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Month: March 2017

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Management Skills

Calming your Nerves On Camera

You know the drill.

Your heart starts to race. Your palms start to sweat while your mouth goes dry. You remind yourself to smile and pray you don’t draw a blank at a critical moment.

You’re either about to meet someone on a blind date, or you’re about to speak on camera.

If you’re looking into the eyes of a blind date, sorry; you’re on your own. But if you’re looking into the eye of a camera, there ARE things you can do to calm your nerves, collect your thoughts, and knock it out of the park.

Actually, the more I think about it, some of the solutions to these problems aren’t all that different after all.

For starters, head-games are half the battle. And I’m not even talking about if someone else is playing games with you. (Remember, on a first date those games haven’t started yet.) I’m referring to the internal head-games – some people might call it head trash – that you play with yourself.

Let’s face it: You can be your own worst enemy. And you know I’m right.

You constantly set the bar higher – a good thing in business development, but not when you’re always afraid you could or should have done better, never satisfied with your result. That wrecks havoc on your confidence, which is already under siege in front of the camera.

You’re also a pro at the “what if” game:

– What if I make a mistake?
– What if I draw a blank?
– What if they ask a question I can’t answer?
– What if I forget to smile?
– What if I fidget too much?
– What if the camera really does add ten pounds? I should’ve gone on a diet…

And what does all that accomplish? It sets you on a downward spiral of sabotage and self-fulfilling prophecies.

At that point, you’re like a major league baseball player getting up to bat and saying over and over to himself: Don’t miss… Don’t miss… Just don’t miss…

At best, that’s playing to not-lose. You need to adjust your thinking so you can play to WIN.
Here’s the first trick: Your body doesn’t know the difference between when you’re nervous or excited. Adrenaline is adrenaline. So when you feel the adrenaline kick in, along with the quickened heartbeat and shaky hands, don’t send yourself on that downward spiral by repeating “Oh my gosh, I’m so nervous… I’m so nervous… I’m so nervous” over and over again, mantra-like.

That’s psyching yourself out before you even get started, making the challenge both physical and psychological.

Instead, psych yourself into success. (After all, if you can talk yourself out of something, why wouldn’t it work the other way around too?)

When that adrenaline kicks in, change gears immediately, and repeat to yourself, “I’m so excited, I’m so excited, I’m so excited…” and get yourself pumped up!

And it’s not just empty words… you are excited. Think about it: you wouldn’t be nervous or excited if you didn’t care, and caring is good! And you probably care so much because this is a great opportunity for you to shine and get some good publicity for you and your company.
That’s what you should be focused on – and happy about!

Aligning your mind and body that way is the equivalent of getting up to bat and focusing your thoughts and efforts on knocking it out of the park.

Then SMILE as you say this to yourself – it actually has a positive psychological effect as well.

My video below, “Calming Your Nerves” from the series, “Capturing Your Confidence on Camera,” addresses this and other strategies you can use to get a grip on yourself and be calm, cool, and compelling in front of the camera.

And these strategies aren’t just for mastering camera presence. Whenever you need to capture the attention, minds and hearts of your audience, whether in an interview, giving a conference presentation, or on that first date, run through the strategy checklist in the video.

You’re sure to come across poised, charismatic and confident – and win them over!

Categories
Human Resources Leadership Marketing Personal Development

The Top Traits an Employee Needs to Deliver Great Customer Service

Everyone needs great customer service skills because every employee deals with internal and external customers, or both.

“But what exactly are the traits an employee needs?” a subscriber asked me recently.
“Are you asking about the traits that a support rep must have?” I asked.

“No,” he replied. “I am hiring to fill an IT position.”

First, I told him, as you think of traits, they come in two categories: skills and attitudes. A skill is self-explanatory. For instance, if you’re hiring someone who will be doing a lot of corresponding with customers, you’ll obviously need someone with good communication skills – a command of the English language, as in punctuation, spelling and grammar. An attitude is the way you would describe someone’s personal characteristics. For example, he or she is optimistic, witty or a team player.

To determine traits, we do an exercise in our customer focus workshops. We set a large whiteboard or flipchart in front of the audience. Then we ask the audience to shout out the traits of someone who would be good at customer service. As you can imagine, we get lots of adjectives. A few of them are:

Confident, empathetic, engaging, friendly, funny, good communicator, good people skills, happy, helpful, honest, kind, knowledgeable, nice, outgoing, passionate, poised, polite, positive, responsive, sympathetic – and the list typically goes on.

