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by Tom FoxPosted on Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

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It is a routine job for a parent to make sure their small child makes regular trips to the potty to perform natural duties. Eventually that job no longer needs supervising, save of course, the occasional wiggling dance or personals clutching that suggests a reminder is needed (with the obligatory “wash your hands” addendum for good measure).

Instinctive leadership comes naturally to most parents as it often does with a business leader who is newly installed or recently charged with an important mission. PEE, in this case, isn’t about bodily relief (we’ll assume your workforce has that covered); it is about PERFORMING with EFFORT and ENERGY.

In a leader’s evolution or ongoing routine the same kind of transformation with their teams can see initial strong actions and direct motivation give way to performance assumptions monitored from afar or on a due date. Good leaders don’t treat their teams like children but too often leadership takes for granted the level of effort and energy that evolves and settles as normal as urgency on critical projects gives way to day-to-day grinds or newness gives way to familiarity.

Many leadership traits are common to creating both success and employee satisfaction/retention and are taught or mentored. The more advertised and obvious motivators tend to be about recognition and compensation, trusting and empowering. These traits cascade into specific actions but initial sparks of instruction or guidance often leave long laissez-faire tails of assumption. Leaders can forget other critical factors that require regular actions including: challenging, mentoring, and creating and maintaining a group commitment to purpose or mission.

Leader’s can’t take a team to the top of the hill and believe a big push to start will let them find the finish line with the imagined results. There are too many hidden curves and undulations to navigate. Such obstacles, including boredom with routine, can leave teams under-performing. Taskmaster leaders risk demotivating and people learn to give standoff leaders “what they want to hear” along the way so either style risks under-performance, do-just-enough-efforts, and even energy conversation in the guise of not burning out.

There is another way. Leaders need to embrace a regular cycle of CHALLENGE. Let people know there is something at stake, use accomplishment to provide appreciation and detail value in time-broken segments of the greater mission. Make sure that key members of the team are regularly mentored either directly or by a trusted colleague who knows the mission, to directly monitor and influence the effort and energy given. LISTEN to employees’ words as you ask them to describe “how it is going” making sure you don’t take “fine” and “good” but require descriptions of effort and energy.

ENERGY can be transmitted, shared and motivates with a few basic tactics: Plan meetings carefully and start them on time. Physically demonstrate excitement with the agenda and progress. Sit up or even stand and command enthusiasm by setting that tone so one who might sit back and casually declare delays and obstacles is a pariah in the group. Keep meetings short. There is no law that says you have to use an hour or even half. A well planned and executed 22-minute meeting, for example, demonstrates respect for time and an expectation to fill the working hours productively–whether in a team or individual meeting.

Making a team PEE, perform with effort and energy, is a continuous responsibility for a leader. As soon as you think you have good people you don’t need to regularly lead you risk them following a path that may or may not be the success path you imagined. Great leaders regularly review the path for success, command quality and inspire energy! (And look for the quiet one in the corner with the shaking knees who may need permission to PEE…even though you didn’t think they needed to be told.)

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by Tom FoxPosted on Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

There are no shortages of sales tips, training, videos, books, mentors and magicians in the world of selling. When I decided to add my snowball to the iceberg it was after having been sold by, sold with and taught a myriad of selling techniques. Whether it’s represented by a pyramid, a submarine, circles, charts, graphs or any other form of trying to visually coalesce a process that is both general and intimate, psychological and practical, basic and nuanced…well, they are all useful to some degree if understood, applied and measured. For me selling comes down to getting three simple agreements.

While there is plenty of process, technique and terminology for sales people to learn and pay attention to it has been my experience that the counter to the complexity of closing a deal is too often self-satisfaction over moving to whatever next step. A lot of rationalizing and false beliefs keep the morale up and the bosses happy. Ever hear, “When I get in front of the right person I usually close.” Or, “It’s looking good on that account, I have a presentation there next week.” When sales are broken down into tiny victories or meaningless beliefs there is tremendous distraction away from the actual objective and reward and us blocked out by self congratulation for moving along the process.

