teach (and reveal) performance improvement behaviors to the coaches who volunteer. And this is what we overheard at a game yesterday afternoon:

Parent: "I don't like the way you were hollering at the girls. You shouldn't be cutting them down like that. It's wrong, and if I hear you doing it again I'll be calling the Commission to report you."

Coach: "I just get a little excited...and there was a lot of shouting all around, including over here in the parents' area..."

Parent: "I like to cheer for the kids. But you NEVER hear me say anything but encouragement and praise. Sure, I'm loud. But it's always supporting the kids, not yelling at them. Heck, I cheer for the OTHER team's kids when they make a good play. That's what we're supposed to do."

Coach: "I don't want there to be hard feelings..."

Parent: "Well, I'm just letting you know. That's not acceptable, and I don't want to hear it again."

(The coach walks away and the parent remains to watch the next game.)

Not all coaches, on the kids' sports field or in the workplace, are personally skilled at the behaviors they are charged with supervising. Sometimes they are simply the ones who were willing to take responsibility for the outcome. They might not be capable of running hundreds of yards over the course of an hour, or to produce a tangible product from the labor of their own hands. But they are responsible to lead.

It's not about the technical skills here - although it helps to know enough about what you're doing to be able to provide performance feedback on when it's going well - or not. The coaching role is about the relationship between the coach and the players. The quality of the relationship can contribute to motivation and outstanding performance, or it can create fear, risk aversion, and even the intervention of outside parties into the situation.

It can be incredibly frustrating to be a coach who observes behavior that is not appropriate for the situation, technique that is wrong, or players that seem to be barely dragging themselves through the necessary motions. It sometimes seems as though they will never learn, at least not well enough to transfer what they have in their brains into their hands and feet. The team doesn't have all season to get it right if they have a hope of placing well in the standings. The temptation to over-correct, to holler, even to insult, can be strong - rather than to let the team play its game, take its lumps and let the score reveal the team's weakness compared to its competitors.

What the coach who yells doesn't realize is that whatever he pays attention to will expand. If he only notices screw-ups he will see more. If, on the other hand, he makes a point to see and call attention to a valiant effort (even if it doesn't result in points scored) he will create a drive in his team to exert more valiant efforts. The encouraging coach doesn't ignore skill shortfalls - he or she continues to reinforce correct methodology. But when it's game time the encouraging coach's purpose is to keep the players excited about the game. That's what keeps them coming back to practices, that's what instills their desire to catch, throw and hit the ball on their own during every waking moment, and that's ultimately what helps them win.

Of course coaching kids is different from coaching adults in the workplace. We want our kids to be in nurturing settings where they can feel free and happy. We have higher expectations of workers - we expect adults who are being paid to do jobs to know how to do their jobs and be tough-minded about taking performance feedback. We don't want to have to coddle workers just to get the job done.

But there is a lesson in watching the coaching of kids' sports. When you stand on the sidelines and observe you can see the dynamics and their impact on performance. What kind of coach do you want to be? And what kind of coach are you right now?

This is a job for Prioritization Man!

2013-04-26T06:08:00.001-04:00

Improvised magnetic clipboard for multiple temporary to-do lists,
a photo by Juggling Frogs (clkl) on Flickr.

You're sitting at your desk, motionless. The problem is not that you have nothing to do - it's that there are so many things to do that you don't know where to start. You don't have enough hours to complete everything that's on the list, so your decision of what comes first is important. You don't want to make the wrong decision, and the parade of tasks is swimming around in your brain. And the longer you sit there, the less time you have to actually do something. Aaaack!