As you closely examine the list above, notice how many are skills and how many are attitudes. You’ll find that most of the traits are attitudes while just a few are skills! “Good communicator” and “good people skills” are obviously skills. You can even argue that “knowledgeable” is also a skill. But we find that out of the twenty or so traits that are typically mentioned, only about three of them are skills. Yes, we could add a few more skills to the list to try to balance it out, but for every skill we could add, there are probably three or four more attitudinal traits we could add as well.

By doing this exercise of creating a list, we’re not trying to imply to the audience that skills just aren’t important. They absolutely are. For example, if a medical center needs to hire a skilled nurse, they are going to be looking for more than just somebody with a great attitude or somebody who really wants to be a nurse. Any serious candidate for the job will have gone on for continued schooling, passed exams, got a degree and became licensed. Without those qualifications, all of the attitude in the world won’t land someone a job as a nurse.

And this discussion isn’t meant to support the saying “hire for attitude and train for skill” either. That may work for some jobs, but for many jobs, a person needs certain skills just to get the job, such as that of a nurse.

Another example of a group of employees that needs specialized skills are those whizzes in the IT department. They can understand things the average human can’t easily comprehend. However, regardless of how strong someone’s technical skills are, without the right personality, as exhibited by many of the aforementioned attitudes, a single employee can potentially bring down an entire customer-focused culture.

So what are the traits of an employee capable of delivering a great customer service experience? More importantly, how can you determine them for a position that you are trying to fill?

My suggestion is to have a group of employees in your company go through the whiteboard exercise we just mentioned. List all of the traits you can think of that are both attitudes and skills. Hone the list down to the top ten core attitudinal traits needed to be customer-focused in your organization. Then add to the list the specific skills required for the job. An accountant needs accounting skills. A doctor needs medical skills. And, of course the IT department needs people with technical skills. When you add the ten attitudes to the needed skills, you may have found that next AMAZING person to work with!

Categories
Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Operations Personal Development

A Billion Reasons Why Providing Great Customer Service Can Pay Off

For a company that provides a great product at a great price, and builds the value of that product with great customer service that inspires confidence among its members, look no further than The Dollar Shave Club.

Dollar Shave Club, in case you are not familiar, was started by Michael Dubin and Mark Levine in 2011. In 2012, they recorded a promotional video and posted it on YouTube. The video is so hilarious that it now has more than 24 million views! In the process, as you can imagine, Dollar Shave Club picked up members, thousands of them. This drove them from a start-up business to a success that would eventually attract the attention of long-established competitors. But sales alone couldn’t make them the success that they are today; they needed to have that good product supported by good service.

As their name implies, they sell a membership for one dollar. When you start your membership, you get your choice of one of their two-, four- or six-blade razors for just a dollar! And, that price includes the shipping. Then each month Dollar Shave Club sends you four fresh blades for as little as three dollars. That’s great value for the money. But great value, as in a low price, isn’t always accompanied by great service. Yet that is not the case with Dollar Shave Club.

Recently my Dollar Shave Club razor broke. The blade would no longer stay on the razor. Since they are an online retailer, I went to their website and clicked on “Contact Us.” I filled out the contact form and described my issue. In just a little while they responded.

Hey Shep,

Sorry to hear about the Handle! Thanks for letting us know. We trust you! I’ve got you covered and will send a couple of new Executive Handles on the house right away. Expect them within 3-5 business days and let us know if you need anything else in the meantime.

Shave on,

Wes

It was that easy. It was that fast. Just as easy and fast as when I signed up to be a member. Dollar Shave Club acknowledged my problem and apologized. Then they told me what they were going to do, which was send out new handles right away. And they did it. They didn’t make excuses, try to put the blame me or make it hard on me, such as asking me to return the broken handle. They just took great care of me. That’s what great customer-focused companies do!

So, how easy are you to do business with? When a customer has a problem, do you respond quickly, apologize, accept responsibility and immediately fix the problem, while making the process easy on the customer? Do you handle the issue in such a way that creates even greater confidence in your products and in your business? Everything Dollar Shave Club does creates confidence. Thus, confidence gives them a great reputation and loyal repeat customers – or should I say members.

Dollar Shave Club is the total package. Great value wrapped up with great service. And here’s some proof, they currently have over two million members, and recently, after just five years in business, they sold to Unilever for, are you ready? One billion dollars!

