Friday, May 19, 2006

Leadership in Todays World

Carl Hoffman

The most important thing you do is LEAD your people. Every productive activity on your daily agenda is leadership, regardless of what you call it. You manage, advise, teach, decide, and direct. The list goes on but it’s all leading.

The most valuable commodity of any great organization is the quality of good people. They deserve the most inspired caring leadership you can provide.

Leaders seize the opportunity and use it properly to attain excellence.

A critical factor in the exercise of leadership is the adaptability of the person in charge. Whenever any of the variables change, the necessarily “right” style must change. The leader must then adjust his or her approach. The style that worked yesterday may not work tomorrow–but the leader will adapt. It takes time for a new leader to identify the “right” style of leadership. By the time that leader discovers the correct approach he or she may have damaged his or her credibility. The leader may then have established a pattern of behavior that will stick with him or her for the rest of their lives.

Another component of good leadership is caring. Good leaders care about and take of their people. They help them deal with stress that arise both from the job and from external sources.Leaders never let the pressure of their job interfere with taking care of their people.

What your members of your team or organization say is important. Without exception every group complains to some degree. But this is not always bad. Quality of leadership must be assessed by looking at where the irritants lie. If discussions generally dwell on internal issues within the team or organization, leadership might need improvement. If they focus instead on internal issues at a higher level such as company or corporate headquarters, there is a chance your people are satisfied with your leadership.

Equally important in the assessment of leadership is how participants interact in sensing sessions. This is commonly seen as an indicator of morale–how they feel about themselves. It is also a broad indicator of how they feel about their organization.

Cooperative groups generally come from good environment. They talk about anything. At times they even complain but they also frequently recommend solutions. The tone and body language of these group suggest that they are basically satisfied with their leadership. The willingness to recommend improvements suggest confidence in their leaders to listen to opinions and to act on recommendations.

Vocal, hostile groups generally come from poor environments. These groups use sensing sessions to vent their frustrations. They don’t sense that their leaders understand or care enough about them to deal with their problems. In most cases, these groups see their leaders adding more to their burden than they take away.

Reticent groups also generally come from poor environments. They hesitate to say anything. These groups demonstrate the resignation that sets in when they feel no one cares about their problems. Alternatively, they may respresent teams that work under repressive leadership that is intoleratnt to “whiners” or threatens retribution for complaining. A good senior leader can do things to overcome poor leadership below them. The converse is not true . Even the most inspired junior leaders cannot compensate for the “wrong” style imposed upon them and their team from above.

Carl Hoffman has over 20 years of sales and marketing experience and is owner of many online business ventures. He has authored numerous business related articles. If you are looking to start your own on line business or build on an existing one visit him at Best Work at Home Ideas and Opportunities: http://scarpero.com/success/76/leadership-in-todays-world/

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Exactly!

Leadership Lessons For Sales Managers
Bill Willard

Leadership, like class, is hard to define, but easy to spot.

Someone once defined management as the effective coordination of the efforts of the individuals in a group to accomplish that stated objectives of the organization. Managers get results by establishing goals and working with and through people to achieve those goals.

As a manager, your success depends on your ability to:
  • Find and attract career-oriented men and women who have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to do the job, who are motivated to work, and who will cooperate with you and each other, and;
  • Develop and manage these people to meet specific performance standards.

Management is a process because it involves a series of skills. But management is as much attitude as it is skills. Managers should be helpful supporters, working to build trust and confidence, and seeking to improve performance by recognizing that individuals have different needs, motivations and aspirations.

That means, the more of a leader you are, the better manager you will be.

Happily, most leaders are made, not born. They are cultivated, shaped and strengthened by education, training and real-world experience. Understanding leadership AND management is a good way of becoming more proficient at both.