No worries. This is a job for Prioritization Man! He swoops in wearing his yellow cape (silly sticky note reference) and asks you some questions:

Which items are immediately time-sensitive and critical to the achievement of your goals? Assign each of them up to 5 priority points.
Which items are impacting someone in the next step of a process who is waiting for them to be completed? Assign these items up to 5 priority points each.
Which items are just too big? Break them down into smaller bites, and then use questions 1 and 2 to score the smaller bites with up to 5 priority points.
Which items could be done by somebody else, perhaps not in the exact same way that you would do them, but with acceptable results? Delegate them and get them off of your list.
Which items are not important to your results or the needs of your customers (that includes your boss!) Move them to a file that says "Pending" or scratch them off your list entirely.

"Wow, Prioritization Man, what do I do with all of these points?"

"Add them up and do the highest scoring items first."

"Thanks Prioritization Man!"

Your hero Prioritization Man knows that you feed the stress monkey when you don't feel in control of your workload. That has implications for your attitudes toward your work and your motivation. He knows that workplace stress leaks into your evenings, and can spoil your weekends, and can even ruin your sleep. He doesn't mind if you use another way to set up your task list - must do, should do, ABC, colored folders - they are all useful ways to prioritize - if you use them.

Now for the parting shot from the guy with the yellow cape: "If you don't know what your goals are, or what the most important results are for you to accomplish, you have no basis from which to prioritize. That's where you'll have to start if you want to get a better handle on your workload."

"Wow. Thanks again, Prioritization Man! If I can get my work list done I'll be able to do my list from my Honey this weekend!"

(Prioritization Man disappears into the elevator...)

Three ways you learn how to lead

2013-04-25T06:36:00.000-04:00

The biggest transition you make in your employed life

Google Images- blog.ivyexec.com

is the one you make from one who does to one who helps others do - from super-worker to supervisor. Nobody wants to be ineffective at work, but how did you learn how to be a boss?

Unless you're a player-coach, where a predominant proportion of your work hours are spent doing the same job that your direct reports do, the skills and attitudes that you need to be effective are quite different from the ones you are accustomed to using. And if you're like many supervisors and managers in the workplace you have learned in one of two ways:

Role-modeling - That's where you watch other leaders and later do what they do. The problem with role-modeling is that you don't always see a positive model. Lots of newly minted supervisors look up the org chart and say, "I'll NEVER be like that guy!" Unfortunately, a role model is a role model, meaning that your brain remembered what they said or did, regardless of whether you thought it was effective or not. And at some point when you are under stress and don't take time to think before speaking you'll do the workplace equivalent of hearing your dad's words pop out of your mouth: "I'll give you something to cry about!" The words will be out before you know it, and you'll find yourself in damage control mode. This isn't to say that there are no good role models out there - but it's a bit of a gamble whether you'll a) be around one regularly and b) recognize good leadership methodology when you see it.
Trial and error - You're in your new leadership role now, and you've not yet developed (or been given) a comprehensive list of dos and don'ts. You're enterprising though, and when met with a situation you step in and take action. Sometimes you get the results you want, and sometimes you wind up needing a do-over or sweeping up a mess. Here's the thing - do you want to be tried and erred upon until your boss gets it right? Your staff feels the same way - heck no! There certainly is uncharted territory in leadership and there is no way to be prepared for every single circumstance that is going to come down the pike. You will have to find your own way sometimes. But there is something to be said for the fundamentals, the core values, the behavioral principles, that form the foundation for solid leadership, supervision, or management in a variety of settings and situations.

So given that these are less than ideal, what's the alternative to the two above?

Intentional Leadership Development- This can be done in a group or on your own, with a coach or with a team of peers. Chances are that your company is already investing in new technologies and keeping the technical skills of the staff up to par. It's not as common for a company to acknowledge the big change needed to move into a leadership role. Or if senior management sees it, they might make the assumption that "you have it or you don't," expecting their best candidates to know what to do right out of the gate. While it is true that some people have observable interpersonal talents, leadership skills and attitudes can be developed. Your company has more latent leadership talent that it could tap if it were to choose to provide opportunities to develop it.