Not that selling can’t take time or require trust or relationships, it can, but whether we are talking about a one meeting close or a complex multi-level sale they can all be said to require the same three agreements in order for a transaction to occur. By keeping three objectives in mind we have a simple enough view to recognize that we need all three before we get money and broad enough that it informs us of the different number of steps, action or time that may be needed between the three agreements.

Test if these are requisite to your sales:

First, you need to agree to have a conversation about what you each do and agree that it makes sense for you to have more conversation about how, where and why those points intersect and may create value.

Second, you need to agree emotionally, not just intellectually, that there are problems with meaningful consequences if left untreated or opportunities or real value that will remain unrealized if not pursued with a plan informed with skill. Of course that means you agree it makes sense to continue talking/working together on what getting there might look like.

Third, you need to agree that you are at a point where the problem or opportunity is a good match for the solution you have and a trusted fit that is at a value that is mutually advantageous. This is where the agreements then become legal, a contract or P.O.

I hope those three agreements seem obvious but ask yourself how many times you or your salespeople have gone along the sales process without an ironclad agreement on each of those three points as the only real objective. You’ve gotten to talk about what you do, maybe even present. You’ve had mutual admiration conversations ending with, “we should keep talking about this,” that may or may not happen. You’re cultivating contacts, going to the right places, searching happy accidents, etc. The selling mind is so often trapped in the trappings of selling that it can be either too focused on the end without doing the work in the middle or so trapped in the steps in the middle that they have no chance of getting to the close.

Of course there are techniques and processes, measurement and accountability that make sense as subsets of those agreements but by keeping the 3 Agreements needed to sell in mind one can maintain perspective on where they are and what they need to do. Knowing that money in the bank won’t happen until all three agreements are mutually understood, agreed and acted upon may just be the only magic you need to move your sales to where they could and should be.

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by Tom FoxPosted on Posted in Blog — No Comments ↓

grapevine

As if it wasn’t clear enough in the past our recent election cycle has given a crescendo to the binary nature of our country. Equally clear is that binary has ever more narrow crossover to the middle. Espousing either perspective often seems to both send the disagreement in equal and opposite inertia and create negative feelings about the bearer’s of those differences. Micronutiae is a term I am coining to name another arrow shot into the dying virtue of journalism, news and productive discourse.

From a marketing/PR perspective one only needs to look at the recent New Balance backlash. A high ranking official expressed pleasure at the Trump win in the context of Pacific Trade Agreement and the opportunity to help their American-made shoe manufacturing. With or without the context of other pro or anti-Donald sentiments both sides used the opportunity to either demonize or deify the company. Those extremes included a loud voice in the Alt-Right movement proclaiming them “the official gear of white people,” and in the opposite direction images and calls for burning your NB shoes. The equal and opposite counter-reactions saw left-siders seeing anything, product, person or company, a Neo-Nazi embraces as horrific by association and the way right seeing anything that irks the left as part of some necessary cleanse under way.

A rational mind might look at that as crazy but consider two things: New Balance has had to continually defend itself, its public image, context for supporting a (pro-American manufacturing) trade policy and reiterate it’s core values that could hardly be considered anything other than both patriotic and sound business. I’ll confess my wide feet are exclusively in NB sneakers so like a moth to light I was drawn to see what the fuss was. Perhaps it is the next point that your business might need to examine around such fuss, what’s happening at the water cooler?

While social interaction has changed in companies large and small it still exists. Likewise, teamwork is still an essential element of process success in almost every organization. The old adage similarly endures that you don’t have to like someone to work with them. You don’t have to agree with them either but it is also true that process efficiency benefits from unity. Perhaps the more that positions are stated these days (in micro) pushing people to extremes the less likely they are to pull together, or to want to see success fall to one with certain “objectionable” views?

Micronutiae is maiming the opportunities for common ground in conversation. While there has always been pro and con on practically everything in our society we often agreed on the destination and could set aside differences on the path. That is because there was often a mutual goal at the center. People today don’t seem to share ideas and concepts and feelings about purpose and end results. At a client recently a conciliatory toned discussion mixed with reluctant hope between employees on a break changed in an instant when someone brought up, “Did you hear that Bill Clinton has a black child?”

