1. Get your attitude right! Yes, the last couple of years have been rugged! They have been rugged for everyone. So, get over it and start thinking like a leader. Concentrate on what is possible rather than why you can’t accomplish your goals.
2. Get your team’s attitude right! Identify everyone on your team with an attitude challenge and give them 30 days to make it right (it actually only takes a moment). Sure there are challenges but they are either on the team or not, they are either thinking about solutions or challenges.
3. Hire the best people for the job! If you are not matching behaviors, competencies and talents for each job you will suffer the consequences later. Stop drooling over resumes and interviews! Benchmark every job. Assess every candidate before falling in love with them during the interview, then match the assessment to the job. This will take all the emotion out of the hiring/promotion process and produce vastly superior results with far less turnover.
4. Hire slow and fire fast! If someone you hire or promote isn’t cutting it, you’ll know in 90 days or less. Don’t let your mistakes linger. Act on it. Step up and move on.
5. Get rid of all the micro-managers! Not only are they annoying but they are stifling creativity, motivation, morale, innovation and the development of future leaders. They may produce short-term results but it will be at the expense of the future of your organization.
6. Apply the Rule of 3! Have every person in your organization outline the top 3 tasks they need to complete in the next 30, 60 and 90 days that will contribute to achieving the organization’s mission and goals. Focus relentlessly on these 3 tasks and monitor, measure and celebrate the successes. Don’t let anything interfere with the accomplishment of these 3 tasks.
7. Stop doing those time-wasting performance reviews 2X per year! Have a 15 minute conversation with every employee every 30 days to check in on the progress on the Rule of 3. Focus on:What is working?
   Why is it working?
   What is the ideal?
   What is not working?
   What is needed?
   What is the plan?

   Ask your employees how you can help them achieve their 3 tasks, rather than telling them what to do.

8. Apply generous recognition! An authentic and heart-felt “Thank You” will keep most employees far more engaged for longer than you might think.
9. Love the employees and customers you have! Just for the next 30 days spend more time loving the employees and customers you have than trying to attract new ones.
10. Spend some time considering the culture you have created. Is it positive or negative? Do people lead or wait to be lead? Is the focus on solutions or challenges? Are you developing future leaders or mindless followers? Are people excited about the challenges or do they dread going to work?

However you answer these questions, ask yourself the same 6 questions as in #7 above.

• What is working?
• Why is it working?
• What is the ideal?
• What is not working?
• What is needed?
• What is the plan?

Developing a Contagious, high performance culture is not nearly as complicated as you might think. One thing we know for sure is that it can’t be done sporadically. Talking about your ideal culture and leadership once a quarter at the all employee meeting or once a year at the annual conference doesn’t cut it. Leadership development is an ongoing process, every day, every week, every month. Create an ongoing leadership conversation that every employee is allowed to participate in and you’ll build a productive, high energy culture that serves as a strong foundation for your future.

Be Well & Be Contagious,

John

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Have you ever thought about the power of the watermelon seed?

This tiny little seed has the power of creating a fruit that is 200,000 times its weight. It draws whatever nutrients it needs from the dirt and sun and colors a unique spherical, almost psychedelic rind by smearing various tones of green, and then creates a white rind inside and within that a crunchy, juicy succulent red center, thickly inlaid with black seeds, each one of which in turn is capable of yet another fruit that’s 200,000 times its weight. If an itsey, bitsey teeney, weeney seed can draw that much power from a handful of dirt, imagine what we can do.

Sometimes we get in the rut of thinking that we need more of something to grow, to be better, to be happier or more successful. We know, from working with people from all over the world, that we have all we need to be 200,000 times more that we are today. We have the power of the watermelon seed to create a magnificently unique and outstanding individual.

Here’s a way to get started. Get a handful of dirt and put it at your desk and know you have everything you need to be truly great!

Be Well & Be Contagious,

Beverly

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Many employees are feeling ignored, under valued and under appreciated. There is no big surprise here. Over the past three years many executives have systematically pulled in the reins, focused on survival and left themselves precious little time for engaging with our most important asset — our people.

At the end of the day that activity, engaging with employees, may well be the most important leadership activity of all. Yet, in our busyness we just don’t get around to it. Here is a coaching tip for handling our most important job responsibility.

1. Engage with 1 employee every day. Make it a priority. Schedule it. Ron Johnson, Senior Vice President of Apple and the chief architect of Apple’s outrageously successful retail operation makes it a habit to speak with one store manager everyday during his early morning exercise program.