Categories
Marketing Personal Development Technology

When Your Marketing Needs Machine Learning

Machine learning seems to be the flavor of the week, so I’ve been getting a lot of questions from clients who want to know what they should know. And some requests for some kind of magic that sounds like, “Can you ladle out a dollop of that machine learning on this?”

So, first off, machine learning is a kind of artificial intelligence–that sounds lofty, but what it really means is that it provides a way for computers to solve problems that they weren’t explicitly programmed to solve. Standard software can solve a problem because a programmer researched the problem, talked to experts, and designed a solution to that particular problem. Machine learning allows computers to tackle a range of problems that the programmers and the experts wouldn’t necessarily know how to solve on their own.

Let’s take an example. I’ve designed a machine learning system for a company that performs sentiment analysis for social media conversations–such as whether a tweet is positive or negative. Now, human beings can identify sentiment accurately around 89% of the time (yes, that low), but standard software is much worse–maybe 60%–because it is hard to code a set of rules that cover all the cases. This machine learning solution is actually more accurate than human beings at times.

How does it do that? It collects training data from what the human beings decide and it looks for patterns that help it identify which tweets are more likely to be positive or negative. With enough training data, it can do a better job than a person. And it is certainly much faster and cheaper.

So, of course you’d like such a technology applied to all sorts of marketing problems that you have. But you might not be ready. Recently, a client approached us, asking that we replace their human content approval system with a machine learning system. They explained that their current process takes each new web page and subjects it to the judgement of several human experts (legal, brand, product, and more) before it is approved to be promoted to the production website. The current process is frustrating and time consuming–often two weeks go by before the approvals are in hand. They desperately want to get the approval process to a day–or even minutes.

But they aren’t ready yet. Machine learning requires that you have very tight processes with well-defined tasks and a history of data that shows that human experts generally agree with each other (such as in the 89% sentiment agreement). This client had none of that–no written standards, experts who disagree, no records of prior decisions–so they weren’t ready yet.

That’s OK. We walked through how they can fix all of those problems over the next few months. Just doing those things will make the process more consistent, less frustrating, and a little faster. At that point, we can start thinking about machine learning to gain even more. It’s always important to provide business value at every step–even what seems like the preparation step.

So what are your thoughts on machine learning? Anytime something new comes along, it can be a personality test. Some people say “we don’t need that yet because it isn’t proven” and others say “we need to do that now and get a jump on the competition.” For machine learning, it’s best to analyze the situation and start preparing your processes to take advantage–because the day is coming where no one will say it isn’t proven yet.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Management Skills

The High-Performance Reboot – A Modern Day Version of the American Dream

“Be All You Can Be”? Even though that slogan had its limitations, it was used in the Army for over 21 years to inspire young recruits to do their best and be their best at all times.

Truth is that being all you can be is not just for the Army. It is a choice that everyone has in life. It is about how you want to live your life and who you want to be. Be all you can be! – signifies the American dream, a dream that was coined in 1931 by Historian James Truslow Adams:

“…The American Dream… in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable.”

Each man and woman would have the opportunity to be all they can be and live a life of their choice. Sadly these days, the American Dream has turned into a nightmare consisting of a mad pursuit of riches, power and material possessions. Somewhere along the way we translated the American dream to extra-long hours at work, deadlines and high stress. It seems we have lost balance and have lost our way.

The question is can the American dream be kept alive without being a slave to your business, compromising your relationships or sacrificing your health and wellness? The answer is yes – a new updated version of the American dream can be attained thru High-Performance Reboot.

Why would you choose High-Performance Reboot?

The High-Performance Reboot provides the ability to express your

ultimate potential in life in all areas of your life on a consistent basis. It is the ability to constantly grow, achieve more and be more while still maintaining equilibrium without crashing and burning. Some people might call that work/life balance. Personally, I believe that life has ebb and flow. Balance is when the scales are even and there is no movement. While work/life balance signifies that your work is separate from your life, work is only one dimension of your life. Whereas at times you might need to invest energy in one area of your life, less in another; you then can circle back to the areas that may have been somewhat neglected and give them some extra needed attention therefore maintaining equilibrium.

For example: say you had a business project that required a lot of time and effort which may have taken your focus away from your family and your loved ones. Once that project was completed, you would be able to celebrate by taking your family on a vacation, spending uninterrupted quality time with them, therefore putting more energy in an area you had seemingly neglected.

High-Performance is not restricted to a special part of society – it is for anyone who chooses. The High Performance Reboot is about living your best life by tapping into your inner resources on a continuous basis to express the power of your own natural abilities without burning out or breaking down.