Immediately lost was the initial direction of middle-grounding, however laborious, and turned into, “Where did you hear that?” “I read that…,” “That sounds like fake news by…,” “Who cares about…,” “You always…” In short, the minutiae of a candidate’s spouse, actual or created, relevant or insignificant, became a battleground to polarize left and right accusations, sources of information, truth in media, biased journalism…and a whole lot of ill will with an uncomfortable ending to get back to work with.

The counter to micronutiae, that compares to a tiny virus that can grow to irreparable damage in relationships, sentiments and teamwork, is for leaders to reassert common ground whether in goals, culture or company identity. Do not embrace right or left extremes, unless that is your purpose, not because you shouldn’t stand up for what you believe in but because in a company, team, society where people believe the opposite of whatever, taking the position to find what we can all agree upon, what can unite us, is where you will find connections, motivation and commitment.

Wearing your sentiments on your sleeve today, more than ever, is likely to attract micronutiae to you and have you seen as a divider rather than a unitor. Your company, your team is more likely to thrive on diversity of opinions, out of the box brainstorms, supporting and rooting for each others success than on uniting around some thought or opinion or even policy. Replace the insignificant with the ideal, wall off the detours with purpose, positivity and recognition. Journalism and news are choking for breath in today’s information age, that doesn’t mean you can’t control your company’s core message with leadership. Combined with an ideology of inclusive success you can battle micronutiae with macro messaging, passion, results and recognition.

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by Tom FoxPosted on Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

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As we come out of the Summer many of us face a “get back to business” pace that may have relaxed for vacations, time with family or business seasonality. That makes September a perfect time to evaluate where you are in your year and plan now for how you will meet, exceed or redirect your goals. Here’s 3 “tricks” to making it happen fast.
The first step is re-rationalizing your goals you may have set early in the year and may, or may not, have re-evaluated throughout the year. Either way you need to start with MEASURING where you are, disconnect yourself from the things you can’t control and RATIONALIZE your [adjusted?] goals. To do this you have to reconnect your passion to those goals, and that needs to be an emotional connection to be more powerful.
To make it real your goals should lead to something you can visualize, it may or may not be a thing; a car, boat or a college tuition, a pension payment or catching up on a credit card–or making the mortgage. Create a vision that makes the goal matter to you and it will foster your true need, and true motivation to achieve with focus on that vision. Make a picture you can always see whether an image, a drawing, a word or a reminder that rings the visual bell.
Second, recognize that your attitude may rise and fall and you may or may not have the best techniques, skills or products in your field but you can always control your BEHAVIORS–the things you know you need to do to make your goals. Knowing but not doing, for any number of excuses, is the most common failure of business owners and professionals alike so ACCOUNTABILITY becomes paramount. Start with putting the things you MUST DO on your schedule and, surprise…DO THEM. You can hold yourself accountable with a journal or, to be more effective, find a like-motivated professional(s) who will work as Accountability Partner(s), where you regularly share plans and results. It’s amazing how motivating not wanting to say out loud you didn’t do what you know you should have done can be.
Finally, give to get, but put in the context of making an INVESTMENT IN YOURSELF. Starting by helping someone else absolutely triggers actions that create results; that’s the way the universe works! But besides investing in giving make sure you invest in your network and leverage it. Passive posts, blogs and updates aside, make sure you are contacting/connecting/meeting with people in your professional circles–networks, peers, competitors, whatever. Get at least one extra meeting on your calendar every week and unexpected consequences will surely bear fruit. Finally, make an investment in personal discovery. Investing your time and/or money can be as simple as buying a book, [paying attention to] a webinar or going on YouTube and watching experts and taking notes. Every successful athlete knows they can be taught and learn to make improvements so you would do well to invest in a mentor, a class, coach or professional trainer but make sure you are open to change and are committed to taking your learning/teachings through to motivated action(s) [That you put on your schedule and are accountable for, of course!]. The legion of success from this strategy is close to a surefire way to improve your returns and help you blow out your results.
These 3 things may be basic, but success doesn’t usually follow complexity it follows simplicity. Measure, Plan, Account, Invest, Act…and WIN!!
SUMMARY:
1. Re-rationalize your goals
• Are you making or missing? Do you need to adjust up or down or change what/how you are doing things
• Have a visual reason your number is important to you
• Your goals shouldn’t all be about money but they should all be measurable and they should all matter
2. Raise your Behavior Accountability
• Honestly project what you need to do, when and how often
• Put it on your schedule
• Find an accountability partner, even if it’s just your journal
3. Make a Selling Investment in yourself
• Reach out to someone you can help (invest in giving)
• Get in front of people every week (invest your time), leverage your networking, your clients, your contacts
• Make a personal discovery investment (buy a book, webinar, class, coach) and follow through with motivated action(s)
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by Tom FoxPosted on Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

