For most of our B2B sales lives, we have been thrown new products with a list of features and benefits over the wall and the client engagement teams have had to translate all of that “stuff” into conversations that matter to our clients. Not always an easy matter when the great “new” product looks amazing like the good “old” products or services that we have been working with for years. That, however, is quite ok. This is where the client-facing teams shine and where they do their best work. This is the art of conversations, that matter to our clients. And to be quite specific this is the absolute art of 2-WAY conversations, not just show up and broadcast, but create and conduct a truly meaningful dialog with clients.
Michael Hvisdos (www.inquizo.com) has been working with our team for several years as we dig into the science and impact of curiosity. Michael and his partner Janet are absolute guru’s when it comes to this… Check them out. In my attempt to keep brief here I will just tell you that Michael ingrained in our thinking many years ago the value of absolute thinking of having great 2-WAY conversations. The big difference between thought and action. With 2-WAY conversations as a baseline, we must clearly accept the age-old adage of “seek first to understand before being understood”. The challenge is the first part. We have lots of practice in the latter part. So here is my request for you for this week.
Understand that you cannot change someone else’s mind. No argument will have you changing their mind. Only they can change their mind. It must be of their own free will. On occasion, you might verbally bludgeon them into submission (think teenage discussion here), but that will not be the same thing. To get someone to see your perspective if it is different than theirs, you must first acknowledge their perspective as being viable (and mean it). Only when you stop the wall building of having right/wrong conversations can you actually reach out and help others gain perspectives beyond their current ones. Stop trying to be right, you only end up making other wrong. Learn the power of AND, and avoid the OR.
My request for you this week is actually just for one day. If you can take if further, bless you. For just one day this week, I ask that you take the entire day and…
NOT DISAGREE WITH ANYONE ABOUT ANYTHING (both personally and professionally)
That does not mean you have to accept what they say, just understand their statements and beliefs. Acknowledge the fact that you understand. Open up the door to having really great 2-WAY conversations that matter to you both.
This is a tough action. Teams small and large have accepted this challenge and we have worked through the outcomes with greatness at the end. Enjoy!
OK, Let’s Roll!
- Mitch
“I am a human being, not a human doing.” – attributed to many in the universe.
Not a short blog this week!
There are many brilliant minds in our world addressing all of the myriads of things that that we need to DO to make a shift in our world to accommodate the changes that we perceive COVID-19 has brought to how we “sell”.
And from what can be seen, they are all doing a great job in telling that story. There is very little to add to the great ideas being spawned in getting the job done and great DOING.
In my opinion, the DOING is very tactical and pretty contextually specific to each business buyer/seller relationship. The answer to getting the most effective, efficient, and valuable outcomes from each of these “projects” is in fact front line leadership coaching. If we don’t get this right all of the foundational stuff below will not matter… Keith Rosen www.profitbuilders.com is the best there is for getting this front line connection to work. He is great at getting the DOING DONE.
DOING is not wrong, it’s just not enough on its own to make a unique difference with your clients. They want to see the deeper side of your team in addition to the tactical implementation perspective. It is by walking the talk of the whole story that you build client trust and maximize client outcomes. Trust comes when the client can see both sides of the curtain (OZ reference).
DOING is great. AND it is launched, nurtured, cultivated, and turned into excellence by being based deeply on a complete story of Vision Driven Execution. We build that on a foundation. A complete, sturdy, deep foundation that stands up to every challenge, including COVID-19. It does not get blown away by any category of a storm or swamped by any level of floodwaters or destroyed by any level of virus. And this foundation is our heart and soul.
The building blocks of the foundation of Vision Driven Execution are the following.
Purpose
Vision
Mission
Values
Strategic Objectives
Just a bit of explanation of each, for now, we will follow on more in-depth later.
Before we jump into all of these, it is worth noting that this entire focus can be a corporate construct, OR, it can also be how a team or business unit chooses to function, just as easily. So feel free to start small, enroll others, create success, and offer to help the folks around you accomplish the same things.
PURPOSE
A corporate or team purpose must be aimed at things well beyond revenue, profits, shareholder return, etc. There will be a time and a place for those in the Strategic Objectives. Purpose, to be truly inspiring to all, must have a component that relates to making the world a better place. No ranking, striving to be the “best” or becoming number one. Those are all internal views. To make purpose really work it must be focused on things of humanity outside of the corporate walls. This one is a tough one to get most corporate C suite folks to buy into. But those that do create a truly compelling place to contribute to the betterment of humankind. The deeper level of purpose comes into play when you work to understand your client’s purpose and the purpose of yourself and the folks you are serving. That is another “book”.
VISION
Vision and mission are not the same things, although they often get interchanged. Vision is that “picture” of the future state of where you are or what you are building. It is something more like 5-10 years out. A good vision paints a picture of how your world will look, how it will act, how it will feel, how it will smell, sound, or maybe even taste… in the future. It is the ideal state that you are working to build. It can be SEEN by closing your eyes and letting all the words sink in. It talks to the people involved, where they are, what they do that is different, and how they do their work with their clients. A good vision can be several pages long. It is NOT meant to be memorized, but it IS meant to be felt. Think vision… think picture (with sounds and smells).
MISSION
Mission is distinct in that it is built on today, not the future. It is a SIMPLE statement of the ONE thing that we MUST do each and every day to make our vision possible. This is the one thing that everyone absolutely MUST be able to recall instantly when asked what their mission is. This takes careful crafting as it must stand the test of time and abuse. This takes a lot of communication to get grounded and inherently understood. Simple is the magic here and that is what makes it hard. When you are building this, ask someone outside of your company if what you state makes sense.