Failure to develop leadership skills and attitudes costs companies. The costs are measured in reduced productivity and in employee turnover. Poor supervision can be measured in poor quality, because communication problems prevent issues from being addressed, and they keep functions from working well together. And in the worst cases, poor relationships with management cause employees to check out mentally, to retire on the job. That's worse than having them leave, because the company incurs the cost of keeping them - no small number - without the needed results.

How did you learn to lead? How are you expecting your employees to do so? Are you risking your company's results by counting on role models and trial and error? What do you think you should do differently than you are right now? And what is the next step you should take to move in that direction?

Easy method for settling emotions and getting to work

2013-04-24T06:42:00.000-04:00

Are you in your right mind? You probably are right-brain

Google Images - journaling - smartmomstyle.com

dominant if you are creative, a holistic thinker, intuitive - and perhaps even left-handed. Right brain dominance creates a preference for concrete thinking, and a desire for pictures to create clarity rather than words.

Left brain dominant folks tend to process sequentially rather than looking at the whole scenario at once. They use logic rather than emotion to make decisions, and are often outstanding at spelling and deciphering directions.

Obviously these are extremely quick descriptions of the roles of each side of the brain, but you can click this link if you'd like some more information, or even do a brain dominance test here. The point of the discussion today is to access a left-brained technique to assist you in times of stress, confusion, or other high emotionality.

Writing is your friend. It can help you to gain clarity by documenting the issues that are bothering you, and the process of writing takes that information out of your short term memory loop, meaning that you won't be recycling it every 7 minutes or so. More importantly, writing is a sequential activity that engages the left (logical) side of your brain. So if you are upset, the process of writing helps you move yourself from feeling mode to thinking mode.

You don't have to be a journalist to benefit from writing. The purpose is for you to document what's going on for your own purposes. For the moment, don't worry about sentence structure or spelling (that's what the spelling and grammar checks on your computer do for you!) You might find it more beneficial to write with pen and paper rather than typing, and some scientists would back you up on this (click THIS for more info.)

If you choose to write you can:

Make a list
Develop a goal plan
Compose a journal entry
Write a "poison pen" letter - and then tear it up

You have many choices. One important consideration is whether you intend for the product of your writing venture to be shared - or not - and then choose your methodology to align with that intention. It's not the best practice (by a long shot) to vent your spleen on social media where all of your friends, your friends' friends, and even your Uncle Mike will have the opportunity to witness you in one of your lesser moments.

You can even use writing to settle a group that is in conflict by asking each individual to write his or her issues down. You can collect them and read them aloud, post them in an affinity diagram on the wall, connecting like ideas in clusters so you can deal with them.

It's not always to your greatest advantage to be in your right mind. Try accessing your left in this manner and see how it works for you. Oh, and we'd love to hear about your experiences with choosing to go left by writing...

Evaluating business effectiveness

2013-04-23T06:37:00.001-04:00

Yesterday the York, PA chapter of SCORE earned a Platinum rating (the organization's highest) during its

Volunteer mentors from SCORE chapter 441 - York, PA

chapter audit by the SCORE district executives. This is the first year for this particular process, and it was a positive and beneficial learning experience, particularly helpful to the incoming chapter president.

The process used by SCORE (known for mentoring small businesses) could be implemented by other multi-site organizations, for education, motivation, and evaluation against standards. These are the SCORE guidelines for its chapters, but they may provide some ideas for you as you look to the continuous improvement of your business or volunteer organization.

The Overall Process

Chapter conducts a self-evaluation of its conformance to standards. (This is where a lot of the learning happens, and where the opportunities for improvement are revealed)
On-site review, where the District Director conducts an on-site review to confirm accordance with standards and quality of conformance. After concluding the review the District Director assigns chapter status based on scores: full charter, recognized (above standards), or remedial (missing core standards and receiving an improvement plan). If the chapter does step 1 properly there should be no surprises during step 2.
Reporting, where the District Director submits the completed review to the SCORE national office.