What is leadership? What does it take to be a leader? Here’s a short course:

  • Leadership means having a mission and inspiring others to be committed to it. The mission is everything; leaders approach it with enthusiasm.
  • Leaders are agents of change; they make decisions based on a vision of the future, not just on established directions.
  • Leaders take risks to make things happen that would not otherwise happen.
  • Leaders need a combination of competence, integrity, credibility and authority. They’re seen as being involved in a lot of things and able to answer a lot of questions.
  • Leadership is a collaborative, not individual, process. It’s the ability to get people to do what you want them to because they want to do it!
  • Leaders help people do their best.
  • Leaders depend on themselves and act on their own authority, but they recognize the importance of others.
  • Leaders ask questions and know how to listen.
  • Leaders let others talk; they don’t talk about themselves.
  • Leadership begins when people disagree.
  • Leaders recognize that performance and progress are forged on the anvil of constructive conflict.
  • Leaders are willing to be unloved! In the words of Admiral John S. McCain (the late father of the Senator): People may not love you for being strong when you have to be, but they will respect you for it and learn to behave themselves when you do. Try it; it works!

Qualities of an Effective Leader

  • Leaders are purposeful; they have a clear view of their objectives and avoid digressions into irrelevancy.
  • Leaders know their stuff; they have a thorough grasp of their subjects, when possible, backed up with hands-on experience.
  • Leaders are prepared. No matter how well you know what you re talking about, choose appropriate ways of getting your message across. Avoid shortcuts.
  • Leaders are enthusiastic, but season their enthusiasm with intelligence and appropriate humor.
  • Leaders understand the use of drama. Dull is boring, so cultivate a sense of staging, especially when addressing a group.
  • Leaders are confident and easy-going. Regardless of their management style, they speak clearly, projecting their voices and looking people in the eye. Distinct speech is a sign of distinct ideas; self-assurance catches on.
  • Leaders maintain a positive attitude. They never speak ill of their organizations or of individuals under their management. The glass is always half full, never half empty.
  • Leaders demonstrate the contagion of example. It s not enough to talk the talk; leaders must walk the walk.
  • Leaders support their subordinates, giving them the widest possible authority and discretion, while keeping responsibility centralized with themselves.
  • Leaders live the U.S. Army s motto: Adapt, Improvise and Overcome.
  • Leadership Makes Businesses Work

If management's ability keeps systems operating efficiently, leadership identifies management needs and seeks systems to address them. If management skills are required to administer existing programs and systems, it takes leadership to create a vision of success, and get people excited about attaining it.

In short, leadership provided by agency heads, sales managers and other members of the management team makes businesses work. It enables them develop to the limits of their potential, then helps them break those limits.


Bill Willard has been writing high-impact marketing and sales training primarily for the financial services industry for 30 years. Through interactive, Web-based “Do-While-Learning ” programs, enewsletters and straight-talking articles. And fun!

Source: http://scarpero.com/success/74/leadership-lessons-for-sales-managers/

Are you ignoring your "B" players?

...another great article from HBS. Check it out here.

Are you demotivating your staff?

Great article from HBS on how managers demotivate employees. Take a read here.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The 5 Coaching Rules of Reality

Some of the best business coaches in the world are sales coaches. Doug Firebaugh knows his stuff and backs up everything I have been saying for 24+ years! Check out his latest.


Friday, May 12, 2006

7 Secrets of Great Coaches!

Credible coaching has seven primary components associated with it, which we call the Seven Secrets of Successful Coaches. As you look over the components, see how you might rate on each of them.Credible coaches are...

1. Character-based. Credible coaches seek to do the right thing. They are honorable people with high ethical standards and great integrity. They tell the truth to their athletes and never manipulate or play mind games with them. They conduct themselves in a professional manner and take pride in representing their teams and athletes with class. Credible coaches look to surround themselves with people of solid character because they know that character is just as important as talent in the long run.