You could fill a whole wall in biggest office with clever sayings about anger…

“Anger turned inward is depression,” “He who angers you defeats you,” “Anger is just one letter short of danger” …and it goes on, but perhaps the most pertinent lesson for business would have started back when your first rages hit: “Don’t teach your children not to be angry, teach them how to be angry.”

Of course it would be silly to suppose anger could be removed from one’s work experience so it is about how you experience it, process it, channel it and express it. The most common advice, not to react in anger, wait 15 minutes is a fair start, especially if you are an expressive or emotional person. That’s not to say that using the emotion of anger can’t be productive and motivating. Though dangerous, a controlled flame of anger can light a fire in others…so you might get a rocket launch…or you might end up with a wild fire that is hard to control and will leave scorched earth.

Let’s take 3 typical flash points and see if anger can be a positive action driver:

1) VENDOR ANGER can often be the strongest and most difficult to control. Typically, you have paid or agreed to something and, in your mind, it was subverted, incompetently handled, dishonest or any number of triggers and you are “entitled” as a customer to your emotion. While you can pick up the phone right away and give a piece of your mind, even mask the anger, the most common expression today is to avoid the effect of your anger directly and send an email. When I would get angry in my corporate executive days I would write an email, save it as a draft, and when the steam cleared my ears I would re-read and edit, soften and shorten and finally send what I thought would be a concise recap of the problem with enough hints and disappointment that I would get a coordinated response aiming to fix whatever it was.

The reality is that email is a poor choice to express anger, think of your reaction if you ever read how the troll’s react in Internet comments. Hiding behind text leaves interpretation and risks the reader deciding why you are angry for themselves. Might you also be wrong in any part, or perhaps overreacting, you have created a permanent impression and text record that can be passed along and spun against you. An email reply can work but it must be simple, state the concern and note the need to discuss without an elaborate dissertation. (I learned that a couple of times the hard way.)

The preferred tactic here would be to review internally first, see the vendor’s point of view, leave open the possibility of something you aren’t aware of, no matter how obvious the offense seems to be, get consensus and then make a phone call. State the anger without expressing emotion…”Bill, I was just reviewing the delivery [invoice, quote, etc.) and I have to tell you my first reaction was a bit angry. Can we review what I had expected and what I thought was agreed and perhaps there’s something going on here I wasn’t aware of?….” This sets up that there is emotion to reckon with but by not displaying it you may prevent the vendor emotionally defending, pointing blame or dismissing the reaction. Your calm conversation thus allows you to talk about remedies or the state of relationship going forward. End the conversation with a recap of what drove the call, the explanation, any agreed remedy and conclude with your appreciation, even if you have decided it is the last time you will do business. You’ll likely feel better than if you had just blurted out your anger or tried to manipulate it into the perfect email.

2) EMPLOYEE ANGER is probably the most intense because your expectations are the most defined in your mind. You also likely have the most options and recourse but the consequences are also highest. A vendor might accept getting yelled at by a customer as part of the job and move on but an employee can have their confidence shaken, their self worth doubted or, if they disagree, set up a bitterness for being the object of your anger at work.