Minimum Standards (Summarized here)

Maintains a system to ensure client requests are responded to within 48 hours.
Business plan created and updated annually, including metrics, goals, and timelines.
Elected Chair and Vice Chair
Current chapter website using SCORE National branding and logos
All client contact information, mentoring sessions and workshop attendee info entered accurately in SCORE CRM system
Each volunteer signs Code of Ethics annually
Submits chapter goals annually - tracks progress to goals quarterly
Successfully fulfills financial requirements and audit

Additional Standards ( Earning points that count toward special recognition)

100% certification of all new members since 1/1/2012 (SCORE mentor training)
Certification percentage of total volunteers (100%, 75%, 50%, <50 li="">
Active roster of at least 15 volunteers
Net neutral or positive volunteer recruiting (growing volunteer base)
Recruiting plan to address key chapter needs
Hold regularly scheduled chapter meetings
Holds continuing education to improve mentor skills and subject matter expertise
Job descriptions, assignments and succession plan for each leadership role
Workshop program (client education)
Client service quality program , including formal review of mentor NPS (net promoter score) ratings
Formal process to improve volunteer engagement
Formal process to proactively manage clients and improve long term client rate
Chapter offers evening or weekend services routinely
Raises revenue locally
Growth in total services from previous year

There's a lot to do when you want to be an effective leader, for-profit or non- profit, with employees or volunteers. The working ON the business helps to make sure that you are constantly building sustainability into your model, whether your activities relate to the quality and timeliness of client contacts or creating increasing capacity to serve them. It becomes crucial to your success that there are a lot of hands involved in helping this happen - it's not a one-person job, not by a long shot.

Living at warp speed

2013-04-22T06:03:00.001-04:00

Warp Speed, a photo by rfizzlephoto on Flickr.

As you are reading this right now, are you thinking, "Where did the weekend go?" You might be living at warp speed, and that's OK - if that's the way you want to live.

The pace at which people live their lives and the complexity they are willing to incorporate into their schedules can be a source of conflict in relationships. Imagine that you are someone who likes to take time to kick back and hang out on the back deck, while your partner is zooming from activity to activity, pausing only to collapse into bed at the end of the evening.

Living well by living slowly
You wander over to the neighbor's house because you happen to see that he's in his yard, he asks whether you'd like a beer - of course you say yes - and you have a great time conversing about nothing important. You putter around the house on the weekend, tidying up just because you have left the day open. You're not worried about whether you get everything done because you know that you'll have some more time tomorrow.

When you live well by living slowly you are more reluctant to make outside commitments, because you know that every new thing on your calendar will remove a little bit more flexibility from your day. You like to be able to choose to head for the lake on impulse, or to mess around in your hobby space for a while, and that doesn't work when you have too many things going on. Most of all, you like having time to think, to observe, to be - without expecting a result from it. Not that you don't produce results, but you like to be free of that when you have the opportunity to choose. It's about the journey, not the destination.

Living well by living in the fast lane
If you like to live at warp speed you gain energy from being busy. You like the fact that you have a schedule that's packed from dawn until dusk, and you like being needed on all fronts. You might complain every now and then about how busy you are, but if truth were told you like it just the way it is.

One involvement gives you ideas you can cross-fertilize to other involvements. You learn like crazy, and that's good because you can't stand to be bored. If somebody wants to hang out you're happy to do so, but you need some advance notice so you can squeeze it into your calendar. Oh, and you can't imagine what would happen if you would misplace your smart phone. Your life is in there - contacts, calendar, and apps for multi-tasking when you are waiting for appointments.

Which do you prefer?
Too much of the slow lane OR the fast lane can be harmful. Although you have a preference for one or the other, you may benefit from sprinkling a bit of variety into your week. If you're a slow lane kind of person you might be missing opportunities for growth, just because you don't want to commit some time. If you're a fast lane sort you might be missing the organizing and capacity-building that are important to your longer-term productivity. You're so busy running around that you haven't given yourself time to rest, to maintain, to build relationships. There are some things that can't be improved by reducing the cycle time.