2. Set everything else aside, be present to the conversation and be sure to practice listening.

3. Have a real 2-3 minute conversation.

4. At the end of the conversation recap what you heard the employee say and how much you appreciate them.

At the end of the month notice how great you feel, how happy your employees are and how energized they have become.

Be Well & Be Contagious,

John & Bev

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Here’s a passage from Today We Are Rich just released by author Tim Sanders on how to use words that will project confidence – a key to leading others.

“Stop using tentative words; they hedge conversation to the point of being meaningless. The unconfident person talks with qualifiers and commits to very little. Tentative words include maybe, perhaps, might, somehow, allegedly, no offense, just saying, should, ……, and so on.

“If you want to project confidence, say what you believe, and say it directly. You’ll find that once the namby-pamby words are gone, confident statements remain.

Bev and John

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Too many so-called leaders spend their days looking for mistakes. How much fun can that be?

Try catching people doing great things and then recognize them. It’s more fun and will help you create an organization of hi-performance contagious leaders.

Practice catching your folks doing great things for 21 days and let us know the results. You’ll be amazed!

Be Well & Be Contagious,

John & Bev

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I witnessed something remarkable recently. After delivering the opening keynote speech for First American Equipment Leasing’s annual sales kick-off meeting, the Chairman and co-founder, delivered his state of the company address.

I have seen and heard these hundreds of times. The Chairman/CEO runs through the results from the previous year, acknowledges a few folks, talks about how important the upcoming year is and tells the audience they are the “best team in the league” and “together we deliver a huge years this year”.

That was only part of what the Chairman of First American did. After the review and the projections for the year he came down from the platform, among the people. Then, he asked if they could have a candid conversation. He went back to 2008 and reviewed 6-8 goals that had been outlined for the next 3 years. He asked the group for their candid opinion on what had been done well, which areas they had missed the mark on and which were not worth pursuing at all.

As the opinions and comments began to come forward he did not try to defend, convince or persuade. He actually listened. He noted what was being said, asking others if they agreed. An actual dialogue ensued the likes I have rarely seen. As the outsider in the room I was totally impressed while at the same time being somewhat envious. I had always wanted to work for or with a company like this.

The Chairman admitted that neither he nor the executive leadership team had all the answers and that the company was only as good as the great people in the room. As I looked around the room I could not help but notice a confidence, a belief, a commitment, an attitude of pride and determination. Each person, in their way, seemed focused on what they could do to help the company take on its mission for 2011. This is a company with a goal to revolutionize an industry. Now, that’s a big goal! Creating ownership in that vision is the first step to making it happen. The Chairman accomplished both, in my mind, in a 30 minute session. It was a pleasure to watch a revolution in the making.

It all started when he did not presume to know it all.

Be Well & Be Contagious,

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We often find leadership lessons in very unlikely places; like a yoga class on Waikiki Beach.

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Several weeks ago we spoke to a group of realtors about using Social Media to build their business. We shot a video using a Flip Video Camera, uploaded it to YouTube and to a Landing Page on our website and sent an email to prospects inviting them (the realtors) to view the video and attend our meeting. We expected them to show up with great excitement.

They showed up.

During our talk the look on their faces was more “deer in the headlights” than “excitement.” In a world that is demanding that we change at an ever increasing pace or simply die a very slow and painful death, these folks were choosing death. Most of them appeared to want change as long as everything remained the same.

Following the meeting one of the realtors told us about an agent who was criticized by his broker for “fiddle fooling around with his computer on all this social media stuff.” “Fiddle fooling around?” C’mon. So, what did the guy do? He left the company and is now killing his business through social media connections. “Fiddle fooling around!” Now, there is an enlightened broker who needs to update his internal conversation.

Speaking of updating the conversation, who among us doesn’t need a reboot now and then. So, here is our suggestion. Conduct your very own WIDA Test (pronounced “wee-dah”) Test.  It stands for “What I DO Audit.” It’s simple.

1.  Sit down and make a list of all the things you do during the course of a day.

2.  Pick three of the activities that need updating

3.  Narrow your WIDA list to one

4.  Give yourself 30 days to update the activity.

a.  This may include getting rid of the activity completely. Or, like the “enlightened broker” it may mean selecting one of the social media and getting started with it and posting everyday for 30 days.

b.  It could also mean changing the way you currently do that activity. Sometimes we get so emotionally invested in what we do and the way we do those things that change becomes an excruciating experience. So, make a little change for 30 days.

