“Doubt is a luxury we do not have right now. You are more powerful than you realize. You will know when the time comes to act”. Mrs. Incredible
There is a scene in the movie, The Incredibles, when Mrs. Incredible must leave the children and the oldest daughter, Violet, is afraid she doesn’t have what it takes to act when she is called to. You see in a previous scene, she needed to use her power to protect their plane from attack but all she could do was panic, or in leadership terms she was afraid to act in her strength.
The quote communicates the faith of the mother in her daughter. It is also the communication of a leader, restoring the confidence and faith in the natural ability of their team member. People will work harder for personal recommendation and a word of commendation where it is deserved than they will for money alone. Your job as leader is to see that everyone has a role and that he or she recognizes the importance of that role. And one decision not to act, does not diminish the talent.
“There is a state of mind that tends to establish rapport between minds and provides the power of attraction that gains the friendly teamwork of others. This state is enthusiasm.” Napoleon Hill
The strength of a leader is in the ability to inspire enthusiasm in a way that team members don’t focus on the time when they were unable to act but instead they are waiting enthusiastically for the next opportunity to act powerfully.
In case you didn’t see the movie, The Incredibles, the next time Violet got a chance to act, her power was impenetrable.
Think about it.
Until next time,
Stephanie
Free E-Mentoring Program: www.ReadySetEngage.com
In a recent online article by Forbes, it mentioned the 10 Things That People are Buying. For example the list includes: Smart Phones, video games and consoles, gym memberships, personal care products and my personal favorite toy building sets ie. LEGOs.
Let’s talk about what you are selling and what your team is buying AND can they sell it to your customers. In today’s climate, one product you may find yourself selling is change. Just a few thoughts on dealing with change.
First of all recognize that people are in different stages of change. Some of them are not buying into it, some of them are thinking about buying what you are selling and some of them are “in it to win it”
For the group of people that are not buying in. You want to include in your strategy an educational portion. It is true that knowledge can change fear to acceptance.
For your group that is thinking about it, your message has to include motivation. They want to keep hoping, so your job is to sell the hope.
For the group that are “in it to win it” activate them. Get them involved in the process. Let them be a part of education and motivation.
Until next time,
Stephanie
Ready, Set, Engage Action Cards:
www.TheLeaderBuilderRecommends.com
Posted by (0) Comment
One of the exciting things about doing what I do is seeing the transformation from a team of many to a team of one.
How is this possible? When a group of people first come together, often there is an uncertainity about whether it will all work, how it will work and what will it look like. The rallying call becomes the centering force for the group. As the group moves from their strengths individually to their strengths as a team, they become a team of one.
What does it take to get to the “ONE”? The rallying cry has to be powerful and unwavering. And of course the leader has to know what role the team needs and step in effortlessly and effectively.
Nothing new right? I was reminded recently that “to know and not to do, is not to know”, what is the current temperature of your team?
Until next time,
Stephanie
Get your Ready,Set, Engage Action Cards at: www.TheLeaderBuilderRecommends.com
The old “employment contract” is gone, and employees aren’t
guaranteed lifetime employment anymore. They are responsible for
managing their careers. As a leader, it is a good business
strategy to help them. Helping your staff in unconventional ways
builds trust and loyalty and makes for wiser, more efficient team
members. Here are some strategies to help you cultivate trust and
loyalty.
-Have a “Reading Meeting”. Assign each of your staff a different
industry-related trade publication. Once a week, get your team
together and ask employees to relate any interesting stories,
trends, or products they discovered in their reading.
-Provide in-house seminars. Staff members can benefit from
learning how a business is run: basic accounting skills, financial
forecasting, budgeting, and so on. Use the experts in your company
as resources to conduct the seminars.
-Be a “mentor headhunter”. You can’t mentor everyone; but you can
help your staff find mentors either within the company or through
other networks. Use your influence and standing to reach out to
other business leaders.
Take action, remember, you get what you focus on. When you focus
on cultivating trust and loyalty you will reap the rewards.
Until next time,
Stephanie
Tools for Emerging Leaders: www.TheLeaderBuilderRecommends.com
Posted by (1) Comment
Focusing on the customer without connecting your people to profit
is doing business on borrowed time. The experience you provide your
team equips them with emotional leverage to inspire loyal
customers.
- Engagement affects attitude
- Team attitudes affect customer attitudes
- Customer attitudes affect financial performance
- All businesses are in the people business
People want to know what you believe and what makes them valuable
to the cause. Get the absolutes off the wall and help them live
it. Tell team members:
When you do __________
you contribute __________ to the bottom line
and that supports our core belief ____________.
Employees don’t leave companies; they leave relationships and
uncertainty. Anchor your team in the certainty of knowing and
believing. Grounded in clarity, the team can deal with difficult
customer situations or changes in the organizational direction. Get
the absolutes off the wall and into their hearts.