Successful living is about intention, and then about the attention that helps you manifest the intention. What would you like to see more of in your day-to-day? Perhaps the speed at which you choose to live your life is an element that could make a real difference for you.

The impact of choice

2013-04-19T06:23:00.001-04:00

Choices???, a photo by Mazda6 (Tor) on Flickr.

Today's post is not about the methods by which you choose - it's about your opportunity to do so.

Sometimes stress is the result of feeling trapped or being out of control of your circumstances. If you are feeling overly stressed, even depressed, right now, is it possible that it relates to your perceived lack of choice?

The good news is that you are probably not without choices - it's only that you have automatically eliminated some of them from consideration due to your existing habits of thought, your assumptions about your range of ability to act, and your preconceptions about what some of your choices mean. You may actually have 2,3, even 4 alternatives from which to choose - but you are filtering some of them out of your view.

You might not be aware that you are narrowing your choices. Some of your habits of thought are so ingrained that they happen below your conscious level. So you may need to make a point to stop yourself and ask yourself what it is that you have not yet considered. Slow down for a moment and ponder what alternatives you have already, perhaps prematurely, ruled out - and why.

Why is this important? When you know you have the opportunity to choose you are no longer victim - you are the creator of your future. The recognition that you have chosen (on purpose or inadvertently) some of the circumstances that are a source of stress to you can in itself relieve some of the stress. And when you know that your current default position is not the only one you are able to take you can make another choice.

Your next choice might not be perfect. It might not generate the results that you want. But you might never be able to determine its level of "rightness" unless and until you choose it and follow it through to its outcome.

Last, few choices are final. Choices do have consequences, both intended and unintended, but this one is not the last choice you will make. You will have the opportunity to make another one, regardless of the result of this one. So there is no need to park near the exit ramp for fear of taking the wrong road. You won't go anywhere if you stay parked. Go ahead. Take the ramp. And if you don't find what you want once you're out there, get back onto the highway (or take another route entirely) and continue on your way.

Is it big? Is it hairy? Is it audacious?

2013-04-18T05:59:00.001-04:00

Chix will be the top cake designer in the world,
a photo by lululemon athletica on Flickr.

How big is your goal? How far can you see? Of what do you think you are truly capable? And how do you know unless you choose to aim both feet and hands and brain to take yourself there?

Marianne Williamson wrote, "Your playing small does not serve the world...Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. It is that we are powerful beyond measure."

How big are you going with your vision for yourself and your business? If you are planning to generate enough revenue to survive it might not matter whether you decide to cut the grass rather than finish this project. But if you can envision yourself being world-renowned in your profession or industry you will probably choose to get busy and stick with the work until the work is done.

So many decisions stem from your vision, from your assumptions of what is possible for you - your choice of work clothing, your care for your personal health, your decisions about the people with whom you spend your time and invest your attention. It affects the choices you make every day about logos, websites, the importance of systematizing your work processes, and the location you choose for your company's headquarters.

One of the challenges for you, the leader, is that you might perceive a huge gap between where you are right now and where that big, hairy, audacious goal would be taking you. The gap is OK. You have to identify the gap in order to determine the next action you need to take. Even a huge progression is the sum of smaller steps.

So you don't know enough yet? OK, find out. You don't have the staff? Figure out what staff you need to take the next step, and once you've assimilated that, determine whatever needs to come next. You won't learn all you need to know at once.

Having a big vision means that you will grow accustomed to ambiguity. You might not be able to see beyond this street corner, but you know your desired destination. You know that there will be a multitude of turns between here and there, and that there are probably several alternative routes that will ultimately get you there. You think about today, and whether today's distance is aligned with the compass of your overall intention.

A big, hairy, audacious goal doesn't guarantee success. You have to take action toward achieving it. It might be a little bit scary because of all of the unknowns. But even if you project a worst-case scenario that you might only achieve 50% of it, wouldn't you rather achieve half of something exciting, something outstanding rather than to drift along in the day to day?