The High- Performance Reboot focuses on how you live in life, how you take care of yourself and access your inner resources. Its foundation is The High Performance Triad of Leadership- Language-Lifestyle.

• Leadership – The way you conduct yourself as an individual and the influence you have on others, your family, the community and the rest of the world

• Language – Your communication skills, your internal and external dialogues. What you say to yourself and other people and how you interact with them

• Lifestyle – What your life looks like. How you create a life of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being, a life of true health and Wellness.

My own life journey for over 30 years has lead to the natural evolution of The High-Performance Reboot. My experiences, education and professional expertise have been instrumental in defining and developing the three pillars of the High-Performance triad.
In the upcoming articles we will explore the three pillars in more depth to gain a deeper understanding on how they shape your activities, choices and your life.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Management Personal Development

5 strategies for getting unstuck

It happens to everyone at some point in time; you are going along in life or business and then one day you don’t feel like you are making progress anymore. You feel stuck, you’re not moving forward and you know there is more you want to accomplish. You want to get unstuck, but you’re not sure how.

Being stuck is not limited to any one area of your life. You may feel great at work, but stuck at home in your family dynamic. You may feel great at home but stuck in an aspect of work or business. You may feel stuck in your relationship and have fallen into the same old boring routine or maybe you are singles and you feel like you will never find that perfect someone.

These are just a few examples. The point is that feeling stuck can be about anything and the good news is you can get unstuck from most situations. Here are five strategies you can implement any time and start moving forward again.

1. Surround yourself with excellence. Start by looking at the people you spend your time with. You want to surround yourself with people who are going in the direction you want to go, who are smarter than you, and have accomplished more.

The reason for doing this is that when you surround yourself with the type of people who already have what you are trying to accomplish you will learn what to do much faster. You will have people you can learn from, whether through asking questions or learning from their examples and inspiration.

In doing this you will also learn habits of those who are successful and have reached similar goals to the ones that you have set for yourself. Then you implement the same habits.

Jim Rohn is known for saying that you will become the average of the five people you spend the most time around. What average do you want to be? Once you decide on that, then ask yourself who should those people be that you spend your time with? If the people who currently surround you do not average the future you want, it’s time to start hanging around new people. Find out where the people you want to be the average of hang out and start going there to expand your horizon.

2. Be Interested Not Interesting. Do you want to find new opportunities, maybe attract new people to you, or land that new job or promotion? Your goal is to be interested, not interesting. You were blessed with two ears and one mouth for a reason. To listen twice as much as you talk.

To be interested all you have to do is ask good questions about the other person, sit back and listen. Hear what they are telling you and when you have that urge to say “me too” stop yourself. This is not about you being interesting and telling your story, this is about you being interested and hearing theirs.

People want to be heard and they want someone to listen. Most people go through their day, weeks, and even years just wanting someone to really listen to them. Be that person and you will be invaluable to those around you. Not only will they benefit so will you as you start to listen, new ideas and opportunities will come to you.

3. Ask! Ask for what you want. Not asking is a definite No, when asking gives you a 50% chance of getting a yes. If you feel stuck because there is something you want or need from someone else and have not asked for it maybe it’s time to just go for the ask. You might be surprised to find that most people genuinely want to help others, especially those they know, trust, and like.

4. Get Scared. Go for the choice that scares you. Growth only happens when you get uncomfortable. When you go with what scares you, growing is required. When you go with the safe bet there is no requirement or opportunity for growth. Growth is getting unstuck.

Apply for the job or promotion you really want, the one you don’t know if you are ready for. Ask for the business or ask Sally or John out on a date. Do something that scares you and when it is no longer scary it’s time to do something new that scares you again. In all actuality if you can find something scary to do every day that is going to skyrocket your growth like you have never imagined possible. Check out the Book I Dare Me by Lu Ann Cahn to see how she overcame being stuck by doing something new every day.

5. Find a mentor. Sometimes it takes someone else to help you move forward. If you have tried everything and you are just not gaining momentum it may be time to find a mentor, coach, or group that can help. There are professionals in every possible field imaginable that have already figured out the solutions to your problem and they want to help you.

What I have found as a coach and working with my own coaches is that when I have a problem with a solution I can’t see, it’s like trying to examine my own eye without a mirror: It’s just not possible. Your coach (or mentor) can be that mirror for you and help you see what you have been missing, help you gain valuable information faster, keep you accountable to your actions, and help you move forward.