Take it from someone who has been highly resistant to change. You can change, you can change with more frequency, and you can change with less angst. It just takes practice. In the end, it’s better than dying.

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Customer Reaction to Our Sales Calls

Leaders normally learn leadership development, communication, and sales rules, principles, and techniques during training or while reading a few leadership books.

There are as many rules as people to declare them, and under this scenario, I wonder… which of all the rules are the best?  Well, probably none, so you do yourself a great favor and ignore them.

Yes, the truth is that everything is a lot simpler than you think.

I am a leadership speaker and coach, and have discovered through personal experience, how simple selling is when you forget about the rules.

The reality is that every leader is in sales.  We leaders are trying to sell something to someone every single day, all day long.  To our kids, we sell the idea of doing well at school; to our colleagues, we sell projects that are meaningful to us.

Through a lot of the observation and coaching experience, I have discovered that the traditional sales process only gets people to wish they could yell, “Pleeeeaseeee! Stop selling to me and let me buy!!!!”

Their faces say it all, because no one likes to be sold, no one.  So, let’s stop selling!

Yep, you read right, we have to stop selling, because when it comes to leadership, communication and selling, we have been completely deceived.

Our general notion is that we have to convince and persuade.  We have been deceived.

We have been told that great sales people follow certain rules, that there are crucial principles and techniques we must learn, and we have even been given scripts to follow.

According to the rules, we have to take control early on in every sales conversation; we must qualify every prospect, isolate objections, close, isolate, and close again.  We have been deceived.

The truth is that to be a great leader in sales you must be a great communicator, and to be one, you must stop selling.  Why?  Well, simply because PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO BE SOLD.

Analyze the difference between these two activities:

-      When people buy, THEY are in control.  Being in control feels great; THEY have the power.

-      When we sell, people are pushed to agree to being sold something.  People don’t like being pushed; it is uncomfortable and they feel vulnerable.

In view of this, the best way to sell something is not selling it; it is slowing down so that you can listen to what people have to say about what THEY want, and after listening, repeat what they said back to them so that they know you heard them.

If you consider that almost no one listens to others nowadays, when someone does, people feel special, and the barriers for great communication come down.

We have been deceived about leadership, communication and sales.  The secret is to simply begin with someone other than ourselves in mind… Instead of selling, help people buy.

A GIFT FOR YOU-

Beverly and I are about ready to re-launch our eBook More Sales, Less Selling with updated information on using social media. The book is an entertaining, easy read with practical, proven and effective techniques. To get 2 FREE chapters just complete the form below and submit.

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A good leader knows how difficult, in terms of money and time, it is to revive a dead customer or to get a new one out of a cold list, and a good leadership speaker and coach will tell you the value of a lifetime customer in terms of cash and referrals.

A true leader knows that the key to save money is to sell more to current clients, to the point that the salesperson becomes a part of the client’s team.  Yep!  This kind of positioning is priceless.

So, here we give you 5 tips to sell more to your current clients:

Slow down

Stop to evaluate and make sure you have done the best for your client and that you have earned the right to ask for referrals.

 Get informed

Get as much information as possible about their referral style, if it is aggressive, fast-paced, optimistic, or detail oriented; and learn all you can about their business and their challenges.

Ask

Ask for referrals from key persons and from personal contacts in other departments. 

Make a connection

Find a way to make an emotional connection with your client.  Aim to make friends with them, and for this, forget about emails, voicemail, or direct mail. 

You have to be there, it takes time and effort, but it is worth it.

People prefer to do business with friends, and true friends stick for life, even when the going gets tough.

Communicate regularly

Design a communication model to stay in touch regularly; one that builds top of mind awareness and that portrays you as much more than a salesperson. 

Get in touch at least every 6 weeks, make it short, sweet, benefit driven, and if possible, with an emotional trigger.  For example:

-      Help them learn more

Create white papers, tip sheets, quick columns, or FAQ sheets to help your clients understand what you offer.

 -      Use a quote

Send an appropriate and inspiring quote to your clients and write a few words on it.

-      Clip and send

Make it a habit to clip and send an article, cartoon or quote from any written source you read, or find something on the web that may help or interest your clients.  Send it to them explaining why you thought of them when you read it. 

-      Books

Choose the right book for your client and write a note on the first page.  Identify with a sticky note any special sections you find.

-      Call them

It is always nice to receive a warm greeting call.

-      Feel good things

Tell your clients about a success story related to your product or service that may inspire them.

And always remember to think of your customers as long time friends.

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