2. Competent. Credible coaches have a thorough understanding of the strategies and fundamentals of the game. They know how to make the appropriate adjustments and are seldom out-coached. Despite their solid understanding of the X's and O's, they are highly inquisitive people who continually look for innovative and improved ways of doing things. They are lifelong students of the game. Further, they understand that admitting their limitations and mistakes is actually a sign of strength, not weakness. Even though they are highly capable and often revered people, credible coaches tend to remain humble and keep their success in perspective.

3. Committed. Credible coaches are highly committed people. They create successful visions for their teams and are more than willing to put in the time required to make them happen. They have a true passion for sport and coaching which fuels their intense drive and enthusiasm. They also have incredible reserves of energy and resiliency, which enables them to weather the inevitable storms of adversity. Credible coaches tend to be highly competitive people who really enjoy competing and winning at the highest levels.

4. Caring. Credible coaches care about their athletes as people. They sincerely want the best for their athletes in all aspects of their lives and are willing to help them in any way possible. Credible coaches invest the time to get to know each of their athletes on a personal level, showing an interest in their athletes' families, friends, faith, and future goals. Further, this caring does not end when a player's eligibility or career is over, but often extends throughout a player's lifetime.

5. Confidence-builder. Credible coaches continually build their players' confidence. They plant seeds of success in their athletes' minds and convince them that they can and will be successful. Credible coaches have a special knack for making people feel good about themselves, capable of achieving almost anything they set their minds to. They are demanding and set high standards yet are patient enough to help athletes develop and improve. When athletes do fall short, as all of them eventually will, credible coaches use a good balance of being challenging and supportive to help people get back on track.

6. Communicators. Credible coaches are excellent communicators. They are open, honest, and direct when communicating with individuals and the team. They continually remind and refocus people on what they need to do to be successful. Credible coaches seek to involve their athletes as much as possible and value the input they receive from them. They have they remarkable ability to truly listen to their athletes. They take the time to understand where people are coming from and are able to make decisions accordingly. Because of their ability to listen, credible coaches are often aware of concerns and conflicts and proactively address them before they become major problems or distractions.

7. Consistent. Credible coaches develop a sound philosophy of coaching. This philosophy remains stable over time, but they are flexible enough to adapt to changing situations or personnel. Credible coaches bring a consistent mood to practices and games, regardless of whether their team is winning or losing. They control their emotions in the heat of battle and convey a sense consistency to their athletes by not letting the highs get too high or the lows get too low. Further, they maintain a consistent approach to the rules and standards of the team. They tend to have few rules, but are consistent in how they apply them whether a player is a starter or reserve. Finally, credible coaches tend to be highly organized people who take their practice and game preparation very seriously.

Being a credible coach is certainly a challenging task. However, the rewards of more motivated, committed, disciplined, and committed players are well worth it.

The 6 Best Ways To Lose a Good Player!

OK, I’ve discussed creative employee retention strategies and how to build bench strength. We’ve learned that “what counts is what stays.” But now let’s focus on how to lose employees.

It’s not that hard. You and I do it every day. Here’s my list of the 6 Worst Practices Relative to employee retention. Hopefully, they don’t sound familiar!

1. Don’t ask new hires what worked, and what didn’t. After your “official” orientation, a good way to increase turnover is to forget to ever ask new employees for feedback on your recruiting system, your orientation, your training program, and your company goals. Your new team members are eager to be with you, so tap into that energetic feedback early on. Find out
what part of your recruiting process or which facet of pure dumb luck brought them to you. What elements of your company’s recruiting, training or reputation were the most compelling, what mattered least, and what had no impact? You can use this feedback to redesign your recruiting ads and improve your training programs to focus on retention.

2. Ignore Tomorrow, Hire for Today. “Next week” is tomorrow in Modern Time. Clearly define and understand what skills and knowledge your company needs today and in the future. Will you have fewer servers per section, more server assistants? Take a hard look at how the cultural gumbo of restaurant management (mixing generation, opinion, style and technology) is changing the very nature of our jobs. How will the preponderance of pre-prepped products affect the design, feel, and number of bodies in the kitchen in the next three years? What about the technology, the robotics, the data accumulated, and exchanged? What about the 3 generations in our workplace?