Trying to get to the bottom of it, see if your emotion was warranted, gives discussions with a small flame in the background–that can quickly ignite if met with equal anger or indignation or redirected blame. Make it a shout off and you will likely end up with everyone mad, resolved and a destiny to repeat. The format for concern here is to start looking for facts. If they justify your anger you describe how and why you feel angry but do not do it with direct expression. You have to leave the employee room to explain and react and perhaps take responsibility. Believe me, that you are angry will be easily obvious but by not expressing it directly, yelling, pouting, slamming doors you can be seen as a leader to please the next time rather than an enemy to satisfy. The same format taught for conflict might be used, “Joe, when you do blank I feel angry because…” Now Joe can talk about his action rather than reacting to your emotional barrage.

3) COMPETITOR ANGER is likely the better chance to use raw emotion productively. In this case you want to elicit a shared experience. Share with your team what your competitor did, whether they cheated or created an honest advantage. Describe your reaction and why and then look for the team reaction. If it is far different than yours you have probably discovered the root of a bigger problem. Here you can use your will to win, your desire to have everyone on your team to excel, benefit or profit. You can align, solicit countermeasures and direct energy at fixing and winning.

It is a rare occasion that a good leader allows any emotion to flow raw and uncensored. Remember, business isn’t about satisfying your emotional needs, there is a mission and goals so emotion needs to be processed, clarified and connected to a strategic response that avoids the next anger opportunity. So go ahead and get mad if it is honest and warranted, but use your brain to temper your heart. Remember that getting angry is only useful if you find a positive action to counter it and makes others want to fix it rather than cringing and learning how to avoid it in the future.
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by Tom FoxPosted on Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

I was asked recently by a business owner looking to develop skills on his team for LEADERSHIP advice on what the most important characteristic is. As I started to review our program material for a foundation answer I realized that it was best answered long ago by the great poet Rudyard Kipling. Writing in 1895 to explain to his son what it meant to become a man he gave an answer that is still the best characterization of what true LEADERSHIP (for sons or daughters) really means. IF, if only more of our “leaders” lived this!!
I invite you to read and re-live this inspiration:
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IF…
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

by Tom FoxPosted on Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

Total Quality Sales

Experience is certainly our most prolific teacher but formal learning is invaluable. There must be a reason that education is on every job application and, “Where did you go to school?” is still an office banter staple. Different branches of the learning tree can sometimes be harvested together and become a completely new and elevated lesson.

While I was in corporate my most influential professional training was studying Quality at the Juran Institute. Combining that with the lessons of Total Quality Management gave me a new perspective on manufacturing [and led me to 3 different Time Inc. Quality Awards for Excellence] but perhaps more significantly was the idea that a process could, or could not, be “quality” regardless of whether the output was a widget, a document or a sale.

When I specialized in Sales Training I took in the voluminous education that came with being a Sandler Sales Training franchisee. In my own training business that followed I built on those principles but added my own experiences such as in formal theater schooling and teaching. Presenting, negotiating, selling, are all, to one extent or another, roles to play. The combination of my educations created a marketing difference for me and a Sales or Skills Training difference for my clients.

Recently I was reflecting back on my days wearing a “Quality” hat in light of some client challenges measuring sales performance. Traditionally a clear results or bottom line evaluation, sold/not sold, bottom line; I’ve spent a lot of time in developing salespeople and teams on the notion of KPI’s. Key Performance Indicators that center on the belief that following the correct behaviors will lead to the desired outcome. Critical to that, like a quality program, is measurement. In fact critical to all successful sellers are the three keystones common to all the best quality programs: Planning, Control, Improvement.

Some parallels are obvious, in quality planning we develop a seller’s prospecting plan, the control is in the KPI’s or other behaviors that one is accountable for. Improvement is sought by replicating more success actions and limiting or avoiding weaknesses. Stay away from this kind of prospecting, or go after this profile client for example. Only in experience would there be an application to improve how we sell. “Hmmm, that worked, I’ll try that again.” Instincts more than process get developed but it’s randomness averts the more precise notion of measuring, seeking enhancements, testing, implementing and re-measuring.

We don’t like to call any less than optimal selling elements defects, but really, that’s what they are. Not asking good questions, getting sucked into the buyer’s game or process, allowing ourselves to be penned in with the RFP vendor slog. What if we looked at the selling process with an eye to Total Quality Management elements? Is t possible for an organization to create a Total Quality Selling culture? Here’s how to start.