You can do this through a one-on-one coaching relationship or group coaching. In groups you will find others that understand what you are going through and you have the support of not just one person, but many. With one-on-one coaching you have dedicated time that is all yours in a safe and private environment to work through anything that has you stuck.

The point to all of this is that being stuck is completely normal and happens to everyone at some point in time. Some have figured out how to get unstuck faster than others, and you can too. Start to implement these five steps; the more you can implement at once the faster you will see that forward momentum you are looking for. If you are stuck in more than one area and you feel overwhelmed, work on one item at a time until you get that movement and then you can start to implement what is working in other areas of your life.

Don’t give up. Setbacks happen, remember: it’s not your setbacks that define you, it’s your comebacks.

Categories
Growth Leadership Skills

The Time Management Myth

 

When was the last time you said “I don’t have time” following a request by someone at work or at home? I don’t have time to exercise, I don’t have time for that project, I don’t have time to volunteer, I don’t have time to cook, I don’t have time to….fill in the blank.

Since everyone has the same 24 hours in the day, how is it that some people have time to do a lot while others don’t have time to do much of anything other than eat, sleep, shower, go to work, and maybe watch the News or some TV?

For those of you who have figured out how to get more done in those 24 hours I congratulate you. For everyone else I say that’s okay because you have been told there is such a thing as time management, but there isn’t. Time cannot be managed, but your priorities and your focus can be managed. So I am going to briefly let you off the hook since Time Management is a myth, but I am also going to say that if you don’t plan to look at this differently from now on, it’s on you.

Let’s start looking at those 24 hours that you have as a math problem. Don’t worry, it won’t be complicated; math is not my strong suit. Let’s start by assuming you are getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night. If you are not, that is one area to think about making a priority. If you look at studies on success you will find that the most successful people don’t compromise in this department.

OK so that is 24 hours minus 7 (we are going with 7), which equals 17 hours. Let’s assume a 1-hour commute round trip each day. Now we are down to 16 hours and we are going to assume a 10-hour workday (adjust the hours worked and your commute accordingly.) After those basics you have a whole 6 hours left.

You need to eat and shower, you need to groom and do other sorts of activities just to be able to sustain life. So let’s take another 2 hours off the clock for those activities. Down to 4 hours a day to do with as you wish. Oh wait, that may not be true, that would only be true if you have no extracurricular activities and no other responsibilities. So if you are lucky you have 4 hours, for everyone else let’s take it down to 2 hours. That’s 2 hours of what I will call “free” time. Even if you only have 2 hours left you can do a lot with that time if you focus on your priorities.

What you choose to do with that time is going to directly correlate to your overall success in life. Your health and your wealth will be improved or diminished in the choices you make around these “free” hours. You can choose to exercise for 30 minutes to an hour, you can choose to read or educate yourself, take an online class or go to a classroom, you can choose to write, meditate, visit with friends, join a social group, you can volunteer. Or you can sit on the couch and watch TV, surf the web, check out what everyone else is doing on Facebook and say I don’t have time when someone asks you to do something.

It’s not about having time; it’s about having priorities. I have learned and truly believe that if you have more than three priorities you have none. This makes sense since a priority by definition is a thing that is regarded as more important than something else. You can’t have a whole bunch of things that are the most important or of the same importance because, when that happens, nothing is really important at all, it all has the same value, meaning that none of it is a priority. This is the same for work priorities, you should only have three and the rest can be delegated or outsourced.

So this is where we remove time management and look at priority management. It’s time to pick your priorities (no more than three). Then when someone asks you to do something, it isn’t about not having time; it is about “that’s not my priority right now.”

When you say “I don’t have time” you are really saying that is not your priority right now. “I don’t have time to work out” translates to “it is not my priority to work out.” “I don’t have time to read or go back to school” really means, “reading and learning is not my priority right now.” If you are using those “free” hours a day on what you determine are your priorities, it’s perfectly fine to say “no” to other things that don’t fall into those categories. If they become priorities, then you will find time for them by removing other less important activities and reprioritizing what you are working on.

Now it’s time for a gut check – Think about the last time you said “I don’t have time”, what is the current priority taking the lead in that moment? Or the next time you say “I don’t have time,” what is the current priority taking the lead in the moment.