VALUES
Core values are the deeply ingrained principles that guide all of a company’s actions; they serve as its cultural cornerstones. Core values are seen as being inherent and too valuable and important to ever be messed with. They can never be compromised, either for convenience or short-term economic gain. This creative work needs some time and evolution or two as they must stand up to all pressures and guide the toughest of decisions and challenges. Even a small team can create its own set of values that work in unison with the corporate versions.
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
At their broadest, strategic objectives serve an organization’s ambition. A company or team’s ambition is found in its mission and vision statements. These statements together describe the main thrust of a company or team and its ultimate goal, a goal that can only be reached by successfully carrying out business. Strategic objectives are the steps and accomplishments that need to be completed to realize that ultimate goal.
Good strategic objectives -- that is, those that are specific, measurable and have a deadline attached -- unify the activities of everyone throughout an organization of any size. Employees and departments don’t work at cross purposes, pursuing their own agendas, but instead work with the larger picture in mind, all moving in the same direction. Because the goals are specific, employees and managers can measure progress and reform ineffective practices This focuses efforts on achievement -- not only the achievement of strategic objectives but eventually, of the vision.
Execution is everything. It works exponentially well when it clearly has direction and shared understanding.
Vision Driven Execution delivers this.
OK, Let's Roll!
Mitch
Digging into the science behind optimism this week led me to share a few things about it. There are a ton of really great quotes covering the subject. Here are just a few of those thoughts.
“There is very little difference in people. But a little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative” – W. Clement Stone
Dr. Karl Menninger said, “Attitudes are more important than facts.”
We know clearly that we cannot control what the world throws at us, COVID-19 has proven that absolutely.
However, even under the toughest and most ridiculous of “challenges” we are free to manage our thoughts and moods. We have in each case, the chance to rise above the circumstances. WE are in control of our reactions. We choose the direction we take and the lens under which we examine all possibilities. Choose the lens of possibility and hard optimism.
Seen on a bumper sticker...
No sense being pessimistic.
Wouldn’t work anyway.
Per General Colin Powell, “optimism is a force multiplier”. And in today’s battles, we need every resource we can muster up. This one is ours to choose to use.
So, this week…. I challenge you all to have a different kind of 2-way conversation. Each day, share with someone different, what it is today that makes you have gratitude, what makes you feel grateful. Want to get really gutsy, do this with a client each day. Take a moment to tell them what you are grateful for in your relationship with them. Get specific, get detailed, get real. No B.S. softballs here. Think about it, do it, mean it. Watch the walls crumble. Then have the courage to make this part of who you are with people. You are someone that cares greatly, takes the time to understand deeply, and serves others with a big purpose (make the world a better place!)
OK, Let’s Roll!
- Mitch
Victim or Owner…. Your Choice!
As we all watch the daily onslaught of “news” these days I can’t help but think back to the fundamentals of all the great coaches that I have had over the many years, and still do today.
With every event, every action, every challenge is thrown our way, we as thinking beings, have a choice of how we react or view our perspective. It can be broken down in many ways, and the one that I appreciate more than any is the choice between being a victim or an owner.
A victim views every bump in the road as a car swallowing pothole. Now sometimes, in fact, that might be the reality. I suggest you swerve! But in the course of a normal day when we get thrown a really big curve, a victim, at that moment, will view that issue as a personally centered assault on their complete humanity. Not totally all that simple, but for this short piece that is as far as I will take it. Fear sets in, we freeze rather than act, and we lose perspective with a sole focus on the “issue in front of us.
An owner, however, realizes that the strike that they were just thrown, in fact, shows them what to look for next and establishes what actions they can take to counter any of the negatives that might have arisen otherwise. There is a ton of great writing on the concept of hard-nosed optimism (I suggest Hard Optimism by Price Pritchett) that will help you frame a response to these challenges. Again, to keep this blog short and applicable I will leave the details up for your further exploration.
My ask of you this week is to take ownership of just one challenge that you have on your plate today that is causing you to “study” it and that creates tension in your thinking and your “insides”. Take ownership, form a response, move it to ACTION! That simple move will empower you in more ways than you might expect!
You’ve got this.. you are an OWNER!
Ok, Let’s Roll!
-Mitch
In the beginning, there was paper…. And we actually used it to manage our schedules and keep track of stuff. The product that we used then still exists today…. a Day-Timer. In the early days, we actually held classes on how to use your Day-Timer planner to more effectively manage your days. They were things of beauty. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly sections in which you very neatly and concisely made notes of appointments and kept track of everything you ever needed to know. A very critical element in the use of the Day-Timer was the concept of “time activating” something. That meant that you went to the page that had the targeted date and time for what you wanted to set up, such as a meeting, and you made a well-documented little note to that effect. You “time activated” that meeting. Everyone knows what you meant when you said you would “time activate” it.
So why does this matter? Let's move from the past to the pandemic-driven situation of today. Today we are all deskbound video meeting driven communication gurus all working from home while trying to ALSO manage life at home, kids at home, pets at home, interruptions at home, AND remain relevant to all of those around our world. No pressure! Yeah right!
One answer that I have to keep a bit of sanity in our externally driven day is to “time activate” 3 distinct breaks in the day. Pick 15 minutes in the morning, “time activate” a short break to get up, move, do something distinctly different from what you have been doing. The movement part is critical. Our WFH mode is not giving us the “steps” that we need in a day unless you REALLY work at it. The second break can be lunch with the family, again moving away from the other workspace. Let them know that you would love to have lunch with them and actually schedule it with all. Then in the afternoon do another 15-minute “time activated” break. Gotta move!
Your ‘calendar” is YOURs, step up and control it a bit.
So just thought about how to be a bit more in control of our days, that turn into weeks, that slide into months… all working from home.
Just consider this as a possibility for this week and see how it goes…
OK, Lets Roll!
- Mitch