TOTAL QUALITY SELLING
1. Focus on the customer
2. Total Employee Involvement: sales, customer service, fulfillment, management
3. Process centered; a core selling process is how the organization sells
4. Integrated System; how we prospect, sell, deliver and assure satisfaction are connected both through process and supporting technology
5. Strategic and Systematic Approach; take the randomness out of selling and look for results from implementing a strategy with a system
6. Continual Improvement; a bad sales effort today can be identified, repaired, practiced and redeployed—the system allows the analysis
7. Fact Based Decisions; lose the sales hunch and gut in favor of measured and analyzed facts that guide instincts, not the other way around
8. Communication; from management to sales and support organization to customers if there is one most common fail in all types of problems it is a lack of, inconsistent, poor or missing communication.

Efficiency makes money. Eliminating defects in a process improves results. For sales not only is it best to have a defined plan and selling process but also to oversee, evaluate and improve it using the lessons that, with a little work, translate from manufacturing. We are all making something, why not apply a little Quality Culture to find more success?

by Tom FoxPosted on Posted in Uncategorized — No Comments ↓

effort of successWhere would business be without acronyms? We regurgitate them like mother penguins to newborns! Be they TLA’s (three letter acronyms) or longer or shorter, whether for personal business taking PTO (paid time off), addressing our browser HTTP (HyperText transfer protocol), or writing our goals that got SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound) with our results measured by KPI (key performance indicator)…there are literally hundreds of others common or job specific shortcuts in language that are part of our lexicon.

Trainers, I confess, love the device because it is pneumonic and appears clever and making something memorable is the best hope to make training practiced. There is also a slightly different practice, for lack of a known definition I’ll call it reverse acronymizing (it’s done regularly but maybe I just coined that phrase). This is the practice of taking a word that already has a meaning you believe relevant and writing an acronym from it.

George Doran, a consultant, is credited with ascribing the SMART attributes for goal setting back in 1981. I don’t know if it took form as coincidence or intention but it is one of the better known, and trained, acronyms in business.

I train and regularly write on the subject of SUCCESS and after a recent session with a CEO we got to breaking down his efforts to achieve success as he defined it. “I’m trying, trying hard.” he insisted. “I’ve taken your strategy advice, tried to use the techniques and pointers but no matter how much effort I give I’m not seeing results!”

This perplexed me. I have enough success training experience to know that once given guidance effort usually equals positive results, however variable. Then I got to thinking about Goals processes. I harkened back to times when I was giving and getting all kinds of goals and putting out all kinds of effort but not realizing the hoped results. Utilizing SMART Goals dramatically changed the effort to results ratio quickly with the honing of the process. I wondered if might be the same issue with people who had some strategy and training and were making honest efforts to achieve success?

Effort is a great variable. Chiché informs us all to work smarter and not harder but finding out how to do things smarter is a preparatory effort unto itself. I decided to break down the word into it’s most significant elements in effort leading to success. Wouldn’t you know it…I came to an acronymous discovery.

EFFORT: E is for ENERGY, F is for FERVENT, 2nd F for FOCUSED, O for OPTIMISTIC, R for REQUISITE, T is for TENACIOUS.
When most things are equal we tend to attribute the level of success to the amount of effort, quantity more than quality, but just like poorly formed goals can see failure despite effort, poorly formed effort will not likely yield optimal success. These six associated words, worked in harmony, are an ideal process for converting effort to success.

ENERGY is a level of trying, it can be applied in bursts or through stamina but a consistent vitality drives the pace of achievement. A FERVENT try is intense and impassioned and brings the heart to join the head, the FOCUSED undertaking creates efficiency. Being OPTIMISTIC sets the belief there will be success (self doubt is a huge win killer). One may endeavor to cure cancer but without REQUISITE understanding it is misspent application, without essentials in place trying hard can be futile. Finally, and most importantly, it is the one who is most TENACIOUS in their course of action, who sees defeats as temporary setbacks and resumes with persistence, who is most likely to reach the mountain top, raise arms and exult success.