3. Don’t let your employees know where they stand - good or bad. What’s the old saying? ”Never let either good work go un-praised (if you see it, say it) or poor work go unnoticed (make it private and positive).” A big mistake is to make your orientation training dynamic and compelling and then offering no ongoing learning or motivation. It’s critical to keep the energy and enthusiasm going beyond the first week into the next 30, 60, 90 days. This helps avoid the classic “sophomore slump” of higher turnover from occurring. Nurture your team.

4. Not planning for turnover. As Michael McLaughlin said in a recent Workforce magazine: ”Maybe if you keep your eyes closed, you won’t see the rush for the door when the economy picks up again. “ Sound pessimistic…or prescient? You be the judge. Starting NOW, let’s invest in keeping our good people with us. And make our not-so-good better.

5. Fail to change with the times (or the times will change you.) Here is a GameOn! Law: the meaning of service is always changing since the customer is always changing. And, therefore, the meaning of any restaurant job or position is always changing because that customer (internal) is always-changing too. So make sure that you stay in sync with but slightly ahead of your customers (both employees and guests). As Norman Brinker says: “major in timing. If you get too far ahead of your customers, you’ll confuse them. If you get too far behind them, you’ll lose them.”

6. Play by the Rules. Lots of them. A sure way to turnover more people is to over-burden them with rules and regulations. A better philosophy? Strong culture, thin rulebook. And it’s helpful to also recognize the difference between rules and principles. Rules tell your people what they can do. Principles them what they cannot do. And as far as rules go, the bottom line is that only one thing matters anyway and Norman Brinker once again said it best: “Nothing is sacred other than that the guest returns.”

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Is a raise the best thing you can give a high performance player?

I'm all over Jim Rohn’s insights. I mentioned in a recent post that I’d take talent over experience. So would Jim, I believe.

In a recent newsletter article Jim wrote, he makes it simple: “Good people are found, not changed.” A bit more from Jim:

Motivation is a mystery. Why are some people motivated and some are not? Why does one salesperson see his first prospect at seven in the morning while the other sees his first prospect at 11 in the morning? Why would one start at seven and the other start at 11? I don’t know. Call it “mysteries of the mind.”

...Don’t waste your time trying to turn ducks into eagles. Hire people who already have the motivation and drive to be eagles and then just let them soar.

I also like the add-on post at Simplenomics from Mike Sigers (always good stuff over there) about giving employees more rope (leeway/responsibility/opportunity) vs. ridiculous incremental bonuses.

As a manager, you’ve got to think about this. Watch the signals you send to people for their excellent performance. Significant raise or significant improvements in leeway?

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/salesteamtools?m=160

Why you need to look outside your four walls - again!

A lot of people ask me why I use a lot of material from outside the restaurant industry to make a point. Today is the lesson in why. This first post is from a blog from Ad Age called The Small Agency Diary, I subscribe to it and read it daily. And although it is not about the restaurant business, it does offer something every once in a while that can be and should be. It also offers a perspective on small business from the creative mind. I never ignore the creative and you shouldn't either! Read the post below - theirs, and then the next one that I changed to reflect our business. Hopefully you will see what I mean and "get it" yourself!

Theirs!

When Agency Staffers Don’t Get It.

BART CLEVELAND: If your agency is not filled with people that get it dont expect it to move forward. I believe an agency made up of more than 5% of non-get-it-ers is not going anywhere until that percentage is almost zero. Of course if one of the people that dont get it is an owner, pack it up and move on. Your agency is a walking dead man.

Not getting it means not getting why great work is not only important, but also imperative. Not getting “it” is a malady that includes creative personnel as often as other departments. There are plenty of creative people who blame everyone but himself or herself for poor work.

The key is to do something about those not getting it quickly so your agency doesnt lose momentum. People who are not quite up to speed can only adjust if they know where they stand. Tell them. Dont hide your disappointment until it boils over.