Did watching TV become the priority? Do you know that on average Americans watch 5 hours of TV per day: an hour using the Internet on a computer, an hour and seven minutes on a smartphone and two hours, 46 minutes listening to the radio? I assume the radio bit is in the car, but think about what would be possible if instead of listening to the radio (or satellite or iPod) in the car you listened to an audiobook or a personal development podcast? That is one heck of a way to use that dead time commuting to do something positive, and you still have those remaining “free” hours a day doing other important stuff while getting in your education and personal development.

All I’m asking you to do is challenge yourself next time you realize you’re about to say those four little words “I Don’t Have Time.” Challenge yourself to instead say, “That is not my priority right now. My priority is, (fill in the blank).” Then really think about the answer; is that really your priority? Is it a priority that will add value to your life, the lives of others, or add wealth and prosperity to your life? Is it a priority you can be proud of? One that you would gladly tell everyone you are working on? Or is it less of a priority and more of a bad habit that you have formed over a period of time?

Don’t let the “I don’t have time” excuse become a natural response. Use it to evaluate what it is you are doing and how those activities are serving you or not serving you.

Will you be better one year, three years, and five years down the road based on your current priorities? If not, what are you waiting for? It’s time to make a change and reevaluate those priorities.

Categories
Best Practices Economics Entrepreneurship Management Personal Development Women In Business

Conscious Capitalism…Is It Possible?

Headline Speaker | Independent Leadership Advisor to the UN | Expert to 150 C-Suite Advisors | Inc Mag Top100 Speaker

After a presidential year, where candidates get to speak about what they stand for it’s become clear that the people are sick and tired of politics as usual. I think you’d agree that there is a flagrant mistrust of those in power. Much of that mistrust comes out of the belief that those in power don’t care about the other 99%.

The system at the very least seems to have been perverted. In my conversations with other leaders we often speak about whether the system can recover and be repaired, or do we need a brand new system.

Expansive Question:

As leaders we are all aware that there is a clear backlash on the “1%”… Without debating whether that is right or wrong, just or unjust…

The question I would like to put forward to you is this: Do you believe that we could now choose to lead from a place of “Conscious Capitalism”? If so, (or not) what would that look like to you, specifically in the context of leadership?

I trust that you found this question valuable, if so, feel free to send this to your friends. I eagerly anticipate your feedback and comments.

Please share, like and comment below!

I created the Authentic Leadership Matrix after a lot of experience and research. One of the questions I’m asked often is what authentic leadership is and how do we define it. As a result, I created the matrix. It splits what leadership is into five separate categories. So, that you can take a clear look at how you perform in each of the five main areas that are required for you to become a world class authentic leader. The process takes you through each category simply with yes or no questions.http://matrix.fullmontyleadership.com/

With gratitude, Dõv Baron

I also write for Entrepreneur.com:

● Is There Life After Success(ion)?

● Why 47 Percent of Your Best People Are Ready to Leave — and What You Can Do About It

● The 11 Questions Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Ask Themselves

● Why Being a Self-Aware Leader Is Not Enough
● Unlocking ‘the 4 Cs’ to Create a Fiercely Loyal Corporate Culture

“In 2015, Dov Baron was cited by Inc Magazine as one of the Top 100 Leadership Speaker to book for your next conference! He speaks internationally and is The Leading Authority on Next-Gen Authentic Leadership and creating a Culture of Fiercely Loyal Leaders. FullMontyLeadership.com

Dov on Twitter | Dov on Facebook | Dov on Youtube

P.S. To get your hands on Dov Baron’s new book “Fiercely Loyal” How High Performing Companies Develop and Retain Top Talent, go take a look here http://fiercelyloyalbook.com and get your FREE: How to instantly bond any team infographic”

To contact: Dov Baron International, and Authentic Paragon Alliance INC. Contact Authentic Paragon Alliance at +1 778 397 7717 http://FullMontyLeadership.com

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Paying More for Dysfunction


Pay-for-performance incentives don’t work. In fact, they make things worse.

I used to go to Jiffy Lube whenever I need a quick oil change. I like taking care of my car so I get the oil changed exactly on time as best as I can.

One day I was there and the manager came to me. He said, ‘Dr. Hauck, you need a new PCV valve.’ I said, ‘What is that?’ He explained that’s an item that helps with emissions and I really need to replace it. I said, ‘Well wait a minute. I just had the car at the dealer and they inspect everything. Are you sure I need that?’ He said, ‘Oh absolutely; look how dirty this one is.’ And he rubbed his thumb across it and showed me his thumb and it was covered with a black smudge. I said, ‘Ok, how much is it?’ ‘$15’. I said, ‘Ok, fine put it in.’