Your statement of your big vision is your affirmation. You express it in the present tense, as though it is already true, and it guides your daily behavior such that you take the actions to make it so. Even if the idea of writing specific daily or monthly goals makes you break out in hives, the big, hairy, audacious vision helps you to identify opportunities that are aligned with the outcome you see for yourself.

How big are you willing to go? It does not serve the world for you to play it small, to hide your light. The world is waiting for you to spread your light around.

Why are you following?

2013-04-17T06:09:00.001-04:00

sheep walking, a photo by canon.fodder on Flickr.

Regardless of your role at work and in life, sometimes you lead and sometimes you follow. Leadership is situational, in that different characteristics are called for depending upon the specific situation in which you and/or the group find yourselves. But just as you can develop the habit of taking the lead and taking responsibility, you can develop (or identify and overcome) a habit of following.

Why do you follow?

Somebody else knows better right now, armed with specific information or skills that you do not possess.
You want to give an opportunity for an individual to stretch their leadership muscles, so you make a conscious decision to step out of the way and give them room in which to do so.
They are the authority figure designated to handle this particular situation.
You don't want to be too far out of step with everyone else, because people who get out of line bear the weight of social consequences.
You're busy with other things, and you don't want to exert the extra effort of leading here.
It's more fun - and easier too - to critique somebody else's leadership than it is to put your own skills on the line, especially when success isn't a sure thing.
You don't think you deserve to lead.
You failed before, and you don't want to fail again.
You're simply in the habit of waiting for someone else to do it.

There are a multitude of reasons why you might choose to follow right now in some aspect of your life. Not everyone can be in charge of a group at once, because when everybody is in charge nobody is in charge.

Consider this, though: whether you are choosing not to lead with some rationale behind it, or whether you are simply abdicating your responsibility because someone else is willing - or coercible - to take the point. Do you hold trust in the leader such that you are willing to go based upon their word, or are you unattached to the result, not concerned whether you are following down a garden path or over a rocky hill?

Leadership skills are developable. Leadership habits of thought are able to be developed too. You don't have to jump into the deep end of the pool without learning to swim first. One of the best applications of coaching is to develop leadership capacity before the situation arises, or to help to guide a leader through in real time with proven strategies. A coach can provide the testing ground for your thought processes, to help you preview the potential outcomes of a decision so you can make more informed choices.

Sometimes you choose to follow. But you possess the potential to lead too. Wouldn't you rather play an active part in setting the course rather than following the herd wherever it's going?

What Margaret Thatcher knew

2013-04-16T06:47:00.000-04:00

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

Google images - www.northernsun.com

Margaret Thatcher

When it comes down to getting things done through other people, there are only two major methods: authority and power. Both can achieve results, but they have different ramifications beyond their ability to affect immediate behavior. So read on and choose your leadership behavior with your eyes open.

Authority
In a company or other formalized setting, authority is the scope of autonomous action assigned to you by the management hierarchy. You may be able to approve loans up to $25,000 with only your own signature, or you may be able to select the staff that reports to you without any external intervention. Authority creates social order by establishing a set of shared assumptions. When you are a student and you know that the teacher is the CEO of your classroom and the teacher tells you to sit down, you sit down.

In the early Industrial Age, where Scientific Management methods led managers to exert a great deal of control over workers' activities, authority was the currency through which a manager measured success. This method, though, created friction between management and the workforce, and contributed to the strengthening of labor unions, as the goal of ever-increasing productivity was held in higher regard than were the employees who produced.

Today employee engagement is acknowledged as the management method that will achieve sustainable productivity and continuous improvement. In this management paradigm, authority is exercised sparingly rather than heavily. When managers revert to too much "because I'm the boss, that's why," it's a sign that they are ineffective at affecting employee behavior by other means.