Until Next Time,
Stephanie
P.S. Expand your leadership brand
www.TheLeaderBuilderRecommends.com
Posted by (0) Comment
It’s Friday afternoon… Your major client has an issue and is
demanding it be resolved by the close of business. Or you have a
major promotion or event in two days and the attendee information
is in chaos. You pull together the team. What will be the team
response? What is the process?
Many teams fail to get desired results because they don’t have
documented processes. You can determine the strength of a process
when you look at the time and stress it takes to get to resolution
in a ‘crisis’ using your process.
Successful teams and sucessful people have efficient processes.
Just because a process is not optimized does not mean it’s not
a process. For example, how are your staff meetings conducted? Do
you have an agenda or “free for all”?
How do you follow-up with clients? How do you communicate product
benefits to your clients? Your sales success hinges on how well you
have mastered the process of matching benefits to needs and
communicating them to your client.
High performance teams have processes at work in three key areas:
decision-making, client communication and problem solving.
To your success and abundance,
Stephanie
P.S. Tools for the Leader in You
Click here to Quick Start Brand You
Click here to Quick Start Your Keep In Touch Strategy
I Win vs. We Win
What’s Keeping Your Team from Getting the Results You Want?
In some organizations, the individual department goals prevent
teams from focusing on the team mission. What happens when there
are departmental goals that you are dealing with everyday and then
there is the TEAM thing? The group gets together for team meetings
but their individual co-existing and often conflicting departmental goals prevent them
from making decisions in the best interest of the team. Each member
of the group is working on a different agenda.
Individual goals and metrics are important. The team has to be
familiar with other goals of the organization and determine how
they are going to meet the needs of the team, organization and
company.
As the Synergistic Leader, you get to look and leverage. Look at the all the pieces and leverage for the best results.
Until next time, Stephanie
P.S. In the book, Ready,Set, Engage there is an entire chapter that talks about designing a team to get the results you want. Click here to get a copy of Ready, Set, Engage
I have to admit in my early days of customer partnerships, I could have been heard saying, “if only we could just manage the customer relationship.” As a customer on the other hand, I don’t want to be managed, I want an experience.
Customer relationship management SPEAKS - How can your company “work” the customer relationship to meet “your” internal organizational goals?
Customer experience management LISTENS: How can your company help the customer achieve their goals while creating positive customer experiences? Positive customer experiences create engaged, connected, loyal customers. Loyal customers = Profit in the Profit Center.
Action: Create a “Make Their Day” journal and come up with ways to create positive, unique, customer experiences for your customers.
Until next time,
Stephanie
“Nice” teams get mediocre results. Teams that know how to ’stir up’ healthy conflict get ‘great’ results. Controversial statement but let me clarify. “Nice” team members don’t show weakness because” you never let them see you sweat” or be wrong. Likewise “nice” teams don’t disagree openly. Here is an illustration: One of the “nice” team members suggests a low sales call goal. The suggestion is: only make two new sales calls a week. The team agrees. Each member of the five-member team makes the goal and 10 new sales calls are made for the team.
Goal accomplished. But was it the goal you wanted?
Your data shows the average number of calls it takes to get a close ratio of two clients per associate is a minimum of ten calls per associate. The person that had the data didn’t bring it up because they didn’t want conflict. The person that suggested the goal didn’t want to appear weak so he proposed an achievable goal.
Action: Promote intelligent conflict by having the requirement that team members must communicate team decisions to their staff within2 hours of the meeting. This request will often drive team members to bring up any concerns that have not been clarified.
In the early stages of team development, you may want to develop a creative way to signal when the “nice” member shows up. Did you take the initiative and stir things up?
To your success, Stephanie
“Nice” teams get mediocre results. Teams that know how to ’stir up’ healthy conflict get ‘great’ results. Controversial statement but let me clarify. “Nice” team members don’t show weakness because” you never let them see you sweat” or be wrong. Likewise “nice” teams don’t disagree openly. Here is an illustration: One of the “nice” team members suggests a low sales call goal. The suggestion is: only make two new sales calls a week. The team agrees. Each member of the five-member team makes the goal and 10 new sales calls are made for the team.
Goal accomplished. But was it the goal you wanted?
Your data shows the average number of calls it takes to get a close ratio of two clients per associate is a minimum of ten calls per associate. The person that had the data didn’t bring it up because they didn’t want conflict. The person that suggested the goal didn’t want to appear weak so he proposed an achievable goal.
Action: Promote intelligent conflict by having the requirement that team members must communicate team decisions to their staff within2 hours of the meeting. This request will often drive team members to bring up any concerns that have not been clarified.
In the early stages of team development, you may want to develop a creative way to signal when the “nice” member shows up. Did you take the initiative and stir things up?
To your success, Stephanie