Next time you think you’re really working hard, or giving (the meaningless) 110% effort to reach your success, break it down. Maybe you need to effort your effort to reach your mountain top.

by Tom FoxPosted on Posted in Blog — No Comments ↓

 

In the recent conversations about the future of sports, particularly around the safety issues in playing violent games like football, there is a constant rationalization that the life lessons you learn may well be worthy of the risks. When those risks were believed limited to a balky knee or some middle age arthritis there wasn’t a lot of argument. Today, with CTE, ALS, concussions, suicide, mood swings, and the far less discussed but possibly more severe consequence of drug addition in young athletes (that begins with medically prescribed pain management medication), the consequences of early death and misery for both the victim and the family make the discussion stakes higher.

There are obviously odds involved in those risks; frequency, type and severity. By no means are those risks limited to football, whether soccer heading injuries, lacrosse balls to the heart, a baseball to the forehead or any number of other traumas familiar to team sports. The risks today are medically clearer and some prevention with technology and teaching are happening but why is it that the “benefits” are taken at face value and rarely discussed or debated except in tones of clear validation.

Let’s acknowledge that there are surely many crossover traits between sports and business success. I confess that throughout my managing and training career I have used sports analogies far too many times to count. They are usually clear, relatable and focused. The joy of winning and the agony of defeat if you will. Polling CEO’s you’s doubtless find a huge majority that prioritize their health and fitness as an element of life success and experienced that in sports. Why not? It highlights winning and losing, competitiveness, learning to get back up when you fail, practice, effort, teamwork, strategy, pressure as well as the full range of emotional development…and you know the litany. The question is what role does sports, particularly team sports, serve in teaching those lessons that clearly parallel business, and life success?

Perhaps it is a question of exclusivity. While plenty of successful business leaders may have been team captains, or stars, just as many participated without much distinction. We also can’t ignore the significant percentage that were never “sports guys” or girls and learned success through different avenues.

If you want little Johnnie or Janie to grow up and learn life lessons for success might you instead stress individual sports? Obviously there is some teamwork lesson sacrifice but there are coaches and trainers and parents who drive that will offer at least some of that lesson back. True, there is a different kind of social comradery in team sports. Having played football and lacrosse in high school and soccer and baseball growing up I certainly love many memories of team sports. More than success lessons though I can think of a bunch of lessons that weren’t so positive but perhaps they have a weighty value too. A football locker room for instance can be ignorant, intolerant, brutal, crude, bullying and cliquey.

Teams also demonstrate another parallel to business; stars are special people that get treated differently, fair or not, if you can excel to someone’s benefit you can get away with things the scrubs never do. So no debate these lessons shape and develop you; many positive, some negative but do we need “dangerous” sports to do that?

Is that a fair question? Certainly it is a personal one. Thirty something years ago I had friends whose [sorry] moms wouldn’t let them play football because it was too dangerous. There’s also no doubt the same life lessons exist in theater clubs, chess and debate teams so is it just a matter of everyone having a type of team to enable the most valuable success lessons? If you are going to become the next Stephen King or Steve Jobs and earn your living from a keyboard is there anything you really needed from any kind of team competition?

Clearly we need to make team sports safer so whatever success lessons are learned can be carried out into the world as kids become adults and compete in the real world. A fraction of one percent ever make any money playing anything professionally so wherever success behaviors like commitment, dedication, effort, creativity, quick decision making, shared joy and rewards in reaching goals and resiliency can be learned, those are the key elements we see that dictate making money and/or experiencing life success. (ie Use John Wooden’s pyramid for any walk of life.)

I guess I like Brian Billick’s response best. When the former coach and current sports commentator was asked, “Would you want your grandchild to play football?” He replied, “No…and I don’t want him to drive, snowboard or do any other activity that might cause him harm, but if it is his passion then I would support him and try to make sure he was as safely coached and equipped as possible.”

The real takeaway about learning life lessons for success is to have passion, dreams, goals, effort, support and joy (and surely more). So you don’t have to play football to have a corner office but being captain of the football team might shape you into a future CEO. The point is success evolves from life lessons learned be they on a field, a stage, a tree house or a home. Get your kids lessons that evolve from their passions and they are on the best path to lifelong success.

by Tom FoxPosted on Posted in Blog — No Comments ↓

PREPARATION. It’s axiomatic. It’s essential. Yet it is also highly variable. Depending on the level of significance of a given coming encounter we generally  tailor our amount and degree of preparation. Sometimes we obsess if it is important or unfamiliar or we take a casual view believing “we know this stuff.” Unfortunately, the reality can be that our preparation is misguided if we skip preparing what we think we already know–and know how to do!