Power
In this context, power is not to be equated with overpowering. Power is influence, the culmination of relationship-building with other people so that they not only do what needs to be done, but they want to do it. They are partners in productivity. Power can be enhanced by authority but often does not require it.

The challenge in building power (influence) with others is that it is not instantaneous. It is the result of positive interpersonal interaction, looking out for the needs and wants of the other parties, listening to their input and even seeking it, and operating under the assumption that everyone has brainpower to contribute, not just physical labor. The investment in power comes before it can be exercised, so when not enough deposits have been made into the interpersonal bank account a manager can default to too much use of authority.

This does not mean that there is no place for authority in today's workplace. The buck has to stop somewhere, and there is still a need for social order. Otherwise there would be a continual jockeying for position and individuals would be wasting energy trying to determine who would be today's king of the hill. Interpersonal dynamics also mean that the power structure can change as relationships change, friendships shift, etc. Authority structures create some consistency and predictability in the organization.

Now here's where the water of terminology can become a bit muddy. Knowledge and experience can help a person become an authority on a subject. That authority is not the same as company-granted decision making scope. The technical guru's expertise in a power-based culture might earn them the ability to influence decisions - because when they talk other people sit up and listen. Peers know that they have already forgotten more about their area than most people ever know. But even the content expert can be rejected in his or her work setting if the relationship groundwork has been ignored.

Crisis, problem, challenge, opportunity

2013-04-15T05:07:00.001-04:00

Claes' rain poncho, a photo by jnbeaupre on Flickr.

You have just received (or discovered) a piece of news:

"Our company is being acquired by MegaGiant Inc."
"Sorry, this software is no longer being supported."
The last rainstorm has crept in through your roof and left wet spots on the ceiling.
You're pregnant, and although you know how it happened, you don't know how it happened.

What are you to do about these new developments? It depends, first and foremost, on your interpretation of them. They are neither innately good or bad - they only take on those characteristics based upon your assumptions about what they signify, and about what you are able to do about them.

Crisis - When you see the situation as a crisis, you have to take action, often drastic action, and NOW. There is no waiting around because you perceive the stakes to be high, and the potential fallout to be great. In addition, you feel great pressure to take the correct actions - you are concerned that even if you act, if it's not exactly right the whole situation will go down the tubes. When you perceive a crisis you see a narrowing of the possibilities. Emotional upset can play a large role in the handling of a crisis, muddying thinking and paralyzing action.

Problem - A problem isn't as bad as a crisis, in that you perceive the solving of it isn't so urgent. It's not life-or-death from your perspective, although it might rankle. You weigh the effort and the resources necessary to solve the problem against the disruption of living with it, and may choose to overlook the problem if the investment to fix it seems too great. You don't like it, and it may eat at you, but you build work-arounds instead of dealing with the problem itself. Over time you may experience bothersome symptoms as a result of this underlying unresolved issue. And over time this may escalate into a crisis.

Challenge - When you see the circumstance as a challenge, you have the mindset that you ultimately will be overcoming it. Sure, it's not optimal right now, but things will improve. You start looking for solutions. As a matter of fact, these little twists and turns keep things interesting for you, providing opportunities for you to stretch your mental muscles. The conquering of the challenge feels like a victory - you did it.

Opportunity - When you see a situation as an opportunity you are assuming that there will be a beneficial outcome and that you have the potential to influence that outcome. Capitalizing on opportunity is not a matter of standing back and waiting for good things to result. You look for openings and develop strategies for going through them. Opportunity is a building process, rather than a filling of holes.

In summary, the only value in events is the value you place upon them, in your interpretation of what they signify, and in your assumptions about their impact on you personally. They are innately neutral outside of the meaning you assign to them. If you are seeing crises and problems everywhere rather than challenges and opportunities, you might want to take a closer look at your underlying habits of thought about your capability to create and act. It all starts there; the way you see yourself in your world drives the way in which you interpret events. Your interpretation of events influences the actions you do or do not take to influence outcomes.

What do you see most often?