I am at the cash register and my car is ready. I handed him my credit card and I look above the cash register on the wall and it said goals for the week. It read, oil changes – so many; air filters – so many; PCV valves – so many. I said to the manager, ‘Wow, that’s interesting, the goals for the week. Where do you get those?’ He said, ‘We get them from the home office; they fax them down to us every week on Monday and we work to meet them between Monday through Saturday.’ I said, ‘Interesting. Do you get paid a bonus on those?’ He said, ‘Oh, absolutely, I get a bonus and the guys out in the shop get a bonus too.’ I said, ‘Really, interesting. How are you doing?’ He said, ‘You know, not too bad. We are a little behind on PCV valves, but we’re catching up.’

Pay-for-performance can create an environment that generates unintended consequences. The pressure to perform created by the monetary incentive to meet the goals set by the Jiffy Lube home office created dysfunction. In addition, the knowledge that his performance appraisal rating could suffer without meeting the goals added to the pressure. This pressure created an environment that caused the manager and employees to focus on themselves and not on the customer needs. These two policies create expensive dysfunction. We see this dysfunction repeatedly in organizations. Another example includes the incentives that caused Fanny Mae, and Freddy Mack to encourage mortgages to be approved for people who could not afford the payments over the long–term. This dysfunction led to the collapse of the trust of the entire financial system in 2008.

The Interior Department’s Mineral Management Service had planned to present two safety awards at a luncheon just days before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank to the bottom of the Gulf starting the largest oil spill in US history. The nominee for the safety awards was non-other than BP — which operated the oil rig that sank in the Gulf of Mexico.

The awards ceremony was supposed to recognize “outstanding safety and pollution prevention performance by the offshore oil and gas industry.” The big winner of the 2009 SAFE award was Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded last month under BP’s management. BP was also a finalist at the 2009 conference.

In 2017 Volkswagen senior leadership admitted that 11 million vehicles had been equipped with software used to cheat on emissions tests. The software would detect when the car was being tested and would change settings automatically to reduce emissions. VW set aside $20 billion to deal with the aftermath.

Also in 2016-2017, Wells Fargo fired thousands of employees for improper sales practices. Senior leadership at the bank offered bonuses for sales goals and threaten dismissal if the goals were consistently missed.

Instead of relying on these control techniques of pay-for-performance and the performance appraisal (or awards based on competition) an organization could instead study its system and uncover innovative ways to improve performance. Those who rely on pay-for-performance and the performance appraisal embrace the belief that people would do nothing without incentives or threats. Unreasonable goals will create opportunities for cheating or exaggeration as with Jiffy Lube. Easy goals create de-motivation. Either way we are paying more for more dysfunction. Why not just work as a team to continuously improve? Furthermore, why not embrace the belief that people are willing and able to make improvements and innovate without threats or bribes.

Be careful with pay-for-performance measures performance appraisal policies. They often do nothing to create improvement and often combine to create worse results than if you had done nothing.

Paying for Dysfunction Video

Wally Hauck, PhD has a cure for the “deadly disease” known as the typical performance appraisal. Wally holds a doctorate in organizational leadership from Warren National University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Iona College, and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. Wally is a Certified Speaking Professional or CSP. Wally has a passion for helping leaders let go of the old and embrace new thinking to improve leadership skills, employee engagement, and performance.

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Best Practices Management Marketing Skills Women In Business

The Stage Presence in Executive Presence

As a CEO or other top-ranking executive, you know that a winning leadership “presence” can enhance your professional image and help you achieve the goals that are meaningful to you. It also helps others view you as an authority, problem-solver, and “go-to” person.

“Executive Presence” is much like stage presence, charisma, and star quality. These words mean virtually the same thing: a personal magnetism that makes it impossible for people to take their eyes off you.

Many years ago, when Dick Cavett interviewed Katherine Hepburn on his popular TV show, he asked her, “What is star quality?” Hepburn replied, “I have no idea – but whatever it is, I’ve GOT it!”

The word “charisma” may be the oldest synonym for “star quality”. The Greeks used the word to mean “favor”. Charis was an attendant to Aphrodite, the goddess of love; “Charis” meant beauty and kindness. The word can be found repeatedly in the New Testament and is translated as “grace”. “Charismata” is the word used to refer to gifts from God: knowledge, healing, working miracles, prophecy; qualities that bring benefit to others.