What we know involves two categories: elements such as facts, figures, prices, specs, objections, etc. Plus things we want to learn prior such as intel on our counterpart, experiences, ideas or observations from others. Reinforcing knowledge of elements is our primary preparation. With elements we don’t have to “learn” we should explore variable context and consider what we may be taken for granted within those facts and figures.

The second element of knowledge is the process we will use in the engagement–Knowing what to do. If it’s a major sale or interview we work extra to line up our ducks. A significant encounter may not even be planned so, in that case, is preparing for the how you engage even relevant?

You bet! In fact, I would argue that while having appropriate knowledge and insight is obviously significant so often we get tripped up by what we later know we should have done or should have said and often realize it after (not) doing, or are told…or sometimes right while we are blowing it. Why?

Distractions and unanticipated events are as likely to occur as not. Do you prepare to be distracted? To get back on track if derailed? It is only by relentlessly preparing our how, our process, that we can be confident it will trigger a winning reflex and have us lament a lost opportunity.

I had an opportunity with a prospect that was so in my wheelhouse it should have been a slam dunk especially with a strong internal referral. Even though the subject requested was already an expertise I prepared extensive notes on my philosophy, refreshed all the associated technology and terminology involved and proudly had my past successes in this arena prepared for confirmation. This was such an obviously perfect fit I spent no time preparing how I would sell it, how I would react to questions, check-listing any negative habits that can work against me…I know that stuff, I train it so why would I have to prepare it?

The answer was sadly revealed when I thoughtlessly broke rules I intellectually know like the back of my hand. My sales reflexes deserted me, relieved of duty by the “expert.” I know to answer any question (especially first ones) with a polite reversing question(s) that gets to what the real issue is. I got an unexpected question, general and going way back in time, instead of narrowing it to give a brief, precise and relevant answer my ego let flattery take me back to recount what must have sounded like a hero’s journey tale that took far too long, Forks in my road were taken and I lost any relevance to the q&a that should make this sale. A question you get may not be a good one (for you) so don’t try to make it one. Ask and ask until you get to what response will connect to your counterpart, helping them and yet forwarding your objective. Even recognizing the misguided start I couldn’t stop it once inside the snowball on the hill, and never recovered letting myself get down recognizing I was blowing it. I prepared extensively what to do when I got the gig…not making sure I would get it.

The second “what did I just do?” involved breaking another two rule set I preach: Always ask permission if you are going to ask a personal question and two, don’t ask a personal question (unless it is expressly part of your selling strategy to introduce personal consequences of action/inaction).

What drove what I know I know to desert me? The engagement was over Skype and the lack of personal intimacy, ability to read body language and the more uncomfortable you talk/I talk sensibility heightens certain sensory observations and diminishes others. I hadn’t prepared for the do’s and don’ts of video selling/meeting compared to in-person.  I do plenty of training over Skype why would I need to prepare to sell over it? Takeaway: Prepare for your space and engagement type by reviewing how you will sell/present/respond with as much importance as what you will be saying/selling/presenting.

The other sink hole on this preparation road for me was my determination to hyper-prepare as a subject matter expert with previously successful and innovative approaches. Because I let myself journey down the wrong roads the  conversation never got the opportunity to present those insights, I wasted time talking and not selling. Takeaway: Selling (or influencing) should always be a process of uncovering what your staff/boss/client/prospect really needs to feel more than know and declare comfort and desire for you as the solution (who you are not what you do or know). The greatest expertise, product or process is of no use if it isn’t seen and felt as a solution to pain or opportunity.

So when preparing for the big meeting, interview, important sale or the impromptu critical call let your preparation be not just what you know but in how you will engage. What you will ask rather than what you will answer. A reflex only works the way you want it when it is well honed out and practiced.

Tom Fox