I have a former co-worker who went through this experience when she went to work for an agency that is one of the hottest in the industry. A unique media need brought her to the conclusion that the assignment couldnt be successfully completed. Her supervisor immediately sat her down and clearly explained what was expected of everyone at the agency. She said that there was no such word as no in the agencys vocabulary. Whatever the challenge, one found a way to make it happen. My young friend instantly responded by trying again and solving the problem. She has been there for several years now and loves her place in the sun. I really admire her and her agency for their attitude and approach to success.

Ive had a few people work for me that surprised me in such a way. Thus, I try not to judge whos going to be the star. Sometimes a duck becomes a swan. Similarly, I dont wait too long for the swan to blossom. People, who know where the bar is and never try to jump over it, assure the bar will never get raised.


Mine!

When Employees Don’t Get It

BART CLEVELAND: If your restaurant is not filled with people that get it, don’t expect it to move forward. I believe a restaurant made up of more than 5% of non-get-it-ers is not going anywhere until that percentage is almost zero. Of course if one of the people that don’t get it is an owner, pack it up and move on. Your restaurant is a walking dead man.

Not getting it means not getting why great work is not only important, but also imperative! Not getting “it” is a malady that includes the TOH just as much as the BOH and FOH departments. There are plenty of people who blame everyone but himself or herself for poor work.

The key is to do something about those not getting it quickly so your restaurant doesn’t lose momentum. People who are not quite up to speed can only adjust if they know where they stand. Tell them. Don’t hide your disappointment until it boils over.

I have a former co-worker who went through this experience when she went to work for a restaurant that is one of the hottest in the industry. A unique operations need brought her to the conclusion that the assignment couldn’t be successfully completed. Her supervisor immediately sat her down and clearly explained what was expected of everyone at the restaurant. She said that there was no such word as “no” in the restaurant’s vocabulary. Whatever the challenge, one found a way to make it happen. My young friend instantly responded by trying again and solving the problem. She has been there for several years now and loves her place in the sun. I really admire her and her restaurant for their attitude and approach to success.

I’ve had a few people work for me that surprised me in such a way. Thus, I try not to judge who’s going to be the star. Sometimes a duck becomes a swan. Similarly, I don’t wait too long for the swan to blossom. People, who know where the bar is and never try to jump over it, assume the bar will never get raised.

Get it?

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Lessons Learned from Howard Schultz

Carmine Gallo, writing for BusinessWeek Small Biz, has a worthwhile take on how Howard Schultz uses passion, performance, and persuasion to create the endearing and enduring business Starbucks has become. In the short article, Gallo outlines three lessons to be learned from Howard Schultzs leadership ways. (Good stuff.)

LESSON 1: Dig deep to identify what you are truly passionate about (hint: it's not always the product itself) and convey that message to employees, customers, and colleagues. When you are passionate, you come across as excited, energetic, and enthusiastic -- all of the qualities people like to see in others. And if people like you, they're more likely to do business with you or to back your vision.

LESSON 2: Inspire your colleagues, investors, or employees by painting a picture of a world made better by your service, product, company, or cause.

LESSON 3: To get the most out of people, a leader has to tap into their emotions as well as their minds. People can relate to stories. They can see themselves in other people's stories. The ability to use stories to get people to buy into one's vision with their hearts is a powerful leadership capability.

SOURCE BusinessWeek Small Biz article May 2006

Source: http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/2006/05/lessons_learned.html

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

The Five Most Common Lies in Business!

"There are as many lies in business as there are people in business."
-Paul LaFontaine , consultant


Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fastcompany/headlines?m=1085

Are you a bad boss?

Take this quiz!

http://www.entrepreneur.com/quiz/bad-boss

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Secrets to Great Service

Almost any restaurant has room to improve service Here’s how to do it:

Source: http://www.Restaurant-Hospitality.com/article/11561/