In his August, 2011 article in The New York Times, Zachary Woolfe mentions the perspective offered by Ernest Hemingway:

“In his obsession with the Spanish bullfights, he spoke of the lust of the crowd and its desire to feel something special, a raw authenticity… What he mentions is the hush that would come over the crowd at the entrance of the toreadors. The people could sense the difference between those who did it for the fame, the paycheck, and those who had the old spirit. The crowd can sense the one with the authentic message, the connection to the truth.”

The sociologist, Max Weber, provided some insight with his contemporary use of the word “charisma” to describe a key quality of leadership. He wrote the following:

“Charisma is a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or specifically exceptional powers. These qualities are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader.”

As a business person, you may not need the charisma and star quality of Katherine Hepburn, a bull fighter, or a “divine one”, but you can still cultivate a personal magnetism that will help you achieve your professional goals. Here are characteristics of Executive Presence that you can cultivate for success:

Candor: The appearance of honesty, through the willingness and skill to constructively tell it like it is.

Clarity: The ability to tell your story in an intuitively clear and compelling way.

Openness: The appearance of not prejudging, of being willing to consider another’s point of view.

Passion: The expression of commitment, motivation, and drive that shows people you really believe in what you do.

Poise: The look of sophistication, conveying a background of education and experience.

Self-confidence: The air of assurance, such that others know you have the required strength and resolve.

Sincerity: The conviction of believing in and meaning what you say.

Thoughtfulness: The projection of thinking or having thought through something before responding.

Warmth: The appearance of being accessible to others and of being interested in them.

Each of the characteristics listed above is revealed through your physical presence/body language, as well as your verbal/vocal presence.

Gestures can add warmth and personality to a conversation or presentation and help illustrate a point. If your own personal style includes only small or very few gestures, remember to at least nod your head appropriately. This is an easy way to show that you are listening to, understanding, and connecting with your conversation partners.

Eye Contact occurs when two people look at each other’s eyes at the same time. In human beings, eye contact is a form of nonverbal communication and is thought to have a large influence on social behavior. In the United States, eye contact is often interpreted as a meaningful and important sign of confidence, respect, engagement, and even honesty.

Facial Expression: Smiling is one facial expression that is likely to put other people at ease and help them feel accepted and comfortable. You exude happiness and encouragement when you smile, so try to add it to more of your conversations. Scowling, chewing your lip and raising your eyebrows can all signal different meanings, so it is important to be aware of how your face looks during a conversation. When you speak for business and your topic is not a happy one, remember that you actually do have something to smile about: the fact that your listeners will benefit in some way from understanding the message you are bringing them.

Movement: We use body movement and proximity to send information on attitude toward a person (facing or leaning towards another), and desire to control the environment (moving towards or away from a person). Be aware of how your body movement sends messages. The physical distance between you and others signals your level of intimacy and comfort and is interpreted differently in different cultures.

Posture: “Body orientation” (the way you hold your body) sends strong messages to others. Remember that your posture is revealing and may ‘give you away” at any moment. Letting your body relax appropriately in a given situation (having fluid, smooth movements and facing your conversation partner, etc.) indicates confidence, poise, and engagement.

Appearance: This refers to everything you were not born wearing: all the choices we make in clothing, accessories, hairstyle, and makeup. The choices for a presentation range widely. A good rule of thumb is to dress “one step above” your listeners. See what highly-regarded people in your workplace are wearing during their presentations and emulate them – and/or ask someone in authority.

Speaking Pace (the speed at which you speak): Increase and decrease your pace strategically. A monotone is boring, and so is monopace; it can lull people to sleep! Pace also includes dramatic pauses to communicate many things, including to (1) emphasize a point, (2) give people a moment to think, and (3) surprise your listeners to deepen their level of engagement.

Speaking Pitch (the high and low tones of the speaking voice, altered with jumps and glides): Pitch can be used to convey energy, warmth, and sincerity. In American business, finishing a statement with a downward glide sounds certain and authoritative; ending with an upward glide communicates a yes/no question or uncertainty. To sound confident and authoritative, always end your statements with a pitch glide downward.

Vocal Projection (the energy and commitment in your voice, including volume): Emphasizing certain words by being louder or softer can add to the impact of what you are communicating. It’s important to project you voice so that everyone can hear clearly what you’re saying. Even if your volume bec
omes soft for dramatic effect, your energy level and commitment must successfully project your meaning and your passion.

Cultivate these qualities, and you won’t have to worry about stage presence, charisma, or star quality. You will possess a winning executive presence and enhanced power to influence and persuade your business listeners

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